A prep course for the month-long World Cup soccer tournament , a worldwide phenomenon to be played in the United States for the first time beginning June 17 , is available in a set of three home videos . Each of the three volumes by PolyGram Video lists for $ 14.95 and has a running time of about 60 minutes . The three volumes : `` World Cup USA '94 : The Official Preview , '' which includes a tournament history with footage all the way back to the first World Cup held in 1930 . There 's a look at the training of the 1994 U.S. team and a profile of Brazil 's Pele , just 17 when he took the 1958 event by storm , repeating in 1962 and 1970 . `` Top 50 Great World Cup Goals , '' highlighting exciting moments from competition beginning in 1966 with favorites such as Pele , Johan Cruyff , Diego Maradona , Roberto Baggio , Salvatore `` Toto '' Schillaci and Franz Beckenbauer . `` Great World Cup Superstars , '' focusing on the top names in the game , featured in the `` Goals '' cassette , and adding some interviews that offer an insight into what makes these stars shine . Three new basketball videos available : `` Sir Charles '' takes a look at the on-court intensity and dynamic skills of Charles Barkley of the Phoenix Suns as well as his entertaining off-court persona. $ 19.98 , 50 minutes , 1-800-999-VIDEO . `` NBA Superstars 3 '' follows up on two previous hit videos meshing the moves of the NBA 's elite with today 's hit music . This one includes Kenny Anderson , Steve Smith , Derrick Coleman , Larry Johnson , Dan Majerle , Alonzo Mourning , Hakeem Olajuwon , Mark Price , Shawn Kemp , Isiah Thomas and Joe Dumars . Their play is matched with the music of Erick Sermon , M People , LL Cool J , Celine Dion , Domino , Soulhat , Soul Asylum , Buckshot LeFonque , Branford Marsalis , Pearl Jam and Rozella. $ 19.98 , 50 minutes , 1-800-999-VIDEO . `` Hog Wild : The Official 1994 NCAA Championship Video '' recaptures the excitement of the latest edition of March Madness and Arkansas 's march to the title with rousing victories over Michigan , Arizona and Duke in the three final games. $ 19.98 , 45 minutes , 1-800-747-7999 . Canadian River Expeditions offers a change from the usual theme-park vacation : five 11-day float trips from July 1 to Aug. 31 that take families through some of British Columbia 's most scenic territory . Travel for these Chilcotin-Fraser tours is by yacht , seaplane and raft through deep fjords where bald eagles wheel through the sky and the water is filled with seals , whales and some of the biggest salmon in the world . Highlights include winging on a seaplane over icefields , hiking trips and fishing expeditions . The raft rides are not white knuckle adventures it 's mostly gentle floating . A few hours a day are spent on the water , with the rest of the time devoted to guided sightseeing and nature walks . Price is $ 2,325 , including round-trip airfare to Vancouver , meals and accommodations , as well as camping gear . Call your travel agent or ( 604 ) 738-4449 . Trafalgar Tours is offering 16 `` Best of ... '' trips to Europe for 1994 . `` Best of Britain , '' for example , takes in all of England and Scotland in 15 days for $ 1,099 . A 14-day `` Best of France '' trip for $ 1,260 covers the country from north to south , including Monaco , and a `` Best of Switzerland '' itinerary combines Zurich , St. Moritz , Zermatt , Geneva , Interlaken and Lucerne in 9 nine days for $ 799 . Other packages are available for Spain , Italy , Germany , Austria , Holland , Norway , Sweden and Denmark , Belgium and Holland , among others . Prices exclude airfare . Call your travel agent or ( 800 ) 457-6891 . Airlines are offering , or continuing , special price packages for travelers flying to Europe , the Mideast and the Far East . IPI World Travel and Delta Airlines , for example , are rolling back prices for a `` China Highlights '' tour 14 days , departing in November and December , to Bejing , Shanghai , Xian Guilin and Hong Kong for $ 2,650 , including airfare from the East Coast . Delta also runs several package tours to European cities : a `` Parisien Spree '' of 6 six nights , breakfasts and a Seine River cruise , for $ 1,199 per person , double occupancy , round-trip from New York , and a `` Romantic Rome '' trip , with similar features , for just $ 1,289 . El Al meanwhile sponsors a spring vacation package that includes five nights ' accommodations in Tel Aviv , daily breakfasts and free rental car , for just $ 1,049 round-trip from New York City . Call your travel agent or IPI at ( 212 ) 953-6010 or El Al Israeli Airlines at ( 800 ) EL AL SUN . Take a long weekend this summer and enjoy one of several two- to four-day walking tours of New York 's historic Hudson Valley from High Land Flings Footloose Holidays . Their `` Dutch Treat '' trip , June 3-5 , follows in the footsteps of colonial settlers through three National Historic landmark villages where stone houses built by Dutch and Huguenot builders in the 17th century still stand . You 'll walk America 's oldest street in New Paltz , Main Street in Hurley and the Stockade area of Kingston , where the state 's constitution was written and adopted , and also visit the 1676 Senate House . Other walks cover the area of Lake Minnewaska , Overlook Mountain near Woodstock and the northeastern Catskills . Prices range from $ 350 per person , double occupancy , for two-day walks to $ 699 for a four-day trip . Call ( 800 ) 453-6665 . Are frequent-flier awards worth all the trouble travelers sometimes go through to rack up enough miles for a free trip ? Not according to a lengthy piece in the May issue of Worth magazine , which concludes that the programs are vastly over-rated . Then why do so many banks , rental-car companies , long-distance phone services and hotels reward their frequent customers with airline miles rather than cash discounts or other perks ? Simple , says Worth contributing editor Jeff Blyskal , in the article entitled `` The Frequent-Flier Fallacy . '' Companies want to give premiums that combine the greatest perceived value with the lowest possible outlay , and frequent-flier miles are the perfect solution . Each freebie ticket costs an airline only $ 11 to $ 42 , Blyskal calculates . The average discount to passengers amounts to 3.3 percent almost 2 percent less than you get by being a valued customer of Sears , he writes . His data showed the cost to a traveler for each award ranges from $ 929 with Southwest Airlines to $ 7,527 with Delta , which requires higher-than-average mileage minimums to collect a freebie . The dollar value of the freebies ranges from $ 56 with Southwest to $ 208 with United . The effective discounts passengers reap range from 1.5 percent ( USAir ) to 6 percent ( Southwest ) . Hotel frequent-guest programs typically provide a 5 percent discount , as do numerous retailers ' programs , including Sears Best Customer , Blyskal found . The number of dollars spent to earn a domestic freebie usually available after flying 20,000 miles typically ranges from $ 3,626 to $ 6,555 , he said . ( On Southwest Airlines , the average passenger gets a free trip after 7,104 miles because freebies are awarded by that carrier after eight round trips rather than a mileage minimum . ) Blyskal says his accounting system gives airlines the benefit of the doubt in every aspect and was based on the programs as they stand now before the program devaluations most airlines plan starting next year . The payback is even worse from affinity credit cards , he says , which generally award one frequent-flier mile per dollar charged . This translates to an effective discount of just 0.7 percent on $ 20,000 in credit card spending needed to earn the $ 152 in value of the average free ticket , Blyskal figures . All in all , he says , to earn these paltry awards , travelers spend more on air travel in the first place than they have to because they often shun low-cost airlines that do not participate in frequent-flier programs . For example , he says , to earn 20,000 miles on United , a traveler would have to make 14 Newark-Chicago round trips at a cost of $ 12,348 . Fourteen round trips would cost just a quarter of that $ 2,912 on upstart Kiwi International Airlines , which offers consistently low rates but no frequent-flier perks , he says . You say you don't care about the price because your boss pays for a lot of your flights and lets you rake in the resulting frequent-flier perks ? Don't let the company bean-counters get wind of the fact that you could be sent on 45 more Newark-Chicago business trips for what it 's costing to ensure that you get your perk , Blyskal cautions . Add on the annual fees charged for some affinity cards , not to mention high interest on purchases and maybe a computer program to help you manage your miles . And , of course , most travelers who earn a freebie purchase a ticket for their spouse or companion to accompany them which often isn't available at any discount whatsoever . Plus the hardest cost to quantify which may be the biggest cost of all , Blyskal says : the time many fliers spend obsessing over maximizing mileage for minimum payback . His advice ? Focus on service and low fares , not a possible freebie you may never collect . The State Department is taking a wait-and-see attitude after an American tourist was seriously injured in an attack May 10 by a man with a machete on a remote stretch of beach in the Cayman Islands . The State Department issues information about petty street crime , but not violence , in the Caribbean islands it groups as the British West Indies . `` We 're looking at whether this remains an isolated incidence or if it 's an indication of a threat to other tourists , '' said Gary Sheaffer , department spokesman . At the opposite end of the Caribbean , on the island of Trinidad off the coast of Venezuela , a honeymooning Canadian couple was found beaten and dead on a beach May 11 , with their valuables nearby in their unlocked rental car , a Canadian government spokeswoman confirmed . Trinidadian and Canadian police are still investigating , she said . `` This is the first time this has happened to Canadians in Trinidad . It 's probably a good idea not to frequent deserted beaches , whether it 's Trinidad or Florida , '' said Lely Campbell-Ferreira . Sheaffer said the U.S. . State Department was not aware of the incident . Now you have legroom , now you don't . TWA , which created its much-advertised Comfort Class in coach last year by taking 40 seats out of its cabins , is putting 34 seats back in planes flying its most popular routes this summer . The airline is re-installing the seats on only 10 planes ( the 747-100s ) out of its fleet of 189 `` to meet high market demand '' for the summer , mostly on overseas flights , said spokesman Don Fleming . The rest of the fleet will retain Comfort Class . And TWA will re-evaluate seating in the fall and could very well take the seats out again . Most of the flights with more legs and less room this summer fly out of New York : to Athens , Rome , Madrid , Milan , Paris , New York to St. Louis to Honolulu , one flight daily from New York to Los Angeles and St. Louis to Gatwick , London . Ask about Comfort Class before making a reservation . Buzzwords that Cunard honchos recently bandied about as they described the upcoming $ 45 million refurbishment of the cruise line 's flagship , the Queen Elizabeth 2 , which made its maiden transatlantic voyage in 1969 , were `` enhance '' and `` flow . '' Which translates into opening up more spaces all over the ship : adding a second-story deck promenade to give the Midship Lobby an atriumlike look , eliminating the odd dead-end corridor , redesigning the directional signs ( all `` to enhance passenger flow '' ) and adding a new observation lounge at the rear of the ship with panoramic windows yielding an uninterrupted view . The new art-deco- , neo-classical-inspired decor will be ripe with texture , replete with marble , resounding in architectural detail and rich in earthtones , all `` enhanced '' with the QE2 's memorabilia , such as old charts and lots of regal art . All 900 cabins will be refurbished and all bathrooms rebuilt . Ditto on restaurants , where quality of service will , of course , be `` enhanced . '' The refurbishment will commence Nov. 30 and take about 30 days , Cunard officials said . So will all this `` enhance '' prices ? `` The cost of cruising has never gone down , '' noted Navin Sawnhey , senior vice president of marketing . The QE2 now offers a range of fares and cruises , with its transatlantic voyage priced from $ 1,395 to $ 10,745 , per person , double , with return air travel . You can't party all night long in Greece anymore . Nightclubs , bars and restaurants formerly with all-night entertainment now must close by 2:30 a.m. in summer , 2 a.m. in winter and 3:30 a.m. on Saturday . So you willn't be sleepless in Seattle , the Seattle-King County Visitors Bureau is operating a free reservation service : ( 800 ) 535-7071 . A new service offers travelers a fax mailbox to retrieve stored faxes with any machine by calling a toll-free number in the United States . For rate info , call AlphaNet Telecom at ( 212 ) 932-1554 . I think there are several reasons why , in polite company , we rarely talk about our discharges . I mention this in connection with endorphins , which , I notice , people have begun to discuss with relative strangers , just the way people formerly discussed their cholesterol at parties . Do you remember that ? Outwardly normal person : `` Do you know what my cholesterol was last week ? Myself : `` Sir , I do not . '' Outwardly normal person : `` It was ( mentions very good cholesterol count ) . '' Myself : `` That is good . '' Outwardly normal person : `` What , you don't believe me ? '' Myself : `` I say no such thing . '' Outwardly normal person : `` If there 's a problem here , I know a medical lab that 's open until 8 . We 'll take my Q45 and I 'll get re-tested and you can see exactly what my cholesterol is . '' I was never sure about how to participate in these conversations , because , first of all , I would never say `` my cholesterol . '' My creed is that cholesterol belongs to the universe or the Great Spirit . We 're just borrowing it for a little while . Which raises a question : Let 's say you do get your cholesterol down . Where does it go ? Is it just out there , sticking to the faces of babies in perambulators and gumming up the wings of the great-crested kingfisher ? Now it is endorphins . Endorphins are a sore subject with me , because I 'm pretty sure I don't have any . Other people do , and sometimes they seem to be bragging about them . `` I was up on the Nordic Combat machine last night , and I had it set at level eight , which simulates hand-to-hand combat with a huge , grunting , mead-addled Hun . Boy , after 45 minutes , those endorphins were really flowing . '' The idea is that endorphins are chemicals that , under certain circumstances , begin squirting out of somewhere inside your head and making your brain feel better . I picture the system as comparable to those nozzles in highly evolved produce sections , where a soothing mist sighs out over the kale and the arugula , like the strange fogs that gather ' round Ben Bulben 's bare head . I have been known to tarry there for extra moments , watching the wet shades and phantoms dance over the ruby swiss chard . Endorphins are supposed to calm the mind and kill pain and produce peak experiences , such as the `` runner 's high . '' I have never had a runner 's high or a swimmer 's high or any particular reaction to strenuous exercise except the keen sense of how exhausted I was and how eager I was to stop swimming or running . And I know full well that my brain is a tightly wired network of fright sensors , discomfort gauges and humming monitors of self-concern . There is nothing up there that coats my fevered mind in soothing syrup , and even if there were it would just short everything out . So maybe I don't have endorphins , but even if I did , would I mention them ? My normal assumption is that there is no widespread appetite for information about my secretions . `` My gall bladder was on the job yesterday afternoon . I was pumping some big-time bile , emulsifying those fats in my duodenum . Bless my soul . '' To the endorphin-proud , I am often tempted to point out that one theory about endorphins is that they were originally bestowed upon animals , such as cats , for whom sex is excruciatingly painful . They were a little payoff , nature 's way of saying , `` Thanks for perpetuating the species even though that felt like being probed by a briar patch . '' Under those circumstances , I maintain that the civilized course is to live with pain and terror . If things get intolerable , there 's always the option of scootching the chicory aside and lying down for a while next to the red leaf lettuce . By conventional wisdom , there are certain things you simply don't do , right ? You don't drink on an empty stomach . You don't spit into the wind and , of course , you never escort the bride 's father to the bachelor party . But for parents of young children , one don't has always outdistanced all the rest . You don't go to Disney World during school holidays . People who have disobeyed this commandment litter Orlando like lost souls , their hollow eyes bespeaking the drubbing they have taken at the Tourist Capital of the Universe . Their children drag behind , in tears , muttering , `` We 'll be good now , Daddy . We promise . Please. Can we wait two more hours on another line ? '' School holidays at Disney World are crowded with a capital C , chaos with , well , a capital K . The lines are legendary , the sun is hot and the living uneasy . But I did it . I survived . I even had a good time , and you can , too even if you visit at a peak period , such as the three summer months . All you have to do is follow some simple advice , which I 'm sharing on the condition that you don't go blabbing it to all the neighbors . Because the secret here is to go where they ISn't and , believe you me , at Disney , an incautious word about an empty attraction can turn the Road Less Traveled into a Superhighway faster than you can say Jiminy Cricket . Rule No. 1 , then , is plan ahead . This trite little maxim will seem biblical in depth when you 've watched The Unprepared spin out of control like weather vanes in the wind . I myself had envisioned being a bit laid back about the whole affair until I mentioned my vacation to a few friends : `` I 'm planning on bringing the wife and my 5-year-old daughter down to Disney World this Easter . '' They looked at me as if I were a few sandwiches short of a picnic . That 's when I finally realized that you don't approach Disney World like a visit to an amusement park . You approach it like the invasion of a small country . Think of it as the Duchy of Grand Fenwick and begin preparing your counterattack on the Mouse That Roared . Of course , if you are a Zen master , and view crowds as a natural event , like waves in the ocean , skip ahead to Tip No. 2 . But the rest of you , buy a guide book and start reading . Otherwise you will be trampled by those who know that you have to be at Dumbo by 10 a.m. to avoid an hour 's wait . If you don't believe me , listen to Bob Sehingler , whose guide to Disneyland I manage to find and use . `` It 's easy to spot the free spirits at Disneyland , '' he wrote , `` particularly at opening time . While everybody else is stampeding to Splash Mountain or Star Tours , they are the ones standing in a cloud of dust puzzling over the park map . Later , they are the people running around like chickens in a thunderstorm trying to find an attraction with less than a forty-minute wait . '' Convinced ? Then make sure you abide by Rule No.2 . Get up early . How early ? Sick early . Dawn is too late at Disney World . One morning our wake-up call at the Grand Floridian , a Disney hotel , came at 5:45 a.m. . The hotel operator couldn't help laughing at me . It was pitch black outside . The drunks still hadn't gotten home . But you know what ? There were plenty of people ahead of us when we boarded the monorail for the Magic Kingdom at 6:30 a.m. , taking advantage of a 90-minute early opening for Disney Resort guests . ( Begin optional trim ) Up Main Street we streamed , past street lamps still lit from the night before . Everyone tried so hard to pretend they weren't running . It looked like a huge trial heat for the Olympic walking team . All that paranoia paid off , however . In the next hour we were able to board four or five rides that had been swamped the previous afternoon . One hour after the parks open to the general public , major attractions have major lines . At Space Mountain , Splash Mountain and Thunder Mountain Railroad in the Magic Kingdom , Spaceship Earth in Epcot and Star Tours at MGM , you can expect a line of at least half an hour . At Dumbo , forget it . This dinky little ride featuring that darling little elephant draws children like flies . I waited 45 minutes one day for a 45-second ride . If you have to ride rides in the afternoon , try to do so during parade times , when lines go from maddening to manageable . ( End optional trim ) To make the trip back to the hotel as painless as possible , however , remember Rule No. 3 . Stay as close as possible to the parks . This can seem silly when the Budgetbear Hotel 10 miles away is offering Hoedown Weekend at five bucks a night . Believe me , that will not seem like a bargain for long . After becoming disgusted at the honky tonk sprawl that sprung up around Disneyland , Father Disney decreed it would not happen again . So Disney World is surrounded by virgin acres . The trip to the Magic Kingdom from the highway is itself a five-mile ride , complete with tollbooth . Then you have to take a tram to the booths to buy tickets and then a boat ride to an admissions gate , and then you have to traverse Main Street USA to get to any real rides . This can be an exhausting experience . You can avoid a lot of the hassle by staying in one of the Disney hotels , which run the gamut from reasonable to ridiculous in price . Disney resort guests not only receive free transportation to the parks but also enjoy the early opening times . And resort guests never have to worry about the parking lots closing . ( Begin optional trim ) We stayed at the Grand Floridian , Disney 's deluxe hotel , which is but a five-minute monorail ride from the Magic Kingdom and about 20 minutes by monorail or bus from Epcot and MGM . The Floridian set us back about $ 350 a night . But my theory was that , on a day when the crowds make me retreat to my room , it would be best if the room did not look like a small cell at Rikers Island . The Floridian delivered most of what I wanted from a luxury hotel . It reminded me of the racetrack at Saratoga all red turrets and Victorian balustrades after Mary Poppins had taken over and banned all the betting . Very clean . Very proper . Lots of people in knickers . Our room was large , salmon in color and nicely furnished . ( End optional trim ) At some point you just have to get away from the crowds , sit down , eat and relax . Arranging that is something of a feat , however , in peak periods when lines for a simple soda may stretch back to bygone days . One way to beat the problem is to apply Rule No. 4 . Book restaurants early . Resort guests can book up to three days in advance ; others up to one day . Tip No. 5 . Be flexible . Some things you just cannot plan . Rides break down . People have strange reactions to food and find themselves , as my daughter calls it , `` disembarfing . '' You just have to deal with it . Leonard Bernstein once scoffed at the notion that there is such a thing as a single , ideal , unimprovable musical interpretation of a piece of music . We should be similarly skeptical of the proposition , already put forward by a few early reviewers , that Humphrey Burton 's fat new biography of Bernstein is somehow `` definitive . '' Definitive it 's not , both because the idea itself is meaningless and because the life in question is too complex and too recently ended to be definitively written about . The nearly-600-page `` Leonard Bernstein '' can , however , make this considerable , if limited , claim : It 's the best we have so far . The book is dutiful , exhaustive ( sometimes to a fault ) , respectful without being fawning . And to deal quickly with an issue that all Lenny fans will be unworthily wondering about , it handles Bernstein 's complicated sexual life a sort of strenuous omnisexuality , it seems , with a steady pull toward homosexuality in an unblinking but decently compassionate way . On the other hand , the book is not very excitingly written and could have benefited from some tighter editing . It 's a portrait , a sketch , written by a longtime friend a TV producer , not a musician who 's smart , unsentimental , who has had access to piles of important letters . And such letters ! Tender , hope-filled youthful notes to Aaron Copland , or his parents ; letters of euphoria and gratitude to his early mentor Serge Koussevitzky at the Boston Symphony Orchestra ; letters of steadily rising confidence to his lifelong confidante , Helen Coates ; letters of almost unbearable conflict to his finacee and later wife , Felicia , as the desperate-to-be-loved Bernstein gropes with the for him especially problematic possibilities of marriage and monogamy . Burton gently debunks a few press-agent Lennyisms that have wafted unchallenged into the general consciousness . One of these concerns Bernstein 's supposed roots in jazz . Unlike , say , Andre Previn , who is a certifiable jazz man , Bernstein was really not steeped in the tradition , a fact that Burton addresses crisply : `` Bernstein 's knowledge of jazz was cheerful and enthusiastic but essentially superficial . Jazz musicians never thought much of his gifts as an improviser . '' Burton also calls attention to Bernstein 's dainty total output as a composer , a fact that Bernstein himself often rued later in life . Burton points out that between 1957 , after `` West Side Story ' ' opened , and 1971 , when his `` Mass '' had its premiere at the Kennedy Center in Washington , Bernstein managed just two works : the `` Kaddish '' Symphony and `` Chichester Psalms . '' The two works together total less than an hour of music . Burton also offers a brief but instructive and clarifying view of the infamous 1969 party for the Black Panthers , held at the Bernstein apartment on New York 's Park Avenue . Tom Wolfe 's subsequent New York Magazine piece about the party coined the smug term `` radical chic '' and tried to offer Bernstein as a comical , desperate figure , or , as Burton paraphrases it , a `` naive bumbler who hobnobbed with terrorists . '' The important , often overlooked truth was that it was Felicia 's party , and Lenny merely staggered into it . That Wolfe 's piece , which looks increasingly weak and smart-alecky as the years go by , was able to create such a stir is testimony to the then-novelty of what has since become a journalistic commonplace : the sanctimonious , questionably motivated trashing of the famous . The book 's treatment of Bernstein 's last years publicly lionized , privately an impulsive , reckless widower is touching . We feel the regret , the self-doubt , the overextended emotional resources , but also , finally , the greatness , a verdict that had long been withheld in some quarters but which by the end had become nearly unamimous . Burton 's book gives us , in sum , the first real full-length , intellectually worthy picture of Bernstein the man endearing , effusive , exasperating , irreplaceable . It 's a man who gave classical music a humanity it needed and still needs , a man to whom a friend could send a telegram on the occasion of Lenny 's first audience with the pope that read in its entirety : `` REMEMBER : THE RING , NOT THE LIPS . '' Big guns John Grisham and Tom Clancy are weighing in with new beach books . So are Peter Benchley , Cormac McCarthy , Edna O' Brien , E.L. Doctorow and Ken Kesey . Here 's a look at the major fiction due out this summer . Some books may be in stores before their official publication date . A young lawyer takes up the case of a Klansman on death row in John Grisham 's `` The Chamber '' ( Doubleday ) . Late May . Something scary is lurking off the Connecticut shore , but what is it and why is it killing people ? The answers lie in `` White Shark '' ( Random House ) , the latest don't-go-near-the-water thriller by Peter Benchley ( `` Jaws , '' `` Beast '' ) . June . Cormac McCarthy 's `` The Crossing '' ( Knopf ) is the second book in a projected Western trilogy that began with the best-selling `` All the Pretty Horses . '' An escaped IRA terrorist finds sanctuary in a remote house outside an Irish village inhabited by a widow in Edna O' Brien 's `` House of Splendid Isolation '' ( Farrar Straus Giroux ) . `` The Waterworks '' ( Random House ) , E.L. Doctorow 's newest historical novel , is set in Gilded-Age New York . The timing sounds perfect for this satire : In Christopher Buckley 's `` Thank You for Smoking '' ( Random House ) , a PR man for the tobacco industry is targeted by an anti-smoking zealot . Someone is killing Oklahoma 's state legislators in `` Fine Lines '' ( Random House ) , the sixth One-Eyed Mack mystery by PBS 's Jim Lehrer . A man who is actually a vampire kills the childhood enemies of his best friend in David ( `` Lie to Me '' ) Martin 's `` Tap Tap '' ( Random House ) . In Robert B . Parker 's new Spenser mystery , `` Walking Shadow '' ( Putnam ) , the Boston P.I. investigates a murder at a small repertory theater . `` Black Betty '' ( Norton ) is the new Easy Rawlins mystery by Walter Mosley , whose fans include Bill Clinton . Actress Meg Tilly makes her writing debut in `` Singing Songs '' ( Dutton ) , a coming-of-age novel about a girl trapped in a dysfunctional family . `` Blacker Than a Thousand Midnights '' ( Hyperion ) , a novel about a black firefighter , is Susan Straight 's follow-up to `` I Been in Sorrow 's Kitchen and Licked Out All the Pots . '' July . Ken Kesey ( with Ken Babbs ) has written a historical novel about the 1911 battle for the World Championship Broncbusting title in `` Last Go Round : A Dime Western '' ( Viking ) . `` Generations of Winter '' by Vassily Aksyonov ( Random House ) follows the fortunes of one Moscow family from 1928-1945 . Actor-turned-best-selling-author Kirk Douglas is back with a new novel , `` Last Tango in Brooklyn '' ( Warner ) , the story of a May-December romance . `` The Gift '' by Danielle Steel ( Delacorte ) is set in the Midwest in the 1950s . `` Rare and Endangered Species '' by Richard Bausch ( Houghton Mifflin ) is a collection of short stories by the author of `` Rebel Powers . '' `` The Unicorn Hunt '' ( Knopf ) is the fifth installment in Dorothy Dunnett 's saga of Nicholas van der Poele in 15th-century Europe . `` Arise and Walk '' by Barry Gifford ( Hyperion ) is a novel of feminist revenge by the author of `` Wild at Heart . '' Alan Sternberg 's `` Camaro City '' ( Harcourt Brace ) is a collection of stories about a Connecticut factory town that has lost its factories . `` Shear '' by Tim Parks ( Grove Press ) is a new novel of psychological suspense by the author of `` Juggling the Stars . '' Yet another actor , Stephen Collins , has decided to try his luck at fiction with `` Eye Contact '' ( Bantam ) , about an actress suspected of murder . August . Jack Ryan is called out of retirement to serve as the new president 's national security adviser as trouble brews in Japan in Tom Clancy 's `` Debt of Honor '' ( Putnam ) . Carol Higgins Clark , daughter of suspense queen Mary Higgins Clark , has written a new Regan Reilly mystery called `` Iced '' ( Warner ) . Paul Auster 's `` Mr. Vertigo '' ( Viking ) is a novel of 1920s and '30s America . Bill Maher , host of Comedy Central 's `` Politically Incorrect , '' has written a book about five aspiring comics in the mid- '70s called `` True Story : A Comedy Novel '' ( Random House ) . Thomas Mallon ( `` Aurora 7 '' ) re-creates the story of Henry and Clara Rathbone , the young couple who sat in President Lincoln 's theater box the night he was assassinated , in `` Henry and Clara '' ( Ticknor & Fields ) . `` Dixie City Jam '' by James Lee Burke ( Hyperion ) reprises Dave Robicheaux from `` In the Electric Mist With Confederate Dead . '' Is `` Goodnight Moon '' making you loony ? Does the phrase , `` And a comb and a brush and a bowl full of mush , '' run ' round your brain like some Lite Mixed Variety tune piped into the dentist 's office ? Maybe it 's time to experiment with some new bedtime fare . Oh , don't desert the great green room of Margaret Wise Brown 's classic . Just supplement `` Goodnight Moon '' with some other books that have a going-to-bed theme . Here are a few of the newer ones : My favorite is `` Good Night , Gorilla , '' by Peggy Rathman ( G.P. Putnam 's Sons , $ 12.95 , 36 pages , ages 1-4 ) . After sharing it with a giggling toddler , you 'll wonder why more picture books don't have a sense of humor . The text is incredibly simple . A sleepy zoo keeper is making his last round , saying `` good night '' to each of the animals as he walks past the cages . First on his route is the gorilla , which surreptitiously snatches the key ring from the zoo keeper 's belt . The gorilla unlocks his cage and follows the keeper through the zoo . As soon as the keeper says , `` Good night , Elephant , '' the gorilla uses a color-coded key to release the elephant . The same thing happens with the lion , hyena , giraffe and armadillo , who fall into line behind the gorilla . Soon they 're all tiptoeing behind the keeper as he walks to his house , opens the door and heads down the hall to his bedroom . When he climbs into bed next to his sleeping wife , she stirs and says , `` Good night , dear . '' Imagine her surprise when each of the animals , curling up for the night in her bedroom , responds , `` Good night . '' On the next page , actually a double-page spread of inky black , all we see are the whites of her frightened eyes . She flips on the light , and the animals flash sheepish grins her way . But she gets up and leads them back to their cages anyway . Everyone settles into the right cage the elephant with his Babar doll , the armadillo with his stuffed Ernie from Sesame Street . Everyone , that is , except gorilla . Kids will cheer his great escape , sensing that it just might be a nightly occurrence . `` Good Night ! '' written by Claire Masurel , illustrated by Marie H. Henry ( Chronicle , $ 12.95 , 32 pages , ages 2-6 ) is about nighttime rituals . As a little girl gets ready for bed , she gathers up all her dolls and stuffed animals . There is no doubt who 's in charge . `` Silly Oscar , '' she tells the clown doll . `` It 's not time to play cards ! It 's time to go to bed . '' Her stuffed dragon can't watch any more TV . Her rag doll can't read any more books . This little girl is giving the orders , and kids will enjoy sharing her sense of empowerment . When dogs dream , their legs pumping like pistons , are they catching squirrels and nabbing rabbits ? Naw. `` Dreaming '' by Bobette McCarthy ( Candlewick Press , $ 12.95 , 32 pages , ages 3 and up ) stars a salty dog who dreams of sailing the ocean blue . His wicker bed is transformed into a rowboat : Awash and away , I drift through the night , Through mizzle and moonlight , Through darkness , through light . Eventually he drifts back to the seaside home of his human family , where a little boy has been waiting for him to wake up . There 's nothing like cuddling up with your kid to read a slow , sleepy story , and then waking up three hours later cramped in the corner of her twin bed , a book on your nose and a crick in your neck . Kids who live for those nights when they outlast their parents will enjoy `` A Quiet Night In , '' by Jill Murphy ( Candlewick Press , $ 12.95 , 32 pages , ages 3 and up ) . The Larges a family of elephants that debuted in Murphy 's `` Five Minutes ' Peace '' are celebrating Mr . Large 's birthday . Mrs . Large gets all the children ready for bed early so she and Mr . Large can enjoy a quiet dinner by candlelight . But before they retire , the kids talk Dad into reading them a story . He conks out , and they persuade Mom to finish the book . She 's snoring a few pages later , and the kids are quite happy to tuck her in next to Dad on the couch . After all , Mom and Dad did want a quiet night in . Llamas will carry the load on a three-day guided hiking and camping trip in the Chugach Mountains just east of Anchorage , Alaska , beginning Sept. 16 . Each hiker will have his or her own llama to carry a tent , sleeping bag and pad , personal items and backcountry cooking supplies to the Williwaw Lakes area , normally ablaze in color and ripe blueberries in September . The hiking pace is relaxed , with time for photography and nature study . Meals are cooked by guides , using fresh ingredients at campsites . Cost : $ 375 per person including all camping supplies , meals and llamas . Not included : air fare to Anchorage and shuttle service to the trail head . Contact : Llama Buddies Expeditions , P.O. . Box 874995 , Wasilla , Alaska 99687-4995 ; telephone ( 907 ) 376-8472 . -0- A six-day road trip for baseball fans begins Aug. 23 in Boston at the Copley Square Hotel , from which participants leave for an evening game in Fenway Park . The next day , sports buffs motor-coach to Cooperstown , N.Y. , to visit the Baseball Hall of Fame . The trip continues with two games at Yankee Stadium in New York , one at Veterans Stadium in Philadelphia and one at Camden Yards in Baltimore , with motor-coach transportation from site to site . Participants eat at local restaurants . Cost : $ 675 per person , double occupancy including game tickets , hotels , ground transportation and guide . Not included : all meals and air fare to Boston and from Baltimore . Contact : Sports Tours Inc. , P.O. Box 84 , Hatfield , Mass. 01038 ; tel . ( 800 ) 722-7701 . -0- For fans of Southern history , horses , antiques and regional architecture , two five-day bicycling trips through the heart of Kentucky 's Bluegrass Country leave Lexington on Oct. 16 and 23 . Cycling is on traffic-free back roads with gentle terrain for riders of any ability . Participants stop at Kentucky Horse Park and Shaker Village in Pleasant Hill , and tour Harrodsburg , Kentucky 's oldest town . Participants spend nights in antique-furnished inns along the way and eat traditional Kentucky cooking . Cost : $ 1,045 per person , double occupancy , including lodging , meals and snacks , van support and guides . Not included : bike rental ( $ 109 ) and round-trip air fare . Contact : Backroads , 1516 Fifth St. , Suite PR84 , Berkeley 94710-1740 ; tel . ( 800 ) 462-2848 . -0- A 49-day around-South America cruise aboard the 729-passenger Regent Sea will depart Ft . Lauderdale , Fla. , on Oct. 14 . Passengers will witness the total solar eclipse of Nov. 3 off the coast of Brazil , near Rio de Janeiro . Guest scientists aboard ship will lecture and discuss the eclipse , the constellation known as the Southern Cross and the so-called Magellanic Clouds . Participants also will see Antarctic glaciers , the Strait of Magellan , Chilean fiords and the Andes Mountains , before transiting the Panama Canal . Some stops on the tour will include St. Thomas , in the U.S. Virgin Islands ; Barbados ; Santiago , Chile , and Lima , Peru . Cost : $ 5,442 from Los Angeles , including all meals and ship facilities . Not included : gratuities , port charges and optional land excursion costs . Contact : Regency Cruises , 260 Madison Ave. , New York 10016 ; tel . ( 212 ) 972-4499 . -0- ECLIPSE IN BOLIVIA A six-day , land-based eclipse-viewing trip to Bolivia leaves Miami for La Paz on Oct. 31 . Tour members stay at a downtown hotel in the Bolivian capital and take leisurely tours of the city including the Witches ' Market . An all-night train trip to the `` center line '' of the eclipse 's course , between Sevaruyo and Rio Mulatos , follows . A box dinner will be provided on the train , but no sleeping accommodations . After the eclipse , participants will continue by train to the small village of Huatajata on the shores of Lake Titicaca for an overnight at the Hotel Inca Utama , then cruise by hydrofoil to Copacabana , Sun and Suriqui islands before returning to La Paz . Cost : $ 1,695 per person , double occupancy , including round-trip air fare from Miami , hotels , trains , sightseeing and most meals . Not included : air fare from Los Angeles to Miami . Contact : Travel Bug International , P.O. . Box 178247 , San Diego 92177-8247 ; tel . ( 800 ) 247-1900 . Considering that the United Nations has recently created a Bosnian war-crimes tribunal , Joseph Persico 's `` Nuremberg '' could hardly have arrived at a more opportune moment . Persico , who is the author of a fine biography of William Casey , displays sleuthing skills worthy of the former CIA director in tracing the course of the trial that sought to establish a basis for prosecuting international atrocities . This is no dry-as-dust account , but a vivid reconstruction of the actions of the wartime Allies and the Nazi elite at Nuremberg . Using the private papers of the Nuremberg prison psychiatrist , the letters and journals of prisoners , and accounts of the battles between the prosecutors and judges , Persico easily carries us into a deeper understanding of the trials . Persico 's book does suggest that justice at Nuremberg will remain a noble idea murdered by a gang of ugly facts . The United States designed the trials in the heady days after World War II . Nuremberg was to signal not only the triumph of superior might , but also the victory of superior morality . Like the United Nations and the World Bank , the Nuremberg trials were an integral part of the postwar new world order that the wise men of the American establishment attempted to create after 1945 . Today the Un ited States lacks the confidence and the United Nations the power to realize that dream . The menace of a loaded gun remains more potent than a diplomatic brief . Still , the great merit of Persico 's book is to remind us that the undertaking itself was a success . Nuremberg 's most significant accomplishment was to confront the German people with crimes planned and perpetrated by the Nazis . Unlike World War I , the Germans could not seek refuge in the myth of a stab in the back . The trials showed that they had stabbed themselves in the back . Some of the most fascinating passages in Persico 's book center on the responses of the Nazi ringleaders to the overwhelming evidence of concentration camps and mass shootings introduced at the trials . One of the most odious cases was that of the former Nazi governor-general of Poland , Hans Frank . In order to overcompensate for his partly Jewish ancestry , Frank became one of the most fervent anti-Semites among the Nazis . So determined was Frank to prove his loyalty to Nazism that he had all of his rema rks condemning the Jews , and boasting of exploiting 1.3 million Poles for forced labor , recorded for posterity . Frank 's voluminous records would form one of the key sources for the Nuremberg prosecutors . At the trials , Frank veered between acknowledging and repudiating guilt for his crimes . Hermann Goering , by contrast , mustered up his old bravado . Goering , whose outsized personality made him a favorite with the American GIs , managed to bully most of his fellow defendants into refusing to plead guilty . Indeed , Persico shows that under cross-examination the cunning Goering even got the upper hand over his famous American prosecutor , Robert Jackson . Goering managed to cheat the hangman as well . Persico , who seeks to clear up the mystery surrounding Goering 's suicide , argues that upon enter ing prison Goering secreted a cyanide capsule in his luggage and persuaded a member of the prison staff to take pieces of luggage from the baggage room for him . Perhaps the most sinister figure at the trial was the cultivated technocrat Albert Speer , one of the few in the dock who received a jail term rather than a death sentence . Though Speer used millions of foreign workers as slave labor , he managed to shift responsibility onto his boorish subordinate Fritz Sauckel . By taking the blame for Nazism in the broadest sense but avoiding any particulars , Speer managed to tell the judges what they wanted to be told . Speer portrayed the Nazis as embodying the dange rs of a military technology that would pose even greater dangers to humanity in the future . As Persico puts it , Speer presented himself to the court `` not as a man pleading for his life , but as one who had something valuable to tell them , someone with a vision born of redemption after immersion in evil . '' Indeed , as Speer had correctly calculated , his contrition contrasted starkly with the stonewalling of his colleagues . In the teeth of the evidence , Generals Jodl and Keitel denied culpability for the atrocities on the Eastern front . The foppish foreign minister Joachim Ribbentrop claimed that Germany had merely emulated America 's occupation of the New World . Persico , who illuminates the pitiful character of most of the Nazi leadership , does not draw the obvious conclusion that there was nothing particularly exceptional about the character of most of Hitler 's henchmen . Ordinary men committed extraordinary crimes . In that sense , the spirit of Nuremberg lives on in Bosnia . Helyar ( Villard , $ 24 ; 576 pages ) . Hyman is a sports reporter for the Baltimore Sun Reviewed by Mark Hyman ( c ) 1994 , The Baltimore Sun If John Helyar winds up on the best seller list with `` Lords of the Realm : The Real History of Baseball , '' it will be for the anecdotes . Exhibit A : As an infant players union is taking shape in 1967 , its new leader , Marvin Miller , calls a meeting and instructs players to write down their most serious grievances with the owners . Pitcher Milt Pappas , a former Baltimore Oriole , spoke for his colleagues firmly in the grip of the mod generation . `` There aren't enough outlets for hair dryers in the clubhouses , '' he thundered . Exhibit B : William D. Eckert , retired one-star general , briefly baseball commissioner in the late 1960s and early '70s , had a remarkable penchant for confusing people and events . A notoriously passionless public speaker , Eckert once began delivering remarks to an audience of baseball officials before realizing the speech was intended for the Retired Airline Pilots Association . Exhibit C : Charles O . Finley ran a cut-rate front office in his final years of owning the Oakland A's . By 1978 , the entire operation was down to six people , including a 16-year-old office assistant named Stanley Burrell . Burrell has since changed his name to MC Hammer , the rap star , now called just plain Hammer . Helyar 's book is rich with such stories . But it 's clearly more than a collection of quotable quotes and front-office trivia . Instead , what Helyar offers is surely one of the most complete and provocative histories ever written of major-league baseball as it has played out in owners ' suites and across the collective bargaining table . It 's a tad intimidating at 576 pages , but considering he begins with Elysian Fields in the 1840s , and carries the story through the sale of the Orioles last fall to Peter G. Angelos , the book is anything but long-winded . A word about Helyar : He may not be as familiar to readers of sports books as Pete Golenbock or John Feinstein , who between them have covered every topic but the secret world of stadium ushers . But Helyar 's credentials are substantial . His `` Barbarians at the Gate '' was a big best seller . He has built a reputation as a solid reporter covering sports business issues for The Wall Street Journal . In this book , Helyar tells his story , in part , as he profiles some of baseball 's most influential and , when the author is through , least likable characters . In the process , more than a few myths are exploded . ( Begin optional trim ) For instance , he sheds a different sort of light on Kenesaw Mountain Landis , the iron-willed judge credited with bringing baseball back from the brink after the 1919 Black Sox scandal . Helyar has discovered more : `` Under Landis , the morals of baseball were purified and the business of baseball was ossified . '' Landis , he writes , was among the least progressive men of his day . He said no to lights at Crosley Field in Cincinnati , vowing there would be no night baseball in the big leagues in his lifetime . He said no to a beer company that wanted to buy advertising on World Series radio broadcasts . If it was new , Landis said no . Other notables appear equally as unsympathetic in Helyar 's narrative . The list is lengthy , and includes former baseball commissioners Peter Ueberroth and Bowie Kuhn and former owners led by the pre-eminent owner of his generation , Walter O' Malley of the Brooklyn/Los Angeles Dodgers . The miracle of Ueberroth is that he lasted as long in the job as he did , given he barely could hide his contempt for the owners . `` He treated them like retarded children , '' says a lawyer , unnamed , quoted by Helyar . ( End optional trim ) If there is a hero in the story , it is Miller , the man who brought the players union into the 20th century , who stared down the owners , broke the reserve clause and paved the way for today 's million-dollar salaries . Predictably , the owners despised him and , in Helyar 's telling , spent years calling him a collection of names , not all fit for this newspaper . This book is not always satisfying . For all its thoroughness , it uncovers few important news stories . There 's also the issue of sourcing . Helyar writes in a seamless , tightly organized style more like a technothriller than a nonfiction baseball book . In the preface Helyar provides a list of baseball folk who cooperated with his reporting . What 's missing is something more substantial that connects facts to the sources from which the author pulled them . As a newspaper guy , he should see the value in that . The travel agent is as close as most tourists ever get to a free lunch . At no cost to you , an agent can recommend and book your vacation , often drawing on special expertise and firsthand travel experience in making recommendations . Find a good one and your life is simplified . But no lunch is truly free . The problem with many of the roughly 32,000 travel agencies in the United States is that agents ' attentions are claimed by computerized reservation systems , airline fare wars , and fluctuations in the commissions they are paid by lodgings and airlines . That often leaves agents without time to learn geography in detail or see many destinations themselves . Sensing an opening there , a new breed of travel consultants has developed . They specialize in a certain area and reject the title `` travel agent '' as an understatement of their expertise . Some make bookings , some don't . Some accept commissions , some don't . Most interview customers about their preferences and interests , then come back with itinerary proposals that touch on lodgings , dining , cultural attractions and entertainment . Unlike travel agents , these consultants charge consumers upfront for their service . Their prices can be daunting as much as $ 70 an hour but they can deliver a service highly prized by travelers with less time than money . Regional expertise is one advantage . Also , for those consultants who reject commissions taking their fees only from the client their advice may be less influenced by monetary considerations , and more likely to be `` pure . '' Here are a handful of such companies , listed by their territories : ( Begin optional trim ) California . Perfect Weekends ( 2059 Camden Ave. , Suite 186 , San Jose , Calif. 95124 ; tel. 800-493-3536 or 408-559-3652 ) . Susan Barton opened San Jose-based Perfect Weekends in June , 1993 , aiming to match busy travelers with B&Bs around the state . In the 11 months since , she says , she has booked more than 400 trips . Barton charges $ 99 to plan a one-destination trip , and presumes that most of her customers will be driving . She books lodgings , makes meal reservations , schedules lessons or rentals and often builds weekends around special events . ( End optional trim ) American West . Off the Beaten Path ( 109 E . Main St. , Bozeman , Mont. 59715 ; tel. 406-586-1311 , fax 406-587-4147 ) . Pam and Bill Bryan , both trained environmentalists and tour guides , started the firm in 1987 , specializing in outdoorsy trips to Arizona , New Mexico , Utah , Colorado , Wyoming , Idaho , Montana and the Canadian provinces of British Columbia and Alberta . In 1993 , Bill Bryan estimates , the company arranged trips for about 570 individuals , couples and groups , with activities such as fishing , skiing , riding , hiking and canoeing . Fees for planning generally run $ 70 an hour , with a minimum of four or eight hours , depending on the complexity of the trip . Customers get detailed itineraries , plane tickets and maps . England . Oh to Be in England .. . ( 2 Charlton St. , New York , N.Y. 10014 ; tel. 212- 255-8739 , fax 212-986-8365 ) . Jennifer Dorn , an administrator at New York University 's law school and frequent traveler to England , set up her business four years ago . She doesn't make bookings ( she advises travelers to make reservations themselves or use a travel agent ) , but fills spiral-bound notebooks with itinerary recommendations . A typical trip takes her about 10 hours to plan . In the last year , she estimates that she haa done about 150 itineraries for $ 150- $ 225 , depending on the number of cities in the itinerary . France . Point of View . ( 5922 Melvin Ave. , Tarzana , Calif. 91356 ; tel. 818-705-4418 , fax 818-708-7131 ) . Kajsa Agostini was born in France and spent 15 years with the French Government Tourist Office in California before striking off on her own last year . Agostini does not make bookings , but interviews travelers and devises an itinerary . Once the itinerary is booked , Agostini often writes to hotels to confirm reservations and ensure personalized service . She charges about $ 200 . Italy . Marjorie Shaw 's Insider 's Italy ( P.O. Box 021816A , Brooklyn , N.Y. 11202-1816 ; tel. 718-855-3878 , fax 718-855-3687 . ) Shaw , who was born in Rome and lived in Italy for more than a decade , started her consulting business in 1988 after spending four years leading walking tours through the country . Shaw maintains an office in Rome . Her databank of Italian intelligence includes roughly 400 small hotels throughout the country . She makes hotel and transportation bookings and gives clients a portfolio that runs as long as 85 pages . Her typical fee for a couple on a two-week trip with four stops : $ 495 . ( If Shaw doesn't answer her phone , she 's on a fact-finding trip ; fax or call back later . ) When I first got off the Pennsylvania Turnpike at Morgantown , I barely glanced at the horse and buggy two-stepping along ahead of me in morning traffic . How nice , I thought carriage rides for tourists . But then I started spotting buggies hitched outside pharmacies , hardware stores and other everyday businesses on two-lane Route 23 . They really were a normal means of transportation in these parts . There are tourist rides , too , all right . And loads of pseudo-Pennsylvania Dutch attractions throughout rural Lancaster County . But beyond the `` Amishland '' commercialism , a sizable community of Plain People remarkably still flourishes much as it has for 300 years largely without benefit of automobiles , electricity and other trappings of modern life . By avoiding the main routes especially kitschy U.S. 30 visitors can glimpse the old-fashioned lifestyle of the Amish without feeling like intruders . Meander along the byways and you 'll crisscross fields that inspire the designs of exquisite patchwork quilts and see farmers walking behind plows pulled by mules . Women in bonnets tend their kitchen gardens and children with Dutch cuts skip-ride home from school on old-fashioned wooden scooters . Small home-based shops display first-rate yet inexpensive local crafts , and roadside stands sell garden-fresh produce and mouth-watering baked goods . Lancaster might well be the Comfort Food Capital of the universe , embodying the familiar aura one restaurant localizes as `` Mom and shoo-fly pie . '' Countless places feature inexpensive food that invigorates the term home cooking . Virtually everything is made from scratch : crispy potato chips , crusty rolls , tangy condiments and flaky , gooey desserts . Some of these family-oriented restaurants ( which seldom serve alcohol ) also specialize in all-you-can eat smorgasbords , although allowances are made for tiny appetites . One place , for example , prices meals for kids by their weight : five cents per pound . The annual Pennsylvania Dutch Food Festival , set to take place at many sites around the county June 13 to 18 , will provide a ready-made vacation focus . My first stop on my recent tour was the Pennsylvania Dutch Visitors Center , which offers a great map , piles of brochures and a 15-minute introductory film on the area . I learned that the Amish ( pronounced AH-mish , after founder Jakob Ammann ) are descendants of German-speaking Anabaptists , who believe the decision to be baptized should be made as an adult . The Amish broke off from the more liberal Mennonites three centuries ago , fled persecution in Europe and found peace in William Penn 's new colony and various other communities in North America . Both sects and a third Anabaptist group called the Brethren today live amicably in Lancaster County despite wide variations in customs . The dark clothing and simple lifestyle that distinguish the Old Order Amish symbolizes their commitment to their faith . They also take to heart the biblical edict against graven images , which tourists are asked to respect by not photographing them . Old Order Amish mingle with outsiders ( whom they generically refer to as `` English '' ) , and a few even invite visitors to join family dinners in their homes . They rarely cater to overnight guests . Tourists can , however , sample rural life firsthand on numerous Mennonite farms within a 10- or 15-mile radius of downtown Lancaster . Some of these bed and breakfast accommodations are rather spartan , but others , like Barbara and Harold Frey 's Morning Meadows Farm in Marietta , offer all the comforts of a country guest house along with a chance to experience the daily farm routine ( which , be warned , can start at dawn ) . My second-floor room at Morning Meadows Farm was prettily decorated in Victorian-country style and had a modern private bath and a small TV . Adjoining it was a cozy sitting room with magazines and another TV and outside was a wide porch offering panoramic views of fields and barns . I asked for a restaurant suggestion and Frey recommended the Country Table Restaurant in nearby Mount Joy . It was a family place , overlooking nothing but a packed parking lot , but it served one of the best restaurant meals I 've ever eaten : juicy pork chops , crisp salad , fresh vegetables , oven-baked potato and rolls , herb tea and a wedge of that molassesy Pennsylvania Dutch favorite , shoo-fly pie . Cost : $ 9.49 . This is an early-to-bed , early-to-rise culture and most restaurants close by 8 or 9 p.m. . Breakfast at Morning Meadows was at 8 a.m. , and consisted of an apple dumpling hot from the oven and French toast with bacon all delicious . While I lingered over my juice and coffee , the Freys chatted about the area and suggested sightseeing possibilities . Various auto-tape tours of the area are available at Lancaster 's Mennonite Information Center , but I preferred to take advantage of the center 's personal guide service ( $ 6 paid to the center , then a fee of $ 8.50 an hour to the guide who rides in your car ) . For the next two hours ( the minimum tour time ) , a Mennonite woman named Alverna Hess directed me along 20 or 30 miles of back roads , pointing out covered bridges , cemeteries and Amish traditions . Windmills whirred in many farmyards , and black dresses and shirts fluttered from clotheslines a sure sign , she said , of an Amish household , which has diesel-powered milking machines and propane-fired hot-water heaters to meet government health requirements but few other modern appliances . The occasional roadside phone booths we saw aren't public ones , Hess explained ; they belong to the nearest house another concession to the realities of doing business in the 20th century but kept at a discreet distance . After I dropped off my guide , I continued a few miles south of Lancaster to Strasburg , a pretty village with several attractions for train buffs including the nation 's oldest short-line railroad . Next I headed northwest to equally charming Lititz , which offers some of the best shopping in Lancaster County . The aromas alone led me to two must-stops : the Sturgis Pretzel Bakery and the Wilbur Chocolate Factory . At both you can watch the cooks in action and stock up on their products . ( Begin optional trim ) My second night was at one of the Inns at Doneckers , a collection of four restored houses , one the site of the first Donecker family business back in 1910 . I stayed in The Guesthouse , which has 20 distinctive rooms and suites . My room , one of the least expensive , was nevertheless the epitome of country style . Some walls were hand-stencilled , others exposed brick . Two handsome hooked rugs served as wall art . After breakfast , I strolled down the road to Doneckers Artworks , a four-story marketplace of artists ' studios and galleries with an adjoining farmers ' market . The market was stuffed with fresh produce and smelled of spring flowers , apple pie and Auntie Anne 's scrumptious , hand-rolled soft pretzels , so I was surprised at how few customers were there . The answer was clear as soon as I turned my car onto North State Street to head for the nearby competition . Traffic crawled most of the way to the Green Dragon market , one of the biggest in the county ( along with Lancaster 's Central Market and Root 's Market near Manheim ) . The Dragon was the quintessential country flea market an indoor/outdoor bazaar featuring everything from produce to clothing with , of course , the requisite supply of goodies down to homemade root beer . ( End optional trim ) Between markets , wineries , breweries , potteries , antiques markets and various fairs and festivals , there 's no end of country diversions around Lancaster ( note that some attractions are closed on Sundays ) . There 's also interesting walking in downtown Lancaster , which was Pennsylvania 's capital for 11 years and which served as the nation 's capital for one day Sept. 27 , 1777 when Congress stopped there after fleeing from Philadelphia . My most indelible memory of the area , however , remains the home-cooked meals turned out by seemingly every kitchen . I wonder if any of them delivers . The word `` Caribbean '' may conjure up all kinds of vivid colors , but to V.S. Naipaul it suggests gray : a land and seascape bleached out by unmediated sun and a counterfeit history . It is the gray in the face of a professional entertainer the morning after a late night . The displacing and alienating effects of a colonial past on today 's post-colonial peoples has been Naipaul 's leading theme ever since , once past his early Trinidad novels , he broke through the colors to the gray underneath . He has pursued it in his fiction and non-fiction , set in Britain , Africa , South America and India , the home of his forebears . He is one of literature 's great travelers and also one of its oddest . He seeks not roots but rootlessness . He travels not for acquaintance but for alienation . Paul Theroux does that , to an extent , but the difference is very large . For one thing , Naipaul , who can be petty , vain and cruel , both uses and transcends his defects . His theme is the terrible inauthenticity that history has imposed on the heirs of colonialism 's subjects . But by refusing to conceal or temper his own crabby vision a walleyed sensibility that tends to swivel inward he achieves at his best moments a unique authenticity . His nightmare Argentina , for example , can be unrecognizable but there is no question about the nightmares that it produces in Naipaul . When he is not displaying a certain haste and roughness ( on purpose , perhaps , like a musician asserting his freedom to play sour ) , he is a great writer . In a magical and redeeming phrase he will suddenly link up the particular estrangements he acquires , wherever he goes , to the estranged wanderer in all of us . `` A Way in the World '' ( Alfred A . Knopf , $ 23 , 380 pp. ) is a series of partly autobiographical and partly fictional variations on his theme . Each centers on a different personage , and Naipaul himself appears in many of them . The principal characters differ widely . There is a Trinidadian who uses his color sense as both a funeral parlor cosmetician and a cake decorator ; and a conservative Port of Spain lawyer who unexpectedly reveals his flaming commitment to black power . There is a supercilious English writer who helps and patronizes the narrator ; an itinerant Caribbean radical `` an impresario of revolution '' who is lionized by the radically chic in London and New York , and an enterprising Venezuelan who has submerged his identity as a Trinidadian Hindu . Some of the figures are historical . Naipaul writes a vivid fictionalized account of Sir Walter Raleigh , aged and desperate , seeking to discover El Dorado as a way out of his political troubles at home . He paints a poignantly imagined portrait of the early Venezuelan revolutionary , Francisco de Miranda , lifted up and let down by his British patrons and finally , betrayed by the supporters of Bolivar , dying in a Spanish prison . At first glance there seems to be little connection among the real , part-real and fictional characters he writes of . The styles differ considerably too : from factual documentary to a first-person combination of memoir and commentary to poetic evocation . In fact all of the protagonists are linked by their passage through the world of the Caribbean . It is a world that , instead of evolving gradually through slow migrations and evolution , was created in a kind of cataclysm . In the space of a few years , the Spanish , the French and the British landed , fought each other , and shoved aside the Native Americans as unfit for their purpose . Their purpose was sugar plantations ; and to accomplish it they brought over slaves from Africa and indentured laborers from India . And then , after a couple of centuries , they were gone ; leaving behind a fragmented culture resting on a jumbled , conflicting , half-dreamed past . Naipaul doesn't draw the comparison , but one thinks of Prince Sigismund in Calderon 's `` Life Is a Dream . '' Arbitrarily immured in a tower from infancy , he suddenly finds himself arbitrarily released and royal once more in a wide and terrifying universe . Sigismund went temporarily mad . Naipaul 's characters are put together out of pieces that don't fit . Though not usually mad , they maneuver hybrid and uncertain identities through a world constructed of misapprehensions and are visited by undissolved bits of a heritage they are unconscious of . In his gentle corpse-and-cake decorator , Naipaul sees an ancestral ghost of `` the dancing groups of Lucknow , lewd men who painted their faces and tried to live like women . '' He adds : `` He frightened me because I felt his feeling for beauty was like an illness ; as though some unfamiliar deforming virus had passed through his simple mother to him and was even then .. . something neither of them had begun to understand . '' The lawyer , Evander , a properly British-mannered black professional in a still-colonial Trinidad , receives a courtesy visit from young Naipaul , about to depart for London on a prized scholarship . There is a starchy moment or two ; then , startlingly , Evander raises his fist , smiles , and says : `` The race ! The race , man ! '' It was meant as a secret , confraternal sign to a youth who was off to learn from the enemy and come back to fight . Except that Naipaul wasn't . He was off to gather the rewards that the British colonial authorities had implied would be his when he reached London with his prize . Instead there were years of misery , condescension and the grinding struggle to find himself as a writer . In his portrait of Foster Morris , an established author who helps him generously and then mortally offends him , Naipaul vents with gleeful malice his feelings toward the grip of British attitudes , not only on his country but also on his own divided nature . But Evander mistook young Naipaul in another respect , as well . As a member of Trinidad 's Indian minority , he felt no kinship with the black nationalist current that was to accompany independence in Trinidad and other parts of the Caribbean . On the contrary , he felt his own identity threatened ; as he would years later in Africa , where the Indian middle class was a particular target of black politics . Naipaul 's angers can be useful as well as shrill , and usually directed at those British and black who exercise power . The finest portraits are of figures torn and fluttering through their lives and identities . His Miranda is one of the best things he has done , and he writes of the deluded Raleigh with unusual compassion . And there is the Indian whom Raleigh , assuming he comes from El Dorado , takes back to London to make up for the gold he couldn't find . In fact , Don Jose comes from the well-settled province of Nueva Granada ( Colombia ) . His reflections on Raleigh and on European dreams have a haunting simplicity . Asked years later what difference he finds between the Europeans and the Indians , he answers with an irony that points up what Naipaul is after : `` I 've thought a lot about that . And I think , Father , that the difference between us , who are Indians , or half Indians , and people like the Spaniards and the English and the Dutch and the French , people who know how to go where they are going , I think that for them the world is a safer place . '' ROOMMATES : Monday night on NBC . Eric Stoltz plays a Harvard-educated professional who is gay . Randy Quaid plays is a paroled bank robber who is not . They don't have much in common , except that they 're both suffering from AIDS and are sharing an apartment in a facility for AIDS patients . Quaid 's character 's view is that `` AIDS is God 's way of cleaning house . '' What begins as a rocky relationship grows into a supportive friendship at a time when the two men need it most . Elizabeth Pena plays the social worker who arranges for the men to share a room . Charles Durning plays the father of one of the men . BEFORE YOUR EYES : KRISTIN IS MISSING : Tuesday night on CBS . This is the story of 14-year-old Kristin Coalter of Kent City , Mich. , who ran away from home with truck driver Bill Neuville , 49 . Presented as the events unfolded , the movie begins soon after Kristin , a star athlete and straight-A student , disappeared on April 20 , 1993 , and follows her parents , Nancy and Larry Coalter , on an emotional ride for nearly seven months . CBS was alerted to this particular case by the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children . About 450,000 children run away from home each year . One in seven teens runs away from home ; nearly a third become prostitutes within two days . Half of all runaways who return home run away again . 1994 WORLD MUSIC AWARDS : Tuesday night on ABC . Entertainers share the stage with members of the ruling family of Monaco for this seventh annual international special from Monte Carlo 's Sporting Club . The show , honoring the world 's best-selling recording artists for the year , was taped May 4 and will be seen in more than 80 countries . Among presenters : Prince Albert and Princess Caroline of Monaco , Fabio , Claudia Schiffer and David Copperfield . Host Patrick Swayze and his wife , Lisa Niemi , dance to an instrumental version of Whitney Houston 's `` All the Man That I Need . '' Their dance , choreographed by Lar Lubovitch , is the first time Swayze has danced on television and is a tribute to Houston , whose five awards make her the most lauded performer in the history of the event . Also honored : Placido Domingo , Ray Charles and the artist formerly known as Prince . JACQUI 'S DILEMMA : Thursday night on ABC . This dramatization of the decisions faced by a 16-year-old who becomes pregnant is interspersed with comments from parents , teens , educators , clergy , adoption-service counselors , social workers , teen-age parents and physicians ( including U.S. Surgeon General Joycelyn Elders ) , discussing the issues surrounding teen sexuality . Melissa Thompson portrays Jacqui . FALL FROM GRACE : Thursday and Friday nights on CBS . This four-hour mini-series , an international co-production filmed in Europe and based on Larry Collins 's novel , is set against the staging and landing of the Allied forces in Normandy in June 1944 . Michael York , Gary Cole , Patsy Kensit , Julian Curry and Richard Anconina head the large international cast . COMING & GOING : Friday night on PBS . Don't be put off : `` Coming & Going , '' a three-part PBS series on transportation , is not dull . It 's a series that really moves , so to speak , carried along by a fast-paced score . The series , beginning Friday night , is about the way transportation shapes our national character and our landscape . It mixes history , philosophy , facts and personal stories as it talks about railroads , container ships , airplanes , truckers hauling down the highways ; about building interstates and suburbs and light rail systems ; and about shipping to people in all areas what they want and need all year around . Filmed in two dozen states , the series is a project of producer Craig Perry . Perry hired National Public Radio 's Scott Simon to narrate and commissioned a lively and original score by David Hamilton . It was living in Los Angeles that caused Perry to realize that transportation `` becomes a dominant feature of your life . I was living the problem . I thought , ` As a television producer , there is something I can do about this . ' It 's been a six-year journey from the time the idea occurred until now , and I 've learned a lot . In the beginning , I went to find out who was doing this to us , and I realized that it wasn't anybody : We had met the enemy and he was us . '' The little-noticed role of South African-made arms in the catastrophe of Rwanda presents Nelson Mandela with an early test of his ability to reconcile realism and idealism . At least 3,000 of Rwanda 's soldiers and militiamen carry South African-made R-4 automatic rifles . Rwanda bought them in 1992 from Armscor South Africa 's state-owned arms corporation along with 10,000 hand grenades , 20,000 rifle grenades , 10,000 launching grenades and more than 1 million rounds of ammunition . In Rwanda 's killing fields , such grenades and automatic rifles have been weapons of choice , after machetes . At the Christ Spirituality Center in Kigali , soldiers opened fire with automatic rifles , killing five diocesan priests , nine congregated women , three Jesuits and their cook . In Rukara , journalists came upon about 500 corpses inside a church . One survivor said the people had died when militiamen threw dozens of grenades inside the building . Will the new South Africa sell arms to countries like Rwanda ? Mandela , with his international reputation as a peace-aker , may not want to . But the United Nations trade embargo against South Africa is expected to be lifted soon , and new markets are already opening up for South Africa 's deadliest goods . Andre Buys , an executive for Armscor , told Defense News last month that `` we expect that by 1996 ( arms ) exports will at least double , and possibly quadruple . '' Like Vaclav Havel of Czechoslovakia before him , Mandela may find that his humanitarian impulses are not strong enough to resist the financial attractions of the arms trade . When Havel became president of Czechoslovakia in 1989 , he promised to end arms exports . But last year , after the country split into the Czech Republic and Slovakia , both renewed sales . Before Mandela 's inauguration , ANC spokesman Madala Mthembu carefully suggested that the post-apartheid government would not abstain from the arms business . `` Once the new government is up and running , we will welcome a complete lifting of all remaining sanctions and embargoes against South Africa , '' Mthembu told Defense News . `` We also wish to state the new government will be in full compliance with international standards governing exports of technologies and materials that would threaten world security . '' Such standards would preclude arms sales to states like Libya , which is also currently subject to a U.N. embargo . But states like Rwanda before its present crisis would still be able to legally buy arms . Ethnic strife , which plagues much of the world , makes for a boom market in the weapons trade . And South African weapons are generally more reliable , accurate and durable than comparable arms made by Egypt , Russia , Romania and even Israel in some categories . While the world rejoices in witnessing apartheid 's downfall , it will have the unexpected effect of adding to the glut of arms already flooding the places that least need them , such as Rwanda , Sudan and Cambodia . No one expects Mandela to turn his back on what promises to become one of the new South Africa 's better earners of foreign exchange . But few would expect , either , a man who has devoted his life to his country 's struggle for justice , equality and human rights to turn his back on future victims of other abusive regimes . He doesn't necessarily have to . South Africa can afford to forgo sales of guns and grenades because it actually makes most of its profits from the sale of expensive , high-technology systems like laser-designated missiles , aircraft electronic warfare systems , tactical radios , anti-radiation bombs and battlefield mobility systems . This sort of weaponry , while potentially deadly , is much less likely to be used in human-rights abuses than small arms . In anticipation of an end to the U.N. embargo , South Africa created the Denel Corp. in 1992 . While Armscor has since served as the government 's defense-procurement organization , Denel has operated as a private manufacturing consortium , representing 60 percent of the arms industry . Denel expects to lead export sales ; such sales averaged $ 127.5 million in the early 1990s and increased to $ 222.2 million in 1993 . Rwanda 's purchase of $ 5.9 million of grenades , mortars and ammunition from Denel made only a tiny addition to South Africa 's balance sheet . South Africa also has a technological edge in land-mine-detection and -sweeping equipment especially needed by Cambodia and other countries . While South Africa has already begun to market this equipment , it announced in March that it would not sell land mines at the same time and stopped exports . Although it could be argued that this announcement was motivated more by appearance than principle , it was a welcome sign . But Mandela and the ANC 's stated policy isn't good enough . Exporting mine-sweeping equipment is a legitimate way to earn foreign exchange ; sales of any arms to human-rights violators are not . The new South Africa should re-examine its export policy on such items . International prohibitions against arms sales to abusive regimes are at present non-existent or weak . Rwanda , with its long-documented history of ethnic strife and its grisly record of human-rights abuses , is a case in point . Rather than sink to this standard , Mandela should lead the world in raising it up . Frank Smyth , a freelance journalist and investigative consultant , is the author of `` Arming Rwanda , '' published by the Human Rights Watch/Arms Project in New York . A prep course for the month-long World Cup soccer tournament , a worldwide phenomenon to be played in the United States for the first time beginning June 17 , is available in a set of three home videos . Each of the three volumes by PolyGram Video lists for $ 14.95 and has a running time of about 60 minutes . The three volumes : `` World Cup USA '94 : The Official Preview , '' which includes a tournament history with footage all the way back to the first World Cup held in 1930 . There 's a look at the training of the 1994 U.S. team and a profile of Brazil 's Pele , just 17 when he took the 1958 event by storm , repeating in 1962 and 1970 . `` Top 50 Great World Cup Goals , '' highlighting exciting moments from competition beginning in 1966 with favorites such as Pele , Johan Cruyff , Diego Maradona , Roberto Baggio , Salvatore `` Toto '' Schillaci and Franz Beckenbauer . `` Great World Cup Superstars , '' focusing on the top names in the game , featured in the `` Goals '' cassette , and adding some interviews that offer an insight into what makes these stars shine . Three new basketball videos available : `` Sir Charles '' takes a look at the on-court intensity and dynamic skills of Charles Barkley of the Phoenix Suns as well as his entertaining off-court persona. $ 19.98 , 50 minutes , 1-800-999-VIDEO . `` NBA Superstars 3 '' follows up on two previous hit videos meshing the moves of the NBA 's elite with today 's hit music . This one includes Kenny Anderson , Steve Smith , Derrick Coleman , Larry Johnson , Dan Majerle , Alonzo Mourning , Hakeem Olajuwon , Mark Price , Shawn Kemp , Isiah Thomas and Joe Dumars . Their play is matched with the music of Erick Sermon , M People , LL Cool J , Celine Dion , Domino , Soulhat , Soul Asylum , Buckshot LeFonque , Branford Marsalis , Pearl Jam and Rozella. $ 19.98 , 50 minutes , 1-800-999-VIDEO . `` Hog Wild : The Official 1994 NCAA Championship Video '' recaptures the excitement of the latest edition of March Madness and Arkansas 's march to the title with rousing victories over Michigan , Arizona and Duke in the three final games. $ 19.98 , 45 minutes , 1-800-747-7999 . It is only natural that a writer make the literary most of whatever happens to him . In April 1984 the distinguished novelist Reynolds Price was asked by a friend with whom he was walking why he kept slapping his foot on the pavement . It was the first faint whisper of the monstrous illness that would roar across his body for the next four years . For unbeknown , an eel-shaped tubular cancer had taken root and was compressing his spinal cord . For the next four years the author would undergo radiation to his spinal cord , multiple surgical procedures diagnostic , palliative and the last , one hopes , curative . In addition to the paralysis of the lower half of the body , there was a slowly ascending numbness to just below the nipple line . And there was pain , real and phantom , the latter no less severe for all its suggestion of unreality . It was suffering worthy of Job . On page after page , we are confronted by the downright ugliness of suffering , its senselessness . Pain is not noble ; it is disgustingly ordinary . The reader tries to imagine the pain , but the language of pain is exclusive ; it is a tongue spoken by one person only . The rest of us are not conversant in it , nor can it be conveyed in words . Never mind , we shall know it in our turn . There is some danger in the reiteration of pain , that it will eventually have an anesthetic effect no matter how persuasive the writing . In this , it is not unlike pornography that within minutes becomes tedious . The rapture of others cannot be rendered in words either ; for that too we must wait our turn . `` A Whole New Life '' is Price 's candid account of his ordeal , written , he announces , to furnish others in similar trouble `` a companionable voice that 's lasted beyond all rational expectation . '' He has written it years after the white heat of the events and from the vantage of the crippled survivor . Like many such recountings , I suspect it was written also to exteriorize the horror , to put a barrier of printed pages between himself and what can best be described as a re-enactment of Dante 's `` Inferno . '' Eschewing the novelist 's proven gifts of style there is none of the elegance , nuance , ambiguity or wit of his powerful novel , `` Kate Vaiden '' he tells his story in a prose that is stripped down and pell-mell , utterly devoid of the pomp of language or the writer 's vanity . The sentences come spilling out much as the facts were remembered , but the meaning of the sometimes clotted paragraphs is never in doubt . Much of the book tells of the few ups and the many downs in his agonizing struggle to live the progressive loss of strength and sensation and function . With each diminution , along with the author , we contemplate sadly the little that remains from the much that was . A good deal of the account is moving : his brother 's preoperative kiss , and the fellowship of the `` gimps '' at the the rehabilitation center all striving to recover a modicum of independence . We cheer each brief respite from pain as we do his brave resumption of writing and teaching . What sustained him ? There was a seemingly endless line of kind friends and acquaintances who committed themselves over long periods of time to assist Price in recapturing the pace of his life . One 's inner strength is no match for suffering . It is not our own strength alone that will help us prevail , but the strength and commiseration of others . It takes courage to lean on others , but great suffering demands of us that humility . Too , there is Price 's lifelong belief in a God who is personally interested in him , if not always benevolent . This belief was made powerfully manifest just prior to the course of irradiation . The area on his back to be treated had already been marked out with purple dye . The radiation oncologist had informed the patient of all the possibilities . Shortly thereafter , Reynolds Price experienced an uncanny translocation in which he found himself lying on a slope by the Sea of Galilee in 1st-Century Palestine . Sleeping nearby were Christ and his 12 apostles all dressed in the tunics and cloaks of the time . In the distance he saw the town of Capernaum just as it was . Jesus looked much like the Flemish paintings of him , lean , `` tall with dark hair , unblemished skin and a self-possession both natural and imposing . '' He rose , directed Price to undress , then led the naked man into the waters of Galilee . Now , existing both with and outside of his body , the author could see the purple marks on his back . Again and again Jesus poured handfuls of water over him . There was dialogue : `` Your sins are forgiven . '' `` Am I also to be cured ? '' `` That too . '' From the moment Price 's mind returned to the here and now , he has believed this event to be neither dream nor vision but `` an external gift .. . of an alternate time and place in which to live through a crucial act . '' For Price , this experience had a tactile reality . It happened . Even the skeptical reader shivers in wild surmise . The man who emerges from these pages is feisty , gritty , angry , sometimes snobbish and , notwithstanding , most appealing . He makes no effort to portray himself as a saint or a martyr . The clerk at the hospital is `` sullen . '' The cardiac fitness participants are imagined as `` a squad of garrulous heart-attack survivors in designer sweat suits . '' Many of the `` true practical saints '' who offer to help him are `` boring as root canals . '' It is the radiation oncologist , cast as the villain , who bears the brunt of Price 's anger and resentment . He has `` all the visible concern of a steel cheese-grater '' ; he `` never offered to tell me ... '' ; he is `` the frozen oncologist . '' And here another physician must demur . Was it not this very doctor , among others , whose judgment and therapy brought about the cure of his patient ? Surely , that he is not also gifted with charm or bedside manner might be forgiven ? Some doctors , particularly those whose work brings them daily into contact with the gravely ill and whose treatments themselves augment the suffering , may function better when they withhold or even stifle pity , compassion , aesthetic response than when they allow these feelings full sway . Certainly there are great doctors who are also haughty , cold , materialistic and insensitive ; just as there are great artists who fall short of expectations . Beethoven , Wagner and Richard Strauss were bigoted , angry , domineering . Schopenhauer and Rossini were scornful and misanthropic . Da Vinci and Goethe were detached , aloof and condescending . And then there was Robert Frost . It is in the final section of the book that Price rises above the dreadful years and reaches out to his new life . It is a life full of satisfactions , work , friends and even erotic love . `` Reynolds Price , '' he told himself , `` is dead . '' And asked himself : `` Who can you be ? '' The answer is : a writer and a teacher as before , only now with the patience and watchfulness born of suffering , and the blessing of whole days of focused energy undiluted by the distractions of the able-bodied . In the years since his illness , Reynolds Price has written 14 books . His last advice to the afflicted is to finish grieving for the former self , to reach out hungrily to the new and to find work that sustains the spirit . In writing `` A Whole New Life '' Reynolds Price has come , in the words of Adrienne Rich , `` to see the damage that was done/and the treasures that prevail . '' There can be no sweeter use made of adversity than this act of generosity that comes in the form of a book . The crisis that has been rapidly building over North Korea 's suspected nuclear weapons program seems for now to have abated . Inspectors from the International Atomic Energy Agency have been sent to Pyongyang to see what they can learn about the refueling of a key reactor that is now under way . Washington , welcoming this and other recent signs hinting at a more cooperative attitude by the North , says that it 's ready to reopen high-level contacts with Kim Il Sung 's regime . So for the moment at least the United States doesn't have to worry about trying to muster international support for economic sanctions against a country that , at a minimum , seems to have done all it can to encourage the belief that it has been violating the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty . How long that moment will last is up to Pyongyang . The key question is whether North Korea will let IAEA inspectors examine several hundred specifically chosen fuel rods from its five-megawatt reactor at Yongbyon , north of Pyongyang . By analyzing certain rods the IAEA could tell how long they had been in the reactor , and that in turn would indicate whether other fuel rods had earlier been secretly removed . There 's a suspicion , heightened in the last few days by the claims in Tokyo of a North Korean defector who once worked at the Yongbyon reprocessing plant , that 26 pounds of plutonium were secretly extracted from spent fuel rods in 1988 . That supports the CIA 's suspicion that the North has produced enough plutonium for a couple of nuclear devices . The United States is ready it wouldn't be too much to say eager to move toward normal relations with North Korea and so help stabilize Northeast Asia . Rightly , though , it conditions such a move on Pyongyang 's readiness to meet its responsibilities under the Non-Proliferation Treaty . South Korea supports the American effort . If North Korea goes along , it could see its diplomatic and economic isolation end . If it balks , new pressures would fall on its weak economy . Enlightened self-interest makes the choice clear . The question is whether a regime that has for decades zealously preached the virtues of inward-looking self-reliance is able finally to recognize where its true long-term interests lie . Step by step , President Clinton seems to be maneuvering himself into a position on Haiti where his only option may be military intervention . If that is the president 's intention , it should be reversed forthwith . He must know that two-thirds of the American people oppose such a step ; that with the first American casualties there will be a clamor for withdrawal of U.S. forces ; that the last time Marines marched ashore in Haiti , in 1915 , they were there 19 years , and after taking 126 combat and non-combat casualties left behind a trained and oppressive military . The ideal solution evidently sought by Clinton is sufficient international pressure to force the Haitian generals now in control into exile . There is a precedent : In 1986 , the United States was able to send dictator Jean Claude `` Baby Doc '' Duvalier packing . But there is another precedent : his father , Francois `` Papa Doc '' Duvalier , successfully defied a U.S. show of force in 1963 . By tightening the embargo on Haiti over last weekend , the world community decided in effect to increase the suffering of the Haitian people in order to liberate them . Food and medicine are the exception . But as jobs and private-sector imports of vital commodities disappear , aid organizations warn that hunger and death will increase . Some of ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide 's more fervent supporters , both foreign and domestic , are willing to have the poorest people in the hemisphere 's poorest country pay this price . The situation could force President Clinton 's hand . Having taken on a certain responsibility for worsening the plight of the Haitian people and having drawn only defiance from Haiti 's military government , he may find himself with little choice other than to order the Marines ashore . Some 650 aboard the USS Wasp are moving into position . What then ? Will U.S. citizens be taken hostage in a desperate counter-move by the present government ? Will Haitian forces crumble at the first sight of the Marines , as their leaders flee to luxurious exile ? Will Father Aristide 's revenge-minded followers then turn on the soldiers that remain ? Or will a form of civil war break out , part ethnic and part class-based , that will make a mockery of quick-solution scenarios ? And even if U.S. forces stay the course , under the facade of a multinational intervention , just what will their mission be ? To feed the masses ? That 's the easy part , as humanitarian successes in Somalia illustrate . To crack down on violence-minded factions ? That 's a much tougher role , one the U.S. could not sustain in Somalia . To rebuild the Haitian government and and economy ? That 's a task the U.S. never really attempted in Somalia , that it flunked the last time out in Haiti and that it is unlikely to assume again , given the budget squeeze and public opinion . So Clinton is boxed in by the Haiti crisis , and so is our country . Any solution other than the quick capitulation of the present military government offers little but pain and foreboding . It isn't easy for athletes to be legends anymore . Over-analyzed by cranky sportswriters , noisily critiqued by moronic sports talk-radio callers , their gravity-defying feats have been reduced to ESPN highlight-reel fodder . Just ask Barry Bonds , whose most enduring media moment remains his nasty on-the-field shouting match with then-manager Jim Leyland . Sports legend derives from larger-than-life feats , created away from the glare of the spotlight . It belongs to the oral tradition , tales told and retold , till they take on an appropriately mythic stature . Who knows if Babe Ruth really pointed to the right-field bleachers and called his shot in the 1932 World Series ? Who actually saw Pete Gray , the St. Louis Browns ' one-armed outfielder , in action , throwing a runner out at home plate ? How many people got to watch Johnny Vander Meer pitch a no-hitter in two consecutive games ? In baseball , the murkiest of all legends have sprung from the mythic twilight of the Negro Leagues . Thrown together during the sorry days of segregated sport , they showcased the young black gods of baseball , performing in the same cities often in the same ballparks as major-league players , sometimes even wearing the big-leaguers ' discarded uniforms . That 's where you 'd find Leroy `` Satchel '' Paige , barnstorming across the country in wheezing buses , sleeping in fleabag hotels , playing in ramshackle bandboxes across town from the storied major-league ballparks . Of all the mythic stars of Negro baseball , Satchel was mythic-squared . Unhittable in his prime , he once struck out 22 men in a game , beat Bob Feller 1-0 in a 13-inning exhibition game and was so indomitable he threw a no-hitter in the first game of a double-header and then pitched relief in the nightcap . After hitting .398 in the Pacific Coast League in 1935 , Joe DiMaggio prepared for his rookie season with the New York Yankees by facing Paige in a much-ballyhooed exhibition game . The future Hall of Famer managed a measly infield hit in four trips to the plate , moving a Yankee scout to wire home : `` DiMaggio all we hoped he 'd be : hit Satch one for four . '' The legend simmered , soaking up its rich flavor in obscurity . As far as the white press was concerned , Paige ( who was as celebrated in '30s-era black circles as Cab Calloway or Louis Armstrong ) might as well have been pitching in Outer Mongolia . When Time magazine finally discovered Paige in 1940 15 years into his career it offered some legendry of its own . Attributing Satchel 's arm strength to his boyhood shouldering of 200-pound blocks of ice , the news magazine quoted Paige 's old ice-wagon employer as saying : `` That boy et mo ' than the hosses . '' Until now , that 's been the Satch story : Print the caricature . But judging from `` Don't Look Back , '' Mark Ribowsky 's meticulously researched biography , there is another , considerably starker and less sentimental side to Paige . Raised in the rough-and-tumble ghetto area of Mobile , Ala. , Paige was a restless , lonely man , a black shadow in a white-only world , his soul shriveled by a lack of acceptance , both from his family and the realm of big-time sport . Before he was 20 , Paige had hit the road , learning his pitching craft on baseball 's chitlins circuit . Though Ribowsky is more successful at sketching the Negro League milieu than fleshing out Paige 's character , the scrawny , rawboned pitcher emerges as a man of few loyalties , either to friend or team , indifferent to family ties , easily seduced by a pretty woman or a fat paycheck . Take away his wonderful wit and legendary showmanship and dare we say it Satchel might be almost as hard to love as Barry Bonds . Resolutely unfaithful to every woman in his life , Paige was jealous of teammates ' success , a hard-drinking carouser , habitually late to even the most important games and disdainful of anything resembling a training regime . Paige was at least 42 ( some say 44 or even 48 ) when Cleveland Indians owner Bill Veeck finally brought him to the big leagues in 1948 , a year after Jackie Robinson broke the color barrier . Making his first appearance in relief on July 9 , he was the man who brought black vaudeville style to white sport , decades before the high five , the monster jam and the end-zone dance . Paige mystified batters with a carnival assortment of trick pitches . Using a double or even triple windup with a huge leg kick , he 'd throw what he called a Step ' n Pitch-it , a Bat Dodger and finally , his mind-boggling Hesitation Pitch , where he held back his right arm even as his front leg swept his body forward , releasing the ball almost as an afterthought . The first major-leaguer who tried to hit the Hesitation Pitch lunged and swung before the pitch was half-way to the plate , his bat flying 40 feet up the third-base line . Satch was a sensation . By the time he started his first major-league game on Aug. 3 , 72,562 fans were at Cleveland 's Municipal Stadium , a new attendance record for a major-league night game . Though well past his prime , Paige played parts of six seasons in the majors and was good enough to be named to the 1952 All-Star team . Never a friend to Robinson he had given him the cold shoulder in the Negro Leagues he displayed little of Robinson 's credit-to-his-race good citizenry . Paige missed trains , broke curfew and carried around a gun a foot and a half long . His eccentricities won him huge play in the white press , which viewed him as post-integration baseball 's answer to Louie Armstrong Satchmo meet Satch a happy-go-lucky old coot who rubbed mystery potions on his pitching arm , dozed in the bullpen grass and issued such maxims as , `` If your stomach disputes you , lie down and pacify it with cool thoughts '' and the immortal phrase ( which Ribowsky borrows for his book title ) , `` Don't look back . Something might be gaining on you . '' These nostrums were strictly for media consumption . In real life , the string-bean pitcher burned the candle at every end . As Ribowsky recounts in vivid detail , Paige was far from the only model of impropriety in the 1930s-era Negro Leagues . Many of the most prominent teams were owned by gangsters such as Gasoline Gus Greenlee , who ran the Pittsburgh Crawfords , using the team as a legit cover for his numbers racket . Paige was hardly intimidated by Greenlee 's mob ties . When a promoter offered him more money to barnstorm through the Dakotas , Paige abruptly walked out on his new contract with the Crawfords . Aloof and enigmatic all the way to his grave , Paige seems to have defeated his biographer 's best efforts to penetrate his inscrutable mask . None of Paige 's offspring would talk to Ribowsky , while the dim memories of his ball-playing peers offer little in the way of insight . Eager to provide Paige 's exploits with some heft , Ribowsky sometimes aims too high , using quotes from Henry Miller , William Faulkner and ( ! ) Daniel Defoe to open various chapters . Satchel surely would have loved rubbing elbows with such glittering literati . But the lofty sentiments don't get Ribowsky any closer to this flesh-and-blood folk character . Describing his long and lean physique , Satch once said : `` There was a lot to me , but it was all up and down . '' Whatever was inside seems to have wafted away , like an unhittable Paige curveball , rising and swooping in the dim light of an extra-inning game . The book 's evocative subtitle , `` Satchel Paige in the Shadows of Baseball , '' is all too apt . For all Ribowsky 's good efforts , the real shadow here is Satchel himself . CyberSurfing : Potholes , perturbations and predicaments observed on the information superhighway : A Playboy story titled `` Orgasms Online '' left one virtual community more steamed than steamy this spring . The story prominently featured the Sausalito , Calif.-based WELL ( for Whole Earth ' Lectronic Link ) among other services . With perhaps 10,000 members , the WELL is minuscule by the standards of commercial on-line services like Prodigy and CompuServe that boast more than a million users . But it has influence beyond its size because its hundreds of on-line conferences attract an articulate crowd that includes writers , artists and high-tech cognoscenti . For the WELLbeings , as many call themselves , Playboy perpetrated an awful mischaracterization of their electronic hangout . Although there are areas in which sexuality is discussed , the tone tends toward the playful . It is also a decidedly more thoughtful place than , say , America Online , the randier areas of which resemble nothing so much as a cheap-beer singles bar . Along with making angry accusations that author Matthew Childs got the story wrong , WELL users said Childs quoted their on-line postings without permission a violation of the etiquette of the WELL , where the phrase `` You Own Your Own Words '' has an almost mantra-like quality . One user found that her discussion of an on-line love affair gone bad had been transmuted by Playboy into an offer to share transcripts of hot modem sessions with an ex-beau an offer she had never made : `` .. . ( Y ) ou are a liar . I never , ever promised anyone , anywhere , that I would share ` hot chat ' transcripts or log with them . I don't even keep such logs ! What I said , Mr. I 'm A Journalist And Get My Facts Straight Bigshot , is that I would share the name of the cybercad .. . with people who asked in e-mail . `` .. . ( Y ) ou can blow it all out your i/o port , bunky . '' Worst of all , they said , the publicity is likely to attract the wrong crowd to the WELL namely , horny guys who think that Sausalito is where the action is . That 's exactly what happened . One user , Linda Castellani , said in a recent on-line interview that `` there has been an increase in those who were clearly brought here by the article with an expectation of meeting women and having hot sex . '' Most of the newcomers , however , don't stick around for long . The WELL is clubby to many visitors , suffocatingly so . That 's what the buzz-phrase `` virtual community '' might ultimately come down to : not just who belongs , but who doesn't . It could have been worse . I recall in college an editor at Hef 's mag asked me to hand out questionnaires for the magazine 's `` Sexiest Colleges '' survey , a highly scientific endeavor . I declined , but one of my roommates was willing . He handed it out at a massive bash ; the questionnaires became the party game ; `` can you top this '' fever swept the assembled multitude . After the party , another roommate took the remaining questionnaires to a local gay bar . Do you even need to ask ? The University of Texas was deemed the sexiest school in the nation by Playboy . John Schwartz jswatz ( at ) well.sf.ca.us GETTING THERE : To visit the WELL , call ( 415 ) 332-4335 ( by low-tech voice ) and ask for guidance . If you are already a WELL member : The flame war erupted on the Sex Conference , Topic 414 , and spread to other WELL forums from there . To find the Sex Conference type : g sex at any OK prompt . To find the topic , type r 414 at the next OK prompt . To get an OK prompt from a respond/pass prompt , type q . -0- Early news of Kurt Cobain 's death began an explosion of commentary in the Alternative Rock Forum on America Online . Grieving cries of shock and anguish meshed with poems and messages to Cobain 's wife , Courtney Love , and their daughter , Frances . But there were also smatterings of mean-spirited assaults on Cobain , his wife , his music and lifestyle ; one was a drawing done with keyboard characters that depicted a man with a shotgun in his mouth . Weirdly enough , Courtney Love 's estranged father , Hank Harrison , joined in the postings . Using the log-on `` BioDad , '' he described himself in one message as being a `` rich , '' 280-pound man who raises pit bulls , rides motorcycles and gardens . ( A spokesman for Love 's record label confirmed that `` BioDad '' is who he says he is . ) In his postings , Harrison said he has been working on a book about Cobain and Nirvana for two years now , and `` I know things that are so unbelievable , I couldn't believe them . '' He fears that his daughter is in danger of `` going with Kurt , '' especially if the child , Frances , is taken away again . ( Child protection authorities did this once after Vanity Fair reported she had used heroin while pregnant . ) Harrison posted a copy of the letter he sent the White House describing his proposal for a `` Kurt Cobain Foundation for Suicide Prevention '' and asked that he be invited to meet with the president and Chelsea to discuss the details . Harrison continues to participate in the forum despite harsh words from a friend of Love 's calling him a liar and a parasite . Karen Mason Marrero kmarrero ( at ) aol.com GETTING THERE : Sign onto American Online . ( To subscribe to America Online , call this voice line : 800-827-6364 . ) Hit the Lifestyles and Interests conference icon ; go to the Rocklink folder ; then the Rocklink forum ; then click onto the Alternative Rock Message Board , then browse the folders for Hole ( the name of Courtney Love 's band ) , and Remembering Cobain . Found something intriguing , improbable , insane or especially useful on the Internet ? Tip The Washington Post 's Karen Mason Marrrero kmarrero ( at ) aol.com or Joel Garreau garreau ( at ) well.sf.ca.us . CyberSurfing : Potholes , perturbations and predicaments on the Information Superhighway : Blowing in the Wind There 's been a song going through my head for some time now , only I don't know the words . Actually , I don't know the tune either , but I hope to soon because of e-mail . The song is `` Hurricane Janet , '' about the storm that hit the Caribbean in mid-September 1955 . It wasn't the worst hurricane of the century , but because it occurred the week I was born and we had the same name , I was never allowed to forget it . Growing up in Wisconsin , I was teased about my eponymous meteorological event , though in fact my parents had already settled on my name before the hurricane was a cloud in the sky . Later , when I began to spend time in the Caribbean , gentlemen of a certain age would start humming the calypso song when they heard my name . They said the song was by the Mighty Sparrow , the greatest calypsonian of all time , though it seemed nobody could remember all the lyrics . I tried to find a recording in the Caribbean , but it was out of print . After I subscribed to America Online this year , I decided to give it another try . Searching the service 's membership profiles brief resumes in which subscribers can indicate their address , age , hobbies and any other information they wish to share with other members I located Kevin Burke , a freelance writer , photographer and calypso fan in Cambridge , Mass. . I messaged him about `` Hurricane Janet . '' I hit pay dirt . Kevin answered , saying he didn't know the song but was working on it . First , he had left a telephone message for Sparrow himself in Trinidad . ( For readers unfamiliar with calypso , this is roughly equivalent to buzzing Frank Sinatra about a '40s pop number . ) Kevin also gave me a list of calypso experts in this country to consult , including Steve Shapiro , who , he pointed out , lives in Takoma Park , as my profile showed I do . I recognized the name but I wasn't sure why . Then I realized the answer was literally in front of my nose , on a list of neighborhood telephone numbers taped on the wall over my desk : Steve Shapiro , federal worker and calypso expert , lives across the street , though we 'd never met . I introduced myself and over the next few weeks , we had several conversations , but while Shapiro 's music knowledge and record collection are both legendary , he didn't have `` Hurricane Janet . '' In mid-March , Burke messaged again . `` I talked to the Mighty Sparrow today , '' he wrote , `` and he told me that the song about Hurricane Janet was sung by Lord Melody . '' Melody , a calypso elder statesman best known for his 1956 classic `` Mama , Look a ' Boo-Boo Dey , '' had died in the 1980s , Burke said . Sparrow had sung a few of the lyrics to Burke on the telephone : `` Janet , stay in the mountains ! `` Janet , you go blow down plenty buildings ! `` Janet , your sister is Katie ! `` Janet , go straight to Miami ! '' I ran across the street to tell Steve , who said he had some Melody recordings and would look into the matter . The next day , I walked out my door to find Steve in his front yard , waving his arms and shouting something . I finally made out the words : `` Janet ! It is by Sparrow !! '' Steve had located a fellow calypso maven in Oneonta , N.Y. , who had a recording of my song . Apparently , Sparrow either meant that he had sung the song but didn't write it , or had recorded so many songs over the years that he had simply forgotten . Now , I 'm waiting for the tape of my song to arrive by `` snail-mail '' the U.S. Postal Service . Until then , I have another project : How about this Hurricane Katie ? Janet Higbie higbiej ( at ) twp.com GETTING THERE : Sign on to America Online . To locate other subscribers interested in the Caribbean or other topics , select Search Member Directory from Members menu . Type in topic for list of members who have indicated similar interest . -0- Old Scams in New Electrons `` MAKE.MONEY.FAST '' read the message sent recently to hundreds of subscribers to `` DEAF-L , '' a computer discussion list for people interested in deafness-related issues . The note was filled with heartrending tales of people who had been down to their last few dollars when a miraculous solution appeared in the form of an e-mail letter . Suddenly their bank accounts were full , their spirits were lifted , and they were overcome with the desire to share the secret of their wealth with their fellow Internet travelers . In summary , the note 's words of wisdom were this : Send $ 10 to the person at the top of this mailing list , add your name to the bottom and send it to 100 friends . That 's right , it was one of those chain letters that kids and gullible adults copy and mail out to their friends . Now they 've hit cyberspace and the possibilities are endless . With one message , one can , as the DEAF-L subscriber did , send the chain to hundreds , even thousands of people . Cyberspace legal experts who were consulted through a posting on their discussion group CYBERIA-L said such a chain may constitute a pyramid scheme and posting it on the Internet might be illegal under the statutes prohibiting wire fraud . The `` send money now '' chain isn't the only old chestnut floating around cyberspace . Remember Craig Shergold , the ailing kid who was once trying to collect a record number of business cards ? That effort stopped years ago , but just last week an e-mail asking for business cards appeared on several discussion lists . The infamous cookie recipe that Neiman Marcus allegedly sold for $ 250 a story the store adamantly denies showed up not once but twice recently on a discussion list for fans of the `` Highlander '' movies and television show . `` This is a perfect example of how Internet perpetuates Urban Legends and is a perfect example of how things should not be reposted everywhere , '' wrote DEAF-L subscriber Claire Maier in an effort to forestall further chain postings . `` The only explanation I have is that people are sheep , '' wrote Maier , a PhD candidate in neuroscience at Emory University . `` Someone says , ` Post this to a zillion newsgroups ... ' and people do it . '' Brooke A . Masters mastersb ( at ) twp.com GETTING THERE : To subscribe to DEAF-L , sign on to any commercial ( America Online etc. ) or private network capable of sending messages on the Internet . Follow the `` mail '' prompts that set you up to send an e-mail message . Send a message to LISTSERV SIUCVMB.BITNET and leave the subject line blank ( AOL users do specify subject ) . In the body of the message , write SUBSCRIBE DEAF-L and your name . After any disaster , the question always arises as to when a destination that has been hard hit whether by hurricane , earthquake , fire , flood or war is ready to give visitors their money 's worth . Often these places , although not yet in the best shape , will offer an incentive to tempt more adventurous travelers to be the first to return . Such is the case of war-torn Croatia , which is desperately in need of the potentially lucrative tourist income . This summer , and perhaps for another year , it is promising low prices-particularly for lodging . In the beautiful old resort city of Dubrovnik , I stayed last month for about $ 70 a night less than half the price I had paid for not nearly as nice a hotel room a few days earlier in Milan , Italy . Right now , rooms in private homes in Dubrovnik are going for as little as $ 10 a night . `` The prices are very low , '' says Pave Zupan Ruskovic , president of Atlas , one of Croatia 's biggest travel agencies . `` It 's one way to bring tourism back . '' This is , I think , a fair exchange . With a civil war still rumbling in neighboring Bosnia-Herzegovina , Croatia is a problematic destination and personal safety is a matter of at least some concern . But at bargain prices , the new country is also an inviting place at least for those who are aware of the drawbacks of a visit . Before its breakup , Yugoslavia was a popular vacation spot for other Europeans and for Americans . As it happens , the new Croatia now possesses old Yugoslavia 's primary tourist asset , the long , still mostly pristine Adriatic Coast stretching south from the Istrian Peninsula to Dubrovnik . Among the nations formed from Yugoslavia , its tourism prospects are brightest . Currently , the U.S. . State Department is warning Americans to stay away from Serbia , Montenegro and Bosnia-Herzegovina because of continuing strife or safety problems . No such warning has been issued for Croatia , neighboring Slovenia and the former Yugoslav republic of Macedonia . Slovenia is probably least affected by the ongoing Bosnian crisis , and it offers plenty of scenic and cultural attractions and good dining and lodging . Macedonia is a developing nation with limited tourist facilities . The severe impact of the war on Croatia 's tourist income is evident in statistics quoted by national tourism officials . Before 1990 , Croatia reported 60 million overnight stays annually , says Velimir Simicic , Croatia 's deputy minister of tourism . In 1993 , the figure was only 13 million most of them Germans and Eastern Europeans vacationing on the Istrian Peninsula . This summer , the country hopes to double last year 's number . Before the war , the city of Dubrovnik counted on tourism for about 90 percent of its income . Should you go to Croatia now to take advantage of the bargains or wait until peace is assured ? It is a question individuals must answer for themselves . Some factors to consider : Safety The situation in Zagreb , the capital ; on the Istrian Peninsula ; and in most areas of Croatia is calm , says the State Department . But it warns against travel to four United Nations Protected Areas that border Bosnia-Herzegovina and Serbia . Localized shelling has occurred adjacent to these areas . With one important exception , the Adriatic Coast the principal destination that Croatia currently is promoting is not affected . The exception is the coastal road just north of Zadar , where a pontoon bridge replaces the former bridge that was destroyed in Croatia 's war to defend its independence . The bridge , which crosses an inlet , is within potential enemy shellfire , according to a public affairs officer in the U.S. . Embassy in Zagreb , who asked not to be identified . However , the bridge is open , and motorists including tourists are using it regularly without harm , says Karen Suric in Atlas 's New York office . According to her , travelers who want to drive the length of the Adriatic Coast to Dubrovnik but avoid the bridge can take an auto ferry that operates far outside the shelling range . As for street crime directed at tourists , incidents are low . But as in any country , you should beware of pickpockets and muggers in tourist sites such as bus and railway stations . For a current safety report , contact the State Department 's Citizens Emergency Center , ( 202 ) 647-5225 , or the U.S. . Embassy in Zagreb , 011-385-41-444-800 . Visas Americans must have a visa to travel in Croatia , but a tourist visa valid for three months can be obtained at no cost on arrival either at border crossings or the airport . There is a drawback to this process , however . When I arrived by plane in Zagreb , about 25 passengers werelined up at the visa window , and only one immigration officer was on duty . Each visa took him two or three minutes to fill out . I was near the end of the line and waited for more than a half hour . Only after I had my visa could I proceed through immigration to baggage claim and customs . Also , the Croatian Embassy in Washington warns that some airlines deny boarding for flights to Croatia if you don't have a visa . To avoid a delay , you can apply for a visa in person or by mail from the Croatian Embassy , 2343 Massachusetts Ave. NW , Washington , D.C. 20008 , ( 202 ) 588-5899 . Embassy-issued visas are valid for 12 months . By mail , there is a $ 9 return postage fee . Where to Go & Stay As in the past , most visitors probably will stick close to the lovely turquoise waters of the Adriatic . Although lodgings from modest to luxurious dot the long coast and the many offshore islands , the area is relatively undeveloped in contrast to the French or Italian rivieras . In the north , the Istrian Peninsula and the offshore islands of Krk , Cres , Rab and Pag offer excellent beach vacation possibilities in an area untouched by the war . It is easily reached by car from northern Italy and elsewhere in Europe . The area around Dubrovnik experienced heavy damage . Beach pleasures are possible , but the ancient city should appeal more to travelers interested in seeing the impact of the war for themselves and the recovery that is being made . Among the top hotels now open are the Hotel Argentina ; its neighboring affiliate , the beautiful Villa Orsula ( where I stayed ) ; and the charming Hotel Villa Dubrovnik . All are within a 10-minute walk of the old city . A 10-minute drive away is the large and modern Hotel Dubrovnik President . All feature either sand or rocky beaches and good sea views . At the Hotel Argentina , a room for one is about $ 58 ; for two , about $ 90 . At the Villa Orsula , a single is $ 68 and a double is $ 116 . Breakfast is included . Other top hotels are in the same price range . But budget travelers can stay in a room in a private home for about $ 10 for one or two people . Zagreb is pretty and culturally interesting , and there are scenic drives north of the city into countryside that still retains the look of old Europe . Because Zagreb gets a lot of business travelers , its hotel rates are higher . Rates in the best hotels-which include the Palace , Dubrovnik , Inter-continental and Esplanade-range from about $ 95 to $ 150 a night for a room . Some tours have resumed out of Split to the Catholic shrine of Medugorje , which is located across the border in Bosnia . Aboard my plane from Zurich , a group of 16 New Englanders planned a week 's pilgrimage . However , the U.S. . Embassy in Croatia discourages such trips , says a spokeswoman . Escorted sightseeing and outdoor adventure tours and air/hotel/rental car packages are available throughout most U.S. or Croatian travel agencies . I paid Atlas $ 879 for a package that included two nights lodging in Zagreb , three nights in Dubrovnik , five full breakfasts , flights between Zagreb and Dubrovnik and Split and Zagreb , a car and driver between Dubrovnik and Split , and all airport transfers . For Information : Croatia does not maintain a tourism information office in the United States . However , information including lodging choices and island ferry schedules is available from Atlas Ambassador of Dubrovnik , the New York office of the Atlas travel agency ( Lincoln Building , 60 E. 42nd St. , New York , N.Y. 10165 , 212-697-6767 ) . No mere day at the beach , that 's the D-Day Normandy Commemorative Celebration Weekend in Virginia Beach , Va. , June 3-5 . The battle plan for the 50th anniversary weekend includes a Fort Story commemorative ceremony and re-enactment of the invasion at the fort 's Omaha Beach , June 4 ; a parade and Stage Door canteen show ; historical displays ; and a wreath-laying . The 29th Infantry ( Maryland , Virginia , West Virginia and District of Columbia ) was the first unit to land its troops on Normandy 's Omaha Beach . Visitors are advised to arrive early for the re-enactment . Above events are free . Information : ( 800 ) 822-3224 . -0- Calling the World The world 's calling get the message ? AT&T 's new WorldPlus Communication Service offers travelers a range of calling and messaging features-from more than 40 countries . By dialing a toll-free access number and entering account and identification numbers , subscribers make calls from abroad , back home or elsewhere ; set up conference calls ; use a personal mailbox to send and receive voice and fax messages worldwide ; and tap into information services ( interpreters ) , travel services and more . Cost is $ 70 annually , plus additional charges for calls-for example , $ 1.99 per minute for any call within Europe . Information : ( 800 ) 382-5612 . -0- TRAVEL TRIVIA WHAT CARIBBEAN CITY HAS THE LARGEST POPULATION ? TRIVIA ANSWER : HAVANA . -0- Soaping Up A little fanfare , please , for the stars of daytime TV and the Soap Opera Fan Fair , in Mackinaw City , Mich. , June 1-5 . Ogle more than 50 soap producers , writers and stars including Linda Dano ( Felicia Gallant on `` Another World '' ) and Eric Braeden ( Victor Newman on the `` The Young and the Restless '' ) ; get autographs , plus the inside scoop from soap editors ; or do moonlight cruises . Tickets for the fair , on the Mackinac Straits ' State Ferry Dock , are $ 25 per day or $ 75 for five-day passes ( cruises extra ) . For tickets and help with accommodations , call ( 800 ) 817-SOAP ( 800-817-7627 ) . -0- ON TOURS New tours of Oskar Schindler 's Poland , of movie and book fame , start June 15 . Travel writer and historian Stu Feiler has organized 11-day tours around the movie version of `` Schindler 's List . '' The tour includes Jewish historic d istricts , synagogues and Holocaust memorials , including old and new Krakow and Plaszow and southeast Poland , to see the camp that held Schindler 's Jews , his factory , home and more . Cost is $ 1,800 per person , double occupancy , including air fare from Washington , accommodations and most meals . Information : ( 312 ) 587-1950 . -0- Ruff Stuff Dog tired of vacationing without Fido ? It 's board and bored no more , for your pooch , with Doggone , the bimonthly newsletter of `` fun places to go and cool stuff to do with your dog . '' Doggedly reported are pet-friendly lodgings-hotels , resorts , country inns , even five-star hotels that cater to Phydeaux . The newsletter also walks you through pet-friendly attractions parks , beaches , even theme parks that allow dogs plus tips on health care , plane and car travel , events and more . Subscriptions are $ 24 for one year . Information : ( 407 ) 569-8434 . Forget the Freedom Trail get on the JFK trail , with new tours of JFK 's Boston , starting Friday . Through Oct. 23 , the three-hour trolley expeditions ( designed in conjunction with the John F. Kennedy Library and Museum ) visit famous Kennedy landmarks from his birthplace in Brookline and the Harvard campus , to his favorite restaurant ( the Union Oyster House , where he chowdered down ) and the Omni Parker House Hotel , where he announced for the presidency . Tours wind up at the Kennedy Library . Reservations are suggested but not required . Tickets for the Old Town Trolley tour which leaves from the Park Plaza Welcome Center , 52 Eliot St. are $ 20 for adults , $ 15 for students and those age 65 and up , and $ 10 for ages 5 to 14 . Information : ( 617 ) 269-7150 . Wonk Inflation : When the political debate over health-care reform heated up a few years ago , New York publisher Faulkner & Gray compiled an annual directory with names , numbers , photos and profiles of `` the most influential health policy-makers and organizations in the United States . '' They called it `` The Health Care 500 . '' The current edition has the same format but a new title : `` The Health Care 1,000 . '' Is Lewis Carroll 's timeless `` Alice 's Adventures in Wonderland '' simply an innocent children 's story ? Those who think so are in for a fascinating glance through the looking glass , courtesy of The Learning Channel 's `` Great Books '' series , running Saturday night . The fourth installment of the Donald Sutherland-hosted series brings the background of mathematics professor Charles Lutwidge Dodgson ( alias Lewis Carroll ) out of the rabbit hole , describing how his view of childhood contrasted with the rigid social standards of 1860s Victorian England . This program is not necessarily recommended for younger eyes , but it is required viewing for anyone who has read Lewis Carroll stories to their children . The story of the independent Alice had its genesis on a Thames boat ride on July 4 , 1862 , when Dodgson related a tale to 9-year-old Alice Liddell , daughter of the dean of Christ Church in Oxford . On Christmas of that year , Dodgson presented young Alice with a hand-illustrated copy of `` Alice 's Adventures Underground . '' The following year , he enlisted Punch cartoonist John Tenniel to illustrate the renamed `` Alice 's Adventures in Wonderland . '' That book and the follow-up , `` Through the Looking Glass , '' trail only the Bible and the works of Shakespeare as the most quoted books in the English language . The `` Great Books '' program shows many of the hundreds of takeoffs and provides a look at how the 1960s popular culture melded with the works of 100 years earlier . ( Jefferson Airplane lead singer Grace Slick , who recorded the 1967 hit `` White Rabbit , '' noted a half-dozen drug references in Carroll 's writings . ) We also see Carroll on the front of the Beatles ' `` Sgt . Pepper '' album , and a snippet from the more recent `` Don't Come Around Here No More '' video featuring Tom Petty as the Mad Hatter . Carroll , described as `` a very clever man with the heart of a child , '' is a very complex study . The author of the book that celebrates identity perhaps wrestled with his own identity . The program explores whether he used drugs or gave them to the young girls he entertained and photographed . After all , the `` Alice '' stories , unlike most books of the times , are conspicuously without morals . The master of nonsense was also a scholar of logic . Queen Victoria , after reading `` Alice 's Adventures in Wonderland , '' said she wanted to read Carroll 's next book , which turned out to be a treatise on simultaneous linear equations . Upcoming `` Great Books '' programs will study H.G. Wells 's `` War of the Worlds '' ( June 11 ) and `` The Art of War '' ( June 18 ) . New research has found that acetaminophen doesn't reduce the pain during and immediately following circumcision . While acetominophen is safe and easily administered to newborns , the researchers said , `` the pain of circumcision is too severe to be controlled by a mild analgesic . '' Acetaminophen ( the active ingredient in Tylenol ) does seems to work against persistent discomfort at six hours after circumcision , however , according to a study by University of Rochester School of Medicine and Dentistry researchers . The study appears in last month 's Pediatrics , published by the American Academy of Pediatrics . About 86 percent of American male newborns undergo circumcision , the most common surgical procedure performed on males in this country , the study said . Most of these circumcisions are done without painkillers . A local anesthetic procedure called dorsal penile nerve block has been found effective against circumcision pain , the researchers said , but is not widely used because of concerns about its safety , the time it takes to administer and a continued belief that babies don't feel much pain . The new study , in line with previous research , concluded that circumcised newborns do experience great and persistent pain during and after the surgery , based on crying , increased heart and breathing rates and other measurements . The discomfort from the surgery also seemed to interfere with breastfeeding in some newborns , who required formula supplements . Breast-feeding takes more-active participation on the part of newborns , who have to learn to latch on to the breast and suckle , than the more-free-flowing bottle , said Cynthia R. Howard , the lead researcher on the study . After circumcision , babies can be more difficult to awaken , and this may frustrate mothers who themselves are just learning to breast-feed , she added . Howard said she plans to follow up this study to see if there is any long-term impact on breast-feeding . The researchers concluded `` it is imperative '' that a safe and easily administered painkiller be found and used for the large number of newborns receiving circumcisions in this country . Breast milk has long been appreciated for the nourishment it provides and for its rich supply of antibodies that help newborns fight infections . Now research suggests that breasts also produce large quantities of a hormone that may aid the development of a newborn 's brain and sexual organs , and may also affect the health of the mother 's breast itself . Scientists said the findings , which were made in experiments on rats but appear to be true for humans as well , strengthen the argument for breast feeding and may lead to new strategies for fighting breast cancer . Researchers have known for years that the hormone , gonadotropin-releasing hormone ( GnRH ) , is made in the hypothalamus of the brain in adults , where it influences sex-organ growth , the reproductive cycle and sexual behavior in rats and people . Pregnant women also make the hormone in the placenta , where it gets passed to the embryo and has a major influence on fetal brain development . Now researchers at the Weizmann Institute of Science in Rehovet , Israel , have found that in lactating rats large amounts of GnRH are made in breast tissues . The hormone is probably also made in human breast tissues , they said , since human breast milk has been found to be loaded with the hormone . The researchers , led by neuroendocrinologist Yitzhak Koch , propose that the GnRH in breast milk may help complete certain aspects of brain or sex-organ development left unfinished during the fetus ' stay in the uterus . Breast-milk GnRH may be especially important to a newborn rat , since rat brains are still largely undeveloped even after birth . Human brains are more fully developed at birth , so the importance of GnRH in human breast milk remains uncertain . But even human brains change substantially in the first years of life and may benefit from the hormone , Koch and others said . `` It could be important for the physiology of the developing baby , '' said Donald Pfaff , a neurobiologist at Rockefeller University in New York . But he stressed that further experiments are needed to see whether the hormone can survive in the digestive tract of a suckling newborn or is deactivated there . Sergio R. Ojeda , head of neuroscience at the Oregon Regional Primate Center in Beaverton , said researchers discovered a few years ago that breast milk contains fatty acids , which are critical for growth , and taurine , which aids in the absorption of nutrients , and that baby formula companies had subsequently added those ingredients to their products . He said GnRH may be the latest such discovery , and he predicted that further research would bring other hormonal benefits of breast milk to light . Margaret Wierman , an endocrinologist at the University of Colorado Health Sciences Center , said the new finding was potentially important for women too because many breast-cancer cells grow in response to GnRH . She said studies of how the production of GnRH is regulated in the breast may someday lead to new ways of blocking breast-cancer growth . The new research appears in this week 's issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences . It was the surgical head nurse who turned the South African hospital upside down . She needed a gynecologist , and it made perfect sense to her to choose Dr. E.T. Mokgokong , who would soon become deputy head of obstetrics and gynecology at the University of Natal . Except that it was 20 years ago at the height of apartheid and the nurse was white and Dr. Mokgokong is black . `` She caused complete pandemonium in the hospital , '' the doctor recalled . After all , it was a black hospital . Although the staff was mostly white , the patients were black . Why wouldn't the nurse go to the hospital for whites ? `` She told them : ` My gynie is Dr. Mokgokong , ' ' ' he continued . Very delicate , very shocking . He remembers her asking the disapproving white staff : `` Whose body is going to be examined ? '' That stamp of approval helped establish him in the old South Africa . It also convinced him that an academic degree and the stethoscope were the most potent weapons he could wield against the apartheid government . This month , a new era began as blacks who represent four-fifths of the population took control of the government . One of the most immediate challenges is to build a national health-care system to meet the needs of a swelling non-white population . Black children have death rates that are 12 times higher than white , according to government figures . Diseases such as typhoid and tuberculosis , rare among whites , are major killers of South African blacks . More than half the children admitted to a black teaching hospital last year were found to be suffering from malnutrition . A critical problem is the lack of black health-care professionals . Currently there are about 1,200 black physicians for an estimated population of 30 million . This compares with 25,000 white doctors for about 5 million whites . For decades Mokgokong , 63 , has been a kind of education warrior on the health-care battlefield . He heads the Medical University of Southern Africa ( Medunsa ) , founded in 1978 for black students . Last week , he was in Washington to receive an award from Medical Education for South African Blacks , a non-profit organization that funds medical scholarships . Mokgokong grew up on a farm , the youngest of seven children . His father was a teacher and Lutheran minister . At 19 , he passed the standard examinations to enter a university . After earning a science degree at Fort Hare University , Mokgokong received his medical degree at the University of Natal in 1962 . He belongs to South Africa 's pioneer black generation of `` First-&-Onlys '' : First black on the university faculty , one of the only blacks on the hospital teaching staff ; first & only black to head a South African medical school . `` First-&-Only '' pioneers ( blacks or women or members of any outsider group ) can break the barriers of the discriminating culture but not its rules . They survive and even excel by working within the system and in the process they target the culture 's limits . First Mokgokong broke the ability barrier when he decided to specialize in obstetrics and gynecology and pursue a career on the prestigious track of academic medicine . `` The early days were very difficult , '' he said . `` We were always taking the job of a white . '' Meanwhile , Mokgokong had to prove he was not only just as good as his white counterparts , but better . That 's why it was a turning point when the surgical head nurse chose him to be her doctor . He also had a mentor in the chief of the ob-gyn department . `` I became his blue-eyed boy , '' he jokingly recalled . But eventually `` First-&-Onlys '' crack up against the culture 's glass ceiling . When his department chief retired , Mokgokong applied for the director 's job and was passed over . A few years later , he crossed a personal and political Rubicon and switched to the all-black medical school . The move was highly controversial . To many in South Africa , Medunsa was seen as a tool of apartheid to keep blacks separate and disenfranchised . To some , learning itself was a form of submission . `` Liberation first , education later '' was the revolutionary slogan . But to an education warrior like Mokgokong , it was the other way around . Education equaled liberation . Spare the book , he believed , and spoil the child 's future . He consulted his political friends , some of them in exile , and got their backing to go to Medunsa because , as he said , `` the institution in the long run will be a training area for black people . '' Today roughly 60 percent of practicing black physicians in South Africa are graduates of Medunsa . While other universities are opening the door to black applicants , Medunsa remains the primary medical training ground for blacks . Yet , in the euphoria of liberation , Mokgokong is not resting on his laurels . Apartheid may be overturned , but his education war goes on . He has already started with his family . One son is a neurosurgeon , another is a general practitioner , his wife is a social worker . `` I hope we can keep our level head and not go into a dictatorship to deal with the violence , '' he said . `` The main thing is to bring back the culture of learning and teaching . '' In what may be a new record , the most recent U.S. policy on Haiti , whose centerpiece is tougher sanctions , was declared futile even before it came into effect on May 21 . Among widely opposing views on every other aspect of Haitian policy , all sides agreed on just one point : that the still untested sanctions would not suffice to drive Haiti 's military regime from power . Administration officials , who had just devised the policy , freely but anonymously admitted as much to reporters . Supporters of Jean-Bertrand Aristide , who only a few weeks before were fiercely urging tighter sanctions , agreed . Their earlier conviction that `` sanctions had never been given a chance '' because the old set was too weak shifted almost overnight to the view that unmistakable readiness to use force was necessary . The president , listing reasons why an invasion would be in the U.S. interest , was described by aides as trying to build public support for military action . If , as seems nearly certain , the sanctions don't do the job , the administration will have far fewer options than it had a few weeks ago . A policy designed to buy time and options already seems to have achieved the reverse . Now , abandoning sanctions on the grounds that the necessary conditions for democracy don't exist today in Haiti , would seem too stark a retreat . Indefinite negotiations would seem obviously fruitless . Tightening the sanctions still further risks destabilizing the Dominican Republic and would bring unacceptable suffering for Haitians . The remaining option unless President Aristide were to voluntarily step aside is an invasion . Five arguments have been advanced in favor of such a step : that U.S. values and post-Cold War global strategy demand that we `` restore democracy '' to Haiti ; that U.S. credibility is unacceptably harmed by thugs who `` thumb their noses '' at us ; that restoring President Aristide is the only way to reduce the number of refugees heading our way ; that removing the current military leaders will reduce drug trafficking to the United States ; that only such an all out-effort can dispel charges of a racist policy . Close inspection reveals glaring weaknesses in most of these arguments . Haitian drug trafficking , for example , is not a large source of what 's on America 's streets . If that were motive for an invasion , a dozen other countries should come first . Other reasons offered by President Clinton-Haiti 's proximity , the fact that many Haitians live here and Americans live in Haiti , and the fact that Haiti and Cuba are the only remaining non-democracies in the hemisphere are accurate descriptions but hardly reasons for military action . What is noteworthy about this list is that only the first argument addresses Haiti 's problems ; the rest address our own . Making foreign policy with an eye to domestic opinion is one thing . Making foreign policy to resolve domestic concerns with only an occasional eye to the actual problems abroad is quite another , and unlikely to end successfully . `` Restoring democracy , '' therefore , is the crux of the matter . But is it also a delusion ? We can reinstate a freely elected president who is the choice of most Haitians . But a single election does not create a democracy . The election that brought President Aristide to power was an aberration in Haitian politics , made possible only by the presence of large teams of foreign observers . The political norm is rampant corruption , stolen or canceled elections , coups d' etat and violence . Democracy can only be homegrown . An established democracy that has been usurped can be restored through outside force . A fledgling democracy , receptive to the rule of law and to the right of peaceful political dissent , can be helped along . But it is questionable and worthy of a serious debate that has not occurred whether Haiti can be lastingly helped at this point in its political evolution through armed intervention . To leave behind a functioning democracy in Haiti , an invasion would have to : disarm the military ; reinstate Aristide ; prevent the traditional violent retribution against those leaving power ; create Haiti 's first well-trained , civilian controlled police , distinct from the military ; keep order for months to years ; uproot and remove antidemocractic elements of the military and economic elite ; provide massive development assistance , get along with Aristide through thick and thin ; help forge a moderate political consensus , and be prepared to re-intervene if it collapses . These tasks get harder and more dangerous as the liberators become occupiers and the large initial force shrinks to a smaller number of peace enforcers . Lives will be lost to paid and random violence . At what point would the United States declare its job done ? Invasion advocates argue that it could be very early , with the longer , harder job turned over to an ad hoc international coalition or U.N. peace-keeping force . Other countries can be expected to hold a different view . Moreover , a U.N. force would have to be vetoed by the United States , since its open-ended mandate could not meet the conditions of the president 's new peace-keeping policy . If democracy cannot be restored because it hasn't previously existed in Haiti , Americans will have to decide how they feel about military action for the purpose of keeping out refugees or as a means of demonstrating the president 's toughness . The threat to American credibility , however , does not come from Port-au-Prince . It lies in the possibility that we will start something we cannot finish out of little more than frustration , or become hopelessly tangled in a policy riddled with internal contradictions because it is principally designed to meet domestic imperatives . WASHINGTON Some people in the federal government never get a pat on the back . Ever hear anybody loving up the IRS ( `` Gee , great tax ! '' ) ? Or the Postal Service ( `` Really quick and cheap ! '' ) ? Or the Border Patrol ( `` Boy , those people willn't dare try that again ! '' ) ? Or the U.S. . Agency for International Development , charged with administering foreign aid , one of the nation 's favorite spending priorities . ( `` Wow , I loved the way you took the $ 5 million that was supposed to pay for my children 's textbooks and built that beautiful bridge in Milcamagnesia ! '' ) . One school of thought holds that shepherding foreign aid through Congress is what transformed House Appropriations Committee Chairman David R . Obey , D-Wis. , into such a cuddly guy . Jay Byrne , AID 's press spokesman , put it another way : `` Let 's just say foreign assistance doesn't have much of a constituency . Every time you turn a corner there 's someone standing there with a baseball bat . '' In an effort to lighten up his troops , Byrne ( and others , he insists ) in March devised a `` Stress Management Program , '' a copy of which was obtained by The Washington Post . The basic principle : `` You all want to stay stressed , and stress is good for moral ! '' Stress may also have caused this spelling lapse , but so what ? Stress `` helps you avoid responsibility , '' the manifesto said . `` This gets you off the hook for all the mundane chores ; let someone else take care of them . '' In other words , blame the proofreader . Byrne , 32 , once worked in former Boston mayor Raymond L. Flynn 's office , where , he acknowledged , `` people had more fun '' than they do wandering around among the egomaniacs down here . What a surprise . According to Byrne , AID has been especially stressed because `` dramatic changes '' have made the agency `` what we like to call the number one laboratory for reinventing government . '' In the Clinton administration this sort of reinvention quack-quack is slang for layoffs and budget cutbacks , but Byrne makes a convincing case that other stuff is happening , too . When last you tuned in , Byrne noted , AID was always being accused of running expensive , inefficient , hugely stupid projects whose only apparent purpose was to keep corrupt Third World dictatorships from going communist . `` When we ( the Clintonites ) first showed up , '' Byrne noted , `` nine out of 10 phone calls from journalists focused on potential abuses , dissatisfaction and misunderstanding . '' Now the communists are gone , Byrne said , `` the Cold War dictums no longer apply , '' and AID is shutting down in 23 countries . Some of these are long-term friendlies who have allegedly `` graduated '' ( Thailand , Costa Rica , Botswana ) to become `` developed countries . '' Others are short-term friendly `` graduates '' who apparently were always developed , they just didn't know it ( Estonia , the former Czechoslovakia ) . And a few are Third World dictatorships where nothing good ever seems to happen ( Zaire ) . So the good news for foreign aid haters is that we 're cutting all these countries off . Maybe they no longer need us , as AID would have us believe , or maybe we no longer need them , since nobody 's going communist anymore . Whatever , it should be noted that this is not real money . Of the $ 7 billion in the current foreign aid budget , Byrne says , only $ 2 billion is funding `` sustainable development '' projects in the Third World . The rest is either being used to keep old friends from throttling each other ( Israel and Egypt ) or to keep new friends from getting crazy ( the former Soviet Union ) . So , if you 've only got $ 2 billion to massage , tempers can get short . Also , Byrne said nobody can smoke in the office anymore , `` which has caused quite a bit of stress , '' and relations with AID 's closest associates , the State Department and the U.S. . Information Agency , remain snarly . Thus the stress manifesto recommends `` worry about things you cannot control , '' including Voice of America foreign aid editorials , which the AID press office must painstakingly read and clear , even though , `` frankly , you wonder who 's interested , '' Byrne said . The manifesto also notes that `` stress helps you seem important . Evidence : the State Department , '' but Byrne refused to expand on this statement . Later , however , he admitted that `` you are reminding me that at the time we wrote this , it was a lot of fun . '' And good for moral . Charles Durning tucked away his D-Day memories 50 years ago . They were so painful he 's rarely unpacked them since . Durning is the only survivor of a unit that landed on Omaha Beach that June 6 in 1944 . He holds the Silver Star for valor and three Purple Hearts for wounds he suffered . He was an infantryman , only 17 . But so were the German soldiers on the bluffs above , strafing the Normandy beach from concrete bunkers that are still there . Durning survived the invasion he had to kill seven German gunners to do it and suffered serious machine-gun wounds to his right leg and shrapnel wounds over his body . Later he was stabbed eight times by a bayonet-wielding German teenager . He killed that soldier with a rock . A few months after that , he was taken prisoner at the Battle of the Bulge , survived a massacre of other prisoners , then had to return to help identify the bodies . A bullet in the chest finally ended his wartime duty . Durning endured four years of hospitalizations for his physical and psychological wounds . `` I 'd like to have a decade of my life back , '' he said . `` I dropped into a void for almost a decade . It 's your mind that 's hard to heal . There are many horrifying secrets in the depths of our souls that we don't want anyone to know about . '' Later Durning found that his brother in the Navy also had been part of the landing . The invasion of Omaha Beach was assigned to the United States ' 1st Infantry Division , to which Durning belonged , and the untested 29th Division from Maryland and Virginia . More than 70,000 men went ashore on D-Day , 15,000 of them to their deaths . In recent weeks , Durning has been unpacking his D-Day recollections . During a spring visit to Washington , he discussed his experiences guardedly . Those experiences , along with his familiar television presence , made him an ideal choice to take part in a Memorial Day event and two productions pegged to the 50th anniversary of the Normandy invasion . Sunday evening , Durning will appear at the National Memorial Day Concert to read a letter written by a 19-year-old American soldier describing the horror of that day . Monday night , on The Discovery Channel 's `` Normandy : The Great Crusade , '' Durning does the narration and reads a poem written by a 22-year-old paratrooper . Durning has also taped an account of the invasion by Ernest Hemingway for inclusion in a `` CBS Reports '' special on D-Day airing Thursday night and hosted by Dan Rather and retired Gen. H. Norman Schwarzkopf . Durning 's colleague from CBS 's `` Evening Shade , '' Ossie Davis , will host the 90-minute Memorial Day concert on PBS , the fifth produced for that holiday by Jerry Colbert of Pathmakers Inc. , and Washington public station WETA . This one focuses not only on the soldiers of D-Day , but also on the American nurses who served in Vietnam . In addition to Durning , concert headliners include Grammy-winning country singer Clint Black , who has written a song , `` American Soldier , '' for the occasion ; musician Doc Severinsen ; actresses Mary McDonnell and Jill Clayburgh , who will read letters written by nurses ; singers Harolyn Blackwell and Maureen McGovern ; and the National Symphony Orchestra conducted by Erich Kunzel , with a military chorus doing selections that will include Beethoven 's `` Ode to Joy . '' Brass on board are to include Gen. John Shalikashvili , chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff ; his predecessor , retired Gen. Colin Powell ; and the chief of each armed service . Durning choked up a little while taping his narration for the Discovery documentary . His recitation before thousands of people at the Memorial Day concert could be an emotional challenge . He 'll be looking into television cameras , but he asked Colbert not to require him to face the war footage to be shown behind him . Concert host Ossie Davis will understand . An Army medic stationed in Liberia , he was manning the base radio station in early June 1944 when he ran into a military-news blackout . He learned about the D-Day landing from the BBC and announced it to the local troops . It was Davis who was instrumental in securing Durning 's appearance at the concert . Reminded over a lunch in April with his wife , actress Ruby Dee , and Colbert that Durning was part of the first wave onto Omaha Beach , Davis suddenly realized that his friend would be ideal to read the letter and leaped up to call the sitcom 's production office . Two weeks later , Colbert was in Los Angeles talking with Durning , who had read the script for the concert and agreed to appear . Plans call for him to leave the stage briefly to shake hands with other D-Day veterans in the audience . Like Davis and Colbert , Susan and Christopher Koch , producers of the Discovery documentary , and executive producer Tim F . Cowling thought the same thing : Durning would be perfect . But they nearly missed him . They had contacted his agent but heard nothing . `` We thought , ` He just doesn't want to have anything to do with it , ' ' ' said Susan Koch . `` We were into casting the ( voices ) , and his agent called and said , ` Charlie wants to do anything . He 'll read one line . ' We felt it was meant to be . '' It seems that Durning 's stepdaughter , as aspiring actress , had seen a copy of the script that had somehow never reached Durning and insisted he read it . After 50 years of suppressed memories , he decided it was what he wanted to do . `` We didn't get an actor , we got a Normandy veteran who happens to be an actor , and that was precisely what the film called for , '' said Chris Koch . For the actor , doing the narration stirred emotions . A careful listener may catch a tremor in Durning 's voice at times during the program . Durning and Chris Koch talked for several hours beforehand about Durning 's experiences . `` He said , ` You know , everybody who was there is in some state of denial . There are things I 'll take to my grave. ' ' ' Durning was with `` The Big Red One , '' the 1st Division , which went into Omaha Beach with the 29th Division from Maryland and Virginia . Units that ultimately formed the 29th fought in the American Revolution and both sides of the Civil War ( hence its nickname , `` The Blue and the Gray '' ) , but unlike most infantry divisions , it was and is part of the National Guard . `` We picked the 29th because they had never been in combat before , '' said Chris Koch . `` They were trained and selected to go in first . '' Durning had the bad luck to go in with them because , said Koch , `` he was a real troublemaker in basic training , he said . His CO said , ` Durning , you 're going in on the first wave. ' ' ' Among the voices in `` Normandy : The Great Crusade '' are those of actor Robert Sean Leonard as a Virginia corporal , Robert Sales ; Leslie Caron as Marie-Louise Osmont , a widow whose chateau became a German barracks , and who kept a diary ; Mariel Hemingway as American photojournalist Martha Gellhorn ( an ex-wife of Ernest Hemingway , Mariel 's grandfather ) , who landed at Omaha Beach to cover the story and ended up caring for wounded soldiers ; and Joanna Pacula as Ursula von Karkoff , an anti-Nazi German whose brothers were required to serve in Hitler 's army . Actor Charles Durning grew up in Highland Falls , N.Y. , near the U.S. . Military Academy at West Point . His father , an Irish immigrant who had joined the Army to gain U.S. citizenship , lost a leg during World War I and died when Charles was 12 . The elder Durning 's widow supported her five children by working as a laundress at West Point . `` I never went to college ; barely got out of high school , '' Durning said . `` I finished high school when I came out of the Army . '' All along , what Durning really wanted to do was act . `` I was enamored of acting from the first time I saw ` King Kong , ' ' ' he said . `` When I saw Cagney , I just went crazy . '' At 16 , he was working as an usher at a Buffalo burlesque house that featured bawdy comics . `` They chose to believe I was 21 , '' he said of the management . After the war Durning used dancing as physical therapy to strengthen his badly injured leg , and speech therapy to smooth a stutter that had developed . He began training at the American Academy of Dramatic Arts but was told he lacked talent . So he worked as a dancer and played small roles with Joseph Papp 's New York Shakespeare Company . A role in Papp 's `` That Championship Season '' on Broadway in 1973 led to one in a film , `` The Sting . '' Durning went on to do more than 70 movies . Nominated for two Oscars and eight Emmys , and the recipient of Golden Globe and Drama Desk awards , he won a Tony as Big Daddy in a 1990 Broadway revival of `` Cat on a Hot Tin Roof . '' Sometimes Durning thinks about the loss to the country wrought by war . `` Only the flower of our youth , only the best the most healthy , the brightest are allowed to go , '' he said . `` Think of all the poets , the playwrights , the philosophers , the scientists , the statesman that were lost . '' WASHINGTON The Office of Management and Budget has announced a new pilot project designed to ease some of Washington 's chronic procurement problems , such as cost overruns and lack of competition on large contracts . The government spends about $ 105 billion each year on `` contracting out , '' buying services that range from grass-cutting and painting to highly complex scientific research and analysis . The announcement this week by OMB Director Leon E. Panetta said the pilot project would encourage federal agencies government-wide to refashion some of their existing service contracts to reflect performance-based standards . They would include price , level of competition , number of contract audits and length of the procurement cycle . `` This pilot project will help to streamline the procurement process and create a better work environment between the government and service contractors , '' Panetta said . For the experiment , agencies would convert contracts that offer ways to measure before-and-after results , and move from cost-reimbursement contracts to fixed-priced contracts . Agencies also would break up large `` umbrella , '' or multipurpose contracts that typically include a variety of routine services , such as guards and secretaries . `` I think a lot of people throughout government would agree with the observation that very frequently , in government and in service contracting , we don't do a good enough job of defining what we want out of the contractors , what performance we want , '' said Steven Kelman , the administrator of OMB 's Office of Federal Procurement Policy . Earlier this year , a survey ordered by Panetta found that the `` statements of work '' which describe the tasks or services to be purchased are often so imprecise that vendors are unable to determine agency requirements . Poor statements of work can reduce the number of bidders , limiting competition , and make it difficult to assess a contractor 's performance . Kelman , noting that `` it 's hard to write a good statement of what you want , '' said some procurement officials developed statements of work , then used them repeatedly without taking into account technological changes or lessons learned from management experiences . The pilot project , he said , will `` tighten up the system in the sense of making it more clear , up front , what the performance criteria is and what we want from contractors . '' By using performance-based standards , Kelman said , the government should be able to move to fixed-price contracts , perform fewer audits and save around 20 percent on contract costs . An `` unusually dramatic '' example savings of 43 percent was achieved at the Treasury Department when it took a cost-based contract for training and coverted it to fixed price , Kelman said . WASHINGTON The health-care debate is not nearly as complicated as it looks . Oh yes , the details can get immensely complex and getting the details wrong could cost dearly . But what 's causing all the turmoil are a few key choices . Once those choices are made , the details begin to fall into place . The biggest choice is whether or not the United States wants a system assuring every American health insurance . This issue passes under the name `` universal coverage . '' Universal coverage is immensely popular not only among those who are uninsured but also among those who currently have insurance but fear they will lose it or see their coverage eroded as employers face ever-higher costs . So popular is universal coverage that few politicians will say they 're against it . But guaranteeing everyone health coverage will cost money . There are only so many ways to raise the money . Congress could simply raise taxes . Or it could require individuals to pick up the tab . Or it can require employers to pay part or most of the costs , as so many already do now . President Clinton 's plan puts most but not all of the burden on employers . All employers , with the exception of some of the smallest , would have to pay 80 percent of the health insurance costs for their employees , individuals 20 percent . That roughly matches the current split at companies that insure their employees . You wouldn't know it from the cowering in Congress over the dread `` employer mandate , '' as it 's known , but requiring companies to insure their employees is immensely popular . That ought not be surprising . Most people are employees , not employers . And most people think that if they hold down a job or , as is the case with so many families , two jobs health coverage ought to be part of the deal . But it is a sign of how skewed the debate is in Washington toward various business lobbies that the employer mandate has become the main sticking point in the discussion . Many Republicans and some conservative Democrats say they 'll kill any health bill that includes one . Yet most of these politicians will then turn around and also say no to new taxes , no to individual mandates , no to anything that would actually guarantee universal coverage . A courageous exception is Sen. John Chafee , R-R.I. , who favors requiring individuals to buy health insurance . As Chafee noted on `` Meet the Press '' on Sunday , `` to have universal coverage and to have the reforms that we need .. . we 've got to have some kind of mandate . '' For his candor , Chafee has gotten nothing but grief from the Republican right , which wants to use the mandate issue to stop universal coverage . What scares the Republicans about Chafee 's position is that if they concede the reality that only mandates or taxes lead to universality , the Democrats who favor employer mandates suddenly have the political high ground . Senate Republican Leader Bob Dole is very shrewd about this . `` I can already see the 30-second television spots , '' Dole told The Washington Post 's Dana Priest. ` ` ` Well , the Republicans didn't want your boss to pay for it , they want you to pay for it. ' ' ' Clinton ought to hire Dole as a media consultant . Some former opponents of the mandate among Democrats have begun to understand what Dole already knows . The conversion of Sen. John Breaux , D-La. , from firm opposition to open-mindedness about an employer mandate may be seen later as the turning point in the debate . Opponents of large-scale reform have taken to arguing that there is no need for a universal program now and that slower , piecemeal action makes more sense on a problem this complicated . This view has intuitive appeal , but may be dead wrong on health care . As Hilary Stout and David Rogers pointed out in the Wall Street Journal last week , the cost per person of providing coverage generally drops when more people are covered in larger insurance pools . Piecemeal reform could be more expensive , not less . And real cost containment is only possible once everyone is in the system . Otherwise , the providers of health care will keep shifting costs from the uninsured or the poorly insured to the well insured . The point with health reform is that you either really do it or you don't , and the key to whether it gets done is Sen. Daniel Patrick Moynihan , the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee . Moynihan 's discomfort with the Clinton plan is often ascribed to prickly personal relations with the White House , with Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell and the like . But instead of psychoanalyzing Moynihan , supporters of health reform would do well to pay attention to what he 's written about social policy over the years for example , in his 1988 volume , `` Came the Revolution . '' Two themes are central to Moynihan 's view . One is the hubris of social reformers . Speaking of government 's exertions in the 1960s , Moynihan says that `` we should not exaggerate what we knew or what would come of what we undertook . '' What scared Moynihan initially about Clinton 's health undertaking was his plan 's complexity and the impression some Clintonites gave that they thought they had unlocked all the mysteries of health policy . But Moynihan also has an immense respect for what government can do . `` Government , '' he says , `` can embrace great causes and do great things . '' Clinton 's central task is to convince Moynihan and with him the country that universal health coverage as conceived by the administration is not an act of hubris but a practical next step in a great cause that began with Social Security and the New Deal and that has worked out pretty well . PRAGUE , Czech Republic While former Communists and Socialists in much of Eastern Europe are riding a popular backlash against economic reforms to return to power , the Czech Republic appears to be a notable exception . This country of 10.5 million people , Prime Minister Vaclav Klaus said recently , is beginning to look like `` a small non-leftist island in the center of Europe .. . . All opinion polls show that nothing like that could ever happen in our country . '' Jiri Ryvola , spokesman for the country 's newly militant labor confederation , has many criticisms of Klaus but agrees with him on one fundamental point : Former Communists and Socialists have little chance here of returning to power , as they have in several other formerly Communist-governed states . `` It just seems unlikely to me that a similar development could occur here , '' Ryvola said . Less than five years after the fall of the Berlin Wall sent the Communist regimes of Eastern Europe tumbling like dominoes , both Poland and Lithuania have put former Communist parties back into office , and Hungary is about to follow suit , with the Socialist Party poised for a commanding victory in runoff elections there May 29 . Yet , here in the Czech Republic there is no sign that former Communists or Socialists are gathering any momentum at all , as both government and labor continue to support the drive to establish a free-market economy in the shortest time possible and seem to share a hatred for Communists , past and present . The sharing of basic views toward the reform process between the Czech republic 's only labor confederation and its political leadership has apparently not been shaken by a demonstration by 30,000 disgruntled workers on March 22 the biggest protest seen in Prague 's Old Town Square since the overthrow of the Communist regime here in November 1989 . The Left Bloc Communists , Socialists and their allies holds 33 seats in the 200-seat parliament , second only to the 76 held by Klaus 's Civic Democratic Party . But polls show the bloc currently attracting less than 10 percent of voters . Why the Czech Republic is bucking the leftward trend in Eastern Europe has become the object of considerable discussion among Western diplomats , academics , bankers and financiers . These analysts are pondering whether the Czech Republic could serve as a model of successful transformation from communism to capitalism for other Eastern European nations or whether conditions here are so specific as to make this unlikely . Right now , the prevailing wisdom seems to be that the Czechs , formerly part of Czechoslovakia before it split into separate Czech and Slovak republics in January 1993 , are a special case , with a prime minister who has devised a unique approach . Klaus , a prominent economist , prides himself on being a disciple of former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher , a labor-bashing free-marketeer who despised the social welfare state . But analysts here say Klaus has in fact followed a highly statist approach toward reform that has carefully incorporated the labor unions as partners , relied heavily on social welfare measures to keep the social peace and spent billions of dollars in government subsidies in flagrant violation of free-market principles . `` It 's clearly hypocritical for Klaus to call himself a Thatcherite . He 's the biggest Social Democrat in Europe , '' said Mitchell Orenstein , a Yale University graduate researching the Czech transition at the Institute for East-West Studies here . One of the most striking features of the Czech political scene today is the divorce of the unions and leftist parties , while unions in Hungary and Poland have jumped into politics and parliament with enthusiasm . Analysts say the answer lies partly in how the fall of the Communist regime came about here more as an aftershock of the earthquake that swept the Communists from power elsewhere . The transition was so peaceful that it came to be known as the Velvet Revolution but also so brief a matter of a couple of weeks that little real reform took place within the Communist Party . By contrast , the reform process in Hungary and Poland was underway for years and affected their Communist parties as well before non-Communists finally took power in the 1989-90 general upheaval . They quickly shed their old names and ideologies as part of a general face lifting to persuade voters they had broken with the past . Here , the Communist Party is still agonizing over whether to take `` Communist '' out of its title and has failed to shake off the stigmas attached to it . `` Eighty percent of our members voted to keep the name , ` ` party Chairman Miroslav Grebenicek explained somewhat apologetically . Grebenicek readily agrees with Klaus and Ryvola that there is no chance of the Communists coming back to power here in the near future . The party , he explained , is badly fragmented , with its legislators split into three factions . But a weak , fragmented and only partially reformed Communist opposition is not the sole reason former Communists and Socalists have been marginalized here , according to Orenstein . He believes the secret to Klaus 's success lies in two strategies massive government subsidies to construct an extensive social safety net to soften the effects of wrenching economic reforms and a corporatist approach toward labor and business . Klaus has relied on such non-free-market practices as a law barring state-owned enterprises from declaring bankruptcy while they are being privatized . Yet 61 percent of 767 industrial enterprises were insolvent as of March 31 , according to press reports . This refusal to allow bankruptcies has meant that hundreds of thousands of workers who would otherwise have been laid off have kept their jobs a practice not followed in Hungary or Poland . This has cost the Czech treasury billions of dollars . Klaus has also implemented a program of make-work projects to create `` publicly useful jobs , '' such as street sweeping , to keep another 100,000 to 140,000 employed . In addition , the government pays out a `` living minimum '' wage to 300,000 or more Czechs classified as being below the poverty line . These measures have allowed the government to boast that the Czech Republic has the lowest unemployment rate less than 4 percent of any country in Europe today . DEIR BALAH REFUGEE CAMP , Gaza Strip At the edge of the shimmering waters and brilliant beaches of the Mediterranean lie 39 acres of dreary cinder-block warrens , sandy alleys , open sewers and the dreams of 13,680 Palestinian refugees . Among them is Bassem Khaldi , 32 , a teacher , the sole breadwinner in a family of 24 people living in seven rooms and sharing one kitchen . Khaldi and his wife occupy one room with a corrugated tin roof . As much as he would like to flee this overcrowded camp , he has nowhere to go . `` Once , I dreamed of a house and a car , '' he said . `` Our dreams are something . Our hopes are something . But reality is different . I have no choice . I can't leave . I am the only one working , and I have to support 24 people . '' His predicament helps explain much about the land and people that Palestine Liberation Organization Chairman Yasser Arafat will govern when he takes over the Gaza Strip in the weeks ahead . Two out of three people under Arafat 's new domain are refugees from the 1948 war and their descendants . They are the poorest of the Palestinians , those who are most desperately in need of new housing and economic revival . Yet they may be the most difficult to help , for reasons both political and economic . The Gaza refugee camps Beach , Jabaliyah , Khan Younis , Rafah , Nuseirat , Bureij , Deir Balah and Maghazi are where the Palestinian uprising caught fire six years ago , and where resentment and pride still burn deep . A recent study of Palestinian society by a Norwegian institute found that `` the single most embittered sector of the population is the first generation '' of Palestinian men in the Gaza refugee camps . Here , Arafat remains a powerful figure . On a recent afternoon , the sun-baked walls here were resplendent with a freshly painted , elaborate Arabic graffito hailing the PLO and pledging `` All the glory to our martyrs . '' Red and green paint ran in glistening rivulets through the sand below . The name Deir Balah means `` Monastery of the Dates , '' recalling an earlier era when this was a balmy stretch of plantations . But today the refugee camp , Gaza 's smallest , is a dense honeycomb of families surviving in identical square cinder-block cells built for them in 1960 . There is 124 square feet of living space for each of the 13,680 residents of the camp . To an outsider looking at the Gaza coast , the refugee camps might seem an obvious target for razing and resettlement . But starting over with the refugees has long been problematic . For five decades , the camps were a symbol to Palestinians of what they believed was the temporary nature of their exodus . Israel sought to carry out a resettlement effort in the 1970s , and several thousand refugees took advantage of it , but there was criticism that it would mean the end of their claims to land and villages they lost when Israel was created in 1948 . The refugees ' claims are not expected to be negotiated until the talks on the permanent status of the Gaza Strip and West Bank in several years . At least theoretically , Arafat probably does not want to give up any cards or leverage before those negotiations by dismantling the camps now . But attitudes in the camps are changing , albeit slowly . The enormous pressures of decades of overcrowding and poverty have spurred a steady stream of refugees to leave the camps on their own . ( They retain their status as refugees , eligible for benefits from the U.N. Relief and Works Agency , even when they move out of the camps . ) The Gaza refugee population has grown from 200,000 in 1951 to 625,000 today , about half of them in the camps . `` In the period 1948 to 1953 , for the people who were there , ( the camps were large ) enough to accommodate those numbers , '' said Palestinian lawyer Shasabeel Alzaeem , a consultant to the U.N. agency . `` But the person who back then had one bed and one kitchen , now he is a grandfather with 10 sons . So , they cannot continue expanding . This is why so many have left . '' `` It doesn't mean they forgot Jaffa or Haifa , '' he added , referring to towns with a large pre-1948 Arab population . `` But they understand they cannot return to Jaffa and Haifa . '' `` The old people still remember the land , the village , '' Khaldi said . `` If you ask someone where they are from , they will never say Deir Balah . When we register the children in our school , we still write down the name of the original village . '' Most of those in the camp were refugees from towns and villages along the southern coast of Palestine , near what is now the Israeli towns of Ashdod and Ashkelon . `` But , to be honest , they don't feel they have a good chance of going back , '' he added . `` It 's not fair . But it 's realistic . They have no other choice . '' Salah Musa arrived in Deir Balah when he was 15 . At first he lived in a tent ; later , in a mud-brick shanty with an asphalt roof that leaked in winter rains . Musa became the mukhtar , or village leader , of Deir Balah and saw his own experience multiplied . `` Most people have been living in a crisis for a long time . The housing , the living conditions and the economy completely deteriorated . The people are psychologically broken . '' Smoking cigarettes and sipping sweet tea , Musa looked out his door at the beach and camp a striking contrast of natural beauty and man-made squalor . He said no one had forced him to remain here . He simply had no alternative . `` I haven't decided to live in a refugee camp , '' he said . `` If I find a house , a beautiful house , there is nothing stopping me from leaving . But no one came and gave me money to build a house , so what can I do ? Tell me ! '' `` The situation is completely different since 1948 , '' he said . `` Then , it was only me and my wife . Now , 35 people live here . I sure don't want to live in this house it 's crowded . I hope the Palestinians who control this place will build me a new house . '' But practically speaking , Arafat 's new government will not be in a financial position to rebuild Deir Balah or the other camps for many years , if at all . WASHINGTON To say the pickings have been slim of late for builders of commercial airliners would be to exaggerate . But there may be help on the horizon because of the slowly improving condition of the airlines and because of something called the Airport Noise and Capacity Act of 1990 . The noise act says that every large commercial jet in the United States has to meet quieter `` Stage 3 '' noise requirements by Dec. 31 , 1999 , and 1,223 of the 3,335 jets in service today are in violation . Given a two- to three-year lead time between placing an order for an aircraft and taking delivery , the orders for aircraft are going to have to start coming in soon , manufacturers hope . Just as quieter planes would be a change for people living along airport flight paths , it also would be a change for those who make the planes . According to a recent survey by the magazine Airline Business , the Big Three of the commercial aircraft manufacturing world had exactly zero net orders in 1993 , with Airbus Industrie and McDonnell Douglas Corp. actually having more cancellations than orders and Boeing having only 33 planes on the plus side . Altogether , Boeing 's latest market forecast , released Monday , projects the worldwide market for aircraft having between 70 and 170 seats at about 3,000 planes by the year 2000 . That combines replacement of older planes and additions to airline fleets . That 's actually down about 2 percent from last year 's forecast , according to Richard L. James , Boeing 's marketing vice president , but he says it will be more than enough to keep all three manufacturers ' lines humming , once airlines break out of the doldrums into which they have dropped over the past two or three years . Assuming they do , replacement of noisy planes will be part of the equation . While the formulas are complex , Dale McDaniel of the Federal Aviation Administration says that , in terms of total noise impact on a community , `` you could have 10 Stage 3 operations before it would equal one Stage 2 . '' In 1990 , 2.7 million people were exposed to an average of 65 decibels or higher over a 24-hour period . `` That is non-compatible with residential use . By 2000 , that will down to 400,000 , '' McDaniel said , although those in the path of those aircraft might not be happy no matter what the noise stage classification . The deadline `` provides some continuing stimulation . The fact that it remains a target continues to drive ( airlines ) to modernize , '' McDaniel said , adding a dash of fiscal reality by noting that now the airlines `` just have to have the funds to do it . '' The dramatic losses of the past three to four years have led almost every major U.S. carrier and many foreign ones not only to stop ordering new planes but also to cut back on existing orders . USAir disclosed last week , for example , that it is delaying delivery of 40 planes and forgoing options on another 70 . Yesterday , British Airways , which still is making money , said it is placing no new orders this year and is letting options expire on 25 Boeing planes . `` Downsizing '' has been more of a buzzword in U.S. airline planning circles lately than growth . But smaller fleets do not mean orders for new aircraft can be shelved forever , especially with the noise deadlines looming . Most airlines plan purchases several years in advance and last-minute orders often can be very expensive , especially if the market begins to tighten up . Boeing 's James said airline balance sheets `` are coming back into balance now . A lot of carriers are stirring and looking beyond immediate quarter . We are at a low point in terms of orders . In 18 months to two years , the books should turn . '' WASHINGTON Who would have thought a high-tech security system developed to protect the Pentagon 's nuclear arsenal would be safeguarding a huge stockpile of blue jeans ? Thanks to ever-cheaper microchips , a rudimentary form of artificial intelligence developed by GRC International Inc. of Vienna , Va. is being used by Gap Inc. to keep thieves or other intruders out of its warehouse in Edgewood , Md. , which serves Gap stores from Maine to Florida . Given the ungainly name of `` automated assessment signal processor '' by GRC , the device is what 's known in the computing world as a neural network a system that mimics the human brain 's ability to take in lots of information from the body 's eyes , ears , nose and skin but discard most of it and focus only on what 's important . And it can learn to distinguish between nuisance noise wind ; birds , raccoons and other small animals ; rustling leaves and noise that should trigger an alarm : unauthorized entry by people . It 's taught by being presented with and told to ignore simulations of certain sounds . It can be hooked up to a variety of sensor systems microwave , radar , fiber optic that create electronic fences around property . It interprets the information that those sensors are constantly collecting . Since being installed four months ago to protect a warehouse 14 acres in area , `` It 's paid for itself many times over , '' said Gap security supervisor Jim Toscano . WASHINGTON It was a gray day in Red Square when Chris Ihlenfeld dropped to one knee and proposed to a Russian woman he 'd met four days earlier . At the cobbled foot of St. Basil 's onion spires , Anastasia Fedorchoukova smiled sweetly down at the divorced computer technician from Northern Virginia . She said yes . They married six months later , on March 25 at the Arlington County , Va. . Courthouse. Now , amid coos and cuddles in a small apartment with a large stereo , the young couple is living a fantasy that started with a magazine ad their very own Russo-American dream . The Ihlenfelds ' union is a product of the growing mail-order bridal bazaar that has sprouted since Soviet Communism died . With Soviet emigration barriers dismantled , about 350 Russian women entered the United States last year as fiancees of American men . In 1988 , only 11 women came from the Soviet Union to marry Americans . The Ihlenfelds ' marriage is the first arranged through Berel and Natasha Spivack , an American-Russian couple from Bethesda , Md. . The Spivacks are cashing in on the lucrative business of showering Washington with brides from Russia with love . Last July , the Spivacks started a business called Encounters International to introduce American men to Russian women . More than 50 Washington area men , many of them federal employees , have come to their office and grazed through photo albums and videotapes of about 300 Russian women . Two couples have married , six are engaged , and others are busily faxing letters and pictures back and forth , sifting for true and everlasting love . About every two weeks now , another Washington area man travels to Moscow and becomes engaged . That heavy traffic to Russia is a new wrinkle in the Washington dating scene , where the oversupply of single women is legendary . Magazines and gossip columns regularly wail about the imbalance between eligible women and men in the nation 's capital . Still , the Spivacks ' male clients are shelling out $ 3,000 to $ 4,000 to search for romance in a cold , gray city 5,000 miles away . In several interviews , American men and Russian women involved in the program struck remarkably compatible themes . The men said they are sick of career-obsessed American women running to the subway in business suits and tennis shoes . The women said American men were more likely than Russian men to treat them as equal partners . `` I was tired of American women , '' said Ihlenfeld , 24 , sitting on his living room couch , stroking his 22-year-old wife 's long , blond hair . `` All they cared about was their work . '' According to an Encounters International flier , Russian women are `` much less materialistic '' than American women , as well as `` more willing to follow their husband 's lead '' and `` more appreciative of men . '' They also have `` old-fashioned traditional family values that are getting harder to find '' in America , the flier says . On top of that , the brochure says , the `` dating scene in Russia is almost non-existent , and a woman over 22 is considered past her prime . Wars and alcoholism have taken their toll on eligible Russian men and created a large number of single women .. . . Many beautiful Russian women dream of having an American husband . '' There are tough requiremements for those women , who must pass entrance interviews with the Spivacks ' staff member in Moscow . Women are accepted only if the interviewer deems them reasonably slender and attractive , if they are 17 to about 55 years old , have one or fewer children and speak some English . Natasha Spivack said 600 to 800 women have applied to the service , but only 300 have met the qualifications . Men using the service range in age from 22 to 71 , but they are mostly in their forties , and many are divorced . There are no specific eligibility qualifications . `` When I knew him more , I really began to love him , '' she said . The Immigration and Naturalization Service has found no particular problems with American-Russian marriage services , spokesman Richard Kenney said . He said women entering the country on a `` fiancee visa '' must be married within 90 days , and they are granted permanent resident status after two years . `` Home free , '' he said . Some marriages between American men and Russian women make sense , according to Harley Balzer , director of the Russian Area Studies Program at Georgetown University . Balzer said many Russian men do not consider women equal partners in marriage . `` Even men I know who write about women 's rights wouldn't get up from the dinner table to clear the dishes , '' he said . Balzer said the struggle of single women has been a common theme of the most successful Russian movies of the last 20 years . `` You 've got this funny situation where the American man is looking for an unliberated woman , and the Russian woman is looking for a slightly more liberated man , '' he said . Magazines , especially women 's magazines , have been hot on the Hillary Rodham Clinton story for a year and a half now , delivering not much of interest . This week 's New Yorker brings the first truly heavyweight piece on the First Lady , but before we get to that , a few tips on how to prepare for reading it . First , go to your local newsstand and look at the June issues of Working Woman and the American Spectator , which basically represent the poles of current thinking about the First Lady . You don't have to venture beyond the cover of either to know what lies inside . The cover of Working Woman offers the headline `` Hillary Hangs Tough '' plus a flattering photo of the First Lady in a sensible business suit , poised patron saint of Uber-women everywhere . On the American Spectator 's cover , Mrs. Clinton is drawn as a witch , malevolent and defiant as she sits astride a jet . Inside is David Brock 's version of the White House travel-office scandal of last year , the latest installment in that magazine 's crusade to show that Hillary is the antichrist of American politics . Is the First Lady good or evil ? Ponder deeply now , for it seems to be the question of the hour . The last several days ' photos and film footage of Jacqueline Kennedy flawlessly doing the First Lady 's job the old way have made Mrs. Clinton 's chameleonism all the more unsettling . To further unsettle yourself about her situation , next read Leslie Bennetts 's account of an interview with an edgy , angry Hillary in the June issue of Vanity Fair . No big news here , but Bennetts 's sporadic references to her dealings with Hillary 's handlers will tell you everything you need to know about the state of the First Lady 's relations with the press . One flack hovers nearby throughout the interview , demanding at one point that a benign exchange on Vince Foster be retroactively taken off the record . Bennetts declines . What are we to make of this First Lady of a thousand faces , overexposed in every medium in the land yet somehow still unknowable , willfully and perhaps wisely withholding parts of herself from inquiring minds ? Enter Connie Bruck , whose lengthy cover story in this week 's New Yorker looks to be the new yardstick by which magazine profiles of Hillary Clinton will be measured . Titled `` Hillary the Pol , '' this exhaustively researched piece portrays her basically as the CEO of the Clinton political partnership , the shrewd operator who resurrected his ( and their ) career after he lost the Arkansas governorship in 1980 , and who in many ways still guides it today . It 's the Hillary you may have believed was there all along , behind the multiple facades : hyper-intelligent , opportunistic , relentless in pursuit of her own political agenda . Bruck traces the First Lady 's political skills back to Arkansas . In one instance , she describes how , after Bill 's gubernatorial defeat , Hillary set out to neutralize an Arkansas newspaper columnist who had been an antagonist of Bill 's . Hillary wined and dined the man , and he left Clinton alone for years . There are many other such stories , but the message is always the same : She had her idealistic vision for improving the world , but she also did what it took to reach short-term goals along the way , whether they were political , legislative or financial . Mrs. Clinton didn't have time to be interviewed for the piece , we learn , but the president was able to give Bruck nearly two hours . What does that tell you ? At one point Bruck raises the possibility that Hillary might even seek to succeed Bill in his current job : `` Some friends have suggested that her goal now may well be to become president herself , '' Bruck writes . `` Betsey Wright ( Governor Bill Clinton 's chief of staff ) told me last December , `` There are a great many people talking very seriously about her succeeding him . Their staff will say , `` We have to do it this way and that way , and then we 'll be here at least twelve years . '' And it 's not just the staff . Friends , Democrats , people out across the country think it is a very viable plan of action. ' ' ' Since The New Yorker came out Sunday , Wright has denied saying that , but The New Yorker is standing by the story . In Bruck 's account of Clinton 's health care reform task force , the portrait 's especially severe ; the First Lady seems so certain of her own correctness that she will brook no criticism . `` In the end , that sureness about her own judgment at its extreme , a sense that she alone is wise is probably Hillary 's cardinal trait , '' Bruck writes . The Jackie model of how to be the president 's wife died with her . Maybe what we see in Bruck 's piece are the outlines of a new First Lady paradigm that , for better or worse , we 'd better start getting used to . WASHINGTON Andrew W. Mellon was exceptionally rich , and the Soviet Union broke , when , in the spring of 1930 , Mellon bought a 500-year-old painting for $ 500,000 right out of the Hermitage . For an additional $ 6,154,000 he soon got 20 others , by Raphael and Rembrandt , Titian and van Dyck , Chardin and Velazquez , but none gratified him more than the first , a panel from an altarpiece by the early Netherlandish master Jan van Eyck of Bruges . Its condition was deplorable , its companion panels lost , its scale unexceptional . Van Eyck 's `` Annunciation '' ( c. 1434/1436 ) is less than 15 inches wide . Still , the purchaser believed , and not without good reason , that he had bought a monument of European art . For more than 50 years , that narrow , beat-up painting would be displayed in the museum Mellon gave his country , the National Gallery of Art here . Then it was taken down . This week , after two years in the lab two years of careful cleaning , high-tech examination and painstaking repair it goes on view again . The picture seems reborn , though it will never again look just as van Eyck made it . Still , its dull varnish is gone , its bold blues have their brightness back , and its many missing paint flecks there were hundreds , maybe thousands have been seamlessly filled in . The picture 's conservation was primarily conducted by the gallery 's David Bull , a former museum director ( he used to run the Norton Simon in Pasadena , Calif. ) who has a scholar 's eye and a sure , rock-steady hand . Look as closely as you wish at the in-painting he 's done , and try to find a flaw . Gabriel , the archangel , smiling with delight , has just appeared to Mary to announce the Incarnation . His angelic salutation , Ave gratia plena ( `` Hail , full of grace '' ) the letters writ in gold floats out of his mouth like a holy exhalation . The scepter that he holds is of rock crystal , not glass . Van Eyck was a magician . What one cannot quite believe is the physicality of his sight . The capitals that crown the columns in the picture have been carved so finely with interweaving tendrils , complex Celtic strapwork , with warriors and with steeds that you feel each chisel mark . Gabriel 's garments , too , are endowed with such tactility that you somehow know the softness of their velvets , the stiff weight of their threads of gold , the slightly gritty gleamings of their countless sewn-on pearls . Even from an inch away , van Eyck 's surfaces don't fall apart into streaks of paint . His manner has uncanny depth ; his details on details go on and on and on . `` He knew fabrics like the weaver , from whose looms they have flowed , '' wrote the scholar Max J. Friedlander , `` buildings like an architect , the earth like a geographer , plants like a botanist . '' `` From the sheer sensuous beauty of a genuine Jan van Eyck , '' agreed Erwin Panofsky , the Princeton iconographer , `` there emanates a strange fascination not unlike that which we experience when we permit ourselves to be hypnotized by precious stones or when looking into deep water . '' HOLLYWOOD There was a memorable moment in `` Beverly Hills Cop '' when Eddie Murphy 's Axel Foley jammed a banana in a parked police car 's tailpipe . Walking out of `` Beverly Hills Cop III , '' you may be moved to ask , `` Anybody have a banana for this movie ? '' The existence of this film is a testament to star power or , to be more precise , recycling power . We 're supposed to be so grateful to once again see Eddie Murphy as Axel that we can overlook how crude and shopworn this picture really is . It 's one of the most cynically engineered sequels ever . The kicky appeal of the `` Cop '' series at least potentially has always been the idea of a street-smart black cop from Detroit who outmaneuvers the ( mostly ) white Beverly Hills honchos who underestimate him . It 's a neat racial joke that provided a few chuckles in `` Beverly Hills Cop '' and virtually none in its hyper-powered , Stallone-ish sequel . Stallone , in fact , was originally supposed to star in `` Beverly Hills Cop , '' and the series has never gotten very far from his over-muscled shadow . For most of the way in `` Beverly Hills Cop III '' ( MPAA rated R ) we might as well be watching any old standard-issue action hunk dodging bullets and lobbing grenades ( and , in a masterstroke , saving children in peril ) . But Murphy gives us less than those action hunks do ; he 's playing out his own fantasy image of a righteous avenger , and the fantasy is essentially humorless . There 's little trace of his gift for con-man mimicry . It 's as if he set out to trash his own franchise . Once again Axel , wearing his Detroit Lions jacket , is brought back to Beverly Hills from Detroit to track down the killers of a close associate . And once again he gets propelled into shootouts and car chases with a clan of murderous nasties , headed by John Saxon and Timothy Carhart . Their base of operations is a theme park called WonderWorld , which how 'd you guess ? features a dinosaur ride . `` Jurassic Cop , '' anyone ? The Beverly Hills police force retains series regular Judge Reinhold , who now has his own office and his own SWAT team . Bronson Pinchot also turns up again as the oddly accented Serge . He has graduated from an art gallery to a boutique selling personalized luxury weapons , which is a fair way of gauging how far the inspiration in this series has dropped . At a time when police detective shows on television are better than they ever have been , what excuse is there for the slovenliness of `` Beverly Hills Cop III '' ? Director John Landis and screenwriter Steven E. de Souza ( who worked on `` 48 HRS. '' and the `` Die Hard '' films ) are strictly smash-and-grab guys . Like the other films in the series , this one has no muscle tone ; it wobbles opportunistically between wan slapstick and routine bang bang , with lots of gratuitous cheesecake for scenery . It 's not easy to make audiences laugh at a comedy where characters are actually shot on camera . And , in the post-Rodney G. King era , a racially tinged film involving cops and violence in Los Angeles carries a lot of unwanted baggage . Taken simply as pure action , the mayhem in this movie may be routine but , in the context of a knockabout comedy it 's deeply offensive . The film begins with a bunch of workmen in a Detroit auto shop shimmying to a record by the Supremes . The scene is played for broad , dumb laughs ; then , in a scene that 's not played for laughs , they get bloodily ventilated . But it 's near the end , when the assorted good guys wobble and collapse into frame with their wounds , that the corruption of this enterprise sinks in . There 's a fundamental lack of human feeling in `` Beverly Hills Cop III '' that makes you want to avert your eyes from the people around you when the lights come up . Attending this movie makes you feel like an accomplice to the corruption . HOLLYWOOD When the editor of Tricycle , the Buddhist Review , one of the few journalists allowed on the set of `` Little Buddha , '' the new Bernardo Bertolucci film , wrote about her experience , one question continued to trouble her . What was the word `` Little '' doing in the title ? None of the filmmakers , it turned out , could give her a satisfactory answer , but now that the picture itself is here , the reason seems obvious . Despite its illustrious pedigree , `` Little Buddha '' turns out to have the sensibility of a children 's film , the most elaborate and expensive `` Afterschool Special '' ever to make it to the big screen . Being a children 's film , of course , is not necessarily a negative thing , and aspects of `` Little Buddha '' ( MPAA rating : PG ) do linger pleasantly in the memory . But what lingers as well is the suspicion that this is a children 's film at least partly by default , the product of too much goofy New Age reverence and too little nuance and sophistication . Those who remember such Bertolucci films as `` The Conformist '' and `` Last Tango in Paris '' may be surprised at this turn in his career , but those pictures are deep in the director 's past . More recently we 've seen the likes of `` The Last Emperor , '' which , its many Oscars notwithstanding , is best remembered for how everything looked , not for what anyone said . In fact , especially when , as here , Bertolucci collaborates with Vittorio Storaro , one of the world 's preeminent cinematographers , the director has a tendency to become a prisoner of his own particular gift for luscious images , to assume that the dramatic side of things will more or less take care of itself . Story , however , can be neglected only at great risk , especially when two parallel tales are being told . The first begins in a Tibetan Buddhist monastery in modern-day Bhutan , where Lama Norbu ( Chinese actor Ying Ruocheng ) gets a telegram he 's been waiting for for nine years , a message that soon puts him on a jet headed for Seattle . Though all Buddhists believe in reincarnation , only Tibetan Buddhists believe that specific people , invariably great teachers , can be identified in their next incarnation . And Lama Norbu has reason to believe that his own teacher , admittedly a man with a hell of a sense of humor , has been reincarnated as an 8-year-old American named Jesse Konrad ( newcomer Alex Wiesendanger ) . Not surprisingly nonplussed by this news are Jesse 's parents , Lisa ( Bridget Fonda ) and Dean ( singer Chris Isaak ) , a sprightly young couple who don't quite know what to make of all these robed and shaven monks appearing suddenly in their lives . They don't object , however , when Lama Norbu gives Jesse a child 's life of the Buddha . This little book forms the basis of `` Little Buddha 's '' second narrative strand , a film-within-a-film set in Asia 2,500 years ago that details how the fun-loving Prince Siddhartha transformed himself into a great spiritual being . Though it plays at times like an infomercial on Eastern religions , this half of `` Little Buddha '' is the most successful . For one thing , this is where Storaro 's photography and James Acheson 's production and costume design are at their best , making good use of the never-before-seen streets of Bhutan and creating opulent set pieces . And though eyebrows and even entire faces were raised when it was announced that Keanu Reeves was going to play Siddhartha , in fact , he does what the part calls for as the golden youth shielded from misery and death who takes the path to enlightenment . Hewing closely to traditional texts , this part of `` Little Buddha '' comes off closest to the fable quality the filmmakers were apparently after . In the modern half , however , the lack of texture that is the film 's weakest link is most evident . The Mark Peploe and Rudy Wurlitzer plot , from a story by the director , seems determined to take the drama out of every situation , while the accompanying dialogue is invariably hollow and unconvincing . Being blissed out may be an enviable state for a human being , but it is not necessary the best one for a film . Bernardo Bertolucci may not know anything more about Eastern religion than I do , but I don't care . This is not to say his `` Little Buddha '' is inaccurate , either in its portrayal of Tibetan Buddhist thought or the life of Siddhartha ( Keanu Reeves ) , only that it doesn't really matter . What matters is what happens on screen , and Bertolucci 's direction alone is the stuff of religious conversion . The director , whose philosophical questing has taken him to China and North Africa in recent years ( for `` The Last Emperor '' and `` The Sheltering Sky '' ) has filmed his latest in the holy lands of Nepal , Bhutan and Seattle . And in telling his based-on-real-life story about a blond 9-year-old who is suspected of being a reincarnated lama and juxtaposing it with an epic recounting of the life of Prince Siddhartha who will become the Buddha Bertolucci reverses the tired conventions about ancient religions and religious life and in the process evokes a very contemporary yearning for spirituality . That he cannot sustain the tone of serene momentum that opens the film is perhaps inevitable ; once the seduction of the viewer is accomplished there 's a certain leveling-off of passion . But the beginning of `` Little Buddha '' has moments so full of magic it 's surprising how much of it is accomplished through simple humor . The Buddhist temple in Bhutan , where the film opens , is not the forbidding place of popular imagination . It is a center of learning , of warmth and of children instructed by Lama Norbu ( Ying Ruocheng ) , who invites questions and makes jokes . His beatific demeanor changes only after he gets a letter saying that the reincarnated spirit of his late teacher , Lama Norje , has been located . In Seattle . `` Lama Norje had a great sense of humor , '' says Kenpo Tensin ( Sogyal Rinpoche ) , one of the jolly monks who have determined that blond , Gameboy-playing Jesse Conrad ( Alex Wiesendanger ) has been chosen by Norje for his reappearance . Jesse likes the idea , likes the gentle Lama Norbu , and gives signs that he may actually be Lama Norje . But it 's no joke to his parents ( Bridget Fonda and Chris Isaak ) , who have made no provision in their yuppie life-plan for a Buddhist invasion . Where `` Little Buddha '' falters , and it does , lies in the casting . As Jesse 's fatherInvalid face , Dean , who takes Jesse to Bhutan , Isaak has the unformed face and personality to make him truly American , and truly flat . Likewise Reeves , whose lighter-than-air screen presence is appropriate for the young , naive Prince Siddhartha , but who in the end doesn't provide anything very substantial . The ancient Indian sequences are full of miracles , outlandish visuals and ornate religion , but the modern world defines the film 's spiritual impact . Bertolucci says that godhead isn't about myth and trappings , but about yearning as defined by the faith of monks , or perhaps the unfilled need of secular Americans . `` Little Buddha , '' in its gentle way , probes that cavity . Three stars . Invalid face Eddie Murphy has been telling interviewers , in no uncertain terms , that `` Beverly Hills Cop III '' is not his comeback film . And he 's right . A strictly paint-by-numbers , action-adventure yarn , with little sense of humor and even less sense of purpose , `` Beverly Hills Cop III '' effectively nullifies Murphy 's main asset comedy in favor of making him another Sylvester Stallone . Which is not something we desperately need . At the same time , it defuses the whole dramatic premise behind the first two `` Beverly Hills Cop '' movies ( the first of which was vastly superior to the others ) , which was Axel Foley as bureaucratic victim a streetwise Detroit detective , a cop out of water , defying the uptight , rulebook-bound Beverly Hills police to fight the good fight . He was smarter than your average underdog . Now , he just seems rude . When Axel gets to Beverly Hills this time around , he 's chasing a gang of cop killers who eluded him in Detroit after an opening shootout that 's a good example of both false advertising the action 's never this hot again and director John Landis ' debauched way with movie violence . Bullets and blood are sprayed with equal abandon , cars and humans are liberally riddled , and each slug ends its trajectory target with a fat , soft thud . Much like the jokes . The Secret Service doesn't want the gang caught ; they 're up to uncovering something much bigger , apparently , than the killing of Detroit cops . Axel is unmoved , not caring who or what he demolishes en route to getting what he wants . He 's like a cop with a multipicture deal . The pursuit takes him to WonderWorld , a Disneyland knockoff inspired by the Walt-like Uncle Dave ( Alan Young ) and under the de facto control of Ellis DeWald ( Timothy Carhart ) , the ruthless killer Foley is chasing . That this one deliciously perverse aspect of `` BHC III '' is not exploited for anything close to its subversive potential is symptomatic of the movie 's failings . Disney-facists vs. the state . It could have been great . But `` Beverly Hills Cop III '' lumbers on its way to a predictable , and predictably violent , conclusion , with Axel 's BH buddy Billy Rosewood ( Judge Reinhold ) consistently befuddled , Detective Flint ( Hector Elizondo ) trying to protect his post-retirement job at WonderWorld , Bronson Pinchot reprising the unpronounceable Serge , who 's now in the personal security business , and some shamelessly cheesy action sequences . Theresa Randle , as the WonderWorld worker sympathetic to Axel 's cause , is really the sole cast member worth watching . Whether `` BHC III '' signifies anything in terms of Murphy 's career is moot ; the actor hasn't had anywhere to come back from , not if you 're talking box office . Even when he 's turned out incendiary devices like `` Harlem Nights '' or `` Boomerang '' he 's made money . Artistically , of course , it 's another story . He hasn't really fulfilled his comedic potential since .. . well , maybe the original `` Beverly Hills Cop . '' But it clearly doesn't bother him . If Eddie Murphy felt he had anything to prove , he wouldn't have done Part III of a movie series that had already run out of gas , wouldn't have hooked up with as lame a director as Landis , and certainly would have read Stephen de Souza 's script ( you don't think he actually read this script .. . ? ) BRUSSELS , Belgium Russian Defense Minister Pavel Grachev declared Tuesday his country would join NATO 's Partnership for Peace but emphasized that the terms of Russia 's participation still need to be clarified . Resolving some of the recent ambiguity about the Russian government 's relations with the Atlantic alliance , Grachev said after meeting with NATO defense ministers that Russia would definitely join the military-cooperation program , which is designed to create a new security system for Europe with NATO as its foundation . `` Boris Yeltsin , our president , has instructed me to make it clear that Russia will join the Partnership for Peace program , '' Grachev said . `` We are not going to set forth any conditions , '' he said , but he noted that `` these framework agreements do not fully set forth the principles and the forms of the cooperation . '' Grachev said Russia would like to sign a parallel document with the Western allies that spells out the nature of Russia 's collaboration and the defense of its vital interests . He said he would provide details Wednesday after meeting again earlier that day with Defense Secretary William J. Perry and other NATO ministers . Grachev said that after the two documents were complete , he or Foreign Minister Andrei Kozyrev would be prepared to visit NATO headquarters `` to sign the two documents , that is , the doctrine of Partnership for Peace and our document on the collaboration of Russia . '' During the 90-minute session , Grachev spent most of his time elaborating on Russia 's new military doctrine . He said Russia was not opposed to joining NATO in peacekeeping missions . Later , he told reporters that Russia would only resort to nuclear weapons when faced with aggression from another nuclear power or one in coalition with an enemy . Senior administration officials described the meeting as `` friendly and non-confrontational . '' They said there was none of the bombast or harsh rhetoric that had been feared before Grachev 's arrival at the headquarters of an alliance created 45 years ago to contain Soviet expansionism . But U.S. officials sounded a note of caution , saying they wanted to hear the specifics of the proposal Grachev promised to lay before the ministers Wednesday . For months , the Russians have sent confused signals about their intentions of cooperating with NATO . After indicating early on that Moscow would join the Partnership for Peace , Yeltsin appeared to bow to demands from the military hierarchy that NATO must recognize Russia 's role as a major power in Europe by granting it special status . But NATO Deputy Secretary General Sergio Balanzino said after a meeting of the alliance 's defense ministers earlier in the day that there could be no question of drawing up a formal separate agreement for the Russians . `` There will be no special protocol for Russia as a member of Partnership for Peace . All members must follow the same rules , '' Perry said . Western defense officials have tried to reassure the Russians they will be accorded all of the importance warranted by their country and its special place in Europe . But by insisting that all partners must play by the same rules , they are trying to relieve fears among East Europeans that they will again fall under Russian military domination . The Partnership for Peace is a kind of junior varsity team for NATO an arrangement that seeks to include East European states in security discussions but does not give them full membership in the alliance . The concept emerged as an alternative to granting former Soviet satellites immediate membership in NATO . Some ranking U.S. officials said admitting Poland , Hungary and other former Soviet satellites into the alliance would offend Russian sensibilities . After expressing some dismay for what they perceived as second-class status , 18 states from Eastern Europe and parts of the former Soviet Union have signed up for the Partnership for Peace since NATO heads of government launched the project at a summit here last January . NATO countries and their eastern partners are planning to conduct joint military exercises this fall in Poland and the Netherlands . Seeking to reassure Moscow that the partnership was in no way targeted against them , Perry urged the Russians to climb aboard what he called `` a fast-moving train '' that is rapidly gathering momentum . He stressed that NATO is eager to take advantage of Russia 's military power through peacekeeping initiatives that he expects will become part of the Partnership for Peace program . `` In terms of the number of troops they have , in terms of the quality of troops , training and equipment they have , it would be a real asset to the Partnership for Peace were they to join it , '' Perry said . WASHINGTON Most of the people working for the federal government , from Clinton appointees to long-time civil servants , are saving for a rainy day , house purchase , college or retirement by putting tax-deferred dollars into their thrift savings plan . The rapid growth of the plan during its first seven years has made federal and postal workers some of the biggest players in the stock and bond markets . The thrift savings plan , Uncle Sam 's version of the 401 ( k ) plan available to many private sector workers , could make many steady investors millionaires by the time they are ready to retire . Some high-income employees who joined at the beginning and made maximum contributions to the higher risk stock and bond funds now have accounts worth more than $ 100,000 . Higher-income workers who made the maximum contributions to the higher risk stock or bond funds now have accounts worth well over $ 100,000 . Slighty more than 1.5 million of 2.6 million eligible employees have invested in the stock , bond or Treasury funds . Workers in the new Federal Employees Retirement System can contribute up to 10 percent of pay ( to the $ 9,240 limit ) and get a matching 5 percent goverment contribution . Those in the old Civil Service Retirement System , mostly people hired before 1983 , can contribute 5 percent of salary . The savings plan has three funds : The G-fund , made up of short-term risk-free U.S. Treasury securities not available to the general public , returned 6.06 percent over the 12 month period ending in April . In 1993 it paid 6.14 percent . In 1992 , 7.23 percent ; 1991 , 8.15 percent ; 1990 , 8.90 percent and in 1989 it was 8.81 percent . The C-fund ( invested in a stock index fund that tracks all of the stocks in the S&P 500 Index ) paid 5.33 percent over the past 12 months ; 10.13 percent last year , 7.70 percent in 1992 ; 30.77 percent in 1991 ; lost 3.15 percent in 1990 and paid 31.03 percent in 1989 . The F-fund paid .74 percent over the most recent 12 month period ; 9.52 percent last year ; 7.20 percent in 1992 ; 15.75 percent in 1991 ; 8.00 percent in 1990 and 13.89 percent in 1989 . Workers can contibute a percentage of pay or a dollar amount . In the new book `` Your Thrift Savings Plan , '' author James Sullivan says , `` If you designate a percentage of pay deduction the dollar amount you contribute to the TSP each pay period will automatically increase when your pay increases . For example if you are currently earning $ 1,000 per pay period and designate 5 percent .. . your deductions will be $ 50 per pay period . If your pay increases to $ 1,060 per pay period your TSP deduction will automatically adjust to $ 53 every pay period . Similarly , if you change job locations and fall under a different locality pay schedule , your TSP contributions automatically increase or decrease to reflect your new pay . '' Designating a dollar amount , however , means a worker whose pay increases regularly will still be making contributions to the thrift savings plan as if he or she had never received a raise . Sullivan 's how-to-invest book costs $ 14.95 plus $ 2 shipping and handling and can be obtained c/o Federal Employees News Digest , P.O. . Box 98123 , Washington , D.C. 20090-8123 . Or phone orders at ( 703 ) 648-9551 . JERUSALEM Israel sealed off the West Bank town of Jericho Tuesday to give Palestinian police more time to organize themselves after two armed Jewish settlers were mistakenly detained by police who also temporarily confiscated their weapons . Arafat 's move was seen here as an attempt to unilaterally cancel the body of regulations issued since 1967 by Israel 's military occupation authorities , and Israel said his announcement violated the Gaza-Jericho self-rule accord . The closing of Jericho , for one day , was another sign of the uncertainty and confusion surrounding the deployment over the last two weeks of 3,244 Palestinian fighters from Egypt , Iraq , Sudan and Jordan as police in the newly autonomous zones of the Gaza Strip and Jericho . The new police , most of whom do not speak English or Hebrew , have had difficulty communicating at tense moments of confrontation with Israeli Jews who do not speak Arabic , and there has been confusion over terms of the agreement under which they are operating . In a visit to the Gaza Strip Tuesday , Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin expressed sympathy for the early start-up problems , saying most of the police had not been in the West Bank or Gaza for 27 years and need more time to get familiar with the area under their control . Israel and the Palestinian police have been at odds over whether Jewish settlers should be allowed to carry weapons in the Jericho self-rule zone . The settlers and the Israeli army say the settlers fall under Israel 's jurisdiction and may continue to carry guns . But the Palestinian police , who are armed with Kalashnikov assault rifles , have repeatedly insisted that the settlers not carry guns when moving about the Jericho self-rule zone , away from the Jewish settlements . Except for those working with the Israeli security service , Palestinians are not permitted to carry weapons in the rest of the West Bank , which is still under Israeli military occupation , or in Israel . In the latest Jericho incident , two Jews from the nearby settlement of Naama were in a money-changer 's shop in Jericho when they were approached by a Palestinian policeman . One of the settlers , Yair Yosef , told reporters the policeman cocked his rifle when the two refused to hand over their sidearms , so they acceded . The two were taken into custody and later released , and were permitted to recover their weapons at a joint Israeli-Palestinian security office . The Palestinian police commander later said the incident was a misunderstanding . The army announced that the town was being sealed off for 24 hours barring entry to all outsiders to give the Palestinians more time to explain the rules to the rank and file . Arafat , in his announcement , appeared to be seeking to assert his authority in Gaza and Jericho . He issued the notice , dated May 20 , from Tunis and signed it as head of the Palestinian Authority and the PLO 's executive committee . The notice announced reinstatement of `` all the regulations , laws and orders '' that were in effect before the June 1967 war in which Israel captured the West Bank and Gaza Strip . Arafat said the prewar laws would remain in effect until differing West Bank and Gaza legal systems could be merged . Before the Israeli occupation , Jordanian law was applied in the West Bank and Egyptian law in Gaza . Both also have remnants of British mandate law from the post-World War I era and earlier Turkish law from the period of Ottoman rule . Arafat ordered Palestinian civil and religious courts to continue working , as well as judges and prosecutors . Palestinians say most of their civil courts in Gaza have been moribund since the the intifada , the Arab uprising against Israeli occupation , began 6 years ago , because they had no authority to enforce decisions . Judges and prosecutors remained , however , and the courts were paid for by Israel . Arafat 's order appeared aimed at canceling the 1,300 Israeli military orders issued during 27 years of occupation , although it did not directly mention them . The Israeli orders , enforced through a separate system of military courts , have long been a hated symbol of the occupation , governing every aspect of Palestinian life , from auto registration to a web of security restrictions . WASHINGTON The Department of Energy is warning hundreds of current and former workers at the Rocky Flats nuclear-weapons complex in Colorado that they were exposed to higher levels of neutron radiation from 1953 to 1967 than they previously had been told , officials said Tuesday . Medical examinations are being offered to the workers and `` dose reconstruction '' research has begun to determine accurate levels of exposure for workers who were either improperly monitored or not monitored at all . Preliminary findings already have shown that neutron-sensitive film used in the employees ' radiation-monitoring badges had been read incorrectly , resulting in underestimations of exposure , officials said . DOE officials said they are notifying about 140 current Rocky Flats employees and soon will begin contacting `` a few hundred '' former employees , out of a total of as many as 3,000 workers exposed to radiation from 1953 , when the plant became operational , until 1967 , when monitoring procedures were tightened . Mark N . Silverman , manager of DOE 's Rocky Flats field office , said the margins of error found so far have been modest . In the worst case , he said , a worker 's radiation dose was raised by 1 rem about 20 percent of the annual allowable rate of occupational exposure to ionizing radiation . `` So far , the results are encouraging , although that doesn't make the employees feel any better . Understandably , some of them are asking , ` How can we trust you at all ? ' ' ' Silverman said . He said that although some Rocky Flats workers in the past have blamed their cancers and other illnesses on radiation exposure at the plant , none of the workers involved in the current study has reported any symptoms . Officials said the survey was prompted by concerns raised by researchers conducting a routine review of Rocky Flats radiation-dose records for DOE 's office of environment , safety and health . The department said surveys of monitoring practices will be conducted at other DOE nuclear sites and made public as part of Energy Secretary Hazel R. O' Leary 's campaign of openness about radiation experiments and accidents from the mid-1940s through the 1970s . Although officials said no illness or other adverse effects have been linked yet to the underestimations of radiation exposure at Rocky Flats , current employees are being given the option of being moved away from exposure areas until their cumulative doses can be re-evaluated . `` We 're not going to be able to change ( a worker 's previous exposure ) . The difference is that he at least will know , '' said Mark Spears , manager of health and safety for the DOE plant 's operating contractor , EG&G Rocky Flats Corp. . During the period under review , the facility was operated for the Atomic Energy Commission by Dow Chemical Corp. Spears said the dose-reconstruction process involves interviews with current and former workers , physical examinations and the taking of bio-assay samples to determine neutron-radiation counts in various parts of the body . In addition , he said , all available records from a worker 's production department during his period of employment are being studied to estimate approximate levels of exposure to neutron radiation , which can penetrate some kinds of shielding normally used to protect workers from other forms of radiation . Officials said much of the exposure at Rocky Flats occurred in one building used for the chemical processing of plutonium into weapons-grade material . The plant is no longer producing nuclear weapons . Spears said that a key part of the dose-reconstruction procedure has been the retrieval of neutron-sensitive film strips from a federal records center in Denver , where over 95,000 pieces of film used in monitoring radiation are stored . He said a sample of 400 strips had been re-evaluated , leading to the discovery last February that monitoring badges worn by Rocky Flats workers from 1953 to 1967 had been incorrectly `` read '' in manual inspections by safety technicians . The film strip badges were replaced in 1970 with thermoluminescent dosimeters , which are crystal chips that can be read by computers and , consequently , are more accurate . David Rush , a member of the task force on health risks of nuclear-weapons production of the Physicians for Social Responsibility , said that despite the DOE 's openness campaign , studies of radiation dosages of plant workers remain `` fragmentary '' and outdated . `` Some of the dirtiest plants are the least monitored . There are enormous gaps in research , '' said Rush , an epidemiologist at Tufts University . He is the coauthor of a recent book , `` Dead Reckoning , '' that estimated that DOE had radiation-dosage data on only 140,000 of the estimated 600,000 people who have been employed at nuclear-weapons plants . JERICHO , West Bank Yasser Arafat , chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization and head of the Palestinians ' interim government , Tuesday canceled most of the military orders issued by Israel over its 27-year occupation of the Gaza Strip and this West Bank town . In a move that asserted Palestinian authority in the two regions and promised to affect everything from retail sales to taxation and from traffic regulations to street crime , Arafat restored all the laws in force prior to the 1967 Middle East War and Israel 's capture of Gaza and the West Bank . Although Israeli officials questioned Arafat 's authority in issuing so sweeping an order and asserted that he needs their approval for all legislative actions , Palestinians hailed the move as another step in their liberation . `` Establishing our own laws is an essential part of our emancipation , '' said Saeb Erekat , a political scientist nominated to serve on the interim Palestinian Authority . `` Legally , most of the 2,500 military orders issued by the Israelis became null and void with their withdrawal last week , and so Arafat re-established the legal framework for everyday life . '' The Palestinian Authority , which will administer the Gaza Strip and eventually most of the West Bank under the autonomy agreement with Israel , will soon be faced with the task of adopting a basic law and then extensive civil and criminal codes after elections planned for October . Some of the military regulations that have governed life here were preserved as part of the agreements establishing Palestinian self-government and the economic relations between Israel and the Palestinians . But Arafat restored 1967 Jordanian law in Jericho and Egyptian in Gaza , both to provide a familiar legal framework for the start of Palestinian autonomy and to `` give people the sense of being masters in their own home , '' Erekat said . `` It 's better to have some legislative gaps than to have Israeli military orders plugging them . '' Freij abu Midan , a Gaza lawyer and another member of the Palestinian Authority , described the move as `` the first step toward consolidating our national authority on the ground in Gaza and Jericho . '' But abu Midan added that `` every day will bring scores of new questions , especially to the police , for which the law will have no immediate answer . We are feeling our way legally as well as politically . '' ( Optional add end ) In other developments , the Israeli military commander in the West Bank closed Jericho for 24 hours to all but its 15,000 residents in cooperation with the new Palestinian police commander , who reportedly asked for a `` breather '' in order to get a firmer grip on the town and to brief his men on regulations governing Israelis traveling through it . Israel contends that its agreement with the PLO enables Jewish settlers to carry weapons in Palestinian-governed areas of Jericho and the Gaza Strip . Palestinians assert that Israelis coming into the autonomous areas may not carry weapons , and Palestinian police in Jericho briefly detained five armed settlers Tuesday before releasing them , reportedly with apologies . Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin , visiting the new Israeli positions along the border with Gaza , at once praised the cooperation between Palestinian police and his forces in the transfer of the region and again warned Arafat that Israel will not turn over administration of more of the West Bank until it sees how self-government works in Gaza and Jericho . CAPE TOWN , South Africa President Nelson Mandela set forth a moderate domestic policy agenda in his first major address to parliament Tuesday , pledging to address the material wants left by apartheid without resorting to deficit spending or permanent tax increases . The address , which amounted to a state-of-the-nation speech , seemed tailored more for corporate boardrooms than the townships where many of South Africa 's poor blacks live . In many ways , it represented the culmination of a shift in Mandela 's African National Congress away from socialism and to a version of market economics more in tune with South Africa 's present system . Mandela thus struck a theme of fiscal discipline even as he outlined his vision of a `` people-centered society '' where all South Africans will be free from hunger , deprivation , ignorance , suppression and fear . He proposed reallocating about $ 700 million or roughly 3 percent of the 1994-95 national budget to programs for upgrading housing , electricity , water and sewage systems , education and health services for the nation 's mostly black poor . That figure is to rise steadily until it reaches more than $ 2.8 billion in the fifth year of the new government 's Reconstruction and Development Program . Mandela said the money would come from across-the-board cuts in other government departments . Even with the increased social spending , he said he expected to reduce the government 's annual deficit spending , now running at 6.8 percent , and to avoid permanent tax hikes . In a briefing for reporters , Finance Minister Derek Keys a holdover from the old National Party government acknowledged that some temporary tax increases might be needed . But he said it should be possible to finance the domestic agenda through civil service attrition , streamlining of redundant apartheid bureaucracies and spending cuts in certain areas , such as defense . When the white minority government lifted the ban on liberation organizations in 1990 , most of the black leaders who came out of jail or returned from exile were still wedded to a socialist vision of wide-scale wealth redistribution . Over the ensuing years , ANC officials won most of the constitutional debates about South Africa 's new political order , but Keys and the white business establishment made them converts to market economics . The ANC 's economic ministers in the new coalition government , such as former union leader Jay Naidoo , now say that if they overspend on social programs , they will frighten investors and trigger inflation-hobbling their best hope of using an expanding economy to lift the lot of the poor . `` I always said we were a bloody conservative organization , '' ANC spokesman Carl Niehaus quipped , only partly in jest , as he walked out of parliament after the speech . The real test , as he and others acknowledge , will come some years down the road . If the standard of living of the poor has not risen , but the political temperature has , can the ANC still remain faithful to fiscal discipline ? Mandela 's first major policy speech held no decisive clues , but it was notable for some of the things it left out . It made no mention of the ANC 's campaign promises to build 1 million new houses and redistribute up to 30 percent of all arable land over the next five years . Those two goals constituted the symbolic heart of the ANC 's plan to provide `` a better life for all . '' However , experts in both fields say it will be difficult to meet the targets . The country lacks the resources to build 200,000 housing units a year , and the land redistribution program will be slowed by a parallel promise that all current landowners must be compensated . Mandela did make specific promises Tuesday to provide free medical care to all needy children under age 6 and pregnant mothers , and free education up to age 16 for needy students . He also said that he expects to be able to bring electricity to 350,000 new homes this year , a program already underway by the electrical utility Eskom . In a gesture to the minority community most apprehensive about black majority rule , Mandela opened his speech by quoting the words of an Afrikaner poet , Ingrid Jonker , and later delivered two paragraphs of his speech in Afrikaans the language that once sparked widespread rioting in black schools , where it has been seen as the language of the oppressor . WASHINGTON Hugh Price , a senior officer of the Rockefeller Foundation and former newspaper and television commentator on social issues , Tuesday was named president of the National Urban League , the nation 's second-oldest civil rights organization . Price , 52 , succeeds John E. Jacob , who is retiring after a 30-year association with the league , the last 12 as its president . A native of Washington whose parents were active in the suffrage and civil rights movements here , Price served from 1978 to 1982 as a member of the editorial board of the New York Times , writing editorials on such policy issues as public education , urban affairs , welfare and criminal justice . Price also served for six years as senior vice president of WNET-13 , New York City 's public television station , where in 1984 he assumed direction of national production functions . Earlier , he was human resources administrator for the city of New Haven , Conn. , where he served as a member of the mayor 's cabinet and supervised the city 's Head Start program and services for youth and senior citizens . Price attended segregated elementary schools in Washington and in 1954 , following the Brown vs . Board of Education Supreme Court decision , he attended desegregated junior high and high schools here . Following his graduation from Yale Law School in 1966 , Price worked as a neighborhood attorney with the New Haven Legal Assistance Association , maintaining a criminal law practice and representing community organizations . Later he became a partner in Cogen , Holt and Associates , an urban affairs consulting firm in New Haven that specialized in community development , housing and other programs . Reginald K. Brack Jr. , chairman of the league 's board of trustees and chairman and chief executive officer of Time Inc. , said that Price `` brings experience , vision , creativity and leadership to the Urban League at a time when the African-American community is in great need of an effective advocate for equal opportunity and a defender of hard-earned civil rights . '' Price said he intends to `` fullfill the league 's traditional mandate combining social justice with economic growth and opportunities . '' His agenda , he said , includes focusing public and private recources more sharply on the problems of the urban poor ; equipping all African-American children with the academic competence and social skills needed for self-sufficiency , and developing the urban labor markets so that inner-city residents `` who want or are expected to work can earn legitimate livings above the poverty line . '' The Fox Broadcasting Co. , newly armed with National Football League games that helped the network land a dozen stations in a landmark deal this week , on Tuesday announced a drama-heavy prime-time lineup for fall in its latest bid to achieve parity with CBS , ABC and NBC . Fox , known for dropping bombshells in late announcements of its schedules , disclosed the coming acquisition of its latest affiliates in time for the presentation of the new schedule to advertisers . For nostalgia-prone couch potatoes , Fox also announced that one of its back-up series for the 1994-95 season is an updated version of the famous 1960s sitcom `` Get Smart , '' reuniting Don Adams and Barbara Feldon as secret agents . The youth-oriented network will have the new version of `` Get Smart '' focusing on their son , who is in his late 20s and , like his incompetent father , is a `` bumbling agent . '' At the same time , however , Fox is using its flair for showmanship to dilute the impact of serious setbacks in the past season . It flopped in two key areas : late night , where Chevy Chase 's show folded quickly , and news , where its magazine series `` Front Page '' failed in the ratings and now is canceled , to be replaced eventually by a new effort called `` Assignment . '' In addition , Fox , known for its outpouring of series featuring black performers last season , has canceled five of them , including the prestigious `` Roc , '' the controversial but much-praised and ambitious `` South Central '' which reportedly is seeking a home elsewhere and `` In Living Color , '' `` Sinbad '' and , previously , `` Townsend Television , '' which starred Robert Townsend . Several returning series , including `` Living Single '' and the racy `` Martin , '' star black performers . Sandy Grushow , president of the Fox Entertainment Group , maintained , `` We 're not walking away from our commitment to program black television series . '' He noted that one of the new one-hour dramas , a police show called `` Uptown Undercover , '' pairs two officers , one black , the other Latino . In addition , he said , another drama , `` M.A.N.T.I.S. , '' is about a `` black superhero . '' With the cancellation of `` In Living Color , '' Fox is losing one of its trademark series , an irreverent collection of sketches from a black viewpoint . Said Grushow : `` We felt it was pretty well played out . Obviously it was a landmark series for our company . For years , it defined who we were and what we were about . '' Fox has scheduled as another back-up series a new sketch comedy called `` House of Buggin ' , '' which stars Latino comedian John Leguizamo . Grushow said `` Sinbad , '' which features the comedian of the same name , was canceled because it `` had a huge ` Simpsons ' lead-in and was unable to capitalize on it . '' As for `` Roc , '' although its quality rarely diminished , it has had a difficult time in the ratings , finishing near the bottom . Other Fox shows from this season that got the ax include `` The Adventures of Brisco County , Jr. , '' `` Bakersfield P.D. , '' `` Daddy Dearest , '' `` Herman 's Head , '' `` Monty , '' `` Code 3 '' and `` Comic Strip Live . '' ( Begin optional trim ) Another series , `` The George Carlin Show , '' failed to make the fall lineup but is expected to return as a back-up entry , as is `` The Critic , '' an animated program canceled by ABC but picked up by Fox . A spokesman for Fox estimated it will take 1 to 1 years before all of the new stations that were reeled in this week are lined up for the network . With Fox going to seven nights a week this past season and now upgrading its affiliates in such major cities as Cleveland , Atlanta , Detroit , Milwaukee and Dallas , the ratings of the 8-year-old network will certainly go up , but just how much depends in great part on the new programming , which consists of five dramas and two comedies . Grushow said the deal with New World Communications to land the stations will have `` no effect whatsoever on the programs . These New World stations are jumping into bed with us because they like our business plan . They 're interested in the 18-to-34 and 18-to-49 demographic . '' ( End optional trim ) `` The Simpsons '' now will return to Sundays at 8 p.m. , where Fox hopes that it and `` Fortune Hunter , '' a new , James Bond-style spy adventure that precedes it at 7 p.m. and will challenge `` 60 Minutes '' can benefit from the lead-in of the NFL games . Aaron Spelling also is becoming a bigger player at Fox , where his `` Beverly Hills , 90210 '' and `` Melrose Place '' will be joined by another hour drama from his company , `` Models Inc. . '' It stars Linda Gray , formerly of `` Dallas , '' as the head of a Los Angeles modeling agency . It gets an early start June 29 . Other new Fox series : `` Party of Five , '' a drama in which five brothers and sisters `` forge new lives following the sudden loss of their parents '' in a car crash . `` Hardball , '' a `` rowdy '' sitcom that takes `` a locker-room look '' at baseball . `` Wild Oats , '' a Generation X sitcom about `` a group of out-all-night 20-somethings in search of romance and friendship . '' ( Optional add end ) Here 's Fox 's night-by-night lineup for fall : Monday : `` Melrose Place , '' `` Party of Five . '' Tuesday : `` Fox Night at the Movies . '' Wednesday : `` Beverly Hills , 90210 , '' `` Models Inc. . '' Thursday : `` Martin , '' `` Living Single , '' `` Uptown Undercover . '' Friday : `` M.A.N.T.I.S. , '' `` The X-Files . '' Saturday : `` Cops , '' `` Cops 2 , '' `` America 's Most Wanted . '' Sunday : `` Fortune Hunter , '' `` The Simpsons , '' `` Hardball , '' `` Married .. . With Children , '' `` Wild Oats . '' SARAJEVO , Bosnia-Herzegovina Bosnia 's president said Tuesday his government is seriously considering an internationally backed peace plan that would give 51 percent of the country to allied Muslim and Croat factions and 49 percent to rebel Serbs . But he demanded that the United States issue a clear statement of its intentions before his mostly Muslim cabinet approves the plan . In an interview on his return from a pilgrimage to Mecca , President Alija Izetbegovic also said he does not believe Bosnia 's war is close to ending , although he predicted some type of denouement in the fall . `` We 're only eight or nine rounds into a 12-round fight , '' he said at one point , employing a favorite boxing analogy . `` While we willn't win on a knockout , we will win on points . '' Izetbegovic said he had charged Prime Minister Haris Silajdzic with finding out what the U.S. government is willing to do should Bosnia accept the 51-49 plan . Silajdzic left Sarajevo Monday to attend another round of negotiations at a French resort near Geneva . Under that peace deal , first proposed by the European Union , Bosnia would be partitioned into a Muslim-Croat federation and a Serb-controlled half . The Serbs would then be free to join the Muslim-Croat federation or merge with their political , military and cultural patrons in Serbia . Earlier this month , Muslim and Croat negotiators meeting in the U.S. . Embassy in Vienna drew up a map of the proposed federation 's territory that added up to 58 percent of Bosnia , leaving only 42 percent for the Serbs . When the United States joined its allies on May 13 in a reaffirmation of the 51-49 formula , the Sarajevo government complained bitterly . The Clinton administration has said it would consider sending up to 25,000 American ground troops to Bosnia once the peace deal was implemented . But Izetbegovic said he was loath to accept vague statements of intention from any government because `` for two years now we have seen what those add up to : nothing . '' `` The Americans have let us read between the lines , but really we are at war and that is not enough , '' he said . `` We need to know what they will do if we accept and what they will do if the Serbs reject '' the peace plan . One of the reasons for Izetbegovic 's demands for a specific commitment concerns the fact that in Bosnia 's eyes the West , including the United States , has squandered its credibility in Bosnia . NATO ultimatums threatening airstrikes against Serb positions are now routinely modified by U.N. officials here in what appears to be an increasingly desperate effort to avoid the strikes . Izetbegovic said the impression given by NATO 's silence on the matter is that it too is a willing partner in the dilution of the letter if not the intent of its ultimatums to the Serbs . A U.N. spokesman Tuesday , for example , confirmed that Serb tanks based inside a 12-mile artillery exclusion zone around Sarajevo were firing on Muslim positions around Breza , north of the capital . Under NATO 's first Bosnian ultimatum , issued in February , those tanks are subject to airstrikes . However , the spokesman , Dutch Maj. Rob Annink , said the only option being considered was `` negotiations . '' Izetbegovic 's comments Tuesday , while contradictory on the surface , provided an insight into the maneuvers of the mostly Muslim government and its army , which has struggled back from near demise less than a year ago to relative stability today . Emboldened by the apparent success of a peace deal between Bosnia 's Muslim and Croat factions , Izetbegovic now appears to believe time is on the side of the Muslims in their standoff against the Serbs , who occupy about 72 percent of this mountainous country . Accepting the peace deal , according to the president 's thinking , would only be part of a broader and longer-term struggle against the Serbs , widely held responsible for starting Europe 's bloodiest conflict since World War II . He said his government would not accept a four-month cease-fire , proposed by the United States , Russia and the major European powers earlier this month , because it would hamper the Bosnian army and effectively preserve Serb war gains . `` Maybe four weeks , but not four months , '' he said . `` If it was four months , it would freeze the Serb gains , literally , because by then it would be winter . '' Currently , the lightly armed Bosnian army appears capable of nibbling away at Serb-held territory but will not be able to mount larger offensives until the fall . The largely Muslim government troops are reluctant to engage the better-armed Serb forces in the dry Bosnian summer because that is perfect tank weather . Once the fog and rain of autumn comes , however , the more numerous Bosnian government infantry will gain some tactical advantage . Throughout the interview , Izetbegovic appeared almost jovial and a different man from the downtrodden leader who paced the cavernous halls of the presidency last year while Serb shells pounded his capital . `` Last year I had a lot of good reasons to be depressed . We had a new front opening with the Croats . We really saw no exit , '' he said . Hinting that weapons already are coming in over the newly opened roads from Croatia 's Adriatic coast , Izetbegovic cited the importation of `` food and other materials that I can't talk about '' as having a positive effect on the war effort against the Serbs . On May 13 , The Washington Post reported that 60 tons of Iranian explosives and raw materials for ammunition manufacturing had arrived for Bosnia 's weapons plants . Since then , Bosnian military sources have said at least one shipload of Brazilian-made weaponry destined for Bosnia has reached the Balkans . WASHINGTON U.S. Sen. Charles S. Robb 's re-election campaign willn't have the support of his party 's 1993 candidate for governor , two-time Virginia attorney general Mary Sue Terry , who Tuesday endorsed one of his challengers for the Democratic nomination . The beneficiary of Terry 's action was state Sen. Virgil H. Goode Jr. of rural Rocky Mount , who hailed her support as the biggest boost to his underdog campaign . Terry has been closely allied with Robb , a former law school classmate , throughout her career . The two were ticketmates in 1981 , when he was elected Virginia governor and she won her first term as attorney general . And because both espouse a moderate-to-conservative philosophy , Terry was sometimes called `` Chuck Robb in a skirt . '' In a statement , Robb said he 'd `` been aware for some time that she was thinking about endorsing Virgil , so it didn't come as a surprise , and I didn't try to dissuade her . `` To her credit , '' he continued , Terry `` called me at home ( Monday ) night to tell me what she planned to do , and I respect her for calling me personally . If I am the Democratic nominee , I know she 'll be with me in November . '' Terry , who appeared with Goode at news conferences Tuesday in Arlington and Richmond , declined to characterize her announcement as a repudiation of Robb . `` The easy thing for me , '' she said , `` would have been to sit by and just let whatever might happen in the primary happen . But I think I would be shirking my responsibility as a Virginian if I did not do what I could as small as that might be to make sure we have the strongest possible candidate to prevent ( Republican frontrunner ) Oliver North from becoming our senator . And I am convinced Virgil is that candidate . '' Mary Washington College political scientist Mark J. Rozell said Terry 's snub of Robb `` may reflect a feeling among many leading Democrats . . . ( who ) don't feel they have the luxury to speak out . '' Rozell said one upside to Terry 's crushing loss in the 1993 gubernatorial race is that she has `` a degree of freedom to speak openly . '' And while she may not carry much weight with the general electorate , Rozell said , within the party `` she retains stature among groups , such as women activists . '' WASHINGTON The U.S. Postal Service is in `` serious financial trouble , '' facing a huge deficit and an uncertain future , witnesses told a House committee Tuesday . Rep. William L . Clay , D-Mo. , chairman of the House Committee on Post Office and Civil Service , agreed with the dire assessments and added one of his own , describing the Postal Service as `` a ship of state that is not only rudderless , but captain-less . Whoever is running the ship over there is not doing a good job . '' It was one of Clay 's most caustic attacks on Postmaster General Marvin T. Runyon , the former Tennessee auto maker whose budget-cutting exploits have won him praise from many mailers . But in this , the fifth of six oversight hearings into the agency 's ability to compete with new electronic technologies , Runyon 's decisions came under increased criticism . During the hearing Tuesday , William H. LeBlanc III , the senior member of the independent Postal Rate Commission , sent one of the strongest signals of any witness that the Postal Service 's finances are more troubled that previously thought . `` It is my view that the Postal Service could hardly be worse off financially and I see nothing on the horizon that will significantly improve its present position , '' LeBlanc told the committee . A Reagan appointee who has served on the five-member regulatory panel since 1987 , LeBlanc predicted the Postal Service is headed for a $ 2.4 billion loss this year , well above the $ 1.3 billion loss that Runyon had expected . LeBlanc said he has never been so worried about the agency 's future . Without naming Runyon , LeBlanc also questioned the wisdom of the postmaster general 's decision to delay the next postage increase until 1995 , noting that the agency could have captured an extra $ 3.9 billion in revenues by filing its rate case 16 months earlier . `` This would seem a high price to pay for rate stability , '' LeBlanc said . The rate commission is considering a Postal Service request to increase the price of a letter to 32 cents from 29 cents an increase that Clay and others have suggested may be too small to cover the agency 's rapidly growing debt . Most of the unexpected costs have been attributed to overtime that followed the retirements of many senior workers in a Runyon-directed reorganization last year . Postal spokeman Bob Hoobing declined to comment on Clay 's remarks , but he said LeBlanc had oversimplified the agency 's finances . Runyon 's proposed 10.3 percent increase in postal rates `` will stabilize '' postal finances and prevent a large drop in mail volume . `` We 're not just sitting there and letting the tide roll over us , '' Hoobing said . While LeBlanc said he was not speaking for the rate commission , he was not alone in expressing concern over the future of the Postal Service . Representatives of the General Accounting Office cautioned the committee that the agency 's effort to save money through automation was not working and new technologies , such as computer messages and fax machines were eroding the agency 's mail monopoly . `` The risk to the Postal Service posed by competition and changing technology is very real , '' said GAO Associate Director Michael E. Motley . Large chunks of mail have already been lost to the rapid growth of new technologies , a GAO official said . Since 1971 the Postal Service also has lost two key markets , overnight mail and parcel post , to private firms because it failed to compete on price and service , Motley said . Its share of parcels fell from 65 percent of the market in 1971 to 6 percent in 1990 and its overnight Express Mail dropped from 100 percent of the market in 1971 to 12 percent in 1990 , he said . Motley suggested that Congress might revise its postal laws to give the Postal Service more flexibility on pricing and to allow discounts to large mailers , steps the Postal Service has long requested . The GAO official praised Runyon for attempting to take advantage of technological developments , but he questioned whether any new service the agency could create would generate enough revenue to replace the mail it is likely to lose to new technology . Edward J. Gleiman , the new chairman of the rate commission , also suggested Runyon go slow on new ventures . `` There may be no real reason for the Postal Service to seek business opportunities much beyond the margins of its traditional business , '' Gleiman said . But he also sounded the most optimistic of any witness Tuesday . `` For the intermediate term five to seven years out I think the greatest threat to postal volumes is the Postal Service itself , '' he told Clay . `` Service must be maintained and costs must be controlled or all mailers will actively seek cheaper and more-reliable alternatives to the mail . '' However , Gleiman did join the GAO in expressing concerns about the future of first-class mail . Taxpayers could ultimately be stuck with `` a substantial bailout '' of an agency that currently gets virtually no tax subsidies if mail volume falls substantially , Gleiman said . In his questions Tuesday , Clay seemed to suggest that his final witnesses the presidentially appointed board of postal governors who oversee the agency will be questioned in detail about their oversight of Runyon . `` I think they 're being hoodwinked. .. . I have some doubt they 're being given all the information they need , '' the chairman said . So far most of Clay 's hearings have been receptive to Runyon . Last week , however , postal unions sharply criticized his reorganization . They described Runyon 's decision to split all local mail operations into two separate divisions customer service or mail processing whose local heads are often at odds . These disputes have to be appealed to Washington to be resolved , a time-consuming process . JACMEL , Haiti Despite a reinforced U.N. embargo that went into effect Sunday , a flotilla of ships carrying contraband has sailed into this port city , carrying merchandise including gasoline , cars and color television sets . Local residents said at least nine ships have docked since the strengthened embargo started , in theory barring everything except pre-approved shipments of food , medicine and propane gas . Five remained Monday , and army officers directed trucks onto the docks to unload the merchandise . The embargo was imposed in October and reinforced by the U.N. . Security Council on Sunday in an effort to force the military to allow the return of ousted president Jean-Bertrand Aristide . He was overthrown in a military coup in September 1991 , six months after becoming Haiti 's first democratically elected leader . The ships , which flew British , Jamaican , Colombian , Dominican , Bahamian and Haitian flags , demonstrated how difficult it could be to enforce the measure , especially since the ships largely ply the waters between Haiti and the Dominican Republic . The two nations share the Caribbean island of Hispaniola . While the United States and other nations maintain warships and Coast Guard cutters offshore , they cannot legally enter the three-mile territorial limit , and so the ships often can just skirt the shoreline and enter without interference . `` So far , the ships have been triple-parked out there , '' said one longtime resident , watching as they bobbed , waiting to be unloaded . `` It has been years since the port was that busy . '' Diplomats involved in monitoring the embargo said it could take weeks to figure out how to plug its leaks , and admitted that the officers who control the contraband could build up substantial stockpiles in the meantime . This means the measure would not really begin to have an impact on the rich and on the officer corps for several weeks , they said . But it is a question whether the wealthy or the officer corps will suffer . While reporters watched , uniformed army officers supervised the unloading of a truckload of color televisions and other electronic goods . At the port entrance , a small market has sprung up , and residents said there had been an influx of prostitutes to keep pace with the growing number of ships . Residents said that at times over the weekend there were nine tanker trucks on the dock getting fuel from tanks on visiting ships . Other ships unloaded vehicles and luxury goods . The Bahamian-flagged Sea Search , a seagoing tug that on Saturday was engaged by a U.S. picket ship enforcing the embargo , was in port here Monday , its barrels of fuel being unloaded under the supervision of military officers . Eyewitnesses said an armed fight nearly broke out in the stately La Jacmelienne Hotel here Saturday night when a subordinate of powerful police commander Lt. Col. Michel Francois , identified as Maj. Oiseau , arrived with several other officers to supervise the unloading of fuel . According to several accounts , the owner of the hotel refused Oiseau a room for the night because he and the other officers were not paying for food or drinks . Oiseau reportedly began waving a gun around and threatening to kill hotel employees , while the hotel owner also brought out a gun . Only the intervention of Col. Lyonel Sylvain , the regional commander , avoided a major shootout , the sources said . The witnesses , who asked not to be identified for their personal safety , said another ship , the Oakleigh , flying the Union Jack and registered in Aberdeen , Scotland , made several trips a week over the last several months to the Dominican Republic , bringing back about 15,000 gallons of fuel at a time . Residents here and knowledgeable sources in Port-au-Prince , the capital , said much of the Jacmel fuel flow is controlled by an important fuel wholesaler named Gerald Caroli . Knowledgeable sources said Caroli is a major fuel supplier of the U.S. . Embassy and other diplomatic missions . While ships were unloaded , a Dominican vessel sat about a mile from the dock , abandoned because its captain , known only as `` Dirty Harry , '' fled for his life when the buyers of his fuel found some of the diesel was full of sludge and unusable . RWAMAGANA , Rwanda Some of them are only boys , 14 or 15 years old , wearing sheepish grins and raggedy uniforms that make them appear no more threatening than toy soldiers . They smile easily , but the smile does not reach their eyes . Already these boys are wartime veterans , warriors who have no rank , collect no pay and travel on foot , lugging an odd assortment of French , Belgian and Soviet weapons . They sleep on the ground , stuff bullets in their pockets and have not yet learned to salute or field-strip a rifle . `` It 's not a bad life , '' said one of the boys manning a checkpoint here on the road to Kigali , the capital . `` One day I go back to my father 's farm . Today I fight . '' The boys are part of the Rwandan Patriotic Front , a guerrilla group whose roots go back to 1959 but who remained virtually unknown to the world-at-large until its members launched a major offensive April 6 that has now chased government soldiers out of half of this beleaguered , impoverished nation . In the process , the front has become part of Africa 's post-independence legacy . Page by page , over 40 years , guerrilla groups from Angola to Kenya have rewritten the history of the continent . The results have not always been beneficial for the people in whose name the rebellions were launched . The first guerrilla wars , like Jomo Kenyatta 's Mau Mau rebellion in Kenya in the early 1960s , were undertaken to drive out the European colonialists . Each succeeded , and from bloodied Angola and Guinea-Bissau in the west to Mozambique in the east and Rhodesia ( now Zimbabwe and Zambia ) in the south , power was transferred to the Africans . With the election of Nelson Mandela to South Africa 's presidency last month , all 47 sub-Saharan African countries are now governed by the black majority . Today , the purpose of guerrilla groups like the Rwanda Patriotic Front and others that have fought in Mozambique , Angola , Somalia , Ethiopia and Djibouti is to dislodge a ruling African elite in the name of reform . Under whatever banner they may fight , the rebels ' ultimate purpose is always the same power : economic , political and sometimes tribal . `` I know this African history , and I swear to you we are different , '' said an RPF officer who requested anonymity . `` We are fighting to install a government of national unity . We want democracy and reform . The first thing we will do is get rid of the cards identifying your ethnic group that the government makes everyone carry . '' Although such lofty ideals are heard often in Africa , the RPF , composed mostly of members of the minority Tutsi tribe , has proved itself a more disciplined , organized military force than the Rwandan army and its fearful Hutu-dominated militias that have run pell-mell through the countryside , massacring untold thousands of civilians . ( Begin optional trim ) Villagers cheered the arrival of RPF troops along the road to the Tanzanian border last month , but many Rwandans , especially Hutus , remain deeply skeptical about the rebels ' ultimate goals and feel that they may begin a new round of bloodletting to avenge the massacres they have endured . `` I will never return to Rwanda if the RPF is in power , '' said Eliachim Mulindandabi , a 20-year-old Hutu refugee in Tanzania 's Benaco camp . `` It would not be safe . For me or any Hutu . They are killers , and they would hunt us down . '' ( End optional trim ) The RPF fighters are mostly Rwandan Tutsi refugees whose families escaped to Uganda after a 1959 revolution that ended 400 years of Tutsi domination over the Hutus , who represent 90 percent of Rwanda 's 8 million people . Historically , the Tutsis formed the intellectual and professional core of Rwandan society . Until the revolution , they held the Hutu farmers in a form of feudal serfdom surpassed only in Ethiopia . In Uganda , many of the Rwandan refugees were recruited as mercenaries in the National Resistance Army that , with the help of Tanzanian soldiers and Ugandan dissidents , overthrew Ugandan dictator Idi Amin in the 1970s . The rebel leader , Yoweri Museveni , became president of Uganda in 1986 and has not forgotten his debt : Uganda provides the RPF with its lifeline of weapons , ammunition and supplies . Many RPF rebels speak English learned in Uganda , while the Zaire-supported Rwandan army speaks French or Kinyarwanda , the language shared by both Hutus and Tutsis . Some of the rebels have returned to join the battle from jobs abroad as accountants , teachers and a variety of middle-class positions . `` I deal with the RPF every day , and I found them very responsible , '' said a French doctor who works in rebel-controlled territory . `` But they 're having a lot of trouble doing all the things you have to do when you administer civilian authority . That I don't think they 're prepared to handle . '' ( Optional add end ) Ever since the Hutus began demanding political reform in 1957 , there have been outbreaks of fierce violence between the Hutus and Tutsis in Rwanda and neighboring Burundi . Thousands of Tutsis in Rwanda were massacred in Hutu-organized slaughters in 1959 and 1963 . The most recent unrest began Oct. 5 , 1990 , when fighting broke out in Kigali between the rebels and the army , and it has since become a civil war . MOSCOW Russia is entering a new phase in its economic reforms and will now concentrate on fighting its disastrous industrial slump and bringing order to its tax system , officials said Tuesday . `` You could call this the beginning of the stabilization period , '' Economics Minister Alexander N . Shokhin said , `` although the statistics don't bear that out yet . '' The statistics show that in Russia 's stumbling transition from centrally planned socialism to a market-driven economy , it is managing to damp inflation the main task of recent months . But its industry is on the verge of collapse , with production plummeting 25 percent in the first quarter compared to last year ; its tax system is a mess , and it is desperately short of investment money . The Economics Ministry has warned that , if unemployment mounts , this could lead to a `` social explosion . '' After months of pleas for change from factory directors and pressure from his industry-oriented prime minister , President Boris N . Yeltsin has made the troubled economy his focus in recent days . The results appeared Monday . Six presidential decrees rolled off the presses , all of them aimed at bringing some order to the Russian economy , at introducing enough control so that , as presidential adviser Alexander Livshits put it , `` there will be a little less robbery . '' The decrees introduce harsh penalties for tax evaders and require factories to register all their bank accounts if they want to receive government subsidies . They also provide a panoply of ways of controlling factories ' finances better while lifting some of the crushing tax burden from them . `` A number of measures taken by the government have allowed the economy to be stabilized to some extent , '' Deputy Economics Minister Sergei Vasilyev optimistically told a conference here . One decree also sharply reduces export tariffs on oil and other goods and does away with the system of special export licenses that had provided the basis for massive red tape and bureaucratic corruption . `` The most important decree of the package is the decree on doing away with export quotas and licenses , '' said Mikhail Berger , economics columnist for the newspaper Izvestia , `` because it will destroy the entire structure of massive bribe-taking , a structure that includes armies of corrupt officials . With the disappearance of the quotas and licenses , the very reason for taking and giving bribes will cease to exist . '' ( Optional Add End ) Shokhin said obstacles to the export of oil and other fuel had to be lifted because the industry is on the verge of a shutdown ; domestic prices have risen so much that demand for oil has dropped sharply . Export , meanwhile , was limited by licensing , so producers had nowhere to sell their oil and were beginning to stop drilling . Still to come are promised presidential decrees on procedures for going bankrupt Yeltsin is finally beginning to accept that monstrous loss-makers must be allowed to go under and on limiting salaries . Although the decrees are not quite bombshells , Shokhin said that taken together they reach `` critical mass to provide added impulse '' to the reforms . NEW ORLEANS With the cable TV industry reeling from 17 percent in forced rate reductions , Federal Communications Commission Chairman Reed Hundt told industry executives meeting here Tuesday that he foresees no further cuts . `` I know of no evidence to support a further reduction .. . and we are not looking for such evidence , '' said Hundt , seeking to ease concerns of cable executives . The FCC chairman said that he had `` sympathy and concern '' for the plight of cable operators who complained that the rollbacks handicapped them in the race to build the `` information superhighway . '' At the same time , Hundt defended the rollbacks , arguing that the cable TV industry is extremely healthy and that the new regulations would help promote competition . `` I 'm not here to eulogize at your wake , '' he said . In addition , Hundt indicated that the FCC would not enact a so-called `` productivity offset '' that could have forced many cable company operators to scale back rates a further 2 percent , largely wiping out increases they can pass along to subscribers because of inflation . `` This sort of offset is generally found in the regulations of a utility , but cable is not a utility , '' explained Hundt . The cable TV industry has been vociferous in its complaints about the new rollbacks , claiming the cuts will cost the industry some $ 3 billion a year in cash flow . The reduction in cash flow will in turn prevent operators from borrowing money to invest the capital for the building of the broad-band , 500-channel cable TV system of the future that is supposed to provide customers a panoply of new home shopping services , movies-on-demand , and video games . The reaction among cable TV operators to Hundt 's remarks was optimistic but cautious . `` This is good , but God is in the details , '' said Tim Boggs , a vice president with Time Warner Inc. , the country 's second largest cable TV operator . ( Optional add end ) Indeed , Hundt offered few specifics about the kind of `` refinement '' the FCC had in mind to its implementation of the rate rollbacks mandated by Congress in 1992 . He acknowledged , however , that the FCC was looking for `` programming incentives '' that would encourage operators to put on new channels while keeping some flexibility in pricing . Cable TV stocks appeared to react favorably to Hundt 's remarks , with many registering strong gains for the day . Raymond L. Katz , senior vice president at Lehman Bros. , expressed a sigh of relief . `` I have clients who have obsessed about that 2 percent off-set . They wouldn't buy cable stocks as a result of that . Up until now the FCC has focused on the political aspects . Now they appear willing to focus on the economics. , '' he said . WASHINGTON The Clinton administration has concluded an agreement with the government of Vietnam that will open the way for U.S. diplomats to represent and protect Vietnamese-Americans on Vietnamese soil , U.S. officials said Tuesday . The agreement means that any Vietnamese-Americans who are arrested or imprisoned in Vietnam will be entitled to have American diplomats visit them and try to ensure they are treated humanely and fairly . It also means that U.S. diplomats in Vietnam can try to locate Vietnamese-Americans who are missing , can help Vietnamese-Americans replace lost U.S. passports , and can try to arrange money transfers for Vietnamese-Americans who are robbed . The understanding is one part of a broader accord in which Vietnam and the United States agreed to open up liaison offices in each other 's capital cities . These offices , to be staffed by at least 10 diplomats apiece , will carry out some of the functions of embassies until diplomatic relations are established between the two governments . The move to set up liaison offices is one of several recent indications that the Clinton administration is taking new steps to upgrade U.S. relations with Vietnam . Last week , Vietnam 's Deputy Premier Tran Duc Luong visited Washington for talks with Secretary of State Warren Christopher . `` The point is that we have taken another step forward , '' a senior administration official said Tuesday . President Clinton proposed the creation of liaison offices when he lifted the trade embargo against Vietnam last February . But the final arrangements were not worked out until last Friday , after Luong 's visit , when Assistant Secretary of State Winston Lord signed the documents spelling out the details . `` We have now agreed on consular protection ( for Vietnamese-Americans ) , and we can begin to look for property and open up the offices , '' said one senior administration official . In the past , Vietnam took the position that Vietnamese-Americans are not entitled to the protection of American diplomats , because they are Vietnamese nationals . But the Clinton administration stuck to the traditional U.S. view that such people are American citizens , and are entitled to the same consular protection as other Americans . `` They ( the Vietnamese government ) finally came around on this issue , '' said a State Department official . In the 1990 census , 615,000 Americans identified themselves as being of Vietnamese descent . In recent years , many Vietnamese-Americans have been returning home to do business or to visit relatives . ( Optional add end ) The new U.S. liaison office in Hanoi could be opened within the next two months . `` It 's a matter of finding the property , '' a State Department official said . American and Vietnamese officials also have agreed on a return of the properties that each government owned on the other 's soil . The U.S. government will get back 32 properties that it owned in Vietnam , most of them in Ho Chi Minh City , the former Saigon . The Hanoi government will get back a single property , the building that served before the end of the war as South Vietnam 's embassy in Washington . The U.S. properties will probably include one of the most famous and photographed buildings in the world : the former U.S. embassy in Saigon , from which crowds of Americans and Vietnamese were evacuated by helicopter at the end of the war in April 1975 . Administration officials have said the United States will not establish formal diplomatic relations with Vietnam until after Hanoi cooperates further in the task of accounting for Americans missing in action during the war . TOKYO Smiling and clearly relieved after three months of angry silence , Foreign Minister Koji Kakizawa said late Tuesday night the world 's two biggest economic powers had gone through a tortured series of negotiations but finally been able to `` give birth to an understanding . '' The understanding to restart trade talks was no easy birth and largely symbolic , but after a bitter and acrimonious dispute it was greeted in Japan as a clear sign that U.S.-Japanese relations are heading along the right path and toward agreement on substantive points . `` There is no way we will ( now ) fail , '' said government spokesman Hiroshi Kumagai , who used to run the Ministry of Trade and Industry , which headed the trade talks . Other Japanese leaders also suggested that the deal meant that crucial barriers to a more comprehensive trade agreement with the United States had been broken . `` I am absolutely confident we will find a way , '' Prime Minister Tsutomu Hata said . Formal trade negotiations broke down in February when former Prime Minister Morihiro Hosokawa flatly rejected U.S. demands , saying the Japanese had come of age politically and could stand down the United States . His defiance was initially hailed here as historic and courageous . But as Japan 's trade surpluses soared , its currency strengthened and economy languished , Hosokawa 's emphatic rejection provoked widespread consternation that Japan 's most important political and economic relationship was fraying badly . The breakdown also reflected badly on the United States , which was viewed as trying to bully Asians into accepting U.S. standards on trade , justice and human rights . For example , the United States recently criticized Singapore for caning a youth convicted of vandalism and threatened trade sanctions against China for human rights abuses . Two months of acrimony finally broke in mid-April with informal talks . When Japanese officials went to the United States last weekend , they expected at least one more round of preliminary negotiations before the pivotal framework talks could restart . What they found instead , said a participant in the negotiations , was `` that the atmosphere was far more conciliatory , and far less confrontational and hawkish '' than before . ( Optional add end ) Two specific obstacles had led to the collapse of talks in February : Japan 's unwillingness to stimulate its economy by cutting taxes as much as the United States wanted and Japan 's refusal to use specific measurements to gauge improvement in trade issues . Over the weekend , Japanese officials say , they found that the United States had backed down on both points . In terms of an extended tax cut , the United States became convinced that Japan 's chaotic political scene precluded any near-term commitment to a sustained fiscal policy tax cut or otherwise . The officials also said the United States backed off demands for numerical indicators to track Japan 's willingness to absorb imports . U.S. officials had strenuously denied ever emphasizing a strict numerical indicator , but Japanese officials said that the United States had privately pushed for indicators . Distributed by the Los Angeles Times-Washington Post News Service . BRUSSELS , Belgium Russia said Tuesday that it will join NATO 's new Partnership for Peace program for former East Bloc countries despite its earlier reservations , but it hinted that it still may seek some political concessions in return . At a meeting of North Atlantic Treaty Organization defense ministers , Russian defense chief Pavel S. Grachev told reporters that President Boris N . Yeltsin has `` instructed me that I should make it clear that Russia will join the .. . program . '' He also denied that Russia would demand a formal side agreement providing it with more status than other countries in the program , as Moscow had suggested earlier . `` We are not going to set forth any conditions , '' he said . But Western officials continued to be wary , mindful of earlier indications that Moscow would demand that NATO agree to some sort of new protocol that would give Moscow more authority beyond the Partnership for Peace program . U.S. . Defense Secretary William J. Perry told reporters after Grachev 's news conference that he still does not know precisely what demands Moscow will make . Grachev 's appearance followed a series of Russian flip-flops over the issue of whether to join the program . Moscow had been expected to apply for membership last month but balked in protest over NATO air strikes against Serb rebel forces in Bosnia-Herzegovina . The Russian defense minister is scheduled to provide details Wednesday about what demands , if any , Moscow will make . The issue of Russian membership is important because establishing a formal relationship with NATO is viewed by the West as an important step in strengthening ties between the two former foes . Some Western officials fear that if Moscow chooses not to join the program , it could bolster the influence of hard-liners in Russia who want the government to keep the West at arm 's length . But some analysts believe the issue of special status is mainly symbolic and that Moscow is looking primarily for a political gesture that will help counter complaints by nationalists that post-Cold War Russia is not being accorded due respect . Grachev himself appeared to be playing to that end Tuesday when he made a point of declaring that the NATO ministers had been `` listening to me carefully '' and were `` sympathetic '' to Russia 's plans . The Partnership for Peace program was adopted at a NATO summit in January as a way to strengthen ties with former East Bloc countries by giving them a sort of auxiliary status involving consultations and some joint exercises . As of Tuesday , 18 former Soviet satellites , from Poland to Kazakhstan , have formally joined the program , and the Netherlands has announced that it will hold military exercises with the Poles some time this autumn . ( Optional add end ) The West 's major objection to providing any special status for the Russians is a fear by some other former East Bloc countries that Moscow will dominate the new program eventually regaining control over their affairs . Both Western and former East Bloc countries also are fearful about Moscow 's new assertions that Russia should have the right to send troops to former Soviet satellites , such as Georgia , in which large numbers of Russians live . Perry and other key NATO ministers made it clear Tuesday that they recognize that Russia 's relationship with NATO is likely to be broader than that of other countries because of its size and the fact that it is a nuclear power . `` Russia and NATO need a solid partnership , '' German Defense Minister Volker Ruehe said . `` Russia must be treated and perceived to be treated as a great power . '' But Sergio Balanzino , NATO 's deputy secretary general , told reporters that the Western ministers had already decided that Moscow 's membership in the partnership program must adhere to the same rules as that of other countries . Even if Grachev and the ministers reach agreement in principle Wednesday , officials say it is unlikely that NATO would act on the application before early June , when NATO 's foreign ministers are scheduled to meet in Istanbul , Turkey . Grachev met with NATO ministers late Tuesday , but U.S. officials said he merely briefed the group on Moscow 's new military doctrine and did not address the membership question . Apart from their meeting with Grachev , the NATO ministers also issued a communique warning that North Korea 's nuclear weapons program poses `` a grave risk '' to global security , presenting the world with a `` serious '' problem . NEW ORLEANS Washington is softening its hard line on the cable-television industry . After angering the industry by ordering two cable price cuts in 10 months , federal regulators are talking about ways to give cable operators `` incentives '' code language for permitting them to raise prices when they add new channels or offer new services . Federal Communications Commission Chairman Reed Hundt until now the cable industry 's Public Enemy No. 1 mollified executives gathered here Tuesday for the industry 's national convention by suggesting that the FCC will consider tweaking its price regulations in the next few months to make them more cable-friendly . The early hour 7:30 a.m. over breakfast miffed some cable executives , who wondered why Hundt couldn't take part in the conference 's regular session . They gave subdued applause and remained silent during some of his gag lines . But in general they seemed placated . Hundt said it may be necessary to give cable companies a higher markup than the rules now allow when they add new channels or invest in the so-called information highway . `` More refinement ( of these rules ) may be necessary , '' he said , adding , `` We need to make sure that ( government regulation ) does not block any cable company from making investments necessary to offer the .. . services of the future . '' He stopped short of making firm promises , other than to reassure cable operators that the FCC wasn't looking to cut rates more than the average 17 percent rollback already ordered . Despite the industry 's gripes , Hundt until now has maintained that the effect of the FCC price cut on the industry 's financial health was still unclear , and could even help it . FCC aides said Tuesday they had no hard evidence demonstrating that additional incentives were justified ; indeed , many of the nation 's 11,000 cable systems haven't yet calculated the exact impact of the average 17 percent cut due to complicated formulas that make each system 's number different . But cable executives have lobbied the FCC hard in recent weeks for changes , and have been highly public in denouncing the new rules . During the convention 's opening session Monday , for example , the president of the sponsoring National Cable Television Association , Decker Anstrom , called the FCC 's cable regulations `` a political caning . '' Anstrom Tuesday called Hundt 's latest remarks `` a good start . '' Investors appeared to agree , bidding up the price of several cable stocks . Tele-Communications Inc. closed at $ 20.50 , up $ 1.50 ; Time Warner Inc. closed at $ 39.25 , up $ 1.37 ; and Turner Broadcasting System Inc. 's B shares ended the day at $ 18.37 , up 75 cents . Among the FCC 's most vociferous critics at this year 's convention were entrepreneurs who are attempting to launch new basic cable networks . Representatives of more than 120 proposed cable channels dotted the floor of the convention center here seeking to convince system owners to carry their offerings . Among the fledgling services are the Crime Channel , the Ecology Channel , the Filipino Channel , Pet Television Network , the Therapy Channel , as well as channels devoted to parenting , home shopping , games and other subjects . The programmers were in a dour mood because they say the FCC 's rules have put a cloud over their prospects . The current regulations permit a cable operator to charge subscribers 7.5 percent above the operator 's cost of adding a new channel a margin that programmers say is too low . `` The incentives just aren't there , '' said J. Carter Brown , former director of the National Gallery in Washington , who is working on the launch of an arts channel called Ovation . `` If an operator is going to risk his capital '' to add and promote a new channel , `` there has to be a better return . '' Under the current rules , operators will add new channels not as groups but on a stand-alone basis since such `` a la carte '' channels are not subject to price regulation , said John Hendricks , president of Discovery Communications Inc. , parent of the Discovery Channel . `` If the regulations aren't changed , '' he said , `` new services will only be available to the affluent . '' Although Hundt has now put that issue on the table at the FCC , the Supreme Court may come to the industry 's aid first . The court is expected to decide soon on the cable industry 's challenge to a portion of the cable law that requires operators to carry local broadcast stations . This `` must-carry '' requirement has forced cable operators to make room for broadcasters by bumping some cable-only channels , including C-SPAN , off their systems . If the court sides with the cable industry , cable operators would be free to dump broadcast stations they didn't want , opening many new slots for cable networks . Women who routinely undergo intensive tests , X-rays and bone scans after treatment for breast cancer do not live longer than women who rely on routine physical exams and mammograms , two studies show . Results of two Italian studies , each of which tracked more than 1,000 women , were to be reported in Wednesday 's issue of the Journal of the American Medical Association . The studies concluded that while expensive tests such as chest X-rays , liver scans and bone scans enabled physicians to diagnose the spread of cancer faster , the earlier diagnosis did nothing to lengthen survival or improve quality of life . One study , by the Interdisciplinary Group for Cancer Care Evaluation in Milan , followed 1,320 breast cancer patients under the age of 70 for five years . Half the women underwent intensive testing ; the others had routine mammograms and checkups . The researchers found that 20 percent of the group subjected to intensive tests died , compared with 18 percent of the other group . The difference in death rates was not statistically significant . In the other study , researchers in Florence followed 1,243 women for five years after breast cancer surgery , determining that X-rays and bone scans should be limited to patients with suspicious symptoms . It 's holiday sale time at your local airline counter . Almost all major U.S. airlines said Tuesday they will take you up to 750 miles and back for $ 99 this coming weekend anywhere they fly within the United States , except Hawaii and Alaska . If your destination is more than 750 miles away , the cost is $ 139 per round trip . As usual , there are restrictions . First , all flights have to be taken between noon Saturday and midnight Sunday . Second , you have to buy your ticket within 24 hours of making the reservation . And third , seats are `` limited , '' but most airlines said they have plenty of unsold seats available . It 's the availability of the seats that is the motivation for the sale . `` This is a slow travel period . This late , you 've either got the seats sold or you 're not going to sell them '' at the regular prices , said Delta Air Lines Inc. spokesman Bill Berry . Delta kicked off a similar sale over the Christmas and New Year holidays and was first to post the sale prices for this coming weekend . Berry said the one-day Christmas sale netted $ 500,000 in additional revenue and the two-day New Year sale took in $ 1 million . For the most part , this is additional revenue for the airlines , which fly their schedules whether a dozen passengers are aboard or the plane is full . A $ 99 passenger is better than no passenger , and no revenue . With their sophisticated computer systems , airlines can judge several days in advance of a flight whether they are likely to have a large number of unsold seats . The likelihood of little last-minute business traffic on a holiday weekend then creates an opening for a `` super sale . '' Even Southwest Airlines Co. and Continental Airlines Inc. jumped on the bandwagon , although each noted they regularly offer lower fares Southwest throughout its system and Continental on its Peanut Fares flights . `` We willn't raise our fares , '' joked a Continental spokesman . Several low-fare carriers allow a regular paying passenger to take along another traveler for an additional penny or another nominal sum , beating even a $ 99 promotional fare on a few routes if two people are traveling . NEW ORLEANS Washington is softening its hard line on the cable-television industry . After angering the industry by ordering two cable price cuts in 10 months , federal regulators are talking about ways to give cable operators `` incentives '' code language for permitting them to raise prices when they add new channels or offer new services . Federal Communications Commission Chairman Reed Hundt until now the cable industry 's Public Enemy No. 1 mollified executives gathered here Tuesday for the industry 's national convention by suggesting that the FCC will consider tweaking its price regulations in the next few months to make them more cable-friendly . The early hour 7:30 a.m. over breakfast miffed some cable executives , who wondered why Hundt couldn't take part in the conference 's regular session . They gave subdued applause and remained silent during some of his gag lines . But in general they seemed placated . Hundt said it may be necessary to give cable companies a higher markup than the rules now allow when they add new channels or invest in the so-called information highway . `` More refinement ( of these rules ) may be necessary , '' he said , adding , `` We need to make sure that ( government regulation ) does not block any cable company from making investments necessary to offer the .. . services of the future . '' He stopped short of making firm promises , other than to reassure cable operators that the FCC wasn't looking to cut rates more than the average 17 percent rollback already ordered . Despite the industry 's gripes , Hundt until now has maintained that the effect of the FCC price cut on the industry 's financial health was still unclear , and could even help it . FCC aides said Tuesday they had no hard evidence demonstrating that additional incentives were justified ; indeed , many of the nation 's 11,000 cable systems haven't yet calculated the exact impact of the average 17 percent cut due to complicated formulas that make each system 's number different . But cable executives have lobbied the FCC hard in recent weeks for changes , and have been highly public in denouncing the new rules . During the convention 's opening session Monday , for example , the president of the sponsoring National Cable Television Association , Decker Anstrom , called the FCC 's cable regulations `` a political caning . '' Anstrom Tuesday called Hundt 's latest remarks `` a good start . '' Investors appeared to agree , bidding up the price of several cable stocks . Tele-Communications Inc. closed at $ 20.50 , up $ 1.50 ; Time Warner Inc. closed at $ 39.25 , up $ 1.37 ; and Turner Broadcasting System Inc. 's B shares ended the day at $ 18.37 , up 75 cents . Among the FCC 's most vociferous critics at this year 's convention were entrepreneurs who are attempting to launch new basic cable networks . Representatives of more than 120 proposed cable channels dotted the floor of the convention center here seeking to convince system owners to carry their offerings . Among the fledgling services are the Crime Channel , the Ecology Channel , the Filipino Channel , Pet Television Network , the Therapy Channel , as well as channels devoted to parenting , home shopping , games and other subjects . The programmers were in a dour mood because they say the FCC 's rules have put a cloud over their prospects . The current regulations permit a cable operator to charge subscribers 7.5 percent above the operator 's cost of adding a new channel a margin that programmers say is too low . `` The incentives just aren't there , '' said J. Carter Brown , former director of the National Gallery in Washington , who is working on the launch of an arts channel called Ovation . `` If an operator is going to risk his capital '' to add and promote a new channel , `` there has to be a better return . '' Under the current rules , operators will add new channels not as groups but on a stand-alone basis since such `` a la carte '' channels are not subject to price regulation , said John Hendricks , president of Discovery Communications Inc. , parent of the Discovery Channel . `` If the regulations aren't changed , '' he said , `` new services will only be available to the affluent . '' Although Hundt has now put that issue on the table at the FCC , the Supreme Court may come to the industry 's aid first . The court is expected to decide soon on the cable industry 's challenge to a portion of the cable law that requires operators to carry local broadcast stations . This `` must-carry '' requirement has forced cable operators to make room for broadcasters by bumping some cable-only channels , including C-SPAN , off their systems . If the court sides with the cable industry , cable operators would be free to dump broadcast stations they didn't want , opening many new slots for cable networks . WASHINGTON Chelsea Clinton will step into a teal dress this weekend to be a bridesmaid at her Uncle Tony Rodham 's wedding , the first nuptials held at the White House in more than 20 years . It 's a power-political union , of sorts , with Hillary Clinton 's brother marrying Nicole Boxer , the daughter of Sen. Barbara Boxer , D-Calif . How lucky for the senator ! The Saturday evening ceremony what is surely the most coveted invite in town this spring will be held in the Rose Garden , followed by dinner and dancing on the White House State Floor . Hugh Rodham will serve as his brother 's best man . Friday 's rehearsal dinner will be hosted by the Clintons and Hillary 's mother , Dorothy Rodham , at a private home here . The last White House wedding was in June of 1971 when Tricia Nixon married Ed Cox . A spokesman for the First Lady did want to make it very clear that the White House bill is being picked up by the two families , not by the taxpayers . -0- We 've heard that .. . Bill Clinton might have to play for his supper Wednesday night when pianist Peter Nero hands him a saxophone at a fund-raiser for Sen. John Glenn , D-Ohio , at the Corcoran Gallery . It 's been a long row to hoe , but Glenn is still trying to retire his hefty debt from the '84 presidential campaign . Wednesday night 's $ 1,000-a-head ticket , which coincides with the opening of a new Peter Max exhibit , should certainly put a dent in the effort . .. . If a picture is worth a thousand words , then having Bill Clinton announce that he 's read your book is surely worth a bundle . Seven hundred thousand dollars , to be exact , for mystery writer Michael Connelly . The author has sold the film rights to his partially written new novel to Scripps Howard Productions , according to Variety and just a few months after the president said he loved his last novel , `` The Concrete Blonde . '' WASHINGTON The Environmental Protection Agency announced Tuesday that municipal solid waste incinerators that produce hazardous ash must soon start disposing of it under stringent federal hazardous waste disposal rules rather than simply dumping it in conventional landfills . The EPA decision follows an early May Supreme Court ruling that ash from energy-producing municipal waste plants can be considered hazardous waste if it is found to contain certain metals or other toxic substances . Until the court decision , many municipal waste operators considered the ash from their facilities exempt from classification as hazardous waste . Under the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act ( RCRA ) , nonhazardous waste can be dumped in any landfill , but hazardous waste must be disposed of under a more costly process in specially regulated dumps . The court ruling will become effective within the next week or two . Some EPA officials had advocated delaying implementation of the decision , but EPA administrator Carol M. Browner opted for immediate action . `` We stand ready to fully comply with the court 's decision , and to help states and municipalities to implement it , '' Browner said yesterday in a news release . The EPA announcement applies to approximately 140 municipal incinerators across the country that produce energy in the incineration process . EPA is currently drafting rules for operators of those facilities to test whether their ash is hazardous . Which operators should test and how frequently they should test have not yet been determined . The EPA is willing to help operators come into compliance with the resource conservation law , the agency announced yesterday . An implementation strategy and a Federal Register notice about the subject will be issued shortly , the announcement said . EPA is `` willing to engage in discussions with all interested parties about alternative management schemes . . . for ash , '' the announcement added . The ruling could require operators to ship hazardous waste over long distances . For example , municipal waste facility operators in New Hampshire have determined that their closest options for disposing of hazardous waste are in New York or Alabama , according to an EPA official . The Supreme Court case involved a Chicago incinerator that burns garbage , producing over 100,000 tons of ash annually and otherwise producing energy for use in the city . The Environmental Defense Fund ( EDF ) sued the city , saying that it violated the resource conservation law by disposing of the ash in landfills that were not allowed to receive hazardous waste . `` We 're pleased that the EPA is enforcing the decision , '' said EDF attorney Karen Florini . But the agency should do more to regulate the ash from incinerators that is not necessarily deemed hazardous , she added . The ruling will probably lead to increased recycling in some areas , according to some environmentalists , since some cities will make special efforts to remove metals , batteries or other potentially hazardous materials from their waste . CAPE TOWN , South Africa Setting the tone for his presidency Tuesday , Nelson Mandela tried to give hope to South Africa 's poor and reassurance to its rich . The 45-minute speech to the initial joint session of country 's first democratically elected Parliament laid out the broad goals of the multi-party , Government of National Unity that he leads . Those goals follow closely the ideas of the platform of the African National Congress , or ANC , known as the Reconstruction and Development Program . The program is aimed at providing the impoverished majority black population of South Africa with the same opportunities afforded the country 's small minority of whites during the four decades of apartheid . It focuses on building additional housing , on expanded electrification , and on providing water , health services and compulsory , free education . He committed the government to spending about $ 750 million on that program in the coming fiscal year , a figure set to rise to over $ 3 billion in the last year of the five-year life of this government for a total of over $ 11 billion . To get it off the ground , Mandela borrowed the first 100-days time frame from Frankin Roosevelt 's New Deal package of legislation during America 's Great Depression . He said that within the next three months he would personally supervise programs to guarantee free health care to children under the age of 6 and pregnant mothers and implement nutrition in primary schools . He also said that plans are under way to electrify 350,000 homes during the current fiscal year , a start on his campaign promise to bring electricity to 2.5 million homes in the next five years . Currently , two-thirds of South Africa 's 40 million people live without electricity . The speech continued the theme of reconciliation he has used since his release from prison four years ago and emphasized since he got 62 percent of the vote last month . This time , he did not reach just over racial , cultural and political divides , but also over economic ones as he sought to reassure the business community , middle-class taxpayers and overseas investors . He promised to achieve his reconstruction goals while also lowering the country 's budget deficit . And , though he did not say `` no new taxes , '' he did say , `` We are agreed that a permanently higher general level of taxation is to be avoided . '' Sounding far from the revolutionary who spent 27 years in prison on treason charges , Mandela talked of a stable monetary policy , of keeping inflation down , encouraging domestic savings to fund investment , and opening trade negotiations with a variety of partners . As with such state of the union speeches by U.S. presidents , Mandela 's talk contained something for just about everyone , with the details to follow next month when the budget is unveiled . Finance Minister Derek Keyes , the blunt finance minister who retained the portfolio he held in the previous National Party Cabinet , told a news briefing that the budget will be able to meet Mandela 's promises . `` We have a carefully planned five-year program , '' Keyes said . `` We are not talking about new revenues , but about re-directing the current level of spending , '' he said , pointing out that the $ 750 million figure represents 3 percent of the total budget , about the amount that could be saved via yearly attrition of the bloated public service core whose jobs are guaranteed in the new constitution . ( Begin optional trim ) Mandela 's theme of reconciliation included an amnesty plan for those involved in political violence . `` The government will not delay unduly with regard to attending to the vexed and unresolved issue of an amnesty for criminal activities carried out in furtherance of political objectives , '' he said of the plan to end the hunt for those responsible for the brutalities of apartheid . `` We will attend to this matter in a balanced and dignified way , '' he said . `` The nation must come to terms with its past in a spirit of openness and forgiveness and proceed to build the future on the basis of repairing and healing . '' ( End optional trim ) He spoke of other policies , mentioning alternatives to incarceration for youthful offenders , backing women 's rights , and assuring the police and armed forces of the government 's faith in them . But the biggest applause came when Mandela called for a change in attitude among South Africans . `` We must end racism in the workplace as part of our common offensive against racism in general , '' he said , and then listed the terms that have been a daily reality for the country 's non-white majority . `` No more should words like kaffirs , hottentost , coolies , boy , girl and baas be part of our vocabulary . '' ( Optional Add End ) The speech came after a ceremonial opening of the session , including a 21-gun salute and a flyover by air force jets . Thousands of Cape Town residents lined the city 's streets , hoping to catch a glimpse of their new president as he made his way to the Parliament buildings . WASHINGTON President Clinton goes to Capitol Hill Wednesday to ask nervous Democrats not to bend to interest group pressure in their home districts or make specific pledges that would gut the administration health care bill . Worried that small business and other lobbies will use the 12-day Memorial Day break , starting Friday , to extract promises from members to oppose requirements that employers pay for their employees ' insurance and other key features of the Clinton plan , the president will , according to a spokesman , `` remind everyone why we 're in this battle together and why we have to stay the course together . '' He will meet first with Democratic congressional leaders and committee chairmen , then address a caucus of all House Democrats . `` We want him to ask the members to keep their powder dry , so they don't get locked into positions that would make it even more difficult to pass a bill , '' said Rep. Mike Synar , D-Okla. , a member of the House leadership 's health care team . As Clinton attempted to keep Democrats in line , Senate Minority Leader Robert J. Dole , R-Kan. , prepared to seek Republican support for new stripped-down health legislation drafted by minority staff members that could be a starting point for negotiations with Democrats . The partial plan , which has gone through 30 revisions by Sheila P. Burke , Dole 's chief of staff , rejects most of the key elements of the Clinton plan , including the requirement that employers pay for much of the cost of their employees ' health insurance and that consumers buy insurance through mandatory state-run purchasing alliances . Burke said it is still an open question whether Dole will advocate a requirement that all Americans who lack health insurance buy their own as they are required to do with auto insurance . According to a draft of the plan Dole will use in his discussions Wednesday , he seeks to require all health plans to offer a minimum package of benefits , something not now required . The draft document suggests the benefits package should be worth 75 percent of the value of the standard package offered to federal employees . Dole also will try to get Republicans to agree to prohibit insurers from denying coverage to people when they change jobs and on tough limits to medical malpractice suits . He will suggest providing subsidies to low-income people to buy insurance only when new federal money becomes available , but would impose a `` fail-safe '' mechanism to make sure future Medicare and Medicaid spending does not go above projections . Both the Republican and Democratic sessions come at a critical point in the legislative work on the ambitious health plan Clinton promised in his 1992 campaign and launched last September . The White House had hoped various versions of the Clinton bill would emerge by the Memorial Day break from at least some of the five committees three in the House and two in the Senate with major jurisdiction . One Senate committee and two House subcommittees have begun work on the measure , but no full committee has finished work on a proposal . Administration and Capitol Hill officials now have set July 1 as the `` final '' target date for getting bills out of committee , so the legislation can be considered on the floor of both bodies before the Aug. 15 summer vacation . When Congress returns in September , it will have barely a month before adjournment and the closing phase of midterm election campaigns to get final agreement on a measure . One reason for the slow pace has been the effective lobbying and advertising campaigns by groups representing health insurance , small business and others who object to major features of the Clinton plan . `` No question , '' said Synar , `` a major reason we want the president up here is that we expect to see a tremendous amount of special-interest activity , focused on the members , while we 're at home . We want the president to prepare people for that and to tell them that he is ready to address whatever concerns they hear when they 're home . '' At the last congressional break , over the Easter holidays , platoons of administration officials joined Democratic lawmakers in forums trying to sell constituents on the Clinton plan . The White House has prepared a 53-page handbook of suggested events members can stage during the coming recess as forums for voicing arguments for the Clinton plan . But this time , the effort is essentially defensive to avoid further erosion of support . WASHINGTON In the mid-1980s , John Henderson Jr. had his Texas thrifts buy two airplanes for more than $ 1 million each so he could fly between his offices and his ranch . The thrifts also bought a $ 30,000 Mercedes and a $ 75,000 BMW for his use and a van for his maid , according to court testimony . This April , a Tyler , Texas , jury said Henderson was guilty of gross negligence and breach of his duties as the president and chairman of both Southland and Home savings and loan associations , and that he should pay the U.S. Treasury $ 7 million in damages . The 1988 failure of the two S&Ls cost taxpayers more than $ 100 million . But Henderson got a reprieve . He doesn't have to pay the $ 7 million because the state deadline for gross-negligence claims expired even before federal regulators took over the thrift . The courts rejected the government 's argument that the statute of limitations should be waived because when the board of directors is handpicked by the thrift 's chairman as in the case of Southland and Home it is unlikely to sue him . Federal bank and thrift regulators say $ 1.6 billion in claims already brought against directors , officers , lawyers , accountants and other professionals who served failed banks and S&Ls in Texas and Virginia are at risk because of recent court rulings on the deadline for bringing lawsuits . And they fear billions of dollars more in claims could be in jeopardy if other states set time limits on such cases . Both the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. and the Resolution Trust Corp. have asked Congress to pass legislation to cure what they see as flaws in state laws . The legislation would allow the government to base claims on activities as far back as five years prior to the takeover of an institution , which would revive some claims that had expired under state laws . But Rep. Jack Brooks , D-Texas , powerful head of the House Judiciary Committee , is opposed to the measure . The legislative change , contained in an amendment to the Interstate Banking Bill that passed both houses in April , is headed to a conference committee . Brooks and other members of the Judiciary Committee are among the conferees . FDIC congressional liaison Alice Goodman said Brooks ' aides on the Judiciary Committee told her that they knew his position on the amendment and that she should not bother to brief them on the issue . `` They indicated he probably would not be supporting this , '' Goodman said . `` Offhand , I 'd say it 's a very dangerous amendment , and ( the conferees ) ought to take a very hard look at it , '' Brooks said . `` It 's a retroactive law . It might be unconstitutional . '' Brooks , who in the past owned substantial stock in Texas S&Ls that later failed , is currently a director and shareholder of three Texas banks . In response to inquiries to his office , Brooks said he may decide to recuse himself from the conference because of his bank directorships . Many of the most egregious examples of negligence at savings and loans were seen in Texas , according to the National Commission on Financial Institution Reform , a panel of experts appointed by Congress to study the thrift debacle . It said `` 40 percent of all taxpayer losses came from Texas S&Ls . '' If the Texas court decisions regarding statutes of limitation stand , government lawyers will have to focus their efforts in other states to recover taxpayer losses , according to the regulators . `` In other jurisdictions , directors could be ( successfully ) sued for the same things , while directors in Virginia and Texas would walk away , '' said John V. Thomas , head of the FDIC 's professional-liability section . `` It seems unreasonable and unfair . '' `` We might as well shut down the professional-liability section if other states adopt the Texas or Virginia rules , '' said Jack D. Smith , the FDIC 's deputy general counsel . Untold millions of dollars from cases not yet brought are in jeopardy . Among the potential claims that could be affected are those that may arise from the investigation of Madison Guaranty Savings and Loan in Arkansas . Special Counsel Robert Fiske is examining Madison 's activities for civil claims as well as criminal violations . Fiske is investigating President Clinton 's and Hillary Rodham Clinton 's ties to the S&L . Neither was a director of the bank , but Hillary Clinton was an attorney for the thrift . Sen. Howard M. Metzenbaum , D-Ohio , proposed the amendment that would give federal regulators more time to file cases , regardless of state statutes . `` For us to sit by and do nothing while the courts are wiping out millions of dollars in decisions would be an absurdity , '' Metzenbaum said . On the other side of the argument are those who say it is unfair to paint all S&L directors with the same brush . `` You reach a point where the equities say that some guilty people are going to slip through the net , '' said J. Jonathan Schraub , a lawyer for some directors of failed Trustbank Savings FSB of Virginia . `` Overall , this industry wasn't populated by fools and crooks. .. . There were a lot of innocent , honest people in that business . '' The issue comes at a crucial time for such recoveries , according to federal officials . The six-month period ended March 31 was the most productive in the four and a half years of the RTC 's professional-liability section , with $ 405 million in claims recovered , according to an agency report . But courts in Virginia and Texas have dismissed 12 cases with claims of $ 93 million because of recent appeals-court decisions in the two states . `` I think the amendment is unfair , and it 's especially unfair to use this case as an example , '' said Thomas H. Walston , an attorney for Henderson . `` Mr. Henderson had given his entire life to Home Savings . '' Henderson , who helped found the S&L in 1955 and was a majority shareholder , lost much of his wealth when the thrift failed in 1988 , Walston said . Henderson denied at trial that the planes and cars purchased by the S&Ls were for his use alone and said they were necessary to do business a contention the jury rejected . WASHINGTON The Justice Department Tuesday asked the Supreme Court to throw out a federal appeals-court ruling that prosecutors committed fraud by witholding evidence that favored alleged Nazi death-camp guard John Demjanjuk . If the petition is successful , it could clear the way for the United States to deport the retired Cleveland auto worker . When the 6th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals found that fraud had occurred , it voided an earlier extradition authorization . In its filing Tuesday , the Justice Department said prosecutors involved in the effort to deport Demjanjuk acted in good faith and that the failure to produce certain documents did not rise to the level of `` egregious and deliberate misconduct , such as bribery of a judge or fabrication of evidence '' that typically is found to be a fraud upon a court . `` The standard adopted by the court of appeals in this case is inconsistent with standards articulated by the overwhelming majority of the courts of appeals , '' said the brief signed by Solicitor General Drew S . Days III . The government is seeking to vindicate prosecutors ' actions as well as to remove a cloud over the validity of an earlier court judgment that Demjanjuk should be stripped of his U.S. citizenship and deported . Demjanjuk , who was extradited in 1986 , was convicted and sentenced to death for torturing and murdering Jews at the Treblinka concentration camp in Poland during World War II . He was allegedly the notorious `` Ivan the Terrible . '' But last year the Israeli Supreme Court overturned the conviction , saying there was insufficient proof that he was Ivan , and Demjanjuk was allowed to return home in September . In the meantime , the 6th circuit court had appointed a trial judge to investigate the Justice Department 's handling of the deportation . The appeals court ultimately concluded last year that prosecutors had defrauded the court by withholding information that Demjanjuk could have used to contest the extradition . The Justice Department contends that Demjanjuk still should be deported because of his activities at camps other than Treblinka . The 6th circuit 's finding of fraud `` will hinder the government 's efforts to remove ( Demjanjuk ) from the United States , '' Days told the justices . NEW YORK In perhaps the biggest shift in advertising history , IBM stunned and angered much of Madison Avenue Tuesday by firing more than 40 ad agencies around the world and shifting more than $ 400 million in annual advertising to one agency , Ogilvy & Mather . The dramatic announcement reflects efforts under Chairman Louis V. Gerstner Jr. to radically overhaul and in many cases simplify IBM 's vast and cumbersome structure as well as put new life into its once powerful but increasingly blurred brand image . `` Ogilvy & Mather will help us deliver clear , consistent messages and in the most efficient way possible , '' said Abby F. Kohnstamm , the giant computer company 's vice president for corporate marketing . She had helped lead the secretive search for a new agency over the past several months and got to know Ogilvy when she was at American Express . Gerstner , a former American Express president , brought her over to IBM . But while there are big advantages to improving coordination , there are also dangers to shrinking the roster of agencies , said Alan Gottesman , media analyst at brokerage firm PaineWebber & Co. . `` If you get it wrong , you get it wrong everywhere , '' he said . The fallout from the IBM announcement is widespread . In order to avoid conflicts with IBM , Ogilvy whose accounts also include American Express , Jaguar and Duracell is dropping two other computer-related clients representing a total of $ 100 million in billings . They are Microsoft , the nation 's biggest software company , and Compaq , whose ads Ogilivy does in Europe . Ogilvy , with $ 5.8 billion in billings , 270 offices and 7,000 employees in 59 countries , did not work for IBM before . `` To get this assignment is the best chance we will ever have to practice helping a brand like IBM at a critical juncture in the brand 's life , '' said Ogilvy Chairman Charlotte Beers . ( Begin optional trim ) The biggest losers Tuesday ranged from Lintas and Wells Rich Greene , two large agencies already reeling from the loss of other big accounts , to Merkley Newman Hartley , a small , 1-year-old agency that was the surprise winner of the account for IBM personal computers just last November . `` I understand the logic , '' said Kenneth S. Olshan , chairman of Wells Rich , whose image and billings have dropped sharply in recent years . `` From a strictly administrative point of view it 's very neat and tidy . But in my mind it views advertising as a commodity , and that 's what is upsetting about it . '' Lintas lost the IBM personal computer account last year , when it also lost the Diet Coke account . ( End optional trim ) When IBM introduced its personal computer in 1981 , it used a very effective depiction of Charlie Chaplin 's Little Tramp produced by Lord , Geller , Federico Einstein . But when that agency fell apart , IBM spread out its accounts , saying it was too dangerous for a huge company to depend so much on one agency . WASHINGTON Negotiations about the fate of Rep. Dan Rostenkowski , D-Ill. , continued Tuesday at a heated pitch with federal prosecutors and defense attorneys still unable to reach an agreement . Meanwhile , some House Republicans said they would call for hearings if the powerful Ways and Means Committee chairman received what they considered too lenient a deal . The options being discussed include resignation , a guilty plea to a felony and jail time by Rostenkowski , sources said Tuesday . Although defense attorneys have indicated that there may be room for compromise , a number of factors have kept a deal from being set , particularly the question of jail time . Rostenkowski is said to be adamantly opposed to spending any time in prison and much of the haggling appears to revolve around that issue , said one source knowledgeable of the deliberations . Defense attorneys were publicly silent Tuesday on the matter , as were prosecutors who had set this week as the point to seek an indictment of Rostenkowski . However , politicians on Capitol Hill were offering their opinions in increasing numbers , including House Minority Whip Newt Gingrich , R-Ga . `` Any plea bargain that was below some minimum standard would automatically '' lead to Republicans calling for House Judiciary Committee hearings , wire reports chronicled Gingrich as saying . Federal prosecutors have outlined a broad conspiracy to defraud the government case against Rostenkowski , including charges that the veteran lawmaker paid employees for work not done , and that he abused official accounts for leased cars , office supplies and office space . He has publicly denied all the charges . MUKALLA , Yemen Troops of northern Yemen have seized the military base at Ataq , in southern Yemen , gaining control of key access routes to the warring country 's chief economic resource , a potentially lucrative oil field near the border with Saudi Arabia . Vice President Ali Salem Beidh , leader of southern forces in the 3-week-old civil war , acknowledged the advances by troops of President Ali Abdallah Salih , the northern leader , in a news conference late Sunday with foreign journalists flown to this oil shipping port 300 miles east of Aden , the chief southern city . Beidh and other southern officials said the northern army passed through the ancient city of Marib , and then moved 75 miles through the oil-producing province of Shabwah to seize Ataq , its capital . Control of the Shabwah oil fields could determine who will be master of a region that represents the economic future of Yemen . The country once hoped to be the first working democracy in the Arabian Peninsula , but it has been in political disarray since shortly after its formation four years ago by the merger of conservative Muslim North Yemen and Marxist South Yemen . The Shabwah oil fields now account for only a small portion of Yemen 's production about 5,000 barrels a day but oil specialists say they contain reserves estimated at 5 billion barrels . The Saudi oil company Nimr , the French Total and Canadian Occidental have oil-prospecting concessions there . Phil Davies , the administrator at Canadian Occidental 's oil-loading terminal on the coast just east of here , said his company has not yet experienced any difficulties because of the war , which broke out May 4 . Canadian Occidental is pumping 150,000 barrels a day from the Masila oil field in Hadramout Province , east of Shabwah . Davies said it appeared unlikely that the fighting , still more than 80 miles west of the major oil fields , will affect the work of his company , which has investments here of $ 2 billion . Northern Yemen , however , warned foreign airlines and shipping companies Monday to stay clear of southern airports and seaports , saying they would be exposed to danger if they tried to land or dock at southern facilities . Beidh declared a Republic of Democratic Yemen in the south last Saturday and has moved his leadership to Mukalla . Beidh is serving as president of the breakaway government , and Haidar Abu Bakr Attas , a southerner who was federal prime minister , has joined it . In Washington , State Department spokesman Mike McCurry said Monday that the United States would not recognize the breakup and `` does not believe the critical issues which will shape the future of Yemen should be decided in the heat of battle . '' The conflict between Yemen 's northern and southern leaderships has settled into a fight over distribution of the country 's oil income , its ultimate political and social structure , and the patronage and shifting loyalties of its heavily armed tribes . `` The military situation is worse than we thought . They have come from Marib and taken Ataq and Nuqbah . We are trying to regroup to organize the tribes , '' said Mohsen Mohammed bin Farid , U.S.-educated secretary general of the Sons of Yemen League , which has thrown its support behind Beidh in an effort to fend off the offensive from the north . WASHINGTON The House Tuesday decided that if it could not speak with two voices about the international arms embargo of Bosnia , it would rather say nothing at all about the foreign policy issue for two weeks . The Senate recently approved two contradictory resolutions on ending the arms embargo , either unilaterally or with support from other nations . Until the Clinton administration intervened , the House was set to vote on two similar amendments to a $ 263 billion defense bill , under a procedure that allows lawmakers to support both . But House leaders postponed the votes until June 9 because officials concluded the administration-opposed amendment calling for President Clinton to lift the embargo unilaterally was likely to pass , while the administration-backed one urging the president to seek multilateral action to suspend or limit the embargo was headed for defeat . That outcome was likely even though the floor procedure favored the administration-backed amendment . Administration officials also successfully argued that the House would appear to be dictating Bosnia policy to Clinton and constraining his options just days before he visits Europe with the opportunity to persuade allied nations to join in lifting the arms embargo . Rep. Frank McCloskey , D-Ind. , and other advocates of ending the U.S. arms embargo on the embattled republic maintained a House vote for unilateral action would have helped Clinton next week in his talks with European leaders . `` I was getting very good feedback that the McCloskey amendment would have passed today . . . and very well reinforced President Clinton in dealing with the allies , '' McCloskey said . Asked how a House vote requiring the president to end the embargo unilaterally would have helped Clinton with the allies , given the Senate 's ambivalent stance , House Democratic Caucus Chairman Steny H. Hoyer , D-Md. , replied , `` I think it makes it clearer than if we say nothing . '' Clinton fared better in his lobbying against a proposal to scale back production of the C-17 , which he reminded the House carries economic punch as well as military cargo . Lawmakers approved , 330 to 100 , an amendment to maintain production at six planes next year instead of cutting the number to four as the defense bill stipulated . The vote was so lopsided that Rep. Elizabeth Furse , D-Ore. , dropped her proposed amendment to terminate C-17 production after next year . In a letter circulated to House members , Clinton advised that cutting production by two planes would `` cause at least 8,000 layoffs over the next two years '' and increase the cost per plane by $ 40 million to $ 50 million . Economic interests in maintaining C-17 production at current levels were apparent throughout the House debate . About 10,000 McDonnell Douglas Corp. employees build the planes in Long Beach , Calif. , and leading sponsors of the successful amendment included Rep. Steve Horn , R-Calif. , and Rep. Jane Harman , D-Calif. Horn is from Long Beach , while Harman represents nearby Los Angeles suburbs . CAPE TOWN , South Africa Two weeks after a negotiated revolution swept him into power as this country 's first black president , Nelson Mandela laid out his vision for the new era Tuesday with a promise to create jobs and ease the wretched conditions in which most blacks live . But first , the economy must grow and nervous investors must be reassured , Mandela , who helped create a black guerrilla movement 32 years ago to fight white minority rule , said in a State of the Nation speech in the new all-race Parliament . Mandela outlined an immediate , First-100-Days plan that provides free medical care for impoverished infants , nutritious meals for the poorest schoolchildren , electrification of thousands of rural homes and a public works program to create jobs instantly . In defining where the country is headed in the next five years of interim black-white coalition rule , Mandela employed the staid language of international finance and of lecture hall economists . Sometimes whole chunks of his speech seemed to have been written by international trickle-down theorists . `` In support of sustainable economic growth and the macro-economic objectives of government , it will remain the primary objective of monetary policy to promote and maintain overall financial stability , '' Mandela said . Gone was the populist rhetoric of the early days of the campaign for the presidency , when `` amaQabane '' ( `` comrades '' in both the Zulu and Xhosa languages ) talked of wealth redistribution and original African National Congress policy documents spoke of nationalization of diamond mines controlled by whites . Now , the euphoria of their election victory is quickly giving way to the less exalted and entirely boring nuts-and-bolts reality of governing . Life is by no means business-as-usual in the new South Africa . The mere focus of a presidential speech on black needs is unheard of in the country 's history . But white Finance Minister Derek Keys is staying on in his job , as is the governor of the reserve bank , Chris Stals . Their retention by Mandela is meant to signal nervous white business leaders , who have been stashing their money abroad to keep it out of the reach of the new black government , that the country will be kept safe for capital . Last week , when an ANC-aligned economist said the new government 's Reconstruction and Development Program will carry more than twice its previously estimated price tag of $ 11 billion , the Johannesburg Stock Exchange went into a mild panic . Tuesday the leftist labor leader Jay Naidoo , appointed by Mandela to coordinate the reconstruction effort in devastated black communities , said : `` We need to maintain fiscal discipline . We need to contain inflation . Those are universal principles of a modern economy . '' The soothing noises and economic obfuscation may be necessary , said some of even the most left-wing of the previously left-leaning ANC . The new administration , said communist leader Ronnie Kasrils , needs to create elbow room for itself so that the most urgent needs of blacks can be attended to right away without scaring whites . ( Optional add end ) `` I think at this point in time he ( Mandela ) is trying to soothe the nerves of the old regime I 'm not saying he has to , '' said Kasrils , a member of Parliament . `` At the same time , there are sufficient signals to show our people that we are immediately moving to take action on their part . '' Mandela said that the First-100-Days plan will be carried out `` within the context of a policy aimed at building a strong and growing economy . '' His trade minister , the ANC 's Trevor Manuel , pleaded for understanding , saying that if the president didn't make conciliatory gestures now , he never would once blacks began to consolidate power . `` This is not the time or place '' for revolutionary talk , Manuel said . In what has the makings of another setback for President Clinton and the Democratic Party , Republican Christian bookstore owner Ron Lewis took an early lead in the bitter contest to fill the Kentucky seat held by Rep. William H. Natcher , the Democratic incumbent who died earlier this year . The Lewis campaign , which had been considered a longshot , sought to turn the contest into a referendum on the Clinton administration in the traditionally Democratic , but deeply conservative , 2nd Congressional District of Kentucky . Backed with $ 200,000 from national GOP committees , Lewis charged that Joe Prather , the Democratic nominee , was cut from the same mold as Clinton . His TV commericals repeated over and over again : `` Kentucky doesn't need Joe Prather . Send a message to Bill Clinton . Send Ron Lewis to Congress . Ron Lewis , he 's one of us . '' The results in the Kentucky contest will help determine how much Democratic House candidates in tough elections , expecially those in southern districts , seek to distance themselves from the Clinton administration . Republicans are already touting the victory of Frank Lukas in a once rock-solid Democratic district in Oklahoma in a contest earlier this month to replace Rep. Glen English , D-Okla . It is also a worry for Democrats that they could have a hard time holding on to some of the seats being vacated by longtime incumbents . NEW YORK The chairman of the Fox Broadcasting Co. said Tuesday that the defection of eight CBS affiliate stations to her network was directly attributable to Fox 's December acquisition of broadcast rights to National Football League games over the next four years . `` These CBS stations were not real happy that CBS lost the NFL ; that was a big , big blow to them , '' Lucie Salhany , the chairman of Fox said Tuesday in an interview here at a media luncheon attended by several Fox football executives and announcers . `` The NFL was critical to this deal . '' Monday , Fox announced it had invested $ 500 million to buy 20 percent of New World Communciations Group Inc. . New World owns CBS stations in Detroit , Cleveland , Atlanta , Tampa and Milwaukee , all of which will switch to Fox . New World is buying another seven stations in Dallas ; Kansas City , Mo. ; Phoenix ; St. Louis ; Greensboro , N.C. ; Birmingham , and Austin , Texas , and those seven will switch to Fox . Three are currently ABC stations , one is an NBC affiliate . All 12 stations are on the more powerful VHF dial and are expected to switch to Fox programming within six months . On Dec. 17 , Fox stunned CBS by outbidding the NFL 's long-time network for the rights to televise the league over the next four seasons . Fox paid $ 1.58 billion $ 395 million for each year of the contract for the rights to carry National Football Conference games . The deal with New World means 10 of the 14 NFC cities will have Fox owned and operated stations . The addition of the 12 stations also gives Fox penetration to 97 percent of the country , up from 92 percent when it was awarded the NFC rights by the NFL . Salhany said Tuesday that within the next two weeks , Fox will announce the addition of several more stations , all on the VHF band of channels 2 through 13 . She also indicated that Fox was very interested in acquiring other sports properties and will make a serious bid for the 2000 Summer Olympics in Sydney . The network 's parent company , Fox Inc. , is owned by Australian-born media magnate Rupert Murdoch , now a U.S. citizen . Its sports division is headed by another Australian , David Hill . Hill and other Fox Sports people were ebullient over the addition of the former CBS affiliates , as was the NFL . `` We 're tickled that everything this network committed to the NFL has happened , '' Hill said . `` It 's easy to say it all , but step by step we 're proving to the NFL and our viewers we 're delivering everything we 've promised . This is another brick in the wall . '' Val Pinchbeck , vice president of broadcasting for the NFL , said one of the league 's initial concerns with Fox was its ability to provide the same sort of strong signal and blanket coverage CBS delivered for 30 years . `` This is another giant step forward in that whole area , '' he said Tuesday . `` They didn't talk specifically to us in December about this exact deal . But they indicated they would replicate the CBS coverage . This also goes beyond sports . In major markets , it gives you a stronger VHF station with better penetration . '' Over at CBS Sports , the reaction was predictably muted . `` I was stunned to hear about it , '' said David Kenin , the new president of CBS Sports , `` and who knows if anything else will happen , if there will be regulatory review . WASHINGTON U.S. Navy ships enforcing expanded United Nations sanctions against Haiti have fired warning shots at two vessels running the embargo and intercepted one of them , Pentagon officials said Tuesday . Acknowledging that gasoline and other vital products continue to enter Haiti , mostly from the Dominican Republic , Clinton administration officials said they are combining political pressure on the Dominican Republic with an increase in seaborne patrols to try to halt the commerce . President Clinton 's special envoy for Haiti , William Gray , is going to the Dominican Republic Wednesday to seek President Joaquin Balaguer 's cooperation in closing the land border and shutting down seaborne traffic , U.S. officials said . With the dispatch of two more U.S. Navy ships to the area Tuesday , the armada patrolling the Haitian coast has grown to ten eight from the United States , one from Canada and one from Argentina , Pentagon officials said . The Navy has been authorized to fire `` disabling '' shots as well as warnings , and is free to operate inside Haitian territorial waters to block nautical traffic into Haiti , said Pentagon spokesman Dennis Boxx . According to Boxx and Navy officials , the first shooting incident occurred Sunday when a Bahamian-registered seagoing tug named the Sea Search ignored instructions to stop . A Navy ship fired warning shots , but the tug fled toward shore . A brief squall then hid the tug from view briefly . By the time the U.S. crew spotted it again , the tug was only 800 yards from shore . With other ships and small boats in the area , `` it would have been too dangerous to fire '' disabling shots , a Navy official said . In the second incident , late Monday , a Navy frigate , the Antrim , `` encountered a Panamanian-flagged ship , the Leonese , off the north coast of Haiti , '' Boxx said . The Antrim `` ordered the ship to lay to . It did not . '' The Antrim then `` fired ten 50-caliber warning shots across the bow , and that ship did lay to . '' A Coast Guard crew searched the Leonese Tuesday , but a Navy spokesman said the results were not known by Tuesday night . The tighter U.N. sanctions , prohibiting all shipments to Haiti other than food and medicine , took effect Sunday . Since then , Boxx said , 14 ships heading for Haiti have been `` diverted '' and nine cleared to proceed . Even those that are cleared have their fuel tanks measured on the way in and again on the way out to ensure that they are not selling the contents on shore , a Navy spokesman said . A three-member team sent by the United Nations , including a U.S. customs agent , is inspecting the Dominican republic-Haiti border this week to determine what kinds of controls would be needed to stop the flow of goods across it . `` We 're trying to figure out what you could do with a cooperative ( Dominican ) government , '' one U.S. official said . `` Will they cooperate , and if so , what do we want them to do ? We have thought in terms of people who would be acceptable to the Dominican government , '' rather than a military force that would seal the border against Balaguer 's wishes , he said . Jacinto Peynado , who was elected vice president on Balaguer 's ticket in the Dominican Republic 's May 16 elections , said in Washington Tuesday that his country lacks the resources , and perhaps the will , to seal the border . `` Even the United States , with all its resources , cannot control the border with Mexico , '' he said . `` How can we be expected to seal a frontier that is mountainous and desolate ? '' He said the purpose of the embargo forcing Haiti 's military rulers to step aside and allow the return of ousted president Jean-Bertrand Aristide is of no concern to the Dominican Republic . `` Whether Aristide comes or goes is a matter for the Haitians , '' he said . Even as the Navy tries to halt the flow of goods into Haiti , a flotilla of another sort is being assembled to deal with the flow of Haitians out of the country . The Pentagon announced Tuesday that the 1,000-berth hospital ship Comfort has been deployed to the Caribbean for possible use as a migrant processing center . It will supplement two Ukranian cruise ships already chartered to serve in the refugee effort . Additionally , the State Department began hiring 100 to 200 new employes to assist in processing Haitian refugees . But the administration 's search for a place in the Caribbean to put the ships literally hit a reef . Having moved closer to getting British permission to station the ships in the Turks and Caicos Islands , administration officials said Tuesday they were having trouble finding a suitable spot for the big ships to anchor amid the 30 small , coral-strewn islands . Initially the administration hoped to find enough sheltered water in the Turks and Caicos to station a floating refugee camp . But , a senior administration official said , it does not appear that the Turks and Caicos , which are a British dependency , offer a safe place for such a setup . Anticipating that the Turks and Caicos will not be suitable , the administration has begun talks with Jamaica about setting up a processing center there , officials said . Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott is scheduled to visit Jamaica next week , a State Department official said . On Capitol Hill Tuesday , House members approved , 223 to 201 , a nonbinding resolution offered by Rep. Porter Goss , R-Fla. , urging joint action with the Organization of American States and United Nations to turn the Haitian island of Gonave into a safe haven for Haitian refugees . The House also rejected , 236 to 191 , another resolution sponsored by House Foreign Affairs Chairman Lee Hamilton , D-Ind. , and Armed Services Chairman Ronald V. Dellums , D-Calif. , calling for extending economic sanctions to commercial air flights and processing Haitian refugess on land rather than at sea . Asked to explain the meaning of the two votes , Goss said : `` It basically says the safe haven approach is a whole lot better than sanctions that are not working . '' NEW YORK Shouting their defiance , four Islamic militants were sentenced Tuesday to life in prison without parole for last year 's bombing of the World Trade Center . In imposing the maximum possible punishment for what the government has termed `` the worst act of terrorism in U.S. history , '' U.S. . District Judge Kevin T. Duffy called the defendants sneaks and cowards . `` What you sought to do in the name of Islam , '' he admonished them , ` ` .. . violated the laws not only of man , but God . '' The noontime explosion on Feb. 26 , 1993 , killed six people , injured more than 1,000 and filled the 110-story twin towers with smoke and flames . It also shattered America 's sense of post-Cold War invulnerability , and the belief that terrorism was an overseas phenomenon . Evidence presented during the trial showed that the defendants had sought to punish Americans for their support of Israel by targeting one of the nation 's best-known landmarks . `` There has been no remorse shown , merely arrogance and nothing else , '' Duffy said as he sentenced the principal defendant , Mohammed A . Salameh , 26 , who allegedly rented the van that carried the 1,200-pound bomb into the trade center 's underground garage . `` Somehow you have a sense of achievement . Perhaps you feel you are a martyr . '' Federal authorities broke the case last year after tracing the rented van to Salameh through an identification number found on a piece of debris . `` You chose a site to kill the greatest number of people possible , '' the judge told Salameh . If the bomb had been placed at the base of the Trade Center 's north tower , he observed , `` as many as 10,000 deaths could have resulted . '' ( Begin optional trim ) Outside the federal courthouse , where a jury had convicted the defendants on March 4 , dozens of New York police stood behind barricades to guard against violent demonstrations or perhaps another bombing attempt . No trouble ensued , and by late afternoon some officers were slumped over the wooden barricades as if dozing . Salameh , like the other defendants , said in remarks before sentencing that the months-long jury trial had been infected with bias because of unfair treatment by `` the media in the United States and Europe . '' He and his accomplices also objected that after firing their court-appointed lawyers two months ago , Duffy prohibited them from retaining famed civil rights lawyer William Kunstler to handle their appeals . Duffy ruled against Kunstler on grounds he already is representing one or two defendants in a related bombing conspiracy trial next fall involving a militant Egyptian sheik and a dozen others . Although the government would like Salameh and two other convicted bombers to testify at that trial , Salameh told the court in a booming voice : `` The government wants us to testify falsely in the name of cooperation . I will not testify in that other case against anyone . '' Referring to his own case , he said , `` I am not going to plead for mercy . I will not beg . '' Sheik Omar Abdel-Rahman , regarded by Salameh and the others as their spiritual leader , and 12 co-defendants are charged with conspiring not only to bomb the World Trade Center but also with plotting to blow up the United Nations building and the Lincoln and Holland commuter tunnels linking New York City with New Jersey . ( Begin optional trim ) Duffy reserved his harshest condemnation for the second defendant , Nidal A . Ayyad , 26 , a chemical engineer who helped finance the bombing and ordered chemicals and hydrogen gas for the homemade explosive device . `` You are clearly the most culpable of the defendants . You had the best breaks , '' Duffy told him , referring to his U.S. college education . The judge said Ayyad had violated the oath he took upon becoming a U.S. citizen `` and turned your life into a total lie . '' Ayyad also was convicted of sending an anonymous letter to The New York Times threatening further acts of violence unless the United States cut off all assistance to Israel . Ayyad responded defiantly to Duffy : `` You are only a judge . You can put me in prison for five or 10 lives . But God is more powerful than America . '' When Ayyad complained that `` human rights advocates '' had not monitored his treatment during months in detention , Duffy interjected : `` Did human rights organizations monitor the people whom you killed ? '' ( End optional trim ) The other two defendants , Mahmud Abouhalima , 34 , and Ahmad M. Ajaj , 28 , claimed they were victims of American injustice , repeatedly invoked the name of God , and said they would rely on divine law over human law . Abouhalima , the oldest of the defendants who was pictured as `` field general '' of the bombing , helped construct the bomb and purchased gas for the delivery van the morning of the crime . Ajaj was convicted of carrying bomb-making manuals into the country several months before the blast . In sentencing each to 240 years in prison , Duffy said 180 years of the sentence was based on the life expectancy of the six people who died in the explosion . He also imposed fines of $ 250,000 on each defendant to be used as restitution to families of the victims . Federal sources said they did not know if the fines ever could be collected . PORT-AU-PRINCE , Haiti Five of them sit at the pier , ships of all measure , varying from 70 feet to seven times that size . Some fly the Haitian flag , one the British ensign , and some fly no flags at all . They all have one thing in common : They defy the world . From the Leo , an anchorless rust bucket recently pulled from the beach where it had run aground , to the British-flagged Oakleigh , all have run a U.N. embargo to bring in tens of thousands of gallons of banned fuel oil . Jacmel , a resort created as a pseudo French seaside village by early 19th-century coffee magnates , has become the center of the Haitian military 's effort to break the international sanctions intended to force the army from power . `` The border is still a serious problem , '' a diplomat said of the frontier between Haiti and the Dominican Republic , `` and lots of gas comes through , but the biggest threat is now the sea . '' Under threat is the strategy by the United Nations and the United States to use a near-total embargo to end military rule and restore exiled President Jean-Bertrand Aristide , who was driven from office Sept. 20 , 1991 , after seven months as Haiti 's only democratically elected president . `` If we can't stop smuggling , especially from the D.R. , then the embargo is not only a failure , it is stupid , '' the diplomat said . `` Ships come all the time , '' said a foreign resident who has lived here for more than 20 years . `` They unload barrels of gas , or they just pump it out into truck tankers , all in plain sight of the choppers . '' The choppers are U.S. naval and Coast Guard helicopters flying from the 10-ship international flotilla that is supposed to enforce the embargo . Pentagon officials in Washington said Tuesday that 14 ships heading for Haiti had been diverted since Saturday , when the international embargo was widened to include all goods save food and humanitarian items . According to Jacmel residents , who have little else to do but monitor the comings and goings , only one ship has been turned back , a vessel that made it into the harbor but fled when the Coast Guard radioed that it would be seized if it sailed out empty . Another ship received the same warning but unloaded its cargo anyway . The captain , who called himself Dirty Harry , simply anchored the ship in the bay and abandoned it . He and the crew returned to the Dominican Republic overland , residents here said . Sunday , a 70-foot freighter called the Sea Search also ignored that warning as well as two cannon bursts from a Coast Guard cutter and tied up at the pier . The Pentagon officials said another ship sailing near Haiti 's north coast was intercepted and boarded by U.S. officials Monday and was still being searched Tuesday . The Sea Search , however , was unloading barrels of fuel Monday under the supervision of at least two Haitian army officers and in full view of reporters and other guests at a nearby hotel . As a result of the sieve-like blockade and a U.S. policy not to use deadly force , diplomats and other experts say Jacmel receives upward of 40 percent of the estimated 4 million gallons of gasoline being smuggled into Haiti . The most notorious ship is the Oakleigh , a 500-foot tanker that lists its home port as Aberdeen , Scotland . Monitors say it comes from the Dominican Republic every other day to unload at least 50,000 gallons each time . ( Optional add end ) One day over the weekend , nine tanker trucks lined up in Jacmel to offload fuel to be taken to the capital , Port-au-Prince , a two-hour drive to the southwest . There it is sold on the street for about $ 10 a gallon . Most of the smuggling , diplomats and Haitian businessmen say , is controlled by Gerard Caroli , a local businessman and close associate of Lt. Col. Michel-Joseph Francois , the Port-au-Prince police chief and , along with the army commander , Lt. Gen. Raoul Cedras , one of the two most powerful Haitian military leaders . While far and away the most important aspect of the smuggling , fuel is not the only product unloaded here . One ship this past week brought in thousands of bicycles , another a load of televisions and stereo equipment , `` all from Miami , '' according to one person who witnessed the unloading . WASHINGTON President Clinton met with more than a dozen foreign policy , economic and political advisers late Tuesday as he worked to shape a human rights policy toward China acceptable to opposing groups in Congress and within the administration itself . Having all but abandoned his threat to revoke outright China 's Most Favored Nation trade privileges unless Beijing improves its rights record , Clinton is pondering middle-ground proposals being drawn up by Secretary of State Warren Christopher . At issue is whether any trade lever at all ought to be used to pry human rights concessions from China . After being briefed by Christopher Tuesday morning for the second day in a row , Clinton told reporters he had `` an idea of where it 's going , '' but declined to elaborate . `` We still have not only ongoing negotiations with Congress but with others as well , and there are a number of things that still have to be resolved , '' he said at a photo session with Guntis Ulmanis , the visiting president of Latvia . Officials described Tuesday 's Clinton-Christopher meeting as an `` informal '' report by Christopher on China as well as other subjects . One official said that `` virtually everyone in the Cabinet and subcabinet has an opinion '' on the issue . Congressional sources said three options , and perhaps some combination of them , are alive . One is a simple extension of MFN , coupled with creation of an American committee to advise Clinton on China and establishment of a Chinese-American binational committee to investigate human rights . The second option is a ban on weapons and ammunitions imports from China . Armements are produced by the People 's Liberation Army , which carried out the 1989 crackdown on student pro-democracy demonstrators in Tiananmen square . The repression soured the mood of relations and enraged many members of Congress . Both options would require no more than an executive order from Clinton and so avoid a congressional battle over China . The third option is to increase levies on a host of goods produced by the army in order to bite more deeply into the Chinese economy . That proposal would require legislation . The White House is preoccupied with callibrating its decision to produce the least political turmoil among Democrats in particular , a senior official said . `` There isn't much doubt we would prevail in any vote on this issue in the Senate , '' said a senior official , `` The point is we would like to achieve a solution that is acceptable to the Democratic Senate leadership and leaders on this issue in particular . ' Extending MFN with no punitive or with limited punitive measures would win the support of 60 votes in the Senate , a Democratic leadership aide in the Senate said Tuesday . The House is another matter , and officials have had dozens of conversations with Rep. Nancy Pelosi , D-Calif. , a leading human rights proponent for China , as well House Democratic leaders and others aimed at heading off a confrontation there . The White House expects Rep. Gerald B . Solomon , R-N.Y. , to introduce a resolution to rescind MFN , as he has done every year since 1989 . Clinton said he will announce his decision before he leaves for Europe June 1 . Aides said the announcement probably would come by Friday because of Congress ' strong desire Congress to discuss the issue publicly before the Memorial Day recess , which begins Friday . `` He is going to get the stuffing knocked out of him if he does it when we are not here , '' said one Democratic official who fears a too lenient ruling toward China and wants to register a public protest . Christopher , who reported to Clinton Monday that China had met minimal conditions for continuation of its low tariff trade status , devoted much of Tuesday to Congressional consultations , in an indication of the political heat that surrounds the pending decision . After conferring with Pelosi , who is pressing for sweeping sanctions on goods produced by the army , Christopher met with Sen. Max Baucus , D-Mont. , and other Senators who urged him extend China 's trade priveleges unconditionally rather than risk lost American business and worsening relaitons with Beijing . Senatorial aides described Christopher as guarded in discussing which option he might choose . Baucus , Sen. John C. Danforth , R-Mo. , and Reps. Robert Matsui , D-Calif. , and Jim Kolbe , R-Ariz. , wrote a letter to Clinton opposing the proposal to raise tariffs on limited numbers of products produced either by the Chinese army or state owned industries . WASHINGTON Three months after U.S.-Japanese ties sank to their lowest point in the Clinton administration , negotiators agreed Tuesday to resume trade talks , with U.S. officials painting a suddenly sunny picture of one of the country 's most important , but troubled , relationships . `` No one can guarantee that these agreements are going to work , '' said President Clinton 's senior trade assistant , Mickey Kantor . But , he added : `` I can tell you we have momentum and dedication and purpose and involvement at the highest level of the Japanese and U.S. governments . '' U.S. and Japanese officials said the accord , hammered out in five days of meetings , gets the two sides over a key hurdle involving how to determine whether the terms of any trade agreement are being met if numerical targets , to which the Japanese object , are not included . Stripped of the diplomatic veneer in which it was cloaked , the breakthrough is little more than an agreement to return to the negotiating table . And it leaves the two trading giants not much closer to a substantive agreement than they were last July when they first established a `` framework '' for their talks . The agreement , said Japanese Foreign Minister Koji Kakizawa in Tokyo , brings the two sides to the `` starting line , not the goal . '' It was reached by senior-level negotiators at 1:30 a.m. EDT , then sealed in a 14-minute telephone conversation nine hours later between Clinton and the new Japanese prime minister , Tsutomu Hata . `` Both agreed that we can move forward now quickly , '' said Kantor , the U.S. trade representative . The negotiations are intended to increase foreign sales in Japan in four key economic sectors : government procurement of medical and telecommunications equipment , insurance , automobiles and auto parts . Kantor expressed hope that the talks could be broadened to include financial services , glass products and intellectual property rights , which covers an array of creative endeavors ranging from musical composition to pharmaceutical research . Despite the limited nature of Tuesday 's agreement , Hata expressed confidence that it will lead to an actual trade accord . `` Not only Japan but the whole world is watching , '' Hata said . `` I am absolutely confident we will find a way . Japan is determined to open its markets , and the U.S. is just as determined to sell here . '' In the long run , U.S. officials hope Japan will relax its barriers to foreign products and bring down its trade surplus , which last year reached $ 131 billion in goods and services . Its trade surplus with the United States was $ 59 billion , and is expected to climb this year . ( Optional add end ) The United States offered a firm commitment to avoid specific numerical targets for foreign sales in Japan . Instead , the two sides agreed to place their focus on `` results-oriented goals , '' which would include both `` quantitative and qualitative criteria . '' A quantitative measurement , Kantor said , could include `` the prompt , substantial and continuous increase in sales '' by foreign insurance companies in Japan , for example , or in the number of U.S. car dealerships in Japan . A qualitative measure , he said , could be the degree of cooperation between U.S. auto parts suppliers and Japanese carmakers in research and development projects . At the same time , the United States retained the option to use trade laws , including the imposition of tariffs and quotas on Japanese products sold in this country , if sufficient progress is not made in the resumed talks . The parent company of Denny 's announced Tuesday that it will pay more than $ 46 million to settle cases of alleged racial bias in restaurants in California , Maryland and Virginia . Denny 's opted to settle the claims partly `` because it became clear to us that the costs of litigating all of them would be unacceptably high , '' said Jerome J. Richardson , chairman and chief executive of Flagstar Companies Inc. of Spartanburg , S.C. , which owns Denny 's . `` We deeply regret these individuals feel they were not treated fairly at Denny 's , '' Richardson added . `` We invite any customers who have perceived discrimination at Denny 's to give us another opportunity to serve them . '' In announcing the settlement , the 1,515-restaurant chain admitted no wrongdoing . It had been contesting these charges : That a Denny 's in San Jose , Calif. discriminated against 40 black patrons by a late-night , prepay requirement , which made them pay in advance for meals . Each of the 40 will receive $ 25,000 . Another $ 27 million will be set aside for future claims . About 3,000 California customers say they were victims of racial bias at Denny 's . That a Denny 's in Annapolis , Md. grossly delayed service to six black uniformed members of the U.S. . Secret Service but promptly served whites . Denny 's will pay the six $ 35,000 each . Another 12 plaintiffs will be paid $ 15,000 , with $ 17.3 million set aside for future claims . Another 1,300 claims are pending nationwide , excluding California . That a Virginia Denny 's refused to serve the Martin Luther King Jr. . All Children 's Choir , including 132 singers and chaperones . After 11 p.m. , Denny 's says , it needed prior arrangements for prompt service to a group that large . It is paying $ 450,000 to settle this complaint , filed with the Prince William County , Va. , Human Rights Commission . Of the $ 46 million settlement , Denny 's says , $ 8.7 million is going to lawyers . The parent company approached the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People in 1991 for help in resolving issues of racial bias at Denny 's and other subsidiaries . Last July the two reached a $ 1 billion Fair Share Agreement , which is designed to pump jobs and dollars into the black community . `` We hope such incidents never again occur at Denny 's or any other restaurant chain , '' the NAACP said Tuesday in a prepared statement . ( Optional add end ) In coming months , it added , it expects to see Denny 's hire and promote more minorities , along with stepped-up trade between Denny 's and minority-owned media and suppliers . The flagship Denny 's opened in California in 1953 . Of its 1,515 outlets now , 1,025 are corporate-owned . Sixty-three are joint ventures in foreign countries , and the rest are owned by 168 franchisees . Thirty-eight of the franchisees are minorities , but none is black . JOHANNESBURG , South Africa On a sunny day of pomp and pageantry , President Nelson Mandela outlined a soaring vision for the new South Africa Tuesday in his first State of the Nation speech , a carefully crafted address that tried to balance the needs of poor blacks with the fears of rich whites . The nationally televised speech before a joint session of the multiracial National Assembly and Senate in the Parliament building in Cape Town set a healing tone and a moderate course for the new democracy as it struggles to shed the social and economic inequities of apartheid . The goal , Mandela repeatedly vowed , is a `` people-centered society . '' Its aims are nothing less than `` freedom from want , freedom from hunger , freedom from deprivation , freedom from ignorance , freedom from suppression and freedom from fear . '' `` Let us all get down to work , '' he said , to a standing ovation from the 490 legislators . He pleaded for reconciliation and an end to racism. saying that derisive words like kaffirs for blacks , coolies for Asians and baas for a white boss should be expunged from the national vocabulary . And in perhaps the most moving section , he read a poem linking the growth of an African child to the demand for freedom . The author was Ingrid Jonker , who committed suicide in 1965 after breaking with her father , a conservative Afrikaner legislator , over the injustice and indignity of apartheid . `` To her and others like her , we owe a commitment to the poor , the oppressed , the wretched and the despised , '' Mandela said . Despite the inspiring rhetoric , Mandela 's initial programs and policies were unexpectedly modest for a country in which nearly half the black majority is unemployed , illiterate and without proper health care or housing . The limited scope reflected the reality of a government based on a still-untested power-sharing formula and an economy emerging from a four-year recession and a decade of capital flight . In his most specific pledge , Mandela promised to start a 100-day crash program under his personal supervision to provide immediate health and nutrition services to impoverished families . Under the program , children under the age of 6 and pregnant women will receive free medical care in every state hospital and clinic . Supplementary feeding programs for malnourished children also will begin in every primary school `` where such need is established , '' Mandela said . Beyond that , he pledged to invest `` substantial amounts '' to provide nine years of free compulsory education . And he said he had given instructions `` as a matter of urgency .. . to empty our prisons of children and place them in suitable alternative care . '' Mandela has said as many as 25,000 children and juveniles are held in detention and prisons , but government leaders and corrections officials have strenuously denied the charge . Although Mandela conceded that `` many details .. . remain to be discussed , agreed ( to ) and put in place , '' he also pledged to start a public works program to `` rebuild our townships , restore services in rural and urban areas '' and create millions of jobs . He gave no overall cost but said his government would allocate $ 735 million in its first budget for the so-called reconstruction and development plan . He said the money would come from savings and redirected spending in the anticipated $ 36 billion budget , which will be announced next month . ( Begin optional trim ) Mandela clearly hoped the speech would reassure the still-nervous national and international business communities , which are awaiting clear signals of intent and policy from a coalition government that includes Joe Slovo , the chairman of the Communist Party , and many other ANC leaders trained in the former Soviet Union and other East Bloc countries . Eager to create a favorable investment environment , Mandela said he is determined `` to contain general government consumption at present levels and to manage the budget deficit with a view to its continuous reduction . '' But he offered something less than a no-new-taxes pledge , saying the new coalition Cabinet was `` agreed that a permanently higher general level of taxation is to be avoided . '' ( End optional trim ) Mandela 's speech was partly overshadowed by a controversy over the surreptitious hand-over by the former government of about 7 million acres of state land to a trust controlled by Zulu King Goodwill Zwelithini . The transfer was signed by then-President Frederik W. de Klerk a day before the elections and was reported by a local newspaper Friday . Both de Klerk and Zulu Chief Mangosuthu Gatsha Buthelezi have denied wrongdoing in the last-minute transfer of nearly one-third of the land in the new province of KwaZulu-Natal . The deal has raised suspicions because it was completed just as Buthelezi and the king ended an election boycott . The boycott was ostensibly based on demands for an autonomous Zulu homeland . Mandela , who has said he was unaware of the transaction , has ordered a Cabinet commission to look into the arrangement . He did not mention the issue , or his campaign promises for land reform , in his address . The new lawmakers 400 from the National Assembly and 90 from the Senate also make up the Constitutional Assembly , which will draft a permanent constitution within two years to replace the interim charter used to guide the country through last month 's election . Cyril Ramaphosa , the ANC 's secretary-general , was elected without opposition earlier Tuesday as the Constitutional Assembly 's chairman . Ramaphosa , who was widely acclaimed as the ANC 's chief negotiator for the interim constitution , declined to join Mandela 's Cabinet after he was passed over as deputy president . ( Optional add end ) In another announcement , the new defense minister , Joe Modise , said he has reappointed the former government 's military chief for a five-year term . He said Gen. Georg Meiring would run the new South African National Defense Force , which will include both regular troops and former anti-government guerrillas . SACRAMENTO , Calif. . A bill requiring juvenile graffiti vandals to be punished with as may as 10 whacks of a wooden paddle was introduced Tuesday by an Orange County Assemblyman , who declared the public is `` sick and tired '' of the way such offenders are `` coddled '' by the criminal justice system . `` It is hard to take pride in your neighborhood when everything you see is covered with graffiti , '' said Republican Assemblyman Mickey Conroy . `` That is why paddling is so important . `` If we can stop these punks who have no respect for other people , we can give the neighborhoods back to the law-abiding citizens of this state . '' Conroy said recent public opinion polls show overwhelming public support for his idea . Those polls were taken in connection with a highly publicized case in which an American teen-ager was caned in Singapore for spraying paint on cars . Conroy also said he has received almost 200 letters and telephone calls in support of his proposal from across the United States . Graffiti abatement cost Orange County $ 1.2 million in Santa Ana alone last year and the Orange County Flood Control District spent $ 500,000 more , according to Conroy , who said the state spent more than $ 30 million on graffiti removal last year . Conroy 's measure , AB150X , ran into immediate opposition from Democratic Assembly Speaker Willie Brown . Asked at a Capitol news conference about the bill , Brown said he would not vote for the legislation . `` A harsh penalty must be imposed , '' Brown said , `` but I don't think it has to be a whipping . '' Brown said he also doesn't believe the Assembly Public Safety Committee , the first stop for Conroy 's bill , will agree with Conroy 's views on paddling . As proposed by Conroy , any juvenile convicted of graffiti vandalism would be given four to 10 whacks with a wooden paddle in addition to any other sentence that might be handed down by the judge . The name of the juvenile also would be made public . ( Optional add end ) The paddle would be made of three-quarter-inch thick hardwood , 18 inches long and 6 inches wide . The whacks would be administered on the outside of clothes , not the bare buttocks . As outlined in the bill , the paddling would be administered by the minor 's parent . If the parent declines or paddles too lightly , the judge can order a bailiff to do the job . `` I would rather give these juvenile misfits a little sting on their bottom early on when they are young , '' Conroy said , `` so five or 10 years from now we don't see these same kids in adult court , facing a more serious charge of rape or murder . '' Conroy said he believes paddling would survive a court test on the issue of cruel and unusual punishment . WASHINGTON In a decision crucial to the future of the C-17 military cargo jet program , the House voted 330-100 Tuesday to authorize production of six of the McDonnell Douglas Corp. planes , restoring production of two aircraft deleted in previous committee action . The House action blunted efforts to force the Pentagon to buy existing commercial jets as an alternative to the C-17 , an action that would have seriously undercut the future of the program . Air Force Undersecretary Rudy de Leon said in an interview the House vote was an important endorsement of the Pentagon 's plan to put McDonnell Douglas on probation and measure over the next two years whether the company can correct longstanding problems at its Long Beach , Calif. , plant . `` We really want to put the C-17 on a solid profile so we can judge whether McDonnell Douglas can produce at cost and on schedule , '' de Leon said . ( Optional add End ) The House vote marked one of the few times the California congressional delegation formed a voting block to support a defense program in the state , a major departure from past years when weapons programs attracted weak support from California Democrats . The C-17 is assembled at McDonnell Douglas ' massive complex in Long Beach , supporting 10,000 jobs at the plant and another 8,000 at subcontractors around Southern California . Nationally , about 30,000 jobs are tied to the aircraft 's production , now the Pentagon 's largest program . The C-17 has long been controversial . McDonnell is an estimated $ 1.6 billion over budget on the aircraft program and has experienced a long series of embarrassing technical problems , including the failure of C-17 wings to meet strength requirements . WASHINGTON Republican lawmakers stepped up pressure on Democrats Tuesday to schedule congressional hearings into the Whitewater affair , as Special Counsel Robert B . Fiske Jr. wound down the initial phase of his investigation of President Clinton 's role in the failed Arkansas land venture . Ending what had been the Clinton administration 's first extended respite from GOP criticism over Whitewater , more than 90 House Republicans led by Rep. John T. Doolittle , R-Calif. , introduced a resolution calling for concurrent hearings by five congressional committees . The hearings would begin no later than Aug. 15 , the resolution states . In the Senate , Republicans were threatening to force a vote on hearings before the end of the week if behind-the-scenes negotiations between party leaders fail to resolve a long-running partisan dispute over the timing and forum for a congressional probe . GOP sources said `` some progress '' was made following a meeting Monday between Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell , D-Maine , and Minority Leader Bob Dole , R-Kan. , but the two sides continued to disagree over ground rules . If no agreement is reached by Wednesday , they said , Republicans might try to force a Whitewater vote before lawmakers leave town for a weeklong Memorial Day recess . Both the House and the Senate voted in March to recommend that Congress hold hearings on the Whitewater affair provided Democratic and Republican leaders could structure them in a way that did not interfere with Fiske 's criminal investigation . Since then , Republicans have repeatedly accused the Democrats of stalling the public probe in hopes that public interest in Whitewater would completely subside . In recent days , several developments have given Clinton 's GOP critics what they see as an opportunity to renew their calls for public Whitewater hearings . One involves charges of sexual harassment filed against Clinton by former Arkansas state employee Paula Corbin Jones . Another is the anticipated indictment of House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dan Rostenkowski , D-Ill. , on felony charges . Both situations , while unrelated to Whitewater , have provided GOP sharpshooters with new ammunition to use in their ethics attacks on Democrats . `` The Paula Jones thing makes Clinton more vulnerable on Whitewater , and visa versa , because they both address the character question , '' said one Republican leadership aide . ( Optional add end ) Fiske , meanwhile , is nearing the end of the first phase of his investigation into Whitewater Development Corp. and its possible contribution to the failure of a Little Rock , Ark. , thrift . Fiske has repeatedly stated that , while he would prefer no public hearings at this stage , he would not object to a limited congressional probe once the first phase of his investigation was completed . House Speaker Tom Foley , D-Wash. , plans to meet with Fiske Thursday to `` sound him out '' on possible hearings once his initial probe is finished , a Democratic aide said . But Doolittle and other Republicans charged that the Democrats were still playing for time , hoping that health care reform and other concerns will once again submerge questions about Whitewater . `` Two months have elapsed since the House passed '' a resolution recommending Whitewater hearings and `` those hearings have yet to materialize and no timetable has been set , '' Doolittle said , adding that , `` it 's time we do something about it . '' NEW YORK From Madison Avenue to Wall Street Tuesday , they were watching CBS . Not `` Hard Copy '' or `` Geraldo , '' but CBS ' business prospects for success in the coming months as the network faces the daunting reality that it will lose up to eight of its major affiliate stations to Rupert Murdoch 's brash young fourth network , Fox Inc. , which last year stole away CBS ' long-held contract to broadcast National Football Conference games . Tuesday , CBS stock continued its two-day decline sparked by Monday 's announcement that Fox Inc. had agreed to invest $ 500 million in New World Comunications Group . As part of that bargain it will gain up to 12 TV stations as affiliates , many in major markets , that currently are affiliated with CBS , NBC and ABC . The biggest loser was CBS . CBS ' stock price fell 33 , or 11 percent , since its Friday closing of 303 , finishing out Tuesday at 270 . That means Loews Corp. , the conglomerate controlled by CBS Chairman Laurence Tisch and his brother Preston R. Tisch , lost about $ 100 million on paper over two days . Although advertising executives said the news was clearly a major blow for CBS , they said the full impact of Fox 's deal could not be calculated . The timing is tricky , since it is the beginning of the season known as the `` upfront . '' That 's when advertisers lock up rates for prime-time shows and make ad time commitments for the September to August season . The Fox deal could hurt CBS , which expects to control $ 1 billion of an estimated $ 4 billion upfront ad market , by making buyers less willing to pay top rates . `` An astute buyer will use this as leverage , '' said Steven Auerbach , a media buying consultant . Added Bruce Goerlich , senior vice president and media director USA for ad agency DMB&B : `` This is a good shot over the bow , and it will cause CBS to list a bit . '' Losing affiliate VHF stations those with channel positions of up to 13 on the dial is a serious blow for CBS , observers said . CBS already faces a strong challenge to its fall lineup from rival ABC , which reaches the younger audience desired by advertisers . CBS could wind up with weak lead-ins to its strong shows , such as the `` Late Show with David Letterman , '' as it is forced to replace the affiliates with less popular stations , some of them UHF stations that appear above 13 on the dial . The Fox deal is likely to spark a scramble as networks compete for the stronger affiliates . The loss of the eight stations will not happen all at once because of different contract periods . It also might not affect where advertisers put their money this year . Those decisions are driven largely by the demographic profiles of the network audiences , said Betsy Frank , senior vice president and director of TV information and new media at Saatchi & Saatchi . But , she added , concerns over CBS ' lineup of affiliates in major markets could cause media buyers to push for discounts . ( Optional add end ) CBS ' Tony Malara , president of affiliate relations , got the bad news early Monday morning that CBS would be losing its five affiliate stations owned by New World in Atlanta , Tampa , Cleveland , Detroit and Milwaukee , and stood to lose three more once New World completes its planned acquisition of two other companies that own CBS affiliates . Soon Malara was on the phone talking to station owners . Malara said Tuesday that he actually sees some potential opportunities , such as finding new affiliates that will carry Letterman . Currently , four of New World 's stations air Letterman a half hour late , and Milwaukee doesn't carry him at all . WASHINGTON Presidential candidate Bill Clinton vowed he would punish Chinese leaders by revoking China 's preferential trading status if they failed to demonstrate documented progress in human rights . President Clinton is just about to do the opposite . Clinton is expected to announce soon that he is renewing China 's most-favored-nation trading status despite China 's inability to meet several human rights objectives outlined by Clinton in an executive order a year ago . In doing so , Clinton would begin the process of de-linking human rights issues from trade policy a link that has been a hallmark of Democratic party foreign policy for 20 years . Clinton is not alone . In Congress where the sentiment for such a linkage was first nurtured and frequently promoted many members who previously supported revoking China 's trading rights have changed their minds . Indeed , Secretary of State Warren Christopher Tuesday went to Capitol Hill to gauge how much the sentiment has changed in the past year , his spokesman said . Christopher said he hasn't made a recommendation to the president . Clinton told reporters he would make an announcement before departing for Europe June 1 by law his deadline is June 3 . `` The administration is definitely moving toward de-linking human rights and trade , and there is widespread support in Congress for that , '' said Bonnie Glaser , a Washington-based consultant on Chinese affairs . Rep. Gary Ackerman , D-N.Y. , chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Subcommittee on Asia and Pacific Affairs and a longtime advocate of tying economic relations to a nation 's human rights record , said Clinton `` should abandon the charade of linking MFN to human rights. .. . This has become a silly dance . We demand they take action , they let three or four people out of jail and we call it a victory . We should be using other levers , so let 's drop the fig leaf of MFN . '' Clinton may not explicitly say that he is de-linking human rights and trade , and indeed may levy some minor sanctions on China to indicate his displeasure with its human rights policies . Aides indicate the president will portray his actions as a middle course , but experts say he essentially will be abandoning his previous tough line on China . `` That 's just trying to prevent Bill Clinton from having egg all over his face , '' Glaser said . The main reason for the change is that the prospect of 1.2 billion Chinese one day buying American goods has proven far more persuasive than the forced labor camps , silenced dissidents and jammed Voice of America broadcasts . All but nine nations have MFN status with the United States , and those nine are minor economic powers like Cuba and Vietnam . Trade with China is now $ 40 billion and growing rapidly every year , and the economic implications of revoking MFN with China became virtually impossible to contemplate for the administration . `` It is so clear to the rest of the world that we 've moved far more on this than China has , '' said Alan Tonelson , research director at the Economic Strategy Institute , a Washington-based think tank specializing in trade issues . The linkage between human rights and trade started 20 years ago in Congress , when the late Sen. Henry Jackson , D-Wash. , and then-Rep. Charles Vanik , D-Ohio , pushed through legislation tying the then-miniscule trade with the Soviet Union and other communist nations to their record in allowing the emigration of Jews . ( Optional add end ) Although presidents , as a matter of principle , resisted congressional attempts to link human rights to their ability to conduct foreign policy , former President Carter made human rights a centerpiece of his foreign policy . Christopher , then the No. 2 man in Carter 's State Department , was the administration 's coordinator for human rights and institutionalized the linkage between human rights and foreign policy , using trade and economic aid as weapons . Now , in a different administration , Christopher is seeking to bend , if not break , the ties between human rights and the use of MFN status . WASHINGTON White House special counsel Lloyd N . Cutler said Tuesday that Paula Corbin Jones ' sexual harassment lawsuit against President Clinton should be postponed because it would harm the president to have to deal with it while he is in office . Cutler , appearing on the McNeil-Lehrer NewsHour , was the first administration official to state publicly that the lawsuit should not be allowed to go forward at this time . He laid out a comprehensive administration argument for granting Clinton immunity from having to deal with the Jones lawsuit while he is in office . He also suggested that Clinton would pursue that claim up to the Supreme Court , a strategy that could help the administration delay the taking of depositions or other discovery in the case . Cutler said resolving that question could take `` well over a year , perhaps longer . '' Clinton 's private lawyer , Robert S. Bennett , said Tuesday that he will claim that Clinton cannot be sued while in office . He has until July 15 to file papers in the case . The Justice Department is also planning to file a brief expressing its official view in the case , in which a former Arkansas state employee claims Clinton sexually harassed her when he was governor . Because the department is charged with protecting the prerogatives of the executive branch , it would be surprising if it did not support some claim of presidential immunity . The issue is an unresolved legal question . The Supreme Court has said that presidents may not be sued for their acts as president , but has never addressed the question of private conduct . Cutler did not argue that there is a blanket rule protecting a president while in office from being sued for his private acts . He said that in cases where `` immediate relief '' is required such as a divorce , a failure to pay child support , or a zoning dispute a case might be allowed to proceed . Cutler said `` the issue has to be judged in each case , '' weighing the needs of the person suing against the duties of the president . But he argued that in the case of the Jones lawsuit , the fact that the alleged conduct took place 20 months before Clinton took office and that she waited an additional 16 months before bringing suit should be factored into that decision . `` What would be lost in balancing her interest against the interest of the presidency if it were deferred for an additional period , '' Cutler said . `` No immediate relief is required here . This case was brought on the 364th day of the third year '' the last day before it would have been barred under the Arkansas statute of limitations . Cutler set out what the administration may well argue should be the court test in deciding whether such cases should be postponed : `` If the burden of the case is significant and if the progress of the case would damage the president and the presidency .. . then there is a basis '' for granting a stay . Although the argument for presidential immunity could well stall progress in the lawsuit for years , one wrinkle which Cutler did not address is whether a separate part of the case would be allowed to go forward in the meantime . In addition to Clinton , Jones has also named Arkansas State Trooper Danny Ferguson in the case , claiming that he was part of a conspiracy with Clinton to deprive her of her civil rights and that his later comments defamed her Several experts in court procedures have said it is likely that a court would let the Ferguson part of the case proceed even if a stay is granted to the president an outcome that could permit Jones ' lawyers to question Ferguson and other troopers about Clinton 's alleged conduct in this case and claims that Clinton regularly used troopers to solicit women . WASHINGTON Efforts to reach a plea bargain in the fraud case against Rep. Dan Rostenkowski , D-Ill. , intensified Tuesday , with agreement no longer hinging on keeping the powerful chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee out of jail , sources familiar with the negotiations said . It was tentatively decided that Rostenkowski , who has been expected to play a central role in President Clinton 's health reform efforts , would resign from Congress . Under discussion is how much time U.S. . Attorney Eric Holder would recommend that Rostenkowski serve in prison and whether U.S. . District Judge Norma H. Johnson would be bound by that recommendation , the sources said . Negotiations , which grew out of a traditional meeting with prosecutors at which defense attorneys are given an opportunity to argue why their client should not be charged , have been under way since it became clear that Holder intended to ask a federal grand jury to indict Rostenkowski for misusing his office for financial gain . Sources in and out of government estimated the chances that a plea bargain would be reached at 50-50 . The federal grand jury to which Holder would present any proposed charges is scheduled to meet Thursday but the plea discussions , if they continue , could push the matter over to next week , one source said . Another source , describing Rostenkowski as `` headstrong , '' said that the discussions could collapse , clearing the way for action Thursday or next Tuesday . The advantage to the government in a plea bargain would be avoiding a long and expensive legal process with no certainty of conviction , while achieving the `` symbolically important '' goal of putting in jail , even for less than a year , a lawmaker who admitted corruption . For Rostenkowski , the agreement would offer a chance to avoid the humiliation of a public trial and the prospect of a possible conviction and long sentence , which could result even if he were convicted on only one of multiple felony counts . Dismissing reports that the plea negotiations are still focusing on whether Rostenkowski would step down as chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee and would have to serve time , one source said that his lawyer , Robert S. Bennett , is engaged in `` damage control , '' trying to ensure that his client 's time behind bars would be limited . Rostenkowski 's resignation from the House appears to be a `` very live option , '' according to one well-placed Democrat . His departure would avoid the possibility of a censure resolution and foil attempts by Republicans to force the House Ethics Committee to investigate Rostenkowski and others allegedly involved in misuse of the now defunct House post office . The Ways and Means chairman is alleged to have converted $ 22,000 in postage stamps from his office accounts to cash for his personal use through the post office . Rostenkowski also is alleged to have paid employees for work they did not do . He has denied wrongdoing . If Rostenkowski is indicted on felony charges , rules of the House Democratic Caucus would require him to step down as chairman of the Ways and Means Committee although he could continue as a member of the panel . But associates said that Rostenkowski would resign from Congress if he had to give up his chairmanship . Justice Department guidelines for federal prosecutors state that resignation from office is among `` appropriate and desirable objectives in plea negotiations with public officials who are charged with federal offenses that focus on abuse of the office involve . '' While resignation `` shall not be imposed involuntarily against the will '' of a member of Congress , an offer of resignation `` may be incorporated into plea agreements , '' the guidelines state . ( Optional add end ) The high political stakes and spillover from the Rostenkowski case were made clear Tuesday by House Minority Whip Newt Gingrich , R-Ga. , who noted that defense lawyer Bennett also is representing Clinton in a sexual harassment complaint brought by a former Arkansas state employee . `` Clearly when you have the president 's lawyer negotiating with the Justice Department over a national health care leader , '' Gingrich said , `` the American people have some cause to wonder what 's going on . '' He said the great concern among Republicans is that White House political interference with Rostenkowski 's case would prevent justice from being done . `` What we 're concerned about is some sort of strange plea bargaining taking place in which political pressure could be brought to bear , '' Gingrich added . '' You can't have one of the most powerful members of the House having the same lawyer as the president at this critical moment being involved in a plea bargain and not say anything about it. '' ' `` He ( Rostenkowski ) doesn't want to go to prison , '' said a Democratic colleague , indicating why it may be difficult for Rostenkowski 's lawyers to reach a plea bargain agreement with federal prosecutors . On the other hand , a plea bargain that does not include prison time or a resignation would trigger demands from Republicans , and some Democrats , for a tough censure resolution and demands for an Ethics Committee investigation that probably would be approved by the House . WASHINGTON U.S. government officials and civil rights advocates , hailing a `` new partnership '' dedicated to weeding out racism in commercial establishments , announced Tuesday a record $ 54.4 million discrimination settlement with the embattled Denny 's restaurant chain . The settlement , which earmarks funds for Denny 's patrons who feel they were victims of discrimination , closes the book on class-action lawsuits that evoked a modern version of the lunch-counter protests of the civil rights movement 's early days . `` With the help and cooperation of private counsel , the Justice Department and Denny 's have entered into the largest , most sweeping nationwide settlement of a public accommodations case in history , '' said Deval L. Patrick , assistant attorney general for civil rights . The deal , which must be approved in U.S. district courts in San Jose and Baltimore , ends a painful chapter for Flagstar Cos. of Spartanburg , S.C. , which owns the chain . The company was accused in the lawsuits of fostering a discriminatory corporate culture and refusing to serve blacks at some of its 1,400 Denny 's restaurants across the country . Some black customers , for example , said they were asked to prepay for meals or pay cover charges before they were seated . One former restaurant manager said he was told by superiors to close his restaurant if `` too many '' black customers approached . Under the terms of the arrangement , Flagstar did not admit to any wrongdoing . Nevertheless , Justice Department officials said it represents a landmark in civil rights enforcement the largest settlement ever negotiated in a case involving discrimination at restaurants , hotels or other public accommodations . The agreement resolves separate lawsuits filed last year in California and Maryland . The California plaintiffs included Rachel Thompson of Vallejo , a 15-year-old black who went to Denny 's to celebrate her 13th birthday , but was refused the restaurant 's customary free birthday meal . The Maryland lawsuit was filed by six U.S. . Secret Service officers who stopped at a Denny 's in Annapolis amid preparations for a speech by President Clinton at the U.S. . Naval Academy . The black agents said they sat for nearly a hour without receiving service , even as they watched white colleagues eat second and third helpings . Their lawsuit was expanded to include claimants in 48 other states . Under the settlement , Flagstar will pay $ 28 million in damages to Californian customers , plus $ 6.8 million in attorneys fees . The chain will pay $ 17.7 million to customers in Maryland and other states , along with $ 1.9 million in legal fees . Customers who feel they were treated unfairly at Denny 's can request claim forms and apply for a portion of the damages by calling the company toll-free at ( 800 ) 836-0055 . The claims will be screened by an independent claims administrator and the Washington Lawyer 's Committee for Civil Rights and Urban Affairs , which filed the Maryland lawsuit . Damages will be prorated among victims whose claims are approved . Besides paying damages , Flagstar will be required to retain an independent civil rights monitor to ensure the company 's compliance with the settlement . In addition , it agreed to feature blacks as customers and employees in advertisements , train its employees in racial sensitivity , and allow representatives of a civil rights group to make random spot checks of Denny 's outlets to detect bias . Flagstar officials said the company already has begun satisfying many of the agreement 's requirements . ( Optional add end ) Attorneys for plaintiffs in the class-action suits said the settlement could become a precedent for future discrimination cases . Patrick , noting that the Justice Department is pursuing 20 other cases involving alleged discrimination at public accommodations , issued a pointed warning to any companies that still practice racial discrimination : `` We are watching . '' The settlement `` symbolizes what I think is a return of the finest moments of the civil rights struggles , in which the Department of Justice locked arms with civil rights lawyers and the private bar to win relief for victims of discrimination , '' said John P. Relman , an attorney with the Washington Lawyer 's Committee . `` We hope and believe that this is the beginning of a new partnership. .. . We want the Justice Department by our side . '' Flagstar still faces a handful of individual discrimination lawsuits . A spokesman said the company hopes to settle those cases separately . Last year , Flagstar entered a `` fair share '' agreement with the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People , and agreed to expand minority ownership of its franchises . Although the company has no black-owned franchises , a spokesman said 28 potential owners are under consideration . JERICHO , West Bank Palestinian police , who apparently thought they were in control of this small-town experiment in self-rule , got a rude lesson Tuesday in the limits of power . Israel sealed off Jericho for 24 hours after a policeman disarmed and detained three Jewish settlers who had come to town to change money . The closure , the Israeli army said , is to give Palestinian commanders time to explain to their officers that Israelis are untouchables . It was a day of back-to-back crises in the fledgling arrangement that provides limited self-rule for Jericho and the Gaza Strip while leaving substantial authority in Israel 's hands . A potentially bloody incident between the armed settlers and Palestinian police was narrowly averted in Jericho . At the same time , a ferocious political battle is shaping up over other efforts by Palestine Liberation Organization Chairman Yasser Arafat to assert his legislative rule in the autonomous zones and to post Palestinian police officers at a PLO office in Arab East Jerusalem . Since the self-rule agreement was signed in Cairo , Egypt , May 4 , Israel and the PLO have disagreed sharply over its interpretation and the PLO 's ability to take charge on the ground . In Jericho , site of the most serious power clash since Israel 's troop withdrawal 10 days ago , two men from the nearby Israeli farming settlement of Naama were detained by a Palestinian policeman who briefly confiscated their pistols . A third settler reported the incident to Israeli army commanders , who complained to a Palestinian commander and won the settlers ' release . The incident could have turned violent , according to the settlers . At one point , one of the Israelis lied when asked if he was armed . The Arab police officer then patted the settler down and found a pistol jammed into his waistband . The settler started to pull out the gun . The police officer raised his rifle and cocked it . Shlomi Yohanan , another armed settler at the scene in downtown Jericho , said he came within a twitch of drawing his own gun . `` I was half a second from shooting the Arab , '' a shaken Yohanan said later . `` I was only thinking of my friend . But can you imagine what would have happened to the peace if I had shot him ? My God . '' The autonomy agreement gives Palestinian security forces the right only to ask an Israeli in their jurisdiction for identification and for a gun license . The Israeli doesn't have to respond . A Palestinian policeman can only hand over an Israeli to Israeli soldiers , but not detain him . The army said it closed Jericho to enable Palestinian commanders `` to explain to all police .. . their powers and authority . '' Palestinians say they don't want any armed Israelis inside the self-rule areas . Israel said the agreement permits licensed Jewish gun owners to take their weapons wherever they choose , even into places of worship in PLO-controlled areas . ( Optional add end ) The issue of guns and jurisdiction isn't likely to go away . In another incident causing friction , a PLO-appointed commander in the West Bank said he wants to station Palestinian police to guard an office in East Jerusalem . Israel 's police minister , Moshe Shahal , said that would be illegal and threatened to stop the PLO by any means from establishing a security outpost in the Israeli capital . Arafat Tuesday opened another front in the battle for power by announcing that he is canceling , effective immediately , all Israeli-written laws , military orders and regulations issued over the 27 years of occupation in Gaza and Jericho . Israeli authorities said Arafat cannot do that because the self-rule agreement gives Palestinians only those legislative powers approved by Israel . `` These claims by any Palestinian authorities have no grounds because any legislation needs the approval of Israel , '' said a Foreign Ministry spokesman . PORT-AU-PRINCE , Haiti Five of them sit at the pier , ships of all measure , varying from 70 feet to seven times that size . Some fly the Haitian flag , one the British ensign , and some fly no flags at all . They all have one thing in common : They defy the world . From the Leo , an anchorless rust bucket recently pulled from the beach where it had run aground , to the British-flagged Oakleigh , all have run a U.N. embargo to bring in tens of thousands of gallons of banned fuel oil even , in at least one case , in the face of warning shots from U.S. enforcers . Pentagon officials said Tuesday in Washington that 14 ships heading for Haiti had been diverted since the embargo went into effect over the weekend . But other ships keep coming . Jacmel , a resort created as a pseudo French seaside village by early 19th-century coffee magnates , has become the center of the Haitian military 's effort to break the international sanctions intended to force the army from power . `` The border is still a serious problem , '' a diplomat said of the frontier between Haiti and the Dominican Republic , `` and lots of gas comes through , but the biggest threat is now the sea . '' Under threat is the strategy by the United Nations and the United States to use a near-total embargo to end military rule and restore exiled President Jean-Bertrand Aristide , who was driven from office Sept. 20 , 1991 , after seven months as Haiti 's only democratically elected president . `` If we can't stop smuggling , especially from the D.R. , then the embargo is not only a failure , it is stupid , '' the diplomat said . `` Ships come all the time , '' said a foreign resident who has lived here for more than 20 years . `` They unload barrels of gas , or they just pump it out into truck tankers , all in plain sight of the choppers . '' The choppers are U.S. naval and Coast Guard helicopters flying from the 10-ship international flotilla that is supposed to enforce the embargo , which was widened at midnight Saturday to include all goods save food and humanitarian items . LOS ANGELES Newly reunited family members of the accused assassin of Mexican presidential candidate Luis Donaldo Colosio have given a potentially explosive new account of the case that implicates two Mexican federal security officials , family representatives said Tuesday . The accused assassin 's father now says that his son knew the two security agents and met with them two months before the March 23 assassination , said Jorge Mancillas , a University of California , Los Angeles , professor and adviser to the family . Mancillas talked Tuesday with the family of Mario Aburto Martinez at the office of their lawyer two days after Aburto 's mother and five other relatives crossed the border illegally from Tijuana and requested political asylum , alleging that they had been harassed and threatened . Aburto , a 23-year-old factory worker charged with gunning down Colosio at a Tijuana campaign rally , said he was friends with a man identified as a security guard for Colosio , Mancillas said . Mario Aburto told his father , Ruben , in January that the guard was going to introduce him to an `` important person , '' an agent in Mexico 's Interior Ministry , at a meeting in a Tijuana gymnasium , Mancillas said . The two security agents have been the focus of intense investigation and speculation because of their mysterious actions at the assassination scene ; the Interior Ministry agent was even arrested as he ran from the scene with a bloodstained shirt . But neither has been charged . The revelations by Aburto 's family appear significant because there have been few developments and many conspiracy theories since the arrests of Aburto and three alleged accomplices , volunteer security guards at the rally . But the new account comes after weeks in which the family 's statements to the news media have changed several times , causing Mexican officials and others to privately question their credibility . The family 's representatives , however , said Ruben Aburto and other relatives in Los Angeles had been reluctant to speak until now because they feared retaliation against the family members in Tijuana . `` He 's been very scared , '' Mancillas said of the father . `` He believed they could kill his family in Tijuana . He 's very afraid of retaliation . '' Ruben Aburto and the accused assassin 's brothers are willing to meet with Mexican investigators to disclose what they know about the assassination and about Aburto 's actions in the preceding months , said the family 's lawyer , Peter Schey of the Center for Human Rights and Constitutional Law in Los Angeles . Schey said Mexican investigators made contact with the Aburtos in Los Angeles about 10 days ago , using an FBI agent as a go-between . `` The family wants the truth of the assassination to come out , '' Schey said . `` The family is willing to accept the truth . '' ( Optional add end ) Before talking to investigators , however , the Aburtos want the Mexican government to let Ruben Aburto visit his imprisoned son in Mexico City and also permit visits by attorneys from the United States and a doctor selected by the family , Schey said . Aburto 's mother and other family members in Tijuana already have been questioned by Mexican police . The six relatives have been released while they seek political asylum or temporary residence based on humanitarian grounds . In the past month , the family has been followed , frightened by a series of attempted break-ins and had the windows of their house shattered by gunfire , Schey said Tuesday . U.S. immigration officials say that the case will receive no special treatment . They said diplomatic sensitivities a political asylum case would force U.S. authorities to pass judgment on Mexico 's handling of the Colosio case are not an issue . The statements connecting Aburto to other figures in the case provide the strongest potential evidence of a conspiracy in a secretive , much-criticized investigation . The special prosecutor has yet to explain the motives and masterminds behind the alleged plot , basing the case largely on videotapes of the assassination and on the confession of Aburto , who insists that the alleged accomplices were not involved . In various statements to reporters , however , Aburto 's father has said his son went to a shadowy political meeting in March with two of the accused accomplices , former Baja police officers who worked in the volunteer security team provided by Colosio 's political party . The two are charged with obstructing Colosio 's military bodyguards , enabling the gunman to advance through a crowd and shoot the candidate at point-blank range . Tuesday 's revelations are particularly sensitive because they incriminate two other agents initially named as suspects whose roles have never been fully explained . WASHINGTON With all five congressional committees working on health care legislation now certain to miss their self-imposed Memorial Day deadline for producing bills , President Clinton will go to Capitol Hill Wednesday evening to prod them to finish their work . Until Tuesday , it appeared that at least one of the panels the Senate Labor and Human Resources Committee stood a chance of passing a bill to overhaul the United States ' health care system before Congress adjourns for the weeklong recess . However , Chairman Edward M. Kennedy , D-Mass. , announced late in the day that it would be `` unwise '' to rush to meet that deadline . He blamed at least part of the delay on `` unforeseen events '' an apparent reference to the death and funeral of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis . `` But there is also a larger sense that in this situation , haste right now would make waste , '' Kennedy said . `` The more time we spend , the more progress we are making . It would be foolish to jeopardize further cooperation by forcing too many decisions prematurely . '' Indeed , Kennedy has been more successful than expected in winning GOP votes for various aspects of his bill . All but two Republicans joined Democrats Tuesday in beating back efforts to weaken his proposals for expansion of coverage for long-term care . Yet despite Kennedy 's optimistic stance , the fact remains that , in varying degrees , all five committees two in the Senate , and three in the House have bogged down over the most fundamental choices . The toughest issue involves finding a way to reach the president 's most basic goal of assuring that every American and legal resident of this country has health coverage . Clinton 's proposal to require all employers to provide coverage has proven to be the most controversial element of his bill , with opponents contending that the additional cost would cause the smallest and weakest firms to fire workers or shut down altogether . Clinton and his allies thought they had made a breakthrough last week , when Sen. John B . Breaux , D-La. , previously one of the most influential opponents of the so-called `` employer mandate , '' had said he would support a modified version that exempted the smallest companies . However , Breaux said Tuesday he is not finding much support for that approach , particularly from Republicans . Now , Breaux said , he is testing sentiment for a proposal under which employer mandates would be put into force only if companies did not expand coverage on their own under a reformed health care system . Meanwhile , in what appears to be the most dramatic effort to date to bridge party lines on the issue , Senate Finance Committee Chairman Daniel Patrick Moynihan , D-N.Y. , and Sen. Bob Packwood , R-Ore. , the committee 's ranking Republican , will work together in drafting the initial version of a health care bill to be presented to their committee after the Memorial Day break , Packwood said . Bipartisanship is more of a necessity on the Finance Committee than anywhere else in Congress . Democrats command an 11-9 majority there and it is an even more fragile party front , given the fact that the Democrats on the committee include several conservatives such as Breaux . There seems to be a growing sense in Congress that some sort of breakthrough must happen and happen soon to preserve any chance of sweeping legislation this year . Otherwise , lawmakers might pass only a set of marginal changes in the current system . That is why some were viewing Clinton 's visit with particular interest , despite efforts by both the White House and Democratic leaders to downplay its significance . ( Optional add end ) Some suggested he might use the trip to Capitol Hill as an opportunity to put forward new proposals that might elicit support from Republicans and more conservative Democrats . Others , however , said that would be precisely the wrong tactic . Instead , they said , Clinton should stand firm behind his bill , and allay fears particularly in the House that he ultimately will be forced into giving up on the most difficult parts of his plan . `` Members are concerned about what the president 's bottom line is . They need to hear it from the president directly , '' said Rep. Henry A . Waxman , D-Calif . `` He needs to spell out his minimum requirements for health reform. .. . If we do meet them , we need to be sure the rug isn't going to be pulled out from us later . '' WASHINGTON In a surprise announcement , WETA President Sharon Percy Rockefeller Tuesday said she is resigning immediately for health reasons . Rockefeller , who also has served as chief executive officer of the public broadcasting station here since 1989 , stressed in a letter to board chairman Daniel K. Mayers that `` the sole reason for my resignation is that , most unfortunately , I have not been able to regain my health and energy since my 1993 accident . '' However , she intends to return to the station in the fall , albeit in a changed role , and to remain on the board , she wrote . On May 13 , 1993 , Rockefeller suffered three broken ribs and a punctured lung when the car in which she was riding was forced off Rock Creek Parkway during a severe thunderstorm . She returned to the station after two months but , according to associates , has often refused to reduce her workload , although the need for her to do so was painfully evident . The decision to step down `` is the most difficult decision of my life ; I do it with a lot of sadness and regret , '' she told a reporter Tuesday . `` I was never able to come back from ( the accident ) even though I kept trying and trying . Eventually , it took a big toll the doctors say I have to rest . '' She is already looking forward to her fall return `` in a new position . I hope to help WETA with programming , community outreach and fund-raising , as well as with the national public broadcasting institutions . '' The WETA board holds its regularly scheduled meeting today and is expected to appoint a search committee to seek Rockefeller 's replacement . Neil Mahrer , executive vice president and chief operating officer , will continue to manage the daily operations . In her letter to Mayers , Rockefeller said the station `` deserves and must have a president who possesses the physical stamina to meet the challenges which lie ahead . '' In his reply , the chairman said , `` Most of all , Sharon , we want you to take care of yourself . Your recovery .. . has been impaired by the prodigious effort you have expended on WETA 's behalf . Only those who have worked with you can appreciate the energy and hours you have devoted to WETA on a sustained basis over many years . '' Rockefeller , 49 , is married to Sen. John D. Rockefeller IV , D-W.Va . They have four children . She has held several major public broadcasting appointments , including board memberships at both the Public Broadcasting Service and the Corporation for Public Broadcasting ( which she served as chairman ) . She was on the board of the West Virginia Educational Broadcasting Authority for 15 years . Richard W. Carlson , president of the Corporation for Public Broadcasting , said , `` Sharon Rockefeller represents the heart and soul of public broadcasting . She 's always been there for us . And I know that she willn't be able to stay away for long . '' -0- It 's been quite a couple of weeks for ABC News president Roone Arledge . He recently turned down an offer from Rupert Murdoch to take a major corporate job at Fox Broadcasting ( reportedly the chairman 's job now held by Lucie Salhany ) and on Saturday he married his girlfriend of the past couple of years , Gigi Shaw , in a small family ceremony at his Southampton estate . It was the third marriage for the 62-year-old Arledge . His four children and her daughter were in attendance . Fox Broadcasting leans heavily on new dramas in the 1994-95 primetime schedule announced Tuesday , introducing five of the long-form shows and two situation comedies . Missing from next fall 's lineup will be `` In Living Color , '' `` Brisco County Jr. , '' `` South Central , '' `` Herman 's Head '' and `` Sinbad . '' MEXICO CITY Just 10 days after taking office , Mexico 's new attorney general Tuesday announced a radical reorganization of the Federal Judicial Police , starting with the firing of five top commanders and the elimination of special details within the force . The actions were taken , according to a statement from Attorney General Humberto Benitez 's office , `` to make the force more efficient and to avoid illegal activities . '' Mexican police at all levels have come under increasing pressure in the past year to restore public order in the wake of the unsolved assassinations of a Roman Catholic cardinal , the leading presidential candidate and the Tijuana police chief , in addition to a wave of kidnappings and audacious gun battles between rival narcotics gangs . Benitez cracked down especially hard on the department in charge of investigations , eliminating it and firing its five commanders . NEW YORK An outraged federal judge Tuesday sentenced each of four men convicted in the World Trade Center bombing to 240 years in prison a life term calculated by adding the life expectancy of each of the six people killed in the blast , plus 30 years for two other counts . U.S. . District Judge Kevin Duffy , who angrily addressed the defendants after overseeing the 5-month trial , called the four `` cowards '' for planting a bomb during the lunch hour of Feb. 26 , 1993 , in an effort to `` terrorize the people of the United States . '' In sentencing the four Muslim defendants , Duffy 's toughest words were to the most-educated of the group , Nidal Ayyad , a 26-year-old chemist who helped get chemicals and arrange for vehicles . Ayyad , who dismissed the court as not being as important as the teachings of the Koran , said to the judge : `` You only rule over this life . You are not going to change what God has dictated . '' `` You are the biggest hypocrite in the room , '' Duffy responded after Ayyad sat down . `` Clearly you are the most culpable. .. . God gave you brains .. . and what you have done is turn your life into a total lie . `` You talk about the Koran , '' Duffy continued , as Ayyad , dressed in a brown one-piece prison uniform , stared straight ahead . `` You have shamed it. .. . You violated the laws not only of man but of God . '' Although some of the conspirators shouted angrily at the jury after their conviction on March 4 , Tuesday was the first time they had spoken at length in the courtroom . All four have said they are innocent , and their attorneys have said they plan to appeal . In Tuesday 's speeches , halted every few seconds for translation from Arabic into English , only one of the men talked about the horror of the crime Ahmad Ajaj , a 28-year-old Palestinian who was in prison on a false passport conviction when the bomb exploded . Ajaj stood for almost three hours , telling stories about torture and killing in the Middle East and blaming the United States for `` terrorism '' that included the country 's treatment of American Indians and blacks and the bombings of Hiroshima and Nagasaki . Ajaj , the jury decided , was the one who masterminded the technical parts of making the trade center bomb even while he was in prison . Mohammed Salameh , 26 , the Palestinian immigrant who rented a yellow Ryder van and was captured when he tried to get his deposit refunded , said he would `` not beg for mercy '' from the court . After Salameh shouted remarks to the court , Duffy said that if Salameh and his `` cohorts '' had placed the bomb in a different place , it could have knocked one of the towers down onto another . Or , he said , cyanide gas could have been sucked into the air ducts , killing thousands . Mahmud Abouhalima , 34 , of Woodbridge , N.J. , told of being tortured by Egyptian police who captured him when he fled to Egypt after the bombing and turned him over the U.S. authorities . He blamed the media for `` a very effective negative role '' in focusing public opinion , including the jurors ' . He criticized jurors for sleeping through testimony , and he complained that prison guards had not given him prayer beads and rugs . `` You 're a convicted felon , '' Duffy said , as he began Abouhalima 's sentencing . `` You 're not some guy on vacation . '' Before the four were sentenced , Ed Smith , whose pregnant wife was killed in the blast , read an appeal to the judge that the four would be `` held in custody for the duration of their days on this Earth . '' Smith said that after the explosion , he began calling his wife Monica 's office . `` There was no answer , and there would never be an answer . '' As people wept silently in the courtroom , Smith told of buying baby furniture , of his despair at knowing his wife would not ever be able to hold her son in her arms . `` All this because .. . four men wanted to terrorize the United States , '' he said . WASHINGTON Four federal agencies are examining allegations that the Air Force sold useless fighter cockpit displays by a California defense contractor whose board members at the time included William Perry , now secretary of defense , and two other top Pentagon officials . Under scrutiny is a 1987-91 contract between the Air Force and Scientific Applications International Corp. , based in San Diego . During those four years , its high-powered board of directors included Perry ; John Deutch , now the deputy secretary of defense , and Anita Jones , the new director of defense research and engineering . After inquiries by Newsday , the three Clinton administration officials recused themselves from control over the Pentagon portion of the SAIC probe . The company paid a total of almost $ 900,000 in severance payments to Perry , Deutch and Jones when they left the company to join the Pentagon in 1993 . The investigation involves Air Force payment of $ 9.2 million , primarily for F-15 fighter cockpit displays that SAIC made partially from tiny Japanese television screens that cost only $ 650 each . An estimated 20 cockpit indicators that were supposed to show whether the plane was climbing or diving were made from color liquid crystal displays , or LCDs . None of the 20 cockpit LCDs ever worked properly . While SAIC charges to the Air Force are one facet of the investigation , court records and subsequent depositions obtained by federal officials indicated that the investigation may hinge on SAIC promises that the cockpit displays could become operable if the Air Force paid an additional $ 320,000 for work on the project in 1991 . Former SAIC employees contend the company knew at the time that the displays could not be fixed , federal investigators said . Despite SAIC 's failures with LCDs for cockpit displays , the LCD technology has become a top priority for the Clinton administration 's Defense Department . The Justice Department , two Pentagon investigative agencies and the U.S. . Attorney 's office in San Diego have seized two truckloads of documents relating to SAIC executives and board members . SAIC President Lorenz Kull denied allegations of fraud made by company whistleblowers . `` I think that was a bum rap , '' Kull said of the allegations of the former employees . Perry , Deutch and Jones refused Newsday 's repeated requests to be interviewed about their possible involvement with the contract . But in a Pentagon statement to Newsday issued in their behalf , the three recused themselves from the SAIC investigation . `` If the report comes to their offices for action , they will ask the secretary of the Army to review it on their behalf , '' the Pentagon said . Kathleen deLaski , the Pentagon spokeswoman , said the decision to have Army Secretary Togo West oversee the issue was taken after Newsday inquiries . Interviews in San Diego and Washington provided a glimpse inside the often secret world of defense companies that employ influential politicians , retired military officers and scientists who at one time or another pass through the Pentagon 's revolving door . When Perry , Deutch and Jones left the company for the Pentagon , SAIC paid them $ 891,763 in severance fees . The payments , particularly to Perry and Jones , were surprisingly high but reflected SAIC 's repurchase of privately held company stock issued to officials over seven years of service as directors According to disclosure statements filed with the Senate Armed Services Committee , Perry was entitled to fees and stock from SAIC worth $ 354,474 ; Deutch , $ 456,591 ; and Jones , $ 80,698 . Agents of the Air Force Office of Special Investigations and the Defense Criminal Investigative Service took part in a federal raid on five SAIC buildings last Feb. 15 . In an interview , Kull , the SAIC president , said that Perry , Deutch and Jones were not involved in the contract , which was a relatively small part of the company 's $ 1.2 billion-a-year operation . The Pentagon statement on the investigation made the same point . `` Dr. Perry , Mr. Deutch and Dr. Jones did not have any personal involvement relative to the Air Force contract during their service on the SAIC board , '' the statement said . Whistleblower allegations led to the sweep by the U.S. . Attorney 's office in San Diego . With search warrants , federal agents entered the offices of Kull , board Chairman J.R. Beyster , as well as the legal counsel and company officials involved in the Air Force contract . Seized were 85 boxes containing 180,000 documents , including records relating to the board of directors . The documents seized from SAIC are still being computerized to facilitate a detailed examination . One federal investigator who spoke on condition he not be identified said , however , that Perry , Deutch , Jones `` and the rest of the board are responsible for SAIC 's activities , and this was a very important new technology . '' In 1990 , while Perry , Deutch and Jones were still on the board , the U.S. . Attorney 's office won a conviction of the corporation on charges of fraud in connection with altered lab tests by SAIC on hazardous-waste sites . The company was fined $ 1.3 million . According to an investigator , Air Force dismay over the cockpit displays first surfaced in 1991 , while all three current Pentagon officials were on the board . `` There were plenty of red flags for top management and board members , '' the investigator said . ( Begin optional trim ) In April , the Pentagon announced a $ 580 million subsidy program for U.S. companies willing to enter the flat-panel LCD production industry . `` These screens are becoming increasingly critical to the military to display information which we need to give us an advantage in combat , '' Perry said in a May 5 speech . But even before the new administration came to office , the Air Force had planned to use four-by-four-inch LCD panels primarily on F-15 Eagle fighters to replace horizontal indicators , a vital cockpit display that shows whether the plane is going up or down . After years of promises and demands for more money by SAIC 's technology division , however , the Air Force ended the project with an angry letter to the company . `` None of the displays worked , '' said an Air Force official who spoke on condition he not be identified . He worked on the program at the Air Logistics Center at Robins Air Force Base , Ga. . Although the $ 9.2 million contract was small in Pentagon terms , investigators said it involved development of one of the first military flat-panel LCDs . But SAIC had to scramble when potential U.S. suppliers failed to supply their engineers with LCD screens for the Air Force cockpit displays . According to federal investigators , the company purchased Sharp , Hitachi and other Japanese-made LCD television monitors at Target Stores in the San Diego area . According to one Sharp official , the screens retail for $ 650 . At SAIC , Kull said the controversy involved a legitimate dispute with the Air Force over a difficult development project that ran out of federal support before the cockpit displays were workable . ( End optional trim ) In an interview , Kull told Newsday that SAIC informed the Air Force in writing that the preliminary cockpit displays were made with LCDs from Sharp and other commercial products . `` They ( the Air Force ) knew what it was and they wanted to see what it would look like , to get a feel , '' Kull said . He also said the LCDs in question were purchased directly from the producers , not dismantled from discount store television sets . Perry served in a top Pentagon post during the Carter administration . He joined the Clinton administration as deputy secretary until he was elevated earlier this year with the departure of Les Aspin as the defense chief . Along with Deutch and Jones , Perry has been an adviser to the defense community for years . All three are tenured science professors at major universities . Their technical insights and Pentagon connections enabled companies such as SAIC to be years ahead of competitors for the $ 38 billion the Pentagon is spending under the direction of Jones on research and development . In addition to preparing for war , a major duty for all three is leading an endless battle against waste , fraud and abuse by defense contractors that have cost taxpayers billions of dollars . WASHINGTON When Science Applications International Corp. runs afoul of federal laws , it is quick to insist that its influential board of directors and top executives are not involved in the wrongdoing . But once U.S. law enforcement agents move against the government contractor , based in San Diego , the company 's board members are rolled into position in Washington like heavy artillery . Take the 1988 federal indictment of six employees on charges they improperly reported lab tests on hazardous-waste site samples for the Enviromental Protection Agency . The six employees pleaded guilty and the San Diego U.S. attorney 's office moved to indict the corporation because of the severity of the fraud . According to the government , the employees were victims of corporate greed , `` lambs thrown to the wolves and then the corporation walks out of here , '' the government said in a federal court statement . In 1990 , former Defense Secretary Melvin Laird , a member of the company 's board , wrote then-Attorney General Dick Thornburgh , asking him to halt prosecution of the company . `` I can assure you there was no wrongdoing on the part of the corporation , '' said Laird , defense chief under President Nixon . The letter was made public by the Project on Government Oversight , a private watchdog group , which passed the documents on to congressional investigators . In the face of the disclosures , Thornburgh went ahead with the indictment and the company pleaded guilty to 10 felony counts of fraud . The company was fined $ 1.3 million in 1991 , the largest fine connected with the hazardous-waste program . WASHINGTON U.S. and Japanese officials offered starkly different interpretations Tuesday of their agreement ending a three-month stalemate in trade negotiations , even as both sides hailed it as a major breakthrough . While U.S. officials said they had won Japan 's commitment to use `` objective criteria '' to measure progressin opening specific sectors of the Japanese market , including automobiles , auto parts , communications and medical equipment , Japanese officials stressed that progress in those areas was not a primary goal . Similarly , Japanese officials challenged the U.S. assertion that the two sides had agreed to a `` results-oriented '' approach one that stresses sales of foreign products in Japan to resolving their trade differences . The Japanese officials said the most significant part of the accord was an explicit assurance that the United States would not rely solely on numerical targets to measure Japanese progress . U.S. negotiators minimized that provision , saying it was something they had never sought . Japanese have a favorite word to describe such vague agreements tama-mushi iro , or having the color of the tama mushi , a common Japanese beetle . The translucent wings of the tama mushi can seem green or blue-or some other color entirely-depending on the light and the viewer 's perspective . Japanese often use such ambiguity to paper over frictions and maintain harmony in important relationships . But in the case of Washington and Tokyo , such fuzziness seems to be breeding only greater enmity . Once again , it would seem , officials from two countries are looking at the same beetle , but each seems to believe it has a completely different hue . The divergent visions of the accord , hammered out after five days of feverish negotiations and numerous phone calls between top level of officials in Washington and Tokyo , typified the sort of ambiguity and confusion that has clouded relations between world 's two largest economies for much of the past decade . Further , it casts doubt on President Clinton 's pledge to transform the nature of the U.S. effort to open the Japanese market . Indeed , the agreement announced Tuesday seems to do little more than return the United States and Japan to the point at which their trade negotiations started in Tokyo in July , when Clinton pressed Japan 's then-prime minister Kiichi Miyazawa into signing a `` framework agreement '' to begin a much-ballyhooed market opening effort that Clinton administration officials said would mark the beginning of a new era in Japanese relations . But those talks bogged down almost as soon as they were launched as it became clear that both sides had come away from the Tokyo meeting with starkly divergent visions of just what had been agreed to . Tuesday 's agreement clears the way for those talks to resume soon , although the time and place of the next session has yet to be determined . In addition , there is no deadline for concluding the talks and no sanction for failing to do so , although both sides will have to make a public account of their progress when Clinton meets the Japanese prime minister at the Group of Seven summit in Naples in July . U.S. officials said Tuesday that negotiators now had clarified several of the key flaws of the language of last July 's agreement . But the statements of officials on both sides left considerable room for skepticism about that claim . Nevertheless , a Japanese foreign ministry spokesman in Washington seemed to suggest that the greatest achievement of the accord was less a clarification of these points than an agreement to get the two countries back to the bargaining table . `` The important thing is to get past this metaphysical debate-what is what and what is not what-and get the working groups back together , '' he said . `` As a practical matter , '' one senior administration official said , `` the metaphysical debate is finished . '' Many analysts agreed that that was the real significance of the agreement . The negotiators `` simply wanted to start up the framework talks again and they needed some rationale .. . . '' said Alan Tonelson , research director at the Economic Strategy Institute , a Washington think tank that has advocated taking a firm stand with Japan on trade issues . `` They are not agreeing to the kind of provisions that would give this agreement meaning , '' he said . Tuesday , U.S. trade negotiators sought to portray the agreement as an important victory , saying the Japanese had agreed to a solution that followed almost precisely a U.S. proposal U.S. . Trade Representative Mickey Kantor made last month to then-foreign minister Tsutomu Hata , who is now prime minister , at a meeting in Morocco . One negotiator boasted that the United States had broken the deadlock without giving in on `` any U.S. negotiating position . '' But that claim underscores the point that the United States has spent almost an entire year wrangling with Japan over the wording of its bargaining arrangements even as Japan 's trade surplus with the United States remains enormous . The real issue appears to be one of trust . As Hata told Kantor in a late-night meeting in Washington in February , just between talks between Clinton and Hosokawa broke down : `` The trouble is we can't trust you with numbers and you can't trust us without them . '' NEW YORK Calculating a year in prison for each year of life lost in the World Trade Center bombing , a judge Tuesday sentenced the four convicted conspirators to die behind bars . U.S. . District Court Judge Kevin Duffy called the bombers `` sneakin ' cowards '' and said they planned to bring down both towers `` like dominoes '' and kill everyone inside the buildings with cyanide gas . `` My intention is you stay there for the rest of your life , '' said a stern , disgusted Duffy . `` What you sought to do in the name of Islam is what the Koran forbids . '' He quoted a section of the Muslim holy book : `` These righteous people shall not be denied their reward . Allah knows the righteous . '' The lengthy , daylong sentencing began with Edward Smith , husband of blast victim Monica Smith , exhorting the judge to hand down the harshest sentences possible . Then , one by one , the four Muslim men convicted March 4 of the bombing defiantly declared their innocence and were handed the same sentence . Mohammad Salameh , Nidal Ayyad , Mahmud Abouhalima and Ahmad Ajaj each was sentenced to serve 240 years , a sum Duffy calculated by combining the average life expectancy of each of the six people killed in the blast 180 years plus 30 years on each additional count . Tuesday 's sentencing brought to a close the first chapter in the tale of terrorism that culminated Feb. 26 , 1993 , when a bomb rocked the Trade Center , killing six , injuring 1,000 and causing more than $ 500 million in damage . Marshals lined the back of the standing-room-only courtroom throughout the day . The only supporters present Ayyad 's father and Abouhalima 's wife and sister-in-law listened silently to the statements and sentences . The four men , shackled and dressed in brown prison jumpsuits , were taken from the courtroom . They were expected to be returned to the federal penitentiary in Lewisburg , Pa. , Tuesday night . Tuesday morning , when Smith read his statement , none of the four raised their eyes to look at him . Smith described how he and his wife , who was six months ' pregnant when she was killed , happily anticipated the birth of their son and how he learned of her death . `` Remember that these crimes are not , in the end , about a VIN ( vehicle identification ) number found in rubble or chemical swabs taken from a storage locker , '' said Smith . `` Remember that this bombing was an act of multiple murder . '' Then Salameh , 26 , who drove the bomb-laden Ryder van into the Trade Center garage , stood and spoke in Arabic , which was translated for the judge . The mostly unemployed undocumented alien from Jordan called the trial `` unjust '' and hailed terrorist organizations around the world , praising Islamic fundamentalist guerrillas in Egypt , Algeria and `` occupied Palestine . '' `` I am not going to plead for mercy . ( If ) I had been judged truthfully , I would accept the truth . I will rise above pleading for mercy on falsehood , '' he said . Duffy , who maintained a casual if caustic demeanor during the six-month trial , was visibly angry , glaring down from the bench . `` Allah knows the righteous , '' he said to Salameh . `` Not you . '' ( Begin optional trim ) Duffy was equally stern with Ayyad , 26 , a Rutgers graduate , chemical engineer and naturalized U.S citizen from Kuwait . `` You are the biggest hypocrit in this room , '' Duffy said . `` You are clearly the most culpable . You had the most breaks . You came to this country . You had a chance to do something with your life . What right do you have to talk about God ? You talk about Islam . You have shamed it . '' Abouhalima , 34 , the cab driver from Egypt , spent most of his lengthy address describing his arrest and torture in Egypt and what he considered Duffy 's failure to provide a fair trial . He criticized the jury , the values of American men `` who worship money '' and `` only see women by their thighs . '' Abouhalima fled the United States four days after the bombing and was arrested a week later at his father 's home near Cairo , Egypt . At the end of his statement , Abouhalima suggested the assembled spectators pray together . `` There is one god , Allah . Mohammed is the prophet of us all , '' he said . `` You are a convicted felon , '' Duffy said to Abouhalima . `` This is not some guy on a vacation . You were convicted and justly convicted . '' ( End optional trim ) Ajaj , 27 , the final defendant , was in federal prison the day of the bombing . A Palestinian , he had been caught at Kennedy Airport Sept. 1 , 1992 , trying to slip into the country with a phony passport . Ajaj was trying to bring bomb manuals into the country for the other conspirators . His traveling companion was Ramzi Yousef , an alleged bomber who remains a fugitive . Ajaj carried on a filibuster for nearly three hours , detailing the history of Palestine from 1917 through President Clinton 's foreign policy . He said he had been unjustly convicted . `` Up to this very moment , I do not know where the World Trade Center is . I did not know where the World Trade Center is located . It did not concern me . '' Duffy finally cut him off and handed him his 240 years . All four are expected to file an appeal of their convictions . JACMEL , Haiti Despite a reinforced U.N. embargo that went into effect Sunday , a flotilla of ships carrying contraband has sailed into this port city , carrying merchandise including gasoline , cars and color television sets . Local residents said at least nine ships have docked since the strengthened embargo started , in theory barring everything except pre-approved shipments of food , medicine and propane gas . Five remained Monday , and army officers directed trucks onto the docks to unload the merchandise . The embargo was imposed in October and reinforced by the U.N. . Security Council on Sunday in an effort to force the military to allow the return of ousted president Jean-Bertrand Aristide . He was overthrown in a military coup in September 1991 , six months after becoming Haiti 's first democratically elected leader . The ships , which flew British , Jamaican , Colombian , Dominican , Bahamian and Haitian flags , demonstrated how difficult it could be to enforce the measure , especially since the ships largely ply the waters between Haiti and the Dominican Republic . `` So far , the ships have been triple-parked out there , '' said one longtime resident , watching as ships bobbed , waiting to be unloaded . `` It has been years since the port was that busy . '' Diplomats involved in monitoring the embargo said it could take weeks to figure out how to plug its leaks , and admitted that the officers who control the contraband could build up substantial stockpiles in the meantime . This means the measure would not really begin to have an impact on the rich and on the officer corps for several weeks , they said . But it is a question whether the wealthy or the officer corps will suffer . While reporters watched , uniformed army officers supervised the unloading of a truckload of color televisions and other electronic goods . At the port entrance , a small market has sprung up , and residents said there had been an influx of prostitutes to keep pace with the growing number of ships . Residents said that at times over the weekend there were nine tanker trucks on the dock getting fuel from tanks on visiting ships . Other ships unloaded vehicles and luxury goods . The Bahamian-flagged Sea Search , a seagoing tug that on Saturday was engaged by a U.S. picket ship enforcing the embargo , was in port here Monday , its barrels of fuel being unloaded under the supervision of military officers . Eyewitnesses said an armed fight nearly broke out in the stately La Jacmelienne Hotel here Saturday night when a subordinate of powerful police commander Lt. Col. Michel Francois , identified as Maj. Oiseau , arrived with several other officers to supervise the unloading of fuel . According to several accounts , the owner of the hotel refused Oiseau a room for the night because he and the other officers were not paying for food or drinks . Oiseau reportedly began waving a gun around and threatening to kill hotel employees , while the hotel owner also brought out a gun . Only the intervention of Col. Lyonel Sylvain , the regional commander , avoided a major shootout , the sources said . The witnesses , who asked not to be identified for their personal safety , said another ship , the Oakleigh , flying the Union Jack and registered in Aberdeen , Scotland , made several trips a week over the last several months to the Dominican Republic , bringing back about 15,000 gallons of fuel at a time . Residents here and knowledgeable sources in Port-au-Prince , the capital , said much of the Jacmel fuel flow is controlled by an important fuel wholesaler named Gerald Caroli . Knowledgeable sources said Caroli is a major fuel supplier of the U.S. . Embassy and other diplomatic missions . While ships were unloaded , a Dominican vessel sat about a mile from the dock , abandoned because its captain , known only as `` Dirty Harry , '' fled for his life when the buyers of his fuel found some of the diesel was full of sludge and unusable . NEW YORK A top cancer expert said Tuesday health officials facing increasing antibiotic resistance among disease microbes should consider returning to techniques that were abandoned when antibiotics first came of age in the 1940s . Dr. Matthew Scharff , director of the Albert Einstein Medical School 's Cancer Center in New York City , urged the medical establishment to shift some of the emphasis from developing antibiotic drugs to producing antisera made of human antibodies . This , he said , could address two overlapping concerns : the rising number of severely immune-deficient patients , and the rapid growth of so-called superbugs that are resistant to many , or in some cases all , types of antibiotics . When antisera was used extensively against meningococcal meningitis in the 1920s , Scharff said , it had a 30 percent success rate . `` It was highly statistically significant , '' he said . `` It was a successful treatment . '' Today , though , new technology exists that might make such antisera a more successful option where antibiotics fail , Scharff said . Speaking before a New York City gathering of the Irvington Trust , an investment banking group that funds medical research , Scharff said patients who undergo cancer chemotherapy , transplant surgery , radiation or who have AIDS commonly die of what , for other people , are fairly benign fungal and bacterial infections including staphylococcus , meningococcus , pneumococcus and cryptococcus . `` In the absence of our own immunity , even antibiotics cannot kill these agents , '' Scharff said . About 10 percent of all people with AIDS , for instance , die from antibiotic-resistant cryptococcus , a ubiquitous fungus that causes meningitis . Similarly , a variety of bacterial infections are essentially incurable in cancer lymphoma patients : Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis died partly as a result of such an opportunistic , untreatable bacterial infection . In the the 1920s and 1930s , before the discovery of antibiotics , physicians treated such problems with antisera created by injecting samples of the bacteria plaguing their patients into a horse . The horse 's immune system reacted by making antibodies , which doctors then withdrew from the horse 's blood . After purifying the antibodies , physicians then injected the antisera into their human patients in order to give their immune systems a better chance to fight off the original bacterial threat . The biggest drawback was that humans often developed acute allergic responses to horse proteins found in the antisera . Now , though , so-called monoclonal antibodies are already in use for other medical purposes , and the techniques for making pure antibodies are well-established , Scharff said . He said he and his colleagues have already made pure human antisera against cryptococcus in test tubes that cured mice . `` I think we should look back at this , '' Scharff added . `` We have to . We have nothing else . '' ( Optional add end ) Dr . Mark Jacobson , of the University of California , San Francisco , however , said there are major questions about whether such a treatment which could cost $ 3,000 would be cost effective since it would be helpful only to a small number of people . About half of all AIDS patients recover from cryptococcus while on antibiotics , Jacobsen said . Scharff and his colleague Arturo Casadevall have met with several pharmaceutical and biotechnology companies , hoping to find interest in the antisera concept . So far , there is no interest because the market is small . WASHINGTON Four federal agencies are examining allegations that the Air Force was sold useless fighter cockpit displays by a California defense contractor whose board members at the time included William Perry , now secretary of defense , and two other top Pentagon officials . BALTIMORE Jumping into one of the liveliest debates in psychiatry , researchers at the Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions will investigate an unconventional theory that viruses or other infectious agents trigger schizophrenia . The project , made possible by a $ 7 million grant from the private Theodore and Vada Stanley Foundation of Arlington , Va. , is a large effort considering its speculative focus . It will involve nine faculty members and nine research `` fellows '' to be recruited over three years . Most schizophrenia studies have been dominated by research psychiatrists and geneticists , but this one will be centered in the department of pediatric infectious diseases . `` I wouldn't say that 's unusual I 'd say it 's unheard of , '' said Dr. E. Fuller Torrey , a clinical and research psychiatrist in Washington , D.C. , who runs the Stanley Foundation 's Research Program on Serious Mental Illnesses . `` This is not traditional mainstream psychiatric research , '' said Torrey , adding that the theory was more popular 60 years ago than it is today . The study is based on the theory that exposure to an infectious agent in the womb or in early childhood produces the brain abnormalities responsible for schizophrenia later in life . One possibility is that an infection interacts with heredity to cause the disease . Schizophrenia , the most common psychotic illness , with 1.5 million sufferers in the United States alone , usually does not manifest itself until the teens or early twenties . It often causes people to hear strange voices , to withdraw socially and to sink into disturbed thinking and disjointed , jumbled speech . Medications can reduce symptoms , but victims frequently have trouble holding jobs , maintaining friendships and functioning independently . Torrey , speaking at a news briefing Tuesday , said the idea that infections lie at the root of schizophrenia emerged early in the century when many people who caught influenza in the great flu epidemic of 1918 developed symptoms similar to those of schizophrenia and mania , another mental disorder . The notion fell out of favor as psychiatry became dominated by the idea that mental illnesses including schizophrenia are caused by poor parenting or other troubling experiences in life . In recent years , however , the field has come full circle dominated now by evidence that severe mental disorders are diseases of the brain . The Hopkins study will be the largest into a viral cause , Torrey said . In recent years , many researchers have focused on the role played by genetics . The disease often runs in families , and in some cases afflicts a startling number of family members within the span of a few generations . But the thesis that schizophrenia is inherited is far from settled . While a third of schizophrenics have one or more close relatives with the disease , the rest have no such family history . If the disease were purely genetic , it would never afflict one identical twin and not the other since the siblings have virtually the same genetic makeup . But studies of identical twins have shown that the disease is shared only 30 percent to 50 percent of the time in remaining cases , only one twin is afflicted . Evidence linking viruses or other infectious agents to schizophrenia is purely circumstantial , Torrey said . Some studies , for instance , have found high levels of antibodies to certain viruses in the spinal fluid of schizophrenic patients . ( Optional add end ) Also , numerous studies have shown that people born in the late winter and early spring when common viral illnesses are at their peak have a greater chance of developing the disease than those born at other times of year . This has fueled speculation that the disease can be traced to a viral illness in infancy or during a prenatal stage . It is possible that some people carry genes that made them vulnerable to an infection or its complications , said Dr. Robert H. Yolken , chief of pediatric infectious diseases and the study 's director . `` Infections and genetics are not mutually exclusive , '' he said . SAN DIEGO The principal at a suburban high school who had blocked the showing of `` Zoot Suit '' a month ago relented and was prepared Tuesday night to show the movie on campus . There was only one problem : Not a single student showed up to see it . Terrie Pennock , principal of Santana High School in Santee , said she still believes the movie does not fit the school 's 11th-grade American literature curriculum . But she said she had been willing to show the film to dispel any erroneous impression that her earlier action was racist or censorial . `` Racism and censorship are the kinds of things I became an educator to fight , '' Pennock said . Attendance at the 7 p.m. showing was to have been optional and open only to the 125 students from five American literature classes who had their parents ' permission . School rules require such permission when any R-rated movie is shown . Reiko Obata , the teacher who had wanted to show `` Zoot Suit '' and had clashed with the principal and the chairwoman of the English Department , remains suspended with pay . Obata said her former students probably stayed away in a display of solidarity with her . But Pennock said the no-show was probably an indication that interest was never as high as Obata had suggested . Obata and Pennock remain at odds over Obata 's suspension . Pennock said Obata was not suspended because of the `` Zoot Suit '' clash but rather for other reasons that Pennock could not discuss because of a law requiring confidentiality in school personnel cases . Obata has a one-semester contract as a fill-in teacher . Two days after Pennock denied permission for `` Zoot Suit , '' Obata was ordered to go home for the rest of the semester . Obata said she was told by an assistant superintendent that she was being suspended for going over the head of the department chairwoman to seek permission to show the film . However , there are no documents to verify that . In the controversy that followed Obata 's suspension , `` Zoot Suit '' star Edward James Olmos , the movie 's writer and director Luis Valdez , and a variety of Latino activists , civil libertarians and educators issued statements supporting her . Valdez said he was `` appalled by the bigotry and censorship '' at the school . Pennock said the original decision was made because `` Zoot Suit '' was not suitable for use in the manner that Obata had wanted : to prepare students for `` The House on Mango Street , '' a short-story collection by Sandra Cisneros . A better introduction for the Cisnernos ' book , Pennock said , is the movie that has since been used by the substitute hired to take Obata 's place , `` Stand By Me , '' also starring Olmos . ( Optional add end ) Both `` Stand By Me '' and `` The House on Mango Street '' deal with Latino students struggling successfully against adversity , Pennock said , while `` Zoot Suit '' deals with a murder trial , racial clashes and institutional racism . ``` There is nothing wrong with ` Zoot Suit , ' ' ' Pennock said , `` but it is not a lead-in for ` Mango Street. ' ' ' Valdez was unavailable for comment Tuesday . Phil Esparza , associate producer of `` Zoot Suit '' and Valdez 's artistic collaborator for 25 years , said that it was unfortunate that it took a public controversy `` to get this minimal action '' by the principal . In ZOOTSUIT ( Perry , Times ) sub for 13th and 14th grafs ( `` Stand and Deliver '' sted `` Stand By Me '' ) xxx Cisneros : A better introduction for the Cisnernos ' book , Pennock said , is the movie that has since been used by the substitute hired to take Obata 's place , `` Stand and Deliver , '' also starring Olmos . ( Optional add end ) Both `` Stand and Deliver '' and `` The House on Mango Street '' deal with Latino students struggling successfully against adversity , Pennock said , while `` Zoot Suit '' deals with a murder trial , racial clashes and institutional racism . PICK UP 15th graf : `` There xxx : Republican Ron Lewis Tuesday broke a 129-year Democratic hold on a central Kentucky congressional district , revealing for the second time in three weeks the dangers facing Democrats running in conservative southern and border states and the liabilities of President Clinton in these electorates . With 100 percent of the vote counted , Lewis , a fundamentalist Christian minister and bookstore owner , had 55 percent to Democrat Joe Prather 's 45 percent . Until Lewis , whose campaign was aided by $ 200,000 from national GOP committees , began his assault on Prather and Clinton , the Democrat had been the strong favorite to win the seat that had been held for 41 years by Rep. William H. Natcher , who died March 29 . Democrats now hold a 256 to 178 advantage over the Republicans in the House . There is one independent . `` Everywhere I went through the district there were people upset , '' Lewis declared . `` They actually were mad. .. . They felt like they needed to do something and say something that would change lives . '' Rep . Bill Paxon , N.Y. , chairman of the National Republican Comgressional Committee , declared that the results are `` a big defeat for the president and the Democrats in Congress , and a warning message to Democrats that 1994 is going to be a Republican year . '' A mobilization effort by the Christian right also helped Lewis , and its success also augurs badly for Democrats . Twenty-one Democrats retired this year , and 11 of them represent southern or border state districts where the Christian right is strong . Rep. Vic Fazio , D-Calif. , chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee , sought to play down the significance of the Lewis victory . `` The outcome was not about message , it was about tactics , '' Fazio said , referring to Prather 's decision to run a low key campaign and the low turnout in which strong Christian mobilization and the intense GOP media effort paid off . In his commercials , Lewis charged that Democratic nominee Prather was cut from the same mold as Clinton . His TV commercials stated repeatedly that , `` Kentucky doesn't need Joe Prather . Send a message to Bill Clinton . Send Ron Lewis to Congress . Ron Lewis , he 's one of us . '' As television screens showed pictures of Clinton and Prather melding into each other , the announcer declared : `` In Frankfort ( Kentucky 's capital ) , Joe Prather votes to increase taxes and fees over 40 times. . . . Bill Clinton passes the largest tax increase in history. . . . If you like Bill Clinton , you 'll love Joe Prather . Kentucky doesn't need another professional politician . '' The Lewis victory comes on the heels of the victory of Republican Frank Lucas in a once rock-solid Democratic district in Oklahoma . Lucas succeeds Rep. Glenn English ( D ) , who resigned . While the 2nd Congressional District in Kentucky has been represented by Democrats for more than a century , it clearly has moved toward the GOP in its presidential voting . In 1992 , President George Bush outpolled Clinton there by 45 to 41 percent , and in 1988 , Bush crushed Democratic presidential nominee Michael S. Dukakis . The Lewis-Prather special election was the only Republican-Democratic contest Tuesday , although the policies of the Clinton administration were at issue in a number of primaries in Kentucky , Arkansas and Idaho . In the 1st District of Kentucky just to the west of the 2nd District , freshman Rep. Tom Barlow crushed a challenge by fellow Democrat and state Sen. Henry Lackey . Barlow got 60 percent and Lackey 33 percent . In the nearby 3rd District , former state representative Mike Ward won a 10-way race for the Democratic nomination to succeed Rep. Romano L. Mazzoli ( D ) , who is retiring after 24 years . Former state representative Susan B . Stokes , who ran for the seat and lost in 1992 , defeated two others for the GOP nomination . In Idaho , Democratic Attorney General Larry EchoHawk is favored to win his party 's nomination in his drive to become the nation 's first American Indian governor . Gov. Cecil D. Andrus ( D ) is retiring after four terms . Republican primary voters were expected to pick Phil Batt , a former state senator and lieutenant governor , to oppose EchoHawk . Arkansas Gov. Jim Guy Tucker ( D ) , who succeeded Clinton after the 1992 presidential election , is unopposed in the Democratic gubernatorial primary . Sheffield Nelson , one of Clinton 's harshest critics , was trailing state Sen. Steve Luelf for the GOP nomination In a battle for the Democratic nomination in Arkansas ' 4th Congressional District , James McDougal , whose Whitewater real estate development and savings and loan firm have been the subject of a special counsel 's investigation , trailed state Sen. Jay Bradford and state Rep. John Parkerson . They were competing for the chance to take on freshman Rep. Jay Dickey ( R ) , who has no primary opposition . WASHINGTON Defense attorneys for Rep. Dan Rostenkowski , D-Ill. , are considering an agreement with federal prosecutors in which the powerful House Ways and Means chairman would plead guilty to a felony and serve some time in jail , if the government reduces the number and scope of the charges against him , sources said Tuesday . The options being discussed also include Rostenkowski 's resignation from Congress , sources said Tuesday . Although defense attorneys have indicated that there may be room for compromise , a number of factors have blocked a deal , particularly the question of jail time , which at first Rostenkowski was said to oppose adamantly . Rostenkowski 's attorneys have been pressing for days to narrow the number of charges against him . Prosecutors have indicated that they would compromise in this area , but they have remained firm that any plea must include a felony charge and not just misdemeanors . One source said that any guilty plea `` would have to incorporate certain base line charges . '' Much of the haggling Tuesday centered on jail time , said one source knowledgeable about the deliberations . Prosecutors want jail time as part of any deal and are willing to be flexible only on the length of the stay in prison . Rostenkowski 's attorneys , who earlier had been firm that Rostenkowski avoid prison , now are showing some flexibility on the issue , sources said . The negotiations continued Tuesday at a heated pitch with federal prosecutors and defense attorneys still unable to finalize an agreement . While progress has been made , the discussions could simply fall apart , with prosecutors seeking an indictment this week , sources said . Rostenkowski also reportedly wants to serve out the remainder of his term , which may not be possible if there is a guilty plea . The House would have to decide whether to expel Rostenkowski . Defense attorneys were publicly silent on the matter Tuesday , as were prosecutors who had set this week as the point to seek an indictment of Rostenkowski . Meanwhile , some House Republicans said they would call for hearings if the Ways and Means Committee chairman received what they considered too lenient a deal . However , politicians on Capitol Hill were offering their opinions in increasing numbers , including House Minority Whip Newt Gingrich , R-Ga . `` Any plea bargain that was below some minimum standard would automatically '' lead to Republican calls for Judiciary Committee hearings , wire reports quoted Gingrich as saying . Federal prosecutors have outlined a broad case of conspiracy to defraud the government against Rostenkowski , including charges that the veteran lawmaker paid employees for work not done , and that he abused official accounts for leased cars , office supplies and office space . He has publicly denied all the charges . JACMEL , Haiti Five of them sit at the pier , ships of all measure , varying from 70 feet to seven times that size . Some fly the Haitian flag , one the British ensign , and some fly no flags at all . They all have one thing in common : They defy the world . Anyone trying to sell you a bond nowadays will tell you that the recent jump in long-term interest rates is a false alarm , at least as far as inflation is concerned . There is no inflation to speak of , the bond bulls insist . Unless , of course , you 're a coffee drinker . The price of a pound of coffee on futures markets has rocketed from 72 cents at the start of the year to $ 1.33 now an 85 percent blip , and that the world economy isn't strong enough to support higher raw materials prices , let alone higher prices for finished goods . Some contend commodities ' recent gains are the work of professional traders , not the result of `` real '' demand . There may be some truth to that . Caroline Van , analyst at hedge-fund tracker International Advisory Group in Nashville , Tenn. , says her firm is increasingly hearing from big investors who want to place money with hedge funds that trade in commodities . `` They 're interested in commodities as a ( new ) asset class , '' Van says . In Santa Monica , Calif. , well-known hedge fund manager Mark Strome believes metals such as copper , nickel and aluminum are poised for dramatic price rises . `` I think this is the opportunity '' in financial markets in '94 , he says . But for metals prices to surge , Strome concedes , real demand from busier factories churning out more goods will have to be there worldwide . Robert Genetski , who runs a Chicago-based economic advisory firm bearing his name , predicts that the No. 1 surprise this year will be a stronger U.S. economy than Wall Street now foresees . The Federal Reserve Board , Genetski argues , allowed money to be so loose for so long ( 1991 to 1993 ) that the seeds of robust future business and consumer spending are already sown . While the conventional wisdom is that the Fed 's credit-tightening moves this year will slow the economy , Genetski points to the surge in bank loan demand from business borrowers in recent months as evidence that the economic expansion is gaining steam , not losing it . Commercial and industrial loans outstanding , which plunged from 1991 through '93 , have jumped to $ 605 billion now from $ 585 billion at Jan. 1 , even as rates have increased . Higher demand for goods and services not just in America , but also now in recovering Europe is what 's behind the upward pressure on prices of many once-glutted commodities , Genetski says . As those higher prices stick , and work their way into the cost of products at retail ( like coffee ) , he believes the 2 percent to 3 percent inflation of recent years will turn into 5 percent inflation in 1995 and 6 percent in 1996 . What about global competition and rising productivity ? Those influences ought to suppress price increases , says investment strategist Katherine Hensel at Lehman Bros. in New York . Plus , she notes that raw materials generally account for only one-third of manufacturing costs ; labor is two-thirds , and there 's certainly no shortage of labor around the world , she adds . Still , Genetski and other economy-bulls say the strength in commodities this year is the inflation bell tolling softly so far , but unmistakable . LOS ANGELES Sitting in the parking lot of a McDonald 's in the Los Angeles suburb of Norwalk on Easter Sunday , 1987 , 17-year-old James V. Beltran thought he held happiness in his hands . He had just bought a Coke and picked up an instant game ticket worth at least $ 1 million in a restaurant chain promotional contest and he remembers feeling awestruck . `` I realized it would change my life , '' he said . `` I thought it would make me the happiest person I could be . '' There was just one problem that would cause Beltran 's sweet daydream to sour : as an assistant manager at the McDonald 's in his hometown of nearby Montebello , Beltran was ineligible to collect the money . So , he asked 18-year-old Teresa J. Villafana , a friend at Montebello High School , to claim the winning ticket in return for half the $ 1,000 weekly before-tax proceeds . `` I totally trusted her , '' he said . But the apparent good fortune of Villafana and Beltran quickly turned bad , setting in motion a hellish swirl of greed , naivete and dishonesty between two working-class teen-agers . Disagreements began almost immediately , and in 1990 Villafana filed a lawsuit claiming Beltran had broken their contract . Now , seven years after Villafana 's face was featured on McDonald 's posters in Latino neighborhoods as the lucky young woman who had beaten the odds and won a lifetime income , the company also has filed suit to make them give back more than $ 330,000 . No one will say how , but the company found out in February about the agreement to split the winnings and filed a federal lawsuit in Los Angeles this month charging that Villafana and Beltran had committed fraud . The two said they no longer have the money . `` You can't get blood from a turnip , '' said Carolyn Olivares , who with her husband , Tony , were Villafana 's guardians until she moved out of their Montebello townhouse soon after she began collecting the prize money . `` There 's nothing left . '' McDonald 's spokesman Chuck Ebeling said the company filed the lawsuit on principal , to `` see that the integrity of games or sweepstakes that we are involved in is maintained . '' The money is also important , he said , but `` it 's really a question of protecting participants ' rights '' in contests . The complaint filed by McDonald 's contends Beltran broke the rules because he was an employee and because he gave the ticket to Villafana . Attorney Ivan W. Halperin , who represents Beltran , said it will be difficult for the company to prove its fraud claim . Beltran said he obtained the ticket legitimately , winning against odds of 1 in 250,016,000 , and that he did not know it was improper to give it to Villafana . Halperin also said his client gave it to his friend on the advice of his boss at McDonald 's . `` With that set of facts , there 's no fraud here , '' Halperin said . Villafana 's attorney , Emilio T. Gurrola , declined to comment , saying he was trying to negotiate a settlement with the restaurant giant . Villafana said in a brief telephone conversation that things had not turned out as she hoped they would when Beltran came to her with the proposed agreement . But she referred other questions to Gurrola . Carolyn and Tony Olivares , Villafana 's guardians , said arguments between them and Villafana over how to handle the monthly checks for $ 4,333.36 got so bad she moved out and didn't speak to them for a year . The problem , said Tony Olivares , was that both Beltran and Villafana were young and had no clue about how to handle taxes , insurance , or savings . Discussions over the money `` drove a wedge between us at first because she didn't understand what we were trying to do '' to help her , Carolyn Olivares said . From the point she moved out , said Carolyn Olivares , `` it went downhill very rapidly '' for Villafana . She felt as if Beltran was bullying her and began to worry that something wasn't right , according to legal papers that are part of the Los Angeles County Superior Court lawsuit she filed against Beltran in 1990 . And , she said , Beltran fed those worries by telling her that what the two had conspired to do had been illegal and that she could go to jail if it were discovered . Villafana also said in legal papers that those fears caused her to agree to Beltran 's demands that she sign papers so that the insurance company that issued the annuity would send a check directly to him , with him promising to give her a share . Soon after , in 1989 , Beltran cut her off . When Beltran stopped giving her money , Villafana 's problems mounted . She lost two apartments because she didn't pay the rent . Her car , a Toyota Corolla she had purchased soon after receiving her first check , was repossessed . A boyfriend ran up big bills on her credit cards and then disappeared . Her birth mother surfaced and asked for money to go to Mexico to tend to Villafana 's dying grandmother . Villafana fell behind in her taxes and eventually had to work out a repayment agreement with the federal government . Although Beltran received far more money about $ 237,000 compared to $ 94,000 for Villafana , he also has had difficulties . He said problems began almost as soon as Villafana received the first check in August 1987 . In court papers , she said she made partial payments to Beltran . The Olivareses said she paid Beltran in cash so that he would not be connected to her when he cashed checks . But Beltran now claims that he got almost nothing . `` I never thought she would do that , but I guess it 's true that money really does change you , '' he said . ( Optional add end ) A year later , he persuaded Villafana to assign the annuity payments to him . And , he acknowledged , once that happened he stopped splitting the money with her . `` I felt no obligation to give her more , '' he said in an interview . In May 1992 , a Superior Court judge endorsed an out-of-court settlement of the lawsuit Villafana filed against Beltran that gave him about three-quarters of the money . Villafana 's share was to be about a quarter of the money . But , by then , the annuity had shrunk , too . The insurance company that issued the annuity , Executive Life , had been forced by its own financial problems to reorganize . As a result , the value of the monthly check varied each month , dropping as low as $ 2,500 . In January , the money stopped altogether , because of Executive Life 's troubles . And in February , McDonald filed suit . `` They would have had it made , '' said Tony Olivares , shaking his head in wonderment at how things turned out . `` There was enough money for both of them . '' SARAJEVO , Bosnia-Herzegovina Threats by Western countries to pull U.N. troops out of embattled Bosnia may be as hard to deliver on as earlier promises to protect civilians , but the prospect has nevertheless stirred fears of devastating consequences for all of the Balkans . As fighting in the region grinds through its third year and hopes for a negotiated solution evaporate , fatigue and frustration have prompted countries contributing troops to the U.N. command to impose deadlines for a peaceful settlement or a pullout . France has put UNPROFOR , the U.N. . Protection Force , on notice that it will cut its 6,800-troop contingent by 2,500 , and Britain has threatened to withdraw all 3,300 of its soldiers if the Bosnian government and Serbian nationalist rebels have not made peace in two months . While those and similar warnings by other NATO-member countries give the impression of a new , get-tough attitude with the Bosnian combatants , the consequences of such a pullout could be lopsided and would almost guarantee a widening of the war . British Lt. Gen. Michael Rose , the U.N. commander for 15,000 troops in Bosnia , said in interviews he is certain all sides recognize that a pullout would lead to `` a nightmare scenario . '' `` If we go , who is going to feed the 2.7 million people here who are totally dependent on aid ? '' Rose asked . `` Who is going to push the peace process ? The cease-fire in Sarajevo would unravel . Even in central Bosnia , where there is already a political agreement , there is the risk that everything would come unstuck . '' Without U.N. troops to protect aid convoys trying to reach hungry civilians trapped behind the front lines , deliveries to besieged pockets and this encircled capital city would have to stop , confirmed Kris Janowski , spokesman for the U.N. . High Commissioner for Refugees . Sarajevo , which the refugee agency uses as a base for feeding 440,000 Bosnians on both sides of the encircling confrontation line , is served by a humanitarian airlift now operated and protected by U.N. forces . `` If UNPROFOR pulled out , the airport would stop functioning and there would probably be a huge escalation in the fighting , '' Janowski predicted . `` And UNHCR cannot run an airlift under conditions of total warfare . '' The eastern Bosnian pockets of Gorazde , Srebrenica and Zepa would also likely lose their aid lifelines because there would be no U.N. troops or armor to muscle deliveries through the Serbian rebel cordons entrapping more than 150,000 people , mostly Muslims , in those U.N.-designated havens . The United Nations and its aid agency have observed strict neutrality throughout their nearly two years in Bosnia , feeding nearly all of the population still left here after 200,000 deaths and the flight to other countries of as many as half of the 2 million displaced . ( Begin optional trim ) But because the dependent Serbian civilians live in areas adjacent to their patron state of Serbia or Croatian land conquered by fellow Serbs during an earlier phase of the regional war , the nationalist rebels have less at risk with the food pipeline if they defy the peace deadline than the Muslim-led government , whose backers would be left to starve . Despite the inequity of aid deliveries that would result from a U.N. withdrawal , officials of the Balkans force see counter-pressures that they believe should compel the Serbian rebels to quit while they are so far ahead and get what they can through negotiation . `` Implicit in a pullout is lifting of the arms embargo , '' one officer said , pointing to the mounting pressures in Washington and Western Europe to nullify a 1991 U.N. prohibition of arms deliveries to what was then Yugoslavia but has since fractured into independent republics , each of which holds widely disparate shares of the old federation 's weapon stockpile . Serbia inherited the arsenal of tanks , heavy guns and aircraft that belonged to the massive Yugoslav People 's Army , the fourth-largest force in Europe , which has given its Serbian rebel proxies in Bosnia the military might to conquer more than 70 percent of this republic . `` If the U.N. is forced to leave , the chances of the Serbs getting ( U.N.-imposed economic ) sanctions lifted is zero and they have to worry about the Muslims being rearmed , '' another European officer noted . `` In both respects , time would not be on the Serbs ' side . '' Bosnia 's Muslims and Croats had been fighting each other in a war-within-a-war until March , when a U.S.-brokered agreement restored their alliance against the Serbian land grab . But the Serbs have so far refused to commit themselves to a proposed Bosnian federation of ethnically based ministates , preferring to press on with a quest to annex their conquered Bosnian territory to a Greater Serbia . ( End optional trim ) Officials of the Bosnian government have reacted with pique to the threats of a pullout . Prime Minister Haris Silajdzic denounced Britain 's two-month deadline as an attempt to force the leadership of a U.N.-member state to cave in to its own destruction . The United States recently joined Russia and nations of the European Union ( which formerly was known as the European Community ) in demanding that the Bosnian combatants accept an immediate cease-fire and agree to a split of the territory that would give the Serbian rebels internationally recognized authority over half of this republic . Some observers believe , though , that the threats are having the desired effect of confronting the two sides with no other option but to sit down and negotiate . Mirko Pejanovic , a Bosnian vice president who is a non-nationalist Serb , said he sees little chance of a U.N. pullout and growing signs that the leadership is ready to compromise on the issue of how long they will cease military activities to give the peace process a chance . ( Optional add end ) The foreign ministers who met in Geneva insisted that both sides agree to a four-month cease-fire and resume negotiations that deadlocked early this year . The Serbs insist that four months is too short , because they hope to draw out the negotiations endlessly so as to strengthen their grip on all the territory they now hold . The government , fearing that delaying tactic , wants a finite term by which a fair settlement is negotiated or the intransigent party punished for refusing to bargain in good faith . A well-known political analyst for the Sarajevo daily Oslobodjenje , Merhet Husic , agrees the risk of a U.N. pullout is extremely slim . `` They 're bluffing , '' he said of the British and French threats to withdraw from Bosnia . `` They have to be here for the sake of their own political futures . They don't care about Bosnia , but if they leave this place while war continues , they would be admitting they are nothing , that not even NATO can protect people from senseless killing . '' Despite the obvious dangers of a U.N. pullout , officials warn that political realities in the parliaments of Europe could pressure those governments to put a limit on their patience and a mission whose costs and casualties have become increasingly difficult to defend . `` There will come a stage where they have to say , ` That 's it , '' ' Rose 's aide , Lt. Col. Simon Shadbolt , said of the growing sentiment for giving the combatants an ultimatum to make peace . `` We are not yet at that stage , and the mission will continue . But if we have provided the conditions for the peace process and both sides make clear they do not want peace , there will come a stage where we have to ask ourselves what the hell we 're doing here . '' SKOPJE , Macedonia To hear Macedonians on the streets of their capital talk , the only ones suffering from the blockade Athens has placed on this landlocked former Yugoslav republic are the Greeks themselves . `` The Greeks are so dumb , '' jeered Emran Bajram , a taxi driver . `` They 've lost all their Macedonian tourists to Turkey . '' He gestured to a near-empty gas station . `` Look : There 's no line . We always have gas . When I need it , I just fill up , '' he said . `` We can still get what we need from Turkey , '' said Irena Dimitrieva , a travel agent . `` The only problem is that everybody would love to go to Greece for holiday . '' Indeed , downtown shops are filled with everything from imported cutlery to basketball shoes , and Macedonian women in the latest Italian fashions still crowd Skopje 's late-night discos . But beneath the bravado and flashy goods , Macedonia stands to lose far more than holidays on the Aegean . The trade blockade that Greece imposed Feb. 16 to add economic pressure to a campaign to force Macedonia to change its name , flag and constitution has left the Skopje government struggling to prop up an increasingly weak economy , and hoping it can contain nationalist sentiments that could tear the country apart . Greece has claimed that the name Macedonia and other symbols adopted by the new country in 1991 are historically Greek , and that their use reflects Skopje 's designs on Greece 's northern province , also called Macedonia . `` If this embargo is prolonged , and if the economic difficulties and tensions are increased , there is no guarantee that there willn't be an explosion here , '' President Kiro Gligorov warned during an interview in his Skopje office . Factories unable to obtain raw materials have shut down and many planned enterprises aborted , exacerbating unemployment . Gligorov 's moderate but fragile coalition , facing elections in November , may fall apart under nationalistic pressures , observers say . Fuel and other prices are being kept artificially low by a government that is mortgaging its future to shield its people temporarily from the embargo 's effects . Macedonia 's population of 2 million includes substantial Albanian and Bulgarian minorities , and the region 's conflicting territorial claims have touched off two Balkan wars in this century . `` If this place comes apart , we have serious problems , because I can't imagine it happening without seeing all the neighbors involved , '' said Victor Comras , the U.S. government liaison to Skopje and likely ambassador if and when Washington accords full diplomatic relations . `` There have been too many Balkan wars fought over Macedonia . '' Greek Prime Minister Andreas Papandreou has ignored pleas from the 11 other members of the European Union to drop the embargo . Gligorov maintains Macedonia is willing to make compromises , but says Greece keeps creating new demands . President Clinton has appointed a special envoy , Matthew Nimetz , to mediate the dispute , thus far without breakthrough . And the EU has said it will take Greece to the European Court of Justice . But some officials in Skopje fear a settlement of the problem will come too late . `` We are very close to the edge , '' said Dimitar Belcev , the Foreign Ministry 's undersecretary for economic affairs . Ironically , government officials here say the sanctions imposed by the U.N. . Security Council in 1992 against Serbian-dominated Yugoslavia over its support for Serb forces in Bosnia are a bigger problem for Macedonia than the Greek blockade . The U.N. sanctions have largely cut Macedonia off from its traditionally largest trading partner and have cut its land and river links to Western Europe and the former Soviet Union . There are widespread violations of the sanctions via Macedonia , U.S. and U.N. officials say . But all acknowledge that no country , aside from Serbia , has suffered more from the sanctions , and that very little of the promised economic compensation has been delivered to Skopje . The sanctions made Macedonia 's outlet via the Greek port of Salonika all the more important . `` The second and last railway link is with Greece , our very dear neighbor to the south , '' said Belcev . With the rail links through Serbia cut , `` the problem is we redirected almost everything over Salonika . '' Oil and other goods are now being trucked through Bulgaria or Albania , but transportation costs have risen 30 percent to 100 percent , according to the government . Many raw materials no longer can be imported . Of grave concern to the government , for example , is the loss of coke and phosphates needed for zinc smelting . And because it is impossible to export products such as steel plates and copper in bulk , foreign income is dwindling and newly developed markets are being lost . `` The Italians are now buying their steel pipes from Turkey , '' lamented Belcev . HAGERSTOWN , Md. John Rebarick says he had no idea what or where Sao Tome was until this winter , when a woman named Tanya gave him the most expensive geography lesson of his life . Thanks to her , the 33-year-old Hagerstown man now knows that Sao Tome and Principe is a tiny island nation off the coast of West Africa . He has also learned that one of its exports is sex talk which his roommate 's girlfriend apparently imported liberally through an international `` party line '' that bypassed the 900 call-blocking service he signed up for the month before . When the bills started coming in , she skipped town . Rebarick doesn't know whether she was addicted to the sex talk lines or was doing it for money . All he knows is she left him with about $ 3,500 in phone bills more than $ 2,000 for calls to Sao Tome alone . Rebarick is one of a growing number of victims of an increasingly popular tactic among phone-sex merchants possibly in collaboration with foreign phone companies . By setting up overseas sex lines , they get around 900 call-blocking , a service used by many employers and parents . And when the bills come in , as Rebarick found , the phone companies have one response to customers : It 's your phone , it 's your responsibility . For Rebarick , the burden of responsibility was too heavy . His phone service has been cut off , and he says neither he nor his roommate has enough money to have it restored . Telephone company officials say they have heard relatively few complaints about international sex lines so far , but they are worried they could grow into a problem as serious as 900 lines were before call-blocking and other protections were introduced . Rules adopted by the FCC after Congress passed the 1991 Telephone Consumer Protection Act require that charges be specified up front and that customers be given a reasonable time to hang up without charge . They also give customers broad rights to refuse payment for unauthorized calls to 900 numbers a type of call where the local phone company acts as the billing agent for the service provider . But the international sex lines can evade those protections as well as call-blocking . The major long-distance companies are able to block all international calls from a customer 's number , but there 's no requirement that they offer the service . And while that solution might work for a family with teen-agers , it could tie the hands of a company with global interests . Bob Spangler , deputy chief of enforcement at the Federal Communications Commission , said there 's little else U.S. long-distance carriers can do . As common carriers , they are required to put calls through without censorship and there is no way they can tell whether a foreign number is a sex line until they start getting complaints . Even then they have no authority to block calls to those lines . Unlike U.S. 900 lines , callers do not pay a defined premium just the basic cost of the long-distance call . So where are the profits going ? Spangler points to the foreign carriers who collect money for completing the call on their end in places such as Suriname , the Netherlands Antilles , Portugal , the Dominican Republic and Sao Tome . `` We 've been told that not only do they have an idea , but that they 're financing it , '' Spangler says . In many cases those phone companies are government-owned , he notes , adding that the U.S. government is trying to address the problem through diplomatic means . He holds out little hope of a quick solution . Sao Tome 's phone company , which installed a new digital phone system in January , is jointly owned by a Portuguese company and the Sao Tome government . AT&T spokesman Dick Gundlach says his company is required under international agreements to pay `` separation charges '' to the foreign carriers that complete the call . He says each additional call going to Sao Tome increases the monthly payment to Sao Tome 's phone company at the rate of 80 cents a minute . So when a 30-minute prime-time call was placed from Rebarick 's phone to Sao Tome on the morning of Feb. 24 , $ 24 of the $ 100 charge went to the carrier in Sao Tome . On that day , when Rebarick and his roommate say Tanya was the only person they knew to be in their home , 21 calls were placed to Sao Tome . Rebarick was billed $ 1,088.76 , and the Sao Tome phone company collected $ 278.40 that day . ( Optional add end ) Gundlach says AT&T cannot legally deduct from its payments to the Sao Tome carrier , regardless of whether Bell Atlantic or AT&T ever collects the money from Rebarick . AT&T is negotiating with some foreign companies and recently concluded an agreement with Codetel , the Dominican Republic 's phone carrier , allowing the American company to deduct from its payments when a customer protests . AT&T security officials have noticed a growing number of international sex line ads in such publications as High Society and Hustler , Gundlach says . But potential callers need not buy a skin magazine to get these numbers . Some daily newspapers accept classified ads for international sex lines , alongside sexually oriented 900 lines and 800 lines . Two weeks after Moore 's roommate Tanya left , she surfaced in Minnesota to plead guilty to an earlier charge of phone credit card fraud . She is now being sought for violating probation . Can it have been but 30 years since the forces of the far right in the United States were led by such substantial figures as Barry Goldwater and William F. Buckley ? Can it be 14 years since the legions of reaction adopted as their messiah that somnolent and improbable former actor whose life in the social orbit of Frank Sinatra was about as atypical of the hearth-home-flag-prayer-abstinence-values wing of conservatism as a divorced father of a dysfunctional family who ran off with a starlet could be ? Taking stock of the ultra conservative movement , we now find the amiable old gentleman of Bel-Air is about as involved and relevant as an afternoon nap . And there is Barry Goldwater , obviously still well short of his dotage , on television this week defending the right of homosexuals to serve in the military and rather angrily denouncing the `` religious right . '' Bill Buckley , when he hasn't been coming out for decriminalization of drugs , has been throwing a book publishing party for that honored , unreconstructed and imperishable legend of the American left , Murray Kempton . And in the torrent of sometimes incoherent and invariably lachrymose tributes to Richard Nixon , what finally stood out ? It was all the arguments that Nixon was , after all , a great , or at least forgivable man for all the liberal things he did : cozying up to the Chinese and the Russians , having a Keynesian domestic economic agenda , supporting the arts , behaving charitably to blacks and Jews and all the things that on the miles of yet unreleased National Archives tapes we will some day discover Nixon actually despised with a curiously perverse and almost touching envy . Anyway , if you really think that liberalism has come to a craven and miserable end in America , stop to realize that the Goldwater-Buckley wing of what we used to think of as the pit of darkness has been inherited by Oliver North , Pat Buchanan and , I guess , Dan Quayle . First of all , can you imagine any of them maturing in the mainstream fullness , tolerance and wisdom of old age , into a Buckley or a Goldwater ? I can't . Of course , victory is still theirs . It always is . That 's the wonder of it . They can make health care reform sound like the end of capitalism as we know it , with the KGB roaming hospital corridors . Hillary Clinton has become something of an ogre who makes grown politicians scared to admit they 're liberal . They can make a single-payer , Canadian-style system sound like it came from Mars . Fifty years ago , as immovable and pigheaded a conservative as Winston Churchill described health care reform in Britain and state financing of illness as merely a recognition of the fact that `` disease must be attacked in the same way that a fire brigade will give assistance to the humble cottage as readily as it will to the most important mansion . '' That such a simple , inherently conservative and generous concept could be reversed in our age to a squalid , well financed , self-interested and mean-spirited movement as has now marshalled itself against the sick people of America is to underscore the winds of change . Either the insurance companies , doctors , hospitals , drug companies and Mercedes drivers of this nation own it or the rest of us do . CLEVELAND Teamsters President Jackie Presser was one of the nation 's most controversial union chiefs when he died in 1988 . At the time , he was under indictment on racketeering charges , a case his attorney had staved off by citing his role for more than a decade as a secret informant for the FBI . Now , a dispute over his surprisingly large $ 4.2 million estate has surfaced in state court . It is Presser 's ironic legacy : The case has divided his family and involves potential criminality on the part of his wife , Cynthia . The court proceedings have arisen from the lavish lifestyle that characterized the old-guard Teamster chieftain , and a widow who refused to change that style after he succumbed to brain cancer . Cynthia Presser his fifth wife has admitted misusing hundreds of thousands of dollars from the estate and violating her duties as its executor . So blatant has been her conduct that a probate judge recently asked the Cuyahoga County prosecutor 's office to investigate Cynthia Presser for possible embezzlement . The case occurs at a time when frugality in the nation 's largest trade union is being stressed by a new Teamster president , Ron Carey , who was elected on his pledge to reduce spending , cut costs and stamp out corruption . The dispute over the estate started with a civil proceeding filed by John R. Climaco , Jackie Presser 's former attorney and confidant , and by Presser 's two children from a previous marriage . In a deposition filed in the case , Cynthia Presser said she has spent $ 369,227 on clothes , decorating and furniture during her term as executor of Presser 's estate . Another $ 225,000 went to an ex-husband and other relatives of hers . `` I know these look like exorbitant expenses , '' she said in her sworn statement . `` But my life with my late husband provided me a life like that , and I continued to live that life and that contributed to these expenses . '' Although she was bequeathed a substantial sum by her late husband , Cynthia Presser acknowledged she went beyond her inheritance by dipping into funds that were set aside for her stepchildren , Gary and Bari Presser . ( Begin optional trim ) In her sworn statement , Cynthia Presser said her living expenses have averaged $ 10,000 a month . In addition , she said she bought a $ 10,000 diamond engagement ring for her son by a previous marriage to give his fiancee and purchased a $ 629,000 lakefront home for herself outside Cleveland . She told of buying a fur stole worth $ 3,000 in 1989 and spending $ 2,900 to have a larger closet built for her clothes . She flew frequently to Arizona in the winter , she said . In addition , she gave untold thousands of dollars in outright gifts or loans to her parents , other relatives and friends , she testified . ( Begin optional trim ) Describing the lifestyle the Pressers enjoyed , a one-time close associate of the late Teamster chief said in an interview : `` They lived in a Washington condo paid for by the international union . It was fully furnished and decorated in style , along with fine china , silverware and crystal provided by the union . There were expensive paintings on the walls and other artworks . `` She and Jackie got used to all-expense-paid vacations and frequent business trips to California or Florida in the winter . The union footed the bill for their accommodations at the finest hotels and resorts , and they were picked up by limousine anywhere their Teamsters ' Gulfstream jet landed . '' How did Jackie Presser amass an estate of more than $ 4 million while holding union posts his entire adult life ? Court records are silent on the matter , the ex-associate said . `` Jackie spent union funds lavishly but was frugal with his own money . He had what amounted to an unlimited expense account and , therefore , could save most of his union salary , which was considerable . '' In the years leading up to his death , Presser drew about $ 800,000 annually in pay . This included his $ 250,000 salary as general president of the Teamsters , as well as pay from union posts he held . Associates said he also made a profit of more than $ 1 million from his investment in the 1970s in Cleveland 's Front Row Theater . He earned no fees from the 10 years he served as a secret informant for the FBI , providing information on mobsters and Teamster rivals . ( Optional add end ) The court records show that Cynthia Presser also is engaged in a legal dispute with current union officials over the whereabouts and ownership of some expensive furnishings that once adorned their Washington condo . She is facing allegations that she shipped many of these union-provided items to her home . She agreed several months ago to pay $ 350,000 into Presser 's children 's trust funds , as well as $ 200,000 in overdue legal fees . But unable to do so she filed for personal bankruptcy and was removed as executor of the estate . Now she is facing possible indictment in state court on grounds that she embezzled more than $ 570,000 . GAZA CITY , Gaza Strip As they began to reunite from throughout the Arab world with tears of joy and loss a catharsis that was a quarter-century of occupation and separation in the making the Danaf family of Gaza City had much to catch up on last week . Shawky Danaf had to break the worst of it to his half-brother , Arafat , who arrived in an Iraqi paratrooper 's uniform along with hundreds of other Palestinian police officers in newly autonomous Jericho . After four years of war and isolation with the Palestine Liberation Army brigade based in Baghdad , the news was hard for Arafat to bear . Their brother Mohammad was dead , Shawky told him by phone in a voice choked with pain . He had been shot and killed by Israel 's occupation army three months short of this greatly anticipated reunion the coming together of a family long divided , like so many in the occupied lands . Just before his death , Mohammad had spoken of this reunion as a dream more distant only than the dream of living together with his exiled father and four half-brothers in a liberated Palestinian land . By the end of their conversation , both Shawky and Arafat were in tears . The Danafs ' saga speaks volumes about the events unfolding at ground zero of the Middle East conflict , as Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization finally have begun the first concrete steps toward peace . They are a family of simple poverty among hundreds of thousands of Palestinian refugees who are beginning the long process of erasing the distance and pain of exile and occupation . And like the peace process itself , the Danaf reunion is far from complete . In fact , it has just begun . The family 's father , a former Palestinian fighter named Hassan , fled to Gaza with his first wife from their Arab village in Southern Israel in 1948 , when the Israeli state was carved out of British-ruled Palestine . Nineteen years later , he fled again after the Arabs lost the 1967 Arab-Israeli war . He left his wife , three sons and two daughters in Gaza , bounced from Arab land to Arab land and finally settled with a second wife in Egypt , where he fathered two sons and two daughters . As the surviving half-brothers two in Gaza and two in the Palestinian brigades destined to serve the autonomous zones anticipate their imminent reunion , it is Arafat and the slain Mohammad who best symbolize both the decades of Israeli occupation and the peace-building task now at hand . The Danafs ' complex story was gleaned in more than a dozen visits to their home and to a Gaza City cafe that Mohammad had opened last year while unemployed to keep from going mad , he said . It is the story of the splintered and often confusing relationships that typify Gazan families , of lifetimes of desperation and fading hope now turned to bittersweet joy . And it is a story that demonstrates the human impact of the beginning of both the end of Israel 's 27 years of occupation in the former Palestine and of the effort still needed to restore enough hope to build Gaza and Jericho into the core of a future Palestinian land . Shawky , 32 , and Arafat , 19 , spoke for the first time in many years when Shawky delivered the news of Mohammad 's death in the phone call to Arafat 's military post . Gaza and Jericho , the two autonomous Palestinian zones , are still divided by dozens of miles of Israeli territory . A promised route for Palestinian safe passage is still weeks or months away . Not even Arafat 's mother , Rida Wahbeh Abdul-Rasoul , who traveled from Cairo to Gaza two weeks ago to begin the reunion , can see him yet . The Egyptian second wife of Hassan came to Gaza not only to meet the other half of her husband 's family but also to see her own sons Arafat and Sabar , for the first time in years . Then last week , on the day Palestinian extremists gunned down two Israeli soldiers near the Gaza border , Israel sealed off Gaza for at least nine days , a further obstacle to the reunion . Mohammad and Shawky 's mother Halima Abu Obeid had little time last week for the problems of her husband 's second wife . After all , Hassan had abandoned her when Mohammad , Shawky and the eldest brother , Ibrahim , 36 , were just infants , fleeing into exile . Nonetheless , Halima said , Rida was living with her in Gaza now . Arafat and Halima 's other stepson , Sabar , 25 , are almost home after serving in exiled Palestinian brigades in Iraq and Libya both during and after the 1991 Persian Gulf War . Sabar , due to arrive in Gaza any day with his delayed brigade from Libya , was `` a carbon copy '' of Mohammad , Halima said . `` When my husband called this morning from Cairo , he asked how I was feeling now with the boys coming home , '' she recalled . `` With him , I can still speak freely . I said , ` I still feel a great sadness . My hand is not complete . Still a big finger is missing . Our son Mohammad is gone . We have lost him . And nothing can bring him back. ' ' ' ( Optional add end ) Last December , Mohammad knew his half-brothers , Arafat and Sabar , were among the Palestinian fighters who would return to a homeland they never knew . He learned that news from his father , in the same way many Gazans kept up with relatives in Egypt after occupation . They would travel to the divided city of Rafah that straddles the Egyptian border in Gaza 's extreme south and , at prearranged meetings , shout to each other through barbed wire across 30 yards . Even at the time , Mohammad stressed the significance of this promised reunion a small but powerful step in the reuniting of more than 2 million Palestinian relatives still separated by occupation and exile . It was , he said then , almost too good to be true . `` Even if we have self-government in only one small piece of Gaza , it will be better for us , of course . But I fear for the future , '' he explained . `` I 'd love to see the Palestine police force take control of this region , but I doubt it will happen . '' It did happen , but he didn't see it . Within weeks of its opening , Mohammad 's cafe was trashed . It happened during an armed clash with another Palestinian family over ownership of the land . Desperate , Mohammad illegally crossed into Israel and took back his old construction job . After two months , Israeli authorities caught him . He was deported . `` Mohammad came home about midnight on Feb. 24 , '' Shawky recalled . `` He was angry and exhausted . When he woke up about noon the next day and heard what had happened that morning , something just snapped in him . He left the house in a fury . The next time we saw him , he was dead . '' That was the day in February when a Jewish settler opened fire inside a Hebron mosque , killing about 30 Palestinian worshipers and nearly destroying the autonomy plan for Gaza and Jericho . The killings touched off demonstrations and riots throughout the occupied lands . Mohammad joined one of them , outside the Israeli military camp near his home . He was shot in the right side of his chest . He died in the hospital . As he sat outside the remains of the cafe last week , Shawky was in tears . `` Of course we will be happy when we finally see our two ( half ) brothers . But we are still in mourning for Mohammad , so there will be no celebration , '' he said . `` After a time , I will try to reopen this cafe . That was Mohammad 's dream , and so now it is mine . But you must understand , we already have paid the full price of this peace . '' The following editorial appeared in Wednesday 's Washington Post : China 's respect for human rights or China 's lack of it will affect the lives of incalculable numbers of people over the coming decades . China has not only a huge population of its own , but great influence on other poor countries as it successfully and rapidly becomes richer . That 's why President Clinton needs to keep pressing the Chinese government on human rights . And that 's why he needs a better instrument than the threat to lift MFN most-favored-nation treatment and cut off Chinese exports to the United States . It is important not to misunderstand the current scale of Chinese abuse of political and religious freedom , or to allow the Chinese government to argue that Americans are only trying to impose their own legal practices on another culture . Many of the worst trespasses , like the frequent resort to torture by the police , are in violation of Chinese law . Large and persuasive compilations of these cases have been published by such reputable organizations as Amnesty International USA , Asia Watch and the Puebla Institute . The issue is how to bring the Chinese government into conformity with its own laws , and with the principles accepted by most other countries , rich and poor . One danger in lifting MFN is that it would sharply diminish China 's contacts with this country . Ideas follow the trade routes , and increased trade means increased openness to other changes as well . Lifting MFN would also impede the development of a market economy in China , and the emergence of a commercial middle class two forces that are already undercutting the centralized Communist regime . The United States has more effective ways to lean on China . A warmer policy toward Taiwan and more public attention to the repression in Tibet would remind China 's rulers that there are real penalties attached to violation of the world 's standards penalties that would not injure the people in China who are pushing their country in the direction in which most Americans want to see it move . Repeatedly calling a government to account for its human-rights record and engaging it in a dialogue , privately and publicly , is a diplomatic tactic that has had significant successes in many places over the years . There is hardly any exercise in international politics more difficult than bringing a rising power peacefully into the world system . China is a great power , with nuclear weapons and the world 's third-largest national economy . But it has not yet acknowledged the responsibilities that its position carries . Clinton needs a strategy not to shut China out , but to draw it more deeply into the fabric of international agreements and organizations that set governments ' standards for dealing decently both with each other and with their own people . The welfare of Asia , and of the United States as a Pacific power , will depend on his success . Even under elegant academic robes , you can often spot serious ( breeches , breaches ) of usage rules . Which words should this commencement speaker choose in order to avoid mistakes ? `` Distinguished faculty , ( reverend , reverent ) clergy , honored graduates : `` I 'm delighted to be standing at this ( lectern , podium ) this morning , participating in this ( ceremonial , ceremonious ) ritual . As I look out over the ( luxurious , luxuriant ) grass and trees of your campus , I think I 'll go golfing . So that 's my speech . Thank you . '' ( boos , wild applause . ) Answers : 1 ) Reverend . Whether they 're priests , rabbis , ministers or monks , they 're all `` reverend '' ( deserving reverence ) on graduation day . Calling them `` reverent , '' would mean that they themselves are filled with reverence , which they probably are . But on this occasion , they 're the ones being revered . 2 ) Lectern . A lectern is a stand that supports a speaker 's notes or books . A podium is the elevated platform on which a speaker stands . While , through common use ( it gets scuffed a lot ) , `` podium '' has acquired a secondary meaning of `` lectern , '' elevated grammarians regard such usage as base . 3 ) Ceremonial . As long as we 're standing on a podium , let 's stand on ceremony . `` Ceremonial '' refers to anything associated with a ceremony , as in `` ceremonial offering . '' `` Ceremonious , '' which almost always refers to people or behavior , means `` unusually formal or meticulous in manner , '' and bears a negative connotation of being a fussy and ritualistic . 4 ) Luxuriant . Strictly , `` luxuriant '' means lush or abundant ( `` a luxuriant beard '' ) , while `` luxurious '' means full of luxury or sumptuous ( `` a luxurious penthouse '' ) . It 's worth noting that respectable writers have often luxuriated in the pleasure of using these words interchangeably . Theodore Dreiser wrote of `` luxuriant restaurants , '' for instance , while Henry David Thoreau described `` luxurious misty timber , '' which is where our erstwhile graduation speaker probably hit his first tee shot . 5 ) Wild applause . It 's too costly , too important , too tiring , too silly , too long or too short . It 's the American Booksellers Association 's annual convention and trade exhibit , scheduled this weekend in Los Angeles . Though retailers and publishers differ on the value of spending each Memorial Day weekend talking up fall titles , and dashing from luncheons to seminars to nightly parties , the expected attendance shows that `` The ABA '' remains a seasonal rite that book-industry players are loath to ignore . An estimated 1,600 publishers and other exhibitors will display their products in the Los Angeles Convention Center , covering 322,000 square feet , or 20 percent more space than was reserved by companies at last year 's show in Miami Beach . And 30,000 people are expected to pass through , which would make this the second-best-attended convention since the one held in 1991 in New York City . The drill hasn't changed : The publishers plan to romance the booksellers and try to whip up interest in new goods , and the booksellers will revel in the attention as they consider the size of their orders . `` The big publishing houses , with their sales reps around the country , are so self-assured that they 're there for the exercise , '' said Bernie Rath , executive director of the American Booksellers Association , whose 4,500 members consist mainly of independently owned businesses . `` But the medium- and smaller-sized publishers that have no sales force on the road rely on the convention to meet the buyer . '' Michelle Sidrane , president of the Crown Publishing Group , one of the major-league publishing companies , said she hopes to detour booksellers off the busy convention floor to quieter meeting rooms in order to present special promotions involving fall books . Crown 's list includes titles by Larry King , John Denver , Dave Barry and Martha Stewart . In addition to these brand names , Sidrane said , the publisher hopes to kindle enthusiasm for Judith Rossner 's `` Olivia '' and two other novels whose film rights have already been bought by Hollywood Nina Vida 's `` Goodbye , Saigon '' and Mark Olshaker 's `` The Edge . '' On the festive side , Crown will present Barry in a night of standup comedy at The Improv and Audrey Meadows at a party designed to showcase her fall memoir , `` Love , Alice : My Life as a Honeymooner . '' ( Begin optional trim ) Suppliers of CD-ROMs and other electronic media will occupy about 10,000 square feet at the convention center vivid evidence that these companies want bookstores to offer their products along with the latest John Grisham thriller . `` We very much believe that the most convenient site for the perusal of electronic media is the bookstore , '' said Morton E. David , chairman of Franklin Electronic Publishers Inc. , an exhibitor based in Mount Holly , N.J. . `` Booksellers , by and large , if they take a pass on offering some kind of electronic media , are going to regret it four or five years down the road . '' Franklin , which employs 200 people and posted $ 66 million in sales last year , will be showing off various electronic books , including its $ 99 Spanish Master , a pocket-sized bilingual dictionary that can speak 250,000 words in English and Spanish by using voice-synthesized technology . ( End optional trim ) While this weekend 's ABA offers no star-powered extravaganza like the Putnam Publishing Group 's blast last year for Ann-Margret ( `` My Story '' ) or Alfred A . Knopf 's lavish do for Oprah Winfrey ( who ended up scuttling the autobiography she planned to deliver ) , New York publishers have planned an array of parties to promote their books . Scribners has arranged a tea for Barbara Bush , whose autobiography will be published in September ; W.W. Norton & Co. will celebrate the release of Walter Mosley 's new `` Black Betty , '' another of his Easy Rawlins capers set in Los Angeles , with soul sounds at the Biltmore Hotel ; Warner Books ' invitation to the St. James Club urges folks `` to Get Down with Your Bad Self and Berry Gordy , '' the mainstay of Motown Records , whose autobiography , `` To Be Loved , '' is scheduled for October . The list of RSVPs to Buzz 's ABA party at House of Blues shows that the reach of the upstart L.A. magazine extends to many top executives in New York publishing . This especially pleases Eden Collinsworth , a former New York book publisher who is now president and chief executive officer of Buzz . Asked whether the home of television and Hollywood is a suitable venue for purveyors of the printed word , Collinsworth said , `` I certainly brought to L.A. a condescending , East Coast attitude toward the city . But in the five years I 've been here , it 's certainly been made clear to me that this is a far more confident and cosmopolitan area than many back east assume . '' LONDON Damien Hirst is London 's leading chain-saw artist . He hacks dead livestock in half . He split-cut a cow and a calf lengthwise and displayed them in huge , sealed cases of formaldehyde at the 1993 Venice Biennale , like .. . well .. . like sides of beef in a butcher shop . The Venice Biennale is , of course , one of the world 's most prestigious art events . He sawed a pig 's head in half for this month 's British edition of Esquire . The artist is shown with his chain saw . We see the chain saw in action . Close-up photos of the halves of the split pig 's head are printed as the magazine 's centerfold , inside-out , as it were , very red against a flesh-toned background . No airbrush has edited out offensive parts to protect the squeamish as the old Playboy used to do . He 's routinely called the `` enfant terrible '' of the British art world , the artist most talked about , doing the most striking work . He 's 28 and from Leeds , the old Yorkshire city , where he saw his first preserved specimens in a mortuary when he was a schoolboy . `` I was just really kind of fascinated by them , '' he says . He first floated into national notoriety two years ago with a toothy , 14-foot tiger shark , immersed in its own preservative tank of formaldehyde . He called the piece `` The Physical Impossibility of Death in the Mind of Someone Living . '' He likes an expressive title . The shark appeared at the very trendy Saatchi Gallery and launched him into instant tabloid fame . His shark has been called the most caricatured work of art since Whistler 's Mother . His latest animal act is a lamb , all woolly and cuddly-looking , floating in a white-framed tank of faintly greenish-tinted formaldehyde . It 's in a show that opened this month at the Serpentine Gallery . Hirst is curator , and he has chosen 15 artists who share his interests : `` fear , loss , hope , death , fantasy , '' the press release says . The work he 's chosen includes eerie and exquisite photos , by Hiroshi Sugimoto , of the serial killers in Madame Tussaud 's waxworks ; a flayed , anatomical figure called Virgin Mary , sculpted in wax by Kiki Smith ; an orange , fiberglass cast of Rodin 's Balzac by Michael Joaquin Grey , hung upside-down from the ceiling ; a bicycle packed with plastics and bags by Andreas Slominksi , leaning against the gallery wall as if abandoned by a homeless pilgrim . The show is called `` Some Ran Away .. . Some Went Mad . '' Hirst calls his preserved lamb `` Away From the Flock . '' `` It 's just like a shepherd 's thing , '' he says at the opening . He 's leaning against a doorjamb , a polite , easygoing , round-faced guy in a baseball hat , white T-shirt , jacket and jeans . `` There 's an allegory that has to do with people and sheep , '' he says . `` It 's like : ` You 're just like sheep , you do what everyone else does . ' I do what I do , and it 's different . `` So you 're away from the flock in that way . But then I kind of see it so tragic and dead and kind of cute , and looking out at the green grass , which I quite think is good . '' The lamb gazes out of its formaldehyde tank onto the greensward of Kensington Gardens . The galley is by the Serpentine , the lake that winds between Kensington Gardens and Hyde Park . Not everybody likes it , he says . Londoners are more used to lamb on a menu than in a museum , eating dead meat rather than looking at it . `` I 've heard a lot of people say it 's terrible , '' he says. ` ` ` Why do you do that to a lamb ? Oh my God. ' ' ' ( Begin optional trim ) One free-lance art critic went from words to action , pouring ink into the tank of formaldehyde one recent evening . `` It went completely black , '' a gallery visitor told Dalya Alberge of The Independent . `` You could see the sheep disappear . There were a lot of visitors there . Everyone was bewildered and highly amused . People were laughing . '' Hirst , who already had sold the piece for $ 37,500 , spent the night draining and rinsing the animal in an attempt to wash out the ink . He had no immediate comment . He has said his work `` has just got to get people involved . The worst thing is if someone just walks in and out without seeing anything . '' He thinks that in a way he 's immortalized his lamb . `` You know it was already dead when I found it , '' he says . `` I found it in a knacker 's yard , where animals go when they die . I resurrected it into this situation . It would have been dog food . So I kind of saved it from that , in a way . And I quite like that . It 's tragic , but cute . '' And despite an undeniable macabre element to his work , he 's not interested in similarly preserving a human being . `` Not really , '' he says . `` I don't think you get metaphor with people . It 's too direct . You get metaphor with animals , but you don't with people . '' ( End optional trim ) His work will last , he thinks . `` I 've seen pieces that are 200 years old , '' he says . `` As long as they don't get out of the liquid , they 'll stay like that . '' Which is a good thing , because from here , the show goes to Finland , Germany and Chicago . The Serpentine show , incidentally , is sponsored by Haagen-Dazs . The company passed out chocolate-covered ice cream on a stick . A panic attack consists of spontaneous jolts of intense fear or discomfort accompanied by at least four of the following symptoms : Shortness of breath or smothering sensations . Dizziness , unsteady feelings or faintness . Accelerated heart rate or palpitations . Trembling or shaking . Sweating . Choking . Nausea or abdominal pain . Depersonalization the feeling you 're removed from your own experience . Numbness or tingling sensations . Hot or cold flashes . Fear of dying . Fear of going crazy or losing control . Source : American Psychiatric Association Michael Artinian 's ear infections began within weeks of his birth . Every few weeks , says his mother , Chris , the baby would fret and fuss with the pain of a new infection . His pediatrician tried antibiotics for months . The milder ones did nothing and infections even flared up when Michael was taking the strongest antibiotics . Finally , when Michael was 8 months old , the doctor suggested a surgical procedure called a tympanostomy in which ear tubes are inserted to drain fluid from the middle ear and clear up infection . The Artinians agreed . Parents often wonder if they are doing the right thing by choosing surgery to heal chronic ear infections , which generally occur as a result of a cold , sore throat or other respiratory infection . Their doubts stem from disagreements in the medical community about whether the procedure is overdone . `` It 's never easy to put your child through surgery , '' says Artinian . `` But , as a parent , you have to get hooked up with the right doctor a doctor you are in sync with . '' But now parents may have more to rely on than just their doctors . An article in last month 's Journal of the American Medical Association suggested a set of guidelines for tympanostomy ( while noting that as many as one-fourth of all ear-tube surgeries now performed may be unnecessary ) . And , this summer , the federal Agency for Health Care Policy and Research will release guidelines for doctors and parents on the treatment of childhood middle ear infection , or otitis media . Otitis media is the most common reason for doctor visits in children under 6 , accounting for about 30 million visits a year . Yet there are no clear-cut guidelines to help doctors and parents know which of several treatment options antibiotics , surgery to insert ear tubes or doing nothing work best and with the least risk to the child . `` The reason we suggest certain disorders for the guidelines is that there is substantial variation in care , '' says Rose Findley , an agency spokeswoman . `` One doctor treats it one way and across town there is a completely different type of treatment pattern . There isn't much consensus . And , ( the nation ) is spending a lot of money on it , but we don't know what the best or most appropriate treatment might be . '' The guidelines are highly anticipated , not only because of the magnitude of the problem but because of the contentiousness that has arisen among doctors on how to treat otitis media . The experts who contributed to the new federal report , joked one doctor , `` will then enter the government 's Witness Protection Program . '' `` I think there is a fair amount of data , but I think it 's confusing and difficult to synthesize , '' says Dr. Lawrence C. Kleinman , a Harvard physician and author of the JAMA report . In that study , a panel of doctors reviewed research on tympanostomies to develop criteria on when the surgery should be considered . Using the panel 's criteria , the study found that of the 670,000 tympanostomies performed each year , 41 percent were appropriate , 32 percent had equivocal indications and 27 percent were found to be inappropriate . An appropriate reason to choose surgery , the article states , would be for a child who has fluid trapped in the middle ear behind the eardrum ( called otitis media with effusion ) that does not clear up despite treatment with antibiotics . The tiny tube inserted in the eardrum during surgery allows the fluid to drain and restores a child 's hearing , which can be muffled when fluid has collected . The tubes remain in the ear for several months to a year and fall out on their own . Surgery is considered inappropriate , for example , if a child had fewer than four ear infections a year or had not been treated sufficiently with antibiotics . But , Kleinman says , it is impossible to predict how any individual child will fare . ( Optional add end ) The guidelines might divert surgeries that take place out of frustration , Kleinman adds . Recurrent ear infections can cause misery for families , causing the child a lot of discomfort and parents many sleepless nights . Moreover , doctors and parents worry about the small chance that ear infections will cause hearing loss and speech delay . `` Sometimes the level of frustration with ear infections can lead to hasty actions that are not well considered , '' Kleinman says . No guidelines should revoke the right of doctors and parents to individualize their decisions , says Dr. David Bergman , a Stanford University physician who worked on the federal guidelines . `` The bottom line , to me , is that you have to take each case individually and not use expert consensus as a way of driving your decision one way or another , '' he says . It 's an old story television 's ultimate blacklisting or brownlisting . Black sitcoms appear indelibly affixed to prime time , yet getting a family drama about blacks , or Asian-Americans or Latinos , on the air remains the hardest of hard sells . Take the case of current prime-time ratings champ CBS . It has vowed to widen its audience beyond Norman Rockwell folk to include more of the nation 's urban young , but in picking new series to open the 1994-95 season , the network omitted the worthy `` Under One Roof , '' a weekly drama that was developed by its own production arm and may lack only one prerequisite for prime time . Whiteness . `` We haven't passed on it , '' said CBS spokeswoman Susan Tick . `` I 'm very pessimistic , '' said executive producer Thomas Carter ( `` Equal Justice '' ) . Television 's minstrels appear in multiple shades , and Fox 's new fall lineup includes an action show , `` M.A.N.T.I.S. , '' whose hero is black . When it comes to drama , however , TV seeks to seduce a rainbow of Americans with mostly a single color . Implicit here is that most programmers are ethnocentric , believing that non-whites will be riveted to whites in non-comedic situations , but not vice versa . Black families have been nearly invisible in family drama , a situation `` Under One Roof '' could help remedy . Its protagonists are the Langstons , a middle-of-the-middle-class black family living in Seattle . No drugs , no violence , no gangs , not even an absentee father . No major dysfunction , just a highly appealing family . Although not faultless , the pilot for `` Under One Roof '' ripples with more promise than 90 percent of what presently passes for drama in prime time . Its humor is unforced , its conflicts between generations are genuine , and its interesting , endearing characters relate in ways that likely would earn them the empathy of real-life families . Plus , the cast is first-rate . Joe Morton is Ron Langston , a former career military man trying his hand at business . Vanessa Bell Calloway is his wife , Maggie , who resumed school to get a nursing degree . James Earl Jones is Ron 's father , Neb , a cop who lives downstairs with a street youth he and his late wife took in . Joe and Maggie have two kids of their own , and Ron 's younger sister is also part of this likable extended brood . Written by Martha Williamson , Michael Henry Brown and Paul Aaron ( the latter two wrote HBO 's `` Laurel Avenue '' ) , the pilot 's teleplay has an edge while also projecting the kind of warmth and even teary poignancy that usually has network programmers bawling all the way to the bank . If ever a contemporary black family drama was going to make the schedule in the '90s , you 'd think this would be it . `` Under One Roof '' is not only absent from the fall lineup , however , it also received no backup order from CBS , said Carter , making it questionable even for mid-season emergence . But CBS has not written all of its 1994- '95 backup orders , and `` Under One Roof '' could still get one , spokeswoman Tick said . `` It 's still in play here , '' she said . `` I think their first concern is about the characters being black , '' said Carter , who directed the pilot . `` I think they 're also concerned that this is a very honest show . They 're a slave to gimmicks . We would have had a better chance to get it on the air if we had a tragedy that brings the family together . '' Carter said it was CBS Entertainment President Peter Tortorici who ( when still the division 's No. 2 executive ) approached him about doing a `` black show he would have accepted a comedy with a strong male figure '' for CBS Productions . Carter said when `` Under One Roof '' was screened for CBS executives in Los Angeles , `` they loved it and thought the show was a slam dunk . '' But when the pilot was viewed by network management in New York , he said , the attitude changed and `` everything went askew . '' Equally askew is an industry that rarely finds room for blacks who live in the real world and don't speak the language of one-liners . -0- FOOD FOR THOUGHT : `` Mmmm , I love garlic , '' Katie Couric said last Wednesday morning , starting a cooking segment for NBC 's traveling `` Today '' program at a Boston seafood restaurant . For Couric and `` Today , '' the grotesquely sadistic act that followed was just a big laugher . Inadvertently , though , they provided an educational service by erasing the abstraction and graphically showing the process by which some of the animals we eat arrive on our plate . The fare was lobster . No , not a lobster boiled alive in a pot of water , but something even yummier and rather more exotic . After heating the garlic in a pan and adding some crushed red pepper , the chef picked up the entree a live lobster and twisted off its claws as it writhed . A wincing Couric quickly turned away . `` I can't look . Hurry ! '' But fine cuisine can't be hurried . The chef then selected a large knife and , as Couric cringed , sliced the still-moving lobster in half . `` Oh , what a way to go , '' Couric said fliply . Then the chef took the upper half of the still-moving lobster and began sauteing it in the pan . `` Oh , it 's still moving , '' Couric said , then wittily joked : `` can't you give him sleeping pills or something before you cut him up ? '' After the mirth subsided , it was time to add wine and tomato sauce in preparation for cooking the lobster for 10 to 12 minutes . Couric : `` And we 'll be back in a moment to hear some music from the Boston Pops . '' Bon appetit . -0- THE WORD : Although he does some goofy things from time to time , Phil Donahue at least can be counted on , usually , to be an effective devil 's advocate . On Monday 's episode of `` Donahue , '' though , he was overwhelmed and rendered inept by controversial Nation of Islam lecturer Khalid Abdul Muhammad . Muhammad , a disciple and suspended aide of National of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan , was the hour 's only guest . The invective-spewing verbal barrage by him and his boisterous followers , who were packed into the front of the studio , targeted all whites in general , all Jews in particular . Donahue and a few doddering audience members made some feeble attempts at rebuttal , but were no match for the relentless assault , and Donahue , in particular , ultimately appeared to give up . Thus , he did not challenge repeated broad claims that Muhammad 's assertions about historical Jewish oppression of blacks were endorsed by `` Jewish scholars . '' Rushing through the audience with his mike , he did not challenge a man who insisted that the Bible calls Jews `` the synagogue of Satan . '' He did not quiz a man who urged Allah to `` remove all white folks from the planet Earth . '' Can you imagine Donahue not asking a loony white guy what he meant by urging God to erase all blacks ? Or Donahue letting Ku Klux Klan members slander blacks virtually at will ? It wouldn't happen . Spontaneous panic attacks , once thought to be the physical manifestation of inner angst , may instead be triggered by a glitch in the body 's respiratory system , according to a new study . `` It is not anxiety or fear at all , '' said Dr. Donald Klein , professor of psychiatry at Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons . `` Panic attacks result from a physiological abnormality '' in which the body 's natural suffocation alarm is falsely tripped . That alarm , Klein said , is located in the carotid body , an area in the neck that acts like a sensor to measure the amount of oxygen and carbon dioxide in the blood . It normally goes off , he explained , only when levels of the two chemicals are dramatically altered for instance , when you 're being smothered . However , Klein said that people who tend to suffer panic attacks appear for an as-yet unknown reason to be more sensitive than others to even a tiny fluctuation in the amount of carbon dioxide in their bodies . This , he theorizes , can prompt the carotid to send a false signal to the brain , causing it to shut down the respiratory system . And the shutdown , in turn , prompts classic `` panic attack '' symptoms : shortness of breath or smothering sensations ; dizziness , unsteadiness , or faintness ; an accelerated heart rate or palpitations ; trembling ; hot or cold flashes ; and nausea . Klein 's theory , which is backed by intriguing data gathered by him and his colleagues at the New York State Psychiatric Institute , could alter the concept of these frightening attacks , leading to novel treatments that prompt a drop in carbon dioxide in the body , experts say . This might include progesterone , a natural hormone , and Diamox , a drug used for glaucoma . The findings are to be reported this week during the American Psychiatric Association 's annual meeting in Philadelphia . About 1.2 million Americans experience spontaneous panic attacks , which experts previously thought were triggered by inner fears or , as Sigmund Freud explained it , threatening impulses . But Klein , boldly marking new territory in the disease , says , `` That 's a mistake . '' He said that since the 1950s he has listened to patient after patient complain of panic attacks that left them gasping for breath , and feeling that they were going to die . `` It was an overwhelming experience of shortness of breath verging on smothering , '' the psychiatrist said . Those descriptions caused him to suspect that panic patients were suffering a respiratory dysfunction , rather than a psychological one . If the theory holds up , experts say , it could help explain why these attacks don't seem to occur any more frequently during frightening and stressful times as when they are relaxed , even sleeping . Dr. Thomas Uhde , chairman of psychiatry and behavioral neurosciences at Wayne State University and an expert on panic disorders , believes Klein is `` on to something , '' adding , `` We will be testing his ideas . '' Additionally , Klein said he and his colleagues are in the midst of gathering more scientific proof to back these ideas . The theory was built on recent studies , also carried out at Columbia , showing that lactate and carbon dioxide can trigger a panic attack in people prone to the condition , and does nothing to others without such attacks . Lactate is a substance that is normally produced in the body from pyruvate , which allows the body to continue to oxidize glucose even when it 's running low on oxygen . Humans don't normally breathe in carbon dioxide , but it is a gas found in tiny amounts in the lungs about 5 percent . Interestingly , more than half of panic patients say they frequently hyperventilate , which helps them to avoid a panic attack , Klein said , by blowing off carbon dioxide . Further evidence that the suffocation alarm may be tripped comes from a higher than normal percent of people with panic attacks among those with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and asthma . They have obvious respiratory difficulties . Klein says that his colleagues have also done some work to suggest that women in childbirth almost never experience an attack . During labor , when women often hyperventilate , carbon dioxide is at its lowest level , Klein said . ( Begin optional trim ) However , the most interesting evidence of the existence of a `` suffocation alarm '' comes from a group of children with congenital central hypoventilation syndrome , referred to as Ondine 's Curse . These children have a rare disease that affects one in 100,000 people . It is named after the mythological water nymph whose father turned her lover 's every minute , involuntary movement into a voluntary act . The Ondine children can't breathe when asleep , and thus many die soon after birth . The few survivors the oldest ones are in their teens have been kept alive through radio-frequency coils implanted in their phrenic nerves that stimulate contraction of the diaphragm every five seconds during sleep . These children , according to studies conducted by Klein and Dr. Debra Weese-Mayer of Rush Presbyterian-St. Lukes Medical Center in Chicago , lack a suffocation alarm reflex . Their studies have shown that these children can be bathed in carbon dioxide and it does not stimulate respiration . They have no feeling of suffocation even when they are running low on oxygen and turning blue . What 's more , these children rarely express fear or anxiety over their dreadful and life-threatening illness , counter to studies that have shown a high degree of anxiety among children with chronic medical conditions . ( End optional trim ) Klein also looked at situations where people were actually suffocating , finding it in studies of people attempting to commit suicide using exhaust fumes in their garage . Carbon monoxide , the gas that is put out in car exhaust fumes , binds hemoglobin and prevents it from carrying oxygen throughout the body . Ironically , it is a painless way to die , Klein explains , because carbon monoxide inhibits activity in the carotid , the possible seat of the body 's suffocation center . Klein suspects that carbon monoxide could be acting as an anti-panic agent . This idea will be tested soon at the psychiatric institute . Klein and his colleagues will be collecting panic patients for a study using carbon dioxide , which has been shown to trigger these attacks in these people , and small amounts of carbon monoxide . If carbon monoxide is an anti-panic substance , as Klein suspects , it should block the attack . `` That carbon monoxide might actually block panic would be really peculiar , '' said Klein , who turns his back on conventional theories because they liken panic attacks to the utmost in fear . `` Fear almost never produces an intense smothering response , '' he said . `` We are excited about the work , '' said Dr. Jack Gorman , a professor of psychiatry at Columbia and scientific director of the Phobia , Stress and Anxiety Disorders Clinic at Long Island Jewish-Hillside Medical Center . Gorman , an expert on panic conditions , has been working with David Anderson of the National Institute on Aging on a computerized bodysuit that can be used to measure the depth and rate of breathing during a panic attack . Such a monitor could help determine whether patients are suffering from a respiratory defect . HOLLYWOOD A few months ago , the special-effects-laden action-comedy `` The Mask '' might have been considered a bona fide summer sleeper . But now the New Line Cinema film starring a green-faced Jim Carrey has developed such buzz in Hollywood that it is projected to be one of the summer 's hits . `` Speed , '' starring Keanu Reeves as a SWAT cop trying to save a careening busload of passengers , also might have been considered a summer sleeper earlier this year . Now advance screenings have created positive word of mouth for the 20th Century Fox film , leaving some to question whether the term `` sleeper '' applies anymore . The real fun in Hollywood these days is predicting what movies without big expectations will become box-office hits , along the lines of last summer 's surprise hits , `` Free Willy '' and `` Sleepless in Seattle . '' If you listen to the studio publicity departments , you might believe anything other than their biggest summer films are potential sleepers . Two baseball movies are now being hyped as summer sleepers : `` Angels in the Outfield '' with Danny Glover from Walt Disney/Caravan and `` Little Big League '' with Jason Robards from Columbia . Another touted sleeper is `` The Shadow , '' a Universal film about the caped crime-fighter of radio lore , starring Alec Baldwin ( `` Who knows what evil lurks in the hearts of men ? The Shadow knows '' ) . But there are those who argue that all this talk about summer sleepers is often designed by studios to start an undercurrent of hype for certain films . `` They want you to believe that we made it for $ 80 million , but it 's a sleeper , '' said entertainment attorney David Colden , adding sarcastically : `` Yeah .. . ' ' John Krier , president of Exhibitor Relations Inc. , a motion picture research company , is another who believes that when you look across the landscape of films this summer , most really don't qualify as sleeper candidates . How can `` Angels in the Outfield '' be considered a sleeper , Krier asked , when `` exhibitors are expecting big things from it ? '' And he doesn't see how anyone can still say that `` Speed '' is a summer sleeper , no matter what Fox executives might say . `` A sleeper is something that is unheralded and then pops up all of a sudden , '' Krier said . It has a low to moderate budget , no big stars , usually opens small , but benefits from good word of mouth and has `` legs , '' is either critically praised or trashed , has no heavy advance promotion by the studio , does more at the box office than is initially expected , and is usually not given the most advantageous playing time . ( Begin optional trim ) Some current examples , Krier said , would be `` Ace Ventura : Pet Detective , '' which came out of nowhere with comedian Carrey earlier this year to gross $ 70 million , and `` Four Weddings and a Funeral , '' which has grossed $ 34 million . `` The Mask '' was a sleeper , he said , until exhibitors viewed the trailer at the ShoWest exhibitors ' convention in Las Vegas earlier this year and loved it . Now , it would be a shock if it didn't succeed . A film does not necessarily have to be devoid of stars to be considered a sleeper . Take `` Sleepless in Seattle , '' which last year grossed $ 126 million for TriStar Pictures . `` It was a movie which had a fairly well-known cast with Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan and , given its cost and the subject matter , would normally be expected to do about $ 20- $ 40 million at the box office , '' said one source . `` Therefore , given the expectations the film industry had for that movie , it could be called a sleeper . '' ( End optional trim ) So , what are the real potential sleepers this summer ? If `` Andre '' a film about a 9-year-old girl and a lovable seal makes a big splash at the box office for Paramount Pictures , it would be a bona fide sleeper , just as the killer-whale movie `` Free Willy '' was for Warners when it grossed $ 77 million . They might also include `` Pulp Fiction , '' the Quentin Tarantino paean to criminals starring John Travolta and Uma Thurman , which on Monday won the Golden Palm award at Cannes ; the super-hero adventure comedy `` Blankman '' starring Damon Wayans ; and , `` Airheads , '' a tale of an unknown band that takes a radio station hostage to get some airplay . ( Optional add end ) Or perhaps `` Fear of a Black Hat , '' a comedy rap version of `` This Is Spinal Tap '' from the Samuel Goldwyn Co. will be the real summer sleeper . A parody of a fictitious rap group called N.W.H. , it has tested well with middle-age , white male audiences , which could provide it the crossover needed to become a financial hit . Or maybe it will be an Andrew Bergman movie from Castle Rock Entertainment called `` It Could Happen to You '' ( Nicolas Cage , Bridget Fonda ) , a little romantic film that some say hits all the right notes . Bergman 's `` Honeymoon in Vegas '' in 1992 , after all , while not really a sleeper , nevertheless became a big hit with audiences . But would a comedy like `` In the Army Now '' starring Pauly Shore be considered a sleeper if it did well ? Not necessarily , say some industry experts . To become a true sleeper , `` In the Army Now '' would have to gross a lot more than $ 30 million , because Pauly Shore movies usually pull in that amount , said one source . If it makes $ 100 million , on the other hand , it would be a true sleeper . WASHINGTON One was the perfect hostess who charmed the world and redefined the title of first lady with her style , elegance and dignity . The other , a driven professional who wins admiration with her eloquence , intellect and unflinching determination , is revolutionizing the role of presidential spouse . Three decades separate the reigns of Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis and Hillary Rodham Clinton , and no two women better illustrate the sea change in public perception of the `` ideal woman . '' `` It 's a very different image , '' said Brenda Castro , 50 , one of hundreds of longtime Jackie admirers who assembled at Arlington National Cemetery Monday to bid her farewell . `` Jackie 's from an era of grace and elegance , when women were supposed to be charming hostesses and adoring wives . Hillary is from a different era . She 's from an era when you should get an education and go out and make change and be very verbal about it . '' But both women stand apart from other first ladies because they epitomize Jackie for the 1960s and Hillary for the 1990s what a woman `` should be . '' As she waited for the motorcade carrying Jackie Kennedy Onassis ' body , Jenifer Lucas , 48 , of Arlington , Va. , said the difference between the two first ladies reflected the amazing metamorphosis American women have made in recent years . As a young woman in the early 1960s in Topeka , Kan. , she said , she aspired to be like Jackie Kennedy . `` She epitomized so much of what girls of our age were brought up to think we should be , '' Lucas said . But now , as an attorney for the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission , she looks to Hillary Clinton as a role model . `` We grew up in a time when women were expected to be educated but not have careers , '' she said . `` You were supposed to be a supportive wife , a gracious hostess and a good mother . That was Jackie . Now women are expected to have successful careers . That 's Hillary . '' Castro , Lucas and other women gathered along the avenue leading to the cemetery recalled the impact Jackie Kennedy had on American women of all ages , ethnic backgrounds and economic classes , starting with the 1960 presidential campaign . She showed them that a woman could be a supportive wife and mother , dazzle people with her looks and still have an identity of her own . `` I remember voting for her , '' Castro said enthusiastically , making it clear that in her view , casting a vote for JFK was casting a vote for Jackie as well . `` It was John and Jackie , not just John . '' Not until the Clintons started campaigning did Castro again feel that she was supporting a couple and not just a candidate . With her pillbox hats , command of foreign languages and dashing , accomplished husband , Jackie was the standard of a successful woman in the early 1960s . `` Hillary does that now for people my age and younger because she speaks on the issues we care about , '' Castro said . `` But she 's a totally different woman , and we admire different things in her . She 's intelligent , forceful without being aggressive , focused , directed , accomplished . '' In Hillary Clinton 's unprecedented 66-minute news conference in April , she presented herself as a `` transitional '' first lady . Dressed in pink to highlight her traditional femininity , she expertly defended her role in making unusually successful investments for her family . Doris Kearns Goodwin , the author of `` The Fitzgeralds and the Kennedys , '' argues that Jackie Kennedy was also a transitional first lady . Although she was praised for being ladylike and having unrivaled fashion sense , she helped in her own way to open the door for the women 's movement . `` There was an independence in the way she approached the first ladyship , '' Goodwin said . `` Even though she was doing traditional feminine interests art , culture and fashion she was independent in how she pursued them . She was a symbol of the coming independence of women to do as they like . '' Goodwin stressed that it was much easier in the 1960s , when the media spotlight did not shine so relentlessly , for a first lady to become a public idol . People saw Jackie when she wanted to be seen , and they hardly ever heard her speak . To most Americans , she was the silent , dignified image that she projected on television screens and in the newspapers . ( Begin optional trim ) `` Some of Jackie 's majesty depended on her mystery , '' Goodwin said . `` I 'm not sure that kind of political celebrity can exist today . We know so much more today about everyone . '' Jackie Kennedy , for instance , was never pressed by reporters about her husband 's infidelities . But Hillary Clinton had to face such questions before and after her husband came to office . ( End optional trim ) Hillary Clinton , who has described herself as a very private person , clearly envies the distance Jackie Kennedy was able to create between her family and the press . The morning after Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis died , Hillary Clinton told CNN how grateful she was for conversations that the two first ladies had had about `` how she had managed so well to carve out the space and privacy that children need to grow into what they have a right to become . '' To be a role model in the 1990s , Goodwin said , takes a woman like Hillary Clinton , who can dazzle the Senate with her intellect rather than her wardrobe . `` What Hillary has going for her is a whole generation of women trying to do what she 's doing balancing a career and a family life . '' ( Begin optional trim ) If the Jackie Kennedy the world knew in the 1960s was in the White House today , `` she would not have a connection to young women of today 's generation the way Hillary does , '' she added . Paul Costello , deputy press secretary for former first lady Rosalynn Carter , said the two first ladies are also exceptional among the women who have held that title because they changed the job description for the spouse of a president . `` Every first lady since Jackie Kennedy has been judged by the standard of style and elegance that she set in the White House , '' Costello said . `` Every first lady post-Hillary will be judged by her standard of substance . '' ( End optional trim ) But not everyone agrees that Hillary Clinton represents the ideal woman of the 1990s . `` The way a first lady would more accurately reflect the evolution of the role of a woman would be to leave the White House every day and go to a job that is not dependent on her husband , '' said Sheila Tate , press secretary first to Nancy Reagan and then to George Bush 's successful 1988 presidential campaign . `` Hillary Clinton 's role is really no different from any other first lady 's because she has borrowed her husband 's power . Very few women in America have had authority handed to them . They have had to earn it . '' As a nurse , Carol Ann Friedman thought she knew what to expect during her own postpartum recovery : If she had a Cesarean section , she would need eight weeks to heal . If she had a vaginal birth , six weeks . By then , she figured , her life would be back to normal . She would be rested , ready to return to work , adjusted to her baby , with the household running smoothly . Right ? Wrong . `` It took me much longer than eight weeks , '' she recalls . `` I felt better about the eighth month . '' Having spent her career nurturing others back to health , the irony of the situation didn't escape Friedman , a certified lactation consultant in Pasadena , Calif. . The vast majority of women would categorize having a baby as a joyous event , full of rewards and moments of sheer delight . But when the tears flow , it 's often because society 's benchmark for when new mothers should be recovered six weeks to eight weeks is unrealistic for many . `` A joke , '' says one woman , aptly . `` Ridiculous , '' says another . `` It 's almost brutal , '' says Friedman . Scientific studies and new mothers themselves attest to a much longer adjustment period , something akin to a fourth trimester . In a study published last year , researchers found that most women need months maybe as much as a year to fully recover from childbirth . One month after delivery , women still complained of breast problems , fatigue , hemorrhoids , poor appetite , constipation , increased sweating , acne , hand numbness or tingling , dizziness and hot flashes . Three months after delivery , many of these symptoms continue , the study reported , while 40 percent of mothers also reported pain during sexual intercourse , as well as respiratory infections and hair loss at three to six months . Even at nine months postpartum , many women said they experienced vaginal discomfort and constipation . And 20 percent reported problems related to sexual function one year after childbirth , says researcher Dwenda K. Gjeringen of the University of Minnesota . Moreover , as many as 10 percent of women suffer postpartum depression in the months following childbirth , other research has shown . Postpartum depression is a severe mood disorder linked to changing hormones in which stress and fatigue can play a major role . Even without experiencing such a serious postpartum illness , `` Recovery from childbirth often requires more than the six weeks traditionally allotted , '' Gjeringen says . Baby is now 2 months old and signs are everywhere that Mother should be up to speed . At six or eight weeks , disability payments usually stop a not-so-subtle hint that a woman should now be ready to return to work . Yet , according to Gjeringen 's study , the postpartum adjustment period is especially hard for women who return to the work force about half of all new mothers soon after childbirth . The average working woman takes eight weeks off for childbirth , according to 9 to 5 , the National Association of Working Women . At six weeks , the last visit with the obstetrician takes place . That is when , according to medical textbooks , the uterus has returned to its non-reproductive state . Using that as the benchmark of recovery , physicians pronounce most of their patients fit and ready to resume sexual relations . Never mind that the typical patient is still 20 pounds overweight , exhausted and sore . There is also a tacit assumption in many quarters that the mother should have her baby on some kind of schedule at six weeks . After all , when are the in-laws ever wrong ? In truth , the postpartum adjustment period differs greatly among women , and recovery simply cannot be predicted or planned , experts say . `` A lot of it depends on whether the baby is an easy baby or not , '' says Sandy Hill , the owner of a Southern California parent-care service called After the Stork . For example , some babies have health problems , develop colic , are hard to feed , sleep fitfully or are ill-tempered . `` Women often say , ` What 's wrong with me ? I 'm not adjusting . Why is this so hard ? ' But it 's usually because the baby is a difficult baby , '' she says . ( Begin optional trim ) Physically , too , recovery varies widely . `` The physical recovery is usually much slower than what people expect , '' says psychologist Georgiana G. Rodiger , a mother of five and founder of the Rodiger Center in Pasadena . `` Childbirth is a much more traumatic especially for a first birth than most people care to describe . And one of the worst parts is you don't get sleep . That goes on for months . '' Some new mothers also feel pressure to lose all their added weight a couple months after childbirth . If a woman is returning to work at six weeks , she 's lucky if her regular clothes even fit , Friedman says . `` Most of us have body-image issues at that time , '' she says . `` But it 's very natural not to have lost the weight at that point . '' ( End optional trim ) Postpartum recovery is clearly on the fast track these days , beginning from the moment of birth . It is common now for women who have an uncomplicated vaginal birth to be discharged in one day and women who undergo C-sections in three days . And , under some insurance policies , childbirth is just a pit stop : Women with vaginal births go home in eight to 12 hours . `` These mothers are still in a fog , '' Friedman says . `` I 'm trying to tell them how to change a diaper and they 're saying ` What ? ' ' ' The trend in early discharge and a light-speed postpartum recovery sometimes seems like a backlash to the days a generation ago when new mothers spent five to seven days in the hospital and came home to a supportive extended family and a neighborhood full of casserole-bearing , stay-at-home moms . `` In the old days , the mother was in bed and everyone said , ` Oh , that 's ridiculous this isn't an illness , ' ' ' notes Susan , a Los Angeles woman who asked that her full name not be used . `` Then it became a thing of who can get out the door the quickest . '' New mothers who refuse to get with the program are subject to ridicule , says Lola Clark Tirre , a herbalist and mother of three who lives in San Clemente , Calif. . `` I don't think it 's respected if a woman says she is going to stay home and bond with her baby for several weeks . People think you are kind of kooky . '' Not many women have the luxury of staying home and cocooning , says Linda Juergens , director of the New York-based National Association of Mothers ' Centers , a network of non-profit discussion groups . `` Certain societies have ways of relieving new mothers of duties as she recovers and having a mentoring period with other mothers . In our society , we have nothing built in to support a new mother . The extended family is gone . '' Part of the solution to the cultural crisis facing today 's new moms may be a return to old customs . For example , new moms are increasingly joining breast-feeding or parenting organizations , says Friedman , the owner of two stores that carry lactation equipment and clothing . At her Mothers with Style store in Glendale , Calif. , women meet weekly for support . Women are not only helped individually , but a forum is created for them to air their concerns , says Juergens , of the National Assocation of Mothers ' Centers . `` As a national organization , our hope is to raise the consciousness among people about these issues , '' she says . `` We want to expand the maternal voice and get women to feel entitled to make their needs and wants known . '' Now that Paula Jones has filed her lawsuit accusing Bill Clinton of sexual harassment , America once again is tossing around the word `` bimbo , '' using it to describe Jones in a pejorative way , usually in defense of the president . I can't imagine anyone hasn't heard about the case . Jones contends that when Clinton was Arkansas governor and she was on the state payroll , she was brought to meet him in a hotel room , where he dropped his pants and propositioned her . Jones said she refused and left , but that hasn't kept people from referring to her as a bimbo , though some people who say they knew her as a `` party girl '' might think the term is apt . So the word bimbo is back , just as it was used to describe Tonya Harding , Gennifer Flowers , or Donna Rice ( remember Gary Hart and the good ship `` Monkey Business '' ? ) . For a country that is being accused more and more of embracing attitudes that are politically correct , this kind of linguistic behavior strikes me as a serious lapse , and one that isn't positive . It seems that the nation has come to accept the term bimbo without considering the connotations it has . Perhaps it 's best to define exactly what a bimbo is . Webster 's New World Dictionary lists three slang definitions , of which the third is most pertinent to the current usage : `` a sexually promiscuous woman . '' The second definition `` a silly or stupid person : used especially of a woman '' often seems to be implicit when people speak of bimbos , too . After talking with people about what they consider the essence of , well , call it bimbosity , I think you also need to add that the popular notion of a bimbo involves someone who dresses provocatively , usually in tight , revealing clothing . Nowadays , I can't think of anyone who uses the first definition , deemed old slang by the dictionary : `` a guy , fellow . '' In fact , the whole notion of a bimbo seems to be quite gender-specific . There seems to be no male equivalent . Would you , for example , think of Joey Buttafuoco as a male bimbo ? How about Fabio ? See what I mean ? Sure , men have been called hunks , but that term seems pretty passive when compared to what we mean when we refer to a woman as a bimbo . Think for a moment of the TV commercial that portrays women leering at a bare-chested construction worker . The guy , I 'm told , is a hunk . But he 's not dealing in sexuality ; he 's just taken off his shirt because he 's perspiring . On the other hand , do you think the women doing the leering are bimbos ? Maybe yes , maybe no , right ? Then there is the term `` stud , '' which certainly carries a sexual connotation . Yet it isn't the same kind of pejorative that bimbo is . I can't imagine any women considering bimbo a positive description , but there are plenty of men who would welcome being called a stud . And we better forget about the word womanizer , which has such an elite connotation to it you almost picture someone in a pin-striped suit and wing-tips . Think of it this way : JFK was a womanizer ; Judith Exner was a bimbo . Note the difference . All of which makes me wonder exactly how far we have come toward gender equality . The word bimbo reinforces the stereotype of a woman using sexuality to promote herself . That there is no equivalent male term is significant , but not as important as the fact that we seem willing to use the word bimbo unquestioningly . Women use it , too , including some women who pride themselves on promoting feminist equality . That is perhaps the ultimate irony , for it pretty effectively undercuts the notion of women being held to the same standards as men , and vice versa . Some of the newer feminist writers surely would criticize the notion of women ever being bimbos . Among this group , dubbed the `` do-me feminists '' by Esquire magazine , are those who believe women finally are acting sexually demanding in much the same way men traditionally have . They would find the notion of sexually promiscuous behavior to be just fine , without any of the negative connotations that the word bimbo would conjure up . But society seems ill at ease with the idea of a woman who leers at men , dresses to enhance her sexuality , or even enjoys the pleasures of the flesh . Hence the continued use of the word bimbo in a way that can only be considered demeaning , not only to the woman being labeled , but to women in general . Thinking about it that way , we can be certain the double standard is alive and well , despite all the efforts by women and men to try to level the playing field for both genders . What is perhaps surprising , however , is the rancor Jones has stirred through her lawsuit . People across a broad spectrum have come to Clinton 's defense . Even Gennifer Flowers , who claims to have had a longtime affair with Clinton , says Jones ' story doesn't ring true . Based on that , Jones might be the only person I can think of who could be accused of giving bimbos a bad name . LOS ANGELES When I was a kid , I stole a bag of doughnuts once from a grocery store . They were glazed doughnuts in a brown bag . I did it because we were poor and I was hungry , and because it was an exciting thing to do . I hid the doughnuts inside a jacket and sidled out of the store as casually as I could , but I was a clumsy thief and the grocer , a man named Fred Barnes , saw me . He shouted `` Hey ! '' and came after me , red-faced and snorting fire , and cornered me in an alley about a block away . I made a run at him to try knocking him out of the way , but he caught me by the nape of the neck , marched me back to the store and took my name and address . He said he 'd be notifying my parents and juvenile authorities and I would be catching everyone 's hell in just a few days . Which brings me to Aldo Vega . He stole a box of cookies from a place called Charlie 's Market and also was a clumsy thief . The owner of the market , Michael Kim , saw him . Aldo , a 14-year-old , took off . Kim jumped in his car and caught him three blocks away . Then he shot him . He did it , Kim said , because the boy with Aldo had a knife . No knife was found , but a screwdriver was later recovered . He did it , Kim said , because Aldo appeared to be reaching for a weapon . There was no weapon , but Aldo admits hiking up his shirt and reaching into his pocket . There was just that damned box of cookies scattered on the sidewalk . No criminal charges were filed against Kim because the kid stole cookies , didn't he , and Kim feared for his life , didn't he ? Cookie thieves are notorious for murdering grocers . The case was instantly compared to the killing of 15-year-old Latasha Harlins in Compton , Calif. , three years ago . She was shot dead by grocer Soon Ja Du after the two had struggled over a $ 1.79 bottle of orange juice . Du was fined $ 500 and placed on probation . Few killers are granted such an easy way out . Aldo didn't die . The bullet fired from Kim 's .38 missed his heart . The district attorney 's office announced magnanimously that it would not file shoplifting charges against him . There are similarities between the shootings of Latasha and Aldo . Both guns were fired by Korean Americans , though Latasha was black and Aldo is Latino . Both shootings were set in motion by the theft of items worth less than $ 2 . Los Angeles District Attorney Gil Garcetti said no charges would be filed against Kim because no prosecutable crime occurred . Commentators , defending Kim 's actions , pointed out that 35 Korean American owners of small businesses have been shot in L.A. in the past year . He had a right not to become No. 36 . But Chicano activist Armando Sotomayor cut through the statistics and legal justification when he stood on the steps of the Criminal Courts Building and said , `` You don't shoot a 14-year-old boy over a 49-cent box of cookies . '' There are those who see the shooting of a Latino by a Korean as a racial incident . I don't . I see it as a metaphor of the time and place in which we live , in a society packaged by violence and summarized by clashing rights . Aldo Vega had no right to steal from the store . Michael Kim had a right to pursue him . Aldo Vega had no right to make a threatening gesture . Michael Kim had a right to defend himself . Rights are endlessly debated in a nation that revolves around them . But the debate ends when guns are fired . There are an estimated 200 million firearms in private hands in this country , and arguments are increasingly terminated , and rights defended , by their use . Homeowners shoot at intruders , car owners shoot at thieves , property owners shoot at trespassers .. . and grocery store owners shoot at kids who steal orange juice and cookies . No one will ever know whether Kim actually feared for his life or was trying , in his way , to teach a lesson . Give him the benefit of the doubt . He was in a state of terror . But I can't help wondering what would have happened to me those many years ago had similar conditions existed . Would Fred Barnes have armed himself , pursued me and shot me dead when I lunged at him ? I doubt it . We were a different world back then , less prone to cause pain and more inclined to weigh the value of a human life against the loss of a grocery product . Barnes took my name , but never turned me in . I lived in fear for weeks that he might , and the fear stamped its message on my life . The grocer taught a lesson without a shot being fired . You didn't shoot a kid over a bag of doughnuts back then . Sadly , things have changed . Michael Kim and Aldo Vega , thrust together in the context of petty crime and excessive punishment , will symbolize that change for a long time to come . HARTFORD , Conn. . Visitors to the Wadsworth Atheneum in recent years have been mystified by the increasingly dark , murky appearance of the `` Crucifixion , '' a 17th-century masterwork by the great French painter Nicolas Poussin . The work 's spectral shapes shrouded in gloom had over time unaccountably darkened far beyond Poussin 's original , deliberately somber palette . But now , thanks to a two-year conservation project , the once ghostly figures have emerged from shadowy mists . Viewers can once again see how Poussin , a master storyteller , made his characters the crucified Christ on the cross , the Virgin Mary , Mary Magdalen , Roman soldiers casting dice for Christ 's garments , a centurion on a rearing horse , crucified thieves , a resurrected body dramatically bursting from its rocky grave and other characters in the cast at Calvary play off one another like a powerful ensemble on stage . A deeply devout Catholic , Poussin portrayed the crucifixion at the moment of Christ 's death , a tumultuous time when , the New Testament says , the heavens darkened , graves heaved open and bodies of saints were raised from the dead . The newly restored painting is being displayed in a before-and-after exhibition called `` Restoring a French Masterpiece : Poussin 's ` Crucifixion . '' ' Installed in the second-floor Connector Gallery , it runs through July 31 . Treating the nearly 350-year-old painting much like an ill , elderly patient , chief conservator Stephen Kornhauser and conservator Patricia Garland first had to diagnose the cause of the baffling darkening effect . The two sleuth-like conservators also unearthed evidence revealing what they believe to be the cause of the painting 's painful surface affliction called `` cupping , '' a blistering effect in which paint curls up in cup-like patches . To get to the bottom of the enigmatic darkening process , the Atheneum dispatched the painting and the two conservators to California to the Getty Conservation Institute , a prestigious scientific/diagnostic clinic for ailing artworks . Probing for clues in the painting 's skin and body chemistry , Getty scientists discovered a suspicious , foreign substance , a resin possibly from a tree of the balsam , pine or spruce families lurking in pigment samples . Such resins were most unusual for 17th-century paintings . But in the 19th century , the resin copaiva balsam was often rubbed onto paintings to lighten a dark surface , Kornhauser says . Based on the Getty lab 's findings , Garland and Kornhauser theorize that some unknown 19th-century restorer tried to lighten the Poussin 's naturally dark surface with copaiva balsam , a common practice of that period , they say . So here at last was the villain of the piece , the guilty agent of the painting 's darkening malaise . `` It looks great for a while , '' Garland explains of the balsam 's initially lightening effect , `` but then it darkens itself , and it just keeps darkening and darkening . '' Before the painting was purchased by the Atheneum in 1935 , other unknown hands had tried to lighten the painting 's original dark tones by cleaning it with caustic solutions , Garland and Kornhauser say . But that caustic cleaner brought not lighter tones but abrasions to the surface . Last summer the conservators began operating on their patient , attempting to restore the splendid old invalid to a condition as close as possible to its original state when Poussin painted it for his friend , the French abbot Jacques Auguste de Thou , a member of the French Parliament . The restoration process was a struggle not only against the natural ravages of aging , but also against earlier , abortive attempts in pre-Atheneum days to conserve or brighten the painting that was never meant to be bright . ( Begin optional trim ) First , the conservators removed coats of discolored varnish and layers of old retouching . Then , to reconstruct lost areas of paint , they employed a process called `` inpainting , '' the exacting task of matching colors with the original pigments and re-creating damaged forms by knitting together fragments of the original that remain . As a reference point , the conservators used a 17th-century copy of the work attributed to Antoine Bouzonnet-Stella , a friend of Poussin and an established artist of that period . The copy was especially helpful in understanding the original 's most damaged areas , the conservators say . Borrowed from a Swiss collection , the copy will be part of the exhibition . `` It was a very long and agonizing process . It was even agonizing to decide whether we should do it or not , '' Kornhauser says . Because the painting 's condition was so critical , there was an almost ethical/medical question about whether operating on it would bring more gain than pain , or even perhaps permanent loss , Kornhauser says . `` We weigh every decision about a major treatment like this very , very carefully and try to figure out what the benefits are . As part of all these preliminary visual examinations , we were able to see there was an enormous amount of loss and weren't sure what we would gain . Each individual painting is treated as an individual object , just as a doctor would treat his or her patients , '' Garland says . Besides displaying the resurrection of clarity and drama in the `` Crucifixion , '' the exhibition documents the conservators ' findings on the causes of the painting 's baffling pigmentation problem and its severe skin abrasions . X-ray photos , infra-red photography , blown-up photos of microcosmic areas of the canvas and , of course , a color photo of the painting before it underwent conservation are part of the exhibition and give it an almost clinical ambiance . ( End optional trim ) The `` Crucifixion , '' which is the Atheneum 's only Poussin , will go to Paris to be exhibited at the Louvre from Sept. 27 through Jan. 2 , 1995 . From there it goes to London where it will be shown at the Royal Academy from Jan. 20 to April 16 before its return to Hartford . In the Louvre , with its new facelift , it will hang alongside other masterworks by Poussin in an exhibition marking the 400th anniversary of the French master 's birth . Considered France 's greatest painter of the 17th century , Poussin was born in Normandy in 1594 and died in 1665 in Rome , then the art capital of the world . Cardinal Richelieu , eminence grise to French King Louis XIII , and even King Louis , fervently courted Poussin , the expatriate , trying to convince him to come home again from Italy and become France 's permanent royal superstar painter . But Poussin spent virtually all of his fruitful career in Italy , although he did return to his native land for a year and a half to serve as chief painter at the French court . But this was a most unpleasant experience that drove him back to his beloved Rome , where he remained for the rest of his life . Jean Cadogan , the Atheneum 's curator of European art , notes in her exhibition essay that , yes , the restored `` Crucifixion '' is `` still dark and in some cases mysterious . '' Yet the figures `` are now more legible , their gestures and placement describe the narrative action of the subject , and ( the painting ) tells the story of the Crucifixion in a dramatic and moving way , as Poussin intended it should . '' Cadogan says the conservation has also restored the painting 's dramatic , three-dimensional quality , one of Poussin 's stylistic hallmarks . `` I 'm confident now , '' the curator says , `` that when we put this painting in the Paris show with the rest of the Poussins , including all the great Poussins in the Louvre , it 's going to take its place rather than look like an anomaly . '' Photos of newly enfranchised voters thronging polling places have become commonplace , from Russia to South Africa to El Salvador . But just as Americans begin to replace our image of the guerrilla with the citizen , nagging rips appear at the edges of the new picture . Why has democracy been reversed so quickly in Peru , Haiti and Serbia ? Will political openings in Mexico and Indochina be endangered by social unrest ? We Americans are notorious for our optimism , our pragmatism and our lack of historical consciousness . As the world democratizes , our optimistic assumption of a clean slate imperils the pragmatism necessary for making policy . Elections , we must remember , are a necessary but not a sufficient condition for democracy . If elections do not include major sectors of society ( like peasants or former communists ) or address key issues ( like land reform or economic adjustment ) , new citizens will quickly become alienated and anti-system . Democracy must also include human rights , civilian control of the military and some measure of accountability for the new government once it has been elected . Citizenship implies empowerment , and elections are only the first step in that process . Rather than treat emerging democracies as infant republics , it is appropriate to see them as `` recovering authoritarians . '' Like recovering alcoholics , new democracies emerge damaged by a pattern of learned behavior to which they will always be especially susceptible . The bad news is that these countries ' heritage will often war with their institutions . The good news is that this heritage is not cultural or eternal ; learned behavior can be unlearned and the analysis of common patterns may help manage recovery . Thus , we should not be surprised at the problems shared by recovering authoritarians in all parts of the world : poverty , policing and polarization . Regardless of the previous level or path of economic development , recovering authoritarians experience poverty because unaccountable states have been inefficient and predatory economic managers . This is more than the conventional wisdom about distorting markets ; market-oriented authoritarians have also dismantled infrastructure and looted the national patrimony . New democracies often face a crisis of policing because social order has never been rooted in a social contract that rewards restraint with security and opportunity . When massive coercion is removed or shifted from the military or secret police to the police proper no `` thin blue line '' can stem the tide of self-seeking , anti-social behavior by citizens bereft of social guarantees or guidance . Finally , democratizing societies quickly polarize along lines of ethnicity , class and ideology . Civil societies never developed where social institutions such as churches were controlled by the state or closed off entirely . In many cases , a society temporarily integrated by the authoritarian regime or by opposition to it suddenly collapses with the transition to democracy . What is to be done ? As sympathetic outsiders , we cannot repair the damage of authoritarianism but we can support , with our policies , the general principles of recovery . First , the recovering polity itself must accept responsibility and come to terms with the past . This may involve measures such as human-rights investigations ( as in Chile ) or reconstruction of social and economic infrastructure ( as in East Germany ) . We also need to make it clear that new democracies cannot afford the `` first drink '' of a postponed election or suspended constitution . Finally , the world community can form support groups for democratization and its challenges . The Organization of American States seems to be moving toward this role for Latin America . Different cases will require different levels of U.S. involvement . Where possible , however , we must provide reparations and multilateral support . At the same time , we must shed the dysfunctional bonds that all too often propped up the previous authoritarian regime . Jennifer Capriati , little Jenny of the bouncy smile and sparkly eyes , is in a drug rehab center . She was allegedly caught holding some dope in a semi-seedy hotel room . The guy who was with her said they spent the weekend there , partying on booze and drugs . She 's the bright little girl gone bad , and there 's much wringing of hands as to what went wrong , as if we didn't know . It 's an ugly , sordid mess that is in no way surprising . Actually , there 's one surprise : that she 's the first of the tennis teen prodigies to end up like this . Of course , she was the first to do a lot of things . The youngest to win a match at Wimbledon . The youngest to be a semifinalist at a grand-slam event . She was 13 when she joined the tennis tour and 17 when she left , saying she wanted to go to high school and live a normal life . Ah , the normal life . For her , normal life as a high school student meant her own apartment in a different city from where her parents live . She 's 18 now and in big trouble . Surprising ? You try growing up the way she did . You try living out your puberty in the living room of strangers . You try being 15 and having to explain to the TV camera why you lost in the first round of a tournament . You try to figure out wrong from right when right apparently means being pushed by your parents to grab everything you can as soon as you can and worry about the future some other time . What 's amazing is how many of the young people who grow up this way turn out all right . I first knew for sure that something was very wrong when Capriati , then 14 , was playing an exhibition match for $ 20,000 on a school night . She had already signed several million-dollar endorsements . What was she doing out there ? Who was that money for ? Let 's consider the ordinary , hormone-driven , late-night-tears , minor-rebellions , life-is-too-much-to-bear adolescence . You may have teen-age kids , or you may have been one yourself . In either case , you should know what I 'm talking about . You 're either too tall , short , fat , thin , smart , dumb . And nobody likes you . Or nobody knows you . You 've been there . Some kids carry extra burdens . They are prodigies of a kind . They play piano , except not like our kids do . Or they swim . Or they dance . They have special gifts that need to be treated in a special way . But most get to explore their talents in relative privacy . Even child actors , who grow up on the screen , don't have to face the press every day to explain their defeats or to tell their life stories as if they 'd had any time to live lives yet . On the tennis tour , there is everyday pressure that breaks grown men and women , much less kids too young to drive . Putting your 13-year-old out there is a form of child abuse . It 's that simple . And we 're all to blame . We think they 're so cute , these little darlings in pigtails . Capriati got her millions in endorsements based on that principle . Once she got in trouble , the endorsements vanished . The fact is that nearly all who turn pro by age 14 Tracy Austin or Andrea Jaeger come to mind break down , usually physically . Is there a rush ? Will the money disappear ? We watched little Jenny grow up , and I 've heard the talk about how we should have known there was trouble ahead . You see , a few years ago , she painted her nails black . She wears four earrings at a time . She even has a ring for her nostril . And , yes , she was caught shoplifting . She must be .. . a kid . Her father said it was just a teen-age problem . He was right . And he was wrong . It 's a teen-age problem that many kids face , except few have to read about it in the morning paper . Monica Seles , while still a teen-ager , mysteriously skipped Wimbledon one year . She ended up on an estate owned by Donald Trump . Can you imagine a worse call : `` Dad , I 'm staying with The Donald for a while . '' The papers were all over that one . There were the rumors , including one that she had gotten pregnant . One columnist wrote that she and Billy Joe McAllister were seen throwing something off the Tallahatchee bridge . Growing up is hard . It gets harder every day in this speeded-up world of too many temptations and too little supervision . Throw fame and money and high-stakes pressure into the mix , and you can end up like Capriati . She 's 18 , and under the law , she 's responsible for her acts . She 's responsible , but who 's to blame ? Q : My 11-year-old daughter is a real tomboy . She likes to dress casually , hangs around boys and really doesn't have many girlfriends . Should I be concerned ? A : As long as your daughter seems happy , is doing well at school and does not complain or appear concerned about her choice of friends and activities , you can be reassured that she is quite all right . Her decision to hang around boys likely reflects the fact that at this point in her life , she finds their activities challenging and in line with her own interests . Being a tomboy at age 11 , however , does not indicate that she will continue to share these same interests as she gets older nor does it imply that she will be `` manly '' when she reaches adulthood . It is impossible to predict what she will be like in the future as she progresses through adolescence and beyond . While there is likely a genetic basis to various aspects of our personality , much of our identify is shaped by the social world around us . Parents , siblings , schools and religious groups , among others , all influence who we are . As your daughter ages , she will encounter a variety of new challenges and interact with an ever widening array of individuals . Each of these encounters will expose her to new ideas , new ways of behaving and new challenges . As a result , her personality will likely continue to evolve even if she does not become less of a tomboy , however , you should resist the impulse to say or do anything about it . If you attempt to consciously change or shape her behavior , she will quickly sense that you do not approve of her . Q : When my husband recently had a skin cancer removed from the face , he was told that he was cured and need not worry that the cancer had spread to any other place . I though all cancers could spread , and I am concerned that my husband 's doctor just reassured him so that he wouldn't worry . Is there anything further he should be doing ? A : The three common types of skin cancer are basal cell carcinoma , melanoma and squamous cell carcinoma . Melanomas and squamous cell carcinomas DO spread ( metastasize ) to other body sites . It is more likely that your husband had a basal cell carcinoma because it is by far the most common type of skin cancer . If this is the case , his doctor was not trying to keep your husband from worrying . Basal cell cancers continue to grow slowly and rarely spread to other sites in the body . More than 90 percent of people are completely cured when the carcinoma is removed surgically or treated with liquid nitrogen , although if left to grow over time , it can invade and destroy nearby tissue . Exposure to the ultraviolet rays of the sun is believed to be the principal cause of basal cell cancers . As a result , they tend to occur on those areas of the skin most commonly in fair-skinned people who have relatively little melanin to protect them against the sun 's rays . Your husband should take measures to avoid excessive exposure to sunlight , since the presence of one basal cell carcinoma increases the risk that others may develop in the future . He should , for example , avoid direct sunlight during the middle of the day , use protective clothing , such as hats and shirts with long sleeves , apply a sunscreen before going out into the sun and , of course , avoid sunlamps and tanning booths . He should examine the skin regularly for the appearance of new growths and make an appointment with his doctor if any are found . A biopsy is necessary to make the diagnosis . In any case , He should see his physician at least once a year for a full skin exam . First , the facts : The House Ways and Means Committee is the most powerful committee in Congress . Membership is highly prized and aggressively sought . Even junior members acquire a certain cachet among their colleagues . They also get noticed by lobbyists , who pay inordinate attention to what goes on in Ways and Means and to the political fortunes of its members . Not for nothing is the hallway outside the committee hearing room known as `` Gucci Gulch . '' The Ways and Means chairman , Rep. Dan Rostenkowski , D-Ill. , `` Rosty '' is one of Washington 's most famous faces and a man no president can safely ignore . That 's because the committee 's jurisdiction includes the crown jewels of the modern state , including international trade , Social Security and welfare entitlements , tax bills of every description and health-care financing . President Clinton has become particularly dependent on Rostenkowski because his political future is staked on matters that must pass through Ways and Means before they become law . Clinton 's only notable legislative achievements to date , the North American Free Trade Agreement and his tax bill , both owe their success to Rostenkowski 's formidable clout . Nothing will happen on welfare reform unless Rostenkowski nods and , without him , Clinton 's health-care reform proposal doesn't have a prayer . Not surprisingly , the president and the chairman have become political intimates . The president went out of his way to support Rostenkowski during a hotly contested primary earlier this year , even appearing at a Chicago fund-raiser . ( Memory does not recall the last time a sitting president made a personal appearance during a congressional primary fight . ) Rostenkowski has been in political hot water since 1992 , when it was revealed that the U.S. attorney 's office in Washington was investigating him for fraud , misuse of government funds and payroll padding . Rostenkowski denies the charges , but indications are that a felony indictment is near . Under the rules of the House , a felony indictment would require Rostenkowski to resign as Ways and Means chairman , a step that would almost certainly doom the president 's prized health-care proposal . On the other hand , something less than a felony indictment would enable Rostenkowski not only to retain his chairmanship but also to avoid the shame and burden of grave criminal sanction . Rostenkowski dismissed his first lawyer last year and retained Robert Bennett yes , the same respected criminal defense attorney who became a household name a few weeks ago when the president tapped him to defend against Paula Corbin Jones ' sexual-harassment charges . The Rostenkowski investigation is clearly headed toward its denouement . Plea-bargaining is under way between Bennett and the Justice Department , although it is not clear who is negotiating for the government . One story has it that Atty. Gen. Janet Reno will follow the recommendation of the U.S. attorney , come what may . Another has it that Bennett , dissatisfied with progress at lower levels , is seeking to take the negotiation `` upstairs '' within the department . But neither the ordinarily garrulous Bennett , nor Reno nor the White House is commenting directly . The major participants , in short , are being unusually mum about one of the more dramatic events now on the Washington stage . Now , some questions : Do you suppose the White House might have a political interest in the outcome of the plea-bargaining with Rostenkowski ? Do you think it likely that someone in the White House may have spoken to someone in the Justice Department about it ? Do you think it likely that the president has spoken with his counsel ( or vice versa ) about it ? What do you suppose goes through the minds of Justice Department political appointees when the man they know to be the president 's personal lawyer negotiates on behalf of the president 's most powerful ally on Capitol Hill ? What do you suppose Clinton 's lawyer is saying to Rostenkowski 's lawyer about all this ? To avoid a conflict or an appearance of a conflict , it is sometimes necessary for one lawyer to wall himself from others in the same firm , but how does an attorney erect a Chinese Wall within his own brain ? Does anything about the foregoing bother you ? If a non-felony plea bargain is negotiated , would you be surprised ? Before that happens , don't you think it would be a good idea if the press started asking some hard questions ? We can tell ourselves we 're not getting older , we 're getting better , but do we really believe it ? For women , the passage of time can become downright threatening when they reach 40-something . I 'm not speaking about myself , of course . I 've reached the accommodation between me then and me now . Aside from the occasional shock when I 'm passing a mirror and see the streaks of gray in my hair or the added couple of inches at my waist , I know that getting older is the only option if one plans on continuing to live . But I understand the women who gaze at themselves anxiously , wondering whether the time has come for the first facelift even if it is a pre-emptive strike at this point . I understand the anxiety tinged with despair that colors their voices when they talk about becoming middle-aged . They don't want to be fat . They don't want to be gray . They don't want to be wrinkled . They want gravity to go away , so that whatever has begun to sag will suddenly lift , as if they were 20 again . Some of this anxiety is of our own making . Women all of us are taught to put way too much stock in the way we look , as if we 're some prized race horse or heifer whose vital statistics define us and determine our value . But some of the anxiety is caused by societal expectations . Young is beautiful , especially when it comes to women . Sean Connery can play 007 until he 's almost 60 , but the female objects of his desire don't age with him . They are still the nubile things of 20- or 30-something that he always courted . Men can age and be just as appealing as they 've always been . It 's a lot harder for women . We strive to contain the cellulite , wash away the gray , tuck the tummy . Each birthday seems to be a call for action . I remember one friend whose birthday present one year to herself was liposuction . She felt it was the gift that kept on giving , because it restored her girlish figure without her having to do 200 sit-ups a night . Another friend I know disappeared for a week and returned with a face that was taut where it had begun to sag . `` How do you like my face ? '' she asked me . `` I 've always liked your face , and I still do , '' I replied . There is something nice about age lines , even about wrinkles . It 's sad that for so many women these are hated signs of aging that translate in their minds into threats to their continued attractiveness and , therefore , to their value . Those wrinkles on the forehead are really frown lines caused by deep thinking . Surely , there 's nothing wrong with that . Those crinkles at the edges of their eyes are either the result of smiling or of squinting because they are too vain to wear their glasses . Both are the result of living . A lived-in face is a warm and comforting thing . This fixation some women have with aging and their appearance gets in the way of their enjoying their progress through life . `` There 's no one more invisible than a middle-aged woman , '' one friend said to me . It was fun to be an ingenue , but being 40-something has its value . Most days . I marvel at the things I 've learned between my 20s and my 40s , the people I 've known , the children I 've had , the jars of jam I 've canned , the stories I 've written , the places I 've been . Looked at that way , those decades are achievement badges , the only kind life hands out . I wouldn't want to go back . I know too much . Besides , there 's too much ahead to explore and experience . Still , I hedge my bets . I apply eye cream faithfully , hoping it will minimize the circles under my eyes . I wash away some of that gray . Why not ? I figure I 'm still holding the high ground because I refuse to lie about my age . Of course , my friend Holly , loyal pal that she is , took me out for my birthday and solemnly toasted my 39th once again . And I have to admit it had a nice ring to it . This fall , some American women seeking an abortion will be offered their first alternative to surgery : RU-486 , the abortion drug widely used in Europe and China . The Population Council , a non-profit contraceptive research organization in New York , holds the American patent rights to the drug . It soon will select sites for clinical trials required by the Food and Drug Administration before the drug can be made available to the public . The Population Council expects approval in two years . RU-486 , manufactured by the French company Roussel Uclaf , is also used outside the United States as a contraceptive `` morning after '' pill which prevents a fertilized egg from implanting in the uterus after unprotected sex . This usage of the drug is being tested now at the University of California , San Francisco . As an abortion drug , however , RU-486 will be tested in conjunction with a prostaglandin pill ; the RU-486 , given first , makes the embryo detach from the uterus while the other stimulates the body to expel it . The treatment , given during the early weeks of pregnancy , is painful and usually takes two to three days . A woman visits a doctor several times over the course of treatment . The benefits of using RU-486 include avoiding surgery and anesthesia , permitting women to terminate pregnancy at an earlier stage and affording them greater privacy . It allows women to obtain an abortion from any physician who is trained in pregnancy and its complications rather than requiring them to travel to centers where surgical abortions are performed . Some women also believe this non-invasive method gives them greater control over their bodies . A surgical abortion , on the other hand , takes less time , is slightly more effective 99 percent compared to 97 percent and requires fewer office visits . In addition , women usually experience less cramping and notice a lighter blood flow than they do with RU-486 . The French manufacturer recommends women who are over age 35 , who are smokers and who have any other cardiovascular risks should not take RU-486 . The Population Council will conduct its clinical tests on 2,000 women at as many as a dozen hospitals and clinics throughout the country . Women seeking an abortion at these sites will be offered a choice of RU-486 in lieu of surgery . Until this new treatment becomes more widely used , misconceptions may remain . Dr. George Huggins , chairman of the department of obstetrics and gynecology at Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center , one of the institutions applying to serve as a test site , recently considered some basic questions about the drug . Q : What is RU-486 ? A : It 's a compound that blocks the functioning of the progesterone hormone . Progesterone is necessary for the maintenance of pregnancy . Q : Why is more than one pill necessary to cause an abortion ? A : Prostaglandins cause the uterus to contract and expel the pregnancy . Most of the protocols today include giving prostaglandins one or two days after RU-486 . Q : Must women always take prostaglandins in addition to RU-486 ? A : If a woman just uses RU-486 , the percentage completing the pregnancy termination by themselves is somewhere between 65 and 85 percent . Q : How long does it take to expel the embryo after taking the prostaglandin pill ? A : Somewhere from six to 12 hours . Q : How far into a pregnancy can a woman use this method ? A : Up to 54 days from the first day of her last menstrual period . Q : What are the side effects ? A : There is a small incidence of prolonged bleeding of more than a day or so . Because of the prostaglandins , a fair number of women get nauseated , have diarrhea and headaches while they are going through the abortion process . Q : What should a woman expect to feel physically ? A : This is a medical abortion , not a heavy period . A woman will have significant cramping and significant bleeding . It 's painful enough so that , in one study , 37 percent of the women needed to take some kind of pain medication during the process . Q : How much will this method cost ? A : I have no idea on cost yet . Q : What are the benefits of RU-486 over surgical abortion ? A : In some countries , surgical abortions are very expensive . In France and in England , the health system requires that abortions be performed in hospitals and that patients stay overnight . That makes this method much more convenient and less expensive . The major advantage to this method is in the developing world where many surgical abortions are not clean or are not done with good equipment or the skill of the provider might not be of very high caliber . This will be significantly safer for those women . But that 's not true in the United States . Fortunately in the United States today , surgical termination of early pregnancy is a very safe procedure and has a very low complication rate . Some 90 percent of surgical abortions are done in outpatient facilities and patients go home in a couple of hours . This new procedure is going to be more time-consuming for the patients than a surgical termination . From a standpoint of cost and convenience , RU-486 is not going to have quite the same advantages as it does elsewhere. .. . I think it 's going to be more complicated than surgical termination . Q : Who do you anticipate will seek this treatment if it becomes available ? A : Most of the women seeking abortions in our ( Hopkins Bayview ) population are single . In the country , most of the women seeking abortions are married . We have no idea who this is going to appeal to or even whether it will appeal to any specific segment of the population . Of Shostakovich 's harrowing symphonies , No. 8 may be the greatest . It used to be classified as the composer 's response to the horrors of World War II . But the piece was written as the Germans fled the Red Army after their collapse at Stalingrad and it has been argued more recently by Ashkenazy , among others that the Eighth is more generally about the tragedy of life in a totalitarian system and is filled with fears about the future . Certainly , it is Ashkenazy 's favorite among Shostakovich 's 15 symphonies , and this latest release ranks as one of the finest performances of the Eighth in modern sound . In fact , Ashkenazy 's only genuine rival may be the great recording by his friend , Bernard Haitink , with the Concertgebouw Orchestra of Amsterdam . The Russian-born conductor understands the context of this piece the brutally repressive realities of his homeland under Stalin and his successors . And like Haitink , Ashkenazy is not intimidated by the structural complexities of the symphony , which begin with a gigantic and wrenching 25-minute adagio , continue with two savage but very different scherzos and yet another painfully searching slow movement and conclude with a strange fifth movement allegretto , which nearly tears itself apart with raging crescendos only to end with exhausted and otherworldly resignation . Ashkenazy 's approach eschews flash for architectural strength : He holds the huge opening movement together , sustaining its tension and building inexorably to its shattering climaxes . His interpretation of the pitiless third movement toccata , with its remorselessly repeated rhythmic figure , seems initially unexciting , but grows exhilaratingly to screeching satirical heights . And his pacing of the final movement is masterly , suggesting the `` all passion spent '' of Milton 's tragic `` Samson Agonistes '' at the symphony 's equivocal close . Choosing between this recording ( which includes two short , moving tributes to Russia 's war dead as fillers ) and Haitink 's is difficult . The Dutch conductor 's great Amsterdam players make Ashkenazy 's Londoners sound almost like a bunch of ragamuffins . But Shostakovich can take the rough and ready better than other composers . That is demonstrated by Bychkov 's recording of the Eighth with what may be the world 's greatest orchestra . The beautiful , polished-to-perfection playing of the Berliners is insufficient recompense for a first movement that is insufficiently sustained , a third movement marred by rhythmic mannerisms and a final one that fails to solve the riddle of the coda . The best available recording of this piece , however , remains the 1982 live performance ( Philips ) of what was then the Leningrad ( and is now the St. Petersburg ) Philharmonic under Evgeny Mravinsky , to whom the work was dedicated and who conducted its premiere . The sound , while not great , is good , and the performance has a ferocity and conviction unmatched by any other save the same conductor 's long out-of-print , 1950s recording , once available as an LP on the MK label . That earlier performance will probably resurface as a CD . And Shostakovich fanciers should be advised that another distinguished , older performance of the piece by Kurt Sanderling another close associate of the composer is scheduled for re-release on the Berlin Classics label . Not long ago , fax modems were exotic , expensive , cutting-edge technology . Today they 're standard equipment on many home and small business PC packages . In fact , it 's hard to find a modem today that doesn't have fax capabilities built in . Unfortunately , many users who have fax modems ignore their fax capabilities , passing up a handy , dual-purpose tool . Others buy fax modems thinking that at $ 100 to $ 200 , they 're cheap substitutes for an honest-to-goodness fax machine , which is not the case . Most fax modems today have two functions . They can operate as standard modems for normal communications . They can run as fast as 14,400 bits per second ( bps ) . That 's the equivalent of 1,440 text characters a second , or enough to fill a computer screen in a second and a half . You can still find cheap modems that offer standard communications at only 2,400 bps , but the cost of high-speed communication has come down so quickly that the increased performance is well worth the extra money . In addition to standard modem innards , fax modems have chips that emulate the transmission and receive circuitry in standard fax machines . There 's a big difference between the two types of communication , even if they 're packaged in the same modem case . Let 's say you 're collaborating on a report or book with someone in another city . If you 're using the same word processing software , you can use a standard modem to send the actual file you 're working on . Your correspondent can call up that document , make changes , and send it back . When you fax a document , all you 're sending is a picture , a collection of dots that means something to you because your brain is smart enough to turn them into words and numbers . But those dots mean nothing to your word processor . Some high-end fax programs include optical character recognition software that can turn those dots back into usable text for your application programs , but the process is tedious and inaccurate at best . In facsimile mode , fax modems also differ from desktop fax machines in the source of the images they send and the destination of the images they receive . A desktop fax machine actually has three parts . There 's a scanner , which converts documents into digital images ; a telephone and facsimile modem that transmits and receives those images , and a printer that reproduces the image on paper . No matter how much you pay for a fax machine , the basic technology inside is the same . That 's why different brands of fax machines can talk to one another without so much as a hiccup . Instead of scanning existing documents , fax modems get their images from your computer . For IBM compatibles running older DOS programs , this presents some difficulty . Memory-resident DOS fax programs chew up memory , and because they lack font recognition technology , the output on the other end often looks as though it came from a cheap dot-matrix printer . For PCs running Windows and for Apple Macintoshes , fax modems are far more useful . That 's because the fax software is installed as a printer driver - a program that tells the computer 's underlying software how to communicate with a printer . When you select the fax modem as your printer and print a document , your software will typically pop up a screen asking you for the phone number of the receiving fax , or allow you to choose the number from a dialing directory . The program will dial the number and send the document with no further intervention . But there 's a big difference at the other end ; in fact a document faxed directly will look like no other fax you 've ever seen . Your software essentially treats the receiving fax as a 200 dot-per-inch printer . While it 's not quite up to laser standards , your document will come out with its fonts , graphics and logos sharp and intact . By eliminating the middleman - the cheap scanners built into most fax machines - your fax modem delivers remarkable quality . This has made fax modems a favorite with travelers using laptop computers . If you need a printed copy of a report stored on your PC , all you have to do is fax yourself a copy at your hotel or business destination . Fax receiving software typically runs in the background , alerting you when faxes come in . The faxes can be stored on your disk , viewed on screen or printed . Some users like this because it saves trees . They can throw away junk faxes before they 're committed to paper . Fax modems generally come with basic software to make them work their magic , although more sophisticated fax programs provide more flexibility . Elementary fax programs may let you do little more than set up a phone directory of fax numbers , and that may be all you need . More sophisticated programs will automatically send the cover page of your choice , transmit a scanned signature at the end of your document and allow you to set up groups of phone numbers for mass fax broadcasts . Now the downside . Not every document you 'll want to fax will be created on your computer . You may want to send a copy of a report from another department , a magazine article , a drawing or diagram , or a copy of Aunt Rhoda 's chocolate cake recipe . The only way to do this with your computer is to buy a full-page scanner at $ 700 to $ 1,500 and then master the scanning software . Likewise , a fax modem is no substitute for a shared fax machine in an office environment where many people need to send and receive documents . And for those who receive faxes at odd hours , I question the wisdom of leaving a $ 2,000 computer running around- the-clock to save the expense of a $ 300 fax machine . Even with these limitations , fax modems are good buys , particularly for owners of Macintoshes or PCs running Microsoft Windows . While they 're not complete substitutes for regular fax machines , they 're convenient for sending documents created on your computer . You didn't work hard all your life just for the IRS to claim a big chunk of your savings after you die . Instead , you want to make sure your estate will be distributed to your heirs according to your wishes . That 's where trusts can help . But creating the right trust requires considerable planning and some tough decision-making . Put bluntly , trust planning requires you to mentally kill off every generation of your family , says Charles Groppe , a partner at the law firm of Putney , Twombly , Hall & Hirson in New York . The idea is to imagine who would be the beneficiary of your estate in different scenarios , depending on who dies first . This macabre mental exercise can become especially complicated if you have been married more than once and have children from one or more of the marriages . Imagine that a husband wants to provide for his new wife after he dies , but he also wants to be sure his children from a first marriage receive some inheritance after she dies . If he bequeaths his estate to his second wife , he has no assurance she will include his children in her will . The solution , says Lisa Berger , author of a book about retirement planning called `` Feathering Your Nest , '' is a Qualified Terminable Interest Property Trust , or QTIP . The husband sets up a trust so that after he dies , his wife will receive the income from the trust . He may even structure the trust so she has access to some of the assets at the discretion of the trustee who runs it . But she has no direct control over the trust assets . After she dies , the remaining estate goes to the trust 's beneficiaries in this case , the man 's children by a first marriage . A word of warning : Depending on where you reside , you may not be able use a trust to prevent your surviving spouse from taking part of your estate outright . Trusts also can be useful if a father is worried that his children will squander their inheritance , or if he wants to specify how the inheritance can be used , such as for a college education . In that case , the father can set up a trust that will provide income for his children , but will be managed by a trustee according to his wishes . Parents of a disabled child may want to create a trust to be sure the child is adequately cared for after they die . If a trust is drawn up correctly , it can help shelter assets so that the child can continue to receive government aid . Karen Greenberg , a financial planner in Baldwin , N.Y. , who specializes in financial advice for parents of disabled children , says that a special needs trust , or Escher trust , is a means of ensuring the disabled person will qualify for government benefits , while still receiving income and principal from the trust for other `` quality of life '' items . Trusts are also commonly used to reduce estate taxes . This is not usually an important consideration unless you have an estate worth more than $ 600,000 the threshold for federal estate taxes . That may sound like a lot of money . But by the time you add together the current value of your home , your pension plan , 401 ( k ) plan , life insurance policy and other savings , you may have a much larger estate than you think . You are allowed to deduct certain expenses from this total before you arrive at the amount used for calculating federal estate tax . They include such things as funeral expenses , income taxes owed , and other bills that must be paid from the estate . Don't forget that in addition to federal estate taxes you may have to pay state estate taxes or inheritance taxes , or both . Five states have no inheritance tax on the recipient but instead levy taxes on the entire estate , Berger says . The state 's threshold may be lower than for federal tax . The good news is that the IRS and most states allow an unlimited marital deduction . That means no matter how large your estate , if you bequeath it to your spouse , there will be no estate tax . However , the tax bite comes after your spouse dies . Say for example , your estate is worth $ 1.2 million . You leave it all to your wife so there is no estate tax . When she dies , however , half of it will be tax exempt and the other half will be subject to estate tax . And that can add up to quite a bite . Groppe says that in New York , for instance , the combined federal and state estate tax on $ 600,000 is $ 240,000 . ( Begin optional trim ) In this scenario , there is a way to avoid getting hit with any taxes . It 's often referred to as a bypass trust or a credit shelter trust . And it basically works this way : When the husband dies , he leaves his wife $ 600,000 outright . And he puts $ 600,000 into a family trust that will provide income for his wife as long as she lives . When she dies , she bequeaths $ 600,000 tax-free to her heirs . And because the trust is a separate entity , it can be passed on tax-free to the designated beneficiaries . Be careful if you are considering bypassing your children and giving your estate to your grandchildren , Groppe says . This may trigger an additional generation-skipping tax . The government imposes this tax because , in effect , you have deprived it of a generation 's worth of taxes . There is a $ 1 million exemption . But this is a complicated area of the tax law , requiring professional advice . ( End optional trim ) There are also a variety of irrevocable trusts that can effectively shelter assets from estate taxes . For example , there are irrevocable life insurance trusts . Some parents who don't want their children to have to sell property or the family business to pay for estate taxes set up insurance trusts . That way the policy can be passed tax-free to the heirs , who then can use the cash to pay the estate tax bill . And there are charitable remainder trusts , which are one of the few tax shelters left because they can reduce your income tax while you 're alive . The hitch with an irrevocable trust is that once you create one , you can't change it . ( Optional add end ) Before you consult a lawyer or other professional about setting up a trust , it 's a good idea to educate yourself . Learn more about the different kinds of trusts and carefully consider how they may fit your goals . Martin Censor , a lawyer and senior editor at Warren Gorham Lamont , a New York publishing company , says that most people could cut the amount of time spent with a lawyer and save up to 50 percent in professional fees if they prepare themselves first . Finally , shop around for a good lawyer or financial adviser . Don't be shy about interviewing several experts about their fees and services . And , as Berger notes in her book , `` Be suspicious of an attorney , financial planner or bank trust department that urges you to completely turn over the reins to your estate by giving total power of attorney . '' Distributed by the Los Angeles Times-Washington Post News Service . In the national interest , President Clinton must find a way out of the trap he laid for himself in his executive order a year ago giving China one year to improve human rights in order to retain most favored nation ( that is , ordinary ) trading relations . China is the world 's emerging superpower . Removing MFN status would mean raising tariffs about 40 percent , accepting retaliation , and nullifying U.S. companies ' opportunities in the world 's greatest growth market , including oil exploration and construction . The issue is not about isolating China so much as isolating the United States . China is a boisterous economy of regions out of control of central direction . But China 's central government is paranoid about disorder , having experienced the lunacy of China 's Cultural Revolution of the 1960s . Hence the crackdown on dissidents from 1989 a crackdown that is unabated despite U.S. censure . China 's Premier Li Peng will not leap through hoops for the domestic agenda of Clinton . This , however , does not lessen the need for the United States to engage China in dialogue , knit it into the world community , encourage free enterprise and free spirits . Exactly the opposite of what a trade war would do . There is much the U.S. president can say from his bully pulpit about human rights , both for imprisoned heroes of Tiananmen Square and , more cogently , the culturally suppressed people of Tibet . Citizen groups like Human Rights Watch should not muffle their agitation . But pretending the U.S. government is a human rights referee who must be obeyed , or that trade is a favor the U.S. bestows , is a fantasy this nation can no longer afford . Drawing away from still another example of untenable foreign-policy posturing will be awkward for Clinton . But he can make the point that under U.S. pressure China has halted exports made with prison labor and has eased barriers to emigration the two specific conditions set out in his executive order a year ago . He should reject a proposed half-way measure banning goods made by state-owned enterprises , including those of the People 's Liberation Army . As Sun correspondent Robert Benjamin has reported from Beijing , such a move would hurt the U.S. as much or more than China . State firms were the major buyers of $ 8.8 billion in U.S. export sales to China last year . It is counter-productive for the United States to engage in a gratuitous struggle of wills with a China whose cooperation is needed , for example , in dealing with the North Korean nuclear threat or in stopping its missile sales to South Asia and the Middle East . If trade is to be an issue , let it concern Chinese pirating of U.S. patents and copyrights or opening Chinese markets to U.S. competition . What Clinton must come to terms with in his imminent executive order is that he is shaping policy for years to come . The situation is far too important for play-acting about the internal affairs China , or for grandstanding that ignores real U.S. national interests . ACE VENTURA : PET DETECTIVE ( PG-13 ) . Every body movement and facial tic of Jim Carrey ( of `` In Living Color '' fame ) is so broadly exaggerated here , he makes goofy Jim Varney look like stoic Charles Bronson by comparison . A movie revolving around as manic a presence as Carrey 's sounds like it could be hell , but his starring debut proves surprisingly capable of provoking unexpected giggle fits . The movie is uneven , but his cartoonish inhumanness is nearly heroic . BABYFEVER . `` For those who hear their clock ticking .... '' That would be the entire audience after two unrelenting hours of procreation talk . This filmic baby shower from women 's best friend Henry Jaglom is so packed with improvising actresses ( there are dozens ) that it 's a remarkably compleatist documentary on infant morality in the '90s . But it 's way too formless all the way to its diapers-ex-machina ending to count much as drama . Jaglom 's wife , Victoria Foyt , is good enough in the lead to be the rare auteur spouse you actually want to see more of in a movie . BACKBEAT ( R ) . Engaging , uneven movie about the early pre-Fab days of the Beatles when Stu Sutcliffe and Pete Best were in the group and Ringo wasn't . The film is basically about Stu 's connection to the group and his vehement friendship with John Lennon . Stephen Dorff plays Stu , Ian Hart is excellent as Lennon . BAD GIRLS ( R ) . Even cowgirls get the guns . This Western is shamelessly high concept but sometimes enjoyable anyway . Andie MacDowell , Mary Stuart Masterson , Drew Barrymore and Madeleine Stowe play prostitutes who rampage with righteous fury while showing off the latest designer fashions from the Old West . Stowe is remarkable , as usual . BEING HUMAN ( PG-13 ) . Robin Williams stars for writer-director Bill Forsyth ( `` Local Hero '' ) in a series of interwoven vignettes concerning a character who travels through history searching for love , self-worth and fulfillment . John Turturro also stars . BELLE EPOQUE ( R ) . Fernando Trueba 's Oscar-winning film captures a sunny yet fleeting moment in 1932 Spain , an interlude of unconscious freedom and joy as the monarchy fades and the republic is born . The setting is a rural community dominated by the open-minded Don Manolo ( Fernando Fernan Gomez ) , whose four attractive daughters beguile a handsome young army deserter ( Juan Sanz ) . BEVERLY HILLS COP III ( R ) . Eddie Murphy 's back as Axel Foley . This time he 's lured to an amusement park with a criminal element . John Landis directs ; Judge Reinhold and Hector Elizondo co-star . BITTER MOON ( R ) . Roman Polanski 's carnal black comedy about an obsessively masochistic couple , Peter Coyote and Emmanuelle Seigner , and the British couple , Hugh Grant and Kristin Scott-Thomas , they dragoon on a luxury cruise . Laughable and watchable . BRAINSCAN ( R ) . Edward Furlong stars as a diffident teen-ager swept up in a virtual reality game in which a series of murders may actually be real . Scary , in a workmanlike way , but the film doesn't live up to its full potential . With Frank Langella . CLEAN SLATE ( PG-13 ) . Dana Carvey plays a small-time gumshoe who suffers from a rare form of amnesia that makes each morning when he wakes a tabula rasa . Intermittently funny but flimsy . The premise far better than the execution . Barkley the wonder dog shares comic honors with Carvey . COPS AND ROBBERSONS ( PG ) . Michael Ritchie 's slyly subversive family comedy in which Chevy Chase plays a suburbanite who thinks his big chance to be a hero occurs when crusty cop Jack Palance uses his tract house to stake out his villainous next door neighbor ( Robert Davi ) . Funny , inspired but with a tinge of sadness amid the laughter . With Dianne Wiest as Chase 's too-perfect wife . CROOKLYN ( PG-13 ) . Though the story of an African American family in 1970s Brooklyn is based in part on director-cowriter Spike Lee 's own experience growing up , the film that resulted , despite some moments of emotional connection , is more aimless than involving . Good performances by Alfre Woodard and Delroy Lindo don't really go anywhere . The Crow ( R ) . The only reason for a grown person to see this hyper-violent doom-and-gloom comic strip adaptation is for the late Brandon Lee 's charismatic presence . As the murdered rock guitarist who comes back to life for vengeance , Lee has a kinetic power . His balletic rampages are like waking nightmares . Otherwise , this film will probably be a hit with tortured male adolescents . D2 THE MIGHTY DUCKS ( PG ) . A disappointing , overly contrived sequel to the impressive and popular 1992 original . Once again an energetic Emilio Estevez is coaching his peewee ice hockey team , but the first film 's clear concern for values gets badly muddled this time out . EVEN COWGIRLS GET THE BLUES ( R ) . Making Tom Robbins ' trendy novel of virtuoso hitchhiker Sissy Hankshaw ( Uma Thurman ) and her oversized thumbs into a movie was a questionable idea at best , but combining writer-director Gus Van Sant 's deadpan aesthetic of boredom with Robbins ' flimsy jokiness proves to be a recipe for disaster . Only k.d. lang & Ben Mink 's fine score survives the wreckage . THE FAVOR ( R ) . Pleasant romantic comedy starring Harley Jane Kozak as a thirtysomething housewife who develops an itch for her high school boy friend ( Ken Wahl ) as their 15th high school reunion approaches and who comes up with the cockamamie idea that her single , liberated best pal ( Elizabeth McGovern ) ought to scratch it for her . With Bill Pullman , Brad Pitt . THE FLINTSTONES ( PG ) . John Goodman dons a saber-toothed tiger suit as Fred , with Rick Moranis as neighbor Barney Rubble . When Fred gets a promotion at Slate & Co. quarry , things really change for that modern Stone Age family . Elizabeth Perkins , Rosie O' Donnell , Kyle MacLachlan , Halle Berry and Elizabeth Taylor co-star . Brian Levant directs . FOUR WEDDINGS AND A FUNERAL ( R ) . A cheerful and witty bit of business that belies its no-nonsense title , the latest from director Mike Newell ( `` Enchanted April '' ) provides the kind of sly pleasure typical of British comedy at its best . Hugh Grant stars as a marriage-shy young man who keeps running into the very eligible Andie MacDowell at wedding after wedding . A tasty romp that garnishes its humor with style . HANS CHRISTIAN ANDERSEN 'S THUMBELINA ( G ) . Animators Don Bluth and Gary Goldman once again cast their spell so effectively that you don't have to be a child to be swept away into its magical Never-Never Land , where the diminutive Thumbelina hopes to find a Prince Charming her size . Traditional in style yet imaginative , with lyrics by Jack Feldman and Bruce Sussman and music by Barry Manilow . Adroit use of such familiar voices as those of Carol Channing , Charo and John Hurt . THE HOUSE OF THE SPIRITS ( R ) . A lumbering oaf of a movie that turns Isabel Allende 's best-selling novel of half a century of personal and political turmoil in South America into an extended sleeping pill . Not even the presence of a glittering cast , including Jeremy Irons , Meryl Streep and Glenn Close , can overcome Bille August 's misguided direction . THE HUDSUCKER PROXY ( PG ) . Those pristine perfectionists the Coen brothers have done it again with a technically dazzling tribute to the films of the 1940s that is more than a little cold around the heart . Fine performances by Tim Robbins and Jennifer Jason Leigh and the best art direction in the world can't break the frost . THE INKWELL ( R ) . Widely unveven second film from `` Straight Out of Brooklyn '' director Matty Rich , at once a heavyhanded , way-over-the-top satire of the black bourgeoisie in the '70s and a tender coming-of-age story . Set in an area of Martha 's Vineyard called the Inkwell , a black enclave since the turn of the century . Larenz Tate stars . JIMMY HOLLYWOOD ( R ) . This amusing look at the would-be actors of the world is a return to small-scale , shambling humor by writer-director Barry Levinson . Joe Pesci is clever and effective as Jimmy Alto , convinced that the break he needs is just this far away , but his engaging performance has to contend with a minimalist plot that grandly bypasses plausibility . LITTLE BUDDHA ( PG ) . Director Bernardo Bertolucci 's latest combines a modern story about Tibetan monks looking for their reincarnated master with an idealized travelogue on the life of the Buddha and comes up with the most elaborate and expensive After School Special ever . Well suited for children , but , luscious images notwithstanding , without enough nuance to captivate most adults . MAJOR LEAGUE II ( PG ) . The inevitable sequel to the 1989 baseball hit is a so-so clobber comedy with a few funny moments , most from Bob Uecker as the play-by-play announcer of the laggard but pennant-bound Cleveland Indians . Charlie Sheen , Dennis Haysbert , Tom Berenger and others recap their roles from the first film . MAVERICK ( PG ) . High-priced crowd-pleaser that reaches for Feel Good and settles for Feel OK . Mel Gibson stars as Maverick , the spineless , jaunty gambler first seen in the ABC TV series , and he 's exhaustingly sporty . Jodie Foster and James Garner co-star . The flimsy facetiousness of this comedy places it somewhere between `` Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid '' and `` The Apple Dumpling Gang . '' A MILLION TO JUAN ( PG ) . Paul Rodriguez stars in and directed this clunky sort-of comedy with socially conscious overtones . A poor Mexican immigrant is mysteriously handed a check for a million dollars . Based on a Mark Twain story that was also the basis for a fine , neglected 1954 comedy starring Gregory Peck . MR . WRITE ( PG-13 ) . It 's really `` Mr . Wrong , '' a stale , labored romantic comedy about a nebbishy struggling playwright ( Paul Reiser ) who falls for a beautiful woman ( Jessica Tuck ) he meets while appearing in a candy commercial . With Martin Mull . MONKEY TROUBLE ( PG ) . Harvey Keitel is the con artist who has taught a darling little simian how to excel as a pickpocket . Thora Birch later adopts the animal , and an wild adventure ensues when Keitel attempts to retrieve his former partner in crime . Mimi Rogers co-stars ; Franco Amurri directs . NAKED GUN 33 1/3 : THE FINAL INSULT ( PG-13 ) . The third in the `` Naked Gun '' series is not as funny as the first two but is still chock-filled with good gags . Leslie Nielsen 's Lt. Frank Drebin is retired but not for long . NIGHT OF THE DEMONS II ( R ) . Smart , sexy and amusing horror picture , which finds students at a posh Catholic coed prep school surprised to find themselves caught up for real in a struggle between the forces of good and evil when they break into a spooky deserted old house on Halloween Eve . With Jennifer Rhodes , Amelia Kinkade . NO ESCAPE ( R ) . It 's 2022 and prisoners too tough for maximum security are airlifted to a peninsula called Absalom and left to fend for themselves between warring jungle lords . Ray Liotta 's Marine Capt. John Robbins is the antihero convict who tries to survive in the jungle . It 's a no-brainer with some exciting action sequences and lots of grunting , decapitating and gougings . ON DEADLY GROUND ( R ) . Steven Seagal makes a lively if preachy directorial debut starring as an oil rigger who discovers his villainous employer ( a deliciously nasty Michael Caine ) is cutting corners to the extent of endangering the environment . Although one could wish Seagal had delivered his message with a less heavy hand , he is on target in his sentiments and quite possibly will be reaching audiences who never thought about the environment before . THE PAPER ( R ) . This Ron Howard-directed ensemble piece about a day in the life of a bustling New York City tabloid newspaper and its quirky staff can be awfully funny when it chooses to be , but too much of the time it is unwisely intent on showing the serious side of its characters ' lives . A lot of energetic acting from its cast , especially Michael Keaton in the lead , does help . ( Turan ) PCU ( PG-13 ) . The spoofing of campus politics is haphazard and directed mainly at feminists in this anemic venture whose real point is to get down and party , but it comes across as a pale , passe carbon of `` Animal House '' that 's not half as much fun . With Chris Young , Jeremy Piven , Jessica Walter . PHILADELPHIA ( PG-13 ) . Nothing is so fatal to effective drama as the air of dogoodism that hangs over Hollywood 's first attempt to deal with the AIDS crisis . Tom Hanks plays a high-powered lawyer who feels he 's been fired because of the disease and Denzel Washington co-stars as the initially homophobic attorney who takes his case . Not intended to be subtle , with the good and bad guys clearly labeled , this is mainstream socially conscious filmmaking that is not worried about sacrificing nuance to make its points . THE PIANO ( R ) . Using Holly Hunter and Harvey Keitel in ways never seen before , writer-director Jane Campion has given a sweepingly romantic 19th century tale an almost avant-garde edge . Telling the story of Ada , a mute arranged bride who comes to primitive 1852 New Zealand with her piano and powerfully affects the lives of Keitel and Sam Neill , Campion shows herself to have a command of the visual and the emotional that is fearless and profound . Winner of two prizes at Cannes , and deservedly so . Won Academy Awards for original screenplay ( Campion ) , actress ( Hunter ) and supporting actress ( Anna Paquin ) . REALITY BITES ( PG-13 ) . The most appealing film yet about the nameless post-collegiate generation , this romantic comedy starring Winona Ryder , Ethan Hawke and Ben Stiller ( who makes his directing debut ) is cheerful , edgy and alive . A traditional triangle detailing the rivalry for one woman 's affection , it is turned by Helen Childress ' clever and clear-eyed script and Stiller 's direction into a natural and assured piece of business . SCHINDLER 'S LIST ( R ) . A most unlikely director , Steven Spielberg , tells the quietly devastating story of the most unlikely of Holocaust heroes , Oskar Schindler , a convivial sensualist , gambler and war profiteer who rescued 1,100 Jews and ended up the only Nazi Party member to be buried in Jerusalem 's Mount Zion cemetary . Put together with care , emotion and , most importantly , restraint , this is as good a fiction film on the Holocaust as we are likely to get . SERIAL MOM ( R ) . John Waters ' latest black comedy is one of his best . Kathleen Turner plays a spic-and-span housewife who is actually an avenging mom . It 's her best comic role since the neglected `` The Man With Two Brains . '' SIRENS ( R ) . Silly , sexy romp about a stuffy reverend and his wife who go on a religious mission to the mountain retreat of a pagan painter and get taken in by the free-floating sensuality . Closer to the Playboy Channel than D.H. Lawrence , and probably the better for it . Hugh Grant and Sam Neill star , also Elle MacPherson , in the buff . SURVIVING THE GAME ( R ) . A small group of hunters track human prey ( in the form of Ice-T ) in the Pacific Northwest . What they 'll painfully learn is that their quarry will fashion his street smarts into an effective method of retribution . Rutger Hauer and F. Murray Abraham star ; Ernest Dickerson directs . THAT 'S ENTERTAINMENT ! III ( G ) . A showy tribute to that most glorious and most indisputably extinct of Hollywood genres , the glossy MGM musical . Though the introductions by aging stars leans too heavily on canned banalities , the clips , especially behind-the-scene footage and numbers cut from original productions , are lively and invigorating . 3 NINJAS KICK BACK ( PG ) . Lively and imaginative sequel to the 1992 original . This time a Japanese American grandfather ( Victor Wong ) finds he 's competing with the growing lure of basebell as he continues to instill his three grandsons with the skills and virtues of martial arts , which nevertheless pay off when they 're all caught up in an adventure that takes them to Japan . THREESOME ( R ) . Obnoxious comedy about three college roommates played by Lara Flynn Boyle , Josh Charles and Stephen Baldwin who learn all about role-playing and sexual preference while carrying on like overheated banshees . It 's sitcom stuff with a carnal overlay . TRADING MOM ( PG ) . Writer-director Tia Brelis makes a delightful feature debut in bringing her mother 's novel `` The Mommy Market '' to the screen . It 's a fantasy about three children who unexpectedly get their wish to exchange their harried single mother ( Sissy Spacek ) for a model of their own choice . WHEN A MAN LOVES A WOMAN ( R ) . Meg Ryan and Andry Garcia star as a modern couple , as much in trouble as they are in love , coping with the effects of her problem drinking . Though both actors work hard and do affecting jobs , the film 's overall artificiality , the way it piles on woe upon woe , detracts from the honesty of their performances . WHITE FANG 2 : MYTH OF THE WHITE WOLF ( PG ) . That half-wolf , half-dog supercanine is back with a new master ( Scott Bairstow ) in a less-than-riveting , stultifyingly politically correct adventure involving a starving Native American tribe . WIDOW 'S PEAK ( PG ) . Lovely piffle set in Ireland in the early '20s and starring Natasha Richardson , Joan Plowright and Mia Farrow , all in fine form . Scripted by Hugh Leonard and directed by John Irvin , it 's a whodunit trussed up as a domestic comedy . WITH HONORS ( PG-13 ) . Brendan Fraser plays a Harvard student who reluctantly befriends a homeless man played by Joe Pesci . Too many drippy life lessons , but Fraser and Pesci have some rapport and the college scenes are at least more believable than the ones in `` Threesome . '' YOU SO CRAZY ( NC-17 ) . Comic Martin Lawrence may be in-your-face raunchy and scatological , an enthusiastic detailer of all kinds of sexual situations , but this fluid and funny performance film shows he is also a sure comic presence , an adept social commentator and a promoter of values that can only be called mainstream . WASHINGTON For a vision of Yuppie Hell , consider some retirement figures that arrived in the mail the other day . They show what happens to a nest egg of $ 500,000 after 11 years : It disappears . In other words , if you retire at age 62 , this rather sizable nest egg runs out eight years before the actuarial die . This predicament reminded me of a terrifying short story by Somerset Maugham called `` The Lotus Eater . '' I 'll get back to the figures and what you can do about them shortly , but first the plot of the story : Thomas Wilson is a London bank manager , a widower who has worked hard since he was 17 . He saves his money and decides in 1898 , at the age of 35 , that he will retire to the idyllic Italian island of Capri . But he has only enough funds to purchase a 25-year annuity an investment contract that guarantees him an income for a fixed period and then runs out . At that point , Wilson would be 60 . What then ? Considering the prospect , Wilson tells the narrator : `` Don't you think after 25 years of perfect happiness one ought to be satisfied to call it a day ? '' In other words , if he 's not dead at 60 , Wilson plans to kill himself . But when the time comes , his will fails . `` It was difficult to know what to do with him . He had no money and no means of getting any . '' So he survives in wretched poverty , living in a woodshed , wandering the hills , bumming food . He dies at 66 . This is a pretty nasty little story , and certainly a modern-day Thomas Wilson would have welfare or Social Security to fall back on . But the truth is that to retire comfortably takes a much larger chunk of money than most people realize . Back to the retirement figures . The Smith Barney Shearson Consulting Group , which compiled them , made these assumptions : A couple wants to have $ 80,000 a year in income money not just for necessities , but for travel and for funding the grandchildren 's college education . Retiring at 62 , the husband , the main earner , draws a fixed $ 20,000-a-year company pension . The couple also receives about $ 10,000 in Social Security benefits , adjusted annually for inflation . The Consulting Group assumes that inflation runs at 4 percent a year , so the couple needs $ 82,400 in the second year to have $ 80,000 in purchasing power . The final assumption is that the nest egg 's investments will earn 7 percent a year after taxes . Now , you can argue with some of these assumptions . Perhaps you don't need $ 80,000 . Perhaps you can earn more than 7 percent a year . But then again , perhaps you don't have $ 20,000 coming in from a pension or other sources . What makes the numbers especially daunting for baby boomers is this : The nest egg comprises $ 500,000 in today 's dollars . If you 're 44 years old and plan to retire at 62-and if inflation runs at 4 percent for the next 18 years-then what you will need when you 're ready to retire in 2012 is not $ 500,000 , but $ 1 million ! In 2012 , it will take one million bucks to buy you those measly 11 years of Lotus Land at an annual purchasing power ( in today 's dollars ) of $ 80,000 . After that , it 's the Thomas Wilson routine . Actually , $ 1 million is a good number to shoot for . If you can cut your needs down to $ 40,000 instead of $ 80,000 , then you 'll avoid the fate of Maugham 's hero and eke out a retirement until you reach your actuarial reckoning . But how to get to a million ? The best answer is to start early . Say you want to retire at 62 . If you can manage to sock away $ 5,000 a year in a tax-deferred account that produces a 10 percent return , you 'll have your million dollars-as long as you start when you 're 31 . But if you wait until you 're 41 to begin , you 'll have only $ 300,000 . And if you start at age 51 , you 'll have less than $ 100,000 . Also , if you begin early , you will be able to devote a higher proportion of your portfolio to stocks , which produce a better return than bonds and money market funds but which carry more risk . While time is the greatest engine of investment growth , tax-deferral runs a close second . Critics of our current system believe that one reason the United States has such a low savings rate less than 5 percent , compared with 15 percent for Japan and 13 percent for Germany is that we penalize savers with taxes . It 's true that the nation would be well served if we brought back the tax-deductibility of contributions to individual retirement accounts . But , even in their current form , IRAs provide a great way to shield your money from taxes as it accumulates . For example , T. Rowe Price Associates calculates that if you invest $ 2,000 a year in a taxable account that earns 9 percent a year , you 'll have $ 183,000 after 30 years . But in a tax-deferred account , you 'll accumulate $ 297,000 before taxes and $ 231,000 after taxes . ( Both scenarios assume a 28 percent tax bite . ) Even more interesting is how the IRA helps you while you 're distributing the proceeds during your retirement . Using the above example and assuming you live to be 90 , the IRA will provide you with $ 19,200 in after-tax income a year for 25 years while the taxable account will provide you with just $ 13,250 annually . That 's the good news . The bad news is that $ 19,200 willn't be a whole lot of money 60 years from now . And there 's more bad news . A survey by Merrill Lynch & Co. last year found baby boomers saving at about one-third the rate required for a secure retirement . And then there are these sage words , written by Laurence Kotlikoff , a Boston University economics professor and an expert on savings : `` Compared with their parents , baby boomers can expect to . . rely less on inheritances , receive less help from children , experience slower real wage growth , face higher taxes and replace a smaller fraction of their pre-retirement earnings with Social Security retirement benefits . `` Unless baby boomers change their saving habits and change them quickly , they may experience much higher rates of poverty in their old age than those currently observed among U.S. elderly . '' You don't want to end up like Thomas Wilson , do you ? So start saving . The rankings for hard-cover books sold in Southern California , as reported by selected book stores : FICTION 1 . THE CELESTINE PROPHESY , by James Redfield . 2 . INCA GOLD , by Clive Cussler . 3 . THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW , by Allan Folsom . 4 . THE ALIENIST , by Caleb Carr . 5 . `` K '' IS FOR KILLER , by Sue Grafton . 6 . REMEMBER ME , by Mary Higgins Clark . 7 . ACCIDENT , by Danielle Steel . 8 . LIKE WATER FOR CHOCOLATE , by Laura Esquivel . 9 . FIST OF GOD , by Frederick Forsyth . 10 . THE BRIDGES OF MADISON COUNTY , by Robert James Waller . NONFICTION : 1 . EMBRACED , BY THE LIGHT , by Betty J. Eadie . 2 . MEN ARE FROM MARS : Women Are From Venus , by John Gray , Ph.D. . 3 . IN THE KITCHEN WITH ROSIE , by Rosie Daley . 4 . STANDING FIRM , by Dan Quayle . 5 . BEYOND PEACE , by Richard Nixon . 6 . MAGIC EYE II , by N.E. . Thing Enterprises . 7 . MAGIC EYE I , by N.E. . Thing Enterprises . 8 . BOOK OF VIRTUES : A Treasury of the World 's Great Moral Stories , by William J. Bennett . 9 . REBA : My Story , by Reba McEntire with Tom Carter . 10 . COMPROMISED : Clinton , Bush & the CIA , by Terry Reed . NEW YORK The Clinton administration and financial regulators are unsure how best to rein in the risky Wall Street trading instruments called financial derivatives , according to high-level sources familiar with discussions on the subject . As a result , regulators are likely to tinker with a few small fixes without making sweeping reforms . What consensus has emerged is largely to jury-rig the existing structure . The modest list includes better risk monitoring , more public disclosure and more complete examination of dealers . `` I am afraid we need a financial crisis before Washington moves on this , '' said one source . `` There is enormous opposition from Wall Street . '' Some White House officials worry that the $ 12 trillion market in derivatives poses a threat to the financial system and the U.S. economy and want comprehensive controls placed on their trading . Other senior policy makers are less sure of the risks and more concerned that tighter regulation would push the booming business in derivatives offshore without significantly reducing the threats to U.S. markets . Given the split , major regulation , such as requiring big players to pony up more money if they want to be active derivatives traders , are longer-term options , the sources said . At present , securities firms and insurance companies that have set up businesses to deal in derivatives get no regulatory scrutiny ; banks that trade derivatives are more closely watched , primarily by the Federal Reserve and the Office of the Comptroller of the Currency ( OCC ) . Congress ' appetite for a legislative solution is not yet widely shared within the administration or the regulatory world , sources say , largely because they fear that Congress will go too far . `` Our primary hesitation , '' said Darcy Bradbury , deputy assistant Treasury secretary for federal finance , `` is that we have not yet exhausted our current regulatory authority . We may need legislation down the road , but it is a bit premature . '' Financial derivatives , so named because their values derive from such underlying securities as stocks , bonds , foreign exchange and commodities , have become central to the global financial markets . They are increasingly used by Wall Street and large U.S. corporations seeking to make big , highly leveraged bets or to hedge unwanted risks . U.S. banks and securities firms are the industry leaders and derive huge profits from the business . But some U.S. banks , brokerages , speculators , mutual funds and industrial companies have taken derivative-related losses as interest rates changed direction in recent months . The General Accounting Office , Congress ' investigative arm , issued a report on derivatives last week that spotted `` regulatory gaps '' and called for aggressive reforms , some of which would require legislation . This week , the House subcommittee on Energy and Commerce chaired by Rep. Edward J. Markey , D-Mass. , hears from Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan , comptroller of the currency Eugene Ludwig and Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Arthur Levitt Jr. . Markey wants legislation to bring securities firms and insurance companies that deal in derivatives under the same , albeit spotty , regulatory scrutiny that U.S. banks get . Their derivatives affiliates are now unregulated . Frank Newman , undersecretary for domestic finance , said the administration 's interagency working group on financial markets is assessing the extent of the risks tied to derivatives . `` We are not waiting around , but we are still in the process of determining how much risk to the financial system there is , '' he said . `` Our concern is that something might go wrong and turn a moderate problem into a bigger problem through the global interconnection of modern financial instruments like derivatives . We need to know more about that systemic risk , '' a process he expects to take months . In the meantime , a consensus has emerged on the reforms likely to take place : Buyers and sellers of derivatives will be forced to account for these instruments in ways that accurately reflect the risks they entail . Levitt has made it clear to the Financial Accounting Standards Board , a private group that is charged with determining acceptable accounting procedures , that it soon must set new standards for accounting for derivatives in financial reports . FASB has been studying the issue for more than five years . Public disclosure must get a lot better . Companies and Wall Street firms that buy or sell derivatives disclose next to nothing about the guts of their derivatives activities , the risks they represent or how they manage the positions . Both the Fed and the OCC recently have given out stricter guidelines for examiners and banks that require the reporting of the terms and conditions of derivative positions . The SEC also has begun to query many publicly traded companies on their stakes in this high-stakes game . Levitt has said , `` Disclosure and accounting are my highest priorities . '' Major dealers and users of derivatives will be required to monitor and limit their risks more . That means more money spent on independent audits and computer systems and more attention paid by top executives and directors . Banking regulators already have pushed commercial banks to do this . The SEC has yet to ask securities firms to make the same commitment , but sources say it will . In addition , the interagency working group is considering a proposal to `` subject dealers to more stringent stress tests , '' according to one source . In a stress test , a derivatives dealer uses computer models to see how much money he could lose if the financial markets fall , interest rates rise or if other dealers and customers renege on their obligations to pay . Dealers will be examined carefully to make sure that they do not sell risky derivatives to unsophisticated customers . And mutual funds that use derivatives to evade fund investment restrictions will be examined by regulators to see whether they are fulfilling their fiduciary duties to shareholders . Off the agenda for now are new rules requiring that they keep more money in reserve to cushion losses in the event of a steep drop in the financial markets . The SEC is in the early stages of reviewing out-of-date rules on how much cash securities firms active in derivatives must have to ensure their survival in a crisis . `` Capital standards must relate to a firm 's ability to withstand market volatility , shocks , '' said a senior government official . Higher capital standards for banks have been the subject of international regulatory discussion for years , but no decisions have been made . U.S. banking regulators are unlikely to act alone . `` The question is , do we want to encourage the taking of derivative positions with very little money down ? '' said a source . `` What does that mean for people 's staying power in a panic ? '' NEW YORK Hedge fund partner Christopher Ramon Castroviejo is a man with trading in his blood , who doesn't see why Washington bureaucrats should fret so much about derivatives the complex financial instruments that are his livelihood . Castroviejo , 44 , the managing partner of the small Parallax Partners firm , uses derivatives to bet on the rise and fall in various financial indexes , and that kind of trading has begun to draw the attention of government regulators and legislators . Traders like Castroviejo often operate on very thin margins-putting up very little money with the chance of making huge profits . But in some cases lately the losses from such deals have been great , and government officials wonder if the rules permitting such gambles should be changed . Castroviejo , whose grandfather became famous for betting that the stock market was going to fall in 1929 and 1930 , does not think so . The tale of one of his derivatives deals in early February , in which he made $ 188,432.78 , provides an example of what he means , and why he thinks derivatives are a splendid and relatively safe way of keeping the economy going by injecting money into the markets . It was quite early the morning of Feb. 2 that he left his cozy East Side Manhattan house and his faithful Norwich terrier , Uptick . When he reached his Park Avenue office , he discovered that one of his favorite market indexes was just where he wanted it . The Financial Times Stock Exchange index ( FTSE , usually pronounced `` footsie '' ) , a measure of 100 British stocks , had been sliding leisurely upward to a point where Castroviejo , who specializes in such things , thought it was about to change direction . What should he do ? The chart of the FTSE 's movement and other data compiled by Castroviejo 's quantitative analyst , a young Venezuelan mathematics wizard named Luis Sanchez , indicated the index was exhausted and unlikely to go much higher . Castroviejo wanted to bet that it would fall , and Merrill Lynch & Co. was offering him an option that would allow him to see if he was right , and on terms too good to pass up . For just $ 157,487 Castroviejo could buy a put option contract valued at $ 7.5 million , essentially putting up only 2.1 percent of the total in hopes that the market would turn just enough in the desired downward direction that he could sell and make a profit . The farther the index sank , the more money he would make . He has been managing his own fund for little more than a year and has kept much of the money in money market accounts and other secure investments to establish a track record for caution . This worked particularly well in the first quarter of this year , when the suddenly volatile stock and bond markets forced losses on other managers while Castroviejo 's fund stayed in the black , if barely . Investing has been a passion since he was 6 years old and heard his grandfather , Bernard E. Smith , discuss a purchase of 10,000 shares . The boy thought the financier had ordered 10,000 chairs , and wondered out loud how they would all fit even in that huge house . Smith had been born poor in the Hell 's Kitchen section of New York but began to work in brokerage firms and organize bear pools to bet on stock market declines . His nickname was `` Sell ' Em Ben , '' based on his legendary advice to `` Sell 'em all ! They 're not worth anything ! '' as stocks collapsed in 1929 . Castroviejo got only Bs in economics at Harvard . His fondness for the untrammeled marketplace seemed to distress professors who admired the Soviet Union and other managed economies . But he did well on Wall Street and now finds each day , either up or down , a joy . `` It 's astounding to me that supposedly grown men are paid to do this , '' Castroviejo said . `` It 's wonderful . '' In the FTSE deal , his instincts proved correct . The index began to descend and five days later he pulled out with a 119.65 percent return on his cash investment . With mounting dismay he then watched as the FTSE continued to go down , and down , and down some more . `` If I had just left it alone I hate to think what I would have made , '' Castroviejo said . Still , he said , `` I like to sleep at night . '' And he cannot see how any federal bureaucrat would think he was doing any harm . Derivative contracts , Castroviejo said , do well . In mortgage-backed securities , he said , they `` remove the risk from the commercial bank so a homeowner will be paying 1 to 1.5 percent less on his mortgage . '' Among derivative traders , `` there will always be the occasional bozo who screws himself up , '' Castroviejo said , but overall the instruments draw much more money into the markets . The more money is there , he said , betting both sides of the wager , the more likely are markets to be healthy and liquid and stable . `` There is plenty of money to be made in this game without being a cowboy , '' he said . WASHINGTON In the post-Cold War era , there is room for disagreement about what America 's foreign policy should be as we chart our way through unexplored waters . But the criticisms gaining popularity among some commentators that President Clinton has betrayed his foreign policy commitments not only skew this debate but also are flat wrong . As the foreign policy aide with Bill Clinton in Little Rock during the campaign and transition , I know what candidate Clinton said and what he did not say . It was Bill Clinton who repeatedly pushed me and his other advisers to reject promises he could not keep or that would be inconsistent with sound long-term policies . Let 's examine the record : Bosnia : In July 1992 , candidate Clinton called for tightening and enforcing the sanctions , taking steps to charge the Milosevic regime with crimes against humanity and having the United States take the lead in seeking U.N. . Security Council authorization for air strikes against those attacking the relief effort , with the United States lending `` appropriate military support . '' In subsequent statements , he also stated that he thought lifting the arms embargo against Bosnia should be debated and that the United States should not permit ground troops to become involved in the quaqmire . All these statements are now administration policy . More progress must be made . But American leadership has made a difference in enforcing the sanctions and no-fly zones , sustaining the longest airlift in history , protecting U.N. forces with NATO air power , pressing for a war crimes tribunal and concluding the Muslim-Croat agreement . Somalia : President-elect Clinton supported President Bush 's decision to send 25,000 troops to Somalia . We were there longer and the costs were far higher than predicted . But President Clinton brought the last of these troops home on March 31 . Their mission saved countless lives and gave the Somali people a chance at peace . Haiti : Candidate Clinton sharply criticized the Bush administration 's policy of returning Haitians `` without a fair hearing for political asylum . '' When the president-elect was presented with reports of an impending massive exodus of Haitians , he called for a temporary extension of that policy , coupled with a determined effort to work hard for President Aristide 's return . He also took steps that led to a tenfold increase in the processing and approving of refugee applicants at centers inside Haiti . President-elect Clinton said he would change that policy `` when I am fully confident I can do so in a way that does not contribute to a humanitarian tragedy . '' On May 8 , 1994 , following reports of increased human rights abuses in Haiti , President Clinton established a process that affords all migrants a chance to make their case for asylum , while this country continues to interdict Haitian migrants at sea . China : Candidate Clinton criticized President Bush for unconditionally renewing MFN and said the Chinese government should make `` concrete and significant progress in the areas of human rights , trade and nonproliferation in order to maintain its beneficial trade status . '' Last year , President Clinton issued an executive order conditioning MFN on significant , overall progress in human rights by the Chinese government , resolving a bitter dispute with Congress and setting forth reasonable steps the Chinese must take to maintain MFN . We have also pressed China separately and vigorously on nonproliferation and trade issues . Middle East : Having pledged in his campaign to ensure the United States serves as a catalyst and an honest broker in building peace in the Mideast , President Clinton has made that goal a high priority . The results are impressive . Not only have two mortal enemies shaken hands on the South Lawn of the White House but also the parties are implementing peace in Gaza and Jericho . Russia : Candidate Clinton , on April 1 , 1992 , urged President Bush to lend support to the reform efforts of President Yeltsin . Since taking office , President Clinton has worked tirelessly in support of our vital national security interests in Russia and successfully mobilized a historic $ 4.1 billion in aid in support of democracy and reform . Trade : Candidate Clinton , despite strong opposition within his own party , endorsed NAFTA and promised to address its deficiencies , notably in the areas of environment , labor and import surges . As president , he spearheaded the successful against-the-odds drive to enact NAFTA and achieved the necessary side agreements . President Clinton also followed through on his campaign commitment to `` strongly support free , fair , open and expanding trade , including the GATT negotiations . '' A historic GATT agreement was completed after seven years of negotiations . Arms Control : Candidate Clinton pledged to strengthen the International Atomic Energy Agency , the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty and the Missile Technology Control Regime and take the lead in negotiating a comprehensive test ban treaty through a phased approach . All those promises have been kept . In the end , the president 's record should be judged in terms of whether he has strengthened the three pillars of our post-Cold War foreign policy : promoting democracy , economic prosperity and strong defense adapted to the new security environment . He is meeting that test . WASHINGTON In `` Beverly Hills Cop III , '' Eddie Murphy the man with the CinemaScope grin once again mugs , jives and drives his way through the 90210 zone of boutiques , babes and bad guys . With screenwriter Steven E . ( `` 48 Hrs. '' ) de Souza at the word processor and John ( `` Trading Places '' ) Landis in the director 's chair , Murphy is clearly in familiar company as they all embark on his goofy vanity project . But de Souza 's script in which Axel Foley ( Murphy ) searches a California amusement park to find the man who killed his police chief ( Gil Hill ) is an uninspired , long-winded we-know-whodunit . Although Landis ' comic routines provide occasional relief , they 're tired reprises from previous `` Cop '' films . And as Foley reunites with his unbearably gushy friends , L.A. cop Billy Rosewood ( Judge Reinhold ) and mop-topped Serge ( Bronson Pinchot ) , the humor becomes as fatigued as that other dismal Murphy sequel , `` Another 48 Hrs . '' `` Beverly Hills Cop III '' is rated R for language and violence . It 's hardly surprising that Bernardo Bertolucci a man undaunted by the risky , the intellectual and the spectacular would make a film about the Buddha . What is surprising is the beguiling , unpretentious result : `` Little Buddha , '' a modern fable about a Seattle boy believed to be a reincarnated Buddhist teacher , endears the audience to the Tibetan doctrine with a glowing , almost Disneyesque panache . Photographed gorgeously by cinematographer Vittorio Storaro , `` Little Buddha '' is graced with sweet-natured lamas , stunning sights from the Himalayas and in the wackiest bit of casting since George Burns played God Keanu Reeves as the Buddha . Few will believe this without seeing for themselves , but Reeves is rather charming in the role . Bertolucci intermixes high art with childlike wonder , blatant special effects with tacit spirituality . The movie , which also stars Bridget Fonda and Chris Isaak , may initially seem superficial and commercially pandering , like something Steven Spielberg would have conceived . But it is remarkably devoid of cloying sentimentality . As someone once said about the films of Max Ophuls , `` Little Buddha '' is only superficially superficial . In Seattle , schoolteacher Lisa Konrad ( Fonda ) is visited at her home by a grinning , befrocked group of lamas . The leader , Lama Norbu ( Ying Ruocheng ) , who has journeyed all the way from Bhutan , informs Konrad that her 9-year-old son Jesse ( Alex Wiesendanger ) may be the reincarnated spirit of Lama Dorje , the Tibetan priest 's teacher . Lisa listens to Norbu with indulgent interest , but remains dubious . Her architect husband , Dean ( Isaak ) , is even more skeptical . But little Jesse takes to the idea with chirpy enthusiasm . He becomes a regular fixture at the Tibetans ' local center . When Norbu gives him a bedtime picture book about Buddha , the boy is spellbound . As Jesse learns about the life of Prince Siddhartha , the founder of Buddhism , the movie flits back 2,500 years to mythical India . In a stirring fusion of past and present , `` Little Buddha '' relates Buddha 's evolution from spoiled prince to serene being and-in the 20th century-details Norbu 's quest to authenticate Jesse 's potential link to Lama Dorje . It turns out that there are two other candidates ( in Asia ) for the teacher 's reincarnation , requiring Jesse to travel to Bhutan . The child 's fate is furthered when Dean whose business partner suffers an untimely death finds himself suddenly responsive to matters of the afterlife . While Lisa remains reluctantly in Seattle , father and son embark on an unforgettable spiritual journey . Rather than delve into the elusive depths of Buddhism , scriptwriters Mark Peploe and Rudy Wurlitzer ( adapting an original story by Bertolucci ) chart a paper-boat voyage over its surface . `` Little Buddha '' succeeds precisely because of its guileless innocence : It even begins with the words `` Once upon a time ... '' as Lama Norbu tells a goat fable to his monastic students . Storaro , possibly the world 's greatest cinematographer , bathes the modern and ancient Buddhist scenes in burnished reds and golds . In America , he all but freezes Seattle in beautiful but icy blues . The divide between East and West couldn't be visually clearer . Bertolucci , who completes what he has dubbed his `` Oriental trilogy '' here ( with `` The Last Emperor '' and `` The Sheltering Sky '' ) , is hardly subtle about this duality . America 's empty , cold materialism is pitted against the warm splendor of Buddhism in a no-contest bout . To this end , Bertolucci has directed Fonda and Isaak to give the most lobotomized performances of their careers . But this bias is a minor shortcoming , especially in light of Bertolucci 's multiple embrace of the American child who comes of age , the Western father who experiences his own minor revelations , the monks who resolve their compelling mystery and , of course , the great spiritual leader himself . `` Little Buddha '' is rated PG . WASHINGTON Capitol Hill , a political beehive already swarming with reporters , is about to become a two-newspaper community . New York publisher Jerry Finkelstein , whose company owns the National Law Journal and more than 20 community papers in the New York area , is launching a weekly newspaper devoted to covering Congress . He has tapped veteran Hill reporter Martin Tolchin , who is retiring from the New York Times after 40 years , as publisher and editor . The still-nameless publication , scheduled to debut in September , will mount a frontal assault on Roll Call , the twice-weekly paper that has been required reading on the Hill since 1955 . `` We 're going to try to be a little more substantive and a little more stylish than Roll Call , '' Tolchin says . `` We 'll try to be wittier , more audacious , and we 'll try to have a soul , which I don't think Roll Call does . '' Roll Call , which was purchased last year by the Economist of London , says it isn't worried about the competition . `` We have a unique niche : We cover Congress as an institution , '' says Editor Stacy Mason . `` We cover the people , the politics , the neighborhood , the police department , the post office , and that 's why we 're able to break stories like the House Bank scandal . '' Finkelstein , 78 , is a Democratic Party activist whose son , Andrew Stein , was New York City Council president . Finkelstein consulted with his old public relations partner , Times columnist William Safire , about the Hill venture . `` He asked me who I thought would be a great editor , and the first thought that leaped to mind was Marty Tolchin , '' Safire says . Tolchin , 65 , who has won the Everett Dirksen Award for congressional reporting , plans to hire 24 mostly young reporters and emphasize investigative reporting . Big newspapers , he says , `` tend to do the stories du jour-welfare reform , health care . But there 's a whole lot that goes on there that is absolutely , totally uncovered . There are a zillion things happening up there . '' Tolchin noted that Rep. Gary Ackerman , D-N.Y. , is a major stockholder in the firm , News Communications Inc. , but says Finkelstein has promised him `` full editorial control . '' Capitol Hill is increasingly seen as an advertising bonanza as more companies and lobbying groups try to influence lawmakers and their staffs . Roll Call , which gives away more than two-thirds of its 15,000 copies , urges advertisers to `` send your message to Congress in Roll Call . '' Finkelstein says his firm is investing several million dollars . `` You never know in business , but my instincts are usually right . I think it 's an untapped market , '' he says . But , he adds , `` I don't know Washington at all . It 's Marty 's show . '' Robert Merry , Congressional Quarterly 's executive editor , is more skeptical : `` It 's a marvelous little market , as Roll Call has proved , but I have to wonder whether the market is big enough for two players . '' -0- Time magazine is getting into the daily news business for the first time in 60 years . The magazine , which is now available through America Online , will feed eight to 12 news stories and a stock market summary to the computerized service each evening . Time 's existing staff will report and write the updates , which begin this week . Time spokesman Robert Pondiscio says an average of 60,000 to 70,000 people are downloading Time but that most check in only once a week . `` This is a way to bring readership up the rest of the week and get in on the ground floor of the new technology , '' he says . The New York Times has discovered that it 's hard to be hip . Styles of the Times , the paper 's two-year-old attempt to plug into the youth culture , is losing its separate Sunday perch and will be folded inside the Metro section . This will bring Styles both production savings and later deadlines , but means the section front can no longer be printed in color . Styles , which has been through four editors in its brief existence , has struggled to find an identity while exploring the world of downtown parties , haute fashion and pop culture . Consciously pitched to twentysomething readers , its features have ranged from `` The Arm Fetish '' to Barney the dinosaur , from Hugh Hefner to John McEnroe 's SoHo gallery . `` Baysie Wightman is a woman in search of hip feet , '' a Styles story began Sunday . `` She often finds them in the clubs of New York , Tokyo and London , in the rock-and-roll bars of Seattle and Portland .. . . ' ' `` It just never jelled , '' says James Ledbetter , the Village Voice media columnist . `` The Times never knew what it wanted out of the section . Some of the things it covered homosexual lifestyles , street culture made people at the top of the corporation uncomfortable . '' `` We remain committed to presenting lifestyle news , which has a very loyal following , '' Publisher Arthur Sulzberger Jr. said in a statement . An editor in the Styles section said the staff was `` under orders '' to refer all calls to the PR department . Spokeswoman Nancy Nielsen says such features as `` The Night , '' `` Thing '' and `` Surfacing '' will be dropped . She says production costs are `` the overriding factor '' in downgrading Styles , and denies that the paper has failed at being hip . `` I know a lot of hip people who read the Times , '' she says . BRUSSELS , Belgium Russia proposed Wednesday beginning broad talks with NATO on a wide range of issues , from nuclear proliferation to the environment beyond its latest decision to join the Partnership for Peace program . The plan , unveiled at a NATO-sponsored meeting by Russian Defense Minister Pavel S. Grachev , appeared to be aimed partly at domestic consumption , to show hard-liners at home that Russia is still holding its own in dealing with the West . Grachev did not make his proposal a condition for Russia joining the Partnership for Peace program , which was set up by the North Atlantic Treaty Organization five months ago to provide an opportunity for closer links with former East Bloc countries . The Russians , who submitted their preliminary application for the program Tuesday , still are expected to join formally as early as June , at a meeting of NATO foreign ministers scheduled to be held in Istanbul , Turkey . Even so , the Western response to Grachev was lukewarm at best . Although the NATO defense ministers seemed relieved that Russia had not set conditions for its entry into the program , they seemed cool to the notion of broader talks . U.S. . Defense Secretary William J. Perry , when asked about the plan at a news conference later , said only that what Grachev was proposing was `` set up along different parameters '' than the Partnership for Peace program . He declined to comment on the substance of the request . Western officials said they still are not sure just how NATO would respond to the proposal . Besides proliferation and the environment , Grachev listed defense conversion and disarmament as possible topics in any broader talks . Wednesday 's session marked the first time that the NATO defense ministers and their counterparts from those countries in the Partnership for Peace program have met as a group . So far , 18 governments , representing east European and ex-Soviet countries , have signed up . Russia , assuming that it acts on its intention to join next month , would be the 19th . Perry , noting that for most of its existence NATO had been devoted to defending the West against the now-defunct Warsaw Pact , called Tuesday 's session `` a major step in removing the dividing line between East and West . '' Although Russia submitted its initial `` protocol '' Tuesday , Western defense ministers seemed encouraged that Grachev himself attended the entire Brussels meeting . The group later went to Mons , Belgium , to tour a new Partnership for Peace center . Until this week , Western officials had feared that Russia might seek some sort of special status as a condition for joining the program leading to worries among some east Europeans that it was trying to dominate the group . But Grachev made it clear Wednesday that Moscow would not press such demands as a condition for membership in the program . `` We are not setting any preconditions for joining , '' he told reporters . He also announced that as part of its new role in the Partnership for Peace program , Russia would be willing to join NATO forces in a wide variety of operations , from peacekeeping duties to joint military exercises . ( Optional add end ) In that connection , the United States and Russia announced Tuesday that they will go ahead with previous plans to hold joint military exercises this summer , despite indications earlier that they might be canceled . In outlining his proposal for broader consultations between Russia and NATO , Grachev argued that existing talks are proving inadequate for the job , and that Russia and the West need a new vehicle for widening their current agenda . While praising the Partnership for Peace program as a `` first step '' in bringing the two sides closer , he said it was `` not the complete answer to the reality of the new epoch . '' `` Russia is prepared for the creation of a real and full strategic partnership with NATO , '' Grachev declared . He called his plan `` a practical step on the road to the formation of a system of collective security . '' Although Grachev 's proposal for broader talks was not likely to upset existing Western diplomatic machinery , analysts said it has the potential to turn NATO into a political forum well beyond its historic role as a military alliance . WASHINGTON Pretend for a moment that Michael Dukakis took off for Zurich three days after he lost the '88 election . Suppose he announced he was going to become a Swiss citizen . Imagine further Dukakis saying the policies of the newly elected George Bush disgusted him , and that other nations should impose sanctions against the United States . Improbable as such a scenario might sound , it nevertheless strongly resembles the behavior of Mario Vargas Llosa . The novelist ran for the presidency of Peru in 1990 as a reluctant savior , the outsider who would rescue the country from terrorism , bankruptcy and despair . `` I thought you could do politics differently , '' he says . But politics proved inflexible , and nasty to boot . Vargas Llosa was viewed as too rich , too white and too elitist in a country where the electorate is overwhelmingly poor and dark . `` I was a complete failure , '' confesses the writer , who won only a third of the vote . `` The election culminated in a new dictatorship in Peru . It 's grotesque . '' Vargas Llosa is now in exile . He spent the spring teaching at Georgetown University here , trying to show students that literature is `` intimately related to life . '' It 's certainly true in his case . Rarely do literature and life become so closely interwoven . Vargas Llosa 's novels and journalism brought him to the brink of the presidency , but probably prevented him from winning it . In a sense , literature betrayed him . Novels may explain and reflect and enhance life , but ultimately they 're much simpler to control especially if you 're the one writing them . The real world , on the other hand , fights back . Now that he 's learned his lesson , Vargas Llosa doesn't want to be president of Peru anymore . Sometimes it seems he doesn't even want to be Peruvian . `` I may return to Peru , I may not , '' he says . `` But not in the immediate future , that 's for sure . '' Not , in other words , while Alberto Fujimori professor turned president turned strongman wields dictatorial control . In the meantime , Vargas Llosa is campaigning for a cutoff of all forms of foreign aid except humanitarian , saying rights abuses in Peru demand drastic action . This has cost him some of his remaining friends in the country . Others were dismayed when he asked Spain last year for dual citizenship , a step he says he was forced to take after harassment and threats by the Peruvian military . Says the novelist : `` I don't know if I 'm the most hated person in Peru . I think Fujimori 's more hated than myself . '' His wife , Patricia , isn't so sure . `` I 'd have to see the polls , '' she says with a laugh . In his autobiography , just issued here as `` A Fish in the Water , '' the writer admits : `` Perhaps saying that I love my country is not true . I often loathe it . '' -0- The youngest of the so-called `` Boom '' writers to emerge from Latin America into international prominence during the '60s , Vargas Llosa , now 58 , is one of the few to reject the fantastical style of magic realism . His masterpiece , the 1981 epic `` The War of the End of the World '' based on a 19th-century uprising in northern Brazil is as solidly built as anything by Stendhal or Tolstoy , the masters with which it deserves comparison . Nearly all his other fiction is set in Peru . `` Aunt Julia and the Scriptwriter '' is a marvelous comic tale of a young man married to his aunt ( at 19 , Vargas Llosa wed 32-year-old Julia Urquidi , his uncle 's wife 's sister . They were divorced nine years later ) . These books and many others , plus countless articles , were written during a period of self-imposed exile that began in 1958 , when the writer received a scholarship to study in Madrid , and lasted for most of the next three decades . But if exile , as Paredes Castro says , is a defining characteristic of the greatest Peruvian intellectuals , it doesn't fit into the basic resume of politicians in Peru or anywhere else . Compounding his troubles as a candidate was his political identity . Just as he 's one of the few realists among Latin American writers , he 's also one of the few who are not leftists . To his enemies , this usually gets translated into : He 's not a democrat . `` If you 're a Latin American writer , '' Vargas Llosa complains , `` you 're immediately labeled . If you 're not a revolutionary , you 're a reactionary . '' Ronald Wright , a Canadian who has written extensively about Peru , is one of Vargas Llosa 's most caustic critics . `` He either was running as an ego trip , or he was trying to gain material to write about . '' Wright cites an anti-Vargas Llosa slogan he saw emblazoned on a wall during the campaign : `` Peru is not a novel . '' Even the writer 's wife has questioned his intentions . She once told her husband he was drawn to the presidency less for idealistic reasons than by the prospect of `` writing the great novel in real life . '' There you have it : isolated by his artistic temperament , alienated from the left , full of the sort of despair and yearning for his country that politicians learn never to express , and criticized for impure motives . The surprise isn't his failure to be elected ; it 's that he got , in the end , 34 percent of the vote . Fujimori instituted financial reforms , but in April 1992 he closed the Congress and the courts and suspended the constitution . The fact that these actions have been generally popular hasn't changed Vargas Llosa 's mind . His basic argument : Destroying democracy in order to improve the welfare of the people is a horrible idea . `` What is happening now in Peru is that you have economic reforms , which are good , and at the same time you have monstrous crimes , terrible abuses in human rights , '' he says , specifically referring to the abduction of nine students and a teacher in July 1992 . Suspected of being collaborators with the Shining Path terrorists , all 10 were shot in the back of the head , their bodies thrown into an unmarked grave . Anne Manuel , acting director of Human Rights Watch/Americas , confirms that `` the situation in Peru after Fujimori 's self-imposed coup has worsened dramatically . Hundreds of people are being accused of terrorism and imprisoned for life based on little or no evidence . '' `` Torture without inflation ? That 's what we want for Latin America ? Human rights crimes with open markets ? We have the right to demand from Latin America the same standards that the United States expects from its own society and its own politicians . '' Maybe , for his sake , it 's better he lost . He 's told that everyone interviewed for this story , no matter how withering his opinion of Vargas Llosa personally or politically , said he was a great novelist . A delighted laugh . `` A great novelist ! This is already something , you know ? '' WASHINGTON Mario Vargas Llosa , who has been Distinguished Writer in Residence at Georgetown University this past semester , and his wife Patricia rented a furnished town house on the edge of the university . Besides some books , the only personal touch is some family photos . There 's a particularly charming snap of the couple and their three children : Gonzalo , who works with the United Nations in Pakistan ; Alvaro , Op-Ed page editor for the Miami Herald 's Spanish-language edition ; and Morgana , a student at the London School of Economics . No such happy photos exist of Vargas Llosa 's own childhood . His just-released autobiography `` A Fish in the Water '' reveals that underneath his suave air was a hardscrabble , semi-desperate youth . His father , Ernesto Vargas , abandoned his wife , Dora , when she was five months pregnant with the boy . For the first 11 years of Mario 's life he believed his father was dead . Later , when the couple reunited , he merely wished it . Sometimes Ernesto beat his wife ; every so often he beat his son . The paradox is , if Ernesto hadn't been so opposed to his son 's literary vocation writing was something homosexuals did ; besides , how could you make a living at it ? Mario wouldn't have persevered . `` He sent me to a military school because he thought that was a good antidote against literature , and he gave me through this experience the raw material for my first novel which was so successful I was able to become a writer . '' After that , when it came to his own children , he knew just what to do . `` I renounced any kind of authority with them , '' he says blandly . `` My wife took total control . She was the authoritarian , so they love me ! I was the most stupidly passive father in history , so terrified was I that they could feel about their father the way I feel about mine . '' WASHINGTON Right now , Mary Chapin Carpenter 's favorite song is one nobody has written yet . `` Off the Road Again . '' After `` 18 months of being out there all the time touring , '' Carpenter is taking serious time off for the first time in five years . Actually , when her tour ended in November , she was just going to hibernate through the winter and stir awake in the spring . But in January Carpenter decided `` no more in '94 . '' `` I feel like I 'm just starting to get used to it , '' she said last week over coffee at an Alexandria , Va. , cafe . `` Now it 's great to call a friend on a Saturday night and be able to go out and have dinner , as opposed to ` Well , I have to work tonight .. . and I 'm across the country. ' ' ' Carpenter seems to have reacted to her success with a level head . For instance , wearing jeans and a sweat shirt , Carpenter still looks more the down-to-earth singer-songwriter than the star whose latest album , `` Come On Come On , '' has sold 2.2 million copies and produced seven hit singles , including the No. 1 country hit `` He Thinks He 'll Keep Her . '' `` That notion of people changing is imposed on you by other people , '' scoffs Carpenter , though she concedes that `` there 's elements of my life that have changed , and obligations . '' For one thing , she now lives in Northern Virginia , convenient to National Airport . Carpenter , who recently set a record with three consecutive Grammys as top female country vocalist , did just buy a house in Nashville `` I was going down so much and hotel stuff was getting kind of old , '' she says . `` It 's an experiment like a second home so it 's not like I 'm just working down there but this is where I live . I feel like I have the best of both worlds . '' Carpenter 's producer and longtime musical partner , John Jennings , has moved down to Nashville full time . `` There 's just so many things you can do when you 're touring , '' Carpenter explains . `` This is the year to do a lot of things I haven't been able to do . '' Right now , she 's keeping mum on details . Meanwhile , Carpenter 's new single is titled `` I Take My Chances . '' Of the seven singles from `` Come On Come On , '' have gone Top 10 and two Top 5 . This is astounding , since the album has been out 97 weeks and remains in the Top 100 . `` It 's got great shelf life ! '' says Carpenter , as much with amazement as pleasure . As for the album 's double-platinum status rare in country , even rarer among women artists Carpenter can only say : `` Unbelievable . '' Proving that time off is not a synonym for vacation , Carpenter will soon start on her new album , due out at the end of September . It will feature all originals , reflecting some of her `` free time . '' Only one song is old `` Stones in the Road , '' which Joan Baez cut for her last album after hearing Carpenter 's studio recording . At the request of Columbia Records , citing confusion , Carpenter agreed to separate Mary and Chapin , hyphenated all her 36 years . `` But they have visiting rights , '' says their surname . `` God bless people who don't proofread . I know they 'll get back together again . '' Carpenter concedes , though , that the punctuation has been `` the bane of my existence . One writer in Ohio wasn't sure , and put hyphens between all three names . And when your own record company doesn't know what the deal is , you know you 're in trouble ! '' WASHINGTON Firms that tap into an estimated $ 105 billion a year in fees for counseling federal workers on retirement planning , sensitivity training or estimating the costs of proposed regulations might have a tougher time getting work under a bill introduced Wednesday . Del . Eleanor Holmes Norton , D-D.C. , proposed legislation that would shed light on what she calls the `` shadow government '' of contractors and make it tougher for agencies to disguise costs by replacing civil service with consultants . It is the sort of thing that will unnerve Beltway Bandits the disparaging nickname for corporations , think tanks , experts and mom-and-pop consulting practices . The firms are often founded or staffed by former feds . Consultants include the proverbial smooth-talking expert who borrows your watch and charges you $ 50 to tell you the time and specialized groups that provide complex and necessary data at a lower cost and with less political spin than the government . The General Accounting Office recently said about half the contracts it studied could have been done better or at less cost by federal employees . Consultants can save taxpayers a bundle by rounding up experts to do quick , accurate studies without creating a permanent bureaucracy that qualifies for benefits and lifetime pensions . But they also can be costly by marketing services that aren't vital to the national interest or that indulge the pet project , peeve or fantasy of a division chief or political appointee who may have a brother-in-law contractor or who may be looking for future employment . Norton says contractors are often invisible and unsupervised . Last week she proposed cutting $ 1.9 billion from such personal service contracts . The savings would fund full national and locality raises next January for white-collar federal workers . President Clinton has proposed a 1.6 percent raise , although government data indicates workers are due an across-the-board 2.6 percent national increase plus locality adjustments that could range from 2 percent to 4 percent depending on hometown private salaries . Norton 's new bills would bar agencies from contracting out work performed by employees given buyouts to quit or retire and would set up guidelines that agencies must use to justify retaining outside contractors . It would also assure an accurate headcount on contractors with its annual reporting to Congress . If the latter becomes law , some agency is certain to hire a contractor to count its contractors . -0- The Federal Retirement Thrift Investment Board says Tuesday 's Federal Diary item about the tax-deferred thrift savings plan underestimated the number of participants . About 75 percent of the employees in the new Federal Employees Retirement System and 44 percent of those under the old Civil Service Retirement System are contributing to the savings plan . But all FERS employees , whether or not they contribute , have accounts thanks to an automatic employer contribution of 1 percent of pay . The savings plan is now worth more than $ 22 billion , and the average CSRS contributors account is $ 10,092 . The average FERS contributors ' account is $ 15,043 , and the average account for noncontributing FERS employees is $ 1,679 . Retirees cannot join the savings plan or contribute to it . But workers who have accounts when they retire can remain in the savings plan subject to age rules set by the IRS . BRUSSELS , Beligum Russian Defense Minister Pavel Grachev called Wednesday for the creation of a `` full-blooded strategic relationship '' between his country and the Western military alliance that was formed to contain its territorial ambitions . During a meeting with his counterparts from 16 NATO nations and Russia 's former Warsaw Pact allies in Eastern Europe , Grachev reiterated Moscow 's readiness to join , with no conditions attached , the NATO program to enhance military cooperation with its former enemies that is known as the Partnership for Peace . But Grachev emphasized that the partnership was `` not a complete answer , but only a first step '' toward dealing with the post-Cold War security environment in Europe . He said Russia 's status as Europe 's biggest nuclear power requires a broader `` consultative mechanism '' with NATO that would encompass disarmament , conversion of defense industries and global threats such as terrorism , nuclear proliferation and environmental pollution . While expressing some caution about Russia 's ambitions to create a special relationship with the Western alliance , NATO ministers warmly welcomed Moscow 's willingness to join the partnership program after months of ambivalent and contradictory statements . U.S. . Defense Secretary William J. Perry praised the `` historic nature '' of the meeting with his Russian counterpart and said `` we are very pleased that he announced the unconditional decision for joining Partnership for Peace . '' But several NATO officials were less enthusiastic about Grachev 's proposal to expand the relationship into areas not covered under the terms of the military partnership . One alliance official said Grachev appeared to be proposing that Russia become a virtual member of NATO , something that would not be acceptable to most member nations . Before the session , senior NATO officials said they feared Grachev would make unacceptable political demands that would scuttle hopes for a Russian role in the partnership . But they said he gave everyone `` a pleasant surprise '' by producing a lengthy document that included a long list of projects , including joint efforts at peacekeeping , technical training , military field exercises and strategic planning . `` It 's looking very good , '' said British Defense Minister Malcolm Rifkind . `` Russia clearly wants to play a constructive role working with NATO on matters of common interest . But there will be no right for Russia to take part in NATO 's decision making . '' Germany 's Volker Ruehe said `` we are definitely on the right track . Parternship for Peace is a common position for everybody , but beyond that there is scope for a partnership between Russia and NATO . But it still needs to be worked out . '' The Russian defense minister gave no indication when his country would join the program , which was formally launched by NATO leaders in January as a way to satisfy demands from East European countries for a closer security relationship with the West without fully incorporating them into the alliance . A total of 18 countries from Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union have now signed up for the program . Grachev insisted that Russia is not seeking `` a warmer place in the sun '' than NATO 's other partners to the east , but merely a relationship `` adequate to its weight '' as a nuclear superpower with territory stretching from Europe to the Pacific Ocean . `` Russia has an interest in wider forms of cooperation than envisaged in this program , '' Grachev said . `` What we suggest is not to limit the sphere of partnership , but to enrich it with cooperation between Russia and NATO , not only in military areas but on other important issues . '' In calling for a new strategic relationship with the Western alliance , Grachev noted that many Russians still fear the North Atlantic Treaty Organization as a hostile military alliance that treated Russia as an enemy . He said such `` bloc-oriented perceptions '' must be surmounted by enhanced cooperation or they would eventually trigger a new arms race in Europe . In spelling out Russia 's new military doctrine , Grachev made clear to the Western ministers that Moscow still envisions the partnership chiefly as a stepping stone to a new `` collective security system in Europe . '' He said Russia still regards the 53-nation Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe as the basis for this system , in which NATO would play a subordinate role . Grachev acknowledged that Russia wants to strengthen the Commonwealth of Independent States , the loose confederation of republics that came into being after the breakup of the Soviet Union . He said Russia 's military presence in some republics known as its `` near abroad '' should be seen in terms of `` peacekeeping objectives '' that pose no security threat to its neighbors . In response , Perry said any regional peacekeeping role should be carried out through a U.N. mandate and that `` Russia 's role should be kept compatible '' with goals approved by the U.N. . Security Council . NON-FICTION `` A VALLEY IN ITALY : The Many Seasons of a Villa in Umbria , '' by Lisa St. Aubin De Teran ( HarperCollins : $ 21 , 224 pp . ) One of the grand difficulties accompanying books about people who find the perfect fixer-upper villa in some gorgeous , flavorful but not too remote part of the world is that you must hate them with all your heart . The other , more interesting problem is : How they fit into the culture they invade and admire ? What do they give back ? Are their observations evidence that they travel with their own culture and experience keeping them afloat and apart like water wings ? Or are they porous and dignified in their differentness ? Having heaped so many caveats on these obnoxious pilgrims , let me now say that Lisa St. Aubin de Teran gets it right . Sure , she 's a bit of a poseur , `` instructed in the art of buying houses by Ted Hughes , our Poet Laureate , who explained to me that first I should find the house I wanted and then I should buy it , and only later worry about how to pay for it , '' and in our American culture delusions of grandeur , visions of loggias and balustrades and cantilevered thises and thats can be off-putting . You 're supposed to know your place and what you can afford and keep your ego in check . Lisa St. Aubin de Teran takes her two children ; 6-year-boy Allie , and 15-year-old future super-model `` the child Iseult '' with her to set up house in the Villa Orsola in the little village of San Orsela in the Umbrian hills . Her Scottish painter husband comes later . She has patience and imagination and a wonderful sense of humor . She has a kind of courage and equanimity , and her observations of her own cast of characters is gracious and generous and respectful . After visiting this long with her , it was hard to leave a compliment to any hostess ( or writer ) . `` VOICE LESSONS : On Becoming A Woman Writer , '' by Nancy Mairs ( Beacon , $ 15 , 166 pp . ) Where would we be without Nancy Mairs , vigilant chronicler of a woman 's life , a writer 's life ? We 'd be stuck trying to convert the five hundred pounds a year Virginia Woolf told us we 'd need to write into billable hours , like immoral lawyers calculating backward , that 's where . It has been said already that she is fearless , can write about anything : depression , sex , adultery , religion and now , now writing ( in true life order of degree of risk ) . Which means that these essays look more to the the stories writers write ( in particular , Virginia Woolf , Montaigne , and Hele ne Cixous , among others ) , the text , than they do to immediate life experience , as in Mairs ' other books . `` What has interested me particularly , '' she writes , `` is the crucial role that learning to decipher texts both my own experiences and the works of other writers has played in my writerly evolution . '' Often asked , `` How did you find your voice ? '' Mairs responds : `` In the beginning was the Word . Not me . And the question , properly phrased , should be asked of my voice : How did you find ( devise , invent , contrive ) your Nancy ? '' This may seem rhetorical , out of context , but it relieves an enormous burden to find one 's voice , as distinct from others ' and from the experience of others ; a voice with some critical authority and a great deal of distance from real-life suffering a quest Mairs believes is uniquely male in nature . Having grown up believing that men could fill emptiness in women , for a long time Mairs wrote , she tells us , `` out of yearning . '' Filling voids with men is replaced , as she grows older and more confident ( with the help of other women , writers and friends ) , by filling voids with ideas , bringing the same ardor to this yearning as to the first : `` I could feel them in my flesh , quickening my breath , itching my fingers. .. . ' ' As always , Mairs ' revelations and transformations will translate more easily for some readers than others , but her resolve and her ability to turn a once haphazard path into a clear evolution ( her own ) is an inspiration . `` This is the body , '' she writes , `` who works here . '' `` BALSAMROOT : A Memoir , '' by Mary Clearman Blew ( Viking , $ 20.95 , 212 pp . ) Mary Clearman Blew , author of `` All But the Waltz , '' and two short story collections , is on many people 's best Western writing short list . Born and raised in Montana , much of her writing ferrets out the Montana history and landscape in her own life experiences ; characters from her youth and ancestry are analyzed for the choices they made with an eye to the choices she 's making . In this book she ponders her relationship to a quickly aging and newly dependent aunt , as well as an estranged and angry daughter . Efforts to honor the family code : `` Never speak aloud of what you feel deeply , '' make these urgent tasks somewhat difficult and a little frustrating for the reader . When you feel the urge to do group therapy , it 's time to focus on the fine writing ; on the plant and animal life in the book ; on the wonderful terse evocation of her maiden aunt 's one love affair . `` THE COAST OF SUMMER : Sailing New England Waters From Shelter Island to Cape Cod , '' by Anthony Bailey ( HarperCollins , $ 23 , 368 pp . ) Unlike the other fantasies on this page , journeys backward , forwards and sideways , varying in expense and imagination , this is one that remains fairly well cloistered from reality . Sailing yachts along the coast of New England for entire summers is not something you can recommend to people in an offhanded way . It seems even more difficult than moving your family to a village in Umbria . But it 's a culture , with a language , and the nostalgia is somewhat contagious , even if the yearning is downright unproductive . Don't let me burst your bubble , let 's let the author , in this comment about class on Fisher 's Island ( affectionately known as `` Fishers '' ) do it himself : `` the local class structure is evident in physiognomy , I decide ( perhaps quite unjustly ) . '' The very need for the parenthetical should clue you in . `` Messing about in boats '' needn't be so exclusive . FICTION `` Simple Prayers , '' by Michael Golding , Warner Books , $ 17.95 , 304 pp . ) This delightful , exotic fable , part `` Tempest '' and part `` Decameron '' is so lavish , so dirt-rich and so colorful its like a meal in the open air , laid out on brocade , under the pine and cypress looking out at the ocean . Part of what gives the writing its infallible charm is the fact that every fifth word is Italian , some names of places or food , some just sprinkled generously over the meal . This may annoy some people but that would be churlish . `` Terra del Pozzo di Luna , campanili , mezzogiorno , Riva di Pignoli '' are hardly words to shut a reader out . The characters , all living side by side with their daily miracles and potions and transfigurations , are , for the most part , lovable gnomes and gargoyles ( the only really malicious character is the black death ) . Things start going wrong on the little island in the Venice lagoon , Riva di Pignoli , like objects tossed around before a storm , like the rumbling before an earthquake . This is a world in which climate and weather are affected by the passions and disappointments of individuals , all of which are threatened by the approaching plague . Their prayers may be simple , but the cacophony of their daily lives is fascinating . WASHINGTON President Clinton 's health plan gained a second toehold in its climb toward the House floor Wednesday , as a House Education and Labor subcommittee approved a modified version on a 17-to-10 party-line vote . `` This is the president 's second win in a row , '' said a jubilant Rep. Pat Williams , D-Mont. , chairman of the labor-management subcommittee , noting that a Clinton-like bill also won approval in a House Ways and Means subcommittee a month ago . The Education and Labor subcommittee bill incorporates several key elements of President Clinton 's plan : universal insurance coverage , allowing people to continue purchasing private health insurance , a guaranteed choice of health plans , benefits provided through the workplace , and cost controls . But the Williams subcommitee has a far-larger liberal Democratic majority than most other committees and Congress as a whole , and the president 's bill is expected to experience tougher sledding in the future . Senior subcommittee Republican Marge Roukema , R-N.J. , said the Williams plan was unacceptable because of its heavy reliance on federal controls and the high cost of the benefits added on by the committee . In one of the most dramatic moments in the month-long drafting process , Williams ' subcommittee voted to retain Clinton 's requirement that health insurers pay for abortions . Then , over several days , the committee added preventive health benefits , mental health , adult dental care , new cancer screening and rural health benefits to Clinton 's proposal . Williams said the net cost of the subcommittee 's added provisions would be $ 6 billion a year . Some of the added costs would come from increasing subsidies to small firms that otherwise would face difficulty buying health insurance for their workers . The subcommittee lacks jurisdiction over taxes , and therefore , many of the toughest issues in health reform were not addressed . Under the Williams bill , employers would have to pay 80 percent of the cost of insurance premiums for their workers . However , small business groups are fiercely opposed to this so-called `` employer mandate , '' and the subcommittee voted to limit the premium for small firms . Employers with fewer than 25 workers and average wages of less than $ 12,000 a year would be required to pay 2 percent of their payroll costs toward insurance for their workers , rather than the 3.5 percent proposed by Clinton . A firm paying the minimum wage of $ 4.25 an hour , Williams said , would have added expenses of 8.5 cents an hour . Other small firms would also be helped by `` caps '' on their premium payments . Federal subsidies would help cover the rest of premium costs . The bill includes insurance reform . Charging people more for insurance because of their health status or age or excluding them altogether would not be allowed . Imsurers would have to accept all applicants , and individuals with incomes under 200 percent of the poverty line would receive special government subsidies to help cover any premiums due . WASHINGTON Iraq 's senior diplomat in Washington has been expelled from the United States for repeated violations of the agreement that allows Iraq to maintain a diplomatic presence here , State Department officials said Wednesday . The diplomat , Adnan Malik , attempted to lobby members of Congress , sent out news releases espousing an end to the United Nations economic embargo against his country and hired and fired staff members without notifying the State Department , all actions that were specifically prohibited , the U.S. officials said . Malik 's expulsion was not announced , but the State Department confirmed the move when asked about it . Malik , who was transferred to Washington in February from Iraq 's U.N. mission , began violating the rules within days of his arrival , according to a State Department official who monitored his activities . He routinely circumvented regulations that his predecessor had scrupulously complied with for three years , the official said . `` He was attempting to function as a full-fledged diplomat '' but was permitted only to provide consular services , such as issuing visas and renewing passports of Iraqis who live in the United States , State Department spokesman Michael McCurry said . The United States and Iraq have not had diplomatic relations since the beginning of the Persian Gulf War in 1991 . As is common in such cases , the two countries permit each other to maintain limited diplomatic missions under the flags of other nations . The United States has an office in Baghdad under the flag of Poland , while the three Iraqis stationed here are under the `` protection '' of the Algerian embassy . Iraq and other nations without embassies in Washington , such as Vietnam and Cuba , have full-fledged diplomatic missions in New York . Their envoys there are allowed to operate freely , although Washington often restricts their travel outside the New York area . Once Malik arrived in Washington , however , he began `` within a week '' to violate an agreement that is `` very explicit about what the Iraqi interests section is allowed to do , '' a State Department official said . `` The second day he was here I went over this with him line by line . I stressed that this was not a full diplomatic mission , it was a protecting power arrangement and he was specifically forbidden to engage in political activity , '' the State Department official said . `` He said , ` I understand , I am a professional diplomat. ' ' ' But he began within days to violate the agreement , leasing property without State Department approval , hiring and firing staff without notifying the department and attempting to communicate with Congress when the agreement specified he could communicate only through three offices at State , the official said . Malik 's wife and children have been allowed to remain in New York until the end of the school year , according to the State Department . Iraq is free to replace him here but has not done so . WASHINGTON A sharply divided Senate Wednesday raked the lingering embers of controversy over the United States ' involvement in the Vietnam War two decades ago as it remained deadlocked over the ambassadorial nomination of former anti-war activist Sam W. Brown Jr. . For the second day in a row , Brown 's supporters failed to break a Republican-led filibuster against giving ambassadorial rank to Brown as head of the U.S. delegation to the Vienna-based Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe . They picked up two votes since Tuesday but , with the Senate dividing 56 to 42 Wednesday in favor of ending the delaying tactics , they remained four short of the 60 votes necessary to invoke cloture and force the issue to a vote . Sen. John F. Kerry , D-Mass. , who helped lead the fight for Brown 's confirmation , said another vote to end the filibuster is possible after Congress returns June 7 from its Memorial Day recess . If at least one more Republican breaks ranks , three Democrats of the four who voted to sustain the filibuster are prepared to switch and bring the issue to a vote , Kerry said . Democrats who voted Wednesday against ending the filibuster were Armed Services Committee Chairman Sam Nunn , Ga. , and Sens. J. James Exon , Neb. , Bob Kerrey , Neb. , and Ben Nighthorse Campbell , Colo . Sen. Hank Brown , R-Colo. , who led the opposition to Brown , said he believed another vote was unlikely because , even if the filibuster is broken , the nomination is in serious trouble . He claimed at least 53 `` clearly committed votes '' against confirmation . Sam Brown 's appointment as head of the U.S. delegation to the CSCE , which promotes security and human rights in Europe , is not subject to Senate approval . But , without Senate confirmation , he will not have status as an ambassador , a rank enjoyed by his predecessors and his European counterparts in the CSCE . If the Senate rejects the nomination , Clinton would have to decide whether to keep Brown on the job without ambassadorial status , Kerry said . `` He can do the job without it , '' Kerry added . Wednesday 's debate echoed with many of the bitter feelings that characterized America 's debate over the Vietnam War , with Republicans attacking Brown 's views and his lack of military experience and Democrats defending his record as a principled crusader . Brown `` opposed actions to block communism '' and should not now be put in a position to `` deal with the world after communism , '' argued Sen. Bob Smith , R-N.H. , accusing the administration of slighting veterans in favor of war protesters . `` The United States Senate should not lynch a nominee on the basis of his exercise of his constitutional rights , '' contended Kerry , describing Brown as someone who always worked `` within the system '' and eventually went on to become `` a full-fledged American capitalist .. . the vice president of a shoe company . '' A key point of dispute which Republicans emblazoned in large letters on a chart for the television cameras was a 1977 interview in Penthouse magazine that quoted Brown as saying , `` I take second place to no one in my hatred of the intelligence agencies . '' Kerry quoted Brown as saying the quotation `` does not accurately reflect his views now or then '' and was made in reference to a controversy at the time over CIA involvement with the Peace Corps , which he oversaw as head of the ACTION in the late 1970s . But Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison , R-Texas , denounced it as an expression of `` radical '' views , and Kerrey later told a reporter that the comment about intelligence agencies was a major factor in his vote against cloture . NAIROBI , Kenya Rwanda 's battered army in the capital , Kigali , regrouped Wednesday and exchanged heavy mortar fire into the evening with rebel guerrillas who captured a strategic government position two days ago , U.N. officials reported . The fighting , which shattered a truce declared for the visit of a senior U.N. envoy , again prevented relief supplies from being flown into the capital and the U.N. officials expressed fears that shortages of food and medicine had become critical . One of the mortar rounds , apparently fired by rebels of the Rwanda Patriotic Front , hit a Red Cross hospital in the government-controlled section of Kigali , killing two Rwandan nurses , the officials said . Rebels also pounded army positions near the defense ministry while the army lobbed shell after shell on rebel forces on the outskirts of the city . On Monday , the Tutsi-dominated rebels who say they are fighting a war of liberation against the predominantly Hutu government had mounted a three-pronged attack and captured the Kanombe army camp overlooking the airport . The three battalions of defenders fled and some diplomatic observers in Nairobi believed that the rebels would soon win the battle for Kigali . But in other African wars in Liberia , Angola and Somalia , for example armies that may have wilted in the countryside have been willing to fight fiercely to defend their capitals . The reason is particularly clear in Rwanda : The government , the military , communications and transportation facilities are centralized in the capital ; without the capital , the government would have little left worth fighting for . The fighting Wednesday further delayed the arrival of a 5,500-man , all-African peacekeeping force under U.N. command . The United Nations ' special envoy , Iqbal Riza , is in Kigali trying to persuade both sides to allow deployment of the troops and the United Nations to take control of the airport . But Riza 's talks may be premature because only three African nations Ethiopia , Ghana and Senegal have agreed to participate in the force . Their commitment totals only 2,100 soldiers . ( Optional add end ) Riza traveled in an armored vehicle through the fighting on the western edge of the city to the seat of the interim government in Gitarama , 25 miles southwest of Kigali , in hopes of holding talks Thursday with the rebels in Mulindi , a rebel stronghold just south of the Ugandan border . Western diplomats in east Africa are not optimistic about the chances for a lasting negotiated political settlement , because rebel commanders appear to want nothing less than a military victory that will put them in position to bargain for a large share of power , even though the Tutsis amount to only 9 percent of the population . At the same time , most moderate government officials who favored conciliation between the majority Hutus and minority Tutsis had been killed and the surviving officials now at Gitarama represent the extremist wing . This element appears to support the eradication of the Tutsis and is widely believed to be responsible for the widespread massacres that have claimed the lives of as many as 200,000 Rwandans , most of them Tutsis , since April 6 . The fighting is slowly turning Kigali into a ghost town and is depopulating the countryside . Only about 50,000 people from Kigali 's population of 300,000 remain , U.N. officials said , and wide belts of villages in eastern Rwanda have been abandoned . The United Nations has set up 15 camps in neighboring Tanzania , Uganda and Zaire for the estimated two million Rwandans who are now homeless . Jay Leno says he didn't realize , until he brought `` The Tonight Show '' to the Big Apple last week , that he has been aping Johnny Carson 's program and not being himself ever since he took over for the latter two years ago . `` I 've been doing Johnny 's show , '' Leno told NBC affiliates this week . So Leno , who came close to a first-place tie with `` The Late Show With David Letterman '' during his week here , is having his Burbank , Calif. , set changed to look more like the one he used in New York , where his set 's atmosphere approached that of clubs where Leno spent two decades doing standup comedy . The tinier set in New York 's `` Saturday Night Live '' studios packed a smaller audience closer to Leno , who was practically next to musical director Branford Marsalis . `` The audience was half the size , but there was more energy , '' said Leno , and there was an easier give-and-take between him and Marsalis , who , in Burbank , is half a huge stage away . In any case , the Burbank set shortly will be torn apart and made to look like the one Leno used in New York . -0- In the end , it doesn't pay to be slip-and-fall artists . Those kind of folks , profiled by ABC News ' Chris Wallace on Thursday night 's `` PrimeTime Live , '' specialize in faking falls at supermarkets , convenience stores , fast-food restaurants and elsewhere . They try to bilk insurance companies with fraudulent injury claims estimated by the program to be as much as $ 20 billion a year . One of them on the air Thursday night is Garen Cooke , arrested last year in Colorado after putting in 71 claims in 16 states over 11 years . When Cooke was about to demonstrate some of his slip-and-fall secrets for the cameras , ABC lawyers insisted he sign a release , which freed the network of any liability . The ever-hopeful Cooke asked , `` Is this for a settlement ? '' Wallace replied , `` This is so there is no settlement . '' -0- Beginning June 4 , there 'll be two late-night repeats of the half-hour `` Mary Hartman , Mary Hartman '' every Saturday night on cable 's Lifetime Maybe such double exposure should be dubbed `` Mary Hartman x Four . '' WASHINGTON The magnificent retrospective of Willem de Kooning 's paintings at the National Gallery of Art throws the artist 's breathtaking achievement into high relief . More than ever , he is confirmed as the last great exemplar of a European tradition of modern art , as altered and transmogrified by his loving encounter with his adopted home . De Kooning , a Dutch emigre to the United States , transformed Parisian Cubism and European Expressionism , infusing them with a scale and a temperament distinctly American and particular to New York . Cubism and Expressionism were writ large , in dazzlingly complex images of women begun circa 1949 and in luxurious , landscape-inspired abstractions that followed half a dozen years later . The retrospective , which brings together 76 paintings on canvas , paper and board , begins in 1938 with de Kooning 's peculiar figure studies of men and women in indeterminate interiors . They seem to merge an affection for the `` little brown paintings '' of Dutch old masters with a thoroughly modern , specifically Cubist interest in constantly shifting points of view . Together , these impulses are inflected by the salutary influence of painter Arshile Gorky , his great friend , mentor and fellow immigrant ( from Armenia ) . The show concludes in 1986 with the big canvases of loose , light-filled , open interlaces of color darting through fields of tinted white . The best of them rank as an astonishing coda to an already astonishing career . The museum has mounted the retrospective on the occasion of de Kooning 's 90th birthday ; he was born in Rotterdam April 24 , 1904 , came to the United States illegally in 1926 and stopped painting in the late 1980s , when the debilitating effects of Alzheimer 's disease ended his artistic life . National Gallery curator Marla Prather , English critic and historian David Sylvester and Nicholas Serota , director of London 's Tate Gallery , have assembled a nearly flawless array of paintings to tell their tale . That rarely flagging level of quality is crucial , because the last opportunity to survey de Kooning 's work a 1983 retrospective at New York 's Whitney Museum of American Art could be described most charitably as erratic in the loans that were secured . With few notable exceptions , topped by the missing `` Pink Angels '' from circa 1945 , all the pivotal paintings are in Washington . As a result , it 's easy to follow the internal trajectory of de Kooning 's art . The most important insight de Kooning took from Cubism was his sensual articulation of the surface of a painting as a bodily metaphor . The Cubist structure on which the great , rambunctious `` Woman '' paintings rely is harnessed by de Kooning as a way to unfold the body in keeping with the two-dimensional space of painting . He had mastered the device in the vigorous , mural-like abstraction `` Excavation , '' painted for the 1950 Venice Biennale and completed while he was struggling with the newer figure paintings . Formally , in the show 's group of 14 paintings dating from 1949 to 1955 , the women are squared off , flattened out , interlocked with the surrounding environment . Raucous , funny , flirtatious and aggressive , they embody the mesmerizing fierceness of flesh and blood . De Kooning used a variety of tricks to pump up the sensuously inviting tactility of his surfaces , including his famous wet-on-wet technique of mixing salad oil in the pigment , in order to make it slithery , fluid and receptive to sustained periods of work . It didn't dry out fast . As he worked he would repeatedly scrape down the surface , leaving layered smears and traces of underpaint to show through , like insistent memories of past encounters piling up one atop the other . His paintings can look slatternly , as if they 've been around . ( Begin optional trim ) When engrossed by that gorgeously seductive dynamic , the viewer may easily forget the complicated art scene de Kooning worked in . He had been living in New York for about a decade when the influx of European modern artists fleeing Hitler arrived , and after World War II he naturally stayed . ( He still wasn't a citizen and wouldn't become one until 1962 , but he considered himself an American nonetheless . ) The volatile avant-garde context that marked the immediate postwar years in Manhattan was small , cliquish and without much public following . But as a devastated Europe lay in ruins , the sense of needing to pick up art 's fallen torch was strong . Abstract Expressionism was thus tinctured with a missionary aura . De Kooning , the European expatriate who had worked his way across the Atlantic and then jumped ship when docked at Newport News , Va. , was in part a bridge between the Old World and the New . In many ways his work embodied the span . The National Gallery has done a remarkably good job , tripping up just once at the beginning and once at the end of the exhibition . At the start a serious fault is the absence of `` Pink Angels , '' a smallish painting inspired by Picasso but marked by a voluptuous , transparent linearity wholly de Kooning 's own . Without it , you just can't make the leap from the show 's first room , with its six relatively conventional pink and ochre studies of male and female figures , to the startling second room , filled with six exciting black paintings , through which whiplash lines of white create a magical interpenetration of crystalline and biomorphic shapes . With these , de Kooning was on his way . Despite numerous entreaties , according to the National Gallery , Los Angeles collector Frederick Weisman simply would not lend `` Pink Angels . '' The second problem is the final room . In the 1980s and in his increasingly debilitated dotage de Kooning was still enthralled with the soul-shattering , life-altering possibilities for visual pleasure in painting . But the eight selected canvases are uneven at best . Especially on the heels of the knockout gallery of gorgeous pictures from 1977-78 that immediately precedes it , the erratic last room inappropriately sends you out the door with a few doubts about the claims that have been made for de Kooning 's last works . Despite these small deficiencies , the retrospective remains a superlative achievement that sets up an extravagant argument in favor of a kind of visual knowledge often erroneously dismissed as irrelevant today , but nonetheless being championed by many of our most compelling younger artists . De Kooning at 90 stands as a gorgeously convincing precedent . BRUSSELS , Belgium Russia 's Pavel S. Grachev was the perfect host Wednesday as he opened a meeting with U.S. . Defense Secretary William J. Perry. The irony of the situation only seemed to buoy his mood even more . `` It seems strange to me that I 'm welcoming you here to this building today , '' the Russian defense minister told his American counterpart , smiling at the circumstances . Perry too broke into a grin . The session over which Grachev was presiding was being held in Conference Room No. 2 at NATO headquarters , and the sign outside announced `` Russia '' for the Russian delegation . Grachev , a four-star general who made 634 parachute jumps while he was an officer in the former Soviet army , was taking the biggest leap of his career : He was here to sign Russia up for NATO as a sort of associate member for now . Moreover , the Russians were not the only military officials from the former East Bloc to rate their own suite at this week 's NATO ministerial meeting . The broad , heavily carpeted concourse that leads to NATO 's main meeting chamber was dotted with the oversized military caps of officers from 18 other one-time Communist countries . It might have been a meeting of the now-defunct Warsaw Pact , joked a local wag . The session , which followed a meeting of NATO defense ministers on Tuesday , marked the first meeting of the Partnership for Peace , an auxiliary program that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization has set up for former East Bloc countries . And for all of the joking , it was one of those days on which even the most seasoned diplomats and military officers were overcome by the sense that they were witnessing an important piece of history . `` I think everyone is sort of awed by it all , '' mused a U.S. officer who has spent his career trying to prepare for a possible confrontation with Soviet forces . `` I thought I 'd never see this come . '' To be sure , the Russians will not actually join the PfP , as it is becoming known here , until sometime in early June , when Moscow presents its final application at a meeting of NATO foreign ministers in Istanbul , Turkey . But Grachev was here this week to present formally Russia 's preliminary proposal for its terms of membership ending weeks of hot-and-cold statements from Moscow about whether the Kremlin would or would not sign up . And , to the relief of Western diplomats , he was unambiguous about reports that the Russians would insist on special conditions : `` Absolutely nyet , '' he told reporters at the opening of the session . ( Optional add end ) A mood of optimism lasted all day Wednesday . After the morning session , the NATO ministers , Grachev and the defense chiefs of the 18 Partnership for Peace member countries posed for what was deliberately dubbed a `` family portrait . '' And Ukraine 's defense minister , Vitaly Radetsky , who was scheduled to meet with Perry after the session with Grachev , refused to take offense when the American was late . `` We 'll make up for it tonight , '' he said lightheartedly . The ironies continued into the evening . After a day of bilateral meetings here in Brussels , Perry and the other ministers flew by helicopter to the Belgian city of Mons for a tour of the new building at the allies ' European headquarters that will serve as a military center for Partnership for Peace countries . The structure , which was completed in 1990 , originally was built as an evacuation center in case western Europe were invaded by the Soviet Bloc . A chunk of the fallen Berlin Wall now serves as statuary at its entrance . Pavel Grachev looked as though he were perfectly at home . WASHINGTON President Clinton Wednesday chastised Congress for trying to impose simplistic , `` bumper-sticker '' solutions on conflicts like Bosnia and he warned that Americans must learn that efforts to expand democracy 's reach sometimes will be slow and flawed . Addressing the graduating class of the U.S. . Naval Academy in Annapolis , Md. , Clinton used Bosnia as an example of a messy , complicated , post-Cold War world where there are no easy answers . An effort in Congress to end the arms embargo against the Bosnian Muslims so they can defend themselves , he said , is one of those actions `` that sound simple and painless and good '' but will not work . Doing that , he said , would `` kill the peace process , sour our relationships with our European allies '' who support the U.N.-imposed embargo , and undermine the relationship with Russia , which also supports the embargo . Lifting the embargo , he said , is part of `` the easy out of simplistic ideas that sound good on bumper stickers but that would have tragic consequences . '' Clinton , who leaves next week for the 50th anniverary commemoration of the D-Day invasion , said the sacrifices of the World War II generation produced the freedom and security that helped America win the Cold War . Today 's opportunity , he said , is that `` for the first time in history , we have the chance to expand the reach of democracy and economic progress across the whole of Europe and to the far reaches of the world . '' That task , he said , will be a long one . `` It took years after D-Day to not only end the war , but to build a lasting peace . It took decades of patience and strength and resolve to prevail in the Cold War . And as with generations going before , we must often be willing to pay the price of time , sometimes the most painful price of all , '' he said . The Cold War 's end , he said , `` lifted the lid from a cauldron of long-simmering hatreds . Now , the entire global terrain is bloody with such conflicts . '' Instead of the superpower , bipolar world that dictated America 's policies for four decades , the country now is faced with a leadership role in `` a new world threatened with instability , even abject chaos , rooted in the economic dislocations that are inherent in the change from communist to market economics , rooted in religious and ethnic battles long covered over by authoritarian regimes now gone , rooted in tribal slaughters , aggravated by environmental disaster , by abject hunger , by mass migrations. .. . ' ' Determining which conflicts in such a world merit U.S. action and at what level involves `` no magic formula '' but an assessment of `` the cumulative weight of the American interests at stake . '' Making that calibration , he said , has `` not been easy or smooth '' and may never again be . `` The world 's most tearing conflicts , in Bosnia and elsewhere , are not made in a day . And one of the most frustrating things that you have to live with .. . is that many of these conflicts will rarely submit to instant solutions . '' Clinton paid tribute to the World War II veterans who stood for recognition in the vast stadium and said to the graduating class , the grandchildren of those veterans , that their challenge `` is to remember the deeds of those who served before you , and now to build on their work '' in protecting and expanding democracy and freedom . That generational theme is expected to be a major one of the president 's week-day European tour , which includes a number of D-Day events . Clinton opened his remarks by following the tradition of granting amnesty to midshipmen for rules infractions . But he pointedly noted that covered only minor offenses . The academy was torn by a cheating scandal that resulted in the expulsion of 24 midshipmen . The president noted that problem , and the Tailhook scandal involving sexual harassment of female Navy officers , are `` troubling events , to be sure , because our military rests on honor and leadership . '' But , he said to the graduates and the Navy leadership , `` You have my confidence . You have America 's confidence . '' And as if he were commenting on his own bumpy first year in office as well , he said , `` Ultimately , the test of leadership is not constant flawlessness . Rather , it is marked by a commitment to continue always to strive for the highest standards , to learn honestly when one falls short , and to do the right thing . '' WASHINGTON Students in the poorest public schools could have access to all the books at Harvard and the treasures of libraries and museums nationwide , if , as many educators and government officials hope , American schools are given free or inexpensive access to the developing information superhighway . Some leading members of the Senate , along with Education Secretary Richard W. Riley , Wednesday urged Congress to approve a federal policy that would ensure that schools are not bypassed as cable and telephone lines are installed for the electonic highway . Riley described the superhighway as a `` seamless web of communications networks , computers , databases , and consumer electronics that will put vast amounts of information at our fingertips . '' If some schools cannot afford this technological tool because of costly user fees , it would further widen the gap between rich and poor schools , he said . A study by consumer and civil rights groups issued this week raised similar concerns about how this new technology may have the effect of widening the education and income gap between the wealthy and the poor . The information highway , a priority of the Clinton administration , is still being developed and how much it will cost users is unclear . But Riley urged Congress as it considers the Telecommunication Act of 1994 to approve a policy that mandates a `` public or educational lane on the information superhighway . '' Sen. Fritz Hollings , D-S.C. , chairman of the Senate Committee on Commerce , Science and Transportation , said he , too , was concerned that the new highway might turn into a `` toll road '' only the wealthy could ride . Sen. Bob Kerrey , D-Neb. , invited a principal and student from his home state to Wednesday 's hearing to demonstrate breakthrough educational technology being used in Nebraska . A new IBM project called `` Eduport '' is digitalizing video stored at museums and universities around the country , storing it at the University of Nebraska and then sending it , via fiber optic cable , to a public high school in Lincoln , Neb . Kathryn Piller , principal of Lincoln High , the one school in the country now using this technology , wowed the crowd in the Senate committee room by punching up on a television screen footage and audio of President Franklin D. Roosevelt delivering his 1936 `` repudiating communism speech . '' The old , black and white footage , and familiar sound of his voice , is used in the school 's American history classes . This kind of technology that can bring almost limitless information to the most remote or poor school eventually could be used by millions of students , advocates said . Students would not have to be able to afford a trip to Smithsonian or NASA or Harvard , but would have access to all the educational materials they store . `` We are not out to get rid of books , '' said Lincoln High School student Clay Ehlers . `` We are ought to get more books . '' Ehlers told the senators that he believed students can learn better , and enjoy it more , through the new technology . `` If you can see it and hear it and get it from anywhere in the world , there is nothing better . '' Linda Roberts , special adviser to Riley on technology , said some states were already making it a priority to get preferential rates for schools and libraries so that the new technology didn't become a tool only for those who could afford it . What the country did not want to see happen , she said , was for the public schools in some states to get on the highway and others to be bypassed . The days when No. 2 pencils and chalkboards are all the supplies teachers needed have slipped by , Riley said . If the United States wants to stay competitive with other nations also developing similar technology , it must give all students `` full and free acess '' to information highway , even if it is costly . CAVENDISH , Vt. . After 18 years of exile in the wooded hills of small-town Vermont , the great Russian writer and Nobel Prize winner Alexander Solzhenitsyn left here Wednesday much as he arrived quietly and nearly alone . Accompanied by a few family members and surrounded by a throng of photographers , Solzhenitsyn began his long-awaited journey homeward shortly after noon . Sitting in the rear of an Oldsmobile station wagon , the reclusive writer , who is 75 , stopped briefly in the drizzle at the end of his unpaved driveway . For a few moments he obliged the photographers by getting out of the car and posing silently next to one of the wooden posts that supported the gate that for two decades had kept the world at bay . Having written hundreds of thousands of words at his hillside retreat , Solzhenitsyn had almost nothing to say . He offered a softly spoken `` Goodbye '' in accented English , butotherwise stuck to his promise to make no statements . His only utterances were , `` My son has answered all questions '' an assertion that was not quite true and a warning to photographers as they backed up into his car , `` Be careful ! Be careful ! '' His departure drew more than 20 reporters and photographers to the unmarked dirt road that led to the Solzhenitsyn compound . Winner of the Nobel Prize for literature in 1970 for his powerful novels dissecting Stalinism and the Soviet state , Solzhenitsyn chose this spot after being expelled in 1974 from the then Soviet Union on the grounds that his writings had slandered the Soviet state . He continued to write books that nettled the communists including the multi-volume historical novel `` The Red Wheel '' and elected to remain here well after the collapse of the Soviet empire . Solzhenitsyn faces an uncertain future as he heads to an apartment in Moscow and , ultimately , a dacha outside the city . According to family members , he planned to fly to the West Coast and on to Vladivostok , where he plans to board a train for a cross-country tour of Russia . He leaves behind a town of 1,325 in central Vermont that treated him just as he wished : by leaving him alone . Just outside the door of the Cavendish General Store is a small wooden sign saying , `` No directions to the Solzhenitsyn home . '' Storekeeper Joe Allen said he stuck to that policy right to the end . `` I decided I didn't want anything happening to anybody . There 's a lot of crazy people , '' said Allen , 43 , who lives in one half of the building that houses the store . He said the Solzhenitsyn family were `` fine people '' who had never bothered anyone . Alexander Solzhenitsyn was in his store just once , about three or four years ago , Allen recalled . Indeed , sightings of Solzhenitsyn outside his wooden retreat were about as rare as encounters with the moose and black bear that share these forested hills . Richard Svec , the Cavendish town manager , said he spoke with the author 's wife , Natalya , Wednesday morning . `` There was a note of nervousness . But when you 're moving your household halfway around the world that 's not surprising , '' he said . `` We did discuss that there are a lot of challenges ahead and that they are trying to be a constructive influence . She asked for our prayers . '' Svec said he understood that the family intended to keep the house for the use of two sons , Stephan and Ignat , who are remaining in the United States . For his part , Solzhenitsyn said his formal goodbyes to Cavendish on Feb. 28 at the annual town meeting . `` I hope that I can be of at least some help to my tortured nation , although it is impossible to predict how successful my efforts will be , '' the author explained at the time . `` You were very understanding , '' he told the townsfolk . `` You .. . took it upon yourselves to protect my privacy . '' `` For this , I have been truly grateful throughout all these years . And now , as my stay here comes to an end , I thank you . Your kindness and cooperation helped to create the best possible conditions for my work . '' WASHINGTON A White House review has cleared a Merit Systems Protection Board member of sexually harassing an employee and then firing her after she complained about his conduct , administration officials said Wednesday . The officials said that , as a result of the review , Antonio C. Amador , will remain in his position on the board , which is responsible for reviewing federal employees ' claims of discrimination and sexual harassment . The White House commissioned the investigation after receiving requests for an inquiry from members of the House and Senate committees charged with overseeing government operations . Then-White House counsel Bernard Nussbaum told the members that Clinton had decided `` that an independent factual review of the allegations against Mr. Amador is warranted . '' Under federal law , only the president may remove Amador from his position . Amador was appointed by then-President George Bush in 1990 . The investigation was assigned to Joseph G. Lynch , assistant general counsel in the Office of the General Counsel of the Navy . The White House said Lynch `` has more than 12 years of government experience in labor and employment law , with an expertise in sexual harassment matters . '' The administration officials said Lynch had submitted his report within the last several weeks and that Amador had been cleared . They did not provide details of Lynch 's findings , and an attorney for Amador said his client has not been informed of the outcome . The lawyer , Michael J. Riselli , said earlier that Amador `` categorically denies any and all allegations and suggestions that he engaged in any form of discrimination . '' The allegations against Amador were detailed in a letter signed by seven members of the House Government Operations subcommittee on employment , housing , and aviation following a six-month investigation . According to the letter , the woman whose name was not used was hired by Amador as a confidential assistant and worked as one of his four staff members from March 11 , 1991 until she was fired February 18 , 1993 . The day before she was let go , Feb. 17 , the woman complained of sexual harassment to an equal employment opportunity ( EEO ) counselor at the Merit Systems Protection Board , claiming that she was sexually harassed `` over a one-year period both in the office and off federal premises . '' Although the letter does not describe the alleged harassment , sources said she complained that Amador made `` unwanted physical contact '' with the woman , made sexually offensive remarks , and suggested at least once that they spend the night together . The date after the woman sought EEO counseling , the letter said , Amador fired her and ordered her escorted out of the office immediately . Amador , according to the letter sent to the White House , told the subcommittee that he informed the assistant several days earlier , on Feb. 9 , that he `` had lost confidence in her '' and requested that she look for another job . On that day , according to the letter , Amador also gave the employee a superior performance rating . In another letter , to Rep. William Zeliff , R-N.H. , Amador said he gave the employee a good job rating simply to help her find a new position and then decided to shorten the 30-day period because `` she brazenly tried to coerce me , by threats of a fabricated sexual harassment complaint , into keeping her employed . '' After her dismissal , the woman retained a lawyer and negotiated a sealed settlement agreement under which she was reinstated , assigned to a regional office , and received a cash payment of $ 17,500 . Gallagher interviewed dozens of men and women to document the U.S. government 's callous exposure of citizens in Nevada and Utah to radiation from above-ground nuclear tests during 1950s . Soldiers were sent into `` hot '' areas shortly after detonation to retrieve equipment . Civilians in nearby towns came to watch the blasts and the strange , pinkish clouds of dust and ash that killed sheep by the thousand . Since then , local residents have suffered from abnormally high incidents of cancer , autoimmune diseases , reproductive problems , hormonal imbalances , nerve damage and birth defects . They bitterly recall how their government used them as expendable guinea pigs , then lied about it . This deeply disturbing book only begins to explore one of the most shameful episodes of the Cold War : Many of the men recall seeing cages near ground zero that held chained animals and humans . -0- `` The Three-Inch Golden Lotus , '' by Feng Jicai translated from the Chinese by Eugene M. Kayden ( University of Hawaii Press , $ 12.95 , 239 pp. , paperback original ) . Foot-bound girls had their toes bent under their arches and the balls of their feet pressed against the fronts of their heels to produce a small , deformed grub of flesh that became the object of a national fetish in China . Feng Jicai 's curious novel exposes the cruelty of the practice and the weird sexual-aesthetic response it evoked . As a child , Golden Lotus screams in pain when her feet are bound , breaking many of the bones . But her tiny feet enable her to marry the son of a wealthy merchant , and Golden Lotus uses her position as an object of desire to gain power over her decadent in-laws . Feng 's sardonic prose contrasts her calculating intelligence with the shallowness of the men , who extol the details of her shoes like connoisseurs praising an antique vase . -0- `` THE D-DAY ATLAS : The Definitive Account of the Allied Invasion of Normandy , '' by John Man ( Facts on File , $ 15.95 , 143 pp. , illustrated , paperback original ) . June 6 , 1944 , marked a turning point in World War II . The success of D-day was the result of the growing strength of the Allies , an ingenious hoax that played on Hitler 's certainty that Calais would be the site of any attempted landing , the ineffective German command structure , the interruption of communications by French Resistance sabotage and plain luck . Man uses maps and contemporary photographs to supplement his description of the preparations , the invasion and its aftermath , which lead to the defeat of the Nazi Reich . -0- `` SLIM 'S TABLE : Race , Respectability , and Masculinity , '' by Mitchell Duneier ( University of Chicago Press , $ 9.95 , 200 pp. , illustrated ) . In this modest study of working-class men , Duneier argues , `` Black men are badly misunderstood , probably no less because of the well-meaning liberal media 's constant barrage of images showing how bad things have become to Republican advertisements indicating that liberals have placed killers like Willie Horton back on the streets . '' Slim and his friends are unassuming men who socialize in a cafeteria at the edge of the Chicago ghetto . Unlike the media images of black males as dope peddlers , gangbangers and felons , they believe in honesty , hard work and `` modes of conduct that testify to respectability . '' Duneier presents a brief look at a neglected sector of society that offers much-needed role models for teen-age boys of all races . -0- `` The Hat of My Mother , '' by Max Steele ( Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill , $ 9.95 , 270 pp . ) . Available for the first time in paperback , Steele 's short fiction offers solidly constructed plots and vivid characterizations . The title story recounts the curious misadventures the narrator 's prim mother encountered when she set out to buy a replacement for her antiquated favorite hat . In the multilayered `` Another Love Story , '' a married man scrutinizes his former lover 's successful books , hoping and fearing they contain some hint of their affair . -0- `` THE BECKONING FAIRGROUND : Notes of a British Exile in Lotus Land , '' by Ian Whitcomb ( California Classics Books , $ 12.95 , 231 pp. , illustrated , paperback original ) . Singer , songwriter , radio personality , journalist , record producer , one-hit rock star and pop culture gadfly , Ian Whitcomb sets the tone for this memoir when he declares in an early diary entry , `` Wish I was like a rock 'n' roll record . '' The journal entries , articles , interviews and remembrances in this lively collection document encounters with icons that range from Mae West and Walter Matthau to Felix the Cat . Whitcomb may not have achieved the rock stardom he desired , but his account of his ongoing fascination with American popular music is far more entertaining than the biographies of many more celebrated rockers . -0- `` Understanding Immigration Law , '' by Nancy-Jo Merritt ( 112 pp . ) , `` Your Rights as a Consumer , '' by Marc R. Lieberman ( 104 pp. ) and `` Your Rights in the Workplace , '' by Richard L. Strohm ( 120 pp . ) , ( Career Press , $ 8.95 each , paperback originals ) . The `` Layman 's Guide to Law '' series is designed to introduce the average citizen to the increasingly ( and needlessly ) embrangled U.S. legal system . The authors explain what may constitute grounds for legal action in key areas of American life . As the disclaimer notes , the books are not a substitute for a visit to a lawyer , but they provide a useful starting point for readers curious to know more about their rights and obligations . Back-to-back congressional losses underscore the Democrats ' vulnerability in this fall 's midterm elections and could foreshadow significant Republican gains in the South , analysts in both parties said Wednesday . Republican officials quickly capitalized on their easy victory Tuesday in the Kentucky congressional district held for 41 years by the late William H. Natcher , D , and an earlier win in a Democratic-held district in Oklahoma , claiming the races showed growing public dissatisfaction with President Clinton and the Democrats who control Congress . `` I think what we just did is a test run in Oklahoma and Kentucky , '' said House Minority Whip Newt Gingrich , R-Ga . `` Morale and momentum and therefore resources are shifting our way and Democrats are disoriented and don't want to defend Clinton and can't run away from him . '' Democratic National Committee Chairman David Wilhelm blamed the Kentucky defeat on a candidate `` who got in a defensive crouch and stayed there . '' Wilhelm urged Democrats to `` stand tall '' in defending the record of the Clinton administration of `` standing up for middle-class families and breaking gridlock . '' But other Democrats , while cautioning that special elections are often poor predictors of later contests , were more pessimistic , especially in their private comments . They said Clinton is likely to be an issue in many marginal races in the South . `` I think we 've got serious problems , particularly in the South and Southwest , '' one Democratic operative said . Even Rep. Vic Fazio , D-Calif. , who chairs the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and who echoed Wilhelm 's analysis of the Kentucky race , warned that the Republicans could rack up big gains this fall . Fazio called the Kentucky race unique , but said it nonetheless may serve `` as a wake-up call '' to the party . `` I 've been talking about our potential of losing up to 25 seats and I 've been very serious about it . '' The Kentucky election left the Democrats holding a 257-to-178 advantage in the House , along with their 56-to-44 margin in the Senate . A gain of even 15 House seats would give Republicans their largest number since the mid-1950s and greater gains could cost Democrats their working majority . Working control of the Senate is also threatened by the recently announced retirements of Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell , D-Maine , and Sen. David Boren , D-Okla . The party that holds the White House generally loses House seats in midterm elections . But the Democrats ' historical disadvantage is compounded this year by a variety of factors . They include voter anger toward Washington , Democratic retirements in marginal House districts , the effects of redistricting and Clinton 's unpopularity in the South . Republican strategist Whit Ayres said the two special House races , combined with last year 's string of Republican victories `` send a very clear message , that voters around the country , and particularly voters in the South , are very unhappy with the leadership provided by President Clinton and the Democrats in Congress . '' Clinton 's popularity varies from region to region and a White House official said many Democrats are anxious for his help this year . But the danger for House Democrats in districts where Clinton 's favorability ratings are weak is most apparent in the 28 open seats where Democratic incumbents have announced their retirements or are seeking higher office . In 17 of the 28 districts , Clinton 's vote in 1992 was below his national average of 43 percent , and in 11 of those districts , most of them in the South , George Bush beat Clinton . Republican pollster Bill McInturff said that , in the South , the Clinton administration is facing growing hostility . `` In focus groups , there is an historic anti-governemnt sentiment , '' McInturff said . `` What they see Clinton doing , on taxes , the economy , health care , these are seen as symbols of Jimmy Carter , round two . The guy is raising taxes and overreaching the role of government . '' Emory political scientist Merle Black , who has specialized in the study of Southern politics , said , `` Clinton is not an asset in most Southern congressional districts. '' and predicted that Republican candidates would mimic the kind of campaign Republican Ron Lewis ran in Kentucky . Lewis ran an explicitly anti-Clinton campaign that included one television ad in which the face of Democrat Joe Prather turned into the face of Bill Clinton . `` I wouldn't be too surprised to see that ad in 200 districts in October , '' Gingrich said . `` I hope so , '' responded presidential pollster Stan Greenberg . `` I think people will vote for change rather than negativism and a return to the Reagan-Bush years . '' Greenberg and other Democrats said it 's too early to make predictions about November , despite the losses in Kentucky and Oklahoma , and that the outcome of the health-care debate could become a major factor in the fall . `` I don't think the story of the off-year elections is going to be decided until October , '' he said . `` People are going to make a decision of whether we 're moving the country forward or whether we 're stuck . And right now , they don't know . '' But Republican pollster Linda Divall said many voters are still angry with Washington . She said the special-election results were not just a vote against Clinton . `` It was also a warning signal that the changes voters cast their votes for in 1992 have not come about and they are still frustrated . '' She and others noted the continued intense anger over congressional check bouncing , and argued that almost any outcome in the pending criminal case of Rep. Dan Rostenkowski , D-Ill. , will damage Congress and the Democrats . `` Any plea bargain is going to look very bad , '' she said . Democrats worry that low voter turnout , which occurred in Kentucky , will hurt their candidates this fall . `` The people on the outs are much more motivated to vote than our people are , '' said Democratic pollster Harrison Hickman . `` The angry people are going to take the time to vote . '' UNITED NATIONS Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali , bristling with anger and frustration , derided the international community Wednesday for talking but doing little else to stop genocide in Rwanda . He denounced the inaction as a scandal . `` All of us are responsible for this failure , '' the secretary-general told a news conference. `` .. . It is a genocide which has been committed . More than 200,000 people have been killed , and .. . the international community is still discussing what ought to be done . `` I have tried , '' he went on . `` I have been in contact with different heads of state and begged them to send troops. .. . Unfortunately , let us say with great humility , I failed . It is a scandal . I am the first one to say it . And I am ready to repeat it . '' Although he never singled out the United States for criticism , Boutros-Ghali mocked the philosophy behind President Clinton 's recent policy directive on peacekeeping . Under this policy , which U.S. . Ambassador to the United Nations Madeleine Albright invoked last week to force the U.N. . Security Council to delay the dispatch of 5,500 troops to Rwanda , the Clinton administration insists that it will not approve peacekeeping operations until they are subjected to close scrutiny , including an assessment of their chances for success . But Boutros-Ghali said that `` we must accept that in certain operations we will not be successful and the fact that you are not successful in a certain operation must not be an obstacle to additional operations all over the world . '' `` It is like going to a hospital , '' he said . `` You cannot say ` I don't want to take this case . ' There is a moral responsibility . The raison d' etre of this organization is to help member states solve peacefully their internal disputes and their international disputes . '' ( Optional add end ) Boutros-Ghali , a 71-year-old former Egyptian diplomat and law professor , also used the news conference to make what amounted to a declaration of his intent to seek a second five-year term in 1996 . This was a sharp change of course . When he was elected in late 1991 , Boutros-Ghali insisted that he intended to serve only one term , a posture that give him great independence from the five members of the Security Council who have the power of veto , including the United States . When asked to justify his change of intent , the secretary-general told the news conference , `` I believe that only stupid people don't change their mind . '' `` The question will be raised in 1996 , '' he said , `` and it will depend on my own physical capacities . If I am feeling in shape , quite honestly , I will say yes . On the other hand .. . if I don't feel well enough , then I willn't request a second term . '' Mocking the philosophy behind the Clinton administration 's policies will not help any Boutros-Ghali campaign for a second term . Relations between the United States and the secretary-general have been tense for much of the last year . Boutros-Ghali has been angered about the American attempt to blame him for the debacle in Somalia ; the Americans have been angered by his penchant for setting policy rather than just taking orders from the Security Council . The United States , using its veto , could block a second term for him . WASHINGTON The percentage of Americans with employer-paid medical insurance has dropped sharply in 10 years and the trend is accelerating , the Clinton administration said Wednesday , as it released Census Bureau data sure to fuel the health care reform debate . According to the bureau 's employee benefits survey of 30,000 workers , only 61 percent had employer-provided medical coverage , down from 66 percent in 1983 . The rate of decline was steeper among workers at large companies than those at small ones . `` It 's not a stable system . Employers are providing less and less , '' Labor Secretary Robert B . Reich said at Capitol Hill news conference . `` All workers are vulnerable . '' Such rapid erosion `` makes a very strong case for strengthening the employer-based system , '' he declared . `` It is time for all employers to share in this burden . '' But opponents used the same data to argue for solutions other than President Clinton 's proposal to force all employers to provide insurance to workers . `` Given those trends , is the employer mandate realistic ? can't we try some other means to encourage employers to provide benefits , '' said Sharon Canner , a National Association of Manufacturers analyst . The Census data showed that since 1979 coverage has declined from 83 percent to 73 percent of the workforce at companies with 100 or more workers . Over the same period , coverage declined from 60 percent to 54 percent at companies with fewer than 100 employees . `` This is across the board . This is not solely a small-firm phenomenon , '' Reich said . `` If anything , large firms are beginning to get out of the health care business . '' He said the data represent `` the most comprehensive view that we 've had yet of workers and coverage . '' The president has defended the employer mandate the most controversial element of his reform agenda as a conservative approach that builds on the existing system , noting that the overwhelming majority of privately insured Americans get their coverage through the workplace . To achieve his goal of universal coverage , Clinton would require all employers to pay at least 80 percent of a full-time worker 's premiums , up to a cap of 7.9 percent of total payroll . Small companies firms with low average payrolls would receive government subsidies , reducing their `` contribution '' to as little as 3.5 percent of payroll . The president 's bill also would require individual workers to pay as much as 20 percent of their premiums , or no more than 3.9 percent of their wages . But many big and small businesses , as well as most congressional Republicans and even some Democrats , strongly oppose any mandate . So any significant health care reform will require major compromises on both sides . Opponents of mandates , such as the Chamber of Commerce and the National Association of Manufacturers , prefer voluntary incentives and a gradual extension of coverage to the estimated 38 million uninsured Americans . Like Clinton , however , they support malpractice reforms , administrative simplification to reduce costly red tape and insurance market reforms that ban discriminatory practices against small groups , particularly people with pre-existing conditions . ( Optional add end ) At his news conference , Reich rebutted questions that challenged the wisdom of building upon a system that even the administration says is in rapid decline . `` This is still a health care system that is premised upon employer contributions , '' Reich said . That system may be `` ailing , '' he conceded , but it remains `` the bedrock of America 's health care system . '' WASHINGTON Israeli Foreign Minister Shimon Peres complained Wednesday that Syria has refused to commit itself to full diplomatic relations and open borders in its peace talks with Israel , and indicated his government will not withdraw from the Golan Heights for anything less . Peres , who met with Vice President Al Gore and Secretary of State Warren Christopher during a visit here , also warned Palestinian leader Yasser Arafat that he risks destroying his self-rule agreement with Israel by continuing to quibble about its provisions . At a meeting with reporters , Peres was asked whether Israel had committed itself to a full withdrawal from the Golan Heights , which was captured by Israeli forces in the 1967 Middle East war . He responded : `` Do the Syrians suggest opening ( negotiations ) by having a full-fledged peace with Israel ? Do they suggest having a full arrangement on security ? No. They say peace without embassies , without open frontiers . '' Syria and Israel have exchanged proposals for a peace agreement , using Christopher as a go-between , for the past month . Syria has hinted unofficially that it is willing to consider full peace with Israel , but has not changed its official position . Peres ' statement was the most detailed description of the Syrian position given by any senior official in the negotiations . In January , after meeting with Syrian President Hafez Assad , President Clinton said the Syrian told him he was ready to seek full peace , including normal diplomatic relations . But Assad refused to confirm that in public and said such issues were a matter for negotiation . Peres also said he considers `` irrelevant '' a statement by Arafat canceling Israeli laws in Jericho and the Gaza Strip , Palestinian areas from which Israel has withdrawn . `` You cannot sit down , reach an agreement on the declaration of principles , and then go around and declare different things , '' he warned . `` If you devaluate a word of an agreement , you kill the peaceful solution , '' he added . `` We worked so hard to reach the declaration and the test of the two sides is to remain true in letter and spirit to the declaration of principles , '' he said . ( Optional add end ) Christopher , speaking at the beginning of his meeting with Peres , said he believes Arafat should reaffirm the commitments he made to Israel in their agreement on Jericho and Gaza earlier this month . `` Commitments have been made . It is very important that they be lived up to . I think it would be very helpful to have a reaffirmation , '' he said . Arafat has made several statements that cast doubt on his intention to remain faithful to the accord , under which Israel agreed to turn Jericho and Gaza over to the PLO in exchange for assurances that it would retain ultimate security control over the areas . In addition to Arafat 's declaration that Israeli laws are no longer valid in Palestinian-ruled areas , the PLO leader called in a speech for a `` jihad '' or holy war to take Jerusalem . He later said that he was using the word `` jihad '' only in a figurative sense , meaning a peaceful crusade . WASHINGTON Russian organized crime groups have made substantial inroads in the United States , engaging in activities such as tax fraud , insurance scams and drug trafficking , FBI Director Louis Freeh told a Senate panel Wednesday . Freeh said the rapid growth of such groups poses `` a mounting threat to the safety and well-being '' of Americans , not only from these crimes but also because the groups could obtain nuclear weapons materials or a completed nuclear bomb . `` Such stolen weapons could be sold potentially to terrorists who could use them against the United States and other countries , '' Freeh said . `` We have all been fortunate maybe lucky is a better word that there apparently have been no nuclear thefts so far . '' He added , however , that an international probe is under way into a possible theft from the area of St. Petersburg , Russia , of two kilograms of highly-enriched uranium capable of being used in a nuclear weapon . That is less than a third the amount needed to fashion a crude nuclear device . Freeh 's unusually blunt warnings at a hearing of the Governmental Affairs Permanent Investigations subcommittee prefaced his announcement that the FBI will soon open its first-ever office in Moscow , for the purpose of forging anti-crime links with the Russian law enforcement community . This move and Freeh 's grim depiction of a new threat to U.S. security come at a time when federal intelligence-gathering and law enforcement agencies are under pressure to trim their budgets and develop new missions in the aftermath of the Cold War . Freeh did not offer many examples of Russian criminal activity abroad but said the FBI has received a growing number of reports of such action . As part of a new effort to cooperate with a country long regarded as the FBI 's principal nemesis , Freeh said he is willing to begin FBI training of Russian policemen in organized crimefighting techniques . He also plans to establish a joint intelligence data base and install secure communication links to exchange leads on organized crime groups . Details of the new cooperation are to be discussed when Freeh travels to Moscow next month with senior officials of the Treasury Department , State Department and the Drug Enforcement Administration . Freeh said the `` template '' for such cooperation is a 1981 arrangement with Italy that has sent hundreds of Mafiosi to prison in both nations . Seated near Freeh at the hearing was the top Russian official charged with fighting organized crime , First Deputy Minister of the Interior Mikhail K. Yegorov , who confirmed and enlarged on Freeh 's grim warnings about the threat to Americans . According to information reaching Moscow , Yegorov said , 24 Russian organized crime groups are operating on U.S. territory , principally in San Francisco , Los Angeles , Miami , Chicago and New York . He said they engage in `` money laundering , illegal money transactions , and narcotics , '' with assistance from emigres now living in America . Freeh said FBI probes of `` Russian/Eurasian '' organized crime and racketeering had increased from 13 in 1992 to 35 early this year . He said , for example , that the FBI had evidence Russian emigres were working with La Cosa Nostra organizations to control the illegal , untaxed sale of 50 million gallons of gasoline a month , costing the Treasury $ 7 million a month . Profits from the scheme were funneled to import-export firms conducting business in Eurasia and to an organized crime figure in Moscow , Freeh said . He added that 18 individuals and three companies have pleaded guilty to the fraud , including two people hunted down in Russia and returned to the United States . Freeh also noted that a Russian emigre affiliated with an organized crime group operating in the Baltic States was convicted three years ago in a medical insurance billing scheme that netted $ 50 million . He said FBI data `` clearly indicates '' Russian emigres are laundering millions of U.S. dollars `` that originated as rubles '' and in some cases stemmed from criminal activities . According to Yegorov , the United States is not alone in providing fertile ground for Russian criminals . He said 47 organized groups are operating in Germany and 60 groups in Italy , often banding together with local criminals to commit extortion , fraud or provide a conduit to the West for narcotics from Central Asia . Yegorov said that during the past 18 months , his organization had investigated 47 criminal cases involving radioactive materials , including nine alleged thefts of highly-enriched materials of the sort needed for nuclear weapons . Only one such theft involved `` organized crime groups , '' he said , adding nonetheless that this danger should be taken more seriously . Hans-Ludwig Zachert , the president of Germany 's Federal Criminal Police , also underscored Freeh 's warnings about the potential for trade in nuclear materials from the former Soviet Union and eastern Europe . Zachert told the Senate panel his organization in 1992 investigated 18 such alleged thefts . Weapons-grade materials were offered for sale in several of the cases , although none was found . Two cases investigated in 1993 involved attempts by eastern Europeans to extort money by threatening the use of nuclear arms against Germany or Austria . WASHINGTON President Clinton used commencement at the U.S. . Naval Academy as a platform Wednesday for a sharp counterattack on his Bosnia policy , accusing critics including many leaders of his own party of advancing `` simplistic ideas that sound good on bumper stickers but that would have tragic consequences . '' The administration 's policy , which relies heavily on multinational consultations and which critics deride as a failure to assert U.S. leadership , `` is not quick ; it is not neat ; it is not comfortable , '' Clinton conceded during his speech in Annapolis , Md. . `` But I am convinced in a world of interdependence where we must lead by working with others , it is the right path . `` Our administration will not walk away from this Bosnian conflict . But we will not embrace solutions that are wrong , '' Clinton said . `` We plan to continue the course we have chosen raising the price on those who pursue aggression , helping to provide relief to the suffering , and working with our partners in Europe to move the parties to a workable agreement . '' In particular , Clinton denounced proposals that the United States unilaterally violate the U.N. embargo against arms shipments to the warring parties in Bosnia a course of action many leading Democrats have endorsed and that enjoys substantial support in Congress . Although Clinton has made that point several times before , his sharpened rhetoric marked an escalation of the war of words over Bosnia policy . The move reflects a realization by White House officials that Clinton needs to take a more active role in defending his foreign policies . Clinton also repeated his insistence that Congress not make further cuts in the defense budget , an idea congressional liberals have revived as lawmakers begin to face the hard choices on spending forced this year by tight budget caps . In addition to his Bosnia policy , Clinton also defended his overall approach of emphasizing multilateral action in most foreign arenas . Clinton 's critics , including several potential Republican presidential hopefuls , have claimed that he has devalued traditional U.S. leadership by refusing to act alone when necessary . But , Clinton said , while the United States must act unilaterally when its own immediate interests are at stake , many world crises require international cooperation instead . `` The end of the superpower standoff lifted the lid from a cauldron of long-simmering hatreds , '' he said . `` Now the entire global terrain is bloody with such conflicts , from Rwanda to Georgia . `` We cannot solve every such outburst of civil strive or militant nationalism simply by sending in our forces . We cannot turn away from them . But our interests are not sufficiently at stake in so many of them to justify a commitment of our folks . '' In Bosnia , for example , Clinton said , the United States has interests at stake . They are not weighty enough to `` warrant our unilateral involvement , but they do demand that we help to lead a way to a workable peace agreement if one can be achieved . '' Multilateral action in such cases `` preserves our leadership , preserves our treasure and commits our forces in the proper way . '' ( Optional add end ) Until recently , Clinton advisers tended to shy away from having the president defend his positions on foreign issues , feeling that the public would resent Clinton for spending time on overseas issues rather than on domestic policies . But the administration 's mood on that issue has shifted recently as polls have shown that public uncertainty about Clinton 's policies has begun dragging down voters ' overall assessment of his ability . Because of that , officials increasingly have urged Clinton to explain and defend his policies more actively a challenge that will absorb much of Clinton 's time during his visit to Europe that begins next week . The arms embargo has been a particularly difficult issue for the White House because Clinton agrees with critics who say the main impact of the embargo has been to prevent Bosnian government forces from obtaining enough weapons to defend themselves against Serb rebels who receive arms through the neighboring Serbian republic . Clinton has intermittently , and unsuccessfully , tried to convince U.S. allies to agree that it should be lifted . The administration 's inability to convince Britain , France and Russia each of which has a veto in the U.N. . Security Council to agree to lifting the embargo has led many members of both parties to call on Clinton to abrogate the ban unilaterally . Back-to-back congressional losses underscore the Democrats ' vulnerability in this fall 's midterm elections and could foreshadow significant Republican gains in the South , analysts in both parties said Wednesday . Republican officials quickly capitalized on their easy victory Tuesday in the Kentucky Congressional District held for 41 years by the late William H. Natcher , D , and an earlier win in a Democratic-held district in Oklahoma , claiming the races showed growing public dissatisfaction with President Clinton and the Democrats who control Congress . `` I think what we just did is a test run in Oklahoma and Kentucky , '' said House Minority Whip Newt Gingrich , R-Ga . `` Morale and momentum and therefore resources are shifting our way and Democrats are disoriented and don't want to defend Clinton and can't run away from him . '' But Clinton , in a private meeting with House Democrats , said the administration has much to be proud of and urged members to `` take credit for this stuff and don't sit back on your heels , '' according to one Democrat who attended the meeting . Clinton also sharply attacked Republicans as `` fanatics '' who are peddling a message of `` hate and fear '' and said they are `` fooling themselves '' if they believe the Kentucky race is indicative of how Democrats will fare this fall . Democratic National Committee Chairman David Wilhelm blamed the Kentucky defeat on a candidate `` who got in a defensive crouch and stayed there . '' But other Democrats , while cautioning that special elections are often poor predictors of later contests , were more pessimistic , especially in their private comments . They said Clinton is likely to be an issue in many marginal races in the South . Even Rep. Vic Fazio , D-Calif. , who chairs the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee and who echoed Wilhelm 's analysis of the Kentucky race , warned that the Republicans could rack up big gains this fall . Fazio called the Kentucky race unique , but said it nonetheless may serve `` as a wake-up call '' to the party . `` I 've been talking about our potential of losing up to 25 seats and I 've been very serious about it . '' The Kentucky election left the Democrats holding a 257-to-178 advantage in the House , along with their 56-to-44 margin in the Senate . A gain of even 15 House seats would give Republicans their largest number since the mid-1950s and greater gains could cost Democrats their working majority . Working control of the Senate is also threatened by the recently announced retirements of Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell , D-Maine , and Sen. David Boren , D-Okla . The party that holds the White House generally loses House seats in midterm elections . But the Democrats ' historical disadvantage is compounded this year by a variety of factors . They include voter anger toward Washington , Democratic retirements in marginal House districts , the effects of redistricting and Clinton 's unpopularity in the South . Republican strategist Whit Ayres said the two special House races , combined with last year 's string of Republican victories `` send a very clear message , that voters around the country , and particularly voters in the South , are very unhappy with the leadership provided by President Clinton and the Democrats in Congress . '' Clinton 's popularity varies from region to region and a White House official said many Democrats are anxious for his help this year . But the danger for House Democrats in districts where Clinton 's favorability ratings are weak is most apparent in the 28 open seats where Democratic incumbents have announced their retirements or are seeking higher office . In 17 of the 28 districts , Clinton 's vote in 1992 was below his national average of 43 percent , and in 11 of those districts , most of them in the South , George Bush beat Clinton . Republican pollster Bill McInturff said that , in the South , the Clinton administration is facing growing hostility . `` In focus groups , there is an historic anti-governemnt sentiment , '' McInturff said . `` What they see Clinton doing , on taxes , the economy , health care , these are seen as symbols of Jimmy Carter , round two . The guy is raising taxes and overreaching the role of government . '' Emory political scientist Merle Black , who has specialized in the study of Southern politics , said , `` Clinton is not an asset in most Southern congressional districts '' and predicted Republican candidates would mimic the kind of campaign Republican Ron Lewis ran in Kentucky . Lewis ran an explicitly anti-Clinton campaign that included one television ad in which the face of Democrat Joe Prather turned into the face of Bill Clinton . `` I wouldn't be too surprised to see that ad in 200 districts in October , '' Gingrich said . `` I hope so , '' responded presidential pollster Stan Greenberg . `` I think people will vote for change rather than negativism and a return to the Reagan-Bush years . '' Greenberg and other Democrats said it 's too early to make predictions about November , despite the losses in Kentucky and Oklahoma , and that the outcome of the health-care debate could become a major factor in the fall . `` I don't think the story of the off-year elections is going to be decided until October , '' he said . `` People are going to make a decision of whether we 're moving the country forward or whether we 're stuck . And right now , they don't know . '' But Republican pollster Linda Divall said many voters are still angry with Washington . She said the special-election results were not just a vote against Clinton . `` It was also a warning signal that the changes voters cast their votes for in 1992 have not come about and they are still frustrated . '' She and others noted the continued intense anger over congressional check bouncing , and argued that almost any outcome in the pending criminal case of Rep. Dan Rostenkowski , D-Ill. , will damage Congress and the Democrats . `` Any plea bargain is going to look very bad , '' she said . Democrats worry that low voter turnout , which occurred in Kentucky , will hurt their candidates this fall . `` The people on the outs are much more motivated to vote than our people are , '' said Democratic pollster Harrison Hickman . `` The angry people are going to take the time to vote . '' NEW YORK Vandals hit Machpelah Cemetery in New York City where Harry Houdini is buried , knocking over several tombstones and destroying two carved sandstone benches at the magician 's grave site , officials said Wednesday . Houdini 's tombstone escaped damage but two hand-carved , priceless stone benches were destroyed , said David Jacobson , who heads the cemetery , in the borough of Queens . `` They were smashed , they 're irreplacable , '' he said . In the 67 years Houdini has been buried in Machpelah , vandalism has not been uncommon . Originally the tombstone was topped by a bust of the magician . But after the theft of the first bust and two replacements , those responsible for maintenance of the grave site decided the busts ' disappearing act was too costly to go on . ANNAPOLIS , Md. . In a preview of themes he will strike during next week 's European tour , President Clinton Wednesday defended his foreign policy in general and his approach to Bosnia in particular against critics with `` simplistic ideas that sound good on bumper stickers but that would have tragic consequences . '' The president used a commencement address at the U.S. . Naval Academy to deliver his most extensive explanation to date of the circumstances under which he would send American troops into harm 's way and made it clear they weren't likely to include `` ethnic and religious conflicts '' like those raging in Rwanda and Bosnia . `` The end of the superpower standoff lifted the lid from a cauldron of long-simmering hatreds , '' he told a sweltering football stadium filled with graduating midshipmen and their proud families . `` We cannot solve every such outburst of civil strife or militant nationalism simply by sending in our forces . We cannot turn away from them , but our interests are not sufficiently at stake in so many of them to justify a commitment of our folks . '' The speech was the first in a series of presidential addresses tied to next week 's celebration in Europe of the 50th anniversary of D-Day , the amphibious assault on the Normandy beaches that turned the tide in World War II . The White House is approaching Clinton 's eight-day trip to Italy , England and France eager to bolster his credentials , now under increasing fire , on foreign and defense issues . Clinton outlined relatively limited circumstances under which he would commit U.S. forces , saying he would do so `` to defend our land and our people '' and `` to protect our vital interests . '' During the 1992 campaign , he had advocated more decisive U.S. action in places like Bosnia and Haiti , but he has tempered those views since taking office especially since the debacle in Somalia last year that cost American lives . In Bosnia and elsewhere , he said , the United States should work with other nations and be prepared to not always call the shots about how to proceed . He singled out for rebuke calls by Congress to unilaterally break the U.N. arms embargo for Bosnian Muslims . While Clinton personally supports lifting the embargo , Britain and France , which have troops on the ground there , oppose it . `` We simply must not opt for options and action that sound simple and painless and good , but which will not work in this era of interdependence where it is important that we leverage American influence and leadership by proving that we can work with others , '' he said , `` especially when others have greater and more immediate stakes and are willing to put their soldiers in harm 's way . '' The Senate this month passed a bill that would require Clinton to lift the embargo unilaterally , though it also passed a contradictory provision instructing him to consult with NATO allies first . Advocates of lifting the ban tried to force a House vote on the issue Tuesday , but Democratic leaders postponed it until after Clinton returns from the D-Day trip . ( Optional add end ) In his speech , Clinton referred to two recent controversies that have rocked the Navy the Tailhook affair and a cheating scandal that led to the expulsion of 24 academy midshipmen last month . `` These are troubling events , to be sure , because our military rests on honor and leadership , '' he said . Then he made a comment that echoed an argument put forward by those defending Clinton himself against attacks on his character . `` But , ultimately , the test of leadership is not constant flawlessness , '' he said . `` Rather , it is marked by a commitment to continue always to strive for the highest standards , to learn honestly when one falls short , and to do the right thing when it happens . '' Like someone who 's had too many cups , world coffee markets are wired these days with the price of beans rocketing higher , thanks to worsening shortages in Colombia , Brazil and the other big coffee producing nations . The commodity price of whole , unroasted beans has roughly doubled since last summer , with the latest surge occurring in the past week . And coffee experts say prices could double again before it 's over . The dramatic rise which was predicted long ago by coffee growing nations as the inevitable result of the collapse of an international cartel in 1989 is described as chiefly a cyclical response to the woefully low prices that prevailed just a year ago . When prices tumble , as they did steadily from 1989 to 1993 , growers save money by skimping on fertilizers and other agricultural practices , opening the door to crop disease and infestations that can slash the size of crops for years . Shortages follow , bidding prices back up . That and this season 's late Indonesian harvest had more to do with the surge in prices than did a recent scheme by 28 coffee-growing nations to withhold beans from the market , says Judith Ganes , a coffee analyst at Merrill Lynch in New York . As production fell and consumption remained flat , estimated stockpiles have tumbled by half , says Ganes , triggering a classic supply-demand reaction in prices . As recently as last July , the average world price of a pound of green , or unroasted , coffee beans stood at 52 cents . On Wednesday , the price stood at $ 1.28 a pound . Analyst Ganes predicts the price will exceed $ 2 within four months . `` What matters right now is there aren't enough beans , and the growers willn't be able to recoup before 1995 or 1996 , '' says Ganes . `` I think the bull market is just starting . '' Though good news for those members of the lately toothless coffee growers ' cartel that have beans to sell , it spells trouble for coffee 's `` Big Three '' Procter & Gamble , Kraft/General Foods and Nestle 's as they struggle to hold the line on retail prices and limit the further loss of customers to pricey , higher-quality gourmet blends . General Foods , which distributed the Folgers brand , has raised its price to grocers by 25 percent , but there has been no ripple effect yet in what consumers pay . Whether that occurs will depend partly on the marketing strategies of the coffee roasters and peddlers , says Tom Pirko , president of Santa Barbara , Calif.-based Bevmark Inc. , an international beverage consulting company . ( Optional add end ) Pirko described the high-volume roasters purveyors of such name brands as Folger 's and Maxwell House as plagued by razor-thin profit margins . They have held the line on prices to hang on to customers who might otherwise opt for the gourmet coffees . If the makers of the cheaper canned coffees decide to raise retail prices to avoid losses , Pirko said , the trendy gourmet companies typified by Seattle-based Starbucks could grab still more market share by keeping current prices and foregoing some of the generous profit margins they now enjoy . `` The question is , are they smart enough to know that ? '' Pirko said . `` Their margins are enormous . They could absorb much bigger ( green bean price ) increases than we 've seen so far . '' WASHINGTON Wall Street 's hottest trading instruments may pose some risks to the financial system , but Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan and other top regulators told Congress Wednesday that tougher laws over financial `` derivatives '' are unnecessary . Their opposition dims chances that Congress will pass a bill to stiffen regulation of derivatives this term . The regulators ' reluctance comes despite last week 's release of a two-year report on derivatives by the General Accounting Office that detected `` regulatory gaps '' and called for aggressive reforms , some of which would require legislation . While commending the GAO for its work , Greenspan and Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Arthur Levitt Jr. played down the report 's warning that recent multimillion-dollar losses at U.S. companies and investment firms were signs of more danger ahead . Wednesday 's hearing before the House subcommittee on Energy and Commerce chaired by Rep. Edward J. Markey , D-Mass. , highlighted Washington 's continuing inability to get its arms around the fast-growing $ 12 trillion derivatives business . Companies and speculators use derivatives both to make money on trading bets and to protect the value of their other investments from unexpected changes . Unlike stocks , derivative contracts do not entitle holders to any stake in a business or its profits . They instead let holders bet on the movement of stock prices and other securities . When indicators move in expected directions , like interest rates did recently , companies holding derivatives contracts can lose money . Greenspan pooh-poohed fears that the recent corporate losses are the first of many to come . `` It would be wrong to draw sweeping conclusions from these events , '' Greenspan said . The `` unintended consequences '' of tougher U.S. regulation might be that derivatives would simply be struck overseas where laws were more lenient , making efforts by U.S. regulators to supervise derivatives more difficult . Greenspan and Levitt argued against the GAO 's proposal to give the SEC power over the securities firms ' affiliates that trade derivatives , which are now unregulated . The GAO recommends SEC regulatory authority akin to what the Federal Reserve has over the derivative units of commercial banks . Legislating SEC oversight of derivatives would lessen regulatory `` flexibility , '' according to the Fed chairman . He said the derivatives market was growing so fast that today 's regulation would be outmoded tomorrow . Levitt mainly agreed with Greenspan but said he would seek legislation in the fall if his efforts to work with Wall Street to lessen the risks of derivatives failed . But he ruled out mandating procedures for how dealers and companies manage the risks associated with derivatives , a GAO proposal that is hated by Wall Street and business lobbying groups . Markey , who has announced he plans to introduce derivative-related legislation , said he was disappointed by the regulators ' response . He ended the hearing by saying he will soon hold hearings on specific cases in which derivatives caused large losses . When a derivative contract is struck between two parties like a bank and a corporation each side agrees to make payments to the other for some period of time , say , five years . How much money each side pays depends on events in the securities markets . Each side 's payment obligation `` derives '' from price changes in such underlying securities as stocks , bonds , foreign exchange and commodities . WASHINGTON Washington adores a good rumor , and a real humdinger about Barbra Streisand is virtually consuming Old Town Alexandria , in Northern Virginia . Seems that residents of the quaint historic locale are totally convinced that the superstar has purchased an extravagant home among them . Well , as exciting as this has been for all of us , it appears that Miss Streisand has no plans to disrupt local traffic patterns , according to local real estate agents and Streisand intimates . `` Gee , '' said a very close friend of the diva , `` she did go antiquing in Old Town last year . That 's about as close as she 's gotten .. . . '' The friend assured us in no uncertain terms that any talk of Streisand leaving California was simply `` crazy . '' -0- Warner Bros. might see it as just good fun and box-office receipts , but the Consumer Product Safety Commission isn't laughing . The federal regulatory agency has strongly warned Warner that safety procedures better be followed in scenes where child star Macaulay Culkin zooms around on a controversial all-terrain vehicle ( ATV ) in the upcoming `` Richie Rich . '' And it is the appearance of safety that also has the agency concerned . It might not be apparent on screen , for example , that 13-year-old Culkin 's driving is being supervised by adults or that he 's not speeding . `` Kids don't know the difference between reality and the movies , '' Ann Brown , chairman of the CPSC , tells us . `` When they see a role model appearing to drive around unsafely , that sets a bad example . '' Added CPSC General Counsel Eric Rubel , `` We want to make sure an adult is in the scene otherwise the wrong impression is left . '' The scene was shot recently , and a spokesman for Warner said Wednesday night that the company `` did its best to meet the guidelines suggested by the commission . '' Although the spokeswoman said Culkin wore a helmet and did not drive wildly or on pavement , she would not address the appearance issue . The CPSC claims the recreational vehicles have been responsible for more than 2,000 deaths in the past decade , nearly 900 of which were drivers under 16 . The CPSC actually has no enforcement authority over Warner . But , according to Rubel , it is studying whether it could expand its jurisdiction on the grounds that films are consumer products . We 've heard that .. . First Brother Roger Clinton is now a daddy . His bride , Molly Martin Clinton , gave birth to a son , Tyler Cassidy , on May 12 in Torrance , Calif. . `` The president is just delighted that he 's an uncle , '' said a White House spokesman Wednesday . -0- Norman Schwarzkopf , who headed U.S. forces in the Persian Gulf War , was recovering from surgery Wednesday for prostate cancer . A statement from Walter Reed Army Medical Center said , `` All indications are that the cancer was discovered in its early stages , and the prospects are for a full recovery . '' -0- Iowa Democrat Neal Smith feels wronged . He says his remarks as quoted by the Des Moines Register stating that if Bill Clinton did proposition Paula Jones , he 'd be disappointed in the president for hitting on `` such a homely woman '' were misinterpreted . Mostly , he says , he meant to convey that the Jones charges are politically motivated . That makes it a lot clearer . -0- George and Barbara Bush 's Houston neighbors were obviously not totally prepared for all the hubbub that comes with the arrival of a former president . Wednesday , the neighborhood got a bit more privacy when the Houston City Council voted to allow the street to be closed to guard against the streams of gawkers who have been parading through . WASHINGTON Democratic National Chairman David Wilhelm on Wednesday denounced Democratic candidates , including the loser in this week 's special House election in Kentucky , for not running on President Clinton 's record . `` The lesson here is that Democrats should run as Democrats , '' Wilhelm said , speaking of the loss Tuesday of a House seat in Kentucky held by Democrats for 129 years . The defeat spurred increased concern among Democrats and enthusiasm in Republican circles about prospects in the fall elections . The election results and Wilhelm 's criticism underlined a problem that Democratic congressional candidates will have to face in November as a result of their party 's conquest of the White House in 1992 . During the 12 years of the Reagan-Bush presidencies Democratic candidates could tailor their campaigns to suit local tastes with minimal concern about the national party . But now they have to answer for Clinton 's policies , too , and this could be a heavy burden , especially in the South and other conservative areas where the president and his policies are not popular . In off-year elections , the party controlling the White House traditionally loses seats in the House , where the Democrats hold a 256-178 majority . But professionals in both parties said circumstances of the Kentucky contest suggested that House Democrats this year face a particularly difficult predicament . Adding to their burden is the gradual but steady realignment of the South 's congressional districts , which have long been dominated by Democrats . The Kentucky special election to replace the late Rep. William H. Natcher was won by Republican Ron Lewis , a minister and owner of a fundamentalist book store who received 55 percent of the vote to 45 percent for Democrat Joe Prather , a former state legislator . A distant underdog at the start of the campaign , Lewis benefited from an infusion of campaign funds and advice from the national party , and from a zealous organizing effort by conservative Christians . He centered his campaign on linking Prather to Clinton , even running a television commercial that depicted Clinton 's face blending into Prather 's . `` If you like Bill Clinton , you 'll love Joe Prather , '' the announcer declared . In a district former President Bush carried against Clinton in 1992 , Prather concluded he should keep his distance from Clinton and from the national party , refusing financial support or any other type of help . But he was so preoccupied with warding off Lewis 's attack , other Democrats charged , he failed to develop a positive message of his own . `` As best I can tell , Joe Prather got into a defensive crouch and stayed there , '' Wilhelm told a Washington news conference . ( Optional add end ) Wilhelm claimed the same strategy was followed in the last year by unsuccessful Democratic candidates Bob Kreuger , who ran for U.S. Senate in Texas , and Virginia gubernatorial nominee Mary Sue Terry . Wilhelm said that approach `` is a dead bang loser , '' because `` it allows your opponent to define you and causes Democrats to stay at home in droves . '' Wilhelm contended that Lewis and other Democrats would be better off running on the president 's record . They should be `` proud of deficit reduction , proud of ( creating ) 3 million jobs , '' and should not `` pretend as if you were in a different party or your president was somebody else , '' he said But some independent analysts and Democratic consultants rejected Wilhelm 's argument . `` Right now the president is not seen as an asset '' in many Southern districts , said Merle Black , Emory University specialist on Southern politics . Democratic candidates in those districts `` are stuck with Clinton and he has given them an unpopular agenda . '' WASHINGTON The Hubble Space Telescope has confirmed for the first time the existence of a supermassive black hole , ending a decades-long quest for definitive proof , astronomers announced Wednesday . The orbiting observatory , with corrective lenses installed during a repair mission last December , for the first time was able to see clearly into the heart of the giant galaxy M87 , more than 50 million light-years away in the constellation Virgo , where astronomers have long suspected a monstrous black hole has lurking . The telescope revealed the details there so sharply that the observing team was able to `` weigh '' the object at the galaxy 's center with unexpected ease , the astronomers said . The key was a pancake-shaped disk of hot gas spinning around , and being consumed , by something at the center . Measurements of its velocity showed that the central object has a mass 2 billion to 3 billion times the mass of the sun , compressed into an area about the size of our solar system . `` If that isn't a black hole , I don't know what it is , '' said Holland Ford of Johns Hopkins University and the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore . He and Richard Harms of Applied Research Corp. in Landover , Md. , led the observing team and announced the findings Wednesday at NASA headquarters . The concept of a black hole was built , at first , purely on mathematical equations and imaginings of theorists . They envisioned a massive , collapsing object ( a star or group of stars ) whose gravitational pull is so powerful that nothing not even light can come out again after it has crossed the hole 's threshold , known as the `` event horizon . '' Within this singular object , normal time and space come to a halt . The known laws of physics do not apply . Everything trapped inside that one-way membrane , lost forever to the rest of the universe , is by definition invisible detectable only by the violent and flamboyant energy of material on the verge of being consumed . The immense gravity of the black hole draws all nearby objects and material toward it , forming a whirlpool ( called an `` accretion disk '' ) that resembles water going down the bathtub drain . In this maelstrom , matter crowds in , collides , heats up and forms what Hubble saw as a pancake of gas around the hole , with high-speed jets of gas spewing from the disk near one or both `` poles '' of the hole . In recent years , increasingly sophisticated instruments gradually have piled up convincing evidence that these objects exist . But , Ford said , `` Skeptical colleagues were always clever enough to create computer models showing that some other explanation was possible . '' Now , said Bruce Margon of the University of Washington , `` We no longer have an alternative theory . '' `` All reasonable astronomers will be convinced '' said NASA astronomer Stephen Maran of Goddard Space Flight Center , who is also a spokesman for the American Astronomical Society . The `` smoking gun '' proof presented Wednesday was the measurement of the astounding velocity in the whirling disk of gas as it was sucked inward by the powerful gravity of the hole : At a distance of 60 light years out , it was whipping around at 1.2 million miles per hour . ( A light year is about 5.8 trillion miles ) . `` Once you get that measurement , all you need is straightforward Newtonian physics to calculate the mass of the central object that 's making the disk spin , '' says Harms . In a similar way , astronomers have measured the motions of the planets to determine the sun 's mass . M87 is a giant football-shaped collection of up to a trillion stars . It has fascinated astronomers since early in the century , when they detected a jet of hot ionized gas at least 4,000 light years long shooting from its core . Such a jet is now thought to be one signature of a black hole . The new observations show that the disk of whirling gas is positioned at a right angle to the jet , just as predicted . Theorist Edwin E. Salpeter of Cornell University , after seeing the new Hubble data , said , `` A black hole is now the least crazy model for what we 're seeing . '' Thirty years ago , Salpeter and a Russian astronomer independently wrote papers essentially predicting Wednesday 's findings . `` It 's good to finally win the bet , '' he added . Recent observations indicate that black holes may come in a variety of sizes and may live at the cores of many galaxies , including Earth 's home galaxy , the Milky Way . If Earth itself could collapse into a black hole , one astronomer suggested , it would be compressed to the size of a child 's marble . It there were material nearby for it to consume , the feeding frenzy would produce as much radiation as the sun . In fact , recent observations indicate that these powerhouses may be commonplace in the universe , existing in all sizes and throughout time . WASHINGTON The Hubble Space Telescope has confirmed for the first time the existence of a supermassive black hole , ending a decades-long quest for definitive proof , astronomers announced Wednesday . The orbiting observatory , with corrective lenses installed during a repair mission last December , for the first time was able to see clearly into the heart of the giant galaxy M87 , more than 50 million light-years away in the constellation Virgo , where astronomers have long suspected a monstrous black hole has lurking . The telescope revealed the details there so sharply that the observing team was able to `` weigh '' the object at the galaxy 's center with unexpected ease , the astronomers said . The key was a pancake-shaped disk of hot gas spinning around , and being consumed , by something at the center . Measurements of its velocity showed that the central object has a mass 2 billion to 3 billion times the mass of the sun , compressed into an area about the size of our solar system . `` If that isn't a black hole , I don't know what it is , '' said Holland Ford of Johns Hopkins University and the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore . He and Richard Harms of Applied Research Corp. in Landover , Md. , led the observing team and announced the findings Wednesday at NASA headquarters . The concept of a black hole was built , at first , purely on mathematical equations and imaginings of theorists . They envisioned a massive , collapsing object ( a star or group of stars ) whose gravitational pull is so powerful that nothing not even light can come out again after it has crossed the hole 's threshold , known as the `` event horizon . '' Within this singular object , normal time and space come to a halt . The known laws of physics do not apply . Everything trapped inside that one-way membrane , lost forever to the rest of the universe , is by definition invisible detectable only by the violent and flamboyant energy of material on the verge of being consumed . The immense gravity of the black hole draws all nearby objects and material toward it , forming a whirlpool ( called an `` accretion disk '' ) that resembles water going down the bathtub drain . In this maelstrom , matter crowds in , collides , heats up and forms what Hubble saw as a pancake of gas around the hole , with high-speed jets of gas spewing from the disk near one or both `` poles '' of the hole . In recent years , increasingly sophisticated instruments gradually have piled up convincing evidence that these objects exist . But , Ford said , `` Skeptical colleagues were always clever enough to create computer models showing that some other explanation was possible . '' Now , said Bruce Margon of the University of Washington , `` We no longer have an alternative theory . '' `` All reasonable astronomers will be convinced '' said NASA astronomer Stephen Maran of Goddard Space Flight Center , who is also a spokesman for the American Astronomical Society . The `` smoking gun '' proof presented Wednesday was the measurement of the astounding velocity in the whirling disk of gas as it was sucked inward by the powerful gravity of the hole : At a distance of 60 light years out , it was whipping around at 1.2 million miles per hour . ( A light year is about 5.8 trillion miles ) . `` Once you get that measurement , all you need is straightforward Newtonian physics to calculate the mass of the central object that 's making the disk spin , '' says Harms . In a similar way , astronomers have measured the motions of the planets to determine the sun 's mass . M87 is a giant football-shaped collection of up to a trillion stars . It has fascinated astronomers since early in the century , when they detected a jet of hot ionized gas at least 4,000 light years long shooting from its core . Such a jet is now thought to be one signature of a black hole . The new observations show that the disk of whirling gas is positioned at a right angle to the jet , just as predicted . Theorist Edwin E. Salpeter of Cornell University , after seeing the new Hubble data , said , `` A black hole is now the least crazy model for what we 're seeing . '' Thirty years ago , Salpeter and a Russian astronomer independently wrote papers essentially predicting Wednesday 's findings . `` It 's good to finally win the bet , '' he added . Recent observations indicate that black holes may come in a variety of sizes and may live at the cores of many galaxies , including Earth 's home galaxy , the Milky Way . If Earth itself could collapse into a black hole , one astronomer suggested , it would be compressed to the size of a child 's marble . It there were material nearby for it to consume , the feeding frenzy would produce as much radiation as the sun . In fact , recent observations indicate that these powerhouses may be commonplace in the universe , existing in all sizes and throughout time . WASHINGTON Poisoning by chemical-warfare agents is a likely cause of at least some cases of `` Gulf War syndrome , '' the illness that may afflict more than 10,000 veterans of the Persian Gulf War against Iraq , according to a Senate committee report released Wednesday . Pentagon officials , testifying before the Senate Banking Committee Wednesday , said that even though they have no evidence of gas attacks during the Gulf War , as-yet-unproved contact with chemical- or biological-warfare agents remains on the long list of possible causes of the mysterious malady . The 151-page report , prepared largely by the staff of Sen. Donald W. Riegle Jr. , D-Mich , who chairs the committee , builds a case for low-concentration exposure to chemical agents at levels below those causing mass death or unequivocal detection by mechanical sensors . The cluster of symptoms which include fatigue , concentration problems , joint pains and skin rashes are `` consistent with '' chronic exposure to these agents , particularly nerve gas , Riegle argued . `` I think the facts are now inescapable that ( chemical-weapons exposure ) is a significant amount of this problem , '' Riegle said during a day-long hearing . `` If the defense department is incapable of seeing this .. . the problem is going to get a lot worse . '' Representatives of the Department of Defense and the Central Intelligence Agency each testified they had no convincing evidence either from physical or intelligence sources that chemical or biological weapons had been used during the Gulf War . Under confrontational questioning by Riegle , however , no one was willing to absolutely guarantee that no exposure had occurred . `` The intelligence community has an expression : `` Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence ' , '' said John T. Kriese , chief officer for ground forces at the Defense Intelligence Agency . `` I cannot say there was no CW ( chemical warfare ) use or BW ( biological warfare ) contamination . From everything I know , my judgment is that it was not used . ( But ) I think it 's impossible to prove a negative . '' The reports of chemical-weapon contact that the U.S. military finds most credible were two made by Czech soldiers in mid-January 1991 . In the first , a gas alarm near the Port of Jubayl sounded and subsequent chemical testing demonstrated the presence of saran , a nerve gas . Several days later , soldiers detected liquid mustard agent in a small patch of desert sand near King Khalid Military City . American officials reviewed the chemical records , spoke to the soldiers and found these reports credible . But because no gas or sand samples were kept , independent confirmation of the Czech findings wasn't possible . Riegle 's office last September released a preliminary investigation of alleged gas attacks during the Gulf War . His staff extensively interviewed soldiers who believed they were gassed . The new report contains narratives of 16 of these events , which are often characterized by missile attacks followed by gas alarms , strange smells and various symptoms in the minutes before soldiers were fully suited in their protective gear . The report , which also carries the name of the banking committee 's ranking minority member , Sen. Alfonse M. D' Amato , R-N.Y. , contains details about chemical agents and sensing devices , a list of Iraq 's purchases of bacteria and viruses from American sellers in the 1980s ( when Iraq was fighting Iran ) ; other possible causes of Gulf War syndrome ; and theories to explain some of the many unanswered questions about the illness . Much of Wednesday 's hearing consisted of speculation by witnesses and interrogators about what scenarios in the absence of proof are least likely to be true . Riegle theorized that gas was released into the atmosphere after the bombing of Iraqi munitions dumps . It then drifted over coalition troops in concentrations that were undetectable , or only marginally detectable . Kriese responded : `` The question is where are the very sick people , the people with very high exposure ? '' After studying aerial photographs taken after bombing runs , `` we found no evidence of the deaths we would expect from local release of large amounts of material . '' There were about 1,400 chemical-sensor alarms among American troops . Gulf War veterans said many of these went off repeatedly and often during reported ( and sometimes disputed ) incoming SCUD missile attacks . Virtually none of the more sensitive devices used after these alarms sound confirmed the presence of gas . The military has concluded that essentially all the alarms were false alarms . `` No answers are being found as to where this body of sick veterans came from , '' said Sen. Robert Bennett , R-Utah . `` To say all the explosions were sonic booms and all the alarms were false alarms and all the illness is coming from some other source is just not going to cut it . '' Riegle was especially concerned about reports that some spouses of ailing Gulf veterans have also developed symptoms , including reproductive problems , and that some children may also be affected . No one theorized how transmission of low concentrations of chemical agents might be possible months after contamination and thousands of miles away . CULVER CITY , Calif. . Closing a celebrated chapter in aerospace history , the aircraft plant where Howard Hughes built the Spruce Goose five decades ago was scheduled to shut down Thursday afternoon . McDonnell Douglas Corp. has built helicopter parts in the plant 's cavernous centerpiece , Building 15 , since buying Hughes Aircraft Co. 's helicopter line in 1984 . But McDonnell has been shifting that work in recent years to its main helicopter site in Mesa , Ariz. , and its roughly 50 production workers still in Culver City are calling its quits when the final shift ends at 2 p.m. . `` It 's very sad for me , although all of us had known it was coming , '' said Betty Percival , who 's spent 21 years at the plant in administrative posts . `` I almost wish I hadn't seen this part . On the other hand , I wouldn't have left earlier . '' Hughes began construction of the plant in 1941 , and completed Building 15 in 1943 to accommodate construction of the Spruce Goose , an enormous wooden craft that was also known as the HK-1 Hercules Flying Boat and remains the biggest airplane ever built . More than two dozen other structures eventually were added to the 260-acre site . Some of the buildings including one that served as Howard Hughes ' private apartment already are empty and the plant 's 4,500-space parking lot is dotted with weeds . Hughes Aircraft 's original headquarters , once famed for its mahogany trimmed walls , also sits vacant and rotting 18 years after the billionaire 's death . McDonnell 's main administrative building on the plant is like a ghost town , its dozens of drab offices empty of people and telephones . Hundreds of typewriters , personal computers , desk lamps and chairs that once filled those rooms were auctioned off earlier this week . The factory floor in Building 15 is filled with idle metal stamping machines , drills , hydraulic presses and welding bays . Some are being put in crates for shipment to Arizona . Above , an enormous American flag still hangs from the building 's rafters . The plant , which once employed as many as 8,000 people , willn't be entirely vacated until the end of this year . Hughes Aircraft still inhabits two buildings at the site , where 700 workers make high-tech display screens for police cars and other electronic gear . But both McDonnell and Hughes are tenants on the property , with leases expiring at end of 1994 , and Hughes said its employees will leave by then as well . The property is part of a massive development project , that will transform the site into a community with housing , offices , stores and hotels . What happens to the plant now ? Nelson Rising , a senior partner at Maguire Thomas Partners , the developer , said the first phase calls for leaving the buildings there probably for at least five years and possibly leasing them to new tenants. . Eventually , `` the overall master plan calls for those ( buildings ) to be replaced as the market dictates , '' he said . But R.D. `` Rod '' Ayers , a plant manager who arrived there in 1969 , said that it would be a shame to tear down Building 15 . It `` is a historical site , '' Ayers said . `` The biggest aircraft in the whole world was built right in that building over there . '' The plant 's demise does end an unique era , because everything about the facility reinforced Howard Hughes ' legend as a bigger-than-life innovator . Building 15 , as long as 2 football fields and its ceiling eight stories high , was thought to be the world 's largest wooden structure when it was finished , according to Hal Klopper , a McDonnell public relations official and the plant 's unofficial historian . The Spruce Goose a label Hughes despised , because the plane actually was made mostly of birch was 218 feet long and 79 feet high . With Hughes at the controls , the aircraft made its first and only flight over Los Angeles Harbor in late 1947 . The plane later was kept on display in Long Beach , Calif. , then was moved to Oregon last year . BONN , Germany French President Francois Mitterrand , defending his apparent failure to investigate concentration camps in Bosnia after a top-level appeal , says that France did more and acted faster than any other country . In a letter to Newsday , presidential spokesman Jean Musitelli Wednesday implicitly acknowledged the charge against Mitterrand of `` silence and inaction '' for at least five weeks in the summer of 1992 . But he added more fuel to a politically volatile issue by turning the charge around and suggesting that it also applied to the Bosnian leaders who made it . Newsday reported earlier this month that Mitterrand failed to order an investigation or any other follow-up . A two-page statement by the French presidency last Friday in response to the Newsday account did not dispute the essential points . Indeed , the Elysee Palace acknowledged that France undertook no action until early August 1992 , when Mitterrand demanded that every camp be `` visited , monitored and opened . '' In mid-August , it noted , Mitterrand sent Humanitarian Affairs Minister Bernard Kouchner to inspect camps in Bosnia . `` Who did better and who acted quicker ? '' the Elysee statement said . In fact , no government , including the United States , took action to uncover and halt the atrocities for weeks until a groundswell of public opinion led to a series of resolutions at the U.N. . Security Council . Most of these resolutions have not been implemented , however . `` Concerning the Americans , to be charitable , let us not speak of them , '' Musitelli said . France 's European partners were reluctant to act , and there was no will at the United Nations , he said . Mitterrand went to Sarajevo to `` bear witness with his solidarity , to shake the world 's consciousness and to permit President ( Alija ) Izetbegovic to speak before the world media . '' The controversy emerged after the screening of `` Bosna ! '' ( Bosnia ! ) , a documentary film directed by French philospher Bernard-Henri Levy that is fiercely critical of official French policy favoring partition of Bosnia-Herzegovina . Izetbegovic related in the film that in June 1992 , taking advantage of the French leader 's sudden dramatic trip to Sarajevo , he had personally briefed his visitor about massacres of civilians and deportations to camps . The Bosnian leader appealed to Mitterrand in public to send monitors to determine the truth of the allegations . During the five weeks between Mitterrand 's Sarajevo visit on June 28 , 1992 , and Newsday 's publication Aug. 2 of an account of systematic atrocities , thousands of civilians were massacred in camps , according to a new U.N. study . Levy has demanded a change of policy and threatened to organize an independent slate of candidates for the European parliamentary elections next month . Such a slate , favoring direct aid to the Bosnian government , would split Mitterrand 's socialists and cut into the conservative government 's list as well . Mitterrand , forced to defend an unpopular policy , criticized the news media , other Western countries and , as well as the Bosnian government . In the film , Izetbegovic expressed `` great surprise '' that , after briefing Mitterrand on the camps , the French president `` remained silent '' upon returning to Paris . Mitterrand 's spokesman , in a letter to Newsday Wednesday , accused the Bosnian government of doing the same thing . `` How do you explain that the Bosnian leaders , who now reproach Francois Mitterrand for his silence and inaction '' in the summer of 1992 , `` remained , it seems to me , silent and inactive themselves during this period ? '' Musitelli said . Musitelli did not indicate any disagreement with his own characterization of Mitterrand 's response as `` silence and inaction . '' He repeated a suggestion carried five days earlier in the Elysee statement that the news media also failed to pursue the same tips Mitterrand had received on the existence of concentration camps . `` To say that the president of the republic would have been the only one to obtain that exclusive information stated by Mr. Izetbegovic is an absurdity , '' the Elysee statement said . It said Izetbegovic mentioned concentration camps during the joint news appearance with Mitterrand June 28 after their private meeting . `` If that information was new , how can one explain that it did not arouse more interest from the media which were there ? '' ( In fact , international news media had little access to most Serb-controlled territory until July 13 , 1992 , when Newsday became the first foreign publication to reach Banja Luka , the main city in the Serb-conquered areas of Bosnia . Newsday published its first account about purported Serbian death camps July 19 , 1992 , and two weeks later , after locating witnesses , reported on systematic killing in the camps . ) The Elysee statement alleged that the Bosnian government did not even circulate a list of concentration camps until Aug. 5 . In fact , according to a U.N. investigation , the Bosnian government handed a list of more than 100 camps to U.N. military officials in Sarajevo July 26 and it was transmitted immediately to the Security Council . That was only the latest of many lists that had been issued in the form of government bulletins and broadcast on Sarajevo radio since late May 1992 . Asked to explain the discrepancy in the dates , Muriel de Pierrebourg , Mitterrand 's press attache , told Newsday : `` We have published the communique . For us the matter is finished . '' She declined to say whether France had been aware of the official Bosnian statements . ( Optional add end ) Musitelli said in his letter to Newsday that the essence of the matter lies `` not in precise dates or details . '' The essence was `` the absurdity of the thesis which consists of making Francois Mitterrand responsible , through his silence , for the delay in the discovery of the camps . '' Newsday asked the Elysee in early May to determine whether Mitterrand , on his return from Sarajevo in 1992 , had ordered the French government to investigate Izetbegovic 's allegations or had informed fellow Western leaders . De Pierrebourg said she had no answer to this question . `` We have told the truth , everything we know , everything we are able to reconstruct , '' she said . WASHINGTON Amid an embattled chairman of the Ways and Means Committee , lawmakers who can't get together and an American public still not banging down legislators ' doors for action , President Clinton visited Capitol Hill Wednesday to inject some political muscle into the health care debate . `` I was urging the position that I strongly feel we must pass health care this year , '' Clinton said after the first of three meetings . `` I think we must find a way to cover all Americans . '' Clinton put on a full-court press Wednesday , bringing key staffers and Cabinet members to the hill . While he told reporters he received a `` very heartening progress report '' from Democratic leaders , senators at a bipartisan session later said he got a frank and candid assessment of the obstacles facing reform . `` It 's obvious there remains substantial diagreements over how to best proceed , '' Majority Leader George Mitchell , D-Maine , said after the session . But he said it also was `` obvious there 's a growing desire to get something done . '' Sen. Bob Packwood , R-Ore. , who has been working closely with Sen. Daniel Moynihan , D-N.Y. , chairman of the Finance Committee , to get a bipartisan accord , said after the meeting : `` I said Mr . President , I support mandates . I will support mandates . But if this bill had mandates it will lose . '' While Democratic leaders and the White House downplayed the meetings as just pre-recess updates , administration officials are privately concerned that Congress will recess for Memorial Day without meeting the goal of at least one major committee completing its work on a health care bill . The House Ways and Means Committee whose chairman , Rep. Daniel Rostenkowski , D-Ill. , is embroiled in legal troubles that threaten his very tenure in the House is still haggling with the Congressional Budget Office over the costs of the various health plan scenarios . The House Energy and Commerce Committee is deadlocked and the Senate Finance Committee , while apparently approaching agreement , has still not begun to debate any specific bill . And while the Senate Labor and Human Resources Committee is well under way in considering a Clinton-like plan proposed by its chairman , Sen. Edward M. Kennedy , D-Mass. , that committee willn't complete its work until sometime in June . At the same time , health care advocates are worried that whatever emerges from this process will be a watered-down version of the original Clinton proposal . And they realize that they still have some work to do to get the average American energized over this issue . `` My own feeling is that the American people have to speak up more , '' said John Rother , chief lobbyist for the American Association of Retired Persons and head of a broad-based coalition in favor of reform . The trouble , Rother said , is that `` people don't know what 's going to happen if we don't have reform . '' ( Optional add end ) Rep. Pete Stark , D-Calif. , chairman of the Ways and Means health subcommittee , agreed . `` The fact is , 150 million people have a health care plan , '' Stark said at a health reporters ' breakfast this week . `` The worry of health care for the majority of Americans is an economic worry and as the economy gets a little better , they may feel a little better about their health care . '' Clinton had originally planned to meet only with Democrats first with Senate Democratic leaders and then the full House Democratic caucus . But Mitchell prevailed on the president Wednesday to add a session that included Senate Republican leaders . Asked whether she could support alternatives that would reform many aspects of the insurance industry , first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton said : `` It is absolutely clear to me that we need to make a lot of the reforms that are being mentioned . But in the absence of a definite plan that will achieve universal coverage , those are not enough . '' Want to buy a sexy car that offers loads of `` fahrvergnugen ? '' Consider a VW Cabrio . Want to buy one that 's more pedestrian but more likely to be there intact when you emerge from the mall ? Buy a sensible , practical , Chevrolet Cavalier station wagon . Apparently , that Chevy model is about as popular among thieves as a cop with a flashlight . The Highway Loss Data Institute , an insurance industry trade group , said in its annual auto theft report that the VW convertible had the highest rate of theft claims , based on payments by insurance companies between 1991 and 1993 for 1991 through 1993 models . The claims include those for thefts of entire cars and for parts , such as radios , air bags and hood ornaments . In VW 's case , said Kim Hazelbaker , senior vice president of the insurance group , the high claim rate is due mostly to the theft of radios , a longstanding problem in VWs that apparently , said Hazelbaker , is made worse by the limited security of a convertible . Hazelbaker hastened to point out that the report 's conclusions do not apply to the redesigned , 1995 VW Cabrio introduced earlier this month . VW spokesman Andy Boyd in Auburn Hills , Mich. , says neither the radio nor its mounting system was changed , but that a factory anti-theft alarm now is standard . The Cavalier wagon had the lowest theft claim frequency . Why the wagon and not the mechanically similar coupe , sedan or convertible models ? Probably , says Hazelbaker , because the wagon is more likely to be put to bed at night in a safe suburban garage . Whatever the reason , the Cavalier wagon 's days are numbered . It will be discontinued at the end of the current model year . A redesigned Cavalier line due in the fall will not include a wagon . Whatever you drive , though , there was some good news from the insurance folks : The frequency of claims overall for '93 models was the lowest in history about one-fourth that for 1979 models in their first year , said Hazelbaker . `` Clearly , '' he said , `` anti-theft devices have had some impact and so has increased public awareness of the problem , particularly because of carjackings . '' Unfortunately , the group said , the average claim is now four times as high as it was in 1979 , because cars , parts and repairs are more expensive now . WASHINGTON Ending months of intense debate within the administration , President Clinton will propose making it easier for states to deny additional benefits to women who have children while already on welfare , senior administration officials say . The decision aligns Clinton with those inside and outside the administration who argue that government must intensify its efforts to discourage out-of-wedlock births , which now constitute roughly 30 percent of all births in America . `` We think it is very important to discourage additional births on welfare , '' said one senior official . `` We are saying that states that want to try this approach should be able to try it . '' But the so-called `` family cap '' policy inspires even more intense opposition among liberals than the proposed two-year time limit on welfare that is at the center of Clinton 's plan , which is now expected to be introduced shortly after he returns from commemorating the 50th anniversary of D-Day in Europe next month . Given its potential to affect the most intimate decisions of millions of women , the family cap issue is certain to provoke a polarized struggle in Congress . Many moderate and conservative legislators see the family cap as a way to promote personal responsibility , while liberals largely denounce it as racist and sexist social engineering . No other proposal may more starkly demonstrate the difficulty of finding common ground between left and right on the emotional issues swirling through welfare reform . `` This is clearly one where there are very deep feelings on both sides of the issue , and apart from the families it directly affects , it has a large symbolic impact , '' said Mark Greenberg , an attorney with the Center for Law and Social Policy in Washington . In fact , although Clinton settled on the new policy at a Tuesday meeting , administration officials still appear divided over how closely to identify with the controversial idea . Some officials take pains to say the administration does not intend to push states to adopt family cap policies , merely to smooth the way for those interested in the idea . One agency official lukewarm to the policy insisted the decision left the administration `` neutral '' on the question of whether more states should adopt the caps . But other senior officials acknowledge that by streamlining the approval process and signaling at least tacit federal support for the family cap , the administration plan will inevitably encourage more states to embrace the idea . Outside observers agree . ( Begin optional trim ) `` The notion of states trying different approaches and learning what we can from those different approaches makes enormous common sense and political sense , '' said Delaware Gov. Thomas R. Carper , a Democrat , who presented the administration proposals to a closed session of the National Governors ' Association executive board Wednesday . `` That flexibility on the part of the administration is likely to draw support from many of us in the NGA . '' It is a sign of how far the welfare reform debate has shifted over the past year that the family cap that Clinton will propose while anathema to liberal advocacy groups occupies a middle ground among the competing efforts to discourage out-of-wedlock births . As a presidential candidate , Clinton declared that he would allow states to experiment with the family cap proposal although he declined to sign such a law when he was governor of Arkansas . The administration plan reflects that perspective . It would not require states to impose a family cap , but it would allow them to implement such policies without federal approval , sources said . Under current law , states cannot implement such policies without waivers from the Health and Human Services department , a process that can take months and require extensive negotiations . Only three states have received federal approval for a family cap plan . The Bush administration approved a proposal from New Jersey , and the Clinton administration has approved plans in Georgia and Arkansas . Applications are pending from California , Maryland and Wisconsin . ( End optional trim ) In Congress , which must approve Clinton 's proposal , a fierce ideological cross fire over the family cap idea has already erupted . Many moderate and conservative legislators are pushing for sterner measures to discourage out-of-wedlock births . The principal House Republican reform bill would require states to deny additional benefits to women who have children while they are on the rolls , unless the state passes a law specifically providing such benefits . A group of House Democratic moderates led by Rep. Dave McCurdy , D-Okla. , has introduced identical legislation . `` The administration proposal is still short of what I think is required , but they could have done worse , '' McCurdy said . `` We have to , as a nation , start to remove the incentive for out-of-wedlock , illegitimate , births . '' A competing Republican welfare reform proposal introduced by conservative legislators in both houses and backed by leading conservative activists , including Jack F. Kemp and William J. Bennett would require family caps without allowing states to exempt themselves . In the name of further reducing illegitimate births , both Republican bills would also cut off all welfare payments to unmarried young mothers . On the other hand , the family cap is pointedly absent in liberal welfare reform plans introduced last week by Rep. Robert T. Matsui , D-Calif. , and Wednesday , with 42 co-sponsors , by Rep. Patsy T . Mink ( D-Hawaii ) . Internal administration opponents of the plan still hold out the hope that Clinton will trade away the family cap as a means of broadening liberal support for the overall initiative . Liberal legislators and welfare advocacy groups regard the family cap as a mean-spirited effort that punishes the children of recipients in an effort to change their parents ' behavior . Advocates also contend that family caps pander to the stereotype that welfare recipients bear more children to sweeten their welfare checks . In fact , they say , welfare mothers typically receive only $ 57 more a month for a new child , while 72 percent of welfare families have two children or less , according to federal statistics . ( Optional add end ) Early results in New Jersey , the only state that has actually implemented a family cap , show that births have declined among welfare mothers since the policy went into place . But it remains uncertain whether those numbers reflect the cap 's impact , a general decline in child-bearing in the state , or a decreased willingness among welfare recipients to report new births . The American Civil Liberties Union and the National Organization for Women are challenging the New Jersey plan in federal court , arguing that the policy violates the privacy rights of welfare recipients . Despite those objections , family cap supporters , which have included Democratic and minority legislators as well as conservatives , consider it an essential component of efforts to discourage long-term welfare dependency . `` It 's hard enough to escape welfare with one child , and each additional child makes it that much more difficult to stay in training or hold down work , '' said the senior administration official . Still , the official said , the administration did not consider the evidence from New Jersey decisive enough to require states to adopt the family cap . `` The early results from New Jersey show some promise but it 's too early to tell for sure what they mean , '' said the official . `` That 's the reason for not mandating it nationwide . '' NEW YORK A new study strongly suggests that the United States ' brokerage firms collude with one another to rig over-the-counter trading and ensure themselves artificially high trading profits at the expense of investors . The study by two business professors examined price data for the stocks of 100 large companies traded on the NASDAQ market for over-the-counter stocks , and is believed to be the first to examine such price data in great detail . It came up with the seemingly bizarre finding that for 71 of these stocks including such giant companies as Apple Computer and Lotus Development prices were almost never posted on NASDAQ in `` odd eighths '' such as 22 1/8 , 22 3/8 , 22 5/8 and 22 7/8 . As a result , the spread between `` bid '' and `` asked '' prices in effect , the profit the brokerage firm makes on each share traded was almost never less than a quarter of a point , or 25 cents per share . The study , most of which was immediately condemned by NASDAQ , comes as criticism of the fairness of over-the-counter trading has escalated in recent months . It also comes at a time of fierce rivalry between the highly computerized NASDAQ system and exchanges such as the New York Stock Exchange and American Stock Exchange . NASDAQ has used fairness and efficiency as a key point of its marketing . The authors of the study Vanderbilt University business professor William Christie and Ohio State University business professor Paul Schultz made copies of their study available Wednesday . Christie said it was accepted for publication in the next issue of Journal of Finance , due out in about six months . The journal is the official publication of the American Finance Association , an organization of professors who specialize in economics , business and finance . The study initially examined data for the full year 1991 , and then went back and confirmed the same results for 1994 to date , according to Christie . Richard G. Ketchum , chief operating officer of the National Association of Securities Dealers , which operates NASDAQ , in an interview did not dispute that the 71 stocks almost never trade at spreads narrower than 25 cents . But he said there were legitimate reasons . He said the study `` is irresponsible and in fact we believe it is slanderous . '' The authors emphasized that they have no conclusive proof of collusion , which would violate securities laws . But after analyzing and rejecting other possible explanations , they stated `` we are unable to offer any other plausible explanation for the lack of odd-eighth quotes . '' ( Optional add end ) They noted that in rare instances when the stocks were quoted at such prices , the prices typically were posted for less than two minutes before being removed . The authors noted that there were several ways dealers could punish maverick rivals who tried to narrow the spread , including the diversion of trades . In an interview , Christie said he believes the Securities and Exchange Commission should launch an investigation of OTC trading . Brandon Becker , the SEC 's head of market regulation , could not immediately be reached for comment late Wednesday . Wall Street firms that are large `` market makers '' in OTC stocks Wednesday did not seem eager to comment on the charge of price collusion . A spokesman for Merrill Lynch , the nation 's largest brokerage firm , said the firm had no comment . Prudential Securities and Smith Barney Shearson also did not respond to repeated calls seeking comment . In PLANT ( Peltz , Times ) sub for 8th graf ( Changing figures from 8,000 to 3,000 ) xxx building 's rafters : The plant , which once employed as many as 3,000 people , willn't be entirely vacated until the end of this year . PICK UP 9th graf : Hughes Aircraft xxx : Cigarette company lawyers for years ran a `` special projects '' division within the putatively independent Council for Tobacco Research , steering grants to favored scientists whose research might be used to defend the industry from legal attack , internal documents show . Documents from the files of Brown & Williamson Tobacco Co. show that top lawyers from the major cigarette companies during the 1970s and '80s made `` special project '' grants to scores of scientists and research organizations , bypassing a scientific advisory board of outside experts . `` The industry research effort has included special projects designed to find scientists and medical doctors who might serve as industry witnesses in lawsuits or in a legislative forum , '' said B&W general counsel Ernest Pepples in a 1978 memo to then company chairman Joseph E. Eden . Tobacco industry officials long have asserted the council 's independence from business and legal concerns , saying its grants are based on scientific merit alone . The claim has been central to the defense of smoker-death cases , in which industry lawyers have cited lavish support for the council as proof of an honest quest for knowledge about the effects of tobacco products . Neither Pepples nor officials of the Council for Tobacco Research , based in New York , could be reached for comment . However , Tom Fitzgerald , a spokesman for Brown & Williamson , said : `` We believe the Council for Tobacco Research operates with integrity and funds meritorious research by independent scientists who are then encouraged to publish it . '' Council materials are among reams of B&W documents recently provided to congressional tobacco foes Reps. Ron Wyden , D-Ore. , and Henry Waxman , D-Calif. , and to several news organizations , including the Los Angeles Times . B&W the No. 3 U.S. cigarette company , which markets Barclay , Kool and other brands says the documents were stolen by a former paralegal for a law firm that represents the company . The council will be the focus of a hearing Thursday before Waxman 's House subcommittee on health and environment . Originally called the Tobacco Industry Research Council , the CTR was the industry 's response to early studies linking smoking and lung cancer a linkage so unspeakable for tobacco executives that B&W 's parent , British-American Tobacco , for a time used the code word `` ZEPHYR '' to describe the disease . The council was launched in 1954 with ads in 448 U.S. newspapers . Under the heading , `` A Frank Statement to Cigarette Smokers , '' the tobacco companies proclaimed : `` We accept an interest in people 's health as a basic responsibility , paramount to every other consideration in our business . '' According to the announcement , the research council would get at the truth of the health allegations by investigating `` all phases of tobacco use and health . '' An advisory panel of experts `` disinterested in the cigarette industry '' would screen research proposals for scientific merit . In the years since , the body has provided more than $ 223 million in research grants , according to the council 's 1993 annual report . The new disclosures are not the first to raise questions about the council . Tobacco foes in the past have denounced it as a public relations ploy meant to promote the fiction of a continuing debate on the health effects of smoking . In a candid 1974 memo introduced in a trial over the death several years ago of a New Jersey smoker , the research director of Lorillard Inc. acknowledged : `` Historically , the joint industry-funded smoking and health research programs hve been selected .. . for various purposes , such as public relations , political relations , position for litigation , etc . '' But the newly leaked papers provide the most detailed information yet on the council 's role in industry legal strategy . The documents include dozens of letters from attorneys with two big industry law firms Shook , Hardy & Bacon in Kansas City , Mo. ; and Jacob , Medinger & Finnegan in New York seeking approval of CTR `` special project '' grants for various researchers . The letters were sent to Pepples and top lawyers for the other big cigarette companies . At least some of the `` special project '' grants went to researchers studying alternative explanations for high rates of heart disease and lung cancer among smokers . Lawyers for Shook , Hardy and Jacob , Medinger declined to discuss details of the special project grants , although Shook , Hardy attorney Gary Long said the research was not secret and grantees were allowed to publish their findings . The documents show that at least one researcher rejected for regular funding from the council turned to the lawyers instead . According to the papers , after Louisiana State University researcher Dr. Henry Rothschild was turned down in 1981 , industry lawyers granted CTR special project funding for his research on genetic and environmental factors in lung cancer . Rothschild later testified for the industry before Congress , according to the documents , which include a 1978 journal article , co-authored by Rothschild , that criticized as dubious such advice from doctors as `` the complete elimination of cigarettes . '' `` I don't think there were any restrictions placed on what we found , '' Rothschild said in a telephone interview Wednesday when asked about his special project funding . `` There was no quid pro quo . '' ( Begin optional trim ) A perennial recipient of special project funds was Carl C. Seltzer , formerly of the Harvard University School of Public Health . The documents include four newspaper clippings and four television news transcripts chronicling a trip to Australia in May 1979 , in which Seltzer 's view that smoking does not cause heart disease was widely quoted . `` Reports from colleagues in Australia and New Zealand indicate that Dr. Seltzer 's visit ` was a great success , ' ' ' said a Shook , Hardy lawyer in a letter to Pepples . `` The CTR supported all kinds of research , '' including research `` contrary to the interests of the tobacco companies , '' Seltzer , now semi-retired , said in a telephone interview Wednesday . `` I think that 's a very important thing . '' ( End optional trim ) Tobacco foes said the disclosures debunk industry claims about the council . `` It 's an amazing situation , because to have a group of lawyers basically selecting scientific research .. . completely goes against the normal process by which scientific investigations are conducted , '' said Stanton Glantz , a University of California , San Francisco medical professor and longtime industry critic . The documents , he said , `` really reveal that the CTR as it was presented to the public was just a sham . '' WASHINGTON Astronomers peering through the Hubble Space Telescope at the core of a giant galaxy 50 million light years from Earth say they have found the first conclusive evidence for the existence of a super-massive `` black hole '' an object with gravity so huge it traps everything that comes near , even light . National Aeronautics and Space Administration officials Wednesday called the discovery Hubble 's `` most significant so far , '' and among NASA 's most important ever . As big as 2 billion to 3 billion suns packed into a region as wide as our solar system , the huge black hole lurks at the core of the M87 galaxy , one of 1,000 galaxies clustered in the constellation Virgo . `` If it isn't a black hole , then I don't know what it is , '' said Johns Hopkins University astronomer Holland Ford , a co-investigator on the project . Ford has pursued the discovery since 1979 . When conclusive data arrived May 5 at the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore , he said , `` we were all walking about a foot off the ground. .. . It 's finally a lot of fun . '' First theorized 30 years ago , black holes are believed to form from the collapsed atomic rubble of stars , dust and gas . Since no light or other signals escapes from their gravitational grip , they disclose nothing directly of their nature . And until Hubble was repaired in December , no telescope has been able to see deep enough into any galaxy to disclose what might lie near its core . The presence of the black hole in M87 was finally indicated by the speed of hot gas swirling in toward the galaxy 's center , accelerating like suds into a bathtub drain . Hubble 's instruments clocked the gas 60 light years from the center at 1 million mph fast enough to cross the United States in seven seconds . ( A light year is the distance light travels in one year , or about 5.9 trillion miles . Sixty light years is about four times the distance from the Earth to the nearest star , Alpha Centauri . ) ( Begin optional trim ) Nothing but the gravitational attraction of something at M87 's core with a mass of 2 billion to 3 billion suns could prevent matter at that speed from flying off in all directions . The only candidate within the confines of today 's physics that meets that description , the scientists said , is a super-massive black hole . `` This is a tremendous breakthrough , '' said Dr. Daniel Weedman , NASA 's director of astrophysics . A longtime black hole skeptic , he is now a convert . `` I do believe there is a supermassive black hole at the center of ( M87 ) , '' he said . Weedman called the black hole discovery Hubble 's `` most significant so far , ( and ) very close to the top of ( NASA 's ) most significant discoveries . '' Proof of the existence of black holes at the cores of galaxies was one of the primary goals established for the Hubble telescope at its launch in April 1990 . But its mirror flaw delayed the observations until this year . ( End optional trim ) Last February , barely 30 days after the Hubble telescope resumed gathering scientific data , it took its first picture of the core of M87 . To astronomers ' astonishment , it disclosed a surprisingly well-ordered , spiraling `` pancake '' of hot gas just what they needed to measure its speed . On May 5 , they got their first speed measurements from Hubble 's Faint Object Spectrograph . Gas on one side of the spiral was rushing toward Earth at 1 million mph ; gas on the other side was rushing away at the same speed . `` We nailed it . We knew we had it , '' said Richard J . Harms , the spectrograph 's principal investigator . Hubble scientists will now continue their pursuit . They will peer deeper into M87 for more data on the black hole there , and into other galaxies to see whether they , too , have black holes at their centers . ( Begin optional trim ) Astrophysicists don't know how super-massive black holes are created , or whether they are a cause or effect of giant galaxies like M87 . They may form from the merger of smaller black holes . Although the oldest stars in M87 are nearly as old as the universe itself 12 to 15 billion years Harms said the age of M87 's black hole is unknown . Its internal structure , if it has any , can never be known because no light or anything else can ever emerge to reveal it . One structure they can see is a giant , braided jet of hot gas that is spewing from near the center of M87 at right angles to the spiral of infalling gas . The fast-moving jet is believed to be debris from the destruction of stars entering the black hole . ( End optional trim ) The black hole 's ultimate fate is unknown . It could eventually consume the entire M87 galaxy , and even other galaxies that blunder within range . `` Earth is in no immediate danger , '' quipped University of Washington astronomer Bruce Margon , who helped designed the Faint Object Spectrograph . While M87 's black hole `` has an infinite appetite , '' said Harms , `` it can't hunt . '' UNITED NATIONS U.N. Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali Wednesday called the international response to Rwanda 's ethnic bloodletting a `` failure '' and a `` scandal '' for which the United Nations and leading countries in the West and Africa share responsibility . `` It is genocide which has been committed . More than 200,000 people have been killed , and the world is still discussing what ought to be done , '' Boutros-Ghali said . `` It is a scandal . I am the first one to say it , and I am ready to repeat it . '' Boutros-Ghali vented his frustration at a news conference after pleading for weeks to Western and African governments for soldiers and equipment to provide a 5,500-troop peacekeeping force for the central African nation that since April 6 has been reduced to bloody chaos by a civil war and by tribal conflict . The Rwandan crisis , and the unwillingness in world capitals to dispatch troops to help resolve it , have highlighted a broad retreat from activism through the United Nations extending well beyond the United States after ambitious , costly and criticized U.N. operations in Somalia and Bosnia . In that vein , Boutros-Ghali 's comments illustrated the difference between his view of the United Nations as a political first-aid agency that must rush to help ailing nations , and the Clinton administration 's new concept that a long list of safety conditions must be in place before the United Nations should intervene . The United Nations has received commitments from just three countries Ghana , Ethiopia and Senegal for a total of 2,100 troops for a Rwanda peacekeeping force . The Security Council voted May 16 to set up the force , but the United States cast some doubt on the mission by insisting that the council review the decision before the bulk of the troops are deployed . Boutros-Ghali attributed the lax response to `` fatigue '' among U.N. member states , which are already supporting 17 peacekeeping operations . Many major donor countries are facing economic difficulties , he said , and `` public opinion is not helping the different governments . '' The U.N. secretary general turned to the Organization of African Unity for help , but the regional bloc was unable to mobilize a collective response . Many African governments are plagued by economic hardships and political strife . Boutros-Ghali said he also hopes to receive troop commitments from Egypt , Zimbabwe and Nigeria . But U.N. officials said these troops do not have the minimum weapons and equipment they need , and it remains unclear how they will travel to and within Rwanda . Boutros-Ghali said he met in South Africa earlier this month with six heads of state attending President Nelson Mandela 's inauguration . `` I begged them to send troops. . . . Unfortunately-let me say with great humility-I failed , '' he said . After talks in South Africa with Vice President Gore , Boutros-Ghali reached a compromise with the United States over the peacekeepers ' purpose . They will be deployed in Kigali , the Rwandan capital , as Boutros-Ghali had insisted , and in border areas outside Rwanda to protect and feed refugees , as the United States proposed . `` The mandate is limited , '' Boutros-Ghali said , adding that the peacekeepers , when they get to Rwanda , will try to `` contain the deterioration '' and serve and reinforce the position of U.N. negotiators trying to secure a cease-fire . The secretary general pleaded for the world not to be put off by the lack of success in some U.N. missions . The United Nations , he said , `` is like going to the hospital . You can't say , I don't want to take this case . There is a moral responsibility . '' The Clinton administration , in policy guidelines published early this month , insisted that a cease-fire must be in place and that troops and resources must already have been pledged for a peacekeeping mission before the United States would support it . At a special session in Geneva Wednesday , the U.N. Commission on Human Rights appointed a law professor from Ivory Coast , Rene Degni Segui , to investigate the `` root causes and responsibilities for the atrocities '' in Rwanda and ordered him to report his findings to Boutros-Ghali within a month . ANNAPOLIS , Md. . As both hands gripped his gleaming U.S. . Naval Academy diploma Wednesday , Christopher Paul Slattery leaped off the stadium stage with a yelp of glee and high-fives for fellow graduates . For Slattery and 867 other academy graduates at the U.S. Navy Marine Corps Memorial Stadium , it was a day of both joy and relief joy at surviving the school 's brutal academic and physical regimen and relief at the prospect of putting behind them 17 months of scandal and tragedy . `` This is what we 've all looked forward to for about 1,200 days , '' said Slattery , a computer science major from Essex Junction , Vt. . `` As a class , we 've put it behind us . It 's been dealt with thoroughly , and the think the whole school learned a lot from it . '' Since the middle of their junior year , Slattery and his classmates have felt the glare of international media attention in the wake of the worst cheating scandal in the school 's 149-year history . When it ended , 88 classmates had been found guilty of participating in the theft , distribution and sale of an electrical engineering exam in December 1992 . Twenty-four midshipmen were expelled , and 64 received lesser punishments-including late graduation . Little mention was made of the Class of 1994 's tribulations at the commencement , held on a sticky-hot day that forced many of the 23,500 people in the stadium to use programs and paper hats to shield themselves from the sun . At the beginning of his speech , President Clinton forgave graduates who had broken academy rules , but he stressed that his forgiveness encompassed only minor offenses and did not include cheating . Later , he briefly mentioned the cheating incident and urged graduates to move beyond it . `` You have my confidence , '' he said . `` You have America 's confidence . '' A smiling Clinton later shook the hand of every graduate as the men and women filed onto the stage for nearly an hour to receive their diplomas . Beyond the cheating scandal , this graduating class has been rocked by tragedy . Last December , an academy graduate fatally shot his former fiancee and her boyfriend who both also attended the academy before killing himself at the U.S. . Naval Amphibious Base in Coronado , Calif. . Less than a week later , three midshipmen died when a car in which they were passengers slammed into a fallen tree near Annapolis . The weight of those six deaths and the spectre of the scandal couldn't be fully shaken by graduates , many of whom had friends who were either expelled or faced late graduations and other punishments for their roles in the incident . Slattery said he was a friend of Max Lane , a football player who was expelled for his part in the scandal . Lane , an offensive lineman , was selected in the National Football League draft last April . `` As much as it hurts not to have some friends here , the honor code is really important to what this academy is all about , '' Slattery said . Karen Heine , of Crofton , Md. , said she has gotten used to frequent questions from friends and acquaintances about the scandal . Yet Heine , who has dreamed since childhood of graduating from the academy , said the cloud over her class would not taint her memories . Heine , a systems engineering major who is the highest ranking woman in her class , said she too knows people who were involved in the incident , but feels `` detached . I don't feel angry at them . Everyone makes mistakes , and people pay the consequences of their mistakes . '' WASHINGTON Despite prior claims by Pentagon officials that there were no Iraqi chemical weapons near the Persian Gulf war battlefields , a senior U.S. military-intelligence official testified before Congress Wednesday that U.S. troops conducted operations near an Iraqi chemical-weapons storage site . During a Senate Banking Committee hearing on the causes of health problems suffered by veterans of the war , Undersecretary of Defense Edwin Dorn echoed past statements by other senior Pentagon officials , including Deputy Defense Secretary John Deutch , and said that `` no chemical or biological weapons were found in the Kuwait theater of operations .. . among the tons of live and spent munitions recovered following the war . '' But in subsequent testimony Wednesday , Dr. John Kriese , chief officer for ground forces at the Defense Intelligence Agency , said Dorn 's statement should have been removed from his prepared statement because a stockpile of Iraqi chemical weapons was indeed discovered near an area where U.S. troops were located . Specifically , Kriese said the Iraqi chemical-weapons depot was near the Kuwaiti border , across a desert river , within 17 miles of U.S. positions . The revelation came as the committee 's chairman , Sen. Donald Riegle Jr. , D-Mich. , released a 160-page report concluding that compelling anecdotal evidence exists showing that U.S. and allied troops were exposed to harmful levels of chemical and possibly biological contaminants during the Persian Gulf war . The report also said that several years before the war , the U.S. government shipped materials to Iraq that its leader , Saddam Hussein , used to develop chemical weapons . Chemical weapons appear to have been used on allied troops , many of whom subsequently developed multiple health problems collectively known as Persian Gulf War syndrome , Riegle said . Riegle Wednesday called for the Pentagon to fully disclose all it knows about the use of chemical and biological weapons during the war . He estimated that `` tens of thousands '' of the nearly 700,000 gulf war vets are suffering symptoms of the syndrome , including thousands of personnel still on active duty . What 's more , there 's a `` strong possibility '' that the syndrome has been transferred by the vets to their spouses and children , Riegle said , adding that some of the veterans appear to be sick because of the aftereffects of nerve-gas vaccines administered by the military . ( Begin optional trim ) People who say they are afflicted with the syndrome have experienced a variety of ills including muscle spasms , joint pain , gastrointenstinal problems , chronic flu-like symptoms , respiratory difficulties , gynecological infections , bleeding gums , rashes and vomiting . Dorn , Kriese and Dr. Theodore Prociv , assistant secretary of defense for chemical/biological matters , testified that they have not ruled out the possibility that U.S. troops were harmed by chemical or biological weapons in Iraq . Dorn also released a joint letter signed by Secretary of Defense William Perry and Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman John Shalikashvili and dated Wednesday promising that all those affected would receive medical treatment . ( End optional trim ) Still , the officials said they have found no concrete evidence suporting Riegle 's contention that the Iraqis probably used chemical or biological weapons in the war or that plumes of contaminated smoke and fallout from chemical production facilities bombed by the allies wafted over U.S. positions , poisoning U.S. troops . Dorn also said the Pentagon knows of only about 2,000 people `` for whom a clear diagnosis continues to elude physicians . '' Final count on the fall schedule changes 22 hours of new programs , including l5 dramas , 13 situation comedies and one newsmagazine . NBC is replacing seven hours , Fox six , CBS five and ABC four . All but Fox , which airs just 15 hours a week , carry 22 hours of primetime a week . -0- Angela Lansbury is recuperating at home after undergoing hip replacement surgery at Century City Hospital last week , just a couple of days after she completed taping of `` Murder , She Wrote '' for the season . Network spokesman Dennis Brown said the 68-year-old series star `` has had some problem with ( the hip ) but not to the extent that it impinged on her work . She knew that if she was going to deal with it this was the time to do it , the minute she went on hiatus '' . . . The actress will convalesce at her Los Angeles home for a few weeks before traveling to her summer home in Ireland . A network spokeswoman said Wednesday she 's `` doing fine '' and is expected back on the set when production on the series resumes in August . . -0- Jay Leno told the NBC affiliate meeting in Los Angeles earlier this week that he 's getting a new set out in Burbank . He said the `` Tonight Show 's '' recent trip to New York opened his eyes . `` For the last two years , I 've been doing another show . I 've been doing Johnny 's ( Carson 's ) show . There was something missing from the show , but I never knew what it was '' . In New York , he used a temporary set built in the `` Saturday Night Live '' studio that packed a smaller audience into a tighter space . `` The audience was half the size , but there was more energy , '' he told the executives . -0- Julie Moran , the host of ABC 's `` Wide World of Sports , '' has picked up a day job , signing with `` Entertainment Tonight '' as a New York-based correspondent and substitute anchor for Mary Hart , John Tesh , Leeza Gibbons and Bob Goen . She makes her ET hosting debut Thursday night as she sits in for Mary for the next three weeknight broadcasts , concluding Monday night . With the North American Free Trade Agreement now in effect , the annual meeting of U.S. and Mexican border state governors will begin in Phoenix Thursday with a strong undercurrent of competition , unlike the neighborly atmosphere of past gatherings . The Border Governor 's Conference begins as member states on both sides of the Rio Grande River are competing for billions of dollars in funds to finance a host of proposed NAFTA-related transportation and environmental projects . Those projects to be funded by the U.S. government and the World Bank translate into jobs and economic benefits that politicians everywhere lust after . Although the governors of California , Arizona , New Mexico and Texas and their six Mexican counterparts are accentuating their fraternity , their staff members admit the leaders intend to size up the competition for projects that range from a sewage treatment plant in San Diego , telecommunications links in Nogales , Ariz. , and interstate highway funds in Laredo , Texas . `` The battle will be who gets the money and who has the best proposals , '' said Rudy Fernandez , director of California-Mexico affairs in the state 's Trade and Commerce Agency . California may already have a competitive disadvantage , at least in generating cooperation from Mexican governors . That 's because Gov. Pete Wilson 's use of illegal immigration as a political issue has offended many Mexicans as well as Mexican-Americans , observers said . Wilson is scheduled to attend the conference . To fully maximize NAFTA-related business , the states have to build the infrastructure roads , bridges , sewers , environmental controls , border checkpoints and communications links to make themselves attractive to business . A big chunk of the federal aid targeted by the states was created by NAFTA itself . To get the trade bill past environmental interests in Congress , the U.S and Mexican governments agreed to fund billions of dollars in environmental projects funneled through a new North American Development Bank , or NADBank , headquartered in San Antonio . Making the decisions on which environmental projects to fund will be the new Border Environmental Cooperation Commission based in El Paso , Texas , also created by a side deal to NAFTA , which will be responsible for evaluating and prioritizing environmental project proposals . ( Optional add end ) Although Texas got most of the NAFTA bureaucracy and some jobs when it snared the headquarters offices of NADBank , BECC and three other NAFTA-related agencies , the project dollars are still very much up for grabs . On the Mexican side of the `` frontera , '' the six border states are positioning themselves for the competition for up to $ 5 billion in loans that the World Bank will make available for border infrastructure and environmental projects over the next several years , Among the major NAFTA-related projects under discussion in Mexico is a new deep water port in Guaymas , located in the Mexican state of Sonora about 250 miles south of the Arizona border city of Nogales . Because the port would stimulate its border traffic , Arizona officials strongly support the project and are cooperating with Mexican officials in its planning . WASHINGTON President Clinton made the rounds of Capitol Hill Wednesday to promote his health care agenda , offering a spoonful of conciliatory honey to Republican senators whose support he hopes to win , and following it with a dash of combative vinegar to stiffen the resolve of Democratic House members . Clinton , accompanied by a phalanx of top administration officials , held the series of closed meetings as a sendoff for Congress as it prepares to adjourn for its Memorial Day recess . For Democrats in particular , the weeklong break could be a time of intense pressure from constituents and interest groups at home . Clinton 's health care plan is encountering difficulties in all five congressional committees considering it . Democrats are also nursing their wounds from a special election in Kentucky , hailed by Republicans as a referendum on Clinton 's policies , that saw one congressional district fall into GOP hands for the first time in more than a century . As Clinton left a session with House and Senate Democratic leaders the first of three held with various groups in Congress he said his health care bill is `` something we very much want to do in a bipartisan fashion . '' But by the end of the third meeting , which was a pep rally for the entire Democratic membership of the House , it was clear that Clinton was in a more confrontational mood . `` The president told us something that was important for us to hear : If we really want to accomplish something , we 've got to fight for it , '' said Rep. Henry A . Waxman , D-Calif. , who is one of Clinton 's chief House allies in the health care battle . Added Rep. Pat Williams , D-Mont. , another subcommittee chairman with jurisdiction over health : `` He used the word ` fight ' a half a dozen times . '' Only one of the closed sessions included any Republican participants and it was Senate Majority Leader George J. Mitchell 's , D-Maine. , idea to invite them . However , Democrats and Republicans alike said Clinton had been solicitous at the session and eager to hear the views of both sides . Republicans said they told Clinton bluntly that the linchpin of his plan a requirement that employers pay for their workers ' health coverage will not pass . `` I told him , ` Mr . President , I support mandates . I will support mandates , but I think if this bill has mandates , it loses , '' said Sen. Bob Packwood , R-Ore. Packwood is ranking Republican on the Senate Finance Committee , which is considered difficult territory for Clinton 's plan . ( Optional add end ) On a more positive note for the administration , a second House subcommittee managed to approve a version of the Clinton plan shortly before the president arrived on Capitol Hill . The House Education and Labor Committee 's labor-management relations subcommittee , chaired by Williams , voted 17-10 in favor of the plan . It passed strictly along party lines , without a single GOP vote . The bill contains the basic elements of the Clinton plan , but substitutes voluntary purchasing cooperatives for mandatory health alliances . It also contains more generous benefits in such areas as women 's health , mental health and dental care , and increases subsidies to help small businesses afford their workers ' coverage . RIVERSIDE , Calif. . Two 19-year-olds were arrested Wednesday in the slaying of a 62-year-old German tourist and the attempted killing of her husband last week at a remote mountain overlook . Authorities said the two men were associates of an Asian street gang , but that gang activity was not believed to be a factor in the attack on the German couple . The victims were shot at a scenic viewpoint alongside California 243 , in the San Jacinto Mountains . A third suspect remains at large , Sheriff 's Department spokesman Deputy Mark Lohman said . The arrests came nine days after the Germans were attacked during an apparent robbery , which left Gisela Pfleger dead from gunshot wounds to her head . Her husband , Klaus Pfleger , 64 , was critically wounded with two gunshots to his face and another in his shoulder . At a news conference Wednesday , Lohman offered no details of the investigation that led to the arrest of the two teen-agers following an all-night interrogation . He said the handgun believed to have been used in the shootings , as well as the suspected getaway car , were seized by detectives who searched four homes in the Banning , Calif. , area Tuesday . Three other teen-agers who were taken in for questioning Tuesday afternoon were released Wednesday . All five had been rounded up without resistence . Lohman identified the shooting suspects as Xou Yang and Khamchan `` Brett '' Ketsouvannasane . Both were born in Laos and are legal U.S. residents , he said . They were held at a Riverside County detention center on $ 250,000 bail , and were expected to be arraigned on Friday . Riverside County Deputy District Attorney Richard Bentley said his office would decide Thursday whether to prosecute the suspects as defendants in a capital case , because of the special legal circumstances involving alleged murder committed in the commission of a robbery . In a letter to Newsday , presidential spokesman Jean Musitelli Wednesday implicitly acknowledged the charge against Mitterrand of `` silence and inaction '' for at least five weeks in the summer of 1992 . But he added more fuel to an issue of political volatility in France by turning the charge around and suggesting that it also applied to the Bosnian leaders who made it . PICKUP 3rd graf : Newsday xxx WASHINGTON In seeking to implement quickly a new program for processing Haitian boat people and answer its critics , the Clinton administration is relying on a set of calculations that involve a peculiar mix of mathematics and morality . Current plans call for facilities that can handle as many as 5,000 Haitians at a time , according to a defense policy official . But administration officials say that an operation on that scale can only succeed if they can rapidly decide who is eligible for refugee status and then quickly return the rest to Haiti . If they do not send back those who fail to qualify , administration officials insist , there will be a mass exodus . A nightmare scenario underlies both the administration 's planning process and its argument against more lenient treatment of refugees . It goes something like this : Encouraged by hope that they might get a permanent home outside Haiti , thousands of Haitians set out to sea , overwhelming the facilities set up to accommodate them . Many are forced to stay afloat in rickety boats while awaiting a place and eventually a shipwreck kills hundreds . Officials insist that this gruesome vision lies at the heart of a policy-making process in which every statement and gesture must be weighed in terms of how many Haitians it might prompt into a reckless sea voyage . Given the large number of people who want to leave the island , officials worry that false hopes could prompt a disaster . Explaining why the administration has rejected proposals to create a refuge for all Haitian boat people , State Department spokesman Mike McCurry said Wednesday , `` It has been our concern that the creation of a so-called safe haven might encourage people to use very unsafe means of migration to try to arrive at a safe haven . '' The administration 's critics , who have an interest in minimizing the number of potential refugees and the dangers they face , contend that the White House is using the nightmare scenario as an excuse to avoid taking necessary steps . `` They have talked themselves into fearing a mass exodus , and now they are trying to talk everybody else into it as way of justifying inaction , '' said Jocelyn McCalla , executive director of the National Coalition of Haitian Refugees . The number of Haitians who might set out in boats if they had a realistic hope of escaping their homeland is a matter of speculation and debate . The administration is operating on an assessment that as many as 1,500 to 2,000 people a day could go to sea , and eventually the numbers could reach between 50,000 and 100,000 if none were to be sent back , a source said . Shep Lowman , director of refugee affairs for the U.S. Catholic Conference , argues that such numbers are exaggerated . Instead , Lowman said , the numbers would be somewhere between the 1,300 people who have left in the past two weeks and the 5,000 a month that was the peak flow in the aftermath of the 1991 military takeover . Other advocates like McCalla put the number even lower , saying that less than 20,000 people would show up if the United States created a safe haven . In the face of protests from these critics , President Clinton abruptly announced on May 8 that the U.S. would halt its policy of automatically returning all boat people intercepted by the Coast Guard to Haiti and instead would create some kind of processing facility where the Haitians could apply for refugee status . Those rejected and Clinton warned they would be the overwhelming majority would still be sent back . In the two and a half weeks since then , the government has been busy on many fronts , lobbying foreign governments to allow a processing facility on their territory , chartering ships and hiring personnel . But no concrete plans have been announced . The delay is unavoidable , administration officials argue , because the delicate calculations of refugee flows demand that a complete processing and resettlement plan be in place the day the program opens . `` In humanitarian terms it would be morally irresponsible to create a large magnet by effecting this change in policy before it can be fully implemented , '' said a senior administration official . `` Lives are at stake . '' This view finds some support from immigration experts . `` There is going to be a very substantial bubble in the number of people up front , and that is where you cannot afford to make any mistakes , '' said Demetrios Papademetriou , director of the immigration policy program at the Carnegie Endowment . Unless the administration offers some form of safe haven , the only way to avoid being overwhelmed , he said , is `` by showing from the start that people who are simply fleeing poverty will not end up in Miami , and you cannot do that unless you have set up a processing facility that is big enough and then some . So you have to be able to guess right on the numbers you 'll face . '' But some advocates argue that the decision of whether to risk life and limb for a chance to reach the United States is one that only the refugees themselves can make . `` The idea that it would be morally incorrect to allow Haitians the opportunity to seek asylum because it would put them in danger is very paternalistic , '' Lowman said . `` That kind of thinking would paralyze refugee operations all over the world . I 'm sorry , that is a decision you have to leave to the refugee . They are aware of the dangers of the sea . '' WASHINGTON President Clinton delivered an attack on congressional Republicans Wednesday and told a closed-door meeting of House Democrats they must `` fight back '' against efforts to sabotage the health bill and other key administration legislation if they are to survive the November election . With growing bipartisan concerns over whether any comprehensive health care bill is possible this year , Clinton held a pro forma outreach session with the leading Senate players on health care issues from both parties , but he blasted the Republicans in a caucus with his fellow Democrats moments later . Before the camera lights and microphones , leaders of both parties pronounced the three Capitol Hill sessions `` productive '' and `` constructive . '' But House Democrats , who met separately with Clinton in a Democrats-only caucus , quoted him as saying Republicans hope to reap election gains by blocking his legislative program . `` Their strategy is not to cooperate on anything , '' one note-taking House member quoted Clinton as saying . Urging the Democrats to finish action this year on the crime bill , health care and the worldwide trade agreement , Clinton reportedly said history suggested Republicans would make gains in November and warned that the new GOP members `` will be right-wing fanatics , not moderates , '' according to a listener 's notes . `` The only way you win is to fight back , ` ` he said . Members and staff said there were no new positions taken on health care legislation , which was the ostensible subject of the Capitol Hill visit . They said no compromises were reached , and there were no hints of how the administration might deal with the central issue that could cause the yearlong effortto fail : how to pay for universal coverage . `` I 'm concerned that in these meetings we always sort of say the same things , '' said Sen. John Breaux , D-La. , one of the only Democrats in a meeting to voice opposition to the requirement that employers pay part of their workers ' coverage . This is the main financing method in most bills under consideration . In a meeting with Democratic leaders and committee chairmen and then in a bipartisan session that included Minority Leader Robert J. Dole , R-Kan. , and the sponsors of the major Republican bills , Clinton heard the kind of committee-by-committee status reports and positions that dozens of White House aides are paid to give him at a moment 's notice . Democrats told him , according to participants , that three House committees and two Senate committees are working to craft bills that can win approval , but even the leader of the pack , the Senate Labor and Human Resources Committee , has been forced to delay completion until after the Memorial Day recess , the last unofficial deadline for committee action . `` I don't want to minimize the difference between members of both parties and between the members of each party , '' said Senate Majority Leader George J. Mitchell , D-Maine . At the last minute , the White House scheduled the session with the Senate Republica ns . The White House had earlier said the president would meet with Republicans on health care after the recess , but after objections were raised by the congressional relations and communications staffs , the meeting was hastily squeezed in Wednesday . `` It got added for the reason that we didn't want to give the Republicans ammunition '' to argue the administration is not operating on its promised bipartisan basis , one official said . WASHINGTON President Clinton is expected to announce Thursday that he will renew China 's trade privileges , but he may impose extremely limited sanctions on Chinese-made guns and ammunition , according to sources who were briefed on the White House decision . The sources said Wednesday that the Clinton administration also plans to set up a new commission to examine human rights abuses in China . The commission reportedly would be headed by former President Jimmy Carter , who established diplomatic relations with the Beijing regime in 1979 while he was in the White House . The new commission would be designed as a replacement for the approach that Clinton proposed last year but will now abandon : using trade as leverage to improve human rights in China . In recent days , human rights groups have denounced the idea of a human rights commission for China as a meaningless exercise . `` It would have no authority , no clout and no teeth , '' said Mike Jendrzejczyk , Washington director of Human Rights Watch ( Asia ) . The administration is facing a deadline of June 3 to decide whether to renew China 's most-favored-nation trade benefits , which permit Chinese goods to be sold in this country under the same low tariffs enjoyed by virtually all other countries . Last year , Clinton suggested that China should make `` overall significant progress '' on human rights if it wanted renewal of these benefits for next year . The president 's decision to renew the trade benefits would stand unless both houses of Congress pass a resolution to revoke it . As Clinton prepared to announce his decision on future policy toward China , the White House struggled throughout Wednesday to win the critical support of Senate Majority Leader George J. Mitchell , D-Maine , the principal architect of the policy of linking trade benefits to human rights . In the last few days , the main question was not whether Clinton would renew China 's overall trade benefits , since all sides have agreed for weeks that he would do so . Rather , the issue was whether he would impose sanctions on Chinese imports in response to human rights abuses . Administration officials hope to avoid the embarrassment of a split with Mitchell , who has been urging the White House to impose some significant sanctions on Chinese products . The White House was considering limited economic sanctions on Chinese weapons , or no penalties at all . But Mitchell was pressing for broader , more significant penalties on all Chinese products made by the People 's Liberation Army or by defense-related companies . Not only is Mitchell the Senate majority leader , but he also has done more than anyone to create the China issue that was used for years by congressional Democrats against former President Bush . In the years after China 's bloody 1989 crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrations , he pressed for legislation attaching conditions to the renewal of China 's trade benefits . Eventually , Clinton embraced Mitchell 's approach during the 1992 campaign , when he accused Bush of `` coddling dictators '' in Beijing and criticized Bush for vetoing legislation on the issue that Mitchell had sponsored . Now , after a year in the White House , Clinton is backing away from Mitchell 's policy . Administration officials said he plans to drop , for the future , the presidential executive order he issued last year attaching a series of human rights conditions to the renewal of China 's trade status . By imposing penalties exclusively on Chinese-made guns and ammunition , the Clinton administration would , in effect , convert the China trade issue into a gun-control measure . Mitchell has objected , saying the penalties on Chinese-made guns and ammunition do not go far enough . China exports more than $ 31 billion in products to the United States and the guns and ammunition make up only a tiny share of these sales . ( Optional add end ) `` Mitchell ` s trying to ( penalize ) all products of defense-industrial companies ( in China ) . And the administration is trying to say , ` arms only , ' ' ' one congressional source said Wednesday . The administration has been under intense pressure from the American business community to renew China 's trade benefits . U.S. companies fear that , if the benefits are revoked , China will retaliate against American companies and simply deal instead with their European and Asian competitors . The executive order that Clinton issued last year put the administration in an awkward position . Officials believed at the time that the human rights conditions they imposed were so reasonable and limited that China would be able and willing to meet them . Under the 1993 order , China was required to open the way for emigration of the families of some dissidents and to take action to curb the export of goods made with prison labor . In addition , China was supposed to make `` overall significant progress '' on releasing dissidents from prison , on stopping the jamming of Voice of America broadcasts and on preserving Tibet 's cultural heritage . China has repeatedly denounced imposition of these conditions and has said that it will never be pressured into changing its domestic policies . Over the last few months , while releasing a handful of well-known political prisoners , Chinese authorities also have rounded up a number of other dissidents . In April , for example , China once again arrested Wei Jingsheng , China 's best-known proponent of democracy , who had been released last September after serving more than 14 years in jail . Wei is still being detained . In a report likely to influence the national debate on the issue , a New York state task force unanimously has rejected the idea of legalizing euthanasia and assisted suicide . Instead , the report , released Wednesday by the New York State Task Force on Life and the Law , urges that medical professionals do better at treating pain and depression two prime factors behind patient requests for assisted suicide . Though some of the task force 's 23 members believe that assisted suicide can be ethical in rare cases , they agreed that legalizing it carries a large risk of abuse , especially `` to those who are poor , elderly , members of a minority group or without access to good medical care . '' In some cases , the report said , `` patients may be pressured to consent to euthanasia when their care is expensive or burdensome to others . As one commentator has argued , ` Advocating legal sanction of euthanasia at a time and in a society where access to care is so limited and its cost so critical , the so-called `` right to die '' all too easily becomes a duty to die. ' ' ' The report more than 200 pages long and two years in the making follows two events that offered hope to supporters of assisted suicide . On May 2 , a Michigan jury acquitted Dr. Jack Kevorkian of charges that he helped a terminally ill man kill himself , in violation of a Michigan law aimed at Kevorkian . The next day , a federal judge in Seattle struck down the state 's ban on the practice , finding a right to assisted suicide implicit in the constitutional guarantee of liberty . The New York report finds no such right in the state or federal Constitution . `` Even though momentum has been building , the task force is sending a clear warning signal that society should slow down and take a hard look at who would be at risk , '' said Tracy Miller , the task force 's executive director . As the Seattle and Michigan cases move toward the Supreme Court , the report is likely to be influential . `` This is the first public body that has put out a thoughtful , deliberative report , '' said Arthur Caplan , director of the Center for Bioethics at the University of Pennsylvania , who agrees with the report 's findings . `` It 'll be a report that gets cited and invoked . '' In rejecting legalization , the task force felt strongly that assisted suicide and euthanasia would be hard to control . The task force fears that assisted suicide , in which patients kill themselves with devices or drugs provided by doctors , would escalate to euthanasia , in which doctors do the killing themselves , with or without an explicit request from the patient . `` Once you accept the validity of killing by physicians , there 's no way to put brakes on the practice , '' said a prominent opponent of the practices , Richard Doerflinger , associate director of the Secretariat for Pro-Life Activities at the National Conference of Catholic Bishops . ( Optional add end ) One precedent the report cited was the Netherlands , which stopped short of legalizing euthanasia but guarantees physicians immunity if they follow strict guidelines . There , one government report showed 2,300 cases a year of euthanasia at the patient 's request and 1,000 cases a year without a current request from the patient . Projecting that onto the United States , the task force estimated a possible 36,000 deaths a year from voluntary euthanasia and 16,000 from non-voluntary . Though the task force does represent a variety of views on the underlying ethics of the issue , William Batt , president of the Hemlock Society of New York , which supports assisted suicide , said that it is out of touch on the issue and cited polls showing increasing public support for assisted suicide . For the task force , the bottom line was risk of abuse . One member , Barbara Shack , a director of the New York Civil Liberties Union , said : `` In the end , the thing that I think brought everybody together was that for a very tiny percentage of people who may have untreatable pain and suffering , where people might agree that it might be ethically and morally acceptable to assist in a death , the possible negative impact of such a change in the law was too dangerous . '' When competitors and an advertising industry review group challenged Wal-Mart to justify its slogan , `` Always the low price , always , '' the nation 's largest retailer blinked . Wal-Mart Stores Inc. has agreed to change the slogan , the National Advertising Review Board said Wednesday . The Bentonville , Ark. , retailer acted after the review board , made up of 70 advertising professionals and public interest members , recommended that the slogan be changed to eliminate references to `` the low price . '' The board recommended that any modified slogan refrain from stating or implying that Wal-Mart 's prices are `` always the lowest . '' The panel has no power to enforce its recommendations , but if advertisers refuse to make changes the panel can refer the case to the Federal Trade Commission . One such case is now pending before the FTC . `` They are unable always to have the low price , '' said Ron Graham , a Minnesota business executive and chairman of an ad hoc group of the advertising review board . `` It 's very difficult in this mass merchandise environment for any competitor to know that all of their prices are lower . '' Wal-Mart officials were not immediately available for comment . The company said in a statement filed with the review board that it disagreed with the panel 's decision , but would voluntarily modify its advertising slogan over the next several months . `` We encourage our competitors to examine their own advertising claims and slogans with the same care and to act accordingly , '' Wal-Mart said in its statement . Lawyers for the New York-based review board , which was established in 1971 so that advertisers could police themselves and keep government intervention to a minimum , said the Wal-Mart case is significant for the advertising and retailing industries . `` This wasn't just a casual campaign . This was their corporate identifier , '' said Steve Cole , the review board 's general counsel . `` Maybe this will have a ripple effect . Retail advertising now is full of problems . There are an awful lot of claims out there that are exaggerated . Consumers are not believing retail advertising , which is a disaster for the advertising industry . Maybe this will be persuasive to others to look at their claims . '' The complaints about Wal-Mart 's slogan were brought by three retail chains , Target Stores Inc. , Meijer Inc. and Vision World Inc. , and the National Advertising Review Network , the board 's ad hoc group chaired by Graham . `` All we want to do is make it a fair playing field , '' said Carolyn Brookter , a spokeswoman for Target Stores , a division of Minneapolis-based Dayton Hudson . `` We think this ( review board decision ) should do that . '' WASHINGTON A haggard , sad-faced Dan Rostenkowski , D-Ill. , put himself through his official paces Wednesday , as uneasy House members awaited word of whether the House Ways and Means chairman would be indicted or negotiate a felony guilty plea that would end his long political career and possibly lead to a prison sentence . Widespread news media reports that Rostenkowski 's lawyers and the Justice Department were nearing the end of their discussions prompted a political death watch of sorts on Capitol Hill , with House members , staff and press monitoring Rostenkowski 's every move . Many members and aides wondered aloud how Rostenkowski has managed to keep up appearances and continue to push the president 's health care proposals while under intense scrutiny with his career in doubt . `` What alternative do I have ? '' Rostenkowski responded Wednesday when a reporter posed the question . `` I just don't have any alternatives . You just have to do what you have to do . '' The cloud of the three-year criminal investigation of alleged abuses of the House Post Office and of official funds has been hanging over the 66-year-old Democrat for so long that it is difficult for many of his allies on the committee to comprehend that Rostenkowski could be out as chairman as early as next week . `` It 's kind of eerie , '' said Rep. Sander M. Levin , D-Mich. , a committee member and Rostenkowski ally . Rep. Mike Kopetski , D-Ore. , another committee member , said , `` I want to keep thinking things will work out and he 'll continue being chairman . '' Even House Minority Whip Newt Gingrich , R-Ga. , who has warned of congressional inquiries if there is any indication that Rostenkowski is receiving special treatment from the Justice Department , expressed sympathy . `` I 'm extraordinarily saddened about Rostenkowski , '' Gingrich said . `` Because he was a big man who did a big job . You hate to see any human being go through this kind of agony . '' But committee members and the House Democratic leadership are bracing for the worst , and Rep. Sam Gibbons ( Fla. ) , 74 , the committee 's ranking Democrat , said he 's ready for the job . Democratic caucus rules and precedents would have Gibbons step in as acting chairman if Rostenkowski were indicted , but that is subject to review by the caucus . If he were to resign from Congress , the caucus would choose a new chairman . Two senior Democratic committee members , Reps. Charles B . Rangel ( N.Y. ) and Fortney `` Pete '' Stark ( Calif. ) , Wednesday endorsed Gibbons for the post if Rostenkowski is forced to step aside . Rostenkowski , who has led the Ways and Means Committee since Ronald Reagan took office in 1981 , was crucial to passage of President Clinton 's major economic package last year and has been central to Clinton 's efforts to pass a comprehensive health care plan this year . However , Gibbons and other committee members Wednesday disputed that health care reform efforts would collapse in Rostenkowski 's absence . Even First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton told reporters that while the loss of the chairman `` would be an obstacle Congress would have to figure out how to overcome . . . health care reform and the need for it is bigger than any one person in this country . '' `` Somebody told me about a crack somebody made on television last night that the graveyard is full of indispensable men , '' the jovial Gibbons told a reporter . `` I think all of us realize we 're mortal and that when we go , somebody steps forward . That 's just life . '' `` Thirty-two years in this job , '' said Gibbons . `` I 'm ready . '' Rep. Harold E. Ford , D-Tenn. , a senior committee member , suggested that Rostenkowski voluntarily step aside as chairman immediately because the media attention to his legal troubles has distracted members from deliberations on health care legislation . `` We 're losing focus , really , on the issue that 's before the committee , '' Ford said . `` Everybody around here is focused on Rostenkowski , and that is not to be down on Danny . '' Ford speaks from experience . He stepped aside from a Ways and Means subcommittee chairmanship for six years while he successfully fought an indictment . He was the last House member affected by the Democratic rule that compels indicted chairmen to step aside . Rostenkowski 's legal travail has become a preoccupation of House members , many of whom fear it will provide fresh ammunition for critics of the institution and GOP challengers in the fall election . `` The mood is just so nasty out there in the countryside and this just makes us all the more beleaguered , '' said one politically vulnerable House Democrat . Wednesday Rostenkowski presided for much of the morning over a tedious committee hearing on alternative health care reform proposals , surrounded by reporters and television cameras . Later in the afternoon , he took part in a House and Senate Democratic leadership meeting with the president in the Capitol to discuss the prospects of his health care plan . Rostenkowski fended off questions about the status of his case , but in an interview he sought to defend his record over a colorful career that spans more than three decades : `` I think I 'm a committed legislator . I think my record as a legislator is worthwhile . I don't know too many problems that as a legislator I haven't tried to solve . '' WASHINGTON U.S. . Attorney Eric H . Holder Jr. has made a final plea bargain offer in negotiations with lawyers for Rep. Dan Rostenkowski , D-Ill. , and set Tuesday as the deadline for Rostenkowski to accept the proposal or risk almost certain indictment on a wide range of charges , sources knowledgeable about the negotiations said Wednesday . If Rostenkowski refuses , the sources said , Holder 's move for an indictment against the House Ways and Means Committee chairman would be swift , possibly as early as the Tuesday deadline . Rostenkowski declined to comment Wednesday on the negotiations and efforts to reach his attorney , Robert S. Bennett , were unsuccessful . But Democrats on the committee said that Rostenkowski still hoped to avoid going to jail , and was leaning toward fighting the prosecution 's case that he conspired to defraud the government through misuse of his congressional office funds . Throughout negotiations , federal prosecutors have insisted that Rostenkowski plead guilty to at least one felony charge and serve some time in jail . After haggling for days over the breadth of the charges , sources said Holder has now made clear that the negotiating `` can't continue forever . '' Holder is `` simply waiting to hear from Rostenkowski , '' said a source close to the negotiations . This latest twist to the complex and fluid negotiations over Rostenkowski 's legal future indicates that one of Congress 's most influential members is all but certain to leave or be removed from the Ways and Means chairmanship , a position thought to be critical in the ongoing debate over President Clinton 's plans for health and welfare reform . Rostenkowski is considered an invaluable ally on both fronts . Under normal procedures of the House Democratic Caucus , Rostenkowski would have to step down from the committee chairmanship if he were indicted on a felony punishable by at least two years in prison . Ironically , a guilty plea apparently would give him a small window of opportunity to retain the chairmanship . The rules do not compel a member convicted of criminal charges to resign from office or leadership positions , although such members are likely to face an ethics investigation and disciplinary actions . Federal prosecutors have outlined a broad case against Rostenkowski of conspiracy to defraud the government . After a two-year investigation , prosecutors have forwarded information to the Justice Department alleging that the veteran lawmaker paid employees for work not done and that he abused official accounts for leased cars , office supplies and office space . Sources said that the alleged illegal activity involves `` several hundred thousand dollars . '' Rostenkowski is accused of trading office postage stamps for cash and assuming ownership of cars previously leased by the government , the sources said . He has since reimbursed the House Stationery Store $ 82,000 , according to individuals familiar with the case . Investigators also have looked into allegations of obstruction of justice , said sources , noting that Rostenkowski staff members in Chicago and Washington could face charges . Because of the scale of the charges outlined , prosecutors are under pressure to exact a Rostenkowski guilty plea to a conspiracy felony charge and not just a simple felony count , such as theft , sources said . The plea , in this view , should clearly indicate the breadth of the pattern of alleged illegal activity , sources said . Defense attorneys have argued for narrowing the scope and number of charges against the House veteran and have sought to avoid a jail sentence , or to get as little jail time as possible . The gap between the two positions has blocked resolution of the issue in recent days . Another critical factor that both sides have considered is that U.S. . District Court Judge Norma H. Johnson is scheduled to oversee the case , the sources said . Johnson has a tough sentencing record . Sources said that was likely a factor that led Rostenkowski 's attorneys to at least consider a possible plea bargain . WASHINGTON Pentagon officials have been concealing or ignoring evidence that tens of thousands of U.S. Persian Gulf War veterans were exposed to Iraqi chemical and biological weapons during the conflict , a Senate report released Wednesday contends . Sen. Donald W. Riegle Jr. , D-Mich. , chairman of the Senate Banking , Housing and Urban Affairs Committee , which interviewed more than 600 veterans in preparing its report , demanded that the Pentagon declassify all information relating to the detection of chemical and biological agents . Riegle recalled the Pentagon 's reluctance to release information on Agent Orange after the Vietnam War and raised doubts about the effectiveness of devices used in the field to detect the presence of chemical agents . In a letter sent to Persian Gulf War veterans Wednesday , Defense Secretary William J. Perry and Gen. John M. Shalikashvili , chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff , said `` there is no information , classified or unclassified , that indicates that chemical or biological weapons were used in the Persian Gulf . '' But veterans ' testimony in the Senate report suggests that chemical and biological contamination was widespread . Operation Desert Storm soldiers described 10 incidents of Iraqi rocket attacks that released noxious fumes or set off chemical agent alarms as well as several encounters with irritating chemicals in the air . Some 12,000 veterans have reported symptoms ranging from skin irritation to memory loss , claiming that they are victims of `` Gulf War Syndrome . '' In one incident , eyewitnesses recounted their experiences during the early hours of Jan. 19 , 1991 , when an explosion near the port of Jubayl in Saudi Arabia sent U.S. troops in a naval construction battalion scurrying for cover . When soldiers emerged from their bomb shelter , some reported a numbness or a burning sensation on their skin . One soldier who tested the area for chemical agents that evening reported that two of three tests had positive readings . At a hearing of Riegle 's committee Wednesday , Pentagon officials said that Iraq did not deploy chemical or biological toxins , even though hundreds of chemical alarms were triggered during the war . In some cases , the sensors may have malfunctioned , the officials said , and in others the alarms were discounted after further review . Defense Undersecretary Edwin Dorn said there is some concern , however , about the possibility that soldiers could have been exposed to low levels of chemical warfare agents or fallout in Kuwait and southern Iraq as a result of Allied bombing of Iraqi military installations . Riegle accused the Pentagon of concealing or suppressing reports of toxic exposures during the conflict , saying that the military establishment has an `` institutional difficulty in coming to terms with grievous decision errors. .. . I 've seen our government lie to us before in other war situations . '' Army chemical data included in the Senate report indicates that U.S. chemical detectors may not have been sensitive enough to register very low levels of certain agents , such as the nerve gas Sarin , which can still be harmful if soldiers are exposed to it over long periods . Last July , Czechoslovakia 's minister of defense announced that a chemical decontamination unit from his country had detected low levels of Sarin in Saudi Arabia early in the Gulf War . Symptoms commonly associated with Sarin include respiratory problems and chest pain , which many veterans reported . Dorn acknowledged that physicians have been unable to diagnose symptoms of at least 2,000 veterans , many of whom claim to have Gulf War Syndrome . ( Optional add end ) One of those who has suffered since the war is Dean V. Lundholm Jr. of Live Oak , Calif. , who served with an Army National Guard unit . Since returning from Saudi Arabia in 1991 , Lundholm has been so beset by respiratory and digestive problems that he has been unable to work . `` I served my country willingly and proudly , '' said Lundholm , who founded the California Association of Persian Gulf Veterans , at a National Institutes of Health hearing last month . `` But I now expect my country to treat me and other war vets with respect and concern . And that means we vets should get information , diagnosis and treatment about our health status . '' Copies of Lundholm 's testimony were distributed at Wednesday 's hearing . Recently , the Pentagon also has considered the possibility that experimental vaccines administered to soldiers to combat chemical weapon attacks may have led to some veterans ' symptoms . A panel of experts led by Nobel Laureate Joshua Lederberg is re-examining evidence of chemical weapon exposure for the Defense Department and is expected to report its findings next month , Dorn said . WASHINGTON An uncommon code of silence enveloped the House Wednesday as it confronted the strong possibility that Rep. Dan Rostenkowski , D-Ill. , will step down as chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee as part of a plea bargain . The powerful lawmaker , an unparalleled master of arm-twisting and deal-cutting , is considered crucial to the fate of health care reform as well as the Democrats ' overall legislative record . And in corridors and cloakrooms on the House side of Capitol Hill , members of Congress wondered and worried about who would succeed him and the implications the succession would have both for them and President Clinton . Yet congressional decorum prevented the members from talking openly about the looming crisis . Indeed , with Rostenkowski seemingly on the verge of indictment for financial abuse of his office , House Majority Leader Richard A . Gephardt , D-Mo. , called an extraordinary news conference to declare he has no interest in assuming the leadership of the committee to help secure the enactment of health care reform . `` I think in a way it 's an insult to the chairman and the members of the committee that I or someone else from the leadership would have to go to the committee so the committee could finish its work on health care , '' Gephardt said . House Speaker Thomas S. Foley , D-Wash. , too , was unwilling to talk openly about the ramifications of the Rostenkowski matter . `` I 'm not going to presume the resignation of Mr. Rostenkowski. That 's something I have no knowledge about , '' he said . First lady Hillary Rodham Clinton was less reticent , however , to discuss the effect Rostenkowski 's departure would have on the administration 's health care proposal . `` I certainly hope that doesn't come to pass , but it would be an obstacle that Congress would have to figure out how to overcome , '' she said at an International Women 's Media Foundation conference here . `` It would be a great loss to Congress , but health care reform and the need for it is bigger than any one person in this country , '' Mrs. Clinton later told reporters . ( Begin optional trim ) Meanwhile , Rep. Robert T. Matsui , D-Calif. , a senior member of the panel and a Rostenkowski loyalist , remained uncharacteristically close-lipped about his own intentions . Some members of Congress and their aides have speculated that , if Matsui challenges ranking committee Democrat Sam Gibbons of Florida for the chairmanship , Rep. Charles B . Rangel , D-N.Y. , and Rep. Fortney H. `` Pete '' Stark , D-Calif. both of whom are senior to Matsui also would seek the job . The nervousness over the chairmanship reflects widespread concern that Gibbons lacks Rostenkowski 's deal-making skills . He also is more a specialist in trade than health care . If Rostenkowski leaves , the Democratic Steering and Policy Committee would recommend a chairman to the Democratic Caucus . If the ranking member gets the nod , he would be entitled to a separate up or down vote before any alternative was considered , Foley said . ( End optional trim ) Sources close to the negotiations between Rostenkowski 's lawyers and U.S. . Attorney Eric H . Holder Jr. indicated that the matter will not be resolved until next week . Holder reportedly was pressing for a decision on the plea agreement by Tuesday . The U.S. attorney 's office has been investigating Rostenkowski for alleged misue of office and campaign accounts , including the possibility that he improperly received money from the House Post Office , hired employees who did no work and made improper furniture and gift purchases from his office funds . A plea agreement would enable him to avoid the humiliation of a public trial and the prospect of conviction and a lengthy prison sentence . The chief barrier to an agreement , sources said , has been the wording of any charge to which Rostenkowski would plead guilty . The precise description of the charge would be crucial in determining the punishment that U.S. . District Judge Norma H. Johnson could mete out under the federal sentencing guidelines . The guidelines require judges to explain in writing any departure they make from the sentences outlined for various crimes . The sentences are affected by such factors as the amount of money involved , whether the defendant abused a position of public trust and whether he has accepted responsibility for his actions . In a fraud conviction involving a loss of more than $ 200,000 , for example , the guidelines call for a sentence of 15 to 21 months for a defendant with no prior criminal history . If the loss is between $ 70,000 and $ 120,000 , the sentence would range from 10 to 16 months . In a fraud conviction involving an abuse of a position of public or private trust , the guidelines call for increasing the incarceration . In a $ 70,000-plus fraud , for example , the sentence would rise to 15 to 21 months . The guidelines also provide for decreasing the sentence if the defendant `` clearly demonstrates acceptance of responsibility for his offense . '' Rostenkowski 's lawyer , Robert S. Bennett , has been trying to persuade prosecutors to agree to a charge under which Johnson , who has a reputation for tough sentencing , could impose punishment of less than a year in jail , according to a source familiar with the negotiations . WASHINGTON On what many believed could be Rep. Dan Rostenkowski 's last day of presiding as chairman over his beloved House Ways and Means Committee , the scene was like a death watch for a wounded king . Grim-faced aides moved about the committee room quietly . The likely successor , Sam M. Gibbons , D-Fla. , stayed close to the rostrum as though he might have to take over any minute . No one wanted to talk aloud about what was on everyone 's mind . Every so often , Rostenkowski , D-Ill. , would glance over at the bank of more than a dozen photographers he knew were there only to capture his misery as he contemplates a possible indictment on ethics charges or his resignation from Congress . The color would drain from his ruddy , expressive face . `` It was awful , awful , '' said Rep. Benjamin L. Cardin , D-Md. , who serves on the committee . `` Somebody said it must have been like Jackie Kennedy 's apartment when people came to visit the day before she died . '' Clearly , there was that same sense Wednesday of losing someone larger than life . This big , gruff , intimidating man , who inspires both strong loyalty and respect bordering on fear , defines what it means to be a power in Congress . Of the dozen House and Senate leaders who met with President Clinton Wednesday to assess the status of his health reform legislation , Rostenkowski had been expected to be Clinton 's most valuable ally . The congressman 's skill at brokering deals often using old-time tactics like threats and rewards , in pursuit of high-sounding public policy like tax reform is unmatched among his colleagues . Clinton values Rostenkowski 's skills so highly that he took the politically risky step of campaigning for the Ways and Means Committee chairman when it appeared Rostenkowski might lose his primary race for re-election in March . But sometime within a few days , and almost certainly before Congress returns from its Memorial Day recess , Rostenkowski and his lawyers are expected to reach a decision that will take him out of the action . Rostenkowski may accept a plea bargain that would force him to give up his chairmanship , probably leave Congress and possibly serve a prison sentence . Or he will be indicted and be forced out of his chairmanship , at least temporarily , by House rules . In any case , Rostenkowski 's colleagues have already started preparing to carry on without him . `` Nobody in Congress is indispensable , '' House Speaker Thomas S. Foley , observed last week . Hillary Rodham Clinton made clear Wednesday that the White House is adjusting to Rostenkowski 's imminent departure from the health reform process . `` It would be an obstacle Congress would have to figure out how to overcome , '' Mrs. Clinton told reporters . `` It would be a great loss to Congress , but health care reform and the need for it is bigger than any one person in this country . '' Rostenkowski , 66 , is among the last of his kind . The product of Chicago Democratic machine politics , he came to Washington 36 years ago as the agent of Mayor Richard J. Daley and rose to become the confidant of presidents . After more than 20 years of aiming for the House speakership , Rostenkowski got off the leadership ladder in 1981 to take over the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee . It is probably Congress ' most powerful panel and is a prime target of big-spending lobbyists . The chairman is not a particularly high-living man , but he has enjoyed the fringe benefits of his job : rich meals and resort vacations at the expense of lobbyists . He is a regular at Morton 's Steakhouse in Washington , where lobbyists pick up his tab . The Palm restaurant in Chicago has a special table for him . It may have be Rostenkowski 's adherence to the old way of politics that led him into trouble . The U.S. attorney 's office in Washington conducted an exhaustive probe of his financial dealings for two years after allegations that surfaced in a probe of the House Post Office . Former House Postmaster Robert Rota pleaded guilty last year to a scheme in which he funneled tens of thousands of dollars in cash to members of Congress . He implicated Rostenkowski in the scheme . Although Rostenkowski steadfastly denied any wrongdoing , the federal inquiry widened to cover virtually all his activities during his entire service in Congress . According to published reports , federal prosecutors are ready to seek an indictment that would include charges that Rostenkowski put ghost employees on his Chicago payroll and used taxpayer money to buy items for personal and campaign use at the House office supply store . ( Optional add end ) Earlier this year , Rostenkowski reimbursed the government $ 82,095 for the supply store items . But he insists there was no intentional wrongdoing . Among the issues said to be keeping Rostenkowski awake at night is whether to put longtime aides through what could be a lengthy and expensive trial to prove his innocence . But friends say they suspect that the U.S. attorney for Washington , Eric Holder Jr. , a Clinton appointee , may not be able to offer Rostenkowski an attractive enough plea bargain to forestall such a trial . Any sign of favoritism would look as if Clinton were trying to cut Rostenkowski a break . WASHINGTON Scientists said Wednesday that for the first time they have found convincing evidence for the existence of a super-massive black hole in a nearby galaxy , one of astronomy 's most sought-after prey in recent years . Using NASA 's recently refurbished Hubble Space Telescope , the research team was able to photograph a whirlpool of hot gas spinning around the galactic center where the black hole is believed to lurk . By analyzing the light waves from the gas disk , the researchers were able to determine how fast it is moving about 1.2 million mph and estimate the size of the object that might be causing it to spin so furiously . They concluded that at the core of the galaxy there is a black hole with the mass of at least 2 billion suns compressed to the size of our solar system . `` We were all walking a foot off the ground for three weeks after we realized what we had found , '' said Holland Ford of the Space Telescope Science Institute in Baltimore . The existence of black holes , probably the weirdest objects in the universe , confirms a prediction of Einstein 's general theory of relativity . They are dense , extremely compact objects whose gravitational pull is so strong that nothing , not even light waves , can escape . The only way to `` see '' a black hole is to infer its presence by studying how it influences visible matter nearby . Ford had predicted there should be a spinning gas disk at the center of the galaxy in question called M-87 and that studying such a disk might offer clues to the existence of a black hole . As early as 1917 , ground-based photos of the galaxy , located about 50 million light years away , had shown evidence of unusual activity at the core of M-87 . Astronomers have since identified a brilliant jet of electrons spiraling out from the center of the galaxy at nearly the speed of light . Initial Hubble images taken prior to last December 's shuttle mission to correct the telescope 's flawed optics were not good enough to show the postulated disk of gas . But photos taken in February with Hubble 's new camera not only revealed the gas disk but also showed that it was surprisingly well-ordered , according to Ford . That meant that another Hubble instrument could do good measurements on the light waves being emitted from discrete regions on the spiral-like disk as it spun . By studying how those light waves are compressed or expanded depending on whether the disk material is moving toward Earth or away from it astronomers can estimate how fast the disk is spinning . Combined with an estimate on the radius of the central region of the galaxy taken from the Hubble photos astronomers can calculate the mass of the galactic core . If the calculated mass is sufficiently large compared to the radius , astronomers argue , the object in question must be a black hole . The hole at the center of M-87 is estimated to be about as far across as our solar system large , but not out of line with the expected size of a black hole containing 2 billion or more solar masses . `` If it 's not a black hole , it 's something stranger , '' astronomer Bruce Margon of the University of Washington said during a NASA briefing on the new results . Daniel Weedman , director of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration 's astrophysics division and a previous skeptic about the existence of supermassive black holes , said he found the new evidence convincing . `` Yes , I think this is definitive , '' Weedman said . ( Optional add end ) Astronomer Douglas Richstone of the University of Michigan , in a telephone interview , called the evidence `` pretty convincing '' and said it is a part of a chain of evidence on the existence of supermassive black holes that has been building during the past decade . Astronomers already had come to accept the existence of smaller black holes associated with the collapse of dying stars several times larger than our sun . `` The evidence for black holes of a few solar masses is very strong , '' Margon said . But astronomers have been particularly interested in the possibility of massive black holes at the core of galaxies , since they could provide the `` engine '' to explain some of the most energetic events in the universe . Some astronomers have suggested that black holes may exist at the core of virtually every galaxy , including our own Milky Way . The Hubble 's ability to look more closely at the central regions of galaxies should help astronomers learn more about the origin of supermassive black holes , Weedman said . He said theorists still do not really understand how such objects form and how they behave . He cited the paradox at M-87 , where a black hole presumably is sucking huge amounts of material toward it while at the same time a jet of electrons is spiraling outward . BALTIMORE The sound of silence that 's all residents of a once-quiet suburban Maryland townhouse court crave . But when they 'll get their wish is still up in the air literally . The burglar alarm on a house whose owner is traveling in Indonesia has been whoop-whoop-whooping around the clock since last Saturday , and it 's driving people nuts . `` It 's gone off before , but only for 20 minutes or so , then it stops , '' said Joan Sheppard , one of the neighbors . Sheppard said the man installed the burglar alarm himself , and she complained that it has annoyed her from time to time for the five years she has lived there but never for such a prolonged period . This time was different . The alarm awakened her at 12:30 a.m. Saturday. A half-hour later , an accident nearby shut off power to the area and the alarm stopped briefly . `` I said , ` Thank God , ' but then it came back and it hasn't shut up since , '' Sheppard said . `` If we go in the back room and close everything in front , it 's not as loud . '' The owner left a message on his office answering machine that he would not return until Memorial Day . However , a friend said the man was notified of the problem and was air-freighting keys to another friend to shut off the alarm . Some neighbors along the tree-shaded street have changed their bedrooms to escape the noise . Others are simply enduring the torment . In any case , residents say the homeowner is in for a lot of grief when he returns . Some neighbors have detailed their grievances in a note taped to his storm door . Baltimore County police say they have no authority to break into the house to silence the alarm , and the electric company says it can't shut off power to the house because it might damage appliances . Distributed by the Los Angeles Times-Washington Post News Service . WASHINGTON The regents of the Smithsonian Institution Wednesday selected Ira Michael Heyman , a lawyer and former chancellor of the University of California , Berkeley , as its 10th chief executive and the first non-scientist to lead the museum and research complex . `` We considered Mike to be a generalist whose range of skills matches the Smithsonian 's needs and interests , '' said Barber Conable , the regent who headed the search committee after Heyman stepped down and put his own name into consideration . Citing a long list of attributes including leadership of a complex institution , successful fund-raising and deft maneuvering in a highly charged political environment , Conable said , `` He is an open person , has no hidden agendas. . . . He has the ability to come back after hard knocks apparently Berkeley is a place where occasionally hard knocks are administered . '' Heyman , who is now counselor to Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt , stood by Conable at an afternoon press conference and smiled guardedly at the litany of praise . `` I see the Smithsonian as a big , rollicking , dynamic , tough , interesting , intellectual institution , '' he said . But he added that taking the $ 200,000-a-year position at this critical transition time brought `` daunting challenges . '' `` We have a resource problem that is significant , both a public and private resource problem , '' said Heyman . The Smithsonian is a $ 458 million-a-year operation , which receives a direct federal appropriation of $ 342 million and must make up the rest through endowments and private donations . Heyman compared the Smithsonian 's situation to the one he faced at Berkeley in 1980 when he became chancellor . `` California was in economic doldrums , '' he said . `` Things turned around luckily in two ways . The public fist enlarged slightly . We learned how to raise money , and we raised an awful lot and it was the saving grace . '' Under his tenure there was a threefold growth in private donations . The new secretary , who takes over in September , replaces Robert McC . Adams , an anthropologist who served for the last decade . The Smithsonian 's enterprises include the National Air & Space Museum , the most visited museum in the country , the National Museum of Natural History , which has 120 million artifacts , and the National Zoo , which has an estimated 3 million visitors a year . Heyman 's election came after a scheduled May 9 vote was postponed when Vice President Gore , a regent , said he wanted to be present . He was in South Africa at the time . Though the request was accepted as a matter of protocol , his move sparked conversation that he disagreed with the choice of the search committee , particularly that Heyman is a non-scientist . The other leading contender was Thomas Lovejoy , the Smithsonian 's assistant secretary for environment and external affairs , who is a friend of Gore 's and a prominent tropical biologist . At the regents session , Conable said , there had been `` earnest , open and civil discussion '' on several topics , including the choice of a non-scientist . He would say only that Gore had joined that discussion . Gore would not comment . `` The Smithsonian has not abandoned its tradition of scientific leadership , '' said Conable , praising Heyman 's stewardship of the prestigious scientific undertakings at Berkeley . Heyman said , `` We will continue to interrelate the research mission and the exhibition mission . '' In its pursuit of new revenue streams , Heyman said , the Smithsonian has to strike `` the right balance between raising money from the private sector and not giving away one 's soul . '' Besides its public funds , its other support comes from an endowment of the founding benefactor , James Smithson , private donations and revenues from the Smithsonian magazine , museum shops and other revenue-generating businesses and contracts . Heyman last year helped form a panel of citizens who raise funds for the Smithsonian . WASHINGTON The federal government late Wednesday reached a $ 12.1 million settlement with Arizona Gov. J. Fife Symington and other directors of two savings and loans whose failures cost taxpayers more than $ 1 billion . Symington , a Republican running for a second term this year , has for three years been battling the Resolution Trust Corp. 's allegations that he misused his position as a director of Southwest Savings and Loan Association in Phoenix . The RTC sued Symington and other directors in 1991 for $ 200 million . In a statement released by his office , Symington said he is `` delighted that this issue has finally been resolved . '' He said he made no personal financial payment nor any admission of wrongdoing as part of the settlement . Stephen Katsanos , a spokesman for the RTC , said the entire $ 12.1 million settlement will come from the estate of the late Daniel K. Ludwig , owner of Southwest and a second S&L , American Savings of Utah . Defendants in RTC civil settlements do not customarily admit or deny wrongdoing , Katsanos said . The agency determined that Symington `` does not have wealth '' and decided not to pursue him further , he said . Ludwig , a shipping magnate believed to have been one of the richest people in the world , personally indemnified the S&L directors against lawsuits . RTC officials said Ludwig apparently gave away much of his money before he died in August 1992 , and his estate was worth less than the RTC had hoped . Symington also is a target of a criminal investigation into activities at Southwest , according to sources , who said a federal grand jury this spring subpoenaed his records . The RTC contended that Symington breached his duties as a director by failing to disclose the true cost and his actual interest in a large downtown project Southwest funded . The agency contended that the upscale hotel-office project ended up costing Southwest more than $ 38 million . Symington has dubbed the RTC 's case against him and the other Southwest directors a `` witch hunt . '' He said the RTC was simply looking for someone to blame for the nation 's S&L mess . There were a total of 16 directors and other parties involved in Wednesday 's settlement . Symington has said his project and Southwest Savings were both victims of a crash in the once-booming Arizona real estate market . The RTC said Symington took $ 8 million in fees from Southwest and a Japanese bank that helped finance the project . Symington argued that he put $ 1.5 million of his own money into the project and personally guaranteed million in loans from the Japanese bank . WASHINGTON A judge Wednesday threw out a drunk-driving charge against Marlene Ramallo , citing scant evidence that she was intoxicated when police saw her driving in Georgetown with a gentleman friend sprawled on the hood of her Jaguar convertible , clinging to the door frame . `` I feel happy , '' said Ramallo , who is 41 , or 37 , or 39 , depending on which legal documents you look up . She also used to be known as Marlene Chalmers Cooke and , despite her self-declared name change , is still more or less the wife of billionaire Jack Kent Cooke , the 81-year-old owner of the Washington Redskins . `` I had a wonderful judge , a wonderful judge , '' Ramallo said . `` Justice has been done . And now I hope to go on . '' She had been accused of driving under the influence of alcohol , punishable by up to 30 days in jail and a $ 300 fine . She displayed little emotion , barely even a smile , as the charge was dismissed . Unlike Ramallo , most alleged drunk drivers opt to forgo trials , avoiding heavy legal bills by agreeing to plea bargains , or by admitting guilt and hoping for leniency . `` She 's a very principled woman , '' said Ramallo 's attorney , John Perazich . `` She felt strongly that she wanted to fight this case , and fortunately she has the wherewithal to do it . '' She emerged from District of Columbia Superior Court after her trial and found a small swarm of reporters and cameras blocking the path to her limousine , which was double-parked nearby , her chauffeur out and waiting . `` What do you think of the police ? '' a reporter shouted . `` Ahh , no comment . '' Okay , then what 's up with your personal life ? How come you 're suddenly using your maiden name , Ramallo ? Does it have to do with Cooke 's recent claim that your marriage isn't legally valid , that you weren't properly divorced from your previous husband ? `` He 's a wonderful man . '' ( Despite Cooke 's pronouncement , the two have been seen together recently in public . ) `` What about Patrick ? Are you still seeing Patrick ? '' Patrick Wermer was , as police put it , `` the male subject '' in the Georgetown incident , a chap in his mid-twenties whom acquaintances said was a regular nightclub companion of Ramallo 's , at least until Sept. 15 , when the two began to argue and Ramallo wound up with the Jag keys , prompting Wermer to mount the car 's hood , claiming the Jag belonged to him . `` He 's my friend , '' Ramallo said . Finally someone in her group said , `` Thank you , '' ending the briefing , and Ramallo was ushered to the limo . She said , `` Ciao ! '' Perazich said Ramallo had planned to testify in her non-jury trial , which began Tuesday . But it turned out she didn't have to . Senior Judge Nicholas Nunzio , granting Perazich 's motion , dismissed the charge minutes after the prosecution had rested its case . The evidence against Ramallo wasn't strong enough to warrant a defense , the judge said . Police said that after ordering Ramallo out of the Jaguar , they noticed her eyes were watery , her breath smelled of alcohol and her gait was unsteady . At first , she wouldn't submit to a breath test , Perazich said . Later , after she changed her mind about the test , the attorney said , police wouldn't allow her to take one , citing her initial refusal . `` Next time somebody 's driving a car in Georgetown and has someone spread-eagle on the hood , I 'll be the first person called , '' Perazich said outside the courthouse , smiling at his victory . `` I 'm sure there 'll be numerous calls . I 'll probably have to get an unlisted number . '' NEW YORK An underground economy of World Cup merchandise stretching from leather factories in Pakistan to print shops and retail stores in New York City is cutting into profits of more than 300 companies with rights to sell official products . Three weeks before the games begin , unlicensed T-shirts , bumper stickers , key rings , soccer balls , shawls , posters , caps and sun visors are selling rapidly . Industry experts predict these goods , many bearing the trademarked World Cup mascot a cartoon dog named Striker and protected logos will reap as much as $ 150 million worldwide . This includes an estimated take of $ 45 million in the United States , a projected 15 percent of official sales , making the event one of the largest in the history of what is known as ambush marketing . `` It 's a real octopus-type of problem , '' said Tammy Bloom , legal counsel at Time Warner Sports Merchandising , the company that licenses official products for the World Cup and tracks violators . `` On the street , it is easy to stop one vendor , but there are 25 other merchants buying the same thing from the same person . It 's a very big global problem . '' The quadrennial soccer tournament , which will be held for the first time in the United States beginning next month , is the biggest single-sport event in the world . Twenty-four countries will compete at nine U.S. stadiums . Despite the gray market in unofficial goods , World Cup organizers estimate that $ 300 million in official merchandise will be sold in the United States this year and $ 1 billion worldwide . Karen Raugust , executive editor of The Licensing Letter , a New York City-based industry newsletter , said gray-market goods typically bring in 15 percent of official sales . In the United States , she said , that should put bootleg World Cup merchandise in the same league as counterfeit Major League Baseball products . This concerns executives at many of the 302 companies that will spend as much as $ 50 million for licenses to sell official World Cup items around the world . Under terms of their licenses , the companies , including 95 with rights to market in the United States , can use the mascot , the World Cup logo a red and white flag with a flying blue soccer ball and the words `` World Cup USA '94 '' on their products . `` It 's frustrating , '' said Fred Malamud , director of marketing at Starline , a New York City company that owns rights to sell action posters of U.S. players . `` I know , you know and everybody knows there are knockoffs at little corner stores all over the place , but we don't have people out there looking for the stuff . That 's up to the licensing people at Time Warner . '' So far , Bloom said , Time Warner has taken legal action against 105 manufacturers , wholesalers or retailers to stop them from selling counterfeit and other unofficial goods . Bloom said that Time Warner , which gets most of its tips from licensed companies that hear about the gray-marketeers from distributors , plans to crack down by joining private investigators and local and state police and federal marshals to seize goods as the World Cup nears . Still , a Newsday investigation of the bootleg market operating here shows that illegal merchandise , some of which is smuggled into the country from South Korea , Pakistan , Taiwan , China , Mexico and Colombia , is being sold throughout New York City . Stopping stores from selling rip-off items involves a legal process that starts with Time Warner sending the merchants a cease-and-desist order . If they don't comply with the terms of the order , more steps can be taken , but Bloom said most cases are settled within weeks before reaching court . ( Optional add end ) There is no accurate way to determine the dollar value of unofficial goods smuggled into the United States , say industry experts . In April , U.S. . Customs agents in Miami seized a shipment of sweatshirts and T-shirts featuring the ball-and-flag logo and tags depicting Striker with `` World Cup USA '94 Official Licensed Product '' printed below . The goods , exported from South Korea and intended for a distributor in Guayaquil , Ecaudor , are now in a Customs warehouse and , according to agency policy , will ultimately be destroyed . Other goods directly turned over to World Cup organizers will be given to charities after the official product licenses expire next year . One company outside the reach of the World Cup cops is Golden Sunshine Inc. , a wholesaler based in Anaheim , Calif. Golden Sunshine sells embroidered patches for $ 1.25 each that show the name of a country over a soccer ball and the year 1994 . These multicolored patches , imported from Taiwan and sewn on baseball caps , shirts and jackets , do not violate any laws . Although the company uses the official World Cup logo on some of its brochures , that only makes the brochures unlawful , not the products , Bloom said . `` That 's real ambush marketing . These patches are selling like wildfire and appearing all over the world , '' Bloom said . `` We can't do a thing about it . They followed the rules of the game . '' POOLE , England The strains of Glenn Miller 's `` In the Mood '' waft from an old radio under the canvas tent decked out as a field kitchen , with tin plates and cups on G.I. tables , and a server dressed in a blue boiler suit , her hair swathed in a makeshift turban . The kitchen re-creates the scene on D-day , June 6 , 1944 , in this Dorset port city from which thousands of American troops sailed for France 50 years ago . The prices , however , are up-to-date 75 cents for a cup of tea ; $ 2 for a ham sandwich . In nearby St. James Church , an old American flag hangs from the choir balcony ; the 48-star ensign was a gift from the U.S. Coast Guard flotilla , known as the `` St. Bernards of Normandy , '' which shuttled on rescue missions between Poole and France . Twenty-five miles west , in Weymouth , an impromptu museum of U.S. . Army memorabilia has been set up in a shopping arcade , a selection of military items to mark the 50th anniversary that could keep the interested visitor occupied for an hour or so . Outside , a U.S. olive-drab jeep and a staff car , manned by locals wearing period U.S. . Army uniforms , tool around the port . Sitting in a pub is Mike Wall , 79 , a grizzled , bright-eyed American D-day veteran who married a Weymouth girl and settled there permanently . `` My wife found me a great place here , '' said Wall , once a medic with the 1st Infantry Division . `` I 've been living happily ever after . '' In the months before D-day , Americans seemed to be everywhere in southern England : the troops who would land on the beaches of Normandy ; the supply corps to back them up ; the sailors to ferry them across the English Channel ; the airmen to support them from above . All in all , more than a million and a half Yanks made their way through the southern counties of Hampshire , Dorset and Devon . They were joined by an equal number of British and Canadian servicemen . The Channel ports of Portsmouth , Southampton , Gosport , Weymouth , Portland and Poole were the main embarkation points for the invasion . In the initial D-day landings , 156,000 troops took part . By the end of the invasion July 3 , not quite one month later , 1 million troops had been put ashore . Now , as the 50th anniversary of the greatest amphibious landing in history looms , local residents are bracing for a new flood of outsiders . Counting on the nostalgia that southern England 's towns , villages and bases will evoke among invasion veterans and their families , local tourism officials expect to lure back this summer about 350,000 visitors , many of them from the United States and Canada . Hotels , pubs , museums , exhibitions , resorts , transport companies all hope to capitalize on the commemoration . Portsmouth alone expects 70,000 visitors on June 4 and 5 to watch Queen Elizabeth II , on board the royal yacht Britannia , review the fleet with President Clinton , kings , queens and politicians and then sail as part of a massive flotilla for the Normandy coast to take part in ceremonies June 6 . U.S. warships will pay courtesy calls to the Channel ports of southern England between June 2 and 5 . Local organizers are supported by the Ministry of Defense and veterans associations , which are helping with military events , as well as the Department of National Heritage , which is underwriting some less martial observances . In British Prime Minister John Major 's words , the 50th anniversary is `` a huge national event . '' `` D-day was not just about those who took part on the day , '' Major said . `` It was made possible by the effort and sacrifice of men and women throughout the forces , throughout industry and throughout our nation . '' Major decreed that church bells `` from St. Paul 's Cathedral to the smallest rural parish '' would peal on the eve of D-day 's anniversary . But the prime minister 's efforts to make the anniversary a national occasion have not been without controversy . Veterans complained about the carnival nature of some of the events . As a result , the observances have been muted and made less triumphal . And some events a Spam-frying contest to recall wartime rations , for instance were summarily dropped . The national Tourism Board has published and circulated a detailed guide to about 350 commemorative events in southern England and Normandy ; there are about 500 events nationally . Dozens of other brochures have been prepared focusing on various aspects of the D-day observances and history ; for example , `` Americans in Dorset , '' the story of U.S. forces based there during the invasion buildup . Tourism officials are not shy about promoting their attractions . `` Selling the South '' has become the D-day anniversary slogan for the Southern Tourist Board , which has established a full-time D-day coordinator in New York and a national information hot line in Britain . `` We hope to realize an extra $ 9 million in tourism revenue from the commemoration , '' said Peter Smith of the tourist board . `` We hope spending by American and Canadian visitors alone will top $ 3 million . '' ( Begin optional trim ) The variety of exhibits and observances is staggering . Here is a small sampling : Sightseeing flights in a DC-3 over former bases or Normandy from Bournemouth . Radio D-day in Poole and Christchurch , which will broadcast for 12 hours a day , re-creating wartime news bulletins and music . A parade , church service and wreath-laying at the American memorial in Portland . A display in Lyme Regis about the memories of U.S. troops who trained in the town . The largest display of wartime vehicles ever assembled 1,100 tanks , trucks , jeeps , motorcycles , even a locomotive in Portsmouth . A display at Southwick House in Southwick , which served as the forward headquarters for the commanders of `` Operation Overlord , '' as the invasion was formally known : American Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower and British Gen. Bernard Law Montgomery . ( End optional trim ) Meanwhile , BBC-TV is tooling up for its biggest outside broadcasting operation since the wedding of the Prince and Princess of Wales in 1981 . The anniversary events in the Channel and Normandy will receive 13 hours of live coverage . About 55 cameras will be positioned in Portsmouth for the opening commemorative services on June 4 and 5 . And the Channel crossing will be transmitted from the pitching decks of ships carrying dignitaries and veterans to Sea King helicopters above and thence to the nation 's television sets . Such has been the mounting interest in the events and memorabilia of 50 years ago that groups such as the Southern Tourist Board are preparing to gear up all over again for next year 's 50th anniversary of Victory in Europe Day . For its sheer audacity , Rupert Murdoch 's lightning raid of the CBS affiliate base this week was a corporate coup of the first magnitude . It is the more so because he pulled it off so cheaply and because it comes so soon after he snatched rights to the National Football League at a price so high he very nearly accomplished the perverse miracle of televising professional football at a loss . And , of course , it comes only four years after a brush with bankruptcy so close that on cold days Murdoch must still feel the hot breath of the wolves who were ready to liquidate his empire until an obscure bank in Pittsburgh , one of the smallest of his legion of creditors , at the last minute agreed to roll over its minuscule chunk of his indebtedness . If , 20 years ago , you 'd been asked to name the most unassailable corporate oligarchy in America , you 'd probably have said CBS , NBC and ABC . The nation had three commercial television networks not one , not two , not five because , well , they got there first , had a lock on broadcasting licenses in the richest markets , enjoyed a pervasive influence in Congress , at the Federal Communications Commission and within a succession of presidencies , and generated an unending and highly predictable stream of profits for their shareholders . Risk didn't exist to the extent that the networks ran a race in which the worst that could happen was to come in a profitable third . People in the industry still fondly remember the glory days of expense accounts so generous that everybody could imagine they were living close to scales that today are reserved for a smaller but richer band of glamour generators in a war for ratings that has lost a lot of its depth . Anyway , who would have imagined that the first successful challenge to this system , this citadel of power , this inherently American arrangement , this fixture in American living rooms as culturally ubiquitous and seemingly permanent as the nation 's sofas , floor lamps and wing chairs , would be an Australian capitalist with an apparently admirable family life , mildly reactionary political leanings , impeccable taste in vulgarity , an alarming disposition to borrow money in volumes his competitors wouldn't dare contemplate , and a record of not overly caring about the enemies he makes . The thing about Murdoch that confuses most of his critics and infuriates his most vitriolic disparagers is that he doesn't serve them with platters of the sort of buffoonery that make Donald Trump or Ross Perot targets that loom to their tormentors like the broad side of a barn . He is well spoken in his public utterances . He does not crave the artificial respectability that could easily have been arranged by Margaret Thatcher sending him to the House of Lords . He will , unself-consciously , arrange to become a U.S. citizen as easily as young Wall Street lawyers go to Brooks Brothers in slavish imitation of their senior partners . But he does not ask us to believe anything of him that doesn't ring true , however bloodless . Besides , those people who have for 40 years dreamed that the television might mature into something resembling the diversity , originality and cultural richness of the printed world , have , perhaps , been asking too much of a medium that requires less human concentration and a shorter attention span than a pinball machine . By Lee Hockstader ( c ) 1994 , The Washington Post VLADIVOSTOK , Russia Rising on craggy , fog-shrouded hills from Golden Horn Bay , Vladivostok is like a carnival mirror 's distorted image of Russia itself : distended in its lawlessness , misery and disorientation , but also in its gaudy new wealth and commercial promise . This is the capital of Russia 's Rough and Ready East , a port city seven times zones and 5,700 miles from Moscow that has been as thoroughly transformed as any spot in the former empire in the 2 years since the Soviet Union 's demise . It is in Vladivistok , farther east than any major city in mainland Asia , that Alexander Solzhenitsyn , Russia 's greatest living writer , will arrive Friday like some latter-day Rip Van Winkle after 20 years ' exile in the West . Here he will have his first glimpse of Russia 's kaleidoscopic transition to free-market capitalism in all its raucous , lurid , hopeful colors . `` We 're like a decaying organism , beset by parasites , '' said Yuri Didenko , director of Vladivostok 's huge fishing fleet , one of the world 's largest . But after railing at Moscow 's callousness and Russia 's lost dignity , he captured the tough optimism of the place by concluding : `` I 'm upbeat . The geography of Vladivostok allows us to hope it will be a center for business for East Asia and the Pacific Rim . '' Founded in 1860 to block China 's expansion to the Sea of Japan , Vladivostok ( the name means `` Possess the East '' ) boomed after the Trans-Siberian Railway linked it with Moscow in 1903 . As the home of the Soviet Pacific Fleet , Vladivostok was a closed military camp after World War II , forbidden not only to foreigners who might spy on the bristling warships and weaponry but even to Soviet citizens without special permission . Coddled by subsidies from Moscow and anchored by the navy , military factories and the fishing fleet , the city glided along in splendid isolation but for a 1975 summit between President Gerald R. Ford and Soviet leader Leonid Brezhnev . Since it was opened officially to the outside world Jan. 1 , 1992 , Vladivostok has made up for lost time , turning to the outside world with a vengeance . As Moscow 's influence wanes , Seattle and Seoul are the new points of reference for Vladivostok 's hustling traders . Coca-Cola is selling big , tripling forecast sales and leaving distributors pleading for more . U.S. Peace Corps volunteers are offering seminars on commercial banking , Italians are building a new airport , Australians operate the best restaurant in town , and Chinese workmen recently refurbished a $ 220-a-night hotel . Hundreds of joint ventures with Japanese , South Korean , Chinese and American firms are underway , jockeying for market share and the chance of future profits . Flights are planned or already operating to link the city with Alaska and Japan . And in a red-brick church atop a hill , an American Catholic priest is hearing confessions in a room that for decades was a Communist Party archive for top-secret documents , complete with electronic sensors on the windows to thwart break-ins . Signs of new money are everywhere , from the stylishly dressed women downtown to the swanky new apartment buildings on the outskirts , where luxury duplex condominiums are on sale at $ 80 a square foot . Thousands of white Japanese sedans the tax-free booty of returning merchant sailors , who sell them at a quick profit clog the narrow streets in epic rush hours . But , having thrown off the yoke of communist control so abruptly , the city is beset by outsized economic and social problems , more severe than those of most cities in Russia . As fat subsidies from Moscow dry up , huge defense plants that used to churn out navigational systems and warplanes are switching over to TVs and automatic bowling pin setters for Asian markets but not fast enough to avoid mounting layoffs and unpaid workers . Alongside the newly rich , a new class of unemployed and impoverished is rapidly taking shape . City officials say a third of Vladivostok 's 700,000 civilians are living below the poverty line . Prices , the highest in Russia , soared last year as annual inflation here reached 1,300 percent , nearly half again the national average . The emerging extremes of wealth and poverty are fueling a wave of crime and corruption , including a murder rate that has jumped by five times in five years and now rivals Washington 's . The crime rate is three times the national average , and the tough guys are having a field day . Sergei Bachurin , 31 , an entrepreneur whose business leverage includes a 12-gauge `` Vinchester '' and 20 stocky enforcers , controls the local Chinese market , where merchants from across the border peddle cheap track suits , plastic shoes and video games . `` The Russian mafia is a good mafia , '' he said after displaying his shotgun for a visitor in the middle of the crowded entryway to his market . Tall and lean , with a close-cropped blond beard , Bachurin is a former gold miner who now strolls around in a double-breasted red blazer , chalk-striped flannel pants and long black leather coat when he isn't in jail trying to beat one rap or another . `` My bodyguards , '' he said , `` can kill anyone . They can do this perfectly , because I trained them myself . '' In the face of this explosion of disorder , the authorities are swamped . The Vladivostok police force , which has just two computers , is hiring hundreds of new cops . City prosecutors , lacking any official cars , ride trolleys to their investigations . `` In the United States , you passed this racketeering stage long ago , '' said Chief Prosecutor Vyacheslav Yaroshenko . `` We 're just entering it . '' Alexander Kuchinski , a young scientist who was a precinct chief for a former mayor , said the new city authorities are thoroughly corrupt , bent on `` attracting foreigners only for their personal profit . '' But in the long run , he said , Vladivostok will make it . `` Sooner or later the new , business-minded people will win , '' he said . `` The old guard is trying to keep control , but I think and hope that sooner or later we 'll get rid of them . New forces are growing fast here . '' JERICHO , West Bank In an old public works building , Palestinian men sit in the stifling heat dressed in revolvers , white shirts and ties the latter a sure sign they are not locals . They give each visitor a hard , probing look . This is the new West Bank headquarters of the Palestinian secret police , whose quick appearance on the scene rings for some an ominous note among the celebrations over Israeli withdrawal . `` They are aiming at people like me . There is no question , '' said Riyad Malki , an engineering professor identified with a group opposed to Yasser Arafat 's Fatah faction of the Palestine Liberation Organization . The dictatorships that abound in the Middle East often use secret police `` muhabarat '' in Arabic to do the dirty work of eliminating opposition to their regimes : eavesdropping , wiretapping , midnight arrests , torture , and sometimes political assassination . Palestinians here have not been reassured by the selection of Jabril Rajoub to head the secret police in Jericho . Few wish to speak for attribution of the man who spent 17 years in Israeli prisons and six years in exile , where he is reputed to have helped direct attacks against both Israelis and Palestinian foes . `` Everybody 's afraid . The guy 's a tough cookie , '' said one well-connected Palestinian . Said another : `` He 's the one in charge of ` dirty deeds . ' Watch out for him . '' Rajoub , 41 , paints a different picture of himself and his force . `` I wouldn't call it muhabarat , '' he said . `` In the Third World , that means terror , interrogation , imprisonment and so on . Our job is to protect the inhabitants and ensure the rights of opposition to express their views in a decent way . '' His force , he said , officially is called `` Preventive Security . '' He makes reference to operating under `` democratic principles , '' trying to assure Palestinians who fear a Fatah autocracy . His men will be armed , and work in plainclothes . He declines to say how many there will be . It will work throughout the West Bank . He refuses to say how they will operate against the opposition if , for example , they will disarm other Palestinian groups . `` I don't think we can solve these problems through the media , '' he replies . `` How we deal with our people is our responsibility and our job . '' The agreement with Israel to begin Palestinian autonomy in Jericho and the Gaza Strip permits formation of Palestinian units for `` public security '' and `` intelligence . '' Those units are supposed to be within the Palestinian Police force . Rajoub said , however , the secret police report directly to PLO Chairman Arafat . Later , he acknowledged he also will report to Mesbah Hanafi Sakr , a mysterious PLO `` general '' said to have hidden from the Israelis for 27 years in the Gaza Strip , and whom few people say they have ever met . ( Begin optional trim ) Rajoub is curt to questions about his activities during six years of exile . `` Why do you ask such questions , '' he replied , irritated . Rajoub returned to the West Bank last week to a hero 's welcome . He was imprisoned for life at age 17 for a grenade attack against an Israeli army truck . He became a leader inside prison , where he learned Hebrew and English and eventually became a representative of the prisoners to the authorities . He was released in a large prisoner-swap deal in 1985 , and spent three years working with Faisal al-Husseini in East Jerusalem . In 1988 , he was deported by Israel , and he said he spent the rest of the time in Tunis . Israelis believe his job while in Tunis was to organize Fatah operations in the West Bank and within Israel . According to Yigal Carmon , former advisor to the Israeli government on terrorism , Rajoub was one of those involved in a plot to recruit an Israeli to murder of top officials of the Israeli government , including Yitzhak Rabin , then defense minister and now prime minister . The murder plan was foiled before an attempt was made . `` I guess Mr. Rabin doesn't take it personally , '' he said of the government 's approval of Rajoub 's return . ( End optional trim ) Israel agreed to the creation of a security force in hopes it will be like the Israeli secret service the Shabak and act against extreme opposition groups to stop attacks on Israelis . `` This is not our duty , '' declares Rajoub . `` If Israel asks for full and total security , we can assure that only if we have full and total authority over our land , which we do not . '' If they caught a Palestinian who attacked Israelis , they would not turn the suspect over to Israeli authorities , he said : `` It 's not mentioned in the agreement . '' `` Our relationship with the Israelis is not one of friends , '' he said last week , in explaining why there would be `` no coordination '' between his forces and those of Israel . Other Palestinians believe Rajoub 's main purpose will be to assert control over opposition for the benefit of Fatah , not Israel . `` He will do those things that are not known , so that nobody will be accountable , '' said Ghassan Khatib , who is identified with the opposition Palestinian People 's Party . Malki from another group at odds with Arafat , the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine said it is telling that Arafat installed a security apparatus even before a civil government is formed . `` I fear a lot about the future , '' he said . The secret police `` will be observing the people , watching everybody . They will stop any protest , any opposition , '' he said . `` I have been threatened three times in the last two years that my place will be in the prison '' when Fatah authorities take control , he said . `` In the last 10 or 20 years , I didn't really feel my life was threatened , '' he said . `` Now the possibility is becoming real . These are people who don't really mind eliminating their own . '' WASHINGTON Bill Clinton , who has staked his presidency on achieving bold domestic policy goals , suddenly appears to be jeopardizing his political future with his handling of U.S. foreign policy . The evidence is accumulating : Some of Clinton 's poll ratings are wilting ; Republicans including former President Bush and GOP presidential prospects for 1996 are pounding him and discontent is spreading on Capitol Hill . And with foreign policy dilemmas plaguing him around the globe , stretching from Haiti to Bosnia to North Korea and China , the future offers the president little hope for relief . Amid preparations for Clinton 's trip to Europe next week to commemorate the 50th anniversary of D-Day and to bolster strained relationships with Western allies , some advisers wonder whether the president might have underestimated the importance of foreign policy while he was lavishing attention on domestic issues . `` I can envision a Republican candidate in 1996 , someone like ( former Defense Secretary ) Dick Cheney or ( former Secretary of State ) Jim Baker , who campaigns on the slogan : ` It 's foreign policy , stupid , ' ' ' fretted a veteran of Clinton 's 1992 campaign . Indeed , the Republicans are already on the attack . `` Our leadership around the world is being eroded by a stop-and-start policy of hesitancy , '' Bush said at a GOP fund-raiser in Milwaukee last week , according to a report in the Milwaukee Sentinel newspaper . Senate Minority Leader Bob Dole , R-Kan. , a potential presidential contender in 1996 , mocked Clinton 's recent 90-minute televised news conference on international affairs . `` You shouldn't have to have a television show with someone scripting the answers to demonstrate what you know about leadership , '' Dole said at a party rally in Atlanta . The basic grievance against Clinton is this : In dealing with an array of problems abroad , such as the bloody conflict in Bosnia , the intransigence of the military regime in Haiti , the nuclear threat from North Korea and human rights violations in China , he seems to have talked loudly but carried a small stick . `` I continue to look for new solutions , '' the president has said in his own defense . His supporters blame his difficulties on the turbulent state of post-Cold War diplomacy , which has forced him to sail on uncharted seas . While some Americans are urging him to steer clear of foreign crises , others are demanding stronger action . `` You 're damned if you do and damned if you don't , '' argued Democratic National Chairman David Wilhelm . `` These are tough and difficult situations . '' `` The president is getting a bad rap , '' said House Speaker Thomas S. Foley , D-Wash. , who contends that Clinton does not get the credit that he deserves for winning congressional approval of the North American Free Trade Agreement . Likening present conditions to the chaotic years following World War II , Foley noted that it took President Harry S. Truman nearly two years to develop policies for dealing with the Soviet Union . But some analysts warn that Clinton 's penchant for wheeling and dealing contrasted with Truman 's characteristic bluntness and decisiveness can backfire in foreign policy . `` In foreign policy , it 's important to present a firm image , '' said Princeton University presidential scholar Fred Greenstein . `` With Clinton , it 's like globs of mercury ; he 's all over the place . '' Clinton 's task is not an easy one . `` In the post-Cold War era , no one knows what foreign policy ought to be , '' conceded Leslie Gelb , a former State Department official in the Jimmy Carter administration . Gelb now serves as president of the Council on Foreign Relations . Yet Clinton 's critics argue that the president is making the job more difficult with his inconsistencies . `` You can't go Chinese menu week by week on foreign policy and expect the American people to support you , '' said Hodding Carter III , who was spokesman for the State Department during the Carter administration . Clinton 's policies are drawing fire across the political spectrum . From the right , House Minority Whip Newt Gingrich , R-Ga. , scoffs at Clinton 's initiative for dealing with the potential flood of refugees from Haiti by establishing seaborne processing centers . `` There is a level of sloppiness about this administration that is kind of scary , '' the conservative Georgia congressman said . From the left , Maurice Paprin , head of the liberal-oriented Fund for New Priorities , left a recent White House briefing convinced that U.S. policy toward Haiti is `` as unclear and muddy as it was before . '' The president seemingly raised the political stakes for his Haiti policies recently when he offered a detailed justification for U.S. invasion of that strife-torn island nation if economic sanctions do not force the military government from office . But if the Haitian regime stands firm despite the sanctions , Clinton will have to risk launching a military assault with unforeseeable consequences or face intensified complaints that he lacks the will to manage foreign policy . Even longtime allies of the president , such as Rep. Dave McCurdy , D-Okla. , who chairs the Democratic Leadership Council , the centrist group that helped propel Clinton to the presidency , have joined the disapproving chorus . `` We have conducted ourselves abroad with an unsteady hand , '' McCurdy said in an address to the Commonwealth Club of San Francisco last month . `` In Bosnia , blustery rhetoric faded into reluctant diplomacy. .. . On North Korea , we have been anything but decisive . '' Republicans warn that shifting positions on current problems can create even more serious troubles in the future . `` To the extent that you use up your credibility , then when you get into a real crisis you 'll pay the price , '' former Defense Secretary Cheney told members of the National Retail Federation earlier this month . Clinton is already paying a political price for the controversies surrounding his foreign policy , according to recent polls . Only 40 percent of those interviewed in a Washington Post-ABC News survey released last week approved of his handling of foreign policy , against 53 percent who disapproved . The negative showing on foreign policy apparently contributed to lowering the president 's overall approval rating to 51 percent , from 57 percent in March . ( Optional add end ) `` Foreign policy is not just about foreign affairs , it 's also an opportunity for the president to display leadership capabilities in the one arena in which he can do so with fewest challenges , '' said Everett Carll Ladd , director of the Roper Center for Public Opinion Research . `` We have loads of evidence that people form impressions of presidents by what they see of them on the world stage . '' Underscoring Clinton 's difficulties abroad , and conceivably complicating them , are increasing signs of congressional restlessness with his leadership on foreign affairs . The most striking example is a Senate vote two weeks ago for an amendment ordering the president to unilaterally lift the U.N.-imposed embargo on selling arms to Bosnia , even if the United States ' NATO allies do not agree . Sen. Mitch McConnell of Kentucky , the top Republican on the Senate Appropriations subcommittee that oversees spending on foreign aid , predicted more congressional involvement in foreign affairs on such issues as curbing development of North Korea 's nuclear capability and granting `` most favored nation '' trade status to China . `` All of a sudden , '' McConnell said , `` an issue the president has no interest in , and he thinks the American people aren't interested in , is becoming a major political liability . '' The following editorial appeared in Thursday 's Washington Post : Congress goes home still trying to figure out how , if at all , to restructure the health-care system . With regard to at least one aspect of the problem cost containment our own sense is that it has no choice . It has to act somehow ; the government can't afford the system as it stands . No payer can . Some members of Congress have said in the past that the way to counter health-care costs the federal share , at any rate would be to impose an entitlement cap . The cap would force the necessary cuts , if not in health care , then in other entitlement programs to make room for health care . We 've been among those opposed to a cap on grounds that it would be a cop-out another broad promise to achieve great savings by cutting specific programs in the future instead of cutting them up front . But if Congress fails to provide for such cuts up front when given the chance if it fails to enact a credible health-care-cost-containment mechanism well , what 's left but an entitlement cap ? The cap becomes harder to resist . There 's already a cap on the third of the budget subject to the appropriations process . It 's a crude device , but it 's working pretty well , forcing the administration and Congress to make choices they 'd otherwise finesse . Cappers say there needs to be a similar ceiling on the entitlements side of the budget , or else the deficit , so painfully reduced last year , will soon start to rise again . You can make a lot of arguments against such a cap . Entitlements are a false category , an arbitrary lumping together of unlike programs ( though the same can of course be said of appropriations ) . The word is a euphemism mainly for aid to the elderly in the form of Social Security and the payment of health-care costs through Medicare and Medicaid . The health-care costs are the ones that are driving the budget . They are the ones that should be contained , and other programs , including the rest of the federal-support system for the poor , should not be put at risk because of them . Most cap proposals also leave out tax entitlements the mortgage-interest deduction , for example . Those should be put at risk as well . A cap is also likely to produce not so much genuine savings as shifts . Particularly in health care , costs now borne by the federal government will simply be shifted to the states or private payers . That reduces the deficit more than it helps the society ; there 's a better way . But if Congress willn't do the right thing , which is to face up to health-care costs directly , then maybe it ought to put a gun to its own head in the form of an entitlement cap . The health-care problem is also a budget problem . Unless you solve the problem of health-care costs , you can't provide even the health care the country needs . The members need to think about that amid the swirl of pressures back home . NEW YORK `` Weekend in the Country '' might be enough for Stephen Sondheim 's mismatched lovers in `` A Little Night Music , '' but Ivan Turgenev sent his off on `` A Month in the Country . '' Before too many months pass , New Yorkers can expect to get a new look at the Russian classic in a production that is London 's latest hit . Starring Helen Mirren and John Hurt , it ends a brief sold-out run this weekend , but producer Duncan C. Weldon plans to bring it to Broadway next February or March . Mirren , Hurt and John Standing would repeat their roles , along with director Bill Bryden and designer Hayden Griffin . London critics gave Mirren 's Turgenev portrayal high praise . `` She has taken one of the great , yet most elusive of roles and made it entirely her own , '' the Daily Mail said . Mirren 's schedule a film this summer and more of TV 's `` Prime Suspect '' in the fall dictate the delay till next year . Weldon said there may be a pre-Broadway run in Stamford , Conn. , where his possible partner , Alexander H. Cohen , has a theater , and a post-Broadway date in Los Angeles . SERIOUS SIMON : Accepting a lifetime achievement award at New Dramatists ' annual luncheon last week , Neil Simon was alternately playful and philosophical . As he looked back over a career that produced 28 plays , he said , `` I do realize it 's not going to go on forever . ( pause ) This speech may . '' No , he had said at the outset , he would be brief unless he got a lot of laughs . He got quite a few from the audience of about 500 , but throughout his talk there was a recurring seriousness , vague hints of a career winding down . He referred indirectly to the fact that his latest Broadway play , `` Laughter on the 23rd Floor , '' failed to attract a single Tony nomination : `` As far as I 'm concerned , all of them ( in the cast ) have gotten Tony nominations from me . Unfortunately , you don't get to go to the party . '' And he worried that playwrights are now an endangered species . `` I came to the theater at the right time . I had a place to learn and a place to fail . There 's no place to fail now and you need that . ( pause ) I 'd better stop and tell a joke . '' And he did , but it can't be repeated here that word , you know . Introducing Simon , his longtime producer , Emanuel Azenberg , recalled that during rehearsals for `` Broadway Bound , '' a scene wasn't working . Simon noticed his concern and sent him a note , now framed on his office wall : `` Don't worry . I know how to fix it . '' Later , they were workshopping a Simon musical using Gershwin songs . It was terrible , Azenberg said . So bad that Simon sent him a note , now also hanging on his office wall : `` Worry . I don't know how to fix it . '' CASTING ABOUT : We 're not going to see Judy Kuhn as the young love interest in `` Sunset Boulevard '' when Andrew Lloyd Webber 's megamusical comes to Broadway in the fall . In fact , she left the Los Angeles cast Sunday to get ready for motherhood . Her first child is due in October . Understudy Anastasia Barzee has taken over the role in L.A. . No word yet on who 'll play it here .. . As of June 7 , the `` Blood Brothers '' will no longer be played by the brothers Cassidy . Understudy Philip Lehl replaces David Cassidy and Ric Ryder takes over for Shaun Cassidy . On the same day , Carole King steps into the role of their mother , currently played by Petula Clark . Clark takes the road company out in September first stop , Dallas .. . Peter Bartlett , J. Smith-Cameron , John Cunningham , Debra Messing and Mary Beth Peil head the cast of the new Paul Rudnick play , `` The Naked Truth , '' now in previews at the WPA Theater . The plot involves photography , pornography and politics .. . Dennis Parlato , seen recently in `` Hello Again , '' replaces Howard McGillin in `` She Loves Me '' Tuesday . Starting June 6 , McGillin plays Molina , the gay window dresser in `` Kiss of the Spider Woman . '' ON THE RECORD : Speaking of Judy Kuhn , her debut solo album is due out this summer : a collection of Jule Styne songs on the Varese Sarabande label . Another star from the original cast of the current `` She Loves Me '' revival , Sally Mayes , is also recording solo for Varese Sarabande . With emphasis on the lyrics of Betty Comden and Adolph Green , the disc is due in the fall . Mayes is also moonlighting this month and next with late Saturday night shows at Eighty Eight 's , the Greenwich Village cabaret .. . `` Ruthless , '' the musical about unbridled ambition in a preteen actress , enjoyed a good Off-Broadway run here last season but never made it into the recording studio . The show is having an even better run at Beverly Hills ' Canon Theater and getting an album out of it too . Although the murder-minded moppet is now played at the Canon by Kathryn Zaremba , the production 's original star , Lindsay Ridgeway , is on the just-released Varese Sarabande recording . Zaremba is remembered here in the kinder , gentler guise of Annie Warbucks . REVIVAL UPDATE : The Drama Desk 's special award citing the 25-year record of York Theater Company and producing director Janet Hayes Walker is prompting a preview of their latest show , a revised version of Sondheim 's `` Merrily We Roll Along , '' opening June 8 . The cast of York 's revival will perform two numbers at the awards ceremony June 5 at the Roundabout Theater . Carole King is also on the program .. . American Jewish Theater 's revival of Jerry Herman 's `` Milk and Honey '' is proving enough of a box-office draw to warrant a month 's extension . The show , set to close this weekend , will now play through June 26 . Distributed by the Los Angeles Times-Washington Post News Service . HOLLYWOOD When Arsenio Hall takes his final bow Friday night , record company executives fear that the curtain may also drop on urban-oriented music on the late-night talk-show circuit . Officials at MCA , Epic and other labels said for the past 5 years , the syndicated `` Arsenio Hall Show '' provided a valuable national outlet for urban music while other late-night hosts such as Johnny Carson , Jay Leno and David Letterman focused on more traditional , mainstream musical tastes . `` I 'm really bummed , '' said Laura Hynes , vice president of artist development and media relations for Tommy Boy Records , a New York-based label specializing in rap and urban music . `` This show helped break a lot of our artists Naughty by Nature , House of Pain , RuPaul , Queen Latifah , '' Hynes said . `` Before this show , there was no national late-night outlet where a viewer could tune in to see happening music that appealed to the segment of the audience that liked rap or dance music . '' Even as Hall 's ratings slipped in the last few years by 24 percent in the last year alone these executives and other observers of the urban music scene maintained that his show never lost its status as a desired gig for rap and rhythm & blues artists to reach their core young audience . An appearance on the Hall show often translated into a boost in popularity and record sales as much as 400 percent , said Kim Jackwerth , director of television media for Epic . It was , said Ernie Singleton , president of MCA Records ' black music division , `` the single best platform for urban music , even better than ` Soul Train , ' ` Showtime at the Apollo ' or the occasional Leno and Letterman appearance . '' Hall not only gave visibility to established mainstream rappers and groups such as Salt-N-Pepa , Arrested Development and Queen Latifah , but also featured more controversial artists such as Snoop Doggy Dogg , Dr. Dre , Cypress Hill , Tupac Shakur and Ice T . Now , with Hall quitting after Friday 's show , the music industry is wondering if those artists will be able to `` get busy '' with Leno , Letterman or Hall 's expected replacement , Jon Stewart of MTV . The opportunities to get a coveted slot on a late-night show will certainly be slimmer , they agreed . Reggie Miller , music editor of the Source , a rap and hip-hop-oriented magazine , said , `` The overall vibe of Arsenio 's show was a party , and it was also family . It was a real symbol to appear on Arsenio 's show . There is definitely not another late-night show that would devote an entire program to rap . I 've seen that Jon Stewart has a lot of music acts on his ( MTV ) show and he feels very contemporary , but I doubt if any other show will be of Arsenio 's essence . '' Another executive who asked not to be identified said there was a perception in the music industry that Leno and Letterman were biased against rap and urban music acts . `` They 're white shows for white audiences , '' said the official . `` Unless you have appeal to white people , you 're not going to get a booking on those shows . '' A spokesperson for `` The Tonight Show With Jay Leno '' disputed that claim and other perceptions that Leno placed less of a priority on urban-oriented music . `` We were the first to have on R. Kelly , '' said the spokesperson . `` In the past , we 've had Gang Starr , TLC and a number of hip-hop artists . On June 2 , we 've got All 4 One booked . '' The spokesperson added that Leno 's booking of rap and hip-hop artists would not change due to Hall 's departure . A spokesman for Letterman could not be reached for comment . ( Optional add end ) Marla Kell Brown , producer of `` The Arsenio Hall Show , '' said she does not believe the other late-night programs are biased against urban artists . `` Initially , we were an alternative to Johnny Carson , who had a whole different audience and didn't necessarily speak to the younger generation , '' Brown said . `` It 's more an issue of age than of black and white . It 's an issue of being uninformed . '' Some urban artists will get shots on the Letterman and Leno shows , she predicted , `` but many will not have a place to go . There are only so many slots available . '' And `` the other shows are not going to change their format , '' she added . `` If you try too hard to be what you 're not , that looks strange , too . '' Brown said Hall , after all , was only doing what came naturally to him . `` I always felt that there was this misconception by the media that we were on the cutting edge , '' she said . `` We just brought out what young America was listening to . In our first week , we had Bobby Brown on as a guest . He had the No. 1 song in the country then ` My Prerogative ' but he had never been on a late-night show . There just wasn't a venue for artists like him to get their stuff out there . So we were not cutting edge . We were just reflecting the mainstream of young America . '' That reflection extended beyond the music scene , the producer said . `` There were actors and athletes that were very popular , but popular in a world that was different than the world populated by the producers of those other shows , '' she said . While pessimistic , many of the urban music executives said they were willing to give other talk shows the benefit of the doubt in terms of the booking of rap and hip-hop artists . `` These musicians will have a place to go , but it just willn't be the same , '' said Lisa Jefferson , manager of West Coast press and artist development for Elektra Entertainment . `` I don't know how hard it will be for an artist to get on . It may take a Top 10 single . With Arsenio , if he knew the group , he would put them on . Plus , it willn't be the same camaraderie . He will definitely be missed . '' I get the calls a couple of times each year . A local public junior high school counselor , usually from a school boasting a `` mostly minority '' student population , will ask me to speak at Career Day . Unless my schedule is unyielding , I cannot resist the invitation . I am a Role Model , capitalized : an African American woman with an advanced degree who does work that many of the audience members have fantasized about . I may be the first person of color some of the kids have seen who does the work that I do . I may be the first real-life lawyer some have ever seen . Having been there , I cannot resist going back . I know that I have been invited because I represent possibility . My information kit usually directs me to tell the students something about the education I needed to become a law school professor . I am to impress them with the hard work it will take to get from where they are to where I am . They are at a crossroads , I am told , having to decide what to do about the rest of their secondary education in order to realize a dream or two . Some of them are considering whether to continue their education at all . Last fall , the Santa Monica , Calif. , YWCA Career Day was at the John Adams Middle School . The students were restless , wearing on the patience of their teachers and vice principal . The other panelists were a professional beach-volleyball player , a recreation supervisor and an intimidating karate instructor with the fourth-degree black belt . As befits our host , the panel was all female . As I gathered my notes , I realized why I make the time to attend career days : It is a grounding exercise . I do not want to forget that my present self is the sum of my life . As much as career days give me a chance to represent possibility to young African Americans , I also get to remind myself , `` Here is very much possible from there . '' I once was , in the language of social science , an economically disadvantaged , single teen mother . Statistically , I should not be a law-school professor , nor should my daughter be an only child or a college graduate . These facts are vital elements of my discussion , because the risk exists that some members of the audience are or will become single teen parents . There is an equal likelihood that there are many economically disadvantaged children at the school at which I am speaking . I tell them about my origins and my early parenthood , not merely as cautionary tale , but also as an offering of hope . It is as important to me to include unplanned parenthood in my presentation as it is to point out how I got into college , what my grades were like or the route I took from law student to law professor . It is part of my objective of presenting possibility to these students : You can have a life after early , unexpected parenthood . It will not be an easy life , but it can be productive and fulfilling . There are innumerable sources willing to suggest to them that they will fail in life . I like offering the possibility that they will succeed . I don't sugarcoat the teen parenting experience : Once I became a parent , I gave up dating as it is traditionally perceived and deferred a college education in favor of full-time employment until my daughter was 8 and able ( if not particularly willing ) to accept an explanation for our changed economic circumstances . I tell the students that my daughter and I grew up together , that I was attending to the needs of a child while just out of my own childhood . And I always identify the life choices I made that were directed by the promise I made to myself that my child 's life would be better filled with more options and possibilities than mine . Nor do I forget to tick off the positives : Having a daughter gave me great joy and purpose . I discovered that , to persuade this child that she could do anything or be whatever she wanted , I had to live my life in a way that affirmed that . It was not enough simply to tell her that the world was her oyster if I , her primary role model , did not do what I wanted . She was a powerful catalyst , propelling me through college and graduate school , keeping me from remaining in a job that bored me . And , my daughter has always been my most ardent fan and strongest supporter . She even helped me get through law school . She gave me a life-saving study tip : When studying for long periods , take a two- to five-minute break every hour . During this short break , wash your face , make a doctor 's appointment , prepare lunch , check the mail , check airline ticket prices to Tahiti . Whatever you do , she advised me , get out of the chair in which you are studying and move your brain to something else . As promised , I came back from my breaks refreshed , ready for work . I continue to pass this hint on . ( It works for bar-exam preparation as well . ) It is with wonder that I tell students that life is change and growth , and what seems like a mistake can become an opportunity . I remember how my high school guidance counselor responded to my pregnancy . She suggested that I withdraw from my college-preparatory public school for gifted and talented girls and enroll in vocational school , where I could `` learn a trade and maybe find a husband and father '' for me and my child . I ignored her and graduated with my class ; my mother brought my daughter to the ceremony . Sometimes , surprised silence greets my reference to my teen pregnancy . Usually , the students are more interested in my annual income , whether I go to court , whether there is a test you have to take to get into law school . Once a student asked if law-school professors are `` real lawyers . '' Then there are the other times . For instance , in Santa Monica , a student asked my favorite career-day question : What is my daughter doing now ? She 's living in Philadelphia , finishing her MBA , working in mortgage banking . She is planning a July wedding . We are friends , she calls four times a week , she is happy . These are the most affirming facts of all . Time was compressed and accelerated for Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis , or so we 'd like to think . Things just seemed to have an awful habit of befalling her too soon and too quickly . It wasn't right . It wasn't natural . As Teddy Kennedy eulogized : `` Jackie was too young to be a widow in 1963 , and too young to die now . '' She died at 64 , which is way too young in my lexicon of denial . At the very least , it 's not the `` ripe old age '' in which we middle-aged survivors are accustomed to seeking relief . They say this is the age at which we begin scrutinizing obituaries . If that is so , Jackie 's death is the obituary page writ large . A lot of people I know , especially those who were children when our association between Jackie and the funeral hearse was forever forged , are busily consulting our mortality calculators and computing how much longer her death date gives us . Twenty-five years ? Twenty ? A little more ? A little less ? Whatever it is , it 's not much . Certainly , it 's not enough . But then , as Teddy said , Jackie was `` too young to die . '' Phew . It has been said the intensity of the public 's mourning has to do with our perception of Jackie as invincible , the perfect princess whose wealth and bearing and eternal slimness and style enveloped her in a kind of magic shield . Yes , she suffered ; but look how nobly she endured . It has been said , too , that her passing is particularly painful because it marks the passing of our youth and its seminal events . Even the veteran broadcaster Sander Vanocur teared up while commenting on her funeral Monday ; the lights of his youth had gone out , he said , never to be seen again . For me , though , the sadness or is it the fear ? is more banal . It has more to do with the speed with which the cancer claimed her . Diagnosed in January , gone in May . Can it really happen that quickly ? To a woman who ate right , exercised regularly , had the best medical care her millions could buy ? Can it happen this quickly , even to her ? Perhaps Jackie 's life seems unduly attenuated because she embraced and embodied the length and breadth the sheer velocity of her time . She was so many things , in such a short space . The still photographs flash before us child equestrian , debutante , adoring wife , glamorous first lady , grieving widow , international swinger , stoic single mother , accomplished professional , proud grandmother . In such a short space , at such a breakneck pace , she created such a kaleidoscope of images . I tend to think of Jackie as part of a threesome of Kennedy wives she , Ethel and Joan forming a triumvirate of female possibility within that testosterone-rich patriarchy of sports and politics . A quarter-century after Bobby 's death , Ethel remains his widow , a matronly woman with a horde of children . After decades of drinking , personal decay and finally a legal split from Teddy , Joan remains the recovering alcoholic , the damaged divorcee behind the dark glasses . But Jackie was never static . She continually transcended the present and moved on . She was never stuck , never vanquished by the Kennedy code any more than by the prying paparazzi . Somehow , Jackie managed to accomplish what her counterparts couldn't . She changed . It has been startling , in recent days , to hear her little-girl voice explaining , back in 1962 , how important it is for a woman to worship her husband . It has been startling because it so sharply contrasts with the sophisticated Doubleday editor who shared her Park Avenue apartment with her `` companion of recent years . '' It has been startling , too , to see her walking one day in Central Park , and then , just a week later , buried at Arlington . Even in death , Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis moved fast , which is , of course , what we 've all got to do in life . We 've got to move fast , or we 'll miss it . We 've got to grab on and let go , again and again . We 've got to change . For the excruciating truth is that life is short , no matter how long it lasts . We may live in a wonderful world of color , but when it comes to television , much of what we watch is still in black and white . A quick remote-control journey through network prime time reveals a lineup of programs divided by race . Most shows feature white characters ; a small but growing number star black performers ; but very few offer both in major roles . Our viewing habits mirror those divisions . A recent breakdown of Nielsen Media Research ratings showed a wide disparity between black and non-black households in television viewing preferences . For fall 1993 , the two groups had completely different lists of top 10 prime-time programs , based on Nielsen ratings . Of the top 20 , only one show , ABC Monday Night Football , appeared on both lists , according to BBDO , the New York advertising agency that analyzed the ratings . And the preference gap is widening . In a similar survey eight years ago , the top-20 lists for black and non-black audiences featured 15 programs that were on both . One reason for the disparity in viewing habits is the greater variety of program choices . Only a decade ago , there were just a handful of shows featuring major black characters . For 1993-94 , the networks , led by Fox , offered more than 25 shows starring black people or featuring them in major supporting roles . `` There 's no mystery . Blacks now have more options than they did in the old days , '' said BBDO Vice President Doug Alligood , who conducted the survey . People , no matter their age , race or socioeconomic status , are attracted to programs featuring people of similar appearances or circumstances , he said . For example , 13 of the top 20 programs favored by African-Americans feature black people as stars , while supporting roles are the best they can do in programs in the non-black top 20 . Alligood said television programs are meant to entertain , and that it may not be wise to put too much weight into the differences in viewing preferences . Others are not as sanguine , however . They acknowledge that differences in viewing habits by race and the small number of programs with multiracial casts are symptoms of the divisions in our society . However , television is too powerful a medium merely to reflect such divisions . Its influence tends to amplify them , some said . `` To the extent that people take television as an indication of the way people are in the world , it reinforces stereotypes . And there 's a lot of evidence that people take television as a reinforcement of the world , '' said Clay Steinman , associate professor of communications studies at Macalester College in St. Paul , Minn . Television can be especially influential in matters of race , where social divisions often keep whites and blacks from knowing much about each other . White people , especially , often have little contact with black culture , and can be swayed by characterizations of black people on television , Steinman said . However , the fact that people of different races may be attracted to different programs willn't necessarily harm society , said Esther Bush , president and chief executive officer of the Urban League of Greater Hartford . `` I don't think it divides us more . For African-Americans , it makes sense that we 're watching shows that have us in them , '' Bush said . ( Begin optional trim ) There are similar racial divergences in musical and reading preferences , said William A . Edwards , chairman of the sociology department at the University of San Francisco . They often reflect different cultural upbringings and interests , which also can be found when examining preferences based on education or income , he said . Sanford Cloud Jr. , president of The National Conference ( formerly National Conference of Christians and Jews ) , said the growing number of programs featuring black characters is good , because it provides an opportunity to show a greater range of black culture and experiences . `` If there 's only one program on , that 's what Americans believe those people are like , '' said Cloud . Still , the content of shows must be analyzed , Cloud said , and there are troubling signs that television doesn't show the full range . For example , black stars are featured almost exclusively on comedy programs . Filmmaker Spike Lee recently criticized such depictions as a return to minstrel shows , while Charles Dutton , the star of Fox 's critically praised `` Roc , '' has complained that the networks do not support serious shows featuring African-American characters . Programs featuring black characters often receive greater scrutiny . For example , `` The Cosby Show '' on NBC received great ratings and reviews , but was knocked by some for offering a sanitized vision of African-American life . The mistake , Bush and others said , is when viewers look to entertainment programs for depictions of real life , especially if they rely on few other information sources . `` TV doesn't depict anyone 's family '' realistically , no matter the race , said Robert Gluck , vice president and general manager of WTIC-TV , the Fox affiliate in Hartford , Conn. . Steinman said the white audience , because of its much larger size , always must be taken into consideration by programmers , but that the reverse is not true . For that reason , presentations of African-Americans that do not square with white perceptions can have difficulty getting on the air , he said . Crossover programs , those that feature both blacks and whites in prominent roles , generally have not performed well in the ratings and are rarely seen on television . One exception is the hourlong CBS drama , `` In the Heat of the Night . '' Some programs , such as `` Dave 's World '' on CBS , feature a black character , but `` he is basically a visitor '' on what is perceived to be a white show , Alligood said . `` What real-life image portrayal there is ( on television ) is that we live in separate communities and live separate lives , '' Cloud said . `` If producers showed more mixing , it might make us mix more . '' Michael Brown , professor of recreation and leisure studies at Old Dominion University in Norfolk , Va. , said that airing a show with an all-black cast follows a common marketing practice of targeting groups according to shared characteristics , such as age , sex or income . The plus is that the networks realize they must serve the black audience , which watches a lot of television . The same situation should eventually come true for other minority groups , Brown said . By marketing to specific groups , however , `` they don't feel like developing a multiculturally diverse show , '' he said . Brown sees the popularity of shows featuring all-black casts as partly a reaction against programming in the 1970s and early 1980s , when black people started being featured more regularly , but often within a white cultural environment . An obvious example of that phenomenon was `` Diff ' rent Strokes , '' a show in which a rich white man adopts two poor black boys . According to the BBDO ratings survey , there is not a wide preference gap between races for some programs , such as CBS 's `` 60 Minutes , '' ABC 's `` Home Improvement '' or `` Roseanne '' or NBC 's `` The Fresh Prince of Bel Air . '' ( End optional trim ) Alligood , who wrote the BBDO report , said racial differences in viewing habits are far less pronounced for certain age groups . According to the BBDO survey , the top-20 lists of black and non-black youths between the ages of 12 and 17 share 10 programs . `` When it comes to television , racial differences are secondary to generational differences , '' he said . While those interviewed believe that television should do a better job in educating the public about different races and cultures , they said viewers also have a responsibility to find ways to learn about others . `` If we learn about each other from television , we 're in a lot of trouble , '' Alligood said . Lately , more voices are being raised in favor of staying together for the sake of the children . The notion of a `` good divorce '' when children are involved seems a selfish rationalization left over from the human potential movement of the '60s . Yet , as the average length of marriage has dropped to six years and serial monogamy becomes more popular , many individuals and some jurisdictions are pursuing a '90s definition of the good divorce also for the sake of the children . Like many divorced parents , Geoff , now 35 , and Barbara Lipscomb , 37 , couldn't see past their own emotions in the beginning . Married for five years , they separated three years ago . At the time , their son , Colin , was only 2 . `` It was bitter and angry in the beginning , '' recalled Barbara , who had planned a future for herself as a stay-at-home mom . `` I was angry he left and shocked , rejected and hurt . '' There were practical things to take care of : lawyers , moving , a new preschool , a new job , new child-care arrangements . And there was Colin . `` I think it 's heartbreaking for the child . The hardest part was to hear him say , ` I wish you and me and Daddy all lived together. ' ' ' It took nine months before she would even agree to talk with Geoff . With the help of a court-appointed mediator , they ironed out custody and visitation disagreements and now talk about their son 's needs and development at least three times a week . They attend school events together . They say they never criticize each other in front of their child . They have even spent Christmas together . `` Most people , I think , are surprised , '' Geoff said . Contrary to popular belief , a number of parents have learned ways to continue raising their children together effectively , said Constance Ahrons , associate director of the Marriage and Family Therapy Program at the University of Southern California . `` The truth is , 50 percent of divorces do not do long-term damage to children or adults , '' said Ahrons , whose book `` The Good Divorce '' ( HarperCollins ) is scheduled to be published in the fall . Ahrons said she studied 98 families in the Midwest that she found through court records . She interviewed them three times over five years , the last in 1985 . The children were not interviewed . `` About 50 percent fell into what is the negative stereotype , '' she said . `` They were still angry or litigating . But 50 percent were not doing that . They got on with trying to resolve it , finding ways to effectively handle their parenting . `` The research clearly indicates the damage done to children is done in bad marriages prior to divorce , not so much the divorce itself , '' said Ahrons , who struggled to attain a civilized divorce herself . Although she and her ex-husband never became friendly after the divorce , they did manage a holiday dinner or two and when their daughter married , walked her down the aisle together . ( Optional add end ) Lessening the impact of divorce is complicated . The overriding rule is that children should never become caught in the cross-fire between the parents . They need to be reassured that they are not the cause of the divorce and that while there will be changes , both parents will still love them and take care of them . One of the more important tools in a good divorce , Ahrons said , is compromise . Colin sees his father every other weekend plus Wednesday nights . Barbara learned to consult Geoff on arrangements she made , such as changing preschools . Geoff sends the child support check on time . When Colin is sick , sometimes he takes the day off to stay with him . More parents can have civilized divorces if society expects them to , Ahrons believes . Several jurisdictions are experimenting with mandating `` parenting plans '' when couples with children divorce . Under the state of Washington 's 1987 Parenting Act , divorcing parents must file a parenting plan that delineates a dispute resolution process , allocation of decision-making authority and residential provisions for holidays , birthdays , vacations and other special events . Exceptions are allowed in cases of abuse . While mandated parenting plans resemble the old joint custody and visitation arrangements , supporters believe that the new language will help parents see their roles in terms of responsibility rather than of control . Geoff said that in some ways , a good divorce is not that much different from a good marriage : `` It takes a lot of work . '' There are things in this life that are true . Absolutely true . Children think they know these things . Men talk like they do . But only women really know . Here , then , is another glimpse inside the store of knowledge that has come to be known as True Facts . As always , I am grateful to those who have made these true facts known to me . Don't even look for the Scotch tape . Your children have already used it all up . `` My mom lets me . '' The most common phrase uttered by a child to an adult not his parent . Almost always a lie . It is a common misconception that sleep-over means sleeping over at someone else 's house . It does not . It means that after your child spends the night at another child 's house , you have to do the sleeping part of it over sometime that next afternoon or your child will not be fit to live with . If you go back to bed after your children leave for school and ignore that ringing phone , it will be the school calling to tell you your child is sick and needs to come home . Where are all the spoons ? Probably the same place all the other socks are . Old Russian proverb : Women do everything . Men do the rest . You know your child has reached adolescence when the field trip permission slips come home with `` My parent will not be able to chaperon '' already checked off . Only mothers put the caps back on the markers . That 's because they paid for them . Men don't sing in church . Women would feel bad for the organist if they didn't . If your child has a sore throat and you take him for a strep test , he will not have strep throat . If you give him a couple of hard candies and send him to school , your child will have strep throat . Everything in your child 's life should have a driver 's side power lock just like the ones on car windows and car doors . Why is it that you can't remember where you put your car keys , but you can't forget any of those painful grade school injustices ? Women don't read directions . Men don't ask for them . `` I don't have any . '' Most common response by a child to an adult asking about homework . Almost always a lie , and you will find that out 30 minutes before bedtime . No matter how much laundry you do , the outfit your daughter absolutely has to wear is not clean . If your husband asks you , `` Where do you keep it ? '' it means he wants you to go get it . If it is possible for your child to leave something at a friend 's house hat , jacket , backpack , toys he will . Speed dial was not invented so that little girls who can't remember seven digits in a row can call their friends all afternoon . You are aging like your mother . Women bond around problems . Men don't acknowledge them . Let your neighbor put up the basketball hoop or the play gym . Then your children might actually use them . When the chorus performs at the school spring concert , your kid will be in the second row , all the way on the right , and her face will be blocked the entire time . The only time you ever lose weight is after you finally give in and buy something that fits . Every kid in the neighborhood is your child 's best friend when you open a box of Popsicles . Every year brings another body part to camouflage . It is bad enough when your son burps in public . But when your daughter does and responds to your horrified criticism by saying that `` all the girls do '' it makes you fear for the future of civilization . As soon as you save enough money to redecorate that room in your house , a car or a major appliance dies . Why are there never any Band-Aids ? You know you bought some . No matter how much money you make , your credit card bill is always a shock . There isn't a laundry detergent made that gets baby throw-up off your good blouse . And the truest True Fact of them all : If you allow your child to push the grocery cart for you , he will run it into your Achilles ' tendon . You might well wonder what Julia Roberts , Shannen Doherty , Drew Barrymore , Bette Midler and a 42-year-old Chicago psychologist named Kate Wachs have in common . As it turns out , all married impulsively . Quickly and in major defiance of every mom 's maxim : Gee , honey , maybe you should get to know this person you 're about to marry before you actually get married . Barrymore 's marriage to tavern owner Jeremy Thomas lasted about a month . Noting that she and Thomas had not so much as cohabited before their marriage , Barrymore said at the time of her wedding , `` I guess we 're doing it the old-fashioned way . Kind of . '' Doherty and Ashley Hamilton split up six months after they tied the knot at a picnic in her back yard . Their courtship reportedly lasted only two or three weeks . ( The marriage , if not the divorce , surprised even Doherty 's publicist . ) In a positive dream state while Lovett was removing her blue garter at their wedding reception , Roberts remarked : `` He makes me so happy . He 's so good to me . '' These days , heated tabloid speculation notwithstanding , Roberts and Lovett insist that they 're still wildly in love . When Midler and Martin von Haselberg reconnected in October 1984 , after having met briefly once before , sparks flew . Two months later , they were heading to Las Vegas to get married . This winter , Midler and von Haselberg will celebrate their 10th wedding anniversary . They have one child , a daughter , Sophie . As for Wachs , her two-year union with seaman Don Donner is so successful that in some circles of the American Psychological Association whose members , you might think , ought to know better getting married impulsively is now known with some admiration as getting hitched `` Dr . Kate-Style . '' `` That means quick , '' Wachs said . She and Donner met one evening at the grocery store , after he tracked the scent of her perfume ( Paloma Picasso ) down the aisles . `` You should get some for your girlfriend , '' said Wachs , no fool . `` What girlfriend ? '' Donner said . By morning , they were engaged . The short life span of many high-profile impulse marriages has given the practice a seriously bad name . Hasty marital decisions make waste-y divorce proceedings , the logic goes often correctly . Infatuation is an evil drug , your sensible maiden aunt warned . Feels great while you 're in its spell . When the effect wears off , look out . But while admitting that they have no vast data pool to draw on , many experts wonder if instant marriages deserve their reputation as an automatic formula for disaster . Love-at-first-sight is a treasured myth of our culture , these social scientists point out . The mysterious stranger is an ongoing icon . Passion 's a more enjoyable route to a raised heartbeat than fishing or an aerobic workout . And spontaneity is exhilarating , a rush that rules out reason . Put these elements together , said Cambridge , Mass. , psychologist Barry Dym , and you 've got the recipe for an impulse marriage . And , Dym said , `` I kind of doubt that they have any worse chance than anyone else . '' In fact , he added , `` since the chemistry is so strong , they may have a better chance . '' In Austin , Texas , psychologist Pat Love was the first to agree . The Wachs-Donner scenario , for example , seemed perfectly plausible to Love , who once entered an upscale Dallas watering hole with two close female friends . Love and her friend Maisie went to find a table . Their friend Sue , meanwhile , found a new husband . `` By the time Maisie and I found a place to sit down , Sue was engaged , '' Love said . `` This guy she later married saw her looking around and says , ` Who 're you trying to find ? ' And Sue says , ` You. ' ' ' So the marriage , Sue 's third , lasted less than a year . Love 's response : So what ? When it comes to finding a life partner , she said , `` the truth of it is , I think it 's kind of a crapshoot anyway . '' Because embarking on an impulse marriage is like buying a car without a road test or a warranty many couples rapidly end up visiting the marital equivalent of a mechanic . Omaha psychologist Patricia O' Hanlon Hudson said she despairs when she sees a couple `` three months after the marriage that took place two months after they met . '' Yet she called this kind of counseling `` a real opportunity to deal with impulsivity '' a trait she equates largely with immaturity . Instant marriages , concurred Berkeley psychologist Stephen Goldbart , are often `` the bread-and-butter couple that we see in therapy . They fall in love , they run off and get married , they run into trouble . '' Couples who fall in love and marry instantaneously often find themselves `` over-amped , '' said fellow Berkeley psychologist David Wallin , who , with Goldbart , has written a new book called `` Mapping the Terrain of the Heart '' ( Addison Wesley , 1994 ) . The sex may be stupendous , Wallin said a meshing of mutual fantasies . But instant marriage participants are probably `` merger hungry , '' he said , meaning that `` they can't bear to be alone . '' Partners who marry quickly also tend to over-idealize , Wallin said , portraying the new mate as `` a dream come true . '' Few mortals , as it happens , can measure up to such expectations . ( Optional add end ) Revenge and rebound are fairly common themes in instant marital histories , Goldbart said . Then there is the `` Omigod , I 'm 45 , and I 'm still not married and I have no kids '' script that sends men and women alike leaping into the next pair of semi-warm arms that wander into the neighborhood . And some people , Goldbart said , are simply `` impulse-ridden , '' devil-may-care in everything they do , marriage included . `` These are the kinds of marriages we suspect willn't last very long , '' Goldbart said , because as soon as they polish off the wedding cake , `` they 're off to the next impulse . '' But Kate Wachs would hardly have thought of herself as impulsive , a woman who waited 40 years before pledging her troth and who has made a comfortable living running the `` Dr. Kate Relationship Center , '' arranging matches and offering `` A-to-Z '' love advice to men and women . However , she said she would not necessarily use her own experience as a model . `` It 's not that a fast marriage can't work , '' Wachs said . `` It 's just that if you 're getting together with someone in less than two months , you could be being persuaded by infatuation . '' As for the odds of success , she said , echoing the assessment of many of her associates : `` It might work , it might not . '' Sweet , sunny , always peaceful how we would love that to be our family . Common sense says it 's impossible ; conflict is inevitable . No family or couple can be in harmony at all times . It doesn't make sense to see conflict in itself as a problem . What counts is how conflict is handled , and to what degree it pervades family life . In an article in the Journal of Family Psychology , Lisa H. Jaycox and Rena L. Repetti of the University of Pennsylvania looked at the way emotion is dealt with in the family , and how that affects children . `` There 's been a lot of research on different kinds of conflict , and it varies a lot from family to family , '' Jaycox said in an interview . `` It can be just between the parents marital conflict varying all the way from disagreements to violence . It can involve a parent-child relationship there 's a lot of research .. . that really points out how it 's a two-way street , how a difficult parenting style can cause behavior problems in a child , but also a difficult child can interfere with the parent 's ability to manage the child. .. . `` The point we were making in this article is that a lot of times when research is focusing on one of those relationships , it sort of ignores the larger climate in the house , and it may actually just be measuring an effect of that climate . So it 's worth looking at the way emotion is dealt with in the family , the way it 's expressed in general . '' The researchers studied 72 fourth- and fifth-graders . The children , parents and teachers assessed conflict and anger in the home , marital discord , `` negative emotional tone '' in the parent-child relationship , and how well-adjusted the children were . They found that child adjustment was more strongly related to overall family conflict than to parents ' having marital problems . ( Marital trouble indisputably can have a powerful effect on the home , they note , but the results suggest that family norms `` for acceptable ways of handling anger and conflict may be more significant for child adjustment than is discord in the parents ' marriage . '' ) When anger is not dealt with effectively , children 's reactions vary some become depressed ; some behave poorly either at home or at school , Jaycox says . `` One of the things I think is most interesting is that apparently the kids are very tuned in to anger and react to it , '' she says . She cites research that finds strong physiological and behavioral reactions in preschoolers to witnessing any kind of anger . `` It doesn't even have to be verbal or violent . '' Jaycox says `` there 's something to be said for shielding kids from some of the things parents are going to go through .. . but everyone gets angry . It would actually be very unnatural for kids to grow up without seeing any of that . There 's no one right way to deal with conflict , Jaycox says , but there are guidelines : If you start an argument when the kids are there , try to resolve it while they 're present , too . `` There is some research that points out that if you also can resolve the dispute in front of the child , it can teach conflict resolution , and also that anger isn't toxic or lethal but natural and can be worked through , and people still love each other when it ends . '' Avoid explosive anger by dealing with problems before they become overwhelming . Physical violence is particularly traumatic for children . Avoid blaming or criticizing the other parent when you 're in a dispute , and `` try to characterize things in term of the conflict at hand '' ( as in , `` Dad and I were arguing about how some money was spent , '' instead of `` Your father spent all our money on something stupid , and he 's always getting us in trouble like that '' ) . Try to keep children from becoming involved . `` Some children become expert at trying to resolve their parents ' conflict at too early an age , '' Jaycox says , by trying to smooth things out , negotiate for them or act out in some way to distract parents from the argument . During the Cold War , the United States and its allies assessed every local conflict for its quotient of strategic harm or benefit . With the Cold War ended , the allies believe that they may allow local conflict to remain local with relative impunity . The war in the Balkans has been a semi-exception to this rule . The European powers have not felt that they could safely ignore the carnage there completely , but they have also not felt that any enemy could exploit this war to their serious harm . Serb expansionism under Slobodan Milosevic was , at worst , an ominous precedent . But this calculus may be due for a revision . Though the Bosnian government has accepted a European proposal for a Bosnian partition , the separatist Bosnian Serbs have not . The war seems all but certain to continue , and the U.N. forces may soon be weakened by the reduction or even elimination of French and British support . If that happens , the conflict may continue as a Christian-Muslim conflict with outside support from the more ardent wing of each side 's co-religionists . To oversimplify , Serbs-against-Bosnian-Muslims could become Cossacks-against-Moujahedeen . At that point , this local conflict would begin to become a grim imitation of the Cold War proxy conflicts of old . This time it would be the shadow of terrorism , rather than the shadow of nuclear conflict , that would lengthen . The Muslim minorities in several European countries are increasingly aggrieved and militant . The heavy loss of Muslim life that would result in the short term from a U.N. default in Bosnia could exacerbate their sense of grievance and foster the related militancy . The rhetoric heard at the sentencing of the World Trade Center terrorist bombers should remind us that the United States is not immune . That crime was utterly savage , and the life sentences that have now been imposed are fully justified . But a great deal can be lost in cross-cultural translation , especially in a climate of rising hostility . That climate will only worsen if the situation in Bosnia worsens . `` We 're fighting them there so that we willn't have to fight them here , '' American soldiers said in Korea and Vietnam . In this instance , ironically , it is refusing to defend Muslims there that may lead in time to defending against other Muslims here . Having pushed their trade dispute to the point of mutual disadvantage , the United States and Japan are moved bravely ahead toward the status quo ante toward the policy positions of the Bush era that Candidate Clinton so willingly assailed and President Clinton so coyly embraces . Make no mistake : Japan is the clear winner in this test of wills , which is not to say that its weak governments have enhanced the well-being of their people . Quite the reverse . If the Clinton administration is to execute this latest flip-flop without excessive embarrassment , it had better hope Japanese business prevails over Tokyo 's bureaucracy . Consider the retreats ordered this week by U.S. . Special Trade Representative Mickey Kantor in order to restart trade negotiations . He : Stated specifically that the U.S. will not seek numerical targets in measuring commerce with Japan , a position Tokyo insisted upon from the start . Withdrew threats of retaliation if Japan fails to meet U.S. demands . Made it clear the United States will not impose arbitrary deadlines for ever-elusive agreements . Registered no further objections to Japan 's refusal to come up with a tax cut package big enough to boost U.S. export sales . We cite these shifts not to pound the president but to praise him . Most of his retreats from the excessive foreign policy postures he set forth while running for the Oval Office have been prudent if not politically correct . Refusal to commit ground troops to Bosnia , hesitation to send the Marines into Haiti , reluctance to use trade sanctions as a club against Chinese human rights violations - all these reflect good judgment . So if Clinton adjusts Japan trade policy , he will get no complaints from this corner . We have long been uncomfortable with the protectionists and managed-trade addicts in the left wing of the Democratic Party . It has been Kantor 's unpleasant task to keep them at bay while trying to get the Japanese to take market-opening moves that are really in their own self-interest . He has a long way to go , but at least he has gotten negotiators back to the table after a bad 100-day hiatus . The secret is to promote trends , not targets . If more Japanese auto dealers sell U.S. cars ( to cite a Kantor example ) , or if imports of key products move steadily upward , this may have to be sufficient if Japanese policy aims at continued improvement . Trade agreements can help , but in the long run market forces will prove decisive . Already there are instances of foreign imports selling much cheaper than their domestic counterparts . Already , more Japanese manufacturers are outsourcing abroad for parts and commodities that come at bargain prices . Once these trends are translated into improved Japanese living standards , the U.S. can rely on new world trade reforms to hasten the market-opening process . Meanwhile , the United States and Japan should work hard for mutual advantage rather than mutual disadvantage . An officer in Her Majesty 's armed forces was recently heard to quip that the Allies would not have invaded Normandy if they had known how difficult it would be to commemorate it . Fifty years after the historic invasion of France by the Allied Expeditionary Forces , a high-visibility program has been planned , but the scheduled events have caused more than a little consternation . Germany and Russia are offended that they have been excluded , and President Clinton , who has no wartime experience , is calling in consultants to come up with an appropriate theme . Finding the right message , however , will be much more difficult , since the decision was made to mark this historic event in the traditional way which now not only seems outdated but wholly inadequate in today 's international environment . The world is a very different place than it was 50 years ago . For a start , the Germans , the evil-incarnate enemy , are now a united , democratic country , an important U.S. ally and the linchpin of stability in Europe . In addition , one of the critical players on the allied side no longer exists . The Soviet Union , which heroically beat back Nazi attempts to conquer it , has splintered into a mostly non-communist multi-country region . Rather than deal with these new complicating factors , the French , who are the hosts of the D-Day events , adopted a formula that accomplishes no particular objective . It does not place essential focus on the veterans , who are bound to be overshadowed by too many politicians , nor does it give the participating heads of state an opportunity to draw on D-Day 's contemporary meaning . Finding a way to reconcile wartime commemorations when the enemy is now your ally has been a problem for some time . Ronald Reagan used the 40th anniversary for great rhetorical benefit , but then felt he had to `` make it up '' to the Germans . After D-Day plus 40 ( and Bitburg ) , Western diplomats apparently promised the Germans they would be included on the 50th . Of the nine heads of state that the French have invited , ( they have successfully kept their list as secret as Overlord itself ) , it is known only that Germany and Russia are not among them . This is unfortunate . If any heads of state were going to participate in these events , inclusion should have been the order of the day . The reason for it is simple : Who the protagonists were in 1944 is not nearly as important or relevant as the nature of the struggle itself . The `` great crusade , '' as Dwight Eisenhower , my grandfather , called it , was assembled to defeat fascism . This was successfully done , and Germany went through the painful process of de-Nazification . Reneging on our earlier promise now implies that we harbor some belief that the Germans have a kind of ethnic original sin . The decision to exclude also constitutes the loss of a real opportunity . Many contemporary Germans regard the Allied victory as the `` liberation '' of their country from the fascist grip , and they express gratitude that history turned out as it did . The German presence on the Normandy beaches for the 50th would have given legitimacy to that feeling in Germany , and emphasized Bonn 's own commitment to keeping fascism from ever dominating political life again . It was also wrong not to extend an invitation to the Russians , and perhaps other countries of the former Soviet Union . Failing to do so symbolically decouples the Eastern and Western fronts , and ignores the impact the Soviet effort had on the success of D-Day . Even worse , failing to invite the former Soviets has given credence to those in the East who say the West never appreciated their role in defeating Hitler . Such an omission also deepens the sense of isolation that is now widely felt all over the region . Although Americans tend to play down the importance of symbolism , it is a highly potent force in many other countries around the world . It is intriguing , for instance , that on VE Day plus 10 years , Germany became a full member of NATO . The dates agreed upon by the United States and its Allies must have been a clearly calculated effort to demonstrate Germany 's rebirth as a member of the international community . Why then is it so difficult some 40 years later ? As in so many other instances , the world is waiting for U.S. leadership . We should have insisted on complete inclusion as a prerequisite for presidential participation . If not , the commemoration should have remained a veterans ' affair . The presence of Germany and Russia would have brought valued closure to whatever wounds remain . But it would have also underscored that those allies who fought not only won the war against fascism , their ultimate sacrifice eventually paved the way for a new Europe of peaceful democratic countries . THE RETURN OF JAFAR , Not Rated , 1994 , 66 minutes , Walt Disney Home Theatre , closed-captioned , $ 22.99 . This direct-to-video release is an unhappy return on Disney 's wildly successful `` Aladdin '' franchise , one that clearly did not benefit from the billion-dollar bounty of the original 's theatrical , video and merchandising divisions . In fact , `` Jafar '' is betrayed all ' round by cost-consciousness : Cobbled together at overseas animation studios that serve Disney 's television needs rather than its theatrical ones , it pales in comparison to the `` The Lion King , '' Disney 's anticipated summer blockbuster . Blame it on the curse of the sequel , though many of the character voices are back , including Gilbert Gottfried as the amoral , troublemaking parrot , Iago . Noticeably absent , however , is Robin Williams as the voice of the blue , shape-shifting , manic-expressive Genie ( Williams was miffed about Disney 's tight purse strings , particularly after his vocal performance was singled out by every critic as the original 's most inspired touch ) . Here he 's replaced by Dan Castellaneta , whose attempts at frenetic wit and zen irony fall flat ; perhaps Castellaneta should have stayed in his Homer Simpson voice . The story itself seems slight , focusing on assorted power struggles and revenge fantasies pitting the evil genie Jafar and his thief-henchman Abis Mal against Aladdin , Princess Jasmine and the Sultan of Agrabah . Iago proves the catalyst for ruin and redemption , and there 's a climactic battle between Jafar and everyone else . Somehow , it feels like a TV show , it plays like a TV show and it looks like a TV show . WASHINGTON North Carolina 's distinctive landscape and buildings are featured in a photographic exhibition at the National Building Museum . Architectural photographer Tim Buchman traveled the state in the late 1980s to shoot the black-and-white images for a book on the subject , `` North Carolina Architecture '' by Catherine Bishir ( University of North Carolina Press , 516 pp. $ 59.95 ) . Organized by subject matter , the 52 photographs on display include groupings of such architectural details as staircases , windows and rooflines and a section on front porches . Among the public and private structures , spanning the 18th to 20th centuries , are a rural worker 's home ; the swimming pool at Biltmore , a historic mansion in Asheville ; and the executive mansion in Raleigh . The traveling exhibition `` The Art of Building in North Carolina '' was organized by the visual arts programs of North Carolina State University and Preservation/North Carolina . It will remain at the museum , 401 F St. NW , through Oct. 9 ( 202 ) 272-2448 . How do you keep ice cream from melting in the sun ? Let the sun cool it . The first solar-powered refrigerated vending cart made its debut this month in Washington . Even when the outdoor temperature pushes 90 degrees , the four 30-watt solar panels spread out like an umbrella above the vendor 's head will generate enough electricity to maintain approximately 500 popsicles at near zero degrees Fahrenheit . Even under overcast skies , the deep cycle-type battery keeps the compressor going . Super-efficient insulation keeps the cold in , eliminating the need to stock the cart with 25 to 30 pounds of dry ice daily , about $ 10 worth . A solar system for a pushcart was conceived by New York industrial designer Amelia Amon and engineered by Jody Solell and Carmela Knepler of Solar Electrics in Fairfax , Va. Solarex of Frederick , Md. , made the lightweight panels . WASHINGTON Hardly anyone now remembers that one day Jackie Kennedy looked out from the safe haven , the elegant plushness of the White House , and decided she must save Lafayette Square . Even then , Lafayette Park was full not only with marble monuments but also schoolchildren from Iowa , protesters with incomprehensible signs and fervent causes , tourists with cameras , and people worn out on the rough stones of the paths of life . Around the square run stood early 19th-century residences , remnants of the time when this was the aristocratic place to live . Through several presidents , the need for more executive office space had threatened the early houses , leading to plans to replace them with tall office buildings that would cast shadows on the park and the people . Some might say Jacqueline Kennedy was concerned with her view from the White House . But a more-generous view holds that having put the White House on its way to comfort , order and glory , she was ready to spread out . She , and eventually her husband , agreed to save Lafayette 's historic and architecturally splendid 19th-century residential gems : Decatur House , Dolley Madison 's House , the other Cosmos Club houses , and Blair-Lee Houses and the Renwick Gallery . As a result , the cause of historic preservation would be given the imprimatur of presidential influence . All her life , Jacqueline Kennedy had grown up in and been a guest in historic houses and thus was respectful of the past . In fact , she was descended from a Frenchman who came over with the Marquis de Lafayette to fight the cause of the American Revolution . So she was especially susceptible to David Finley , chairman of the Fine Arts Commission . William Walton , a painter , writer and close friend of the Kennedys , said , `` We had all but given up on Lafayette Square , when she told the president and me , ` You can't stop until the bulldozers roll . ' She was a very strong lady . Her connections with the arts were so natural and not pretentious . We called in John Carl Warnecke , who understood office space . By making the buildings go back a block , we saved the historic houses on the square . '' Warnecke recently asked his staff to put together documents pertaining to the saving of the square . One is a March 6 , 1962 , letter from Mrs. Kennedy to Bernard L. Boutin , the General Services administrator . In it , she writes that she is enclosing a letter from Finley and goes on to say : `` Because of our interest in history and preservation , it really matters a great deal to the president and to myself that this is done well ; we have received so much mail on this subject . `` Unfortunately , last summer the president okayed some plans for buildings ; he was in a hurry , he doesn't have time to bother himself with details like this , he trusted the advice of a friend .. . and I really don't think it was the right advice . With all he has to do , at least I can spare him some minor problems like this . So , I turn to you for help . '' Now , when we walk in Lafayette Square , we should tip a hat to Jacqueline Kennedy . WASHINGTON Hi ho , hi ho , it 's off to war we go . The Navy Museum is humming with the ballads and ditties that American fighting men and waiting women have sung to deal with the sorrow and separation of war . The show is an assemblage of recordings , battlefield band memorabilia and sheet music dating from the Civil War to Desert Storm . Its unintended but inescapable message is that we neither fight 'em nor write 'em like we used to . Our worst war , the Civil War that killed more Americans than all those since , produced the best songs , including some that were sung with equal emotion on both sides of the battle lines and still have the power to draw cheers and tears . The divided hearts with which in Vietnam we waged our first losing war are reflected in the little and lousy music it produced . From the stirring `` Battle Hymn of the Republic '' to the mawkish `` Ballad of the Green Berets '' is both a musical and a moral decline . And let us pray history to draw a merciful veil over the cornball effusions produced by Hank Williams Jr. and others during Desert Storm . May they go into blessed oblivion with the jingoistic jingles of the Spanish-American War ( `` Do We Remember Dewey at Manila ? Do We , Do We , Yer Bet Yer Life We Do ! '' ) . Although the aims of this handsomely presented exhibit are admittedly modest , as is the space allotted to it , visitors may wish the museum had taken a bigger swing at such a fat pitch . Our martial music reflects much about the development of our national character , and that 's a subject upon which we cannot reflect too much . -O- STRIKE UP THE BAND : Sheet Music From the Civil War to Desert Storm , through Dec. 31 at the Navy Museum ( 202 ) 433-4882 . A parade of historical figures and contemporary witnesses recounts the effort of women to control their own lives and find justice in `` A Century of Women , '' a three-night special beginning Tuesday night on TBS . The second and third of the three two-hour segments run Wednesday and Thursday at the same time . The series , which tells how women have lived , worked , loved , played and changed the course of history , uses an original drama as a narrative thread connecting past and present . The drama features a fictional family , whose lives reflect the changes women have seen and created over the century . Justine Bateman , Olympia Dukakis , Jasmine Guy , Talia Shire , Madge Sinclair , Brooke Smith and Teresa Wright play the members of that family . Jane Fonda narrates the story . Voicing outstanding women of the 20th century are Angela Bassett , Candice Bergen , Glenn Close , Blythe Danner , Laura Dern , Sally Field , Jodie Foster , Amy Irving , Jessica Lange , Marian Ross , Mary Steenburgen , Meryl Streep , Marlo Thomas , Cicely Tyson and Alfre Woodward . On-camera interviews reflecting roles women have played in shaping the 20th century feature Roseanne Arnold , Hillary Rodham Clinton , Ruth Bader Ginsburg , Carol Burnett , Chris Evert , Betty Friedan , Lena Horne , Joan Baez , Erica Jong , Pat Schroeder and Gloria Steinem . Each part repeats the same night it premieres , and all six hours run again Saturday , June 18 . Monday night on The Nashville Network : Waylon Jennings , Billy Dean and Canada 's Michelle Wright co-host the 28th Annual TNN Music City News Country Awards . Vince Gill , Alan Jackson and Reba McEntire lead with six nominations each in 14 categories . Winners are selected by the fans . Monday on Nickelodeon : `` Gumby , '' one of television 's most unusual animated characters , returns with 65 episodes from the 1957 series . The show runs Monday through Friday . On Monday , Nickelodeon also launches the second season of the popular `` Legends of the Hidden Temple , '' a weekday action-adventure game show that challenges mind and body . Also , beginning Monday , Nick at Nite adds two classics to its Monday-Friday lineup : `` I Dream of Jeannie '' and `` Bewitched . '' Scheduled to enrich the fall schedule is `` Taxi '' in early November . Tuesday night on The Disney Channel : The premiere of `` Walt Disney World Inside Out . '' Comedian Scott Herriot hosts the series ' first show , `` The Best of the Wets , '' a tour of ways to enjoy Disney World 's two water-theme parks , 97 pools and 16 water slides . Hulk Hogan guests . Repeats : Saturday and June 15 , 18 , 20 , 24 and 30 . Thursday on The Disney Channel : Marlee Matlin guests in the premiere of `` The Sound and the Furry '' on the `` Adventures in Wonderland '' series . She plays March Hare 's deaf cousin , who brings the language of signing and finger-spelling to Wonderland when crabby Red Queen forbids the residents to talk . Repeats June 15 . Thursday night on MTV at 9 p.m. : Actor/rapper Will Smith hosts the third annual `` MTV Movie Awards , '' an alternative to traditional movie-awards shows with such categories such as Best Villain , Best Kiss and Best Act of Violence . Thursday night on USA Network : The premiere of `` Target of Suspicion , '' starring Tim Matheson as an American who goes to Paris to oversee a merger of a perfume company and winds up accused of rape and murder . Naomi Kocher plays a sexy model who takes him on a tour of Paris nightlife , Agnes Sorel co-stars as an Interpol agent and Lysette Anthony plays Matheson 's wife . Repeats June 12 and 18 . NEW YORK It was a particularly emotional moment at this week 's funeral Mass for Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis when Maurice Tempelsman rose to read the poem he had selected . Titled `` Ithaka , '' it spoke of discovery and of life 's journey , and Tempelsman added his own sorrowful coda about a journey that had been too short . `` So farewell , farewell , '' he concluded . `` Everyone was deeply moved , '' one of the mourners in attendance said afterward . `` He read as if he 'd written the poem himself . It was so personal , so heartfelt . '' For the co-workers , friends and family inside the limestone church , Tempelsman had become a familiar figure , someone they would expect to participate in the service , to stand at Onassis ' grave site with her children . But to those who knew him only from magazine photos of Tempelsman and Onassis strolling through Central Park , the captions generally identifying him as her `` companion '' or `` friend , '' he was more enigmatic . It took her death to fully reveal the central role that the very private Tempelsman a man who shared her home , though a man who remains married to another woman had come to play in her life . They were the same age , 64 , though her enduring loveliness and his stocky plainness made him appear older . They shared many things : summers on Martha 's Vineyard , interests in art and antiquities ( Tempelsman is a collector ) , fluency in French , an aversion to publicity . In the public mind , Tempelsman must possess special qualities to have attracted such a regal and celebrated woman . But his admirers , who are many , can see the relationship the other way around : Onassis must have been far more than a famous beauty to have intrigued such a cultured and scholarly man . `` It shows her seriousness and the depth of her intellect , '' says Phil Baum , acting head of the American Jewish Congress , where Tempelsman has been an active trustee . `` For those of us who cared about Mrs. Onassis , it was comforting it was terrific to know she was with somebody who was a good , generous and gentle man , '' says Roger Wilkins , who was an Agency for International Development administrator during the Kennedy Administration and has known Tempelsman for years . A Belgian-born Jew , Tempelsman and his family fled Europe in 1940 and came to New York , where his father established a diamond brokerage . The industry has always been dominated by families , and Maurice joined his father 's firm as a teenager , just as two of his three children and a son-in-law have joined his . He is chief executive officer of Lazare Kaplan Inc. ( 1993 gross sales : $ 166 million ) . Headquartered on Fifth Avenue , it is one of the largest U.S. companies specializing in the import , cutting and sale of diamonds ; its customers include Tiffany and Cartier . Tempelsman is also the general partner of Leon Tempelsman & Son , which has investments , mining and mineral trading interests around the world , particularly in central and western Africa . Africa has been an abiding interest ; Tempelsman has friendships and business alliances of 30 years ' duration there , glides easily through its political and economic circles , is a connoisseur of African art . `` He 's a player in that scene , '' says Chester Crocker , former assistant secretary of state for African affairs . Until Wilkins succeeded him several months ago , Tempelsman served as chairman of the board of the nonprofit African-American Institute , which fosters African development and cooperation between Africans and Americans . In terms of wealth , Tempelsman is not in the Aristotle Onassis league : By Forbes magazine 's calculations , his personal worth didn't reach the $ 300 million threshold needed to land on the Forbes 400 list of the richest Americans . He is a prosperous man nonetheless . That was his 70-foot yacht , the Relemar , berthed at the Vineyard , on which Jacqueline Onassis hosted the vacationing First Family last summer ; Tempelsman was at the helm . He met Jacqueline Kennedy when she was still a young senator 's wife and he was supporting JFK 's presidential aspirations . Tempelsman has long been generous to Democratic Party candidates , last year contributing more than $ 83,000 to the Democratic National Committee , the Democratic Senatorial and Congressional campaign committees , and individual campaigns . But it was apparently not until after Aristotle Onassis ' death in 1975 , with the twice-widowed Jacqueline living in New York , that they began spending time together . Tempelsman was one of the financial advisers who helped her multiply the reported $ 26 million settlement she received after Aristotle Onassis ' death . Published estimates of Jacqueline Onassis ' wealth have varied wildly $ 100 million ? $ 200 million ? `` His counsel resulted in increasing her assets substantially , '' was all a discreet Tempelsman spokesman would say . By the early '80s , though Tempelsman described himself in a Fortune interview as a family friend , he and Onassis were quietly but unmistakably a couple , seen at small dinner parties and low-key cultural events . According to the spokesman , Tempelsman moved into Onassis ' rambling Fifth Avenue apartment overlooking Central Park about 1988 . His wife of more than 40 years , Lily , lives across the park on the Upper West Side . Yet it was rare to hear or read a word of opprobrium about Tempelsman and Onassis ' relationship , even from New York 's cattier columnists and insatiable tabloids , which never tired of running her photograph . It was almost as though the press and public had decided she was entitled to grow old with someone . His acceptance by her family probably helped quiet criticism ; `` John and Caroline have come to feel quite close to him , '' his spokesman says . `` They were a well-matched and distinguished couple , '' says Vivian Lowery Derryck , president of the African-American Institute . Onassis occasionally accompanied Tempelsman to small institute dinners with African leaders . His demeanor toward her was unfailingly `` comfortable , respectful and loving , '' Derryck says . `` And she respected and admired him and held him in great affection . '' As Onassis ' illness progressed , Tempelsman was omnipresent , escorting her home from the hospital , supporting her on her last walks through the neighborhood , keeping vigil by her bedside with her children as she died . Friends say they have sent notes of condolence but have not wished to intrude on his evident grief . Friends and associates portray him as a man of Old World courtliness , courtesy and erudition . `` You know from what he says , as well as what he doesn't say , that there 's a lively and fertile mind operating there , '' Crocker says . `` This is a world citizen we 're talking about , at home in almost any culture he finds himself in . '' WASHINGTON When the Federal Reserve pushed down short-term interest rates to unusually low levels in 1992 and kept them there throughout last year , the central bank made no bones about the fact that one reason it did so was to help a U.S. banking industry that had been wounded by big losses on loans . Low short-term rates widened the spread between the interest rates the banks had to pay depositors to get funds and the rates they charged borrowers . In addition , the low cost of funds enabled the banks to make money by investing in medium-term securities , such as two- or three-year Treasury notes , municipal bonds and other items , that carried higher rates . These opportunities allowed banks to turn in record profits and largely restore their battered balance sheets even though the total amount of loans on their books stopped growing . Banks ' investments in securities surged while lending to businesses , to consumers and for real estate stagnated . This switch reflected both banks ' reluctance to lend and businesses ' and consumers ' reluctance to borrow . On the lending side , the banks ' previous large loan losses had made them much more wary about extending credit , particularly for real estate deals . Covering those losses had sharply reduced the amount of capital many institutions had on hand to stand behind their operations , in some cases to critically low levels . On the borrowing side , the 1990-91 economic slump greatly reduced the demand for credit from businesses that were cutting back rather than expanding . This combination caused total loans and lease financing at banks not to grow at all for about two years . Meanwhile , however , bank purchases of investment securities rose significantly as institutions took advantage of the opportunity to use low-cost money from depositors to buy notes and bonds that paid a higher return . `` Usually in a recession what happens is that banks have very little demand for loans , so they put their money into securities , '' said Joseph Wahed , chief economist at Wells Fargo Bank in San Francisco . When the slump ends the process normally reverses itself , though this time it was very slow in happening . `` The volume of loans has been one of the softest part of the recovery , '' Wahed said . `` On the West Coast it has been zilch , '' though that has begun to change and loan demand elsewhere has turned up significantly . Securities purchases also were encouraged by a change in bank regulation . Several years ago regulators substantially increased the amount of capital a bank must have relative to its portfolio of securities , loans and leases . Each type of loan and security is weighted according to its degree of risk , with regular commercial and industrial loans carrying a 100 percent weight , home mortgages 50 percent and U.S. government securities zero because there is no risk of default . That means that there is no capital required to stand behind government securities owned by banks , which makes the cost of funding the securities ownership effectively lower than that of a commercial loan . That difference has given the banks an incentive to keep buying securities , analysts said . In addition , there is still a significant spread between the banks ' cost of funds and yields available on notes and bonds that is encouraging their purchase even though lending activity has picked up . `` There is still a lot of money around the system that is not being used fully , '' Wahed noted . `` Banks have a lot of money with nowhere to go . '' And that is probably one reason that lending has picked up as well . While banks have been quick to raise their prime lending rates it is up from 6 percent to 7.25 percent this year in line with the Fed 's increase in short-term interest rates to maintain the unusually large gap between their cost of funds and the prime , they have been trimming the cost of credit in other ways . A report from senior loan officers at banks released by the Fed this week showed a continued easing of credit terms , including reduction in the spread between the prime and actual loan rates , reduced collateralization requirements and higher lines of credit . The principal reason given for the easier terms , the Fed said , was increased competition among lenders . However , the terms on commercial real estate lending have been eased only very slightly . Many metropolitan areas still have gluts of empty office space , and banks remain wary about making loans secured by such real estate . The bulk of the increase in real estate lending shown in the chart has been for single-family home purchases or refinancings . Altogether , the trends suggest a banking system that is behaving in more a normal fashion than it has for several years . However , the continued high level of securities purchases suggests that banks are a long way from being at the stage of the credit cycle when they begin to sell the notes and bonds in their investment portfolios to get the cash to meet strong loan demand . As Wells Fargo 's Wahed said , the banks are flush with money , and that 's the key reason that the rates they are paying depositors have gone up so little despite the rise in short-term money market rates this year . HOLLYWOOD Welcome to Bedrock , a town proud of being `` First With Fire . '' The locals eat at Roc Donald 's ( `` Over 18 Dozen Sold '' ) , watch George Lucas ' `` Tar Wars '' at the drive-in , get their gas at the Chevrock station and their information via the Cave News Network . You were expecting maybe `` Middlemarch '' ? Whatever else people say about `` The Flintstones , '' no one will claim that a chance to make a truly great motion picture was frittered away here . A live-action cartoon in every sense of the word , this re-creation of the long-running television series about suburban life in 2,000,000 B.C. has been carefully designed to be as bright and insubstantial as a child 's toy balloon . Like `` The Addams Family '' before it , this is one of those clever , lively and ultimately wearying pieces of showy Hollywood machinery where a glut of creativity has gone into the visuals with only scraps left over for the plot and the dialogue . But then , given its source material , what more could anyone have expected ? Actually , someone must have at least hoped for more , because press reports indicate that somewhere between 32 and 35 writers ( `` almost as many people as signed the Declaration of Independence , '' mocked Daily Variety ) had a hand in the script . It was finally credited to Tom S. Parker & Jim Jennewein and Steven E. de Souza , but any piece of writing where the most notable words are `` Yabba-Dabba-Doo ! '' is not going to be up for any Writers Guild awards any time soon . That , as anyone who watched the 1960s TV series remembers , is the war cry of Fred Flintstone ( John Goodman ) , devoted family man , operator of a Bronto-crane at the Slate & Company quarry and mainstay of the Water Buffaloes bowling team . Though Fred ( who both here and in the cartoon strongly resembles Jackie Gleason in `` The Honeymooners '' ) likes to say , `` In my cave , I reign supreme , '' really his wife , Wilma ( Elizabeth Perkins ) , calls the shots . And best friends and neighbors Betty ( Rosie O' Donnell ) and Barney Rubble ( Rick Moranis ) also have sizable places in his heart . The best thing the film that bears his family name has done is to whimsically imagine and create a world where everything , up to and apparently including Fred 's head , is made from stone . Production designer William Sandell , `` Jurassic Park '' special-effects supervisor Michael Lantieri and the entire production team have done splendid work in this area , turning Bedrock into a shiny place that always diverts the eye . Most fun are a host of animatronic beasties designed by Jim Henson 's Creature Shop to do everyday tasks , like a lobster lawn mower , a woolly mammoth shower and something called a pigasaurus that replaces the TV series ' vulture as a heavy-breathing garbage disposal unit . If these devices are unexpected , `` The Flintstones '' plot devices are less so . The main idea , identical to the one that powers `` The Hudsucker Proxy , '' has Slate & Co. evil-doers Cliff Vandercave and Sharon Stone ( Kyle MacLachlan and Halle Berry ) searching for `` an ignorant stooge '' to help them fleece the firm . Fred is obviously their man . But his bogus elevation to vice president turns him into a dreadful snob and causes a rift between the Flintstones and the Rubbles . From such acorns do $ 45 million films grow . Though `` The Flintstones '' willn't disappoint those who 've been looking forward to seeing the venerable cartoon made human , its pleasures are not substantial or lasting enough to convince those who lean toward thinking it all sounds rather feeble . Under the direction of Brian Levant , whose most notable previous credit was `` Beethoven , '' the acting in the movie , from star Goodman to Elizabeth Taylor 's well-publicized cameo , is , not surprisingly , cartoonish , with svelte and sexy villains Berry and MacLachlan registering best , as villains often do in animation . And even the gaudy and amusing production design , winning though it is , can hold one fascinated for only so long . Even at a lean 92 minutes , `` The Flintstones '' ( MPAA rating : PG for `` mild innuendoes '' ) eventually makes you want to change the channel and see what else is on . PILSEN , Czech Republic The once prosperous Czech arms industry , whose technical know-how had made Czechoslovakia the world 's seventh-largest weapons exporter , is struggling to survive in a post-Cold War market where some of its best potential customers have been blacklisted by the United States . Pressure from the Clinton administration scotched a $ 90 million deal last year in which a newly privatized Czech company would have sold Iran six Tamara radar systems that the manufacturer claims is capable of detecting U.S. . B-2 `` stealth '' bombers . More recently , Iran showed interest in buying an upgraded version of the Soviet-designed T-72 tank that a consortium of Czech companies , the RDP Group , has undertaken to produce . But just last month , sources said , the Czech Foreign Ministry bowed again to Washington 's wishes and blocked the deal . The Czech government , eager to clean up its old image as a global merchant of death , has in fact accepted U.S. proscriptions on arms sales to nations deemed to be supporters of international terrorism . These include Iran , Iraq , Syria and Libya all potentially major customers of the Czech arms industry . In the 1980s , the old communist-ruled Czechoslovak federation exported arms worth up to $ 1.5 billion annually , much of it to those same `` terrorist nations '' but also to more benign customers , such as Egypt and India . Its most infamous export was doubtless the odorless chemical explosive Semtex , which has been used widely by terrorists to blow up passenger jets and public buildings . After the fall of communism in 1989 , President Vaclav Havel crusaded for an end to arms exports as a means of cleansing Czechoslovakia of its `` terrorist '' taint . But such idealism soon gave way to the economic reality that the country had to export those products it could best produce and that included weapons . Therefore the government now encourages arms exports , but under a new and tighter export-control law adopted by parliament in February that requires the case-by-case approval of the ministries of foreign affairs , defense , trade and the interior . Nonetheless , Western diplomatic sources here say the RDP Group `` bears close watching , '' particularly its chairman , Lubomir Soudek , who has visited Iran and reportedly tried to sell turbines and other heavy machinery for a nuclear power plant there . Following the division of Czechoslovakia into separate Czech and Slovak republics in 1993 , the Czech arms industry was largely privatized and reorganized into a broadly cooperative network . Forty-one arms-producing firms now work within the RDP Group to develop a wide range of products for both military and civilian markets . Soudek , who is also general director of Skoda Pilsen once the biggest foreign arms producer for Nazi Germany said in an interview at the sprawling Skoda complex here that RDP partners are currently working on 27 projects for the arms market , about half of which he believes will find a market . He declined to reveal what any of the projects involve , saying that `` nobody talks about what they want to sell . '' At the same time , he listed a multitude of problems facing the industry . These include , he said , the loss of close ties to Slovak steel plants , a shortage of research and development funds from the government and a heavy dependence on the Czech military 's modernization plans , which may not be determined until 1998 . `` The arms market is so big , but it 's very limited for our weapons , '' he remarked . `` We will never ever again obtain a rank in the top 10 producers . Local press reports say the RDP Group 's biggest military project is the upgraded T-72 tank a joint project with its old Slovak partners which it hopes to sell to NATO countries . But Soudek was not optimistic about this either , unless the Czech army agrees to buy and test it first . Probably the most controversial high-tech item on the new Czech hardware list is the Tamara , a truck-mounted , highly mobile radar system developed secretly over the past 30 years by the Czechs in cooperation with the Soviet military . Now in its third generation , the Tamara is said to be able to pick up any radiation emitted by an aircraft from a distance of up to 280 miles . Each system sells for about $ 15 million . A big advantage of the Tamara is that it is a passive system and emits no electronic signals ; thus , it cannot be easily located , jammed or targeted , according to Maj. Gen. Oldrich Barak , president of Tesla Pardubice , manufacturer of the Tamara , and Otto Taborsky , vice president of Tesla 's parent corporation . Barak , an electronics expert who has been involved in the Tamara project since its inception in the early 1960s , insisted that the system has the ability to detect the U.S. . B-2 stealth bomber , which was specifically designed to elude radar . `` It has been tried ; it detected the stealth . It 's not just theory , '' Taborsky added . They refused to say where or when this occurred , but they noted that 50 Tamara systems are in use in former Soviet Bloc nations . According to local press reports , the U.S. military also has secretly obtained one . PILSEN , Czech Republic The once prosperous Czech arms industry , whose technical know-how had made Czechoslovakia the world 's seventh-largest weapons exporter , is struggling to survive in a post-Cold War market where some of its best potential customers have been blacklisted by the United States . Pressure from the Clinton administration scotched a $ 90 million deal last year in which a newly privatized Czech company would have sold Iran six Tamara radar systems that the manufacturer claims is capable of detecting U.S. . B-2 `` stealth '' bombers . More recently , Iran showed interest in buying an upgraded version of the Soviet-designed T-72 tank that a consortium of Czech companies , the RDP Group , has undertaken to produce . But just last month , sources said , the Czech Foreign Ministry bowed again to Washington 's wishes and blocked the deal . The Czech government , eager to clean up its old image as a global merchant of death , has in fact accepted U.S. proscriptions on arms sales to nations deemed to be supporters of international terrorism . These include Iran , Iraq , Syria and Libya all potentially major customers of the Czech arms industry . In the 1980s , the old communist-ruled Czechoslovak federation exported arms worth up to $ 1.5 billion annually , much of it to those same `` terrorist nations '' but also to more benign customers , such as Egypt and India . Its most infamous export was doubtless the odorless chemical explosive Semtex , which has been used widely by terrorists to blow up passenger jets and public buildings . After the fall of communism in 1989 , President Vaclav Havel crusaded for an end to arms exports as a means of cleansing Czechoslovakia of its `` terrorist '' taint . But such idealism soon gave way to the economic reality that the country had to export those products it could best produce and that included weapons . Therefore the government now encourages arms exports , but under a new and tighter export-control law adopted by parliament in February that requires the case-by-case approval of the ministries of foreign affairs , defense , trade and the interior . Nonetheless , Western diplomatic sources here say the RDP Group `` bears close watching , '' particularly its chairman , Lubomir Soudek , who has visited Iran and reportedly tried to sell turbines and other heavy machinery for a nuclear power plant there . Following the division of Czechoslovakia into separate Czech and Slovak republics in 1993 , the Czech arms industry was largely privatized and reorganized into a broadly cooperative network . Forty-one arms-producing firms now work within the RDP Group to develop a wide range of products for both military and civilian markets . Soudek , who is also general director of Skoda Pilsen once the biggest foreign arms producer for Nazi Germany said in an interview at the sprawling Skoda complex here that RDP partners are currently working on 27 projects for the arms market , about half of which he believes will find a market . He declined to reveal what any of the projects involve , saying that `` nobody talks about what they want to sell . '' At the same time , he listed a multitude of problems facing the industry . These include , he said , the loss of close ties to Slovak steel plants , a shortage of research and development funds from the government and a heavy dependence on the Czech military 's modernization plans , which may not be determined until 1998 . `` The arms market is so big , but it 's very limited for our weapons , '' he remarked . `` We will never ever again obtain a rank in the top 10 producers . Local press reports say the RDP Group 's biggest military project is the upgraded T-72 tank a joint project with its old Slovak partners which it hopes to sell to NATO countries . But Soudek was not optimistic about this either , unless the Czech army agrees to buy and test it first . Probably the most controversial high-tech item on the new Czech hardware list is the Tamara , a truck-mounted , highly mobile radar system developed secretly over the past 30 years by the Czechs in cooperation with the Soviet military . Now in its third generation , the Tamara is said to be able to pick up any radiation emitted by an aircraft from a distance of up to 280 miles . Each system sells for about $ 15 million . A big advantage of the Tamara is that it is a passive system and emits no electronic signals ; thus , it cannot be easily located , jammed or targeted , according to Maj. Gen. Oldrich Barak , president of Tesla Pardubice , manufacturer of the Tamara , and Otto Taborsky , vice president of Tesla 's parent corporation . Barak , an electronics expert who has been involved in the Tamara project since its inception in the early 1960s , insisted that the system has the ability to detect the U.S. . B-2 stealth bomber , which was specifically designed to elude radar . `` It has been tried ; it detected the stealth . It 's not just theory , '' Taborsky added . They refused to say where or when this occurred , but they noted that 50 Tamara systems are in use in former Soviet Bloc nations . According to local press reports , the U.S. military also has secretly obtained one . Four of the five winners of an industry-sponsored screenwriting contest for ethnic minority writers are expected to attend an awards ceremony Thursday in West Hollywood , Calif. . The fifth will be sitting on San Quentin 's death row . Kenneth Gay is serving a death sentence at the penitentiary north of San Francisco for murdering Los Angeles police officer Paul Verna during a routine traffic stop in 1983 . When Gay submitted a script he wrote in prison to the Writers Workshop for contest consideration , Willard Rodgers , founder and director of the organization , said that he was surprised at the degree of humanity in the story . He said that Gay 's selection as one of the five winners in no way meant that the workshop was condoning the violence of Gay 's past . His script , titled `` A Children 's Story , '' was picked from among 170 submissions from across the nation . The story deals with nine children all with mental or physical deformities who are lost in a forest when the bus they are riding is involved in an accident and their leader is mauled by a bear . The kids then have to find their way back to safety and in the process of helping each other are surprised at what they can achieve . It 's the first time in the five years of the workshop 's contest which is sponsored by Steven Spielberg 's Amblin Entertainment , Quincy Jones Productions , Carsey-Werner Co. , Norman Jewison , MCA/Universal , Dan Petrie Jr. , Sony Pictures Entertainment and Oliver Stone that someone in prison has won the award . `` It 's uplifting and it teaches the value of cooperation among people , '' Rodgers said . `` There 's not one bit of violence in the script . '' Gay 's wife , Janice , said it was unlikely that her husband would want to be interviewed . `` He doesn't want any publicity , '' she said . DAVID J. FOX -0- Ah , to be young , talented and the toast of Hollywood . Mark Steven Johnson , 28 , and Kevin Smith , 23 , are both screenwriters who have seen their first projects become mini-gold mines in town . In fact , Johnson is already writing a sequel to his first script , `` Grumpy Old Men , '' for Warner Bros. ; the first film cost about $ 18 million and brought in nearly $ 70 million at the box office . He 's also writing a live-action `` Frosty the Snowman '' for Warners , as well as a comedy for 20th Century Fox about the first major league female ballplayer called `` Balls . '' As for Smith , his `` Clerks '' which won both the Prix de la Jeunesse and the Critics Week prize at Cannes and was well-received at Sundance has already nailed down several future projects , even though Miramax is not scheduled to release `` Clerks '' until Aug. 19 . In fact , `` Clerks , '' a black-and-white slice of life about convenience store clerks in New Jersey , is already becoming something of a mini-Jersey trilogy . Smith is writing a Jersey busboys saga called `` Busing '' for Disney , and a Jersey boys-go-to-the-mall film for producers Sean Daniel and Jim Jacks at Universal called `` Mall Rats , '' which Smith will direct . He also is writing `` Dogma , '' about growing up Catholic in New Jersey for Miramax . How each lucked into success has the sweet smell of innocence and naivete . Both pulled their stories from experiences in their hometowns . For Smith , `` I was working as a store clerk at the Quick Stop Convenience store in Leonardo ( N.J. ) and had spent about four months at the Vancouver Film School . I saw ` Slackers ' and decided I was going to take the rest of my tuition and put it into a film . '' He convinced the store manager , his boss for three years , to let him use the store as the setting . And $ 27,575 later , Smith had a movie about 12 hours in a convenience store . Smith willn't disclose how much he 's received for each of his projects , but Johnson isn't as coy . Johnson says that after the success of `` Grumpy Old Men , '' he 's now averaging between $ 175,000 to $ 350,000 for his scripts , plus another $ 175,000 to $ 200,000 if the films are made . For `` Grumpy II , '' the initial amount jumped to $ 450,000 because it 's a sequel . He will get another $ 300,000 if it is made . Johnson didn't really know anybody in the business to pitch his script to . In fact , his big connection at the time was his wife 's hospital co-worker , whose cousin used to be an agent . `` How 's that for a connection ? I took a chance and called the guy and he got it to people , who brought it to Warner Bros. , '' he says . `` I 'm the same guy who came to L.A. and called up one of the biggest agents here and said , ` Hi , I 'm Mark Johnson . ' I really didn't know any better at the time . The only reason the agent took my call is because he thought I was the producer ( Mark Johnson , director Barry Levinson 's former partner ) . I didn't know about the producer , but once the agent realized it wasn't him , he told me to take a hike , '' says Johnson . `` See how quickly it can change ? '' Both young writers chalk their quick success up to luck , hard work and forever keeping their egos in check . But the producers who are pursuing their projects say talent has a little bit to do with it . JUDY BRENNAN NEW YORK Barney aside , the most startling success story in children 's television in the '90s is the Fox Kids Network . And Margaret Loesch is the woman who made it happen . In less than four years , the network has gone from nonexistence to No. 1 with kids in the ratings categories for ages 2 to 11 and 6 to 17 , with such ratings successes as `` Mighty Morphin Power Rangers , '' `` X-Men '' and `` Batman '' as well as Steven Spielberg 's `` Animaniacs '' and `` Tiny Toons . '' And in light of Monday 's announcement that Fox is trading up for affiliates with stronger signals in 12 major markets , the kids ' lineup seems destined to grow even more powerful . With its signature action programming spread through an after-school schedule and a 3-hour Saturday morning block , it 's a good bet your kids are watching Fox at least part of the time . Kids Network President Loesch , not an unambitious sort , would like to have a Sunday morning block too , but right now she says the affiliates make too much money from paid religious programming to give up that time to the network and so instead she 'll try a syndicated Sunday morning Fox radio show next fall . Some critics say the kids ' programming is the equivalent of Fox 's schlocky nighttime hits , such as `` Melrose Place '' and `` Beverly Hills 90210 . '' But that doesn't seem to bother Loesch . She is sitting in a small bar in a midtown hotel , and the conversation has turned to one of the big influences in her career , a small mouse with a squeaky voice and big ears . `` The Mickey Mouse Club , '' she says , `` made no pretense about being anything other than entertaining . But I learned a lot of things. .. . There were those little cowboy stories where kids learned to get along and how to deal with bullies and stories on what I call self-esteem . '' However much she was influenced by the tiny rodent , Loesch , 48 , does seem to know what kids will watch . For years she tried to sell `` Power Rangers '' and `` X-Men '' but had no takers until she herself became a buyer . `` Power Rangers , '' which is about a group of teenagers who become superheroes by summoning the power of the dinosaurs , is not only a hit on TV , but the toys it spun off were the big sellers last Christmas . `` X-Men , '' in which a group of `` mutant '' foster children vie for respectability ( `` the teen experience , '' says Loesch ) , has become a cult hit of the older set too ; the network has gotten calls from 30-year-old Wall Street bond traders asking when a new `` X-Men '' will air . Both shows have been criticized in the press for their violent content , but Loesch says that neither parents nor teachers have followed suit and , she adds , she will take her cues from them . For the fall , Fox will add an educational program for preschoolers . It 's doing it at the urging of the affiliates , who have to prove to a skeptical Federal Communications Commission that they are fulfilling the requirements of the Children 's Television Act to provide that kind of programming . The show , `` Fox 's Cubhouse , '' will feature a group of characters introducing and watching three different shows : Mondays and Fridays it will be `` Jim Henson 's Nature Show , '' a Muppet talk show about nature ; Tuesdays and Thursdays will feature `` Johnson and Friends , '' an Australian television production with big stuffed animals that teaches the values of socialization ; and on Wednesdays the show is `` Rimba 's Island , '' which will use fantasy animals to teach music and movement . She 'll also add `` Spiderman '' to the Saturday schedule , a show that happens to be produced by New World Communications , in which Fox acquired an interest this week . In addition , next season will see `` The Tick , '' which Loesch describes as `` an animated superhero show that pokes fun at superhero shows . '' While Loesch says she is enthusiastic about the `` Cubhouse '' concept , she 's not happy about the Children 's Television Act , which she describes as a `` kind of gun to the head '' and quite unnecessary , she adds . `` I think we were on the road to doing exactly what they wanted , '' she says , `` but I resent people saying it 's only because of the act '' that certain shows are being scheduled . And besides , she contends , entertainment programs can teach just as much as so-called educational programming though critics of Fox would hope she 's not thinking of `` Power Rangers '' or `` X-Men '' when she says that . Some are not so thrilled . Peggy Charren , founder of Action for Children 's Television and a longtime observer of children 's programming , is particularly dismayed by Fox 's success . `` The worst shows are winning the ratings game , '' she says. ` ` ` X-Men ' has absolutely nothing to recommend it. .. . It equates foster children with alien life . What kind of peculiar idea is that ? '' To help the network understand the effects its programming will have on children , Fox has set up a six-member advisory board made up of child-development specialists who deal with children every day . The board reads scripts and makes suggestions for changes . And according to board member Frank Palumbo , a Washington pediatrician , the group has expressed concerns about the violence in both `` Power Rangers '' and `` X-Men . '' He says he believes the network is serious about responding to that issue . Loesch says her standard rule is that violence should not be of the sort that could be imitated by a child to his harm . But then she tells you she saw her own 5-year-old son imitate the karate on `` Power Rangers '' and had to intervene to get him to stop . `` The minute he jumped up and started pretending he was a karate expert , I said , ` You can pretend to be playing karate , but you don't go out and chop the cat and you can't hit your friends , that 's unacceptable . This is a fantasy and it 's only television . ' And he understood . '' RICHMOND On any night of the week , you can drive to a little building in the west end of town here , lay down $ 9 , climb aboard an alien spacecraft and shoot a lot of people with a laser gun . That 's entertainment , according to four entrepreneurs who believe they have opened the latest in high-tech amusements here and plan to take their venture to the Washington suburbs soon . It 's 21st century paint-ball without the paint ( or the bruises ) . It 's like being inside a video game , but more real , especially when you watch another player smile as he `` stuns '' you and walks calmly away . Afterward , everyone gathers around a video screen , dripping sweat , and waits for their scores to appear . It 's called Ultrazone , and just weeks after opening here it 's packing in teenagers and people in their 20s , who come for the adrenaline rush and the chance to feel like characters in an Arnold Schwarzenegger movie , stalking each other down passageways of a space ship . Despite the violent premise , it 's all supposed to be clean fun : Alcohol and drugs are verboten , as is running , and no one actually dies they just rack up really low scores and get to play again . The game even has developed a small corporate following . Friday afternoon , for example , several white-collar workers from Reynolds Metals Co. down the road were chasing each other around inside the 6,000-square foot building that used to house a window and door store . The concept was born about a decade ago in Australia , when a few computer engineers designed a complex game of tag in which players wear vests equipped with light sensors . Fire a laser at the right spot on an opponent 's vest , incapacitate him and score points . That may sound simple , but throw in a story involving a battle for control of the ship , complete with theatrical fog , pounding metallic music , sirens and general mayhem , and you have an intense 15-minute experience . The game has spread to England , Canada , a few other U.S. and Japan , and is soon to arrive in South America . Troy Peple , president of the company that bought the Virginia franchise from the Australian company , said this kind of entertainment will be all over the United States in the next few years . `` In three to five years , they 'll be everywhere , '' he predicted , standing in the lobby of his first and only center . Nearby young enthusiasts queued up for tickets and plugged `` ROM buttons '' they carry on key chains into a terminal that instantly calls up their career records as Ultrazone players . The experienced players adopt pseudonyms like Troll , Spawn and Blood Glitter . But even novices get into the spirit quickly . Kim Abbott , a 17-year-old from nearby Chesterfield , said after playing her third game : `` You get a big rush , because you feel like you actually killed people . '' Bud Whitehouse , who visited Ultrazone on Friday evening with his son and daughter , said he wasn't worried about the violent tone . `` It 's been a long time since I played cowboys and indians , but I can remember playing it at the same level of aggression , '' he said . Joseph Cassius , a Memphis psychologist who has studied high-tech games and how they affect people , said games such as Ultrazone affect individuals differently . `` It can create a numbing effect , from a negative standpoint , if the game is a game that emphasizes aggression . On the other hand , it can allow some expression ( of aggressive impulses ) in a socially acceptable manner . '' Peple , a certified public accountant with a background in commercial real estate , said he and three business associates in their thirties and forties pooled $ 500,000 to open the Richmond center . They are about to close on a site in Virginia Beach , are negotiating on locations in Northern Virginia and are trying to obtain the Maryland franchise rights , he said . Peple would not provide specific revenue or profit figures , but said more than 10,000 games have been played since the site opened in early April . The price is $ 5 or $ 7 , depending on time of day , plus a $ 2 membership fee . Peple and his partners are not the only ones seeking to cash in on the Nintendo generation 's appetite for high-tech entertainment , but it remains to be seen how much staying power such ventures will have . He takes pains to distinguish Ultrazone from an early '80s game called Photon , also a form of light-based tag , which achieved fad status in some cities before vanishing . `` There 's no doubt that this is a very hot segment of the market today , the laser-tag business , '' said John Latta , president of 4th Wave , an Alexandria , Va. , consulting firm that follows high-tech entertainment . A half century ago , when he was the music critic for the New York Herald Tribune , Virgil Thomson used to write about going to `` hear '' an opera . Today , in contrast , music lovers are more likely to talk about going to `` see '' Itzhak Perlman play the violin or Mstislav Rostropovich conduct the National Symphony . The difference points up a profound change in the way people think about music : It is now considered a largely visual experience , thanks to the pervasive influence of television . So it was probably a smart move last year when Peter Gelb was appointed president of both Sony Classical USA , which produces audio recordings , and the international Sony Classical Film and Video , which produces both theatrical films and home videos . As a TV producer , Gelb won half a dozen Emmys , for Metropolitan Opera telecasts he produced and for music documentaries made by CAMI Video , which he founded and which is now part of Sony . During his short time at Sony , Gelb has brought out some of the best items available on the classical home video market . Those released only on video include `` Vladimir Horowitz : A Reminiscence '' ( laser disc SLV 53478 ; also on VHS ) , part of which was shown recently on PBS , and Herbert von Karajan 's sumptuous 1984 Salzburg production of `` Der Rosenkavalier '' ( S2LV 48313 , two laser discs , also on VHS ) , which appeals to the eye as much as the ear-and very strongly to both . Others can also be heard on audio CDs , including `` Dvorak in Prague : A Celebration '' ( laser disc SLV 53488 ; compact disc SK 46687 ) and `` John Williams : The Seville Concert '' ( Laser Disc SLV 53475 ; compact disc SK 53359 ) . All four of these home videos have one thing in common : They originated as television programs . Gelb insists that even the giant Sony Corp. could not have produced them without one or more television networks sharing the costs . `` The classical home video market is not sufficient to pay for such productions , '' he says . `` We need broadcast partners , and the television link will have to continue for the foreseeable future ; it 's a major source of financial support . '' The cost of producing a video recording can be 10 times as high as for audio only , according to Gelb , and the result is that `` for every show I get to do , there are 20 or 30 that are considered but not realized . '' There is no question that video can give a strong added dimension to recorded music . `` The Seville Concert '' was videotaped on location in an ancient Spanish castle , with a different visual background for each number , carefully and sometimes brilliantly selected to reinforce the music 's effect . `` Dvorak in Prague '' relies not on scenic background but on the performers ' personalities to enhance the video dimension and since the soloists include Perlman , Yo-Yo Ma and Frederica von Stade , this strategy works well . Watching Ma and Perlman play an arrangement of Dvorak 's `` Humoresque '' intensifies the musical experience . It is wonderful just to hear von Stade sing the lovely `` Song to the Moon '' from `` Rusalka '' on the CD , but it is even more satisfying to see her sing it . The case is different for a documentary like `` Vladimir Horowitz : A Reminiscence , '' which was made for television . It works only in a video format and enjoys the promotional advantage of having been shown nationwide on PBS . Laser video discs , unlike CDs , can be recorded and played back on both sides , allowing up to two hours of material on a single disc . Gelb takes advantage of this capacity to give home video viewers a substantial plus that was not seen on PBS : a superbly played Horowitz recital in London . Though `` Der Rosenkavalier , '' stylishly conducted by von Karajan and beautifully sung , could be enjoyed in an audio recording , a lot would be missed . The performers , including Anna Tomowa-Sintow , Kurt Moll , Agnes Baltsa and Janet Perry , have acting skills that deserve to be seen , and the Salzburg Festival 's sets and costumes reinforce the music of Richard Strauss in establishing this opera 's unique atmosphere , a substantial part of its charm . The rankings for books sold in the New York area , as reported by selected book stores : HARDCOVER FICTION 1 . THE CELESTINE PROPHECY , by James Redfield . 2 . THE ALIENIST , by Caleb Carr . 3 . REMEMBER ME , by Mary Higgins Clark . 4 . INCA GOLD , by Clive Cussler . 5 . DISCLOSURE , by Michael Crichton . 6 . WALKING SHADOW , by Robert B . Parker . 7 . THE BRIDGES OF MADISON COUNTY , by Robert James Waller . 8 . `` K '' IS FOR KILLER , by Sue Grafton . 9 . NIGHT PREY , by John Sandford . 10 . TUNNEL VISION , by Sara Paretsky . NONFICTION 1 . IN THE KITCHEN WITH ROSIE , by Rosie Daley . 2 . EMBRACED BY THE LIGHT , by Betty J. Eadie with Curtis Taylor . 3 . MAGIC EYE , by Tom Baccei . 4 . MIDNIGHT IN THE GARDEN OF GOOD AND EVIL , by John Berendt . 5 . MAGIC EYE II , by Tom Baccei . 6 . MEN ARE FROM MARS , WOMEN ARE FROM VENUS , by John Gray . 7 . HOW WE DIE , by Sherwin B . Nuland . 8 . LIFE OF THE PARTY , by Christopher Ogden . 9 . STANDING FIRM , by Dan Quayle . 10 . BEYOND PEACE , by Richard Nixon . PAPERBACK 1 . PLEADING GUILTY , by Scott Turow . 2 . LISTENING TO PROZAC , by Peter Kramer . 3 . SHIPPING NEWS , by E. Annie Proulx . 4 . CRUEL & UNUSUAL , by Patricia Cornwell . 5 . SCORPIO ILLUSION , by Robert Ludlum . 6 . I ' LL BE SEEING YOU , by Mary Higgins Clark . 7 . PIGS IN HEAVEN , by Barbara Kingsolver . 8 . AFTER ALL THESE YEARS , by Susan Isaacs . 9 . `` J '' IS FOR JUDGMENT , by Sue Grafton . 10 . THE STAND , by Stephen King . Distributed by the Los Angeles Times-Washington Post News Service BERLIN When the big American law firm of Mayer , Brown & Platt decided to trumpet the opening of a new Berlin branch office this spring , it did what big American law firms often do to win friends and influence people : It planned a big party . And what a party . Embossed invitations were sent to hundreds of guests across Germany and around the world . The mayor of Berlin , the U.S. ambassador and the German economics minister all agreed to make welcoming speeches . Chicago-based Mayer , Brown even booked the Landesgericht , Berlin 's state courthouse , for the occasion . Every detail was considered and reconsidered except , alas , the sensitivities of local attorneys . Roused by outraged German lawyers , the Berlin bar swung into action , obtaining a court injunction blocking the party on grounds that it violated stringent rules prohibiting law firms from soliciting clients . Less than a week before the scheduled March 1 bash , Mayer , Brown was forced to cancel and uninvite some 600 guests . `` We certainly didn't want to stick a finger in the eye of local lawyers , '' said C . Mark Nicolaides , the firm 's managing partner here . `` We had no idea it would cause that sort of reaction . '' In its own small , humbling fashion , the episode illustrates the challenges and occasional perils U.S. firms encounter when they try to do business in a country where custom , regulation and social nuance can create many a sticky wicket . An estimated 1,250 U.S. companies operate in Germany . Many of them Ford Motor Co. , General Motors Corp. , Coca-Cola Co. have been here for decades and have successfully become part of the landscape . But for newcomers trying to tap newly opened markets in the east , it doesn't take long to discover that when working here there is a right way , a wrong way and a German way . `` The cultural and bureaucratic barriers can be substantial , '' said Donald Kobletz , formerly the State Department 's senior lawyer in Berlin and now a private attorney here . `` In the States , there 's bureaucracy but it operates basically under a principle of benign neglect . The Germans don't believe in benign neglect they believe in benign harassment . I think it has something to do with the German need for security : You surround yourself with rules and regulations . '' Especially troublesome for business executives is a sclerotic system for getting new enterprises approved . `` To get a building permit for a major chemical plant in Germany now takes an average of 70 months ; in neighboring Belgium it takes 12 months , '' said Kurt Kasch , senior vice president of the Deutsche Bank office in Berlin . There are no precise estimates on how many U.S. firms have abandoned Germany and gone elsewhere with their investment dollars , although figures from the American Chamber of Commerce in Germany indicate U.S. investment has been flat since the mid-1980s . For those who have plunged into the brave new world of former East Germany , the experience often has been bittersweet . In early 1993 , for example , Kaneb Services Inc. , of Richardson , Tex. , paid Treuhand , the government agency set up to privatize or liquidate former East German companies , $ 610,000 for an East Berlin engineering firm called Kraftwerks und Lagenbau . After a year of wrangling with Treuhand over how to restructure the company `` to make it a profitable and viable business , '' Kaneb pulled out , according to Kaneb Vice President Howard Wadsworth . Kaneb has nine other operations in eastern Germany , most involving maintenance services for industrial facilities . `` Our general experience has been very good , '' Wadsworth said . `` And then , like this last case , there 've been some difficult ones . '' `` Difficult '' is a word Raymond Learsy uses often in describing his efforts to revive Berlin Kosmetik , a former East German cosmetics firm he paid $ 24 million to take over last year . Once a thriving manufacturer of shampoos , lipsticks , skin care products and the like , the company 's sales had fallen from $ 60 million a year before East Germany 's collapse to $ 4 million in 1992 . Learsy said he has difficulty getting shelf space in western Germany , a symptom of what Andrew Luedders , an American Chamber official in Frankfurt , calls `` the rather well-defined , or constricted , relationships in Germany between producers and distributors and retailers . '' `` It appeared to be a level playing field , but it 's really weighted toward the status quo , '' Learsy said . For example , shop hours are severely restricted by law in Germany , with few stores open evenings , Saturday afternoons or Sundays . `` The shortened shopping hours necessitate brand identification buying because people don't really have time to browse , '' Learsy said . `` That protects established brands . '' Mayer , Brown 's problems were of a different nature . One of the 10 largest U.S. law firms , with 600 attorneys and nine offices worldwide , the firm decided to open a branch in Berlin because Frankfurt and Duesseldorf appeared `` overlawyered , '' said managing partner Nicolaides . Loosely affiliated with a large German law firm , Mayer , Brown envisioned Berlin as a springboard for dealmaking and legal work throughout Eastern Europe . `` We 're not coming in saying we 're going to take business away from German lawyers , '' Nicolaides said . `` We don't compete against them we don't want to ; we don't need to . '' `` We wouldn't have objected if they hadn't chosen that particular place ( for the reception ) and invited so many prominent people , '' said Bernhard Dombeck , president of the Berlin bar . `` That was a little too showy . '' As for others looking to crack the German market , Robert F. Smith , the American Chamber representative in Berlin , observed : `` Doing business in Germany is not that difficult . But you have to follow the rules . '' As funny as it was , `` The Honeymooners '' was basically a one-joke show : Ralph Kramden , '50s Brooklyn caveman , can't get a break . Its Hanna-Barbera alter ego , `` The Flintstones , '' which came along in 1960 , was a one-joke show , too : same caveman , flashed back to the Stone Age . The solitary gag that propels the big-budget feature film version of `` The Flintstones '' is the translation of cartoon humor into live-action : The mastodon as kitchen faucet ( and Greek chorus ) ; the large-beaked bird as Victrola ; the giant crab as pin-changer at the Bowl-o-Rama , and Fred , as embodied by the lovably cartoonish John Goodman , suspended in midair during an ecstatic yabba-dabba-doo . Directed by Brian ( `` Beethoven '' ) Levant and produced by Stephen Spielberg 's Amblin Entertainment ( yes , there 's a `` Jurassic Park '' plug in here , too ) , `` The Flintstones '' makes relentless puns on the words `` rock '' and `` stone , '' offers proof that product placement knows no particular millennium ( Cavern on the Green , RocDonald 's , Rolling Rock beer ) and gets mileage out of gags that were old when Dino was a pup . The intro , the music , the finale , they 're all straight out of the original Bedrock . In other words , if you loved the cartoon show , you 'll probably love the movie . And did we love the cartoon ? As Fred might say , `` Is the Earth flat ? '' The TV `` Flintstones '' was never that funny , perhaps because it didn't have a Gleason . The `` Flintstones '' movie doesn't have one either , but it has Goodman , who plays the anti-Kramden on `` Roseanne '' and has done some memorable work in the Coen brothers ' movies . No one 's ever been more physically right for a role than Goodman is for longtime Slate & Co. brontosaurus-operator Fred Flintstone , and he 's a lot more Ralphy boy than Fred , but he remains throughout the movie an oddly unengaging presence ; rather than flesh out the cartoon , Goodman is sucked into the animation vortex . So is the rest of the cast . As Fred 's little buddy , Barney Rubble , Rick Moranis creates a more original character , but he 's mugging , too . Elizabeth Perkins as Wilma and Rosie O' Donnell as Betty have the right giggle , Perkins certainly has the right look , but the actors seem to be striving toward a Saturday morning-style one-dimensionality that 's epitomized by Elizabeth Taylor 's hammy cameo as Fred 's mother-in-law , Pearl Slaghoople . Although nearly devoid of what 's usually defined as wit , `` The Flintstones , '' will probably amuse both young children and older set designers . The town of Bedrock may look parched and inhospitable , but it contains a lot of ingenious sight gags , as well as gaps in logic : They have television , for instance ( on which Jay Leno hosts `` Bedrock 's Most Wanted '' ) but they still write with hammers and chisels . In any event , the animals which are the products of either Jim Henson 's Creature Shop in London , or Industrial Light and Magic in California are engaging , more so than the actors . Certainly , the pigasaurus garbage disposal has personality , and the Dictabird ( voice of Harvey Korman ) has as pivotal a role in the story as any human . It 's the Dictabird who gets Fred out of the jam he finds himself in his own bombast , as usual , being partly the cause after the nefarious Cliff Vandercave ( Kyle MacLachlan ) promotes him to vice president at Slate & Co. Cliff , a Stone Age yuppie embezzler and one of the two more interesting characters in the film the other being Fred 's secretary , Sharon Stone , played by the scene-stealing Halle Berry needs a dupe to perpetrate the liquidation of Slate & Co. . So he invites all employees to take an aptitude test , which Barney aces , and Fred fails . But Barney owes Fred big Fred having lent Barney money so the Rubbles could adopt Bamm-Bamm ( twins Hlynur and Marino Sigurdsson ) . ( It was easier on the cartoon , if you recall , when Bamm-Bamm was left on the doorstep . ) So Barney switches their papers . Fred gets the job and becomes insufferable . Barney , with the lowest score , is fired . Friendship , of course , will triumph , as will Fred . You may ask yourself : If Cliff needs a stooge to take the rap for his insidious scheme , why give the job to the highest-scoring applicant ? But the script by Tom S. Parker , Jim Jennewein and Stephen E. de Souza makes no pretense of intelligence . Basically , `` The Flintstones '' simply wants to plagiarize itself , and the only thing missing is the laugh track . Ultimately , `` The Flintstones , '' like many cartoons these days , is little more than a marketing tool . That the movie is as insubstantial and vacuous as the products it 's designed to sell is appropriate : Why else would it have been made ? There 's certainly no broadening of the original material , no irony , no reflection . Eventually , the people who make these things will realize that there 's really no need for a movie at all , just an advertising campaign , the right poster-friendly image ( in this case , Goodman/Fred ) and tie-ins with companies like McDonald 's . A lot of money will be saved , a lot of eye-strain avoided . Two stars ; add a star if you 're under 9 . HOLLYWOOD `` Improper Conduct '' is a nifty modest-budget psychological thriller pegged to the timely issue of sexual harassment . It is the 15th film by the enterprising Dr. Jag Mundhra , who has been a professor of marketing , advertising and consumer behavior and who once operated a theater in Southern California that showcased Indian cinema . `` Improper Conduct '' is the first of Mundhra 's films to be released theatrically , his previous efforts having been contracted to go straight to video . This movie is the confident work of an efficient filmmaker who knows the ropes . In a sharp ensemble cast , Tahnee Welch plays a beautiful commercial artist newly hired by a Los Angeles advertising agency , where owner Stuart Whitman has just appointed son-in-law John Laughlin as head of marketing . Laughlin immediately starts hitting upon Welch with increasing persistence and menacing crudeness , refusing to take no for an answer . Welch 's visiting sister , Lee Anne Beaman , a feminist law student , persuades her to hire Beaman 's lawyer friend Steven Bauer to file suit against Laughlin . Bauer feels sure that his brisk assistant Nia Peeples willn't have any trouble lining up other women Laughlin has pestered ; besides , Welch has one witness , the office 's mail-room worker ( Everette Lamar ) , a gutsy young gay man . Up to this point `` Improper Conduct '' plays like a crisp , decently made TV movie , whereupon it veers unexpectedly and effectively in an entirely different direction . Having pointed up the pitfalls of women trying to fight back against sexual harassment , Mundhra and writer Carl Austin deftly move the film from courtroom drama to erotic suspense . Technically adroit , `` Improper Conduct '' ( MPAA rating : Unrated ) is notable for its array of well-defined , well-acted roles . The cast includes Adrian Zmed , as a slimy kiss-and-tell type ; Kathy Shower as Laughlin 's fluffy , naive wife ; and Patsy Pease , as a Welch co-worker not above using sex to get ahead . Laughlin is properly repellent and scary ; Welch , who recalls the early Rita Hayworth as much as she does her mother , Raquel , is persuasively vulnerable yet determined ; but it 's Beaman , who has worked previously for Mundhra , who is the film 's revelation as the deceptively demure sister . HOLLYWOOD `` Two Small Bodies , '' a thoroughly captivating film adaptation of Neal Bell 's play , seemingly is simplicity itself . A trench-coated police detective ( Fred Ward ) comes to a suburban house to interrogate a single mother ( Suzy Amis ) on the disappearance of her two young children . Very early on it 's clear that Ward 's Lt. Brann believes that Amis ' Eileen Maloney , estranged from her husband , has murdered her kids and that Brann , who speaks only with love of his own two children , will quickly become obsessed with the case . `` Two Small Bodies '' ( MPAA rating : unrated ) allows its stars to shine in far-ranging , deeply probing characterizations of the kind that actors all too rarely get to play on the screen , even those as talented as Ward and Amis . Brann and Maloney 's ensuing battle of wits yields an amazing thicket of thoughts , emotions and evolving perceptions , and they have been elucidated with an unsettling thoroughness by the veteran independent filmmaker known as Beth B . Indeed , Beth B. , who collaborated on the screenplay with Bell as well as directed the film , is ideal for this assignment . Such earlier films as `` Vortex '' ( 1983 ) and `` Black Box '' ( 1978 ) , made with her husband , Scott B. , have been concerned with the abuse of power , both political and sexual . Worn and pale when we first meet her , Eileen , a strip joint hostess , reminds us of Meryl Streep 's mother of a missing child in Fred Schepisi 's `` A Cry in the Dark '' in that she seems simply weary rather than heartbroken or distraught , which is how mothers are supposed to act in such circumstances . ( It is possible , after all , for a mother to be a grudging , reluctant parent without being a child killer . ) Right off her aura of cool resignation throws Brann , a sexy ultra-macho type with a traditional view of women 's roles as a wife and mother . His relationship with Eileen teeters like a seesaw , as the impact of his menace wavers as Eileen appears to gather strength , acquiring an increasingly blunt , hard edge , seeming to agree with much of what he has to say about her . Through this endless parrying much emerges . First , we find ourselves not quite so quick to believe that Eileen may in fact be guilty of infanticide , and then we start wondering about Lt. Brann. How do we know he really is a cop ? Could he be the killer of the children himself if they are in fact dead ? Suspense , in turn , triggers paradox : Could a man as sexually dominant as Brann , a man who sees himself as a good guy , be finding himself tantalized by the prospect of yielding to what he sees as the embodiment of evil ? And then there is the role of illusion , seemingly so much more crucial to men than to women , who constantly find themselves in situations where they feel that they must pretend to be other than what they are to men , many of whom even today still see women as either madonnas or whores . Illusion , in fact , battles with truth throughout `` Two Small Bodies , '' which is so compelling that it never once seems a filmed play . Beastie Boys `` Ill Communication '' ( Capitol ) 3 stars . Other rappers used to fault the Beasties for their abrasive , somewhat monochromatic rapping style , and on `` Ill Communication , '' the boys have largely returned to the one-note bray they made famous on their 1986 album , `` Licensed to Ill. . '' With this album , as on 1989 's `` Paul 's Boutique , '' they are masters of the fun part of hip-hop that many artists have forgotten the art of swiping bits of music from hundreds of obscure old records and stitching them together into something resembling art . They even manage to manufacture a beat around a second or two of low groans from singing Tibetan monks . Once again , the Beasties prove they are maybe the 417th best hard-core punk band in the world , and again , they fill out the album with dusted , low-tech instrumentals . But the Beasties are a lot more ambitious than they 'd like you to think they are . The complete , self-referential trash-culture world they create on `` Ill Communication '' may be on a level with the visions of prime Public Enemy and Nine Inch Nails . JONATHAN GOLD Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds `` Let Love In '' ( Mute/Elektra ) 3 stars . Will this explorer of the soul 's darkest recesses be the upcoming `` Lollapalooza '' tour 's sacrificial cult band , like the Jesus and Mary Chain two years ago a nocturnal creature brought blinking to the stage in bright sunlight while the alternative-rock hit acts wait for the flattering cover of night ? Even though it coincides with this opportunity to be heard by a huge audience one that has embraced his filtered-down influence without even knowing it Cave 's new album isn't exactly a gesture toward the mainstream . But `` Let Love In '' is less phantasmagoric than its immediate predecessors , abandoning the last album 's queasy cabaret and surreal sea chanteys for classic rock strains a `` Blonde on Blonde '' richness , haunting Doors grooves , Stones raucousness . Musical broadening notwithstanding , `` Let Love In '' is unmistakably Cave . Devils still crawl around the bedroom , cities are dark and murderous places , and love remains a source of loss and torment and little else . Cave has never set forth these themes with more musical elegance , and he illuminates them with something new the glimmerings of a vulnerable spirit . RICHARD CROMELIN All-4-One , `` All-4-One , '' ( Blitzz/Atlantic ) 3 stars . Tired of all the wanna-be vocal groups desecrating doo-wop ? Then check out All-4-One 's debut album . In modern-day doo-wop , this is as good as it gets . The young group 's reverence for vintage doo-wop is evident on such romantic songs as the glorious remake of `` So Much in Love , '' a highlight of this excellent album mostly ballads boasting spine-tingling harmonies . DENNIS HUNT MANILA The Philippine military Thursday captured the country 's most-wanted communist rebel , the mastermind of an urban hit squad that has been blamed for the killings of a U.S. . Army colonel and more than 200 policemen and local officials . The arrest of Felimon Lagman , 43 , appeared to deal a serious blow to a 26-year-old communist insurgency that has been wracked by bitter infighting , ideological rifts and the repudiation of its guiding principles in much of the world . Lagman was arrested Thursday morning by naval intelligence agents as he drove a car in the Quezon City district of this sprawling capital of more than 8 million people . A 24-year veteran of the rebellion and the younger brother of a congressman , he headed the 5,000-member underground Communist Party apparatus in Manila , which fields a feared assassination squad called the Alex Boncayao Brigade . `` It 's a very big loss for the ( brigade ) , as well as .. . the entire Communist Party of the Philippines , '' said President Fidel Ramos . But he said the dwindling guerrilla movement would continue to pose a threat of urban killings , and a senior government official said authorities were bracing for a possible `` terrorism campaign '' in retaliation . The Alex Boncayao Brigade , named for a leftist labor leader who joined the guerrillas and was slain by security forces in 1983 , went on a rampage of urban killings here in the late 1980s . Among its victims was Col. James Rowe , an American military adviser who was gunned down in a street ambush in April 1989 as he was being driven to work in his supposedly bulletproof car . The killings of local police and others proved unpopular , and the brigade was reined in when it earned a reputation as a communist death squad . Lately , however , it has shown a resurgence of activity . The group , which is believed to include about 30 trained assassins and about 100 other members in the capital , claimed responsibility for the May 7 assassination of Timoteo Zarcal , a former police colonel who was recently acquitted of kidnapping charges . Last month , it admitted gunning down the father of a suspect on trial in a rape-murder case , charging that the father had participated in the crime . The brigade has also put out lists of allegedly corrupt legislators and government officials , but Lagman denied that they were being `` targeted for liquidation . '' The arrest of Lagman came two days after 11 sympathizers of the brigade were detained for participating in an unauthorized street demonstration to mark the 10th anniversary of its founding . The brigade used the occasion to announce a new policy , saying it would no longer impose `` revolutionary taxes '' in the capital region and that summary execution would no longer be its only method of implementing `` revolutionary justice . '' On May 4 , the Ramos government scored a coup by arresting Wilma Tiamzon , 42 , the secretary general of the Communist Party and a key supporter of party founder and chairman Jose Maria Sison , who lives in self-exile in the Netherlands . After it was founded in December 1968 , the Communist Party formed an armed wing , the New People 's Army , to wage a Maoist-inspired `` protracted people 's war '' aimed at overthrowing the government . Tens of thousands of Filipinos were killed over the next 20 years as the fighting spread and the guerrilla army grew to an estimated 26,000 fighters . Since then , however , the collapse of communism in Eastern Europe , internal party splits and the restoration of democracy in the Philippines have eroded the movement , which now fields about 8,000 guerrillas . A major rift developed in 1992 , pitting Sison and a coterie of loyalists including Tiamzon against renegades led by Lagman and several other senior party officials and guerrilla commanders . A formerly cohesive , committed revolutionary movement has turned into a collection of malcontents whose feuding sometimes takes on a soap-opera quality . Lagman has denounced Sison as a `` degenerate communist and unremolded misfit , '' while the Sison camp has accused Lagman and his comrades of offenses ranging from `` gangsterism '' to `` sexual and financial opportunism . '' In January , a former guerrilla commander linked to opponents of Sison was executed gangland-style by unidentified gunmen outside his house near Manila . Last month , Sison 's faction said it had gunned down another former rebel , Leopoldo Mabilangan , 34 , for alleged criminal activities . Since then , Lagman and Sison have traded threats and recriminations , with each claiming that the other is trying to assassinate him . `` Come and get me , '' Lagman said earlier this month in response to an arrest order against him from the Sison camp . He warned that if Sison 's followers tried to capture or execute him , `` automatically we will hit Sison in Utrecht , '' the Dutch city where the party founder maintains his headquarters . `` Sison 's death , '' Lagman said , `` would be just a phone call away . '' `` I now laugh it off , '' Sison said of the threat , adding that he had already taken `` precautionary measures . '' WASHINGTON Federal and military retirees racing to beat a phantom deadline for qualifying for their share of a potential $ 700 million tax refund from the State of Virginia can relax . The refund issue remains unsettled , but Virginia tax officials have begged us to tell you there is no deadline for filing amended tax returns . Published reports advised retirees of a mid-June deadline for amended returns . As a result , they have been burning up the telephone lines to tax accountants , members of Congress and the state legislature demanding information , or clarification of , the alleged deadline . But tax officials in Richmond asked us to advise retirees many in the Washington area that the one year that retirees will have to file amended returns willn't start until there is a final settlement in the refund battle , which is now five years old . The battle on behalf of ex-federal and military personnel began when the U.S. Supreme Court ruled ( Davis v. Michigan ) that more than a dozen states had discriminated against U.S. retirees by taxing their pensions while not taxing the pensions of state and local government retirees between 1985 and 1988 . Virginia was one of those states . Most of the states found to be using the discriminatory practice gave retirees refunds but Virginia because it was such a big financial item in the state that is home to more than 200,000 federal retirees raised new legal objections each time the Supreme Court told it to pay up . PRETORIA , South Africa South Africa plans a sharp increase in its arms exports in the wake of a United Nations Security Council vote this week to drop its long-standing embargo on the country 's arms trade . The head of Armscor , the state-run arms industry , predicted South African arms exports would more than double this year to about $ 500 million in sales . He said South Africa 's arms industry , which flourished during the era of apartheid and international sanctions but has been contracting since the late 1980s , would be `` increasingly driven '' by exports . The prospect of South Africa turning into a major arms supplier in a continent riven by war and carnage has caused some alarm here , but the post-apartheid government appears tantalized by the jobs and foreign-exchange revenues that the exports would generate . `` I don't think it would be fair to say that a particular country should not engage in trade in arms , '' President Nelson Mandela said in a nationally televised interview on the eve of the U.N. action . `` Arms are for the purpose of defending the sovereignty and integrity of a country . From that angle , there is nothing wrong with having trade in arms . '' This week , as the Security Council voted to drop its 17-year-old embargo on arms sales to South Africa and a decade-old ban on arms purchases from it , the head of another U.N. agency scolded industrial nations for contributing to the misery and bloodshed in Africa by peddling arms on this continent . James Gustave Speth , administrator of the U.N. . Development Program , noted that the world 's annual revenues from arms sales $ 125 billion was more than double the annual level of development assistance $ 60 billion to poor countries in Africa and elsewhere . He called for arms sales to Africa to be phased out over the next three years . Tielman de Waal , executive general manager of Armscor , said South Africa 's highly secretive arms industry already conforms to international standards that forbid the sale of arms to governments that suppress their own citizens or otherwise abuse human rights . He said Armscor had supplied the government of Rwanda with about $ 30 million worth of small-caliber rifles , grenades and mortars over the past five years but suspended its shipments last September as the stirrings of civil war became more apparent . He said Armscor had suspended arms sales to Zaire , a country widely believed to be supplying arms across its border to the Angolan rebel movement , known by its Portuguese acronym , UNITA . The trouble with such prohibitions , analysts say , is that once arms find their way into the marketplace , they have a tendency to fall into unsavory hands a syndrome South Africa knows as well as any country . Its exceptionally high levels of criminal and political violence have been fueled by a brisk illegal trade in AK-47s and other light arms from neighboring Mozambique , where a 15-year civil war ended in 1992 . When the United Nations slapped its first arms embargo on South Africa in 1977 , the white-minority government reacted by investing heavily in an already-sophisticated domestic arms industry . At the time , South Africa was supporting rebels in nearby Angola and Mozambique and confronting other neighbors in the so-called front-line states , which opposed its policy of apartheid . At its peak in the late 1980s , the domestic arms industry here employed some 150,000 people and was said to be South Africa 's largest exporter of finished manufacturing products . Though all of its dealings were shrouded in secrecy , it was presumed to be supplying such states as Somalia , Libya , Sudan , Ethiopia and Sri Lanka . Iraq used a South African-made long-range cannon during the 1991 Persian Gulf War . De Waal said a 65 percent cut in capital spending on defense has cut the arms industry work force to 75,000 people . And , because South Africa is no longer in conflict with its neighbors , the number of those jobs that rely on exports will grow . Currently , about 15,000 jobs exist because of export sales and that will increase in the coming year to about 35,000 . South Africa 's artillery , armored vehicles , mine-sweeping vehicles and the Rooivalk helicopter gunship are said to be competitive in the export market . In addition to markets in Africa , the arms industry here hopes to find customers in the Far East , Middle East and Europe . Just how aggressively it will pursue these sales is a matter of debate within the new government . Though Mandela appeared to give a green light to arms exports this week , he has spoken and written in the past in support of universal disarmament . `` The new government seems to have a fairly classic division between hawks and doves on the arms-export question , '' said Laurie Nathan , head of the Center for Conflict Resolution at the University of the Western Cape . `` The defense ministers want to keep the industry alive , while some of the ministers in foreign affairs and in domestic areas have different priorities . '' But Jakkie Cilliers , head of an independent military watchdog group , said he believes the hawks already have won . `` There 's been a dramatic shift in the African National Congress position in the past year , '' he said . `` Now that they 're the government , their attitude toward arms exports seems to be , ` Let 's go for it . ' Given economies of scale , it 's the only way they can save the defense industry and the jobs that go with it . '' LONDON Prime Ministers John Major of Britain and Albert Reynolds of Ireland on Thursday intensified their pressure on the Irish Republican Army to give up its campaign of violence in Northern Ireland . Speaking on the steps of No. 10 Downing Street after a meeting Thursday night , they warned Sinn Fein , the IRA 's political arm , that they will not `` wait around '' for the party to respond to their peace overtures . The two leaders , who last December signed the Downing Street Declaration offering Sinn Fein a place at Northern Ireland peace talks if the IRA would stop its attacks , said they would continue negotiations with politicians in Northern Ireland and the Irish Republic . `` A great deal of progress has been made , '' Major said . `` There 's more to be done , but it is not awaiting an answer from Sinn Fein . '' Reynolds added , `` The two governments are not going to wait around for any more prevarication on either side to stop the violence . '' Earlier , Sinn Fein President Gerry Adams raised peace hopes by declaring to the British Broadcasting Corp. that his group would make an official response to the Downing Street peace proposal but not until after European Parliament elections June 9 . `` I am quite convinced that what is going to come out of this peace process is a peace settlement , '' Adams said . But Major dashed cold water on the statement . `` I see nothing new in what he had to say this morning , '' the prime minister said . `` What was quite striking was what he didn't say . He made no indication that he was going to give up violence . '' ( Optional add end ) Protestant leaders from Northern Ireland also scorned Adams ' statement . Member of Parliament David Trimble declared that it was all `` some big con job '' designed to force the British into more concessions . While Major and Reynolds insisted that the peace process was making progress , others seemed less hopeful . One Republican source told the Irish Times of Dublin : `` You don't have to study the British response for days , or discuss it for weeks , to know that it 's unacceptable . '' The killings and bombings have continued since the peace declaration was issued , with the level of sectarian violence between Catholics and Protestants higher in the past five months than for the same period last year . WASHINGTON President Clinton 's sharp attacks on congressional Republicans at a meeting with Democratic leaders drew a quick rebuttal Thursday from GOP officials , who said Clinton and the Democrats were running out of excuses for their string of electoral defeats . The partisan exchanges marked an escalation in the election-year rhetoric of both parties and signaled the outlines of the strategies each will be using this fall to appeal to voters . In a private meeting with Democratic leaders that came the day after Democrats lost a traditionally Democratic House seat in Kentucky , the president lashed out at Republicans as obstructionists , `` fanatics '' held hostage to the religious right and a party carrying a message of `` hate and fear . '' House Minority Whip Newt Gingrich , R-Ga. , said in an interview Thursday that he was infuriated by Clinton 's attacks . `` We had helped him all day on the foreign operations bill until they ( the Democrats ) took a recess to go over there and hear the president attack us. .. . I think it 's a bit ripe . '' Gingrich said he could not understand the president coming up to Capitol Hill to bash Republicans just as the Democrats lost another special election and as House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dan Rostenkowski , D-Ill. , faces possible indictment . Sen. Dan Coats , R-Ind. , accused Clinton of `` duplicitous '' behavior and warned that he was courting disaster on health care by appealing for Republican support in a bipartisan meeting and then criticizing GOP lawmakers at a Democratic caucus . `` It 's duplicitous to come here and meet with Republican leaders and stress the need for bipartisanship and then walk down the hall and indicate this is a partisan issue , '' Coats told a news conference . Coats acknowledged that other presidents have conducted partisan pep rallies while trying to negotiate with the opposition but contended that the tactic is counterproductive . Some Democrats said privately that while Clinton 's exhortation to Democrats to defend the administration 's record was helpful , they feared that the president had overstepped in some of his rhetoric about the Republicans and the religious conservatives . Ralph Reed , executive director of the Christian Coalition , said Clinton 's strategy of raising the specter of a Christian conservative takeover of the Republican Party would be self-defeating . `` Everywhere they 've tried to make us an issue the Republicans have won , '' Reed said . `` I just don't think attacks on people of faith or people 's religion resonate . It 's a failed strategy and it will backfire at the ballot box . '' But some Clinton strategists believe the Democrats ultimately will gain by highlighting the activities of religious conservatives , arguing that while the Christian Coalition may help Republicans in southern races this fall , their involvement will hurt the party in other parts of the country this year and in 1996 . Clinton 's charge that Republicans have attempted to thwart the administration at every turn ignored the role the GOP played last year in the passage of the North American Free Trade Agreement . On that issue , a majority of Democrats deserted the president and he was was saved only by strong support from Republicans . It was that victory as much as any single event that helped define the president 's first-year successes and helped turn around public perceptions of Clinton 's performance as president . At the time of the NAFTA vote , Clinton 's approval rating stood at 49 percent in the Washington Post-ABC News Poll . A month after the NAFTA victory , he had risen to 58 percent . BEIJING Five years after the Chinese army crackdown on pro-democracy demonstrations , seven dissidents publicly petitioned the government Thursday for a reassessment of the 1989 movement and compensation for the families whose relatives were killed or injured . The activists , led by former student leader Wang Dan , also called for the release of all prisoners associated with the June 4 , 1989 crackdown and for the government to allow those who have been released from jail to lead normal lives . The appeal was made in a petition to the national legislature and made available to reporters . It is a direct challenge to the government 's characterization of the massive , student-led protests that swept Beijing and then spread nationwide as a `` counterrevolutionary rebellion . '' The dissidents asserted that the 1989 demonstrations were part of `` a nationwide patriotic popular movement . '' The movement adhered to the principles of `` peace , reason and nonviolence , '' according to the petition . `` We believe the government 's characterization of it as a `` riot and a counterrevolutionary rebellion ' is unjust and immediately should be reassessed , '' the activists wrote . The petition comes a week before the fifth anniversary of the crackdown , the most sensitive period on China 's political calendar . Security recently has tightened visibly in the Chinese capital . The homes of dissidents and their relatives are under surveillance . Wang and several other activists have already left Beijing to avoid the surveillance . Some foreign journalists are being followed . Authorities have canceled three events sponsored by foreign embassies a charity bazaar , a tennis club dinner and an art exhibit even though the events were to be attended by foreigners only . Chinese President Jiang Zemin recently defended the use of force to crush the protests as the only way to ensure stability and continued economic development . China would not hesitate to use violence again if necessary , he said . The government has never given a public accounting of the exact number of dead and wounded from 1989 . Hundreds , perhaps thousands , died when Chinese soldiers opened fire on the protestors . Nor has the government ever said how many people were arrested in connection with the June 4 crackdown . Despite the releases of some prominent activists , human-rights groups estimate that thousands more could still be in jail . In the petition Thursday , the activists several of whom were on China 's most-wanted list of student leaders and who served prison terms for their participation in the 1989 movement said the time had come for the government to `` untie the knot in the people 's heart . '' `` We feel that the June 4th incident represents an undeniable `` knot ' in the Chinese people 's historical development . Resolving the June 4 problems and untying this knot in the people 's heart will help heal social contradictions and promote social stability ( and ) will benefit the construction of a democratic legal system and the advancement of society , '' they wrote . `` We sincerely wish that the government can courageously take this sensible step for the sake of the people 's interest and the nation 's future , '' they wrote . WASHINGTON Black adults are overwhelmingly pessimistic about the prospects of black children , citing fears of violence , guns , drugs and gangs , according to a national poll released Thursday . The poll , commissioned by the Children 's Defense Fund and a new organization known as the Black Community Crusade for Children , found that more than three-fourths of black adults fear that their children or children they know will fall victim to violence . The poll did not include comparable figures for whites or others . And more than 80 percent of these adults say these are `` really bad times '' or `` tough times '' for black children . More than 70 percent of black adults many of whom were raised during an era of segregation believe it is harder for children today than it was for them . `` This poll confirms what black leaders already know , '' said Children 's Defense Fund President Marian Wright Edelman . `` We have a black-child crisis worse than any since slavery . '' In releasing the poll , Edelman also unveiled the Black Community Crusade for Children , a fledgling organization that is mobilizing an anti-violence campaign , training college students to become tutors and lobbying for government solutions to the daunting problems facing black children in this country . The organization is a network of local and regional programs coordinated by the Children 's Defense Fund and funded by foundations . The poll showed that while 75 percent of black children said these are good times for them personally , they also see major obstacles ahead . More than three-quarters of these young people said violence in school is a serious problem for them , 70 percent said the same of guns and 64 percent said dangerous neighborhoods present a serious problem for them . `` They do have dreams and hopes and ambitions , but they see the road from here to there is laden with obstacles , '' said Geoffrey Garin , president of Peter D. Hart Research Associates , which conducted the poll . The poll was taken in January of 1,004 adults and 421 children aged 11 to 17 . Two-thirds of adults polled said black children face more problems than opportunities , and the vast majority believe that at least half of all black children will become teen-age parents , will be denied opportunities because of racial prejudice , have their lives destroyed by drugs or get into trouble with the law . Edelman said the new organization began as an idea three years ago and has hired a dozen staff members across the country . More than 600 black college students have been trained as tutors and mentors to children and 200 more will be trained this summer . The group is launching an anti-violence campaign next month and encouraging black churches to hold a `` children 's sabbath '' in October , with a focus on programs for youth . Several community efforts were cited by Edelman as models of creative solutions , including `` beacon schools '' in New York City that stay open until 11 p.m. year-round and operate as community centers ; a program in Savannah , Ga. , that remodeled an abandoned school building and turned it into a resource center where families can get help from a variety of agencies , including health and social-service offices , boys and girls clubs and a mediation project ; and a `` nurturing village '' project in the District of Columbia where leaders are bringing together schools , hospitals and community groups to provide an after-school program for each of the 20,000 children in the area . Melissa Gilbert , who co-stars with Cicely Tyson as a pair of Southern lawyers who champion the underdog in the fall NBC series `` Sweet Justice , '' has purchased a three-bedroom home in Los Angeles for about $ 500,000 , sources say . Gilbert just finished a movie with Marlee Matlin for Lifetime Cable and is about to start work on a CBS movie with Patty Duke . Now 30 , Gilbert became a well-known actress as a child , playing Laura Ingalls on the long-running series `` Little House on the Prairie . '' She starred in the CBS movie `` Babymaker : The Dr. Cecil Jacobson Story , '' which aired earlier this year , and co-starred last year in five TV movies , including `` A Family of Strangers , '' with Patty Duke and William Shatner , and `` House of Secrets , '' with Bruce Boxleitner . Gilbert , who was divorced from actor-writer Bo Brinkman in February , was briefly engaged to Boxleitner after her separation from Brinkman . Built in 1944 , Gilbert 's 3,000-square-foot , Cape Cod-style house in the San Fernando Valley has shutters , window seats , French doors , two fireplaces , a cozy kitchen , breakfast nook , pool and spa . -0- Matt Frewer , who played Trashcan Man in Stephen King 's miniseries `` The Stand '' earlier this month , and his wife , documentarian Amanda Hillwood , have purchased a three-bedroom Malibu , Calif. , home for close to its $ 799,000 asking price , sources say . The home features what is being termed `` an organic design of natural building materials '' and has many trees on its 1.5 acres , with a footpath to the sand . Frewer also played Cinemax 's high-tech talk-show host Max Headroom , which was resurrected by Bravo on cable this year , and he later appeared in the CBS sitcom `` Doctor , Doctor . '' -0- Thaao Penghlis , who returned recently after an eight-year absence to his role as Count Antony DiMera on NBC 's `` Days of Our Lives , '' is nearing the end of a $ 130,000 refurbishing project at his Los Angeles home , built by architect John Lautner in 1964 . Penghlis , who also starred as master-of-disguise Nicholas Black in the revived `` Mission : Impossible '' series and co-starred in the miniseries `` Memories of Midnights , '' has been painting the three-bedroom , 2,400-square-foot house , which was originally gray , to complement his collections of Greek pots and Oriental screens and vases . He painted the outside of his home cobalt blue and the inside in earth tones of yellow and gold with red touches . He is also redoing the landscaping , having completed a waterfall and pond , and modernizing the kitchen , installing black granite counters and walls and black kitchen appliances . `` I wanted to make it dramatic and masculine , '' he said of the home , which he has owned for 10 years . -0- Rod McCary , who is in the just-released movie `` Night of the Demon 2 '' but is best remembered as Barbara Eden 's nemesis in the 1980s TV series `` Harper Valley PTA , '' has purchased a $ 700,000 home in Santa Barbara , Calif. , with his wife , Emily Reeves . The couple got married on Valentine 's Day in Las Vegas . Their 3,000-square-foot home has three bedrooms and ocean views . The newlyweds also have a three-bedroom condo in West Los Angeles . WASHINGTON It follows in the proud tradition of ethanol , soy burgers and recycled paper . So how could Congress say no to `` veggie ink ? '' Thursday members of a House subcommittee promised swift action on one of the new darlings of the environmental movement : vegetable-based printing inks . Soon , they said , most government reports will be printed on inks made of soybeans and linseed oils . Judging from the comments of farm state lawmakers , the new inks are so good that Congress ought to direct the Government Printing Office to crank up its presses and start turning out even more reports , forms and documents . Developed in Iowa seven years ago , soybean-based inks were described Thursday as the quintessential `` green product , '' environmentally friendly , easy to recycle and as cheap as petroleum-based inks . The proposed Vegetable Ink Printing Act `` does two things right away , '' Sen. Paul D. Wellstone , D-Minn. , explained . `` It promotes rural America 's economy and also protects our environment . '' The bill , he said , is one `` I care fiercely about . I think it 's a very , very important piece of legislation . '' `` It 'll save us some environmental headaches down the line , '' agreed Rep. Richard J. Durbin , D-Ill. , sponsor of a bill to promote the government 's use of vegetable-based inks . Members of the Government Operations subcommittee on information , justice , transportation and agriculture agreed , promising to mark up the bill shortly after the Memorial Day recess . Last November , the Senate unanimously approved a similar measure sponsored by Wellstone and Sen. Christopher S . Bond , R-Mo. , following the lead of 26 states that have endorsed vegetable-based inks for their printing needs . The only objection to Durbin 's measure came from the Treasury Department . It said it still wants to print checks and other security documents such as money with petroleum-based inks because of `` anti-tampering security features . '' WASHINGTON The head of the Council for Tobacco Research acknowledged Thursday that his organization acted as an industry `` conduit , '' steering research grants to favored scientists in hopes of getting results that reflected positively on the industry . But he insisted that most of the researchers who did work for the council were `` assured complete scientific freedom . '' Dr. James F. Glenn , chairman of the industry-funded council , which awards scientific grants to researchers studying the relationship between smoking and health , told the House Energy and Commerce subcommittee on health that the work supported by his organization `` is performed by independent scientists , '' and that the results are made available to the public . The council `` does not consider whether the research will be favorable or not favorable , '' he said . `` We are scientists. .. . Industry exercises no control . '' Under questioning by Subcommittee Chairman Rep. Henry A . Waxman , D-Calif. , however , Glenn admitted that the council bypassed a scientific advisory board of outside experts to award `` special project '' grants requested by industry lawyers who wanted research that could bolster the industry 's position in future litigation . Glenn said , however , the council did so because of its own expertise in administering grants . The existence of such `` special projects '' was first reported in Thursday 's Los Angeles Times . Glenn , a urologist who also serves as chief of staff at the University of Kentucky Medical College Hospital , said the council has awarded more than $ 220 million to fund more that 1,380 projects run by 1,000 researchers . Waxman released a series of documents written in 1953 and 1954 by officials at Hill and Knowlton , a high-powered public relations firm , indicating that the council was created solely to counter public concerns over early studies linking cigarettes to health problems . The public relations firm became involved in planning a counter-offensive with tobacco company executives after the December , 1953 , publication of a study by researchers at the Sloan-Kettering Institute in New York that showed that cigarette tar condensate causes fatal cancers when painted on the skin of mice . One early Hill and Knowlton memo written shortly after the release of the study advised that `` the underlying purpose of any activity at this stage should be reassurance of the public through wider communication. .. . It is important that the public recognize the existence of weighty scientific views which hold there is no proof that cigarette smoking is a cause of lung cancer . '' One of their major suggestions was the formation of a special research committee . ( Optional add end ) `` The word ` research ' should be included in the name of the committee to establish the fact that the group will carry on or sponsor fundamental scientific research , '' the memo said . Moreover , it recommended that the group have a research director who was `` a medical research authority of unquestioned national repute , '' and an advisory board of `` men whose integrity is beyond question . '' The first public statement of the committee should be `` designed to reassure the public that the industry 's first and foremost interest is the public health , ( and ) there is no proof of the claims which link smoking and lung cancer .. . ' ' Glenn dismissed the papers as `` ancient history '' that occurred long before he was involved with the group . Nevertheless , Waxman said this `` paints a disturbing picture of public relations masquerading as science . '' BEIJING President Clinton 's move Thursday banning U.S. imports of Chinese-made guns strikes at the source of one-third of all firearms and more than half the rifles brought into America each year . But the import ban may not seriously hurt the Chinese military conglomerate making most of these weapons . And it does risk politically alienating the Peoples Liberation Army , a key Chinese organization with which the United States has been trying to restore contacts . The United States issued permits last year for the import of about two million weapons from China , according to figures provided by the U.S. . Embassy here . Most of those were military-style rifles , such as the MAK-90 , a knock-off of the well-known AK-47 assault rifle . Some of these weapons would be banned by crime bills under consideration by the U.S. Congress , but one of the most popular makes , the semiautomatic SKS , would not be affected by the bills . China is the world 's lowest-cost producer of rifles and handguns , and virtually all guns made here come from factories controlled by the PLA particularly the factories of China North Industries Co. , also known as Norinco . Norinco is the Chinese military 's largest conglomerate with more than 300 separate enterprises and research institutes . Like most PLA companies , it has turned aggressively in recent years to producing and marketing non-military products . More than 70 percent of the company 's income now comes from civilian products , according to published reports . It claims assets worth more than $ 1.7 billion . Norinco makes more than half of China 's motorcycles and more than a third of its mini-vans , at some factories in joint ventures with Japanese companies . It turns out machines tools , chemicals and refrigerators . But it also is still believed to take in hundreds of millions of dollars a year from its exports of heavy or high-tech arms sales that likely dwarf its receipts from exporting handguns and rifles to the United States . Nevertheless , the U.S.-gun trade can be lucrative , particularly in illegally outfitted rifles . Norinco was accused this spring by U.S. Bureau of Alcohol , Tobacco and Firearms officials of having violated federal guns laws by bringing into America tens of thousands of illegal rifles . These rifles were illegally fitted with threaded muzzles to receive silencers or mounts for grenade launchers . Some could be converted into machine guns . In announcing a recall of these rifles , ATF officials admitted that the weapons entered the United States because of the difficulty in closely checking every shipment within the huge volume of U.S. imports . For some diplomats here , this suggests that some importers may be able to circumvent the U.S. ban on Chinese guns by shipping them through third countries much as importers of Chinese-made towels sidestep U.S. textile quotas by shipping through the Philippines and other countries . ( Optional add end ) `` Looks like we 'll have something else to work on soon , '' a U.S. . Customs agent based in Asia predicted Thursday . Whether or not the U.S. ban on Chinese guns hits the PLA 's pocketbook very hard , it certainly risks making enemies within the Chinese military a risk at odds with U.S. policy . The PLA is one of China 's most powerful political forces . The Pentagon launched a drive last fall to resume high-level contacts with the Chinese military , in part because of the belief that it will play a key role in the likely political struggle following patriarch Deng Xiaoping 's death . `` The PLA isn't going to like being singled out in this way , '' a Western diplomat here said . `` But they 're going to be hard pressed to argue in the international arena for a right to sell guns in the United States . In fact , even many Chinese can't understand why the United States has let them sell guns there all along . '' WASHINGTON President Clinton Thursday signed legislation that bars antiabortion demonstrators from blocking access to clinics or threatening patients , decrying `` the extremism and the vigilante conduct which gave rise to this law . '' Two antiabortion groups immediately filed suit to overturn the law , arguing that it interfered with their constitutional rights of free speech and religious freedom . Clinton signed the law , the `` Freedom of Access to Clinic Entrances Act , '' at a White House ceremony attended by the children of David Gunn , the Florida physician who was murdered by an antiabortion protestor last year . `` We simply cannot we must not continue to allow the attacks , the incidents of arson , the campaigns of intimidation upon law-abiding citizens that ( have ) given rise to this law , '' Clinton said , citing the murder of Gunn and the shooting of another doctor outside his clinic in Wichita , Kan. , last summer . `` No person seeking medical care , no physician providing that care should have to endure harassments or threats or obstruction or intimidation or even murder from vigilantes who take the law into their own hands because they think they know what the law ought to be , '' Clinton said . The law , which has been a priority for the abortion rights movement , makes it a crime to block access to clinics , damage their property or injure or intimidate paitents and staff . Approved by the Senate 69 to 30 this month , following a 241 to 174 House vote , it calls for jail terms and stiff fines . It was enacted after the Supreme Court ruled last year that an 1871 civil rights law could not be used to halt antiabortion protests and a Justice Department review concluded existing statutes were inadequate to deal with the growing problem . Abortion rights supporters say there have been 3,000 incidents of violence , vandalism and harassment at abortion clinics since 1977 . Antiabortion activists argue that the law punishes them for legitimate civil disobedience and for expressing their religious views . The National Right to Life Committee accused the president of allowing abortion rights supporters to `` crush peaceful protesters ' free speech with federal lawsuits . '' Randall Terry of Operation Rescue , the group that has blockaded clinics across the country , said the law `` shows the ever growing anti-Christian persecution that is coming from our government . '' But the American Civil Liberties Union called the law `` a milestone in congressional protection for reproductive freedom '' and said it protects `` peaceful protest and free speech . '' Clinton acknowledged `` genuine and deeply felt differences on the subject of abortion '' but said it was `` time to turn away '' from expressing those views through violence and `` verbal extremism . '' Responding to critics of the legislation , he said , `` This bill is designed to eliminate violence and coercion . It is not a strike against the First Amendment . '' The signing of the bill is the latest of several changes the Clinton administration has made on behalf of supporters of abortion rights , who spent the previous 12 years battling efforts by the Reagan and Bush administrations to limit abortion rights in Congress and the courts . Since taking office , Clinton has lifted the moratorium on federal funding of research using fetal tissue , reversed the prohibition against abortions at military facilities , undone the `` gag rule '' prohibiting federally funded family planning clinics from providing information about abortion , and just last week lifted the ban on importation of RU-486 , a drug that induces abortions . On CBS ' `` 60 Minutes '' this Memorial Day weekend , Andy Rooney will report a full segment on impostors who claim to have been awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor , the nation 's highest military award . Rooney and producer Robert Forte tracked down some of the 500 living Americans who say they got the Medal of Honor but in reality did not . The medal is given for heroism far above and beyond the call of duty , and , in all U.S. history , has been awarded fewer than 3,500 times . It is against the law to falsely claim to have been awarded a Medal of Honor and Rooney shows us pathetic people who crave the recognition of having done extraordinarily brave acts . While the Defense Department recently approved the sale of military medals to anyone who wishes to buy them , the one medal that still can't be purchased is the Medal of Honor . -0- Former Vice President Dan Quayle , whose book `` Standing Firm '' is No. 2 on this Sunday 's New York Times best-seller list , talks with David Frost on PBS Friday night , looking ahead to a 1996 presidential bid . When Quayle 's 1992 `` family values '' issue is raised , he says Hollywood `` got my message and they also got Bill Clinton 's message , because Bill Clinton today is talking about family values . I 'm gratified he 's come full circle . '' Frost asks Quayle if he regards Clinton `` as one of your disciples . '' Quayle says : `` I certainly would not go that far , and neither would he . '' -0- Prolific Hollywood composer Henry Mancini talks to Bob Brown on ABC 's `` 20/20 '' Friday night about Mancini 's recently diagnosed inoperable cancer . The illness , the 70-year-old Mancini says , `` changed my whole work attitude . I used to get depressed about the dumbest things , as most professional people do . You know , you think , ` Oh , God , when am I gonna get out of this ? ' ' ' Now , `` even when I didn't feel well , I would drag myself to the piano upstairs and I would write . It was some of the easiest writing I 've ever done . '' -0- The U.S. government should pay for cable TV for those Americans who cannot afford it , says Turner Broadcasting Chairman Ted Turner . He was responding to concerns at the National Cable Television Conference in New Orleans about how the poor would be left behind on the information superhighway . Turner suggested broadcasters be taxed for the air waves they are licensed to use . -0- Last week 's national Nielsen ratings came out Thursday , showing `` The Late Show With David Letterman 's '' 5.8 rating beating `` The Tonight Show With Jay Leno , '' which increased its rating to a 5.2 . Letterman also edged out ABC 's `` Nightline '' ( 5.6 ) . Each national Nielsen rating point equals 942,000 TV households . The Clementine spacecraft the first scientific mission to the moon in 22 years has discovered craters at the lunar south pole that appear to lie in eternal shadow . If the craters never see the sun , scientists say , they may stay cold enough to hold water that was delivered there eons ago by crashing comets . If further studies confirm the presence of water in the craters , it would be the first ever found on the moon . Such lunar ice could one day be mined by explorers to supply their bases with water or split into hydrogen and oxygen gas to make rocket fuel . `` Don't imagine it as pure cube ice you could put into your martini , '' said Eugene Shoemaker , of the Lowell Observatory in Flagstaff , Ariz. `` It 's very dirty ice , but it 's cold enough . '' At more than 400 degrees below zero , maybe too cold . Clementine was launched into a lunar orbit Jan. 25 . A computer malfunction on May 7 canceled plans to send it off to photograph an asteroid on Aug. 31 . But scientists say the spacecraft relatively cheap at $ 75 million has accomplished 99 percent of its scientific mission . Among other Clementine discoveries described Thursday at the American Geophysical Union meeting in Baltimore : The deepest impact crater ever found anywhere in the solar system , a 7.5-mile-deep basin 1,500 miles across . Called the South Polar Aiken basin and located near the moon 's south pole , it was punched into the moon 's surface 4.5 billion years ago by an object 155 miles across . Extremes of high and low altitude on the moon twice as great as previously believed . Scientists have found a span of more than 12 miles from the highest and lowest spots . That 's about the same difference seen between Earth 's deep ocean trenches and highest mountains . `` It turns out the moon is a much lumpier planet than we expected it to be , '' said Johns Hopkins University geophysicist Maria T. Zuber . The apparent perpetual shadows on the moon 's south pole were discovered after photographs of the pole were animated into a kind of movie . Shoemaker said Clementine 's polar orbit allowed it to take repeated photographs of the polar region during two full rotations of the moon . That allowed the photographs to show the craters illuminated from all directions . Because the sun 's angle at the pole is so low , however , the bottoms of the polar craters appear to remain in the shadows of the surrounding mountains throughout the lunar day . No water has ever been found on the moon , and any that once existed in the open there has evaporated into space . But scientists have said since the 1960s that any water molecules that reached the moon from cometary impacts might stick to the surface if they landed somewhere that was always shaded from the sun . During its two months in orbit around the moon , Clementine gathered more than two million images of the lunar surface . Split by filters into 11 different wavelengths of light , the images have already begun to reveal previously unknown details of the moon 's mineral composition and geological history . Clementine has produced the first reliable topographic map of the moon , showing its surface contours in a multi-colored map that is accurate to within 330 feet . A companion map showing where the moon 's gravitation pull is strongest will help scientists figure out the moon 's interior structures , providing clues to how it was formed and evolved . ( Optional add end ) The May 7 computer malfunction caused the spacecraft to fire its attitude control jets , and they kept firing until their fuel ran out . Without fuel to point its instruments , Clementine 's journey to the asteroid Geographos became impossible . Controllers have since fired Clementine 's larger maneuvering rockets and returned the craft to an Earth orbit , where Pentagon scientists will continue to flight-test its systems . Stewart Nozette , of the Ballistic Missile Defense Organization , said Clementine was designed to test new , lightweight satellite systems under development for the Strategic Defense Initiative , or `` Star Wars '' program . WASHINGTON President Clinton has decided to include in his welfare-reform plan a proposal to allow states to deny additional benefits to women who have children while they are on welfare , according to administration officials . Immediately , an unusually broad coalition of 85 civil-rights and religious organizations , including abortion-rights and anti-abortion groups , said it will challenge the `` child exclusion '' policy in federal courts . Civil-rights activists complained that the policy would `` punish innocent children , '' anti-abortion advocates said it would encourage abortions and abortion-rights supporters said it would punish welfare mothers who exercise a personal choice . The decision at a White House policy meeting Tuesday to allow states to impose `` family caps '' on welfare mothers as a means of discouraging illegitimate births will be contested in any state that enacts the policy , said Deborah Lewis , legislative counsel of the American Civil Liberties Union , one of the coalition 's sponsoring groups . Lewis said the administration 's decision to include the provision in the welfare proposal it is preparing to send to Congress in June will `` open the floodgates '' of legislation aimed at punishing welfare mothers . At the same time , she said , it will do nothing to discourage out-of-wedlock births , which are estimated to represent nearly a third of all births in the United States . Under current law , states cannot implement such `` family cap '' changes in the Aid to Families With Dependent Children program without obtaining waivers of provisions of the AFDC law from the Department of Health and Human Services , which often is a long and complex process . Only three states New Jersey , Georgia and Arkansas have received approval for `` family cap '' plans , while applications from California , Maryland and Wisconsin are pending . The ACLU and the National Organization for Women have joined to form the Child Exclusion Coalition , whose member groups range from the National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League to Feminists for Life and the Seamless Garment Network , an umbrella of several hundred groups that oppose abortion . The ACLU and NOW already are contesting New Jersey 's family cap policy in federal court . Also opposing the extension of `` family caps '' are a number of large religious organizations , including the National Council of Churches , Catholic Charities of the United States , the National Council of Jewish Women and the Washington headquarters of the Presbyterian Church ( U.S.A. ) . The `` child exclusion '' provision one of the most explosive parts of the Clinton administration 's welfare-reform proposals is believed to be the first issue to bring together abortion rights and anti-abortion factions of the women 's movement . Groups both supporting abortion rights and fighting against the procedure came together earlier this year to help defeat a `` family cap '' provision in a welfare-reform bill in the Maryland legislature . Gov. William Donald Schaefer , D , vetoed the bill Thursday because it did not contain a family cap . `` We 're surprised the president thinks he can make political gains on this proposal . It 's just going to upset everyone , '' said Lewis . `` It 's not a compromise . It 's an open invitation to the states to punish innocent children . '' Anti-abortion advocates complained that the policy will encourage welfare mothers to seek abortions rather than risk losing additional benefits , even though the additional benefits typically range from $ 57 to $ 64 a month for a new child . Noting Clinton 's health-reform proposals would cover the cost of abortions , Sharon Daly , Catholic Charities ' deputy to the president for social policy , said , `` The government is saying ` We will pay for your abortion but we willn't pay you $ 64 a month if you have a child . ' That sounds to us like a pro-abortion decision . '' Abortion-rights supporters maintain that if a woman has a right to exercise a personal choice about having a child , she should not be punished simply because she is receiving welfare . An administration official said Clinton decided on the new policy `` because he genuinely believes , as a former governor , in giving states the maximum amount of flexibility possible . He believes in allowing governors and legislatures to decide what works best in their states . '' However , the official acknowledged that withholding additional benefits from welfare mothers who become pregnant has become an even more emotional issue among liberals and children 's rights advocates than the proposed two-year time limit on welfare , which is the centerpiece of Clinton 's plan to `` end welfare as we know it . '' The administration 's self-imposed deadline for releasing its final welfare-reform package has been postponed several times , partly because of disagreements over how to finance the package and partly because no decision has been made on what will happen to families who pass the two-year time limit in a work-training program but are still unable to find jobs in the private sector . Administration officials said the Clinton welfare-reform bill will be introduced after June 9 , when the president returns from commemorating the 50th anniversary of D-Day in Normandy . They said Clinton wants to spend $ 9.3 billion over five years to implement the reforms , with $ 7 billion coming from cuts in other social programs and the rest from excess corporate taxes collected for the Superfund environmental-cleanup program . WASHINGTON Many child safety seats and restraints that are sold as approved for use on airliners are ineffective and some are dangerous , according to research done for the Federal Aviation Administration . In the first comprehensive crash-dummy tests using simulated aircraft interiors , the FAA 's Civil Aeromedical Institute ( CAMI ) in Oklahoma City found that all of the forward-facing seats for 20- to 40-pound children that it tested produced injuries because they could not be sufficiently anchored to prevent a child 's head from striking the seat ahead . And harnesses and backless booster seats were found to be dangerous , according to Van Gowdy of CAMI 's Biodynamics Laboratory , who performed the research . Gowdy said the institute found that one type of restraint performed consistently as advertised : small rear-facing seats for infants below 20 pounds . `` I think these should be encouraged and endorsed by the FAA and the airlines , '' he said in a telephone interview . The research , which was completed late last year but not released , adds another element to one of the most emotional safety issues in aviation . Until now , safety seats have been certified as approved for both automobiles and airliners , but the CAMI research indicates that airliners may be sufficiently different from cars to require different standards . Gowdy said a major problem is that airline lap belts , unlike automobile seat belts , often do not properly secure a safety seat , allowing too much forward movement . Even when the forward movement is within federal standards , a child 's head can hit the seat ahead . Of eight forward-facing seats designed for toddlers weighing 20-40 pounds , six produced severe head injuries in crashes and two were close to the maximum allowable Head Injury Criteria . Some of the seats are too large for confined airline seats , making them even harder to mount . `` We have found a number of these seats that are incompatible with airline seats , '' Gowdy said . Gowdy said harnesses also allow too much room for movement . And child booster seats without backs can result in serious injury , he said , because airline seat backs are designed to rotate forward . In a crash , this could crush a child between the booster seat and seat back . Airlines officials estimate that 40,000 to 50,000 children under 2 travel on airliners daily in the United States , but there are no statistics on how many use safety seats . Jane R. Goodman , a spokeswoman for the Association of Flight Attendants , said few parents ever use child safety seats on flights . The safety issue has been weighed and debated in and out of Congress and the federal bureaucracy for three decades . It took on added urgency following the crash of United Airlines Flight 232 at Sioux City , Iowa , on July 19 , 1989 , in which two infants were ripped from their mothers ' arms on impact . One was later found dead , while a second survived after she was heard crying in crash debris . Current FAA rules allow children under 2 to be held in parents ' laps , and airlines generally allow them to fly for free . The FAA in 1992 ruled that airlines must allow use of safety seats , but the agency has stopped short of requiring them . Such a requirement would increase travel costs for families , who would have to pay for a seat . The National Transportation Safety Board , the Association of Flight Attendants and the major airlines have called for their mandatory use , pointing out that small children are the only objects that are not required to be secured on takeoff and landing . `` It 's totally illogical if we 're tying down coffee cups that we 're not restraining these kids , '' said Jo Ellen Deutsch , manager of government affairs for the Association of Flight Attendants . Spokesmen for those organizations said the CAMI study would not cause them to change their positions . They advised that parents use existing safety seats until better ones are designed . `` The seats , while there may be imperfections , are better than nothing , '' said Christopher Chiames , spokesman for the Air Transport Association . FAA officials in Washington declined to discuss the research . Spokeswoman Sandra Allen said the agency has not had sufficient time to review the study internally . But sources in the Washington aviation community said major differences have surfaced between agency officials over the issue . Linda Daschle , the FAA 's new deputy administrator , is said to be adamantly pushing for a child-restraint requirement . Among those opposing her is Anthony J. Broderick , the FAA 's longtime associate administrator for regulation and certification . Broderick is said to have been convinced partly by an FAA-sponsored study by Apogee Research indicating additional child deaths would result from parents ' decisions to drive rather than fly at greater expense . The safety board has criticized the Apogee report as based on flawed information . Congressional efforts to impose child-restraint requirements , led by Rep. Jim Lightfoot , R-Iowa , have been thwarted every year . Rep. James L. Oberstar , D-Minn. , chairman of the House Public Works aviation subcommittee , opposes the requirement . Since 1985 , all new child safety seats bear the stamp , `` This restraint is certified for use in motor vehicles and aircraft . '' But the FAA does not routinely test the seats , ruling in March 1985 that any seat would be considered approved for airline use if it met applicable Federal Motor Vehicle Safety rules . WASHINGTON Two of the newest combat ships in the U.S. Navy fleet high-speed , shallow-draft vessels known as Coastal Patrol Craft are on their way to Haiti to try to intercept small boats violating the international embargo against that nation by hugging the shore as they sail from the Dominican Republic . The USS Cyclone and the USS Tempest will each carry eight Navy Seals , or nautical commandos , trained in taking over ships and inspecting suspect cargoes , Pentagon spokesman Dennis Boxx said Thursday . Deployment of the Cyclone and Tempest increases the prospects for cutting off small vessels heading for Haiti 's 672-mile coastline , but it also increases the risk that Navy personnel might be targets of small-arms fire from smugglers on shore trying to protect their lucrative traffic , experienced Navy officers said . The Cyclone and Tempest are the first two of 13 Coastal Patrol Craft ordered by the Navy for use in the limited-scope , post-Cold War conflicts the U.S. military expects to be engaged in around the globe , Navy officials said . With an eight-foot draft , top speed of more than 35 knots and a narrow turning radius , the 170-foot-long Coastal Patrol Craft is much more capable than full-size warships of interdicting the small craft running the Haiti embargo , Boxx and other officials said . The patrol craft will join nine other ships already in Haitian waters enforcing the tighter United Nations sanctions that took effect last Sunday . Also steaming toward the region , though not officially part of the embargo operation , is the USS Wasp , an amphibious assault ship carrying about 650 Marines . The Wasp is headed for the U.S. . Naval base at Guantanamo Bay , Cuba , for `` routine refresher training , '' Navy and Defense Department officials said . The ships on embargo patrol are authorized to enter Haitian territorial waters at will , stop and search all vessels , and fire if necessary to disable ships that refuse to halt , State Department and Pentagon officials said . The `` rules of engagement '' that determine when the ships can fire are set entirely by the U.S. military , officials said , with no consultative Bosnia-style role for the United Nations , even though it was the U.N. . Security Council that imposed the sanctions . The U.S. Navy has become quite familiar with seaborne interdiction operations in the past few years , first during the 1991 Persian Gulf War and later as part of a NATO team enforcing the international embargo on Serbia in the Adriatic Sea . But those operations do not provide an exact model for Haiti , officers said , because they involved generally larger vessels in confined bodies of water , with little coast-hugging traffic . `` This is more like trying to intercept drugs in the Caribbean , '' a senior Navy officer said. `` If you are talking about smuggling vessels using shallow waters , as long as you know where all the ports are you can set shallow water gate guards to position yourself , if you are willing to work inside of territorial waters and provided that the ships you use don't have draft limitations . '' Even if all known ports are covered , he said , there is probably nothing to be done about crude small boats sailed by individuals that can simply be beached anywhere along the shoreline . Much of the gasoline and other goods still reaching Haiti are going overland , across the border with the Dominican Republic . Dominican Republic President Joaquin Balaguer assured President Clinton 's special representative on Haiti , William Gray , on Wednesday that his country `` would seal its border with Haiti in conformity '' with U.N. resolutions , State Department spokesman Michael McCurry said Thursday . BALASHIKHA , Russia They were once the toughest , deadliest , scariest troops to police the Soviet Empire . Named after Felix Dzerzhinsky , founder of the Bolshevik secret police , the Dzerzhinsky Division liquidated czarist sympathizers , worked out the formula for the Molotov cocktail and trained snipers to torment Adolf Hitler 's armies . In the 1980s , the KGB unit did the Kremlin 's bidding in such hot spots as Afghanistan , Azerbaijan and Nagorno-Karabakh . Last October , when hard-liners seized the Russian Parliament building , Boris N . Yeltsin called in the Dzerzhinsky Division to storm the White House and save his presidency . Thursday , the gates of the elite division 's base swung open to journalists , and even foreign reporters were invited in for what commanders said was the first-ever tour of this military holy site about 15 miles east of Moscow . In a bizarre marriage of Russian military propaganda and Western-style public relations , the once-terrifying special forces now seemed eager to show themselves to the media as a tough but politically correct unit of crime-fighters trained to battle terrorists , drug traffickers , hijackers and organized criminals . With convincing displays of smoke bombs and machine-gun fire , young commandos demonstrated their crime-busting prowess . First came a display of bulletproof vests , helmets , rifles , pistols , grenade-launchers , stun bombs and tear gas canisters . Then , as the television cameras rolled , sharpshooters in camouflage burst into a firing range . They pumped bullets straight into their target , a wooden terrorist who appeared to be commandeering a car , holding a gun to the driver 's head . The shooters left holes in the terrorist , but the hostage escaped unscathed . Beefy recruits showed how to intercept and liberate a `` hijacked '' bus by posing as road repair workers . In another mock raid , the commandos stormed a hijacked aircraft , a bullet-ridden old Aeroflot jet parked at the training ground . ( Begin optional trim ) As if to demonstrate Russia 's need for a squad of `` untouchables '' to deal with its skyrocketing crime , while the mock hijackings were being staged outside Moscow , a very real hijacking of schoolchildren had begun in southern Russia . Four gunmen seized a bus carrying about 30 people eight children , their parents , and their schoolteachers near Mineralniye Vody , a resort city whose name means `` mineral waters . '' Authorities said Thursday that the hijackers had demanded $ 10 million , as well as 100 vials of morphine , assorted weaponry and a helicopter in which to flee . By late Thursday , the terrorists had released all the children and one adult in exchange for four sub-machine guns , a grenade launcher , a night-vision device and some flak jackets , the Itar-Tass news agency reported . About 13 adults were still being held . Two groups of elite Interior Ministry troops possibly from the former Dzerzhinsky Division were on their way to the site , Tass said . ( End optional trim ) As part of its transformation , the commando unit has dropped the name Dzerzhinsky and is now simply known as the Special Forces Division . But the nickname has stuck , and despite financial hardship it remains one of the most prestigious postings in the Russian military . The Interior Ministry brass who arranged the tour said the base was opening now in anticipation of the 70th anniversary of its founding June 18 . Russian journalists suggested a more pragmatic motive : The federal budget is under discussion in Parliament , the military is so far getting much less money than it asked for , and some good press could not hurt . LOS ANGELES Scholars searching for ways to broaden the lessons of the Holocaust told an audience at Los Angeles ' most prominent black church Thursday that Nazis murdered and mutilated African American prisoners of war because of their race , and sterilized children of mixed German and African blood . The presentation of previously unpublicized research was organized by the Martyrs Memorial and Museum of the Holocaust , which is working with teachers and researchers to develop curriculum supplements for secondary school students . Researchers told listeners at First A.M.E. . Church that documents from Nazi war-crimes trials show that blacks both Americans and soldiers from Africa serving in the armies of colonial powers were `` singled out '' for mistreatment once they were captured by the Nazis . In one case , said Robert Kesting , an archivist at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington , 11 captured African American soldiers were humiliated by S.S. officers and forced to carry them on their backs before they were tortured , executed and mutilated . Other black soldiers were forced to dig their own graves before they were executed . Although white soldiers were also mistreated by Germans , Kesting said , blacks tended to be treated worse because of their race : Nazis considered people of African descent , as well as Jews , Gypsies , and handicapped people as `` race polluters . '' In a horrific example of Nazi eugenics the pseudo-science of genetically `` improving '' the human race hundreds of half-black , half-German children , aged 6 to 12 , were sterilized under government dictates in the 1930s , Kesting said . The children , labeled the `` Rhineland bastards , '' were for the most part the offspring of German women who married African soldiers who were part of the French army occupying western Germany following World War I . Hundreds of the children later disappeared without a trace . The 14-year-old Holocaust museum , run by the Jewish Federation Council of Greater Los Angeles , sponsored Thursday 's lecture in response to the controversy that erupted after some black high school students in Oakland were kicked out of a movie theater for laughing at scenes of the murder of Jews in `` Schindler 's List . '' Educators , struggling to get students interested in history that seems long ago and far away , said they believe the greater scope of genocide will hit home to African American students if they are taught that people of African descent were also been persecuted by the Nazis . ( Optional add end ) `` ( Students need to understand ) ` It could have been me , ' ' ' said Suzanne Riveles , a political scientist who teaches at Howard University and participated in Thursday 's lecture . Rev. Leonard Jackson , associate minister of First . A.M.E. , says interest in the Holocaust in the black community is `` little or nothing . '' `` It is easy to look at a story such as ` Schindler 's List ' and say , ` so what ? ' But if you realize .. . it was not just Jewish individuals , it was African Americans , black Africans .. . that 's what makes a difference . '' Museum director Alex Grobman , said the students in Oakland were unfairly criticized . They were simply unfamiliar with the history and couldn't understand that the events on screen really happened , he said . He said he later took several of the students on a tour of the museum and found them `` very receptive . '' TORONTO An escalating war of words between the United States and its largest trading partner has taken an unusual turn , with the U.S. ambassador lining up behind Canada in its bitter dispute with American farmers over wheat subsidies . Ambassador James J. Blanchard made front-page headlines Thursday after he publicly accused U.S. Agriculture Secretary Mike Espy of anti-Canada agitation in the midst of the politically charged dispute over Canada 's wheat sales to the United States . American farmers and their allies on Capitol Hill contend Canada 's wheat is priced below market rates because of government subsidies . Canada denies the charge , and its denials have been supported by binational trade-review panels . In a wide-ranging interview with Canadian television , Blanchard said he disagreed with Espy 's recent representations to South American leaders that Canada was engaged in `` predatory pricing '' of its wheat in Brazil . `` I don't think ( Espy ) had the authority from the president '' to criticize Canadian trading practices , Blanchard said . `` I don't fault ( Canadian Trade Minister ) Roy MacLaren for being frustrated , '' he added . The ambassador repeated his comments in a telephone interview Thursday . Blanchard , a former Michigan governor , and Espy , a former Mississippi congressman , are Clinton appointees , and both are described as friends of the president . In a statement Thursday , the Agriculture Department said the White House `` was well aware of Secretary Espy 's trip to South America and Mexico , and the agenda to be discussed . '' The statement also said : `` The secretary doesn't intend to get into a discussion rebutting , challenging or contradicting any statement by our ambassador to Canada . We feel he is doing a good job in a very difficult post . '' The latest hostilities began Tuesday , when the normally diplomatic MacLaren went to Washington and delivered the Canadian government 's most stinging denunciation to date of what it perceives as U.S. trade belligerence toward Canada . Disputes over wheat , lumber , pork , beer and steel , `` if allowed to escalate , risk creating a trade and investment chill between our two countries , '' MacLaren said . U.S. allegations that Canada unfairly subsidizes its grain exports , the trade minister said , have never been substantiated . Canadian officials have criticized Espy for reportedly encouraging the governments of Argentina , Brazil and Mexico to launch trade actions against Canada in retaliation for alleged dumping of wheat in South America . `` It 's really difficult to speculate on the secretary 's reasoning , '' Canadian Agriculture Minister Ralph Goodale said on a television broadcast , `` partly because the comments were so bizarre and without any factual basis , and now partly because Ambassador Blanchard has cast some doubt on the veracity of the comments . '' Blanchard , in the television interview , said U.S.-Canada trade disputes are `` minor in the scheme of things , '' but he blasted Canada 's restrictions on imports of U.S. eggs , poultry and dairy products . `` If you were to look at the commodities that are at issue right now , I think you can make a strong case that Canada is far more protectionist than the U.S. , '' he said . ROME Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi Thursday rejected recent complaints from other Western leaders about the presence of Mussolini 's political heirs in his government , saying they bore no relation to extreme-right forces elsewhere in Europe . In his first extended interview since taking office two weeks ago , Berlusconi insisted that the five cabinet ministers he appointed from the National Alliance , a ruling coalition partner that has its roots in the neo-fascist Italian Social Movement ( MSI ) , have nothing in common with the political ideals of the fascist dictatorship . `` One is a former Christian Democrat , two are former members of the Liberal Party and two belonged to a branch of the MSI that renounced any ties to fascism , '' the 57 year-old media tycoon explained during the hour-long conversation in his office at Chigi Palace . `` I have obtained a solemn declaration from the National Alliance saying they are against fascism and any form of despotism . Its leaders have said this publicly and in party congresses . `` Fascists do not exist in my government . They do not exist . There is nobody in my government who is against liberty and democracy . '' While the Clinton administration has backed the Berlusconi government and declared that it perceives no danger of a fascist revival in Italy , other Western allies , such as France and Germany , have expressed alarm that a government role for Italy 's fascist descendants could encourage greater political legitimacy for neo-Nazis and right-wing extremists in their own countries . On Wednesday , French President Francois Mitterrand and Germany 's president-elect , Roman Herzog , called for more determined resistance against rightist movements espousing intolerance or xenophobia . They warned against further gains in credibility for the extreme right after Italy became the first West European government in 50 years to embrace a party identified with neo-fascism . But Berlusconi contended that Italy 's fascist legacy could not be compared with the growth of right-wing extremism in France and Germany . `` The two phenomena are completely different . The forces of the extreme right faced by the Germans and the French are not at all like what is happening in Italy with the National Alliance . '' Berlusconi was quick to deny that there was any sympathy in his own past for Mussolini . `` I was then very small , but my father was persecuted by the fascists and forced to live abroad , and my grandfather hid for two nights under a bridge while the fascists hunted him down . '' WASHINGTON Special counsel Robert B . Fiske Jr. notified House leaders Thursday he expects to complete the initial phase of his Whitewater investigation next month , a timetable that could clear the way for Congress to hold the first hearings this summer . Those hearings would be confined to questions about the death of White House deputy counsel Vincent Foster and the propriety of Washington meetings between White House aides and Treasury Department officials concerning the failed Madison Guaranty Savings and Loan in Arkansas . Fiske said his inquiry into those areas would conclude , `` barring some development '' in the last two weeks of June and he would then be able to tell lawmakers if he objected to hearings on subjects he is investigating in Washington . House Speaker Thomas S. Foley , D-Wash. , said the earliest the House could hold hearings on those two aspects of the Whitewater investigation would be in late July or early August . A spokesman for Senate Majority Leader George J. Mitchell , D-Maine , said Mitchell anticipates that Senate hearings could begin `` sometime in July , '' probably about a month after Fiske actually completes the first phase of his probe . Mitchell was briefed by Foley on the meeting with Fiske and planned to lay out his position on timing in a letter to Minority Leader Robert J. Dole , R-Kan. , with whom he has been negotiating over timetable , structure and scope of hearings for about two months . Fiske asked congressional leaders in March to delay hearings that would delve into aspects of his broad investigation until after his staff has interviewed relevant witnesses . House and Senate leaders have indicated a willingness to comply with Fiske 's wishes under nearly identical resolutions both bodies passed in March calling for bipartisan agreement to hold the hearings . In his meeting Thursday with Foley , House Majority Leader Richard A . Gephardt , D-Mo. , and House Minority Leader Robert H. Michel , R-Ill. , Fiske said he noted that the investigation into Arkansas-based matters , including the past investments of President Clinton and First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton in the Whitewater Development Co. , was incomplete and will not be done anytime within the next few months . Foley quoted Fiske as expressing `` worry or concern '' that lawmakers would try to use hearings on Foster 's suicide and the Washington meetings to explore other matters still under investigation by his office . A note of impatience with the scheduling of House hearings on any aspect of Fiske 's investigation came from House Minority Whip Newt Gingrich , R-Ga. , who warned that hearings might extend into the fall campaign season a uncomfortable prospect for Democrats unless committee investigators get the go-ahead to proceed with advance research right away . `` If we 've done all the preparation for hearings , we can act fairly quickly once Fiske says it 's okay , '' Gingrich said . In the House and Senate , the structure of Whitewater hearings remains undecided and subject to partisan dispute . Foley said , `` It might be better to have one committee do whatever hearings '' and identified the Banking , Urban Affairs and Finance Committee as `` the most likely committee . '' Rep. James A . Leach , R-Iowa , who has pressed for disclosure of government documents related to Madison and Whitewater , is the panel 's top Republican . Gingrich named four committees that could claim jurisdiction over some part of the Whitewater investigation and said `` the only alternative would be a select committee , '' an alternative that Foley has consistently sought to discourage . In the Senate , Republicans served notice Thursday they will start amending bills to force hearings if Mitchell has not reached agreement with Dole on plans for the hearings by June 7 , when Congress returns from its Memorial Day recess . Republican sources said GOP senators dropped earlier plans to start offering amendments before the recess when Dole assured them he was making progress in his talks with Mitchell and believed agreement was near . Mitchell has urged that hearings be conducted by the banking committee , with questions that fall under jurisdiction of other panels being handled by members who serve on those panels as well the banking committee . Democrats outnumber Republicans 11 to 8 on the banking committee . WASHINGTON Hillary Rodham Clinton was allowed to order 10 cattle futures contracts , normally a $ 12,000 investment , in her first commodity trade in 1978 although she only had $ 1,000 in her account at the time , according to trade records the White House released Thursday . The computerized records of her trades , which the White House obtained from the Chicago Mercantile Exchange , explain for the first time how she was able to turn her initial investment into $ 6,300 overnight . In about 10 months of trading , she made nearly $ 100,000 , relying heavily on advice from her friend James B . Blair , an experienced futures trader . The new records also raise the possibility that some of her profits as much as $ 40,000 came from trades actually ordered by someone else and allocated to her account , according to Leo Melamed , a former chairman of the Merc who reviewed the records for the White House . Merc records obtained by The Washington Post show that her broker , Robert L . `` Red '' Bone of Ray E. Friedman and Co. ( Refco ) was making large orders in 1979 and allocating them to customers ' accounts , a violation of Merc regulations . Melamed said the discrepancies in Clinton 's records could have been caused by human error and even allocations would not necessarily have benefited Clinton . `` I have no reason to change my original assessment . Mrs. Clinton violated no rules in the course of her transactions , '' he said . Lisa Caputo , Clinton 's spokeswoman , said the documents were released Thursday `` to give as complete a picture as possible '' of her trades . She said Clinton had never before seen them . Blair , who urged Clinton to enter the high-risk futures market and ordered most of her trades , said in a recent interview that he `` talked her into '' her first futures trade in October 1978 before paperwork on her account was completed . It was liquidated quickly , he recalled , because `` it was bigger than she wanted and required more money . '' A close examination of her individual trades underscores Blair 's pivotal role . It also shows that Bone , who ran Refco 's Springdale , Ark. , office , allowed Clinton to initiate and maintain many trading positions besides the first when she did not have enough money in her account to cover them . Why would Bone do so ? Bone could not be reached for comment , but Blair said he thought he knew why . `` I was a very good customer , '' he said , noting he paid Bone $ 800,000 in commissions over the years . `` They weren't going to hassle me . If I brought them somebody , they weren't going to hassle them . '' Besides , he added , Bone would not worry if he agreed with his clients ' bet on which way the price of a given contract would go . Blair , who was outside counsel to Tyson Foods Inc. , Arkansas ' largest employer , at the time , says he was advising Clinton out of friendship , not to seek political gain for his state-regulated client . At the time of the trades , Bill Clinton was governor . Hillary Clinton has said she made all the trading decisions herself and has tried to play down Blair 's role . But she acknowledged in April , three weeks after her trades were first disclosed , that Blair actually placed most of the trades . Blair advised Clinton again on July 17 , 1979 . He recalled that she started that trading day by losing $ 26,460 on 10 cattle contracts she had held for more than a month , by far her worst loss as a futures player . On his recommendation , he said , she immediately went back into the market . She acquired 50 new cattle contracts worth $ 1.4 million and when the price moved in her favor , unloaded them around noon for a quick gain of $ 10,550 . This recouped part of her loss . Blair said Clinton and other friends he suggested trades for had lost money that spring on feeder cattle . Those trades `` caused everyone some grief , '' he said . `` I 'm sure I was pressing to get everyone back above water '' in recommending the quick and bold day trade . The White House defense of Hillary Clinton 's preferential treatment was that other customers in the same office also were allowed to trade without having enough cash in their accounts . It was akin to a poker game where some of the players did not have to pay the ante up money . While Clinton 's account was wildly successful to an outsider , it was small compared to what others were making in the cattle futures market in the 1978-79 period . An investigation of the cattle futures market at that time by Rep. Neal Smith , D-Iowa , found that in one 16-month period 32 traders made more than $ 110 million in profits from large trades those of 50 contracts or more . Clinton traded positions of 50 or more contracts only three times . The records the White House released Thursday were part of an investigative file from 1979 , when the exchange charged Bone and Refco with violations of its record keeping and margin requirement rules . Bone was suspended for three years ; Refco paid a $ 250,000 fine , then the largest in the exchange 's history . Internal memoes from that investigation cover transactions from the same period in June that Clinton was trading , but not the same trades . In one instance , the Merc found Bone and a fellow broker were ordering 1,000 cattle contracts at a time far over the limit allowed at the time and then allocating them to other customers . One internal Merc memo said `` there is reason to believe '' that a majority of Bone 's accounts were traded without the clients ' permission . Blair said that Bone at times traded his personal account without permission . `` If your back was turned and the market was dull he was capable of sprinkling around stuff , including in my account , '' he said . Blair said he doubted Bone traded Clinton 's account without her permission . `` He didn't have the level of comfort screwing around with others as he did with my account . '' Blair said Clinton 's trades paralleled his own . She `` was never a total risk taker , '' he said . At times though , Clinton took what seemed to be enormously risky trading positions for someone whose salary as a lawyer at the time was $ 24,250 . For example , after trading five or 10 cattle contracts at a time in October and November 1978 , she suddenly took a 60-contract order in December . This was a high-stakes gamble in which she could make or lose up to $ 36,000 a day . Blair recalled the position was liquidated quickly `` because she wouldn't have had the money to hold it very long . '' He was right . She had about $ 6,000 in her account at the time-instead of the required $ 72,000 . She liquidated that position the next day , making a $ 7,250 profit overnight , before paying commissions . In a news conference last month , Clinton told reporters she quit trading at Refco in July 1979 . `` I just couldn't bear the risk anymore . '' MEXICO CITY Mexican officials Thursday denied claims by the relatives of Mario Aburto Martinez , the man accused of killing presidential candidate Luis Donaldo Colosio , that they have been persecuted or prevented from testifying in the case . A statement from the attorney general 's office contradicted the claims of six Aburto family members who asked for political asylum in the United States earlier this week . The family has since dropped their asylum request and are seeking permission to stay in the United States temporarily , lawyers said . Meanwhile , a source close to the murder investigation denied that Ruben Aburto , the suspect 's father , has any pending arrest warrants that would prevent him from returning to Mexico to tell police what he knows . Investigators would even be willing go to Los Angeles , where the elder Aburto lives , to take his statement , the source said . The father has said that , before the shooting , his son met with a federal security agent who was arrested at the scene and later released . The accusation hints at a government plot to kill Colosio , the candidate of the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party who was almost certain to be elected president . Aburto 's U.S. lawyer said he has not told Mexican authorities about his son 's meeting because he is wanted in Mexico for the 1967 murders of two men . He said he would not return to Mexico unless he received a guarantee of immunity from prosecution in that case . That arrest warrant was suspended in 1981 , the source said . ( Optional add end ) Other relatives of Aburto have been questioned , but no arrest warrants have been issued for them , according to the attorney general 's statement . `` Mexican officials are not pursuing , pressuring or harassing these people , and they may return to the country with no fear for their freedom , '' the statement said . Aburto 's mother , brother sisters and other relatives walked across the U.S.-Mexico border Sunday . The six told U.S. . Immigration agents they feared for their lives because of harassment by Mexican authorities since Aburto 's arrest immediately after the March 23 assassination . WASHINGTON Faced with a painful choice between accepting a plea bargain on felony charges or fighting them in a costly trial , an anguished Rep. Dan Rostenkowski , D-Ill. , isolated himself Thursday as he weighed a decision that seemed likely to end his congressional career . The well-known and occasionally feared `` Rosty '' rebuffed questioners and stayed away from most colleagues , holing up in an office reserved for him as chairman of the powerful Ways and Means committee . Sources familiar with the extended talks between U.S. . Attorney Eric Holder Jr. and Rostenkowski 's lawyer , Robert S. Bennett , said they did not expect the issue to be resolved until next week . While Holder is pressing for a decision by Tuesday the date for the next meeting of a federal grand jury considering evidence in the two-year investigation the sources said the deadline could slip if a plea agreement was in sight . Early in the day , an aide vehemently denied broadcast reports that Rostenkowski had decided to reject all attempts by his lawyers to negotiate a plea bargain that would require him to admit guilt , serve time in prison and resign from Congress . `` No decision has been made , '' the spokesman insisted as reporters kept close watch whenever Rostenkowski darted out to vote on the House floor . Rep. William O . Lipinski , D-Ill. , a Chicago colleague , was one of the few visitors admitted to Rostenkowski 's inner sanctum . If the gruff-talking Chicago Democrat balks at a plea agreement , however , it was widely expected that he would be indicted on multiple felony charges that would remove him automatically from the chairmanship of Ways and Means , under rules of the Democratic caucus . Longtime associates said Rostenkowski would resign his seat in the House if he even temporarily lost the influential post . On the other hand , a plea bargain almost certainly would either require Rostenkowski to resign from the House altogether , or create a political backlash that would force him out of office . ( Optional add end ) While it was impossible to foretell the outcome , it was clear that Rostenkowski would not be rushed . `` Did you ever know him to make an important decision without going to the deadline and five minutes beyond that ? '' asked one Rostenkowski aide . At issue in the plea bargain talks is the precise wording of the crime or crimes for which Rostenkowski would have to acknowledge guilt . Under the law , this language would affect the amount of prison time under federal sentencing guidelines . As Congress departed on a Memorial Day break , tourists began snapping pictures of the door to the Ways and Means office , which bears a sign saying : `` Mr. Rostenkowski. '' A young congressional aide conducting a guided tour told a group of visitors : `` You might be some of the last to see that name on the door . '' WASHINGTON A senior White House official was forced to resign Thursday after he and a colleague took the presidential helicopter , Marine One , from Washington to a private country club near Camp David , Md. , for an afternoon golf game Tuesday . David Watkins , director of the White House Office of Administration and one of the Arkansas friends President Clinton brought with him to Washington , submitted his resignation after his outing with Alphonso Maldon Jr. , director of the White House Military Office , became public . A picture of the White House officials was published Wednesday in the Frederick ( Md. ) News-Post , making the quiet trip a public embarrassment . Clinton announced the resignation when asked about the trip at a White House news conference Thursday afternoon . He said he knew nothing of the trip , which the press office Thursday morning had described as a routine effort to check out the course for Clinton 's later use . The president said taxpayers would be reimbursed the cost of the helicopter trip , from Washington to New Market , Md. , and back . If previous Pentagon estimates of the cost of military helicopter use hold true , that could be about $ 10,000 . Clinton said he was `` very upset '' when he heard about the trip , and officials said Watkins had virtually no defenders in the White House . Last year , he had been disciplined for his role in the firing of the seven employes in the travel office . The White House Thursday night said Maldon , a political appointee , `` has been reprimanded and will be reassigned , '' probably outside the White House . The White House Wednesday night and Thursday morning put out what officials now realize was a cover story for the trip . It asserted that Watkins and Maldon were checking out the course for security and other reasons in advance of a possible presidential trip . A statement drafted by the White House military office and released to reporters by the country club and used by White House spokesman Arthur Jones described the helicopter trip as a `` training mission '' to familiarize the crew with the layout of the course , which is an hour away by car . The subsequent golf game by Watkins and Maldon , the statement said , was conducted `` in order to familiarize themselves with all aspects of the course , especially those aspects related to actual time of play and associated impact of security plans . '' But , as White House officials later acknowledged , neither Watkins nor Maldon have job duties involving checking out sites for presidential security and White House press secretary Dee Dee Myers said the president has no plans to play the course . Clinton generally travels by motorcade on his frequent golf outings rather than by military helicopter , which costs between $ 5,000 and $ 8,000 an hour to operate . There are at least three of the white-top helicopters in the presidential fleet ; whichever one the president is in is designated Marine One . The helicopter has been so sacrosanct in previous administrations that highest-ranking officials requesting to use it , such as former chief of staff Donald Regan to visit Ronald Reagan in the hospital , have been turned down . The use is controlled by the military office , under rules established by the White House . Myers said Clinton `` was very concerned when he learned about this '' and had directed Chief of Staff Thomas F. `` Mack '' McLarty to investigate the matter . Officials said McLarty and others began looking into the issue Wednesday night , and Watkins was , as one official put it , `` made aware by Thursday morning his resignation would be in order . ' `` The explanation was basically that they were checking out the golf course for the president in case he wanted to play on that course , '' a senior administration official said . McLarty and Watkins , the official said , `` quickly came to an agreement that Watkins couldn't effectively continue in his role and Mack agreed to accept his resignation . '' The official called it `` a pretty serious error in judgment taking off in the middle of a work week , taking a military helicopter , playing 18 holes of golf , and taking a military helicopter back to the White House when you 've got a golf course that 's an hour 's drive away . '' The Tuesday trip by Watkins , who like the president and McLarty is a native of Hope , Ark. , and Maldon was captured on film by Skip Lawrence , a photographer for the News-Post . They invited the Holly Hills club pro and the commanding naval officer at Camp David to complete the foursome . Maryland Republican Rep. Roscoe Bartlett saw the photo in his local paper and issued an outraged press release , photo attached . Recalling the uproar when Bush administration Chief of Staff John H. Sununu used government planes for private business , Bartlett asked , `` Was it really necessary for your staff to play a course to determine if it was suitable for a presidential visit ? '' The president issued an executive order early in his term banning use of White House aircraft unless necessary for official duties . `` The taxpayers should pay no more than absolutely necessary to transport government officials , '' the order states . Watkins , 52 , is a veteran of Clinton 's political campaigns and a former Little Rock advertising executive , and he and Hillary Rodham Clinton are former business partners . They were in a lucrative cellular-telephone partnership in Arkansas in 1983 in which Hillary Clinton made $ 48,000 from a $ 2,000 investment . Watkins is now charged with overseeing the White House administrative structure . The White House review of the travel-office firings concluded Watkins was `` insensitive '' to the implications of revealing that the FBI was investigating the employees . The report questioned his judgment in ordering a review of the office by a woman who had expressed interest in running the office , and said he failed to consider the implications of summarily firing the employees . WASHINGTON A broad new federal ban on the use of force or threats to stop abortions ran immediately into constitutional challenges in two courts Thursday just after President Clinton 's signature made it a law . Although the law to protect abortion clinics , their patients and staffs took effect immediately , abortion foes asked judges here and in Alexandria , Va. , to prohibit the government from enforcing it . The challengers contended that the law will curb their free speech rights , and stop them from expressing their religious opposition to abortion even by peaceful gestures like praying and verbally urging women entering clinics not to have abortion . The challengers asked for a hearing in the Alexandria case a week from Friday . That case is expected to move more rapidly than the one filed in a federal court here , since the Alexandria court is known for what lawyers and staff call its `` rocket docket . '' Delays are seldom tolerated . Even if the Justice Department does get temporary clearance to enforce the new criminal law , it is expected to be tied up in court battles for several months , and perhaps longer . Both sides expect the constitutional dispute to go eventually to the Supreme Court . In a few weeks , the court may give some guidance on the scope of clinic protesters ' free speech rights , in a pending case from Melbourne , Fla. . Clinton , surrounded at a White House ceremony at midday Thursday by abortion rights leaders and congressional sponsors of the new law , used the occasion to urge Americans to talk out their differences on abortion and to stop violence around clinics . `` There is so much .. . we could be doing together to defuse the intense anger and animosity and to listen to one another , '' the president said . Among those in the audience were the two children of the late Dr. David Gunn , who was murdered by an abortion foe outside a Pensacola , Fla. , clinic 14 months ago an incident that added pressure on Congress to pass the new law . The law , the strongest action taken by Congress to protect women seeking abortions and clinic staff members , provides criminal penalties up to a maximum of three years in prison and a $ 250,000 fine . If someone is killed in an anti-abortion activity , the sentence can be life in prison . The law also allows clinics to sue for unlimited civil damages when they or their patients or staff members have been harmed , threatened or intimidated . Those who drafted the law in Congress , and abortion rights groups , have argued that the measure was written carefully to reach only violent actions . Clinton stressed that point in signing it , saying that it would serve only `` to eliminate violence and coercion . '' The president argued : `` It is not a strike against the First Amendment . '' ( Optional add end ) That point , however , was disputed directly in the legal claims made in the two new lawsuits . In the case in U.S. . District Court here , papers filed by Atlanta lawyer Jay Alan Sekulow said that abortion foes `` are fearful '' that the law could lead to prosecution and heavy punishment for such protest activities as staging sit-ins , passing out pictures of aborted fetuses , preaching , picketing and `` sidewalk counseling '' of patients on the way to get abortions . Suing in that case were Randall A . Terry of Harpersville , N.Y. , who heads Operation Rescue , one of the nation 's most militant anti-abortion groups , along with five other individuals who said they have been active in trying to stop women from having abortions . In the case in U.S. . District Court in Alexandria , Washington lawyer Marion Edwyn Harrison said in court papers that the new law will criminalize `` activities substantially identical in form and substance to the civil rights ` freedom rides ' and ` sit-ins ' of the 1960s , and to the nonviolent protest tactics '' of Gandhi , the hero of India 's national independence . The only difference , that lawsuit claimed , is that the activities now being turned into crimes are those carried out by `` persons who oppose abortion . '' That lawsuit was filed by the American Life League , an anti-abortion group based in Stafford , Va. , by a Stafford Catholic priest and three other Virginia opponents of abortion . Both lawsuits were aimed directly at Attorney General Janet Reno , who lobbied Congress hard for the new measure and who has vowed strong enforcement of it by her aides in the Justice Department . Reno said at Wednesday 's bill-signing ceremony that the killing of Gunn last year in Florida `` focused for me and focused the attention of the nation on the problem of violent attacks against abortion providers , vandalism at abortion clinics , and the efforts by some to prevent women from exercising their constitutional right to choose to have an abortion . '' Vice President Al Gore praised the bill as a `` freedom of access '' measure . Clinton , in his remarks , said that `` with this legislation , we will have a law with teeth to deal with those who take part in unlawful activities , who put themselves above and beyond the law . '' He said there was `` a trend running in this country '' of people taking the law into their own hands to `` wreak violence .. . and verbal extremism . '' Distributed by the Los Angeles Times-Washington Post News Service . WASHINGTON President Clinton 's decision Thursday to move human rights to the margins of American dealings with China underlines the administration 's cold calculation that emphasis on rights had gotten in the way of other priorities . In eliminating his threat to revoke China 's trade privileges over human rights abuses , Clinton has dropped an assumption implicit in his original policy : that cooperation with China on regional and world issues is best obtained with a China devoted to basic human rights . Instead of trying to force liberalization in China with some of the most powerful tools available to the United States , Clinton 's hope now is that active engagement with China coupled with the theoretically liberalizing effects of free market measures eventually will produce a less autocratic China . While pledging to continue to pressure China on human rights , Clinton couched his change of heart in economic and geopolitical terms , citing U.S. interest in profiting from Asia 's economic boom and thwarting North Korea 's nuclear weapons program . Good relations with China are pivotal for both . `` I believe .. . this is in the strategic , economic and political interests of the United States , '' Clinton said of his policy shift . This is far from the first time that idealistic leanings failed to survive in policy . The conflict between strategic imperatives on the one hand and idealistic approaches on the other have undermined initial Clinton policies on Bosnia , Somalia and Haiti . In the weeks leading up to the China decision , Clinton was bombarded with advice from influential members of Congress not to discard a key relationship with a major world power . In practice , human rights pressure appears to be most applicable when the cost to American interests , particularly economic , is little . Say Nicaragua or Argentina , for instance , but not China , or for that matter , oil-rich Saudi Arabia . The decision to renew China 's most favored nation ( MFN ) status was pressed on Clinton by groups whose efforts complemented one another . American businessmen , eager to cash in on China 's dynamic markets as well as maintain access to China 's low cost labor , pressed for Clinton to lift the trade threat . They were backed by economic advisors to the president who openly called on him to extend trade privileges unconditionally . At the Pentagon and within the State Department , fears grew that China would be lost as a strategic partner if China 's MFN status were revoked . The Defense Department worried about forefeiting contact with the world 's largest army . American diplomats were seeking China 's help to press North Korea to end its nuclear weapons program . They also want China to sign onto a global nuclear test ban treaty as well as stop selling chemical waeapons technology and missile equipment to conflictive Third World countries . Since March , no top administration official supported revocation of MFN . Recently , Winston Lord , assistant secretary of state for East Asia and Pacific affairs , hinted that the adminstration needed to reassess its priorities in Asia . In a memo to Secretary of State Christopher , he warned of a `` malaise '' in relations with East Asia , stemming in part from the dispute over human rights with Beijing . `` Asians and others .. . criticize us for tactics that destabilize relationships which are central to the region 's peace and stability , '' he wrote . Clinton 's decision to back away from the trade threat in effect exposed a major shortcoming of his China policy . His ultimate goal was to encourage China 's integration into the world economy and international diplomacy , and through human rights , its adherence to shared values . The threat to withdraw China 's MFN status , the basis of trade with the United States , pitted two vehicles for China 's integration against each other . If China failed on human rights , trade privileges would be withdrawn . If trade was disrupted , cooperation on other issues probably would have disintegrated and the adverse consequences for China 's economy might have resulted in intensified repression . Clinton had put the fate of his entire China policy at the mercy of Chinese decisions on one aspect of it , human rights . `` In effect , '' China expert A . Doak Barnett said in a lecture last month , Clinton 's threat `` made the entire U.S. relationship hostage to Beijing 's willingness to fulfill specific U.S. demands related to human rights . '' Last May , when the threat was made , the risk was seen as slight . The conditions were designed to be easy to meet . But by late summer , some State Department officials already were worrying about the effectiveness of the U.S. approach , and in the autumn the administration began a series of meetings with Chinese leaders , including military-to-military contact , which culminated in a summit in November between Clinton and Chinese President Jiang Zemin in Seattle . But China 's further gestures were slow in coming , and when they arrived , they were eclipsed by high-profile political crackdowns , particularly on the eve of Christopher 's visit to China in March to plead for more progress on human rights . Intelligence analysts cautioned that China did not take Clinton 's threat seriously and could be expected to make no more than minor gestures . A Canadian climber who collapsed near the summit of Mount Everest was carried off the mountain in a dramatic rescue effort Thursday . John McIsaac , 39 , of Canmore , Alberta , was reported resting at the expedition base camp , suffering from pneumonia and pulmonary edema , a potentially fatal altitude sickness in which the lungs fill with fluid . He was being monitored by three doctors , who were to decide Friday morning whether to evacuate him to Nepal 's capital , Katmandu . McIsaac , seeking to become the first Canadian to ascend Everest without bottled oxygen , climbed to within 1,150 feet of the summit Wednesday when he was forced back by exhaustion . Within hours , he began showing signs of pulmonary edema . Unable to walk , McIsaac was carried down the world 's highest mountain Thursday in a heavy vinyl Gamov bag , which acts as a portable compression chamber , according to Maggie Calloway , an expedition spokeswoman in Vancouver who spoke to the climbing party by cellular phone . McIsaac was reportedly suffering from exhaustion and frostbitten fingers when he gave up his 16-hour final assault on the summit . Earlier , another climber on the Canadian expedition , Denis Brown , also abandoned his summit attempt . The Canadians were using the northern , or Tibetan , route up the mountain , which straddles the border of Tibet and Nepal . The 29,028-foot Everest first was climbed by Tenzing Norkay and Sir Edmund Hillary in 1953 . More than 30 climbers have reached the top without bottled oxygen since 1978 , when it was first accomplished . The death toll of Everest climbers is believed to exceed 120 . WASHINGTON The House Appropriations Committee Thursday endorsed a plan that would give federal workers a 2 percent pay raise and half of their scheduled `` locality pay '' next year . The pay plan , presented by Rep. Steny Hoyer , D-Md. , would provide $ 1.8 billion for federal salaries next year , less than the $ 3.5 billion needed to fully fund federal pay but $ 700 million more than recommended in President Clinton 's fiscal 1995 budget . `` We don't have the money to make a better deal , '' Hoyer said in an interview , referring to reduced spending levels caused by deficit-reduction mandates. ` ` .. . My position has generally been with the federal employees , I want to see you treated fairly , which is to say I don't want to see others in the private and public sector going off ( and winning raises ) while you 're squeezed . I don't think that 's fair . On the other hand , if everybody is taking a notch in on their belt , we will join in . That 's fair . '' Hoyer told the committee his compromise would create `` a net average of 2.6 percent '' across government , the same percentage that House panels have scheduled for members of the armed forces next year . Federal agencies would absorb the cost of the pay increase in their fiscal 1995 appropriations . That , Rep. Joseph M. McDade , R-Pa. , said , would likely require some agencies to lay off workers in order to stay within their budgets . McDade said that requiring agencies to find $ 700 million , given the tightness of their budgets , `` scares the life out of me . '' He told the commmittee that Office of Management and Budget Director Leon E. Panetta recently advised congressional leaders that some agencies might be forced into layoffs if required to absorb the cost of future pay raises . McDade offered an amendment to use unspent fiscal 1994 funds to finance next year 's pay raise , but his proposal was rejected on a 28-to-20 vote . Hoyer said he did not believe the compromise pay plan would cause layoffs in government ranks , but conceded it is `` difficult to tell , '' in part because Congress and the administration have mandated a workforce reduction of 272,900 employees over six years . The downsizing might even force agencies into layoffs , he suggested . Hoyer 's plan ensures that all civil-service workers white collar , blue collar and employees on special pay schedules will receive at least a 2 percent pay raise next year . His proposal also keeps locality pay , which was opposed by the administration last year , viable for another year . A large , strange beast dug from deep in the past is showing that evolution ran faster and produced more variety 600 million years ago than anyone anticipated , scientists reported Thursday . Dating back to the early years of the Cambrian period up to 400 million years before the dinosaurs the beast was a 6-foot-long ocean-dwelling predator with formidable front pincers . It is roughly reminiscent of a giant lobster . According to the team of Chinese and Swedish researchers studying the newest fossil evidence , found in 1990-92 in China , the beast apparently hid in mud on the sea floor while it awaited its prey . The new evidence is important because it `` implies that considerable evolution took place during a time interval even shorter than previously suspected , '' said Jun-yuan Chen , Lars Ramskold and Gui-qing Zhou in the journal Science . Until now , it was thought such big , predatory creatures did not exist until millions of years later . The Cambrian period is remarkable for the rapidity with which multicelled species appeared , following billions of years of much slower evolution in single-cell creatures , such as algae . During the so-called `` Cambrian explosion , '' the ancestors of all species known today , and some that have since gone extinct , suddenly appeared . The animal the Chinese/Swedish team studied , `` Anomalocaris , '' is especially interesting because of its size , and because some parts found during the past 100 years were completely misidentified . Late in the last century , for example , leg-like appendages found in Canada 's famed Burgess shale deposit were thought to be the bodies of shrimp-like creatures . Worse , a jaw now known to be from Anomalocaris was listed as being from a jellyfish . `` The unfolding story of anomalocaridids is almost as unlikely as the animal itself , '' said geologist Derek E.G. Briggs , of Bristol University , in England , who was not a member of the research team . Such errors led to misinterpretations and deeper confusion . `` Although the appendages testified to a giant predator , '' Briggs said in Science , `` the nature of the animal remained a mystery until specimens preserving the body , with the limbs at the front of the head , were discovered in Burgess shale material '' about 10 years ago . Finally , a major fossil discovery in southern China , at Chengjian in 1984 , was explored more thoroughly from 1990 to 1992 . The dig produced remarkable animal remains from the Cambrian period , especially because fine sediment had preserved the animals ' soft , non-boney parts . Generally , soft tissues disappear , leaving only bones , or sometimes parts of an external skeleton . Briggs explained that `` just 15 years ago the Cambrian animal Anomalocaris was little known , '' except from a few scattered , partial remains found in North America . But because of the spectacular finds in China `` this creature turns out to be representative of a diverse group of giant Cambrian predators that ranged as far as Europe , Australia and China . '' Paleontologist Andrew Knoll , at Harvard University , said Anomalocaris has been known for a decade to be among the very few large predators in the Cambrian period . `` Now it can be seen to have originated earlier in the Cambrian than would have been thought on the basis of the Burgess shale '' findings , he said . The newest data , Knoll added , `` suggests that most of the structural innovations among animals occurred in a very short time , and this is one more piece of evidence . '' ( Optional add end ) Chen , Ramskold and Zhou explained that `` Chengjiang yielded fossils of giant predators of three different kinds , including complete specimens of Anomalocaris . '' Details of the animal 's anatomy suggest it could swim rapidly to capture prey . It is believed to have lasted at least several million years . The animals ' shape also suggests `` they may have spent much time partly buried or camouflaged in the bottom sediment , with stalked eyes protruding over the bottom and scanning the surroundings for swimming prey , '' the team said . In some examples , the animal 's intestinal tract can be seen , although it was not possible to identify the content of the gut . But the scientists suspect Anomalocaris may have preyed on primitive sea creatures such as large trilobites . Attacks by such large predators were `` inferred from healed injuries on trilobites . '' Fossilized dung pellets perhaps from Anomalocaris contain the remains of trilobites and other primitive animals , and were also found in the Chengjiang deposit . WASHINGTON White House administrative chief David Watkins , a longtime aide to President Clinton who hails from his hometown of Hope , Ark. , resigned Thursday after officials learned he had taken a military helicopter earlier in the week to rural Maryland to play golf . Clinton , saying he was `` very upset '' when he learned about Watkins ' trip earlier in the day , disclosed his aide 's resignation during a news conference called to announce a decision on most-favored-nation trading status for China . The cost of the round-trip was estimated at $ 5,000 . Clinton promised that the treasury will be fully reimbursed , though it was unclear whether the money would come from Watkins or other private sources . `` The taxpayers will be made whole , '' Clinton said . Watkins , former head of an advertising agency in Little Rock , Ark. , handled all the advertising for Clinton 's initial gubernatorial campaigns and was involved in his presidential campaign as well . He also has been a co-investor with the Clintons , particularly in a highly lucrative cellular telephone franchise . He now becomes the latest in a series of Arkansas friends of the Clintons whose actions have subjected the president to political embarrassment . Watkins might have gone unscathed but for editors of the Frederick ( Md. ) News-Post , who heard Tuesday that a White House helicopter was in their back yard , at the Holly Hills Country Club , and sent a photographer in hopes of catching a glimpse of Clinton . Instead , the paper got , and published in its Wednesday editions , a photograph of Watkins and two other White House aides dressed in golfing clothes and bearing their clubs walking back onto the helicopter as Marines in full dress uniform stand by , saluting . At the time , the paper reported that officials of the country club had declined to identify the visitors , but when the photograph was published , Republican staff members quickly recognized Watkins . The other two officials were Alphonso Maldon Jr. , head of the White House military office , and Navy Cmdr. Richard Cellon , the commanding officer at Camp David , Md. , the presidential retreat that is located not far from the country club . By Thursday , Maryland Rep. Roscoe Bartlett , a Republican whose district includes the golf course , picked up the issue and congressional Republicans were in full cry , demanding hearings , an official investigation and a full accounting of all staff use of military aircraft . `` The photo of two Marine guards saluting a golf bag as it was carried up the helicopter stairs is truly a picture that 's worth a thousand words , '' Bartlett said . The golf course is about an 80-minute drive northwest of Washington . The helicopter departed and returned from the Pentagon , which is about a 10-minute drive south from Watkin 's residence in the Georgetown neighborhood of the capital . At the White House , officials reacted with anger and incredulity to Watkins ' actions , which were painfully reminiscent of the misuse of official airplanes that led to the resignation of former Bush administration chief of staff John H. Sununu . Clinton , mindful of the Sununu episode , had issued a directive to White House staff early in his presidency intended to limit the ability of senior government officials to use military transportation . As head of the White House administrative apparatus , the task of enforcing that directive fell to Watkins . ( Optional add end ) The outing is the only time Watkins is known to have used military transportation for such purposes , White House officials said . Of the two other aides involved , Maldon has been reprimanded and reassigned for his role , said White House press secretary Dee Dee Myers . No action will be taken against Cellon because it has been determined that he was not involved in the decision to use the helicopter . Asked about the trip Wednesday , White House deputy press secretary Arthur Jones told The Baltimore Sun the three officials had flown to the course to make preparations for Clinton to visit it this weekend . Former President Bush golfed frequently at the course when staying at Camp David . But Thursday , Myers backed away from that account , saying Jones had answered the question in `` good faith '' based on a written statement from a Watkins deputy , but that `` I think we 've gone beyond that now . '' ORANGE , Calif. . Some people grumble at their local legislator in a letter . Others pick up the phone to gripe . But a disgruntled constituent of California Assemblyman Mickey Conroy has skipped the usual routes and spray painted an opinion on the doors of the lawmaker 's district office . The message was the work of a tagger with a sense of the sardonic . The object of scorn was a bill Conroy introduced this week calling for paddlings of juveniles caught scrawling graffiti . That proposal has earned the Republican assemblyman nationwide media attention and prompted public reaction ranging from hearty applause to outright ridicule . His most pointed critic was right back home in Orange County . Conroy 's staff arrived Thursday morning at the district office in Orange to discover the words `` Spank Me '' scrawled on both office doors by the taunting tagger . Police were called in and promised a full investigation , but no suspects have been apprehended . Conroy was less than amused , but did not miss the opportunity to give his bill a boost . `` It 's disgusting , '' he said in a news release distributed within hours of the discovery . `` However , if the punks who did this think that this is going to stop me from passing my paddle law , they 've got another thing coming. .. . If these criminals want a fight , I 'll give 'em one . '' Conroy would not hazard a guess who might have been behind it . Local youths ? Disgruntled Orange County Democrats ? `` I don't have any idea , '' he said Thursday . `` I 'm surprised it took them this long . We 've been expecting it . '' Conroy was happy that `` at least they 're aware of what I 'm trying to do , '' but lamented that it demonstrates once again `` just what the attitude of people is today . That 's why we need a little public humiliation like that proposed in my bill . '' The legislation , which faces stiff opposition in the Democrat-dominated California Legislature , calls for juveniles convicted of defacing or destroying property with graffiti to be punished by being struck as many as 10 times with a wooden paddle wielded in court by a parent or a bailiff . ( Optional add end ) Conroy 's employees weren't happy about the vandalism . The graffiti covered the middle section of the blue-and-terra-cotta-colored doors to the office , which is tucked in the back of a shopping mall . The unevenly spray-painted `` Spank Me '' message also covered part of the stucco . `` The owner of the complex is not happy , '' said Ann Conroy , the assemblyman 's wife . But she was not surprised by the graffiti message . Indeed , she said , `` I would think it would be a natural reaction ( to my husband 's proposal ) . It is targeted toward vandals and I would think they would try to retaliate . '' Graffiti , she said , is common in the area . The mall and a business complex behind it have been constantly defaced by vandals , one of the reasons her husband 's bill has received an `` overwhelmingly positive response '' among his constituents , she said . SAN FRANCISCO In the dead of night early Thursday , San Francisco State University painters escorted by riot police obliterated a controversial mural of Malcolm X because it contained symbols considered by university officials to be anti-Semitic . Arguing it was not an infringement of free speech to remove emblems of bigotry on artwork the university itself had commissioned , President Robert A . Corrigan ordered the mural removed after student leaders failed to take action themselves . The mural , painted on a university building and unveiled last week , included Stars of David inset with dollar signs outraging Jewish students and highlighting ethnic divisions on the multicultural campus . `` This university absolutely will not tolerate expressions of hate , '' Corrigan said . `` Intolerance and prejudice are abhorrent to our deepest values as individuals and as a community . '' Some black students fought to keep the mural , twice rescuing it from campus paint crews before it was finally sanded off the wall of the student union . Defending the depiction of the assassinated leader , members of the Pan African Student Union said the symbols were not anti-Jewish but a reflection of Malcolm 's anti-Zionist views . `` Our intentions were not to hurt anyone , '' said Troy Nkrumah , a student who is coordinator of the Pan African Student Union . `` All art is open to interpretation . '' But Jewish students and community members disagreed . `` This is a state-funded university , and state funds should not be used to portray hateful images , '' said Eloise Magenheim , a recent graduate who stood with a protest sign near the site of the mural . Removal of the mural raised the thorny question of whether racist or bigoted statements are protected under the First Amendment right of free speech . But legal experts and scholars echoed the view of university officials that , in this case , the constitutional right to free expression did not apply because the mural was commissioned and paid for by the university . ( Optional add end ) `` This is not a situation where university officials went into an artist 's studio and painted over his work , '' said Albert Elsen , a professor of art law and art history at Stanford University . Instead , Thomas Grey , a Stanford professor of constitutional law , likened it to `` hiring someone to write a brochure about the university and then editing what was said . `` You might not like the fact that they edited your message , but they have the legal right to decide what picture of the university they want to project . There 's no First Amendment issue there . '' Lawyers for the American Civil Liberties Union seconded that legal interpretation , but Northern California director Dorothy Ehrlich said she was disturbed by the university 's conduct . `` This controversy has exposed a great deal of tension and intolerance on campus , and it seems to me that simply painting over the offending remarks in the dead of night is not good enough , '' Ehrlich said . `` It seems the lesson given here ( by the university ) is that the way to avoid controversy is to not allow any provocative expression . '' SAN FRANCISCO The California Supreme Court , ruling for the first time in an abortion protest case , held Thursday that demonstrators can be barred from a public sidewalk in front of an abortion clinic to protect patient safety . The 6-1 decision helps assure California 's abortion clinics of legal protection if pickets threaten patients ' emotional health , a protection that could be extended to targets of other kinds of political demonstrations as well . `` Emotionally jarring confrontations with anti-abortion pickets or sidewalk ` counselors ' may pose serious health risks , '' Justice Armand Arabian wrote for the majority . It was the second setback for abortion protesters Thursday . President Clinton signed legislation making it a federal crime to block the entrance to an abortion clinic or attack those entering it . Two anti-abortion groups immediately filed a lawsuit to nullify the law . The California ruling marked the first time the state 's Supreme Court has decided an abortion case since conservatives gained a majority in 1987 . The U.S. Supreme Court has a similar case pending . Justice Joyce L. Kennard , the state court 's only woman and one of its more liberal members , dissented , contending that the buffer zone approved by the court was broader than that endorsed by appellate courts . In grappling with the case , the state court called the collision between competing constitutional interests `` the most difficult and divisive subject of our day '' and acknowledged that its ruling would be controversial . But the court majority also called its decision `` manifestly reasonable and conducive to the fostering of greater harmony in the community . '' The ruling came in the approval of an injunction that forced antiabortion pickets to remain across a busy , four-lane avenue from a Planned Parenthood clinic in Vallejo , a Solano County city east of San Francisco . The pickets had tried to dissuade women entering the clinic from having abortions . They gave them anti-abortion literature , shoving it into car windows as patients drove in , and on at least two occasions tossed them plastic replicas of fetuses . `` The state 's responsibility for the health and safety of women seeking medical services , including abortions , extends beyond the operating room , '' Arabian wrote . `` Physical or emotional intimidation of patients outside the doctor 's office may significantly affect their course of treatment once they are inside . '' Although the case involved abortion , the decision has ramifications for other demonstrations that limit the `` rights of private citizens to conduct their lawful business without pain or hindrance , '' wrote Justice Marvin Baxter , in a separate concurring opinion joined by Justice Ronald George . Baxter said the kinds of confrontational actions taken by the abortion picketers `` crossed the line from protected expression to unprotected interference with the lawful activities of other citizens . '' ( Optional add end ) John R. Streett , an attorney for Solano Citizens for Life , which appealed the case to the high court , noted that the ruling could also limit the ability of unions to picket . In the abortion context , he said , the decision will `` make it very easy '' for clinics to get injunctions to stop any protests on their sidewalks . `` Basically all they have to allege is , ` Our patients are upset by this , they don't like it , they are crying , we feel they are traumatized , ' ' ' Streett said . `` That is not going to be much of a standard at all . '' But attorneys for Planned Parenthood said courts still will have freedom to shape injunctions according to the facts of the case , including the configuration of the clinic and its proximity to protesters . The court ruling simply `` means that patients at medical clinics have the right to be free of abuse , harassment and assault , '' said Planned Parenthood attorney Stephen Kostka . Christine Williams , former director of Solano Citizens for Life , complained that the court 's decision will make it `` extremely difficult '' for anti-abortion groups to give abortion patients `` one last chance to change their minds . '' Pickets have been congregating weekly across the street from the Planned Parenthood clinic since a Solano County Superior Court issued the permanent injunction in August 1991 , she said . But the protesters cannot be heard by patients through the din of traffic , she said , and their numbers have dropped because `` people are very discouraged by the lack of effectiveness . '' Abortion-rights advocates have been buoyed by recent victories . In January , the U.S. Supreme Court ruled unanimously that abortion clinics can sue protesters for damage under a federal racketeering law . `` This seems to be part of a big wall that is coming down , '' said Anna Runkle , spokeswoman for Planned Parenthood , Shasta-Diablo , which runs the Vallejo clinic . `` It seems to be a landslide . The public and the law are finally saying enough is enough . '' In her dissent , Kennard said the injunction banishing the protesters to the opposite side of the street violated their First Amendment rights to express their views . Although other appellate courts cited by the majority approved of buffer zones , Kennard said , they also allowed a limited number of protesters within them or drew them narrowly enough to permit protesters to communicate with patients . WASHINGTON The Energy Department has no permanent solution for disposing of 50 tons of radioactive plutonium waste from the Cold War weapons program , and may have to continue using temporary storage facilities for as long as 20 years , Energy officials told Congress Thursday . As an interim solution , the department is considering the possibility of storing some of the waste in abandoned military bases around the country , officials said in a report released earlier this week . The disposal issue is one of the thorniest facing the department . Plutonium poses `` significant dangers to national and international security '' because of the possibility that it could fall into the wrong hands and be fashioned into a nuclear bomb , Energy Under Secretary Charles Curtis said in testimony before the Senate Energy and Natural Resources Committee . Only about 10 pounds of plutonium is needed to build a bomb . Of the estimated 100 tons of weapons grade plutonium in the United States , only half will be retained by the federal government for use in nuclear weapons . No plans have yet been devised for disposing of the remainder . Sen. J. Bennett Johnston , D-La. , committee chairman , said that while the problem is a serious one for both the United States and Russia which possess the bulk of the world 's plutonium the pace of the search for a solution has been `` torpid at best . '' In addition to solving the plutonium disposal problem , the Energy Department also must decide what to do about the millions of pounds of radioactive waste from other sources that is being stored in 29 temporary sites around the nation . Many of the containers are rusting and threatening to release radioactivity . Inspection teams are now attempting to assess the extent of the danger , an Energy spokesman said Thursday . By contrast , most of the surplus plutonium is held at relatively few sites , the largest of which is the department 's Pantex plant near Amarillo , Texas , which has the job of dismantling nuclear weapons . About 6,000 plutonium pits are contained in so-called igloos on Pantex land . The proposal to store the waste at military installations appears to be the result of protests from Texas authorities over the storage of the plutonium waste at Pantex . ( Optional add end ) Energy Secretary Hazel O' Leary has promised Texas officials to limit the storage there , raising the problem of where to put the material . Efforts to find a permanent storage site have run into a number of technical and environmental roadblocks . A federally appointed panel led by Stanford University Professor Wolfgang Panofsky suggested that the plutonium could be used in commercial reactors to make electricity or be converted into glass logs in a process called vitrification . But Johnston raised concerns that the only U.S. reactors capable of burning the plutonium are scheduled to be closed . It would take another decade to build a new reactor for the job , Panofsky said . WASHINGTON The chairman of the House Judiciary Committee announced Thursday a surprising alliance with a powerful insurance company trade group to endorse legislation curtailing insurers ' 49-year special exemption from federal antitrust laws . After two years of negotiations , the American Insurance Association , has decided to back reform , `` the first breach in the wall of strident opposition '' from the industry , said Rep. Jack Brooks , D-Texas . The group 's membership includes some of the giant companies of the industry , such as Aetna , Travelers , Cigna , Hartford and Kemper , active in selling property and casualty coverage . Under Brooks ' bill , insurers will be allowed to continue sharing information on actual historical losses . But , three years after passage , they would no longer be allowed to engage in `` trending , '' or sharing projections of future losses from such things as theft , fire , floods and earthquakes . This shared information now has an important impact on setting rates . If Congress approves the bill , the result would be `` downward pressure on prices and more consumer choice , '' predicted Mark Silbergeld , Washington director for Consumers Union , which helped Brooks and the AIA reach their agreement . Brooks has twice moved a similar bill through his Judiciary Committee in prior congresses , but was unable to get a vote in the full House because of united insurance industry opposition . The task is still difficult , but he has for the first time enlisted an important segment of the insurance business to be his ally instead of his enemy . The AIA hopes that passage of the Brooks bill would defuse some of the consumer anger against the insurance industry and make it possible to pass other legislation eagerly sought by insurers . Removing the special antitrust treatment `` will restore some consumer confidence that the rates out there are fair , '' said David Pratt , the AIA 's senior vice president for federal affairs . `` It is very important for us to be a more normal industry from the antitrust standpoint and this can create a more positive climate as we deal with other issues , '' he said . These other concerns , which the insurance industry is pushing for separately , include proposals to : Provide a settlement system for the barrage of lawsuits under the federal Superfund , where a company hit with a cleanup sues the insurance carrier ; Limit lawsuits for product liability ; Create a federal reinsurance fund to ease the risks of providing coverage for natural disasters such as earthquakes , floods , fires and hurricanes . But the rest of the industry doesn't share the AIA 's belief that giving away the antitrust privilege will lead to victory on other issues . `` Some regional companies could go out of business , and it could do a lot of damage to consumers , '' said Julie Rochman , vice president of the Alliance of American Insurers , whose membership includes many medium and smaller firms that depend on the pooled information . ( Optional add end ) The Brooks bill is `` an effort by a very small segment of the industry to appease opponents of the industry in Congress and some vocal critics on the outside , '' said Jack Ramirez , executive vice president and chief operating officer of the National Assn. of Independent Insurers . `` No amount of tinkering with a bad bill is going to make it any better , '' he said . The major life insurance trade group also opposes any change in the status quo , which has existed since 1945 , when the insurance industry persuaded Congress to pass the McCarran-Ferguson Act , which removed the federal government from insurance regulation . Each of the 50 states oversees insurers operating within its borders . `` There is no need to fix a system that isn't broken , '' said Gene Grabowski , a spokesman for the American Council of Life Insurance . `` The state governments have done a fine job . But the Brooks bill would allow the federal government , through the attorney general and the Federal Trade Commission , to get involved . '' WASHINGTON President Clinton signed legislation Thursday barring abortion clinic blockades and harassment a move that extended a recent string of victories for abortion-rights groups but brought a pair of immediate legal challenges from their foes . As Clinton hailed the law as a blow against `` extremism and vigilantism , '' two anti-abortion groups filed lawsuits that could lead to court clarification of the murky and hotly disputed boundary between free-speech and abortion-rights laws . The groups , the American Center for Law and Justice and the American Life League , sought injunctions to block the new statute , which they said will curtail their right to protest more than that of any other group . Even as they went to court , however , abortion foes acknowledged that the law , which becomes effective immediately , had dealt them a severe setback . While they vowed to continue protests , officials of some anti-abortion groups said they feared that the stiff sanctions which include fines of up to $ 250,000 and prison terms of six months to life could curtail their ability to find volunteers to help close down clinics . Some openly lamented the reversals suffered by a movement that dominated the abortion debate for much of the past decade . `` Mr. Clinton eroded in one year pro-life gains that took us 20 years of back-breaking work , '' said the Rev. Pat Mahoney , a national leader of Operation Rescue . `` Clearly , this has been a horrible year for the pro-life movement . '' In addition to the clinic-access law , the anti-abortion rights groups have recently been disappointed by an agreement that will allow U.S. tests of the abortion-pill RU 486 and by million-dollar judgments against protesters who damaged abortion clinics . The Supreme Court also ruled this year that federal prosecutors may use the tough anti-racketeering statute in some circumstances against protesters who sought to close down clinics . And last year the Clinton administration lifted a order prohibiting abortion counseling in federally-funded clinics . Surrounded by abortion-rights advocates at a White House ceremony , Clinton said , `` We cannot we must not continue to allow the attacks , the incidents of arson , the campaigns of intimidation upon law-abiding citizens that has given rise to this law . '' But he insisted that the bill `` is not a strike against the First Amendment . Far from it . It insures that all citizens have the opportunity to exercise all their constitutional rights , including their privacy rights . '' Some advocates say more than 1,000 violent incidents have occurred at clinics since 1977 , including 81 cases of arson , 36 bombings , 84 assaults , two kidnappings , and the fatal shooting of Florida abortionist Dr. David Gunn . That killing helped galvanize sentiment against abortion-clinic violence , changing the political balance in Congress sufficiently to deliver victory for a proposal that two years ago died in committee . The bill passed by 241-174 vote margin in the House , and by a 69 to 30 margin in the Senate . ( Optional add end ) `` We decry violence all the time this was a move to stop it , '' said Sen. Barbara Boxer , D-Calif. , who helped Sen. Edward M. Kennedy , D-Mass. , lead the effort for the bill in the Senate . The bill imposes its penalties on anyone who uses force , threats or `` physical obstruction '' to any person using an abortion clinic or reproductive-health service . The bill 's also states , however , that no provision of it may interfere with free speech rights . Abortion foes argue that since that it imposes much harsher penalties than the one-night jail terms and $ 100 fines that are typical for protest sit-ins and blockades , the law is effectively depriving them of a tactic that other protesters have long used . President Clinton , unabashedly changing course , renewed China 's favorable trade status Thursday and abandoned its use as a weapon for pressuring Beijing on human rights improvement . In a mild sanction , Clinton said the United States would ban the import of munitions , mainly ammunition and cheap , automatic rifles that have poured into the country , becoming a mass-market assault weapon . The president 's decisions directly contradicted a position staked out last year , when he demanded `` overall , significant progress '' in China 's human rights record as a condition for renewing its most-favored-nation trade status . He acknowledged Thursday that , despite some strides , serious human rights abuses continue in China . While the renewal of MFN was expected , Clinton 's decision to `` de-link '' trade privleges and human rights was debated as late as Wednesday night among administration officials . `` We have reached the end of the usefulness of that policy , '' Clinton said at a White House briefing . The president insisted that the United States could do more to encourage human rights progress by expanding trade and improving overall U.S.-Chinese relations . The policy shift , in keeping with Clinton 's focus on economics in foreign affairs , was cheered by business leaders , Republicans and moderate Democrats as practical and prudent . But it brought a furious reaction from human rights activists and members of Congress who have long advocated the use of trade sanctions to bring pressure on China not to repress its citizens . Senate Majority Leader George J. Mitchell , D-Maine and Rep. Nancy Pelosi , D-Calif. , said they would introduce legislation to impose trade sanctions . `` It will confirm for the Chinese Communist regime the success of its policy of repression on human rights and manipulation on trade , '' Mitchell said of Clinton 's action . Mitchell promised to introduce legislation following the Memorial Day congressional recess . In a stinging rebuke , AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland said Clinton 's decision `` sends a clear message to the world : No matter what America says about democracy and human rights , in the final analysis profits , not people , matter most . '' But some influential Democrats , including Sen . Bill Bradley of New Jersey and Rep. Lee Hamilton of Indiana , who chairs the House Foreign Affairs Committee , had urged the president to drop the linkage between trade and human rights . Clinton was under heavy pressure by U.S. companies to renew MFN status with China , which allows Chinese goods into the United States under low tariffs . Business executives feared that revocation would trigger a trade war , cutting U.S. companies and investors out of the world 's fastest-growing market . U.S. businesses export $ 8 billion in goods to China , underwriting more than 150,000 jobs in the United States . The potential damage to U.S. interests from a trade war was highlighted Thursday with reports that China had agreed to a $ 5 billion Boeing Aircraft deal . ( Optional add end ) More surprising was the president 's frank conclusion that his year-old policy had not worked and that it was time to switch . In doing so , he adopted some of the reasoning put forward by former President Bush , whose policy toward China Clinton had sharply criticized during their 1992 campaign . Clinton said more could be gained by engaging the Chinese than by isolating them . He also argued that culturally , it is difficult for China , the world 's most populous nation , with 1.2 billion people , to appear to be buckling to pressure from the United States . `` We need to place our relationship into a larger and more productive framework , '' he said in a statement . `` I think we have to see our relations with China within the broader context of our policies within the Pacific-Asian region . '' In May 1993 , working with Mitchell and others in Congress , Clinton issued an executive order that gave China a year to make specific strides in its human rights record or face the end of its MFN status this June . The order set two conditions that Clinton said had been met : removing emigration restrictions and complying with a U.S.-China agreement on exports of goods made with prison labor . But the order also required the secretary of state to determine , in making a recommendation , whether China had made `` overall , significant progress '' in five other areas . These included adherence to the Universal Declaration of Human Rights ; releasing and accounting for political prisoners ; ensuring humane treatment of prisoners ; protecting Tibet 's religious and cultural heritage , and permitting international radio and TV broadcasts into China . Secretary of State Warren M. Christopher `` has reached a conclusion with which I agree , that the Chinese did not achieve overall significant progress in all the areas outlined in the executive order relating to human rights , even though clearly there was progress made in important areas , '' Clinton said . WASHINGTON The White House released additional records Thursday related to first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton 's commodities trading activities , in further efforts to show she did nothing illegal or unethical in making her investments . The White House also issued a brief analysis by a commodities expert who was asked by the Clintons to review her trading , in which he found that she `` violated no rules in the course of her transactions . '' Leo Melamed , former chairman of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange , one of the nation 's largest commodities exchanges , noted in a statement that the new records released by Mrs. Clinton confirms his assessment that she broke no rules . The new data from the Chicago exchange `` largely confirms and also complements '' records from Mrs. Clinton 's brokerage account released last month by the White House , he said . `` These records are being released today in order to give as complete a picture as possible of Mrs. Clinton 's trading , '' said Lisa Caputo , Mrs. Clinton 's press secretary . Caputo said the records were not released earlier because Mrs. Clinton had not known of their existence at the Chicago exchange . Caputo said the new records corroborate those released by Mrs. Clinton last month from her brokerage account at the REFCO commodities brokerage firm , where she invested beginning in 1978 . In particular , the new records confirm , Melamed 's review stated , that the first lady did not violate the rules in her first , and perhaps most controversial commodities trade , in which she turned a $ 1,000 investment into $ 6,300 overnight . Melamed said the records provide more detailed information about Mrs. Clinton 's first day of trading than was available from the earlier records . They show , he said , that Mrs. Clinton had risked her money in the transaction , demonstrating that it was a legitimate investment and not some form of favorable insider transaction arranged by her broker . In that one trade , Mrs. Clinton sold 10 December live cattle contracts Oct. 11 , 1978 , at the price of $ 57.55 a pound , and offset this trade with a purchase of 10 December live cattle contracts Oct. 12 , 1978 at the price of $ 56.10 a pound for a profit of $ 5,300 , after commissions . ( Optional add end ) He noted while Mrs. Clinton did not have enough margin , or reserves in her account to cover her exposure in the trade , that `` does not represent a rule violation by the customer . Rather , it is an issue between the clearing firm and the exchange . '' His statement is consistent with the White House 's previous assertions that if there was any such rule violations , they were the fault of her broker , and not Mrs. Clinton . Melamed said some records from the exchange concerning Mrs. Clinton 's trading activity were either missing or incomplete , which may have been caused by REFCO 's practice of conducting `` batch reporting '' of trades . `` To an extent the firm handling Mrs. Clinton 's account was penalized by the exchange for allegedly utilizing some of these procedures improperly , '' he said . Critics have said such batch trading was prevalent at the REFCO brokerage office in Springdale , Ark. , where Mrs. Clinton traded , and that her broker allocated winning trades from those larger blocks to favored customers . Melamed said such batch trading was `` more prevalent in the less-regulated environment of 15 years ago . '' WASHINGTON Abandoning a course set a year ago , President Clinton Thursday renewed China 's preferential trading status even though he said Beijing had failed to curb human rights abuses . Clinton cited both strategic and economic reasons for not breaking commercial ties with the world 's most populous nation , but found himself initiating a policy close to one he had denounced and called inadequate to end repression in China . `` I am moving to delink human rights from the annual extension of most-favored-nation trading status for China , '' he said , because `` we have reached the end of the usefulness of that policy , and it is time to take a new path . '' The long-awaited announcement cheered the international business community , which had lobbied hard for renewal of China 's MFN status , but disappointed key congressional allies who had favored tough trade sanctions on China . Human rights groups also slammed Clinton 's announcement , saying it left the United States with little leverage to improve conditions in China . There was no immediate comment from the Chinese government about Clinton 's announcement , which was made early Friday Beijing time . But Thursday a Foreign Ministry spokesman , Wu Jianmin , said at his weekly press briefing that `` The Chinese side does not accept attaching any conditions '' to the MFN trade benefits . `` Extending MFN is in the interests of China and the United States . '' Clinton insisted he was not giving up on improving human rights in China , and in fact did ban importation of about $ 200 million in annual shipments of Chinese weapons and ammunition to indicate his displeasure with China 's human rights record . He also continued some sanctions put in place after the Chinese government crushed the pro-democracy demonstrations five years ago . Yet just a year ago , Clinton issued an executive order insisting that renewal of MFN status would come only with significant progress in human rights by the Chinese leadership . Clinton said Thursday that China had met two mandatory conditions of the order relating to immigration and importation of products made by prision labor but had failed make progress on other provisions . During the presidential campaign in 1992 , Clinton repeatedly accused then-President Bush of `` coddling '' the Chinese government by allowing MFN status without demanding improvements in human rights . In essence , experts said , Clinton Thursday virtually adopted the former Bush policy , just as he has with such global hotspots in Bosnia and Haiti . Clinton , however , argued that conditions had changed , and thus `` we are far more likely to have human rights advance when it is not under the cloud of annual review of MFN . '' Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell , D-Maine , who usually supports Clinton , said he disagreed with the decision . `` It will confirm for the Chinese Communist regime the success of its policy of repression on human rights and manipulation on trade , '' he said . Mitchell said he will introduce legislation seeking additional sanctions , but most political experts expect Clinton to prevail in any fight with Congress . Indeed , Clinton frequently noted that many other members of Congress have changed their minds on the issue as well . Most-favored-nation status means that Chinese goods will continue to be shipped to the United States with low tariffs . All but eight countries have MFN trading status , and its loss would have raised tariffs on Chinese products such as shoes and toys as much as tenfold . Trade with China now runs about $ 40 billion a year , but all but $ 9 billion of that are imports from China , the U.S. Commerce Department says . In fact , 40 percent of all the toys sold in America are made in China . But some American companies , especially aerospace concerns , truck manufacturers and telecommunications companies , have experienced significant growth in sales to China in recent years . Trade with China now supports about 150,000 U.S. jobs , Clinton said . Commerce Secretary Ron Brown said Thursday , `` China is going to be spending $ 600 billion on infrastructure projects between now and the year 2000 . We 'd like American companies to participate in that . '' ( Optional add end ) Indeed , the business community , salivating over the prospect of 1.2 billion Chinese buying U.S. products , had lobbied the Clinton administration and Capitol Hill with increasing intensity to break the link between trade status and human rights . `` For many of our principal industries , the preservation of most-favored-nation for China has been the No. 1 priority this year , '' said Calman Cohen , vice president of the Emergency Committee of American Trade , a coalition of American companies actively involved in the debate . `` The business lobbying has been unprecedented , '' said Richard Dicker , associate counsel for Human Rights Watch/Asia , which opposed renewal of MFN status and heavily cricized Clinton 's decision . In a White House briefing after the president 's appearance , national security adviser Anthony Lake disclosed that Clinton had decided `` some weeks ago , '' even before he had the verdict on China 's human rights record , to stop holding the issue of trade over Beijing 's head . The reason ? The president had decided that while the Chinese record on human rights remained poor , the administration had `` a very important strategic objective , '' Lake said , `` building a long-term relationship '' with the largest and potentially the richest and most powerful nation in Asia which is where the president sees the U.S. economic future . WASHINGTON A senior White House administrator who took a presidential helicopter to play golf at a county club during work hours resigned Thursday under pressure from an angry President Clinton . In announcing the departure of David Watkins , Clinton said at a late afternoon news conference that he was `` very upset '' about the Tuesday afternoon helicopter-and-golf incident . Clinton said Watkins will fully reimburse the government for his personal use of the Marine aircraft , which a Pentagon source said costs $ 2,380 an hour to operate . `` Mr. Watkins offered his resignation , and I insisted that the taxpayers be reimbursed , '' a visibly perturbed Clinton said . `` Some way or another they will be , and we 'll tell you how when we do it . '' Clinton said `` the most important thing to me '' is that `` the Treasury will not be out one red cent for anything that happened there . '' Watkins , 52 , a businessman and longtime Clinton friend from Arkansas , was assistant to the president for administration and management , responsible for White House security , military liaison and other functions . Earlier Thursday , presidential press secretary Dee Dee Myers announced that Clinton had ordered White House chief of staff Thomas `` Mack '' McLarty to investigate the outing at Holly Hills Country Club at Ijamsville , Md. , 45 miles north of Washington , near Camp David . McLarty was probing whether Watkins violated a 1993 Clinton executive order on use of government aircraft . Clinton promulgated the policy in light of former President Bush 's firing of White House chief of staff John Sununu for repeatedly treating taxpayer-paid air travel as a personal perk . ( Begin optional trim ) `` This is something we take very seriously , '' Myers said . McLarty conferred with Watkins on the matter as Clinton was taking Republican flak over news reports of the helicopter ride . On the House floor and in a letter to Clinton Thursday , Rep. Roscoe Bartlett , R-Md. , who represents the region surrounding Camp David , admonished the administration over the `` improper appearance of this trip . '' An aide to House Minority Whip Newt Gingrich , R-Ga. , gave reporters copies of a Frederick , Md. , News-Post photograph published Wednesday of three golfers boarding the Marine helicopter at the golf course . ( End optional trim ) White House officials said Watkins flew to the country club with Alphonso Maldon Jr. , head of the White House military office , and Navy Cmdr. Richard Cellon , Camp David 's commanding officer . Whether Watkins ' companions will be disciplined was not immediately disclosed . Bush played regularly at Holly Hills . A deputy White House press secretary said Wednesday that the Watkins party was scouting the club for possible play there by Clinton during a future stay at Camp David , which has no golf course . But Myers withdrew that explanation Thursday and said Clinton has no known plans to golf at Holly Hills . McLarty co-authored an internal report last year officially reprimanding Watkins for his role in the controversial firing of seven White House travel office employees , five of whom later were reinstated in other government jobs . The report also faulted McLarty for the handling of the dismissals . McLarty and Watkins have been Arkansas friends of long standing . ( Optional add end ) Watkins , a Little Rock management consultant who lists his net worth on a federal disclosure form at up to $ 1.7 million , had been a business partner of first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton . Hillary Clinton netted $ 46,000 on a $ 2,000 investment in a Watkins cellular-phone venture . Watkins wasn't always successful as an entrepreneur . Business Week magazine two weeks ago described Watkins as a dealmaker who `` has left a trail of disappointed investors '' in `` failed penny-stock companies from New York to Texas , hawking items from cruises to credit cards . '' Watkins later defended his business dealings as honorable . TOKYO , May 27 Emperor Akihito and Empress Michiko will not visit Pearl Harbor but will pay respects to American war dead at two other sites during a 17-day tour of the United States beginning June 10 , the Japanese government announced Friday . The trip will be only the second by an emperor to the United States and the first in 19 years . Foreign Ministry diplomats initially had urged the emperor to visit Pearl Harbor , but fears of repercussions at home from a visit to the memorial to the battleship Arizona what many Americans regard as the symbol of Japan 's `` sneak attack '' on Dec. 7 , 1941 finally killed the proposal . The couple will instead visit the Punch Bowl cemetery in Honolulu and Arlington National Cemetery in Washington . `` If the emperor visited the Arizona memorial , some ( Japanese ) would argue that the emperor was being used for political purposes , '' said a high Foreign Ministry diplomat who asked not to be named . As `` a symbol of the unity of the Japanese people '' under the postwar constitution , the emperor takes overseas trips only `` for the purpose of promoting good will and friendship , '' he added . Japan has lived in peace for 49 years since the end of World War II , but it has never apologized outright to its war victims . The U.S. visit by Akihito , 60 , and Michiko , 59 , underscores the changes that have slowly enveloped the imperial family since the end of the war . Until the late Emperor Hirohito made a trip to Europe as crown prince in 1921 and retraced his steps as emperor 50 years later , none of his 123 predecessors had ever left Japan . By contrast , Akihito , tutored in English as a student , and Michiko , the first commoner ever to marry an emperor after a courtship that began on a tennis court , traveled abroad frequently as crown prince and princess . Including two stopovers , Akihito has visited the United States four times . One was a trip in 1960 when he visited Pearl Harbor before the memorial to the battleship Arizona and its crew was built . During the June trip , the imperial couple will visit 11 cities including Atlanta , Washington , Los Angeles , San Francisco and Honolulu before returning to Tokyo on June 26 . ( Optional add end ) Only nine days ago , Michiko delivered a public speech for the first time since she collapsed Oct. 20 and lost her voice . The Imperial Household Agency said she had recovered to the point at which she has `` almost no trouble '' carrying on daily conversations . In the Los Angeles area , the imperial couple is scheduled to visit the Huntington Library and Art Collections , a Japan-America museum and a retirement home for Americans of Japanese origin , and meet former President Reagan and his wife , Nancy . In Atlanta , Akihito and Michiko will meet former President Carter and his wife , Rosalynn , and Coretta Scott King , the widow of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. . Unlike Hirohito and the former Empress Nagako , the couple will not visit Disneyland . But they are scheduled to go to a baseball game in St. Louis between the Cardinals and the Pittsburgh Pirates . WASHINGTON Recent economic statistics paint a picture of an economy growing in a moderate , sustainable fashion a picture that should calm fears in financial markets that fast growth is about to trigger a new burst of inflation , according to analysts . Worries that the economy might overheat were a major factor in driving up long-term interest rates this year as investors sought higher returns to protect themselves against a possible rise in inflation . If those fears are allayed , long-term rates should retrace part of their upward track , analysts said . Earlier , analysts had predicted that growth would jump to a 4.5 percent or 5 percent annual rate in the three months from April through June , with some economists using numbers as high as 6 percent . But with the quarter half over , the flow of statistics on initial claims for jobless benefits , retail sales , automobile production , housing starts and new orders for long-lasting goods all suggest that the economy is expanding at a solid but more moderate pace of 3.5 percent to 4 percent , analysts said . Friday , the Commerce Department will release its first revision of growth in the first three months of the year , when the economy was slowed by bitter winter weather in the east and a severe earthquake in the west . Last month , the government , using incomplete and preliminary data , estimated first-quarter growth at 2.6 percent . Most analysts expect the rate to be lowered by a quarter- to a half-percentage point . That , along with Thursday 's report from the Labor Department that the number of workers filing initial claims for unemployment benefits is rising , is likely to figure prominently when Federal Reserve Board Chairman Alan Greenspan testifies before the Senate Banking Committee . Some committee Democrats , concerned that increases in short-term interest rates engineered this year by the Fed are damaging the economy , plan to ask Greenspan to justify the rate hikes . In its report , the Labor Department said that an average of 366,750 people a week have filed initial claims for unemployment claims benefits during the past four weeks . That is the highest since February of last year , except for a few weeks last winter when the bad weather was putting people out of work . `` Recent evidence suggests that job growth is about to slow from the sharp gains posted during the past several months , '' said Bruce Steinberg , macroeconomics manager for Merrill Lynch & Co. in New York . The job market still is improving `` but the pace of improvement is slowing to a more sustainable rate of gain , '' he said . The Merrill Lynch forecast currents pegs the second-quarter rise in the gross domestic product , adjusted for inflation , at 3.5 percent to 4 percent . David C. Munro , chief U.S. economist at High Frequency Economics in New York , has a similar outlook . `` With auto output slowing after February , I look for only a 3.5 percent second-quarter GDP growth rate , '' he said . `` The first-half average will be only 2.75 percent . '' Steinberg , Munro and many other analysts predict growth in the second half of the year will run at about a 3 percent rate or perhaps a little less . WASHINGTON President Clinton , abandoning a central foreign policy principle of his administration , announced Thursday that he has decided to `` delink '' China 's privileged trading status from its human rights record . While acknowledging that China `` continues to commit very serious human rights abuses , '' Clinton said he has come to believe that broader American strategic interests justify the policy reversal . Striking a defensive , almost apologetic posture at a late afternoon White House briefing , Clinton acknowledged that his previous approach to U.S.-China relations had failed and said he intended to set a new course . `` That linkage has been constructive during the past year , but I believe , based on our aggressive contacts with the Chinese in the past several months , that we have reached the end of the usefulness of that policy , and it is time to take a new path toward the achievement of our constant objectives , '' Clinton said . `` We need to place our relationship into a larger and more productive framework . '' Therefore , Clinton said , he will renew China 's most favored nation status , meaning that China can ship its exports to the United States on the same tariff terms as most other American trading partners . Last year China exported about $ 31 billion worth of goods to the United States , running a trade surplus of $ 23 billion . The United States exported $ 8 billion in goods to China . The only limitation Clinton imposed on the China trade was a ban on U.S. sales of Chinese-made guns and ammunition , which amounted to roughly $ 100 million in sales last year . Clinton dropped the idea of forming a human rights commission to monitor progress in China . The Chinese rejected such a body as an insult to its sovereignty and human rights groups derided it as likely to be ineffective . The president announced his new China policy in the White House briefing room . Unlike previous major presidential announcements , he appeared alone , without Secretary of State Warren Christopher or senior White House aides . Clinton seemed prepared to take the inevitable criticism his change in course generated . From Capitol Hill to human rights organizations to Chinese dissident groups came immediate expressions of anger and dismay . Human Rights Watch/Asia called the Clinton announcement `` one more capitulation on human rights . '' `` Clinton has left his administration looking vacillating and hypocritical , while the Chinese leadership , by contrast , has emerged as hard-nosed , uncompromising and victorious . We 're deeply disappointed by this decision , '' said Sidney Jones , executive director of the organization . AFL-CIO President Lane Kirkland , in a particularly scathing statement , said Clinton 's decision `` sends a clear message to the world : `` No matter what America says about democracy and human rights , in the final analysis profits , not people , matter most. .. . America should be standing with the Chinese people not their oppressors . '' Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell , D-Maine , an important ally of the president 's on health care and other major policy initiatives , also quickly criticized Clinton 's new China policy . `` I disagree with the decision. .. . The experience of recent years has been that each concession to the Chinese Communist regime encourages its intransigence and I believe this will be the unfortunate result of this decision , '' Mitchell said . `` It will confirm for the Chinese Communist regime the success of its policy of repression on human rights and manipulation on trade . It is likely to produce a result that is the opposite of what the president intends . '' Mitchell added that when Congress returns from its Memorial Day recess he will introduce legislation to reverse Clinton 's decision . That legislation probably will be similar to bills sponsored by Mitchell and Rep. Nancy Pelosi , D-Calif. , during the Bush administration , attaching conditions to future renewals of China 's trade status . ( Optional add end ) Bush repeatedly vetoed such legislation , and , in 1992 , Clinton accused him of `` coddling dictators '' in China . During his presidential campaign , Clinton also specifically endorsed the idea of imposing human rights conditions on the renewal of China 's trade benefits . Sen. John McCain , R-Ariz. , defended the decision on policy grounds but accused Clinton of adopting precisely the Bush administration policy that he assailed as cynical during the 1992 campaign . Renewing most favored nation status for China `` is a sound , if politically embarrassing , decision , '' McCain said . Clinton said he believed he had reached the right decision and said he was prepared to defend it against his critics . `` I want to make it clear to you I do not do this with rose-colored glasses on , '' Clinton said . `` I know there will be , no matter which approach we take .. . continuing human rights problems . '' CHICAGO The mail here has lately seemed defiant of the laws that govern time and space . Recent bill payments disappear into the void while bank statements from 1988 suddenly show up . Tens of thousands of undelivered letters have been discovered in the oddest spots : smoldering under a railroad viaduct , rotting in a field , in the trunk of a postal carrier 's truck , stockpiled in a mailman 's suburban condo . Three times last week , people opened collection boxes around town only to be greeted by smoke streaming from the slots . `` Somebody doesn't want the mail to be delivered , '' said Mark Szumny , rolling his eyes heavenward for clues while his daughters , one 6 years old , one 5 , jumped rope on the sidewalk on a waning afternoon . The girls at play reminded him of something . An old friend of his wife 's sent cash when each was born . The money has yet to arrive . Since the dawn of the U.S. postal system , tales of astounding mishaps and misroutings have become part of American folklore . But those were isolated instances . Not so in Chicago . While Chicago may have slipped from Second City to third , it ranks highest on the Mail Misery index . A recent postal survey found customers more unhappy with service in this city than anywhere else in the nation . The satisfaction rating stands at 69 percent . The next-most troubled city , New York , scored 76 percent . Twenty-seven postal wizards from around the country were imported in March to figure out what 's wrong here . Three top managers were transferred out this month . Next week , supervisors and window clerks are scheduled to take training courses , and in coming months , each station is supposed to recruit a citizens advisory council . The U.S. Postal Service takes the uproar seriously , said Rufus F. Porter , interim postmaster for Chicago . About 1,500 early retirements in 1992 and this year 's severe winter took their toll , he said . But mostly , he added , `` it 's a matter of bad work habits on the part of our employees . It is embedded in the culture .. . and that was a direct result of management inattention . '' The locals , some of whom have been complaining for nearly a decade , remain pessimistic . `` The post office has not reached out to private consultants . It is still trying to use its own people , '' said Chicago Alderman Mary Ann Smith . `` They 've had shake-ups before but every time things as we say in this office returned to abnormal . '' Each day , the postal service is blamed for something else , from the lack of an audience for the Bozo TV show hardly anyone got tickets to the decision of a mail-order cosmetics firm to move out to the suburbs . Leaders of the sizable Polish community report with fury that their letters to the homeland are ransacked frequently for cash . Smith fumes . `` We 're not asking them to cure cancer , '' she said . `` We 're not asking them to build pyramids . We 're asking them to move pieces of paper from one place to another . '' ( Begin optional trim ) The first report from the postal task force , released earlier this month , found the worst problems at five northside , lakefront post offices where 40 percent of the mail faced delays . Service there is already improving , the troubleshooters said . Those zip codes , however , are by no means the only ones that need help . David J. Craven , a 35-year-old attorney in the downtown Loop , specializes in customs and international trade law , but he also has become a reluctant connoisseur of postal blunders . He has noticed spotty deliveries since 1991 , but by January and February , the quality of service had deteriorated dramatically . On March 3 , for the first time in its seven-year history , his office received no mail at all . Craven was waiting for a U.S. . Customs opinion in a $ 5 million case . He checked with another law firm on the 20th floor . Also no mail . Craven telephoned the post office . When he got no satisfactory response , he took another tack . He wrote a letter . Four days later , the written complaint was returned to its sender . The address of the central post office 433 W. Van Buren was scratched out . The envelope was stamped `` NO SUCH ADDRESS . '' ( End optional trim ) In Chicago 's leafy Belmont-Cragin section , the brick bungalows and two-flats are filled with working-class families trading postal horror tales , fueled by the knowledge that 40,000 pieces of their mail turned up last month at their carrier 's house . Firefighters found it when they answered an emergency call . Along the route , Diane Gaertner had missed two of the paychecks that her employer , an air-conditioning and heating company , sent to her apartment . `` It affects my life when I live from check to check and I 've got a son to raise , '' she said . The carrier , Robert Beverly , is suspected of having sifted through the mail for items he could sell or otherwise turn to profit , Porter said . He has been charged with felony theft . Beverly used his own car , an older Jaguar , on his route , which made hauling the stacks home that much easier . The Chicago district just doesn't have enough vehicles to supply one to every employee . But his replacement , Eddie Ponce , had a regulation truck the other day . `` They told me , ` Keep it clean , ' ' ' she said , when they assigned her to the route . The May ratings sweeps rundown conducted by CBS research boss David Poltrack one morning each spring usually draws only reporters looking for a late breakfast . Thursday in Manhattan , three days after the Fox-is-snatching-eight-CBS-affiliates bombshell , the annual Poltrack Spinorama was jammed by members of the news media ( `` even Time magazine showed up ! '' exclaimed a CBS spokeswoman ) hoping for some nugget from CBS executives . They got a few . CBS/Broadcast Group president Howard Stringer was on hand to staunchly defend broadcasting in general and CBS in particular which after all did cinch the primetime ratings crown for the third year in a row last month and enjoyed what Stringer called `` the most profitable season in history don't knock it . `` Programming , '' said Stringer , `` is what dominates broadcasting and we 've always been the champions . You can be a telephone company , you can be a cable company , but in the end the quality of the original programming is what drives everything , and we have the best . '' He reminded reporters that `` in Louisville ( the people ) who ran the CBS affiliate there some years ago decided in their wisdom to go to ABC .. . they switched and we switched to UHF . . and we are in first place with that UHF station . Because , luckily , our audience has a high school education and they can find programs . `` They 're going to find our programming because it 's singular and distinctive and that strategy has worked . '' George Schweitzer , executive vice president of marketing and communications for the Broadcast Group , promised that `` the network plans aggressive marketing campaigns in those markets affected . . . so that people will know where to find their ( CBS ) programs . '' ( Five CBS affiliates in Detroit , Atlanta , Cleveland , Tampa-St. Petersburg and Milwaukee will move to Fox by late fall ) . And each reporter was given a copy of a letter from CBS Television Network president Peter A . Lund , dispatched to advertisers and agencies , promising that `` CBS will maintain its coverage in every single market . We expect to maintain our circulation as well . As you may know , many of these ( defecting ) stations were underperforming the network average and frequently pre-empted our schedule . We project these changes will have no impact on our 1994-95 schedule . '' The word on the street in New York is that initially CBS is targeting ABC and NBC affiliates in Detroit , Atlanta and Dallas ( where another potential New World CBS affiliate will switch to Fox sometime next year ) in its drive to recover from the Fox attack . . MOSCOW In a remarkable letter written in 1973 to a Soviet leadership that was preparing to arrest and expel him , Alexander Solzhenitsyn concluded with a bold declaration of independence that must have seemed hopelessly quixotic to those who received it . `` I long ago grew out of your shell , '' he told the absolute masters of one-sixth of the world 's territory . `` The things I write will be printed regardless of your permission . I am ready to lay down my life . '' A few months later , `` The Gulag Archipelago , '' Solzhenitsyn 's devastating compilation of the horrors of Soviet repression , was circulating throughout the Western world and the author was a stateless exile , stripped of his Soviet citizenship and deported to West Germany . Friday that long exile comes to an end as the famous writer and his family arrive in Vladivostok in the Russian Far East after a two-day journey from Cavendish , Vt. , where he spent all but two of his 20 years of banishment in the West . Speaking in Anchorage , Alaska , moments before he boarded an Alaska Airlines plane that would fly him back home , the 75-year-old writer praised Cavendish . With his son Stephan , 20 , translating , Solzhenitsyn said : `` This was the most creative period in my life and the most productive period in my life . '' He said he hoped to participate in a rebirth of Russia comparable to what occurred in Germany after the fall of the Third Reich , when a `` spiritual and moral '' recovery helped heal the wartime legacy . `` In the U.S.S.R. , none of this has happened at all , '' he said . `` The atmosphere remains heavily stained with communism . '' Solzhenitsyn plans to deliver some remarks in Vladivostok 's town square and spend a few days meeting with members of the community . Then he intends to set off for Moscow on a train journey across the vast breadth of Russia in order to reacquaint himself with his native country . He will find that much has changed , and not all of it to his liking . The Marxist system that Solzhenitsyn castigated in his 1973 letter as a `` dark un-Russian whirlwind '' has collapsed , along with the Soviet empire that he described as a liability and a burden for his native land . But they have been replaced by a raw and ragged society of extreme contrasts between rich and poor , increasingly awash in the Western pop culture that Solzhenitsyn repeatedly condemned during his exile . The writer 's many statements , issued through family members , that he intends to play no official or political role upon his arrival has not prevented a lively and at times rancorous debate among Russian intellectuals over the impact of his return . `` Numerous representatives of the Moscow political intelligentsia are tearing at each other 's throats regarding Solzhenitsyn , '' commentator Mikhail Leontiev wrote in Thursday 's issue of the Moscow newspaper Sevodnya . `` It turns out that , irrespective of anyone 's likes or dislikes , Russia needs Solzhenitsyn. .. . It needs a national hero , rather than a political leader . Whether he lives up to this calling or not , time will tell . But there 's no one else in Russia at the moment . '' Leontiev and many others see Solzhenitsyn as an uncorrupted truth-teller who can fill the moral vacuum that has existed in Russia since the death of human rights activist Andrei Sakharov in 1989 . But others especially the newly ascendent nationalists who lament the loss of the Soviet empire dismiss Solzhenitsyn as an irrelevant figure from a bygone era . `` Solzhenitsyn is returning to a country which he no longer knows .. . and which no longer knows him , '' said Shamil Sultanov , deputy editor of Zavtra , a stridently ultranationalist newspaper that has become a rallying point for opponents of the current government . `` Solzhenitsyn was a fetish of Western intellectuals and certain political circles. .. . If you go to Ryazan or Smolensk and ask people on the street who Solzhenitsyn is , 80 out of 100 willn't know . '' ( Begin optional trim ) The writer 's impending return has even touched off an outbreak of what might be called Gulag denial syndrome an attempt by some politicians and intellectuals to assert that the machinery of repression chronicled by Solzhenitsyn either never existed or was far less severe than he portrayed it . `` When he wrote ` Gulag ' he didn't have a single archival document in his hands , but now they teach Russian history according to Solzhenitsyn , '' said Alexander Nevzorov , a TV journalist turned ultranationalist politician . `` No one would take it into their heads to teach French history according to Dumas , '' he said . `` He is nothing more than a common writer , a storyteller . To me , Solzhenitsyn is no one . '' ( End optional trim ) In Vladivostok Thursday , preparations for the exile 's return were decidedly low-key , and an informal sampling of public opinion in of the city revealed no great interest in Solzhenitsyn and some confusion about his identity . One man had the writer mixed up with Sakharov , while another was under the impression he was the director of a popular but trivial Soviet-era movie . WASHINGTON Resisting pressure from World Cup organizers , District of Columbia Mayor Sharon Pratt Kelly decided Thursday to heed the advice of her police commanders and install a security fence around the field of Robert F. Kennedy Memorial Stadium for soccer matches there this summer . Kelly and D.C. . Police Chief Fred Thomas informed World Cup officials during an hourlong meeting Thursday that they saw no better alternative than the six-foot-high metal fence to prevent potentially rowdy soccer fans from charging the field . In recent weeks , the fence has become a sharp point of contention between the city and soccer promoters , who have worried that it could tarnish the sport 's image as it is showcased in the United States for the first time . World Cup organizers have tried to convince the District that a barrier was unnecessary and could cause more safety problems than it solved . The national director of the World Cup organizing committee , Alan Rothenberg , who only days ago said he was confident there would not be a fence at RFK , attended Thursday 's meeting with Kelly . But the mayor was unswayed . She was not available for comment , but said in a statement that she supported the fence because `` the safety and security of fans , participants and the public has always been our overriding concern . '' Soccer officials were disappointed with Kelly 's decision , but said they did not believe it would adversely affect other World Cup preparations . `` I do disagree on this , '' Rothenberg said . `` I think they city ( officials ) are being unduly swayed by looking at the worst examples of soccer violence. . . . There has never been those kind of ugly incidents at World Cup matches . '' The District will be one of only three cities in the country to use a fence for security during World Cup matches , which begin here June 19 . Soccer officials have dissuaded the six other cities that are sites for matches from using a fence . They are still in talks with Dallas about a fence at the Cotton Bowl . The stadium at Stanford University has a permanent fence in place . Security has emerged as one of the leading elements of the city 's preparation for the World Cup , which is the most watched sporting event on the planet . Thousands of fans from overseas are expected to travel to Washington for the five matches at RFK , and law enforcement officials fear that some of them could be troublemakers . District police are planning to deploy more than 1,000 officers in various roles for World Cup events . District police , who have traveled overseas to study security measures at soccer matches , say the fence will be the easiest way to contain an unruly crowd . It also will be much cheaper than putting scores of extra officers , at overtime pay , on the field during the matches . The fence costs $ 25,000 and will be paid for by a grant from the Department of Defense , police officials said . WASHINGTON President Clinton 's abandonment of the idea of linking trade with China on human rights improvements represents a stunning reversal of the policies he espoused both during his 1992 presidential campaign and during his first year in office . As recently as the past few weeks , in fact , Clinton administration officials were insisting that without some further and meaningful steps in human rights by the Beijing regime , there was no way the president could renew China 's most-favored-nation , or MFN , trade privileges . In the end , Clinton simply caved in . And , in the process , his MFN debacle gave China a chance to demonstrate the limits of American power and the hollowness of American fantasies of omnipotence . The United States found that it couldn't force China to change its human rights policies , at least not without imposing costs that American businesses were unwilling to bear . `` A great society , so large and with such built-in habits does not change overnight , '' Clinton acknowledged Thursday , using words very similar to those used over the past year by the many critics of his policy . In the view of some China scholars and experts , Clinton 's blending of threat-and-retreat left the United States in worse position than if he had never threatened at all . For the message to the world , to China 's Asian neighbors and to the Chinese people themselves is that China can defy the United States virtually at will . `` This is being handled in a way that is eroding our credibility with the Chinese , '' Kenneth Lieberthal , a University of Michigan China specialist , observed recently. `` .. . The Chinese can see that with this administration , when it 's time to decide whether to hold 'em or fold 'em , it will fold . This administration will take a fig leaf and give away the store . '' The administration is left hoping now that what it calls `` a new policy '' toward China will produce more results than the past one . That new policy is based on what administration officials Thursday vaguely called a `` strategic relationship '' with China a phrase that sounds somewhat like the words former Secretary of State Henry Kissinger once employed . Over the past year , the administration has made a series of concessions to China in hopes of winning its cooperation for some changes in its human rights policies . ( Begin optional trim ) Clinton met with Chinese President Jiang Zemin in Seattle . On the eve of that meeting , the administration cleared the way for the sale of a Cray supercomputer to China . The administration approved the sale of several U.S.-made satellites to China . And it ended the ban on high-level military contacts that had been imposed by the Bush administration . `` They decided to give everything away , '' observed one U.S. official. `` .. . Somehow , there is still this view that if we just give them enough , they will do what we want . It just doesn't work . '' Throughout the past year , while making these other concessions , the administration held up on the one thing it felt , rightly , was the thing China wanted and needed most : most-favored-nation trade status , which allows tens of billions of dollars in Chinese exports to be sold in this country with low duties . But in the end , China called Clinton 's bluff . It turned out that Sen. Max Baucus , D-Mont. , was right when he called the threat to withdraw MFN benefits `` the economic equivalent of a nuclear bomb '' that is , a weapon too powerful to use . ( End optional trim ) Yet no one could have envisioned a year ago just how many steps China would take to show its utter disregard for the administration and his policies . In March , Chinese security officials rounded up a series of prominent dissidents while Secretary of State Warren Christopher was in Beijing . In April , they locked up Wei Jingsheng , China 's most prominent advocate of democracy , who had been freed last September after more than 14 years in jail . Wei is still in detention . China has refused to make even some of those human rights concessions the Clinton administration considered relatively easy to achieve . Early this year , U.S. officials believed China was ready to stop its jamming of the Voice of America and other foreign broadcasts into China . That action might come at the time of Christopher 's mission in March , they believed . But China hasn't even done this yet . The most it has been willing to do has been to receive a delegation to `` discuss '' some of the technical aspects of broadcasting in China . China 's intransigence goes beyond the area of human rights . There has been no sign , for example , that China has been willing to help the United States much in trying to persuade North Korea to abandon its nuclear weapons program . In Cambodia , the Khmer Rouge , who were once considered China 's client , are once again threatening to overrun the government in Phnom Penh . What went wrong ? Some officials , including veterans of the Bush administration , question the entire style and underpinnings of Clinton 's approach . They argue that it was counter-productive to confront China head-on . `` Once you put your fist in the face of the Chinese and tell them they have to do something , they tend to go rigid , '' says Douglas Paal , who served as director of Asian affairs for the Bush administration . The Clinton administration misjudged a year ago how far China would be willing to go . Administration officials sincerely believed that the conditions they were imposing on China would be relatively easy to meet . `` Narrow , narrow '' was how Assistant Secretary of State John H. F. Shattuck described the U.S. conditions to Hong Kong reporters . But the Chinese regime facing both the threat of new social unrest inside China and a looming struggle to see who will succeed the ailing Deng Xiaoping as China 's paramount leader was unwilling to do even the things the administration considered modest . The administration misread the strength of sentiment in the American business community , which didn't like the idea of tying MFN renewal to human rights in the first place and which grew increasingly threatened and nervous by the prospect of a cut off in trade . Clinton himself bears the ultimate responsibility for being either unwilling or unable to impose discipline on his own top administration officials . But not all of the blame for the American retreat should go to Clinton . It must also be shared with Congress , an institution which Clinton administration officials also misjudged . Over a period of three years , from 1990 to 1992 , Congress repeatedly passed laws tying renewal of China 's MFN benefits to improvements in human rights . It was what is known as a `` free vote . '' Each time , President Bush vetoed the legislation , just as Congress knew he would . President Clinton in effect borrowed the vetoed Democratic legislation and put it into the executive order he imposed last year . And this year , for the first time , Congress has been forced to deal with the real-life consequences of its legislation . China failed to make significant human rights improvements , and that meant that the cutoff in MFN which Congress originally threatened might actually be imposed . In droves , congressmen retreated . It turns out that members of Congress including leading Democrats like Sen . Bill Bradley , D-N.J. , were willing to vote for a linkage between human rights and trade with China only at a time when they knew their legislation would be vetoed . Under the circumstances , it seems fair to conclude that the congressional Democrats weren't serious about linking trade and human rights , but rather were using China as a partisan issue against Bush . ( Optional add end ) `` Times have changed , ` ` said Rep. Jim Kolbe , R-Ariz . , `` It was easy for Congress to take the positions it did during the Bush administration . '' The American retreat was of far-reaching , even historic , significance for China and its relations with the rest of the world . The Chinese regime was faced with a direct challenge from the United States , and it proved that the United States could not back up its threats . On Oct. 1 , 1949 , on the day the People 's Republic of China was founded , Mao Tsetung stood up above Tian An Men Square and declared to cheering thousands : `` The Chinese people have stood up . '' Chinese leaders may soon proclaim the modern-day corollary : `` President Clinton has sat down . '' In ROSTY ( Eaton & Ostrow , Times ) , insert after 9th graf ( adding Justice Department investigation of Rostenkowski ) xxx of office . The Justice Department has been investigating allegations Rostenkowski abused office and campaign accounts by , among other things , receiving money improperly from the House post office , hiring workers who did not work , and making improper furniture and gift purchases with office funds . PICK UP 10th graf : While it was xxx . BALTIMORE A burglar alarm from hell was finally silenced Thursday after six days of nearly constant noise when a police officer climbed a ladder in a blinding rainstorm and snipped the wire . A cheer erupted from a watching crowd when silence descended suddenly on the normally quiet , tree-shaded court in suburban Baltimore . It was almost eerie for a few seconds . `` Thank you , Jesus , '' shouted Joan Sheppard , the next-door neighbor , raising her arms to the sky and ignoring the pelting rain . Once the alarm was silenced , the crowd scattered quickly under the deluge and the daylong circus occasioned by the presence of television units and a rock radio station was over . The alarm , at the home of a psychologist traveling in Indonesia , went off early Saturday morning . There was a brief break later that morning when an accident nearby caused a power outage and another short break , during another outage early Tuesday . Except for the two brief periods , the alarm had pulsed continuously , generally making life miserable for the neighborhood . Exasperated to the extreme , Sheppard spent much of Thursday trying to get a court order to allow police to shut off the alarm . Because the matter involved private property and there was no emergency , the county attorney 's office was called in and lawyers began working on a petition to the court . But as the lawyers debated , the whoop-whoop-whoop of the alarm continued unrelentingly . An employee of the psychologist was in contact with him Tuesday and he was supposed to have air-freighted a house key back to her from Asia . When the key didn't arrive , police contacted the woman again and she agreed to act as the homeowner 's agent . She gave Lt. J.A. Spiroff permission to do what had to be done . Just as the lieutenant signaled his men , the skies opened up . As one officer steadied the waiting ladder , the second climbed to roof level , pulled loose some siding and cut the wire . WASHINGTON Moving to break `` a licensing stranglehold '' on glassmaking that keeps U.S. companies out of foreign markets , the Justice Department said Thursday it has settled an antitrust suit against a British glass company . The suit was filed under a U.S. policy designed to protect U.S. exports from anti-competitive conduct by foreign companies . Attorney General Janet Reno , who announced the suit and the settlement simultaneously , said the action `` will open new markets abroad for American businesses exporting high-tech services . '' Robert E. Litan , deputy assistant attorney general for antitrust , said the settlement with Pilkington plc and its U.S. subsidiary could open the door to between $ 150 million and $ 1.25 billion in exports for U.S. companies through the year 2000 . The suit was the first brought under a 1992 policy that permits the Justice Department to take antitrust action against foreign businesses that harm U.S. export trade without having to demonstrate harm to U.S. consumers . When the policy was announced by the Bush administration , it was widely believed that Japanese firms would be the immediate targets . Litan said other cases are under investigation but he declined to name either the companies or the countries involved . Pilkington dominates the world 's $ 15 billion-a-year float glass industry , which manufactures flat glass used in most cars and buildings . The complaint accused Pilkington of closing off foreign markets to U.S. companies and costing U.S. jobs by strictly limiting the use of commercial flat glass technology , part of which it developed and patented more than 30 years ago . Although Pilkington 's patents expired long ago , placing the technology in the public domain , the Justice Department complaint said the company restrained competition by using licensing arrangements to prevent American glass producers from employing the technology outside the United States . Sir Robin Nicholson , a Pilkington director , contended that the settlement in the form of a consent decree will have `` no material economic impact on the company . '' In a phone interview , he said the company had agreed to the decree while denying unlawful conduct for two primary reasons . The decree allows the company to continue licensing technology it has developed since 1983 . The second factor was `` pure cost , '' Nicholson said , estimating that the company would not lose more than $ 1 million a year under the decree , while continued litigation would have cost `` many millions of dollars . '' However , K. Craig Wildfang , special counsel to Anne K. Bingaman , assistant attorney general for antitrust , noted that the decree covers technology disclosed to U.S. licensees , the last of which occurred in 1982 . It also frees up technology that licensees added themselves after 1982 , he said . WASHINGTON President Clinton Thursday reversed course on China and renewed its trade privileges despite what he said was Beijing 's lack of significant progress on human rights . Echoing the case made by George Bush when he was president , Clinton said he was convinced the Chinese would take more steps to improve human rights if the issue were separated from the threat of trade sanctions . `` This decision offers us the best opportunity to lay the basis for long-term sustainable progress on human rights and for the advancement of our other interests with China , '' he said at a news conference announcing his decision to extend China 's most-favored-nation ( MFN ) trade status . To demonstrate what he stressed was his administration 's continuing concern about human rights in China , Clinton said he was banning the import of Chinese munitions and taking several other small steps to support the pro-democracy cause in China . But his action stopped well short of appeals by Senate Majority Leader George J. Mitchell , D-Maine , and Rep. Nancy Pelosi , D-Calif. , for selected sanctions on some Chinese products as a way to penalize China for failing to improve human rights . Both said they would introduce legislation that continues a link between trade privileges and human rights improvements . `` I disagree with the decision , '' Mitchell said of Clinton 's move . `` This decision will confirm for the regime the success of its policy of repression on human rights and manipulation on trade . '' Several other Democratic senators , however , issued statements of support and said they would join Clinton in Congress in resisting legislation to alter the trade status . Sen. Sam Nunn , D-Ga. , said that the decision reflected a key role China can play in geopolitics , specifically `` maintaining stability on the Korean peninsula and preventing the proliferation of nuclear weapons . '' Clinton had been the subject of heavy lobbying by American business interests and his economic advisers to continue China 's trade privileges . With China now the world 's fastest growing economy , the United States exports $ 8 billion a year there , which sustains up to 150,000 American jobs . Many major American businesses see even greater potential in Chinese markets , expecting China to become a massive purchaser over the next decade of the phones , electronic gadgets and thousands of other products made in America . `` I think we have to see our relations with China within a broader context '' than simply human rights , Clinton said , adding that the link between rights and trade was no longer tenable . `` We have reached the end of the usefulness of that policy , '' he said . Human rights groups and a strong lobby in Congress had pressed Clinton to adhere to the goal he set last year in an executive order that made renewal of China 's MFN status dependent on `` overall significant progress '' in human rights . Clinton in his presidential campaign had sharply attacked Bush for extending trade privileges to China in the years following the 1989 crackdown on pro-democracy activists in Beijing 's Tiananmen Square , accusing him of `` coddling criminals . '' But Clinton said Thursday he has had a change of heart . `` Let me ask you the same question I have asked myself , '' he said . `` Will we do more to advance the cause of human rights if China is isolated . '' What the United States policy should be , he added , is `` to intensify and broaden its relations '' with Beijing , not isolate it . He acknowledged that the one sanction he was imposing the ban on imports of guns and ammunition from China involving about $ 200 million in sales constituted little more than a `` discrete '' symbol of U.S. displeasure . Most weapons are made by the Peoples Liberation Army , agent of the 1989 crackdown that set off congressional calls for revoking China 's trade status . The other measures he announced include increased broadcasts for Radio-Free Asia and the Voice of America , increased support for non-governmental organizations working on human rights in China and the development with U.S. business leaders of a voluntary set of principles for business activity in China . Clinton 's decision came after an intensive , sometimes fractious , debate within the administration over what steps to take and how . At one point , the president was leaning toward extending the trade privileges , but putting sanctions on a range of military-made products . The Treasury and Defense departments vehemently objected , and from the outset the president 's economic advisers argued that trade and human rights should not be linked . In assessing China 's human rights record over the past year , Secretary of State Warren Christopher reported to Clinton earlier this week that China had made progress in allowing emigration and had begun complying with an agreement that produces investigations of the use of prison labor in making Chinese goods . But Christopher also concluded that the Chinese had not made progress in complying with the Universal Declaration of Human Rights , in providing an acceptable accounting for political and religious prisoners and in treating them humanely . He also found no change in China 's repression of Tibet and no end to China 's jamming broadcasts by the Voice of America . In TOBACCO ( Cimons , Times ) sub for 7th graf ( deleting `` first '' ) xxx grants : The existence of such `` special projects '' was reported in Thursday 's Los Angeles Times . PICK UP 8th graf : Glenn , xxx : With a few tightenings of the national credit spigot , the Federal Reserve Board already seems to have achieved one of its goals for 1994 : The central bank has converted more than a few mutual fund investors into models of financial conservatism . That is apparent in the latest report on fund investment activity from the industry 's chief trade group , the Investment Company Institute . The ICI said Thursday that gross purchases of stock and bond fund shares totaled $ 40.6 billion in April , down sharply from $ 53.4 billion in March and even below the pace of $ 41.1 billion in April 1993 . Net new cash flow , which measures fund purchases minus redemptions and after adjustment for net exchanges among funds in the same families , was $ 11.3 billion for stock funds in April , a rebound from March 's depressed $ 6.6 billion but still below the $ 11.7 billion of April 1993 . For bond funds , net new cash flow was a negative $ 4.8 billion in April , compared with a negative $ 7.7 billion in March and a positive $ 10 billion in April 1993 . The seeming contradiction in the numbers above gross fund purchases were down between March and April , but net cash flow improved actually is easily explained . Overall , investors ' appetite for funds declined in April . But because fewer investors redeemed shares in April than March , cash flow was better . This month , fund companies report a further easing of the panic that had gripped some fund investors in March and April , when markets convulsed because of the Fed 's decision to raise short-term interest rates for the first time in five years . Redemptions are down again in May , and a respectable number of people are buying funds . But what 's in demand are mostly the kind of stock funds traditionally favored by conservative , long-term investors , some fund companies say . Meanwhile , bond funds many of which have dropped more sharply in value than stock funds this year still appear to be losing money , though at a slower pace than in March and April . At fund giant Fidelity Investments in Boston , spokesman Neal Litvack says net new cash flow into the company is expected to total $ 1.5 billion this month , up from $ 1.3 billion in April . But more than 90 percent of this month 's cash flow is going into stock funds , Litvack says . Bond funds are basically flat , he says , meaning money coming in is just replacing the money that 's leaving . Significantly , Litvack says , Fidelity investors now are shying away from small-stock funds and `` sector '' funds that target stocks of specific industries . Instead , the company 's most popular stock funds this month are conservative names such as the Blue Chip fund and the Puritan fund , which are marketed as long-term holdings for relatively cautious investors . Similarly , at the Kemper mutual funds in Chicago , the best-selling investment this month is the Total Return fund , a balanced ( stock and bond ) fund that is having its best month in a year . In contrast , Kemper said that its U.S. . Government Securities bond fund has continued to experience redemptions this month . Small investors ' ongoing interest in blue-chip stock funds and in balanced funds , while pure bond funds suffer , may not seem like evidence of a turn to conservatism . After all , academics would typically argue that bonds are more conservative investments than stocks , at least in the long run . But the problem in the bond market by late last year was that almost everyone had come to believe that interest rates only went down . Speculation in bonds was rampant , in large part because many bond owners didn't even know they were speculating : They really didn't think they could lose money in bonds . In tightening credit this year , the Fed had more in mind than slowing the economy . The central bank also wanted to slow the tidal wave of money inflating stock and bond prices , before U.S. markets began to look like a rerun of Japan , 1989 . From mutual fund sales trends since March , it 's clear that investors have gotten the message . What is evident is that many investors in stocks understand the risks , and are comfortable with them , so they 're still buying ( albeit conservatively ) . The continuing outflow of money from bond funds , however , suggests that there still are many people who either didn't understand bonds ' risks , or finally do understand and no longer want to be a part of that game . WASHINGTON As a make-or-break summer approaches , the White House is trying to quell a growing sense of panic among Democrats that President Clinton 's signature legislative goal on health care is stalled in Congress and that the party now seems certain to suffer serious losses in the November midterm elections . Democratic National Chairman David Wilhelm , after meeting with Democratic House leaders Thursday , told Newsday that the DNC would launch a $ 5 million ad campaign in about a month to boost momentum on health care as the legislation moves to the floor of the House and Senate . But at the moment no one knows whether the legislation will get through the key congressional committees by then all five of them already have missed their informal Memorial Day deadline or what the bill will include . `` The number of different views far exceeds the number of senators , '' Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell , D-Maine , said . Meanwhile , Clinton has trouble on other fronts . An important ally , Rep. Dan Rostenkowski , D-Ill. , is expected to step down as House Ways and Means chairman next week when he is either indicted or accepts a plea bargain on corruption charges . A lingering problem will be revived with the threat by Sen. Alfonse D' Amato , R-N.Y. , that Senate Republicans will hold all legislation hostage until Whitewater hearings have been scheduled . Thursday , after special counsel Robert Fiske Jr. appealed anew for restraint from lawmakers , Speaker Thomas S. Foley , D-Wash. , said that the House would conduct no Whitewater hearings before late July . There was another embarrassing fillip Thursday when White House administration director David Watkins was forced to resign after reports he had taken a Marine helicopter to play golf at a suburban course . `` I think we now have real problems , '' a senior Democrat and Clinton ally said . `` If we get bogged down on the two parts of the domestic agenda that really defined his being a new Democrat welfare reform and health care I think we go into the ( 1994 ) elections quite weak . And I think he is the issue . '' The loss in a special election Tuesday of a Kentucky House seat that Democrats had held for 129 years has fueled `` political panic '' among congressional Democrats , he added . `` A lot of them don't think they 're going to be there in January if they 're too closely identified with the president , '' he said . But Wilhelm said it was simply `` a wake-up call '' that should propel Democrats to enact a health care package before going home to campaign . There are White House officials who view the situation as just another chapter in a Perils-of-Pauline presidency that has become accustomed to averting disaster at the last possible moment . The next 10 weeks are described by some as the period that may well determine whether Clinton 's term ultimately will be seen as successful . He staked much of his 1992 campaign on changing the health care system and has championed it over any other goal , including welfare revision . Now administration officials figure congressional committees must finish their work by July 1 so the House and Senate can vote before they adjourn in mid-August for summer recess . Otherwise , they say , no plan is likely to be enacted this year , and the prospects next year will be worse . ( Optional add end ) It is a sign of Clinton 's weakened position that Democratic congressional leaders have told the White House not to become engaged in negotiating the compromise package . `` The label ` Clinton Health Care Plan ' has become a net negative , '' Republican pollster William McInturff warned . A key ally on health care said : `` If we are lucky enough to get something out of committee and we do need some luck the kiss of death would be for the Clinton administration to embrace it as their own . The only way a majority of members can vote for this on the floor of either the House or the Senate is to wave the piece of paper and say , ` This is not the Clinton bill. ' ' ' WASHINGTON On May 5 , as part of a long-awaited Clinton administration policy initiative , the Pentagon announced its willingness to share the U.S. costs of U.N. peacekeeping , and it set aside $ 300 million of its 1995 budget for such operations . Now the Defense Department 's top military brass are quietly cooperating with a Republican-led effort in Congress to torpedo the expenditure it promised , according to State Department , Pentagon and congressional sources . House Republican Whip Newt Gingrich of Georgia , with the support of key Democratic allies of the military , has proposed an amendment to the Defense Authorization Bill that would prohibit the Defense Department from spending any of its $ 275 billion budget on peacekeeping . Although the $ 300 million budget item for peacekeeping is a Clinton administration proposal , a senior State Department official said the Pentagon is `` playing a double-game , '' indirectly helping efforts to block that expenditure after agreeing to it for the first time . `` Let 's say they 've made it clear to their friends they would not be unhappy if the amendment succeeds , '' the official said . If it does , a critical part of President Clinton 's directive last month aimed at setting guidelines for U.S. participation in the growing number of U.N. peacekeeping operations would be crippled , officials said . `` There is no doubt that if this amendment passes it would severely hurt a crucial element '' of the president 's plan , '' said the State Department official , who asked to remain anonymous . The United States has come under considerable criticism from the United Nations and other international organizations for its opposition to sending its armed forces to participate in peacekeeping operations , preferring to leave that to other nations . And the United States , while insisting on a larger voice in U.N. peacekeeping and humanitarian operations , is more than $ 1.1 billion behind in paying its share of the peacekeeping budget . The Clinton administration designed its initiative so that the United States could at least offer funds , if not manpower , and pay the United Nations what it owes . And because the Pentagon wanted to exercise some influence over operations in which U.S. forces might become involved , the Defense Department agreed to a policy of `` shared reponsibility , '' contributing part of the U.S. assessment along with the State Department , which has been responsible for all of Washington 's peacekeeping bills until now . Without the $ 300 million from the Pentagon budget , said the State Department official , `` we will have to look elsewhere for the money , but it is unlikely that we will be able to pay what we owe . '' ( Optional add end ) Sources said the measure blocking all Pentagon spending on peacekeeping may have enough support to pass , and its opponents have put off a vote until after the Memorial Day recess . The White House has been of little help in pushing its own position , said the congressional aide , partly because Clinton 's policies on peacekeeping have been ambiguous . The State Department is hoping that if the measure passes the House , it will be defeated in the Senate where Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Sam Nunn of Georgia is said to be more supportive of the initiative . The caning movement , like an infestation of crabgrass , seems to be taking deep root in America , inspired by the example of the government of Singapore where the criminal code is to this day inspired by the example of its former imperial masters . That the idea of caning youthful offenders in America should be born of a practice originally instituted by insufferable British colonial administrators to maintain order among their non-white subjects is , to say the least , weird . But I suppose we must take it seriously . A member of the California Assembly has introduced a bill requiring parents to paddle juvenile graffiti vandals in the presence of a judge who could order a bailiff to take over if the whacks weren't severe enough . A Sacramento City Council member has proposed a similar municipal ordinance . A St. Louis alderman is pushing yet another law prescribing three to four lashes . How long can it be before the school board down in Tavares , Fla. institutes caning of any pupil who doesn't agree to the superiority of American culture above all others ? Backers of public caning and its variations claim it would have the salutary effect of humbling and embarrassing young miscreants who might laugh off a week in jail . They are curiously off base . To begin with , caning is a pre-19th century concept which ignores the vast technological advancements which have been made in pain infliction with the invention of electrodes that can be attached to strategic parts of the body to cause excruciating discomfort and humiliation without the danger of tissue injury and permanent scarring . And while we 're talking about violent punishment for non-violent crimes , how about white collar offenses ? What is it about people that makes the idea of hitting somebody so attractive when it is done to the young ? Surely caning , if administered to perpetrators of securities fraud , would have a humbling effect , make them look silly to their peers and perhaps induce them to behave . Why not cane the stuffing out of middle-aged speeders ? Might teach them a lesson too . What graffiti vandal is going to be convinced of the justness of his punishment if he reads that Flagstar Companies , the owner of Denny 's restaurants , with annual revenues of $ 1.53 billion , gets off with a $ 54 million judgment to settle racial bias suits . The systematic offenses described by black customers of Denny 's were somehow more crude , unkind , mindless and antisocial than any picture you can imagine of a young lout having his say with a spray can . Anyway , Flagstar 's stock declined a mere 37 cents a share on news of the settlement which suggests a little punitive paddling might have been thrown in as a highly instructive example to the nation 's would-be bigots . If we were really serious about stamping out graffiti , we might ban the manufacture of spray cans and see how quickly these young fools get bored with the mess and bother of carrying around brushes and rollers . It was , after all , the aerosol can that made the graffiti explosion possible . Before then , teen-agers carved their names on trees or scribbled in pencil on bathroom stalls . Also we might get a little perspective and try to imagine a society in which graffiti vandalism was the worst of teen-age crimes , a society in which 13-year-olds did not rape , murder and mug . Who of us these days wouldn't settle for it over what we 've got ? LOOKING BACK Speaking of Memorial Day , I checked back to see where the Dow Jones industrial average closed on the day before the end-of-May holiday in past years . Last year 3,527.43 ; five years ago 2,475.55 ; a decade ago 1,107.10 ; 20 years ago 815.65 and 50 years ago 141.24 . LOOKING AHEAD `` Not used to the market 's wild daily swings ? Better put on a Dramamine patch . History suggests that this could be a very volatile year . The past two years were the least volatile since World War II , and it 's interesting to note that nine of the 10 single or low-volatility periods were followed by a high-volatility year , where the trading range exceeded 23 percent . Translation : We could see a 900-point range between the Dow high and low this year . '' ( InvesTech newsletter ) IT 'S YOUR MONEY `` The holdings of your bond fund may surprise you . There is a good chance today that any bond fund you buy , or may have bought , has gone beyond plain vanilla bonds into exotic securities known as derivatives . The use of derivatives concocted and complicated instruments based on the value of some underlying security is growing by leaps and bounds . Used blindly by a fund manager , they certainly can increase the risk of a mutual fund investment . '' ( Financial World ) Ticker suggestion : Ask a lot of questions and read the prospectus carefully before buying any bond fund . THE DARK SIDE `` In the eight major declines we 've had since the end of World War II , the Dow Jones utilities have fallen roughly 88.5 percent as much as the industrials . The utilities peaked last August 31 , and between that time and May 12 of this year , they lost a bit over 31 percent . Therefore , even if the recent low of 177.04 turns out to be the final low for the Dow Jones utility average , the Dow industrials will likely decline another 1,062 points to a final bottom of 2,598 in late July before the bear market is over . '' ( Michael O' Higgins , O' Higgins Asset Management , in Barron 's , May 23 ) SUN ALSO RISES `` The aggressive growth sector of the market is presently making a very significant bottom , and this should set up a very nice advance in that area and the market as a whole this summer . '' ( Walter Deemer 's Strategies and Insights ) .. . `` When bonds and utilities start acting better , the stock market willn't be far behind . By our calculations , the tightening phase of the Fed should be almost over with . '' ( Wall Street Generalist ) . FRANKFURT , Germany Kissing their parents goodbye , hugging lunch boxes and notebooks , 300 Jewish children pour into the I.E. Lichtigfeld primary school each morning through an iron gate and electric doors with bomb-proof glass . Police patrol the streets around the school in the city 's lush West End neighborhood while video cameras monitor its hallways . Inside , a few boys don yarmulkes and sit down with girls in ponytails for reading , writing and arithmetic , Hebrew and Judaism . Throughout their lessons , the children address the particular dilemma of being German and Jewish . `` In history classes , we speak of their families . They know their parents didn't have any aunts and uncles or grandparents , '' said Alexa Brum , director of Frankfurt 's only Jewish school . `` They also know that after awhile they will have to go out to gymnasium ( public high school ) , '' she said . `` We teach them that it is absolutely normal to be Jewish and that they should be proud proud people who eventually have to decide if they want to integrate into this society or go elsewhere . Someday , they must make a decision . '' To stay or leave , integrate or isolate . These are the questions that plagued the Holocaust survivors who settled in Germany after the Nazi extermination of 6 million European Jews , and that once again weigh on their children and grandchildren who see a resurgence of anti-Semitism . Frankfurt is one of the most ethnically diverse cities in Germany and is home to a quarter of the republic 's 40,000 Jews . But even here , Jews say they increasingly feel unwelcome in their own country and , occasionally , threatened . Unified Germany is experiencing a growing sense of national pride that frightens many Jews for whom nationalism harks back to the Third Reich . They see Europe 's most powerful country increasingly anxious that it will be diminished by European unity . And they watch a small but emboldened radical right finding resonance among Germans who seek someone to blame for their severe economic problems including the highest unemployment since World War II . In this climate , post-war taboos against racism and anti-Semitism are breaking down : In the last two years , Turkish immigrants have been killed in arson attacks by rightists in Moeln and Solingen ; scores of Germans watched and applauded as arsonists set fire to a home for foreign asylum-seekers in Rostock , and only two weeks ago , a mob of rightists and hooligans attacked Africans and destroyed a restaurant owned by Turks in Magdeburg . Once-anonymous hate mail has been sent to Jewish leaders with unabashed signatures . And neo-Nazis fire-bombed the synagogue in Luebeck on the eve of Passover the first such attack since the Nazis ' Kristallnacht rampage against Jews in 1938 . After the synagogue-burning , radical-rightist politician and former SS officer Franz Schoenhuber said Frankfurt 's Jewish leaders are to blame for anti-Semitism in Germany . `` The rats have come out of the holes , '' Brum said . `` There has always been anti-Semitism , but now they dare to say it out loud and dare to throw bombs . '' About half a million Jews lived in Germany before the Nazis were voted into power in 1933 . Nine years later , the 30,000-member Jewish community in Frankfurt was officially decreed to have been eradicated . It had been a vibrant community of well-to-do German Jews who contributed financially and culturally to the city bankers , industrialists and intellectuals from the so-called Frankfurt School of social scientists and of Polish immigrants who provided craftsmen and laborers . Liberal Frankfurt even had a Jewish mayor . `` Jews were not just tolerated , they were accepted , '' said Jewish author Valentin Senger . `` They were a part of Frankfurt . '' Within a couple years , the Nazis turned the city against Jews , Gypsies and anyone who did not fit the Aryan ideal , and carted them off to concentration camps . Senger 's apparently was the only Jewish family to survive the Third Reich in Frankfurt , passing as non-Jews and working in the Resistance . After the war , the British and Americans set up displaced persons camps in Germany for survivors of Adolf Hitler 's concentration camps . One of them , Zeilsheim , provided the base for Frankfurt 's post-war Jewish community , which today numbers about 6,500 . Most of the settlers were merchants and craftsmen from small Jewish communities in Poland who never meant to remain in Germany . They had children and reluctantly put down roots , reopening the synagogue , a community center , a home for the elderly , a school for their children . But they were always `` sitting on packed bags '' because they wished to leave or believed that one day they might have to leave . They wanted nothing to do with Germans , whom they considered immoral . Thus , the children of survivors were raised in a Jewish ghetto of post-war Germany with all its contradictions . Their youth organizations encouraged them to move to Israel . Their parents would not let them date Gentiles . But they went to German high schools , spoke German , held German passports . They were citizens of Germany exempted from military service as the offspring of Nazi victims . `` It was schizophrenic , '' said David Lieberberg , managing director of the popular music department at Frankfurt 's Old Opera House . `` My parents were always proud when I 'd come home from school with A's in German . '' But the minute his sister was caught with a German boyfriend , she was sent away to Israel . ( Begin optional trim ) Largely Protestant and Roman Catholic Germany is a country with strict norms governing appearance and behavior . Jews generally have different biblical names and darker complexions . They celebrate different religious holidays . And because of this , German-born Jews are frequently asked where they come from . In adolescence , many children of survivors began to challenge their parents : Why did you come to Germany ? Why did you stay ? Their parents did not have answers . They had stayed because they had stayed . Frankfurt Jews first emerged from isolation in the fall of 1985 in what became known internationally as the Fassbinder Affair . Reiner Werner Fassbinder 's play `` Garbage , the City and Death '' was to be staged at a local theater , and Frankfurt 's Jews were outraged by a work they judged to be anti-Semitic . On opening night , they occupied the stage and closed the play down . For some , the public controversy marked the coming of age of the German Jewish community . For others , it was another way of hiding , of quieting public discussion . In either case , it marked the emergence of Jewish leaders who believed that Jews were in Germany to stay and must interact with the community at large . ( End optional trim ) To stay or leave , integrate or isolate . Younger Jews began to make peace with their German heritage and to accept that they belonged to two cultures . Their bags were unpacked they meant to stay in Germany . `` I grew up here , went to school here , read German books , German is my mother tongue , '' said Josse Reich , 31 , the son of Holocaust survivors . `` I make fun of the Germans . I imitate them very well because I am them . '' At the Lichtigfeld school , children sing Jewish songs and celebrate their heritage unfazed by the tight security measures around them . But director Brum notes that 400 Russian Jewish families that were supposed to emigrate to Frankfurt this year have not arrived . Many stayed in Russia or moved to Israel because they fear anti-Semitism in Germany . Brum , meanwhile , bought a small summer house in France a couple years ago that she says gives her family a sense of security a place to go `` if something happens '' in Germany . And many Jews born and raised in Frankfurt are beginning to ask themselves whether they should raise their children here . `` I don't want my children to live in fear , '' David Lieberberg worried aloud . `` I am German . I feel very German , '' added Reich . `` But since having a daughter a year ago , I don't know if I really want to stay now . '' MANAGUA , Nicaragua The last time President Violeta Barrios de Chamorro tried to fire Gen. Humberto Ortega , the powerful army chief lashed out publicly at government officials for having `` sold out '' to pressure from Washington . He refused to budge . Months later , Ortega has finally agreed to step down , having successfully delayed his retirement date by more than a year . The Ortega episode underscores the difficulties the Chamorro government has experienced as it struggles to bring the army , dominated by leftist Sandinistas , under civilian control . `` Nicaragua will have for the first time in its history a national army , clearly subordinated to civilian power , committed to the Constitution , that does not belong and is not subordinated to the interests of any political party or social class , '' Chamorro said in a ceremony last week to announce Ortega 's departure . `` The years of armies that belong to parties , which made the birth of democracy so difficult in Nicaragua , are now behind us . '' In addition to changing the army chief , the government has finally drafted a long-awaited military code that for the first time gives the president formal authority over the army commander . It also sets term limits for senior officers . Still , despite Chamorro 's stated intentions , Sandinista influence on the army will not end with Ortega 's departure next year . His likely successor is Maj. Gen. Joaquin Cuadra , another veteran Sandinista . And the entire officers corps remains Sandinista . Chamorro defeated former President Daniel Ortega , Humberto 's brother , and the Sandinista Front in presidential elections in 1990 . She named herself Defense Minister but stunned her followers by retaining Humberto Ortega as army chief , saying his presence was necessary to ensure the peaceful downsizing of Nicaragua 's huge military apparatus . U.S. officials and Chamorro 's conservative critics denounced that decision , arguing that continued Sandinista control of the army would forever limit the civilian president 's ability to govern . Demanding Ortega 's removal , the critics maintained that the army could not become a professional and non-political force as long as he and other key Sandinistas remained in top positions . Sandinista domination of security forces was one of the reasons the United States gave for withholding millions of dollars in aid last year . Chamorro tried to dump Ortega in September , when she announced his retirement at an Army Day ceremony . Shocked and furious , Ortega stormed up to the president and said she had exceeded her authority . She could not remove him , he told her . But now the two have negotiated what the Sandinista newspaper Barricada called `` a dignified withdrawal . '' Ortega will formally step down on Feb. 21 , 1995 , the 100th anniversary of the birth of Augusto Cesar Sandino , the guerrilla who fought U.S. Marines occupying Nicaragua in the 1920s and 1930s and for whom the Sandinista National Liberation Front is named . ( Optional add end ) `` The military has professed to be professional and non-political , and at the same time we know that the whole corps of officers is Sandinista , '' said a diplomat . `` It will be up to them to show they are professional and non-political . '' The Sandinista People 's Army swelled to become the largest army in Central America during the 1980s , as it battled U.S.-backed Contra rebels . It has been reduced dramatically , according to government figures , from more than 85,000 troops to 14,000 . It is not completely clear what finally forced Ortega to accept retirement now . However , he has told Nicaraguan reporters that he is interested eventually in running for president . TORONTO Canada is being dragged reluctantly into a new confrontation over the future of French-speaking Quebec . In the last two weeks , political leaders and commentators across Canada have lobbed rhetorical grenades at each other over the revived prospect of Quebec independence . Two factors have pushed Quebec back to the top of the national political agenda . First is the pending provincial election there , which by law must take place by fall . Virtually every poll shows the separatist Parti Quebecois leading the governing Liberal Party . PQ leader Jacques Parizeau has promised to begin laying the groundwork for separation immediately upon his election and to hold a province-wide referendum on independence within 10 months of taking office . Second is the peripatetic Lucien Bouchard , leader of the Bloc Quebecois , the PQ 's separatist counterpart in the federal government in Ottawa . Bouchard has become an international evangelist for separatism . Last week , Bouchard was in Paris seeking assurance of quick French recognition of an independent Quebec . He did not get it , at least publicly , but he did get saturation coverage in the Canadian media . Earlier this month , he preached his separatist message in British Columbia and Alberta , the Canadian political equivalent of proselytizing for vegetarianism at a Texas cattlemen 's convention . Most of the resulting argument has focused not on whether Quebec ought to be allowed to secede most Canadians agree that 's for Quebecers to decide but what the terms of separation ought to be : What would the boundaries of the new country look like ? Should the native peoples of Quebec be permitted to opt out of independence and keep their lands in Canada ? What kind of economic relationship would Canada have with a sovereign Quebec ? The commentary suggests that this could be a very nasty divorce indeed . `` To hell with common sense , one-sided decency and compromise . You don't win a country that way and you shouldn't lose one , either , '' stormed columnist Peter C. Newman in the national news weekly Maclean 's . In media interviews , British Columbia Premier Michael Harcourt predicted that his province would be `` the worst of enemies '' with an independent Quebec . Saskatchewan Premier Roy Romanow accused separatist leaders of pulling a `` con job '' on Quebec voters by suggesting that separation would be simple and painless . Ron Irwin , minister of Indian Affairs , declared that the federal government would back native organizations that repudiated Quebec independence . Prime Minister Jean Chretien , who like his predecessors for 25 of the past 26 years is from Quebec , has sought to avoid the issue , saying he remains confident his fellow Quebecers ultimately will reject separation . That prompted Preston Manning of Alberta , leader of the opposition Reform Party , to accuse the government this week of `` sleepwalking toward a .. . constitutional crisis . '' ( Optional add end ) Quebec separatists argue that their French language and culture cannot survive so long as they are a minority amid an English-speaking majority . The province 's relationship with the rest of the country has been a political tripwire throughout Canadian history . The traditional strategy has been to defuse it through compromise , but the most recent attempts have failed acrimoniously . The 1990 Meech Lake agreement and the 1992 Charlottetown accord ( both named for the places they were negotiated ) proposed constitutional reforms aimed at securing Quebec 's special status within Canada . Both went unratified . In the end , most English-speaking Canadians thought Quebec was being given too much , and many Quebecers thought it was not enough . The result was the re-emergence of the Quebec independence movement after more than a decade in retreat and heightened hostility in the rest of the country , especially the West . Analysts are divided on how the latest arguments might affect the upcoming Quebec election . Quebec voters have a history of unpredictability . In 1976 , they elected the late Rene Levesque , father of the separatist movement , premier . But four years later they voted down Levesque 's province-wide referendum on sovereignty . Current polls show they might do it again . While the PQ is ahead of the Liberals , the surveys also show much more uncertainty about full separation . A poll over the weekend showed 52 percent opposed to independence . It could all add up to a year of wrenching political combat . WASHINGTON The top U.S. spokesman for Jaguar , the British luxury carmaker , has been suspended for using the word `` nigger '' at a Washington luncheon meeting with journalists who cover the auto industry . Jaguar Vice President John Crawford was suspended Wednesday by Jaguar 's owner , Ford Motor Co. , pending completion of an internal investigation of the incident . A Ford spokesman said it did not learn of the incident until Tuesday night , explaining that Jaguar 's public relations operation is independent of Dearborn , Mich.-based Ford . Ford officials called the incident `` unfortunate '' and said both companies deeply regret it . `` It 's a very unpleasant situation ; the facts are fairly straightforward , '' a Ford spokesman said Thursday . But he said the case goes beyond the mere facts . `` There is a governance issue with regard to our own company , '' he said . During a discussion of the federal luxury car tax in the United States , Crawford referred to rival Mercedes-Benz as `` the biggest nigger in the woodpile . '' The incident was reported in Wednesday 's editions of USA Today . Crawford has sent letters of apology to each reporter present at the luncheon , acknowledging that he was guilty of `` gross insensitivity . '' He said the offending phrase was one that was commonly used in his native Australia and it `` just slipped out . '' Washington Post reporter Warren Brown , who attended the May 12 meeting and was the only black in the room , said `` the phrasing was offensive . The context wasn't . '' Brown said Crawford was reaching for examples to show how different sides were lining up over the auto luxury-tax issue . `` In doing so , he used an unfortunate phrase , '' Brown said , `` comparing a competitor to `` the nigger in the woodpile . ' It was clear , from the context of his comment , that he meant no offense to me or any other black person . He later apologized . I accepted . '' NEW YORK A day after top banking regulators told Congress they didn't want more legislative authority to supervise financial derivatives , two congressmen have introduced a bill to do precisely that . House Banking Committee Chairman Henry B . Gonzalez , D-Tex. , and ranking Republican Rep. Jim Leach of Iowa initiated a bill to protect the financial system and ensure that taxpayers will not have to bail out banks that might fail in a financial crisis because of large derivatives obligations . Banks sell the complex , risk-laden financial instruments to corporations and speculators that are looking either to protect their investments ' value or to take big bets . Unlike stocks , derivatives are contracts that do not entitle holders to any stake in a business or its profits , but rather pay off if certain indexes reach designated levels . Gonzalez and Leach worry that banks eager for hefty fees from such deals might enter contracts with questionable partners and lose vast amounts of money as banks and savings and loan associations did in real estate loans in the 1980s . The bill largely codifies regulatory steps some banking regulators are already taking . `` The key is that they should take a uniform approach to regulating and supervising derivatives activities , '' said a banking committee spokesman . Congressional sources said the bill 's chances of passage were unclear . The following editorial appeared in Friday 's Washington Post : Dolphins are protected by an American law that , according to a panel of experts , violates the rules of international trade . This decision will now accelerate the attacks on the revision of trade rules that some 120 countries have negotiated and that Congress is supposed to take up later this year . Some environmental organizations will brandish the ruling to argue that trade agreements threaten to undercut the environmental protection laws . Some conservatives will use it to press their claim that the new trade agreement threatens American sovereignty . Both are wrong . The dolphins are safe . This trade agreement does not and cannot nullify American law on dolphins or anything else . But the United States may have to pay a price for enforcing this law . Why , environmentalists angrily ask , should the country pay a price for the privilege of doing good ? Since this case is turning into an ideological cause , it 's worth a careful look . Dolphins , in some parts of the Pacific , tend to swim above schools of tuna . Commercial fishermen throw-or used to throw-vast nets around the dolphins to get the tuna , killing all of them together . Congress enacted legislation that not only outlawed that practice among American fishermen but banned imports of foreign tuna caught that way . It 's the ban that violates the trade rules . The General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade says one country can't penalize goods from another because of the way they were produced . Why ? Because it creates much too easy an opportunity to invent high-minded reasons for flagrant protectionism . If there were an environmental exception , a lot of European farmers would love to ban American wheat exports to Europe on grounds that their American competitors benefit from a cheap oil policy that encourages wasted resources and global warming . An environmental exception would impose particularly high costs on the world 's largest exporter the United States . As a result , if the dolphin decision survives appeal , the United States will have to compensate the countries that are complaining . It can give them trade concessions equal to the value of the tuna sales they are losing . There 's also a better solution , and this case illustrates it . Two years ago most of the countries that fish for tuna in the Pacific agreed to protect the dolphins under a stringent schedule that will push dolphin kills down close to zero by the end of the decade . At that point , the trade issue will vanish . The world 's environment will be best protected by this kind of cooperation , not by trade fights . HOLLYWOOD Fox 's historic raid on eight CBS affiliates this week could cause serious problems for Paramount and Warner Bros. as they try to launch their own fifth networks next year . With CBS on the prowl to replace the affiliates it is losing in such key markets as Detroit , Atlanta and Cleveland , those stations that presently intend to align with Paramount 's or the WB network have become obvious targets , analysts say . `` Stations that were going to be a Paramount or WB affiliates now have the option of going with CBS , '' said Matt Shapiro , a vice president at MMT Sales Inc. , who advises stations on programming . `` You have to assume that , given the choice , somebody is going to go with an established network rather than a start-up . '' With the exception of Paramount 's announcement that it would use its spin-off `` Star Trek : Voyager '' series as the anchor for its network , neither company has disclosed much about its programming plans so far . The Paramount Network , which is a joint venture with TV station group Chris-Craft , plans to go on the air with two nights of programming in January . WB is starting with one night and says it will expand to two by the end of the year . Paramount and Warner Bros. have been competing to sign up independent TV stations around the country . So far Paramount has aligned with 36 affiliates covering 47 percent of U.S. TV homes , and WB has signed 22 affiliates along with cable TV channel WGN-TV that WB says will give it exposure to 73 percent of all TV homes . The problem is that there are only a limited number of TV stations in every market , so that an affiliation swap can set off a chain reaction of other switches . The smaller the market , the fewer the available outlets and the more likely that a Paramout or WB affiliate is at risk . Each of the major broadcast networks has slightly more than 200 affiliates , but the top 30 markets account for 50 percent of all TV households . Since the networks own the majority of affiliates in the top 10 markets , the battleground will be in the 10th to 30th biggest markets . For example , in St. Louis ( market No. 18 ) , the ABC affiliate KTVI-TV will become a Fox affiliate , forcing ABC to seek another outlet in that market . And in Phoenix ( the 20th biggest market ) , WB has affiliated with KPHO-TV . Paramount will partner with KUTP , which will not change since the station is owned by its partner Chris-Craft . CBS affiliate KSAZ-TV will become the Fox affiliate , leaving CBS the choice of picking up former Fox partner KNXV-TV , which is on Channel 15 , or going after the more desirable KPHO-TV , Channel 5 . Should CBS make a run on the ABC or NBC affiliates , whichever network is dislodged would also likely go after KPHO-TV before seeking the UHF independents in the market . Jamie Kellner , the former president of Fox Broadcasting who was integral in launching the fourth network and is now president of WB , said fears that the Fox raid on CBS affiliates will affect either WB or Paramount is `` silly . '' Kellner said the four other networks have already picked off `` the best stations , '' and CBS will `` poach '' ABC and NBC affiliates . But the situation promises to get even more complicated in the months ahead . Fox Chairman Rupert Murdoch has told his station executives that he wants VHF affiliates in all of the top 30 markets . Murdoch has been trying to get Westinghouse to sell to Fox its TV stations in Philadelphia , San Francisco and Baltimore all but one NBC affiliates but Westinghouse so far has refused . Some expect him to buy the Philadelphia station , however . And CBS , badly shaken by the surprise attack on its affiliates , was rumored Thursday to be mounting a counter bid for Argyle Television Holding Inc. , part of the group of four TV stations that New World Communications Group is assembling to own 12 Fox affiliates . CBS Broadcast Group President Howard Stringer , while downplaying the effect the raid would have on the network , said Thursday in a meeting with reporters that CBS would consider investing minority stakes in TV stations to secure affiliation agreements signaling the affiliate wars are far from over . Forget about Fred and Barney . If you really want to gauge how deeply the Flintstone phenomenon is ingrained on the American psyche , sing a few bars of `` Meet the Flintstones '' and see how many people join in . Even more impressive is the consistent quality of the other music featured on the original TV show . Skim through `` The Flintstones : Modern Stone-Age Melodies '' ( Rhino 71649 ) , and odds are you 'll know half the songs by heart , from the zippy `` Car Hop Song '' to the dippy `` Open Up Your Heart and Let the Sun Shine In . '' As such , the real challenge facing the movie sound track `` The Flintstones : Music from Bedrock '' ( MCA 11045 ) is how to update the old songs without losing their charm in the process . Frankly , it 's harder than it looks . Although the aptly renamed BC-52 's try to get into the spirit of the thing , their `` ( Meet ) the Flintstones '' owes more of its charm to the vintage sound bites than to the overwrought yowling of Kate Pierson and Fred Schneider . Worse , the only other songs on the album that come close to being memorable are borrowed oldies like `` Walk the Dinosaur '' by Was Not Was or `` Weird Al '' Yankovic 's hysterical Red Hot Chili Peppers parody , `` Bedrock Anthem . '' -0- Because Erasure owes its reputation to a mix of synthesized soul and over-the-top pop , it 's hard to think of the duo as being especially subtle ; the campy tribute of `` Abba-esque '' seems far more in character . But not only does `` I Say I Say I Say '' ( Mute/Elektra 61633 ) bring an unexpected warmth to the group 's steady-as-a-second-hand pulse , it infuses the music with a genuinely affecting romanticism . Naturally , much of that has to do with Andy Bell 's lusciously expressive singing , which adds an enormous amount of heart to everything , from the warm , soaring chorus of `` Always '' to the soulful strains of `` Take Me Back . '' But it 's Vince Clarke 's canny electronics that ultimately carry the day , softening techno-edged groove of `` Run to the Sun '' and filling `` Blues Away '' with such warmth that it 's easy to forget he 's doing it all with synthesizers . A revelation . -0- There 's no denying that Heavy D and the Boyz command the respect of their peers , but is it really necessary to open `` Nuttin ' But Love '' ( MCA/Uptown 10998 ) with five minutes of famous friends paying their respects ? A far better start would be to jump straight to the sassy , bass-driven groove of `` Sex Wit You '' and take the album from there . True , the Heavster does rely a tad too much on the tried-and-true here , stressing his good-guy image and playing `` The Overweight Lover '' to the hilt . But just as `` Something Goin ' On '' puts a fresh spin on the `` Heartbeat '' bassline or `` Got Me Waiting '' manages to reinvent Luther Vandross ' `` Don't You Know That , '' the best moments here are entertaining despite their seeming conservatism . -0- If all Collective Soul had to offer on `` Hints Allegations and Things Left Unsaid '' ( Atlantic 82596 ) was `` Shine , '' the band 's debut would be well worth the money . Artfully combining the moody drama of post-R.E.M. . Southern rock with the over-amped grit of grunge , `` Shine '' is a pop gem , the sort of single you hear once in the morning and end up humming all day . But there 's more to the album than that . `` Love Lifted Me '' shows what the band learned from the Beatles songbook , `` Heaven 's Already Here '' is a pleasant throwback to the singer/songwriter era , and `` Goodnight , Good Guy '' roars in with a powerhouse chorus and an instantly memorable guitar hook . Granted , the rest is mostly filler , but on the whole , it 's a better beginning than most . Chrissie Hynde is afraid some people might have the wrong idea about her . She 's worried that they might have heard stories about her being a hard-nosed , domineering control freak or , worse , taken them as fact . They 're not . The leader of the Pretenders may be a lot of things feisty , plain-spoken , irreverent , even politically incorrect but a control freak ? Not hardly . `` I don't want to control my life , I want my life to control me , '' she says , over the phone from the New York offices of her record company . `` I 've always believed that if I allow my life to control me , then I can experience a great deal more than if I think that I 'm on top of it and I set my own agenda from year to year . '' That agenda doesn't always have to do with the usual rock 'n' roll priorities , either . At the moment , Hynde is in full road-mode , happily promoting her band 's new album and eager to start playing gigs again . But `` Last of the Independents '' is only the Pretenders ' second new album since 1987 , while this current outing marks the band 's first tour in eight years . `` I 've had other things to do for that eight years , '' she says , a mite defensively . `` It hasn't even been an option . '' She doesn't elaborate at least not right away . But as the conversation ambles on , she eventually admits that her chief priority for much of that time was to stay home and be a good mother to her two daughters . `` The last time I was on tour , I had two infants in baskets , '' she says . `` There was the coach with the band , and then there was the coach with me and the kids . I can't sleep in a coach , over night , but the kids could . So that would mean that by 8 o' clock in the morning , I 'd already be totally irritable , jarred , jangled from driving and having done a show and not sleeping . And then Mary Poppins would come on . You know ? Not my idea of a rock tour . '' So Hynde just `` chilled out altogether , and attended to my first consideration , which was looking after my children . But now I 'm freed up . I can kind of do it a little bit . So I 'm delighted . `` I mean , I adore my children above all else . Of course I do . But I 've got to rock . '' She pauses a second , and then adds , ominously , `` But ( the children ) have nothing to do with it . You willn't see them or hear from them . Nobody gets to meet them . Nobody has to know their name and who they are . And if anyone tries to .. . ' ' Hynde stops , trying to think up an appropriate threat . `` Well , I suggest just don't . '' Advice taken . Hynde admits that it 's a ticklish situation for her to be in . `` It 's a package , '' she says . `` They come with me , in many ways . But they 're , you know .. . ' ' Of course , nobody ever said being a rock 'n' roll grown-up would be easy . There are times , Hynde says , when she worries that others might find her enthusiasm for the music a tad unseemly for someone her age . But she 's certainly not going to let that stop her . `` I 'm in my 40s , and I love it more than ever , '' she enthuses . `` So I will enjoy it . I 'll still go out and buy pop papers . No one can stop me , it 's not illegal . If I want to say I love Urge Overkill and everyone turns around and says , ` Well , you 're retarded , ' fine . So be it . Allow me to be a rock 'n' roll retard for the rest of my life . `` Bear in mind that , after all , I am just a girl from Akron , Ohio . Like , I 'm nobody . And I can now stay in hotels in New York and stuff ? '' She laughs , clearly delighted . `` I mean , my friends in Akron can't go and stay in a hotel in New York and just hang out and do the things that I do . They have to like , get to work in the morning and stuff . I caught the gold ring , man . '' ( Optional add end ) That 's one reason she doesn't mind many of the impositions that come with rock stardom . `` When I 'm asked to sign autographs and people say , ` isn't that a pain ? ' I say , ` No . ' When I write my name down on that piece of paper , I 'm signing a contract in my own mind that says , ` You do not have to go to work tomorrow . Sign here . ' `` I love this stuff , '' she continues . `` And I 've learned the art of pulling back and getting out of it as soon as it starts seeming a little bit monotonous , as soon as it starts feeling like a career . I don't want to make it sound that I 'm so superficial that I can say that it 's all just good fun , don't take it seriously , because I 've never met a musician who doesn't take it very seriously . `` But it is entertainment , after all . And I 've decided that if I 'm going to be in entertainment , then I want to be entertained , too . '' Back when the Beastie Boys first bum-rushed the popular consciousness , their detractors wanted to write them off as loudmouths with a lot of attitude but little real talent . Most figured the trio would be forgotten as soon as `` Fight for Your Right ( To Party ) '' fell off the charts . Guess again . Eight years later , the Beasties remain a force to be reckoned with , having expanded their horizons to include everything from a genre-jumping live show to a burgeoning media empire . Start with the musical end . Although a growing number of rap acts now work with a live band , the Beasties are among the few that actually are a band , an approach the Beasties used heavily on the 1992 album `` Check Your Head . '' `` When we made ` Check Your Head , ' we were just coming off having not played our instruments for a while , '' explains bassist Adam `` MCA '' Yauch , over the phone from a tour stop in Toronto . `` So it was all real new . But after we toured a lot , we got a lot more comfortable playing together as a band , with our percussion player and our keyboard player and everything . Things started jelling a little bit more . `` So when we went back into the studio to record the new album , it came a lot more naturally . It just happens a little easier when you 're playing together more . '' That album , `` Ill Communication '' ( which arrives in stores Tuesday ) , doesn't just benefit from a tighter band ; it also boasts the sort of stylistic prowess that allows the Beasties to move easily from rock to punk to old-school funk . Making music isn't the only thing the Beasties do these days , however . Among other things , the trio has launched its own magazine , Grand Royal . Although much of its content is music-oriented , the magazine is hardly as narrowly focused as mainstream periodicals , such as Spin or Vibe , as stories on George Clinton and the Pharcyde sit cheek by jowl with items on Bruce Lee , Joey Buttafuoco and Kiss . ( Optional add end ) `` I 'm surprised at how homogenized mainstream press is , '' says Yauch . `` It 's really directed at this one , watered-down thing that they think everyone 's interested in . I think that you need a little bit more of a personal touch on a lot of the stuff that 's going out these days . '' Part of that personal touch for Yauch is coverage of the political and cultural situation in Tibet . `` My personal feeling about it is that their approach to life and their way of understanding reality is well in advance of most Western understanding , '' he says . `` And one of the main reasons I think it 's such an important issue is ' cause , if we don't get our approach to technology in check pretty soon , we 're going to destroy the planet . I see Westerners as really immature , with a lot of dangerous toys . If we don't get our minds and thinking in check , we 'll basically blow up the planet . `` So it seems like a good time to turn to the Tibetans . '' It was a decade ago , in the early days of America 's love affair with the minivan , that General Motors launched the Astro to compete against Chrysler Corp. 's then nearly new Voyager and Caravan . Like the Ford Aerostar that arrived about the same time , the Astro is bigger than the Chrysler but never was serious competition for it . The success of the Chryslers , you see , was based not just on their ability to carry everything including the kitchen sink , but to do that and still ride comfortably and handle well enough to please people who don't much like driving trucks . The extended Astro , which is about 10 inches longer than the standard version , can carry about 20 cubic feet more stuff than the standard Astro , and 30 cubic feet more stuff than a stretched Chrysler , assuming all three vehicles have their second and third rows of seating removed . An Astro can tow a 5,500-pound trailer , 2,000 pounds heavier than any Chrysler will pull . So the Astro and nearly identical GMC Safari offer impressive advantages for a very reasonable price ; our tester , packed with comfort and convenience options , listed for $ 24,289 , with freight . The price one pays , unfortunately , for the Astro 's more trucklike capabilities is a jouncier ride and clumsier handling than is provided by the Chryslers or GM 's own Lumina/TransSport/Silhouette line , for that matter despite chassis refinements for '94 . Although we 'd rate the handling superior to that of any full-sized van , there 's more sway in cornering , more body shake and more rear axle hop on bumps than in the smaller minivans adding up to a sense of being less in control than you 'd like when traffic and road conditions are challenging . Back on the plus side , the all-wheel drive , costing $ 2,300 , is a modern , full-time system . No complaints about the engine , either ; even with a four-passenger load , hundreds of pounds of cargo , and the air conditioner going , it did an impressive job of maintaining speed on long interstate upgrades and of keeping itself cool . The automatic transmission works smoothly . Our tester 's four , extra-cost bucket seats proved comfortable even after several hours of driving . Controls and displays are well-designed , although sun glare sometimes makes the gauges difficult to read . Our tester 's `` dutch door '' tailgate , also at extra cost , is handy for loading in close quarters . The window hinges up , then the rest of the gate opens to the left and right in two sections . Standard-length Astros with rear-wheel drive begin at about $ 17,000 with a 165-horsepower V-6 . Distributed by the Los Angeles Times-Washington Post News Service . Nissan makes au fait sedans for younger families and naughtier coupes for the higher spirited who take their driving seriously . Bouncing between both demands , capable of romping or simply strolling through life , has been Nissan 's Maxima . Visually .. . it 's a four-door sedan . Physically .. . it 's a high-ceilinged sports car with a performance legacy that began in 1980 with an engine borrowed from the 240Z sports car . Realistically .. . well , more than 90 percent of Nissan 's car sales are of socially acceptable sedans : Altima , Maxima and Sentra . The company 's sporty coupes , the 240SX and the 300ZX , remain toys for a gymnastic minority . And as the high energies and fine handling of 130-mph four-doors such as Toyota Camry , Ford Taurus , Honda Accord and Chrysler 's first family of LH cars become silky norms , the demand for sedans that snarl is no more . So the 1995 Maxima was built to paddle steadily toward the mainstream of mid-size . The legacy of every car in the new Maxima lineup remains hearty handling and V-6 athleticism . But they move with a quieter step while handling the irritations of traffic and road surfaces with higher sophistication . There 's even a maxi Maxima , all wood-trimmed elegance , lustered upper crust and puffy-leather softness very suggestive of Infiniti luxury . It takes , however , more than better mechanicals and Ritz-Carlton interiors to buck the best of today 's market . So Maxima , depending on the model , is priced between $ 700 and $ 2,500 lower than last year . More significant of the tussle ahead , they cost $ 900 to $ 2,000 less than the intended target : the V-6 Toyota Camry . Honda 's Accord still has the edge on price but even 1995 versions do not offer a V-6 engine . Ford Taurus underprices Maxima but its V-6 is skinnier by 50 horsepower . From two trim levels of last year , Maxima has advanced to three with the addition being that kinder , gentler , plushier sedan with a price tickling the velvet tootsies of Mercedes C-Class . From a choice of two V-6s , Maxima has mellowed its power source to one lighter , more compact , double cam , 3.0-liter engine . It still produces 190 horsepower but runs cleaner , more economically and produces heftier torque . If bargain basements are your lifestyle , the Maxima GXE with manual transmission is your car and costs $ 19,999 . Those nines , of course , fool no one because base prices conveniently exclude unavoidable taxes , registration and destination charges . So get real and figure on more than $ 21,000 with an additional $ 999 or $ 1,000 to be on the safe side for a four-speed automatic . Ample goodies are standard on the GXE and include dual air bags , air conditioning , cruise control , power windows and steering , rear window defroster , cut pile carpets , dual mirrors and courtesy lighting from trunk to ashtray . Next in line at $ 20,999 or $ 22,000 with all the hidden bits is the manual-transmission Maxima SE . This is a chariot for the warmer of blood who understand the real benefits of stiffened shocks , firmer struts and stickier tires . Also for those who believe that a leather-wrapped steering wheel , body-colored door handles , rear-deck spoiler , polished wheels and driving gloves are synonymous with speedy progress . Then there 's the Maxima GLE , our test car , which , if not the lap of lady luxury , certainly lounges at her feet . The sticker of $ 24,199 c' mon , work out the true price among yourselves includes needless , therefore desirable , luxuries that are native customs on European cars . Such as leather seats , bun warmers , heated mirrors and a Bose compact disc sound system that will rupture eardrums two cars over . There is key-less entry , a thinking climate control , an automatic security system and other programs aimed at one day rendering the human touch obsolete . Anti-lock brakes are a $ 995 option throughout the line . Strangely , Maxima styling , sketched by Nissan Design International in San Diego , is a flop . Head-on , the three-lip grille with blacked-out mesh is a dark smirk from Morticia Addams . The car stands a little high , almost perching . The rear shrieks of Toyota Corolla . Heads do not turn at Maxima 's passage simply because in silhouette it makes only one positive statement : This is just another Japanese car . The GLE 's interior has much more to say and , again , Infiniti is the language being spoken . Leather-faced seats are soft quality with a magnificent , eight-way driver 's chair that would adjust to Gumby . Walnut trim on the dashboard , center console and arm rests is deep and rich , albeit fake . And the switch gear works in deep whispers , not harsh clicks . These are comfortable , friendly accommodations with understated touches to prevent luxury from becoming intimidating . Spaciousness , as Casey Stengel might have allowed , is everywhere . Thanks to a longer wheelbase and compact suspension , cabin height has been improved until front-seat occupants no longer need open the sun roof for additional headroom . There 's more leg , knee and shoulder space in the back seats . But a hand brake set to the right of the driver 's seat and barely three inches from the face of the console is an exercise in clumsiness . It needs relocating , at least shortening to keep from rasping and gouging a driver 's knee . Alarm and central locking controls including remote-control opening of front windows to release solar-basted summer air work flawlessly . Also silently . A clearly audible chirp or kerchunk would be a better way of advising a departing owner that the Maxima is armed and secure . Performance remains Maxima 's might . It is not improved radically but has certainly been burnished carefully into a smoother , tighter , less strenuous package . Engine : 4.3-liter V-6 , 200 horsepower . Transmission : Four-speed automatic , all-wheel drive . Safety : Driver air bag , four-wheel antilock brakes . Weight : 4,241 pounds . Maximum Cargo Room : 170.4 cubic feet ( with second and third seats removed ) . Base Price : $ 19,701 , including destination charge . EPA Mileage : 15 mpg city , 19 mpg highway . Cost : As tested , $ 26,633 ( includes automatic transmission , anti-lock brakes , two air bags , automatic climate control , cruise control , central locking and alarm , Bose compact disc sound system , sun roof , leather-faced seats and faux walnut trim . ) Engine : 3.0-liter , 24-valve , V-6 developing 190 horsepower . Type : Front-engine , front-drive , sports sedan . Performance : 0-60 mph , with four-speed automatic , 9.2 seconds . Top speed , estimated , 130 mph . Fuel consumption , EPA city and highway , 21 and 28 mpg . Curb Weight : 3,097 pounds . WASHINGTON A Washington Post article may have left the impression that Federal Communications Commission Chairman Reed Hundt chose the 7:30 a.m. time for a speech he delivered at a conference of the National Cable Television Association . It was the association that scheduled him for that time . LOS ANGELES Like surfers waiting for the next wave , booksellers are an anxious bunch these days . They know a big one is coming , they just don't know where or when . From coast to coast , the book biz is abuzz with talk of a brave new computerized world . In the future , some experts predict , a tsunami-force wave of CD-ROM technology and other innovations will wash through U.S. bookstores , dramatically transforming the way texts are written , packaged , sold and read . Within years , they suggest , books will be more than hard-bound bestsellers or mass-market paperbacks . They 'll be three-dimensional , sensory experiences on home computer screens that usher in a new era of literary information . You 'll just pop in a compact disk , turn on the laptop .. . and read . Few are predicting the demise of books as we know them , because it 's hard to imagine your PowerBook at the beach , or bedtime stories with the kids in front of an impersonal computer . But in a nation where 32 percent of all homes have PCs , the demand for electronic book products could become insatiable . `` There 's a change coming and we have to stake our claim to this new market , '' says Doug Dutton , owner of a Dutton 's Books in Los Angeles . `` Yet that 's all we know . We booksellers have a lot of questions about where we 're headed . '' They 'll be seeking answers starting Saturday , when more than 30,000 publishers , authors , booksellers , agents and other vendors gather in Los Angeles for the annual American Booksellers Association convention . The four-day event is the largest book conference in the English-speaking world . Much of the informal buzz is expected to focus on electronic publishing , a relatively new branch of the book business that 's gathering more force each year . For the first time , the ABA will be devoting a sizable chunk of convention floor space to computer book products . The market has clearly grabbed sellers ' attention but will they be able to ride the new wave ? `` That 's the $ 64,000 question , '' says Elisa Zachary , publisher of Simon & Schuster 's interactive division , which is less than a year old . `` You have to train people to sell these products , and consumers have to become more aware . Maybe they 've heard about electronic books . But they don't know much more . '' On the surface , it looks simple : CD-ROM technology records the text of a book on compact disk to be read on a computer screen . The experience is often enhanced with sound , graphics and material not found in the original book . The most dramatic feature of the new product , however , is interactive : It enables people to `` talk back '' to the text with the mere click of a computer switch . From a creative standpoint , the possibilities are endless . In a future CD-ROM book , for example , readers could step into a novel , invent characters and change plots . The technology already exists for kids to watch Velociraptors crossing a Mongolian plain , as they click their way through a book about dinosaurs . History has been enhanced for many college students , who now can look up Hitler , Lenin or Stalin in an on-line encyclopedia and see grainy films of them delivering speeches on home computer screens . Publishers are calling it the ultimate marriage of reading and entertainment . But they caution that electronic books and their ilk are like many other futuristic products rolling down the new information superhighway . `` Right now it 's all talk and speculation , '' says a high-ranking executive of a major American booksellers chain . `` Everybody knows the potential here is going to be vast and huge .. . but it 's up to consumers to make this fly . '' ( Optional add end ) Currently , there are only a limited number of CD-ROM book products on the market , ranging from the complete Oxford English Dictionary to a group of children 's stories , including `` Just Grandma and Me , '' which has sold more than 130,000 copies . Customers seeking them out in bookstores may be disappointed because many stores don't yet carry a full product line . Indeed , CD-ROM books are more typically found in computer stores such as Egghead Software and Comp USA . Booksellers hope to correct that so they don't lose the market . And publishers are also feeling the heat , because they don't want to merely provide the back list of material for others to re-create on CD-ROM . For them , the big bucks will be in marketing and distribution . `` We 're rethinking what it means to be a publisher , and we 're trying to move as many products on paper into electronics , '' says Randi Benton , who runs the interactive computer division of Random House Inc. . `` But everybody has to proceed cautiously , because there are some obvious business concerns . '' Such as : How do you bet the farm on a new medium when fewer than 5 million American homes have CD-ROM technology in their computers ? Will enough customers buy electronic books that typically sell for $ 69.99 or more ? Most important , what happens if compact disk technology becomes the eight-track tape of the 1990s an obsolete hardware that 's overtaken by new gadgetry ? `` I don't think it really matters that much , '' says Bob Stein , a creative guru at the Voyager Co. , a New York-based company that creates CD-ROM books . `` Did the Beatles suffer when eight-track tapes gave way to cassettes ? They did just fine and so did their audience . The point is , change will happen . `` You 're entering a whole new world . Reading used to be something where you only used one of five senses , but now at least we 've added a second , which is hearing . We 've enlarged the band width , so to speak . `` And we 're going to see a time when many writers no longer just rely on the printed page to communicate . They 'll be using the computer as a larger locus of expression . That 's where you 'll find our forward-looking writers . '' The new technology also permits a richer look at the past . In the recently published diaries of Richard Nixon presidential aide H.R. Haldeman , for example , readers of the printed book can thumb through 684 pages of text . But the CD-ROM version just issued by Sony Electronics includes an expanded text as well as 45 minutes of rare home movies of Nixon shot by Haldeman . Booksellers are watching and waiting to see how the new medium performs , but there are some preliminary indications it will be quite popular . Bernard Rath , ABA executive director , notes that the introduction of on-line encyclopedias has caused a 10 percent to 12 percent dip in sales of printed versions . `` It would be a shame if we don't seize the advantage and get in the forefront of this , '' he says . `` Our goal is to make the bookstore perceived as the place to go for information or entertainment in any format . '' And the place to start , many say , is with kids . It 's no accident that Random House is emphasizing children 's products in its initial CD-ROM ventures . Next year , Dr. Seuss ' works will be available on disk , through a joint venture with Random House and Broderbund . This fall , Simon & Schuster will market a Star Trek junkies ' dream the operating manual for the USS Enterprise in a bold new computer format , replete with interactive gizmos , color graphics and vivid sound effects . `` Kids are sponges with computers , '' Random House 's Benton says . `` They absorb this stuff completely , with no fear . They have no barriers . So they 're a natural place for the first waves of this new medium to start appearing . '' 1 . `` Mrs. Doubtfire '' 2 . `` A Perfect World '' 3 . `` Carlito 's Way '' 4 . `` Malice '' 5 . `` Cool Runnings '' 6 . `` The Fugitive '' 7 . `` The Remains of the Day '' 8 . `` The Joy Luck Club '' 9 . `` What 's Love Got to Do With It '' 10 . Watching and listening to filmmakers Allen and Albert Hughes talk about their debut 1993 feature film , `` Menace II Society , '' on a new Criterion laser disc ( $ 100 ) takes commitment and a strong stomach . First , there is the raw film itself , seen for the first time in an unrated director 's cut . From the unsparing , `` Sunset Blvd.''-style opening to the literal closing shot of `` Menace II Society , '' there is little question of the film 's resolution : violent death amid grinding hopelessness . Then there is the special supplementary material on this jam-packed laser disc in which each identical twin is given his own analog sound track . To hear what they have to say about the making of `` Menace , '' you have to watch the film play out twice to give each brother a chance to explain , scene by grueling scene , how their bold vision was put on film . There is little doubt that we 're in the presence of two young , uncompromising filmmakers with much potential . The Hughes brothers were 20 when they co-directed `` Menace II Society , '' a film whose story they say they had thought about since they were 15 . The Criterion laser edition leaves almost nothing out : In addition to the unrated film featuring material deleted from the theatrical release and the two audio commentaries , the package includes the original theatrical trailer ; two deleted scenes dropped in the final cut ; two music videos directed by the Hughes brothers ; excerpts from Albert Hughes ' Los Angeles City College student film , `` The Drive By , '' and the short , `` Menace to Society '' ; a video interview with the Hugheses ; storyboards and storyboard-to-film comparison of key action sequences , and other production notes and documentation . In this home theater version , `` Menace '' unwinds with all the graphic violence that the MPAA insisted be removed to avoid an NC-17 rating . Even more than in the movie theater , the assault on the senses in the comfort of your living room amplifies the harsh realities of this corner of urban life : young men living a nasty , short and brutish `` gangsta '' existence seemingly handed down from generation to generation , with little done to break the cycle . For some , the raw language and bullets tearing apart bodies may be too much ; for others , it may simply underscore the film 's point , in Allen 's words : `` The whole idea of the movie was to make people understand ; we wanted people to know what they 're thinking . '' And , he cautions , `` People shouldn't read too deep into this movie . We just wanted to make a movie that had some kind of morality . '' Albert says black audiences often had less trouble dealing with the violent subject matter than white audiences : `` They know it 's just a film , '' he says . ( `` Menace II Society , '' without supplementary material and deleted scenes , is also available in a letterboxed , single-disc CLV edition from Image Entertainment at $ 35 . ) -0- GROTESQUE CARNAGE : `` Man Bites Dog , '' the 1992 French film by Remy Belvaux , Andre Bonzel and Benoit Poelvoorde , offers even more grotesque carnage than `` Menace '' in a director-approved Criterion edition ( $ 50 ) that includes disgusting scenes excised by censors . An interview with the filmmakers at the end of the single disc makes the point that `` it 's not a film about violence , it 's a film about filmmaking . '' Shot in black-and-white with a hand-held camera as a document of the life and mind of a sociopathic killer , it 's been hailed as a sendup of reality-based docudrama films . Liner notes by Holly Willis also argue that assailing the film for its brutality `` completely misses the film 's point . '' That may be so , but it is hard to find much redemption in this unrelenting series of murders and graphic rape , and even harder to watch for its full 92 minutes . There is little humanity involved here . In fact , `` Man Bites Dog '' makes `` Menace II Society '' look tame by comparison . -0- LASERBITS : New Movies Just Out : `` The Three Musketeers '' ( Disney , letterboxed , $ 40 ) ; `` Addams Family Values '' ( Paramount , letterboxed , $ 35 ) ; `` A Perfect World '' ( Warner , $ 40 ) ; `` Into the West '' ( Touchstone , $ 40 ) ; Columbia TriStar 's `` Mr. Jones '' ( Columbia TriStar , $ 35 ) ; `` Flesh and Bone '' ( Paramount , $ 40 ) ; `` The Return of Jafar '' ( Disney , $ 30 ) ; `` RoboCop 3 '' ( Orion , $ 40 ) ; `` Glengarry Glen Ross '' ( Pioneer , $ 60 ) , with audio commentary by director James Foley and actor Jack Lemmon . Older Movies Just Out : `` My Friend Irma '' ( Paramount , $ 35 , 1949 ) with Marie Wilson as the dumb blond in the film version of the radio series , featuring the film debut of Dean Martin and Jerry Lewis ; `` The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes '' ( Image Entertainment , letterboxed , $ 60 , 1970 ) , with reconstructed material , directed by Billy Wilder and starring Robert Stephens . Upcoming video releases : `` Short Cuts '' ( Wednesday ) ; `` Wayne 's World 2 '' and `` My Life '' ( June 8 ) ; `` Ace Ventura : Pet Detective '' ( June 14 ) ; `` The Getaway , '' `` Dangerous Game '' and `` The Air Up There '' ( June 15 ) ; `` Six Degrees of Separation , '' `` Geronimo : An American Legend '' and `` Tombstone '' ( June 22 ) ; `` The Pelican Brief , '' `` Philadelphia , '' `` In the Name of the Father '' and `` Iron Will '' ( June 29 ) ; `` Grumpy Old Men , '' `` Sugar Hill , '' `` House Party 3 '' and `` Romeo Is Bleeding '' ( July 6 ) ; `` Sister Act 2 , '' `` Searching for Bobby Fischer , '' `` Blink , '' `` Heaven and Earth '' and `` Car 54 , Where Are You ? '' ( July 13 ) ; `` On Deadly Ground '' and `` My Father the Hero '' ( July 20 ) ; `` Wrestling Ernest Hemingway , '' `` Cabin Boy '' and `` Blank Check '' ( July 27 ) ; `` Beethoven 's 2nd '' ( Aug. 9 ) ; `` Tim Burton 's The Nightmare Before Christmas '' ( Sept. 30 ) ; `` Jurassic Park '' ( Oct. 4 ) ; `` Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs '' ( Oct. 28 ) . Look for the interest in old World Mar II movies to skyrocket in the next few weeks . The inspiration is the celebration of the 50th anniversary of D-day , the Allied invasion of Normandy June 6 , 1944 . Home-video retailers will be showcasing classic war movies to capitalize both on the media attention and the Father 's Day 's gift potential . The tape that 's getting the most attention is FoxVideo 's `` The Longest Day , '' which just came out for the first time in a colorized version priced at $ 25 and featuring some Movietone newsreel footage of the invasion . This 1962 movie , probably the most elaborate war epic ever filmed , actually works better in color adding grandeur that 's missing from the black-and-white version . It includes nearly every male star of that era from John Wayne and Robert Mitchum to Sal Mineo . FoxVideo also repackaged two other movies . One is another first-rate but less heralded film about the Normandy invasion , `` D-Day The Sixth of June , '' made in 1956 and starring Robert Taylor . Priced at $ 15 , it also includes newsreel footage . The other is 1970 's `` Patton , '' featuring George C. Scott 's Oscar-winning performance in the title role , at $ 30 . The hidden gem in this repackaged collection is `` Twelve O' Clock High , '' about American pilots in England during World War II . War-movie buffs love this 1949 movie , which has been hard to find in recent years . It stars Gregory Peck . -0- JACKIE TAPES : As you might expect , there are some Jackie Onassis videos on the way . Turner Home Entertainment , which markets CNN footage , is first out of the box with a video homage to the late first lady `` Jackie : A Life '' ( Turner , $ 20 ) . You can order by mail , ( 800 ) 799-7676 , or wait until it shows up in stores in about a month . Turner is an old hand at rush-releasing tapes . A few weeks ago , it marketed `` Richard Nixon : A Retrospective '' just after he died , for $ 20 , but through mail order only that same 800 number . Onassis ' death spurred New Horizons Video to change the release date of `` A Woman Named Jackie , '' the 1992 ABC miniseries starring Roma Downey in the title role . Originally scheduled for July 20 , it 's now coming out June 15 . Surprisingly , this three-tape set isn't bargain-priced for the sales market but will be available as a rental only . ABC Video , which rushed out a tape about Nixon , has no plans to do the same with Onassis . -0- FATHER 'S DAY TAPES : Sports videos on the market for Father 's Day : A hot one for golfing dads is Monarch 's `` Highlights of the 1994 Masters , '' due June 8 at $ 13 , including exclusive footage and interviews. .. . Though he 's no longer with the team , Dallas Cowboys ' fans will appreciate the glowing portrait of the notorious former coach in `` The Jimmy Johnson Story , '' focusing on his five years with Super Bowl champs . Out on June 7 , $ 20 from PolyGram. .. . For the tennis fan who 's also into sports-blooper bits , `` Tennis ' Greatest Volleys and Follies '' features some good John McEnroe footage . For $ 20 from LIVE . -0- SPECIAL INTEREST : Roger Moore narrates the excellent biography , `` Audrey Hepburn Remembered , '' originally aired last fall on PBS . For $ 20 from MPI , ( 800 ) 323-0442 , it came out Wednesday. .. . Fascinating four-volume set , `` Lost Civilizations , '' from National Geographic for $ 70 . Included are tapes about Egypt and Italy 's Mount Vesuvius , but the best of the lot is `` Lost Kingdoms of the Maya. '' .. . Great swing drummer Gene Krupa is profiled in `` Jazz Legend Gene Krupa , '' narrated by Steve Allen . Includes some interesting old clips of Krupa in action . For $ 40 from DCI , ( 800 ) 628-1528 . -0- WHAT 'S NEW : `` The Piano '' ( LIVE ) . In one of last year 's most acclaimed movies , a Scottish mute ( Holly Hunter ) journeys to New Zealand in the 1800s with her young daughter ( Anna Paquin ) to marry a kindly man ( Sam Neill ) . She loves playing the piano and creates a strange romantic triangle when she teaches a lustful peasant ( Harvey Keitel ) how to play . Tense , slowly paced , well-acted drama , directed by Jane Campion . Hunter and Paquin won well-deserved Oscars . `` Rudy '' ( Columbia TriStar ) . Sean Astin plays a scrappy young man who 's not really Notre Dame football material but is determined to make the team anyway . This is intended as a personal appeal to a colleague and friend , Supreme Court nominee Stephen Breyer . There are so many people who desperately need your understanding and compassion . The sad truth is that you are not only succeeding Harry Blackmun . You are the only potential successor to William Brennan , Thurgood Marshall , Earl Warren , William O . Douglas and the whole line of humanitarian justices who understood the importance of compassion and the need to do justice , not just administer law . There are lots of able technicians who understand law . The nation , however , is entitled to at least one justice with vision , with breadth , with idealism , with to say the word despised in the Clinton administration a `` liberal '' philosophy and an expansive approach to jurisprudence . Someone must carry on the work of the court 's great progressive thinkers the justices who ended `` de jure '' racial segregation , brought us one man/one vote , opened the courts to the poor and needy , established the right to counsel for all defendants , gave women true legal equality . It was progressive justices with a view of the Constitution as a living , breathing document who gave full measure to that instrument not the legal technocrats , not those whose view of the Constitution was frozen as of 1789 . You have a wonderful opportunity and an awesome responsibility . You can be a narrow , cramped proceduralist like Felix Frankfurter , or you can seize the occasion and grow like a Warren , a Brennan , a Blackmun . You can be cold , purely intellectual and wholly technical , or you can become what the president said he was looking for a justice who is compassionate , who has a big heart . I hope you will re-examine your judicial philosophy . Everyone who goes on the court should . And when you emerge , I hope it will be to assume the mantle of the Brennan-Warren legacy . Otherwise , that voice will be silenced perhaps permanently . How ironic if that would be the enduring consequence of electing a president supported so strongly by the poor , the needy , minorities of all kinds . Anyway , I am most hopeful for the court and the country with you there . Perhaps I 'm influenced by my personal feelings , but I believe that you will not let the spirit of liberalism be extinguished , that you will be a strong voice for a philosophy that now has no other means of expression . It simply cannot be otherwise not after all that your spiritual predecessors have fought and struggled for , including the marvelous and caring justice for whom you clerked , Arthur Goldberg . You represent an awful lot of hopes , dreams and aspirations a vision of a nation . For better or for worse , those who depend on the court to protect their fundamental rights must now look to you . You are their best and last hope . As I listened to the minority leader of the Senate say , `` He 's not as liberal as Blackmun , '' and as I heard Sen. Orrin G. Hatch , R-Utah , express his joy over your selection , I thought of how important it is to have scruples and convictions and to stick by them . How I hope that those who disdain the expansive and humanitarian philosophy of the Warren/Brennan court have misread you . Conservatives who fight for what they believe in deserve respect and admiration . It is hard to have those feelings for others who are easily intimidated , who fear controversy , who care only about compromise and consensus or their own success . There are plenty of centrists around . They now represent the left of the court . While I rarely agree with Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist , I respect him . When he was appointed to the court , he was a lone voice for a judicial philosophy of the right . He was regularly on the short end of 8-1 votes , but he spoke for an important point of view and he almost single-handedly kept alive the principles in which he believed . They now dominate our judicial thinking . I don't expect you to be that successful , but at least give us a voice . The court has lots of intellect . While you will add to it , Justice Antonin Scalia represents abstract rationality well enough . But soul is important too . That is what makes greatness . HOLLYWOOD What are talk shows if not collections of fleeting moments some of which are delectable , most of which run together like a monotone buzz that you listen to without really hearing ? Drop the buzz , keep the highlights and you really have something . So. .. . He-e-e-e-e-re 's `` Johnny Carson : His Favorite Moments from ` The Tonight Show. ' ' ' Carson has described his nearly 30 years of bending America 's ear as `` just a helluva lot of fun . '' That also applies to this four-tape set from Buena Vista Home Video . It goes on sale Friday , ironically just as Carson 's once-energized competitor Arsenio Hall is ending his own , skimpier run as a late-night host . Nothing gets more inflated than a eulogy . Celebs have been dropping by the syndicated `` Arsenio '' in advance of Friday night 's finale to assure him that he 's a giant of entertainment who will be widely missed . Carson heard much the same thing in 1992 during his last days , and , three decades earlier , so did the man Carson succeeded on `` The Tonight Show , '' Jack Paar . Judging by his dive in the Nielsen ratings , though , Hall 's departure has been preceded by a fade to anonymity . The `` indelible '' memory of Paar lasted only as long as it took Carson to launch his first one-liner . And the worshiped Carson himself despite his enormous impact as a television icon and a thread of continuity during momentous change in the United States was missed only a little longer . Like television itself , we 're creatures of the moment with short memories . There are just too many distractions . As TV-driven zombies , most of us are easily diverted by bells , whistles or any other loud noises . Nothing has been noisier of late than the duel of television 's late-night commandos , Jay Leno and David Letterman . On CBS , `` Late Show With David Letterman '' has been a true phenomenon , and Leno on NBC has at at times creatively used `` The Tonight Show '' to tap sources of humor distinct from the late-night talk and comedy of the Carson era . Just how distinct is evident from watching the Carson tapes , which , says an accompanying publicity blurb , will be the only video retrospective of his show to be released . The first three tapes can be purchased separately ( $ 15 each ) , but you have to buy the entire set for $ 60 to get the fourth tape , which is Carson 's final `` Tonight Show , '' broadcast two years ago this week . The tapes opening with `` The Tonight Show '' originating from New York in black and white are a kick on several levels , one of which is historical . In only a few moments you 're returned to an earlier universe in which such names as Ethel Kennedy and Hubert Humphrey surface in Carson 's monologues , and smoking was still the nasty habit of the TV multitudes ( Buddy Hackett , Flip Wilson , Dean Martin , George Gobel and the host himself are seen blithely puffing away ) . And who is that androgynous falsetto freak that we see a bowled-over , can't-believe-his-eyes-or-ears Carson greeting in 1968 ? Why , it 's none other than Tiny Tim . Yet he looks as quaint as a sweet old aunt and as mainstream as Peoria compared to 1994 's Prince or Michael Jackson . Most of the `` moments '' are in the still-funny-after-all-these-years category . There is Carson in 1968 face-to-face with Jack Webb in a `` Dragnet''-style stone-faced talking-heads dialogue about a `` Copper Clapper Caper '' that could have been pulled from a contemporary police parody ; then a decade later as Mister Rogers , using mommy and daddy dolls to explain the birds and bees . And there he is spoofing George C. Scott 's Gen. Patton , giving a stirring speech in front of an enormous U.S. flag . When the camera pulls back , you see that he 's been speaking to Girl Scouts . What strikes you , though , is just how little time is devoted to traditional interviews , almost as an admission that the bulk of them were too forgettable to earn a shot at posterity . Instead , Carson affirms here that he not only was a hair-trigger ad-libber but also was someone adept at shaping cleverly written material into hilarious physical comedy , whether as fast-talking movie host Art Fern or as all-knowing , all-seeing Carnac the Magnificent ( `` Piggly wiggly : Describe Kermit 's wedding night '' ) . You particularly appreciate just how gifted and instinctive he was as a physical comic when he elasticizes his gangly body when he comes under attack from the various exotic insects and animals brought on the show by Joan Embery , Jim Fowler and others . The tapes also showcase a slew of young stand-ups including Leno , Letterman and Garry Shandling before they became major stars . In fact , all of Carson 's hosts-in-waiting are memorialized here . Well , almost all . Johnny holds a grudge so long. .. . How long ? So long that former Carson favorite Joan Rivers who reportedly angered him deeply when she bolted `` The Tonight Show '' for her own competing late-night series on Fox in 1986 is a non-person on these tapes . The emotional heart of `` His Favorite Moments '' is not the sign-off show a no-guest , anticlimactic sprawl of clips and various bits of nostalgia but the famous next-to-last show that included a visibly moved Carson being serenaded by Bette Midler . It was a lovely , lingering , moist-eyed instant of television that seemed to belie the fact that , for nearly all its life under Carson , `` The Tonight Show '' was nothing more than fluff . Which , of course , is why we watched it . NEW YORK Judith Krantz 's success with commercial novels rich in steamy sex and glamorous excess began in 1978 with her maiden effort , `` Scruples , '' the story of a swank boutique . `` Scruples Two '' came six books later , followed by the new `` Lovers '' ( Crown ) , a discrete conclusion to her trilogy that has more than 400,000 copies in print and will spawn an ABC miniseries . For all of Krantz 's fluency in conspicuous consumption `` my beat is not the lady next door '' the resident of pricey Bel Air , Calif. , confesses that she no longer has time to go out and shop on Rodeo Drive or anywhere else . `` I have managed to acquire clothes , but in lightning forays , '' said Krantz , 67 , a diminutive gabber who was clad during a recent New York visit in a muted green Chanel suit . `` J . Crew and J. Peterman are my favorite catalogs . And then I go to Chanel . They have a book of the spring and fall collections with swatches of fabric and designs , and drawings or photographs . I order from that . When it comes in , I go , I try the clothes on and I say , ` I can wear this on ` Larry King , ' with a black blouse ' .. . `` I used to shop for pleasure . Now I shop for television . It 's a whole other world . When I couldn't afford it , I was shopping anyway .. . Now that I can more than afford it , I don't have the time . It 's not a really tragic story , but I don't have the time . `` At midnight , or 1 in the morning , I 'll call and have a chat with the friendly folks at J . Crew. It 's amazing what kind of a bill you can run up that way . '' Some of the phone operators recognize her name , she said , but `` all they want to know is the number of my Visa card . '' -0- Judith Regan has earned more newspaper and magazine coverage than any book editor in history , or so it seems , mainly because she helped turn manuscripts by Rush Limbaugh , Howard Stern and Kathie Lee Gifford into best-selling riches . Now , after much speculation about Regan 's plans , an announcement this week revealed that Simon & Schuster has lost the hard-charging editor to Rupert Murdoch 's News Corp. and its subsidiary companies . The 40-year-old Regan will become a reporter for a Fox TV news magazine in development , she will start up Regan Books within HarperCollins Publishers and she will develop films for Twentieth Century-Fox . In a prepared statement , Murdoch said `` we expect great things from her as she branches out beyond the world of publishing . '' -0- One of the more surprising details in this week 's ocean of ink about the late Jacqueline Onassis comes in The New Yorker ( May 30 ) , which devotes all of its `` Talk of the Town '' to memories of her and reveals that she , too , once wrote an unbylined piece for the section . Her article about New York 's International Center of Photography appeared Jan. 13 , 1975 . Who knew ? WASHINGTON D-Day : landingboats , dramatic action , a known and evil foe , full power , victory . Nothing has changed more in 50 years than the way in which we routinely tend to the global stability that was bought by massive commitment and sacrifice in World War II . The United Nations peacekeeping operations now scattered around the world are everything D-Day was not : marginal , ambivalent , ragged , controversial . But how could it be otherwise ? And who would again want total war ? We must deal with the world we live in , and we live in a world where peacekeeping in its various forms is unavoidable and important to us . We have not done it well enough and as a result we face a certain crisis of internationalism . Bill Clinton is blamed for wobbling , Boutros Boutros-Ghali for overreaching . But such criticisms miss the main point . The real trouble is that in this time of relative safety and security for the favored nations , peacekeeping can mean an unwelcome degree of personal risk to the forces taking part and political risk to their sponsoring governments . Americans have spent the past few years wrestling with this dilemma . The post-Cold War vista opened with the rosy and mistaken diagnosis that Soviet-American confrontation alone had kept the United Nations from ushering in a new world order . In the second , more sober stage we are seeing that the United Nations is not merely an irregular contributor to global stability but sometimes itself a contributor to disorder . The primary contributors to disorder are the governments and their challengers . But the deeds done by peacekeepers sometimes have the unintended but perverse effect of enabling the parties to extend war and avoid peace . To use the United Nations as an instrument of relief , for example , sounds noble . But it can also encourage combatants to shift some part of their war budget to others and can spare them the discipline of an early reckoning . Are we ready to use relief explicitly as a political lever ? The new pattern of ethnic wars makes this disturbing question increasingly difficult to evade . The international presence in Bosnia is being used by the Serbs in an effort to freeze their gains and by the Muslims to reverse their losses . This is understandable : They are at war . But peacekeepers lend only themselves to the belligerents ' maneuvers when they make their own safety their first concern . In Bosnia , the United Nations now routinely softens NATO 's ultimatums to avert expected Serb retaliation against exposed U.N. forces . This makes the world body a partner in diluting its own credibility and effectiveness . It gets worse when such limited self-defense as peacekeepers do conduct is treated as a loss of neutrality . But Americans are poorly placed to complain as long as American forces do not share the risks on the ground . The embarrassment in Rwanda is scarcely less painful . The United Nations ' first response was to pull peacekeepers out , abandoning the helpless civilians it was ostensibly there to protect . Some U.N. forces remain , but with both the Hutu army and Tutsi rebels threatening to fire upon them if they get in the way , they may not be there for long . It 's not `` the U.N. 's '' fault . A membership organization , it must heed members unwilling to take more than token casualties . But in that case , the talking part of the United Nations should stop issuing resolutions , instructions and promises premised on the notion that the peacekeeping force is a military juggernaut . The now-desultory discussion of tactics must get serious . Ground forces might be reduced and air power brought to bear against the violators of U.N. decrees . Or forces might be increased and unleashed . Many people have already concluded that international peacekeeping involving the use of force is a passing phase in global politics , a post-Cold War experiment that did not work out . But it 's early to throw in the towel . I think there is still a logic in proposals for a standby U.N. combat force that members had endowed with a mission and with suitable resources . Not that the members-sovereign states , after all-couldn't later take back their approval . But at least there would be an effort to deal with the real world of hard choices rather than a pretend world in which everybody acts as though peace comes for free . In any event , let us not slip too casually and uncritically into D-Day celebration of a war that , after all , involved a global cataclysm and caused more than a quarter-million American combat deaths . It was horrible . We should be glad that our security and stability cares , though they use up our whole frazzle quotient , are trivial compared with the challenges that America and its Allies faced and mastered in World War II . By James P. Pinkerton Special to Newsday The Clinton administration 's original plan for health-care alliances may be dead , but Washington pols are still struggling to assemble bureaucratic body parts into a Frankenstein 's monster that will carry them past the electoral finish line in November . Lightning struck in one political laboratory last week when the Senate Labor and Human Resources committee voted to piece together a National Health Board to establish a `` standard benefits package '' for any health plan that might be forthcoming . This may have been a small victory for bipartisanship , but it was a big victory for the system of simultaneous credit-taking and blame-shifting Congress has perfected . The board will empower both Democrats and Republicans to say what they want about how compassionate ( or thrifty ) they are , secure in the knowledge that a bunch of bureaucrats will take the heat for defects of the ultimate health-care product . Supporters of the board say it will control costs . But that 's not why the Congress created it . The board 's real value is as a diversionary punching bag . Citizens , sick from disease of the body and/or the wallet , will target faceless apparatchiks , not a real-live elected official . The major reason that the inflation of health-care costs has been diminishing in recent years is that private-sector insurers have been squeezing benefits . Such cost-cutting is easy for business people ; they don't have to win popularity contests . But politicians do , and that means currying favor with those who can give them votes or money . Every special interest knows that the health board will be the Potomac equivalent of one-stop shopping . Lobbyists will descend on it like vampires in the night ; groups that can't win their case in the daylight of either the free market or public opinion will suck what they want from the American jugular . In case you haven't noticed , all the incentives in Washington are to increase spending . Consider just one controversial issue that the Congress will delegate to the board : coverage for mental health . No rational lawmaker wants to vote `` against '' the mentally ill , but nobody wants to be on record voting to pay for such expensive coverage , either . The George Washington University Medical Center has been running ads in The Washington Post arguing for `` non-discriminatory inclusion '' of mental-health treatment in any plan . The ad cites a study purporting to show that full treatment for depression would save the nation $ 35 billion a year in restored productivity . Maybe so . But bear in mind that the mental-health community has every incentive to lowball cost estimates , secure in the knowledge that once the program is in place it will be almost impossible to roll it back , even if the projections turn out to be grotesquely wrong , as they were three decades ago with Medicare . Consider other candidates for `` non-discriminatory inclusion '' : post-traumatic stress disorder , attention deficit disorder , repressed memory of sexual abuse , multiple personalities and `` ghetto stress syndrome . '' Overnight , special pleaders for these ailments and more will spring up , demanding their share of the federal pie . And , in the final irony , members of Congress will use all their influence on the board to help a favored constituency . That 's right : Congress will lobby its own creation , because the final responsi-bility will still rest with the board . The point is not to single out mental health for criticism . One could just as easily predict the income-optimizing advocacy of balding men , shamans and fallen-arch sufferers . The point is this : If Washington creates a political football , everyone will toss it around . The National Health Board willn't eliminate politics . It will merely insulate the president and the Congress from the consequences of politics . After a half a dozen years in which he 's directed films , founded a record company and dabbled in worldbeat and orchestral music , David Byrne has finally gotten back to doing what he does best being himself . `` David Byrne '' ( Luaka Bop/Sire 45558 ) marks the singer 's return to the wry , affectless writing style he perfected in his early work with Talking Heads . Like `` Uh-Oh Love Comes to Town '' or `` Don't Worry About the Government , '' the best of these songs are tuneful , plain-spoken and full of wonder , depicting his world with dreamlike clarity and understated wit . Simply put , it 's his strongest work in more than a decade . It 's also and this may not be entirely coincidental his simplest work in a long time . Ever since Newsweek declared him `` Rock 's Renaissance Man '' in the early '80s , Byrne has done his best to live up to that title , drawing on everything from dadaist poetry to Lucumi rites to show just how clever and eclectic he could be . This album , by contrast , has nothing to prove on that level . Byrne 's current band is a quartet ( bassist Paul Socolow , drummer Todd Turkisher and mallet percussionist Mauro Refosco are the other members ) , and `` David Byrne '' offers an appropriately trim sound . Gone are the blaring brass and roiling percussion of his last couple of touring bands ; gone , too , are the worldbeat experiments that fueled his previous solo efforts , `` Rei Momo '' and `` Uh-Oh . '' In their place are the sort of arrangements Byrne used to rely on when he was still part of Talking Heads . `` Angels , '' for instance , opens with a rhythm vamp and recitation that recalls the opening verse of `` Once In a Lifetime , '' while `` Nothing At All , '' with its neatly harmonized chorus and coolly understated pulse , comes across as a close cousin to Talking Heads oldies like `` Who Is It ? '' That 's not to say Byrne has begun repeating himself . For one thing , this new band has far greater range than the Heads did . It would be difficult , after all , to imagine the old Talking Heads maintaining the emotional balance of a song like `` Crash , '' in which rage and tenderness intermingle in the roaring guitar and swirling percussion . Byrne 's new band handles it easily . Moreover , the level of imagination in Byrne 's songs is well beyond where it was when `` Talking Heads : 77 '' came out . In addition to its deliciously dreamy blend of guitar , marimba and synths , `` A Self-Made Man '' boasts a hauntingly clever lyric about a future in which genetic engineering becomes the domain of mobsters . `` And now we got a black market/A black market in designer genes , '' sings Byrne . `` The most beautiful , most intelligent/Criminals you 've ever seen . '' Nor has Byrne entirely forgone his interest in global music . `` You and Eye , '' for instance , includes a nifty mbaqanga guitar break , while the dark , minor-key melody of `` Sad Song '' floats over a cushion of Afro-Cuban percussion . But this time around , those elements are mixed in more for spice than anything else . So although `` My Love Is You '' comes on as a samba of sorts , what we hear is less an exercise in musical exoticism than a clever means of making the song seem romantic , even as Byrne skewers the conventional notion of love song sentiments . ( The tuba solo on the you're-a-jerk , I'm-a-jerk bridge is particularly brilliant . ) As a result , `` David Byrne '' allows the singer to have his cake , and eat it , too . By soft-pedaling his artistic ambition and downplaying his cultural reach , he 's able to make music that 's as enjoyable as it is ingenious . It may be the smartest thing he 's ever done . The man sits in front of a camera . He 's wearing a red sweater and a down-home smile . He talks to us in soft , reassuring tones from a videotape produced by Jerry Falwell , the evangelist who would save America from itself , or at least from Bill Clinton . The man in the sweater does not seem like a nut case . At least , not immediately . His name is Larry Nichols . He 's from Arkansas . He is , to put it in the nicest terms , Clinton 's enemy . That 's probably a fair description of someone who basically accuses you of murder . That 's right . Anyone can accuse the president of womanizing I mean , who hasn't ? and Nichols surely can't resist himself . But it takes a special kind of person to throw murder into the mix . Clinton has lots of enemies . You just have to take a run through the AM-radio dial to find them and all the anti-Clinton bile they cough up on the talk shows . Clinton-bashing is as American as Rush Limbaugh . But Nichols takes the concept to a different level . He was anti-Clinton before there was an anti-Clinton movement . A former Arkansas state employee , Nichols filed a lawsuit against Clinton in 1990 , making an assortment of charges , including chasing women on company time . He was around during the 1992 election , feeding reporters who came to Arkansas all the anti-Clinton material they could swallow . Now , with help from Falwell 's Liberty Alliance , he has upped the ante . Radio isn't good enough . Neither are your right-wing newsletters . Video is the medium of our time , as any TV evangelist could tell you . And for 43 bucks , Nichols comes directly to you on a video called `` Clinton 's Circle of Power . '' Yes , I know that for 43 bucks you can buy copies of `` Jurassic Park '' and `` Aladdin '' and have enough left over for a couple of Happy Meals . But you get your money 's worth with this tape . Believe me . You get up close and personal with a smear campaign . You get to see the get-Clinton boys at their get-down-and-dirty best . It makes you proud to be an American . In a lot of other countries , they 'd lock these people up . You see , Nichols doesn't simply catalog the bimbo explosions or quote Arkansas state troopers or call Clinton a pathological liar . No , sir . He also flatly states that Hillary Clinton and Vince Foster were lovers . Then he accuses them of insider trading . Of course , he believes Foster was murdered . You can hear that anywhere on the right-wing media circuit . Just like you can hear that Whitewater special prosecutor Robert Fiske , although a Republican , is a Clinton stooge . But Nichols is just getting warmed up . Right before he implies that Clinton might have some connection to a drug-smuggling ring , he strongly suggests Clinton may have been involved in what he calls get ready countless murders . Here 's the quote fresh from the tape , which may not be the `` Manchurian Candidate '' but is still your basic paranoid vision of America : `` People are dead in Arkansas . When I started this , I knew that I might be one of those unsolved mysteries in Arkansas . `` There are boys on railroad tracks . There are countless and countless people who mysteriously died that , as it turned out , had some connection to Bill Clinton . I believe this is going on today . '' This is when you hit the stop button on your remote . This is when you either laugh or throw something at the screen . This is when you say to yourself , `` OK , Bill Clinton may not be everything I wanted in a president , but I 'm pretty sure he 's not Billy the Kid . '' In fact , if you judge Clinton by his enemies , suddenly he looks like Abe Lincoln . Whenever I get down on the guy , I just jam the video into the VCR and , within five minutes , I 'm ready to re-elect . Ask yourself : Are you ready to believe any of this ? Murder ? Drug smuggling ? Slush funds ? Is this Bill Clinton we 're talking about or Manuel Noriega ? What 's real and what 's propaganda ? And just how far will Clinton 's enemies go ? Falwell wants to have it both ways . He produces the tape . He appears at the end of it and implores `` God-fearing '' people to write their members of Congress and demand full hearings . But when asked on CNN if he believed Clinton was a murderer , Falwell said , `` We 're simply saying these charges are being made , look at them and determine what is true . I am making no charges whatsoever . '' You know , it 's too bad Falwell missed out on the McCarthy era . Of course , McCarthy missed out on VCRs . ZZ Top went back to basics for its new album , `` Antenna . '' But the accompanying tour is the most elaborate in the quarter-century of the `` little band from Texas . '' `` This time , we 've outdone ourselves for sure , '' says Frank Beard , the band 's drummer . `` It 's really a cool production . It kind of follows the ` Antenna ' theme of the album , and we 've got elevators , moving cranes , sidewalks and cyberlights now. ... '' Cyberwhat ? `` Spots . Instead of follow spots , it 's all automated now . Any little move you make , everybody sees it , '' he explains in his drawl . `` You have a little transmitter in your hat . If you just stand still , move your head back and forth , you can see the lights do the same thing . '' And if you tossed the hat into the audience , the spotlight would follow it as well ? `` Yeah it would , '' says Beard , who , despite his name , is the only cleanshaven member of the trio , rounded out by Billy Gibbons and Dusty Hill . `` That would be a good gag . Except you 'd lose the transmitter , which costs about $ 1,000 . '' Replacing the spotlight operators , who sit precariously amid the light rigging on stage , is only natural for the band , which , on its 1983 `` Eliminator '' tour , appeared to kill off a lighting operator at the show 's climax . It makes you wonder whether there ever will be a point ZZ Top willn't be able to top itself . `` I don't know , '' Beard says . `` It 's rough for us not to do so much . It 's always been a ZZ thing or a Texas thing . We sit around saying , ` We could do this ; we could do that , ' and someone else would get fired up . And we 'd end up going on tour with buffaloes and steers . '' People still talk about the menagerie that went out on the road with the elaborate 1975 `` Worldwide Texas Tour : Takin ' Texas to the People . '' Besides the hoofed animals , it also involved two rattlesnakes , tarantulas and buzzards . But everybody was just as happy to see the animals go , Beard says . `` We traded 'em in on dancers , '' he says , mentioning another ZZ Top trademark . `` They 're easier to keep . '' With the dancers in the '80s came a slicker ZZ Top style , some amusing videos and a bigger-than-ever career with the blockbuster `` Eliminator '' and `` Afterburner '' albums a time when its music was shamelessly augmented by synthesizer programs . And , as depicted in the new book `` Sharp Dressed Men '' by one-time crew member David Blayney ( Hyperion ) , Hill once pretended to play synthesizer on stage for `` TV Dinners , '' while the real sound was on tape , fed by the sound crew . Beard says the band has been using sequencers on stage for years , and it 's no big deal . `` You can sit there and push one note and play a whole song , '' he says . `` What 's more valid ? If you have a machine that you can program the whole thing , and punch one button and it will sit there and go , ` dadda , dadda , dadda , dadda , ' or if you 've got somebody up there off to the side of the stage with two fingers going ` dadda , dadda , dadda , dadda ' ? What difference does it make ? '' There 's a lot less of that pulsing synthesizer sound on `` Antenna '' and in the new show . But not because it was planned that way . `` When we first started our writing sessions for this record , we went into our little funky rehearsal studio down in Houston , '' Beard says . There , using drums , bass and guitar , they were surprised at how quickly the songs came . `` It was like : ` Hey , this is a lot less work doing it this way than it is messing with that piece of equipment over there . ' So we wrote the whole record that way . We didn't use the synthesizer as a main instrument on anything , '' Beard says . `` It 's easier to sit down and play and make up songs than to make up songs and then to program them . '' It makes for less trouble on stage , too , where the trio can stretch out on songs rather than be tied to a disembodied synthesizer track . Still , the group will throw in some of those '80s synthesizer favorites , Beard says . `` It 's gotten to the point where we 're going to make somebody mad every night anyway . We 're going to leave off somebody 's favorite . Last tour , we didn't do ` Cheap Sunglasses , ' and people were on us the whole tour . So this tour we 're doing ` Cheap Sunglasses , ' but there 's something else that got left out . That comes from being around forever . '' ( Optional add end ) Of course , many bands would envy such fad-dodging longevity , which has been extended by a five-album deal with RCA at a figure that 's been reported to be from $ 30 million to $ 45 million . The band did it in part by capitalizing on the video form . The band 's latest has it appearing as vampires in a `` Thriller''-style clip for `` Breakaway '' that 's also its most expensive . Once more , it will likely include visual clues as obvious to fans as the sound of Gibbon 's guitar : a car , a set of keys , a group of models , a hand signal . `` For some reason , '' Beard says , `` when we started making videos , all we did was try to show what we were into . We already had a red car . So we thought , ` Let 's put the red car in the movies . ' It all just seemed to work out together for us where it became a rock 'n' roll icon . It wasn't like we 're super smart and we thought : ` Let 's build a car , and hire some girls . ' We had the car , and there were some girls hanging around , and we thought : ` Shoot , they 're prettier ' than we were , let 's feature them , and we 'll just kind of watch . '' Most of all , they tried to keep things light . `` ZZ 's always been a fun band , more or less , '' Beard says . `` I don't like people who take themselves too serious and get up there and shake their hair and that kind of thing . I think if you watch a ZZ Top video , you 're going to smile somewhere in it . That 's all we care about . '' WASHINGTON Thomas J. McCullough of Albuquerque is as excited as any World War II veteran about the series of stamps that the Postal Service started issuing in 1991 to mark the 50th anniversary of the war . But he 's got one big problem : Not many people seem to be using the stamps for postage . McCullough , a retired sergeant first-class , uses them on all his mail and adds an urgent message about the stamps to all his envelopes . `` No one heralds their presence You must ask ! '' reads McCullough 's plea . `` Pearl Harbor was real . WWII did happen , history is in these stamps . Buy , save , use make them your ` Stamp of Approval. ' '' . Nevertheless , the Postal Service is pleased with profits from sales of the stamps . Unlike McCullough , most people who have purchased the World War II commemoratives have been putting them in scrapbooks rather than on envelopes . `` Hardly any veteran knows that ( the stamps ) exist , complained McCullough , 78 . Postal officials sell out so quickly `` you can't get 'em , '' he said . Stamp art director Howard Paine , who has overseen the Postal Service 's five-year effort to commemorate the war , admits to being troubled by the paucity of stamps being used for postage . To Paine and many other stamp artists there is no higher accolade than seeing their stamp designs on an envelope . That is proof , the artists say , that the public accepts their work and appreciates the subject celebrated on a stamp . But few people at Postal Service Headquarters will concede to worrying about whether stamps are used as postage . Since a stamp saved is 29 cents profit for the cash-strapped agency , the World War II stamps have been a big hit there . The World War II stamps are not as big as the Elvis Presley stamp , which hit $ 35 million in profit , but Azeezaly S. Jaffer , the Postal Service 's top stamp official , calls them an unqualified success . According to Jaffer , the first three sets of World War II stamps have yielded between $ 7.5 million and $ 10 million profit each . That 's enough to prompt Jaffer and others to try to devise plans for a sequel . `` I think the stamps have been really exciting. .. . There has been a tremendous outpouring of interest , especially from veterans groups , '' Jaffer said . `` I don't see a lot of World War II stamps on mail , which tells me that people are buying these stamps and keeping them . '' On June 6 , the Postal Service will release 10 more stamps to commemorate the war . As American officials gather in France to mark the 50th anniversary of the D-Day landing at Normandy , Postmaster General Marvin T. Runyon is scheduled to join President Clinton and other U.S. officials aboard the aircraft carrier USS George Washington off the Normandy coast and dedicate the fourth set of World War II stamps . Separate ceremonies will be held in Washington and 13 other cities that day to celebrate the new stamps . The official first-day cancellations will come from the USS Normandy , a guided missile cruiser , which is to be among the U.S. ships off France June 6 . It will be only the third time that a U.S. stamp will have been dedicated outside the country , according to the Postal Service . The first two were at stamp shows in 1978 and 1988 in Canada . The Normandy cancellation will be available at the National Postal Museum in Washington , where a ceremony with Secretary of Defense William J. Perry will commemorate the release . The stamps also will go on sale June 6 at Fort Dix , N.J. ; Salt Lake City ; New York City ; Clarksville , Tenn. ; Bangor , Maine ; Fort Campbell , Ky. ; Charleston , S.C. ; Virginia Beach and Richmond , Va. ; and three Texas locations : Fort Sam Houston , Lubbock and San Antonio . Like the other stamps in the series , this year 's set is being sold in special sheets that feature a color map of the world highlighting the events that occurred 50 years ago . Titled `` 1944 : Road to Victory , '' this year 's stamps salute the Normandy invasion , retaking of New Guinea , bombing raids , airborne unit assaults , submarine warfare in the Pacific , the retaking of Rome , the attack on Saipan , the Red Ball Express speeding supplies to the front , the Battle of Leyte Gulf , Bastogne and the Battle of the Bulge . To encourage more people to save the stamps , Jaffer is planning to introduce a special `` Stamp Folio , '' a souvenir booklet that will hold all five sheets planned for the series . Booklets with the first four sheets will be sold by the Postal Service for $ 14.95 . The stamps were designed by Bill Bond of Arlington , Va. , who painted all 50 stamps in the series . The Bureau of Engraving and Printing used offset and intaglio presses to create the latest stamps . Individuals interested in securing the USS Normandy first-day cancellations of the World War II stamps should purchase the stamps at their local post office and place them on address envelopes . These should be placed in a larger envelope and mailed to : Customer-Affixed Stamps , World War II Stamps , Postmaster , 900 Brentwood Rd. NE , Washington , DC 20066-9991 . All envelopes must be postmarked by July 5 . The Chevrolet Corvette Club was upset . They misunderstood . They just didn't get what I wrote recently about the way many people react to folks driving Corvette convertibles and coupes . I wrote that there appears to be an undercurrent of public hostility toward Corvette drivers . This was from personal experience and empirical observation . I get into a Corvette and cops follow me , folks cut me off , women avert their eyes . God forbid that I cut someone off while driving a Corvette . I get the Ignoble Salute like nobody 's business . ISn't nothin ' wrong with the car and there probably isn't much wrong with Corvette drivers . It 's a public perception thing . Corvettes , generally speaking , are seen as macho , aggressive , unfriendly . People respond accordingly . But how different it is to be behind the wheel of a 1995 Volkswagen Cabrio . I drove one for a week and made lots of friends . People waved . Women winked . Cops passed me by with nary a notice . I even gave the Cabrio the Ultimate Motorized Public Acceptance Test . I inadvertently cut someone off in traffic in the District of Columbia and braced myself for some shouted expletive . But all I got was : `` Hey , man , you tryin ' to mess up that nice car ? '' I apologized . The dude waved . Nice , friendly reaction . Nice , friendly car . Background : Cars are about more than performance , as measured in 0-to-60 times , cornering ability , horsepower , torque and that type of stuff . Cars are also about attitude , which is something that VW 's engineers and designers understand . From the very first Beetle ragtop in 1955 to the current Cabrio model , VW 's people have given us simple , embraceable convertibles , cars that seem to run on optimism as much as fuel . It 's a joy to be in these things on a great day , tootling along with the top down . Of course , the guts are there in the new front-wheel-drive Cabrio albeit not in strong enough measure to please wannabe race car drivers . The car runs with a two-liter , in-line four-cylinder engine , rated 115 horsepower at 5,400 rpm . Maximum torque is 122 foot-pounds at 3,200 rpm . Standard brakes include power front-discs/rear drums with anti-lock backup . A roll bar is standard ( I prefer to have it there ) . Dual air bags are standard , but VW jettisoned the glove box to get the passenger bag in . The standard transmission is five-speed manual ; a four-speed automatic is optional . The six-layer , vinyl-coated , convertible cloth top is manual , but it works faster and better than many power models at a substantially lower cost . Finally , the new Cabrio has an overall stiffer body than its predecessors and more interior space than a substantially pricier BMW 325i convertible . Complaints : No glove box . Practically nonexistent trunk at 7.8 cubic feet . Yo , somebody at VW forget something ? Praise : Ease of use . Overall quality of design and build . Ample rear seat room for two `` normal size '' adults . Great fun at an almost reasonable price . Head-turning quotient : Body beautiful by Karmann Coachworks , with rounded exterior , teardrop headlamps and high rear end . Way more cheers than jeers . Ride , acceleration and handling : Firm , but comfortable ride . Crisp handling and good acceleration for normal drivers . Excellent braking . Mileage : About 26 miles per gallon ( 14.5-gallon tank , estimated 367-mile range on usable volume of required regular unleaded ) , five-speed manual model , running mostly highway and driver only . Sound system : AM/FM stereo radio and cassette with optional compact disc player , Volkswagen Premium sound system . The first VW sound system I 've actually enjoyed . Price : Base price is $ 19,975 . Dealer 's invoice on base model is $ 18,161 . Price as tested is $ 21,710 , including $ 1,345 in options and a $ 390 destination charge . Purse-strings note : Compare with any subcompact convertible . For that matter , compare with some luxury convertibles including those from Audi , BMW and , ahm , Chevrolet . COLLEVILLE-SUR-MER , France Their graves run in parallel ranks on the bluff above the bloody shingle called Omaha Beach , where so many of them fell . Row upon row of headstones fill the American cemetery here , more than 9,000 all told , each bone-white , each precisely 39 inches tall , each emblematic of a young life forfeited for a greater good . The grass has been clipped , the hedges trimmed , the marble scrubbed . And now the fallen wait amid the tranquility of this hallowed ground for the return of their comrades . Fifty years after the Normandy landing , they await a last reunion of the quick and the dead . Normandy : the legend long ago transcended the event itself , joining those other three-syllable battles Trafalgar , Gettysburg , Stalingrad whose names evoke valor , sacrifice and the steel-on-steel clash of irreconcilable adversaries . The invasion on June 6 , 1944 , is now woven into the warp and woof of our national mythology . It opened the majestic final act of what was known in an earlier age , without embarrassment or irony , as the Great Crusade . It also marked , as historian H.P. Willmott wrote , `` the emergence of the United States as the major power in Western Europe '' and `` the end of the period of European supremacy in the world that had existed for four centuries . '' Joseph Stalin , rarely given to effusive praise for his Western allies , declared that `` the history of warfare knows no other like undertaking from the point of view of its scale , its conception and its masterly execution . '' Military historian John Keegan , carefully calibrating the losses endured by the Third Reich in Russia and North Africa , concluded that Normandy `` ranked as the greatest military disaster Hitler had yet suffered in the field . '' It was epic , heroic and decisive . Normandy was all of these things , and less . Significant as it was , the invasion came very late in the war , forcing the Soviet Union to bear the brunt of the fight in Europe for three years and giving Moscow squatter 's rights to the eastern empire it would soon occupy . The Normandy campaign itself was marred by sins of omission and commission : intelligence shortcomings , questionable generalship , internecine bickering and friendly-fire casualties on a scale unseen before or since . Notwithstanding their ultimate success , the invaders failed to capture any of their initial objectives on D-Day ; indeed , the critical crossroads city of Caen would not fall for more than a month . For seven weeks , the opposing armies slugged it out toe-to-toe in fighting more reminiscent of static World War I combat with Norman hedgerows substituting for Verdun trenches than the mobile warfare commonly associated with World War II . Foreshadowing the infamous epitaph from Vietnam `` we had to destroy the village in order to save it '' the liberators inflicted massive damage throughout Normandy ; by summer 's end , about 15,000 French civilians would be killed and 200,000 buildings destroyed . German tenacity and martial prowess though crippled by an oafish Nazi high command were often underestimated by the Allies , who ultimately prevailed through weight of numbers and overwhelming firepower . As Max Hastings , whose `` Overlord '' is among the definitive accounts of the battle , wrote a decade ago , `` Whenever British or American troops met the Germans in anything like equal strength , the Germans prevailed . '' Let none of it detract from the glory of those who fought and bled in good faith and good cause . Fifty years ago this week , men who had never read a line of Shakespeare in their lives found themselves quoting `` Henry V '' to one another with bardic passion : He that outlives this day , and comes home safe Will stand a-tiptoe when this day is named . They return this week for most , it will be a final return to stand once more a-tiptoe . -O- A generation before Normandy , Sir Edward Grey had likened the United States to `` a gigantic boiler : once the fire is lighted under it there is no limit to the power it can generate . '' By 1944 , the boiler had been stoked again . Eleven million Americans were in military uniforms , including 2 million assigned to 90 combat divisions . American industry was turning out war materiel at a stupendous pace . Much of this power was concentrated on the task of liberating Europe . But how best to do it ? British leaders favored defeating Germany through a series of blows on the Third Reich 's periphery ; Washington believed Allied clout should be concentrated in one staggering punch . The American strategy prevailed . A plan for the invasion of Europe , code-named Overlord , was reviewed by President Franklin D. Roosevelt , Prime Minister Winston Churchill and their top generals at a conference in Quebec in August 1943 and again during meetings in Cairo and Tehran that winter . The man chosen to lead the crusade had already commanded three successful amphibious landings . As a relatively junior officer in March 1942 , Dwight D. Eisenhower had also drafted an early version of the attack plan , which called for an invasion of the continent in April 1943 by 30 U.S. and 18 British divisions 1.5 million men who would land between Le Havre and Boulogne and drive toward Antwerp , Belgium . Eisenhower , historian Eric Larrabee wrote , `` came to Overlord as though born for it . '' Homespun and self-effacing , Eisenhower also possessed equilibrium , a deft political touch later described as `` hidden-hand leadership '' and charisma . `` He had only to smile at you , '' British Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery once admitted , `` and there was nothing you would not do for him . '' As supreme allied commander , Eisenhower was granted extraordinary autonomy when he established his headquarters in January 1944 in Bushy Park , outside London . Yet it often took more than smiles to exert his will . The most serious confrontation involved the deployment of Allied air power . British and U.S. air chiefs favored a relentless bombing campaign against strategic targets in Germany ; Eisenhower demanded that a substantial portion of the planes be diverted to strike rail , road and other targets in northern France . Only by threatening to resign did the supreme commander gain Roosevelt 's support and win the day . Eisenhower 's `` transportation plan , '' as it was called , ultimately prevented rapid German reinforcement of the landing areas and `` was perhaps his greatest single contribution to the success of Overlord , '' according to Eisenhower 's biographer , Stephen Ambrose . The Overlord concept had been substantially revised since Eisenhower 's first rough cut in early 1942 . Under prodding from Montgomery , who would command the landing forces , the first wave of the Allied invasion force was increased from three divisions to five , while the attack zone was broadened from a 25-mile beachhead to 50 miles . The date , which had already slipped to the spring of 1944 to allow more training and the buildup of forces in England , was pushed back another month , to early June , because another 1,000 landing craft were needed to ferry the extra troops . The critical choice of a landing site , on what the Allied high command called `` the far shore , '' came somewhat through default . Allied intelligence had amassed an immense amount of data on winds , tides and German defenses along the 3,500 miles of coastline from Norway to Spain ; British citizens , responding to an official request broadcast by the BBC , had donated 10 million postcards and holiday snapshots , which permitted an Oxford University team to draw up detailed topographical maps . The most obvious location was the Pas de Calais , which offered the nearest point across the English Channel obvious too to the Germans , who placed their stoutest defenses around Calais . Normandy was chosen because its beaches were more sheltered , it had better exit routes leading inland and the defenses there were less robust . Even so , the assault faced formidable odds . Commanding the defenders in German Army Group B was Field Marshal Erwin Rommel , the Desert Fox of North African fame and perhaps the Wehrmacht 's most inventive general . Arriving in France in December 1943 , Rommel had found Hitler 's supposedly impregnable Atlantic Wall to be poorly fortified , undermanned and porous . The average age of German defenders many of whom were actually Russian and Eastern European prisoners pressed into service was 37 . ( The average age of American troops on D-Day was 22 . ) With frenzied energy , Rommel began thickening the defenses . He ordered the sowing of 2 million mines a month and the construction of a half-million obstacles steel stakes , barbed-wire thickets , automatic flame throwers and booby traps along the beaches and in potential landing zones inland . German strength in France increased from 46 divisions to 55 . Much of this was known to the Allies , who had the invaluable and top-secret advantage of being able to decrypt coded German radio traffic . These `` Ultra '' intercepts showed Anglo-American planners the strength and location of most enemy forces . While Allied assault forces rehearsed on replicas of the invasion beaches built at Slapton Sands in southwest England notwithstanding shoddy security , which permitted German torpedo boats to attack a convoy in April 1944 , killing 749 troops Allied counterintelligence also sought to convince the Germans that the attack would come somewhere other than Normandy . In air and naval power , the Germans were hopelessly outgunned . With 12,000 aircraft , the Allied air forces available over Normandy outnumbered the Luftwaffe better than 20 to 1 . On D-Day , Allied pilots would fly 14,674 sorties compared with only 319 for the Germans . The relentless bombardment of railway yards with 50,000 tons of high explosives not only disrupted German military movements but also killed innumerable French civilians , including 3,000 in a 48-hour period . A week before the invasion , Churchill warned Eisenhower 's deputy , `` You are piling up an awful lot of hatred . '' Also harassing the Germans was the French Resistance . Responding to two prearranged radio messages `` It is hot in Suez '' and `` The dice are on the table '' the Resistance cut rail lines in nearly 1,000 places and sabotaged hundreds of telephone wires . Yet Overlord seemed so audacious , so pregnant with catastrophe that the faint-hearted easily took counsel of their fears . The plan 's complexity could be felt in the heft of an early operations order for the U.S. 1st Army , which contained more words than `` Gone With the Wind . '' Even Eisenhower gave way to defeatism , scribbling a note in anticipation of failure . `` I have withdrawn the troops , '' he wrote in part . `` If any blame or fault attaches to the attempt , it is mine alone . '' -O- No apology was necessary . After postponing the invasion a day because of heavy rain and high winds , Eisenhower gambled on a predicted break in the bad weather . `` I don't see how we can possibly do anything else , '' he told his lieutenants . `` I am quite positive we must give the order . '' The order was given . As the late-summer twilight yielded to darkness , 24,000 men from three airborne divisions the British 6th and U.S. 82nd and 101st reported to 22 airfields in England and boarded 1,200 transport planes and gliders . Despite predictions from the Allied air chief that the divisions would suffer up to 70 percent casualties , Eisenhower and Montgomery believed the units were necessary to seal the flanks of the invasion zone from German counterattack . Much of the airborne assault was a courageous fiasco . Only two of the six U.S. parachute regiments landed where and when they were supposed to . Some soldiers drifted to earth 35 miles from their drop zones , while others were machine-gunned to death during the eternal 43 seconds it took to touch down from 700 feet . Eighteen glider pilots from the 82nd Airborne were killed in the space of a few minutes . Yet the airborne forces won several tactical victories as well as strategic surprise . British glider troops brilliantly seized key bridges east of Caen ; far to the west , the Americans were first routed from the important crossroads at Sainte-Mere-Eglise but later succeeded in capturing the town . `` The very extent of its scatter , '' wrote Keegan , `` had multiplied the effect of confusion in the German high command , preventing it from offering any organized riposte . '' In the words of historian David Howarth , `` the Americans knew what was happening , but few of them knew where they were ; the Germans knew where they were , but none of them knew what was happening . '' As dawn broke , an armada of more than 3,000 Allied ships appeared through the Channel mist , steaming through 10 lanes cleared by minesweepers . Two hundred of the vessels opened up with the most intense bombardment in naval history , their shells chewing huge divots still visible along the coast today . The assault had been timed for low tide to expose as many of Rommel 's underwater obstacles as possible . At 6:31 a.m. , only one minute behind schedule , the first landing craft dropped its ramp and soldiers from the 4th Infantry Division began wading 100 yards to Utah Beach on the far western end of the invasion sector . Confusion and a strong current had conspired to push the first wave more than a mile from the intended landing zone . Theirs was a happy error ; the accidental beach was lightly defended . Brig. Gen. Theodore Roosevelt , 57-year-old son of the former president and the only general to go ashore in the first wave , announced , `` We 're going to start the war from here . '' But 10 miles to the east , at Omaha Beach , the 1st and 29th Infantry Divisions found only death and misery . Undetected by Allied intelligence until the last minute , the Germans had more than doubled the forces on the bluffs fronting the beach . The defenders had barely been scratched by Allied aircraft , which , unable to see through the heavy clouds , dropped most of their bombs far inland . In another intelligence failure , Army Rangers struggled up the 100-foot cliffs of Pointe du Hoc between Utah and Omaha clawing at the rock with grappling hooks , knives and fingers only to discover that the big guns they were supposed to destroy had been moved . All but 90 of the original 225 Rangers were killed or wounded . Below on Omaha , terrified , seasick American soldiers fell by the score as machine-gun bullets whipped the water white , then red . All 26 artillery guns in the first wave sank ; only two of 24 amphibious tanks made it ashore . Successive waves plunged grimly ahead , ignoring the shrieks of drowning comrades . Bodies lay in windrows along the shoreline . Dead men drifted on the making tide . Aboard the USS Aurora several miles offshore , Lt. Gen. Omar Bradley , commander of the U.S. 1st Army , concluded at 9 a.m. that `` our troops had suffered an irreversible catastrophe . '' A catastrophe yes , but not irreversible . Farther east , on beaches Gold , Juno and Sword , British and Canadian troops punched ashore on a 20-mile front against lighter defenses and over easier terrain . The Americans at Utah pressed toward Sainte-Mere-Eglise . By nightfall , the British at Gold had penetrated six miles inland and linked up with the Canadians from Juno within sight of Caen . By the end of D-Day , nearly 175,000 troops were ashore at a cost of more than 10,000 casualties , of whom about 2,500 were killed . ( Exact figures were never determined for either the number of Allied soldiers landed in France by sea and air , or for casualties . Estimates of German deaths for the day range from 4,000 to 8,000 . ) The Allies had their toehold on France . `` Overlord , '' Stalin cabled Churchill , `` is a source of joy to us all . '' -O- Now came the hard part . Hitler had immeasurably aided the Allied cause by fragmenting his command structure and personally retaining control over more than half of the German tank forces in Normandy . In history 's most celebrated nap , the fuehrer went to bed in his Bavarian retreat at 4 a.m. on June 6 and slumbered undisturbed by his inner coterie of sycophants despite frantic pleas for armored reinforcements from his generals on the western front . Rommel , who had taken leave in Germany , immediately rushed back to France . But by the time he was in position to command his forces and Hitler had woken to the gravity of his predicament , it was too late to level the kind of devastating counterpunch against the beachhead that Rommel had long believed imperative . By now , the best the defenders could hope for was to keep the invaders bottled up indefinitely , a task the Germans performed expertly for nearly three months . As the Germans had missed an opportunity , so had the Allies . `` A great amount of work , thought and intelligence-gathering had gone into the assault phase getting a toehold on the beach , '' Bradley later wrote . `` But not nearly enough planning and intelligence-gathering had been devoted to the immediate problems of exploitation of the beachhead . '' Although Montgomery insisted for years that the campaign proceeded exactly according to his master plan , many historians hold him responsible for the failure to seize Caen immediately and plow through the disorganized defenders . Instead , the summer was spent launching a series of bloody and costly offensives that accomplished little . Operation Goodwood , for example , gained the British seven miles of French soil at the expense of 6,000 casualties and 400 tanks . Other catastrophes intruded . A tremendous storm in mid-June demolished one of the Allies ' two floating harbors , temporarily cutting resupply to a trickle . American fighter pilots mistakenly strafed Canadian prisoners of war being marched toward Rennes , killing 15 ; errant American carpet bombing around Saint-Lo inflicted 814 American casualties and killed Lt. Gen. Lesley J. McNair . Such setbacks notwithstanding , the campaign and the war had effectively been won once the beachhead took root . Allied air superiority , Rommel complained , left German forces `` completely paralyzed '' during the day ; the 2nd Panzer Division took 17 days to move from Toulouse to Normandy , normally a three-day trip . In a letter to his son , the field marshal bemoaned the loss of more men in a single day of Normandy fighting than in the entire summer of 1942 in the North African campaign . Cherbourg fell on June 27 . By July 2 , the Allies had 1 million soldiers and 172,000 vehicles on `` the far shore . '' The Russians tightened the noose around the Third Reich by launching Operation Bagration on the eastern front with 1.7 million Soviet troops and 2,700 tanks . On July 25 , the Americans finally succeeded in breaking out of Normandy with Operation Cobra , spearheaded by the intrepid , pistol-packing Lt. Gen. George S. Patton Jr. . Allied forces reached the Loire river on Aug. 13 ; less than two weeks later , Paris was liberated . Asked for advice by Hitler 's high command , Field Marshal Gerd von Rundstedt , commander of German forces in the west , famously replied , `` Make peace , you idiots ! What else can you do ? '' -O- Not for many months would there be peace , except for the dead . Total casualties in the 80-day Normandy campaign are put at 637,000 , including prisoners of war , according to historian Carlo D' Este . The losses included 20,838 Americans killed and 94,881 wounded . The estimated German tally was 200,000 killed and wounded and another 200,000 captured . So many rotting bodies littered the Norman landscape that pilots 1,000 feet up covered their noses . By D' Este 's calculations , five German tank divisions and 20 infantry divisions had been destroyed ; six other tank divisions and 12 infantry divisions were severely battered . Three German corps commanders and 20 division commanders had been killed , wounded or captured . `` It was , '' Rommel grimly observed , `` one terrible bloodletting . '' For the Allied victors , Normandy also sanctified the transatlantic relationship , double-knotting the bonds of an alliance that would endure nearly five decades of Cold War and beyond . The landings brought to the continent the first wave in an inexorable invasion of American culture , political influence and military leadership . And Normandy marked the beginning , agonizing though it was , of an enduring epoch of peace and stability in a Western Europe that included a peaceful , stable Germany . Tens of thousands who came to Normandy a half-century ago never left . There are 27 national cemeteries here containing the mortal remains of American , British , Canadian , Polish and German veterans . In the middle of the Colleville cemetery , where four of every 10 U.S. soldiers who fell in Normandy are buried , a little chapel contains this inscription on the wall : Think not only upon their passing . Remember the glory of their spirit . `` There 's a responsibility to pass the flame to successive generations , '' said Joseph P . Rivers , superintendent of the cemetery for the past 11 years . `` We can't let it fade away . A nation can't forget its history . '' COLLEVILLE-SUR-MER , France The British showed a particular genius for deception , creating divisions and whole armies with fake radio traffic and cardboard mockups . Among the many diversions that would confuse the Germans on D-Day was Operation Taxable , the dropping of dummy parachutists near Boulogne ; the dispensing of clouds of radar-jamming foil that simulated a ship convoy moving toward Calais ; and the use of boats and electronic beacons to suggest an invasion force near Dieppe . President Clinton acted appropriately Thursday in decoupling human rights from trade policy in renewing most-favored-nation trading status for China . `` We have reached the end of the usefulness of that policy , '' he said , and we must sadly agree . It was a difficult political decision , but one thoughtfully made in recognition of the need to build a productive , long-term , strategic relationship with China . A China engaged and open is far more desirable than a communist giant in isolation . That is not to suggest that China has made vast improvements in human rights . It has not . Nor should the United States abandon the issue . The president was unequivocally clear on two points : that the United States will continue to champion human rights and that abuses continue in China . But the attempt to leverage trade for improvements in human rights has fallen short . The question now is what is the best way to pursue human rights in China ? The issue is real , but it should not be the defining element in political , economic and security discussions with Beijing . Clinton now believes that advances in human rights are far more likely under improved relations and when they are not beneath the cloud of the annual MFN review . MFN is accorded the vast majority of U.S. trading partners without annual reviews . The status allows them to sell goods in the United States at the lowest possible tariffs . China 's MFN status was not subject to annual wrangling until after June , 1989 , when Chinese tanks rolled into Tian An Men Square in a bloody confrontation with pro-democracy demonstrators . Congress wanted China 's MFN renewal linked to human rights , but it was unable to prevail over President Bush 's preference for unfettered MFN . During the 1992 presidential campaign Bill Clinton accused Bush of `` coddling dictators '' in China . Last year President Clinton renewed MFN for China with an executive order that required China to meet seven conditions , related to human rights , prison labor and emigration issues . Secretary of State Warren Christopher certified that China had made improvements in two , but not the other five . That is probably because changing dynamics within China over the last year have slowed improvements . Tensions between the central government and the provinces have widened with modernization ; further stress is resulting because , in light of the ages of senior officials , changes in leadership are expected soon . With China in flux , Congress should support President Clinton 's balanced decision on MFN , thereby presenting a united U.S. front to Beijing . For Republicans , this off-year is getting very interesting . The party that lost the presidential election usually makes some gains two years later . So Republicans were expecting to pick up seats in the House of Representative just on the basis of the historical form sheet . But two recent special elections have the party 's political leaders positively licking their chops . Early this month , Oklahoma voters filled a congressional vacancy with a Republican state legislator , Frank D. Lucas , who was running against a Democrat , Dan Webber Jr. , a former aide to a U.S. senator . This district has not had a Republican representative in 20 years . Then last Tuesday in Kentucky , Republican Ron Lewis , an evangelical preacher and businessman , defeated former state Sen. Joseph W. Prather , a Democrat , to fill a vacancy in a district that has been safely Democratic for over a century . In Oklahoma , the winner stressed his conservatism and his opponent 's ties to Washington . In Kentucky , the winner stressed his conservatism and linked his opponent to the national Democratic Party . His best commercial went , `` If you like President Clinton , you 'll love Joe Prather . '' These straws in the winds are deeply disturbing to Democratic incumbents , especially those in the even more conservative , more anti-Clinton districts south of the Border States . Some Democratic leaders in the 11 states of the old Confederacy are so pessimistic about 1994 that they agree with Republican leaders who say the South might , for the first time , elect as many Republican representatives as Democrats . There are presently 77 Democrats and 48 Republicans . A gain of 15 seats would do the trick . A recent journalistic survey of just the eight Southeastern states concluded that Democrats could lose 14 districts . Even with no Republican gains in the Southwest and the rest of the nation ( which is unlikely ) , a shift of just 14 seats in the House would probably give effective control of legislation to a conservative bloc in the House of Representatives uniting behind the likes of Newt Gingrich . But can Republicans also make substantial gains in the Senate ? Probably. Democrats have 21 seats up this year ( and one the next ) , compared to only 13 for the Republicans . The unexpected retirements of George Mitchell and David Boren , two Democratic shoo-ins for re-election , give Republicans a good chance in Maine and Oklahoma . And Democratic Sen. Richard Shelby of Alabama is mulling over changing his party registration . If most of the above Republican wish list happens , Clinton 's legislative agenda will almost surely be dead for 1995-1996 , and his own re-election chances threatened . For health care and other priorities , it may well be now or never . It started a few nights ago , a horrible dream that left me shaken and sweat-soaked and obsessing about .. . the Flintstones . They were all there in the dream : Fred and Wilma , Betty and Barney Rubble and all their annoying kids and grinning domesticated dinosaurs , chasing me with flaming torches and yelling `` Yabba-dabba-doo ! '' as we traversed some prehistoric suburban hell . And everywhere overhead there were huge , billowing clouds of smoke from a thousand pot-bellied cavemen grilling big , greasy bronto-burgers . `` Why am I having this dream ? ! '' I asked my wife after one particularly bad episode . She said nothing . In fact , when I looked over , she was lying there with her eyes closed . `` Oh , my God , she 's dead ! '' I screamed , leaping out of bed and sobbing hysterically . Then I realized it was 3 in the morning and she was probably just sleeping , which made me feel a lot better , although frankly the dream was still bothering me . The point ( yes , yes , there is a point to all this ) is that there is no escaping the Flintstones anymore , not even when you sleep . After weeks of relentless hype , `` The Flintstones '' movie has finally opened . And if the trailers for this baby are any indication , it looks goofy enough to make `` The Addams Family '' look like `` Citizen Kane . '' Naturally , the inevitable commercialization has also begun , and we 're being asked to buy Flintstones backpacks , Flintstones lunch pails , Flintstones posters and all sorts of Flintstones toys . The whole business is getting ugly . I was at McDonald 's the other day , and I asked the 16-year-old Metallica disciple behind the counter for a diet soda . Suddenly , his eyes shone with the eerie glow of the true company fanatic , and he said : `` You want a Bedrock mug ? '' `` I .. . just want a Diet Coke , '' I said . Which apparently was the wrong thing to say , because now he was pounding his fist on the counter and almost shouting : `` But we have Bedrock mugs ! '' Bedrock mugs , Flintstones Happy Meals .. . our society keeps unraveling at an astonishing pace . But this is what happens when a potential blockbuster movie is accompanied by a $ 100 million marketing campaign . People get carried away . In the New York Times , the movie 's director , Brian Levant , was quoted as saying of the Flintstones : `` They are spokesmen , celebrated figures in our culture . You don't make a Pez dispenser out of just anyone . '' Well , no , but .. . does anyone else have a problem with the idea of Fred and Barney as spokesmen ? Me , when I think of a spokesman , I think of , oh , Henry Kissinger . Or maybe James Earl Jones . I don't think of .. . Barney Rubble . Besides , I 'm not sure how much clout Barney brings to the world of product endorsement . If I come out with a new line of , say , radial tires , I don't think I want Barney Rubble hawking them for me on TV . Look , maybe you can get away with plastering Barney 's homely mug on a children 's vitamin . But seeing it on a pair of Michelin P215/70SR14 's is not going to fill the average tire customer with confidence . This is probably neither here nor there , but I find this whole outbreak of Flintstones mania puzzling , since the original TV series wasn't that hot to begin with . Let 's face it , Bedrock itself was a nothing little burg . A rock quarry , 20 or 30 dreary ranchers with a quarter-acre of property , that was about it . What was it Gertrude Stein said about Oakland : `` There 's no there there '' ? Look , Oakland is Paris in the springtime compared with Bedrock . Plus , let 's face it , Fred was an unbelievably dense human being who always seemed as if he 'd just had an anvil dropped on his head . Wilma 's voice sounded like a heavy appliance being dragged across linoleum . Betty could fill out a saber-toothed-tiger skin but seemed to operate in a giggly haze of prescription sedatives . And Barney .. . Barney was nothing more than a yes-man for Fred . Barney had no backbone . If Fred said jump , Barney said : `` How high ? '' Don't get me started on those bratty kids , either . Pebbles , Bam-Bam .. . this is why they used to build reform schools . The thing is , I 'll probably end up seeing `` The Flintstones '' like every other sucker . I 'll pony up 350 bucks , or whatever it costs to drag three kids to see a movie these days . Then I 'll settle back with a big tub of popcorn soaked in artery-clogging coconut oil to see what all the fuss is about . I will not , however , be buying any Barney Rubble radials . WASHINGTON The Clinton administration , still working to fill the 325 top jobs in executive departments , is inching closer to its goal . But as of the end of April , 67 of those senior positions ( 20.6 percent ) remained unfilled and 41 had no nominees pending , according to a report by Rogelio Garcia of the Congressional Research Service . The slowest departments to fill were Justice , with 37.9 percent of its positions vacant , Treasury ( 30.4 percent ) and Transportation ( 30 percent ) . The speedsters were Housing and Urban Development and the Labor Department , which had all positions filled by April 30 , and Health and Human Services , which had 94.7 percent filled . The United Nations allocated monies so that ships sailing through international waters could supply peoples around the world with food . This description of a hypothetical act of mercy may make you exclaim , `` Mercy ! I knew the U.N. was pluralistic , but why so many plurals ? Why not just say ` money , ' ` water ' and ` people ' ? '' True enough , there 's rarely a need to pluralize these collective nouns . But when they are pluralized , it changes their meaning . The use of `` moneys '' ( or `` monies '' ) , for instance , implies that the moola in question has either been acquired from several sources or distributed to several different recipients . `` Moneys '' is most often used when referring to spending by governments , corporations or international agencies . Thus , when there are two or more winners in a state lottery drawing , the lucky ticket holders could justifiably sing in unison , `` We 're in the monies ! '' Although some say that `` monies '' is not a proper plural because there 's no singular `` mony , '' ( please , no letters from the public relations department at Mutual of New York claiming otherwise ) , a tidy sum of others , believing that pluralization is a money-splendored thing , say `` monies '' is on the `` money . '' Now let 's sail into troubled `` waters . '' `` Waters , '' of course , can simply be the plural of `` water . '' `` I don't want any of these waters , '' your son whines at midnight , rejecting the five glasses that you , the Father of Waters , and your wife `` Mrs. Sippie , '' have dutifully delivered to his bedside . But `` waters '' also carries three specific meanings : any body of water ( `` Cayuga 's waters '' ) , a stretch of ocean under a political jurisdiction ( `` international waters '' ) or the mineral water at a spa . ( Thus , Humphrey Bogart was not misinformed , at least grammatically speaking , when he said , `` I came to Casablanca for the waters . '' ) As for `` peoples , '' this word refers not to people in general , but to a collection of entire cultures , religions and nations , such as the Ashanti people , the Navajo people and the French people . Thus , the phrase `` supply peoples around the world '' implies that assistance is being given to people of many distinct cultures . Sometimes , to paraphase Barbra Streisand , there are `` peoples who need people . '' A week from Monday , all eyes will be on Normandy for the 50th anniversary of one of history 's great moments , D-Day . Now , here 's a question : What important 50th anniversary will occur two days earlier , on June 4 ? You 're hesitating . Nobody else seems to remember either . It 's the Allied liberation of Rome , the first enemy capital to fall . Both events are related . The final drive to Rome , and even the date it occurred , had a lot to do with Normandy . By keeping large German forces busy in Italy , Allied troops at great cost to themselves permitted the gigantic Normandy buildup to proceed . At the same time , the Allied high command in Italy was determined to grab world attention in the hours before the landings in France would wipe the Italian campaign off the front pages . At that stage of the war , hopes were high that the twin blows within 48 hours on two major battlefields would hasten Germany 's collapse . Of course , that did not happen . It took almost another year to reach V-E Day . So today Italy has become the Forgotten Front . Tens of thousands of veterans , families and friends are expected to pack the Normandy beaches to celebrate that anniversary . But hardly anyone will notice a smaller gathering in Rome on Saturday at which survivors of the Italian campaign commemorate the occasion . -O- Let 's look back . From the fall of '43 through half of '44 , thousands of GIs spent bloody months battling Italy 's `` mud , mules and mountains '' as well as Germans . A lot of our guys are still there , in a handful of eerily quiet cemeteries . As early as September of '43 , Allied strategy included an attempt to reach Rome . The Italian military chiefs had decided to depose Mussolini and desert their Nazi partners , and they desperately wanted help against expected German vengeance when the double-cross became public . During secret negotiations that summer , the Allies agreed to drop the U.S. 82nd Airborne Division on Rome hours before Allied forces began the invasion of Italy at Salerno 200 miles south of the capital . Determined to learn whether the Italians could protect his troops , Maj. Gen. Matthew Ridgway , the paratroop commander , had his deputy , Brig. Gen. Maxwell Taylor , slip secretly into Rome . At midnight , a few hours before Ridgway 's scheduled takeoff from Sicily , Taylor woke up the new head of government , Marshal Pietro Badoglio . The sleepy Badoglio confirmed the worst : The Germans had seized control of Rome and the American paratroopers faced slaughter by some of Hitler 's toughest battalions . As the clock ticked toward H-Hour , Taylor 's alarming message was relayed to Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower ; Ike ordered the mission aborted , but Ridgway could not be reached at his Sicily headquarters . Ridgway began launching his paratroop-laden planes . But almost by a miracle , the cancellation message found him in time to call his boys back . `` It was a goddam close all , '' one participant in the drama recalled . Eisenhower later commented about Taylor 's mission into Rome : `` The risks he ran were greater than I asked any other agent or emissary to undertake during the war . .. . Every minute ( he ) was in imminent danger of discovery and death . '' After a desperate battle on the Salerno beaches , the invasion forces managed to move ahead and capture Naples in October . But German defenses stiffened during a deadly fall and winter . In January , the Allies carried out a successful end run with an amphibious landing at Anzio , but over-cautious leadership kept them pinned down for the next four months . Finally , in May , they broke out of the Anzio beachhead and began the race for Rome . Allied strategy called for British troops to advance into and through the capital while American troops pursued and cut off the retreating Germans . But the 5th Army commander , Lt. Gen. Mark Clark , wanted Rome for the Americans and above all for himself . An astute practitioner of public relations , he ordered the main body of U.S. forces to change course and speed to Rome . Maj. Gen. Geoffrey Keyes candidly told the Associated Press why Clark was in such a big hurry . `` France is going to be invaded , and we 've got to get this in the papers before then . '' When a unit commander insisted his men would need the rest of the day to overcome German artillery , Keyes told him , `` That will not do . General Clark must be across the city limits by 4 o' clock . '' `` Why ? '' he was asked . `` Because he has to have a photograph taken . '' Clark reached the photogenic heights of Capitoline Hill in time to pose for pictures . On June 6 , when a subordinate woke him up to give him the first bulletins of the Normandy landings , Clark was heard to grumble , `` Those SOBs can't they even let us have the headlines for one day ! '' Clark 's actions still cause controversy , bringing bitter criticism that he had sacrificed the opportunity to destroy German forces for the prestige and publicity of being first into Rome . -O- I was one of six Army reporters for the GI newspaper Stars & Stripes who came into the city on the heels of the entering troops . We rushed over to Rome 's leading daily , Il Messaggero , and asked the staff to help us put out a paper . They were delighted but confessed they didn't know any English . We admitted we didn't know any Italian either . So while the fighting soldiers chased the Germans out of Rome , we writing soldiers went to work , filling the paper with our stories and accounts by civilian correspondents . As copies rolled off the presses , we grabbed them and stood out on the broad , sunny boulevards of the Eternal City , handing them out to surprised GIs . Before the last German was gone from Rome , we had published the first issue of the Rome edition of Stars & Stripes , under the headline , in big type , `` WE ' RE IN ROME . '' The next day , June 6 , world headlines exploded with Normandy landings , and our Stars & Stripes , in type twice as big as the day before , screamed , `` INVASION . '' In those heady days it seemed reasonable to link the double Rome-Normandy punch to a quick end of the war . A soldier in a weapons carrier put it this way : `` It willn't be long now till Jerry gives in , I hope . Rome and the Second Front will be too much for him . '' An Italian government official enthused : `` In three or four months finito ! Now is a circle around Germany in Russia , Italy and France . '' But in fact the capture of the first enemy capital dwindled into a one-day story . The sizable press corps following the Italian campaign began to melt away , heading for Normandy . In coming months , with Lt. Gen. George Patton 's tanks blasting into Germany and a new invasion on the southern shores of France , the grinding war of attrition in northern Italy disappeared from public view . And so it has remained . Even during this 50th anniversary commemoration of World War II , Italy is virtually ignored . One list of ceremonies around the world grouped the fall of Rome with events in tiny Luxembourg and Poland where no Americans fought . But veterans of the Italian campaign are hoping for a pleasant change . With President Clinton 's decision to visit Rome and Anzio his only appearances outside Normandy the `` Forgotten Front '' will be remembered , at least for a day or two . -O- ( Paul Green , a former U.S. Senate staff member , represents Stars & Stripes on the Rome 1994 Committee , composed of units from the Italian campaign that will commemorate the 50th anniversary in Rome on Saturday . ) The rankings for hard-cover books in the Washington , D.C. , area as reported by selected book stores : FICTION : 1 . THE CELESTINE PROPHECY , by James Redfield . 2 . THE CHAMBER , by John Grisham . 3 . INCA GOLD , by Clive Cussler . 4 . REMEMBER ME , by Mary Higgins Clark . 5 . `` K '' IS FOR KILLER , by Sue Grafton . NON-FICTION : 1 . IN THE KITCHEN WITH ROSIE , by Rosie Daley . 2 . STANDING FIRM , by Dan Quayle . 3 . BEYOND PEACE , by Richard Nixon . 4 . EMBRACED BY THE LIGHT , by Betty J. Eadie with Curtis Taylor . 5 . THE HALDEMAN DIARIES , by H.R. . WASHINGTON While House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dan Rostenkowski , D-Ill. , agonizes over legal problems that threaten to end his political career , his likely successor , Rep. Sam Gibbons , D-Fla. , has spent the week mending fences with the White House and sending unmistakable signals to his colleagues that he is anxious and ready to take charge . The jovial , avuncular Gibbons 's laid back political style and differing views on health care reform have left the White House and congressional Democratic leaders uneasy in recent days , as they contemplate the political realities of a post-Rostenkowski era . Without Rostenkowski at the helm , some fear , the Ways and Means Committee could badly splinter and President Clinton 's health care initiatives could flounder . `` He 's completely unengaged , '' complained an aide to the House Democratic leadership . `` He 's a nice guy and a smart guy , but he 's someone who hasn't put a lot of time into helping to organize in the House . '' But Gibbons , 74 , a former Florida state legislator and decorated World War II veteran , insists that his critics have underestimated his organizational skills , dating to his work on President Lyndon B . Johnson 's war on poverty legislation . He assured the president and Hillary Rodham Clinton in separate conversations this week that he would set aside his own views on reforming the health care system and vigorously push for passage of the president 's plan before Congress adjourns this fall . `` There 's no doubt about it , I 'm totally on board , '' Gibbons said in an interview . `` The committee knows it , the Clintons know it and my district knows it . '' Gibbons co-sponsored legislation to create a national system of government-paid health coverage through the Medicare program , a single-payer plan , contrasted with Clinton 's approach , which relies on employer mandates for funding . Gibbons 's bubbly enthusiasm and eagerness to take the committee 's reins has struck some of Rostenkowski 's closest allies as a bit unseemly in light of the chairman 's serious legal problems that potentially could lead to a prison sentence . But after 32 years in Congress , Gibbons , like other longtime veterans , believes he is entitled to his day in the sun . `` There 's a deep regret my time had to come on the footsteps of someone else 's travail , '' Gibbons said . `` I like Rosty , admire his ability as a legislator . He 's been very friendly with me and very supportive of some of the things I 've done . My heart bleeds for him and his family . '' This week sources described the chances of Rostenkowski accepting a plea agreement as increasingly unlikely . Rostenkowski , who is said to be leaning toward fighting a lengthy court battle , may reach a decision on whether to accept a plea agreement by the weekend , the sources said . U.S. Attorney Eric H . Holder Jr. has given the veteran lawmaker until Tuesday to accept a guilty plea to at least one felony and jail time or face almost certain indictment . Since the voters of Tampa , Fla. , first sent Gibbons to the House in 1962 , he has aspired to lead the Ways and Means Committee , which has jurisdiction over taxes , trade , Social Security , Medicare and more than half of federal spending . A moderate on most social issues , Gibbons is more conservative on economic matters . As chairman of the subcommittee on trade , he became a leading advocate of free trade often an unpopular stance among House Democrats that became more fashionable with Clinton 's election . Not until recently after Rostenkowski 's legal problems escalated and other senior committee members indicated they would not attempt to challenge Gibbons did it become clear that Gibbons would likely fulfill his wish to lead the committee . Two senior Democratic members of Ways and Means , Reps. Charles B . Rangel ( N.Y. ) , a committee powerhouse , and Fortney `` Pete '' Stark ( Calif. ) , a leader in the health care reform debate , this week endorsed Gibbons for the post if Rostenkowski is forced to step aside . `` I would think he would be a good presider over the committee who would play by the rules , '' Stark said . `` Danny played by the rules too , but those two are very different , and the committee will operate differently but I 'm just not sure how . '' But others warn that without the powerful Rostenkowski in command , the subcommittees may assume greater influence , diffusing power , which could compound the difficulty of passing out controversial legislation . Though his detractors compare his style unfavorably to that of Rostenkowski , who for years forged deals within the delicately balanced committee through a combination of patience , cajoling and occasional bullying , Gibbons is no shrinking violet . Fifty years ago , he parachuted behind enemy lines as part of the first wave of the allied forces ' D-Day invasion of France , eluded 15 German soldiers and then pulled together enough U.S. soldiers to secure the Douve River near the French town of Ste. Mere-Eglise. The young Army officer carried two cans of Schlitz beer in his backpack and shared them with two other soldiers . `` A warm beer on a cool morning on an empty stomach , '' Gibbons recalled this week . Clinton selected Gibbons to represent him during part of the 50th anniversary commemoration of the invasion , beginning this weekend . Gibbons met with the president and historians Tuesday at the White House to recall his part in the invasion . As the session ended , , Clinton treated Gibbons to a surprise : Two Schlitz delivered on a silver tray . Tired of paying a 4 percent or 5 percent upfront commission when you buy a mutual fund from your broker ? Weary of worrying about withdrawal charges if you want to leave your fund before you 've been in there for five or six years ? If so , I 've got some good news for you . The mutual-fund industry is quickly marching down the path to a new kind of fund share , called the C share , or `` level-load '' share . When you buy a level-load share , you don't pay an upfront commission or face a withdrawal charge . Instead , you simply pay the fund an annual fee of 1 percent . The new C shares join two older types of broker-sold fund shares , now called A and B shares . To counter growing confusion about fund shares , the industry recently designated shares as Class A , B , C or D , depending on the sales charges and fees involved . The A share , which is the traditional front-end `` load '' share , comes with the unnerving sight of a broker slicing off a 4 or 5 percent commission before money is even invested . The B shares were created to avoid that pain and to allow an investor to keep his or her original investment intact . The B shares , however , have early-withdrawal charges and so-called 12b-1 fees , used to pay brokers ' commissions . The costs of A and B shares tend to even out after eight years . The emergence of C shares , according to fund executives , recognizes that many investors still resist paying commissions to buy mutual funds . C shares thus charge only an annual fee . The biggest advantage of C shares is that they give investors the freedom to change their minds about where they want to keep their money without paying a penalty . Any investor who tends to be uncertain about his or her fund investments will understand how comforting it is to have that freedom . William E. Chapman , the executive vice president for marketing at Kemper Mutual Funds , which is adding C shares , said he thought they would appeal to investors in the same way some motorists prefer to lease a car rather than buy . Leasing , he noted , might be a better deal for a motorist who wanted the car for only a couple of years . While only a few companies have offered level-load shares up to now , that is changing . Just last week , Kemper and another major fund groups said they were getting into the level-load business . The Calvert Group , which runs a family of social investment funds , added level-load shares to its stock and bond funds . Kemper said it was combining two groups of funds and , henceforth , 21 funds would offer investors three kinds of shares . The shares are similar to those offered by many companies that sell funds through brokers . These are the Kemper offerings : Class A shares . The investor pays a maximum upfront commission or load of 5.75 percent . The amount is deducted before the money is invested . Class B shares . There is no upfront load . However , an investor who leaves the fund before the end of six years will pay a declining withdrawal charge , which starts at 4 percent and goes down to zero . ( If you leave after six years , you pay no withdrawal charge . ) The investor also pays an ongoing 0.75 percent a year charge , known as a 12b-1 fee ( used to pay brokers ) , plus a 0.25 percent service fee a total of 1 percent . At the end of six years , the B shares convert to A shares and the 12b-1 fee is dropped . Class C shares . There is no upfront sales charge or withdrawal fee , only an ongoing fee totaling 1 percent a year . This is composed of a 0.75 percent 12b-1 charge and a 0.25 percent service fee . Kemper says these `` pay as you go '' shares are advantageous for investors who are likely to stay in a fund for only three or four years . An investor who stayed in a level-load fund for 10 years would wind up paying more than an investor in either an A share or B share fund . As for brokers , C shares will give them their commissions over a period of years , instead of when they sell a fund . Some fund officials hope the greater ease of selling level-load shares will encourage brokers to accept delayed payments . ( The mutual-fund industry also has created a D class share , which is a lot like a C class , or level-load , share . However , a D share could also carry a small upfront sales charge . But that 's a story for another day . ) At Calvert , Vice President Steven J. Schueth said his company adopted level-load shares to help brokers compete with no-load funds , which sell by mail or phone and have no sales charges . `` The concept of level-load is not only here to stay but it is a trend that will pick up speed over the next couple years , '' Schueth said . Chapman said Kemper felt it was important , in a competitive market , to give investors as many choices as possible . However , the level-load business may have potential hazards for investors and fund companies . The danger to the investor involves full disclosure . The level-load share allows a broker to say : `` This fund has no sales charges . '' But it willn't be the whole story . The broker also must tell the investor : As long as you are in the fund , you will pay at least a 1 percent yearly charge , on top of the fund 's regular management fees . The danger to the fund company is that level-load investors will make too much use of their freedom to go in and out of the funds . Some observers have suggested these movements , especially during periods of market crisis , could require fund managers to hold cash to meet redemptions and possibly to sell securities into a declining market . That could prove costly to other shareholders . At Kemper , Chapman agreed level-load shareholders might be quicker to change than others but said he did not think it would be a problem for managers . A recent study by Lipper Analytical Services Inc. of how bond-fund investors behaved during April lends some credence to the idea that level-load shareholders are likely to flee faster than other shareholders when markets encounter turbulence . With interest rates rising and bond values falling , investors took more money out of bond funds in April than they put in . Lipper 's study found that level-load investors were the most active group of redeemers , compared with investors who held A or B shares . Clearly , one of the major marketing themes of this age is to give people more choices whether it is ice cream , yellow pages or mutual funds . The new level-load shares give investors a chance to change their minds without paying a penalty . And that 's a great choice . WASHINGTON Quick . Name the inspector general at the Department of Transportation . Name one at any agency . Known mostly to government bureaucrats and congressional oversight committees , the average `` IG '' is an anonymous person looking over the shoulders of mostly anonymous government decision makers , regulators and contractors . It 's one of those nameless , faceless , but very powerful jobs in Washington . But A . Mary Schiavo , 38 , inspector general at DOT since 1990 , is making a name for herself , especially with the Federal Aviation Administration . In the last year , the IG 's office at DOT has changed its focus from auditing obscure DOT contracts and programs to overseeing major programs and investigating safety-related issues . She says the new areas were `` big holes '' in past IGs ' patrolling of the department 's halls . Though her staff has been reduced , Schiavo has issued 2,456 audit reports and has reeled in 149 indictments and 95 convictions aggressive growth in the number of cases being pursued . Much of this attention has gone to the FAA . Subjects include : How the FAA makes sure that only approved parts are used in aircraft maintenance and repair ( Schiavo 's high-profile `` bogus parts '' investigations ) ; security at airports ; a delayed computer modernization program ; aircraft and pilot inspections ; and how the FAA manages its fleet of vehicles ( she believes poorly ) . It 's not that the FAA disagrees with all her findings . But it has complained about the quality of some of her work . The agency also points out that there has never been a crash of a major airliner related to `` bad '' parts and has sent her a 67-page response saying it continued to `` non-concur with many of the recommendations . '' And she was overruled by the Office of Government Ethics on a finding she made in a controversial case involving whether Frank Lorenzo , fallen airline empire builder , should fly again . Schiavo , a licensed pilot and a seasoned prosecutor ( most of her predecessors were auditors ) , is unfazed . `` We don't just want to be the time and attendance cops , '' she said . Sen. Wendell H. Ford , D-Ky. , an influential member of the Committee on Commerce , Science and Transportation , has put the brakes on the nomination of Ricardo Martinez as National Highway Transportation Safety administrator . Using one of the Senate 's most time-tested delay tactics , Ford placed a `` hold '' on Martinez 's nomination , which the Clinton administration advanced several months ago . Mark L . Day , a spokesman for Ford , had no comment on the delay ; administration officials backing Martinez were similarly mum . That hasn't stopped the rumor mill . Speculation within the administration and on Capitol Hill is that Ford , who is from the bourbon state , believes Martinez will be tough on drinking and driving due to his experience as an emergency-room physician in California and Georgia . Others suggest a deal is in the making between Ford and Transportation Secretary Federico Pena over doing a few things for Delta Air Lines Inc. in Kentucky . What kinds of things ? No one 's saying . `` He wanted to get Pena 's attention , and he got it by holding up Martinez 's nomination , '' one government source said . And the DOT gets the award for press release of the week . Its Maritime Administration , which is filled with knowledgeable old sea dogs , described the design on a new commemorative flag as `` an eagle , perched on a red , white and blue shield , and a fouled anchor . '' And what does `` fouled '' mean ? Especially with an eagle nearby ? `` Twisted , '' said a Maritime spokeswoman . As in a rope draped around the anchor . WASHINGTON `` The Flintstones , '' a $ 45 million dinosaur that hired no fewer than 36 screenwriters and stars John Goodman , Rick Moranis , Elizabeth Perkins and Rosie O' Donnell , isn't just awful . It bombs itself into the Stone Age . As Fred Flintstone might have put it : yabba-dabba-boo . After faithfully duplicating the TV show 's familiar opening sequence in which Fred Flintstone ( Goodman ) knocks off work , howls for joy , slides down his Bronto-crane tail and foot-shuffles away in his prehistoric car the movie suffers immediate comic extinction . Leadenly directed and almost soberly scripted , it never captures the campy brightness of the original series the herky-jerky animation , the wacky sound effects , the distinctive character voices and that cheesy laugh track . In the third-rate plot ( and there 's no telling who among the Flintstone 36 came up with this gem ) , scheming boss Cliff Vandercave ( Kyle MacLachlan ) and his comely secretary ( Halle Berry ) promote unsuspecting Fred as a vice president , then frame him for embezzlement , intending to abscond with the ill-gotten profit . Fred , enjoying a life of unprecedented luxury , is obliged to fire Barney ( Moranis ) and watch his friend sink into poverty before realizing his mistakes . If the performers are imitating their cartoon forebears , it is barely apparent . Goodman 's sweat-induced , growly offerings completely bypass Fred 's lovable , pigheaded innocence . The actor never attains Fred 's gravelly timbre . And with his blond-dyed hair and zombielike demeanor , Moranis seems more like a zoned-out Warhol groupie than Fred 's perky buddy . The greatest asset of Perkins 's Wilma is that Perkins looks the part . O' Donnell 's dead-on Betty Rubble giggle is the funniest thing in the movie , but it merely underlines how bad everyone and everything else is around her : The child actors who play Bamm-Bamm and Pebbles are completely forgettable . Fred 's pet dinosaur Dino , with its chintzy eyes and unconvincing animatronic gyrations , looks like a low-budget Muppet . And even Elizabeth Taylor , trundled out to play Fred 's insulting mother-in-law , falls disappointingly short of imperious . She isn't exactly helped by the mediocre bones the screenplay tosses her way . While the movie officially scripted by Steven E. de Souza , Tom Parker and Jim Jennewein labors through its primeval ooze , it churns out incessant , dull visual gags , including a Stonehenge-meets-'50s-America and the `` pigasaurus '' creature under the sink that serves as a garbage disposal . It also heaves out unfunny Hollywood `` inside '' jokes : The movie opens with a `` Steven Spielrock Presents '' credit ; Halle Berry 's character is named Sharon Stone ; George Lucas 's `` Tar Wars '' is playing at the local theater . When , inevitably , Fred locked out of the house by his pet saber-toothed tiger thumps the door and yells `` Wilma ! '' , it doesn't bring `` The Flintstones '' to a triumphant close . It just sets the audience free . `` The Flintstones '' is rated PG . TOKYO Hushed and respectful , wearing our best suits , nervously reviewing our lessons on imperial etiquette , we stood stiffly at our assigned spots on the thick green carpet of the elegant reception chamber . Suddenly , the rice-paper doors slid open , and muffled steps could be heard coming down the long palace corridor . `` Remember , '' an earnest gentleman from the Imperial Household Agency hissed , `` this is a social occasion . '' Well , sort of . With final preparations underway for their 16-day royal visit to the United States next month , Japan 's soft-spoken Emperor Akihito and his wife , the even softer-spoken Empress Michiko , invited a group of American journalists beneath the graceful fluted roofs of the Imperial Palace Friday to share a few sips of royal tea and a few words with royalty . Before the tea party , the reporters were required to attend a one-hour lecture on court history and protocol by the vice grand master of ceremony , who sternly adjured us not to carry cameras , recorders or even notebooks into the royal presence . Throughout the 40-minute session with the emperor and empress , an extremely uptight corps of courtiers and palace bureaucrats kept prodding and poking at us to make sure we stood only in the right places and spoke only at the right times . And yet the handsome , stylish imperial couple radiated such regal charm and aplomb that they managed to give the imperial tea the feeling of a `` social occasion '' after all . Relaxed and natty in his trademark double-breasted suit , with a pure white handkerchief folded into three perfect peaks in his breast pocket , the gray-haired Akihito now in his sixth year on the Chrysanthemum Throne , embodying the world 's oldest ancestral monarchy seemed considerably more at ease than he had at a similar occasion four years ago . Even when the conversation turned to delicate political matters , the 60-year-old emperor was unfazed . He spoke an ordinary , easy-to-understand Japanese sharply different from the arcane court language employed by his royal ancestors . Akihito was asked , of course , about the decision by Japan 's political leadership to cancel a scheduled imperial visit to Pearl Harbor . That stop was removed from the royal schedule for fear of a political backlash from right-wing elements here , who insist Japan owes no apology to the United States for World War II . In reply , Akihito noted calmly that he is a strictly symbolic monarch under Japan 's postwar constitution . The elected government decides his travel schedule , he added , and he of course will do what the government tells him . The empress , meanwhile standing across the room in a pale green kimono with wispy orange and white wildflowers painted along the lavish obi , or belt put on an even more impressive performance . The past year or so has been one of the most trying for Michiko , 59 , since her marriage 36 years ago . In an unprecedented display of public `` disrespect , '' the empress was criticized in several national magazines . The complaints were minor , even trivial but they were considered shocking in a nation that reveres its royalty . The empress collapsed last fall and lost the ability to speak . Court officials blamed this mysterious malady on `` deep sadness '' because of the bad press . It has been only a matter of weeks since Michiko fully regained her speech . But she did just fine Friday , chatting easily , if softly , in clear English with just a few worried glances over her shoulder at the official interpreter . It would be bad form not to mention a violation of the ground rules to quote what their majesties had to say . Let it suffice that they are aware of current economic friction between the world 's two richest nations and hope their trip in June will help ease tension in the U.S.-Japan relationship . Both emperor and empress spoke fondly of previous trips to the United States . Akihito said he still has vivid memories of a visit to Washington decades ago , when he first saw the beautiful array of national monuments lined up along the Mall . He also recalls an auto trip through the vastness of northern Wyoming , when the royal motorcade passed only two other cars in the course of a four-hour drive . In the entire Japanese archipelago , there is nothing approaching such wide open spaces . But if the royal couple handled this social occasion with grace , the phalanx of ladies-in-waiting , stewards , palace bureaucrats , maids and butlers spent the afternoon in a twitter making sure every detail of the tea party was exactly in place . Some 40 minutes before the session was to begin , we were ushered into a large and tastefully opulent room where the green carpet was offset by a high ceiling of polished blond cedar and walls made of rice-paper shoji screens that muted the sunlight outside to the soft glow characteristic of older Japanese homes . We were told precisely where to stand , precisely where to clip on our name tags and precisely how to greet the royal couple ( with Western-style handshakes rather than Japanese-style bows ) . As the emperor and empress approached each of us , a courtier with a booming voice called out an identification . This introduction focused on the things that matter in Japan , group affiliation and title , with the individual 's name thrown in as an afterthought : `` The Washington Post newspaper , bureau chief , Reid-san . '' But as we sipped our tea from delicate china cups , stirring the liquid with sterling spoons bearing the 16-petal chrysanthemum crest that only the imperial family can use , the royal couple seemed to make everything copacetic . `` I wish we could get together more often , '' the empress said and sounded like she really meant it . TOKYO Japan 's Cabinet Friday approved the schedule for Emperor Akihito 's state visit to the United States next month , but canceled , as expected , a planned visit to the Pearl Harbor memorial in Honolulu . The Pearl Harbor stop sparked political controversy here because some right-wing nationalists fear an imperial visit would be construed as an apology for the sneak attack on Dec. 7 , 1941 , that pulled the United States into World War II . As a compromise , the Cabinet decided Akihito will stop at the Punch Bowl military cemetery in Honolulu , where he will lay a wreath in honor of American war dead . Akihito and Empress Michiko will spend four nights in Washington during the 16-day trip , from June 11-15 . They will be the guests of honor at President Clinton 's first state dinner on June 13 . The royal couple will also visit Atlanta ; Charleston , S.C. ; Charlottesville , Va. ; New York ; St. Louis ; Denver ; Los Angeles ; and San Francisco . TRAVNIK , Bosnia-Herzegovina Lt. Gen. Michael Rose , the commander of U.N. troops in Bosnia , took a delegation of NATO officers to meet Gen. Mehmed Aligic earlier this week . At the appointed time , the Bosnian Muslim general burst into the room , sucked in his formidable gut and jerked his right hand into a snappy salute . Nonplussed , Rose extended his arm to shake Aligic 's hand . The U.N. commander , a by-the-books British officer , does not salute a man with no hat . But Aligic Bosnian rascal , lover of women and drink , gloriously incorrect and one of the most successful military leaders of the mostly Muslim Bosnian army refused to shake . The NATO commander for southern Europe , U.S. Navy Adm. Leighton Smith , stepped in and saved everyone a bit of face , participants in the meeting recalled . Looser American rules allow hatless salutes . Aligic , his salute returned and his pride intact , settled into his seat and the meeting began . The fleeting standoff in this beautiful Bosnian town , which reclines along the Lavsa River valley like , Nobel Prize-winning novelist Ivo Andric once wrote , `` the pages of a half-opened book , '' dramatized a yawning gap in understanding between officers of the U.N. operation here and the military men of the warring Bosnian factions that have brought Europe its bloodiest conflict since World War II . Denizens of different cultures and different worlds , using different maps to fight different wars according to different rules , they can neither shake hands nor salute when they meet . The ramifications of this gap in perception are significant , affecting everything in Bosnia from the peace process in Geneva to cease-fire agreements on the ground . It is one of the reasons why what seems to be a step toward peace in the United Nations ' eyes can , in other eyes , turn out to be a stumble toward more war . Rose , born 53 years ago in Quetta , then a British colonial garrison town in what is now Pakistan , cites the Prussian military thinker Karl von Clausewitz to sum up his evaluation of this conflict . `` The war , '' he said with the firm belief of a former war college commandant schooled in the unassailable logic of NATO strategy , `` has long ago reached its limit of exploitation . '' Aligic , 47 , part Turkish vizier , part Communist commissar , trained in the arts of protracted struggle in a culture where Occident and Orient collide , where black marketeering verges on virtue and tending the graves of ancestors constitutes a duty , begs to disagree . `` We don't make war here on the basis of West Point , '' he said . Rose predicted , for example , that his masterpiece , a successful cease-fire around Sarajevo that rode on the back of a NATO ultimatum last February , would spread rapidly across Bosnia . Instead , it was followed by a decision by Bosnian Serb military leader Ratko Mladic to attack the U.N. `` safe area '' of Gorazde , precipitating another crisis . One of the great successes of the U.N. operation in Bosnia , hammered out in tandem with U.S. diplomatic efforts , was the March peace settlement between Croat and Muslim factions that fought a vicious war for more than a year in central Bosnia in parallel with the main conflict pitting the Muslim-led government against Serb secessionists . Lt. Col. John McColl , commander of British forces in the region , Rose and the U.S. diplomats and military officers who brokered the accord saw it as the beginning of a process that would spread into the 72 percent of Bosnia held by the Serbs . Charles E. Redman , U.S. special envoy to the Bosnian peace talks , says that now that Muslims and Croats have stopped fighting they should sign a peace agreement that would give them 51 percent of the country and the Serbs 49 percent . But Aligic commands a corps of Bosnian fighters at least half of whom lost their homes in Serb expulsion campaigns known as `` ethnic cleansing . '' His eyes , therefore , tend to see the Muslim-Croat deal not as a harbinger of peace but as the facilitator of more war . `` The federation means open roads . Open roads mean guns . And that means my men can go home , '' he said . While Rose was telling Aligic that continuing the war was `` pointless , '' Muslim infantry and Croat tanks were attacking Bosnian Serb positions near Tesanj , northeast of Travnik , in a joint probe marking the first time in more than a year that the Croat militia had fought alongside Muslim forces in central Bosnia . Muslim and Croat forces also cooperated against Serb fighters around the strategic Serb-held town of Brcko in northeastern Bosnia earlier this week with Croat tanks lobbing a few rounds from their positions in Orasje to the north and Muslim gunners shelling the city from the south . Rose called the fighting `` minor skirmishes . '' Bosnian commanders view the renewed cooperation as steps toward bigger ones . One of the goals of the Tesanj attack appears to be to cut a road running south from the Serb-held town of Teslic that supplies Serb gunners on Mount Vlasic , a strategic peak overlooking Travnik . Aligic 's men recently have attacked Serb positions there . Successful Muslim-Croat cooperation around Tesanj could bode well for more Muslim-Croat teamwork around Travnik , Aligic said . U.N. officers and many European diplomats have never taken the mostly Muslim army seriously . Just last week , Douglas Hogg , Britain 's deputy foreign minister , called on the Muslim government to acknowledge it had lost the war . In their meeting on Tuesday , Rose told Aligic he would need at least four years to retake the land he had lost . The Muslim commander 's response was simple : `` The general 's mathematics could use a little work . '' VLADIVOSTOK , Russia Twenty years after being stripped of his citizenship , hustled onto an Aeroflot airliner and sent into unwanted exile , Alexander Solzhenitsyn returned triumphantly home Friday , eager to reacquaint himself with a country he acknowledged had been `` altered beyond recognition . '' The Nobel Prize winner , who spent the last 18 years living quietly in southern Vermont , told a crowd of more than 2,000 people gathered in this port city 's main square that Russia had shed communism only to encounter more hardship . `` I never doubted that communism was doomed to collapse , but I always feared what the price would be , '' he said . `` I know I am coming to a Russia torn apart , discouraged , stunned. .. . I would like to search with you for ways to get out of the 75 years of our quagmire . '' The square in which Solzhenitsyn delivered his address is still named `` The Fighters for Soviet Power . '' Despite a long trip , Solzhenitsyn appeared delighted to be back in Russia , smiling and waving to the crowd as it applauded and cheered him . He was then whisked off in a minibus to the Vladivostok Hotel , which was certain to provide the 75-year-old writer with a quick dose of new Russian reality : The hotel has not had hot water for days , its elevators are on the blink , and among the guests are a number of the tough-looking Russian `` biznessmeni '' who flourish here today . The hotel administration did , however , clear out the miniskirted women who , according to male visitors , frequently knocked on doors in the middle of the night , offering their services . Solzhenitsyn flew to Vladivostok from Anchorage , Alaska , with his wife , Natalya , 54 , his youngest son , Stephan , 20 , and a horde of reporters documenting his historic trip home . During a brief refueling stop in Magadan , the heart of the brutal Soviet prison-camp network that he documented in his multi-volume account , `` The Gulag Archipelago , '' he briefly disembarked , reached down to touch the ground and told reporters , `` I bow my head .. . where hundreds of thousands if not millions of our executed fellow countrymen are buried . '' The writer intends to travel slowly across Russia to see firsthand a country he has only read and heard about for the past 20 years . Solzhenitsyn and his wife are having a house built in a leafy district on the outskirts of Moscow , but their plans to move in have apparently been delayed by construction problems . The Solzhenitsyns have kept their home in Cavendish , Vt. , for their sons , who are U.S. citizens and grew up in the United States . Solzhenitsyn told the Russian news agency Tass that he had chosen this formerly closed port , home to the once mighty Soviet Pacific Fleet , instead of Moscow because he wanted to hear ordinary Russians and not those living in a city `` that has been living a privileged life '' at the expense of the rest of the country . There has been extensive coverage of Solzhenitsyn 's return in Russian newspapers , and the local airport erupted in pandemonium Friday when more than 100 local and foreign journalists and camera crews broke through a security line and besieged the writer as he descended from his plane . Solzhenitsyn attempted to calm people , saying , `` Everyone stop . Take as many pictures of me as you want . '' Solzhenitsyn 's return is important to Russia not only because he is , as poet Yevgeny Yevtushenko called him , `` our only living classic . '' His dissident years and unbending opposition to the Soviet regime made him a hero to democracy activists . At the same time , nationalists have hoped to claim him as a standard-bearer thanks to his championing of the values of Russia 's roots and religion and his calls for a united Slavic nation . In his remarks Friday , and over the past few weeks , Solzhenitsyn has said he intends to play only a moral or social role in the new Russia , not a political one . Still , his comments have clearly had a political edge . He has criticized the economic reforms of President Boris Yeltsin and his administration for wreaking havoc with people 's lives , denounced the International Monetary Fund , dismissed Ukrainian nationalist sentiments and called ultranationalist leader Vladimir Zhirinovsky a `` clown . '' He told Tass Friday that his life as a writer is basically complete and it was time to `` get down to hard work on rebuilding and reviving Russia . '' Whether Solzhenitsyn will have any impact is unclear . Russia has changed dramatically in the last three years , and there may be little room for writer-prophets who offer moral guidance to the masses . Many Russians , particularly the young , have not read Solzhenitsyn 's books and seem uninterested in his suggestions that Western ways have polluted Russia . At the same time , many here are clearly searching for someone untainted by the last few years of chaos and broken promises , a moral force in a country that is struggling with the loss of all past certainties . Dissident Nobel Prize-winning physicist Andrei Sakharov fulfilled that role for many , but since his death in 1989 there has been no one . Solzhenitsyn , with his Tolstoyan beard and moral rectitude , has the same aura . He remains a larger-than-life figure for many because of his willingness to risk all to write the truth about the horrors of Soviet totalitarianism . For his work , the West gave him the 1970 Nobel Prize for literature and called him the worthy successor to Tolstoy , Fyodor Dostoyevsky and Anton Chekhov . His rulers called him a traitor . He was hounded and harassed , turned into an official non-person , with his books forbidden and unpublished . In 1974 they forced him into exile , hoping that , removed from his homeland , his angry , overpowering voice would grow still . It did not . Solzhenitsyn has described his time in Vermont as his most productive and peaceful ever . And indeed , when the old treason charges against him were officially judged `` groundless '' in 1991 , following the failed hard-line Communist coup , he chose not to return immediately . He wanted first to finish what he says will be his last work , `` The Red Wheel , '' a massive account of Russian and Soviet history . Friday night he was finally home . WASHINGTON The hours are just as grueling , the salary 's likely to be lower , and the position comes with a heap of public disdain . Nonetheless , this year nearly three dozen physicians are trying to trade their stethoscope and white coat for the job a seat in Congress . The bumper crop of physician-candidates dovetails , of course , with the Clinton administration 's effort to push a national health care reform plan through Congress . If the practice of medicine is going to be revolutionized , some physicians want to have a say in it . `` If health care were not on the front burner , I don't think I would be running , '' said surgeon George Craig , a Republican activist challenging Rep. Jerry Lewis , R-Calif. , in the primary . Dentist Ron Franks , a Republican from Maryland 's Eastern Shore challenging Sen. Paul S. Sarbanes , D-Md. , said he is concerned that health care policy is being determined without the direct input of health care professionals . `` I believe that all health care providers .. . realize the danger and I plan to invite them to participate in my campaign , '' he said . Currently only two members of Congress are physicians both in the House and one , Rep. J. Roy Rowland , D-Ga. , is retiring . More than 35 doctors are candidates this year . A study by Congressional Quarterly shows medicine barely edging out professional sports and acting as prior occupations of members of Congress . The runaway leader in the breakdown : lawyers . `` I think it 's incredible that we have 239 attorneys and two physicians and we 're about to write major changes in health care , '' said Wyoming House candidate and ophthalmologist John Herschler , a Democrat . Sheila McGuire , a dentist and epidemiologist running in Iowa said as far as she is concerned `` lawyers are well represented in Congress . '' The problem , she said , is the under representation of doctors and a lack of familiarity within Congress of the workings of the health care system . McGuire and Herschler are living the attorney-physician tension in more ways than one ; each is running against a lawyer . Herschler 's opponent is a personal injury lawyer who handles malpractice cases , a point Herschler enjoys drawing attention to on the stump . But that opponent , Bob Schuster , counters that being a doctor is not an automatic edge in this year 's election , and might even be a negative . `` If that were a credential to solving the health care problem , we wouldn't have a health care problem . '' McGuire 's opponent , Mike Peterson is painfully aware , however , that doctors carry at least one helpful campaign credential : `` a lot of personal wealth , plus they 've got a lot of friends with personal wealth . '' Of course , so do many attorneys . But , Peterson said that his work as a small town attorney and part-time state legislator does not begin to even the playing field . Doctors are not the only medical candidates this year , There is a smaller but equally determined pool : nurses . Cheryl Davis Knapp , a nurse running in Florida 's 12th Congressional District , holds that the Founding Fathers intended members of Congress to be `` everyday working people , '' and that doctors are not that . `` Certainly , I don't think most people are in the position of most doctors . But I think most people are in the positions of . . . nurses , in terms of finances . '' According to the American Nurses Association , the only nurse ever elected to Congress is freshman Rep. Eddie Bernice Johnson , D-Texas . The gulf between doctors and nurses extends beyond fiscal matters . `` Most physicians see the system only from one side and that 's their side. .. . They 've only seen it from their narrow perspective , '' said nurse practitioner Rita Tamerius , who is running for a California Houseseat . Tamerius advocates greater utilization of nurses for primary care , which she says physicians oppose . The nurses and doctors running for Congress realize that health care expertise does not guarantee victory . `` People hold their own physician in high esteem but are suspicious of the medical community as a whole , '' said Rowland , one of the House 's two doctors . `` I think if a physician is known in the area that he or she 's running in , that will be helpful . '' Congress 's other physician , Rep. Jim McDermott , D-Wash. , a leader in the health care reform debate , reminds physician-candidates of what they will miss if elected . `` You don't get the immediate gratification. .. . Nobody says thank you the way patients do . '' WASHINGTON Two years ago , Rep. Karen L. Thurman , D-Fla. , a civic-minded former school teacher with strong political appeal to women , was part of a Democratic victory march led by female candidates who appealed to Republican-leaning voters alienated by their party 's anti-abortion stands and its tilt to the right . This year , Florida Republicans will try to overcome the loss of those voters , especially college-educated working women , with a candidate whose appeal is geared directly toward a once rock-solid Democratic electorate of poor and working-class whites , especially white men . It would be tough , in fact , to pick a Republican more different from Thurman than the candidate likely to win the GOP nomination in Florida 's 5th Congressional District : Big Daddy Don Garlits , king of the quarter-mile drag strip . `` My family was Democratic going back to the days before the big Depression . We loved the Democratic Party , '' said Garlits , 62 , who has taken a car from a standing start to 287 mph in 440 yards . `` But somewhere in the early '60s , they got the idea you didn't have to work. .. . They got on these ideas like there should be no corporal punishment in the schools , a lot of funny ideas . If you are very young and have a baby , they give you money for it ; and if you have another , they give you more money . '' Citing the Bible and Judeo-Christian principles , Garlits said , `` The man should be the head of the family . I believe that because he 's got the strong hand . '' But , he added , `` Head of the family is one thing , we are not talking about out in the business world . '' Garlits says he is prepared if Thurman attacks him as `` anti-woman . '' `` I 'm going to bring in Shirley Muldowney , '' a three-time drag strip world champion , Garlits said . `` I 'm the guy who first signed her papers ( to enter competition ) and I intimidated the other two guys to sign , so I have always been for women 's rights , before it was politically correct . '' The Thurman-Garlits contest is an extreme example of the slow transformation of the Democratic and Republican parties , as the increasing influence of values , education and gender are working in overlapping ways to weaken the image of a working-class Democratic Party battling a management and Wall Street-dominated GOP . Candidates such as Thurman women who can win support from Republican and independent voters concerned with such issues as health care and abortion rights have become crucial to a Democratic Party seeking to be competitive in an increasingly suburban and college-educated electorate voters who have been most comfortable with the GOP . One of the most important growth areas within the Democratic Party is among young , single working women with college educations . Conversely , Garlits , whose parents were poor farmers , is part of a modest but significant movement in the GOP , a movement that has produced `` bubba Republicans '' in the South , and statewide candidates in the North with roots in Catholic , working-class and immigrant families the classic Democratic profile . The Republican gubernatorial and Senate nominees picked last month by primary voters in Pennsylvania are , respectively , Reps. Thomas J. Ridge , an Irish-Slovak with working-class roots in Erie , and Rick Santorum , the son of an Italian immigrant who represents a Pittsburg district . Reps. Rod Grams of Minnesota and Ronald K. Machtley of Rhode Island have good chances to win the GOP nominations for senator and governor , respectively , and both earned their political spurs by winning in Democratic-leaning blue-collar and working-class districts . Rep. Vic Fazio , D-Calif. , chairman , Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee , said he views the loss of some traditional Democratic voters as `` a naturally occurring phenomena . `` We are the party that is nominating people who are compatible '' with the suburban , well-educated voter , Fazio said , adding that Democratic victories in suburban areas may be the counterpart to the Republican victories of the 1980s among blue-collar `` Reagan Democrats . '' One of the most important developments driving the transformation of the parties by gender and education is the emergence of what might be best described as liberal and conservative value coalitions of voters . The partisan inclinations and demographic make-up of these Republican and Democratic voters runs directly counter to the classic divisions of the New Deal era . Voters in the 1992 election holding decidedly `` liberal '' views on abortion and gay rights were very well-educated , young and female 52 percent with college degrees , only 23 percent over age 50 and 68 percent women according to a study by Alan I . Abramowitz of Emory University . The firmly `` conservative '' voters on these issues were less well-educated and older 24 percent with college degrees , 48 percent age 50 or older and 57 percent were men . Among some groups , such as young , single college-educated voters , the partisan gulf between the sexes has reached such high levels `` that we ( pollsters ) joke among ourselves about how these people are going to have trouble finding compatible spouses , '' said Democrat Celinda Lake . `` Clinton has definitely polarized the gender gap , '' said Republican pollster Linda DiVall . Younger women , she said , are more Democratic in part because they `` tend to be employed in government social service , education , and look to a more activist government . '' Greenberg said that female Democratic candidates are important not only in their ability to win in more upscale , suburban districts but also because `` they are seen as new , as outsiders .. . not part of the old-boy system . They reinforce the image of the Democratic Party as new and reformist , and they also emphasize some of the secular side of the Democratic Party , '' strengthing the perception of the party as supporting abortion rights . Female candidates in competitive congressional districts were able to go `` beyond what normal Democrats can do , '' because women are seen in many cases as representing `` change for the current system , '' said freshman Rep. Maria Cantwell , D-Wash . In 1992 , female candidates were involved in disproportionately high numbers in the closest contests in the nation , and this year they are disproportionately facing tough re-election fights against well-financed opponents . In addition to Thurman , the women the Democratic Party depended upon in many middle-to-upscale , generally suburban districts , include Reps. Elizabeth Furse ( Ore. ) , Jane Harman ( Calif. ) , Marjorie Margolies-Mezvinsky ( Pa. ) , Carolyn B . Maloney ( N.Y. ) , Leslie L. Byrne ( Va. ) , Lynn Schenk ( Calif. ) and Cantwell . While women are only 11 percent of the House membership , they make up virtually half of the winners in the closest races won by House Democrats in 1992 . JERUSALEM Ariel Sharon , Israel 's hawkish former defense minister , launched a campaign Friday to oust Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin in the 1996 elections , declaring his intention to form a broad right-wing coalition and lead `` a rescue mission to save the Land of Israel and the Jewish people . '' But Sharon 's announcement was more a challenge to Benjamin Netanyahu , chairman of the opposition Likud Party , who has been feuding with Sharon . Netanyahu angrily demanded Sharon 's expulsion from the party . `` Arik Sharon is a permanent subversive , '' he said . `` The time has come for such a man to leave Likud . '' Sharon laughed off Netanyahu 's demand , replying , `` I hope Mr. Netanyahu will at least permit me to stay in the country . '' Former Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir , defeated by Rabin two years ago , tartly rebuked Sharon , saying he `` should find more useful things to do in the national interest than undermine it . '' Ze ' ev `` Benny '' Begin , son of the late Prime Minister Menachem Begin and a longtime Sharon foe , said that the burly former general is as likely to win the premiership as he is the world tennis championship . And some members of Rabin 's Labor Party , noting the deep divisions in Israel 's right wing Tsomet Party leader Rafael Eitan has also declared his candidacy wondered aloud whether the prime minister might not benefit by calling early national elections . An opinion survey last week for the newspaper Yediot Aharonot showed Rabin to be Israelis ' preferred leader , winning support from 36 percent of those questioned . Netanyahu followed with 19 percent , Sharon with 12 percent and Eitan with 11 percent . ( Optional add end ) Netanyahu has maintained that if the right unites it could defeat Labor , oust Rabin and return to the Likud 's concept of Palestinian autonomy on the West Bank and in the Gaza Strip under Israeli sovereignty . `` Sharon undermined both Begin and Shamir , and now he is undermining me , '' Netanyahu said . `` He spreads the seeds of a split . '' Under a change in Israel 's political system , the next prime minister will be elected directly by popular vote and must win 50 percent of the vote , on a second ballot if not the first ; in the past , the party that won the most seats in Parliament nominated the prime minister . Sharon , 66 , a retired general , is a fierce opponent of the government 's peace talks with the Palestinians and believes that any withdrawal from the West Bank and Gaza Strip will endanger Israel 's security and even its existence . BEIJING Chinese officials reacted with restrained satisfaction Friday to President Clinton 's announcement that the United States will renew its favorable trade terms with China and , more importantly , `` delink '' trade with human rights issues . `` This decision will create favorable conditions for the further strengthening and expansion of trade and economic cooperation between the two sides. ... '' government spokesman Wu Jianmin announced at a news conference . `` The Chinese government and people welcome this decision of President Clinton . '' China had sought the removal of human rights conditions during a year of hard lobbying and diplomatic efforts . On Thursday , a subdued Clinton granted the Chinese precisely what they wanted : the restoration of most-favored-nation , or MFN , trade status and the reversal of a U.S. policy linking MFN to human rights a policy that has haunted Sino-American relations for the past five years . But the Chinese held back from overt celebration over the diplomatic victory because Clinton also ordered a ban on the $ 100-million-a-year import of weapons and ammunition , and kept in effect some sanctions established by the Bush administration after the army crackdown on protesters in Tiananmen Square in 1989 . In what amounted to the only joke of the day , spokesman Wu said that he heard about Clinton 's decision by listening to the Voice of America . One of the conditions set by the Clinton administration was that the Chinese stop jamming VOA broadcasts . In Hong Kong , Shanghai and Beijing , American residents and business people , many of whom fought strenuously for renewal of MFN , lauded Clinton 's decision . Phil Carmichael , president of the American Chamber of Commerce in Beijing , said at a news conference that he was relieved that he would now have more time to spend on his business . `` It means I willn't have to spend one-third to one-half of my time each year trying to get MFN renewed , '' he said . ( Optional add end ) Other Asian governments also welcomed Clinton 's action . `` From the start , we had maintained that there should be no connection between trade and human rights issues , '' Malaysia 's deputy prime minister , Anwar Ibrahim , said Friday . Japanese Prime Minister Tsutomu Hata said renewal of China 's trading benefits was very important for the economic development of the Asia-Pacific region . But some observers said Clinton 's about-face could have a severe impact on American prestige . `` You could call it the Clinton administration 's declaration of defeat , '' wrote Koji Igarashi , Washington correspondent for the influential Asahi newspaper , in its evening edition Friday . `` It is a 180-degree change in direction from policy up until now , and leaves the strong impression that ( Clinton ) gave in completely to China 's demands . '' TORONTO The five-year anniversary of China 's Tiananmen Square massacre finds Canada in a quandary . The federal government is trying to figure out what to do with a residue of Tiananmen : 4,500 Chinese who sought asylum here after the uprising but were denied status as refugees . They have held on here for nearly five years , and now the government has said it will decide their fate next month . They remain because Ottawa has an official policy of not deporting anyone but criminals back to China the only country for which Canada has such a policy . But Immigration Minister Sergio Marchi has said that limbo must end . Lin Xiaoping awaits the coming decision with trepidation . She left Shanghai in March 1990 , after police questioned her for carrying videotapes of the uprising . She arrived in Canada via Bolivia . Today , she is the proprietor of a restaurant in one of multiethnic Toronto 's five Chinatowns . Lin 's application for refugee status was denied , she said , because officials did not believe her . She says her role here as president of the Mainland Chinese Refugees Organization would single her out were she forced to return to China . `` I hope the Canadian government will let me stay on compassionate grounds , '' said Lin , 46 . `` I was not directly involved ( in the Tiananmen uprising ) , but I did show my sympathy and agreement with the students . Here , I fight for ( the refugees ' ) interests and benefits . My activities here might be something the Chinese government would not be happy with . '' The debate over the refugees comes at an important time in Canadian-Chinese relations . Prime Minister Jean Chretien is to travel to China this fall to promote trade . More than 100,000 Chinese immigrants are admitted to Canada every year . Most come from Hong Kong or Taiwan , but some 30,000 mainland Chinese have gained resident status here since January 1990 . Until recently , Canada was known as a relatively easy country in which to gain refugee designation . The first wave of post-Tiananmen refugees some of whom were already here as students overwhelmingly had their applications to stay accepted , refugee lawyers say . But later arrivals had a harder time persuading adjudicators they were not merely seekers of economic opportunity . `` I think they are real refugees by ( Geneva ) convention criteria , '' said Schiller Wang , a reporter for the Toronto-based Chinese-language newspaper World Journal Daily News . `` It 's a big problem from a cultural standpoint . Some Chinese refugee claimants don't understand the question the judge is asking , and the interpreter is not allowed to explain . '' Some of the rejected refugees have held off buying houses or establishing roots , waiting until their status becomes clearer . Although they are considered legal residents , their conditional status makes it difficult to find legitimate jobs or enroll in welfare programs . Even those with capital are reluctant to start businesses for fear they may have to sell quickly . `` It 's killing for them because they are go-getters , '' said Montreal refugee lawyer Richard Kurland . `` I 've had grown men and women crying in my office because they are so frustrated . They can't go back because they 'd go right to jail , but they can't get permanent status here . '' Marchi has ruled out a blanket amnesty for the affected Chinese , although he may propose establishing a special process by which they could apply for legal-immigrant status . They would have to show , for instance , that they can function in Canada 's economy rather than living on its broad social assistance . Even within the Chinese community , some admit that not all who seek to remain here are true refugees . But there is general agreement that their future should be settled one way or another . `` If the government thinks they are not refugees , send them back . If the government thinks that would be inhuman , let them stay , '' said Tian Guang , general adviser to the refugees ' organization . `` You cannot keep people in limbo for four or five years . These people have been exhausted , physically , psychologically and emotionally . '' VLADIVOSTOK , Russia Solemn and prophetic , Alexander I . Solzhenitsyn ended his 20-year exile Friday with an appeal to people across Russia to seize the initiative in directing their troubled country 's post-Communist rebirth . `` I know that I am coming to a Russia torn apart , discouraged , stunned , altered beyond recognition , convulsively searching for itself , for its true identity , '' the country 's greatest living author told an evening homecoming rally in this Pacific port city , his starting point for a Trans-Siberian rail journey to rediscover his country and compatriots . `` I would like , after these meetings , to help you and search together with you for sure ways to get out of our 75-year quagmire , '' added Solzhenitsyn , who exposed his Soviet tormentors with powerful writings that earned him the Nobel Prize and expulsion from his homeland on Feb. 14 , 1974 . About 2,000 people waited three hours on a gray , blustery evening in a seaside plaza for his dramatic return on an Air Alaska commercial flight from the United States . They applauded when his brief speech ended with the words , `` I bow to you . '' `` We bow to you ! '' someone shouted . Then , answering a question from the audience , he said that Russia 's revival after seven decades of Soviet rule and two years of tumultuous , divisive and stalled democratic reforms would be `` difficult , not soon '' and would ultimately depend on Russians taking responsibility for their own fate . Judging from his remarks and his ambitious travel plans , the bearded , craggy-faced author intends , at age 75 , to play a guiding role in Russian life , although he has forsworn seeking elective or appointed office . His voice could provide a rallying cry for regional and local leaders seeking to wrest more autonomy from the central government of President Boris N . Yeltsin . In an interview with Russia 's Itar-Tass news agency , Solzhenitsyn was more categorical about his mission and blunter in his criticism of Moscow , which he said `` is leading a privileged life compared with the provinces . '' He said he was returning home east to west because `` to begin with Moscow means to lock oneself in a concrete box . '' ( Begin optional trim ) `` My literary task is fulfilled , '' he added . `` Now I will have no time to write . It 's time to get down to the hard work of rebuilding and reviving Russia . '' Many who turned out to see Solzhenitsyn , like Galina N . Petrovna , said they are ready to follow his prescriptions as those of a sage . Petrovna , a graying , bright-eyed woman of 69 , came to the square bedecked with Soviet medals earned for underground resistance in a Nazi prison camp . But she was a reluctant hero , having lost her father in the Stalin regime 's political executions . `` I have been waiting for this moment all my life , '' she said at the rally for Solzhenitsyn . `` Here is a great man who can show us how to rebuild our country . If we had worked like he does , by the call of our souls and hearts , we would live now in a different , much happier country . '' ( End optional trim ) The trip began Wednesday in an Oldsmobile station wagon , lumbering down the unpaved driveway from the hilltop country home in Cavendish , Vt. , where Solzhenitsyn spent the past 18 years writing in near-seclusion . With a newly issued Russian passport , the author flew to Anchorage , Alaska , with his wife , Natalia , and Stephan , 20 , the youngest of their three sons . They left behind the middle son , Ignat , 21 , and Natalia 's mother , Yekaterina Svetlova , who will join them later . The eldest son , Yermolai , 23 , flew here , 5,700 miles from Moscow , ahead of his parents to help arrange the overland journey to the capital , which he called `` the greatest road trip you could do . '' ( Optional add end ) Air Alaska 's first touchdown in Russia came at Magadan , once a main receiving point for those destined for the Soviet gulag prison camp system . Solzhenitsyn , who spent eight years in the gulag and exposed its evils in his best-known works , once described Magadan as the site of the most human bones on earth . Stepping off the jet , Solzhenitsyn stooped , touched the tarmac with both hands and crossed himself . `` Today , in the heat of political change , those millions of victims are too lightly forgotten , both by those who were not touched by that annihilation and even more so by those who were responsible for it , '' he said . `` Under ancient Christian tradition , land where innocent victims are buried becomes holy . We shall consider it so , in the hope that the light of Russia 's coming recovery will reach ( this ) region . '' Landing in Vladivostok , he accepted an offering of bread and salt a Russian symbol of hospitality and raised the loaf to his lips . `` All the best people are leaving Russia , and Solzhenitsyn is the one coming back , '' said Antonina N . Detyareva , 39 , who was selling dried squid and imported apples just off the puddled airport parking lot . `` Maybe that will set a good example . '' The writer returned a controversial figure , however , scorned by many who miss the old order and condemn him for helping destroy it . `` He 'll get no warm welcome from me , '' said Vladimir A . Gornoslal , 45 , a taxi driver at the airport . `` I don't like traitors . '' JERUSALEM Ariel Sharon , the right-wing former general who led Israel into the war with Lebanon in 1982 , announced Friday that he intends to run for prime minister in the next election , further dividing the once powerful Likud opposition party . Sharon 's announcement was a blow to Likud leader Binyamin Netanyahu , who was elected head of the party last year and also hopes to run for prime minister . Netanyahu has failed to quell challenges from his rivals , and Friday he denounced Sharon , demanding that he be thrown out of the party . The next election , in two years , is to be the first in Israel 's history in which the prime minister will be chosen by direct popular vote . In the past , voters chose party lists , and the parties then jockeyed for coalitions and a parliamentary majority to control the government . The new system seems certain to reward candidates who run outside their parties ' establishment , and there are signs both Likud and the ruling Labor Party face the prospect of divisions and possible breakup . Another factor fragmenting the old parties is the accord with the Palestine Liberation Organization on self-rule in the Gaza Strip and West Bank . Some analysts think if the pact holds and the issue of those territories is removed from atop the national agenda , new political blocs will spring up , based on issues other than security . For example , Labor recently lost control of the giant Histadrut labor federation for the first time in its history . In a race for the federation 's leadership , the winner was a youthful Labor politician , Haim Ramon , who broke away from the party establishment and ran against Labor 's candidate on a platform of domestic issues , chiefly better health care . Sharon , however , remains a stalwart of the old order , and his challenge is clearly based on a hawkish , nationalist ideology . He has been among the sharpest critics of the Israeli-PLO accord and has gained a following among hard-line Jewish settlers in the West Bank . Sharon , 66 , has never concealed his disdain for Netanyahu , and his declaration Friday set off fireworks . `` Arik Sharon is a permanent subversive , '' Netanyahu told Army Radio . `` The time has come for such a man to leave Likud . '' `` That Arik Sharon wants to be prime minister at a minimum , prime minister is no surprise , '' said Netanyahu , using Sharon 's nickname . Sharon snapped back , `` I hope Mr. Netanyahu will at least permit me to stay in the country . '' Polls show that Labor Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin would be the first choice of Israeli Jews if an election were held now . A survey last week published by the daily Yedioth Aharonoth showed 36 percent of those questioned choose Rabin , followed by 19 percent for Netanyahu , 12 percent for Sharon and 11 percent for Rafael Eitan , another former general who heads the nationalist Tsomet Party and has announced plans to run for prime minister . The feuding in the opposition has been intense since the 1992 election in which Labor and Rabin defeated Likud and Prime Minister Yitzhak Shamir . Binyamin Begin , a supporter of Netanyahu , said Friday that the garrulous Sharon had about as much chance of becoming prime minister as he did of winning a world tennis championship . Moshe Katsav , leader of the Likud forces in parliament , rejected Netanyahu 's suggestion that Sharon be ousted and called instead for a collective leadership . Shamir urged Sharon to find something else to do . Also , former Foreign Minister David Levy , angered by what he considered a smear campaign against him by Netanyahu , has boycotted all Likud Party gatherings in recent months . WASHINGTON The House and Senate intelligence committees have been asked by Justice Department officials to delay their possible questioning of confessed-spy Aldrich H. Ames until the FBI and CIA have finished debriefing him , according to administration and congressional sources . The officials have argued that interrupting the interrogation of Ames for Capitol Hill appearances could have a harmful effect on what investigators hope to learn from the veteran , 52-year-old former CIA counterintelligence officer . `` In the complex process of establishing rapport and a questioning pattern with an individual such as Ames , you don't want to introduce other influences , '' one source said . The House panel has agreed to wait , according to a spokesman for committee chairman Dan Glickman , D-Kan . The spokesman added that even before the Justice Department made its appeal , the panel had not contemplated asking Ames to appear until after the government had concluded its questioning and the committee staff reviewed the results . Glickman wrote to Ames 's lawyer , Plato Cacheris , on May 5 asking that his client testify in closed session about `` his perspective on counterintelligence issues . '' No date for an appearance was mentioned in the letter . Senate Select Committee on Intelligence Chairman Dennis DeConcini , D-Ariz. , also has informally sounded out Cacheris about an Ames appearance but has yet to raise the matter with other committee members . A Senate committee aide said there had been conversations with the Justice Department about Ames but nothing has been decided . Meanwhile , he said , committee members were disturbed by reports from television reporters that Ames has been discussing possibly appearing on television . `` Senators have been asking Justice , ` How come you are permitting this and blocking us ? ' ' ' the aide said . Although representatives from three major television networks have either called or sent letters to Ames 's attorney asking about interviews , Cacheris said yesterday , `` Mr. Ames is not going to do any interviews until after his wife is sentenced . '' Rosario Ames , who pleaded guilty to conspiracy to commit espionage and income tax evasion , is scheduled to be sentenced Aug. 26 . The length of her prison term , which could be as short as five years or as long as 15 years , is dependent on her husband 's cooperation with FBI and CIA interrogators under the guilty plea agreements they both signed in April . Aldrich Ames faces a life term in prison with no provision for parole for his nine years of spying for Moscow . In return for $ 2.5 million and the promise of at least $ 1.9 million more , Ames delivered highly sensitive intelligence information including the names of at least 11 communist intelligence agents who were passing information to the United States or Britain . CIA officials are bitter at the thought that the congressional committees may turn for advice on how the CIA should be run to a man who betrayed his country and his colleagues . `` That presses some hot buttons out here , '' a senior CIA official said . Former CIA director Richard M. Helms summed up the view of several other retired agency officials , saying that `` having a traitor on the Hill to vent his spleen is a dangerous precedent .. . and I deplore it . '' CIA Director R. James Woolsey told an interviewer earlier this month that `` one of the strangest things about the Ames case is the fact that some people would take seriously Ames as an authority on the CIA and what its value is . '' Rep. Larry Combest of Texas , the ranking Republican on the House intelligence panel , gave the rationale for hearing from Ames . It `` would be intriguing to have him and hear how he did it , '' Combest said . Ames `` has a perspective of the agency that is rather unique . '' Ames said recently that he would `` look forward '' to testifying . In a statement in court the day he was sentenced , Ames described espionage `` as carried out by the CIA and a few other American agencies '' as `` a self-serving sham . '' PARIS When Jacques Chirac led the Gaullist conservatives to an overwhelming victory in national elections last year , he had his eye on a bigger prize the presidency . Unfortunately , the sitting president , Francois Mitterrand , planned to keep the job until his term expired in 1995 . So the conservatives devised a cunning , though politically risky strategy . They selected Edouard Balladur , one of Chirac 's oldest friends , a modest man without presidential aspirations or thundering charisma , to take the job of prime minister , the nation 's second-most-powerful job . That way , they figured , Chirac would be free to run for president while the mild-mannered Balladur , a seasoned politician , attempted to `` cohabit '' with Mitterrand and grapple with the domestic problems . But Balladur has , in just a year on the job , become the odds-on favorite to replace Mitterrand , a Socialist , in the country 's highest office . The 65-year-old prime minister 's popularity has baffled political analysts , journalists and even his own colleagues . Analysts say Balladur 's popularity stems , in part , from his relative anonymity . Although a career government official , whose jobs included chief of staff to President Georges Pompidou in the 1970s , Balladur was not well known to most voters . And many in France were looking for a fresh face . Balladur is known for his formality and his courtesy . As he sat for a rare interview at Matignon , the prime minister 's office on the Left Bank of Paris , he wore a tailored , Saville Row suit and kept the jacket buttoned . Born in Turkey to a well-to-do French banker , Balladur earned a degree from the Ecole Nationale d' Administration , the school of France 's bureaucratic elite . He understands English , but prefers to speak in French . `` I have a complex with English , '' he explained . `` I don't like to appear ridiculous . '' Though an unabashed protector of things French , the prime minister is fond of the United States and Americans . Under his guidance , the government is spending millions of dollars this year on D-Day landing ceremonies . And , at the government 's invitation , President Clinton will become only the second foreigner in decades to address Parliament next month . Question : Many Americans are beginning to believe that France wants to close its cultural doors to competition . What 's your feeling ? Answer : Yes . Yesterday , Ted Turner was in this office and we talked about that . I think there is one thing that must be understood : We are strongly against a uniform world culture with one single world language . We the French consider that we have a great culture and a great civilization language and that it 's perfectly legitimate that we should defend our culture . I forget what the exact percentages are , but American films have much more than 50 percent of the French market . And French films in the United States are just a few percentage points . So I think really the question is for me to put to you . Q : The question is , though , can you protect it by legislation , by law ? A : I think one can , yes . And it 's our firm intention to do so . Now , this brings up a problem . It 's really a problem of principle . Should world progress only spring from the law of the markets ? And that applies to everything . Economy , trade , culture . If that is the case , then nations are no longer of any use . We could just `` leave it to nature , ` ` so to speak . As you know , the tendency of nature is that the strongest become stronger , and the weakest become weaker . The basis of civilizations is their struggle against nature . That is the basis of education , of religion , of democracy , of law . So , it is a civilization endeavor that we are engaged in . It 's a bit of a paradox . Q : What baffles many Americans is why France , such a powerful country and with such a rich culture , needs laws to protect its culture and its language . The French didn't need to protect their culture in the 19th Century . A : There are two different aspects . First is the language and , secondly , there is what you might call the cultural industry . As for the language itself , this is not something new we are doing . Three and a half centuries ago , the Academie Francaise was set up ( to protect the language ) . It 's not something my government has thought up that is new . One has to have an open mind on this . Words like le weekend are part of the French language now . The only thing is , you shouldn't overdo this . When the precise French word exists , there 's no point in not using it . Q : And culture ? A : What is more interesting , really , is the cultural industry , the cultural economy , if you like . You 're perfectly right . In the 19th century , this wasn't necessary , nor at the beginning of the 20th century . But cultural activity has become a very big consumer product . It 's true of books , films , shows . It needs a market to live . ( Begin optional trim ) And a country whose territory isn't big enough needs to help those cultural activities , to give them what the market cannot provide . It 's a problem you don't have in the United States , because the market is already there . You have almost 300 million consumers of cultural products . But it is a problem in Europe , and especially in European countries that don't use English as a national language . The inadequacy of the market has caused a certain number of film industries to almost completely disappear in Europe . Luckily , the French film industry still exists , but I think it exists only thanks to this machinery that we have . And that 's why you have to correct market forces . ( End optional trim ) If we had a Francophone market with 300 million people , then we wouldn't need to have this machinery . But your products and your cultural activities already pay for themselves in the U.S. market , and , therefore , they can be exported at a very low cost . We can't do that . So I think it 's a consequence of the fact that France is smaller than the United States , both in geographical terms and in population . Q : Clint Eastwood was recently honored by the French culture minister for his work in films . That kind of thing is confusing to many Americans . The French seem to like Hollywood films , but the government seems to not want them to like those films . A : That 's not at all it . First of all , Clint Eastwood wouldn't have had his declaraton if the government hadn't agreed . But you need both . We like American films . I 'm very fond of American films and American actors and actresses . There are some very fine actors . But it doesn't mean that they should be the only ones on the screens . They have a monopoly . We also were a very powerful country in the past , and our tendency at the time , probably , was also to consider that French language and French culture excluded all others . Now history has moved . Things have changed . And things will go on changing . One day you ( Americans ) may have to defend yourself against Chinese films . Q : Speaking of that reduction in French power . Is it difficult for the French to accept a lesser role in world affairs ? A : I think the French people have gotten used to this for a number of years . But at the same time , I think at the heart of every Frenchman there is a feeling that his civilization has a worldwide value . It 's a heritage we get from the French Revolution . At the heart of all French men and women is the feeling , perhaps , that they embody an international value , related to principles , to rules , to laws , to behavior . If you look at our colonial past , it essentially consisted of seeing to it that the largest possible number of populations were able to join the French model of civilization . ( Begin optional trim ) There are two ways of looking at that phenomenon . You can say that it was generosity , if you like . But you can also say it was a sort of imperialism . You can say both and there probably is a bit of truth in both , anyway . So , basically , France considers that she has a special mission in the service of peace and human rights . That doesn't mean she always fulfills that mission in a proper way , but she tries to do it . ( End optional trim ) Q : A few months ago , President Clinton suggested that America should try to strengthen its economic ties with Asia rather than focus only on Europe . Does that worry you ? A : I do not share your analysis . If he shows a bigger overture to Asia , such an evolution seems to me to be natural . It 's the same for us . We are more interested in Asia than 10 years ago . It should not be interpreted as U.S. disinterest in Europe . We often forget in Europe that a seashore of your country is turned toward the Pacific , and that your interest in Asia is ancient and constant . But it does not constitute an alternative to the privileged relations that have to go on between the two seashores of the Atlantic . Q : How are relations between France and the United States at the moment ? A : I am satisfied by the state of Franco-American relations now , and optimistic about their future . France and the United States base their relations on identical , fundamental interests . We have always found solutions to our temporary problems without affecting the privileged character of our alliance , which has seen our countries side by side in major crises . This was true in the time of Gen . ( Charles ) de Gaulle , during the Cuban missile crisis , and it was even more true during the Gulf War . The celebration of D-Day in Normandy next month will give us the opportunity to again celebrate an important page of our common history . MIAMI Pledging to make cigarette manufacturers pay , Florida Gov. Lawton Chiles ( D ) signed legislation this week that authorizes the state to sue makers of tobacco producers for the billions the state spent caring for sick smokers . The controversial bill is being hailed by anti-smoking advocates as the ultimate club to wield against tobacco companies , a `` smart bomb '' that allows the state to initiate a sweeping class-action suit to recoup state Medicaid money spent on patients suffering from illnesses associated with smoking . `` This law brings about the greatest change in the liability of the tobacco companies in the last 50 years , '' said Matthew Myers , counsel for the Coalition on Smoking or Health in Washington , which represents the national heart , lung and cancer societies . If Florida succeeds in defending its legislation in a special session of the legislature June 7 and in the courts and then sues the tobacco industry , other states will almost surely follow . Mississippi , without the benefit of new legislation , this week sued the tobacco industry to recoup its costs of treating smokers . The tobacco industry vows to fight the legislation in a special legislative session , which was called to deal with health care reforms . `` We 're viewing this has a very serious situation. .. . They ought to repeal it , '' said Brennan Dawson , spokesperson for the Tobacco Institute in Washington . `` The bill says don't do business in the state of Florida . You can't defend yourself . '' The tobacco industry has allies in Florida 's strongest business lobby , whose leaders warn that the new legislation exposes other industries such as liquor to costly litigation . The legislation does not single out tobacco , though that is the industry that Chiles says the bill was designed to tackle . `` For decades now , tobacco companies have turned an enormous profit while their victims have turned to the taxpayers for treatment , '' Chiles said Thursday at the bill signing . `` It 's time that those responsible are made to pay . '' The bill is the brainchild of Harold Lewis , general counsel for Florida 's Agency for Health Care Administration . Lewis said he designed the bill to take away the most powerful arguments the tobacco industry has traditionally used to defend itself against lawsuits . Under the legislation , cigarette manufacturers will no longer be able to argue that smokers knew of risks , either from the surgeon general 's reports or from the warnings on cigarette packs because it is the state that is suing , not the smokers . `` The state is the innocent victim , '' said Lewis . `` The state didn't smoke the cigarettes . The state didn't read the warnings on the cigarette packs .. . But the state has to pay the bills . '' Chiles said that Florida taxpayers have spent at least $ 1.2 billion in Medicaid payments over the last five years for smoke-related illness , including lung cancer and emphysema . Lewis also wrote the legislation in such a way that tobacco manufacturers will no longer be able to argue that smoking did not cause a specific illness in a specific person . The new legislation enables Florida to rely on statistical evidence that cigarettes caused sickness . The state will simply tally the number of Medicaid patients who are treated for illnesses commonly associated with smoking , and then seek compensation from the tobacco companies for the state 's health care costs . The state need not even name plaintiffs , nor does it need to show that those patients smoked one or another company 's brands . If found liable , the companies would simply be assigned shares of the blame based on their shares on the cigarette market in Florida . Lewis said the idea of litigating based on market share has been used in product liability cases for breast implants and asbestos . Tobacco industry advocates charge that the new legislation was slipped through without any real understanding by legislators . The bill passed as an amendment to a large Medicaid fraud bill and was voted on without debate or hearings . Lewis , however , contends the bill circulated for some 29 hours : `` That 's an eternity '' in the Florida legislature , he said . Jon Shebel , president of Associated Industries , the state 's most powerful business lobby , said Friday that Chiles has already signaled that he would narrow the new legislation to target only tobacco manufacturers . Shebel went even further , suggesting that the bill might be repealed if Chiles could get the tobacco industry to contribute money to offset Florida 's Medicaid costs . `` He wants them to put money into Medicaid system , '' Shebel said . `` That 's really what the governor wants . '' A delegation of cardinals Friday officially presented to Pope John Paul II the English version of the new Catechism of the Catholic Church , the first universal book of the church 's teachings in 428 years . Disagreements over references to men , women and the holy Trinity had delayed publication for more than a year . The Vatican rejected early drafts by the American translators and insisted on retaining references to `` men '' rather than `` men and women '' or `` the human race '' in referring to humanity . The 803-page compendium of faith an outgrowth of the Vatican II council of 1962 to 1965 is an all-purpose guide that reaffirms the abiding principles of Roman Catholic doctrine and practice and applies them to some of the most painful dilemmas of modern life . It upholds the authority of the church hierarchy and restates the church 's strong prohibitions against premarital sex , abortion , euthanasia and divorce . Its condemnation of homosexuality is tempered by a call for `` respect , compassion and sensitivity '' toward gay people and a rejection of `` unjust discrimination . '' The book condemns the arms race and states that employers who neglect to pay adequate wages to their workers or engage in tax fraud commit `` a grave injustice . '' And it states that Muslims and Jews are among believers who are eligible for salvation a major shift from the old , discredited catechism of the 16th Century Council of Trent . The pope , who received the new catechism in the hospital room where he is recovering from hip surgery , called the translation `` faithful '' to the French original he approved Dec. 8 , 1992 . He said in a statement that the new text fulfills a need `` of millions of English-speaking faithful .. . seeking a full and balanced exposition of the Catholic truth professed , celebrated , lived and prayed by the Church throughout the world . '' The presenters included Cardinal Bernard F . Law , archbishop of Boston , who introduced the idea of a new compendium of faith at an international conference of bishops in 1985 . The pope approved the plan and appointed an oversight commission that included Law and Archbishop William J. Levada , of Portland , Ore . The catechism was translated last year into German , Spanish and Italian . Although it will not be published officially until June 22 , the new text is already an instant bestseller among the nation 's 59 million Catholics . The first printing of more than 560,000 has sold out . A second printing of at least 100,000 will begin June 13 for delivery in July . The U.S. Catholic Conference Office of Publishing and Promotion Services , which holds the American rights for the English text , has signed on 15 other companies as co-publishers to ensure the widest circulation possible . Catholic leaders expressed delight that the English version is finally available . `` There has not been a comparable Catholic publishing event in this nation 's history , '' said Baltimore Archbishop William H. Keeler , president of the National Conference of Catholic Bishops , in a prepared statement . Monsignor William E. Lori , vicar general and chancellor of the archdiocese of Washington , said the new catechism will be used as the basis for religious instruction materials throughout the world . Critics expressed concern over the Vatican 's decision to use exclusively masculine terminology . `` I feel very badly about it , '' Bishop Joseph Imesch of Joliet , Ill. , told the Associated Press . `` I don't think Rome has any understanding about the feelings that are aroused when you use exclusive language . '' But Archbishop Keeler called the issue `` a serious question .. . which only time and further study can answer . '' The last universal catechism was issued in 1566 after the Council of Trent , convened to respond to the spread of the Protestant Reformation . A condensed and updated version , the Baltimore Catechism , was approved in 1885 by James Cardinal Gibbons , the Archbishop of Baltimore . With the Second Vatican Council in the mid-1960s , this version fell out of favor and was replaced by other religious textbooks . `` Catechesis '' is rooted in the Greek verb katekhein , to resound or echo . In the New Testament , it refers to oral instruction used to pass down the teachings of Christ . Oral instruction continued until the 16th Century and the invention of the printing press . WASHINGTON George W . Ball , who was under secretary of state during the Kennedy and Johnson administrations and one of the few high-ranking U.S. officials to offer early and vigorous counsel against U.S. involvement in the war in Vietnam , died of cancer May 26 at New York Hospital . He was 84 . Ball , who served in the State Department from 1961 to 1966 , was a specialist in foreign affairs , international law and commercial relations for most of his adult life . In the Kennedy administration , he was part of the task force that steered the U.S. through the Cuban Missile Crisis , and he was an influential advocate of liberal world trade policies and monetary stability while in government and out of it . During World War II , he worked on the Lend Lease program to supply war materiel to the Allies . He later headed the U.S. . Strategic Bombing Survey , a civilian panel appointed by President Roosevelt to evaluate the social , economic and physical effects of the air raids on Nazi Germany . From this experience came Ball 's conclusion that massive bombing would be ineffectual in a country such as Vietnam , which lacked a developed industrial infrastructure . After World War II , he served as general counsel to the French Supply Mission , which was engaged in the acquisition of supplies for the economic rehabilitation of postwar France . In this role , he worked closely with Jean Monnet , the architect of European economic unity , and he became one of the foremost American disciples of Monnet 's vision . Later he was an adviser to Monnet during the preliminary work that led to the creation of the European Coal and Steel Community and later the European Common Market . From May of 1968 until January of 1969 , Ball was back in government service as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations . During the Carter administration , he was an adviser on Iran and Persian Gulf policies . At other times in his career , he had been a U.S. trouble-shooter in such places as Zaire , Cyprus and Laos . As a government official , Ball was said by associates to have been a stickler for details and an extraordinarily hard worker who found relaxing difficult . He wrote and rewrote all his own speeches , and he was often a nuisance to his colleagues after hours and on weekends . Away from the office , he was an amateur carpenter who spent years working on an addition to his home in Washington . A resident of Princeton , N.J. , Ball was born in Des Moines . He graduated from Northwestern University , where he also received a law degree . He came to Washington directly from law school at the outset of the New Deal , and he worked until 1935 in the office of the general counsel of the Treasury Department . From 1935 until returning to Washington in 1942 , he practiced law in Chicago . He was appointed associate general counsel of the Lend Lease Administration , and then held the same position with the Foreign Economic Administration , of which Lend Lease had become a part . As director of the U.S. . Strategic Bombing Survey , Ball interviewed several high Nazi officials , including Albert Speer , the German minister of armaments , munitions and production , whom he interrogated for seven days with economist John Kenneth Galbraith . A report on this interrogation was published in Life magazine in December of 1945 . In Washington after the war , Ball was a founding partner of the law firm now known as Cleary , Gottlieb , Steen and Hamilton , with offices in New York , Washington , Paris and Brussels . At his death he was of counsel to the firm . Politically he was active in the presidential campaigns of former Illinois Gov. Adlai E. Stevenson , the Democratic nominee in 1952 and 1956 . Ball had known Stevenson since his days as a young lawyer in Chicago . He was director of Volunteers for Stevenson in 1952 , and was director of public relations for the Stevenson-Kefauver ticket in 1956 . . In 1960 , he backed Stevenson again for the Democratic presidential nomination . But after Kennedy 's election , a report by Ball and a colleague on economic policy and the balance of payments caught the new president 's attention . He named Ball under secretary of state for economic affairs , the third-ranking post in the State Department . Ball was appointed under secretary of state , the second-ranking position , in November of 1961 . That same month , Ball recalled in his 1982 Memoirs , `` The Past Has Another Pattern , '' he warned Kennedy privately that it would be a tragic blunder to commit U.S. troops to Vietnam . `` Within five years , we 'll have 300,000 men in the paddies and jungles and never find them , '' Ball recalled saying . He wrote that Kennedy answered him , `` You 're just crazier than hell . That just isn't going to happen . '' During the Johnson presidency , Ball was often called the `` Devil 's advocate , '' on Vietnam , but he maintained a close personal relationship with Secretary of State Dean Rusk , a supporter of the war . They often enjoyed a drink together at the end of the day , and when Ball resigned in 1966 , he left on good terms . Ball then joined the investment banking firm of Lehman Brothers Kuhn Loeb as a senior partner . He resigned in May of 1968 to become United Nations ambassador , but he returned to the firm in 1969 . He retired in 1982 as senior managing director . In addition to his memoirs , Ball was author of four other books , including `` The Discipline of Power , '' published in 1968 . In it he wrote , `` Today , America is in an ugly mood . By a series of small steps , taken in good faith over a period of years , we have mired ourselves in a frustrating war that turns our otherwise sensible countrymen into placard-carrying hysterics . Already we hear the querulous frog croaks of an old isolationism . '' Ball 's other books include `` Diplomacy for a Crowded World '' ( 1976 ) , `` Error and Betrayal in Lebanon '' ( 1984 ) and `` The Passionate Attachment : America 's Involvement with Israel , 1947 to the Present '' ( 1992 ) . He was a recipient of the Medal of Freedom , the highest U.S. civilian award . His wife of 50 years , Ruth M . Ball , died in 1993 . Survivors include two sons , John C . Ball of Concord , Mass. , and Douglas B . Ball of Rockville Centre , N.Y. ; and two grandchildren . WASHINGTON Swift passage of long-promised legislation to overhaul congressional campaign financing laws has been jeopardized because the House and Senate remain sharply divided over limits on contributions from political action committees ( PACs ) , the chief sponsor of the Senate bill warned . `` I would say the fate of campaign finance hangs in the balance .. . the chances of enactment are now only about 50-50 , '' Sen. David L. Boren , D-Okla. , said in an interview Thursday after the latest in a series of inconclusive meetings on the issue between House and Senate Democratic leaders . Boren 's assessment was made as Congress slowed its earlier fast pace of action , sending lawmakers home for their 10-day Memorial Day recess without final action on any of the major bills that congressional leaders hoped to send to President Clinton before the holiday . Two of these measures a big anti-crime bill and legislation to tighten controls on lobbyists and restrict or ban gifts to lawmakers are headed for House-Senate conferences when Congress returns June 7 , facing what negotiators describe as difficult but not insurmountable obstacles . But the campaign finance bill , which passed the Senate nearly a year ago and the House last November , is stuck in pre-conference talks between the top leaders of both chambers , with increasingly impatient Republicans grumbling from the sidelines . Just six weeks ago , congressional leaders appeared optimistic about a speedy completion of the nearly decade-long struggle to pass the first comprehensive bill to tighten campaign finance rules since the post-Watergate reforms of 1974 . Both House and Senate bills would set voluntary spending ceilings for congressional candidates , provide incentives for compliance and tighten controls over special-interest spending . Even the sensitive issue of how to fund public subsidies for candidates without dipping into general tax revenues considered a taboo in the current political climate is in the final stages of being worked out by House leaders . But there has been little if any movement on the key issue : what limits to put on contributions that can be made to any single campaign by PACs , which are created by corporations , unions and other interest groups to influence legislation by raising funds for candidates . In its original bill , the House voted to retain the current $ 5,000 limit . The Senate voted to ban PACs or , failing that , to reduce the limit to $ 1,000 . Senators have suggested compromising at $ 2,500 , but House leaders are resisting any change . House Democrats believe they risk crippling Democratic defections if PAC limits are reduced too far , but Senate Democrats cannot break a GOP filibuster without help from a half-dozen Republicans who are insisting on the lowest possible PAC limits for all congressional races . House members care more about PAC money because they receive proportionately more from PACs than senators , who raise contributions from a larger base . In addition , many female and minority members of the House contend they could not run competitive races without PAC help . Enthusiasm for the legislation is not high among rank-and-file members on either side of the Capitol . But concern over the bill 's impact on incumbents ' traditional fund-raising advantage is especially strong in the House , where members face election every two instead of six years . Senate Republicans and some Democrats complain that House Democrats are trying to have it both ways : in guaranteeing the bill 's defeat by giving Senate Republicans a bill they are sure to reject and then blame them for the results . `` They 're trying to find a politically correct way of killing the bill .. . by blaming us , '' complained Sen. James M. Jeffords ( Vt. ) . He is one of seven Republicans who helped break a filibuster against the bill last year but who have said they will not do so again unless several conditions are met , including reduced PAC limits and equal rules for both chambers . At Thursday 's meeting with Speaker Thomas S. Foley ( Wash. ) and other House leaders , Senate Majority Leader George J. Mitchell , D-Maine , Rules Committee Chairman Wendell H. Ford , D-Ky. , and Boren warned that they wanted no part of such a strategy , one source said . In an interview , Mitchell said he remained confident about passage of the legislation but acknowledged that `` there is disagreement on PACs . '' Rep. Sam Gejdenson ( Conn. ) , chief architect of the House Democratic plan , said he thought the problem could be worked out , but added , `` I think the danger here is some ( Senate ) Republicans are threatening to filibuster if they don't get this or that . '' Gejdenson also questioned the efficacy of lowering the maximum PAC contribution . `` You 're in effect sending people to more PACs . In reality , that 's not reform . '' Boren argues that large contributions tend to increase the obligation that the recipient feels toward the giver , often pouring in at the last minute for maximum impact . Asked if the House could accept less than a $ 5,000 PAC limit , Gejdenson said , `` I don't think there 's any need for that to move . '' The conference to resolve differences between House and Senate anti-crime bills which would reimpose the federal death penalty , increase penalties for violent crimes and pump more money into prison construction and crime prevention probably will get started shortly after the recess and continue for several weeks , a Senate source said . Many believe the toughest issue will be a House provision , opposed by the Senate , to allow use of sentencing statistics to challenge death penalties as racially discriminatory . A compromise on the issue could be difficult , but House Judiciary Committee member Charles E. Schumer , D-N.Y. , said he would propose to `` make explicitly clear it 's not a quota bill and you can't use general population figures '' to challenge death sentences . The Justice Department has begun an antitrust investigation of Los Angeles-based Ticketmaster after the rock band Pearl Jam accused the giant ticket agency of pressuring promoters to boycott the band 's low-cost concert tour . Lawyers for the Seattle-based band , the biggest selling rock group in the country , complained on May 6 in a memo to the department 's antitrust division , accusing Ticketmaster , the world 's largest ticket agency , of exercising a monopoly over ticket distribution in this country and using that influence to keep promoters from booking the Pearl Jam tour this summer . The memorandum to the Justice Department filed by Sullivan & Cromwell , a prominent New York law firm that specializes in antitrust issues , said that Ticketmaster has exclusive arrangements with all important concert venues in the country and uses these arrangements to `` cement control over the distribution of tickets to concerts . '' Sales of Pearl Jam 's last two albums exceeded $ 137 million . Ticketmaster , which is privately held , last year reportedly earned about $ 200 million in service and sponsorship fees on $ 1.3 billion in sales of tickets to concert and sporting events . A spokeswoman for the Justice Department declined comment on the probe . Ticketmaster and representatives for Pearl Jam also did not comment . The investigation is likely to focus new attention on a growing furor over skyrocketing concert ticket prices and service fees , and the arrangements among managers , promoters and service companies that underlie pricing decisions . Ticketmaster collects a phone service fee for tickets to rock and pop concerts , typically $ 6 to $ 8 per ticket , although the agency 's fee for $ 350 tickets for Barbra Streisand shows amounted to $ 18 in some cities . Ticketmaster pays a portion of the fees to maintain exclusive long-term contracts with the owners of the largest concert venues . In addition , Ticketmaster also pays a portion to some promoters , managers , agents and artists . In March , Pearl Jam sent letters to promoters vowing to perform concerts this summer only at venues that charged $ 18 for a ticket and no more than $ 1.80 for service or handling charges . A representative of the band said Pearl Jam was seeking to keep prices in the range of its young fans . But sources in the concert industry said the group encountered immediate resistance from Ticketmaster and members of the North American Concert Promoters Association a McLean , Va.-based group that represents the nation 's largest promoters . In two letters obtained by the Los Angeles Times , Ben Liss , the executive director of the association , warned promoters that if they booked Pearl Jam under the band 's conditions , they could face possible lawsuits from Ticketmaster . `` ( Ticketmaster ) views the Pearl Jam issue as an all or nothing proposition , '' Liss wrote in one of his letters on March 24 . `` ( Ticketmaster chief executive Fred Rosen ) has indicated that he intends to take a very strong stand on this issue to protect Ticketmaster 's existing contracts with promoters and facilities and , further , ( Ticketmaster ) will use all available remedies to protect itself from outside third parties that attempt to interfere with those existing contracts . '' Liss did not return phone calls seeking comment . After being turned down by virtually every promoter in the country for bookings , Pearl Jam postponed its summer tour . ( Optional add end ) As part of its preliminary inquiry , three Justice Department officials from Washington flew into Los Angeles on May 24 to interview music business figures , sources said . Sources close to the case said that Ticketmaster and members of the North American Concert Promoters Association will soon be served with `` investigative demands '' the civil equivalent of a subpoena . The demands would require the companies to turn over documents relevant to the probe . Ticketmaster has dominated the ticket market since 1991 . In May of that year , the Justice Department 's Antitrust Division gave the go-ahead for Ticketmaster to buy certain assets from Ticketron . At that point , Ticketron was Ticketmaster 's only major competitor . The government inquiry comes at a time when Ticketmaster plans to expand into a variety of new ventures , including movie ticket sales and an interactive TV channel devoted to tickets , concert merchandise , records and videos . Ticketmaster is controlled by billionaire Paul G. Allen , who co-founded software giant Microsoft and owns the Portland Trail Blazers basketball team . Allen reportedly paid more than $ 250 million last November for controlling interest in Ticketmaster from the Chicago-based Pritzker family , who retain a small piece of the firm as part of their vast holdings , which include the Hyatt hotel chain . Allen , who also holds a 24 percent stake in the America Online interactive computer service , has already joined forces with EMI Music , PolyGram , Sony Music and the Warner Music Group to create a video music channel to challenge MTV . Executives of those four recording conglomerates have been subpoenaed in a separate antitrust probe by the Federal Trade Commission , which is investigating compact disc pricing policies . xxx China 's demands . '' In Washington , however , White House officials made an apparent effort to show how hard Clinton worked to try to achieve human rights progress in China . The officials disclosed that a Cabinet-level meeting in April led to a plan to send Michael H. Armacost , former U.S. ambassador to Japan , to China as a private emissary . At the time of former President Nixon 's funeral in Yorba Linda , Calif. , in April , three top administration officials met with Chinese Vice Premier Zou Jiahua in a private room of the Nixon Library to tell him of the emissary 's plan to visit . `` Clearly , the feeling was that an additional channel was needed , '' one senior administration official said Friday . The official said the administration had also sent messages to the Chinese leadership through other private American citizens , including former national security advisers Zbigniew Brzezinski and Henry A . Kissinger . Clinton also consulted with former President Jimmy Carter , Kissinger and Brzezinski , according to White House officials . VATICAN CITY Having battled his doctors to an amicable draw , Pope John Paul II left the hospital Friday to return to the Vatican and a dramatically changed papacy . The 74-year-old pope , who will be forced to modify his hectic lifestyle , left Rome 's Gemelli hospital four weeks after surgery to repair a thighbone broken in a bathroom fall at his Vatican apartment . He walked without a cane the few steps from the hospital doorway to a waiting limousine . Pope John Paul intends to make a Sunday morning appearance to pilgrims from a window overlooking St. Peter 's Square , and will receive a visiting President Clinton as scheduled on Thursday , the Vatican said . `` He may lean on a cane or against a table , but the Holy Father will certainly be standing to greet the president , '' papal spokesman Joaquin Navarro told reporters Friday . Doctors , who say they are pleased with Pope John Paul 's progress , originally estimated that he would remain two to three weeks under hospital care . They would have released him last week , they say , except that he insisted on returning to the Vatican instead of to Castel Gandolfo , the papal summer residence south of Rome where therapy could have included swimming and garden walks . As the price for returning directly to a hectic and more restrictive Vatican life , the pope agreed to remain longer in the hospital , Navarro said . `` Some say the broken leg is not all bad because it forces the pope to take time to rest ; he works too hard , '' said a European bishop at the Vatican . Boston Cardinal Bernard Law was with another cardinal and three bishops who traveled to Gemelli Friday to present Pope John Paul with a copy of the long-delayed English edition of their church 's new catechism . `` He was in a better state than I would have expected after such a long hospitalization . He was himself , '' Law said . Looking thin but fit and obviously in high spirits , Pope John Paul used an aluminum walker to leave his hospital room . He stopped along the way to chat for 20 minutes with children being treated for tumors . `` You have treated me very well , and I thank you very much , '' the pope told doctors as he left , `` but don't expect to see me back here soon . '' ( Optional add end ) Over the years , Pope John Paul has shown a remarkable ability to snap back from medical emergencies ranging from a gunshot to a colon tumor to a broken collarbone . The leg injury , however , marked his second fall and second broken bone in five months . It sparked concern about the pope 's increasing frailty and speculation about a successor . `` We must pray for the Holy Father . We can see his energies draining away as he tries to do more and more , '' one cardinal was heard to observe after Easter Mass , three weeks before John Paul 's latest fall . While he was in the hospital , the Vatican denied a report in Spanish newspapers that the pontiff , whose left hand shakes , is suffering from Parkinson 's disease . Vatican administration , largely on hold in the pope 's absence , resumes next week with the publication of a letter Monday reaffirming a ban on female priests . But the hospital stay has put the papal schedule badly out of sync . An unusual meeting of all the church 's cardinals was canceled this month ; rescheduled for June , the conference is to discuss the state of the Roman Catholic Church and its policies as it enters a third millennium . WASHINGTON The Federal Reserve began raising short-term interest rates earlier this year `` without widespread indications that inflation has picked up , '' Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan said Friday , because the central bank feared that low rates and rapid growth would make inflation worse . But two senior Democrats on the Senate Banking Committee , Paul S. Sarbanes of Maryland and Jim Sasser of Tennessee , accused Greenspan and the Fed of jumping the gun . They argued that it was certain that higher rates would slow growth and cost the nation jobs , and that the central bank could not be sure inflation would worsen even if interest rates remained low . `` We 've got a basic disagreement , Mr . Chairman , '' Sasser told Greenspan . `` I don't see the inflation , and I 'm willing to run a tiny little risk ( to ) get some quarters of robust economic growth going here , not putter along indefinitely at 3 percent , 2.5 percent ( growth ) , with high rates of unemployment . '' Greenspan told the hearing , `` History unequivocally demonstrates that monetary accommodation ( taking no action ) when the economy is strong risks a significant acceleration of inflation . '' Committee Chairman Donald T. Riegle Jr. , D-Mich. , noted that with an upward revision in growth figures for the first three months of this year , announced Friday by the Commerce Department , the economy has grown by 3.7 percent in the year ended in March . At the same time , employment was up by 2.3 million jobs and the unemployment rate down by a full percentage point . Riegle , unlike his colleagues , did not directly criticize the Fed . Instead , he said that while he does not want to lose the gains that have been made against inflation , `` it would be foolhardy to us to needlessly bring this economic expansion to a premature shutdown . '' The Banking chairman urged Greenspan not to raise interest rates any further while the economy `` digests '' the 1.25 percentage point increase in short-term rates that the Fed engineered since early February . `` I think we may need a pause here to sort of see how these adjustments are taking hold . The upward revision in first quarter growth figures by the Commerce Department , from a 2.6 percent annual rate advance estimate last month to 3 percent rate in Friday 's release , caught virtually all analysts by surprise . On the basis of the additional data available since last month to the statisticians who compile the figures for the gross domestic product , the analysts had been looking for a reduction of a quarter of a percentage point or more rather than an increase . However , the analysts had missed a surprising jump in non-defense federal spending in March which changed what had been listed as a decline for first quarter federal spending into an increase . But the analysts generally said that the revision did little to change either their sense of the state of the economy or their expectations about growth in the April-June period , which several put at 3.5 percent to 4 percent or slightly more . Part of the higher growth this quarter is due to a rebound from the effects of severe winter weather that reduced economic activity early in the year , particularly in construction . At the Banking Committee hearing , Greenspan declined to predict what growth would be this quarter or how high it could be in the future without triggering more rapid inflation . Instead , the Fed chairman argued that keeping inflation low was the best way to maximize economic growth over time . `` The evidence is increasingly that low inflation means higher economic activity , greater growth in standards of living , greater real wages , not lower , '' Greenspan said . `` I think we 're all endeavoring to find ways to get solid economic growth , which is sustainable and which is not periodically upended by .. . destabilizing bouts '' of inflation . `` If we are successful in our current endeavors , there will not be an increase in overall inflation , and trends toward price stability will be extended . '' Greenspan explained that there is a substantial lag between changes in interest rates and the resulting changes in economic activity . And that means the Fed `` must implement the necessary monetary policy adjustments in advance of the potential emergence of inflationary pressures , so as to forestall their actual occurrence , '' he said . But Sasser and Sarbanes repeatedly rejected the Fed chairman 's argument . The Fed should stop `` buying into the notion that as soon as you get some good growth , you 've got to move to cut it down because there 's some phantom inflation that you perceive that needs to be addressed , when the underlying figures don't support it , '' Sarbanes responded . Red Rodney , a driving force in the bebop movement of the 1940s and '50s that spread from New York 's Birdland to envelop the rest of the country , died Friday . Leonard Feather , jazz critic for the Los Angeles Times , said Rodney died of cancer in New York City . He was 66 . Rodney , the trumpeter who helped make the Charlie Parker quintet a definitive unit in the early days of progessive jazz , had experienced health problems throughout his life . As with Parker , Dizzy Gillespie was an early influence on the young trumpeter from Philadelphia who was born Robert Chudnick . Rodney who was portrayed by Mike Zelnicker in the Parker biopic `` Bird , '' had begun studying brass when he was in his teens . He was working with a Philadelphia swing orchestra when he first heard the innovative Gillespie harmonics . Gillespie listened to him and took the 18-year-old to New York where he met Parker . He said the first thing the troubled famous saxophonist did was to borrow $ 10 . Rodney also was allowed to sit in with the Parker group . Rodney , who was made a member of the elite Downbeat ( magazine ) Hall of Fame , joined the Gene Krupa band after learning that Parker and Gillespie were traveling to California where Krupa would be performing . He returned to New York with Krupa , stayed a year , then began working clubs on 52nd Street . He was in Woody Herman 's brass section in New York in 1949 when trumpeter Miles Davis left Parker and Rodney took his place as part of the fabled quintet . Rodney short , red-headed and Jewish found that he had to pass himself off as a racial oddity to be accepted in a field dominated by blacks . Parker , he recalled , would introduce him to audiences as `` Albino Red . '' ( Begin optional trim ) Rodney said Parker not only led him to the forefront of the bop movement but also `` inspired '' him to start using drugs so `` maybe I could play that good , '' as he told Feather in 1988 . He battled drugs for several years but by the 1970s had put his destructive habits behind him and was touring Europe , playing regularly behind star acts in Las Vegas and recording with a group called Bebop Preservation Society . In the early 1980s he started working full time with his own jazz quintet and appeared throughout the country . In 1980 he teamed with Ira Sullivan who played both reeds and brass in one of the then most popular combos in jazz . ( End optional trim ) The Guinness Encyclopedia of Popular Music called Rodney `` one of the best bebop trumpeters '' of the period and `` certainly one of the first white players to gain credibility and experience in the field . '' Rodney 's survivors include his wife , Helene . SAN FRANCISCO A 10-year study of smog in national parks has found that air quality is improving in Western states but continuing to deteriorate in the East despite tougher laws aimed at halting air pollution . In the summertime , remote parks and wilderness areas in the East share the same hazy air as big cities like Washington . In fact , the study found , visible air pollution in the two eastern parks studied is worse than in Los Angeles during the summer . Researchers at the University of California , Davis , who conducted the study of a dozen national parks , came to the unexpected conclusion that the West is doing a better job of controlling the sulfur emissions that cause visible air pollution and acid rain . The findings were published in the latest issue of the journal Atmospheric Environment . `` The measures used in the East to clean up the air aren't working the way they should and the air quality is getting worse , '' said physicist Thomas Cahill , head of the UC Davis Air Quality Group . `` The measures used in the West are working , and the air is getting better . '' Cahill called for tougher laws to reduce sulfur emissions , particularly in the East . `` The bottom line is that the Clean Air Act may not accomplish all that it was supposed to do , which is to clean up the air of the eastern United States , '' he said . The research , the first of its kind , found that the United States is divided down the middle into two distinct zones of sulfur emissions , which can travel hundreds of miles from their original sources . In the East , the level of sulfate pollutants is often eight times as high as in the West because there are many more power plants , fewer emission controls and higher humidity , which accelerates the conversion of sulfur emissions into visible acidic particles . Sulfate pollution is the primary cause of visible smog and , in heavy concentrations , can severely damage trees . By contrast , ozone , which is not visible , is the main component of smog that causes health problems in humans and can also damage vegetation . To see how air pollution is affecting visibility in some of the most remote and pristine spots in the country , the UC Davis researchers took air samples at scenic spots , such as the mountains above Yosemite Valley and the bottom of the Grand Canyon . The researchers found that the air quality improved in national parks in Arizona , Colorado , Utah and Oregon between 1982 and 1992 , while holding steady in Yosemite , the Grand Canyon , Bryce Canyon National Park in Utah and two national parks in Texas . ( Optional add end ) However , visible pollution at Shenendoah National Park in Virginia and Great Smoky Mountains National Park in Tennessee jumped nearly 40 percent during the same period . `` On many days in the summer , visitors have no view at all except a strange , gray fog from many of the most popular lookouts , '' Cahill said . `` But it 's not fog . It 's mostly sulfate particles , with lots of water attached . At times in the East , it is almost pure dilute sulfuric acid . '' Cahill said the UC Davis findings support the theory that the sulfate haze hanging over much of the eastern United States and Europe is countering the effect of global warming in that region by scattering light that would otherwise heat the earth . He said this finding could explain why temperatures have not increased as much in the northern hemisphere as expected under scientific models of global warming . Some scientists have maintained that the lack of temperature rise in northern climates refutes the theory that the planet is warming up because emissions of carbon dioxide are holding in heat . TICKETS ( Philips , Times special ) has been killed . The kill is mandatory . Be certain the story is not published . A sub will be filed later . TICKETS ( Philips , Times special ) has been killed . The kill is mandatory . Be certain the story is not published . A sub will be filed later . BEIJING President Clinton 's decision to sever the link between China 's trade status and human rights could provide an opportunity for China and the United States to deal with each other on a normal basis for the first time since the bloody crackdown five years ago against pro-democracy demonstrators , Chinese and Western analysts said today . `` The current situation offers a historic opportunity for the enhancement of Sino-American relations , '' the Chinese Foreign Ministry said , adding that China will continue to make `` major efforts '' to improve relations . In the past , the threat of not renewing China 's most-favored-nation trading status has `` impaired the bilateral trade and economic exchanges and the overall relations between the two countries , '' the statement said . `` We hope that the U.S. government , on its part , will take a realistic and forward-looking stand in the overall interests of Sino-American relations and take concrete action to show its sincerity for enhancing relations , '' it added . The Chinese statement also expressed `` regret '' that sanctions imposed by the United States after the Tiananmen Square crackdown remain in place . In an apparent reference to Clinton 's comments about continuing serious human rights abuses in China , the Foreign Ministry also accused the United States of `` making unwarranted charges about ( the ) human rights situation in China . '' But the overall tone of the statement was upbeat , and the rhetoric was restrained . Clinton 's move is likely to reassure China 's leaders on a fundamental issue . The decision shows that `` it 's not the intent of the administration to destabilize China or overthrow the regime , '' said Michel Oksenberg , a longtime China scholar who recently visited Beijing and met with top Chinese leaders . Among China 's aging rulers , the elimination of the threat to revoke trade privileges over human rights abuses will strengthen the hand of more reform-minded leaders to argue for a wide-ranging relationship with the United States . This becomes especially important because of the uncertainty surrounding the political succession after senior leader Deng Xiaoping , who turns 90 in August . At the same time , Clinton 's flip-flop on China policy has raised questions about his personal credibility among the Chinese . `` The Chinese know they have won , '' said Wang Xizhe , a veteran dissident who was released last year after nearly 14 years in jail for his pro-democracy activities . In a telephone interview from the southern city of Guangzhou , he said he welcomed the decision . He pointed out that in the end , it was the United States that gave in . `` I think the Chinese saw early on that the United States is a paper tiger , '' he said . This raises the question of how seriously the Chinese will take Clinton 's word or threats on issues such as Washington 's relations with Taiwan and bilateral trade issues , analysts said . `` It is always important for the Chinese to feel that we are quite credible in what we say , '' said a Western analyst who has long had dealings with Chinese leaders . `` If people respect you on that level , it usually saves both sides a lot of heartache , and there is less testing of each side by the other . '' Nevertheless , the questions of credibility and trust might carry less weight if the Clinton administration follows through with broad strategic discussions with the Chinese , analysts said . This is particularly true in the military realm , where high-level contacts had been frozen until last fall . A visit to the United States of a top Chinese general had been put on hold while the two sides awaited the outcome of the trade decision . Meanwhile , a delegation that includes former defense secretary Robert S. McNamara and four senior retired U.S. military officials , including three generals , has been holding talks in Beijing for the past week with Chinese military officials . `` It 's important to see what kind of role China sees for itself in the region , what resources it is devoting to its military budget and what their strategic doctrine is , '' said David Lampton , president of the National Committee on U.S.-China Relations , which sponsored the trip . In the area of human rights , some Chinese dissidents said there might be setbacks in the short run as a result of Clinton 's decision . But over the longer term , greater contacts with the West and rapid development of China 's economy may lead to increased freedom , said veteran activist Wang . Wang acknowledged that his release in February of 1993 was due in part to international pressure . For that , he said , he will always be grateful . But those activists who have chosen to stay in China long ago made their own preparations to deal with the authorities , regardless of outside pressure such as the threat of losing the trading status . Perhaps the one dissident who felt most strongly that the United States needed to be tough on China could not be reached for comment . China 's most prominent political activist , Wei Jingsheng , has been in police custody since April 1 . Chinese and Western analysts say China 's actions in human rights area are driven more by its own domestic-stability concerns than by pressure from the West . `` China is undergoing change at a speed that borders on the uncontrollable , '' said Ken Lieberthal , a China expert from the University of Michigan in a telephone interview in Hong Kong . `` It has a leadership that is desperately trying to shift that country from a typical Soviet-style command economy to a typical East Asian type of economic miracle . And it believes firmly that it must find a path that combines entrepreneurial flexibility with political stability , '' he said . Chinese officials have often complained in the past that the U.S. position on human rights often comes out sounding like the United States has a morally superior position when dealing with China . For a country whose leaders still remember China 's bitter humiliations at the hands of foreign powers , such a posture often stiffens the Chinese resolve not to give in to American demands . Earlier this year , when a U.S. official had to visit Beijing for consultations , the message about the importance of human rights was not raised , and the meeting was very fruitful , according to a Western diplomat . Clinton 's decision was praised around Asia , where many leaders , particularly Singapore 's elder statesman Lee Kuan Yew , have been critical of the policy to link trade and human rights . In Beijing , Phil Carmichael , president of the American Chamber of Commerce here , told reporters that while the chamber did not support Clinton 's ban on U.S. imports of Chinese guns and ammunition , it welcomed the move to separate trade from human rights . `` Let 's declare victory and move onto the next issue , '' he said . He said U.S. businesses in China were willing to discuss Clinton 's suggestion of a `` voluntary code of conduct '' to address human rights concerns . But most American business executives have said their companies follow their own codes of business ethics . WASHINGTON Democrats in the White House , Congress and federal agencies are anxious about the possibility that Marion Barry could be elected mayor and are seeking ways to address the District 's problems without hurting Mayor Sharon Pratt Kelly 's re-election prospects . As a result , some have scaled back their efforts to hold Kelly personally accountable for the city 's problems with public housing , finances and other matters . Officials at the Department of Housing and Urban Development recently formed a joint committee with Kelly to oversee the city 's troubled public housing program , rather than seizing complete control , in part because they sensed that a federal takeover of the department would hurt the mayor too much politically and could help Barry win the Democratic primary , sources familiar with the decision said . The joint approach permitted HUD to exercise additional influence over the program while enabling the mayor to indicate she had asked for the agency 's help and supported the new partnership . HUD officials consulted in advance on their decision with White House staff , who approved of the way it was handled , a White House official said . A Congressional source who discussed the matter with White House officials also confirmed that the mayor 's race played an important role in the decision not to simply take over the public housing agency . Sources said the mayoral race and the implications of a possible Barry victory are being widely discussed in Washington . However , many Democrats in Congress and elsewhere , including D.C. Del. Eleanor Holmes Norton , will not disclose their views about the mayor 's race because they could arouse a political backlash or be accused of meddling . A White House official said : `` We are very cognizant that there is a highly charged mayor 's race in the city , and we would be careful to try not to influence it . I think we would like to let the voters of D.C. decide that one . '' Tony Coelho a former member of the House of Representatives who is now an unofficial political adviser to the White House and who has close personal ties to senior White House officials said there was fear in the White House and on Capitol Hill that a Barry victory would damage the Democratic party 's image because of the former mayor 's drug conviction . Coelho said he expects Republicans to use the city 's troubles as an issue in this year 's elections because Democrats are in charge of the White House and the Congress . He said a Barry victory in the Democratic primary would make the Democrats even more vulnerable , and that leaders of the party are worried about it . `` It is legitimate for this government , the Congress and the administration to try to help this city out , '' Coelho said . `` It is the nation 's capital . An embarrassment here is an embarrassment internationally , so it is critically important they pay attention to it . The implications ( of a Barry victory ) are that the comics go wild , and the press goes wild and makes it into a big international story . '' Barry 's entrance into the mayor 's race and the enthusiastic support he has received from his base of supporters has prompted numerous conversations among Democratic leaders seeking to determine his chances for victory , according to interviews with members of Congress and staff members . One Congressional source said Barry 's campaign had sparked a `` deathbed fear '' in Democrats in Congress and around Washington . `` The DNC ( Democratic National Committee ) doesn't need this , '' the source said . Rep. James T. Walsh , R-N.Y. , the ranking Republican on the District appropriations subcommittee , said Barry 's campaign after his conviction on drug charges had become a topic of discussion in Congress . `` It concerns me a great deal , '' Walsh said . `` The image of Washington D.C. was tarnished by his term , and I certainly don't want to give him any advantage . `` The District of Columbia is in difficulty now vis-a-vis Congress , '' Walsh said . `` That ( Barry 's election ) certainly would not make relations easier . There are very strong feelings against the former mayor on the Hill . '' WASHINGTON Federal Reserve Board Chairman Alan Greenspan on Friday mounted his first public defense of the Fed 's repeated interest rate increases this year , telling a skeptical Congress that the central bank had no alternative but to hike rates to reduce the threat of inflation . Confronted with stiff criticism from leading Democratic lawmakers , Greenspan told the Senate Banking Committee that market pressures ultimately would have brought on higher interest rates even if the Fed had not acted . `` Delaying our actions would not have been constructive , '' Greenspan said . He also stressed that he believes the Fed 's actions should now lead to solid economic growth without rapidly rising prices . On Friday , the government said the economy grew at a 3 percent pace in the first quarter of the year , up slightly from an earlier estimate of 2.6 percent , but down sharply from the 7 percent level in the fourth quarter of 1993 . `` Overall .. . this looks like a well-balanced economy , '' Greenspan said . `` This is looking to me as good as I 've seen an economy evolving in a balanced form in a very long period of time . The economy is moving at a fairly respectable pace .. . it could go on for a quite a long period of time , provided that inflationary imbalances don't emerge . '' Since February , the Fed has raised short-term interest rates four times in a controversial effort to cool the economy before it gets so overheated that it begins to generate a surge in inflation . Fed officials are now convinced they kept interest rates too low for too long as the economy began to recover last year , and that before they acted in February the economy was growing at a pace that was too rapid to be sustained without a run-up in prices . Greenspan noted Friday that the central bank 's easy money policies of 1993 also may have led to an unhealthy increase in speculative activity in the financial markets , and said Fed officials felt they had to raise rates to burst that bubble . Leading senators complained that the Fed was too concerned about appeasing the nation 's financial markets , and had moved so aggressively that its interest rate increases are now hurting average Americans . Committee Chairman Donald Riegle , D-Mich. , urged Greenspan to pause for a time . `` It would be foolhardy for us to needlessly bring this economic expansion to a premature shutdown , '' Riegle said . Other committee members complained that the Fed has raised rates to curb inflation at a time when there is virtually no evidence of rising prices . The Fed 's moves to raise short-term rates have had a cascading effect on other market interest rates and the rest of the economy by making it more expensive for businesses and consumers to borrow either to invest or make purchases . And the lawmakers noted that the American economy is now more sensitive than ever to changes in Fed interest rate policy because so many mortgages and other consumer loans carry adjustable rates , which can be changed relatively quickly . ( Optional add end ) Senator Paul Sarbanes , D-Md. , who is also vice chairman of the Joint Economic Committee , also complained that Greenspan was tightening monetary policy at a time when the Clinton administration and Congress have already moved to tighten fiscal policy with last year 's deficit-reduction agreement . He argued that since Greenspan had repeatedly urged Congress to cut the deficit , the Fed should now reward them by keeping interest rates low . So if both fiscal and monetary policies are restrained , Sarbanes asked , `` the question then is where is the impetus to come from in order to get some economic growth and some job restoration ? '' But Greenspan disagreed that Fed policies would sacrifice the health of the overall economy to please Wall Street investors . `` I don't acknowledge there are differences between the goals of Wall Street and the goals of Main Street , '' Greenspan said . `` The evidence is increasingly that low inflation means higher economic activity ( and ) greater growth . '' LONDON Senior British health officials sought Friday to play down the widely circulated press reports that a deadly bacteria is threatening the population . `` The public should be reassured there is no killer bug sweeping the country , '' said Dr. Diana Walford , director of the Public Health Laboratory Service , attacking the barrage of publicity . She said there have been 15 cases of the disease , called necrotising fasciitis , since Jan. 1 a rate of occurrence that she said is not out of the ordinary . News that the disease was breaking out in parts of Gloucestershire in western England surfaced last weekend , and the British tabloid press painted horrifying visions of a virus that can devour human flesh in a matter of hours . `` Curse of the Killer Bacteria , '' bannered The Sun , Britain 's largest-selling daily , and `` Flesh Bug Ate My Brother in 18 Hours . '' `` I Watched Killer Bug Eat My Body , '' read another tabloid 's headlines . Even more sedate papers like The Times of London reported : `` Bacteria That Eat the Flesh '' and `` Flesh-Eater on the Move . '' Walford said press reports give the impression that the 15 cases 11 of which resulted in death all occurred in a sudden epidemic , instead of over the last five months . She stressed that necrotising fasciitis , a virulent form of the streptococcus bacteria , `` remains a rare disease . '' The British scare has generated worldwide concern , with governments from Austria to New Zealand checking incidents of the infection . In Norway , the disease has killed 25 people so far this year , the country 's National Institute of Public Health . U.S. officials estimated that up to 450 Americans may have died each year from 1989 to 1991 from the infection , according to the World Health Organization . British Health Secretary Virginia Bottomley appealed for calm , insisting that everything possible is being done to fight the bug . `` There is no evidence that the numbers we are seeing are untoward , '' Bottomley said . `` It is important not to get it out of proportion . This is a situation where everything that can be done has been done . '' ( Optional add end ) Government officials did acknowledge that the disease could be horrifying to those who contract it . The infection attacks the fleshy parts of the body , eating it away like gangrene . In the worst cases , death can occur within hours . `` I feel enormously for anyone who has a member of the family involved , '' Bottomley said , `` but I don't want every family in the country to be panicked . '' The tabloid press sent reporters to find victims and their relatives , and recounted their stories in lurid tales that brought invoked images of an outer-space invasion . As the Financial Times suggested : `` Mutant flesh-eating superbugs , capable of killing a healthy adult within hours , are rampaging their way through Britain . Or , to put it another way , the media is indulging in one of its periodic frenzies of terrifying the public with a medical horror story . '' WASHINGTON The director of the International Atomic Energy Agency ( IAEA ) urgently warned the United Nations Friday that North Korea has recently accelerated its withdrawal of fuel rods from a nuclear reactor , raising new concerns about North Korean intentions . During a series of negotiations with top IAEA officials this week , North Korea not only spurned the agency 's demand that it halt the fuel rod withdrawal , but also said it could not accept demands for special storage of some key fuel rods , Hans Blix said in his letter to U.N. Secretary General Boutros-Boutros Ghali . U.S. and IAEA officials have said that the fuel rods must be preserved for future radioactive measurements aimed at determining how much plutonium North Korea extracted in recent years from spent nuclear fuel . Plutonium is a key element in nuclear arms , and U.S. officials suspect North Korea of trying to develop an arsenal of such weapons . The North Koreans told the IAEA that special storage of the withdrawn rods would not meet `` their political constraints , '' Blix said . Blix 's letter , obtained by The Washington Post , warned that North Korea has withdrawn almost half of the reactor 's estimated 8,000 fuel rods and is continuing to withdraw them `` at a very fast pace . . . not in line with the information previously conveyed to the agency . '' The agency had initially predicted the fuel withdrawal , which began two weeks ago , would not be completed for another six weeks . Blix wrote that his agency 's ability to inspect the rods would be `` lost within days '' if the North Koreans proceed as they have been . Unless North Korea changes its position immediately , he added , `` the agency will not be in a position to verify the amount '' of plutonium the country has accumulated or verify that North Korea is not developing a nuclear arsenal . He asked that the matter be brought immediately to the attention of the U.N. . Security Council . Robert Gallucci , the senior U.S. envoy for Korean matters , warned Friday in an interview that if North Korea proceeded , Washington would cancel plans for new high-level talks desired by North Korea to chart a solution to the nuclear dispute and foster improved relations . Gallucci also said the continuing withdrawal of the fuel rods would `` force us to go back to the Security Council where sanctions would be one of the options . '' Other U.S. officials said they hoped China would intervene by sending a tough message to North Korea . In a sign of Washington 's growing pessimism , however , U.S. officials Friday began reviewing two draft statements condemning the North Korean action with other members of the U.N. . Security Council . The IAEA and U.S. warnings came after North Korean officials , at talks this week with mid-level U.S. diplomats in New York , rejected a U.S. proposal to begin the high-level talks promptly . The North Koreans complained that they could not accept Washington 's condition that the talks could be held only if the key fuel rods were preserved . North Korea 's actions bolstered suspicions among some U.S. officials that the country is determined to hide how much plutonium it obtained by reprocessing spent fuel rods withdrawn from the reactor in 1989 . Moreover , the officials said , if North Korea responds to sanctions by barring further inspections , it would then be able extract enough additional plutonium from spent fuel rods to manufacture four or five nuclear devices . North Korean officials said their decision to reject the inspections was justified by the country 's `` unique status '' under the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty , a global accord aimed at halting the spread of nuclear arms . North Korea claims it achieved this special status in 1993 by threatening to withdraw from the treaty and then suspending that threat under U.S. pressure . The IAEA has repeatedly said North Korea has no special status and must comply with all the inspection pledges it made in January 1992 . Among those pledges was a commitment to international verification of how much plutonium the country had extracted from spent fuel rods since the reactor started operating in 1986 . Two of the four IAEA negotiators in Pyongyang plan to depart for the agency 's headquarters in Vienna today , with the other two staying behind at the site of the reactor in Yongbyon , north of the capital , to observe the withdrawal of fuel rods , Blix said . In this case , the agency would declare formally that it could no longer maintain adequate safeguards against nuclear weapons development there . Secretary of State Warren Christopher told an Asia Society meeting in New York Friday that `` confrontation is emphatically not our preferred path . '' But he said that if `` North Korea rejects the negotiations we 've offered , '' Washington would be well-positioned to `` mobilize the international community to take sterner measures . '' Christopher added that sanctions would `` condemn '' North Korea to continued isolation and economic deprivation , while preserving its status as a political pariah . BEIJING In the end , China 's success in overcoming human rights opposition to win renewal of trade privileges from the United States boiled down to one simple truth : The Chinese regime demonstrated a much better understanding of the American political system than the Clinton administration did of the Chinese system . The key to Beijing 's strategy was to divert attention from human rights issues by using the blinding lights of China 's booming economy and huge potential market . By doing this , Chinese officials said , they successfully broadened the terms of the debate inside the United States . As a result , the Clinton administration found itself fighting back on many fronts , often against some of its own most powerful citizens . Time and again during the past year , the Chinese effectively called on U.S. big business to do most of the heavy lifting in carrying their case to the American public and President Clinton himself . Major league companies such as Boeing , AT&T , General Electric and United Technologies were more than happy to go to bat for the Chinese with their powerful public relations machines . `` My feeling is that a few huge companies had more at stake than in the past , '' said Anne Stevenson-Yang , Beijing director of the U.S. China Business Council . American executives , for example , lobbied hard for a last-minute meeting between Clinton and China Vice Premier Zou Jiahua in early May that was one of the turning points in the dialogue . When confronted with allegations of human rights abuses , the Chinese leadership coolly responded by changing the subject , citing the thousands of U.S. jobs that depend on Chinese orders for commercial aircraft and telecommunications equipment . This approach was used in November when Chinese President Jiang Zemin held his first summit with Clinton during a Seattle visit . Jiang ostentatiously made a point of visiting the family of a Boeing worker . His Chinese staff noted for all who would listen that China buys one out of every seven Boeing aircraft made . This effort continued right up until Clinton 's Thursday news conference announcing renewal of China 's most-favored-nation trading status the same rights that the United States grants all but a few pariah states . The same day , the Wall Street Journal reported that China is `` within weeks '' of finalizing an agreement to buy 50 new aircraft from Boeing , an order worth $ 5 billion . On another front often very embarrassing to the Clinton administration , the Beijing regime romanced American allies with attractive business opportunities to accentuate the U.S. isolation on the human rights question . For example , at the same time Clinton was in Seattle presenting Jiang with a list of human rights concerns , German Chancellor Helmut Kohl traveled to Beijing with German business leaders to sign $ 3.5 billion worth of contracts . This spring , French Prime Minister Edouard Balladur arrived in Beijing with a similar entourage . The Chinese government made the point abundantly clear : Only the United States put human rights conditions on trade . If the Clinton administration kept insisting , China could take its business elsewhere . Finally , during the year leading up to the Clinton decision , China hosted and feted hundreds of American political and business leaders . During all of 1992 , for example , only 11 members of Congress eight representatives and three senators came to China . But between June 1993 and June 1994 , Beijing was swarmed by 47 U.S. representatives and 14 senators . ( Begin optional trim ) The incoming planeloads of American politicians was partly due to the efforts of U.S. . Ambassador J. Stapleton Roy , who encouraged Congress members to visit China and witness its development firsthand . But the Chinese were quick to welcome the visitors , spending thousands of dollars to feed them and show them the sights . As a result , they may have won a few extra votes for their cause . Many Congress members indicated that the bleak land of torture and abuse described in news reports appeared instead to be a land in the throes of rapid , healthy development . ( End optional trim ) China was finally able to win the unyoking of human rights questions and trade relations , while making only a handful of mostly token concessions to the American side . This was the prize they wanted most but had been unable to win from a hostile Democratic Congress during the Bush administration , despite Bush 's personal support for separating trade and human rights issues . In explaining why the Chinese had not fully responded to American demands on human rights Clinton explained that China was under great strain from tensions between its far-flung provinces and the central government . This is a common argument espoused by senior Communist Party leaders when they explain the need for measures to insure `` stability . '' Borrowing another common Chinese argument , Clinton noted that Asian societies like China have a more authoritarian tradition . He cited as an example the recent case of American teen-ager Michael Fay , sentenced to several strokes of a rattan cane for a vandalism charge in Singapore . Even when the Chinese did make concessions to the Americans , such as the release earlier this month of prominent dissidents Wang Juntao and Chen Ziming , they timed them impeccably so as to win maximum possible credit from the Clinton administration , which in the later stages of the game was desperate for any such sign from the Chinese . ( Begin optional trim ) While business delegations from the United States were welcomed into Beijing like heads of state , U.S. Secretary of State Warren Christopher , who came to China in March ostensibly to tie up the package on human rights , was given one of the frostiest receptions an American diplomat ever received in the Chinese capital . The State Department 's special human rights envoy , assistant Secretary of State John Shattuck , who came to China to prepare for the Christopher visit , was accused by authorities of breaking Chinese law because he met with prominent dissident Wei Jingsheng during the visit . Adding insult to injury in the Shattuck episode , the Chinese authorities subsequently jailed Wei for allegedly telling Shattuck that China 's most-favored-nation status should not be renewed unless improvements in the rights arena were made . Wei was still in jail when Clinton renewed the trading status Thursday . ( End optional trim ) When cornered on some tough points such as the thousands of political prisoners in Chinese jails and labor reform camps Beijing turned the tables on the Americans . In response to U.S. objections to the export of goods made in Chinese prisons , for example , China commissioned a series of reports in respectable international publications documenting examples of American prison exports to other countries . Under a barrage of human rights allegations from the West , China responded that its first obligation to human rights was feeding and housing its people , something the United States so far had been unable to do with its enormous homeless population . Finally , the Chinese adopted a strategy of aiming their diplomatic efforts directly at Clinton , while shunting aside his most prominent emissaries . ( Optional add end ) Although American policy on the human rights/trade question was vilified in the Chinese press , Clinton himself was never personally attacked . Moreover , when the Chinese authorities in May released dissident Wang , they made it clear that it was because Clinton had personally requested the release on medical grounds . Wang suffers from hepatitis . Confident that it had already won the diplomatic match-up over human rights through its other efforts , particularly by marshaling American private business interests to its cause , China viewed the releases of dissidents Wang and Chen as a way of `` giving face '' to the young American president , still a neophyte in international affairs . During his campaign for the presidency , Clinton repeatedly attacked Bush for `` coddling dictators '' in China . On Thursday , however , Clinton succeeded where Bush had failed , removing human rights conditions from trade matters between the two countries . WASHINGTON The nation 's largest bar examination review course signed a consent decree with the Justice Department Friday , agreeing to provide sign language interpreters , transcription services and other costly auxiliary aids to students with disabilities . The agreement , which settled a civil complaint the department brought against the owners of the Bar/Bri bar review course , could have broad implications for disabled students preparing to take bar exams and certified public accountant exams . They often have to pay 10 times more for interpreters or special materials than the cost of the review course tuition . `` This is a major step forward . All the others will be on notice that they have to provide the same services to the disabled , '' said Arlene Mayerson , an attorney for the Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund , based in Berkeley , Calif. . Deval L. Patrick , assistant attorney general for civil rights , said that as a result of the agreement , `` The gateways to the legal and accounting professions have now been opened wider for persons with disabilities . '' He said the agreement `` should serve as a model to all the other review courses this nation has to offer . '' In its complaint , the Justice Department accused Harcourt Brace Legal and Professional Publications Inc. , owner of Bar/Bri , of violating the Americans With Disabilities Act ( ADA ) by failing to provide sign language interpreters to two deaf California students , and failing to provide Braille copies of course materials to a blind student from New York . The suit also alleged that Bar/Bri regularly denied requests for interpreters and Braille materials , instead offering transcripts of course lectures to hearing-impaired students and recordings of written materials to blind students . Under the consent decree , the Chicago-based Bar/Bri , which each year prepares about 20,000 law school graduates for bar examinations in 25 jurisdictions , agreed to provide a wide range of special services to the disabled within 60 days . They include interpreters , computer-aided transcription services , special listening devices for the hearing-impaired , note-takers , Braille materials , large-print materials , audio tapes and other aids . Bar/Bri also agreed to pay $ 25,000 in civil penalties and $ 28,000 in compensatory damages to cover the costs of special services for a blind student in New York and a deaf student in California who filed complaints against the company . Earlier this month , Becker CPA Review Inc. , which prepares students for the certified public accountants ' exam , signed a similar consent decree that would make its courses accessible to students with disabilities . Patrick said that Harcourt cooperated fully to settle the complaint , entering into negotiations promptly after being notified of its alleged violations and implementing many of the new procedures months before the final settlement . Bar/Bri president Richard Conviser said that supplying a sign language interpreter for the intensive review course costs about $ 11,000 , compared to the $ 600 to $ 1,000 for tuition . `` But we are pleased to enter into this consent decree . We believe it 's the right thing to do , and we believe it can be a model for other courses throughout the country , '' he said . Conviser estimated that less than 1 percent of Bar/Bri students are disabled . However , Mayerson said the costs will be minimal to `` multimillion-dollar companies like Bar/Bri who have been avoiding their responsibility for years . '' She said that law schools have been providing sign language interpreters and other special services since a 1977 federal disability act went into effect . `` When they got out of law school and went for the bar exam review , they 'd say , `` Hey , where 's my interpreter ? Where 's my simultaneous transcriber ? ' ' ' Mayerson said . Under the consent decree , Bar/Bri also agreed to educate its staff about the needs of disabled students and include information about auxiliary aids and services in its advertising . LONG BEACH , Calif. . They wanted a role model , a teacher , a motivator of young people to issue the final rousing challenge to the class of '94 at California State University , Long Beach . And there he was at the podium Friday morning , an unlikely sight in black robes and mortar board instead of Dodger blue Tommy Lasorda . Mills College in Oakland , Calif. , wasn't as lucky filling its commencement marquee . After rejection by Oprah , Whoopi and Chilean-born author Isabel Allende , the all-female school settled for Alice Waters , the owner of Chez Panisse restaurant in nearby Berkeley . She used the occasion Sunday to warn about the hazards of fast food . `` She was available and that 's how we settled on her , '' said Sharon Jones , executive director of college relations at Mills . With more than 3,500 schools hunting graduation speakers this year , administrators must stalk eye-catching names for months and put the grip on influential alums to avoid stifled yawns and even embarrassment at commencement time . Lasorda was the first choice for Long Beach 's College of the Arts even though the longtime manager of the Los Angeles Dodgers and diet-drink pitchman never attended college . His strongest higher education credential is an honorary membership in the Valparaiso University alumni association , but that was of no concern . The idea , was to sprinkle a little Dodger glory on the program and make the point that sometimes art imitates baseball . `` It 's very difficult to get into the major leagues and it 's very difficult to get into a Spielberg film , '' said Howard V. Burman , chairman of the theater arts department . In what may be the only graduation covered by ESPN , the professor of the clubhouse talked about what it takes to succeed in life ( nope , it 's not a split-finger fastball ) . According to Jay San-Martin , the student body president , Lasorda 's anecdotes and banquet-circuit wisdom was a hit with the 600 aspiring Pacinos , Baryshnikovs and Van Cliburns . `` Students have been flailed , for lack of a better word , in the past by speakers , who although intelligent or renown in their field , have not necessarily had a good connection with the student class , '' said San-Martin , whose position has required him to sit through seven commencement addresses so far this year . `` Tommy has the ability to make that connection and he did today . '' In 1947 , George Marshall elevated the standards for commencement speeches when he chose Harvard University 's graduation exercises to reveal his plan for redeeming postwar Europe . For the most part , however , college officials say they are just happy to find speakers that bridge the gap between the profound and the popular . The problem is that the small circle of instantly recognizable people who can do that President Clinton , his wife Hillary Rodham Clinton , actors such as Edward James Olmos are too busy to honor all but a few invitations . High-demand speakers such as poet Maya Angelou , who charges $ 20,000 , are too expensive for schools with paltry budgets or only honorary degrees to offer . ( Begin optional trim ) Some Stanford seniors complained because President Gerhard Casper invited a former alum and distinguished Yale law professor , Stephen Carter , to speak at the June ceremony , instead of Angelou , author Scott Turow or David Letterman . A student newspaper editorial lamented that the Palo Alto , Calif. , school could not attract a heavyweight for the graduation of its 100th class . In a bizarre twist , University of Southern California 's graduation program May 6 did not list an official commencement speaker . The reason : Two of its honorary degree recipients , producers Steven Spielberg and George Lucas , asked not to be billed as commencement speakers , although they offered limited remarks , a school spokesman said . In the game of lining up speakers , the Milwaukee School of Engineering claimed a minor public relations coup in February when it induced actor James Doohan , who played `` Scotty '' on the original `` Star Trek , '' to give the winter commencement address . Doohan was invited and given an honorary degree , school officials said , because he had inspired a generation of Trekkers to study engineering . Fortune and luck shined on Whittier ( Calif. ) . College , however a personal plea from its president during a London trip a year ago led to Friday 's extemporaneous commencement address from Anglican Archbishop Trevor Huddleston , an anti-apartheid activist who stood at Nelson Mandela 's side during the recent South African presidential inauguration . ( End optional trim ) A commencement address is important because it helps defines both school and student , said Harvard education professor Arthur Levine . The college lays bare its institutional values by selecting a speaker and the speech itself becomes the `` last lesson '' for students heading into the cruel world , he said . Most important , though , the show must go on . Some college officials find themselves resorting to old-fashioned networking , cajoling and persistence to snare a name commencement speaker . At Mills , for instance , administrators went to work months ago to sign-up any one of the candidates forwarded for consideration by the senior class . ( Begin optional trim ) The list included Texas newspaper columnist Molly Ivins , talk show host Oprah Winfrey , actresses Whoopi Goldberg or Emma Thompson , California State Treasurer Kathleen Brown , authors Ursula K. Le Guin and Sandra Cisneros , and restaurateur Waters . Jones , the Mills administrator , said calls to Winfrey 's Chicago production company revealed she was `` getting married and didn't want to do anything more than concentrate on that . '' Jones then tried to reach Goldberg , whose hometown is in nearby Berkeley . `` I actually knew Whoopi 's mother and someone else knew where Whoopi 's mother shopped , they knew the neighborhood in which Whoopi 's mother lived and the church she attended , '' said Jones . But when Goldberg 's mother volunteered the phone number for Goldberg 's agent , the college learned that the star was busy filming three movies at once . Mills officials faxed a December letter to Allende , who lives in nearby Marin County , only to find out she was on a tour promoting three new books . With time running out , Mills officials called Waters , a celebrated organic food environmentalist who made headlines when she once tried to break Clinton of the hamburger habit . ( End optional trim ) At Long Beach , Dean Wade Hobgood said Lasorda was a unanimous choice . `` There were a half of dozen names mentioned and Tommy 's name rose to the surface , '' Hobgood said about a meeting with his department chairmen earlier this year . Hobgood said college administrators singled out Lasorda , in part , because his daughter had graduated from the dance program in 1977 . In addition , the chairman of the theater arts department had earned favor with team management with his play `` Boys of Summer , '' a musical about the old Brooklyn Dodgers that is now headed for off-Broadway . A Dodgers official said Lasorda readily agreed to speak , because the team was scheduled for a day off . But Burman , who is also a Dodger season ticket holder , said he sealed the deal by going to an early morning batting practice and making the commencement pitch personally to Lasorda . Using anecdotes about determination , Lasorda never mentioned the word `` art '' in his talk but in something of a locker room speech , he exhorted graduates to persevere and `` outwork your competitor . '' `` You are going to face a lot of challenges , you are going to be in a world that if you are not fully prepared , like many , you will fall by the way side , '' he said . `` But what you have learned here in this beautiful , wonderful university will carry you through for the rest of your life . '' WASHINGTON Thirteen senior White House officials Friday volunteered to chip in to help a fired senior aide repay the government the cost of his helicopter trip to play golf near Camp David , and the White House acknowledged that a second helicopter took part in the outing . In his resignation letter released Friday , the aide , David Watkins , was unrepentant . `` I firmly believe that my actions were in fulfillment of the responsibilities of my position , '' said Watkins , who was head of the White House Office of Administration . Watkins , a longtime Arkansas friend of President Clinton and First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton , said `` there simply was no effort on my part to use White House or military equipment for personal or recreational purposes '' and that his `` sole motivation was determining how you could utilize Camp David more frequently . '' The president told Watkins in a response that `` I understand your reasons '' for resigning and thanked Watkins for his `` accomplishments large and small '' at the White House and for his `` loyal friendship . '' In a separate letter , White House Chief of Staff Thomas F. `` Mack '' McLarty , who is among those contributing to repay the cost of the helicopters , called Watkins 's decision to take the flight to play golf `` an unfortunate error . '' Watkins , who left the White House Friday , was reprimanded last year for his role in the firing of White House travel office staff members . The aides contributing to the repayment fund included nearly the entire senior White House hierarchy , including the two deputy chiefs of staff , Philip Lader and Harold Ickes , special counsel Lloyd N . Cutler , senior advisers George Stephanopoulos and David R. Gergen and communications director Mark Gearan . Clinton on Thursday said he was `` very upset '' one White House official described him as `` furious '' when he learned that Watkins and Alphonso Maldon Jr. , director of the White House Military Office , had taken one of the presidential helicopters to New Market , Md. , Tuesday afternoon for the golf outing . The president promised that the cost to taxpayers would be repaid . One White House source said the idea of having White House staffers contribute to the repayment fund arose when Watkins balked at paying the full amount . An advertising executive in Little Rock , Ark. , before joining the White House staff , Watkins is worth more than $ 1 million , according to his financial disclosure statement . Gearan described the repayment effort as a `` gesture of friendship to Mr. Watkins and Mr. Maldon. '' Another official said that only Watkins is contributing to defray the cost , but could not provide any dollar amount . Maldon is being reassigned elsewhere in the administration and was not asked to repay the costs because he was acting at Watkins 's direction , the official said . Asked whether the decision of senior staffers to help out Watkins suggests that his action is not taken seriously , Gearan said , `` That would be a misread of the situation . '' Rather , he said : `` We accept that he acted in good faith but recognize there was an error and he has resigned. . . . His colleagues are being supportive . '' The White House could not provide an estimate for the cost of the flights , but the military estimates the cost at $ 2,380 for each hour of flight time . The helicopter that carried Watkins and Maldon , flew for about 30 minutes to Camp David in Maryland 's Catoctin Mountains and then 15 minutes to the golf course . It then returned to Washington and flew back to the golf course to pick up the pair at the end of their round , meaning flight time of more than two hours . The White House said the military also would be reimbursed for the cost of a second helicopter , but said it could provide no information on the second craft 's flight time . Gearan said that helicopter was on a `` training mission '' but acknowledged that it would `` probably not '' have flown had the first helicopter not been in the air . White House officials initially denied reports of other golfers that a second helicopter was involved but later Friday acknowledged that the second one had flown up to Maryland . SAN FRANCISCO Former police officer Tom Gerard , who fled to the Philippines after he was accused of spying for the Anti-Defamation League , pleaded no contest Friday to one charge of illegally accessing police computer records . Gerard 's plea brings to a close the spying scandal that rocked the prominent Jewish civil rights group last year and outraged thousands of people and activist groups targeted by the league 's private intelligence operation . Gerard , a onetime CIA agent who voluntarily returned from self-imposed exile to face charges , is the only person to be prosecuted in the scandal . He will serve 45 days in a work camp and pay a fine of $ 2,500 . Last fall , San Francisco District Attorney Arlo Smith agreed not to bring charges against the Anti-Defamation League after the group promised to pay up to $ 75,000 to Smith 's office to fight hate crimes . Gerard , who at one point was an intelligence officer with the San Francisco Police Department , was accused of tapping into police computers and giving confidential information on hundreds of people to Roy Bullock , an undercover operative for the ADL . Bullock has admitted that the two of them sold some of the information to an agent for the South African government . Bullock , who was never charged , also used data from Gerard in amassing intelligence files for the ADL on nearly 10,000 people and 950 groups , ranging from the Klu Klux Klan to the NAACP . After the FBI began investigating the case , Gerard fled to the Philippines and resigned from the force . He left behind a briefcase filled with such items as false IDs , information about Central American death squads and a black executioner-style hood . From the Philippines , he threatened to expose illegal CIA support of death squads if he was prosecuted for his role in the ADL case . Last month , a San Francisco judge dismissed felony charges against Gerard after the FBI refused to provide wiretaps and investigative files in the case . Because the issue could have been tied up on appeal for years , both sides agreed to the misdemeanor plea bargain . To prevent the theft of confidential data in the future , Smith said , the San Francisco Police Department will require all computer users to have a personal password . SOUTHGATE , Calif. Eisenhower , Churchill and their troops were pursuing him 50 years ago . But they gave up the hunt for Hitler on Friday in South Gate . Leaders of an 800-member veterans group planning to have an Adolf Hitler look-a-like take a mock drubbing from Gen. Dwight Eisenhower and Prime Minister Winston Churchill impersonators at a D-Day anniversary celebration say the enemy is no longer invited . `` We couldn't find a decent Hitler , '' said Bob Stane , president of the B-17 Combat Crewmen & Wingmen 's Association , which is co-sponsoring the event at the South Gate Post Office . `` But then , there never was a decent Hitler . '' The veterans said they plan now to hunt instead for Gen. George Patton and President Roosevelt look-a-likes who can give the event a more festive look . The uninviting of the enemy is probably just as well , considering the dimensions the D-Day gathering was taking Friday . What began two months ago as an informal commemorative stamp-canceling ceremony for veterans at the post office has mushroomed into a celebration that is now attracting local , state and federal officials , a marching band , an ROTC drill team and military color guards from the four branches of the military . `` We 're honoring WWII veterans , so why not do something splashy ? '' said South Gate Postmaster Prescilla Buckley , who has ordered a tent and folding chairs and convinced the local Rotary Club to bring refreshments for hundreds . Veterans who actually hit the beaches during the June 6 invasion of Europe are being invited to autograph commemorative cachets postmarked with a special `` D-Day June 6 1944-1994 50th Anniversary '' cancellation stamp and tell war stories , she said . The absence of Hitler probably willn't bother the Sir Winston Churchill impersonator that the veterans have invited . That 's because he 's a scowling English bulldog that the veterans say may be kept busy licking stamps during the celebration . Dog owner Diane Wuertemburg said her bulldog whose real name is Archie may show up wearing a miniature English bowler hat for the occasion . But Eisenhower look-a-like Robert Beer may be disappointed . He is a civil engineer who tried to enlist during WWII but was assigned instead by the government to ride herd on the production of U.S. warplanes at Lockheed and Hughes aircraft plants . Beer said he learned he was a dead-ringer for Ike in 1943 when Eisenhower was named supreme commander of Allied troops fighting Hitler 's Nazi forces . `` The day he was appointed I came to work and a newspaper with his picture in it was on my desk and I thought it was me , '' Beer said . NEW YORK Last Wednesday , United Nations Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali denounced the international community for not sending troops to end the fighting in Rwanda , where an estimated 200,000 people have died . He was right to condemn world leaders for their inaction , but wrong to believe that a U.N. peacekeeping force is or was the answer . Quite the contrary . The efforts of Boutros-Ghali and others to expand the military role of the United Nations are partly to blame for the failure of the international community to develop effective ways to prevent such violent conflicts as is in Rwanda . The root cause of the problem is the belief that the end of the Cold War opens the door for the United Nations to take on ever more responsibility for international peace and security . This ambition is an article of faith among a small but outspoken group of internationalists who regard the U.N. . Charter as a sacred text that was regularly defiled by superpower antics during the Cold War . It was also fostered by world leaders , especially by former President George Bush , who see the world body as a convenient way to conceal unilateral desires beneath a cloak of international legitimacy ( as happened in the case of the Persian Gulf War ) and to shift responsibility for troublesome conflicts in nonstrategic places to others ( as happened in the case of Angola ) . Finally , the new role was embraced by many relief and human-rights organizations that saw it as a means to transform the body into a vehicle for humanitarian intervention . Unfortunately , the results of U.N. military adventures have been disastrous . The Bush administration 's cynical manipulation of the Security Council during the Gulf conflict has greatly increased distrust of the United Nations in many Third World countries . The misguided humanitarian intervention in Somalia has created a general reluctance to get involved in other conflicts . The U.N. 's role in military decisions regarding Bosnia has complicated and endangered the organization 's humanitarian operations there and weakened the credibility of NATO threats to deter Serbian aggression . Now , disagreements over U.N. military-deployment plans and a lack of troop commitments have become an excuse for inaction in Rwanda . Some analysts contend these problems can be solved by a series of reforms , among them , adding new permanent members to the Security Council ; strengthening the U.N. . Secretariat 's ability to plan and supervise military operations ; creating a standing U.N. military force , and establishing criteria for humanitarian intervention under Chapter Seven of the U.N. . Charter , which authorizes military action in response to threats to international peace and security . This is wishful thinking . Few of these reforms are likely to be approved by the U.N. membership . Even if they were , it is doubtful that they would produce the outcome their proponents covet . The effective use of force requires a degree of consensus and resolve that the Security Council can only muster in extreme circumstances . The Gulf War and intervention in Somalia were the exceptions that proved the rule . In both instances , without American leadership , the United Nations would not have acted or been able to act in the ways it did . None of the reforms now being recommended would change this reality . But even if a significant U.N. military capability could be created , it would be a mistake to move down this path . If an attempt were made to use such a force to stop the fighting in Rwanda , or Angola , or any of the other civil wars now raging , it would risk involving the United Nations in protracted guerrilla wars . To believe otherwise would require a naive faith that the parties to these conflicts would be prepared to give up their objectives and bow to U.N. demands without a fight . At the same time , it would be equally naive to believe that a U.N. force would have any more success in ending civil wars than the United States had in Vietnam . Just as important , military intervention would make it impossible for U.N. officials to maintain the impartiality that is usually essential to the success of diplomatic mediation efforts and humanitarian-relief operations . These are the areas where the United Nations has achieved most of its greatest successes . As we have seen in Bosnia , however , once the Security Council approves military actions , U.N. mediators and relief workers lose the shield of neutrality . What can be done ? The Clinton administration has taken a series of steps in the right direction . A presidential directive earlier this month establishes criteria that will greatly restrict the kinds of peacekeeping operations Washington will support . One result is that the administration has been reluctant to back deployment of soldiers in Rwanda . But it has not gone far enough . Over the long run , the only kind of policy that is likely to succeed is one that combines a blanket prohibition against U.N. military intervention in combat situations with serious efforts to bolster the nonmilitary operations of the United Nations to head off violent conflict and alleviate human suffering . It may be necessary for the United States and other countries to intervene for humanitarian reasons in conflicts such as Rwanda . And , over time , it may be possible for regional organizations to develop the military capabilities and decision-making structures needed for intervention . But these interventions are likely to be far more timely and successful if the United Nations is not involved . For example , the only opportunity to stop the violence in Rwanda through armed action was probably in the first hours after Rwandan government forces began to slaughter their opponents in Kigali . If the United States , France and Belgium had been willing to send troops in then , they probably could have prevented the killing from reaching such horrific proportions . Waiting for Security Council authorization would scuttle any such undertaking . As it is , the idea that such interventions are a U.N. responsibility provides a convenient rationale for Washington and other powers to stay on the sidelines . Rather than decry the international community 's failure to support his calls for military action in Rwanda , Boutros-Ghali should direct his attention to developing ways to prevent future Rwandas . One would be to push for the creation of an international criminal court that would be responsible for investigating crimes against humanity and gross human-rights violations . If such a court were created and its decisions accepted and enforced by the world 's governments , it would provide a significant deterrent against the kinds of atrocities occurring in Rwanda . In addition , the Boutros-Ghali should take the lead in calling on the United Nations and all other international organizations to bar any government that comes to power through violence or commits gross human-rights abuses from receiving international assistance . Finally , he should devote greater effort to getting the international community to focus on the deteriorating situation in countries like Kenya and Zaire , which are already sliding down the same slippery slope that led to hundreds of thousands of deaths in Rwanda and Somalia . These measures will not produce quick results , nor will they end the fighting in Rwanda . But they would help to create the kind of political environment that will discourage future slaughters and make military intervention unnecessary . By contrast , another quixotic U.N. military operation would only set the stage for more disasters . WASHINGTON Virginia legislative leaders and representatives of federal retirees have reached a tentative $ 340 million settlement for the thousands of pensioners whom the state illegally taxed in the 1980s . The pact would pay 80 percent of claims , excluding interest , in installments over five years . It would cost $ 106 million more than an offer by Gov. George Allen that was resoundingly rejected this month by retirees and the General Assembly , but $ 60 million less than a recent proposal by the plaintiffs ' attorney , Michael J. Kator . Sources said the deal , which would end five years of litigation , was signed Wednesday night by retiree representatives and House Majority Leader C. Richard Cranwell . Cranwell had continued negotiations while Allen 's proposal was failing . The proposed pact was first reported in the Washington Times . Democratic and Republican legislative leaders and Attorney General James S. Gilmore III ( R ) were briefed on the settlement Thursday in Richmond ; some said they wanted to study it , but no one opposed it strongly , sources said . The same day , Gilmore asked a federal judge to postpone a hearing next Thursday on a retiree lawsuit seeking back taxes , citing progress toward a settlement . A news conference is planned Tuesday to announce all the details of the agreement . Spokesmen for Gilmore and Allen said both had concerns about the proposed settlement . The governor , for example , wants to make sure it 's not paid for with `` phantom funds , '' press secretary Ken Stroupe said yesterday . But Gilmore 's spokesman , Mark Miner , said , `` Significant progress has occurred. . . . We 're trying to get it cleared up as soon as possible . '' The deal hinges on approval by 80 percent of the several hundred retirees who have sued for tax refunds , followed by General Assembly ratification . According to the agreement , the 186,000 retirees who qualify would have six months to file claims . Some lawmakers are concerned that the proposal could run into stiff opposition from pensioners who have vowed to press for 100 percent refunds and interest . `` I think the legislature will go for it , '' said one lawmaker who was close to the negotiations . `` It 's the retirees-they 're the ones who could torpedo it . '' But Rose Musumeci , president of the Virginia chapter of the National Association of Retired Federal Employees , said that if the settlement is equal to what has been reported , she believes it will fly . `` You 're not going to satisfy everybody , '' she said yesterday , but `` I think 80 percent of the retirees would go along with it . '' The pact would set up a special fund paid with general fund appropriations $ 60 million the first year and $ 70 million in the following years . It would end a fight that began in 1989 when the U.S. . WASHINGTON The endgame between the United States and China , which climaxed Thursday with President Clinton 's decision to extend China 's trading privileges , began at Richard M. Nixon 's funeral in late April when top administration officials organized a last-ditch effort to persuade China to improve its human rights record . In a little room inside the Nixon Library , national security adviser Anthony Lake , National Economic Council head Robert E. Rubin and Assistant Secretary of State Winston Lord met with Chinese Ambassador Li Daoyu to discuss ways China could make further progress in human rights . The U.S. officials offered to send a special envoy to Beijing to discuss the matter . It is far from clear whether anyone in the room considered China 's response would make much difference . At that late date , no American official believed disrupting trade with China would be wise , even though Beijing was unlikely to meet the conditions laid down by Clinton last year for renewal of its preferred trade status . U.S. intelligence analysts were reporting from the beginning that the Chinese never believed Clinton 's threat to pull the plug on the lucrative U.S.-Chinese commerce . Nonetheless , the administration 's offer to send a special envoy reflected its need to make renewal of trade benefits more palatable politically , and China 's inclination to accept reflected perhaps its willingness to let Clinton save a little face . Indeed , the final days of Clinton 's threat to withdraw China 's most-favored-nation ( MFN ) trading status were an exercise in preparing for the inevitable . Administration officials not only had to squeeze the Chinese for any last drops of concession a released prisoner here , a discussion of radio jamming there . They also had to convince members of Congress and the public that Clinton 's decision was not another example of foreign policy waffling , this one involving the most populous country in the world . In that sense , the saga is as much a story of politics in Washington as it is of human rights in China . Friday , administration officials were describing as heroic Clinton 's decision to extend MFN for China despite insufficient progress on human rights and to separate in the future the issues of trade and human rights . Madeleine K. Albright , the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations , called it `` a very important step in showing American resolve . '' Secretary of State Warren Christopher said a policy of `` comprehensive engagement '' with China had replaced the trade threat as the focus of U.S. policy , calling the new approach `` the best way to influence China 's development . '' As in other administration foreign policy dramas , even those who agreed with the outcome despaired at the process . `` We have seen one great power try to bluff another and seen the bluff called , '' said Douglas Paal , a China analyst and proponent of delinking trade matters from human rights concerns . `` It 's not a pretty sight , and it may be damaging . '' The Yorba Linda meeting had been designed to head off that kind of perception , but in the end , China gave less than administration officials had hoped . The offer to send a secret envoy resulted in the mission to Beijing in early May of Michael Armacost , a veteran diplomat . Armacost was publicly opposed to revocation of China 's MFN status , but after some persuading from Christopher , he embarked for China on May 8 . He won some concessions : pledges to release from jail at least two prominent dissidents , including pro-democracy activists Chen Zeming and Wang Juntao . The Chinese also invited an American technical team to discuss the jamming of Voice of America , gave Armacost a list of some prisoners , permitted the emigration of some citizens whose passports had been blocked for political reasons and agreed to inspection of a prison labor camp suspected of producing goods for export to the United States . Armacost returned to the United States May 12 advising Clinton to pocket his limited winnings , extend MFN and move on . During roughly the same period , the administration recruited numerous visitors to China to press for more progress on human rights . Among them were Jimmy Carter 's former national security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski , Nixon 's former chief foreign policy adviser Henry Kissinger and China expert Michael Oksenberg . All were briefed by security adviser Lake and/or Christopher and all were urged to ask for more progress . The idea for the Armacost mission had been discussed at an April 8 meeting of Clinton 's top foreign policy advisers . Vice President Gore mentioned the idea to visiting Chinese State Counselor Song Jiang that day . High-profile diplomacy had produced mixed results . In late March , Christopher had returned from Beijing with some pledges of cooperation , but these were overshadowed by arrests of Chinese dissidents and hard-line public statements by the Chinese . Christopher was constrained in responding in an equally tough fashion . To do so would risk a confrontation that would all but tie Clinton 's hands , disrupt trade and probably the whole relationship with China , State Department officials said . In any event , Armacost 's secret diplomacy was also disappointing . Christopher , whose assignment it was to report to Clinton on China 's progress on human rights , declined to give it a clean bill of health . He made a key judgment that China had complied with two compulsory criteria for maintaining its low tariff trade status : progress in emigration and inspections of prison labor camps to search for goods bound for U.S. export . He recommended a ban on imports of Chinese munitions to indicate displeasure with the lack of progress on issues such as repression in Tibet and continued detentions of democracy activists . At one point in the past week , Clinton suggested that no sanctions should be applied ; it would muddle the message that trade and human rights were being separated . Christopher and others argued that some sanction was necessary . Proposals for either an American or a joint Chinese-American human rights commission also were shot down this week as unworkable . Carter , whom Clinton tried to recruit to head the commission , persuaded the president to drop the idea . On May 19 , Rubin , Lake and other officials met with Carter at National Airport ; Carter them met with Ambassador Lito push the human rights message , a last stab at back-channel diplomacy . Clinton 's original threat was expressly designed to unite the presidency and Congress behind a single policy . Congress , led by Democrats , had repeatedly tried to legislate economic sanctions against China , which President George Bush repeatedly vetoed . Clinton roundly criticized Bush and said he would be tougher . The political consensus was sacrificed with Clinton 's retreat . Senate Majority Leader George J. Mitchell , D-Maine , and Rep. Nancy Pelosi , D-Calif. , criticized Clinton 's decision and threatened to legislate sanctions on Chinese imports . If successful , they would put Clinton in the position of having to veto the measure , just as Bush did . Administration officials are counting on Democrats not to embarrass Clinton over the issue . One Democratic staff member in the House , musing on the inability of Clinton to win major concessions from the Chinese , said wryly , `` It turned out that MFN was useful as a tool only to bludgeon George Bush . '' Five key U.S. maritime unions formally agreed Friday to support lifting a federal ban on the export of Alaskan crude oil , in a deal worked out with British Petroleum Co. . Breaking its silence at the same time , BP confirmed that it has agreed to preserve union jobs by using U.S.-flag tankers to ship any BP oil `` that moves off the Alaskan North Slope , '' said Rob Rehg , a spokesman for the London-based oil company . The agreement is contingent on Congress adding the lifting of the ban to a pending bill that would extend the Export Administration Act . Though opposition remains among members of Congress , proponents were optimistic on Friday . `` It doesn't make it a done deal , but it certainly makes it a viable deal , '' said one congressional source . `` If the maritime unions really get behind this , they can sway a lot of Congress members. .. . And then if you get a good ( U.S. Department of Energy ) study that says it 's not going to affect national energy concerns , then there 's no legitimate argunment for the ban . '' A still-unreleased Energy Department report on the costs and benefits of lifting the ban estimates that as many as 494 maritime-industry jobs could be lost in 1994- '95 if the ban were ended without a provision requiring the crude to be transported on U.S.-flag ships . Otherwise , the study supports proponents ' estimates that thousands of new oilfield jobs and a substantial increase in investment in California and Alaskan production would result from lifting the ban . ( Optional add end ) Though many high-ranking members of the Clinton administration favor lifting the ban , the White House is not likely to take a formal stand on the issue until after the release of the DOE report , expected June 7 . In a statement made available to the Los Angeles Times Friday , executives of the Seafarers International Union ; National Maritime Union ; American Maritime Officers ; International Organization of Masters , Mates & Pilots ; and Marine Engineers Beneficial Association ended two decades of insistence on preserving the ban , declared that lifting it will create jobs and ensure the existence of a U.S. tanker fleet `` vessels that are militarily useful in times of conflict . '' California 's independent oil producers and other proponents of lifting the ban have argued that it forces too much crude into the California market , depressing the regional price . WASHINGTON White House anger over an aide 's golf outing by helicopter seemed to cool rapidly Friday , as top aides agreed to help the fired administrative chief reimburse the government for the cost of his ride . As a `` gesture of friendship , '' 13 top White House officials virtually the entire senior rank committed to help the former chief of administration pick up a tab , said Mark Gearan , the director of communications . By one rough estimate that bill could run to about $ 20,000 . The agreement came as White House efforts to defuse a public relations debacle were set back by their admission that a second Marine helicopter also had gone on the outing that took David Watkins and two others to an afternoon of golf Tuesday at the Holly Hill Country Club in Frederick , Md. . After denying earlier that any other helicopters were part of the trip , Gearan conceded that there was a second helicopter . While the second aircraft 's purpose was to conduct a `` training mission , '' he said it would `` probably not '' have been along but for Watkins ' plans to spend the afternoon at the course . The disclosure of the trip Thursday prompted President Clinton to seek Watkins ' resignation . Clinton declared that he was `` very angry '' at news about his long-time Arkansas friend and business associate and promised that private money would be used to reimburse the government for the trip . But announcement of plans for the White House contributions appeared to add a dose of moral ambiguity to the episode , forcing officials to deny that the top aides were not taking the infraction seriously . ( Begin optional trim ) The trip reawakened voter outrage on radio and television talk shows across the country . But at the White House , anger was barely evident in a series of letters , released late in the day , from Clinton , Watkins and Thomas F. `` Mack '' McLarty , the White House chief of staff . Clinton made only the most passing reference to the reason for Watkins ' departure , saying : `` I write to accept your resignation and to say that I understand your reasons for submitting it . '' He praised Watkins ' `` great vigor and effectiveness '' and thanked him for improvement in the White House telephone and computer systems . `` Hillary and I will never forget the loyal friendship you and Ileene ( Watkins ' wife ) have given to us over the years . '' ( End optional trim ) For his part , the 52-year-old Watkins insisted that `` there simply was no effort on my part to use the White House or military equipment for personal or recreational purposes . My sole purpose was determining how you could utilize Camp David more frequently and enjoy the same opportunity for relaxation in Maryland that you sometimes get in Washington . '' The aides who have agreed to contribute are McLarty , presidential advisers David Gergen and George Stephanopoulos , Gearan , deputy chiefs of staff Phillip Lader and Harold M. Ickes , economic adviser Robert E. Rubin , counsel Lloyd N . Cutler , national service director Eli Segal , congressional relations director Pat Griffin , cabinet secretary Christine Varney , public liaison chief Alexis Herman and domestic policy director Carol Rasco . Gearan said that it was unclear whether the Clintons would contribute . Officials are awaiting word from the Pentagon on the size of the total bill for the use of the helicopters , which cost $ 2,380 an hour to operate . Gearan said it was undecided how the cost would be shared but said it is certain that Watkins and Alphonso Maldon , the White House military-office head who joined Watkins for the outing , will `` be paying something . '' A third golfer , Navy Cmdr. Richard Cellon , who directs operations at Camp David , was judged to have no responsibility for the trip and will not pay anything . The positions of Watkins and Maldon give them authority over Cellon . ( Begin optional trim ) Gearan said that the Marine helicopter had taken Watkins and Maldon from Bolling Air Force Base near Washington to Camp David , where Watkins took part in a meeting that lasted about 30 minutes and conducted a `` site inspection '' of new construction . Then the helicopter dropped the three at Holly Hill and headed back to the air base . Two other golfers at the course said that they saw the second aircraft join Watkins ' aircraft after the golfers had been picked up , though Gearan indicated that the two helicopters did not fly together on the return trip . ( End optional trim ) Gearan was asked why reporters earlier had been told that the trip was devoted to scout out a potential golfing site for the president . `` That was the best information received at the time from David and Al Maldon , '' he said . ( Optional add end ) Although Clinton showed a flash of anger during a press conference Thursday afternoon , one aide said that he had not expresssed anger to Watkins . Clinton had talked to Watkins on the telephone before the press conference and met with him for about 15 minutes afterwards . Former Republican aides noted pointedly that in the George Bush and Ronald Reagan administrations only presidents used the helicopters . This was both because of the cost of operation and because the copters were viewed as part of the ceremonial trappings that should be reserved for the chief executive . In a memorandum to the U.S. Justice Department , the rock band Pearl Jam has complained that Los Angeles-based Ticketmaster successfully pressured promoters to boycott the band 's low-cost concert tour this summer . Lawyers for the Seattle-based band the biggest selling rock group in the country made the complaint on May 6 in a memo to the department 's antitrust division . The memo accused Ticketmaster the world 's largest ticket agency of exercising a monopoly over ticket distribution in this country and using that influence to keep promoters from booking the Pearl Jam tour . The memorandum , filed by Sullivan & Cromwell , a prominent New York law firm , said Ticketmaster has exclusive arrangements with all important concert venues in the country and uses these arrangements to `` cement control over the distribution of tickets to concerts . '' The Justice Department has begun an evaluation of the memo , and sent three officials from Washington to Los Angeles on Tuesday to interview music business figures , sources said . Such an evaluation is in some measure a standard response to such a complaint . It is preliminary to a decision on whether to launch an investigation . A spokeswoman for the Justice Department declined comment . Representatives for Pearl Jam also did not comment . In a letter to the Los Angeles Times , Ticketmaster vice president Ned S. Goldstein said `` Ticketmaster operates fully and squarely within the parameters of all applicable laws . '' Sales of Pearl Jam 's last two albums together exceeded $ 137 million . Ticketmaster , which is privately held , last year reportedly earned about $ 200 million in service and sponsorship fees on $ 1.3 billion in sales of tickets to concert and sporting events . ( Optional add end ) The Pearl Jam memorandum is likely to focus new attention on a growing furor over skyrocketing concert ticket prices and service fees , and the arrangements among managers , promoters and service companies that underlie pricing decisions . Ticketmaster collects a phone service fee for tickets to rock and pop concerts , typically $ 6 to $ 8 per ticket , although the agency 's fee for $ 350 tickets for Barbra Streisand shows amounted to $ 18 in some cities . Ticketmaster pays a portion of the fees to maintain exclusive long-term contracts with the owners of the largest concert venues . In addition , Ticketmaster also pays a portion to some promoters , managers , agents and artists . In March , Pearl Jam sent letters to promoters vowing to perform concerts this summer only at venues that charged $ 18 for a ticket and no more than $ 1.80 for service or handling charges . A representative of the band said Pearl Jam was seeking to keep prices in the range of their young fans . But sources in the concert industry said the group encountered immediate resistance from Ticketmaster and members of the North American Concert Promoters Association , a McLean , Va.-based group that represents the nation 's largest promoters . In two letters obtained by The Times , Ben Liss , the executive director of the association , warned promoters that if they booked Pearl Jam under the band 's conditions , they could face possible lawsuits . Ticketmaster `` views the Pearl Jam issue as an all or nothing proposition , '' Liss wrote in one of his letters on March 24 . Ticketmaster chief executive Fred Rosen `` has indicated that he intends to take a very strong stand on this issue to protect Ticketmaster 's existing contracts with promoters and facilities and , further , ( Ticketmaster ) will use all available remedies to protect itself from outside third parties that attempt to interfere with those existing contracts . '' Liss did not return phone calls seeking comment . After being turned down by virtually every major promoter in the country for bookings , Pearl Jam postponed its summer tour . WASHINGTON President Clinton , concerned by a loss of public confidence in his leadership on foreign policy , said Friday that he has consulted widely but has rejected recommendations that he replace Secretary of State Warren Christopher and White House national security adviser Anthony Lake . Administration officials had told the Los Angeles Times that Clinton was considering a major shake-up of his foreign policy team by the end of the year . But Clinton , in a telephone interview late Friday , said that the root of the problem is communicating his foreign policy to the American people . And that , he said , is not the responsibility of Christopher or Lake . The president said that he has talked with `` a huge number '' of people about his foreign policy problems , perhaps more than 100 , and that he could understand how some of them might have drawn an inference from the conversations that he planned to change his foreign policy team . Clinton has come under criticism from some leading Democrats as well as Republicans for apparent inconsistencies in foreign policy . Most recently , he was faulted for his decision after weeks of semipublic deliberations to renew China 's most-favored-nation trade status , despite the Beijing regime 's failure to meet human rights conditions that he had set forth last year . The president conceded Friday that he had made mistakes in the way he has articulated his foreign policy and that he needs to do a better job of that . But on most major policy issues , he said , he believes the administration has been on sound footing . His consultations inside and outside the administration , he said , was about policy on Bosnia , Haiti and most recently on China 's trade privileges in the United States . The interview was hastily arranged by White House counselor David Gergen , who was concerned about comments that other senior adminstration officials had made to The Times . At times , Clinton sounded frustrated by what he called the `` relentless criticism '' of his foreign policy . `` I 'm doing the best I can with some fairly intractable problems , '' he said . Two senior administration officials had said earlier that Christopher and Lake probably would be replaced by the end of this year or early in 1995 . Several other officials in the State Department and National Security Council had said that they had no specific knowledge of plans to replace their bosses but that the expectation was spreading that either Christopher or Lake or both would be out of office by the end of the year . `` It 's a natural response , when you 're taking a beating , to think about what you can change , '' one senior official said . `` The political people look at the polls and say : ` Hey , we 'd better do something about this . ' And , since you can't discard the policies that you presumably are serious about , you shuffle people around instead . '' ( Begin optional trim ) Clinton has suffered a series of embarrassing setbacks in foreign policy from Somalia to Haiti and Bosnia problems that , in the public mind , have overshadowed his claims of success in Russia and elsewhere . The president has publicly defended Lake and Christopher when they have come under fire and aides in their offices said they believed the president still has confidence in them . Recent polls , however , have shown Americans losing confidence in the president 's management of foreign affairs and Clinton 's political aides are concerned that there may be an impact on his domestic policies and his reelection chances . Last month a Los Angeles Times poll showed that only 43 percent of Americans approved of Clinton 's handling of foreign affairs . And last week a Washington Post/ABC News poll showed only 40 percent approved , his lowest rating since the crisis in Somalia last fall . For months , Christopher and other aides have been pushing for a shift in emphasis by Clinton , who had sought to focus on domestic issues and minimize the time he devoted to foreign policy . One official said that as a result of high-level discussions that has followed the release of some polls , Clinton agreed to devote more time and personal visibility to foreign policy leadership . An early reflection of that shift , he said , was Clinton 's 90-minute appearance at a CNN foreign policy `` town meeting '' earlier this month . ( End optional trim ) In the interview Friday , Clinton said that the nation is `` in a period of transition '' in international relations . `` We 've got delicate negotiations in the Middle East right now , '' he said . `` The secretary of state is involved in that and China and the last thing in the world I need to be doing is to be considering changing my team . `` What I need to be doing is considering changing whatever it is that is not inspiring people 's confidence in me and , if we 've made some mistakes , we need to fix it . That 's what I 'm working on . '' If he does `` a better job of communicating our foreign policy , '' Clinton said , Americans will be `` much more understanding of what I 'm trying to do and that will give me the flexibility I need . '' WASHINGTON The Justice Department is trying to negotiate changes to a British telephone company 's plan to buy a $ 4.3 billion stake in Washington-based long-distance company MCI Communications Corp. , government and diplomatic sources said Friday . The move to alter MCI 's deal with British Telecommunications PLC , known as BT , is an apparent reaction to complaints that Britain unfairly blocks U.S. telecommunications companies from doing certain kinds of business there . `` The negotiations are between BT and the Justice Department , '' said Jonathan Temple , a commercial officer at the British embassy . `` My understanding is , if they come to an agreement with BT , the Department of Justice will file a consent decree . '' A consent decree is a court document under which both parties to a dispute agree to certain actions . It was unclear Friday what alterations the department was seeking , or whether the British company and MCI would agree to them . The talks risk muddying relations between the two governments . On Thursday , the Justice Department took action against a British glass company , Pilkington PLC , that it contends uses licensing arrangements to keep U.S. companies out of foreign markets . Temple said that his country 's Department of Trade and Industry recently wrote the Justice Department to caution against taking any action that would link approval of the MCI-BT deal to changes in British regulatory policy . `` The government of the United Kingdom is keen to ensure that the consent decreee , when it emerges , does not impose any second layer of regulation in addition to that which already exists in the UK , '' Temple said . MCI , BT and Justice Department spokesmen would not comment on the talks . But an MCI spokesman said that MCI lawyers had visited Justice earlier this week . MCI shareholders have approved the deal , and BT already has handed over $ 830 million to MCI . But Justice Department Antitrust Division chief Anne K. Bingaman and the five-member Federal Communications Commission also must weigh in before BT puts up the remaining $ 3.4 billion . With the deal , BT would acquire 20 percent stake in MCI . The companies would divide their global business , with MCI selling to corporate long-distance customers in the Western hemisphere and BT to the rest of the world . U.S. law prohibits foreign investors from owning more than 25 percent of U.S. telecommunications companies , on grounds of national security . But U.S. officials contend that on the whole this market is more open to foreign competition than is Britain 's . Through its review , the Justice Department has leverage to address longtime complaints here about Britain . In the case of the BT-MCI merger , the Justice Department is exploring whether other U.S. firms would suffer a competitive disadvantage because of MCI 's presumed superior access to the British market , Temple said . BT , Britain 's largest telephone company , has virtually complete control over the price of connection charges it imposes on outside companies wishing to use its local telephone network to route calls in and out of Britain . The United States also is unhappy with British policies that ban foreign ownership of international calling facilites . AT&T Corp. has been trying to set up its own such network in Britain . The U.S. concedes that many barriers to foreign competition in Britain have come down in the past decade , making it the most open market in Europe . Long-distance company Sprint Corp. and several regional Bell companies have received permission or are already offering cable , wireless and telephone services in the United Kingdom . WASHINGTON The Clinton administration has given up for this year efforts to consolidate the four federal banking regulatory agencies , a key element of Vice President Gore 's drive to `` reinvent government , '' administration officials said Friday . The plan to bring all regulation of the nation 's banks , savings banks and savings and loan associations under a new Federal Banking Commission was put on hold because of intense opposition from the Federal Reserve Board , which objected to the administration 's proposal to take away most of the Fed 's regulatory responsibilities . `` Even though we have made pretty good progress working with the Fed , it has become increasingly clear that a realistic assessment of the legislative calendar indicates it isn't going to be possible to have regulatory consolidation done this year , '' Treasury undersecretary Frank N . Newman said in an interview . `` There has to be a pause , '' a Fed spokesman said . `` But we hope that by early 1995 we are able to produce a joint proposal ( with the administration ) for Congress '' when it reconvenes in January . Both the House and Senate are working on regulatory consolidation bills , but the prospects for legislation have been fading fast because of the split between the Fed and the Treasury and lukewarm industry support . Administration officials said they do not want to take time and effort away from such major legislative issues as health-care reform and trade . Further , Congress already has two big banking bills to finish : The House and Senate have each passed separate measures that would for the first time permit nationwide banking , and House and Senate negotiators are working out the differences between the two versions . Lawmakers also are working on reconciling competing versions based on President Clinton 's Community Development Financial Institutions bill , which would create a network of lending organizations to serve minority and disadvantaged communities . Negotiations between Treasury and Fed officials , which have been going on for months , will be halted because the two agencies need to spend more time on other issues , such as what to do about regulating derivatives , a family of exotic new investments that are largely unregulated . Industry officials said the foundering of the consolidation plan was no surprise . `` The Treasury tactically made two mistakes that caught up with them , '' said Kenneth Guenther , vice president of the Independent Bankers Association of America , the small banks ' industry group . `` They didn't have ( Fed Chairman Alan ) Greenspan on board and the banking industry was totally against them . '' Small banks `` will breathe a sigh of relief , '' Guenther said . `` People are comfortable with the status quo . I don't think they ever made a convincing case that the status quo was so wrong it required the sweeping changes they put on the table . '' Paul Schosberg , president of the Savings and Community Bankers of America , said Friday 's decision was `` acknowledging political reality . Historically , the political constituency for restructuring and reform tends to be pretty thin . '' Bankers were not convinced by the administration 's claim that its regulatory consolidation would reduce red tape and save bankers money , Schosberg said . Federal banking regulation is now spread among four agencies : The Office of the Comptroller of the Currency regulates national banks , the Office of Thrift Supervision handles savings and loans , the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. oversees most state chartered banks and the Fed handles all bank holding companies and the several hundred banks that are members of the Federal Reserve System . The consolidation proposal would have largely taken away the Fed 's regulatory responsibilities , leaving it to concentrate on its primary role of managing the economy . But Greenspan objected , saying that the Fed needs to have hands-on contact with banks in order to monitor their health and make sure the banking system is running efficiently . The following editorial appeared in Saturday 's Washington Post : Maybe it 's from seeing all those impeccably uniformed Marines snapping to attention all the time . Or from riding in too many presidential motorcades that can part traffic and force mere mortals to idle as you zip by . Or maybe it 's a simple loss of good judgment . Somehow , for some presidential aides , spending too much time in the White House is very dangerous . You start to think you own the place and all that goes with it . That , at least , is what seems to have happened with David Watkins , who stepped down as director of the White House Office of Administration after he and a colleague took a presidential helicopter from Washington to a country club near New Market , Md. , for a round of golf on Tuesday afternoon . The hour or so it would have taken to drive seemed just too inconvenient to Mr. Watkins , who no doubt wanted to rush back to the White House to figure out how to save taxpayers ' money . Friday night , the story got a bit worse as the White House announced in response to queries that a second chopper was sent out to accompany the first . The military , the White House said , normally sends helicopters out in pairs apparently even to country clubs . Mr. Watkins has a thing about transportation . Last year , he was disciplined for his role in the firing of seven people from the White House travel office . President Clinton , at least , seems to have learned something about White House transportation issues and the damage control related thereto . By Thursday , Mr. Watkins was out of there , and Mr. Clinton said the taxpayers would be reimbursed for the golfing jaunt . In what White House Communications Director Mark Gearan declared was `` a gesture of friendship , '' 13 White House aides including White House Chief of Staff Mack McLarty announced they 'd contribute to paying the costs of the flights . Staff solidarity may be a fine thing , but we wonder what message this sends about the staff 's attitude toward such adventures . In particular , what is the view of Mr. McLarty , who is supposed to stop these things from happening ? The worst of it is that Mr. Watkins said he had done nothing wrong and reportedly balked at fully reimbursing the government , necessitating the staff fund raising . In his resignation letter , he insisted that his `` sole motivation was determining how you could utilize Camp David more frequently , '' the golf club being near Camp David . His letter paralleled an absurd early cover story put out by White House Deputy Press Secretary Arthur Jones . In a statement , he described the helicopter trip as a `` training mission '' to familiarize the helicopter crew with the layout of the course . The golf game ? That was business , too : Mr. Watkins and his White House colleague Alphonso Malden Jr. played their round `` in order to familiarize themselves with all aspects of the course , especially those aspects related to actual time of play and associated impact of security plans . '' Right , and we propose to familiarize ourselves with all aspects of every four-star restaurant in Paris in preparation for the president 's D-Day visit , especially those aspects related to the actual time it takes to consume a meal and associated impact on security plans of consuming several bottles of Bordeaux . WASHINGTON `` The Flintstones , '' a $ 45 million dinosaur that hired no fewer than 36 screenwriters and stars John Goodman , Rick Moranis , Elizabeth Perkins and Rosie O' Donnell , isn't just awful . It bombs itself into the Stone Age . As Fred Flintstone might have put it : yabba-dabba-boo . After faithfully duplicating the TV show 's familiar opening sequence in which Fred Flintstone ( Goodman ) knocks off work , howls for joy , slides down his Bronto-crane tail and foot-shuffles away in his prehistoric car the movie suffers immediate comic extinction . Leadenly directed and almost soberly scripted , it never captures the campy brightness of the original series the herky-jerky animation , the wacky sound effects , the distinctive character voices and that cheesy laugh track . In the third-rate plot ( and there 's no telling who among the Flintstone 36 came up with this gem ) , scheming boss Cliff Vandercave ( Kyle MacLachlan ) and his comely secretary ( Halle Berry ) promote unsuspecting Fred as a vice president , then frame him for embezzlement , intending to abscond with the ill-gotten profit . Fred , enjoying a life of unprecedented luxury , is obliged to fire Barney ( Moranis ) and watch his friend sink into poverty before realizing his mistakes . If the performers are imitating their cartoon forebears , it is barely apparent . Goodman 's sweat-induced , growly offerings completely bypass Fred 's lovable , pigheaded innocence . The actor never attains Fred 's gravelly timbre . And with his blond-dyed hair and zombielike demeanor , Moranis seems more like a zoned-out Warhol groupie than Fred 's perky buddy . The greatest asset of Perkins 's Wilma is that Perkins looks the part . O' Donnell 's dead-on Betty Rubble giggle is the funniest thing in the movie , but it merely underlines how bad everyone and everything else is around her : The child actors who play Bamm-Bamm and Pebbles are completely forgettable . Fred 's pet dinosaur Dino , with its chintzy eyes and unconvincing animatronic gyrations , looks like a low-budget Muppet . And even Elizabeth Taylor , trundled out to play Fred 's insulting mother-in-law , falls disappointingly short of imperious . She isn't exactly helped by the mediocre bones the screenplay tosses her way . While the movie officially scripted by Steven E. de Souza , Tom Parker and Jim Jennewein labors through its primeval ooze , it churns out incessant , dull visual gags , including a Stonehenge-meets-'50s-America and the `` pigasaurus '' creature under the sink that serves as a garbage disposal . It also heaves out unfunny Hollywood `` inside '' jokes : The movie opens with a `` Steven Spielrock Presents '' credit ; Halle Berry 's character is named Rosetta Stone ; George Lucas ' `` Tar Wars '' is playing at the local theater . When , inevitably , Fred locked out of the house by his pet saber-toothed tiger thumps the door and yells `` Wilma ! '' , it doesn't bring `` The Flintstones '' to a triumphant close . It just sets the audience free . `` The Flintstones '' is rated PG . SARAJEVO , Bosnia-Herzegovina On days when Bosnian Serb rebels have allowed U.N. troops to patrol the mountainous terrain around Sarajevo , the peacekeepers have counted at least 20 heavy artillery pieces and seven tanks in violation of a NATO-proclaimed no-weapons zone . Despite a threat made more than three months ago to punish such violations with air strikes , the U.N. . Protection Force is still trying to win withdrawal of the offending Serbian armor through negotiation . In the eastern enclave of Gorazde , the U.N. mission has set aside another NATO ultimatum . Serbian gunmen who invaded the purported U.N. `` safe haven '' in April have refused to heed a U.N. order to retreat . But instead of ordering air strikes , the mission has asked the Bosnian government to make a `` goodwill gesture '' to encourage its attackers to pull back . The U.N. commander for Bosnia , British Lt. Gen. Michael Rose , has asked the Muslim-led government to withdraw its lightly armed defense forces from the center of Gorazde an act of capitulation requested neither by NATO nor by the U.N. . Security Council . Rose insists that the threat of air strikes against those defying the international community 's efforts for peace is still credible . But with mounting evidence that the mission has neither the will nor the political backing to use force against transgressors , cease-fires have broken down , fighting has escalated , and U.N. officials have adopted a damage-control strategy that oscillates between understatement and outright denial . U.N. mission spokesman Maj. Rob Annink has begun each daily briefing for the past week by describing the situation in Bosnia-Herzegovina as `` stable , '' while subsequently reporting the following incidents : Serbs fired at least 500 artillery shells into the mostly Muslim enclave of Bihac , another U.N.-protected area , in the 24 hours before Thursday morning . Government forces have been on the offensive against Serbs in the central Bosnian town of Tesanj , as well as in Olovo and along 100 miles of front line that arcs between the two flash points . Bosnian Croats and government troops have massed on either side of the narrow Serb-held corridor linking conquered areas of eastern Bosnia with Serbian spoils farther west . The Croats and Muslims , newly reconciled allies , appear to be coordinating artillery attacks on the town of Brcko , along the vital supply route . Two Serbian tanks entered the weapons exclusion zone around Sarajevo Monday to attack government forces in the town of Breza . Another Serbian assault Wednesday against the government town of Pazaric was also suspected to have been launched from the zone , which is supposed to be demilitarized . Tuesday , snipers killed a Bosnian woman riding a bus under U.N. escort through Serb-held territory west of Sarajevo . Bosnian government officials said she was at least the 40th civilian fatality since NATO proclaimed a cease-fire in the area three months ago . Sarajevo has not been under intense bombardment since the February ultimatum , but sniping remains a daily danger and there have been increasing instances of `` detonations '' which the U.N. spokesman refuses to call shelling . Foreign diplomats in Sarajevo express concern that Rose 's not-to-worry approach to collapsing cease-fires and fraying agreements is giving the outside world the erroneous impression that the conflict in Bosnia is on the mend . `` On the one hand he is putting pressure on the parties to settle this thing diplomatically , by refusing to publicly acknowledge what is going on , '' one European envoy said . `` On the other hand , he 's taking a tremendous risk of it all blowing up in his face , as it did in Gorazde . '' Rose repeatedly characterized a recent Serbian offensive against that safe area as a `` limited , tactical maneuver '' to improve the rebels ' bargaining position in stalled peace talks . But nearly half the city fell to Serbian gunmen , tens of thousands of Muslims were uprooted , and 700 people , mostly Muslim civilians , were killed in the sustained artillery attack . Another Western diplomat characterized the U.N. mission 's attempt to play down the spreading crisis as a consequence of the world 's major powers having given the peacekeepers no real option for containing it . `` There 's this assumption that Bosnia is already dead and it just needs a proper burial , '' the diplomat said . `` The problem with that assumption is that Bosnia is not dead , and it 's going to continue fighting . '' Rose warned the Bosnian army Tuesday that it should not pursue a military solution to the conflict . While shepherding a NATO delegation around some of central Bosnia 's more peaceful venues , Rose told a senior army commander that it would take years for the government to get its troops armed and trained for a successful campaign to recover lost territory . Government officials say they resent the attitude that they should accept defeat by a force repeatedly castigated by the U.N. . Security Council as the war 's instigator . `` The problem is that the basic aim of the mission from the beginning has been to see us capitulate , '' said Bosnian Information Minister Ivo Knezevic . `` All their calculations have been based on this assumption . We 've blown all their plans because we do not accept this . This is why we have become such an irritation to the powerbrokers of the world . '' LOS ANGELES The 67 men of the Los Angeles Police Department 's Special Weapons and Tactics unit are members of the department 's most exclusive club . Handpicked for the duty after passing rigorous entrance requirements , they train using live ammunition and confront armed and barricaded suspects at the rate of more than one a week . For a quarter-century , SWAT has occupied a unique place in the Police Department and the public imagination a group of virtual soldiers embedded in a police agency , their missions among the most demanding in law enforcement . The original SWAT team was pioneered by the LAPD , and it has grown up there , evolving from a ragtag group of eager volunteers into a tightly disciplined group of professionals whose officers train side-by-side with Navy SEALS and Army Green Berets . Insular and intensely proud , SWAT was battered and shaped by early criticism and a pair of nationally renowned shootouts , one of which occurred 20 years ago this month . It battled a reputation for militarism , redoubled its emphasis on negotiation and emerged as one of the nation 's most widely emulated hostage-rescue organizations . Most recently , when a highly regarded female officer was denied entry into the unit , it raised the question of when , if ever , SWAT will open its doors to women ; her case is in court and its outcome could again reshape SWAT as it continues to define its place within the LAPD . As SWAT has changed , so has the Police Department , which is trying to adopt a more community-oriented style that bears little resemblance to the work SWAT officers perform . But the paramilitary arm of the Police Department remains fully staffed and in robust health despite the vogue for a kinder , gentler force , despite money problems in municipal government , despite the departure of its godfather and founder , former Chief Daryl F. Gates . His successor , Willie L. Williams a police chief better known for his devotion to community policing than his belief in special weapons and tactics has expressed his confidence in the unit . More important , he has kept it at full strength despite cutbacks in other areas of the Police Department and pressure to put more officers on patrol . This summer , SWAT will stand guard against terrorism during the World Cup games , the same function it performed a decade ago during the Summer Olympics . The 1965 Watts riots made a deep impression on the city and its police and no one reacted more strongly than a young commander named Daryl Gates . Convinced that the riots proved the need for the LAPD to better counteract sniper fire , Gates pioneered SWAT , making the LAPD the nation 's first police department to develop such an organization . In the early years , SWAT was informal . Officers continued to work their regular jobs , they got no bonus pay , and they kept a decidedly low profile . The officers who staffed SWAT in the early years veterans now refer to the team during that period as `` Old SWAT '' were dedicated to the mission but sometimes ill-equipped to carry it out . And on Dec. 8 , 1969 , Old SWAT came face-to-face with the Black Panthers . When the officers arrived at a Central Avenue stronghold to serve arrest and search warrants , they were greeted with shotgun blasts and submachine-gun fire . Over the next five hours , more than 200 Los Angeles police officers and a handful of Black Panthers exchanged thousands of rounds of gunfire . When it was over , three officers and six Black Panthers were hurt . Although no one died , the Black Panther shootout raised deep concerns . To do its job correctly , LAPD leaders decided , SWAT needed to be a formal unit whose officers trained and worked together full time . In 1971 , Old SWAT became New SWAT , a full-fledged unit under the wing of the department 's Metropolitan Division . Then , on May 17 , 1974 , the LAPD engaged in the most notorious gunfight in the history of the organization . That afternoon , three SWAT squads , hundreds of other police officers and FBI agents descended on a 54th Street home where they expected to find members of the Symbionese Liberation Army , the group that had kidnapped heiress Patricia Hearst a few months before . For about two hours , police and suspects traded shots while news crews broadcast the shootout nationwide . Eventually , the house burned to the ground . Six SLA members died , three from gunshots , three from the fire . As the Panther battle had in 1969 , this major shootout forced the LAPD once again to review the way its SWAT officers went about their work . `` When I took over Metro ( a few months after the SLA incident ) , there was a lot of sensitivity about SWAT , '' said Jesse Brewer , who went on to become an assistant chief and then president of Police Commission . `` There was a feeling that we were using military tactics against citizens . '' Brewer tightened SWAT 's admission standards , clamped down on discipline , insisted that SWAT officers treat members of the community with respect . Under him , the unit replaced its old tear-gas canisters , which were implicated in starting the fire that destroyed the SLA headquarters . ( Begin optional trim ) All of that helped calm the waters , but the evolution of SWAT reflects a constant balancing between the unit 's use of military tactics and the department 's desire to project a friendly public image . In the mid-1980s , that tension flared up again when SWAT began using a pair of battering ram-equipped small tanks , known as V-100s , in some confrontations . `` That sent a terrible signal , '' said Johnnie L. Cochran Jr. , a prominent Los Angeles attorney and frequent police critic . `` It reinforced that whole argument about the LAPD as an occupying army . '' Without ever admitting a mistake , the LAPD scaled back the use of the tanks . Today they sit mostly idle , and criticism of the unit is mostly muted . Cochran and Stephen Yagman , two of the city 's most prominent civil rights lawyers , say they haven't handled any SWAT cases in years . Cochran says his impression is that the unit has improved from its rougher origins . In large measure , that is because negotiations or other , less subtle , forms of persuasion resolve almost all SWAT situations without gunshots . Still , there are times when SWAT officers make the hardest of all decisions in police work : When its officers believe they have exhausted all other remedies and feel lives are in danger , SWAT will shoot to kill . ( End optional trim ) If SWAT was born in the aftermath of the Watts riots , it came of age in the buildup for the 1984 Summer Olympics . Confident as ever , Gates announced that SWAT would handle any outbreak of terrorism inside the city limits . He sent three of his most trusted officers Lt. Jeff Rogers , who headed the unit at the time , Sgt. Al Preciado and Capt. John Higgins to Europe , where they studied counterterrorism units in Israel , Italy , France , West Germany , West Berlin and England . `` We came back with a whole head full of ideas and a shopping list of what we needed , '' Rogers said . They got it . Some new equipment was purchased by the Olympic Organizing Committee . Other pieces special poles with mirrors that allow officers to look around corners without being seen , flashlights that attach to the barrels of rifles were invented by officers in the Metro armory . SWAT also revolutionized its training . Before the 1984 Olympics , SWAT trained with blanks . Today , SWAT , unlike any other unit in the LAPD , uses live ammunition in hostage-rescue training . SWAT officers spend 240 hours a year shooting , climbing , rappelling and practicing other tactics . They fire out of helicopters , rappel off the sides of some buildings and scale the walls of others . They drop from helicopters onto rooftops . It 's grueling , dangerous work , but it underscores a message : Things sometimes go wrong ; SWAT needs to be ready when they do . `` You perform like you practice , '' one SWAT cop said . `` For real . '' SARAJEVO , Bosnia-Herzegovina Black nylon stockings and patent-leather shoes peeking out from beneath Ajla Nuhbegovic 's tunic clash flirtatiously with her head scarf and neck-to-ankle garb . Ajla has every intention of wearing lipstick , eye makeup and jewelry when she 's old enough , the enshrouded 12-year-old explains between licks of a dripping ice-cream cone . She shrugs off what some might see as an incongruous melding of religious modesty and a young girl 's natural interest in being attractive to boys . `` We have drifted too far from our religion . I think girls should dress in this manner , at least until they are 18 , '' Ajla insists , contradicting her father 's aside that she can more often be found in form-fitting leggings and sweat shirts . Her fleeting earnestness provokes a look of amused tolerance from her father , Hajrudin , a wry smile that suggests he thinks she is just going through a phase . Ajla may be unevenly absorbing the religious instruction offered at the Muslim parochial school she has been attending for two years . But amid the hardships of war and the Christian world 's growing indifference to the plight of Bosnian Muslims , the desire to express a faith that was repressed here for most of this century is becoming more common . The Slavs whose ancestors embraced Islam during Ottoman Turkey 's 500-year rule are increasingly searching for solace where they can find it , as they continue to be targeted by a deadly Serb nationalist campaign of `` ethnic cleansing . '' And as Western nations turn their backs on Bosnia because its conflict seems too complex to resolve , moderates warn they have no choice but to grasp the hand of Islam , as long as it remains the only one offered to them . Bosnia 's streets , even in cosmopolitan Sarajevo , are traversed by growing numbers of women who dress with at least partial deference to Islamic tradition . Mosques that were mostly tourist attractions in the Communist era are crowded with the faithful ; Muslim feasts and celebrations are now official holidays . Most obviously , and most worrisome for the non-Muslim majority of Bosnia , is the strengthening bond between this secular country in the heart of Europe and fundamentalist Islamic nations that have come to its aid out of sympathy for a people endangered because of their faith . Iran has smuggled weaponry to the Bosnian government defying a U.N. embargo that most Western countries concede tied the hands of this nation 's defense forces throughout 26 months of assault by heavily armed Serbs . Libya has supplied oil when there was no money for imports . Saudi Arabia has bankrolled pilgrimages to Mecca for 350 invalids and war casualties . And Islamic warriors from Afghanistan to Algeria have flocked to Bosnia 's battle zones to fight for Allah , perverting an already beleaguered defense effort into a holy war no one in Bosnia wanted . `` We have been waiting for two years for the West to help us defeat fascism , for its own interest if not for our benefit , '' says Osman Brka , a leader of the Muslim-dominated Party for Democratic Action . `` We still hope against hope that America will see it must help us defend the democratic values we share . But we will look to anyone willing to help us , and no one in the West will have the right to blame us if they turned away . '' ( Begin optional trim ) Until the Serb rebellion that began in April 1992 threw this former Yugoslav republic into social and economic chaos , Bosnian ties to Islam were tenuous at best . Today 's 2 million Bosnian Muslims are descended from Serbs , Croats and a schismatic Christian sect known as the Bogomils who were repressed by both Catholic and Orthodox Slavs . Their forebears acquiesced to the Turkish conquerors ' religion and mores , creating a culture through half a millennium distinct from that of the Serbs and Croats . The Muslims , or Bosnjaks , as most preferred to be called , identifying themselves with the territory rather than religion , were ruled by the Turks until the Serbs threw off the Ottoman yoke late in the 19th century . While Serbia retained its independence , Bosnia was swallowed by the Austro-Hungarian Empire , providing the friction that led to World War I and the eventual creation of Yugoslavia . The years between the two world wars subjected the Muslims to crude assimilation attempts by both Serbs and Croats , until Communist partisan leader Marshal Tito led the country to victory over Nazi Germany . During his 35-year rule arguably Eastern Europe 's most benevolent dictatorship Tito imposed peace among the fractious Balkan ethnic groups through a delicate balance of force and personality . In recognition of their divergent lifestyle , Tito conferred the status of a nationality on Bosnian Muslims in 1970 . ( End optional trim ) In the twisted rationale of propagandized Serb nationalists , the Muslims have `` stolen '' Serb land by taking on a separate identity . The current war in Bosnia is , in the eyes of the rebels , a campaign to recover territory lost when Serbian and other Slavic owners converted from Christianity . To justify their rebellion to the outside world , Bosnian Serb rebel leader Radovan Karadzic has repeatedly warned that the presence of Muslims here poses a risk of fundamentalist Islam establishing a foothold in Europe . The Muslim-led government that gained power after 1990 elections has always rejected that claim as a cynical scare tactic aimed at defusing Western concern over the civilian slaughter and expulsion of Muslims by Serbs as they take territory for a Greater Serbia . Serb accusations that other Balkan ethnic groups threaten them have been a cornerstone of the expansion plan drafted and executed by strongman Slobodan Milosevic . Exaggerated claims that Serb lives were at risk if Croatia seceded became fact after Milosevic sent the Yugoslav Peoples Army to seize land coveted by the Serbs and to expel Croats , creating a climate of hostility and a desire for revenge against the Serbs . Serbian propaganda has for seven years accused the Albanian majority in Kosovo province of plotting secession and annexation to neighboring Albania . The claim was ludicrous when Albania endured the most brutal Stalinist regime in Europe . But two years of democratic reform in Albania has coincided with ever-intensifying repression of Kosovo Albanians by Serb security forces , making union with Albania genuinely attractive for the Kosovo majority . Bosnian government and social leaders insist theirs could never become an officially Islamic state . But some concede the stronger ties to Islamic countries emerging as a consequence of abandonment by the West play into the hands of propagandists in Belgrade . `` We Muslims have never sought to live separately and we still believe the best solution for Bosnia is a country that unites all three nations , '' said Husajn Smajic , the mufti of Sarajevo . Smajic describes Bosnia 's Islamic community as unique and more heavily influenced by Europe than other countries with which it shares the faith . War horrors and disappointment in Western indifference to the human rights violations committed against them has driven more Muslims to turn to their religion in this time of crisis , Smajic said , accounting for the visible signs that religious expression is on the rise . The main influence of a more visible Islam has been to instill confusion among those who have long described themselves as Muslims but had little means of expressing that identity during the last century when they were ruled by Catholic Austrians , Orthodox Serbs and atheistic Communists by turns . Ajla is one of many young Bosnian Muslims who seem to be following Islamic doctrine more out of fashion than conviction . It is not unusual to see young women on the streets with gauzy white scarves draped far enough back on their lacquered hairdos to expose dangling earrings and a colorful facial palette of cosmetics . `` We laid in a big stock of beer for Bajram , '' said cafe waitress Dina Hasanagic . `` We are aware of the irony , but this is our way of doing things . Whether it 's Bajram or Easter , it 's a holiday , and we just want to drink and have a good time . '' In politics as in war , it is more difficult to execute a retreat than to go on the offensive . President Clinton 's retreat from ill-conceived attempts to base U.S. trade policy with China on the human rights record of the hardline Beijing regime is one of the most difficult calls he has made since taking office . But his decision was correct and courageous . It shores up the U.S. position in Asia and actually promotes a trend toward individual liberty in China that is linked to a booming economy . That Clinton is taking catcalls from the likes of Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell and House Majority Leader Richard Gephardt says more about what is wrong with the president 's party than about the president . The Democrats continue to be tugged into untenable positions by protectionists , Big Labor and self-appointed moralists and causists . As a candidate for the White House , Clinton went along with their get-tough tactics toward China and even accused George Bush of `` coddling '' the Beijing masterminds of the Tiananmen Square massacre . As president , he has felt the need to echo Bush 's admonition that the United States must `` avoid isolating China . '' The reasons are clear enough . China is a nuclear power with veto authority in the U.N. . Security Council . It is the world 's most populous nation with the world 's fastest-growing economy . It has more influence than any other country over a North Korean regime suspected of building a nuclear weapons arsenal . It will take possession of Hong Kong later in this decade , a step with enormous ramifications in Asia . Just before the Clinton decision , China eliminated 195 quota and license regulations in preparation for joining the World Trade Organization a step toward drawing closer to the international community in other productive ways . Mitchell and Gephardt have announced their intention to introduce legislation to overturn Clinton 's order preserving `` most favored nation '' ( i.e. normal ) trading status with China . President Bush had to veto such legislation three times . In the event the Democratic majority enacts a similar measure once again , Clinton can count on Republican support if he casts another veto . The ironies are large . In his executive order , the president took one punitive step by banning the import of guns and ammunition made by factories affiliated with the People 's Liberation Army . This will eliminate only a $ 100 million sliver of $ 31 billion in Chinese exports to the United States . It can be regarded more as a gun-control measure than a trade sanction , and welcomed as such . Henry Wadsworth Longfellow once wrote that `` a masterly retreat is itself a victory . '' It is too early to determine that Clinton 's retreat is masterly . But because facts and reality and a clear appreciation of U.S. national interests are on his side , he should in the end come out all right on this issue . Had he opted the other way , he would have had a foreign policy disaster on his hands . JERUSALEM What do Israeli President Ezer Weizman , Tel Aviv Mayor Ronni Milo , the editors and publishers of the country 's best-selling newspapers , two bank managers , the manager of the Maccabees soccer team , several big building contractors and the owner of high-fashion clothing stores have in common ? The answer is that they were all on a list of 231 Israelis many politically prominent , some financially powerful but a few relatively obscure whose cellular telephones were methodically tapped for eight months by two Tel Aviv private investigators . But the real riddle why ? so far has no answer . The two investigators , arrested in April and facing charges of illegal wiretapping , are refusing to tell police who hired them or what they overheard . Rafi Friedan , one of the investigators , initially told police that he had been asked `` to gather data '' and that he was confident that his clients ' reasons were `` personal and family related , '' according to court records . But Friedan has said nothing further , on his lawyers ' advice . The list of those whose calls were regularly monitored , according to preliminary evidence given Tel Aviv courts , is a veritable Who 's Who of Israel 's movers and shakers and a warning to a security-conscious country of the risks many of its leaders are running in unguarded conversations on their always-in-use cellular phones . `` The police have found records of some conversations of some of our people that are , well , rather embarrassing in their content , '' a senior Israeli official commented , asking not to be quoted by name . `` Things were said that should not have been said on open lines , and then things were said that were professionally indiscreet . '' Among the phones that were monitored , according to police , were some belonging to the Israeli Defense Ministry , senior officials of the country 's security services , two members of the opposition Likud Party , the state comptroller and the director of an airline used by the government for charter flights . There were also Weizman , top executives of the country 's two television stations , a number of lawyers , the agency that administers the Jewish Quarter of Jerusalem 's Old City , an insurance company , staff members from the newspapers Yediot Aharonot , Maariv and Haaretz and 10 other private investigators . ( Optional add end ) Altogether , more than 400 different cellular telephones may have been monitored from August until the men 's arrest last month , according to prosecutors . Friedan and Yaakov Tsur , his partner in Agam Security Consultants , were held for three weeks and are now under house arrest . If convicted under Israel 's laws prohibiting wiretapping , they would face sentences of three years for each conversation they monitored . Although police do not believe the two monitored all conversations , they have had very limited success in determining which calls they did record and no luck in finding out what they did with them . `` Their clients did not exactly pay with company checks , '' one police detective said . Prosecutors theorize the monitoring operation may have grown out of the bitter rivalry between Yediot Aharonot and Maariv , which have been engaged in a long-running circulation war . But they are at a loss to explain how it came to encompass such high-ranking officials . LONDON Since 1888 , the Chelsea Flower Show has been the most genteel of British institutions : a magnificent display of flowers , shrubs , exotic plants and everything else imaginable for a garden . Sponsored by the Royal Horticultural Society , the show attracts hundreds of exhibitors and tens of thousands of dedicated visitors to the grounds of the Royal Hospital in London 's Chelsea for five days in May . There they view orchids , violets , begonias , delphiniums , roses , azaleas , freesias , daffodils , lupins , clematises and dozens more in elaborate displays . After visits by Queen Elizabeth II and other members of the Royal Family , highly prized gold medals are awarded to those exhibitors with the most attractive displays from nurseries across Britain . But this year horror of horrors ! a scandal has rocked the flower show and dealt a blow to a great British tradition : It has been revealed that many of the exhibitors have shown flower displays not from their own gardens . Worse , many of the flowers came directly from London 's huge Covent Garden Market . Worst of all , many of the flowers have come from abroad from Holland ! The disclosure caused an uproar this week , shocking the thousands of innocent visitors who assume the flowers are grown in the green fields of England . Apparently the practice of `` buying-in , '' or purchasing flowers from outside sources for exhibition , has been going on for years with the knowledge of the Royal Horticultural Society . Some observers regarded the revelations as evidence marking the decline of another bastion of gentility . The Chelsea Flower Show , the world 's largest , is the highlight of the year for lovers of Britain 's favorite outdoor pastime gardening . As one mourner noted , `` First it was our disastrous cricket season . Then the BBC went on strike for a day . Now the flower show . What next ? '' That reporters at the British Broadcasting Corp. long an emblem of upper-middle-class rectitude would strike instead of standing by at their microphones once seemed unthinkable , as did British cricket losses to teams from countries that learned the sport from the colonial masters . John Metcalf of the Four Seasons nurseries in Norwich , who displays only blooms he has grown and was awarded a silver medal , was angered by the buying-in and called for a ban on exhibitors displaying other people 's plants . `` It 's like an athlete in the Olympics letting someone else run their race , '' he said , `` and then going on to collect the medal . '' ( Optional add end ) More than a quarter of the 51 exhibitors who won gold medals admitted buying-in some of their stock . Many of the flowers displayed came from the `` glass house '' area of the Netherlands , which year-round grows lilies , chrysanthemums , freesias and peonies for wholesalers in Britain . Those wholesalers sell to Covent Garden companies . The Royal Horticultural Society has been swamped with letters protesting buying-in since the practice became known just before this year 's show opened on Monday . The Chelsea organizers maintain that they have no way to monitor where blooms are grown , so they have not prohibited buying-in but simply asked exhibitors to note whether they originated their own flowers . Besides , organizers argue , medals are awarded for showmanship and the artistry and quality of a display . That explanation has been lost on many . `` When someone shows a product they have not grown without making it clear , they are cheating , '' said one flower lover . `` It is not right . '' U.N. Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali refuses to let the genocide in Rwanda go unchallenged . He scolds the West for not responding to the crisis . He chides Africa for not sending more troops to stop the killing . It 's a good use of his international bully pulpit . Though he met Friday with President Clinton , Boutros-Ghali can't drum up the political support he did when he finally persuaded George Bush and other nations ' leaders to send troops to Somalia . That thankless operation soured much of the West on the idea of dispatching troops to another bloody foreign power struggle . The American casualties in Somalia prompted the Clinton administration to develop a new and stringent policy on peacekeeping , Presidential Policy Directive 25 , which Clinton signed May 5 . Even when no U.S. troops are promised , the new policy calls on the secretary general to answer a series of tough questions posed by the United States , such as which countries will send troops , what role the troops will play on the ground and when they will leave . Washington demands satisfactory responses because Americans pay one-third of the U.N. peacekeeping budget ; although U.S. lives might not be on the line , U.S. tax dollars would be . In order to comply with the new U.S. directive , the U.N. . Security Council delayed sending 5,500 troops to Rwanda to allow time for a study of what can be accomplished in the Central African nation while the fighting rages . The troops would go only if the secretary general determined that the combatants would cooperate with the United Nations by agreeing to a cease-fire , that foreign troops were indeed available and that any mission in Rwanda would be short-lived . Additional delays have been caused by the refusal of most African nations to commit troops to a U.N. peacekeeping force . So far , only Ghana , Ethiopia , Senegal and Zimbabwe have committed . Boutros-Ghali has tried to put together an all-African contingent to secure Rwanda 's Kigali airport , ensure the flow of relief supplies and create safe havens for fleeing Rwandans . The reluctance of neighbors to get involved is not unusual in Africa , where isolationism is encouraged by the charter of the Organization of African Unity . Since the deaths of Burundi 's President Cyprian Ntayamira and Rwanda 's President Juvenal Habyarimana in a suspicious plane crash April 6 , more than 200,000 people have been killed in fighting between members of the Tutsi and Hutu tribes . U.N. officials will try again on Monday to negotiate a cease-fire . That 's a start , but only a start . What would it take to get more help for Rwanda ? Neo-colonial meddling is inappropriate , but for so many African nations to sit by while hundreds of thousands of neighbors die is unconscionable . BANGKOK , Thailand Nearly 30 years ago , the United States issued a clarion call against the spread of communism in Asia and Southeast Asian nations eagerly united behind the American initiative . But when Washington tried to pull together similar support this year to isolate Myanmar , where human rights violations are rife , the coalition balked . Thailand said that instead of isolation it would offer `` constructive engagement '' to the military regime in Myanmar , formerly known as Burma . Singapore Prime Minister Goh Chok Tong paid a friendly state visit to Yangon , the capital . The six-member Association of Southeast Asian Nations even invited Myanmar to send the leader of its military junta to its annual meeting here this July . More and more , the economically booming nations of Asia are flexing their political muscle in disputes with the United States and the West , especially on such sensitive issues as human rights , freedom of expression and labor rights . Some call it the Asian Way ; others refer to neo-Confucianism or East Asian authoritarianism . A hybrid of traditional Asian culture and 1990s economics , this doctrine champions society over the individual and `` family values '' over what is seen as corroding Western influences . Most important , according to its ardent believers in China and the surrounding states of Southeast Asia , economic development requires a period of political stability not possible under democracy a notion derided by Western critics as justification for tyranny . Whatever the name , the Asian Way doctrine is a distinctly post-Cold War phenomenon that may spell declining U.S. influence in the region and threatens to raise friction across the Pacific in years ahead . `` With the growth of their economic prosperity , East Asian countries are becoming more assertive politically , '' said Washington SyCip , a prominent Manila business consultant . `` I think you 'll see them being more and more forthright and stating what their values are . '' Bearing him out are statistics showing the combined gross domestic product of East Asia Japan , China , Taiwan , South Korea and the Southeast Asian nations was 4 percent of the world economy in 1960 ; by 2010 , it is expected to be 33 percent . Is the Asian Way really new ? After all , both Taiwan and South Korea boomed economically under authoritarian regimes and have made the transition to democracies . But in the 1960s and 1970s , the United States was more willing to turn a blind eye to human rights abuses in the name of anti-Communist solidarity . Only since the Cold War ended in 1988 has Washington seemed eager to confront Asian countries with broader issues of democracy and labor rights . The most dramatic example of Asian muscle-flexing is the debate between Washington and the Communist rulers in Beijing over human rights , culminating in President Clinton 's decision announced Thursday to renew most-favored-nation ( MFN ) trade status for China . The United States had linked continuation of the trade benefits with human rights improvements , but Clinton was forced to make an embarrassing retreat . When Secretary of State Warren Christopher visited Beijing in March , Premier Li Peng warned him that China `` will never accept U.S. human rights concepts . '' As Christopher expressed outrage at the detention of Chinese dissidents , Li responded by warning that if its trade status is revoked , `` the United States will suffer no less than China . '' China 's economy is booming , with growth at 13.4 percent last year , and European as well as American businesses are scrambling to enter the market . Even though China runs a $ 23-billion surplus with the United States , meaning it would suffer much more from a trade drop , it was American businessmen who spoke gloomily about the potential loss of 200,000 jobs if MFN status were revoked enough to sway the President . While many Asian countries remain wary of a resurgent China , the U.S. linkage of trade and human rights did not find a sympathetic audience in the region . `` When China becomes powerful in 20 or 30 years ' time , there is no reason why China should behave kindly toward the West , '' said Singapore 's Goh when asked about the possible effect of trade sanctions on Beijing . `` That 's our worry : China may want to flex its muscles and then it will be a very troublesome world . '' He added that Singapore will continue to invest in China no matter what the United States decides to do . ( Begin optional trim ) Even Australia , normally a champion of human rights but now courting Asia 's business , has parted company with the United States in its dispute with China . Australia 's ambassador to Washington , Don Russell , urged the Clinton administration in April to drop its aggressive pursuit of human rights and adopt a low-key dialogue with China using `` constructive , non-confrontational engagement . '' Southeast Asian nations are similarly assertive with the United States and Europe about Myanmar , because of budding economic ties and dislike of outside interference . No one disputes the country 's appalling human rights record , in which thousands of demonstrators have been killed and the military junta has rejected the results of a May 1990 election that was won in a landslide by the opposition National League for Democracy . The league 's chairwoman , Aung Sang Suu Kyi , has been under house arrest for nearly five years . Winston Lord , the U.S. assistant secretary of state for East Asian affairs , called on Myanmar 's neighbors to help isolate the country 's generals until the human rights picture improved . But last month Lord was forced to concede that `` as friends , '' the United States and Southeast Asia `` have agreed to disagree on the approaches . '' Singapore is the largest investor in Myanmar , followed by Thailand and Japan . But beyond economic questions , Southeast Asian countries are loath to allow outside powers to interfere in what they consider to be the internal affairs of a neighboring state . `` If we were to adopt the Western approach with Burma , we would be abandoning our role , '' said Thai Foreign Minister Prasong Soonsiri . `` We are neighbors and we should keep up relations in order to bring them out into the world community . '' The other members of ASEAN Malaysia , Singapore , Brunei , Indonesia and the Philippines have agreed to follow the policy of `` constructive engagement '' toward Myanmar . ( End optional trim ) One of the paradoxes of the recent assertion of the Asian Way is that no two Asian nations are culturally identical . Corruption-free Singapore stands in contrast to the venality of Indonesia and Thailand , and the media are as free in the Philippines and Thailand as they are controlled in Malaysia and Singapore . Critics , mostly in the West , argue that there really is no Asian Way . They say this is a convenient slogan seized by undemocratic rulers to justify their continued hold on power . Kishore Mahbubani , the top civil servant in Singapore 's Foreign Ministry , published an essay in the Washington Quarterly this year in which he blamed America 's current troubles on too much freedom . `` In a major reversal of a pattern lasting centuries , many Western societies including the United States are doing some major things fundamentally wrong while a growing number of East Asian societies are doing the same things right , '' Mahbubani said . ( Optional add end ) A Stanford University professor wryly observed that Singapore 's recent caning of American teen-ager Michael Fay for vandalism made him the first known victim of the `` clash of civilizations '' expected to take place between Asia and the United States . President Clinton denounced the punishment as extreme , but many Asians and a fair number of Americans decried America 's crime rate and said it needed to adopt more stringent punishments . Apart from the issue of human rights , few things make Asian leaders bristle as much as the Western media . China , Malaysia and Singapore have banned individual ownership of satellite dishes to prevent direct reception of Western programming , which they view as an assault on Asian values . Another issue on which Asia and the West seem likely to collide is labor rights . The United States and France have suggested that a worldwide minimum wage be adopted by the World Trade Organization to stop the exploitation of workers in poor countries . Malaysia 's Prime Minister Mahathir Mohammed said the West 's `` professed concern about workers ' welfare is motivated by self-interest , '' because , he said , low wages are the developing world 's only competitive advantage against the industrialized West . `` Washington 's newfound concern for workers ' rights is downright exploitation of workers in poor countries . '' WASHINGTON As the only one of five committee chairmen charged with health care reform who is making visible progress , Sen. Edward M. Kennedy was being quizzed by reporters last week about President Clinton 's appearance on Capitol Hill to rally support for the effort . The Massachusetts Democrat had already begun lumbering off when he got a final query about whether he was the one who had prompted Clinton 's last-minute decision to meet with Republican critics as well as with his own party leaders . Flattered by the suggestion he had a hand in this intrigue , Kennedy suddenly whirled around with an impish twinkle in his eye and quipped : `` No , I wish I had . Can we start this over again ? '' Somehow , in the flash of that magnificent Kennedy smile , the years just disappeared . These are glorious days for America 's aging political prince . After three tumultuous decades of high drama and low moments , Kennedy is playing a pivotal role in what could be the crowning achievement of his career : enactment of national health care legislation . `` This is the fulfillment of something he 's been working on for at least 25 years , '' said Rep. Joseph P. Kennedy II , the senator 's nephew and another Massachusetts Democrat . `` He 's going to move mountains to get it passed . '' At a time when other congressional leaders are weakened or distracted , Kennedy has his Senate Labor and Human Resources Committee steadily moving forward . He is seen as certain to be the first full committee chairman in either the House or Senate to win approval for any version of health care reform legislation . And despite his reputation as the poster boy for liberal Democratic causes , Kennedy is picking up Republican votes for nearly every section of his bill . He has a reliable majority of Democrats , but he urges his committee members to shape bipartisan compromises every time they hit a snag . To some degree , the Republicans are just trying to make the best of what they consider a bad bill because it is too generous in its benefits and too burdensome on employers . On the final vote for committee approval for the Kennedy proposal , the only Republican likely to support it is James M. Jeffords of Vermont , a co-sponsor of the original Clinton proposal . Kennedy 's bill is also certain to run into opposition from conservative and moderate Democrats when it reaches the Senate floor . But Sen. Nancy L. Kassebaum of Kansas , the ranking Republican on the committee , said she believes some of the bipartisan compromises the panel is reaching on side issues such as a fail-safe process for controlling benefit costs could find their way into law . At a minimum , Kennedy 's committee offers hope for passing health care reform this year when progress elsewhere is hard to find . `` This committee is moving along at a better pace than anyone else on health care reform , '' Sen. Barbara A . Mikulski , a Maryland Democrat who serves on the panel , observed with satisfaction during a voting session this week . `` And we 're doing it with a better tone . '' ( Optional add end ) Kennedy 's delight in his progress on the health care legislation was overshadowed by the recent death of his sister-in-law , Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis . As patriarch of the Kennedy clan , it fell to him to comfort his huge family through yet another tragedy . There are also signs of trouble at home in Massachusetts , where surveys suggest that Kennedy may be vulnerable to a re-election challenge for the first time since he arrived in Washington 32 years ago . A majority of those questioned in a recent Boston Globe poll indicated they thought it might be time for the 62-year-old Kennedy to retire . Reminders during the Onassis funeral of the rakishly handsome youth who was first elected to the Senate when his brother was president have been a mixed blessing for the `` Teddy '' of today . The ruddy-faced veteran of what Kennedy acknowledges as too many long nights on the town has seen his poll ratings sink at a time when he 's getting around the state more than he has in years . `` To see him is not to love him , '' said Ronald Kaufman , a Republican political operative from Massachusetts who served in the Bush White House . `` He doesn't look good . '' By all accounts , Kennedy 's remarriage two years ago to Victoria Reggie has brought stability to his personal life . The two joined in a Christmas party skit last year that poked fun at his licentious bachelor behavior . `` He 's changed a great deal , '' said Sen. Orrin G. Hatch , a Utah Republican and close friend of Kennedy . `` I 've been there throughout the process , and I have to say his marriage to Vicki has been a wonderful thing for him . '' Kennedy turned to Hatch for counsel and help after the 1991 incident during which his nephew , William Kennedy Smith , was charged with rape , Hatch said . The incident reflected badly on Kennedy because he had awakened the younger man to go out drinking with him earlier that evening . The physical effects of those years of hard living are not easy to reverse . But Kennedy advisers say they aren't worried . His campaign has a huge war chest of $ 8 million to spend on getting out the message of how effective Kennedy is on the job . Most gratifying for Kennedy is that he has upended the predictions of those who had written him off as too liberal to be a major player in the health care debate . Said White House lobbyist Steven J. Ricchetti : `` He 's staying in the game . '' BEDFORD , Va. . Long gone are the boys of Bedford , gone these 50 years , lost in the roiling English Channel and on the sands of Omaha , cut down by German pillboxes and artillery shells that blew men and machines and whole boats out of the water . Gone a half century now , these were the Gold Stars of Bedford , the young men who would never marry their sweethearts or raise families , who would not return to the farm , who would never gather Saturdays at Green 's Drug Store and dazzle the younger boys with stories of heroism on D-day , June 6 , 1944 . These men 19 sons of Bedford killed on D-day alone , the largest proportion of casualties for any community in the nation lie under great oak trees at the town cemetery and under white crosses on the fields of Normandy . For one of them , Raymond Hoback , all that was found was his Bible , tossing in the surf , scooped up by another soldier trudging onward into France . John Wilkes would never again drive down Main Street in his tan station wagon with the wood siding , ferrying his buddies and their dates to picnics out on Smith Mountain Lake . Elaine Coffey and Bedford Hoback , engaged to be married after the war , would never move into their little farm home . Ray Stevens would not shake his brother 's hand in France , and Earl Parker would never ever see his baby daughter . Such a high price for one small town . In 1944 , Bedford had just 3,400 residents , and only one taxi driver , one undertaker and one sheriff . It fell to them to deliver the telegrams , driving past the farm fields rich in summer grain , the hillsides covered with loblolly and hardwoods , the clay foothills at the break of the Blue Ridge Mountains . They went to the Deane home and the Schenk home and the Reynolds home , and stopped twice at the Hobacks ; they lost two sons . Today , their names are engraved in granite on a memorial on the lawn of the Bedford County Courthouse . The granite was carved out of a Vierville-sur-Mer cave where the men of Company A , 116th Infantry , the `` blue and grey '' 29th Division , landed on Normandy . There will be a modest courthouse ceremony to mark the 50th anniversary , as there have been at other times , because even after all these years , the grief is still borne by their loved ones in this still small town of widows and children . Saddest among them , perhaps , was Frank P. Draper Sr. , so overcome with sorrow that he built a large stone monument atop his son 's grave in Bedford . For Frank Jr. , `` Juney '' as he called him , the father poured out his broken heart on that marble sarcophagus : `` We loved you Juney , dearly loved you , but God loved you best . '' But even that did not cool the grief . One cold January day 20 years ago , Frank Sr. shot himself to death . He now lies buried next to the son he gave to France . There had been happier times . Bedford back then was known by its motto , the `` World 's Best Little Town . '' Then came the day when Elizabeth Teass , working the Western Union machine at Green 's Drug Store , was suddenly inundated with wires that began `` The Secretary of War regrets to inform you. ... '' This was on a Sunday morning in July , six weeks after Bedford families were not only not getting any more letters from their soldiers fighting in Europe , but their own letters to the men were being sent back unopened . Something was wrong . `` Green 's used to be a happy drugstore , '' Teass said about the local hangout , a combination drugstore-diner . `` It was a lively affair . Everybody was happy there . `` But on this particular morning , Roanoke wired that they had casualties to give us and then they started coming . There was a crowd gathering around , and after the wires had been delivered it was affecting everybody . `` Everybody now was coming down to the drugstore and when it was over , this was a calm , blue Bedford . This was a blue town . So many young men killed . '' At the Hoback home , where the family was dressing for Sunday services at the Center Point Methodist Church , the news came that Bedford Hoback was dead . Soon their home was filled with parishioners from the church across the road , offering comfort . The next morning , while the Hoback children were cranking homemade ice cream in the cellar for their grieving parents , they learned that another brother , Raymond , had also been killed . Some time later , Raymond 's family Bible arrived in the mail , with a letter from Pvt. H.W. Crayton addressed from `` Somewhere in France . '' Crayton had plucked the Bible out of the water , convinced that Raymond was alive and probably had just dropped it in the surf . `` You have by now received a letter from your son saying he is well , '' Crayton wrote . `` I sincerely hope so . '' So sure was he that Raymond was safe , Crayton went on to describe the success of the invasion and the `` peaceful and quiet '' Normandy beachfront now that the German guns had been silenced . `` The birds have begun their daily practice , '' he wrote , `` all the flowers and trees are in bloom , and especially the poppies and tulips which are very beautiful at this time of the year . '' Unlike the Bible , Raymond 's body was never recovered . ( Begin optional trim ) `` It was just too much for us , '' recalled Lucille Hoback Boggess , a sister who was just 15 at the time . `` My mother was never the same . She later suffered a stroke and lived another 10 years but she couldn't speak or remember anything . `` It took all of the joy out of our family . No more family picnics . No more family get-togethers . And my mother never forgave the Germans . Once a German missionary came to our church , and she wouldn't go see him . It was the first time she ever refused to go to church . '' ( End optional trim ) The Bedford casualties were among 197 men in the company assault group on D-day . In all , 30 of them were from Bedford . They were assigned to several landing craft and then launched across the English Channel . Roy Stevens , now 74 , remembers speaking with his twin brother , Ray , before splitting up on the landing boats . They talked about home and Ray was shaking and he seemed convinced he wouldn't make it . Ray suggested they shake hands goodbye . `` No , '' Roy told him . `` We 'll shake hands in France . '' Some days later , Roy was walking through a makeshift graveyard near the beach when he stumbled across his brother 's dog tags nailed to one of the crosses . `` I saw several Bedford boys buried up there , '' he said . `` None of them made it . '' He also remembers Earl Parker staring at his little girl 's photograph the night before D-day , and his misgivings about the invasion . `` If I could only see my baby daughter , I wouldn't mind dying , '' Parker told his buddies . He too perished on Normandy . ( Begin optional trim ) Captain Taylor N . Fellers , before the war a state highway foreman in Bedford , skipped out of an Army hospital to make the landing . He had earlier written home about his men : `` I 'm beginning to think it 's hard to beat a Bedford boy as a soldier . '' At the beach , Fellers and his boat crew were hit by an artillery shell that , to Bob Slaughter , a soldier from nearby Roanoke , `` looked like it made Capt. Fellers just evaporate into thin air . '' ( End optional trim ) Ray Nance , one of the few who did return to Bedford , can still see John Reynolds running ahead of him up the beach . `` He went down on his knees , and he brought his rifle up as if he were searching for something , and then he fell forward . He was dead . '' He can still hear J.D. Clifton screaming into his pack radio near the cliffs . `` Suddenly he yelled that he 'd been hit and he died . '' And he can see John Wilkes and John Schenk taking heavy sniper fire near their boats , cut down at the waterline . `` You know , '' Nance said , `` us Bedford boys , we competed to be in the first wave . We wanted to be there . We wanted to be the first on the beach . `` We got our wish . '' LOS ANGELES The latest cause gaining appeal in Los Angeles is not AIDS or the homeless or even the rain forest . It 's the Los Angeles Police Department . With such recent offerings as cash , computers , cameras , furniture even a motor home donations to the LAPD in the past five months have surpassed the tally for all of 1993 . The increase in donations , from private citizens , businesses and other government agencies , has been attributed partly to city officials ' effort to prod the private sector into helping the city during its fiscal crisis . But some police officials speculate that residents and businesses are chipping in because they feel helpless in the war against crime and want to do their part to assist the department . `` I think it 's kind of an outpouring of support predicated on the fact that we have just been through some tumultuous experiences , '' said Al Beuerlein , who heads the department 's financial support bureau . ( Begin optional trim ) Police in the San Fernando Valley northwest of downtown have fared particularly well at drawing donations over the past year , receiving thousands of dollars worth of computers , bicycles , automobiles and high-tech cameras used to produce extra-sharp photographs of evidence . For example , 13 personal computers donated by Great Western Bank are being used to help officers write crime reports . Because reports can be written faster , police are including more details , which they believe improves the chances of a suspect being convicted if the case goes to trial . `` I can't even guess at the number of hours this has saved us , '' said West Valley Detective Dave Navarro . ( End optional trim ) According to city records , 16 donations have been accepted for the department so far this year , four more than all of last year . Because most donations to the LAPD are goods such as used computers and cars , police officials could not provide a cash total for offerings or a precise breakdown of how much each station has received . This year , the department has taken in $ 22,000 in cash , 41 computers , 100 cellular phones , a 1972 motor home , a 1993 Ford wagon , office furniture and a facsimile machine , among other donations . Leading the city 's campaign to draw donations to the police are Mayor Richard Riordan and Councilwoman Laura Chick , both of whom came into office last July and immediately began tapping community groups and private firms to beef up a department so fiscally strapped that officers have not had a raise in two years and use dilapidated equipment such as cars with more than 100,000 miles on them . As part of Riordan 's efforts to increase donations , next month the City Council is expected to approve a special trust fund for the Police Department to cut down on the red tape that delays the acceptance of donations for at least two weeks until the council can consider them . The trust fund would eliminate the requirement of council approval for donations valued under $ 10,000 . ( Begin optional trim ) West Valley Sgt. Walt Kainz attributes most of the increase in donations his division has garnered to Chick 's efforts . They have included turning over more than $ 80,000 from her office budget to the division and giving the department three of the seven city cars assigned to her staff . She has also encouraged residents to make donations through the West Valley Police Athletic League Supporters , a nonprofit booster organization that uses cash donations to purchase equipment for the division , Kainz said . Contributors to such organizations can get a tax write-off . Money donated through West Valley PALS was used to purchase a sophisticated $ 700 camera that police use to photograph needle marks on the arms of suspected drug users for use as evidence in court , Kainz said . The camera originally used by the department was damaged during the Northridge earthquake and the Police Department lacked the cash to replace it , he said . ( End optional trim ) The motivations behind the donations vary . A spokesman for Duskin Co. Ltd. , a cleaning-equipment rental firm based in Osaka , Japan , said the firm donated $ 20,000 the biggest cash donation in recent months to the Police Department 's Asian Crime Investigation unit because an executive vice president was acquainted with a sergeant and wanted to help . Last year , Rice Honda Co. loaned the LAPD two Sea-Doo watercraft , similar to oversize jet skis , for a year to be used , in part , to make rescues when the Los Angeles River overflows . Tim Rice , vice president of the firm , said American Honda offers the use of its products not only to assist police but for the publicity . `` We want the Sea-Doos to be seen out there , '' he said . ( Optional add end ) In the past , the LAPD has received such unusual offerings as a 4-year-old gelding Thoroughbred named Mesa Blaze in 1992 to be used in the department 's mounted police unit . In 1982 , Jack LaLanne donated physical fitness equipment and the use of his Pasadena gym . In 1988 , American Honda donated three all-terrain vehicles . The staff of the television show `` Hunter '' got into the act in 1990 by donating a cellular phone . BEIJING In his plaid pants , golf shirt and sun hat , the Japanese businessman slowly squeezed the trigger of a rocket launcher sending off a sudden burst of smoke , a concussive boom and a sizable shell into a barren mountainside a half mile away . `` Aaaaah , '' came the deep growl of satisfaction from the middle-aged tourist as he staggered back from the weapon . `` Fantastic . '' Such thrills meant it was business as usual Friday at the China North International Shooting Range , about an hour 's drive north of Beijing near the Great Wall . The range is located within a weapons research center affiliated with China North Industries Co. or Norinco , the Chinese military conglomerate that has been making and sending to the U.S. hundreds of thousands of weapons a year . For those with enough money , the shooting range offers the chance to fire anything from a small pistol to an anti-aircraft machine gun . These arms include the Chinese-made assault rifles and handguns that President Clinton announced Thursday he wants to ban from entry into the United States . Such ranges using military weaponry were ordered closed by China 's central government last year . But this one is special . While tourists are no longer brought out here by the busload , the range has quietly remained open for business . This is because this range also functions as a showcase of Norinco 's smaller arms to potential bulk buyers from abroad . An attached exhibition hall shows off the company 's export line : from `` Saturday night specials '' to the cheap SKS semi-automatic rifle so popular in the United States these days . Exports of these and other firearms to the United States may bring $ 100 million to $ 200 million in annual sales to Norinco and other Chinese military firms . But those running Norinco 's range claimed Friday to know nothing of Clinton 's decision to ban their products . `` This gun is not for sale here , but you might be able to get it in America , '' the range 's manager explained coyly as he pointed to an SKS . Hundreds of thousands of these Chinese-made assault rifles were imported by the United States last year . China 's Foreign Ministry was hardly so indirect in issuing a statement Friday welcoming Clinton 's decision to renew China 's most-favored-nation trade status , but decrying the president 's parallel move to ban U.S. imports of the Chinese-made weapons . But on the national TV news here Friday night , the Foreign Ministry 's statement came toward the program 's end after a long list of insignificant items indicating the Chinese leadership may opt to not trumpet its MFN victory domestically , likely because that could provoke questions here about human rights . `` The current situation offers a historical opportunity for the enhancement of Sino-American relations , '' Foreign Ministry spokesman Wu Jianmin said . But then he called on the United States to soon remove all remaining sanctions against China including the weapons-import ban saying they held back good relations . A leading Western human-rights group Friday also had a mixed reaction , calling the president 's weapons ban as good for gun control in the United States but not for human rights in China . `` No one can be opposed to a ban on exports of guns and ammunition to this country , '' Sidney Jones , executive director of Human Rights Watch/Asia , said in a statement issued from New York . `` But as pressure on China , it 's meaningless . Is a ban on guns going to persuade China to release jailed dissidents ? The only big winner from this decision is the Chinese government . `` President Clinton has effectively removed all pressure on China to improve its human rights practices , '' Jones said . `` Clinton has left his administration looking vacillating and hypocritical , while the Chinese leadership .. . has emerged as hard-nosed , uncompromising and victorious . '' A Beijing dissident said Friday that U.S. pressure had only gained the release of certain well-known dissidents from jail and had not really made much of a difference in the human-rights picture here . `` It 's no use if only prison stars are released , '' Ding Zilin said . `` What about those who are not famous ? There are still many people imprisoned . '' Ding 's teen-age son was among the hundreds killed in the military crackdown on the Tiananmen Square protests five years ago . The elderly professor has boldly carried on a one-woman campaign to compile a list of protesters killed by the Chinese army a campaign that has cost her job and brought her almost constant surveillance by security agents . `` I welcome the help from other countries , '' she said . `` But the real help can only be done by ourselves. .. . I do see a bright future for human rights in China someday , but it will be very hard and slow . '' ( Optional add end ) U.S. businessman , however , foresee things getting much better for them very quickly . With the annual MFN debate in the United States appearing to be coming to an end with Clinton 's decision to `` delink '' trade and political issues , the U.S. businessmen are expecting rapid growth in U.S. investment here and in Sino-American trade . Philip S. Carmichael , president of the American Chamber of Commerce chapter here , said Friday that planning for some large joint ventures had been put on hold this spring until the MFN issue was settled . This , he said , is an example of the way in which the issue put American business at a `` competitive disadvantage '' here . The chamber `` lauds the president 's leadership in looking out for the strategic interest of the United States , '' he said . Carmichael added that the chamber had hoped that the president would not impose any conditions for MFN renewal this year , even the ban on Chinese guns . But he indicated he believes the impact of the gun ban will be minimal as Chinese weapons sales in the United States amount to less than one percent of the more than $ 40 billion in annual trade between the two countries . However , the Chinese semi-automatic rifles being banned have become a favorite of U.S. criminals because of the weapons ' cheap price . `` Let 's declare victory , '' Carmichael said , `` and move on to the next issue . '' WASHINGTON When Jennifer Merrill faced possible surgery for a gynecological ailment , her new insurance plan refused to pay if she went to the specialist she had been seeing for nine years . He was not a member of the plan . Instead , Merrill 's insurer wanted her to see a total stranger , an obstetrician-gynecologist who is a participating provider in her health maintenance organization . That makes the 23-year-old Baltimore woman one of a fast-growing number of Americans who , even before enactment of national health care reform , are losing the freedom to choose their own doctors . In Merrill 's case , the story does not end there . She became so uncomfortable with her new doctor that when the time came for the $ 2,000 surgery , she returned to her own specialist and with a loan from her grandparents paid the entire bill out of pocket . Merrill 's dilemma arose out of one of today 's less-welcome trends in health care : Insurance companies are aggressively imposing restricting `` managed care '' systems on their clients . In the name of curtailing soaring health care costs , individuals enrolled in these systems receive maximum coverage only when they visit participating doctors who agree to abide by price controls negotiated with the insurer . Clients may go outside the network of participating doctors but only if they pay much or , as in Merrill 's case , all of the price . Perhaps no issue has aroused so much emotion as that of whether Americans will be able to select their doctors . `` Choice is one of the things people most jealously guard against erosion and they are willing to pay for it , '' said Edward F. Howard , head of the nonpartisan Alliance for Health Reform . Critics complain that President Clinton 's health reform plan would not do enough to preserve choice a charge that first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton has branded as `` one of the great lies '' in the health care debate . Clinton has said that the allegation , more than anything else , has `` made me the maddest in the relentless campaign against this plan . '' In fact , Clinton 's prescription for change , more than any other politically viable reform proposal , would increase choice of doctors for most patients . `` Clinton 's plan has , if anything , bent over backward to give people the maximum choice , '' said Stanley B . Jones , a Shepherdstown , W.Va. , analyst . But there 's a catch : People would have to pay something extra for that freedom , although hardly the full cost that Merrill and her grandparents had to bear . Managed care systems have grown so explosively that there are no reliable figures on how many exist . `` Nobody can say for sure , '' said Phil Caper , a New Hampshire physician who sells computer software programs to managed care networks that monitor patients and doctors . `` All I know is that things have really taken off in the past few years . '' KPMG Peat Marwick , a benefits consulting firm , says the percentage of American workers enrolled by their employers in fee-for-service plans the traditional plans that reimburse workers for a percentage of their health costs , no matter who the doctor dropped from 71 percent in 1988 to just 49 percent by last year . At the same time , the percentage of private employees in managed care systems grew from 5 percent in 1980 to 55 percent by 1992 , the government 's General Accounting Office reports . That percentage is even higher in larger firms , which have moved most aggressively in channeling workers into managed care networks , says Derek Lifton , associate director of Peat Marwick in Washington . And according to the Employee Benefit Research Institute , the number of Americans enrolled in HMOs the most tightly run form of managed care rose from 9.1 million in 1980 to 37.2 million by 1992 . The regional differences in HMO acceptance are stark : more than one in three Californians belong , compared with 7 percent in Texas and less than 1 percent in Alaska , Montana and Wyoming . In all , as many as 95 percent of Americans with private insurance are subject to some form of utilization review , possibly leading to a denial of coverage either before or after a specific treatment , according to Lewin-VHI Inc. , a health care consulting firm . `` Fewer than half of American workers have any choice at all over their doctors or their health care plan today , '' Clinton has said . Why hasn't there been a huge public outcry over the loss of choice if , as everyone says , it is such a potent consumer issue ? `` I don't think the public understands how pervasive this is becoming , '' said Dr. James Todd , executive vice president of the American Medical Assocation . Clinton 's plan , like most other viable proposals in Congress , contains strong financial incentives to prod consumers into managed care systems . A central hallmark in such arrangements is the `` gatekeeper , '' a primary care physician whose permission is needed before a patient may consult with a specialist . So it 's hardly surprising that the most vocal critics of the erosion of choice are high-priced specialists . Last month , the American Academy of Orthopedic Surgeons , for example , took out full-page newspaper ads to clamor for `` direct ( public ) access to specialty care . '' `` Those pushing the issue tend to be providers who don't want to be excluded , '' said Bill Custer , EBRI 's research director . ( Optional add end ) Stephen M. Shortell , a Northwestern University management professor , called the issue of choice in the context of health care reform `` a red herring . '' The president 's proposal , which seeks to guarantee a lifetime of comprehensive benefits to all Americans , would increase choice by pooling most people into regional insurance-purchasing alliances that negotiate rates with specific groups of providers and insurers . As an alliance member , Shortell says , `` you end up having to choose your doctor from a panel . But in most areas , that list will be pretty long . '' Under Clinton 's proposal , each alliance must offer at least three types of plans including a traditional but costlier fee-for-service plan and an HMO with lower premiums , no deductibles and co-payments of $ 10 or less per visit . Each plan also must offer a `` point-of-service '' option , which allows consumers to see any doctor outside the plan , but for a higher out-of-pocket fee . Under such arrangements , says Joseph M. Davis , president of Medimetrix , a Cleveland-based consulting firm , consumer choice `` goes up significantly . '' Congress is sure to make major changes in Clinton 's plan . But , as currently written , it would require employers to pay at least 80 % of a worker 's premiums , with the individual paying the rest . Administration analysts estimate that the average annual premiums ( subject to regional variations ) will be $ 4,200 for a family of four and $ 1,800 for an individual . Twenty percent of that , the consumer share , would be $ 840 and $ 360 , respectively . For those who opt for more choice under a fee-for-service plan , premiums , co-payments and annual deductibles will be higher , with a cap on out-of-pocket spending of as much as $ 3,000 per year per family . `` That 's a high hurdle most people can't get over , '' warned the AMA 's Todd . True choice , he said , `` will depend on what that threshold is . '' The mandatory alliance structure proposed by Clinton also would let consumers rather than their employers pick which health plan to join . As the president boasted last month in a speech : `` We give choice of providers back to the employees themselves . '' In the fall of 1986 , Oliver North sought to save a convicted felon from serving his federal prison sentence . The beneficiary of North 's efforts was no common criminal . His name was Jose Bueso Rosa ; he was a former Honduran general who had been actively involved in a failed 1984 plot to assassinate the president of Honduras a plot that was to be funded by a $ 10 million cocaine deal . It sounded like a lurid `` Miami Vice '' plot to veteran newspaper reporters , but for Oliver North , then the deputy director of political military affairs at the National Security Council , it was just another day at the office . North insisted to colleagues that Bueso deserved special treatment because he had previously helped senior U.S. officials conduct covert operations in support of the Contra rebels fighting in Central America . After Bueso was sentenced to a five-year prison term in connection with the assassination plot , North waged a wide-ranging bureaucratic campaign in Washington to gain his freedom . The story of North 's efforts on behalf of Bueso is not just an obscure chapter in the Iran-Contra scandal . Like shredding documents and misleading Congress in the name of defending American values , the leniency campaign for Bueso illuminates North 's seeming inability to distinguish between his own political interests and the requirements of the law . North , now a candidate for the Republican senatorial nomination in Virginia , presents himself as a candidate who is tough on crime , who favors the abolition of parole and who will zealously defend what he calls `` traditional American values . '' His efforts to free a man who plotted with a convicted cocaine conspirator to kill a democratically elected head of state suggest a certain permissiveness in the way North puts his beliefs into action . In the Bueso case , as in other critical junctures in the Iran-Contra scandal , North did not let concern about the niceties of the law interfere with the pursuit of his goals . North declined to answer questions about the Bueso affair for this article . He spelled out his motivation for the leniency campaign on Sept. 17 , 1986 in a White House electronic mail message to his boss , national-security adiser John Poindexter . North expressed his concern that Bueso , if sent to prison , might `` break his long-standing silence about the Nic ( araguan ) Resistance and other sensitive operations . '' North then called together a host of senior Reagan administration officials to `` cabal quietly , '' as he put it , on Bueso 's behalf . His behind-the-scenes pressure did not save Bueso from prison , but it did succeed in getting him transferred to one of the most comfortable federal correctional facilities in the country . And Bueso , whom North feared might `` start singing songs nobody wants to hear , '' never did speak out publicly about clandestine U.S. government operations in Central America . -O- Bueso 's assistance to the U.S. government in the early 1980s was a closely guarded secret . Only three U.S. government officials `` were fully aware of all that ( Bueso ) was doing on our behalf , '' according to a partially declassified memo written by North and obtained by the National Security Archive , a Washington research organization . What covert operations Bueso and North worked on together is not known . In one of his NSC memos , North said Bueso `` was the man with whom '' he and other top officials `` worked out arrangements. .. . ' ' The next three lines of the memo have been classified as top secret . Bueso 's admitted violations of U.S. law are not a secret . The FBI announced the indictment of Bueso and three other men in November 1984 . The court proceedings that resulted in the conviction of all the defendants produced a detailed public record of the U.S. government 's evidence about their scheme . The affair began in July 1984 . Bueso traveled to Miami where he joined four men in discussing a plot to kill the president of Honduras and take control of the government . An FBI agent posing as an assassin-for-hire infiltrated the plot and met Bueso at several meetings . The FBI also wiretapped conversations of all of the participants . The plotter 's target was Roberto Suazo , a wealthy conservative rancher who had been elected in 1981 . Suazo , though generally supportive of U.S. policies in Central America , was regarded as a virtual communist by several of the plotters because the Honduran government had allegedly reneged on business deals with them . Suazo was also no friend of Bueso 's . Four months earlier , in March 1984 , Suazo , under pressure from more nationalistic officers , had acquiesced in the purging of pro-American officers , including Bueso , from commanding positions in the Honduran armed forces . North would later lobby for Bueso 's freedom by claiming that the Honduran man was only tangentially involved in the assassination plotting . The evidence available to the U.S. government indicated otherwise . Bueso participated in at least five meetings in the summer and fall of 1984 in which the assassination was discussed and planned , according to the affidavit of the lead FBI agent in the case and the wiretaps . At one meeting , Bueso told the conspirators he did not want the assassination to be carried out prior to Nov. 15 , 1984 . According to an FBI affidavit , Bueso explained that a premature `` hit '' might cause the country to fall into the wrong hands . Bueso also knew about the hiring of the assassin . In early September 1984 , he was present at a meeting where the conspirators swore a blood oath to carry out the assassination and the erstwhile hitman was paid $ 20,000 in cash . The plot , according to an FBI agent 's sworn testimony and wiretaps submitted into the court record , was to be financed by a drug deal . In early October 1984 , Bueso 's host in Miami , a Honduran businessman named Faiz Sikaffy , was overheard by the undercover FBI agent discussing a deal involving `` fish . '' The FBI agents following the investigation believed that `` fish '' was actually a code word for narcotics . The next day , Sikaffy agreed to pay the hit man $ 300,000 and 10 kilos of cocaine for carrying out the assassination , according to an FBI agent 's affidavit . On Oct. 28 , 1984 , the first part of the plot was carried out . A Cessna plane , laden with 15 duffel bags carrying 760 pounds of cocaine , landed at a remote airfield in central Florida . FBI agents were waiting . Over the next week all of the plotters were arrested ; Bueso , who was in Chile at the time , was arrested there . William Webster , director of the FBI , told the press , `` We don't want international terrorists to establish beachheads or bases for operations in the United States such as they have enjoyed for years in other parts of the world . '' Facing extradition from Chile , Bueso voluntarily returned to Miami in November 1985 . He was charged and released on $ 50,000 bail . He was not charged with any narcotics-related offenses , and his lawyer has denied that he knew anything about any drug deal aspect of the plot . However , one of Bueso 's conversations heard on the FBI wiretaps had piqued the interest of federal investigators . The conversation occurred eight days before the cocaine arrived in the United States . Bueso called one of his fellow plotters in Miami asking for the whereabouts of Faiz Sikaffy . `` I have some things ready but it is on a timetable , '' Bueso was recorded as saying , . `` If he does not come on Tuesday that thing is ( expletive ) . '' `` Uh .. . the fish ? .. . the fish flour ? '' his associate stammered . `` No .. . the fish flour , yes , '' Bueso said . `` The fish flour , I think that they have it , '' the other plotter replied . `` Uh , they are going to obtain a letter of credit . That 's what he was telling me . '' Then the conversation turned to the planning of the assassination in Honduras . `` Our assessment was that there was insufficient evidence to join him ( Bueso ) in the narcotics indictment , '' says one federal prosecutor familiar with the case . `` From our perspective we often have that feeling that a defendant had to have known ( about drug trafficking ) but in Bueso 's case we couldn't prove it . He was certainly an active player in the plans . '' There is no evidence that North knew about the plot while it was taking place in 1984 . But it is known that Bueso was actively seeking special treatment from Washington officials by the spring of 1986 . That was when Bueso entered into a plea-bargain agreement with federal prosecutors in Miami . He pleaded guilty to two felony counts of traveling in furtherance of a conspiracy . His lawyer asked for a delay in sentencing so that he could consult with `` several highly placed officials '' in Washington who were working on aid to the Contras . At his sentencing hearing in July 1986 , Bueso expressed `` my profound sorrow for having been involved in this case . At the same time , I would like to clarify that the matter was not premeditated . '' Judge Sidney Aronovitz gave Bueso a lecture on terrorism and ordered him to report to a medium-security federal prison in Tallahassee , Fla. , on Sept. 25 , 1986 , to serve a five-year sentence . -O- That 's when North 's behind-the-scenes campaign to spring Bueso began . North was concerned that Bueso was going to feel betrayed if he actually had to serve a substantial amount of time . As he told Poindexter in an electronic mail message on Sept 17 , 1986 , Bueso was due to report to prison in a week . `` He apparently still believed up until yesterday that he ( would ) be going to the minimum-security facility at Eglin ( Air Force base in Florida ) for a short period ( days or weeks ) and then walk free . '' North swung into action . He told Poindexter he was going to call a meeting of five top Reagan administration officials `` to look at options : pardon , clemency , deportation , reduced sentence . Objective is to keep Bueso from feeling like he was lied to in legal process . '' The next morning North reported to Poindexter that the meeting had gone well . The plan , he said , was to get retired Gen. Paul Gorman , the former top commander of U.S. forces in Latin America , to testify in closed court on Bueso 's behalf . Then Bueso would be released and deported back to Honduras . Over the next two weeks North arranged a series of meetings in which he lobbied the upper echelons of the Reagan administration on Bueso 's behalf . Among the officials who supported his efforts , according to a several participants in the meetings , were Gorman ; Dewey Clarridge , the head of CIA operations in Latin America ; and Elliott Abrams , assistant secretary of state for Latin America . Gorman was not available for comment . Abrams declined to answer questions on the matter . Clarridge , now a senior vice president at General Dynamics in San Diego , says North 's actions were appropriate . `` We considered the fact that he ( Bueso ) had been helpful to us in the past . And there was a feeling he had been set up as part of some type of overzealous , unfair sting operation . There was a real question as to whether Bueso even had any idea what was going on at all . '' At a meeting with top State and Justice department officials on Sept. 24 , 1986 , North argued that Bueso was only tangentially involved in the assassination plot , according to a deposition given to congressional investigators by a senior Justice Department official . North proposed that Bueso be released and deported to Honduras . Oliver `` Buck '' Revell , then deputy director of the FBI , who also attended the meeting , objected . The FBI was determined not to get involved in the `` manipulation of the case or attempting to get the charges dropped , '' says Revell , now special agent in charge of the FBI office in Dallas . `` There was no way we could do something for someone who had been involved in drug trafficking aimed against the United States . '' North refused to give up . In early October 1986 , he called another meeting trying to get higher-ranking officials at the State Department and the Justice Department to change their position in favor of prosecution . Again , North , Clarridge and Gorman attended , and all spoke in favor of letting Bueso go free . But the Justice Department representative at the meeting , deputy assistant attorney general Mark Richard , resisted . Richard asked North to explain why Bueso merited special treatment . North 's answer , according to a deposition Richard gave to investigators for the congressional Iran-Contra committee in 1987 , was `` very ambiguous '' and included `` no specifics . '' `` I said , ` Look .. . anything we do for this man seems to undercut our position that we have taken repeatedly that this man is an international terrorist , ' ' ' Richard testified . `` This is certainly not consistent with the position we have articulated throughout the course of this prosecution that this man is a serious international terrorist and should be treated accordingly . '' The Justice Department did make one concession to North . It acted on North 's request that Bueso be transferred from the medium-security prison at Tallahassee to a minimum security at Eglin Air Force base in Florida , known as `` Club Fed '' for its comfortable cabins and volleyball courts . Bueso began serving his sentence there on Oct. 9 , 1986 . After serving a total of 40 months ( including time served before his conviction ) , Bueso became eligible for parole and was released in May 1989 , according to Bureau of Prisons records . Bueso is now retired and living in Honduras . What does North 's campaign to free Bueso in 1986 have to do with his effort to get elected to the U.S. Senate in 1994 ? Nothing , according to a spokesman for the North campaign who said , `` It 's old news and garbage and nobody cares about it . '' William Webster , the director of the FBI when Bueso was arrested and later the director of the CIA , has a different view of the Bueso affair . `` Information about past assistance to an agency of government can be supplied to the sentencing judge but the balancing responsibility lies with the court , '' says Webster , now a senior partner at the law firm of Milbank , Tweed , Hadley and McCloy . `` It 's important that loyalty or zeal not short-circuit the criminal-justice process . '' The judicial process was not short-circuited in the Bueso affair but not for lack of trying on the part of the would-be junior senator from Virginia . -O- ( Jefferson Morley is an editor in The Washington Post 's Outlook section . Murray Waas is a Washington-based reporter specializing in national-security issues . ) Gen. Jose Abnego Bueso Rosa was , in Oliver North 's words , a `` friend of the United States '' deserving of `` reward . '' He was the chief of staff of the Honduran armed forces from 1982 to 1984 , making him the second-ranking military officer in that Central American republic . At the time , Reagan administration officials were transforming Honduras , a sparsely populated agricultural republic , into a base for projecting U.S. military power throughout Central America . VLADIVOSTOK , Russia Russian writer Alexander Solzhenitsyn lost no time Saturday , 24 hours after his return from two decades of exile in the West , in speaking his mind , often quite sharply , about his much-altered country . In his first formal news conference on Russian soil , the 75-year-old Nobel Prize winner criticized the economic reforms of President Boris Yeltsin as `` brainless , '' called ultranationalist Vladimir Zhirinovsky a `` caricature of a patriot '' and said that swaths of independent Kazakhstan were actually Russia . He also labeled the political system here a `` pseudo-democracy . '' Solzhenitsyn , who has never shied from controversy , has made similar statements in the West , where he was sent by Soviet rulers in 1974 for his defiance . But his words are taking on added meaning now that he is back in Russia and can easily be heard and seen for the first time by his compatriots . He is widely respected here , but whether his opinions will carry more weight than those of any other prominent person is an open question . If today was any indication , many of Yeltsin 's moderate nationalist critics will be quite content with what Solzhenitsyn has to say , while others on both the left and right may be less happy . Solzhenitsyn said he does not intend to get involved with politics , either through election or appointment . But he will try to `` help our homeland in these extremely difficult conditions by public activity , through meetings , by persuasion and through my articles . Of course , I will speak as much as I can . '' Residents here seemed delighted that the famous writer was in their midst and were willing to listen to what he had to say . `` People respect him , so he 'll have some influence , of course , but how much depends on how he acts , '' said Nikolai Shemetov , 45 , a mechanic at a local power station . Solzhenitsyn pointedly avoided direct criticism of Yeltsin despite several questions about the Russian leader , who sent him a welcome-home telegram Saturday . Solzhenitsyn supported Yeltsin in the Russian leader 's past political crises , including last year 's battles with the now-disbanded hard-line parliament . Saturday , however , he had nothing good to say about the changes in Russia under Yeltsin 's rule , except to applaud the collapse of communism and Soviet power . He particularly took issue with Yeltsin 's economic policies , which he said he had followed closely through news accounts and conversations from his home in Vermont . He said he had become convinced that the reforms , including the controversial program to privatize state property , had done nothing more than enrich a few and impoverish many . Solzhenitsyn 's first-hand survey this morning of the new Russian economic world , at an outdoor market overflowing with food and clothing , did not seem to alter his opinion . Like many Russians , he appeared shocked by the high prices in comparison to 20 years ago and seemed less impressed that so much more is available now than before . When he commented on the high prices to one merchant , the man responded that because of inflation `` the prices will be even higher tomorrow . '' As was the case on Friday , when he arrived in this naval port city from the United States , Solzhenitsyn was besieged everywhere he went by well over 100 local and foreign journalists , eager to monitor his every statement and reaction . Some Russians have suggested that Solzhenitsyn himself has created the commotion , by beginning his return to Russia here in Vladivostok rather than in Moscow , which is much more accustomed to celebrities . But Saturday he complained bitterly about the constant swarm of reporters , saying it had made it impossible for him to meet with and talk to ordinary Russians , his most important goal over the next few months . The family will travel slowly across Russia to Moscow in an effort to get reacquainted with the country . Solzhenitsyn has been so harried by the media that one of his best moments so far , according to his sons , was when he and his entourage got stuck in an elevator at the Vladivostok City Hospital for 20 minutes with the head of the medical facility . `` There was no noise ; no one was there , '' Solzhenitsyn said . `` I learned a lot . '' BEIT HANINA , West Bank Inside the nerve center for Palestinian economic revival , Deputy Managing Director Hasan Abu Libdeh is waiting for the phone to ring . In fact , he 's still waiting for the phone to be installed . So far , the Palestinian Economic Council for Development and Reconstruction , the agency set up to translate billions of dollars in foreign aid into jobs and prosperity for Palestinian self-rule , does not have a single telephone line . The Palestinians say Israel 's military government in the West Bank is blocking their request for telephones . The military government says it is a problem of poor West Bank infrastructure . Either way , it is a clue to the uncertainty swirling around the ambitious dreams of Palestinian economic renewal and the global rescue plan that is supposed to make it happen . After the self-rule accord was signed last September between Israel and the Palestine Liberation Organization , nations around the world promised to help the nascent Palestinian Authority rebuild after 27 years of Israeli occupation . At a U.S.-sponsored conference in Washington , $ 2.1 billion was pledged to the Palestinians over five years , including $ 600 million for the first year . Seven months later , the global rescue program is looking more like a mirage . So far , only a tiny fraction of the money has trickled in . And now that the Palestinians and Israelis have started to implement their agreement , the Palestinians are facing enormous financial problems that they are woefully unprepared to solve . For now , Palestinians in the street are still celebrating the arrival of their own police force in the Gaza Strip and the West Bank town of Jericho . But the best and brightest Palestinian technocrats are deeply worried about what will happen when the celebrations fade , when the people on the street discover that the government under their own flag cannot deliver the same services that the Israeli occupiers did . `` We 'll be drinking a lot of unsweetened coffee , '' said Libdeh . `` It will be the real life . '' The reasons why the money has not yet started flowing from abroad are complex and help illuminate the uncertain nature of the new Palestinian experiment . PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat , who single-handedly controlled the finances of his revolutionary organization for three decades , has not yielded to the demands of the World Bank and donor nations that he give up his old methods when running the new Palestinian Authority . While Arafat has made some concessions under pressure , authoritative sources said he has not given up his desire to run everything . Worried about corruption , as well as about political favoritism , the international donors have not yet made good on their major pledges . According to these sources including Palestinians and Western diplomats familiar with the events the whole concept of a coordinated , global aid effort to the Palestinians may be stalling . Instead , the sources report , Arafat is actively looking for ways to bypass the World Bank by dealing directly with individual companies and countries for lucrative projects in Gaza and Jericho . This system would help preserve his central role , without the headache of restrictions being imposed by international donors . The sources said British , American , French , German and Danish firms quietly have been beating a path to PLO headquarters in Tunis recently , with the approval or acquiescence of their governments , seeking contracts for long-term development projects such as printing a new currency , building a new telephone system and constructing airports and an electric system . `` The reasons the donors are going to Tunis are the same reasons Israel decided to go there : That 's where the decisions are made , '' one diplomat said . The Palestinian economic council here , based just outside Jerusalem , was originally intended to channel the aid from abroad into useful projects in the West Bank and Gaza . But for months the international donors complained the council was not adequately set up to avoid abuse . Recently , the council 's bylaws were approved , and six top officials were given six-month reappointments , including several prominent Palestinian economists . Last week , Arafat also selected the U.S.-based investment bank Morgan Stanley to help manage the reconstruction efforts , according to the Palestinian news agency Wafa . But the big money has not started flowing , and there is a growing fear that it may never materialize on the scale promised . The Palestinian economic council `` is doing some good work , '' said another Western aid expert , `` but the question still lingers : Who is the genuine authority ? '' While some countries are anxious to win lucrative contracts , they are loath to pour money into an organization that will be exclusively controlled by Arafat , he said . The suspicion is strong among donors that Arafat , if left to his own devices , will channel aid to political friends in the territories-for example , that he will build health clinics to reward operatives in his Fatah movement , rather than where the clinics are needed . There is also a reverse suspicion : The Palestinians complain that foreign donors are only interested in projects that look good back home , with a plaque on the front door , rather than let Palestinians build what they want . But the Palestinians admit they are not in a position to turn anyone down . In the near term , the Palestinians are heading for an economic upheaval . The Israelis have turned over to them health , education and other government departments in Gaza and Jericho , but the 7,000 workers ' salaries have been paid only through June 1 . After that , the Palestinians have to begin running their own government and they are short of cash . The new Palestinian national authority has about $ 19 million in a special emergency fund , officials said . But after a few months , it will be severely strained . During the occupation , Israel spent about $ 70 million a year to provide services in what are now the self-rule areas of Gaza and Jericho ; by most accounts , the Palestinians will need two or three times that amount , since they must support police as well . Already , thousands of Palestinian policemen in Gaza and Jericho are unpaid and sleeping on mattresses ; Israel recently donated military rations to keep them from going hungry . The Palestinians have been given the authority to set tax rates and collect taxes . But all the Palestinian workers in the tax department of the Israeli military government resigned six years ago at the beginning of the intifada , or uprising against Israeli occupation . In addition , the Palestinians lack expertise to run the computerized tax system left behind by Israel , which is entirely in Hebrew , said Elise Shazar , spokeswoman for the military government . Moreover , it is not at all certain that Palestinians in Gaza already hard-pressed by high unemployment and Israel 's closure of the territories will be willing to pay taxes to the new authority . Palestinians estimate it may take months to begin to generate revenues and that the collection rate may be only 40 percent of what is sought . While tax revenue is supposed to also come from Palestinian workers in Israel , so far Israel has only permitted a trickle to return to their jobs . The result will be a skyrocketing deficit for day-to-day needs the first year , perhaps $ 150 million or more . The Palestinians are hoping the international donors will decide soon pick up the tab . But a senior Israeli official , who spoke to reporters on condition he not be identified , was skeptical . `` We know that the international community is insisting on specific projects to support , '' he said . `` They don't want to pay for daily expenses . If everyone is stalling and there is no money for expenses , the whole thing may collapse . `` It 's going to become our problem in no time , '' said the official . `` And then what ? '' WASHINGTON An unresolved feud in the Clinton administration , which abruptly cut off Peru and Colombia from access to U.S. counter-drug intelligence , has blinded all three nations to the flights of drug smuggling aircraft and threatened to fracture a brittle alliance against the northward flow of drugs . The sudden halt in cooperation has created a significant opportunity for traffickers , according to civilian and military narcotics experts . Relatively few drug flights have ever been intercepted , but data on their origin and destination has set the stage for raids on drug labs and storage facilities that netted some 300 metric tons of contraband last year . Because the State and Defense Departments could not agree on a policy and failed to coordinate their moves , Peru and Colombia received no warning and scant explanation of the May 1 intelligence cutoff . On that day , the U.S. . Southern Command suspended operation of U.S. ground-based radars in those countries and stopped allowing their nationals aboard U.S. surveillance flights launched from Panama . The two South American nations have begun to retaliate . Peru has banned the American AWACS and P-3 surveillance craft from its air space , and Colombia threatened in writing last week to expel two U.S. mobiground radars . At issue is the use of American flight tracking data by Colombia and Peru to locate and then force down or shoot down suspected drug planes . The United States has long regarded any attack on civil aircraft as illegal under international conventions and detrimental to U.S. interests as the world 's leading aviation power , but it sometimes has winked at quiet efforts against drug traffickers . The Pentagon , supported by the Justice Department and a recent review by lawyers for eight government agencies , maintains that assisting in the shootdowns breaks U.S. and international law . Senior State Department officials , while acknowledging what one called `` legal concerns , '' want to continue some form of a policy under which the United States would share the tracking data but express its official disapproval of attacks in flight . Beyond the legal concerns , the Defense Department worries about the possibility that the two South American nations will down innocent aircraft by accident . Days after U.S. . F-15 fighters shot down two American helicopters in northern Iraq , Defense Undersecretary Frank G. Wisner wrote on April 20 to Undersecretary of State Peter Tarnoff . `` Recent events in Iraq , '' said his classified letter , underscored the need to protect innocent aircraft . The Defense Department would stop the intelligence sharing on May 1 , he wrote , unless Colombia and Peru agreed not to use weapons against aircraft in flight . What threw the interagency dispute into crisis was its uncommon rancor and the willingness of U.S. adversaries to let it spill out into relations with Colombia and Peru . Noteworthy because it accompanies new claims of bureaucratic peace within the Clinton administration , the policy feud has `` descended into hatred , '' according to one senior participant . Defense Department officials charge that the State Department deliberately failed to provide advance notice of the May 1 cutoff to Peru and Colombia or even to U.S. ambassadors there in order to create maximum backlash . When the two countries protested , one Colombian diplomat said a State Department contact told him the Defense Department cut off the aircraft intelligence `` unilaterally '' and that the military `` didn't even tell the State Department about it . '' In a remarkable suggestion that one U.S. official likened to `` treason , '' the same State Department official even encouraged Colombia to lodge a strong protest , according to the Colombian diplomat and another U.S. official with knowledge of the conversation . `` I have been through a lot in 27 years of service , '' wrote Alvin Adams , U.S. ambassador in Peru , in a classified May 3 cable to complain that he received no word in advance . `` Of the little I can remember in my advanced middle age , this is in my ken of experience a standout . '' Adams asked `` urgently for coordinated guidance from you . '' In Washington , two of the principal adversaries , Assistant Secretary of State Robert S. Gelbard and Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense Brian E. Sheridan , each in charge of counter-narcotics policy for his department , are said to be not on speaking terms . State Department officials , according to sources there and on Capitol Hill , have told congressional Republicans that the Pentagon is trying to walk away from the war on drugs . One State Department official , who provided a reporter with the names of Republicans to call , said he worried that there might be an `` unfortunate perception '' that the Clinton administration is `` in full retreat on narcotics . '' `` We are trying to understand what is going on inside the American government , '' said a frustrated Peruvian official . `` We are waiting for the discussions between the agencies to come to a consensus . '' The importance of the small aircraft to drug traffickers is not in dispute . Coca leaf grown in Bolivia and Peru must move northward for processing in successive stages to cocaine paste , cocaine base and in Colombia the pure street drug . Because dense jungle prevents overland transport and the rivers flow mainly east-west , the traffickers have what one U.S. general called `` a north-south problem . '' U.S. intelligence officials believe nearly 1,000 flights a year head north carrying some form of cocaine or heroin . Since the late 1980s the United States has provided the backbone of an air tracking network capable of detecting and intercepting the flights . The idea , officially , was to pinpoint the where the planes took off and landed and `` fuse '' that information with other intelligence in order to mount ground attacks on drug labs and storage facilities . The ambitions of Peru and Colombia to down the aircraft in flight were largely hypothetical until recently , when Peruvian Tucano trainer aircraft armed with machine guns began shooting effectively at the renegade flights . Peru brought the issue into the open Nov. 4 with a dramatic shootdown of a suspected drug plane near Pucallpa , Peru . Shortly after that , Colombia announced its intention to shoot down drug flights . State Department officials argue that the air traffic is so important to the drug trade that the United States cannot afford to remove the threat that narcotics planes will be shot down . Gen. Barry R. McCaffrey , chief of the U.S. . Southern Command , also supported the shootdown policy until its legal implications became clear . But other officials , including a senior Drug Enforcement Agency expert , said interceptions of drugs in flight are a minor part of the drug war . Official Pentagon statistics , undisputed elsewhere in the government , show that 200 kilograms of cocaine were forced down last year while 300 metric tons were seized by other means in Colombia and Peru . Far more important than the flight interceptions , officials said , are the hard-won cooperative relationships with Colombia and Peru . With the Clinton administration still deadlocked , those relationships now appear to be in jeopardy . `` The U.S. cannot decide what we do in our air space , '' said an angry Colombian official in a telephone interview . `` That 's a sovereign decision and we 're not going to change it . If the U.S. doesn't cooperate with us , we 'll request its radars to be withdrawn . '' Said a U.S. government official , expressing anger against his Pentagon and State Department counterparts , `` Why could these children not come together and work this out ? The real reason we can't fight effectively against the narcotraffickers is that we 're too busy fighting among ourselves . '' MALEMBO , Uganda This is where their journey ends , far from home , their bodies carried by the Kagera River out of Rwanda and into Africa 's greatest lake , Victoria , to be caught like perch by peasant fishermen . They have traveled more than 100 miles , over thundering falls and along fertile savannas , by the time the Kagera rages into Lake Victoria at Kasensero . It is near that little town that Jamil Kakora waits each morning , his boat loaded with plastic bags instead of fishing tackle . By the time he and his five-man crew returned to shore about noon Saturday , a ghastly collection of limbs and torsos filled the boat . The fishermen , donning masks and gloves , worked quickly to wrap and tie the bodies , and to load them into the trailer of a red tractor parked nearby . `` We heard about the war on the radio , '' Kakora said , `` so we knew the bodies were coming . We had a meeting in the village and agreed : You cannot leave these people to just float in the lake . Even if they died like dogs in Rwanda , they deserve to be buried like humans . We all said yes , this is something we must do . '' As many as 40,000 bodies , relief specialists say , have washed into this giant lake that provides an abundance of Nile perch and tilapia for fish markets from Kampala to London , as well as drinking water for scores of primitive villages scattered along its shores . The majority of the victims of the most extensive massacre in modern Africa 's post-independence history appear to be women and children . Some who reach Lake Victoria apparently were beheaded . Others ' arms were tied behind their backs . One cluster of infants washed downstream in a tied sack . Three others were joined by a single pointed stick thrust through their stomachs . International aid workers estimate that between 200,000 and 500,000 people have been killed in Rwanda since the country 's president died in a plane crash April 6 and Hutu-dominated government troops and militiamen began an orgy of murder , primarily against members of the minority Tutsi tribe . Two million Rwandans have fled across the border to neighboring countries . Although Kenya has dismissed any threat from the decomposing bodies to its portion of Lake Victoria , Uganda has told its people not to drink the lake 's water until further tests are made and to boil all fish taken from Victoria for at least 30 minutes . Health officials also are concerned that cholera could be spread by the flies that descend in thick swarms on the bodies . ( Begin optional trim ) The first bodies the villagers pulled from the lake were buried in shallow graves a few yards from the shore . They were dug up by dogs and pigs and lay uncovered for several days , along with the rubbish and human waste that the people of Malembo routinely deposit at the water 's edge . Health officials feared an outbreak of disease could result . World Vision , a U.S. relief and development agency , was already active in the region when the bodies began pouring into Lake Victoria . Its work dealt primarily with 160,000 children orphaned in the region by AIDS the leading cause of death in rural Uganda . Malembo is tucked away on the shoreline swamps of the Nassara Plain , 20 miles from any road other than a footpath . The village has no running water or electricity , and most of the 800 inhabitants have concerns other than examining the daily cargo of the body-hunting fishermen who are paid $ 6 a day by World Vision . ( End optional trim ) Only a handful of people were on the shore Saturday as the tractor 's trailer began to fill with bodies . John Marembo , the local defense secretary and also the village 's record-keeper , stood by the tractor , dutifully recording in his notebook the number of bodies retrieved for the day .. . 18 , 19 , 20. .. . `` It is awful enough that Rwanda should have a war like this , '' Marembo said . `` It is also very bad they should give us their litter from the war . '' When the trailer was full , a barefoot man climbed onto the tractor and drove to a dusty clearing a mile away , a mass grave site bought from a local farmer for $ 80 . Joseph Kasozi and John Kastunga waited there , shirtless and sweating in the fierce sun . Along with five others , they had dug a huge grave , as long and high as a bus . They were eating sugar cane stalks . Six other large graves shoveled out earlier in the week were already filled , covered with earth and marked by a cross of twigs lashed together by twine . The bodies were thrown into the pit and covered with a liquid chemical , to become nameless wartime victims whose families will never be able to fully explain their fate . As the workers shoveled in earth , up the path toward the clearing came the village 's lay priest , John Lubega . He wore a cross carved from a bone around his neck and had no shoes . He was reciting : `` Oh , Lord in heaven , help the souls of these people . They are the accidents of war . We ask you , please intervene and stop the war so people may stop dying . '' WASHINGTON President Clinton chose to back away from a human rights confrontation with China to avoid a damaging rift with one of the world 's great economic and military powers . But what is likely to ensue now , many experts in and out of government acknowledge , is far from a period of tranquil relations . In fact , now that the dispute over China 's most-favored-nation trading status is finally being resolved , a number of other conflicts are likely to boil to the surface . Many of these have been suppressed or delayed by the Clinton administration 's preoccupation with the trade dispute . In other words , relations between the United States and China are shaky enough that all the efforts expended on the trade dispute may produce only very fragile , short-term gains . `` Even if the president were to say , ` I 'm giving MFN to China for five years , ' it 's Pollyannish to think everything else will be taken care of , '' one U.S. official observed recently . `` We will stop focusing on one debate and start focusing on others , '' the official said . `` It 's just going to go on . There are still a lot of other issues that need to be worked out , and they 're not even going to be addressed until MFN gets out of the headlines . '' Over the next few months , the Clinton administration is likely to challenge China by moving ahead with other trade sanctions that it has threatened as retaliation for China 's pirating of American tapes , compact discs , movies and computer software . While the American business community opposed Clinton 's linkage of human rights and China 's trade status , it also strongly supports a tough stand on these copyright and piracy issues . Over the next year or two , the United States and China are also likely to clash over China 's continuing nuclear tests , which are likely to resume soon . In addition , the United States could well find itself complaining again about China 's arms exports . And China will haggle with the United States over the future of the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and the terms for its membership in the new World Trade Organization , the successor to the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade . That list of disputes does not even include other , possibly more contentious controversies , such as those over North Korea 's nuclear program and the future of Cambodia , still torn by civil war despite a 1991 peace treaty . Once the trade and human rights linkage is behind them , however , Clinton administration officials are likely to try hard to upgrade ties with Beijing . `` My guess is that after MFN , they are going to go into a full-court press to improve relations with China , '' said former U.S. . Ambassador to China James R. Lilley. `` They 're going to move fast and hard . We 've got important interests in North Korea and Cambodia , and we could use China 's help . '' As part of that effort , Washington sources said , the administration is expected to announce soon the appointment of a new envoy to China . The likely candidate is a veteran China specialist , Charles W. Freeman Jr. , now assistant secretary of defense , who served during the early 1980s as deputy chief of mission at the U.S. . Embassy in Beijing . Some U.S. China experts point to recent trends that suggest that separating the trade and human rights issues may not ease frictions between Washington and Beijing for long . Only a year ago , with much less fanfare than last week , Clinton `` de-linked '' the issues of arms proliferation and China 's trade benefits . Before Clinton took office , President Bush had repeatedly vetoed legislation that would have required China , before winning a renewal of its trade privileges , to make progress not only on human rights but also on curbing its arms exports and reducing its trade imbalance with the United States . Clinton enshrined the linkage between most-favored trade benefits and human rights in an executive order a year ago . But at the same time , he dropped the conditions on arms exports and the trade imbalance , saying that these problems could be dealt with through other means . So what happened ? The administration felt obliged to prove that , even without most-favored trade linkage , it could take tough action against the proliferation of weapons and missiles . Last August , as punishment for China 's sale of missile technology to Pakistan , the United States imposed sanctions barring the sale of American-made satellites to China . ( Optional Add End ) `` They ( administration officials ) de-linked trade and arms control last year , but the result afterward was a downward trend in the relationship , '' one U.S. official said . `` And I 'm afraid that , to prove that they still care about human rights , they 'll do things now on human rights that will ring off even more bells in Beijing than MFN linkage , such as actions to upgrade ties with Taiwan and Tibet . '' Indeed , in the first 24 hours after Clinton announced that China 's most-favored trade benefits would be renewed , top administration officials began to suggest that the president might take other actions on human rights that could produce new frictions between Washington and Beijing . `` I think that , in the future , we 'll be keeping steady pressure on , through other instruments , in a way that may cause ( Chinese officials ) to make more progress in the future , '' Secretary of State Warren Christopher said . `` We 're certainly not giving up on improvement in human rights in China . '' VLADIVOSTOK , Russia On the first day of a cross-country tour to rediscover his Russian homeland , Alexander I . Solzhenitsyn visited a hospital Saturday . As the famous author stepped into an elevator , a small crowd of doctors and a television film crew jammed in with him . Instead of going up to the director 's office on the sixth floor , the overloaded elevator sank part way between the lobby and the basement and stuck there for 15 minutes before a mechanic came to the rescue . Aside from the hazards of everyday life here , the mishap reflected the quandary of Solzhenitsyn 's identity as he returns from two decades of exile to help post-Soviet Russia find itself . Is he an intellectual or a celebrity ? can't he have peace to search for new truths , or must he put up with media stardom and intrusive fans ? And how long can the 75-year-old Nobel laureate depend for special protection on a government he criticizes so fiercely ? Solzhenitsyn spelled out his controversial views on Russia 's ills at a wide-ranging news conference , insisting that there is no real democracy or economic reform here , no cleansing of the communist legacy and too much imitation of the West . ( Begin optional trim ) He was equally passionate about his privacy . `` I would prefer not to have 200 photographers crowding around me all the time and shooting me day after day , '' he said . `` I need to talk to the common people .. . to learn in detail about life in Russia . '' To be more specific , he said he resents the fact that somebody in the crowd stepped on his wife 's foot after their triumphant landing here Friday on a flight from Alaska . `` When it 's enough for each photographer to take two shots , why take 250 ? '' ( End optional trim ) After greeting doctors and eye surgery patients at the Territorial Clinical Hospital , Solzhenitsyn rode to the city 's Pacific port , where he was greeted by a navy band playing a lively classical medley , well-wishers pressing for autographs and more cameras . Strolling down a waterfront aisle of merchants selling food from truck-sized freight containers , the writer acted the part of a modern Rip Van Winkle just awakened from a 20-year nap . `` How much is that ? '' he asked a man selling sausages . `` 10,000 rubles , '' the merchant replied . About $ 5 a kilogram . `` I don't get it , '' Solzhenitsyn said , touching his long beard and appearing amazed . `` When I left the country many years ago , prices were very different . '' `` Come again soon , sir , '' the merchant said with a laugh , `` and I 'll sell it to you for an even higher price ! '' Plainclothes police officers locked arms in a protective ring around Solzhenitsyn and his wife as they walked , while uniformed cops stopped people at random to inspect purses and shopping bags . `` While he 's here , we will keep him under guard whether he likes it or not , '' said Igor P. Lebedinets , the acting territorial governor . `` We 're mobilizing hundreds of men . '' Later , Solzhenitsyn was driven in a black government Volga sedan to have lunch aboard one of the two luxury rail cars sent from Moscow by the Railway Ministry for his trans-Siberian journey to the Russian capital . The cars , equipped with a kitchen and Oriental carpets , will carry his entourage of family , friends , chefs , attendants , security police and a British Broadcasting Corp. documentary film crew . Solzhenitsyn said the 5,700-mile rail journey , which will take several weeks , will allow him to make many stops and to `` see things through the window . '' He said he last saw Siberia from a prison van during his eight years in Stalin 's gulag after World War II the seminal experience for his powerful writings against the Soviet system . The lavish official hospitality by the current authorities prompted one Russian journalist to ask Solzhenitsyn about comparisons to Maxim Gorky , the writer brought back from Italian exile under Stalin . `` Gorky came back to serve the regime , '' Solzhenitsyn replied . `` I will never serve the regime , whatever government is in power . '' ( Optional Add End ) But he refrained from criticizing Russian President Boris N . Yeltsin , who sent a congratulatory telegram saying : `` Your talent and your experience as a historian and thinker will help us all in reorganizing Russia . '' The writer did , however , repeat many criticisms he had made abroad about the Yeltsin government 's attempts at reform . For example , he described the 1992 decisions to free prices and sell off state property without breaking up monopolies as `` brainless '' steps that had made a country already wrecked by the communists even poorer . He called Russia a `` pseudodemocracy '' that still lacks local self-rule , has failed to punish the crimes of Soviet repression and blindly imitates Western ways unsuited to its culture . While Solzhenitsyn denied any political ambitions , his more measured Russia-first views are likely to strike a powerful chord as he travels and speaks across the country . `` The atmosphere in the hospital changed in one minute after he came , '' said Yelizaveta B . Pyatina , 58 , a patient there . `` Everybody began smiling and talking about books , politics , history . We all forgot about our ailments . '' WASHINGTON Rep. Dan Rostenkowski , D Ill. , has signaled that he intends to reject any plea bargain and vigorously contest anticipated charges that he abused his office by diverting public money for personal use , associates of the powerful lawmaker said Saturday . Unless Rostenkowski should have a last-minute change of mind , federal prosecutors are expected to seek a grand jury indictment early this week , possibly Tuesday . `` He 's not giving up , he 's going to fight it , '' one associate said of the 18-term congressman . Other sources said Rostenkowski was reluctant to resign from Congress , which acceptance of a plea agreement would involve , and admit to a series of felonies that would permanently scar a Capitol Hill career of more than 35 years . A spokesman for Rostenkowski said Saturday that he had no immediate comment on the matter . According to federal sources , an indictment is likely to allege that Rostenkowski defrauded taxpayers of hundreds of thousands of dollars through both his Washington and Chicago offices . That sum would include cash he allegedly received improperly from the House of Representatives ' post office in transactions disguised as stamp purchases , and government funds misused to buy furniture and gifts for friends and constituents , the sources said . Once indicted , Rostenkowski , 66 , would have to step down as chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee under House Democratic rules , but he still could remain as a member of the tax-writing panel , which has been considering President Clinton 's health care plan . If he were acquitted of the charges , he could then regain his chairmanship . Rostenkowski 's lawyers have advised him that a plea agreement would enable him to avoid the humiliation of a public trial and the prospect of conviction and a prison sentence longer than the one-year term understood to be part of the agreement . However , Rostenkowski , who is represented chiefly by Robert S. Bennett , one of Washington 's most skilled defense attorneys , probably could force a delay of any trial until after the congressional elections in November , legal sources said . His decision to contest the anticipated charges , pending a change of heart , scuttles three weeks of intensive negotiations between Bennett and U.S. . Attorney Eric Holder , a Clinton administration appointee who inherited the two-year investigation last fall from his Republican predecessor , Jay Stephens . One source said Holder has been given full authority to proceed with the case as he sees fit without intervention by Attorney General Janet Reno or high-ranking Justice Department aides . Holder sent an outline of the proposed charges to the Justice Department late last month . ( Begin optional trim ) An indictment of Rostenkowski likely would include allegations that he : Illegally converted stamps to cash for his personal use through the House post office between 1985 and 1991 . Former House Postmaster Robert V. Rota , who pleaded guilty to charges last July and would be a key trial witness for the prosecution , has alleged he improperly transferred $ 21,000 to Rostenkowski . Misused official funds to buy expensive gifts for friends from the House office-supply service . In an admission of wrongdoing , Rostenkowski has already reimbursed Congress about $ 82,000 for office supplies purchased by his office over a period of six years . Converted government-leased autos to his personal ownership . Improperly used government funds to pay a number of so-called `` ghost employees '' who performed no official work . ( End optional trim ) Removal of Rostenkowski from the Ways and Means chairmanship , which he has held since 1981 , would harm efforts to approve Clinton 's health care reform plan . The massive proposal is running into difficulty in other House committees , and Rostenkowski 's legendary power was expected to boost its prospects in the Ways and Means panel . The Illinois Democrat could , however , still exert a measure of influence on the legislation by remaining on the committee . Such an arrangement might seem odd , but there is precedent : Wilbur Mills yielded the chairmanship of the Ways and Means Committee in the mid-1970s after publicity about his antics with a stripper , but he stayed on the panel as a member . In contesting an indictment in court , Rostenkowski would be playing a high-stakes game that automatically could result in a lengthy prison term if he were convicted , regardless of the sympathies of a sentencing judge . ( Optional add end ) For example , in a fraud conviction involving a loss of more than $ 200,000 , federal sentencing guidelines call for a term of 15 months to 21 months for a defendant with no prior criminal history , as would be the case with Rostenkowski . If the loss is judged to be smaller for example , between $ 70,000 and $ 120,000 the sentence would range from 10 months to 16 months . However , in a fraud conviction involving abuse of a position of public or private trust , as would apply to a member of Congress , the guidelines call for automatically increasing the period of incarceration by five months . PRETORIA , South Africa Dirk Coetzee is a killer . As he all too readily admits , the retired security police captain spent two decades in the utterly ruthless defense of apartheid , leaving a trail of dead or broken bodies , booby-trapped homes and cars of anti-apartheid activists , and poisoned dogs . `` We grew up brainwashed as the defenders of the last Christian outpost in Africa , '' Coetzee said . `` When we knelt down at night to pray to our God , we already knew what his answer would be : Put the enemy in our hands . '' At the height of his career in the security branch of the South Africa police , said Coetzee , now 49 , he planned and helped carry out dozens of murders of opponents of the white government . He was regarded as among the best the apartheid system produced to safeguard South Africa for white Afrikaners like him . But eight years ago he fell out with his superiors and , as a diabetic , was retired for health reasons . Three years later , in 1989 , the nightmare of every covert operator occurred : Coetzee 's black right-hand man , on death row for killing a white man , spilled the beans about police murder . Faced with exposure and , Coetzee said , his possible `` termination '' by security police , he fled the country and began giving one of the first credible detailed accounts of official assassinations . He went to Nelson Mandela 's African National Congress for protection , using his information as leverage . `` It takes a thief to catch a thief , '' said Coetzee , who has since returned to South Africa . Initially , few believed Coetzee 's stories , writing him off as a turncoat ( which he was ) out to save his own skin ( which he denies ) . But most of the stories have been independently corroborated , including an official investigation by a state commission that specifically named the highest-ranking police generals as instigators of `` a horrible network of criminal activity . '' Several of the generals have been forced out , with their main protector , Commissioner Johan van der Merwe , as the last holdout . Government sources say van der Merwe will be retired in the next few months , once the new parliament passes a police reform bill . In an interview , Coetzee detailed the internal workings of the security police , which constitutes about 6 percent of the total force but has produced the last three commissioners and most of the other top police generals . He said the security branch always operated above the law and in defiance of civilian authority . When Frederik W. de Klerk , still president in March , ordered the retirement of the police generals mentioned in connection with `` hit squad '' activities , the commissioner defied him without consequence . Coetzee says he is ready to accept punishment for his crimes and has refused to ask for amnesty . But before that , he says , he would like to help clean out the police . `` After all we did , when you come to your senses , there is no way you can keep quiet , '' he said . `` I am asking for no indemnity whatever . I am guilty . '' WASHINGTON The probe started with the House Post Office but , now , two years after federal prosecutors began investigating Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dan Rostenkowski , D-Ill. , the allegations of official misconduct have moved far beyond stamps . In fact , the initial allegations that Rostenkowski traded postage vouchers for cash at the House Post Office now rate as a comparatively weak portion of the government 's case , so much so that his defense lawyers have plotted to use them to undermine the rest of the case , sources close to Rostenkowski say . Lawyers see the former House postmaster who told prosecutors Rostenkowski participated in the allegedly illegal exchanges as a less than ideal witness . Rostenkowski faces a Tuesday deadline for accepting a plea bargain and almost certain jail time or fighting to salvage what is left of his public reputation by challenging a litany of charges in court . Either choice would knock the powerful 66-year-old Chicagoan from his influential chairmanship and prominent role in shaping President Clinton 's health care legislation and major trade , welfare and campaign finance bills . U.S. . Attorney Eric H . Holder Jr. has outlined for the Justice Department what has been described as a `` kitchen sink '' of alleged abuses of Rostenkowski 's official accounts for postage , leased automobiles , office space , supplies and personnel . Rostenkowski , completing his 36th year in Congress , entered plea negotiations in an effort to reduce or eliminate any prison sentence while avoiding a lengthy legal battle and possibly retaining his Ways and Means chairmanship , sources familiar with the discussions said . Such negotiations are considered normal and cannot be used against Rostenkowski should the case go to trial . However , the talks are acknowledgment on both sides that there might be weaknesses in their positions . Prosecutors , although generally confident of their case if a federal grand jury approves an indictment , are said to harbor some concerns Rostenkowski might prove likable to jurors and also benefit from their assumptions that most officeholders commit similar acts . Still , Rostenkowski 's defense attorneys are said to be worried about the long list of charges in the government 's case . Yesterday , sources described both sides as at loggerheads . Under normal procedures , Rostenkowski would have to relinquish his chairmanship if indicted on any felony punishable by at least two years in prison . If he pleads guilty and is given jail time , efforts to remove him from the chairmanship would likely come immediately . Faced with the ugly options , Rostenkowski is leaning toward fighting , knowing he will have to cast doubt on each of the allegations in the laundry list . He also must overcome the public distaste with politicians and their perks . According to sources knowledgeable about the case , the allegations of `` ghost employees , '' unrelated to the House Post office , appear the most difficult to counter . Because of past controversies over members ' employees , the House has well-developed rules governing staff aides . They must show up for work in a member 's Washington or district office , and each pay period the member must sign a form certifying his employees performed official duties . In Rostenkowski 's case , the FBI interviewed at least a half-dozen individuals listed as employees of his Chicago district office in recent years but who were said not to have been seen in the office . One probe centered on a woman who allegedly stayed on the payroll for years after she supposedly quit to rear her children . The Chicago Sun-Times in December identified the woman as the wife of a Chicago alderman and protege of Rostenkowski . The paper also named an elderly woman in her 70s , who it alleged appeared on Rostenkowski 's payroll four times in the late 1980s . She denied doing any work for him except babysitting his children . His youngest is in her 30s . Despite the legislative demands of his Ways and Means chairmanship , Rostenkowski paid close attention to his payroll account , according to a former employee of the House Finance Office , H. Bruce Avner . He was assigned to handle the account , in which Rostenkowski made frequent changes in pay levels and employees to maximize his salary allotment . Holder was faced with the allegations about `` ghost employees '' after he was sworn in as U.S. attorney last October and decided to present evidence to a new grand jury rather than seek indictments from one whose term was expiring . The inquiry was also expanded to cover Rostenkowski 's purchases of personal and gift items through his expense account at the House Stationery Store . Acting on advice of his lawyers , Rostenkowski last January repaid the government $ 82,000 charged to his official stationery account over six years , including what he acknowledged were `` purchases by myself or others of items for personal use '' as well as `` gifts to those who had counseled , assisted or supported my activities in public service '' and `` items . . . donated to charities in my district to use as items at fund-raising auctions . '' In letters to House Administration Chairman Charlie Rose , D-N.C. , Rostenkowski said the reimbursements covered `` various bowls , mugs , plates , china , clocks , paperweights and decorative items . . . bearing the congressional seal , '' chairs embossed with a picture of the Capitol given to supporters , `` tote bags , cuff links . . . key chains , books '' and `` clocks , magnifying glasses , picture frames , cameras , albums and some luggage . '' House leaders ordered gift items removed from the stationery store in 1992 , but before that time members were allowed to charge them to their accounts and later pay for the purchases , plus a 10 percent surcharge . The store in the basement of the Longworth House Office Building , which does not serve the public , stocks paper goods and other supplies used in members ' offices . Rostenkowski said he repaid `` all sums arguably due '' and blamed `` the ambiguity and flexibility surrounding many of the House rules , which have changed over time . '' His lawyer , Robert S. Bennett , has argued the stationery store purchases should be `` a matter internal to the House . '' Under the law , Rostenkowski 's reimbursements have no bearing on his potential culpability , but the repayments could influence jurors . His official leases of three automobiles from a Chicago-area dealership and subsequent acquisition of them as a private owner have also come under prosecutors ' scrutiny . Under House rules , the government pays for lawmakers to lease cars used for official travel in their districts . They may also acquire those vehicles after the lease expires . But they are prohibited from getting special deals to buy cars at discount prices as condition of the official leases , which are reviewed and preapproved by staff of the House Administration Committee . Part of the question about Rostenkowski is whether the cars were used for private purposes rather than official use while they were leased with government funds . The committee 's investigation in early 1992 of House Post Office irregularities has played a role in shifting the focus from allegations that Rostenkowski and other lawmakers traded postage vouchers and stamps for thousands of dollars at the House Post Office . Robert V. Rota , the former longtime postmaster at the contract station , initially denied to committee investigators that such exchanges occurred . Last July , Rota pleaded guilty to embezzlement charges for participating in such exchanges with two lawmakers court documents described as `` Congressman A '' and `` Congressman B . '' House records of Rostenkowski 's postage purchases matched him with `` Congressman A , '' whom the documents said received $ 21,300 from Rota in allegedly illegal exchanges between 1985 and 1991 . The contradiction between Rota 's initial denial and subsequent court admission gives defense lawyers a chance to challenge his truthfulness before jurors , lawyers close to the case say . He is also known to be a diffident individual who appears nervous in the public spotlight , as was evident when he made his pleading before Judge Norma H. Johnson. Both factors could make him an unsatisfactory witness . Johnson has a reputation for tough sentencing although federal guidelines leave judges relatively little discretion . Her reputation is thought to be one reason Rostenkowski considered a plea agreement . Another worry , one Ways and Means friend said , was being a white politician facing what would almost certainly be a predominantly black jury in the District . WASHINGTON With an unbridled fury , conservative foes of President Clinton are spinning sometimes bizarre conspiracy theories about him into a character-ripping tornado of videotapes , newsletters , radio chatter and tips to investigative reporters . `` It 's intense , '' says Larry Sabato , a University of Virginia professor of political science . `` There is no president in modern times , since Nixon , who has stirred such basic passions . '' Beyond partisan politics , Sabato and other observers attribute the depth of antipathy toward Clinton to mistrust of the president and his baby-boom generation , compounded by fear of the change he advocates and his political skills in promoting it . Illustrating the open contempt being displayed for Clinton : The Rev. Jerry Falwell is selling TV viewers of his `` Old Time Gospel Hour '' a $ 40 videotape purporting to blame Clinton for several mysterious deaths in Arkansas . Conservative activist and radio personality Floyd Brown , already a thorn in Clinton 's side in the Whitewater land-development investigation , soon may turn his attention to trying to substantiate a hot new rumor involving supposed Clinton connections with a drug-smuggling ring . Radio and TV talk show commentator Rush Limbaugh instantly broadcast and embellished a newsletter report that White House deputy counsel Vince Foster didn't kill himself in a Virginia park last summer but died in a secret hideaway used by Hillary Clinton and other Arkansans in Washington ; and his body was carried to the spot where it was found . Reflecting the glee with which some conservatives welcomed the sexual-harassment lawsuit against Clinton by former Arkansas state employee Paula Jones , Washington Times Editor Wesley Pruden joked in a May 20 column that Jones says she is able to identify a `` distinctive mark near the president 's clinton . '' Sabato says that U.S. politics has `` degenerated into low-level warfare . '' Attacks on Clinton are motivated not only by ideology but by `` a personal kind of contempt '' stemming from religiously based moral outrage and a widespread feeling that , because Clinton received only a 43 percent plurality victory in a three-man presidential race , he has no real right to be president , Sabato says . Some leading Clinton-bashers warn that careless heapings of vitriol could provoke a backlash of sympathy for the president . Many commentators attributed Clinton 's 1992 win partly to counterproductive GOP personal attacks on him and his wife , Hillary Rodham Clinton , that began at the Republican National Convention in Houston . Cliff Jackson , the Arkansas attorney and former Oxford University classmate who made Clinton 's Vietnam War draft record a 1992 campaign issue , complains that the Falwell tape is unsubstantiated and `` engages in the same deceit I object to in Bill Clinton . '' Jackson , also a key figure in publicizing womanizing allegations against Clinton by Arkansas state troopers and Jones , says : `` There are people out there who think they 're helping , but they 're hurting . The truth itself is sufficient here . '' Equally dubious about the Falwell tape is Reed Irvine , of the conservative group Accuracy in Media , a Washington-based watchdog group that bought newspaper ads to prod The Washington Post into publishing Jones ' allegations . Irvine says the tape `` sounds pretty wild . '' ( Begin optional trim ) On the tape , Gary Parks , son of a slain onetime Little Rock security chief for Clinton 's presidential campaign , says , `` I feel that Bill Clinton had my father killed '' to seize secret files on Clinton love affairs . No proof is offered . The tape is narrated by Larry Nichols , a fired former Arkansas state official who has admitted he had no evidence for a 1990 lawsuit he filed alleging Clinton misused state funds to romance five women ; the suit was dismissed . ( End optional trim ) Asked about the allegations , Falwell spokesman Mark DeMoss says , `` Yeah , I imagine some of them willn't add up , possibly , but all of them can't be coming out of thin air . '' As exemplified by Pruden 's off-color gibe , Jones ' lawsuit has many anti-Clintonites so agog that conservative syndicated columnist Cal Thomas recently decried an atmosphere of `` self-stimulation over details of Clinton 's alleged behavior in a Little Rock hotel room . '' Thomas warned that conservatives are `` enjoying themselves too much '' and should battle Clinton 's policies instead of `` too avidly prolonging their association with this kind of indecent political exposure . '' To the extent that mainstream Republicans join in `` wallowing and reveling in the mud '' of the Jones suit , Thomas says , `` it just reinforces the idea that Republicans are out of ideas . '' ( Optional Add End ) But few high-ranking Republicans have concentrated on the rumors and innuendoes regarding Clinton 's personal conduct . Republican National Chairman Haley Barbour says the party is keeping its distance from Jones . House Minority Whip Newt Gingrich , R-Ga. , told Cox Newspapers recently that a `` sick culture '' is `` destroying the institution of the presidency as an important symbol binding us together . '' On ABC 's `` Nightline '' last month , Limbaugh indicated that portraying Clinton as a habitual liar is a means of crippling the president 's legislative proposals . `` This is not about getting rid of the president , '' Limbaugh said . `` This is about people who would like to stop health care in a legitimate democratic sense , trying to compete for the minds and hearts of the American people on the basis that maybe what the president 's saying isn't true . '' ROME Silvio Berlusconi dimmed the lights and drew the blinds in his elegant office at the Palazzo Chigi . Even at sunset , his day seemed far from over . There were cables to read , legislative plans to approve and other tasks of governing that he says keep him working until as late as 2 a.m. . Three weeks after becoming Italy 's prime minister and only three months after he entered politics one of Europe 's biggest media tycoons is struggling to adapt to his new role of running the world 's fifth-largest industrial democracy . `` Churchill said politics is fine , except you have to shake too many hands and deal with too many stupidities , '' Berlusconi said as he eased into an armchair for his first interview since taking office . `` I 'm used to shaking hands , because of my involvement with soccer and show business , but not to listening to the enormous number of stupidities that I hear in politics . '' `` I have 11 houses spread all over , including an extraordinary park , '' he said . `` Now I am forced to lead a life that , frankly , does not please me . However , I consider myself to be fighting a war on behalf of my country . '' When President Clinton opens his European tour next Thursday by paying a call on Italy 's reluctant crusader , he will find that Berlusconi 's astounding political rise is still generating shock waves across the continent . The 57-year-old businessman was swept into power on a tide of voter disgust with the corruption-ridden caste that ruled Italy for four decades , stirring fears of further populist revolts against mainstream governments elsewhere in Europe . He has appointed five cabinet ministers from a party with neo-fascist roots , arousing fears in France and Germany that their entry into government will legitimize the growth of extreme right movements across the continent . He has mapped out a vision for a free-market revolution in one of Western Europe 's most socialistic states that surpasses in scope anything attempted by his conservative role models , former British prime minister Margaret Thatcher and former president Ronald Reagan . And he has declared that , at least for the time being , he will govern the country while maintaining a vast business empire with holdings in real estate , insurance , press and television raising the specter of conflicting personal interests with almost every legislative measure he tries to push through Parliament . Berlusconi 's opponents accused him of using his three television networks , which control about 45 percent of the national audience , to `` brainwash '' voters and secure his victory in the general elections . He , in turn , believes they are jealous of his success in finding a successful formula that rallied the vast majority of young Italian voters behind the free-enterprise banner waved by his Forza Italia party . `` I know the young generation well . They grew up seeing America through the television shows that I brought to Europe . They have come to believe in the meritocratic philosophy that will help us develop a more liberal and free-market society without losing our cultural roots or traditions . `` Young people everywhere now share the same political values . The French may be very jealous about their identity , but Italians have no complexes , no feelings of inferiority or superiority . We are more ecumenical . '' Nonetheless , the unprecedented sight of seeing a media tycoon achieve a sudden leap to the pinnacle of political power has alarmed some of Italy 's neighbors . `` This is an approach to democracy we are not used to and that appears fearsome to me , '' said French President Francois Mitterrand , pointing to the demagogic risks of seeing the boss of a $ 6 billion media conglomerate take the reins of a major European government . `` This is an example that others will try to imitate . There is a serious risk of perverting democracy . The moment has come to say : Stop ! Danger ! '' Berlusconi brushes off Mitterrand 's warning as the kind of partisan carping he must endure from Italy 's former communists and their leftist allies throughout Europe . `` I have no operational role anymore in any of my companies . I am completely removed from their activities , '' he said . `` There is one difficulty and that is how to sell my group . If you know somebody who is interested , please tell me . '' Berlusconi said he was forced to enter the political arena when centrist reformers such as Mario Segni , a maverick Christian Democrat , failed to organize an effective coalition that could block the path to power by the leftist alliance led by former communists . `` I had a very interesting and entertaining life , and I had no desire to change it . But I found my country facing a future without liberty or democracy . I was obliged to go into politics against the advice of my family , my friends and , above all , against my own interests . But I realized my life as an entrepreneur would have become impossible under the communists , whose program would have led my country into a terrible state without any hope of return . '' Indeed , Berlusconi 's empire , now close to $ 3 billion in debt , probably would have collapsed if the leftist slate had been elected . Achille Occhetto , the leader of the former communists , had vowed to strip Berlusconi of his lucrative television stations . But Berlusconi insists he was motivated by more than the fate of his own business interests . `` I went into politics to keep my country from falling into the hands of the communists , '' he said . `` That 's what I mean by waging war for my country . Their program would have led the country into a terrible state , with no hope of return . In their spirit , their mentality , their culture , it 's a vision of the world that has not changed . '' NAIROBI , Kenya With the world community horrified by the bloodshed in Rwanda but paralyzed by confusion , indecision or fear , many aid officials , human rights advocates and Africa watchers now are hoping for a victory by rebel forces to end the tumult . Such a scenario now seems likely , with the Rwandan Patriotic Front ( RPF ) rebels improving their positions in neighborhoods around the capital , Kigali , while advancing on the town of Gitarama , headquarters of the Rwanda 's rump government . Reports said the rebels were moving this weekend on Gitarama from two fronts , while government soldiers and allied militiamen were fleeing westward toward Kibuya , on Lake Kivu . With the rebels occupying large parts of Kigali , including the international airport , the fall of Gitarama would make a complete victory for the rebels all but certain , leaving them in control of most of the country except the west and southwest . That would allow the rebels to dictate the terms of a cease-fire and would leave them in a position to try to form a government . Many who have been watching Rwanda 's horror say a rebel victory would relieve foreign governments of witnessing mass slaughter while failing to muster the political will to try to stop it . `` There is some thinking that if the rebels win , maybe that would take care of the problem for now , '' said Pauline Baker , a scholar on Africa with the Washington office of the Aspen Institute . Baker said some African policy makers were harking back to the `` Ethiopian scenario '' of May 1991 , when the Bush administration virtually invited an advancing guerrilla army to enter the Ethiopian capital , Addis Ababa , as a way of ending that country 's long civil war while providing for an orderly transition after the fall of dictator Mengistu Haile Mariam . Another Rwanda scholar , interviewed in Brussels , said a rebel victory `` is what everybody is hoping for . '' But this scholar , who asked not to be quoted by name , said that policy may in the long term prove `` very unwise , '' since it was unclear how the rebels , representing Rwanda 's long-oppressed Tutsi minority , would be able to form a broadly representative government . `` The RPF looks like the angel in this thing , '' she said . `` But to let the RPF win creates another Burundi , where you have a tiny minority in charge . '' The populations of both Rwanda and Burundi are about 85 percent Hutu and 15 percent Tutsi . In Rwanda , the Hutus have held political power since they overthrew the Tutsi monarchy and achieved independence from Belgium three decades ago . In Burundi , the minority Tutsis dominated the country after independence through their control of the armed forces , and only last year surrendered power in democratic elections to a Hutu-led government . Seven weeks ago , both countries were thrown into chaos when their two presidents died in a suspicious plane crash while returning from a regional peace meeting . Rwanda erupted in killings of Tutsis-mostly by armed Hutu civilian militias , supported by the army and encouraged by a Hutu-controlled radio station . U.N. spokesmen have estimated that at least 200,000 people have been killed , mostly Tutsis but also Hutus opposed to the slain president or suspected of being disloyal to his dominant political machine . The bodies of the dead have been stacked up in churches and along the roadside , buried in mass graves or simply dropped into the Kagera River . Thousands of corpses have floated to Lake Victoria , raising fears of widespread pollution at the source of the Nile River . After the outbreak of the massacres , which most aid officials and U.N. diplomats have termed genocide , the rebels launched their drive on the capital to end the bloodshed and bring to justice those responsible for the killings . When the Security Council earlier this month agreed to the dispatch of 5,500 U.N. troops to Rwanda , the rebels initially balked , saying the foreigners might interfere with victory by the front . They have since said the troops could come if they limited their activities to protecting humanitarian relief . But the arrival of the foreign troops looks further off than ever , with U.N. Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali admitting that he had failed to persuade more than a handful of countries to contribute soldiers . Only Ghana , Ethiopia and Senegal have made firm offers , and Italy said it would be willing to join in a U.N. peacekeeping operation . But most countries , including the United States and Africa 's traditional West European patrons , have shown reluctance to get involved . Following last year 's disastrous experience with international peacemaking in Somalia , many governments including the Clinton administration fear being drawn into what is essentially an African civil war , in which the foreign troops , like those in Somalia , may shift from being neutral peacekeepers to combatants . `` I think there 's a sense of moral outrage , but at the same time , a kind of paralysis , '' said Alison Des Forges , a consultant with Human Rights Watch/Africa . `` Everybody is looking to the United States for leadership , but the United States is not providing leadership . '' Somalia , she said , `` has been a formative experience in the early days of this administration . '' After the humiliation in Somalia , in which U.S. troops engaged in a futile and bloody manhunt for a Somali factional leader through the streets of Mogadishu , President Clinton reversed his earlier enthusiasm for involving American troops in U.N. military operations and issued a directive laying out strict conditions for future U.S. participation . Rwanda , according to Baker of Aspen Institute , has become `` the first test case '' of the Clinton directive . `` There 's no one exerting any leadership to bring about a consensus '' on how to intervene effectively in Rwanda , Baker said . `` The major issue is a lack of will to search for ideas collectively . Any solution is going to have great risks attached to it . And that 's the key : No one wants to take those risks . '' PORT ELIZABETH , South Africa It has taken nine years , but finally Nyameke Goniwe received formal acknowledgment Saturday that the state ordered the brutal murder of her husband . In a wood-paneled courtroom here , a Supreme Court judge ended years of official denials and cover-up by declaring that South Africa 's security forces , in defense of white rule , assassinated anti-apartheid activist Matthew Goniwe and three of his colleagues on a deserted stretch of highway in June 1985 . The killers , said the judge , meant to defeat the mass uprising of the 1980s by eliminating one of its most important leaders , who had turned the eastern Cape region into a hotbed of resistance . `` It has , in my opinion , been established prima facie that the murderers .. . were members of the security forces , '' Judge Neville Zietsman said at the end of a 14-month inquest . The killings , once officially attributed to unknown persons , were revisited after a disgruntled officer two years ago leaked what appeared to have been the assassination order : a state security memo recommending that Goniwe and the others be `` permanently removed from society , as a matter of urgency . '' Listening to Zietsman 's finding , Nyameke Goniwe sat very still , as she had sat through every session of the inquest . Then she walked quickly out of the courtroom , emotions held tightly in check . `` The critical thing is for us to know who did what , and the judge just confirmed for us what we believed all along , '' she said . `` You must understand that our lives have revolved around this case for nine years . '' Cases like the Goniwe murder present a delicate problem to the fledgling democracy led by President Nelson Mandela , who must balance deeply felt calls for restitution with the theme of national reconciliation that he has sounded repeatedly since his election three weeks ago as South Africa 's first black leader . Saturday 's verdict seems to be only the start of a long , traumatic process of exhuming the buried skeletons of this country 's apartheid past , as official files are opened and secret documents thought to have been shredded surface . Estimates of officially mandated killings of opponents of the state as well as the wanton massacres of civilians by operatives in the state security system run into the thousands . Mandela , worried about possible sabotage of his fragile new black-led government by the white-dominated security forces , pledged Friday a blanket amnesty for political crimes committed in the defense of apartheid . `` There will be .. . no vengeance , no witch-hunts , no revenge and no humiliation , '' said his new justice minister , Dullah Omar . Amnesty seekers must , however , disclose their crimes in full , he said , and government will provide unspecified compensation to victims . The sensational murder of Matthew Goniwe underlined the desperate `` total onslaught '' strategy employed in the 1980s by the P.W. Botha government , which sought to save rapidly disintegrating apartheid structures by creating an elaborate state security system with virtually unlimited powers . ( Begin optional trim ) The charismatic Goniwe , a bespectacled 37-year-old schoolteacher , was targeted because he pioneered a community organizing system based on a network of street committees . As chief rural organizer for the United Democratic Front the internal , legal arm of the banned African National Congress he created an organizational web so dense that an entire township could be mobilized in minutes for a rally , a strike or a rent boycott . Goniwe 's telephone was tapped and security agents followed his every move , court papers show . `` He was .. . referred to as an enemy of the state whose activities had to be curtailed or terminated , '' Zietsman said Saturday . By 1985 the entire country was in turmoil . On June 7 of that year , according to the leaked military document , Gen. Stoffel van der Westhuizen , who would remain as director of military intelligence until several weeks ago , sent the message suggesting the `` permanent '' removal of Goniwe , his brother , Mbulelo , and his friend Fort Calata . But Goniwe 's brother was not with him 20 days later , when he headed home to Cradock from this coastal city after another UDF meeting . Riding in the car with him were Calata and two others , Sparrow Mkonto and Sicelo Mhlauli . ( End optional trim ) According to the inquest , security forces no specific individuals have yet been identified stopped Goniwe and his colleagues . They shot and stabbed Sparrow Mkonto , and stabbed the othersthrough the heart and about their bodies . Security police , anxious to conceal the crime , burned the bodies and the car . The charred remains were found scattered over a wide area in the following days . `` For years I didn't want to pass that spot where it happened , '' Nyameke Goniwe said . `` You could still see the marks on the ground today ; grass has not even grown there . '' Charges of government involvement in the killings were quickly dismissed ; an inquest by a local magistrate returned a verdict of murder by persons unknown . But as the reopened inquest drew to a close , van der Westhuizen , at less than 50 years of age , suddenly announced several weeks ago that he was retiring as chief of military intelligence . He cited ill health . Others implicated have mostly retired with large pensions from the government of President Frederik W. de Klerk , who now serves as one of Mandela 's two deputies . The state prosecutor , Michael Hodgen said that all the victims ' families could do now was file civil lawsuits against the government for damages , although the proposed amnesty may make that impossible . ( Optional add end ) Nyameke Goniwe said presidential calls for forgiveness and reconciliation were all well and good , `` but the killers have not even admitted they did anything wrong . '' `` The families have lost everything , and the perpetrators are gaining from it , '' she said . `` We want to celebrate with everybody the new beginning of a new country , but this has been holding us back . '' WASHINGTON President Clinton 's foreign policy difficulties may be igniting widespread criticism of his national security team , but at least one top official is escaping most of the heat : Defense Secretary William J. Perry . In the past four months , the soft-spoken former mathematics professor has emerged as one of the administration 's few pleasant surprises in the foreign policy arena . Besides getting a grip on the Pentagon 's sprawling bureaucracy and gaining the respect of the military Perry , 66 , has become a quiet but important player in the administration 's foreign policy apparatus , gradually winning plaudits from the administration and its critics alike . It was Perry , for example , who helped hone the administration 's proposal to launch air strikes in Bosnia limiting the enforcement to a small exclusion zone that NATO forces could handle easily . He was the administration 's point man in engineering a nuclear weapons disarmament treaty between Russia and Ukraine . And , more recently , he has become its chief spokesman in the stalemate with North Korea over nuclear weapons inspections . With few glitches along the way , Perry `` is dealing with the problems he 's got as well as anyone can be expected to , '' said Robert W. Gaskin , a former Pentagon military strategist who has been a frequent critic of the administration . Sharing that opinion is Harold Brown , who served as defense secretary during the Carter administration . `` Is he going to solve all of their problems ? I think the answer is no , '' Brown said . `` But he has done very well . '' Admittedly , at least part of Perry 's overnight rise may have come by default . By some outside assessments , Secretary of State Warren Christopher has proved a capable negotiator but not a strategic thinker , and national security adviser Anthony Lake has been so low-key that he has failed to enunciate the administration 's policies clearly . Perry is known as a problem-solver , and he explains issues articulately and directly . He also has benefited from the inevitable comparisons to his predecessor , Les Aspin . Aspin 's plans to inject the Pentagon into formulating broad foreign policy brought him into conflict with the State Department and the National Security Council . His frequent public ruminating about policy options and his accompanying gaffes heightened the perception that the administration was in disarray . And his manipulative style alienated many in Congress and the military . By contrast , Perry is demonstrating himself to be a no-nonsense pragmatist who is quick to make decisions and has an impressive command of detail . Invariably straightforward , he has restored good relations with military leaders and lawmakers . `` He has the complete confidence of the military he 's frank , '' said Rep. John P. Murtha , D-Pa. , chairman of the House Appropriations subcommittee on defense . `` I think he 's doing a commendable job . '' Others say he has quietly brought order out of the previous managerial chaos . `` Perry is nothing that Aspin was , and everything that Aspin wasn't , '' one Pentagon-watcher said . He also has confined himself to the defense secretary 's traditional role of running the nation 's military establishment and finding ways to make it serve the president 's foreign policy objectives . Sometimes that means squelching a proposal that seems unrealistically ambitious . For instance , administration officials say he recently nipped a campaign to mount an invasion of Haiti by publicly questioning what the United States would do once its troops took over the island . ( Begin optional trim ) To be sure , Perry 's four months as secretary have not been entirely error-free . In an appearance on NBC 's `` Meet the Press '' program in early April , he set off a major brouhaha by inadvertently leaving the impression that the United States would sit by and let the Bosnian Serbs storm the Muslim city of Gorazde . And a few weeks ago , he provoked a similar flurry over Haiti when he suggested there were preliminary indications that the island 's military strongman , Gen. Raoul Cedras , was about to resign . The political and diplomatic ripples from that incident caused some consternation in the State Department , but so far Perry seems to have recovered successfully , vowing to become more careful in his statements to the news media . ( End optional trim ) A veteran of the Cuban missile crisis he was called in by the Pentagon in 1962 to help analyze data on Soviet weapons emplacements on the island Perry has a keen sense of the moment , especially about developments that help mark the end of the Cold War . A visit to a former Soviet ICBM center last spring left him emotion-filled and eager to tell the world about his experience , as did a NATO meeting last week with former Soviet bloc states . With a long career in the defense industry he is known as the godfather of the Stealth bomber and a background in U.S.-Soviet strategy , high-technology weapons and defense-industry problems , Perry said he has already set a firm agenda for his current term as defense secretary : to keep the world from drifting back into a Cold War , to develop a new approach for using U.S. military power in the post-Cold War world and to manage the reduction in the size of the nation 's armed forces . `` I will measure myself '' by these `` when I leave the job , '' he said . ( Optional Add End ) Critics concede he has made a good start on the first of these , painstakingly forging and cementing ties with former Soviet Bloc military leaders , helping achieve an accord with Russia and Ukraine to dismantle their nuclear weapons , and pressing the administration 's new Partnership for Peace program in NATO . He has begun work on his second objective by creating half a dozen new task forces within the Pentagon to study proposals for altering the way the United States uses military power . On the third , he has begun efforts to streamline the way the Pentagon buys equipment and weapons systems . He has also sought to ease the impact of military downsizing on the nation 's defense industries base by eliminating excess regulations and preserving some programs in order to keep production lines open . WASHINGTON The final tally is in for the golf outing last Tuesday by a White House aide who took a presidential helicopter to play a course near Camp David : $ 13,129.66 The White House Saturday night released that figure and said senior staffers but not President Clinton will contribute the full amount to reimburse the Treasury within the week . Thirteen staffers , nearly the entire White House senior hierarchy , have agreed to chip in . The bill , calculated by the Marine Corps , is based on a total of 5 hours and 31 minutes of flying for two helicopters . The first carried David Watkins , who resigned Thursday as White House director of administration , to Camp David and then to the nearby Holly Hills Country Club ; the second was a training flight paired with the Watkins helicopter . The White House said it would reimburse taxpayers for both helicopter flights . Clinton pledged Thursday that the taxpayers would not be out `` one red cent '' for the cost of the golf outing by Watkins and the head of the White House military office , Alfonso Maldon Jr. , who is being reassigned . But officials were in a bind when Watkins , a longtime Arkansas friend of Clinton 's whose financial disclosure statement pegs his worth at more than $ 1 million , balked at paying for the flight . White House staffers were furious with what they viewed as Watkins 's poor judgment in deciding to take the trip , which he defended even in his resignation letter as a perfectly appropriate effort to see that the president enjoyed Camp David to the maximum . Watkins reasoned that golfing in nearby New Market , Md. , could facilitate that . Presidential aides were even more incensed when Watkins refused to reimburse taxpayers . On Friday , the White House chose to bill the staff willingness to chip in as what Communications Director Mark Gearan called a `` gesture of friendship '' to Watkins and Maldon . Maldon was not asked to repay the money on the grounds that he was following Watkins 's orders . Saturday , the White House line changed . Asked whether the repayment effort should continue to be viewed as a gesture of friendship to Watkins , one senior official answered with an emphatic `` no , '' adding : `` Since Mr. Watkins declined to make full payment , White House staff members volunteered to pay the cost of both flights , rather than forcing the issue , to ensure that the president 's pledge was fulfilled . '' A Marine Corps statement , released by the White House , said White House officials had not requested and were not aware of the second helicopter , which was described as a `` routine training flight related to potential landing sites with respect to medical or other contingency concerning movement around Camp David . '' The Marine Corps said scheduling training flights in conjunction with other White House flights was `` routine procedure '' in order to make certain that crews receive their mandatory flight time and to have them on hand in case there are mechanical difficulties . The statement said the pilot of the first helicopter had only 9.4 hours of his 24 monthly minimum and the pilot of the second helicopter had 11.3 hours toward his minimum . When Clinton went out for a round Saturday at the Robert Trent Jones course at Lake Manassas , Va. , he traveled by motorcade , his usual mode of transportation for local golfing . LOS ANGELES Khallid Abdul Muhammad , condemned nationally by most black and white leaders as a racist hate-monger , was greeted with fervent applause Saturday night by an audience of more than 1,000 African Americans in a theater here . Muhammad , the 43-year-old former senior aide to Louis Farrakhan , head of the Nation of Islam , displayed once again his strident brand of black nationalism that is routinely laced with condemnation of Jews . Contending that blacks have suffered more than Jews at the hands of oppressors ( `` the black holocaust is one hundred times worse than any other holcaust , '' he said at one point ) , Muhammad quickly launched into the kind of name-calling and racial mockery that has earned him national enmity . `` Don't let those bagel-eating , hooked-nosed .. . wanna-be Jews make you think otherwise , '' he said of his statistical claim . Wearing long royal-blue robes over a crisp white shirt , Muhammad theatrically listed some of the most tragic episodes in the history of black people in America , starting with the horrors of the slave ship crossings . As his voice rose in indignation , insisting that recognition of black suffering had been repressed , the crowd applauded and shouted words of agreement . By the time he came to one of his most emotional statements `` the worst crime that can be committed is to be robbed of self knowledge '' the audience errupted in frenzied applause and screams of agreement that nearly drowned out Muhammad 's voice . There were also moments of dark humor . Arguing that Jesus was black , Muhammad said , `` The Bible said Jesus would have hair like lamb 's wool , that nappy hair. .. . I 'm talking about a black lord , a black Jesus , a black savior . Take that cracker down off your wall and throw him in the garbage . '' The audience screamed in delight . The crowd that came to see Muhammad did so out of a mixture of curiosity and almost-religious support . The believers said Muhammad had touched a strong chord among American blacks and that his strength was his appeal to black self-sufficiency , not racism and that some of his outrageousness should be taken figuratively . `` He 's telling black people to rise and take care of ourselves , '' said UCLA student Susan Leach , 21 . `` I believe in everything he says . I think it 's white people who make the controversy . '' `` He 's not anti-Semitic or racist , '' said Patrick Pritchett , 41 . `` How could he be ? How can the first people on earth be racist or anti-Semitic ? '' ( Optional add end ) Outside the theater , the neighborhood took on the air of a street festival , intensified by a rally held in an adjacent park by a group called the All-African People 's Revolutionary Party . Inside the hall , all members of the crowd and the press were frisked for weapons . Women 's handbags were searched , and all objects including pens and makeup containers were scrutinized . When the speeches began , the crowd was treated to what seemed like a cross between the impassioned spirit of a rally and the fervor of a church meeting . Before Muhammad came onstage , the audience was treated to an African dance troupe , a history lesson from a speaker who decried numerous incidents of racism and oppression against blacks , and a roll call of visiting celebrities . Actor Wesley Snipes , sitting in the front row , came onstage briefly when he was introduced . Rapper Ice T , who had earlier embraced Muhammad backstage , gave a rousing speech . Also onstage were such guests as Georgiana Williams , the mother of Damian Williams , the most celebrated defendant convicted in the Reginald O . Denny beating trial that grew out of the 1992 Los Angeles riots , and Celes King , a well-known bail bondsman and former president of the Los Angeles Human Relations Commission and the Los Angeles chapter of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People . The following editorial appeared in Sunday 's Washington Post : The sexual-harassment lawsuit filed by Paula Jones against President Clinton is a case of first impression no one has ever brought a civil suit against a sitting president for alleged conduct that occurred before he took office . The court is sure to hear a variety of arguments on why the lawsuit should be thrown out . Unfortunately for the president , every angle that has been suggested so far has flaws . The president 's advisers have put forward a theory that the chief executive is simply immune from civil suits , or at the very least entitled to have litigation postponed until he leaves office . They cite a 1982 Supreme Court ruling that accorded President Richard Nixon this protection . But that case is easily distinguished , because it was limited to suits arising out of a president 's official acts , specifically in that case Nixon 's firing of whistle-blower Ernest Fitzgerald . Such an immunity is similar to the kind enjoyed by legislators and judges who cannot be sued for actions taken in their official capacity . The allegations against Clinton , of course , arose out of conduct that occurred long before he became president and certainly involved no actions that were part of his official duties . The president 's lawyers may well ask a judge to make the leap from protecting official acts to shielding private ones , but such a finding would be a substantial extension of the Nixon v . Fitzgerald doctrine . Harvard professor Laurence Tribe has another theory that is even more imaginative . He cites a federal statute that protects military personnel on active duty from civil suits and argues that since the president is commander in chief of the armed forces , he is included in the protected group . The statute mentions no civilians and was clearly intended to cover men and women whose ability to defend lawsuits is severely hampered by the nature of military service . In addition to the immunity defense , the president 's attorneys may also move to dismiss on other grounds , questioning , for example , Paula Jones 's use of an old civil-rights statute to support a legal action that should have been brought under the equal-employment laws but on these laws the statute of limitations had run out . Others will question the plaintiff 's motives , point to her partisan supporters and complain that she waited until the last minute to file this suit . But probably none of these objections will carry weight in court . It is likely that motions to dismiss will fail . But extended appeals may perhaps postpone an actual trial for years . The prospect of a public airing of these charges true or not is surely troubling for the president and for a lot of people who have an interest in the well-being of his presidency , irrespective of anything else . But the alternative of granting a single individual special immunity from civil suit in these circumstances is not a good idea no matter how powerful he is or how important it is that he be able to conduct the business of his office . Even those who believe Clinton has been wronged in this case need to consider the precedent that would be set by such a waiver . Divorce actions could be delayed , child-custody disputes postponed for years , damage claims ranging from auto accidents to industrial pollution could be shelved , leaving victims in each case without remedies for years . Like every citizen who finds himself in a legal dispute , the president must defend himself in court . Frivolous cases and claims arising out of his office can be dismissed . His schedule can be accommodated , and demands on his time can be minimized . But individuals with private claims have a right to proceed , and he has the obligation to respond . In his 18 years as a reclusive writer in Cavendish , Vt. , Alexander Solzhenitsyn created an ideal Russia . It existed in his mind , within the walls of his household and in the forests of birch trees , which had the same sun and blue sky that on good days can be seen in Russia . He saw few visitors besides his family , had virtually no contact with the outside world . Instead , he applied the grueling self-discipline he adopted during his years in Stalin 's gulags . He got up at 6 every morning and spent the rest of the day writing , completing `` The Red Wheel , '' his four-volume history of events leading to the 1917 Russian Revolution . No one knows whether that exhaustive and long-winded history will ever be published in full . Few people in the West are that interested in the subject . As for Russians , they no longer have endless time to read about past history that has little relevance to matters at hand . Like millions of Westerners , they are hustling to make a living . We wish Solzhenitsyn well as he returns to his native Russia . But we fear he is in for a tremendous disappointment . Crime and corruption are rampant , Western pop music , pulp literature and pornography prevalent . He will have a tough time trying to reconcile his idealized view of Russia with the rudeness and greed he will encounter or with the country 's disregard for thoughtful writing and high culture . As a painstaking chronicler of the gulags , Solzhenitsyn made his contribution not only to history but to a public realization at home and abroad of the true nature of communism . The country which oppressed and exiled him no longer exists , however . It was replaced by another that is still taking its first steps on a long road to economic prosperity , cultural fulfillment and rule of law . Anticipating the collapse of communism , Solzhenitsyn wrote in 1991 that `` we must take care not to be crushed beneath its rubble instead of gaining liberty . '' As he moves to Moscow , he may realize that life in Vermont offered more inner peace . Russia may be eternal , but it , too , changes . For most of the last half-century , the relationship between the United States and India was colored by Cold War distrust . Differences between the world 's two most populous democracies were frequent , with Washington voicing concern over India 's ties to the Soviet Union , its nonaligned status , its state-dominated economy and its nuclear weapons program . From a U.S. perspective , there was cause for suspicion , and that suspicion was the basis for a longstanding U.S. policy in South Asia that favored Pakistan , India 's neighbor and bitter rival . Now , however , the Soviet Union is gone and India is making a revolutionary transformation from socialist protectionism to a market-oriented economy . In light of this and the fact that Pakistan now has nuclear weapons , the United States is being forced to reassess the Indo-American relationship . Economic cooperation between the two nations is important . The United States already is India 's largest export market , and U.S. corporations like AT&T , Ford , General Electric , Coca-Cola and IBM have operations in India . An enduring economic relationship appears certain . In a speech this month before a joint session of the U.S. Congress , Indian Prime Minister P.V. Narasimha Rao emphasized the new economic ties between Washington and New Delhi . For that matter , so has Ambassador-designate Frank Wisner , who will fill a 16-month vacancy and is expected to be confirmed when the Senate reconvenes after the Memorial Day holiday recess . Such optimistic assessments are certainly welcome . But as the United States becomes more economically linked to India , it will be forced to face up to some uncomfortable differences that persist . These include India 's continuing attempt to develop nuclear weapons and its efforts , much criticized by human rights groups , to crush a separatist insurrection in Kashmir . The violence in Kashmir reportedly has claimed as many as 20,000 lives . Although the United States and India can easily agree on the benefits of a stronger economic relationship , they aren't likely to find the going smooth as they confront the political challenges . WASHINGTON Next year , for the first time , the United States will produce more combat planes for foreign air forces than for the Pentagon , highlighting America 's replacement of the Soviet Union as the world 's main arms supplier . Encouraged by the Clinton administration , the defense industry last year had its best export year ever , having sold $ 32 billion worth of weapons overseas , more than twice the 1992 total of $ 15 billion . As the administration and the industry look abroad for new markets to offset military spending cutbacks at home , they are raising concern in Congress and a chorus of criticism from arms control advocates . `` Things have moved toward the ` merchants of death ' view of arms production , '' said Randall Forsberg , executive director of the Institute for Defense and Disarmament Studies in Cambridge , Mass. . `` It 's becoming a commercial business involved in profits and jobs rather than security . '' This will be the last year this century that the U.S. defense industry will produce more combat planes for domestic than overseas use , according to a study by Forsberg . Next year , 92 combat planes will be delivered to U.S. forces ; 97 will go abroad . In 1996 , the Pentagon will get just 24 , compared with 153 for overseas . Planes are , except for ships , the most expensive weapons , and account for more than half the value of U.S. arms exports . The increase in arms exports , Forsberg said , creates a long-term paradox for the United States : Foreign sales were meant to help keep the U.S. defense industry operating and able to meet future threats ; but the main source of new threats is likely to come from the proliferation arms abroad . `` They are going to create the very threats they are insuring against , '' she said . `` Short-term commercial interests are outweighing our long-term security interests . '' Joel Johnson , international vice president of the Aerospace Industries Association , countered that as the United States reduces its overseas military presence and demands that allies accept more of the defense burden , it is inevitable that the allies will need more weapons . `` You can't have it both ways , '' he said . ( Begin optional trim ) The export of older-model combat planes is overtaking their production for domestic use , he said , as the Pentagon develops such new programs as the F-22 fighter , improved F-18 attack jets and the Commanche helicopter . Once those new planes go into production for the Pentagon around the turn of the century , the gap between higher exports and lower domestic sales will be corrected , he said . `` The only thing now keeping the ( production ) lines open is exports , '' Johnson said . Noting that 450,000 U.S. defense workers have lost their jobs since 1991 , Johnson said : `` Why do you want to fire people in St. Louis and hire them in Paris ? '' ( End optional trim ) Mindful of the controversy , the Clinton administration is forging a new arms sales policy . A senior White House official involved in drafting the policy said it would seek to establish an `` international regime '' of nations with `` a common set of standards '' for arms exports . The intent would be to restrict arms exports to particular regions or countries and bar the sale of certain weapons systems altogether . The official declined to be more specific . Testifying to the Senate Budget Committee earlier this year , Defense Secretary William J. Perry said : `` The dominant criterion for determining whether any weapons systems .. . are sold to a foreign government still is a national security decision , not an economic decision . '' But critics question that assertion . `` The ( Clinton ) policy and practice , as far as we can see , is a continuation of what the policy under Bush and Reagan was , which was sell , sell , sell , '' said Sima Osdoby , director of policy for Women 's Action for New Directions , a Washington group seeking to divert defense spending to social programs . Natalie J. Goldring , of the the British American Security Information Council , a Washington-based advocacy and research group , said : `` The United States has a special responsibility to lead efforts toward arms-transfer control . Instead , U.S. policy is moving in the direction of less-restricted arms sales . '' In a paper titled `` In Search of Arms Control , '' she pointed to Clinton 's support of major arms-sales contracts during the 1992 election campaign and while in office ; his loosening of controls on high-technology exports ; the taxpayer subsidy of U.S. company displays at foreign air shows ; and an Air Force plan to sell up to 360 used F-16s abroad to enable it to buy up to 88 more sophisticated planes . ( Begin optional trim ) Until 1990 , the Soviet Union led in military sales to an arms-hungry world as it sought to export and defend global Communist revolution . Between 1989 and 1991 , as the Soviets retreated from the market , world arms sales fell by 53 percent . U.S. arms sales declined less steeply , by 34 percent , leaving the United States with a bigger share of a smaller pie . In 1991 , the United States took the lead in international arms sales and has widened it since . In 1981 , the United States supplied 19.3 percent of world arms exports , compared with the Soviet Union 's 39.9 percent . In 1991 , according to the latest statistics from the U.S. . Arms Control and Disarmament Agency , the U.S. share had nearly doubled , to 37.8 percent ; the Soviet share was down to 26 percent . The Arms Control Association , a Washington research and lobbying group , says that the export trend has continued . Last year , the United States supplied about 50 percent of the world arms market ; Russia supplied 17 percent . ( End optional trim ) U.S. arms sales were boosted by the Persian Gulf war , which provided a showcase for advanced U.S. weapons technology , with `` smart '' bombs disappearing on worldwide TV down the air conditioning ducts of strategic buildings in Iraq . Governments able to afford such weapons lined up to place their orders ; The United States has even overcome its traditional reluctance to arm the Third World . It increased its share of the military market in developing countries from 12.8 percent in 1981 to 32.3 percent in 1991 . Over the same period , the Soviet share dropped from 42.7 percent to 33.3 percent . Most of the arms-sales growth is in two regions the Middle East and Eastern Asia . Critics assert that the United States in some areas of the world is engaged in an arms race with itself by supplying weapons to both sides of potential conflicts . Turkey and Greece , historic foes , have been two of this country 's biggest customers . But the most dramatic example has been in the Middle East . Saudi Arabia placed a $ 9 billion order for 72 F-15XPs in 1992 . This year , Israel matched that with a $ 2.4 billion purchase of 25 ultra-sophisticated F-15Is . Some in Congress express concern that economic considerations are driving conventional-arms sales overseas , jeopardizing national security . Legislation to set standards for U.S. arms exports has been introduced in both the House and Senate . WASHINGTON While Congress is away on a 12-day Memorial Day break , staff members of the Senate Finance Committee will be at work drafting a compromise health-care plan that could become the main hope for breaking a five-month congressional impasse on President Clinton 's top legislative priority . Committee Chairman Daniel Patrick Moynihan , D-N.Y. , and ranking minority member Bob Packwood , R-Ore. , agreed before the break to have their aides work out language embodying areas of agreement and have it ready for consideration when Congress returns June 8 . No one is betting how far the bipartisan exercise will go , but there is agreement on both sides of the Capitol that it represents what may be one of the last hopes for a breakthrough on the health-care front . Chairman Edward M. Kennedy , D-Mass. , of the Senate Labor and Human Resources Committee , which shares jurisdiction with Finance , aims to finish his version of a health bill the first week back . Despite concessions that have won bipartisan agreement on some secondary features of the plan , the bill as a whole does not seem likely to draw significant Republican support . That is clearly the case with the measure being worked on in the counterpart Education and Labor Committee in the House . A draft that cleared one of its subcommittees just before the recess is described by critics as `` Clinton-Plus , '' promising even more benefits and imposing even more regulatory burdens than the White House plan that has failed to enlist moderate Democratic or Republican support . The House Energy and Commerce Committee appears so deadlocked in its efforts to draft a bill that Chairman John D. Dingell , D-Mich. , has spoken privately of throwing up his hands and asking the House to discharge the panel from further consideration of the measure . Dingell has been unable to get a sufficient number of Democrats to accept his watered-down version of the Clinton bill , so he never began formal markup sessions . A middle group of conservative Democrats and moderate Republicans on the committee has been equally frustrated about trying to frame a compromise . The last of the Big Five health committees , House Ways and Means , has been slowed to a crawl , in part by the delay in getting cost estimates from the Congressional Budget Office , and in part by the threatened indictment of its chairman , Rep. Dan Rostenkowski , D-Ill . Although its health subcommittee finished marking up a major proposal more than a month ago , Ways and Means has not gotten beyond the general discussion stage . Taken together , the problems with the other committees and their products have led such key legislators as Rep. Jim Cooper , D-Tenn. , to say , `` We 're all hoping Senate Finance can find a fresh trail out of this swamp . '' Three developments have raised hopes that this is not just a wistful dream . Last week three other moderate Republicans on Finance Sens. John H. Chafee , R.I. , Dave Durenberger , Minn. , and John C. Danforth , Mo. encouraged Packwood and Moynihan to explore a compromise . They reportedly told the chairman that the act of drafting is the quickest way , as one of them put it , to `` turn Bob Dole away from political posturing and focus him on what really needs to be done . '' Sen. Robert J. Dole , R-Kan. , the Senate minority leader and a member of the Finance Committee , is the man Moynihan has tried repeatedly to enlist as a partner , but pressure from conservative Republicans has made Dole increasingly critical of anything resembling the Clinton plan . The second development that raised hopes of a Finance Committee compromise has been the series of trial balloons floated by Sen. John B . Breaux , D-La. , co-sponsor with Cooper of a managed-competition plan that once appeared to be the major rival to the Clinton bill . Last week Breaux proposed omitting for now any requirement that all employers buy health insurance for their workers . That `` employer mandate '' section of the Clinton bill has been denounced by Dole and other Republicans and is a major sticking point to compromise . Instead , Breaux would rely on insurance reforms to bring coverage to more Americans but would require that in three to five years , if specified percentages of the uninsured have not been able to buy policies , `` employer mandates '' would be applied . Dole 's initial reaction was skeptical . `` Congress is here every year , '' he said . `` We don't need to bind some future Congress , and we can't do it anyhow . '' But he also said , `` Everybody is looking for a way to avoid mandates up front , but to bring them in if we don't get to what the president likes to call universal coverage . '' The third positive factor was the reaction of Senate Majority Leader George J. Mitchell , D-Maine , also on Finance , to the Breaux proposal and the Moynihan-Packwood effort . Mitchell is regarded as the committee 's most influential protector of Clinton 's positions . But Mitchell said in an interview that `` the ` employer mandate ' is only one route to universal coverage , and if someone else Senator Breaux or Senator Packwood or Senator Chafee suggests a way to get there by other means , we 'll look at it . '' Committee sources said Mitchell 's private reaction to the Breaux plan is more supportive than those public comments . But they also cautioned against assuming that it will be easy to bridge the differences on mandates , cost containment and other intractable issues before Congress takes another break on July 1 . IRVINE , Calif. . The Eagles certainly didn't take it easy in returning to concerts after 14 years . Instead of playing it safe by simply serving up the two dozen or so of the best-known Eagles tunes in a nostalgia-to-the-max reunion package , the most celebrated Southern California band since the '60s gamely threw all sorts of surprises at the audience on Friday at Irvine Meadows Amphitheatre . Surprise 1 : Defying the conventional concert wisdom of saving your signature tune for a climactic moment late in the show , the Eagles opened with `` Hotel California . '' Surprise 2 : Instead of inviting the audience to then settle into a golden oldies mode by following with such peaceful , easy trademark hits such as `` Take It Easy , '' the band followed `` Hotel California '' with more challenging fare four more songs from the `` Hotel California '' album , including `` Wasted Time '' and `` Pretty Maids All in a Row . '' Surprise 3 : After devoting most of the opening hour to old Eagles material , the quintet shifted emphasis dramatically in the second half to focus on new Eagles tunes and the members ' solo works . Surprise 4 : The group didn't perform `` The Long Run , '' `` Best of My Love , '' `` Last Resort , '' `` Sad Cafe , '' `` On the Border , '' `` Take It Easy ` ` or `` Peaceful Easy Feeling '' at all . The result : Only 13 of the 29 songs were from the Eagles '70s catalog . Biggest Surprise : The show still worked . `` Good party , '' a beaming Glenn Frey said at one point , looking out at the 15,000 cheering fans as he stood on a stage whose set resembled a Mad Max-like industrial wasteland in keeping with the apocalyptic nature of some Eagles songs . `` Real good party . '' The audience was equally enthused . Fans , some of whom had come from as far away as New York and Kentucky to toast the start of the group 's first tour since their bitter 1980 break-up , shouted , `` Thank you '' and `` We love you '' throughout the show . Many sang along with all the hits and danced in front of their seats to the upbeat tunes . Yet the selection of songs suggested that the Eagles had more on their minds than merely the applause of the night . Amid all the talk about the tour simply being a one-time , money-driven affair , the Eagles were intent on demonstrating that , indeed , the band is in for the long run that the reason Frey , Don Henley , Don Felder , Joe Walsh and Timothy B . Schmit came back together after all these years was to resume writing and recording together . And that issue the recapturing of the band 's old creative spark is the real challenge facing the Eagles . The band wasted little time Friday in passing Test One of the reunion campaign . Midway through the opening hour , it was clear that the Eagles remain the masters of such '70s trademarks as sweet , seductive harmonies and precise but flavorful musicianship . It was also apparent that the band 's best songs including `` Hotel California '' and `` Desperado '' speak of social and personal morality in ways that remain relevant . The question is whether the Eagles will be able to come up with new songs that continue to reflect on human rituals and rites with equal insight and skill . That is the more important Test Two and an answer isn't likely until the band delivers an album of new material , possibly next summer . ( Optional add end ) Meantime , the group is trying to encourage fans to look forward not just backward . The solo material notably Henley 's `` Heart of the Matter , '' `` New York Minute '' and `` Boys of Summer '' served as a bridge and helped add a more contemporary edge to the evening 's tone . Similarly , the turning of the microphone over to Frey , Walsh and Schmit for solo turns was a reminder that the band isn't just a Henley or Henley-Frey proposition . Of the four new tunes being introduced on the tour , the most striking is the fiery `` Get Over It , '' a wickedly satiric reflection by Henley and Frey on '90s political correctness , with a strong commercial feel to it . The Eagles , who were joined on various numbers by four support musicians , haven't tried to add flash to their performances . The quintet still simply relies on its music and that music still serves them well . The Eagles are once again flying high . WASHINGTON President Clinton 's planned defense against the sexual harassment lawsuit by a former Arkansas state employee raises questions of presidential privilege that have been debated since the founding of the republic , and that courts and presidents have grappled with ever since . White House Counsel Lloyd N . Cutler last week sketched out one possible legal argument for Clinton : that the Constitution generally protects a sitting president from being sued for damages . The balance in this case in which Paula Corbin Jones waited three years before bringing suit and has no urgent need for recompense tips in favor of forcing her to delay her lawsuit until the end of Clinton 's term , Cutler said on the MacNeil-Lehrer News Hour . Clinton has not yet decided what he will have his private lawyers argue in court , but sources close to the president said he may go beyond simply arguing that the case should be put off until after he leaves office and contend that , in this case , Jones has lost her chance to sue by waiting until after Clinton became president . But the sources said Clinton does not plan to contend that a president or former president is absolutely immune from being sued in any circumstances over his private conduct . The issue has never been decided by a court , and the debate reflects the tension in American law between the fundamental precept that no one is above the law a departure from the English rule that the king could do no wrong and the need , rooted in both practical and constitutional considerations , to protect the office of the presidency . Courts are more likely to side with the claims of presidential privilege in civil suits than in criminal cases , where the needs of prosecutors or criminal defendants may take precedence . In the Watergate tapes case , the Supreme Court ruled unanimously that then-President Richard M. Nixon could not assert executive privilege as a grounds for refusing to turn over the tapes to the special prosecutor . Presidents have also testified as witnesses in criminal proceedings , but have at the same time been granted more procedural protections than ordinary witnesses . Presidents Gerald R. Ford and Jimmy Carter gave videotaped testimony in criminal cases while in office , and President Ronald Reagan gave a videotaped deposition in the Iran-Contra prosecution of former national security adviser John M. Poindexter . Even in criminal cases , however , the president may be entitled to unique protections . Although the issue has never been decided , the Justice Department argued when a federal grand jury was investigating then-Vice President Spiro T. Agnew that a sitting president could not be criminally indicted . Instead , the department said in a filing by then-Solicitor General Robert H. Bork , the president cannot be prosecuted until he is impeached or otherwise leaves office . In civil cases like the suit now pending against Clinton courts have been particularly protective of the president . In 1982 the Supreme Court ruled 5 to 4 in Nixon v. Fitzgerald that a president can never be sued for damages for his official actions no matter how egregious his conduct , and even after he is out of office . The court described a Pentagon whistle-blower 's claim as a `` merely private suit for damages , '' noting the `` lesser public interest '' in civil cases than in criminal proceedings . The reasoning in the Nixon case can be used to argue either for or against extending similar protection to a president being sued for his private actions . On the one hand , the court relied heavily on the need to ensure that the president , empowered `` to make the most sensitive and far-reaching decisions entrusted to any official under our constitutional system , '' should not have to worry about being subjected to a civil lawsuit every time he acts . Because Jones is complaining about Clinton 's conduct before he became president , Clinton will not be able to argue that the court should shield him in order to preserve his ability to exercise his authority and judgment as president . On the other hand , the court also emphasized what it described as the `` unique position '' of the president within the constitutional system and raised two other concerns that Clinton will be able to use to bolster his case : the threat of proliferating lawsuits against a target as attractive as the president and the drain on a president 's valuable time and energy of defending himself against a lawsuit . TOKYO At last Japan can rest assured : Hachiko 's wan-wan was not a weak one . This is an important cultural discovery . But to understand why , you need to understand some Japanese dog lore . Between the world wars , in Tokyo 's Shibuya section , there lived a golden brown Akita dog named Hachiko . The famous tale of her loyalty and devotion to her master is so familiar here that she is universally known as `` chu-ken Hachiko , '' or `` faithful dog Hachiko . '' If a national election were held to pick America 's favorite dog , the votes would probably be split among such diverse candidates as Lassie , Snoopy , Goofy , Old Yeller and Millie Bush . But in this more homogeneous nation , where everybody tends to agree with everybody else on these big cultural questions , there would be no such confusion . Unquestionably , unequivocally , the choice for Japan 's favorite dog would be Hachiko . Hachiko died in 1935 , but millions still visit her each year , in stuffed form , at the National Museum in Tokyo . There are countless books , movies and CDs , plus statues and plaques commemorating the faithful dog all over Japan . Because 1994 is the Year of the Dog in the Oriental calendar cycle , and because it is also the 60th anniversary of the most famous Hachiko memorial , Japan this spring has launched into a new burst of Hachiko hagiography . The biggest scoop yet in the media 's Hachiko Wars occurred over the weekend , when the Culture Broadcasting Network obtained a hitherto unknown recording of Hachiko 's bark . It was an old LP record , broken into three pieces . But technicians at Culture Broadcasting repaired the disk with laser surgery so that it could be broadcast . After a breathless buildup , a dramatic introduction and many commercials , the faithful dog 's voice was played for a national audience Saturday . Hachiko said , `` Wan-wan . '' Wan-wan is the Japanese word for `` bow-wow '' that is how the Japanese render the sound of a dog 's bark . For that matter , cats in Japan say `` nyaah-nyaah ' ' instead of `` meow , '' and frogs here say `` kero-kero . '' The Japanese word for what a rooster says is `` ko-kek-ko-ko , '' which is , if you think about it , a lot closer to the real thing than `` cock-a-doodle-doo . '' Having a hefty `` wan-wan '' is considered a sign of health and good karma for a dog here . And to everyone 's relief , Hachiko had a healthy , hearty wan-wan . Even a wimpy wan-wan , however , might not have diminished the national affection for Hachiko , because her true story crystalizes the characteristic trustworthiness and loyalty that dog-lovers everywhere have come to expect from Man 's Best Friend . Hachiko , born in 1922 , was the pet of Prof. Eisaburo Ueno of Tokyo University , an institution roughly as prestigious here as Harvard , Princeton and Stanford combined in the United States . Ueno lived in Shibuya , then considered a suburb but now a very trendy , up-market Tokyo neighborhood . Every morning , the professor would walk from his home to Shibuya Station to take the train to work and every morning Hachiko came with him . Each afternoon , when Ueno came back home on the afternoon train , Hachiko would be waiting on the platform to meet him . All the other commuters and the merchants of Shibuya came to know and love the dog and await her daily vigil . One day in 1925 , Ueno died suddenly while at work . Faithful Hachiko waited and waited at the station that night , but her master did not come home . So Hachiko came back to wait for her master again the next afternoon . And the next , and the next . In fact , she kept coming back to the station , through rain , snow and the occasional earthquake , every afternoon for the next 10 years . Word of this real-life wonder dog spread around Japan and the world . American dog-lovers were so moved that the Los Angeles Friends of Animals raised funds to commission a statue honoring `` Faithful Dog Hachiko . '' It was erected at Shibuya Station in 1934 and become the most famous of many subsequent memorials to the dog . Hachiko died in 1935 and was buried next to her master in Tokyo 's Aoyama Cemetery . But she remained alive in drama , books , movies , songs and a million bedtime stories . During World War II , Japan 's military dictators took an ambivalent stance toward Hachiko . They made her story mandatory reading in the schools , to preach the importance of unthinking loyalty to one 's superiors . But they also melted down the famous statue to get metal for shipbuilding . Hachiko is a powerful retail agent in Japan , and the department stores here sell Hachiko cookies , cups , calendars , coasters , calculators , chopstick holders and other memorabilia . The Tokyu Department store in Shibuya offers , among much else , a Hachiko necktie ( with `` Wan Wan ! '' printed on it ) for $ 50 and a $ 58 wristwatch with Hachiko 's face and this message , in English , on the dial : `` The most heartful Japanese , A dog . He goes to station to meet with his master . '' As for the statue that became a war casualty , it was replaced in 1948 and became nationally famous once again so much so that when Shibuya Station was rebuilt to accommodate increased population , the architect had to design around Hachiko 's statue so that it would not be disturbed . Hachiko 's brand of loyalty to a leader is an important social virtue in Japan . But so is promptness . Accordingly , the Hachiko statue at Shibuya Station is also famous as the locus of many lover 's quarrels . A couple makes plans to meet at Hachiko , and then gets into an argument on the theme of `` Why didn't you get here on time ? '' To avoid confrontation , the Japanese have placed , at Hachiko 's statue , a machine that lets you punch in on arrival and issues a card saying what time you arrived . That way you can prove to your lover that you did arrive at Shibuya Station right on time just as Faithful Dog Hachiko did for all those lonely years . WASHINGTON The No. 2 executive at the Social Security Administration has decided to return a $ 9,256 bonus he received after about three months on the job . Social Security principal deputy commissioner Lawrence H. Thompson `` voluntarily decided '' to return the money , the agency 's commissioner , Shirley Chater , told a Senate subcommittee earlier this month . Several House and Senate members had raised questions about Thompson 's award and Social Security 's decision to spend $ 32 million on employee bonuses last year . More than two-thirds of the agency 's 65,000 employees received the bonuses . Chater told the Senate Appropriations subcommittee on human services that Thompson 's award was based on his work at Social Security and his `` exemplary performance '' at the General Accounting Office for the nine months he served there before transferring agencies . Thompson 's bonus , she said , `` seemed an appropriate action at the time . '' But Chater said she and Thompson `` both understand the sensitivity and concern that has been expressed regarding the fact the award was paid by ( Social Security ) . Consequently , based on this concern and the basic issues raised by many regarding the fairness and consistency of the award with current regulations governing their use not to mention how it might adversely affect the future payment of performance awards to federal employees Dr. Thompson has voluntarily decided to return the entire performance award . '' After members of Congress raised questions about the government 's employee bonus program , the Clinton administration issued a government-wide memorandum urging federal agencies to reexamine how they award cash bonuses , stressing that bonuses should be linked to improved performance . Some agencies , such as the Agriculture Department and the U.S. . Information Agency , revamped their bonus programs before the administration asked for its review . At USIA , for example , Director Joseph Duffey reduced fiscal 1994 funding for bonuses by 85 percent and shifted the money into employee training programs . The programs include career counseling , training in new technologies and outplacement assistance for employees whose jobs are being eliminated . Office of Personnel Management figures for fiscal 1992 show that the government spent more than $ 549 million on 759,660 bonuses . The average award was $ 724 , and the fiscal 1992 bonus money represented less than 1 percent of the federal payroll . Sen. David Pryor , D-Ark. , has asked Vice President Gore to address the role of employee bonuses as part of the administration 's effort to overhaul civil service laws later this year . LONDON Prime Minister John Major 's public criticism of street beggars drew fire from political , religious and civic leaders Sunday in what is developing into another row for the British government . During an interview with a Bristol newspaper , Major described panhandling as `` offensive and unjustified '' and called beggars an `` eyesore '' who should be reported to police . The comments , published Friday , gained wide publicity over the weekend and provoked an outcry from many quarters . Tony Blair , the Labor Party domestic affairs spokesman who is favored to be the party 's next leader , called Major 's statement bewilderingly petty . Blair said the prime minister was trying to deflect attention away from bigger problems , such as `` education , a million people under 25 out of work , major problems of putting this country back on its feet . '' `` The real criticism of what the prime minister has done is not only its vindictiveness against some who will be genuinely destitute it is the notion that this is what we should be concentrating on , '' he said . The Bishop of Liverpool , the Rt. Rev. David Sheppard , said there is no justification for attacking society 's most `` vulnerable elements . '' `` I find it a very unlovely feature of public life when people in power pick on the most despised groups in society rather than asking what the causes are . '' Social workers were equally forceful in their condemnation of Major , who took over power in 1990 and said he wanted to be the leader of a classless , caring society . `` He is passing the buck . He is having a go at homeless people because they would appear to be defenseless , '' said Stan Burridge , one of the organizers of a Sunday rally by homeless protesters . The London rally , planned before Major made his comments , was intended to commemorate the 600 people estimated to die on Britain 's streets every year . Marchers waved banners saying : `` Beggars cannot be choosers . '' Major was unrepentant during a campaign stop Saturday , saying , `` I stand by what I said . There is no need for begging . '' ( Optional add end ) And his remarks seemed to strike a responsive chord with many in the public . The Conservative Party headquarters reported that telephone calls were running 2-1 in favor of the prime minister . In recent weeks , newspapers have printed accounts of organized gangs of beggars who aggressively accost passersby . One gang operating on the London subway was reported to be posing as refugees from Bosnia-Herzegovina and making up to $ 30,000 a week . In England , beggars have no official status . Police treat them as vagrants or confidence tricksters , and they are subject to ancient laws with penalties of up to $ 1,500 . Each year about 1,000 panhandlers are held for questioning by police . Sheppard , in his comments to BBC Radio , said , `` If there are aggressive tramps frightening people , yes , they should be reported to the police and there should be firm action . But that is a tiny handful of cases . '' JAPAN-DOG ( Reid , Post ) has been held by the Post . Do not publish the story . It will be released at a later date . BERLIN More than 100 times a minute , 50,000 times a day , a camera shutter clicks in a windowless basement in southwest Berlin , capturing on each frame a fragment of Germany 's grim past . Thirteen camera operators labor throughout the day on what some here say may be the most ambitious microfilming project ever undertaken : the duplication of 75 million pages of Nazi personnel documents stored in a former Gestapo eavesdropping post now known as the Berlin Document Center . The microfilmers work swiftly because on July 1 the U.S. . State Department intends to relinquish custody of the original documents to the German government . The duplicates 8 million feet of film on 38,000 rolls will be flown to Washington this summer and deposited in the National Archives . The Justice Department keeps the right to unrestricted access to the original files . The pages passing beneath the camera lens range from the prosaic to the sinister : Heinrich Himmler 's expense accounts ; Nazi Party membership card No. 899,895 , belonging to one Adolf Eichmann ; Josef Mengele 's dental records and membership sheet in the Nazi Physicians Professional Association ; Hermann Goering 's suicide notes , scribbled before he swallowed cyanide in 1946 . Among the old files with contemporary relevance is that of Erich Priebke , a former SS captain now awaiting extradition in Argentina on charges of helping to murder 335 Italians in Rome 's Adreatine Caves in 1944 . Returning the original documents to German custody is another milestone in the restoration of German sovereignty after a half-century of Allied occupation . But the proposed transfer has met resistance . Historians , Jewish groups and Nazi hunters have bitterly objected to the State Department 's plan . They complain that restrictive German privacy laws will hamper access to the original documents , that the National Archives duplicates will not be available for at least two years and that surrendering the files is morally wrong . `` We bought those documents with the most precious commodity we have : the blood of our young boys and the other Allied forces that had to fight the Nazi menace in order to liberate the world , '' Elan Steinberg , executive director of the World Jewish Congress , said in a telephone interview from New York . `` I 'm reminded of the old saying that if it ISn't broke , don't fix it , '' he said . `` The Berlin Document Center ISn't broke right now , and I don't know why we 're trying to fix it . '' Rep. Tom Lantos , D-Calif. , who led hearings on the document center last month , has threatened a full debate in Congress `` on Germany 's Nazi past '' unless Bonn and the State Department resolve the controversy . German Chancellor Helmut Kohl and Foreign Minister Klaus Kinkel recently promised Jewish leaders that rules governing access to the original documents will remain in line with U.S. regulations until the National Archives duplicates are ready for viewing . U.S. Embassy officials in Bonn are trying to hammer out the details . `` This is something that has been negotiated over quite a long period of time and has been reviewed from every angle that I can imagine . When concerns have been raised , they 've been reviewed again , '' said Dan Hamilton , policy adviser to Richard Holbrooke , the U.S. ambassador to Germany . Donald Kobletz , the State Department 's lawyer in Berlin in the 1980s and now a private attorney here , said : `` Can you tell a sovereign government , one of your closest allies , that 50 years after the war you don't really trust them to keep their own records ? After getting microfilm copies , paid for by the German government ? I would consider it a gratuitous irritation to our relationship that really isn't warranted . '' Many of the files were seized by Allied troops driving across Germany such as some 10.7 million Nazi Party membership cards impounded by American soldiers at a Bavarian paper mill as the SS prepared to reduce them to pulp . The cards provided useful evidence for prosecutors at the Nazi War Crimes tribunal in Nuremburg . Ever since , the archives have proved invaluable for historians scrutinizing the Third Reich , for German officials sorting out immigration requests and for Nazi-hunters looking for culprits . Last year the center processed 27,000 requests for information from official agencies and 1,300 from private individuals such as scholars and journalists . Although few files in this collection contain direct documentation of mass murder , the information often helps corroborate other evidence . `` When a guy writes in his resume , ` I was assigned to KZ ( concentration camp ) Auschwitz , ' and he signs it , it 's difficult for him to later claim that he wasn't there , '' said David Marwell , 42 , the center 's director . As early as 1952 , U.S. officials began discussing the eventual return of the archives to German control . Many other documents , such as papers from the Third Reich foreign ministry , were given to the Germans decades ago after being microfilmed for the National Archives ' Captured German Documents division . Negotiations over the Berlin Document Center were abandoned in the late 1960s , however , because of U.S. government concerns that Germany 's proposed rules of access `` were unacceptably restrictive of private scholarly access , '' Peters told Lantos ' hearing last month . Moreover , German officials for years privately hinted that they were content to have such sensitive material remain in American hands . `` I don't think the Germans really wanted the documents , '' said Kobletz , the former State Department lawyer. `` .. . It 's a bit of a hot potato for everybody . '' The potato got hotter in the 1980s when it was discovered that an estimated 10,000 pages had been stolen from the archives and sold to memorabilia collectors willing to pay up to $ 3,000 for each signature of a high-ranking Nazi . Marwell was dispatched to Berlin to overhaul security procedures . In 1989 , the German parliament voted unanimously to ask that the center be remanded to German custody . The microfilming project , which had begun in 1968 only to stop in 1972 , resumed . Last October , the State Department signed an agreement to relinquish the archive on July 1 . In bulk alone the collection is staggering , covering roughly eight miles of stacked paper . Among the party membership cards is that of Oskar Schindler party No. 6,421,477 and Amon Goeth , No. 510,964 , the sadistic commandant of Plaszow concentration camp in Poland ; both men were portrayed in the recent film `` Schindler 's List . '' Much of the current controversy was stirred by a magazine article in the New Yorker by writer Gerald Posner , who questioned both the quality of the microfilming and the potential pitfalls in German privacy laws . The article contends , for example , that microfilm fails to distinguish between different colored inks used on some documents and renders some writing less legible . More significant perhaps are concerns about whether German archivists would hinder legitimate scholarship . German privacy law typically prohibits access to files on people until they have been dead for at least 30 years . However , as to the issue of accessing the original documents , Marwell expressed confidence that the German government will prove to be a fair administrator . Since 1988 , Germany 's Federal Archives has had the authority to screen requests from German citizens for entry into the Berlin Document Center ; German officials contend that only one request from a scholar and less than 1 percent of requests from private citizens have been denied . Moreover , under the agreement signed last October , the Justice Department keeps the right to unrestricted access to the files . `` For the kind of access that people are concerned about scholarship and Nazi war crime investigations people willn't see a difference , '' Marwell said . `` Absent some dramatic change , I don't think scholars have anything to worry about . '' JERUSALEM If Yasser Arafat wants to return to the city he says he was born in , he may be greeted at the entrance to Jerusalem by angry mobs led by the city 's mayor . Right-wing Israelis , spurred on by Jerusalem 's new mayor , Ehud Olmert , have vowed to block any attempt by the chairman of the Palestine Liberation Organization to visit Jerusalem . There are no announced plans yet for Arafat to try to visit , but already they are laying out an unwelcome mat : A deputy mayor of the city last week offered the city 's top award to anyone who would `` liquidate '' Arafat . A Jewish settler 's group proposed offering a 100,000 shekel reward ( about $ 33,000 ) for the capture of Arafat `` dead or alive . '' Olmert has vowed to rally 500,000 demonstrators to block Arafat 's arrival , warning ominously of a massacre with `` 10 times as many victims '' as the Hebron shooting spree Feb. 25 that killed 30 Muslims . `` This is something that would be potentially explosive '' if Arafat arrives , said Aliza Kristt , a spokeswoman for Olmert , who is traveling abroad . `` It would turn the city upside-down and inside-out . '' Arafat is expected to arrive in June in the West Bank town of Jericho and the Gaza Strip , the first areas of Palestinian autonomy under the Israel-PLO agreement signed in September . It will be the first time the man who led a 30-year struggle of violence and diplomacy for the Palestinian cause will be in the West Bank since shortly after Israel 's occupation in 1967 . He has made no request to visit Jerusalem , although he has often used the image of a return to the city as a rhetorical rallying cry . Arafat claims that he was born in Jerusalem 's Old City in a poor neighborhood now demolished near the Western Wall , a site holy to Jews . Other evidence suggests that he was born in Cairo , Egypt , and the issue never has been settled . ( Optional add end ) Israeli officials expect eventually that they will face an attempt by Arafat to pray in Jerusalem 's Al-Aqsa Mosque on the Temple Mount , Islam 's third-holiest site and destination for Muslim pilgrims . It will put them in an awkward spot . Israel has long boasted that it guarantees freedom of religion at all the holy shrines in Jerusalem , including Christian and Muslim shrines . The government would be hard-pressed to deny a prayer visit by a leader with whom they have signed a peace accord . But such a visit would be a large event for the Arabs here , and could turn into a triumphal entry of the Palestinian leader to a city he has vowed should be the Palestinian capital . Jerusalem was physically divided between Arabs and Jews until 1967 , when Israel evicted Jordanian troops from East Jerusalem during the Six Day War . Although about 160,000 Arabs remain there , Israel has officially annexed Jerusalem and has sworn that it will be the `` eternal , undivided capital '' of the Jewish state . It 's a claim that most countries , including the United States , do not recognize . Palestinians have not relinquished their claim to Jerusalem , and a draft Palestinian constitution divulged last week refers to Jerusalem as the eventual capital . Israel and the PLO have agreed that it is an `` unresolved issue '' to be on table of final negotiations scheduled to start in two years . FORT MYERS , Fla. . Sometime next month , Walt and Sandy Lamkin will hit the road again , fleeing Florida 's summer with their trailer full of wares for the fairgrounds and festivals of New England and the hope of bigger crowds , more money and a little middle-age security . They 'll head north in their live-in van , the dog , Brandy , stretched out by the stove and the Amazon parrot , Envy , perched on a bunk bed , offering an acceptable version of `` Zippidy do dah . '' The trailer they tow will be so jammed with goods everything from contour pillows to jewelry to disposable rain jackets ( two for $ 1 ) that Lamkin will have to shoulder the door to secure the lock . In another life , the Lamkins were worth several million dollars . Then in the early '80s , the bottom fell out of the egg-and-poultry business in Maine and they lost their 1,500-acre farm . They moved to Florida to start over after a couple of false starts as members of the growing class of entrepreneurs who peddle wares from town to town and consider storefronts , leases and 800-phone numbers an unseemly symbol of settlement . From California to Florida , thousands of Americans are on the road like the Lamkins these days , moving with the seasons , plying their trade at flea markets and trade shows . They may sell fine silverware or antiques , T-shirts or gadgets that slice , dice and cut in a single swipe . Bt each is united by his or her disdain of having to punch a time clock or answer to a boss . Like the drummers of the Old West the salesmen who traveled from town to town , hawking medicines and housewares from the backs of their wagons today 's itinerant vendors play to the most basic American instinct : Every home can afford a bargain . They are survivors , possessed of modest dreams , content to pursue a decent living and the freedom to move on when business is lean . By 7:30 a.m. the other Friday , the Lamkins had set up four tables in the space they rent for $ 60 a weekend at Fleamaster 's flea market in Fort Myers . The covered , open-air market one of more than 150 that operate year-round in Florida attracts 800 vendors and 30,000 customers on a busy weekend . `` I don't care what I sell , '' said Walt Lamkin , 54 . `` All I want is a good product that no one else has . That 's the magic , finding the product. .. . `` Battery-operated talking parrots are big this year , and I never would have guessed that . Take the nice cooler with a two-quart jug I found . I said everybody 's going to want that . I bought 72 of them for $ 8 each . I marked them up to $ 14.95 . They didn't sell and I kept dropping the price because you can't let your money sit around . I just sold the last one the other day , for $ 5 . '' The early crowds were sparse on this morning . The sellers were middle-aged and many had come to this line of work because they had failed at some earlier business or had retired and didn't want to be idle . With Florida emptying as summer approached , most had plotted their escape to points north and west . `` Eight years ago , I came down to Florida as a commercial fisherman , '' said George Nichol , standing among tables stocked with jellies , greeting cards , cotton ear swabs , chamois clothes , men 's dress belts , billy clubs and rolls of rope . `` It was a lot of work for no money . Pulling 70-pound traps of stone crabs 300 times a day , out from dawn to dusk , getting eaten by a brutal sun that 's a job for young people , and I was lucky enough to realize it . You got to have a lot of luck to be old these days . '' Nearby , Norm and Cathy Bricker had parked the 40-foot motor home they live in next to their Rising Sun Traders jewelry counter . Their 11-year-old son , Aaron , whose schooling is done by correspondence courses , was organizing the baseball cards that he will sell and swap when the family leaves for Arizona , California , Alaska and Montana . `` When Norm wanted to sell off the farm and go on the road .. . about 10 years ago , I was dead set against it , '' Cathy Bricker said . `` But now I wouldn't be caught dead living in the same place . I feel antsy just visiting my parents in Maryland . '' ( Optional add end ) After the Lamkins lost their Maine farm in 1982 and their Florida tire shop to fire in 1990 , their net worth was down to $ 500 . They bought $ 300 worth of canned food , figuring that would sustain them for a couple of months , and spent the final $ 200 on cashews and pecans . They sold them at a flea market and have been among the modern-day drummers ever since . `` I tried to get a regular job , '' Walt said , `` but hell , I was 50 years old with a degree in agriculture . No one was going to hire me . So you do what you got to do to survive . Actually , I 've got no complaints . The egg business was good to me for 20 years . We raised two boys we 're proud of . We 're paying our bills now . Hell , I 'm as happy as if I had brains . '' By the time the flea market closed , the Lamkins ' receipts totaled $ 205 , less than half what they had taken in the previous Friday . `` That 's why it 's time to get out of Florida , '' Walt mumbled . `` You can't live on that . '' WASHINGTON Speculation is growing in Washington that Secretary of State Warren Christopher will make a groundbreaking visit to Vietnam this summer . Christopher is scheduled to travel to Bangkok , Thailand , on July 26 for the annual meeting of the Association of Southeast Asian States . Nothing has been announced , but chances are that he will go to Hanoi before or after that meeting . The United States announced recently that it had finished arrangements to set up a liaison office in Hanoi. .. . Assistant Secretary of State Winston Lord is about to go to Vietnam , and there is speculation that among his responsibilities is to make preparations for a visit by Christopher . If Christopher does make the trip , he would be in position to open up the new liaison office himself . Christopher would be the first U.S. secretary of state ever to visit Hanoi . -0- BROWN VS. BROWN : Sen. Hank Brown , R-Colo. , says he has enough `` clear commitments '' from both Democrats and Republicans to defeat the nomination of former anti-war activist Sam W. Brown Jr. as ambassador to the Vienna-based Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe . The Northern California businessman , who is no relation to the GOP senator , has been tapped by President Clinton to head the U.S. delegation to the organization that oversees arms control and security agreements in Europe . But his confirmation is being filibustered by Senate Republicans who note that Brown 's only military experience was as a prominent organizer of nationwide protests against the Vietnam War. .. . Echoes of the divisions that split the nation 20 years ago reverberated on the Senate floor last week as Democrats twice failed to muster the three-fifths majority needed to break the filibuster and vote on Brown 's confirmation . But Sen. Brown insisted that nominee Brown 's Vietnam record is not the issue . `` It 's not the war , '' he said . `` That issue 's behind us . The real concern is that Sam Brown is not qualified . '' -0- LINING UP : Out in the real world , the hot tickets are to World Cup soccer games and Barbra Streisand concerts . But here in the government 's company town , some of the most precious tickets are to committee hearings , which are frequently held in small rooms with far fewer seats than lobbyists who want to sit in them. .. . And now the Capitol 's police force is investigating whether some lobbyists are getting in illegally by paying friendly congressional staff members , who have keys to the House and Senate office buildings , to go inside before the buildings are open to the public and stand in line for them . If they are , the staffers in their employ would be violating congressional rules prohibiting anyone in an `` official position '' from using that position to gain outside employment. .. . Chris Van Horn , owner of the CVK Group , which provides `` line-standing '' services to lobbyists , has complained that his place-holders mostly college students have found as many as 10 people in line ahead of them when they entered office buildings at their 7 a.m. opening . -0- COURT PLAN : The president , having passed over federal Judge Jose A . Cabranes for the Supreme Court , has now nominated him for the U.S. 2nd Circuit Court of Appeals , based in New York . Aides say Clinton hopes to put several more Latinos in the appeals courts during the next couple of months in hopes that one will emerge as a likely high court nominee by the time the next vacancy occurs . Next in line is Antonia Hernandez , head of the Mexican American Legal Defense and Educational Fund based in Los Angeles , whose nomination to the 9th Circuit Court of Appeals is expected to be announced soon . SANTIAGO , Chile Erich Honecker , the former East German Communist leader who built the Cold War 's most chilling monument , the infamous Berlin Wall , died of liver cancer Sunday here at his home in exile . He was 81 . Honecker , who ruled for 18 years before the collapse of communism , had lived in Chile with his wife and his daughter 's family since January 1993 , when Berlin judges ruled he was too ill to stand trial in connection with shootings at the Berlin Wall . He lived his final days in sickness and bitterness , according to Chilean friends , still a committed Communist who fretted about the `` social deterioration '' of reunified Germany . Although Honecker led the Communist East German state between 1971 and 1989 , he will be remembered most for what he did long before building the Wall . In many ways , the structure served as a metaphor for the uncompromising , neo-Stalinist views Honecker held throughout his rule . His regime fostered the most pervasive secret police organization in Communist Europe , penned in its people and shot those who tried to flee to the West . Honecker 's successor as head of the East German state , Egon Krenz , on Sunday pleaded for `` a fair judgment '' on Honecker 's life . `` He wanted to realize the dream of humanism . '' But a spokesman for German Chancellor Helmut Kohl stated that Honecker had failed in his political goals . `` His policies brought harm to countless people , '' said government spokesman Dieter Vogel . `` Erich Honecker failed . Perhaps he didn't recognize it , but history gave proof of his failure . '' On Sunday , news of Honecker 's death drew shrugs of indifference in his homeland . `` At this point I couldn't care less about Honecker , and I 'm sure the same goes for most East Germans , '' said Klaus Sternberg , a teacher in Schwerin . `` He 's in heaven now , and he can sit down with Marx , Engels and Lenin and think over what went wrong , '' said Lutz Wagner , a salesman in eastern Berlin . In the early part of his 18 years in power , Honecker enjoyed success . But later , poor health , advanced age and political isolation left him increasingly vulnerable to the winds of change sweeping the region . An unbending hard-liner , he disliked the Soviet Union 's reform-minded leader , Mikhail S. Gorbachev , and was deeply suspicious of the liberalization under way in other parts of Moscow 's empire . In the end , Honecker was toppled by the massive anti-government street demonstrations that marked the decisive phase of the 1989 East German revolution . His control over the East German state had been so complete , and his fall so sudden , that Politburo colleagues who witnessed his political demise said Honecker was incapable of grasping what had happened . Krenz has said that when he informed the ousted leader of his expulsion from the Communist Party , Honecker `` had not understood at all '' the contents of the message . In his 1980 memoirs , `` About My Life , '' Honecker described proudly how , as the Politburo member responsible for state security , he organized the operation that in a matter of a few pre-dawn hours on Aug. 13 , 1961 , cut one of Europe 's largest cities in two , closed the last remaining hole in the Iron Curtain and stunned the West . `` At midnight the alarm was sounded and the action began , '' he wrote . `` With it began an operation that .. . would make the world take notice . Later we determined with satisfaction that we had forgotten nothing essential ( in the preparations ) . '' The 100-mile-long , heavily fortified wall through and around West Berlin endured for 28 years as the most compelling symbol of an ideologically divided world . It was almost 10 years after supervising the Wall 's construction that Honecker succeeded Walter Ulbricht as Communist Party boss and de facto East German leader . Honecker was driven from power three weeks before the Wall 's collapse in November 1989 in a series of events that heralded the fall of Soviet bloc communism itself . The concrete barrier that he and other members of the East German hierarchy called the `` anti-fascist protection wall '' had effectively halted the westward flight of skilled manpower that threatened to bleed the Communist state to economic death . For all its horror , Western economic and political analysts subsequently admitted that the Wall enabled East Germany to survive as a poorer neighbor of a highly successful West German state . ( Optional add end ) Born Aug. 25 , 1912 , in the western town of Neunkirchen as the third of six children of a coal miner , Honecker began his political career at the age of 10 by joining a Communist youth group . At 18 , he became a full party member , quickly taking on responsibility in the Saarland region for stirring the party 's youth into street actions during the tumultuous final days of Germany 's Weimar Republic . Spotted by the party 's leadership as a future talent , Honecker was sent to Moscow 's Communist Youth International School for a year and returned to become youth propaganda chief for his home region at age 19 . After Adolf Hitler 's Nazis seized power in 1933 , Honecker worked surreptitiously to stir resistance among factory workers in several parts of Germany , including the industrial Ruhr Valley . He was finally arrested in Berlin by the Nazi secret police , the Gestapo , convicted in 1936 of treason and sentenced to 10 years in prison . He remained there until advancing Allied forces reached his prison , 30 miles west of Berlin , and freed him in the fading days of World War II . His comparatively light sentence and preferential treatment during his imprisonment led to persistent rumors that he had cooperated in some way with his Nazi captors . Those rumors continued virtually to the end , with reports that at the crucial 1989 Politburo meeting where Honecker was toppled , East German secret police chief Erich Mielke finally forced a reluctant Honecker to give up power by threatening to publicize apparently damning evidence relating to his actions in prison . After his release from prison in the Soviet-controlled occupation zone , Honecker , then 33 , joined the newly formed Communist hierarchy that would eventually lead the East German state . Initially responsible for the reconstituted Communist youth organization , the Free German Youth , he joined the Politburo as security chief in 1958 , later planning the Berlin Wall operation and emerging as Ulbricht 's heir apparent . Friends of Honecker hailed him as a lifelong anti-fascist . Luis Corvalan , former secretary general of the Chilean Communist Party , said Honecker had been `` a great comrade , a great Communist who showed solidarity with the Chilean people . '' After the Chilean armed forces overthrew Socialist President Salvador Allende in 1973 , thousands of leftists fled into exile and an estimated 5,000 of them took up residence in the former East Germany . Allende 's widow , Hortensia Bussi de Allende , was among the Chilean leftists who paid their respects to Honecker 's widow , Margot , and their daughter , Sonja , Sunday at their home in a closed condominium complex in Santiago . Honecker had another daughter , Erika , by an earlier marriage . Sunday afternoon , a hearse took Honecker 's body to Santiago 's general cemetery for a wake . A police spokesman said a funeral service would be held there Monday and the body would be cremated . He did not know whether the remains would be taken to Germany . WASHINGTON After a breakdown in talks between a U.N. team and North Korea , U.S. lawmakers issued new warnings Sunday about the consequences if the Pyongyang regime does not agree to international monitoring to prevent development of a nuclear weapons program . Calling the defense of South Korea a `` sacred obligation , '' Sen. Sam Nunn , D-Ga. , said the North Korean government 's brinkmanship could ultimately endanger its survival . Pyongyang `` should make no mistake about our dedication , our intention and our absolute firmness in continuing the course of making sure they do not become a nuclear weapons state , '' Nunn said on NBC 's `` Meet the Press . '' Tensions heightened this weekend when North Korea announced it would continue unloading spent fuel at its main Yongbyon nuclear reactor , but would `` never allow '' the International Atomic Energy Agency , or IAEA , to inspect the facility to determine whether fuel has been secretly diverted from energy to weapons use . North Korea has repeatedly denied it has any form of nuclear weapons program , but U.S. intelligence agencies believe that enough enriched plutonium has been siphoned off to make one or two crude bombs . After talks broke down Saturday , part of the IAEA team left North Korea , abruptly ending the latest effort in the 16-month crisis that has swung erratically between near-calamity and tentative cooperation . The collapse could open the way for punitive U.N. economic sanctions , which North Korea has said it would treat as an act of war . `` We don't want a war , '' added Nunn , who is chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee . But `` if North Korea brings a war in reaction to any kind of sanctions , then they will bring about the destruction of their own country . '' For months , the Clinton administration has tried a carrot-and-stick strategy to engage the outlaw state , offering diplomatic and economic incentives in exchange for cooperation on its nuclear program . Pyongyang 's latest actions indicate that tactic may have failed . Nunn said Pyongyang faces three alternatives and three different responses : First , cooperation , which would be rewarded with membership in the family of nations through `` trade and intercourse . '' Second , resisting nuclear weapons monitoring , which would cause `` a very serious financial situation , which could lead to their own disintegration . '' And third , aggression , which would bring decisive military defeat . `` The North Koreans are playing brinkmanship this is their historical pattern but playing this game has very dangerous consequences , '' he added . Saying there are still methods of avoiding military confrontation , Sen . Bill Bradley , D-N.J. , suggested that the Clinton administration exert pressure through Japan 's economic ties and China 's energy links . `` So you have two vises right there that can begin to squeeze , that might indeed take place if there were ever economic sanctions voted at the U.N. against North Korea , '' he said , also on `` Meet the Press . '' U.N. . Security Council members met Friday to discuss the standoff , and more talks are scheduled at the United Nations on Tuesday . ( Optional add end ) On Friday , the crisis appeared to take on new urgency when the IAEA , the U.N. nuclear monitoring agency , notified the Security Council that North Korea was removing the reactor 's fuel rods so quickly that evidence of diverting fuel to a weapons program could be erased `` within days . '' International concern has mounted further over the weekend with reports out of Japan that North Korea may soon test an advanced version of the Rodong 1 missile , which could reach most of western Japan . Military analysts believe the missile would be capable of carrying a nuclear warhead if it were refitted for that purpose . NAIROBI , Kenya Officials of Rwanda 's self-declared government fled their headquarters Sunday for a border town in western Rwanda , according to diplomats in Kigali , the capital . The rump government , composed of militant ethnic Hutus , abandoned the town of Gitarama as rebel troops of the Rwandan Patriotic Front advanced on it , said the diplomats , who were quoted by the Reuter news agency . The rebel group is dominated by the minority Tutsi tribe . The diplomats said the Hutu leaders fled a civil servants ' college outside Gitarama where they had made their headquarters , heading west by road or helicopter toward Kibuya , on Lake Kivu , which borders Zaire . The fall of Gitarama , 25 miles south of Kigali , would bring the rebels closer to their goal of an outright victory in the vicious , seven-week-old civil war , and would mark a major psychological defeat for the Hutu militants . `` Most of the government has gone to Kibuya and others are already abroad , '' Reuter quoted one diplomat as saying . The Hutu militants , who control the state 's army , helped organize a pogrom against Tutsis last month after the Hutu president , Juvenal Habyarimana , died in a suspicious plane crash . In an offensive on Kigali , the smaller but better organized Rwandan Patriotic Front forced the Hutu leadership to withdraw to Gitarama . Now , the Hutu militant forces including army units and militias are concentrated in the west and the southwest around Butare . The Tutsi-led front controls large chunks of Kigali , including the airport , and most of the north , east and south of Rwanda . Its leaders refer to the Hutu-proclaimed government as a `` clique of killers '' and have refused direct negotiations with it . The U.S.-based human rights group Human Rights Watch/Africa has said at least four officials of the rump government were key instigators and organizers of Rwanda 's ethnic slaughter including its president , Theodore Sindikubwabo , prime minister , Jean Kambanda , and defense minister , Augustin Bizimana . From the time of the government 's creation , however , it was unclear how much real control they exercised over the Rwandan armed forces and the roving bands of machete-wielding militiamen who began the slaughter that has left an estimated quarter-million Rwandans dead . Human Rights Watch/Africa , in a report this month on Rwanda 's violence , said , `` Although much of the violence is still controlled by authorities of the hardline ( Hutu ) parties , the rump government , or the Rwandan army , random killing , especially in the course of banditry and pillage , is growing as well . '' With the international community horrified by Rwanda 's widespread killing , but paralyzed by confusion and fear about how to respond , many diplomats and human rights advocates have quietly expressed hope for a quick rebel victory as the most likely way to end the bloodshed . The front also has been accused of random killing and other abuses , but human rights groups say violations by the rebels do not appear systematic or centrally directed . The offensive on Kigali also continued Sunday , with heavy artillery pounding the city overnight and small arms fire forcing the United Nations to suspend convoys in which it has been evacuating civilians trapped by the fighting . With tens of thousands of civilians reportedly fleeing Kigali along the main highway south , the rebels faced the prospect of taking over the capital and finding it largely deserted . The roads south were said to be clogged with refugees and some government soldiers , fleeing the rebel advance . Two relief flights landed Sunday with food at Kigali 's airport , but intense small arms and mortar fire prevented food from being distributed in the city , according to new agency reports . A mortar shell apparently struck the Gitiga orphanage in the capital , wounding six children . WASHINGTON As President Clinton prepares to depart for Europe this week to commemorate the 50th anniversary of D-day , he faces the challenge of asserting America 's and his own leadership in the world . Speaking across a generational chasm and addressing himself to veterans of a military whose later mission in Vietnam he and others vehemently opposed , Clinton confronts an important test of his presidency . Can the 47-year-old Clinton persuade a skeptical world that he and his fellow postwar baby boomers are ready to assume the mantle of leadership ? Can he summon a nation and its allies to deal with a world whose threats are far more diffuse and ambivalent than the unvarnished evils of Nazism and fascism ? And can he present a coherent view of American engagement in the world despite a foreign policy record marked by vacillation on Bosnia , retreat in Somalia and Haiti and reversal on human rights in China ? The way the world and the American public come to answer those questions will have a lasting effect on how much Clinton will accomplish in his presidency . Clinton hopes that by proving himself a strong spokesman for America 's ideals abroad , he can boost his credibility at home despite questions about his character and competence . Aides say the key themes of the European trip will be homage to the heroes of the `` Great Crusade '' of World War II and a vision of the future based on the triumph of democracy . As Clinton speaks against the backdrop of American military cemeteries in Italy , Britain and France , he and millions of television viewers will be reminded of the painful legacy of the bloodiest century in human history . Clinton , who was born after the war ended , will be shadowed not only by his own draft-avoiding past but also by the specter of former President Reagan . Reagan , who spent World War II in Hollywood making training and propaganda films for the Army , staged what many consider the most effective piece of political theater of his presidency on the cliffs above the Normandy beaches during the 1984 ceremonies celebrating the 40th anniversary of the D-day landings . White House aides say they know that comparisons with Reagan 's stirring performance are inevitable , but they contend they are irrelevant . In 1984 , they say , the United States was still engaged in a great moral struggle against communism and Reagan 's words about the heroes of Normandy carried a resonance that cannot be reproduced today . Clinton will instead try to summon up the valor of the struggle against fascism and make it apply to the effort to consolidate democracy in the nations of the former Soviet empire and elsewhere around the globe . ( Optional add end ) Aides involved in planning the trip and polishing the keynote speeches said there will be no chest-thumping over the Allied military triumph of World War II . `` Let me emphasize this : This should not be seen as a victory over Germany and over Italy , '' said national security adviser Anthony Lake . `` I think the president will be trying to make it clear that we are not celebrating the defeat of certain nations ; we are celebrating the victory of an idea , a liberating idea , of democracy . '' Lake said Clinton intends to honor not only the veterans of the war but also those political and military leaders who shaped the postwar world , rebuilt the shattered economies of Europe and Japan and led the West in its costly victory in the Cold War . WASHINGTON With skepticism mounting about the fate of the health care reform initiative , key Democrats tried Sunday to minimize the damage from House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dan Rostenkowski 's looming legal troubles . The committee `` is going to get a bill out no matter what happens , and we 're going to have it on the floor in July , '' House Majority Leader Richard A . Gephardt , D-Mo. , predicted . `` The committee has already done a lot on health care . We 're going to get it done . '' Gephardt and others , appearing on ABC 's `` This Week With David Brinkley , '' said there are many forces working to ensure passage of a health care reform bill this congressional session and that the legislation 's future does not depend solely on the chairman of the powerful House panel . Health care reform `` is bigger than any one person , '' said White House senior adviser George Stephanopoulos , adding : `` There is great momentum right now to make sure we get health care reform. .. . We 're confident we will be able to work with whoever is chairman of the committee. .. . We 're going to get this done this year . '' Rostenkowski has a Tuesday deadline for accepting a plea bargain that would require his resignation and a probable jail term . The alternative would be an indictment and potential trial on corruption charges . There have been allegations that he has taken illegal cash payments from the House post office and listed employees on his payroll who did not do any work . He has denied any wrongdoing and , according to sources , is now inclined to fight the charges . Under Democratic caucus rules , he would have to abandon his chairmanship if indicted . Rep. Charles B . Rangel , D-N.Y. , the third-ranking Democrat on the Ways and Means Committee , said on the ABC program that Rostenkowski 's skill was in `` being able to fully understand the needs of the different regions , the needs of members who had to vote for ( health care reform ) ... . In talking to people , he will know those who can vote for it , and those who can't . '' Rangel insisted that `` with the presumption of innocence still going , '' he expected Rostenkowski to continue to work to ensure passage of a health care measure `` because he is really committed to this piece of legislation . '' But House Minority Whip Newt Gingrich , R-Ga. , speaking on CBS ' `` Face the Nation , '' said that recent Republican House victories , particularly in Kentucky and Oklahoma , signal more problems for passage of President Clinton 's reform bill than the potential loss of the influential chairman . Those Republicans ran against Clinton 's policies , including his plan for overhauling the nation 's health care system . Gingrich said he was concerned that Rostenkowski might get a lenient plea bargain through Democratic influence . He cited `` the weird situation where the president 's lawyer is negotiating with the president 's Justice Department on behalf of the president 's health care leader in the House . '' Robert S. Bennett , who is Rostenkowski 's lawyer , is also representing Clinton in a sexual-harassment lawsuit filed by a former Arkansas state employee . Gingrich said he was worried that the result would be `` some kind of rigged deal where 15 or 20 felony counts magically get reduced to a misdemeanor to allow him to stay in charge of health care . '' SHANGHAI Percy Chu 's eyes glisten as he recalls Shanghai in the decades before the 1949 communist revolution , when it was `` the Paris of the East , '' pulsating with Jazz Age energy . It was Asia 's most cosmopolitan city , a hub of free-wheeling capitalism , high intrigue , bacchanalian night life and brazen crime . Chu , 95 , was a prominent banker in those days . Among his prized mementos is a 1940 newspaper clipping reporting his abduction by an armed gang so audacious that its extortion letters bore a return address . `` I survived , '' Chu said . `` I 've survived a lot of things . '' Now heady times are returning to Shanghai and the city 's old capitalists such as Chu are gaining a new lease on their pre-revolutionary way of life . After four decades of stagnation and decay under communism , Shanghai is bidding to regain the glory it once enjoyed as a center of international finance and trade . The city 's rulers are wooing foreign investors and spending massive amounts on public works in an effort to build a glittering nexus of commerce on old Shanghai 's faded ruins . They aim for the city to rival Asia 's modern urban jewels such as Hong Kong and Singapore within the next two decades . The endeavor underscores the extraordinary sense of hope and progress engendered by China 's explosive growth as its economy converts from state planning to free enterprise . Given Shanghai 's dreadful overcrowding and antiquated infrastructure the majority of homes still lack flush toilets the city 's aspirations are ambitious to say the least . But the atmosphere of rejuvenation has aroused the capitalistic spirits for which Shanghai used to be famous , fueling one of the most spectacular boons in China 's reform era . Members of Shanghai 's old money elite are back in clover . Chu , for example , belongs to an organization of elderly Shanghainese stripped of their assets during the communist era and brutally bullied by Mao Zedong 's Red Guards . The group , using money that had been repatriated by the authorities , recently helped launch a local construction company , whose shares have soared on the Shanghai stock exchange . Chinese companies that left Shanghai after 1949 are streaming back with an eye to tapping its burgeoning markets and employing China 's best-educated work force at wage levels that are rock-bottom by world standards . Chung Shing Textile Co. , whose late founder fled Shanghai for Taiwan , has formed a joint venture with the Shanghai apparel factory it had owned before the plant was nationalized by the communists . The Sincere department store chain of Hong Kong , whose flagship store on Shanghai 's Nanking Road was also nationalized , opened a glitzy new store last year a few doors from the site of the old one . Multinational companies from the United States , Europe and Japan are also pouring billions of dollars a year into offices , factories , bank branches , chemical plants and distribution facilities . Among them : AT&T Corp. , Bristol-Myers Squibb Co. , Citibank , Morgan Stanley & Co. , Volkswagen AG , Unilever , Toshiba Corp. , Matsushita Electric Industrial Co. and Hitachi Ltd. . `` Two years ago we had 54 members , '' said Diane Long , president of the American Chamber of Commerce in Shanghai . `` Now there 's 313 I mean , there were 313 a week ago . '' The number is rising so fast , she explained , `` I don't know what it is today . '' The most dramatic development is taking place in a section of the city on the eastern bank of the Huangpu River , named Pudong . Nearly 2,000 foreign-funded ventures are either completed or underway in Pudong , including a giant department store backed by the Hong Kong-based retailer Yaohan ; a spandex-manufacturing venture bankrolled by DuPont Co. ; and an air-conditioner factory established by Japan 's Sharp Corp. . Officials predict that by 1995 the new area 's skyline will boast 100 high-rise buildings , including a financial center that will house the country 's main stock exchange , commodities exchanges and currency trading operations . Shanghai 's comeback is emerging as a key test of China 's ability to shed its communist fetters and create a modern market economy . The city of 13 million , China 's largest , encompasses nearly all of the nation 's most troublesome economic problems poor transportation and distribution systems , inefficient state enterprises , poorly defined property rights and imperious bureaucracy . The Chinese leadership under Deng Xiaoping , aware that a successful renaissance in Shanghai would send the strongest possible signal of the nation 's advancement , is treating the city as an important showcase of economic reform , a major change from the 1980s , when Shanghai was held in check . Tax laws have been changed to entice foreign-funded ventures , and $ 17 billion worth of infrastructure projects is nearing completion , including power generation plants , waste water treatment facilities and a two bridges over the Huangpu River , connecting the city 's western and eastern segments for the first time . A second group of projects is now underway , including a new airport , subway , ring road and ocean container terminal . Seldom , if ever , has so bold a venture in urban renewal been launched in a city where history echoes so clamorously . Shanghai attained its international fame as the result of some particularly shameful excesses on the part of Western imperial powers.In the 1840s , colonists from Britain , France and the United States including many opium traders carved out sections of the city exempt from Chinese law , with exclusive parks and gentlemen 's clubs . Hundreds of international banks and trading houses set up shop in Shanghai . European refugees fleeing Bolshevism and Nazism flooded in by the tens of thousands during the era between the two world wars , as did Chinese refugees fleeing civil strife and the Japanese invasion . While Shanghai 's high society thronged to cabarets , tea dances and greyhound races , its vast underclass endured slave labor , opium addiction and starvation . The communists rid the city of its most sordid blight , and Shanghai became a bastion of ultra-leftist zealotry during Mao 's reign . But now the Maoist legacy weighs heavily on the city . Years of neglect left an infrastructure designed for a population a fraction of Shanghai 's size . Nearly 3 million Shanghainese work for state-owned enterprises , many of them money-losing dinosaurs , and the authorities dare not allow the extensive layoffs that would enhance efficiency . Foreigners complain that bureaucrats , eager to fill municipal coffers , are demanding absurdly high amounts for property leases , a development that is threatening to cool investors ' enthusiasm . Yet Shanghai 's development goals , which once evoked widespread skepticism , are no longer the object of derision . `` Three years ago , I would have been rather reserved , '' said Annick de Kermadec-Bentzmann , manager of the Shanghai office of the Banque Nationale de Paris . `` Today , when you look at what 's going on , you have to admit , it 's quite surprising . It 's not just a fantasy . '' JERUSALEM In leaving the Gaza Strip after a quarter-century of military occupation and looking toward withdrawal from the West Bank , Israel is finally able in the view of many of its liberal thinkers to return to the question , profound and contentious , of what kind of nation it should be . `` As long as we were occupying another people , depriving the Palestinians by force of arms of their basic human and political rights , we were not a democratic state ourselves . And as long as we had more than 2 million Palestinians under us , we were on the way to losing our Jewish identity , '' philosopher Yeshayahu Leibowitz declared . `` We can again ask ourselves the question , What does it mean for Israel to be Jewish ? What kind of democracy should we have ? What sort of nation are we ? What sort of people should we aspire to be ? After a generation , those questions are back at the top of the agenda . '' Although the iconoclastic Leibowitz challenged Israel 's occupation of the West Bank and Gaza Strip immediately after the 1967 Middle East War , and called for a Palestinian state , he is joined today by many others closer to the Israeli political center in suggesting that the country must now confront new issues . `` The glue of security has kept this country together , '' said Rabbi Naama Kelman , who directs Reform Judaism 's education program here . `` If we obtain peace with the Palestinians and then with the other Arab neighbors as we hope and that is a big if we will face serious questions like social unrest , poverty , domestic violence , intolerance , economic priorities and relations between synagogue and state ... . `` Once Israelis are less concerned about physical security , they will have time to worry about spiritual security and they will find there is a lot to worry about . '' Among Israeli liberals , there already is a lengthening agenda : the role of religion in the Jewish state , improvement of education after years of degradation , relations between Jews and Arabs within Israel , how to close social gaps while encouraging entrepreneurs , the future of Judaism itself . Many on the Israeli right share these concerns . But their focus , more than ever , is on security , because of their fear that an agreement with the Palestine Liberation Organization on Palestinian self-government will prove to be a death trap for the country . Even liberals preface their discussions of where the country should go with clearly stated assumptions that the autonomy deal must be the first step into an era of peace and with warnings that , if it fails , Israelis will respond `` very , very vigorously and violently , '' as Rabbi David Hartman put it , and then retreat back into the `` world of conflict '' that they know so well . Novelist Amos Oz , while noting that `` everything depends on the Arabs and their acceptance of us , '' said it `` already feels a bit strange this life ` after the ( occupied ) territories ' and the possibility we will look out and not see someone ready to kill us . `` I worry sometimes that Israel at peace will lose its character and become part of a homogenized , CNN world . That would be a great pity , because Jews form a unique instrument in the world orchestra of art and culture , and it would be a shame if it vanished . '' `` The big question is whether Israel is the end of Jewish history or another chapter of Jewish history , '' asserted Hartman , a theologian and philosopher . `` People are wondering seriously about that . There is a profound Jewish identity crisis in Israel . '' ( Begin optional trim ) With the establishment of Israel as a modern state in 1948 and earlier , in the Zionist movement according to Hartman , Leibowitz and others , many Jews came to substitute the founding and building of a national home for the spiritual values and way of life that had defined Judaism for centuries . Israel 's triumph in the 1967 war , including the conquest of the West Bank and Gaza Strip , confirmed for many that `` the whole biblical promise was being worked out .. . and we were living in God 's redemptive scheme , '' Hartman said . `` That meant they need not ask any difficult or embarrassing questions about the future of the Jewish people or the purpose of Israel . '' That was an illusion on virtually a national scale , Hartman and others maintain . And because of the fundamental shifts implicit in recognizing the Palestinians ' right to self-determination , including a share of the biblical Land of Israel , Israelis will soon be searching for new points of orientation . ( End optional trim ) Michael Breeson , who writes provocatively on political and social issues under the name `` B . Michael '' in Israel 's largest newspaper , Yediot Aharonot , was even more pungent in assessing this historic juncture . `` Over our 27 years in the Gaza Strip and on the West Bank , we became occupation junkies , hooked on power and running and ruining other people 's lives , '' Breeson said , `` and now we have to give it up . That will be tough . People know they have to kick the habit and that means getting out entirely from the West Bank , settlements and all but they say , ` Just a little more. ' ' ' For secular Jews such as Ilana Hammerman , a prominent editor , the questions may be the same as they are for Leibowitz , Hartman and others who are religious , but the answers are certain to be different . `` Is Israel a religious state , a theocracy run by rabbis , or is it democratic and pluralist ? '' Hammerman asked . `` We need a very big discussion on that . Having our lives run by rabbis , as it is now at the most important points like birth , marriage and death , is the first battle I will fight . `` Then there is education that is the very future of our society . Next is the forced nationalism , the militarism and all the holy little rituals that remind me of countries we fled . What about the cultural conflicts we have among us ? I could go on the list is long . But when can we start ? If we have to wait another 40 years , we will cease to exist . '' Oz also believes that `` the future has already begun getting out of Gaza just confirmed it . '' `` Turn your back on Jerusalem and scan the entire coastal plain from Haifa down to Ashdod , and you see a land that is secular to the core , hedonistic , passionate , noisy , warmhearted , temperamental like Greece , Italy , Spain and North Africa , '' Oz said . `` Israel is finding its place in the Mediterranean where it belongs . I like it . People smoke a lot , speak loudly , push a lot , but are open and creative , very creative . What makes me relatively optimistic is that it is not going to become a boring place for a very long time . '' LAS VEGAS , Nev . Like corporate raiders seeking new markets to exploit , Los Angeles gang members have come gunning for easy money on the high-rolling Strip . In a spree of brazen invasion-style heists three of them in the last three months suspected Bloods and Crips have stormed into casinos , rifled through the cashier 's cages and made off with tens of thousands of dollars in a matter of seconds . No bystanders have been injured in any of the attacks , which reflect the continuing evolution of some South-Central Los Angeles gangs into profit-driven enterprises . But the robberies , captured on dramatic surveillance videotape , have stunned this mushrooming tourist mecca and forced image-conscious proprietors to begin beefing up their intentionally low-key security measures . `` When you see these guys jumping like animals over the counters with their pillow cases ready to fill with bounty , that really strikes fear in people 's hearts , '' said Beecher Avants , security chief at the Gold Coast and a candidate for Clark County sheriff . `` This is going to continue .. . as long as we leave cash laying out there like candy . '' Starting with a November 1992 , robbery at the San Remo Hotel and Casino , there have been seven casino heists in Las Vegas , including holdups at the Aladdin , Flamingo Hilton , Harrah 's and the San Remo again . Although Los Angeles gangs are suspects in five of the assaults , authorities have had enough evidence to file charges in only two . In almost every case , at least three or four masked gunmen have burst into the neon-bathed gambling halls , waving shotguns and shouting for everyone to hit the floor . A few times , the crowds failed to even hear the commands , drowned out by the clatter of slot machines and the unshakable lounge bands . Vaulting over the belly-high counters of the cashier 's cages , the robbers have scooped up bundles of large bills , then sped away in stolen cars . One group of alleged thieves , all suspected Crips , was caught in Las Vegas after a high-speed chase . The 15-year-old triggerman in another casino robbery was arrested in South-Central Los Angeles after an informant overheard him boasting about his feat . None of the loot , which has ranged from $ 47,000 to $ 158,000 , has been recovered . `` It 's like they think we 're the new frontier , that we 're easy pickin 's , '' said deputy district attorney Victoria Villegas , who successfully urged a 30-year prison term for the juvenile shooter . `` We 're trying to send a message to L.A. gangs that this not going to be looked upon lightly . '' ( Optional add end ) For much of the last decade , Crips and Bloods have been evolving from turf-oriented neighborhood cliques into business-minded outfits . Some of the more sophisticated factions have helped fuel a nationwide drug-trafficking network , while others have been linked to the alarming rise in Southern California bank robberies . `` Our gangbangers are master opportunists , '' said Los Angeles County Sheriff 's Sgt. Wes McBride , who fields calls from law enforcement agencies around the country seeking information about Crips and Bloods migrating from Los Angeles . `` Like any predator , they take what they can get . '' With the crack cocaine market saturated and banks rapidly bolstering security , gang experts say , the fast cash of Las Vegas became a lucrative target . Not only are many of the cashier 's cages wide open , but there is little chance that a security guard would risk firing a gun in a casino crowded with tourists . `` No matter what gets taken in a robbery , it 's not as much as they 'd have to pay if grandma gets shot at the damn slot machine , '' said Jim Galipeau , a deputy probation officer in South-Central Los Angeles . `` It 's well-known in the gang community that you can go in and take anything you want from a Vegas casino as long as you can get out the door . '' MOSCOW His hair has grown grayer and his face grimmer , but Alexander Rutskoi still looks and sounds much as he did last Oct. 3 when he stood on a balcony of the Russian White House and exhorted a roiling mob of armed supporters to topple President Boris N . Yeltsin . The trademark mustache is still in place under narrow blue eyes that flick back and forth in humorless scrutiny . And the bitter denunciations of Yeltsin and his `` regime of national betrayal '' still fall from his lips like verbal hand grenades . `` This regime is a Fifth Column inside Russia , '' Rutskoi told a conference of government opponents Saturday . `` It is fulfilling the assignments of the international monetary groups that are reaching for our natural resources . This is a Mafia clan that is running the country . '' The conference was a kind of political coming-out party for Rutskoi , the former fighter jock and defrocked vice president who spent four months in prison after breaking with Yeltsin and leading the revolt that ended in a bloody tank assault on the White House last fall . The goal of the gathering was to relaunch Rutskoi as a serious political figure by making him the rallying point of a new coalition of neo-communists , ultranationalists and other Yeltsin opponents called Accord in the Name of Russia . Only three months ago , when Rutskoi and the other leaders of the October revolt walked out of prison to supporters ' chants of `` Rutskoi , president ! '' events appeared to be moving in their direction . Russia 's chronic political and economic instability seemed to be undermining Yeltsin 's support and paralyzing his will to act , creating an ominous power vacuum made to order for his most implacable opponents . But since then Yeltsin has fought back , moving in a variety of ways to reassert himself as a leader , shore up his own support and divide the ranks of his adversaries . As a result , many observers believe , the first frail shoots of political stability are sprouting in Russia and hard-liners like Rutskoi and his allies have been pushed to the fringe , at least for the moment . `` It is a kind of stabilization very temporary , very fragile but nonetheless stabilization , '' says Viktor Kremenyuk , a Moscow political analyst who is no great fan of Yeltsin 's . `` It gives the government some breathing room . '' ( Begin optional trim ) One source of this new stability is economic . While Russia 's economy remains in steep decline , its most acute problem runaway inflation has eased considerably recently , dropping from 22 percent in January to 9.7 percent last month . With inflation easing , Yeltsin moved last week to brake the drop in production by cutting taxes and ending government controls on exports . A second source is Yeltsin 's recent burst of activity . Russia 's political center of gravity has shifted rightward in recent months and the president has moved with it , dropping radical reformers from his Cabinet and projecting an image of toughness against crime , corruption and those who would take advantage of Russia 's troubles . While this shift has worried some foreign leaders , it apparently has helped Yeltsin recapture the support of some of the millions of voters who unexpectedly cast ballots for ultranationalist Vladimir Zhirinovsky in the December parliamentary elections . `` These people want a strong executive figure , '' says Boris Mikhailov , director of domestic political studies at the U.S.-Canada Institute , a Moscow think tank . `` Their vote for Zhirinovsky was a kind of protest vote , not just about economic instability but also social instability . I think most of them are moving back toward the president as he becomes tougher on the law-and-order issue . '' Yeltsin has also moved to split his opposition by offering a kind of political non-aggression pact called a treaty on civic accord . While the agreement was derided by some as hollow and meaningless , it was signed by a surprisingly wide array of politicians , including Zhirinovsky and parliamentary chairman Ivan Rybkin . Since then , Rybkin has steered his chamber in a more cooperative direction , despite his communist background . Yeltsin believes that the treaty has succeeded in isolating those adversaries , such as Rutskoi and Communist Party leader Gennady Zyuganov , who refused to sign it . `` The forces of the irreconcilable opposition .. . are increasingly becoming a side , marginal phenomenon in Russian politics , '' says Yeltsin 's chief spokesman , Vyacheslav Kostikov . ( End optional trim ) An air of lethargy and frustration hung over Saturday 's gathering of hard-liners , which attracted about 300 people , most of them aging Communists . Several leaders expected to attend , such as Agrarian Party chief Mikhail Lapshin and jurist Valeri Zorkin , failed to show . Rutskoi complained openly about Yeltsin 's success in stealing the opposition 's issues . After a morning of mostly dull speechifying and a closed-door strategy session in the afternoon , the delegates voted to adjourn until fall , when they hope the political situation will be more favorable to them . Distributed by the Los Angeles Times-Washington Post News Service . HOUSTON These days , Mayor Bob Lanier sits comfortably in his City Hall office , his black Western-style boots plopped on his desk and a stack of charts and graphs in his lap . He likes to talk statistics ; he revels in numbers , and he can spin off facts about Houston as fast as a Texas tornado . But there is one statistic he cherishes most : The city 's overall crime rate has plummeted more than 30 percent since he was elected three years ago . Lanier credits the sharp decline not to `` new-fangled ideas '' such as community-based policing but to hundreds of newly hired police officers whose sole purpose is to go out in uniform every day and make arrests . `` I don't look on police officers as social workers , '' he said , espousing ideas that run counter to what other big cities , such as Los Angeles , are trying to do . `` I don't expect a police officer to go to a neighborhood and figure out a drainage problem or a ditch problem . I expect him to do police work . '' Down the street at police headquarters , Police Chief Sam Nuchia is equally plain-spoken . `` When I took over , '' he said , `` we quit using the terminology ` neighborhood-oriented policing . ' Instead , I declared that we were going to make it as tough on the criminals as we possibly could . '' Just a few years ago , before Lanier and Nuchia moved into their jobs , Houston was considered a model for community policing a concept that has caught on in other big cities looking to rebuild public trust in their police departments . While Los Angeles is only slowly implementing the program as a result of the 1991 beating of black motorist Rodney King by white police officers , Houston officials claim to have learned the hard way that the effort never really paid off . The perception here is that instead of reducing crime , community policing fueled a deep resentment among officers , did little to boost the public 's trust of the police and ultimately cost the two biggest champions of the policy the police chief and the mayor their jobs . Houston never had an episode as divisive in police-community relations as the King case . But there were past controversies nevertheless . A Latino man drowned after he was handcuffed by police and forced to swim in the bayou . A `` throw-down '' weapon was planted on a suspect after he was shot by police . To turn the tide , Houston in 1982 brought in its first outside police chief , who also happened to be its first minority chief , just as Los Angeles did in hiring Willie L. Williams from Philadelphia in 1992 . Lee P. Brown , who served as Houston 's chief until 1990 , made neighborhood-oriented policing a hallmark of his administration . It was designed to make police officers more aware of community concerns , to get them out of the patrol cars and into neighborhood meetings and other civic ventures . Proponents say it works best when officers walk their beats , meet residents and business owners and enlist the public in crime-prevention efforts . Brown was followed by Chief Elizabeth Watson , a 20-year veteran who stayed until 1992 . She embraced many of Brown 's programs , but her tenure was troubled . Because of the oil bust in eastern Texas and the subsequent economic downturn here , the city under then-Mayor Kathryn J. Whitmire put a freeze on the hiring of officers , closed the police academy and did not grant police pay raises . The police , in turn , began ridiculing neighborhood-oriented policing , saying that its initials actually stood for `` Nobody On Patrol . '' Morale sunk and senior officers began leaving for other cities where old-fashioned police work was still practiced . When Whitmire lost to Lanier in the fall of 1991 , police officers unfurled a banner downtown proclaiming : `` Ding , Dong . The Witch Is Dead . '' `` The previous administration was penny-wise and pound-foolish , '' Nuchia said . `` They saved money on the budget , but they also allowed the strength of the department to go down at a time when we needed it most . '' Lanier , a wealthy businessman , ran for mayor on a promise to beef up the police ranks . `` That was the only campaign issue , '' he said . He was elected in November 1991 , and one of his first appointments was Nuchia , then an assistant U.S. attorney who earlier had worked as a junior police administrator in Houston . Almost immediately they froze their predecessors ' plans to expand community policing , such as putting officers in `` storefront '' substations around the city where they would be more accessible to residents . Lanier , in order to reopen the police academy and start hiring officers , scuttled a proposed downtown monorail system and saved $ 50 million . `` That was a goddamn Tinkertoy , '' he said . He said he picked up another $ 50 million by restructuring the city 's debt and saved $ 50 million more by improving its revenue-collection system . So far , the department has grown from 3,900 sworn officers to 4,800 . Now Lanier is seeking a four-cent sales tax to boost the force to 5,200 officers . From 1991 to today , murder and rape each dropped 15 percent , according to police department statistics . Robbery was down 22.5 percent ; theft down 25 percent ; burglary down 41.2 percent ; and auto theft down 42.5 percent . Even with aggravated assaults up 12.5 percent ( the only category to see a rise ) , the total crime rate dropped 30.3 percent . ( Optional add end ) In addition , police response times to crime scenes shortened , from 6.1 minutes on major calls to 4.4 minutes . Police morale , meantime , went up , particularly when Lanier and Nuchia found two small pay raises for officers . The chief and the mayor suggested that Los Angeles , which appears to be going the opposite direction , also might be better served by increasing its police force before embarking on new community programs . `` I don't want to tell them their business , '' Lanier said , `` but I think they have a big problem . They don't have enough police . That 's going to strain any additional duties . It 's going to strain things . '' BERLIN More than 100 times a minute , 50,000 times a day , a camera shutter clicks in a windowless basement in southwest Berlin , capturing on each frame a fragment of Germany 's grim past . Thirteen camera operators labor throughout the day on what some here say may be the most ambitious microfilming project ever undertaken : the duplication of 75 million pages of Nazi personnel documents stored in a former Gestapo eavesdropping post now known as the Berlin Document Center . The microfilmers work swiftly because on July 1 the U.S. . State Department intends to relinquish custody of the original documents to the German government . The duplicates 8 million feet of film on 38,000 rolls will be flown to Washington this summer and deposited in the National Archives . The Justice Department keeps the right to unrestricted access to the original files . The pages passing beneath the camera lens range from the prosaic to the sinister : Heinrich Himmler 's expense accounts ; Nazi Party membership card No. 899,895 , belonging to one Adolf Eichmann ; Josef Mengele 's dental records and membership sheet in the Nazi Physicians Professional Association ; Hermann Goering 's suicide notes , scribbled before he swallowed cyanide in 1946 . Among the old files with contemporary relevance is that of Erich Priebke , a former SS captain now awaiting extradition in Argentina on charges of helping to murder 335 Italians in Rome 's Adreatine Caves in 1944 . Returning the original documents to German custody is another milestone in the restoration of German sovereignty after a half-century of Allied occupation . But the proposed transfer has met resistance . Historians , Jewish groups and Nazi hunters have bitterly objected to the State Department 's plan . They complain that restrictive German privacy laws will hamper access to the original documents , that the National Archives duplicates will not be available for at least two years and that surrendering the files is morally wrong . `` We bought those documents with the most precious commodity we have : the blood of our young boys and the other Allied forces that had to fight the Nazi menace in order to liberate the world , '' Elan Steinberg , executive director of the World Jewish Congress , said in a telephone interview from New York . `` I 'm reminded of the old saying that if it ISn't broke , don't fix it , '' he said . `` The Berlin Document Center ISn't broke right now , and I don't know why we 're trying to fix it . '' Rep. Tom Lantos , D-Calif. , who led hearings on the document center last month , has threatened a full debate in Congress `` on Germany 's Nazi past '' unless Bonn and the State Department resolve the controversy . German Chancellor Helmut Kohl and Foreign Minister Klaus Kinkel recently promised Jewish leaders that rules governing access to the original documents will remain in line with U.S. regulations until the National Archives duplicates are ready for viewing . U.S. Embassy officials in Bonn are trying to hammer out the details . `` This is something that has been negotiated over quite a long period of time and has been reviewed from every angle that I can imagine . When concerns have been raised , they 've been reviewed again , '' said Dan Hamilton , policy adviser to Richard Holbrooke , the U.S. ambassador to Germany . Donald Kobletz , the State Department 's lawyer in Berlin in the 1980s and now a private attorney here , said : `` Can you tell a sovereign government , one of your closest allies , that 50 years after the war you don't really trust them to keep their own records ? After getting microfilm copies , paid for by the German government ? I would consider it a gratuitous irritation to our relationship that really isn't warranted . '' Many of the files were seized by Allied troops driving across Germany such as some 10.7 million Nazi Party membership cards impounded by American soldiers at a Bavarian paper mill as the SS prepared to reduce them to pulp . The cards provided useful evidence for prosecutors at the Nazi War Crimes tribunal in Nuremburg . Ever since , the archives have proved invaluable for historians scrutinizing the Third Reich , for German officials sorting out immigration requests and for Nazi-hunters looking for culprits . Last year the center processed 27,000 requests for information from official agencies and 1,300 from private individuals such as scholars and journalists . Although few files in this collection contain direct documentation of mass murder , the information often helps corroborate other evidence . `` When a guy writes in his resume , ` I was assigned to KZ ( concentration camp ) Auschwitz , ' and he signs it , it 's difficult for him to later claim that he wasn't there , '' said David Marwell , 42 , the center 's director . As early as 1952 , U.S. officials began discussing the eventual return of the archives to German control . Many other documents , such as papers from the Third Reich foreign ministry , were given to the Germans decades ago after being microfilmed for the National Archives ' Captured German Documents division . Negotiations over the Berlin Document Center were abandoned in the late 1960s , however , because of U.S. government concerns that Germany 's proposed rules of access `` were unacceptably restrictive of private scholarly access , '' Deputy Assistant Secretary of State Mary Ann Peters told Lantos ' hearing last month . Moreover , German officials for years privately hinted that they were content to have such sensitive material remain in American hands . `` I don't think the Germans really wanted the documents , '' said Kobletz , the former State Department lawyer. `` .. . It 's a bit of a hot potato for everybody . '' The potato got hotter in the 1980s when it was discovered that an estimated 10,000 pages had been stolen from the archives and sold to memorabilia collectors willing to pay up to $ 3,000 for each signature of a high-ranking Nazi . Marwell was dispatched to Berlin to overhaul security procedures . In 1989 , the German parliament voted unanimously to ask that the center be remanded to German custody . The microfilming project , which had begun in 1968 only to stop in 1972 , resumed . Last October , the State Department signed an agreement to relinquish the archive on July 1 . In bulk alone the collection is staggering , covering roughly eight miles of stacked paper . Among the party membership cards is that of Oskar Schindler party No. 6,421,477 and Amon Goeth , No. 510,964 , the sadistic commandant of Plaszow concentration camp in Poland ; both men were portrayed in the recent film `` Schindler 's List . '' Much of the current controversy was stirred by a magazine article in the New Yorker by writer Gerald Posner , who questioned both the quality of the microfilming and the potential pitfalls in German privacy laws . The article contends , for example , that microfilm fails to distinguish between different colored inks used on some documents and renders some writing less legible . More significant perhaps are concerns about whether German archivists would hinder legitimate scholarship . German privacy law typically prohibits access to files on people until they have been dead for at least 30 years . However , as to the issue of accessing the original documents , Marwell expressed confidence that the German government will prove to be a fair administrator . Since 1988 , Germany 's Federal Archives has had the authority to screen requests from German citizens for entry into the Berlin Document Center ; German officials contend that only one request from a scholar and less than 1 percent of requests from private citizens have been denied . Moreover , under the agreement signed last October , the Justice Department keeps the right to unrestricted access to the files . `` For the kind of access that people are concerned about scholarship and Nazi war crime investigations people willn't see a difference , '' Marwell said . `` Absent some dramatic change , I don't think scholars have anything to worry about . '' BOGOTA , Colombia In a presidential election whose major candidates have all been victims of Colombia 's rampant violence , economist Ernesto Samper of the ruling Liberal Party took a tenuous lead in vote-counting late Sunday . The margin was so narrow that a runoff seemed assured . With 79 percent of voting booths reporting , former development minister Samper , 43 , led Conservative Andres Pastrana with 45.4 percent of the ballots to 44.7 percent . With 18 candidates in the race , the absolute majority needed to declare victory today was out of reach . The runoff would be June 19 . According to the partial results from the National Elections Office , an ex-guerrilla named Antonio Navarro was in third place with 3.9 percent of the vote and self-proclaimed witch Regina Betancur was fourth with 1.2 percent . The campaign and balloting took place in relative calm , a marked contrast to presidential elections four years ago when drug cartel hitmen and paramilitary squads assassinated three candidates . In 1990 , the candidates were forced to adopt a bunker lifestyle and limit their public appearances to radio and television . This year the contenders campaigned openly , accompanied by salsa bands and vendors selling liquor . A turnout of about half of the 17 million eligible voters was widely predicted . Colombia has coaxed left-wing guerrilla movements into electoral politics and adopted constitutional changes to encourage a wider spectrum of participation . But this election seemed to confirm Colombia 's status as essentially a two-party state . Samper has promised to create 1.5 million new jobs , increase social spending and carry out an economic opening program `` with a human face . '' A balding economist and lawyer with a nasal voice , Samper seemed less fit for campaigning on television than Pastrana , but his performance in two TV debates drew wider praise . Pastrana , 39 , an ex-mayor of Bogota , favors free markets , privatization , minimal government intervention in the economy and an aggressive campaign to provide more education . The handsome son of a former president , Pastrana began his public career as the anchor of his family 's TV news program . He speaks flawless English and spent a year studying at Harvard . During a news conference Saturday , Samper said he and the other major contenders , as victims of violence , share `` a tragic common denominator . '' Samper was hit by 11 bullets , four of which remain in his body , in an assassination attempt attributed to drug traffickers at the Bogota airport in 1989 . The Medellin cocaine cartel kidnapped Pastrana when he was a mayoral candidate in 1988 . Two other candidates Gen. Miguel Maza , a former secret police chief , and Enrique Parejo , an ex-justice minister were attacked after challenging drug lord Pablo Escobar . The nonviolence of this year 's campaign is widely attributed to Escobar having been killed last December by security forces . The candidate running third in the polls , Antonio Navarro , is a former commander of the M-19 rebel group , which laid down its weapons four years ago in exchange for amnesty . In 1985 , Navarro lost a leg when assailants threw a grenade at him as he ate breakfast in a restaurant in the southwestern city of Cali . Navarro became a co-president of an assembly that rewrote Colombia 's constitution and , later , President Cesar Gaviria 's minister of health . Both frontrunners say they are willing to negotiate peace with the insurgents who , together with drug traffickers , right-wing paramilitary squads and common criminals , have bloodied Colombia . About 28,000 homicides are committed each year , compared with 24,000 in the United States , which has a population eight times as large . BUDAPEST Hungary 's former communists scored a decisive victory Sunday in the runoff round of parliamentary elections , winning an absolute majority of 209 seats in the 386-member legislature . The ex-communists now called the Hungarian Socialist Party were trounced in Hungary 's first post-Cold War election four years ago but have been steadily building public support ever since as the promise of democratic capitalism has soured here . The Socialists who have traded their red star symbol for a red carnation won more than 54 percent of the vote nationwide , while the center-left Alliance of Free Democrats finished second with about 18 percent and 70 seats in parliament . The current ruling party , the center-right Democratic Forum , finished a distant third with just under 10 percent of the vote and 37 seats nearly 130 fewer than they won four years ago . To the surprise of most foreign observers , more Hungarian voters went to the polls in the two rounds of voting nearly 70 percent in the initial round May 8 and 55 percent Sunday than did to end 45 years of communist rule in 1990 . `` This is the first time in its history that Hungary has freely voted in a leftist government , '' said Hungarian political analyst Tibor Vidos . But it also reinforced a recent trend among other East European countries that replaced communism with nationalist politics and free-market economics and have since lurched back to the left . Lithuania led the way , then Poland the cradle of anti-communist insurgency and now Hungary too has followed suit , all largely as a result of widespread economic insecurity , rising unemployment and social disillusionment brought on by the transition from a communist welfare state to the hazards of free-market democracy . The Hungarian Socialists have pledged there will be no going back to the authoritarian ways of the old postwar regime and say they intend to improve on the free-market reforms of the current government , many of which they say they initiated in the waning days of communist rule five years ago . Their immediate task will be to decide whether to form a government on their own or try to find a coalition partner , which many Socialist leaders favor as a means of widening their political base and providing additional strength in parliament should it prove necessary to force through unpopular measures . At a news conference Sunday night , Socialist leader Gyula Horn said his party favors `` broad national cooperation '' and is ready to cooperate with the second-place Free Democrats , whom he called `` our natural partners . '' Political analysts say the country could be headed for a period of political and economic instability if the Socialists try to form a single-party government and that much will depend on whether the Free Democrats agree to join the Socialists a prospect that they say could require hard and lengthy bargaining even though the parties ' economic platforms are similar . At a separate news conference , Free Democratic leader Gabor Kuncze said the size of the Socialist victory makes his party 's decision on entering a coalition `` much more difficult , '' since the Socialists ' absolute majority would allow them to carry through programs in parliament that the Free Democrats might oppose . In early discussions , the Free Democrats had strongly objected to Horn 's becoming prime minister and had proposed Kuncze instead as the price of their participation . Kuncze and his party are expected to announce their decision Sunday after a party convention , just one day after the Socialists meet to nominate their candidate presumably Horn as prime minister . Horn , who is recovering from a serious auto accident earlier this month , is a controversial figure here because he served in a pro-Soviet militia that helped put down the bloody 1956 Hungarian uprising against communist rule . Free Democrats , among others , have been asking how Horn can be expected to lead nationwide ceremonies scheduled for Oct. 23 to mark the 38th anniversary of the revolt . On the other hand , Gyula 's supporters have consistently pointed out that he was a leader of the communist reform movement here in the 1980s and that as foreign minister he was responsible for opening Hungary 's border with Austria in 1989 so that thousands of East Germans could flee to the West an action they say led ultimately to the breaching of the Berlin Wall and the Iron Curtain . PHOENIX Border states and cities will have to come up with innovative ways to finance infrastructure improvements in the region before they can fully realize the jobs and economic benefits expected from increased U.S.-Mexico trade . That 's the message U.S. government officials brought to last week 's annual Border Governors ' Conference here , where leaders from California , Arizona , New Mexico and Texas met with their counterparts from Mexico 's border states to discuss the issues related to approval of the North American Free Trade Agreement and other regional concerns . The U.S. and Mexican governments will not be able to pay for the roads , bridges , sewers , new border checkpoints and communications links that must be built to fully leverage NAFTA , Assistant U.S. Secretary of Commerce Charles F. Meissner said in a speech to the governors . Meissner said $ 16 billion in improvements are needed along the border to facilitate trade , but only $ 3 billion in U.S. and Mexican funds are available thus far . `` The public sector cannot meet these needs . The private sector must help , '' he said . Although Congress increased highway and border improvement funding in 1991 with a view toward increased traffic that would result from border trade , the funds still run about 35 percent short of what the states will need to simply maintain current levels of service , said Bruce Cannon , chief strategic planner for the Federal Highway Administration . So , states and cities have no choice but to become entrepreneurial if the infrastructure for the post-NAFTA era is to be built . They may have to charge a variety of tolls and fees to help finance the improvements , some speakers suggested . But others warned that charging excessive fees would only dampen the commercial forces that NAFTA was designed to unleash . The trade pact was designed to ease trade barriers among Mexico , the United States and Canada . Meissner offered the governors his help in setting up a `` consultative '' group of bankers and investment professionals to help the states draw up business plans and conduct feasibility studies on border improvements . ( Optional add end ) Officials said cooperation in planning between U.S. and Mexican states will be critical to ensure maximum efficiency of dollars spent and persuading the private sector to invest in improvements . Both Texas and Arizona have set up numerous joint committees with their Mexican neighbors , bolstering ties that have been in place for decades . California , by contrast , has been slow in cementing commercial relations with Baja California , officials from other states said . Whereas other border governors have made it a priority to develop closer ties with neighboring Mexican states , most coordinated activities in California is being carried out between the municipal governments of San Diego and Tijuana . California 's relative lack of statewide coordination may be due to Gov. Pete Wilson 's preoccupation with the state 's financial problems and the fact that up to now the state 's massive economy has not had to put much energy into stimulating trade , some officials noted . American investors in European stocks and bonds experienced a bad case of deja vu last week : European markets plunged on growing fears that interest rates there have bottomed . Earlier this year , it took an actual boost in short-term rates by the Federal Reserve Board to send U.S. stocks reeling . In Europe , all it took last week was for German central bank President Hans Tietmeyer to suggest that the Bundesbank may be finished cutting short rates for now . Mindful of Germany 's still-languishing economy , Tietmeyer said nothing about raising rates . Yet investors reacted with horror at the thought that European short rates might stop falling , after only 20 months of Bundesbank-led cuts . At about 5 percent now , the yield on three-month German treasury bills is well above the 4.25 percent yield on U.S. T-bills even though Germany 's economy is weak while the U.S. economy is strong . Rattled by Tietmeyer , the Frankfurt stock market 's DAX index slumped 109 points for the week , to 2,141 Friday a drop of 4.8 percent , or the equivalent of the Dow industrial index losing 180 points from its current 3,757 1/8 . Because the Bundesbank largely calls the tune for interest rates across Europe , most of the region 's other stock markets also went down hard . In London , the FTSE-100 stock index tumbled 5.1 percent for the week ; Milan 's Mibtel index dove 5.9 percent . Worse , in some respects , was the reaction in European bond markets to Tietmeyer 's comments . In Britain , the yield on the benchmark 15-year government bond closed at 8 percent Friday , up from 8 1/8 percent just three days earlier . But while investors were dumping European securities , other world markets paid scant attention . In fact , North American , South American and Asian stock markets generally finished higher last week or unchanged . Other markets ' ability to ignore Europe 's turmoil may be a sign that international investing has become a stock-picker 's game again unlike last year , when virtually all foreign markets rocketed . As markets go their separate ways , U.S. investors will find international investing more challenging , but also potentially more rewarding . If you can recognize bargains among individual markets , or you 're in a foreign mutual fund that has proved its savvy as a global stock-picker , you should earn above-average returns . So far in 1994 , a good defense has been the best offense in foreign investing . Early this year , the smart money was selling stocks in Hong Kong , Singapore , Bangkok and other Southeast Asian markets after their 60 percent-plus gains in 1993 . Those markets began to dive in January , and only recently have they shown signs of bottoming . Meanwhile , the Japanese stock market has been this year 's big surprise . The Nikkei index has jumped 19.3 percent year-to-date , fueled by the perception that Japan 's economy is bottoming after three difficult years . Until last week , European stock markets had held the middle ground between Southeast Asian markets ' plunge and Japan 's hot streak . Most European markets were off marginally for the year , though with the dollar 's weakness American investors still were making money there . Does last week 's selloff suggest European stocks are poised for a meltdown ? Many international stock fund managers don't think so . For the most part , fund managers still believe there 's room for short- and long-term European interest rates to fall , because the Continent 's economy is only beginning to emerge from recession . On Friday , in fact , the Bundesbank 's Tietmeyer tried to allay investors ' fears by telling a radio interviewer in Germany that `` it can be taken for granted '' that the Bundesbank will keep cutting money market rates , even if it makes no additional cuts in its official discount rate . But European stocks now face other obstacles , fund managers admit . John Hickling , who runs the Boston-based Fidelity Overseas fund , says too many European companies are trying to raise money with new stock offerings . `` There 's supply coming from everywhere , '' he warns . Political risk is also high , with German elections looming this year . Pressure on politicians in Germany ( and across Europe ) to use government spending to bring down double-digit unemployment rates may keep inflation concerns at the forefront , in turn keeping bond yields artificially steep . Lastly , there 's the issue of valuation : Many European markets look expensive because corporate earnings remain depressed while stocks have rallied since 1992 . Nonetheless , European stock bulls expect their markets to follow the U.S. script : As the economy improves , the bulls see investors flocking back to European industrial stocks , which have the most to gain from an economic turnaround . For example , Hickling 's fund has about half its assets in Europe , mainly in industrial giants such as auto makers Volvo and Peugeot , and energy/petrochemical leaders such as Elf Aquitaine and Total . Madelynn Matlock , manager of the Bartlett Value International fund in Cincinnati , has 59 percent of her fund 's asset in Europe . She expects investors to eventually return to such industrial names as Tampella , a Finnish maker of mining equipment , and to French construction materials firm Saint Gobain . Jeff Russell , co-manager of the Smith Barney International Equity fund in New York , argues that European stocks still don't reflect the future earnings benefit from corporate restructurings still in full swing there a couple years behind the U.S. restructuring binge . His fund , about 45 percent invested in Europe , has targeted stocks in Italy , Ireland and other countries that depreciated their currencies 18 months ago . That depreciation made those countries ' exports more competitive , giving their companies a head start in Europe 's recovery , Russell says . But some international stock fund managers contend that the best place to put new money to work today isn't Europe , but the beaten-down emerging markets of Asia and Latin America . Norman Kurland , head of Pioneer International Growth fund in Boston , is only 35 percent invested in Europe . He finds more allure in markets such as Mexico , South Korea and Thailand , especially after their selloffs this year . If you want to bet on global growth , Kurland argues , it makes more sense to invest now in Asia or Latin America . Expansions in the United States and Europe , he says , will be magnified in already-booming emerging economies that are major exporters to the developed world . And emerging markets ' stock valuations are once again reasonable , he says . Khallid Abdul Muhammad , a controversial former aide to Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan , was wounded in a parking lot shooting Sunday evening at the University of California , Riverside , where Muhammad had just given a speech , officials said . A Riverside police sergeant said two or three other people were also wounded , none of them seriously . An Associated Press photographer said Muhammad was hit in the foot . A crowd surrounded the gunman in the parking lot outside a university auditorium where Muhammad had spoken , and beat him before authorities could break up the fight . He is in police custody , officials said . Two people were injured in the parking lot shoving after the shooting , said university spokesman Jack Chappell . Muhammad , 43 , had been suspended from his duties as senior aide to Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan after a speech in November in which he called Jews `` the bloodsuckers of the black nation and the black community . '' That speech was denounced by President Clinton and other black and Jewish leaders , as well as by Farrakhan himself . RIVERSIDE , Calif A black gunman dressed to look like a member of the Nation of Islam shot and wounded controversial former Nation of Islam spokesman Khallid Abdul Muhammad here Sunday , on the steps outside a university auditorium where Muhammad had just spoken . Muhammad , 43 , was hit in the left leg by at least one of five or six shots from a .9 mm handgun , officials said . He was in satisfactory condition at Riverside Community Hospital , according to a Muhammad associate who asked not to be named . ( Riverside is about 60 miles east of Los Angeles ) . Two Nation of Islam bodyguards were also wounded . Caliph Sadig , 33 , of Upland , Calif. , was in satisfactory condition with a wound in the upper right back . Another guard , Varnado Puckett , 34 , of Pomona , Calif. , was shot three times . He was in serious condition , undergoing surgery at Riverside General Hospital . The gunman wearing the dark suit , white shirt and bow tie `` characteristic of what his security people were wearing , '' said University of California , Riverside , spokesman Jack Chappell stepped from a crowd of some 50 people outside the auditorium where Muhammad had just spoken , and fired from five to 10 feet away . He was severely beaten by the crowd , some of whom reportedly shouted , `` He works for the Jews . '' ( Muhammad was fired as an aide to Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan after making anti-Semitic remarks last year . ) Police plucked the bloodied man from the angry crowd and put him in a police car until he could be taken away by ambulance . Riverside Police Sgt. Robert Hanson said authorities are not releasing the name of suspect because of concerns for his safety . No motive for the shooting has been discussed by officials . Ahromuz , a longtime Muhammad friend who was standing on the auditorium steps next to Muhammad when he was shot , said someone had just asked him to compare the struggle of Latinos with those of African Americans . `` The last thing I remember him saying was , ` The same dog that bit you , bit me , ' ' ' said Ahromuz . `` After that , just pop , pop , pop , pop , pop . It was so close . I just took my daughter and hit the ground , '' he said . `` I heard a bullet echo in my ear and I could smell gunpowder . '' In the chaos after the 6:09 p.m. shooting , Ahromuz said , several young African-American men attacked some white people who had rushed to the scene , but others who had been at the speech intervened . Members of the Fruit of Islam , the Nation of Islam 's security contingent , carried the wounded Muhammad back through the building to a waiting white Lincoln Continental and hurried him to Riverside Community Hospital . Associated Press photographer William Lewis said angry supporters descended on the gunman and pummeled him as police attempted to stop them . `` They were just kicking and stomping him in the head . That 's where the pandemonium was . They dragged the shooter out by the nape of his neck , blood dripping , '' he said . `` People were still trying to get their kicks in . The police were trying to protect him . And the people wouldn't let him get out . '' UC Riverside senior Mark Thaler , who attended the speech , saw the suspect later , `` a bloodied head , and ( he was ) propped up '' in the back of the police car . Muhammad 's son , 9-year-old Farrakhan Khallid Muhammad , was carried away by aides as he screamed , `` Daddy ! Daddy ! Daddy ! '' The boy , who frequently appears on stage with Muhammad , did not appear to be injured . Under intense security that included pat-downs and bag searches and a hefty presence of police , campus security as well as Fruit of Islam , nearly 450 people had entered the Student Recreation Center to hear Muhammad , who was sponsored by the African Student Alliance at UC Riverside . During the speech , some 70 protesters picketed silently outside , among them Jewish and Roman Catholic students . Inside , three people were thrown out of the building after they began heckling Muhammad . Campus officials identified one of them as Irv Rubin , a member of the Jewish Defense League . Following the speech , Muhammad stepped outside , where 50 or 60 people were waiting . `` After a speech , he likes to deal with the people , which irritates his security , '' a friend of Muhammad 's told the Los Angeles Times . `` Security is more worried about Khallid than Khallid himself . '' ( Optional add end ) That Muhammad arouses strong passions has been evident since his controversial remarks last November at a New Jersey college about Jews , comments which got Muhammad fired from his job as senior aide to Nation of Islam head Louis Farrakhan . Muhammad said that Jews and Arabs were `` the bloodsuckers of the black nation and the black community , '' and suggested that Jews brought the Holocaust upon themselves . After his speech was denounced by the Rev. Jesse Jackson , the Congressional black caucus and President Clinton , Farrakhan was forced to reprimand Muhammad and suspend him from his role as top aide and spokesman . Although Farrakhan said he agreed with Muhammad 's remarks , he disagreed with how he said them . Muhammad , however , said he was told his speech was `` repugnant , malicious , mean-spirited ... . I feel very hurt over those words , to be honest . '' He acknowledges the raw nerves his speeches touch , saying again and again , `` I 'm a truth terrorist , I 'm a knowledge gangster . '' The following editorial appeared in Monday 's Washington Post : The United States didn't create the Macedonia problem but by its sluggish diplomacy lets a fire spread that could yet ignite a second set of Yugoslav wars , rather than contributing to closing down the ongoing first set . Washington does this mischief by bending excessively to an assertive Greek lobby , thereby stiffening Athens in its dispute with the former Yugoslav republic of Macedonia , which is now a declared state . A more independent policy would let Washington help move both sides toward necessary compromise . The dispute between Athens and what it calls , by the capital 's name , `` Skopje '' arises from Macedonia 's grip on a name , flag and constitution that Greece claims are irredentist . Small and weak Macedonia badly overreached in its choice of nationalist symbols and rhetoric . Greece is supposedly a mature country , able to distinguish a short-term political victory from a long-term strategic debacle . But in response it went off the deep end , imposing a crushing economic embargo and opening an effective campaign of political isolation . Throw in multiethnic Macedonia 's sharpening internal tensions , and you have a recipe for pitching the so-far spared southern Balkans into the northern Balkans ' fire . Washington 's role is curious . It has put nearly 600 peace-eepers on Macedonia 's northern border as a caution to Serbia . This represents a policy of stabilizing Macedonia . At the same time , though it recognizes the `` Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia , '' it does not send an ambassador . This conspicuous default has the effect of destabilizing Macedonia . How is this awkward contradiction to be explained ? The result corresponds to the appeals of Greece and its friends . A look at Macedonia on a map tells the real story . The country abuts Serbia , including the inflamed Serb province of Kosovo , on the north and Albania , Greece and Bulgaria on its other borders . It could be the fuse that , once lit by , say , an explosion in tightly wound , majority-Albanian Kosovo , could touch off further explosions through the region . Unlit , however , Macedonia also could be the stopper . This is the double potential that American diplomacy has yet to grasp . Greece seems unfamiliar with the requirement to think in a regional context . The United States is in a position to render Greece a true friend 's service to help it to rise above parochial political concerns and face the urgent requirement for a responsible regional policy . In Beijing in 1989 , one of the larger student-democracy movements in a century emerged . More than 3,000 young students gathered in Tiananmen Square , gaining the support and concern of people in China and around the world . Now , almost exactly five years have passed , and during these years , the world has changed tremendously . The communist `` camp '' has fallen apart . A new world structure has appeared . If we want to understand why there has been such a huge change in so brief a time , we should not neglect the China democracy movement of 1989 and the response of the Chinese regime . That regime had reacted wrongheadedly many times in countering the student movement . But never was the government more wrong than on that June night , when it used bullets and tanks to suppress the students . Such brutal behavior astonished the world , and I cannot overstate my condemnation of it . But as a member of the leadership of the movement , I don't want to use more ink to express my anger . Rather , I want to look back at the main reasons for the failure of the democratic movement . In June 1989 , when students went to the streets , the only motive they had was to push the process of political reform through orderly , radical political expression . Their aim was to compel China to become a democratic , modern society more quickly . This pure motive gained popular support ; it was also the fundamental reason students lost their lives . As students , we never realized we were engaged in a political movement . Our goal was just to express our opinions , to try to represent the people 's voice . We wanted the government to answer questions and come up with some solutions to the country 's problems . Even the most radical students never thought of adopting the tactics of a general political struggle , such as having contact with the ruling class , learning about power struggles within it , arousing the masses or making alliances with other political powers . We thought of ourselves as simply a student movement . This , I think , was why we had no effective political means to resist government suppression . Furthermore , if we had treated our movement as a political movement , we would have accepted some sort of appropriate compromise . We should have known that political struggle is the art of compromise . But in reality , the students did not have any desire to pursue political interests . They merely wanted to express their political wishes . When the government labeled their action as `` anti-Communist Party , '' `` anti-Socialist system '' or `` turmoil , '' the students reacted with strong resistance . At that point , they did not want to compromise at all . That 's how the deadlock formed between the government and the students . Looking back from today 's vantage point , we can see that if the students had withdrawn from Tiananmen Square of their own accord and adopted more meaningful measures of political struggle , they would not have had to pay such a price in lost lives . June 4 had an important impact on Chinese history even on world history . For China , the 1989 democracy movement was an important step on the road to modernization . More than that , it served as a means to enlightenment . After several decades of political suppression , the value of democracy and freedom had little room in the Chinese people 's heart . The 1989 movement opened that heart again . Its larger meaning is beyond words . For a country to follow a democratic road , it must first meet a basic precondition : Its citizens must possess a strong desire for democracy and a civic consciousness . Not only intellectuals but influential workers ' groups must show the social responsibility to help the larger society reach this precondition . From this point of view , the June 4th movement helped to build a strong foundation for realization of a politically democratic China . In the past five years , however , ordinary Chinese have generally distanced themselves from politics . This detached attitude is the inevitable consequence of the bloody suppression of June 4 . Some hold the student movement responsible for this aftermath . They criticize the movement , saying it brought harmful effects to the process of China 's modernization . But these opinions are , in my view , very shallow . We must clear our eyes and see : The Chinese government is responsible for what happened . It 's normal for people to keep silent when they are facing brute force . It is not politics but their own government that the Chinese people have distanced themselves from . Nor would I say that people are detached from politics so much as disappointed . Yet this situation will not last long , because the '89 movement has already planted the seeds of democracy . As soon as the spring wind comes , the democracy flowers will bloom splendidly . Everyone who learns history knows that the more time that passes after an important historical event , the clearer what happened becomes . The same principle applies to the '89 movement . The Chinese government totally denies the historical meaning of the '89 movement . This attitude has caused enormous dissatisfaction inside people 's hearts . If such dissatisfaction continues , China 's political development will not follow the right track . If we do not have political reform , there will be no big breakthrough in economic reform . The majority of Chinese have decided that only by following the road of reform can China reach wealth and power . I firmly believe that unless the '89 movement is rehabilitated , it will be impossible for China to transform itself peacefully into a modern society . Several thousand years of history have told us something : When you forget old suffering , it revisits you . Wang Dan , a dissident leader in China now working as a freelance writer , was recently detained and released in Beijing . This article was translated from Mandarin by Kun Cody . LOS ANGELES The transformation was completed on a recent Saturday afternoon when I found myself standing on the lawn with a cordless phone in one hand and a Frisbee in the other . I was talking with my wife about plans for dinner at a restaurant on Melrose Avenue , and I was flinging the flying disk for our dog . And the thought occurred to me that I had become California Person . In the six years since we moved to the land of low-fat milk and organic honey , I have survived drought , water rationing , drip irrigation , several earthquakes , a riot , rain so heavy houses slid down hillsides , and trips to Cedars-Sinai Medical Center , where the stars go to die . I have stood at the top of Mount Hollywood with a bottle of Evian water in my fanny pack . My grocery store is at Melrose and Vine . My dog 's vet has valet parking . I know that morning clouds almost never mean rain . I know all the words to `` I Love L.A. '' I no longer turn and stare when a '56 Thunderbird or a '57 Chevy rolls by . I am used to seeing and politely ignoring famous actors when I go shopping . A movie location shoot is just the cause of a detour , not curiosity . I am used to seeing major sporting events on TV at breakfast time . I pay 29 cents for a huge sack of crispy fresh cilantro instead of $ 2.45 for tiny brown bits in a shrink-wrapped package . I know how to spell `` Chardonnay , '' and I know not to serve it ice cold . I know that a tostada is not made by Dodge . I can figure out what time it is in Tokyo . I think all those people in Washington , D.C. , my former home , are self-centered , pompous idiots who ought to get real jobs . I don't smoke anymore. I go to parties here where nobody smokes , even outside . I expect flowers to bloom in my garden on Christmas Day . I have swatted flies in January . I have seen the thermometer top 100 in January . I love to chuckle over blizzard reports from cities where I used to live . I no longer own a parka , and I can find only one of my gloves . Umbrella ? It 's around here somewhere . I know the difference between a gardener and a lawn guy . I know nobody has ever rolled a 300 game at the Hollywood Bowl . I view 15 mph on the freeway as steady progress . I am used to waiting 20 minutes instead of five for a bus during rush hour . I know City Hall is the building Superman used to jump over on TV . I have hiked in the state park where helicopters used to land on `` MASH . '' I have been in the Griffith Park cave from which the Batmobile used to come roaring . I know how to get discount tickets to Disneyland . My home improvement center is on Sunset Boulevard . I have flown the redeye . I have seen my wife walk up to the mondoplex refreshment stand and order banana chips and herb tea . I know the best time of the year to visit Yosemite . I have seen buffalo roaming free on Catalina Island . I know that Catalina is part of L.A. County. I know the location of the unmarked road to the best beach at Big Sur . I know the difference between Cinco de Mayo and Mexican Independence Day . I know the best parking lot to use for a speedy exit from Dodger Stadium . I can count on my fingers the number of times I have eaten red meat this year . I have seen the seismo-cam too many times , thank you . Now I certainly have my doubts that any of this has made me a better person . But it does mean I have adapted enough to this unique environment that I have a slightly better chance of surviving here than I did six years ago . For better or for worse , I am California Person . Hear me Roar . I am Strong . I am Invincible . NEW YORK When fX , the new cable network from Fox , begins programming Wednesday , it will be available in 18 million U.S. households , said to be the largest launch of a cable channel in history . But fX 's gain will be C-SPAN 's loss . `` Some 1.1 million cable subscribers will lose C-SPAN entirely or see us part time due to cable systems picking up fX , '' said Brian Lamb , chairman of C-SPAN , the 15-year-old cable channel that televises congressional proceedings and other public-affairs events . Lamb blames provisions in the 1992 Cable TV Act for this development , which he says gave Fox and the other broadcast networks an unfair advantage in rolling out new cable channels . `` This is government meddling in communications of the highest order , '' Lamb said angrily . `` I have nothing against fX , but the government has given the broadcast networks a powerful jump-start with their new cable networks , an advantage that no one else has . '' What 's more , Lamb complained , the same law earlier led to another 2.5 million subscribers losing all or part of their access to C-SPAN programming . The Cable TV Act prohibited cable companies from carrying a broadcast signal without the consent of the station . If a station wanted to provide the signal for free , cable operators in the immediate area were obligated to carry it , even if they hadn't done so in the past the so-called `` must-carry '' rule that meant dropping or cutting back on existing channels . If a station didn't want to give away its signal , it could negotiate for `` retransmission consent . '' This is the route the networks took with the stations they own , but most cable operators balked at paying cash to the broadcasters , so many of them struck deals instead that guaranteed space for network-owned cable channels in exchange for the right to continue carrying their over-the-air programming . ABC quickly brought forth ESPN-2 , now available in 14 million homes ; Fox developed fX and NBC will launch America 's Talking , an all-talk channel , on July 4 , with an initial reach of more than 10 million homes . ( CBS chose not to go forward with a cable enterprise . ) fX 's weekday lineup will mix reruns of `` Dynasty , '' `` Hart to Hart , '' `` Fantasy Island , '' `` Wonder Woman , '' `` In Living Color , '' `` Batman '' and `` Greatest American Hero '' with seven hours a day of original programming , ranging from an information show along the lines of `` Good Morning America , '' to a pet show , an issue-of-the-day show hosted by Jane Wallace a music video program and a viewer call-in show . Meanwhile , dozens of other new cable channels are struggling to find an outlet in the crowded cable universe . Most cable systems simply don't have the channel capacity to handle anywhere near the volume of programming that is being offered . If they decide to take something new , it often means dropping something else or forcing two services to share time on one channel . `` It 's the ` law of unintended consequences ' run amok , '' said Lawrence Grossman , president of Horizons Network , a proposed cable channel that would be a `` cultural C-SPAN , '' offering lectures , readings and other symposiums featuring authors , scientists and artists . `` The government has given the broadcast networks a preferred seat on the bus for their new cable channels , while all the new independent services have been pushed to the back of the bus . '' And with cable companies chafing under new rate cuts ordered by the Federal Communications Commission , new channels such as Grossman 's may not get a better seat anytime soon . The cable operators say that the government has severely restricted their ability to generate the revenue needed to upgrade and expand . `` The FCC clearly intended to create incentives for new networks , but the most recent rules have had the opposite effect , '' Grossman said . `` They 've helped to create a situation that discourages new and innovative program services . '' ( Optional add end ) Horizons Network and Ovation Network , a proposed fine-arts network whose executives include former National Gallery of Art curator Carter Brown , recently asked the FCC to look at the impact of its regulations on smaller networks . Kathleen Waldman , deputy chief of the FCC 's cable services bureau , said that the agency may do so . `` We are open to hearing arguments about whether we 've provided adequate incentives to add new programming and maintain investment in public-interest programming like C-SPAN , '' Waldman said . `` We obviously didn't intend for the rules to discourage diversity in programming . '' The cable industry also has challenged the constitutionality of the `` must-carry '' rule , arguing that , under the First Amendment , the government may not dictate the programming that cable operators offer . A decision by the U.S. Supreme Court is expected soon . If it votes to overturn the law , C-SPAN could win back some of the channel space it has lost . Some C-SPAN fans aren't waiting for the government to act , however . They 've mounted local campaigns to protest the replacement of C-SPAN with fX . `` People are outraged that we are going to go off and they are going to get reruns of ` Dynasty ' instead , '' Lamb said . In McAllen , Texas , the announcement that TCI Cablevision planned to drop C-SPAN in favor of fX prompted citizens to demand a meeting with the mayor . `` I 'm getting beat up by my customers , but I don't have a lot of options , '' said TCI General Manager Neil Hamen . `` We have contract obligations to take fX , we have to take broadcast signals , we 're channel-locked the people in Washington who passed the regulations are reaping what they 've sown . '' AROUND THE HOUSE When finished painting , wipe off excess paint from can and lid and apply vegetable shortening around rims . This provides an airtight seal but allows easy opening next time . Welcome summer . Fill an empty fireplace with houseplants or a bouquet of baby 's breath . A flexible , cloth measuring tape will easily measure irregularly shaped objects for workshop projects . Seal small holes in window screens with clear cement glue . The repair will be almost invisible . Store children 's outdoor toys in 30-gallon garbage containers . Label contents on top of each lid and keep container close to the play area in your yard . Update your front door with a fresh coat of paint and new hardware ; the change looks as good as a new door and is much less expensive . IN THE GARDEN Determine the pH level of your soil by purchasing a soil testing kit or calling your local extension agency . An abundance of mushrooms , moss or fungi in the lawn is indicative of an imbalance and lime may need to be applied to the soil . HOLLYWOOD The competitive matchups disclosed by ABC , CBS , NBC and Fox in their recently announced fall schedules are more intriguing than usual , from the frontline battle of programs to the long-range ambitions mapped out in executive suites . For viewers , who will see 30 freshman series in the new prime-time lineups 15 dramas , 13 comedies , one newsmagazine and `` The ABC Family Movie '' several matchups are sure to draw major attention : NBC is risking its top new series of this season , `` Frasier , '' by pulling it from its cozy post- `` Seinfeld '' slot on Thursdays and sending it into head-to-head competition with ABC 's `` Roseanne , '' one of the best and most-established comedies on TV . On Sundays , all eyes will be on Fox 's newly acquired National Football League games swiped from CBS and how their lead-in will affect the tune-in for this highly watched night of TV , prized by advertisers and networks . With CBS reeling from a one-two punch by Fox , which also this week swiped eight of its key stations in a daring raid that brought it 12 new affiliates overall , the thing to watch is whether and how the football games begin to have an impact on CBS ' audience domination on Sundays with `` 60 Minutes '' and `` Murder , She Wrote , '' both long-running CBS series that have benefited in the past from the football lead-in . Fox , now possessing the football games and commentators long associated with it , including John Madden , Pat Summerall and Terry Bradshaw will use the contests to lead in to a new action drama , `` Fortune Hunter , '' and `` The Simpsons , '' which is returning to Sundays . These shows will be followed by Fox 's `` Married .. . With Children '' and a new comedy , `` Wild Oats , '' about a group of 20-somethings . If football loosens CBS ' hold on Sundays , `` The Simpsons '' and two other returning , high-profile series that have registered only mediocre ratings ABC 's `` Lois & Clark : The New Adventures of Superman '' and NBC 's `` seaQuest DSV '' will be in place to make yet another assault at 8 p.m. on `` Murder , She Wrote . '' There are other intriguing matchups in the fall schedule , including Fox 's increasingly popular `` Melrose Place , '' which will be moved to Mondays , taking on such sitcoms as `` Fresh Prince of Bel-Air , '' `` Blossom '' and `` Dave 's World , '' as well as ABC 's weekly NFL game . `` Melrose Place '' could benefit from increased public attention to Fox as a growing network force , but the odds are that it will still have a rough time against the Big Three competition , although the show 's hold on young viewers is formidable . A key player in Fox 's youth-oriented lineup is producer Aaron Spelling , who , in the coming season , will have three one-hour series on the network : `` Beverly Hills , 90210 , '' `` Melrose Place '' and its new spinoff , `` Models Inc. . '' The new show , with Linda Gray as the head of a modeling agency , will follow `` Beverly Hills , 90210 '' and try to make inroads against its key competition , ABC 's potent `` Home Improvement '' and `` Grace Under Fire . '' ( Begin optional trim ) By an odd twist , CBS , which has won the ratings crown for three consecutive seasons , goes into the 1994-95 shootout as the underdog in the eyes of many industry observers . Not only has the loss of football and the coming defection of stations over the next 1 or 1 years left a negative public impression but , more important in an immediate sense , CBS is running into the increasingly red-hot ABC network . Dependent heavily on older-skewing dramas and unable to develop many pivotal blockbuster comedies , CBS also will be without four major sports happenings that helped it to the top in recent years : the World Series , the Super Bowl , the Winter Olympics and the weekly NFL games . ABC , which might have won this season 's ratings race if not for the Winter Olympics and the out-of-sight ratings propelled by the Tonya Harding-Nancy Kerrigan rivalry , seems well-armed for the coming season , with comedies galore 16 of them and many of them hits . ( End optional trim ) In addition , ABC will have the Oscars , the Super Bowl and the World Series . The network was a solid winner in the May ratings sweeps , and it has come on strong as this season progressed . It had the No. 1 show , `` Home Improvement '' ; the top new comedy , `` Grace Under Fire '' ; the leading new drama , `` NYPD Blue '' and the highest-rated freshman newsmagazine , `` Turning Point , '' a midseason entry . Strengthened by such other comedy hits as `` Coach '' and `` Full House , '' ABC has had the luxury to `` hammock '' some other new contenders , such as `` Thunder Alley '' and `` Ellen '' ( formerly `` These Friends of Mine '' ) , between successful shows , thus helping them to successful launches . Not long ago , CBS and other networks were crowing that this has been a significant season for the networks , which actually went up in overall viewership despite new TV alternatives . The Fox station raid , while painful for CBS which could become more vulnerable to acquisition may be a further plus for networks and viewers because Fox chose to invest in free , over-the-air broadcasting . For the first time Fox is reaching the potential in its station penetration to pass one or more of the Big Three networks in total household ratings . ( Optional add end ) With NBC moving both `` Frasier '' and `` Wings '' to Tuesdays , Fox will try to move in on Thursdays by leading off with two of its popular sitcoms , `` Martin '' and `` Living Single . '' Both have black stars , but Fox dropped five other series with black headliners `` South Central , '' `` Roc , '' `` In Living Color , '' `` Sinbad '' and `` Townsend Television . '' However , some breakthroughs may be occurring in the minority area . Margaret Cho , a Korean American stand-up comedian , has a new sitcom , `` All American Girl , '' on ABC . And Latinos are starred in several series , among them Michael DeLorenzo in the police drama `` Uptown Undercover '' and John Leguizamo in a planned midseason comedy sketch show , `` House of Buggin ' , '' both on Fox . Overall , despite CBS ' three-year reign , despite the `` Roseanne''- `` Frasier '' matchup , the key development of the new fall season could be a closer realization of a true four-network environment . Once upon a time , it was just CBS and NBC . Haitians go home ! And stay there ! This is clearly the message to the poorest inhabitants of our hemisphere . The message is most audible in the United States , where the fate of the first democratically and constitutionally elected government of Haiti has become a domestic political issue , largely due to the pressure exercised by black American political leaders . Undoubtedly , the U.S. government has its share of responsibility in the failure of the international community to restore the government of President Jean-Bertrand Aristide . But its involvement , limited as it is , has served to shield the failings of the Latin American countries to assume , effectively and honestly , their collective responsibilities within the inter-American system . Haiti , after all , is in the Caribbean , not on some faraway continent . It is the second-oldest independent country in the hemisphere ( after the United States ) . It is also the world 's oldest black republic . It should be known more widely that many Haitians died fighting for the United States in its war of independence , and that a Haitian president , Alexandre Petion , generously helped Simon Bolivar to finance the campaign of independence of Venezuela , Colombia , Peru , Bolivia , Panama and Ecuador . As part of these recollections , I would add that it was the Haitians who handed Napoleon I , emperor of France , his first defeat . Is is evident , then , that the Haitians have not been free-riders in the defense of their rights or in their solidarity with the peoples of the United States and of Latin America in their struggles for independence . The Haitians have and continue to live a tormented history , from enslavement by the French to the dictatorships of the infamous Duvaliers and their current heir , Cedras ; from the richest sugar-producing colony in the Caribbean in the 18th century to the extreme poverty of today . Even though Haiti is part of the Americas , the general impression in the region is that its problems are , and should essentially be , of concern only to the United States . This impression is confirmed by the strictly ritualistic and formalistic interest expressed by Latin Americans . The sacrosanct principle of self-determination has served them well as an excuse not to get seriously involved in the tragedy of this black and poor member of our community . The `` Haitians keep out '' message comes not only from Florida , which already has generously received more than its share of refugees , but also from the Latin American countries that do not welcome refugees and are , if only through passivity , effectively discriminating against their poorest sibling . For the future of inter-American relations , it is sad and disappointing to witness once more as if the case of the U.S. invasion of Panama were not enough how the Latin American governments continue to yield their responsibilities to the United States in affairs in their own back yards . Also how they have so easily discarded their historical debt to Haiti , a once independent and generous nation . Yesterday the leadership was surrendered to a U.S. ambassador , Lawrence Pezzullo ; today to William Gray . Are the principles of regional sovereignty and independence of action less important than the principle of self-determination ? Or is it plainly that Haiti is not worth the effort ? Today , the Black Caucus of the U.S. Congress and the leadership of other black Americans such as Randall Robinson provide the main support for President Aristide 's return to Haiti . Was it necessary for the cause of Haiti to resort to ethnicity ? The sad answer is yes . Haiti in some ways is becoming a black Bosnia . In the Balkans , the Bosnians are considered Muslim and as such , non-Europeans not worth fighting for . The Haitians are black , not Latin , and as such , it seems , also , not worth fighting for . Their only recourse , then , is to appeal to their black brothers in the United States to influence their government to act . Unfortunately , there are no black caucuses in Latin America to speak on behalf of their black and impoverished brethren on the island of Hispaniola . So , for their own domestic political considerations , the nations of Latin America will let Washington carry the ball and bear the costs that an intervention may incur as well as the censure for violating Haiti 's sovereign right to suffer alone . Only then will Latin America find it useful to remember that Haiti does not belong to the United States but to the Organization of American States . You 've finished the renovation , the dust has settled and you 're tired of being cooped up in the house . Or maybe you 're partway through a painting project and the weather 's just too nice to stay inside . What are you going to do for a break ? How about a little work in the garden ? Whether you 're an urban pioneer or suburban dweller , a pretty and comfortable garden can provide an oasis of civility , a place to refresh mind and body , soul and eye . We were pleasantly reminded of this recently at the annual Victorian Garden Tour put on by Baltimore 's Union Square neighborhood association . None of the dozen or more gardens on the tour is large , and most are as narrow as the 19th century rowhouses they belong to . But even the tiniest of these had some touches that made them special , and all together they were an encyclopedia of clever gardening ideas . The homeowners have devised various ways to give character to the blank rectangles most started with . Here are some of our favorites : Tiny fountains . In one small garden , a half whiskey barrel had been filled with a liner and a little bubbler-type fountain . It had rocks , plants and even a couple of goldfish . Arbors . One enterprising homeowner used copper tubing to make an arbor of arches from the side of the house to the fence on the other side of a narrow areaway . He is training vines on the pipes , but in the meantime they 're decorated with strings of tiny white lights . Another yard had a simple , old-fashioned wooden arbor - basically posts with a piece of lattice on top - draped with grapevines . In the cool space underneath , white wrought-iron furniture made a pleasant spot to sit and enjoy the garden . Tiny fences . The same garden with the copper arbor had a tiny , ornate wrought-iron gate leading into a square rose garden . The owner said he cut it down from a piece of fencing left over from the front walk . Raised beds . Since a lot of urban rowhouses have paved back yards , raised beds can provide an environment for plants without demolition and hauling . We saw both tall raised beds , 2 to 3 feet off the ground , and short ones , as tall as one railroad tie . ( If you 're planning to grow vegetables , you might want to consider using wood that hasn't been treated with chemicals to resist insects and decay . ) Brick patios or walkways . In one long-ish yard , there were two paths : a straight one that followed the fence to the back gate , and a curvy one that wandered between wide border beds . The meandering path made the garden seem much larger . Garden projects are among the easiest and most rewarding you can undertake . Even an element as dramatic as a pond , if you have space for it , is remarkably easy . You can buy a rigid black plastic liner and dig a hole to fit it , or you can dig a free-form space and fit it with a flexible liner . ( Just be sure the liner is big enough to cover the excavation . ) Add a plant step about 9 inches from the top , if you 're planning to add water plants . Line the excavation with damp sand , drape the liner over it , and place bricks or stones around the edge to anchor it . Gradually fill with water , adjusting the bricks as the liner sinks to fit the contours of the pond . Trim the liner , leaving about 6 inches to fit under the edging . Flat stones are the traditional edging , but bricks will also work . Brick walks and patios are also easy to build . As with ponds , the hardest part is the digging . Mark the sides of the path or patio , and excavate about six inches . It 's best to install a permanent edge ; you can use pressure-treated 2-by-6s , held in place by stakes driven below ground level , or you can use concrete and pour permanent sides and bottoms . If you 're not using concrete , put 2 inches of sand in the bottom of the excavation and tamp it down ( you can buy or rent a hand tamper ) . Level it a brick 's depth below the top of the edging ( about 3 inches ) , using a board notched on each end to ride on the edging . ( For a large space such as a patio , level with the longest board you can comfortably use ; check for level by placing a level on the edge of the board at intervals . ) Deciding what pattern to lay the brick in is one of the fun parts of the job - will it be straight , herringbone , diagonal herringbone , lattice , or something of your own invention ? Just be sure to use a brick that is designed for paving . Some old bricks aren't glazed , and will crack and crumble . Tamp the bricks into the sand with a board and fill the gaps with more sand . Some people line the excavation with black plastic sheeting to keep weeds from growing between the bricks . The walk may still need occasional weeding , and because it 's set in sand , it will move with the heaving of the earth , so you may have to reset a brick every now and then . A concrete foundation will offer a relatively weed-free and perfectly level surface , but it 's a lot more work , more expensive , and it willn't have the hand-made charm of the sand . WESTCLIFFE , COLO . Where I grew up in Colorado , `` Jet Noise : The Sound of Freedom '' was the top bumper sticker without the question mark . My father was a federal employee , and we lived between an Air Force base and the Denver airport . Even today , a large proportion of Coloradons work for the Defense Department and its contractors . Colorado historians tell us we 've always had this love-hate relationship with Uncle Sam . Lately , it 's all hate . Here in southern Colorado , the Wilderness of the Sangre de Cristo Mountains forms our fortress walls . The mountains are the most ecologically diverse of any in the great Rocky Mountain chain . Motorized vehicles are forbidden in the wilderness , but its airspace is vulnerable to any intruder . We have always lived with some jet noise , but lately the sound of freedom has turned deafening . The Air National Guard , along with its Air Force allies , began to besiege the region 's six counties with its Colorado Airspace Initiative , which would increase annual `` sorties '' screaming , ear-rending , tree-top-level dogfights by thousands , with no upper limit . The area would become a permanent Military Operations Area . We made the mistake of demanding an Environmental Impact Statement , hoping that we could state a scientific case against the Guard 's initiative . In return , we got an endless series of public meetings , `` scoping sessions , '' lies , inaccuracies , contradictions and evasions all paid for with our tax dollars . Whatever its grasp of military tactics , the Guard understands war by attrition . Unless the Federal Aviation Administration , which rules on all military airspace , rejects the initiative , the Guard will bomb and boom us to kingdom come . ( Begin optional trim ) You can't hear , see or smell the enemy until too late , until he has blasted you from a clear sky , dipped his wings in a mocking salute and screamed on to torture your neighbors with his sonic booms and his radar-confusing flares and aluminum-silicate chaff . Treetop-level sub-to-supersonic flights have reverberated through the valleys around the Sangres for at least 20 years . During the Cold War , we put up with the bombs and booms . We took it for granted that behind them lurked some deep , dark reason . Then the Cold War ended . Then the effects on livestock became all too clear . Then the effects on wildlife and pack animals in the back country started to show . And then came the earsplitting , heart-racing effects on a growing army of retirees and a real-estate industry . ( End optional trim ) The war with the Guard has turned uncivil . The main event pits ranchers , realtors and recreationists against a decrepit wing of the U.S. . Air Force . It wasn't that long ago when the ranchers and recreationists were squaring off over wilderness designation . Indeed , they didn't strike a deal until last year . But the Guard has kept them united . The Guard is about as rusty a weapon as there is the nation 's arsenal . In the last 40 years , America has called up the Colorado Air Guard exactly once . Furthermore , the economies around the Sangres are changing , from traditional ranching and timbering to a mix of organic-beef or bison ranching , including a thriving business in ranching-for-wildlife . The recreation industry includes a booming second-home sector for retirees . More than 40 spiritual communities have made the Crestone area on the Sangres ' west side a world center for contemplative religions . The Guard claims that the new Denver International Airport restricts its airspace . In the face of rising local and statewide opposition , serious budgetary concerns and major environmental effects , it is determined to expand its training in the area . `` We 're in it for the long haul , '' said Maj. Thomas Schultz , public-affairs officer for the National Guard at Buckley Air Base . He says domestic training operations are increasingly important for the national defense , now that overseas missions have been sharply reduced . `` If we don't fly , we lose our combat readiness , '' Schultz asserts . `` This is a matter of pride for Colorado : Its 120th squadron was the first unit to be federally recognized in 1946 . The Air National Guard was born here . '' The residents of the valleys around the Sangres are not impressed . That 's partly because so many of them are retired military or veterans themselves . Take Ray Koch , a naval-aviation veteran and former aerospace engineer for Martin Marietta . He spent years designing more sophisticated versions of the hardware and software systems that drive schemes like the Guard 's . He doesn't have much respect for them or their systems , which he regards as Stone Age technology . `` The Air Guard is a dinosaur , '' he says , adding that low-level flight training has about as much relevance to contemporary warfare as Kit Carson 's pistols . Cheap , readily available surface-to-air missiles have rendered the Guard obsolete . Koch has a solution to the dispute . He has designed a demonstration of the Guard 's latest proposal to minimize impacts on our valleys and our wilderness . F-16s would overfly specific noise-sensitive points at typical airspeeds and power settings . Video and audio equipment would record the effects . Flight-data systems would correlate with ground data to validate speed , power setting , altitude and aircraft altitude . If the Guard 's planes perform as it claims , we will leave our back yard open to them . If they perform as we claim , they will leave our back yard forever . The Guard has yet to respond . And so we continue to cringe when we consider the fire danger from crashing planes and flying flares . Could it be that silence has become the sound of freedom ? From time to time , Richard T. Seymour of Baltimore will come across something in the news about blacks that causes him to shake his head in disgust and exclaim , `` There they go again ! '' `` But then I 'll catch myself and remember , ` Wait a minute , they aren't all like that , '' says Seymour . `` I 'll think : Bill isn't like that . Dave isn't like that . A lot of the black people I do business with or come into contact with during the day they aren't like that . I 'm painting blacks with a broad brush . Does this mean I 'm prejudiced ? '' Seymour asks me rhetorically . `` I don't know . '' So then I confess to Seymour that from time to time , I find myself shaking my head with equal disgust about whites . `` So , you see , it 's a Catch-22 , '' says Seymour . `` The circle of prejudice just goes around and around and on and on . '' Not long ago , I wrote a column about how some businesses exclude black models from their advertising , thus sending a subtle message that such firms do not welcome black patronage . It was the sort of commentary that made Richard T. Seymour shake his head in disgust and exclaim , `` There they go again ! '' So Seymour who owns an advertising business sent me copies of Ebony and Essence magazines . And he wrote me an angry letter pointing out that nobody ever `` comes down hard on the rampant racism of ` black publications . '' `` Blacks are always crying ` race ' , '' said Seymour after I called him . `` I mean , fair is fair . You 've got black magazines , you 've got black student unions on college campuses , you 've got a Black Entertainment Television station on cable and a Congressional Black Caucus in Washington . Blacks get away with racism that whites would never be allowed to get away with . If you 're going to complain about one , you 've got to complain about the other . '' Actually , there were a substantial number of white models included in the ads in the very issues of Ebony and Essence that Seymour sent me . Nevertheless , I think he has a point : Most blacks , I suspect , would be profoundly offended by a magazine that celebrated white culture and heritage with the fervor that Ebony celebrates African American culture . A Congressional White Caucus in Washington ? No way ! Are blacks guilty of a double standard with regard to racism ? `` First of all , the Congressional Black Caucus has never disallowed white members we have approximately 26 associate members who are white , '' said Rep. Kweisi Mfume , the caucus chairman , when I put my question to him . `` Second , the caucus exists to leverage opportunity and enforce change for black people . In the absence of a civil rights movement , the caucus is one of the most important vehicles for change that blacks have . '' Mfume said that most whites either are unaware of the continued disparities between blacks and whites in this society or they don't care . `` There is a feeling in the larger community that ` We 've done enough for blacks . We don't want to do any more , '' said Mfume . `` But , in fact , every major indicator suggests that the disparities are even more stark than they were 30 years ago . I hope and pray for a time when we willn't need a black caucus , '' he said . `` But realistically , I don't expect that time to occur in my lifetime . '' John H. Johnson , the publisher and chief executive officer of Ebony Magazine , makes a similar point : `` Until the two races are meshed or merged or integrated , you will need both ` white ' and ` black ' media , '' Johnson said in a 1984 interview , provided by his office . `` If we somehow reach a point in this country when race will no longer be a factor , then Ebony will simply serve all the people . In fact , Ebony would be a greater success than its white competitors , simply because black people have more experience studying and meeting the needs of whites than white people have had studying and meeting the needs of blacks . '' Seymour conceded he was unaware of many of the continued problems that make blacks feel they have to organize for change . And , I conceded something too : Maybe blacks are too quick to cry `` racism '' whenever whites question our goals . Maybe both sides must learn to listen . WASHINGTON Journalists and the corporations that employ them are worriers . We worry about the economic survival of the news business , about the `` meaning '' and social utility of what we do , about our ethics and status and about our `` relevance '' to a public that seems increasingly bored and turned off by the `` news '' as we have traditionally defined it . Howard Kurtz , the media critic of The Washington Post , published a book last year in which he said , `` The smell of death permeates the newspaper business . '' A headline in the trade magazine Editor & Publisher last week notes the trend line on our health chart : `` Newspaper Circulations Plummet . '' The journalistic outlook at the television networks is not sunny , either . As audiences for news programming decline , some TV executives wonder aloud whether it makes sense to keep the network news divisions alive . Advertisers are deserting us for `` new media '' serving the special interests of a fragmented , narcissistic society `` the culture of contentment '' in which consumption is the dominant theme . Our young people , Jay Rosen writes , `` have available to them not only a substitute source of news , but a kind of substitute universe , an alternative culture that is centered around television but is , in fact , more pervasive . This `` everywhere culture ' the culture of popular music , Hollywood , MTV , `` Entertainment Tonight ' , People magazine generates its own notion of currency .. . ( and ) is loosening the very ground on which the newspaper stands . '' Half of these people 18 to 24 never read a newspaper , and great numbers never watch or hear the evening news . If `` citizenship '' is defined as active and informed participation in public affairs and the political process , they the young in particular have become noncitizens along with millions of their elders . While our politicians and editorial writers preach to the world about the joys and successes of democracy , half the American electorate ignores our presidential elections . Turnouts in off-year congressional elections and in local elections of all kinds are an international joke . There are close relationships among the decline of citizenship in this country , the decline of interest in traditional definitions of `` news '' and the decline of journalism 's large role in the life of the society . Rosen notes correctly that , `` To pick up a newspaper and scan the front page is to feel yourself a member of a world in which politics and public affairs matter . '' That has been true since the late 18th century , and journalists have assumed ever since that our intense interest-some might say obsession-in these affairs is shared by the general population . However valid that assumption may have been in some golden era past , it obviously has little validity today . Vast numbers of Americans are not only turned off by politics and public affairs , as their lack of participation and their lack of interest in political journals demonstrates ; they have become actively hostile . E. J. Dionne , an editorial writer at The Post , wrote a book on the subject a couple of years ago : `` Why Americans Hate Politics . '' The corruption of government at all levels by lobbyists and special interests of every description is a factor . The frequent incompetence and lavish waste of government bureaucracies and officials is another . The character flaws of political leaders and candidates , the cliches and psychobabble that pass for political discourse , the malign influence of political consultants who brainwash and mislead us with deceptive and irrelevant political advertising contribute significantly to the public 's alienation . So does the incompetence and superficiality of the press . Post political columnist David Broder has identified a central problem . `` Citizens , '' he has said , `` now perceive the press as part of the insider 's world. .. . We have , through the elevation of salaries , prestige , education and so on among reporters distanced ourselves to a remarkable degree from the people we are writing for and have become much , much closer to the people ( experts and politicians ) we are writing about . '' Our professional lives are tied up with ( and greatly dependent on ) the political elite government officials , lobbyists , bureaucrats , consultants , experts and academicians . We socialize with them , talk the same language , have the same interests , live in the same neighborhoods , share lifestyles , schools for our children , clubs and poker games . It is no wonder that the pictures of the world we present to the newspaper audience and the spin we put on them are , in the strict meaning of the word , the `` propaganda '' of the ruling class . Tom Koch , a journalist and author of books on journalism , makes the same point : `` For twenty years content analysis studies have shown that between 70 and 90 percent of our content is at heart the voice of officials and their experts , translated by reporters into supposedly `` objective ' news . People don't trust us anymore .. . because the way we quote and attribute and build factoids as if they were truth is a lie . And folks are catching on . '' They not only do not freely give us their trust , they often do not understand us at all . We write in the argots of politics and the bureaucracy and the academic world , which is as comprehensible and useful to the masses as the journals of quasars , black holes and quantum physics . Because of uncertain prospects in the 21st century , there is a lot of talk in the press these days about reinventing ourselves through the marvels of technology electronics and the `` information highway , '' for example . Others see a solution in design and artistic innovation . But until we re-examine and change the way we conceive of `` news , '' until we redefine the `` reliable source '' and until we learn to use a language that is accessible and meaningful to the apathetic public out there , neither the press nor our political system will be cured of its problems . D-day 's success on June 6 , 1944 , together with a Russian victory at Stalingrad 15 months earlier , assured that Nazi ambitions for European and world domination would not be realized . But when the common enemy collapsed in 1945 , what British Prime Minister Winston Churchill called the Grand Alliance swiftly broke apart , giving way to Cold War between the Soviet Union and the United States . Many Americans were distressed when their hope for a peaceful postwar world failed to materialize , but hard-nosed observers recognized the new international alignment that emerged between 1946 and 1950 as a classic example of balance-of-power politics . This was exactly what wartime presidents Woodrow Wilson and Franklin D. Roosevelt had hoped to banish from the Earth by making international law enforceable . How ironic , then , that the United States found itself unexpectedly engaged in a ruthless game of power politics instead of relying on international law . Does half a century 's experience since the shocking international realignments of the 1940s make us any wiser ? It is hard to tell . Hopes and fears about international affairs are less intense than they were 50 years ago . But the decay of Cold War alignments and motivations , like the decay of the wartime alliance , puts the future up for grabs in an unusually drastic way . Perhaps the peace-keepers of the United Nations can really keep the lid on international conflicts if the great powers cooperate . Perhaps a new balance of power among rival states will emerge to replace the Cold War antagonism . Or perhaps changes within the leading states of the Earth have altered public life so much that old-fashioned balance-of-power politics has begun to decay not because peace has broken out , but because other kinds of conflict have begun to limit and distract attention from intergovernmental rivalries . As far as I can tell , all three of these alternatives which find their origin at least in part in the victory of D-day are live options . U.N. peacekeeping has not been uniformly successful , but as long as the great powers refrain from taking sides , local wars remain local and sending in outsiders to keep combatants apart might become habitual . On the other hand , if the great powers quarrel , they can easily form rival blocs and alliances as aforetime . Radically different lineups seem possible . The classic balance-of-power response to the eclipse of the Soviet Union would require the American Cold War alliance to split up . Fortress America would then confront Festung Europa under German leadership once again , with a new Japanese Co-prosperity Sphere in Asia to challenge both . Alternatively , the United States and Japan might ally against China ; Russia might join or oppose western Europe ; India might join or oppose China in Asia , and so on . Permutations are innumerable , but according to this view , the balance of power is immortal , even if unstable , and compels statesmen to form and break alliances willy-nilly . The third alternative is more interesting to think about . Balance of power is only as permanent as the states and governments that play the game . But states exist only in the minds of the people they govern , and if enough people feel themselves alienated , governmental power can dissolve with quite surprising rapidity . This was what happened to the USSR . Other states may face similar difficulties in the future . Subnational identities on the one hand and transnational connections on the other have modified national politics already . A tangle of overlapping rights , duties , obligations and beliefs , if they increase in the future as they have been gaining power of late , might weaken national identities and restrict the sovereign power of existing governments far more than they are restricted today . None of these scenarios is likely to bring peace to the world . But the way people organize themselves into groups and distribute loyalty among different and often overlapping groups makes all the difference . Divided loyalties and plural identities are incompatible with total war and marginalize balance-of-power politics . Perhaps divided loyalties have already multiplied to such a point that international behavior is changing in ways no one imagined in 1944 and no one yet fully understands 50 years after the D-day victory that prepared the ground to make it possible . It 's become something of a commonplace to say that foreign policy should not be governed by television coverage . The most prominent example of the alleged abuse , probably , is the American intervention in Somalia . In late 1992 , the public witnessed almost daily television coverage of hundreds of thousands of Somalis starving to death , and in January President Bush launched Operation Restore Hope , whose purpose was to deliver food and other supplies to the afflicted . No doubt the Bush administration 's reasons for intervening were complex . It is clear , however , that it never would have taken place without public acceptance , and that public acceptance was primed by the television coverage . Naturally , the action was attended by debate regarding the purposes and justifications for intervention generally in the post-Cold War period . Some argued that any human catastrophe on the scale of the Somali famine was justification enough for international intervention . Others feared that intervention for humanitarian reasons would quickly lead to political and military involvement , which would prove both interminable and self-defeating . This warning seemed especially pertinent inasmuch as the famine , initially caused by drought , was greatly extended and protracted by a civil war in which control of food had become a weapon among the contending sides . By the time of the American intervention , food sent by the outside world was piling up in warehouses in Somali ports . Later developments seemed to confirm the fear of involvement . In October of 1993 , 18 American soldiers were killed in a battle with the forces of the Somali warlord Mohammed Farah Aidid , and the corpse of one was dragged through the streets . The television images of this event proved as powerful in pulling U.S. troops out of Somalia as the earlier pictures of starving Somalis had been in pushing the troops in . Within days , President Clinton vowed to withdraw U.S. soldiers in six months . They are now gone . This sequence of events left in its wake a widespread belief that international intervention inspired by horror at faraway events cannot lead to anything good : A frivolous public , it seemed , had first lightly demanded intervention and then abruptly abandoned support for it at the first sign of adversity . The Somalia intervention became a byword for futility . That characterization is especially potent in the current debate over intervention in the genocidal proceedings in Rwanda , where government forces have massacred some hundreds of thousands of members of the Tutsi tribe , and Tutsis have retaliated , though on a smaller scale . A recent editorial in The New York Times , for example , warned that intervention in Rwanda might turn out to be a repeat of the `` debacle '' in Somalia . This characterization , however , overlooks certain facts of epic proportion . The most important is that hundreds of thousands of lives were saved . The U.S. . Agency for International Development estimates the number at 500,000 , and Oxfam America , the independent relief organization , confirms the figure . Peggy Connolly , who traveled widely in Somalia for Oxfam America in the spring , recently told me she found nearly universal gratitude among Somalis for the international intervention , and for the crucial American role in particular . Farming has resumed , she found , and communities are rebuilding . `` And the civil war is over , '' she added though she agrees with other observers that the long-term political future of the country is worrisome . There may be sound reasons for the international community 's reluctance to intervene in Rwanda , but an alleged `` debacle '' in Somalia should not be among them . Nor , in this case , did television coverage inspire bad policy . The public saw starving people , and wanted something done . Something was done , and hundreds of thousands lived who otherwise would have died . Let 's say you 're an anti-abortion protester . You think abortion is murder . And so , you believe you must do whatever you can to stop it . As a pro-life advocate , however , you don't believe in violence . In fact , you completely disavow the hard-core radical fringe of the movement , the kind of people who killed Dr. David Gunn and firebomb abortion clinics . You don't believe you can be pro-life and pro-violence at the same time . But you 'll do anything short of violence . Because your conscience willn't allow you to do anything less . So , as you try to stop people from going inside abortion clinics , you hold true to your beliefs in nonviolence . You practice civil disobedience , in the tradition of Gandhi and Martin Luther King Jr. . You sit in front of a doorway , and you shall not be moved . It 's against the law , of course , just like the civil rights sit-ins were . But you 're prepared to be dragged away by police . You 're willing to spend a few days in jail and pay a fine , if you must . But now the cost has gone up . Now , the president has signed into law a bill that makes it a federal crime to blockade an abortion clinic or related medical facilities . Violent offenders can face up to $ 100,000 in fines and a year in prison for a first conviction . You wonder why they single out violent pro-life advocates . Aren't violent acts already illegal ? You hear the oft-quoted numbers that since 1977 , there have been 36 bombings of clinics , 81 cases of arson , 131 death threats , 84 assaults , two kidnappings but you don't understand what they have to do with you . The person accused of killing Gunn is in jail . Firebombers are in jail . You never firebombed or threatened anyone . What you do is plead with women who are going inside for an abortion to reconsider . Some call that intimidation . You say it 's an attempt to persuade a woman to do the right thing . Some people call you a zealot . Maybe you are . Surely , it 's not against the law to be a zealot in America . But now nonviolent offenders , the people who participate in sit-ins blocking the entrance to a clinic and maybe even those who simply kneel and pray in front of the entrance , face a prison term of up to six months and a fine as high as $ 10,000 for a first conviction . An additional conviction can bring 18 months and $ 25,000 in fines . What do you do now ? The people who write the law say they 're not after lawful protesters . The people who write the law say you can still picket and speak out . You wonder , though , about the risks . Who knows how the law will be enforced ? Who can say exactly where picketing ends and blockading begins ? Isn't this what they call a `` chilling effect '' on protest ? These days , you feel like you have little recourse other than protest . The courts continue to rule against your cause . Most of the state legislatures have gone over to the pro-choice side . Bill Clinton has brought RU-486 , the abortion pill , to this country . You understand you hold a minority position . But you figure one of the great things about America is that the Constitution protects the right to hold unpopular positions . Now you don't know . You wonder how Clinton , a former professor of constitutional law , doesn't see this law as a First-Amendment problem . You wonder how the ACLU , the dogged defenders of the First Amendment , the same guys who defend the rights of Nazis to march , can support this law . You wonder what would have happened if , 30 or 40 years ago , Congress had passed a law aimed specifically at civil rights protesters who sat-in at lunch counters . How many sit-ins would there have been with a six-month jail term as a result ? You wonder what would have happened if they 'd passed such a law during the Vietnam era , singling out protesters who sat down in front of draft boards . Actually , you don't wonder . You know exactly what 's going on . They say they want to stop the violence at abortion clinics . You know that 's a phony issue . Existing laws handle that problem . What the people who back the law want is to stop you . What they want is for you and the entire anti-abortion protest movement to just go away . And if , in the process , the liberal establishment chooses to disregard and even endanger principles it once fought so hard to win , that 's just the price we 'll all have to pay . About the time a home furnishings trend shows up on a bathmat , it 's washed up . So it is with heavenly objects . Not that you 'd know it by scanning the stores and catalogs : Suns , moons and stars still fill the shelves and cover multiple pages . But such is the nature of these trends just when they 're everywhere , they 're goners . `` It is post-peak , '' pronounces Raymond Berger , vice president of Plummer-McCutcheon , which gave two entire pages to the celestial theme in its most recent catalog . During the decorating-down years ( on average , people replace furniture only 1 times during their lifetimes , designer Vladimir Kagan says ) , we freshen our nests with small decorative items . They are to furniture what accessories are to fashion affordably priced additions that stretch the life span of the major , expensive pieces . And they 're the fuel that fires yard sales of the future . Where a furniture style can take five to 10 years to max out , a decorating theme might come and go in a matter of months . With two years on the scene , celestial items have had a long run . There is no consensus on its exact flash point , but early signs of the celestial look include a snow globe at a German gift fair , a cotton throw at a New York gift show and needlepoint pillows at a New York craft fair . Within a few months of those isolated sightings in 1992 , the sun , moon and stars motif began appearing on everything from clocks , dishes , candles , linens , napkin rings and watering cans to shower curtains . As prices go , the merchandise leans toward the low end . If the celestial theme came out of the blue , the reasons for its popularity are equally obscure . The brilliant yellow and orange graphics on a dark blue background hardly enhance the favored furniture styles of the day , such as Mission , nor do they complement the reigning palette of faded colors . `` Perhaps it has a sense of mysticism , or escape , '' Berger suggests . `` When it was at its peak , we were in a recession . '' Mystical iconography had another brief fling last winter when angels sprouted wings and took off , seemingly overnight . They rated a Time magazine cover before degenerating into swap-meet fodder . Now , though , angels appear to be getting a second life . Moons , stars and suns in pastels are being mixed with angels for some fairly rococo combos . American country is moving toward fussy Victorian style , and cherubs and moons fit right in with the lacy furbelows . Design trends have traditionally trickled down from such high-end sources as a furniture style , a designer 's line or even a museum show , but these days they often start , as the celestial theme did , at the mass-market level . `` The middle level is where all the action is , '' says color consultant Leatrice Eiseman of the Eiseman Center in Seattle . `` We have a three-tier system of price levels . There is the high end , or designer realm , the middle ground and then the low end , discount-price level . Now that it is trendy and permissible to talk about saving money and shopping at Price Club and Target , there is a lot more attention being paid to the middle level . The mass market is getting more attention , and new things are being introduced at this level . '' Sunflowers were another graphic phenomenon that bloomed midfield , as part of the American country look of several years ago . Cows and gingham also figured into the farm scene , but sunflowers ultimately struck out on their own to bedeck rugs , teapots , vases , linens , coffee mugs and candlesticks . Some are designed to look like folk art , others are done in dark , muted colors to complement Mission-style furniture , and still others are as garishly bright and sickeningly sweet as daisies and happy faces two overused devices from decades past . The sunflowers are also starting to fade . ( Begin optional trim ) Chili peppers , ivy and fruit have also been popular in the middle-price range but will probably have disappeared by this time next year . On an ascent are African-inspired items . Such fabrics as kente cloth have caught on in the textile and fashion markets and fueled a growing selection of African-like prints on linens and dinnerware . `` I think African-themed items will be a fairly important classification , '' says Mary Morris , vice president of Ross-Simons , publishers of the home-wares catalog Anticipations . Society seems to moving toward a greater appreciation of ethnic influences , she says . ( End optional trim ) Also on the rise is a home-wares trend influenced by a furniture style referred to variously as Bloomsbury chic , palace trash , neo-ancestral and shabby chic . About two years ago , the severely trendy began collecting old chairs with moth-eaten , worn , velvet upholstery and displaying them just like that decrepitly shabby . The idea was to have furniture look as if it had been in the family for generations as in old family , old money . The decorative bits accompanying this theme are intentionally mismatched , worn and patched . The plates are different from the soup bowls , the mirrors need re-silvering , and the sofa cushions are upholstered in one fabric , the back and arms in another . Now , furniture manufacturers are reproducing the look . `` It 's in the $ 1,000-sofa range now , '' Berger says . `` I 've seen slipcovers with incredibly creative mixes of fabrics . One piece of upholstery may have six fabrics on it . '' ( Optional add end ) The shelves of American Rag Maison et Cafe in Los Angeles are stocked with like-minded items . `` We are going for a mixture of things , rather than one look . Stripes and patterns on pillows . We mix two different types of plates things from cafes and things from flea markets , '' owner Margot Werts says . At stores with more moderately priced merchandise , wine glasses with mismatched stems come as a set and pillows have a mix of patterns . The Pottery Barn , for one , offers a sofa upholstered in ticking stripes combined with faded cabbage roses . The most promising element of the Clinton administration 's ambitious new plan `` to break the cycle of homelessness and prevent future homelessness '' is the amount of money requested from Congress . The administration seeks an unprecedented $ 1.7 billion , which would more than quadruple the funds now available to heavily impacted areas . Washington would not dictate how the new money would be spent . Rightly , that would be a local determination . By law , nonprofit organizations the key players in the recent assault on homelessness must get 51 percent of the funds . That mandate would allow groups that have long provided scarce social services and built affordable housing to collaborate rather than compete for crumbs . The administration 's plan is expensive because the Clinton team honestly acknowledges the scope of homelessness , and the complexity of the multiple challenges . The federal plan cites recent studies finding that between 500,000 and 600,000 people are homeless on any given night . Christopher Jencks , a sociology professor at Northwestern University and the author of the new book `` The Homeless , '' believes that the number of the `` visible homeless '' who live in shelters or public places like doorways , parks and cars is between 300,000 and 400,000 . Jencks links the recent increase in the numbers of aggressive panhandlers and confused or babbling men and women pushing shopping carts in large part to the proliferation of cheap crack cocaine and government 's failure to provide adequate mental health treatment . Two of three single adults who agreed to the voluntary and anonymous drug testing requested by the Cuomo Commission at New York shelters tested positive for cocaine , according to Jencks . In family shelters , 16 percent tested positive . Jencks puts overall drug use at 25 percent , and notes that it makes the users even less employable , deprives them of money for rent , drives away friends and family members who could give them shelter and in general prolongs their homelessness . They need drug treatment , job training and additional low-cost housing . One of three homeless people is severely mentally ill , according to Jencks . Many wouldn't be on the streets if states still operated the warehouse-like mental hospitals that were common in earlier generations . According to Jencks , these people require hospitalization , outpatient programs , rent vouchers to pay for board-and-care facilities or government support for relatives willing to provide care . Despite these daunting challenges , Henry G. Cisneros , the head of the Department of Housing and Urban Development , promises to reduce homelessness by one-third . Helping sick people who hear voices , fear others and are prone to violence is difficult . As the Clinton plan and the Jencks book indicate , they need more than a place to live . Providing treatment , services and financial aid will require a long-term commitment from Washington . The Clinton administration deserves credit for tackling a thorny social problem with a request for significant new funds and a well-thought-out plan of action that is long overdue . Now does America have the political patience required to make this plan successful ? NARBERTH , Pa. Lynn Duffy has been writing real-estate ads for so long she could compose them in her sleep . A spacious home in an upscale , secluded setting near jogging trails conjured up phrases like `` executive living , '' `` sports enthusiasts take note , '' `` quiet neighborhood . '' But that was before the `` red-light words . '' Duffy Real Estate now avoids the term `` executive '' ; it could be racist , since most corporate executives are white . Singling out `` sports enthusiasts '' could discourage the disabled . `` Quiet neighborhood '' could be a code for `` no children . '' Duffy knows of firms that are even avoiding `` master bedroom '' ( it suggests slavery ) , `` walk-in '' closet or `` spectacular view '' ( some homebuyers cannot walk or see ) . Real-estate agents in Philadelphia 's affluent Main Line suburbs are not suffering an attack of political correctness . Like their counterparts in many states , they say they are afraid of being charged with housing bias by increasingly vigilant , local fair-housing groups and individuals who are filing more and more discrimination cases over real-estate ads in newspapers . Most complaints concern blatant violations of the federal Fair Housing Act and state and local housing laws such as ads seeking `` adults only '' or `` no children . '' But a complainant listing her religion as `` non-Christian '' has charged a Gannett newspaper in Salem , Ore. , with religious discrimination for an ad published on Easter Sunday under a logo of a bunny in a flower basket bearing the words , `` Happy Easter . '' The Department of Housing and Urban Development is investigating . And a Pennsylvania fair-housing official said a real-estate agent recently pulled an ad for a `` rare find '' in Chester , Pa. , after a reader complained that it was racist to describe as `` rare '' a nice house in a largely black community . National civil-rights leaders are as upset about these complaints as are real-estate agents and newspapers . They say they consider them a `` trivialization '' of the act 's intent and a diversion from the fight against real housing discrimination . University of Pennsylvania law professor Lani Guinier , who has become a national voice on civil rights since the furor over her failed nomination to a Justice Department post last year , sees the struggle as a symptom of national confusion over how to communicate in an age of growing sensitivity to individual differences . `` We have to find a way to establish the legitimacy of people 's concerns without allowing every concern to define the debate , '' she said . Asked this month at a Senate hearing whether HUD would prosecute the use of terms such as `` master bedroom '' or `` walking distance to '' trains , assistant HUD secretary Roberta Achtenberg , who oversees Fair Housing Act enforcement , said firmly : `` HUD has never taken any such position , and we would not under my administration . '' `` If one of my members brought a complaint like that , I 'd choke them , '' said Shanna Smith , executive director of the National Fair Housing Alliance , which works with local fair-housing groups across the country . But Achtenberg and Smith cannot stop individuals who feel aggrieved from bringing complaints to state or local human-relations commissions , regional HUD offices or state or federal courts . Tim Kearney , program co-ordinator for the Fair Housing Council of Montgomery County ( Pa. ) , said that he hopes one day to test the law by suing over gray-area words . `` If somebody didn't pick up the phone ( to respond to a housing ad ) because they felt excluded by the wording , you have a complaint , '' he said . `` All day long some people suffer stings and pangs of discrimination , and it adds up . That 's what civil rights is all about . '' And a senior official of the Pennsylvania Human Relations Commission , which enforces the state housing law , said there is no way of knowing how a hearing officer would rule on any complaint , even `` master '' bedroom . `` We say to the newspapers and the Realtors , '' said the official , who insisted on anonymity . ` When in doubt , leave it out. ' ' ' This ambiguity is driving time-consuming efforts by real-estate agents and newspapers to anticipate even far-fetched claims of liability under the Fair Housing Act . While the financial penalties are not always severe , the litigation costs of cases that go beyond the complaint stage often reach tens of thousands of dollars . And housing-law violations are grounds for revoking an agent 's license in some states . The federal act bars housing discrimination in all forms , including any notice or ad that `` indicates any preference , limitation , or discrimination because of race , color , religion , sex , handicap , familial status or national origin or an intention to make any such preference ... '' Lawyers for associations of real-estate agents and newspapers say they receive calls every day from clients around the country , asking , `` Can I use this word ? '' `` In Hawaii , some people say , ` We can't say the house has a Japanese garden , ' ' ' said Fred Underwood , vice president of the National Association of Realtors . `` I answered , ` Do only Asian Hawaiians like Japanese gardens ? '' ' The main problem , he said , is there is no way to list all discriminatory words , because many are in the eye of the beholder and there are so many beholders . `` A real-estate concern called two HUD offices in New Jersey and asked about ` walking distance to synagogue and deli , ' ' ' Underwood said . `` One office said it 's fine ; the other said no , '' because it constituted religious steering . The Philadelphia Inquirer now urges advertisers to say `` convenient to ( shopping ) '' rather than `` walking distance . '' The Baltimore Sun instructs its advertisers to say , for example , `` three blocks to ... '' Numerous newspapers and real-estate agents around the country have foresworn phrases like `` convenient to jogging trails , '' for fear they discriminate against disabled people , `` ocean view '' in deference to the blind phrases cited in a 1991 complaint in Oregon or `` ideal for empty nesters , '' which could be discriminatory against families with children . The year was 1969 . The site was Berlin . The circumstance was the election of a new German president , a largely ceremonial post . The stakes were nothing less than control of the Bonn government after election of a new Parliament and a chancellor later in the year . On that occasion , the Cold War was much in evidence as Soviet and East German officials harassed the arrival of delegates to the election assembly from all over Germany . But the ceremony went ahead . And when it was over the election of the first Social Democratic president since the Weimar Era in the '20s proved to be a harbinger for the triumph of that party 's leader , Willy Brandt , in late summer . The key to Brandt 's victory was the liberal Free Democratic Party , which switched allegiance from the conservative Christian Democratic Union to the Social Democrats . It was to reverse course in 1982 , putting in office the current chancellor , Helmut Kohl ( but that is another story ) . What happened this week in Berlin was another presidential election , this one in which the Free Democrats , reluctant and divided as ever , stuck with the Christian Democrats rather than risk political oblivion . Chosen president was Chief Judge Roman Herzog of the Supreme Court , Kohl 's choice but hardly a favorite in the country . The question now in German political circles is whether , as in 1969 , the Free Democrats will prove again to be the decisive element in German politics . Only this time , as Herzog 's victory indicated , the FDP has determined to keep leaning right to support Kohl rather than swing left to align itself with his SPD challenger , Rudolf Scharping . Latest public opinion polls indicate that Kohl , though still behind , is gaining as the economy improves . Whatever the outcome , Germany is about to be denied the leadership of its most popular politician . Not Kohl . Not Scharping . Not the FDP 's Klaus Kinkel . Rather , the nation will lose the services of Joseph von Weizsaecker , who in his 10 years ( the limit ) as president has come to embody the conscience of a country that still feels `` abnormal , '' a nation haunted by its Nazi past . President von Weizsaecker has constantly warned against neo-Nazi eruptions and against intolerance toward foreigners . His successor , despite a bumbling beginning , must do nothing less . Distributed by the Los Angeles Times-Washington Post News Service . WASHINGTON A growing number of Americans are being caught up in securities litigation and are being forced to make potentially important decisions with little understanding of what is going on or what is at stake . It is common today for investors to find in their mail a document filled with dense language and fine print telling them something about a company they have invested in . Figuring out what it is , and then deciding what action to take is mission impossible for many investors . But those decisions may make the difference between recovering money and going without . Often , as in the case of a failed company , a class action is investors ' only hope of restitution . But sometimes , as with Humphries , joining the suit , intentionally or not , may prevent them from participating in a better deal that may have been worked out by a regulatory agency . Such problems have become so widespread that the subject was taken up at last week 's meeting of the Securities and Exchange Commission 's newly formed consumer affairs advisory panel , said Louis M. Thompson Jr. , president of the National Investor Relations Institute , an association of corporate investor relations officials . `` When investors are informed of a class action , ( the notices ) are so legalistic they can't even understand what they are getting involved in or are not getting involved in , '' Thompson said . Thousands of investors apparently just throw these notices away , but that in itself is a form of decision . Typically , when a class action is brought seeking monetary damages , the courts employ what is called an `` opt out '' procedure , meaning that anyone who fits the definition of the class is automatically included unless they take action to opt out , said Stephen J . Toll of Cohen , Milstein , Hausfeld & Toll , which handles many class action suits . This makes it easy if you want in , but can be a pitfall for the unwary or for anyone who for some reason doesn't get the notice . People who don't get the notice , who throw it away as junk , set it aside but forget it or otherwise don't respond , will be swept into the class . And when the case is decided or settled , they will be bound by the result . In many cases , Toll said , investors first receive a notice that the suit has been filed and that they may opt out if they wish to . Later they may receive another notice that the case has been settled , and that they may file a claim . Sometimes , he said , the second notice offers another chance to opt out , but generally not . If not , then the investor is locked into the settlement . If the investor doesn't file a claim , he or she willn't get any money , but will still be bound by the settlement . Sometimes when a case is settled before the class is certified by the judge , the notice and claim form are combined , and an investor may opt out at that point , Toll said . If you get a class action notice , Toll and others suggested thinking about it this way : How big is my investment and how good is my claim ? If your investment is large and your claim strong , Brenner said , `` you 're probably better off out of the class '' so you can sue on your own . Since class actions lump weak and strong claims together and give both kinds of claimants the same settlement , the good claims to a certain extent subsidize the weak ones . If your claim is strong , but your investment small , you are probably better off in the class because it is not economically practical to bring your own case . And , of course , if your claim is weak , you are definitely better off in the class . In general , said Toll , `` the only reason to opt out is to preserve your rights '' to sue . Still , critics charge that many class action lawsuits are frivolous . The stock goes down so somebody sues . Some studies indicate that the plaintiffs individually don't get much money in these cases . `` I tend to be rather skeptical ( of such suits ) because the law firms that bring them tend to make a bundle and the shareholders who would be participating wouldn't get that much out of it , '' said Maria Crawford Scott of the American Association of Individual Investors in Chicago . In most cases , if an investor has suffered a loss because a company or partnership went under , regulatory agencies do not become involved and the class action suit may be the investor 's best hope of salvaging something from his or her investment . Death by violence was at least 50 times more common among ancient peoples than it has been in the modern world , according to a new study of ethnographic records and human remains found in ancient burials . Still older prehistoric societies had violent death rates thousands of times higher . Recurrent warfare appears to have been the chief reason . `` The price we pay in our modern civilization for being divided into nation-states is far lower than what we would be paying if the world were still tribalized , '' said Lawrence Keeley , an anthropologist at the University of Illinois at Chicago , whose findings are being published next year as a book by Oxford University Press . Keeley calculated that if the world 's current population were undergoing warfare at the rate attributed to prehistoric peoples , 22 million people would die violently every year . In fact , the highest estimate of violent deaths of all kinds during the entire 20th century is around 100 million . Keeley 's study focuses on societies that lived between 12,000 years ago and the present . Among the more recent tribal societies , the annual death rate from violence averaged from estimates by various anthropologists who studied them is close to 0.5 percent . In other words , this is the percentage of people who die by violent means each year . In the United States today , the comparable figure is around 0.01 percent 50 times less . ( This is usually expressed as 10 violent deaths per 100,000 population . ) In still older prehistoric societies , Keeley said , the violent death rates , probably largely from warfare , appear to range between 1 percent and 40 percent . He cited one village site dated at A.D. 1325 in what is now South Dakota . `` There were 50 houses in this town , which meant that around 800 people lived there . Every house in the town had been burned to the ground . '' Archaeologists found a mass grave containing skeletons of more than 500 people . Of the skulls that could be found , 94 percent bore scalping marks . Most of the bodies had been badly mutilated and left to rot . Keeley said it is a myth that `` pre-civilized '' life was peaceful and happy , and that Western civilization is the root of all evil . `` As societies evolve and become larger and more complex , less violent ways of resolving disputes are institutionalized , '' Keeley said . `` What prevents war is politics . '' The planet Earth is a flasher . In recent years , several different scientific teams have detected mysterious bursts of light in the upper atmosphere , apparently linked somehow to thunderstorms . Scientists and others have seen them from the ground , from airplanes , from the space shuttle and through robot observatories in orbit . They have seen them in optical wavelengths and in intense microsecond sizzles of radio waves and now in the form of high-energy gamma rays . A team using NASA 's orbiting Gamma Ray Observatory , designed to scan the cosmos for powerful celestial sources of the rays , reports in the May 27 Science that it has seen at least a dozen Earth-flashes in two years . `` The last thing we ever expected to see was gamma rays coming up from Earth , '' said Gerald Fishman of Marshall Space Flight Center , who led the team . `` But about a week after we reached orbit , we started seeing flashes coming from below the spacecraft . '' Collaborating with weather and lightning experts at Marshall , the team used old weather satellite photos to determine that there were always storms nearby when the flashes occurred . The bursts could originate in a rare type of high-altitude electrical discharge above storms , possibly the result of lightning bolts that punch through the top of a thunderhead . Estimated to begin at altitudes no lower than about 19 miles well above the storm cloud tops and to rise as high as 63 miles , the flashes lasted from 1 to 8 milliseconds too short to pose any danger . They carried the signature of emissions from million-volt electrons decelerating rapidly ( known as bremsstrahlung radiation ) . About half had a double pulse , and one had five . However , according to a companion commentary by Richard Kerr , to create these effects would require superbolts 30 times more powerful than normal . She is hardly a household name , but New York Republicans hope Elizabeth McCaughey will make life as miserable for Democratic Gov. Mario M. Cuomo as she did earlier this year for President Clinton . McCaughey tore apart Clinton 's health-care plan in a long and devastating Feb. 7 New Republic article that forced the White House to issue a point-by-point rebuttal and drew a rebuke from the president himself . Now she has been transformed from think-tank scholar to political candidate as the New York Republican Party 's endorsed candidate for lieutenant governor , and one of her principal roles , says the man who put her on the ticket , is to distinguish the difference between Cuomo 's rhetoric and his record . `` Betsy has done such a spectacular job on the health-care plan .. . I have no doubt she will do a tremendous job '' on Cuomo 's record , said state Sen. George E. Pataki , the Republicans ' endorsed candidate for governor and the man who put McCaughey ( pronounced McCoy ) on his ticket . Pataki , who was the handpicked candidate of Sen. Alfonse M. D' Amato , R-N.Y. , said that , despite strains and schisms evident all year , Republicans emerged from their state convention last week `` with an overwhelming sense of optimism '' about the fall campaigns . McCaughey , after a day crisscrossing the state , said she is eager to serve . `` I 've spent 25 years studying American government , '' she said . `` I adore our system of government . It 's the freest and most enduring democracy every created , so the idea of participating as an elected leader is very exciting to me . '' Most Republicans who endorsed her nomination had barely heard of McCaughey , but her clash with Clinton has given her unique celebrity status . After all , how many other candidates for lieutenant governor have posed for Vanity Fair in a loaned designer gown ? `` I was quite shocked by it myself , '' McCaughey said after seeing the photo . A specialist in 18th-century history , she had hoped the magazine would use a close up picture of her and an image of George Washington . SAN ANTONIO If it had not been for the Daughters of the Republic of Texas , there would not even be an Alamo today . Instead of this familiar limestone shrine , this monument to liberty or death , there would be just another downtown hotel . For nearly 90 years , the Daughters have protected the Alamo , restored it , tended it and treated it like the most precious real estate in Texas . And now , as the Daughters see it , this is the thanks they get : Ethnic minorities have accused them of ignoring other claims to the site . An adjoining park has been proposed that could , they fear , turn the Alamo into Disney World . A new historical perspective has reduced their heroes to lily-livered scoundrels . And at every turn , the Daughters have been assailed as hidebound , amateurish and stubborn dowagers with nothing better to do than drink tea and plot more ways to justify their blindered version of the past . It has been most unpleasant . `` The Daughters are willing to look , listen and talk , '' said Gail Loving Barnes of Odessa , who wears the ceremonial ribbon sash of the group 's president-general and speaks softly , but crisply , about the controversies . `` We have been content all these years to work to preserve the Alamo , the shrine to Texas liberty . We did not seek publicity . We did not pat ourselves on the back . I realize now our foremothers should have arranged for some positive publicity years ago , so people would know what we were doing all along . '' Some critics have gone so far as to suggest the time has come for the Daughters of the Republic of Texas to relinquish control of the site , which draws 3 million visitors a year and ranks as one of the country 's more compelling attractions . That is a possibility the Daughters can describe only as unthinkable . `` We will never give up , just to put it bluntly , '' Barnes said , as other members shook their heads in emphasis . They refer to themselves as The Daughters . There are about 6,600 members of this unique and exclusive group ; to qualify , an applicant must provide irrefutable evidence her ancestors were early colonizers of what became Texas in the years before 1845 . History is greatly revered in the Texas scheme of things . Every little Texan is taught that he or she lives in the most fascinating state in the Union what other state was ever a country all its own ? Six of the top 10 tourist attractions here are historic sites , and students begin learning Texas history in the first grade , largely due to the Daughters ' heavy campaigning . The names Jim Bowie , William Travis and Davy Crockett , the shining heroes of the Alamo , are as familiar to youngsters as Batman . No battle is more sacred here than the siege of the Alamo , the fight for Texas independence from Mexico . It has all the essential stirring elements : an outnumbered band of patriots holed up for days inside a former mission , a rousing agreement to fight to the death , a brutal annihilation that paved the way to a greater triumph . For 13 days in 1836 , Col. Travis and 188 men managed to stave off the ferocious Mexican Gen. Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna and his 4,000 well-armed troops . Finally , in the pre-dawn hours of March 6 , the Mexican forces stormed the fortress , slaying all but a few women and children and burning the bodies of the resisters . Although Santa Anna dismissed the conflict as a minor affair , he had lost 600 men . Forty-six days later , the stage was set for the Battle of San Jacinto , when Gen. Houston led his 800 volunteers to defeat the Mexican army , and the Republic of Texas was born . Incensed by the Alamo 's fall and inspired by reports of the heroics there , Houston 's men coined a rallying cry that has since become a standard expression in American language : `` Remember the Alamo ! '' Texas switched from sovereign country to on of the United States in 1845 . The Daughters , founded in the 1890s as a historic-preservation society , entered the picture in 1905 , when the Texas legislature granted them custodianship of the crumbling and neglected Alamo . Clara Driscoll and Adina de Zavala , two founders of the group , had saved the site from destruction ; it was coveted for a new hotel . Since then , there have been regular tempests at the Alamo , but the Daughters agree the latest series of assaults depicting them as blue-haired control freaks or worse , white supremacists has gone beyond normal bounds . One after another , critics have emerged to attack the fortress . Gary Gabehart of the Inter-Tribal Council of American Indians says the Daughters are wrong to concentrate solely on the siege , that the Alamo should also honor the 921 mission Indians previously buried at the site . Gilberto Hinojosa , a dean at Incarnate Word College , wants more emphasis on the Alamo 's role as a mission . Historians have raised doubts about the very worthiness of the heroes Houston may have been an opium addict , Davy Crockett a sniveler . David Anthony Richelieu 's serious plan to expand the Alamo site to its former football-field-sized proportions has filled the Daughters with dismay . `` The DRT has had this little domain , and people are jealous , '' said Richelieu , a columnist for the San Antonio Express-News who has closely followed the disputes and belongs to a special , city-appointed committee to study the questions about the Alamo . Visitors to the shrine on a recent afternoon hardly seem repelled by the disputes . Dozens of people prowled the lush green grounds , marveling at the smallness of the Alamo ( the mission itself is tiny , and the compound covers only 4 acres ) and its surprising location . Many first-time visitors expect the Alamo to be situated , alone , on a windswept hill , but downtown San Antonio sprang up around the site , and a Wendy 's and a Woolworth 's loom across the street . The Daughters do not like it that lost in the controversy is the fact the group has never charged for admission to the Alamo , meeting a budget that now reaches $ 2 million a year with donations and the sale of Alamo-shaped ashtrays and coonskin caps . Not a penny of tax money has ever gone to the Alamo . WASHINGTON Among the double agents that former CIA officer Aldrich H. Ames has admitted exposing to Moscow was Oleg Gordievsky , the KGB 's onetime top officer in London and the most important Soviet spy ever recruited by MI5 , Britain 's security service . Problem is , Ames can't say exactly when he told Moscow about Gordievsky . The FBI had concluded it was on June 13 , 1985 , when Ames turned over to a Soviet Embassy employee in Washington an envelope containing a list of code-names or other identifying clues for all the Soviet citizens he knew were in the pay of the CIA or allied governments . The FBI fixed on that date using photographic , electronic and other surveillance records that are supposed to have recorded all those who visited the Soviet Embassy , sources said . But the FBI did not consult with Gordievsky or read the book that he wrote in 1990 , the sources said . In the book , Gordievsky said he was mysteriously ordered back to Moscow from London on May 17 , 1985 , four weeks before the FBI has Ames turning over his list . Gordievsky also wrote that on May 27 , 1985 , he was drugged , interrogated by KGB officials in the Soviet Union and `` directly accused of working for the British . '' Ames has said he cannot remember the date he passed the envelope , but during an interview last month placed it `` some months '' after March 1985 . Neither MI5 nor the CIA wants it proven that Ames was not the one who informed on Gordievsky because that would suggest another , still undiscovered double agent inside either U.S. or British intelligence . The FBI , sources said , has been asked to review its finding . Gordievsky himself announced after Ames 's arrest that he believed it was Ames who turned him in . `` He has the blood of a dozen officers on his hands , '' Gordievsky wrote in an article in March . `` He would have had my blood , too , had I not managed to escape before the KGB had any evidence , other than Ames 's tip-off , against me . '' Some British intelligence officials , although accepting the CIA 's apology , have come to believe that Gordievsky was uncovered by the KGB 's own counterintelligence work and that Ames 's information only confirmed an existing suspicion . Motivated by his realization that the Soviet Union was a stagnant , corrupt society , Gordievsky agreed to spy for British intelligence in 1974 while working as a KGB political intelligence officer in Copenhagen . He rose steadily in the KGB in Moscow and arrived in London in 1982 . Three years later he was named chief of the KGB 's station in the British capital . So impressive was Gordievsky 's information that some of his reports were hand-carried to then-President Ronald Reagan . They gave top leaders in London and Washington what one former high-ranking CIA official called `` an amazing look inside the Kremlin . '' From London Gordievsky would report on gossip he gathered and conversations he had with visiting Soviet officials and KGB officers . His reports covered China , Nicaragua , even the United States . The information he conveyed about the internal workings of the Kremlin `` went way beyond any reporting we were getting , '' the former CIA official said . Only a handful of top CIA officials knew the material was coming from a KGB source in London and from an individual senior enough to assume charge on occasion of the Soviet Embassy there . Ames , along with a handful of other officers in the CIA operations directorate , was able to determine that MI5 's source came from the KGB station in London . According to Gordievsky , he was unexpectedly recalled to Moscow in a cable he received May 17 , 1985 , saying he would be formally appointed head of the KGB 's London operation and two Politburo members wanted to talk to him . When he arrived in Moscow on May 19 , he found his apartment had been searched . For a week nothing happened . Then he was taken to a KGB dacha outside Moscow for a lavish lunch that included large amounts of liquor . After the meal he felt drugged . He was then subjected to sharp questioning for the rest of the day , including accusations he had become a British agent . He denied the charges and maintained his innocence . Gordievsky was released , but his wife and children were ordered back from London and he was told he would not be allowed to serve outside the Soviet Union again . He was relieved of duties and told he had to report to KGB headquarters for a new assignment on Aug. 3 , 1985 . Gordievsky wrote in his book that he believed the Soviets were waiting to see if they could catch him secretly meeting with MI5 agents . On July 19 , without giving notice to his family , Gordievsky and MI5 agents carried out a bold escape plan . He was picked up by MI5 agents on a street outside Moscow while jogging with a KGB guard just yards away . He was smuggled out of Russia through a route that remains secret . The issue of Israeli settlers and settlements in the West Bank and Gaza cannot go long ignored . If mishandled , the fate of the settlers will undermine the prospects for later stages of Israeli-Palestinian negotiations . Ironically , the $ 10 billion U.S. loan-guarantee program just two years ago the single most contentious issue in U.S.-Israeli relations could serve as a vehicle of conciliation and peacemaking . Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin has courageously said that peace is more important than settlements . So far he has given no indication of how , or under what conditions , settlements might be removed . But Israel has the capacity on its own to adopt non-coercive policies that could at least reduce the magnitude of the settler population , leaving until later negotiations the precise details of how settlements will be dealt with in a final peace agreement . When the Camp David accords were signed in 1978 , some 10,000 Israelis lived in the West Bank and Gaza ( beyond the expanded municipal boundaries of Jerusalem ) . Then , during the 1980s , the Israeli government intensified substantially its financial incentives to lure more Israelis to settle in the West Bank . The goal was to make it impossible for any future Israeli government to relinquish the area . As a result , more than 130,000 Israelis now live in the territories , excluding those in expanded Jerusalem . American aid , up until 1991 , contributed to the settling of the West Bank by cushioning what would otherwise have been a substantial drain on the Israeli budget in the form of subsidies to settlers . Now , when peace is a real prospect , the time has come for the United States and the Israeli government to reverse the financial incentives . An appropriate instrument for this is the $ 10 billion loan-guarantee program authorized by Congress in 1992 to provide housing for hundreds of thousands of Jews expected to emigrate from the former Soviet Union . Since actual immigration has turned out to be less than anticipated , the loan guarantees now largely unused could facilitate emigration from the territories by financing housing within pre-1967 Israel for tens of thousands of returning Israeli settlers . Here 's how such a program might work : Relocation assistance would be made available to families that agree to leave apartments and homes in the territories . These properties would become the property of the Israeli government and might at some later date be transferred to Palestinians , within the context of final status negotiations . The amount of assistance provided would decline over time . In the first year , $ 100,000 per family might be made available . This could be reduced in $ 20,000 increments each year , so that settlers waiting until the fifth year would receive only limited compensation . In short , those who leave early will be rewarded . At present , there are approximately 25,000 Israeli families living in the territories . If , in each of the next five years , 4,000 families took advantage of the program , the cost to the Israeli government would be just over $ 1 billion dollars , a limited part of the total $ 10 billion in U.S.-guaranteed loans . A program of this sort will not draw the most ideological of the settlers from the territories , and it can also be expected that smaller groups of extremists committed to violence will not leave in response to financial incentives . But polls show that even now more than 30 percent of the settlers are ready to leave if compensation is provided . And this number will grow once the process is started . The program could be implemented unilaterally by the Israeli government ; no negotiations with the Palestinians are required ; and no coercion would be involved . Moreover , it would still leave open the future of the settlements themselves and of those settlers who remain . By agreement , those issues are to be dealt with in the final-status negotiations , which according to the Declaration of Principles are to `` commence as soon as possible but not later than the beginning of the third year of the interim period . '' The advantages of assisting the settlers to leave now are compelling . By reducing the size of the settler population , the problem of dealing with settlements in the final status negotiations will be significantly easier , both to negotiate and to implement . Indeed , if this is not done , the settlement question may prove `` a deal breaker '' in the final status talks . A government-assisted exodus of settlers would also send the clearest possible signal to the Palestinians that the Israeli government is serious about ultimately withdrawing from the West Bank . This would greatly strengthen the position of Palestinian moderates who have been negotiating with the Israelis . Moreover , a major return of Israeli settlers from the territories would help limit violence in coming years . With respect to extremists on the Israeli side , it would demonstrate that the effort to create permanent facts on the ground has failed and that Israelis were leaving the territories regardless of attempts by extremists to disrupt negotiations . An exodus of settlers from the territories would also refute the claim of Palestinian extremists that the only way to end the occupation is to mount violent attacks on Israelis . The precedent of ample compensation paid to settlers who left the Sinai when peace was achieved with Egypt has created an expectation of compensation among Israeli settlers . They will not leave without it , and the real choice is whether the process begins now or in five years . Logic says do it now . Khalil Jahshan is executive director of the National Association of Arab Americans . William Quandt is a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution . Jerome Segal , president of the Jewish Peace Lobby , is a research scholar at the University of Maryland . WASHINGTON She is a web of contradictions a woman whose name is almost synonymous with loyalty to Bill Clinton but who has a way of giving him bouquets laced with stinkweed . Betsey Wright , President Clinton 's longtime chief of staff during his Arkansas governor days and now a Washington lobbyist , is widely regarded as smart and politically savvy . But for some reason , she says things on occasion that make other Clinton advisers cringe . She coined the phrase `` bimbo eruptions '' in an interview during the presidential campaign on the spur of the moment , she later said , because she couldn't bring the term `` gold digger '' to mind . It was meant to be snide , putting down the women who claimed past liaisons with Clinton , but quickly took on its own life among Republicans and the media . `` Nobody ever told her to say anything about it , '' says a former Clinton campaign aide . `` She just came out with this quote . '' Most recently , she has been at the center of a small controversy over her statement , as quoted in a novella-size article about Hillary Rodham Clinton in The New Yorker , that `` a great many people ( are ) talking very seriously '' about a potential Hillary run for the presidency . Such comments come at a bad time , when polls are showing renewed suspicion of the first lady 's power after she 'd attempted to put those concerns to rest . Wright denies making those remarks . But opinion in Clinton circles is split . `` Sure she said it , '' says one White House staffer . `` She wants to be the center of attention . And she becomes the center of attention and realizes that it doesn't help her , so she backs off . '' `` I have never heard her in public or private utter anything that was not in support of Bill and Hillary , '' says Bev Lindsey , executive director of the Department of Arkansas Heritage and wife of White House senior adviser Bruce Lindsey . `` I know Betsey wasn't out there saying some of those things that were quoted in the article . '' Bev Lindsey adds that she also was misquoted in the piece . Clinton campaign strategist James Carville , who has often clashed with Wright , is giving her a sort of backhanded benefit of the doubt . He suspects that Connie Bruck , author of the New Yorker piece , `` set out to get somebody to say that '' and persisted until someone did . It was `` the journalistic equivalent of a forced confession , '' he says . The normally talkative Wright wasn't returning calls last week . But Bruck is standing by her quote and she says she didn't browbeat Wright to get it . `` You couldn't browbeat Betsey that 's my sense of it , '' she says . `` I didn't feel that she intended to harm Hillary and Bill . Was I a little surprised that she would say something that I realized when printed could be startling ? Yes , I was surprised . '' If Bruck was surprised , others weren't . Some speculate that Wright is seeking a subtle form of revenge because , after years of devoted service to Clinton , she wasn't given a leading role in the presidential campaign . Others speculate that if Wright 's performance is sabotage , it isn't conscious . Either way , some Clintonites have been asking themselves : With friends like Wright , who needs Rush Limbaugh ? The Texas-born Wright has been a lifelong political player . She met Bill and Hillary Clinton in 1972 , when all three worked on George McGovern 's presidential campaign in Wright 's home state . After Clinton became governor of Arkansas , then lost his re-election bid in 1981 , Wright relocated to Little Rock . That 's when she began a relationship with Clinton that she would subsequently describe as `` almost symbiotic . '' Wright was happy to be Clinton 's lightning rod , associates say , and to absorb the bolts that otherwise would have struck her boss . In exchange , however , she demanded control no scrap of paper passed through the office without her involvement . She was a renowned workaholic who virtually never took time off showing up between 5 and 6 a.m. each day and staying late . So when she abruptly departed for a rare vacation in August 1989 , Arkansans noticed . `` I am told that Bill and Betsey have been at each other 's throats lately , but that this is not particularly unusual , '' Arkansas Democrat-Gazette political columnist John Brummett wrote then . `` Their relationship apparently is volatile , love-hate . '' Clinton blamed Wright for a political initiative that had put him into uncomfortable conflict with state legislators , Brummett continued . `` Her abrasiveness used to get on my nerves and I considered her too protective of the boss . But now I realize that Bill needs protection sometimes , and Betsey has kept him out of a lot of trouble . '' Wright 's vacation turned out to be permanent , and the transition was handled none too smoothly . If Wright felt that Clinton had pushed her toward the door or at least failed to support her adequately she never said so publicly . She served at Clinton 's request as head of the state Democratic Party , throwing herself into an ambitious and relatively expensive program of organizing the machine . In September 1991 , with the party more than $ 25,000 in debt , she resigned . She had `` spent far too much '' on 1990 elections , she acknowledged . Wright herself hadn't been paid for months . In 1992 , she contacted the presidential campaign after Gennifer Flowers surfaced with her allegations about an affair with Clinton . She knew the real dish on Flowers , Wright said later , and others in the campaign didn't . In her view , these newcomers James Carville , George Stephanopoulos and the others permitted the Flowers story to get bigger than it should have . Wright joined the campaign team but she never fit in very comfortably . With her sense of proprietorship , Wright was not fated to get along with the campaign 's `` white boys , '' as some insiders dubbed them . `` Can you imagine what happened when Carville started screaming and yelling and Betsey didn't shut up and started screaming and yelling back at him ? '' one campaign aide says . But Wright wasn't someone to be dismissed lightly . She knew Clinton very well . Everyone assumed she had nuclear capabilities . Those who are loyal to Wright and they tend to be longtime Clinton allies with Arkansas roots maintain that the `` War Room '' crowd was harder on Wright than they should have been . Brummett says Wright recounted to him a meeting with Carville and Stephanopoulos in which they criticized her because some of Clinton 's potential liabilities had not been resolved in the past . `` One said , ` How could you let Bill Clinton be governor for 10 years and not answer the marijuana question ? ' And she began to cry . '' But Wright also maintained that she had tried that on some points , Clinton was hard to manage . `` And what did Carville and Stephanopoulos get him to do ? '' Brummett asks . `` He stood up and said he didn't inhale . '' Wright acknowledged some of the stress she felt during the campaign in tearful comments that she made at a post-election forum of campaign players at Harvard . She complained bitterly about attacks on Arkansas and Clinton 's record as governor , including some that came from within the campaign . But at the same forum , Wright continued with remarks that didn't necessarily favor Clinton . A reporter asked Carville why Clinton never denied having an affair with Gennifer Flowers . `` He certainly did , '' Carville replied . `` He said it any number of times . '' `` Now , what he said , James , was .. . ' ' Wright interjected . `` Let 's not do a slick Willie here . '' He had said that Flowers was lying , Wright explained . `` And she was , and she has been lying since she was 3 years old . '' A defense of Clinton , perhaps but one that raised the very possibilities that Carville had been attempting to dispel . After the election , Wright came to Washington . She never had a job in the administration and said she didn't want one . After years of service , she said , she was broke . It was time for her to earn some money and , pushing 50 , time to prepare for her retirement . She joined the Wexler Group , lobbying with some success on behalf of the American Dietetic Association and the American Forest and Paper Association . Wright has demonstrated that she can tap straight into Bill or Hillary 's office at least to get her clients a hearing , even if their wishes aren't always granted . The relationship `` has been a good thing for her , for us , for our clients , '' says Anne Wexler . Arkansans are much warmer to Wright than the crowd that gathered around Clinton during and after the presidential campaign . They know she is complicated and volatile , but she also is one of them certainly more so than the boys in the War Room . They recognize her past loyalty to Clinton and offer their own support . `` Arkansans have an appreciation of the history , '' says Skip Rutherford , a Little Rock attorney who formerly chaired the state Democratic Party and worked in the Clinton campaign . `` The truth of the matter is , she came in and helped Bill Clinton after a stunning defeat . She helped position him for a '92 victory . '' The Carville crowd `` got Bill Clinton as he was a national candidate , '' he says . `` We saw Bill Clinton coming out of the ruins of an upset defeat . And what we saw was Betsey Wright rebuilding the tower . '' Retirees are increasingly finding themselves on their own when it comes to health-care coverage . A new survey shows that most companies in the United States cut employees off from all coverage the moment they retire , and those that continue to provide coverage shift most of the cost onto the retiree . The nationwide study of 2,395 employers by A . Foster Higgins & Co. , a New York-based benefits consulting firm , shows that among large companies those with 500 or more employees workers who take early retirement are somewhat more apt to get continued coverage than those who have reached age 65 and are eligible to receive government health insurance under Medicare . Among large companies , 46 percent provide some form of coverage for early retirees , while only 39 percent provide insurance for Medicare-eligible retirees . But fewer than one in five large employers is willing to pay the entire cost of health care for retirees , while 40 percent of the companies that do offer some form of health-care coverage require the retiree to pay all the costs . Even at full cost , however , it may be cheaper for a retiree to buy coverage from his or her ex-employer than to buy an individual insurance policy . Stephne Behrend , the managing consultant who conducted the survey , one of the larger of its kind in the United States , said it showed a continuing `` gradual erosion '' in employer health-care benefits for retirees . `` Each year we 've seen a significant number of companies that say they 've terminated their benefits for retirees , '' Behrend said . A new Census Bureau study shows a similar decline in employer health-care coverage for active workers . The overall percentage of workers covered by employer health plans , it concludes , dropped from 66 percent in 1979 to 61 percent in 1993 . Labor Secretary Robert B . Reich said the Census report shows a drop in coverage in every category of workers and employers . Behrend said that this year Foster Higgins revised its survey methods to gauge better what 's taking place among smaller companies . `` What we get is a much better picture of smaller companies and just how limited post-retirement benefits are from smaller companies , '' she said . The survey , she said , shows there is not a great difference between large and small companies when it comes to health care benefits for active employees . `` The difference really happens in the smaller companies when you get to the post-retirement area , '' she said . According to the survey report , `` small employers are much less likely to offer retiree coverage ; only 8 percent offer coverage to retirees under age 65 and 9 percent offer it to Medicare-eligible retirees , '' generally people age 65 or older . Benefit consultants have long maintained that the availability of health care benefits is often a major factor in retirement decisions by employees . The Foster Higgins survey underscores that . `` Whether or not an employer offers retiree coverage appears to have some effect on employees ' retirement decisions , since most employees are not eligible for Medicare until they reach age 65. .. . Two-thirds of those retiring were under age 65 , '' according to the survey . Among small companies , people tend to hang on longer so that they can move straight to Medicare . At companies with fewer than 500 employees , the survey showed , 70 percent of those retiring were over age 65 . The survey also said that 73 percent of small employers required both early retirees and Medicare-eligible retirees to pay the full cost of any company-provided insurance benefits . Behrend said that even with the retiree paying the full cost , however , it provided some advantage for the retiree because it often guaranteed the continuation of coverage regardless of preexisting medical problems . The Foster Higgins survey showed that the cost of providing health care benefits to retirees rose an average of 7.9 percent last year . The average cost per retiree was $ 2,735 in 1993 , compared with $ 2,534 the year before . When the age of retirees is considered , there is a dramatic shift in costs to the company . The survey shows that the average cost for early retirees , those under age 65 , was $ 5,216 per employee . The cost for people 65 and older , who can tap Medicare , averaged $ 1,786 . This is particularly relevant in today 's work force as major corporations , often those with the most expensive health-care plans , continue to reduce the size of their work force and turn to new technology to become more competitive . During the first three months of the year , an average of more than 3,000 jobs was lost each day as the result of corporate downsizing . That number began to slow slightly to fewer than 2,000 jobs a day in the second quarter of the year . Many companies have used retiree health benefits to lure older employees to leave . WASHINGTON Paul Green Houston , a longtime Washington correspondent for the Los Angeles Times and author of its popular weekly `` Washington Insight '' column , died late Sunday after a two-year battle with colon cancer . He was 52 . Houston joined the Los Angeles Times in 1965 as a staff writer in Los Angeles and was assigned to its Washington bureau in 1972 . He first covered the California congressional delegation before his beat was expanded to include all of Congress . He served a term as chairman of the Standing Committee of Correspondents , the organization of news reporters assigned to Congress . Houston played a prominent role in The Times ' coverage of the Watergate affair , including the impeachment proceedings against former President Nixon , and later the Iran Contra scandal . Several years ago , drawing on his experience and contacts , he took over the newspaper 's Washington Insight column , which features behind-the-scenes glimpses of the capital 's processes of power . `` He had the best sources of anyone on the Hill , '' said Times Washington Bureau Chief Jack Nelson . `` I covered impeachment with him , and he had better sources than I did . He was extremely well-liked . '' Said House Speaker Thomas J. Foley , D-Wash. , `` Congress had a good many journalists covering the Hill in recent years , but Paul Houston was in the handful of the best . Few had covered it longer or better . '' Houston , who was named after the Pulitzer-prize winning playwright and family friend Paul Green , was born into a writing family in Chapel Hill , N.C. . His father , Noel Houston , was a prize-winning journalist and novelist who authored the best-selling 1946 novel `` The Great Promise . '' His mother , Kay Replogle Houston , was a noted gardener and cook . Houston demonstrated an early interest in journalism in his high school years and then as an English major at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill where he wrote for the Daily Tar Heel and was assistant sports publicity director for the university . He was graduated Phi Beta Kappa in 1963 . After graduation , he moved to Houston where he worked as a reporter for the Houston Chronicle for a year , and then joined the San Francisco Examiner , where he worked for another year . In 1968 , at 25 , he became the youngest recipient of the Nieman Fellowship for journalists at Harvard University . He was an avid sportsman who enthusiastically pursued tennis , golf and body surfing , and , in fact , scored 81 , with two birdies , in a golf match four days before entering the hospital for the last time this month . He was also a devoted cook , reader , trombonist and punster . He is survived by his widow , Virginia ; two daughters , Katherine and Susanna ; and a sister , Diana Houston , all of the Washington area . WASHINGTON What 's approximately 48,000 years old , has 1,394 legs , is steady , generally healthy and likes to work ? Those are the combined stats more or less of the 697 men and women who have been in federal government service here 50 or more years . Most were in their 20s , or teen-agers , when they came to work before D-Day . They have been on the job longer than the average American has been alive . At a time when the federal government is pushing early retirement and paying workers $ 25,000 bonues to leave , people who stick around for 50 years stick out ! Some are the institutional memory of their agency . All the club members were on the job before President Clinton was born , before TV or CDs or PCs , and when the outcome of World War II was still in doubt . Their Washington was a boom town where movies were run night and day to accommodate shift workers , and where women vastly outnumbered men in most government offices . Most walked or took the trolley ( 10 cents ) to work . About that time The Washington Post launched a `` Government Girl Plane Drive . '' The idea was to get $ 1 from G-girls ( that was a legal term in those days ) to buy a warplane for both the Army Air Corps and the Navy . The White House supported the drive . Each aircraft was to be named GOVERNMENT GIRL and each would carry a logbook with the names of all donors . Donors names were posted in front of the Post building . It was a different town and time . One who remebers is Bernice Watson . She 's with the Federal Mediation and Conciliation Service . Mid-June marks her 50th year in government . Like thousands of other G-girls ( including my mother ) she was recruited from small towns to come to Washington . Many planned to work for the duration of the war , then go home . A lot of them are still here . Watson and the late Muriel Fortenberry Freeman , came fresh from high school to be civilian clerk-typists in the brand-new Pentagon building . The young ladies , from Magnolia , Miss. , took the 26-hour train from New Orleans to Washington 's Union Station . After signing forms , they were taken to their government-approved rooming house at No. 2 Logan Circle . A vigilant landlady insured that no men patriotic locals and Nazi spies were equally suspect ever got above the first floor lounge area . Watson giggled when she remembered the lounge `` dance band '' a nickelodian that supplied tunes for not-too-close dancing . Working a 5 and a half day week for $ 38 left little time or money for exotic entertainment . Like many of the wartime temps , Watson stayed and added to the city . Her son , Lawrence Thomas , is now a lieutenant in the Metropolitan Police Department . She still lives in town . Why has she worked so long ? `` Well , I had a good reason , I needed the money , '' she said . Now she works because otherwise `` I 'd go crazy. .. . You have to get out of the house . '' She likes the FMCS , and it likes her . If you can't be at her June 15 luncheon party , raise a glass from wherever for that hang-tight , hang-tough 50-year bunch . NEW DELHI , India Nine-year-old Raju and his big brother , Mantu , had a carefully choreographed scam they pulled on unsuspecting tourists . The two boys would leave their home in the slums for the city 's busiest market center , where they would target a well-shod Westerner on a stroll . The fleet-footed Mantu would sneak behind him and squirt shaving cream on the back of a shoe . Raju of the sweet face and big doelike eyes would step into the tourist 's path , point to his shoes and say , `` Hey , man , your shoes are dirty . I clean them . '' He 'd then fleece the tourist at 10 times the going rate for a shoeshine , more if the guy looked rich and overly gullible . Suresh `` Baba '' Varma , a movie production executive who splits his time between Los Angeles and India , frequently walked past the little scam artists and would tease Raju , the more gregarious of the pair : `` Some day I 'll make a film and give you a chance to be a star . '' `` Ha , '' scoffed Raju , a rail-thin boy small for his age . `` No you willn't . Nobody gives me a chance . '' But in nothing less than a Cinderella story for the poor shoeshine boy , one of 11 children of a Rajasthani Gypsy who fed his family by making plaster gods and idols , Varma kept his word . In the summer of 1993 , Varma was in Katmandu , Nepal , screening children for the role of a child Buddha in Bernardo Bertolucci 's `` Little Buddha , '' the tale of a Buddhist teacher believed to be reincarnated in three modern-day children . `` I feel like I looked at every single kid in Nepal between the ages of 7 and 10 , '' says Varma . But none of the youngsters seemed right for the role . One day Varma spotted the Delhi shoeshine boys on the streets of Katmandu pulling their same old tricks . Raju and 11-year-old Mantu had joined their nomadic father on his annual migration to Nepal , following the holiday selling season for plaster gods and goddesses . Varma pulled them into a scooter rickshaw and took Raju for an audition . `` I believe in karma , '' says Varma . `` I know the script . I see his face this kid had a lot of energy in his face . I know this is the boy . He 's the one . '' One week Raju Lal Sehansra was pulling his scam on the streets of the city by day and living in fetid slums by night , and the next week he was practicing lines in a foreign tongue , wearing chic new Western clothes and learning to love alien foods such as spaghetti , which he had to eat with a fork instead of his fingers . In the months of on-the-scene filming of `` Little Buddha '' in Nepal and Bhutan , Raju experienced the kind of lifestyle about which poor Indian families dare not even fantasize . For his scenes , he was draped in colorful robes and perched on a throne as a young lama . He watched his favorite movie , `` Home Alone , '' dozens of times . He was showered with toys and Western clothes he 'd only seen from the outside of the stores . Not to mention that he was paid $ 12,000 more money than his father could expect to make in a lifetime . The conversion from shoeshine boy to movie star was not always easy . The language barrier was a major problem . The producers hired Mantu , who spoke more English than his little brother and was a faster study , to coach Raju and ended up casting him in a small part in the movie . In Katmandu , Varma helped relocate Raju 's entire family to the biggest house they 'd ever occupied . The good deed ended in disaster . After a few weeks , Raju 's father whose skills in plaster had been put to work on the movie set and even landed him a bit part as a mechanic in `` Little Buddha '' approached Varma and pleaded , `` Please take us out of here . I was living in the slums . If I had to go to the toilet I 'd just walk out anywhere . Here we have to wait in line . I want some fresh air . I feel like I am in jail . '' At the end of the shoot , there were promises of more movies , maybe even one based on Raju 's own life . Indian advertisers wanted to hire him to plug their products on television . Varma vowed to get the boys out of the slums . He hired dancing instructors to coach them and planned to enroll them in Delhi 's best schools . But with `` Little Buddha '' now playing in the United States it opened in Europe months ago , to mixed reviews the Cinderella tale is dimming . Raju has had no new movie offers , and Delhi 's private schools refused to admit the two brothers because their family is from a poor , low caste and their father has spent a large chunk of their earnings on extravagant village weddings for two of his older children . The movie production company has put the remaining money in a trust and allows the family to draw only the monthly interest . Even so , that amount is more than the entire family earned each month making idols , shining shoes and selling maps at inflated prices to tourists . So , for the most part , their father has stopped working and Raju and Mantu hang out in the slums , doing occasional interviews and hoping for another movie offer . Like many of India 's poorest people , the boys ' 47-year-old father , Jai Lal Sehansra , doesn't think much about the future : `` We are small people . We can't have big dreams . My only dream is that all my children grow up and get married and become good people . That is enough for us . There is no basis for dreaming . If you can't have it , why dream at all ? '' But Raju and Mantu do dare to dream . `` In the future I want to be a big actor , '' says Raju . `` Before I didn't think about it . '' And that has given the other children the incentive to dream . `` If my brothers become so famous , why shouldn't I ? '' says 11-year-old Meera , a delicate-faced girl wearing braided pigtails and a tiny nose stud . Has temporary stardom and a taste of life beyond the narrow alleys of the slums changed the two boys ? Their mother , Parvati , looks up from the bucket of black water where she is washing her cooking pots just outside the front door of the house . `` I don't see any change . They sit and eat roti the same way . '' WASHINGTON The Democrats love to call theirs the party of compassion , and so their reaction to losing a Kentucky House seat last week was all the more unusual : They shot the wounded . Joe Prather , the former Kentucky Democratic chairman and state Senate leader who lost his election to Congress on Tuesday , was attacked by his own party leaders for running a lousy campaign . Democrats sounded like the Americans in Vietnam : They had to destroy the village to save it . After losing two House seats in a month , and every key race over the past year , the Democrats were desperate to tell people particularly their own nervous candidates that these losses had nothing to do with President Clinton 's unpopularity or with the party 's policies . That was not selling , even among many Democrats . Democratic leaders are the first to admit that this is likely to be a tough year . Internal forecasts say the party could lose from 18 to more than 30 House seats this fall . Losses on the high end of that range would wipe out Clinton 's majority in the House . Several things are working against the Democrats this year that go beyond the normal cyclical trends of midterm elections : Voters are still angry at Congress and incumbents . That puts the Democrats , with far more incumbents , in greater jeopardy . Retirements have hit Democrats harder than Republicans , and these open-seat races are more susceptible to switching parties than seats with an incumbent running for re-election . That was the case in Kentucky , where the late Rep. William H. Natcher ( D ) had held the Republican-leaning district for four decades . There are 46 open seats , and the number is likely to grow . Redistricting turned once-safe Democratic districts into competitive ones . The Democrats still hold a greater share of House seats than is their share of the national vote for the House , but Republicans believe the last round of redistricting helped to level the playing field in many districts . Republicans appear to be assembling a quasi-independent force of grass-roots workers , including religious conservatives , anti-tax activists and term-limits advocates , who could offset organized labor 's aid to Democrats . That is why Democrats want people to believe their problems have nothing to do with them . But the Oklahoma and Kentucky special congressional elections showed that in some parts of the country , particularly in Southern and border states , Clinton is a growing liability to Democratic candidates . In Oklahoma , the Democratic candidate kept his distance from Clinton ( and lost ) , and in Kentucky , Republican Ron Lewis wrapped Clinton around Prather and , when Prather failed to fight back , snatched away a seat that had been in Democratic hands for 129 years . The lesson , expressed vigorously by Clinton and other top Democrats after Prather 's loss was : Fight back . They said Democrats who had run from Clinton over the last year such as Prather and Virginia 's Mary Sue Terry and Texas 's Bob Kreuger got beat . And those who didn't ? Well , they got beat too , but not so badly . Exhibits A , B and C were former Georgia Sen. Wyche Fowler , former New Jersey Gov. Jim Florio and former New York Mayor David N . Dinkins . To this reasoning by Democrats , Republican National Committee officials literally howled . `` I suggest Democrats in November take David 's ( DNC Chairman David Wilhelm ) advice and adopt a .. . Jim Florio , David Dinkins strategy , '' RNC Chairman Haley Barbour said in a statement . But there was a more serious point Clinton and Wilhelm tried to make to their fellow Democrats . With the economy growing , inflation low and the possibility of action on health care reform , the Democrats may have a message of success to take to voters this fall . When Republicans lost 26 seats in 1982 , two years after Ronald Reagan won the presidency in a landslide , unemployment had just hit 10 percent . This year it has been falling , and gross domestic product has been rising . Interest rates ? The Democrats will blame their increase on Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan . Democrats do not believe they have received enough credit from the voters for that record . Whether because of Clinton 's foreign policy problems , the nagging questions about Whitewater and his personal life that have eroded public confidence in his character or the still-uncertain fate of health care , the Democrats have not been able to sell themselves nationally . Republicans are eager to see the fall elections turned into a national referendum . They argue that perceptions of Clinton , particularly in the South , have been shaped by controversy over homosexuals in the military , by the belief that his health care plan is a big-government approach and by the belief that his fiscal policy is to tax first , cut spending later . But presidential pollster Stanley Greenberg said the Republicans may be overly confident in their belief that voters want to abandon Clinton and the Democrats . `` There 's denial that there was any criticism of the '80s in the 1992 election , '' he said . `` The special elections reinforce that denial and may mislead them in how '94 will be defined and how '96 will be defined . '' Health care may hold the key to the Democrats ' future . Successful passage of a reform bill that ultimately guarantees coverage for all Americans could cap Clinton 's first two years in office and give incumbents something real on which to campaign . Failure to pass anything could , in turn , bring disgust with gridlock back to center stage . NEW DELHI , India Even for India , notorious for heat and dust , this summer has been a sizzler . How hot has it been ? On Monday , New Delhi sweated though its hottest afternoon in a half-century , with the mercury shooting up to 114.8 degrees . In the arid , mostly desert state of Rajasthan to the southwest of the Indian capital , at least 71 people have died over the past few days of heat stroke , news reports said . In the towns of Phalodi and Jhalawar , it was an overpowering 118.4 degrees . Dust storms were forecast for some areas . Rajasthan 's chief minister , Bhairon Singh Shekhawat , said more than 22,000 villages were in the grip of a severe drought caused by the two-week heat wave . The state will spend almost $ 65 million on aid and make-work programs for farmers whose crops have been singed in the fields , he said . New Delhi 's wide streets were deserted during much of the day as wary residents avoided the burning sun and searing breezes that felt as if they were venting from a brick kiln . Electric current ebbed and surged throughout the day , sometimes failing entirely , as the already overtaxed power grid strained to run all the air conditioners and fans in this city of more than 8 million people . ( Begin optional trim ) Like the British before them , many of India 's high and mighty fled the burning plains of northern India for the cooler hills . On a single day recently , 10 government VIPs were sighted in Dehra Dun , ostensibly on some official business . Finance Minister Manmohan Singh went to unveil a statue of Buddha at a hospital . Rajesh Pilot , minister of state for external security , was chief guest at a function staged by the Indo-Tibetan border police . Pressed by a reporter , he admitted he intended to relax in the coolness of the nearby hill station of Mussoorie for four days . For those left behind at lower altitudes , no relief was in sight , forecasters warned . Ram Snehi , director of the Safdarjung Meteorological Office in the capital , said Monday that over the next few days `` the maximum temperature may , at the most , show a difference of about a half a degree only , but no dramatic change is expected . '' ( End optional trim ) May is generally the hottest month of the year for Delhi . The weatherman 's outlook was bad news for people across North India , who must expect another month of intense heat before the arrival of the cooling rains of the monsoon , expected to reach Delhi June 29 . May 29 , 1944 remains the hottest day on record in India 's capital , with the temperature peaking at 117 degrees . WASHINGTON You hit the `` enter '' or `` return '' key and that soft , comforting clicking begins . A colored light blinks on and off . Your hard disk , working faster than a waiter at a wedding banquet , is serving information by the millions of bits . We hear endlessly of rapid-fire advances in microprocessors . But just as important in keeping personal computing on that ever-upward plane are faster , cheaper , higher-capacity hard disks . And their gains are just as amazing . Don't think so ? Consider these numbers . In a little more than a decade storage costs have been cut by close to 99 percent . That is , in 1982 , according to research firm Dataquest Inc. , the price of hard disks worked out at about $ 75 per megabyte ( 1 million characters ) of data . On average , hard disks sold back then could hold a mere 6 megabytes of information . But in 1993 , the price of hard disks worked out to 92 cents per megabyte . The average disk size was 240 megabytes . That 's progress . So , look at it like this way : the Windows revolution and the advent of multimedia computing happened because companies have built hard disks big enough to hold the bloated software that these innovations require . The disk makers have names like Quantum Corp. , Seagate Technology Inc. , Connor Peripherals Inc. and International Business Machines Corp. . They are huge operations ; they sold about $ 9 billion worth of hard disks for PCs and laptops in 1993 , according to International Data Corp. . But few consumers know their names ( with the exception , of course , of IBM ) . That 's because most of these companies ' production is overseas , typically in Singapore or Malaysia . It also is because most people don't know what kind of hard disks they have it just comes as part of the computer . The hard disk is a holdout in the computer world it 's among the last components with moving parts . Its interior would warm the heart of a Swiss watchmaker . It is a miniature world of metal and motion discs that spin , heads that move back and forth in jerky robot like motion to fetch data and electric motors that keep the whole unit alive . When a hard disk fails , it is usually more painful than anything else that can go wrong with your computer system . You can replace all other components quickly and go on as before . But a failed hard disk can destroy years of information . ( Don't forget to make those backups ! ) But mostly what hard disks do is sell , not fail . The market is so vibrant that it has been unfazed by a potentially troubling development : the appearance of compression software . It used to be the only way to get bigger capacity was to buy a bigger disk . Now companies such as Microsoft Corp. and Stac Electronics Inc. have sold millions of copies of software that shrinks the size of other software and data files , meaning you can get more onto the old disk . But Crawford Del Prete of International Data Corp. says compression is being used mainly in laptops , where it 's hard to upgrade the disk . On easy-to-upgrade desktops , he said , prices are low enough so `` people are willing to spend and upgrade '' the old way , by buying a new disk . How long will the hard disk remain ? You can count on a long , long time . While there are two major competing technologies , the CD-ROM and what 's called `` flash memory , '' each has drawbacks that make it unsuitable as the disk 's successor . The CD-ROM , which has become commonplace these days , makes a wonderful storage medium , holding about 650 megabytes of information . But access time is much slower than with hard disks ( that file your hard disk can fetch in one second may take a CD-ROM five or 10 seconds ) . Plus there 's the lack of erasability . CD-ROMs , as we know them today , can't record once they 've left the factory . There are erasable optical units out there , but they are two and three times the price of hard disks . And even if costs came down , there is still the problem of slow access time . Flash memory is the other alternative . This is a memory chip that can store any information you want and , unlike its Random Access Memory cousins that hold data electronically in your computer , doesn't forget everything when the machine is turned off . Ideally , it would make a wonderful replacement low power , small size , an end to those darned moving parts . Ideally , I said . Flash memory has found a fast-growing market in such things as PCMCIA cards used in laptops and personal digital assistants . Prices are coming down by about 50 percent a year . But the technology remains far too expensive for general desktop use . Dataquest figures that flash sold in one megabyte dollops is about where hard disks were a decade ago $ 75 per megabyte . So , it would not generally make sense to store a 20-megabyte Windows program in flash when you could do the job for about one-fiftieth the cost with a hard disk . Consider , too , that hard-disk makers have hardly come to a standstill in product improvement . Manufacturers are shrinking the size and raising the durability of hard disks to the point that popping them into mobile devices makes more sense all the time . And the basic , full-sized product is always getting stronger . Each year , engineers make progress on two basic challenges : One , building recording heads that are faster and more sensitive and , therefore , can inscribe more information on a smaller piece of `` real estate '' on a disk ; two , developing materials that can hold information at denser ratios . The other force that is bringing prices down is economies of scale . Even without technological advance , prices would probably fall as more and more computers are sold . Annual world demand for desktop drives is about 50 million units , up from basically nothing in the early 1980s . Phil Devin , Dataquest 's disk specialist , expects that storage costs will fall from 1993 's 92 cents per megabyte to 9 cents by 1998 . Imagine that . Or wait and see it for real . It 's only four years away . TOKYO A right-wing nationalist Monday fired a single gunshot near former Prime Minister Morihiro Hosokawa in a hotel lobby . He was unhurt . Police and members of Japan 's secret service arrested the assailant . Press reports said he told police he was angry at Hosokawa 's apologies last year for Japan 's aggression in World War II , and at Hosokawa 's inability to end Japan 's long-running recession . The assailant was identified as Masakatsu Nozoe , 52 , said to be a member of a nationalist fringe group that maintains Japan was in the right when it invaded East Asian countries and attacked Pearl Harbor . As Hosokawa walked through the hotel lobby after a political rally , Nozoe fired a single shot from about 30 feet away , witnesses said . The bullet hit the ceiling . Nozoe reportedly told police later that he had not intended to shoot Hosokawa . For many Japanese , Hosokawa is the epitome of change here . Last summer , he was a leader of the political revolution that ended four decades of one-party conservative rule . Hosokawa 's successor , Prime Minister Tsutomu Hata , has basically taken the same stance on apologies for the war . But he gave in to right-wing pressure earlier this month when he canceled plans , originally made by Hosokawa , to have Emperor Akihito visit the Pearl Harbor Memorial in Honolulu during a trip to the United States in June . NAIROBI , Kenya Somalia 's on-again , off-again peace talks were once again postponed after the main feuding parties failed to show up . Diplomats said this latest delay , prior to a U.N. . Security Council decision on the future of the operation , appeared to increase the likelihood that the Clinton administration would prevail in its attempts to cut it short . The `` nation-building '' has cost $ 1.5 billion so far but yielded few results . `` Of course , it looks bad , '' said a senior U.N. diplomat here speaking of this latest postponement . The talks , originally scheduled for April but postponed four times , were supposed to prepare a full-fledged national reconciliation conference to choose a new government . Somalia has been without any government since dictator Mohamed Siad Barre was overthrown in January 1991 and the country descended into anarchy . Diplomats had called these talks the Somali factional leaders ' last chance to reach a compromise and set up a government before the Security Council voted to shorten the mandate of the U.N. mission to just six more weeks . But antagonists Ali Mahdi Mohamed , the country 's self-styled `` interim president , '' and Gen. Mohamed Farah Aideed , the strongman of South Mogadishu , did not show up . WASHINGTON Federal prosecutors plan to seek an indictment Tuesday against House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dan Rostenkowski , D-Ill. , unless he makes a last minute offer for a plea agreement , sources familiar with the case said Monday . By Monday afternoon , Rostenkowski still had not accepted a deal and sources said that barring an immediate overture by the influential lawmaker the waiting was over . `` The government is ready to go , '' one source familiar with the negotiations said . Other sources said that the government 's case was already set for presentation to a grand jury . Tuesday is the `` day '' another source said . After more than two weeks of discussing the possibility of a plea bargain , Rostenkowski last week declined to accept a deal in which he would plead guilty to a felony and spend a limited amount of time in jail , sources said . U.S. Attorney Eric H . Holder Jr. gave Rostenkowski until over the holiday weekend to ponder his fate . Options for Rostenkowski appear to have run out , as has his tenure as chairman of Ways and Means , a committee that puts him in the forefront on President Clinton 's health-care legislation as well as major trade , welfare and tax bills . If the grand jury returns an indictment punishable by at least two years in prison , under normal procedures of the House Democratic Caucus , Rostenkowski would have to step down from the committee chairmanship . A plea bargain would give him a slight chance of retaining his chairmanship . Caucus rules do not require a member convicted of criminal charges to resign from office or leadership positions , although such members are likely to face an ethics investigation and disciplinary actions . House Republicans have indicated that they would seek to have Rostenkowski removed from the chairmanship if a plea agreement is struck . Federal prosecutors have outlined a broad case against Rostenkowski of conspiracy to defraud the government in what has been described as `` kitchen sink '' approach alleging abuses of official accounts for postage , leased automobiles , office space , supplies and personnel . Rostenkowski has publicly denied all the allegations . The FBI has investigated whether several so-called `` ghost employees '' in Rostenkowski 's Chicago office received pay for work never down . The probe also examined whether Rostenkowski purchased personal and gift items through his expense account at the House Stationary Store . In addition , the prosecution 's case also reportedly examines whether government leased cars were used primarily for personal use rather than official business and if Rostenkowski and other lawmakers traded postage vouchers and stamps for thousands of dollars . Rostenkowski , completing his 36th year in Congress , entered plea discussions in an effort to reduce or eliminate any prison sentence while avoiding a lengthy legal battle . He also wanted to try to retain his chairmanship . The talks broke down as the government remained adamant that Rostenkowski must do jail time and plead guilty to a felony that is reflective of the breadth of the overall allegations against him . Rostenkowski is said to be frustrated that the government 's case originates from the initial investigation into the so-called House Post Office scam . He views those initial allegations as bogus and generally believes that the subsequent questions of wrongdoing are petty . Should he be indicted , the stage will be set for one of the more acrimonious and lengthy legal battles in recent memory , said sources , including one who described the resulting litigation in terms of `` nuclear war . '' JERICHO , West Bank A Palestinian official , just arrived with the new police force from Jordan , waxed eloquent on the telephone last week to his wife back home about life in Jericho . `` It 's like heaven , '' gushed Abu Yassin . `` Psychologically , it is poetry to be in my homeland . `` But we are living in hell , '' he admitted to her . `` The weather is very bad . There is no bed I sleep on the floor . And to eat , I have to go out to pick fruit from the banana fields . '' Such is the mix of emotions and complications that has marked the start of Palestinian autonomy in Jericho and the Gaza Strip . The first 10 days after Israeli withdrawal have served up a salad of close calls , doomsday predictions , angry threats and cautious whiffs of optimism . Palestinian autonomy has gotten off to a predictably rocky start . There is little sign so far of a Palestinian government to replace the civil administration that left with the Israeli army . The last Israeli paycheck to civil servants here runs out Tuesday , and no one has stepped in to pick up the payroll . Palestinian soldiers-turned-police still are trickling in from scattered bases in the Middle East , but they have no supplies and little equipment . They have to borrow gas from Israel to put in their patrol jeeps , donated from the United States . Officers declared it unseemly for their men to take handouts of food from local residents , but they had no other provisions . The Israeli army started slipping combat rations to the new arrivals . Yasser Arafat was still in Tunis , Tunisia , trying to appoint a national council . Other Palestinian figures balked at joining him and sharing blame for the mess . Surprisingly , it is Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin who finds cheer amid this gloom . It is `` a good start .. . a good chance for the future , '' he said last week on a tour of the Gaza Strip . `` Things were carried out in a much better way than I thought . `` I had deep fears about .. . the way things would take shape , '' he said . But `` on the Palestinian side , a real effort was made to coordinate and understand . '' The prime minister may have been practicing a little damage control . Public opinion polls showed a sharp dive in Israeli support last week for continuing the five-year autonomy process ; 63 percent said stop now , according to one poll . ( Begin optional trim ) Israeli newspapers worked themselves into a froth over the first mishaps involving Palestinian police . Last Monday , a Palestinian soldier shot out the tires of an Israeli who ignored a checkpoint . On Tuesday , the new officers improperly arrested three armed Israelis . On Wednesday , a Palestinian private stopped at gunpoint an Israeli general . News photos showed Israeli and Palestinian soldiers faced off with guns , a hair-trigger away from disaster . But the disaster did not happen . Nor did other dire predictions that autonomy would bring civil war among Palestinian factions , or a revolt in other areas , or a slew of fresh terrorist incidents . In all , last week , things were relatively quiet . ( End optional trim ) In a background briefing to Israeli reporters , top Israeli army chiefs went out of their way to compliment the Palestinian police . The crisp-uniformed Palestinians look smarter than the determinedly sloppy Israeli soldiers , admitted a senior Israeli officer . And `` when an Israeli brigade replaces another , it is much less organized than what we have seen so far from the Palestinians , '' he said . But flattery and understanding could not hide obvious shortcomings in the Palestinian takeover . Although they have had eight months to plan their transition , the Palestinians have arrived with no mechanism to continue government services . Israel 's civil administration said that it spent about $ 70 million a year on government services to the Gaza Strip and Jericho . With the additional cost of police salaries , the Palestinians may need three times that amount . `` The Palestinian national authority is in financial straits , '' lamented the Arabic daily Al-Quds . `` Before the end of this month it has to have $ 20 million in Gaza and Jericho . '' The Palestinians protest that international donors so far are deadbeats and have not backed up their pledges with cash . In part , the donor countries are wary of handing over money to the historically corrupt PLO ; in part they prefer financing concrete projects over daily expense vouchers . `` They are insisting on specific projects that they can put a plaque on , praising the donors . There is no money for operating expenses , '' acknowledged one Israeli official . ( Optional Add End ) The Israelis do not acknowledge any responsibility for the situation . For 27 years , Israel silenced , imprisoned or deported emerging leaders of the Palestinian people . As for facilities , Israel this month left behind equipment ranging from computers to telephones in some offices , but stripped others bare . Israel , too , has been less than faithful to its signature , Palestinians complain . Israel has released fewer than 1,000 of the 5,000 prisoners it had promised to free promptly after May 4 . VATICAN CITY In a stern veto , Pope John Paul II reasserted a ban against women priests Monday , ordering Catholics to end internal debate and obey historic teachings . In a righteous , authoritarian apostolic letter addressed to his bishops , Pope John Paul marked his first day back in the office after four weeks in a hospital for a broken leg . His resounding `` no '' to any possibility of a greater religious role for Catholic women in their church was the second time in a week that the Vatican has crossed swords with assertive Catholic women . Before returning to the Vatican Friday , Pope John Paul accepted an English translation of the church 's new catechism that women 's groups have denounced as sexist for its language . Monday 's 1,000-word letter , `` On Reserving Priestly Ordination To Men Alone , '' is remarkable for its bluntness and the absolute authority that Pope John Paul asserts `` in order that all doubt may be removed regarding a matter of great importance . `` I declare that the Church has no authority whatsoever to confer priestly ordination on women , and that this judgment is to be definitively held for all the Church 's faithful , '' Pope John Paul writes in the letter . Fundamentals of their faith make it impossible to ordain women as priests , the pope tells his bishops , noting that Christ `` acted in a completely free and sovereign manner '' in selecting only men as his apostles the first priests . Still , Pope John Paul laments , despite an all-male priesthood unbroken across two millennia , `` in some places it is nonetheless considered open to debate . '' No more , in the pope 's view . An accompanying Vatican commentary said the letter `` confirms a certainty which has been constantly held and lived by the church . '' As such , the pope 's views are not to be regarded as new , or an opinion , or a matter of discipline , `` but as certainly true . '' `` Therefore , since it does not belong to matters freely open to dispute , it always requires the full and unconditional assent of the faithful , and to teach the contrary is equivalent to leading consciences into error , '' his commentary says . Pope John Paul , 74 , who has been increasingly outspoken in recent months , will host a private meeting at the Vatican Thursday with President Clinton , who may get a papal lecture for his support for abortion . In a debate the Vatican no longer wants to hear among Catholics , advocates of women priests say Christ 's choice of disciples was determined by customs and laws of the time , not because he sought a unisex ministry . ( Optional Add End ) Pope John Paul 's vigorous restatement of the ban may have been prompted in part by the ordination of the Church of England 's first women priests in March , an innovation that effectively scuttled reunification talks between the two churches . Thousands of Anglicans and hundreds of Anglican priests have turned to Catholicism . The Vatican is accepting even married Anglican priests as converts and priests despite its own ban on married priests . Lobbying among Catholic activists for women priests has increased since the Anglican ordinations , a Vatican official noted . Pope John Paul has now fired an unanswerable broadside in response . `` The pope clearly intends for the ban to stick , because he comes right up to the brink of infallibility with this teaching . Still , it is not infallible , and therefore it is open to possible change by some later pope , '' said one senior theologian . Under Catholic dogma , popes are infallible in matters of faith and morals when the say they are giving infallible teachings . WASHINGTON The stubbornness of dictatorships has become one of the Clinton administration 's chief foreign-policy vexations . Leaders in Haiti , China , and most recently North Korea , have found a way to thumb their noses at top U.S. diplomatic priorities . Haiti 's corrupt military regime showed no sign last week of buckling under to newly tightened U.S.-inspired economic sanctions aimed at forcing the return of elected President Jean Bertrand Aristide . A clique of elderly Chinese generals and Communist Party bosses successfully called Washington 's bluff by ignoring the threat of new tariffs on exports to the United States unless they improved their human-rights record . Then North Korea 's communist regime on Friday appeared to rule out critical international inspections of spent fuel rods at a nuclear reactor north of its capital , giving every indication the country will never allow the outside world to perform inspections needed to learn how much plutonium it may have accumulated for nuclear arms . These dismal results of earnest U.S. diplomacy have not been flattering to America 's self-image as a world leader , and if President Clinton 's recent comments are any indication , they are provoking some re-examination not only of his expectations for U.S. foreign policy but also the administration 's often blunt and demanding style of dealing with recalcitrant foreign leaders . As one senior U.S. official explained , when Clinton arrived at the White House , he shared a popular notion that foreign relations is an extension of domestic U.S. business relations a matter of rules and regulations in which the threat to sue , or impose legal sanctions , is a vital negotiating tool . Clinton had criticized President George Bush for `` coddling dictators , '' for example , and indicated he supported pursuing punitive measures such as economic sanctions if other nations did not comply with U.S. demands . Recalling a statement by Dean Acheson that sanctions are essentially a declaration of war without the willingness to use force , the senior official said Clinton had a misplaced faith that they could be used to alter other nations ' internal priorities , without the direct compulsion of a military attack . `` Sanctions did not get ( General Manuel ) Noriega out of Panama '' in 1989 and they did not force the Iraqi military to withdraw from Kuwait in 1991 , the official said , calling America 's persistent faith in sanctions `` pathetic . '' But several officials said the frustrating experience of the last few months appears to have humbled the president 's ambitions . At a White House news conference on Thursday , Clinton not only rejected future threats of higher tariffs on trade with China , he also counseled a more patient style of diplomacy , noting that `` a great society , so large and with such built-in habits , does not change overnight . '' He compared the challenge of improving human rights there to the reduction of `` crime and violence '' in U.S. society a goal that would take years to accomplish . Clinton had struck a similar theme of the limits of U.S. influence in a May 25 speech to the U.S. . Naval Academy 's graduating class , where he noted that many of the world 's `` most tearing conflicts .. . will rarely submit to instant solutions . '' Noting that the resolution of the Cold War took decades , he said `` we must often be willing to pay the price of time , sometimes the most painful price of all . '' In addition to lowering expectations about quick results , Clinton also seemed last week to be pointing the way to a less confrontational style of diplomacy . Revealing what could be taken as a personal epiphany of sorts about the limits of U.S. powers of moral suasion , he said that `` no nation likes to feel that every decision it makes for the good , to do something that 's right , that makes progress , is being made ... only because of external pressure from someone else . '' Clinton was trying to explain why China had rebuffed Washington 's insistent entreaties to treat its people more like the United States treats its citizens . But several U.S. officials said they believe the lesson may also be relevant to Haiti and North Korea , which also have repeatedly ignored urgings that they respect U.S.-defined `` norms '' of international behavior . The officials suggested that in both cases , Washington has backed itself into a corner by using or threatening to use sanctions unlikely to produce instant policy shifts . The officials said Clinton might have understood the magnitude of the challenge earlier had he listened to U.S. intelligence experts instead of the strains of popular opinion supporting tough demands and blunt threats . A number of classified studies reported last winter , for example , that the Chinese leadership was beset by worry about growing internal unrest , officials said . The studies also said key Chinese officials were jockeying for power , anticipating the death of aged leader Deng Xioaping , and would be unlikely to risk supporting any liberalization . They also reported that Chinese leaders were not taking seriously Washington 's threat of higher trade tariffs even though the threat was not lifted until last week . A U.S. intelligence community report similarly predicted last fall correctly , it seems that North Korea would not accede to demands for nuclear-related inspections that would reveal the size of its stockpile of plutonium , a key ingredient of nuclear arms . Other U.S. intelligence reports have expressed skepticism that the economic embargo of Haiti would prompt its military rulers to resign soon . In its dealings with both of these stubborn dictatorships , the Clinton administration might soon be faced with the same choice it faced last week with China : to continue to pursue a policy that has not worked , or to face up to a further humbling of American foreign-policy ambitions . VLADIVOSTOK , Russia The sun was still high and the day was warm , so by the time he reached the top step , the Rev. Myron Effing was sweating and puffing . He had taken visitors up some splintering outdoor wooden stairs , up a hillside strewn with garbage and weeds , past flimsy lean-tos with laundry billowing from clotheslines , and finally to a simple , solid red-brick building overlooking a square . `` Here it is , '' said the 53-year-old Roman Catholic priest , a little out of breath . `` It 's our pride right now , our joy . '' The object of Effing 's affection was a church with a history as tragic and grim and , now , as full of hope as Russia 's own history in this century . For 58 years , it was not a place of worship , but an archive of the Soviet state . It was in the state 's hands for so long that people forgot it had ever been a church at all , and some bureaucrats even disputed it , despite abundant evidence and explicit testimony to prove it . The Communists had built a radio tower to jam foreign broadcasts atop a higher hill nearby , as if to remind those below that the party 's authority was loftier even than God 's . Then last New Year 's Eve , after a two-year struggle , Effing reclaimed the building from the government and proclaimed that the Church of the Most Holy Mother of God and the Roman Catholic Church had returned to Vladivostok , at last . But as Effing knew better than anyone , that meant the real work was only about to start . It is the lone Catholic church in this boom town of 700,000 people , and these days it is very much Effing 's church his work in progress , his personal crusade . A native of Indiana , Effing had spent much of his adult life teaching in seminaries in the American Midwest and recruiting young men for the priesthood . In 1986 , he went to Guam and spent four years there as rector of a seminary . He returned to the United States in 1990 as a university chaplain in California , but before long , he said , he grew tired of church politics there . His aim was to find a place where there were no other priests , and Russia seemed like ideal virgin territory . He appealed to the bishop of Novosibirsk in western Siberia the nearest diocesan seat to Vladivostok , though it is four time zones away . The bishop had no idea whether any Catholic church had ever existed in Vladivostok but told Effing to go ahead and see whether a parish could be organized there . At the time , Vladivostok was still a closed military city , barred not only to foreigners but also to Russians who lacked special permission to enter . On an invitation from the city , Effing arrived in 1991 and discovered there had indeed once been a parish and a church . Rebuilding them would become his vocation . `` When we first came we didn't have anything except our suitcases and a computer , '' he said . `` We had to borrow the money to buy our plane tickets from San Francisco. .. . When I first saw the church I felt mostly pity because it was in such a rundown condition . And I felt pity that such a strong Catholic community in the past could build such a good building only to have everything taken away . '' The building he found had been finished , or nearly finished , in a rush in 1922 as the Bolsheviks , on their way to victory in Russia 's Civil War , approached Vladivostok . It was a cathedral , the seat of a diocese , but architecturally it was hardly distinct from countless red-brick churches built in cities in America 's eastern seaboard about the same time . Yet the panoramic setting , high above the city overlooking Golden Horn Bay and its bustling harbor , was magnificent . The supression of the church began soon after the Bolsheviks arrived . The parish , which included 5,000 Catholics in the city and 10,000 more in the surrounding Maritime Territory of Russia 's Far East , soon began to dwindle as priests and lay people left or were expelled or killed . When the atheistic Communists finally confiscated the church in 1935 , as they had confiscated everything else , the explanation was as simple as it was laughable : There were no more Catholics around , so who needed a church ? Inside the structure , they built three floors where before there had been soaring space and stained-glass windows , and they stacked shelves with documents and books . The altar , the crucifix , the pews and everything else from the interior were removed . This was how Effing found it when he arrived 2 1/2 years ago . He set about persuading city officials that the building should be returned to the Catholic Church . He collected affidavits from old people who remembered that the building had been built with private funds . Effing found a marble crucifix that had been dug up 20 years earlier near the church by a crew laying a cable and reclaimed it to use in a shrine commemorating martyrs of the parish . Workmen began digging to see whether anything else that might once have belonged to the church still lay underground . Last November , the parish celebrated its first Mass on the top floor inside the church , and on Dec. 31 Effing was formally presented with the keys to the building a place of worship at last for his 250 parishioners . On Sundays he says Mass in Russian , then preaches in English , using a translator . A few months ago he conducted his first full-fledged wedding , a young American man marrying a Russian . An older couple who had been married for decades also came to have their union blessed in the church . Effing now wants to restore the church to its original condition , a task made more difficult since the plans for the interior have disappeared . The cost of repairing the church is astronomical $ 700,000 to shore up the crumbling facade alone , Effing reckons . The nearest pipe organ he knows of is in Irkutsk , Siberia , 1,500 miles to the west . And he expects that his goal to reclaim land around the church will turn into a new fight with city authorities . But Effing said he has decided that rebuilding the church , and Vladivostok 's Catholic community , will be his life 's remaining work . HOLLYWOOD What do you call $ 37.5 million in the box-office till ? Certainly not pebbles . Hollywood on Monday was calling the Memorial Day weekend gross for Universal Pictures ' `` The Flintstones '' something `` wonderful '' and a `` great start for the summer . '' Starring John Goodman as Fred Flintstone , the live-action version of the Hanna-Barbera animated TV series that was a hit in the 1960s , established a record ticket-price inflation notwithstanding for a Memorial Day weekend opening , based on preliminary estimates . It surpassed the $ 37 million taken in by Paramount Pictures ' sequel `` Indiana Jones and the Last Crusade '' in 1989 , when ticket prices were somewhat lower . Both films are associated with Steven Spielberg . `` The Flintstones '' also helped propel ticket sales for the overall movie business approximately 10 percent ahead of last year 's Memorial Day weekend , which is the traditional beginning to the summer season . Hollywood invests heavily in summer fare from which it hopes to derive 40 percent of an entire year 's box-office receipts . `` After weeks of a springtime box-office slump , this certainly bodes well , '' said John Krier of Exhibitor Relations Co. , who noted that there are `` many big titles to come , '' including Walt Disney 's animated `` The Lion King , '' which industry insiders have picked as this summer 's expected box-office champ . It opens June 15 . `` The Flintstones '' was launched with a massive marketing campaign notably a tie-in to McDonald 's restaurants but to mixed reactions from the critics who thought the audience for the movie would be children . `` A lot of people thought this movie wasn't going to work , or that it would be only for kids , '' said Universal Pictures chairman Tom Pollock , whose studio released last summer 's `` Jurassic Park '' ( another Spielberg picture and the industry 's all-time box-office champ ) . `` But when you have a Friday night where families comprise only about half the business , it means that the other half are adults and teens on dates . '' It also meant that about 40 percent of the weekend audience headed directly to `` The Flintstones ' ' ' hometown of Bedrock , and it might appear that the stampede left other films in the proverbial dust . But not quite . `` Maverick , '' another remake of an old TV show with Mel Gibson as a card shark of the Old West and a cast that also bills Jodie Foster and James Garner , delivered an estimated big $ 18 million in the Friday-through-Monday period . That brought the total for the Warner Bros. release after two weekends of national release to just over $ 40 million . Paramount Pictures ' `` Beverly Hills Cop III '' drew an estimated $ 15.5 million in its debut . The film is the third in the series starring Eddie Murphy as a Detroit cop who finds adventures in Beverly Hills . ( Optional add end ) For Murphy , the opening was the strongest of his last three movies . His film `` Boomerang '' opened on a peak summer weekend in 1992 to $ 13.6 million . `` The Distinguished Gentleman '' scored $ 10.5 million in its first weekend during the Christmas season in December 1992 . The box-office figures released Monday were based on industry estimates for Friday through Monday . Final results will be released Tuesday . In fourth place was the Andy Garcia-Meg Ryan alcoholism drama `` When a Man Loves a Woman '' with $ 7.1 million , followed by the late Brandon Lee and `` The Crow '' in fifth with $ 6.3 million and `` Four Weddings and a Funeral '' in sixth with $ 2.7 million , estimates show . Spike Lee 's `` Crooklyn '' finished seventh with $ 1.6 million , while `` With Honors '' was eighth with $ 1.4 million . `` Little Buddha '' was ninth with $ 834,000 and `` 3 Ninjas Kick Back '' was 10th with $ 745,000 . TOKYO A suspected right-wing extremist fired a shot yards away from former Prime Minister Morihiro Hosokawa Monday in apparent protest over Hosokowa 's open apologies for Japan 's actions in World War II . Hosokawa was not harmed . The bullet hit the ceiling of a Tokyo hotel , where he had spoke at a political party meeting . Security guards quickly tackled the gunman , who was identified as Masakatsu Nozoe , 52 . He later told police that he was upset by Hosokawa 's statements on Japan 's role during World War II and his economic policies , Japanese news reports said . Police refused to confirm those reports , but they said Nozoe was believed to be a member of an extremist right-wing group and that the shooting may have been politically motivated . Shortly after his election last summer , Hosokawa became the first Japanese prime minister to candidly state that Japan had waged a war of aggression during the 1930s and 1940s . He offered apologies on behalf of Japan for the consequent suffering and encouraged revelations about suspected atrocities . The comments were widely applauded throughout Asia and broadly endorsed even in Japan . But they were deeply resented by a small fringe of ultra-nationalists , commonly referred to as the country 's right wing , who believe the expansionist policies in China and Southeast Asia were proper and the attack on Pearl Harbor a justified pre-emptive strike against the United States . Since Hosokawa 's resignation last month in the midst of government gridlock and allegations of financial improprieties , the forthrightness that marked his tenure has receded . A June trip by Japanese Emperor Akihito to the United States had included a stop at Pearl Harbor , planned by the Hosokawa administration . That has been canceled by the administration of Hosokawa 's successor , Tsutomu Hata. which has already been far less adamantly forthright about Japan 's past provocations . Japan has hundreds of right-wing groups that make no apologies for the nation 's militant past . They advance their views by driving around in vans with speakers , but they do not have a wide following and generally have been nonviolent . Since late last year , however , that appears to have changed . The liberal Asahi Newspaper has been attacked several times recently , including an incident last month when hostages were taken and held for several hours . In the fall , a Japanese right-wing leader in the same group committed suicide while visiting the Asahi , using handguns . That incident and Monday 's raise strong questions about Japan 's vaunted control of firearms . It is commonly thought that the major crime syndicates have amble supplies , but it is rare that they are used against outsiders . ( Optional add end ) Flush with confidence , the local police have been slowly reducing security for former prime ministers , in some cases eliminating it altogether but not for Hosokawa . According to sources quoted by the Kyodo wire service , threats against Hosokawa have been made since last summer by right-wing groups . Police official Kiyotaka Osaki said the shot was fired from about 10 yards away from Hosokawa . `` I 'm just glad no one was injured , '' Hosokawa said after the attack . He declined to comment on the gunman 's possible motive . Japan 's wartime past has been been the focus of national attention recently because of remarks by a Cabinet minister that Japanese atrocities in Nanking , China 's wartime capital , in 1937 were exaggerated . The remarks ignited a storm of protest in Asia and the official was forced to resign . Distributed by the Los Angeles Times-Washington Post News Service . JERICHO , West Bank Not even a month old , the Palestinian Authority is facing a crisis that could bring its collapse an acute shortage of cash . Although promised $ 2.4 billion for economic development over five years , the new Palestinian administration has virtually no funds with which to operate no money to pay its police and civil servants , no money to maintain local hospitals , trash collection and other public services , no money for its own telephones and office lights . `` The situation is very , very serious , '' said Saeb Erekat , the authority council member for local government . `` Our institutions are brand new , and they need money to operate and meet the people 's needs . Without money , they willn't function . The whole effort could fail for the lack of start-up funds . '' Palestinian leaders fear that public support for the self-governing authority , which already is controversial as a product of many difficult compromises with Israel , will decline rapidly if it falters in any way ; thus , inability to pay its workers , maintain public services and expand the economy could lead to a loss of legitimacy and perhaps rebellion . Freih Abu Meddein , a Gaza Strip lawyer with responsibility for justice on the authority council , warns of possible food riots in Gaza if the new administration does not receive enough assistance to begin full operations and to launch its initial development programs . `` We had many promises that we would get the money as soon as we signed the Cairo agreement on autonomy , '' Abu Meddein said in Gaza City . `` It has been nearly four weeks , and we have received only a fraction of our immediate and most urgent needs . '' The crisis is so serious that Israel Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin is looking at ways to assist the Palestinians , perhaps by continuing a public works program that employs 16,000 in the Gaza Strip , perhaps by lending the Palestinian Authority some of the operating funds it will need for June . `` I am worried because , if it will not work , it will not take more than three months .. . until there will be no food , '' Rabin said over the weekend . Senior Israeli officials have sketched alarming scenarios of possible riots , bloodshed and even civil war for the impoverished Gaza Strip , home to more than 850,000 Palestinians , if the new authority does not establish itself fast and effectively with the money to back it up . Amid the mounting concern , Faisal Husseini , a senior Palestinian Authority member , sought to assure the Palestinian police and civil servants Monday that they would be paid in June . `` The money 's there , '' he told a news conference in Jerusalem , alluding to a $ 19 million emergency fund . Israeli officials estimate the Palestinian Authority will need $ 600 million to $ 700 million a year to administer the Gaza Strip and the West Bank ; the Palestinian police force alone will cost about $ 105 million . Local revenues may come to only $ 200 million to $ 300 million , depending on local tax rates . The development program , starting with the 27-year backlog of public works but reaching well beyond to the industrialization of some regions and the the rehabilitation of agriculture in others , will cost at least as much on an annual basis , Palestinian economists say . The World Bank says that international pledges for the first year of self-rule total $ 720 million . ( Begin optional trim ) The money has been slow in coming for these reasons : Western donors , mistrustful of Arafat , his secretive ways and past profligacy , have insisted on full accountability of how their money is spent . Arafat , wanting to ensure his own control of the funds , was slow in staffing the Palestinian Economic Council , approving its bylaws and appointing a Western investment bank , Morgan Stanley Asset Management , to oversee it . Many Western governments prefer to finance specific projects and to give contracts to their own companies , thus boosting their exports , as well as providing foreign aid . This has led to a proliferation of proposals to PLO headquarters in Tunis for projects such as the construction of airports , offshore generation of electricity and a new telephone system , while immediate needs have been ignored . The Palestinian Authority 's own tax collections will probably not start for months . A new tax system must be adopted to replace the one imposed by the Israeli army during its occupation ; the new administration would like to lower the burden carried by local businessmen to foster an economic resurgence . ( End optional trim ) Erekat said he hoped the Western countries that pledged extensive economic assistance and development advice last September when Israel and the PLO signed the autonomy agree will now free substantial amounts to underwrite the authority 's operations . `` We were born without a penny , and we are told that our ability to cope will test our readiness to govern ourselves , '' Erekat said bitterly . `` In a sense , this is right if we can run Gaza and Jericho without cash , we are miracle workers . `` Instead of real help , we are getting one delegation of experts after another , flying in first-class and business-class from around the world , spending money on hotels and meals that we could use to pay salaries , and then telling us they will make a recommendation after the summer , '' he said . CAIRO , Egypt The world seemed to be sliding inexorably toward violent confrontation , if not nuclear disaster , that day in 1961 when the leaders of Egypt , Yugoslavia and India declared themselves officially out of the running of the Cold War , laying the groundwork for a network of nations that would be neither of the East nor the West . The Berlin Crisis threatened superpower confrontation in the middle of Europe ; an ill-fated U.S.-backed attempt to topple the Marxist regime in Cuba foundered near America 's southern shores ; disputes broke out over nuclear testing around the globe ; superpowers still extended their military and colonial influence in large areas of Africa and Asia . Tuesday , the Non-Aligned Movement created by Yugoslavian leader Josip Tito , Egyptian President Gamal Abdul Nasser and Indian Prime Minister Jawharlal Nehru convenes here for its 11th Council of Ministers in a dramatically changed world . Not only is there no longer any East-West axis with which to be non-aligned , Yugoslavia , host of the first meeting of the Non-Aligned Movement in Belgrade , has for the first time been refused an invitation . The new world 's confrontations are erupting along religious and nationalistic frontiers , and the new Yugoslavia will find itself competing for a chance to debate foreign ministers of break-away Croatia and Bosnia-Herzegovina over an appropriate response to the long-running Balkan civil war . Iran , embroiled in mounting disputes with the Arab world over its support of Islamic fundamentalist militants , will send its foreign minister to Cairo for the first time since the 1979 Islamic revolution in Iran . South Africa , one of whose first actions as a new black-majority-led government was to join the Non-Aligned Movement , will sit at the table with nations that spent decades reviling apartheid . For the 108 disenfranchised , non-aligned countries that represent two-thirds of the world 's people , the battles this week are more likely to shape up over trade policy than national liberation the widely loathed GATT agreement , economic relief for debt-ridden nations and access for Third World goods to the world 's major markets . `` There is really a different agenda coming . Well over half of the active members are concerned about getting northern markets open to their products . They 're concerned about being shut out . They 're concerned about changing the terms of credit , '' said Tim Sullivan , a political analyst who has studied the Non-Aligned Movement . Egypt has pushed since the last summit of movement leaders in Jakarta in 1992 to merge the Non-Aligned Movement with the Group of 77 developing nations , effectively undercutting its political role and focusing squarely on the economic frontier between developed countries and the Third World . `` When you consider the new economic realities of the world , it is important to try to identify certain commercial interests and formulate government positions which put us in a better negotiating position when dealing with the West or developed countries , '' said Nagui Ghatrify , foreign ministry spokesman for Egypt , which for years capitalized on its non-aligned status by playing off the Soviet Union against the United States . ( Optional add end ) Officials of the non-aligned movement say the political crises that have been bungled or ignored by the world 's superpowers the chaos in Rwanda , Somalia and Liberia can perhaps best be addressed closer to home . Several nations at this week 's meeting propose to discuss a new peacemaking and peacekeeping role for non-aligned nations , similar to plans under discussion by the Organization of African Unity . Non-aligned nations also are almost certain to continue the push for a greater voice for the Third World in the United Nations , with the most popular proposal being a permanent seat on the Security Council for a developing regional power such as Egypt , Brazil or India . ARLINGTON , Va. . On the cusp of the 50th anniversary of D-day , President Clinton remembered America 's war dead Monday as `` the backbone that secured our nation 's liberty '' as thousands gathered at Arlington National Cemetery to pay homage to the fallen . Addressing a throng of veterans , families and friends , Clinton said `` it was the independence and the can-do confidence of the sons and daughters of American and the other democracies that won the day '' on June 6 , 1944 , when allied soldiers stormed the beaches of northern France and lay the foundation for Adolph Hitler 's defeat . The president leaves Wednesday for an eight-day trip to Italy , France and Britain , his first visit to those countries since taking office . A highlight will be ceremonies to commemorate D-day 's golden anniversary . More than 10,000 Allied soldiers were slain or wounded in the Normandy landing , which Clinton said started a battle that `` was not just between two armies . It was as clearly as any conflict in all of human history a battle between two ways of life . '' Clinton said he mourned the suicide earlier this month of Lewis Puller Jr. , a disabled Vietnam War veteran who wrote a Pulitzer-Prize winning book after returning from the conflict . Puller was the son of the most decorated Marine in history . `` This morning when I got up I thought of Lew Puller and the countless other heroes he has joined and the terrible sacrifices men and women have been willing to make for this great land , '' Clinton said . He laid a red-white-and-blue-flowered wreath at the Tomb of the Unknowns at the cemetery earlier in the day . The president also hosted a White House breakfast for veterans , telling them the nation must be vigilant in fighting to uphold its freedoms . `` We owe our liberty and prosperity to the strength and valor of those who fought '' in World War II , he told the veterans . `` But we also inherit the responsibility of defending that gift . '' Clinton 's Arlington Cemetery speech was greeted with warm applause from the 4,000 people packed into an open-air amphitheater . He ignored a lone heckler , who shouted `` Go back to Oxford , you traitor , draft-dodger . '' Clinton 's avoidance of the military draft while studying in England in the late 1960s brought harsh criticism from veterans during his 1992 presidential campaign , and last Memorial Day his first as commander in chief he met with heckling and a cool reception when he spoke at the Vietnam Veterans ' Memorial . ( Optional add end ) The president tried to comfort families of Vietnam soldiers still missing in action by underscoring `` our solemn obligation to find answers for those whose loved ones served but were never accounted for . '' He urged parents to teach their children about World War II , offering as an example the story of a Missouri elementary school librarian who brings D-day veterans and other war survivors to speak to students every year . `` To honor , we must remember , '' he said . `` Today , somewhere in America , a curious child rummaging through an attic will stumble upon his grandfather 's insignia patches , a pocket guide to France , a metal cricket , a black-and-white photo of a smiling young man in uniform . But learning about those times and those deeds must be more than accidental . '' Veterans of wars from World War I to the Persian Gulf war knelt or laid flowers among the rows of white headstones that blanket the gentle green slopes of the cemetery . Soldiers from a nearby Army base planted small American flags in the soil in front of each of the 250,000 graves last week . WASHINGTON President Clinton , striving to demonstrate continued American pressure to end Chinese human rights abuses , has outlined a five-point program `` to support forces of constructive change in China while strengthening the U.S.-China relationship . '' The program , described in an article appearing Tuesday on the opinion pages of the Los Angeles Times , consists of steps by the administration , American businesses and human rights organizations to push China to improve human rights conditions , even though they no longer will be linked to U.S. trade privileges . Last week , the administration announced it would effectively end the effort to link China 's human rights record with its status as a most-favored-nation MFN trading partner . Clinton 's article also clearly is part of the president 's new campaign to do better at explaining his foreign policy to Americans . Clinton told The Times on Friday that controversies and apparent shortcomings in his foreign policy were not the result of staff weaknesses but of his inability to communicate effectively on key issues and decisions . Among the most controversial of those policies was his decision to renew China 's MFN status , despite Beijing 's failure to comply fully on human rights issues , as required by Congress and a presidential executive order last year . `` Annual debates linking MFN to human rights threaten to block needed progress on security and economic issues while yielding little if any progress on human rights , '' Clinton wrote in the article . `` We must pursue our human-rights agenda with China in a way that does not isolate China . We can't help change human rights in China if we 're not there . '' The five points he outlined include : Transmitting new foreign broadcasts to China , including the new Radio Free Asia . Supporting American organizations assisting private Chinese groups working on human rights issues . Developing voluntary standards for U.S. companies doing business in or with China . Promoting international attention to and support for human rights in China . Banning the import of Chinese guns and ammunition . In context of D-day commemorations this week , the president said : `` We must not waver in the challenge of advancing those same values freedom and prosperity in Asia and especially China . It is in this region that many of the profound challenges to America 's national interest can be found ; it is in this region that our generation 's progress will in large part be measured . '' Relations with China should be put in context of broader U.S. interests in the Asian-Pacific region , of which America is an integral part , he wrote . The president commends the Chinese government for recent steps , including the release of two dissidents , verbal acceptance of the U.N. . Universal Declaration of Human Rights , and moves toward ending the jamming of Voice of America broadcasts . But he underscores that these are insufficient to constitute real progress . He calls his program `` new and vigorous , '' although each of the individual points has been debated or acted on before . ( Optional Add End ) In the 1992 presidential campaign , Clinton pledged to make improvement of China 's human rights record a prerequisite for renewal of its most-favored trading status and to launch Radio Free Asia to make available new foreign media outlets to the Chinese people . Congress passed authorization of Radio Free Asia this spring , despite China 's vigorous opposition on grounds that it amounted to interference in its internal affairs . Establishing voluntary principles for U.S. businesses an idea tried with disputed impact in South Africa is a long-standing option borrowed from parties who oppose using MFN as leverage on human rights . ZAGREB , Croatia Croatia Monday revived a currency used during a pro-Nazi World War II regime as part of celebrations marking the third anniversary of independence . In dumping the dinar and embracing the kuna , the government of President Franjo Tudjman seemed likely to complicate peace efforts by riling rebel Serbs , who occupy 27 percent of the country . For them and for many others , the kuna evokes memories of the brutal Ustashe regime of Ante Pavelic . In a ceremony at the Croatian National Bank , avoided by much of the foreign diplomatic corps , Tudjman marked Statehood Day by exchanging dinars for kunas printed in Germany . The notes , he said , are the most beautiful in the world and are `` the final act on the bumpy road to the independent and sovereign Croatian state . '' In a region where nationalism is the dominant coin of political discourse , where an ethnically revealing first name can trigger a violent response , the resurrection of a currency with an echo of Croatia 's fascist past is provocative . By all accounts , Croatia 's Serbs suffered under the Ustashe regime . They are led today by hard-liners determined not to negotiate with the Croatian government . The Serbs took up arms against Croatia when it declared independence from Serb-dominated Yugoslavia in 1991 . Monuments to Yugoslav and anti-fascist heroes such at Marshal Tito have been replaced by those to Croat nationalists , and Serbian words have been purged from the language . At root is the question of whether there is room in Croatia for Serbs and other ethnic groups if the government continues to take such steps . Asked during a Saturday night television interview whether the reintroduction of the kuna would harm relations with Serbs , Tudjman replied : `` Serbs in Croatia must understand they are a minority . '' Slavko Goldstein , a leader of Croatia 's tiny Jewish community and a publisher in Zagreb , said he believed Tudjman 's move , despite his personal history as a veteran of the war against the Ustashe state , would offend those in Croatia who suffered . Effectively , the new currency is the monetary version of a swastika . Goldstein and other analysts hypothesize that Tudjman ordered the new currency as part of his policy of balancing moderates within his party with nationalists , such as Defense Minister Gojko Susak , the architect of the failed policy to carve out a Croatian protectorate in Bosnia . In recent months , several leading moderates have broken with Tudjman . The main issue has been Tudjman 's refusal to get rid of Susak and other extremists who oppose Croatia 's recent decision to back a peace deal between Bosnian Croats and Muslims . The introduction of the kuna could have consequences for that deal as well . Nationalist Croat officials in Bosnia have said they plan to use it in Croat-held territory there instead of the Bosnian dinar , as ordered under the peace deal . Kuna is Croatian for marten , a type of weasel , whose pelts were bartered in Roman times . Croatia 's brief medieval kingdom used a coin boasting the image of the kuna . ARLINGTON , Va. . In the midst of a quiet ceremony at Arlington National Cemetery Monday , President Clinton 's tribute to the nation 's war dead was interrupted by a protester who shouted the sort of comment that gives sleepless nights to the White House aides planning this week 's European tour . `` Go back to Oxford , you traitor , draft-dodger , '' a man yelled from the rear of the white marble amphitheater before being hurried out . Apparently taken aback , Clinton stumbled over the next few words of his speech , which was intended not only to mark Memorial Day but also to lay the groundwork for the eight-day trip to Italy , England and France that starts Wednesday . The trip , commemorating the 50th anniversary of the Normandy invasion , offers what should be a White House public relations dream , with major speeches and heart-tugging ceremonies scheduled at the sites of some of the climactic battles that helped the United States earn its mantle as the world 's champion of democracy . But even some of his own senior aides worry that the trip instead will remind Americans of Clinton 's efforts to avoid the draft during the Vietnam war and underscore questions about his performance as commander-in- chief since becoming president . In fact , he is going back to Oxford as a Rhodes Scholar there , he helped organize Vietnam anti-war demonstrations although that stop has been hastily rescheduled from the middle of the trip to the end , in part to avoid the inevitable comparisons with the veterans of World War II . `` I think this trip looms a lot larger for him than it would for another president , '' historian Michael Beschloss said . `` The president who didn't serve in the military and Vietnam is speaking on D-day and beyond that , a president who is known for spending less time on his role as a world leader than most presidents do . '' He has been buffeted by complaints that his policy toward Haiti , Bosnia , Somalia and elsewhere has been wavering and hesitant . Only 40 percent of those interviewed in a Washington Post-ABC News poll this month said they approved of his handling of foreign policy ; 53 percent disapproved . But the trip also could increase his stature , as foreign travel often does for presidents . `` It could be that the speeches will be so good and the reception so warm and the relations with leaders in Italy and France and England so obviously enhanced that this will be a help for him , '' Beschloss said . The journey begins Wednesday with a flight to Rome , where Clinton will meet with Pope John Paul II and with the new Italian prime minister , Silvio Berlusconi . Later , Clinton will meet with Prime Minister John Major at Chequers , the country retreat of British prime ministers , and with French President Francois Mitterrand in Paris . One topic will be the very current problem of Bosnia . `` The big issue is whether the great powers are going to be able to hold together in some kind of common policy in Bosnia that is respectable enough for them to defend , '' said Charles William Maynes , editor of Foreign Policy magazine . ( Optional Add End ) Ten years ago , on the 40th anniversary of D-Day , President Reagan 's emotional address to the former U.S. Rangers at Pointe du Hoc was perhaps the most memorable speech of his presidency . `` It was the beginning of ` morning again in America , ' ' ' the dewy-eyed theme of Reagan 's 1984 re-election campaign , recalled Michael Deaver , a top aide who helped plan that trip . Actually , Reagan had spent World War II making training films on a Hollywood set , but with his patriotic persona and his trillion-dollar defense buildup he was treated as a hero at such occasions . In his speeches , Clinton will reminisce about the war record of his father , William Jefferson Blythe II , who spent two years in North Africa and Italy in an Army unit that rebuilt trucks and jeeps . After returning safely home , he was killed in a car accident six months later , three months before Clinton was born . WASHINGTON U.S. business executives intend to hire more employees this summer than at any time over the past five years , says a report released Monday by the country 's largest temporary-help firm , Manpower Inc. . Milwaukee-based Manpower 's quarterly employment survey of more than 15,000 companies nationwide showed that 29 percent of the firms responding to the survey expect to undertake additional hiring during the summer while 7 percent plan staff reductions . `` These hiring projections confirm a full return to pre-recession job conditions . . . despite a lingering downsizing in some companies , '' said Mitchell S. Fromstein , Manpower 's chief executive . Manpower 's survey is closely watched , partly because it correctly signaled a sharp slowing of economic growth in 1989 , as well as the economy 's uneven recovery beginning in early 1991 . The new survey forecasts the jobs ' outlook for the permanent U.S. work force for the months of July , August and September . Unmployment nationwide has gradually dropped , reaching 6.4 percent in April . The Labor Department is scheduled to report its job statistics for May on Friday . The hot issue for economists is the impact that continuing job growth and lower unemployment might have on wages and price inflation . Some say the economy is now approaching `` full employment , '' or the level of employment at which companies have to compete to hire workers and workers begin to demand higher wages , thus fueling inflation . DRI/McGraw-Hill Inc. , a research firm based in Lexington , Mass. , said in a report this month that the unemployment rate is nearing 6.2 percent , which is the figure the firm has set for full employment . Despite the Federal Reserve 's raising of interest rates , it said , unemployment is expected to fall to 6 percent by the end of the year . At 6.2 percent , said Cynthia Latta , a DRI/McGraw-Hill analyst , the lower unemployment rate `` will put some upward pressure on wages . '' However , Labor Secretary Robert B . Reich last week told Reuter Financial Television that the unemployment rate at which inflationary pressures develop may be lower than in the past . Because of technological advances and competition from overseas , the average American worker `` is in no position to demand wage increases , '' Reich said . Fromstein said that he did not believe the Fed 's actions in raising interest rates would affect Manpower 's projections for summer hiring , although they could affect jobs over the longer haul . Fromstein said that for the first time in several years , the economy showed hiring strength in both manufacturing and the wholesale and retail trade businesses . Both are considered indicators of a rising economy , according to Manpower . The survey forecast the weakest hiring prospects in transportation , public utilities , education and other service industries , some of which helped account for job growth in earlier recovery stages . Manpower said that Midwestern companies are expected to lead the nation in hiring in the summer quarter . It said that its survey of Southern employers , confirms that the South is in a period of `` general employment expansion . '' The recession-wracked West and Northeast , both of which had lagged behind other regions in job growth , also will make gains during the summer quarter , Manpower said . Separately , the Association for Manufacturing Technology in McLean said on Sunday that orders for U.S.-made machine tools rose 11.7 percent in April , reaching the highest level in 12 months . Economists see this as another sign of future economic growth , because manufacturers use machine tools to make a wide range of products . ADDIS ABABA , Ethiopia A high-level U.S. aid delegation said Monday it aims to mobilize an urgent global response to food shortages in eastern Africa before they grow into full-blown famine . Ethiopia , which was devastated 10 years ago by starvation that claimed hundreds of thousands of lives , this year risks becoming the center of a famine in which as many as 20 million people in nine countries could risk death , said J. Brian Atwood , head of the U.S. . Agency for International Development . Famine threatens a swath of eastern Africa from Sudan to Tanzania , Atwood told a news conference . Relief workers in Ethiopia report hundreds of deaths since the current round of food shortages began here and scores of fresh graves in villages in the south of the country . Most of those in danger are victims of recurrent drought . Here , as in surrounding nations , the annual summer rains failed last year and food stocks are desperately low . But Atwood said about a third of those at risk this year are in danger because of wars-notably in Sudan , Somalia and Rwanda . Atwood said the mission , which includes representatives of three main U.S. charities , is part of a new Clinton administration effort to shift U.S. policy from chronic emergency gear to crisis prevention . He said the administration aims to step up cooperation with what it has called `` a new breed '' of pragmatic African leaders in Ethiopia , Eritrea and Uganda . President Clinton hopes to use the mission `` to raise consciousness of this issue at the highest possible levels '' and win more aid for eastern Africa from European governments and Japan , Atwood said . `` This is a desperate situation and we need to respond to it now to avoid what could become a major famine as soon as August if the rains fail '' again , he said . The U.S. team which includes the heads of CARE , Catholic Relief Services and the International Rescue Committee as well as the leading congressional campaigner on hunger issues , Rep. Tony Hall , D-Ohio will go to Europe this week to seek multilateral support for a program to head off another famine . Atwood said the more than $ 1.5 billion spent by the U.S. government in an effort to halt starvation and anarchy in Somalia had spotlighted in Washington the need to prevent rather than respond to humanitarian calamities in Africa . So , he said , has `` the holocaust '' in Rwanda , where the United Nations has estimated that 200,000 people have been killed in tribal massacres and battles . `` Just the other day we made a decision to contribute $ 35 million additional to handle this disaster '' in Rwanda , he said . `` One wonders if we had had that $ 35 million in the previous two years whether we could have done something to avoid the killing . '' Atwood said that , with the new focus on `` crisis prevention , '' the administration seeks to make Africa a top priority for development assistance `` on a par '' with Russia and Eastern Europe . U.S. officials have voiced a commitment to working closely with leaders in Ethiopia , Eritrea and Uganda who have emerged in recent years . Those leaders , who have stressed pragmatism in economic development and in mediating conflicts in the region , `` have started on a success story , and with a little bit of help , they can turn things around in their own countries and , eventually , affect the whole region , '' Hall said . But the goal of `` sustainable development '' in the Third World to prevent underdeveloped nations from falling into chronic crises has long been a goal of the international community and has proven difficult to fulfill . Crises such as famines or wars often force the diversion of development aid funds into emergency relief . With pressures remaining high in Washington and other capitals for budget cutting , and a public perception that Africa is a `` bottomless pit '' for aid money , it is not clear whether the U.S. administration and other donor governments can allocate sufficient funds for both . Atwood said U.S. disaster assistance worldwide is about $ 1.6 billion , about twice what is spent on development aid that could permit stricken countries to become less dependent . He called that `` a poor ratio '' that should be reversed . GAZA CITY , Gaza Strip As the euphoria that followed Israel 's troop withdrawal begins to fade , anxiety is growing over the critical lack of money to govern and rebuild the new Palestinian autonomous areas of Gaza and Jericho . The cash crunch threatens every part of Palestinian society , which has been left to fend for itself with this month 's hand-over of civil and security powers from Israel . The Palestine Liberation Organization , while steadily asserting its control , is broke . The PLO 's best hope for financial relief is rich donor countries and they have moved slowly , and cautiously , to translate promises into hard cash . The Palestinian police force , for example , has received less than half of the promised donations of equipment from the West and will be forced to borrow Israeli communications equipment just so officers can talk to each other in the field . France promised to provide a $ 2 million system the most urgent of the police force 's unmet requirements but has only just begun the weeks-long selection and purchasing process . At the same time , about 13,000 public employees responsible for tax collection , licensing , education , health services and more in Gaza and Jericho aren't sure their next paycheck at the end of June will be covered . Palestinian hospitals , to be cut off from Israeli subsidies Wednesday , have no way to pay for patients ' food and for expensive referrals to Israeli institutions . Moreover , of the $ 1.2 billion pledged by donor countries for emergency reconstruction of the infrastructure in Gaza and Jericho , only about $ 60 million has been received by the World Bank , which is trustee for the donations . `` Thank God we had the vacation ( for a Muslim feast ) and people were celebrating , '' said Riad Khouderi , president of Gaza 's al-Azhar University . `` But after that , what if people are still stepping over garbage in the streets and the schools remain in such poor condition ? Even to get rid of all aspects of the occupation to get rid of fences , iron bars and road blocks it takes money , people , and trucks that we don't have . '' According to Western diplomats and PLO officials present at meetings of the donor countries , the urgency of the cash crisis is well understood . But the bureaucratic machinery in various nations that should translate those good intentions into money in the bank has proved cumbersome . One problem is that most of the money already promised to the Palestinians is earmarked for specific reconstruction projects in Gaza and Jericho . An additional $ 14 million has been pledged to help the Palestinian police pay operating costs , but little of it has actually reached the hands of self-rule officials . The United States , for example , promised $ 5 million for the police more than two weeks ago . The money has not yet been delivered . Nor has the $ 5.7 million promised in April by the European Union . The first six months ' estimated budget for the police , including salaries and fuel costs , is $ 40 million . ( Begin optional trim ) One possible mechanism for alleviating the crisis and bypassing the legal constraints on donors is just now being worked out . Diplomats involved in the process said donor countries may be asked to give money to the private Johan Jurgen Holst Fund , set up in memory of the late Norwegian foreign minister who brought the PLO and Israel together for peace talks . It has fewer restrictions than other World Bank funds , and donors could specify that money contributed to it be used for operating costs in Gaza and Jericho . Still , it could be weeks before the details are worked out . A crucial senior-level meeting of representatives of the donor countries has been rescheduled several times since the Israel-to-PLO hand-over in Gaza and Jericho . The tentative date is now sometime around June 9 , according to one diplomat , who said earlier meetings were canceled because of the `` technical '' problems of getting the right people together at the right time . ( End optional trim ) Another problem has been continuing friction between the World Bank and the PLO over jurisdiction , planning responsibilities and ultimate control over how the donors ' money will be spent . The World Bank has insisted on strict accounting procedures , on tying money to specific projects and on distancing PLO chairman Yasser Arafat from the levers of control . `` Donors don't feel comfortable with Arafat , and now he 's in a mess , '' said Salah Abdel Shafi , a leading Gaza economist . `` Authority has been transferred to the PLO by Israel , but the donors remain very conservative . '' Complicating matters further , the PLO is only now finalizing appointments to the 25-member Palestinian Authority that will govern Gaza and Jericho . Political infighting among Palestinians continues to prevent the naming of city councils in the Gaza Strip and Jericho . Without the authority and without municipal councils , there is no one to solicit bids and sign contracts for redevelopment projects . That means there is no one to receive donations if anyone cares to help subsidize the day-to-day costs of self-rule other than Arafat himself , a situation that in itself could further delay donations . BUDAPEST , Hungary Three slightly sheepish officials of the Hungarian Socialist Party the former Communists sat sipping coffee and discussing the strange turn of events here : their restoration to power by the voters in the midst of a national drive to create a free-enterprise economy . `` It 's a great problem , '' Gyula Horvath , a self-employed handyman , said of Sunday 's election . `` Workers are not members of the party any longer. . . . It seems it is the task of the Socialist Party that we have to create capitalists now . '' Josef Kalapacs , the party 's local campaign chief , is a good example of the curious role reversal in which the party finds itself caught . Formerly a skilled worker at the state-owned Csepel steel plant here , Kalapacs is now a shareholder in a struggling pipe-making enterprise spun off from the now defunct steel mill . `` We have reached the stage where people are forced to become entrepreneurs , '' he said . The third party official , Tamas Huszar , is also a former Csepel employee and another new entrepreneur , having set up his own construction firm . He has also switched allegiance from the old Communist Workers Party to the Socialists , who sprang from the reform wing of the authoritarian regime that was ousted in 1990 after a 45-year rule . It is hard to image what Karl Marx might say if he could hear these three `` socialists '' airing their capitalist aspirations . All three readily agreed , for example , that the state `` should get out of the economy , '' although they had differing views on just how quickly this should happen and what residual role government should play . But such views reflect a central paradox of post-Cold War Eastern Europe namely , that a growing number of constituents of the former ruling Communist parties are budding entrepreneurs whose interests are far removed from those of the once exalted proletariat . In fact , the Hungarian Socialist Party which will form this country 's new government in coming weeks is a hodgepodge of conflicting interest groups . There are unreformed old-style Communist apparatchiks , labor union leaders , reformed social democrats , struggling small entrepreneurs and a new capitalist aristocracy of `` Red Barons , '' born out of the old party elite . But swelling the flood of roughly 1.5 million new Socialist voters on Sunday , according to the Hungarian Gallup polling organization , were people from all walks of life with fond memories of the security and social welfare benefits of the old Marxist government and a distrust of the hazards of free-market democracy . `` There has been quite a shift in the ( Socialist ) voter profile , '' said Gallup spokesman Robert Manchin . `` It is much more anti-market , anti-privatization , more for egalitarian values and social redistribution . They are the traditional , old-time socialist supporters . `` This is something that should bother the Socialist Party and everybody else , since they didn't run on a traditional socialist program , but its ( supporters want ) to go back to egalitarian solutions . '' In the wake of the Socialist victory , the question being asked by Hungarians and foreigners alike is which faction of the highly eclectic party will prevail in the coming struggle to define its economic and social policies . Will it be the more orthodox , old-time socialists and labor advocates led by Sandor Nagy , whose name was listed second on the party 's election slate ? Or the faction led by Laszlo Bekesi , the party 's most prominent economic reformist , who was listed third on the slate and is likely to become the next finance minister ? The party will meet in convention here Saturday to outline its policies and formally choose its nominee for prime minister . WASHINGTON A defiant Rep. Dan Rostenkowski , D-Ill. , rejected a proposed plea bargain with federal prosecutors Monday night and vowed to fight in court efforts to convict him of an alleged conspiracy to defraud the government out of several hundred thousand dollars . `` Federal prosecutors threaten to indict me if I fail to plead guilty to a series of crimes I did not commit , '' Rostenkowski said in a written statement . `` I will not make any deals with them . I did not commit any crimes . My conscience is clear and my 42-year record as an elected official is one I am pround to once again run on . '' The statement by Rostenkowski , chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee , came the day before sources have said United States Attorney Eric H . Holder Jr. would ask a grand jury to indict the Chicago Democrat . Holder 's office declined comment Monday . Barring a last minute overture by Rostenkowski , prosecutors planned to indict him Tuesday . `` The government is ready to go , '' one source familiar with the negotiations said . Other sources said that the government 's case was already set for presentation to a grand jury , regardless of whether they heard from Rostenkowski by the deadline . After more than two weeks of discussing the possibility of a plea bargain , Rostenkowski , 66 , last week declined a deal in which he would plead guilty to a felony and spend a limited amount of time in jail . Options for Rostenkowski had run out , as had his tenure as chairman of Ways and Means , a committee that puts him in the forefront on President Clinton 's health care legislation as well as major trade , welfare and tax bills . If the grand jury returns an indictment punishable by at least two years in prison , under normal procedures of the House Democratic Caucus , Rostenkowski would have to resign from the committee chairmanship . Rostenkowski made clear last night he stood ready to step aside from his leadership role and battle to salvage his political life . `` If I am indicted I will temporarily give up the chairmanship .... but will continue to serve as an active member of Congress , '' Rostenkowski said . `` ... If I am indicted , I will fight in court . I will present a compelling case to the jury which will , I am confident , find me not guilty ... . Rostenkowski 's action and the anticipated indictment clouds the political horizon for key issues such as health care and sets the stage for Rep. Sam Gibbons , D-Fla. , to take the reins of Ways and Means . Three key Democrats on Ways and Means said they were not surprised by the chairman 's decision and said the committee would rally around Gibbons in the fight for health care . But they conceded that , as representative John Lewis , D-Ga. , put it , `` It will be much more difficult without him . '' Lewis , Rep. Jake Pickle , D-Tex. , and Rep. Charles Rangel , D-N.Y. , all said they expected no challenge to Gibbons ' becoming acting chairman under House Democratic Caucus rules . Pickle , who is No. 3 in seniority said , `` There is a remote possibility that 50 members could petition the Democratic Caucus to change the rules , but I doubt that will happen . '' Rangel , who is next in seniority behind Pickle , and Lewis , who is close to both the White House and the House Democratic leadership , echoed the view that Gibbons would take over without a serious challenge . Rangel said he thought the committee 's consideration of health care would go forward `` ninety percent as normal . '' He said Gibbons `` will probably work very closely with Rostenkowski to find consensus among the committee 's Democratic members . '' A senior committee Republican , Rep . Clay Shaw of Florida agreed that there was nothing surprising about the chairman 's decision . `` You don't check your citizenship at the door when you go to Congress , '' Shaw said , `` and he is entitled to a fair trial . If he feels he 's not guilty of the charges , he should fight them . '' Shaw said that he thought Rostenkowski would have faced great difficulty in delivering a health bill to the President 's specifications , but said with the `` disruption '' of the change in the chairmanship , `` this probably backs us up a ways . '' A plea bargain would have given Rostenkowski a slight chance of retaining his chairmanship . Caucus rules do not require a member convicted of criminal charges to resign from office or leadership positions , although such members are likely to face an ethics investigation and disciplinary actions . Federal prosecutors have outlined a broad case against Rostenkowski of conspiracy to defraud the government in what has been described as `` kitchen sink '' approach alleging abuses of official accounts for postage , leased automobiles , office space , supplies and personnel . Rostenkowski has publicly denied all the allegations . The FBI has investigated whether several so-called `` ghost employees '' in Rostenkowski 's Chicago office received pay for work never down . The probe also examined whether Rostenkowski purchased personal and gift items through his expense account at the House Stationary Store . In addition , the prosecution 's case also reportedly examines whether government leased cars were used primarily for personal use rather than official business and if Rostenkowski and other lawmakers traded postage vouchers and stamps for thousands of dollars . Rostenkowski , completing his 36th year in Congress , entered plea discussions in an effort to reduce or eliminate any prison sentence while avoiding a lengthy legal battle . He also wanted to try to retain his chairmanship . Such talks are considered normal and will not affect his trial , should he be indicted . WASHINGTON In an alabaster-white amphitheater surrounded by a sea of headstones , President Clinton told a packed audience of veterans and visitors Monday never to forget those who had died fighting for freedom . `` Fifty years ago the world learned just what Americans are capable of , '' Clinton noted during a Memorial Day service at Arlington National Cemetery . `` World War II was an era of sacrifice unequal in our history . It was the energies of free people who turned the tide '' against totalitarianism . The 50th anniversary of the D-Day invasion of Normandy echoed throughout Clinton 's speech . Straining to see and hear him from her wheelchair was retired Army nurse Dorothy Fearn Olsen , who had treated D-Day casualties during her 19 months as a combat nurse . Afterward , she recounted helping the wounded at the Battle of the Bulge and being among the first medical units at the liberation of the Buchenwald concentration camp . She was only 24 . Olsen recited a list of nurses who had served in U.S. wars , beginning with Clara Barton in the Civil War and ending with Frances Slanger , a little-known nurse who was killed in Belgium before the Battle of the Bulge . `` There had been various letters written by GIs to Stars and Stripes thanking the nurses for being there , '' she said . Slanger `` wrote a very beautiful letter that ended . . . `` It 's an honor and a privilege to be there when you open your eyes and say , `` Hiya , babe. ' ' ' Clinton 's speech in the cemetery 's Memorial Amphitheater came just before noon . Earlier in the morning , before placing a wreath on the Tomb of the Unknowns , he and First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton had been the hosts for a breakfast for World War II veterans and leaders of veterans organizations . During his speech Monday , Clinton said the endless rows of graves along the hillside of Arlington are reminders of `` the high cost of freedom . '' The famous are there among them , he said . `` But far more numerous are Americans who are not famous , are not legend , but whose deeds are the backbone '' of democracy . `` Let us also hold a special place for all our living veterans , '' he urged . `` We owe them a lasting debt of gratitude . '' WASHINGTON As Washington awoke on Memorial Day morning , 11 families sat in folding chairs on a grassy hill and , far away from the day 's more elaborate events , cried in each other 's arms . The Vietnam Veterans Memorial ebbed like a black wave in the distance . The names of their loved ones could not be on that granite wall , because unlike the dead whose sacrifice was etched there , their loved ones had died after the fighting ended of Agent Orange poisoning , of injuries that never healed , in suicides . In a war that has seemed exiled from the brotherhood of conflicts , these dead are the lost veterans . The Friends of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial , which decided they had been forgotten long enough , held Monday 's ceremony to honor them . It brought nine members of the Reynolds family , ages 14 months to 74 years , from Palo Alto , Calif. . It brought Jennie LeFevre from Shady Side , Md. , to honor a husband killed by Agent Orange . It brought Diana Steele from Newport News , Va. , bearing a grief almost unimaginable : Her husband and father had both taken their own lives within nine months of each other . `` Merciful God , we ask your tender blessing on all who are gathered here , '' said writer Joe Galloway , who covered the Vietnam conflict . `` You have brought beside you the souls of some good soldiers who suffered greatly long after their war was over and who are loved and missed deeply. '' ' More than 3 million Americans served in Vietnam . Among them were 58,190 who were killed or missing in action , about 450,000 wounded in action and an estimated 117,000 who have since died . `` You know and I know what really cut their lives short , '' Galloway said . `` And who among us dares judge them for the way they lived or the way they died ? '' Twenty-two veterans were honored , among them Pulitzer Prize-winning author Lewis Puller Jr. , of Alexandria , who took his life this month . Their names will be entered in an honor roll displayed near the Vietnam Veterans Memorial . After speeches and prayers , the families walked to the Wall . At the foot of the polished panels , they placed red carnations , a white spider mum and tributes for their lost loved ones . Diana Steele left her husband 's Purple Heart . She said Robert William Steele was diagnosed with depression just after the war . The Army soldier killed himself in 1983 , she said , because `` the experience of Vietnam was so traumatic for him . He was such a gentle man . He couldn't deal with it . '' He was 37 . Patricia Codd 's husband and Diana Steele 's father , Nicholas Joseph Codd Jr. , served in the Army in 1966 , then again in 1970 and 1971 . He committed suicide at age 51 in 1984 . `` He made nine suicide attempts , '' said his widow , who lives in Hampton , Va. . He rarely spoke of war , but once he shared a memory . `` They were on an ambush , '' Patricia Codd said . `` They heard a noise . They opened fire . It turned out to be women and children . He talked about having to pick them up and put them in body bags . '' Codd had five children and 12 grandchildren `` who will never know him , '' she said . `` We 're hoping this will put all of this to rest . But I don't think it 'll ever be over . '' Jennie LeFevre , 62 and gray-haired , wore white tennis shoes , white slacks and an orange T-shirt that said `` Widow of Agent Orange Victim . '' Her Air Force husband , Gerald Henry LeFevre , died in 1989 . `` These men need their own wall , '' she said . The Reynolds family mourned Terrence Michael Reynolds , dead at 25 . He served in the Army in 1966 . He suffered wounds that left him a paraplegic and kept him hospitalized for 2 years . In 1970 , he died of a heart attack related to his injuries . `` I miss him terribly , '' said one of his sisters , Kathy LeVain . `` After 25 years , I still miss him . '' Reynolds 's son , mother , a brother , two sisters , three nephews and a brother-in-law came to honor him . They showed a faded black-and-white photo of a young man in a hospital bed with large expressive eyes , dark eyebrows and a mischievous , yet sad smile . `` He was quite a prankster , '' said another sister , Melinda Burnham . `` He was always cracking me up . Always making people laugh , '' offered his brother , Jim Glanville . `` That 's how I 'd like him remembered . '' WASHINGTON House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dan Rostenkowski , D-Ill. , said Monday that he has chosen to fight charges of fraud and abuse of his public office , rather than making a deal with federal prosecutors to plead guilty to lesser offenses . `` I have always fought for what I believe in . I strongly believe that I am not guilty of these charges , and will fight to regain my reputation in court , '' Rostenkowski said in a statement issued Monday night . His remarks came on the eve of Tuesday 's deadline by the government to accept or reject its plea-bargain arrangement . `` That is a far more attractive arrangement option than pleading guilty to crimes that I did not commit , '' Rostenkowski said . The decision appears to make it certain that he will be indicted on a series of felony charges possibly as early as Tuesday , sources familiar with the case said . A Justice Department spokesman declined to comment on Rostenkowski 's announcement . The Chicago lawmaker 's lawyers had urged him to consider the deal being offered by U.S. . Attorney Eric Holder , a Clinton administration appointee . Although it was understood to have meant a one-year prison term and his resignation from Congress , the bargain would have spared Rostenkowski and his family the humiliation of a public trial and possibly a longer prison term . Under the rules of the House Democratic Caucus , an indictment on felony charges punishable by a prison term of more than two years would mean that Rostenkowski would have to relinquish his chairmanship , until and unless he were acquitted . The implications of his removal go far beyond the effects on the 35-year congressional career of a single lawmaker . Rostenkowski , whose legislative deal-making skills are considered unparalleled in Congress , is one of President Clinton 's most crucial allies in the administration 's uphill efforts to pass comprehensive health care legislation this year . Rostenkowski , 66 , was considered so vital to the passage of the health bill that Clinton went to Chicago to campaign for him earlier this year , when it appeared that he faced a strong challenge in the Democratic primary . The Ways and Means Committee has already begun its deliberations on the health bill , and it now appears it will lose its chairman just as it is to start its voting after Congress ' weeklong Memorial Day recess . Ways and Means is one of five committees in Congress that have jurisdiction over the bill . In the last few days , as negotiations between Rostenkowski and federal prosecutors reached a critical phase , a pall had settled over the House . While few House members had been willing to discuss it on the record , the situation had seemed to overshadow all the House 's official business , and was the topic of many whispered conversations in the corridors and cloakrooms of the Capitol . Although the chairman had agonized over the choice before him , the idea of pleading guilty had gone against all his instincts , friends said . `` He finally came to closure late this afternoon , '' spokesman Jim Jaffe said Monday . The helm of the committee is expected to pass to the second most senior Democrat , Rep. Sam Gibbons of Florida . Though genial and well-liked , Gibbons has not been tested on such major legislation . His expertise is in trade matters . Though Rostenkowski would relinquish the chairmanship , he could still exert considerable influence as a member of the committee . The Democrats on the panel are fiercely loyal to him , and have received many breaks for their constituents from him in the past . Also , he hired the Ways and Means Committee 's entire staff . ( Optional add end ) Rostenkowski is represented by Robert S. Bennett , a leading Washington attorney well known for his defense of public officials and others accused of white-collar crimes . It is expected that Bennett , who also is representing Clinton against a sexual harassment suit filed by Paula Corbin Jones , could delay any trial until after the November elections . The federal investigation of Rostenkowski has been under way for more than two years . Among the charges that probably would be included in an indictment : That between 1985 and 1991 , he illegally converted stamps from the House Post Office to cash for his personal use . A key witness against him is likely to be former House Postmaster Robert V. Rota , who pleaded guilty to misdemeanor embezzlement charges last July . That he improperly used office funds to buy lavish gifts for friends from the House Stationery Store . On the advice of his lawyers , Rostenkowski earlier reimbursed Congress for about $ 82,000 of purchases , without admitting wrongdoing . That he converted government-leased cars to his personal ownership . That he used government funds to pay `` ghost employees '' people who were on his payroll but did no work . All told , the charges could be such that the chairman would face a lengthy prison term , if convicted . RIVERSIDE , Calif. University of California officials said Monday that Khallid Abdul Muhammad , the controversial Nation of Islam figure shot in the legs here Sunday night , disregarded an elaborate security plan by continuing to answer questions outside the gymnasium where he had just given a speech . The alleged gunman has been identified as James Edward Bess , who authorities said is a member of a `` subset of the Nation of Islam '' in the Tacoma , Wash. , area . Bess was severely beaten by a crowd of bystanders and had to be rescued by police . He is under heavy guard at a local hospital . Muhammad , 43 , is listed in stable condition at another local hospital . He was an aide to Louis Farrakhan , head of the Nation of Islam , until he was demoted following a national outcry over antisemitic remarks he made during a speech last November in New Jersey . Some members of the crowd that beat Bess shouted that the gunman worked `` for the Jews . '' Minutes after leaving the gym , Muhammad was shot at close range while standing at the top of some steps about 100 yards from the gym entrance on the University of California at Riverside . The security plan drawn up by campus police and Muhammad 's bodyguards had called for him to exit quickly through a rear door and leave by car . Authorities had no explanation for why Muhammad did not follow the plan . Five of his bodyguards were also wounded in the attack . Only one of the bodyguards was wounded seriously enough to be in the hospital tonight . The investigation into the shooting is being handled by University of California campus police , who would not speculate Monday on the motive for the attack . According to Leon Forrest , former editor of the Nation of Islam 's newspaper , Muhammad Speaks , the shooting of Muhammad by a disgruntled Nation member is reflective of ongoing leadership problems in the organization . It was not uncommon for people to join the Nation and then leave , often over ideological differences or a belief that power was not distributed in an equitable way , said Forrest , now chair of African American studies at Northwestern University . Joseph E. Lowery , president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference , said he regarded the shooting , which he deplored , as an `` internal conflict '' in the Nation of Islam . Police said they found three weapons of Bess 's in addition to the 9mm handgun used in the shooting . Two additional 9mm weapons were found at the scene . In his vehicle nearby , they said , they found a rifle with a telescope sight . Riverside Police Chief Ken Fortier said that police are not ruling out a conspiracy but they believe Bess acted alone . He said Bess has not been charged yet . Forrest recalled the shooting 29 years ago of Malcolm X , a former Nation of Islam leader who broke away and attracted a following of young blacks . Three members of the Nation of Islam were convicted of the killing . University officials said security arrangements for Muhammad 's Sunday appearance had been adequate . `` There was good security , '' David H. Warren , the university 's executive vice chancellor said at a news conference here Monday . `` What went wrong was he ( Muhammad ) completely broke with what his scheduling was and his routing was . '' Since being suspended by Farrakhan in February , Muhammad has continued to make controversial speeches , describing himself at one point as a `` truth terrorist '' for the Nation of Islam leader . He has done little to soften the rhetoric that first gained widespread attention in an address Nov. 29 at Kean College in New Jersey that was later denounced by President Clinton , Congress and many black and Jewish leaders . In his two-hour speech here Sunday , Muhammad sounded many familiar themes , including the need for blacks to overcome white racist oppression and the attempt by Jews in the entertainment industry to promote negative images of blacks . University officials said Monday they considered blocking Muhammad from speaking but decided to allow it because they feared being sued . After protests from Jewish groups on campus , however , they refused to allow Muhammad 's bodyguards to conduct searches of the audience , and they also insisted that reporters be allowed to bring recording equipment into the gym . WASHINGTON Ezra Taft Benson , head of the Mormon Church since 1985 , secretary of agriculture from 1953 to 1961 and a pugnacious force in matters of church and state for much of his life , died Monday at his home in Salt Lake City . Church officials said he had been hospitalized briefly last week for congestive heart failure . He was 94 . Incapacitated since 1989 and unable to speak or , at times , to recognize even close relatives , Benson spent his last years under the 24-hour care of nurses in his apartment across the street from church headquarters . His last public appearance was at the funeral of his wife of nearly 66 years , Flora Amussen Benson , in 1992 . The severity of his condition became public last year when one of his grandsons , tired of what he said was a charade involving posed pictures and letters signed by an automatic pen , denounced Mormon leaders for participating in a deception . His grandfather 's absence , Steve Benson conceded , had made little difference in running the church , whose bureaucracy he compared to that of the former Soviet Union . `` To me , it was just further evidence of the systematic illness that has affected the hierarchy of the church , '' said Benson , 39 , a Pulitzer Prize-winning cartoonist for the Arizona Republic . The grandson , a sixth-generation Mormon , later left the church . Benson became the 13th president , prophet , seer and revelator of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints in 1985 , after the death of Spencer W. Kimball. Presidents of the Mormon Church serve for life . He took over leadership of a church that was 156 years old and had about 6 million members worldwide . During his administration , the church membership grew to nearly 9 million , church spokesmen said . Benson was president of the Boise ( Idaho ) stake , or district , of the Mormon Church in the late 1930s and headed the Washington stake from 1940 to 1943 . He was chosen as a member of the Council of Twelve Apostles , the church 's ruling group , in 1943 . Three years later , he became president of the church 's European Mission , headquartered in London . When he was appointed agriculture secretary , he took a leave of absence from his duties as eighth-ranking church apostle . After leaving government service in 1961 , he devoted his life to church work full time . Yet he did not become a stranger to controversy . He spoke out on a variety of social and political questions . He attacked the civil rights movement as advancing communism , called the graduated income tax `` Marxist , '' attacked detente with the Soviet Union , lambasted the women 's movement and became closely associated with members of the reactionary John Birch Society . When he became church president in 1985 , many observers wondered whether the Mormon Church would take a turn to the political right and whether Benson , who had been restrained in his comments in recent years , would begin to speak out again on political issues . When he took office , Benson expressed love for `` every creed , color and political persuasion . '' `` Some have expectantly inquired about the direction the church will take in the future , '' he said . `` May we suggest that the Lord , through President Kimball , has sharply focused on the threefold mission of the church : to preach the gospel , to perfect the saints and to redeem the dead . We shall continue every effort to carry out this mission . '' During his years as agriculture secretary , Benson opposed increases in parity payments , intended to ensure farmers stable prices for crops . He also opposed soil bank schemes , which would pay farmers for cutting production , saying he was dead against paying farmers for doing nothing . In the spring of 1956 , President Dwight D. Eisenhower was forced to take measures to bolster falling hog prices , after protests from Republican members of Congress representing the Midwest farm vote . Benson opposed measures to help those small farmers , saying the farmers were inefficient and the government should not pay to bail them out . But members of Congress pointed out just how crucial the farm vote could be in a presidential election year , and farmers got what they wanted . Benson 's image as a foe of many small farmers was bolstered when he was battered by eggs thrown at him during a speaking engagement in South Dakota . Another time , Democrats on the Senate Agriculture Committee hectored him so persistently that it took him 90 minutes to get through three pages of testimony . Authorities say one measure of his unpopularity among farmers was the steady loss of Republican votes in congressional elections in farm states during the 1950s . Another measure was the sure-fire success with farm crowds of Democrats campaigning for the presidency in 1960 when they promised that , if elected , they would fire Ezra Taft Benson . Benson is survived by six children . RIVERSIDE , Calif. . A former Nation of Islam minister who clashed with fellow Muslims had a small arsenal , including a hunting rifle with a scope , when he allegedly shot black nationalist Khallid Abdul Muhammad and five other men outside a university auditorium , authorities said Monday . The suspect , identified as James Edward Bess , 49 , opened fire just after Muhammad finished a speech on the University of California campus . Khallid Muhammad a former Nation of Islam spokesman known for his fiery anti-Jewish , anti-white rhetoric was shot in the legs . He and a bodyguard were reported in stable condition . Four other bodyguards were treated and released . Law enforcement authorities said they have not ruled out a conspiracy in the shooting , but they believe Bess was acting alone . Investigators have not offered a motive . People familiar with the suspect described Bess as a contentious figure and a devotee of Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan . Bess had been removed from his post as a leader of the Seattle area mosque . He once wrote an open letter in a black community newspaper criticizing the mayor of Seattle for denouncing remarks by Farrakhan . And , on another occasion , he told television viewers in Seattle , where he frequently appeared on public access TV , that violence was the way to deal with black leaders who let down the black community . `` If this false leadership continues I willn't be surprised to see the same thing as happened in South Africa , where the black woman was hacked to death with a axe and .. . thrown on a fire and burned up , '' Bess said . `` Matter of fact , I think that 's what needs to take place with this leadership . They ought to be doused with gasoline and burned in public . '' A former top aide to Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan , Muhammad had been one of Farrakhan 's most vituperative lieutenants until a verbal assault on Jews , Arabs and whites provoked denunciations by the Rev. Jesse Jackson , black members of Congress and President Clinton and led to his suspension . Despite his suspension , Muhammad has publicly remained so loyal to Farrakhan that many wonder if he continues to speak for Farrakhan . He says only that they remain in contact but adds , `` We don't have the closeness that we had . We don't have the communication that we used to . '' Muhammad had come to Riverside to make the second of two speeches in the Los Angeles area over the weekend ( Riverside is about 60 miles east of Los Angeles . ) The shooting Sunday night occurred despite tight security inside the University of California , Riverside , auditorium during his two-hour speech . The 500 members of the audience were frisked as they entered the room . In addition to two city police officers , about 50 members of the Fruit of Islam the security arm of the nation of Islam were present . Muhammad drew cheers during his speech when he described whites as satanic and Jews as oppressors . In a speech in Los Angeles Saturday , Muhammad referred to Jews as `` bagel-eating '' and `` hook nosed '' and contended that `` the black holocaust is 100 times worse than any other holocaust '' . But police and university spokesmen spokesman said that security personnel were caught by surprise when Muhammad left the podium and said he would continue to field questions outside . Muhammad said he was going outdoors because he had been told apparently in error that the sponsoring organization had to give up the gymnasium or pay additional costs . University officials acknowledged they were apprehensive about Muhammad 's speech on campus , sponsored by the African Student Alliance , but said that to have blocked the talk would have been a denial of free speech . When he came outside , Muhammad , 43 , was hit in both legs by shots fired from a 9-mm handgun . One bodyguard , Cakliph Saduik , 33 , was shot in the upper right back . Another guard , Barnado Puckett , 34 , was shot three times . Terrell D. Strait , 20 , was shot in the left shoulder and stomach . Steve L. Washington received a minor gunshot injury , and Thomas L. Harri had a minor gunshot graze to the back . Bess was was severely beaten by a crowd of people who had witnessed the shooting . Authorities said he suffered a fractured shoulder , multiple abrasions and lost teeth . Riverside police reported Monday that they confiscated not only the 9-mm handgun alleged used in the shooting , but also found a backpack containing two other guns and a hunting rifle in Bess ' car which was parked nearby . ( Optional Add End ) By Monday afternoon , Muhammad had gotten out of his hospital bed and was walking around his room , according to Nation of Islam security guards who declined to identify themselves . `` He is fine . His spirits are fine , '' said a woman who identified herself as Muhammad 's sister at Riverside Community Hospital Monday afternoon . `` He 's just tired . Doing his father 's work makes him tired , '' said the woman who would not give her name but was sitting in a room beside Muhammad 's 9-year-old son in the hospital 's intensive care wing . One knowledgeable source told the Los Angeles Times that Bess was suspended about three years ago from his post as minister of a mosque in Seattle by a former Nation of Islam minister and official , Wazir Muhammad . A resident of Los Angeles , Wazir Muhammad was said to be with Khallid Muhammad during the speech but not at his side when the shooting took place . In ROSTY-TIMES ( Tumulty-Times ) sub for 3rd graf ( recasting first sentence ) xxx night : His remarks came on the eve of Tuesday 's deadline by the government to accept or reject its plea-bargain . `` That is a far more attractive arrangement option than pleading guilty to crimes that I did not commit , '' Rostenkowski said . PICK UP 4TH GRAF : The decision xxx WASHINGTON House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dan Rostenkowski , D-Ill. , said Monday that he has chosen to fight charges of fraud and abuse of his public office , rather than making a deal with federal prosecutors to plead guilty to lesser offenses . `` I have always fought for what I believe in . I strongly believe that I am not guilty of these charges , and will fight to regain my reputation in court , '' Rostenkowski said in a statement issued Monday night . His remarks came on the eve of Tuesday 's deadline by the government to accept or reject its plea-bargain offer . `` That is a far more attractive option than pleading guilty to crimes that I did not commit , '' Rostenkowski said . PICKUP 4TH GRAF : The decision xxx The Security Council issued an appeal to North Korea Monday night to allow the international nuclear agency to monitor the discharge of fuel from a reactor . The non-binding statement , which had the crucial support of China , did not include any explicit threat of sanctions against North Korea for violating nuclear safeguards . But diplomats said the measure would likely be the last the Security Council will take before considering sanctions , if North Korea continues to unload fuel from the Yongbyon reactor without oversight by the International Atomic Energy Agency . IAEA Director General Hans Blix reported Friday that North Korea had accelerated the unsupervised discharge of fuel and was only days away from making it impossible for the IAEA to determine whether fuel from the reactor had been diverted secretly in the past , perhaps for weapons . If North Korea does not halt the fuel discharge , it will spell the failure of more than a year of efforts by the Clinton administration to use dialogue to bring the Communist regime in Pyongyang back into line with nuclear safeguards . `` We are perilously close to the precipice , '' a U.S. official said . The statement `` strongly urges '' North Korea to continue unloading thousands of spent fuel rods `` in a manner which preserves the technical possibility '' of measuring nuclear materials according to IAEA procedures . It calls for new talks between Pyongyang and the IAEA and asks the agency to leave two inspectors in the country . An IAEA official left North Korea on Friday after talks on inspections failed . The United States opted for a `` last-minute appeal rather than a warning , '' a U.S. official said , to secure the cooperation of China before the council is forced to debate punitive sanctions . Beijing has been opposed to sanctions and will probably abstain on any resolution . North Korea has said it would view sanctions as an act of war . The IAEA has said that so far North Korea did not appear to be diverting fuel from recently removed fuel rods . But it needs to take samples from a range of the unloaded rods to determine whether any fuel was removed from the reactor in years past . The used fuel can be reprocessed to make weapons-grade plutonium . RIVERSIDE , Calif. . A former Nation of Islam minister who clashed with fellow Muslims had a small arsenal , including a hunting rifle with a scope , when he allegedly shot black nationalist Khallid Abdul Muhammad and five other men outside a university auditorium , authorities said Monday . The suspect , identified as James Edward Bess , 49 , opened fire just after Muhammad finished a speech on the University of California campus here Sunday night . Muhammad a former Nation of Islam spokesman known for his fiery anti-Jewish , anti-white rhetoric was shot in the legs . He and a bodyguard were reported in stable condition . Four other bodyguards were treated and released . Law enforcement authorities said they have not ruled out a conspiracy in the shooting but they believe Bess , a Tacoma , Wash , resident who was booked on several counts of attempted murder , was acting alone . Investigators have not offered a motive . People familiar with the suspect described Bess as a devotee of Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan and a contentious figure who was removed from his post as a leader of the Seattle-area mosque . He once wrote an open letter in a black community newspaper criticizing the mayor of Seattle for denouncing remarks by Farrakhan . And , on another occasion , he told viewers of a public access television station in Seattle that violence was the way to deal with black leaders who let down the black community . `` If this false leadership continues I willn't be surprised to see the same thing as happened in South Africa , where the black woman was hacked to death with a ax and .. . thrown on a fire and burned up , '' Bess said on a 1985 tape aired by ABC and CBS . `` Matter of fact , I think that 's what needs to take place with this leadership . They ought to be doused with gasoline and burned in public . '' A former top aide to Farrakhan , Muhammad had been one of Farrakhan 's most vituperative lieutenants until a verbal assault on Jews , Arabs and whites provoked denunciations by the Rev. Jesse Jackson , black members of Congress and President Clinton , leading to his suspension . Despite his suspension , Muhammad has remained so publicly loyal to Farrakhan that many wonder if he continues to speak for Farrakhan . He says only that they remain in contact but adds , `` We don't have the closeness that we had . We don't have the communication that we used to . '' Muhammad had come to Riverside to make the second of two speeches in the Los Angeles area over the weekend . ( Riverside is about 60 miles east of Los Angeles . ) The shooting Sunday night occurred despite tight security inside the University of California , Riverside , auditorium during his two-hour speech . The 500 members of the audience were frisked as they entered the room . In addition to two city police officers , about 50 members of the Fruit of Islam the security arm of the Nation of Islam were present . Muhammad drew cheers during his speech when he described whites as satanic and Jews as oppressors . In a speech Saturday in Los Angeles , Muhammad referred to Jews as `` bagel-eating '' and `` hook-nosed '' and contended that `` the black holocaust is 100 times worse than any other holocaust . '' Police and university spokesmen said that security personnel were caught by surprise when Muhammad left the podium and said he would continue to field questions outside . Muhammad said he was going outdoors because he had been told apparently in error that the sponsoring organization had to give up the gymnasium or pay additional costs . University officials acknowledged that they were apprehensive about Muhammad 's speech on campus , sponsored by the African Student Alliance , but said that to have blocked the talk would have been a denial of free speech . When he came outside , Muhammad , 43 , was hit in both legs by shots fired from a 9-mm handgun . One bodyguard , Varnardo Puckett , 34 , of Pomona , remained hospitalized with three wounds . Caliph Sadiq , 33 , was shot in the upper right back . Terrell D. Strait , 20 , was shot in the left shoulder and stomach . Steve L. Washington received a minor gunshot injury , and Thomas L. Harri had a minor gunshot graze to the back . ( Optional add end ) By Monday afternoon , Muhammad had gotten out of his hospital bed and was walking around his room , according to Nation of Islam security guards who declined to identify themselves . `` He is fine . His spirits are fine , '' said a woman who identified herself as Muhammad 's sister at Riverside Community Hospital Monday afternoon . `` He 's just tired . Doing his father 's work makes him tired , '' said the woman who would not give her name but was sitting in a room beside Muhammad 's 9-year-old son in the hospital 's intensive care wing . One visitor said that Muhammad was grateful for the bodyguards who took bullets for him : `` He said , ` If it wasn't for ( them ) I wouldn't be here . '' While Fruit of Islam members guarded his hospital room , Muhammad received a steady stream of visitors , including his 9-year-old son , Farrakhan , and other family members . He also reportedly talked to Louis Farrakhan on the telephone . As of late Monday , the Nation of Islam had released no statement regarding the shooting . Bess was severely beaten by a crowd of people who had witnessed the shooting . Authorities said he suffered a fractured shoulder , multiple abrasions and lost some teeth . He remained hospitalized . Riverside police reported Monday that they confiscated not only the handgun allegedly used in the shooting , but also found a backpack containing two other guns and a hunting rifle in Bess 's car , which was parked nearby . One knowledgeable source told the Los Angeles Times that Bess was removed about three years ago from his post as minister of a mosque in Seattle by a former Nation of Islam minister and official , Wazir Muhammad . A resident of Los Angeles , Wazir Muhammad was said to be with Khallid Muhammad during the speech but not at his side when the shooting took place . Just when President Clinton thought it was safe to focus on his health care agenda , Whitewater may come back to haunt him again . Over the past two months , the controversial land deal faded from the front page as journalists second-guessed their frenzied coverage and congressional leaders delayed holding hearings so as not to interfere with ongoing grand jury investigations . But after a visit to Capitol Hill Thursday by Special Counsel Robert Fiske Jr. , lawmakers now say they may begin calling witnesses as early as July , bringing the issue that Clinton and his wife , Hillary Rodham Clinton , have fought so hard to kill back to life . Fiske said that by the `` middle to the end of June , '' he would complete the portion of his investigation that relates to the death of Deputy White House Counsel Vincent Foster and possibly improper contacts between Clinton administration officials and government regulators concerning the failed Madison Guaranty Savings and Loan in Arkansas . Fiske said that at that point , he would tell lawmakers if he objected to hearings on those subjects . Speaker Thomas Foley , D-Wash. , under mounting Republican pressure , responded that the House could then hold hearings beginning in late July or early August . And Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell , D-Maine , who has been exchanging hearing proposals with Minority Leader Bob Dole , R-Kan. , grudgingly agreed . `` We all know what is going on , '' Mitchell complained earlier . `` This is raw partisan politics .... '' Lawmakers from both sides generally agree it is likely that hearings will be held sometime this summer . But they say that the proceedings probably will be narrowly proscribed and tightly controlled by the dominant Democrats , who will keep a tight rein on information that reflects badly on the president . In the House , Foley said he wants the Banking Committee to hold the hearings while his nemesis , Minority Whip Newt Gingrich , R-Ga. , is calling for the creation of a special select committee to investigate . A resolution by Rep. John Doolittle , R-Calif. , that called for House hearings to begin by Aug. 15 was recently endorsed by 92 of his Republican colleagues . SAN DIEGO Reveling in her keynote role at a recent conference of 500 women lawyers , Kathleen Brown effortlessly established common ground with professionals juggling work , families and careers . `` We all know that housework , if done right , can kill you , '' quipped the California state treasurer and Democratic gubernatorial candidate . Her post-feminist advice that day : `` We can have it all , so long as we don't try to have it all at once . '' Elegant but down-to-earth , Brown , 48 , was delivering a message she has lived . Her father , former California Gov. Edmund G. `` Pat '' Brown , has called her `` the real politician in the family '' high praise , considering that her brother Jerry , 56 , also served two Sacramento terms and made three runs for president . But suppressing her own political ambitions , Kathleen Brown raised three children ; she has twin 2-year-old grandchildren . In her second marriage , to TV news executive Van Gordon Sauter , she detoured to New York as a corporate wife and Fordham law student before returning west to claim her political heritage . She won the treasurer 's job in 1990 . Her only previous government service was on the Los Angeles school board in the 1970s and the city public works commission a decade later . She has been forced to combat a perceived lack of executive experience . In the June 7 primary , she faces state insurance commissioner John Garamendi and State Sen. Tom Hayden . Brown until recently concentrated on fund-raising and TV ads instead of stump speaking . But her commercials misfired . In one , she slammed Republican Gov. Pete Wilson , whom she hopes to run against , for paroling a serial rapist . He slammed back , contending that the mandates of a judge appointed by her father and a parole law signed by her brother left him no choice . Brown finally unveiled a focused message at the state Democratic convention in Los Angeles last month . Her theme is `` 1 million new jobs '' for Californians in the next four years . `` My goal is to keep the voters ' attention on jobs and the economy , '' Brown said in an interview . What about her brother ? Unfavorably recalled by many Californians as a flake , Jerry Brown is praising Hayden and refusing to endorse his sister on his syndicated radio show , saying `` I have more radical views '' than anybody running . He 's even said voters are getting `` bamboozled '' by her and Wilson alike . Kathleen Brown laughs it off . `` Jerry 's being Jerry , '' she said . America has become a sunglass culture . A society of shades , if you will . At one time , marketers convinced us that we can make bold statements about ourselves by the brand of soda pop we drank or the sneakers we wore . But now , it is those dark spectacles on our noses that tell all . Sunglass makers are making a killing on our mass desire to look cool . And for all of today 's talk about ultraviolet sun protection , consumer psychologists say that when we slip into our $ 275 Revos , we are mostly protecting ourselves from looking ordinary . Just as athletic shoe makers convinced us that we need $ 100 tennis shoes and a different sneaker for every sport the sunglass industry is now spurring its own growth by persuading us that we need different sunglasses while driving the car , steering the boat or competing in the Iditarod . `` It 's all about imagery , '' said Marge Axelrad , editorial director of the trade publication 20/20 . `` Fashion and styling have never been more important . '' Nothing absolutely nothing sells sunglasses like style . `` Ultimately , you buy a pair of sunglasses because you think they look good on your face , '' said Jeff Turner , general manager of Nikon Inc. 's eye wear division , which is running ads that nudge consumers to buy several pair of its performance glasses for different activities . This is prime sunglass season . Between Memorial Day and the Fourth of July , sunglass makers expect to peddle nearly 60 percent of the estimated $ 2.5 billion in non-prescription sunglasses that will be sold this year . California reigns as the nation 's sunglass capital . By one estimate , nearly 25 percent of all sunglasses sold in 1994 will be sold in California . Although flea markets and tourist attractions sell lots of low-end glasses for under $ 10 , the big-ticket sunglasses for over $ 100 are increasingly being bought at sunglass specialty stores . While sales of all sunglasses jumped 14.6 percent last year , sales of upper-end sunglasses ( those over $ 30 ) were up nearly 17 percent , according to Bausch & Lomb . Manufacturers say that smaller , geometric metal frames are among today 's most popular designs . For $ 330 , you can pick up a pair of fancy Serengeti sunglasses guaranteed to cut reflective glare from water , snow or your $ 120-an-hour tennis pro 's metal racquet . And if your 8-year-old needs a new set of shades because the last pair ended up getting flushed down the toilet Bausch & Lomb has just introduced its new `` Covers '' line of sunglasses that , for $ 30 a pop , come with a kiddie neck cord to avoid immediate loss . Sunglass industry executives concede the current sunglass mania was carefully carved out by manufacturers many of which pay celebrities to wear their shades . `` All of this has been greatly enhanced by marketing , '' said Jim Pritts , president of the Sunglass Association of America . Every time some major Hollywood hunk slips into a new pair of shades on screen , sales of the brand tend to skyrocket . Tom Cruise sent Ray-Ban sales through the roof when he wore them in `` Risky Business . '' Ditto for Arnold Schwarzenegger and his too-cool Ray-Ban `` Baloramas '' in `` Terminator 2 . '' And the film `` Blues Brothers '' caused a run on Ray-Ban 's thick-framed `` Wayfayer '' sunglasses . Jackie Kennedy Onassis made over-sized sunglasses the craze among the over-40 set for years although few realized that her designer frames were actually prescription sunglasses . Bausch & Lomb pays baseball slugger Frank Thomas to don its outer space-like `` Killer Loop '' glasses . Oakley Inc. , which virtually owns the so-called `` performance '' segment of sunglasses , has Winter Olympic gold medalists Bonnie Blair and Dan Jansen wearing its brand . Serengeti pays A.J. Foyt to slips on its shades . And Revo has Reggie Jackson in its glasses . Reebok has just begun trying to do with sunglasses what it did with athletic shoes . But the company finds it can't coax its big-name athletes to wear its shades because most already have deals with other companies , said Marty Blue , director of licensing . Thomas is with Bausch & Lomb , as is Olympic skater Nancy Kerrigan , who wears the company 's Ray-Ban line . Foster-Grant , a company that once ruled the industry , resurfaced over the weekend with its first national TV ad campaign in 15 years . The company , which makes lower-end sunglasses ( under $ 30 a pair ) , was king of the sunglass market in the 1960s and 1970s . But after years of mismanagement , it sought protection from creditors in 1988 when it filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy . Recently , Foster-Grant was purchased by Rye , N.Y.-based Benson Eyecare Corp. , which is about to spend millions to re-establish the brand . Over Memorial Day Weekend , Foster-Grant began airing a new ad that features its 30-year-old slogan , `` Who 's that behind those Foster-Grants ? '' `` Brand awareness is incredibly strong , '' said Ken Shaw , senior vice president of sales . Indeed , Foster-Grant tested its slogan among groups of consumers and discovered that 35- to 54-year-olds were as familiar with that line as the slogan , `` Look who 's squeezing the Charmin . '' By next year , Foster-Grant may try to introduce a line of higher-end sunglasses , Shaw said . Cashing in on the high-end sunglass craze is the Sunglass Hut chain , which has nearly 750 stores nationwide . It will also expand into several European countries this year , said Jack B . Chadsey , president of the Coral Gables , Fla.-based chain . `` It all boils down to lifestyle , '' said Chadsey , who said the typical sunglass customer will own 30 pair of sunglasses over a lifetime . `` We all sit on our sunglasses , drop them or leave them sitting on the table in the restaurant . '' Today , the typical customer spends $ 77 on sunglasses at Sunglass Hut , Chadsey said . To improve its bottom line , the firm recently developed its own private-label line , SunGear . Also trying to cut in on that action is the giant LensCrafters optical chain . In five test markets , LensCrafters is linking up with the Sunglass Hut chain by offering discounts to Sunglass Hut customers . Behind the current sunglass craze is a simple cry for attention by many people who wear them . `` It 's the upscale equivalent of the tattoo , '' said psychologist Dr. Joyce Brothers . `` Wearing sunglasses may be the last bit of lure that we have left . '' The shellacking unions took on NAFTA last year could soon be avenged by passage of the most important piece of pro-labor legislation since the Wagner Act of 1935 . This is amazing since this is not 1935 , union membership has been declining for more than a decade , we have a centrist presidency disposed to ingratiate itself with the business community and the Congress is heavily infested with `` new '' Democrats , old Republicans and Reaganite new Neanderthals . What gives ? Well , the Anti-Striker Replacement Act has already achieved clear majorities in both houses . And it will come to the floor of the Senate this summer with only the promise of a filibuster between it and final passage . It may take but a few compromises to win the 60 votes necessary to shut off the gaseous debate and get the measure signed . The usual suspects are bellowing ludicrous warnings that the bill is an invitation to American workers to stage an immediate re-enactment of Paris in the Terror enforced by an epidemic of strikes and the brutalization of their less militant comrades . Given the current condition of organized labor and the global mobility of manufacturing , these are hardly realistic fears . There were only 35 major strikes in all the United States last year . There haven't been more than 100 strikes in any year since 1981 . In 1979 there were 235 strikes . In 1974 , 424 . One reason is the decline in union membership . Another is the wretched example Ronald Reagan set in 1981 by firing all the air traffic controllers who had the temerity to strike in protest to working conditions of appalling stress . Another is increasing global competition and the ease with which U.S. companies can transfer operations overseas . Whatever the reasons , the results have not been very pretty . The decline of the unions and in the level of strike activity has moved in lock step with stagnation of blue collar wages , an explosion in individual wrongful dismissal litigation by workers with no unions to defend them , sharp declines in the percentage of companies offering pension and health care benefits , the overall redistribution of income to the benefit of the wealthy , less job security and huge increases in part-time and temporary jobs as a percentage of total employment . America with weakened unions is simply not a nicer place unless , of course , you are the CEO of a major corporation whose annual compensation has been rising obscenely over the last decade . Miraculously , this seems to have sunk in with a majority in Congress including more than a few members not normally to be found on the side of organized labor . Even among a number of conservative economists , especially those who applaud labor 's recent tendency toward greater cooperation with management on productivity issues , there is an increasing sense that the nation has lost something essential to social fairness something , well , American by tilting the industrial playing field too far to labor 's disadvantage . Besides , in an era where it is increasingly fashionable to disparage those who don't work even when there are no jobs for them it is finally occurring even to some of the cement heads in Congress that it would be nice for a change to do something decent for those who do . GAZA , Gaza Strip Hani Abed has disappeared , last seen in the hands of the Palestinian police . Abed , a 31-year-old university teacher , may be the first secret arrest and perhaps first political arrest by the new Palestinian authority in the Gaza Strip , who took over from Israel two weeks ago . `` If the police do things like this , for sure there will be a revolution , '' said his angry sister , Atimad Abed . Abed is a man with the wrong kind of friends : for certain , opponents of the peace process , and maybe or maybe not murderers from the Muslim group Islamic Jihad . Because of that , the Palestinian police took him away last Tuesday . They have held him without charges , without explanation , and without admitting they have him . Suddenly everybody wants him . Israelis have demanded he be turned over to them and questioned about a May 20 attack that killed two soldiers . Islamic Jihad wants him freed . And his family wants to see him , just to find out where he is . `` This is a very dangerous crime , a stupid crime , to kidnap our brother Hani Abed , '' said a leaflet published Friday by Islamic Jihad , one of the most strident criticisms yet of the new Palestinian police . It warned : `` We will not be silent . '' Abed 's surreptitious arrest he was lured to police headquarters with a false story and his confinement without charges may have far-reaching implications . It is an ominous signal for Palestinians who had hoped they had seen the end of midnight arrests common under the Israeli military occupation . The incoming police had promised to protect civil rights . It may also signal the methods that will be used by the police , loyal to the Fatah branch of the Palestine Liberation Organization , to deal with opposition Palestinian groups . And it may determine how the new authorities will deal with Israeli demands that the police turn over Palestinian suspects in attacks on Israelis . The Palestinians so far have not made clear how they will answer that demand . Because of those implications , both Israel and the new Palestinian authority are remaining publicly mum about the case . Israel apparently is interested in Abed in relation to a drive-by shooting at a Gaza Strip checkpoint May 20 in which two Israeli soldiers were killed . The gunmen fled toward Gaza City , and Islamic Jihad later claimed responsibility for the attack . It is uncertain what , if anything , Abed knows of the attack . Abed is a chemistry teacher at the Science and Technology College in Gaza . Married , with four children , he works a second job in a press office in Gaza known to be affiliated with the Islamic Jihad . According to his family , throughout the Israeli occupation he was never arrested for Islamic Jihad activities . Like most Palestinian groups , the Islamic Jihad is divided into its armed `` military '' wing and its political wing . Abed 's contacts were with the political wing , his family claimed . Last week , men in plainclothes saying they were from the Palestinian police visited his home six times . They said a new Palestinian arrival who was a relative wanted to meet Abed . When he went to inquire , he was taken into custody . ( Optional Add End ) When his family demanded to know his whereabouts , the chief of the Palestinian Police , Maj. Gen. Nasser Yusef , told them it was a `` secret , '' according to his brothers , Awni Abed , 20 , and Amad Abed , 29 . Then they were told their brother was being kept in confinement for his protection from Israeli collaborators , they said . Finally , three days ago , the family stayed at the entrance to the Gaza Central Prison , causing a commotion and demanding to see Abed . The prison was notorious during the Israeli occupation for its confinement of Palestinians and was `` liberated '' with great celebration by Palestinians when the Israelis withdrew from Gaza May 18 . Abed 's mother , Najiba , said her son was escorted from the prison to see her for just a moment to assure her he was OK . She has not heard from him since that short Saturday visit , she said . `` If the Israelis arrested him for 20 years , I could accept it , '' said Amad Abed . `` But for the Palestinians to arrest him and put him in that jail is crazy . '' WASHINGTON Not content with trying to broker peace between Israel and Syria and head off nuclear confrontation between India and Pakistan , the Clinton administration is wading into another seemingly intractable conflict , the civil war in Sudan . Melissa F. Wells , President Clinton 's new special representative on Sudan , is going to Africa this week for exploratory conversations with Sudanese rebels and the governments of several neighboring countries . No one thinks she can bring about a solution to a war that has raged on and off for nearly four decades , State Department officials said last week , but with millions of Sudanese on the brink of starvation and the conflict threatening to spill over into adjacent countries it has become necessary to try to do something . In many ways , Wells 's mission reflects perfectly the foreign policy strategy of the Clinton administration . On one level , Sudan is the very definition of a country where the United States has few important interests . But it has a high priority in terms of the issues deemed important by the administration : humanitarian concerns ; the promotion of democracy and regional stability ; prevention of terrorism ; the conflict between extremist Islam and the secular state . Wells is one of several special envoys the administration has dispatched to chronic points of conflict , including Cyprus and Angola , in an effort to defuse regional tensions and promote human rights . `` The international community has never been able to deal with Sudan effectively , '' a State Department official said last week . Well 's mission `` brings American interest to bear on the problem , right up to the level of a presidential appointee . We believe we have the president 's attention on this . But it may not be soluble . '' Wells is a respected career diplomat who has spent much of her adult life in Africa , including tours as ambassador to Zaire and Mozambique . But it is hard to imagine that any of her previous assignments was tougher than the current one . Sudan , the largest country in Africa , is an impoverished , thinly populated land ravaged by war , disease and drought . Its government a military dictatorship dominated by Islamic militants and allied with Iran has been branded a supporter of international terrorism by the State Department . Clinton 's national security adviser , Anthony Lake , recently added it to his list of `` reactionary backlash states . '' According to a May 24 report by the U.S. . Agency for International Development , about 392,000 of Sudan 's 28 million people are refugees in neighboring countries . A larger number are living in refugee camps within Sudan , dependent for food on international relief missions that are frequently disrupted by the war . Many people are eating wild roots and leaves , the AID report said . In the Bahr al Ghazal region , `` practically all the trees are picked clean , because the population has resorted to eating leaves and bark . '' The World Health Organization reported 102,000 deaths from malaria in 1993 , but also said that AIDS is spreading so fast in the southern part of the country that it will overtake malaria as a killer this year . The cause of most of this misery is a war that began in 1955 , went on until 1972 and resumed in 1983 . Generally described as pitting the Muslim , Arab north against the non-Muslim , African south , it has recently grown more complicated because factions among the southern rebels have been fighting each other . The south , which wants autonomy and refuses to abide by the Islamic law imposed by the north , `` has been totally ravaged by the war , '' Sudanese scholar Francis M. Deng told a Washington Symposium sponsored by the United States Institute of Peace . `` There is no infrastructure worth the term , '' Deng said . `` A generation is growing up without education , and millions have been displaced in their own country or forced into refuge abroad . Cohesive cultures that have been studied and assumed to be stable and enduring are now being wiped out . '' On her first trip to East Africa as special envoy , Wells will sound out the prospects for reviving regional peace talks and for expediting the flow of relief aid , State Department officials said . No political solution , end to the war or reconciliation between Washington and Khartoum is in sight , officials said . United Nations ambassador Madeline Albright went to Khartoum April 1 to tell President Omar Hassan Bashir that `` we were not going to welcome them into the international community until they totally changed their behavior . '' But State Department analysts were intrigued by a recent interview Sudanese foreign minister Hussein Suleiman Abu Saleh gave to the Christian Science Monitor . Abu Saleh was quoted as saying Sudan would welcome western `` technical know-how ` ` in drafting a power-sharing plan for the government and the rebels . The shellacking unions took on NAFTA last year could soon be avenged by passage of the most important piece of pro-labor legislation since the Wagner Act of 1935 . This is amazing since this is not 1935 , union membership has been declining for more than a decade , we have a centrist presidency disposed to ingratiate itself with the business community and the Congress is heavily infested with `` new '' Democrats , old Republicans and Reaganite new Neanderthals . What gives ? Well , the Anti-Striker Replacement Act has already achieved clear majorities in both houses . And it will come to the floor of the Senate this summer with only the promise of a filibuster between it and final passage . It may take but a few compromises to win the 60 votes necessary to shut off the gaseous debate and get the measure signed . The usual suspects are bellowing ludicrous warnings that the bill is an invitation to American workers to stage an immediate re-enactment of Paris in the Terror enforced by an epidemic of strikes and the brutalization of their less militant comrades . Given the current condition of organized labor and the global mobility of manufacturing , these are hardly realistic fears . There were only 35 major strikes in all the United States last year . There haven't been more than 100 strikes in any year since 1981 . In 1979 there were 235 strikes . In 1974 , 424 . One reason is the decline in union membership . Another is the wretched example Ronald Reagan set in 1981 by firing all the air traffic controllers who had the temerity to strike in protest to working conditions of appalling stress . Another is increasing global competition and the ease with which U.S. companies can transfer operations overseas . Whatever the reasons , the results have not been very pretty . The decline of the unions and in the level of strike activity has moved in lock step with stagnation of blue collar wages , an explosion in individual wrongful dismissal litigation by workers with no unions to defend them , sharp declines in the percentage of companies offering pension and health care benefits , the overall redistribution of income to the benefit of the wealthy , less job security and huge increases in part-time and temporary jobs as a percentage of total employment . America with weakened unions is simply not a nicer place unless , of course , you are the CEO of a major corporation whose annual compensation has been rising obscenely over the last decade . Miraculously , this seems to have sunk in with a majority in Congress including more than a few members not normally to be found on the side of organized labor . Even among a number of conservative economists , especially those who applaud labor 's recent tendency toward greater cooperation with management on productivity issues , there is an increasing sense that the nation has lost something essential to social fairness something , well , American by tilting the industrial playing field too far to labor 's disadvantage . Besides , in an era where it is increasingly fashionable to disparage those who don't work even when there are no jobs for them it is finally occurring even to some of the cement heads in Congress that it would be nice for a change to do something decent for those who do . ( c ) 1994 , Newsday World Cup sponsors are gambling $ 500 million on advertising rights despite Americans ' past indifference to the world 's most popular sport . Coca-Cola , Canon , McDonald 's and Snickers candy bars are among the 19 businesses spending as much as $ 20 million each for sponsorship rights to the soccer championships , which start next month . This is the first time the World Cup will be played on American soil . Time Warner , meanwhile , should make at least $ 35 million , according to one analyst , from the licensing and merchandising rights to sales of World Cup apparel and merchandise , which are expected to top $ 1 billion . More than 100 American companies have agreements with Time Warner to produce World Cup merchandise . The jury is out over whether all this money is well spent . `` These companies are more like pioneers than sponsors , '' said Brandon Steiner of Steiner Sports Marketing , a Manhattan-based consulting firm . `` One day soccer will be big in this country , but not this year . You go out on the street and you stop 25 people , and I guarantee 20 of them couldn't name a single sponsor . That 's where the World Cup is today . '' But do sponsors really have to win the hearts and minds of Americans to succeed ? Probably not . Most have a larger , worldwide audience in mind . `` The attention of the sporting world will be focused on the World Cup , '' said Robert Baskin , public relations director for Coca-Cola . `` The games are sold out . You can't book flights into the U.S. during the finals . The World Cup is bigger than the Olympics , especially the final games . The scale of this is going to be a real eye-opener for Americans . '' In this country , `` it 's a niche play , '' said Walter Staab , chairman of SFM Media Corp. , media buyers based in Manhattan . `` There are certain segments of the population who love soccer and they could be very much involved in the World Cup if it was marketed correctly . '' `` There 's an immense Hispanic audience that is slowly being tapped into , '' says Bryan Murphy , publisher of the Westport , Conn.-based Sports Marketing Newsletter . `` The sponsors will probably be very happy if they keep in mind who 's going to watch . The World Cup is not going to draw everybody like the Super Bowl , but it 'll draw a lot . '' ( Begin optional trim ) The tournament will last from June 17 to July 17 , with games played at nine sites nationwide . An estimated 1 million people nationwide are expected to attend the games and spend $ 4 billion on hotels , restaurants , shopping and other activities . For sponsors , the games pose unusual challenges . Because soccer doesn't have time-outs and game breaks like football or baseball , World Cup TV broadcasters ABC and ESPN will show the games without commercial interruptions . As part of an agreement between the broadcasters , World Cup '94 and FIFA , the international soccer federation , commercials will only be shown during the pre- and post-game shows and at halftime . Names of the major sponsors will be displayed in 9-minute intervals on top of a game clock in the lower right hand corner of the screen . But that doesn't mean there 's any shortage of soccer-related commercials and promotional tie-ins : Soccer balls are flying in new TV spots by Coke and Adidas ( starring U.S. goalkeeper Tony Meola ) , among others , and in a contest by Gillette and a soccer gear giveaway by Energizer batteries . McDonald 's is hosting a `` McSoccerfest '' tournament in the nine host cities . Wheaties boxes will offer trading cards with Reebok 's soccer endorsers . General Motors will be the exclusive advertiser in a special World Cup edition of Newsweek . On July 16 , the eve of the final match in Pasadena , Calif. , Coca-Cola will run two hours of entertainment and commentary from the World Cup games on TNT . Called `` Big TV , '' the telecast is similar to one it made in conjunction with the Super Bowl . ( End optional trim ) The international and U.S. groups organizing the World Cup have designated levels of sponsorship , including `` official sponsors , '' who pay $ 17 million to $ 20 million for advertising rights , including billboard space on the playing fields in full view of TV cameras during the 52 games ; `` marketing partners , '' who pay up to $ 10 million for ads on one side of the World Cup playing fields , and a variety of less expensive regional sponsorships . All together , the companies are spending nearly $ 500 million . In addition , each TV `` gold '' sponsor is rumored to have paid ABC nearly $ 3.5 million for game exposure throughout the 52 matches and for an undetermined number of 30-second spots during halftime and the pre- and post-game shows . Lesser `` silver '' sponsors paid an estimated $ 2 million to $ 2.5 million for a similar package that does not include game exposure . The World Cup 's final game is expected to grab as many as 2 billion viewers worldwide , compared with 750 million for the 1993 Super Bowl . A `` gold ' advertising package costing $ 3.5 million includes three 30-second TV spots per game over 52 games . That comes out to approximately $ 22,000 per spot . By comparison , a 30-second spot during last year 's Super Bowl cost $ 900,000 . WASHINGTON President Clinton departs this week on the first of two back-to-back European trips in hopes of reversing his growing reputation as a weak or indifferent world leader . The events this week revolve around the 50th anniversary of D-Day , providing Clinton a rare opportunity to speak to the entire world . He was not yet born when men from the Allied armies waded ashore in Normandy . Nor did he serve in the armed forces a generation later , when Americans fought in Vietnam . But as the U.S. commander-in-chief and president of the only remaining superpower , Clinton will occupy a place of honor among the bands , speechmakers and aged soldiers who will revisit the site of their sacrifice . White House officials expect the televised ceremonies to bolster the president 's sagging approval ratings . But Clinton has a second mission on his weeklong European trip : to reassure jittery foreign leaders that he cares enough about international policy to take the risks needed to conduct it successfully . Clinton is to meet leaders in France , Italy and Britain . In July , he plans to attend an economic summit in Naples , Italy , and then travel to Germany and Poland . A topic sure to arise , U.S. officials say , is one that has probably done the most to undermine confidence in the Clinton administration 's foreign policy : the ethnic war in Bosnia . `` My government thinks President Clinton is indecisive when it comes to Bosnia , '' said one Western European diplomat stationed in Washington who spoke on condition of anonymity . `` Personally , I think it 's because he is preoccupied with his domestic policy . That 's what he was elected for and , clearly , he 's already thinking about re-election . '' In 1992 , running against an incumbent widely respected for his conduct of foreign policy , particularly of the Persian Gulf war , Clinton and other Democratic challengers needled George Bush for focusing too much on problems abroad . Clinton said that he would focus `` like a laser '' on the issues relating to everyday American life , particularly the economy . Since inauguration , however , two realities have sunk in on the Clinton team . One is that foreign policy crises cannot be wished away . The second is that many of the Bush administration positions , including those singled out by Clinton during the campaign , were easier to criticize than to correct . Clinton rebuked Bush for returning refugees to Haiti . He spoke passionately in favor of the United States ' being more aggressive in stopping the Serbs ' campaign of `` ethnic cleansing '' in Bosnia . He criticized Bush for overlooking China 's labor camps and other human rights abuses . Yet as president , Clinton sent his Justice Department into court to uphold the Bush policy on Haitian refugees . He issued threats against the Serbs in Bosnia , but little more and the `` ethnic cleansing '' continued . On Thursday , he extended the favorable trade status of China , reciting a litany of reasons identical to Bush 's rationale . Those actions have not gone unnoticed in foreign capitals . North Korean leaders have shown little fear of U.S. retaliation in taking the United States to the diplomatic brink over their nuclear weapons development program . In nations friendlier to the United States , such actions further the perception that the United States isn't up to the task of coping with Bosnia , the area for which there has perhaps been the widest gap between U.S. words and U.S. deeds during the Clinton administration . On May 1 , 1993 , Secretary of State Warren M. Christopher vowed that `` the clock is ticking '' on Serbian aggression . He then left for Europe , where he failed to rally the United States ' allies . One reason , foreign diplomats say , was that Christopher signaled that the Clinton administration would not act unilaterally . `` He says he wants to play a role in making peace in Bosnia , but there are no American ground forces there , '' said a Northern European diplomat . `` There are Swedish troops in the peacekeeping force . There are Danish troops , Spanish troops French troops , for God 's sake ! Yet the only Americans are in Macedonia , where there is no conflict .... '' Such diplomats believe the White House is paralyzed by a fear that an unpopular foreign military adventure could jeopardize Clinton 's chances for re-election . ( Optional Add End ) Last week , in its annual assessment of global affairs , the respected International Institute for Strategic Studies termed the Clinton administration 's foreign policy `` a mess '' but noted that other Western powers have not done much better . `` It was a year in which the powers in the West , and indeed a number of states elsewhere , seemed to be suffering from a serious attack of strategic arthritis , '' said the independent think tank . `` One major problem is the reluctance of global and regional great powers to provide the necessary lead . The United States , even more than usual , does not seem to be following a steady compass . '' Similar criticism has been voiced at home , too , by politicians and foreign policy experts who span the ideological spectrum . `` He doesn't have the slightest idea of what this country should be doing in the post-Cold War era , and neither does his staff , '' said Kim R. Holmes , vice president of the conservative Heritage Foundation . `` The president wants to avoid any kind of entanglement that can get him into trouble , but he can't avoid the temptation to speak out . So he says things on Bosnia , Haiti , Somalia things he 's not willing to back up and he gets in trouble . '' Of course , for every country complaining that Clinton is not putting the vast military might of the United States to good use , there are those that would object to his exertion of U.S. influence . When the president so much as protested the brutal caning of an 18-year-old American who had been charged with vandalism in Singapore , he was widely criticized in Asia for promoting Ugly Americanism . Likewise , the Clinton administration 's pressure on Japan to open its markets provoked outrage in Tokyo . `` You 're damned if you do and damned if you don't , '' said David Wilhelm , the national Democratic chairman . COLLEVILLE SUR MER , France Others may not agree , but Raymond `` Buzz '' Davis knows the best place to catch the international ceremonies in France next Monday marking the 50th anniversary of D-day . `` I 'm going to be home in my easy chair watching TV and sipping a martini when all this is taking place , '' says the 70-year-old Pasadena , Calif. , man as he puffs on his pipe at the Normandy American cemetery and memorial above Omaha Beach . Around him swirl parades of giggling French schoolchildren , groups of military support personnel and a stream of foreign and U.S. visitors to the site that holds the remains of 9,386 Americans . Most gave their lives on D-day , June 6 , 1944 , when history 's greatest seaborne invasion took place . The 175,000 troops who did make it to shore that day were the first members of an Allied juggernaut that rolled into Europe and put an end to Adolf Hitler 's plans for a Thousand-Year Reich . But Davis , a B-26 bomber pilot who flew his first mission that day over Cherbourg , and other veterans of Normandy battles on the invasion beaches of Utah , Omaha , Sword , Juno and Gold would rather be out of the action this time . Frank Reitter of Framingham , Mass. , another Normandy vet who decided to make his pilgrimage now , agrees with Davis . `` I figured I better come early because this is going to be a three-ring circus later , '' he says . `` They told me they could get me the appropriate badges to get in on the anniversary date , but I said I don't want them . I willn't be here . '' Veteran groups , in fact , have been coming and going for pre-anniversary gatherings over the past few months to avoid the coming crush , says Millie Waters , a U.S. . Army public affairs specialist at the cemetery . Plenty of other former invasion participants will be battling for position among the dignitaries slated to show . The lily-pad pond at the cemetery has been drained and its resident frogs removed to seat 6,100 veterans , Waters says . But 30,000 veterans are expected to descend upon Europe and no one knows exactly how many will appear in Normandy . Certainly there is plenty for the early birds to do . Considering the welcoming festivities being held throughout Europe for the returning GIs , Brits and Canadians , it is probably safe to say that never have so few been entertained by so many . Six hundred events are being held in Normandy alone , the rural region that was the first area to be liberated in France . Once more fleets of ships are to fill the English Channel and airplanes dot the sky . Fourteen U.S. . Naval vessels will be anchored off the French beaches on Monday . The day before , an international flotilla with several of the Navy ships will escort England 's royal yacht with passengers President Clinton and Queen Elizabeth II from Portsmouth , England , across to the Normandy coast . Flying overhead will be an international collection of military aircraft . On shore 15 heads of state , including Clinton , the queen , and French President Francois Mitterrand , will congregate next Monday for a French-sponsored observance on Utah Beach . Clinton 's busy official schedule also includes sunrise services aboard the aircraft carrier George Washington ; a visit to Pointe du Hoc , the beach cliffs scaled by the U.S. Rangers , and an afternoon ceremony at the American cemetery . Two of what promise to be the most popular events involve re-enactments of a couple of casualty filled D-day actions . On Sunday , 600 members of the 82nd and 101st Airborne Divisions , along with an Italian combat infantry team , will jump over Amfreville , simulating the leap by wind-scattered paratroopers during the invasion . But most eyes will be on a jump earlier that day by a group of geriatric gladiators . The three dozen Americans range in age from 68 to 84 and are original unit members who leaped into that bottomless night . On Sunday and Monday , members of the 75th Ranger Regiment will give a demonstration of the rope climb up Pointe du Hoc , a 100-foot precipice climbed by the Second Ranger Battalion under German fire in 1944 to destroy artillery trained on the invasion beaches below . ( Optional add end ) All of which means major transportation problems for the quiet Norman countryside . Except for official vehicles all traffic will be blocked from the beaches on the anniversary day . Even the early visitors are causing problems at places such as the American cemetery . On one recent weekend , 13,000 cars showed up , packing the small parking lot and spilling onto the side roads , says Phil Rivers , cemetery director . `` It was the worst traffic jam we ever had . '' Veterans groups in the United States warned members via newsletters of potential problems , adding that even those who made it to some of the ceremonies could be relegated to back-of-the-crowd status . The U.S. military , sensitive to this criticism , has said that all veterans will be designated VIPs and receive preferential seating . Dignitaries ordinarily given that label are to be called ODVs , or Other Distinguished Visitors . VIP status or not , Davis is completing his tour and heading home . `` You wipe it out of your mind , '' the former pilot said of the cost of the war . `` There are those who dwell on it , but not me . '' Distributed by the Los Angeles Times-Washington Post News Service . ( c ) 1994 , Newsday World Cup sponsors are gambling $ 500 million on advertising rights despite Americans ' past indifference to the world 's most popular sport . Coca-Cola , Canon , McDonald 's and Snickers candy bars are among the 19 businesses spending as much as $ 20 million each for sponsorship rights to the soccer championships , which start next month . This is the first time the World Cup will be played on American soil . Time Warner , meanwhile , should make at least $ 35 million , according to one analyst , from the licensing and merchandising rights to sales of World Cup apparel and merchandise , which are expected to top $ 1 billion . More than 100 American companies have agreements with Time Warner to produce World Cup merchandise . The jury is out over whether all this money is well spent . `` These companies are more like pioneers than sponsors , '' said Brandon Steiner of Steiner Sports Marketing , a Manhattan-based consulting firm . `` One day soccer will be big in this country , but not this year . You go out on the street and you stop 25 people , and I guarantee 20 of them couldn't name a single sponsor . That 's where the World Cup is today . '' But do sponsors really have to win the hearts and minds of Americans to succeed ? Probably not . Most have a larger , worldwide audience in mind . `` The attention of the sporting world will be focused on the World Cup , '' said Robert Baskin , public relations director for Coca-Cola . `` The games are sold out . You can't book flights into the U.S. during the finals . The World Cup is bigger than the Olympics , especially the final games . The scale of this is going to be a real eye-opener for Americans . '' In this country , `` it 's a niche play , '' said Walter Staab , chairman of SFM Media Corp. , media buyers based in Manhattan . `` There are certain segments of the population who love soccer and they could be very much involved in the World Cup if it was marketed correctly . '' `` There 's an immense Hispanic audience that is slowly being tapped into , '' says Bryan Murphy , publisher of the Westport , Conn.-based Sports Marketing Newsletter . `` The sponsors will probably be very happy if they keep in mind who 's going to watch . The World Cup is not going to draw everybody like the Super Bowl , but it 'll draw a lot . '' ( Begin optional trim ) The tournament will last from June 17 to July 17 , with games played at nine sites nationwide . An estimated 1 million people nationwide are expected to attend the games and spend $ 4 billion on hotels , restaurants , shopping and other activities . For sponsors , the games pose unusual challenges . Because soccer doesn't have time-outs and game breaks like football or baseball , World Cup TV broadcasters ABC and ESPN will show the games without commercial interruptions . As part of an agreement between the broadcasters , World Cup '94 and FIFA , the international soccer federation , commercials will only be shown during the pre- and post-game shows and at halftime . Names of the major sponsors will be displayed in 9-minute intervals on top of a game clock in the lower right hand corner of the screen . But that doesn't mean there 's any shortage of soccer-related commercials and promotional tie-ins : Soccer balls are flying in new TV spots by Coke and Adidas ( starring U.S. goalkeeper Tony Meola ) , among others , and in a contest by Gillette and a soccer gear giveaway by Energizer batteries . McDonald 's is hosting a `` McSoccerfest '' tournament in the nine host cities . Wheaties boxes will offer trading cards with Reebok 's soccer endorsers . General Motors will be the exclusive advertiser in a special World Cup edition of Newsweek . On July 16 , the eve of the final match in Pasadena , Calif. , Coca-Cola will run two hours of entertainment and commentary from the World Cup games on TNT . Called `` Big TV , '' the telecast is similar to one it made in conjunction with the Super Bowl . ( End optional trim ) The international and U.S. groups organizing the World Cup have designated levels of sponsorship , including `` official sponsors , '' who pay $ 17 million to $ 20 million for advertising rights , including billboard space on the playing fields in full view of TV cameras during the 52 games ; `` marketing partners , '' who pay up to $ 10 million for ads on one side of the World Cup playing fields , and a variety of less expensive regional sponsorships . All together , the companies are spending nearly $ 500 million . In addition , each TV `` gold '' sponsor is rumored to have paid ABC nearly $ 3.5 million for game exposure throughout the 52 matches and for an undetermined number of 30-second spots during halftime and the pre- and post-game shows . Lesser `` silver '' sponsors paid an estimated $ 2 million to $ 2.5 million for a similar package that does not include game exposure . The World Cup 's final game is expected to grab as many as 2 billion viewers worldwide , compared with 750 million for the 1993 Super Bowl . A `` gold ' advertising package costing $ 3.5 million includes three 30-second TV spots per game over 52 games . That comes out to approximately $ 22,000 per spot . By comparison , a 30-second spot during last year 's Super Bowl cost $ 900,000 . `` The husband works two jobs ; the wife works two jobs ; the kid works at McDonald 's ; and the dog stays home and watches TV . '' That vision of families surviving on low-paying , part-time jobs was delivered by Ted Bloom , business agent for New York Teamsters Local 810 , during a recent demonstration at the Statue of Liberty . The 250 Teamsters , protesting trucking companies ' demands to employ part-timers at cut-rate wages and benefits , laughed at Bloom 's black humor . But it delivered a chilling point . The number of `` involuntary '' part-time employees those who want full-time jobs but can't get them has almost tripled since 1970 , growing to 6.3 million people last year , according to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics . Almost one out of every five employees more than 21 million have part-time jobs , including 2.7 million who work at two or more part-time jobs . Part-time workers are usually paid about 60 percent of the hourly scale of full-timers and often don't get any fringe benefits . As more employers replace full-time workers with part-timers , the trend is emerging as a hotly contested issue in union negotiations . The recent national trucking strike revealed the deep-seated fear felt by union members over the threat of employers hiring thousands of part-timers . The trucking companies wanted the right to hire part-timers who would be paid about half the current union scale to work in freight terminals . The workers ' opposition to part-timers is generally credited with being the element that kept the Teamsters strike solid in the 24-day-long trucking walkout . Analysts noted that the Teamsters were the first major union to confront the subject of part-timers on the picket line . Management negotiators eventually conceded they didn't realize how sensitive the issue is to workers until they blundered into it . They withdrew their demand to use part-timers . `` We won on the key issue by not letting them change good full-time jobs to low-wage , part-time jobs , '' said Teamsters president Ronald Carey . `` We stood up for the American Dream . We drew the line , not just for Teamsters members , but for all American workers . '' Eileen Appelbaum , associate director of research at the labor-oriented Economic Policy Institute in Washington , said , `` This is the first recovery where involuntary part-time ( jobs ) rose through the recovery , up until July of 1993 , and total part-time is still growing . '' Applebaum asserted that if the Teamsters lost on the part-time issue , `` it would be a clear signal to employers that they could even more rapidly substitute part-time for full-time employment . '' Yet Michael Gordon , a Washington-based lawyer who is an authority on pensions , cautions that society can't mandate full-time jobs . `` The business community has made the decision , due to automation , due to computers , that they can get along without all sorts of full-time workers , and that is the way to be profitable and competititive , '' Gordon said . He noted that the shift to part-time work is a worldwide phenomenon . The International Labor Organization estimates there are 60 million part-timers one out of every seven workers in the industrialized nations . Still , the conflict over the use of part-timers is likely to continue at the bargaining table . Analysts agree that under certain circumstances , part-time jobs can be attractive , particularly for college students and those supplementing a pension or a comfortable family income . `` You take one job at a restaurant offering 20 hours a week . For one person , who has someone at home ( with another salary ) , filling that job is voluntary , '' said Tom Nardone , a Bureau of Labor Statistics economist . `` The same job filled by somebody living on their own is involuntary . '' ( Optional Add End ) The Teamsters ' largest employer , United Parcel Service , already employs one of the largest blocks of part-timers in the nation . Slightly more than half of UPS ' 165,000 Teamsters employees are part-timers who start at $ 8 an hour less than half the scale , including benefits , of a full-time worker . UPS first negotiated part-timers into the Teamsters contract 32 years ago , but up until 1982 paid them wages comparable to those of full-timers . In 1982 , the starting wage for UPS part-timers was set at $ 8 and hasn't been increased since . The company says that 85 to 90 percent of the part-timers are college students , most of whom work from 10 p.m. until 2 a.m. . Barry Glassner , author of `` Career Crash : The New Crisis and Who Survives , '' a book that examines the impact of corporate downsizing , said that companies enjoy an immediate bottom-line benefit by moving to part-time workers , but at a serious cost to the long-term health of the U.S. economy and society . `` We want stronger families , but if you have the family members never together because everybody is holding part-time jobs on different shifts to make ends meet , you are not going to have a strong family , '' said Glassner , chairman of the sociology department at the University of Southern California . `` While the companies are saving money , in the long run they may not be . They are losing experienced , trained workers , the most competent work force , and over the long haul that loss is going to be costly . '' ( c ) 1994 , Newsday World Cup sponsors are gambling $ 500 million on advertising rights despite Americans ' past indifference to the world 's most popular sport . Coca-Cola , Canon , McDonald 's and Snickers candy bars are among the 19 businesses spending as much as $ 20 million each for sponsorship rights to the soccer championships , which start next month . This is the first time the World Cup will be played on American soil . Time Warner , meanwhile , should make at least $ 35 million , according to one analyst , from the licensing and merchandising rights to sales of World Cup apparel and merchandise , which are expected to top $ 1 billion . More than 100 American companies have agreements with Time Warner to produce World Cup merchandise . The jury is out over whether all this money is well spent . `` These companies are more like pioneers than sponsors , '' said Brandon Steiner of Steiner Sports Marketing , a Manhattan-based consulting firm . `` One day soccer will be big in this country , but not this year . You go out on the street and you stop 25 people , and I guarantee 20 of them couldn't name a single sponsor . That 's where the World Cup is today . '' But do sponsors really have to win the hearts and minds of Americans to succeed ? Probably not . Most have a larger , worldwide audience in mind . `` The attention of the sporting world will be focused on the World Cup , '' said Robert Baskin , public relations director for Coca-Cola . `` The games are sold out . You can't book flights into the U.S. during the finals . The World Cup is bigger than the Olympics , especially the final games . The scale of this is going to be a real eye-opener for Americans . '' In this country , `` it 's a niche play , '' said Walter Staab , chairman of SFM Media Corp. , media buyers based in Manhattan . `` There are certain segments of the population who love soccer and they could be very much involved in the World Cup if it was marketed correctly . '' `` There 's an immense Hispanic audience that is slowly being tapped into , '' says Bryan Murphy , publisher of the Westport , Conn.-based Sports Marketing Newsletter . `` The sponsors will probably be very happy if they keep in mind who 's going to watch . The World Cup is not going to draw everybody like the Super Bowl , but it 'll draw a lot . '' ( Begin optional trim ) The tournament will last from June 17 to July 17 , with games played at nine sites nationwide . An estimated 1 million people nationwide are expected to attend the games and spend $ 4 billion on hotels , restaurants , shopping and other activities . For sponsors , the games pose unusual challenges . Because soccer doesn't have time-outs and game breaks like football or baseball , World Cup TV broadcasters ABC and ESPN will show the games without commercial interruptions . As part of an agreement between the broadcasters , World Cup '94 and FIFA , the international soccer federation , commercials will only be shown during the pre- and post-game shows and at halftime . Names of the major sponsors will be displayed in 9-minute intervals on top of a game clock in the lower right hand corner of the screen . But that doesn't mean there 's any shortage of soccer-related commercials and promotional tie-ins : Soccer balls are flying in new TV spots by Coke and Adidas ( starring U.S. goalkeeper Tony Meola ) , among others , and in a contest by Gillette and a soccer gear giveaway by Energizer batteries . McDonald 's is hosting a `` McSoccerfest '' tournament in the nine host cities . Wheaties boxes will offer trading cards with Reebok 's soccer endorsers . General Motors will be the exclusive advertiser in a special World Cup edition of Newsweek . On July 16 , the eve of the final match in Pasadena , Calif. , Coca-Cola will run two hours of entertainment and commentary from the World Cup games on TNT . Called `` Big TV , '' the telecast is similar to one it made in conjunction with the Super Bowl . ( End optional trim ) The international and U.S. groups organizing the World Cup have designated levels of sponsorship , including `` official sponsors , '' who pay $ 17 million to $ 20 million for advertising rights , including billboard space on the playing fields in full view of TV cameras during the 52 games ; `` marketing partners , '' who pay up to $ 10 million for ads on one side of the World Cup playing fields , and a variety of less expensive regional sponsorships . All together , the companies are spending nearly $ 500 million . In addition , each TV `` gold '' sponsor is rumored to have paid ABC nearly $ 3.5 million for game exposure throughout the 52 matches and for an undetermined number of 30-second spots during halftime and the pre- and post-game shows . Lesser `` silver '' sponsors paid an estimated $ 2 million to $ 2.5 million for a similar package that does not include game exposure . The World Cup 's final game is expected to grab as many as 2 billion viewers worldwide , compared with 750 million for the 1993 Super Bowl . A `` gold ' advertising package costing $ 3.5 million includes three 30-second TV spots per game over 52 games . That comes out to approximately $ 22,000 per spot . By comparison , a 30-second spot during last year 's Super Bowl cost $ 900,000 . WASHINGTON Judge Stephen G. Breyer 's steady march toward the nation 's highest court began in San Francisco , where Irving Breyer and his wife , Anne , raised Stephen and his younger brother , Chuck , who is also now a lawyer , in a modest , two-story home in an upper-middle-class neighborhood in the shadow of the University of San Francisco . Their street was bordered on one side by the university and the other by a private college for women , symbolic , perhaps , of the place that education took in the family 's list of priorities . Education came easily to the young Breyer . In addition to his classes , he insisted that his parents , who were Jewish but religiously unobservant , send him to religious school on Sundays , Chuck Breyer recalled . As a college student , he later taught religious school at a local synagogue . But Anne Breyer pushed constantly for him to be `` well rounded , '' his brother recalled , chiding that if he did not put his books down and go outside he would end up like her brother , Leo , a curmudgeonly man who taught for a brief time at Radcliffe College and then retired to a book-lined study for a life of reading and avoiding others . Mrs. Breyer insisted that her son take part in sports , although he was not particularly good at them , and attend camp , although once there his tender feet quickly won him the nickname Blister King . Nonetheless , in a pattern that would become typical of his life , Breyer persevered and excelled , becoming an Eagle Scout at the age of 12 . `` He wasn't very popular but he was well known as the troop brain , '' recalled his Scoutmaster , Bob Anino . The Breyer boys attended the city 's prestigious Lowell High School , the elite academy of the San Francisco public school system . There , Steve Breyer took an active part in the school debate team , competing against the likes of future Gov. Edmund G. `` Jerry '' Brown Jr. , who attended rival St. Ignatius Loyola High School . In 1955 , Breyer graduated with only one B marring an otherwise straight-A record . He was voted `` most likely to succeed . '' `` He was one of the brightest kids in my 30 years at Lowell , '' said Paul Lucey , his economics and social science teacher . Breyer wanted to go on to Harvard but bowed to the wishes of his parents , who feared , again , that he would become too bookish , and attended Stanford instead . After graduating , he won a Marshall Scholarship to attend Oxford , where he became fascinated with economics , then went on to study law at Harvard , where he became an editor of the law review and quickly developed a reputation as one of the school 's bright lights . In the spring of 1964 , Breyer received word that the now late Justice Arthur M. Goldberg had selected him as a clerk for the high court term beginning in October . Historians recall the 1964- '65 term primarily because of one decision , Griswold vs. Connecticut , in which the court for the first time recognized a constitutional right to privacy in sexual matters . The court held that states could not forbid married couples from buying or using contraceptives , a ruling that laid the grounds for the Roe v. Wade decision a decade later that guaranteed women the right to abortions . Breyer , according to fellow clerks , helped Goldberg draft his opinion . But the opinion 's central idea that a right to privacy could be grounded in the Ninth Amendment , which reserves to the people rights not `` enumerated '' elsewhere in the Bill of Rights , was one that Goldberg had toyed with earlier and , therefore , provides little evidence of Breyer 's own views . Over the next several years , Breyer worked in the Justice Department 's antitrust division . He also met the woman who in 1967 became his wife . She is the former Joanna Hare , an Englishwoman who then was working as an assistant in the Washington office of London 's Sunday Times . Joanna Breyer , a psychologist at Boston 's Dana Farber Clinic , was the daughter of Lord John Blakenham , a prominent British political figure who was a leader of Britain 's Conservative Party . The marriage contributed heavily to Breyer 's current wealth . According to his financial disclosure forms , which report assets in broad categories , the couple has at least $ 3.2 million and perhaps as much as $ 6.7 million . From Washington , Breyer returned to Harvard to teach regulatory law but he continued to visit the capital , working for several months in 1973 on the Watergate prosecutions , joining two other Harvard colleagues as aides to Archibald Cox . In 1974 , he accepted Sen. Edward M. Kennedy 's offer to head the staff of the Judiciary Committee 's subcommittee on administrative law . In 1979 , he returned to Washington again , this time as the Judiciary Committee 's chief counsel . ( Optional add end ) That background , plus his years on the bench , made Breyer an immediate candidate for the `` short list '' of high court nominees when Clinton returned the White House to Democratic hands . Indeed , when he arrived in Washington last year for a luncheon interview with Clinton , in pain from a bicycle accident in which he had broken a rib , White House officials and Breyer 's friends believed that the Supreme Court job that was then open would be his . That afternoon , as he stretched out on the floor of White House counsel Bernard Nussbaum 's office to rest , officials told him to delay his return to Cambridge , Mass. , and begin preparing an acceptance speech . But , as Clinton pondered his choice , Breyer 's lack of an engaging life story a factor that has always had strong appeal to the president did him in . Clinton opted instead for Ruth Bader Ginsburg , a pioneer in women 's rights whose biography offered more excitement . Breyer , disappointed , returned to Cambridge but characteristically avoided any negative comment about Clinton 's selection and conspicuously attended Ginsburg 's swearing-in ceremony . One year later , with the White House already finding that it had more excitement than it can handle , a nominee with a conventional background and broad support in the Senate seems newly appealing . Breyer 's time had come . WASHINGTON When friends and colleagues of Judge Stephen G. Breyer search for anecdotes about him , what they recall is his career advice . Kathleen Sullivan , now a law professor at Stanford University , was starting as a member of the Harvard Law School faculty when she met Breyer . At a faculty reception , Breyer urged her to get involved in `` something like the federal sentencing commission something practical . '' `` We need intellectuals to get involved in projects that have an impact on people 's lives , '' Sullivan recalls Breyer telling her . To Akhil Amar , who worked as a law clerk in Breyer 's judicial chambers and now teaches at Yale Law School , the judge offered a more direct suggestion : After listening to his young clerk 's plans for a series of law review articles , Breyer counseled him that to really have an impact , he should write a book . And he should not wait too long , Breyer added . `` I really wanted to have a book before I was 40 , '' Amar recalls him saying . The advice , as Breyer told those he counseled , was autobiographical reflecting twin elements of his life that explain why Breyer now stands on the edge of an all-but-certain confirmation to the nation 's highest court : a strong desire to use his formidable legal talents to make a practical impact beyond Ivory Tower theorizing , coupled with a keen appreciation of the quickest , surest routes toward his own advancement . `` Every move he has made has paid off , '' said his friend Alan Dershowitz , a Harvard Law School professor and noted criminal defense lawyer . `` Steve just never makes a mistake . '' But while Breyer 's path has been so smooth and steady as to appear almost effortless , it has provided few clues to answer the ultimate question : if he is to become a leader of the Supreme Court , as President Clinton hopes , where would Breyer take it ? Breyer has become well-regarded as an expert on federal regulatory law , about which he has written influential articles and books . But by contrast with several past Republican nominees , who had staked out clear ideological positions before being chosen , Breyer has made almost no public comment on constitutional law or on such controversial topics as abortion or privacy rights or affirmative action . `` Steve is a lot like President Clinton in many ways . He 's a pragmatist , a centrist with an enormous array of friends , '' said Dershowitz . In pursuit of his goals , Breyer has traveled a route from Stanford to Oxford to Harvard to a Supreme Court clerkship , back to Harvard , to the staff of the Senate Judiciary Committee and then to the federal appeals court bench mixing academic work with immersion in practical politics . `` Steve has the same philosophy his father had , '' said his aunt , Shirley Black , whose brother , Irving Breyer , was a prominent attorney and public servant in San Francisco , counsel for nearly 40 years to the city school board . `` It 's doing the most good for people . If you want to help people , you should try to gain power . '' Along the way , he has impressed and charmed scores of people scattered through the upper reaches of American law and politics , from the late Justice Arthur M. Goldberg , who used to tell friends he hoped to see his former clerk one day don a justice 's robes ; to Sen. Edward M. Kennedy , for whom he worked in 1974- '75 and again in 1979- '80 as a top Judiciary Committee aide and who then secured an appeals court judgeship for him in the Carter administration 's closing days ; to such conservatives as Sens. Orrin G. Hatch , R-Utah , and Strom Thurmond , R-S.C. , whose support for him has virtually guaranteed a smooth confirmation . What he has not done , conceded another longtime friend , Peter Edelman , is live a life that makes `` good copy . '' Breyer 's biography includes no epic struggle , none of the up-from-obscurity morality tale that so delights ( and sometimes deludes ) American audiences . At home in Cambridge , Mass. , in a comfortable house not far from the Harvard campus , Breyer lives the life of a conventional and successful member of the American intellectual and policy elite enjoying fine food , wine and conversation , rooting for his hometown baseball and basketball teams , running and riding a beat up , one-speed bicycle to stay fit , driving a dark blue Volvo station wagon , sending his three children to Harvard , Stanford and Yale . Despite the lack of drama in his life , Breyer could become one of the most influential public figures of his generation . Many lawyers who study the court believe that Breyer has a strong chance of being far more than merely one vote among nine . The current court , in the opinion of most lawyers and academics who study it , notably lacks a leader . Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist and Justice Antonin Scalia , who could exercise leadership by virtue , respectively , of position and intellectual prowess , stand too far toward the judicial right to do so effectively . The justices in the court 's conservative center David H. Souter , Sandra Day O' Connor , Anthony M. Kennedy have shown little ability to lead . By contrast , of the nine men and two women placed on the court in the last generation , only Scalia and , perhaps , Clinton 's other nominee , Ruth Bader Ginsburg , come close to matching Breyer 's record of legal scholarship , intelligence and achievement . At a time when many federal judges complain frequently about the crushing burden of their workloads , Breyer was able to handle the work of an appeals court judge while still teaching at Harvard , playing a central role on the Federal Sentencing Commission and educating himself about architecture to guide the construction of a new federal courthouse in Boston . Moreover , unlike Ginsburg , who often has appeared to associates as distant , shy or aloof , Breyer is gregarious and charming . His experiences heading a Senate staff , on the court of appeals and on the sentencing commission demonstrate that he is a highly effective small-group politician who inspires genuine affection on the part of those who have worked under him and loyal friendship from those he has served . About the only open opponent to his nomination so far has been consumer advocate Ralph Nader , who objected that Breyer has sided with big business too often in antitrust cases and has been too skeptical of federal regulatory efforts . But in a telling example of the network of Breyer 's friendships , Nader 's top lawyer , Alan Morrison , is a close friend of the nominee 's who has defended Breyer 's views . ( Optional add end ) Breyer 's judicial opinions on antitrust prove little . He is clearly no economic populist , but the Supreme Court 's conservative rulings on antitrust cases over the last two decades give lower court judges relatively little leeway . But his views on regulation reveal more about him . Breyer 's writings show a desire to bring order to messy legal problems and an underlying belief , reflective of the California progressive tradition in which he grew up , that government programs are subject to improvement by careful , expert thought . But there is nothing to indicate much about Breyer 's views on the great constitutional issues that attract attention to the Supreme Court . That absence of comment has made some liberals uneasy about Breyer 's imminent ascension to the Supreme Court , particularly given his endorsements from such prominent conservative voices as Hatch and the Wall Street Journal editorial page . Breyer 's friends say that as a justice he will emerge as a newly liberated champion of an updated form of judicial liberalism one who will uphold strong protections of civil rights and civil liberties but be more skeptical about the ability of federal judges to improve society than was the case during the court 's liberal era under former chief justice Earl Warren . Now that Breyer has achieved his ultimate goal , argued Dershowitz , `` all the constraints are off . There 's nothing else he wants in life . '' Here 's the recipe for the baked Vidalia appetizer as served at Vidalia , Jeff and Sallie Buben 's aptly named downtown Washington restaurant . VIDALIA 'S BAKED ONION ( 4 servings ) 4 jumbo Vidalia onions , whole with skins left on 8 tablespoons ( 1 stick ) butter , softened 4 tablespoons brown sugar 8 tablespoons sherry vinegar 4 tablespoons beef glaze or bouillon 4 teaspoons chopped fresh rosemary 4 teaspoons chopped fresh thyme 4 large shiitake mushroom caps , finely diced 4 ounces country ham , finely diced 4 tablespoons chopped chives 1 ripe tomato , finely diced Salt and pepper to taste Cut inch from the bottom ( rounded root end ) of each onion . Score the skin of each onion at 1-inch intervals , starting from the cut bottom end upward to within inch of the top . Pull the sections of onion skin back and up over the top of each onion , like a tassel . On a work surface , place four 12-inch-square pieces of aluminum foil . Place of the butter , sugar , vinegar , beef glaze ( or bouillon ) , rosemary , thyme and diced mushroom in the center of each piece . Top each with an onion and draw the foil from 4 corners to the top center , like a pyramid . Crimp the foil around the `` neck '' of the onion , leaving the `` tassel '' of onion skin exposed . There should be a hole in the center . Bake in a pre-heated 375-degree oven about 1 hour and 10 minutes , or until soft . Transfer onions and mushrooms to serving plates , reserving the juices . Combine the cooking juices from all the onions in a saucepan and gently heat with the ham , chives and tomato . Season to taste with salt and pepper . Pour of the sauce over each onion and serve . If you decide after visiting a coffee bar that hanging out in a cafe drinking latte is the only way to spend the afternoon , then you may want to pick up `` Espresso : Culture & Cuisine , '' by Karl Petzke and Sara Slavin ( Chronicle Books , $ 14.95 ) , two people who must feel the way you do . More a private treat than a coffee-table tome ( it 's a smallish paperback ) , this exquisitely designed collaboration is closer to a CD Rom experience ( or a guide to typography in the late 20th century ) than to a real book . In bits and beautiful pieces , it offers coffee history , a little Neruda , a bit of Yeats , cafe culture in soft focus and some very tempting coffee-based recipes . -O- The National Turkey Federation celebrates Turkey Lovers ' Month in June with a turkey-recipe contest . The cook with the winning recipe , using at least 1 pound of turkey meat , will take home a $ 2,500 grand prize . Deadline is July 30 . For more information , write to the federation at 11319 Sunset Hills Rd. , Reston , Va. 22090 . -O- You wouldn't want to miss the Virginia Cantaloupe Festival in late July , would you ? Or the Sorghum Molasses Festival in October ? Well , you willn't with your own free copy of `` The Virginia Food Festival Directory 1994 , '' which lists events around the state through November . To obtain a copy , write to Virginia Food Festival Directory , Suite 1019 , Virginia Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services , 1100 Bank St. , Richmond , Va. 23219 , or call 804-786-5867 . Meanwhile , a list of 30 Maryland seafood festivals , all over the state , May through November , plus a dozen fee-fishing farms , can be had by sending a self-addressed stamped envelope to 1994 Maryland Seafood Festival List , Maryland Department of Agriculture , Seafood Marketing , 50 Harry S Truman Pkwy. , Annapolis , Md. 21401 . WASHINGTON Companion planting allows the gardener to become a matchmaker with plants , turning strangers into fast friends . The practice of companion planting goes back centuries , driven by the abiding belief that some plants do better when grown near other species , either for protection from pests or as a result of a chemical interaction beneficial to at least one of the partners . Today , the technique is unproven scientifically , although in its quaintness it may have merit , especially since each gardener 's own preferences give us gardens of diversity and character . In one plot , the aim might be to attract birds , in another , to repel raccoons . Companion planting in the modern garden is generally a casual undertaking , with few rules and an openness to new ideas and combinations . In fact , one of its basic truths is that where one combination might fail in one garden , it could prove indispensable in another . Most people , whether they are new to gardening or have many seasons behind them , are familiar with the marigold 's reputation for warding off all manner of insect pests above and below the ground . Although this reputation may be rather overblown , it goes to the basic concept of companion planting : Plant marigolds among your vegetables , and you 'll have fewer bugs . Marigolds , in field tests and in lab trials , seem to have a pretty good record in controlling damaging subterranean nematodes that invade plant roots . But in most cases , no one knows why something does better when planted near something else . One gardener swears that planting radishes around her beans controls Mexican bean beetles . I have tried this in my own garden and have seen little effect on the voracious bean pests . While the variables from one garden to the next will dictate much of how successfully companion planting works , there are some fundamental principles that are universal and have been proven : DON ' T plant tomatoes , eggplant and potatoes close together . All members of the nightshade family , they tend to share pests . Thus , if the Colorado potato beetle finds your eggplant near the potatoes , the pest , probably will afflict the eggplant . Some gardeners find that eggplant is more vulnerable to the beetles than potatoes . DON ' T plant parsley , carrot and cilantro near each other . These also share a family tree and the pesky carrot fly . Its grub prefers to tunnel into the carrot but will go to parsley and even cilantro if they are close at hand . DO interplant onions , radishes and even yes marigolds with other garden varieties . Apart from the practical aspect of sneaking space-saving onions and radishes among larger plants they rarely compete with companion plants and they do very well in the smallest of spots they emit an odor that is repugnant to a wide range of insect pests . Ordinarily , radishes and onions are pulled before they bloom . However , if they are left to mature , their flowers are most attractive to predatory insects that prey on pests . DO combine dissimilar species eggplant with beans ; corn with potatoes ; lettuce and basil with tomatoes . DO intermingle herbs with vegetables . With the exception of fennel , nearly all herbs offer aid to garden plants by attracting predatory insects , repelling pests or , simply , providing a compatible growth habit . DO interplant flowers with vegetables . These will attract birds and insects that prey on many pests . The classic example of this is nasturtium , with its peppery , edible foliage and its aromatic , edible flowers , themselves a magnet for hummingbirds . WORTH A TRY : Plant bush beans among tomatoes . I did this a couple of years ago and was delighted with the beans ' ability to keep down weeds . In addition , they will fix nitrogen in the soil , providing an important nutrient to tomatoes . As a living mulch , low-growing bush beans ensure an even moisture content in the soil , important in the prevention of blossom-end rot in tomatoes . One caveat on this companionship , however : My bean crop was poor , I think because the tomato vines robbed the beans of their full measure of sunlight . WORTH A TRY : Combine corn with pumpkins , melons or other climbing squashes , although I have never tried cucumbers . The rough foliage of the squashes is reputed to dissuade raccoons from invading the corn at the time ears are ripening . The corn is thought to deter the squash vine borer moth from laying its eggs on pumpkin vines . The squash shades the ground around the corn and even climbs up stalks but does not hinder the corn 's growth and development . Sow or plant cucumber , pumpkin , winter squash and melons . All of them love to wander about in the garden , and they will grow more tidily on strong supports . Pallets , fences , trellises or even an old stone wall will support these rambling squashes . The following editorial appeared in Tuesday 's Washington Post : Even the most draconian welfare rules are said to be aimed at giving welfare recipients `` better incentives '' or `` the right messages . '' It isn't only a view expressed by right-wing Republicans eager to cut programs . It has also been offered by President Clinton in defending his proposal to require welfare recipients to accept jobs after two years or be tossed off the rolls . His point is that if the cycle of dependency is not broken at some point , it can go on forever , sometimes across generations . But there are more and less intrusive requirements that can be placed on the recipients of government assistance . It is one thing to say that if someone gets a government check , the taxpayers have a right at some point to demand some work . It is another to use the welfare rules to affect other , more personal aspects of individual behavior for example , whether someone should have an additional child . New Jersey and a growing number of other jurisdictions have decided that this , too , should come under the welfare rules . They have denied additional benefits to women who have children while they are on welfare . These recipients continue to collect what they were receiving before , but no more . Clinton has decided to include in his reform plan a provision allowing but not compelling states to follow New Jersey 's lead . In one sense , Clinton 's proposal simply marks an extension of current practice . The federal government has already given New Jersey a waiver to pursue its experiment . Clinton is on record as supporting this and similar waivers to other states . Some civil-liberties advocates have argued that because the New Jersey rule affects one of the most personal decisions a person can make , it is unconstitutional . A case on the matter is now in court , but the civil-liberties argument is not entirely convincing . New Jersey is not telling anyone that she cannot have a child , simply that the state will not support an additional newborn . Is the New Jersey rule actually reducing the number of children born to the welfare rolls ? An early study showed a 16 percent reduction in the number of children born to mothers on welfare in New Jersey , but a subsequent analysis found that the number of births had been underreported , and that the real reduction was about 9 percent . `` I never pretended or intended to have the law bring about a dramatic decrease in births , '' said State Assemblyman Wayne R. Bryant , leading supporter of the new rules . `` It was a responsibility issue . '' The truth is that welfare reform is very much about influencing behavior or , at the very least , about keeping government rules from offering the wrong incentives . The New Jersey approach strikes us as being within the range of state experiments the federal government could permit . But as Bryant suggests , no one should pretend it will produce miracles . CyberSurfing : Potholes , perturbations and predicaments observed on the information superhighway : Most visitors to Paris are satisfied with their little Eiffel Tower souvenirs , but that 's obviously not enough for Michael Hayward , who seems to be an unusually sentimental sort . `` I 'd like to locate a source for the benches which are found everywhere in Paris city parks , '' he wrote in a recent posting on the Internet newsgroup soc.culture.french . `` The older design .. . ( is ) shaped like an elongated ` S ' with narrow ` slats ' ( roughly square in cross section ) running lengthwise . The supports ( legs/backs ) are a somewhat ornately designed cast iron . As I recall , these benches are ( always ? ) painted a distinctive shade of high gloss deep green. .. . Has anyone else got fond memories of these benches ? Has anyone else made an attempt to track down a source ? '' From France Olivier Clary responded with the lyrics of a popular song : Les amoureux qui s ' becotent sur les bancs publics/ bancs publics/ bancs publics/ en s ' foutant pas mal du r ' gard oblique/ des passants honteux . ( `` The lovers kissing on the public benches/ the public benches/ the public benches/ don't give a damn about the nasty glances/ of the shameful passersby . '' ) Parisian Gregory Miezelis , however , actually had an answer : The first place to look , said Miezelis , is Les Domaines , a French government agency that auctions off surplus equipment . He also suggested checking the Paris flea market 's many antique dealers . Selling price ? About 950 francs plus 10 percent tax , or roughly $ 200 , although cybernaut Miezelis said he saw one sold at auction for only 350 francs . Evan Roth evanr ( at ) aol.com GETTING THERE : Once you 've gained access to the Internet , go to Usenet or Newsgroups and type : soc.culture.french . On America Online , for example , go to the Go To menu , click on Keyword and type in Newsgroups . At the Newsgroups menu , click on the Expert Add icon . Type in soc.culture.french in the blank space and click Add . When asked if you want to add the newsgroup , click Yes . When the menu returns , click on the My Newsgroups icon , and you will see soc.culture.french added to the list . Double-click on it and you 're there . -0- They Want His mtv.com Adam Curry wants his mtv.com . Curry , a longtime video jock for MTV , set up a music-news bulletin board on the Internet a year ago , using his home computer and the address mtv.com . Now he 's being being sued by his ex-employer for copyright infringement . Curry uses mtv.com to dish industry gossip ( `` cybersleaze , '' he calls it ) , and offers concert schedules , band interviews and commentary . He estimates 35,000 log-ins daily . Many of those users are now following the saga of Curry vs. MTV-from Curry 's viewpoint only . The cable music network , which prides itself on up-to-the-minute hipness , isn't `` jacked into the net , '' as Curry put it in a recent missive to his supporters . The on-line faithful have been flaming MTV as `` totally lame '' and `` a pitiful network of corporate pigs . '' Wrote a user named Daredevil : `` DON ' T LET THE LAMERS GET YOU DOWN ! '' Curry claims mtv.com began with the `` blessing and support '' of MTV execs , but after he resigned April 25 , `` things got ugly . '' ( It probably didn't help that Curry posted a resignation letter on the Internet accusing MTV of selling out the `` M '' in its name . ) In federal court in Manhattan in May , MTV 's lawyers argued for an injunction against Curry 's use of mtv.com . Further hearings are scheduled . `` This has nothing to do with Adam 's departure , '' says an MTV spokeswoman . `` We 've tried unsuccessfully for a year to get Adam to stop using the MTV trademark to market his services . '' Said the defiant Curry in e-mail : `` mtv.com will always exist on the net . '' Richard Leiby leiby ( at ) aol.com GETTING THERE : To follow the Curry case using America Online , select keyword Internet ; then select WAIS & Gopher databases ; then select category Music ; then select the MTV Gopher folder ; then brainwaves.txt . Found something intriguing , improbable , insane or especially useful on the Internet ? Tip The Washington Post 's Karen Mason Marrrero kmarrero ( at ) aol.com or Joel Garreau garreau ( at ) well.sf.ca.us . As cool weather gives way to warm , and hot not far off , many people feel the need to switch gears in their wine-drinking . Room-temp red becomes less interesting than chilled , crisp white , and picnics conjure up stuff that 's soft , slightly sweet and quaffable . Stocking up wine for summer takes just as much thought as buying wine for those dinners by the fireplace , yet few wine shops are savvy enough to suggest the right warm-afternoon wines . There is these days a mania in America for Chardonnay , and since so much of this wine is white ( thus chillable ) and soft and slightly sweet , one might assume Chardonnay would be a great picnic quaff . Many wine shop owners still recommend it . Bad thinking . After Petite Sirah , Chardonnay is my least-favorite picnic wine because of the high alcohol ( above 13 percent in most cases ) and the heavy oak flavor the wines often have . And in cheaper wines , that oak flavoring is not derived from aging in a barrel , but from the winemaker 's latest trick : dipping in a huge teabag filled with oak chips . What I look for in picnic and patio wine is good , strong , fruity flavor something to compete with the charcoal briquettes burning in the firepit and alcohol low enough not to intrude on the taste of the fruit . Stocking up doesn't require a cellar . In the few months you will have the wine before it 's consumed , nothing will happen to it if it 's kept relatively cool ( 70 degrees is fine ) and out of direct light . And I do suggest buying at least a case of wine to be sure you 'll get good wine before it all sells out , and to have a few extra bottles around in case of emergencies , such as friends popping by unexpectedly , which always seems to happen . If you look at the summer as comprising 12 weekends during which you and your friends will consume a bottle per weekend day , you 'll need two cases of wine at minimum . So with that in mind , here are my suggestions for what to buy . Note that you may have to replenish the supply faster than you might think , especially if the wine is so good people drink it faster than you expect . Chenin Blanc : This grape makes the great wines of Vouvray in France and , in California , a wine with a softer , more melony aroma and taste , perfect for picnics . Four bottles . German Riesling : A must for the summer . Try various producers of Kabinett or Spatlese wines , which are not totally dry but offer marvelous acidity and balance with less alcohol than most wines about 10 percent . Four bottles . Gewurztraminer : I am smitten with this usually off-dry white wine . I prefer it drier so it matches with canapes and sandwiches . My summer buying pattern calls for a whole case of various producers ' Gewurztraminers , but unless you have the same sort of fetish for it that I do , I 'd recommend three bottles . Sparkling wine : Light , crisp and a perfect summer beverage . Bubbly is always in fashion , and it is a great substitute for heavier white wines . Three bottles . Sauvignon Blanc : You need not pay much more than $ 7 for some of the best of these wines , and usually you can find excellent wines in the $ 5 to $ 6 range . A great all-purpose wine , excellent with food . Three bottles . Rose : Here we have the true all-purpose wine , usually made with enough flavor but still dry enough to match with food . Chilled , it is appealing to cool off with all by itself at poolside . Buy only the best ( $ 9 a bottle or so ) to make sure you 're getting a high-quality rose , though Grenache Rose is being made better these days and may be found at $ 7 to $ 8 . Three bottles . Beaujolais : Great light red wine such as this is a real treat , especially when chilled and served with hearty foods . Three bottles . Lighter-styled Zinfandel : Buy one bottle of a good Zinfandel for those moments when the evening air suddenly chills and demands a better , richer , heartier wine . One final tip : Buy only the youngest vintages of any of these wines , and from producers whose names you know . Q : When I 'm baking , there are so many choices to be had in the fat category , even in the wrapped sticks of butter or margarine alone . What 's the difference ? Can I use a vegetable oil spread instead of butter in my baking ? A : There are many variables the quantity of cream used , the quality of that cream , how much filler has been added and how much salt is used for preservative . Generally , the most reliable baking product is either unsalted butter or basic margarine . These two products have the highest content of fat and are not filled with gums or fillers that might affect the baking result in some way . While there are many reduced-fat options on the market now , because of added liquid , they willn't produce satisfactory baking results as easily . If you replace butter in a recipe with a vegetable oil spread , you will not get the same result , because the basic fat component will be oil and not cream . -0- Q : My granddaughter cannot have sugar . Do you have a recipe for cookies that does not contain sugar or honey , but uses artificial sweetener ? A : The following recipe offers some alternatives for sugar-free cookies . ALMOND SUGAR COOKIES 5 tablespoons margarine 4 packets saccharin or 8 packets aspartame ( Equal ) or 4 packets acesulfame-K 1 tablespoon egg white teaspoon almond , vanilla , or lemon extract 1 cup unbleached flour 1/8 teaspoon baking soda pinch of cream of tartar 32 almond slices Preheat oven to 350 degrees . In a medium-size bowl , combine margarine and sweetener , beating until light and fluffy . Mix in egg white and almond extract . Gradually stir in flour , baking soda , and cream of tartar ; mix well . Form into -inch balls . Place on a non-stick cookie sheet . Dip a flat-bottomed glass into flour and press down on each ball to flatten cookie . Top each cookie with an almond slice . Send questions to : What 's Cooking , c/o Food & Home , The Baltimore Sun , 501 N . Calvert St. , Baltimore , Md. 21278 . Distributed by the Los Angeles Times-Washington Post News Service . Here are some tips on grilling from the National Live Stock & Meat Board , an industry group in Chicago , Ill. . Prepare coals well in advance so they have time to reach the correct temperature before the food is cooked . To check the temperature of coals , place the palm of your hand at cooking height , just above the grid . Count the number of seconds you can hold your hand there before the heat is so uncomfortable you have to pull it away ( to count seconds , count one-one thousand ; two-one thousand , etc. ) . Approximate times-temperatures are : low , 5 seconds ; medium , 4 seconds ; medium-hot , 3 seconds ; hot , 2 seconds . In appearance , low coals are covered with a thick layer of gray ash ; medium coals glow through a layer of gray ash ; and hot coals are barely covered with gray ash . Avoid cooking over direct flame so the outside of food is not charred . When cooking meats , trim them well of fat to avoid flare-ups . Use spatula or tongs to turn foods ; don't pierce with fork or flavorful juices will be lost . In warm weather , it is important to keep cold foods cold ( below 40 degrees ) until you are ready to cook or serve them . Food should not be left out at room temperature for long periods . Two hours is the maximum for most foods ; extremely perishable items should not sit out more than 20 minutes . Leftovers should be packed quickly in small , covered containers , and returned to the cooler , refrigerator or freezer as soon as possible . Keep raw and cooked foods separate . Wash utensils and surfaces that touch raw food with hot soapy water before using them for anything else . Distributed by the Los Angeles Times-Washington Post News Service . Thinking about cooking out tonight ? Why not think big ? That 's BIG , as in barbecued beef tenderloin , stuffed turkey breast , marinated leg of lamb , grilled salmon roast , or grilled-smoked ham . All these things are perfect on the grill , and can make a mighty nice change from the `` small stuff '' like burgers and dogs . They can turn a family meal into an occasion , or make a memorable feast for guests . And they 're really no more trouble than preparing and watching over a lot of little things on the grill . `` You can do anything on a grill , '' says Francie George , corporate vice president of Baltimore 's Haussner 's restaurant and an enthusiastic outdoor griller at home . `` I do Christmas dinner on the grill , '' she says . Other favorite items to grill are whole fish , fresh ham , turkey , prime rib and spare ribs . Everything is cooked on `` an old , beat-up '' kettle-type grill she 's had for nearly 30 years . Statistics show she 's not alone in her enthusiasm . Americans celebrated 2.6 billion `` barbecue events '' last year , up from 2.3 billion in 1991 , according to the Barbecue Industry Association , a trade group based in Naperville , Ill. . Eighty-three percent of all families in the United States own a barbecue grill of some type , the association says . Gas types have a slight edge over charcoal . And whatever the type , 52 percent use their grills year-round . The trend toward more meal preparation over coals or flame outdoors doesn't surprise Melanie Barnard , author of `` The Best Covered and Kettle Grills Cookbook Ever '' ( HarperCollins , $ 16.95 ) . Grilling appeals because it 's so easy it 's less formal , and there 's less cleanup afterward a factor that appeals in family dining and in today 's entertaining . `` Casual entertaining is where it 's at , '' Barnard says . `` Grilling speaks casual entertaining , '' she says . `` You don't do formal things on a grill because it 's a participatory experience . And that 's what I think is fun about it . You get people together and they get their hands in. .. . Maybe it 's prehistoric , maybe it 's part of our genetic makeup . Anything you make on a grill tastes better . '' While her book offers recipes for such things as Cajun burgers and `` the ultimate hot dog , '' there are also recipes for whole chicken stuffed with lemons and sage , summer herb stuffed turkey breast , grill-smoked brisket , ham , and country pot roast , apple and sage-stuffed pork roast and spiced rack of lamb . `` You can do chickens and ducks , whole turkeys , big pieces of fish '' quite easily on the grill , Barnard says . It takes just a little planning to make a memorable meal around a grilled specialty , she says . Simple dishes are the best accompaniment : She suggests starting with such snacks as cheese and crackers , or grilled toast with salsa , side dishes such as coleslaw , potato salad , or old-fashioned macaroni salad , some fresh vegetables from the farmer 's market , all topped off with ice cream or frozen yogurt and sliced fresh fruit . `` The biggest mistake people make , '' she says , is planning a menu that requires them to be in the kitchen finishing side dishes at the same time they 're outside watching the grill . That 's why easy things that can be made ahead , or require only the tiniest bit of last-minute preparation , are the most practical choices . And then the centerpiece can really stand out . ( Optional add end ) `` The key to doing larger pieces is to roast them slowly at lower temperature , '' George says . She cooks everything with indirect heat , moving the coals aside after they 're hot to encircle the grill , or placing them in semicircular piles on each side of the grate . The vents in the grill also help control the temperature , she says . `` When I do something large , I close the bottom vents and open the top ones , to let in a little more oxygen . '' She tries to keep the temperature between 275 and 300 degrees . ( She recommends buying a good meat thermometer , commercial-style if you can find one at a kitchen specialty store or restaurant supply outlet . ) `` Doing a whole turkey is wonderful , '' she says . `` I do nothing to it . I just let it cook . '' She props up less dense areas of the bird by placing an old half-cup measuring cup under the tail , and allows half an hour per pound to cook the bird . The skin gets brown and crispy and the flesh is firm and juicy , she says . `` Another thing that 's spectacular on the grill is a whole salmon , '' George says . She divides the coals into two semi-circles on opposite sides of the grill , so no part of the fish will be directly over the coals . `` The night before I wash it and dry it and make sure there are no scales left on it , then I open it up and fill the interior with a paste made of honey and brown sugar . '' You can also put in sprigs of fresh herbs dill , tarragon or thyme all work well , she says . The honey-sugar mixture should be the consistency of thick paste . She stores the fish in a plastic bag on a baking sheet in the refrigerator until she 's ready to cook it . She puts the fish in a two-sided rack , so it can be turned over halfway through the cooking process . For perfectly cooked fish , she says , allow 10 minutes per inch of thickness at 400 degrees . To make sure the fire stays hot enough when she divides the hot coals into two piles , she adds an extra eight to 10 coals per side . Then she throws on a handful of wood chips that have been soaked in water for a couple of hours . `` I predominantly use hickory , '' she says . `` I think mesquite is too strong . Cherry is also nice . '' With fresh ham , she says , `` before I cook it , I rub it with a combination of freshly grated horseradish and honey . '' The heat from the coals dries out the glaze , and when the ham is sliced , `` you get little tastes of it '' with each slice , she says . For a truly special occasion , she says , she will do a New England-style clam bake . She uses a two-part steamer , putting corn in the husk and potatoes in the water in the bottom section , then layering lobster , clams , monkfish , shrimp , mussels and perhaps scrod in the top section . She sprinkles each layer with Old Bay ; the steam picks up the spice and takes it back to the water , so that everything is just suffused with the flavor . Delightful as it is , grilling needn't always be a big deal . `` If I 'm cooking for myself , which I do quite a lot these days because my kids are all grown and my husband travels a lot , '' Ms. Barnard says , `` I would rather go turn the grill on and cook myself up a piece of chicken , than to cook it in the house where I 'd have to dirty a frying pan and it 's no more time and no more effort and it tastes a whole lot better . `` We have good seafood , '' in Connecticut , where she lives , Barnard says . `` Pretty soon we 'll get soft shells . I love to grill those . I do that for myself . That 's a real treat . '' OUR HOURLY BREAD : Bread doesn't demand much of you while it rises just that you be home three or four hours ahead to get it started . If you don't have that luxury , you can add club soda or beer to a package of Quick Loaf mix , stir it up , let it sit 10 minutes in a loaf pan and bake . The resulting loaf doesn't have the chewy , elastic texture of kneaded bread , but it has a good fresh-baked aroma , and for home-made bread that 's ready one hour after you open the package , with essentially no work , that 's not bad . The cracked wheat and nine-grain flavors are particularly good , and there are also garlic , onion , oatmeal and cinnamon-raisin mixes . In supermarkets. -0- I ' LL HAVE A RIK .. . A RKATS .. . OH , MAKE IT A CHARDONNAY : Wente Bros . Winery of Livermore , Calif. , has agreed to invest in Sameba Co. , a winery in the Republic of Georgia where some scholars believe wine was invented thousands of years ago . Distribution is expected to be in the four Commonwealth of Independent States countries where Wente now distributes its own California wines : Russia , Ukraine , Kazakhstan and Lithuania . University of California , Davis-trained winemaker Hughes Ryan has already moved to Georgia to supervise the fall 's crush . The wines will be made from Rkatsitelli , a white grape , and Saperavi , which produces a dark red wine that ages well . `` It 's premature to say , '' says John Schwartz , Wente 's vice president/international , `` but we hope to produce a suitable product that meets U.S. standards within two to five years. '' -0- SWIMMING FOR THE HALIBUT : Unlike other flatfish , halibut are swift swimmers and can easily rise to the surface to feed . In other words , they don't , as it were , flounder . I didn't know whether to laugh or cry . Last week 's `` 48 Hours '' did an `` expose '' on pesticides and the safety of the American food supply . They actually had a mother in tears because she fed her child grapes , which the host led her to believe were highly contaminated and dangerous . Give me a break . While pretending to be balanced , actual air time and editing created an alarming , though distorted , picture of killer fruits and vegetables raining destruction on our kids . And it attempted to create controversy where there is none ( in the name of ratings ? ) . In fact , there is widespread agreement that our produce is safe , even for kids , and important to their health . There is also agreement that improved research and monitoring are in order . Nobody wants to eat unnecessary pesticides , mostly because we fear they cause cancer . But we have no evidence to show this , a fact admitted by Richard Wiles of the Environmental Working Group , the prime promoter of the unsafe food supply theory . In fact , he even said that `` the risk from a diet of Twinkies is far greater than the risk from a diet of fruits and vegetables , even with these pesticides on them . '' So what we 're dealing with here is fear of the unknown . That in itself is not a bad thing . Experience tells us we 'd better be asking these kinds of questions . Research on pesticide safety should be thorough and ongoing . But terrorizing ourselves is not in our own best interest , especially if it puts a lid on our healthy behaviors . What we do know is that the fruits and vegetables that we 've been eating all our lives ( and for some of us that 's a long time ! ) are our No. 1 protector against cancer . During the show , cancer expert Dr. Bruce Ames pointed out that people who eat a total of five fruits and vegetables a day have half the cancer rate of those who eat less . In the United States today , we average only 3 servings daily . Clearly , we should be running toward the produce department , not away from it . On camera , Carol Browner , an administrator for the Environmental Protection Agency , was set up as an insider dissatisfied with the system . She said as a mother , she wanted a declaration from Congress that our children would be protected . Then she went on to admit that the EPA is already doing that . A year ago , the National Academy of Sciences issued an exhaustive report concluding that some regulatory improvements should be made to strengthen the food safety system , but that the food supply is safe even for children and parents should continue to encourage them to eat a wide variety of fruits and vegetables . As Browner noted , the EPA has begun putting the NAS recommendations into effect , including increased monitoring for pesticide residues in foods most commonly eaten by children . The NAS report has triggered other action as well . The International Food Information Council , a non-profit organization in Washington , notes that nearly half of all the produce sold in the United States is grown in California and monitored for safety by the California Department of Food and Agriculture . The California Department of Pesticide Regulation , which has one of the most stringent pesticide regulatory programs in the country , spent the last year reviewing the NAS study . On May 17 it issued its own report , indicating that `` the current California and federal pesticide regulatory systems adequately protect infants and children from risks posed by pesticide residues in the diet . '' IFIC also notes that , `` contrary to the Environmental Working Group report , most pesticides are water soluble and can be significantly decreased with washing. .. . The best advice to consumers wishing to further reduce their exposure to any possible pesticide residues is to wash produce thoroughly in cold tap water ; peel the outer leaves or skin of the produce ; and eat a wide variety of foods . '' Distributed by the Los Angeles Times-Washington Post News Service . Outdoor grilling is a very personal form of cooking depending more on intuition than formula . Yes , there are barbecue cookbooks , but when was the last time you saw someone actually follow a recipe to the letter ? To do so is an invitation to disaster , because no two fires are the same . The choice of wines to go with grilled food is a very personal one , too . So this along with the next column is a very personal answer to a question about food matchups posed by my editor . Whole books have been written about wine and food pairings , but I have never seen one that doesn't try to make me feel like a bozo for enjoying matchups that aren't on the approved list . So let 's be clear on one thing : These aren't rules . They are observations based on unscientific experimentation . At its most basic level , the answer to the question of which wine to serve with grilled food is the same one people have used for all foods : White wine with white meat , red wine with red meat . It 's a rule that 's demonstrably flawed , but nine times out of 10 it will produce a wine choice that 's at least acceptable . At higher levels of the game , more variables come into play and the goal becomes more elusive . Instead of an acceptable choice , you aim for an excellent selection or even the elusive perfect match . Seldom do you attain it , but on occasion it 's fun to play . Sometimes I play on the higher levels , sometimes I don't . Sometimes my choice is governed by my wanting to drink a certain wine that night regardless of whether the pairing is `` correct . '' Grilled food poses some interesting challenges other foods don't . In grilling , the manner of cooking is part of the seasoning . It 's also a form of cooking in which the food is often consumed outdoors . That can be an important factor in my choice of wine . The most important factors are what and how you grill . And no two people grill in exactly the same way . For me , one of the most important factors is the marinade . My marinades tend to rely heavily on herbes de Provence . That skews my wine choices in the direction of southern France . Someone who uses Italian seasonings might prefer Italian wines . There are other questions : Do you use mesquite ? That can be a consideration . The extra smokiness and spiciness could tip the balance toward a wine with those characteristics , such as a red zinfandel . Who 's coming for dinner ? Are they people who will appreciate your best or who willn't notice the difference ? Do they have special preferences ? What 's the weather ? Warmer weather calls for lighter , more acidic wines , especially if you 're eating outdoors . What are the secondary courses ? Sometimes they can clash with a wine that would be your first choice with the main dish . A down-the-list choice might be better with the overall meal . Some vinegary potato salads , for instance , might push you toward a simpler , lighter , more fruity wine . Do you use barbecue sauce ? If you do , you might want to stick to a fairly simple , fruity wine because most barbecue sauces , especially sweeter ones , tend to obliterate the flavors of dry , complex wines . You might be better off with a simple Beaujolais Nouveau than a better cru such as Morgon . Is there a salsa or spicy topping ? That might argue for a wine with some residual sugar , like a Kendall-Jackson chardonnay . ( Begin optional trim ) Grilling is a good excuse to try types of wines that aren't so familiar . Chardonnay and cabernet sauvignon are only average in how well they work with grilled foods ; pinot blanc and mourvedre can be exceptional . You might discover something you like better than what you 've been drinking all along . Some wines that aren't great on their own can reach new heights when they accompany grilled food . Some California sauvignon blancs do just that . And some of the world 's greatest wines just don't have much affinity with grilled food . Even so , it 's difficult to generalize . One style of California chardonnay might be a total zero with grilled salmon ; another might be a perfect marriage . ( End optional trim ) In future columns , I 'll be taking a look at some specific foods and how they work with specific wines . Until then , don't get concerned . If you 're eating grilled food and enjoying good wine , you 're already on the right track . Here are a couple of recipes from `` The Best Covered and Kettle Grills Cookbook Ever '' ( HarperCollins , $ 16.95 ) , by Melanie Barnard . While this first recipe is for a whole side of salmon , you can also use steaks or fillets , if you adjust the cooking time to about 5 minutes per side . MUSTARD-DILL SALMON ROAST cup lemon juice cup Dijon mustard cup olive oil 3 tablespoons minced shallots cup chopped fresh dill teaspoon freshly ground pepper 2 to 3 pounds side of salmon fillet , in one piece 1 cup plain yogurt or sour cream 1 tablespoon grated lemon zest whole dill sprigs , for garnish In a shallow dish just large enough to cover the fish , whisk together the lemon juice , mustard , olive oil , shallots , chopped dill , and pepper to blend well . Add the salmon and turn to coat both sides . Cover and refrigerate at least 30 minutes and up to 3 hours . Return to room temperature before cooking . Combine the yogurt with the lemon zest . Refrigerate until ready to use . Prepare a medium fire in a covered or charcoal gas grill . Cover and grill the salmon , skin side down , until nicely browned on the bottom , about 10 minutes . Carefully turn over with one or two wide spatulas and grill until the fish is just opaque throughout , 5 to 10 minutes longer . Serve the fish garnished with dill sprigs and accompanied by the lemon yogurt sauce . Serves six . Barnard recommends the next recipe as simple starter for summer barbecues . Use high-quality ingredients for best results . TOMATO-BASIL BRUSCHETTA cup extra-virgin olive oil 2 large garlic cloves , minced 1 pound ripe tomatoes , peeled , seeded and chopped 1/3 cup chopped sweet white or red onion 1/3 cup coarsely chopped fresh basil , plus leaves for garnish 2 tablespoons balsamic vinegar teaspoon salt teaspoon coarsely ground black pepper 8 slices crusty Italian bread , cut inch thick 1 cup shredded mozzarella cheese In a small bowl , combine the olive oil and garlic and let stand 15 minutes . In medium bowl , combine tomatoes , onion , basil , vinegar , salt , pepper , and 2 tablespoons garlic oil . Stir gently to mix . Let stand 15 to 30 minutes to allow the flavors to blend . Prepare a medium to hot fire in a covered charcoal or gas grill . Brush both sides of the bread with the remaining 2 tablespoons of the garlic oil . Grill until lightly toasted on one side , about 45 seconds . Turn the bread over and quickly spoon the tomato mixture over the toasted side . Sprinkle the cheese on top . Grill until the bread is toasted , the cheese melted , and tomato mixture slightly warmed , about 45 seconds . Garnish each piece with a basil leaf . Serves eight . Tasty home-baked dog biscuits can be a tail-wagging treat for the canines you know . And , if you don't have a dog to give a bone to , perhaps you 'd enjoy baking some for a friend who does . Shirley Wright of Baltimore requested a recipe for dog biscuits and writes , `` I doubt if your chef would be willing to sample them but that wouldn't be necessary because I 'll bake them and try them out on Tasha , my Bouvier des Flandres . '' Chef Gilles Syglowski had no problem finding some special tasters of his own . His dogs , Chi Chi and Shena , ages 4 and 6 , whom the chef says are white Eskimo dogs , were more than willing to sample the entries . `` My dogs would look at me in wonder when I offered them so many treats , '' he said . Three responses were chosen . T.J. Leeds of Columbia , Md. , Jean Partch of Kelso , Wash. , and Sally Niemann of Longmont , Colo. , sent in the chef 's choices . Dogs belonging to the three responders who enjoy home-baked offerings include a border collie , a springer spaniel , Brittany spaniel , a Maltese and a golden retriever `` who really woofs them down . '' NIEMANN 'S DOG TREATS 1 cups whole wheat flour 1 cups white flour cup quick oats ( soaked in warm water , just enough to cover ) cup corn meal cup ground nuts ( sunflower or sesame seeds work well ) 1 teaspoon garlic powder 4 tablespoons Brewers ' yeast 4 tablespoons oil ( corn or canola ) water Combine dry ingredients . Add oil then add enough water to make a stiff dough . Knead. Roll out and cut out in squares or in animal shapes . Bake 50 minutes in a 325-degree oven . Substitutions for wheat flour may include oat , rye or other flours . Oats may be substituted with multigrain cereals soaked or dry , or soaked stale crackers , rice cakes or corn chips . PARTCH 'S DOGGIE BISCUITS 3 cups all-purpose flour 2 cups whole-wheat flour 1 cup rye flour 2 cups bulgur 1 cup cornmeal cup instant non-fat dry milk 4 teaspoons salt 1 envelope dry yeast cup very warm water 2 to 3 cups chicken broth 1 egg 1 tablespoon milk Mix first 7 ingredients together . Sprinkle the yeast over the warm water then add it and 2 cups chicken broth to the flour mixture and mix with your hands until the mixture is stiff . If necessary add the remaining cup of broth a little at a time . Roll dough out to inch thickness on a floured surface and cut into shapes . Place on ungreased baking sheets . Mix the egg and milk and brush over the biscuits . Bake at 300 degrees for 45 minutes . Then turn off oven and leave biscuits in closed oven overnight . Store in resealable bags . They keep well . LEEDS ' DOG BISCUITS Makes about 2 dozen 1 cup all-purpose flour 1 cup whole wheat flour cup wheat germ cup dry milk teaspoon salt ( optional ) 6 tablespoons shortening 1 teaspoon brown sugar 1 egg cup water ( approximately ) Combine all dry ingredients , cut in shortening until the mixture resembles cornmeal . Beat together the brown sugar and egg and add to dry mixture . Add water gradually , enough to make a stiff dough . Roll out to -inch thickness and cut with a cookie cutter , if possible a bone shape . Bake at 325 degrees for about 30 minutes or until lightly browned . Chef Syglowski , with the help of chefs and students at the Baltimore International Culinary College , selected and tested these recipes . -0- Recipe requests R.M. Allen of Reisterstown , Md. , is looking for a dandelion jelly recipe which has been misplaced . Gladys A . Field of Bend , Ore. , has lost her recipe for `` a delicious white cake using bing cherries which was in the American Home magazine sometime between 1957 and 1963 . I think the cherries were used on top and as a filler between layers , '' she wrote . Eleanor Wendt of Woodstock , Ill. , writes that her husband brought home a spaghetti salad from a local grocery chain and `` I believe ` homemade ' would be a better description . Please help , '' she wrote . If you are looking for a recipe or can answer a request for a long-gone recipe , maybe we can help . Please print each response or request clearly on a separate sheet of paper with your name , address and phone number . Send to Ellen Hawks , Recipe Finder , The Baltimore Sun , 501 N . Calvert St. , Baltimore 21278 . Q : Did Johnny Crawford , the boy on `` The Rifleman , '' appear in any other series ? A : Crawford appeared on television as early as 1955 ( he was born in 1946 ) . He came into prominence as a regular on `` The Mickey Mouse Club '' ( 1955-56 ) and then saddled up for `` The Rifleman '' ( 1958-63 ) . Following his run as Mark McCain , he guest-starred on scores of prime-time series and TV movies throughout the 1960s , '70s and '80s . His early '60s pop/rock singing career included such hits as `` Cindy 's Birthday '' ( No. 8 ) , `` Rumors '' ( No. 12 ) and `` Your Nose Is Gonna Grow '' ( No. 14 ) . If you don't know where you 've been , how do you know where you 're going ? Today , women in America have the right to vote . The right to obtain credit . The right to jobs that for decades were strictly for men . Reproductive rights . The right to serve in their country 's military . Rights now taken for granted . Yet , do women really understand how they got those rights ? `` A Century of Women , '' a six-hour production premiering Tuesday on TBS , offers a glimpse of the enormous inroads and societal changes women have affected throughout this century . It 's a story filled with sadness , joy , passion , drama , tears , death , struggle and hard-won victories . And it 's not for women only . Narrated by Jane Fonda , `` Century of Women '' utilizes diaries , letters and personal memoirs , never-before-seen archival footage and photographs and interviews with the women who have made a difference . Interwoven throughout the footage connecting past with present is an original family drama directed by Oscar-winning documentary filmmaker Barbara Kopple ( `` An American Dream , '' `` Harlan County , U.S.A. '' ) . The generational story stars Olympia Dukakis , Teresa Wright , Talia Shire , Brooke Smith , Justine Bateman , Jasmine Guy and Madge Sinclair . The documentary is divided into three topics : `` Work and Family , '' `` Sexuality and Social Justice '' and `` Image and Popular Culture . '' `` When we sat around discussing the themes of the six hours , '' says executive producer Pat Mitchell , `` we found that everybody talked about the same issues . We thought if there was a way to mirror our conversations in the office with the conversations in living rooms , then people would understand this is not about history . It 's also about right now and how we are living our life . That was the genesis of our idea to create that connection for the viewers that this isn't just about what women did for the past 100 years . This is what women are talking about now and coping with and laughing about and crying about . '' Co-writer and executive producer Jacoba Atlas points out that a century ago , women were beset by many of the same problems confronting contemporary women . Turn-of-the-century writer Charlotte Perkins Gilman , Atlas says , grappled `` with the role of men and women , how to raise their children , how to be a writer and postpartum depression and expectations. .. . `` What we hope comes across is that we are all part of the same piece and things don't go away . Laws change that 's a real accomplishment for women in this century , but I think that any woman who has a child and has to leave their child to go to work grapples throughout their life : Did I do the right thing ? That went on in 1901 and it goes in 1994 . '' Though the documentary profiles such well-known women as first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton , feminist Betty Friedan and writer Edna St. Vincent Millay , most of the women are not household names . `` A lot of the women who really changed the laws are just average women , '' Atlas explains . One such `` average '' woman was Ida May Phillips who , in the 1970s , was a waitress with seven children . The family breadwinner , she wanted a better job and applied to become an assembly trainee at Martin-Marietta Co. . `` They said , ` You can't take this job because you have small children , ' ' ' Atlas says . `` So she took it all the way to the Supreme Court . The Supreme Court said you can't tell a woman with children she can't have a job unless you say the same thing to a man with small children . Ida Phillips had no background to say she would be able to go and do this , but she changed the world for all of us . '' ( Optional add end ) Determining who to include in the documentary was difficult . One prominent woman not profiled is former first lady Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis . Atlas says Onassis ' life had been so dissected and publicized that the production team didn't think it could add anything to her story , especially because the extremely private Onassis didn't give interviews . Nor did the people close to her . `` I 'm not sure we could have offered any insights that would have done her justice , '' Atlas laments . Former first lady Eleanor Roosevelt , though , is prominently featured . According to Atlas , the documentary 's historical advisers all agreed that Roosevelt was the most influential woman of the 20th century . `` I gained tremendous respect for her , '' Atlas says . `` She took stands that she hadn't been raised to take . She took a stand against racism in this country . She took a stand against anti-Semitism , both of which were prevalent in her husband 's administration . She also defended Japanese-Americans during World War II , who were rounded up . '' For Kopple , directing fiction was not much different from making a documentary . `` In a sense , it was a documentary because we were searching for something that was deeper and going sort of underneath and being intimate , '' she explains . `` When we started out to do the fictional , we had a rehearsal the first day and all the seven actresses sat around and read through the entire script . There was just this explosion of all of these women suddenly being so intimate with each other . It was if there was a bond between all of us . They talked about their mothers and being mothers and different things that happened to them in their lives . Every second we weren't shooting was an excuse to talk to each other . '' `` A lot of the women that we deal with in the documentary led very public lives , '' Atlas adds . `` The women in the fictional lead what would be called small lives . We were always concerned if the balance would seem OK . Can the fictional family compare to ( birth control pioneer ) Margaret Sanger ? She was dealing on such a public level that impacts all of our lives and would some of the small concerns that we go through during the day hold up in the bigger world ? '' Documentaries , Kopple says , `` have so much drama and passion what we were afraid , ` Would the fictional hold up to the documentary because the documentary is so strong ? ' Not until we got into the editing room did we see that yes , this is going to work . '' `` A Century of Women '' airs Tuesday-Thursday on TBS ; all six hours repeat June 18 . The last thing most kids want to do when they grow up is work 14-hour days with their dad . But Barry Van Dyke who co-stars in his father Dick Van Dyke 's `` Diagnosis Murder '' doesn't mind at all . `` I 'd work with him any time , '' says Van Dyke , 42 , from his Conejo Valley , Calif. , home . He adds that his dad , long labeled one of Hollywood 's nicest actors , is `` the best to work with , very creative . He has a lot of integrity and he 'll work no matter what , including physical discomfort . He set a fine example . We 've always talked about working together . '' On the CBS comedy-drama , where father and son act as father and son , Van Dyke plays police investigator Steve Sloan , who often helps his physician and mystery-solver dad , Dr . Mark Sloan , get out of hot water . Producers thought it would be easier if they made the local police investigator Sloan 's son . `` He doesn't really want to arrest his meddling dad , '' Van Dyke says , laughing . Of the Sloans ' relationship , he adds , `` It 's an easy role for me to fall into . My dad pretty much plays himself . You 're seeing the real him . All that warmth and humanity really comes across . So I tend to play myself . So their relationship is pretty much ours . '' While Van Dyke 's siblings one brother and two sisters all considered careers in show business , he was the only one who took it seriously . His father , well aware of the trappings of a fickle industry , advised his oldest son to wait . `` He wanted me to have my childhood , '' says Van Dyke . `` He told me that if I still wanted to act after I graduated high school , then it would be OK . '' Even though the family moved to Los Angeles when he was 9 for `` The Dick Van Dyke Show , '' he never felt they were part of the show-business community . `` My father didn't travel in those circles . We were aware he was on TV and watched the show and knew it was successful , but we didn't socialize with a lot of show-business types . '' Yet some of Van Dyke 's best memories include visits to the set of his father 's show . Watching Carl Reiner , Mary Tyler Moore and his father work together was `` the greatest thing to see , '' he recalls . When his father worked on location , it became the family vacation . Trips to England and Hawaii are remembered fondly . He acknowledges that , initially , his father 's name may have helped him get an agent , but it certainly didn't help him get work . `` There 's too much at stake for producers and casting directors to get you in on just a name , '' Van Dyke says . Eventually , it comes down to : `` You either perform or you don't . You work or you don't . '' And he worked , beginning as a `` go-fer '' on `` The New Dick Van Dyke Show , '' shot at his father 's small production studio in Arizona , where the elder Van Dyke had decided to `` retire '' before being persuaded to return to television . Dick 's son held cue cards , ran the transportation department and basically gathered production experience . But he always wanted to be in front of the camera . Finally , he got his wish : He landed a job as an extra . More extra work and small parts followed . Then he got really lucky . He landed a development deal with ABC . Although initially pigeonholed in comedy , his father 's milieu , Van Dyke found he had more of an affinity for action-adventure . Regular series work followed , including `` Battlestar Gallactica '' and `` Airwolf . '' And Van Dyke may be following in his father 's footsteps in more ways than one : He 's got his own family dynasty in the works . During his first foray into `` entertainment , '' Van Dyke took tickets at a local movie theater , where he met his wife Mary , when they were both 16 . They married seven years later , when Van Dyke was working as an extra . The Van Dykes have four children : Carey , 18 ; Shane , 14 ; Wes , 9 , and Taryn , 7 . It seems his kids are eager to work with their dad too . The Van Dyke family , who surf and dirt-bike together , is hoping to start its own production company soon . `` Diagnosis Murder '' airs Fridays on CBS . One glimpse at the new `` Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle '' and you know that it 's a product of Shelley Duvall ( `` Faerie Tale Theater , '' `` Bedtime Stories , '' `` Tall Tales and Legends '' ) . Based on the popular children 's stories by Betty MacDonald , `` Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle '' is filled with colorful , exaggerated sets with costumes and characters to match . Jean Stapleton stars as the eponymous lead character , a wise and loving lady who lives in an upside-down house and offers uncommon cures for such common childhood problems as `` The Not Truthful Cure , '' `` The Never Want to Go to Bedder 's Cure , '' `` The Fraidy Cat Cure '' and `` The Tattletale Cure . '' `` Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle , '' the fifth original series Duvall has done for Showtime , offers `` a wonderful , uninhibited creature , fearless and able to relate to children in a perfectly comfortable , unconditional way , '' Stapleton says . Most of all , the actress notes , Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle is child-like , but not childish . `` She has a great sense of humor , with a lot of common sense , '' Duvall adds . Not only was she drawn to the series of books because they were hilarious but also because they offer great information for families . Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle gets her message across without using the wagging finger . `` She never says , ` do this or do that , ' ' ' Duvall says . Through suggestion , the errant children always `` end up understanding the right way on their own . '' As Stapleton puts it , `` She helps them see the light . '' The hourlong `` Special Parents ' Sneak Peek '' of `` Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle '' airs Tuesday . Beginning June 14 , the show begins its regular time slot on Showtime . For ages 2 and up. -0- Beginning Monday , `` Storytime '' the award-winning series produced by KCET in Los Angeles , will be carried by PBS affiliates nationwide . The show 's goal is to show how much fun reading can be , using new books and classic stories read aloud by celebrities . Many read to their own children , as well as to members of the kid audience . `` What 's great is that everyone is passionate about one story that 's their favorite , '' notes producer Steve Kulczycki . He hopes that the show can encourage youngsters to find a favorite of their own . `` A lot of the show depends on the imagination of the kids , '' he says . `` Maybe parents will do some reading with their own kids , too . '' Celebrity readers include Tom Selleck , Mariel Hemingway , John Goodman , Shari Belafonte , A Martinez , Paul Rodriguez , Edward James Olmos , Fred Savage , Cloris Leachman , Valerie Bertinelli , Paula Poundstone , John Ritter , Patricia Richardson , Cindy Williams , Amanda Plummer , Mayim Bialik , Meshach Taylor , Reginald Veljohnson , Maria Conchita Alonso and Hector Elizondo . Puppet Kino and host Mara ( Marabina Jaimes ) are joined by a new co-host named Lucy ( Anne Betancourt ) . Lucy adds a grandmother-like appeal , Kulczycki points out . Twenty new shows have been added to the original 20 , which will be presented in rotation nationally . The 67 new readings bring the total of books read on the show to 137 . On June 20 , Charles Dutton of `` Roc '' hosts a prime-time `` Storytime '' special . Dutton reads `` Muckey Moose , '' and Jamie Lee Curtis reads her own book , `` When I Was Little . '' The special will feature excerpts from the new shows . `` Storytime '' airs daily . For ages 2 and up . Arts & Entertainment 's 7-year-old `` Biography '' series has developed into the most popular show on the cable channel that offers an eclectic mix of documentaries , British mysteries and drama , arts programming and vintage movies . `` Biography '' has become so successful over the last 18 months that last week the series went from airing once a week to five times a week . Michael Cascio , vice president of documentary programming , explains why he believes the series , hosted by Peter Graves and Jack Perkins , has become an audience favorite : `` Where a big network might give you 10 minutes on a person , we will give you a whole hour , '' he says . `` You get detail . That 's one thing we can do that the other people can't . I think the reason why ` Biography ' succeeds is that it lives on the name of the persons being profiled . If you do an Alfred Hitchcock or Margaret Thatcher or Hillary Clinton or John Belushi , these are people whom everybody knows who they are . They have an interesting life and can sustain detail that can last for an hour . Generally , you look for people who are popular and have a little bit of weight behind them . '' The type and era of personalities the series chooses have evolved since the series premiered April 6 , 1987 . Originally , most of the biographies were culled from the '60s Mike Wallace-hosted CBS series , also entitled `` Biography . '' These days , `` Biography '' profiles more than recent historical figures . `` We have covered a lot of historical figures from the '30s and '40s Churchill and Roosevelt . We will still do some of those . But we have gone way forward . We have just done Sid Caesar and Milton Berle . We have done Madonna and Elizabeth Taylor . '' Because production techniques have become so sophisticated , `` Biography '' also can examine the lives of such not-so-recent historical figures as Ulysses S . Grant , George Washington and Davy Crockett . `` You can go back in time and use drawings and paintings , '' Cascio says . `` We can have some fun . There are a lot of people that you can choose that are going to have audience appeal . The range is phenomenal . We have so much fun figuring out who we want to do . '' `` Biography '' aspires to give viewers a fresh look at a particular person . `` You have an obligation to the public , '' Cascio says . `` We are not sensationalized . We are not tabloid . Our goal is fairness not to highlight the bad stuff or just dwell on the good parts . It 's to present a balanced portrait of a person or a particular portrait . Generally speaking , the biography is meant to deal with people in all of their aspects and look at them as a whole , which is more difficult to do than you might think . '' ( Optional add end ) Members of the Hollywood community have become more receptive about participating in the series . `` You can do anything , '' Cascio says . `` We can do a biography , but it 's difficult to do not impossible without ( the subject 's ) direct approval . Even if they don't talk , they can say to their friends , ` Don't talk to them . ' When we told Sid Caesar we were doing this , he had a choice of cooperating or not , and he cooperated . He knows his life has had ups and downs . He said , ` It 's better for me to cooperate and give you my side of the story rather than have a bunch of people telling stuff they don't know about. ' ' ' Famous folks , Cascio says , also perceive the documentaries as a way to leave a legacy . ` I 'm sure that for Milton Berle , aside from the fact he 's a natural ham , this was a chance to get on record his life in an hour . '' And what have been the highest-rated `` Biography '' subjects ? Elizabeth Taylor , Milton Berle , Bruce Lee , Shirley Temple and Howard Hughes . `` Right below that there is a surprising middle pack including Napoleon and Vincent Price , '' Cascio says . A&E plans to produce between 70 and 100 original biographies this year , including John Belushi , Sherlock Holmes ( `` We can do fictional people as well , '' Cascio says ) , Steve Allen , Davy Crockett , George Washington and Lucille Ball . `` Biography '' airs twice weeknights on A&E . Several `` Biography '' documentaries are also available on A&E Home Video . NEW YORK Outside Henry Bookbinders , the street is polyglot and polychrome : a wonderful collision of languages spoken by men and women of every hue , multicolored storefronts and awnings awash in alphabets and ideograms whose messages run in every direction . Inside the bindery , it 's only a bit less so : Two alphabets predominate , Hebrew and Roman , and two languages , Yiddish and English although there 's a smattering of medical Latin on some of the pages as well . Shulem Halpert , Henry 's proprietor , speaks English with the pronounced accent and imperfect grammar that marks those for whom it is a second language . It therefore comes as something of a surprise to learn that he is American-born . `` I come from America , '' he says . `` My father came from Hungary . English is for me a second language . I learn it in school ; also , I catch it from the streets . '' His first language , and the one most used for communication in the shop , is Yiddish . Halpert is a Satmar Hasid , a member of a sect so strict and inward-looking that it exists in enclaves . The nearest is in Williamsburg , where Halpert was born and grew up . Another enclave is Kiryas Joel , a Satmar community in Monroe , N.Y. , where Halpert moved 19 years ago , and where he still lives with his wife and those of his 16 children who are as yet unmarried . He is 45 years old , looks quite a bit younger , and already has eight grandchildren . ( Begin optional trim ) Halpert is an intense and voluble man with an aggressive sense of humor . `` I like a joke , '' he says . `` Even a Jewish joke you know , a joke that makes fun of someone ? As long as it is not meant to hurt . As long as the person is a friend . '' Bookbinding is a second career for Halpert . His first was as shammes for the Grand Rabbi Joel Teitelbaum , who led the Satmar until he was succeeded , in the dynastic tradition of the movement , by a nephew . Halpert cannot find a term in English that matches shammes . `` I help him , '' he says of the rebbe , Yiddish for rabbi . `` He was an old man . Before I was married I stayed with him I helped him eat , dress . I write things . He was a real rebbe . Not a phony baloney . Everybody liked him like a father . '' His experience with the printed word then was restricted to parchment . `` Really , I was an artist , '' he says . `` I wrote the parchments , the mezuzah , the scrolls . '' But after the rebbe 's death about 15 years ago , he decided to come to the bindery , which was then run by his brother 's father-in-law , Itzak Glanz . ( End optional trim ) Henry Bookbinders is precisely what the name says , a place that binds books . It does not print them , publish them , sell or distribute them . Customers must supply the text ; Halpert supplies the outside . Some of the outsides are probably at least as satisfying and instructive as the material they shelter . Halpert does very nice work with some very nice leathers . These exceed the chromatic variety of the street outside : They are blue , green , cream , red , yellow , maroon , white and brown of many shades . Pretty much everything is done at least in part by hand . For instance , Halpert stitches the books together with the aid of a big , foot-operated sewing machine . He takes a stack of loose pages about a quarter-inch high , sets them in place and steps on a treadle . A bank of threaded needles descends to sew the pages together . The sewn batches are folded and fastened into covers held down in presses until the glue dries . Leather is hand work , and the tools Halpert produces for a demonstration speak eloquently of how long Henry Bookbinders has been going about its business : Halpert hones an old kitchen knife ( whose blunt , broken blade had been all but worn away in past sharpenings ) on a whetstone that was once the size of a pound of butter . Now it is down to the equivalent of perhaps nine ounces . Halpert sets a scrap of leather on a granite slab whose once-sharp edge has been dulled by long wear . He takes a board , the cardboard that stiffens the cover of a hardbound book , and traces one corner onto the back of the leather . He cuts a generous triangle around this corner and bevels the edges with the razor-sharp knife . When he has the leather slimmed down to his satisfaction , he fits it to the corner and , using a flat , round-cornered rectangle of plastic called a bone , bends the leather over the board and glues it down in a neat bedsheet corner , with Elmer 's glue . This is a leather corner ; Halpert will also bind or rebind books entirely , or partially , in leather . He will also put hubs , those horizontal raised bands , on the spine . It is the labor , not the material , that makes leather binding expensive , Halpert says . He always has a selection of leather on hand for customers , but occasionally someone will come in with his or her own piece of leather . `` Someone brought me an old leather briefcase once , '' Halpert says . `` It had belonged to his great-grandfather . He wanted to make a book from it , to save something . '' Halpert offers a choice of endpapers to liven the insides of the covers , and also will decorate the page edges . This he does with a sponge and inks of various colors , dipping and dabbing to give the blank edges an interesting design . You also can have the edges gilded but Halpert sends this work out to a specialist in Soho . Most of the books that leave Henry Bookbinders are less elegantly clad in what the trade calls library binding buckram , or imitation leather , or fabric , in the unadorned style familiar from library shelves . Halpert uses a stamping press to print the titles on the spines of these books in plain gold block letters . In the past , Halpert says , Henry Bookbinders was quite well known in the city as a binder of city documents . The company did a great deal of work that wound up in the libraries of city hospitals . `` A lot of journals , medical books , magazines , '' Halpert says . ( Optional add end ) Lawyers , too , are among Henry 's clients ; the better-off ones use a roomful of leather to impress laymen with their prowess . He takes on other projects as well , such as an order from a television production company that wanted hardbound pocket folders to hold documents , perhaps press releases . The production company was talking in terms of 650 folders , an order that did not faze Halpert . `` I can do this , '' he says . `` I 'm ready to work . I make things fast . I have good hands . '' Still , he gives the clear impression that he often would rather be back in Kiryas Joel , where there is no television , no radio , no newspaper except the one published in the community , nothing but the religion that has shaped him since birth . `` Now , '' he says , looking around his office with an uneasy smile , `` Now I want to go out from this . '' PROVIDENCE , R.I. . You 're within earshot of the biggest bell ever cast at Paul Revere 's workshop , not far from an Ivy League university , and in a seaport where the streets practically teem with history . Back in Colonial days , the city hosted a tea party of sorts , destroying a shipment of leaves as a protest against the stiff tax imposed by the British government . It might sound like Boston , but this is Providence , the biggest city in little Rhode Island . Surrounding the gleaming marble dome of the Rhode Island Statehouse , Providence packs plenty of variety . Here you 'll find one of New England 's best zoos , a Little Italy atop Federal Hill , some picture-perfect parks , and what they say is the first shopping mall in the country the Arcade , built in 1828 . But the true pleasures of Providence lie on the city 's East Side , on the hillside settled more than 350 years ago by founder Roger Williams and his followers . Back in 1635 , Williams was banished from the Massachusetts Bay Colony for his dangerous ideas which included the radical concept that Indians had a right to the land on which they had lived for millennia . Williams left one jump ahead of a group of soldiers sent to arrest him , and eventually he made his way up the Providence River to a spring , where he established a community based on religious tolerance . Here on the patch of Providence now known as College Hill , today 's visitor will find little evidence of Williams ' original community it was nearly destroyed in 1676 during the Indian uprising called King Philip 's War . Now College Hill is crowned by Brown University , and the surrounding streets are a treasury of early American architecture . In addition to hundreds of historic homes , there 's the Cambridge-style stretch of Thayer Street , with its ethnic restaurants , bookstores open late into the night , vintage clothing shops and a host of places to buy CDs , tapes or records . And there are the artsy , gallery-dotted environs of the Rhode Island School of Design and the peaceful oasis of the Providence Athenaeum , one of the country 's oldest public libraries with a quintessential reading room that has yet to be discovered by a Hollywood location scout . College Hill is a walker 's domain , a part of Providence that seems more town than city . It 's built on a human scale , with few buildings topping off at more than four stories . Trees line the streets , and sidewalk gardens send flowery scents into the air . Here and there , Colonial-era clapboard houses frame a distant vista of the Statehouse dome , the downtown high-rises , or the steeple of some stately church . Urban hikers on College Hill are rewarded with one discovery after another as the picture of Providence unreels along the city 's sidewalks . Start on Benefit Street , along the so-called `` Mile of History , '' setting out from the First Baptist Church on North Main Street at the foot of College Hill . Head north on what was once an old Indian trail , a pathway along which the Pequots or the Wampanoags may have portaged their canoes . Benefit Street is now one fine home after another , a long parade of well-restored houses from the 18th and 19th centuries . Along the city 's most famous historic thoroughfare are Federal-style houses and Greek Revival manses , Italianate-style homes and gambrel-roofed Colonials . It 's a riot of clapboards , pediments and pilasters in an Easter-egg assortment of pinks and pale yellows , mustards , grays , tans and browns one house is even painted the color of a pumpkin . Many homes are the legacy of Providence 's long association with the sea . Many residents were shipping magnates , importing treasures from the Orient or engaged in the notorious triangle trade shuffling rum , molasses and slaves between Africa , the Caribbean and New England . The houses show how lucrative the trade was . Throughout Benefit Street 's mile run , the architectural integrity borders on the hermetic . Almost nothing detracts from the sense of the past . Benefit Street 's historic homes were rescued from the depths of decline many of the old homes had become crumbling tenements beginning in the 1950s . The success of the neighborhood restoration effort kindled pride enough to encourage the Providence Preservation Society to host , for the past 14 years , an annual Festival of Historic Houses . But Benefit Street is not the city 's only historic highway . After walking to the corner of Jenckes Street , where residents have barricaded their houses with stones against the danger of runaway trucks coasting down the San Francisco-style hillside , you could turn uphill for a few blocks before turning right onto Prospect Street . The houses along this ledge-top patrician way represent the high point of Providence living . These stately houses , built by some of the city 's wealthiest residents in the latter 19th century , boast landscapes decorated with perennial gardens , clipped hedges , magnolia trees and rhododendrons . Along the way , take a one-block jaunt down Cushing Street and stop at Prospect Terrace . Here are panoramic views of the city skyline and an oddly posed statue of founder Roger Williams , looking eternally ready to disco off toward the setting sun . ( Optional add end ) Back on Prospect , a few blocks bring you to the imposing dome of the Christian Scientist Church and the greenswards of Brown University . Here you might head toward Thayer Street , the city 's four-block mecca for Generation X hipsters . Another locus of activity lies along the southern end of College Hill , where cafes and restaurants line a stretch of Wickenden Street . Or head back downhill , toward Benefit Street and the mighty steeple of the First Baptist Church . Head south on Benefit , to the Providence Athenaeum , a library that traces its roots to 1753 . The library , now housed in a temple that appears transplanted from Greece , offers peaceful respite among the antique desks and chairs , the marble busts , the paintings and the quiet alcoves where Edgar Allan Poe courted Providence poetess Sarah Helen Whitman 150 years ago . With a little luck , you might get a look at one of the library 's greatest treasures the seven volumes of the original double Elephant Folio edition of John James Audubon 's `` Birds Of America . '' These eye-popping illustrations each almost 6 feet square are kept in a special climate-controlled locked vault along with other precious works , such as the Athenaeum 's incredible selection of travel and exploration books and its collection of works by Robert Burns . Many of these historic treasures can be traced to the library 's astute forebears the very patrons who left evidence of their discerning tastes and genteel manners all over College Hill . Distributed by the Los Angeles Times-Washington Post News Service . We were sitting around the other day talking about lard and I mentioned my favorite duck `` chicharrones '' duck skin cooked until the bits of skin are crisp and brown in the rendered fat . That sounds great , someone said , but what do you do with the rest of the duck ? Well , you could have knocked me over with a tail feather . There is so much you can do with a duck that I hardly knew where to start . If , as the old saying goes , you can use every part of the pig but the squeal , think of a duck as a pig built for two . To prove my point , I decided to stop at a local Asian market to get a nice fresh duck . The good thing about Asian markets is that the ducks are sold with the heads and feet still on . That 's nice because the feet add a lot to the stock , and with the heads on , you get the full neck , which is loaded with good fat . The thing to check , though , is the cavity . Sometimes the butcher might happen to kind of accidentally forget to leave in the liver strictly an accident , you understand , but a near-criminal offense in my book . If you 've ever tasted a terrine made from duck livers or even duck livers just lightly sauteed in butter you 'll know why . They 're like Little League foie gras . Rinse the duck well , then strip away the skin and any fat and cut them into roughly two-inch squares or strips . Put these in a pan with about one-quarter cup of water and cook over medium heat . Pretty soon , the water will evaporate and all you 'll have left is rendered duck fat ( the liquid will start to sizzle when this happens ) . Cook it until the skin bits turn dark-brown , then retrieve them with a slotted spoon and drain them on paper towels . Let the fat cool , then pour it through a strainer into a glass container . The skin cracklings , or chicharrones , are terrific lightly salted kind of like popcorn from cardiac hell . For the more cautious , they can be used as a garnish . They 're also wonderful folded into an omelet , but don't tell them you heard it here . The duck fat you 've just rendered is one of the best cooking mediums around , with a wonderful brown flavor . I love to fry potato pancakes in it . The next step is to remove the two duck breasts . Using just the point of a very sharp knife , trace the line where the keel bone separates the breasts . Lift up gently and continue tracing the line where the breast meat meets the ribs . When it is free , remove it to a plate , cover it with plastic wrap and repeat on the other side . The breasts are wonderful broiled , grilled or sauteed in a very hot skillet . And by serving them separate from the legs , you can cook them to only medium-rare , thus keeping them juicy and flavorful . ( If you cooked the duck with the legs , of course , you would have to have rare-rare legs to get a medium-rare breast , and that would be very unpleasant . ) Remove the legs from the frame and set them aside . Take off the feet and wings and put them in a roasting pan . Chop the remaining bones into four or five pieces and add them to the feet and wings . Toss in a peeled whole onion and a carrot and roast at 450 degrees 30 to 45 minutes or until everything starts to brown and smell really good . Using a slotted spoon to leave as much fat as possible behind , remove the browned bones and vegetables to a large saucepan . Cover well with water , add some parsley stems and whatever else you like in a poultry stock , and let it cook over medium-high heat for a couple of hours . Top off with water as necessary . When the stock is deeply colored , ladle it off into a separate , clean saucepan . At this point you will have a delicious , intensely flavored stock . Either add a little more water to use it as a base for a duck soup ( nothing easier ) , or set it to cook over a low flame and reduce it to a demi-glace , or duck jelly . The only thing left is the duck legs . These are tendon-y and a bit tough but very flavorful . Put them in a shallow pan with a little duck stock . Cook , covered , over medium heat for about 20 minutes . Test with a small sharp knife . It should slip into the meat fairly easily . Let the legs cool , then remove the meat . Shred the meat into strips . ( If you 're still cooking the stock , throw in the leg bones . What can it hurt ? ) This meat is great in salads , as part of a filling for stuffed pastas or even for sandwiches . Do a couple of ducks and you 'll have enough to make duck sausage , if you 're that ambitious . What 's the bottom line ? Out of one 5-pound duck , I got three cups of duck fat , two cups of duck cracklings , two duck breasts ( about pound each ) , five cups of concentrated duck stock ( enough for two quarts of soup , or 2 cups of stiff duck demi-glace ) , and 1 cups cooked , shredded meat from the legs . And that 's what you can do with a duck . I had duck ; I had arugula . How to bring them together ? I wasn't sure what my dressing would be until I opened the plastic bag of lettuce . The intensely nutty smell of the arugula reminded me of sesame oil , so I put together this Asian-influenced dressing . DUCK SALAD 1 cups cooked , minced duck leg meat from 5-pound duck Duck Dressing 4 cups arugula , coarsely chopped 1 cup duck chicharrones , coarsely chopped from of skin of 5-pound duck Toss together minced duck and Duck Dressing in medium work bowl until duck is coated well . Add arugula and toss until lightly coated and well mixed with duck . Divide among 4 chilled plates and sprinkle chopped duck chicharrones over top . Makes 4 servings . Each serving contains about : 787 calories ; 608 mg sodium ; 160 mg cholesterol ; 73 grams fat ; 2 grams carbohydrates ; 28 grams protein ; 0.1 gram fiber . Duck Dressing cup lightly warmed duck demi-glace 1 tablespoon hoisin sauce 2 teaspoons rice wine vinegar 1 teaspoon soy sauce 2 teaspoons finely minced green onions , green part only Combine demi-glace , hoisin sauce , vinegar , soy sauce and green onion in small work bowl and whisk until smooth . It 's October and Sheila Lukins is feeling harassed . Her first solo book is supposed to be published in April , and the galley proofs have just come back from the copy editors with a thousand questions still to be answered . What size tomato ? What kind of apple ? How much does that fennel bulb weigh ? Now she has to go to a market , buy a bulb of fennel and weigh it . Her physical therapist is coming by four times a week to work on the muscles she screwed up by not walking correctly after a stroke . And she still has to find the time to pack for a quick trip to Paris to visit her daughter . On top of that , she 's worried about how the book will be received . Just last spring her one-time business partner and former co-author Julee Rosso put out a solo book , `` Great Good Food , '' and got trashed in the press . Rosso , who pocketed an advance reported to be $ 625,000 , insisted that she and four assistants tested 1,500 recipes in 10 months to select the 800 used in the book . Her detractors said that was impossible . No matter , Crown Publishing willn't talk specifics but reveals that the thick paperback of low-fat recipes has been a fast seller : Since last April the book has sold about 500,000 copies . So was the book really that bad , or was it a matter of the food establishment the `` Food Mafia , '' as many call it taking sides in the professional divorce of a couple that helped change the way America eats ? In 1977 , the dynamic duo Lukins the caterer and Rosso the marketer co-founded the Silver Palate in Manhattan , one of the first gourmet take-out shops in the country . The highfalutin home cooking they pioneered contributed to a radical change in baby boomer eating habits . Sauteed chicken livers with blueberry vinegar , caviar eclairs , pizza pot pie and pesto by the quart were suddenly the rage from Boca Raton , Fla. , to Bellingham , Wash. . To date , their three Silver Palate cookbooks have sold more than 5 million copies . By the time the partnership ended , shortly after the sale of their shop in 1988 , the pair were barely speaking . `` We were great friends , '' says Lukins , `` It 's over now . '' After the breakup , Rosso moved to Michigan and discovered yogurt cheese , while Lukins began traveling and researching her `` All Around the World Cookbook '' for Workman , the publishers of the original Silver Palate books . `` I wish with all my heart that Julee 's book had been nicely received because everyone is going to want to see how the other one did , '' Lukins says . `` I 'm sure I 'll be scrutinized plenty. .. . And I did not get a huge advance ! '' But make a few calls to key people in the food world and you 'll find no one filing their nails in anticipation of the Lukins release , as they did with Rosso 's book . Lukins , who is 51 , suffered a massive cerebral hemorrhage in 1991 and , according to Pat Adrian , who buys books for the Book of the Month Club , the `` Food Mafia '' rushed to be loyal to her . It took two operations and weeks of therapy before Lukins was able to leave a wheelchair . `` I 'm happy not to be dead , '' she says . `` A lot of people were jealous of both women for a long time , '' says Adrian . `` ( Blasting Rosso 's book ) should have been a great chatty lunch at La Cirque rather than ( the media event ) it ended up being . After all , it 's just a cookbook . It 's not going to change the world . '' Lukins is hoping the world is ready for Peloponnesian lamb shanks and Moroccan marmalade , but she 's not sure . Her publisher thinks so it has announced a first printing of 350,000 , believed to be a record for a cookbook . `` A huge amount of my pride is involved in this book , '' says Lukins . `` I just didn't want this book to be another clone ( of the others ) . Those books are great , fun , and fine but they are what they are . I wanted to do something different . '' Yet , the book is unmistakably in the Silver Palate format , down to the little drawings ( although Lukins wasn't the illustrator on this book , as she was on the others ) and boxed sidebars . Even the ethnic-inspired recipes are reinterpreted for the American kitchen , in Silver Palate fashion . There are very few ingredients called for in the book that aren't readily available in Omaha , Neb . But then Lukins did not intend to go around the world and bring back the strictly authentic recipes of each country . Instead , she took the best of what she found and created food . Lukins developed her cooking ability when her husband , Richard , who ran a security business , was transferred to England . A bored housewife , Lukins enrolled in cooking classes at Le Cordon Bleu to occupy her time . The following year , Richard was transferred to Paris , and Lukins signed up for more classes . `` That 's the way to learn , '' she says . `` In Paris I took cooking lessons and French lessons during the day and then cooked for my darling husband at night . '' Back in New York and raising two daughters in the Dakota Apartments , a bachelor in the building called one night in a panic . He had invited a group over for dinner and the superintendent 's wife , who usually cooked for him when he had guests , was on vacation . `` I said , ` Don't worry , I 'll cook you dinner , '' ' Lukins remembers . `` So as was the fashion in the mid- '60s , I cooked moussaka , a Greek salad , some stuffed grape leaves and sent it over . I charged him $ 50 plus the cost of the food . He ended up with a great dinner and I wound up with $ 50 . '' She also wound up with a new career . One of the guests at the bachelor 's dinner party was Gael Greene , restaurant critic for New York magazine . Greene loved the party food and mentioned it to her friend , Joan Kron , who immediately called Ellen Stern , who at the time wrote the `` Best Bets '' column for the magazine . `` It was New York telephone at its best , '' says Lukins now . `` Ellen Stern ran a half-page picture of me and my kitchen with a headline : ` Eat , Drink and Be Murray . '' ' The article portrayed Lukins as a bachelor 's best cook . `` I got 200 calls from single men , '' she says . Six months later , the Other Woman Catering Co. was born . A year later , Lukins teamed up with Julee Rosso to open the Silver Palate . The two met when Rosso , an advertising executive for Burlington , hired Lukins to cater a press breakfast introducing Oleg Cassini sheets . In April , when `` Sheila Lukins Around the World Cookbook '' is about to hit the stores , Lukins ' mood has lifted considerably . She 's almost giddy . Vanity Fair has just printed a flattering article on her . A week later , when Lukins ' book comes out , it 's already received its first review . Cook 's Illustrated tested 30 recipes from the 450 in the book . Its verdict : `` We were underwhelmed . '' Plus , the reviewer brought up the Rosso book in the first paragraph . Afterward Lukins is subdued and never mentions the story . But she wonders aloud if her name will be linked with Rosso 's forever . `` Will anyone ever write a story about me without mentioning her ? '' she asks . `` I know everyone will compare the two books , '' says Nach Waxman , owner of Kitchen Arts and Letters bookstore , gossip central to the New York food world . `` The Julee business will do no good for Sheila 's book . '' Lukins has been around a long time , though , and she 's philosophical about the world of cookbook publishing . `` When you put yourself before the public and say , ` this is my work , here it is , '' ' she says , `` I think they look hard . '' With her book in the stores and more reviews to come , Lukins can only wait and see what the consensus on her solo project will be . And maybe , a few books from now , her work will be reviewed without the mentions of her past life as half of a famous `` foodie couple . '' For now , she is content in the knowledge that she has done the best book she could .. . on her own . Getting there Stay on I-195 until you see the sign for downtown Providence . Take a right off the exit , continue through a traffic light and bear left . Pass the Biltmore Hotel . At City Hall , take a left and cross Kennedy Plaza to the foot of College Hill . Park near the First Baptist Church , the huge , high-steepled church across the Providence River . Historic houses The Providence Preservation Society Festival of Historic Houses takes place June 3 to 5 . Tours include a candlelight walk through the colonial revival houses of Power and Cooke streets ; a house and garden tour on Prospect Street ; and a trolley tour through several historic districts . There also are lectures - one on lansdscaping for historic properties and another on the restoration of the 1792 Nightingale-Brown house . Tickets for the candlelight and house and garden tours are $ 18.50 ; for the trolley tour , $ 12.50 . Lecture tickets are $ 5 . For more information , write the Providence Preservation Society , 21 Meeting St. , Providence , RI 02903 , or call ( 401 ) 831-7440 . Walking tours Pamphlets for self-guided walking tours are available at the Providence Preservation Society and at the Roger Williams National Memorial , ( 401 ) 521-7266 , on North Main Street . Information Greater Providence Convention & Visitors Bureau , 30 Exchange Terrace , Providence , RI 02903 , or call ( 401 ) 274-1636 . LOS ANGELES There was a time when Abraham Almorade would have been quarantined by the U.S. government , exiled to a life that excluded all except those who shared his mysterious and feared condition . Today , he need only visit a clinic for medication and kinship , but his burden is by no means slight . Almorade , 65 , has Hansen 's disease known since biblical times as leprosy a difficult-to-transmit bacterial ailment that attacks body tissue and is controlled by medication . It has slowly eroded his body since he was diagnosed in the 1950s , covering his skin with sores and leaving his nose deformed as the cartilage collapsed . Sitting in an examination room recently at Los Angeles County-University of Southern California Medical Center , where a clinic has served Hansen 's patients since 1973 , Almorade discussed his condition . Hansen 's disease has robbed his hands of sensation , making it difficult to feel routine cuts , burns and scrapes . Without feeling , such accidents have become major health risks and over the years have reduced Almorade 's fingers to stumps . As a precaution , he no longer performs tasks that might injure him , such as cooking or cutting . `` I have to protect my hands , '' said Almorade , a retired soldier from the Philippines . `` They were always numb with no sense at all and I didn't want to hurt them . I don't cook anymore. I just eat . '' He is one of about 500 Hansen 's disease patients who visit the Los Angeles clinic regularly . Roughly 500 additional patients are served by clinics in San Diego and San Francisco . `` Leprosy is still very common around the world , '' said Dr. John Leedon , head of infectious diseases at County-USC . The World Health Organization estimated that in 1991 there were more than 5.5 million cases worldwide , down from more than 10 million in the 1980s . A 1992 article in the journal Clinical Dermatology , however , said there were between 10 million and 15 million patients worldwide , most in Africa and India , and about 6,000 in the United States , primarily in Texas and Louisiana . `` The figures differ depending on how you count them , '' said Dr. John Trautman of the National Hansen 's Disease Center in Carville , La. . `` The World Health Organization doesn't count patients who have completed drug treatment . In the U.S. , we ( do ) . '' Scientists believe the disease is transmitted only by prolonged , close contact with someone who is infected , although its precise route into the body is not known . It causes a `` significant disability '' in about 30 percent of those infected , said Dr. Thomas Rea , a dermatologist who heads the clinic at County-USC . Still , most of the clinic 's patients function normally day to day , often wearing long sleeves and explaining away their sores as bug bites and other minor maladies . They are all ages , although most are adults . Some have jobs , spouses and children . And all visit the clinic periodically to work with doctors at controlling their symptoms . Rea said the disease and its treatment have changed over the years , but that the image of Hansen 's disease patients has changed little . `` There 's quite a stigma associated with the disease , '' he said . `` The idea of the patient being outcast , unclean and the lowest of the low , those things are reinforced in the Bible . Despite the efforts of the informed , cultural values seem to change very , very slowly . '' ( Optional Add End ) The biblical stigma remains so great that the emotionally loaded terms `` leper '' and `` leprosy '' are no longer used . In 13th century France , more than 2,000 facilities were built to house sufferers rounded up by the government during an epidemic . As late as the 1930s , those with the disease in China were sometimes burned . And in the United States , laws existed in the early 1900s that allowed authorities to arrest patients . Most were sent to so-called `` leper colonies , '' the most famous of which was established on the Hawaiian island of Molokai in the 19th century . Most of the colonies have been closed . The National Hansen 's Disease Center , located for almost a century in Carville , Calif. , is believed to be the only residential treatment center still operating in the United States . Though leprosy , now known as Hansen 's disease , has existed since ancient times , it wasn't until the early part of this century that treatment other than quarantine was discovered . Named for the Norwegian physician who pinpointed the bacteria in 1873 , Hansen 's disease attacks body tissue slowly , and symptoms can take several years to appear . Left untreated , it can cause skin sores and discoloration , pain , blindness and accidental mutilation caused by loss of feeling in the limbs . It is still not completely understood by scientists . Despite its reputation as highly contagious , scientists now believe it can be transmitted only by repeated , long-term , human-to-human contact with a carrier . But evidence that Hansen 's also can afflict armadillos may suggest unknown transmission routes , according to researchers . Treatment is still developing , said Dr. Thomas Rea , a dermatologist who heads the Hansen 's disease clinic at Los Angeles County-USC Medical Center . In the 1950s , the drug dapsone stopped the spread of the disease by halting the bacteria 's ability to multiply . But it did not kill the bacteria that already existed , and scientists soon found patients who were resistant to dapsone . In the 1970s , multi-drug therapy was recommended by the World Health Organization . This worked so well that the organization declared a goal to cure Hansen 's disease worldwide by 2000 . But Rea doubts the goal will be reached . Belgian scientist S.R. Pattyn released a study recently showing a 20 percent relapse rate after 10 years of multi-drug therapy , Rea said . `` Even the most die-hard optimist would admit that 's not acceptable , '' he said . More effective drugs were discovered in 1990 , but Rea said they are expensive and have not yet been proven safe . Though most cases are imported into the United States , stopping the inflow has proven difficult . Patients are supposed to receive treatment before entering the United States , said Dr. John Trautman of the National Hansen 's Disease Center , but the long incubation period and lack of a simple detection method makes the disease hard to spot . When Sheila Lukins was asked to name her favorite recipe in her book , without hesitating she answered , `` Peloponnesian lamb shanks . '' She recommends serving them with orzo or a vegetable couscous . The fresh mint stirred in just before serving adds not only color but great flavor . SPICED PELOPONNESIAN LAMB SHANKS 4 ( 1-pound ) lamb shanks 1 teaspoon coarse salt 1 teaspoon coarsely ground black pepper 3 tablespoons olive oil 1 medium onion , cut in half lengthwise and slivered 1 cup beef broth 1 cup dry red wine 2 tablespoons honey 4 large cloves garlic , lightly bruised 2 ( 3-inch-long ) cinnamon sticks 4 fresh sage leaves Dash ground cloves 1 cup seeded and coarsely chopped ripe plum tomatoes 1 cups pitted prunes cup chopped fresh mint leaves Sprinkle lamb shanks with salt and pepper . Heat 2 tablespoons olive oil in large heavy casserole over medium heat . Add shanks , 2 at time , and saute until well browned , about 8 minutes per side . Remove lamb and pour off fat . Add remaining 1 tablespoon oil to casserole and place over low heat . Add onion and cook , stirring occasionally , until tender , about 10 minutes . Return lamb shanks to casserole . Add beef broth , red wine , honey , garlic , cinnamon sticks , sage and cloves . Bring to boil . Cover casserole and bake at 350 degrees until meat is soft , about 1 hour . Stir in chopped tomatoes and prunes and cook uncovered until both are blended into sauce , about 45 minutes longer . Before serving , stir in fresh mint . Makes 4 servings . Each serving contains about : 687 calories ; 916 mg sodium ; 118 mg cholesterol ; 33 grams fat ; 59 grams carbohydrates ; 34 grams protein ; 1.96 grams fiber . -0- Lukins first came across the Indonesian version of chicken noodle soup in Banjarmasin , South Kalimantan ( Borneo ) , where cinnamon and cardamom are essential ingredients . This is her interpretation . INDONESIAN CHICKEN NOODLE SOUP ( Soto Banjar ) 4 cups chicken broth 3 cups water 4 large flat-leaf parsley sprigs 2 fresh cilantro sprigs , roots and stems lightly crushed 1 whole chicken breast , rinsed well 3 medium waxy potatoes , peeled and cut into -inch cubes pound shallots 4 large cloves garlic 3 tablespoons olive oil 1 tablespoon fresh ginger , peeled and minced 1 teaspoon ground cardamom 1 ( 3-inch-long ) cinnamon stick Coarse salt Freshly ground pepper 2 cups cooked angel hair pasta 3 hard-boiled eggs , quartered cup fresh cilantro leaves 1 lime , thinly sliced Combine chicken broth , water , parsley and cilantro sprigs in medium-sized soup pot . Bring to boil . Add chicken breast . Reduce heat and simmer , partially covered , until chicken is just cooked through , about 30 minutes . Do not boil . Remove chicken and let cool slightly . Shred meat from bones in 1x-inch pieces , discarding skin and bones . Set aside covered . Strain broth and return to pot . Add potatoes to broth . Cut half shallots and half garlic lengthwise into very thin slices . Heat oil in medium-sized non-stick skillet over low heat . Add sliced shallots and garlic and cook stirring , until lightly golden and crisp , about 10 minutes . Remove with slotted spoon to paper towels to drain . Reserve for garnish . Finely mince remaining shallots , garlic and ginger together with cardamom . Add to skillet and cook uncovered , stirring over low heat until aromatic , 3 to 4 minutes . Add shallot mixture to broth along with cinnamon stick and salt and pepper to taste . Cook covered over medium heat until potatoes are tender , 12 to 15 minutes . Remove potatoes from broth with slotted spoon . To assemble , lay out shallow soup or pasta bowls . Arrange chicken , pasta , eggs and potatoes in section in each bowl , to make 4 wedges . Heat broth until piping hot . Adjust seasonings to taste . Discard cinnamon stick . Ladle broth into bowls . Sprinkle with fried shallots , fried garlic and cilantro . Float lime slice in center of each bowl . Makes 4 servings . Each serving contains about : 522 calories ; 949 mg sodium ; 204 mg cholesterol ; 22 grams fat ; 50 grams carbohydrates ; 30 grams protein ; 0.76 gram fiber . -0- Baking the ribs first cooks off some of the fat so ribs will not scorch when finished on the grill . Be sure to make the jerk sauce at least an hour ahead so the flavors can meld before marinating . JERK PORK RIBS 1 ( 3 pound ) rack pork ribs , cut into 2- to 3-rib portions 2 cups Jamaican Jerk Sauce Coat ribs with Jamaican Jerk Sauce , rubbing sauce in well . Cover and refrigerate overnight . Bake at 350 degrees 45 minutes , occasionally turning and basting . Remove from oven and grill over medium hot coals until browned and cooked through , about 25 to 30 minutes , turning ribs 4 or 5 times and basting with Jamaican Jerk Sauce . Makes 4 servings . Each serving contains about : In Turkey , the boreks weren't filled with lamb , as Lukins expected , but rather bastirma , a cured beef covered in spices . When Lukins came back , she made her filo pies with pastrami , a cousin of bastirma . What is `` the greatest long-term threat to the security of the United States '' ? According to FBI Director Louis Freeh , it is the rise of organized crime in Russia , with its present or potential capacity to steal nuclear weapons and fissile material that can be sold to rogue nations or terrorist groups . `` Organized crime has unique abilities to commit theft and diversion , '' he warns . `` This is why we must take action before a major nuclear incident occurs . '' The action he contemplates is establishing an FBI office in Moscow itself , there to work with Russian police and security officials to combat a wave of criminality engulfing the states of the former Soviet Union . Freeh pronounces the United States `` lucky '' that no illegal diversions of nuclear-weapons material have yet occurred , but even that cannot be verified absolutely in light of the intermeshing of Russia 's civilian and military nuclear programs as well as the notoriously inadequate protection of its facilities . It is one of the anomalies of this post-Cold War era that once the Soviet police state collapsed , along with its reliance on terror and intimidation , crime has had a heyday . Freeh 's outspoken warnings before a Senate subcommittee mark a shift in the Clinton administration 's handling of this scary matter . Heretofore , officials have alluded to the problem in muted fashion for fear that publicity might encourage criminal elements to seek possession of salable nuclear materials . With The Atlantic Monthly running a cover story on criminality in Russia and various European publications reporting near-successful test attempts to buy warheads from Russian military officers , it appears that the new policy is to confront the issue head-on . If so , it is for the best . The `` loose nuke problem '' has added new dimensions to the long crusade to prevent the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction . Its central feature , from the beginning , was to stop as many nations as possible from going nuclear . With the collapse of the Soviet Union , three new nuclear-weapons states ( Ukraine , Kazakhstan and Belarus ) had to be prodded , so far with mixed success , to turn their facilities over to Russia . There also was worry about a `` brain drain '' of Soviet nuclear scientists to the likes of Libya , Iraq , Iran and North Korea . And , finally , there was the criminal problem , raising what FBI Director Freeh calls the `` dreadful possibilities '' of having stolen nukes fall into the hands of terrorists bent on using them against the United States . Russia is the site of thousands of nuclear warheads and hundreds of tons of weapons-grade plutonium and enriched uranium ( the stuff of nuclear bombs ) . Clearly , it will require monumental cooperation between American and Russian authorities to keep nuclear materials out of the hands of international organized-crime operations . With governmental authority eroding in Russia , the prospects are not encouraging . Cruel in its manifestation , fiendishly enigmatic in its pathogenesis , AIDS marches on relentlessly . Already 360,000 cases have been diagnosed in the United States alone ; 220,000 people have died . Worse is sure to come soon . It is about 10 years since the disease was first identified . With its stealthy 10-year latency , that means thousands infected by the HIV virus in the mid-1980s , before they learned how to protect themselves , will soon start to develop symptoms and die . Despite massive research , the tiny virus has outwitted the best scientific minds . Little progress has been made in finding a cure or vaccine . The time has come for new thinking , new approaches . A lucid and logical framework for the future comes now from Bernard N . Fields of the Harvard Medical School . In a paper in the British journal Nature , he argues that AIDS is far more complex than anyone imagined and calls for a broadening of research and a return to basic science . In other words , valuable time has been lost in following narrow hunches for an easy cure , some magic bullet . `` The real challenge , '' he writes , `` is to put aside politics and the illusion of easy answers so that we can concentrate on studies that offer a real possibility of working . '' He adds : `` In our zeal to control AIDS , we have invested enormous resources in the search for drugs and vaccines . This may have been reasonable 10 years ago , but is no longer . '' Wise words , but politically difficult . A huge medical , corporate , bureaucratic and political infrastructure is committed to testing new remedies and vaccines . Even as Dr . Fields ' words were published , the National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases appeared , reluctantly , to be ready to spend tens of millions of dollars on human tests of two vaccines even though laboratory tests showed they had no effect on HIV viruses isolated from infected people . In their legitimate outrage over the federal government 's shameful slowness to act on AIDS during the last decade , activists forced quick approval of unproven drugs . As a result , the drug AZT was widely prescribed to delay the onset of disease in infected people who had not yet developed symptoms . Only later did further studies show it was useful only in people with advanced disease . AIDS has dashed hopes that it could be controlled as polio was . That devastating epidemic too was caused by a virus . Once it was identified , a vaccine could be developed . Alas , as Fields notes , the HIV virus is far more complex , unpredictable and nefarious . Fields calls for expanded research in related areas ( such as on other infectious agents ) , on basic study of the early events of HIV infection and on the so-called opportunistic infections that often fell AIDS patients . `` AIDS is a novel disease requiring new paradigms and a new conceptual framework , '' he argues . `` We must give serendipity ( and reasoned scientific redirection ) a chance to join the war on AIDS . '' His notions are embraced by many AIDS experts , including Dr. Mervyn F. Silverman , president of the American Foundation for AIDS Research , and Dr. William Paul , new director of the Office of AIDS Research at the National Institutes of Health . Some activist groups , such as the New York ACT UP organization , continue to focus on a speedy cure and support a bill in Congress that would set up a focused research program outside of the NIH . But other AIDS groups , though divided , have begun to see that such narrow approaches have so far proved counterproductive . We need a new beginning on AIDS . Everything smolders in Rio Seco . In this fictional California town , the setting for Susan Straight 's second novel , `` Blacker Than a Thousand Midnights , '' the torrid weather , the prickly relationships between a young black man and his wife , family and friends and the friction between the races all simmer just below the flashpoint . Straight carefully piles on the tinder and the reader waits to see whether it will spontaneously combust . The infernal weather makes life tough for young Darnell Tucker , but he can deal with the choking heat . What he must really struggle to cope with is impending fatherhood , a marriage off to a very rocky start , a father-in-law who willn't talk to him , friends who are risking their lives by `` slinging ' caine '' and the lack of a decent job . Darnell , who is 20 , wants to do the right thing . Circumstances conspire to make that a heroic effort . When they marry , his wife , Brenda , is pregnant and is the breadwinner as well . She loves him , but she is overwhelmed by exhaustion and anxiety . Their working-class parents make it clear to Darnell that he must find a job , and fast . That 's not so easy to do . Darnell 's great ambition is to become a full-time firefighter , part of a crew that ranges through the Los Angeles hills , short-circuiting the small fires that can roar into major disasters . Brenda knows that Darnell is infatuated with firefighting and fears she 'll lose him to this deadly fascination . But the best he can do is part-time work , and even that dries up , even as the drought-struck hills threaten to burst into flame . He tries work as a security guard , but in an episode of mistaken identity , winds up face-down on the pavement with a police dog slashing at his leg . He does bull work for his father , a hauler of tree stumps who 'll take any yard-cleaning project that comes his way . Not much feels right for Darnell . His friends , Leon and Louis , are caught up in drug selling . Brenda is so consumed by love for their newborn daughter , Charolette , that she has very little time and energy left over for him . But he perseveres . And in a flash of entrepreneurship , he finally comes up with an idea that works , while neatly playing off the state of race relations in his part of the world . Passing himself off as a foreman , he hires Mexicans and pretends they all work for an Asian landscaper , the better to be accepted by white homeowners . Straight , who is white and whose previous book was `` I Been in Sorrow 's Kitchen and Licked Out All the Pots , '' does a lot of things right in this novel . She creates believable characters , and she does black dialect well . Yet , despite admiration for Darnell 's dogged persistence and pleasure when he overcomes his poor prospects , something is missing . The cleansing fire - in the hills , in the marriage , in the streets - never quite flares . This is a story of the rewards of control , but some readers may feel almost cheated that a fiery release , hinted at throughout the book , never comes . Is cruising getting more like flying when it comes to passenger incentives ? Most cruise lines reward their frequent passengers with perks like special discounts and private parties , but Cunard is about to launch a plan that sounds like a seagoing version of the airline frequent-flier programs . Passengers who sail on any of 10 Cunard ships will earn Cruise Miles that can be redeemed for awards ranging from upgrades to free voyages . Cruise Miles will be awarded on a per-person , per-day basis according to ship , grades of accommodation and length of trip . Thus , the higher your cabin category and the longer the cruise , the more points you 'll earn . How fast will Cruise Miles add up ? On a five-star ship such as the Queen Elizabeth 2 , Columbia-class passengers ( the lower first class tier ) will earn 200 miles a day . On Cunard Crown vessels ( which are less formal than the QE2 , Sea Goddesses and other top-of-the-line ships ) , you 'll earn 50 Cruise Miles a day in a mid-priced inside cabin , 100 a day in a mid-priced outside cabin , 150 a day in a deluxe stateroom thus 250 , 700 or 1,050 Cruise Miles for a seven-day voyage . Once you 've accumulated 600 Cruise Miles you can redeem them for a one-category upgrade on a seven-day trip on a Cunard Crown ship . It 'll take 5,000 Cruise Miles to get a free seven-day sailing on a Crown vessel which you can earn by taking just one 11-day voyage on one of the deluxe Sea Goddesses . However , if your style and pocketbook allow only an annual one-week cruise in the budget category , you 're never going to earn a freebie within the seven-year limit Cunard has set . Seabourn Cruise Line has offered a somewhat similar incentive plan for its frequent sailors since 1988 . Passengers who 've made one voyage automatically become members of the line 's Seabourn Club , which offers fare reductions for accumulated days at sea . For example , after 28 days of sailing typically two Seabourn cruises you 'll get a 25 percent savings on your next 14-day trip ; after 70 days , you 'll get a 50 percent reduction on your next 14-day journey ; after 140 days , you qualify for a free 14-day cruise . Seabourn 's all-suites ships offer luxury voyages ( the average per-person tariff is $ 830 a day ) , but lots of passengers have nevertheless qualified for freebies , according to spokesman Ernie Beyl . Seabourn also has a pay-in-full prepurchase program called World Fare , which offers substantial savings to travelers who buy 45 , 60 , 90 or 120 days at sea up to three years in advance . Via World Fare , you can reduce the average daily cost to about $ 500-plus , Beyl said . Royal Viking , which claims a 66 percent repeat rate on its cruises , gives gifts of merchandise after a certain number of sailings . Members of its past-passengers Skald Club ( named for the well-traveled Viking historians who made continual voyages and always returned home with intriguing tales ) also get an extra 5 percent reduction on top of the standard 15-percent early booking discount . And several annual Royal Viking `` reunion cruises '' offer a variety of perks for Skald Club members . Other lines said they 're taking a new look at their incentive programs . Meanwhile , Radisson is offering a $ 1,000-per-person discount to Radisson Hotel guests who book a seven- or eight-night Radisson Diamond Mediterranean cruise within 30 days of check-in . The promotion also includes an additional $ 250-per-person shipboard credit that can be used toward shore excursions , drinks , boutique purchases and beauty and spa services . Radisson says the discount reflects savings of nearly 25 percent off the full fare , which normally totals $ 4,295 for a seven-night voyage , $ 4,895 for eight-night voyages . The deal is available to Radisson Hotel guests until July 31 for sailings between June 10 and Nov. 5 . ( ndy ) ( ATTN : Travel editors ) TRAVEL PLANNER : Packages to Finland Range from Cities to Tundras By Marc Cottone ( c ) 1994 , Newsday The Finnish Tourist Board is offering more than 40 package tours for travelers in Finland this year that cover everything from coastal cities to the tundra of the Arctic Circle . The `` Midnight Sun Flight , '' for example , takes tour members from Helsinki to Rovaniemi , capital of Lapland , for a day of ' round-the-clock sunlight . Take in the native Lapp culture with a reindeer lasso-throwing contest , cross the Arctic Circle and later enjoy a traditional Lapp dinner . The one-day/one-night package , available June 1-July 31 , is $ 336 per person , double occupancy , and includes round-trip airfare from Helsinki and accommodations . Or try the `` Tornionjoki River Adventure '' that offers two exciting trips near the Arctic Circle that include white-water rafting , fishing , a visit to a Lapp lumberjack mill even a visit to Santa Claus at his Arctic Circle workshop . Starting at $ 290 per person , double occupancy , fo r the river raft , the tour includes roundtrip air from Helinski , accommodations and meals . Package trips are available for coastal cities tours and rural farmhouse sojourns . There 's even a tour to Tankavaara , home of the Goldpanning World Championships . Call your travel agent or Finnway at ( 800 ) 526-4927 . -0- VOLUNTEER VACATIONS : Here 's something different : a tax-deductible vacation for you or your family . Global Citizen 's Network , a nonprofit organization that seeks to promote understanding between cultures through hands-on volunteer projects , has several volunteer slots open this summer on two- and three-week teams headed for Kenya , Guatemala and Belize . You don't need foreign language ability only a willingness to experience and accept new cultures and the trips are open to all ages and skills . Trip-related expenses , including airfare , food and lodging are tax-deductible , according to the group . Programs range from $ 990- $ 1,300 , plus air fare . A number of partial scholarships are available . For more information , call ( 800 ) 644-9292 . -0- MARTINIQUE MUSTS : Two new trips are available on direct flights from New York to Fort-de-France in Martinque this summer for just $ 969- $ 1,250 per person , double occupancy , depending on choice of hotels . The `` Fly/Drive Explorer '' package includes airfare , seven-nights ' accommodations , daily breakfasts and a car for five days with unlimited mileage and maps with suggested itineraries . A golfer 's package includes the same basic items plus greens fees for a week at the 18-hole Empress Josephine Country Club , designed by Robert Trent Jones Sr. , where the fairways roll right down to the town 's colorful waterfront . Call ( 800 ) 765-6065 . -0- A RECIPE FOR FUN : Spend a holiday immersed in culinary philosophy and gastronomic delights on a five-day `` Going Solo in the Kitchen '' vacation through Regatta Travel . Under the direction of Jane Doerfer , noted cooking teacher and author , participants will learn the techniques of cooking for one in a modern school that operates out of a 19th-Century plantation house in Apalachicola , Fla. . Students prepare quick meals such as swordfish in sweet-sour tomato sauce and butterfly chicken with sweet potatoes and onions , all with an eye on healthful and non-wasteful recipes . During afternoons off , students can walk or swim at nearby St. Georges Island Beach or fish for a bass that might wind up on the dinner platter . Classes are limited to 12 . Four sessions are held through December , the first from June 12-17 . Price is $ 875 per person ; air fare is extra . Call ( 800 ) 445-7685 . -0- COUNTRY FOOTPATHS : BCT Scenic Walking tours offers eight-day British holiday strolls this summer and fall along the remote southern and northern shores of the Cornwall Peninsula . With daily walks of just six to eight miles , travelers have plenty of time to soak in history along the escarpments of the northern coast , where pirates once lured ships aground to plunder their cargoes , or follow streams along the southern shore in Daphne du Maurier country . Tour members will visit St. Michaels ' Mount , a monastery accessible only at low tide by a tidal causeway , and explore old seaside footpaths on the remote Lizard Peninsula . Accommodations are at first-class inns for two to three nights at each location , where breakfasts and gourmet dinners are included . Price is $ 1,795 per person ; departures begin June 18 . Call your travel agent or ( 800 ) 473-1210 for a brochure . Most packages can be booked through travel agencies . Moviegoers love films based on John Grisham novels . Two of his books `` The Firm '' and `` The Pelican Brief '' became box-office hits thanks to Grisham 's action-packed plots , and `` The Client , '' starring Susan Sarandon and Tommy Lee Jones , hits theaters in July . So it 's no surprise that Grisham 's latest work , another legal thriller called `` The Chamber , '' is Hollywood-bound as well . Producer Ron Howard acquired the rights while the book was still being written . Set mostly in Mississippi , `` The Chamber '' chronicles the desperate efforts of Adam Hall , a young Chicago lawyer , to block the gas-chamber execution of his grandfather , 70-year-old Sam Cayhall . Cayhall , a lifelong member of the Ku Klux Klan , was convicted of a 1967 bombing that maimed a Jewish civil rights lawyer and killed his two children . Cayhall has only four weeks left to live unless grandson Hall , who hates the death penalty as much as he does Cayhall 's crimes , can devise a successful appeal . The tempo builds as the execution date approaches . Besides exploring death-penalty issues , Grisham uses `` The Chamber '' to discuss the social conditions that existed during the height of civil rights tensions in the South . He pulls no punches on the bigotry and hate that marked that era . This aspect of the tale is recounted through flashbacks and the memories of the family members , law-enforcement agents , and victims that Hall encounters in his bid to save his grandfather 's life . In the process , Hall , whose own father had fled the violence but could not escape it , learns about the Cayhall family 's role in the hatred and bloodshed . The death penalty and the civil rights struggle are potential gold mines for a novelist . Too bad Grisham fumbles the opportunity to make `` The Chamber '' something more than summer adventure reading . Despite its strong plot line , the book is marred by a variety of weaknesses , including contrived dialogue , cliched characters and dead-end subplots . Conversations about the death penalty often turn into two people lecturing each other . Government officials supporting the death penalty are portrayed as either cold functionaries or cynical opportunists . All reporters are ignorant vultures interested solely in sensationalism . Worse , the plot often seems downright deceptive . At least two significant characters set up for key roles in the novel 's climax turn out to be irrelevant to the outcome . So pages of foreshadowing are revealed as having been used to dupe the reader . There 's also a strange lack of realism in the novel 's descriptions . Grisham , a Mississippi resident , obviously has gone to great pains to study life in prison , on death row in particular . But when characters move to the Mississippi countryside , they seem lost in a generalized Southern landscape , not rooted in a distinct setting . None of this , however , is likely to hamper the book 's chances of becoming a successful and entertaining movie . Two-hour adventure movies are slavishly devoted to plot and have little time left for subtleties or character development . Those who have enjoyed Grisham 's earlier works , which include `` A Time To Kill , '' should have no qualms about diving into `` The Chamber . '' It 's good for a beach or an airplane or a backyard deck chair . But those new to Grisham might want to preview his earlier work at the library before investing $ 25 in a new hardcover . That , or wait for the movie . When it comes to putting a wacky spin on a familiar story , Kevin O' Malley is one of the best . O' Malley made a splash with `` Froggy Went A-Courtin ' , ' ' followed by `` Who Killed Cock Robin ? '' He flew solo on those two books , as well as `` Bruno , You 're Late for School ! '' and `` The Box . '' But he has gone from author/illustrator to illustrator in his latest , `` Cinder Edna , '' written by Ellen Jackson ( Lothrop , Lee & Shepard , $ 15 , 32 pp. , ages 4 and up ) . The story leaves O' Malley plenty of room to have fun with the illustrations . The jokes he slips in are the funniest parts of the book , which would be funnier if it wasn't hammering home a message . Not that the moral is a bad one . Cinder Edna happens to live next door to Cinderella . Both have a cruel stepmother and wicked stepsisters . When Cinderella has done all the work around the house , she sits in the cinders , thinking about her troubles . When Cinder Edna is done slaving for her stepmother and stepsisters , she mows lawns and cleans parrot cages for neighbors , at $ 1.50 an hour . Cinderella is beautiful . The industrious Cinder Edna `` wasn't much to look at . But she was strong and spunky and knew some good jokes including an especially funny one about an anteater from Afghanistan . '' Cinderella gets to go to the ball courtesy of her fairy godmother . Cinder Edna has saved up her money to put a dress on layaway . While Cinderella rides in her pumpkin coach , Cinder Edna takes the bus to the ball . Empty-headed Cinderella falls for the vain prince . Cinder Edna hits it off with the prince 's younger brother , a dorky sort who lives in a solar-heated cottage and runs the recycling plant . Both couples end up getting married , and there 's no doubt about who lives happily ever after . A take-off on traditional fairy tales lets readers take off on a wild trip in `` Come Back , Jack ! '' by Catherine and Laurence Anholt ( Candlewick Press , $ 12.95 , 32 pp. , ages 3 and up ) . One day a little girl who doesn't like books is playing outside with her little brother , Jack , who loves books . Next thing she knows , Jack is climbing into one of his books , and she has to scramble to crawl in after him . Once inside the book , she runs down a hill to find a little girl named Jill , a spilled bucket beside her . `` Jack fell down and now he 's run away , '' Jill says . Jack 's sister rushes to find him . She gets to the house that Jack built , only to find that he has already left . He was last seen jumping over a candlestick . Finally , the trail leads her to the giant 's castle , where she finds Jack sitting in a corner , eating a Christmas pie . They barely escape down the beanstalk in time . Once they 're safe , back at home in the garden , she says , `` Well , perhaps books aren't boring after all ! '' The endpapers include the nursery rhymes referred to during the children 's romp through the pages . A sequel to Humpty Dumpty ? No , it 's not filled with omelet recipes . `` Little Lumpty , '' by Miko Imai ( Candlewick , $ 12.95 , 32 pp. , ages 4 and up ) , is an original story about a little egg growing up in the town of Dumpty , where young eggs play by the wall that Humpty Dumpty fell from long , long ago . Lumpty dreams of climbing the wall , even though he knows it 's forbidden . Finally , he gets his courage up , finds a ladder and makes it to the top . He is thrilled until he looks down and his legs shake and he can't make it back down the ladder . He knows he 'll be in trouble when his mother finds out what he has done . He remembers Humpty Dumpty 's great fall and starts crying . Finally , he gets his courage up and yells for help . All the eggs in town rush out , and he is rescued . He tells his mom he 's sorry , and she hugs him . Any kid who has broken the rules , thrilled in the adventure of it all and then found herself in big trouble will identify with Lumpty . The best part is that there 's no grown-up moral at the end . Lumpty , who dared to chase his dream , is safe in his bed . `` But I still love that wall , '' he whispered to the moon just before he fell asleep . Possibly enough has been said about Barney , but has anything been said about those who are not Barney ? My son Joey and I were at a festival last weekend where we encountered not Barney but `` a purple dinosaur . '' He was roughly the size of Barney . He was roughly the color of Barney , although I would have pegged him somewhere between plum and aubergine , whereas Barney has this thing happening where he modulates between soft true fuchsia and almost a zinfandel . Sometimes I think it 's a shame I don't ever get to give the police any descriptions . Also , Barney apparently has access to some moth-proofing that is not widely available . We looked at not-Barney . He did tell us he loved us . He did not tell us we loved him . He did not offer any explanation for himself . Neruda 's , `` It so happens I 'm tired of being just a man , '' would have been nice . Joey is 4 and doesn't like Barney , because Barney is not engaged in the important work of this life , which is pounding really hard for 22 minutes a clip on radioactive Japanese armadillos , as per `` Mighty Morphin Power Rangers , '' a show that takes the old saw about there being only seven basic plots in all storytelling and divides it by seven . But even though he disdains Barney as the sort of appeaser who would hand the Sudetenland over to the isotope-leaching weaselcobras without so much as a kick-punch , Joey determined that he was in the presence of somebody famous , and , just the way you or I might not immediately turn our backs on , say , Marge Schott or John McLaughlin , he hung with the Barney-tribute-act until it was clear that there was not going to be a glow of any kind . Plus it was one of those deals where they want about $ 4.50 for a Polaroid of you and ( in this case ) somebody who wasn't really in a position to claim to be the entity he was impersonating . It would have been like paying a lot of money to see Demi Moore as Ophelia . I did wonder : Can this be legal ? No way can the Barney people sew up the whole idea of being a purple dinosaur , but how close to Barneyness can you get before you cross some kind of line ? The Newfoundland muzzle , the Norville eyes .. . these must be worth a call to Mackenzie & Brackman . There are already lawsuits flying around about the Barney song . In a couple of years , Barney will be an entire semester at most law schools . Meanwhile , almost gratifyingly , another Barney is back . `` The Flintstones '' movie opened last weekend . It made me think about the original Flintstones and how Barney Rubble is the defining symbol of why they weren't any good . Because , unlike Ed Norton in `` The Honeymooners , '' Barney is not connected to an alternate reality . Ed 's sewer-nourished transcendentalism is kind of the escape window from all those peevish Kramden realities . But Barney is just kind of there . Like Barney . And not-Barney . And then I thought : If I have time to think about this , I need a night job . Now I come to find out that head-spinningly David Geffen has optioned the rights to make a Barney ( the dinosaur ) movie . Well , he might have actually been righter than Redford for `` Out of Africa , '' but what exactly is Barney ( not to mention those insufferable children ) supposed to do for 90 minutes ? Maybe a `` Stardust Memories '' thing . Maybe Barney doesn't want to be instructively affirming ( or whatever ) anymore , but his fans willn't let go . His head is in a different place . He 's got chick problems . ( `` Four Weddings and a Reptile . '' ) Maybe then , Barney finishes alone , on a hilltop in L.A. , like Beatty at the end of `` Shampoo . '' And , wait , maybe he is reciting Neruda : `` For a long while I 've pondered them now these big legs of mine : with infinite tenderness , curious , with my usual passion as if they belonged to a stranger ... '' Maybe I need some rest . This summer , Elizabeth Marshall Thomas takes on cats , Bob Woodward takes on Bill Clinton , and those lovebirds Mary Matalin and James Carville take on each other . A slew of D-Day books are the other major highlight of this season 's new nonfiction . ( Please note that some books may be in stores the month before their official publication date . ) BIOGRAPHY , MEMOIRS : `` All 's Fair : Love , War and Running for President '' by Mary Matalin and James Carville with Peter Knobler ( Random House , August ) is a joint memoir by the now-married political rivals who were on opposite sides of the campaign fence during the 1992 presidential election . The country music legend is the subject of `` Patsy : The Life and Times of Patsy Cline '' by Margaret Jones ( HarperCollins , June ) . `` Boulevard of Broken Dreams : The Life , Times and Legend of James Dean '' by Paul Alexander ( Viking , July ) is described as the first `` sexual biography '' of the actor . In `` A Woman 's Life : The Story of an Ordinary American and Her Extraordinary Generation '' ( William Morrow , June ) , Susan Cheever traces the baby-boom generation through the prism of one woman a 45-year-old suburban Boston mother of two named Linda Green . `` Loving Garbo : The Story of Greta Garbo , Cecil Beaton and Mercedes de Acosta '' by Hugo Vickers ( Random House , June ) examines the actress ' bisexual liaisons . `` Mad as Hell : The Life of Paddy Chayefsky '' by Shaun Considine ( Random House , July ) is a life of the screenwriter ( `` Network '' ) . Peter Collier and David Horowitz , authors of `` The Kennedys '' and `` The Rockefellers , '' take on another political dynasty in `` The Roosevelts : An American Saga '' ( Simon & Schuster , June ) . `` Westmoreland '' by Samuel Zaffiri ( William Morrow , July ) is a biography of Gen. William C. Westmoreland , commander of American forces in Vietnam . `` Defending the Devil : My Story as Ted Bundy 's Lawyer '' by Polly Nelson ( William Morrow , July ) is a memoir by the serial killer 's attorney . ``` With Bleeding Footsteps ' : Mary Baker Eddy 's Path to Religious Leadership '' by Robert David Thomas ( Knopf , July ) is a biography of the founder of the Christian Science church . You knew this book was inevitable . `` The Rock Bottom Remainders , '' a group of writers-turned-rock-'n'-rollers that includes Stephen King , Amy Tan , Matt Groening and Roy Blount , reveal secrets of life on the road in `` Mid-Life Confidential : The Rock Bottom Remainders Tour America With Three Chords and an Attitude '' edited by Dave Marsh ( Viking , August ) . `` Gene Roddenberry : The Myth and the Man Behind ` Star Trek '' ' by Joel Engel ( Hyperion , June ) is a biography of the creator of the cult sci-fi TV series . Martha Reeves ( with Mark Bego ) relives the soulful sounds of the '60s in `` Dancing in the Street : Confessions of a Motown Diva '' ( Hyperion , August ) . CURRENT EVENTS : Bob Woodward goes behind the scenes during President Clinton 's effort to get an economic recovery plan through Congress in `` The Agenda : Inside the Clinton White House '' ( Simon & Schuster , June ) . Donald Katz ( `` Home Fires '' ) goes inside the Nike empire in `` Just Do It : The Nike Spirit in the Corporate World '' ( Random House , June ) . In `` The Difference : Growing Up Female in America '' ( Warner , August ) , Washington Post columnist Judy Mann investigates why our culture raises girls to feel inferior to boys . `` 9 Highland Road : Sane Living for the Mentally Ill '' ( Pantheon , June ) by The New York Times ' Michael Winerip focuses on the residents of one group home . `` The World Economy Since the Wars : An Eyewitness Account '' by John Kenneth Galbraith ( Houghton Mifflin , June ) surveys 20th century economics . Etc . Elizabeth Marshall Thomas , author of the surprise best seller `` The Hidden Life of Dogs , '' probes the feline psyche in `` The Tribe of the Tiger : Cats and Their Culture '' ( Simon & Schuster , August ) . `` Death and Disaster : The Rise of the Warhol Empire and the Race for Andy 's Millions '' by Paul Alexander ( Villard , August ) examines the dispute over Andy Warhol 's estate . Yale historian John Boswell , whose previous books include `` Christianity , Social Tolerance and Homosexuality , '' writes about his discovery of homosexual marriages sanctioned by the church in the early Christian and Middle Ages in `` Same-Sex Unions in Premodern Europe '' ( Villard , June ) . Stephen B . Goddard is the author of `` Getting There : The Epic Struggle Between Road and Rail in the American Century '' ( Basic Books , June ) , a history of mass transportation in the United States . `` A Natural History of Love '' ( Random House , June ) is Diane Ackerman 's companion volume to her popular book `` A Natural History of the Senses . '' `` Dave Barry Is Not Making This Up '' ( Crown , June ) is a new collection of humor columns by the syndicated columnist . Gay activist and novelist Paul Monette ( `` Borrowed Time : An AIDS Memoir '' ) , who won the 1992 National Book Award for his autobiography `` Becoming a Man : Half a Life Story , '' has written a book of essays called `` Last Watch of the Night '' ( Harcourt Brace , June ) . D-DAY BOOKS : A number of books are being published to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the Allied invasion of Normandy : `` D-Day : June 6 , 1944 : The Climactic Battle of World War II '' by Stephen E. Ambrose ( Simon & Schuster ) is the most ambitious of the new D-Day books . Three oral histories offer firsthand accounts of D-Day : `` Nothing Less Than Victory : The Oral History of D-Day '' by Russell Miller ( William Morrow ) ; `` June 6 , 1944 : The Voices of D-Day '' by Gerald Astor ( St. Martin 's Press , June ) and `` America at D-Day : A Book of Remembrance '' by Richard Goldstein of The New York Times ( Delta , paperback original ) . Field Marshall Montgomery , field commander of ground forces at Normandy , is the subject of two new biographies . Nigel Hamilton ( `` JFK : Reckless Youth '' ) is author of `` Monty : The Battles of Field Marshal Bernard Law Montgomery '' ( Random House , June ) and Alistair Horne and David Montgomery , an English military historian and the field marshal 's son , have written `` Monty : Man and General '' ( HarperCollins , June ) . `` The Normandy Diary of Marie Louise Osmont 1940-1944 '' ( Random House , June ) is a first-person account of the German occupation and Allied invasion by a French diarist . Two paperbacks that offer lots of color maps and photos are `` D-Day and the Invasion of Normandy '' by Anthony Kemp ( Abrams Discoveries ) and `` The D-Day Atlas '' by John Man ( Facts on File ) . `` Shot in the Heart '' is Mikal Gilmore 's gut-wrenching exorcism of the demons that have ravaged his doomed family , especially his oldest brother , the cold-blooded killer Gary Gilmore , who embraced death by a firing squad in Utah in 1977 . A pop-culture writer for Rolling Stone magazine , Mikal Gilmore has created a powerful portrait of his family 's toxic genetic pool that has spawned Snopes-like figures whose epic struggles with crime and punishment could populate great works by Faulkner or Dostoevski . His volatile clan has left a legacy of centuries of domestic brutality , madness and tyranny . Its heritage of dysfunctionalism culminated in Gary Gilmore 's execution after he murdered two Mormons in cold blood in Utah . Gary Gilmore 's crusade to have himself executed by a firing squad as his blood atonement for his sins made news around the global village . His bizarre story became fodder for Norman Mailer 's masterly `` The Executioner 's Song , '' later adapted into a first-rate TV movie . Mikal Gilmore wrote this agonizingly candid memoir in hopes of finding a key that would unlock `` the true history of ( his ) family and how its webwork of dark secrets and failed hopes helped create the legacy that , in part , became ( his ) brother 's impetus to murder . '' Mikal , 43 , says it was a life-and-death struggle for him to break with his family 's unnatural bent for violence and create a sane , straight life . But , he confesses , he has been dizzyingly close to the murderous abyss that swallowed up his brother . He writes : `` There were days during this time ( before Gary was executed ) that I wanted to kill the world . I supposed that in those months I was finally like my brother in all respects except one : He was destroyed enough to pull the trigger , and I was not . '' Mikal finds a number of cultural and sociological culprits to blame for the curse of the house of Gilmore . Among these is the bungling prison system , which , he says , makes criminals even more unfit for life outside . Mormonism , the faith of Gary 's mother , is also in some way culpable , Mikal says , because of its early rugged history on the blood-soaked frontier and its teaching of blood atonement the concept that some sins are so heinous , they can be atoned for only by the shedding of the sinner 's blood . Gilmore takes a Calvinistic view of fate , coming down hard on the side of predestination . `` Gary 's fate was finished at about the instant in which my parents conceived him , '' he writes . Inescapable fate , inexplicable appearances of malevolent ghosts and revelations of shameful family secrets recur as motifs throughout this account of one man 's family . But finally , the central villain is the tyranny of the family itself , a kind of inhuman bondage that Mikal Gilmore hopes to shatter by bringing everything out into the light of day . So he outs long-closeted secrets , festering fantasies and fictions that were the Crazy Glue bonding his loony loved ones together . Perhaps in a bit of wishful thinking , Mikal implies that his family is not that much of an aberration from more typical-seeming American families , which also have dark secrets lurking under their roofs . Families have their flaws . But to emblazon the mark of murderer and child-and-wife abuser upon the brow of all families smacks of the sort of cruel and unusual punishment Mikal 's brutal father loved to inflict on his boys ' buttocks . Gilmore stumbles in other ways . His prose sometimes overheats , or strikes a gratingly banal note or portentous pose . Even worse , as his family saga focuses more on him , its pace fizzles out in mercilessly boring salvos of I 's , as in I did this , I did that . And after reading hungrily about Mikal 's con-man dad , his mad mom and fascinatingly flawed brothers , it 's a drag to read about his troubles . Does anybody care that he had to take Dalmane to help him sleep or that his `` meetings and couplings '' with one girlfriend `` took on a special intensity '' ? Nonetheless , Gilmore 's account of his ascent from this hell of family life is moving and memorable . If the work doesn't bring him the redemption he sought , its confessional tone in this Age of Confession might well bring monetary salvation at cash registers across the nation . As a former member of corporate America who eventually turned to writing , I was extremely intrigued by this novel written by Washington attorney Helen Elaine Lee . How many people have I met , fueled by the success of John Grisham or Michael Crichton , who report slaving away at their portable `` Disclosure '' ? Was Lee , I wondered , another one of these misguided souls who sit at computers trying to write the next `` Pelican Brief '' and would be better off writing legal briefs than literature ? Should she be given that sage advice , `` Honey , don't quit your day job '' ? But after a marathon reading of `` The Serpent 's Gift '' while I should have been enjoying the scenery on vacation , I wanted to advise Lee to start writing that resignation letter . For `` The Serpent 's Gift '' marks the debut of an important new voice on the fictional landscape . Although there 's nary a lawyer or murder weapon in sight , Lee has nevertheless created an emotional , suspenseful page-turner . Her terrain is the human heart ; the first two pages of the book alone contain one of the most haunting deaths in recent memory . This passing deeply affects young Vesta Smalls , creating in her a fear of making a critical misstep , of yielding to `` the power of the small deed to rip the sky apart , and return it to seamless blue . '' And as the novel fast-forwards to an aged Vesta , now encased in tattered scarves and surrounded by plastic-covered furniture , you sense that she 's paid some terrible price for a misstep , an accident long ago . There 's a saying that goes , `` When one door closes , another opens. ' ' For Lee 's characters , the closing off represented by the accident and the violence leading up to it are a new beginning , an opening that propels the 8-year-old Vesta , her mother Eula and younger brother LaRue to the loving and colorful home of Ruby and Polaris Staples . There Eula finds a peaceful place in the basement in which to recede and muse on the nature of her love for Ontario Smalls , a love whose most visible remnant is a serpentine facial scar , which her rescuer and friend Ruby calls `` angry healing flesh . '' It is there that Vesta and LaRue find a sister in the Staples ' daughter Ouida , an imaginative , confident child , and a ready-made mother in Ruby . And while Ruby 's stories , told in stoop-sitting sessions with the neighbors , are too uncontrolled for the rigid vigil Vesta must keep over her life and emotions , young LaRue is drawn to this other mother , absorbing stories while sitting in a rocker in Ruby 's kitchen . These stories ignite his imagination , allowing him to create his own make-believe character , Miss Snake , `` who got in and out of fixes each time she appeared , who started out with purple spots but changed each time she shed her skin . '' The creation of the Miss Snake stories , as well as the later tales of Tennessee Coal & Iron Company Jones , are author Lee 's masterstroke , completely rooted in the African American oral traditions of Bre ' er Rabbit and Anansi the spider . The stories , themselves deserving of their own book , act here to illuminate the narrative and give it a lyrical magic that both captivate and enlighten the characters . In young LaRue 's mouth , the stories also represent a connectedness to African American culture and identity ; they delight Ruby and Ouida , but dismay Vesta and Eula , who consider them `` lies . '' For Eula and Vesta , the stories threaten to initiate an internal battle with secrets and dreams , long hidden but recurring as closed-off spaces that keep them from knowing peace . And until they understand the gift the Miss Snake stories have to offer , that peace remains elusive , just beyond their reach . Lee has written in the siblings LaRue , Vesta , Ouida and December ( who appear near the end of Part I ) a quartet of unforgettable characters whose personalities run counter to expectation . LaRue is a sensitive , intuitive man with a spirit that cannot be crushed ; a man who , when recognizing his love for Olive Winters , fights against his impulse to pull away ; a man who marks the changes in his world from after the Great War through the 1960s with wonder , a great love for his people and a moving grace . His sister , Vesta , is rigid and frightened , a woman whose retreat from the pain of early disappointments drains the vitality from her life . Ouida supposedly has everything to be desired among black folk of the time fair skin , vivacious wit , imagination yet she makes a radical decision to embrace an unconventional love . Then there is December , Ruby and Polaris ' daughter , whose arrival at the winter equinox signals birth out of death , but who , under Vesta 's excruciatingly restrictive love , becomes a colorless cipher of a Detroit housewife , more concerned with the correctness of her peanut butter selection than the quality of her life . Lee 's novel also displays an adept use of color , light and space as indicators of vitality , of memory , of love and loss . Images appear in unexpected ways : The skin of an orange that stimulates the elderly Vesta 's memories ; her youthful retreat from the tumult of color into a seemingly serene world represented by an all-white wardrobe and meticulously cross-stitched homilies ; the cobalt blue lovemaking of LaRue and Olive . While there are moments in which I wished Lee 's style were a little more restrained , or conversely displayed more emotion , these are small quibbles about a book that is so richly imagined . LaRue Smalls finishes many stories in `` The Serpent 's Gift '' with , `` I 've told my friends , now you tell yours . '' The phrase is most apropos in celebrating the arrival of Helen Elaine Lee and `` The Serpent 's Gift , '' a book whose colors will linger behind the eyes long after you read the final page . Through the years , my job as a sports reporter has taken me to a lot of interesting places New Orleans for the Sugar Bowl , Quebec and Montreal for hockey games , San Francisco for a Super Bowl , even to London for Wimbledon . Most of the time , my friends willingly suggest they slip into my suitcase or come along as a photographer . But when the Washington Capitals of the National Hockey League opened their season in Winnipeg , Manitoba , last fall , no one offered to join me . `` Good luck , '' said one . `` Stay warm . '' `` Winnipeg ? '' said another . `` Isn't that in the middle of nowhere ? '' A call to the NHL 's Winnipeg Jets public relations office made me wonder . `` Winnipeg is like nowhere you 've ever been before , '' promised information director Mike O' Hearn . Mike Ridley , a native of Winnipeg who plays center for the Capitals , said , `` I 've given up trying to explain where it is . When people ask where I 'm from , I just say North Minneapolis . '' Winnipeg sits just about in the middle of Canada , just about in the middle of North America . To outsiders , if Winnipeg is known at all , it is known primarily for frigid weather . The city claims the intersection of Portage and Main streets as the coldest street corner in North America . Temperatures dip to minus-30 degrees Fahrenheit regularly , as the wind rips in unabated from the central Canadian plains . `` Block heaters ( to keep engines from freezing ) are regular equipment sold on cars in Winnipeg , '' said Ridley . `` I spent the first 22 years of my life in Winnipeg , '' he added . `` I thought cars everywhere came with block heaters ; when I went to buy my first car in New York , I wanted to make sure it came standard and was told it was extra . The guy finally told me I didn't really need one . '' Wondering why you would ever want to go to Winnipeg ? Obviously , you think , there are reasons Winnipeg is not included in the same sentence with Quebec , Montreal and Vancouver . But that 's in the winter . In the spring and summer , this city of 650,000 blossoms . From June through early October , Winnipeg can be a delight . `` Winnipeg is a wonderful place in the summer , '' said Ridley , who still takes his family home for vacation during hockey 's off-season . `` There is always something to do , places to go . Everything from fishing and golf to museums , dinning out and gambling in the casinos . '' In summer , Winnipeg residents and their visitors enjoy temperatures in the mid-70s to mid-80s with zero humidity . It is true that unless you come from the North Pole or the Outback , you are probably not going to confuse Winnipeg with Paris or Montreal . But there are wide streets , warm sunny benches and some very good cappuccino to be enjoyed down at the Forks , where the Red and Assiniboine rivers meet . Winnipeg residents are friendly . One day , while trying to make my way to the Forks , I stopped in a small card shop in the restored Union Station Market at Main and Broadway to ask directions . The shopkeeper smiled , came out from behind his counter and personally led me to the site , leaving his store unattended . `` It is not very far , but from this side it can be a little tricky , '' he said of the short walk . `` I 'll take you there . '' And once you get to the Forks , you will have reached a historic crossroads that dates back 6,000 years , to a time when historians say aboriginal groups met to trade and socialize . In fact , Winnipeg is an Indian name for `` Where muddy waters meet . '' And people are still meeting there , for lunch and shopping and an afternoon of sunshine in the 57-acre enclave , which includes a six-story , glass-enclosed tower for exhibits , a skating rink , an amphitheater and other outdoor amusements . Through the centuries , Cree and Assiniboine Indians , fur traders and European settlers came and went as the spot grew , first as a place for fur trading in the 1730s , when people came in canoes , York boats and steamboats ; then as a settlement for Scottish farmers in 1812 and a hub for train cargo and passengers in the 1880s ; until today , when two antique horse barns have been converted into an airy marketplace . Beyond the shopping and dining areas , there is a rock wall carved with scenes depicting Winnipeg 's history that winds down to a beautiful and peaceful paved walkway along the riverbank . From there , it is an easy walk along the Assiniboine River to the stunning Manitoba Legislative Building , built in neoclassical style in 1919 and topped with a 13-foot , 5-ton statue called the Golden Boy , holding a torch meant to `` light the way '' to progress . The Tourist Information Center is also located next door . The city 's streets are wide and clean , and , like a European city , it is made for walking , whether along the river banks or elsewhere . Traffic jams don't exist . `` Rush hour , '' said O' Hearn , the Jets ' public relations man , `` is three cars at a stop light . '' Crime ( no surprise after the shop keeper 's actions ) is also rare . And when you get tired of being above ground , or if you 're there on a rainy day or snowy one in winter there is a whole different city of shops and walkways underground . Winnipeg is made up of culturally diverse neighborhoods , good restaurants , fine museums and a lively regional theater . The Winnipeg Art Gallery has one of the best collections of Inuit art in the world ; the Exchange District , once the center of Winnipeg 's wholesale and manufacturing district , has had its wonderful old buildings restored and converted to fine stores and restaurants . Academy Road , one of the city 's oldest areas , is the place to go for designer clothes , cozy restaurants and specialty shops . Osborne Village is a five-block area filled with shops that feature local artisans , imported chocolate and books . `` Little Italy , '' between Pembina Highway and Stafford Avenue on Corydon Avenue , offers sidewalk cafes ; and Saint Boniface is home to the largest French-speaking community in western Canada . At night , the Grey Nuns ' Walkway ( Promenade Tache ) becomes a lamp-lighted path between Tache Avenue and the Red River and provides a pretty view of Winnipeg and the Forks . ( Begin optional trim ) Among the most diverting places to visit is the Museum of Man and Nature , an interpretive museum with life-like reconstructions of Indians hunting buffalo and planetarium for the star-gazers among us . One of the more interesting replicas is of the Nonsuch , a two-masted sailing vessel called a ketch . The ship arrived in 1668 and was the first European ship to sail into Hudson Bay . It sailed out again to England with a cargo of furs , and it was that incident that eventually led to the founding of the Hudson 's Bay Co. , the trading company that still exists and is most familiar in the form of its department stores . Last March , that same company donated its entire historic archives collection to the museum , which will house it in a new $ 2.2 million wing to be completed next year . The collection , which is said to be among the most extensive and detailed private historical resources ever maintained , portrays more than three centuries of the company 's history , including the quest for the North West Passage the water route from the Atlantic to the Pacific that took explorers 400 years to get right . ( End optional trim ) Winnipeg may not offer the night life of New York or the glamour of Paris . But for a low-key , relaxing and safe place to visit , it is a very pleasant discovery . One of the big doings in London this summer is the 100th anniversary of the Tower Bridge , marked officially on June 30 with fanfare and fireworks on the banks of the River Thames . Created for the centenary , `` The Celebration Story '' exhibit in rooms and passages inside the bridge recounts the story of this Victorian engineering marvel and city life 100 years ago ; for info , call ( 800 ) 781-6088 . Nearby , at the Tower of London , dating to at least 1066 , the Historic Royal Palaces Agency says it willn't be refilling the big moat this year . The moat 's been dry for about 150 years , when it was declared a health hazard and drained . Although there 's a new cafe opening on the wharf outside the tower , the new $ 10 million jewel house for the royal baubles that opened in March is still the big draw . For tower info , call ( 011 ) ( 44 ) ( 71 ) 709-0765 . The Queen 's digs at Buckingham Palace will again be open to the public from Aug. 7 to Oct. 2 . London 's Stafford hotel is offering a special pass for its guests that 'll take them to the head of the daily ticket queue ; ( 800 ) 525-4800 . Other notes : Say double-double toil and trouble in double-double time : `` Instant Macbeth , '' a 30-minute version of Shakespeare 's tragedy , just opened at the Waterside Studio Theater in Stratford-Upon-Avon , where down the street the Royal Shakespeare Company is presenting the unabridged play in about 2 hours . For `` Instant '' info : ( 011 ) ( 44 ) ( 78 ) 929-5623 . It 's not four-legged joggers that you might be seeing at night crossing the roads near Westwood pasture in the northeast English county of Humberside . Environmentalists have proposed putting fluorescent leggings on local cows so motorists will able to moo-ve over before they hit them . -0- GLOBAL WHEELER : Although she 's been in a wheelchair since she was 2 , Annie Mackin is an intrepid traveler who 's logged four trips to Europe since 1978 . During her five weeks there last summer , the 40-year-old woman decided to write a guide for other disabled travelers , `` Wheelchair through Europe . '' Many hotels that are accessible to the disabled are top-of-the-line , Mackin says , so she wrote her book with a budget in mind , seeking out accessible lodging from $ 90 to $ 110 a night , double . Although she traveled with an attendant , Mackin found many places accessible to those with good upper body strength . Some tips : Take the narrowest wheelchair you can find and jell cell batteries that willn't tip over and spill , and remind the airlines to pack the chair carefully . Also , try to fly into London or Amsterdam where there 's accessible mass transit from the airport to the city so you willn't have to pay for a cab . European travel , she says `` can be difficult , can be challenging , but it 's not impossible . You miss a lot if you stay home . '' Send check or money order for $ 12.95 to Graphic Language Press , P.O. . Box 270 , Cardiff by the Sea , Calif. 92007 . Arizona-based Wheelchair Inc. has signed a contract with Avis to provide wheelchair-accessible minivans at 47 on-and-off airport Avis sites in 29 states . Many locations are available now , but they all will be in the next four months , company President Tammy Smith said . Rates range from $ 71 to $ 89 a day ; ( 800 ) 456-1371 . Another company , Wheelchair Getaways , rents and sells specially equipped vans and other equipment in 80 cities , with rates from $ 75 to $ 95 a day ; ( 800 ) 642-2042 . -0- QUICK TAKES : More Americans are planning to take more vacation trips this summer but for shorter periods of time than they did last year , according to an annual survey of 1,500 conducted by the Travel Industry Association of America and the Automobile Association . Most popular activities : going to the beach , visiting friends or relatives , visiting historic places and camping/hiking/climbing . Top destinations : Florida , California , Hawaii , New York and Texas . Apple Vacations is offering new packages to Las Vegas with nonstop service from Newark , N.J. , Mondays and Fridays ; ( 800 ) 727-3400 . Western-Union is setting up a temporary international money transfer agent location in Colleville-Sur-Mer in Normandy , France , through June 13 to accommodate D-Day travelers ; ( 800 ) 325-6000 . can't stand the heat ? Try the kitchen at the Villa d' Este Hotel on Lake Como , Italy , for daily cooking demonstrations . Six-day trips begin Oct. 1 , 8 or 15 . Each morning , the hotel chef will prepare lunch ; participants can help or just watch . After lunch , guests can take optional excursions to food markets , vineyards , and cheese- and salami-making shops . Cost : $ 1,688 per person , including hotel for six days , breakfasts and lunches . Not included : round-trip air fare to Milan and ground transportation . Contact : MSW Columbia Travel , 630 Fifth Ave. , Suite 3070 , New York 10111 ; telephone ( 212 ) 332-8900 . -0- HABLA EN PUEBLA : Two-week language programs in Puebla , Mexico , run June 26 through Aug. 20 . Guests stay with selected families , participating in daily activities . After morning Spanish classes , participants have their afternoons free to explore open markets , the Great Pyramid of Tepanapa and the battlefield site of the 1862 Cinco de Mayo victory over the French that gave rise to a national holiday . Evenings are spent with the host family practicing language skills . Weekend excursions to Mexico City are available . Cost : $ 595 per person , including lodging , meals , ground transportation to Puebla ( 80 miles southeast of Mexico City ) and Spanish classes . Not included : round-trip air fare to Mexico City . Contact : Language Experience Programs , 2432-F Moon Dust Drive , Chino Hills , Calif. 91709 ; tel . ( 800 ) 726-6644 . -0- HALLOWEEN JAZZ : An eight-day Halloween jazz cruise leaves Oct. 30 from New Orleans aboard Holland America 's Noordam for stops in Grand Cayman ; Ocho Rios , Jamaica , and Cozumel , Mexico . Round-the-clock , live , on-board jazz performances feature Diane Schuur , Buddy Montgomery , Pete Candoli , Ernie Watts and many other musicians . Cost : $ 1,165 per person , double occupancy , including all meals and shows . Not included : round-trip air fare to New Orleans . Contact : Labadie Productions , 303 Potrero St. 19 , Santa Cruz , Calif. 95060 ; tel . ( 800 ) 350-7464 . -0- UMBRIAN RAMBLE : An eight-day easy walking trip in the Umbrian countryside of central Italy leaves Sept. 10 and Oct. 1 and 22 . The tour begins in the ancient city of Todi , where participants stay in a converted Benedictine monastery . Each day , groups walk to a new village , stopping frequently to visit wineries , churches and museums . Van assistance is always available and will carry luggage to the next lodging , from a family-run hotel to a converted villa . Guests will stop to see frescoes at the church of San Francesco in the walled town of Montefalco , Roman ruins in Spello , and museums and churches in Assisi . Picnic lunches are provided by the guide en route , and dinners are eaten at local restaurants . Cost : $ 1,720 per person , including accommodations , continental breakfasts , meals and guides . Not included : air fare to Rome and ground transportation . Contact : Alternative Travel Group , 575 Pierce St. , Suite 604 , San Francisco , Calif. 94117 ; tel . ( 415 ) 431-6789 . -0- GREEK ISLES : A 45-foot sailing yacht takes up to seven guests through the Saronic Gulf south of Athens , stopping at Hydra , Aegina , Poros and Epidavros . Participants on this 15-day journey leave Los Angeles Oct. 7 , tour Athens the following day , then board the yacht for a week ; they can sit back or actively participate in the sailing . Afterward , guests board an overnight deluxe steamer to Irakleion , Crete , to visit the ancient ruins of Cnossus , the White Mountains and archeological sites on the western side of the island . Cost : $ 1,975 , including breakfasts , lunches while sailing and two dinners , ground transportation and a guide . Not included : air fare to Athens . Contact : Guides for All Seasons , 202 County Road , Calpine , Calif. 96124 ; tel . ( 800 ) 457-4574 . -0- MAYAN JOURNEY : Visit the mysterious Mayan ruins without breaking a fingernail on a 15-day deluxe train/cruise tour leaving Los Angeles Union Station on Oct. 9 . Participants will travel by private train in Pullman sleeping cars to New Orleans , where they stay two nights at the Riverside Hilton hotel and tour the city . They board Holland America 's Noordam to cruise to the Yucatan and the West Indies , stopping at Cozumel , Mexico , for a day trip to the Mayan ruins of Tulum ; Grand Cayman ; Cartagena , Colombia , and Jamaica . The ship returns to New Orleans for the flight home . Cost : $ 2,895 per person , including ground transport , meals and guides . Contact : Uncommon Journeys , 1529 Cypress St. 103 , Walnut Creek , Calif. 94596 ; tel . ( 800 ) 323-5893 . Richard Dooling is a traveler in two drastically different territories : the law he practices today in Nebraska , and the folkways of the Mende people in the backlands of Sierra Leone , where he once stayed . In his sardonic and decidedly untidy novel , `` White Man 's Grave '' ( Farrar , Straus & Giroux , $ 22 , 386 pp. ) , he pits the tribal magic of each against the other . There is no question who wins . Dooling has something of the beady , comical glitter of Evelyn Waugh though not his formal perfection but only in one eye . Waugh traveled in Sierra Leone and wrote nastily about both whites and blacks . Dooling 's parody wickedly impales his Americans ; his ingenious sympathies lie with the Mende villagers , giving his book an aspect beyond parody . The story goes roughly like this : Randall Killigan , a maniacally hard-charging lawyer in Indianapolis , has a straying son , Michael , who went to Africa with the Peace Corps for two years , stayed for four and has disappeared . While Randall fulminates , mobilizes his senator and the State Department and offers large rewards , a second effort goes on . Boone , an artist friend of Michael 's and a fugitive from an equivalent bull elephant of a father , treks into the Sierra Leone bush . Eventually Michael turns up along with an explanation for his disappearance . Most of the African part of the story , which is most of the book , concerns Boone 's painful and illuminating encounters with a primitive village civilization . Painful for him , illuminating for us . The young man 's artistic veneer quickly burns off , disclosing a hereditary , stiff-necked American prig . The priggishness , though , allows the author to show us what Boone refuses to see : how supremely and winningly , in the notion of primitive civilization , the noun demolishes the adjective . Dooling gives us a bravura display of satire with Randall Killigan , in war paint and tribal regalia , as a legal chieftain whose ambition is to be `` the synonym for bankruptcy in the Seventh Circuit . '' He demolishes the lawyers for bankrupt firms . He lays the reeking carcasses of his victims upon his conference-room table , apportioning bits to the rival creditors ' lawyers . He is the most virile tiger in the jungle : the electronic notebook he carries into negotiating battle has twice as many bytes as anyone else 's . It contains for instant reference the entire Federal Bankruptcy Code , annotated . The imagery , of course , is purposeful as well as comic . As the search for his son goes on , with Boone encountering witches , shape-changers , juju medicine , the dumbstruck regard of young villagers and the cryptic though essentially benevolent maneuvering of the elders , Africa leaks into Indianapolis . Randall mysteriously receives a hideous , skin-wrapped package that drips blood ; now and then it turns into a bat . For a while he wonders if he has a brain tumor ; gradually he realizes that it is witchcraft . It will turn out to be self-inflicted : he , we will learn by the end , is possessed by a witch-spirit and has , in effect , become one . As one character points out , the American counterpart of voodoo is lawsuits : Both are used to kill , sicken or otherwise ruin one 's neighbors . The Mende hire witches , we hire lawyers . Dooling brings off his satiric parallel , which might otherwise seem forced , with a wit and outrageousness that make it work . His success has large holes in it , though . He can satirize his countrymen but he is plain awful when he attempts anything more inward with them . When Randall goes to Mass and confession to try to stave off the witchery , his mental flailing is written in flamboyant cliche and interlarded with more cliche : lengthy quotations from the liturgy . Satire has sunk out of its depth to become the mawkish thing it satirizes . In the African chapters , the author 's sympathy and responsiveness produce writing whose humor is carried on a current of discovery and astonishment . Only the Americans are flat . Michael , when discovered , is simply an American overachiever gone native . Boone 's cultural obtuseness has a narrative usefulness it allows the delicate complexities of the villagers to emerge more clearly but it turns him into a null character . An anthropologist who has lived with the Mende for years and has , in effect , become one of them , is considerably less interesting than what he has to say . He is a good explainer but not much else . Oddly , the only American with any roundness or allure is a thoroughly reprehensible Peace Corps veteran , infinitely cynical about the villagers and mainly in it for the adventure and the beer . He is alive , though , and authentic . And it is in evoking the life of Africa and in suggesting the wisdom and forbearance that underlie the `` superstitions '' of the Mende villagers that Dooling is at his best . There is , first of all , a vivid presentation not just of what his Africa looks , feels and smells like but of the emotions of unease and beguilement they can produce . The vast landscape seen from the descending airplane looks like `` an empire of solid broccoli tops stretching inland to the horizon . '' Boone rides a rickety truck into the interior ; people , animals and cargo are so jammed together that the passengers practice a kind of metabolism-lowering trance state . The villagers live in a fearful world of uncontrollable events : hunger , disease , the depredations of white settlers and diamond seekers , and the arbitrary incursions of warring political factions whose maneuvering in the capital is felt 200 miles down-country . Dooling portrays the rich culture that can evolve from powerlessness to command one 's environment ; as opposed to Western culture , which has evolved from just the opposite . From command , that is , or a sense of command or look at our cities an illusion of command . The suggestion is there without being explicit . It is fleshed out in countless scenes in which Dooling gives life to a village that manages dignity and a subversive humor in the teeth of what seem to us like invincible odds . The witchcraft , the magical secret societies , the shamanism , the taboos are ways of coping with unmanageable dangers both outside and within . In his portraits a visiting witch cleaner who runs a cotton thread around the village so nobody shall leave or enter until the place is cleaned ; the poignantly striving third wife of a local political thug ; and above all , the elder who adopts Boone as his son so that the villagers can see him as a real person , albeit an odd and misbehaving one Dooling evokes the humane checks and balances of a deep world ; the logic , you might say , of its magic . WASHINGTON The fight for a tougher human-rights policy toward China was lost long before President Clinton announced surrender last week . Clinton 's decision to throw aside his own campaign commitments on the issue bodes very badly for the future of human rights as a core concept of American foreign policy . From now on , it seems , the United States ' human-rights policy will amount to talk , talk and more talk . The battle to impose trade sanctions on China 's dictators was lost , first , within and by the Clinton administration itself . Because of a lack of internal discipline , the administration couldn't even manage a coherent effort to bluff the Chinese leadership into making at least some serious human rights concessions . Even administration officials concede that while some in the State Department were trying to tell China 's leaders that the United States was prepared to be tough , the Treasury , Commerce and Agriculture departments of the same administration-as well as many who occupy the economy policy precincts of Clinton 's own White House-were sending the Chinese clear signals that said : Never mind . Ignore the State Department 's claptrap . There 's no way we 'll impose serious sanctions . The Chinese sat tight waited for the inevitable cave-in and the renewal of most favored nation trade status . That cave-in was made all the more inevitable by the behavior of the American business community . Business leaders are , of course , free to lobby for whatever policy they want . In the United States , you don't face torture or prison for opposing government policy , as you do in China . But if we 're counting on American business to be the conveyor belt of human rights to China , we may be waiting a very long time . Every signal the business community sent to the Chinese government was that money and trade mattered a lot more than the rights of political dissidents rotting in jail cells . Why ruffle the feathers of the very people you 'll be doing deals with ? `` The business community was shameful in the way they conducted themselves , '' said Rep. Nancy Pelosi , D-Calif. , a leading congressional advocate of human rights in China . `` They told the Chinese government , `` you hang tough , they willn't revoke MFN . ' They associated themselves with the regime , and that was shameful . '' It can be argued , as Treasury Secretary Lloyd Bentsen did , that unilateral trade sanctions were the least practical way to advance the cause of human rights . Unilateral sanctions , he said , were more likely to hurt us than the Chinese , since other countries would pick up the contracts the United States walked away from . But if ever there were a practical time for sanctions , it is now , when the U.S.-Chinese trade balance is heavily in China 's favor . Some serious human-rights advocates also opposed sanctions on the ground that increased trade and prosperity would inevitably make China a freer society . `` Not only does such trade help produce a middle class , with increasingly sophisticated political and social views , '' said James Finn of Freedom House , writing recently in Commonweal magazine , `` but it introduces new information and values into an insular society . '' Maybe so , but the relationship between markets and freedom is far from automatic . China 's markets , after all , are not really `` free , '' given the large role played by the political and military leadership in determing who will get rich . And as George Black of the Lawyers Committee for Human Rights argued in the Los Angeles Times , China may be developing a system that he called `` market Stalinism . '' The government will let markets develop as long as there is no challenge to its political authority . It 's quite possible to say yes to Ronald McDonald and no to the Statue of Liberty-and to make that decision stick for a long time . But even assuming that Bentsen and Finn are right , Clinton had a problem in renewing MFN that George Bush did not . Bush actually believed sanctions were a mistake . Clinton , on the other hand , accused Bush of having `` coddled the regime , pleading for progress but failing to impose penalties for intransigence . '' The people of China , Clinton said in 1992 , `` are still denied their basic rights and liberties . They are denied the right to choose their own leaders ; they are still imprisoned for simply calling for democracy ; they continue to suffer torture and cruel , inhuman and degrading treatment and punishment . '' And on and on and on . All those conditions still apply . Yet Clinton , after so many threats and promises , was forced to back down . In doing so , he sent a message about all future American statements and undertakings about human rights : We may not really mean them . Forced to confront a contradiction between his stated commitment to human rights and his promise to put economics at the center of American foreign policy , Clinton chose economics . It is not an irrational choice . But its implications will not be lost on China 's dictators , or on dictators anywhere else . What 's most troubling is not Clinton 's flip-flop but the fact that it appeared so inevitable . Human rights served America 's interests in the Cold War as a rallying cry against Soviet power . But now that the Cold War is over , a lot of policy makers are starting to see concerns over human rights as a barrier to a rational , self-interested American foreign policy . In the case of China , after all , there were not only concerns over trade but also over cooperation against North Korea . If human rights are destined to give way to cold-eyed realism whenever the going gets even remotely tough , then let 's be honest about it . Let 's stop rationalizing by pretending that what we really cared about in this MFN business was `` opening up '' China to democracy . If we 're unprepared to come to the defense of the lives and liberties of others when doing so might inconvenience our own pursuit of happiness , we should at least admit it to ourselves . It ranks up there with the world 's other great unanswerable questions : Will Madonna 's career ever get back on track ? Are Roseanne and Tom going to reunite ? When will Susan Lucci ever get her Emmy ? And now we have : `` Why bother with sex ? '' OK , we guys know why . But Rosemary Redfield , a Canadian evolutionary biologist , wants the female of the species to know that when their hormones are in hysterics , when their libido is wired , when they 've got `` making whoopee '' on their brain cells , they should think twice about having sex . Redfield , a researcher in the Department of Zoology at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver , wrote in the journal Nature that a female would be more likely to have genetically healthier offspring by not mixing her genes with those of a male , whose sperm is more likely to carry mutations than are her eggs . She was talking about hypothetical , computer-modeled species lonely , dateless amoeba , to you and me . But because there were no single-cell spokes-creatures available to comment , we had to interview humans . `` This is male-bashing at the molecular and biological level , '' Dennis Palumbo , a psychotherapist in private practice in Los Angeles , said of Redfield 's findings . Redfield , who was unavailable for comment , told the Washington Post that her ideas on sexual reproduction `` do not apply to the vast majority of human males , who make many very important non-genetic contributions to their offspring . '' Still , Palumbo asked : `` Are we , as men , basically on the way out ? It sounds like that . `` But on the other hand , male scientists have sort of been the voices of record for so many years that some part of me now thinks that this is an attempt by female researchers to balance the voices out there . '' Helen E. Fisher , research associate in the department of anthropology at the American Museum of Natural History in New York and the author of `` Anatomy of Love '' ( Ballantine , 1992 ) , said the study by Redfield `` is providing balance to the subject and pointing out that there are some maladaptive consequences to sex as well . '' `` It 's more adaptive to clone yourself than it is to reproduce with a male partner who may introduce mutations and produce a more shoddy offspring , '' she added . Too bad people can't be more like strawberries , Fisher said . `` Strawberries clone themselves when they are in the middle of a nice good patch . But when they get to the edge of the patch and they have to branch out into dangerous frontier , they reproduce sexually instead . `` And that is useful to them because they 've got mutant and new kinds of strawberries that may survive in very unpredictable circumstances , '' she said . `` The same could be said of human beings . It has long been said that there is variety in offspring . '' As far back as Darwin , scientists have argued that reproduction is possible through parthenogenesis , or virgin birth . Ellen Kriedman says Darwin be damned . The author of `` How Can We Light a Fire When the Kids Are Driving Us Crazy : A Guide for Parents to Be Lovers '' ( Villard , 1994 ) said any woman who has ever had an orgasm wouldn't want to put the kibosh on sex . `` There 's nothing like it . It 's the closet act you can engage in . It 's intimacy . It 's loving . It fulfills your need to be held and to be touched and to be connected with another human being , '' she said . `` Aside from the biological , it is psychologically and emotionally satisfying to be engaged in the sexual act . '' ( Optional Add End ) Palumbo said he doesn't like the notion of eliminating the `` middleman '' or the sexual act from procreation . `` There 's already a growing body of literature delegitimizing the need for males . Our culture already suffers from the lack of fathers , a crucial aspect of the dysfunction in families . I know if I were a woman , I would be frustrated by how many men abrogate their responsibility as fathers . '' Maybe , Palumbo said , Redfield 's work `` will be a clarion call for men to hang around , '' even though the biologist `` was studying amoeba who missed out on intimate dinner dates , going to the movies and holding hands . '' Christine Martin , a former erotic film actress and exotic dancer , said Redfield 's sexual reproduction theory reeks of `` female supremacy . '' Martin , who resides in New York , teaches a class in `` How to Drive Your Woman Wild in Bed '' at the Learning Annex in Los Angeles . `` Men have been battered by feminists and are confused by courtship and how to please women , '' she said , adding that Redfield 's conclusions `` are anti-male to me . And the fact that it is anti-sex is pretty anti-human because sex is not only for reproduction , it is for pleasure , relaxation and intimacy . '' Madge Sinclair was `` flattered '' to be asked to be involved . Talia Shire told her husband she was really lucky in life : `` I have had the chance to work with the very best and that 's a wonderful feeling . '' And Justine Bateman and Jasmine Guy found working on the fictional segments of TBS ' `` A Century of Women '' to be a great learning experience . Directed by Academy Award-winning Barbara Kopple , the fictional segments of the documentary follow the lives of four generations of women in one family . Teresa Wright , Olympia Dukakis , Talia Shire , Justine Bateman and Brooke Smith play the women who gather to celebrate the birth of Bateman 's daughter . Madge Sinclair and Jasmine Guy play mother and daughter African American friends who join in the celebration . Throughout the course of the gathering , they discuss the changes women have seen and fought for over the course of the century . `` To me it just showed that everything starts with the family , '' Sinclair says of the fictional scene . `` You can find every single instance of anything that happens in your life within the family . It only is multiplied to that many powers when it goes out in the community . Everything that happens in the community happens to the family . '' Originally , Sinclair worried that her and Guy 's characters were included to fill a quota . But then she realized their inclusion made perfect sense . `` If we are talking about the journey of women , this is about where we have arrived at from a place where black women and white women could barely talk to each other in public , except if one was giving orders and the other was saying , ` Yes ma ' am . ' `` To have a family as closely knit as that one was to feel comfortable enough with these two women to invite them to a happening , I thought it was pretty nice and indicative to where I think we have arrived , which is a happy place . '' The weeklong shoot brought all the actresses closer together . `` I came out with such enormous respect for all of those women , '' Shire says . `` It was hard to say goodby . '' Guy recalls how much they talked about about their lives and careers when the cameras weren't rolling . `` For me , Justine and Brooke Smith , to get a perspective from Olympia and Talia , I think , was really invaluable . At least where I am , I 'm still trying to plot everything out and pursue specific goals . I think Olympia said to me one day , ` You can't plan this career . Your career just is . ' It was a relief to know that because you are kind of fighting a losing battle thinking we are in control of this business . '' Bateman believes the documentary is important for women her age . `` I 'm 28 and I need to see this stuff , '' she says . `` I came into a world where I already had the vote . I already had equality the most equality we 've had . And to see that this was hard won , I can be really grateful for where I am now . '' Tina Hill is always asked the same question : Did she know she was making history when she became a `` Rosie the Riveter '' during World War II ? Yes and no . `` I knew I was making history for myself , but I didn't know I was making history for anyone else . Always as a little child , there were two or three things I always wanted in my house . I didn't want a leaky roof and I didn't want a lot of fussing and fighting . Up until now , I have had some leaks , but I 've had no fighting ! '' Hill , now 76 and living in Los Angeles , is among the women profiled on the first installment of TBS ' six-hour `` A Century of Women . '' The Texas native migrated to Los Angeles in 1940 to seek a better life . She found unheard-of economic freedom for a black woman when she began working in one of the many defense-industry facilities sprouting in Southern California during World War II . After the men returned from the war , she continued working at the plant , run by North American Aviation ( now known as Rockwell ) . She retired in 1980 , after 37 years . `` They didn't have a lot of jobs for black people then , especially women , '' Hill says . `` Some of them had jobs working in the hotels . They had a few black teachers . '' When Hill came to Los Angeles to stay with an aunt , all she could find was domestic work . Then came the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor . `` I went home and married my childhood sweetheart . He went into the service and I came back to Los Angeles again . They were hiring people , so I went to the plant and put in my application that day . She applied at North American Aviation . `` They hired me and they sent me to a training school for six weeks . They paid you the same thing as if you were working regular . That old 40 cents an hour was a lot of money . I would bring home about $ 16 a week . '' As a domestic , she earned $ 40 a month . She was happy working at the plant , she recalls , `` as long as I was making some money that was sufficient and I was able to spend it as I wanted to . I was home with my family when night came . That 's what I liked . '' World War II , she says , `` helped every woman who was breathing air because they learned to manage things and do things . We just learned a lot . We learned how to do things we thought we couldn't do . '' If there was racism at the plant , Hill says , `` you couldn't show it . Roosevelt was a good president and he opened up the doors and things for us to go in these different places to work . '' Whites , she says , `` didn't want us to get ahead . They wanted us to stay back . Hitler got the black woman out of the white woman 's kitchen . '' As spring turns to summer , more and more people are enjoying activities outdoors . The American Cancer Society estimates that between 700,000 and 1 million cases of skin cancer will be diagnosed this year . Although many forms of skin cancer are highly curable , it can be a fatal disease . To reduce the likelihood of developing skin cancer , wear clothing that the sun cannot penetrate and use a sunscreen with a sun protective factor ( SPF ) rating of 15 to 30 . REMEMBERING D-DAY : Sunday and Monday , news services will cover the major ceremonies commemorating the D-Day invasion 50 years ago , including a parachute drop . Some stations will offer documentaries and special programs . Other planned TV coverage : SUNDAY On ABC , Joan Lunden will report from St. . Mere Eglise , France , site of the parachute drop , for `` Good Morning America/Sunday . '' `` This Week With David Brinkley '' will originate from Chateau de Vierville . Brinkley , who covered the D-Day invasion , will be joined by Sam Donaldson , Cokie Roberts and George Will . For CBS , Charles Osgood will anchor `` CBS News Sunday Morning . '' Segments will include a report by Tom Fenton and Andy Rooney 's visit with D-Day veteran paratroopers en route to France aboard the Queen Elizabeth II . For NBC , Bryant Gumbel and Katie Couric , Tom Brokaw and Brian Williams will anchor at Normandy . On cable , CNN reports are anchored by Frank Sesno in Normandy with reporters Bruce Morton and Richard Blystone and two analysts , British historian Paul Beaver and French historian Francois Bedarida . CNN airs the Drumhead Service from Portsmouth , England , with remarks by the Archbishop of Canterbury in the morning . Arts & Entertainment runs several movies and documentaries including the series `` D-Day . '' Later A&E also offers `` Eye on History : D-Day '' featuring first-person stories from retired Vice Adm. John D. Bulkeley , historian Stephen E. Ambrose and Paul Stillwell , author of `` Assault on Normandy , '' among others . On Sunday night Discovery Channel repeats `` Normandy : The Great Crusade '' ; `` CNN Presents ... '' offers `` D-Day : The Great Crusade '' ( Lou Waters and Judy Woodruff host ) ; The Disney Channel carriess `` World War II : A Personal Journey '' ; and The Learning Channel offers `` This Century : War . '' MONDAY NBC , ABC and CBS will cover the 50th anniversary events beginning at 7 a.m. EDT . For ABC , Peter Jennings reports from the American Cemetery at Colleville , overlooking Omaha Beach , where troops from the United States Army 's 1st Infantry Division and 29th Division landed . ABC 's `` World News Tonight '' will air from Normandy , followed by `` Day One . '' Sheila MacVicar reports on the search for a former Nazi general who is still wanted by the United States , Britain and Canada for the alleged murder of unarmed prisoners of war . For CBS , Harry Smith will co-anchor from the American Cemetery with reports from Fenton and Bill Plante ; Rooney , who was a soldier in the D-Day invasion ; former CBS News anchor and correspondent Walter Cronkite , who covered the invasion of France in 1944 for United Press ; and David Eisenhower , grandson of Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower , Supreme Commander of the Allied Forces . `` CBS Evening News '' includes coverage from Rita Braver and Mike Phillips , among others , in Normandy . For NBC , the anchors are Brokaw , Gumbel and Couric . Williams also anchors coverage live for NBC News ' `` Nightside , '' as well as the joint French-United States ceremony at Utah Beach at 4:30 a.m. EDT . PBS carries `` D-Day Remembered : A Musical Tribute from the QE2 '' from Cherbourg Harbor , with Walter Cronkite , Bob Hope , Tommy Tune , Vera Lynn , Helen Mirren and others ; and then Bill Moyers 's `` From D-Day to the Rhine , '' follows World War II veterans as they returned to the battlefields . This 1990 documentary includes new interviews . On CNN , Sesno continues to anchor with Blystone and Morton . Live coverage includes a memorial service aboard the USS George Washington , the Ranger Assault Ceremony from Pointe du Hoc and the U.S.-French Ceremony at Utah Beach with President Clinton and French President Francois Mitterrand . `` Larry King Live '' originates from Normandy ( repeating that night ) . Later. Lou Waters anchors `` D-Day Remembrances . '' LOVE ON THE RUN : Sunday night on NBC . This action-adventure follows the exploits of a business entrepreneur ( Anthony Addabbo ) and a Canadian heiress ( Noelle Beck ) . After exchanging intoxicated marriage vows on a whim in Greece , the newlyweds realize they don't get along and decide to divorce . But her father ( Len Cariou ) orchestrates a clever financial scheme to ensure that the two remain partners both in marriage and in the company , Adventure Inc. , an operation that allows clients to go anywhere and do anything for a price . THE ESSENCE AWARDS : Monday night on Fox . Sinbad and Vanessa Williams host this entertainment special celebrating achievements of eight African-American men . The awards were taped April 22 . Honorees are Eddie Murphy and Denzel Washington and film-maker Spike Lee ; Benjamin Carson , director of pediatric neurosurgery at Johns Hopkins Medical Institute ; civil-rights activist Robert P. Moses , director of the Algebra Project for mathematics education ; musician/composer Quincy Jones ; Joseph E. Marshall Jr. , director and co-founder of Omega Boys Club , which promotes academic achievement ; and the Rev. Jesse Jackson , president of the National Rainbow Coalition . WASHINGTON It is one of those rare spring days when Washington city is at its most beautiful , and Vermont filmmaker Jay Craven is nostalgic . `` I used to live here , '' he says , taking in the sights of Georgetown as he ambles toward the Potomac River `` 1970 to '71 . '' College ? you wonder . Government family ? Military brat ? Nope . `` I was a full-time anti-war activist , '' says Craven . It was no small time in his life and not only for the obvious reasons . Raised by his grandparents , Craven grew up more or less alone and had always longed for a place where he felt at home , a community . He discovered both in the anti-Vietnam War movement , as well as something equally valuable : his ability to organize and make things happen . These days he is still leading a charge and still extolling the virtues of community . But now his venue is a feature film , `` Where the Rivers Flow North , '' a made-in-Vermont opus funded mostly by Vermonters , set against a singular time and place in the state 's history . Craven , 42 , and his co-producers are distributing the movie too . Encouraged by the buzz at the recent Sundance Film Festival , which gave it two extra screenings , the team turned down eight distribution offers that seemed too limited . `` We want to see it play across the country , '' Craven says , `` at least in every town in New England and New York with a movie theater . '' The film has opened cautiously to appreciative reviews , first in Vermont , New Hampshire and Upstate New York , then two art houses in Boston . Since then it 's been getting released gradually elsewhere . Taken from a novella by Vermonter Howard Frank Mosher , and a screenplay by Craven and Don Bredes , the movie tells the story of an old Vermont logger and his Native American housekeeper-companion and their battle in 1927 to survive the construction of a big hydro-electric dam that threatens to flood their land . The logger , Noel Lord ( Rip Torn ) , is defiant no amount of money will buy his lifetime lease and livelihood . His companion , Bangor ( Native American actress Tantoo Cardinal ) , is more pragmatic . Craven , who also directed , has lived almost 20 years in the poor , rural country where much of `` Rivers '' was filmed . He moved there after his Washington sojourn and a couple of years in New York . `` I wanted to be in a place where there was a stronger sense of community , '' he says of his decision to leave New York . `` And I was interested in the challenge of mingling with people unlike myself . '' So just around the time of the Saturday Night Massacre ( Craven still chronicles that period in political terms ) , he set out with a girlfriend to visit a poet friend in Vermont and stayed . After a lonely first year spent researching Vermont history and nursing an arm he 'd broken carrying wood , Craven , an activist by nature , started the Catamount Arts Center . Using it as a base , he put together a 16mm series of American and European film classics , which he showed in church basements and town halls around the state . He also taught history , journalism and film-making at an alternative high school and fathered a son . By the time he set out to make `` Rivers , '' he had more than a decade of community activity and personal contacts behind him . He also had a couple of documentaries and a 30-minute fiction film to his credit ; both were helpful when he reached out for funding to his friends and neighbors , some of them conservative Yankee Republicans he never dreamed he 'd be buddies with in his anti-war days . Craven , his producer and wife Bess O' Brien and associate producer Lauren Moye ( both of whom were pregnant ) systematically worked the state . They brought cocktails and homemade hors d' oeuvres , a chance to be part of a major motion picture and a fund-raising style borrowed from charitable giving . Individuals and businesses from all over the state , and some from neighboring New Hampshire , participated . Even the ads that paid for the publicity brochure were local : Bailey 's Country Store , the Rotary Club of St. Johnsbury , the National Life of Vermont insurance company . Grants from 11 foundations ( including the National Endowment for the Arts ) , $ 475,000 in business loans and a $ 500,000 foreign-sales advance completed the almost $ 2 million budget . Finally , during the cold , wind-swept fall of 1992 , the movie was shot . Nearly half the cast and crew are or have been residents of Vermont ( or New Hampshire ) including Michael J. Fox and Treat Williams , who have small character roles in the film . More than 100 local extras , including Vermont Gov. Howard Dean , participated too . The production team operated out of Craven 's and O' Brien 's home , an 1821 farmhouse in Barnet , a town of about 2,000 . The ups and downs of Craven 's personal life have made him particularly interested in the relationship between the two main characters in `` Rivers . '' He empathizes with them both , but particularly with the logger . `` Noel is a tough guy with vulnerability he can't fully face , '' he says . `` He taunts the gods and has to do things his way . He takes on lost causes and difficult jobs that would be simpler to do another way . I can identify with that . '' LYON , France A resurrection of `` city-states '' and regions is quietly transforming Europe 's political and economic landscape , diminishing the influence of national governments and redrawing the continental map of power for the 21st century . As the revolution wrought by information highways , rapid means of travel and global capital flow gathers momentum , the traditional dominance of capitals such as Paris , Rome and London is being challenged by provinces whose location and infrastructure seem better adapted to the continent 's modern demands . With remarkable speed , the areas surrounding Lyon , Milan , Stuttgart and Barcelona have emerged as the `` four motors '' driving the process of European integration . Since signing a co-operation pact in 1988 , the four partners have parlayed their skilled industrial work forces and affluent markets into a dynamic partnership that transcends national loyalties . These poles of prosperity are sucking in huge investments and making new demands for greater autonomy . Some experts believe the emerging urban economies are creating a new historical dynamism that will ultimately transform the political structure of Europe by creating a new kind of `` Hanseatic League '' that consists of thriving city-states . ( The Hanseatic League was an alliance of northern port cities in Europe whose commercial success enabled them to become sovereign entities in the 15th and 16th centuries . ) . Stuttgart , the capital of Baden-Wurttemburg , one of Germany 's wealthiest regions , already enjoys enormous autonomy in the country 's decentralized political system and has started to seek partners abroad as it develops its own `` foreign policy . '' Milan , the capital of Italy 's Lombardy that has long served as the country 's industrial base , is the home of the Northern League led by populist Umberto Bossi . Capitalizing on voter dismay with the massive corruption scandals and tax money lavished on `` white-elephant '' projects in the poorer south , Bossi has built solid support in Milan for his call to break Italy into three autonomous regions . Barcelona , the capital of the Catalonia region , has long enjoyed substantial political autonomy in Spain and now wants the power to raise and keep its own share of income tax away from Madrid . The city turned north to build a bustling economic triangle with Toulouse and Montpelier in France that sees itself as the crossroads of the Mediterranean . Lyon , France 's second city , is developing into one of Europe 's faster-growing regions by building connections with Geneva and Turin . Lyon now does twice as much business with northern Italy as with Paris . The trend is expected to accelerate when a new high-speed train tunnel bored through the Alps cuts the travel time between Lyon and Turin to 70 minutes . While talk of political autonomy from Paris is muted compared to its other regional partners , Lyon is slowly asserting its own independence as the capital of the Rhone-Alps region . It now operates nine offices abroad , as far away as Toronto and Shanghai , to carve out its own foreign commercial policy . `` In a way , Europe is returning to its roots by building again on the regions , '' says Jean Chemain , director of Lyon 's Chamber of Commerce . `` The Romans settled here because access to the rivers and roads made it a natural base for their empire . Business is doing it for the same reasons , and those enterprises are the key building blocks of Europe , not national governments . '' The process was hastened by the announcement of the European Union that it would tear down national barriers by the end of 1992 . Instead of worrying about tedious delays and dozens of customs documents at frontiers , companies realized they could finally concentrate on locating production and distribution centers close to their customers . `` It was a race to get to the hottest points on the map , '' recalls Jean-Louis Ouellette , distribution director for Ikea , the popular Swedish furniture maker with more than 120 stores in 25 countries . `` We wanted to serve as many places in Europe as possible within 24 hours , and we think we found the most strategic spot . '' Ikea 's executives pored over charts and maps until they settled on a piece of land for their main warehouse near Lyon 's Satolas airport , which offered express-train connections and a modern highway nexus that put them less than five hours from affluent metropolitan centers in three countries Paris , Barcelona and Turin . Other cities and towns across Europe are reaching across borders for new economic partnerships based on strategy and location . Antwerp and Rotterdam have forged an alliance across the Belgian-Dutch border linking two of Europe 's biggest ports . Maastricht , Liege and Aachen have revived their medieval community in a prosperous triangle across Dutch , Belgian and German frontiers once rooted in shared waterways . Other regions where common economic interests are conquering national boundaries include the `` Atlantic Arc '' ( Ireland , Wales , Brittany , the Basque region , Galicia and Portugal ) , the Baltic-North Sea connection ( Scotland , Scandinavia , Hamburg and Poland ) and the Eastern Triangle of Vienna , Prague and Budapest . In Europe as elsewhere , globalization forces now at work appear to be making cities more important than nations . By the year 2000 , says Pascal Maragall , the urban economist who is Barcelona 's mayor , there will be 19 cities with at least 20 million people in the greater metropolitan area . `` Cities , not nations , will become the principal identity for most people in the world , '' Maragall says . Ricardo Petrella , the European Community 's director of science and technology forecasting , predicts that a desire to bring government closer to the people could make nationhood obsolete . By the middle of the next century , he believes there could be multinational security alliances while real government is carried out by what he calls `` the international metropolitans . '' `` In just a few decades , nation-states such as the United States , Japan , Germany , Italy and France will no longer be so relevant . Instead , rich regions built around cities such as Osaka , San Francisco and the four motors of Europe will acquire effective power , because they can work in tandem with the transnational companies who control the capital . '' Such regional alliances are increasingly seen as a pragmatic and logical approach to building a more united and prosperous Europe . The same desire to preserve local identity that motivated much of the opposition to the Maastricht treaty on European Union is prompting many voters to demand that national governments yield more power to the regions . Indeed , an overlooked section of the treaty calls for a Council of Regions that many believe will quickly assume wider responsibilities and possibly evolve into a kind of European Senate . Those who are ardent defenders of the European dream now hope to win more converts among voters by contending that the regional approach will invest more power and administrative control closer to the people . At the same time , defense and foreign policy would be co-ordinated by national governments and raised to a higher level . LYON , France Much of the criticism leveled by national governments and the European Community 's executive commission against the `` Four Motors '' partnership is that they are only interested in sustaining their high level of prosperity to the exclusion of poorer neighboring regions . The commission wants the richer areas to `` adopt '' a poor region , or their funding may be cut . But Europe 's wealthier regions are looking elsewhere . They are now reaching out to counterparts in Asia to lure even more lucrative investments , widening the disparity with their poorer neighbors in Europe even more . Alsace , for example , was so eager to capture new Japanese investment that the regional fathers hired a film-maker to produce a soap opera for Japanese television that extolled the virtues of their region . The show , called `` Blue Skies Over Alsace , '' is credited , along with the presence of a Japanese school in Mulhouse , with attracting investments by leading Japanese corporations that have produced more than 5,000 new jobs . `` A lot of the attacks are based on the view that we are only a club of the rich , '' acknowledges Thierry Bernard , general manager of the Rhone-Alps `` foreign relations '' department . `` It 's true that to join our partnership , we insist on the same high level of industrial development , to have similar training and economic policies and to be within one day 's travel time . '' Those links are intensifying in different areas , including culture , education , environment and social policies as well as transport and communications . Business and law students in the `` Four Motors '' cities now must spend at least one year at universities in one of the other three cities in order to earn their degree . The aim , says Bernard , `` is nothing less than to create the kind of European scholar that existed at the time of Erasmus , who moved about from one great university to another and felt at ease in several different cultures . That 's the best way to prevent wars . '' KWADABEKA , South Africa The words painted on the red brick wall at Phephile Public Primary School spell out a motto that could easily apply to KwaZumba African Builders . `` The sky is the limit , '' they say . For Cyril Gwala , managing director of the Durban-based construction company , the pledge of South Africa 's new black-run government to build 1 million houses in five years means unprecedented opportunity . As the new South Africa gets started , no other industry stands to gain more from the political and economic reconstruction of the country . `` We don't expect results overnight , but there is a lot to be done in this country , especially with low-cost housing , and that is where the black builder will have a chance to rise to the occasion , '' said Gwala , president of the African Builders Association . The ability of the new government to bring blacks into the white-dominated economy will be one of the first tests of whether political change will result in genuine wealth-sharing in South Africa . `` Unless there is participation at levels that matter , economic empowerment for black builders will remain forever an illusion , '' said Joas Mogale , secretary general of the Johannesburg-based Foundation for African Business and Consumer Services , a leading business organization in South Africa . The foundation calculates that there is a backlog of 1.4 million homes in South Africa . As of mid-May the industry was putting up only about 30,000 homes a year . South African President Nelson Mandela made the five-year homebuilding plan a campaign centerpiece . That means millions of dollars will be spent by the new multiracial government on housing , along with millions more anticipated from international donors . For an industry that has been in a major slump for several years it has shed 60,000 jobs since 1986 the formal end of the apartheid system of racial separation means the beginning of a boom . Including black builders in the national building campaign will not be easy . Because apartheid limited the kind of work that black contractors could do , most are not equipped to handle the large-scale building that will take place , Mogale and others acknowledge . The builder of a new housing complex in a community just outside Johannesburg is already running into a problem of finding black contractors able to secure financing to participate in the project . Graceland , with its pastel-colored single-family homes and streets called Sunhill Lane and California Grove , is designed to be a model for the new South Africa . It has been developed by a subsidary of Murray & Roberts , one of the larger white-owned construction companies in South Africa . The first of its kind , Graceland was planned as a multiracial development of between 500 and 800 low-cost homes built near an industrial park . Murray & Roberts has imposed its own goal of 10 percent participation by black builders in the Graceland project . However , making that quota is already proving difficult , because banks contend that black builders are a high risk and therefore are reluctant to extend credit to them . Uhuru Madida , a development consultant with Bernhardt Dunstan & Associates , a housing consultant firm working on Graceland , said there is concern that the government will be under pressure to build houses irrespective of who is doing the building . Already , builders black and white say the construction industry isn't able to pump out more than 100,000 homes a year . `` You can't say to the people , ` We can't build enough houses because we are developing black builders , ' ' ' said Nhlanhla Mjoli-Mncube , who does development strategy for Bernhardt Dunstan . Under apartheid , blacks were shut out of skilled construction work and management training . Even when the government decided to build hundreds of thousands of low-cost homes for blacks in racially segregated townships , the contracts went to white-owned construction companies . Under apartheid , many loans to black businessmen did not come from banks but from stokvels , informal groups of black people who used savings to boost black business . Inspectors were routinely bribed to get necessary permits , and suppliers demanded cash for all building materials . Suppliers traditionally have reserved credit for white-owned businesses . But in the new South Africa , a few builders already are succeeding by teaming up with white-owned companies . KwaZumba , for example , is thriving because of a partnership with a subsidary of Murray & Roberts . Gwala struck a deal with Amalgamated Construction Co. , which essentially provides the black builder with technical and financial assistance . KwaZumba 's annual revenues have soared from about $ 250,000 to more than $ 2 million in just two years . The King hath note of all that they intend , By interceptions which they know not of . `` Henry V , '' Act 2 , Scene 2 BLETCHLEY , England Shakespeare was writing about another invasion of France , of course , but his words , inscribed on a plaque in the oak-paneled manor house at Bletchley Park , tell as much about what really happened 50 years ago June 6 as all the tales of blood and valor on the beaches of Normandy . For what is still far too rarely appreciated , even half a century later , is how much the climactic battle of World War II was fought and won in the shadowland of stealth and deception . It was a victory achieved in no small part by an anonymous army of toymakers , scenery painters , illusionists and purveyors of electronic make-believe , all guided by a legion of cryptographic skulkers so secretive that their work is still not fully known . The de facto headquarters of this looking glass war lay here 46 miles north of London on the 55-acre , still barbed-wire-rimmed remnant of a once-grand Victorian estate . Here , in a series of drafty frame huts and dank concrete bunkers shaded by huge flowering chestnut trees , some 7,000 people labored feverishly on the eve of D-Day to secure the invasion of Hitler 's Europe by first invading and manipulating Hitler 's mind . So successful were they at skewing his version of reality that even as the largest invasion fleet in history hove into sight off Normandy , the crucial strength of the German war machine was occupied elsewhere , ambushing imaginary armies , bombarding invisible fleets and repelling thousands of 3-foot-tall paratroopers made of straw . `` If you ask me were the deceptions effective , I would say they were absolutely vital on D-Day , '' says military historian M.R.D. . Foot , a slim , silver-haired septuagenarian who spent the war staging commando raids for the British Army . `` We would have been mad to attempt the invasion without them , precisely because Hitler had so many more divisions in France than we could land quickly . Had he been able to mass them to meet us , we would have been finished . And it was a near enough thing as it was . '' But goaded by psychological feints at other corners of his empire , Hitler ignored an ageless maxim of military strategy : Try to be strong everywhere and you 're not strong anywhere . Alerted by hundreds of landing craft spotted in the lochs of Scotland , 16 divisions of German troops ( Hitler had only seven in Normandy ) , stood poised across the North Sea awaiting an imminent invasion of Norway . The Scottish landing craft were plywood stage props , the Norwegian invasion a myth . Alarmed by aerial reconnaissance showing hundreds of troop encampments and tank divisions in southeast England , Hitler held six armored divisions and 19 other divisions north of the Seine to meet the Allied landing that was certain to come between Dunkirk and Dieppe at the narrowest part of the English Channel in the Pas de Calais . The tents in England were empty , the tanks made of wood . Other German divisions garrisoned southern France in response to an appearance in Gibraltar by an actor disguised as British Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery . In the pre-dawn June 6 darkness northeast of Normandy between LeHavre and Boulogne , fleets of small launches trailing radar-reflecting balloons pitched and rolled their way toward shore while above them two squadrons of Royal Air Force bombers loosed a specially designed pattern of aluminum chaff and electronic signals designed to appear on German radar as a huge fleet of warships . Ten miles offshore , screened by banks of smoke , the launch crews switched on sound amplifiers , touching off the rattling of anchor chains , the squeal of steam derricks lowering heavy objects and the thump of landing craft banging the sides of transports . They were all illusions , only a few among thousands in a strategy of deception as old as the Trojan horse , and often imbued with what one historian referred to as `` the Monty Python element . '' But as captured Wehrmacht documents would later show , it was tremendously effective . It hopelessly confused the Germans and forced them to reserve or divert armored units that , properly positioned , would have blown the Allied landings off the map . Still , as Foot and others emphasize , the deceptions would have been useless without the work at Bletchley Park , where a bizarre band of eccentric geniuses had broken the German codes in the war 's earliest years and had been reading Germany 's most secret radio traffic ever since . `` What you have to remember about deceptions , '' says F.H. Hinsley , the Cambridge professor who authored the official history of British intelligence in World War II , `` is that if they 're to be successful , two things are imperative : First , the enemy must be kept totally in the dark about what you don't want him to know , and second , you must know everything he 's thinking all the time , especially when he 's confronted with what you want him to believe . '' Thanks to Bletchley 's early and long-secret penetration of German radio traffic , Hinsley says , `` we were able to locate , early on , the entire German espionage network in Britain , eliminate parts of it and use others to feed Hitler disinformation . We were also able to learn Hitler 's thinking about where and when the invasion would eventually come , play to his prejudices and hunches , and learn when and whether he took our bait . We were reading his mind all the time . '' In the nearly 20 years since F.W. . Winterbotham 's book `` The Ultra Secret '' first made public the extent of Allied code-breaking in World War II , much has been written about Bletchley Park and its cast of code-cracking irregulars : the sputtering Oxford dons , neurasthenic chess champions and rumpled , unwashed linguists recruited to attack and analyze the Germans ' supposedly impenetrable Enigma cipher . What novelist , after all , could dream up a cryptographic protagonist like Alan Turing , the stammering , nail-biting mathematical genius and computer pioneer , who bicycled in a gas mask to avoid hay fever , ran long distances in tweeds , listened nightly to a BBC children 's program about Larry the Lamb and , nine years after the war , killed himself by coating an apple with cyanide and biting into it ? It was Turing , building on cryptanalytic breakthroughs made before the war by a band of brilliant Polish mathematicians , who led the frenzied intellectual scramble at Bletchley Park , aided by several thousand tireless young female clerks and the army of abstract academics one clerk remembers as `` just absolute boffins. .. . They just weren't in the real world at all . '' Their work consisted of three basic areas . First , it involved the technical challenge of engineering what became the first electronic programmable computers , not only to solve the increasing number and complexity of German ciphers , but to greatly reduce the time for decoding individual messages . Second , it involved meticulous analysis of the messages themselves , not only for the subtleties of linguistic translation but , in light of what was already known of the sender and receiver , their branches of service , their present tactical situations and so on . Finally it involved the dissemination of this `` Ultra '' secret information to specific commanders on a need-to-know basis , through the small number of liaison intelligence officers cleared for Ultra security . In the early days of the war , with many ciphers still unbroken and many messages read only days later , largely for strategic value , these tasks absorbed the labors of only a few hundred people . But as the code-breaking process was perfected , and its machinery multiplied , so did Bletchley 's manpower needs . By D-Day , some 6,000 clerks and 1,000 `` boffins '' had overflowed the estate 's dozens of prefabricated wooden huts and bombproof bunkers into auxiliary stations in nearby country houses and the London suburbs . Nearly one-fifth of the workers arrived in the final few months before the invasion , as the code-breakers geared up for the blizzard of messages anticipated as the destruction of German land lines would force more and more Wehrmacht communiques onto the airwaves , and as the code-breakers raced to read them in time to give them tactical value . The speed was most needed to trace the moment-by-moment movement of German army units , particularly armored units , in the first hours and days of the invasion . Would Hitler sniff out what was really happening on the beaches of Normandy and move to crush it ? Or would he remain the psychological prisoner of the deception artists of the Allied cause ? The Allied deceptions of D-Day were born from a wedding of desperation and guile and were incomparably British from the start . Many writers credit them to the country 's horrific losses in World War I and England 's subsequent desperate search for military measures other than the suicidal frontal assault . But Foot notes as well a rich tradition of deception throughout British history , dating at least to William the Conqueror , who in 1066 had Viking allies stage a diversionary raid on Yorkshire so he could land in Sussex from Normandy almost unopposed . At the beginning of World War II , says Hinsley , `` we simply had no alternative but deception . We were so weak we had either to outsmart the enemy or be defeated . '' Thus in the darkest days of 1940 , a tiny British force under Gen. Archibald Wavell literally inflated its strength with blow-up dummy tanks and artillery , and outwitted an enormous Italian army in Libya , capturing 130,000 prisoners . It was nothing particularly new for Wavell . He had once been part of a World War I operation in Palestine that captured Beersheba from the Turks by showering the tobacco-starved enemy from the air with opium-laced cigarettes and then walking to victory across their sleeping forms . Wavell 's Libyan success prompted a memo in which he argued convincingly for a new concept of deception-a highly clandestine central clearinghouse for all Allied deception plans , the London Controlling Section ( LCS ) , keyed to orchestrating them into a single grand strategy . From that beginning , fueled by the technical and analytical breakthroughs at Bletchley Park , grew `` Operation Bodyguard , '' the myriad deceptions that ultimately ensured the D-Day landings . Month by month , as U.S. and Canadian armies poured off ships in Britain for the long buildup to Operation Overlord , the LCS inflated Hitler 's picture of the number that came ashore . For every dozen regiments that disembarked , British-controlled Nazi agents would add one or two in their reports to Hitler . For every division of armor , Hitler would hear through diplomatic circles there were more . By May , Ultra intercepts showed German intelligence credited the Allies with having nearly double the 49 divisions they actually had in England . Most of the imaginary units , augmented by real units in other areas , were eventually united into the largest single deception of Operation Overlord , the 900,000-man First U.S. . Army Group ( FUSAG ) . Its purported leader was the one general who Bletchley intercepts showed Hitler feared more than any other : George S. Patton . Patton 's army , headquartered in Kent , just across from Calais , was more than just a rumor . Its regimental names appeared in newspaper wedding and social announcements and even the occasional obituary . German wireless operators picked up radio transmissions from its jeep and tank drivers . Radio disc jockeys dedicated big-band numbers to it from regimental girlfriends . Mythical divisions were described right down to their mythical shoulder patches . The whole FUSAG , Hitler learned from a variety of sources , was destined to hit the beaches of France at the closest point to Germany 's vital industrial heartland , the very spot Bletchley intercepts had shown Hitler betting on all along : the Pas de Calais . The timing was still uncertain , German troops were told by Berlin . Maybe July . Any landing anywhere else before that would probably be just a feint . Several weeks before D-Day , Foot , an intelligence officer with the British Army 's Special Air Services Brigade , was ordered by his commanding officer to prepare a deception of his own . `` I was told the order had come down to parachute two groups of men into Normandy , '' he remembers . `` They would be armed with light pistols and gramophones . '' The men two officers , two sergeants and six enlisted men in each group would all be volunteers . One group would be dropped between Le Havre and Rouen , the other behind Omaha Beach southeast of the village of Issigny-sur-Mer . They were part of the sound effects crew for `` Operation Titanic . '' Titanic involved the dropping of thousands of dummy parachutists in advance of the real airborne drops of D-Day . `` The dummies were about three feet tall , but fully uniformed and fashioned quite to half-scale , '' Foot says . `` In searchlights they looked exactly like real paratroopers . '' They were made of straw by professional toymakers ( `` there was a shortage of toys during the war because the toymakers were so occupied with deceptions '' ) and were designed to explode on impact . `` But in practice it had been discovered that they didn't always explode . Hence the need for more sound effects . '' Foot 's gramophonists were to be dropped in advance of the dummy paratroopers , so the doll landings would trigger the sounds of rifle fire , the rattle of machine guns , the crump of mortar explosions , shouted orders and even a snatch of properly British profanity . The recorded battle was to last about 30 minutes . Then the sound effects men were to hide themselves until the invasion caught up with them . By most conventional measures , the airborne operations on D-Day were a disaster . The weather was marginal for jumping and many planes lost their way . Others were piloted by novices who panicked when they encountered flak and dropped their jumpers far off course . Many troops landed in flooded fields and drowned , and some landed in the English Channel . But with parachutes coming down everywhere , some real , some dummy , the mobile German units called out to deal with the attack were hopelessly confused about which to pursue . Command centers fielding numerous reports of landings were unable to deduce a pattern to the Allied attack . The chaos was furthered by the French underground , which , in accordance with longstanding LCS plans , began severing telephone cables , exploding junction boxes and dynamiting poles . Which in turn forced the confounded Germans onto the radio waves , where their frustration could be heard and savored in Bletchley Park . All the chasing around after parachutists distracted the Germans into thinking their quarry was inland . Few noticed that the previously invasion-proof weather had suddenly improved . No one thought to look for what was advancing on them from the sea . One enters a time warp on visiting Bletchley Park these days . The estate is owned jointly by the British government and British Telecom , the once government-owned , now privatized telephone company , and for the past 50 years only a fraction of the buildings have been used , primarily as a place to train postal workers and air traffic controllers . The clock on the manor house has been stopped since anyone can remember . The bunkers and huts that sifted Enigma and other ciphers wear the aura of timeless and banal utility that once cloaked the same sort of WWII buildings on the Washington Mall . To all intents and purposes the whole place appears frozen in 1945 . Three years ago , plans surfaced to level Bletchley Park to make room for housing and industry . The plans prompted a small but fervent protest and the formation of a small but energetic historical trust that now holds regular open-house weekends here where visitors can view code-breaking machines , pace the empty , mildewed bunkers and learn something of the profound and long-secret history of the place . What 's wrong with this picture : A woman stands in front of a mirror , holding one arm over her head . Her fingertips press her bare breast in concentric circles . She looks for changes in her nipple , or on the breast itself . Pretty standard for breast self-examination , you say ? Not if you have arthritis and can't hold your arm over your head . Not if your muscle tone is poor . Not if your eyes are dimming . Not if your fingers are less sensitive than they used to be . Not , in fact , if you are getting old . Breast cancer is vastly more common in women past menopause indeed , age is the single most powerful risk factor for breast cancer , and the risk keeps rising as age increases . For example , a woman has a 1-in-10 chance of getting breast cancer by the age of 80 , but only a 1-in-2,426 chance of getting it by the age of 30 . Although lung cancer has exceeded breast cancer as causing the largest number of cancer deaths in women , among older women breast cancer is still the No. 1 killer . Yet , says Joyce Guillory , most preventive information is aimed at younger women . For many older women whose health is beginning to fail , `` the standard breast-exam guidelines can be daunting , '' she says . Guillory , a nursing specialist in the psychosocial aspects of cancer , is an assistant professor and director of the Cancer Prevention Awareness Project at Morehouse School of Medicine in Atlanta . She did a survey in the Atlanta area of a group of 50 African-American women between the ages of 60 and 96 to determine what type of cancer-prevention techniques they use . Although white women have a higher rate of developing breast cancer , she noted , the mortality rate among African-American women is 19 percent higher . Guillory found only 18 percent of the black women in her study had regular mammograms , special X-rays used as a common screening technique to detect breast cancer . Not surprisingly , says Guillory , the women cited transportation , costs and fear of pain as barriers to getting mammograms . But more surprising to her was that 80 percent of the women did not know the correct way to examine their own breasts , a preventive measure that cancer experts have been advocating for more than a decade as one of the most effective means of discovering breast tumors . `` They were just sort of patting around , feeling for a lump , '' Guillory found . The standard breast self-examination ( BSE ) requires a woman to stand in front of a mirror and hold her arms over her head as she visually examines her breasts . Even examination lying down requires the arm to be raised . Palpation is done with the fingertips . So even learning the standard method of BSE didn't help many of these women because the effects of aging were an impediment . She found that 38 percent of the women had arthritis . `` And then , '' she noted , `` the older we get , the more our joint range of motion diminishes as does the tactile sensation in our fingers . Shoulders , elbows and wrists get stiff . '' The women assured Guillory that they would certainly examine their breasts if they were shown how they could do it efficiently . As a result , she devised mostly simple and common-sense modifications to the standard instructions and taught them to the survey group . Her six-step program and her survey results will appear this summer in the Journal of Women and Aging . Her program for older women includes these steps : If vision and dexterity are a problem , enlist a trusted friend or family member to help . If performing a self-exam alone , visually inspect the breasts using a magnifying mirror . Look for changes such as dimples , difference in size between the two breasts , a lump , thickening roughness or a sore . Lie down on the back , beginning the examination under the armpit . If fingertips are losing their sensitivity , use the palm of the hand . Palms are much more sensitive than fingertips , Guillory says . Letting the breast rest on one hand , stroke it with the palm of the other hand beginning at the chest wall and moving towards the nipple . Feel for changes in texture as well as lumps . Squeeze the nipple gently , looking for any discharge . Repeat the procedure on the other breast . The glory that is Rome , Barcelona and Seville is captured on three new volumes in the Museum City Video series released by V.I.E.W. . Video . The first three volumes in the series , which looks at great cities through the eyes of their artists , architects and poets , focused on Florence , Venice and London . The London video was a finalist in the Special Interest Video Association Awards . Upcoming releases include volumes on Vatican City , Jerusalem and Moscow . The videos list for $ 19.98 each . Running time for the Rome cassette is 45 minutes . The other two run 40 minutes each . To order , call 1-800-843-9843 . `` Rome : The Eternal City '' is alive with views of its rooftop gardens , pink and ochre stucco glistening in the sun , and everlasting monuments and locations such as St. Peter 's Basilica , the Coliseum , Trevi Fountain , Spanish Steps , Baths of Caracalla , Sistine Chapel , Via Veneto , and Piazza Navona . There are people in Rome , too-people who sip espresso at sidewalk coffee bars , people who dine in outdoor cafes scattered throughout the city , across the Seven Hills and along the banks of the Tiber River . The artwork in Rome is bountiful : jeweled mosaics , glowing frescos , tapestries , vaulted ceilings and palatial rooms where masterworks by Bernini , Michaelangelo and Raphael live on . `` Barcelona : Archive of Courtesy '' looks at a city that has been the vanguard for Spanish art and culture for 2,000 years . Barcelona 's wonders range from the soaring spires of Antonio Gaudi 's Sagrada Familia to the winding streets of the Gothic Quarter and the modern works of Pablo Picasso , Joan Miro and Salvador Dali . The people in the region of Catalonia , between the waters of the Mediterranean and the slopes of the Pyrsenees , remain bound to their glorious past even in the art of futuristic Olympic City in Montjuic Park . `` Seville : Heart of Andalusia '' explores the city 's cathedral , the world 's largest Gothic building ; the Roman ruins of Italica ; the Moorish palace of Alcazar ; Santa Cruz and La Giralda , one-time center for the city 's Jews , who like the Romans , Visigoths , Muslims and Christians , left their imprint on Seville . A new study calls into question the assumption that hospitals could save lots of money by forgoing or withdrawing treatment in futile cases . The study looked at more than 4,000 very sick patients at five major medical centers . Researchers calculated how much money would have been saved if life-sustaining treatment had been withdrawn as soon as a patient was deemed to have less than a 1 percent chance of surviving two months . `` The public believes that valuable resources are ` wasted ' on terminally ill patients , although the data to support this conclusion are frail at best , '' said Joanne Lynn , a Dartmouth Medical School physician who presented the findings this month at the American Geriatrics Society 's annual meeting in Los Angeles . Only 115 patients of the 4,301 studied had an estimated 1 percent or less chance of surviving two months . All but one of those 115 died within six months , and 75 percent died within five days . But only 27 would have died earlier if life-sustaining treatment had been withdrawn or withheld . `` The vast majority of persons sick enough to qualify for a 1 percent threshold would save no more than a few days of expenses by dying early , '' said Lynn . The patients were in the advanced stage of coma , acute respiratory failure , multiple organ system failure , chronic obstructive lung disease , congestive heart failure , cirrhosis , metastatic colon cancer or inoperable lung cancer . All but 14 were on one of three types of life-sustaining treatment mechanical ventilator , blood-pressure booster or kidney dialysis . By forgoing or withdrawing such treatment for those patients , the study found , doctors would have saved 183 hospital days out of 1,688 days . The estimated dollar savings would be $ 1.1 million , or about 12 percent . Nearly 75 percent of the savings would have come from stopping treatment in five cases , including four aged 50 or younger . Two had bone-marrow transplants , and one had a liver transplant . Not only is it hard to identify patients likely to die within a few days , the study found , but those who can be so identified often are not receiving life-prolonging treatment . Sixty-one percent had a do-not-resuscitate order written by the fifth day of hospitalization , and 83 percent had one by the time of death . The study included patients at five centers : Beth Israel Hospital in Boston ; MetroHealth Medical Center in Cleveland ; Duke University Medical Center in Durham , N.C. ; St. Joseph 's Hospital in Marshfield , Wis. ; and the UCLA Medical Center in Los Angeles . Researchers from Dartmouth , George Washington and Johns Hopkins also worked on the project . More could be saved if treatment were withheld from patients with a 5 percent or 10 percent chance of surviving two months . But use of such guidelines to forgo treatment , the study found , `` would result in only modest savings , and those only through what will seem to be inequitable and unpalatable curtailing of life support in a few young patients . '' Far fewer Americans are losing teeth now than a generation ago , with particularly impressive gains among older people , according to new research at the National Institute of Dental Research in Bethesda , Md. . The use of fluorides , sealants , better nutrition and better consumer education have made a huge impact in the past several decades on limiting tooth decay and gum disease . The NIDR findings , published in the May issue of the Journal of the American Dental Association , are another indication of a dramatic improvement in the oral health of Americans in the past several decades . Much dental disease `` is concentrated in an increasingly smaller portion of the population , '' a JADA commentary concluded . The percent of toothless Americans dropped from 9.9 percent in the early 1970s to 3.8 percent in the mid-1980s , the research found . This represented a decline in the number of toothless adults from 7.3 million to 3.7 million , even as the working population increased by 24 million . The rate of toothlessness among those 55 to 64 years of age was cut in half , from 29.7 percent to 14.6 percent . L. Jackson Brown , director of epidemiology and oral-disease prevention at NIDR , drew his conclusions from two surveys on tooth loss among employed Americans , one conducted by the National Center for Health Statistics in 1971 to 1974 and one done by NIDR in 1985-86 . The findings may indicate that Americans are keeping their teeth about a decade longer than they used to . People 35 to 44 in the 1980s survey had the same number of teeth as people 25 to 34 in the 1970s survey , for example , Brown said . `` Prevention of tooth loss is extending to that part of the population which is most at risk , '' Brown concluded , calling this `` perhaps the most encouraging finding '' of the study . Still , he said the conclusions could not be extended to unemployed adults nor to those over 64 , who were not included in the analysis . Baseball may be more than America 's favorite sport . It may be one of its most dangerous , at least for Little Leaguers and their peers . Sports-medicine experts and pediatricians have increasingly been concerned about baseball injuries and have been lobbying for additional protective gear and safety equipment to be required for children 's leagues . They point to leg injuries sustained while sliding into bases and head or chest injuries received when hit by a ball or bat . That effort was underscored this month with the deaths of two children a 9 year old in Hershey , Pa. , who was hit in the chest with a pitched ball , and a 3 year old in Texas who was hit in the chest while playing ball with his 6-year-old brother . Each child apparently died when the force of the ball threw his heart into wild arrhythmias , although medical specialists said they do not know precisely how or why this occurs . Experts estimate that 5 million youngsters aged 5 to 14 years play baseball throughout the country , and many are never seriously injured . But in 1990 , more than 280,000 baseball players between the ages of 5 and 24 were injured , according to the Consumer Product Safety Commission , which also lists baseball as the children 's sport with the most fatal accidents . About five players each year die from injuries , said Daniel J. Levy , a Baltimore pediatrician who is a spokesman for the American Academy of Pediatrics . At a consensus meeting in Boston early this year , convened by the National Youth Sports Foundation for the Prevention of Athletic Injuries Inc. , sports-medicine specialists examined how to reduce the number of injuries in baseball . The group recommended children wear helmets at all times while on the field and batting , and that they have safety goggles while batting . To help prevent injuries like the death of the Hershey , Pa. , boy , the group said youths , especially those under the age of 12 , should wear a padded safety vest while batting or pitching to help prevent injury when hit by balls . The experts also called for face protectors for children while they are at bat and on base . They also urged the use of special balls with softer centers . These are not as dangerous when they hit a child . Many of the group 's conclusions were echoed in a statement issued by the Sports Medicine and Fitness Committee of the American Academy of Pediatrics in April . Levy said the academy is highlighting baseball safety this summer to draw attention to `` approximately 4 million sports injuries ( from all sports ) to children , most of which go unreported . '' The Baltimore Orioles have lent a hand to the effort . The major-league team designated June 15 as `` Youth Fitness and Safety Day '' and will feature Olympic gymnast Dominique Dawes demonstrating good warm-up techniques . Levy , along with athletic trainer Katy Curran of the Children 's National Medical Center , is also setting up seminars on safety for coaches and parents . Levy said the American Academy of Pediatrics is promoting these principles : Be certain youngsters are in good physical condition before playing ball , are aware of proper nutrition and know the importance of warm-up and stretching exercises . Make sure parents and coaches know cardiopulmonary resuscitation ( CPR ) and have someone familiar with CPR at every game . `` We want to promote the aspect of parents knowing how to deal with injury and , God forbid , catastrophe , '' Levy said . Prevent injuries by using appropriate equipment . The use of the equipment advocated by the National Youth Sports Foundation has been controversial . Some parents and coaches have been reluctant to use some of the gear , arguing it interferes with how the game has been traditionally played . Also , says Curran , `` there is a feeling that the kids will resist because they 're afraid they 'll be called sissies or geeks . '' But Levy dismisses these arguments . `` I think it 's a bogus issue , '' he said . `` The kids do fine , especially if the equipment is mandated for all of them . '' Free agency , salary wars , the designated-hitter rule , divisional restructuring . What will the National Pastime stumble into next ? How about high-velocity ocular blunt trauma ? Because baseball accounts for more sports-related eye injuries than any other sport , five New York eye doctors have conducted a study of `` ocular trauma '' in major-league baseball players . A total of 21 players suffered eye injuries between July 1991 and July 1992 , the doctors reported in a letter to the New England Journal of Medicine . Eleven were hit by a batted ball including six who were up at bat themselves . Others were hit by a thrown ball , injured in a collision with another player , caught dirt in the eye or simply rubbed their eyes the wrong way . Five of the injuries forced a player to miss one or more games . The severest injury was to a pitcher hit by a line drive . He suffered bleeding , swelling and inflammation in the eye and a scratched cornea . All eventually recovered full vision . The relatively large size of a baseball compared , say , with a racketball or the sharp end of a stick actually makes it less dangerous to the eye . A baseball is more likely to strike the bony surroundings of the orbit , rather than reaching the eyeball itself . The Consumer Product Safety Commission estimates 39,526 eye injuries from sports or recreation were treated in hospital emergency rooms in 1991 . Baseball accounted for 18 percent of those more than any other sport . Baseball was the most common cause of eye injuries in youngsters age 5 to 14 , second to basketball in 15 to 24 year olds and third behind basketball and racket sports in those 25 and older . For players at bat or in the on-deck circle , the doctors recommend use of a plastic transparent face guard that attaches to the batting helmet and protects the face and eyes . I 'm an opera fan , and I was determined on a recent trip to Milan to get a ticket to La Scala , one of the world 's most famous opera houses . I phoned and faxed Italy weeks before I left home , but failed to book a seat until the last minute and then only after I showed up at the box office . What luck , but what a hassle . One of the great delights of Europe is the abundance of top-rate cultural presentations theater , opera , ballet and concerts . But one of Europe 's great challenges , at least at the major performance halls , is getting a ticket for the day you are going to be in town . Often it is difficult to find out in advance what will be playing or even whether a performance is scheduled . But there are ways to get this information and to get tickets . If you want to reserve seats before you depart , at least four U.S.-based organizations book shows in Great Britain , France , Russia and elsewhere in Europe . Tourism information offices can provide some help , and so can the concierge in the hotel where you will be staying . But sometimes your best bet is to trust your luck at the box office . This is the strategy of John Philip Couch , author of `` The Opera Lover 's Guide to Europe . '' So much opera is performed in so many cities , he says , that you should be able to get a seat on the spot almost anywhere except at major theaters . Even if the box office is sold out , you may be able to buy from a ticket holder on the street , and many theaters sell standing-room tickets an hour or two before performances and , at the last minute , reserved tickets that have not been picked up . `` With a Eurailpass , a recent copy of Thomas Cook 's `` European Timetable , ' and lots of stamina , '' Couch says , `` it is conceivable that you could see 15 different operas in 15 different cities in the same number of days . '' My own experience has taught me to try to book in advance if there is a performance I absolutely want to see which is why I began working on a ticket to La Scala as soon as I knew the date I would be in Milan . First I called the Italian Government Tourist Office in New York , which maintains a schedule of performances . An information clerk gave me the fax and phone number of the La Scala box office . So far , so good . I immediately faxed La Scala and just as quickly ran into a big road block resulting from the theater 's complex ticketing procedures . La Scala replied promptly , but noted that I had missed its deadline for advance ticket sales although my trip was still weeks away . So I phoned La Scala , talked to an English-speaking official and got this explanation : For each production , La Scala sets specific time periods for seat requests from abroad ; these are listed in the theater 's `` Postal Bookings Calendar . '' I planned to be in Milan on April 21 , which meant that my fax should have been dated between Feb. 16 and March 3 , the official told me . I had missed by a few days . Confusing ? Yes . Aggravating ? Oh , yes . But this is the way it is done . Obviously , I began my quest for tickets too late . `` Try at the box office when you get here , '' the official advised . And so I did . In mid-afternoon on the day of the performance , I checked in at the counter . `` Sold out , '' the clerk said , which was what I had expected . But as I turned to go , he asked , `` Just one ticket ? '' I nodded , he punched some commands into his computer and out popped a $ 35 ticket in the First Gallery . I don't know where he found that ticket , but I had my seat at La Scala . Not all European tickets are so hard to come by . Among the helpful resources : Booking offices : For a fee , several U.S.-based firms can reserve seats in advance in selected European theaters . Good Show ! London Theatre Information & Booking Service of Richmond , Calif. , ( 510 ) 236-5126 , specializes in London performances . Allegro Enterprises Inc. of New York City , ( 800 ) 666-3553 or ( 212 ) 666-6700 , books tickets to Eastern European theaters , and especially to opera and ballet productions at the famed Kirov Mariinsky Theater in St. Petersburg and the Bolshoi Theater in Moscow . Keith Prowse & Co. of New York City , ( 800 ) 669-8687 or ( 212 ) 398-1430 , is a ticket agency for cultural and sporting events throughout Great Britain and Ireland and for many theaters in Paris . Edwards & Edwards of New York City , ( 800 ) 223-6108 or ( 212 ) 944-0290 , is a ticket agency for performances in London , Stratford-upon-Avon , Dublin , Paris , Berlin , Copenhagen and elsewhere in Scandinavia . It also handles tickets for the Edinburgh Festival ( Aug. 14 to Sept. 3 ) and the Edinburgh Military Tattoo ( Aug. 7 to 27 ) . National tourism offices : Most European tourism offices , many of which are located in New York , can provide guidance on how to get tickets at major theaters in their respective countries . Hotel concierges : If you are staying in a hotel with a staff concierge , phone , fax or write ahead and ask the concierge to obtain tickets for the productions you want to see . You may have to pay a premium price , so be sure to specify a maximum amount you are willing to pay . And don't forget to include a good tip . Opera publications : In his guide , opera buff Couch lists a half-dozen U.S. and European magazines that print European opera schedules for the month ahead . He suggests getting a copy of one of them . Even in a foreign language , the listings are reasonably understandable . In the United States , he recommends Opera News , published by the Metropolitan Opera Guild . An introductory subscription ( 17 issues ) is $ 21.95 . For information : ( 212 ) 769-7000 . In Europe , the magazines can be found on newsstands . In England , look for Opera or Opera Now ; in France , Opera International ; in Germany , Das Opernglas ; and in Switzerland , Opernwelt . Couch 's book , `` The Opera Lover 's Guide to Europe '' is full of useful information about getting opera tickets . The 284-page first edition , published in 1991 , is available for $ 15.95 from Limelight Editions of New York . An updated version will be published in the fall . To order : ( 212 ) 532-5525 . Join the caravan and explore 40 cultures without leaving Toronto at the 26th annual Festival Caravan , June 17-25 . Go from Belgrade to Kiev , Taipei to Tokyo all in one day , sampling ethnic fare ( curry and Wiener schnitzel ) , shopping ( weavings and painted eggs ) and entertainment ( steel bands , limbo contests and fashion shows ) . Walk or take public transit to 40 international pavilions all over the city . A Caravan passport , available at any Bank of Montreal branch or at some Bell Phonecentres , includes a map of the pavilions but not transportation ; cost is about $ 5 U.S. per person per day , about $ 10 for a nine-day pass ( kids 12 and under are admitted free with an adult ) . Information : ( 416 ) 977-0466 . -0- TRAVEL TRIVIA LIST THREE BODIES OF SALT WATER WHOSE NAMES ARE COLORS . TRIVIA ANSWER : THE RED SEA , THE BLACK SEA AND THE YELLOW SEA . -0- Behavior in Singapore If you didn't get the message yet , the Department of State is reminding travelers about Singapore 's `` strict laws and penalties for a variety of offenses that might be considered minor in the United States . '' A new consular information sheet lists among these jaywalking , littering , spitting , even the importation and sale of chewing gum all of which can exact high fines . Caning , imposed for vandalism , may also be used for immigration violations and more serious offenses . For the new sheet , contact the State Department 's Citizens Emergency Center ( 202-647-5225 ) , computer bulletin board ( 202-647-9225 ) or automated fax service ( 202-647-3000 ) . -0- FREE FOR THE ASKING Europe an annual affair ? So 's the European Planning & Rail Guide , Budget Europe Travel Service 's '94 guide to planning your foray concentrating on rail travel , country by country , from Scandinavia to Spain , with information on rail passes and scenic train rides . There are also sample itineraries for 20 countries , walks , accommodations , travel tips on packing and safety and more . Send $ 1 or three 29-cent stamps to BETS 's '94 Planning Guide , 2557 Meade Ct . , Ann Arbor , Mich. 48105-1304 . The glory that is Rome , Barcelona and Seville is captured on three new volumes in the Museum City Video series released by V.I.E.W. . Video . The first three volumes in the series , which looks at great cities through the eyes of their artists , architects and poets , focused on Florence , Venice and London . The London video was a finalist in the Special Interest Video Association Awards . Upcoming releases include volumes on Vatican City , Jerusalem and Moscow . The videos list for $ 19.98 each . Running time for the Rome cassette is 45 minutes . The other two run 40 minutes each . To order , call 1-800-843-9843 . `` Rome : The Eternal City '' is alive with views of its rooftop gardens , pink and ochre stucco glistening in the sun , and everlasting monuments and locations such as St. Peter 's Basilica , the Coliseum , Trevi Fountain , Spanish Steps , Baths of Caracalla , Sistine Chapel , Via Veneto , and Piazza Navona . There are people in Rome , too-people who sip espresso at sidewalk coffee bars , people who dine in outdoor cafes scattered throughout the city , across the Seven Hills and along the banks of the Tiber River . The artwork in Rome is bountiful : jeweled mosaics , glowing frescos , tapestries , vaulted ceilings and palatial rooms where masterworks by Bernini , Michaelangelo and Raphael live on . `` Barcelona : Archive of Courtesy '' looks at a city that has been the vanguard for Spanish art and culture for 2,000 years . Barcelona 's wonders range from the soaring spires of Antonio Gaudi 's Sagrada Familia to the winding streets of the Gothic Quarter and the modern works of Pablo Picasso , Joan Miro and Salvador Dali . The people in the region of Catalonia , between the waters of the Mediterranean and the slopes of the Pyrsenees , remain bound to their glorious past even in the art of futuristic Olympic City in Montjuic Park . `` Seville : Heart of Andalusia '' explores the city 's cathedral , the world 's largest Gothic building ; the Roman ruins of Italica ; the Moorish palace of Alcazar ; Santa Cruz and La Giralda , one-time center for the city 's Jews , who like the Romans , Visigoths , Muslims and Christians , left their imprint on Seville . `` I don't know that I ever had a conversation with my husband about what pediatrician we would use , '' said the mother of a teen-age daughter . `` And if you have a husband like mine and most of my friends , they don't ever want to go to the doctor , they don't ever want to confess that they don't feel good , and it is you who are probing and pushing and calling and making the appointments . '' Everybody around her smiled and nodded in recognition of the familiar scenario . For centuries , women have been the unpaid `` health-care providers , '' dragging their spouses , children and aging relatives to the fountain of medical services and then tending them at the bedside at home . As a result , the woman concluded , `` Women have a greater stake in the health-care-reform debate than men. .. . We 're the ones in the middle juggling all the health-care decisions , our jobs , our child-rearing . '' This could start sounding like another episode in the Big Whine from the middle-aged `` sandwich generation '' if the speaker weren't First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton and the subject weren't the most far-reaching domestic legislation in almost 30 years . But as Congress slugs out the details of various proposals , something crucial is missing in the debate and it has to do with women . Long stereotyped as nurturing handmaidens , women play a central role in medicine . They are the biggest users of health care and go to the doctor more often than men . They are also the major `` providers '' as nurses 2.2 million strong and unpaid family care givers . Yet , for starters , women are sparsely represented on the congressional committees designing legislation and none of the powerful committee chairmen has a female face . The debate itself has been narrowly focused . Following the stereotype that guys do numbers , most of the political discussion has been about costs and strategies to pay for extending the current system to the 38 million people who have no insurance , with High-Noon shootouts over `` employer mandates '' and `` premium caps . '' There 's been very little talk about the quality and types of services that are needed and not needed in an era of chronic illness and an aging population . `` It is a male model versus a female model , '' said Virginia Trotter Betts , president of the American Nurses Association . As she explained last week at a conference on care giving by the International Women 's Media Foundation , the male model is the status quo with its emphasis on high-tech remedies of acute medical problems ; the female model shifts the focus from cures to care not just to preventive and primary care for healthy people but also supportive care for people with chronic conditions . If the debate paid more attention to the female model , noted Betts , `` there would be a dramatic change in winners and losers . '' The view that chronic illness is getting short shrift in the debate is supported by a recent report from the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation . As the foundation 's president , Steven A . Schroeder , put it : `` Even after a year of intense debate about health-care reform , the disparity between the needs of people with chronic health conditions and the way the medical care system is currently organized is not being addressed in the debate . '' Perhaps the way for Congress to get the message about chronic illness is to pay more attention to a largely invisible volunteer army of an estimated 18 million family care givers in this country . Their responsibilities go beyond the normal raising of a family . Their patients have such chronic diseases as multiple sclerosis , Alzheimer 's , cerebral palsy . They work as unpaid home health aides on average four hours a day , seven days a week . These calculations come from the National Family Caregivers Association , a non-profit organization in Kensington , Md. , for people who care for a parent , child , sibling or spouse with a disabling illness . `` We 're the people who push the wheelchair , '' said the association 's president , Suzanne Mintz , whose husband has MS . `` We 're so invisible . '' If these volunteer health workers virtually all women were paid $ 7.25 an hour , their total annual bill would come to an estimated $ 190 billion a year . If their patients had to be cared for in institutions and other community facilities , it would cost the nation 's taxpayers even more . These care givers aren't looking for pay ; they are looking for benefits that would reimburse home health care and provide support and respite care for care givers . But whenever long-term care benefits come up in the debate , the Mayday Dollar Button is pushed and voters are cautioned it may be too expensive . So here 's another way in the health-care debate to look at the financing issue . The country actually has a health-care credit of $ 190 billion a year thanks largely to American women . If these volunteer Florence Nightingales should stage a work stoppage for a week , Congress would soon find out the real dimensions of the health-care cost crisis . `` Everybody seems to like my name , '' said Jack Noseworthy . `` I never thought about changing it . Not for a second . '' Joe Davola , senior vice president of MTV Productions/MTV Development , can relate to that . `` Seinfeld '' writer Larry David was so taken by the name that `` Crazy Joe Davola '' became part of the NBC sitcom . Soon Noseworthy and Davola may have one more thing in common a cult following . That will depend on the reception to `` Dead at 21 , '' the music television network 's first foray into the action-adventure genre . The series gets a sneak preview Thursday night and starting June 15 will run Wednesday nights . `` Dead at 21 '' features Ed and Maria , both 20 , who are running for their lives . It seems that as an infant , Ed ( played by Noseworthy ) had a microcircuit planted in his brain to increase his brain power . As a side effect , he and other cybernauts have wild dreams and , by the time they are 21 , will self-destruct . As might be expected , the show has an energetic music-video quality . It leans heavily toward the rock 'n' roll set , with quick edits , harsh angles , hand-held camera work , on-location shooting and a pulsating soundtrack . Oh , yes , and on the back of the motorcycle Ed has Lisa Dean Ryan as Doogie Howser never knew her . `` Every now and then I get to kiss a girl , '' Noseworthy said proudly , referring to the former `` Class of '96 '' star . He also got to ride a motorcycle for the show , but , because of a hectic shooting schedule , is still operating with a restricted license . Noseworthy , 24 , has been doing quite well recently . After appearances in the movies `` Alive '' and `` Encino Man '' and a regular role on the short-lived CBS show `` Teech , '' he landed a challenging part as Sissy Spacek 's son in the Hallmark Hall of Fame production `` A Place for Annie . '' `` I was the only male in the cast , and I got to work with some really powerful women , '' he said , clicking off the names of Spacek , Joan Plowright and Mary-Louise Parker . `` It was nice to have a challenging role where I played a character in the beginning , middle and end of the movie , '' in which Spacek portrayed a pediatric nurse who tries to adopt the HIV-positive daughter of an AIDS patient . Then there was the casting for `` Dead at 21 . '' Noseworthy , already selected for the role in part because of his non-glamorous appearance and look of vulnerability , read with three actresses and was asked for his recommendation . He picked Ryan . `` I connected with her , '' he said . `` There was a ` Taming of the Shrew ' type of energy . She 's a joy to work with . '' In the premiere the two ride Ed 's cycle into the sunset , with the bad guy lurking somewhere in pursuit . It 's part of the paranoid reality on which the show plays . `` When you are young , you don't trust anybody , '' Davola said . `` Everything 's a conspiracy . The government is after him ; his parents have deceived him ( by not revealing that Ed is adopted ) . It 's ` The Fugitive ' meets ` Logan 's Run. ' ' ' While on the run , and in search of the mad doctor who planted the time bomb in his head , Ed and Maria journey through familiar night clubs , shopping malls and coffee houses and try to decipher the clues contained in his freakish dreams . `` MTV is a step ahead of every other network , '' Noseworthy said of the program , which will have a 13-week run . Davola agreed . `` Dead at 21 '' joins the unscripted soap opera `` Real World '' and the dramatic series `` Catwalk '' in the stable of first-run series as MTV strives to become `` a full-service network . '' Before returning to MTV last year , Davola spent five years at Fox , where he was involved with `` In Living Color , '' `` Totally Hidden Video , '' `` The Ben Stiller Show , '' `` Code Three '' and `` Sightings . '' During that tenure , Davola struck up a friendship with writer Larry David , who , after repeating `` Joe Davola '' several times at a party , proclaimed he was going to use the name for a character on `` Seinfeld . '' The Davola character is an obsessed fan who stalks Jerry in several episodes . BEIJING On that night five years ago this week , high school sophomore Jiang Jielian decided to go to Tiananmen Square one last time . There , Beijing 's students had camped at the gates of political power , demanding democracy in the most serious challenge to 40 years of China 's Communist Party rule . On June 3 , 1989 , Beijing was under martial law . Authorities had warned residents to stay home . But Jiang , who had marched in peaceful protests for democracy all spring , was worried about the safety of the university students still in the square . His mother begged him not to go . She bolted the front door of their ground-floor apartment . But Jiang came to her , kissed her on the cheek and said goodbye , using a Chinese phrase that means farewell forever . He then locked himself in the bathroom and jumped out the window . `` I remember saying to him , `` What can you do ? You 're only a high school student , ' ' ' his mother recalled , fighting back tears . `` He said , `` If all parents were as selfish as you , there would be no hope left for our country. ' ' ' About 30 minutes later , Jiang was shot and killed by Chinese army soldiers about two miles west of the square . Like thousands of other civilians who tried to stop the troops as they advanced from the city outskirts toward the square , he was unarmed . When soldiers opened fire on the crowd , a bullet hit him in the back and ripped through his chest . He died on the way to a hospital . He had turned 17 the day before . Jiang 's death launched his mother , Ding Zilin , on a one-woman campaign to locate the families of those killed and wounded by the army . Ding , a 57-year-old aesthetics professor , defies government harassment and contacts the families and distributes to them money donated from abroad , much of it from Chinese students in the United States . And underlying this campaign is another cause . `` I don't care how long it takes , '' she said in a recent interview in her apartment on the campus of People 's University . `` I want the real truth to be known . I want to know how many were killed by the government . '' Does the government know how many were killed ? `` Of course they know , '' she said . `` But this is their secret . '' The Tiananmen Square massacre , which has considerably influenced the way Chinese and foreigners view China , remains the most politically taboo subject in the country today . The official version is that the Chinese army was forced to quell a `` counterrevolutionary rebellion '' that night to ensure stability . The civilians killed were `` counterrevolutionary rebels , '' `` thugs '' or `` rioters , '' authorities have said . But China has refused to give a complete public accounting of the number of dead and wounded or hold an inquiry into the circumstances in which unarmed civilians were killed . Ding and other families have gotten no official compensation for their loss , she said . The government claims that only about 300 died , most of them soldiers and `` thugs . '' U.S. Embassy officials concluded at the time that between 500 and 800 Chinese died , while human rights organizations have said several thousand were killed . Ding 's family gathered evidence corpses viewed or accounts from hospital staffers of 216 dead , and Ding said she believes this represents a fraction of the total . Ding has located 84 families of those killed and nearly 50 other families of people seriously injured . She is pursuing leads in 10 other deaths . In a recent petition asking for an official reassessment of the crackdown , seven dissidents , including former student leader Wang Dan , said it was time for the government to `` untie the knot in the people 's heart . '' But instead , on this year 's fifth anniversary of Tiananmen , authorities have ordered stepped-up surveillance of families of those killed in the massacre , Ding said . Ding , a soft-spoken woman , is the prime target . Of the hundreds of families of victims , only she and her husband , Jiang Peikun , also a university professor , have dared to acknowledge consistently and publicly that a family member was killed by the army . Policemen watch the couple 's apartment and harass anyone trying to visit . Ding said police have kept 24-hour surveillance on her since May 20 including following her to the medical clinic where she receives treatment for heart ailments and a slipped disc . Ding said Sunday by telephone that she had written to the parliament to say she and her husband will start a two-day hunger strike Thursday unless their freedom is restored . Writing from her apartment , where the couple keep their son 's ashes in a shrine in the bedroom , Ding asked , `` Is he not even allowed to have one untainted space in which his spirit can rest ? '' `` Can his parents not even have a moment of peace to commemorate the fifth anniversary of his death ? We can hardly bear it , '' she wrote . Ding 's campaign has helped reveal how deep is the fear of Tiananmen 's survivors . Families of those killed are afraid to acknowledge the deaths to neighbors or their work units , she said . Several have refused to see her or accept her donations , even though there are no strings attached . Ding went public with her case in 1991 to counter a claim by Premier Li Peng that families did not want an accounting of the dead and injured . Because she mourned publicly and challenged the government , Ding was expelled from the Communist Party and lost her teaching job . Her husband , 59 , was dismissed as director of the university philosophy department 's aesthetics institute . Starting this year , he can no longer take on new graduate students and his monthly bonus has been cut . The couple have become pariahs . `` Now old friends we have known for 10 years avoid me and pretend they don't even know me , '' Ding said . Her neighbor across the hall , an elderly worker , used to be friendly but now keeps his distance . Each year , on June 3 , Ding plays funeral music and burns paper money in her son 's honor . As the date approaches , she said , her dreams of him often turn to nightmares . Ding knows her work is a growing threat to the government . But she said she is not afraid . `` What more can they do to me ? '' she asked . `` They have already killed my son . '' Once there was a marvelous woman named Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle , who understood children so well that she was able to get naughty children back on the straight path of growing up . She could get a messy boy to clean up his room . She could persuade a girl who hated baths to wash . She knew ways to cure a boy who lied . She could cure a ' fraidy cat and a tattletale and get a child to go to bed . In short , she was terrific . People who grew up in the 1940s and '50s might remember Betty MacDonald 's character . But not many modern children do . Neither did Jean Stapleton , who did grow up in the '40s , or the younger Shelley Duvall , who has a large collection of children 's books and makes award-winning productions for kids . But by their own accounts , they were entranced by MacDonald 's heroine and set about bringing her to life in stories inspired by the books . Guests include Christopher Lloyd , Ed Begley Jr. , Joan Cusack , Meshach Taylor , Phyllis Diller and James Whitmore , who shows up as Mr. Piggle-Wiggle ( `` He was deceased in the books , '' Duvall confided ) . Executive producer Duvall has also made creative changes in the stories . `` We contemporized them . There were certain things in the books that I wanted to bring up to speed . '' `` Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle , '' Duvall 's fifth series for Showtime , begins Tuesday night with a one-hour parents ' preview that includes two stories : `` The Not Truthful Cure , '' featuring Lloyd as Grandpa Moohead , who is given to overexaggeration , and his grandson , Egbert , who fibs ; and `` The Pet Forgetters Cure , '' about a girl who forgets to feed her pets . Begley and Cusack play her parents . Weekly episodes begin June 14 . Duvall and Stapleton talked about the series recently over lunch in a Washington hotel . Duvall said the publishers of the original `` Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle '' books are considering reissuing the books . If they do , she said she hopes they hire the original illustrator , Maurice Sendak . Any illustrator who takes a cue from Duvall 's color-drenched televised version will be obliged to dress the character in stripes . `` You can tell a Piggle-Wiggle by their stripes , '' said Duvall , who plays Mrs . Piggle-Wiggle 's daughter Potsi . Stapleton , whose character lives in an upside-down house , has played in several Duvall series : the fairy godmother in `` Cinderella , '' the ogress in `` Jack in the Beanstalk '' and Mother Goose in `` Mother Goose Rock 'n' Rhyme . '' A veteran actress , she won three Emmys for playing Edith Bunker over eight seasons of CBS 's `` All in the Family . '' `` It 's good to be talking about ( ` Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle ' ) again , because it was so delightful , '' Stapleton said . `` We don't have a lot of delightful material on television . I 'm beginning to think we 're all going to regress to childhood , because that literature is the most revealing . '' Duvall , whose collection of illustrated children 's books numbers about 3,000 , agreed . `` There is some great children 's literature out there . It 's an untapped natural resource . We have not explored all the marvelous children 's literature to its full extent . With ` Faerie Tale Theatre , ' I did some of that . '' It was one of Duvall 's staffers , visiting in Seattle , who reported that a children 's theater there was doing a play based on the books , and that local children were flocking to it . `` Kids , from having seen the play , were writing in to the theater saying , ` I have a cure for my older brothers ' or whatever , '' said Duvall . `` And suddenly there were these Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle fan clubs . So we pursued the rights and got them . '' For Duvall , there was only one choice to play the lead : `` Jean : the perfect Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle. There were no others . '' Stapleton snapped up the part . `` If you are a character actress , ` Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle ' is a dream . I was in Toronto doing a movie for Fox , and I had two movie scripts . And here comes this bundle of stuff from Shelley : three scripts , outlines for others , and the books . As soon as I read them , I said , ` This is it . I 'd rather do this than the films . ' It 's the quality of writing that drew me , the literacy and the wit . '' `` Mrs. Piggle-Wiggle '' was co-produced with Universal Family Entertainment and New Zealand 's South Pacific Pictures . The cast and crew went to New Zealand to make the 13 shows in 10 weeks , working 12-hour days for six-day weeks . Stapleton , Duvall said , was `` indefatigable . '' CHICAGO Richard Graff is every municipal bureaucrat 's nightmare . Eccentric and excitable , he bounded back and forth in front of his downtown newsstand here the other day while providing a stream-of-consciousness commentary on the evils of the local government . Arrayed on the newsstand racks behind him were thousands of comic books and a smaller collection of adult magazines tucked into a discreet corner , but no newspapers . Rick 's Newsstand , as it is known , does not sell newspapers , a fact that its proprietor blames on his long-running feud with the city . `` It 's degrading to me , '' Graff said . `` I 'm the Michael Jordan of newsstands . I 'm the best . '' To city officials , however , Graff bears no resemblance to Jordan , the Chicago Bulls ' former superstar . To them he is a nuisance and his newsstand is an eyesore , blighting the sidewalk area near an entrance to the Chicago Cultural Center , a graceful , 19th century building that is an official Chicago landmark . Graff and the city have been battling on and off for years . Earlier this month , their dispute reached the Supreme Court , which refused to consider Graff 's appeal of a 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals decision upholding the city 's right to order Graff to move the newsstand to a new location or dismantle it . For Graff , June 6 is indeed D-Day , the deadline for him to leave the location where he has operated since 1984 and where a newsstand has existed for more than 70 years . The legal battle centered on Graff 's assertion that a 1991 city ordinance regulating the size and location of newsstands and limiting their number is an unconstitutional infringement on the dissemination of information . But his cause , according to sympathizers , also involves a larger struggle between those who want to preserve such colorful , gritty reminders of Chicago history and the forces of sterile gentrification who would turn the city into a sanitized theme park , a sort of Daleyland by the Lake . The chief villain , to Graff and his supporters , is Mayor Richard M. Daley , D , who also has pushed for the dismantling of another grubby Chicago institution the ramshackle Maxwell Street Market where street vendors have hawked their wares for more than 100 years and whose vision of the city 's future focuses on a plan to create a `` family entertainment center '' theme park built around several riverboat gambling casinos . Even Daley 's recent decision to abandon his family 's ancestral home , the working-class neighborhood of Bridgeport , for an upscale development south of the central business district has been linked by critics to what they call his obsession with tidiness . `` It 's kind of like the Disneylandization of America , '' said Jonathan A . Rothstein , one of Graff 's lawyers . `` That attracts tourists , I suppose , and it 's good for the economy , but do you want to live on Disneyland 's Main Street ? It 's not real . '' To Rothstein and others , the newsstand is `` as much a landmark as the building '' and Graff is part of the vitality and color of the downtown city streets . He is certainly colorful . Dressed in a black Marvel Comics jacket , he chatted the other day with regular customers who browsed through the comic books , including a man who identified himself as a lawyer for the city government . `` How do you feel about the newsstand ? '' Graff demanded to know . `` Bad , '' the lawyer replied sheepishly . To amuse pedestrians who rush by , Graff sometimes outfits his Alaskan malamute , Tasha , with sunglasses and watches the reaction . `` See , I just made two people smile , '' he said proudly as two women paused and laughed at the dog . `` That is why I should be here , '' Graff added . `` For the flavor of the city . It 's not just a newsstand . '' Graff said he paid $ 50,000 in 1984 for the newsstand and prime location a few feet from the entrance to a commuter train station and busy Michigan Avenue . But he has never had a city permit to run the stand . Denied a permit , he filed suit in 1991 challenging the existing ordinance that restricted newspaper sales to publications printed in Chicago , a widely ignored provision . Rather than defend the ordinance in court , the city enacted a new law later that year . Lawrence Rosenthal , deputy corporation counsel for the city , argued that the new ordinance cleaned up a loosely regulated system that was rife with another Chicago tradition the opportunity for corruption . `` If you were pals with someone in City Hall , you got to run a newsstand , '' he said . `` Graff 's predecessor evidently had some kind of a handshake agreement with someone . But that 's the worst way to protect First Amendment rights . '' Under the new permit ordinance , Rosenthal said , newsstand vendors are protected `` even if they offend the local alderman . They have rights now . '' He said this includes Graff , who has rejected offers to operate a smaller newsstand at a less desirable downtown location . Meanwhile , the larger debate over whether there is room for places like Rick 's Newsstand and the Maxwell Street Market in the city 's future continues to rage . Gerald W . Ropka , a geography professor at DePaul University , said he sympathized with Daley 's efforts to clean up the downtown area rather than risk the slow strangulation by suburban shopping malls that has occurred in cities like Detroit . But political scientist Larry Bennett , Ropka 's colleague on the DePaul faculty , said he has misgivings about grandiose plans to transform a historically messy melting pot into `` a very tidy city . '' `` The problem will be when Chicago becomes insufficiently distinctive from other cities so that it no longer has its own identity , '' he said . In the 1930s , flight attendants were called `` skygirls . '' They were to be single , under age 25 , less than 115 pounds , act like a `` well-trained servant . '' An airline manual of that era instructed skygirls to `` treat captains and pilots with strict formality while in uniform . A rigid military salute will be rendered as they go aboard and deplane . '' Times are different now , but the aviation community is gradually coming to realize that some of the old attitudes hang on in modern jetliners and that can be dangerous . Research has shown that there is a greater gap between pilots and attendants than just the cockpit door , and in rare instances it has killed . A report published by the Flight Safety Foundation said that pilots and attendants sometimes show animosity toward one another , are often confused as to when to communicate problems , have little awareness of the other 's duties in an emergency and sometimes don't even introduce themselves prior to a flight . These problems do not exist with every airline crew , and only rarely lead to a safety problem , but the report 's authors , Rebecca D . Chute of San Jose State University and Earl L. Wiener of the University of Miami , gave two examples when they did : In 1989 , 24 people were killed in an Air Ontario crash on takeoff from Dryden , Ontario , because of ice on the wings . Flight attendants saw wet snow on the wings , but did not tell the pilots because they assumed they knew and were reluctant to `` second-guess the pilots . '' Before a disastrous British Midlands fire in 1989 , the captain reported over the public address system that he had a problem with the right engine . Although the attendants and passengers could see fire in the left engine , they did nothing as the pilot shut down the wrong engine . `` Although cabin and flight deck crews share the same goals , the two crews have evolved into two distinct cultures , resulting in communication and coordination problems between them , '' the report said . Clay Foushee , Northwest Airlines vice president for flight operations , said he is well aware of the problem , and Northwest `` is moving very quickly toward doing some joint training and crew resource management '' between pilots and attendants . Crew resource management or CRM is the aviation buzzword for teaching pilots to communicate and not to intimidate subordinates , problems blamed for several crashes in the 1980s . CRM for pilots and flight attendants is a fairly new concept , and is endorsed by the Chute-Wiener report . `` Data suggest that CRM training could bring these two disparate cultures into greater cohesion , '' they said . John O' Brien , director of engineering and air safety for the Air Line Pilots Association , said the association has been pursuing joint training and CRM as a goal since 1986 . He said pilots can encourage the flow of information by such simple practices as saying thank you for information , even if it isn't needed . Flight attendants may withhold vital information if `` the flight deck responds by jumping down someone 's throat . '' Nancy Gilmer , chairman of the Association of Flight Attendants ' safety committee , said flight attendants are trained to inform pilots of possible problems , but `` it hasn't been stressed in training . '' The report said a major source of confusion is the Federal Aviation Administration 's `` sterile cockpit '' rule , which says that crew members should strictly stick to their duties during `` a critical phase of flight . '' Generally , this is interpreted to mean any operations below 10,000 feet . It bans `` nonessential communications between the cabin and cockpit crews . '' One of the greatest problems the study identified is airline corporate structure . Pilots report to the flight operations department , where safety is the major concern , while attendants usually report to the marketing department , where service is the main concern . Another problem is that cockpit and cabin crews no longer serve as a team for long periods . Attendants may work for as many as five cockpit crews in one day . Stay home Friday nights this summer and see the first-season replays of Fox 's `` The X-Files '' that you probably missed . The series debuted to little fanfare in September but finished a strong first season in May so strong it has become one of those shows with a so-called `` cult following . '' `` Each week we set out to scare the pants off people , '' said creator , writer and producer Chris Carter . `` We try to do it in a number of ways , but we have found that some of our most effective episodes have been dark ones , in both psychological content and the look of the show . `` I think that there is a general mood to ` The X Files , ' although each of them ( episodes ) have their own dark sensibility . '' Fox 's frightening Friday series is slated to return next fall . A blend of science and the supernatural , the series focuses on two smart FBI special agents whose relationship is based on mutual respect and intellectual attraction . Gillian Anderson , 25 , plays the stoic Dana Scully , recruited by the FBI out of medical school . David Duchovny , 33 , is Fox `` Spooky '' Mulder , the scientist who studies serial killers and is willing to suspend credibility to get to the truth , which , as the show 's mantra phrases it , `` is out there . '' Nothing odd or unusual is off limits to Scully and Mulder 's caseload , be they mediums , psychic phenomena , UFOs , mutating humans , firestarters or the Jersey Devil . This week 's episode is a particularly gruesome one called `` The Squeeze , '' about a man who can live indefinitely , shifting his shape , as long as his diet includes the livers of freshly killed humans . The eeriest part of `` The X-Files '' may be knowing that the plots are based on factual reports . The May 13 season finale tied in the newsmaking case of a California cancer victim whose dying body emitted fumes that overcame an emergency-room staff . `` Many of our ideas spring from actual accounts , essays , pieces in journals that we expand by positing ` what if , ' ' ' Carter said . He said he forages for ideas from news reports but has been particularly influenced by Harvard professor John Mack 's 1991 Roper Survey describing UFO abductions . ( Mack has estimated that 3.7 million Americans may have been abducted by UFOs . ) `` That was part of my original inspiration , '' he said . The fact that alien phenomena was being taken seriously , studied scientifically by a man who works at Harvard , `` gave it a legitimacy . I thought that that gave me some heavy ammunition with which to set out . '' Yet Carter himself sounds as if his feet are firmly planted on the earth . `` I would not call myself a New-Ager , '' he said , although many of his fans may be . `` My brother is a Ph.D. he 's a physicist , '' he said . `` He became the scientist of the family . But I think that there 's a big part of me that is interested in what he does . '' The show , shot in Vancouver , B.C. , has a burgeoning following , including a fan club based in New Hampshire and heavy traffic on the Internet computer network . Carter 's assistant prints out messages for him `` instant feedback , '' he called it . Carter acknowledged that he listens to fan reaction to the episodes but pays little attention to suggestions for stories . `` We have a very clear vision of the show and what we want to do , '' he said . That means no plans for romance between Scully and Mulder . `` Everyone thought that there would be a lot of weirdos coming out of the woodwork , '' said Carter . `` We 've had a few , but mostly we 've had people who have enjoyed the show because they think the stories are well told . '' Perhaps the show appeals because it challenges our set notions , as did Rod Serling 's `` The Twilight Zone . '' But what is the goal of the show ? To scare , amaze , mystify or simply raise a lot of pertinent questions ? `` All of the above , '' said Carter . `` I think that comparison ( with ` The Twilight Zone ' ) only goes so far . Those shows became allegories . I think that each episode did not explore a bigger theme. .. . We set out to find something , a subject , and we twist it , and we try to make it take place in the realm of extreme possibility . And that 's where the biggest scare comes from . '' The show 's title refers to secret government files on the paranormal . Files starting with an ` X ' fall into the unexplainable/paranormal category , presumably stored in a clandestine vault beneath the Pentagon . The series has the government trying to conceal many unusual occurrences . WASHINGTON There may be a few less young interns working on Capitol Hill this summer : A congressional internship program that would support nearly 300 summer interns has been suspended by the House as part of an effort to cut staff . Members of Congress were notified May 16 that the Lyndon Baines Johnson internship , which has made it possible for congressional offices to hire a two-month intern each year since 1974 , will not authorize funding for any more interns this year . While the funding cut poses problems for those congressional offices that have already committed to summer interns , it is unlikely to thwart the plans of those students . Hill offices say they will find savings in other areas to pay the interns . `` We 'll just look within our own budget and find a way to cut it . Maybe there 's a magazine subscription we don't need , maybe we can look at those small things that add up , '' said Mary Fetsch of the office of Rep. Elizabeth Furse , D-Ore . . The LBJ intern will be the only intern on Furse 's staff this summer . Other offices have multiple interns , including those from university-sponsored programs , volunteers from members ' districts , or paid interns from the office 's personnel budget . `` It will take out one of our paid internships , '' said Charlie Boesel , an aide to Rep. Thomas J. Bliley Jr , R-Va . `` Four six-week internships that Bliley pays for out of his own annual staff appropriations willn't be affected . '' In addition , Bliley 's office often takes advantage of an unpaid internship program American University offers . In anticipation of the funding cut , Rep. James P. Moran Jr. , D-Va. , did not hire an LBJ intern for this summer . In contrast , Rep. Scotty Baesler , D-Ky. , will have two one-month LBJ interns one who started May 1 and one who starts June 1 who will now have to be paid out of the office 's personnel budget . Because each office has a different combination of available funds for personnel , office space and starting dates for intern hiring , the LBJ cut will affect some members more than others . Congress is trying to match a 4 percent staff cut in the executive branch over the next two fiscal years . The Federal Reserve Board decides to raise interest rates by a hefty one-half percent and Wall Street cheers ? Either financial markets are truly perverse , as some at the White House have suggested , or something else is going on . And it isn't inflation . The United States under the Clinton administration is locked on a collision course between its desired domestic economic agenda and the demands of the international financial community . President Clinton has set great store on his ability to deliver low interest rates as the result of prudent budget decisions . While administration officials early on dismissed the stock market as a credible judge of their economic program ( `` It goes up , it goes down '' ) , they have pointed to the low 30-year Treasury bond rate with pride and satisfaction . But since that benchmark rate started climbing precipitously this year it reached as high as 7.60 percent on May 11 , compared with 5.78 on Oct. 14 the White House has been scrambling to explain to the American people what has changed . As it turns out , the U.S. domestic economic scene hasn't changed much in the past seven months , except for the better : Employment is up , inflation is down . What has been driving interest yields higher is the insistence by foreign investors that they be compensated for the impact of a falling dollar . Ever since Treasury Secretary Lloyd Bentsen uttered `` I 'd like to see a stronger yen '' at the National Press Club a month after Clinton 's inauguration , the value of the dollar has been up for grabs in international currency markets . Clinton himself compounded the jawboning factor last spring , when he announced at a joint press conference with Japan 's visiting prime minister that the weak dollar was `` number one '' on a list of the `` things working today which may give us more results '' in shrinking the U.S. trade deficit with Japan . Global currency traders took notice . If officials in the White House wanted to see the dollar go down against the yen , they would be only too happy to accommodate them . Within four months , the dollar would hit post-World War II record lows approaching 100 yen to the dollar . Still , bond yields seemed relatively unaffected by the sagging dollar until early this year . Then , suddenly , the dollar began losing value against the German mark also . Now global investors were demanding higher interest rates to offset the projected exchange rate loss from investing in dollar-denominated financial instruments . By late April , officials at Treasury and the White House were alarmed by the backwash effect of a weak dollar on U.S. bond yields . A massive intervention effort carried out by the Fed in conjunction with the central banks of 15 other nations on May 4 gave currency speculators temporary pause as they weighed the willingness of foreign governments to endlessly shell out reserves to buy dollars . But U.S. bond yields continued to soar . A surprise move on May 11 by the Bundesbank to dramatically cut German interest rates tipped the currency scale in favor of the dollar . Still , investors were waiting for the other shoe to drop . Two weeks ago , with a Fed hike of 50 basis points in both the discount rate and the federal funds rate , it did . So even as sharply rising interest rates are spooking average Americans and undermining the fundamental assumptions of Clinton 's domestic economic program , the international financial markets are merely pacified for the present . Wall Street 's seeming approval of the jump two weeks ago in key interest rates is a reflection of that . It does not mean U.S. business is eager to embrace a higher cost of capital or that consumers are ready to absorb higher borrowing costs . Are financial markets irrational , superstitious ? To the contrary . They are not prone to inflation myths , as Laura D' Andrea Tyson , chairman of the president 's Council of Economic Advisers , would have us believe . They are registering their legitimate response to the Clinton administration 's demonstrated willingness to let the dollar slide to achieve perceived gains in foreign trade . What is perverse is to proclaim a commitment to a strong dollar , as Clinton did in December 1992 ( when it took 124 yen to buy a dollar ) , and then expect investors to passively absorb exchange rate losses as the White House talks down the value of America 's currency . WASHINGTON The white stone blocks used in some patios , driveways and walkways in the Washington area have names and dates engraved on one side . Thousands of weathered and damaged burial markers from graves at Arlington National Cemetery have been discarded over the years , and many of them apparently were scavenged from landfills and used for home projects , cemetery officials said . They are sometimes discovered after a home changes hands , and startled homeowners contact the cemetery . `` We get these calls all the time , '' said Herman Higgenbottom , deputy superintendent of the cemetery . `` It 's not unusual for someone to buy a house in Washington and find one in the yard or the basement , and then they call us up . Years ago , people used to steal them from the dump and build patios with them . '' Higgenbottom , an employee of the cemetery for 29 years , said he understood the distress of the callers . `` I 'd be upset too if I found cemetery markers around my house . '' Arlington gravestones are replaced at a rate of about 100 a month , a spokeswoman said . The markers used to be left intact at a landfill . In 1987 , the cemetery began pulverizing discarded gravestones , the spokeswoman said , in part because of calls from those who found the markers that had been discarded in earlier years . Arlington National Cemetery is the best known of the country 's more than 100 military cemeteries . More than 225,000 service veterans and family members are buried on the 612 acres of former farmland . According to literature supplied by the cemetery , about 18 burials are conducted there each weekday . More than 160 of the stones , turned face down , were made into a patio behind a Northeast Washington apartment building . In the basement were three more of the large , group markers inscribed with the names of 19 men who died in World War II . Vietnam-era veteran Ed Siemion , who was hired to repair one of the four apartments in the building , discovered the stones and showed them to a reporter last week . `` It gave me chills when I saw them , '' Siemion said . Holiday drivers who pulled into service stations across the nation last weekend were taking advantage of one of the country 's great bargains : gasoline has never been cheaper than it has been this year , compared with what people pay for other goods and services . Encouraged by the low cost of fuel , Americans have been buying more and more cars and light trucks a category that includes most minivans and driving them farther . For instance , the American Automobile Association estimated before the holiday that 25 million people used a car , light truck or recreational vehicle to drive more than 100 miles from home this weekend , while another 3.5 million traveled that distance by airplane , train or bus . `` The major reasons for the . . . record number of holiday travelers include an improved economy , low gasoline prices , stable lodging and meal costs and airfare discounts , '' said AAA Potomac . The low cost of the kerosene type jet fuel most commercial airliners use is one reason so many airlines are offering discounted fares . Actual jet fuel prices this year are about half what they were in 1981 , and compared with prices of other industrial products , they are down much more than that . However , it 's not just travel that 's affected by low fuel prices . Experts say one reason that sales have been booming for pickup trucks , minivans and four-wheel-drive vehicles which generally are less fuel efficient than most cars is that fuel cost is not a deterrent . Meanwhile , low fuel costs are having a major impact on air pollution , particularly in urban areas , according to a number of analysts . The most important point is simply that people are driving more miles . `` Since 1970 vehicle miles traveled have increased by 69 percent , partially offsetting reductions in emissions per mile brought about by new-car emissions standards , '' recently wrote Winston Harrington and Margaret A . Walls , analysts at Resources for the Future , a Washington environmental research organization . Harrington and Walls also note that the average age of the U.S. fleet of vehicles has gone up substantially , compounding the problem . `` Emissions control systems tend to break down as cars get older , causing emissions to rise , '' they said . While it may be that the newer generation of cars and light trucks are more durable than their predecessors , low fuel costs also have encouraged many owners of older , less fuel efficient vehicles to keep them on the road longer . Some analysts have suggested that a cost-effective way to reduce emissions is to have a public agency buy and scrap such cars to upgrade the average level of emissions control effectiveness . Several other pollution control strategies could directly affect the price of gasoline , at least initially . For instance , the Environmental Protection Agency has suggested that reformulating the cocktail of refined petroleum products that make up a gallon of gasoline could reduce certain emissions in a cost-effective way while adding about 3 cents a gallon to the cost of making the fuel . Reformulating the mix to allow vehicles to meet stringent targets set by the state of California would cost an added 8 cents to 11 cents a gallon . But even if such an approach were taken , the average motorist might well not end up paying that much . There are two concrete examples to the contrary : lead and taxes . Under the terms of air pollution control laws passed in the 1970s and tightened later , gasoline refiners were required to phase out the use of tetraethyl lead , an additive that effectively upgraded the quality of the fuel . However , part of the additive came out the tail pipe along with the other emissions and added significantly to the amount of lead in the air , especially in congested areas . Lead is a metal that when taken into the body can cause severe health problems , including permanent reduction in mental capacity in children . At the time , there were complaints from the oil industry that if the use of tetraethyl lead was stopped , more expensive parts of a refined barrel of crude oil would have to be used in its place to provide satisfactory performance in most cars . Almost all of the gasoline produced in the United States today is lead-free , and even if it costs more to make than if tetraethyl lead were still in use , the added expense has not been enough to increase the inflation-adjusted price of gasoline at the pump . Neither have the steady increases in taxes levied on fuel by federal , state and some local governments . Last Oct. 1 , for example , the federal government raised its motor fuel tax by 4.3 cents a gallon as part of the package of measures to reduce prospective federal budget deficits . During the debate over the legislation , some lawmakers and environmentalists argued for a much larger increase in the tax both to generate more revenue and to discourage gasoline consumption . In September , the average , seasonally adjusted pump price for unleaded regular gasoline across the nation was $ 1.085 a gallon , according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics . The next month , with the higher tax in effect , the price jumped to $ 1.127 . By January , despite the tax , it was back down to $ 1.043 and in April , the latest figure available , it stood at $ 1.064 . While all those forces have been pushing up the cost of gasoline , other forces have been holding it down . The most significant , of course , is the world price of crude oil . Another reality of the marketplace is that the average fuel efficiency of the U.S. fleet of vehicles has gone up enough that , despite all the added miles being driven on Memorial Day weekends and the rest of the year , the nation 's total consumption of gasoline is no higher now than it was in the late 1970s . WASHINGTON President Clinton has taken pains to avoid a public quarrel with the Federal Reserve over its decision to increase short-term interest rates , but , privately , he has railed against the moves . And , according to Clinton administration officials , he has sent staff scrambling to provide him with the latest details about where the economy and with it his political fortunes are headed . White House deputy economic adviser Gene Sperling can tick off key economic data almost to the minute . He can tell you , for example , that on Friday the economy is likely to create its three-millionth job since Clinton took the oath of office . In recent weeks , White House aides have consulted a number of outside experts on the dynamics of the `` political business cycle . '' Among them : Yale University economist Ray Fair , architect of the nation 's most sophisticated model for predicting presidential election outcomes based on the performance of the economy . The only presidential contest Fair has called wrong was Clinton 's victory over President George Bush . And serving on the White House staff this year is Robert F. Wescott , an economist whose `` pocketbook index '' for predicting the outcome of presidential elections suggests that if the after-tax income of U.S. families is rising at a 3.7 percent annual rate or more in the fall of 1995 , odds are that Clinton will win re-election . The rate this spring : 3.8 percent . This constant monitoring of the economy 's pulse highlights one of the most fundamental characteristics of the Clinton White House : It remains exquisitely sensitive to the link between its political future and the health of the economy . Indeed , the rallying call for Clinton 's 1996 campaign may well be , `` It 's still the economy , stupid . '' `` The president is very focused on the economy , '' said Sperling . `` He has been sending very strong signals down the chain of command that even while we are working on crime , health care and other things , the economy should always be front and center . '' At the close of his first year in office , the waves of economic growth seemed to be breaking just right for Clinton : The jobless rate was falling , there was hardly a trace of inflation , interest rates had receded and the stock market was soaring . With economists predicting solid growth rates into 1996 election year , it seemed Clinton would be able to surf the business cycle right through to a second term . But the economic tides have shifted in recent months . As the Fed has raised interest rates , the value of the dollar faltered overseas and financial markets behaved erratically . Many private economists believe the business cycle continues to move in sync with the political calendar . But the developments of the past three months seem to have shaken Clinton 's confidence . Robert E. Rubin , Clinton 's national economic adviser , is counseling colleagues to stay the course . Rubin , a former Wall Street executive , likens their current anxiety to that of a white-knuckled trader sitting with a billion-dollar block of Treasury bonds during a unexpected dip in the market . If you believe your original analysis was right and the economic fundamentals have not changed , he argues , there is no reason to panic or modify your strategy . In fact , the administration 's current forecast for the economy has changed little from the one it fashioned in the first few days of the administration , a projection known inside the White House as the `` pizza forecast . '' Those calculations were made by the members of `` T-2 , '' a troika of economic deputies-Alan S. Blinder , a member of the Council of Economic Advisers ; Alicia H. Munnell , assistant Treasury secretary ; and Joseph J. Minarik , associate director of the Office of Management and Budget . Over carry-out pizzas in Blinder 's quarters in the Old Executive Office Building one night shortly after the inauguration , they estimated that the economy 's growth rate cycle eventually would reach 3.3 percent in 1994 before settling down to a comfortable noninflationary growth rate of 2.5 percent in 1996 and the years beyond . The Council of Economic Advisers is now revising that forecast , but expects little change . The preliminary consensus is that the economic drag from the recent rise of interest rates will be more than offset by the stimulative effects of record-high spending on new business equipment . As companies invest in new technology and re-engineer the way they do business , many administration economists believe , workers will be able to produce more goods and services , generating higher incomes without generating inflation . The bottom line : Economic growth will remain steady , but not so strong as to make Clinton 's reelection a sure thing . Many private economists share the administration 's cautious optimism . In fact , some say that recent developments have only improved the president 's political prospects . By raising interest rates , they argue , the Fed and Wall Street 's bond traders might have slowed the growth of the economy this year or next , but helped to ensure that the expansion would not peter out by 1996 . `` If anything , I think the Fed has done Clinton a favor , '' said Lehman Brothers Inc. economist Allen Sinai , whose latest newsletter to clients said the administration stands posed to `` beat the business cycle '' this time around . `` This is looking more and more like it will be a long-lasting business expansion . '' Now we know why the Clintons bombed in their Whitewater real estate venture . It was , says Jack Trinsey , Pennsylvania developer , politician and legal gadfly , a failure of vision . They bought only half the mountain . They should have bought the whole thing . Behold , the Trail of Tears Tower , a 115-story , tallest-building-in-the-world monolith that Trinsey says is the true destiny for the 240 acres of mountain land the Clintons bought 15 years ago with their then-friends and future S&L barons , James and Susan McDougal . In what would surely rank as one of the world 's great silk purse transformations , Trinsey says he wants to build the tower on a bend in the scenic White River in northern Arkansas . The name would honor the Native Americans who passed through the area on a forced march to Oklahoma in the late 1830s . The project also would be carried out , Trinsey said , in memory of the spunk of the `` young Clintons . '' To that end , he 's planning to keep Hillary Rodham Clinton 's puny $ 30,000 model home as a Lincolnesque tribute to the First Family 's `` noble '' if unsuccessful efforts `` to bring this magnificent Whitewater site to the public . '' He wants to use a cuddly black `` Hillary Bear '' as the project 's mascot . `` I saw an aerial view of the Whitewater project and I said , `` Oh my goodness . . . I have got to have that , ' ' ' Trinsey said . `` I understand why the young Clintons fell in love with it and I understand why they failed. . . . They bought only half of their hill . `` They just could not cut the mustard . When you see the sample ( home ) that the young Hillary Rodham put in you understand that she did all the suffering any developer in the country does . There is just heartache there . '' All told , Trinsey 's project would be 5 million square feet ( the Pentagon clocks in at 3.75 million ) of sparkling glass office space . In Flippin , Ark . `` It appears to me he is probably a crackpot because in my wildest imagination I cannot imagine the thing he is talking about being built in this area , '' said Flippin Mayor Bob Marberry . The roads are bad and the area remote , and there certainly is no demand at present for a 1,500-foot office tower in the Flippin area , or even Cotter the other town near Whitewater . There may not be for another millennium . The tallest building in Flippin currently is two stories , and the largest industry a factory that turns out a couple dozen bass boats each day . What 's more , the people there don't want such an obvious urban intrusion even a dozen miles away at Whitewater . `` When you get to Flippin you think you have gone to the end of the world , '' Marberry said . `` When you go on to Whitewater you know you are at the end of the world . '' Nevertheless , Trinsey , aided by brokers at local Pioneer Realty , has for nominal sums bought purchase options on about 10 of Whitewater 's 44 lots , and on another 80 acres across the road . The real estate agents involved say they are earnest about helping Trinsey assemble up to 1,000 acres , in hopes he can get at least a limited project off the ground . Trinsey , in fact , says he will start slow . `` The question is , can we start new life here ? '' Trinsey said . `` I am doing exactly what the Good Witch Glinda advised Dorothy to do in her quest to find the Wizard of Oz . It is always best to start at the beginning . '' So first he will build the four-story `` Whitewater Inn . '' Then he will expand with the construction of six- , 10- , 20-story and larger structures , before going public with a stock offering to raise the money for the Trail of Tears Tower . There will also be a Whitewater soap opera , and movie , he says , all about young entrepreneurs trying to get a leg up-just as Bill and Hillary tried to do when they went halfsies with the McDougals on Whitewater , and when they practiced the politics of meaning on the commodities exchange . `` The advertising we are going to have all across the world is , `` Live , work and worship at Whitewater , ' ' ' Trinsey said . `` I am seeking to get blessings from the Indian nation. . . . I am going to invite the entire nation of tribes to a public picnic '' to authenticate the project 's roots . Consider him the Romulus and Remus of the Ozarks . More modestly he refers to himself as the `` Beethoven '' of developers , and says Whitewater 's remoteness is part of the attraction for him . It 's a chance to paint on a clean canvas . He could use it . The central project of Trinsey 's life , incomplete after 30 years , was taken away from him and auctioned by the Resolution Trust Corp. in 1992 . Trinsey acquired the land for his Rebel Hill development , near Philadelphia , in 1959 , and did manage to build a few town houses before facing foreclosure on a $ 7 million loan . Trinsey , 66 , is still fighting the RTC in court over that project , which offers another important glimpse of Trinsey 's character . He likes to sue people . Over the last few years he has typically acting without a lawyer sued the Democratic and Republican parties , Ross Perot 's organization , and all 50 states . The lawsuits were related to his various political campaigns-for U.S. Senate , president ( he got 22 votes in New Hampshire ) and an upcoming bid for governor of Pennsylvania . He is also planning to sue Supreme Court Justice Byron White for refusing to allow an appeal of one of his other lawsuits . It was , in fact , in fighting the RTC that he first learned about Whitewater . He saw in special counsel Robert B . Fiske Jr. 's investigation of the development an opportune chance to correct his own misfortune with Rebel Hill . The answer was obvious . Sue Fiske ! A motion trying to force Fiske to include in his probe an extensive look at RTC wrongdoing is pending in U.S. . District Court in Washington at this moment . Immersed in Whitewater as a result , he saw published pictures , then followed up with a visit in April . Herewith , his reaction : `` My eyes slowly left the bottom of the White River to the ground below my feet and suddenly I felt a presence of those Indians on those very grounds and then my eyes caught the base of the trees lining the river bank and my eyes lifted slowly up the trees to the sky above when I saw a vision of a Trail of Tears Tower rising to the sky , the tallest building in the world . `` I have not been the same since . '' WASHINGTON How much did Hillary Rodham Clinton know in the early and mid-1980s about the troubled business dealings of her Whitewater partner and sometime law client , James B . McDougal ? And did she play a role in his efforts to bail himself out ? These questions have become an important part of the Whitewater controversy facing the president and Mrs. Clinton. And in the incremental way that the affair is now developing , new documents have surfaced that don't fit comfortably with Mrs. Clinton 's explanation that her contacts as an attorney with McDougal and his Arkansas savings and loan company were purely routine and peripheral . The Clintons contend they were remote from the tangled financial affairs of Madison Guaranty Savings & Loan , owned by McDougal , their partner in the Whitewater real estate development . The thrift was seized by federal regulators in 1989 at a cost to taxpayers of $ 47 million . As a partner in the Rose Law Firm in Little Rock , Ark. , Mrs. Clinton represented McDougal 's S&L in 1985 before the state securities commissioner ( appointed by her husband , then the governor ) on a plan that would allow the thrift to sell preferred stock to boost its capital reserves and meet federal regulators ' demands . At a press conference in April , Mrs. Clinton said she acted only as the `` billing attorney , '' while the case was actually handled at the firm by a junior associate . But documents obtained by the Resolution Trust Corp. suggest that Mrs. Clinton 's efforts on McDougal 's behalf were both more active and more longstanding than that . In 1983 , the documents show , Mrs. Clinton took a role in mediating a dispute between McDougal and the Rose firm over fees from earlier legal work . McDougal had refused to pay Rose 's bills , prompting the firm 's managing partner , Joseph Giroir , to declare that he did not want McDougal as a Rose client again in the future , according to partners at the firm . But Mrs. Clinton interceded , and documents and interviews with participants suggest that her mediation may have made possible the subsequent Rose efforts on behalf of the S&L . In an Oct. 10 , 1983 , letter obtained by the RTC , Giroir wrote McDougal that he was submitting a new bill `` pursuant to your discussions with Hillary Rodham Clinton . '' While the savings and loan matter was pending before the state commission , McDougal indicated an interest in ways Mrs. Clinton could help with Madison 's dealings with the state . `` I need to know everything you have pending before the Securities Commission as I intend to get with Hillary Clinton within the next few days , '' McDougal wrote to Madison President John Latham in a July 11 , 1985 , internal Madison memo obtained by the RTC . The White House acknowledged that Mrs. Clinton may have interceded while at Rose to help mediate the billing dispute . As for the later memo from McDougal , John Podesta , a White House spokesman on Whitewater matters , said Mrs. Clinton did not recall getting together with McDougal in the summer of 1985 to review the embattled S&L 's pending issues . Regardless of any contacts between them and her part in patching up the Madison-Rose relationship , administration officials asserted , Mrs. Clinton had no significant professional role with McDougal 's financial institutions or any knowledge of the controversial practices cited after Madison Guaranty 's collapse . But critics suggest that having Mrs. Clinton and Rose in his corner may have given McDougal the potential of exercising undue influence on state authorities . A five-month-old special counsel 's investigation is probing whether political influence may have been used to prolong Madison 's existence and run up the eventual cost of the RTC bailout . Former Madison President Latham said that McDougal , who was the majority stockholder in Madison and effectively controlled day-to-day management of the S&L , told him to use Rose for legal work . In one conversation `` he said , go to Rose , because Bill and Hillary are my friends . So I used them ( Rose ) , '' Latham said . When rocker Billy Idol joined the on-line revolution a year ago , he did it with a requisite snarl . Promoting his album `` Cyberpunk , '' Idol talked of using the global Internet to circumvent the Establishment media , to smash the barriers between musicians and their fans . He widely publicized his electronic-mail address . Good luck finding Idol on-line today . He signed off with a whimper last month , complaining of the `` overwhelming '' task of answering his e-mail . `` Right now . . . my mailbox has over 4,000 messages and there is no way I can personally answer all of them without spending my days at the computer , '' Idol said in an automated e-mail response to anyone attempting to reach him on-line . Idol is a victim of self-induced cyber overload . The information superhighway has not only inspired a slew of bad metaphors , it 's become littered with unique nuisances . There 's e-mail glut simply too much mail , from social or business contacts . There are junk messages unwanted commercial spiels posted on public bulletin boards . And there are e-mail bombs time-wasting messages that are `` exploded '' through unsuspecting networks into your personal mailbox . The net used to be a cozy place , a virtual priesthood protected by its own arcane language and customs . Beard-tugging academics and helpful scientists set the tone . Now , as more and more techno-tyros log on , and more firms attempt to exploit the network commercially , the limits of `` netiquette '' the unwritten rules governing cyberspace are being stretched . E-mail traffic on the Internet a conglomeration of 20,000 computer networks loosely overseen by the National Science Foundation has reached more than 800 million messages a month , nearly double the volume of a year ago . As happened with other communications breakthroughs that were supposed to make life simpler ( voice mail comes to mind ) , some e-mail users are beginning to see the down side of convenience . `` Whole work patterns are changing , '' says Dan VanBelleghem , associate program director for the National Science Foundation 's NSFNET , the largest component of the Internet . `` Before , you would get to work and chat with your neighbor over a cup of coffee . Now it 's become : `` I 'm gonna turn on my PC or Mac and scan through my mail . ' And there 's 300 messages , and a lot of it is junk and a lot is hidden , and you might delete some accidentally , and before you know it , it 's 10 a.m. '' VanBelleghem says he 's attempting to limit his morning mail call to 45 minutes . An e-mail address still imparts a certain exclusive , cutting-edge glamour . Entertainment and publishing people are flocking to the net , hoping to plug in to cultural trends . E-mail also allows an instantaneous connection to vast amounts of knowledge , in the form of both data and experts . But `` as soon as e-mail is ubiquitous , people will have the same problems with it as they do with paper mail and phone calls , '' says Gail Williams , a manager of the Whole Earth ' Lectronic Link ( WELL ) , a West Coast conferencing system . There are easy solutions : Change your address or install a program to filter out the junk . But basically , you can't hide . Once you join a public conference , it 's like giving your phone number to 20 million people . You can't be `` unlisted , '' because the system requires a return address on every message you send . If you message someone privately , that person has your address . `` There is a potential , because of the way the net is set up , that you can be mail-bombed or swamped in junk mail , '' says Mike Godwin , an attorney for the Electronic Frontier Foundation . `` And occasionally people will do this to you . But it seems to be no more of a problem than obscene phone calls . There is the potential for all people to make obscene phone calls , but most people don't act on the impulse . '' The Internet 's fiber-optic cable capacity isn't close to being taxed . And ultimately , the humans on the other end of the messages will find ways to cope . `` This is the real world-you should expect the occasional junk phone call and junk e-mail , '' says Carl Malamud , president of the Internet Multicasting Service in Washington , a `` cyberstation '' that relays speech and music over the net . He estimates that he gets 500 e-mail messages a day . `` We filter the junk-we put it in a pile at the end of the day and then we delete , delete , delete . '' You can e-mail this reporter at LEIBYaol.com . But feel free not to . How 's this for high-concept television : A great network lifts itself out of the ratings cellar and rides high for three years . Then , all at once , things get rocky . The network loses its top programming executive , its high-profile sports shows , even some of its affiliates . As executives search desperately for a new hit , the ratings start to look shaky again . Can this network be saved ? This scenario , as they say on TV , is based on a true story . CBS , the dominant television network of the early '90s , appears headed for a fall . Despite winning a ratings triple crown during the last television season taking the top spot in the prime time , daytime and late night Nielsens in recent months the network of `` Murphy Brown '' and `` Late Night With David Letterman '' has been showing clear signs of deterioration . Last week , Black Rock , as CBS ' New York headquarters is known , was shaken anew . New World Communications Group Inc. , which owns eight TV stations affiliated with CBS , said it was shifting its loyalties to Rupert Murdoch 's Fox network . The move was widely read as a coup for Fox , which paid $ 500 million for the stations ' affiliation , and as a major defeat for CBS . Indeed , the stock market 's judgment was swift and harsh : Investors rushed to sell their CBS shares , knocking nearly $ 520 million off the company 's value on paper in two days . CBS executives argue the reaction to the New World-Fox deal was overblown . After all , they said , with its powerful primetime lineup , CBS should have no trouble persuading other stations in the eight markets to sign up to carry `` 60 Minutes , '' `` Murder , She Wrote '' and other CBS fare . Fox , sniffed CBS Broadcasting Group President Howard Stringer last week , is a network of `` downscale sitcoms and titillating soap operas . '' In fact , Fox whose ratings have declined 10 percent in the past two years needs the soon-to-be former CBS affiliates more than CBS . Once it finds stations to replace those it has lost , CBS ' `` worst case '' internal projections call for it to lose about 15 percent of its current audience in the eight cities . To put that in perspective , the eight stations collectively reach about 10 percent of the U.S. population . So CBS believes a 15 percent decline in those markets would knock 1.5 percent off its average national rating each evening . `` We 're talking about economically insignificant numbers , '' said David Poltrack , CBS ' top research executive . This glass-is-half-full analysis masks deeper strains at Black Rock , however . Having to search for ( or buy ) new affiliates in eight markets represents another distraction for CBS 's top management , which hardly seems to need another one . At a time when Stringer and CBS Chairman Laurence Tisch should be taking bows , they are instead stamping out small brushfires . Said one CBS executive last week , `` It hasn't seemed like much of a celebration around here . '' -O- Network ratings leadership tends to be cyclical . Popular programs on one network lose viewers over time , as people gradually drift away to sample new offerings on competing networks . And after three years at the top , CBS may be at the end of this cycle , TV analysts say . For one thing , CBS has failed to develop a new hit series during the recently completed TV season . `` Dr. Quinn , Medicine Woman '' has been its most successful new program , and it debuted in January 1993 . ABC , meanwhile , has scored with `` Home Improvement , '' `` NYPD Blue , '' and `` Grace Under Fire , '' while NBC has a new ratings winner in `` Frasier . '' Helped by the addition of the Super Bowl and World Series next season , `` I think there 's a strong chance ABC will replace CBS as number one , '' said Jack Shubert , corporate media director at Earle Palmer Brown , a regional ad agency based in Bethesda , Md. `` ABC has a lot of strong comedies ( `` Roseanne , '' `` Home Improvement , '' `` Coach , '' etc. ) anchoring its schedule during the week . They are in a good position . '' Despite the signs of decline , CBS Inc. , the network 's parent company , could be headed for its best financial performance in several years . One senior official points out that the company is no longer burdened with the costly baseball and football contracts , and is being helped by a general recovery in the advertising business ( CBS ' earnings rose 28 percent in the first quarter , thanks in part to its Winter Olympics ' telecasts ) . Indeed , advertising buyers still expect the network to command the largest share of dollars spent during the upcoming `` upfront '' season , the period in which ad agencies purchase air time for their clients on fall programs . But a sense that tougher times could be on the horizon made for some black moods at Black Rock last week . `` People are very down , '' said one executive last week . `` They 'd be lying if they said otherwise . '' Among the events buffeting CBS : The loss of sports programming . CBS has been outbid for the right to televise the Super Bowl , the 1996 Olympics , the World Series and , most important , NFC football games ( Murdoch 's Fox took the NFC away in December , paying $ 1.6 billion ) . While sports were a hugely expensive proposition CBS has written off more than $ 600 million from what it paid on its baseball and football contracts in the past four years the big games were , in fact , loss leaders for the network : They attracted viewers who later tuned in CBS ' primetime programs . `` They 're going to save money ( without sports ) , but this has taken away some of their ( promotional ) muscle , '' said Joel Segal , national broadcast director at McCann Erickson , a major advertising agency . A black eye from the cable industry . After persuading Congress to pass a law enabling broadcast TV owners to negotiate rights payments from cable companies , CBS was stiff-armed by the cable industry last summer in its efforts to obtain cash fees for allowing the cable companies to carry CBS shows . NBC , ABC and Fox , meanwhile , negotiated deals in which cable companies agreed to air cable channels owned by the three broadcasting companies . A rebuilding job in its programming staff . Jeff Sagansky , the CBS Entertainment president who engineered CBS ' rise in the ratings , stepped down last month , citing a desire for `` a more entrepreneurial challenge . '' Since becoming the top programming executive in 1990 , Sagansky took CBS from No. 3 to No. 1 by shoring up what the network calls `` The Franchise , '' its popular Sunday and Monday night schedules . Sagansky 's successor is Peter Tortorici , the network 's programming strategist . As it is , Sagansky , like NBC 's Brandon Tartikoff before him , may be jumping ship at the right moment . Toothpaste containers . Cereal boxes . Car ads . Those 1-800 numbers that enable you to call companies long distance with the companies picking up the tab seem to be everywhere . In fact , there are almost 3 million toll free 1-800 numbers in use today . And AT&T Corp. 's top 800 service marketing executive , Dan Shulman , predicts that a million more will be added by the end of this year . `` It 's just explosive growth , Shulman said . On a typical day , more than 40 percent of the 160 million calls that AT&T 's network carries are to 800 numbers . Last year , about 22 billion such calls were made , with AT&T accounting for about 60 percent of the market . It used to be that 800 numbers were mainly used by Fortune 500 companies , Shulman said . But now companies such as Kiwi International Air Lines Inc. the Newark-based airline formed a year and a half ago , rely on them . Kiwi , which has 830 employees and revenue of $ 125 million , has six toll-free numbers . It uses two as reservation lines for customers , two for travel agents and two for pilots and other employees who need to call for schedules and other information . Small and medium-size businesses particularly retail groups that have discovered catalogue shopping have been a major source of growth for the 800 business in recent years , analysts said . The 800 business also benefited during the economic downturn , which forced companies to try to become more marketing savvy , analysts said . Companies used 800 numbers to try to encourage customers to call whether to complain , buy or inquire because these calls were the source of rich marketing data . For instance , a car company running nationwide ads listing an 800 number might notice that a majority of the responses come from a particular region or from people of a particular age , income or sex , and could target those groups for more attention , said Ed Stukane , executive vice president of Keyes Martin , an advertising and direct marketing firm in Springfield , N.J. . While toll-free phone service can add considerably to a company 's costs , Shulman said there are ways for firms to minimize their exposure . For instance , a small Maryland company that sells only to customers in Maryland and adjacent states could limit its 800 service to those states . `` You can specify that these are the area codes that I want to receive 800 phone calls from , '' Shulman said . `` Therefore , you are not paying for calls that don't bring you business . '' Jerome Lucas , president of Telestrategies Inc. , a McLean , Va.-based telecommunications consulting firm , said the practice could be seen as `` telecommunications redlining '' and predicted it will become more controversial in coming years . He said companies may be attracted to the practice as a way to prevent 800 fraud . Ted Pierson , a Washington telecommunications attorney , said hackers use machines to dial 800 numbers at random until they get into a phone system . They then use other machines to find ways to use the phone system to make outgoing calls . The hackers can then make free long-distance calls . Because a good portion of such fraudulent calls originate in large urban areas , such as New York City , Lucas predicted some companies may try to block toll-free calls from these points . WASHINGTON The Clinton administration may not fight legislation that would give white-collar federal workers a double-barreled raise in January . The president requested funds for a 1.6 percent civilian-military raise . Current law , which calls for a series of annual national and local catchup raises , had targeted employees for a nationwide across-the-board adjustment of 2.6 percent next year , plus smaller locality increases . The Senate budget resolution endorses the full national and locality raises , and the House Treasury , Postal Service money bill , the usual vehicle for federal pay raises , calls for the 2.6 percent national raise , plus locality raises . The fact that Rep. Steny Hoyer , D-Md. , inserted the language suggests the Clinton administration has been persuaded not to fight the higher amount . There is lots of generalized support for keeping the 1995 federal pay raise low members of Congress aren't likely to get it but it is not as well organized as the smaller , pro-pay raise coalition built around the congressional civil service caucus officially known as the Federal Government Service Task Force . The bipartisan House-Senate group has one thing in common : All of its members represent states or districts chock full of civil servants , retirees or military personnel . Task force members who crossed House-Senate and party lines to keep the pay raises on track included Maryland Democratic senators Paul Sarbanes and Barbara Mikulski ; representatives Jim Moran , D-Va. ; Frank Wolf , R-Va. ; Leslie Byrne , R-Va. ; Connie Morella , R-Md. ; and Kweisi Mfume , D-Md. ; the District of Columbia 's delegate , Eleanor Holmes Norton , a Democrat ; and from beyond the Washington region , Rep . Norm Dicks , D-Wash. , and Rep. Vic Fazio , D-Calif . Giving fully funded raises means executive branch agencies must get another $ 400 million ( over and above the amount requested by the president ) and the Defense Department will need an addition $ 300 million . If agencies were forced to `` eat '' the difference , it would mean they could give full pay raises but would have to fire or furlough some employees to afford paying the others . The indications that the administration willn't make its 1.6 percent raise a do-or-die effort is a good sign both for 1995 paychecks and also for low-seniority workers who are first to go in economy-inspired layoffs . News of the D-day landings traveled far and fast . In the United States , newspaper extras carried banner headlines of the Allied assault on the Normandy beaches of northern France . In Nazi-occupied Europe the accounts spread by short-wave radio from Britain . One week shy of her 15th birthday , an excited Jewish girl in Amsterdam , the Netherlands , named Anne Frank described in the June 6 , 1944 , entry to her diary how she and her family huddled around a radio in their attic hideaway to hear details of the invasion . `` This is the day , '' she wrote. `` .. . I have the feeling friends are approaching . '' While it was quickly understood that D-day would alter the course of World War II irrevocably in the Allies ' favor , not even the most farsighted visionaries were in a position to grasp the event 's lasting significance : That the 70,000 Americans who set foot in Northern Europe on that gray , stormy June day were the vanguard of a U.S. presence that would not just help win the war , but remain to preside over a half-century of peace . For the United States , D-day was part of a watershed . For Europe it was more . For better or worse , the Normandy invasion was one of a series of events that propelled America past the point of no return on the road toward a permanent global role , a permanent European presence and its first peacetime alliance . ( Begin optional trim ) Psychologically and politically , the U.S. casualties taken that day and during the subsequent 11 months of fighting until Nazi Germany 's surrender gave America little option but to push aside instinct , reject a return to isolationism and instead stay on to help preserve the peace in Europe . In the years since , about 16 million American service personnel and their dependents have served in Europe . ( End optional trim ) Only the collapse of communism , a deepening budgetary crisis and a string of pressing domestic problems have led Washington to begin unwinding its presence in the region . From a peak of 325,000 in 1989 , U.S. troop strength in Europe now stands at about 150,000 . It is scheduled to fall to 109,000 by the end of 1996 . The troop withdrawal reflects a larger shift in America 's national priorities those now embodied in Bill Clinton . As a result , more question marks hang over the future of the transatlantic relationship than at any time since the Iron Curtain fell across Europe . For Europeans , adrift on a sea of frightening new problems and searching to redefine themselves and their role in a post-Cold War world , this ebbing American interest is disturbing . After all , they owe a lot to their transatlantic partner . It was , for example , the American military and economic support in the early post-war years that halted the Soviet Union 's westward advance , steadied governments vulnerable to communist takeover in France , Italy and Greece and kept West Berlin alive with a 15-month airlift . As Soviet Cold War bullying intensified , it was a U.S. president , John F. Kennedy , who traveled to Germany , reminded Moscow that the defense of America began in Berlin , then declared himself a citizen of the beleaguered city with his famous declaration , `` Ich bin ein Berliner . '' It was U.S. pressure that helped pave the way for Germany 's swift rehabilitation into the community of Western democracies and American money that flowed into an exhausted Western Europe under the Marshall Plan , restoring hope and igniting an unprecedented economic recovery . And it was leaders such as Dean Acheson , Dwight D. Eisenhower and John Foster Dulles , who repeatedly gave crucial support to the French visionary Jean Monnet as he worked to overcome regional jealousies to build a European Common Market . `` We 've all buried the amazing importance of America in process of European integration , '' said William Wallace , a senior research fellow at Oxford University 's St. Antony 's College . `` The whole thing was American-driven . '' ( Begin optional trim ) Added Pierre Jacquet , deputy director of the French Institute of International Relations , `` Without it ( the American presence ) , Europe would have fallen back again into the 1930s , with nations trying to export their problems to each other . '' Instead , the Common Market 's successor the European Union stands at the center of the Continent 's future . It is about to enlarge from 12 to 16 member states and albeit hesitantly has reached out to the former Soviet satellite states in the east . EU member nations still squabble with each other , but war between them is only a slightly less remote possibility than armed conflict between California and Nevada . ( End optional trim ) The Vietnam War debacle , coupled with Western Europe 's growing economic strength , the student revolutions that swept the region in 1968 and the dollar crises of the early 1970s ended the European sense of awe for America that characterized much of the relationship 's early years . Some sharp foreign policy clashes during the Carter and Reagan presidencies and a love-hate relationship with the growing American cultural invasion led many Europeans to nurture a new stereotype of the United States that of a powerful , but naive ally , whose quick-trigger , overly simplistic world view constituted a danger only slightly less than that emanating from Moscow . But few on either side of the Atlantic could challenge the reality that Western Europe 's stunning revival had unfolded and matured under the protection of America 's security guarantees . Indeed , many argue that both a long-term American political role and military presence in Europe remain vital for the continent 's stability . Anyone watching the EU 's futile efforts to prevent conflicts on its own within the region would be hard-pressed not to agree . The war in Yugoslavia , the first major political crisis post-war Europeans have had to face without immediate American leadership , has been a diplomatic disaster and a demoralizing blow to the EU 's self-confidence in addition to a great human tragedy . `` Our biggest problem is that for the last 50 years , America has told us what to do , '' said Wallace , the Oxford fellow . `` We may not have liked it , but it always gave us a starting point . Now this is gone . '' ( Begin optional trim ) Added Stanley Crossick , chairman of the Belmont European Policy Center , a Brussels-based political think tank : `` We got things right after the war because of strong U.S. leadership , the brilliance of the Marshall Plan and the vision of our own statesmen . Now we no longer have the same U.S. leadership , our own leaders are weak and there 's no Marshall Plan . '' ( End optional trim ) But there remain many elements that will keep America and Europe locked together . Despite the new importance of Japan and other Asian markets , Western Europe remains America 's biggest overseas trading partner . Since 1945 , the Old World has drawn an estimated $ 200 billion in U.S. private investment roughly 40 cents of every American dollar invested overseas . The $ 195 billion in EU-U.S. trade last year accounted for more than one quarter of all global exports . Such figures help support the claim that America 's decision to defend Western Europe was no act of altruism , but far more a policy based on enlightened self-interest that has paid off . While many Europeans are ill at ease with the intrusions of Americana , only the French have cared enough to seriously fight it . Over the years , they have launched a series of counterattacks most notably in December , when they fought to the last bitter minute to successfully retain their leaky defenses against the growing influx of American films and television programs during global trade negotiations . Declaring the defense of the French language a `` political priority , '' Premier Edouard Balladur 's government has also passed a law requiring that a minimum of 40 percent of all songs played over the country 's airwaves be in French and issued an official dictionary of some 3,500 new terms , such as `` restauration rapide '' instead of fast food and `` disque audionumerique '' instead of compact disc , to replace Anglicisms that have crept into the language . However , a walk through Paris is proof that Americana is well entrenched . A tiny sandwich shop just off the Place de la Bastille , for example , seemed typically French except for the Hollywood chewing gum , the Jack Daniels whiskey , the Getaway pinball machine in the corner , and the framed photo of a Harley-Davidson motorcycle on the wall . D-Day marked a watershed in American political , military and economic involvement in Europe , and with 16 million American servicemen and their dependents having been stationed in Europe since then , a powerful transatlantic cultural bond has been forged and continues to grow despite European ambivalence . From the GI chewing gum , jazz music and Ernest Hemingway paperbacks in the late 1940s , to the Levi 's , NFL sweat shirts , Pizza Hut restaurants , hard-rock music , Hollywood films and TV game shows found virtually everywhere in Western Europe , American soft-power has steamrollered the continent . It is a truth that makes many Europeans wince , but 3 decades after the Treaty of Rome committed them to the path of integration , the common thread through Western European mass culture is American . `` At the mass level , it has contributed to a cultural homogenization across Europe , '' declared Philipp Borinski , part of an academic team at Mainz University that is studying the future of the transatlantic relationship . American pop music , scientific writings and successful business styles helped catapult English into the role of a de facto international language , adding further to this cultural impact . Widespread knowledge of English has made northern Europe especially vulnerable to American influence and , although the Romanesque countries to the south have resisted this trend , they too have succumbed , at least in part . `` These countries are more influenced than they like to admit , '' noted Wilfried Wiegand , who edits the cultural pages of Germany 's leading national daily , the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung . `` In Italy it 's now fashionable for young people to eat hamburgers and learn English . In a country that values form and elegance , this is a way for young people to show they are different . '' In Germany , American ideas flooded into a cultural vacuum left in the wake of Nazism . Probably nowhere else in Europe have American habits and tastes from jazz clubs to corporate board rooms taken greater hold . While the reaction to the Vietnam War and the 1968 student protests both carried a distinctly anti-American character and worked to tarnish America 's image as a political role model , they paradoxically strengthened the American cultural impact . With few home-grown symbols to challenge the Establishment , Western Europe 's young revolutionaries listened to the protest messages of Joan Baez and Bob Dylan , cultivated Andy Warhol 's art and adopted Eldridge Cleaver and Angela Davis as political heroes . `` It was a lifestyle revolution in the direction of America , '' said Borinski , who views 1968 as a clear break from traditional West European mores , one that has brought Europe permanently closer to the United States . He argued that American cultural influence has generated a greater sense of personal freedom in Germany , eroded authoritarian strains within society , and generally boosted the status and confidence of the individual all developments that have enabled western Germans to thrive in a free-market , democratic environment . `` There 's a sort of social , cultural convergence taking place that 's making ( Western ) Europe and the U.S. more similar , '' Borinski said . `` I think it has a positive effect in that it helps create a much broader understanding above all among younger generations , which have been welded together in a common youth culture . '' MOSCOW A bipartisan delegation from the Senate Armed Services Committee said Tuesday it would recommend that the first joint exercises involving U.S. and Russian ground troops be moved from Russia to the United States because of nationalist hostility here to the planned maneuvers . Sen. Sam Nunn , D-Ga. , chairman of the committee , said that after meeting with Russian legislators `` it was apparent that this was a sensitive area . '' As a result , the Senate delegation unanimously decided to recommend to President Clinton that the exercises `` be held on American soil at a suitable military base and at a suitable time to both the American and Russian side . '' The joint peacekeeping exercises , involving about 250 troops from each side , had been set for July near the city of Orenburg on the Volga River . The Russian military had favored the maneuvers , which would allow the former enemies to engage in joint operations for the first time , but nationalist and Communist forces strongly opposed them , saying U.S. forces should never set foot in `` Holy Russia . '' Last month Russian President Boris Yeltsin had asked the Defense Ministry to reconsider the exercises . Since then , top defense officials have given mixed signals about the maneuvers , but it was clear that planning had all but stopped . U.S. . Defense Secretary William J. Perry had hailed the joint exercise as proof of a new cooperative era in military relations between the two countries . Russian parliamentary leaders , wary of handing hard-line nationalists such a visible and emotional cause , were clearly relieved by Nunn 's proposal . `` It 's not just a question of substance in such matters but a matter of tact , '' said Vladimir Lukin , former ambassador to the United States , who now heads the Parliament 's foreign affairs committee . Nunn said the delegation of four Republicans and three Democrats was somewhat taken aback when the issue of the joint maneuvers was raised because in Washington they had been told that , after some flip-flops by the Russian side , the exercise `` was now back on course . '' `` This exercise is not designed to use armored vehicles or tanks . It is not even designed for live firing . But it has obviously been a sensitive subject here , and it seems to me we can further our objectives by beginning . . . in the U.S. , '' he said . Nunn said he hopes U.S. troops will eventually be able to come to Russia for joint exercises . `` It would be my hope that there would be reciprocity and that at some point in the future we would have that kind of further peacekeeping exercises here in Russia , '' he said . Cambodia awoke from a 20-year nightmare last May with historic U.N.-sponsored elections . Ninety percent of the population defied Khmer Rouge threats to vote for peace . There was hope that Cambodia was on the road to reconciliation . But what a difference a year makes . Today Pol Pot 's weakened forces are on the attack again . In the past few months the Khmer Rouge have recaptured their Pailin headquarters from the government , establishing control over areas in northern and western Cambodia and displacing 60,000 villagers . The ineffectiveness of the Phnom Penh government and an ill-conceived military campaign are key reasons for Khmer Rouge successes . But a major external factor is Thailand 's help for the Khmer Rouge . The Thai military provides them goods and , reportedly , arms and gives their leadership sanctuary . Despite Thailand 's impressive growth and steady if halting moves toward democracy , the Thai military and its civilian supporters dominate foreign policy , particularly toward Cambodia and the other nearby states of Burma , Laos and Vietnam . The cross-border gem and timber transactions between Thailand and Cambodia are murky but highly profitable for both sides as much as $ 20 million per month . Yet , there are reasons beyond lucre for Thailand 's de facto alliance with the Khmer Rouge . The Thai government 's attitude toward Cambodia has been shaped by a troubled history . Bangkok never liked the earlier Sihanouk government and helped stoke up border insurgencies . In the 1980s , when the overriding concern was getting the Vietnamese out of Cambodia , the United States and Southeast Asian nations did not put any priority on ending Thai and Chinese support for Pol Pot . The Vietnamese left after the 1991 Paris Peace Agreement . China reportedly ceased its support , leaving Thailand holding a monopoly on dirty work . Some Thais want to keep a hand in Cambodian affairs and create a sort of permanent buffer zone against a renascent Vietnam . A senior Thai official told me in 1992 that protecting the Khmer Rouge was an important element of Thai security . The Thai government publicly proclaims the opposite and provides economic assistance to the Phnom Penh government , but even if it doesn't condone the military 's complicity with the Khmer Rouge in violation of Cambodia 's sovereignty , it has not controlled the practice . Perhaps it cannot , given the Thai government 's weakness relative to the army . Whether by graft or statecraft , Thailand has become Pol Pot 's best ally . The war in Cambodia could have been brought to an end and 370,000 refugees returned from Thailand only by the largest U.N. peace-keeping and assistance operation ever assembled , costing $ 2 billion . Now only the world community can help ensure that Cambodia 's pathetically weak state and its hopes for rehabilitation are not destroyed by the Khmer Rouge . Pol Pot 's insurgents have suffered serious political setbacks and losses of manpower , but they are tenacious fighters who survived a war with the far tougher Vietnamese with outside support . The United States and regional governments need to focus on the issue . Sihanouk 's declining health has added urgency . The problem is tough to crack . Trade sanctions and other punitive efforts against a friendly Thailand would be ridiculous . Providing weapons and training to the Cambodian government might help , but one can't have much confidence in a top-heavy army whose rolls exaggerate the true numbers of servicemen . The only tools remaining are moral and diplomatic suasion continually reminding the Thais that they are undermining a neighbor and the costly work of the world community . Bangkok will resist having the issue raised , but doing so multilaterally can put greater pressure on the military and perhaps induce Thailand 's top figures , including its respected monarch , to weigh in . Secretary of State Warren Christopher 's participation in Association of Southeast Asian Nation ( ASEAN ) meetings in Bangkok this July offers a prime opportunity to air the world 's concerns about Cambodia . ASEAN came into its own during the Cambodian crisis , which for 10 years was the focus of ASEAN discussions . A voluble Singapore leadership spearheaded the effort to get the Vietnamese out . Since Vietnam 's departure , Singapore 's interest has evaporated ; it doesn't even have an embassy in Phnom Penh , and its aid is virtually invisible . ASEAN discussions about Cambodia have been perfunctory . ASEAN must be brought around to face the Khmer Rouge problem and focus on how to reduce Pol Pot 's capacities and strengthen the government 's . It needs to consider Cambodia 's early membership . ASEAN and its new security forum willn't become effective instruments for regional stability if members refuse to discuss some issues that make them uncomfortable . As for the United States , President Clinton has rightly said that we cannot solve every world problem . But we should work with others when U.S. participation can make a difference . Working with our Western allies and ASEAN countries to help break the Thai-Khmer Rouge connection is such an opportunity . If we don't take it , Cambodia 's resurrection could be short-lived . MANILA , Philippines A conference on human rights in Indonesian-ruled East Timor opened here Tuesday despite intense opposition from the Philippine and Indonesian governments and a ban on 34 foreign participants , including the wife of France 's president and a Nobel Peace Prize winner . The privately sponsored Asia-Pacific Conference on East Timor , organized by opponents of Indonesia 's 1976 annexation of the former Portuguese colony , convened after the Philippine Supreme Court overturned an injunction against it . However , the court upheld the government 's right to ban foreigners from entering the country to participate in the meeting . Authorities threatened to arrest several foreign delegates who eluded the ban and attended the opening session . But a phalanx of priests , nuns and chanting students surrounded the foreign delegates as they were escorted to the University of the Philippines conference site from nearby hostels . The charged emotions , large Filipino turnout and heavy press coverage of the conference indicated Indonesian pressure on the Philippines to block the gathering had backfired badly . A number of politicians and commentators complained that by bowing to Jakarta 's `` bullying '' tactics , the government had undermined the Philippines ' democratic principles and tarnished its international reputation . The result has been to focus far more attention on the plight of East Timor here and abroad than would probably have been the case if the conference had proceeded without interference , organizers said . Although the Philippines and East Timor share a Roman Catholic religious heritage , Indonesia 's invasion , annexation and subsequent occupation of the territory had never been an issue here . An estimated 100,000 East Timorese , a sixth of the population , died during the 1970s as a result of the invasion , a subsequent famine and efforts to crush guerrilla resistance , human-rights groups have reported . In a statement read for her at the opening session of the five-day conference , Ireland 's Mairead Maguire , who shared the 1976 Nobel Peace Prize , accused Indonesia of engaging in `` barbarism '' against the people of East Timor . Maguire , 50 , was one of 10 foreigners who were detained at Manila 's airport and deported on orders of President Fidel Ramos to prevent them from attending the conference . Danielle Mitterrand , president of the human-rights group France-Libertes and wife of French President Francois Mitterrand , was originally scheduled to deliver the conference 's keynote speech but canceled after she was blacklisted . She said Monday in Paris that Indonesia had exerted `` tyrannical pressure '' and `` a kind of blackmail '' on her and the Philippines . A Philippine senator said banning Mitterrand was a major political blunder , given that Ramos is scheduled to visit France in September and his wife , Amelita Ramos , has been invited to open a Philippine exhibition at a Paris museum next month . Three bishops , a prominent Japanese priest and the head of Indonesia 's largest Muslim organization also were blacklisted . Organizers said one of the bishops died six months ago . The Philippines ' Roman Catholic prelate , Cardinal Jaime Sin , joined the storm of criticism . In a letter Monday to the bishop of Dili , the East Timorese capital , Sin said he was `` sorry to see the political leaders of my own nation giving in to the pressure of a foreign nation . '' Ramos justified his ban on foreign participants in the conference by asserting that freedom of speech and assembly were outweighed by `` national security '' issues . In applying pressure to block the meeting , Indonesia had hinted that , among other measures , it could promote the cause of Muslim separatists in the southern Philippines , presidential aides said . BANGKOK , Thailand U.S. allegations of drug trafficking by Thai legislators have thrown Thailand 's parliament into an uproar and raised the prospect of the first major test of a new extradition treaty . So far , three opposition legislators have been publicly named by U.S. officials as suspects in drug-trafficking cases , and reports that others might be implicated have aroused apprehension among jittery politicians . The publicity has focused attention on the role of big money in Thai politics and fueled concerns that the parliament 's reputation is being damaged . Thailand is a conduit for much of the heroin produced in the Golden Triangle , the border area where Burma , Thailand and Laos meet . The huge profits generated by the drug trade have sowed corruption among Thai politicians , security officials and businessmen at the local and national levels , U.S. and Thai sources charge . According to a recent State Department report , efforts to fight drug trafficking and money laundering in Thailand are hampered by such factors as `` widespread police and military corruption '' and `` the narcotics involvement of some politicians . '' More than 60 percent of the heroin entering the United States comes from the Golden Triangle , U.S. officials estimate . Burma produces nearly 90 percent of the triangle 's annual yield of more than 2,500 tons of opium , the raw material for heroin . Some analysts predict a record crop this year of more than 3,000 tons . Last month , Thanong Siripreechapong , 42 , was forced to resign from parliament after a judge in San Francisco unsealed a 1991 indictment accusing him of involvement in smuggling more than 45 tons of marijuana from Thailand to the United States between 1973 and 1987 . The indictment said Thanong was paid more than $ 13 million in a series of deals . Last year , the U.S. government seized about $ 1 million in assets including a Beverly Hills house and a Mercedes-Benz that Thanong was found to have acquired in the United States with proceeds from drug smuggling . He was notified twice of U.S. forfeiture proceedings but did not appear . Thanong denied the charges and said he wanted to fly to the United States to clear his name . The U.S. . Embassy here responded it would facilitate the trip , but that if he did enter the United States , he would be `` arrested immediately . '' The Chart Thai party , the largest of five parties in opposition to the coalition government of Prime Minister Chuan Leekpai , expelled Thanong after finding inconsistencies in his testimony in parliamentary hearings . He had represented the northeastern province of Nakhon Phanom , known as Thailand 's premier marijuana growing area . Thailand faces a dilemma over the prospect that U.S. authorities might seek Thanong 's extradition . The case already has generated a debate over whether a Thai citizen can legally be extradited to stand trial in a foreign country . Extradition of Thai nationals has previously been banned , but the current constitution is ambiguous on the issue , and a 1992 extradition treaty with the United States neither authorizes nor forbids it . If the government decides Thanong cannot be extradited , it may decide to prosecute him here , officials said . But it remains to be seen whether Thai authorities could try him based on foreign evidence for offenses committed before a new Thai conspiracy law took effect . In a parliamentary session May 19 , Mongkol Chongsuthanamanee , 48 , tearfully denied involvement in the drug trade after it was disclosed that he had been denied a U.S. visa because his name is on a narcotics watch list . The U.S. . Drug Enforcement Administration has implicated Mongkol in a conspiracy to smuggle heroin to the United States , but currently lacks evidence to indict him , a U.S. official said . Mongkol , who represents the opposition Chart Pattana party from Chiang Rai , a northern town bordering the Golden Triangle , called the allegations against him `` rubbish '' and threatened to sue the Thai Foreign Ministry and U.S. . Embassy for defamation . A brother , Arun Chongsuthanamanee , is seeking commutation of a 1992 death sentence for drug trafficking . Mongkol is a protege of Narong Wongwan , who was in line to become Thailand 's prime minister in 1992 until the State Department confirmed that he too had been denied a visa on suspicion of drug trafficking . Narong 's nomination to head a pro-military coalition was later scuttled , and Gen. Suchinda Kraprayoon was chosen instead . Suchinda 's accession to the premiership then prompted massive protests in which hundreds of democracy demonstrators were killed by the army before Suchinda was forced to resign . Narong , who is still in parliament , remains barred from entering the United States . The allegations linking legislators to drug dealing came to a head after Thai newspapers quoted Foreign Minister Prasong Soonsiri as telling a cabinet meeting that he had a U.S. list of 17 politicians , including 10 opposition legislators , suspected of being traffickers . Opposition legislators demanded that he name the suspects and traded insults with government members . Prasong dismissed the reports , and the U.S. . Embassy denied providing any such list . However , lists compiled by Thai academic and media sources quickly began circulating , including one that named three senior members of the government . `` I have to confirm that several politicians , both at the local and national levels , are suspected of being involved in the drug trade , '' Prime Minister Chuan told parliament . He acknowledged having a list of suspected drug-dealing politicians , but declined to disclose details . WASHINGTON David Watkins , the White House aide who was forced to resign after taking the presidential helicopter to play golf near Camp David , relented Tuesday from his refusal to pay the full cost of the flight and agreed to reimburse the government for the full $ 13,129.66 tab . The White House announced it was tightening its rules on use of government aircraft , with approval required from the chief of staff or deputy chief of staff . If they want to make the trip , they must receive approval by the the White House counsel or deputy counsel . Previously , Watkins , head of the office of administration , had authority to approve helicopter flights . The White House also released a summary of 11 other helicopter trips by members of the White House staff , saying they all appeared to be proper uses of the helicopter . `` There were no other instances of abuse , '' White House press secretary Dee Dee Myers said . She said a review of staff use of fixed-wing aircraft would be released later this month . The other trips generally involved White House military and communications personnel , three times to classified locations . Secetary of State Warren Christopher flew to Williamsburg , Va. , for a Senate Democratic retrat , and Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Henry Cisneros and Deputy Office of Management and Budget Director Alice M. Rivlin went on a `` special training mission '' to a classified location . Watkins himself went to Camp David for `` camp familiarization '' last April and to Beltsville , Md. , for `` orientation and training '' last September . Watkins ' decision to reimburse the government spares his former administration colleagues from having to chip in for the reimbursement and the White House hopes puts an end to the embarrassing episode . After moving quickly to force Watkins to resign from his post as director of administration , the White House fumbled its handling of the matter . It belatedly discovered that a second helicopter was involved and after Watkins balked at paying the tab scrambled to put together contributions from nearly the entire senior staff to pay for the cost , billing the money as a `` gesture of friendship '' to the fired aide . Although President Clinton announced that the taxpayers would not be out `` one red cent '' from the helicopter incident , Watkins initially refused to pay any more than a share of the costs . He insisted he had done nothing wrong and would not pay up as a matter of principle , White House sources said . But Watkins said Tuesday that he called Chief of Staff Thomas F. `` Mack '' McLarty Monday night and said he would repay the full amount . Watkins , a Little Rock advertising executive whose financial-disclosure statement shows his net worth at more than $ 1 million , said in a telephone interview Tuesday that when he learned the amount had grown far beyond the few thousand dollars he originally believed the trip would cost , he decided his former colleagues should not be saddled with the bill . Watkins said he had orginally believed the cost would be only about $ 2,500 , and likened the contributions promised by 13 senior aides to `` buying tickets to Barbra Streisand . '' But , he said , `` When it 's over $ 1,000 , it 's braces for your children 's teeth . It could be a financial burden for some . '' Watkins added , `` While I contend I did nothing wrong , I was carrying out the duties of my job , it was something that I was involved with and so I should go ahead and not create any resentment or any more resentment . '' The 55-mile trip to Camp David and the nearby Holly Hills Country Club became public when the Frederick ( Md. ) News-Post published a photograph of Watkins and other adminisration officials about to board the presidential helicopter after playing 18 holes of golf . Watkins was accompanided by Alphonso Maldon , the head of the White House military office , who the White House said would be reassigned , and by the Camp David commander . In his letter of resignation to Presdient Cliton , Watkins defended his actions as `` in fulfillment of the responsibilities of my position , '' which includes oversight for Camp David . He said `` there simply was no effort on my part to use White House or military equipment for personal or recreational purposes '' and that his `` sole motivation was determining how you ( Clinton ) could utilize Camp David more frequently . '' WASHINGTON The Federal Aviation Administration has expressed concern about a rash of accidents and incidents involving China Airlines , the official airline of Taiwan , and `` invited '' the company to discuss how the United States can help improve it , an official said Tuesday . `` We expect very shortly that they will be able to sit down with us and discuss specific assistance we can give them , '' said Anthony J. Broderick , the FAA 's associate administrator for regulation and certification . While it couched the message in polite language , the FAA effectively put China Airlines on notice it expects the company to take action on safety-related issues . The airline , stunned by a series of incidents that appear to be related to poor training or unprofessional behavior , has instituted a retraining program for all its pilots . The Transport Ministry of Taiwan has also warned the airline which flies dozens of international routes including to and from the United States and owns at least 30 wide-bodied airliners to enforce Taiwanese aviation law . Tests show that drinking may have been a contributing factor in the latest crash , April 26 at Nagoya Airport in Japan , in which 264 people were killed and seven survived . The Japan Times , in Tuesday 's editions , said the head of the National Public Safety Commission has confirmed widespread reports that both pilots had been drinking . Commission chairman Hajima Ishii said tests showed the pilot had a blood alcohol content of .013 and the copilot , who was flying the wide-body Airbus A300-622R , .055 . If the crew did all their drinking on the ground before the more than three-hour flight , the copilot would have had a blood alcohol content nearing 0.1 , considered legally drunk in many countries . A preliminary report on the accident by the government of France , where the Airbus is manufactured , said the crew lost control of the airplane on the landing approach as the copilot attempted to descend by pushing forward on the control yoke , apparently unaware that he was in effect fighting the autopilot . The plane stalled twice and fell . This was the most serious of a number of China Airlines incidents , including the crash landing of a Boeing 747-400 in Hong Kong and an in-flight incident involving the autopilot on another 747 . `` That seems to be a number ( of incidents ) higher than one would expect from an airline this size , '' Broderick said in an interview . Broderick said the airline seems to be taking the problem seriously , but the FAA wants to be `` helpful '' because many Americans fly the airline and its jets fly in U.S. airspace . The FAA move is part of a growing tendency to become directly involved in world aviation matters . The agency has opened new offices in several Asian countries , and is actively involved in helping Russia deal with its mounting aviation problems . `` We place a fairly high priority on that , '' Broderick said . Although the agency usually speaks softly , its suggestions carry weight because it could ban any carrier from landing in the United States on safety grounds . Countries often ask for U.S. help with aviation safety from the FAA and the National Transportation Safety Board . China , for example , recently requested U.S. advice after its newly independent regional airlines developed major safety problems . JERUSALEM Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin told a parliamentary panel Tuesday that he was disappointed with recent contacts between Israel and Syria and that the United States ' effort at mediation through Secretary of State Warren Christopher has `` exhausted itself . '' Rabin , reiterating Israel 's offer for a phased withdrawal from the Golan Heights , which Israel captured from Syria in the 1967 Middle East war , complained that Damascus is `` playing for time , '' and added , `` We can't say right now that Syria is serious about peace . '' Rabin 's comments to the closed-door meeting of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee were relayed to reporters by an official . They follow a recent visit to the region by Christopher , who carried messages back and forth between Damascus and Jerusalem and said the two sides had begun a new phase of substantive negotiations . However , Rabin has pressed for direct , secret talks with Syria , which President Hafez Assad has firmly rejected . Rabin has also pressed for a phased withdrawal in which Israel would exchange some land for a series of normalization steps from Syria . But Assad has insisted on a total withdrawal in exchange for peace . Rabin said that so far Syria has not agreed to return to the peace talks in Washington , which were interrupted after the massacre in Hebron on Feb. 25 of 29 Muslims by a Jewish settler . But he said he did not think much was being accomplished there . `` The Washington talks are an exercise in treading water , '' he said . While Israel would like Christopher to be involved , Rabin said , `` in fact Washington has exhausted itself '' with the shuttle missions . Rabin 's comments seemed to run counter to statements from the Clinton administration suggesting that Christopher was making progress . On Friday , the Los Angeles Times quoted President Clinton as saying in an interview that `` we 've got delicate negotiations in the Middle East right now '' and `` the secretary of state is involved and . . . the last thing in the world I need to be doing is considering changing my team . '' Privately , Israeli officials have faulted Christopher for what they describe as episodic involvement in the Israeli-Syrian negotiations . Some officials would like to see a greater American involvement , although Rabin has made clear he wants to get the Gaza-Jericho agreement with the Palestinians implemented before pressing ahead with territorial concessions on the Golan Heights . Rabin was asked about a comment made by Egyptian President Hosni Mubarak to American newspaper editors this week . Mubarak reportedly said Rabin had told him Israel `` doesn't intend on keeping one centimeter of the territory which was occupied from Syria in 1967 but is demanding in exchange from Syria full peace with all its components . '' Rabin said there was `` no way '' he had said this , and he reiterated his proposals for a phased pullout , saying the first stage would not involve removing any Jewish settlements . MOSCOW A delegation of U.S. senators on Tuesday sought to defuse anti-American sentiment by proposing that joint military exercises , which were to be conducted in Russia , take place instead on American soil . The United States and Russia agreed to the maneuvers in September , with both governments categorizing the exercise as a dry run for possible future peacekeeping operations . The drill was to take place in July at the Totsk testing ground in the Ural Mountains . Its significance was to be more symbolic than military , as the entire operation was to involve only 250 soldiers from each side , no heavy equipment and no live fire . Still , communists and nationalists here seized on the notion of `` Yankee '' soldiers on Russian territory as further evidence of what they see as a continued attempt by the United States to impose its will on a weakened Russia . `` Russia cannot be made a training ground for the American Army , '' lawmaker Pyotr P. Shirshov , an army officer from Bryansk , said in a heated debate last month . Faced with stiff opposition in Parliament and in the Urals , the Russian government on Friday quietly asked the United States to postpone the exercises . On Sunday , a bipartisan delegation from the U.S. Senate Armed Services Committee arrived to learn that the maneuvers , meant to showcase the new cooperation between the old adversaries , had instead fallen victim to resurgent Russian nationalism . Some conservative Russians interpreted the American push for the exercises as , ` ` ` We won the Cold War and now we 're going to show you our stuff ' which is not at all what it was meant to be , '' said Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison , R-Texas . Given the `` sensitivity '' of the issue , Armed Services Committee Chairman Sen. Sam Nunn , D.-Ga. , said the seven senators visiting here will recommend to President Clinton and Defense Secretary William J. Perry that the planned U.S.-Russian maneuvers be held in the United States . Nunn suggested that the National Training Center at Fort Irwin , Calif. or several bases in his home state of Georgia might be just right for the job . Hutchison said she is sure Texas would be pleased to host the exercises . Russian politicians welcomed the American proposal . `` All these hysterics about the exercises in the Totsk firing range are simply comical , '' said liberal economist Yegor T. Gaidar , complaining that hard-liners have told people that American troops would use the opportunity to seize Moscow . `` Nevertheless , the opposition managed to use this as a pretext for violent anti-Western propaganda . '' Ironically , the United States and Russia first agreed to hold the maneuvers in Germany . But officials had neglected to consult the German government , which nixed the idea . Next , the United States proposed hosting the exercises , but Russia balked at their $ 2 million cost . ( Optional Add End ) Sergei N . Yushenkov , chairman of the Defense Committee of the Duma , or lower house of the Russian parliament , said the maneuvers ' cost could still be a problem . And he said that members of the far-right party , led by Vladimir V. Zhirinovsky who had at first insisted that the exercises not be held in Russia were already finding new excuses Tuesday to oppose holding them in America . Zhirinovsky supporters have formed an alliance with other nationalists , Communists and conservative Agrarian lawmakers . They often command a majority in the Duma . `` They do not want equal partnership ( with the West ) and they are not really interested in promoting a stable , firm and reliable international security system , '' Yushenkov said of the hard-line opposition . High grades go to two segments from Wednesday night 's latest news-magazine premiere , CBS News ' `` America Tonight , '' anchored by Deborah Norville and Dana King . One is Norville 's on-scene report of a commando raid by a mother to retrieve her American-born son from a Tunisian father who kidnapped the child to Tunisia . The other is Bob McKeown 's frightening look at how unconscionable mail-order munitions dealers sell lethal arms to anybody whose check is good . Not available for preview : a commentary by Susan Estrich on date rape , stories by Peter Van Sant on the Filene 's Basement annual bridal gown sale in Boston and by Bill Geist on the `` fingernail industry . '' `` America Tonight 's '' big mistake is a planned weekly , unscientific telephone `` poll '' ( the 900-number calls cost 50 cents each ) that CBS News President Joe Peyronnin Tuesday defended as a way to `` empower '' audiences to be part of the show . -0- Peter Jennings ' excellent blending of the military 's D-Day decisions and tactics with survivors ' personal recollections airs as a 90-minute `` Turning Point at Normandy : The Soldiers ' Story '' on ABC Wednesday night. .. . At a special time Wednesday , NBC 's `` Now With Tom Brokaw and Katie Couric '' has an emotional reunion of two vets who had not seen each other for 50 years after having become friends during battle in World War II . -0- Dan Rather 's `` 48 Hours '' Wednesday night gives us a spirited overview of Scotland Yard , with its tradition of the unarmed bobby appearing to be on the wane as violence increasingly overtakes British society . Among the segments is one about how British royalty simply refuse to have strict security that will keep its members from being close to the people . -0- So much of the original programming on cable 's Comedy Central isn't funny . Such as Wednesday night 's five-minute `` Briefs Encounter : Jones v. Clinton , '' a dramatization from `` Comedy Central News '' of the sexual-harassment complaint by Paula Jones against President Clinton . The complaint is read verbatim by civil right attorney William Kunstler , who , whatever his other qualities , has never shown himself on TV as a barrel of laughs . The segment is part of the channel 's special `` Battle of the Sexes '' edition of the `` Short Attention Span Theater . '' WASHINGTON An institution already bruised from a succession of scandals got another black eye Tuesday with the indictment of Rep. Dan Rostenkowski , D-Ill. , and Republicans got a campaign issue for this year 's midterm elections . The 17-count indictment against the powerful Chicago Democrat embodies the contempt many Americans long have made against Congress , that its members enjoy perks and privleges not available to ordinary citizens and have used their positions for personal enrichment rather than the public good . Rostenkowski proclaimed his innocence and vowed to fight the charges . But many Americans already have found the Congress guilty , and the case outlined by U.S. attorney Eric Holder Tuesday likely will feed public cynicism regardless of how the legal battle turns out . `` People are going to sit back and watch this trial and say , `` I always thought that politicians used public office for private gain and now I know it 's true , ' ' ' said Democratic pollster Mark Mellman . `` If you multiplied the $ 600,000 allegedly embezzled ( by Rostenkowski ) by 435 members of Congress , you would get an idea of how big this is in the eyes of the taxpayers , '' said Rep. Ernest J. Istook Jr. , R-Okla. , who won his seat two years ago by defeating a scandal-ridden Republican in the primary . `` Rightly or wrongly , it gives fuel to people who believe that everybody in Congress is a crook . '' That cynicism has put incumbents on the defensive , spawned the term limits movement in America and helped to give rise to Ross Perot and his followers . Even before Tuesday 's indictment , incumbents were nervous about the voters ' mood this year . The assault on Congress 's image has come in many forms over the past five years : the scandals over the House bank and post office ; the resignation under a cloud by former speaker James C. Wright , D-Texas ; a stream of television reports on the junkets and goodies enjoyed by those in office . Polls continue to show an overwhelmingly negative view of Congress as an institution . Four in five voters say members of Congress quickly lose touch with people back home and three in five disapprove of the job Congress does . The fallout of declining public confidence in Congress and of demands for ever-stricter ethics laws and tigher regulations on public behavior also have led to a record number of resignations by House incumbents over the past two election cycles , and Republicans signaled Tuesday they would try to make Rostenkowski part of their arsenal of attack against Democrats this fall . `` It 's more than an indictment of a man , it 's an indictment of a system of political boss control of Congress for 40 years , '' said Rep . Bill Paxon , R-N.Y. , chairman of the National Republican Congressional Committee . `` Nothing 's going to change in Congress until the public changes the party in control . '' Paxon said Rostenskowski `` absolutely '' will be an issue in the fall campaigns . `` It already is a key part of the fall message , '' he said . But freshman Rep. Peter Deutsch , D-Fla. , a former state legislator , said that voters are not likely to hold any one party responsible for political corruption when members from both parties have had their problems . `` This fall , I think the attitude will be `` a plague on both your houses , '' ' said Deutsch . `` This indictment is a personal tragedy for Rostenkowski and it 's not good for Americans to have this kind of cynicism ( about their government ) . But just as I think the impact of the indictment on health care reform will be zero , the impact on other races around the country will also be zero . '' But the indictment put Democratic leaders in a particularly difficult position because of their conflicting desires to show loyalty to a man who is both enormously powerful and highly popular on Capitol Hill and to protect the image of the institution . House Speaker Thomas S. Foley , D-Wash. , and House Majority Leader Richard A . Gephardt , D-Mo. , issued cautious statements underscoring their respect for the House Ways and Means Committee chairman and reminding the public that he is innocent until proven guilty . But their statements were more telling for their brevity , as if the less they said the less likely the public would try to connect Rostenkowski to other Democrats . Other Democrats tried to show sympathy for Rostenkowski : `` It hurts in the legislative sense and it hurts in the personal sense , '' said Rep. Charles Schumer , D-N.Y. . `` This is not just an ordinary member getting into trouble , but one who was very respected . '' But privately some Democrats were gloomy about the fallout and candid about the demoralizing effect of the indictment . `` Everyone 's going to run away from him like crazy , '' one House Democrat said . `` This is a no-winner . '' Gephardt tried to draw a parallel with the indictment of Rep. Joseph McDade , R-Pa. , as evidence that the Rostenkowski damage will be limited . `` The ( Republican ) minority has had a ranking member of the Appropriations Committee under indictment and it hasn't impaired their ability to say anything , '' Gephardt said . But Frank Luntz , who polls for Republicans , said the indictment itself will `` allow Republicans to point the finger at another major Democrat '' and make it easier for Republicans to make `` the case for change '' this fall . With more incumbents running for reelection , Democrats may pay a higher price for the perceived sins of the institution , but even some Republicans acknowledged that the public may not make much a distinction between the two parties . `` As a Republican , I don't take any joy in this because I think it will reflect badly on the whole institution , '' said freshman Rep. Michael Castle , R-Del . `` My impression is that Congress 's image had begun to improve in the last year or so , and then this happens .. . . This reflects on everybody to some degree . '' ROME Launching a nostalgic pilgrimage to salute the World War II victory over fascism , President Clinton flies Wednesday into a swirling , bitter European controversy with echoes from those desperate days half a century ago : Are the political heirs of Benito Mussolini trustworthy partners in a new Italian government ? Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi , a billionaire businessman on the defensive over the inclusion of neo-fascists in his two-week-old government , pledged anew on Tuesday that there was no threat to democracy . In a 50-minute meeting , Berlusconi reassured a delegation from the Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles that he would support their call for the extradition from Argentina of Nazi war criminal Erich Priebke . `` Berlusconi said he was personally committed to see Priebke brought to trial in Rome , '' said Rabbi Abraham Cooper , associate dean of the center who headed the delegation . `` I spoke directly about concerns over neo-fascists in government , and I was very satisfied with Berlusconi 's responses . '' Clinton arrives around midnight for his first visit to Rome , a planned-to-the-minute extravaganza that will include talks Thursday with Berlusconi and a meeting with Pope John Paul II . On Friday , the president delivers a major address at the American military cemetery in Nettuno , south of Rome . Clinton will honor soldiers who died in fighting after the 1944 amphibious landing at Anzio , one of the savage battles that marked the beginning of the end of World War II . On Saturday , the 50th anniversary of the liberation of Rome , Clinton flies to England , and continues to France for D-Day ceremonies on Normandy beaches Monday . In assaying the new-look government of one of its closest allies , the United States has proved more sanguine about the five neo-fascist members of Berlusconi 's Cabinet than Italy 's partners in the European Union . `` Berlusconi has been elected . Let 's see if he knows how to do his job . Let 's give him a chance and support him , '' Clinton told Italian reporters in Washington in an interview televised over the weekend . The 57-year-old self-made tycoon , one of Europe 's richest men , entered politics in January , led a right-wing electoral alliance to victory in March and won confirmation by Parliament in mid-May . Since then , however , Berlusconi has been repeatedly rebuffed by European partners for the neo-fascist elements in his coalition , and discomfited by allies at home in his efforts to effectively launch Italy 's first right-wing government since the war . On Tuesday , in the latest of a long line of incidents , Socialist Party members of the European Parliament asked conservative colleagues to help bar neo-fascists from joining the assembly after European elections later this month . Returned to office after more than four decades as pariahs on the extreme right-wing of the many-splendored Italian political universe , extremists among the neo-fascists are in full cry to the embarrassment of Berlusconi and National Alliance leader Gianfranco Fini . `` The National Alliance condemns any totalitarianism and certainly does not propose a model for a totalitarian or despotic state , '' Fini told Italian state radio over the weekend . ( Optional add end ) Fini , a slick , 42-year-old professional politician , has made neo-fascism politically acceptable . But he also triggered a storm after the election by declaring that Mussolini was the century 's greatest statesman . He says he was quoted out of context . Many of Berlusconi 's ministers are more technocrat than politician , and in the economic and international arenas they are well-respected . Foreign Minister Antonio Martino , a university professor , won high marks on confidence-building visits to Washington and Brussels . `` I 'm sure there will be no difficulty in collaboration between Britain and Italy , '' said British Foreign Secretary Douglas Hurd after meeting Martino in Brussels . French Foreign Minister Alain Juppe observed : `` I have no reason to worry , but all that will be judged by actions . '' Berlusconi who promises a jobs-producing , more efficient government that is based on free-market economics and is able to pay its bills asks to be evaluated `` on the basis of facts and not on prejudices . '' That was an appeal he made again Tuesday in conversation with the Wiesenthal Center delegation , which has been pressing for vigorous Italian action to bring Priebke to trial . The former SS captain has confessed to being second in command of German soldiers who executed 335 Italian civilians , about 75 of them Jews , at the Ardeatine Caves south of Rome in 1944 . The Wiesenthal delegation gave Berlusconi and Justice Minister Alfredo Biondi a bulky dossier on Priebke , including a 1946 confession in which he says he shot at least two people at the caves , Cooper said . `` Berlusconi told us that four days ago that Italy officially requested of Argentina that Priebke , who is under house arrest , does not flee , '' the rabbi said . `` When we talked about concerns about fascism , the prime minister assured us that his ministers harbor no feelings and no links to the past . The justice minister said he personally would not serve in any government with any minister who believed in fascism . `` We heard what we hoped we 'd hear , '' Cooper said . WASHINGTON There are mounting signs that the buying spree American consumers began at the end of 1991 may be over , signaling that the economy likely will expand more slowly in coming months than it did during the burst of growth at the end of last year . From the last three months of 1991 through the first three months of this year , consumers increased their purchases of goods and services so significantly up 8.5 percent after adjustment for inflation that their spending was the driving force that lifted the economy out of its post-recession doldrums . Many analysts are welcoming the prospect of slower growth since it would head off any danger of the economy overheating and triggering a surge of inflation . The latest sign of cooling came Tuesday when the Commerce Department reported that consumer spending fell in April an inflation-adjusted 0.4 percent the first monthly drop since the end of the 1990-91 recession , except for a dip caused by a massive storm in March 1993 . In addition , a number of analysts said sources at department stores and auto dealers have indicated sales remained flat or perhaps even fell last month . Meanwhile , the Conference Board , a New York-based business research group , said its monthly survey of consumer attitudes found that households were slightly less confident about their current economic circumstances in May , and how they expect the economy to look six months from now . The confidence index dipped from 92.1 in April to 87.6 last month . Robert Diederick , chief economist at Northern Trust Co. in Chicago , said an array of economic figures , including those released Tuesday , is pointing toward slower overall economic growth for the coming year . He noted that since the middle of last year , real consumer spending had been rising at about a 4.5 percent annual rate , a string of gains that he said `` clearly were unsustainable . '' `` While the employment gains have been nice recently , '' he said , other factors have not been so favorable for consumer pocketbooks a sharp decline in the mortgage refinancings that usually give households extra cash to spend , a low saving rate , last year 's income-tax increase for high-income individuals and overall gains in personal income which `` has not been rising rapidly . '' Diederick said some of these factors are only temporary . `` The employment gains , and the output gains , will slow after this quarter , '' with the inflation-adjusted gross domestic product increasing at a 2.5 percent to 3 percent rate , he predicted . Indeed , the Commerce Department said Tuesday that personal incomes rose in April by a moderate 0.4 percent , leaving them 5.4 percent higher than they were a year earlier . Personal incomes rose 0.6 percent in March and 1.8 percent in February , when they rebounded from a January decline due to severe winter weather in the East and an earthquake in Los Angeles . New homes sales ran at an annual rate of 683,000 in April compared with 733,000 in March , the Commerce Department reported . The April rate except for a January figure depressed by the weather was the slowest since August . `` Housing will make a positive contribution to second-quarter growth , merely because the weather hurt construction activity in the first quarter , '' said F. Ward McCarthy of Stone & McCarthy , a Princeton , N.J. , financial-markets research firm . `` But beyond the second quarter , housing should be neutral or even a slight drag '' on economic growth . McCarthy 's colleague , Ray Stone , said the April consumer spending figures were only slightly higher than their average for the first three months of the year , implying that for the second quarter household purchases probably will be up at an annual rate of about 1.5 percent to 2 percent , following the much larger 4.6 percent rate in the first quarter . Since consumer spending accounts for about two-thirds of the gross domestic product , such a small increase in the three months from April through June `` means it will be difficult to get a GDP ( growth ) number much above 3 percent , compared to some forecasts in the 5 percent to 6 percent range , '' Stone said . Fabian Linden , executive director of the Conference Board 's Consumer Research Center , said that `` although confidence retreated in May , the current reading continues to be at a fairly reassuring level . Consumers , on balance , remain fairly confident . '' However , somewhat fewer respondents described business conditions as `` good '' and a few more said they were `` bad '' than the month before . Also , a third of the respondents said jobs are `` hard to get , '' more than had done so in April . Less than half that number said jobs are `` plentiful . '' WASHINGTON A family of tourists got quite a shock early Tuesday morning when President Clinton jogged by on Pennsylvania Avenue and then stopped dead in his tracks to have his photo snapped with them . At least one cynic nearby , however , wasn't too impressed . When a cameraman trailing the First Jogger yelled , `` What more could you ask for ? '' a voice shot back , `` George Bush . '' The passerby in question did at least have the good form to wait till the prez was out of earshot . -0- Patti Davis , who 's lately taught us the real meaning of exhibitionism , never ceases to find new ways to tweak her parents . Now comes her thoughtful decision to become the next poster girl for People for the Ethical Treatment of Animals , which should allow all of Ronald Reagan 's old political pals to see her naked body , alongside Hugh Hefner 's dog , plastered in ads all over town . It 's part of PETA 's campaign that it 's better to `` go naked than wear fur , '' and we 're confident the group will be very aggressive in distributing the posters . Davis has also decided to donate half of the hefty fee she received for posing naked in the July Playboyto the animal rights group . This is the same group , we remind , that used to dog her mother , Nancy Reagan , from event to event for wearing mink . PETA even ran an ad about a decade ago featuring comedian Terry Sweeney dressed up as the former First Lady in a fur with a caption that shouted , `` Fake people wear real fur . '' This should really cement the family relationship . -0- We 've heard that .. . The American Civil Liberties Union has weighed in on the side of Warner Bros. in the movie company 's push-pull with the Consumer Product Safety Commission over Macaulay Culkin 's driving of a controversial all-terrain vehicle in the upcoming flick `` Richie Rich . '' The ACLU claims that Warner is `` entirely insulated from interference '' by the regulatory agency under its First Amendment right of free speech. .. . Chris Buckley 's latest novel , `` Thank You for Not Smoking , '' fortuitously heads to bookstores just as a new round of tobacco controversies are making headlines . To celebrate this spoof on lobbyists for the tobacco industry , a rather eclectic group , including G. Gordon Liddy ( non-smoker ) , Greek gossip columnist Taki ( smoker ) , Marlin Fitzwater ( occasional cigar ) , Art Buchwald ( cigar ) and Random House Publisher Harry Evans ( non-smoker ) , throws Buckley a party here next week . ( Note to guests : Bring a gas mask . We 're told smoke machines will billow the stuff out of some Ritz-Carlton Hotel windows as a bit of a joke . ) WASHINGTON Sen. John W. Warner , R-Va. , said he will actively support an independent Senate bid by fellow Republican J. Marshall Coleman if Oliver L. North wins the GOP nomination Saturday , and he may even renounce the party by seeking re-election in 1996 as an independent . Virginia 's senior senator said he has been encouraging Coleman , a former state attorney general , to mount an independent campaign because he finds North unfit to hold public office . And although Warner has made no final decision , he said he will not allow the conservatives who support North to prevent him from running again in two years . `` I will find a way of getting my name in front of the voters of Virginia , '' he said . `` I hope to do it through the party structure . But a small , tiny group is not going to stop me . '' Warner , the highest-ranking elected Republican in Virginia , will not attend the party convention in Richmond this weekend ; he will be 4,000 miles away on the beaches of Normandy , participating in ceremonies commemorating the 50th anniversary of D-Day . He said one Republican activist recently joked to him : `` You 're going where the shooting has stopped . '' Warner 's blunt remarks are the clearest sign yet that the ideological schism caused by North 's candidacy likely will widen in coming months . The prospect of a Warner defection in two years could shatter the party unity fostered by Republican Gov. George Allen 's unexpected victory last fall and throw Republicans into an internecine war . There also is evidence that Warner commands a much stronger political position than the hail of criticism directed at him in recent weeks would suggest . Although GOP conservatives are furious with him for disparaging North , senior Republicans and Democrats say Warner 's popularity with the general public has soared because of his stand . According to political strategists , numerous private polls show that most voters consider his statements gutsy . Warner 's current approval ratings are the highest of any elected official in Virginia . The three-term incumbent certainly doesn't sound worried . In remarks sure to rile North supporters , Warner said a North victory could turn this weekend 's meeting into a repeat of the party 's 1992 national convention , with its stridently conservative tone . `` I 'm deeply concerned , '' Warner said . `` I hope this convention will not be compared to that which nominated George Bush in Houston . Historians point to the Houston convention as the beginning of the road to his loss . '' Political analysts said that even though Coleman has lost two statewide races since he was elected attorney general in 1977 , an energetic effort by Warner could help make him a serious contender . `` John Warner has the ability to transfer some of his popularity to a centrist Republican candidate like Marshall Coleman , '' said Mark J. Rozell , a political scientist at Mary Washington College . `` There are a good many Republicans who are disgruntled with Oliver North. . . . North has a strong base , but his major problem is broadening that base . He needs the support of moderates , and Marshall Coleman would cut into that . '' The potential for a donnybrook began building four months ago , when Warner became the first senior GOP official to publicly criticize North . On the day North formally declared his candidacy , Warner gave a round of scathing interviews in which he questioned North 's fitness for the job . `` What is the sign the Virginia Republican Party sends , '' Warner asked , `` when the only person it can find is someone with ( North 's ) record ? '' Several weeks later , when former president Ronald Reagan released a letter criticizing North , Warner played a key role in disseminating it . Finally , Warner said he could not actively support North under any circumstances . WASHINGTON For the first time since the dawn of the nuclear age , the world 's two superpowers are no longer in each other 's sights . The Defense Department announced Tuesday that it had `` detargeted '' all U.S. strategic missiles , matching a similar move by the Russians and taking global nuclear war off hair-trigger readiness . It added that the British had also detargeted their nuclear weapons as part of the international effort to step back from nuclear confrontation . Strategic targets in the former Soviet Union and its satellite states had been programmed into the United States ' 1,400 strategic nuclear delivery systems . With the Kremlin locking its intercontinental missiles onto key targets in the United States , the policy that helped keep the peace for decades became known as MAD mutual assured destruction . The Pentagon said Tuesday that 50 10-warhead Peacekeeper missiles , which have a range of 6,000 miles and form the core of the U.S. land-based nuclear strike force , were no longer programmed with targeting information . The programmed targeting of the Trident missiles on 18 Ohio-class submarines , which carry 24 missiles each , was also erased . The computers on 500 older Minuteman IIIs , housed in silos in North Dakota and Wyoming , require constant targeting programs . They have now been targeted to fall into the sea . `` Detargeting is an important symbolic point , '' said Kathleen de Laski , a Pentagon spokeswoman . `` It emphasizes the strengthening partnership between the U.S. and Russia , a significant milestone which indicates we are no longer nuclear adversaries . '' But she stressed that the weapons could be retargeted quickly to hit military , political and urban centers , so that neither the United States nor Russia is at `` a significant disadvantage . '' ( Optional Add End ) Conservative hawks are concerned that the administration might retreat from the land- , sea- and air-based nuclear forces that have been the basis of U.S. deterrence for decades . Baker Spring , a nuclear-force expert with the conservative Heritage Foundation , said : `` What worries me a little bit is whether the overall ( nuclear ) force will be in a ready enough state to retain a retaliatory capability in the most extreme circumstance a bolt out of the blue , presumably from Russia . `` The question is , in an unexpected crisis , is the load-up time ( for retargeting the missiles ) still long enough that it reflects retaliatory capabilities . Ultimately , the targeting should be done so that the United States has the best chance possible .. . of reducing to an absolute minimum the amount of damage that would be done to this country , in the event deterrence fails . '' The U.S.-Russian agreement to detarget the weapons of mass destruction was signed by President Clinton and President Boris N . Yeltsin at their summit in January . They set a deadline of May 30 for completion of the operation . WASHINGTON The Clinton administration decided Tuesday that North Korea is likely to continue to bar required international inspections at its principal nuclear reactor , and senior U.S. officials began detailed planning to seek punitive economic sanctions against the communist nation . In a telex to North Korea Tuesday night , the International Atomic Energy Agency ( IAEA ) made a last-ditch appeal for the country to halt its withdrawal of fuel rods from the nuclear reactor , or to follow acceptable procedures for storing the rods under international supervision . But at the IAEA 's headquarters in Vienna-as well as at the Defense Department , State Department and White House-there was uniform pessimism that North Korea would accept the appeal . That consensus contrasts with a longstanding disagreement among U.S. officials over whether North Korea has simply been resisting inspection as a negotiating ploy in hope of gaining concessions from the United States . In light of the new agreement within the administration , officials said they expected the United States would have to submit a proposal for sanctions to the U.N. . Security Council . Washington has threatened such a response if North Korea ruins any chance to measure the radioactive content of the fuel rods , a measurement considered critical to determining how much plutonium the country may have accumulated for nuclear weapons . The CIA has concluded that North Korea may have a nuclear bomb now , and suspects it is trying to develop more . The U.S. position has hardened in response to North Korea 's acceleration in recent days of unsupervised withdrawal of the nuclear fuel rods . A group of senior administration officials , including Secretary of State Warren Christopher and Defense Secretary William J. Perry , met Tuesday at the White House to discuss North Korea 's action and prepare for formal diplomatic consultations about sanctions , officials said . `` We 're very concerned about the situation . We 're following it closely , '' White House spokeswoman Dee Dee Myers said . `` The ( sanctions ) issue is on the front burner , '' an official familiar with the White House meeting said . Although U.S. officials said they did not see any signs of unusual North Korean military activity , South Korean president Kim Young Sam responded to heightened tension over the inspection issue by placing the country 's military forces on a higher level of alert . Kim also telephoned President Clinton to offer his assurances that South Korea supports the U.S. position on the inspections . Clinton told Kim the situation has reached `` a very dangerous stage , '' a spokesman for Kim told reporters in Seoul . Pentagon spokeswoman Kathleen DeLaski said `` we are not pleased with the actions of the North Koreans over the past 48 hours . '' She said that while the military has `` shortened the time '' needed to reinforce the 37,000 U.S. troops in South Korea , the United States has not begun moving additional troops or helicopters to the country in anticipation of any conflict there . CHICAGO Dan Rostenkowski grew up in a political world far different from Washington of the 1990s with its independent counsels and ethics codes . It was this kind of world : In 1963 , when Rostenkowski was 35 and in his third term in Congress , a judge here ordered him to stop using local Democratic Party funds to pay his constituents ' parking tickets . Rostenkowski thought he was providing a service that also was `` good politics . '' During the two-year investigation that culminated in Rostenkowski 's indictment Tuesday , his friends often recalled that distant and colorful world of ward bosses and old-style politics to try to explain what was happening to the 66-year-old House Ways and Means Committee chairman . The rules of politics had changed over the years , they said , but stubborn , proud `` Rosty '' was slow to adapt . What was once acceptable in the ward organizations of Chicago and the backrooms of Congress could now get a guy in trouble . After the lengthy investigation and days of intense speculation about a possible plea bargain , Tuesday 's announcement of the 17-count indictment was greeted here with almost a sense of relief . Leading politicians had little to say except for expressions of sadness and muted loyalty to their old friend . But few here expressed surprise over Rostenkowski 's decision to reject a plea bargain and fight the charges in court . `` The spectacle of him cutting some sort of deal and slinking off was not in keeping with people 's image of him or Chicago , '' said political consultant David Axelrod , who worked for Rostenkowski in his last two campaigns . Indeed , Rostenkowski seems to personify Chicago 's self-image big , broad-shouldered and gruff on the outside , someone who got things done . At a restaurant in Rostenkowski 's district Tuesday afternoon , owner Charles Schulien called the indicted congressman `` a heavyweight . '' `` When you find somebody who can get the God-damned job done , they want to nail him , '' he said . `` I just hate to see it . '' To his critics here , however , Rostenkowski has always personified a less-savory aspect of the Chicago political tradition . His indictment , they said , resulted from `` the habits of a lifetime '' that began when he entered politics in the 1950s . `` He operated for much of his career as a Chicago ward heeler , '' said Don Rose , a veteran of the political-reform movement that has battled the regular Democratic organization for generations. ` ` .. . It 's almost like they don't know the difference between right and wrong . '' `` There is no question he is of another era in which politicians went out and tried to accomplish things and didn't spend countless hours poring over poll data to decide which tie to wear that day , '' Axelrod said . `` The politics he grew up with were much more focused on results rather than appearances . '' Rostenkowski has never cared much about appearances . The quality he has always valued most and prided himself on is loyalty to his family , which he shielded from the glare of publicity ; to his city , which he showered with federal largesse from his powerful congressional post ; and to his party , which expected his loyalty and rewarded him in return . It is how he learned the game of politics in his hometown . Rostenkowksi 's father , Joe , was for three decades the undisputed boss of Chicago 's 32nd Ward . There he was the alderman and Democratic ward committeeman , which gave him control of the ward 's patronage . Known as Big Joe Rusty , the elder Rostenkowski in 1952 was accused by the Chicago Daily News of having three `` no-show '' employees on his payroll , a charge that more than 40 years later would be leveled against his son . Defeated in the 1955 Democratic primary , Big Joe Rusty was rewarded for his loyalty by the city 's newly elected mayor , Richard J. Daley , who named him superintendent of sewer repairs . A few years later , a Daley critic on the City Council said he was `` unable to find any evidence that Rostenkowski does any work for the city . '' In the 1950s , real political power in cities like Chicago was at the local level . That is where the jobs were , where friends could be rewarded and enemies punished . But with a foresight he later demonstrated as Congress 's consumate dealmaker , Rostenkowski , then a state senator , set his sights on Washington . Daley and the other party bosses considered Washington something of a political backwater , but Rostenkowski used the Southern example to help persuade them otherwise . Southern Democrats , he argued , dominated the congressional committee system because they were elected to Congress when they were young , rose through the seniority system and in later years controlled the committees that dispensed money and power from the nation 's capital to the states and cities . Why shouldn't we do the same ? Rostenkowski asked . Daley agreed . And so in 1958 , running in an ethnic district that was as politically safe as the most entrenched Southern Democratic barony , Dan Rostenkowski was elected to Congress . For much of his congressional career , Rostenkowski struggled to overcome his `` Chicago ward heeler '' image , finally succeeding when he became House Ways and Means Committee chairman in 1980 . He became a national figure , someone with `` clout , '' a word that Chicago contributed to the political lexicon . Rostenkowski funneled millions of dollars in federal funds to his hometown , just as he had planned decades earlier . And as his legal troubles deepened , the city 's political and business establishments rallied to his side , helping him win 50 percent of the vote in a three-candidate race in the Democratic primary in March . `` It was sell , but not a tough sell , '' Cook County Democratic Party Chairman Thomas G. Lyons said of that campaign . `` All you had to do was remind voters of what this guy has meant . '' Rostenkowski 's Republican opponent in November , Michael Flanagan , is a political unknown who is still given little chance of defeating the indicted incumbent in the overwhelmingly Democratic district . Even his severest critics recognize Rostenkowski 's legislative ability and his importance to this city . `` He 's one of those tragic figures , '' Rose said . `` This is a guy who has qualities . This is a man of value . It 's almost Aristotelian the tragic flaw . '' LONDON The British political scene was buzzing Tuesday with its latest scandal and its bewildering batch of elements . Alan Clark , the 66-year-old patrician who once was a favored member of Lady Thatcher 's government , was accused of having overlapping affairs with the wife of a British judge and her two daughters . Clark the son of Lord Clark , who was ennobled in his role as the art historian who created the television series `` Civilization '' saw his own hopes of resuming his political career in the House of Lords dashed Tuesday because of the disclosures . In his best-selling `` Diaries '' last year , the younger Clark produced fascinating insights into the workings of ministers in a Conservative government , while at the same time admitting to a career of pursuing women outside his marriage . His book included allusions to a `` coven , '' an assembly of witches , among his women friends . He gave the first names or nicknames of three : the mother Valerie , and her two daughters , Alison and Josephine . It has now been disclosed that Valerie was married for a second time to an English judge , James Harkess . After retirement , he moved to South Africa . One of her daughters , Josephine , now 34 , remains close to them in South Africa . The other daughter , Alison , 36 , is estranged and lives with former KGB agent Sergei Kausov . He is the former husband of Greek shipping heiress Christina Onassis , who died in 1988 . On Sunday , the top-selling tabloid , News of the World , owned by Rupert Murdoch , published a story by the women admitting to the affairs with Clark ; the judge said he supported the allegations . The reason they spoke out , they said , was to `` tell the truth , to set the record straight . '' `` I feel that certain people in the present government and the recent government are rotten to the core , '' said Harkess , `` and I think this should be brought out . '' Harkess was reported to be politically opposed to Prime Minister John Major , a moderate Conservative by Harkess ' standards . Mrs. Harkess said she realized , after her 14-year-affair with Clark , including a period when she knew her lover had had sex with her daughters , that he was a `` pathetic , lecherous , dirty old man . '' ( Optional Add End ) After the Harkess family landed in London Tuesday , bankrolled by the News of the World , Clark admitted : `` I deserved to be horse whipped . '' But he denied allegations by the Harkesses that he had offered the family $ 150,000 to keep them from taking their story to the newspapers . Meanwhile , Jane Clark , the millionaire 's wife , whom he married when she was just 17 , told reporters she knew of her husband 's peccadilloes , declaring : `` Quite frankly , if you bed people I call ` below-stairs class ' they go to the papers , don't they ? '' Mrs. Clark , 52 , has admitted in the past to throwing an ax at her husband after being informed of his latest escapade . Of her husband 's girlfriends , she said : `` I think they are dreadful . They all have their ` sell-by ' date on them . They all get put away on the shelf in the end . '' WASHINGTON The Supreme Court ruled Tuesday that a public employer who wants to fire a worker because of alleged insubordinate remarks must first investigate the episode . It marks the first time the court has given procedural rights under the First Amendment to public employees whose speech may be disruptive . At the same time , the justices reaffirmed the broad power of federal , state and local governments to restrict employees ' speech . The court said a boss can fire a public employee for remarks as they had been overheard and reported by other workers as long as the boss reasonably believes they constituted insubordinate speech . It does not matter , Justice Sandra Day O' Connor wrote , if it later emerges that the worker was commenting on matters of public concern and that the statements were protected by the First Amendment , provided some investigation occurred . `` ( T ) he extra power the government has in this area comes from the nature of the government 's mission as employer , '' O' Connor said . `` When someone who is paid a salary so that she will contribute to an agency 's effective operation begins to do or say things that detract from the agency 's effective operation , the government employer must have some power to restrain her . '' That part of the ruling was 7 to 2 . Justice John Paul Stevens , joined by Harry A . Blackmun , wrote in a dissent that the majority view `` underestimates the importance of freedom of speech for the more than 18 million civilian employees of this country 's federal , state and local governments , and subordinates that freedom to an abstract interest in bureaucratic efficiency . '' Yet , O' Connor 's opinion does offer government workers more protection than they had before Tuesday 's ruling in Waters v. Churchill. She said a public employer who is presented with a report of disruptive remarks `` must tread with a certain amount of care . '' She was not specific about what kind of investigation was required . `` Many different courses of action will necessarily be reasonable , '' she said . That part of the decision was effectively 6 to 3 . Justice Antonin Scalia who otherwise joined O' Connor 's judgment in the case arising from a nurse 's comments in a Macomb , Ill. , hosptial cafeteria lashed out at the unprecedented requirement of an investigation , saying it was ambigious and would burden employers and the courts . He was joined by Justices Anthony M. Kennedy and Clarence Thomas . O' Connor 's opinion was signed in full by Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist and Justices David H. Souter and Ruth Bader Ginsburg . As the dust settled Tuesday , many legal experts said public workers had fared better than employers . The court already had said public employers may fire workers whose speech is disruptive . Yet , this is the first time that the court has said the First Amendment imposes procedural requirements on the employer . Solicitor General Drew S . Days III had argued in a friend of the court brief that the government needs great discretion over its personnel affairs and that adoption of procedures `` would conflict with the common-sense realization that government offices could not function if every employment decision became a constitutional matter . '' The ruling is likely to especially benefit state and local public workers . Many federal workers , according to government lawyers , already are entitled to a disciplinary investigation under various statutes . Tuesday 's case arose from complaints by nurse Cheryl Churchill seven years ago at the McDonough District Hospital and her subsequent firing . Administrators , who were told by other nurses that Churchill `` was knocking the ( obstetrics ) department , '' claimed Churchill was denigrating the hospital and her superiors . Churchill insisted she was voicing legitimate concerns about patient care and staff shortages . A federal district court held that neither version of the conversation rose to the level of a `` public concern '' and therefore was not protected by the First Amendment . But the U.S. . Court of Appeals for the 7th Circuit reversed , ordered a jury trial to determine whether Churchill 's comments were merely disruptive griping or a matter of public concern , that is , nursing care . The appeals court ruled that a public employer is liable when it fires an employee who engages in the latter type of speech , even if the employer , after staff interviews , had believed otherwise at the time of dismissal . In rejecting that standard , the Supreme Court said Tuesday it is enough that the public employer reasonably investigate the complaint and believe it to be true . While Stevens and Blackmun dissented from O' Connor 's opinion , they effectively endorsed the principle of an investigation into complaints about public-employee speech . Scalia , Kennedy and Thomas countered that employers should be able to fire workers unless the action is in retaliation for some constitutionally protected speech . Scalia mocked O' Connor 's approach as `` strange jurisprudence indeed , '' conflicting with employers ' legitimate prerogatives . `` In the present case , for example , if ( it were discovered ) that nurse Churchill had not been demeaning her superiors , but had been complaining about the perennial end-of-season slump of the Chicago Cubs , her dismissal , erroneous as it was , would have been perfectly OK , '' Scalia said . The court sent Churchill 's case back to a lower court , saying it should resolve whether she was fired because of her statements in the cafeteria or because of something else . It noted that Churchill alleged that management was hostile to her because of earlier criticism . Fox Inc. 's new general entertainment cable network , fX , will be launched Wednesday morning at 6:30 with the debut of `` Breakfast Time , '' which , a spokeswoman said , will be 2 hours of `` very fast-paced entertainment . '' fX apparently is not going to be one of those Fox efforts aimed at the big city young . Spokeswoman Ellen Cooper said Tuesday that `` fX is definitely seeking adult audiences , '' the solid 18-to-49 demographic groups . WASHINGTON Rep. Sam Gibbons , D-Fla. , took command Tuesday of a House Ways and Means Committee shaken by the multi-count indictment of its longtime chairman , Rep. Dan Rostenkowski , D-Ill. , and immediately ordered the staff to continue working on a health care bill that would expand Medicare to cover millions of uninsured Americans . In a phone call from Normandy , where he is attending ceremonies marking the 50th anniversary of D-Day , Gibbons told committee aides to prepare a `` chairman 's mark '' or first draft using the subcommittee-approved Medicare expansion bill that so far has failed to win enough Democratic votes to clear the full committee . Rostenkowski , who was forced because of his indictment to step aside , also was using that measure as his starting point , but even White House officials had been uncertain whether Gibbons might have an alternative approach in mind . In the past , Gibbons has supported a single-payer Canadian style system that has been rejected by the administration . Under House Democratic caucus rules , the 74-year-old Tampa legislator , who parachuted into France on D-Day , becomes acting chairman of Ways and Means unless 50 Democrats file a petition challenging him . No sign of such a revolt appeared Tuesday and senior Democrats said they expected Gibbons to go unchallenged . Rostenkowski , who rejected plea bargaining , will remain a member of the committee , but its members said they were uncertain how much influence he will retain . Some spoke of a virtual division of labor between Gibbons and Rostenkowski while others predicted the Floridian , who even before Rostenkowski 's indictment publicly expressed his eagerness to take over , will reject any notion of power-sharing . Senior White House aides said Tuesday night they had not talked to Gibbons and were uncertain of his plans . But in the telephone interview Tuesday , Gibbons said his starting point for committee deliberations when Congress returns next week will be the bill drafted by Rep. Fortney `` Pete '' Stark , D-Fla. , and reported from Stark 's Ways and Means health subcommittee on a shaky 6-5 vote last month . Committee sources and White House aides said Rostenkowski had found himself at least one vote short of the necessary 20 votes to move some variant of the Stark bill to the floor , because at least five of the 24 committee Democrats were refusing to support the big expansion in Medicare rolls . Gibbons said Tuesday that he favors requiring employers to help pay for their workers ' health insurance because it would make the system `` fairer . '' These employer mandates have been one of the most controversial parts of President Clinton 's plan . Gibbons said he did not know how much taxes he might have to raise and what kind of taxes to use because the committee is still waiting for financial projections from the Congressional Budget Office . Rostenkowski had said he was facing a $ 50 billion gap , but the White House has balked at imposing any broad taxes . Gibbons , rejecting the administration argument that an employer mandate differs from a tax , said , `` Ultimately , all those costs come out of the cash pay of the employees . '' Gibbons said he does not think the federal government needs to mandate participation in alliances , the health care purchasing cooperatives that are central to Clinton 's health plan . States should be allowed to decide the role of the alliances , as the subcommittee 's version of the bill proposes , he said . In the past , Gibbons has expressed strong skepticism about the cost-saving potential of managed competition , which seeks to control costs through competition among private insurers . The direct cost controls included in the subcommittee bill make him more confident that managed competition would reduce spending on health care , Gibbons said Tuesday . Gibbons said he favors including coverage of abortions `` in all cases '' in the standard package of health benefits that insurers would be required to provide . On that issue , he appears to have changed his thinking since an interview with The Washington Post last September , when he said , `` I do not want to pick up the abortion bills in health care . '' Unlike Rostenkowski , Gibbons has not had a long or close relationship with Clinton . `` He calls me Sam , but so do a lot of other people . He recognizes me and calls me Sam , '' Gibbons said last September . `` I don't have any qualms about me being able to lead , '' Gibbon said . `` I 've been a leader all my life in the Boy Scouts and ROTC and the army . And I 've been successfully elected for e had so many opponents I can't even name them all or count them all . '' Democrats and Republicans on Ways and Means expressed confidence in Gibbons ' leadership while acknowledging that the loss of Rostenkowski 's chairmanship makes a difficult legislative task even tougher . `` The hill got a lot steeper , '' said Rep. Mike Kopetski , D-Ore . In private comments , several Ways and Means Democrats said that Gibbons ' brusqueness , what one called his `` eruptions '' of anger , contrasted unfavorably with Rostenkowski 's discipline and doggedness . Some also said they had been offended by Gibbons ' blunt dismissal of Rostenkowski , with comments like `` the graveyard is full of `` indispensable ' people . '' `` Directness is a part of my character , '' Gibbons said Tuesday . `` If it is abrasive to anyone , I would certainly seriously consider modifying it . '' Rep. Mike Andrews , D-Tex. , said , `` No personality is bigger than an issue , and this is the largest issue most of us on the committee have ever faced . '' Rep. Barbara B . Kennelly , D-Conn. , said , `` After all these years , Mr. Gibbons is finally in the chairmanship , and he will want to demonstrate he can get a bill out . '' Like others , Kennelly said she was uncertain about the new relationship between Rostenkowski and Gibbons in his new role as acting chairman . But she noted that Rostenkowski was more sympathetic than Gibbons to the managed competition approach suggested by Clinton , which relies in part on market forces to control costs and aid health care consumers . CAIRO , Egypt A group of Saudi dissidents seeking to transform what they call a tyrannical Saudi government into a `` true '' Islamic state have set up shop in London , charging they were forced into exile by repression at home . The Committee for the Defense of Legitimate Rights represents the first time in recent memory that dissidents from within Saudi Arabia 's Sunni Muslim majority have started activities abroad . Although there is no evidence they have broad support within the kingdom , their activities could prove embarrassing to the secretive Saudi monarchy , which tries to keep its rifts behind closed doors and prides itself on religious orthodoxy and its role as custodian of Islam 's holiest shrines at Mecca and Medina . Only six months ago , King Fahd reached a deal with exiled leaders of the country 's 15 percent Shiite Muslim minority under which they halted anti-government activities from London and Washington in exchange for increased civil liberties at home and promises to address Shiite complaints of discrimination . Since opening its London office in April , the Sunni dissident group has kept up a steady stream of faxes to news agencies that have accused the government , among other things , of following `` confused and irrational '' foreign policies and of `` lavish spending .. . in support of oppression and tyranny . '' `` This is a fake Islamic government , '' said committee spokesman Muhammad Masaari , a former physics professor . The group was banned by Saudi authorities shortly after its establishment in Riyadh last year , and most observers say its chances of attracting wide support at home are blunted by the pervasiveness of the Saudi welfare state and a web of business partnerships that link the royal family to the country 's elite . `` I don't think this group has done enough conceptual work to offer ideas and make themselves acceptable to outsiders , '' said a Saudi analyst . Although they are demanding more accountability from Saudi rulers , `` their ideas on some social issues , such as women , are more orthodox than the regime 's . '' But the group appears to have several factors that could give it weight , including financial backing and connections within the Saudi bureaucracy . Most importantly , it draws support from disaffected Sunni professionals and clergy who have grown outspoken about human-rights abuses and corruption since the Persian Gulf War . The Saudi government dismissed the significance of the group 's London operations . `` This will not change the stability of the kingdom , and it is nothing which worries us , '' said Deputy Information Minister Shehab Jamjoon . Masaari was fired from his job at Riyadh 's King Saud University and jailed for six months after helping set up the dissident committee last year . In April , he fled Saudi Arabia despite being forbidden to travel abroad . In an attempt to discover how he left the country and pressure him and fellow dissidents to discontinue their activities , Saudi authorities arrested Masaari 's stepson , a brother , a cousin and two brothers-in-law , he said . In a separate interview from Riyadh , Masaari 's American wife , Lujain Imam , said her 5-year-old child by a former Saudi husband was taken from her by his father with the support of Saudi police . TOKYO Japan on Tuesday released a report accusing the United States of unfair trade practices , yet another indication of its continued tough stance toward American trade demands . `` The United States is without parallel in imposing measures that force its trading partners to abide by unilateral judgments , and shows no sign of abandoning this practice , '' charges the 333-page report , which also summarizes alleged unfair practices by nine other major trading partners of Japan . The report , prepared by an advisory committee under the Ministry of International Trade and Industry , harshly criticizes President Clinton 's reinstitution in March of the `` Super 301 '' trade law , which allows U.S. retaliation against Japanese imports if Japan fails to further open its market to foreign goods . `` When the same country serves as both prosecutor and judge , one must assume that due process is lacking , '' the report declares . This is the third year Japan has produced this kind of report , which serves as a counterattack against an annual U.S. report on foreign trade barriers . A U.S. report released March 31 , which singled out Japan for the most severe criticism , could ultimately lead to sanctions . The Japanese report , in turn , lists more categories of unfair practices by the United States than by any other country . Taken together , the two reports show how officials of the two countries continue to largely talk past each other when discussing trade . The underlying theme of the Japanese report is that trade issues should be settled according to international rules as embodied in the General Agreement on Tariffs and Trade , or GATT , and its successor , the World Trade Organization , or WTO . But U.S. complaints about trade barriers in Japan primarily concern features of Japan 's economic structure that are not covered by GATT rules . Tokyo and Washington agreed last week to resume trade talks that had broken down in February , but basic conceptual disputes between the two sides remain unresolved . From the U.S. perspective , the purpose of the talks is to agree on ways to further open Japan 's market so as to reduce Japan 's $ 60 billion merchandise trade surplus with the United States and its $ 131 billion global surplus in trade of goods and services . The Japanese report , however , dismisses core U.S. arguments in almost condescending terms . It is especially critical of demands to address detailed `` microeconomic '' issues as a means of redressing trade imbalances . In the trade `` framework '' talks now being resumed , a key American focus is on specific sectors , including automobiles and auto parts , insurance , and government procurement of telecommunications and medical equipment . These sectoral talks formally resume Wednesday with insurance negotiations in Tokyo , while auto talks reopen Thursday in Washington . ( Optional add end ) Yet Tuesday 's report rejects the conceptual basis for these talks . `` A quick perusal of almost any economics textbook will confirm that microeconomic policies for individual sectors are not effective means of resolving trade imbalances , '' it says . The report also states that `` in purely economic terms there is no need to resolve .. . trade imbalances . '' The report 's charges of U.S. discrimination against foreign competitors run the gamut from unfair enforcement of anti-dumping actions to patent law . Some complaints are remarkably detailed . The report charges , for example , that U.S. restrictions on the export of logs cut from federal forests , imposed to protect the endangered spotted owl , are a violation of GATT rules . While log exports are restricted , lumber exports are encouraged , it charges , suggesting that WTO dispute settlement procedures could be invoked to demand a change . WASHINGTON In many respects , Rep. Dan Rostenkowski never left Chicago and its political folkways , despite spending nearly 36 years in Congress and achieving a lasting national legacy for his role in helping to overhaul U.S. income tax laws in 1986 . A towering bear of a man who could intimidate his colleagues , Rostenkowski 's brusque style reflected the blunt , take-no-prisoners politics practiced in his hometown . `` You might as well kick a guy 's brains out if he 's not for you , '' the Democratic congressman once said in a typical bit of Chicago street talk . So the aggressive `` Rosty '' was doing what comes naturally when he decided to go to the mat with federal prosecutors rather than holler `` uncle '' and accept a plea bargain . Rostenkowski , who dominated the House Ways and Means Committee as its chairman for more than a decade , earned top marks as a legislative achiever . Driven by a passion for political power , the 66-year-old lawmaker hoped to climax his career by playing a leading part in passage of health care legislation that would add to his reputation for accomplishments against the odds . Instead , his dream has soured as he has spent much of this year trying to retain some measure of dignity in a Washington world where he never seemed fully at home . As Ways and Means chairman , he was one of the most powerful men in government , shaping policy on taxes , Social Security , Medicare , welfare and trade . Probably his proudest accomplishment was passage of the 1986 tax law , which reduced the top income tax rate to 28 percent and eliminated many tax preferences for business . As part of that campaign for tax fairness , he appeared on television , urging listeners to `` write Rosty '' if they favored the plan . On the downside , Rostenkowski 's reputation suffered because of his unashamed appetite for perquisites , including steak dinners at lobbyists ' expense and invitations to free golfing trips at some of the nation 's top resorts . `` In my hometown of Chicago they call politics a blood sport , '' he once said . `` I don't apologize for getting in the arena and I 'll be damned if I apologize for winning . '' He was also true to his roots on another issue . As the city 's late mayor , Richard J. Daley , once declared : `` Chicago ISn't ready for reform . '' Neither was Rostenkowski . ( Begin optional trim ) While other lawmakers pretended that they did not want a pay increase , Rostenkowski came out for a system whereby a House member could , within limits , set his or her own salary . Naturally , Rostenkowski said that he deserved the highest rate of pay because of his committee chairmanship as well as his ability to deliver benefits for his constituents . Rostenkowski bristled at Congress ' increasing requirements for financial disclosure , limits on members ' speaking fees and proposals to curb free meals and golfing trips financed by lobbyists . ( End optional trim ) The Chicago congressman had few peers when it came to taking free trips to make speeches before special interest groups at locations conveniently close to a golf course . During the five years ending in 1991 , for example , the veteran politician took 167 trips at the expense of corporations , universities and charities an average of 34 expense-paid trips a year . His re-election campaign once paid $ 1,600 in `` consulting fees '' to five golf professionals who attended fund-raising events with Rostenkowski on the golf links . In the 1992 election cycle , Rostenkowski charged his campaign treasury for $ 28,422 worth of meals at restaurants and country clubs , mostly in the Chicago area . At the same time , he was a leader on the paid lecture circuit , collecting more than $ 1 million in speaking fees in a two-year period , keeping the maximum amount allowed under House rules about $ 50,000 and donating the rest to charity . Growing up in the Great Depression in what now would be called a disadvantaged neighborhood , he learned directly about free-and-easy machine politics as the son of a Chicago alderman and ward boss who presided over a Polish-American fiefdom on the city 's Northwest side . With his father 's clout , it was easy for Rostenkowski to become the youngest member of the Illinois legislature at the age of 24 , the youngest Illinois state senator at 26 and a member of the U.S. House of Representatives at 30 . Chicago 's Democratic Party selected nominees who breezed to election in the one-party town , assuring a safe House seat for Rostenkowski for decades . ( Begin optional trim ) Although in recent years the machine has began to sputter , Rostenkowski whose possible indictment was the subject of wide speculation in the press at the time got help when he desperately needed it from ward organizations in March 's primary election . They gave it unquestioningly and overwhelmingly and he won renomination to another term . On Capitol Hill , he focused at first on the internal politics of the House , gradually building friendships that might help him later , keeping Chicago 's needs ever in mind . He became known as `` Mayor Daley 's man in Washington , '' although other Democrats in the city delegation had more seniority . He brought home the bacon to his city and state with such regularity that even Republican Gov. Jim Edgar endorsed Rosty 's re-election this year when he was in the toughest race of his political life . ( End optional trim ) In 1965 , Rostenkowski was rewarded with a seat on Ways and Means , then under the forceful leadership of Rep. Wilbur D. Mills , D-Ark . For a decade , until Mills departed after a scandalous encounter with an exotic dancer from Argentina , Rostenkowski acquired seniority and familiarity with the arcane tax code . He chafed during the tenure of Rep. Al Ullman , D-Ore. , a knowledgeable but ineffectual leader , and took over the committee 's helm in 1981 , passing up a chance to take the third-ranking House leadership post as majority whip . ( Begin optional trim ) With newly elected Republican Ronald Reagan in the White House , the rookie chairman made what he later conceded was a serious mistake , engaging in a `` bidding war '' to see who could cut taxes the most . Reagan won , the federal government 's revenue base was seriously reduced and Rostenkowski learned a political lesson the hard way as the House voted with Reagan by a large majority . Working with Reagan and the Republicans , Rostenkowski helped to preserve the solvency of the Social Security system by making tough choices to raise payroll taxes . ( End optional trim ) As a result of his strong hand , Rostenkowski brokered the complex deals behind the major tax bills of the 1980s and 1990s . But he experienced some embarrassing defeats as well . In 1991 , for example , six Democrats on Ways and Means joined with all the Republicans to push through a cut in capital gains taxes that Rostenkowski fought , both in his committee and on the House floor . Only hard-nosed tactics by Senate Majority Leader George J. Mitchell D-Maine , blocked it from becoming law . Even worse , legislation that Rostenkowski championed to provide catastrophic health insurance coverage for senior citizens , along with a surtax on them to pay for it , produced such a strong backlash that the law was repealed . It was during this seniors ' rebellion that a group of elderly citizens chased the chairman down a Chicago street , shouting : `` Impeach Rostenkowski . '' As Rostenkowski increased his power on the committee , he began to run the panel like a Chicago ward boss , disbursing benefits and demanding loyalty in return . Under his system , committee Democrats caucused frequently to develop a consensus , pledging that each of them would support the resulting compromise . Rosty took names of defectors , placing them in his own version of political purgatory . Former Rep. Kent Hance , D-Texas , once deserted the chairman on a key vote . Shortly afterward on a bus trip where other committee members sat in front , a seat was marked for Hance next to the toilet . He got the message that the chairman was not pleased . WASHINGTON The Supreme Court on Tuesday gave a boost to the growing number of cities that enforce curfews for teen-agers by rejecting a challenge to a Dallas law that generally requires people under 17 to be off the streets after 11 p.m. on weekdays and midnight on weekends . Without a dissenting vote , the court refused to hear an appeal filed on behalf of three young people and their parents who said the city law `` convicts the innocent .. . and broadly stifles fundamental liberties . '' Although the court did not explain its decision , in earlier rulings the justices have said the First Amendment to the Constitution does not give teen-agers a `` generalized right of social association '' that permits them to be out after hours . Moreover , official discrimination based on age is permissible , the court has said . Lawyers in the case said curfews to combat juvenile crime exist in as many as 1,000 cities , including Atlanta , Boston , Detroit , Houston , Los Angeles , Philadelphia and Phoenix . While Tuesday 's action is not a binding national ruling , it strongly suggests the court will not strike down curfews as broadly unconstitutional . However , some lower courts have invalidated curfews that do not permit exceptions for teen-agers who work or are accompanied by their parents . Two other decisions announced Tuesday also restrict First Amendment rights . In a case that yielded four separate opinions , the high court ruled that public employers may fire workers whose job complaints could affect the morale of fellow employees . So long as the manager makes a `` reasonable '' effort to investigate what was said , the manager can then freely dismiss disgruntled workers to ensure that their complaints do not `` detract from the agency 's effective operation , '' the court said . The case of Waters vs. Churchill , 92-1450 , sought to clarify the free speech rights of public employees , such as teachers , nurses , police officers and state workers , but it resulted in badly splintered decision . The First Amendment severely restricts the government 's power to pass laws infringing free speech , but government officials can limit the free speech rights of their employees . In Tuesday 's decision , seven justices agreed only that the nursing supervisor at a public hospital could dismiss a disgruntled nurse for her on-the-job griping , so long as the supervisor first made a `` reasonable '' effort to learn who said what to whom . In a separate First Amendment case , the justices allowed government-sponsored fairs , carnivals and parades to keep out groups whose message is deemed `` inappropriate . '' On an 8-1 vote , the justices refused to hear an appeal filed by anti-abortion activists who claimed their free-speech rights were violated when they were excluded from a city-sponsored festival . Frankfort , Ky. , holds its `` Great Pumpkin Festival '' each October to bring people downtown for `` fun and entertainment . '' In 1990 , a local anti-abortion group applied for a booth to distribute `` plastic models of fetuses , '' but fair sponsors deemed such political advocacy inappropriate . The group denied booths to groups who support abortion rights , including the Kentucky chapter of the National Organization for Women . The Kentucky Supreme Court upheld the fair sponsor 's authority to restrict participation to non-political groups , and only Justice Sandra Day O' Connor voted to hear the appeal in Capital Area Right to Life vs . Downtown Frankfort , 93-1201 . ( Optional add end ) In the curfew case , lawyers said the Dallas law may have won approval in part because it contains so many exceptions . `` If a mother is sick , and a kid needs to go get a prescription filled , who would doubt that he has a constitutional right to be out doing that ? , '' asked ACLU attorney Chris Hansen , who has coordinated the group 's attacks on teen-age curfews . The Dallas curfew was enacted in 1991 but exemptions were added in 1992 . For example , it exempts young people who are accompanied by a parent or guardian , are running an errand , or are out on an emergency . It also does not apply to those who are traveling for work reasons or attending a school , religious or civic function . Moreover , young persons are allowed on the sidewalks in front of their homes or a neighbor 's home . Fines of up to $ 500 can be assessed against youth who violate the law , as well as their parents and the owners of establishments who serve minors after hours . In November , the U.S. . Court of Appeals based in New Orleans ruled that the Dallas law is justified by the city 's `` compelling interest '' in reducing juvenile crime and in `` promoting juvenile safety and well-being . '' It cited statistics showing that murders , assaults and rapes occur most often between 11 p.m. and 1 a.m. . The case of Qutb vs. Bartlett , 93-1571 , was dismissed without comment on Tuesday . `` I think this means that every major city in this circuit is going to have a curfew , '' said Bruce Morrow , a Dallas attorney who appealed the case to the Supreme Court . WASHINGTON President Clinton and his top national security officials met Tuesday to consider the potentially volatile question of whether to seek economic sanctions against North Korea a move that Pyongyang has warned would be regarded as an act of war . Although no final decisions were expected Tuesday , officials said Clinton wanted a consensus for any future actions by Wednesday night , when he is scheduled to leave for Europe , where he will help celebrate the 50th anniversary of D-Day . The flurry of activity came amid growing fears that North Korea may be removing spent fuel rods from its reactor so rapidly that it is on the verge of destroying U.N. inspectors ' ability to determine if spent fuel has been diverted to make nuclear weapons . The administration has warned that it considers the ability of the U.N. inspectors to trace the history of North Korea 's nuclear program a crucial issue in the current dispute . Results of such inspections could tell for certain if North Korea has built a bomb . The situation has been intensifying for days . In a last-ditch effort to avert a crisis , the U.N. . Security Council urged North Korea on Monday to preserve all existing evidence of how much nuclear fuel it may have diverted to a nuclear weapons program . The International Atomic Energy Agency , which conducts the nuclear weapons inspections on the U.N. 's behalf , is expected to issue a report this week declaring whether North Korea has destroyed the agency 's ability to tell if Pyongyang ever made nuclear weapons . U.S. officials say that , if the IAEA reports its efforts have been blocked , there is little doubt the Security Council will begin considering the sanctions . The only real question would be how broad the measures should be and how rapidly they should be imposed . South Korea said Tuesday that North Korea already has removed more than 4,800 of 8,000 spent fuel rods in the reactor at Yongbyon a far more-rapid pace than Western analysts had expected . Officials say that , at this rate , it could be only days before the evidence is destroyed . The administration continued to express alarm publicly . `` We 're very concerned about the situation , '' White House Press Secretary Dee Dee Myers told reporters . But she said Washington still was hoping for a diplomatic solution . ( Optional Add End ) A major problem facing the administration is uncertainty whether China will go along with any new move to impose formal sanctions . Although the Chinese supported Monday 's U.N. appeal , they still are not ready to go along with sanctions . As a result , the administration may have tough negotiating to do on how rapidly the sanctions should be imposed . China wants Washington to fold negotiations about nuclear issues into broader U.S.-North Korean talks . Pentagon officials said Tuesday that any decision to push for sanctions almost certainly would be accompanied by a step-up in the alert status of U.S. military in the region . In Vienna , North Korean officials continued to rebuff IAEA demands that U.N. inspectors be permitted to test the rods that have been removed . Yun Ho Jin , Pyongyang 's representative to the agency , said his government would not alter its policies anytime soon , but he said that it would set aside 40 of the spent fuel rods for possible inspection by the IAEA later . Analysts said the move would be useless . WASHINGTON In a ruling that affects the free speech rights of 18 million government employees , the Supreme Court Tuesday tentatively allowed a city hospital in Illinois to fire a nurse who criticized a training program . As long as a public employer reasonably believes that its actions do not violate First Amendment rights , it can fire someone even if it later turns out that free speech was involved , the court said . Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg , described after her nomination last year as a strong defender of First Amendment rights , was one of only four justices who signed the court 's opinion Tuesday . Three others concurred in the result , while Justices John Paul Stevens and Harry A . Blackmun dissented . The case involved an appeal by the city-owned hospital in Macomb , Ill. , of a decision by the U.S. appeals court in Chicago that Cheryl R. Churchill was entitled to ask a jury to reinstate her to a job helping to deliver babies in the hospital 's obstetrics department . Churchill , during a dinner conversation with another nurse at the hospital , criticized a policy allowing on-the-job training of nurses from other departments . She also allegedly criticized her supervisor , which she denied . Witnesses split as to whether she had criticized the supervisor , but she was fired on charges of insubordination anyway despite the objections of the doctor in charge of the department who had been battling with the hospital administration over staffing and training . While government employees ( unlike private employees ) have had a right to make statements about public policy , including nurses ' training , they do not have the right to make statements considered `` disruptive . '' The hospital said that because it believed Churchill had criticized her supervisor speech that is not protected by the First Amendment it had acted in good faith and its judgment should not be questioned . But the appeals court said that ignorance of the fact that her statements were constitutionally protected was not a defense and that the facts should be determined by a jury . Justice Sandra Day O' Connor , writing for four justices , said that a government agency 's responsibility to perform its job sometimes outweighs its employees ' First Amendment rights . `` When someone who is paid a salary so that she will contribute to an agency 's effective operation begins to do or say things that detract from the agency 's effective operation , the government employer must have some power to restrain her , '' O' Connor wrote . She ordered the case sent back to a lower court to decide whether the hospital 's assumptions were `` reasonable , '' though she made it clear that `` reasonable '' should be broadly defined . ( Optional add end ) Justice Antonin Scalia , joined by Clarence Thomas and Anthony M. Kennedy , sharply critized the `` reasonable '' requirement as a new constitutional right , but agreed with other aspects of the opinion . Stevens , joined by Blackmun in dissent , wrote , `` The First Amendment demands that the government respect its employees ' freedom to express their opinions on issues of public importance . '' In other action Tuesday , the court : Ruled , 7-2 , that the state of Washington could impose minimum stream flows on a hydroelectric power plant to protect fish . Refused , over a dissent by O' Connor , to hear the appeal of a an anti-abortion group banned from participating in a downtown festival in Frankfort , Ky. . Declined to hear a challenge to a ruling that officials in Cobb County , Ga. , must remove a 3-by-5-foot framed panel containing the Ten Commandments and teachings of Jesus from a wall in the county courthouse . Agreed to decide in an Arizona case whether arrests based on erroneous computer records are good-faith mistakes that don't necessarily require throwing out all evidence seized afterward . WASHINGTON Although he says he wants his day in court , Rep. Dan Rostenkowski , D-Ill. , may well meet his match if Eric H . Holder Jr. , the prosecutor who obtained his indictment , chooses to try the case himself several months from now . Holder , 43 , the first black U.S. attorney for the nation 's capital , is a tall , stately man with a polished courtroom manner and 18 years experience in public corruption cases . He also has made a study of how to appeal to juries . `` He understands juries here , and he certainly understands politicians , '' says a former colleague on the Washington , D.C. , Superior Court , where Holder served five years before President Clinton appointed him as Washington 's top prosecutor last July . A confident , easygoing man , Holder has said he wants to develop a better relationship between his office of 300 attorneys , who are disproportionately white , and the predominantly black population of the District of Columbia from which juries for his cases are drawn . During his years as a judge , he said he winced at seeing prosecutors lose trials they should have won mainly because they failed to relate to jurors . Holder said he plans to correct that in his new post . He promptly won the respect of his new colleagues when he took over the Rostenkowski probe after his swearing-in last October . At the time , Jay B . Stephens , his Republican predecessor , criticized the Clinton White House for replacing him at a time when it was replacing other U.S. attorneys across the country in the midst of a highly sensitive investigation . Rather than duck the criticism , Holder met it head on . `` The idea that a Democratic U.S. attorney is going to do something different than a Republican U.S. attorney is pretty close to ridiculous , '' he said . Instead of shortening or curtailing the inquiry , he decided to expand it by asking for the appointment of a new federal grand jury to replace the old jury , which faced a deadline of Oct. 31 , 1993 . Despite his short time as top prosecutor , Holder has had ample experience investigating public corruption . He spent a dozen years as a lawyer in the Justice Department 's public integrity section , where he had a hand in the Abscam congressional bribery prosecution of former Rep. John W. Jenrette , D-S.C. . `` In some ways , I came in as prepared as I could have been because of my 12 years in public integrity , '' he told The Washington Post earlier this year . `` I think potentially I 'm a better U.S. attorney now than I was then , from being on the bench for five years and presiding over hundreds of criminal trials . '' Former judicial colleagues said Holder 's record was `` pretty middle of the road , '' neither soft-hearted in his sentencing practices nor too conservative in espousing `` law and order '' at any human cost . ( Optional add end ) The son of a secretary and a real estate agent , Holder spent the summer of 1974 as a law clerk for the NAACP Legal Defense and Education Fund and the following summer as a law clerk in the Justice Department . He received his law degree in 1976 from Columbia University . A Democrat , he has never been active in local politics , has never run for public office or played a role in anyone else 's campaign , he told the Senate Judiciary Committee last year on the eve of his confirmation . Others say they suspect the reason is that Holder is skeptical about politicians , or that he espouses higher standards than many officeholders do . In describing the Rostenkowski charges to reporters , Holder said , `` The vast majority of members of Congress are decent and honorable public officials who work incredibly hard and follow all the rules . '' He quickly added , `` But the criminal acts of a few feed the cynicism which increasingly haunts our political landscape . '' With nearly 14 million Americans out of work , marooned in part-time jobs or too disheartened to answer a help-wanted ad , could the United States be approaching `` full '' employment ? Key Federal Reserve officials , along with many on Wall Street , believe that as a practical matter the answer is yes : that the economy has has entered a danger zone where further jobs growth could set off an upward spiral of inflation . That belief , which has helped justify four interest-rate hikes this year and may hasten the next one , has sparked a controversy that goes to the very core of the U.S. economy 's capabilities in a world of changing technology and global business links . `` How would an average person in California respond to the notion that somehow we 're growing too fast and have to slow the economy down ? '' asks Lawrence Mishel , research director at the Economic Policy Institute , a liberal think tank . Critics say the Fed is relying on an outdated world view that has failed to consider sweeping changes that are likely to keep the lid on inflation as joblessness shrinks further . Moreover , the jobs-versus-prices flap comes at a time when the labor market , despite significant gains , still has pockets of distress . While the national unemployment rate in April was pegged at 6.4 percent , that is just an average figure . The experience of regions , racial groups and industries differs drastically . In California , almost 1.5 million people are looking for work , and the unemployment rate is 9.6 percent , according to state data . By contrast , the rate in North Carolina is 3.9 percent . Nationally , whites enjoy a unemployment rate of 5.6 percent , according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics . But the black unemployment rate is 11.8 percent , and the Latino rate is 10.8 percent . One in three Americans still believes that jobs are `` hard to get , '' the Conference Board reported Tuesday , a slight increase from April . Given the disparities of fortune , the question of when to slow the economy through interest-rate hikes takes on huge personal and political ramifications . `` You 'd hate to throw away 500,000 jobs that it might not be necessary to throw away , '' observes Laurence H. Meyer , an economic forecaster in St. Louis . Nonetheless , what Fed officials abhor most of all is the prospect of inflation , which could unhinge the financial markets and undermine the entire recovery . They have lately become concerned that the economy is running out of `` slack '' unused factory capacity and available workers . The jobless rate has been on a downward trend for almost two years , dipping to 6.4 percent in April from 6.7 percent in January . Factories , meanwhile , have been humming , another sign that the economy continues to pushing forward at high speed : Operating rates have churned up to 83 percent , closing in on the traditional inflation threshold of about 85 percent . As the economy runs out of slack , goes the view , shortages of labor and materials lead to inflation . And inflation erodes the value of bonds . ( Begin optional trim ) `` What 's important is that the country has removed an awful lot of slack in the economy , '' said Robert Parry , president of the Federal Reserve Bank of San Francisco , in an interview . Parry doubts that anyone can pinpoint the precise unemployment rate that triggers inflation , but he suggested it lurks somewhere between 6 percent and 6.5 percent , and probably `` in the higher part of that range . '' ( End optional trim ) Therein lies the dispute . Critics say the Fed is counting too heavily on theories hatched in an entirely different era . Nowadays , they contend in a theory of their own , a range of new , anti-inflationary forces have transformed basic economic behavior . `` There is no question that this ( unemployment ) is what the Fed has been focusing on , and there is no question there are faults in their methodology , '' said Mickey D. Levy , chief financial economist with NationsBank in New York . ( Begin optional trim ) Corporate cost-cutting , for example , has evolved from a fad to a new business culture , with major implications for keeping the lid on prices . Consider hiring practices : By some estimates , one in five jobs generated during the recovery has been temporary , saving employers much of the expense of permanent staffers who qualify for full benefits . Global forces are also at play . More than ever , foreign workers and factories are ready to meet the needs of U.S. consumers when America approaches the limits of its own industrial capacity . ( End optional trim ) `` They 're just wrong , '' Robert Pollin , an economics professor at University of California , Riverside , said of the Fed 's worries that America 's falling unemployment rate threatens an inflationary spiral . `` They haven't factored in the downward wage pressures from global competition . '' `` If some of the world 's best physicists can be hired in Russia for $ 100 per month , why should anyone pay a third-rate American physicist $ 50,000 a year ? '' MIT economist Lester C. Thurow recently asked in the New York Times . ( Begin optional trim ) In the 1960s , economists counseled that an unemployment rate in the 4 percent range was the flash point for inflation . Then came the youthful baby boom , largely unsettled in life , inexperienced in the workplace and often lacking job skills . Estimates of the inflationary flash point floated toward a 7 percent unemployment rate . Fast-forward to 1994 , and the picture has changed once more . Economists believe the danger zone has has gotten lower , partly due to a more-experienced work force , and peg it in a range between 6.5 percent and 5 percent . But that range covers a lot of territory : The difference of 1.5 percentage points could be the difference of up to 2 million jobs , said Ross DeVol , an economist with the WEFA Group in suburban Philadelphia . ( End optional trim ) The issue could become even touchier in the coming weeks , in light of some new signs that the economy is perking along faster than expected . The Commerce Department recently surprised analysts by revising upward to 3 percent the nation 's growth rate for the first three months of the year , though reports released Tuesday indicated that the economy cooled off in April . In any case , this much is agreed upon : A recovery once dubbed `` jobless '' is spewing out new jobs by the hundreds of thousands , and it is doing so without sparking wage inflation so far . But the Fed is on a course of raising interest rates anyway , a strategy that will reduce jobs growth in the future : `` To the average person on the street , I 'd guess this doesn't make a lot of sense , '' DeVol said . WASHINGTON The Supreme Court , in a case with far-reaching consequences for all privately owned hydroelectric dams , ruled 7-2 Tuesday that states may require hydroelectric projects to keep enough water in rivers to maintain fish populations , preserve aesthetic qualities and even ensure recreational uses . The case had pitted the state of Washington , which is home to dozens of powerful rivers and even more hydroelectric dams , against the Tacoma City Light , a utility company that would own and privately operate a massive water project on the Dosewallops River . The state had insisted that the utility forfeit some electric generating capacity by leaving the Dosewallops at levels that would allow the continued migration of rare salmon and trout up and down the stretch of water . But officials from Tacoma City Light had argued that while states may set standards for water quality , only the federal government , which regulates privately owned hydroelectric dams , may set standards for water quantity . But Associate Justice Sandra Day O' Connor , writing for the majority , rejected that argument , calling the distinction between the quality and quantity of water in a river `` an artificial distinction . '' `` In many cases , water quantity is closely related to water quality ; a sufficient lowering of the water quantity in a body of water could destroy all of its designated uses , be it for drinking water , recreation , navigation or , as here , as a fishery , '' O' Connor wrote for the majority . Justices Clarence Thomas and Antonin Scalia dissented . The ruling could effect hundreds of privately owned dams whose licenses are due for renewal in the coming years . Already , operating licenses of some 230 privately owned dams have expired and are operating pending a licensing review , and dozens more are due to expire in the next several years . While environmentalists cheered the ruling , the hydropower industry said it is likely to create uncertainty over federal licensing of hydropower projects and over who federal or state officials will have the final say in issuing operating licenses . `` We are very dismayed by the courts decision , '' said Karolyn Wolf , a spokeswoman for the American Hydropower Association . `` It 's left the industry in the lurch and we feel the ramifications for the industry will be severe . '' The ruling also was seen as broadening states ' rights to protect and preserve their waters from degradation by hydropower projects . ( Optional add end ) Under the federal Clean Water Act , states are responsible for designating uses for streams and rivers , such as drinking water , fish habitat or whitewater recreation . A state must then issue a plan to ensure that those designated uses are not degraded . While those plans normally set out complex chemical standards that must be met , the court ruled that states also can enforce standards expressed in more general terms . In the dispute that prompted Tuesday 's ruling , the state of Washington had designated the Dosewallops as a river capable of supporting the migration of salmon and steelhead trout , species of fish that are considered in danger of extinction . If the Tacoma City Light hydroplant diverted too much water for power generation , the state argued , the river no longer would be able to meet that objective . `` The ruling shows that water quality and water quantity are strictly intertwined , and have to be treated together under the Clean Water Act , '' said Katherine Ransel of American Rivers , a watchdog group that brought the case before the Supreme Court . `` They 're like love and marriage , you can't have one without the other . `` It 's also sweeping : the court has ruled that water quality means much more than some measure in a test tube , '' she said . `` The other side had argued that that 's what states are limited to . The court said uh-uh . '' The Federal Trade Commission has begun assessing the potential consequences of a possible merger between R.H. Macy & Co. and Federated Department Stores Inc. . According to sources , the FTC has sent letters to both retailers , asking about their operations , particularly in states where the chains overlap : New York , New Jersey , California , Georgia , Texas and Florida . Spokeswomen for the two retailers declined comment on the inquiry , which an FTC spokesman refused to confirm or deny . Federated 's proposed takeover of Macy 's would create the nation 's largest department-store group , with $ 13.5 billion in sales . Federated owns Bloomingdale 's , Abraham & Straus , Stern 's and six other chains . In addition to its flagship operation , R.H. Macy also runs I . Magnin , Bullock 's and smaller specialty stores . Macy 's , which has vowed to remain independent , has argued that a combined entity would lead to fewer suppliers and higher prices . Conversely , Federated maintains that a merger would result in a more efficient company that can offer consumers lower prices . Federated has circulated proposals on Wall Street claiming at least $ 100 million in cost savings after a merger . The number of A&S locations , for instance , might be scaled back . And overlapping chains elsewhere , such as in Atlanta , are expected to be sold . But a merger is far from certain , even though Federated is a big Macy 's creditor and plays an important role in shaping Macy 's bankruptcy reorganization , which is expected to be completed by January . Macy 's own proposal to emerge from bankruptcy has , so far , won the backing of bondholders and suppliers . To wrest control of Macy 's , Federated must still win the backing of other important creditors . Until Aug. 1 , Macy 's has the exclusive right to file a reorganization plan in bankruptcy court . WASHINGTON Health care , an issue already steeped in heavy political problems , became a bit more difficult Tuesday with the indictment of Rep. Dan Rostenkowski . Under the rules of the Democratic caucus , the Illinois Democrat must immediately step aside as chairman of the Ways and Means Committee , a prestigious panel with the prime responsibility for drafting the sweeping health legislation at the top of President Clinton 's agenda . Before any measure can be voted on by Congress , proposals must wend their way through committees in the House and Senate . Rostenkowski 's loyalty to Clinton and his dealmaking ability were best suited to getting a comprehensive plan out of the House where other House panels are either faltering or planning to report out legislation that hasn't been given much chance of success . Based on the seniority system , Rep. Sam Gibbons , D-Fla. , will automatically step in as acting chairman of Ways and Means . Some Capitol Hill watchers suggested Tuesday that with Rostenkowski out of that role , the administration 's emphasis may switch to the Senate , where Sen. Daniel Moynihan , D-N.Y. , chairman of the Finance Committee , is trying to forge a bipartisan accord . Democrats on the committee went out of their way to insist that business will go on , even if it 's not as usual . They point to the fact that Gibbons has already told the Ways and Means Committee staff it will remain intact and it is expected to continue working on the bill Rostenkowski has been fashioning even in the final days before his criminal indictment . `` We 're more concerned with getting a bill out than with personalities , '' said Rep. Charles Rangel , D-N.Y. , a senior member of the committee who has been close to Rostenkowski . `` We made a commitment to the American people and the president , '' Rangel said . `` We should not complain that we couldn't do it because one of our members has a personal problem . '' House Republicans , who want a much more minimalist bill than the president or House leaders , hope Rostenkowski 's ouster could help their cause . His predicament `` deals a fatal setback to health care reform unless the Democrats in the House recognize what the Democrats in the Senate have recognized , and that is that a bill needs to be bipartisan , '' said Rep. Nancy Johnson , R-Conn . Even supporters of comprehensive national health care worry that this is one more setback in a series of problems surrounding this issue . Without Rostenkowski 's skill as a legislative negotiator , they fear , the health issue could be in for more delays . `` Gibbons is no Rostenkowski , '' one former congressional staffer said . Rostenkowksi is famous for his ability to sit down with members , find out what their concerns are and craft a bill . `` You could give him your cards and he would play the hands for you , '' Rangel said . `` You could trust him with your hole card . '' Gibbons was described by several political observers as someone who is rigid once he makes up his mind to something and less of a compromiser . `` He 's not the kind of guy who brings people together , '' one analyst said . ( Begin optional trim ) Gibbons , who sat in on many of the health subcommittee sessions this spring , has had a longstanding interest in health care , and has supported the subcommittee bill , especially the provision that would insure the poor and uninsured through an expansion of Medicare . But on the Ways and Means Committee he has been much more involved in trade issues as chair of that subcommittee . Committee-watchers say other than possibly beginning hearings on welfare reform , health care is the only big item on the committee 's plate . What Rostenkowski 's role will be as a member but not chairman of the committee was unclear Tuesday . Some lawmakers suggested just having him in the room will be important and so they were glad to hear he will fight the charges rather than accept a plea bargain and resign from the House . Others said he is likely to be preoccupied with his legal issues and may not or should not be engaged in the debate at all . `` No one is above the law , '' Rep. Sander Levin , D-Mich. , a member of the committee , said in a statement . `` Like all citizens , Rep. Rostenkowski is entitled to his day in court , but under the rules he must relinquish the chairmanship of Ways and Means Committee . This rule must be followed both in letter and in spirit . '' ( End optional trim ) Some health experts suggested that Rostenkowski 's role in the health reform effort has been overemphasized that that the real problem how to pay for such an expansive effort remains whether he is at the helm or not . `` We want to do health reform where no one pays and everyone gets coverage , '' said one health policy expert . `` Health reform is in trouble because you can't do it for free . '' In ROSTY-TIMES ( Eaton , Times ) sub for 11th graf ( Correcting quote attribute ) xxx for winning . '' He was also true to his roots on another issue . In a motto coined by Chicago ward boss Paddy Bauler more than a half-century ago and handed down through the political generations : `` Chicago ISn't ready for reform . '' PICK UP 12TH GRAF : Neither was .. . UNITED NATIONS The U.N. . Security Council demonstrated growing impatience with bickering clan leaders in Somalia Tuesday , renewing the controversial U.N. mission there for only four months and warning it could wind down the operation in mid-July if there has been no progress toward peace . The Clinton administration is bringing to bear on the huge U.N. mission in Somalia its new , cautious policy on U.N. peacekeeping approved in early May . U.S. diplomats pressed for the mission to be renewed for only 45 days . In a compromise , Council members voted 15-0 to the four-month extension instead of the previous six-month periods and to reassess the mission before the end of July . `` This resolution puts those most responsible for obstruction of forward movement on notice ; it is time for Somalis simply to get on with the job of moving toward political reconciliation , '' said Ambassador Edward W. Gnehm Jr. , the U.S. deputy permanent representative to the United Nations . Despite U.S. impatience , the Council decided to give Somalia the `` last chance '' Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali said it deserved after the United Nations spent some $ 2 billion in a year and a half to rescue the east African country from famine and clan warfare . But Somalia has forced the United Nations to ponder how long it should wait for warring leaders to settle their differences before U.N. officials pull back their support and conclude they have done all they can . In a gloomy May 24 report , Boutros-Ghali told the Council that security in Somalia is `` deteriorating , '' with forces allied with militia leader Gen. Mohamed Farah Aideed on the offensive to seize new turf in several regions . The 13 major clans have refused to honor a commitment they made March 24 to disarm voluntarily , Boutros-Ghali reported . Because of the infighting and rampant banditry , `` the emergency situation continues and the welfare of large numbers of Somalis remains at risk , '' the secretary general warned . He said any immediate draw-down of U.N. forces could plunge the nation back into the war-induced starvation that killed hundreds of thousands of Somalis in 1992 . In all , 11 countries withdrew their troops from Somalia in the wake of the United States ' pullout in March , including all the units with sophisticated equipment . Although 19,000 troops remain on the ground , Boutros-Ghali admitted `` the deficiencies in capacity that resulted from the withdrawal of the United States forces have not been made up in full , especially with regards to air operations and night capabilities . '' The current forces are too few to protect U.N. humanitarian and training programs throughout the country , U.N. officials said , yet the cost of the mission for the next four months is $ 310 million , of which the United States will pay 31 percent . After helping lead the U.N. mission into a shooting war in Mogadishu a year ago , the Clinton administration abruptly began to pull out U.S. troops after 18 American servicemen were killed in a battle with Aideed 's force in October . Washington then led the drive in the Security Council to rewrite the mandate for U.N. troops to eliminate forced disarmament and stress negotiations by clan leaders to set up a new government . The U.N. special envoy in Somalia , Lansana Kouyate , succeeded in drawing Aideed back into the negotiations with a coalition of 12 other clans . But a final conference to establish the framework for a new national government has been repeatedly delayed amid jockeying for position by Aideed and other leaders . Some observers have questioned whether these talks are the right approach . In its most important achievement , the U.N. mission has set up 55 district-level councils of recognized village leaders . But it is unclear whether the clan leaders will respect this grass-roots authority as they bargain among themselves . `` Many Somalis to whom I spoke expressed grave reservations at the prospect of the warlords , by whose hands so much Somali blood was spilled , becoming their new rulers , '' wrote Malcolm Harper , the head of the United Kingdom United Nations Association , after a recent visit . The troubles of the Somalia mission cast a cloud over U.N. operations in the rest of Africa , especially in Rwanda , where more than 200,000 people have been killed in a tribal killing campaign . The experience of Somalia made many countries skeptical about how effective U.N. peacekeeping troops could be , even in large numbers , in halting a bloody civil war . At the same time , many countries that might have sent troops to Rwanda have exhausted their resources in Somalia . WASHINGTON Hoping to calm an uproar over abuse of presidential helicopters , the White House disclosed Tuesday that aides have taken 12 trips using the aircraft but officials said none involved misuse of the flights . The disclosure came as the former official forced to resign last week for using one of the choppers for a golf outing said he alone not top White House aides will cover the $ 13,129 cost of the trip . Thirteen White House aides last Friday agreed to put up money to reimburse the government for the cost of the trip by former White House administrative chief W. David Watkins and two other aides . But Watkins said in an interview that he changed his mind Sunday after reading news accounts that quoted former colleagues at the White House who were angered by the obligations he had forced on them . Watkins said the $ 13,129 cost of the trip was far more than the $ 2,500 to $ 3,000 he was told the trip would cost . `` I did not want to create any financial burden for anyone , or create any ill will toward me , '' said Watkins , a millionaire who worked for Clinton as a businessman or aide for more than a decade . In detailing other trips on presidential helicopters , the White House released a memo briefly describing the flights , which took place between April 29 , 1993 , and May 24 , 1994 . Officials said the flights which excluded presidential and military journeys showed no misuse of the sophisticated aircraft . But congressional Republicans who have pressed for a full accounting of the trips said the description did not provide sufficient detail . `` This is just an outline , '' said Cheri Jacobus , an aide to Rep. Roscoe Bartlett , R-Md . `` The White House 's information has been inconsistent , sporadic and incorrect . We want to know more . '' Bartlett and half a dozen others have been demanding more information since it was disclosed that the three White House officials used one of the $ 2,380-an-hour helicopters to go golfing last Tuesday at the Holly Hills Country Club , near New Market , Md. . One entry on the White House inventory was an April 29 , 1993 , flight to Camp David by Watkins and the two top officials of the White House military office for `` camp familiarization . '' Such a flight `` may not be absolutely necessary , '' said a White House spokeswoman . `` You can drive . '' But she insisted that the trip `` was appropriate .. . because in many instances the president uses helicopters . '' The inventory listed four trips within the Washington area for `` orientation and training . '' Listed on board were various White House administrative , security and communications officials . ( Optional add end ) Three flights were classified , including a `` special training mission '' that had an unlikely mix of passengers : Housing Secretary Henry A . Cisneros , deputy budget director Alice M. Rivlin and military personnel . Another trip , a flight by Secretary of State Warren Christopher to give a private speech in Williamsburg , Va. , was described as `` reimbursable State Dept. use '' meaning the expense would be paid with taxpayer funds , but from a different federal account . And another was a trip in which White House advance staff , military officials and communications aides flew to Norfolk , Va. , to examine an aircraft carrier Clinton will use this week in ceremonies to commemorate the 50th anniversary of D-day . In another step to try to restore confidence , White House Chief of Staff Thomas F. `` Mack '' McLarty released a memo providing that from now on , the staff chief or his deputy must approve flights . In their absence , approvals can come from officials of the White House counsel 's office but no longer , as before , by the chief of administration . SANTA ANA , Calif. . Citing a crash that killed five people here last December , the Federal Aviation Administration has adopted a policy that will require smaller planes to stay farther behind Boeing 757 jetliners to prevent airplane accidents caused by their potentially hazardous wake turbulence . But the regulatory agency 's action part of a detailed set of new policies on 757s falls short of safety recommendations made by the National Transportation Safety Board earlier this year . And aviation safety experts and pilots ' advocates termed the changes merely a `` first step '' toward making the skies safe for aircraft landing and taking off behind 757 jetliners . FAA Administrator David R. Hinson outlined the policy in recent days in a letter to NTSB Chairman Carl W. Vogt . Beginning July 1 , the FAA will require air traffic controllers handling landings to keep aircraft four miles behind 757s instead of the current three miles to protect them from the miniature tornadoes produced by rapid air movement across the larger aircraft 's wings . The NTSB in February had recommended that the FAA adopt minimum separation distances of up to six miles behind 757s . The FAA , however , is not bound by NTSB recommendations . At least two accidents that claimed 13 lives and three other serious incidents have been linked to 757 wake turbulence since December 1992 . Because it could potentially decrease the number of flights at the nation 's airports and increase costs for the hard-hit airline industry , the FAA has been reluctant to increase separation distances between 757s and tailing airplanes . Researchers have speculated that the 757 's unique , sleek-wing design may be the cause of the turbulence that can be unusually powerful for an aircraft of its size . Both the fatal accidents occurred when corporate jets flew into wake turbulence as they were preparing to land . The Santa Ana crash occurred when a twin-engine corporate jet was on a landing approach to John Wayne Airport . The jet , which was 2.1 miles behind a Boeing 757 , went out of control and slammed nose-first into the ground . All five aboard , including the top two executives of the In-N-Out Burger chain , were killed . The NTSB is still investigating the accident , but turbulence from the 757 is said to have played a part . The other fatal crash occurred in Billings , Mont. , in 1992 . Eight people were killed . NTSB spokesman Mike Benson said the safety board will review the FAA 's new policies and draft a formal response over the next several weeks . Bob Flock , a spokesman for the Air Line Pilots Association , said , `` We think it 's a good beginning . It certainly addresses part of our concern . But it doesn't , for instance , address separation on departures . '' ALPA , the largest pilots ' organization in the world , recently issued its own advisory on 757s , recommending that pilots of smaller aircraft even MD-80s , Boeing 737s and DC-9s remain five miles or at least `` two minutes '' behind 757s on final approach , Flocke said . The organization also has recommended that pilots ask the control tower for extra time when taking off behind 757s , Flocke said , to give more time for the 757 turbulence to diminish . Despite concerns from other corners of the aviation industry , the FAA said it believes that the four-mile separation is safe enough for now . `` The FAA believes that this interim increased separation will provide an extra margin of safety without unnecessarily impacting system capacity , '' FAA Administrator Hinson wrote in a May 20 letter outlining the changes to NTSB Chairman Vogt . ( Optional add end ) The four-mile separation , Hinson wrote , recently was adopted by the Civil Aviation Authority in Great Britain and `` has significantly reduced the number of reported incidents '' there . As part of its new policies on 757s , Hinson said , the FAA is embarking on a two-year test with the help of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration to determine the precise level of danger 757 wake turbulence poses . The four-mile separation limit will remain in effect until testing shows whether additional distance is warranted , Hinson said . Leo Garodz , a former FAA manager who was among the first to bring the 757 wake turbulence problem to the agency 's attention in 1991 , said the new policies represented an `` initial step , '' but nothing more . `` It 's a beginning , but it 's only a beginning , because there 's going to be another accident , because things are not that precise at airports when there is a heavy traffic load , '' Garodz said . WASHINGTON A federal grand jury indicted House Ways and Means Committee Chairman Dan Rostenkowski on corruption charges Tuesday , alleging that over the past two decades he stole nearly $ 640,000 from taxpayers and then tried to thwart an investigation into the alleged wrongdoing . Rostenkowski , an Illinois Democrat who over the past 35 years rose to become one of the most powerful members of Congress , defiantly rejected a plea bargain over the weekend and vowed to fight in court to regain his reputation . The 17-count indictment , resulting from a two-year federal investigation , charged that over a 21-year period , Rostenkowski defrauded taxpayers of $ 638,000 and violated federal elections rules by misreporting $ 56,000 in campaign funds spent for his personal benefit . It alleged that he carried out his criminal scheme by putting `` ghost workers '' including a future son-in-law on his House payroll to perform personal services ; trading stamps and postage vouchers for cash at the House post office ; charging the government for expensive gifts to friends ; and creating fake car leases to get taxpayers to put up most of the purchase price of seven personal vehicles . In addition to charges of embezzlement , mail and wire fraud , conspiracy , concealing material facts and aiding and abetting , Rostenkowski was accused of obstructing justice by urging a subpoenaed witness not to tell the grand jury of doing personal engraving work allegedly paid for from House funds . Indirectly , the indictment also alleged , Rostenkowski used the House payroll to renovate and clean his home , rent campaign offices and get his laundry picked up . At the House stationery store , the Justice Department charged , Rostenkowski bought $ 42,500 in hand-carved chairs , crystal Capitol replicas , china and luggage as personal gifts or for his own use , passing them off as for official use . In February , with the investigation nearing U.S. . Attorney Eric Holder 's recommendation of an indictment , Rostenkowski wrote the Treasury a reimbursement check for $ 82,095 for possible misuse of official resources in ordering the gifts . After months of news reports and leaks from the investigation , only two aspects of the indictment were newly made public Tuesday : The witness-tampering count and a charge that many of the ghost workers had to kick back part of their paychecks to Rostenkowski 's Chicago office manager , who allegedly kept `` thousands of dollars '' on hand for undisclosed purposes . According to Holder , the engraver was one of `` at least '' 14 virtually do-nothing employees on Rostenkowski 's official payroll . They allegedly received a total of $ 529,200 from the government while mainly handling such personal chores as mowing the congressman 's vacation-home lawn , keeping the books for his family insurance business and photographing his daughters ' weddings . The indictment will complicate matters for President Clinton , who was counting on Rostenkowski to help shepherd his health care legislation and other key parts of his agenda through Congress . `` Like all Americans , Chairman Rostenkowski has the right to contest the charges made against him and to have his day in court , '' Clinton stated . `` Chairman Rostenkowski and others have helped create real momentum for health care reform , and I am confident that legislation will pass this year . '' Although required by Democratic caucus rules to give up his chairmanship until the charges against him are resolved , Rostenkowski said he intends to remain in office and run for a 19th term in November . `` I am confident that I will be vindicated , '' he said in a statement Monday . But at a news conference Tuesday afternoon in which he outlined the felony counts against Rostenkowski , Holder said , `` We don't bring cases when we think we cannot win them . '' Holder said Rostenkowski 's alleged conduct was `` very reprehensible , very offensive '' and `` a betrayal of the public trust for personal gain . '' The federal statutes involved carry maximum total prison time of 110 years and $ 365,000 in fines , but under complex sentencing guidelines , U.S. . District Judge Norma Holloway Johnson probably would order the defendant to serve `` several years in jail '' if convicted on all counts , Holder said . ( Optional add end ) Holder expected an arraignment before Johnson in about 10 days , but he said a trial date would be hard to predict because defense motions could cause long delays . The trial probably would be held in Washington , Holder said . The indicted legislator made no public comment Tuesday . Rostenkowski 's lawyer , Robert Bennett , reportedly had recommended to his client the acceptance of a deal for a one-count felony guilty plea and a few months ' jail time . Bennett said Tuesday he had `` nothing to add '' to Rostenkowski 's statement . Rumored to be on the way out as Rostenkowski 's lawyer , Bennett was still representing the defendant Tuesday . The investigation of Rostenkowski was prompted by corruption scandals at the House post office , in which former House Postmaster Robert V. Rota and eight other individuals have pleaded guilty . Between 1978 and 1991 , Rota often personally handed cash to Rostenkowski at the committee chairman 's behest in return for federally paid stamps or vouchers , the indictment claimed . Rostenkowski was accused of amassing at least $ 50,000 by masking the cash handovers as stamp purchases . Holder said the post office investigation is continuing . WASHINGTON A federal grand jury Tuesday charged Rep. Dan Rostenkowski , an old-line Chicago politician who wields vast influence in the House , with 17 serious crimes , ranging from grand-scale fraud to petty money manipulation over a 20-year span . In a 49-page indictment that threatens the Illinois Democrat with many years in federal prison and potentially hundreds of thousands of dollars in fines , he was charged with making personal use of upward of $ 700,000 in money belonging to the House or to his campaign committees . Depending upon how federal judges would figure the prison sentence they might give , the maximum Rostenkowski faces if convicted of all of the charges is 110 years in jail and $ 365,000 in fines . Eric H . Holder Jr. , the U.S. . Attorney for the District of Columbia , told reporters at a news conference that the charges `` represent a betrayal of the public trust for personal gain '' by Rostenkowski , who stood accused of using `` his elective office to perpetrate an extensive fraud on the American people . '' The indictment came after the breakdown of intense plea bargaining . When a deal could not be reached , Holder was free to put the massive indictment to a vote in the grand jury . The congressman , who knew all of the accusations that prosecutors were preparing to make , said over the weekend : `` I did not commit any crimes . '' Tuesday , the lawmaker who has represented the North Side of Chicago in Congress for the last 35 years , remained silent and out of sight in the wake of the indictment that he has vowed to fight . Already , however , the charges took away at least temporarily his power-laden post as chairman of the Ways and Means Committee a position outranked in influence by few if any posts in the House other than that of the speaker . Under the rules of the House Democratic Caucus , made up of all the Democrats in that chamber , the congressman had to step down as committee chairman because he was indicted for a felony that could lead to two years or more in prison . If he is later found not guilty , he may resume his chairmanship . He may go on serving in the House , and seeking re-election , while the charges are pending . In summary , the U.S. attorney said , Rostenkowski was being accused of `` abusing his congressional allowances which are paid for by American taxpayers '' in these ways : Putting people on the congressional payroll `` who did little or no official work , '' but who instead did personal and family chores in return for more than $ 500,000 in payments . Obtaining `` at least $ 50,000 in cash from the House Post Office by disguising his transactions as stamp purchases . '' Charging Congress and the taxpayers `` more than $ 40,000 for the purchase of valuable merchandise .. . handed out as gifts to his friends . '' `` Causing Congress to pay over $ 70,000 in taxpayer money for personal vehicles used by himself and his family . '' `` He obstructed justice by instructing a witness to withhold evidence from the grand jury . '' That charge was based on allegations that the congressman directly told a House staff member an engraver who was doing personal work for the congressman on gifts he was handing out not to say anything after getting a subpoena from the grand jury . Rostenkowski 's `` elaborate scheme to defraud , '' prosecutors said , involves the congressional payroll , the House Post Office , the House 's stationery store and the purchase of autos as a `` mobile district office . '' He was accused specifically of embezzlement , mail and wire fraud , covering up key facts , plotting to defraud , mail and wire fraud , and false reporting of campaign spending . Rostenkowski is expected to plead not guilty before a federal judge here within the next 10 days . Holder said he expected the trial to be in Washington , but said he could not estimate when . The prosecutor conceded that if Rostenkowski claims legal immunity under the Constitution to charges because they involved actions as a legislator , `` that could have a delaying effect on how long it takes us to get to trial . '' Holder added that Rep. Joseph McDade . , R-Penn , was charged two years ago with taking bribes `` and has yet to come to trial . '' ( Optional add end ) President Clinton , whose legislative agenda including health care reform had appeared to be dependent on Rostenkowski 's influence in Congress , said in a statement that `` like all Americans , Chairman Rostenkowski has the right to contest the charges made against him and to have his day in court . '' The president went on to praise Rostenkowski `` and others '' for helping to `` create real momentum for health care reform . '' Holder , asked if his office had come under any political or White House pressure in its investigation of Rostenkowski , said `` no , not at all . '' The probe was `` free from any kind of outside interference and free from any kind of political pressure . '' Distributed by the Los Angeles Times-Washington Post News Service . WASHINGTON The United States has reached an agreement with Jamaica to set up a facility on the Caribbean island to process Haitian refugees , according to officials close to negotiations that have been taking place between the two nations for several days . The agreement is likely to be announced Wednesday in Kingston , the officials said . This is the first time another government has offered to help the Clinton administration share the burden of handling those who flee Haiti 's military regime by taking to the sea , most of them seeking political asylum in the United States . Aside from providing a diplomatic boost to the administration 's efforts , Jamaica has helped resolve logistical problems that have bedeviled U.S. officials for weeks . The United States asked Jamaica to consider hosting a refugee facility last week and since then U.S. and Jamaican officials have been engaged in almost continuous discussions , here and in Kingston . The likely agreement would allow the United States to anchor or dock large ships in a Jamaican port or at least close to shore , the officials said . The ships would be used to house Haitians picked up by the Coast Guard and would serve as a processing center where their applications for refugee status would be heard and adjudicated . U.S. officials could be housed on land along with all facilities needed to support the ships . President Clinton 's special advisor on Haiti , former House member William H . Gray III , was to arrive in Jamaica Tuesday afternoon and begin meetings with top Jamaican officials today . Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott is due to begin a visit to Kingston Thursday . A formal agreement on a processing facility could be announced during these meetings , officials said , and the first Haitians could be brought to Jamaica as early as the beginning of next week . `` We are encouraged by the progress that has been made in the talks and we are hopeful progress will continue and that we will be able to say something more on this soon , '' a senior U.S. official said . In recent weeks Clinton repeatedly has emphasized his desire to pursue a policy on Haiti with international and especially regional support . He was able to win such backing for tighter economic sanctions against Haiti , which went into effect on May 21 . But it has proved more difficult for Clinton to get help with the other half of his Haitian dilemma , the handling of boat people . After protests by civil rights groups and refugee advocates , Clinton on May 8 ended a policy of automatically returning all Haitians picked up at sea without giving them a chance to seek the shelter of refugee status . Instead he promised to set up facilities that would let the Haitians apply for refugee status , which entitles them to permanent resettlement in the United States . Clinton insisted , however , that most boat people were likely to be rejected and sent back . Although it has held discussions with a number of governments in the regions , the only expression of support the administration had received thus far was an agreement with the U.N. . High Commissioner for Refugees to cooperate on handling the boat people . Last week the United States sought permission to locate a processing facility on the Turks and Caicos Islands , a British dependency , but has yet to receive a response . LOS ANGELES Los Angeles police officers staged day two of their mass sickout Tuesday , causing minor disruption of public service , exasperating city officials and prompting Mayor Richard Riordan to call for a mediator to step in . In an unusual joint appearance designed to signal the seriousness and solidarity of the city 's leadership , Riordan appeared with six council members standing behind him as he spelled out the city 's budget woes . `` The city respects the police and wants to give them a raise and reward them for a job well done , '' Riordan said . `` ( But ) the city is facing the gravest fiscal situation since the Great Depression . '' The mayor called on the officers ' union , the Police Protective League , to permit an impartial mediator to settle the two-year-old dispute . `` If mediation is rejected , the council will have no other choice in my opinion and I believe they will vote for an impasse , '' Riordan said . Declaration of an impasse would allow the city to call in a mediator without the union 's approval ; if mediation fails , the city ultimately could impose a contract unilaterally . Although officially unsanctioned by the officers ' union , the job action known as `` Blue Flu II '' enjoyed wide support from the rank-and-file Tuesday : Of 548 officers scheduled to report to day watch duty , 248 or 43 percent called in sick . Other officers were ordered to work double shifts to cover for their `` ailing '' colleagues . The three-day sickout was scheduled to enter its final stretch with the Tuesday evening shift calling in sick . The union , legally barred from any official involvement in the sickout , denounced the mayor 's suggestion that a mediator be appointed , condemning it as a stalling tactic that would only escalate the dispute . Union leaders also decried the increasingly rancorous tenor of the management-labor dispute . The city has offered 3 percent raises over the next two years . The union is seeking retroactive raises for the two years officers have worked without a contract . A rookie officer earns about $ 33,000 a year . WASHINGTON Welfare recipients , unemployed workers and military pensioners moved closer to joining the cashless society Tuesday as Vice President Gore announced plans for a new nationwide system of delivering federal and state benefits electronically . In five years , Gore said , the governments will be delivering more than $ 111 billion in benefits annually to recipients through electronic transfers , with recipients using magnetically encoded `` benefit security cards '' to make transactions at bank automatic teller machines and to receive food stamp credit when buying groceries . The new system , one of the `` reinventing government '' proposals in Gore 's National Performance Review last year , will save up to $ 195 million a year in paperwork and greatly reduce fraud and theft of benefit checks , the vice president said . Pilot electronic transfer programs for food stamp distribution will be gradually expanded from the few states already involved Maryland , Texas and New Mexico among them to cover Aid to Families With Dependent Children ( AFDC ) , the main state-federal welfare program , Veterans Affairs compensation , military pensions , civil service retirement programs , Supplemental Security Income ( SSI ) , unemployment insurance and other benefit programs . An electronic benefits task force , headed by Elizabeth Sawhill , associate director for human resources at the Office of Management and Budget , is working with the Southern Alliance of States to develop the first federal-state prototype of the new benefits system . Gore said thousands of automatic teller machines and supermarkets across the country will be linked to federal and state agencies by commercial computer networks so that by 1999 food stamps and paper checks will be virtually eliminated in most government benefit programs . The vice president said bank executives had expressed support for the program because it will give them opportunities to add new customers . He said recipients of 12 programs who receive $ 31 million a year in benefits but do not have bank accounts would still be able to withdraw cash benefits through automatic teller machines by using the benefits card and a personal identification number . Agriculture Secretary Mike Espy , who joined Gore in a news conference to announce the plan , said his department spends $ 75 million a year printing and distributing $ 22 billion worth of food stamps and another $ 22 billion to retrieve and destroy the used coupons and reconcile them . He said welfare recipients still would not be able to purchase excluded items such as alcohol with food stamp credit because the computer automatically would reject such purchases . The Consumers Union , however , criticized the plan , calling it a `` disaster for public assistance recipients '' and accusing the government of `` bowing '' to banks seeking to make more profits and state governments wanting to cut administrative costs . Michelle Meier , counsel for the union , said welfare recipients not only will have to pay a withdrawal fee for each automatic teller machine transaction , but will be exempted from regulations that require other consumers to bear only a portion of the loss when funds are stolen from their account . WASHINGTON A federal grand jury Tuesday charged Rep. Dan Rostenkowski , D-Ill. , with misappropriating more than a $ 500,000 , tampering with a witness and using taxpayers ' money to enrich himself , his friends and his family . `` The allegations contained in today 's indictment represent a betrayal of the public trust for personal gain , '' said U.S. . Attorney Eric H . Holder Jr. `` .. . Congressman Rostenkowski used his elective office to perpetrate extensive fraud on the American people . '' The 17-count indictment charges that Rostenkowski , 66 , chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee , engaged in a pattern of corrupt activity for more than 20 years . He personally directed the House Finance Office to place at least 14 `` ghost employees '' who performed little or no official work on the payroll , the grand jury said . Instead , they mowed the lawn of his vacation house in Wisconsin , picked up his laundry , took pictures at his daughters ' weddings and supervised the renovation of Rostenkowski 's house , the indictment charges . In one instance , Rostenkowski 's future , now former , son-in-law was required to return most of his government salary to the congressman in cash kickbacks , the indictment said . The government also alleges that Rostenkowski obtained seven cars valued at more than $ 100,000 from a Chicago dealership , while paying only $ 5,294 from the bank account of his daughters . The remainder of the debt was paid by the government and his campaign committee , prosecutors allege . The charges were leveled one day after Rostenkowski rejected a proposed plea agreement with prosecutors and went on the offensive , denying all charges and vowing to fight in court. `` I have always fought for what I believe in , '' Rostenkowski said in a statement faxed around the country Monday evening . `` I strongly believe that I am not guilty of these charges and will fight to regain my reputation in court. .. . This will be a difficult fight . The government has vast resources at its disposal . '' A Rostenkowski spokesman said the 36-year veteran of Congress would have no comment Tuesday and that his earlier statement would suffice . Holder called the actions `` offensive and reprehensible , '' stating that such official misconduct had a `` corrosive effect '' on the nation 's `` democratic system of government and on the trust our citizens have in their elected officials . '' Rostenkowski is expected to be arraigned within the next 10 days , but a trial date is uncertain , prosecutors said , because of the time required to respond to expected defense motions . If the charges were taken separately , Rostenkowski would face a maximum penalty of more than 100 years in prison if convicted , but federal sentencing guidelines would prescribe much less confinement . Holder said Rostenkowski faced `` several years . '' The indictment alleges that Rostenkowski abused his congressional payroll account , his House Stationery Store privileges , his House Post Office prerogatives and his expense allotment for vehicle leasing . Holder said that Rostenkowski `` regularly put people on his congressional payroll who did little or no official work , but who instead performed a variety of personal services for him , his family , his family insurance business , and his campaign organizations . '' Holder said that payments to them exceeded $ 500,000 . The government charges that between July 1971 and July 1992 , Rostenkowski placed 14 people on his congressional payroll who performed personal services for him and his family . One person allegedly received $ 20,000 in federal funds for taking photographs at the congressman 's daughters ' weddings , political fund-raisers and parties held at Rostenkowski 's family vacation house . A second person allegedly received $ 48,400 during a four-year period while performing no government work . The father of that same `` ghost employee '' paid two of Rostenkowski 's daughters a total of $ 48,000 through the payroll of the Illinois State Senate Office , the indictment charges . Another person , identified as Rostenkowski 's 17-year-old godson , collected $ 1,500 in government salary in 1976 for `` mowing the grass .. . at defendant Rostenkowski 's summer home . '' During much of this period , Rostenkowski allegedly maintained `` close '' control over his payroll , personally determining each month who should be added to the accounts , how they long they would remain and how much they should be paid , the indictment charges . Further , Rostenkowski instructed the House Finance Office not to disclose any payroll information to members of his staff . The indictment charges that Rostenkowski kept the same `` payroll counselor '' to assist him in `` payroll matters '' for 10 years in violation of House policy that required such staff to be rotated every two years in an effort to prevent fraud . Rostenkowski 's office created an `` untraceable '' supply of cash by instructing several employees to cash their checks and return them to the Chicago district office manager , prosecutors alleged . `` Then , as these people performed services whether personal , official or campaign related they were paid in cash in substantially smaller amounts than the checks that initially had been issued to them . '' The indictment also alleges that Rostenkowski obstructed justice by instructing a witness to withhold evidence from the grand jury . In 1991 , Rostenkowski asked a House employee whom he had earlier placed on the congressional office payroll to engrave 50 brass plaques and to place them on the bases of 50 sculptures of the U.S. Capitol , prosecutors said . The plaques and the sculptures had been bought at the House Stationary Store and charged to his official account . The employee was asked to engrave the names of recipients , followed by a phrase such as `` friendship '' or `` our pal , '' and then followed by the first name of Rostenkowski and his wife . The employee did the work for no charge . In September 1993 , the employee was asked to testify before a grand jury investigating Rostenkowski . `` The engraver ( employee ) went to see the congressman 's administrative assistant in Washington , who had earlier told him that Rostenkowski 's campaign committee was paying for lawyers for people called before the grand jury , '' Holder said . `` After putting the engraver in contact with an attorney , the administrative assistant told the engraver that Rostenkowski wished to speak with him . Over the telephone , Rostenkowski instructed the engraver not to say anything about the crystal sculptures. . . . ' ' Rostenkowski obtained some $ 40,000 in merchandise from the House Stationery Store , the bulk of which he distributed as gifts to friends and associates , prosecutors said. `` He charged the items to his official expenses allowance , causing Congress to pay for them based on his false representation that the items were being purchased for official use , '' Holder said . The list of items purchased included : 60 wooden armchairs , handpainted and inscribed with his name for $ 379 each , 60 crystal sculptures of the U.S. Capitol at total cost of $ 12,000 , 250 pieces of china at $ 5,000 and 22 pieces of luggage valued at $ 2,200 . Prosecutors charge that Rostenkowski obtained at least $ 50,000 in cash from the post office by `` disguising the transactions as stamp purchases . '' Members of Congress have `` franking privileges '' that enable them to send official mail without postage . However , the frank cannot be used for certified , insured or express mail , and for these letters lawmakers can purchase stamps at the House Post Office . House members are required to submit vouchers that must be signed by the legislators , certifying that they have paid for or received the postage specified on the voucher . From May 1985 through May 1987 , Rostenkowski personally obtained $ 11,500 from the House Post Office through the postmaster , the indictment states . The postmaster got the cash from the post office supervisor of accounts , according to the charges . When that supervisor left in 1987 , the postmaster allegedly told Rostenkowski that he was no longer able to obtain the cash . `` When the second supervisor of accounts left in 1989 , Congressman Rostenkowski personally intervened and insisted that one of his patronage employees be promoted to the position , '' a Justice Department press statement said . Then , during a 21-month period in July 1989 and April 1991 , Rostenkowski obtained $ 9,800 more in exchange for vouchers and stamps , prosecutors said , noting that the alleged scheme ended one month later when Capitol Police began investigating allegations of embezzlement . Prosecutors charge that Rostenkowski was able to develop a `` unique '' relationship with a suburban Chicago Ford dealership , enabling him to obtain immediate possession of and title to vehicles without a down payment , without taking out a loan , without signing a promissory note , without paying interest on the debt and without making regular payments . Rostenkowski submitted fraudulent lease agreements to the House Finance Office , which `` falsely '' represented that the payments would be for leasing the vehicles , prosecutors said . About $ 73,000 in government funds were used for the vehicles which were `` for the personal use of himself and his family . '' The indictment was issued after a two-week period of plea bargaining discussions with Rostenkowski 's attorney , Robert S. Bennett. Last week the congressman declined to accept an agreement that he plead guilty to at least one felony count and serve a limited time in jail . Rostenkowski was said to have entered the negotiations in effort to reduce or eliminate any prison sentence while avoiding a lengthy court battle . He also wanted to retain his chairmanship . Such talks are considered normal and should not affect his trial . Holder said Rostenkowski 's attorneys initiated the talks , and that the government 's only interest was in avoiding a costly trial . The talks in no way , he said , were reflective of concern on his part about the strength of the case . Sources said the talks ended without agreement because Rostenkowski maintained his innocence . There had been some tension between Rostenkowski and Bennett over the handling of his case and there was speculation about whether Bennett would continue . Longtime friends had urged the lawmaker to fight , while defense attorneys urged him to weigh all options and even suggested that he get a second opinion about whether to accept a plea bargain . WASHINGTON In a step that eventually would eliminate paper Social Security , welfare checks and food stamps , Vice President Al Gore unveiled a program Tuesday that would allow electronic access to government benefits . Using a plastic automated teller machine card , welfare recipients and Social Security pensioners without bank accounts would be able to walk up to any ATM terminal and withdraw their share of the $ 500 billion in benefit payments that the federal government doles out annually . The electronic delivery system , designed as part of the Clinton administration 's `` reinventing government '' initiative , is projected to go on-line nationally in 1999 . Government officials from nine states Florida , Alabama , Georgia , North Carolina , South Carolina , Tennessee , Kentucky , Arkansas and Missouri will start phasing in the electronic transfer plan in their region this year . The system is expected to be running in those states in 1996 . `` This card makes it much easier to deliver the right benefits to the right people with much less paperwork , '' Gore said at a ceremony here Tuesday . Appearing with him were Health and Human Services Secretary Donna E. Shalala , Agriculture Secretary Mike Espy and Texas Comptroller John Sharp , who is overseeing what will be the largest state electronics benefits transfer project when it is fully phased in next year . Electronic delivery , once fully installed , is expected to reduce the fraud and abuse that plague current assistance programs and simplify labyrinthian federal and state benefits systems , saving taxpayers $ 195 million annually , Gore said . With the electronic system , `` there 's considerably less paper . The flip side is that we 'll have an electronic audit trail for every transaction , making fraud much easier to detect and prosecute , '' Shalala said . For benefits recipients with bank accounts , having their payments deposited directly is still the most cost-effective means of delivery . But for the estimated 31 million people without bank accounts who are entitled to food stamps , unemployment payments , Social Security payments , aid to families with dependent children or other benefits , the electronic system will bring convenience and relief from the `` stigma '' associated with receiving government aid , according to Espy . Federal and state governments pay $ 111 billion in military and federal pensions , veterans ' compensation , student loans and general assistance to recipients without bank accounts each year . In comparison , the annual fund flow for VISA , the nation 's most widely used credit card , approaches $ 180 billion , the Gore task force that came up with the plan said . Food stamp recipients would swipe the benefits card through a debit card machine in a grocery store instead of paying for their purchases with paper vouchers . The card would block recipients from buying prohibited products and allow government fraud investigators to track transactions more closely than does the current system . Each card user would have a personal identification number to prevent thieves from using stolen cards . Printing food stamps vouchers that grocery shoppers use instead of cash is wasteful because each voucher can only be used once , Espy said . In inner city areas , food stamp transactions can comprise as much as 40 percent of a grocery store 's retail food sales , according to the task force . Once the food stamps are collected by grocery stores and shipped back to the Agriculture Department , they are burned . `` The food stamps program we 've been operating in this country for the last 30 years belongs in the same place the dinosaurs are , '' Sharp said . Texas state officials began developing their electronic system to pay veterans ' and old age benefits in 1991 , he said . But benefits recipients could be liable for a large chunk of the cost of goods purchased with pilfered cards and could be forced to pay ATM-user fees . Under a current federal law known as Regulation E , a consumer is entitled to reimbursement from his credit card company for all but the first $ 50 that is fraudulently charged on a stolen card if the theft is reported within two days . Earlier this year , however , the Federal Reserve Board exempted the electronic benefits system from the rule for three years . ( Optional add end ) Critics fear that the potential fraud losses may bar expansion of the system . Gore 's report says that the federal government will work with states and the banking industry to develop strategies to limit exposure to fraudulent claims and distribute the liability among all who have a stake in the new system . Gore 's plan permits commercial banks to charge welfare recipient fees for each transaction , and represents `` a kick in the teeth '' to poor people , said Michelle Meier , counsel for government affairs for the Consumers Union , which publishes Consumer Report magazine . `` We are very disappointed that the administration appears to be laying the groundwork to cut the safety net on poor people , '' Meier said . Pilot programs enacted so far appear to have met with some success , however . Maryland is the only state now fully operating the electronic delivery system . It pays about $ 55 million in food stamps , child support and other benefits each month to about 250,000 people . WASHINGTON Rep. Dan Rostenkowski , D-Ill. , was indicted on 17 felony counts of fraud and embezzlement Tuesday , a far broader set of charges than many expected , for alleged acts that ranged from taking kickbacks of government funds from a son-in-law to buying cars for his family with public and campaign money . The lawmaker also is accused of personally tampering with a witness last September by instructing him not to reveal potentially incriminating information to the federal grand jury investigating the case , and of using government wages to pay employees who performed little official work but did such personal chores as photographing one of his daughter 's weddings and mowing the lawn at his summer home . The indictment , which alleges corruption over more than 20 years , also charged Rostenkowski , who has been in Congress nearly 36 years , with using postage vouchers to steal cash from Congress and cashing campaign fund checks at the House Post Office to disguise them as stamp purchases , an outgrowth of the House Post Office probe that led to the Rostenkowski case . U.S. . Attorney Eric H . Holder Jr. announced the charges after plea-bargaining talks collapsed and Rostenkowski defiantly proclaimed his innocence . Holder said Rostenkowski `` used his elective office to perpetrate an extensive fraud on the American people '' that amounted to hundreds of thousands of dollars . ( Begin optional trim ) Holder said the cost of the alleged misconduct `` must also be measured in terms of the corrosive effect it has on our democratic system of government and on the trust our citizens have in their elected officials . `` The criminal acts of a few feed the cynicism which increasingly haunts our political landscape , '' Holder said . This causes `` too many of our citizens to assume that all persons in public office are motivated by greed and self-interest , and to succumb to the defeatist notion that we must resign ourselves to the fact that a certain level of political misconduct is a way of life . '' ( End optional trim ) House Speaker Tom Foley , D-Wash. , contending that Rostenkowski `` clearly deserves the presumption of innocence , '' said the Chicago native has stepped aside as chairman of the House Ways and Means committee until the charges are resolved , in keeping with rules of the Democratic Caucus . Rep. Sam Gibbons , D-Fla. , ranking member of the panel which has a crucial role in handling health care reform , will become acting chairman , but Rostenkowski `` will continue to be fully involved , '' Foley said . President Clinton tried to minimize the impact on health care , saying `` real momentum '' has been created and that he is confident the legislation will pass this year . But the political fallout of the grand jury 's action appeared substantial . Rarely have Rostenkowski 's legendary deal-making skills been more sorely needed than now , when Clinton is asking a Democratic Congress to take a risky leap on health care reform shortly before an election when many political futures are at stake . Following that battle , Ways and Means will be at the center of other issues that could be crucial to the success of Clinton 's presidency most notably , welfare reform , trade and , once again , revamping the Social Security system . Yet while Rostenkowski 's giving up the chairmanship will make the already difficult task of passing health legislation even harder , few believe that the survival of health care reform hinges on having him there to cut the deal . The political forces at work on the issue are so large that they transcend any one person 's influence even one as important as Rostenkowski 's . Indeed , despite the negotiations surrounding the impending indictment , Rostenkowski has devoted himself to the health care bill with a single-mindedness that many of his colleagues have found remarkable . `` Rostenkowski 's ( bill ) is damn near ready , '' said one administration official . ( Begin optional trim ) Because he did not agree to a plea-bargain that would have forced his resignation from Congress , Rostenkowski will remain on the committee . As long as it remains possible that he will return to the chairmanship , he can still exert some influence among Democrats . And because the committee Democrats will be drafting their bill behind closed doors , Rostenkowski may still find a way to operate as the panel 's de facto chairman , while Gibbons assumes the public role . If Rostenkowski were convicted of all the felony counts , he theoretically could be sentenced to 110 years in prison and fined a maximum of $ 365,000 , excluding any restitution he was ordered to pay . But all the charges are subject to the federal sentencing guidelines , which prescribe ranges of punishment depending on such factors as whether the crime involved an abuse of trust . ( End optional trim ) Holder said he expected the trial to take place here and last several weeks . While arraingment will be held within 10 days , Holder would not forecast when the trial would begin . The 49-page indictment alleged that Rostenkowski created an elaborate scheme to defraud Congress and taxpayers through the misuse of congressional allowances involving payroll , the House Stationery Store , the House Post Office and purchase of vehicles . He also was charged with embezzlement , conspiracy , obstruction of justice and concealing material facts from Congress and the Federal Election Commission . In the payroll allegations , Rostenkowski was charged with misappropriating approximately $ 500,000 in taxpayer funds by placing at least 14 people on his payroll who did little or no congressional work . The workers included a former son-in-law who allegedly received $ 10,400 in government salary but performed no work in the congressional office and was required to give most of the money back to his former father-in-law as cash kickbacks . In another arrangement , prosecutors say the son of an Illinois state senator , not identified in the indictment , drew about $ 48,400 in salary from Rostenkowski 's congressional office , though he did no official work . Over the same 1983-1986 time period , the indictment charged , the state senator paid two of Rostenkowski 's daughters a total of $ 48,000 through his payroll . In the House Stationery Store scheme , Rostenkowski allegedly obtained more than $ 40,000 worth of valuable merchandise , most of which he handed out as gifts to personal friends and associates . But he was accused of charging the items to his official expense allowance , which Congress paid . ( Optional Add End ) The obstruction of justice count involved a House engraver whom Rostenkowski allegedly put on his payroll to engrave 50 brass plaques and attach them to 50 crystal sculptures of the Capitol that he obtained from the House Stationery Story and charged to his official expense allowance . Last September the engraver was subpoenaed to testify before the federal grand jury looking into Rostenkowski . Before testifying , however , the engraver , whom Holder declined to identify , was instructed by Rostenkowski during a telephone call not to tell the grand jury about the Capitol sculptures he had engraved for the congressman . Holder declined to discuss the provisions of the plea bargain that Rostenkowski rejected , against the advice of his lawyers . But a source familiar with the negotiations said it involved admitting some elements of the stationery store allegations , the acquisition of vehicles on false grounds and the ghost employee charges . The proposed deal also called for Rostenkowski to resign from Congress and to serve a six-month jail sentence , the source said . The plea-bargaining put a strain on relations between Rostenkowski and his lawyers , Robert S. Bennett and Carl Rauh , but Bennett was still representing him Tuesday morning , Holder noted . RIVERSIDE , Calif. . The former Nation of Islam minister who is suspected of shooting Khallid Abdul Muhammad on Sunday night was seen outside a Los Angeles theater the previous night while Muhammad was speaking inside , sources said Tuesday . Several Nation of Islam members knew the shooting suspect , 49-year-old James Edward Bess , of Tacoma , Wash. , and recognized him as he sat in his parked car , then walked back and forth outside the theater , said various sources , who spoke on condition of anonymity . Police investigators said they were trying to learn whether Muhammad , one of the most controversial figures within the Nation of Islam , was being stalked by Bess . ( Begin optional trim ) Inside of Bess ' vehicle , which was parked near the University of California , Riverside , gymnasium where Sunday 's shooting occured , police found a scope-equipped , high-powered rifle and ammunition . Outside the gymnasium , police recovered a backpack containing two additional semi-automatic handguns , similar to the one they say was used in the shooting . ( End optional trim ) Police said Tuesday they remained clueless about Bess ' motives and had little information about Bess ' falling-out with the Nation of Islam . `` We 're not dealing with a whodunit , '' said UC Riverside Police Chief Hank Rosenfeld . `` We know whodunit . What we 're dealing with is , why ? '' ( Optional Add End ) Bess was arraigned Tuesday afternoon before Riverside Municipal Court Judge Gary Tranbarger . He was formally charged with one count of attempted premeditated murder , with the use of a gun and inflicting great bodily injury . Bess also was charged with five counts of assault with a firearm with infliction of great bodily injury . The most serious charge carries a possible life prison term . Bess remains hospitalized at Riverside General Hospital for injuries he sustained from a beating he took in the melee following the shooting . Riverside County Deputy District Attorney Bill Mitchell said doctors gave the go-ahead for Bess to be taken by wheelchair from the hospital to the courtroom , dressed in blue pajamas and his left arm bandaged to his side to protect a broken shoulder . Abrasions on his face and head were apparent . Answering the judge 's inquiries in a soft voice , Bess pleaded not guilty to the six counts and was assigned a public defender , Mitchell said . His preliminary hearing was scheduled for June 14 , and he was being held without bail and under police guard . Muhammad , who was suspended as spokesman for the Nation of Islam by Louis Farrakhan after a verbal assault on Jews , Arabs and whites was roundly denunciated , underwent surgery Tuesday night at Riverside Community Hospital to remove a bullet lodged in his leg . Persons familiar with Bess characterized him as a generally loyal follower of Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan , despite having been removed as minister of a Seattle mosque about four years ago , and later ousted altogether from the Nation of Islam . One source said Bess lost his ranking because he ran an `` unproductive '' mosque , where attendance had slipped to an all-time low and was making no money . CAPE CANAVERAL , Fla. . With high hopes for her future , marine scientists returned Inky the whale to her Atlantic Ocean home Tuesday after recovering from an overdose of pollution . The well-traveled whale , rescued from a New Jersey beach on Thanksgiving and nursed back to health in a five-month stay at Baltimore 's National Aquarium , was taken into deep water about 35 miles east of Cape Canaveral by a National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration vessel and given her freedom . Inky immediately dispelled the fears of aquarium officials that she would be slow to adapt and simply swim around in circles waiting for a food handout . `` She just took right off , '' said aquarium veterinarian Brent Whitaker after Inky nosed into the ocean carrying a small radio transmitter and a microcomputer so marine experts can keep track of her activities over the next few days . The pygmy sperm whale 's last trip with human caretakers began at the Marineland park south of St. Augustine where she and another stranded female of her species , nicknamed Blinky , had occupied round holding pools about 20 feet apart . Inky was carried in a custom-fitted canvas sling by a backhoe and loaded onto a foam bed in a borrowed refrigerated seafood company truck , while Blinky was moved in like fashion into a Marineland truck for a predawn , 112-mile ride to Cape Canaveral under police escort . Blinky , having overcome a small infection at Marineland , was transferred to the Coast Guard Cutter Drummond , while Inky was taken aboard the Relentless a 226-foot former Navy submarine surveillance vessel making its maiden mission for NOAA and the National Marine Fisheries Service . Blinky , unencumbered by equipment , was lowered in a sling from the side of the cutter and vanished in the sea swells . Cmdr. Patrick Ruttan said NOAA 's cooperation was part of its mandated mission to educate the public on ocean pollution like the plastic trash that Inky swallowed and nearly died from in November , emerging as a living symbol of that environmental problem . With the whale 's story being turned into a documentary film for young people , Ruttan said the benefits `` will far outweigh the costs so far of getting Inky released . '' Aquarium officials said those costs could be close to $ 500,000 most of it in donated services from government agencies and the private sector , but not including some 40,000 hours of labor provided by the dozens of volunteers in its marine animal rescue program . Inky survived longer in captivity than any other seriously ill pygmy sperm whale , and Dr.Joseph H. Geraci , a consulting veterinarian and marine mammal expert , said she enabled scientists to greatly expand their knowledge of the species ' physiology and behavior , including the discovery that it emits the highest-frequency sonar-like sound of any whale . Even in being released , Inky will continue to provide information until saltwater exposure disintegrates the bolts attaching the radio transmitter and microcomputer to the whale 's small dorsal fin . Geraci said the tiny equipment will tell scientists remaining on NOAA 's Relentless `` what she 's doing out there , what temperature she likes , how deep she 's diving , and that should tell us how well she 's made the adaptation to freedom . '' Foreign money is pouring into Japanese stocks again , convinced that the Japanese economy 's four-year slide is over and that a robust corporate profit turnaround is imminent . Many foreign buyers also are betting on another , perhaps more important turnaround : a change in Japanese investors ' gloomy view of their market , which has left most of them watching unimpressed on the sidelines as the gaijin ( foreigners ) snap up Japanese shares . The Nikkei-225 stock index has soared from 17,417.24 at year 's end to 20,973.59 as of Tuesday , a 20.4 percent gain that makes the Tokyo market among the world 's best this year . In recent days the Nikkei has been particularly strong , breaking above the 20,000 mark where it had been lodged since February to a nine-month high . Optimism about Japan is running high among many American portfolio managers . The bulls believe that the Japanese economy is finally bottoming and that Japan therefore offers an opportunity to buy stocks on the ground floor of a recovery . Any money manager who missed loading up on U.S. stocks for two years while the U.S. economy languished naturally doesn't want to make the same mistake twice . And those who played the U.S. market correctly are eager to repeat that success . Barton Biggs , global investment strategist for Morgan Stanley & Co. and someone whose opinion carries substantial weight with institutional investors , recently told clients that `` the Japanese market is a buy right now . '' Biggs ' case is that Japan 's many ills including a floundering political system , collapsed corporate earnings , a strong yen and horrendous unrealized real estate loan losses at banks are already so well known to investors that they must be mostly discounted in the stock market . `` What isn't discounted is that Japan is still a huge , powerful economy with a formidable business class running world-class companies located in the center of the fastest growth area of the world , '' Biggs told clients in a May 11 report . Strictly by the numbers , Japan still looks problematic . Real economic growth , which was 4 percent in 1991 , plunged to about 1.5 percent in 1992 and was a negative 0.1 percent last year . The problem last year was largely internal : Japan 's wealthy consumers sharply reduced their spending as the country 's major corporations launched unprecedented restructuring efforts ( including layoffs and deep cuts in capital spending ) to cope with weaker global demand for Japanese exports . In short , 1993 was the year in which corporate Japan finally bit the bullet and admitted that the glory days of the 1980s were gone for good . This year , Morgan Stanley expects only 0.7 percent real economic growth for Japan , far below expected U.S. growth and even below what still-suffering Europe should muster . But in 1995 , the Japanese stock market 's U.S. fans expect the restructuring payoff to begin . Merrill Lynch & Co. is telling clients that Japanese corporate earnings could rocket 35 percent next year from this year 's depressed levels . Morgan Stanley 's Biggs expects that a combination of revived domestic demand and faster export growth will lead to 5 percent to 6 percent economic growth in Japan for 1995 and 1996 . `` When that happens , profits should explode , '' Biggs contends . `` I guess that reported earnings per share in the industrial sectors could double in the first year of recovery . '' Even so , many investors would argue that Japanese stocks already reflect 1995 earnings gains , and more . After all , the Japanese market 's price-to-earnings ratio is around 70 now , based on estimated 1994 earnings per share . Even cut in half , the Japanese P-E would be 35 , still far above the 15 to 20 P-Es of most world markets . The bulls contend that the P-E argument isn't important , and not just because Japanese stocks have always sold for high P-Es . Adjust for accounting differences and look at real , cash earnings of Japanese companies versus cash earnings of American or European companies , and many Japanese stocks appear quite reasonable , says John Hickling , one of Boston-based Fidelity Investments ' senior international managers . By Morgan Stanley 's figuring , Japanese stocks now sell for 7.8 times estimated 1995 cash earnings , versus 8.3 times for U.S. stocks . Hickling , who manages Fidelity 's Japan stock fund and Overseas stock fund , among others , says `` a lot of the ( Japanese ) stocks I own sell for less than 10 times 1994 cash flow , '' which is cheap if you consider how depressed earnings still will be this year , he says . `` I think the Japanese market looks terrific , '' Hickling says , and he 's focused in particular on industrial giants such as Toyota . `` You just have to look at what they 've done to their cost base '' to see rich future profit potential there , he says . William Stack , manager of the Lexington Global stock fund , also believes that Japan 's leading industrial and export companies are poised for surprising turnarounds . `` One of my strongest investment convictions today is Japanese cyclical stocks , '' says Stack , whose fund owns issues such as Toyota and Honda Motor . Yet beyond the obvious potential pitfalls in the bullish case on Japan another dive in the economy , or a further steep strengthening of the already overvalued yen ( which would hurt exports ) there 's one glaring market problem : The Japanese themselves aren't buying stock . Still traumatized by their four-year bear market , Japanese regard the latest market surge as the work of `` silly gaijin , '' says Jamie Rosenwald , whose Rosenwald Capital Management has long been active in Japan . Rosenwald will be in Japan next week , specifically to look for hints that cash-rich Japanese institutions are ready to begin trickling back into the stock market . If he can't find signs that that 's ready to happen , he admits , he will have to reconsider his bullish view of the market . Rosenwald believes that if domestic investors join in , the Nikkei could hit 25,000 in a hurry . But without their participation and soon he says , `` this rally could fizzle real quickly . '' VIERVILLE-SUR-MER , France A brisk wind is blowing off Omaha Beach into the souvenir shop of Madame Sylvie le Gallois , a short , alert woman who speaks almost no English but is fluent in capitalism . `` Oui , '' she says , she has heard that thousands of veterans soon will be flocking to the beach for the 50th anniversary of World War II 's Normandy invasion . She hopes that many will be stopping to pick up the D-Day license plates , replica Zippo lighters and special `` 50 Ans '' edition bottles of champagne displayed in her window . So business will be good , she is asked in halting French . Her eyes roll as if she has just been offered a prize truffle . `` Oh , '' she gushes , `` oui , monsieur ! '' Driving around the city of Caen or through the coastal towns along the invasion beaches , it is difficult to see which is winning commercial opportunism or genuine affection . Is it `` Vive le Debarquement ? '' Or is it `` Vive '' la buck ? Is the real spirit of the moment reflected in an advertisement for a risque revue , or in the American , British and Canadian flags displayed outside Norman farmhouses ? Sit down to eat and you find your silverware flanking a placemat battle scene complete with parachutes floating into Ste.-Mere-Eglise . Reach for a lump of sugar for your thick Norman coffee and discover a drawing on the package of a truckload of GI 's reaching down to shake the hands of the French citizenry . Walk down the street and you will find replica `` clickers , '' the toys used by airborne Allied troops to locate each other in the dark , selling for five bucks a pop . Probably one of the most overt examples of invasion capitalism is a poster slapped on buildings throughout Caen . They advertise a coming revue titled `` Nuit du Debarquement , '' which promises `` major dynamite '' and features a scantily clad woman floating to Earth with a parachute . The veterans have noticed the displays . `` You know what this is , don't you ? It 's D-Day . Dollar Day , '' says 74-year-old Jack Alexander , as he looks at souvenir tents recently placed next to Utah Beach . The big-ticket items were fleece-lined World War II-style bomber jackets for the equivalent of $ 600 to $ 800 . Alexander , who lives in Severna Park , Md. , landed here a half-century ago five days after the initial wave of GIs , but he shrugs when asked if he is alienated by the area 's commercialism . `` Hell , no , '' he says . `` The Yanks probably taught it to them . '' But there is true warmth amidst the mercantilism one that springs from a once-oppressed people . Cynics must take into account a postcard sent recently by a woman living near Paris to the Caen Memorial , the city 's new museum dedicated to World War II and the Normandy invasion . She begins by asking that the card be given to any of the D-Day veterans. `` .. . and others who risked their lives in order to save us and give us back our liberty . Thank you a thousand times . '' The card is in French but she adds in English , `` We shall never forget what you did for us . '' ( Begin optional trim ) Less obvious are the French who have given rooms in their homes gratis to visiting former soldiers who arrived in an overbooked town . But quite visible are the French families who lead their children reverentially around the American Cemetery and Memorial as well , as the classes of French schoolchildren on field trips who listen as teachers tell them about their country 's liberation . `` We have worked very hard to learn about the ` Debarquement , ' ' ' says Dromain Marc , an instructor at the Jean Moulin School near Paris . His class of 9- and 10-year-olds play around him , in the shell holes and on the concrete chunks of destroyed German bunkers at Pointe du Hoc , the precipice scaled by the U.S. Rangers . `` It is history . It is the price of the liberty . '' ( End optional trim ) And then there are surprises like Jean Marc , a thin , deferential Frenchman with an unruly moustache who owns a small Normandy tour business . No , he doesn't want his last name used or his tours promoted , but he would be glad to bring over veterans on his tour if they would like to be interviewed . The countryside has undergone an amazing change lately , he says . Normandy folk are not known as loquacious , he says but locals have become surprisingly talkative when it comes to sharing tales about the day the Allies landed . `` Maybe it is time after 50 years , '' he says . Of course there are some who will take advantage of the invasion memories for the buck , he says . But the show of generosity is real . `` Norman people don't forget . And next winter when everyone is gone , they will still remember . '' NEW YORK For Kenny Vixama 's first-grade teacher , an alarm went off when she noticed that the 6-year-old often invented his own text for the simple storybooks his class was reading . Though a bright child , as he read his eyes did not follow the left-to-right pattern of a successful reader . He had trouble identifying specific words when asked to find them . And he showed confusion with certain patterns of letters a basic stumbling block in learning to read . Kenny 's difficulties had landed him in the bottom 20 percent in reading achievement among the first-grade students at Public School 41 in Greenwich Village . If Kenny 's problems went uncorrected , he seemed headed down a path of reading failure that has become frustratingly hard to address for teachers across the country . That was when reading specialist Barbara Mandel intervened . Mandel is a soldier in a quiet revolution that is transforming the way some elementary schools deal with slow readers . The program she teaches is known as Reading Recovery , and since 1983 , when it was introduced in this country at Ohio State University , it has spread to 48 states and brought thousands of first-graders up to average or above reading levels . Developed in the 1970s by New Zealand educator and psychologist Marie Clay and used extensively in that country , the program 's premise is that the best way to avoid reading failure is to prevent it in the first place . The simple theory has won a cult-like following among an army of U.S. teachers who have gone through yearlong training to more effectively tutor children in the most fundamental skill . Ohio State professor Gay Su Pinnell , who helped establish the university 's pilot program and heads a de facto national organization of Reading Recovery teachers , estimates that by the end of the year , 9,000 teachers will have been trained and will have reached 50,000 to 60,000 students . Programs are booming in Ohio , California and Texas , and even in small states , legislatures and local school districts are approving special funding for trial programs , she said . But Reading Recovery has not been universally endorsed , mainly because of its high personnel costs and selectivity . Though implementation costs vary from district to district , all have to foot the bill for teachers like Mandel to take a year off for rigorous training . Then , they must dramatically scale back the teacher 's regular duties to allow time to work with a small number of children . Some principals have complained that the program unfairly concentrates limited funds on first-graders , leaving little for programs geared toward vulnerable children in later years . In the District of Columbia , where about 23 teachers have been trained , Deputy Superintendent Maurice Sykes said , `` We 've had to do a lot of convincing '' to win over principals despite Reading Recovery 's early successes . `` This has been our flagship intervention program , '' Sykes said . `` We have hard empirical data that demonstrates that children who 've gone through the program will do better , that it is a long-term investment in the child 's future. . . . But for the principal with `` X ' dollars to spend , there 's a real tendency to put the money into programs that serve the most children . '' Reading Recovery assumes that every child can learn to read if confusion with the language is detected and corrected as soon as it becomes a problem . Many educators see the program as a first step in a long struggle to break the failure chain that has cluttered junior high and high schools across the country with nonreaders . By the time students reach upper grades , experts say , the inability to read has usually taken an enormous academic and social toll . Sykes , whose district has contracted for special tutoring services for illiterate high school students , said most of the older students `` were probably exhibiting problems as early as first grade . But no one was scrutinizing ; back then , there was no Reading Recovery . '' Studies of Reading Recovery children show that 80 percent who go through the 12-20 week intervention never need further reading remediation or special education , according to specialist Angela Jaggar , a New York University professor who is conducting follow-up studies of children who went through the program , which began in Manhattan 's District 2 in the mid-1980s . `` What the schools have traditionally done is wait until a long time has passed in a child 's life to decide they 're having difficulty in reading. . . . The longer you wait the harder it is , '' explained Jaggar . `` This program helps us understand how kids learn naturally , to spot their confusions and respond immediately with a repertoire of strategies . '' In Kenny Vixama 's case , Mandel several weeks ago began one-on-one tutoring sessions . The first lessons allowed him to show off what he knew , a phase called `` Roaming Around the Room , '' designed to build the child 's self-confidence . Then , in each structured 30-minute session , Kenny worked first on familiar materials and built gradually to more challenging ones , with Mandel intervening when a difficult word or phrase stopped him . At one recent session , with a timer clicking in the background , Kenny stumbled over the word `` how . '' Mandel quickly pulled out plastic letters to spell the word , let Kenny sound it out , write it on a slip of paper , rhyme it and find its proper place in a scrambled sentence . With each small victory , Kenny was able to move on through the text , his finger following the words , a technique Mandel purposely used to keep his attention properly focused . She watched intensely , keeping a written record of Kenny 's progress to help structure the next day 's session . With 12 of the maximum 60 lessons under his belt , Kenny seemed a candidate for success . But there were frustrations . Though Kenny 's problems were detected early in the year , it had taken until spring to work him into the program . Because Reading Recovery is only offered in first grade , Kenny would have only the few remaining weeks of school to work . Mandel , who helped eight children move up to average reading ability this year , expressed a complaint common in the movement there 's never enough time or teachers to reach all the children in need of help . In Jackson , Miss . , Superintendent Ben O . Canada has decided to shoulder the costs that come with wide-scale implementation of Reading Recovery . In 1991 , using federal Chapter 1 funds for needy students , the Jackson district began implementing Reading Recovery in eight of its lowest performing schools . Seventeen teachers were trained in the technique . Now , Reading Recovery has expanded to 37 Jackson schools and 81 teachers , and the district is cited as a national model of how the program can turn around reading progress in small school districts . `` Being in this for many years , I '' ve seen so many fly-by-night programs , fancy packaging for things that didn't work . This has caused a revolution here almost , '' said Ida J. McCants , Chapter 1 administrator for the Jackson schools . `` The teachers are revitalized . The strategies they 're learning are helping them get through to children . And the parents are delighted . They see real growth in a short period of time . '' Yet even the program 's strongest advocates concede that Reading Recovery is only a beginning in the enormous fight against illiteracy . `` We 're optimistic , '' said Pinnell . `` But we know this problem is bigger than we are . '' The new supersonic jetliner sponsored by a $ 1.5 billion NASA research contract would require major breakthroughs in aircraft technology . Among them : Aerodynamic drag must be cut to an absolute minimum . One technique involves a radical new design in which massive pumps would suck turbulent air off the skin of the wings through millions of microscopic holes . The so-called laminar flow over the wings would be virtually free of turbulence , cutting the drag . The 311-foot-long jet must be so light that its structure would probably be built in large part with thin sheets of titanium , held together through an exotic process called super plastic diffusion bonding . Engines that power supersonic jets are notoriously noisy , but the new planes would have to keep quiet if they want a chance at wide acceptance . A new design for the exhaust nozzles is expected to allow the plane to meet existing airport noise standards . Inside the engines , the combustion chamber , or `` combustors , '' would operate at 3,600 degrees , hot enough to melt existing steel alloys and about 700 degrees hotter than existing engines . NASA is betting that a new fiber-reinforced ceramic composite liner would stand up to the heat . To prevent severe environmental damage , the engines must emit no more than five grams of nitrogen oxide for each kilogram of fuel burned . One proposed system would mix fuel and air in the engine upstream from the normal burning zone , allowing the lean fuel mix to vaporize better . The other proposed system would create a stratified fuel mixture , first injecting excess fuel and then adding air later in the combustion to create a lean stage a concept called rich burn-quick quench-lean burn . NASA is still hoping to find ways to reduce the sonic boom generated by the jet as it flies over the ocean . A boom , which is the acoustic shock wave trailing an aircraft , is a function of an aircraft 's mass , shape and its speed . Although cutting the boom is possible , it must be done without significantly hampering flight efficiency . Dan Rostenkowski 's problem is that so many prospective jurors in America know all too well the perils of home renovation , the bore and expense of giving china and crystal to people you 'd sooner not be obligated to , the inordinate cost of a daughter 's wedding , the pitfalls of auto leasing , the hoary dilemma of what to do about an underemployed son-in-law and the never-ending vexation of how to keep the grass mowed at a vacation home in another state . There is too much of the familiar upper middle class drudgery in Tuesday 's indictments to provoke a natural sympathy for a congressman accused of having converted these domesticities to federal public works projects . And , of course , jurors whose existence spares them these trials whose daughters run off with the local drug dealer , who haven't a lawn and whose houses defy renovation can't be expected to stretch their natural disposition to liberality to include the forgiveness of such novel ways of achieving the comforts they have been denied . I 'd sooner be Sen. Bob Packwood trying to explain how I had annoyed so many women so repeatedly without ever gaining a reputation as the Senate 's greatest lover but rather as its most often rejected one . When Phil Gramm needed a house built he can now smugly say he went not to the Treasury but to a savings and loan operator . Even Al D' Amato can now boast to colleagues that all his dirty linen is safely stored in the closets where the Senate Ethics Committee keeps the secret testimony that led it to conclude that he ran his office in what even his fellow senators found to be a rather disgusted way . It is there , mocking D' Amato 's detractors who 'd like to pore over its imagined enormities , not being paraded in a manner that reduces public perception of the knaveries of Congress to lawn mowing . The powers of the chairman of the Ways and Means Committee are such that when he falls , it is like the crashing of a mighty oak . And until now , most of the public understood little more than that Chairman Rostenkowski 's legal problems had something vaguely to do with vouchers and postage stamps which brought to mind an almighty congressman being tormented for 29-cent transgressions . Now it has been reduced to terms both more vast and more mundane . One of Rostenkowski 's predecessors as ways and means chairman , Wilbur Mills , fell from power because of a midnight frolic in the Tidal Basin with an Argentine show girl . It 's hard to say which one showed more class . But surely , as we presume for the moment his total innocence , we must admire the defiance of Rostenkowski to such sweeping charges and to the power the government has in its corner . `` I will , '' he said , `` present a compelling case to the jury . '' Either we are going to hear a tale of prosecutorial folly that will curl our hair even Al D' Amato 's hair or we are going to be treated to the whimpering excuses of a powerful man who didn't , in the end , understand power . What 's most curious , I guess , even appalling and depressing , is that the indictment of one Chicago politician is so widely thought to stand between the sick people of this nation and the comprehensive , universal , affordable health care which any humane society would give them . Explain this first and I 'll explain to you why Dan is Snow White . PORT-AU-PRINCE , Haiti Port-au-Prince is facing a health care crisis of immense proportions , with two out of three children suffering from malnutrition and medical professionals predicting the statistics will get worse as the country 's political standoff continues . `` This is a place that is on the path to destruction , '' said Richard Arseneault , director of the Ship of Peter , a converted oceangoing yacht used as a makeshift clinic in Carrefour , on the southern outskirts of the capital . Compared with rural sections of the country , Port-au-Prince and its environs have suffered a greater deterioration in health standards since the 1991 coup against President Jean-Bertrand Aristide , medical workers say . That 's because the metropolitan area has relied on jobs for survival , while in the countryside people live largely off the land . Since the coup , more than 100,000 residents of Port-au-Prince have lost their jobs , cutting off almost 1 million people from their principal sources of income . In January , 66 percent of the children surveyed at health facilities in the Port-au-Prince area were malnourished , according to the United States Agency for International Development . That is a nine point leap over January 1993 , and 11 points higher than the comparable rate for the northwest region , historically considered the most destitute section of the country . A doctor at a clinic in the Cite Soleil ghetto of the capital said she has become all too familiar with the `` visage de petit vieux , '' the child with the expression of an old person . The dermatologist , who asked that her name not be used , spoke as she examined 10-month-old Wilnise Xavier , whose ears were raw from a severe case of scabies and who showed signs of malnutrition , like dozens of others in the waiting room outside . The U.N. embargo against Haiti clearly bears some of the blame for the worsening health profile of the capital . Scores of businesses have shuttered because of the trade ban . There is not enough fuel to pump drinking water . But social-service workers cite other factors : Rampant corruption and mismanagement , which has led to slowdowns in the deliveries of goods from the port , international aid workers have said . Shipments of food and medicine often sit for months on the docks , and some small health organizations have said they cannot afford huge fees that are demanded . Repression of the past 2 years , which has sent tens of thousands of Haitians into hiding or onto wooden boats heading for Florida . Families and whole communities have been disrupted , and experts say they have noted an increase in the number of single-parent households in the capital . `` The people of Haiti have to fight two battles , the battle against repression and the battle against the embargo , and it 's time the international community does what it has to do to end both of them , '' said Dr. Reginald Boulos , director of the Centers for Development and Health , which operates medical and educational programs in Cite Soleil . Ermine Noblette , 37 , said she remembers better times . She talks as if speaking of the distant past , but in fact she is referring to three years ago , when prices were stable and she could afford to feed her children . `` Two of my children have fever and colds , and something is wrong with the baby because she hasn't been eating ( from my breast ) , '' said Noblette , mother of five . Noblette was interviewed early Thursday morning as she lined up outside the Ship of Peter , which serves as a health center for Carrefour , an impoverished community of about 400,000 . The clinic sees 2,000 patients a month and is run by Arseneault , a Catholic lay missionary from Quebec who lives on the vessel . Functioning on a bare-bones budget with financial assistance from the Canadian Embassy , Arseneault said he is supposed to earn $ 50 a month but since October , has been using that money to pay other clinic expenses , such as salaries . The medical needs of the community around him are daunting . Every day he and the 14 Haitians working with him deal with dozens of cases of child malnutrition . They see tuberculosis , malaria and typhoid . Most of Arseneault 's prayers would be answered if he had food to give his clients , who pay a dollar a visit . A smallish man with the wispy , white beard of a leprechaun , he said he recently developed anemia because of his own poor diet . `` In the case of TB , it 's not enough just to give them injections , '' Arseneault said . `` They have to eat well also . Once we were receiving biscuits from international organizations , and we were able to give them biscuits three times a day . But we haven't gotten them in a while . '' At the Ship of Peter , as well as at the nearby Seventh Day Adventist Hospital pediatric clinic , the scarcity of infant milk for malnourished babies is perhaps the most critical problem . A can of soy-based formula that lasts three days costs about $ 3 . `` Sometimes you just have to reach into your pocket and give them the money for the milk , or their babies will die , '' said Dr. Ghislaine Jean-Baptiste , director of pediatrics at the Adventist clinic . But even if the mother is given a can of milk , she will probably take it and divide it up among her other hungry children , meaning the malnourished infant will remain sick , Jean-Baptiste said . One of the few success stories in the war against sickness and malnutrition in the capital has been the Centers for Development and Health . As head of the Centers , Boulos oversees a string of job-training projects , health clinics and feeding centers in Cite Soleil . He applies U.S.-acquired management techniques to his programs and , not incidentally , has been one of Haiti 's notable recipients of grants from USAID . ( Begin optional trim ) Because of his ties to the United States , he has been criticized as an elitist who is out of touch with the community that he serves . In his defense , Boulos mentioned among other things to his `` mental stimulation '' program that has lifted formerly malnourished children to a level where they can learn and play like other youngsters . He pointed to a group of them dressed in bright checkered clothing , as they sat in a classroom . `` These are all children who three or four years ago were at the brink of d ying , '' said Boulos . `` Today they can talk to you or sing to you as all normal babies do . '' Twenty miles away in Carrefour , Arseneault was decidedly more pessimistic . His `` health agent , '' Joseph Beaudelaire , sometimes bloodies his feet walking through nearby communities , as he visits patients to counsel them on hygiene . He would like to buy or rent a motor scooter for Beaudelaire but he does not have the money . `` It is hard , '' Beaudelaire said . `` I was about to go into one house this week and I heard a scream . It was a child who was crying from hunger . '' ( End optional trim ) Arseneault says he sees the worst of Haiti from his boat , bodies , shot and dumped on the shores nearby . `` Where are you , Lord ? I sometimes ask , '' Arseneault said , acknowledging that Haiti often tests his faith in the power of good over evil . When Boston 's Pioneer Group looked to establish a mutual fund in Eastern Europe , Poland was the logical choice . With 40 million people , it was the biggest nation . There were no grisly ethnic feuds within its borders . And Poles had money to invest : Pioneer estimated $ 10 billion in `` under-the-mattress '' savings alone , much of it from U.S. relatives . When Pioneer looked for a fund manager , the choice was equally clear . Alicja Malecka was raised in the southern Polish town of Czestochowa known for its Black Madonna of miracles and educated in Warsaw and New York. . She had just begun a U.S. Treasury assignment in Poland . `` She had done international operations and international banking , '' said William H. Smith , president of the Pioneering Services subsidiary of Pioneer , who laid the groundwork for the First Polish Trust Fund in mid-1992 . `` She was at the time on loan to the Polish Ministry to set up its first government bond system . And she was a Pole . '' Malecka took the job , and for just under two years has run Poland 's first , and so far its only , mutual fund . She has built the fund 's $ 100,000 seed money to nearly $ 1 billion in assets , and attracted about 500,000 Poles with a return last year alone of nearly 200 percent . It was a decision that put Malecka smack in the economic swirl of a country she meant to leave for good in 1969 . It has given her professional challenges she once considered `` unthinkable . '' And this is just the beginning . Malecka 's next challenges include a $ 75 million investment fund for Poland , and mutual funds for other , yet-unannounced Eastern European countries . `` I find it all unbelievably flabbergasting , '' Malecka said in a recent interview . `` It 's the only word I can come up with . '' Malecka had returned reluctantly to Poland . She said she had no fascination for revisiting her roots . She had left the Central School of Planning and Statistics in Warsaw four years into a five-year program , she said , `` completely disenchanted with the realities and absence of opportunities in Poland at the time . '' But 20 years later , world events turned that assessment on its head . The fall of communism brought down the central economies of Eastern Europe . Capitalism rushed into Poland , following a pattern common to the newly converted economies . Rampant optimism brought inflation to match , reaching almost 300 percent in 1989 . Legislation has since reined that in to an expected 23 percent this year while the government worked to convert the massive , state-owned businesses to private firms . Some Poles even started up private businesses of their own . But the practical difficulties of this phase led to rising unemployment and falling living standards , according to Derek Brzezinski , a senior consultant with the U.S. accounting firm Ernst & Young in Warsaw . Still , the Polish economy grew as fast or faster than any in Europe , according to Wlodzimierz Chodzko , commercial adviser in New York for the Polish Embassy . And one bright spot has been the Warsaw Stock Exchange , which stretched from its original five companies in 1991 to 24 as of last month . Its runup of 700 percent made it the world 's most successful market last year . Then the market sputtered around New Year 's , and crashed from March to April . Such dramatic gyrations are not unusual for new , small markets . But suddenly all those Pioneer ads about safety in diversification caught the Poles ' eyes : While the market fell 52 percent , Malecka 's fund with 10 percent overseas investments , and the rest spread among various Polish stocks and government bonds dropped only 6 percent . `` Let 's just say we were considerably outperforming the market , '' Malecka said . That explains why about half of her 500,000 investors have signed on since mid-December , she said , paying a 5.5 percent sales commission . And that 's why Polish securities regulators welcomed Pioneer 's plans for a mutual fund , Chodzko said . `` They bring accumulated knowledge in something that reaches segments of investors who are not eager for such speculative profits as the stock market , '' he said . By now , other funds reportedly are in the pipeline there , and the government plans to privatize about 350 more companies this summer . ( Optional add end ) The expansion is important , experts say , partly because regulations prohibit Poles from investing overseas . Also , the tiny stock market has such severely limited investment choices and in the process such inflated prices that Pioneer chose not even to offer a Polish mutual fund to U.S. investors , Smith said . In fact , none are now sold in the United States , said William McBride , international editor for Lipper Analytical Services , which tracks the mutual fund industry . American investors ' best options now , McBride said , are to invest in European funds that include Poland , or in companies now doing business in Poland . As for Pioneer 's work within Poland , McBride described the firm as well prepared , partly through its earlier sales within Germany . And he called its balanced fund approach mixing stocks with bonds a good one in an emerging economy , as evidenced by its strong performance through the recent market crash . Malecka said her new challenge for the fund will be to play Warsaw 's more mature market . `` We 'll have to look to selecting stocks rather than just running with the market , '' she said . `` It means more sophisticated analysis and more time spent in managing . '' WASHINGTON A sleek , needle-nosed jetliner carrying 300 passengers taxis out of Los Angeles International Airport , rolls to a hushed takeoff over the Pacific Ocean , then accelerates like no commercial plane in history reaching 2.4 times the speed of sound nearly 12 miles above the earth . The titanium airplane with a cockpit that looks like a video arcade pulls into Tokyo in just over four hours cutting six hours off the normal trip . Getting to Asia from Los Angeles is no more of a hassle than a hop to Chicago . Jet-lagged international travelers have been anticipating such an airplane for 20 years , since Congress halted development of a first-generation supersonic jetliner and Europe produced the rival Concorde an economic flop . Advances in technology have raised hopes in the Clinton administration that the long-standing economic and environmental problems with supersonic jets can be overcome if the government puts in the seed money . Without much fanfare given the stakes , the National Aeronautics and Space Administration is poised to issue a $ 1.5 billion contract in coming weeks to a consortium of every major U.S. commercial airplane and jet engine company for an ambitious research program leading to a supersonic jet in regular service by 2005 . NASA hopes Americans would dominate the effort , though it would likely include foreign suppliers and investors . It 's the sort of colossal industrial project that would require enormous investments , carry huge technical risks and raise potentially serious environmental concerns . Some experts claim NASA is too optimistic about its ability to solve the environmental concerns . And the airlines , reeling from financial losses , have voiced little enthusiasm for buying new planes , particularly ones a decade away . But there is a huge potential payoff if the skeptics are wrong and the plane fulfills its promise of being far more fuel-efficient than the Concorde and if it can fly without fouling the atmosphere . NASA touts the program as the most important industrial project in the nation 's future and says it is a key to halting the erosion of American dominance of the world aircraft industry . At stake is a potential $ 200 billion in orders for 500 to 1,000 of the supersonic aircraft that would support roughly 140,000 manufacturing jobs in such areas as Southern California and Seattle , said Wesley Harris , NASA 's aeronautics chief . `` We have growing confidence that this plane will be built by 2005 by either the U.S. or the Europeans , '' he said . `` Who will build it ? U.S. companies must be in the driver 's seat . '' The strong advocacy reflects a changed attitude at NASA , which for years has sponsored aircraft research that often helped foreign competitors as much as Americans and often engaged in academic research with little commercial value . Since the Apollo moon missions , NASA 's commitment to aeronautics has withered . Director Dan Goldin now wants to put more emphasis on helping the U.S. aircraft industry , drawing strong support from Congress . Last year , lawmakers gave the supersonic program $ 10 million more than the $ 187 million requested by NASA . `` We have underfunded aviation research and we need to make substantial investments in this area , '' said Rep. George Brown , D-Calif. , chairman of the House Science , Space and Technology Committee . `` This program is a good thing for the nation to do . '' Under the new supersonic program , known as the High Speed Civil Transport , NASA will play a central role in organizing the efforts of major U.S. aerospace companies and making the key decisions in the next four years about which technologies will be used . For the first time , the archrivals of the commercial aircraft industry will be partners under NASA 's direction : Boeing and McDonnell Douglas for the jet 's airframe and General Electric and Pratt & Whitney for the engines . By pooling America 's best talents , NASA hopes to make the major breakthroughs needed to make a supersonic jetliner economically viable . That task alone is daunting . The program to actually develop the aircraft , including the detailed engineering of each of millions of parts and the building of thousands of production tools , would require a private-sector investment of $ 15 billion more than double the cost of past jetliner developments . Even if high sales volume defrayed the investment expense , the planes would cost $ 180 million to $ 300 million each . ( A Boeing 747 today costs roughly $ 150 million . ) Proponents argue that the high price would be offset by the aircraft 's ability to make two trips for every one that a subsonic plane makes . As a result , fares would be no more than 20 percent higher than current tickets , Boeing and McDonnell Douglas engineers say . `` It would make this an airplane for everybody , not just high-paying passengers , '' said Bruce Bunin , McDonnell 's manager for the program in Long Beach , Calif. . Keeping costs low will also require that the plane be highly fuel-efficient , meaning its structure must be very lightweight , engines highly economical and aerodynamic drag at a minimum . Because U.S. law prohibits commercial planes from creating sonic booms over land , the jets would fly supersonically only over the ocean . A failing of the 100-passenger Concorde has been its gross inefficiency in flying subsonically , an area where the new plane must excel . After Congress forbid supersonic flights over land in the 1970s , the market for Concordes collapsed ; fewer than 30 were built . Unlike the Concorde , the new jet would have flaps and slats that would change the shape of the wing depending on the plane 's speed , allowing it to fly nearly as efficiently as today 's jetliners . But even if the plane can do all this , it is not clear that airlines will rush to buy it . U.S. airlines have collectively lost $ 12 billion in four years , and their enthusiasm for costly new planes seems tepid at best . American Airlines spokesman Al Becker said the supersonic jet carries high risk and may be too specialized for the flexible fleet his company wants . `` This is an industry that is struggling desperately for survival , '' he said . `` We are in no position to be thinking about buying large numbers of $ 200 million airplanes . Where are we going to raise that kind of money ? '' ( Begin optional trim ) Instead of a supersonic jet , airlines may opt for a proposed 600-passenger super-jumbo plane that Boeing and McDonnell Douglas are studying . It would involve much less technical risk and may be more adaptable to different routes . The Air Transport Association , the trade group representing U.S. airlines , has not raised the supersonic jet as a priority , a spokesman said . And the program is not even mentioned in McDonnell 's or Boeing 's 1993 shareholder reports . ( End optional trim ) NASA officials , however , believe any reservations about the supersonic planes are myopic . Just build the plane and `` the market will be there , '' claims Louis J. Williams , director of the supersonic program at NASA . Commercial air travel is growing at 8 percent to 10 percent per year , he said , and international travel growth is paralleling the explosion in international trade . ( Begin optional trim ) Weary business travelers would flock to a supersonic jetliner that promises to reduce jet lag . If executives can get to Tokyo or Paris , conduct business and board a return flight on the same day of their departure , they may never have to adjust to a different time zone . `` From the traveling public 's perception , I am not sure we have done much for them in the past 20 years , '' said Sam Gilkey , head of GE 's effort to develop a supersonic engine . `` This plane offers more to the public than a 600-seat plane you hear so much about . '' Still , even in an industry where companies firms bet their survival on each new product , the supersonic plane carries unique risks . It will require entirely new high-technology materials , computerized jet engine controls and even new research into human behavior . For example , when pilots land the jet , instead of looking out the window , they would rely on `` synthetic vision '' that would resemble a video game screen . NASA and industry officials believe they have licked a long-standing concern that a fleet of supersonic commercial jets flying through the stratosphere would seriously degrade the ozone . In recent years , NASA has invested $ 500 million into research on supersonic jet engines that would cut pollution by controlling combustion and fuel air mixture . ( End optional trim ) Aviation has always had unique public support . It occupies a special place in American history and plays a key role in the U.S. economy . Commercial aircraft are America 's leading export . At issue is whether the NASA research program will give the U.S. the dominant technological position internationally . With the lead role , U.S. industry would then be in a position to decide when to launch production of the jet . `` I believe it is the most critical manufacturing decision this country will make in the next 10 years , '' Harris said . The following editorial appeared in Wednesday 's Washington Post : That 's a tough indictment that was handed up against Rep. Dan Rostenkowski , D-Ill. , Tuesday . It was sometimes said in the course of the two-year investigation by the U.S. attorney 's office here that the veteran congressman would never commit offenses as petty as those in which he was said to have been involved . But taken together , and if in fact they occurred as described , the alleged offenses are anything but petty ; they can't be put in the everybody-does-it category either . Rostenkowski , who as chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee has been an extremely effective and valuable member of Congress , is of course entitled to the presumption of innocence . He has elected , as is both his right and style , to contest the charges rather than accept a profferred deal that would have sent him to jail . That may be an indication he thinks he can win , but he has acknowledged that he likely faces an uphill fight . The case against Rostenkowski will be described already has been as in part the case against Congress . That 's because he has become emblematic of a particular congressional lifestyle . But in fact the charges against him have to do only peripherally with that lifestyle . He is not accused of having taken gifts or golfing trips or funds from interest groups , though he has certainly done his great share of that over the years . Rather , he is accused of having gone to sometimes extraordinary lengths to make personal use of his House office accounts public funds and , to a lesser extent , of accumulated and surplus campaign funds . Over the years he is accused of having taken a large amount , but of having squeezed it out a small amount at a time . That 's not the public 's image of a congressional committee chairman . Under the House Democratic rules , Rostenkowski now must relinquish his chairmanship . It is set to go to Rep. Sam Gibbons , D-Fla . The conventional wisdom has been that Gibbons isn't up to the job isn't shrewd or forceful enough and that the president 's health-care reform proposal could well be the first casualty . We think that 's a little premature : not the health-care prediction Who knows what will happen to that ? but the prediction as to Gibbons . There was a similar clucking sound when Daniel Patrick Moynihan , D-N.Y. , succeeded former Sen. Lloyd Bentsen of Texas as chairman of the Senate Finance Committee before last year 's budget battle ; too flaky , said the critics and the budget passed . We even remember a few disparaging remarks when Rostenkowski ascended to the Ways and Means chairmanship ; too crude , they said , and now they lament the loss of his toughness . The critics who said that the Justice Department in a Democratic administration couldn't be counted on to prosecute a leading congressional Democrat were also wrong . We have no idea how the Rostenkowski case will turn out ; the defense has yet to be heard from . But whatever occurs , the case hasn't been deflected for political reasons . That 's already an impressive result . HOLLYWOOD The Tabloid Gossip Column. .. . OPPORTUNITY KNOCKS !! ! Coming next Wednesday night on CBS is `` A Busch Gardens/Sea World Celebration , '' an hourlong summer vacation tip being produced for the Anheuser Busch Theme Parks . It has the same taint as `` Treasure Island , '' an alleged children 's special set in the new Treasure Island park at the Mirage Hotel in Las Vegas . The hotel 's parent firm , Mirage Resorts , was the sponsor of this NBC hour last January . Continuing on this grimy path , ABC 's June 15 special , `` The Lion King : The Musical Special With Elton John , '' is produced by the Wrightwood Group in association with Disney Television . John wrote the music and Tim Rice the lyrics for `` The Lion King , '' an animated movie from Disney that opens in New York and Los Angeles June 15 , the same day as the TV special and three days after the June 12 premiere of `` The Making of ` The Lion King '' ' on the Disney Channel . This `` documentary '' has three additional airdates this month . And oh yes , Wednesday finds CBS airing `` Movie News Hot Summer Sneak Preview , '' a program that profiles/promotes four coming Disney films . And what a coincidence ! It was produced by Disney 's Buena Vista Pictures in association with the Wrightwood Group . -0- BODY PARTS !! ! What sexy Hollywood Goddess of the '50s and '60s was ogled and graphically displayed from head to toe on TV recently ? Read on . `` Those stunning eyes .. . that beauty mark .. . that platinum hair. ... '' Yes , added the pitchwoman on cable 's QVC channel , `` no one would dazzle quite like Marilyn Monroe . '' She added : `` Whenever you see a book on Marilyn or a photograph , you stop and gaze . There is just something about her. ... '' To prove it , the QVC camera moved slowly down Marilyn 's curvaceous body . No , not the real Marilyn , stupid , Marilyn the 11.5-inch-tall vinyl doll , the one that your friends `` will admire , '' the pitchwoman promised , `` when they come over to your house . '' Yes , what an exciting prospect : Featured in your living room or greeting guests in your entry , your very own `` fully poseable '' Marilyn Monroe doll . `` She '' is a limited edition with a certificate of authenticity . `` This is a certificate you definitely want to hang on to , '' said the pitchwoman . Just in case your admiring friends doubt you . And who are the buy-by-television zealots who would call QVC to order Marilyn ? Probably the same ones who swooned over the next doll featured on QVC , Sleeping Beauty . `` She has this incredible wig that 's so long and so shiny , '' the pitchwoman said . `` You could feel comfortable taking a doll brush and brushing it out . '' Ooooooh . But not in front of Marilyn . She might get jealous . -0- PRETTY FACES !! ! Who is looking just marvelous in Tunis tonight ? Deborah Norville , that 's who in the debut of the CBS News magazine show , `` America Tonight , '' which she co-hosts with Dana King . On Tuesday , Norville showed up on the syndicated `` Regis & Kathie Lee '' series to promote her opening story about the adventures of a mother who recovered her kidnaped daughter in Tunisia . After watching a clip of Norville doing a stand-up , Regis Philbin was mightily impressed . Proving he 's more than just a pretty face himself , Regis weighed in on the proliferation of newsmagazine shows , telling Norville : `` That 's the beauty of what you 're doing . You can go over there and do these stories at a fraction of the cost and more realistic than Hollywood . '' At last , a textbook justification for news : Not only cheaper than Hollywood , but also more realistic . It 's no accident that David Byrne 's new solo album is titled simply `` David Byrne . '' After more than a dozen albums with Talking Heads and on his own , the singer-songwriter , called `` Rock 's Renaissance Man '' in an '80s Time magazine cover story , has made his most personal work . Gone is much of the emotional shield Byrne held up during the Heads days , when he was the wry , detached observer of human foibles and fads . Gone , too , are most of the elements of world music that characterized his two earlier solo collections 1989 's `` Rei Momo '' and 1992 's `` Uh-Oh . '' In the new album , Byrne , 42 , speaks with a new directness on topics ranging from innocence and love to morality and death in ways that are frequently both disarming and endearing . Before leaving New York on a European tour with his new band , Byrne spoke about the album and how the AIDS-related death two years ago of his sister-in-law , designer Tina Chow , helped push him toward a more personal tone in his music . Q : What about the expectations surrounding someone whose work has been as heralded as yours ? Is it something that inspires you to do better , or does it burden you ? A : It is a little bit of both . The burden part goes along with the whole Western myth of progress ... . That every year we have got to come up with something new .. . something that has to be exciting . That is what causes you to end up with all these disposable trends .. . these styles and stuff that one just replaces the other . You end up pushing artists just to innovate for the sake of innovation , which is kind of futile in the end . On the other hand , the ( expectation ) is good because it gives people a kick in the ass .. . and makes them try to set a standard for themselves because they know people are watching . Q : What was the starting point in the new album ? A : Probably the song `` Buck Naked . '' I wrote it when my wife 's sister was dying of AIDS and so was kind of born out of that grief and confusion ... . Trying to explain what was happening to our little daughter . I think that kind of acted as a catalyst . Q : The interesting thing is that it 's not just the lyrics that are more intimate or personal , but the whole feel of the record the bareness of the arrangements . How did that come about ? A : During the tour , I would often just play the new material with an acoustic guitar in front of an audience . I would introduce the material that way and kind of work it out for myself ... . How to sing it .. . what attitude to take , all that kind of stuff . Afterward , people often said the strength of the writing came across a lot more that way .. . the meaning of the song . So , I decided to strip the band down to sort of the essentials .. . leaving in only what was needed to just embellish the song a little bit . Q : Did part of you resist being so personal in the music ? A : Oh , that 's a constant thing I think . Plus as a writer , it is easy to fall into traps of writing what you know how to do .. . what you can do kind of easily . And , with me , it wasn't the personal kinds of songs . It was more those funny , quirky little songs . Q : It 's also safer to write as the observer , isn't it ? It 's not like you 're revealing yourself . A : Yes . If the song is real personal , it 's not just that they don't like the songs , which you can easily accept , but that they don't like you . Q : What about during the Heads days ? .. . Were there some songs that were very personal ? A : Oh , there were plenty . Songs like `` Cool Water '' and `` Naive Melody '' come to mind first . In those days , however , they were mixed in with others so they didn't stand out . They didn't kind of announce themselves as being completely different from the rest of the stuff . In my case , I think I have gotten far enough away from ( the Heads days ) that I don't care what people say so much , which gives you this incredible freedom to lay it on the line and say what you think ... . I just wanted to write something from the heart .. . something about my own experiences and feelings .. . the kind of music that I look for when I listen to other artists and am moved by their work . ( Optional add end ) Q : In the new `` Sad Song , '' you say , `` But it 's the truly sad people who get the most out of life . '' What do you mean by that ? A : People want the world to be a Hallmark card place , but that 's really disgusting . There is no richness to life without both sides . Q : `` Self-Made Man '' is about a future society where you can buy genes to really remake yourself . Are you optimistic or pessimistic about the future ? A : Yes , `` Self-Made Man '' is a kind of an exception in a way to the rest of the album .. . a completely imaginary scenario . It 's about a possible future where instead of dealing crack on the black market , they are dealing little vials of genes ... . Am I optimistic ? I 'm optimistic that there is still a lot of creativity out there .. . especially in other countries . That is incredibly stimulating and exciting . Politically and economically , I 'm more of a pessimist . Q : How do you see yourself dividing your time over the next few years ? Will you continue to be the `` Renaissance man of rock , '' open to film or stage or classical music projects ? A : Dividing my time between records and other things is important for me . It gives ideas time to kind of germinate while you are working on something else . It also keeps you from feeling like you are on a treadmill . It keeps you open to new ideas and experiences . That 's what keeps you alive .. . artistically . In the coming days , we will celebrate the spectacular achievements , and honor the tremendous sacrifice , of D-day June 6 , 1944 . But the retelling of the massive invasion 5,000 ships , 20,000 vehicles , 150,000 soldiers on June 6 alone will be incomplete if we do not recall that D-day 's success was made possible by a counterintelligence operation so well-planned and coordinated that it remains to this day a standard of excellence . British security forces were remarkably successful in detecting German spies sent to infiltrate the United Kingdom . Some were hanged , some imprisoned , but a number were turned into double agents by MI5 , British counterintelligence . Through these double agents , the Allies learned what Nazi intelligence wanted to know and by inference , Nazi strategic designs . They also became part of an elaborate network of real and fictitious spies ( the `` double-cross system '' ) that was used to feed false and misleading intelligence back to Berlin , including supposed plans and preparations for the Allied invasion of France . A second critical element was the British ability to intercept and decode many Nazi military , diplomatic and intelligence communications . With assistance from Polish and French intelligence before the war and also from German security officials who refused to believe their codes had been broken , British cryptologists cracked `` Enigma , '' Germany 's sophisticated electro-mechanical enciphering machine . Known as `` Ultra , '' the decoded German messages became the most closely guarded secret of the war . Double agents in place and Enigma broken , the infrastructure was set for a grand deception . The Allies had two goals : to mask the initial assault on Normandy and to buy time to gain a foothold in coastal France . The ruse they came up with was the linchpin of the invasion strategy . First , they had to persuade Hitler that the invasion would not take place at Normandy , but to the north at Calais . This was logical , since Calais is at the narrowest part of the English Channel . In the months leading up to D-day , what appeared to be a massive Allied buildup was deployed across from Calais in eastern and southeastern England . German reconnaissance planes spied this assemblage of tanks , barges and aircraft , but did not detect that most were made of plywood , paint and tarpaulin . Nor , because of artful Allied security , did they detect the building of the massive , man-made `` harbor '' for use at the Normandy beaches . And finally , German intelligence intercepted supposed Allied radio communications that were really the phony chatter of a nonexistent army over which a real U.S. general , George Patton , presided . Because of Ultra , the Allies knew that Hitler had swallowed the bait . But it was not enough to simply shield the June 6 assault . Success depended on persuading Hitler that Normandy was a feint to mask the `` real '' assault at Calais . The Allies made a bold gamble . They provided the Germans advance notice of the Normandy invasion 's beginning . British double agent Juan Pujol Garcia code-named Garbo tipped his German handlers of the landing hours before the first wave of men and equipment hit the beach . Too late to do the Germans any good , Garbo 's warning cemented his credentials as a top spy , setting the stage for a more critical step in the deception effort . By June 9 , 1944 , German generals were clamoring for reinforcements in Normandy . Hitler initially complied . But then Garbo urgently reported that all of his agents all fictitious creations of MI5 were convinced that Normandy was a diversion . The real strike , Garbo insisted , would still be at Calais . Hitler read Garbo 's cable and rescinded the order to reinforce Normandy . For critical weeks after D-day , Hitler continued to hold in reserve more than a quarter-million German soldiers , awaiting the much-anticipated Allied attack at Calais . So what is the lesson for today to be drawn from D-day ? At a minimum , it challenges the notion that `` spy wars are a sideshow of passionate interest to the actors , but of marginal significance for national policy '' as stated in a recent New York Times editorial . More broadly , the brilliance of Allied strategists , analysts and operators involved in D-day 's plans is a reminder that governments that take counterintelligence seriously hold a sometimes crucial advantage over those that don't . When plans to celebrate the 50th anniversary of D-Day were being developed , the question arose of what role the Germans should play in the rituals of remembrance . They had been the enemy in 1944 , the defenders of Hitler 's wicked regime . But for most of the last half century they have been allies , not enemies . An invitation should have been extended and accepted in recognition of shared participation in the tragedy of the war and of Germany 's escape from Nazism . An invitation need not have been a denial of the evil inflicted by Hitler . It would have created an opportunity to recall the deeper meaning of D-Day without assigning guilt to survivors who at the time were mostly in their teens and 20s . But the idea was not widely welcomed on either side . German officials and veterans have understandably displayed little eagerness to join the party in honor of their defeat . And those embarking on a vacation trip to the land and time of what writer Studs Terkel called `` the good war '' had little appetite for the ambiguities of a German presence . The issue raises interesting questions of how and why great battles are remembered and whether a distinction ought to be drawn between the celebration of a particular battle and that of an entire war . The American mood for D-Day , 1994 , is a combination of nostalgia for a simpler age , when the moral and political purpose of war was clear , justifiable congratulation for a complex task successfully and quickly completed , and the fun of reliving a tremendous adventure . There will be wreath layings and memorial services , but the occasion is not primarily for mourning or meditation on human folly . But there are other ways of remembering . Abraham Lincoln at Gettysburg in 1863 reaffirmed deep philosophical values . Nov. 11 , 1918 , Armistice Day , was long commemorated with a minute of silence and hope that World War I had been the war to end all wars . And two sides can use shared memories to heal and reconcile . For example , American veterans of the Vietnam War have increasingly been meeting and comparing recollections with their one-time foes . And yet some memories are so bitter that they can be shared with only the greatest difficulty , if at all . President Ronald Reagan 's visit to and conciliatory remarks at the military cemetery in Bitburg , Germany , were condemned because some German SS troops were buried there formations that personified the brutality of Nazism and played a role in the Holocaust . Less than a year after the D-Day ceremonies , however , there will be a greater occasion for remembrance : the 50th anniversary of V-E Day , marking the German surrender of May 8 , 1945 . V-E Day could become another triumph of victors , although the fact that the Soviet Union made the greatest contribution in blood to that victory adds a problematic dimension . Or it could , and should , be an occasion for Americans , Canadians , British , other Europeans , Russians and citizens of the newly independent states formerly in the Soviet Union , and especially of all Germans , to celebrate the defeat of or liberation from Nazism . It could and should be a time of reflection over the causes of World War II and contemplation of measures that might have prevented such suffering and of measures that need to be applied to preclude a recurrence . With the overwhelming majority of Germans today appalled by the recrudesence of ultraright movements bearing a whiff of Nazism , such an approach to remembrance would be very appropriate . In the meantime , the perfectly understandable victors ' urge to celebrate will have been satisfied in 1994 by the memory of D-Day . When plans to celebrate the 50th anniversary of D-Day were being developed , the question arose of what role the Germans should play in the rituals of remembrance . They had been the enemy in 1944 , the defenders of Hitler 's wicked regime . But for most of the last half century they have been allies , not enemies . An invitation should have been extended and accepted in recognition of shared participation in the tragedy of the war and of Germany 's escape from Nazism . An invitation need not have been a denial of the evil inflicted by Hitler . It would have created an opportunity to recall the deeper meaning of D-Day without assigning guilt to survivors who at the time were mostly in their teens and 20s . But the idea was not widely welcomed on either side . German officials and veterans have understandably displayed little eagerness to join the party in honor of their defeat . And those embarking on a vacation trip to the land and time of what writer Studs Terkel called `` the good war '' had little appetite for the ambiguities of a German presence . The issue raises interesting questions of how and why great battles are remembered and whether a distinction ought to be drawn between the celebration of a particular battle and that of an entire war . The American mood for D-Day , 1994 , is a combination of nostalgia for a simpler age , when the moral and political purpose of war was clear , justifiable congratulation for a complex task successfully and quickly completed , and the fun of reliving a tremendous adventure . There will be wreath layings and memorial services , but the occasion is not primarily for mourning or meditation on human folly . But there are other ways of remembering . Abraham Lincoln at Gettysburg in 1863 reaffirmed deep philosophical values . Nov. 11 , 1918 , Armistice Day , was long commemorated with a minute of silence and hope that World War I had been the war to end all wars . And two sides can use shared memories to heal and reconcile . For example , American veterans of the Vietnam War have increasingly been meeting and comparing recollections with their one-time foes . And yet some memories are so bitter that they can be shared with only the greatest difficulty , if at all . President Ronald Reagan 's visit to and conciliatory remarks at the military cemetery in Bitburg , Germany , were condemned because some German SS troops were buried there formations that personified the brutality of Nazism and played a role in the Holocaust . Less than a year after the D-Day ceremonies , however , there will be a greater occasion for remembrance : the 50th anniversary of V-E Day , marking the German surrender of May 8 , 1945 . V-E Day could become another triumph of victors , although the fact that the Soviet Union made the greatest contribution in blood to that victory adds a problematic dimension . Or it could , and should , be an occasion for Americans , Canadians , British , other Europeans , Russians and citizens of the newly independent states formerly in the Soviet Union , and especially of all Germans , to celebrate the defeat of or liberation from Nazism . It could and should be a time of reflection over the causes of World War II and contemplation of measures that might have prevented such suffering and of measures that need to be applied to preclude a recurrence . With the overwhelming majority of Germans today appalled by the recrudesence of ultraright movements bearing a whiff of Nazism , such an approach to remembrance would be very appropriate . In the meantime , the perfectly understandable victors ' urge to celebrate will have been satisfied in 1994 by the memory of D-Day . How do we teach children about morality ? By doing the right thing ourselves . So what will our children conclude about the way we and the rest of the world have turned our backs on the slaughter of 200,000 people in Rwanda ? They 'll think we are long on rhetoric but short on courage . U.N. Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali pleaded with world leaders to send troops to the ravaged country , but those leaders did nothing . President Clinton said he could find `` no strategic reason to do so . '' When crimes against humanity are being committed , there needn't be a strategic reason to intervene . The catalyst ought to be a moral imperative that says : Thou shalt not kill . Boutros-Ghali blamed the world 's refusal to help on `` donor fatigue . '' Presumably , we were all tired of doing good and decided to sit out this massacre . So much for 200,000 innocent men , women and children who were mutilated and killed . So much for the thousands more who may still die if no one intervenes . Evil wins when good men and women are silent . Haven't we learned anything from history ? John Donne said , `` No man is an island unto himself . We are each a piece of the continent , a part of the main .. . so do not ask for whom the bell tolls , it tolls for thee . '' We should all be writing the president , our senators , our congressmen and congresswomen , begging them to intercede out of justice and mercy . We should be explaining to our president that it 's more than the economy , stupid . There are moral absolutes out there . If we had to help feed starving Somalians and I believe we did then the same principles apply to the besieged people of Rwanda . The world is more than our own back yard . We can't stand idly by and endure the slaughter of innocents . If we only act on behalf of what is right when it is convenient to do so , we will not long hold onto the mantle of moral leadership that should be ours . We need to teach our children that sometimes it 's hard to fight for our values . After all , the United States is supposed to be the last best hope on Earth . We are the country founded as the defender of freedom , as the citadel of individual rights . There is no more basic individual right than the right to life a right that is being violated daily in Rwanda . We should be showing the rest of the world fatigued or not how to behave . It is hard to understand a mentality that can fight so hard for gun control laws in this country and then ignore the slaughter of thousands in another country . The world should be a much smaller place , one where we reach out to each other , protect one another . We may not be able to help everyone all the time , but certainly in a case like Rwanda , if we are not there , we are nowhere . Surely , those poor helpless victims deserve better than our indifference . And if some American sons and daughters , all volunteers in the armed forces , were to die in defense of these victims , that is just the price we pay for taking moral stands . No guts , no glory . Or , put another way , if we are unwilling to act on our values , we have none . We need to set the kind of example for our children that says : Violence does not always win , might is not always right . We need to show them that there are knights in armor who will rescue the world 's innocents . Distributed by the Los Angeles Times-Washington Post News Service . With all the talk these days about the Internet that vast network of computers that links millions of people around the world one of the most frequent questions I get is , `` How do I get on ? '' The answer is : With some difficultly . Unless you 're affiliated with a university or a large corporation that maintains a dedicated Internet link , you 're going to have to find an on-ramp to the `` information highway . '' When you do find one , there will undoubtedly be a toll booth at the entrance . And once you 're on the road , given the state of today 's software , you 'd better be prepared for flat tires , broken transmissions and radiator boil-overs . Those disclaimers aside , the journey can be a rewarding one . There 's an incredible amount of information out there , not to mention a direct link to 23 million Internet users around the world . Before you decide to make the trip , it 's a good idea to learn a little bit about what the Internet is and isn't . You may also be able to take a shortcut that can save you time and money . In this column , I 'll talk about Internet basics . First things first . The Internet is not Prodigy or CompuServe or America Online . These companies are complete , self-contained information services . For a fee , they provide you with a well-organized universe of electronic mail , news , weather , features , discussion groups , information databases and collections of programs , graphics and other files to download . They also provide friendly , dedicated communications software that makes their offerings easy to navigate . With any of these large providers , you have a standard business-to-customer relationship . They have to keep you satisfied , ensure that the quality of information they deliver is good , and make the service attractive in order to keep your business . You have every right to demand good service in return for your money . ( It doesn't always work out that way , but that 's the theory ) . The Internet , by way of contrast , is a huge , worldwide network of networks of individual computer systems run by universities and corporations , largely to enhance their own research and development efforts . These institutions have agreed to share their resources with users on other systems . The Internet as a whole also provides a vehicle for sending and receiving electronic mail , and that 's how most people use it . E-mail capability also has given rise to thousands of special interest `` mailing lists '' and `` news groups '' that have made the Net an electronic meeting place for millions of people . Linked by high-speed phone lines , the Internet spreads in all directions , and it 's growing every day . There 's no plan , no overview . Other than a committee that sets technical standards and maintains the system 's high-speed , fiber-optic backbone , nobody runs the Internet . Each organization is responsible for its own computer system , and the people who run those systems are responsible to their organizations . In fact , many of the archives and databases that make the Internet so interesting are maintained by volunteers who devote a great deal of their free time to them . Some computer systems on the net are virtually closed , allowing little access other than E-mail . Others put out the welcome mat , allowing users on other systems to share their wealth . For example , most large university and public library systems make their card catalogs , periodical indexes and archives of scholarly and research papers available on the Net . There are interesting databases everywhere you can find libraries of computer programs , the complete works of Shakespeare , on-line magazines , collections of NASA space photographs , electronic comic books , compilations of Bill Clinton 's speeches almost anything that someone had a mind to store and catalog . Each system on the Net also has its own look and feel . Some provide nothing more than a cryptic prompt , and users have to memorize dozens of the unintelligible commands that have made the Unix operating system so beloved for years . Others welcome you with GOPHER , a friendly menu-based system named for the University of Minnesota programmers who developed it . Still others provide sophisticated World Wide Web and Mosaic servers designed to work with special PC-based programs that treat the Internet as a gigantic hypertext document . These systems point the way to the future , but they 're still in their infancy . Given this anarchy , there 's is no such thing as an `` Internet Manual , '' which is one of the reasons that half the books crossing my desk for review these days bill themselves as Internet manuals . The problem is that by the time they 're in print , they 're often out of date . As a result , getting around the Internet can be either an exercise in frustration or a marvelous if somewhat quirky adventure , depending on your state of mind . If you 're not affiliated with a university or company that maintains an Internet link with dial-in capability , you 'll have to set up an account with an Internet service provider . These are companies that maintain computers linked to the Internet . They make their money by providing you with a way to dial in with a modem and make connections with other systems . They also give you an electronic mailbox through which others can reach you . Most of these Internet providers are local or regional . The Boston-based DELPHI service is available nationally through local calls in most metropolitan areas , and a few , like Cerfnet , provide access through an 800 number at a stiff price . Almost all can be accessed with standard communications programs . Some providers can set up more expensive SLIP ( Serial Line Internet Protocol ) connections that require special software but make Internet access easier and more secure . If your communications experience is limited to Prodigy and America Online with their friendly , no-brainer start-up kits , you 'll be in for a rude shock . Some Internet providers may offer basic menu services to help you navigate a bit , but basically , all you 're buying is access to the highway . Once you 're in , you 're on your own , and when you do log onto other systems you 're there as a guest . These folks don't get anything for allowing you to get your foot in the door , and you may find that systems you 're looking for are unavailable because they 've been taken off line for maintenance , changes or repairs . That 's life on the Net . Environmentalism isn't what it used to be . An awareness is building that not every program identifying itself as `` good '' for the environment delivers real value to society . Many voices are now being raised in favor of more common sense and realism in allocating the burdens and benefits of environmental protection . So the opponents of environmental legislation have become the environmentalists themselves . The reauthorization of environmental statutes is being stalled on Pennsylvania Avenue not by conservatives , but by liberals . Their fear is that the `` Zeitgeist '' no longer favors unqualified environmentalism . The environmentalist imperative to preserve the status quo is best evidenced by their campaign to kill congressional reform of the Superfund law . Likewise , Congress has been stymied in reauthorizing the Resource Conservation and Recovery Act and the Endangered Species Act . Even the bill to give the EPA Cabinet-level status was stopped in its tracks by the environmental side of the aisle . The tension between balanced and absolute environmentalism has hit a social nerve because a particular form of conservation the need to save money has become so urgent . It costs business owners , shareholders , workers and consumers , as well as state and local governments , hundreds of billions of dollars a year to comply with the existing environmental laws enacted by Congress . This money is well spent only if the results are worth it . There is no question that the public loathes pollution and loves the idea of a green world . But people are starting to object to policies that protect the environment stupidly . Crime can't be fought , children educated , cancer cured or welfare reformed if environmental-protection money isn't used wisely . Cleaning up dirt at industrial Superfund sites to edible levels , forcing schools to rip asbestos from behind sealed walls or sacrificing jobs to protect subspecies can seem disproportionate to our more dangerous risks . Environmental realism seeks to find a balance by enhancing respect for honest science , private property and state and local budgets . There is growing consensus on the common-sense need to assess risks scientifically , compare relative risks and weigh the costs and benefits of government mandates . Some reactionary environmentalists disparage the principles of `` risk analysis , '' `` property rights '' and `` unfunded mandates '' as an `` unholy trinity '' intended to gut the environment as we know it . But if lawmakers and the public are kept in the dark about real risks and costs , the country will continue to buy environmental protection of the wrong kinds and amounts . Common sense is also rooted in the Constitution . The Fifth Amendment promises that the government will not take private property for public purposes without paying just compensation . This clause has been increasingly invoked by landowners prohibited from using their property by regulations designed to protect wetlands , species , beaches and green space . These are worthwhile public objectives . But if their cost is too much for the public 's coffers , why should private citizens foot the bill ? The final common-sense standard is a straightforward money question . Congress keeps passing laws that compel state and local governments to spend billions to comply with federal mandates . Goals like safe drinking water and clean air are good and necessary . But as Sen. John Glenn , D-Ohio , has said , Congress has an insatiable impulse to pass the buck but not the bucks . Governors and mayors just cannot afford these unfunded mandates without depriving their constituents of a lot of other public services . If the federal money isn't there for the taking , which it isn't , then the minimum that good government can do is insist on a careful ordering of regulatory priorities . The more mandates , the higher the property , sewer and water taxes and these don't hit the rich hardest . Senior environmental officials in the Clinton administration are uncomfortable with the Democrat and Republican legislators who want to build these standards into law . This oldthink will not wash in 1994 any more than it did in 1969 . Then , the National Environmental Policy Act ordered all federal decision-makers to consider environmental impacts before any major action . Surely it is no less desirable that the major impacts of environmental actions be considered just as carefully . The new environmental realism will improve , not stifle , environmental protection if results are measured in terms of value received . No one really believes that the billions of environmental dollars spent today are spent well enough . I recently attended a human-rights conference in Baghdad . When I told a friend that the Iraqi Federation of Women had invited me for this purpose , she smirked and , in a voice dripping with sarcasm , said , `` Human rights ? In Iraq ? '' No one can condone any of the human-rights violations by Iraq , such as the suppression of the Kurdish and Shiite peoples or the invasion of Kuwait . But there are other parts to this story , especially concerning the status of women . Iraq , before its long war with Iran and during the brief two-year interlude before the Gulf War , was one of the most progressive Arab states on women 's rights . Women 's education , for example , benefited from the law on compulsory education of 1976 , the national comprehensive literacy campaign of 1978 and the law of higher education and scientific research of 1987 . For 15 years , there was a close association between Iraqi women and the organization I headed , the Women 's Union of Greece . In 1979 , I visited many after-hours classes in elementary schools where women of all ages were learning to read and write . Thousands of young women were on government scholarships studying abroad , encouraged to enter any and all professions . The Iraqi women 's political rights included the following : the right to vote and hold parliamentary office and membership in political parties , the right to membership in non-governmental organizations and associations , and the right to hold public-sector jobs . Compare this to women 's situation in Saudi Arabia or Kuwait . Most of these rights were wiped out by the conditions created when the United States and its allies dropped 88,500 tons of bombs equal to seven Hiroshimas on this land . The bombing killed and wounded tens of thousands of men , women and children , hitting mosques , churches , hospitals , schools , homes for children and the disabled and civilian shelters . Bombs and missiles also destroyed power stations , sewage systems and municipal services . This is a breach of Article 51 of the first protocol of the Geneva conventions of 1977 , which calls for protection of civilians against military operations and forbids attacks targeting them . The U.N. economic sanctions were placed on Iraq for refusing to withdraw from Kuwait and were continued after Iraqi troops pulled out , following the cease-fire . The stated aim was to compel destruction of the country 's capacity to produce chemical and nuclear weapons . The whispered aim was to bring down Saddam Hussein and to aid the Kurds and the Shiites . Saddam is still in power , with a weary and impoverished population unable to gather the revolutionary zeal for his overthrow expected by President Bush . As for the Kurds , the United States has never been a friend of the Kurdish struggle for self-determination . Its policy after the war produced the painful exodus of the Kurds , resulting in thousands of dead and homeless , hungry people . Now it is trying to assuage its guilt by dropping pallets of food into refugee camps while Turkey carries out military raids against Kurdish villages in Iraq . The U.S. call for an uprising of the Shiites , only to abandon those who made the attempt , resulted in the deaths of thousands more . Sanctions have , however , managed to create a weak economy , a physically debilitated people and three societal problems practically unheard of in prewar Iraq : crime , unemployment and prostitution . Women and children are bearing the brunt of these sanctions . Women whose partners were lost were thrown into the job market to feed their children . Divorce rates are up in two-parent families because of the stress and strain . Girls are dropping out of school to help in the home . The acute shortage of basic food and medicines as well as their soaring prices has triggered a nearly 550 percent increase since 1990 in the mortality rate of children under 5 . And women are withdrawing from political activity , unable to handle all the added responsibilities they now have . The stated aim of the U.N. resolution on sanctions was to stop Iraq 's production of weapons of mass destruction . Iraq has complied with all the conditions . It has officially dropped its claim to Kuwait as Iraq 's 19th province . And it has agreed to long-term monitoring to ensure it is not resuscitating its weapons program . What is the purpose of continuing the sanctions ? A healthy , vibrant society is in a much better position to work for political change , to correct human-rights abuses , to build a democratic system . If the civilized world is to carry the banner of human rights , it has to look at its own actions . Denying people food , medications , sovereignty and peace of mind is another form of war . The Clinton administration inherited a policy . It is time it examined that inheritance and took the bold , humane action of removing the sanctions . Q : I just saw my first grandchild . He is beautiful , but I have a question . Why do they put stocking caps on babies in the hospital ? I would think it would be their little hands and feet that got cold ! I recommend booties . A : Before birth a baby is kept warm by its mother 's body . Its own thermostat is not challenged . After birth , a baby 's temperature regulation system is suddenly on its own . Placed in a cool environment , a baby may have trouble adjusting . Compared to the rest of its body , a baby 's head is relatively large . It provides a large area of skin from which heat can escape , even if the baby 's body is bundled . The purpose of the cap is to preserve body heat . We do not know whether it also makes a baby more comfortable . Hands and feet are , as you pointed out , little . They are unlikely to be a major source of heat loss for a baby . We doubt whether a baby cares whether or not it has on booties , but in our experience , booties do seem to make grandmothers more comfortable and may be recommended for that reason alone ! Distributed by the Los Angeles Times-Washington Post News Service . This is an embarrassment of riches . For years Rachmaninoff 's First Sonata has fared poorly on records and in the concert hall . The work is gigantic almost as long the Concerto No. 3 and horrendously difficult . Few of the great Rachmaninoff interpreters including the composer himself , Horowitz , Richter , Cliburn and Ashkenazy have shown interest in expending the time and energy necessary to keep it in their fingers . It 's hard to blame them . While the piece is better organized than the Sonata No. 2 , its length particularly in the 15-minute long finale all but precludes success . In the finale the composer 's forearm-straining and knuckle-breaking virtuosic phrases must be repeated so frequently that even a great artist runs the risk of boring an audience . In the past 30 years or so , only John Ogdon and Alexis Weissenberg have been interested in the piece . And Ogdon 's old RCA recording is long out of print , and by the time Weissenberg got around to recording it for Deutsche Grammophon in 1990 , he did not play it with his earlier fire and brilliance . Desperately in need of a single decent recording , we now must choose between two tremendous ones . Both the Cuban-born Rodriguez , who lives in College Park , and the Russian-born Berezovsky , who now lives in Spain , have the fingers to play this music , the minds to make a coherent experience of it and the hearts to make it affecting . They are somewhat different kinds of readings . Berezovsky , 25 , plays Rachmaninoff in the now dominant style that Cliburn first introduced in the late 1950s . His relaxed , assured playing , while it does not shortchange the music 's heroism , emphasizes its lyricism . Rodriguez , 40 , performs the Sonata in the way to judge from his recordings that one imagines the composer himself did before he lost interest in the work . Rodriguez 's is utterly unsentimental playing that drives the music with a sense of ferocious destiny . This is not to say that his playing lacks feeling , but only , like that of Rachmaninoff 's himself , that it lacks anything resembling self-indulgence . If I had to choose between them , I would select Rodriguez . He has been programming an enormous amount of the composer 's solo pieces in the past few years and his experience shows in the way he is able to persuade the listener as Berezovsky does not always do that the Sonata is not over-long . ( In fact , Rodriguez ' performance is about four minutes faster than Berezovsky . ) The couplings are excellent : Rodriguez performs the opus 32 preludes in a heroic , turbulent manner and Berezovsky does a lovely job in making a case for the composer 's neglected Variations on a theme of Chopin . But listeners should keep in mind that a second all-Rachmaninoff CD of Rodriguez , featuring the Sonata No. 2 and the same Chopin Variations , is planned for future release . When we talk about cyberspace , the online world , more and more we 're talking about the Internet . It 's a place that has emerged , Oz-like and shimmering , from the intertwining of more than 15,000 computer networks around the globe . The Internet isn't a discrete physical place , nor is it owned by anyone . The word describes the computer networks that abide by the same technical rules for transmitting data . But since so much of that `` data '' is plain old , person-to-person communicating , the Internet has begun to feel like a new community , a solid place where people go to communicate and learn . The Internet evolved from a Cold War experiment in computer networking called the Arpanet nearly 25 years ago . The Defense Department network allowed different kinds of computers to interconnect and pass data . It was designed to withstand nuclear war ; should one node be taken out in , say , Salt Lake City , whatever was left of the network was designed to carry on , route around the dead zone . Happily , this was never tested and , as the Defense Department moved out , civilians began to move in , like squatters inhabiting bomb shelters . The simple rules for interconnecting to the network encouraged the growth of regional subnetworks . Universities and colleges joined research facilities on the Net , followed by the rest of us , who were looking for PC diversions beyond word processing and spreadsheets . Now , some 15 million people spend time in this place . If the population continues to climb at such an astounding rate , everyone on the planet will be on the Internet by the year 2003 . As the population grows , so does the content . More and more of the world 's information is centralizing here . The seasoned Net comber can find digitized photographs from the Smithsonian Institution or the Vatican , thousands of shareware programs and free software , satellite maps , weather forecasts , a daily MTV `` cybersleaze report '' and discussion groups on everything from abortion to gardening . But you have to know what you 're doing to get around and even find the Internet . To people who are just beginning to allow computers into their homes , the Internet is as mysterious as was the New World six centuries ago . The Internet tourist needs only minimal equipment . In fact , all you need is a computer , a modem and a phone line . Virtually any computer and any U.S. phone line will work . That 's one of the great things about using the Internet : You can hook your slow , dumb , out-of-date computer into a million-dollar supercomputer on the Net and tap into all that power like a bandit . ( It 's nice to know that that computer you paid $ 3,000 for three years ago is still good for something . Indeed , a lot of people , when they upgrade to new machines , reserve their old computers for traveling the online world . ) It doesn't matter if you have an IBM clone or a Macintosh . It doesn't matter if it 's an old XT or an Apple II . It doesn't even matter if you have a hard drive , though having one means you willn't have to pop floppy disks in and out to capture the treasures you retrieve off the Net . All that matters is that your computer can be connected to a modem , and frankly , it 's hard to think of one that can't . The next item on a hardware checklist is called a modem . Modems are devices that allow computers to communicate over telephone lines . Modems do this by translating the digital language that computers use into audio frequencies that can be transmitted by telephone networks . ( The word `` modem '' comes from MOdulator-DEModulator . ) Many computers are sold these days with internal modems . If you look on the back of the computer 's central processing unit ( the box that looks like a toaster ) and if you see a jack that will accommodate a phoneline , you 've already got a modem on board . Otherwise , you 'll need to buy one . You need to decide whether you want to buy an internal modem , which fits neatly inside your computer ( it 's easy enough to install yourself ) , or an external modem , which can sit on the floor or desk top . External modems are slightly more expensive , mainly because they are equipped with a string of lights that help you figure out what the modem is doing at any given time . This is a nice feature for problem-shooting ; a quick glance tells you whether you 're actually online , how fast your modem is pumping data and other , more arcane details . Still , some people prefer not cluttering their desks with more circuitry than necessary , and gladly forgo yet another array of LEDs in favor of economy . A phone line will plug into the back of your computer , if you have an internal modem , or into the external modem itself . The next decision is speed how fast a modem should you buy ? On the Internet , and elsewhere in the online world , faster is better . The faster the modem , the less time it takes to transfer the fruits you 'll be harvesting on the Net : Text files , inexpensive or free software , pictures , even video and audio . If you 're paying for Internet service by the hour , you 'll actually save money by buying a more expensive high-speed modem . A modem 's speed is determined by how many bits per second it can move . ( A bit is either a zero or a one , the smallest unit of data conveyed by microprocessors ) . You will also see the word `` baud '' used as a measure of speed . In the fabulously arcane world of computer jargon , baud and bit rate are sometimes used interchangeably , though in most cases they are not at all the same . At low speeds , however , baud and bit rate are the same : A 300-baud modem moves data at 300 bits per second . But as modems developed , and coding schemes for moving bits matured , it became possible to pack more than one bit on each baud . ( A 2400-bits-per-second modem , for instance , operates at 600 baud . ) The usual analogy is cars on a highway , with each car representing a baud and each passenger a bit . Bits-per-second is the measure you 're interested in . So how fast ? These days , it pays to get a modem that pumps data at 14,400 bits-per-second or faster . At that speed , or higher , you can try some of the nifty new services that are making it easier to navigate the Net , like Mosaic . Slower modems will work for everything else , though . ( Begin optional trim ) It also pays to buy a reliable modem , one that can stand up to the crushing demands of a long session on the Net . You can find many off-brand modems , and save yourself money . But my experience has been that cheap modems tend to fail when they get hot ( cussedly annoying when you 're in the middle of downloading a large file and have to start anew ) . I use a Global Village Gold , 14,400 bps in my Macintosh Powerbook . The modem sells for about $ 275 . It 's been reliable and so has the 800-number for customer support . In the Time of Misery , when I used IBM compatibles , I used a Hayes modem , which is also the industry standard . To get your modem to call any other computer , you 'll need a communications program . There are dozens of these , ranging in price from a few hundred dollars to freeware . On the IBM side , the most common are ProComm and Mirror ; try Zterm or Microphone for Macs . Any off-the-shelf communications program will do for online work . Unfortunately , the only way to learn how to use one of these is to read the manual . You 'll need to learn how to put a phone number in your dialing directory and call the number ; later , you 'll also need to learn how to use xmodem or zmodem to transfer files between your computer and your Internet host computer . ( End optional trim ) One final word : Most fast modems also come with a fax option , meaning you can send or receive faxes through your computer . Sure , you 've gone this long without having a fax machine . But it 's amusing to fax things to your friends . Think of it as e-mail for the Internet-impaired . I 'd rather give up my telephone than my e-mail . I love being able to communicate in writing with people and not have to wait days or weeks for a reply ( or have to find a stamp ) . It 's a luxury to be able to compose my thoughts before I communicate . On a recent , typical day , I sent e-mail to a computer technician in Finland ( `` How 's it going ? '' ) , a fellow reporter in New York City ( `` Lunch Friday ? '' ) , a college kid at Dartmouth ( `` Here 's that telnet address you wanted ... '' ) and my mom in Pennsylvania ( don't ask ) . I also received mail from all of the above , as well as from a magazine editor in San Francisco , a programmer in Boston , a professor at the University of Pennsylvania and .. . actually , I got about 60 messages from people all over the world . Unlike using regular `` snail mail '' the U.S. Postal Service kind I can send and receive as much e-mail as I want , paying nothing other than my flat , monthly Internet access fee . Corresponding with my friend in Espoo , Finland , is as cheap as e-mailing my friend in New York City , which makes the `` global village '' cliche really work . The only problem with e-mail is that some people I want to reach don't use it yet . But that 's changing . An estimated 15 million people swap electronic mail over the Internet . That includes the world 's college and university students , users of America Online , CompuServe , Delphi , FidoNet , GEnie , Prodigy and anyone who subscribes to the e-mail services offered by AT&T , MCI and Sprint . More commercial online services are offering e-mail-only gateways to the Internet every day . Much of that e-mail is just like the communicating you do in letters and over the telephone . It 's casual , and has the feeling of a long-running conversation . One way e-mail improves upon the telephone is most people read their own e-mail , rather than having , say , their secretary screen it . Of course , President Clinton isn't any more likely to read e-mail addressed to ` ` president ( AT ) whitehouse.gov ' ' than he is a postcard mailed to him . But other people might be . Until The New Yorker published an amusing piece a few months ago that detailed the correspondence between a staff writer there and Microsoft founder Bill Gates , Gates read his own e-mail . Then , after tens of thousands of messages , he turned the chore over to an assistant . Finding someone 's e-mail address requires more sleuthing than finding someone 's `` snail mail '' address . There are a few directories on the Internet that represent little more than the first attempts at collecting addresses . For now , your best bet is having someone 's e-mail address already in hand . But you can often figure out a person 's address if you know a little bit about how e-mail addresses are structured . The syntax of an e-mail address is a peculiar thing . The first time you saw one , you probably thought it was a typo. ` ` quit ( AT ) newsday.com ' ' If I were telling someone that address I 'd say : `` quit at newsday dot com . '' ( In the bit-speak of network land , you always say `` dot , '' rather than `` period , '' and `` at , '' instead of `` at-sign . '' ) At the far right of that address , ( .com ) is the `` domain '' name . Internet domains can be .com ( commercial ) , .edu ( educational , like colleges and universities ) , .gov ( governmental agencies ) , .org ( organizations ) and so on . The name in the middle is usually the name of the school , organization , agency or business . The at-sign identifies the individual user at that domain . Beyond person-to-person correspondence , e-mail is used for a powerful , new way of communicating known as mailing lists . These mailing lists are creating small , floating communities without boundaries that are growing up around special interests . You can subscribe to mailing lists by sending your name to a computer , known as a Listserv , that automatically handles the e-mail list . Any message sent to the Listserv bounces out to all the members of the list . So if someone on a list about , say , Powerbook computers , sends a question to the Listserv asking why his trackball gets all gummy , the question would go out to everyone . Chances are someone knows why and how to fix it , and will send a reply back to the list . In the past two years , I 've subscribed to e-mail lists that : track civil liberties issues on the electronic frontier ; disseminate bad jokes ; report on technological risks ; examine questions surrounding computer-assisted journalism ; provide daily feeds of what 's hot in cyberspace ; and discuss ad nauseum the television series `` Mayberry RFD . '' ( Begin optional trim ) It 's easy to get off these lists ; you simply send e-mail to the Listserv asking to be taken off the list . Mailing lists illustrate the fundamentally different way people are using the global Internet to communicate : An e-mail user can send an electronic query out into the void , like a message in a bottle , and days or even hours later , get a reply , usually from a stranger , and often , from someone in another country . In letterwriting , or telephone conversations , we communicate one to one ; on the Net , we can communicate one to many . It helps explain why people get so carried away when they contemplate the future of this global medium . ( End optional trim ) Often , when people get access to the Internet , one of the first things they do is start subscribing to mail lists . The question is , how do you find out what 's out there to subscribe to ? One way is to get a copy of the List of Lists , a compendium that catalogs each mail list , its address , and the rules for subscribing , as well as the topics covered . ( You need to read each entry on the List of Lists , since the list name doesn't necessarily tell you what it 's about . For instance , the list called DOROTHYL is the one you 'd want if you 're interested in discussing mystery novels ; the name is an homage to the great mystery writer Dorothy Sayers . ) You can get the List of Lists by e-mail . ( Send e-mail to : ` ` mail-server ( AT ) sri.com ' ' Put the words `` send interest-groups '' in the body of the message . ) Or you can buy one of the many books that provide directories of mail lists . Among them are , `` Internet : Mailing Lists , '' published by Prentice Hall , which is little more than a verbatim printout of the List of Lists ; or `` netguide , '' published by Random House . The Random House book , which is described as a TV Guide of cyberspace , lists most of the mail lists ( and other great net treasures ) in a topic-by-topic directory . The hardware you need to tap into the Internet : Any desktop or laptop computer that can connect to a modem . ( In other words , virtually any computer sold during the past decade . ) A modem , preferably 9,600 bps or faster , that is compatible with your computer . A telephone line . Note : Be sure to disable call-waiting during online sessions . The software you need to tap into the Internet : Any off-the-shelf communications program . ProComm and Mirror are particularly good for IBM compatibles ; zTerm and Microphone are good for Macs . About a decade ago , it would have taken you only a few hours to read every message posted on Usenet , a collection of special-interest groups commonly referred to as the `` Internet 's bulletin board . '' That would be an impossible task now : Each day , about 106 megabytes of information roughly equivalent to 106 500-page books is piped around the world to Usenet readers , said Gene Spafford , a computer science professor at Purdue University in Indiana . ( Spafford counts himself among those old Usenet hands who once read Usenet in its entirety daily . ) What could possibly fill 53,000 pages of text every day ? Cat lovers writing about their pets . Russian emigres writing about the situation back home . Fans of Pugsley in the old `` Addams Family '' TV show recounting their favorite episodes . And arguments , known as `` flame wars , '' that go on for days about every religion , stripe of sexuality , computer and operating system . Indeed , every topic imaginable ( and many you can't imagine ) has its own forum in Usenet . These topics are called `` newsgroups , '' though little of what 's discussed bears any resemblance to news . The name newsgroup is a holdover from 1979 , when Usenet was developed as a way to relay information about new product releases , seminars and other timely news , among university computer users . But like the Internet itself , Usenet has grown to include the rest of the world . To find your corner of that world , it will help to know a little bit about the structure of Usenet . Newsgroups are arranged according to general categories , or `` hierarchies , '' including : Computer-related information ( designated as comp ) , world and local news ( news ) , recreation ( rec ) , science ( sci ) , social studies ( soc ) , talk ( talk ) , miscellaneous ( misc ) and everyone 's favorite , alternative news groups ( alt ) , where some of the weirdest correspondence on the face of the Earth can be found . Within each of the hierarchies are subcategories . For instance , if you wanted to find the Usenet group where people talk about bicycles , you 'd go to rec.bicycles . If you were looking for job listings , you 'd check out misc.jobs.offered . There 's even a group for discussing bad seafood , called alt.bad.clams . By Spafford 's estimate , there are 10,000 Usenet newsgroups . With so many , it is something of a chore figuring out that rec.bicycles is the place to discuss bicycles , and that there isn't a group called talk.bicycles . Unless you have a book that lists Usenet groups , you 'll have to spend some time looking around Usenet for what you want . Happily , most sites that provide full Internet access get daily feeds that include a few thousand of the more popular Usenet newsgroups . Among the national online providers , so far America Online and Delphi offer Usenet , as well . To read and post messages on Usenet , you invoke something called a `` news reader , '' which is a software menu system to help you navigate . News readers have their own rules , and are usually pretty self explanatory ; typically , if you don't know something , typing a question mark will pull up a help file . On Panix , where I get my Internet access , I enter my news reader by typing `` N . '' From there , I can type `` G , '' which causes the news reader to respond `` go to ? '' It 's asking me what newsgroup I want to browse . If I know the name of the group , I simply type it . But let 's say I 'm looking for a newsgroup where people can discuss gun control . If I type the word `` gun , '' my news reader , being no dummy , asks me if I want to go to the newsgroup rec.guns or talk.politics.guns . You can assume that rec.guns is about recreational gun use ; talk.politics.guns is the one for me . Aren't computers great ? You should be aware of the cultural conventions that have come to flourish among Usenet readers . If you 're interested in posting your thoughts to a newsgroup , it 's advisable to first read the FAQ . FAQs are files that contain `` frequently asked questions , '' as well as their answers . FAQS are designed to prevent the same question from being asked every time a new person starts reading a newsgroup . Another thing to be aware of is this : Usenet is uncensored . If you are easily offended , or if you are a parent who doesn't want your child exposed to certain things , be warned that most Internet sites that provide Usenet feeds take all the popular newsgroups . Some of the most popular groups are alt.sex-related groups , where people endlessly discuss some of the most intimate details of their lives , in extremely explicit language . And then there is the question of flame wars . There is definitely a side to computer-based communication that resembles graffiti anyone can scrawl whatever they want in a public place without fear of reprisal . Even if your name is attached to your message , it 's easier to provoke outrage through careless writing than through face-to-face conversation . That 's partly due , I think , to the alienation people sometimes feel when they 're sitting alone , at their computers , removed from their audience . `` A lot of people think they 're almost compelled to abuse others , '' said Spafford , who has cut back in the amount of newsgroups he reads because of what computer-science people euphemistically refer to as a low `` signal-to-noise ratio . '' In other words , there 's a lot of garbage out there . ( Optional add end ) `` The problem 's gotten steadily worse , '' Spafford said . `` I think it 's because the entry cost of getting on the Net has gone down to the point where people on the Net don't have an interest in developing harmony and cooperation . '' Spafford said that in Usenet 's earlier days , the users were mostly computer scientists or researchers who had a shared interest in `` promoting computer-professional demeanor . '' `` Now , '' Spafford said , `` you can get 14-year-olds , emotionally , who spend a few hundred dollars to augment their PC , ( get on the Net ) and they can be as rude and crude as they want . '' Your computer 's modem is connected to a phone line . You 've figured out how to use the communications software that came with it ( or that you bought ) . You 're ready to travel the Internet . So how do you get there from here ? If you 're a college student , or work at a large communications company , you probably already have Internet access on site . ( Check with someone in your computer services department to find out . ) But for most home users , getting to the Internet means finding a company that retails Internet access . Then you instruct your computer to call its computer . If you 're lucky , you 'll have a choice of local providers . Local access is desirable because it means you willn't be spending money on long-distance telephone service on top of monthly Internet access fees that typically cost less than $ 30 a month . Real Internet access means more than merely being able to send and receive electronic mail . If you 're just looking for an Internet e-mail connection , there are many commercial services such as America Online , CompuServe , GEnie and Prodigy that will let you send and receive e-mail to Internet users without giving you any other access to the Internet . Likewise , most local Internet providers offer e-mail addresses as part of their `` basic '' service plans at lower monthly rates than fuller service . True Internet access means being able to connect your computer directly to other computers on the Net . It means being able to use a number of tools that help you navigate the online world and find things like archives of software for your IBM clone or Mac . Or card catalogs from the great libraries of the world . Or multiplayer games in simulated `` virtual worlds . '' It means being able to transfer large quantities of data at very rapid speeds . That said , you should know that what most home users purchase from Internet providers is `` gateway '' service . Think of gateway service as an indirect ( and cheaper ) connection to other computers ( called `` hosts '' ) on the Internet . Most providers allow you to link your computer to their computer , which , in turn , is connected by a high-speed phone line to the sprawling Internet beyond . Many providers may also offer to sell you a more direct connection to the Internet ( you might see these connections referred to as SLIP or PPP connections ) . These connections allow your computer to communicate directly with other Internet computers , but require you to use at least a 14,400 bps modem and special software . They also cost significantly more . Scattered throughout the Internet are free files and computer programs that teach you how to use the Internet . This has always struck me as sweetly ironic : If you knew how to find any one of them ( hint : try using archie ) , transfer it ( using ftp ) , move it from your host computer to your PC ( using zmodem ) and decompress it ( using God knows what ) , what more would you need to know about the Internet ? Of course , these files were placed on the Net so that veteran Internetters could retrieve them , and print them out for Net newcomers . These free files are typical of the Internet 's spirit and explain something that you should know by now : Here is a community that has flourished because its inhabitants believe that the world is a better place when information flows freely and for free . Indeed , until about two years ago , the only way you could learn about the Internet was from other people who 'd been there , or from these free files . Virtually no how-to books were available at bookstores . That 's changed . In a bookstore in New York City last week , there was an entire section devoted to Internet books . Every major publisher , and lots of small presses , have their own authority on the subject . Most of these books are indistinguishable from each other . Some of them are marketed by exploiting your insecurity about new technology . If you really want to understand more about the Internet , you 'll start amassing your own library , which , it seems to me , should be built on a foundation of three books : a comprehensive how-to guide ; a directory of places to go and things to do on the Net ; and a comprehensive computer dictionary , which will help fill in the blanks left by the other two books . Here are some books , published during the past year , that I can recommend : HOW-TO GUIDES `` The Whole Internet : User 's Guide & Catalog , '' by Ed Krol ( O' Reilly & Associates ; $ 24.95 ) . This is the book that started it all , way back in 1992 , and is one of many Internet-related offerings from the Sebastopol , Calif. , publisher . More than 250,000 copies are now in print , which explains why other publishers have jumped into the market . Recently updated , Krol 's book is a straightforward account of how the Internet works . It also has a brief list of places to go and things to do . Best of all , it has a nifty `` quick reference card , '' that gives you a short list of commands you need to know to use telnet , ftp , archie and Usenet , among other things . `` Internet Starter Kit : Everything You Need to Get on the Internet , '' by Adam C. Engst ( Hayden Books ; $ 29.95 ) . An excellent find for Macintosh users since , in addition to being a solid how-to book , it comes with a diskette that contains five genuinely useful programs for Net surfing , including Stuffit Expander ( a compression program ) and InterSLIP ( a high-speed protocol for connecting to the Net ) . There 's also a Windows version if you 're so inclined . `` The Internet Navigator , '' by Paul Gilster ( John Wiley & Sons Inc. , $ 24.95 ) . Gilster writes a regular column for The News & Observer in Raleigh , N.C. , so he speaks a form of English most people will readily understand . The book is written in a way that makes you feel as if you were looking over Gilster 's shoulder ; he tells you where he 's going and how he got there . `` Zen and the Art of the Internet , '' by Brendan Kehoe ( Prentice Hall ; $ 23.95 ) . This guide started as an online file ( and you can still find it at many sites on the Net ) . It was published in book form for the first time last year . Kehoe really knows his stuff . `` The Internet Guide for New Users , '' by Daniel Dern ( McGraw-Hill Inc. , $ 27.95 ) . Dern , editor at the magazine Internet World , has put together a comprehensive guide , with the right mix of information on Internet tools and Unix commands . DIRECTORIES OF PLACES TO GO AND THINGS TO DO `` Netguide , '' by Michael Wolff & Co. . ( Random House ; $ 19 ) . The best attempt yet at categorizing and organizing all the great stuff you can find out there . Netguide also includes non-Internet cyberspace material , such as forums on the main commercial online service providers . Plans are under way to put all this information up on an online database , but until then , this book is definitely worth owning . As evidence of its popularity , it 's the book people keep stealing off my desk at work . `` The Internet Directory , '' by Eric Braun ( Fawcett Columbine/Ballantine Books ; $ 25 ) . Instead of approaching the Internet by category , this directory breaks it down into sections that index mailing lists , Usenet newsgroups , online library card catalogues , ftp sites and various navigational sites . Impressively comprehensive , with a good index in the back of the book . `` The Whole Earth Online Almanac , '' by Don Rittner ( Brady Computer Book ; $ 32.95 ) . The Whole Earth folks have been way out in front on the Info Revolution , and their book is well laid out and complete . `` Internet : Mailing Lists , '' edited by Edward T.L. Hardie and Vivian Neou ( Prentice Hall ; $ 29 ) . The book is little more than the comprehensive List of Lists , a list of all the e-mail groups that anyone on the Internet can subscribe to . E-mail groups focus on any topic you can think of , from dog ownership to `` Mayberry RFD '' fans . A DICTIONARY The Computer Glossary : The Complete Illustrated Desk Reference , '' by Alan Freedman ( Amacom ; $ 25.95 ) . Of the half-dozen or so computer dictionaries , this is my favorite . Lots of pictures and charts . The explanations of arcane computer technology are simple and direct and willn't make you feel like a Complete Idiot-Dummy . Scientists at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory in New Jersey announced this week that they have set a new world record for the amount of power produced in a nuclear fusion reactor : 9 million watts . Last December , the same reactor set a series of new world records at 3 million watts and 5.6 million watts . The new power level , which was maintained for about one-quarter of a second , approached the reactor 's design-maximum of 10 million watts . The experiment was done in the Tokamak Fusion Test Reactor , a $ 1.4 billion device that is not intended to produce sustained power but to operate in bursts so that scientists can learn how to control the hot , ionized gases , or plasma , that creates the power . Once they learn to control the plasma , the scientists hope to build a reactor that will operate continuously , generating enough energy to sustain itself and have enough left over to generate electricity . In this experiment , however , the reactor consumed about three times as much power as it produced . `` This was a major success , '' said lab director Ronald Davidson . `` We 're discovering a lot of intriguing phenomena in these experiments . '' The reactor works by feeding two forms of hydrogen gas deuterium and tritium into a doughnut-shaped chamber and heating the particles with electromagnetic energy until they move with such speed that they overcome their natural repulsion , slam together and fuse . WASHINGTON The U.S. . Sentencing Commission , which sets prison sentences for federal crimes , has long been a target of criticism from defense lawyers , liberal judges , civil libertarians and the like . Critics complain the 7-year-old commission merely replaced the unchecked sentencing power of federal judges with a Republican-controlled , computer-like operation of fixed sentences that ignored differences among criminals . Some even thought that the Clinton administration , with four vacancies to fill on the seven-member commission , would seize the opportunity to put its stamp on federal sentencing . But the commission , which went part time ( except for the chairman ) on Jan. 1 , is limping along doing nothing controversial while it awaits the administration 's actions . This is one the Democrats can't blame on the Republicans . The holdup seems to be a fight among powerful Democrats over who will be succeed the chairman , William Wilkins Jr. Sen. Edward M. Kennedy , D-Mass. , wants Boston federal Judge David Mazzone , who is now a commissioner . Sen. Joseph R. Biden Jr. , D-Del. , wants his law school chum , Commissioner Michael Gelacak , in the job . Attorney General Janet Reno had been interviewing candidates last fall . Another list of candidates is being put together now . WASHINGTON A draft presidential executive order was circulated by the White House last week calling for a `` bulk declassification '' of 48.8 million pages of documents held by the National Archives . Half of the material is World War II-related and the other half concerns selected records up through the Vietnam years . The draft was sent out with a very short turnaround time for responses because the White House was hoping to make an announcement before President Clinton took off for his D-Day trip . But the agencies came in asking for more time to review the material . The World War II stuff is mostly Army papers . There is some State Department material , as well as some Office of Strategic Services ( the original CIA ) documents . It is going to be tough for some of the classification zealots to defend holding 50-year-old documents , but some may give it a try , using the old `` sources and methods '' approach . That might still work if any of the sources are living . Word is the executive order will be signed shortly after Clinton returns . He wanted his wife to quit smoking . It was a simple wish , yet its consequences were profound . This was in the 1970s , in Greece , where smoking was as cherished a pastime as baseball in America . Dimitrios Trichopoulos didn't care about bucking the tide . He simply detested his wife 's addiction . A young cancer epidemiologist at the University of Athens , Trichopoulos tried the usual guilt trip . He told her she was hurting herself . On this , he said , the medical literature was clear . When that didn't work , he told her she was hurting him an argument he could not support with statistics . She didn't believe it . Ever the scientist , he set out to prove it . That family argument wound up earning Trichopoulos a place in tobacco history . He was the first researcher to connect secondhand cigarette smoke with an increased risk of lung cancer . He accomplished this in a somewhat unorthodox fashion , pirating $ 50,000 from one of his grants to conduct a survey of 189 nonsmoking women . ( Greek officials , Trichopoulos says , would never have given him money to study the detrimental effects of a cash crop as lucrative as tobacco ) . He found that smokers ' wives were twice as likely to develop lung cancer as women married to nonsmokers . It worked . `` I convinced her , '' Trichopoulos says . His wife quit . The study did much more than clean the air in the Trichopoulos home . He published it in 1981 , days before the publication of a larger study conducted by Japanese epidemiologist Takeshi Hirayama . These papers gave a huge boost to a grass-roots anti-smoking campaign that has dramatically changed the way Americans work , dine , travel and raise children . This is the nature of the secondhand smoke revolution : a little bit of science still emerging , not all of it conclusive shaping a lot of public policy . For anti-smoking activists , scientific research into the dangers of secondhand smoke has been a godsend . The high point came last year , when the U.S. . Environmental Protection Agency declared secondhand smoke a `` Group A '' human carcinogen , reporting that it accounts for 3,000 lung cancer deaths each year . This placed it in the same deadly category as asbestos and radon ; the agency concluded that the danger cannot be eliminated by using smoking and nonsmoking sections . Thanks in large part to that report , secondhand smoke is now one of the nation 's most pressing and divisive public health issues . Coupled with allegations that tobacco companies have misrepresented the nicotine content in cigarettes and tobacco executives ' denials the issue is bringing public outrage to new heights . But the tobacco industry is fighting back hard . A coalition of farmers and manufacturers filed a lawsuit alleging that the EPA `` manipulated and cherry-picked scientific data '' and asked that a U.S. . District Court judge in North Carolina nullify the report . In California , tobacco giant Philip Morris has placed a controversial initiative on the November ballot that would undo local ordinances designed to curb secondhand smoke and replace them with a looser standard . ( Begin optional trim ) And cigarette maker R.J. Reynolds has launched an aggressive public information campaign designed to stave off smoking bans by countering the widespread perception that secondhand smoke is dangerous . The company 's tactic : Fight science with science . In full-page newspaper ads , R.J. Reynolds says its research shows that nonsmokers are exposed to `` very little '' secondhand smoke , even when they live or work with smokers . In one month , the company said , a nonsmoker living with a smoker would breathe the equivalent of smoking 1 cigarettes . ( End optional trim ) `` Policies should be based on science , '' Chris Coggins , the R.J. Reynolds toxicologist , said in an interview last week . `` I think that the ( EPA ) science is very , very weak . '' But the industry has a long way to go toward rolling back public policy on secondhand smoke . More than 600 state and local ordinances restrict smoking in public places . Across the United States , in cities large and small , a familiar sight has emerged : Smokers congregating outside . The federal Occupational Health and Safety Administration is contemplating a ban in all workplaces . This month , a congressional subcommittee approved a bill , introduced by Rep. Henry A . Waxman , D-Calif. , that would ban smoking in most buildings , except restaurants and private clubs . There is no smoking on domestic flights . There is no smoking in the White House ; first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton will not tolerate it . There is no smoking with your Big Mac ; McDonald 's recently banned tobacco in its corporate-owned restaurants . Taco Bell and Jack in the Box followed suit . Last year , the U.S. Supreme Court ruled in favor of a Nevada prisoner who called his cellmate 's smoke cruel and unusual punishment . Custody battles have been settled by giving preference to parents who do not smoke . The turnabout from a smoking to a smoke-free society seems to have occurred overnight . It could not have happened , anti-smoking advocates say , without science . `` Twenty years ago , I tried to have one room in a cruise ship declared smoke-free and I was told I was crazy , '' said John Banzhaf , a law professor at George Washington University who runs Action on Smoking and Health , or ASH . `` Who at that time would have figured that 30 percent of all our businesses would be smoke-free today ? .. . Things are moving amazingly quickly , and it is the scientific , medical underpinning that has changed the complexion of the issue . '' Today , several hundred scientific studies link secondhand smoke to a variety of diseases : lung and other cancers , heart disease , respiratory infections including bronchitis and pneumonia , asthma and sudden infant death syndrome , or SIDS , which claims the lives of babies as they sleep . This research is responsible for an oft-quoted statistic : About 53,000 Americans die each year from secondhand smoke . `` The evidence is so clear , '' says Mark Pertschuk , co-director of Americans for Non-Smokers Rights . `` Everybody and his brother is lining up to ban smoking . '' Yet the evidence , while compelling , is not as complete as Pertschuk suggests . Of each year 's secondhand-smoke deaths , 3,000 are attributed to lung cancer , 12,000 to other cancers and 37,000 to heart disease , according to the Coalition on Smoking OR Health , a nonprofit group formed by the American Lung Association , the American Heart Association and the American Cancer Society . The coalition also estimates that secondhand smoke accounts for 700 SIDS deaths a year . Most scientists working outside the tobacco industry say the link between lung cancer and secondhand smoke is firmly established . But the evidence on heart disease which accounts for nearly 70 percent of estimated deaths is much newer , and not all scientists accept it . Only 14 studies have documented this link , and the federal government has not yet taken a position . Nonetheless , public tolerance for secondhand smoke is waning . A recent Gallup Poll showed 38 percent of Americans support a ban on smoking in restaurants up 10 percent from three years ago . Support for workplace smoking bans is at 32 percent , up eight points from 1991 . The poll also found 36 percent of Americans believe secondhand smoke is very harmful to adults , and 42 percent believe it is somewhat harmful . `` The tide has turned , '' says Michael Eriksen , director of the Office on Smoking and Health at the U.S. . Centers for Disease Control and Prevention . `` I think an invisible line was crossed in terms of how the public feels about smoking . '' The tobacco industry is trying its best to persuade people to cross back over that line . The vast majority of the research on secondhand smoke is epidemiological , meaning it traces patterns of disease and finds connections , rather than proving cause and effect . Based on those studies , scientists are just beginning to conduct animal research to learn the precise biological effects of secondhand smoke . Tobacco industry officials vehemently dispute the epidemiology , including the EPA report . They say some study subjects give inaccurate information about how much smoke they have been exposed to , or whether they have ever smoked . R.J. Reynolds officials also cite a recent report by the Congressional Research Service the research branch of the Library of Congress that characterized the EPA 's data as `` uncertain . '' Coggins , the Reynolds toxicologist , complains that the EPA failed to include recent data that found no link between lung cancer and secondhand smoke . `` The epidemiological evidence is not sufficient to say that ( secondhand smoke ) poses a health risk , '' says Gio Batta Gori , a toxicologist and consultant for the Tobacco Institute , a trade industry group . Next : An Unwilling Fighter in the War on Secondhand Smoke SAN FRANCISCO Rosita Garcia never wanted to be a poster girl for the fight against tobacco . But here she is , living testimony in the debate over the dangers of second-hand smoke : the cocktail waitress who never touched a cigarette but got lung cancer after 11 years of serving drinks in the blue haze of a smoky airport bar . This is not how she wants to be remembered . At 39 , she is a very private woman , a former fitness buff ( she quit exercising when the cancer was discovered ) who hates to be thought of as being sick . She does not look sick ; there is color in her cheeks , her dark eyes are bright , her waistline is full a sign that she is again eating well . Yet the evidence is there , if one looks close enough . She wears her reddish-brown hair in a pixie cut , not by design but by necessity it is just growing back after chemotherapy and radiation . With every few sentences , she lets out a sputtering cough . Lately , she says , her chest has been hurting . Sometimes , she must excuse herself to vomit . The coldest proof of all sits in the medical file that Garcia keeps in the closet of her tiny government-subsidized apartment in Daly City , a working-class suburb just south of San Francisco . Although her disease , diagnosed nearly three years ago , is confined to a single lung and is not getting worse , neither is it getting better . Her tumors , reduced to scar tissue by radiation , may recur . Her oncologist says she is lucky to have survived . Her prognosis : Fair . Garcia 's plight provides a snapshot of the human side of the emotional secondhand smoke debate . Last year , the U.S. . Environmental Protection Agency declared secondhand smoke a human carcinogen , saying that it causes 3,000 lung cancer deaths a year . Health advocacy groups put the annual total death toll at 53,000 from secondhand smoke , including deaths from various forms of cancer , as well as from heart disease . Despite these figures and several hundred scientific studies documenting the ill effects of secondhand smoke , the tobacco industry counters with research showing that it is little more than a nuisance . As a consequence , Garcia and others who count themselves as its victims must battle not only disease , but also skeptics . For Garcia , the fight comes with a price tag : $ 26,889 . That is the cost of her medical care . She is seeking this amount , plus her weekly wages , in a workers ' compensation suit that is languishing in the bureaucracy while she lives on disability checks of $ 600 a month . Her former employer , Host Marriott , which operates the bars where Garcia worked for more than a decade , thus far has successfully fought the claim , saying Garcia did not get sick at work . At the San Francisco airport , a handful of Garcia 's former colleagues have waged a losing battle to clean the barroom air . Ironically , the airport has won plaudits for its aggressive anti-smoking policy ; in 1991 , it became the first airport in the nation to ban tobacco in all public places with one notable exception : bars . For the next two years there was nowhere else for smokers to go . Then in 1993 , the airport began installing ventilated smoking rooms . Although airport officials could have banned tobacco in the bars , they left that decision to Host Marriott , which after a trial ban chose to let smoking continue . The reason ? Economics. Bars lose money when patrons cannot smoke . Customers complained . Tips got so low that even the bartenders many of whom say the smoke makes them sick asked to have smoking back . `` No smoking did not go over well , '' said Nancy Wood , a Host Marriott official . `` We had a very hard time explaining to our client base , which is largely international travelers , why they couldn't smoke in the bar . '' The struggle at the San Francisco airport typifies a nationwide wrestling match over the issue of secondhand smoke . While more workplaces are banning tobacco use , in restaurants , bars and other quarters , matters of health collide with matters of money . Money often wins . Moreover , what is sufficient proof for the medical establishment may not be good enough in a courtroom , as Garcia 's faltering workplace injury claim shows . The case , which is hung up on a technicality , pits the word of a noted researcher who says Garcia 's lung cancer was caused by secondhand smoke against the word of a Host Marriott doctor , who says it was not . ( Begin optional trim ) Nationwide , there have been dozens of lawsuits and workers ' compensation cases filed by victims of secondhand smoke , including a recent $ 650 million wrongful death suit filed against tobacco manufacturers by the heirs of a Mississippi barber . The risk of a nonsmoker getting lung cancer is 1 in 250 , far lower than the 1-in-8 risk for a smoker , according to Lawrence Garfinkel , a consultant to the American Cancer Society . And of all diseases that may be caused by secondhand smoke , the link to lung cancer is most firmly established . But , Garfinkel notes , `` any one case is hard to prove . '' ( End optional trim ) The key question for Garcia , in the cumbersome language of state bureaucrats , is whether her disability is `` the result of occupation , either as an industrial accident or as an occupational disease . '' The answer ? Yes , said Dr. Christine Angeles , the Kaiser Permanente physician who first treated Garcia . Angeles based her conclusion on Garcia 's account that she had been exposed to excessive secondhand smoke at work . No , said Dr. Irene Danse , who was hired by Host Marriott lawyers to examine Garcia . Noting that Garcia is Filipino , Danse wrote in her report that Asian women , `` for some reason that has not been defined , '' seem prone to lung cancer . Citing a study that found Garcia 's workplace exposure to be equivalent to smoking one cigarette per day , Danse concluded : `` I cannot link her lung cancer to her job . '' To counter that assertion , Garcia 's lawyer hired Stanton A . Glantz , professor of medicine at University of California , San Francisco , and one of the nation 's most respected researchers on the issue of secondhand smoke . Glantz reviewed Garcia 's medical records . He found that she had only incidental exposure to secondhand smoke at home , that she had no exposure to other toxic agents such as asbestos or radon that might have caused her cancer . He dismissed the study Danse cited as flawed and said she had ignored `` large and compelling scientific literature . '' Garcia 's cancer , he concluded , was caused `` in major part , by her exposure to environmental tobacco smoke at her place of employment . '' But there was a problem with Glantz 's report . He is a Ph.D. , not a medical doctor , and he never examined Garcia . So Host Marriott persuaded a workers ' compensation judge to strike his testimony . The judge also ruled that it was too late for Garcia to be examined by a medical doctor . That was in March 1993 , and the question of whether Glantz will be permitted to testify has lingered on appeal . Without Glantz , Garcia 's lawyer says , he has no case . ( Optional Add End ) Tom McBirnie , a staff attorney for the Workers ' Compensation Board , suspects that Garcia 's claim has been delayed in part because workers ' compensation law is not equipped to deal with the emerging science of secondhand smoke . `` What we basically see , '' McBirnie said , `` are bad backs and stress claims . '' NEXT : How Dangerous Is Secondhand Smoke ? DAVIS , Calif. . The big brown building , a short walk off a country road in this scenic college town , looks more like a barn than a high-tech university laboratory . Inside , a rare and curious contraption is engaged in a habit that the surgeon general warns is bad for your health . This is Kent Pinkerton 's creation : the University of California , Davis , smoking machine . As an associate professor of anatomy at Davis , Pinkerton is interested in how the lungs work . His specialty has landed him at the crossroads of politics and medicine . In his lab at the university 's Institute of Toxicology and Environmental Health , Pinkerton and his colleagues hope their unusual smoking machine will inject hard science into the roiling national debate over the dangers of secondhand smoke . How , they are eager to know , are the cells and tissues of the lungs altered by exposure to secondhand smoke ? Are infants born smaller when they are exposed in the womb ? Does secondhand smoke induce changes in the nasal passageways that lead to asthma ? Is there a precise dose for lack of a better term at which it becomes dangerous ? If so , where does the threshold lie ? The government has classified secondhand smoke as a human carcinogen and nonsmokers worry that the slightest whiff of smoke could wreak havoc on their lungs and hearts . Cigarette companies are waging a counterattack , insisting that it is little more than a nuisance . The truth , which independent scientists say is somewhere in between , may emerge from the smoking machine . Scientific truths about secondhand smoke are not easy to come by . Studies are difficult and expensive to conduct , and funding is limited . Moreover , ethical considerations prevent researchers from subjecting humans to cigarette smoke , at least not for days on end . Nor can they ask people to smoke for the sake of science . Hence the busy Davis smoking machine . Five days a week , six hours a day , the machine is at work , blowing smoke at guinea pigs and hamsters , whose body parts will later be dissected in an effort to identify biological reactions that may be similar in humans . The device one of just two large-scale smoking machines in the nation outside of those owned by tobacco companies smokes more precisely than any person ever could , and therein lies its value . There are no Marlboros , Camels or Virginia Slims here . Rather , the smoking machine 's brand of choice is one few people have heard of the 1R4F . These low-tar and nicotine research cigarettes , each manufactured from the same tobacco blend , are produced by the University of Kentucky . They were rolled in 1983 and kept in a deep freeze until being shipped to Davis , where they are conditioned for up to 48 hours at 70 percent humidity before being smoked . Every 10 minutes , a steel piston fires another 1R4F into a revolving cylinder . A small metal coil , the sort used to heat an ordinary blow-dryer , lights the cigarette with a tiny red glow . As ashes begin to emerge , two others are in various stages of being smoked . The whole mechanism is encased in a plexiglass box that is yellow with smoke residue . Through a series of pipes , the box is connected to chambers where the animals are kept . With every puff , the cylinder clicks another revolution and a red light flashes . Each cigarette there are never more than three burning at any time is smoked in precisely the same fashion : one puff a minute , each puff lasting two seconds , eight puffs in all . To create each puff , a vacuum draws in 35 milliliters of air no more , no less . There is , Pinkerton says , an important reason for all this precision . Soft-spoken and lanky , the scientist is a master of understatement , never going out on a limb . `` If we are going to understand the mechanisms ( by which secondhand smoke injures people ) , '' he says , `` we need to have well-controlled conditions . '' The Davis studies have been under way for three years a short span in science , when research often lasts for decades . The university scientists are particularly interested in the effects of secondhand smoke on young children ; studies show infants and toddlers who may suffer from bronchitis , asthma and other respiratory diseases when exposed to secondhand smoke in the home are its primary victims . Among the Davis findings : Toxicologist Peter Witschi has shown that pregnant rats exposed to secondhand smoke gave birth to pups that weighed 6 percent less than those born to other rats not a dramatic reduction , but one that experts say is significant . Dr. Jesse Joad , a pediatrician , has demonstrated that newborn rats exposed to secondhand smoke in the womb and after birth test positive for asthma . Pinkerton has found that the lungs of newborn rats develop more slowly when exposed to secondhand smoke . As part of the experiments , Joad is investigating how nerve fibers in the lungs of guinea pigs are harmed by exposure to secondhand smoke ; the damage prevents the lungs from fending off other pollutants . Witschi is trying to determine whether a particularly strong carcinogen called NNK produces lung tumors in hamsters exposed to secondhand smoke , as it does in animals that breathe direct smoke . Few such studies have been done before . `` This is very beginning stuff , '' Joad said , adding : `` The kind of testing that we are going to do absolutely could never be done on children . '' Tobacco industry critics contend that the research is a waste of time . Chris Coggins , a toxicologist for R.J. Reynolds , says he has done his own animal research on rats and found no biological changes in the heart , lungs or respiratory system . The only damage documented in the study which appeared last year in the journal Inhalation Toxicology occurred in the tip of the rats ' noses , Coggins said , and was `` completely reversible '' when they were no longer exposed to the smoke . Tobacco industry consultant Gio Batta Gori , also a toxicologist , calls the Davis studies irrelevant . Humans , Gori argues , have the `` intrinsic capacity '' to clear their bodies of low-level pollutants , including secondhand smoke . `` You can manipulate the experiments any way you want and come up with some results , '' Gori complained of the research at Davis and other animal studies . `` You can choose a strain ( of animal ) that is susceptible , and you can use doses that are beyond the capacity of the animals to clear . '' Witschi says the doses can be manipulated and must be if scientists are to learn at what levels secondhand smoke becomes dangerous . ( Optional add end ) On these experiments hang the answers to crucial questions about secondhand smoke 's health effects . According to the U.S. . Centers for Disease Control and Prevention , as well as health advocacy groups , 53,000 people die each year from exposure to secondhand smoke . This figure is based on epidemiology studies , which examine patterns of illness but do not prove cause and effect . The studies implicate secondhand smoke in lung cancer and other cancers , heart disease , sudden infant death syndrome , bronchitis , pneumonia and asthma , especially in children . The U.S. . Environmental Protection Agency , relying on the lung cancer epidemiology , has declared secondhand smoke a Group A human carcinogen a classification that puts it in the same category as radon and asbestos . But tobacco industry officials say the EPA 's research is flawed because people overestimate the amount of smoke they have been exposed to , or lie about their smoking habits . The animal research may settle this debate by showing what epidemiology cannot : precisely how secondhand smoke wreaks its havoc , and exactly how much exposure is dangerous . As it turns out , the major problem with my childhood was that I wasn't paying attention to the right things . Kids , learn from my experience . That 's what I 'm here for . What you should be doing is watching TV . Much more TV . Forget what everybody says about TV ruining the lives of young people . It was not watching enough TV that ruined mine . Believe me , I could be a rich man today if , as a kid , I had taken the time to watch `` The Flintstones . '' As you may have heard , it is now a movie . Not just a movie it did $ 37.5 million at the box office over Memorial Day weekend . That 's a record for any holiday weekend in which people also ate genetically altered tomatoes . `` The Flintstones '' is , of course , a movie based on a cartoon TV show based on a real TV show . This is what we call sub-referencing . Which often , if not necessarily in this case , can lead to humor . Still , I should have watched . Then I could have written the script of a hit movie . I also didn't watch `` Maverick , '' which was the weekend runner-up at the box office and now stars the original TV Maverick , James Garner , who does not play the movie Maverick . You explain it . I didn't even watch `` Bewitched , '' which seems like a prime candidate for a summer movie , maybe next year . I bet somebody 's pitching it now . They can do this one as a cartoon or maybe a combo-job like Roger Rabbit . Elizabeth Montgomery drove every kid I knew crazy , and not just for her twitchy nose . But no , I was way too cool for that . Instead of watching dumb TV as a kid and ensuring my future , I spent a lot of time up in my room listening to rock and roll music the devil 's music , as it was known then . Bad , bad mistake . And not just because you had to listen on non-stereo transistor radios with a single earpiece that would not stay in your actual ear unless you taped it to the side of your head . The thing is , the bands of my youth are out there touring today . I could have missed the first 30 years of the Rolling Stones ( how long can time be on their side ? ) and still have caught them this summer on their latest tour , sponsored by the Hair Club for Men . Believe me , kids , there 'll be Lollapalooza reunion tours long after you 've lost most of your hair and look exactly like your dad does today . Sorry . Forget music . Forget MTV , unless it 's Beavis and Butt-head . I want you to think Fox network . In my childhood years , when I could have been watching TV , I also spent a lot of time reading . I was an excellent reader . I read all the classics , especially Mad magazine and the one issue of Playboy that I had managed to sneak into the house and hide in the back part of the drawer where I kept my baseball cards . You know you 've reached a defining point in your life when Miss July becomes more important to you than Minnie Minoso . Now I know you 're not reading . In fact , books , magazines and even newspapers as we know them will all soon become obsolete . Everything will be on CD-ROM , which I 'm told is the merging of computers and MTV . Which means that someday I may be able to bring this column to you each morning the way I always dreamed of doing it with backup singers . Ignore your schoolwork . In today 's job market , which for college graduates with advanced degrees runs the gamut from unemployment to working at the Gap , you can't get a decent job anyway . In summation , study TV . The stupider the TV the better . That 's the lesson of `` The Flintstones . '' What it means today is that you can't watch enough of the Bundys . Tape the shows and keep them for reference . Watch `` Family Matters . '' Sure , you may feel like a nerd . But someday it could pay off with a McDonald 's Urkel-meal tie-in . What I 'm saying is , I hope you were paying attention during `` Major Dad . '' Of course , not all of these shows will make successful movies . `` Beverly Hillbillies '' didn't . My advice : A show with a catchy tune , like `` The Addams Family , '' helps . It also helps if the characters in your show are eventually turned into kids ' vitamins . I willn't be seeing `` The Flintstones '' myself . It 's too late for me . But don't let what happened to me happen to you . You don't even have the same excuse I did . You 've got remote control . Your kids are grown and you retired several years ago . But you 're still rattling around a four-bedroom house , spending too much time cleaning and too much money on utility bills and real estate taxes . Is that your idea of how to spend your golden years ? Perhaps there 's a better way . Why not sell your home and move to a smaller , more affordable house or apartment ? And while you 're at it , why not move to a state with a better climate and lower taxes ? Plenty of other people have done it . What 's stopping you ? The question of where to live after retirement is not a simple one . There are many factors to consider , not the least of which is your sentimental attachment to your home and its proximity to your children . Whatever your final decision , it will affect your finances and quality of life for years to come . If you bought your house 25 or 35 years ago , chances are that it is much more valuable ; it may be your biggest asset . If you stand to make a big gain on the sale of your home , then consider your alternatives . Lee Rosenberg , author of `` Retirement Ready or Not , '' says trading down to a less expensive home can be a very smart financial move because you can use what 's left over to improve your standard of living . There 's another plus : You may be eligible for a special , one-time capital gains exclusion . The IRS says that once you reach age 55 , you can exclude from taxes up to $ 125,000 in capital gains on the sale of your primary residence . That means if your capital gain is $ 125,000 , you don't have to put the money into another home in order to avoid taxes . If you want , you could invest the money in stocks and rent a condominium . If your capital gain is $ 275,000 , you could take the exclusion on $ 125,000 of the gain , and defer taxes on the rest by rolling it over into a new home . Before you rush to sell your home , be sure to check the eligibility rules for the exclusion . You must have owned and lived in the home for three of the five years preceding the sale . There is only one $ 125,000 exclusion per couple . For example , say that a man is considering remarrying and both he and his fiancee are over 55 and own homes . If they sell the homes before the wedding , they each get an exclusion of $ 125,000 . If they wait until the honeymoon is over , they get only one exclusion . The capital gains exclusion is a one-time offer , but you can choose when to take it . When you get ready to calculate the capital gain , don't overlook the value of any capital improvements you made in your home over the years . If you added a new roof , put in a swimming pool , or renovated the bathroom , these things increased the value of the home . `` But you need good records to document what you paid for these improvements , '' says Ann Diamond , a Manhattan financial consultant . Take the total value of these capital improvements and add it to the original price you paid for the home . This is your cost basis . Then subtract the cost basis from the sale price . The result is your capital gain . So imagine that you have taken the big step and put your home on the market . You 've already found a buyer . Soon you 'll have a windfall in the bank . Now what ? Where should you move ? Perhaps you have friends in Boca Raton , Fla. , who 've been telling you how great it is there . They could show you around , help you find a place to buy , and introduce you to people . How about it ? Do some research before you select a retirement destination . You may want to compare several places . Visit them . Find out about the taxes and cost of living . Consider the climate , public transportation , quality of health care , and the amenities available . And remember that it can take time to make friends and develop a support system in a new place . Some people choose to retire in places like Florida because they know so many people who have already moved there . Many people choose Florida because of the tax benefits of living there . It has no state income tax , no gift levy and the estate tax is a dollar for dollar deduction from the federal estate tax . And if you live in Florida , the first $ 25,000 of the assessed value of your principal residence is exempt from property tax . ( Begin optional trim ) In his book , `` Fifty Fabulous Places to Retire in America , '' Rosenberg says that Florida `` ranks first among 10 popular retirement states for smallest tax bite . '' In order to realize these benefits , however , you must establish legal residence in Florida . And that means you also must prove that you no longer owe taxes in your former home state . Even if you can prove you 've changed your residency , the state where you once earned your living may continue to lay claim to the taxes on your pension income . Some states try to raise tax revenues by aggressively pursuing people who claim to have moved out of state . In New York , the Tax Department conducts about 4,000 audits a year of such people , says Paul R. Comeau , a Buffalo , N.Y. , lawyer and co-author of `` The New York Residency Audit Handbook . '' The audits have resulted in additional tax assessments of $ 125 million a year , he adds . Florida is not the only state without a personal income tax . Alaska , Nevada , South Dakota , Texas , Washington and Wyoming also share that distinction . ( End optional trim ) In addition , you will want to check the sales tax and property tax rates before you select a retirement destination . If you take the right steps to establish residency , you can save money by moving to a state with low taxes . But financial experts say that taxes shouldn't be your primary consideration . Why move to Florida if you will miss the change of seasons , or if you want to live somewhere you willn't need a car ? `` In the end , you should never let the tax tail wag the dog , '' says Lawrence A . Greenberg , a senior trust officer at Chemical Bank 's Palm Beach , Fla. , office . Off to a stumbling political start as it seeks to oversee self-rule in the Gaza Strip and Jericho , the Palestine Liberation Organization now faces the staggering prospect of financial collapse within months after assuming authority . PLO officials on the ground Chairman Yasser Arafat remains in Tunis aren't the only ones frightened by the possibility . Israel , in what some would see as an ironic twist , is pondering ways to channel emergency help to the Palestinian interim government to keep it afloat . This isn't altruism . It 's prudent self-interest . If the PLO can't provide for the necessities of life in the territories it now seeks to govern , its already damaged legitimacy could be terminally undermined . That would open the door to at least an attempted seizure of power by Muslim extremists . What could follow concerns Israel enormously . It ought to concern nearly every Arab state , along with Europe and the United States no less . The World Bank and 40 donor countries that were brought together by the United States last October have pledged a total of $ 2.4 billion over the next five years to sustain Palestinian self-rule . Much of that is earmarked for specific projects and a lot will consist of equipment and training and other in-kind services . The Palestinians say that with all these pledges they have up to now seen almost no cash . Without cash , workers in essential services will go unpaid and soon will stop going to work , fueling popular disaffection and weakening the governing authority 's standing even more . Dilatory donors aren't wholly to blame , however . Once again responsibility goes to the apex of the Palestinian hierarchy , to Arafat , who has always kept the PLO 's finances including its extensive investment portfolio under his own secretive control . An accounting of what the PLO has , or has left after decades of notoriously high living by its top officials , is long overdue . At the same time Arafat can blame only himself although of course he willn't for the loss of hundreds of millions in aid from the PLO 's once-generous oil state benefactors , a circumstance he brought about by rushing to approve Iraq 's invasion of Kuwait . Noting all this , those concerned with stability in the Middle East can still only conclude that the Palestinian experiment in self-rule remains too vital to the security interests of too many countries to let collapse . Donor nations must act quickly to speed up their cash transfers , not to save Arafat from his own folly but to give the Palestinian people a chance to evolve toward the democratic and secular society that the PLO has for so long portrayed as their destiny . Rep. Dan Rostenkowski says , `` I did not commit any crimes , my conscience is clear . '' And , `` I strongly believe I am not guilty of these charges . '' If by those statements he means he did not do what a grand jury in Washington in a 17-count indictment said he did , then we hope he will be `` vindicated , '' to use his word , by a trial jury . But if he means only , as some of his supporters have suggested , that he did what is charged but that this should not be considered felonious , then that 's another matter . These are `` very reprehensible '' crimes , as U.S. . Attorney Eric Holder put it . If the powerful representative from Chicago employed ghost workers who kicked back pay for work not done , if he regularly and for long periods used federal employees for work at his homes , if he used official expense accounts for purely personal enrichment in the form of cash and gifts all to the tune of over $ 600,000 in taxpayer funds if he did all those things and then tried to obstruct the federal investigation into his case , as alleged in the indictments , then he deserves the severest punishment the law can impose . Such acts are not , as some defenders of Rostenkowski keep saying , standard operating procedure for powerful members of Congress . Rep. Robert Torricelli is just wrong when he says , `` ( Rostenkowski ) is being prosecuted for things which , a generation ago , were probably somewhat accepted . '' The things charged in the indictment were never accepted , at least not by the public . The things listed in the indictment are not just `` perks '' for the powerful . They weren't when Rostenkowski became chairman of the Ways and Means Committee in 1981 ; they weren't when he came to Congress in 1959 . The felonies charged in the indictment then as now add up to a `` betrayal of the public trust for personal gain , '' to use Holder 's label . Rostenkowski may not have done these deeds at all . If he says he didn't do them , then it becomes something a jury must decide . Political corruption indictments are almost never shaky ; about 90 percent of them result in convictions , according to Justice Department records . Still , as we have said before , even the high and mighty deserve the presumption of innocence . In just the past 13 months two members of Congress , Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison of Texas and Rep. Harold Ford of Tennessee , beat indictments charging abuse of office . If Rostenkowski prevails by convincing jurors that he did not behave as charged , good for him . But if he prevails with a defense of `` it 's the way Congress works , everybody does it , '' then shame on him and on Congress . Can you spot the monstrous grammar and usage errors in this conversation between Dr. Frankenstein and his assistants Igor and Lee ? ( Look for the hidden clue in the wording of each sentence . ) 1 ) Dr. Frankenstein : I 'm anxious to sew this monster together , Igor , so please give me a hand . 2 ) Igor : My , my , Master . I didn't realize that you objected to me taking a break . 3 ) Lee : Working on this monster , it appears that one of his parts is dangling . 4 ) Dr. Frankenstein : Only sew those parts that are loose , and place them as carefully as you would your own , Lee . 5 ) Lee : While I 'm sewing , can I ask you a question about creating an extra monster next May . 6 ) Dr. Frankenstein : Lee , you seem to like this work better than him . Hee , hee ! Answers : 1 ) If Dr. Frankenstein were eager to please language purists , he would say , `` I 'm eager ( not anxious ) ... '' 2 ) `` My , my , '' say the experts , declaring that Igor should say `` my ( not me ) taking a break . '' 3 ) In fact , it 's the participial phrase `` working on this monster '' that 's dangling . It should be surgically reattached to the subject , `` I '' ( `` Working on this monster , I noticed that one of his parts is dangling . '' ) 4 ) Dr. Frankenstein did not place his own `` only '' carefully . `` Only sew those parts that are loose '' means that loose parts should only be sewn and not stapled or glued . Clarify the meaning by placing `` only '' after `` sew '' as in , `` sew only those parts that are loose . '' 5 ) Can `` can . '' Use `` may . '' Lee surely can ask about creating an extra monster next May , but what he means is , `` May I ask about it ? '' 6 ) If Lee likes his work better than he likes Igor , `` than him '' it is . But if Lee likes his work better than Igor does , it should be `` than he '' because `` than he does '' is implied . Hee , hee ! WASHINGTON The worst financial disaster since the Great Depression came to an unofficial end last week when regulators quietly announced that during the first quarter of this year , not a single U.S. bank failed or was taken over by the government . The banking turmoil began in 1980 when the Federal Reserve pushed short-term interest rates over 15 percent . That set off a chain reaction of fraud , stupidity and political cowardice that eventually led to the closing of 2,000 banks and savings and loans and a taxpayer bailout in the neighborhood of $ 150 billion . Now , banks are making record profits and adding to their capital reserves , their cushion against adversity . Meanwhile , money is piling up in the coffers of the Bank Insurance Fund , which is operated by the once-nearly-bankrupt Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. . But a big question remains : Is the banking system really fixed , or is it merely enjoying the temporary fruits of an economic recovery that features exceptionally low interest rates ? Instead of patting ourselves on the back for saving the banks , perhaps we should be overhauling the system completely so a disaster willn't recur . Bert Ely , a well-known consultant based in Alexandria , Va. , is pushing hard for an overhaul . He proposes to replace government deposit insurance with private insurance a network of `` cross-guarantees '' that would allow banks to protect each other against losses . Competing companies backed by the capital of hundreds of financial institutions and other large corporations would set premiums based on assessments of whether particular banks were likely to fail . The companies would employ their own examiners to check on financial soundness . It would be `` as regulator-proof as possible . '' With their own money at risk , the insurance companies would have a tremendous incentive to step in quickly to minimize losses or stop them before they happen . After all , this is the way property and casualty insurance works right now . And Ely believes that bank deposit insurance may be an easier game : A huge earthquake can strike without warning , but bank insolvencies can be nipped in the bud before they blossom out of control . That 's what should have happened in the early 1980s , Ely says . Instead , Congress and the regulators lacked the political will to close banks and S&Ls as soon as they got into trouble . And , of course , the FDIC and especially its sister organization , the Federal Savings and Loan Insurance Corp. lacked the funds to shut sick institutions and pay off depositors . So politicians encouraged the banks and S&Ls to grow their way out of insolvency ( which reminds me of the old joke about the retailer who loses $ 10 on every dress but makes it up on volume ) . The result , as economist Paul Krugman writes , was an `` epidemic of moral hazard '' a phenomenon that strikes terror in the hearts of all insurers . Moral hazard is what you get when someone is so well insured against a terrible event that he isn't very concerned whether it happens or not . If you have $ 200,000 worth of coverage on a diamond ring , you 're less likely to leave it in a safe deposit box than if you had no coverage . Thanks to federal deposit insurance , bankers could make exceptionally risky , self-serving loans . If the loans went bad , the bankers could just walk away and let the government that is , the taxpayers pick up the pieces . Bank examiners should have caught up with these misdeeds , but they were overworked and sometimes , as in the case of the Keating Five senators , encouraged to look the other way . Congress and the White House both preferred to wait until after the election of 1988 before confronting the terrible truth . Then the regulators started shutting banks down and paying off depositors . More important , laws were enacted in 1989 and 1991 to try to prevent a cataclysm from happening again , but they left the federal deposit insurance system , to Ely 's chagrin , essentially in place . Ely believes that the marketplace would impose a more rational discipline . Well-run banks would pay low insurance premiums and wouldn't have burdensome capital requirements to prevent them from making loans to invigorate the economy . Riskier banks would pay higher premiums or mend their ways . Or go out of business . And the taxpayers would be out of the loop . Rep. Thomas E . Petri , R-Wis. , has introduced a bill to make Ely 's plan law . I 'll admit to a bias in favor of market solutions such as Ely 's . But sometimes believe it or not the federal government can do things better than the private sector . Deposit insurance appears to be such a case . Remarkably , the 1991 FDIC Improvement Act has really improved the FDIC . It beefs up capital requirements . It effectively eliminates the `` too big to fail '' doctrine that allowed rescues of huge banks at the expense of smaller ones . It gives the regulators more independence . And it strictly enforces the $ 100,000-per-account insurance limit . George Kaufman , professor of finance and economics at Loyola University in Chicago , would love to see that limit dropped to $ 40,000 ( I 'd like to see it cut to $ 10,000 per person the size of the average U.S. bank account ) , but he admits that politics precludes such a move . So far , he says of the new system , `` it 's worked quite well . '' Which is probably why we haven't heard much about it . Success , especially in the world of money politics , gets little attention these days . But look at the numbers : Annual bank failures have declined from 168 in 1990 to 42 last year to four so far this year ( those four , in April and May , involved small institutions ) . S&L failures have dropped from 315 in 1990 to 27 last year to 14 so far in 1994 . It 's true that low interest rates have aided this amazing turnaround , but it 's also true that banks have a penchant for snatching defeat from the jaws of victory-by recycling their profits into dubious ventures such as Third World loans , junk bonds and slick land deals . Who knows ? A real test of how the new , improved system stands up under fire may be closer than you think . The rankings for hard-cover books sold in Southern California , as reported by selected book stores : FICTION 1 . THE CELESTINE PROPHESY , by James Redfield . 2 . THE CHAMBER , by John Grisham . 3 . INCA GOLD , by Clive Cussler . 4 . REMEMBER ME , by Mary Higgins Clark . 5 . THE BRIDGES OF MADISON COUNTY , by Robert James Waller . 6 . THE ALIENIST , by Caleb Carr . 7 . `` K '' IS FOR KILLER , by Sue Grafton . 8 . LIKE WATER FOR CHOCOLATE , by Laura Esquivel . 9 . FIST OF GOD , by Frederick Forsyth . 10 . THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW , by Allan Folsom . NONFICTION : 1 . IN THE KITCHEN WITH ROSIE , by Rosie Daley . 2 . EMBRACED , BY THE LIGHT , by Betty J. Eadie . 3 . MEN ARE FROM MARS : Women Are From Venus , by John Gray , Ph.D. . 4 . STANDING FIRM , by Dan Quayle . 5 . MAGIC EYE II , by N.E. . Thing Enterprises . 6 . BEYOND PEACE , by Richard Nixon . 7 . MAGIC EYE I , by N.E. . Thing Enterprises . 8 . BOOK OF VIRTUES : A Treasury of the World 's Great Moral Stories , by William J. Bennett . 9 . THE HALDEMAN DIARIES : Inside the Nixon White House , by H.R. Haldeman . 10 . REBA : My Story , by Reba McEntire with Tom Carter . CyberSurfing : Potholes , perturbations and predicaments observed on the information superhighway : Most visitors to Paris are satisfied with their little Eiffel Tower souvenirs , but that 's obviously not enough for Michael Hayward , who seems to be an unusually sentimental sort . `` I 'd like to locate a source for the benches which are found everywhere in Paris city parks , '' he wrote in a recent posting on the Internet newsgroup soc.culture.french . `` The older design .. . ( is ) shaped like an elongated ` S ' with narrow ` slats ' ( roughly square in cross section ) running lengthwise . The supports ( legs/backs ) are a somewhat ornately designed cast iron . As I recall , these benches are ( always ? ) painted a distinctive shade of high gloss deep green. .. . Has anyone else got fond memories of these benches ? Has anyone else made an attempt to track down a source ? '' From France Olivier Clary responded with the lyrics of a popular song : Les amoureux qui s ' becotent sur les bancs publics/ bancs publics/ bancs publics/ en s ' foutant pas mal du r ' gard oblique/ des passants honteux . ( `` The lovers kissing on the public benches/ the public benches/ the public benches/ don't give a damn about the nasty glances/ of the shameful passersby . '' ) Parisian Gregory Miezelis , however , actually had an answer : The first place to look , said Miezelis , is Les Domaines , a French government agency that auctions off surplus equipment . He also suggested checking the Paris flea market 's many antique dealers . Selling price ? About 950 francs plus 10 percent tax , or roughly $ 200 , although cybernaut Miezelis said he saw one sold at auction for only 350 francs . Evan Roth evanr ( at ) aol.com GETTING THERE : Once you 've gained access to the Internet , go to Usenet or Newsgroups and type : soc.culture.french . On America Online , for example , go to the Go To menu , click on Keyword and type in Newsgroups . At the Newsgroups menu , click on the Expert Add icon . Type in soc.culture.french in the blank space and click Add . When asked if you want to add the newsgroup , click Yes . When the menu returns , click on the My Newsgroups icon , and you will see soc.culture.french added to the list . Double-click on it and you 're there . -0- They Want His mtv.com Adam Curry wants his mtv.com . Curry , a longtime video jock for MTV , set up a music-news bulletin board on the Internet a year ago , using his home computer and the address mtv.com . Now he 's being being sued by his ex-employer for copyright infringement . Curry uses mtv.com to dish industry gossip ( `` cybersleaze , '' he calls it ) , and offers concert schedules , band interviews and commentary . He estimates 35,000 log-ins daily . Many of those users are now following the saga of Curry vs. MTV-from Curry 's viewpoint only . The cable music network , which prides itself on up-to-the-minute hipness , isn't `` jacked into the net , '' as Curry put it in a recent missive to his supporters . The on-line faithful have been flaming MTV as `` totally lame '' and `` a pitiful network of corporate pigs . '' Wrote a user named Daredevil : `` DON ' T LET THE LAMERS GET YOU DOWN ! '' Curry claims mtv.com began with the `` blessing and support '' of MTV execs , but after he resigned April 25 , `` things got ugly . '' ( It probably didn't help that Curry posted a resignation letter on the Internet accusing MTV of selling out the `` M '' in its name . ) In federal court in Manhattan in May , MTV 's lawyers argued for an injunction against Curry 's use of mtv.com . Further hearings are scheduled . `` This has nothing to do with Adam 's departure , '' says an MTV spokeswoman . `` We 've tried unsuccessfully for a year to get Adam to stop using the MTV trademark to market his services . '' Said the defiant Curry in e-mail : `` mtv.com will always exist on the net . '' Richard Leiby leiby ( at ) aol.com GETTING THERE : To follow the Curry case using America Online , select keyword Internet ; then select WAIS & Gopher databases ; then select category Music ; then select the MTV Gopher folder ; then brainwaves.txt . Thirty-Two Short Films About Glenn Gould : Original Motion Picture Soundtrack ( Sony SK 46686 ) . With one exception ( Toscanini conducting the prelude to `` Tristan und Isolde '' ) , this soundtrack focuses on Gould playing the piano or organ , and it profiles his musicianship and quirky personality with as much variety and fascination as does the film . Besides the expected Bach selections , this album features interpretations of Richard Strauss , Sibelius , Hindemith , Prokofiev and Schoenberg . Like the movie , this disc is an excellent promo for Sony 's massive `` Glenn Gould Edition '' series . Ned Rorem : Piano Concerto for Left Hand and Orchestra ; 11 Studies for 11 Players ( New World 80445 ) . Rorem is known almost entirely for his songs , which deserve the praise they have received , but his instrumental works merit equal attention . These examples , composed in 1991 and 1993 respectively , reveal him to be a master of modern styles , with a penchant for impressionistic and late romantic flavors . These recordings were made in the Curtis Institute , Philadelphia , with a student orchestra whose professionalism matches that of piano soloist Gary Graffman and conductor Andre Previn . Mahler : Symphony No. 4 ( London 440 315 , with text and translation ) . This beguiling celebration of youthful innocence and joy is an ideal introduction to Mahler 's symphonies ( even more so than the muscular struggles and sharp-edged ironies of his more-popular First Symphony ) . Ernst von Dohnanyi and the Cleveland Orchestra precisely capture the music 's Viennese lilt and the subtlest details of phrasing and dynamic accent . In the final movement , Dawn Upshaw 's is the angelic voice that quaintly proclaims the joys of heaven . Monteverdi : Arie e Duetti ( Capriccio 10 470 , with texts and translations ) . Soprano Mieke van der Sluis and countertenor Axel Kohler give unusually well-styled performances of music that demonstrates the range of the Renaissance master 's genius : short sacred works with Latin texts , duet madrigals and dramatic monologues , and the nurse 's aria and final duet from `` The Coronation of Poppaea . '' Four instrumental numbers are played by the German ensemble Lautten Compagney , which also plays accompaniments . Ravel : Gaspard de la Nuit , La Valse ; Liszt : Ballade No. 2 in B Minor ; Prokofiev : Sarcasms ( Connoisseur Society CD 4195 ) . Pianist Sergei Babayan has chosen a program bristling with technical challenges , but he never indulges in technique for its own sake . He is a musician dedicated to small nuances and atmospheric subtleties which are also crucial elements in these pieces and he has the skill to make the music 's difficulties seem nonexistent . CAMBRIDGE , Mass. . In a first floor office next to John & Nick 's gas station , Karen Fox is looking for a few good sperm . Harvard sperm . MIT sperm . Smart little swimmers from the Ivy League . `` If our customers wanted high school dropouts that 's what we would get , '' said Ronda Wilkin , spokeswoman for the California Cryobank , which operates the sperm bank here that Fox manages . `` No one has proven that Harvard , MIT , Princeton or Yale sperm produces smarter children , but people like the idea . '' Wilkin said single women or married couples searching for a sperm donor base their decisions on an anonymous resume and profile , and some find assurance in men who have a college degree . At the Cryobank , a vial of sperm costs $ 135 to $ 165 , and there 's `` no extra charge for the Ivy League , '' she said . There are now more than 100 sperm banks in the country , most located near selective universities . The Cryobank , one of the nation 's largest , has locations near the University of California at Los Angeles ( UCLA ) , Stanford and Harvard . Specialists in the reproductive fields say the number of single women who want babies and couples with infertility problems is growing , and more people are turning to sperm banks . As more men and women talk openly about their fertility struggles , the mystery is fading from the banks that store vials of sperm in liquid nitrogen . Many of these people are deciding that the 1990s conception of choice is academically correct sperm . Sperm banks like the Cryobank say they are responding to the demand and aggressively recruit on college campuses , where they rank among the largest advertisers at campus newspapers such as the Harvard Crimson . Nobody knows how many men have donated sperm ( each bank 's supply is kept secret ) or how many babies are born thanks to donor sperm . But about 65,000 babies were born through artificial insemination in 1987 , the most recent year for which reliable figures are available , said Joyce Zeitz , spokeswoman for the American Fertility Society , which issues ethical guidelines in the field . Of those births , 35,000 were from pregnancies using the husband 's sperm , and 30,000 were from donor sperm . Since then , experts in the field say they believe the number has risen . `` Seems like everyone who you talk to has fertility problems , '' Fox said . `` The field of fertility medicine is growing fast . '' As it does , women have more sperm to choose from . `` I had a lady who wanted to know if we had a mathematician , '' Fox said . `` We did . '' Fertility specialists say it is not new that the anonymous donors who are being recruited for sperm banks are not average Joes . The first recorded use of frozen sperm for artificial insemination was in 1953 , according to Zeitz , who said in those early years it was not uncommon for fertility experts to use the sperm of medical students or other doctors . The field has expanded dramatically and some sperm banks have less rigorous academic qualifications for donors . But the Cryobank will not accept sperm from men who are not attending or did not graduate from a four-year college . Even then , the bank says it refuses 95 percent of men who apply to be donors . Rejection can come for low sperm count ( not enough millions per milliliter ) , low motility ( does not swim well ) or because some sperm is too difficult to freeze . Heart disease is a disqualifier . And men over 34 or under 5-feet-9 can forget it , because young and tall are requirements too . `` We don't get requests for short men , '' Wilkin said . Donors are anonymous , known only by a number . Customers select them by flipping through a catalogue that includes extensive profiles of the men , from their medical history to their musical talents . The catalogue also list the men 's alma maters , as well as their scores on Scholastic Achievement Tests ( SATs ) . Of course , much of this has been criticized as elitist . Another sperm bank , the Repository for Germinal Choice , known as the Nobel sperm bank , was nationally criticized for trying to breed a superior race when it sought out only Nobel laureates as donors . One of that bank 's donors even spoke about the inherent or genetic superiority of some people . This `` genius '' bank still exists , but it has since lowered its expectations : mere scholars now suffice . Cryobank says it is different from banks that have an IQ-cutoff . It takes sperm from donors who attend state schools , and it requires no intelligence tests . Cryobank officials say they are simply seeking the kind of donor that women want . Stephen Frank , opinion page editor of the Harvard Crimson , is not as worried about the offspring as he is about the donors . He has written a column , `` Dollars for Sperm , '' that questions whether this is a wise part-time job . Donors can earn $ 105 a week for what can amount to three 15-minute visits . While Frank says this is good pay for what some would hardly call work , he wonders whether sperm banks take advantage of young donors , who might regret their choices later in life . To limit the chance of accidental incest or a chance encounter with a strikingly similar person , many sperm banks retire a donor 's sperm supply after its has produced 10 children . But Frank is not sure those safeguards make much difference . `` When I am 40 years old and have a family of my own , '' he said , `` I personally wouldn't want to have other kids running around who look like me . '' Get out your calculators . You 're going to need them to keep up with rising car prices , especially on best-selling cars and trucks . Take the Chevrolet Camaro . When the 1994 model was introduced last fall , it carried a base price of $ 13,399 . By Jan. 10 this year , that price rose to $ 13,499 . On May 9 , the price went up $ 250 to $ 13,749 . Yet , the sporty Camaro and its companion Pontiac Firebird continue to sell at a brisk pace . Current sales are almost four times what they were in 1993 . So what 's going on here ? Partly it 's the end of recession . People are buying cars again and that 's creating high demand , which is leading to higher prices . Partly it 's manufacturers such as General Motors Corp. scrambling to find money and ways to expand production . And partly it 's shifting exchange rates putting pressure on Japanese companies to raise prices . `` We 're having the opposite side of the problem that we had two years ago , when we were shutting down plants because we couldn't sell enough cars , '' said John F. Maciarz , GM 's marketing spokesman . `` Now our demand is so high , we can't build enough cars and trucks . '' Oddly enough , Japanese automakers with their factories of legendary efficiency are experiencing similar capacity problems , although their prices are rising faster than those of their American rivals . Since Oct. 1 , 1993 the beginning of the 1994 model year Japanese auto prices have risen an average $ 991 , or 5.8 percent , over what they were for comparable 1993 models , according to the latest pricing survey by Automotive News , a Detroit-based industry trade journal . By comparison , prices for GM , Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler Corp. have risen an average $ 416 since last October , or 2.2 percent . Yet , the Japanese share of the car and truck market in the United States for the first four months of this year stood at 23.1 percent , up two-tenths of a percentage point over its 1993 level . Domestic auto companies held a 74.2 percent share , down six-tenths , according to figures compiled by Autofacts Early Warning Report , another industry trade journal . `` That sort of pokes a hole in the argument that higher prices necessarily mean lower market share , '' said Joel Pitcoff , an industry analyst for Ford . `` In spite of their higher prices ( and ) our increases in quality , in spite of the fact that more Americans are beginning to buy our cars , the Japanese are still making gains ; and we 're not taking them lightly . '' However , some analysts have argued that U.S. automakers could gain more share if they absolutely held the line on prices , or lowered them . But that conventional wisdom assumes the U.S. companies have enough capacity to meet even existing demand for their products , said Chrysler spokeswoman Karen Stewart . Chrysler is losing sales , and chances to increase market share , largely because it is having a hard time building all the cars people want to buy , Stewart said . Chrysler 's much-in-demand Neon car is an example . The company has a backlog of about 35,000 orders for the subcompact , Chrysler officials said . Chrysler so far has raised its 1994 car and truck prices an average $ 389 , 2 percent higher than they were last year . But , as is becoming common with Japanese and U.S. car manufacturers alike , those Chrysler increases came in steps an average $ 244 in October 1993 , and mini-hikes totaling an average $ 145 since then . The strategy is to avoid turning off consumers with one , big price jump , Stewart said . ` ` .. . People tend to deal with price increases much better if you keep the increases moderate and spread them out over time , '' she says . Consumers still will be able to find bargains in what has become a seller 's market , industry officials said . But those bargains most likely will be found on slower-selling models . Also , a best-seller in one community may be a dud in another , where the price might therefore be lower , some industry officials said . If an icy comet strikes a large , gaseous planet while everyone is watching , does it make a sound ? Well , yes in a way . It 's this summer 's buzz . Comet Shoemaker-Levy 9 , which resembles a string of pearls , is on a collision course with Jupiter . On July 16 , the first of the comet 's 21 major chunks will plummet into the planet 's gassy atmosphere . For the following five days , piece after icy piece dives into Jupiter . What happens next , scientists aren't sure . This kind of comet is the first one astronomers ever have seen-in fact , this is the first time humanity will witness space real estate smacking a planet . Carolyn and Gene Shoemaker and David Levy discovered this one-in-a-thousand-lifetimes comet on March 25 , 1993 , at the 18-inch Schmidt telescope at Mount Palomar Observatory near San Diego . The trio found the comet by studying pictures taken with the telescope two nights earlier . In the photographs , Carolyn found what she called a `` squashed comet . '' To verify it , Levy and the Shoemakers wanted to see it again . But the night was cloudy in Southern California . Levy contacted Jim Scotti at the Spacewatch Telescope at Kitt Peak , Ariz. Scotti aimed his telescope at the object and reported a few hours later : `` Have you got yourselves a comet ! '' It featured multiple nuclei and tails . Astronomers conclude that eight months earlier , on July 7 , 1992 , the comet passed Jupiter and the planet 's gravity tore the comet into 21 major bits . Apparently , the comet chunks will mostly hit on Jupiter 's far side , but the planet spins fairly fast , giving scientists some hope to catch residual events . To see it , you 'll need a telescope large enough to capture Jupiter 's detail . `` I heard NBC was initially interested but wanted to play down the suicide and the drugs , '' says Dave Thompson , author of the quickie unauthorized bio `` Never Fade Away : The Kurt Cobain Story . '' Thompson is referring to newspaper reports that network television had considered a movie about the short life and sudden death of Nirvana 's lead singer . In the wake of three `` Long Island Lolita '' and two Menendez brothers movies not to mention just about every sweeps week special in recent years such restraint is probably more indicative of Attorney General Janet Reno 's attentions than late-blooming industry conscience , though a Los Angeles Times report noted that the networks weren't particularly interested in the youthful demographics of Nirvana fans and felt that older audiences wouldn't know who Cobain was and probably wouldn't care . Thompson is an interested observer because the film rights to his paperback book have been picked up by Los Angeles-based Paradigm Talent , which is talking to interested producers and has already assigned one of its clients , Richard DiLello , to write the script . DiLello , who has written scripts for `` Colors '' and `` Bad Boys , '' is best known in music circles as the author of the Beatles biography `` The Longest Cocktail Party : An Insider 's Diary of the Beatles '' ; DiLello was `` house hippie '' and public relations director at Apple Records from 1968 to 1970 . Some people don't like even the idea of a Cobain film . `` It 's just being so exploitive of something so tragic , '' says Janet Billig of Gold Mountain , Nirvana 's management company . `` The whole idea of it is really upsetting . I can't find a word in the English language strong enough to express how we all feel about this . '' One word that comes to mind is `` no . '' While Cobain 's life is open to unauthorized bio-films , just as it was to Thompson 's unauthorized book , his songs are protected by copyright laws , and Billig indicates that Paradigm and any other would-be biographers will not have access to Nirvana 's music . `` We have advised our lawyers that we wouldn't want this to happen , '' Billig says . Thompson admits that he too wondered `` what on earth are they going to do for a soundtrack , since a lot of the things we know about him came through his songwriting ? As `` Backbeat ' ( the recent movie about the Beatles ) proved , there are ways around that . One idea I had was to concentrate on the life and not make the music a major part of it , because the book is essentially about Kurt as opposed to the band . '' `` Michael Azzarad 's book ( `` Come As You Are ' ) is truly the Nirvana story , '' says Thompson . Azzarad , whose book was also unauthorized but written with the cooperation of the band , has reportedly turned down several offers to sell the film rights . Thompson , who also wrote a book about the Red Hot Chili Peppers , turned his 170-page book over to St. Martin 's a week after Cobain 's suicide on April 8 ; 200,000 copies started shipping out in the middle of May . That 's impressive , but the Seattle-based Thompson had been working on a Nirvana book since 1991 . The Thompson adaptation is not the only Cobain story being shopped : Scenarios have reportedly been offered by Cobain 's mother and several associates . `` There is a built-in exploitation , '' says Paradigm agent Gary Pearl , who purchased the rights to `` Never Fade Away . '' The way to avoid that , he says , `` is to have really top talent developing it , people who are interested in the band and the people , and that 's what we 're searching for . '' As for music rights , Pearl remains hopeful . `` It would be great to have the support of Geffen ( Nirvana 's label ) and the Cobain estate . The screenwriter doesn't get involved in productions that aren't prestigious and smart , and while they may have reservations now , I 'm fairly confident that upon seeing a script , they 'll be more than interested in being involved . '' It will probably be a year before any Cobain film appears in theaters , but when it does , it will be part of a new wave of pop music bio-films . Also on the way are two about Jimi Hendrix ( due out next year on the 25th anniversary of his death ) , Bob Marley ( based on Tim White 's `` Catch a Fire '' ) , Miles Davis ( based on his autobiography ) , soul man Otis Redding and bluesman Robert Johnson . A long-simmering film about folk singer Phil Ochs ( a suicide in 1976 ) may also be revived , and with two new books out suggesting he was actually murdered in 1969 , a Brian Jones film is likely as well . Also reported to be in the works : bio-films about Roy Orbison , Ray Charles , Eddie Cochran , Sam Cooke , Marvin Gaye , Bobby Darin , Jim Croce , Frankie Lymon , Rick Nelson and Phil Spector . I couldn't believe my eyes : James Earl Ray was up for parole last week . The man who pleaded guilty 25 years ago to assassinating Martin Luther King Jr. actually had the gall to ask to be set free . And if that wasn't shocking enough , the Rev. James M. Lawson , a civil rights leader , showed up at the hearing to speak on Ray 's behalf . Lawson was the strategy chairman for the strike among sanitation workers that prompted King to make his fateful trip to Memphis in April 1968 . With a news photographer capturing the obscene moment for all the world to see , Lawson walked over to Ray and affectionately shook the gunman 's hand . What is wrong with our people ? How many ways can we come up with to make ourselves look totally stupid ? Hosea Williams , another associate of King 's during the 1960s , also showed up to testify on Ray 's behalf . `` I know in my heart that Ray didn't pull that trigger , '' Williams told the parole board . In his heart ? What kind of evidence is that ? If Williams knows something about the assassination , he ought to give it up . Or just be quiet . In 1969 , Ray admitted that he killed King . Before sentencing Ray to 99 years in prison , Criminal Court Judge Preston Battle repeatedly asked him if he understood that his plea precluded appeals . Ray said he understood . That should have been the end of Ray . But three days later , he tried to retract that confession and began seeking a new trial . Ray , 66 , now contends that he was pressured to confess and says he just wasn't `` assertive '' enough to resist . That is ludicrous . Here is a man who was assertive enough to live the life of an armed robber . He was assertive enough to elude capture for months after King 's assassination , assertive enough to escape from prison after being convicted of the crime . Moreover , a House Select Committee on Assassinations concluded in 1978 , after a two-year investigation , that Ray killed Martin Luther King Jr. . There may have been a conspiracy , the committee noted , but Ray was telling the truth the first time , when he admitted pulling the trigger . Lately , however , there has been a steady parade of black civil rights activists acting as if Ray has been as wronged as Nelson Mandela . `` If Dr. King were alive , he would be appalled that a person could be imprisoned for 26 years having had no trial , '' Lawson said . Never mind that people who plead guilty don't have a need for jury trial . Jesse L. Jackson , a longtime aide to King , even wrote the foreword to Ray 's autobiography . The book was a blatant attempt to cash in on the killing . It was titled `` Who Killed Martin Luther King ? '' As if Ray did not know . Meanwhile , Hosea Williams has been going around talking about evidence hidden in his heart . The fact is , a new trial for Ray would do nothing but give the convict a chance to wriggle free on a technicality . For all of the talk by Ray 's lawyers of a conspiracy that a new trial supposedly would uncover , some of the first words out of Ray 's mouth at the parole hearing last week were : `` I wasn't involved in any type of collusive activity to kill him . In other words , I wasn't some type of accomplice . '' Therefore , Ray 's lawyers would have no reason to link him to a conspiracy . They 'd simply try to confuse a jury by raising the possibility that someone else did the shooting . Memphis District Attorney John Pierotti seemed to be the only one making sense about the case when he said Ray 's supposedly new evidence is either fabricated or unprovable . `` I could be doing a lot of other things that would be more productive than baby-sitting this senseless case , '' he said . `` The whole thing is garbage . '' And it 's a stench that is going to be with us for quite some time . Although Ray has been eligible for parole before , last Wednesday was the first time the Tennessee Parole Board agreed to hear arguments on his release . In the past , all of Ray 's requests were denied without oral presentations . This time , the vote was 3 to 0 against parole . Ray needed four votes . One of the seven board members had investigated King 's assassination and disqualified himself . The remaining three decided not to vote when it became clear Ray had lost his bid . But two of those who voted against Ray last week said they would favor his release when he comes before the parole board again in 1999 . The very thought is nauseating . Did Martin Luther King Jr. have a chance to explain why he ought not have been assassinated ? Did he get to call witnesses to say what a good father he was and how much his children loved him ? Did he get the opportunity to speak before a panel to say how much his people needed him and tell what a loss it would be to have us deprived of his leadership ? No , he did not . And the man who shot him down in cold blood on a balcony that day in Memphis shouldn't have another chance either . I could understand Williams and Lawson showing some compassion if Ray , having confessed , had expressed great remorse and sorrow . You could shake his hand on the way to the gas chamber . But to offer a hand of support to an unrepentant sinner ? Come on , Rev. Lawson. Sometimes we bend over backward so far to appear forgiving that we end up kissing our own behinds . POKOINNY BAY , Russia A massive brown bear , hungry after a long winter sleep , loped with surprising speed across steep meadowland rising from the world 's oldest and deepest lake . In a clearing below , three red deer froze , noble and unmoving , and then disappeared into the pine forest . A pair of red-breasted merganser ducks launched themselves from the shoreline , their whirring wings seeming barely to skim the lake 's glassy surface . These were the most visible denizens , on a frosty May morning , of the Baikalo-Lensky nature reserve in southern Siberia . They are a tiny part of Russia 's vast natural treasure , a wilderness as rich and vital to the earth as the Amazon rain forest and just as threatened . While the Soviet Union justly earned a reputation as a monstrous despoiler of the environment , it also protected a unique network of nature reserves ranging from the Central Asian desert to the Arctic tundra . These 170 reserves were totally off-limits to visitors , and they sheltered a bewildering variety of plant and animal species . Now , with economic collapse and a breakdown of central authority , the reserves stand exposed . Poachers and loggers , prospectors and ranchers are gnawing away at Russia 's natural heritage . The `` green '' movement is moribund , the profit motive is exalted and the few rangers and naturalists seeking to defend the reserves are virtually powerless . `` Everything is beginning to break up and fall apart , '' said Vladimir Krever , the World Wildlife Fund 's representative in Moscow . Russia alone has 85 of the reserves , enclosing as much territory as all of Italy , as well as 88 semi-protected national parks and wildlife refuges with even more space . But scientists have warned that their deterioration could destroy the world 's largest temperate forest , an essential defense against global warming , and hasten the extinction of thousands of unique species , from the Siberian tiger to Lake Baikal 's unique freshwater seals . `` The vast landscapes of the Russian Federation represent one of the last opportunities on Earth to conserve relatively intact ecosystems large enough to allow ecological processes and wildlife populations to fluctuate naturally , '' the World Wildlife Fund said in a report earlier this year . Here in the Baikal region , park rangers who earn less than $ 20 a month often turn to poaching to support themselves . More honest employees have no jeeps or walkie-talkies to patrol their vast territories against the incursions of hungry locals or criminal bands of commercial hunters . Local authorities , emboldened by Moscow 's decline , grab chunks of protected land for grazing or to build new vacation lodges . The government can no longer pay for the aircraft that used to deliver supplies and fight fires and given Siberia 's thin soil and short summers , a forest fire is a century-long disaster . Reserves in other parts of the country are struggling with similar problems . In the Arctic Ocean near Alaska , the Wrangel Island reserve , breeding ground for the endangered polar bear , has been unable to pay its bills for last summer 's deliveries , Krever said . If it does not receive funds soon , its staff will have to leave before the next freeze . Near the Oka reserve , collective-farm dwellers are earning 3,000 rubles ( $ 1.35 ) and two bottles of vodka per month . `` Of course people are going to go poaching , '' Krever said . And local authorities in Tuva , near the Mongolian border , now allow domesticated-reindeer grazing on a reserve where endangered beavers , sables and other species live . `` They have no right to do it , but with the situation in the country today , there 's nothing Russia can do to stop it , '' Krever said . Now the reserves are fighting back as best they can , seeking aid from the West and allies within Russia . Many have recognized their total isolation was possible only in a totalitarian regime and that they have to allow some access , both to raise funds and to win local support . Breaking with eight decades of strict policy and outrunning a debate still raging in Moscow the Baikalo-Lensky reserve has mapped three routes through its vast territory , hoping to attract adventurers and `` eco-tourists '' from the United States . The neighboring Pribaikalsky National Park has formed a small furniture trading company , seeking profits that could increase rangers ' salaries or buy equipment . The Institute of Limnology , a longtime leader in the fight to save the lake from industrial polluters and once a proud cog in the powerful Soviet Academy of Sciences , now markets Baikal Water , in plastic bottles labeled in Japanese and English . Yet many here fear that , without more help from Moscow or the West , they will not save the lake and the wild woods and steppe around it . `` I have to say that perestroika has brought us nothing good , '' said Alexander Zayatz , director of the Baikalo-Leninsky reserve . `` We suffer from a fever of instability . '' Home to hundreds of species of plants and animals found nowhere else , Lake Baikal has long attracted the interest of Russian and Western environmentalists . In 1916 , Czar Nicholas II created Russia 's first reserve on Baikal 's eastern shore to protect the fur-bearing sable , which had been hunted almost to extinction . A half-century later , when authorities built a giant cellulose factory on Baikal 's southern shore , the Soviet `` green '' movement was born . Today , the region boasts three reserves and three national parks ( which , unlike the reserves , have always been open to recreational use ) . But despite all the attention , Baikal today offers a vivid picture of the problems confronting nature preservation throughout Russia . The cellulose plant is still operating , despite years of campaigns and promises , and looming unemployment in the Irkutsk industrial basin makes any voluntary closure less likely than ever . The `` greens '' who fought against the plant , as well as against factories to the east that pollute Baikal 's watershed and those to the west that pollute its air , have all but faded away . `` This powerful movement was diluted by the distractions of everyday problems , by inflation , by unemployment , '' said Zayatz . `` People start to forget about Baikal , and think more about how just to survive . '' Emboldened by the weakening of Moscow 's authority , a collective farm on the preserve 's northern border has grabbed 1,109 acres of northern steppe , where several rare plant species grow , to graze its cattle , Zayatz said . Local authorities back the farm and `` just don't think about tomorrow . '' `` We could stop them by closing off just one road , '' he added . `` But we don't have the manpower , we don't have transport and we don't have communications . '' In a still-unresolved conflict , the powerful local energy company is battling for a piece of shoreline inside the national park to build a vacation home for its big shots . The company won local support by promising to extend electricity to several remote villages but only if the national park gave way , park officials said . Poachers trespass to shoot bear and the diminutive musk deer , whose glands are valued by Chinese medicine makers . At the best hunting spots , poachers have burned down ranger cabins to make sure no one interferes , officials here said . Some of the hunters are part of commercial gangs . `` Poaching has become big business , '' said Amirkhan Amirkhanov , Russia 's deputy minister of the environment . `` The gangs have carbines and other modern weapons , while our wardens have weapons going back to World War II and cannot possibly retaliate . '' But many hunters are local inhabitants trying to survive . Overfishing has eliminated the livelihoods of many , as the population of the lake 's unique omul fish declined below commercial levels . At the same time , the creation of the Pribaikalsky National Park ( in 1986 ) and the reserve ( in 1987 ) ruled out logging , goldmining and guiding foreigners on hunting excursions while generating considerable hostility . On a recent sunny afternoon , a dozen men sat idly on docked fishing boats in the island village of Kuzhir . Two boys and a man had been reported swept out to sea in a recent storm , but few of the ships had fuel to conduct a search . On land , the local power station had been without diesel fuel for a month which meant everyone had been without lights and running water . Forest rangers like Vladimir and Natalya Ignashev , living in a wind-buffeted log cabin on Kadilny Bay , have few resources to block any poachers . They depend on passing boats and on the cows , chickens and garden they tend themselves . Naturalists here know they would do better to enlist the locals than to fight them . By encouraging tourism , they hope to give everyone a stake in preserving the wildlife that would attract visitors . Zaitunya Abdrashitova , head of international relations for the national park , is full of ideas : a mining museum in the old gold-mining town ; a bungalow campsite near a village that now subsists on an ecologically disastrous mink farm ; bed-and-breakfasts in the fishing town of Kuzhir . And Russia 's economic slump in one sense has given the naturalists some breathing space . Far fewer boaters than in the past can afford gasoline to roar around the lake ; most enterprises can only dream of building hotels ; new factories are out of the question . Baikal 's water remains so clear that from a high cliff it is possible with binoculars to watch fish swimming lazily along the sandy lake bottom near shore . But the slump also has accelerated Russians ' desperate need to cut timber or hunt bear . Moreover , as a tourist destination , Baikal has been damaged by Western mistrust of Russian domestic airlines , which alone serve the nearest city of Irkutsk , 3,000 miles from Moscow . After recent reports that a pilot 's teen-age son was at the controls of a Russian International Airlines flight that crashed in Siberia , three U.S. tour groups canceled their planned visit , Abdrashitova said . Still , while `` mattress tourists '' may be scared off , Zayatz said he hopes the nature reserve can still attract a dozen or so people per week to raft or hike through the wilderness . `` We don't plan to build any huge hotels or offer super service , '' he said . `` People should walk , and get close to nature , and just see what 's there . '' IRKUTSK , Russia More than two years ago , Russia 's leading environmental organization opened a campaign to save the country 's unique but increasingly embattled nature reserves . A natural treasure of incomparable value was in danger and , unlike with so many problems here , a modest amount of Western aid seemed likely to make a difference . The Socio-Ecological Union collected information , analyzed needs and appealed to Western donors . `` We were naive enough to expect that the reserves would actually get something , '' recalled Yevgeny Simyonov . Western donors did indeed respond , but mostly by paying other non-Russians to conduct more studies and perform more on-site inspections . In what might serve as an archetype for much of the Western aid effort since the collapse of the Soviet Union , the chief beneficiaries seemed to be outside consultants , while those in greatest need became disillusioned and discouraged . Nowhere is there a greater sense of dashed hopes than here , where the lure of Russia 's premier natural attraction the mysterious Lake Baikal has enticed dozens of would-be donors from the United States , Canada and elsewhere . `` Every year new people come , bothering us , asking questions , making promises , '' said Pyotr Abramenok , director of the Pribaikalsky National Park . `` Then the next group comes , and asks all the same questions . It seems they all want to see Baikal . `` We get nothing out of this , '' Abramenok added . `` We need radios and cars ( to protect wildlife from poachers ) . We say , ` You want to build eco-tourism here . But by the time you develop anything , there will be a desert here no biodiversity , and nothing for eco-tourists to see. ' ' ' In May , visitors arrived from a U.S.-based company , Environmental Resources Management , which had won a $ 560,000 World Bank contract to develop `` an eco-tourism master plan '' for the Lake Baikal region , according to the company 's Angus Mackay . Mackay plans to spend the next several months studying the `` ecological carrying capacity '' of the region . But as Mackay acknowledged , Irkutsk 's problem these days is a paucity of tourists , not a surfeit . So there is a good chance that the study will lead to a World Bank decision not to invest further `` because not enough people want to come . '' Irina Dyatlovskaya-Birnbaum , assistant director of the ecological group Baikal Watch , said she found the World Bank contract particularly galling because it is far from the first such study in the region . The U.S. . Agency for International Development has allocated $ 200,000 for an eco-tourism study , and others already have been carried out . `` We know where we don't have toilets , '' Dyatlovskaya-Birnbaum said . `` We don't need Westerners to come and tell us that we need this , this and this before tourists will come . We know all this , and we don't need more studies . We need money , and we need contacts in the West . '' Justin Mundy , who is helping oversee the World Bank 's environmental programs in Russia , said the criticism is `` understandable , but not necessarily fair . '' He noted that throughout Russia , in all fields , there is a `` deep level of frustration at the hard cash and hard finance not actually getting out to people on the ground . `` And we 're trying to address that , '' Mundy said . The World Bank is in the process of negotiating with the Russian government a grant of $ 25 million to $ 30 million to support biodiversity throughout the country and around Lake Baikal in particular , Mundy said . When that money begins flowing hopefully next year , he said concrete projects will benefit , he said . `` Ninety percent of the consultants are going to be Russian , '' he added . Dyatlovskaya-Birnbaum and even park director Abramenok , in a more reflective mood acknowledged they have benefited from some U.S. programs . Exchanges sponsored by the Sierra Club and by U.S. government agencies , including AID and the U.S. . Fish and Wildlife Service , have proved especially useful , they said . AID also has allocated $ 3 million to promote sustainable development in the Baikal region . Budget documents show that at least half of the money will go to U.S. consultants , airfare and U.S. administrative overhead , but the grant funds the kind of concrete projects that officials here said they need . In that sense , the Baikal region is luckier than most of Russia 's nature preserves . In fact , ecologists in Moscow say , a few high-profile areas Baikal , the Kamchatka Peninsula with its spectacular geysers and the Khabarovsk homeland of the Siberian tiger have monopolized most Western attention and funding . With a grant from the MacArthur Foundation , the World Wildlife Fund in January crafted a three-year , $ 17 million program to conserve Russia 's biological diversity during this period of crisis . The report proposed specific investment projects in particularly well-managed and needy reserves ; training programs for rangers and other officials ; environmental education to increase public support for conservation ; measures to discourage international trafficking in endangered species ; and formation of new reserves where unchecked oil-drilling and speculation could destroy unique habitats . The response so far ? `` Zero. Not a single kopeck , '' said Laura Williams , a World Wildlife Fund official here . Williams said journalists ' focus on `` corruption , crime and inflation '' has convinced many Westerners that any investment or donation here will `` go into a black hole . '' Vsevolod Stepanitsky , an ecologist who until last year headed Russia 's nature reserves , estimated that Western consultants for-profit and non-profit so far have received more than 20 times as much money as the reserves themselves . `` This is karmushka ' ' a feeding-trough , said the Socio-Ecological Union 's Simyonov . `` The consultants have to consult . And what are they going to live on if these organizations start actually giving money ? '' USHKANYA PAD , Russia Rain dripped through a torn plastic sheet stretched across the lean-to , soaking a few fish hanging with mouths agape and turning the ground to a muddy mess . Hank Birnbaum , 35 , Colorado-born and California-bred , turned up the collar of his soiled jacket and spread his arms wide . `` Welcome to Bermuda , '' he said with a rueful smile . If World Bank consultants at $ 300-per-night hotels represent one end of the West 's aid spectrum , Birnbaum surely holds down the other extreme . After several years of coordinating Russian-American exchange programs for a San Francisco non-profit organization , Birnbaum signed on for the ultimate in grass-roots humanitarian aid : He is a full-time , $ 13-a-month forest ranger in a roadless , isolated corner of the Pribaikalsky National Park in Siberia . `` I just have my own inner need to be here , '' Birnbaum said . Park officials said they were delighted to hire Birnbaum , hoping American attitudes toward nature conservation would rub off on other rangers . The national park on Baikal 's shore was formed only in 1986 , and many locals including quite a few rangers continue to regard the territory as a handy hunting reserve . `` When my colleague sees ducks flying past , he says , ` Look , meat ! ' ' ' Birnbaum said . Birnbaum expected to spend the spring and summer living in a log cabin in this beautiful spot , greeting hikers and watching for forest fires . But during the winter , the cabin was set on fire and destroyed . Park officials believe the culprit was a ranger who had been fired for hunting . Birnbaum acknowledges `` a lot that 's frustrating '' in Russia . `` People take a lot of holidays , they find a lot of reasons to work slowly and take days off , '' he said . Rather than clean the trash from a small area , they spend hours discussing grand projects for a park-wide cleanup or propose leaving the trash for Sierra Club volunteers who come each summer , actually looking to work . `` But people here need each other , and the simple things are important , and you have to work to get the simple things , '' Birnbaum said . `` In America , so much of life is in the fast lane . '' In 1988 , Birnbaum met a Russian ecology activist who is now his wife . But she prefers life in San Francisco to the lakeside mud of Baikal . Birnbaum , too , said he appreciates America more now . But for the moment , he is determined to stay at least one year . Among other things , he said , he is committed to some of his colleagues in the park who also are determined to save the beauty and cleanliness of Baikal . `` The economic situation is so desperate right now that to work with people here who don't have economic motives as primary that 's a step in the right direction , '' he said . `` And it 's surprising for them to meet an American who 's not here to make money . '' POKOINNY BAY , Russia Lake Baikal is a 426-mile-long crescent of astonishingly clear water , a geological rift between sharp ranges of snowcapped mountains , windswept valleys of cedar and larch , and bare tundra hills where falcons and kites circle overhead . The lake itself is so deep that it holds one-fifth of the world 's fresh water . NEW YORK For Kenny Vixama 's first-grade teacher , an alarm went off when she noticed that the 6-year-old often invented his own text for the simple storybooks his class was reading . Though a bright child , as he read his eyes did not follow the left-to-right pattern of a successful reader . He had trouble identifying specific words when asked to find them . And he showed confusion with certain patterns of letters-a basic stumbling block in learning to read . Kenny 's difficulties had landed him in the bottom 20 percent in reading achievement among the first-grade students at Public School 41 in Greenwich Village . If Kenny 's problems went uncorrected , he seemed headed down a path of reading failure that has become frustratingly hard to address for teachers across the country . That was when reading specialist Barbara Mandel intervened . Mandel is a soldier in a quiet revolution that is transforming the way some elementary schools deal with slow readers . The program she teaches is known as Reading Recovery , and since 1983 , when it was introduced in this country at Ohio State University , it has spread to 48 states and brought thousands of first-graders up to average or above reading levels . Developed in the 1970s by New Zealand educator and psychologist Marie Clay and used extensively in that country , the program 's premise is that the best way to avoid reading failure is to prevent it in the first place . The simple theory has won a following among an army of U.S. teachers who have gone through yearlong training to more effectively tutor children in the most fundamental skill . Ohio State professor Gay Su Pinnell , who helped establish the university 's pilot program and heads a de facto national organization of Reading Recovery teachers , estimates that by the end of the year , 9,000 teachers will have been trained and will have reached 50,000 to 60,000 students . Programs are booming in Ohio , California and Texas , and even in small states , legislatures and local school districts are approving special funding for trial programs , she said . But Reading Recovery has not been universally endorsed , mainly because of its high personnel costs and selectivity . Though implementation costs vary from district to district , all have to foot the bill for teachers like Mandel to take a year off for rigorous training . Then , they must dramatically scale back the teacher 's regular duties to allow time to work with a small number of children . Some principals have complained that the program unfairly concentrates limited funds on first-graders , leaving little for programs geared toward vulnerable children in later years . In the Disrict of Columbia , where about 23 teachers have been trained , Deputy Superintendent Maurice Sykes said , `` We 've had to do a lot of convincing '' to win over principals despite Reading Recovery 's early successes . Reading Recovery assumes that every child can learn to read if confusion with the language is detected and corrected as soon as it becomes a problem . Many educators see the program as a first step in a long struggle to break the failure chain that has cluttered junior high and high schools across the country with nonreaders . By the time students reach upper grades , experts say , the inability to read has usually taken an enormous academic and social toll . Studies of Reading Recovery children show that 80 percent who go through the 12-to-20-week intervention never need further reading remediation or special education , according to specialist Angela Jaggar , a New York University professor who is conducting follow-up studies of children who went through the program , which began in Manhattan 's District 2 in the mid-1980s . `` What the schools have traditionally done is wait until a long time has passed in a child 's life to decide they 're having difficulty in reading ... . The longer you wait the harder it is , '' explained Jaggar . `` This program helps us understand how kids learn naturally , to spot their confusions and respond immediately with a repertoire of strategies . '' In Kenny Vixama 's case , Mandel several weeks ago began one-on-one tutoring sessions . The first lessons allowed him to show off what he knew , a phase called `` Roaming Around the Room , '' designed to build the child 's self-confidence . Then , in each structured 30-minute session , Kenny worked first on familiar materials and built gradually to more challenging ones , with Mandel intervening when a difficult word or phrase stopped him . At one recent session , with a timer clicking in the background , Kenny stumbled over the word `` how . '' Mandel quickly pulled out plastic letters to spell the word , let Kenny sound it out , write it on a slip of paper , rhyme it and find its proper place in a scrambled sentence . With each small victory , Kenny was able to move on through the text , his finger following the words , a technique Mandel purposely used to keep his attention properly focused . She watched intensely , keeping a written record of Kenny 's progress to help structure the next day 's session . With 12 of the maximum 60 lessons under his belt , Kenny seemed a candidate for success . But there were frustrations . Though Kenny 's problems were detected early in the year , it had taken until spring to work him into the program . Because Reading Recovery is only offered in first grade , Kenny would have only the few remaining weeks of school to work . Mandel , who helped eight children move up to average reading ability this year , expressed a complaint common in the movement there 's never enough time or teachers to reach all the children in need of help . In Jackson , Miss . , Superintendent Ben O . Canada has decided to shoulder the costs that come with wide-scale implementation of Reading Recovery . In 1991 , using federal Chapter 1 funds for needy students , Jackson began implementing Reading Recovery in eight of its lowest performing schools . Seventeen teachers were trained in the technique . Now , Reading Recovery has expanded to 37 Jackson schools and 81 teachers , and the district is cited as a national model of how the program can turn around reading progress in small school districts . `` Being in this for many years , I '' ve seen so many fly-by-night programs , fancy packaging for things that didn't work . This has caused a revolution here almost , '' said Ida J. McCants , Chapter 1 administrator for the Jackson schools . `` The teachers are revitalized . The strategies they 're learning are helping them get through to children . And the parents are delighted . They see real growth in a short period of time . '' Yet even the program 's strongest advocates concede that Reading Recovery is only a beginning in the enormous fight against illiteracy . `` We 're optimistic , '' said Pinnell . `` But we know this problem is bigger than we are . '' Everyone knows by now that Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt didn't make it to the Supreme Court because of opposition from a few Western senators . But why the opposition ? It wasn't the usual reasons . His vote against Babbitt , explained Sen. Alan Simpson , R-Wyo. , without a blush , would be `` totally provincial . '' Babbitt 's unforgivable sin , in the eyes of some Rocky Mountain senators , was to be insensitive to Western values . This is a startling charge against a man whose family began a ranching business in that well-known Downeast state of Arizona in the 1880s . Insensitivity would have to have been quickly acquired by a Democrat who was twice elected governor and once attorney general of the only state in the Union to have voted Republican in every presidential election since 1952 . True , he went east for law school and to England for graduate work , but that was for a degree in geology that enables him to read the history of the land Westerners revere from its rocks and canyons . It 's hard to imagine a more perfect resume for an Interior secretary in a centrist , environmentally oriented administration . In part , the flap is evidence of how hard it is to be head the Interior Department . The post combines the roles of chief conservationist and chief resource developer . He or she must care for the nation 's parks and wilderness , preserve their biodiversity and provide for recreation , while at the same time developing fossil fuels , managing grazing , building water projects , overseeing mining and ensuring land and resources for growth . When you 're doing a good job at the Interior Department , you can expect to be trashed by both sides . But the senators weren't really protesting policies . They were protecting a myth the myth of the `` Old West . '' The symbolic nature of the confrontation explains its fervor and the obvious fact that if Babbitt 's opponents were serious about stopping what he was doing at Interior , nothing could have been better than a lifetime appointment for him elsewhere . No successor was likely to be as successful in promoting the same policies as a man with national name recognition , deep Western roots and skills in forging compromise . Had the confirmation hearing been held , the country would have watched the senators and Mr. Babbitt apparently arguing over reducing federal subsidies for ranching , mining and logging on public lands and for providing water at a fraction of its cost . ( The administration unwisely launched all four of these initiatives at once in its deficit-reduction plan and then dropped them at the first hint of opposition . ) What they really would have been doing is grappling with the ghosts of the 19th century . Then , the government threw every incentive it could find into settling the West . It gave away free land through the Homestead Act , gave a property right to mining claims and charged no royalties , provided cheap water , built logging roads even if they cost more than the resulting timber and encouraged cattle grazing at public expense . Of all these policies , only the Homestead Act has disappeared . The rest survive , increasingly anachronistic and environmentally more damaging with each passing decade . The 122-year-old mining law the focus of reform efforts for more than 20 years recently forced Babbitt to sell to a private company 2,000 acres of public land containing an estimated $ 10 billion worth of gold for $ 9,765 . Cowboys and miners remain the cultural icons of the West , but everything else has changed . Astonishingly , the eight sprawling states of the Rocky Mountain region are today less rural ( 20 percent of the population ) than is the country as a whole ( 24 percent ) . A higher fraction of people use public transportation to get to work than in any region but the Northeast . Even in the most remote areas , mining , oil and gas drilling , logging , farming and ranching are a small and dwindling portion of the economy . A Wilderness Society study of the huge area surrounding Yellowstone Park found that in the past two decades 96 percent of job growth occurred outside these traditional sectors . Seventy-nine percent came from services alone . Income directly from agriculture and the extractive industries fell by half , to just 12 percent of total personal income . Western governors reflect this shift to balanced economies and urban demographics . They tend to be moderates men like Cecil Andrus , Idaho , Roy Roemer , Colorado , or Mike Sullivan , Wyoming who concentrate on jobs , crime , education , drugs and the like . They know voters want the region 's beauties protected , for themselves and for the tourists they draw . Senators , however , whether Democratic or Republican , tend to be to the right of their party 's mainstream . Among today 's incumbents , seven of the 14 who were rated in 1992 received environmental vote ratings of zero on a 0-100 scale . Far away in Washington , it seems , echoes of a free-wheeling , wide open Old West without fences or limits play better than in Denver , Las Vegas or Salt Lake , where the realities of air pollution , dwindling water supplies and competition among land uses are all too well understood . PAC money from the extractive industries makes a difference too . It 's too bad that a confirmation hearing didn't provide the opportunity to thrash all this out on television . Still , with perseverance on Babbitt 's part , and some support from the president , the high court 's loss is likely to prove the new West 's gain . In RAY-COMMENT ( Milloy ) , bio line should read : Courtland Milloy is a local columnist for The Washington Post . `` D-DAY : The Climactic Battle of World War II , '' By Stephen E. Ambrose ( Simon & Schuster , $ 30 , 656 pp . ) `` MONTY : The Battles of Field Marshal Bernard Montgomery , '' By Nigel Hamilton ( Random House , $ 30 , 624 pp . ) `` JUNE 6 , 1944 : The Voices of D-Day , '' By Gerald Astor ( St. Martin 's Press , $ 25.95 , 432 pp . ) `` The Longest Day , '' By Cornelius Ryan ( Touchstone Books , $ 11 , 338 pp . ) `` Nothing Less Than Victory , '' By Russell Miller ( Morrow , $ 25 , 512 pp . ) `` America at D-Day , '' By Richard Goldstein ( Delta Books , $ 14.95 , 320 pp . ) `` Voices of D-Day , '' edited by Ronald J. Drez ( Louisiana State University Press , $ 24.95 , 312 pp . ) Walker is the U.S. bureau chief of Britain 's The Guardian , and author of `` The Cold War ; A History . '' Reviewed by Martin Walker Special to the Los Angeles Times A magnificent and awesome military operation , and a moment of acute symbolism as the liberation of Europe began , D-day itself was not a great battle by the bloody standards of modern war . At Omaha Beach , the scene of the worst confusion if not the hardest fighting of invasion day , the Americans had 2,220 casualties , mainly from the Rangers and the 1st Division . At Utah Beach , where the terrain was less hostile and the defenders more demoralized , the American 4th Division suffered 187 casualties . These amounted to about 5 percent of their losses in the training disaster earlier in the year at Slapton Sands . By contrast , the U.S. Marines had lost 3,500 men in the amphibious assault on the single Japanese-held island of Tarawa . These casualty figures are collated by Stephen Ambrose , best known as the biographer of Eisenhower and Nixon ; and for someone looking for just one among the flood of D-day books , his is the one to obtain . And yet Ambrose never really proves the contention of his subtitle , that D-day was `` the climactic battle of World War II . '' This is partly because of a fundamental change in the way military history is now written . Historians used to rely on the maps and the plans and the orders of generals , in which armies are portrayed by arrows sweeping around flanks . But the surging growth of oral history in the recollections of individual soldiers has changed our perspective . A style of modern history pioneered by Cornelius Ryan , whose 30-year-old `` The Longest Day '' still reads marvelously well , this grunt's-eye view of chaos , blood and panic interspersed with moments of boredom and humor , is how battles are experienced . But they are not the full story of the way wars are decided . And World War II was not decided on the Normandy beaches . On June 23 , just 17 days after D-day , Hitler 's Army Group Center on the Eastern Front lost five divisions ( over 50,000 men ) at Vitebsk alone . Part of Operation Bagration , this parallel and simultaneous Soviet battle that smashed the German army and cleared the way to Warsaw , puts D-day into proportion . Until the invasion , the British and U.S. troops never faced more than a dozen German divisions . Even after D-day , they never fought more than 60 . The Red Army fought and beat over 200 divisions and the bulk of the panzer armies . The great merit of Gerhard Weinberg 's monumental history of the war as a whole is to remind us of the vast sweep of the conflict , industrial as well as strategic . In Stephen Ambrose 's riveting book , this industrial component of D-day is brought home when he quotes the comment of Gen. Eisenhower that `` the man who won the war for us '' was Andrew Higgins . In the teeth of official opposition , he designed , built and forced into production the essential landing craft . From the almost token chapters given to the non-American role in D-day in this spate of 50th anniversary books , a casual reader might miss the fact that the Americans were a minority of the invading force . The Canadians at Juno Beach suffered rather worse than the Americans at Omaha , losing 1,200 men , or one in 18 of those committed , compared to the U.S. loss of one in 19 up the coast at Omaha . Even so , compared to the first serious test of Hitler 's coastal defenses , the disastrous Dieppe raid in 1942 , Juno Beach was a cakewalk . At Dieppe , the 2nd Canadian Division had taken more than 6,000 casualties in six hours . And the British , thanks in part to their special tanks , took only 630 casualties at Sword Beach and about 400 at Gold Beach , as they put 55,000 men ashore . But with the exception of the Americans at Omaha , who stumbled upon the good Wehrmacht units of General Kraiss ' 352nd Division , the Allies were fighting a ragbag force , the gleanings on which Hitler depended after five years of war . At Utah Beach , Lt. Robert Brewer of the 101st Airborne captured four Koreans in German uniform . Originally conscripted by the Japanese , they had been captured and forced to fight by the Red Army , and then captured yet again and made to fight by the Germans . At the time of the invasion , every sixth rifleman in the Wehrmacht forces in France was from an `` Ost '' battalion captured Russians and Poles and Ukrainians and Balts . Germany was exhausted . The average age of the troops in the 709th Division , based in the Cotentin peninsula , was 36 . ( Begin optional trim ) It was not just luck that put the Allied troops ashore in Normandy , where the defenses were relatively feeble , but planning . The best German troops , the six panzer divisions , were stuck in the Pas de Calais , where Hitler believed the real invasion was coming . A complex deception operation , with fake radio signals from fake headquarters , succeeded brilliantly in fooling the Germans . But if those Panzer divisions were not available to repel the invasion in its most vulnerable first few hours , they had to be fought later , in the grinding battles of June and July as the Allies tried to break out from their beachhead . Under Gen. Montgomery , the British attacks repeatedly failed . But they drew to their front around Caen the bulk of the German armor , opening the way for the Americans under Gen. Omar Bradley and Gen. George Patton to break out into the heart of France . Nigel Hamilton 's new book on Montgomery , an edited and truncated version of his three-volume biography , refights the rather silly postwar squabble of the Allied generals and their memoirs . Yes , Monty was a crotchety and arrogant ally who stretched the truth to claim that he had planned the American breakout all along . But with his first command decision in January of 1944 , insisting that the Allied assault be made with five divisions rather than three , Monty probably won the battle . ( End optional trim ) The point about D-day was that it was not a single event , but part of a long campaign . With hindsight , we might even say that , for the future , the battle of Arnhem three months later in September 1944 was more significant . Arnhem was a battle that concerned far more than the defeat of Germany ; it was about the postwar map of Europe . The goal was for the British and American armies to use an airborne landing to bounce their way across the Rhine and into the heart of Germany before winter set in . The ambition was clear . With Germany 's industrial heartland of the Ruhr under their guns , the Anglo-Americans could occupy Germany before the Russians did . Defeat at Arnhem kept the Western Allies on the wrong side of the Rhine until the spring of 1945 and helped define the parameters of the Cold War itself . But that was not how it felt for the lonely parachutists , landing in the blackness of a hostile Normandy night . It was not how it seemed for the bewildered infantry of the U.S. 1st Division , dumped ashore at the wrong place , under intense fire and with most of their tanks sinking to the seabed . For that flavor of D-day , Russell Miller 's `` Nothing Less Than Victory '' is the most useful account , with each interview telling a coherent soldier 's tale . ( Begin optional trim ) Richard Goldstein , Ronald Drez and Gerald Astor have produced almost interchangeable narratives , peppered with ill-organized and random individual reminiscence . Collectively , they show how not to use the rich archives of oral history , the largest collection of individual accounts of a single battle anywhere in the world , which are now gathered at the National D-Day Museum at New Orleans . Stephen Ambrose 's book relies rather than depends upon them , using the intense personal perspective to illuminate a battle that amounted to rather more than the sum of individual experiences . ( End optional trim ) It took another 11 months of fighting , but D-day began the great peace that began to civilize Europe . It marked the moment when the fractious and warlike European tribes began to come under the adult supervision of the United States and Soviet Union , two superpowers with far too much at stake to permit the endless squabbles of the Old World to rise again . More than just a peace , a kind of miracle emerged , in which the Europeans laid aside their martial pasts and adapted comfortably to the extraordinary new role of an economic giant that chose perhaps for the first time in history not to spend that wealth on becoming a military superpower . The real essence of that European decision , whatever the inter-alliance squabbles along the way , was trust in the Americans as an honorable ally and a reliable custodian of the stability and the democratic hopes of Europe . And the real meaning of D-day was that it symbolized the moment when that trust was earned , in blood . Pvt. Robert Murphy looked down . In the moonlight , through the open door , he could see the coastline . The C-47 banked to the left . Over the engine noise , his commanding officer shouted : `` Hook up ! '' At 300 feet , the pilot hit the green light and yelled : `` Let 's go ! '' Murphy , face blackened , carrying his Thompson submachine gun , 300 rounds of ammunition , a six-inch boot knife , a switchblade and a 40-pound radar , was the third man out the door . He bent forward , tucked his knees up to his chest and folded his arms over them . His parachute snapped open and jerked . In seconds , he hit the ground . He tumbled and rolled . He reached into his boot , pulled out the knife and cut himself out of his straps . Accidentally , he also sliced off his ammunition pouch . But he had a full magazine in the gun . He was in the corner of a field . He thought he saw someone under a tree . He kept one hand on his gun . He put his other hand to his lips to signal silence . It was 1:10 a.m. , 50 years ago June 6 . D-day had begun . If there was someone under the tree , whoever it was did not shoot , did not make a sound . Murphy , a pathfinder with the 82nd Airborne , and scores like him , set up radar beacons and signal lights to guide hundreds of C-47s carrying thousands of paratroopers into the fields of Normandy . During the next 24 hours , 175,000 soldiers , drawn mostly from the United States , Britain , Canada and France , along with 50,000 battle vehicles of all kinds , invaded Nazi-occupied France . Most of them landed under fire on five beaches along the Normandy coast . France , along with much of the rest of Europe , had fallen under Adolf Hitler 's shadow during the darkest months of World War II . The Allied invaders , bearing the arms , the hopes and the prayers of freedom , were carried across the English Channel by more than 5,300 vessels and nearly 11,000 aircraft . It was the most powerful armada ever assembled , and it conducted the greatest amphibious assault in human history . It would be the pivotal battle of the war , and Hitler knew it . `` The destruction of the enemy 's landing , '' he told his commanders in Europe , `` is the sole decisive factor in the whole conduct of the war . '' The Allied assault succeeded , and France was liberated . The Anglo-American offensive overran Germany 's industrial heartland ; and , for freedom , the war in Europe was won . The D-day assault was important for an additional reason . `` It was an open question , '' says Stephen E. Ambrose , an eminent historian of D-day , `` whether a democracy could produce young soldiers capable of fighting effectively . Hitler was certain the answer was no . Totalitarian fanaticism and discipline would always conquer democratic liberalism and softness . '' But the Allied forces showed remarkably superior courage , steadiness under fire , competence and willingness to take the initiative . `` On D-day , '' Ambrose says , `` the soldiers of democracy showed that they could outfight and outthink the soldiers of totalitarianism . '' This is the story of that triumph . It is based upon interviews by the Los Angeles Times with veterans of D-day on both sides of the fighting ; upon interviews , letters , oral histories and other documents at American and British government repositories and in the Eisenhower Center at the University of New Orleans . It is also based upon published accounts of the assault , including `` The Longest Day , '' a classic by war correspondent Cornelius Ryan ; `` Six Armies in Normandy , '' an authoritative account by British military scholar John Keegan , and `` D-Day June 6 , 1944 : The Climactic Battle of World War II , '' a new history by Ambrose . Most of all , it is a story about the soldiers who won , many of them very young men , and how they fought and the terrible cost of their victory . `` To them , '' Ambrose says , `` we owe our freedom . '' -0- CAT AND MOUSE The Allies had resolved that a cross-channel attack was necessary to free Europe from the Nazis . The Soviets , who had turned back the Germans in the east , were demanding a second front . And Hitler expected one . Where to attack was a matter of debate . The sands at Pas-de-Calais looked ideal . Calais was the French shore closest to England , and it offered the straightest route from London to Germany 's industrial Rhine-Ruhr region and then on to Berlin . It was at Calais , however , that the Germans had built the strongest part of their main defense of Fortress Europe , a steel-reinforced concrete barrier called the Atlantic Wall . Pas-de-Calais was out . Instead , Allied planners chose the Normandy coast . It had Caen , a port to bring in men and supplies . Nearby was an airport . Routes from the beach could take armor inland . Moreover , the capture of Caen would cut off the Cotentin Peninsula and position the Allies to threaten the Germans holding Paris . There were guns along this part of the Atlantic Wall as well , but behind it was only one division of Panzer tanks . The Allies could feint toward Calais and then might be able to surprise the Germans at Normandy instead . So it was that Dwight D. Eisenhower , the supreme commander of Allied forces , agreed to invade on five Normandy beach areas , code-named Utah , Omaha , Gold , Juno and Sword . The Allies gave the entire assault a code name . They called it Overlord . They mounted an elaborate effort to fool the Germans into thinking that any attack on Normandy was a feint and that the real assault would come at Calais , maybe even elsewhere : perhaps the Biscay coast , maybe Scandinavia , perhaps Marseilles . ( Begin optional trim ) They sent aging British officers to Scotland to create radio messages in easily broken cipher that spoke of invading Norway . But Eisenhower dispatched Lt. Gen. George S. Patton to Dover , opposite Calais . Hitler believed Patton to be the best Allied commander . Eventually Eisenhower would bring him to France for the breakout attack across Europe . For now , however , he made Patton part of his most elaborate ruse . He gave him inflatable rubber tanks and plywood-and-canvas landing craft . From the air , they looked real , and Patton let German planes photograph them at will . All the while , the Allies developed their real plans in strictly enforced secrecy . ( End optional trim ) The deceptions and the secrecy worked . Because the British had broken German encryption , Allied intelligence could understand German war radio . It provided clear evidence that German generals had come to expect feints in Biscay , the south of France and in Normandy . There might be an actual attack in Norway , they thought . But , more important , they began preparing for the main D-day invasion at Pas-de-Calais . -0- THE ALLIED BUILDUP In the winter and spring of 1944 , thousands of Allied troops trained throughout Britain . First Lt. Jack Isaacs , 21 , saw mountains of supplies lining the roadsides , some of it in half-moon shaped prefabricated shelters made of corrugated metal , called Quonset huts . By April , the men were engaged in D-day dress rehearsals . It was dangerous . Planes collided , killing paratroopers . Live ammunition went astray , killing infantrymen . In addition to their K rations and grenades , the men were issued books of Scripture . They were small enough to be tucked into their shirt pockets . Chaplains held Catholic , Protestant and Jewish services . ( Begin optional trim ) Pvt. Milton Villarreal , 19 , went to Mass , confessed his sins and took Communion . He had a rosary , and he prayed to Our Lady of Guadalupe . He thought of her often and took courage from her image , which he visualized firmly in his mind . At the last Mass that Staff Sgt. Charles Klein , 20 , would attend before the invasion began , the Rev. Joe Lacy , a short , chubby Irishman , told his congregation : `` I want you men to do all your praying here and now . When we hit the beaches , if I see any man praying when he should be fighting , if he 's within the reach of my boot , he 'll get the toe of my boot . I 'll do the praying when we go in . You do the fighting . '' ( End optional trim ) In May , the entire Allied Expeditionary Force descended upon southern England , nearly 2 million strong , with half a million vehicles . Some were conventional , others were not . Sherman tanks . Floating `` deuce-and-a-halfs , '' 2-ton trucks with propellers , called DUKWs , or `` Ducks . '' Standard landing craft . Plywood cigar boxes 36 feet long with square metal bows , called Higgins boats for the Louisiana man who made them . Briefings began , and the number of people who knew the secrets of Overlord started to grow . Still the Allied invasion plan did not leak . ( Begin optional trim ) Staff Sgt. Lowry Brooks , 23 , was assigned to the briefing room for the 1st Battalion in the 29th Division . On the wall was a map of the Normandy coast . The invasion routes were drawn on a celluloid overlay . It was marked for specific beaches . Objectives were circled . The map was plotted with down-to-the-minute instructions for the attack . The briefings went on for two weeks . Brooks was not allowed to leave the room . His meals were brought to him , and a guard stood at the door . ( End optional trim ) Allied planes had bottled up the Luftwaffe in Germany . John Keegan , the military scholar , says that the Allies had such air superiority that their planes ultimately would paralyze much of Germany 's armor as well . Still , German reconnaissance planes occasionally sneaked through . `` It is one of the great mysteries of World War II , '' historian Ambrose says , `` that although the Germans saw the buildup in southern England .. . they completely failed to draw the right conclusions . '' Part of the solution to these mysteries , Keegan says , is that Allied aircraft permitted the German spy planes to see only what the Allies wanted them to see . Another part of the answer lay with the Nazi high command back in Germany and among the German generals in occupied France . Often they found themselves hamstrung . Despite Hitler 's bombast about the military superiority of totalitarian discipline , his insecurities and his distrust of those around him prompted him to proceed by what Manfred Rommel , son of Field Marshal Erwin Rommel , calls `` divide and rule . '' At times , these divisions caused paralysis . He put his senior field marshal , Gerd von Rundstedt , in charge . Von Rundstedt was 69 and short of energy and supplies . Apart from the fortifications at Pas-de-Calais , not much wall-building had been done . Hitler 's chief of operations suggested that Rommel be given tactical command . Characteristically , Hitler bisected the authority . Von Rundstedt would retain overall tactical control , but Rommel would take charge of the principal defense : the wall . Never was it clear , Ambrose says , whether Rommel or Von Rundstedt would direct the upcoming battle for Europe . Rommel grew obsessed with the wall and ways to reinforce it . He mined the channel . He booby-trapped its tidal flats with obstacles , including mined logs driven into the sand at an angle pointing toward the sea . These and similar logs in farm fields , designed to impale gliders , came to be called `` Rommel 's asparagus . '' He ended training and put all of his troops to work building and reinforcing the wall and his obstacles . Robert Vogt , 19 , a private in the German infantry , heard Rommel say : `` You must stop them here on the first day . If you don't stop them here , it 's over . '' ( Begin optional trim ) But even Rommel guessed wrong about where the Allied invasion would come . He also guessed wrong about when the invaders would come . He predicted that any assault would come at high tide , which offered the shortest beach to cross . From the outset , however , Eisenhower planned to invade on a rising tide . That would permit his landing craft to run onto the beach , then to float free so they could be used again . On June 1 , Rommel analyzed the tide tables . The English Channel did not seem suitable for an invasion until possibly the middle of the month . His first inkling of the Allied invasion came at 7:30 in the morning , when the telephone rang at his country house at Herrlingen . He canceled his meeting with Hitler and set out by car for Normandy , because Allied air superiority made it too risky to fly . As Rommel drove toward Normandy , Maj. Hans von Luck , 32 , commander of a panzer regiment east of Caen , climbed a hill behind his headquarters and saw the Allied armada coming . `` It is enormous , '' he thought . `` They will succeed . '' ( End optional trim ) -0- ` OK , LET 'S GO ' Across the channel , Dwight Eisenhower had no question about who was in charge . He was . Allied planners had picked May 1 for D-day . He moved it to the first suitable day in June , to take advantage of an extra month 's production of landing craft . Which day would depend upon the tides and the moon and the weather . Eisenhower wanted to cross at night , to maintain surprise ; under a half-moon , to provide at least some light for the fleet ; with a rising tide , to keep his Higgins boats from getting stuck on the sand , and at first light , to give his troops a full day to gain a foothold . This meant June 5 , 6 or 7 , or June 19 or 20 . He chose June 5 . Loading began on May 31 . There were 2,727 transports from 12 countries . As the troops marched onto their ships , each received an order . It was from the supreme commander himself . `` You are about to embark upon the Great Crusade , '' Eisenhower wrote . `` The hopes and prayers of liberty-loving people everywhere march with you . '' As the vessels formed into convoys , a drizzle became a heavy rain . At 4 a.m on June 4 , Eisenhower and his commanders met to consider the situation . In the mess room at Southwick House , a command post in Portsmouth , on the south shore of Britain , a weather briefer told them that the storm would continue on June 5 , sending clouds down to at least 500 feet in some places and all the way down to the coastline in others . Eisenhower told his commanders that the invasion would succeed only with air superiority , and that these clouds might cancel this advantage . Did anyone disagree ? There was no dissent . At 6 a.m. , Eisenhower put the armada on hold until June 6 . At 9:30 p.m. on June 4 , Eisenhower convened his commanders again at Southwick House . Rain still rattled against the French windows . Now , however , the weather briefer predicted a break in the storm . Around the mess-room table , commanders of the Supreme Headquarters Allied Expeditionary Force cheered . But , the briefer added , some scattered clouds would continue to hang over the Normandy coast . Conditions still would be risky for fighters and bombers . Eisenhower 's commanders were split . It was up to him . `` The question is , '' he said , `` just how long can you hang this operation on the end of a limb and let it hang there ? '' Nobody answered . He paced . The only sound was the rain on the windows . `` I am quite positive , '' he said , finally , `` that the order must be given . '' D-day would be June 6 . At 3:30 a.m. on June 5 , he received another weather briefing . The wind was driving the rain sideways . By now , the storm should have been letting up . It was still not too late to call it all off and to try again June 19 . The weather briefer was more sure than ever that the storm would break . But there was a new worry . He said the good weather would last for only one day . This meant that Allied troops on the second day of the attack might not make it ashore . Eisenhower knew that putting off the invasion for two more weeks was certain to increase chances that the Germans would learn about the plans . Eisenhower said later he paced for about 45 seconds . Others said it took him as long as five minutes . Then , Ambrose says , he turned to his commanders and said , quietly : `` OK , let 's go . '' AIR DROP TO CHAOS The pathfinders went first . They parachuted into Normandy to mark landing zones for 13,000 American and 7,000 British paratroopers , the most massive night drop ever . Their mission was to secure the routes to the beaches and disrupt any German counterattack . It took more than 800 C-47s to fly all the Americans across . They were members of the 101st and the 82nd Airborne divisions . The aircraft , in full flight , stretched all the way from Britain , nine planes wide , cruising 100 feet from wingtip to wingtip . As they reached Normandy , they found that some scattered clouds were lingering over the coast . Pilots lost their visibility . In radio silence , with only tiny blue lights on the aircraft ahead to guide them , they separated to avoid colliding . All flew off course . The Germans opened fire . Only one of 18 American pathfinder teams landed where it should have . Pvt. Robert Murphy , 18 , was part of that team . He assembled his radar . He waited for the sound of more planes , then looked up . Never before had he seen so many parachutes . Nearly 1,800 men were falling in his drop zone , but it looked more like 5,000 , maybe 10,000 . Some of the paratroopers were shot in the air . Others fell into trees . One tumbled into a pile of manure . Many landed in a flood that Rommel had created for them . He had opened the locks on the Merderet River at high tide . Water covered the surrounding farm fields . Somehow , Allied reconnaissance had missed it . The water was no more than four feet deep , but that was enough . Sgt. Robert Williams , 21 , with the 101st , fell into it up to his chest . Between 50 and 100 feet away , in the dark , he could hear gurgling . Men were drowning . First Lt. Jack Isaacs , who was a platoon leader in the 82nd , fell through an antiaircraft barrage without a scratch . It lighted the sky around him with green , red and yellow streams of fire . He landed near some cows in a pasture seven miles from his target , the village of Ste.-Mere-Eglise . He had no idea where his men were . He located a stranger from another unit . Together they found a paratrooper speared by a stalk of `` Rommel 's asparagus . '' Isaacs gave him a shot of morphine . With his assent , Isaacs plunged the man 's rifle bayonet-first into the ground and put his helmet on the upturned rifle butt a universal sign of surrender . Isaacs rounded up 35 other men only one from his platoon , the rest strangers and prepared to set out for Ste.-Mere-Eglise . He turned to take a last look at the paratrooper impaled on the asparagus and saw a German soldier approach him from a hedgerow . The German shot him . Isaacs ' men wheeled and fired . The German fell . Lt. Col. Edward Krause , a battalion commander in the 82nd , led the Allied attack . He drove the German garrison in the village into retreat . He occupied buildings and set up roadblocks . He cut telephone lines and established gun posts . ( Begin optional trim ) A gunner in one of those posts had a feeling he was not alone . He wheeled around and saw a pair of boots swaying back and forth . The machine gunner looked up . Hanging in a tree , looming over him , was a dead paratrooper . There were others hanging in the trees , where they had landed and then been shot dead . In twos and threes , fellow paratroopers entered the village square . They looked up , Cornelius Ryan says , and they felt a surge of anger . Lt. Col. Krause reached the square . He said only three words : `` Oh , my God . '' Then , Ryan says , Krause pulled an American flag from his pocket , old and worn , the flag his regiment had raised over Naples . He walked to the town hall and ran up the colors . ( End optional trim ) Ste.-Mere-Eglise was the first French village to be liberated by the Americans . -0- HELL IN THE HEDGEROW Behind the paratroopers came the gliders . They were fragile craft , made of plywood and canvas . Towed across the channel by propeller-driven aircraft , the gliders carried entire platoons of support troops , as well as Jeeps , antitank guns and small bulldozers . They were turned loose to land in the fields . But they hit hedgerows . The glider pilots were expecting English-style hedgerows , low enough for fox hunters to jump . Instead , these were shrubs and saplings , five to eight feet tall , planted in dirt embankments and so dense they seemed solid . If a glider pilot approached a farm field high enough to clear the leading hedgerow , he could not get his glider down fast enough to avoid the hedgerow at the far end . If he tried to pull up and over the end hedgerow , he would stall and crash . The Norman hedgerows took a heavier toll than `` Rommel 's asparagus . '' By 4:30 a.m. , all Allied paratroopers and their glider-borne support troops were on the ground . Almost to a man , however , they had been scattered so far from their drop sites that they had no idea where they were . Gen. Maxwell D. Taylor , commander of the 101st , for instance , landed by himself . Lost , he wandered for 20 minutes before encountering his first trooper , a private . In the darkness , Taylor clicked twice on a toy cricket , issued to each man in training . The private returned a single click . It signaled that he was an American . Both men were so relieved , they hugged each other . Together they stumbled on until they had gathered together another general , a colonel , 18 other officers and 40 men . `` Never , '' Taylor cracked , `` have so few been led by so many . '' As they drew closer to Ste.-Marie-du-Mont , they could see its church steeple , and Taylor knew for the first time where they were . He moved his band of men east toward the village of Pouppeville and an exit from the beach . As they neared Pouppeville , they ran into gunfire . Sixty Germans held the town . They were firing from second-story windows . It took Taylor nearly three hours to drive them out . He suffered 18 casualties , inflicted 25 and captured 40 Germans . Taylor took possession of the top of the beach exit . It would be only a matter of time before his men would see the U.S. 4th Division coming inland . It was led by a tank . Taylor 's men could not tell for sure whether the tank was friendly . Taylor 's men fired . A hatch opened , and a tanker waved an orange banner , signaling that he was American . Capt. George L. Mabry , an infantry officer in the 8th Regiment , walked around the side of the tank . Taylor shook his hand . Before the end of the day , the 101st Airborne would open the way for the 4th Division , drive a German battalion out of Ste.-Marie-du-Mont , and destroy German batteries at Bretcourt Manor and Holdy . But the victories came at a steep price . Many of the men of the 101st were missing . Of 6,600 who had jumped , only 2,500 were assembled into fighting units . ( Begin optional trim ) In some cases , men of the 101st and the 82nd were so jumbled together by the chaotic jump that it took a week to sort them out . At midmorning , men in the 82nd were still trying to find one another . Worse , they had landed on both sides of the Merderet River . Thanks to Rommel 's flood , it was more like a lake . There were only two ways to cross . One was a causeway and bridge at La Fiere . The other was a causeway and bridge at Chef-du-Pont . Gen. James Gavin , the assistant division commander , put together 300 men , took them to La Fiere and Chef-du-Pont and captured the causeways . The Germans counterattacked . Maj. Gen. Matthew B . Ridgway , commander of the 82nd , feared that his division might be destroyed before it , like the 101st , could connect with the 4th Infantry Division moving inland . After nightfall , the 4th arrived . It found the causeway at Chef-du-Pont secure in Allied hands . ( End optional trim ) -0- DAWN AND THE FLEET Never before had so many planes flown in anger . On D-day , the Allies launched 3,467 heavy bombers , 1,645 medium bombers and 5,409 fighters . German antiaircraft destroyed 113 , but not one was shot down by the Luftwaffe . The Germans flew 250 sorties during the invasion . The Allies flew more than 14,000 . The Americans and British dropped more bombs on Normandy in two hours than they had on Hamburg , the most heavily bombed city in Germany , during all of 1943 . But they were not entirely successful . At Utah Beach , the B-26s destroyed much of the Atlantic Wall before the Germans could fire a shot . At Omaha , Gold , Juno and Sword , however , many of the bombs from the B-17s and the B-24s missed the wall and fell on the French countryside . The clouds were partly to blame . But so was the fact that some bomber crews flinched . Only 1,000 yards separated their targets and the first wave of Allied landing craft . To avoid hitting fellow Americans , the crews held onto their bombs for too long . From the air , the incoming ships were a sight that pilots never forgot . Minesweepers by the score were headed for the sand . Behind them were landing craft by the hundreds , trailing a churn of white water . The Germans , historian Stephen E. Ambrose says , heard nothing and saw nothing . At 3:09 a.m. , their radar finally picked up the fleet . They sent out some torpedo boats and two armed trawlers . But the German vessels were like gnats against a hurricane . They sank only one ship , the Norwegian destroyer Svenner . At 5:20 a.m. , it grew light . Fifteen minutes later , German shore batteries opened fire . The Allied battleships replied , Ambrose says , like Zeus hurling thunderbolts . By 6 a.m. , all of the landing craft had launched their skirted , amphibious tanks . Higgins boats passed among the tanks in the water , heading for shore . The battleships and the cruisers raised a wall of sound so immense it could be felt . When the warships lifted their fire , the landing craft carrying tanks opened up . Fourteen thousand rockets whistled over the heads of the men in the Higgins boats as they neared the sand . Finally , the tanks themselves began to fire . Wind rolled back the smoke . H-hour was at hand . Next : `` We 'll start the war here . '' NEW YORK Eight million Broadway theatergoers paid a record $ 356 million at the box office during the '93-'94 season that just ended , the League of American Theaters and Producers said Wednesday . Along with the gross receipts record was the continuation of a five-year rise in total attendance , to 8.1 million . ( The attendance record is 11 million , set in 1980-81 . ) The Broadway gross for the '92-'93 season was $ 328 million , with total attendance of 7.9 million . The bulk of last season 's ticket revenues , almost $ 300 million , came from musicals , most of them long-running shows from previous years . Only two musicals from '93-'94 , `` Beauty and the Beast '' and `` Passion , '' were playing at the end of the season . Top Broadway ticket prices remained at $ 65 for the third consecutive year , but at least one musical , `` Show Boat , '' will come in next fall with a $ 75 top . The average cost of admission for all shows was $ 43.94 , compared to $ 41.71 in the previous season . The reason for the increase was a rise in ticket prices for some non-musical shows . One , `` Angels in America , '' has gone to $ 65 , the same as musicals charge . At season 's end , there were 25 shows running on Broadway , compared to 19 at this time a year ago . Because of the slim number of holdover shows , the season began slowly last summer . The quick failure of seven shows last fall , followed by severe snowstorms early this year , kept attendance below comparable levels of the previous season . Not until about two months ago did attendance rise dramatically . The league also reported figures for major national touring productions : gross receipts of $ 688 million , a record , and estimated attendance of 16.5 million . SANTO DOMINGO , Dominican Republic According to a newspaper editor who has known him for many years , the president of the Dominican Republic , 87-year-old Joaquin Balaguer , is above all else a pragmatist . This fact was manifest last week when Balaguer faced with mounting U.S. pressure abruptly reversed his reluctance to enforce sanctions on Haiti . The Dominican leader agreed , during a meeting with Clinton 's special adviser on Haiti , William H . Gray , to help the United States and the international community seal the long border between his country and Haiti . He did so after listening to Gray explain that the Clinton administration believes Dominican laxity in enforcing the U.N.-imposed sanctions has allowed Haiti 's ruling generals to continue to get the oil they need to retain their hold on power . U.S. officials deny there was any quid pro quo , but Balaguer 's sudden turnaround sparks a series of interesting questions . First and foremost : Will his new cooperation with the United States serve to reduce Washington 's interest in fraud allegations regarding last month 's Dominican presidential election , in which Balaguer has been declared the victor by a narrow margin ? His chief electoral rival , Dr. Jose Francisco Pena Gomez , believes the aging incumbent struck a deal with the United States . `` I foresee a moderation from Washington , '' he said . Other important questions : Does Balaguer actually have the will and the ability to compel the Dominican army to enforce the embargo ? And even if he does , will closing the border thereby enhancing the efficacy of U.N. sanctions on Haiti succeed in bringing about the downfall of the military regime in Port au Prince ? And perhaps most important : Will Dominican compliance enable President Clinton to escape the dead-end Haiti policy he has been pursuing-a policy headed toward restoring left-leaning priest Jean-Bertrand Aristide to power by means of a U.S.-led military invasion ? I spoke with Balaguer , who heads up the Social Christian Reformist Party , at length a few days ago , both about the disputed Dominican elections and about his decision to seal the border with Haiti . He took the opportunity to protest charges leveled by former congressman Stephen Solarz who served as a U.S.-appointed monitor during the elections that widespread fraud , carried out in large part by the ruling party , distorted the final results . `` This is not true , '' Balaguer said , arguing that his party won a free and fair election . He acknowledges only that a few voters were unintentionally left off voting lists . But he contends that all parties suffered equally from this circumstance . Nevertheless , Balaguer says he will abide by the decision of the Dominican Electoral Board a body charged with handing down a final verdict on the election . In fact , the Organization of American States as well as the Electoral Board are investigating Pena Gomez 's charge that widespread and deliberate irregularities led to the disenfranchisement of at least 200,000 of Pena 's followers . Pena told me that many of his supporters ' names appeared on the original voting lists but not on separate lists kept at voting places . So far , the OAS has documented irregularities in 28 of 107 municipalities . But well-placed neutral observers told me that OAS officials lack hard evidence that the irregularities were sufficient to alter the election 's outcome . As for the Haiti embargo , Balaguer does not pass judgment on whether it is a good thing . He says simply that the Dominican Republic will work to make it effective because the international community has decided to enhance the embargo . `` We abide by international decisions , '' he said . Some have questioned whether he can persuade the Dominican army to to go along with such an effort , given the profits so many Dominicans derive from the smuggling . `` I have not only moral authority over ( the army ) , '' says Balaguer , `` but they are obedient and totally loyal to me at least the vast majority . '' He goes on to acknowledge , however , that `` It is a great temptation to buy a gallon of gas for $ 1 and sell it in Haiti for $ 10 . '' Balaguer expressed a willingness to follow the recommendations of a U.N. expert team with respect to sealing the long and porous border , and said he 'll ask for other technical help from the international community in this effort . Balaguer , who is no admirer of Aristide , says that what Haiti needs is a new ruler not Aristide and not the army but a third party who `` will think more about the welfare and stability of Haiti . '' Balaguer thinks Aristide 's return is unlikely to produce positive results , but neither does he approve of the military regime now in power there . If there is a U.S.-led military invasion of Haiti , Balaguer insists that the invaders have an obligation to stop Haitians from fleeing into the Dominican Republic . During the recent presidential campaign , Balaguer accused Pena Gomez of planning to merge the Dominican Republic and Haiti into one country , a charge that was particularly effective . Pena in turn accuses Balaguer of conducting a racist campaign aimed at preventing a `` poor black man '' like himself from becoming president . Dominicans tell me that their country is on the verge of civil strife that violence could break out at any moment if Pena encourages his followers to take to the streets . The Clinton administration , currently focused on changing the regime in Haiti , would do well to give some attention to keeping the Dominican Republic stable . Unlike Haiti , it is a country where there are major American business interests and one that has strong commercial ties with the United States . A Dominican editor , German Ornes , sums it up succinctly : `` We are divided , and anything could bring this division to a civil war . The United States should be careful , because it could have a bigger problem than Haiti if this country explodes . '' WASHINGTON Thousands of federal engineers , scientists , secretaries and medical personnel who were bypassed by the 1994 pay raise would get a 2 percent paycheck transfusion in 1995 if Congress and the White House allow a scheduled national pay raise to take effect . The majority of federal employees who are not paid special higher rates would get both the national raise and a locality adjustment that together would be worth about 3.3 percent . The difference between a national and locality raise may seem like bureaucratic nit-picking , but it is a big deal to hundreds of thousands of workers nationwide who are eligible for national but not locality raises . Here 's why : Most federal workers are on a straight civil service pay scale for their area . They get both national and locality raises . Workers who are paid special higher rates because of location New York , Los Angeles or San Francisco or because they are in hard-to-fill jobs get national raises , but don't get locality increases unless they exceed the amount of their differentials . In the three cities those differentials are 8 percent . For special raters the differentials are 3 percent to 30 percent higher than the regular grade salary scale . Most of the special raters were excluded from the January 1994 pay raise because it was a locality adjustment . The Clinton administration barred the 2.2 percent national raise which , if approved , would have gone to them . The White House has doubts about the way past government surveys produced a 30 percent gap between government and industry salaries . That 's why it tried to freeze pay in 1994 , and wants less than full increases in 1995 . Government data shows federal employees nationwide are due a 2.6 percent raise , plus yet-to-be-determined locality adjustments that would vary from city to city . The House is working on a compromise that gives all workers the 2 percent raise , plus half the locality adjustment to eligible employees . Special raters would get only the national 2 percent portion . The system of dual national and local raises was approved by Congress during the Bush administration . It promised to gradually close the national and hometown , federal vs. private sector pay gap through a series of precision-crafted raises . Both raises are automatic unless Congress or the White House object . The White House objects on grounds that the pay gap data is flawed . President Clinton 's budget calls for a 1.6 percent raise instead of the 2.6 percent national adjustment provided by law . Congress , led by the bipartisan congressional civil service caucus , the Federal Government Service Task Force , is pushing for both a local and national raise next year . The national raise would benefit all white collar feds , the smaller locality raise would cover most special rate employees . ` WE ' LL START THE WAR HERE ' At 6:30 a.m. , the 4th Division infantry hit Utah Beach , on the west flank of the invasion . Gen. Theodore Roosevelt , 56 , whose father had been the 26th president of the United States , was in the first boat . The division commander had been reluctant to bring him ; it was Roosevelt 's fourth assault landing , his heart was bad and he walked with a cane . But he was well-known and well-liked by the men for his trademark .45-caliber pistol , his enthusiasm and his voice , which was a few decibels louder than the bellow of a rutting elk . He was not supposed to have gone in first . The plan was for 32 amphibious tanks to launch , swim to the sand and clear the way . But they were late . Higgins boats carried E Company of the 2nd Battalion of the 8th Infantry Regiment past the tanks in the water , and the men of E Company landed first . Roosevelt was with them , and it was a good thing . Because of wind , waves , tide , smoke and the loss of all but one control craft to mines , everyone landed out of sequence and in the wrong place . The men stormed a seawall and climbed to the top of some dunes . What they saw looked like nothing in their briefings . Roosevelt strode up , wearing a wool-knit hat . The general hated helmets . He ignored fire from German trenches in the dunes . Leaning on his cane , he studied the company commander 's maps . By now two tanks had landed . German 88-millimeter guns were pounding the beach , and the tanks had begun firing back . Cane in hand , Roosevelt walked back through the fire , ducked into a shell hole behind the tanks and told Col. James Van Fleet , commander of the 8th Regiment , that his men were a mile south of where they should have been . They faced a crucial decision . Should they try to shift more than a mile to the north and follow their original orders ? Or should they attack where they were ? Some men say Roosevelt declared : `` We 'll start the war from right here ! '' It made him a legend . But , in an unpublished memoir , quoted by historian Stephen E. Ambrose , Van Fleet says that , in fact , he was the one who decided . ` ` ` Go straight ahead , ' I ordered . ` We 've caught the enemy at a weak point , so let 's take advantage of it. ' ' ' It matters little , Ambrose says , who decided or what was spoken . Far more important , he says , is that the decision was made without opposition or time-wasting argument and that it was right . The decision and how it came to be made , he says , demonstrated the flexibility and initiative that were so distinctive of the American command . Engineers and demolition teams followed the first wave . They set their charges around Rommel 's obstacles . Within an hour , Ambrose says , the demolition teams had cleared eight 50-yard gaps in Rommel 's beach obstacles . More Higgins boats arrived . The boats unloaded more infantry , and the demolition teams on the sand were forced forward . They ran into Bouncing Bettys , mines that jumped and exploded groin-high . Still more tanks arrived . They rolled through openings in the seawall and drove along a beach road that turned inland toward Pouppeville . As reserves began piling up on the sand , the 4th Division advanced onto the fields behind it . ( Begin optional trim ) The men turned a farmhouse into a medical aid station . They put two wounded Germans in one room and three wounded Americans in another . One was a red-headed captain named Tom Neely . He had been hit in the stomach by machine-gun fire , triggered accidentally by an American soldier . The Rev. William Boice , 27 , a Protestant chaplain , spent the night trying to comfort Neely , who told him about his wife and his 6-year-old son . `` Why me , chaplain ? '' Neely asked . Boice had no good answer . At 3 a.m. , Neely died . Boice prayed for him . He prayed for the other Americans , and he prayed for the Germans . ( End optional trim ) By the end of the day , the Americans had put more than 20,000 troops and 1,700 vehicles ashore at Utah Beach . It had fallen to the Allies . -0- ( Begin optional trim ) ASSAULT ON POINTE-DU-HOC Between Utah Beach on the west flank and Omaha Beach in the center of the invasion stood a promontory on a cliff . The French called it Pointe-du-Hoc . On this promontory , intelligence agents said , were massive German fortifications and a battery of 155-millimeter cannons large enough to deliver unspeakable horror to both beaches . Allied ships bombarded Pointe-du-Hoc , Ambrose says , with 10 kilotons of explosives , cumulatively equal to the destructive force of the atomic bomb at Hiroshima . But the gun emplacement still stood . An elite American force , the Army Rangers , went to silence the guns . They were led by Lt. Col. James Rudder , 34 , whose landing craft was steered in the wrong direction by a British coxswain . Rudder turned it , but the error cost his flotilla 30 to 40 minutes and gave the Germans at Pointe-du-Hoc time to rally . They fired mortars and machine guns as the Rangers approached . The U.S. destroyer Satterlee and the Royal Navy 's destroyer Talybont shot back , but the Germans on the high ground hardly winced . From their boats , the Rangers fired rockets carrying grappling hooks to the top of the cliff . Some of the hooks had plain , inch-thick ropes attached . Others had toggle ropes , with wooden rungs tied every two feet . Still others were fastened to rope ladders . Machine-gun bullets from the cliff hit scores of men , including 1st Sgt. Leonard Lomell , 24 . As his boat beached and he jumped into the water , a volley tore through the muscle on his right side . It spun him partway around . The bullets burned . `` I 've got to get up there , '' he said to himself . `` I 've got to get those guns . '' Bleeding , he stumbled through shell and bomb craters to the water 's edge . The cliff was 100 feet high , on the far side of a 30-foot shingle of rocks . Some were small , others the size of pumpkins . The shingle began at the water 's edge . There was little sand . Under the cliff was a pile of wet clay . It had fallen from shell craters during the bombardment . To 1st Sgt. James Eikner , 30 , the face of the cliff looked like the face of the moon . Eikner knew that the quickest way to get away from machine-gun fire was to charge . With a load of mortars in his arms , he ran for the pile of clay . From the cliff top , Germans were dropping grenades . Jim Eikner set up his mortars . `` Faces in , butts out ! '' he yelled . He shot straight up the face of the cliff . The Germans pulled back . On top , 1st Lt. Ted Lapres , 23 , and his men looked around . They , like each of the other Ranger units , had a specific mission . Theirs was to neutralize one of the German observation posts and to knock out one of the big guns . Engaging Germans as they went , but just long enough to knock them out of the way , they advanced toward the battery . They stopped . Lapres was stunned . The guns were not there . Sgt. Lomell was still bleeding from the machine-gun bullets he had taken in his side . He and his men were assigned to knock out three of the big guns . But when they reached the battery , they , too , were dumbstruck . The gun positions were huge , but they were empty . Instead of guns , telephone poles were sticking out of the embrasures . Lomell and Staff Sgt. Jack Kuhn , 24 , found a dirt road . It showed a number of tracks . They followed it . Lomell moved forward first while Kuhn covered him , and then vice versa . Leapfrogging each other , they came upon an apple orchard . It was surrounded by a hedgerow . They peered through it . There , about 50 feet away , hidden in a swale under some apple trees , were the guns . There were five in all . They were covered with camouflage netting and fake leaves . Germans were milling around not far away about 75 of them . Kuhn worked his way into a secluded spot in the hedgerow and hid . `` If one of them even looks this way or starts walking , '' Lomell told him , quietly , `` I want you to hit them . That 'll clue me , and I 'll come out the other side , and we 'll get back to the other guys . '' Lomell crept around the perimeter . He had taken Kuhn 's high-temperature , thermite grenade . He also had one of his own . Figuring any minute to be jumped or shot in the back , he moved in toward the guns from the rear . Their barrels , aimed upward at an angle toward Utah Beach , looked to be six inches across . Lomell stood 5-feet-9 . He could not touch the tops of them . He went to one of the guns . He placed one thermite grenade on its traversing mechanism and pulled the pin . Without any noise or smoke , the grenade melted into the mechanism and welded its gears together . Then he did the same to the second gun . He took his submachine gun , slung over his shoulder , wrapped his field jacket around the stock , and quietly smashed the gun sights on all five of the weapons . He ran back to Kuhn . `` Jack , '' he panted , `` we have to get out of here , get back to the guys and get the rest of their grenades . '' They did . When they returned , the Germans still had not moved . Kuhn took his position in the hedgerow . Lomell crept back to the guns and disabled all of them . He set off thermite grenades in traversing mechanisms , breech blocks and elevation gears . The weapons were ruined . He returned to Kuhn , who said : `` Come on . Let 's get the hell out of here . '' ( End optional trim ) -0- ` WE ' RE GOING TO CATCH HELL ' Omaha Beach , at the center of the invasion , would be the most difficult . A mile out , Bob Slaughter , a 19-year-old sergeant in the 29th Division , shook hands , one by one , with his men . `` See you on the beach , '' he said . `` Take care . Good luck . '' They loaded from the British transport Empire Javelin onto a landing craft . About 1,000 yards from the sand , the landing craft passed a capsized boat . Men were drowning . The landing craft picked up three of them , but Slaughter and his men fought off the rest to keep from overloading and going down themselves . As they neared the sand , they could see a landing craft already on the beach . German bullets raked across it . Sparks flew from the ramp . `` Man , '' Slaughter said to the soldier standing next to him , `` we 're going to catch it . We 're going to catch hell . '' Three hundred yards out , German artillery and mortars opened up at Slaughter 's boat . Artillery shells splashed geysers into the air . The water rained down on the men , and the British coxswain lost his nerve . `` Step back , mates , '' the coxswain said . `` I 'm going to lower this ramp . '' `` No , you 're not ! '' shouted Willard Norfleet , Slaughter 's platoon sergeant . `` You 're going to take it all the way in . We 've got heavy equipment . '' `` But we 'll all be killed ! '' `` I don't give a damn ! '' Norfleet yelled . `` You 're going to take us all the way in . '' `` No ! We 'll all be killed . '' Norfleet pulled out his .45-caliber pistol . He put its muzzle to the coxswain 's head . `` You , '' he said , quietly , `` are going to take us all the way in . '' The coxswain did . When he finally lowered the ramp , Slaughter was the fifth man off . It was 6:30 a.m. . Bullets flew . `` Get the hell off ! '' men shouted . `` Let 's go ! Let 's go ! Let 's go ! Let 's go , go , go , go ! '' Some of the men could not swim . They floundered under 60 pounds of ammunition and gear . Slaughter , 6-feet-5 , tried to stand . The water was up to his chest . A dead man floated past . Other men were getting shot , bleeding , screaming . Several struggled toward him . They grabbed his jacket and his rifle . He started to go under . He knocked them away and tried to help them one at a time . Slaughter and several others made it to the beach . They lay at the edge of the water , in a torrent of machine-gun fire . Ahead of him , the sand had a lazy curve . Nearly 1,000 feet of it stretched from the waterline where he lay to a sloping shingle of stones . At the top of the shingle was a seawall . It was made of wood and masonry and stood from three to 12 feet high . Beyond it was a road that ran along the beach , then an antitank ditch six feet deep , then a swamp and finally a bluff about 100 feet high formidable to climb and far too steep to drive . Four draws led inland , providing natural exits near the French villages of Vierville , St.-Laurent and Colleville . Folds in the bluff held foxholes , semi-permanent bunkers and concrete emplacements called Tobruks , big enough for a mortar team . They were filled with Germans who could cover the beach with flanking fire and march their bullets and shells at an angle partway up the bluff itself . Bob Slaughter had to make it across the sand to the seawall , or they would kill him . `` I 'm going , '' he told Walfred `` Fats '' Williams , who was his No. 1 machine-gunner . `` I 'm going across . He waited until some of the German guns on the bluff stopped to cool and reload . Then Bob Slaughter fixed his bayonet to the muzzle of his rifle . He got into a crouch . He ran as low as he could and as fast as he could . Bullets kicked up the sand all around him . He felt naked . His helmet , too loose , slapped against his head . He crossed the sand , stumbled into a water-filled runnel , caught his balance , accidentally fired his rifle , thanked God that he had not hit an American , kept on running and collapsed , shaking , against the seawall . He looked back : 200 yards . It had taken an eternity . He was panting and weak in the knees . He was scared to death . Fats Williams came next . Then Salvatore Augeri . Then Leonard McCanless . They huddled against the seawall and watched as others , just as lucky , made it too . Slaughter took his raincoat out of a large , pouch-like pocket on the back of his jacket . He spread the raincoat behind the seawall . Then he took his rifle apart to clean it . He placed parts of his rifle on the coat to keep them out of the sand . Only then did he notice the bullet holes in his rain coat . Several of them . He showed the holes to the others . `` Look here , '' he said . `` I 've been shot at . '' WHEN PLANS ARE USELESS It was murderous . The first company ashore at Omaha took more than 90 percent casualties . Units fell apart . Their men intermingled . The beach , historian Stephen E. Ambrose says , was littered with the dead , the dying and the disorganized . Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower had a saying , Ambrose recalls : Plans are everything before the battle . But they are useless once it is joined . The plan had been for amphibious tanks and bulldozers to clear the exit draws from the beach to Vierville and St.-Laurent and Colleville so the infantry could advance through them into open country . But many of the tanks had sunk . Their crews were huddling on yellow rubber rafts out on the channel . The plan also had called for fire support for the infantry from half-tracks and artillery . But the half-tracks and artillery were in chaos . The infantrymen at the seawall were paralyzed with fear . And the Germans were starting to lob mortars over the wall . At 7:30 a.m. , a Higgins boat neared the beach , carrying the assistant commander of the 29th Division , Brig. Gen. Norman `` Dutch '' Cota . The boat hit an obstacle . The obstacle was mined , but the mine did not go off . The boat hung up , rising and falling with the swell . It drew withering fire . The coxswain lowered the ramp . Three men , including a major , were killed instantly . Cota jumped into the water and reached the sand . He made it to the shingle and then to the seawall . In an instant , he saw that the Omaha assault plan would not work . The men huddled around him could not advance up the exit draws without tanks or artillery . Cota was unafraid to do what Adolf Hitler would have removed a commander for trying : something unauthorized . In the face of the German fire , Cota climbed over the seawall . He dug a Browning automatic rifle into the sand and raked the bluff with fire of his own . He directed some of his men to blow the barbed wire with a Bangalore torpedo , a pipe explosive . He and two other men crawled through the wire , and Cota shouted for more to follow . He ignored the exit draws and headed straight for the bluff . About the same time , a number of others came to Cota 's conclusion : To hell with the exit draws . By 8 a.m. , they too were headed for the bluff instead . Some men crawled over the seawall by themselves . Sergeants led others . Junior officers rounded up leaderless units . One by one , GIs , officers and men , took charge of themselves and others . This , Ambrose says , was a critical moment . He calls it a pivotal test for democracy and the self-reliance it encourages . ( Begin optional trim ) Col. Charles Canham , the commander of Sgt. Bob Slaughter 's regiment , passed the test . Slaughter saw him coming . To Slaughter , he was a tough son of a bitch : Tall and lanky , he had a thin little mustache like the villain in a movie , but he was one hell of a soldier . Canham came charging up to the seawall , his arm in a sling . He had been shot through the right wrist . He had a .45 in his left hand . `` Get your ass out of there ! '' Canham screamed . He stood in the open , bullets and shells flying . `` What are you doing there , laying there like that ? Get up ! Get across the rest of this goddamn beach ! '' Canham was right-handed . He emptied the pistol , left-handed , at some Germans on the bluff . A runner took the pistol , slipped in a new magazine and handed it back . Canham yelled again and fired some more . One of his battalion commanders , a lieutenant colonel , shouted back at him from the safety of a pillbox that the Germans had abandoned nearby : `` Colonel , if you don't take cover , you 're going to get killed ! '' `` Colonel , '' Canham fumed , `` get your goddamn ass out of that goddamn pillbox and get these men off this goddamn beach ! '' Slaughter could not believe it . `` Goldarn , '' he said to himself , `` if that guy can do that , then , hell , I can too . '' Slaughter and others climbed over the wall . Led by men like Canham and Capt. Joe Dawson from the 29th Division , and by men like Capt. Robert Walker , Lt. John Spaulding and Sgt. Perry Bonner , from the 1st Division , they went up the bluff . ( End optional trim ) Finally , GIs on the beach saw two heartening sights : Americans were standing on the top of the bluff , and German prisoners were marching down . And still Omaha Beach was not secure . Wreckage littered the sand . The tide was rising . The beach was shrinking . Progress up the bluff was bloody and slow . More troops were arriving . They brought more vehicles . Omaha developed a traffic jam . At 8:30 a.m. , the Navy suspended all landings . The order added to the confusion . With nowhere to go , more than 50 incoming landing craft began turning in circles . -0- THE CRUCIAL MOMENT This was the moment , historian Ambrose says , that Eisenhower had feared the most . Nearly 5,000 Americans were ashore , cut off from reinforcements , unable to retreat hostages as much as invaders . It was the moment that Field Marshal Erwin Rommel had anticipated the most . The Americans were caught half on the beach and half off , wounded and bewildered . Offshore , Allied battleships and cruisers were helpless . They were too big to get close enough to give their guns the precision to kill Germans without killing GIs . Even destroyers were under orders to stand down until fire control spotters could make it to shore . Skippers watched in angry frustration as the Germans slaughtered American infantrymen on the sand . Finally , one of them had enough . Lt. Cmdr. Ralph Ramey , known in the Navy as `` Rebel , '' took it upon himself to charge the beach regardless . Ambrose says that Rebel Ramey steamed his destroyer , the McCook , close enough to see for himself that there were no Americans on a portion of the bluff near the exit draw leading to Vierville . He opened up with his 5-inch guns , blasted one German pillbox off the bluff and blew up another . It was another victory for American flexibility and initiative . At 9:50 a.m. , an admiral shouted into his ship-to-ship radio : `` Get on them , men ! Get on them ! They are raising hell with the men on the beach , and we can't have any more of that ! '' Every destroyer off Omaha responded . Skippers risked running aground to fire point-blank at targets of opportunity on the bluff . Ramey had fired 975 rounds against the bluff . Other skippers fired 500 rounds , some as many as 1,120 . `` This destroyer action against shore batteries , '' naval historian Samuel Eliot Morison says , `` afforded the troops the only artillery support they had during most of D-day . '' What the Navy had done , Ambrose says , was to give the men on Omaha a fighting chance . They took it , and renewed their attack against the German guns dug into the face of the bluff . Still more GIs scrambled past the gun emplacements to the top . ( Begin optional trim ) On top of the bluff , Gen. Dutch Cota and his men found themselves midway between Vierville and St.-Laurent . No paratroopers had landed behind Omaha to clear its inland approaches . Germans hiding in hedgerows caught Cota 's force in a cross-fire . He divided his men into fire and maneuver teams . The fire teams provided bursts of cover while the maneuver teams rushed forward . The Germans were startled by such aggressiveness . They fled . Cota turned west toward Vierville . Frenchmen stared in surprise as he and his men moved through town . Cota took an aide and four riflemen and started down Vierville draw from the top . Germans in a fortification on the east side opened fire . Cota 's riflemen shot back . The Germans , dazed by the naval bombardment , gave up . Ambrose says Cota ordered them to lead the way down the draw through minefields to the beach . The group made it . Back on the sand , Cota organized demolition teams to dynamite a roadblock at the bottom of the draw . He summoned tank units to advance through the opening . But there were Germans still on the face of the bluffs , and they were sweeping the beach with machine-gun fire . It took hours , Ambrose says , to fully open Vierville draw . ( End optional trim ) The assault on the bluff was only one of several notable acts of initiative that saved the invasion . Another came when Gen. Clarence Heubner , commander of the 1st Divison , told his 18th Regiment to go ashore the Navy be damned , along with its order that had suspended landings . All morning , the tide at Omaha Beach had been rising . By now Rommel 's obstacles were hidden under water and were particularly dangerous . Skippers had their orders to stay away . But now regimental officers had orders to go in . They argued fiercely with the skippers . Finally , a landing craft , carrying tanks , charged at full speed through the obstacles , all guns firing . Another rammed its way through , carrying infantry , all weapons blazing . Other skippers began to yield to the Army 's demands , Ambrose says , and the 18th got ashore but not without severe losses , compounded when the 155th Regiment of the 29th Division mislanded on top of it . The landings , however , gave Omaha a welcome infusion of firepower . It was badly needed . The traffic jam on the beach was taking a pounding from German machine guns , mortars and artillery . With support from the newly arrived regiments , bulldozers began cutting a gap through a line of dunes just east of an exit draw leading up to a plateau between St.-Laurent and Colleville . By 1 p.m. , the draw was open . Vehicles on the beach started moving at once . Slowly the traffic jam eased . At dusk , with the opening of the Vierville draw , as well , men , tanks , trucks and Jeeps began emerging on the flat land above the beach in significant numbers . They reinforced GIs on the plateau , and the Americans started moving inland . By nightfall , troops from the 29th and 1st divisions were scattered in 18 pockets in and around Vierville , St.-Laurent and Colleville . They had no continuous line . They had no artillery and few mortars . But they had dug in . Omaha was secure . -0- GOLD , JUNO AND SWORD On the east flank were the beaches of Gold , Juno and Sword . They were targeted by forces from Britain and Canada , joined by a small group of commandos from France . The British 6th Airborne Division was assigned to seize bridges over the Orne River and the Caen Canal , to destroy a coastal battery at Merville and to delay any German advances from inland . Sixty pathfinders jumped from light bombers to mark drop zones . The pathfinders landed at 12:20 a.m. June 6 . They set up radar beacons and flashing lights . Shortly afterward , glider-borne troops from the 6th Airborne touched down alongside the Benouville bridge crossing the Caen Canal . Capt. John Tillett , 24 , who served as adjutant of the Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry , was aboard . It was dark . Tillett expected a crash landing . But he was lucky . Only one wing and the wheels ripped off when his glider touched down . Tillett knew that any glider landing that let soldiers walk away was a good one . Tillett and his men joined in a successful assault at Benouville bridge , later named Pegasus bridge to honor their insignia and the heroism of British troops , including officers such as Maj. John Howard and Lt. Danny Brotheridge , the first Allied soldier , historian Stephen E. Ambrose says , to be killed by enemy fire on D-day . The 6th Airborne assault on the bridge over the Orne River was successful as well . Staff Sgt. Norman Elton , 24 , landed his glider near the village of Ranville . The aircraft carried two Jeeps . The only way to unload them was to remove the tail of the plane . Elton and his co-pilot hacked it off with an ax . It took two hours . All the while , Germans were firing mortars . Lt. Col. T.B.H. . Otway destroyed the German battery at Merville , against huge odds and at an awful price . Half of his 150 men were killed or wounded . As the sun rose , Allied bombers hit the railroad station at Caen and the villages of Ver-sur-Mer and La Riviere . The British cruiser Belfast shelled German installations from the channel . And at 7:35 a.m. , British underwater demolition teams and Royal Engineers landed on the sand at Gold beach . There were no German tanks on the beach and not many troops . When men and vehicles from the 50th Division rushed ashore , there was comparatively little to stop them . The men scaled a seawall , crossed an antitank ditch and found themselves in the villages of La Riviere and Le Hamel . Now the fighting was street-to-street . La Riviere held out until 10 a.m. Le Hamel fell at midafternoon . By the end of the day , they had penetrated six miles inland and had positioned themselves to take Arromanches and Bayeux . At Juno Beach , the fighting was heavier . Royal Marine Capt. Geoffrey Knight was in charge of small craft that took sappers onto the beach early . They had been assigned to clear obstacles and mines ahead of the Canadian 3rd Infantry Division . As Knight neared the sand , a German shell blew a hole in his boat . He succeeded in landing his flotilla . Then he straggled ashore , soaking wet . The Canadian 3rd was a collection of lumberjacks , miners , fishermen and farmers . They were very tough , Ambrose says , but they got to Juno Beach 10 minutes behind schedule . It gave the Germans time to recover from a bombardment by B-17s and the Royal Navy . At 8 a.m. the Germans opened fire . For the Canadians , the chances of being hit were one in two . ( Begin optional trim ) Lance Cpl. Harold Little , 22 , of Winnipeg landed near the village of St.-Aubin . On the sand , his tank hit a mine . Little and his commander got out . Crouching against German gunfire , Little directed another tank toward a path that appeared to be safe . The tank hit a mine . The blast caught the left side of his face . He felt himself rise in the air . Suddenly , Harold Little sensed it : He was blind . But he could still hear . The tank roared . He thought it was coming straight at him . He picked himself up off the sand . He thought he knew where his own tank was , about 20 feet away , and he turned and ran . He slammed directly into it . His tank crew guided him to cover , but he had lost much of his sight forever . ( End optional trim ) At 6 p.m. , Canadians had reached Beny-sur-Mer , more than three miles inland . Finally , the Canadians linked up with the British at Creully . At the end of the day , says John Keegan , the military scholar , the Canadians had penetrated more deeply into France than anyone else . At Sword Beach , on the easternmost edge of the invasion , Pipe Maj . Bill Millin , 21 , stepped out into the chaos with panache . He wore a kilt , with boots and gaiters , a green beret , his battle jacket and the six-inch commando knife of his trade . But , most important of all , Millin had his bagpipes . Brig. Lord Lovat , 32 , also known as Simon Fraser , the 24th chief of the Fraser clan , had charge of the Scottish commandos . When the ramp on the first of the landing craft went down , Lovat had ordered up a skirling rendition of `` Highland Laddie . '' And Bill Millin was blowing it with everything he had . The commandos and men from the 3rd Infantry rushed a line of seaside villas at Ouistreham . Germans fired from the villa windows and from pillboxes in the dunes . The British stormed the houses one by one , and then a casino as well . The Germans had turned it into a fortress . Before long , a line of German prisoners stretched from the casino to the water 's edge . There were French commandos with the English and the Scots . As early as 8 a.m. , the force pushed inland . Lovat and his commandos broke into open country and linked up with the 6th Airborne holding the bridges at the Orne River and the Caen Canal . To Guillaume Mercader , 29 , in the French Resistance , it was a joyous blessing . The Mercaders had paid dearly ; hours before , his mother and father had been killed in Caen when a bomb fell on their house . Now , in the evening of D-day , his wife sewed the Croix de Lorraine on a French flag he had been hiding in his attic , and Guillaume Mercader flew it . A little French girl , Josette Gouellain , came up to Bill Millin . She pleaded : `` Musique ! Musique ! '' Lovat gave permission . Millin played `` Nut Brown Maiden '' because of her hair and her eyes . She ran after him , but he told her to go back . After all , there was a war going on . -0- D-day casualties never have been counted with precision . For the Allies , estimates of the dead and wounded have ranged as high as 12,000 and as low as 4,900 . For the Germans , casualty estimates have ranged from 4,000 to 9,000 . For another 334 days , the war would go on . The Allies would build their foothold on the beaches of Normandy into an advance across France and into Germany itself . On May 7 , 1945 , the Nazis would surrender . Edward Regan can tell you exactly what his combat efficiency rating was the moment photographer Robert Capa snapped what is perhaps the most famous picture of D-Day . `` Zilch , '' he says . Most of the men who splashed ashore onto Omaha Beach were in the same condition . Regan himself had just passed two dead GIs floating facedown in the water and was gathering strength to crawl forward when fate picked him for photographic immortality . Of all the shots taken that gray June day , none has come as close to capturing the shock of battle . How the 21-year-old infantryman became frozen in history is a tale involving Capa 's daring and an infamous lab accident . A Hungarian-American photographer on assignment for Life magazine , Capa had made his reputation with daring combat shots . `` If your pictures aren't good enough , you 're not close enough , '' he once said . When the military unit he was following waded onto Omaha , Capa realized that facing the withering German fire was suicide and sought cover . He made a dash for the beach behind two soldiers . `` The slant of the beach gave us some protection , so long as we lay flat , from the machine-gun and rifle bullets , but the tide pushed us against the barbed wire , where the guns were enjoying open season , '' he would write in one of his books . Before running to catch a ship returning to England , Capa snapped 72 images , including a bedraggled GI in the water . The subject was a draftee from a Pennsylvania coal town getting his first taste of battle . Like many invasion soldiers , Regan became seasick on the way over and nearly drowned in deep water after stepping off his landing craft . He never noticed Capa , but his mother saw the photo in Life and saved it . More dramatic shots may have existed among the images taken by Capa during the landing , but the world will never know . A technician at Life 's London office left the film in a closed drying cabinet , melting the film emulsion . Only 11 pictures were printable . Life caption writers credited the blurred image to the `` immense excitement '' of the moment . Some feel this actually increased the photo 's impact . Capa himself felt that to convey good war shots , photographers should shake the camera a little . At Omaha , Regan got his second wind and crawled to land . During the Allied push to Germany , he won a Silver Star , a Purple Heart and the French Croix de Guerre . Regan contacted Life magazine to get a copy of the Capa photo before D-Day 's 40th anniversary . Soon after , Life magazine flew Regan to France for another set of photos on the beach . He remains unimpressed with his fame and says Capa could have focused on anyone that day . `` We were all drenched and sick as dogs , '' he said . ( Optional add end ) Cornell Capa , brother of Robert and director of the International Center of Photography in New York City , made Regan a guest of honor at an exhibit of his brother 's works at the center . `` His picture was used millions of times without a name , '' says Cornell Capa . `` Now he has a face and a name . '' The exhibition opened last Wednesday , 40 years after Robert Capa died on a combat photo mission in Indochina . Regan , 71 , moved his family 27 years ago to Atlanta , where he served as a social services administrator . During the 40th anniversary celebration , he appeared on NBC 's `` Today '' show along with a German veteran . Afterward , his former enemy asked him about Germany 's exclusion from the commemoration in France . Didn't he think Germany should have been invited ? Regan told him no . `` I wouldn't have made a very good diplomat , '' he says . NORMANDY , France Not far along the walkways of the lovingly tended burial place above Omaha Beach , where the American dead of D-Day and weeks after lie , there is a small reception building with one focal attraction inside . This is a large book in which visitors are invited to sign their names and say in a few words what they feel . I am hesitating here , with a line behind me , because after hours of wandering among the white marble crosses and the six-pointed stars almost 10,000 of them I feel a heart so overloaded I can't find the words . I am curious to know what comments have occurred to others , so winning no friends among the people waiting , I flip backward through the book . Apparently I 'm not the only one to be made inarticulate by the emotional impact of this place which even the French schoolchildren who come here in busloads appear to treat as sacred ground . The signers of the book who leave comments repeat what others have written ahead of them , with little try at originality . There are two phrases that recur over and over . One is `` God bless them . '' The other is simply , `` Thank you . '' The blessing is for the sleepers in the ground . Amen. And the thank you may be taken another way . It could be partly meant for the authorities and the workers who keep this place so beautiful . Imagination can't picture the taxpayer who would quibble over a penny as it has been expended by the United States on the 172 acres of this shrine . It has the dignity and the meticulous care owed to the men under the marble markers who bore the climactic battle of the war in Europe and died doing it . The eyes of the world were on them , their supreme commander told them at the mammoth embarkation , and Eisenhower had exaggerated in no way . Can anybody who is , like me , a contemporary of the men interred above Omaha Beach not remember the intensity of expectation with which people in and out of uniform awaited the invasion ? Short of the Second Coming , it may have been the most anticipated event of all time . We had waited so long and so impatiently as the war smoldered on the far edges of Hitler 's stolen territories . When June 6 , 1944 , finally arrived , I was 20 years old , the war in Europe had gone on for a quarter of my lifetime and I had spent a tenth of it in uniform . A world without warfare flaming totally around it was imaginable to me only as a blurry utopia . The news of D-Day , signifying the beginning of the end , came like a biblical trumpet , changing the world with a blast . Where it reached me , some 8,000 miles away on a Pacific island , it caused a squad of us to stir out of sleep in the morning and gang around a staticky radio . I remember that , although it was a consummation of our wishes , there was no whooping or roughhousing in celebration . We had too vivid an idea of what unknown brothers were going through . If the gears of military bureaucracy had worked differently , we could be there instead . There was a thought even more sobering . If this meant the end of the war in Europe , it brought closer what we expected might be our own D-Day the dreaded invasion of mainland Japan . The memory of that morning and the individual faces solemn with intense listening is powerfully alive in me as I walk and rewalk among the graves of those who were in action on that day when probably more prayers rose around the globe than ever before or since . It seems impossible that it was half a century ago . To the kids who come here , the kids in the ground must seem a mere historical abstraction like the Normans who invaded across the English Channel in the other direction 900 years ago . But I can personify any grave marker here by matching it to a GI personality I remember with an ethnically similar name . Here lies Salvatore Arnone , a tech corporal from New York who died on D-Day plus 5 . I knew at least three of him . In this place , I think I know what is meant by `` survivor 's guilt . '' Here among the unlucky ones who paid with all they had , I 'm ashamed to remember that for me , the war was a teen-age adventure and a help toward growing up . I remember how the brotherhood of the uniform satisfied the adolescent need to belong . Thrown among the uprooted youth of the war years , I learned for the first time how easy it can be to make friends . I thought everybody wearing olive drab pants or Navy blue was my friend , and without deserving it , I get a resurgence of that feeling here where the uniform is white marble . I want to wake some one of the sleepers up and ask , `` How bad was it , Joe ? '' I know how bad it was without having had to learn the way they did . There is a sound that has haunted me for much of my life although I know it only from the testimony of those who can stand among these graves with a better conscience than mine . I have been told that it is common , when a young soldier takes the wound that ends in this kind of burial , for him to regress to earliest childhood and cry for his mother . It is wrenching to think how close to childhood so many of the fallen of D-Day actually were . On rainy days during the basic training for World War II , they would show us films indoors . One of these I remember as punctuated by the sound of members of the audience falling unconscious . The movie was intended to toughen us up for seeing battle wounds we might soon have to view in reality . I never passed out because I had the sense to close my eyes at the worst parts , but the soundtrack wasn't so easy to shut out . I remember it too well . The trees in the American Cemetery are sculptured into dome shapes by the caretakers . Around the crosses and the stars , the grass is clipped with such miraculous care that not a straggling blade interrupts the whiteness of the marble . At a midpoint in the eye-filling expanse of perfectly ranked graves , there is a rotunda-shaped chapel , Jewish on one side , Christian on the other . On the day I linger in it , a worker is meticulously polishing the shared marble altar . Outside , the rows of markers stretching in all directions affect the eye the way a chord on the strings of a great symphony orchestra caresses the ear . But the western boundary of the cemetery is a sudden drop of the land which drives home the irony that separates the serene loveliness of the burial place from the ugliness which caused it to be . Down there is Omaha Beach . Nobody who drives out here from Caen , the ancient city that burned for 11 days 50 years ago and which is the likeliest takeoff point for pilgrims to the Normandy beaches , can be prepared for the shock of viewing that downward plunge of the land . So much of Normandy is as flat as Nebraska that the visitor who traverses it thinking about the war shudders at the lack of cover no place to hide . Then at the stretch of coast whose code name reverberates in history along with those of the great battle sites of all time , the land dives precipitously to the sea . No photograph gives any idea of the steepness of those 150-foot bluffs or would it ever have been chosen as Omaha Beach ? Yet men made it under fire to the top . ( Begin optional trim ) Today even the route of the climb has been mown and landscaped to harmonize with the cemetery above . There are graded paths and benches for resting , but even so , one guesses that few of the World War II veterans who visit in this anniversary year will feel like trying the ascent at their present age . On the day I am here , I 'm surprised both that the visitors are so numerous and that almost nobody seems to be a contemporary of the men in the graves and of me . Admittedly it is no day to entice visitors at the rheumatic stage of life . It is cold for the time of year , and there are heavy storm clouds hanging in the sky like black udders leaking rain . There is a penetrating wind and a high chop on the channel of the sort dreaded by the planners of the amphibious invasion . Yet in the extensive parking lots outside the cemetery grounds , there are nine tour buses and perhaps 100 automobiles . Not much English is heard . Observing the turnout in such weather , I think of the way Memorial Day is now treated at home . Americans are not great at remembering . Those whose vacationing takes them to Normandy this summer may be jolted into it . ( End optional trim ) To make a first sweep of the eye over those acres of white memorials at Omaha Beach is first to cry and then to feel a surge of angry pacifism . No such blood purge of youth should ever happen . Yet when these men were alive and I in some sense was among them , I can't remember that I ever once heard the view asserted that the war we were involved in wasn't worth fighting . The soldiers of sea , land and air in World War II knew little of global politics or the dynamics of history , but one thing was firmly within their grasp . This was that you couldn't have a thing like Hitler rampaging in the world unchallenged even if it cost something to stand in the way . One reason their parade formation in death shakes me up is that I 'm so proud of them for doing it . Another is that they missed so much of life . The gleaming purity of the symbols under which they lie stirs a memory in me that might seem bizarre or laughable to people too young to know how much the world has changed since these departed left it . In their time , a youth of 18 or 20 who wasn't married at so young an age wasn't considered socially backward if he had no sexual experience . It was what was expected of him . Young men among their peers were not embarrassed to speak of their virginal state and be it admitted , their eagerness to get rid of it . I honestly believe that the besetting fear of the younger servicemen of World War II was that they would die before they were initiated into what for them was life 's most alluring mystery . The chaste look of the markers above the Normandy graves is a stabbing reminder of how many of them probably did . In the barracks life of World War II , spoken confidences would come out during an hour that was a favorite of the day . This was when the troops were in bed , the lights were out and the comfortable bull session would drowsily go on with the voices one by one dropping out . After the day 's hard physical exertion , there was a transporting sweetness in the oncoming of sleep . I hope sleep is like that on the heights above Omaha Beach . LOS ANGELES First he makes fun of your last name . Then he asks all manner of racy , personal questions . It 's just another morning for Howard Stern in the pursuit of lively radio . But for this reporter , granted an `` exclusive interview '' on the air , it was about as much fun as having a root canal . When Stern turns his quick wit and dirty mind your way , the natural instinct is to run for cover . Especially when the self-proclaimed `` king of all media '' regally demands that his media subjects conduct interviews on his terms in this case live , on the air and at an ungodly pre-dawn hour ( because of the time difference between here and New York , where he broadcasts ) . The `` exclusive '' opportunity I was granted after four years of requesting a personal interview and being turned down was really just another instance of Stern making unabashed use of the media for self-promotional purposes . In other words , it was Howard being Howard in the most Howardly way he knows how . The occasion Wednesday was Stern 's announcement to his radio listeners of a deal he 'd made to do a daily series for the E ! Entertainment Television cable network . Stern deigned to put up with some questions from a reporter for the greater good of celebrating `` the start of something amazing . '' `` I thought it would be nice to have somebody from the media on the phone with us to listen in on my big news who could ask intelligent questions , '' Stern explained on the air . He was much more interested in my anatomy than my questions , it turned out . This much I did learn : The cable show will simply be a televised version of his radio show and is part of a larger development deal Stern has with E ! All five hours of his popular syndicated morning program will be videotaped each weekday by six robotic cameras , then a half-hour will be culled for showing on the cable network that night . But after 45 minutes on the air with Stern it seemed an eternity there still remained some confusion . The E ! series might be called `` The Howard Stern Show With Pictures '' or `` The Howard Stern Radio Show on Television '' or even `` Howard Stern on the Air . '' There 's no telling . It might debut June 13 . Then again , the launch date may be June 20 . No one is quite sure . Stern and sidekick Robin Quivers at least were honest about what the E ! deal entailed : `` We get to do television without any extra work , '' Quivers said . `` And doing it on a major network is too easy , '' Stern quipped . `` I wanted the challenge of E ! , where nobody can see us . '' He tried to make a serious case about being persecuted by the Federal Communications Commission . He tried to explain why he couldn't come to terms with Fox for a late-night talk show . He tried to describe how the film version of his best-seller `` Private Parts '' would make him a movie star . He tried to find out my bra size . After it was over , with nothing terribly personal revealed and Stern respectfully admitting that I had always been fair to him , I breathed a sigh of relief . I even began to think I might have managed to emerge from the experience with some dignity intact . My peace of mind was shattered when I got to the office and heard the first message on my voice mail : A representative of the 509th squadron of the Air Force , stationed in Lakeland , Fla. , said he and some 50 other guys had heard me on the show and wanted to know if I could send them an 8-by-10 glossy . Rush Limbaugh would never have put me through this . At 8:10 p.m. on Feb. 17 , 1944 , a balding , 32-year-old Spaniard had a radioman transmit a coded message from England to a German intelligence center in Madrid . The message reported that `` there is no concentration '' of Allied troops along Britain 's southern coast . The Germans believed that the Spaniard , Juan Pujol Garcia , was their best spy in Britain , but he was in fact a double agent : an anti-fascist working for British intelligence , who code named him GARBO . The radiogram marked the beginning of his involvement in the Allies ' deception plan for D-Day the most extensive , sophisticated and successful program of military trickery of all time . The plan had several angles , but a basic one was to make the Germans think that the landing in Normandy was a feint to draw German forces from the real onslaught , which would come later and in the Pas-de-Calais , opposite the white cliffs of Dover . This location seemed logical to the orthodox military thinkers of Germany . Because the Pas-de-Calais was closer to Britain than Normandy was , ships could transport more troops to it more quickly and airplanes could patrol it longer . Moreover , it was closer to Germany 's industrial heartland , the Ruhr . To confirm to the Germans that the main assault would take place in the Pas-de-Calais , Allied bombers struck rail lines and military installations there more heavily than around Normandy . GARBO and other double agents reported that troops were building up in the area of England close to the Pas-de-Calais ; though they exaggerated , they included some factual details to maintain their credibility . Dummy tanks of inflatable rubber , left out for German aerial reconnaissance to spot , added to the impression . The deception team had to make the Germans think the Allies had enough troops to carry out both a fake landing and a real one . So it invented imaginary divisions . One of these was the U.S. 55th Infantry . American deception officers had the Army 's Institute of Heraldry devise an insignia of a double pentagon a blue one with a yellow one inside . Then one of the double agents in Britain reported seeing this badge . Within weeks German intelligence was reporting the non-existent division as stationed in Scotland . `` Information '' sent over other controlled channels let the Germans think one source was confirming another when , in fact , both resulted from a carefully coordinated program . For example , the Allies knew the Germans listened to Allied radio messages . So the signal corps transmitted messages to and from fake units . Thus the German intercept post at Euskirchen `` discovered '' the U.S. 49th and 59th Infantry Divisions . Neither existed . ( Begin optional trim ) To command these imaginary forces , the Allies created the imaginary First U.S. . Army Group , or FUSAG , and the equally imaginary American 14th Army . They gave FUSAG credibility by letting it be known that it would be led by one of the most glamorous of Allied generals , George S. Patton. GARBO passed some of this information , and soon FUSAG appeared on German situation maps . All these tricks together convinced the Germans a week before the invasion , when the Allies had 47 divisions in Britain , that 79 were there more than enough to mount both a diversionary landing and a real one . ( End optional trim ) Not all the credit for this success must go to the deception planners . The Allied cryptographers were reading top-level German codes while the Germans were unable to read Allied messages . Allied air defenses were so strong that the Germans could not obtain comprehensive long-range photo reconnaissance to see that landing craft were concentrating for a Normandy invasion . Every spy that the Germans sent to Britain was captured , leaving the field clear for double agents . Britain was separated from the enemy by 20 miles of water , making combat observation , such as often undid Soviet deceptions on the eastern front , impossible . Perhaps most important was the German preconception that the attack would come in the Pas-de-Calais . But it was largely the deception planners , among them the London Controlling Section and the Double-Cross , or XX , or Twenty , Committee , that orchestrated this vast , intricate and enormously successful trick . On the sixth of June , when the Allies landed on the beaches of Normandy , the defenders were weaker than they might have been because the German 15th Army and associated reserves were held in the Pas-de-Calais . Two days later , GARBO , who had further solidified his reputation among the Germans as their best spy by radioing a message announcing the invasion timed to arrive too late for the Germans to do anything about it said that `` the present attack .. . is diversionary . '' The Germans believed him , as they had believed all the `` evidence '' the Allies had placed at their disposal . So they did not send forces to Normandy from the Pas-de-Calais , and the Allies lodged themselves on the continent , beginning the mighty endeavor that was to liberate Europe . With all the drums and banners and selected film footage , perhaps Americans can be forgiven for embracing the 50th anniversary of D-Day in the belief that success was inevitable . After all , we outnumbered them . We outgunned them . And God was on our side . But it wasn't that simple . It may seem unthinkable in the heady red , white and blue haze of celebration and remembrance , but it could have gone the other way . Not everyone was confident of success 50 years ago , not even the military leaders who planned the operation . The commander of the invasion forces , Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower , prepared this message and carried it with him until a month after the invasion : `` Our landings in the Cherbourg-Havre area have failed to gain a satisfactory foothold and I have withdrawn the troops . My decision to attack at this time and place was based upon the best information available . The troops , the air and the navy did all that bravery and devotion to duty could do . If any blame or fault attaches to the attempt , it is mine alone . '' Winston Churchill , who was never enthusiastic about the invasion , said to Eisenhower early in 1944 , `` When I think of the beaches of Normandy choked with the flower of American and British youth .. . I have my doubts .. . I have my doubts . '' If the enterprise had failed , the villains would have remained the same , but there might have been different heroes and different political maps . Herewith , history tampered with and a vision of what might have happened if Germany had prevailed on June 6 , 1944 . -0- The people at home are growing impatient . After 2 years of war , the Allies are still nibbling at the edges . But we know we can win with one swift go-for-broke punch . And so we 've crammed Britain with 2 million men and hundreds of thousands of vehicles and aircraft and we wait for good weather . A meteorologist has predicted 36 hours of skies clear enough to admit warplanes into France to prepare the way . But bad weather sneaks up on you . Eisenhower is doubtful . He asks British Field Marshal Bernard Law Montgomery what he thinks . `` Go , '' says Monty . And so they go . The armada sails but the skies fail to clear . The aerial bombardment is ineffective . Ships bob like corks on the churning English Channel . Flat-bottomed landing craft are seesawed by the waves . And on the heights in the distance , the seasick invaders can see deadly orange and rose-red flashes blurring through the fog . The whole catalog of German artillery , from delicate quad-mounted anti-aircraft guns to infamous 88s , has been rushed to the Normandy beaches . The defenders , secure on the heights , fire like marksmen at a shooting gallery , blasting landing craft on the downswing , chopping up American infantrymen as they stumble out of landing craft into churning waves and exploding mines . Tanks rumble into position , their guns adding to the carnage . Lt. Gen. Omar Bradley commands the U.S. forces from a warship . He can't see anything from the rain-whipped bridge , but he hears the desperate messages radioed from Omaha Beach by soldiers who have made it onto the shingle alive . Bradley willn't allow any more GIs to be slaughtered . They must turn back . A diversion is impossible . Montgomery agrees . German tanks and artillery are battering the Allied troops on all the Normandy beaches . Inland , 18,000 airborne and glider troops are cut off . Despite the wea ther , the dependable C-47s make it well beyond the Channel coast . But now those troopers are lost , dropped far from their assigned drop zones because of the stormy skies . The Germans have clapped the stranded troops behind barbed wire within two weeks . -0- `` Once defeated , the enemy will never try to invade again . Quite apart from their heavy losses , they would need months to organize a fresh attempt , '' Adolf Hitler had told a meeting of his generals at Berchtesgaden weeks before . And now the Fuhrer is quick to take credit for the victory . Once again , the madman tells his generals , history has endorsed his military genius . Reich minister of information Josef Goebbels smirks with satisfaction . But the victory will be short-lived . And it will be costly because it will prolong the war . Another invasion is inevitable . The Allies know the next invasion could be costlier than the first . Meanwhile , the Soviets are rumbling west . If they take France , a clash with the Western Allies is inevitable . What if Berlin were taken out in a single bombing raid with the new , untried atomic bomb ? But Germany is protected by too many hostages , tens of thousands of Allied prisoners of war , hundreds of thousands of slave laborers and an untold number of concentration-camp inmates . No , it would be a political disaster . To Josef Stalin , the failed invasion is a dream come true . Hitler has been forced to divert precious resources westward and the British and Americans have been deprived of a foothold on the continent . Perhaps they will nurse their wounds long enough to permit the Soviet juggernaut to roll to the Atlantic . And then perhaps , a Marxist Europe . Virtually the entire resistance movement in France is Communist . Indeed , orders are transmitted from Moscow to the French Communists to suspend anti-Nazi activities so as to maintain a status quo until further notice . The Gestapo is mystified but relieved . Eisenhower is sent home to take a staff position in Washington . He retires and with his wife , Mamie , takes up obscure residence in Abilene , Kan . He is replaced at invasion headquarters in London by a reluctant Gen. George C. Marshall , who , a few months before , would have killed to get the job . Churchill 's worst nightmare has come true . A hysterical Field Marshal Montgomery is near collapse and goes on a prolonged leave . Bradley remains , under a cloud , in a subsidiary command position . Only Gen. George S. Patton is left to head the American ground troops . Stalin shudders . Patton is no leftist . A Stalinist France seems less attainable . Would it be worth a new war ? Patton and Churchill would welcome the excuse . And could Soviet forces hope to win so far from home ? Stalin will compromise for greater Soviet hegemony . -0- The second invasion is launched in unseasonably fine September weather during a week of almost cloudless skies . Casualties are still heavy . To President Franklin D. Roosevelt 's horror , Patton goes ashore with the troops in a landing craft and , to the general 's delight , is slightly but visibly wounded . The troops clear the beach and drive back the Nazis within 24 hours . And within months , the war in Europe ends .. . in a fictitious but plausible way . Could Germany have won ? There was practically no possibility of that even if D-Day had failed . A year before , German forces had been demolished at Stalingrad and Hitler 's Afrika Korps had been defeated at Tunisia . And finally , there was too much Soviet land and too many Soviet soldiers . Not even fiction could reasonably give Germany a final victory . In the spring of 1943 , Nazi troops were ordered to evacuate all Jews from the Warsaw ghetto where they had been forced to live , and put them on cattle cars headed for the death camps . A few hundred Jews , practically unarmed and hopelessly outnumbered , fought back . `` Resistance , '' by Israel Gutman , is the dramatic story of the Warsaw ghetto from its creation to its awful , bloody end . This is difficult , emotional material , and my experience of it changed while I was reading the book . Until the uprising begins , well over halfway through the book , one may feel hopelessly depressed and even sick . Nearly 500,000 people were packed into a few square blocks where they were starved , beaten and worked to within an inch of their lives . Diseases broke out , babies died in the street ( the suffering of children is the hardest part to read ) yet no one fought back until it was obvious the Nazis intended to kill them all . At that point , `` Resistance '' becomes oddly exhilarating . `` The entire ghetto was ablaze . Thousands of people near physical and mental collapse virtually on the verge of madness not only maintained this way of life , but viewed its disappearance as a great catastrophe ... . Nazis called ( for the Jews ) to surrender , and the inhabitants responded with bullets . '' There is enormous power in choosing your own death , and the hundreds of Jews who resisted , many of them teen-agers , grabbed that choice with a courage that shows the very best of what the human spirit has to offer. -0- `` BROTHER SAM : The Short Spectacular Life of Sam Kinison , '' by Bill Kinison with Steve Delsohn ( Morrow , $ 22 , 315 pp . ) Not everyone liked comedian Sam Kinison 's brand of screaming , irreverent humor , but as a performer he was , without question , a true American original . `` Brother Sam , '' written by his older brother and manager , Bill Kinison , sets out to illuminate the man behind the agonized yell . Sam Kinison was a high school dropout , a traveling Pentecostal-style preacher ( along with his father and brother ) and a rebel . His comedy was connected to his rage by an unbroken line that made him a millionaire and simultaneously alienated much of the entertainment industry . He died in a car crash in 1992 . This book 's material , though compelling , feels so close to Bill Kinison 's heart that it 's almost impossible to see Sam . Instead we see Bill 's Sam who is often tragic , funny , original and sharp , but not , one suspects , the same man that would have emerged if this book had been written by another person . Bill Kinison raised co-dependency to new heights , even accepting a drug sentence for Sam and attending five months of court-mandated rehab in his place . In spite of being both too close and not close enough , `` Brother Sam '' is a completely engaging biography . Bill Kinison spends exactly the right amount of time on each chapter of Sam 's life , and although we hunger for input from other human sources , particularly his third wife , Malika , the book still manages to quote magazine articles and pieces of Sam 's routines very effectively. -0- `` REVIVING OPHELIA : Saving the Selves of Adolescent Girls , '' by Mary Pipher ( Putnam , $ 23.95 , 320 pp . ) According to clinical psychologist Mary Pipher , adolescent girls are in terrible trouble . Teen-age pregnancy , drug abuse , eating disorders , self mutilation and depression are all on the rise . The cause of this , Pipher contends , is to be found in today 's society where `` ( Girls are ) caught in myriad double binds : achieve , but not too much ; be polite , but be yourself , be feminine and adult ... . They are trained to be what the culture wants of its young women , not what they themselves want to become . '' In `` Reviving Ophelia , '' Pipher shines high-beam headlights on the world of teen-age girls by giving us case studies of adolescents from every possible racial and socio-economic background . The book is an articulate plea for better parenting , less violence and for all of us to `` .. . work for a culture in which the incisive intellect , the willing hands and the happy heart are beloved . '' It 's difficult to fault such a profoundly well-intentioned piece of work . Not only do Pipher 's claims make sense , but her genuine kindness shows on every page . However , there are problems . Too many case studies go by too quickly , which saps much of their power . It might have been more effective to have fewer stories so that we could feel these young women as real people rather than illustrations of Pipher 's points . Another disturbing trait is occasional statements such as , `` One forth of all women are raped . '' Say what ? Where did this statistic originate ? How is rape being defined ? Are these reported ? How are unreported rapes calculated ? `` Reviving Ophelia '' is an important book , which , one hopes , will find its way to the right audience. -0- `` 9 Highland Road , '' by Michael Winerip ( Pantheon , $ 24 , 464 pp . ) Journalist Michael Winerip 's , book , `` 9 Highland Road , '' an account of life in a group home for the mentally ill over a three-year period , is , in many ways , similar to a fairly intelligent nighttime soap . This has both advantages and drawbacks . On the plus side , there 's an interesting , diverse cast , each member dealing with his or her own issues . The world of mental illness ( like the world of doctors , lawyers or cops ) is shown in a captivating way . There 's a satisfying sense of closure . On the other hand , as in even a high-quality television drama , everything feels a bit sanitized . Relationships are complex enough to make you think , but only for a few minutes . Characters seem two- and three-quarters dimensional . That is not to say there isn't a great deal to be learned here . Much of `` 9 Highland Road , '' is truly compelling without ever being exploitative . In particular , the chapters dealing with one resident 's multiple personality disorder are unforgettable . `` Night after night the personality that caused the most turmoil by far was the five year old Scared One . Something awful had happened to Julie at five . Di , ( another personality ) who was four , effervescent and well adjusted , absolutely refused to celebrate her birthday . She was adamant about not turning five . '' Winerip 's writing is smooth and pleasant although somewhat lacking in physical detail. `` 9 Highland Road '' may either satisfy or frustrate depending on your expectations . This is a book that will stick to your ribs , but not your psyche . A journalist of Croatian descent who lives in Zagreb , Drakulic recounts the experiences of individuals who have endured and those who have perpetrated the horrors racking the former Yugoslavia . A young soldier recalls shooting someone for the first time ; a student plots the disfranchisement of a benefactor ; an old friend becomes a refugee . Drakulic decries the perverse mentality that strips friends , lovers and neighbors of their individuality and reduces them to anonymous ethnic statistics : `` The irrational that dwells in each of us is being unleashed from its chain and nobody can control it anymore .. . because the demons in us have already made people perceive themselves as nothing but parts of the national being. .. . If there is any future at all , I am afraid of the time to come . '' -0- `` A Big Storm Knocked it Over , '' by Laurie Colwin ( HarperPerennial , $ 12 , 259 pp . ) . The last novel by a talented writer who died prematurely in 1992 , `` Storm '' focuses on a young woman in New York City who observes the messy state of the families she knows and despairs of making her own marriage work . Jane Louise Parker loves her husband and enjoys her work as a graphic designer , but she 's haunted by the fear that her happiness will crumble , despite her efforts to preserve it . The honest vulnerability of the characters sets Colwin 's novel apart from the vapid tales of Manhattan neurotics who decry their angst in trendy clubs and chic boutiques . -0- `` Sweet & Sour , '' by Andrew A . Rooney ( Berkeley , $ 5.99 ; 305 pp . ) . There 's something patently false about an Emmy-winning television commentator posing as a Regular Guy who loses odd socks in the dryer and balks at paying $ 27 for a tie . Despite his ingenuous stance , Rooney is not a dispenser of folk wisdom , but of folksy wisdom , the sort of down-home corn American audiences savor : The fruit in stores isn't as good as it used to be ; self-service hasn't made gas cheaper and significantly , in light of past controversies `` I 'm tired of fighting my prejudices . I 'm going to relax and enjoy them . '' -0- `` ZEN SPEAKS : Shouts of Nothingness , '' by Tsai Chih Chung , translated from the Chinese by Brian Bruya ( Anchor : $ 10.95 , 159 pp. , illustrated , paperback original ) . Taiwanese cartoonist Tsai Chih Chung continues his exploration of Asian philosophy in this sly introduction to Zen Buddhism . The simple line drawings of a chubby , bulbous-nosed monk ( reminiscent of the figures in old comic scrolls ) offer parables and puzzles that emphasize some of the key tenants of Zen belief : The folly of seeking Enlightenment outside oneself , the error of confusing words with meanings , etc . More than 18 million of Tsai 's books have been sold in 12 languages : `` Zen Speaks '' is the second to appear in English . -0- `` I HAD A FATHER : A Post-Modern Autobiography , '' by Clark Blaise ( Addison-Wesley , $ 12 , 204 pp . ) . As a child , Blaise had to endure his father 's womanizing , shady dealings and pathological lies . He attempts to come to grips with his pain in these fragmented recollections of a search for identity that lead to an ancestral home in rural Quebec and provided insights into his own interracial marriage . Unfortunately , the author 's moments of genuine insight get buried in rambling attempts to mythologize his condition . -0- `` Seasons of the Coyote , '' edited by Philip L. Harrison ( HarperCollins West , $ 24.95 , 114 pp. , paperback original ) . Intelligent , adaptable and persistent , the coyote inhabits virtually every corner of North America , despite ill-advised campaigns to exterminate it . The brief essays in this attractive volume extol the cleverness and scroungy beauty of the coyote and recap the important place it occupies in Amerindian mythologies . The color pictures are striking and exceptionally crisp , but the decision to print the text on shaded paper makes the book hard to read . -0- `` Peterson First Guide to Urban Wildlife , '' written and illustrated by Sarah B . Landry ( Houghton Mifflin , $ 4.95 , 128 pp. , paperback original ) . Landry takes an unusual approach in the latest entry in this popular series , introducing the various types of life on earth ( animals , plants , viruses , bacteria , fungi , protoctists ) . Building from this basic information , she introduces some of the creatures that have adapted to life in American cities , both the familiar ( rabbits , skunks , frogs , ants ) and the less known ( minks , Luna moths , biting mites ) . ABC News ' David Brinkley on Thursday night 's `` PrimeTime Live '' will report on a World War II tragedy of which he might have been a part if not for a misdiagnosis of his health by U.S. . Army doctors . `` Knowing the draft was coming , I joined the Army in 1940 , thinking I would get in , serve awhile and get out , '' he recalled in an interview from Normandy , France , Wednesday . He was stationed near his hometown of Wilmington , N.C. , with other men from the area , as an infantry rifle company 's supply sergeant . He got the job because , as a newspaper reporter when he was a civilian , he was the only man in the unit who could type . `` Early in 1941 , the Army medics gave me an honorable discharge , insisting I had a kidney ailment , '' he said , `` but there was never anything wrong with my kidneys , then or now . '' At any rate , he returned to work at the local paper , and his buddies ' Company I ranks were swelled by draftees in the wartime buildup . It was only years later that Brinkley learned that Company I had been pulverized by the U.S. . Army Air Corps , which failed to bomb where Gen. Omar Bradley had ordered . `` There were very few survivors , '' said Brinkley , `` and we got them together for this report . One sergeant I worked for in the unit still calls me his ` secretary . ' At my age , I 've begun to wonder how many Americans there are left who still really remember how the war affected them . '' A check of census bureau figures shows that only a little more than a fourth of all living Americans were born by D-Day 50 years ago . -0- Bryant Gumbel will anchor NBC 's `` Today '' from Normandy Friday , and Tom Brokaw will anchor Friday 's `` NBC Nightly News '' from Portsmouth , England , where Queen Elizabeth is to officiate during British memorials . ABC 's Peter Jennings is anchoring `` World News Tonight '' from London before moving on to Normandy . -0- `` CBS Evening News '' co-anchors Dan Rather and Connie Chung and `` CBS This Morning '' co-anchors Harry Smith and Paula Zahn are putting on their shows ( including Chung 's `` Eye to Eye '' Thursday night ) from Los Angeles through Friday night and mixing it up with CBS affiliate executives at the network 's annual affiliates meeting . They 're there as CBS tries to put on a good face and prevent further affiliate erosion on the heels of Fox 's grab of NFL football from CBS and of eight big-city CBS affiliates . -0- Lessons for American society today are behind the scheduling of a June 15 `` CBS Reports : When America Trembled Murrow/McCarthy . '' The special will look at the clash between CBS News ' Ed Murrow , the nation 's pre-eminent journalist in the 1950s , and Sen. Joe McCarthy , who gained international notoriety by manipulating America 's fear of communism . Murrow 's famous `` See It Now '' broadcast , which demolished McCarthy 's tactics but also ultimately destroyed Murrow , will be put in the context of the time in which it aired . Dan Rather will anchor the broadcast , which will explore what freedom of the press allows , what defines journalistic integrity and how political manipulation of the press can be limited . -0- ABC 's hourlong `` Jacqui 's Dilemma '' Thursday night originally was to have been an `` Afterschool Special , '' but the network 's executives decided the program was something parents should have a chance to watch with their children . The broadcast deals with the emotional , social and economic perils a teen-age girl ( Jacqui ) faces when she unexpectedly becomes pregnant . Interspersed throughout the drama are interviews with parents , educators , therapists , clergy , adoption-service counselors , social workers , teen-age parents and physicians . U.S. Surgeon General Dr. Joycelyn Elders is among those who appear . Melissa Thompson stars as Jacqui . WASHINGTON Chinese smuggling organizations have vastly expanded their elaborate networks of way stations around the world and are now capable of transporting tens of thousands of people to the United States , according to a new intelligence assessment that has caused U.S. officials to rethink their approach to illegal immigration from China . For more than a year , public attention and law-enforcement efforts have focused on shiploads of Chinese emigres arriving on U.S. shores . But officials say they face a larger and more-difficult challenge from the rapid growth of overseas smuggling networks that transport their human cargo by many different means and directions . Such networks have existed for several years , yet according to the assessment more people are using them than ever before and the routes are more complex . Moreover , several developments have made this trade more difficult to combat . The most important and most troubling aspect of the new assessment , senior officials said , is the finding that thousands of people already have left China en route to the United States and are being held by smugglers in a variety of locations while transportation and false documents are arranged for them . `` Over the last six months , we have become aware of a huge human warehousing operation that holds tens of thousands of aliens at various points along the pipeline , often for months at a time , '' a senior foreign-policy official said . The relaxation of border and immigration controls in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union has produced a proliferation of new routes , with Moscow recently emerging as a major hub for Chinese smuggling operations , a senior official said . An estimated 60,000 Chinese immigrants live illegally in Moscow , according to a still-classified report summarizing the recent intelligence findings . `` Many are believed to be in Moscow awaiting onward travel to the U.S. , '' the report states . Russian organized-crime groups have formed a formidable alliance with the Chinese gangs known as `` snakeheads '' in the lucrative human trade , the report said . Travel along these smuggling networks typically involves a circuitous trip with several stops along the way , and for some the trip from Fujian Province , the principal departure point , to New York , the major destination , can take two years or more , U.S. officials said . `` One documented air route used by alien smugglers originated in Bangkok , went to New Delhi or Karachi , on to Nairobi or Johannesburg , and then to Buenos Aires or Rio de Janeiro . It then went onward to Madrid , Barcelona , and London and finally terminated in New York City , '' the intelligence report noted . Most of the smugglers ' clients leave China legally , a senior Clinton administration official said . They readily acquire passports and often have legitimate visas for their first stop outside China , before starting their illegal voyage to the United States . Two U.S. delegations have gone to China in the past six months to press for cooperation in fighting the ship traffic , but U.S. officials said it is much harder to ask for help restraining emigres who leave China legally but arrive here as unlawful immigrants . `` As a practical matter it is easier to patrol a coastline looking for freighters loaded with people than to screen airline or rail traffic for people who obtained visas with questionable documents , '' an official said . But there is a diplomatic problem as well . The United States has pressed China to loosen travel controls as a matter of longstanding human-rights policy . Progress in this area was cited by President Clinton last Thursday when he announced his decision to renew China 's most-favored nation trade status . In making the new assessment known , officials of several agencies emphasized their hope that it would provide added justification for a package of anti-smuggling measures that were proposed by Clinton last summer but have not been enacted . The assessment also will be used to seek greater cooperation from several countries around the world in combating immigrant smuggling . The government has no ready estimates of the amount of smuggling traffic , but officials see clear signs that the numbers are rising . They note that more than 14,300 Chinese nationals applied for political asylum last year four times the number from the year before . Smugglers shift routes frequently , depending on the availability of safe houses and false documents as well as on pressures applied by law-enforcement agencies , the officials said . While some of the illegal immigrants fly directly into the United States and seek asylum on arrival , two other routes into the country appear to be carrying heavy traffic . In April , U.S. immigration officials apprehended three separate groups involving 86 Chinese smuggled into Puerto Rico by sea from the Dominican Republic . Once in Puerto Rico , they can fly to the U.S. mainland without passing through immigration controls . The other favored route is to go by air or ship to somewhere in Mexico or Central America and then travel north across the border illegally , U.S. officials said . The recent indictment of an alleged snakehead leader in New York indicates how substantial numbers of people are transported across the border , the officials said . The indictment charged that Chen Guo Ping had helped arrange the transport of about 176 illegal Chinese immigrants by ship to Mexico and then across the border . The indictment alleged that after arriving in New York City , Chen 's gang , the White Tigers , held the immigrants in safe houses until fees of about $ 30,000 each had been paid on their behalf . Chen has denied the charges . The discovery that large numbers of Chinese use these complex routes has obliged U.S. officials to reassess their view of the marine traffic that received so much attention last year after several incidents , including the shipwreck of the Golden Venture on a New York City beach with more than 300 immigrants aboard . `` The pipelines and way stations appear to have been in place for several years , '' one official said , `` and the smugglers seem to have been looking for a more-profitable , cost-effective means of transport when they began to bring big loads of people directly to the United States . '' U.S. officials believe they were able to significantly deter the use of ships by arresting some top snakehead leaders , intercepting several ships and winning the cooperation of the Chinese government . But they caution that smugglers could turn again to ships in the future if other routes are blocked . Proclaiming that `` today we send a strong and clear message , '' Clinton called congressional leaders to the White House last July 27 to unveil a package of measures designed to combat such smuggling . Doubled prison sentences , expanded use of wiretaps , application of racketeering statutes , more aggressive asset seizures and the quick exclusion of emigres who arrive without proper documentation were all part of the message . So far , none of those measures has cleared a full committee in either house of Congress and there appears to be little prospect for any action this year . A crowded agenda has diverted attention from the issue on Capitol Hill , and the administration has shifted the focus of its immigration initiatives to the Mexican border , which is this year 's hot topic because of agitation in California . Making the case for the measures , a senior law-enforcement official said , `` People have gotten a false sense of security about Chinese alien smuggling , and it has dropped off the political radar screen , but in the meantime the problem is getting bigger . '' WASHINGTON Only one ship is known to have landed illegal immigrants directly in the continental United States since the Golden Venture incident last June a vessel that dropped about 110 people onto the Virginia coast in March . More than 60 of the passengers were discovered during a raid on a Prince George 's County ( Md. ) safe house April 5 . WASHINGTON Would a mother on welfare have another baby for $ 60 a month ? Would she have fewer babies if the extra welfare benefits were not there ? The questions , and the passion they inspire , swirl at the center of what has become the most divisive debate in the Clinton administration 's effort to reform the nation 's welfare programs . The issue is whether women who are on welfare should be denied additional benefits if they have more babies , a policy Clinton said last week the states could adopt under his proposal . The power of this debate over `` family caps '' springs from deep-seated emotions : alarm at dramatic increases in the number of American babies born to single mothers , anger from a populace that perceives a failed welfare system , and conviction among many political leaders that they can drive down out-of-wedlock birth rates by rewriting the welfare rules . That acceptance of a causal link between welfare benefits and birth rates has become so prominent that it is driving Republican legislation and , to some extent , has influenced the proposal Clinton is preparing . What would seem remarkable is that this argument contradicts the work of social scientists who have studied the issue , including some who are now in the Clinton administration . That point , however , seems to have been lost in the debate . `` Welfare enables illegitimacy . It pays for illegitimacy , '' said Rep. Tom DeLay , Texas , co-chair of a Republican group that drafted legislation banning assistance for unmarried teenagers who bear children . `` It 's creating fatherless boys . That encourages violence , predatory sex , total anarchy within that community . It has created a whole culture of dependent people that is destroying the fabric of families .. . mostly in the inner city . '' Republicans like DeLay say that a prime motive in writing their welfare reform bills is to reduce those birth rates . And now the issue has become even more volatile than another reform debate , whether and how to place time limits on welfare benefits . News last week that Clinton would allow `` family caps , '' brought together a broad and unlikely coalition of feminist groups and abortion opponents who vowedto take the issue to court . They said such a `` child exclusion '' would encourage abortions , punish children and discriminate against welfare mothers . Administration officials said the decision was based on the president 's belief , as a former governor , that states should be allowed great flexibility . But even as the administration has come to believe that the inclusion of family caps in the president 's needed to gain support in Congress , deep divisions remain over whether they would be effective , especially in changing the behavior of teenagers . The political climate that has given priority to family caps seems to stem from a growing public alarm over the steady increase in the number of babies born out of wedlock : 1.2 million babies in 1991 , the equivalent of 30 percent of all births . Among African Americans , more than two-thirds of babies are born out of wedlock . While there is disagreement over whether there is a moral argument to be made against out-of-wedlock births and how to prevent them , there is widespread acknowledgment that children born in such circumstances are more likely to be poor , have a harder time in school and face other obstacles . `` My proposition is that illegitimacy is the single most important social problem of our time more important than crime , drugs , poverty illiteracy , welfare or homelessness , because it drives everything else , '' conservative scholar Charles Murray wrote in a Wall Street Journal editorial page article last year . Murray called for an end to Aid to Families with Dependent Children , the government 's largest welfare program , as a way of stemming the problem . Murray , a fellow at the American Enterprise Institute , has led the argument that welfare policy during the past 30 years has produced increased dependency and out-of-wedlock births . Advocates of this theory cite the growth in the nation 's welfare program and the coinciding rise in illegitimacy . Mark Robert Rank , author of the recent book , `` Living on the Edge : The Realities of Welfare in America , '' has countered Murray 's argument . `` There 's virtually no research evidence which supports the idea that women on welfare are somehow being encouraged to have more children in order to receive more public assistance money , '' he said at a recent Capitol Hill forum . Rank , who teaches sociology at Washington University in St. Louis , said his study of nearly 3,000 Wisconsin welfare recipients showed that women on welfare had lower birth rates than women in the general population . And in his interviews with welfare recipients , Rank said , the mothers laughed at the notion that they would have another baby for the extra benefits , which typically amount to $ 57 to $ 64 a month . In New Jersey , one of handful of a states that has received federal permission to adopt family caps , births to mothers on welfare have gone down . But according to the Center for Law and Social Policy in Washington , it is not clear to what extent the figures reflect underreporting of births or can be attributed to factors other than the new policy . William A . Galston , a domestic adviser to the president , cited economist Robert Moffitt 's review of the scientific literature . `` The scholarly consensus is that , at most , the welfare system might be responsible for 15 percent of the problem , '' Galston said in an interview . Health and Human Services Assistant Secretary David T. Ellwood , writing in his 1988 book , `` Poor Support : Poverty in the American Family , '' laid out several arguments disputing claims that welfare has caused changes in the family structure by giving benefits to single parents . `` ( N ) o highly regarded study has indicated that welfare has played more than a minor role in the changing patterns of families overall , '' he wrote . He also pointed out that even as welfare benefits to individuals were cut in the 1970s , and the value of benefits failed to keep pace with inflation , single-parent families continued to increase . In addition , he said , the highest percentages of children in female-headed families lived in states with the lowest benefits . Both of these facts , he wrote , contradicted those who argue that welfare is the villain in rising single-parenthood . But late last week , after Clinton 's decision on family caps became public , administration officials tried to put the best face on what would appear to be a contradiction of their previous research . Ellwood and Mary Jo Bane , another assistant secretary at HHS who has also conducted extensive research on welfare and poverty , `` are comfortable with the plan as written , '' said an agency official , pointing to the possibility that family caps may `` send a signal '' that births out of wedlock should be avoided . Even as the administration 's proposal was alienating dozens of civil rights and religious organizations , it was falling far short of pleasing Republicans . Clinton 's `` incremental '' proposals are not `` ending welfare as we know it , '' as the president promised during the 1992 campaign , said Rep. James M . Talent , R-Mo. , sponsor of a bill that would deny benefits to unmarried mothers under age 21 and give the savings to states for programs to care for the children , including group homes and orphanages . `` What the welfare system has said for 25 years is that you can form a household and we will offer you benefits from $ 8,000 to $ 15,000 a year if you have a child , don't marry and don't get a job , '' said Talent . `` A lot of young people take that bait . '' PORT-AU-PRINCE , Haiti The Clinton administration is planning a total ban on air traffic , including passenger service , between Haiti and the United States , as well as a cutoff of all financial transactions with the Caribbean nation , diplomatic and Haitian officials say . The actions , described by a U.S. official `` as the next logical step , '' augment already stringent international economic and financial sanctions that have stopped all but commercial passenger air traffic . President Clinton also reportedly has ordered other steps aimed at punishing civilian backers of Haiti 's military rulers . The order affecting air and financial services will come this month , perhaps within two weeks , one U.S. official said . He said several days ' notice will be given before the flight cutoff to allow people especially Americans to leave or return to Haiti . Embassy sources estimate there are 1,000 Americans in Haiti and 7,000 others holding U.S. passports . U.S. officials said the latest bans are aimed at the wealthy civilian supporters of Haiti 's military rulers , who took power in September 1991 , with the violent overthrow of Jean-Bertrand Aristide , this nation 's first modern , democratically elected president . They said the cuts in air traffic and financial transactions will be the last efforts by the White House to persuade the military to give up power or face American military intervention . `` If this doesn't show them that we are serious , then I guess only Marines at the airport will do it , '' said an American source in a telephone interview from Washington . The tightening of the sanctions is part of an apparent three-step U.S. approach to reduce the privileges of the civilian elite ; squeeze the general population with the aim of causing serious public discontent ; and openly threaten military action . As a measure of the heightened tension here over the possibility of U.S. military action , the United Nations and other international organizations later this week are expected to order dependents of their officials and employees to leave Haiti as soon as possible . One U.N. . The French Embassy also is preparing to send dependents out of the country and is closing its school early . U.S. diplomats here said a similar American move `` is always under consideration . But not yet . There is nothing in the works . '' The American move to sever air and financial links will come in an executive order from Clinton . It will apply only to flights between the United States and Haiti . But it will effectively isolate this tiny nation , because almost all international service in and out of Haiti connects through the United States ; there are only infrequent flights through Panama , France and Canada . ( Optional add end ) The end of air service will be little more than an inconvenience , not a hardship , for most Haitians , particularly the wealthy families who travel often for shopping , entertainment and business . But many of this nation 's elite take great pride in their access to American culture and commerce and see their ability to fly on a moment 's notice to Miami as their escape route , if and when life in Haiti becomes unbearable . `` You are going to see a scramble for the airport like you can't imagine , '' said a Haitian businessman . `` These people think they have a God-given right to go to Miami . Take that away from them and they 'll feel helpless . '' While the air ban will put some strains on individuals and families , the major impact of the president 's decision will come from the cutoff of financial transactions . As with the general sanctions , the pain from Clinton 's newest decision will be felt most by the poor and the middle class . It is likely to do little more than inconvenience the military and its civilian supporters . In fact , many sources said , it will even enrich them . `` This will prevent Haitians in the United States from sending money to their families , '' said a Haitian businessman . These payments , or remittances , amount to tens of millions of dollars yearly and are the only source of money for many Haitians , including the poor . One businessman observed of the transactions ban , `` It will cause a giant leap in the currency black market and make the gourde ( Haiti 's currency ) worthless . Anyone who has access to dollars will be rich . And who has the most access to dollars ? The military . They 'll continue to run the smuggling , drugs and all the other things . '' WASHINGTON The National Right to Life Committee and other anti-abortion groups Wednesday called for a boycott of products made by the company that developed RU-486 , the so-called abortion pill that is about to be tested for possible U.S. manufacture . `` We have not made this decision lightly , but feel morally compelled to hold these companies accountable , '' Wanda Franz , president of the National Right to Life Committee , said at a news conference . She said the coalition of anti-abortion organizations , which also includes the Southern Baptist Convention , will take action against Hoechst AG , the parent German company ; Rousell Uclaf , the French manufacturer of RU-486 ; and two American subsidiaries , Hoechst Celanese , a chemical company , and Hoechst Roussel , which manufactures pharmaceuticals . The threat of such a boycott by anti-abortion groups was considered responsible , in part , for Roussel Uclaf 's reluctance to bring the drug to the United States during the six years it has been available in France . The other major factor holding out the pill was opposition by the administration of former President Bush . The climate changed after the election of President Clinton , who regards himself as an abortion rights advocate . ( Begin optional trim ) Franz said her coalition considers the companies `` fully responsible , '' despite the French firm 's recent decision to give its U.S. patent rights for RU-486 to the non-profit Population Council , a reproductive research group based in New York . The council expects to find a U.S. manufacturer for the pill , and plans to begin human studies this fall that are expected to last about six months . The U.S. . Food and Drug Administration has pledged to move as quickly as possible to evaluate the research as soon as it is completed , and decide whether to license the drug . The pill removes the risk of surgery and could enable women to have abortions without going to abortion clinics , which have been the target of strong protests . Prescribed by doctors and taken in the first eight weeks of a pregnancy , the pill successfully induces abortions in 96 percent of the women who take it . Franz did not name the specific products under boycott , but said such a list would be forthcoming within the next several weeks . ( End optional trim ) Andrea Stine , a spokeswoman for Hoechst Celanese , called the boycott decision `` misdirected . '' Hoechst Celanese `` was not involved in the negotiations to bring RU-486 into this country , nor were we involved in the research , development or sales of the drug , '' she said . And Sandra Waldman , of the Population Council , said she doubted the boycott would have any impact on the process of getting RU-486 into the American marketplace . `` It 's not a new threat , '' she said . `` There 's been no lack of companies and organizations interested in this drug . In fact , dozens of companies have expressed interest in various aspects marketing , distribution , manufacture since last year , '' when the council first became involved in negotiations to sponsor the drug in this country . Franz also criticized Clinton , who has announced he intends to include abortion as a guaranteed medical benefit under his health reform proposals . She said that without the support of the Clinton administration , U.S. women would never have had access to the drug . UNITED NATIONS The United Nations ' main agency for economic development , despairing over the waste of almost a trillion dollars of peace dividend , set down sweeping proposals Wednesday including an international tax for expanding assistance to a third of the world in such `` abject poverty .. . that words simply fail to describe it . '' The proposals , to be taken up next year at the U.N. 's World Social Summit conference in Copenhagen , form the centerpiece of the U.N. . Development Program 's annual report on worldwide human development . The report , as always , includes the United Nations ' annual rankings of countries on a development index based on wealth , education and health . Canada , which had been second in the world last year , now ranks first , followed by Switzerland , Japan ( last year 's leader ) , Sweden and Norway . The United States , sixth-ranking last year , has fallen to eighth . The conference , a pet-project of Chilean President Patricio Alwyn that has won the endorsement of the United Nations , is expected to attract scores of heads of state and government , including President Clinton . Alwyn insists the summit is needed because the post-Cold War world while it has largely adopted democracy for its politics and the free-market for its economics has failed , so far , to come up with a philosophy to deal with its social problems . `` There is one golden and , I fear , fleeting opportunity to bring the rich and the poor together , to make the compacts and to forge the partnerships that are needed to achieve sustainable human development in all countries , north and south , and that is the social summit , '' James Gustave Speth , administrator of the U.N. agency , told a news conference in Washington . In the report , largely written by Mahbub Haq , former Pakistani minister of finance , the Development Program concludes that global military spending declined by $ 935 billion from 1987 until now . `` Unfortunately , '' the report says , `` this peace dividend has not been used to finance the world 's social agenda . '' The agency , the United Nations ' main engine for Third World development , acknowledges there has been considerable improvement in world development in the last years . `` While 70 percent of humanity survived in abysmal human conditions in 1960 .. . only 32 percent suffered such conditions in 1992 , '' it states . But the agency takes little solace in this . `` Despite all our technological breakthroughs , '' the report goes on , `` we still live in a world where a fifth of the developing world 's population goes hungry every night , a quarter lacks access to even a basic necessity like drinking water , and a third lives in a state of abject poverty . '' To deal with these problems , the U.N. agency proposes what it calls `` fundamental changes .. . in the present framework of development cooperation . '' Some of the most sweeping include : `` A serious search .. . for new sources of international funding that do not rely entirely on the fluctuating political will of the rich nations . '' The report notes some possibilities such as a global tax on the use of gasoline and other non-renewable energy sources and a small tax on transactions of speculators dealing in foreign exchange . A tax of $ 1 on every barrel of oil ( or its equivalent in coal ) would bring in $ 66 billion a year . Compensation by rich countries to poor countries for services like pollution control that benefit mankind and for damages caused by market barriers like restrictions on migration of labor . Allocation of 20 percent of the peace dividend in rich countries and 10 percent in poor countries to a new `` global human security fund '' that would pay for such projects as controlling drug trafficking , international terrorism and nuclear proliferation . Creation of an Economic Security Council to deal with issues like unemployment , poverty and food shortages in the same way the Security Council deals with threats to peace and security . ( Optional add end ) The U.N. . Development Program report stresses that wealth and human development do not always go hand in hand . Ecuador and the Congo , for example , each have Gross National Products of a little more than $ 1,000 a year . Yet because of its high life expectancy and literacy and its low infant mortality , Ecuador ranks 74th in the worldwide human development index , while the Congo ranks 123rd . The U.N. . Development Program , measuring the health of nations , also discusses a concept it calls human security . Under this concept , countries are in crisis if they measure poorly on indicators of food supply , jobs , human rights , military spending , sharing of wealth and ethnic conflict . Using these , the report names eight countries in crisis : Afghanistan , Angola , Haiti , Iraq , Mozambique , Myanmar , Sudan and Zaire . The report expresses great disappointment with the continued spending for arms in the Third World , despite the end of the Cold War . Citing figures over a period from 1988 to 1992 , the agency says that the five largest exporters of arms to the Third World were the five permanent members of the Security Council : Russia , the United States , France , China and Britain . The five largest importers of arms in the Third World during this period were : India , Saudi Arabia , Afghanistan , Turkey and Iraq . Although much gloom edged the pages of the report , the U.N. agency had positive news , as well . A number of countries have managed to increase their human development index markedly in the last three decades . The countries that increased their development the most were Malaysia , Botswana , South Korea , Thailand , Syria , Turkey , China , Portugal and Iran . WASHINGTON A highly decorated Army nurse who was thrown out of the military after declaring she was a lesbian was reinstated in the Washington State National Guard Wednesday by a federal judge who said the prohibition on gay service members is `` grounded solely in prejudice . '' Col. Margarethe Cammermeyer , who earned a Bronze Star in Vietnam , was discharged from military service in 1992 after 26 years in uniform because she acknowledged her homosexuality in a security-clearance interview . Her celebrity grew later that year when President Clinton , then campaigning for election , saluted her in a televised town meeting and vowed he would end the ban against homosexuals in the military . U.S. . District Judge Thomas Zilly 's summary judgment in favor of Cammermeyer was the latest in a succession of at least a half-dozen legal victories by gay service members over the past year . Zilly was ruling on the military 's old policy against homosexuals , not the `` don't ask , don't tell '' compromise that emerged after Clinton backed off his campaign pledge . But jubilant gay-rights advocates said the reasoning and uncompromising language of Zilly 's ruling adds momentum to their argument that the new policy also should be declared unconstitutional . `` The government has discriminated against Col. Cammermeyer solely on the basis of her status as a homosexual and has failed to demonstrate a rational basis for doing so , '' Zilly said , adding that , `` the rationales offered by the government to justify its exclusion of homosexual service members are grounded solely in prejudice . '' Cammermeyer , who was one of the highest-ranking officers ever to be thrown out of the service for homosexuality , struck a triumphant tone . `` It 's so powerful and so vindicating , not just of my own struggle but thousands of others , '' she said in a telephone interview from Seattle . Cammermeyer said she was not by temperament a crusader , but was thrust into the role `` by accident . '' She said she remains a believer in the military life and has tried to change the minds of people who have told her they despise the military because of its homosexual policies . `` It 's not the military that 's wrong , but policies within the system , '' she said . `` It 's been a wonderful career , and I 'm looking forward to finishing it . '' A spokesman for the Justice Department Wednesday declined to comment on Cammermeyer 's case . The government has appealed similar cases that it has lost at the District Court level and lawyers who have followed the Cammermeyer case said it is likely they will do the same in this instance . All sides agree that the gays-in-the-military controversy willn't be resolved until the Supreme Court weighs in . At least two cases pending in appeals courts are likely candidates to reach the high court . The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in California is weighing the case of sailor Keith Meinhold , who won a lower-court ruling saying the military 's exclusion of homosexuals was unconstitutional . The appeals court here , meanwhile , is reviewing the case of Joseph Steffan , who resigned under pressure from the U.S. . Naval Academy after admitting he was gay . A three-judge appeals panel initially ruled in Steffan 's favor . But the full appeals court vacated that decision and last month heard the case anew . Although Cammermeyer was ousted under the old policy , Zilly offered broad hints that his reasoning could also apply to the new policy . The new policy , which took effect last year , allows gay people to serve as long as they keep their sexual orientation to themselves and do not act upon it . Goernment lawyers , Zilly noted , cited a series of `` legislative findings '' reached by Congress as it was devising the new `` don't-ask , don't-tell' ' compromise last year . One of the findings declared that letting openly gay people serve `` would create an unacceptable risk to the high standards of morale , good order and discipline , and unit cohesion that are the essence of military capability . '' Zilly said such an argument was not valid if the reason for the decline in morale was simply that heterosexuals were prejudiced against homosexuals . Michael Himes , an attorney for Cammermeyer , said one of the noteworthy aspects of her case is that Zilly allowed top Pentagon officials to testify in depositions . The officials were Edwin Dorn , assistant secretary of defense for personnel , and Army Maj. Gen. John P. Otjen . In the end , Zilly wrote , the Pentagon officials helped seal the case against the government . `` Both witnesses testified to the effect that the government 's objection to homosexual service is based solely on the fears of and prejudices of heterosexual service members , '' he said . `` If this reasoning is followed by other courts , the new policy will not be upheld , '' predicted Himes . ( ndy ) ( ATTN : News , Financial editors ) ( Includes optional trims ) China Rights Decision : It 's The Economy , Stupid ( Washn ) By Glenn Kessler ( c ) 1994 , Newsday WASHINGTON President Clinton 's renewal of China 's preferential trading status , even at the risk of appearing to cave in to Beijing , underscores the central role economics plays in his foreign policy initiatives . Clinton expressed concern for the long list of dissidents languishing in Chinese prisons . But the numbers that proved convincing were the 150,000 American jobs that companies said would be lost if Chinese exports faced higher tariffs and the Chinese stopped buying U.S. products . `` At the end of the Cold War , there was great optimism that there would be a higher priority given to human rights issues , '' said Richard Dicker , associate counsel of Human Rights Watch/Asia . `` In the past , human rights concerns were downplayed for national security reasons . Now , in the China decision , it appears human rights have been downplayed for economic security concerns . '' Clinton was elected on the promise that he would devote much of his attention to domestic economic issues , and aides say the economic implications of any action on China were heavily discussed within the administration . Robert Rubin , Clinton 's chief economic aide , acknowledged that last week 's decision to renew most-favored-nation trading status for China wasn't left to the State Department but was handled by foreign policy and economic officials working together . These officials decided that revocation of China 's trade status `` did not make sense , '' he said . Clinton insisted that greater business ties would ultimately help the cause of human rights . `` To those who argue that in view of China 's human rights abuses we should revoke MFN status , let me ask you the same question that I have asked myself : Will we do more to advance the cause of human rights if China is isolated or if our nations are engaged in a growing web of political and economic cooperation and contacts ? '' American businesses also lobbied hard for MFN renewal , and Clinton is unusually solicitous of their views . In fact , some experts say no other president has been so focused on delivering the goods for U.S. corporations . AT&T won a $ 4 billion contract to modernize Saudi Arabia 's telecommunications system after Clinton wrote King Fahd and dispatched his secretaries of state and commerce to jawbone Saudi officials . `` Clinton 's actions are important . Elevating the economic agenda as part of foreign policy has long been overdue , '' said Daniel Burton , president of the Council on Competitiveness , a non-profit group in Washington supported by business . `` The attention and priority given to these issues by Clinton is unusual . '' ( End optional trim ) Some believe the Chinese exploited the administration 's focus on economic issues to minimize the problem of human rights abuses . The United States buys about $ 33 billion in Chinese exports , while China buys about $ 9 billion in U.S. products . The Chinese made it clear in the past year that a number of major deals worth billions of dollars were on hold until the threat of MFN revocation was lifted . Rubin said Clinton scrapped his policy of linking Chinese trade rights and human rights performance in part because the previous policy had been hurting American business . `` I think business in this country has been somewhat held back in terms of developing markets in China because of the uncertainty of the relationship , but I think that with the steps the president has taken there will be all the more incentive for developing markets in China , '' he said . `` I think it will become an ever larger and ever more important trading partner . '' ( End optional trim ) Still , Clinton 's actions on China distressed some of his more liberal supporters . Rep. David Bonior , D-Mich. , House majority whip , caustically said : `` By renewing MFN for China , we are sending a clear message to every dictator around the world that not only will the U.S. look the other way while you torture , abuse and murder your own people , but we 'll even help subsidize it . '' Some key players , including Senate Majority Leader George Mitchell , D-Maine , have said they will introduce legislation calling for more sanctions on China . WASHINGTON Some staffers at the National Geographic Society are positively up in arms that this prestigious promoter of all things natural has gone and spent a small fortune replacing live yew plants with artificial ones outside its downtown headquarters . Naked symbolism aside , the estimated $ 220,000 move to synthetics comes at a time when the organization has been downsized by at least 800 folks as a cost-cutting measure . `` We made what was a very difficult decision for us , '' said Geographic spokesman Barbara Fallon , who confirmed that the fake yews had been `` planted '' around the terraces on five levels . `` Our preference would certainly have been to maintain live plants . We tried for 10 years . '' Fallon went on to explain that the real yew plants had died due to soil and drainage problems and that landscapers could not guarantee that new plants would survive . And the building 's architectural design , she says , demands plants . As for the cost , Fallon emphasized that `` we go out of our way to be cost efficient in everything we do . '' -O- John Wayne Bobbitt went to court Wednesday to request a legal guardian to manage his finances and ended up being reprimanded by a Buffalo judge for getting too familiar with his fiancee in the courtroom . Bobbitt rested his head on Kristina Elliott 's shoulder and began stroking her face when Judge Mario Rossetti snapped at him , telling him to knock off the public display of affection . Bobbitt later testified that he 's been kept in the dark on his finances by agents and attorneys , reported the Associated Press . He claims he 's gotten almost none of the hundreds of thousands of dollars raised through publicity appearances since he became an instant celebrity after his wife maimed him in their Virginia home last summer . There was no ruling on the matter . -O- At least some of the folks in embattled Rep. Dan Rostenkowski 's office are clinging to a sense of humor . Spokesman Jim Jaffe put this message on the answering machine the very day the congressman was indicted : `` We have no statements to issue , we have no schedule , we have no bananas . '' There was also a great sigh of relief when incoming chairman Sam Gibbons informed Rosty folks he was keeping them on board the Ways and Means staff . In yet another indication that Hill perks are falling by the wayside , Sen. Wendell Ford of Kentucky has circulated a memo saying that , henceforth , underground parking at the Capitol will be viewed as taxable income . SAN SALVADOR , El Salvador Armando Calderon Sol , leader of a right-wing political party once associated with death squads , was sworn in as president of El Salvador Wednesday amid warnings that reforms aimed at preserving this country 's fledgling peace are dangerously incomplete . As the first president to take office since the end of a brutal , 12-year civil war , Calderon Sol pledged to rebuild his devastated , still polarized country with free-market economics and attention to long-neglected social programs . But he acknowledged Salvadoran society is far from reconciled . `` We have achieved peace , the guns are silent , '' he said in an elaborate ceremony before Central America 's leaders and dozens of international delegations . `` But we have yet to shatter the suspicions and sterile antagonisms . We must rebuild our nation physically , morally and spiritually so that we can together achieve social peace . '' This was El Salvador 's first peace-time transfer of power between civilians in more than six decades . Calderon Sol assumes office a year and a half after U.N.-brokered accords ended the war between Cuban-backed leftist guerrillas and U.S.-backed forces . The war claimed more than 70,000 lives and sent 1 million Salvadorans fleeing to Los Angeles , Washington and other cities . Calderon Sol , the portly 45-year-old former mayor of San Salvador and founding member of the ruling Nationalist Republican Alliance , or Arena , was elected April 24 in a landslide over leftist candidate Ruben Zamora , who represented a coalition that included the former rebels . The U.N. accords set in motion sweeping military , political and judicial reforms aimed at installing democracy and guaranteeing all Salvadorans ' security . The government succeeded in substantially reducing the army , but some of the most important reforms have not been fulfilled . In a report issued May 11 , the United Nations cited `` serious shortcomings '' in completing the accords and emphasized flaws in the formation of a new civilian police force , considered the cornerstone to maintaining peace and building a system of justice . The report complained that the `` civilian nature '' of the new police force is in jeopardy because agents from the old , paramilitary National Police have been phased into the new agency without proper training or screening to eliminate human rights abusers . The government of outgoing President Alfredo Cristiani , also a member of Calderon Sol 's Arena party , has repeatedly delayed demobilizing the dreaded paramilitary police . It recently indicated it would not do so until sometime between January and March of next year . The U.N. report also complained that 30 senior positions in the civilian police force have gone to officers from the militarized force and reports of human rights abuses have increased . ( Begin optional trim ) Calderon Sol has publicly attacked several reforms in the peace accords . But since his election April 24 , and again Wednesday , he insisted he would abide by them . `` I say you have to give him the benefit of the doubt it 's his first day , '' Joaquin Villalobos , a former guerrilla commander who now heads a social democratic party , said as he emerged from the inauguration . `` But we will have to see how much distance there is between words and actions . '' The issue of the police and public security is especially urgent because of renewed violence , some of it political , that has claimed the lives of former rebels and several Arena militants in recent months . Amid fears of a resurgence of death squads , U.N. peacekeepers late last year appointed a special commission , the Joint Group , to investigate the violence over a six-month period ending this week . Tuesday , the commission asked for a two-month extension , after a flurry of murders and attempted murders in the last two weeks . ( End optional trim ) Despite his party 's history as an authoritarian and militaristic organization , Calderon Sol has taken pains to assure the world that he and the forces around him have become more moderate . `` The era of dogmas and fanaticisms has ended , '' Calderon Sol said Wednesday , apparently referring to both the left and right . Arena officials say they have abandoned their extremist past to move closer to the center and to broaden their appeal . Key to a more pragmatic outlook , the officials say , is the growing role of Arena 's business sector . But the new president and most Arena leaders continue to revere the late Roberto D' Aubuisson , party founder and reputed organizer of death squads that killed thousands of suspected leftist sympathizers during the war . In the highly partisan crowd at Calderon Sol 's inauguration , supporters held aloft a larger-than-life poster of D' Aubuisson in his trademark , clenched-fist pose . And several military officers purged as part of the peace accords were in attendance , including retired Gens. Rene Emilio Ponce and Orlando Zepeda ; they were accused of ordering the 1989 murder of six Jesuit priests considered supportive of the rebels . `` The new president and the people around him are using all the right words ( about democracy ) but I don't think they know what the words mean , '' said a Latin American diplomat . `` Arena is still very influenced by hard-line elements . You willn't see them in government , but they 're there . '' It could be the ultimate in long-range weather observations . University of Maryland radio astronomers say they have spotted water clouds near the center of a galaxy called Markarian 1 , a smudge of stars 200 million light years away in the constellation Pisces . It is the most distant water ever detected in the universe . `` It 's always exciting to find a superlative , '' said James Braatz , a doctoral candidate who led the research . The discovery of water so far from Earth was not unexpected , and does not suggest the presence of life there . But its detection at such a distance helps to enlarge astronomers ' understanding of `` megamasers , '' a curious natural phenomenon that amplifies normally weak radio emissions from water at the centers of active galaxies . Braatz was assisted by UM astronomy professor Andrew Wilson and Christian Henkel , of the Max Planck Institute for Radioastronomy in Germany . They were to announce their discovery Thursday at the American Astronomical Society Meeting in Minneapolis . At the same meeting , astronomers from Johns Hopkins University said this week they have found `` very strong '' evidence for a black hole with a mass of several million suns at the center of the Andromeda Galaxy . It is the second black hole discovery announced in less than a week . Black holes are objects with gravitation so powerful that they draw in stars and anything else that passes near , including light . The detection of molecular water clouds in Markarian 1 was made using a huge radiotelescope near Effelsberg , 40 miles south of Bonn , Germany . `` It 's not a surprise that there is water ( in Markarian 1 ) because it has been seen in galaxies much closer to us , '' said Braatz . `` But it is a surprise that it 's bright enough to be detectable . '' That brightness is believed to be the result of a megamaser , a natural amplifier . The term combines , mega , which means very large , and maser , which stands for `` microwave amplification by the stimulated emission of radiation . '' ( Optional add end ) Astronomers say water megamasers form when an energy source perhaps gas being sucked into a black hole stimulates the water molecules to emit powerful microwaves . The phenomenon is similar to man-made lasers that stimulate rubies or other substances to produce powerful beams of visible light . Radio telescopes can detect natural masers , and hundreds of small ones have been found in the Milky Way . But megamasers are a million times stronger , much rarer , and they 're found outside our galaxy . Only nine have been detected so far , four of them by Braatz , a 27- year-old Baltimore native . `` But we 're still looking , '' he said . `` I 'm going to Australia on Saturday to look for them in the southern part of the skies . '' By comparing the properties of the galaxies that have megamasers and those that don't , he hopes to learn what conditions are necessary to produce them . WASHINGTON More than two-thirds of 118 health-maintenance organizations that have voluntarily undergone quality review by a national accrediting group received less than full accreditation , the ratings group reported Wednesday . Two of the three health plans that were denied accreditation were run by Aetna Health Plans in Southern California . The ratings were released for the first time Wednesday by the National Committee for Quality Assurance , a Washington-based not-for-profit group that health plans pay to evaluate them . The ratings represent one of the few standardized measures of the quality of health plans and are used by employers to help them select health plans for their employees . `` This is a buyers ' guide to purchasing managed care , '' said Kathryn Abernethy , a health-care specialist at Towers Perrin Co. , a management consulting firm that advises companies on employee benefits . Alan Peres , a benefits manager at the telecommunications company Ameritech Corp. , said NCQA ratings could make his workers more comfortable with HMOs , which try to contain costs by controlling patients ' access to medical specialists and steering them to doctors and hospitals that accept discounted rates . There are no similar accreditations for traditional fee-for-service health-insurance plans , which allow their members to seek care from any doctor or hospital and typically do not attempt to control patient care . `` We can say to them ( employees ) that , yes , managed care is different than what you had before , it may take some getting used to , but unlike with fee-for-service .. . there is somebody out there watching , '' said Peres , who appeared at an NCQA news conference . For competition to work in health care , consumers must have access to detailed standardized information comparing plans on quality and cost , health-care specialists agree . Such information is generally unavailable , they said . The NCQA ratings offer employers and consumers only limited guidance . They generally measure the soundness of health plans ' quality control and management systems , rather than the quality of the care the health plans deliver . For example , NCQA would mark a health plan down for doing too little to monitor and improve rates of immunizations or cancer screenings , but it would not necessarily grade how well a plan uses those preventive measures , NCQA officials and health-plan executives said . The accreditations do not reflect medical outcomes or independent measures of patient satisfaction things that various groups , including NCQA , are attempting to measure in report cards on health-plan performance that are still in embryonic stages . Under its agreement with health plans , NCQA can disclose nothing more detailed about a plan 's performance than its accreditation status : Full accreditation for plans that have `` excellent '' quality-improvement programs and comply fully with NCQA standards . One-year accreditation for plans that have `` well-established '' programs and meet most standards . Provisional accreditation for those that have `` adequate '' programs and `` meet some NCQA standards . '' Denial for plans with more significant shortcomings , including those that pose `` a potentially significant risk to quality of care . '' Or `` under review '' for plans seeking reconsideration of their rating . Two of Aetna 's plans were denied accreditation because of the `` immaturity of their quality-monitoring systems , '' Aetna spokeswoman Linda Ambrose said . The denials are `` no reflection on the quality of care provided to individual consumers or members , '' she said . Ambrose added that consumers should be concerned if health plans do not improve their ratings over time . Corporate managers who select plans said they might refuse to do business with a health plan that would not participate in the accreditation process , but that they might give a health plan that received less than full accreditation time to improve its rating . NCQA , which has been reviewing HMOs since 1991 , set its standards to reflect an ideal rather than the industry 's current norms , said Margaret O' Kane , NCQA 's president . WASHINGTON Commerce Secretary Ronald H. Brown has sold his interest in a company he owned with Nolanda Hill , the Washington business executive whose failure to repay a $ 26 million debt to the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. became a political embarrassment to Brown . In his financial-disclosure report for 1993 , filed last month with the Office of Government Ethics , Brown reported he received between $ 250,000 and $ 500,000 on Dec. 15 for his stake in First International Communications Corp. , a Washington investing firm . The shares were repurchased by the firm , Brown aides said . Brown and Hill `` decided last year to disolve their partnership due to restrictions placed on the partnership 's business as the result of Mr. Brown 's position as secretary of commerce and the unfair press attention directed at Nolanda Hill because of her on-going professional association with Secretary Brown , '' Commerce Department spokeswoman Carol Hamilton said Wednesday . Hill , who handled all the operations of First International and was the only other known investor in the company , could not be reached for comment Wednesday . Harry Barnett , a Boston attorney representing Hill , said he could not explain how she came up with the money to buy Brown 's share of the firm when last year she was unable to repay debts to the government . Brown and Hill have refused to discuss their business relationship or say what their company did . At a breakfast meeting with reporters last week , Brown said that despite its name , First International Communications was not in the communications business . Brown 's stock in First International was the largest single investment listed by Brown on his 1992 financial-disclosure report , which listed his holdings before he joined the government , Government regulations do not require officials to put precise values on their holdings , but to list them in various ranges of value . As of last year , Brown showed his First International shares were worth between $ 500,000 and $ 1 million and said that valuation was based on information provided by Hill that might be optimistic . The new report shows Brown like many high government officials had to substantially restructure his personal finances when he entered the government . The disclosure report shows Brown received between $ 500,000 and $ 1 million last February when he disposed of his interests in Capital PEBSCO Inc. , an employee-benefits consulting firm . Because Brown was required to sell his stake in PEBSCO when he took office , he qualified for special tax treatment that allowed him to reinvest the profits from the sale without paying capital-gains taxes . Brown now has put most of his money into mutual funds and now lists holdings of between $ 15,000 and $ 100,000 in 34 different funds , invested in a wide variety of stocks and bonds . Hill , Brown 's partner in First International , formerly owned WFTY , Channel 50 in Washington , and WUNI , Channel 27 , in Needham , Mass. , a suburb of Boston . Last year she lost both stations in foreclosure proceedings after she failed to repay the money she borrowed to buy and run them . Hill financed the stations with loans from a group of Texas savings and loan associations , which later failed and were taken over by the FDIC . After trying unsuccessfully to collect on the loans , the FDIC sold them and wrote off a loss of $ 23 million , which was absorbed by taxpayers as part of the $ 150 billion savings and loan cleanup . When Hill 's failure to repay her debts to the FDIC were reported by The Washington Post last year , Brown said he knew nothing of his partner 's financial problems . Brown and Hill were partners in First International which operated out of the same small office here as Corridor Broadcasting , the parent company for Hill 's television stations . Hill and Brown , the former Democratic National Committee chairman , also were political allies and last summer he arranged for her to be invited to a White House lunch with President Clinton and a small group of business executives . Promient in Democratic Party circles , Hill was one of the organizers of a planned Kennedy Center gala for `` Friends of Ron Brown '' that was scheduled for three days before President Clinton 's inaugural . The party , which was to be sponsored by such corporations as J.C. Penney , Anheuser-Busch , Pepsico and Textron , was canceled after objections that it was inappropriate for the commerce secetary-designate to be soliciting funds from companies that might be involved in issues before the Commerce Department . BEDFORD , Va. . Fresh-faced teenagers performing patriotic skits on the school stage . A military band playing the national anthem outside the picturesque courthouse . Glass cases stuffed with wartime memorabilia in the local museum . These are the simple ways in which this small town is paying tribute to the sons it lost on D-Day a half-century ago . Similar remembrances are unfolding throughout rural America . But this community of 6,000 , about 25 miles east of Roanoke , has a tragic distinction : It lost more men per capita on Normandy 's beaches that day than any other U.S. town . The death toll of 23 was so devastating that it prompted the military to stop forming units out of soldiers from a single community . For years after the war , few people in Bedford talked about their sacrifice . It was too painful . Eventually , the veterans who made it home started gathering each June with their families and with relatives of the dead , sometimes at a small memorial marker that had been placed outside the courthouse . But residents born after the war seemed oblivious to the price their community had paid . `` At times , I thought that no one cared , '' said E. Ray Nance , 80 , a retired postal worker and one of two D-Day veterans still living in Bedford . `` It 's their history , it 's their heritage . It was an important time . '' This year , however , the generation that lived through D-Day vowed not to let the half-centennial pass unnoticed . It started with Nancy Johnson , 55 , an apple farmer whose recollections of the war are confined to memories of her grandfather 's straining to hear the radio bulletins . She pressed for an exhibit at the Bedford Museum , then recruited middle and high school students for a tribute to survivors and those who never came home . As word spread , interest in the anniversary grew . Residents donated mementos for the museum exhibit and lined up for tickets to the show at the school . Students interviewed veterans for oral history projects . The local radio station started playing patriotic anthems and popular music from the 1940s . An office supplies store downtown created a window display honoring those who fought . The mayor asked local schools to make Bedford 's D-Day role a permanent part of their history curriculum . `` It needs to be recorded , '' said Mayor Mike Shelton , 42 . `` It needs to be passed on . Because those who experienced its direct impact willn't be with us when the 60th anniversary comes . '' Last weekend , members of the Bedford Middle School chorus , only slightly younger than many of the fallen soldiers were on D-Day , performed in the building where the troops had attended school . The teenagers paid tribute with moving renditions of `` America the Beautiful '' and `` Battle Hymn of the Republic '' and upbeat performances of `` Over There '' and `` Boogie Woogie Bugle Boy of Company B . '' After the songs , there was a skit about soldiers going off to war , and one young man returning home in a casket . And there was a recreation of that morning at the drugstore when the telegrams started to arrive . For the finale , 23 youngsters stood in a semicircle , each lighting a candle as the name of a fallen soldier was called . Then Joel Morgan , 17 , played taps , wearing the olive green uniform of his grandfather , a D-Day survivor who served in the 29th Division from another small Virginia town . `` It just gets me excited to know that I 'm doing something for these people-like I 'm paying them back for what they did for us so long ago , '' Joel said . `` It 's not much , but hopefully they 'll realize how much we appreciate what they did . '' RIVERSIDE , Calif. . An apparently distracted James Edward Bess locked his keys in his car at the University of California , Riverside about an hour before he allegedly shot Nation of Islam speaker Khallid Abdul Muhammad and campus police came to his rescue , university officials said Wednesday . After police confirmed that Bess had rightful use of the vehicle and opened it for him , Bess moved the vehicle from a housing complex across the street from the gymnasium where Muhammad had begun speaking 45 minutes earlier . Bess , 49 , who was expelled from the Nation of Islam after serving as a minister of a Seattle mosque four years ago , never made it back to his car . He was beaten by the crowd after he allegedly opened fire with a semiautomatic handgun , striking Muhammad and five of his bodyguards after they left the building . Later , police found Bess ' vehicle about two blocks away , near one of the main campus entrances . Inside the vehicle , they recovered a high-powered rifle and ammunition . They also recovered at the shooting scene a backpack containing two additional semiautomatic handguns that they said belonged to him . Nothing about Bess ' behavior or actions attracted the officer 's attention when he helped Bess get into his car , university spokesman Jack Chappell said . `` There was nothing unusual about the vehicle , and the individual 's demeanor was polite , '' Chappell said . Chappell said the call for police assistance came in at 4:45 p.m. Sunday , after Bess was unable to break into his car with a coat hangar he got from a student resident on campus . Unknown to Bess , the student on his own called police for help , and they promptly showed up , Chappell said . The campus police dispatcher , using the vehicle 's license plate number , called the registered owner of the car in Washington state , who confirmed that Bess had permission to drive it , Chappell said . He would not release the name of the owner of the car but said investigators were following up with that person . Muhammad and his bodyguards were shot just minutes after 6 p.m. . Bess who was convicted of manslaughter in 1964 in Missouri and who shot and killed his brother in Fresno in 1975 in what was ruled self-defense has been charged in the Muhammad shooting with one count of attempted premeditated murder and five counts of assault with a firearm . He has pleaded not guilty and is being held without bail and remains hospitalized at Riverside General Hospital from injuries including a broken shoulder inflicted by people who beat him after the shooting . Muhammad , meanwhile , is in good condition at Riverside Community Hospital , where he underwent surgery Tuesday night for the removal of bullet fragments from his leg , officials there said . ( Optional add end ) Dr. Nicandro Marciano , who assisted in the surgery , described Muhammad as `` uncannily lucky '' because the fragments were less than one millimeter away from a major artery which , if hit , `` could have been not only limb-threatening , but life-threatening . '' Muhammad who was suspended last year as spokesman for Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan after his verbal assault on Jews , Arabs and whites has lost feeling in the sole of his foot because of slight nerve damage caused by the wound , Marciano said . It was too early to tell if the damage is permanent , he said . Hospital spokeswoman Ann Matich said Muhammad is expected to remain hospitalized `` for a few more days . '' RIVERSIDE , Calif. . The niece of the man accused of shooting former Nation of Islam spokesman Khallid Abdul Muhammad on Sunday still holds her uncle responsible for the death of her father 19 years ago . James Edward Bess , 49 , an expelled Nation of Islam minister , shot his brother Elvin in 1975 . He was acquitted when a jury decided he fired in self-defense , but Elvin Bess ' daughter still resents her uncle . `` He cheated me out of a relationship with my father , '' Rhonda Bess , 33 , of San Bernardino , Calif. , said in a telephone interview early Wednesday . She said she had not seen nor spoken with James Bess in years . After killing her father , Rhonda Bess said , her uncle moved to Seattle . James Bess has a record of violence . He and another brother , Henry , were convicted in 1964 in Missouri of manslaughter . They were sentenced to 10-year prison terms , but were paroled almost immediately , according to 30-year-old accounts in the Fresno Bee newspaper in California . In 1965 , James and Henry Bess were convicted of beating a man in Fresno , Calif. , who refused to buy a Muslim newspaper , the Bee reported at the time . Bess , the father of eight , has been charged with one count of attempted premeditated murder and five counts of assault with a firearm in Sunday 's shooting of Muhammad and five bodyguards . The shooting occurred after Muhammad delivered a speech laced with anti-Semitic invective to about 500 students at the University of California , Riverside , campus . Police believe Bess acted alone . Muhammad was suspended as an aide to Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan after a November speech at Kean College in New Jersey in which he called Jews the `` bloodsuckers '' of the black community and urged the killing of South African whites . Police disclosed Wednesday that in the hours before the Sunday shooting , University of California police helped Bess after he accidentally locked his keys in his blue Mazda . Police later found a high-powered rifle with a scope in the car . Before opening the car , police telephoned its owner in Washington state , said campus spokesman James Chappell . He said the owner confirmed that Bess was authorized to use the car . Police say Bess used a 9-mm pistol to wound Muhammad and his security guards , and two more 9-mm pistols were found in a backpack , belonging to him , next to the auditorium . Meanwhile , about a half-dozen members of Farrakhan 's personal security force arrived Tuesday from Chicago . Late that night , they examined the scene of the shooting and as many as 30 men re-enacted the incident with the permission of university officials , Chappell said . Muhammad rested Wednesday after a two-hour operation in Riverside Community Hospital Tuesday to remove bullet fragments from his left leg . His doctor , Nicandro Marciano , said the bullet fragment missed a major artery in his leg by a millimeter . If it was hit , he could have bled to death . ( Optional add end ) Muhammad and his supporters have not issued a statement about the shooting , nor has Farrakhan . Farrakhan is scheduled to appear Saturday at the University of Nevada , Las Vegas , fueling speculation that he may visit Muhammad at the Riverside hospital . Muhammad is scheduled to speak in downtown Los Angeles Saturday , a commitment his supporters say he intends to keep . Earlier this year , Bess was a delegate to a convention of independent political parties aligned with New Alliance Political Party leader Lenora Fulani , a longtime Farrakhan supporter . `` This obviously came as a surprise to all of us , '' said another delegate , Patriot Party Chairman Nicholas Sabatine of Wind Gap , Pa. . `` Absolutely nothing happened at the convention that would lead us to believe he would do something like this . '' SACRAMENTO , Calif. . Contending there is reason to believe tobacco-giant Philip Morris Corp. `` engaged in a systematic scheme of deception '' to gain signatures for a statewide smoking initiative , acting Secretary of State Tony Miller on Wednesday filed legal action that could lead to disqualification of the ballot measure . Miller asked the Superior Court in Sacramento to give him permission to question a sampling of voters who signed the initiative petition to determine whether they were deliberately misinformed . The ballot measure would abolish all local smoking bans and replace them with a looser , statewide standard . A spokesman for the Philip Morris-financed Californians for Statewide Smoking Restrictions argued that Miller 's action was unconstitutional and that he was grandstanding to gain an advantage over his opponents in next Tuesday 's Democratic primary . `` It is blatantly clear that this is a fairly desperate attempt to call attention to himself in his campaign for secretary of state , '' said Lee H. Stitzenberger , whose firm , the Dolphin Group , represents the smoking initiative committee , Californians for Statewide Smoking Restrictions . One of Miller 's primary opponents , former Los Angeles City Councilman Michael Woo , agreed . `` There is the appearance that ( Miller ) continues to use the office to advance his campaign goals that could have been avoided by waiting until after the election , '' said Woo 's campaign manager , Steven Glazer . Miller said politics played no part in his decision to go to court this week that he needed to act quickly to get the matter settled by June 30 , the deadline for certifying measures for the November ballot . Miller 's action was hailed by anti-smoking forces . Carolyn Martin , who chairs the Coalition for a Healthy California , predicted that `` a scientific survey will prove that a least half of those who signed the tobacco industry petition were duped or signed under false pretenses . '' Documents released by Miller show that paid signature gatherers were told not to deviate from two `` pitches '' made to potential signers that the petition imposed `` statewide smoking restrictions '' and that it increased penalties for selling tobacco to minors . The hired workers were apparently not to tell voters the initiative would strike down local smoking ordinances stronger than the new law or that Phillip Morris was the actual sponsor . The smoking initiative committee 's financial statements show that Philip Morris provided $ 491,213 to qualify the measure . A smattering of bars and restaurants provided the rest , a total of $ 480 . Miller said that if he establishes that there was deception , he would then ask the court to invalidate the ballot measure under a statute barring circulators from misrepresenting the contents of an initiative petition . ROME , June 2 President Clinton arrived here Wednesday night for the first leg of an eight-day trip that will put him in the center of ceremonies commemorating the 50th anniversary of D-Day and provide what the White House hopes is a respite from a troubled spring on the domestic and foreign policy fronts . Clinton was greeted when he arrived at Ciampino Airport after midnight by Italian Foreign Minister Antonio Martino . His visit begins later Thursday with meetings with Pope John Paul II and Italian political leaders . Its highlight will occur at ceremonies Monday at the Normandy beaches where invading Allied troops opened the final phase of World War II . `` Fifty years ago . . . the men and women of America saved democracy in Europe and changed the course of history for the world , '' Clinton said in a departure ceremony in Washington at a monument to those who served in the Army 's 1st Infantry Division , which played a prominent role in the D-Day invasion . `` I hope you will have some time to look at the ceremonies '' marking history 's largest invasion , he said . `` I hope you will think about how we can honor their legacy by carrying it on . That is the greatest honor of all . '' Clinton has rallied public support for his foreign policy management on both his previous foreign trips and the White House hopes this one will produce the same results , despite its potential difficulties . A senior official said today that the trip `` involves very little substance , '' with its focus being the Normandy commemoration and the pictures of the president on the world stage in Italy , France and Britain . Americans have become increasingly critical of Clinton 's handling of foreign policy , with a string of recent polls showing that a majority now disapprove of his handling of such issues . His overall approval has also been slipping below 50 percent in some recent surveys . White House officials are prepared for Clinton 's first day overseas to offer a tinge of controversy . Differences with the pope on abortion and other issues to be raised at a U.N. population conference later this year are expected to be part of the discussions at the Vatican . Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro-Valls told reporters that the pope wants to discuss `` ethical aspects '' of the final draft for the U.N. conference , `` particularly the right to life . '' Clinton also holds his first meeting with Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi , who is trying to allay international concern about the presence in his cabinet of five ministers from a party with neo-fascist roots . White House officials said Clinton would minimize any U.S. concern about Berlusconi 's government . White House officials said the one big issue on this trip will be an effort to persuade French President Francois Mitterrand to keep France 's peacekeeping troops in Bosnia . Although Clinton refuses to send U.S. ground troops to the former Yugoslav republic other than to help enforce a peace agreement , he said in a radio interview broadcast in France on Wednesday that he hoped French forces remain `` until we have exhausted all possibilities of a settlement . '' French officials in recent weeks have indicated that their peacekeepers ' presence in Bosnia is untenable unless a viable peace agreement is reached by this summer . While many Europeans are ill at ease with the intrusions of Americana , only the French have cared enough to seriously fight it . Over the years , they have launched a series of counterattacks most notably in December , when they fought to the last bitter minute to successfully retain their leaky defenses against the growing influx of American films and television programs during global trade negotiations . Declaring the defense of the French language a `` political priority , '' Premier Edouard Balladur 's government has also passed a law requiring that a minimum of 40 percent of all songs played over the country 's airwaves be in French and issued an official dictionary of some 3,500 new terms , such as `` restauration rapide '' instead of fast food and `` disque audionumerique '' instead of compact disc , to replace Anglicisms that have crept into the language . However , a walk through Paris is proof that Americana is well entrenched . A tiny sandwich shop just off the Place de la Bastille , for example , seemed typically French except for the Hollywood chewing gum , the Jack Daniels whiskey , the Getaway pinball machine in the corner , and the framed photo of a Harley-Davidson motorcycle on the wall . WASHINGTON When the House Ways and Means Committee gets back to work on health care legislation next week , it will have a new chairman but the same set of problems to face . Knowing that he would likely be forced to relinquish leadership of the panel because of looming criminal charges against him , Rep. Dan Rostenkowski , D-Ill. , had worked feverishly in recent weeks to make as much progress as possible . As his starting point , Rostenkowski had used a bill that was barely approved by the Ways and Means health subcommittee , which is chaired by Rep. Fortney H. `` Pete '' Stark , D-Calif . Making modifications in closed-door negotiations with individual Democrats , Rostenkowski managed to get within one vote of the 20 that he needs to win committee approval . Five Democratic members remain uncommitted . Rostenkowski 's thrust ended Monday , when a federal grand jury indicted him on 17 felony counts of fraud , embezzlement , conspiracy and obstruction of justice in what prosecutors characterized as more than 20 years of alleged corruption . Under rules of the Democratic Caucus , the Chicago Democrat had to step down as committee chairman while the charges are pending . The incoming chairman , Rep. Sam Gibbons , D-Fla. , has already alerted the committee that he plans to offer his own first draft , but aides believe that it will be similar the one that had been shaped by Rostenkowski . Previously , Gibbons had supported the so-called single-payer system , in which the government finances health care . However , because it would involve a massive tax increase , that system appears to have no chance of passage . The Ways and Means approach is significantly different from those under consideration in the other committees . It includes the single most controversial feature of Clinton 's plan : a requirement that employers pay the bulk of their workers ' health care costs . However , unlike Clinton 's proposal , it would cover the remaining uninsured with a new form of Medicare . In that area , it is a step toward a single-payer system , which presumably would make it more attractive to Gibbons . Before his departure as chairman , Rostenkowski had also suggested that a broad-based tax could be necessary to make up for a $ 50 billion shortfall in the bill a proposal that caused shudders at the White House . That issue is likely to wait until after the Congressional Budget Office produces its cost estimates of the Ways and Means subcommittee bill . Similar deliberations are going on in four other committees in Congress two in the House and two in the Senate and House leaders hope that a breakthrough on Ways and Means could help clear the logjam on some of the other panels . None of the five committees managed to make their self-imposed Memorial Day deadline for producing a bill . Because so many committees share jurisdiction over the issue , and because it involves so many powerful interests , House and Senate leaders cannot rely on the normal legislative process to produce a single bill that can become law . Thus , it has always been clear that the actual legislation would be written after the committees had done their preliminary work . However , because no committee has yet produced a bill , any sense of momentum has been drained out of the process , and that has made members of both the House and Senate even more skittish about voting for such a controversial measure in an election year . The loss of Rostenkowski appears certain to put more pressure on Energy and Commerce Committee Chairman John D. Dingell , D-Mich. , who also has been unable to find the votes he needs . Sources said the Energy and Commerce Committee is considering a `` two-bill solution '' that could involve approving a version of the president 's plan and one that would lean more toward a competing proposal offered by committee member Rep. Jim Cooper , D-Tenn. Cooper 's bill is less regulatory , but also does not reach what Clinton has said is his bottom line requirement : guaranteeing that every American will have health coverage . The final House committee considering the bill , the Education and Labor Committee , is not considered a true testing ground for health legislation , because it is among the most liberal in the House . Even there , however , reaching an agreement is proving more difficult than expected . The disarray in the House appears certain to accelerate health care legislation in the direction that it was already headed toward resolution in the Senate . There , Democrats still have some hope of bringing moderate Republicans on board , particularly if they can soften the employer mandate so that the burden on the smallest businesses might be lightened . ( Optional add end ) The Senate Labor and Human Resources Committee has already begun drafting a bill , with Republicans joining Democrats on many of the votes thus far . However , it has not yet dealt with the core issues that divide the two parties . Those appear most likely to be worked out in the Finance Committee , where Republicans are stronger in number . The Democratic and Republican staffs of the committee are working together over Congress ' weeklong Memorial Day recess in hopes of producing a set of options when the committee members return . Separately , U.S. . District Judge Norma H. Johnson scheduled a June 10 arraignment of Rostenkowski at the federal courthouse here where cases involving high-profile political figures and scandals ranging from Watergate to Iran-Contra have been tried . Times staff writer Ronald J. Ostrow contributed to this report . ROME As he launches a weeklong tour of Europe , President Clinton is braced to hear protests from Pope John Paul II Thursday over U.S. support for a draft U.N. document that calls for expanded contraception programs worldwide and endorses a woman 's right to abortion . The potential confrontation comes as Clinton begins what is supposed to be a triumphant trip , commemorating the 50th anniversary of D-Day with a series of major addresses and emotion-laden events at the U.S. cemeteries overlooking Anzio Beach in Italy and Omaha Beach in France . His departure from Washington Wednesday set the tone . Beneath a towering monument to the first Army division to storm ashore in Normandy , Clinton asked Americans to watch Monday 's televised D-Day ceremonies and `` say a simple thank you '' to the generation that won World War II . For a moment at work Monday , he counseled , `` You might pause and reflect , 50 years ago on this day , at this hour , the men and women of America saved democracy in Europe and changed the course of history for the world . '' In viewing the ceremonies , Clinton said , `` I hope you will think about how we can honor their legacy by carrying it on . That is the greatest honor of all . '' But even before leaving on the eight-hour flight to Rome , Clinton received a letter from the United States ' six Catholic cardinals charging that the U.N. document was `` morally objectionable '' and would trample `` the rights and religious values of people around the world . '' At issue is a non-binding declaration that is to be ratified at the International Conference on Population and Development in September in Cairo , Egypt . Clinton has reversed 12 years of strict anti-abortion policy under two Republican administrations that barred the United Nations from using any U.S. funds for organizations providing abortion services . Instead , U.S. delegates helped write a draft that calls for stabilizing the world 's population at 7.27 billion by the year 2015 by improving the status of women and providing easier access to abortion and contraceptives in the Third World . In March , John Paul sent a letter to Clinton and other heads of states warning that the Cairo conference would be a `` serious setback for humanity . '' Administration officials said Clinton would stand by the U.S. position . `` On this , we will respectfully acknowledge our agreement , '' a senior official traveling with the president said . Another official said , `` It 's very important in developing countries that women have medical and other information as they 're making decisions about planning their families . It 's not that we 're advocating any type of forced sterilization or anything like that . '' But the White House does hope to avoid the sort of public confrontation over abortion that marked the meeting of the president and the pope in Denver last August . Then , to Clinton 's obvious discomfort , the pope exhorted Americans to `` defend life . '' This time , citing the pontiff 's convalescence from recent hip surgery , the White House and Vatican haven't planned any public remarks while the two men are together , though that is still possible . They are scheduled to meet privately for 45 minutes in the Papal Library in John Paul 's private quarters . First lady Hillary Rodham Clinton and other officials will then join them for a picture-taking session . The meeting is one of the first events on Clinton 's eight-day tour of Italy , England and France . The Italian leg of the journey celebrates the June 1944 Allied liberation of Rome . ( Optional add end ) Wednesday , in an embarkation ritual sure to be repeated during the trip , the presidential couple walked from the White House and laid carnation wreaths at a stone honoring the World War II dead of the `` Big Red One , '' the First Infantry Division . Gen. Gordon Sullivan , Army chief of staff and a former commander of the unit , stood by . `` In Europe , '' Clinton told an invited crowd of 300 , mainly World War II veterans , in a six-minute speech , `` we will be remembering the sacrifices of the generation that fought that great war . They have given us 50 years of freedom and strong nationhood . They have nurtured generations of young Americans and given us a chance to work with the rest of the world to bring the Cold War to an end and to build toward the 21st century . '' Besides praising the fighting troops , Clinton lauded `` Rosie the Riveter and her co-workers '' in the `` home front army of democracy '' those who stayed to build the planes , grow the crops and mine the coal , including the children who collected scrap metal and rubber for production lines . After the war , Clinton noted , the same generation `` built the strongest middle class in all of human history '' through such initiatives as the GI Bill . `` This week , let us all , from the president to every other citizen , do our best to say a simple thank you , '' Clinton said . `` Thank you for what you did . Thank you for the years you have given us . Thank you for the example you have set through sacrifice and courage and determination . '' With huge increases predicted in the number of Haitian boat people fleeing to the United States , Jamaica agreed Wednesday to let the United States interview the refugees in Jamaican waters to determine if some of them deserve political asylum . The agreement represents a minor victory for President Clinton as he tries to shore up a Haiti policy that protects Haitians in danger of political persecution but not those seeking escape from poverty and that attempts to restore ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide to power . Prime Minister P.J. Patterson said Wednesday Jamaica had given the United States permission to use Jamaica 's territorial waters to process Haitian refugees . The agreeement is to last six months , Patterson said . Up to now , the U.S. Coast Guard has been returning all the boat people it finds on the open seas to Haiti . Critics have blasted Clinton for the policy , saying the Haitians face torture and death upon their return to their country . Large numbers of the refugees are supporters of Aristide , who was overthrown by the Haitian army in 1991 . They say they are fleeing political terror and deserve asylum in the United States . But U.S. officials have said most of them are seeking jobs and are therefore not eligible for asylum . The number of Haitians taking to the seas has been picking up since Clinton announced May 8 that he was changing policy , and that the United States would begin interviewing boat people . Almost 1,500 have been picked up by the U.S. Coast Guard since then . All have been returned to Port-au-Prince . Some human rights advocates in Haiti have said the number will increase even more sharply once the new policy goes into effect . Administration officials have said that probably only about 5 percent of the Haitians would receive asylum . But it is believed that many Haitians will see those as good odds and worth the dangerous journey . Those not receiving asylum will be returned to Haiti . According to State Department officials , the Clinton administration achieved another Haiti policy victory in recent days . The officials said the Dominican Republic appears to be beefing up patrols along its land border with Haiti , in an effort to cut off the flow of oil and other contraband items barred by the U.N. . Security Council embargo against Haiti . WASHINGTON For years , the neighborhood surrounding Capitol Hill has been a high-crime area . Now the crime wave looks to be moving under the Capitol dome itself . With the indictment Tuesday of Rep. Dan Rostenkowski , D-Ill. , the powerful chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee , criminal proceedings involving members of Congress are growing in number . Two other former lawmakers are currently in federal prison for financial misdeeds , another is free pending appeal of a bribery convicton last fall , and still another is awaiting sentencing on charges of misusing public funds . Three other former legislators recently served time for bribery and related offenses . In addition to Rostenkowski , two other senior legislators also are under indictment and at least two more appear to be the targets of FBI investigations . In this century , only in the late 1970s when Congress was rocked by the so-called Koreagate and ABSCAM bribery scandals have so many members been in prison , just out of prison or facing the prospect of prison as now . Even that accounting does not include the ethical lapses that did not lead to criminal prosecutions : the House Post Office and banking scandals , which implicated dozens of members , the sexual misconduct allegations against Sen. Bob Packwood , R-Ore. , the exertions to protect savings and loan owner Charles W. Keating Jr. by five senators , or the questionable financial transactions that forced the resignations of Democratic leaders Jim Wright and Tony Coelho in 1989 . Some attribute this confluence of scandal not to declining ethics but to intensifying scrutiny from the news media , public and prosecutors that has made behavior criminal that once was tolerated , if not endorsed . But others insist that the climate on Capitol Hill is encouraging legislators to confuse incumbency with immunity and power with license . ( Begin optional trim ) `` There is a clear environment up there that the rules aren't to be enforced , '' says Fred Wertheimer , president of Common Cause , a group that monitors government ethics . `` It does enormous damage to the institution because it allows lowest common denominator ethics to set the public standard for the institution . '' The flow of charges has been steady enough to guarantee a good living for lawyers who specialize in defending public officials charged in corruption cases . `` For me , it 's been constant , '' says attorney Stan Brand , who has represented more than two dozen legislators since leaving his post as counsel to the House of Represenatives to open his own firm 10 years ago . ( End optional trim ) Over the years , congressional scandals have covered the gamut of human misbehavior . Legislators have fallen into the bottle or the arms of prostitutes . Almost all the prosecutions of sitting legislators in recent years , however , have involved bribery , tax evasion or misuse of public funds . The list includes : New York Democratic Rep. Mario Biaggi , who served 26 months in a medium-security federal prison for an extortion conviction in a case involving Wedtech Corp. , a South Bronx company that spent lavishly in its search of defense contracts . Fellow New York Democratic Rep. Robert Garcia also was convicted twice of extortion in the case and at one point served three months in prison , but each conviction was later overturned by a federal appeals court . Former Rep. Lawrence J. Smith , a Florida Democrat who served three months last year for tax evasion and lying to the Federal Election Commission about using campaign funds to pay off a gambling debt . Pat Swindall , a former Republican representative from Georgia , is scheduled to remain until February 1995 in the minimum-security U.S. penitentary camp in Atlanta after a perjury conviction in a case involving a personal loan . Undercover agents told him that the loan involved the proceeds of laundered drug money . Swindall has filed a brief with the Eleventh Circuit Court of Appeals , claiming new evidence and seeking to reopen his case . Former Democratic Rep. Nicholas Mavroules of Massachusetts is to be confined until September at a medium-security federal institution in McKean , Pa. , after pleading guilty last year to an array of bribery and tax evasion charges . Albert Bustamante , a former Democratic representative from Texas , was sentenced last fall to 42 months in prison for accepting a bribe but is free on bond while appealing his conviction to the Fifth Circuit Court of Appeals . Carroll Hubbard Jr. , a former Kentucky Democratic congressman , pleaded guilty in April to falsifying campaign reports , using public employees to work on his wife 's campaign for Congress and obstructing justice . While awaiting sentencing on June 30 , Hubbard has solicited his former colleagues to send letters to the judge urging leniency . In addition to Rostenkowski , two other legislators are currently under indictment : Sen. David Durenberger , R-Minn. , on charges of fradulently billing the Senate for use of a condominium he secretly owned , and Rep. Joseph M. McDade , R-Pa. , who was indicted in May , 1992 , on charges of accepting bribes and illegal gratuities from defense lobbyists . Published reports also have indicated that the FBI is investigating at least two other legislators : California Republican Rep. Jay Kim , on charges of illegally funneling money into his 1992 campaign from a business he owned , and California Democrat Walter R. Tucker , as part of an investigation of corruption in Compton , Calif. , where Tucker formerly served as mayor . Does this constitute a congressional crime wave ? Compared to other professions , the frequency of ethical transgression in the contemporary Congress appears relatively high but not entirely out of line . Over the last 20 years , about three dozen members of Congress either have been convicted of criminal offenses or censured by the House and Senate . That averages out to about 3.5 legislators in any two-year congressional session or put another way , about one serious ethical sanction per 150 sitting legislators at any given time . ( Begin optional trim ) Compare that to lawyers . In the period from 1989-1990 , the latest for which complete figures are available , about 4,500 practicing lawyers were publicly sanctioned by the American Bar Association . That averages out to roughly one serious ethical problem per 190 accredited lawyers over the two-year period . But compared to historical standards , today 's Congress might not look so bad . Throughout the 19th century , and even well into this century , Rostenkowski might have had considerable company in the activities for which he was indicted allegedly padding his payroll and diverting official accounts to his personal use . It is against the backdrop of such history and the 20th century equivalents involving the now-defunct urban political machines that attorney Brand labels the current surge of congressional prosecutions `` part of the overcriminalization of life in America . '' Brand attributes the rising number of cases not to deteriorating ethical standards but `` higher level of scrutiny , more rules , less tolerance for old ways not illegal ways but mores and more aggressive prosecutorial theory , taking peccadilloes and violations of House rules or Senate rules and making them into criminal cases . '' ( End optional trim ) Prosecutors are devoting more energy than ever before to rooting out public misconduct . Since 1976 , the Justice Department has operated a public integrity section that investigates Congress and other public officials : with 26 attorneys , it has 18 cases under active litigation and another 172 under investigation . To most reformers , the real measure of Congress ' ethical problems are found not in such egregious examples of misconduct , but in the corrosive workaday trading of money and favors permitted under current campaign finance and gift laws . For these critics , the workings of Congress testify to journalist Michael Kinsley 's maxim that in Washington the real scandal almost always involves behavior that is legal . HOLLYWOOD Casey Silver was named president of Universal Pictures Wednesday and given broad new responsibilities , including the authority to `` greenlight '' movies . While Silver 's promotion was expected in industry circles , some were surprised by the level of autonomy he received . Universal said Silver , 39 , will have control over all production , marketing and distribution at the studio , a division of MCA Inc. . Silver said he expects to `` stay the course '' at Universal , which has recently emerged from a long dry spell at the box office with Steven Spielberg-driven hits such as `` Jurassic Park , '' `` Schindler 's List '' and `` The Flintstones , '' the last of which grossed $ 37.5 million over the Memorial Day weekend . `` I want to make as many good movies as I can , '' Silver said . `` I have no plans to change what we 're going to do . '' Silver worked as president of production at Universal for five years . Hal Lieberman , the executive vice president of production , is rumored to be the leading candidate to replace him . Silver will report to Motion Picture Group Chairman Tom Pollock , who will become more involved in strategic planning . In partiular , Pollock is expected to focus on the international film market and MCA 's minority interest in Cineplex Odeon . By his own admission , it was hardly the stuff of Hollywood when Pfc . Anthony Yakaitis and a bunch of his American Army buddies entered Rome 50 years ago this week . `` It was the middle of the night and the place was pitch black , '' recalled Yakaitis , then a 20-year-old military policeman stationed with the 45th Division on the outskirts of the city . `` There was nobody out , and it was too dark to see . Nothing was happening , so we walked around for a while and then hitched a ride back to camp . Not very exciting . '' That was the evening of June 6 , 1944 , and if Yakaitis , now a retired civil servant and Franklin Square , N.Y. , resident , had arrived 48 hours earlier , he would have seen something more dramatic . Vera Signorelli Cacciatore , then a young Rome resident , would recall the scene several years later for war correspondents . She told them how the first ranks of footsore , exhausted Americans walked into the capital , fulfilling a major goal of the bitter Mediterranean campaign launched by Allied troops almost a year earlier . `` They were silent , very tired , marching almost like robots , '' she said of members of the 88th Division , who were among the first Yanks to enter Rome on the evening of June 4 . `` The people came out of the houses to cheer them , but they only smiled , waved and kept on going . '' Succeeding ranks of GIs were given different orders , however , and stopped in Rome for the night . And when they did , the citizenry could provide a more rousing welcome . `` The civilians crowded around them , patting them on the back , kissing them , '' said Cacciatore , whose description is contained in `` The Italian Campaign , '' a Time-Life book . `` The soldiers asked for something to drink water or wine and when they had drunk , they slumped down on the stones and fell asleep . '' Most of the troops slept on the streets or against the walls of buildings . A few simply flopped in the dry bottom of The Old Boat , as one of sculptor Giovanni Bernini 's fabled Rome fountains was known . By the next morning , the ambiance of Italy 's Eternal City had subtly changed . `` Before , Rome had always smelled of cooking , wine , dried fish , garlic , '' Cacciatore recalled . `` Now , suddenly , it was Chesterfields . '' A few Americans Yakaitis among them were able to spend some time sightseeing in the following days . And , although Rome , like Paris , had been unscarred by combat , the New York City-born private and his buddies came upon what seemed like a stunning scene of devastation . `` We came across a big building that looked pretty well blasted away , '' Yakaitis recalled this week . `` And one of the guys pointed to it and said , ` Wow look at that bombed-out place , ' which is what I thought . Then another guy took a good look and said , ` You jerks that 's the Coliseum ! ' And he was right . '' ( Begin optional trim ) Most of the liberators did not stay long in Rome , however , because the capital , abandoned by retreating Germans before they arrived , had more symbolic than strategic significance . The primary goal of the Mediterranean campaign , which began with the July 1943 invasion of Sicily by seven Allied divisions from North Africa , was to drive Italy out of the war and tie down German forces that might otherwise have been shifted to counter the long-expected Allied invasion of northern France . Moreover , Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower , supreme commander of Allied forces , strongly believed that nothing could help his planned invasion of Normandy codenamed Overlord as much as a landing in southern France by troops who had fought their way into northern Italy . `` If we can keep him on his heels until early spring , '' Eisenhower said of his German enemy shortly after the invasion of Sicily , `` then the more divisions he uses in a counteroffensive against us , the better it will be for Overlord . '' Which is how things essentially worked out . ( End optional trim ) Italy formally surrendered in September 1943 . Thousands of Germans subsequently were bogged down battling Allied forces that , after taking Sicily , moved northward in Italy from Salerno and the blood-drenched beachhead at Anzio . Finally , thousands of Allied troops from Italy invaded southern France in August 1944 . Yakaitis and his 45th Division comrades participated in all those combat episodes . After landing in southern France , they fought their way into Germany and wound up in Munich . After serving several months with occupation forces , Yakaitis was released from service in October 1945 . He had spent about 30 months in combat without a furlough . `` I dont regret it , '' he said . `` I felt it was my duty to fight for my country . And I would do the same thing today . '' UNITED NATIONS The U.N. Commission on War Crimes issued its final report Wednesday , saying strong evidence in the former Yugoslavia indicates that Serb commanders violated international law by pursuing a deliberate policy of `` ethnic cleansing , '' sexual assaults and rape . `` The crimes committed have been particularly brutal and ferocious in their execution '' and `` the magnitude of victimization is clearly enormous , '' the commission said . It said the `` ethnic cleansing , '' sexual assaults and rape were carried out so systematically with no effort by authorities to stop or punish offenders that members of the commission believe that `` command responsibility can be established . '' The commission , headed by Cherif Bassiouni , an Egyptian-born professor of law at DePaul University in Chicago , turned over its findings and its files to the International Tribunal on War Crimes in the former Yugoslavia , headquartered in The Hague in the Netherlands . The tribunal , which is supposed to indict and put on trial those accused of war crimes in Bosnia-Herzegovina and other parts of the former Yugoslavia , has been slow in organizing itself . Its first prosecutor resigned before even taking office . The Security Council has not yet named a replacement . In its report , the commission urged the tribunal to act . Victims , the panel said , had `` high expectations that this commission will establish the truth and that the ( tribunal ) will provide justice . '' The commission also said that , although the victimization was clearly ordered by commanders , the perpetrators most but not all of them Serbs had no right to defend themselves by claiming they had to obey their superior 's orders . The command-and-control structure in Bosnia was so loose , the commission said , that `` unlawful orders could have been disobeyed without individuals risking personal harm . '' `` Indeed , some did , '' the commission went on . `` A moral choice existed . '' Discussing ethnic cleansing the practice of clearing an area of its non-Serb population the commission said it was carried out `` with extreme brutality and savagery in a manner designed to instill terror in the civilian population , in order to cause them to flee and never to return . '' The weapons included mass murder , rape , torture , looting and property destruction . ( Optional add end ) Studying in detail one district northwest Bosnia 's Opstina Prijedorin the commission found that its Muslim population had declined from 49,454 in 1991 to 6,124 in 1993 . Counting Croats and others , as well , the commission concluded that 52,811 people had been killed or deported in `` ethnic cleansing '' in that district . Listing names of possible guilty parties , the commission said the military destruction of non-Serb houses in the district occurred when it was under the command of Col. Vladimir Arsio and Maj. Radmilo Zeljaja . Further , the commission said , it `` possesses the names of hundreds of alleged perpetrators at different levels and in a variety of capacities . '' Discussing the siege of Sarajevo , the commission concluded there is no doubt that Bosnian Serbs deliberately targeted the civilian population in months of shelling a violation of international law . `` Whether or not it is possible to develop a firm case against individual soldiers or unit commanding officers , '' the report said , `` it should be quite practicable to develop a prima facie case against the officer or officers responsible for the ( Bosnian Serb ) forces which have ben surrounding Sarajevo from the beginning of the siege . '' WASHINGTON Prominent Washington criminal lawyer Robert S. Bennett is unlikely to represent Rep. Dan Rostenkowski , D-Ill. , in his upcoming trial on corruption charges because of increasingly strained relations between the two , sources said Wednesday . The day after Rostenkowski , 66 , was charged with defrauding the government of more than $ 500,000 , sources said there was a `` less than 10 percent chance '' that Bennett will stay on as the longtime lawmaker 's chief counsel . Sources said the decision would have to be made sometime near the date of Rostenkowski 's arraignment , which has been scheduled for June 10 before U.S. . District Court Judge Norma H. Johnson . Sources said Rostenkowski has been frustrated at the outcome of the plea negotiations with U.S. . Attorney Eric H . Holder Jr. . The veteran chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee had entered the negotiations in an effort to reduce or eliminate any prison sentence , avoid a lengthy legal battle and retain his powerful chairmanship of the tax-writing committee . Prosecutors offered a deal in which Rostenkowski would plead guilty to at least one felony and serve a limited amount of jail time . The discussions ended without prosecutors offering any options Rostenkowski considered acceptable . Some of his friends and colleagues privately complained to the Chicago congressman that the plea negotiations , which had been initiated by Bennett , may have been a mistake . They said the negotiations created a media `` feeding frenzy '' and left the impression that Rostenkowski was guilty of something . Although sources said that the negotiations were initiated with Rostenkowski 's full knowledge and consent , evidence began building that a rift was developing , and that Rostenkowski had questions about Bennett 's legal advice . Bennett suggested that Rostenkowski get another opinion about the plea negotiations but the congressman declined , the sources said . Meanwhile , Bennett became increasingly concerned that he did not have complete control of Rostenkowski 's defense and worried that the Congressman 's longtime friends had too much influence over him , particularily decisions about how the case should be litigated , sources said . The same sources noted that the silence from Rostenkowski 's camp following Holder 's blistering press conference Tuesday spoke volumes . There was no press conference to raise doubts or suggest weaknesses in the federal government 's case against Rostekowski , a decision that was said to have infuriated Bennett . The sources said that unless the two strong-willed men meet and resolve their differences , Bennett 's departure is imminent and Rostenkowski would hire his fourth chief counsel on the case . The tensions , said one source , are rooted in the fact that Rostenkowski finds himself in the unfamiliar situation of not being able to be in control . Sources said that if Bennett leaves , the decision will be mutual . Rostenkowski , completing his 36th year in Congress , has been charged with embezzling funds , tampering with a witness and using taxpayer money to enrich himself , his family and friends . He is accused of receiving cash for postage stamps purchased in the House Post Office . Rostenkowski , who has been replaced as Ways and Means chairman by Rep. Sam Gibbons , D-Fla. , has denied all the charges and vowed to fight them in court . Sources knowledgeable about the probe say the FBI is completing its investigation into the House Post Office , focusing on '' two to three '' former members of Congress . The sources , who declined to name the former members , said it was unclear whether those investigations would lead to a grand jury indictment . SEATTLE The highest ranking military officer ever to challenge the armed forces over sexual orientation was ordered reinstated Wednesday in a ruling so broad as to cast doubt on the Clinton administration 's new `` don't ask , don't tell '' policy for gays and lesbians . Army nurse Col. Margarethe Cammermeyer , a Vietnam veteran and Bronze Star recipient , won at least the first step in her case to resume her 26-year military career . And in so ordering , federal District Judge Thomas Zilly held that the military could not discriminate against gays just because of society 's prejudices . `` Mere negative attitudes , or fear , are constitutionally impermissible bases for discriminatory governmental policies , '' Zilly wrote in his 51-page ruling . `` Prejudice , whether founded on unsubstantiated fears , cultural myths , stereotypes or erroneous assumptions , cannot be the basis for a discriminatory classification . '' Under long-standing but now revised rules of military service , Cammermeyer had been forced out of the military in 1992 after she was asked about her sexual orientation and replied that she was a lesbian . The question arose while she was being interviewed for a security clearance . At the time , her distinguished service in the Army and the National Guard won her a great many sympathizers , including the governor of Washington and the chief nurse of the Army , who described Cammermeyer as a `` great American . '' Even in discharging her , the military rated her as qualified to lead the Army nurse corps and to represent her profession `` anywhere in the world . '' Since Cammermeyer 's discharge , the military has changed its rules regarding sexual orientation . The current policy of the Clinton administration is not to ask uniformed personnel about sexual orientation but to continue to forbid homosexual behavior by men and women in the military . Attorneys who represent gays and lesbians said Zilly 's ruling was significant not only because of Cammermeyer 's high rank and long service , but because it was so sweeping and fundamental as to invite a challenge to any type of military discrimination against gays . `` This is a terrific ruling . It 's very strong , '' said Mary Newbombe , who worked on Cammermeyer 's case as cooperative council for the gay rights Lambda Legal Defense and Education Fund . `` The rational that Zilly used , the evidence that he considered , would apply equally to the ` don't ask , don't tell ' policy , '' she said . So far , there have been no court rulings on Clinton 's military policy toward gays , although a federal judge in April issued a temporary injunction forbidding the discharge of six members of the armed forces who filed suit against it . Cammermeyer , 52 , the mother of four , now works at the Veterans Administration hospital at American Lake , near Tacoma , Wash. . She described herself Wednesday as `` absolutely ecstatic . I feel like a kid. .. . The first thing I did was holler so everybody at the hospital knew what was going on . '' `` It seems like a vindication of all the struggles so many of us have had . I can't say that I 'm speechless I can't afford to be . It 's just very exciting . '' Her attorneys said they hoped Cammermeyer might instantly be reinstated with the state National Guard . But in the two previous 9th Circuit cases including that of sailor Keith Meinhold , who won a lower-court ruling saying the military 's exclusion of homosexuals was unconstitutional the Pentagon has appealed and very well may in this one , too . Dis By Marc Lacey and Jim Newton ( c ) 1994 , Los Angeles Times LOS ANGELES Holding onto a critical bargaining chip the World Cup games the union for disgruntled Los Angeles police officers Wednesday rejected Mayor Richard Riordan 's proposal to bring in an outside mediator to help settle their labor dispute . The union 's action was a gamble . It prompted the city to immediately declare an impasse , which ultimately could allow the city to impose the contract it wants . But union leaders needed to take the chance in order to stay in step with their membership an increasingly militant crew that has already ousted one team of negotiators it viewed as not tough enough . A job action during the upcoming soccer tournament is unlikely to paralyze the massive security effort : The Los Angeles Police Department can easily force its officers to work during the World Cup by declaring a tactical alert . But staging something similar to the Blue Flu II sickout which ended Wednesday would cost the city millions of dollars in overtime costs . And officers could still embarrass the city by publicizing their cause while Los Angeles is in the world 's eye , union officials said . `` You 're going to have the world 's media here and a whole lot of disgruntled cops , '' said union spokesman Geoffrey Garfield . `` If any incident breaks out we can say , ` We told you so public safety is important . ' That will make our argument for us . '' Already , the union 's order that members refuse voluntary overtime during the World Cup games has stirred some concern among neighboring law enforcement agencies who have spent more than a year working with Los Angeles police to lay plans for the tournament , which begins June 17 . `` They have some very important policing functions to perform , '' said Capt. Dan Burt , a spokesman for the Los Angeles County Sheriff 's Department . `` This is going to be a monumental undertaking . '' Officers ended their three-day blu flu Wednesday morning , when 226 out of 458 officers on the morning watch called in sick . But they continued their campaign for a raise by protesting en masse at an evening speech delivered by Riordan . Hundreds of officers were there handing out fliers asking for the public 's help . To counter the city 's suggestion that a non-binding mediator be appointed , the union insisted on binding arbitration . The city rejected that . The resulting stalemate prompted the city to declare an impasse , an action that may ultimately give the city the authority to impose a contract on its own . ( Optional add end ) As the league has tangled with the city in the current contract talks , it has veered back and forth between confrontation and conciliation partly in an attempt to stay close to what league leaders believe the membership wants . Officers have shown that they are so frustrated that they will act even without the union , said union president Danny Stagg . There was widespread participation in this week 's unauthorized blue flu . Earlier , officers overwhelmingly rejected a contract proposal that the union leadership brokered with the city . That deal called for 6 percent over the next two years . Among other things , officers have insisted on retroactive pay for the two years that officers have worked without a contract . ` Barney 's '' producers at the Lyons Group have agreed on terms for a third PBS season for the purple one . The new contract calls for 20 half-hour episodes of the popular preschool program as well as two one-hour specials . In addition , PBS will undertake its first publishing venture with a `` Barney '' book , subject and audience to be determined , according to Kathy Quattrone , vice president of programming at the network . Quattrone said the Lyons Group has guaranteed that PBS will recoup its investment , which for the new season will amount to $ 1.7 million . That revenue will come from the sale of videotapes , audio tapes and international rights to the program . The network will see no revenue from any of the merchandising spinoffs that have a more tangential relationship to the PBS program , such as toys and stuffed animals . `` They make the case , quite appropriately , '' says Quattrone , `` that Barney had a life before PBS . '' She said the network continues to be very happy with `` Barney 's '' ratings and the attention it has drawn to all the network 's preschool programming . WASHINGTON Federal regulators are reviewing their approval of one of the biggest TV station deals in history , K. Rupert Murdoch 's 1985 acquisition of six big-city television stations . With new information about the nine-year-old purchase emerging in the past week , the government is investigating whether the purchase of the stations violated federal laws prohibiting foreign ownership of U.S. broadcasting properties . If so , it could have multibillion-dollar consequences for Murdoch and the company he controls , News Corp. Ltd. The six stations in Washington , Los Angeles , New York , Chicago , Dallas and Houston formed the basis for the Fox television network , which in 1987 became the first in a generation to gain a foothold against the established Big Three . Federal Communications Commission officials confirmed Wednesday that they are close to completing their review , which was prompted by a complaint from a division of the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People . It contends the current ownership is illegal and has served to squeeze out minority groups who want to buy stations . If the FCC reverses its approval of Murdoch 's 1985 purchase , it could take the unusual step of revoking the stations ' licenses or order a restructuring of the current ownership . Murdoch 's attorneys contend that the original sale was proper . They told the FCC last week that revocation of the licenses would lead to `` the likely demise of the Fox network . '' The key question facing the FCC is who owns the stations Murdoch , a naturalized American citizen , or News Corp. , an Australian company . Federal law prohibits a foreign company or individual from owning more than 25 percent of a broadcast outlet . Passed in 1934 , the law was designed to prevent foreign governments from using radio ( and later television ) to influence the American public unduly , particularly during wartime . Ironically , the issue is coming to a head just as Murdoch has struck another big station deal . Last week , News Corp. said it would spend $ 500 million for a nonvoting 20 percent interest in New World Communications , a company that owns or is buying 12 TV stations around the country . Attorneys for Murdoch say the 1985 deal complies with the foreign ownership law for two reasons . First , Murdoch became an American citizen before the deal was final , renouncing his Australian citizenship in 1985 . Second , Murdoch pledged in 1985 that he and his chief American lieutenant , Barry Diller , personally would control the six stations . ( Fox subsequently bought two others ) . The acquisition was structured so that Murdoch and Diller own stock carrying 76 percent of the voting rights in a holding company that owns the stations . News Corp. , which Murdoch headed then as now , received a second class of stock that represents 24 percent of the voting rights in the holding company . That is just below the 25 percent limit that would have triggered the foreign ownership prohibition . `` The intent of the structure was to comply with the statute , '' said William Reyner , who represents Fox . But FCC officials now say they didn't know all they needed to know about the deal . Murdoch 's application for FCC approval did not make one point explicit : News Corp. was to supply virtually all of the money used to complete the purchase . After repeated questioning in recent months by the FCC , Murdoch 's attorneys at Hogan & Hartson of Washington acknowledged last week that more than 99 percent of the equity capital came from the Australian company . `` If we knew that equity control in excess of ( 25 percent ) was in the hands of aliens , we would have raised the question '' in 1985 , said Roy Stewart , the chief of the FCC 's division responsible for television and radio licenses . Murdoch and Diller put down relatively little for their controlling shares $ 760,000 , or 0.0013 percent of the cash purchase price . ( Murdoch bought out Diller 's preferred shares in 1992 , after Diller left Fox to become head of the QVC cable network ) . The issue for the FCC is whether people who put in such a small portion of the total equity capital could truly be said to control the company . Stewart said the FCC didn't know about the 99 percent contribution because News Corp. and Murdoch had not settled their financing arrangements when they filed for government approval . `` They certified that they were financially qualified to make the purchase and would comply with the ( alien ownership ) statute , '' Stewart said . The only apparent disclosure made at the time about News Corp. 's financial participation was an attachment to the application . It says that News Corp. would tap credit lines supplied by `` American , European and Australian banks , '' and that this money would be `` contributed as capital or loaned to '' Murdoch and Diller . Fox 's attorney Reyner responded Wednesday that the actual size of the investments are immaterial since an American citizen owns 76 percent of the voting stock . Attorney David Honig , representing the NAACP , called the 76/24 split `` a sham '' designed to evade the foreign ownership restrictions . Revocation of licenses is an extreme step that the FCC takes very rarely . Other possibilities include ordering Murdoch to put more of his own money into the holding company that owns the stations . `` Historically , when a bad actor is too big , the commission finds a face-saving middle ground , '' said Andrew Jay Schwartzman , executive director of the Media Access Project , an advocacy group on media issues . LOS ANGELES They spent 11 days together in intense deliberations , and managed to deliver a unanimous verdict : that Rodney G. King would receive no punitive damages from the police officers who beat him . But only moments later , several jurors disclosed the sharp divisions that existed as they struggled to strike a compromise that would end a case fraught with complex issues . `` It was a very tense situation for many of us , '' said the jury 's forewoman , a Filipino-American who , without identifying herself , spoke briefly with reporters Wednesday before driving away from the courthouse in her van . `` Although we had differences , we still had to resolve them in some way and come to some consensus . '' The forewoman described herself as someone with a background in mediation . That helped , but the case was vexing at times , she conceded . `` I think when ( we had ) both extremes in terms of positions : one being that the officers were just doing their duty , the other feeling that there was excessive force and reckless disregard . '' Another member of the racially mixed jury expressed anger over the decision . `` There was no justice here , '' the woman , a black South Pasadena seamstress , said before driving away . `` There was no justice at all . '' Deliberations in the case were `` very difficult , '' she added . When asked whether she felt former Los Angeles Police Chief Daryl F. Gates was responsible for the King beating , she became agitated and said , `` Yes , I do . Definitely . '' ( The judge dismissed the chief as a defendant last month . ) Her comments differed markedly from those of a white juror who said the decision to withhold punitive damages was based , at least in part , on the feeling that Los Angeles Police Department officers receive inadequate training and are grossly outnumbered on the streets . Emphasizing that police work is a dirty job , that juror also a woman said she believed the King beating and its aftermath had been `` sad for the police officers . '' Controversy involving the jurors spilled beyond the courtroom . King 's attorney , Milton Grimes , said Wednesday he was told three jurors `` a native American , a Caucasian male and a Caucasian female '' went together to a weekend barbecue where `` a substantial amount of alcohol '' was served . The outing could be the basis for an appeal , Grimes said . `` We don't know the details , '' he said outside the courthouse , adding that a juror from another federal trial had invited the King jurors to the cookout . `` We 're going to look into it , '' Grimes said . The issue was important because `` you drink too much you get loose tongues . '' Grimes added : `` The court is concerned it was a serious situation . Tongues may have gotten loose . Things may have been said about the case . '' ( Optional add end ) But it was the jurors ' verdict that drew most of the attention from legal analysts Wednesday . Hugh Manes , a Los Angeles civil-rights lawyer who has represented many plaintiffs in other police brutality cases , said : `` The jurors obviously had a difficult time . '' While criticizing the jury 's failure to assess punitive damages against former Los Angeles Police Department Sgt. Stacey Koon or Laurence Powell , Manes characterized the result as one that `` smells of compromise , '' adding that the jury 's earlier damage award of $ 3.8 million represents a fair settlement . Like other legal experts , Manes speculated that the jurors decided against imposing monetary penalties on Koon and Powell because of their jail sentences . `` They are saying Powell and Koon wound up in prison , their careers are ruined . There wouldn't be a lot of point to imposing a punitive damage award , '' Manes said . `` Overall , justice has been done . It could have been done a little better . ( But ) the jury system has proven once again to be the best in the world . '' Laurie Levenson , a Loyola Marymount University law professor , said there were several possible explanations for the jury 's action , including the fact that `` this jury had already awarded very substantial compensatory damages , and those damages already may have ( conveyed ) a bit of a message . `` This jury might have felt that , even though the individual officers did something wrong , the party with the best ability to pay and most responsibility is the city , '' she said . Paul Hoffman , former legal director of the American Civil Liberties Union of Southern California and an expert on police misconduct who now runs a private practice in Santa Monica , said : `` The overall message of what the jury did in this case is to send an important signal that police abuse willn't be tolerated . '' But Hoffman also expressed surprise that no punitive damages were awarded . `` It 's a very important thing in a case like this for officers to be personally on the line , '' Hoffman said . `` That 's the one major problem with the verdict the taxpayers will pay the $ 3.8 million and the officers willn't pay anything . Officers who commit this kind of misconduct should pay something personally . '' WASHINGTON The Clinton administration has decided to seek some form of international economic sanctions against North Korea , if Pyongyang continues to flout international nuclear weapons inspectors , and the United States soon will begin sounding out its allies about possible action , officials said Wednesday . The effort would be launched only if the U.N.-affiliated International Atomic Energy Agency , which is conducting the inspections , formally declares that Pyongyang 's rebuffs have destroyed inspectors ' ability to determine if North Korea has diverted fuel to make nuclear weapons . The Vienna , Austria-based agency is expected to issue its report later this week or early next , but U.S. officials said they are assuming it will declare North Korea out of compliance , unless Pyongyang reverses itself soon . North Korea issued another statement Wednesday saying it would not allow inspectors the access they want . But U.S. officials said privately they believe Pyongyang is still considering the international agency 's demands . `` The ball is in their court , '' one strategist said . The consensus on the U.S. approach was achieved by top administration national security policy-makers before President Clinton left for Europe , where he is scheduled to take part in a celebration by the allies of the 50th anniversary of D-Day . Although Clinton left Washington Wednesday morning , administration officials continued to discuss the issue late into the afternoon . The president is expected to receive periodic briefings . Officials said initial American soundings of allies are likely to begin Friday , when Assistant Secretary of State Robert Gallucci is scheduled to meet here with envoys from South Korea and Japan . U.S. officials said the central question is how the sanctions should be structured and how tough they can be and still win approval of the U.N. . Security Council . The United States may have to settle for a gradual imposition of sanctions , particularly if China , which has opposed punishing North Korea formally , opposes such a move . U.S. officials said they still are unsure how China would vote on the issue . The State Department , while rejecting Pyongyang 's statement as unacceptable , continued to hold out hope publicly that North Korea would agree to comply with the atomic energy agency 's demands . `` There is no IAEA conclusion yet that North Korea has crossed the line of no return , '' Christine Shelly , the State Department 's deputy spokesman , told reporters Wednesday . She said North Korea still has a chance to change its mind . At the same time , Vice President Al Gore told reporters that the administration `` will not flinch '' in its showdown with North Korea . `` We 're not rattling sabers we 're just saying the same thing that American administrations have been saying since the 1950s , '' he said . Administration officials said they still are puzzled over North Korea 's intentions whether it is trying to cover up a nuclear weapons program or merely playing a cat-and-mouse game in hopes of prodding the West into offering more economic incentives . U.S. intelligence officials said North Korea may well have developed one or two nuclear bombs by reprocessing spent fuel rods after it shut down its reactor at Yongbyon briefly in 1989 . But they are uncertain any weapons have been manufactured . North Korea initially had agreed to allow international inspectors to monitor the Yongbyon reactor earlier this year but later barred them from entry . Sir David Hannay , Britain 's U.N. ambassador , told reporters that , although `` there is no smoking gun '' at Yongbyon , `` there is circumstantial evidence that points in one direction and that is not a direction that makes the Security Council comfortable . '' Whether the Council is asked to vote on sanctions , he said , `` depends on the North Koreans . They have a choice . '' BEIJING Decades from now , they will still be remembered as the June 4 Generation . They were the young college students and the older , battle-scarred rebels , the Communist Party reformers and independent union leaders who converged on Beijing 's sprawling Tiananmen Square in the months of April , May and June 1989 in a massive appeal for more freedom . On June 4 , their dreams of a more democratic China were crushed when a phalanx of tanks and troops from the elite 27th Army moved into the city , killing hundreds , perhaps thousands , of citizens in their path . Five years later , the June 4 Generation is only now coming out of its shell and daring to speak cautiously of new ambitions for the world 's most populous country and for themselves . In interviews with the Los Angeles Times , two dozen Tiananmen veterans , most of whom spoke on condition that their full names not be used , said they have put their political dreams aside and concentrated in recent years on their careers . However , a few said they still hope for a day when the nation 's politically disenchanted once again take to the great central square of Beijing to urge reform of the Communist regime . `` If Tiananmen happens again , I will support it , '' said Zhang , 21 , who joined the demonstrators in the square when he was a student and who now works for a furniture design company . For the most part , however , the politically repressive years after the crackdown have made the June 4 Generation a much less idealistic lot , preoccupied with finding good jobs and starting families . `` I 'm more concerned about how to make a living , how to support a family and how to be a good newspaperman , '' said Wu , 24 , a budding journalist and part-time television actor . After the army moved into the center of Beijing and enforced martial law , the demonstrators in the square and their supporters outside scattered in all directions . Three of the most prominent student leaders Chai Ling , Li Lu and Wuer Kaixi fled to the United States , where they have had considerable trouble adjusting to their new lives . One of the three , Li Lu , is an MBA graduate student at Columbia University who now believes that business enterprise is the best way to liberate China . `` I firmly believe that business is the ultimate force for democratic change in China , '' he told a reporter from Business Week magazine in March . `` Economic expansion is teaching people they can have a better life . Everyone is a capitalist in China now . '' After serving four years in prison , Beijing University history student Wang Dan , organizer of the Beijing Students Autonomous Federation that played a key role in the demonstrations , remains in Beijing under heavy police surveillance . Wang Dan , 25 , continues to speak out in favor of democratic reforms . `` On June 4 , '' he said in a telephone interview , `` the government injured not only demonstrators but all of the Chinese people . To heal those wounds and to regain popular support , the leadership must reverse the verdict on June 4 . '' The two men charged by the Chinese government with being the `` black hands '' behind the Tiananmen protests , intellectuals Wang Juntao and Chen Ziming , were recently released from prison on medical parole as part of the government 's effort to meet human rights conditions set by the Clinton administration for the renewal of China 's preferential trading status with the United States . But according to a report recently compiled by the international organizations Human Rights in China and Human Rights Watch/Asia , at least 200 more June 4 demonstrators remain in jail . Five years after the crackdown , it is still dangerous to speak publicly about the events described by the government as a `` counterrevolutionary riot . '' Despite the passage of time , the Chinese people still have not won back the freedoms they enjoyed in the years just before the crackdown , when economic reforms had begun to bring new wealth to the land . Naturally , this has caused many to wonder if China might not have made more progress in areas of civil rights and democratic reforms if the demonstrations in Tiananmen had never taken place , or at least not reached the point of confrontation that allowed hard-line political factions to call in the troops . `` Every June 4 since then , '' Wu said , `` my wife and I drink a lot of beer , smoke Marlboros and shout . I still can't believe that people died . This result was a lot worse than no result at all . Still , I 'm convinced it wasn't useless . At least the government had to bring out its troops to stop us . '' ( Optional add end ) `` If viewed from a short-term perspective , '' said Zhou Duo , a former Beijing University lecturer , `` the 1989 student protests and June 4 have hurt the cause of political reform in China . Many ordinary people now associate democracy with chaos and violence and are therefore afraid of it . '' In 1989 , Zhou , 44 , was a supporter of the reform wing of the Communist Party headed by former party General Secretary Zhao Ziyang . After 1989 , Zhao was removed from leadership and placed under virtual house arrest , although Japanese diplomats claim that they occasionally see him on one of Beijing 's golf courses . Zhou , whose recent efforts to launch a tourism business outside Beijing were unsuccessful , spent several months in jail on charges that he acted as an `` unauthorized '' negotiator , representing the Zhao Ziyang faction , with the students demonstrating in Tiananmen Square . `` Although the protests in 1989 resulted in a reversal of liberalization and reform , I think that few of us who took part in the movement regret our actions then , '' Zhou said . Perhaps the most negative result of June 4 , Zhou lamented , was the chilling effect it has had on the subsequent generation of students . `` On college campuses today , '' he said , `` the main two goals of students are to go abroad or to become rich . Few young people want to get involved in politics because they believe they can't change the system or that it is too dangerous to try . People have become pessimistic , so they channel their energy into making money and concentrating on their own future . '' In some cases , democracy movement demonstrators have made surprising accommodation with the forces that opposed them . Li , 27 , was a student in Shanghai and an active participant in that city 's pro-democracy movement . By chance , he was out of the city on the day of the crackdown and thus avoided political prosecution . His clean slate allowed him to take a high-paying job with a People 's Liberation Army-owned company , with such perks as an imported car and an apartment in Hong Kong . `` Every day when I drive to work I feel very lucky I was not there on June 4 , '' he said . Wang , 26 , was a student at the Central Institute of Drama when the events of Tiananmen began to unfold . He jumped into the movement enthusiastically , joining a hunger strike for more democratic rights . But after the June 4 crackdown , he found it hard to get a job . Employers demanded that he first write a self-criticism detailing his actions in the square . Tall and handsome , he recently won some plum parts on Chinese television and seems on the verge of becoming a matinee idol . Looking back , he now sees his actions in 1989 as naive . `` I don't regret them at all , '' he said , `` but they ( the Tiananmen protests ) had a negative effect on the art world . The policy to art circles has been more strict than before , and more strict than any other fields . '' WASHINGTON The number of inmates in state and federal prisons climbed to nearly a million last year , an almost threefold increase since 1980 , according to a Justice Department report issued Wednesday Last year 's growth alone represented an average weekly gain of about 1,250 prisoners . Congress is poised to stiffen penalties for dozens of crimes , thereby exacerbating the problem . The Bureau of Justice Statistics said that nearly half the increase in prisoners since 1980 was linked to drug offenders entering prison . In 1992 , the last year for which data on drug offenders were available , prison commitments for drug offenses reached 30 percent of all new commitments , the department said . The `` War on Drugs '' produced longer federal and state sentences , mandatory minimum terms and tighter parole policies for drug and violent crimes . In addition to drug offenders , the numbers of people jailed for sexual assault , robbery , aggravated assault and burglary have increased , the report said . Those crimes accounted for nearly 50,000 people entering prison in 1992 , according to the Justice Department . Inmate growth also was linked to increases in the number of parole and probation violators returned to prison . In 1980 , only 17 percent of state prisoners were parole or probation violators , but by 1992 this had risen to 30 percent.Overall , the nation 's prisons held 948,881 inmates at the end of last year , compared with 329,821 men and women in 1980 . The average annual increase for the 14-year period was 8.5 percent . At the end of last year , state prisons were estimated to be operating at between 18 and 29 percent above capacity , while the federal system was estimated to be 36 percent over capacity . The rapid rise in incarcerations underscored the fiscal impact of rising crime rates , primarily on state governments . Corrections officials estimate that it costs at least $ 15,000 a year to house each prisoner , and say the cost of building prisons has been rising annually . `` In recent years , the increase in correctional spending for states has been twice that for general fund increases and even larger than in education spending , '' said Jon Felde , who studies judiciary issues for the National Conference of State Legislatures . `` We have to find new ways to cope with the rate of criminality , '' he added . Felde predicted that state governments would intensify their searches for sentencing alternatives to incarceration . Joseph R. Biden Jr. , chairman of the Senate Judiciary Committee , said that the Justice Department report makes all the more imperative the need for Congress to pass the crime bill , which authorizes billions of dollars for prison construction besides lengthening sentences for a number of crimes . `` But it is not enough simply to keep building prisons because the statistics released demonstrate prison population keeps growing to fill new spaces , '' he said . Biden called for a `` new approach '' to fighting crime , balancing punishment with innovative prevention programs and expanding cost-effective experiments such as boot camps and special drug courts . The report said that California had the most inmates in state facilities in 1992 ( 119,951 ) , followed by Texas ( 71,103 ) and New York ( 64,569 ) . Texas had an additional 29,546 inmates in local jails awaiting transfer to state prisons . The report stressed and local law enforcement officials confirmed that inmate overcrowding and rising costs of incarceration have forced a number of states to begin housing prisoners in local jails . At the end of last year , the report said , 22 states reported a total of 50,966 such prisoners being held in local jails or other facilities . Texas reported that almost 60 percent of its prisoners were being held in local jails even though they had been sentenced to state prisons , and four other states Louisiana , Virginia , New Jersey and West Virginia held more than 10 percent of their prison populations locally , the report said . Bud Meeks , executive-director of the National Sheriff 's Association , said , `` Incarcerating people is a very expensive proposition for us . We feel the increase because our local jails are turning into long-term facilities , which they really are not equipped to be . '' He said one local jail in Fort Wayne , Ind. , was housing 540 inmates , even though it was built for 220 . `` That 's happening all over. . . . It 's a disaster waiting to happen , '' Meeks said . SAN SALVADOR Armando Calderon Sol , El Salvador 's first postwar president , took office Wednesday with a pledge to end political polarization and comply fully with the battered peace accords that ended 10 years of fratricidal conflict here . While in many ways El Salvador has left behind the era when it was synonymous with political violence , deep concern has persisted among opposition leaders that key elements of the peace accords will fall by the wayside accords viewed widely here as fundamental to resolving the deep social problems that sparked the bloodshed of the 1980s . Calderon , 45 , a deeply conservative lawyer and protege of right-wing ideologue Roberto d' Aubuisson , called his April 30 election `` another step toward the definitive consolidation of democracy '' and added : `` The fact that this is the first presidential transition since the war has created great expectations and opens new horizons for national development . '' The new president won 66 percent of the vote to succeed Alfredo Cristiani , a key figure in negotiating the U.N.-brokered plan that ended fighting between the U.S.-backed government and Marxist guerrillas of the Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front ( FMLN ) . Under a central provision of the accords , the FMLN agreed to abjure violence and take part in the elections , in which they were outpolled by Calderon and his Republican Nationalist Alliance party ( Arena ) . Throughout the 1980s , El Salvador was a key battleground in the Cold War proxy battles that enflamed the region . The United States poured $ 6 billion in economic and military aid into this Massachusetts-sized nation to help defeat the FMLN , which was receiving support from Marxist-led Nicaragua and Cuba . But in 1990 , with neither side able to gain a military victory , the Soviet Union crumbling and Washington reaching the end of its patience with government human rights abuses , the two sides agreed to initiate peace talks . The formal peace agreement was signed in December 1992 , ending the war that had cost 70,000 lives . Cristiani , who pushed for the plan over strong opposition from hard-line members of Arena , left office with his popularity high , receiving warm praise from the world community and grudging respect from the FMLN . Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott led the U.S. delegation at today 's inauguration . Also present were retired generals Rene Emilio Ponce and Juan Orlando Zepeda-who were purged from the army for human rights abuses-and a number of former FMLN commanders , many of them now members of the national legislature . Underscoring the continuing strength of the far right within Arena , some of those in attendence waved pictures of d' Aubuisson in characteristic pose with his right fist thrust forward . D' Aubuisson , who died two years ago , founded Arena in 1981 and was strongly linked to the notorious right-wing death squads that killed tens of thousands of people here in the 1980s . For his part , though , Calderon used his inaugural address to issue a call for conciliation and political harmony-a much more moderate stance than he adopted during the campaign , in which he referred to the FMLN as `` terrorists . '' `` We do not want more confrontation or polarization , '' he said after accepting the presidential sash . `` We will work for collaboration among all social and political forces to carry forward our great national project . '' Under the peace agreement , the army was purged of the its most notorious human rights violators and was reduced by half , while the paramilitary security forces were disbanded . Land is to be distributed to former combatants on both sides , and a new National Civilian Police Force is being created that is supposed to include former FMLN guerrillas both in its ranks and leadership . WASHINGTON The Clinton administration is leaning toward seeking gradual economic sanctions on North Korea , rather than an immediate trade embargo , because of the difficulty in getting China to agree to punish the Communist country over its nuclear weapons program , administration officials said Wednesday . Should China not cooperate in the U.N. . Security Council in imposing sanctions , Washington may try to persuade individual countries rather than the United Nations as a whole to place economic restrictions on North Korea . Such sanctions would require no endorsement by the United Nations , where China wields a Security Council veto . But in that case , President Clinton could face criticism that he was unable to get China 's backing over Korea even after the administration agreed last week to maintain Beijing 's favorable trading status despite its poor human rights record . Clinton justified that decision , which represented a major reversal , in part as necessary to ensure Beijing 's cooperation in security issues . One initial measure against North Korea being considered is an attempt to persuade Japan to block North Koreans living in Japan from sending money to relatives back home . Such remittances are a major source of North Korea 's foreign exchange . Officials expect the International Atomic Energy Agency ( IAEA ) to report as early as Thursday that North Korea , by refusing to allow inspection of its key nuclear facility , has made it impossible to determine if nuclear fuel was diverted four years ago to build a bomb . Such a report almost surely would prompt the administration to intensify pressure on North Korea . `` We are coming perilously close to the precipice of sanctions , '' an administration official said . North Korea has said imposition of sanctions would be an act of war . North Korea has recently hastened removal of fuel rods from its key atomic reactor , while refusing to allow inspection of the process by the IAEA as required by an international treaty limiting the spread of nuclear weapons . The State Department said it was still waiting for final word from the IAEA that North Korea had rejected an appeal to halt withdrawal of the fuel rods , or to follow acceptable procedures for storing them under international supervision . North Korea appeared to reject that appeal , as a Foreign Ministry spokesman said Pyongyang `` will not yield to such an unreasonable act . . . and allow itself to be treated as an `` offender. ' ' ' Robert Gallucci , the administration 's top negotiator on the North Korean problem , will meet with Japanese and South Korean officials Friday or Saturday . Clinton 's top foreign policy advisers met Monday on the question of whether to seek immediate sanctions at the Security Council . Although administration officials insist that China 's objectives precisely match Washington 's , China has resisted calls for pressure on Pyongyang , instead counseling negotiations with North Korea , a former ally with which it maintains an uneasy friendship . As a prime fuel conduit and trading partner , China would have to be a primary enforcer of any sanctions . U.S. analysts believe China is reluctant to contribute to the weakening of a fellow Communist-led regime on its border . Even if China goes along in the Security Council , a gradual approach to sanctions is likely , to give North Korea time to change its mind over inspections , administration officials said . The weakest resolution under review would warn North Korea , perhaps with a deadline after which the Security Council would consider sanctions . `` The overall feeling ( is ) , it is better if you start with low end , step by step , then work your way up the spectrum and turn up the heat , '' a State Department official said . China shares U.S. concern about the North Korean weapons program , but would `` prefer to work in a quieter way , without waving the sanctioning stick , '' the official concluded . Possible sanctions include bans on technical exchanges , financial transactions , energy deliveries and eventually all trade . Prohibitions on financial restrictions would include the remittances from Japan . Japan and other countries would prefer a U.N. cover for such actions to avoid taking on North Korea unilaterally and perhaps risk terrorist vengeance . The go-slow approach also is meant to persuade North Korea not to end inspections intended to guard against further development of nuclear weapons . Pyongyang has agreed to such inspections and IAEA technicians are on the job , even while the government blocks the agency from taking measurements to determine if fuel was diverted in the past . While it is possible that North Korea already has developed one or more bombs , new fuel diversions could result in adding five or six to its arsenal , an administration official said . LOS ANGELES Drawing to a close one of the most wrenching chapters in Los Angeles history , the jury that had awarded Rodney King $ 3.8 million for his fateful police beating decided Wednesday to leave it at that , declining to impose punitive damages against the officers who beat him . The Los Angeles federal court panel , which reached its verdict on the 11th day of deliberations , found that former Los Angeles Police Department policemen Laurence M. Powell and Stacey C. Koon had acted with malice in the 1991 beating of King . But the jury concluded that the two men and the officers who backed them up should not be forced to pay King for his pain and suffering a punishment that King 's lawyers had sought to deter similar acts in the future . King 's camp greeted the verdict with mixed emotions , as did many residents of the city . One King attorney , John Burris , described the verdict as a `` Solomon-type decision '' that awarded King some money , but pulled back from punishing officers who some jurors felt `` have suffered so much economic hardship . '' Lead attorney Milton Grimes , however , said he was bitterly disappointed , especially by a decision by Judge John G. Davies earlier in the trial to dismiss the best-known and wealthiest of the defendants , former Los Angeles police Chief Daryl Gates . Grimes said he is considering an appeal of the decision to remove Gates as a defendant and questioned the jury 's wisdom . `` How do you give a man $ 3,816,535.45 who was beaten and not consider the badness of the beaters ? '' asked Grimes . Former officer Timothy E . Wind , the sole defendant present in the courtroom as the verdict was read , said he was satisfied with the decision . `` This has been a long road I 've traveled and I am very pleased with the decision , '' said Wind , who was a probationary police officer at the time of the beating . `` It 's taken a chunk out of my life , a big chunk . '' People throughout Los Angeles agreed that , during the past three years , the case has exacted a heavy toll . The most immediate reaction to the jury 's decision was mainly one of relief that the ordeal appears to be finally playing itself out . ( Begin optional trim ) `` I 'm really glad this is over , '' said Fletcher Jorden a salesman at a sporting goods store . `` It 's been a long process that we 've been going through everyone . '' In fleeting remarks to the news media as they left the courtroom , jurors alluded to the ambivalence they felt in addressing the painful question of retribution against the officers . The jury forewoman described the deliberations as `` a very tense situation for many of us , '' and said the unanimous verdict was a hard-won compromise . But another juror , an African-American woman , left the courtroom in dismay . `` I 'm not happy . I 'm not happy at all , '' she said . `` It 's very , very unjust . '' ( End optional trim ) The verdict marked the denouement of a drama that has wracked Los Angeles for more than three years . The grainy , videotaped image of the white policemen clubbing the black motorist , aired first by a local television station , forced the city to confront long-simmering racial tensions and set the stage for the worst urban riots in modern history . The King case prompted two criminal trials , one state and the other federal . The first yielded not-guilty verdicts for the officers involved , triggering a riot in which 55 people were killed . The second ended with the convictions of Koon and Powell for violating King 's civil rights . Then , two months ago , a third trial began , as King filed a civil suit against the city for monetary damages . By the time of Wednesday 's verdict , all four of the officers charged initially were penniless and unemployed , and King a high school dropout and ex-con was a household name and a millionaire . The civil case was essentially a two-phase process in which King asked first for compensation for medical bills , pain and suffering and then for punitive assessments against the individual officers . The first phase ended with an order from the jury that the city pay King $ 3.8 million in compensatory damages . But the second part of the trial involved the much thornier issue of punishment for the individual officers . Jurors , who were able to use testimony from both phases of the trial , evaluated whether present and former officers used unreasonable force or acted in reckless disregard for King 's constitutional rights , then determined whether those officers should have to compensate King from their own pockets . King 's lawyers had asked the jury of six women and three men to award between $ 3.8 million and $ 15 million in punitive damages from Koon , Powell , former officers Theodore J. Briseno and Wind , and current officers Rolando Solano and Louis Turriaga . Grimes , King 's lead lawyer , said his aim was to convey a message that `` this type of malicious beating of a person will not be tolerated . '' But attorneys for defendants Koon , Powell , Wind and Briseno argued that they are now impoverished and have suffered enough . Koon and Powell are serving 30 months in prison . Wind , a rookie probationary officer , was dismissed from the department , and Briseno was suspended from the force and is trying to get his job back . To the end , the officers were unrepentant , saying they had acted within police procedure in their treatment of King . NEW YORK Diane Welsh was 19 and living in a `` hard-drinking Midwestern town '' when she was raped . Like most women , she didn't report the crime . Instead , Welsh 's friends took matters into their own hands , pummeling her attacker as their form of punishment . But those actions did little to ease Welsh 's anguish and pain . `` I know their intentions were good . But it left me feeling more out of control , '' said Welsh , who moved to New York City in 1980 and is now president of the city 's chapter of the National Organization for Women . `` It made me feel like male property that had been violated . '' Welsh said that 's how she also feels about surgical castration and chemical castration , which some legislators and activists say should be used to punish rapists and other sexual offenders . `` We 're all agreed that rape is not about sex , it 's about power , '' said Welsh , who has spoken publicly about the attack against her , which occurred in the early '70s . `` You 're not going to deal with power by castrating someone . '' But the debate over castration , which has been batted around for decades , emerged again this week after Guardian Angels leader Curtis Sliwa announced that his organization had gathered more than 5,000 signatures on petitions urging castration as an optional punishment for rapists . Castration or the use of hormones to control sexual drive , Sliwa said , should be applied as a form of punishment or as part of the plea-bargaining process . The surgical procedure known as orchiectomy , or castration , removes the testes , producers of much of a man 's testosterone , which fuels sexual desire . Since the 1960s , injections of the testosterone-controlling drug Depo-Provera have also been used , though it 's only effective as long as the recipient continues taking the hormone . The issue came to the national forefront in 1992 when Steve Allen Butler , a convicted rapist , chose to be castrated by a Texas court rather than spend his life behind bars . A judge who had initially granted his request later reversed his decision after a surgeon willing to perform the operation could not be found . In the United States , there is no legislation mandating castration or the use of drugs as a form of punishment . However , some state legislators have proposed bills all in vain calling for such penalties . Experts say many rapes are committed by repeat offenders , with some studies showing that 70 percent of those who receive no counseling or other treatment are likely to rape again . Sliwa said the answer may be castration . `` Hell , let 's divert to a measure that we know works , '' he said . `` It 's common sense , it 's pragmatic , but we 're intellectualizing about castration , saying that it 's barbaric . But rape is barbaric . '' Sliwa argues against what he calls the `` knee-jerk '' reaction of castration opponents who contend that rapists would not be deterred by the procedure because sexual assault is a crime of violence . `` That first urge is completely sexual , '' Sliwa contends . But Sherry Price and other experts in the field of rape counseling and victim advocacy strongly disagree . `` I want to know when he ( Sliwa ) became an expert on sexual assault , '' said Price , coordinator for Choices Rape Treatment Center in New York City . `` I want to know how many sexual assault victims he 's met and counseled . '' Price , 54 , who has also spoken publicly about being a rape victim , said that `` rape is about power and control and the penis is just a tool , a weapon . If they don't have use of the penis , they 're going to use something else . '' She added : `` When you castrate someone , that doesn't do it because there 's still that rage in their mind , there 's still that anger . '' ( Optional add end ) Price notes that a rapist may strike 10 to 20 times before being caught . Those who are caught and convicted , she said , serve an average of three years in prison . Part of the answer , she said , lies in longer prison terms . But she said the United States ' collective thinking on rape and sexual crimes must also change , giving the benefit of the doubt to victims , most of whom do not report being raped . Research on whether castrated sex offenders repeat their crimes is inconclusive . Some studies in Denmark , Switzerland and other European countries have shown that the rate of reincarceration for sex crimes drops sharply for those sex offenders who were castrated . WASHINGTON A top aide to House Speaker Thomas Foley , D-Wash. , tried to pressure Capitol Police to withdraw from their investigation of the House Post Office , an audiotape broadcast Wednesday indicated . The same probe eventually led to Tuesday 's indictment of Ways and Means Chairman Dan Rostenkowski . On June 19 , 1991 , then-Capitol Police Chief Frank Kerrigan secretly audiotaped the aide House lawyer Steven R. Ross saying he would recommend to Foley that members of the force be replaced with security guards if the police did not pull back from the investigation . `` There were questions , about do we need the force ? People are talking , too , members are talking about , well , what we all need is a group of Pinkertons , '' Ross said on the tape , which was broadcast Wednesday on CNN 's `` Inside Politics . '' Both Ross and Kerrigan were interviewed about the alleged threats by investigators from the Committee on House Administration , which completed a report on the post office scandal in July 1992 . Although that report contained various descriptions of the meeting and said Justice Department prosecutors had a copy of the recording , Wednesday 's broadcast was the first time it was made public . Kerrigan has left the force and lives in Florida and could not be reached for comment Wednesday night . Foley was on vacation , and Ross , who is now a private attorney in Washington , did not return calls . Ross told CNN , `` There was no effort I 'm aware of to derail the investigation . '' Both men , as well as Heather Foley , the speaker 's wife and unpaid chief of staff , have in the past denied pressuring Capitol Police investigators . Nevertheless , while the tape 's contents may be subject to interpretation , the House `` will never find the truth until we dig deeper , '' said Rep. Scott R. Klug , R-Wis. , who has led the calls for hearings into improprieties at the post office and Wednesday renewed that call . Rostenkowski 's name first became connected with the post office scandal about two years ago . But the investigation began much sooner , in April 1991 , when the Capitol Police discovered post office clerks embezzling money . That investigation blossomed into the wider scandal that involved members and their staffers allegedly misusing hundreds of thousands of dollars of House funds . A review of congressional records and interviews with investigators shows that , early on , Capitol Police discovered large amounts of money missing , but Ross and Heather Foley thought that the force was not competent and that other agencies including the U.S. Postal Service should handle the investigation . Kerrigan , angry and distrustful after House employees would not cooperate , refused to share audit information with Ross and then taped their meeting by hiding his recorder in a television cabinet . Kerrigan had cleared the secret recording with the U.S. attorney 's office ; the Justice Department has a copy of the tape , congressional records show . The minority report of the House Administration review of Post Office operations quoted Kerrigan as saying that Ross threatened withdrawal of support for pending pay increases and retirement benefits unless the Capitol Police backed off from their investigation . The report says Ross told investigators he was simply worried about the rights of Post Office employees and the relationship between the police and the Justice Department . Yet in the conversation broadcast Wednesday , Ross told the police , `` We got a problem '' and that unless they yielded to the federal investigators , `` then my recommendation to House leadership would be , is that , fine , take them off the House payroll . '' Ross told police he was not trying to cover up , though he acknowledged that , `` It 's bound to raise questions when a person of authority comes to investigators and suggests that the investigation ought not to be done this way , and suggests there may be funding or job cuts in connection with that .. . that constitutes an obstruction of justice . '' During the two years since the scandal broke , federal prosecutors have obtained nine indictments including that of Rostenkowski and a number of convictions . The Democratic portion of the House administration report , meanwhile , concluded that elements of the affair should be reviewed by the ethics committee . House Democrats , however , still refuse to conduct an investigation , arguing that such an action would jeopardize Justice Department prosecutions . ( Optional add end ) The minority portion of the House administration report says that in the process of reviewing Post Office operations , congressional investigators discovered that no fewer than 13 current and former House members from both parties may have committed improper activities in violation of House rules and/or criminal codes . `` There are a lot of others involved in the Post Office scandal , '' said Rep. John E. Boehner , R-Ohio , who also has called repeatedly for an ethics investigation . `` Employees , other members and former members . '' U.S. . Attorney Eric H . Holder , who is prosecuting Rostenkowski and other matters associated with the Post Office , wrote a letter to ethics committee chairman Jim McDermott , D-Wash. , warning against a parallel House investigation . Such an action would `` interfere directly with the federal grand jury 's final consideration of possible criminal charges , '' Holder wrote . Cal Ripken Jr. is on a pace to break Lou Gehrig 's Iron Man record of 2,130 consecutive games next summer , but the Baltimore Orioles shortstop will not be able to match Carla Boggess ' streak until the 1996 season . When the 17-year-old Boggess steps across the stage at Lansdowne ( Md. ) . High School 's senior assembly Friday , to accept a pair of scholarships her streak will end at 2,340 consecutive days of school , that is . For 13 years from kindergarten through high school , Carla hasn't missed a day . Even chicken pox , that childhood scourge , waited to break out until a few days after first grade ended . Although Baltimore County schools do not keep a list of such records , system spokeswoman Myra Treiber said she checked with senior educators and found `` it is very rare and quite an achievement . '' HOLLYWOOD CBS , which last week lost eight key affiliates to Fox in the largest defection of stations to a rival network in history , hopes to have most of the affiliates replaced within the next two to three weeks . But the network , in a news conference Wednesday following a daylong meeting with its affiliates , was evasive about what stations would become new CBS affiliates . `` We 're going to spend whatever it takes , '' said Laurence A . Tish , CBS Inc. chief executive . `` We 're going to be No. 1 in programming that 's where the battle is going to be fought . '' But at the same time , Tisch downplayed speculation that the affiliate defections would force CBS to pay more in so-called compensation payments , the money the networks pay affiliates to carry their programming . `` I don't think there will be any ( across the board ) increases , '' Tisch said . In his first public statement since Fox 's surprise wresting of CBS affiliates , Tisch was guarded in his remarks about Rupert Murdoch , chief executive of Fox parent News Corp. . `` He had to do what he thought was best for his company . '' However , CBS affiliates looking for a definitive move by CBS to replace its affiliates lost to Fox were disappointed . There were expectations that the network would come to its affiliate convention with a deal in place . William Sullivan , president of WPAX-TV in Missoula , Mont. , and head of the CBS affiliates advisory committee , said CBS stations were `` looking for confidence '' from the network . `` By Friday we should have some indication where we 're going , '' he said . Earlier this year CBS lost the National Football League contract to Fox after being outbid by $ 400 million . Peter Tortorici , president of CBS Entertainment , said the network would replace its Sunday afternoon football games with new made-for-TV movies and network TV premieres of theatrical films in a bid to counter program with female-oriented programming . CBS ' history of appealing to too many men and older viewers has been a perennial complaint from affiliates . Tisch said CBS is looking at buying additional TV stations and would urge the Federal Communications Commission to lift the ownership caps that limit the number of TV stations a broadcaster is permitted to own . At present , a company may not own more than 12 TV stations or a group covering more than 25 percent of all TV households . `` I don't think two years ago ( we ) could have forced the issue , '' Tisch said . `` I think it should be relaxed and will be relaxed , just like radio . '' Still , Tisch was unapologetic in defending his strategy to keep CBS focused on its core business and not diversifying into related businesses , such as cable TV . In recent years , ABC , NBC and Fox all have launched cable channels and invested in overseas broadcasting ventures . `` I 'm a businessman , '' Tisch declared . `` I 've been around a long time . ( CBS ) has over $ 1 billion in the bank earning money every day . There is no better asset . To make ( a deal ) for one day of pleasure and 22 years worth of pain is not worth it . '' When asked how long he would continue to control CBS Tisch was named chairman in 1987 and buying 25 percent of CBS Inc. 's stock he attributed his reply to legendary investor and friend Warren Buffett : `` I hope to retire 10 years after I die . '' Joe Camel has been set free . The Federal Trade Commission has voted not to seek restrictions on Joe Camel ads despite a staff finding that the suave dromedary encourages youngsters to start smoking cigarettes , the head of a major anti-smoking group said Wednesday . `` It 's a major setback for the public health in this country , '' said Scott Ballin , chairman of the Coalition on Smoking OR Health in Washington , D.C. , which brought the complaint more than three years ago . `` It basically gives the tobacco industry a green light to aggressively target kids with seductive advertising messages and says that the industry should not fear any reprisals from the Federal Trade Commission . '' The decision is a rare victory for R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. , which makes Camel cigarettes , and the rest of the tobacco industry amid a spate of bad news . The industry has been pummeled by smoking bans , cigarette tax increases and congressional hearings on the role of nicotine in cigarettes . `` We 're obviously pleased that the FTC 's extremely thorough review of all of the documents tens of thousands of pages and all of the facts relating to the Joe Camel matter led to a decision not to move forward with a complaint , '' R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. said in a statement based on reports of the vote . `` We have always maintained that the Camel campaign is designed to reach adult smokers . '' The company said it had not been officially notified of any action . Lee Peeler , associate director for advertising practices at the FTC , declined to confirm or deny the report . He said the commission can only comment publicly if it either issues a complaint or votes to close a matter . It is possible for the FTC to keep a case open even it votes not to pursue a particular complaint . Ballin said the commission , breaking a long stalemate , voted 3-2 Tuesday against pursuing the complaint . Mary L. Azcuenaga , who had long been refusing to vote one way or the other , provided the final vote against , he said . Deborah K. Owen and Roscoe B . Starek also voted against , Ballin said , while FTC Chairwoman Janet D. Steiger , who has long favored a ban , voted to pursue the complaint , as did Dennis A . Yao. FTC staff first recommended restrictions on Joe Camel more than a year ago . Opponents of a ban have argued that it would be a violation of the First Amendment , which protects advertising . Supporters of a ban have said the FTC has the right to act because the campaign is harmful to children just as that agency and the Food and Drug Administration already restrict advertising for prescription drugs . In February , Surgeon General Joycelyn Elders urged the FTC to act on the complaint and criticized the Camel campaign . In April , a House subcommittee that has regulatory jurisdiction over the FTC demanded access to materials from the agency 's investigation to review its status and why it was moving so slowly . In 1991 , a study indicated that 6-year-old children were as familiar with Joe Camel 's tie to cigarettes as they were with the Mickey Mouse logo 's link to the Disney Channel . Last year , a researcher at the University of California , San Diego , reported that smoking began rising among teen-agers in 1988 after a 15-year decline and blamed the Joe Camel campaign . In 1992 , 23 percent of Camel smokers were 25 and younger , up from 18 percent in 1988 , according to a survey by Simmons Market Research . `` We do not think that the campaign has caused young people to start smoking , '' said Peggy Carter , a spokeswoman for RJR in Winston-Salem , N.C. . `` There has been no evidence to that effect . If we believed the campaign did start kids smoking , we would pull it . '' ( Optional add end ) Reynolds has refused to cut back on its ad campaign , which helped halt a decline in the brand 's market share after it was launched in the U.S. in late 1987 . This year , the company added female camels to its ads for the first time and set them in a bustling bar , prompting a new outcry from critics . Camel ranks No. 6 among cigarette brands in the United States , with about 4.1 percent of the total market . Last year , spending on ads for Camel shot up by 87 percent , to $ 42.9 million , according to Advertising Age . The campaign was ranked eighth in popularity among print campaigns last year , one notch below the Marlboro ad campaign and down from third place in 1992 , according to an annual consumer survey by Video Storyboards . The Marlboro campaign features cowboys and western settings . In highly successful promotions , both Marlboro with first an Adventure Team and now a Country Store campaign and Camel have been offering merchandise such as caps and knapsacks in exchange for cigarette packs . Ballin 's coalition , which includes the Heart Association , Cancer Society and Lung Association , has also filed a complaint with the FTC about the Marlboro Adventure Team campaign , saying that cigarette companies had agreed not to depict smokers in vigorous sporting activities . In HAITI ( Freed , Times ) sub for 3rd graf ( deleting reference to others holding U.S. passports ) xxx rulers : The order affecting air and financial services will come this month , perhaps within two weeks , one U.S. official said . He said several days ' notice will be given before the flight cutoff to allow people especially Americans to leave or return to Haiti . Embassy sources estimate there are 1,000 Americans in Haiti . PICK UP 4th graf : U.S. officials xxx : BENACO , Tanzania Six weeks after this empty valley became home to 300,000 Rwandan refugees , Benaco is taking on the trappings of permanency . It is now part of Africa 's life cycle , with births and natural deaths , roadside merchants selling everything from batteries to potatoes and practitioners who treat the ill with herbs and chants . The wealthier people here have radios , and news from the war front in Rwanda spreads quickly from tent to tent , where families hunker outside to cook their maize rations over campfires of gathered sticks . The survivors of entire villages moved across the border as cohesive entities and now dwell here clustered together , their social structures intact . A young man who calls himself Johnny sat alone by a fire the other night , looking across the hills toward Rwanda . He was the oldest of eight children and had been a university student . A passerby asked him how he felt being part of this great sea of displaced people . `` Sad , '' he said in English . `` Not angry , not afraid , not how do you call it ? confused . Just sad . '' -0- Annie Faure , a French doctor , has been ministering to the wounded at Gahini Hospital in northern Rwanda since May 1 . Her patients include 100 war orphans , and she is at a loss to explain why the Rwandans at the hospital including nurses and healing mothers ignore the orphans , even refusing to feed them unless she is there to check . `` They need love , particularly after the trauma they have suffered , '' the doctor said . So one afternoon last week she took the orphans , who were well enough to walk , to her nearby home . She sat them in a big circle in the garden and gave them cookies and told them stories with , she said , happy endings . -0- Young con artists in Nairobi , Kenya , have for years used a favorite trick : They introduce themselves to Americans on the street and say they will be studying at a university in the United States in the fall . Does the American have time for coffee to talk about what university life in the United States will be like ? Wary Americans know the encounters are always pitches for money . One young man who said his name is Peter wasn't making any headway with an American visitor the other day , despite an elaborate story about growing up in Kenya 's highlands with a dozen brothers and sisters and studying nights to earn his scholarship at the University of Southern California . `` What if I tell you I am a Rwandan refugee ? '' he said . `` Then will you buy me a meal ? '' -0- Along the Uganda side of Lake Victoria , between the villages of Kasensero and Lambu , the bodies of thousands of Rwandan massacre victims have washed ashore in the last two weeks . Ugandan health officials have expressed concern that the rotting corpses may have contaminated the lake and its fish . But fisherman Philip Anguma does not share the concern . He was pulling in his catch of Nile perch , 100 yards from where rescue teams were plucking half a dozen decomposed bodies from the lake . He wrapped his fish in banana leaves and sent them off to market in Masaka lashed to the back of his friend 's bicycle . Anguma explained : `` Of course the lake is safe . I have fished here for years . My father fished here too , and he lived to be an old man . '' -0- John Barayagwiza came to bury his infant son in the mist of early morning . He stood on a small plateau above the Benaco camp , surrounded by 20 men from his village , and they talked loudly about the war . The child 's body was wrapped in dark plastic provided by the United Nations and lay unattended nearby in the brush . Several men labored with hoes and pickaxes to dig a grave in the hard earth . Soon a lay priest came , turning off the dirt road at a sign that said `` irimbi '' cemetery . Then came the body of another child , a week-old girl whose mother had died giving birth . And then the covered body of an adult woman , borne by four men on a makeshift stretcher . She had died of AIDS , one of the stretcher bearers said . Barayagwiza , a farmer , said it was strange his son should escape the killing in Rwanda , only to die here where it was safe . The service lasted only a few minutes . Then the farmer walked back over the hill to gather his remaining seven children and begin the long daily trek in search of firewood that would sustain his family . HOLLYWOOD Paramount and Warner Bros. recently discussed merging their competing fifth television networks but were unable to come to terms , knowledgeable industry executives said Wednesday . The discussions , which were held by Paramount Pictures Chairman Jonathan Dolgen and Warner Bros . Executive Vice President Barry Meyer and other senior executives , were said to be complicated by cross-ownership concerns and other problems . Paramount was unavailable for comment . Jamie Kellner , president of Warner 's WB network and an equity partner , said `` there are no ongoing discussions . '' Kellener said the talks never reached a `` meaningful stage , '' adding , `` In my opinion the two entities will not be merged together . '' Both companies have been in a race to sign up affiliates in recent months in the hopes of introducing two nights of prime-time programming by the end of next year . The merger talks are said to taken on a new urgency after Fox 's unprecedented raid on CBS affiliates . Fox last week snatched away 12 affiliates from the major networks , up to eight of them from CBS , in a bold bid to gain parity with ABC , CBS and NBC . The move has set off a domino effect among affiliates , as the networks scramble to find new outlets . While most industry executives think it would be wiser for Paramount and Warner Bros. to combine their competing networks rather than waging a war of attrition , implementing such a strategy may be all but impossible . In order to win valuable airspace in the biggest cities , both Paramount and Warner Bros. took on as partners some of the largest independent station groups in the country . Paramount 's network is 50 percent owned by Chris-Craft Industries , which through its majority-owned subsidiary BHC Communications , controls eight TV stations . The WB network , which is being guided by Kellner and Garth Ancier , is launching a `` hybrid '' network in conjunction with the cable superstation WGN-TV and other independent TV stations owned by Tribune Broadcasting . One major obstacle to combining the two networks is a non-compete agreement between Paramount and partner Chris-Craft . Under that agreement , Paramount may not invest in another network for a three-year period . In addition , the Tribune TV stations have long-term program contracts with Warner Bros. , making it difficult for the studoo to sever its ties . ( Optional add end ) But Fox 's historc raid on established affiliates has left both Paramount and Warner Bros. shaken . As the major networks begin to hunt for new affiliates to replace the ones they are losing to Fox , stations that have committed to either of the fifth networks are targets . Neither Paramount or Warner Bros. can afford to lose affiliates since it would make it harder to achieve the 70 percent level of U.S. TV households needed to attract national advertisers . It was in part to get around the shortage of available TV outlets , in fact , that Warner Bros. partnered with WGN-TV to increase its coverage area . Executives familiar with the talks said if either studio were to effect a merger it would have to win the approval of its respective partners . And right now , the executives said , neither Chris-Craft or Tribune appears willing to do so . I had assumed Paula Jones ' quest for whatever it is she really wants was already fully funded by various forces on the right who had lavishly assisted her in her historic legal assault on a sitting president . Apparently not . A Virginia pesto sauce manufacturer who has been a Republican fund raiser has launched a $ 500,000 campaign to pay the costs of presenting Jones ' case against the president . I 'm not saying that a $ 40,000 contribution will get you a choice ambassadorship if the Republicans evict President Clinton from the White House in 1996 . But anybody with the mission of making the president 's life more miserable than it already is now has a viable new option besides simply funneling money to the Republican National Committee , to the right political action committees or to the campaigns of Clinton 's chief tormentors in Congress . The Jones campaign has even got operators standing by at an 800 number to take your pledges , and for all I know you can put it on your VISA card . Do you suppose the Republicans are getting ready to run her for the Senate somewhere ? At the rate things are going , legal expenses related to Whitewater and dealing with Jones could either drive the Clintons into personal bankruptcy or force them to the unseemly expedient of finding their own pesto sauce manufacturer with an 800 number . We have to ask ourselves where this trend in campaign finance is taking us . First Ross Perot proves that a loquacious Texan with more money than God and the nerve to ask millions of Americans to send him a few dollars can buy his way onto the national political scene without ever having stood for alderman , even dog catcher . Then a lieutenant colonel named Oliver North proves you can lie like a rug to Congress and parley this patently offensive act into a life of personal riches and a well financed campaign for a seat in the very Senate of that Congress from a once proud state that used to be so boastful of its politicians as to call itself `` the mother of presidents . '' And now Jones is showing how the Republicans can in effect commingle funds for the 1996 presidential campaign with the expenses involved in a sexual harassment case without leaving a single fingerprint that will get them hauled in for election law violations . This proves , I guess , the utter futility of ever imagining that there is such a thing as believable campaign finance reform in America . Limit every congressional and presidential candidate to $ 5 contributions , abolish PACs , force the holders of broadcast licenses to give free air time , publicly finance candidates ' travel expenses , even grant them free postage . There is still something about money that will , and legally , buy what it wants in politics . This is what we must tell ourselves when we imagine that Congress is infested with people who ran for office purely to enrich themselves with subsidized haircuts , expensive Capitol subways and dinners with lobbyists . This , for God 's sake , is the small change , the chicken feed of federal politics . Look at the millions of dollars that gush to protect the various health care lobbies , the timber and grazing interests , the right of every American , no matter how deranged , to run around with a gun , the restoration of capital gains preference , and you 'll see why you feel owned . WASHINGTON Charles Evans Hughes , chief justice of the United States in the 1930s , once said , `` How I dislike writing opinions ! I prefer arguments and let someone else have the responsibility of decision . '' He must have loathed the end of the Supreme Court term . June has become the do-or-die month . The month when , in an effort to resolve all of the outstanding cases , the difficult gets done , the stubborn compromise and procrastinators face the music . Of an estimated 84 cases to be decided this term , 36 remain . `` It is truly a sweatshop at the Supreme Court in June , '' said Paul Cappuccio , a former clerk to Justices Antonin Scalia and Anthony M. Kennedy. `` Everyone at the court dreads the inevitable memo that comes around from Chief Justice ( William H. ) Rehnquist saying it 's time to stop dillydallying and get these opinions to the printer . '' `` June was the month that I worked hardest , '' retired Justice Lewis F. Powell Jr. said yesterday . It is when the justices must finish their opinions , write dissents to other justices ' opinions and anticipate drafts that have yet to be circulated . June rulings often show the strains of deadline and forced consensus . Tuesday 's case involving public employee speech rights produced four different opinions , none signed by a majority of justices . The ruling , requiring public employers to investigate before they fire someone for allegedly insubordinate remarks , emerged from a patchwork of the justices ' separate statements . June opinions , sometimes characterized by hasty reasoning , are most likely to confound lower court judges . The joke among lawyers is that if an opinion is especially difficult to follow , it must be a June . Testiness increases at the end of the term too . Justice Scalia mocked Justice Sandra Day O' Connor 's opinion in Tuesday 's case of Waters vs. Churchill. Scalia , whose vitriolic pen often is aimed at O' Connor , wrote , among other things , `` Justice O' Connor makes no attempt to justify ( her opinion ) on historical grounds ( it is quite unheard of ) . '' O' Connor , using milder rhetoric , dismissed Scalia 's complaint . ( Three other justices sided with her , two sided with him , and two went their own way . ) Powell , who was on the court from 1971-1986 , noted that in the mid-1980s the court heard almost twice the number of cases it will decide this term . But no matter . The justices , like other mortals , leave their toughest work to the end . `` Sometimes a justice would work fairly slowly to circulate ( a proposed majority opinion ) in which I would want to write a dissent , '' Powell said , talking about how the process would be prolonged . `` I would have to see the opinion before I would begin writing a dissent ... . I was sometimes guilty of doing just that ( working slowly on a majority opinion ) myself . '' The court 's most controversial disputes of the term await decision , including a case testing black and Hispanic voting rights in Florida , which was heard on the first Monday of October . Also pending is whether Congress may require cable TV systems to set aside up to one-third of their channels for local broadcasters and whether the New York legislature 's creation of a special school for Hasidic Jews violated the constitutional separation of church and state . Other high profile cases concern the speech rights of disruptive abortion clinic protesters , whether judges must have authority to limit juries ' punitive damages awards , and the constitutionality of state procedures in numerous death penalty cases . Rehnquist tries to evenly distribute the opinion writing . So sometimes one can deduce which justices are most likely to be writing opinions from outstanding cases . O' Connor has delivered the most opinions so far , nine . Behind her , with six each , are Rehnquist , Clarence Thomas and Ruth Bader Ginsburg . John Paul Stevens , Scalia and Kennedy have written five majority opinions each . Justices Harry A . Blackmun and David H. Souter have written three opinions each . On May 26 , Blackmun sponsored a music recital at the court with a renowned pianist , violinist , cellist and bass baritone . The biannual event has become a tradition for the court 's most senior justice . Before Blackmun , who will retire at the end of the term , introduced the performers , he told the audience that he hoped the afternoon 's music would boost the justices ' spirits as they headed into a difficult month . CHICAGO The Cabrini-Green projects tower over the northern edge of downtown like a high-rise graveyard , a monument to the futility of three decades of public housing policy and the hopelessness of all who live there . Vincent Lane , the man who runs these skyline eyesores of mottled cinder-block and security fencing , comes here often on a mission that many Cabrini tenants regard as a fool 's errand . Lane , the chairman of the Chicago Housing Authority , imagines garden apartments where tenants see exhausted dormitories , some sealed with plywood . He sees ceiling fans and wrought-iron gates where residents endure crippled elevators that force them to slog up to 19 flights of stairs to get home . He sees courtyards filled with children at play where they spy huddled gang members , pistols bulging under their shirttails . A real-estate millionaire who administers Chicago 's 155 high-rise projects , Lane intends to resurrect Cabrini , a symbol of `` all that 's bad in public housing , '' to prove that the nation 's largest and most infamous system of public housing can be redeemed . `` You can raise families in high rises , '' he preaches to wealthy architects at wine-and-cheese receptions and to rows of murmuring Cabrini residents jammed inside drafty commons meeting rooms . Lane puts his faith in `` income mixing '' the experimental replacing of many low-income project residents with working and middle-class families . Lured by low rents and the higher safety and maintenance standards , the new tenants are expected to provide a human safety net for their poor neighbors , acting as role models and helping them find jobs . A natural-born salesman in Italian-tailored suits , Lane has spent the last year trying to sell the dream that Cabrini , a 70-acre cement moonscape bordered by freeway ramps and railroad spurs , might someday become a functioning , livable community . Despite $ 50 million in federal seed money , Lane 's $ 350 million project is still in its infancy , months away from breaking ground . Before tenants can be moved and buildings razed , Lane must secure financial commitments from developers and business leaders , loans and legislative support from politicians and government-mandated approvals from Cabrini 's tenants . A blunt , genial Mississippi native , Lane , 51 , commutes between Washington and Chicago to nudge his dream along . Even in its earliest stages , the Cabrini plan is generating excitement among housing planners as one of the most ambitious efforts to transform high-rise projects since their creation in the 1950s . If it succeeds , Cabrini could become a model for change in massive projects throughout America . `` It 's a concept that 's long overdue and really brings us back to what public housing was supposed to do in the first place , '' said Margery Austin Turner , a housing analyst with the Urban Institute in Washington . `` These big high-rise projects not only segregate the poor from the rest of the world , they also have a destabilizing influence on the neighborhoods around them . '' More than 30 city housing agencies recently embraced income-mixing in applications for grants to the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development though only Lane 's bases the future of an entire complex on it . Income mixing was common once in the nation 's projects , before stringent federal rent rules made it economically ruinous for working families to remain there . Lane recalls growing up in the 1950s omically ruinous for working families to remain there . Lane recalls growing up in the 1950s near Wentworth Gardens , a South Side Chicago project , amid `` green lawns and working families with both parents living at home . '' That world is gone , but Lane insists `` we can fine-tune it to fit a new era . '' His fledgling Cabrini project which would tear down seven high-rises would be the first phase of a metamorphosis that could run into the billions and last a decade or more . Those left out would be resettled `` willingly , '' Lane insists in subsidized rental units and new government homes built elsewhere in Chicago and its suburbs . Cabrini 's population is now overwhelmingly poor and without resources . More than 70 percent of its households pay less than $ 100 a month in rent . At least 63 percent are female and 43 percent are school-age children . All but 2 percent are African-American . And 90 percent are on public assistance . It is Cabrini 's own poor who are most suspicious of Lane 's intentions , and not without reason . They worry that they will be displaced into perhaps worse housing at higher rents . And they bridle at the prospect of having to leave apartments where some families have lived for three generations . `` We 've been getting the shaft for years and we want to be damn sure we 're not going to get it again , '' said Josephine Trotter , who has lived at Cabrini 15 years and is on the project 's Resident Advisory Council , the tenants ' negotiating group . Lane , an African American , has run Chicago 's housing since 1988 as an appointee of the mayor and City Council . He juggles his post at a salary of $ 1 a year with private interests in subsidized housing units scattered outside Chicago through the Midwest and East . Lane became one of the nation 's most visible housing directors when he tamed the rampant administrative chaos that almost led HUD to seize control of Chicago 's housing system in 1987 . He was hailed by former Republican HUD Secretary Jack Kemp for the crime sweeps he repeatedly ordered in Chicago projects . His name was bandied about as Kemp 's replacement until President Clinton chose former San Antonio mayor Henry Cisneros . In April , Clinton hoisted Lane 's profile even higher by ordering federal officials to find legal underpinnings to back his warrantless weapons searches in the Robert Taylor Homes , a 28-block stretch of high-rises lining the Dan Ryan Expressway on the city 's South Side . Crime control will be essential at Cabrini , Lane says , because `` I willn't be able to persuade working families to move in unless they feel safe . '' James Rosenbaum , a professor at Northwestern University 's Center for Urban Affairs , believes poor residents will benefit from living among higher-income residents . For 10 years , Rosenbaum monitored Chicago 's Gautreaux Program , a federal court-mandated effort that assisted 5,000 poor families in finding integrated housing . Although Gautreaux 's poor moved into more affluent areas the reverse of the process Lane seeks at Cabrini the results , Rosenbaum says , may well be identical . At least 46 percent of those who had no jobs when they lived in public housing and tenement units found work after moving to the suburbs , Rosenbaum found . That number compared to 30 percent who moved to other city housing . And those who moved to the suburbs also won better pay and benefits . ( Optional add end ) Lane can point as a precedent to Lake Parc Place , whose twin red-brick towers loom over Lake Michigan on the South Side . Until the 1980s they could have been any dispirited city high-rise . Closing the buildings in 1986 , Lane used a $ 14 million HUD grant to erect a black , wrought-iron fence and install wading pools and shrub-trimmed play areas . He spent $ 60,000 per apartment on pastel-colored paints , oak cabinets and mini-blinds , among other refurbishments . Then he welcomed back tenants with a rigid screening policy , weeding out troublemakers and addicts . Half of Lake Parc 's 282 units were earmarked for working families a ratio that the buildings have maintained since they opened in August 1991 . Georgia Caldwell was transfixed by the sound of early morning showers . `` When I first got here it took me a while to figure out what that was , '' she said . `` All these people were getting ready for work . I never used to hear that sound . '' WASHINGTON Twelve blocks from the Immigration and Naturalization Service headquarters , a foreigner with an extensive criminal record can deceive the owners of a fingerprint shop , get a fake set of prints and then use them at the INS to become a U.S. citizen . The INS requires all immigrants who apply for naturalization to submit fingerprints so the FBI can run a background check . But agency personnel stopped taking fingerprints 10 years ago for budgetary reasons , instructing applicants to have them taken by private companies instead . In many cases , they do so without providing proof of their identities , according to a report issued by the Justice Department 's inspector general . The INS has failed to regulate private companies , and has no means of preventing immigrants intent on hiding their arrest records from enlisting someone with a clean history to submit their prints instead , the report said . Evidence of the problem lays just across town from the headquarters . Adrianne Lucke , manager of ASL Business Services , which started offering fingerprinting services four years ago , said she was never instructed by the INS to check applicants ' identification . `` No one ever instructed me that that 's what I have to do , '' said Lucke , who fingerprints about 10 people each month . Others have more established procedures . At Authorized Fingerprinting and Passport Photos in Los Angeles , owner Thomas Kitrell says he is leery of customers without identification who seek fingerprinting . He said he writes down the driver 's license number of every person who has prints taken . `` It is a problem and is something I 've always felt is a big hole in the system , '' Kitrell said . `` We 're letting the world 's criminals into our country . '' Last year , the FBI turned up 9,000 arrest records among the 866,000 applications for U.S. immigration benefits that included fingerprints . But `` an unlimited number '' of immigrants with criminal histories could still slip by federal law enforcers if the INS doesn't close loopholes in its application procedures , said Sen. Joseph I . Lieberman , D-Conn. , who released a study of the problem Wednesday . `` We have enough problems with criminals born right here in the United Staters , '' Lieberman said . `` We don't need to invite trouble by making it easier for criminal aliens to become criminal citizens . '' Lieberman suggested that the INS begin charging fees to immigrants applying for benefits to pay for in-house fingerprinting , or start licensing private companies to take fingerprints . He said local law enforcement offices also could offer the service . Lieberman threatened to introduce legislation to change INS policy if the agency does not act soon on its own . Agency officials acknowledged Wednesday that their procedure is flawed , but they resisted the idea of imposing new fees on immigrants who already have to pay $ 90 simply to file a naturalization application . ( Optional add end ) `` We 'd have to charge more in a system that is already fee-based , '' said Rick Kenney , an INS spokesman . A task force created to develop better application procedures is due to issue its recommendations later this month , but Kenney cautioned that changes in agency rules may not take effect until August . Applications for naturalization , asylum or other benefits may be denied depending on the seriousness of an applicant 's crimes . In most cases , felony convictions of drug trafficking , prostitution or other vice-related offenses would be grounds for rejection , according to INS policy . WASHINGTON A beaming President Clinton , flanked by young people , is shown striding across the White House South Lawn . Everyone is clapping . `` AmeriCorps Coming Soon To Communities Everywhere , '' says the advertisement , which White House officials hope will be as effective at getting participants for national service as Smokey Bear has been at reducing forest fires . AmeriCorps is the president 's signature domestic peace corps program . It will send young Americans into communities across the country starting in September to `` get things done '' like immunizing infants , tutoring teens and making schools and neighborhoods safe . In return , workers expected to number 20,000 the first year will receive a low wage , health benefits and stipends of $ 4,725 for each year of service that they can use for education or training . Even though 60,000 people have called to inquire about signing up for the program , Eli Segal , the president 's national service czar , is a little nervous . `` If we throw a party and no one comes , then we haven't thrown a party , '' Segal said . To make sure that does not happen , the Corporation for National Service , the independent agency Segal heads , has begun a sales campaign . The first step was coming up with a logo , and that meant the `` 30-something '' agency officials had to design a logo cool enough to appeal to those in their teens and 20s . The corporation chose a design featuring a letter `` A '' swimming in a gold sun , encircled with the words : `` AmeriCorps National Service '' in blue block print . After emblazoning the logo on T-shirts , badges , patches and bumper stickers , it was time to take the campaign on the road to college campuses . To promote the visits , the corporation enlisted rap artist L.L. . Cool J . In a public service announcement recorded for college radio stations , he urges students : `` Find out how you can be one of the 20,000 young people committed to rebuilding our communities . AmeriCorps , the new national service movement that will get things done . '' Then Clinton administration officials , accompanied by rock or rap groups , hit the campuses of the University of California , Los Angeles , Harvard University , the University of Minnesota and Morehouse College in Atlanta last month . Smaller events announcing AmeriCorps took place at 50 other campuses . Segal also gave his pitch to national magazines from Elle to Rolling Stone to Money , hoping they would help launch national service by running articles in their September editions . Negotiations are under way with Ogilvy and Mather Worldwide to have that top advertising agency design public service announcements for radio and television . Popular bands are being asked to talk up the program at concerts through the summer . And the administration is trying to set up partnerships between local TV stations and AmeriCorps projects in their area , so they can keep viewers informed of what workers are accomplishing . ( Optional add end ) This emphasis on accomplishment is important because for the program to expand or continue to exist after the first few years Segal will have to be able to show Congress that it is having a real impact . Segal said he has some concern that the campaign will create such demand that many interested young people will be turned away from the program . On the other hand , he said , he does enjoy entertaining the thought that his `` product '' could end up being as popular as the `` Cabbage Patch Kids '' doll craze . Advertising campaigns for federal programs serve dual goals . One is to stimulate people to do what the government wants . The other is to sell the impression to the public that the government doing what it promised it would do . For that reason , it is perhaps more than coincidence that Clinton figures so largely in public service ads being distributed to magazines and newspapers across the country for publication . `` We always start with the assumption that this would not happen if Bill Clinton was not the president of the United States , '' Segal said . `` What is unique about this is that the president of the United States is so committed to it . '' The following editorial appeared in Thursday 's Washington Post : Majorities of both houses of Congress have signed onto bills that would make it harder to impose additional unfunded federal mandates on state and local governments . It sounds like a simple enough thing to do , and the bare minimum in terms of intergovernmental fairness . Why should the feds be allowed to impose obligations and priorities on the state and local sector without the funds to match ? But it isn't that simple ; nor is it clear that these bills would always produce good public policy . Carelessly drawn , they could easily do a lot of harm . The Senate Governmental Affairs Committee is at work on the issue . Here are some of the problems it has encountered : . ( 1 ) The leading bills are described as if they were bans on unfunded mandates . That 's what members seem to think and to claim they are sponsoring . In fact , it isn't possible for one Congress to bind the next , or even to bind itself . The bills would merely require an explicit vote in order to impose such a mandate . That 's not a bad idea a form of truth-in-legislation but even it can present complications . ( 2 ) There 's a question of which mandates the sponsors mean to include . The civil-rights laws impose certain costs on the states ; the recent Americans With Disabilities Act is a prime example . The leading bills originally included the civil-rights statutes ; now it 's been pretty well agreed that they should be dropped . There 's no similar agreement , however , with regard to labor laws . If Congress raises the minimum wage , should it take a separate vote to cover state and local government ? Health and safety legislation is another category . Should there be a presumption in the law that state and local governments are entitled to federal aid in order to comply with health and safety standards when private employers are not ? ( 3 ) How do you count up the costs of a mandate , and from what starting point ? Aggrieved state and local officials want the bill to cover only future increments in costs , locking present costs and aid into place . But what if the federal government is already giving more in aid in a certain area construction of drinking-water-treatment facilities , for example than it is requiring on the margin . Do the feds get a credit when they pay for more than they demand ? Do they get a credit for the tax subsidies given state and local governments-the deduction for state and local income taxes , for example , or the exemption of interest on state and local government bonds ? The feds now pay 57 percent of the cost of Medicaid , the states the rest . What if Congress wanted to cut the federal share to 55 percent still well over half the cost of a program that would otherwise fall to the state and local sector entirely-and use the savings for something else ? Could it do so without a vote on the `` mandate '' it was imposing ? ( 4 ) There 's a huge problem as well in terms of the congressional committee structure . Most of the authorizing committees that produce new legislation have no control over the funding of their creations , which lies with the appropriators . The authorizers thus have no power to guarantee when a bill comes to the floor that it will be funded . Do they take power from the appropriators or cede it ? Congress is currently set up in such a way that to require it not to enact unfunded mandates may be to require it not to legislate at all . Is that what the proponents want ? In its 1916 decree creating the National Park Service , Congress explicitly outlined two goals : Preserve the designated sites `` unimpaired for the enjoyment of future generations , '' and provide for the public enjoyment of those resources . The conflict between preservation and access has forced a creative tension on the Park Service since its first days . Achieving balance grows more difficult each year . As challenging as the mission is , the two goals are not contradictory , particularly when one focuses on the nature of the genuine park visitor experience . The national parks are not about entertainment ; Disney , Warner Brothers and others are masters at that task , and park rangers need not compete with them . Rather , rangers facilitate the American people 's encounter with their heritage . The challenge is in bringing the visitor to a more intense appreciation of the natural world . This framework sets new and clear parameters on methods for accommodating more visitors . Despite annual increases in visitation , for example , the Park Service will not be in the road-building business . Roads disrupt , divide and fragment natural systems that are the very reason for parks ; our challenge is in finding new means of visitor transport . We will not be in the hotel-building business , but will instead work with owners of lands bordering parks so that many overnight needs can be met in gateway communities . These communities can also serve as `` staging '' areas , where visitors can learn of a park 's facilities , collect materials and shop all without adding to the milling crowds inside . Likewise , the service must consider different methods for protecting its resource base , because it is no longer enough to focus on the nature of developments within the park . We must begin to focus on parks not as distinct entities , but as the centers of ecosystems . At Yellowstone , massive herds of elk and buffalo ( and soon , perhaps , gray wolves ) do not acknowledge the straight lines on a map ; those animals inherited an entire ecosystem , and park staff must work closely with resource managers from other state and federal agencies to protect their migration range . Everglades National Park is part of a natural system being killed by the invasion of exotic plants ( caused by nutrient-rich agricultural runoff ) and the diversion of water for residential and commercial uses . That park 's fate lies not in the hands of its rangers , but in a massive , multi-agency effort to restore the system . Sequoia National Park has air-quality problems worse than many large cities , but the problems ' source lies in faraway industrial centers along the California coast and in the Central Valley . Clearly , it is no longer sufficient to label land a park and assume it is protected . Protecting the resource base also means continuing the search for new sites , because America 's history and perspectives are always changing . Fifty years ago , there was no Martin Luther King Jr. . Historical Site to be preserved , because that chapter in our history had not yet been written . A century ago , we crossed the Midwest in search of scenic splendor , oblivious to the extraordinary biodiversity being plowed up and taken for granted . The new effort to create a park in the Kansas tall-grass prairie finally acknowledges the importance of that resource . Generations in search of alpine scenery simply walked on by some of America 's most unique ecosystems . One of those regions would be protected by the California Desert Protection Act , ushered through the Senate by Sen. Dianne Feinstein , D-Calif . Unsurpassed in its scenic , biological , cultural and recreational significance , the desert has been ignored too long . Finally , protection of the resource requires a sounder financial base . A first step would be congressional action to restore discretion to the Interior secretary to set reasonable park entrance fees . Currently , only three of the 367 Park Service sites charge $ 10 per vehicle , only 15 charge as much as $ 5 per car and Yellowstone 's entrance fee is less today than it was in 1915 . In addition , Congress can provide collection incentives to park managers by returning to the park half the money collected above the current base . Though beset by fundamental problems , the welcome sign is out at our national parks , because the National Park Service can fill a unique and immediate role . We are within decades of an environmental collapse on this planet . Our urgent task is to communicate to the American people what it means to live more lightly and respectfully on the land . Any contemplation of our role in developing and teaching a new conservation ethic leads directly back to the national parks . The parks are where this task is easiest , where the educational process begins , where it is all so extraordinarily fresh , obvious and overwhelming . The national parks must serve as the gateway to the conservation ethic , because if that gateway can't be crossed in our national parks , it can't be crossed anywhere . NEW YORK A Reworked Craig Lucas-Craig Carnelia musical , a new play by Joyce Carol Oates and a drama by Steven Dietz that had a brief run here last winter will be part of Circle Repertory Company 's 1994-95 season . The season opener in October will be `` Three Postcards '' by the two Craigs Lucas ( author ) and Carnelia ( composer-lyricist ) . The musical , first produced at Playwrights Horizons in 1987 , was one that a Circle Rep director , Tee Scatuorchio , `` had always wanted to work on , '' said artistic director Tanya Berezin . Scatuorchio was preparing a Circle Rep Lab production , she said , `` and had some questions for Craig Lucas , which inspired some rewrites . So this is really a reworked version , '' rather than a revival , which Circle Rep rarely stages . The show focuses on three girlhood friends who reunite in a restaurant and , amid the usual chatter , begin revealing more about themselves than they intend . The other two shows that are definite for the season do not yet have time slots . Berezin said she hopes Dietz ' `` Lonely Planet '' will have the same director , Leonard Foglia , and the same cast as the Barrow Group production that ran during last winter 's snowstorms . Denis O' Hare and Mark Shannon played two men grappling with issues such as anti-gay bias and AIDS . Oates ' play , `` The Truthteller , '' is `` high comedy '' reminiscent of Oscar Wilde , Berezin said . Gloria Muzio will direct . `` Basically , it 's about the value of the family , even if the family is dysfunctional . '' The family in question decides to be totally honest after a tape recording reveals how phony everyone has been . The bottom line : Honesty doesn't always pay . Casting began this week for `` Das Barbecu , '' expected to be one of Off-Broadway 's major productions in the fall . The musical by Jim Luigs ( book and lyrics ) and Scott Warrender ( music ) is a country-western show by way of Richard Wagner , no stranger to onstage barbecues . It has already had productions in Seattle ; Chester , Conn. ; Baltimore ; Sarasota , Fla. ; and , of course , Dallas . Christopher Ashley will direct and Eduardo Sicangco will handle sets and costumes . Producing will be some of the industry 's most active presenters : Thomas Viertel , Steven Baruch , Richard Frankel , Dasha Epstein , Fox Theatricals , Margery Klain and Daryl Roth . No theater or specific dates are set . Paul Rudnick 's latest play , `` The Naked Truth , '' doesn't officially open until June 16 , but it is already officially headed for a larger venue after the run at the WPA Theater ends in July . The producers , the Baruch-Viertel-Frankel group from `` Das Barbecu , '' plus Jujamcyn Theaters and Scott Rudin , are veterans of Broadway , and that 's not ruled out as a destination . Directing `` The Naked Truth '' is Christopher Ashley , who staged Rudnick 's earlier hit , `` Jeffrey . '' The move will probably come in late summer-early fall , depending on Ashley 's schedule . In addition to `` Das Barbecu '' and `` The Naked Truth , '' he 's directing the film version of `` Jeffrey . '' We haven't heard much in New York from playwright Cheryl L. West since `` Before It Hits Home '' was staged in March 1992 , at the Public Theater . But she 's been busy elsewhere and , before too long , we may get to see her highly acclaimed new play . At the moment , West is adapting `` Before It Hits Home '' for a planned Spike Lee movie . The script , which deals with a black family facing a son 's death from AIDS , is due in a few months , West said recently from her home in Champaign , Ill. . Meanwhile , she said she hopes to visit New York soon to talk about her latest play , `` Holiday Heart , '' which was co-produced earlier this year by Syracuse Stage , Cleveland Play House and Seattle Rep . There has been New York interest , she said , but declined specifics . Once again , the subject is family . The holiday heart of the title is a wise , warmhearted drag queen who takes in a 12-year-old girl abandoned by her drug-addict mother . `` There 's all kind of family , '' West said . `` I thought , ` Let 's put these unlikely characters together and see what happens. ' ' ' Lincoln Center Theater saved Eric Bogosian 's `` subUrbia '' for the last slot in its Festival of New American Plays . Good timing ! Now , with the reviews in and raves fairly consistent , the play about wasted youth in the suburbs can take a summer-long lease on the Mitzi Newhouse Theater . The closing has been moved to Aug. 28 . A further extension may be possible , depending on when the fall season 's first production opens . The play is Tom Stoppard 's `` Hapgood , '' and the timing of that one depends on the availability of its star , Stockard Channing . Charles Busch is dragging out some of his gowns and some of his friends for a one-night gender-bending gala . The event , `` Charles Busch 's Dressing Up ! , '' will be staged June 24 at Town Hall . Busch will host the evening and perform . He 's also persuaded drag diva Charles Pierce to come out of retirement to spoof `` Sunset Boulevard . '' Randy Allen will recreate Marilyn Monroe and Ira Siff will appear in his most famous persona , prima ballerinaVera Galupe-Borszkh . In the interest of equality , comedienne Louise DuArt will perform from her repertoire of impressions that includes George Burns and Woody Allen . Rachel , Rebecca and Julia are girls . That 's obvious . Or is it ? They 're 10 years old . Their dark hair is short , their legs muscular , their chests flat . They 're soccer players , really good soccer players , and they dress the part running shorts , T-shirts , cleats . They 're also smart , funny , exuberant and brimming with the self-esteem and camaraderie organized athletics has given them . But , as they have recently learned , some people consider their profile and their gender to be mutually exclusive . It began as one of those silly sideline rumors ; the opposing ( and losing ) team was said to have complained that Rachel , Rebecca and Julia were not , in fact , girls but boys posing as girls . Their parents , teammates and coaches were , of course , incredulous . Rachel 's mother , hoping to dismiss the rumor as just that , approached a man on the other side and inquired as to the existence of such a laughable claim . `` I think it 's revolting , '' was all the man said . At first , she thought the man might be referring to the absurdity of the gossip . But his gruff tone and huffy demeanor quickly set her straight . He was revolted by the sickening sight of those three transvestites those 10-year-olds in drag ! Well , Rachel happens to be my niece . And having changed her diaper on numerous occasions , I can attest to her femaleness . Moreover , having watched her first decade of growth , I can say that one of Rachel 's many outstanding qualities is that she is who she is stubbornly , gloriously honest and individualistic . Many a time have I rejoiced in how miraculously immune she is to the insidious effects of stereotypes of any kind . She can be loud and tough and aggressive ; she can be quiet and gentle and bookish . She is always herself . She is also pretty insightful . Her summation of the charge against her : `` It 's so stupid . '' Rachel 's mother ( my sister ) and I have attempted to probe the nature of this stupidity . Does it mean that girls still must be frilly and physically inept to be `` real '' girls ? Does it mean that if they are close-cropped and athletically skilled they must not be girls at all ? I keep thinking of Donald Trump 's comment on the Native Americans whose business acumen is rapidly edging him out of the casino business : `` They don't look like Indians , '' he fumed . Translation : They don't look like the stock characters we 've been conditioned to expect , and/or there 's got to be some hidden and unscrupulous explanation for their astounding success . Anyone who 's got kids in organized sports knows what a fascinating social laboratory the sidelines can be , parental competitiveness being one of the more explosive ( and ugly ) chemical reactions to routinely take place there . But one heartening observation I 've made during my many hours in the lab this spring is that there is , in fact , a burgeoning population of Rachels , Rebeccas and Julias girl athletes who do defy the traditional female profile . But they 're too numerous and too well integrated into their social milieu to be tossed off as `` tomboys '' or any other eccentric subset . The `` revolted '' man on the opposing team isn't the only one who 's failed to come to terms with this phenomenon . Even my sister and I , who grew up when team sports were an exclusively male domain and we girls were consigned to cheering from the sidelines in our frosted lipstick , ran into trouble . We found ourselves seeking to affirm Rachel 's femaleness by pointing out that she had just enthusiastically selected a fancy bridesmaid dress and her first low-heeled pumps . And maybe , we added , if she 'd been wearing her earrings ( they 're prohibited during play ) , this wouldn't have happened .. . We were really starting to flail What does a 10-year-old girl look like , anyway ? Does Rachel look like a boy ? when my 17-year-old , an athlete himself , happened onto the conversation and with one breathtakingly spare observation put the matter firmly to rest . `` Rachel , '' he said , `` looks like a soccer player . '' LOS ANGELES Rob Reiner 's 1984 rock-documentary parody film `` This Is Spinal Tap '' inspired many of those who saw it to retell some of its best bits , like its gags about exploding drummers , but for actor-screenwriter Rusty Cundieff , it did much more . It inspired him to make his own movie spoof . `` I was a big fan of ` Spinal Tap , ' ' ' says Cundieff , 29 , during a midmorning interview at a diner near his home , adding that he has seen the film at least 11 times . `` It 's truly , truly awesome . It 's one of the best parodies it 's so subtle . '' The movie Cundieff directed , wrote and starred in , `` Fear of a Black Hat , '' spoofs rap the way `` Spinal Tap '' spoofs rock , and it 's often as funny as its inspiration . Much as Reiner 's film tracks the career of a hard-rock band , `` Fear of a Black Hat '' follows the exploits of the fictitious hard-core rap group N.W.H. ( the `` H '' stands for hats ) and its members , Tone Def , Tasty-Taste and Ice Cold , who is played by Cundieff . Cundieff , an actor and stand-up comedian , decided he wanted to direct a rap parody movie in 1990 after members of 2 Live Crew were arrested in Florida for performing songs from `` As Nasty as They Wanna Be . '' They were later found not guilty . `` It just seemed like a ridiculous thing , '' Cundieff says . `` The ( First Amendment issue ) was important , but it was ridiculous the way it came about ... . The idea was to do a film like ` Spinal Tap ' that had a group of rappers who were on death row for obscenity ( charges ) . '' `` Fear '' eventually evolved into a broad parody of hip-hop culture that spares few rappers and few rap conventions . The pseudo-mystical Tone Def sounds suspiciously like Prince B. of PM Dawn ; minor characters Vanilla Sherbet and MC Slammer have obvious real-life counterparts ; and the more one knows about rap , the more inside jokes one can spot . In a nod to `` Spinal Tap , '' the group 's managers rather than its drummers die under mysterious circumstances . ( Begin optional trim ) `` The movie plays on a few different levels , '' Cundieff says . `` People who are really into rap and understand the business get one area of it . People who aren't into rap laugh at it , but in an entirely different way . People who are really into rap , and seriously take it as real , don't like the movie . `` One of the things that a lot of people don't seem to realize is that rap is a performance , just like anything else ... . It 's kind of scary when people take the lyric to a song and turn it into a political frame of mind : ` OK , we are basing our dogma on this : `` Fight the Power. '' ' The song is a great song .. . but you hope the people will go beyond that . '' Making `` Fear '' not only gave Cundieff his first chance to direct , but it also gave the longtime rap fan his first chance to grab the microphone himself he does some of the rapping on the movie 's soundtrack , a collection of N.W.H. songs that includes `` My Peanuts , '' a send-up of Run DMC 's song `` My Adidas , '' and the group 's controversial hit `` ( Expletive ) the Security Guards . '' About two weeks ago , he went into the studio to cut a new track for a soon-to-be-released video by Ice Cold 's newest persona controversial gangsta rapper Ice Froggy Frog . ( End optional trim ) Though Cundieff pokes fun at hip-hop 's cliches , he seems to have a genuine love of the music , which he started listening to in the early 1980s while growing up in Pittsburgh . After graduating from the University of Southern California , he started doing stand-up comedy and acting . After appearing in a small role in Spike Lee 's `` School Daze , '' Cundieff decided he wanted to write and direct . `` Spike was really influential , '' Cundieff says . `` Any time anyone had a problem with what he was doing , he 'd say : ` If you don't like it , direct it yourself . ' It made total sense to me . '' Cundieff and `` Fear '' producer Darin Scott a big `` Spinal Tap '' fan and a friend of Cundieff 's used $ 600 they won gambling on a trip to Las Vegas to make a 20-minute video version of the movie they could shop around to production companies . Though none were immediately interested , ITC picked up the movie in 1992 . The film premiered at the 1993 Sundance Film Festival and was well received , but internal changes at ITC caused the film to be delayed for about a year . Even if the delay affects how the film does at the box office , Scott still regards `` Fear '' as a success because it helped the two land other projects , including `` Tales From the Hood , '' an urban suspense anthology they co-wrote , which will be produced by Spike Lee . `` No matter how well it does at the box office , it 's already ( done well ) for us , '' Scott says of `` Fear . '' `` We 're making more movies . '' After more than a century of girding the loins of American male athletes and giving its name to those who wear it the jock is slipping . `` I never see jockstraps anymore , '' says Michael Joy , 17 , a high school junior in West Hartford , Conn. . Joy , who plays basketball and lacrosse , says although cup protectors are de rigueur for lacrosse , the jock alone is definitely an endangered species . The jock continues to have its supporters it 's still issued by many college and pro teams . And protective cups , both hard and soft , with cup supporters that , with any luck , keep them in position , have never gone out of style in contact sports . But novel fabrics and designs have helped to create a new generation of athletic underwear . Undoubtedly the fastest growing jock alternative is compression shorts those skin-tight spandex shorts made famous by college and pro basketball players . ( Some athletes do wear jocks under their compression shorts . ) Also edging out the traditional strap are light , brief-type supporters that feel and look like the underwear that up-and-coming athletes are used to . `` Most of all , it 's the advent of new materials , '' says Bob Beeton , manager of the clinical services program in sports medicine at the U.S. Olympic Committee training center in Colorado Springs , Colo . Beeton says jockstraps are increasingly rare among would-be Olympians . `` It 's a lot more comfortable getting your support from something that is kind of a full-sleeve support rather than something with straps and bands around it and never seems to stay where it 's supposed to , '' says Beeton . The jock is not simply another piece of clothing . Those in middle age and older can remember when getting the first jock sometimes required for junior high or high school physical education classes or youth sports was an awkward rite of passage . It has been a rich source of rib-tickling locker-room humor : The old Ben Gay-in-the-jock rarely failed to get a laugh , and seniors often tried to convince unwary freshmen that the strange , new appliance was really a noseguard . Who can dispute its many contributions to the colorful language of sport ? Will it be possible to fake someone out of his compression shorts ? One would think that the demise of the jock would be met with anguish at the jock capitol of the world : the Knoxville , Tenn. , headquarters of Bike Athletic Co. , the company that developed and sold the first jockstrap in 1874 in Boston to protect the privates of bicycle jockeys ( thus the name ) who were bouncing over Beantown cobblestones . Bike sold its 300 millionth jock two years ago . `` There are a lot of different products out there cannibalizing the jock business , '' says Beth Hamilton , marketing manager for the elastics division , which includes jockstraps . The jock `` is on the way out , but I can't tell you that it 's gone . There are still people who prefer the traditional supporter . '' Actually , Bike invented compression shorts , so it is happily competing with itself . The shorts were originally designed from surgical hose 15 years ago to reduce hamstring injuries and groin pulls among football players . And Bike is further diversifying : Besides brief-type jocks and special lightweight numbers for runners and swimmers , Bike this summer will add a line of men 's underwear briefs `` with a mild degree of support , '' according to Hamilton . Bob Gfeller , senior marketing manager of Champion Underwear of Winston , N.C. , another jock maker , calls the traditional strap `` a low-end loss-leader for our line . '' It 's an entry-level item , he says , but it accounts for only 5 percent of Champion 's underwear business , while its Cool Jock one of the new wave of lightweight jocks , has 8 percent . Compression shorts are 65 percent of Champion 's business . `` You 're seeing a move out of jocks and into compression pants , '' he says . ( Optional add end ) The need for support is reiterated constantly by sports-medicine experts . Dr. John Fulkerson , head of sports medicine at the University of Connecticut Health Center in Farmington , echoes this advice : `` If athletes don't have some form of protection and support , they are at additional risk of injury . '' ( Protection and support , technically , are two different things , according to Bike 's Hamilton . A cup supporter is designed only to hold a cup in place , not to support the genitals . For both protection and support , she says , you need to wear both a cup and a supportive garment . Compression pants , by the way , make everything feel tight , but they don't provide quite the same support as jocks . Claims that they help prevent groin and hamstring injuries have not been clinically evaluated . ) Dr. Jeffrey P. York , a Portland , Maine , urologist who has written on sports and the male genitals , agrees that athletes need protection and support . But he notes that the part about support is more a common-sense opinion than the product of exhaustive research . If male athletes slam their testicles around over a long period of time , he says , they 're likely to end sore , even bruised . Dr. Kennon Miller , an assistant professor of urology at the State University of New York , Buffalo , says support in athletics is not a matter of plastering the family jewels tightly against the abdomen but of `` gathering the genitals in a little more of a defined area . '' Jocks do this quite well , he notes , but so do good-fitting briefs , the built-in briefs in some running and gym shorts and some kinds of compression shorts . Traditional jocks , he says , can chafe some men more than alternatives ( compression shorts are particularly chafe-proof ) . And wearing yesterday 's dirty jock can worsen existing skin problems such as `` jock itch , '' a yeast infection . If the need for support is so obvious , why did the ancient Greeks who were smart enough to invent democracy , geometry and assisted suicide not wear jocks ? Such a question plagued the late Waldo E . Sweet , a professor of classics at the University of Michigan , who devoted a chapter to the topic in his 1987 book , `` Sport and Recreation in Ancient Greece . '' Sweet 's conclusion , based on glosses of ancient texts , interviews with nudists and a little firsthand birthday-suit running , was that the cremaster muscle , which lifts or lowers the testicles involuntarily based on temperature or stress lifts away during exercise . The Greeks figured out that nature provides its own support . York says nature 's built-in jockstrap undoubtedly does kick in as exercise begins . However , as the body temperature goes up with an extended workout , the cremaster and other muscles in and around the scrotum will relax . `` If I were running a marathon , '' he says , `` I 'd probably wear an athletic supporter . '' He also notes that the body may adapt to some kind of habitual exercise . `` Too many of us are weekend athletes , '' he says . Nonetheless , the Greek way seems to appeal to a segment of young athletes who forgo support for style . Josh Lippman , an 18-year-old high school junior in West Hartford , Conn. , says although the jock is surviving , there is an anti-jock movement among teen-agers . `` A lot of kids are wearing boxers now , even for sports , '' he reports . `` They think you 've got to hang loose . '' GLENELG , Md. . It 's a slow , meandering journey from New Jersey to Georgia on a mule . That 's how Keri Martin likes it . She 's a 40-year-old woman with no permanent home who travels the country on her mule , Samuel 3 mph when she walks him , 2 mph when she rides . `` I don't rush , '' says Martin , who was visiting friends here recently . `` It 's the trip that matters . '' She took three weeks to travel from her father 's house in New Jersey to Glenelg , where she stayed one week before departing for Georgia . If you gauge a trip by the time it takes to get there , then Martin ranks last . But if you measure the journey by peace of mind , then she finishes ahead of most of us . Her father , a corporate executive , has come to realize that . `` I 'm sure there are times you look at your job and your life and wonder : ` Is this all there is ? '' says Frank Martin , 63 , by telephone from New Jersey . `` There 's a little bit of Keri in all of us . '' Plain-spoken with a grand smile , Martin wears her usual outfit : Old hat , wire-rim glasses , scarf tied around her neck and overalls . Two pigtails hang down her back . `` I guess the old-time pioneer spirit is still left in a few people , '' she says . She 's not sure why it 's left in her , but she remembers in the sixth grade having to write a composition about what she wanted to do when she grew up . She wanted to ride a horse across country . That was admirable for a 12-year-old girl living in the suburbs of New Jersey . But when she got a job at a riding stable in high school , bought a mare for $ 250 and announced her intention of riding west after graduation , that was unsettling for her parents . She left with her mare , Lady David , after midnight to avoid the daytime traffic around Philadelphia . She crossed the Tacony-Palmyra Bridge over the Delaware River leading Lady David , blindfolded , next to a police escort with flashing lights . `` I didn't have any idea where I was going , '' Martin says of that 1972 trip . `` I was just heading out . I still do that sometimes , just head out . '' The trip lasted two months , derailed a week by Hurricane Agnes and finally stalled in Western Maryland near Sugarloaf Mountain when Lady David bent a shoe . Martin went to college that fall , attended three years and dropped out . She worked at a riding stable , learned blacksmithing and then got the itch again and again , and again . This is her eighth journey . She 's ridden as far west as Texas . Working odd jobs , she settles down for short stretches at her father 's , at friends ' farms . `` When the grass starts growing in the spring , '' she says , `` I 've got to go somewhere . '' ( Optional add end ) Martin was robbed once . She 's been pestered by drunks , and once a driver accidentally sideswiped her mule but didn't hurt him . That 's about all the bad things that have happened , she says . `` For hours you can think what you want to think , '' she says . `` You can go all day and not say a word to anybody . `` I 'm not the kind of person who gets lonely . I don't get bored either . I 'm happy doing this . I don't see any reason to change . '' Materialism is not for her . `` The more possessions you have , the more you have to work to pay for them , '' she says . `` If all you own is a mule and a few possessions , you don't have to work that much. .. . Life 's supposed to be fun , at least that 's the way I look at it . '' She packs lightly a tent , some food and not much else . Traveling alongside the road , she rides Samuel up hills , walks him down hills and splits the rest of the time riding and walking . `` He 's got over 8,000 miles on him , '' she says of Samuel , who is 16 . `` I 'm going to have to retire him pretty soon . '' Samuel is her second mule . She switched from horses because , she says , mules are sturdier , friendlier and better travelers . The pair sleep at night in woods or fields . Attracting a lot of attention during the day , they 're often invited to stay with strangers . Distributed by the Los Angeles Times-Washington Post News Service . This will be the summer of Joe 's 10th year , the summer of letting go . I can see in my son an anxiousness to be free of little boydom . In me , there is just anxiousness about the little freedoms that I will be forced to grant , about the freedoms he will stretch and embroider , about rules he will bend and break , just to see if I am serious , just to see how far he can get . I have seen it coming all this year . He pressed me to be allowed to return to the school playground with his buddies , and came home with new words to try out on me . I could see him calculate my reaction . Just what do mothers do when you say those things ? On another trip to that playground , he was threatened by some older boys and tried not to show how shaken it had left him . He is ready for all this . I 'm not so sure about me . My own memories come into focus about the age of 10 , so I am conscious of this turning point for him . It pains me to think that all we have done together up to now will be lost to him , that it will be me telling him about the memories , not him remembering them . That what has meant the most to me during these 10 years will exist only in photo albums for him . But I am also pleased with the kind of clean slate his amnesia will give me . We can start over , sort of , building this wonderful relationship that will sustain us through his adolescence . I 'm not sure how to do it , though . I had sisters . I don't know what it is like to be a 10-year-old boy . At 10 , I was waiting to wear a bra and shave my legs . He wants to ride his bike across a four-lane road to play at a dock on a deep and forbidding stream . I was trying to get my mother to let me have bangs . He wants to spend all day in the woods where liquor bottles have been found and where teen-agers smoke . I don't know if I will like it if I can't hear his voice through the screen door . While I wanted to read `` Archie and Veronica '' comic books and drink Cokes with older girls when I was 10 , Joe has buddies with Swiss army knives and real bows and arrows . My girlfriends ' mothers took me with them to the new mall in our neighborhood . Joe has a friend whose dad might take him hunting . Did I think he was going to play Legos in front of the television for the rest of his life ? Joe and his dad are best friends now . It used to be me . Now , I feel like a woman who comes in to do the wash . But why would you want to go to a children 's theater performance of `` Cinderella '' when somebody else will take you to the batting cages ? So soon ? He used to love seeing plays with me . Now , he and his dad trade their mild bathroom jokes in whispers out of earshot of disapproving me . When Joe fidgets in church , it is his dad who settles him by telling him to pray for hits . His father is now endlessly amusing while I his partner during years of intimate moments have become a bore . `` Ohhhh , mom ! '' is what I hear most often these days . Joe used to wear the polo shirts , khakis and Docksiders I chose for him . ( His father says I dressed him like someone I would like to have dated . ) Now , most days , he looks like a pile of dirty wash and glad of it . His long , delicate fingers are always filthy now I swear , it looks as if he digs for his food and his nails are chipped and broken . He still slips that little paw into my hand when we walk , but I wonder how long that will last . He doesn't seem to be very curious about sex . I guess I am grateful for that . But there is one girl in his class that he doesn't absolutely hate , and he endures endless teasing when he refuses to disparage her . He never cared if his teeth were brushed , but suddenly he cares what his hair looks like . Oh my , I can see him in a prom tux ! I don't like what he chooses to wear to school ; I will never approve of whom he wants to date . How did we get to this point , Joe and I ? How did I , a college hippie and a ground-zero feminist , end up with a station wagon full of Little Leaguers ? How did I , who wanted the sports section of my college newspaper disbanded as irrelevant , come to feel such pride in the fact that my son bats second and fields like Chris Sabo ? Joe and I got to this point together , I guess , traveling down the same road these 10 years . I can't help but wonder when that road will fork for us . Sometime in the next 10 years , I suppose . What 's a mother to do ? One of the earliest choices she makes is how to feed her child , but society doesn't always make the best choice an easy one . New York State has recently enacted a law protecting a woman 's ability to breast-feed in public and imposing stiff penalties on people who try to interfere . Breast may be best , but the American public still tends to confuse the fundamentally decent act of nurturing a baby with the crime of indecent exposure . Even a few facts about breast-feeding versus the bottle can make the decision a no-brainer not just for mothers , but for policy makers , employers , health insurers and anyone else concerned about public health and welfare . Breast-fed babies get fewer ear infections and are less likely to have allergies or diarrhea . Studies even show that nursing raises a baby 's IQ . Recent research in Israel has found that breast milk contains a potent `` cocktail '' of hormones that may hold life-long benefits for a child 's health and development . Scientists are also exploring the possibility that breast-feeding may lower a mother 's risk of certain types of cancer . If that 's not persuasive , consider the pocketbook . In addition to saving on expensive infant formula , parents can now ponder another incentive . Researchers at the Johns Hopkins School of Public Health studied 10,000 babies and announced last month that those who were breast-fed for more than a year tended to have straighter teeth than bottle-fed babies . But translating a wise choice into real life is not always easy . Breast-feeding in public is not in itself a crime , but since the process can easily bare a breast to public view , it could conceivably be prosecuted under indecent exposure laws in various states . Those cases are rare , of course , but public disapproval is not . From museums and malls to mass transit buses , stores , sidewalks and restaurants , nursing mothers whose babies get hungry are accustomed to stares and sometimes even being asked to stop or leave . The New York law was prompted in part by an incident in an Albany mall when a woman breast-feeding her child in the food court was asked to cover up or leave . When the incident was publicized , a reader wrote to a local newspaper , fretting that nursing in public put society on a slippery slope toward fornication in the streets . Such worries would be amusing if they didn't have such dire effects . Cities like Baltimore face deep and abiding problems posed by the number of unmarried teen-age girls who give birth . Compared to middle- and upper-income mothers , these young women are far less likely to breast-feed . Yet , according to Judy Vogelhut , nurse coordinator of the Johns Hopkins Breastfeeding Center , they are precisely the mothers and children who most need the benefits gained by breast-feeding . In addition to the health benefits , breast-feeding promotes the bonding process between mother and child something that does not always go smoothly when a young girl gives birth . Equally important is the natural contraceptive effect breast-feeding can have . It 's not foolproof , but it 's certainly better than nothing . Yet these young mothers are more vulnerable than most women to disapproving attitudes toward breast-feeding . They often live in crowded conditions , making it difficult to nurse in private . Frowns from the baby 's father or taunts from other members of the household can easily discourage them . They also depend on public transportation , where snide comments can have a devastating effect . Vogelhut notes that when young mothers are told about the benefits of breast-feeding , they almost always want to do what 's best for their baby . But it would help if society made it easier for them . Already , cost containment efforts have resulted in policies that send women home within hours after giving birth just when a new mother can run into problems with breast-feeding . On the other hand , governments and employers are beginning to recognize the value of incentives for breast-feeding . This year , the government of Quebec began offering subsidies of $ 37.50 a month to low-income women who breast-feed their babies . In this country , the Special Supplemental Food Program for Women , Infants and Children , known as WIC , has begun offering incentives by allowing nursing women to stay on the program longer . About three-quarters of middle and upper-income women nurse their babies , compared with fewer than 25 percent of women enrolled in the WIC program . A society increasingly burdened with soaring health care costs and with the social effects of children having children is not one that can afford to indulge a misplaced prudishness that confuses breast-feeding with indecency . They weren't a dashing couple the way she and Jack had been back in the high summer of the '60s , brimming with grace and vigor , Bouvier charm wed to Kennedy charisma . One pairing like that is probably enough for anyone . Nor were they a controversial power couple the way she and Ari had been , ensconced in their private island like pharaohs , he ruling the waves of commerce with his vast fleet , she nursing a secret pain and all the billions in the world . No , they weren't dashing and they weren't billionaires , this odd couple of Fifth Avenue . They weren't married , either , because Maurice Tempelsman was still bound to his legal wife , an orthodox Jew who refused to grant him a divorce . So his years with Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis were unsanctified by religion , unnotarized by the law , and the press and the public hardly knew what to call him . Adviser , friend , escort ? Or what to call them . Companions , partners ? No one , I think , publicly called them lovers , but that is what they clearly seemed , and when she suffered her unexpected illness and died last month , too young at 64 , he was by her side every moment , faithful as any husband , devoted as any partner , devastated as any person who sees the comfortable vision of his declining years snatched away and replaced with the looming shadows of a lonely old age . Homosexuals are not the only people who , for reasons not of our own design , are unable to marry those with whom we share our lives . There have always been people who are married in spirit but not in law , wed in their own eyes but not ( at least according to the rabbis and the priests ) in the eyes of God . But the pairing of Jacqueline Onassis and Maurice Tempelsman , and the cruel disease that ended their very private love story , struck a deep resonance with many gay people . Many of us know the awkwardness of terms like lover , longtime companion , domestic partner , none of which convey the heart 's truth . Too many know the horror of feeling within yourself , or on the body of your beloved , those implacable lumps that signify impending death . Too many have known the insecurity of becoming an overwhelming burden to someone who has no legal or religious obligation to carry that burden , but carries it anyway . And far too many have tasted the acrid bitterness that comes when , after that burden has been honorably borne and finally set aside by death , the survivor is cast aside by the family because he or she lacks the legal rights that legal spouses take for granted . So while the world watched the famous as they came and went , the gorgeous children , the celebrated cousins , the movie stars and senators and living legends , I strained for a glimpse of the private mourner . I longed for him to be recognized , and was cheered to see that he was given pride of place as a member of the innermost family . Her hand was in that , I 'm sure , as though the grace that touched her first husband 's funeral she extended to this last partner at her own . Although Catholicism condemns adultery as seriously as any sin , Tempelsman properly partook in the religious rites of Jacqueline Onassis ' death as he had in the joys and sorrows of her life , and read from the altar of St. Ignatius Loyola a poem by Cavafy , the great gay poet of modern Greece , himself never married but long in love . In the last photo we have of this most private , most photographed woman in the world , taken just days before her death , Jackie is leaning on Maurice 's arm in a sun-drenched Central Park , her daughter pushing a grandchild nearby . No shame . Dignity. And a model to the very end , in ways she never knew . President Clinton 's first official visit to Western Europe calls to mind some incendiary comments made by former German Chancellor Helmut Schmidt about how Americans go about choosing their leaders . The time was the early '80s . soon after Ronald Reagan took office . Schmidt was in his usual arrogant state of mind . His disdain for President Carter was already legendary . What was new was his low opinion of Reagan , then embroiled in the backlash of some unfortunate remarks about how he would conduct a nuclear defense of Western Europe . Schmidt noted that before he became chancellor he had served as minister president of Hamburg , as head of his party 's caucus in the Bundestag and as a minister of finance and defense . In other words , he was prepared . And his American counterparts ? Why they were provincials , mere ex-governors , who came to the White House with zero experience in foreign affairs . And showed it . Schmidt had a higher opinion of George Bush . One can speculate about his grades for Bill Clinton . But of this we Americans can be sure : The president 's Western European hosts , despite well-choreographed photo-ops , will be regarding their visitor with something less than admiration . When a high French official was recently asked what he thought of Clinton foreign policy , he said he found it hard to discern just what the U.S. was doing day by day . That his own government had publicly conceded it was helpless in Bosnia without U.S. leadership can be small comfort to Americans . By the verdict of his own countrymen , Clinton has been a politician so domestically focused that only lately has he realized his plummeting poll ratings reflect his sorry repute as a world leader . Clinton 's back-to-back visits to Europe this month and next provide a needed opportunity to reverse his reputation . The White House is all a-jitter about how his D-Day appearance as a commander in chief who shirked military duty will play next Monday . But more important is what the human species thinks about Clinton as sole superpower chief confronting ( in his words ) `` a new world threatened with instability , even abject chaos .. . religious and ethnic battles .. . tribal slaughters , aggravated by environmental disaster , by abject hunger , by mass migrations . '' The president 's most cogent formula for dealing with this sorry mess is to avoid `` having to commit the lives of our own soldiers where they should not be committed '' based on `` the cumulative weight of the American interests at stake . '' This will hardly be reassuring to Western Europe , torn as ever between desire and resentment on the subject of American leadership . And it will hardly save Clinton from his domestic critics , even though his low-profile sentiments are in sync with home-folk unwillingness to take casualties overseas . But such are the burdens this ex-governor of Arkansas has assumed , and he will get little sympathy from the Helmut Schmidts of Europe . The political crisis in Haiti has gone on so frustratingly long that it would be easy to overlook a couple of small but significant signs of progress there recently for the Clinton administration . Under the fresh leadership of William H . Gray III , head of the United Negro College Fund and a former member of Congress , whom President Clinton recruited as his special envoy to Haiti , the United States has begun to rally the kind of regional support that will be needed to wait out the military junta that ousted President Jean-Bertrand Aristide in late 1991 . Meeting with officials of the Dominican Republic , for example , Gray was able to get their cooperation in cracking down on the cross-border smuggling that has allowed the Haitian junta to get around an international economic embargo . Haiti and the Dominican Republic share the island of Hispaniola , and despite a history of rivalry between the two nations the Dominican government had turned a blind eye to smuggling of oil and other goods into Haiti in violation of the U.N.-imposed embargo . That was until Gray visited the Dominican Republic and persuaded President Joaquin Balaguer , whose recent re-election to office is being internally criticized due to election irregularities , that this might be a good time for him to be on good terms with Washington . As a result , Balaguer ordered hundreds of Dominican border guards transferred and replaced by elite troops from the Dominican army . The result has been at least a short-term drop in smuggling . On Tuesday , Gray was in Jamaica to work out the final details of an arrangement to better deal with the continued flow of Haitian refugees to the United States . Henceforth , rather than be returned directly to their homeland , as has been U.S. policy , Haitian refugees will be taken into the Jamaican port of Kingston by the U.S. Coast Guard . From there , refugees with legitimate claims to political asylum will be transferred to the United States or to a refugee center at Guantanamo Bay , Cuba . But while encouraging , both of these steps are only temporary fixes . They help relieve some of the political pressure on Clinton to `` do something '' about Haiti , and quickly . The problem is that this pressure could tempt the White House to invade Haiti . Ousting the thuggish clique that ousted Aristide would be easy work for the Marines , of course . But getting the Marines out of Haiti after an invasion would be much more complicated . That is why simply waiting out the Haitian junta is still the preferred option . Haiti 's military leaders must be convinced that Washington and the rest of the world intend to make life as difficult as possible for them until they step aside and allow their nation 's first popularly elected president to return . Gray 's recent achievements in the Caribbean are important because they will contribute to that methodical long-term strategy . A DANGEROUS WOMAN , R , 1993 , 93 minutes , MCA/Universal Home Video , closed-captioned , $ 95.98 . A melodrama without internal logic or moral perspective , `` A Dangerous Woman '' features Debra Winger in a studied performance as Martha Horgan , the mentally retarded pariah of an inbred California farming community . Martha , whose slow-wittedness combines disastrously with her obsession for telling the truth , lives with her glamorous Aunt Frances ( Barbara Hershey ) , a widow whose affair with a married politician ( John Terry ) sets the film in motion . Actually , it 's the pol 's wife ( Laurie Metcalf ) who starts thing rolling when she plows her car through the porch and into the living room to confront the adulterers . Now that things are busted up , Frances can use the services of Mackey ( Gabriel Byrne ) , an itinerant handyman who proves handy at more than carpentry . An Irishman with an alcohol problem , Mackey is drunk when he lets Martha seduce him and when he and the equally potted Frances make whoopee in a pile of broken plates . The plot is a tangle really , which involves Martha 's losing her crummy job at the dry cleaners . Accused of stealing from the till by the real thief ( David Strathairn ) , Martha is separated from her beloved co-worker ( Chloe Webb ) , which leads to Martha 's revenge via cheese knife . Director Stephen Gyllenhaal imposes neither aesthetics nor control on the film , which was written by his wife , Naomi Foner . Maybe she 's the dangerous woman . Rita Kempley -O- RUDY , PG , 1993 , 112 minutes , Columbia/TriStar Home Video , closed-captioned , $ 95.95 . Notre Dame provides the mythological underpinning for the inspirational , reality-based story of Daniel Ruettiger , an undersized , undertalented working-class dreamer whose childhood aspirations to play football for mighty Notre Dame have been consistently dashed by family , friends and educational institutions . Even his dad counsels , `` Rudy , not everyone is meant to go to college . '' But Rudy ( Sean Astin ) has dreams beyond the Joliet , Ill. , steel mill that has swallowed Ruettiger men for decades , and he heads for South Bend with a duffel bag and a truckload of determination . There he 's counseled by a school priest ( Robert Prosky ) to enroll at right-next-door Holy Cross College to prepare himself academically ( with the aid of nerd tutor Jon Favreau ) . Immersed in Irish football lore , Rudy gradually insinuates himself into the Notre Dame community by working for Knute Rockne Stadium 's groundskeeper ( Charles S. Dutton ) , painting players ' helmets gold and announcing his intentions to the startled head coach ( Jason Miller ) . Rudy somehow makes the team as a live practice dummy who will never suit up for a game , but his underdoggedness and determination eventually earn him a shot in the last game .. . maybe . The mid- '70s setting ( the film was shot on campus ) and the quietly insistent Astin make believable a story that 's less about winning than about trying , a sweet-natured family drama in which years of effort are rewarded by a brief moment of glory . WASHINGTON Wall hangings and rugs woven on centuries-old looms by artists from the Navajo Nation go on view June 3 at the Renwick Gallery of the National Museum of American Art . The 38 weavings were made between 1980 and 1992 using a technique handed down from generation to generation on the nearly 16-million-acre reservation located where Arizona , New Mexico , Colorado and Utah join . `` Stylistically , they 're all over the map , '' says anthropologist Ann Lane Hedlund , who collaborated with Gloria F. Ross to commission and acquire the weavings for the Denver Art Museum . Some were woven in the old style of chief 's blankets , 19th-century shoulder blankets worn to indicate status . Have you gone too far in consuming for and with your pet ? Herbert Freudenberger , a psychologist in New York , warns that some people treat pets as `` surrogate children that they never had . Anything that is too much is an extreme . '' Check these warning signs , compiled with the help of a few candid pet enthusiasts : Do you find yourself counting the grams of fat your pet eats per day ? Are you searching for a scented flea collar in the same fragrance recommended by your aroma therapist ? Does every cabinet , closet and drawer in your house/apartment have a giant sack of pet food stashed in it ? Do you need organizers for your gigantic collection of pet toys ? Have you color coordinated your hamster bedding to go with the water bowl ? Does your dog/cat wear more jewels than you ? Does your pet 's chow cost more than yours ? Do the people where you shop know both you and your iguana by name ? Do you carry pictures of your grand-dog/grand-cat ? Do your friends bring you luxury pet shampoo as a gift from Europe ? Does your pet get a haircut more often than you ? An extraordinary collection of original documents , including a 1575 memo from Queen Elizabeth I to a servant requesting that her closets be cleaned out and some of her clothes given to 40 poor women on Maundy Thursday , is on view at an exhibit that opened May 27 at the Biltmore Estate in Asheville , N.C. . The show is called `` George Washington Vanderbilt : A Man and His Treasures '' to mark the centennial of Biltmore , the largest house in America . The 250-room French Renaissance-style mansion was designed by noted architect Richard Morris Hunt for the grandson of the dynasty 's founder , Cornelius Vanderbilt . Biltmore , which is now a museum , remains in the family ; its owner , William Cecil , is a sixth-generation Vanderbilt . The royal correspondence is among approximately 1,000 original documents inserted into a set of 29 gilded volumes entitled `` The History of Holland House , '' published in the 1850s . Holland House was the London abode of an aristocratic English family from the 17th century until it was destroyed by bombs during World War II . The folio-size volumes were purchased more than a century ago by George Vanderbilt . They have remained ever since in storage at Biltmore , uncataloged and unseen by scholars , according to Jerry Patterson , author of `` The Vanderbilts . '' Another exceptional document in the collection is a 1782 letter from the Marquis de Lafayette to Benjamin Franklin telling him it would be tough to get more `` pecuniary assistance '' from France for the young United States . Asked by Cecil to authenticate the collection , Patterson , formerly a rare-book expert at Sotheby 's , said in an interview it contains unique items such as an autograph of Edward VI , Henry VIII 's son who died as a teen-ager , and funeral bills for William III showing how much his shroud cost . There are unpublished missives from literati such as Lord Byron , Samuel Johnson , Richard Sheridan , Samuel Taylor Coleridge , Alexander Pope and William Wordsworth . There is a letter in Old Russian signed by Catherine the Great and a 1799 note about a soldier 's pension from Napoleon when he was still Bonaparte . Napoleon was a friend of the Holland family . Other treasures collected by George Vanderbilt that are on public display for the first time since the museum opened in 1930 include numerous pieces of silver by famed 18th-century English silversmiths Paul DeLamerie and Paul Crespin . There are also memorabilia that shed light on the personality of Biltmore 's original owner , who died in 1914 : his boyhood diaries , French royalty cards ( an antique version of baseball cards ) , pocket watches and even a ticket stub from a bullfight of long ago . A companion show entitled `` Biltmore Estate : The Most Distinguished Private Place '' will be mounted at the Octagon museum in Washington starting Oct. 17 . The centennial exhibit will remain until the end of 1995 . For information , call ( 704 ) 255-1130 . WASHINGTON Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis took the subject of her official White House portrait very seriously . The February 1971 official presentation of Aaron Shikler 's paintings of the former first lady and her late husband marked the only return visit Onassis made to the White House after the assassination . Onassis personally approved of Shikler 's portrait , which was paid for by the White House Historical Association . But at the time , some art critics found Shikler 's impressionistic full-length romantic portrait of Onassis standing in front of a fireplace at her New York apartment `` other-world-ish '' or `` veiled . '' Shikler 's comment to The Washington Post at the time was , `` Anyone could paint her prettiness . I wanted to paint the haunted look in her eyes . '' Last week , Hillary Rodham Clinton asked that the portrait of Onassis , which was completed by Shikler in 1970 , be moved from the Vermeil Room where it is usually displayed to a more heavily trafficked area of the White House to honor Onassis 's memory . The first lady also requested that a bouquet of peach Osiana roses , a Clinton favorite , be placed in front of the portrait . According to the first lady 's press office , the portrait will hang in the ground floor corridor until the end of June . Not long ago , Mike Goff , who spends his summers near Seneca Rocks , W. Va. , was stopped by police in nearby Petersburg , W. Va. , after they had spotted him driving up and down the town streets . `` I was looking for a cash machine , '' Goff said , `` and I was surprised when they told me you had to drive to Moorefield ( W. Va. ) to find one . '' At the rate at which automated teller machines are spreading , it probably willn't be long before there 's one in Petersburg as well as Moorefield , 15 miles away . In fact , the number of banking offices is now falling while the number of ATMs is soaring . By the end of last year , there were more than 95,000 of the machines across the country far more than the number of bank head offices and branches up from only 2,000 in 1973 . Probably nothing else has changed the way people manage the cash in their pocketbooks as the advent of ATMs . Most ATMs are open all the time , so depositors with ATM cards tend to make more than twice as many cash withdrawals as those who do not use the machines . Depositors found the machines so convenient that they used them 7.7 billion times last year , an average of 6.7 times a month each , according to the Consumer Federation of America , drawing on data from the Nilson Report and the University of Michigan 's Survey Research Center . The spread of the machines has not been just a matter of customer convenience , however . Banking executives have seen ATMs as a cheaper way to handle routine transactions that otherwise would require a teller and possibly more banking offices . The number of banking offices was , until a couple of years ago , also going up . But such experts as David B . Humphrey , a banking professor at Florida State University , say that the rise in the number of bank branches was the result of a relaxation of bank branching restrictions in many states . Meanwhile , the number of bank head offices has gone down as bank failures and mergers have reduced the country 's total number of banks . The Consumer Federation released a study this week saying banks are overcharging customers for the use of ATMs . `` Throughout the economy , self-service facilities result in lower costs for the consumer , '' said Chris Lewis , the group 's director of banking and housing policy . `` But in banking , self-service is regarded as a privilege for which the consumer is required to pay a premium for saving the bank money . '' The consumer organization noted that most banks charge a fee , usually about $ 1 , when customers use ATMs other than those belonging to the institution at which they have their accounts . About a fifth of the banks also charge about 25 cents each time a customer uses an ATM of their own bank . And there are other fees in some cases , it said . Altogether , banks took in more than $ 2.55 billion in ATM fees last year , while buying and operating the machines cost $ 2.9 billion . But the banks came out way ahead , the group argued , because they saved $ 2.34 billion in teller costs that they would have incurred if all those ATM transactions had been handled by a person in a banking office . Indeed , one of the major reasons for the rapid spread of ATMs has been that a transaction on them costs about half the $ 1.12 cost estimated by the American Bankers Association for a transaction requiring a teller . However , contrary to the Consumer Federation 's complaint , Florida State 's Humphrey found that use of ATMs has not necessarily saved banks money because the convenience has encouraged so many more transactions . In an article in the spring issue of the Quarterly Review of the Richmond Federal Reserve Bank , Humphrey wrote : `` The expectation that ATMs would reduce bank costs has not been realized . Indeed , costs appear to be slightly higher .... '' The Consumer Federation recommended that bank customers minimize their ATM fees by using their own bank 's machines whenever possible and by withdrawing larger amounts of cash if another bank 's machines must be used . Finally , it said , `` If convenient , use a teller . '' `` We don't apologize for the fees , '' said Ed Alwood of the American Bankers Association . `` We think we deliver a valuable service , and obviously our customers do too . '' Depositors found ATMs valuable enough to use them 7.7 billion times last year , fees and all . WASHINGTON Our ids obviously don't like squids . The Smithsonian has just put its second giant squid on display , and this one is even creepier than the first . It comes with blue-green flashing lights and rows of nasty hooks on its tentacles that guarantee the first embrace with the creature will be the last . Taningia danae let 's just call her Tonya was netted off Cape Cod a couple of years ago . Reduced by the preservation process to a fraction of her former 7-foot , 135-pound self , she nestles nastily in a plastic tank at the National Museum of Natural History . One of the rarest of deep-sea specimens , Tonya 's permanently paired with her big sister Archie ( Architeuthis dux ) , a half-grown 440-pounder with 30-foot tentacles that washed ashore on Plum Island , Mass. , in 1983 . Curator Clyde Roper , the Smithsonian 's squid expert , thinks the two of them are just beautiful , making allowances for the fact that pickling has turned them all gray and ooky . Roper regards squids as pinnacles of evolution , having gone about as far as could be expected of any spineless creature . Some grow 50 feet long , maybe much longer , he exulted at Tonya 's press debut , ignoring the alarm on the faces of the hard-scribbling scribes . `` We talk of giant squids as rare because we don't see many of them , '' Roper says , `` but in fact they may be common . They mainly live in the deep open ocean . If sharks and sperm whales don't get them , they 're eaten by scavengers when they die . '' Roper loves squids . He can't stop talking about them . `` You know how shallow-water squids emit puffs of ink to distract predators , '' he says . `` It attacks the ink cloud while the squid squirts away . But of course that wouldn't work in the deeps , where it 's always dark . So there 's a squid that squirts luminescent ink ! '' Among newcomer Tonya 's charms , as enumerated by Roper , are eyes as big as grapefruits , backed by a large and complex brain . Two of her eight arms were equipped with powerful bioluminescent organs that apparently are used to warn or distract predators , making her , in the sober and precise language of science , `` the world 's largest flasher . '' While it 's possible the lights may also be used to attract or dazzle prey , it 's doubtful , science says , because a squid already is uniquely equipped to reach out and clutch someone . Speaking of which , Roper wishes it known that all those myths and legends about giant squids are just stories . Although some squids grow bigger than many oceangoing boats and one could if it wanted overtake a boat at 45 mph after spotting it through the darkest night with volleyball-size eyes and has tentacles that could easily snake their way over the side across the deck down the hatch through the galley and into the sail locker where the crew has retreated in terror and although the tentacles are enormously powerful and have suction cups rimmed with sharp teeth or backed by cruel barbs and could easily grasp shrieking sailors and slowly and relentlessly draw them into a mouth equipped with a flesh-shearing bone-crunching beak leaving the craft bare and abandoned like the Flying Dutchman or Marie Celeste , this has never been proved to have happened . So calm down . -O- GIANT SQUIDS , on permanent display at the National Museum of Natural History . WASHINGTON If you go to the National Gallery of Art 's newest show , don't sit on the two white benches . Alarms will sound and guards will come running , because they 're not benches at all , they 're art . Furthermore , they 're important art , two of 90 artworks selected from the world-famous contemporary collection of Dorothy and Herbert Vogel . The Vogels , who are a heartwarming legend in their own time , have given or promised the gallery their entire assemblage of more than 2,000 drawings , paintings , sculptures , constructions and whatever . Gallery Director Earl A . Powell III praises the Vogels ' `` extraordinary connoisseurship and love of art , '' and says the gallery is honored to be given stewardship of `` one of the broadest , deepest and most discerning collections of late-20th century art . '' The works once filled the Vogels ' New York City apartment `` literally from floor to ceiling-living room , bedrooms , bathroom , wherever , '' laughs Ruth Fine , curator of the gallery 's modern prints and drawings , who organized the show . `` The collection touches virtually all the important elements of minimal , post-minimal and conceptual art . '' Not only that , it was assembled on a shoestring by two of the nicest people you 'd ever want to meet . Dorothy and `` Herby '' Vogel , as she calls him , are an only-in-America love story . She was a librarian , daughter of a stationer ; he was a postal clerk , son of a tailor . They met at a reunion of Catskill resort patrons , and their devotion to each other has always been matched by their love of art ( much of their 1962 honeymoon was spent exploring the National Gallery ) . Both studied art and dreamed of being artists , but then came to the conclusion that others were doing much more important and exciting work than they ever could . For 30 years they lived on her salary and spent his on art , meanwhile becoming friends and patrons of scores of struggling unknowns who went on to fame and fortune . Instead of cashing in on the enormously enhanced value of their modest purchases , the Vogels , now retired , donated them to the nation . `` We didn't do it to memorialize ourselves , '' Herbert Vogel says , `` we did it to maintain the integrity and personality of the collection . '' Who could resist such a story ? The only thing that tarnishes this bright and shining tale is the show itself . If this is the cream of contemporary art , then bring on the millenium and get us out of this drab , desultory , declining century . The abovementioned non-benches , for instance , are far from the silliest pieces in the show . The broad white platforms are used to display a pair of small , untitled cast-iron sculptures by Joel Shapiro ( born 1941 ) that might at least serve as paperweights . For maximal silliness in minimal sorry , conceptual art , there 's an irregular form , covered in brown paper by mega-wrapper Christo ( born 1935 ) that 's called `` Package '' ( 1974 ) and leaves one oddly uncurious about what might be inside . There are a few , too few , relieving flashes of wit . Robert Barry ( born 1936 ) , draws a chuckle with `` Closed Gallery '' ( 1969 ) , which is an invitation to an exhibition `` opening '' that consists of closing his gallery for a couple of weeks . `` Colorfast ? '' ( 1975 ) by Edward Ruscha ( born 1937 ) , is printed in beet juice on paper , and the answer is no : The letters have all but faded away . -O- FROM MINIMAL TO CONCEPTUAL ART : Works from the Dorothy and Herbert Vogel Collection , through Nov. 27 in the East Building , National Gallery of Art . WASHINGTON The life cycle of the senior political appointee lasts just over two years . The number , calculated by the General Accounting Office in a report released this week , represents the median length of service for presidential appointees who undergo Senate confirmation . During the 1981-91 period surveyed by GAO , these positions turned over between two and three times , on average . It usually took months , sometimes years , to fill the vacancies , GAO noted . GAO found that the position with the highest turnover seven appointees in 10 years was the Commerce Department 's assistant secretary for trade development . The next highest turnover occurred in the Justice Department , where there were seven deputy attorney generals in 10 years . Senate Governmental Affairs Committee Chairman John Glenn , D-Ohio , who asked for the GAO study , often points out at panel hearings that high turnover in senior positions disrupts programs and undermines an administration 's policy initiatives . Glenn also usually asks appointees during confirmation hearings whether they intend to stay for the full presidential term . They almost always answer yes . Last year , Glenn discussed preliminary figures on appointee turnover with President Clinton , contending that the tenure question had been neglected too long . In a letter to Clinton last week on the new GAO findings , Glenn said he has `` grown concerned by the increasingly apparent relationship between troubled programs and the recurrency with which key leadership posts have changed hands , or which have remained vacant for long periods of time . '' For example , Glenn wrote , the Federal Aviation Administration has had seven appointed and four acting administrators in the last 15 years , the Federal Housing Administration has had 13 commissioners within the past 14 years , the General Services Administration has had 18 administrators in the last 24 years , and in an 18-month period in 1991-92 , three different appointees served as assistant secretary for postsecondary education . `` These programs were responsible for some of our more recent , and major , management crises .. . ( such as ) housing fraud , student loan delinquencies , exorbitant federal building expenses , and excessive cost overruns and delays on multibillion-dollar computer systems , '' Glenn said . In reviewing turnover rates , GAO looked at eight departments and agencies to determine if positions remained empty for extended periods . GAO found that it took six months ( at the State Department ) to 20 months ( at Health and Human Services ) on average to replace a departed appointee . GAO surveyed Cabinet departments and major agencies in gathering its data , but did not try to explain why political appointees seem to sign on for brief tours of duty . `` In most cases , we could not determine from the information we gathered specifically why an appointee left a position , '' the report said . Critics assert that too many appointees come to Washington to enhance their resumes , but others note that appointees leave for a wide variety of reasons . The lack of senior appointee staying power has been documented in previous studies by the National Academy of Public Administration , Paul A . Volcker 's commission on public service and a number of management specialists . The GAO report , said Patricia G. McGinnis , president of the nonprofit Council for Excellence in Government , `` points up the importance of leadership among the career civil service , which is the institutional foundation of these agencies . '' The report 's findings , she added , underscored the need for a re-examination of the appointments process , which currently consumes weeks or months as appointees undergo background checks and Senate confirmation . Patricia W. Ingraham , a Syracuse University professor who has studied political appointees and their relationship to the bureaucracy , said two-year tenures frequently do not allow enough time for appointees and career officials to learn to trust one another . `` The longer a political appointee stays in place , the more he or she comes to appreciate that there is a great deal to learn on the job , and that they need a teaming arrangement with a career executive , '' she said . Sheila K. Velazco , president of the National Federation of Federal Employees , said political appointees are needed to set an administration 's tone and philosophy , especially at a time when new labor-management partnerships are being tested . `` We want the political appointees to have the ability to have some effect on down the line , '' she said , `` and the longer they are there , the better that can happen . '' WASHINGTON If President Clinton 's D-Day visit to the beaches of Normandy next Tuesday is a success , he can thank a tiny Pentagon agency with an unwieldly title that was created four years ago by the Bush administration . Since 1990 , the 50th Anniversary of World War II Commemoration Committee , a military agency that is no more a committee than the Pentagon is a private corporation , has been plotting how the federal government should remember the war . Armed with a budget of $ 2.8 million hardly enough to run the Pentagon 's motor pool the committee has undertaken a broad , ongoing international agenda that ranges from staging presidential visits to creating classroom posters . For Tuesday 's events , the Navy will send an armada of ships across the English Channel and write off the costs of the exercise as a training mission . So will the Army and Air Force units participating in the ceremonies . The events in which Clinton and the leaders of 13 other nations will participate have been scripted `` like a military operation . '' There 's an obvious explanation for that says Sgt. Jeffrey C . Fry , a committee spokesman : `` Well , we are a military operation . '' It was a Bush administration decision to place the World War II ceremonies under the control of a military rather than a civilian commission , Fry noted . That has allowed the committee to stage a relatively low-cost commemoration by getting military commands and local communities to underwrite most of the costs of staging ceremonies and projects on their own . The Army Reserve recruiting command was tapped to print classroom posters on the war and the National Geographic Society printed maps of the war 's key events . The National Archives and Records Administration reproduced World War II photographs and exhumed wartime propaganda films including a famous seven-part series by movie maker Frank Capra titled `` Why We Fight . '' `` It 's been a labor of love , '' said Claude M. Kicklighter , a retired three-star Army general who became executive director of the committee a month after he left the Army 's Pacific Command in July 1991 . Since taking charge , Kicklighter 's goal has been to give top priority to honoring the 8.2 million surviving World War II veterans . At his direction , spokesmen say the committee will ensure that veterans who make it to Normandy are be given the best seats for Tuesday 's ceremonies . Veterans who attended the 40th anniversary ceremony , complained that they could not see much so committee spokesmen say Kicklighter ordered that veterans headed for any major World War II event get a Veterans Identification Badge , assuring them priority access . Working out of a small office in a Crystal City high-rise with a staff of 35 , the committee has enlisted about 3,000 communities and military commands to stage ongoing World War II events . To officially participate , all a community or base has to do is stage three events a year and follow committee guidelines . `` We are not celebrating , we are commemorating , '' said Michael Humm , a committee spokesman . That means no commercialization of the events and , in Fry 's words , `` no pie-eating contests . '' If communities follow the guidelines , the committee will not interfere . `` We don't dictate content , '' Fry said . Participating communities receive a flag with the committee 's motto , `` A Grateful Nation Remembers. '' and the committee 's logo , the `` ruptured duck '' eagle patterned after lapel pins presented to all veterans discharged after the war . The community program has been so successful that the committee recently expanded it to include private companies and labor unions that played a role on the World War II homefront . Cooperating firms and unions will be given a commemorative `` E '' flag similar to the World War II Efficiency award flags that the Army and Navy gave defense contractors . This week 11 committee staffers went to Europe to help manage events there . The D-Day ceremonies are the highest-profile event the committee has orchestrated since the Pearl Harbor anniversary Dec. 7 , 1991 . The agency will continue to operate though 1995 with its `` grand finale , '' a week-long commemoration in Washington to mark the end of the war . Humm said `` the day the door closes '' probably will be January 1996 . By then the committee will have drafted an after-action report that will recommend how the nation marks the 50th anniversary of the Korean War . Or , as Humm puts it : `` See you in the year 2000 . '' NEW YORK In an artist 's eye , a bale of hay , old newspapers or piles of tarnished vintage pennies become the unlikely stuff of dreams a bench for the horsewoman 's dressing room , a durable chair for a child , a coppery etagere for the hall . But you can't just build it and hope they will come . In the real world of furniture design , the challenge is finding someone to share the vision and help make it or better yet , buy it . And that 's where the annual International Contemporary Furniture Fair comes in . This 6-year-old magnet of the avant-garde takes place each May , filling the halls of the Jacob K. Javits Convention Center with inventiveness and often beauty like delicate waxed tissue-paper lampshades imprinted with leaves and imported from England . An estimated 11,000 visitors inspected the works of 400 exhibitors from the Charles Eames chairs of design giant Herman Miller and the sophisticated chic of Leland International 's industrial stack chairs to curiosities made by struggling youngsters seeking their first glimmer of recognition . Architects and interior decorators go looking for new sources of custom design , manufacturers keep an eye out for new designers . Department-store window dressers and TV stylists show up to hunt for props . Among the reasons for enthusiasm were a chaise of recycled paper bricks by a French group , Arrgh , whose works are being launched in this country by the Landon Gallery in New York . Bowls , tables and an etagere made of vintage pennies attached end-to-end to a steel frame were the pride of Tom Sachs of Allied Cultural Prosthetics , who said he pays suppliers 2 cents for each penny . New Yorker Gaston Marticorena was chosen New Designer of the Year . Now 25 , he has made his own lighting fixtures for three years and designed furniture for two , including a see-through chair stuffed with confetti and upholstered in clear plastic and a hay bale on metal legs slipcovered in clear vinyl . `` I thought that my things would be too funky for the average interior designer or architect , '' he said afterward , `` but I didn't get any negative reaction . Everyone understood it . People would .. . start smiling and laughing . '' He 's off to Italy in three weeks to look for a manufacturer . `` I would like to work in this country , but it seems like it 's impossible , '' he said . Cedric Williams , 30 , a fashion designer , turned to furniture two years ago , forming a company called Gourmade . `` I think furniture will be the fashion for the 1990s , '' he explains . Williams attracted attention from the start with a black-vinyl chair that was clearly a spoof on Chanel . The back was shaped like a large No. 5 . This year , he showed tiny end tables covered with large , colorful polka dots . The excitement of being discovered can be tempered by the risk of losing an idea to a competitor . `` The good thing is that everybody sees it ; the bad thing is that everybody sees it , '' said Michael McDonough , an architect and design writer in New York who was careful to have a patent pending on the recycled-paper kiddie furniture he exhibited under the name Eco-sTuff ! McDonough incorporated alphabet letters and other playful shapes into chairs and tables made of Homosote . They are designed to be assembled , painted , drawn on and otherwise personalized by their small owners . `` I like the blank-slate thing , '' he explained . Two chairs and a table will cost $ 180 . Henner Kuckuck 's fiery `` Red Chair '' was designed more for an adult playroom . With its skinny , elongated back , tubular arms and pointy leather headrest , it looks set for takeoff on some whimsical journey . Kuckuck , 54 , a jovial German-born sculptor turned furniture designer , works on commissions through Nanna Design in Long Island City . He won awards for an earlier chair , which could be collapsed like a big black bag when not in use , and survives on private clients ( no celebrities ) , he says . `` It 's tough . The more avant-garde your design is the tougher it is . So I have a tough time . '' But , before turning to furniture , he was an artist , also not an easy calling . `` I chose all the worst . I like it , and that is the point . '' Tina and Francesco Gianesini , two industrial designers in New York , both 26 , were uncertain about their prospects at the fair . Going by the name G Design , they set a goal of finding a manufacturer for their first collection of wicker , metal and velvet furniture . They succeeded on the second day . A Utah company , Directions , has taken on their designs and intends to get them to market by October . `` We 're just starting out , '' said Tina Gianesini , who met her husband when both were students at the Domus Academy in Milan . Now they work in New York . `` We did this in our spare time '' between freelancing and other jobs . `` It 's just really exciting . We went in there kind of feeling out what was it all about . This was a happy ending . '' NEW YORK Technology made an unusual inroad into this artists ' colony . Lama , a French firm , was showing a platform bed that could be raised to the ceiling at the push of a button when not in use . The underside is designed to look like a ceiling and is wired with recessed lighting to complete the illusion . The idea was being promoted as a solution to the home-office and guest-room problems in urban markets . Designer Alain Letessier says about 2,000 units have been sold in France . `` The idea is pushing the limit of space , creating new space in an apartment in a very convenient way . It 's not a gadget , not a toy , '' he insisted . `` A lot of clients don't want bedrooms anymore . '' A 65-square-foot platform costs $ 5,660 installed . Letessier has been designing tables , televisions and walls that go up and down for nine years . By Benjamin Weiser Washington Post Service WASHINGTON Oded `` Ed '' Aboodi has been Wall Street 's best-kept secret : a shy , enigmatic dealmaker who rose to become a powerful adviser to Time Warner Inc. 's legendary head Steve Ross and to its current chairman , Gerald Levin . Aboodi reportedly received $ 51 million for his work in three megadeals , yet he remained largely invisible-as one Wall Street investment banker put it , `` the Wizard of Oz , the man behind the curtain . '' Then last month came the news that Aboodi had been cited for two counts of alleged insider trading . According to the Securities and Exchange Commission , Aboodi sold 20,000 shares of Time Warner stock after being warned by insiders that it was about to drop . The stock did then plunge by more than 10 percent , allowing Aboodi to avert personal losses of $ 413,700 , according to the SEC . While neither admitting nor denying guilt in the matter , Aboodi agreed to settle the complaint , paying $ 931,077 in civil penalties and interest . New transcripts released here yesterday by the SEC provide more detail on the Aboodi case and reveal a fascinating tale of family intrigue involving Aboodi 's 29-year-old son , David . According to sworn testimony given to SEC investigators , David Aboodi , a budding investment banker who had been authorized by his father to manage the family accounts in which the questioned stock deals occurred , insisted that he , not his father , had sold the Time Warner stock . When the SEC questioned the elder Aboodi , he took the same position : `` My son David. . . .My son David , '' he repeated to SEC investigators as they asked who had made the deals , saying they had not talked beforehand about the transactions . The younger Aboodi told the SEC that he made the deals after reading several analysts ' reports on Time Warner , which favored such a move , and said that he did so without any inside knowledge from his father or anyone else that the stock was likely to dip . Separately , the documents reveal that as part of its inquiry into the trading of Time Warner stock , the SEC quizzed Daniel Tisch , son of Laurence Tisch , chairman of CBS Inc. and also chairman of Loews Corp. . The agency asked about a sale of 10,000 Time Warner shares the elder Tisch made through his son at the end of May 1991 , just before the Time Warner stock fell . Daniel Tisch told the SEC that his father made the `` short '' sale-selling borrowed stock in anticipation that it can be replaced at a lower cost after it falls in price-based on his judgment that the stock was overvalued and not because they had received any inside information . The SEC appears to have accepted their position and there is no indication that any case is active involving either Tisch . Laurence Tisch could not be reached for comment , and Daniel Tisch said he had not heard from the SEC since giving testimony in 1992 and had no knowledge of any active case . SEC officials declined to comment . For Time Warner , the Aboodi case could not have come at a more sensitive time . The company is saddled with a large debt , and has faced Wall Street speculation that Seagram Co. , which owns 14.99 percent of its stock , would support a hostile takeover bid or an attempt to oust its management . Seagram yesterday denied such speculation . After a special directors ' committee assisted by retired federal judge Harold `` Ace '' Tyler looked into the matter this spring , the board decided to retain Aboodi . Levin told shareholders at the company 's annual meeting last month that the decision was `` appropriate '' and Aboodi was `` a trusted and valued adviser . '' The decision drew some criticism : At least two Time Warner directors were said to have expressed concerns about retaining Aboodi , said one source , though neither director would return phone calls . Another critic was Columbia University professor John Coffee , an expert in securities regulation and white-collar crime , who said : `` I am disappointed in Time Warner being able to rationalize this kind of conduct by someone who is settling on these terms with the SEC . '' Neither Aboodi would be interviewed for this article ; and under terms of Ed Aboodi 's May 11 agreement with the SEC , he is prohibited from publicly disputing the SEC 's version of the facts against him . `` What has been so wrenching for him is precisely what he cannot say , '' said one confidant , referring to the younger Aboodi 's statements to the SEC that he made the questioned trades . David Aboodi , a 1987 Harvard University graduate , is vice president of the Berkshire Bank in Manhattan , which his father founded . He told the SEC that his father initially gave him authority to trade in the family accounts because `` he thought it was time I learned a little bit about the stock market . '' The SEC probe of the Aboodis was first disclosed this spring by writer Connie Bruck in a book on Ross . But even before that , the Time Warner adviser was a figure of controversy because of his role as Ross 's dealmaker . Emigrating from Israel as a teenager , Aboodi was plucked from an obscure accountant 's job by Ross and eventually became his financial guru . Aboodi also set up his own company , Alpine Capital Group , and later started the Berkshire Bank . He reveled in complex dealmaking . Said one lawyer : `` He loved doing things in Byzantine ways when they could just as easily be done straight . That was Steve Ross 's style too. . . . They suited each other beautifully . '' In Warner 's 1987 acquisition of Chappell & Co. , then the world 's largest music publisher , Aboodi 's low-key style appears to have helped close the deal . The negotiations were boisterous and tense , with multiple bidders and near-chaos as Warner executives grew angrier and angrier as the price kept jumping until it exceeded $ 200 million , said Chappell owner James Harmon . `` Ed was the only one who kept his cool . He didn't scream and yell at me , '' Harmon said . Two years later , Aboodi played a key role in negotiating Ross 's merger with Time . Ross was later quoted as saying of Aboodi : `` He is one of the most fantastic dealmakers of all time . '' He was also well-compensated : According to published reports , he received $ 6 million for his role in the Time Warner merger ( and the company also invested $ 150 million in a fund managed by Alpine Capital ) ; $ 15 million for a 1992 Time Warner joint venture with Toshiba Corp. and Itochu Corp. ; and $ 30 million for last year 's Time Warner deal with US West Inc. . It was his role advising Time Warner 's board in a controversial 1991 securities offering that led to his recent troubles . That spring , Time Warner , with the assistance of Merrill Lynch & Co. , devised an offering that forced shareholders to subscribe or face a substantial dilution of the value of their stock . Merrill Lynch executives warned Time Warner officials-including Aboodi , according to the SEC-that in the short term , the offering would be unpopular and likely depress Time Warner 's stock price . The SEC complaint alleges that on May 30 , 1991 , after hearing this warning , Aboodi `` directly or indirectly '' caused the sale of the 20,000 shares of Time Warner common stock , which he held in personal and family accounts at Merrill Lynch . He netted about $ 2.4 million from the sale . On June 6 , before the stock market opened , Time Warner announced the offering , and as Merrill Lynch had predicted , the stock dropped , by 10.2 percent . The SEC alleged that the losses Aboodi averted resulted from his trading on nonpublic , insider information . However , David Aboodi told the SEC that he , not his father , ordered the stock sale . `` It was based on some reading I had done in the month before , '' David Aboodi said , referring to analysts ' reports that favored such a move . He said he put the proceeds toward what the reports said was a safer investment , preferred Time Warner shares . The younger Aboodi 's version , however , was not supported by the Merrill Lynch broker who handled the sale . According to an informed source , the broker told SEC officials that he had a `` very very vague '' and `` extremely hazy '' recollection that Ed Aboodi had called him and asked to sell the 20,000 shares . Faced with this discrepancy and the circumstantial case against him , Ed Aboodi agreed to the SEC deal . Keeping Aboodi may help Time Warner in one respect . As the board ponders Seagram 's investment , it may be without its longtime outside adviser , Felix Rohatyn , who has a longstanding relationship with Seagram . `` The question comes up , '' said a Time Warner source , ` ` `` Who is our investment banker now ? ' HOLLYWOOD `` Fear of a Black Hat '' is designed to be a rap version of the classic mock rock documentary `` This Is Spinal Tap , '' and the idea is so funny that for a long time the film coasts on our good will . But it should be funnier than it is . Writer-director Rusty Cundieff , who also stars , along with Larry B . Scott and Mark Christopher Lawrence , as one of the three members of the rap group N.W.H. , has a loose-limbed comic sense , and there are hilarious bits poking through the tedium . What the movie lacks is any kind of smart , sociological sense . It 's a defanged spoof . The biggest in-joke about gangsta rap , after all , is that its largest audience is white . Black rappers , many from middle-class backgrounds , market the white audience 's worst racial fears . Instead of getting into this kind of material , Cundieff goes for more obvious ( and safer ) targets : Vanilla Ice types and cringing money-grubbing managers . The rap group 's numbers aren't particularly well-staged , or funny , but a few of their MTV clips are almost indistinguishable from what 's really on the network . ( That 's the joke . ) There 's a funny interview with one of the rappers about the meaning of the group 's name where he goes into a long diatribe about how slaves weren't allowed to wear hats , and another where the group 's recurring use of the word butt is explained away as a social statement . The titles for their rap hits are the most inspired thing in the movie ( MPAA rating : R , for pervasive strong language and for sexuality ) , but you 'll have to see the movie or read something besides a family newspaper to find out what they are . The tamest one is `` Guerrillas in the Mist . '' HOLLYWOOD `` Renaissance Man '' wants to own your tear ducts . It 's got a sop for every audience and happy endings coming out of its ears . There 's a fine line between delighting an audience and pandering to it . `` Renaissance Man '' leapfrogs across the line . What complicates the issue is that , in snatches , the film does delight . Phony hokum becomes heartfelt hokum . Danny DeVito plays out-of-work ad exec Bill Rago , Princeton graduate , who grudgingly takes a job through the local welfare office teaching eight educationally disadvantaged Army recruits at a nearby post . This `` Dead Poets Society '' / `` Corn Is Green '' setup always seems to work on some level movies about the inspirations of education can be inspiring and the liveliest moments in `` Renaissance Man '' involve Bill 's classroom wheedlings and back talk . Initially marking time while hunting for a `` real '' job , he finds himself roused to help his troops . He discovers an improbable way to reach them by teaching them `` Hamlet . '' Screenwriter Jim Burnstein reportedly worked a job very much like Bill 's , but many of the incidents in the film seem trumped up . Bill 's washout students are , of course , not really washouts ; they just need to be cared for . They 're like racially mixed Dead End Kids for the dysfunctional '90s . Most of them have sob stories : Miranda ( Stacey Dash ) was ditched by her mother ; Brian ( Peter Simmons ) never knew his father who was killed in Vietnam ; Jackson ( Richard T. Jones ) was a great pro football prospect before he became injured ; Mel ( Greg Sporleder ) comes from an abusive family and dozes to blank out the pain . Even the soldiers who don't seem touched by grief or anger like country boy Tommy Lee ( Mark Wahlberg , aka Marky Mark ) or the well-read Roosevelt ( Khalil Kain ) or the jokester Jamaal ( Kadeem Hardison ) seem stunted not by lack of aptitude but by lack of opportunity . Donnie ( Lillo Brancato Jr. ) starts out reading comic books and ends up reciting the `` St. Crispin 's Day '' speech from `` Henry V '' to his flabbergasted drill sergeant ( well played by Gregory Hines ) . It 's an inspiring moment , but it would have been funnier and probably truer to experience if Donnie , an expert mimic , had recited the speech in his Al Pacino voice from `` Scarface . '' The soldiers get fired up about `` Hamlet '' by relating the play to their own lives it 's Shakespeare as therapist , as career adviser . The film 's view of education is inspiring but also a bit bogus . It reduces great drama to a catalog of shibboleths and life lessons . ( This is also what the movie does to its own meanings . ) And Bill 's transformation is self-serving . He comes to recognize that his former advertising world lacks the `` truth '' of his new crusade but Burnstein and director Penny Marshall plug the Joy of Learning with slick commercial fervor , as if they were framing an ad campaign . `` Renaissance Man '' never really shows us how Bill 's brood might bring him into their culture . Through them he discovers his real calling , but the educational process is mostly one-way his way . ( The big dance number where the students do a rap version of `` Hamlet '' is the film 's phoniest scene . ) Bill is too busy getting his comeuppance in other ways : as a divorced father whose daughter wants his respect ; as a former draft resister who learns , from the company colonel ( Cliff Robertson ) , the true value of the military life . DeVito is required to plod Bill through a lot of hare-brained paces , like the scene where he enters an endurance test to win the respect of his students . But DeVito is remarkably good in the role anyway ; it seems to have touched something genuine in him . He 's toned down his usual bug-eyed squalling , and the result is his best screen work since Barry Levinson 's `` Tin Men . '' It is in Bill 's early scenes , where he stands humiliated before his jobless life , that Penny Marshall 's tact as a director comes through best . It doesn't come through often enough , though . She 's a graceful , intelligent director who doesn't appear to have her heart in all the graceless grandstanding in `` Renaissance Man '' ( MPAA rating : PG-13 , for some language ) . She doesn't have the gift for shamelessness , and that 's why the film , with its pileup of sentimentalities , seems so processed . She 's trying to engineer our emotions , but she 's smart enough to know that an artist not an engineer is required for the job . HOLLYWOOD `` The Princess and the Goblin , '' a new animated feature opening today , feels like 82 minutes of audio-visual junk food cloying , devoid of significant content and ultimately unsatisfying . Based on the 1872 novel by Scottish writer George MacDonald , this fairy tale focuses on Princess Irene ( voice by Sally Ann Marsh ) , who leads a sheltered life in her father 's castle with only her bumbling governess and her cat , Turnip , for company . On a walk , she meets Curdi ( Peter Murray ) a miner 's son , who learns that subterranean goblins are plotting to seize the kingdom . Curdi foils their plan with a little help from Irene and the royal guards because he knows the goblins ' weaknesses : They hate singing and stepping on their feet is the only way to hurt them . All ends happily , although the screenplay by producer Robin Lyons leaves many loose ends dangling . Why is Curdi the only person who knows how to defeat the goblins ? While sneaking through the underground kingdom , he discovers the Queen Goblin ( Peggy Mount ) has six toes on each foot , while her subjects have only one : Why is this significant-sounding discovery never mentioned again ? How do the goblins manage to flood a castle on a hill by unleashing one underground stream ? ( Can they teach my landlord how to generate that much water pressure ? ) Parents who sit through the film ( MPAA Rating : G ) will have ample time to devise answers , as the characters aren't interesting enough to hold the viewer 's attention . Irene and Curdi are perfect Victorian children who make waxworks figures seem lively . Curdi just wants to do good deeds ; Irene will only go where the magic thread of her great-great-grandmother 's ghost ( Claire Bloom ) leads she takes no real risks and therefore doesn't really grow . The animation , done by crews in Wales and Hungary , looks like Saturday-morning kidvid . Director Jozsef Gemes , is widely respected for his epic paint-on-glass feature , `` Heroic Times '' ( 1982 ) : He deserves better material as do the children who 'll be parked at a matinee of `` Princess '' while their parents shop in an adjacent mall . CANNES , France Sitting on the terrace of the Carlton Hotel , his lime green pants and lavender socks resplendent in the morning sun , Lloyd Kaufman president of Troma Films , casts a benevolent eye on Margot Hope , the fetching writer-producer-director and star of Troma 's latest extravaganza , `` Femme Fontaine : Killer Babe for the CIA . '' `` Margot , '' he says , searching for just the right way to be nice , `` your film is much too good for the American Cinematheque retrospective . '' Not really , because nothing is too good or , for that matter , too bad for the feisty folks from Troma , who in truth will be feted with a three-day Cinematheque retrospective in Los Angeles starting June 10 in honor of 20 years in the business . Longer , the New York-based company boasts , `` than any other independent distributor and most Hollywood marriages . '' Complete with personal appearances , this may be the first Cinematheque series to come with what it calls a surgeon general 's warning : `` These films are often repulsively violent and sexually explicit . Not for children ( and many adults ) . '' `` We are especially pleased to be finally honored in Los Angeles , '' was Kaufman 's official response to the event . `` The international flights to the other tributes were just getting too expensive . '' Kaufman , who likes to claim that the company name is Latin for `` excellence in cinema , '' wasn't just being hyperbolic . Troma 's films have been the subject of retrospectives in London , Tokyo , Munich , Toronto and San Sebastian , plus a monthlong `` Aroma du Troma '' tribute at the American Film Institute in Washington . Why Troma ? Is it because stars like Kevin Costner can be seen just getting started in Troma 's `` Shadows Run Black '' and `` Sizzle Beach USA '' ? Or because Kaufman and company vice president Michael Herz have co-directed something like 30 films , a feat worthy of the Guinness Book of World Records ? Or is it simply that , as Kaufman has put it , `` we 're the smallest , cheapest movie studio in America '' ? `` In the entire history of the movie business , '' he says with his usual sang froid , `` there has never been a movie studio that existed for 20 years without a hit . And so long as we continue as the heads of Troma , we will continue this perfect track record . '' Self-mocking and with a genius for self-promotion , the Troma Team , as Kaufman likes to call his group , clearly did not get to where they are by taking themselves too seriously . `` We enjoy what you in the media call sex and violence , '' says Kaufman , who has been known to brandish the actual shoestring his movies cost . And though his cheerfully tasteless films are as likely to be admired for the spirit in which they 're made than the quality of the execution , one of Kaufman 's most accurate boasts is that `` when you see something by Troma , you may love it or hate it , but you 'll never forget the movie . '' A sentiment that goes double for the publicity that goes along for the ride . For while most critics have not actually sat through many of Kaufman 's films , almost everyone in the business is familiar with the clever and cheeky titles and ad lines that are stuck on them . For instance : `` Sgt. Kabukiman NYPD : America 's First Accidental Oriental Crime Fighter ! '' `` A Nymphoid Barbarian in Dinosaur Hell : The Pre-Historic and the Pre-Pubescent , Together at Last ! '' `` Maniac Nurses Find Ecstasy : Their Weapons Are Sterile , Their Bodies Are Fertile , and Any Thought of Escape Is Futile ! '' `` Redneck Zombies , '' filmed in ( what else but ) Entrail-Vision : `` Tobacco Chewin ' , Gut Chompin ' , Cannibal Kinfolk From Hell ! '' This kind of zaniness is visible also in the Troma Times , the company 's genial newsletter whose motto is `` Dictated but Not Read .. . or Even Thought About . '' And it shows up in the `` Troma System '' infomercial the company has put together , complete with bikini-clad Tromettes , which satirizes self-help ideologies as it pushes the sale of various kinds of Tromabilia . When you ask Kaufman where he and Herz learned the basics of filmmaking , he is likely to answer , `` if you read the reviews of our movies , you will see that we did not learn . '' But in fact his film education began at Yale , where he and Herz met and where movie buffs in his dorm made him familiar with the efforts of Joseph E. Levine and Roger Corman , shrewd producers who inspired his own work . When he and Herz founded Troma , tiny budgets were the order of the day , the plan being to make films that would have negligible theatrical releases but make most of their money in video , cable and overseas markets . Kaufman calls `` The Toxic Avenger '' `` our Mickey Mouse , the movie that put us on the map . '' Familiarly known as Toxie , it is a movie so successful it inspired a TV series , hundreds of licensed products , two sequels ( one called `` The Last Temptation of Toxie '' ) already released and a third ( `` Mr. Toxie Goes to Washington '' ) is in the planning stages . Set in Tromaville , N.J. , `` the toxic waste dump capital of the world , '' `` Avenger '' details the awful circumstances that turn health club mop boy Melvin Furd , `` 98 pounds of solid nerd , '' into `` the first superhero born out of nuclear waste . '' Another Troma classic is `` Chopper Chicks in Zombietown , '' which explores what really happens when an all-female motorcycle gang takes a breather in a quiet hamlet mainly populated by the undead . Typical dialogue , from the leader of the gang to her troops : `` You 're the Sluts . Try and act like it . '' The company has been associated with some classier films as well : `` Def by Temptation , '' a slickly made ( by James Bond III ) and stylishly photographed ( by Ernest Dickerson ) all-black horror film about a sexy succubus who has her way with men and a genuine sleeper , Bob Dahlin 's 1986 `` Monster in the Closet . '' Better films may actually be in Troma 's future , since the company has created a subsidiary called Fiftieth Street to concentrate on doing just that . And then there is the projected `` Tromio and Juliet , '' a no-doubt liberal adaptation of Shakespeare 's play . And after that ? `` We 've become an institution , a national treasure , '' Kaufman has said , probably more than once . `` It 's not going to be long before Troma will be awarded the coveted Nobel Peace Prize . '' Election-year politics are about to torpedo one of the few functioning mechanisms to cut government waste . Last week the Clinton administration , looking ahead to the 1996 election , appeared ready to cave in to a congressional proposal to delay the 1995 round of military base closures . Some members of Congress are pushing for the delay because they fear the backlash from voters adversely affected by base-closings in their districts , while the administration has its eye on the electoral map . A good number of the estimated 70 bases to be axed in 1995 are in states such as California , Florida , and Texas that are crucial to Clinton 's chances for reelection in 1996 . And as George Bush learned , nothing breeds anti-incumbency quite like unemployment . But if it 's successful , the effort to delay base closings in 1995 will have several damaging consequences . It will saddle the Pentagon with unnecessary costs at a time when its budget is badly stretched . It will taint the highly effective Base Closure and Realignment Commission ( BRAC ) , and it will hurt , not help , communities that will inevitably lose bases . From its peak in 1985 , the overall defense budget will have fallen 40 percent by 1999 , force structure will have declined by 30 percent , and spending on new weapons will have been slashed by a whopping 65 percent . Meanwhile , despite rounds of base closings in 1988 , 1991 and 1993 , only 15 percent of domestic base infrastructure will have been cut . The 1995 round of closures is expected to be as large as the three previous rounds combined , and would bring infrastructure cuts more into line with reductions in other areas of the budget . Proponents of the delay are quick to point out that savings from base closings haven't been as great as expected . But the administration 's own figures indicate that annual savings from closed bases will reach $ 4.6 billion by 2001 , half of which will be generated by the 1995 round of closures . The military services are counting on that money to fund new equipment and training . Delaying the 1995 round by two years would be an outright waste of $ 2.3 billion each year at a time when the Pentagon 's six-year budget is already underfunded by as much as $ 100 billion . According to Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Sam Nunn , `` The longer we delay closing unneeded bases , the longer it will take to achieve real savings , and the more the other parts of the budget readiness , pay , procurement , and research and development will suffer . '' The delay would also undermine the BRAC , which Congress created in 1988 specifically to take politics out of the base-closing process . Between 1977 , when Congress ceded itself the authority to close bases , and 1988 , not a single base was closed mostly because no member of Congress in his or her right mind would vote to close a base and thereby put voters out of work . BRAC changed all that , by placing the onus for base closing on an independent commission . With political cover , Congress was able to close 103 bases . But suborning BRAC to the politics of the election year will anger those who have already lost bases and make it difficult to generate support for future base closings . Yes , future base closings . Because even after BRAC 's current authority ends in 1995 , there will still be a great deal of excess infrastructure that should be cut . Finally , members of Congress seeking to hold up the 1995 base closure round argue that by postponing the pain for communities they are helping them . Nothing could be further from the truth . Research by Business Executives for National Security shows that a well-organized community with a head start recovers from a base closure quickly . After a base is turned over to the community , an average of two civilian jobs are created for every military job lost . Most jobs are recovered within five years after the base 's doors finally close . But the longer a community waits , and the more it resists the inevitable , the more difficult and costly the process becomes . Uncertainty will add to the woes of base closure communities if the 1995 round is postponed . The military will lay off workers on excess bases even if they remain open for two more years . Delaying closure will only destroy the communities ' chances to replace jobs they are already losing . Unless the Clinton administration overcomes its election year myopia , it could instigate a return to the hollow military of the 1970s . On the other hand , a strong signal from the White House supporting the base closing process as planned would sink efforts to place cynical political expediency before fiscal responsibility and military preparedness . HOLLYWOOD In `` The Endless Summer II , '' creator-narrator Bruce Brown takes pains to tell us how much has changed since he began filming his definitive surfing movie , `` The Endless Summer , '' 30 years ago . He takes pride in the international appeal of the sport he helped popularize and ticks off its various innovations . He does not shy away from showing how crowded some Hawaiian beaches now are or how the once-deserted beach at a still-choice surfing spot near Cape Town , South Africa , is now covered with expensive condos and tract houses . To his credit , he makes a passing acknowledgment of polluted waters . What Brown is really doing , however , is shrewdly getting such matters out of the way in order to celebrate all that mercifully hasn't yet changed : fabulous beaches that attract world-class surfers to ride the most spectacular waves . Brown 's conceit is that a couple of likable young surfer pals , Robert ( Wingnut ) Weaver he has the dark hair and the blond Patrick O' Connell , are such fans of the original `` Endless Summer '' that they dip into some surfing prize money to finance a globe-girdling retracing , more or less , of their surfing counterparts in the first film , Robert August and Mike Hynson , who were in search of the perfect wave . While it 's anybody 's guess if Brown 's mix of awesome surfing sequences interspersed with travelogue material and good-natured cornball antics will play as well as it did decades ago , this `` Endless Summer '' is no less endearing than the original . That this sequel is as fresh as it is is probably in large part due to the fact that Brown deliberately backed off from further surfer movies after making the first `` Endless Summer '' ( which was part of an entire cycle of surfer epics , all the others lesser efforts ) . Wingnut and Pat 's journey takes them from Southern California to Costa Rica ( which Brown intercuts with side trips to Alaska and Hawaii not involving his stars ) , to France , South Africa , Fiji , Australia , Bali and Java , which from the looks of it just might be the most glorious , unspoiled place to surf on the face of the globe . Along the way Wingnut and Pat meet champion surfers like Tom Curren ( in Biarritz ) and Laird Hamilton and Gerry Lopez ( in Java ) . They also meet several men from the first film , hearty rugged types like John Whitmore of Cape Town and Nat Young , of Brisbane , Australia , a veritable Crocodile Dundee , who takes Wingnut and Pat riding the rapids in a rubber raft . ( Neither August or Hynson appear in the sequel . ) Accompanied by Gary Hoey and Phil Marshall 's driving score , `` The Endless Summer II '' ( MPAA rating : PG , for brief nudity and mild language ) is such a pleasure to watch , so effective in its ability to take you away and into the healthy , carefree world of surfing , at once exciting and uncomplicated , that you 're actually sorry when it 's over . HOLLYWOOD Woody Harrelson is the only reason to subject yourself to `` The Cowboy Way , '' but to be a straight-shooter about things , he is not reason enough . Instead of enhancing his surroundings , Harrelson 's breezy , amusing performance simply underlines everything the rest of the film is not . Based on yet another idea from the cornucopian mind of producer Brian Glazer who , if the press notes are to be believed , came up with this gem `` while horseback riding in his native California , '' `` Cowboy '' will be recognized by film buffs as a reworking of the tip-top `` Coogan 's Bluff , '' directed by Don Siegel and starring an especially laconic Clint Eastwood as an Arizona lawman out of his element on the steamy pavements of New York . It is perhaps a sign of cinematic inflation that this time around `` The Cowboy Way '' is forced to send not one but two stand-up Western gentlemen into the wilds of Manhattan to right a wrong and see that justice is done . New Mexico cowboys Pepper Lewis ( Harrelson ) and Sonny Gilstrap ( Kiefer Sutherland ) are a formidable team-roping combination and best pals since they were toddlers . But , in one of the film 's many bogus plot contrivances , Sonny has been giving his partner `` the Eskimo treatment '' since Pepper was a mysterious no-show at the finals of a key tournament . `` There we were , one steer away from the national championship , '' grouses Sonny in one of the many pieces of presumably authentic Bill Wittliff dialogue . Pepper , you may be sure , had his reasons for staying away , but once revealed they , like much else here , turn out to be as lame as an overworked plow-horse . Sonny and Pepper 's best pal is a wise old Latino named Nacho ( Joaquin Martinez ) who accuses cranky Sonny of having `` the heart of a tiny raisin . '' But before he can explain where he got such a gift for metaphor , Nacho is called to New York to try to rescue his daughter , Theresa ( Cara Buono ) . She , illogically enough , is a dewy illegal just off the boat from Cuba who is in the unfortunate clutches of a bunch of slimeballs ramrodded by the nefarious Stark ( Dylan McDermott ) . Forced to work in a sweatshop while Stark practically drools over her needlework , Theresa is clearly in need of the kind of help only two hopelessly naive cowboys in Manhattan can provide . As directed by Gregg Champion , whose only previous theatrical feature was the forgotten `` Short Time , '' `` The Cowboy Way '' has a tendency to milk every bumpkin-in-the-big-town situation it can think of . As a result , elements of `` Midnight Cowboy '' ( Pepper catching the lascivious eye of effete fashion folk ) awkwardly joust for position with cartoony violent echoes of `` Home Alone . '' Getting bruised in the melee are some usually reliable actors , including Ernie Hudson as a mounted policeman who loves the West . Especially lost is Sutherland , whose thankless role as the straight-arrow , censorious Sonny mostly calls on him to frown and say , `` I 've had it with you , '' to the irrepressible Pepper . Losing patience with Pepper is always understandable . A macho pain in the neck who never stops talking and preening , he could exasperate a saint . But thanks to Harrelson 's casual flair and his considerable comic energy , Pepper grows on you so much that his rare absences from the screen bring the picture to a dead halt . While this is not a performance that wins awards , it does demonstrate the kind of star presence that the movies can never have too much of . What `` The Cowboy Way '' ( MPAA rating : PG-13 for `` violence , some language and comic sensuality '' ) does best is underline how much more there is to Woody Harrelson than how he looks in his underwear or with a hat over his private parts . What if we found a rehabilitation method that could take violent criminals and greatly reduce their likelihood of committing further crimes ? What if this program dramatically raised the odds that prisoners would never return to prison , would instead become law-abiding , tax-paying citizens ? The crime legislation now being considered by Congress should have extra money for this proven crime-prevention program . Right ? Guess again . Congress is eliminating all of its funding . For this is the federal Pell Grant program , which for two decades has enabled convicts to secure a college education while in prison . The Pell Grant program provides federal money to finance higher education for lower-income Americans . Since its inception , prisoners , whose income is effectively zero , have been eligible to apply for these funds . This has enabled colleges and universities to establish extension programs , sending books and professors into the prisons . More than 35,000 inmates are enrolled around the country . However , both the House and Senate versions of the crime bill forbid the use of Pell Grant funds by prisoners . In most states , which have no network of state funding , this would effectively mean the end of prison higher education . As a volunteer professor at the Maryland State Penitentiary , I have seen the difference a college education can make . For the past two years I have been meeting weekly with prisoners to study philosophy . We have ranged from Homer to Gandhi , Socrates to Sartre . The men I teach have serious criminal histories . Many are murderers , coming from a background of rage , ignorance and despair . But the chance at education has given them a new purpose , and made them feel they can turn their lives around that when they get out ( and most of them will ) , they 'll have marketable skills and credentials . Typically , such a prisoner can tell himself : I don't have to base self-esteem on the gold chain around my neck and the gun in my pocket . I 'm a college graduate . Recently I was at a prison function for inmates who were alumni of the Coppin State college program speeches , banners on the wall , honorary awards , standard stuff . But most striking was the sense of hope and pride in the room anything but common in a maximum security penitentiary . The keynote address was given by Stanley Covington . Released from the penitentiary five years ago with a college degree , he is now project director at the Center on Juvenile and Criminal Justice , where he heads up a program for Washington , D.C. , youth in trouble . Another student from this prison is Charles Dutton , producer and star of the `` Roc '' show . Then there is H.B. Johnson Jr. , a student I met through my prison class . This year he won ( for the second time ) the Baltimore WMAR-TV contest for best play by a black dramatist . He came into prison with an eighth grade education . Sentence commuted , he left prison last December a college man and a playwright , novelist , newspaper columnist and public speaker devoted to freeing our stre ets of drugs and crimes . If Congress follows its plan there will be precious few H.B. 's . The people who come in criminals will go out the same , only a little tougher and meaner . Their only teachers will be fellow inmates with tips on criminal techniques . We 'll have cleared out the college professors who would have brought a different message . When these inmates are released and commit more crimes , we 'll shout `` three strikes , you 're out . '' But did we give them a fair shot to get a hit that is , to make it in the legit world ? Statistics show that the uneducated prisoner has a far greater chance upon release of repeating criminal activities and returning to prison . The price we pay for educating them is small ; less than one percent of Pell Grant funds go to inmates . But what of the price of not educating them ? Consider the cost in blood and tears when they hit the streets , then the $ 30,000 per year for jailing repeat offenders . Happily , nothing is yet written in stone . Senate and House conferees can reconsider specifics of this Pell Grant elimination , or at least extend grants through a phase-down period . Funding for prison education could also be provided through a supplemental grant or other means . Ironically , as it stands , part of the new crime bill will serve only to increase violence and criminality . You don't need a college degree to figure that one out . WASHINGTON The indictment of Rep. Dan Rostenkowski , D-Ill. , raises again the murky issue of the proper use of campaign funds . Though it is illegal under federal law and congressional rules to convert campaign funds to personal use , enforcement has been so lax that some members of Congress have turned their campaign accounts into personal slush funds . They use the money to pay for country-club dues , meals , vacations and expensive automobiles , or donations to their favorite charities . More than half the $ 466 million that candidates spent in the 1990 elections was `` virtually unrelated to contacting voters , '' a Los Angeles Times study found . Rostenkowski wasn't charged specifically with personal use of campaign funds , apparently because he and other members serving at the time the ban was enacted in 1979 were exempted until last year . Instead , in two counts of his indictment prosecutors charge that the longtime chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee made false statements to the Federal Election Commission about his use of campaign funds . Rostenkowski allegedly disguised the partial purchase of family cars with $ 28,267 in campaign funds as campaign `` car rentals '' and a van for campaign use . The indictment also alleges Rostenkowski caused his campaign fund and personal political action committee to list as `` postage '' on FEC reports $ 28,000 in checks he exchanged for cash at the House Post Office . Former Rep. Larry Smith , D-Fla. , pleaded guilty last year to lying to the FEC about $ 10,000 he converted to his personal use to pay off gambling and other personal debts . The FEC has been working for the past year on new regulations to define prohibited uses of campaign funds . The Senate-passed version of a campaign-finance-reform bill also tried to address the issue . It is difficult to systematically track campaign spending practices because the FEC doesn't computerize the information , as it does donations . The Los Angeles Times study , which included keypunching and categorizing 437,753 separate expenditures from the 1990 races , was the first to do so . It is even more difficult to determine whether expenditures are for campaign or personal use or both . The Times ' study , for example , found many instances in which members of Congress , mostly entrenched incumbents , leased or bought cars with campaign funds . In one example , Sen. Ted Stevens , R-Alaska , spent $ 72,000 for auto expenses in six years , including $ 23,000 for a van . After being re-elected , the campaign bought a $ 32,000 Lincoln Town Car , the study found . A Stevens aide denied the cars were for Stevens 's personal use and added that the Lincoln was sold . The FEC first proposed a general rule that would have banned using campaign funds for expenses like mortgage payments or vacation trips that a candidate would have even if not running for office . After a hearing in which all sides requested specific guidance , the FEC tried but failed to draw up a specific list of prohibited activities , including the use of campaign funds to buy cars . Trevor Potter , a Republican who is chairman of the commission , said in an interview this week that the FEC 's challenge is to draw `` a clear line that is easy to follow and minimally intrusive on the day-to-day work of campaigning . '' The trick , he said , is to provide guidance without being accused of micromanagement that leaves a candidate `` carrying a rule book the size of a telephone book . '' Sen. John McCain , R-Ariz. , offered an amendment to the Senate campaign-finance-reform legislation that would ban several `` inherently personal '' uses of campaign funds , including mortgage payments , clothing purchases , non-campaign auto expenses , country-club membership and vacations or trips of a non-campaign nature . The measure was approved , but it must be reconciled in conference committee with a House bill that is silent on the issue . Fred Wertheimer , president of Common Cause , which is pushing for campaign reform , said , `` There has been widespread abuse of the `` personal use ' ban for years. .. . There is absolutely no justification for House leaders to resist tough prohibitions in this area in the new campaign-finance law . '' The renewed debate over the `` personal use '' of campaign funds comes at a time Congress also is considering a new lobbyist disclosure act that could restrict considerably the meals , entertainment tickets , trips and other gifts that a lobbyist can give a member . Cutting off campaign funds as an alternate source for paying for these items would be considered a major blow to the lifestyle of some members . Lifetime Television presents its first original mini-series , `` Lie Down With Lions , '' and will premiere all four hours in one night on Sunday . Based on Ken Follett 's best-seller , the show stars Timothy Dalton , Marg Helgenberger , Omar Shariff and Nigel Havers and tells the story of why three people choose to leave the peaceful streets of Luxembourg for the war-torn lands of Armenia and Azerbaijan . It also deals with the web of passion and deceit that binds them and sets the course for their lives . Repeats : Wednesday ( Part 1 ) and Thursday ( Part 2 ) nights , and the entire four hours June 25 . Sunday night on TBS : `` National Geographic Explorer '' debuts `` Women in Vietnam , '' the story about the young women who enlisted as nurses and recreation specialists in a combat zone , and didn't know quite what to expect . Repeats : Monday night , Saturday morning . Sunday night on Showtime : The premiere of `` Past Tense , '' starring Scott Glenn as an ex-policeman who emerges from a coma faced with sorting out the murder of a former lover . Co-stars Anthony LaPaglia and Lara Flynn Boyle . Repeats : Thursday night , June 21 , 27 . Wednesday night on The Nashville Network : Reba McEntire reflects on her life and talks of her current status as a wife and mother and a performer juggling recent releases of a movie , autobiography and album . Ralph Emery hosts the one-hour interview that repeats the same night . Thursday night on Arts & Entertainment : `` Stage : Judy Garland and Friends , '' with Barbra Streisand , Ethel Merman and Liza Minnelli , sharing the stage and favorite songs in one of Garland 's 1960s television specials . Repeats the same night . Thursday night on USA Network : World Premiere Movie `` Deconstructing Sarah , '' with Shelia Kelley as a high-powered executive whose sexy nightlife leads to blackmail and murder . Rachel Ticotin and A . Martinez co-star . Repeats June 19 and 25 . Thursday night on HBO : Chris Rock performs on `` HBO Comedy Half-Hour , '' Others in this adult series of rising comics are D.L. Hughley , June 23 ; Simply Marvalous , June 30 ; and Carlos Mencia , Bob Smith and Suzanne Westenhoefer in July . Rock 's show encores June 18 , 20 and 21 . Saturday night on The Family Channel : The first espisode of `` Centennial , '' James A . Michener 's 26-hour mini-series about the settling of the American West , featuring an all-star cast . The first show runs three hours and will be followed by two-hour segments Monday through Saturday , June 20-25 , and Monday through Thursday , June 27-30 . The final episode runs Saturday night , July 2 . Vince Gill , `` When Love Finds You '' ( MCA ) ( 3 stars ) . Vince Gill 's work on up-tempo tunes is like a baseball pitcher 's batting average it can be nice , but it 's totally beside the point . Gill is all about ballads , and he knows it with eight of its 11 songs on the slow side , his fourth album is even more weighted toward that genre than last year 's `` I Still Believe in You , '' which had a ballad average of .600 ( 6 for 10 ) . None of these , however , matches the exquisiteness of that album 's title song or 1992 's `` Look at Us , '' two of the most transcendent expressions of devotion ever recorded . Gill 's high , angelic voice and artistic intelligence can elevate mediocre material , but such middlebrow pop fare as `` When Love Finds You '' and `` If There 's Anything I Can Do '' doesn't really tax his interpretive powers . The closer Gill moves to hard-core country tradition as on `` Which Bridge to Cross ( Which Bridge to Burn ) '' and the remorseful lament `` Real Lady 's Man '' the stronger he becomes . The climactic `` Go Rest High on That Mountain , '' a valediction for his deceased brother , combines '90s pop sumptuousness with the purity of mountain church music , tapping a personal urgency rare in country music these days . RICHARD CROMELIN -0- `` KISS My Ass , '' Various Artists ( Mercury ) ( 2 stars ) . Andy Warhol almost got it right . In the future , everyone gets his or her own tribute album , evidenced by this 11-artist nod to the not-entirely-timeless Simmons & Stanley songbook , though it 'd take a perverse palate to claim the KISS boys were ever anything more than perfunctory writers ( Gene Simmons likes to claim all `` rock '' music is throwaway trash spin control if ever we heard it ) . Among those hewing yawningly close to the period-piece originals are the Gin Blossoms , Anthrax , Extreme and the Lemonheads ( whose stoopidly faithful `` Plaster Caster '' is fitting , given Evan Dando 's anachronistic eagerness to speak up on the subject of groupies ) . Lenny Kravitz is at least well-suited to shift `` Deuce '' from one '70s sub-genre to another , though he runs out of ideas and of song a minute in . There are curiosities . An unrecognizable Garth Brooks does `` Hard Luck Woman '' under the very funny delusion that he 's Rod Stewart . Dinosaur Jr. achieves the heppest transfer , transforming `` Goin ' Blind '' one of KISS ' typical underage-girl anthems into pure Angst with the updated line `` I 'm 93 , you 're 16 . '' Toad the Wet Sprocket , too , attempts major cheek by interpreting `` Rock and Roll All Nite '' as a wistful mid-tempo ballad , which sounds way more amusing than it turns out . Maybe they 'll fare better playing `` We 're an American Band '' for pathos on the inevitable Grand Funk tribute . CHRIS WILLMAN -0- Seal , `` Seal '' ( Sire/Warner Bros . ) ( 3 stars ) . The black Sting ? A male Joni Mitchell ? The new Terence Trent D' Arby ? After his impressive 1991 debut album , also titled `` Seal , '' this prodigiously talented English singer-songwriter seemed quite capable of going in many different directions . The way he skillfully squeezed unsettling , poetic lyrics into a commercial pop framework on his big hit single `` Crazy '' clearly marked him for big things . On his second album produced , as was the debut , by Trevor Horn that male Joni Mitchell tag seems to fit best ( she even guests on the tranquil `` If I Could '' ) . Seal 's softer side clearly dominates . Mostly in a mellow , reflective mood , he ponders philosophical and romantic themes , his gently gloomy voice adding urgency to such moody , melodic pieces as `` Dreaming in Metaphors , '' `` People Asking Why '' and `` Don't Cry . '' The explosiveness that simmered under even the most serene tracks on the first album isn't there this time . That rookie 's aggressiveness and experimentation that marked the first album seems to have been replaced by a desire to firmly entrench himself in the pop-folk genre . While there 's nothing as arresting as `` Crazy '' on this album , it 's a quite satisfying sophomore effort . DENNIS HUNT WASHINGTON Documents revealing the Supreme Court 's most private discussions indicate that President Clinton and his lawyers are likely to start with a considerable advantage this summer when they try to stop the Paula Corbin Jones sexual harassment lawsuit with a claim of legal immunity . When the court last faced a claim similar to the one Clinton 's lawyers are preparing to make , demands by some justices for only limited immunity for the president against personal lawsuits were swept away by a majority in favor of much broader protection . After an internal struggle stretching over more than two years and badly fracturing the court , that majority prevailed by the narrowest margin 5 to 4 in June 1982 . Now , three of that majority 's five members remain on the court , and the last of the four dissenters still there Justice Harry A . Blackmun is retiring and would not be on hand if the Jones case gets to the court . The struggle focused on two lawsuits against Richard M. Nixon after he had left the presidency . The first , by a former aide whose telephone had been tapped when the president 's other aides thought he was leaking secrets to the news media , ended with a frustrated and angry court splitting 4-4 . That was , in effect , a non-decision , so the court did not let on in public just how hotly that battle had been waged . The second lawsuit , by a Pentagon aide who was fired after blowing the whistle on overspending on a military airplane , finished with the 5-4 decision blocking that lawsuit or any other civil claims in court against Nixon and insulating all future presidents from a good many legal claims by disgruntled citizens . That , too , was a bitterly contested case . The full extent of the conflict , and the actual sweep of the immunity concept the court pondered , can now be traced in the files of the two cases in the Library of Congress ' public collection of the late Justice Thurgood Marshall 's papers . In coming weeks , Clinton 's legal maneuvering through his private lawyers is to be a sequel , testing just how big the cloak of presidential immunity is going to be . Back in 1982 , however , it was clear that the court majority had a bold , ambitious notion of immunity in mind . Nothing in the case files suggests that a majority was thinking that by granting a president legal immunity for actions taken in office they were necessarily ruling out immunity to damage lawsuits for unofficial acts or those that occurred before a president took office . With no specific word or clause in the Constitution suggesting that a president ought to be immune to civil lawsuits , and no prior Supreme Court precedent that was even close on that issue , a core group of justices pressed for immunity so grand in scope that then-Justice Byron R . White complained repeatedly through sharply barbed criticisms at his colleagues . It started early , with White accusing the majority of embarking on `` a most mistaken course that will disserve the law and the country . '' The immunity those justices were fashioning , he said , amounted to `` gross overkill , '' far more than was needed to protect presidents from nuisance lawsuits . Even a law clerk for one of the justices then supporting `` absolute immunity '' said the idea would give presidents `` the power to toss a lawsuit or any other legal process into the waste can , '' like the power a king would have . The echo of that controversy will be heard in a federal court in Little Rock , Ark. and perhaps , ultimately , back in the Supreme Court in Jones ' lawsuit seeking $ 700,000 in damages from Clinton . The reams of Supreme Court documents that spell out the backstage story of a dozen years ago thus are not likely to remain neglected paper relics of history , but instead will fuel the reopened constitutional feud over presidential immunity . Jones , a former Arkansas state employee , in May sued the president personally , charging him with `` sexually harassing and assaulting her '' in a Little Rock hotel room in May 1991 while he was governor of Arkansas . That was , of course , nearly two years before Clinton became president . A governor would not be likely to get much immunity , if any , for an incident of that kind , so Clinton 's lawyers will have to make do with presidential immunity if , as they hope , they can fit that within the reach of the June 1982 ruling in the Nixon case . The decision of the Supreme Court then clearly gave presidents immunity from legal claims based on what they did while in office . Jones ' attorneys , therefore , are expected to argue that Clinton cannot use that ruling to shield any actions that allegedly occurred in 1991 , before his presidency started . But as Clinton 's attorneys dig more deeply into the history of presidential immunity , and the basic reasons the court gave for it in 1982 , they are becoming persuaded that the 12-year-old ruling was so comprehensive in scope and meaning that only something close to `` absolute immunity '' satisfies the Constitution and the needs of the presidency . Their basic intent , therefore , is to end the Jones case , once and for all , at its very beginning perhaps a politically damaging gesture , but less so than a full-scale trial would be . At this point , his attorneys do not appear to favor the idea embraced by some of the president 's White House aides , notably White House counsel Lloyd N . Cutler : that the president should seek only a long postponement of the Jones case . That idea , too , has some support among legal policy aides at the Justice Department , who are looking over a range of potential immunity options they might claim if the department gets involved in the Jones lawsuit on behalf of `` the institutional presidency . '' ( The Justice Department would not be speaking for Clinton personally . ) Clinton 's personal lawyers are expected to file their views on the immunity issue in the Little Rock federal courthouse late this month or early next . ( Optional add end ) The plea they are now inclined to press encompassed in the simple phrase `` absolute immunity '' is a theme that reverberates throughout the 1981 and 1982 memos that led to the Supreme Court 's only decision so far on the legal shield around presidents when they are sued personally for civil damages . In the majority at the end then were Justice ( now Chief Justice ) William H. Rehnquist , Justice Sandra Day O' Connor and Justice John Paul Stevens . Joining them in the majority were two who have since retired : Chief Justice Warren E. Burger and Justice Lewis F. Powell Jr. Powell , in fact , was the principal architect of the immunity concept . O' Connor had just joined the court when the majority began to solidify in late 1981 , after the first Nixon case had washed out the prior summer on the 4-4 vote : the case filed by former national security aide Morton Halperin , claiming unconstitutional tapping of his home telephone . O' Connor quickly became active in the second case : the $ 3.5 million lawsuit by former Pentagon whistle-blower A . Ernest Fitzgerald . Powell , trying to draft an opinion for the apparent majority , told Burger in mid-December 1991 : `` I am now prepared to defer to the wishes of you , Bill Rehnquist and Sandra , and prepare a draft opinion holding that a president has absolute immunity from damage suit liability '' for the reasons he had spelled out in the broadest of all of his earlier drafts . He also noted that Stevens `` is willing to decide the Nixon case on absolute immunity . '' That made five votes . Indigo Girls , `` Swamp Ophelia '' ( Epic ) ( 2 stars ) . If only Emily Saliers and Amy Ray weren't so acutely aware that we 're listening . The folk-rocking duo labors to imbue every lyric with heart- or mind-expanding meaning , sometimes sapping the music 's bracing , insouciant spirit . They come through with a few songs that adroitly balance earnestness and gracefully emphatic playing , notably `` Touch Me Fall '' and `` Dead Man 's Hill . '' JEAN ROSENBLUTH South Central Cartel , ` ` 'N Gatz We Truss '' ( GWK/RAL ) ( 2 stars ) . Chaos. Cruising the ' hood , dodging bullets , attacking enemies , chasing women , partying with homies .. . you 've heard it all before . While the Cartel 's second album doesn't advance the art of gangsta rap , the group does a fair job of re-creating the tensions of ' hood life . Touches of humor make this a little better than most . DENNIS HUNT Frank Black , `` Teenager of the Year '' ( Elektra ) ( 3 stars ) . Remember Pong ? William Mulholland ? The Three Stooges ? CB radios ? Frank Black does , and he sets these and other preoccupations into the vigorously inventive swirl of punk-garage-psychedelic-progressive rock that launched his post-Pixies career so auspiciously last year . A pop-rock enthusiast and iconoclast of the first order , Black deserves the same salute that he offers L.A. water baron Mulholland : Ole ole . RICHARD CROMELIN Collective Soul , `` Hints , Allegations and Things Left Unsaid '' ( Atlantic ) ( 3 stars ) . Melding retro-leaning tunefulness with an alternative , Southern-fried edge , this Georgia quintet has forged an uplifting , infectious amalgamation . The hit single is `` Shine , '' a warm , bluesy romp with an irresistible chorus . This diverse debut may be too predictable for musical pundits , but it 's still an ardent effort . KATHERINE TURMAN WASHINGTON Most of the 50,000 federal workers who take buyouts this fall will be 50 and 60 year olds with 20 to 40 years service that will make them eligible for regular or early retirement plus the $ 25,000 payment . Regular retirees ( anyone age 55 with 30 years ' service , age 60 with 20 years ' or age 62 with 5 years ) will get immediate , unreduced pensions based on salary and service time . Someone retiring with 30 years service gets a pension equal to about 56 percent of final pay . A retiree with 41 years gets a pension equal to 80 percent of salary . Benefits are indexed to inflation . Early retirees ( anyone 50 years old with 20 years service or an employee at any age with 25 years ' service ) take a 2 percent pension reduction for each year they are under age 55 . Many , if not most , of the workers taking buyouts also will have money in the tax-deferred thrift savings plan . A lot of these workers are under the impression they must get out of the federal 401 ( k ) plan when they leave government , but retirees can leave money in the TSP for many years in some instances . Once retired , they cannot contribute . Some workers will need their TSP money immediately to support themselves . Others may wish to purchase an annuity with it , or roll it over into an individual retirement account to continue sheltering it from taxes . Michael J. Sullivan , author of the new `` Your Thrift Savings Plan '' ( 703-648-9551 ) says those offered buyouts are in the same situation as workers being laid off ( those who lose jobs as part of the Reductions In Force ) when it comes to deciding the fate of their federal 401 ( k ) plan . `` If your going to take the buyout and actually retire , look at how your TSP account fits into your retirement income needs now and in the future .. . take stock of other income you receive when you leave the buyout payment or severance payment , and the lump-sum payment for annual leave . '' People who take the buyout or get RIFfed who move into other jobs will `` probably want to leave the money in the TSP , or transfer it to an IRA , '' Sullivan says . Workers also should be aware that `` under no circumstances can the buyout payment .. . be rolled over into your TSP account or into an IRA . '' The script for the film version of `` Mission : Impossible '' may be turning out to be just that . The Paramount Pictures remake of the '60s and early '70s secret-agent series is finally under way , and will be directed by Brian De Palma and produced by Paula Wagner , partner of the film 's star , Tom Cruise . Willard Huyck ( `` American Graffiti , '' `` Indiana Jones and the Temple of Doom '' ) and his wife , Gloria , are in the midst of a rewrite on their original script , but sources close to the project say there 's a chance that another writer perhaps Jay Cocks ( who co-wrote `` The Age of Innocence '' ) may be brought in to smooth away the current draft 's clumsiness . The problem is not the story line , which , sources say , Wagner and crew are happy with . Rather , it 's the `` bad dialogue and scenes that aren't being flushed out . In other words : a bad TV script , '' said one project source . The beginning of the movie , which is slated to begin production later this year , supposedly has members of the old `` Mission : Impossible '' team , including Peter Graves , embarked on a secret governmental assignment , toting Cruise , the team 's youngest operative , along . All are killed except for Cruise . His mission becomes forming a new team to find out why his colleagues were assassinated . And there is a love interest for the young agent . For those whose memories are rusty : There were several teams on the TV series , but the most memorable included Peter Graves as the team leader , James Phelps ; Martin Landau as the disguise expert , Rollin Hand ; Barbara Bain as the beautiful seductress and fashion model , Cinnamon Carter ; Greg Morris as the electronics expert , Barney Collier , and Peter Lupus as the strongman , Willie Armitage . The opening of each episode had Phelps hearing a tape-recorded message outlining his next assignment . The tape would self-destruct and Phelps would scan his dossiers for the best operatives to handle the assignment . But they always ended up being the same agents , except for a few guest operatives . Their mission was always thwarting some corrupt power in an obscure country . Eventually , the show ran out of little countries , so its writers turned the focus on cleaning up organized crime back home . The team 's success always hinged on split-second timing , sophisticated gadgetry and elaborate plans . While the familiar staccato theme written by Lalo Schifrin and Bob Johnson 's voice on the tape survived the entire series run from 1966 to 1973 , the cast underwent many changes ; Landau and Bain , married in real life , left the show at the end of the 1968-69 season . A Paramount spokesman confirmed that the studio had received the Huycks ' first draft , describing it as having a `` lot of theatrical elements '' that advance the TV show 's premise . He said that the filmmakers considered the potential for the script `` excellent , '' and are convinced the outcome will be a `` high-octane film . '' As for a reputed meeting between Wagner , Cocks and De Palma ( his friend of 25 years ) , the Paramount spokesman said that the writer is working on another script for Cruise , a love story called `` Night Magic . '' Any discussion of Cocks ' input on `` Mission : Impossible , '' he said , could have been brought up in discussions on the other project . JUDY BRENNAN It 's pretty unusual to see even one movie ad that uses a picture of a man strategically covering his private parts with a hat an informal poll of film buffs would suggest it 's never happened but this summer there are two . The print ad for Universal 's `` The Cowboy Way '' features a picture of Woody Harrelson 's character in only cowboy boots and a Stetson ( not on his head ) , while an ad for Goldwyn 's rap music parody `` Fear of a Black Hat '' shows the three members of a fictitious rap group wearing two hats each , one on their heads and one on .. . well , you get the idea . And what 's behind the cover-up ? Pure coincidence , apparently . The Harrelson shot is taken from a key scene in the movie , while the `` Fear of a Black Hat '' ad spoofs a Red Hot Chili Peppers album cover that shows the Peppers wearing only well-placed socks . A spokesman for Universal said he didn't know about the similarity until he saw both ads in print just before Memorial Day . `` Initially we were concerned , ( but ) we 're not at all upset , '' he said . `` We looked at it and said , ` This is amusing . '' ' `` My reaction was I thought it was an interesting coincidence , '' said Richard Bornstein , Goldwyn 's vice president of worldwide marketing . `` I actually didn't notice it until it ran . '' Spokespeople for both companies are quick to point out that neither company knew about the other 's ad , and there seems to be little worry that the two movies , both of which opened Friday , will be confused by the public . `` I can't believe anybody seeing our ad would think it 's ( an ad ) for ` The Cowboy Way , ' ' ' said Bornstein . `` Unless there 's a movie about a cowboy rap group , I think we 're OK . '' ROBERT LEVINE Film producers tend to hit pay dirt when transforming classic TV shows into feature films . `` Maverick '' and `` The Flintstones '' are now burning up at the box office . And producers are already pinning their hopes on the big-screen `` Mission : Impossible '' and `` Green Acres . '' But mining the small screen for features is nothing new . The first was `` Dragnet . '' No , not the 1987 Tom Hanks-Dan Aykroyd comedy . The cop series was actually a 1954 feature film , starring and directed by Jack Webb , who played deadpan Sgt. Joe Friday in the original 1952-59 cop series . Other series similarly spun off movies while the shows were still on the air , among them : `` Our Miss Brooks , '' which went to the big screen in 1956 , its final year on CBS , with series regulars Eve Arden , Gale Gordon and Richard Crenna starring . Also in 1956 , Clayton Moore and Jay Silverheels starred in a feature version of their long-running ABC series , `` The Lone Ranger . '' Not until 1983 did we first see the practice of taking a television series and redoing it from scratch , with big budgets , big directors and big stars . That 's when four names of filmdom Joe Dante , George Miller , Steven Spielberg and John Landis lent their talents to the 1983 `` Twilight Zone the Movie . '' It featured new versions of three classic vignettes from Rod Serling 's 1959-65 CBS anthology series . Vic Morrow , Scatman Crothers and John Lithgow starred . BUFFALO Even before New York Gov. Mario M. Cuomo , D , took the stage here Thursday to launch his campaign for a fourth term , one of his top strategists was giving party activists a description of the problems ahead for the incumbent . `` I didn't know ( until recently ) literally one-tenth of what he had done in New York , '' said David Garth , the veteran consultant hired to do Cuomo 's advertising this year . `` Nobody really knows his record ... . We really have to find out how to get the story across . '' That is a common lament of unpopular incumbents across the country and one reason Cuomo faces what campaign manager John Marino predicted would be `` the toughest campaign we 've ever had tougher than '82 , '' when Cuomo narrowly won the governorship for the first time . Since then , Cuomo has dominated the politics of this state , and at times his star shone so brightly that he was considered a favorite to become his party 's presidential nominee . But in 1994 , with incumbency often more a burden than a benefit , he begins his campaign on the defensive , trying to fight off charges that he has overstayed his welcome in the governor 's mansion and has no stronger rationale for another four years than , as he said Thursday , `` I 'm ready to finish what I started . '' Cuomo was defensive and defiant in accepting his party 's nomination at a Democratic state convention that concluded Thursday . He claimed he cut state income tax rates that had been raised by his Republican predecessors , saying , `` We 're the tax cutters , not the Republicans . '' And he taunted the GOP by claiming he would fight crime and violent criminals with more intensity , despite his long-stated opposition to the death penalty . `` Republicans talk tough on crime , but they cannot put their record where their rhetoric is , '' Cuomo said . He called for a ban on assault weapons , a three-strikes-and-you're-out bill to imprison repeat violent offenders , and called on Republicans to pass legislation requiring life without parole for those Cuomo described as `` cold-blooded killers . '' The governor took credit for much of New York 's growth during his first two terms because of policies he put in place , but he blamed the most recent recession , which battered the state 's economy and his political standing , on national trends and Republican policies . `` We were hit from behind , '' Cuomo said . `` Not by a New York-bred disaster , but by the heavy weather of a national recession . '' Eight years ago , Cuomo coasted to re-election . Four years ago he defeated a weak Republican candidate . This March , in a poll taken by the Marist Institute , 36 percent of those surveyed rated his performance favorably , even though 60 percent said he had been a good governor . Last week , New York Republicans endorsed state Sen. George Pataki as their candidate for governor and the GOP 's endorsed ticket ( Republicans still must hold a primary in September ) has made some Democrats even more nervous about Cuomo 's chances . The Democrats used their convention to attack the Republican ticket as insensitive , inexperienced and the creation of GOP bosses and spin meisters . Cuomo sought to discredit Pataki as the handpicked candidate of U.S. Sen. Alfonse M. D' Amato , R , who himself toyed with challenging Cuomo but ducked a direct fight . `` I may hit a sour note from time to time , but understand this , '' Cuomo said derisively . `` The words and ideas that come out of my mouth are mine , no one else 's . I have no boss , and will have no boss , but the people of the state of New York . '' But the campaign here largely will be about Mario Cuomo , not his opponent , and Cuomo 's advisers know it . `` There 's a climate out there that has anti-incumbent overtones , '' said Bill Lynch , who was former New York mayor David N . Dinkins ' top political adviser and now advises Cuomo . `` The voters are impatient . We 've got to give them assurances and hope . '' `` While he has stabilized , we still have a long way to go , '' Marino said of Cuomo 's standing in the state . `` I have a candidate ( who can ) articulate a clear message . We 're going to work damn hard to get that message out . '' The boot camp comedy `` Renaissance Man , '' written by a former English teacher and directed by gush maestro Penny Marshall , is built entirely around one dubious notion , that if you can overcome the language problem , you can make Shakespeare exciting , even to people too stupid to get through basic military training . I don't know who should feel more insulted by the idea , the Army , Shakespeare or the audience . You decide . `` Renaissance Man '' stars Danny DeVito as an out-of-work Madison Avenue ad executive who takes a temp job teaching language skills to a group of Army recruits so thick-headed they can't understand simple orders screamed into their faces by drill sergeants . On the brink of being washed out of the service , the eight `` Double-D '' ( dog-dumb ) recruits , seven men and one woman , are given an opportunity to rescue themselves with a six-week course in remedial thinking , to be taught by reluctant unemployment-line draftee Bill Rago ( DeVito ) . Though Rago has no more interest in teaching the dummies than they have in learning , they are stuck with each other , so while they 're together , Rago tries to pass along some of his love for Shakespeare by having them act out and analyze `` Hamlet . '' To paraphrase Polonius , there proves to be a method to his madness . The students love the story sex ! violence ! incest ! and not only get past the Bard 's Elizabethan English , but begin to overcome some of the fears of education that got them in trouble in the first place . It 's `` Dead Poets Society '' for underachievers . First-time screenwriter Jim Burnstein was reportedly inspired to write this story by his own experiences teaching Shakespeare to soldiers at an Air National Guard base in Michigan , and his obvious passion for the subject is the best thing about his script . The movie lights up every time the students begin dissecting `` Hamlet . '' Even DeVito , whose screen persona has been evolving into something resembling a snapping turtle , seems moved by the connection Rago is able to make through Shakespeare . He is his old self when dealing with the military nonsense outside the classroom , but when Rago is with his students , DeVito becomes remarkably warm and sympathetic . Every other element of the story Rago 's anti-authoritarian run-ins with the gung-ho drill sergeant ( Gregory Hines ) , his insensitivity to his teen-age daughter at home , his attempts to solve each of the student 's life crises is so contrived , the movie just creaks through all the exposition . Burnstein lays on secondary issues about the failure of America 's public school system , the shifting values of the new co-ed military and the regenerative powers of knowledge , but the only genuine question can you make Shakespeare fun ? is pretty much answered when the guys in class stop complaining about having to play Gertrude and Ophelia . Marshall , whose most recent movies ( `` Awakenings '' and `` A League of Their Own '' ) have each given us two acts of story and one of shameless sentimentality , is given nine golden opportunities to ring us out again , and she doesn't waste any of them . If you 're a sucker for her lingering closeups of people bulging with restrained emotions , don't forget the Kleenex . However , when they hear Rago 's class perform `` Hamlet Rap , '' co-written by Marky Mark ( who plays one of the soldiers ) , Shakespeare scholars may be crying for a completely different reason . 2 stars . The princess , along with the rest of the Sun People , acts as though she hasn't been using enough sunscreen . She 's been fried stiff . Her joints have atrophied . Her dollish face has hardened into a one-expression-fits-all countenance . And when she speaks , her lip-syncing will remind you of a bad kung-fu import . The subterranean goblins , on the other hand , appear to have thrived in darkness . They 're witty , colorful , acrobatic and , except for a mean streak and an intolerance for music , more fun than the boring Sun People who rule the above-ground kingdom . This is hardly the first animated feature in which the bad guys have upstaged the good . But here , the animators seem to have been working on two different films . In fact , separate teams one in Wales and another in Hungary produced the animation for `` The Princess and the Goblin . '' The film is based on a 19th century Scottish children 's fable . The goblins , banished long ago to the underground by the Sun People , are plotting a revolt . And since they live inside the very mountain on which the royal castle is perched , Princess Irene makes a convenient kidnap target . Her life in danger , the spirit of her great-great-grandmother appears to Irene , granting her the gift of an inexhaustible spool of magic thread . All she has to do is follow the thread in and out of danger with her new-found friend , Curdie , a miner 's son . Curdie is the only Sun Person who knows how to fight the goblins stomp on their sensitive , mono-toed feet , or sing to them . For the most part , `` The Princess and the Goblin '' is charmingly innocent and old-fashioned , though a few scattered attempts have been made to de-sentimentalize it . A preschool- and grade-school-age audience attending a recent screening gave an in-unison endorsement `` G-R-R-R-R-OSS ! '' when one goblin picked his nose and another wolfed down a fistful of insects . Especially appealing , in their comically repulsive way , are Prince Froglip , who intends to marry the kidnapped Princess Irene so he can rule the kingdom , and his mother , the Queen , who 's the only goblin smart enough to protect her feet by wearing shoes . The watercolor-style scenery , with its subtle use of mists and cobwebs , works handsomely with goblins in the foreground . But the lifelessly drawn Sun People look out of place against an alive , moving background . While kids who watch made-for-TV cartoons may excuse such technical lapses , they may not forgive the relative innocence . `` The Princess and the Goblin '' will appeal to younger children . Two stars . Woody Harrelson is standing on a bed , naked except for the Stetson on his head , the warpaint on his face , and the purple bandana diaper-tied around his loins . He is also wearing a grin as dumb as a cork and speaking the broken English of movie Indians , as he directs a giggly playmate to turn `` Big Chief '' into `` Happy Chief '' by beating on his tom-tom . If this isn't one of the most embarrassing scenes a major star has been asked to do in a movie , it 's only because Harrelson is not a major star . Or apt to become one , after answering the call for Gregg Champion 's `` The Cowboy Way . '' Harrelson has other opportunities to embarrass himself in this witless action-comedy about a New Mexico rodeo-riding team trying to break up a gang of slave traders in modern New York City , and he doesn't let a single one slip by . Reverting to the persona of the affable idiot he played on TV 's `` Cheers , '' Harrelson 's Pepper Lewis clops through the New York scenes like the Encino Man dressed by Levi Strauss . Co-star Kiefer Sutherland comes off marginally better , but only because the contemplative personality of his character , Sonny Gilstrap , was written to contrast with Pepper 's ill-bred impetuousness . They are the odd couple on the range , a loner and a loser united by their passion for and skills at ridin ' , ropin ' and calf-wrestlin ' . When we meet them , Sonny and Pepper are estranged . The unreliable Pepper had failed to show up for a national event whose prize money Sonny was counting on using to buy a ranch . But when their mutual friend Nacho ( Joaquin Martinez ) heads east to meet a daughter he paid to have smuggled in from Cuba , Sonny and Pepper reteam and follow his trail right into a nest of human rattlers in midtown Manhattan . Led by a sadist named Stark ( Dylan McDermott ) , the gang uses relatives ' money to bring immigrants into the city , then turns them over to sweat shop bosses . Using the `` cowboy way , '' which proves to be the same as the bull-in-the-china-shop way , Sonny and Pepper set out to rescue Nacho 's daughter . But first , the hayseeds have to learn the big city ropes , and go through an array of painfully contrived culture clash scenes . They rankle a snooty waiter at the Waldorf-Astoria , build a campfire in Central Park , become sex objects for slumming socialites , befriend a horseback cop ( Ernie Hudson ) who 's nursing his own cowboy fantasy . Eventually , `` The Cowboy Way '' settles into conventional urban action , the sole difference being that in the big chase sequence , Sonny and Pepper are on horseback and the bad guys are on a Brooklyn-bound subway train . You 'll get more realism in a Roadrunner cartoon . When a movie misfires this badly , you can usually trace it to the moment of inspiration , and sure enough , the production notes reveal that gee-whiz producer Brian Grazer ( Ron Howard 's impetuous partner ) came up with the idea of modern-day cowboys in New York while horseback riding in California . Just think , Woody , had it rained that day , we might have all been spared . One star . Def Leppard bassist Rick Savage has put his condo overlooking Beverly Hills on the market at $ 549,000 , furnished . Since Savage and four other British teen-agers got together to make music 17 years ago , their `` light-metal '' band suffered the death of its original guitarist , Steve Clark , and the loss of drummer Rick Allen 's left arm in a serious car accident . Allen relearned to play the drums using one arm and his feet . `` They 're in Ireland and don't spend enough time here to merit having the condominium , '' said a listing broker . The condo , which Savage bought in 1988 , has two bedrooms in almost 1,700 square feet . It 's in a 32-story building with vast city views . The 146-unit , nearly 30-year-old building is where actor George Hamilton bought a condo in March . -0- Actor John C. McGinley who appears in the 1994 films `` Surviving the Game , '' `` On Deadly Ground , '' `` Mother 's Boys , '' `` Car 54 , Where Are You ? '' and the upcoming `` Wagons East , '' the late John Candy 's comedy Western has purchased a three-bedroom home with ocean and canyon views in Malibu , Calif. . McGinley , who began his film career with appearances in `` Platoon '' ( 1986 ) and `` Wall Street '' ( 1987 ) , bought a two-story traditional on a bit more than an acre for close to its last asking price of $ 729,000 , sources say . Built in 1986 , the house originally had been priced at nearly $ 1.3 million . -0- Thomas Calabro , who plays the lying , womanizing louse Michael Mancini in `` Melrose Place , '' and his actress wife , Liz , have moved into a Los Angeles home that they purchased for $ 300,000 , sources say . The traditional-style , 2,000-square-foot residence was built in the 1950s . -0- Claudia Christian , who stars as the icy brunette Commander Susan Ivanova in the sci-fi TV series `` Babylon 5 , '' and her husband , Rod Dyer , a graphic designer in the film industry and a restaurateur , have leased a home in the posh Los Angeles community of Bel-Air for close to its monthly asking price of $ 7,500 , furnished , sources say . The four-bedroom , 3,200-square-foot home has a woodsy yard and a wine cellar built into a hill . The rankings for books sold in the New York area , as reported by selected book stores : HARDCOVER FICTION 1.THE CHAMBER , by John Grisham . 2 . THE ALIENIST , by Caleb Carr . 3 . THE CELESTINE PROPHECY , by James Redfield . 4 . REMEMBER ME , by Mary Higgins Clark . 5 . INCA GOLD , by Clive Cussler . 6 . A WAY IN THE WORLD , by V.S. Naipaul . 7 . WALKING SHADOW , by Robert B . Parker . 8 . THE DAY AFTER TOMORROW , by Allan Folsom . 9 . THE BRIDGES OF MADISON COUNTY , by Robert James Waller . 10 . LIKE WATER FOR CHOCOLATE , by Laura Esquivel . NONFICTION 1 . IN THE KITCHEN WITH ROSIE , by Rosie Daley . 2 . EMBRACED BY THE LIGHT , by Betty J. Eadie with Curtis Taylor . 3 . MIDNIGHT IN THE GARDEN OF GOOD AND EVIL , by John Berendt . 4 . MAGIC EYE , by Tom Baccei . 5 . SOUL MATES , by Thomas Moore . 6 . LIFE OF THE PARTY , by Christopher Ogden . 7 . STANDING FIRM , by Dan Quayle . 8 . D-DAY , JUNE 6 , 1944 , by Stephen E. Ambrose . 9 . THE HALDEMAN DIARIES , by H.R. Haldeman . 10 . BEYOND PEACE , by Richard Nixon . PAPERBACK 1 . PLEADING GUILTY , by Scott Turow . 2 . ROAD TO WELLVILLE , by T. Coraghessan Boyle . 3 . I ' LL BE SEEING YOU , by Mary Higgins Clark . 4 . THE CLIENT , by John Grisham . 5 . LISTENING TO PROZAC , by Peter Kramer . 6 . SCORPIO ILLUSION , by Robert Ludlum . 7 . AFTER ALL THESE YEARS , by Susan Isaacs . 8 . PIGS IN HEAVEN , by Barbara Kingsolver . 9 . CRUEL & UNUSUAL , by Patricia Cornwell . 10 . THE STAND , by Stephen King . Distributed by the Los Angeles Times-Washington Post News Service JERUSALEM Israeli warplanes and helicopter gunships attacked a training base of the Iranian-backed Hezbollah guerrillas near the Lebanese town of Baalbek early Thursday , killing as many as 45 and wounding 200 . Striking at 2 a.m. , as the estimated 400 guerrillas slept in tents on a rocky hillside , 10 Israeli fighter-bombers rocketed the base in waves and followed with intensive canon fire , according to Lebanese officials . Six helicopters then raked the exposed camp with more rocket fire and strafed it with machine guns for nearly 15 minutes . Lebanese Foreign Minister Faris Bouez , putting the death toll at 45 , called the attack `` a massacre '' and `` naked aggression against Lebanon 's sovereignty and security and a big challenge to the peace process . '' Hezbollah declared its revenge would be `` swift and merciless . '' About 11 hours later , the first of three barrages of Katyusha rockets 25 in all fell in Israel 's Western Galilee region , landing mostly in farm fields and causing no casualties and little damage . Hezbollah also rocketed Israel 's self-declared `` security zone '' in southern Lebanon . Mordechai Gur , Israeli deputy defense minister , quickly warned that Israeli forces would respond `` seven-fold '' against Hezbollah , if its rocket attacks upon Israel continued . `` This is something we willn't put up with , '' Gur said . Anticipating intensified clashes , Israeli forces increased their firepower in southern Lebanon early Wednesday , 24 hours before the raid on Baalbek , by bringing four heavy , long-range artillery guns north across the border into Lebanon , according to U.N. sources . After the first rockets fell near the northern Israeli town of Nahariya early Thursday afternoon , residents in the region were ordered into bomb shelters and fortified `` security rooms . '' Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin described the Baalbek attack as part of `` an ongoing war '' between Israel , Hezbollah and other Islamic fundamentalist groups opposed to Israel 's agreement with the Palestine Liberation Organization on Palestinian self-government and to other efforts to achieve Middle East peace . `` Whenever we have an opportunity to hit terrorist organizations such as Hezbollah without causing civilian casualties , we will do it , '' Rabin said . `` We have always done so , and we will continue to do so . '' Israel had acted in self-defense in hitting the Hezbollah base , Gur asserted , for the guerrillas had `` all participated in operations or were about to take part in operations . '' Lt. Gen. Ehud Barak , Israeli chief of staff , said Israel had acted on extensive information on the Hezbollah training session from aerial reconnaissance and other `` very precise intelligence . '' The Israeli Cabinet approved the operation at a special session Wednesday . But the attack brought warnings that the unrelenting confrontation between Israel and the Hezbollah in Lebanon could endanger efforts to negotiate peace agreements throughout the Middle East . In New York , a spokesman for U.N. Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali said he was deeply concerned by `` the escalation of violence at a sensitive time in the Middle East . '' ( Optional add end ) The attack was one of Israel 's most successful against Hezbollah and the fiercest since its weeklong bombardment of southern Lebanon last July a demonstration of Rabin 's determination to ensure not only Israeli security in the face of Hezbollah attacks but to protect the peace process from a backlash among Israelis concerned about `` weakness '' on the part of Rabin . The action also reflected Rabin 's loss of faith in Syria the dominant power in Lebanon as a partner in the Middle East peace process . Rabin said earlier this week that he saw no chance of an early breakthrough in Israel 's talks with Syria despite U.S. mediation in recent months . `` This can be seen as a signal to the Syrians : You aren't doing anything against Hezbollah , about the ( Israeli ) MIAs , so don't expect us to make any concessions to you , '' said Yossi Olmert , a leading Israeli specialist on Syria and Lebanon . `` What you didn't do , we 'll do regardless of your sensitivities . '' Hezbollah enjoys Syrian protection in Lebanon , as well as Iranian patronage . The base hit Thursday is in Lebanon 's Bekaa Valley , about seven miles from the Syrian border and 44 miles east of Beirut . With 40,000 troops in Lebanon , Syria is the dominant political and military power in the country . Israel halted its onslaught last July only after U.S. Secretary of State Warren Christopher had secured Syrian pledges that Hezbollah would not attack Israeli communities from southern Lebanon . The Israeli bombardment last summer killed about 150 people , mostly Lebanese civilians , and drove several hundred thousand people from their homes . With the Baalbek attack , Olmert suggested that Israel has moved to a preemptive rather than a retaliatory approach to Hezbollah , which likes to describe itself as waging the Arabs ' only sustained armed confrontation with the Jewish state . `` They can't know what 's going to come next they should be nervous , '' Olmert said . `` It creates uncertainty , and that is always good for Israel. .. . This was a serious blow , but not a crippling one . '' Claiming she was tortured with machetes and left for dead in a killing field near Port-au-Prince , Alerte Belance , a 32-year-old Haitian housewife now living in Newark , N.J. , Thursday sued a Haitian political party that Belance said was behind her attack . The unusual lawsuit , filed in federal court in New York , names as defendant the Front for Advancement and Progress in Haiti ( FRAPH ) , an organization with close ties to the Haitian military . The group has representatives in New York and Miami . Human-rights observers with the United Nations and the Organization for American States have said that FRAPH is behind the rash of violence against supporters of exiled Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide , who was overthrown in a military backed coup in October 1991 . Some U.S. officials in Port-au-Prince have called FRAPH a terrorist organization . Rigaud Noel , described as assistant general coordinator of FRAPH in New York , said of the lawsuit , `` We ignore it . '' Noel refused to answer questions about his group 's activities but said whatever happened to Belance happened in Haiti and `` we had nothing to do with it . '' Representatives of FRAPH in New York and Miami recently have denounced U.S. policy against the military government in Haiti and attacked supporters of Aristide . In one communique included in Belance 's lawsuit , Lyonel Sterling , general coordinator of FRAPH-New York , condemns the `` Aristidien mob '' and its alleged violence against Aristide 's opponents . The document concludes : `` Never , never again will ( the FRAPH ) stand idly by and let our oppressors , foreign or domestic , impose on us your demented leader , Jean-Bertrand Aristide . '' Belance and her attorneys are suing FRAPH under the Alien Tort Claims Act , a law that also allowed Evans Paul , the current mayor of Port-au-Prince , to sue Prosper Avril , a former Haitian dictator , for damages . That complaint is to be heard Monday in federal court in Miami . Belance 's suit is believed to be the first instance of using the Alien Tort Claims Act to sue a political party . In Haiti , the national leaders of FRAPH , including a former Haitian U.N. diplomat Emmanuel Constant , have denied the group is involved in terrorizing Aristide supporters . But recent reports by human-rights organizations charge that FRAPH members are even more repressive than the feared Tonton Macoutes , who enforced the will of former dictator Claude `` Papa Doc '' Duvalier for three decades . Belance , who lost an arm and fingers during the machete attack , said she and her husband were awakened in their Port-au-Prince home by gunshots early on the morning of Oct. 16 , 1993 . Her husband , who had done political work for Aristide , jumped out a back window . Belance , speaking through an interpreter in New York , said four men armed with automatic weapons dragged her into a car and drove her to Titayen , outside of Port-au-Prince , where she said bodies frequently are dumped . There , she said , she was attacked with machetes and left for dead . She claims the men identified themselves as members of FRAPH . Belance today is severely scarred on the neck and face . She lost her right arm below the elbow and a finger on her left hand . Three months after the attack , she and her husband were granted refugee status by U.S. officials in Port-au-Prince and allowed to immigrate to the United States . Her attorney , Michael Ratner , of Center for Constitutional Rights in New York , said the lawsuit was designed in part to bring attention to the presence of FRAPH representatives living and working in the United States . `` We want to shine a spotlight on these people , '' Ratner said . State Department officials Thursday declined to comment on the case . The State and Treasury departments are responsible for enforcing U.S. sanctions against the leaders of the coup against Aristide , including FRAPH members . PORTSMOUTH , England It 's the scale of it all that 's hardest to fathom . By the first week of June 1944 , there were 3 million troops in southern England more than the entire population of Mississippi . It took 24,459 special trains just to move them to the 24 embarkation points for D-Day . On the way , they passed rural lanes flanked with shoulder-high stacks of artillery shells , mountains of medical supplies , forests filled with tanks . There were fields of artillery , cobwebbed with camouflage netting and miles of halftracks and jeeps . The invasion fleet of some 7,000 ships was the largest the world has ever seen . It included 1,213 warships , 4,126 landing ships , 736 support ships and 864 merchantmen . They needed 287 minesweepers just to clear the way . The beachhead stretched nearly 50 miles . There was only one problem with all those troops and equipment : how to unload them on the far shore . The test of the invasion was not getting ashore but staying ashore . The troops could go in over the beach , but they would need 12,000 tons of supplies and 2,500 vehicles unloaded every day . That , in turn , required ports , both to speed the handling of cargo with docks and ready ground transportation , and , more importantly , to shelter unloading ships from the English Channel 's notorious weather . The Normandy coast has few such ports , and the closest major ones , Le Havre and Cherbourg , were so heavily fortified that they would have to be pounded to pieces before their capture . Until they could be seized and repaired , there seemed to be only one answer . Said Winston Churchill : `` We shall build our own ports and take them with us . '' Thus was born Operation Mulberry , a project of technological hubris as daunting for its time as the manned space program would later be in its . Operation Mulberry would absorb the round-the-clock labors of more than 20,000 men for more than half a year and suck up every bit of available steel and concrete in a Great Britain already reeling from wartime shortages . And it would be brought to fruition , despite obvious physical visibility , in almost total secrecy . What it envisioned was no less than the instant creation on an exposed coast of two separate protected anchorages , each fully two square miles in area , or approximately the size of Britain 's own major channel port at Dover . Within these harbors would be dock space sufficient for unloading simultaneously six amphibious landing ships ( LSTs ) , plus moorings for an additional eight larger cargo ships . The most maddening challenge was a requirement that the docks remain at a level where vehicles could roll right onto them through the bow-opening doors of the LSTs . Since tides in Normandy rise and fall a whopping 21 feet twice a day , this meant semi-floating docks whose height could be adjusted somehow on retractable legs . And since the beaches in Normandy have a very gentle slope , it also necessitated a series of floating piers that could reach out half a mile to the docks as the tide retreated and advanced . In all there would be seven miles of piers for the two harbors , and at least one of the three docks and pier combinations in each harbor would need to be heavy enough to handle 40-ton tanks . Dover , also artificial , had taken seven years to build . The Mulberrys were to be built in seven months . `` Don't argue the matter , '' wrote Churchill in a famous memo . `` The difficulties will argue themselves . '' -O- The English Channel , as many a sailor has discovered , is not a nice piece of water . It is prone to fog and dangerous tidal rips and wrapped in stormy , unforgiving shores . Its weather is fickle and treacherous , its currents disorienting and its waters cold . But June is usually relatively calm , which is to say one rarely encounters 40-knot winds . July and August are even calmer , and since the Mulberry harbors were only thought necessary for three months ( within which time the French ports would have been seized and functioning ) , they would be designed to anticipate neither serious gales nor more than eight-foot seas . Even so , their strength on paper was impressive . The key ingredient of the harbor was a concrete shell , or caisson , roughly the size of a five-story building . It would be built in six sizes , the largest 60 feet high and displacing more than 6,000 tons . A total of 212 caissons were built , using in the process 600,000 tons of concrete and more than 31,000 tons of steel . Each caisson was to be towed across the channel and flooded in series so as to make two giant breakwaters , one of them fully 1 miles long and 4,000 feet off the beach , and the other , a fifth as long , perpendicular to the beach at the outer breakwater 's southern end . A third breakwater nearly 2 miles long , at the north end of each beach , was to be composed of 70 old `` block ships '' ( including an ancient Victorian battleship ) steamed across the channel and scuttled with explosives . Beyond the outer breakwater was to be yet another type a mile-long floating barrier of 200-foot steel pontoons , or `` bombardons , '' to dampen wave action . The caisson project alone taxed the resources of the United Kingdom to the very limit . Construction started Oct. 31 , 1943 , and quickly fell behind schedule as the 25 contractors involved scrambled for work sites and labor . With nearly every man , woman and child in Britain already occupied on war-related tasks , most of the caisson builders had to be imported from neutral Ireland . Dorothy Moore , now 86 , was in charge of lodging those in Gosport , where they were billeted with local families . She remembers them as `` very strong , good-hearted fellows , but very rough . They worked very long hours , and were given to going to bed with their muddy boots on , or relieving themselves out the bedroom window after an evening at the pub . Things like that . '' None of them had the least idea what they were building . Nor did most workers at either end of the project . Jerry Jerrard of Southampton , then a 20-year-old physicist fresh out of the University of London , was part of an `` operations research group '' assigned to Operation Mulberry . All he knew was that it was something concrete . `` We had a chemist , a civil engineer , a mathematician and me in the group , '' he remembers . `` We were working on things like metal stress in tank treads several projects simultaneously and I was assigned to compute the stresses involved in the caissons . But the stresses they asked for had nothing to do with waves or water . They concerned mostly whether we could mount anti-aircraft guns on the top . For all we knew it could have been a block of flats . '' Ray Beachill , 66 , of Portsmouth had just left school at age 16 to work as an electrician 's apprentice in 1944 . His first job was running power cables to the tidal zone of nearby Langstone Harbor , where one caisson was being built . `` It was very hard work . We were working outside in the winter with snow and everything right at the water 's edge , which is always the coldest place . Gale winds kept breaking the electric cables and I 'd have to climb up there in the gale with no protective clothing on and hope I didn't get blown off . '' The Irish workers , he says , were worse off still . `` They 'd be up to their waist in water sometimes when the tide came in , and this was January , mind you. .. . I don't mind telling you I was just as glad to see the back end of that thing when they finally towed it away . '' When they did , he had still not learned what it was . Six weeks before D-Day , however , it appeared that the Germans did know . William Joyce , the Nazi radio propagandist known as `` Lord Haw-Haw , '' declared on the air that `` we know exactly what you intend to do with those concrete units . You think you 're going to sink them on our coasts in the assault . Well , we are going to help you boys. .. . When you come to get them under way , we 're going to sink them for you . '' The broadcast sent panic through the Allied high command . If the Germans understood the Mulberry concept , they 'd have a window into the invasion strategy possibly enough to undermine the elaborate deception efforts long employed to convince them that the real invasion would come north of Normandy in the Pas de Calais . There the Germans had positioned the bulk of their troops and armor . If those troops were moved to Normandy it would be disastrous on D-Day . How much did the Germans really know ? The high command turned to its intelligence ace in the hole , the code-breaking unit at Bletchley , which had been reading `` ultra''-secret Wehrmacht radio signals throughout the war . After some sleepless nights the answer came back by circuitous route . American cryptographers in the Pacific , who were reading Japanese radio traffic , had intercepted a report to Tokyo from the Japanese ambassador in Berlin . While briefing him on their French coastal defenses and the Allies ' surmised invasion plans , the Germans had mentioned the concrete units being built on the British coast . But they appeared , the Germans said , to be anti-aircraft gun towers . Allied relief was palpable . But just to be on the safe side , an early prototype caisson was towed up and parked across from Calais . The `` Haw-Haw '' broadcast made Allied security so jittery a major investigation was launched the following month when the word `` mulberry '' turned up in a crossword puzzle in the Daily Telegraph . That mulberry turned out to refer to trees . -O- Operation Mulberry , meanwhile , was marching on . The towing aspect of it alone was a logistical snake pit . Every conceivable size and type of towing vessel had been drafted for the operation , one dating back to 1880 . Each had to be matched with an appropriate load lest a gale-propelled 6,000-ton caisson end up towing its towing vessel . Then all the speeds and distances had to be coordinated so the 85 tugs would not arrive with their huge loads all at once amid the barely controlled chaos of the 7,000-ship invasion fleet . The towing was not without incident . One troubled caisson flooded prematurely and sank off Hayling Island near here , where it can still be seen today . Half the pier sections intended for Mulberry B were lost in rough seas on the way over . The first units arrived off Omaha Beach June 7 , and three of the block ships were sunk in place for the northern breakwater that afternoon . The following day the first caissons arrived . The block-ship breakwater was completed June 10 , despite being targeted sporadically by German artillery fire . The first ships docked at Mulberry A pier six days later , three full days ahead of schedule . Mulberry B , in the British sector at Arromanches , was less than half finished . Up to that time , the bulk of the unloading had been handled by LSTs `` drying out '' beaching themselves at high tide , opening their bow doors and rolling vehicles right onto the sand . While this proved far more practical than envisioned by the invasion planners , it had the immense disadvantage of immobilizing ships for a full 12 hours until they could be refloated on the next high tide . The first LST at the Mulberry dock discharged 78 vehicles its entire load in just 38 minutes . In the 11 additional hours it would have spent on the beach drying out , it could now return to England , load up again and be halfway back . The cargo capacity of the invasion beaches had suddenly more than doubled . By June 18 , with its third dock still uncompleted , Omaha Beach had landed 197,444 troops , 27,340 vehicles and 68,799 long tons of supplies . Mulberry A was not only living up to its projections , it was now the busiest port in all of Europe . -O- Then disaster struck . Allied weather forecasters , who inarguably had made the greatest tactical contribution to D-Day by spotting a brief window amid what appeared to the Germans to be invasion-proof weather , missed an oncoming cold front that descended on the Mulberrys like a bomb . On June 19 , during an unusually high spring tide , the winds stiffened , backing to the northeast , and blew from the one point on the compass that built the waves over 100 miles of open water and aimed them into the harbor entrance . By midday the wind was blowing steadily at 20 knots and gusting regularly to 30 . Eight-foot waves began washing over the tops of the block ships and caissons and running wild in the harbor . Anchors began to drag and moorings to part . Small craft , then bigger ships began drifting into the floating piers . The bombardon breakwater dragged anchor , came apart and began battering the caissons , which in turn began to shift and capsize . It was the worst summer storm in the channel in 40 years . It blew for four days . When it was over , 21 of 35 caissons in one breakwater had capsized or been beaten in and the piers and docks were little more than twisted wreckage . Only the block-ship breakwater at Omaha had held . The British Mulberry , still uncompleted and partially protected by the capes north of Le Havre , survived with little damage . Appalled by the damage at Omaha , Allied planners decided to move any salvageable parts of Mulberry A to Arromanches . The discharge of cargo had virtually stopped during the storm , and shortages ashore were becoming critical . Fortunately , Cherbourg was captured June 26 , but it was another 20 days before the harbor there could be cleared of wreckage and booby traps enough for the first ships to unload . Meanwhile , supply logistics were rebuilt around the intensified beaching and drying out of LSTs at Omaha plus the operation of a finally finished and greatly storm-reinforced Mulberry B at Arromanches . It operated through November 1944 . Its block ships and caissons still stand today . -O- Fifty years after D-Day , historians tend to view Operation Mulberry as something of a quaint sideline to the invasion of Europe , some citing it as a cautionary tale of man 's technological arrogance in the face of nature , rather like the sinking of the Titanic . For all the immense expense and effort that went into the Mulberrys , the `` British Report to the Chiefs of Staff '' on D-Day suggested they were a waste of steel and labor and said the invasion could probably have succeeded without them . Eisenhower 's chief of staff , Gen. Walter Bedell Smith , however , strongly disagreed . Though the Mulberrys may have only contributed 15 percent to the flow of needed materiel to the invasion forces , he said after the war , `` that 15 percent was crucial . '' What many overlook is that the Mulberrys marked a historical benchmark in the evolution of waterborne transportation . They were designed by engineers and architects still discovering how best to employ the then-novel LST , the first ship built almost entirely for the rapid loading and discharge of cargo . The mating of the Mulberry docks and the LST marked the prototype of the roll-on , roll-off concept of cargo-handling that governs today 's containerized ports and shipping . Like so much that D-Day brought to Europe and the world , the Mulberry harbors were the face of the future . In preparation for Monday 's commemoration of the 50th anniversary of D-Day , CBS ' `` Sunday Morning , '' ABC 's `` Good Morning America/Sunday '' and NBC 's `` Weekend Today '' will provide extensive reports . NBC 's `` Meet the Press '' and a 90-minute edition of ABC 's `` This Week with David Brinkley '' also will be devoted to D-Day . Live TV coverage from Normandy , France and other European sites critical in the invasion will dominate regular and elongated news programs on Monday . ABC anchor Peter Jennings and NBC anchor Tom Brokaw are on the scene for their evening newscasts through Monday ; CBS and CNN chose to send senior correspondents . The networks ' anchors and reporters also will be on Monday beginning at 7 a.m. , when there will be five continuous hours of coverage on each of the networks ' morning shows . -0- PBS ' new `` The Steven Banks Show '' will air Monday nights from July 11 to Aug. 8 and , after a pledge break , return Aug. 22 to Sept. 5 . It takes place in `` the cluttered mind and apartment '' of Banks , who manages to be distracted by most anything . We find him doing comic monologues ; parodying Rex Harrison , Elvis Presley , Katharine Hepburn , Jerry Lewis , Paul McCartney and Bob Dylan ; writing music ; singing ; and playing nearly a dozen instruments . There will be guests , Penn and Teller among them , and two regulars , Teresa Parente and Michael Kostroff , who play six recurring characters and more than 50 onetime roles . -0- Here 's more light summer fare : NBC finally will show `` TV Nation , '' the comedic investigative magazine from filmmaker Michael Moore ( `` Roger & Me '' ) . It will air Tuesday nights beginning July 19 . Moore says his show departs from all the other news magazines in that `` we don't have the credentials or the wardrobe of most TV correspondents . '' Moore 's on-air team includes Merrill Markoe , former writer for David Letterman ; MTV veejay Karen Duffy ; author Ben Hamper ( `` Rivethead '' ) ; Roy Sekoff , Spy magazine 's Louis Theroux ; and comic Jonathan Katz . Topics include real-estate sales near the Love Canal ; catching a cab in New York City if you 're African-American ; the lighter side of Dr. Kevorkian , and `` Pets on Prozac . '' -0- Except for the Peabody , duPont-Columbia and Emmy awards , this space normally steers clear of reporting the many awards handed out to TV people . We make an exception to note that `` All My Children '' star Susan Lucci , our favorite non-Emmy winner , has received the 1994 Crystal Apple Award , presented to a personality who `` has distinguished him or herself in the entertainment business and has made lifetime contributions to the film and TV industry in New York . '' Past winners are Dustin Hoffman , Michael J. Fox , Spike Lee and Robert De Niro . Mayor Rudolph Giuliani will present Lucci with a Tiffany Crystal Apple June 13 . -0- Viewers for Quality Television is asking fans of Fox Broadcasting 's canceled `` South Central '' to write to Fox Broadcasting Chairwoman Lucy Salhany and ask that the series be reinstated . The series about black family life , one critic wrote , deals with `` a healthy , functional family trying to get by in a dysfunctional society . '' Salhany 's address : Fox Broadcasting , Box 900 , Beverly Hills , Calif. 90213 . VQT wants copies of the letters sent to its office : P.O. . Box 195 , Fairfax Station , Va. 22039 . WASHINGTON Sketching a picture of an emerging work force no longer well served by employment laws that date back to the Great Depression , a special White House commission issued a report Thursday that the Clinton administration will use to try to overhaul the fundamental rules of the U.S. workplace . The fact-finding report by the 10-member Commission for the Future of Worker/Management Relations will serve as the starting point for what promises to be a bitter and lengthy legislative fight over labor law reform . Unlike the U.S. work force of the past six decades , the report said , today 's workers are as `` more educated ; more female , often part of a two-earner family ; more likely to be members of a minority group ; and getting older as the baby boomers age . '' This , it said , `` poses challenges to the traditional modes of compensation and organization of work schedules and makes provisions of equal opportunity for all increasingly critical to our economic success . '' Labor Secretary Robert B . Reich called the report `` an attempt to begin the process of dialogue . '' Reich said the question that has to be answered is whether the current system of laws governing the workplace is `` appropriate to the times . `` The American workplace has undergone extraordinary transformation over the last six decades and will be evolving still more dramatically in the future , '' he said . `` But our legal framework and many of our notions about worker-management relations were made for a 1930s world not the 21st century . '' Headed by former Labor Secretary John Dunlop , the commission will use the report to make recommendations by the end of the year for changing a wide range of laws governing the workplace , covering such diverse subjects as collective bargaining rights , overtime pay rules , anti-discrimination rules and unpaid medical leaves . The commission includes two other former secretaries of labor as well as the chairman of Xerox Corp. . Business , labor and civil rights groups generally hailed the report Thursday , each group singling out the finding that best suited its constituency . The Labor Policy Association , which represents more than 200 Fortune 500 corporations , called the report a first step toward building a consensus for change . Brad Cameron of the LPA said the report comes at a `` pivotal period '' in the history of U.S. labor law . Thomas Donahue , AFL-CIO secretary-treasurer , predicted the commission findings would `` launch a debate that has not been had in this country in 40 years , about the relationships between workers and owners . '' Several major women 's groups and the presidents of four other national women 's organizations all praised the commission for recognizing the changes that have taken place in the workplace . They said the report underscores the need to change the laws to accommodate the problems women face in the workplace as more and more families are dependent on two incomes to survive . The commission was created by the White House more than a year ago to look into the possible need for labor law reforms . Unions want the laws changed to make it easier to organize new members . Many business groups want changes to remove current legal obstacles to cooperative efforts in the workplace . But the report may prove to have a broader impact on the overwhelming majority of U.S. workers who do not belong to labor unions . For the last 30 years , as union membership has declined along with the percentage of workers covered by collective bargaining agreements , Congress and state legislatures have increasingly been enacting laws to protect individual rights on the job . `` American employees have now been promised a wide variety of legal rights and protections by both federal and state lawmakers , '' the report said . `` These include minimum wages and maximum hours , a safe and healthy workplace , secure and accessible pension and health benefits once provided adequate notice of plant closings and mass layoffs , unpaid family and medical leave and bans on wrongful dismissal : these and all other employment terms and opportunities are to be enjoyed without discrimination on account of race , gender , religion , age or disability . '' The result of this shift in employment law away from collective bargaining and labor-management relations to a system of legal intervention has been an explosion in litigation . The commission said there was a 400 percent increase in the number of employment cases in the federal courts from 1971 to 1991 . And regulatory agencies charged with administrating the laws have been swamped with complaints . Reich said that last year alone the Equal Employment Opportunities Commission , which governs discrimination in the workplace , had to deal with 90,000 cases . One of the commission goals is to look closely at possible private dispute resolution alternatives for a broad range of issues , as well as the possibility of creating a single labor and employment court with jurisdiction over the employment laws now on the books . Speaking for the administration , Reich would not comment Thursday on most of the specifics in the report . He said he would wait to comment until the commission issued its recommendations later this year . BERLIN As legions of statesmen and aging warriors gather along Normandy 's beaches this weekend to celebrate the 50th anniversary of D-Day , their 1944 enemy Germany will be represented almost exclusively by her dead . Nearly 78,000 German soldiers lie in Norman graves , more than twice the number of all Allied troops buried there . Otherwise , Germans will be conspicuous by their absence . Except for a low-key memorial service on Saturday at the German war cemetery in La Cambe , where Bonn 's ambassador to France will lay a wreath , Germany has been pointedly excluded from the festivities . Despite this snub by their closest postwar friends and allies , Germans for the most part have accepted the exclusion with graceful forbearance . The national attitude appears to hover somewhere between puzzled bemusement and mild irritation at the American , British and French preoccupation with events of a half-century ago , long before the shared values of peace and democracy lashed Western Europe and the United States together in an enduring alliance . `` D-Day is not something that 's very much on people 's minds in Germany , '' said Christoph Bertram , diplomatic correspondent for Die Zeit newspaper . `` There will be thoughtful articles noting that the invasion was the beginning of Hitler 's end and hence a contribution to the liberties and democracy we enjoy today . But it will be more a distant spectacle than anything Germans feel part of , or even feel that they should be involved with . '' Chancellor Helmut Kohl , although reportedly miffed last winter when it became clear he would not be invited to join other world leaders in Normandy , has recently maintained an air of amiable understanding . `` Let these people celebrate this day . Let the survivors commemorate it in honor of their fallen comrades . That 's absolutely right , '' Kohl said in a BBC interview last week . `` I have deep respect for that . But on the other hand , this is no day for us Germans to join in the commemoration . '' The event has hardly been ignored in Germany . Der Spiegel magazine is running a long series on the Allied invasion , newspapers have provided ample coverage of the festivities , and the movie `` The Longest Day '' will be shown on German television . Commentators have noted that the German army suffered 200,000 casualties and lost 200,000 prisoners in the Normandy campaign . `` But it has very little emotional resonance , '' Bertram said , `` and in that sense I think we Germans have become true Europeans . '' Noting that the catastrophe of the Third Reich has imprinted German society with a deep and enduring aversion to martial topics , a Foreign Ministry official added , `` When it comes to celebrating battles , we are reluctant at best . '' Still , it is not difficult to find expressions of hurt feelings at being locked out of the party or of bewilderment that the commemoration has focused more on the military epic than on the decades of harmony engendered by the invasion . `` The war is over , and as a result the world has been changed for the better , '' Hildegard Frank , president of the Association of German-American Clubs in Duisburg , said in an interview . `` It 's really a shame that they willn't make that the focal point . '' Added Thomas Kielinger , editor in chief of the Rheinischer Merkur newspaper : `` I understand fully the desire to commemorate the sacrifices that were made . But I would have wished that those who sacrificed so much for liberating Europe could recognize that they won much more than the defeat of the Nazis . They reclaimed for Germany the rule of law and due process . In other words , D-Day was a double victory : the defeat of Hitler and the resuscitation of democracy. .. . It 's just a pity that the politicians who engineered these festivities did not ( include ) this notion . '' Although a few German veterans are likely to make private pilgrimages to Normandy , others voice regret at having to slip in through the back door . `` What harm can be done by inviting the Germans ? '' asked Ewald Feldhaus , 74 , a former paratrooper captured in 1945 . `` It 's sad things haven't come to that yet . It would be a nice gesture , and it should come from the victors . '' But an officer now serving in the German army , Capt. Joerg Bestehorn , said : `` German veterans have no place there because many of them were SS ( Nazi paramilitary ) people who didn't just serve the military but also served a regime. .. . We have to respect the fact that if ( the Allies ) want to celebrate and don't want us there , that 's fine . '' It is possible , however , to detect some vexation that Germany 's ostensible friends , particularly the British , appear to be reveling so robustly in bygone glory . `` There 's a feeling , '' Bertram said , `` that obviously a number of countries who are not doing terribly well at the present time hanker after the past and try to celebrate it in order to compensate for the dismal present . '' Holger Schwendler , 23 , a student of history and politics at the University of Cologne , suggested that Germany 's exclusion `` is a sign that the European countries are still afraid of Germany or afraid again . '' No public-opinion poll has specifically examined German attitudes on the D-Day commemoration , according to a spokesman for the government press office in Bonn . But a Forsa Institute survey published this week by the newspaper Die Woche provides some insights into latter-day feelings about the war in general . For example , nearly two-thirds of those surveyed 64 percent said they consider it a good thing that Germany lost the war ; a comparable percentage said they would not have wanted to live in Germany had Hitler won . Almost seven in 10 believe the destruction of Hitler 's Third Reich should be viewed as a liberation , while only 13 percent consider it a defeat . More than three-quarters believe complicity by German society and bureaucracy made the Nazis ' war crimes possible , and more than 90 percent are certain that Germany committed mass murder against Jews and other groups . On the other hand , 24 percent consider the basic ideas of Hitler 's National Socialism `` really not so bad . '' Reflecting the ambivalence many Germans feel , 53 percent said the time had come to `` draw a line '' under the Nazi era and relegate it to the distant past , while 41 percent disagreed . As part of the relentless German search for expiation , symbols of atonement have been much in evidence lately . This week , for example , Kohl returned to French President Francois Mitterrand 28 art masterpieces including paintings by Claude Monet , Paul Cezanne and Paul Gauguin taken from France by Nazi occupiers during the war and later kept by communist East Germany . Mitterrand answered the gesture of reconciliation by inviting German soldiers to march with their French counterparts down Paris ' Champs Elysees on Bastille Day next month . As a counterpoint to Normandy , Germans have also focused on their own meaningful dates this summer . The last Russian troops will leave German soil in August , marking the end of nearly five decades of occupation in what was East Germany . Kohl will also attend a July 20 ceremony in Berlin commemorating the 50th anniversary of the failed plot by German military officers to kill Hitler with a bomb . The ceremony plans turned sour this week when Kohl 's opponent in the fall election , Rudolf Scharping , bitterly complained of being excluded from the event even though his Social Democratic Party was persecuted during the Third Reich . Beyond the imminent departure of Russian soldiers , much of Bonn 's attention has been riveted on May 8 , 1995 , the 50th anniversary of Germany 's surrender and the end of the war in Europe . Kohl has accepted an invitation to commemorate the event in London , where festivities are also intended to celebrate the birth of modern Europe . In the intervening 11 months , however , Germans will be subjected to a sequence of other World War II anniversaries , including : the liberation of Paris and other West European cities ; the Battle of the Bulge ; the crossing of the Rhine by Allied troops ; and the linkup of American and Soviet forces on the Elbe . Contrary to fears in Bonn earlier this year , neither Normandy nor any other war commemorations has been effectively used by the German far right to suggest that a humiliated Germany should feel ostracized by its neighbors . Elections for the European Parliament fall on June 12 , but whatever success rightist candidates may have is likely to come as a consequence of stressing pocketbook themes and domestic xenophobia . `` Maybe the right wing understands the general reluctance of people as a whole to rise to the bait on issues such as Normandy , '' Kielinger said . Some Germans suggest that their fellow citizens are simply too preoccupied right now to fret about what 's happening on the French coast , several hundred miles to the west . `` The only thing Germans care about is health and wealth . They 're very selfish at the moment and aren't thinking about other things , '' said Schwendler `` For me personally , Normandy 's not a big deal . '' ROME So he chatted with the pope , captivated clerics , hobnobbed with a billionaire prime minister and supped from one of the world 's great cuisines . In the hot streets of Rome Thursday , it was mostly Roman passersby and accidental tourists who witnessed President Clinton 's visit to celebrate what he characterized as an extraordinary , all-in-the-family relationship between the United States and Italy . Indeed , Clinton seemed as much awe-struck as awe-inspiring to Romans as he made a relaxed , tourist-like debut in the Eternal City . `` I came all they way from Omaha , Neb. , to see this . I can't believe it ! The tour director had tickets for the president , so we just abandoned the tour , '' said Morine Dosert in the majestic Piazza Campidoglio where Clinton spoke before Rome 's city hall . If Romans behaved almost as if an old friend had dropped in to call , not all of them were pleased . Clinton was not good news for sidewalk carver Kavir Ahmed , who makes his living inscribing `` Your Name on a Grain of Rice . '' `` A tourist from Vienna named Kurt had me put his name on one side of a grain and Clinton 's on the other , but business is lousy . A lot of people are staying away , and the rest don't seem to care that he 's here , '' said Ahmed , a 28-year-old Bangladeshi . Throbbing in routine weekday anarchy , central Rome in off-handed fashion digested the friendly invasion by a president commanding more limousines and security cars than Hannibal had elephants . People went to work . Ugly orange buses growled messily . Motorini buzzed busily . Helicopters coptered . Everybody knew that Clinton would make the traffic worse , if that is possible . He did . There were American flags here and there , cops galore , bunches of people , but few crowds to speak of except at the Campidoglio . There , in a folksy speech partially translated by Budget Director Leon Panetta , an Italian-American , Clinton evoked Marc Anthony 's `` Friends , Romans and countrymen , '' hailing Italians , in Italian , as `` Alleati , amici , una famiglia . '' ( Allies , friends , one family . ) `` I shaked his hand , '' shouted Jude Jeyankachan , 10 , with greater exuberance than grammatical nicety . A police band played `` Cheek to Cheek , '' as Clinton warmly greeted seven Romans born on June 4 , 1944 the World War II Liberation of Rome by American troops and all named Italian variations of `` America . '' `` From the hearty atmosphere and the number of people here , America is alive and well in Rome , '' said Sister Brigid Murphy , a teacher at Marymount International School amid a forest of Italian and American flags before city hall . Like Hilary Rodham Clinton , who swapped M & M 's for smiles with chanting , delighted Italian school kids in the Piazza Navona ( `` EE-la-ree ! EE-la-re ! '' the children cried ) , the president seemed to enjoy the experience at every stop on a cloudless Roman day more summer than spring . `` It 's unbelievable , '' said Clinton , enjoying Michelangelo 's restored frescoes in the Sistine Chapel . ( Optional add end ) Even a long news conference with new Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi , one of Europe 's richest men , was outdoors in a landmark 17th century courtyard of the distinguished old Palazzo Chigi . Then on to a glittery , caloric , black-tie state dinner in a Renaissance villa designed by Raffaello . At the height of Rome 's tourist season , many who saw Clinton Thursday just happily happened upon him . `` The first president I 'll have seen since LBJ , '' said Jim Tudor of Chicago , who stopped in curiosity on Via del Corso and was rewarded with a motorcade . Thomas Kubik , a German from Frankfurt for a long weekend , observed of the president : `` He 's worth waiting for ; some of us see him as a new JFK . '' `` What a coincidence . We missed him at home , '' said Nancy Brown of Honolulu . `` Splendid advertising for us , '' said Raffaele Ciarelli , leading a demonstration for immigrants ' rights that city authorities had unaccountably forgotten to reschedule for another day . Clinton , who jogged his way through jet-lag in a red baseball cap and a gray T-shirt that said `` Radio City , '' got his first view of the day of the Italian capital from a famous , much-beloved hilltop lookout called the Pincio . After his encounter with a stiff , frail-looking Pope John Paul II , who is recovering from a broken thigh , Clinton was buoyant and beaming in an encounter with 140 American priests and seminarians . Striding into a baroque salon at the Apostolic Palace , the president told the black-suited clerics that his encounter with the pontiff was `` an awe-inspiring experience . '' When Raymond Flynn , former Boston mayor and American ambassador to the Vatican , assured Clinton that all the priests were Democrats , Clinton turned to accompanying Cardinal Angelo Sodano and joked : `` After that political comment he ( Flynn ) made , he has another good reason to go to confession now . '' WASHINGTON Five deaths in a 1993 hepatitis drug trial were an `` unavoidable accident , '' an advisory panel of the National Institutes of Health concluded Thursday . The new report , which clears the NIH 's scientists of wrongdoing , contradicts the view of the Food and Drug Administration , which said last month that researchers in the NIH drug trials had committed `` serious violations '' of federal regulations . The advisory panel , a subcommittee of the Advisory Committee to NIH director Harold Varmus , found that `` only in retrospect are there clues '' to the hidden toxicity of the experimental drug fialuridine ( FIAU ) . Fialuridine was believed to be a promising treatment for chronic hepatitis B . The disease , which can cause liver damage and death , has no other satisfactory treatment . Two previous human trials of the drug produced no apparent toxic effects . But in the 1993 tests , five of the 15 NIH patients died and two others survived only after receiving liver transplants . After the deaths , the FIAU researchers had said the drug 's deadly effects were hidden because they resembled symptoms of hepatitis B and tended to occur months after the initial doses . The NIH advisory panel agreed : `` There is no villain other than the emergence and identification of a new and unique form of delayed drug toxicity , '' they concluded Thursday . `` The FIAU studies represent the best of current practice in clinical investigations and exceeded regulatory requirements where such applied . '' The recent FDA investigation produced very different results . The `` compliance letters '' released last month detailed numerous violations of FDA regulations , including not informing the agency immediately of adverse side effects . The drug 's sponsor , Eli Lilly & Co. , and the trial 's principal investigator Jay H. Hoofnagle of the NIH have until the end of June to respond to the FDA letters . An earlier FDA report suggested that optimism on the part of researchers may have led them to evaluate information in too favorable a light and to miss warning signs . In that November 1993 report , the FDA said that four patient deaths prior to the 1993 trial might have been caused by FIAU , but were attributed to other causes . Liver toxicity had also showed up in two healthy patients who were given FIAU by Lilly , the FDA said , but the incidents were not reported until after the 1993 FIAU patients had begun to die . The FDA is formulating new rules requiring scientists to gather more data about side effects and obliging themto assume from the outset that medical problems in test subjects are caused by the drug . FDA spokesman Jim O' Hara said Thursday that agency officials had not yet had a chance to review the NIH panel 's report , but `` we stand by our report of November and the compliance letters that were issued in May . '' The NIH panel said that some of the FDA recommendations especially one that called for all new drug trials to track patients for an extended period to catch other examples of delayed toxicity would be too expensive , and suggested that such steps only be taken where such toxicity might be expected . But the panel recommended that animal tests for new drugs mimic as nearly as possible the treatment that human test subjects will receive . Animals were injected with FIAU ; humans took the drug orally . Subsequent animal tests have shown toxicity with oral doses . The stark difference between the two reports which NIH panelists referred to only as an `` apparent discrepancy '' could be seen a conflict between regulators at the FDA and the scientists at NIH . NIH panelists said that the FDA report was concerned mainly with whether the agency 's procedures were followed in the trials . The NIH panelists , many of whom are experienced clinical researchers , went through a four-foot stack of patient reports , charts and diaries to determine what the researchers knew or should have known at each step of the process and interviewed the scientists , nurses and surviving patients at length . Critics of the 's panel 's conclusions said that the NIH investigators were overly charitable about signals the FIAU researchers might have missed . Rep. Edolphus Towns , D-N.Y. , who has been sharply critical of the NIH , called the report a `` whitewash '' which showed that `` NIH is simply not sufficiently removed from culpability to evaluate impartially the tragic events that occurred . '' A surviving patient from the FIAU trial , Carl Schmid , complained Thursday of his interview with the NIH panel , saying `` I don't think it was a thorough review or a thorough follow-up , and that was disappointing . '' The Department of Health and Human Services has said it will request a separate study of the FIAU affair by the independent Institute of Medicine ; NIH panel members said Thursday that the IOM might be able to reconcile the FDA and NIH versions of events . Stephen Straus , one of the chief FIAU researchers , said that panel members interviewed him for four hours and that he was gratified by the result : `` They did a fabulous job of investigating and unraveling a complex and tragic series of events . '' Allan J. Weinstein , vice president of Lilly Research Laboratories , said `` We 're pleased that an independent group of outside experts has concluded that this was a novel toxicity and an unpredictable one . '' As for the tougher response by the Food and Drug Administration , Weinstein said , `` We respectfully disagree with the FDA . '' NIH director Varmus said he pressed the panelists to be `` critical '' and `` skeptical '' because at the outset , `` I was concerned something was wrong '' in the FIAU drug trials . Opening the advisory panel meeting Thursday morning , Varmus cited the FIAU trials and the recent scandal concerning tainted data in breast cancer studies , and said `` the confluence of these two episodes '' had been cause for `` concern about the state of clinical trials in this country . '' ROME President Clinton sought common ground with Pope John Paul II Thursday despite their disagreement over abortion as he opened his European tour with a day of maneuvering through political and diplomatic minefields . Among those minefields was a session with Italy 's new prime minister , Silvio Berlusconi , whose inclusion of the neo-fascist-rooted National Alliance in his governing coalition has ignited fears in Europe and elsewhere of a fascist resurgence . Clinton said Berlusconi assured him that all members of his government `` from top to bottom '' are `` unequivocally committed to democracy , '' and the president added that the United States would judge the government by its actions . Later , in an event characteristic of Clinton 's trips abroad , the president saluted Italian-American friendship before a crowd of Romans waving tiny American and Italian flags in front of City Hall , atop Capitoline Hill . He plunged into the surging crowd , his security agents pushing him along , for a round of handshaking . Of his 40-minute session with the pope , Clinton said the pontiff urged him not `` to be insensitive to the value of life or appear to be advocating policies that would undermine the strength of the family , '' a reference to the Clinton administration 's support for abortion rights and the immediate concern over a U.N. conference in Cairo later this year on stabilizing population growth . The United States is backing more liberal abortion language in a proposed population-control plan , and its stance is a reversal of policies of the last two Republican administrations . But Clinton insisted Thursday his administration does not support abortion as a means of family planning . Clinton said there was `` genuine disagreement '' between him and the pope on birth control and its use to slow the rate of population growth . `` We do support active and aggressive family-planning efforts ; we do have differences over contraception , '' he said . He noted `` a common commitment to the family '' with the pontiff . White House Press Secretary Dee Dee Myers said the draft statement for the September conference in Cairo is still being worked on but that Clinton does not read the document language in as narrow a manner as the Roman Catholic Church does . She said the administration 's support for the availability of abortion for women in poor counties is not support for abortion on demand , abortion as a method of family planning or coerced abortion . The Vatican and the Clinton administration basically have irreconcilable differences on the issue of abortion , she said . A papal aide stressed that these differences could be narrowed only if the president moved closer to the pope 's opposition to abortion . The president already has received a letter of protest from the U.S. . Conference of Catholic Bishops and had been warned by Raymond Flynn , the U.S. ambassador to the Vatican , that the pope had expressed great anger over the administration 's position and intended to put it on the top of his agenda for discussion . Clinton went from that touchy session with the pontiff to a lengthy meeting with Berlusconi , who took office May 11 after a meteoric political rise that culminated in his election March 28 at the head of a three-party conservative coalition . Berlusconi 's meeting with Clinton was his first with a Western leader since he took office , and the new prime minister repeatedly offered reassurances in a news conference that his government had no fascist leanings and his nation no nostalgia for the years when fascist dictator Benito Mussolini sided with Adolf Hitler during World War II . Berlusconi said within the government he has chosen `` there is not and there could never be , any minister or any official ( who is ) not democratic in nature , that truly and deeply believed in freedom and democracy and that believed completely that totalitarianism needs to be fought always and at all costs . '' The Italian media have interpreted a Clinton interview broadcast here last week and his statements Thursday as an endorsement of the Berlusconi government , and neither the president nor his senior advisers raised concerns about that government here . Clinton said `` extremists '' attempting to play on economic and social frustrations are a fact of political life across the globe where people yearn for `` a certain sense of order and discipline and hopefulness '' and that the way to neutralize extremist movements such as neo-fascism was successful governing . As to neo-fascist leanings in the Berlusconi government , Clinton said many political parties around the world `` have their roots in a less-democratic past . I have found it not only useful but the only reasonable approach to judge all people in governments by what they do , what do they say and what do they do when they are in power . '' A senior official who briefed reporters later said that in private , Berlusconi had offered `` strong assurances '' of his government 's commitment to democracy and that the United States is `` well pleased by what they said here and what they have done '' in the period since the March elections that brought the conservatives to power as the 54th government since World War II . In his public address and in toasts at a state dinner Thursday night , Clinton reiterated the theme that the post-World War II generations must secure the peace across Europe that those who fought that war sacrificed to ensure . `` For 50 years , we have stood together to help build peace and prosperity in Western Europe , '' Clinton said , `` now let us expand those blessings across a broader Europe . '' Let us hope , he concluded , that 50 years from now `` the world will say of us that the children of freedom and democracy were the builders of the lasting peace . '' The president , whose major purpose on this trip is to observe the 50th anniversary of the D-Day invasion that led to the liberation of Europe from the Nazis and the end of World War II , recalled the liberation of Rome in his address and read out the battle names from Italy and France . `` We must resolve never to forget such hallowed words as Anzio , Nettuno , Salerno , Normandy . These names speak of the sacrifices of our parents and the freedom of their children and grandchildren , '' he said . PHILADELPHIA A recent Pennsylvania Supreme Court ruling that saying no to a sexual assailant is not sufficient grounds for a woman to prove she was raped has alarmed victims advocacy groups and prosecutors who contend it marks a major setback for rape victims here . The state 's highest court unanimously ruled last Friday in what is known here as the `` No Is Not Enough '' case that merely proving a woman did not consent to a sexual encounter does not constitute rape under Pennsylvania law , which requires proof of `` forcible compulsion '' or the threat of force . The seven-man panel said it had accepted the appeal of the 1988 case , Commonwealth vs. Berkowitz , involving two East Stroudsburg University students who knew each other , to address `` the precise degree of force '' necessary to prove forcible compulsion , which the law does not define . The court upheld a lower court 's decision reversing the man 's rape conviction but reinstated his conviction for indecent assault , a lesser charge . The court opinion states that the victim said `` no '' throughout the encounter . Addressing the question of force , it said she `` agreed that appellee 's hands were not restraining her in any manner during the actual penetration , and that the weight of his body on top of her was the only force applied . '' Advocates for rape victims around the country and local prosecutors said the ruling underscores the problem with sexual assault statutes like Pennsylvania 's that require proof of force or active resistance to establish rape . Roughly half of the states require some proof of physical force in their rape laws but state courts have issued widely varying interpretations , according to victims advocates . `` This goes against what we 've been teaching women all these years to say `` no , ' and mean `` no , ' and after that , any nonconsensual sex act is rape , '' said Kathryn Geller Myers , spokeswoman for Pennsylvania Coalition Against Rape . `` The message here is that a woman has to physically resist and risk serious bodily injury to prove she was raped . `` If you 're a 107-pound woman and a 280-pound guy is on top of you , I think that 's forcible compulsion , '' Myers said . `` This is one of the worst setbacks for the sexual assault movement in the last several years , '' said Cassandra Thomas , president of the National Coalition Against Sexual Assault . According to the opinion , the woman entered the room of Robert A . Berkowitz , then 20 , looking for his roommate , who was a friend of hers . The roommate was not there . Berkowitz sat beside her , pulled up her blouse and bra , fondled her breasts and attempted without success to get her to perform oral sex on him , the opinion says . He then locked the door , pushed her onto the bed , partially removed her clothes and sexually penetrated her , according to the opinion . The opinion pointed out that the door was locked from the inside , but she did not attempt to unlock it . The opinion quoted her as testifying , `` He didn't throw me on the bed ... . It was kind of like a push ... . ( It ) wasn't slow like a romantic kind of thing , but it wasn't a fast shove either . It was kind of in the middle . ` ` The defendant , Berkowitz , told the jury that he heard the woman say `` no , '' but did not believe that she meant it . Berkowitz 's lawyer , Mark Sheppard , said the ruling was a fair interpretation of the state rape statute . But Monroe County district attorney James Gregor , who prosecuted the case , said the decision left to individual interpretation the question of what constituted physical force . `` Are we going to start using meters to gauge how much a man pushed a woman to see what constitutes force ? '' asked Gregor . He said the facts of the case `` pushed the envelope of what a rape would be , approaching the question of acquaintance or date rape . '' Pennsylvania 's sexual assault laws have not been overhauled in more than 20 years . The law does not address the question of consent ; use of force is the key issue . The national trend , according to Thomas of the National Coalition Against Rape , is for states to remove clauses that require proof of force or resistance . Arizona and Alaska are among states that have made these changes in the last five years . New Jersey 's law is similar to Pennsylvania 's , yet the New Jersey Supreme Court ruled in 1992 that `` any act of sexual penetration engaged in by a defendant without the affirmative and freely given permission '' of the other person constitutes sexual assault . The Texas statute , said Thomas , defines sexual assault as sexual penetration of another person `` without that person 's consent . '' Pennsylvania state representative Karen Ritter , D , has introduced legislation to reform the state 's sexual assault laws in the last two sessions . Her package , she said , `` would make clear that any actions by a victim for self-preservation or submission are not to be considered consent . '' She said she believes that the Berkowitz ruling will give momentum to her legislation , now in the House Judiciary Committee . ROME President Clinton launched an eight-day European voyage of nostalgia and diplomacy Thursday with a celebration of America 's `` towering friendship '' with Italy and a search for common ground with the pope on population control . Clinton , in a late afternoon address to the people of Rome at the city 's historical heart on Capitoline Hill , declared that the United States and Italy shared a bond of blood and spirit forged in the 50 years since the end of World War II . `` America and Italy are more than mere partners , '' Clinton said , standing in the Michelangelo-designed plaza where his political idol , John F. Kennedy , spoke to the citizens of Rome 31 years ago . `` We are now and forever will be ` Alleati , amici , una famiglia ' ' ' ( Allies , friends , one family ) . Clinton 's European trip is chiefly dedicated to commemoration of the liberation of Europe from Nazism and fascism and the 50th anniversary of the D-Day landings of June 6 , 1944 . But the president is combining ceremonies of remembrance with substantive talks with Italian , British and French leaders on current issues , from North Korea 's nuclear ambitions to the civil war in the former Yugoslavia and the surge of ultranationalist politics in Europe . He also used the occasion to conduct a private , 40-minute meeting with Pope John Paul II , their second encounter in less than a year . The pontiff , growing more outspoken with the years , did not pull his punches on abortion with the young U.S. president . The secular and spiritual leaders made little effort to mask their fundamental dispute over abortion while seeking shared language on the central role of the family in society . Clinton acknowledged `` genuine disagreements '' with the pope on contraception and efforts to slow population growth in the developing world . But the president said he reassured John Paul II that , despite his and his wife 's liberal views on abortion rights , his administration does not endorse abortion as a means of contraception or population control . The White House and the Vatican were far apart , also , on spin control . While Clinton said he and the pope spent the bulk of their time discussing problems in Asia , the Middle East and Latin America , the Vatican , in a statement , said `` the most important part of the meeting '' was dedicated to the subject of the `` defense and promotion of life '' the Church 's code words for its unwavering opposition to abortion . `` In this regard , '' the Vatican statement said , `` the Holy Father made an appeal to the responsibility of a great nation such as America , whose origin and historical development has always promoted ethical values that are basic to every culture . '' The pope had upbraided Clinton on abortion at their first meeting , in Denver last August . After seeing the pope and viewing the newly restored frescoes of the Sistine Chapel , Clinton met with American seminarians at the Vatican . He told the priests-in-training that seeing the pope was an `` awe-inspiring experience '' and praised their commitment to a life of faith and self-discipline . With perhaps an unconscious reference to his own inability at times to resist earthly temptation , Clinton told the earnest theologians , `` In all secular societies , it is recognized that very few people have the capacity to make a commitment of that depth and constancy . And yet , all of us know that , ultimately , the meaning of our lives depend upon the constant effort to achieve a level of integrity between what we feel and what we think and what we do . '' After Clinton 's two-hour visit to the Holy See , the president and the new Italian prime minister , billionaire Silvio Berlusconi , met for the first time . The Italian leader reaffirmed his government 's commitment to political and economic reform , despite the presence of five neo-fascist ministers in his 25-member Cabinet . Clinton said he would judge Berlusconi 's conservative new government on its record and said he was confident Italy would continue to hew to its democratic traditions . But he expressed concern about the appeal and spread of totalitarian sentiment , not just in Italy but throughout the world . ( Begin optional trim ) `` No country is immune to people who run making extremist statements trying to divide people , trying to , in effect , play on both the economic frustrations and the social and moral frustration that people feel in all countries where there is both economic stagnation and social disintegration , '' Clinton said in a news conference with Berlusconi at the Palazzo Chigi , seat of the Italian government . `` People everywhere yearn for a certain sense of order and discipline and hopefulness about the daily conditions of life , '' Clinton added . `` And when those things are under stress , every political system will be vulnerable to people who try to play on fears and to divide people . '' He said he was reassured by Berlusconi 's promise his government is unequivocally committed to democracy `` from top to bottom . '' ( End optional trim ) Friday , Clinton visits the American cemetery at Nettuno , near the site of the disastrous Anzio landing of January 1944 . He will pay homage to the war dead and speak about the struggle to extend the hard-won freedom of Western Europe to the struggling nations of the former Soviet Union . WASHINGTON There 's a baby boomlet going on at the Great Ape House at the National Zoo : Three newborn gorillas in three years , the latest born this week . The newest infant , born Monday afternoon to 12-year-old Mandara , has not yet been named because mom is keeping such a tight grip that zoo keepers cannot determine its gender . Based on brief glimpses , they believe it 's a female . At the ape house Thursday , Mandara cradled the nursing infant constantly , even keeping a one-handed grip as she bent over for a drink of water from the compound 's outdoor fountain . She 'll carry the baby for three or four months , when it will begin riding around on her back . The birth apparently was an easy one , and mother and baby ( estimated weight : four to five pounds ) appear to be doing well . Zoo officials believe the birth happened quickly , shortly after 5 p.m. , based on reports from zoo visitors . They 'd known Mandara was pregnant , and based on when she was bred , expected a birth between February and June . Gorilla gestation is 8 to nine months . The gorilla babies are not the only things happening at the zoo . Babies have been born this spring to a white-cheeked gibbon , an armadillo , an elephant , a Komodo dragon , a snake-necked turtle , rodents and birds , including a blue-crowned hanging parrot . More are expected : Pregnant animals include a red kangaroo , a Dorcas gazelle and a naked mole rat . Baby makes seven for the gorilla group at the ape house , which already includes two adult males , another female and two toddler male gorillas . The social group was created eight years ago with the idea of using unrelated apes , some on loan from other zoos , to duplicate the tight family living pattern of gorillas in the wild . The gorilla births are part of an international breeding program to protect species that are endangered in the wild . Three years ago , Mandara gave birth to her first baby , a male the National Zoo 's first gorilla birth in 19 years . Two years ago , the other female , Haloka , had a male that she rejected , so Mandara took over mothering duties , including nursing . At the zoo , they call her `` supermom . '' The father of all three gorillas is 13-year-old Gus ; zoo officials say he 's acting protective of the newborn . TUNIS , Tunisia Yasser Arafat , the Palestine Liberation Organization chairman , fell ill after a meeting with a U.S. Senate delegation and spent much of Thursday in bed , raising fears for the health of the aging chairman who is said to be exhausted and ridden with stress . The new health alarms were raised about a week after Arafat checked into a Tunis military hospital for tests after a flare-up of a vertebrae condition that first erupted in 1979 and was aggravated by weeks of long hours and little sleep , his aides said . Arafat 's top lieutenants sought to downplay the 64-year-old chairman 's current llness , which they described as `` a cold '' that set in Wednesday afternoon after Arafat spent a tiring day flying to Algeria , Mauritania and then meeting with a U.S. Senate delegation headed by Paul Simon , D-Ill . Arafat who normally works until the wee hours of the morning , sleeps until 9 a.m. and then gets up for another day of work instead went to bed after meeting the Americans . He did not get up again until Thursday evening , when he returned to his desk . `` It 's not true that he is seriously ill . He got a cold during our trip to Algeria and Mauritania , and he 's getting some rest today , '' said Yasser Abed-Rabbo , one of Arafat 's senior advisers and an appointee to the new governing Palestinian Authority . `` I 'm sure by tonight he will be back in his office . It has nothing to do with his heart . It 's more like a sore throat . '' Arafat 's wife , Suha Tawil , had sought to quiet alarms about Arafat 's health when she spoke by telephone to CNN . Instead , she fanned the flames by saying he was `` in bed with angina . '' Later , her brother said she had meant the French word `` angine , '' by which she intended to say a sore throat . ( Optional add end ) Though his current condition does not appear serious , Arafat seems clearly to be feeling the strain of weeks of stress and overwork . The debut of Palestinian self-rule in Jericho and the Gaza Strip has stepped up pressure on his administration in Tunis to begin providing services and paychecks to Palestinians at a time when international donor shortfalls have plunged the PLO into a cash crisis . At his meeting with the U.S. senators , Arafat looked `` tired , pale and nervous , '' according to one observer at the meeting . Arafat aides said the vertebra flare-up that hospitalized him happened after the four-day holy Muslim feast of the Eid al-Adha , when Arafat had an exhausting schedule of visiting the Palestinian orphanage , stopping at the cemetery for the Palestinian dead in Tunis and , over the course of the weekend , kissing more than 1,000 well-wishers . `` Saying that he was in the hospital for five days is rumor mongering . He made a usual medical checkup as any one of us might do , '' said one of his top lieutenants . He said Arafat first suffered the vertebrae condition in 1979 , when he was attempting to mediate in the war between Iran and Iraq and had to wear a neck brace . During the feast , he said , `` He received more than 1,000 people who kissed him , each one of them put his hand around his neck , and the pain came back . Is he human or inhuman ? `` You have to consider how many hours he works , '' the aide added . `` How many people he meets every day , how much stress he lives under , and everybody has to remember he 's not a machine , he 's a human , of blood and flesh . But he 's in very good condition . '' WASHINGTON After weeks of abuse and bad news from Washington , the tobacco industry has apparently won a rare victory it may keep Joe Camel . Anti-smoking groups said Thursday their complaint against the popular cartoon character , the protagonist of a seven-year advertising campaign for Camel cigarettes , had been rejected by the Federal Trade Commission . R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co. had been accused of using the smiling , fun-loving animal to weaken children 's resistance to tobacco products . But the commission voted this week 3-2 not to pursue the complaint , according to sources . The decision was particularly heartening for Reynolds , which insisted the ads were aimed at adults . Last year the FTC staff recommended banning Joe Camel . Attorney generals from 27 states had petitioned to begin legal proceedings against the ads . Having grown accustomed to regular doses of venom from government agencies , a spokeswoman for Reynolds was careful in her words , saying the company had not yet been notified of the vote . If the report was true , said Peggy Carter , `` we 're obviously pleased that the FTC 's extremely thorough review of all of the documents tens of thousands of pages and all of the facts relating to Joe Camel matter led to a decision not to move forward with a complaint . '' Joe Marks , a spokesman for the American Heart Association , said anti-smoking activists learned of the decision from FTC sources . He called the news `` a big disappointment we thought this was an easy one , a blatant ad targeted at kids . '' Some sources had earlier indicated , however , that the FTC might not pursue the matter because of concern over the violation of free speech rights and the lack of evidence that the cartoon although almost as recognizable to many children as Mickey Mouse had convinced young people to start smoking . Claudia Bourne Farrell , spokeswoman for the FTC , said she would not confirm or deny the report of commission action . There is often a delay between an FTC decision not to pursue a complaint and a publicly reported formal vote to drop an investigation . Carter said Reynolds and its advertising agency revived the Joe Camel campaign , originally used in France in 1974 , as a light-hearted way to convince adult consumers that `` this was not the brand that their grandfathers had smoked . '' The smiling camel , described as `` the smooth character , '' appeared in magazine ads and billboards beginning in 1987 and stopped what had been a steady decline in the brand 's share of the market . Until last year 's price wars threw the cigarette industry into turmoil , Camel had 4 percent of the American market and was one of only two name brands not losing market share to new discounted brands . Carter said the company acknowledged Joe Camel had drawn the attention of children , but cited several studies showing no change in youthful attitudes toward smoking or that particular brand . A survey by the Centers for Disease Control showed 71 percent of underage white smokers chose Marlboro while only 8.3 percent buy Camels . Five percent of black youths smoke Camels . The company cited a survey by Lucy Henke of the University of New Hampshire showing widespread recognition of Joe Camel among children , although 96 percent said they did not like cigarettes . Scott Ballin , chairman of the Coalition on Smoking or Health , said the decision revealed the FTC in `` total paralysis '' on tobacco issues . He called for Congress to give authority over cigarette advertising to the Food and Drug Administration . WASHINGTON The Clinton administration has joined with its European allies and Russia for the first time to forge a detailed , bottom-line peace proposal for Bosnia based on a near even split of land between the contending forces . Washington had resisted endorsing specific outlines for a territorial solution between a Muslim-Croat federation and a breakaway Serb force . In recent months , however , U.S. officials had approved in principle a 51 percent-49 percent division of land , with the Muslims and Croats receiving the bare majority . Now Washington is formally supporting that plan , which is scheduled to be presented in Geneva at peace talks scheduled to resume Saturday . Concern that talks between the Bosnian-led Muslim government and the Serbs were going nowhere , and that the war would drag on , prompted Washington to propose the `` de-facto map '' for partition , with details left to the warring factions to work out , a State Department official said . The plan includes advice on resolving differences over disputed territory in several parts of Bosnia , including the contested Bihac region and isolated Muslim enclaves of east Bosnia . `` This is do-or-die for the Muslims , Croats and Serbs , '' a State Department official said . `` We basically offer a solution , but it is up to them to decide whether to accept . '' There is no indication that either the Muslim-led government or the Serbs will embrace the proposal . The Muslims say they want more than 51 percent and their military leaders believe they can make up ground on the battlefield . The Serbs have shown no sign of giving up any territory . The Serbs now hold more than two-thirds of the country after a two-year war of conquest that has included systematic killing and expulsion of civilians from their homes . The U.S.-backed proposal is based on a combination of solutions that were bandied about in previous talks , a U.S. official said . U.S. envoy Charles Redman , and mediators from Russia and the European Union all in the so-called Bosnian `` contact group '' hammered out the new proposal . Redman is in Europe meeting with mediators from Russia , Britain , France and Germany in advance of Saturday 's meeting . The Clinton administration had strongly resisted endorsing a clear territorial solution , especially one that ratified any Serb gains . Washington long based its policy in Bosnia on opposition to the Serb conquest of territory by force . Recently , confusion clouded the Clinton adminstration stand on the territorial issue . In talks brokered by Redman , the Muslims and Croats based an agreement to form a confederation on a 58 percent to 42 percent split of land , with the Serbs getting the smaller part . At first , Redman hailed the agreement as a whole . That prompted the State Department to qualify the endorsement to cover only the Muslim-Croat agreement to unite , and not the 58-42 percent division . The coming talks on land were supposed to be preceded by talks beginning Thursday on a cease-fire . But United Nations special envoy Yasushi Akashi postponed the negotiations because the Serbs declined to withdraw 300 soldiers from the Bosnian Muslim town of Gorazde as promised . In CLINTON-SCENE ( Montalbano , Times ) sub for 9th graf ( Changing spelling to Marc Antony sted Anthony ) xxx the Campidoglio : There , in a folksy speech partially translated by Clinton administration budget director Leon Panetta , an Italian American , Clinton evoked Marc Antony 's `` Friends , Romans and countrymen , '' hailing Italians , in Italian , as `` Alleati , amici , una famiglia . '' ( Allies , friends , one family . ) PICK UP 10th graf : `` I shaked ( cq ) xxx : WASHINGTON Eight baggage handlers at National Airport have been arrested after FBI surveillance cameras caught them rifling passengers ' suitcases and stealing jewelry , computers and other valuables , authorities said Thursday . The workers , all employed by American Airlines , were rounded up Wednesday night and Thursday after a three-month FBI investigation . More than two dozen times , the FBI said , hidden cameras recorded them searching through belongings behind baggage carousels , as unsuspecting passengers waited nearby . The arrests were the latest in a series of crackdowns by the FBI against thefts and other crimes at the nation 's airports . In recent years , the FBI has broken up other rings in New York , Miami , Houston , Chicago and Los Angeles . `` They 'd pick a bag , reach in , see if it had jewelry or cameras , and then pull the items out , '' said Timothy P. McNally , an FBI supervisor . `` We 're not talking about complex planning or sophistication , but they moved with dispatch . These are not well-organized rings they 're just primed for profit . '' The eight employees were charged with conspiracy to steal valuables and each could face up to five years in prison . The crime is a federal offense because baggage transportation is considered interstate commerce . Most of the thefts at National Airport occurred in the late evening or early-morning hours , authorities said . They said they had not yet determined how many bags had been pilfered or set a value on the stolen items . The FBI is attempting to trace the property , but so far none has been recovered . The investigation began early this year after American Airlines contacted the airport 's police for help in solving a rash of thefts . The police brought in the FBI , which installed video cameras in the baggage area . The cameras were used from February until May and recorded numerous thefts , the FBI said . A spokesman for American Airlines said the company routinely notifies law-enforcement authorities when it uncovers evidence of thefts . `` We take these issues very seriously , '' Al Becker said . The baggage handlers `` were helping each other .. . by acting as lookouts , passing stolen items to each other , and arranging for one to unload baggage while another stole , '' according to an affidavit filed by the FBI Thursday in U.S. . District Court in Alexandria , Va. . The document describes 29 instances in which the employees were videotaped while going through bags . According to airline-industry estimates , roughly three of every 100,000 checked bags nationwide are stolen or have property taken from them . Each day , more than 2 million bags are checked at airports across the country . `` It 's a problem that exists , but it 's not an overwhelming problem , '' said Tim Neale , a spokesman for the Air Transport Association , which represents large air carriers . `` There are some crooks out there . '' Other security specialists said baggage thievery is more pervasive than the industry suggests . Louis R. Mizell Jr. , a security consultant from Bethesda , Md. , who tracks airport crimes , estimated that 300,000 Americans have bags or belongings taken each year . Many never report the incidents to police , he said . `` Dishonest baggage handlers have been responsible for billions of dollars in losses over the years , '' Mizell said . `` The best advice is never put anything in your checked luggage that you can't afford to lose . '' WASHINGTON Penny Marshall is whining . About the noisy vacuum cleaner across the room . About the state of the country 's schools . And about women who complain about the shabby treatment they 've gotten in Hollywood . `` They like to make it an issue because they like to get on soapboxes , '' the famous director is saying in the corner of a hotel restaurant here . `` I mean , I don't think it 's fair that a person should be limited because of their sex , their age , their color ... . But there are women who think that just because they are women they deserve something . Even I get scared of them and don't want to hire them . '' And as one of a handful of successful female directors and one of the most powerful people in the industry , she can do whatever she pleases . Marshall , with hits such as `` Big '' and `` A League of Their Own '' under her belt , is in town to flack her latest flick , `` Renaissance Man , '' a poignant comedy about an unemployed ad exec ( Danny DeVito ) who 's tapped by the Army to teach English to a group of slow learners . Touchstone moved up its opening date to Friday , forcing Marshall to crash-edit the final print before her marathon promo tour . Which along with the Marlboros she chain-smokes and the diet Coke she guzzles might explain why the 50-year-old director landed in the hospital briefly over the weekend , suffering , doctors say , from anxiety and exhaustion . She 's apparently okay now , and showed up in fine form at the film 's premiere in L.A. . The macho subject of `` Renaissance Man '' didn't faze her , she insists . `` I did learn about the Army , and I had no experience with it , '' she said . `` And , I must say , the Army was very cooperative when they said they 'd have a thousand troops there at midnight , I mean they were there . And they marched their little hearts out . '' In the mid- '70s , Marshall bubbled onto the scene to stay , as the wacky , insecure Laverne in TV 's `` Laverne & Shirley , '' which was produced by her brother , Garry . She wet her feet directing near the end of the series 's run and made the leap to the big screen in '86 when she was called in at the last minute to save `` Jumpin ' Jack Flash '' with Whoopi Goldberg . To hear Marshall tell it , her MO in Hollywood is simple . `` You have to drag me into doing things . I don't volunteer and I don't demand . But once I say yes , I 'm obsessive , '' she allows in raw Brooklynese . `` If I get into a disagreement and someone says , `` I don't think you should do this , ' then I say , `` Fine , I 'll go home . I 'm happy to get back into bed . ' And they say , `` Ohhhhh , Penny , don't be silly . ' And I say , `` Okay , then this is how I 'm doing it. ' ' ' It can't hurt that she grew up surrounded by a family in the business and she was married to actor-director Rob Reiner for eight years in the '70s . Marshall 's daughter , Tracy , by her first husband , Michael Henry , is also an actress . But her real secret weapon , she says , is a common touch . `` I 'm a regular person . If I 'm interested in something , I feel maybe somebody else is . '' So far , she 's been right . -O- The director of a Chicago museum was fired by the museum 's founder last week after co-hosting a party for the author of a book on Pamela Harriman . Robert Donnelley told the Chicago Tribune that he was ousted from the Terra Museum of American Art by Daniel J. Terra when he went ahead with a book-signing for Washington writer Christopher Odgen , author of `` Life of the Party : The Biography of Pamela Digby Churchill Hayward Harriman . '' Terra 's letter to Donnelley said his intent to sponsor the party `` demonstrated disrespect '' for Harriman , who has served on the advisory council of Terra 's museums both in Chicago and in Giverny , France . Harriman is U.S. ambassador to France . Terra served as ambassador-at-large for cultural affairs during the Reagan years . He could not be reached for comment . -O- We 've Heard That .. . Bill and Hillary Clinton will finally host their first bona fide state dinner later this month in honor of Japanese Emperor Hirohito . The June 13 affair for 130 in the Rose Garden will be the first white-tie dinner in 18 years , since Queen Elizabeth was feted by Jerry Ford in 1976 . November 's fete for South Korean President Kim Young Sam , while a state-level event , was just a flourish shy of the real thing . -O- Sen. George Mitchell was spotted in Paris this week attending the French Open with his fiancee , tennis honcho Heather MacLachlan . In his official capacity , he met with French Senate President Rene Monory , Prime Minister Edouard Balladur and Foreign Minister Alain Juppe . He headed home to Maine Thursday night . -O- John Bobbitt , the target of an ongoing paternity suit in New York , conceded Thursday that he is indeed the father of the baby boy involved . `` I want to provide Andrew with something I unfortunately never had a supporting , caring , nurturing relationship with his natural father , '' he said in a statement . In CLINTON-SCENE ( Montalbano , Times ) sub for 12th graf ( Correcting spelling of Hillary and making pronunciations conform ) xxx hall . Like Hillary Rodham Clinton , who swapped M & M 's for smiles with chanting , delighted Italian school kids in the Piazza Navona ( `` EE-la-ree ! EE-la-ree ! '' the children cried ) , the president seemed to enjoy the experience at every stop on a cloudless Roman day more summer than spring . `` It 's unbelievable , '' said Clinton , enjoying Michelangelo 's restored frescoes in the Sistine Chapel . PICK UP 13th graf : Even xxx : WASHINGTON White House officials , in an optimistic assessment of President Clinton 's prospects for achieving his key health-reform goals this year , said Thursday that `` a great deal of progress has been made '' in Congress in the past 10 to 11 weeks . `` On balance we are on target , the committees are on target , '' said Deputy Chief of Staff Harold Ickes at a briefing with reporters . `` We expect virtually all committees '' to report out legislation `` by the end of the month , '' despite some gloomy polls and predictions in the press . He said the president 's key goals include passing legislation to assure universal health-insurance coverage and `` to get it done this year . '' Ickes , accompanied by Ira Magaziner , White House senior adviser for policy development and a principal author of Clinton 's health plan , said that of five committees with jurisdiction to work on developing major health plans , two the House and Senate labor committees are on track to report bills this month achieving many of the president 's major goals . They said work was under way in the House Ways and Means Committee and that Senate Finance Committee Chairman Daniel Patrick Moynihan , D-N.Y. , had made clear he will begin legislative action soon . A major sticking point for the president in Congress , particularly in the Finance Committee , is his proposal that employers be required to pay part of the premiums for health care for their employees . This `` employer mandate '' is fiercely opposed by small businesses and most Republicans . Ickes said that on the Finance Committee and elsewhere `` there are Republicans who are in favor of universal coverage and real reform , '' and he believes that in the end , `` It is my sense there will be some form of employer mandate . '' Meanwhile , Moynihan , in a speech in Buffalo on Wednesday that Ickes and Magaziner cited as one cause for optimism , told a state Democratic party meeting that was nominating him for re-election , `` In this Congress , as Finance Committee chairman , my health-care mission is clear get the president his bill . '' Moynihan recalled that he had co-sponsored a Canadian-style government health-insurance proposal with Sen. Bob Kerrey , D-Neb. , in 1992 , but said such a bill `` has no chance of passing the United States Senate , '' though he favors giving each state an option to create such a system within its own borders . He noted that he is a principal sponsor of the president 's bill . In a May 26 letter to a Brooklyn , N.Y. , health official Moynihan wrote , `` I support indeed I insist that we must have universal coverage . I support an employer mandate and will oppose the taxation of benefits . I absolutely support long-term care . '' In a telephone interview from Oregon Thursday , Sen. Bob Packwood , R-Ore. , said he might support a requirement that employers help pay for health insurance for their workers that would not become effective immediately , but would be triggered automatically if universal health-insurance coverage were not achieved by some future date specified in the law . But Packwood , the senior Republican on the Finance Committee , said whether he would do so would depend on the specific terms and whether `` the rest of the bill is acceptable . '' A triggering mechanism such as that described by Packwood , is being pushed by Sen. John Breaux , D-La. , a Finance Committee member , as a compromise between Clinton 's demand that employers help pay for premiums and Republican demands that any employer mandate be dropped . WASHINGTON The Food and Drug Administration Thursday opened its inquiry into the safety of saline breast implants , provoking the same intensely emotional debate that surrounded the agency 's decision two years ago to sharply curtail the availability of silicone breast implants . The FDA-sponsored hearing was called to hear views about when manufacturers should be required to submit safety data to the agency . But it quickly turned into a public opinion forum on the implants themselves . `` I 'm alive and happy with my body again , '' said breast cancer patient Susan Yuriditsky of Washington . `` I 'm happy saline implants were available to me at my time of need . '' But Mary Spieker , a Florida woman who has suffered life-threatening infections she is convinced were caused by the saline implants she received for cosmetic augmentation , implored : `` Women can live without saline implants . '' The controversy over the silicone devices , which ultimately resulted in their virtual removal from the market , pitted women against women over the freedom of choice to use the implants and raised soul-searching questions about the values of a society so conscious of breasts . About 80 percent of those who undergo implant surgery do so for cosmetic reasons . The remaining 20 percent seeks implants for reconstruction , usually after breast cancer surgery . Saline implants , which are the only breast implants still widely available on the market , generally are considered safer than the silicone implants , although their long-term safety has not been established . It is unclear how many women have saline implants , although one manufacturer said his company has sold devices for roughly 1,500 women a month . A second company estimated it had sold implants for about 125,000 women since 1986 . Saline implants , which are filled with salt water , can leak or rupture , requiring further surgery to remove or replace . Other known risks include infection , capsular contracture which is the hardening of scar tissue around the device interference with mammography , and altered breast sensation . Officials from the two companies that manufacture saline implants , McGhan Medical Corp. and Mentor Corp. , both of Santa Barbara , Calif. , said they have studies under way assessing safety of the devices , but did not expect them to be completed for several years . Based on preliminary data , however , they said the devices could continue to be used safely , and urged that they remain available . McGhan said results from its first two years of research showed only 3 percent of the nearly 500 patients studied had experienced capsular contracture ; 2 percent had suffered deflation of the device ; 0.2 percent had developed infections ; and less than 1 percent developed breast disease or immune system disorders . The early results indicate `` there would be no immediate health concerns associated with continued marketing , '' the company said . ( Optional add end ) Implants have been on the market for more than three decades but escaped strict regulation until recent years because they were introduced before passage of legislation in 1976 that gave the FDA authority to regulate medical devices . Like other devices grandfathered under that law , implants were allowed to remain in use with the understanding that the agency would later require manufacturers to submit evidence of product safety and effectiveness . Many women had blamed the silicone devices for connective tissue diseases and other immune system disorders , although the association has not yet been proven scientifically . In April 1992 , the FDA banned almost all cosmetic uses of the implants except for specific and closely monitored research purposes and restricted their use to breast cancer patients and those with other valid medical needs . Today , all women who receive silicone gel implants , including for the purposes of reconstruction , must agree to participate in an overall research program to evaluate their long-term effects . In January 1993 , the FDA announced it would require manufacturers of the saline devices to begin the process of proving their safety . WASHINGTON Disagreeing with the findings of an earlier federal investigation , an advisory panel of private physicians appointed by the National Institutes of Health has labeled the deaths of five hepatitis patients using an experimental drug `` an unavoidable accident . '' The controversy , which has shaken the world of biomedical research , involved people with chronic hepatitis who had been taking a drug known as fialuridine , or FIAU , in a clinical research project sponsored by NIH . The deaths of one-third of the 15 patients who were on the drug in 1992 and 1993 occurred weeks after their last dosages , authorities said . Last month the U.S. . Food and Drug Administration , concluding a study of the tragedy , said scientists , physicians and drug maker Eli Lilly & Co. involved in the FIAU research had failed to fully disclose the drug 's potential risks or take note of its ominous side effects . But the new study released Thursday by an NIH panel of outside experts found no fault with those who developed the drug or administered it to chronically ill patients who had volunteered for the research project . David R. Challoner and David M. Kipnis , who headed a panel of seven physicians to determine what went wrong , said in a report to NIH director Harold E. Varmus that the deaths resulted from `` delayed drug toxicity '' and could not have been foreseen . The panel did say that U.S. scientists must do a better job checking for drug toxicity by testing patients for six to nine months after they have taken certain experimental drugs . But it said that should not be done for all drug trials because of the expense . Challoner said his panel 's study has been forwarded to the FDA . Because that agency and NIH are both divisions of the Department of Health and Human Services , the department 's assistant secretary for health will be asked ultimately to develop a federal position on the controversy . The drug in question no longer is being used , although research on it is continuing . One reason for the conflicting conclusions , Challoner said , was a difference in approaches by FDA investigators and NIH panelists . He said his panel focused on the quality of the clinical research project while the FDA found faults based on records kept by those who conducted the research . Kipnis said the recent FDA report , for example , criticized some physicians for failing to report abdominal pains experienced by some people taking the new drug . But he said interviews by panel members found the doctors felt `` abdominal discomfort did not reach the degree of severity to be reported . '' Dr. Jay Hoofnagle , the NIH 's lead investigator of FIAU , was criticized by the FDA for alleged `` significant violations '' of federal regulations . But the panel 's report defended him . `` Dr. Hoofnagle was enthusiastic about the possibility of developing an efficacious treatment for hepatitis B . However , his approach was careful , '' the panel said . ( Optional add end ) Last November , as a result of the failed drug trial , the FDA adopted new drug-testing regulations that were proposed by an internal review task force . The new rules require researchers to gather and report more data on potentially adverse effects of trial drugs and to assume that any medical problems in patients may be caused by the test drug . Hepatitis B , which scientists hoped could be cured by FIAU , is regarded as a significant global problem . In the United States , about 300,000 new cases of infection are reported each year , while 4,000 to 5,000 Americans die from the chronic effects of the infection cirrhosis of the liver , liver failure and liver cancer . It is transmitted primarily through blood transfusions , sex and sharing contaminated hypodermic needles . Kipnis said FIAU probably caused genetic damage to the sub-units of liver cells , causing the next generation of liver cells to die . This would explain why FIAU 's side effects did not appear until long after patients took the drug , he said . WASHINGTON The International Atomic Energy Agency declared Thursday that its ability to tell whether North Korea diverted reactor fuel to make nuclear weapons in 1989 has been `` seriously eroded '' and President Clinton said the United States would press the United Nations to enact sanctions . While the president is traveling in Europe , special U.S. negotiator Robert L. Gallucci is scheduled to meet with South Korean and Japanese envoys Friday and Saturday to hammer out a proposal on sanctions , officials said . But there were fresh indications the effort to punish the Pyongang regime may prove difficult . Both China and Russia repeated Thursday that , despite North Korea 's actions , they are not yet prepared to support a resolution imposing economic sanctions . Thursday 's decision ends 15 months of maneuvering between the U.N.-affiliated atomic energy agency and North Korea . North Korea initially invited the agency 's inspectors to its Yongbyon reactor , then barred them entirely and finally allowed them access only to part of the site . As a result , while the inspectors have confirmed that North Korea is not now diverting spent fuel rods to make nuclear weapons , they have been unable to say whether it did so during an earlier reactor shutdown in 1989 . That issue is important because U.S. intelligence agencies suspect that North Korea may have used the spent fuel to build one or possibly two nuclear weapons . If North Korea does have a nuclear bomb , it could threaten Japan and the rest of Asia . At the same time , North Korea has warned repeatedly that it would regard the imposition of sanctions as an act of war , raising fears in some quarters that the North might initiate military action against South Korea . U.S. military authorities said Thursday that they have not put U.S. forces in the region on alert , partly to avoid any actions that might be deemed provocative . But the Pentagon is considering scaling back a fleet exercise to leave ships available in case of hostilities , they said . The atmosphere at the United Nations was increasingly tense . The Security Council is expected to meet informally to discuss the issue as early as Friday . But diplomats cautioned that the 15-nation body likely will not get around to firm action until late next week after members reach agreement on a measure that can be passed by a clear majority . It was not immediately clear just how much the continuing reluctance of China and Russia to go along with sanctions would hurt the U.S. effort in the United Nations . Russian President Boris N . Yeltsin told reporters in Moscow that imposing sanctions now would be premature . But he warned that `` if North Korea takes a stubborn stance , '' eventually `` we will be forced , step by step .. . to resort to international sanctions . '' In Beijing , Chinese spokesman Shen Guofang took a similar tack , warning that resorting to sanctions now `` might sharpen the confrontation . '' But neither Russia nor China indicated whether they would veto a Security Council resolution imposing sanctions . A senior U.S. official traveling with Clinton in Rome said the president was trying to arrange a telephone conversation with Yeltsin to discuss the issue . The official also conceded that Washington is uncertain how quickly or how forcefully it could get the Security Council to act . That `` will depend on the nature of discussions that we 're engaged in , '' he said . `` We simply will have to see . '' ( Optional add end ) The job facing the international inspectors has been complex . The standard method by which the agency 's experts tell whether a country is diverting spent nuclear fuel for weapons is to test fuel rods in a reactor . Telling whether spent fuel had been diverted in previous years such as in 1989 , when analysts believe North Korea may have begun making a bomb is more difficult . To do so , the inspectors must measure how fuel rods in various parts of the reactor have been used up . The task was complicated substantially a few weeks ago when Pyongyang announced to the West 's surprise that it would begin shutting down its reactor immediately and start removing the spent fuel rods well ahead of schedule much faster than the atomic energy agency had expected . North Korea removed the rods at such a rapid pace that the inspectors were unable to determine if any of the spent fuel had been diverted during the 1989 shutdown leaving the West still uncertain whether Pyongyang has a bomb . TOKYO At last Japan can rest assured : Hachiko 's wan-wan was not a weak one . This is an important cultural discovery . But to understand why , you need to understand some Japanese dog lore . Between the world wars , in Tokyo 's Shibuya section , there lived a golden brown Akita dog named Hachiko . The famous tale of her loyalty and devotion to her master is so familiar here that she is universally known as `` chu-ken Hachiko , '' or `` faithful dog Hachiko . '' If a national election were held to pick America 's favorite dog , the votes would probably be split among such diverse candidates as Lassie , Snoopy , Old Yeller and Millie Bush . But in this more homogeneous nation , where everybody tends to agree with everybody else on these big cultural questions , there would be no such confusion . Unquestionably , unequivocally , the choice for Japan 's favorite dog would be Hachiko . Hachiko died in 1935 , but millions still visit her each year , in stuffed form , at the National Museum in Tokyo . There are countless books , movies and CDs , plus statues and plaques commemorating the faithful dog all over Japan . Because 1994 is the Year of the Dog in the Oriental calendar cycle , and because it is also the 60th anniversary of the most famous Hachiko memorial , Japan this spring has launched into a new burst of Hachiko hagiography . The biggest scoop yet in the media 's Hachiko Wars occurred last weekend , when the Culture Broadcasting Network obtained a hitherto unknown recording of Hachiko 's bark . It was an old LP record , broken into three pieces . But technicians at Culture Broadcasting repaired the disc with laser surgery so that it could be broadcast . After a breathless buildup , a dramatic introduction and many commercials , the faithful dog 's voice was played for a national audience Saturday . Hachiko said , `` Wan-wan . '' `` Wan-wan '' is how the Japanese render the sound of a dog 's bark , rather than `` bow-wow . '' For that matter , cats in Japan say `` nyaah-nyaah ' ' instead of `` meow , '' and frogs here say `` kero-kero . '' The Japanese word for what a rooster says is `` ko-kek-ko-ko , '' which is , if you think about it , a lot closer to the real thing than `` cock-a-doodle-doo . '' Having a hefty `` wan-wan '' is considered a sign of health and good karma for a dog here . And to everyone 's relief , Hachiko had a healthy , hearty wan-wan . Even a wimpy wan-wan , however , might not have diminished the national affection for Hachiko , because her true story crystalizes the characteristic trustworthiness and loyalty that dog-lovers everywhere have come to expect from Man 's Best Friend . Hachiko , born in 1922 , was the pet of Prof. Eisaburo Ueno of Tokyo University , an institution roughly as prestigious here as Harvard , Yale and Stanford combined in the United States . Ueno lived in Shibuya , then considered a suburb but now a very trendy , up-market Tokyo neighborhood . Every morning , the professor would walk from his home to Shibuya Station to take the train to work and every morning Hachiko came with him . Each afternoon , when Ueno came back home on the afternoon train , Hachiko would be waiting on the platform to meet him . All the other commuters and the merchants of Shibuya came to know and love the dog and await her daily vigil . One day in 1925 , Ueno died suddenly while at work . Faithful Hachiko waited and waited at the station that night , but her master did not come home . So Hachiko came back to wait for her master again the next afternoon . And the next , and the next . In fact , she kept coming back to the station , through rain , snow and the occasional earthquake , every afternoon for the next 10 years . Word of this real-life wonder dog spread around Japan and the world . American dog-lovers were so moved that the Los Angeles Friends of Animals raised funds to commission a statue honoring `` Faithful Dog Hachiko . '' It was erected at Shibuya Station in 1934 and become the most famous of many subsequent memorials to the dog . Hachiko died in 1935 and was buried next to her master in Tokyo 's Aoyama Cemetery . But she remained alive in drama , books , movies , songs and a million bedtime stories . During World War II , Japan 's military dictators took an ambivalent stance toward Hachiko . They made her story mandatory reading in the schools , to preach the importance of unthinking loyalty to one 's superiors . But they also melted down the famous statue to get metal for shipbuilding . After the war , the Japanese seemed determined to forget all their memories of the first half of this century . But the tale of Faithful Dog Hachiko was not forgotten . Today everybody knows her . Hachiko is a powerful retail agent in Japan , and the department stores here sell Hachiko cookies , cups , calendars , coasters , calculators , chopstick holders and other memorabilia . The Tokyu Department store in Shibuya offers among many other things , a Hachiko necktie ( with `` Wan Wan ! '' printed on it ) for $ 50 and a $ 58 wristwatch with Hachiko 's face and this message , in English , on the dial : `` The most heartful Japanese , A dog . He goes to station to meet with his master . '' As for the statue that became a war casualty , it was replaced in 1948 and became nationally famous once again so much so that when Shibuya Station was rebuilt to accommodate increased population , the architect had to design around Hachiko 's statue so that it would not be disturbed . Today , Shibuya is a shopping and nightlife district , particularly popular among students . For teenagers all over Japan , the expression `` Hachiko mae de ! '' `` Let 's meet at Hachiko '' heard all the time on the TV dramas , is the very essence of big-city glitter and sophistication . Hachiko 's brand of loyalty to a leader is an important social virtue in Japan . But so is promptness . Accordingly , the Hachiko statue at Shibuya Station is also famous as the locus of many lover 's quarrels . A couple makes plans to meet at Hachiko , and then gets into an argument on the theme of `` Why didn't you get here on time ? '' To avoid confrontation , the Japanese have placed , at Hachiko 's statue , a machine that lets you punch in on arrival and issues a card saying what time you arrived . That way you can prove to your lover that you did arrive at Shibuya Station right on time just as Faithful Dog Hachiko did for all those lonely years . ROME President Clinton Thursday pledged to pursue U.N. sanctions against North Korea after a formal finding that its refusal to allow inspection of its key nuclear facility has made it impossible to determine if fuel was diverted to build a nuclear bomb . The finding was made by the International Atomic Energy Agency , whose Director General Hans Blix Thursday sent a letter to the U.N. secretary general describing as `` irreversible '' the damage done to the monitoring of North Korea 's nuclear program . The IAEA report signaled an escalation in the conflict over North Korea 's violations of international monitoring agreements during the past two years . The letter from Blix to U.N. Secretary General Boutros Boutros-Ghali automatically puts sanctions on the agenda of the Security Council and marks the demise of lengthy efforts by the United States to coax Pyongyang through negotiations to open its nuclear program to inspections . `` The United States and the world community have worked with North Korea on this issue for five years now , '' Clinton said , `` And I believe , therefore , the question of sanctions has to be at least taken up in the United Nations Security Council and discussed . '' North Korea Thursday threatened to withdraw completely from the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty and warned that any U.N. sanctions would violate the 1953 armistice agreement that ended the Korean War and would return the Korean peninsula to a state of war . North Korea also accused the United States of using U-2 planes to spy on its coastline in preparation of an invasion . Clinton said North Korea had entered international agreements providing for inspections of its nuclear facilities and now is unwilling to meet the obligations of its agreements . `` Well , we 're not any of us permitted to conduct ourselves that way , '' he said . North Korea , he said , has `` triggered these events , not the United States or anyone else . We have to go forward . '' Clinton 's somewhat tentative reference to `` at least '' taking up the subject was attributed to the difficulty the United States faces in obtaining agreement from the 15-member Security Council considering China 's historical ties to North Korea as well as Russia 's reluctance to move quickly on sanctions . Both China and Russia , as permanent members of the council , possess veto power over council resolutions . China said Thursday that it still opposes sanctions . `` At this time we do not favor resorting to means that might sharpen the confrontation , '' said Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman Shen Guofang . In Moscow , President Boris Yeltsin said Thursday that Russia is `` deeply concerned '' about North Korea 's nuclear program but is not yet ready to support sanctions against its Communist neighbor . Meeting with South Korean President Kim Young Sam , Yeltsin reiterated his call for an international conference on the subject involving Russia , China , both Koreas , Japan , the United States and representatives of the United Nations and the IAEA . `` Since no decision has yet been made about an international conference , '' Yeltsin said , `` it is too early to speak about sanctions . '' Nonetheless , National Security Adviser Anthony Lake said , `` We do intend to pursue the issue of sanctions '' in the Security Council . A senior official said that U.N. . Ambassador Madeleine K. Albright has been discussing both a broad sanctions resolution and sanctions that individual nations might take to compel North Korean compliance . Asked what the administration will do if China threatens to veto sanctions , Lake said , `` It is premature to say what form the sanctions would take '' until consultations are completed . The White House was attempting Wednesday night to arrange a phone call between Yeltsin and Clinton on the Korean issue . Clinton said he was `` encouraged '' by Yeltsin 's statements and added that China `` has not yet said that they would veto a sanctions resolution . '' He said he would discuss the North Korean issue with the French and British leaders , whom he will meet on his eight-day European trip , as part of the effort to obtain sanctions . The new flurry of diplomatic activity was triggered by the IAEA report and the unresolved dispute over whether material from nuclear fuel rods at North Korea 's Yongbyon nuclear reactor was diverted to make nuclear weapons . The secretive , isolated regime in Pyongyang last refueled the reactor in 1989 without inspectors present , and Washington believes it removed nuclear materials at that time . In 1992 , IAEA detected clues that North Korea had failed to declare some plutonium it had produced , perhaps more than a kilogram . The inspections of the spent fuel from the reactor at two waste sites would have given the IAEA a definitive history and shown whether nuclear material had been diverted . The current crisis over its suspected nuclear weapons program erupted 15 months ago when the regime refused access to the sites . North Korea has recently speeded up the removal of fuel rods from its key atomic reactor at Yongbyon and refused to allow inspection of that removal process . The nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty limiting the spread of nuclear weapons , which North Korea has signed , requires such inspections . The IAEA wanted North Korea to set aside 300 fuel rods crucial to determining how much plutonium Pyongyang produced after replacing some of the rods in 1989 . `` The agency has concluded that the limited opportunity which had remained for it to select , segregate and secure fuel rods for later measurements in accordance with agency standards has been lost , '' Blix wrote in the report issued Thursday . `` Accordingly , the agency 's ability to ascertain , with sufficient confidence , whether nuclear material from the reactor has been diverted in the past has also been lost . '' The report was based on observations two IAEA inspectors made early Thursday at the five-megawatt nuclear reactor at Yongbyon , where North Korean technicians in mid-May began a hasty discharge of spent fuel roads . Although North Korea said it has slowed the pace of the fuel removal , the IAEA found that all the key parts of the reactor core needed for sampling and inspection had already been unloaded without its supervision . North Korea Thursday accused the IAEA of playing `` sinister '' politics and sending inspectors late . Its atomic energy department asserted that the information the IAEA needed had been preserved . Blix said the IAEA never received an answer from North Korea to three proposals it offered Monday for ways it could still carry out the needed inspections . Blix will travel to New York on Friday to brief the Security Council in what will be the first official discussion of the issue . U.S. officials will hold a planning meeting with Japanese and South Korean officials in Washington on Saturday . `` What you are going to see now is a tremendous amount of discussions within the Security Council and among other countries about sanctions . A great deal of diplomatic work will have to go forward before we will be all able to agree that diplomatic efforts have been exhausted , '' a senior U.S. official said . The senior official said that now that the issue of noncompliance by North Korea has been joined with the IAEA letter to the United Nations , `` we will now proceed with real persistence , trying to build a consensus , work through both determined and careful diplomacy and see where we come out . '' North Korea disclosed Thursday that it has already warned the United Nations that any move to impose sanctions would `` bring devastating consequences menacing peace in Asia and the rest of the world , not to speak of the Korean peninsula . '' Clinton and his aides brushed off statements by the North Koreans that sanctions would amount to an act of war . `` This is not the first time that the North Koreans have made such statements , '' a senior official said . `` Neither we nor the international community , we believe , will be deterred or intimidated by such statements . '' In CLINTON-TIMES ( Broder , Times ) sub for 12th graf ( Recasting to delete introductory clause ) xxx self-discipline . Clinton told the earnest theologians , `` In all secular societies , it is recognized that very few people have the capacity to make a commitment of that depth and constancy . And yet , all of us know that , ultimately , the meaning of our lives depend upon the constant effort to achieve a level of integrity between what we feel and what we think and what we do . '' PICK UP 13th graf : After Clinton 's xxx WASHINGTON A federal commission painted a grim picture of a fast-changing American workplace Thursday , citing stagnant pay levels , a growing gap between high-wage and low-wage workers and a sharp increase in `` working poor '' who have full-time jobs but earn so little they fall below the government 's poverty line . In addition , the commission said , the traditional pattern of lifetime jobs with a single employer is growing less common as firms increasingly hire more part-time and temporary workers to reduce labor costs . The report also noted that a higher proportion of Americans two out of three now hold jobs or are seeking them , largely because almost three out of five women are now in the work force compared to one out of three women in 1950 . Americans also put in longer hours per year than any other industrialized nation except Japan , the report said , largely due to laws mandating four or five weeks of vacation in European countries . While the yearlong study found a decline in collective bargaining contracts and a sharply lower level of strikes , it also reported a surge in government regulation and litigation involving health and safety , job discrimination and other workplace issues . Employment cases in the federal courts increased by 400 percent between 1971 and 1991 , the report said . The commission , headed by former Secretary of Labor John T. Dunlop , envisioned a growing role for employees in making decisions affecting their jobs and said available evidence suggests it could improve their firms ' economic performance . Even so , the report added , survey research indicates that about 50 million workers would like to take part in making workplace decisions but have no opportunity to do so . At most , only 5 percent of all workplaces have effective participation systems , it estimated . The 163-page fact-finding report of the Commission on the Future of Worker-Management Relations was presented to Secretary of Labor Robert B . Reich and David Barran , undersecretary of commerce , who was standing in for Secretary of Commerce Ron H. Brown . Dunlop said the commission hoped to start a national debate on the issues outlined in the initial report and then issue recommendations for change to the Clinton administration within the next six months . `` The American workplace has undergone extraordinary transformations over the last six decades and will be evolving still more dramatically in the future , but our legal framework and many of our notions about worker-management relations were made for a 1930s ' world not the 21st century , '' Reich said . Reich also deplored the growing gap between more highly skilled workers and those at the bottom of the pay ladder . A long-term decline in the rate of growth of American productivity , or employee output per hour , limits the increases in wages and benefits that can be paid by firms without sacrificing their ability to compete in an increasingly global economy , the commission said . ( Optional add end ) In addition , the declining power of labor unions and the fall in the buying power of the federal minimum wage has also played a role in widening the gap between more highly paid and lower paid workers . Referring to the `` working poor '' who remain in poverty despite putting in 40 hours on the job every week , the commission said their numbers have increased greatly in the last 15 years . `` About 18 percent of the nation 's year-round full-time workers earned less than $ 13,091 in 1992 a 50 percent increase over the 12 percent who had low earnings in 1979 , '' the report said . `` These workers consist disproportionately of women , young workers , Blacks , Hispanics and the less educated . '' The number of bargaining rights elections and the number of labor union victories has diminished sharply over several decades , the report also noted , with an increasing probability that workers will be fired for pro-union activity . WASHINGTON The Immigration and Naturalization Service is testing an automated system in the San Diego area that would free Border Patrol agents from paperwork burdens so they can concentrate on tightening U.S. borders , Attorney General Janet Reno announced Thursday . `` Border Patrol agents have , up until now , been spending 40 percent of their valuable enforcement time doing paperwork , '' said Reno , who complained after a border visit last August of finding agents driving buses and performing other tasks that could be handled by technology . At her weekly news conference , Reno also announced that a fingerprint system currently under development for the INS will identify criminal illegal residents at the border within minutes . The automated paperwork system , called ENFORCE , was turned on Wednesday at three border patrol sites near San Diego and `` will provide the equivalent of redeploying 48 agents to the line , '' Reno said . The system handles by computer 43 of 51 forms that agents completed with typewriters or by longhand , freeing Border Patrol agents from 60 percent of the paperwork involved in processing illegal immigrants . In the future , it will be used to track cases by linking immigration enforcement and deportation systems that currently lack the means of exchanging data , officials said . In unveiling the technology , Reno and INS Commissioner Doris Meissner noted the current budget includes only enough money to run the pilot effort for six months . Final enactment of House and Senate crime bills now in conference to resolve differences would provide $ 200 million for INS technological developments , including the ENFORCE system and the fingerprint identification . That would be the largest part of the two to three years of funding needed to fully implement the system , according to Meissner . `` If we are going to deploy these technologies all along our border and develop others , Congress needs to pass the crime bill and appropriate funds , '' Reno said . The fingerprint system , which was described as in `` the late stages of development , '' will enable Border Patrol agents to identify an illegal immigrant from an electronic fingerprint within three to five minutes and to retrieve the individual 's criminal records , photographs and other information . Meissner said the technology would help close a gap in the IRS fingerprinting system that allows private companies to take prints from illegal residents for use on their INS applications without requiring them to prove their identities . ( Optional add end ) The INS has failed to regulate the private companies and has no means of preventing immigrants intent on hiding their arrest records from enlisting someone with a clean history to submit their prints instead , according to a report by the Justice Department 's Inspector General . In a related development , the Justice Department announced that 53 Mexican nationals now in U.S. prisons for committing crimes here will be sent back to Mexican prisons Friday . It will be the third transfer under an accelerated program that resulted from Reno 's meeting in Mexico last October with Jorge Carpizio , Mexico 's then attorney general . Reno praised the Mexican government for its role in the transfer , saying , `` it is a common sense answer to help ensure that U.S. prison space is used for U.S. citizens . '' Some 186 criminal illegal immigrants were returned to Mexico in the stepped-up transfers , which began last December . NEW YORK His mortar board tipped , and he fumbled with his hood , but alumnus-comedian Jerry Seinfeld Thursday did not miss a punch line after receiving an honorary doctorate from Queens College . Before an audience of 3,500 cheering Queens College graduates , his mother , Betty Seinfeld , and sister , Carolyn Liebling , Seinfeld delivered a two-minute stand-up . `` When my parents were pushing me to become a doctor , I could have at least said to them , ` All right , all right . Just let me tell jokes to strangers in nightclubs for 18 years , and I 'm sure after that they 'll make me a doctor , ' ' ' Seinfeld said . As the audience cracked up , Seinfeld added : `` I tell you with the job market you 're facing , you 're a terrific audience . '' Above the traditional pomp and circumstance , and the toll of the Queens campus bells , rose the chant : `` JER-RY , JER-RY . '' Robed in cap and gown , Seinfeld , 40 , who graduated in 1976 , joined Queens College President Shirley Strum Kenny , who gave her farewell commencement speech before leaving to head the State University of New York at Stony Brook in September . Occasionally smiling for photographers and waving to fans , Seinfeld barely said a word . Still , people laughed . `` What 's interesting is how funny everybody gets around him , '' Kenny said . As Seinfeld walked onto the grassy lawn , graduates and guests cheered wildly as they perched atop folding chairs , straining for a glimpse . One feisty fan waved a poster that read : `` Hey Jerry , Even Kramer knows librarians are the best . '' Kenny gave him a copy of `` Seinlanguage '' in Hebrew . On a more serious note , Seinfeld said : `` I 'm very proud to be an alumnus of Queens College , and it 's truly a wonderful feeling to know that you are all very proud of me . Good luck , Class of '94 ! '' As security guards whisked Seinfeld into a waiting car , a lone voice bid the comedian a New York farewell : `` Hey Jerry , I got the money I owe ya . '' ROME The mayor of Rome thought he had chosen just the right gifts to present President Clinton and Hillary Rodham Clinton when they visited the stately Palazzo Senatorio , or town hall , Thursday . For the president , Mayor Francesco Rutelli had a small bronze statue of the wolf that , according to legend , had nursed the infants Romulus and Remus , founders of Rome . For the first lady , he had a watercolor by the Italian artist Manzu . But the Italian-language Il Messaggero reported Thursday that the mayor had second thoughts over the painting 's title , `` The Lovers . '' Could that cause offense , given the allegations of infidelity that have been leveled at her husband ? Just to be safe , when she arrived in the City Council chambers , Hillary Clinton was given a large picture book of Rome . ROME The international tension over North Korea 's nuclear program reached the point of confrontation Thursday as the United States announced it would urge the United Nations to impose economic sanctions against Pyongyang . The long-debated move toward sanctions began when the International Atomic Energy Agency formally notified U.N. Secretary-General Boutros-Boutros Ghali that it could no longer certify that North Korea wasn't diverting nuclear fuel to weapons production . So President Clinton , in the midst of a largely ceremonial European trip to commemorate the 50th anniversary of D-Day , was plunged instead into a deadly serious conflict over the Korean peninsula where the United States helped wage war in the 1950s . `` I believe that in the end , when we move to the Security Council discussions , we will come out with a policy that will show resolve , '' Clinton told reporters after a day that also included meetings with Pope John Paul II and Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi . `` I just don't think we can walk away from this . '' South Korea 's ambassador for nuclear affairs , Kim Sam-Hoon , said the United Nations could no longer avoid imposing sanctions against North Korea . `` Warnings have been delivered to the full . It has now become inevitable to seek punitive measures against the North , '' Kim said . But Clinton faces a daunting diplomatic mission . He must persuade China and Russia , both with veto power in the Security Council , to put aside their reluctance to impose sanctions . He also must be prepared for the unpredictable course a confrontation with the Communist regime in Pyongyang could run . North Korean Foreign Minister Kim Yong Nam already has sent a letter to Boutros-Ghali warning that sanctions would `` bring devastating consequences menacing peace in Asia and the rest of the world , not to speak of the Korean peninsula , '' the North Korean news agency reported . And the North Korean envoy to the international atomic agency , Yun Ho Jin , warned that Pyongyang was close to withdrawing from the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty . The treaty pledges members not to develop nuclear arms and to keep facilities open to international inspection . A North Korean withdrawal would end any hope of monitoring whether it is building nuclear bombs . Any sanctions would further isolate what is already one of the world 's most isolated nations . `` They have more than 750,000 troops along the DMZ ; they could go to war , '' said Rep. Gary Ackerman , D-N.Y. , the last U.S. official to have met with North Korean President Kim Il Sung last October . `` They have said they would consider economic sanctions an act of war , and they are still capable of inflicting horrible damage . They can certainly punch their way through the border , and they could destroy Seoul before we could react . '' The CIA has said there is a better than 50-50 chance that North Korea has already used the plutonium it extracted from its experimental nuclear reactor in 1989 to build one or two bombs . Meanwhile , South Korean officials announced that a major joint U.S.-South Korea military exercise would be held in August to test the combined military operations of the two allies against possible North Korean provocations . The escalating tensions came after months of diplomatic maneuvering over North Korea 's refusal to allow atomic agency inspectors to verify the amount of plutonium being produced in its experimental reactor at Yongbyon . Agency Director Hans Blix formally informed Boutros-Ghali Thursday that all possibility of establishing the history of the reactor 's fuel had been lost , White House officials said . ( Begin optional trim ) In his letter , Blix said the United Nations ' nuclear watchdog agency `` has drawn the conclusion that the discharge of spent fuel from a five-megawatt experimental nuclear power reactor has now made it impossible to select fuel rods for later measurements which would show whether whether there has been any diversion of fuel in past years . '' That prompted the United States to begin full-scale international consultations to build support for sanctions . The White House tried to schedule a telephone call between Clinton and Russian President Boris N . Yeltsin. U.N. . Ambassador Madeleine Albright and other senior U.S. officials were conferring with the other four permanent members of the Security Council Britain , France , Russia and China as well as with South Korea and Japan , the nations that probably would be most affected by sanctions . `` I recognize it is a more difficult question for China and for Russia than for the United States and for Britain and for France , '' Clinton said . `` It also matters a lot to Japan and to South Korea . I think we all have a common desire to see North Korea return to the former path '' of compliance with atomic agency safeguards . ( End optional trim ) The North Korean situation left frazzled the White House officials who were trying to track the developments in the midst of a busy schedule in a foreign country . At one point , a senior administration official briefing reporters was handed a scrawled note and announced that the atomic agency letter had been delivered to the United Nations . Fifteen minutes later he reappeared and announced that the information `` was not accurate . '' A half-hour later , another senior official appeared to declare that the letter , in fact , had been delivered . WASHINGTON The Federal Aviation Administration said Thursday it is scrapping development of a system to guide airplane landings after an investment of 27 years and $ 400 million , because the program has been overtaken by an alternative technology . The move came as the agency was preparing major changes in a troubled multibillion-dollar contract to modernize the computers in the country 's air traffic control system . Officials said the agency plans to announce Friday that it will scale back efforts to develop new equipment and focus on buying `` off-the-shelf '' technology that it hopes will lower costs . Both steps reflect major rethinking of how aircraft should be guided through the skies in the 21st century . Finding ways to allow more planes to fly safely in already crowded airways is a key to the growth of air travel . The Microwave Landing System ( MLS ) had been intended to replace the instrument landing system ( ILS ) now in use to guide planes to runways under conditions of limited visibility . But the FAA reached a conclusion long espoused by some aviation industry groups that satellite-based technology has greater potential . `` Continuing the MLS development program is not an economically sound strategy , '' FAA Administrator David R. Hinson said in a press release . The FAA 's decision could cause some confusion internationally , because the United States and many other nations had agreed to switch to MLS by 1998 . FAA officials said Thursday that MLS was no longer on schedule for global implementation in 1998 , and they added that technology may overcome any international inconsistencies by allowing planes to navigate by any of the three technologies-ILS , MLS or satellites . The FAA Thursday canceled contracts on the MLS project with Raytheon Corp. and Wilcox Corp. , saying the move would save taxpayers $ 59 million through 1997 . The MLS system would have required extensive ground-based equipment as well as new electronics aboard airplanes . The FAA 's new plan is to use the Defense Department 's network of so-called Global Positioning Satellites ( GPS ) . The satellite system requires only minimal ground equipment , and airlines generally favor it because it would be much less expensive for them than MLS , according to Roger Fleming , senior vice president of the Air Transport Association , which represents airlines . The satellite system is the same one the military used to guide the movement of tanks and troops during the Persian Gulf War . But it also is used widely for civilian purposes , such as pleasure boating and private aviation . One thing that changed since the government embarked on the MLS program is that , with the waning of the Cold War , the Pentagon became willing to allow civilian use of the militarily sensitive satellite capability , said Clark Onstad , a Washington lawyer who specializes in aviation matters . The computer project is far larger , seeking to replace aging machines in hundreds of facilities scattered across the country . Forecast to cost $ 4.3 billion when the job was let to International Business Machines Corp. in 1988 , the estimate has grown year after year . The FAA 's current prediction is about $ 7 billion , a number that has shocked Congress and led to demands for swift action . Much of $ 2 billion spent to date on the job has focused on developing new software for computers in 22 regional control centers that guide planes between airports . Plans to be announced call for that work to be slowed down somewhat while a 90-day audit of the work is conducted , a Transportation Department official said . Officials said the new safeguards would be put in place to monitor progress and create a greater sense of keeping to schedule and budget . Aerospace firm Loral Corp. earlier his year bought the IBM division handling the work . FAA officials cast it as a major change . `` The new concept will be more affordable and it should be more technologically feasible to achieve , '' said deputy administrator Linda Daschle . JERUSALEM Israeli warplanes and helicopter gunships attacked a Hezbollah training base in eastern Lebanon 's Bekaa Valley early Thursday , killing dozens of people in the deadliest Israeli assault on the Muslim guerrilla organization in nearly a year . Later , three volleys of about 25 Katyusha rockets were fired from Lebanon into western Galilee just inside Israel 's northern border . Most fell in empty farmland , and there were no reports of casualties , although glass was broken in some buildings . Residents were ordered into bomb shelters , and Israel 's army was put on alert . Israel described the raid as part of its continuing campaign against terrorists who threaten its security from bases inside Lebanon . But the surprise attack which comes less than two weeks after Israeli commandos abducted a Muslim guerrilla leader inside southern Lebanon could have broad repercussions for Middle East peace , further complicating efforts by the United States to broker a settlement between Israel and Syria . The raid was immediately denounced by Lebanon and Syria . Syrian Information Minister Mohammed Salman said in a statement that `` the timing of this aggression underscores Israel 's endeavors to undermine the peace process and hinder U.S. efforts to steer peace negotiations out of the logjam . '' The Israeli attack was aimed at a camp in Ein Dardara near the border with Syria . The Lebanese army said most of those killed were 12- to 18-year-olds who died in their beds , according to news service reports . Israeli officials said the timing of the raid was determined by intelligence showing the camp had only recently been populated . `` They are not always there , '' said Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin , who is also defense minister . There were conflicting accounts of the number of casualties . The Lebanese army said nearly 30 guerrilla trainees were killed and dozens wounded . Hezbollah said 31 were killed . Israel television said the death toll may be as high as 45 , but Israel 's military chief of staff estimated 30 dead . Security sources quoted by the Reuter news agency said that four helicopter gunships struck before dawn , firing machine guns into the tents of the training camp , 44 miles east of Beirut . Six Israeli warplanes then fired rockets into the camp . Lebanese and Syrian troops in the region responded with antiaircraft fire , but Israel said all its forces returned safely . Rabin said the raid was part of Israel 's `` continuing war '' against Hezbollah , an Iranian-backed political party of Islamic extremists with an active military wing . `` In every place where there is a possibility to strike at terror organizations , at Hezbollah , without it causing injury to civilians , we have done it , we are doing it , and we will continue to do so , '' he said . Hezbollah vowed `` swift and merciless '' revenge for the attack . It has also vowed to retaliate for the kidnapping of the guerrilla leader , Mustafa Dirani , whom Israel wanted to interrogate about a missing Israeli military aviator . Lebanese President Elias Hrawi summoned Lebanon 's Supreme Defense Council and said , according to Beirut Radio , `` This is a massacre , an inhuman massacre that stands as a disaster for what is left of the peace process . '' The bombing occurred at a point when peace talks appear to be bogged down between Israel and Syria , the regional power broker with about 40,000 troops in northern , eastern and central Lebanon . Earlier this week , Rabin said recent messages carried by the United States between Damascus and Jerusalem had produced no results . Peace talks in Washington between Israel and Syria have been suspended for several months , and the latest violence may further stall the negotiations . In Washington , U.S. officials said the violence appeared to be part of a pattern of Israeli-Hezbollah tensions that go up and down according to the circumstances of the moment . `` We 've seen it before , and we frankly expect it to break out from time to time , '' one official said . Last July , Israel launched a week-long offensive against Hezbollah in southern Lebanon , forcing half a million residents to flee their homes and killing 149 people . Thursday 's attack was the most severe carried out by Israel since then . After last year 's operation , Israel and Hezbollah agreed on an unwritten cease-fire arrangement under which neither side would attack civilian targets . Rabin claimed Thursday 's air blitz remained with those rules , because the training camp was a base for guerrilla fighters . But he charged that the retaliatory rocket attacks went beyond the cease-fire understandings . LOS ANGELES Children who eat more than 12 hot dogs per month have nine times the normal risk of developing childhood leukemia , a University of Southern California epidemiologist reports in a cancer research journal . Two other reports in the same issue of Cancer Causes and Control also suggest that children born to mothers who eat at least one hot dog per week during pregnancy have double the normal risk of developing brain tumors , as do children whose fathers ate hot dogs before conception . The findings , which already are generating a great deal of controversy and concern , could help explain why the incidence of childhood leukemia and brain tumors has been increasing over the last two decades , say the researchers , led by USC epidemiologist John Peters . The scientists caution , however , that the studies are preliminary and based on relatively small numbers of cases a total of 621 cancer victims in the three studies and an equal number of controls . They also note that the statistical association is not necessarily a cause/effect relationship . Critics , as well as the researchers themselves , point out that such studies are difficult to conduct and interpret because people have a hard time recalling what they have eaten in the past . Nonetheless , the scientists argue that the results are significant and the issue deserves much more intensive scrutiny . In response to the findings , researchers at The University of Minnesota have already modified their National Cancer Institute-sponsored study on childhood leukemia to explore the possible connection to hot dogs . The researchers suggest that the trigger for the cancers might be the use of nitrites to preserve processed meats such as hot dogs . Nitrites are converted in the body to highly carcinogenic nitrosamines . Still , none of the investigators argues that people should stop eating hot dogs based on the findings . Because of the low incidence of these childhood tumors , `` This is not a hazard at the level of tobacco smoke or high-fat diets , '' said epidemiologist David Savitz of the University of North Carolina , author of one of the studies on pregnant women . `` The rational response would be a small modification of your consumption . '' `` It 's an intriguing idea because hot dogs certainly contain chemicals that one might wonder about , '' said Dr. Clark Heath , vice president for medical research of the American Cancer Society . `` I don't think they prove the case , '' he said , but the results are feasible because animal studies have established that nitrites cause cancer . `` Obviously , it is an idea that will need to be explored further . '' Researchers from the hot dog and cured meat industries were not available for comment Thursday . A spokeswoman for the National Cancer Institute also could not provide anyone familiar with the findings . ( Optional add end ) Other researchers scoffed at the findings as an example of the `` carcinogen of the week '' syndrome . `` The problem is that there are an enormous number of variables in a study like this , '' said nutrition expert Michael Pariza of the University of Wisconsin . `` You don't know whether they were undernourished , for example , or if they had adequate exercise. .. . It would be extremely premature to draw any conclusion from this type of study . '' Other researchers also attacked the studies because they were published in a journal that is not peer-reviewed , meaning that experts did not have a chance to critique the results before they appeared in print . Leukemia and brain tumors have been a concern to pediatric oncologists because they have been increasing more than twice as fast as childhood cancer overall . In the 17 years such data has been collected , Heath said , cancer among children up to ages 14 has increased by an average of 0.8 percent per year , while acute lymphoblastic leukemia has increased by 1.7 percent per year a 27.4 percent total over that period . Brain tumors have increased by 1.8 percent per year over the same period , a 32.8 percent total . The cause of these increases has been a mystery . Even so , the cancers are still considered very rare . Acute lymphoblastic leukemia , for instance , strikes only about three in every 10,000 children , so even a nine-fold increase still amounts to a relatively small risk . WASHINGTON The Clinton administration declared Thursday it would seek U.N. economic sanctions against North Korea after the world 's nuclear watchdog agency concluded that the Communist regime had blocked efforts to learn the scope of its nuclear weapons program . The U.S. step elevated the long-simmering Korean crisis to a new level of tension . North Korea has already declared that it would consider any imposition of sanctions an act of war . The north-south border , manned by tens of thousands of American troops , has long been on hair-trigger military alert . President Clinton was forced to act to make good on his administration 's previous threats . For days , U.S. officials have been saying if North Korea made it impossible for inspectors to probe the history of its nuclear program , the United States would seek sanctions through the U.N. . Security Council . Thursday , the International Atomic Energy Agency concluded North Korea had done just that . In a statement issued from its headquarters in Vienna , Austria , the agency said North Korea 's rapid discharge of fuel from its reactor `` has now made it impossible to select fuel rods for later measurements , which would show whether there has been any diversion of fuel from the reactor in the past years . '' State Department spokesman Mike McCurry , traveling with Clinton in Rome , said the United States would ask the Security Council to impose economic sanctions . A U.S. official predicted Thursday night it would be `` some days '' before a sanctions resolution emerges from the Security Council . The prospect is uncertain in any case . China , which has veto power , still opposes confronting North Korea with sanctions now . Its position remains unchanged despite Clinton 's decision last week to renew its most-favored-nation trading status . Russia , another Security Council member with veto power , proposed Thursday an international conference on North Korea instead of moving quickly to impose sanctions . Clinton said North Korea had only itself to blame if sanctions are imposed . `` They have triggered this , not the United States or anyone else , '' he said . U.S. officials plan to meet in Washington Friday with their closest Asian allies , Japan and North Korea . An informal Security Council meeting is set for Friday afternoon , when IAEA Director General Hans Blix is expected to brief its members . Administration officials have said in the past that sanctions , if agreed on , would be imposed gradually and would not begin with a full-scale blockade . ( Optional add end ) The crisis focuses solely on North Korea 's nuclear-weapons development in the late 1980s . The IAEA wanted to examine selected fuel rods being extracted from North Korea 's so-called experimental reactor . By examining these rods , they could ascertain whether the regime had diverted nuclear fuel after the reactor had been shut down once before in 1989 . There is no evidence that North Korea is trying to add to its nuclear stockpile . In fact , U.N. inspectors have told the IAEA that the spent fuel from the reactor is being placed in cooling ponds , where it can be monitored to make sure any diversion doesn't occur . U.S. intelligence analysts have long believed that North Korea diverted enough fuel when the reactor was last shut down to make one or more nuclear bombs . What is now at issue is the ability of world nuclear inspectors to determine what weaponry North Korea possesses . This has broad implications for their being able to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons around the globe . The danger , voiced in the past by Japan and South Korea , is that sanctions would further isolate North Korea and prompt it to sever all contact with international inspectors . This , in turn , would make it impossible for inspectors to monitor what North Korea does with the spent fuel now being discharged from its reactor , once the fuel cools and could be reprocessed into weapons-grade fuel . In an effort to give corporate sponsors a little more bang for their public broadcasting bucks , the Public Broadcasting Service is considering proposals to increase the time allotted in programs for acknowledging underwriters . Current rules allow only 30 seconds for underwriter credits at the end of a broadcast , with a maximum of 15 seconds to a single underwriter which often results in some underwriters being undercredited , as it were . One proposal would allow as many 15-second credits as necessary for sponsors who contribute 20 percent or more to the funding of a broadcast . Corporate spokesmen , now banned , may also be considered and even ads the underwriters use on commercial TV , if appropriate . Various task forces are considering the proposals , but no firm decisions are expected until the fall planning meeting , according to Jon Abbott , senior vice president , development and corporate relations at PBS . `` We have a large project underway to look at all the ideas to shore up funding from corporations and foundations , '' he said . At a time when corporate funding continues to shrink , Abbott said , too many potential contributors `` find it cumbersome to work with public TV and we have to make it easier for them to be recognized for their funding '' . There willn't be a massive relaxation of rules , however , he said . `` Our noncommercial environment and our relationship with our viewers is of paramount importance . '' Still , in the past , significant funders have been allocated as little as four seconds in a broadcast . As PBS began a weekend meeting in Orlando , Fla. , Abbott said stations would also be urged to carry major programs at the same time the failure to do so has been a long-standing problem throughout the system as another means of giving major contributors the fullest exposure and maximum promotion time for their efforts on behalf of public television . K mart , the nation 's second-largest discount chain , hasn't been having a good time of it lately . Its stock has been sinking and it has posted big losses . Friday , at its annual meeting , management will see just how irritated shareholders are . The company is trying to get shareholder approval for a series of complicated stock issues . But big K mart stockholders have mounted a campaign to defeat the measure . Moreover , they want to unseat the five company directors who are up for re-election . `` Basically we 're concerned that the plan doesn't address the key issues , which are what to do with the core retailing business , '' said Luther Jones , manager of corporate affairs for the Florida State Board of Administration , which manages the state 's $ 37 billion pension fund and owns 3.9 million shares of K mart . His organization is one of seven investors that have publicly announced their opposition . The proposed stock offerings , which would pay a dividend based on the earnings of K mart 's four specialty lines , would allow K mart to raise some much needed cash . But some investors say what the company should really be doing is finding ways to bolster sales at its flagship discount stores , which have been losing sales to other big discount retailers like Wal-Mart . The investor opposition hardly comes out of nowhere . The company 's stock , now at about 15 , is down roughly 40 percent in the past six months , and after three years of flat earnings , the company posted a loss of nearly $ 1 billion for the year ended Jan. 31 . Announcement of the offering in April was just the last straw , investors said . `` We don't have to indict management . The stock is doing that , '' said James Severance , portfolio manager of the State of Wisconsin Investment Board , which is leading the campaign and owns 3 million K mart shares . The dissidents don't think they have a good chance of winning . Still , Severance said he hopes the opposition will send a message to management that it needs to rethink its strategy . K mart , based in Troy , Mich. , said it believes it is doing the right thing . It also said it is not neglecting its K mart stores . ROME On a day of Roman glories that took him from the Sistine Chapel to the Piazza del Campidoglio , President Clinton Thursday found himself in an irreconcilable clash with Pope John Paul II over their opposing views on abortion and contraception . In a private 40-minute meeting , the pontiff pressed his objections to a draft U.N. document on population control due to be adopted in September . He noted `` his concern that the world community in general , and the United States in particular , not be insensitive to the value of life , '' Clinton said . But the president , acknowledging their `` genuine disagreements '' on abortion , also emphasized their `` common commitment '' to strong families and emerging democracies . The first full day of Clinton 's European tour was full of diplomatic minefields , from the Vatican session to a meeting with the new Italian prime minister , Silvio Berlusconi , whose governing coalition includes neo-fascists . At a news conference , Clinton dismissed concerns about the coalition , saying he would `` judge all people and parties by what they do when they 're in power . '' Still , the official meeting at the prime minister 's office in the Palazzo Chigi offered an odd counterpoint on a trip scheduled to commemorate the 50th anniversary of a war against European fascism in Germany and Italy . Berlusconi is the first prime minister since the war to govern Italy with the support of fascist leader Benito Mussolini 's political heirs . In Thursday 's emotional high point , Clinton stood at sunset outside the Palazzo Senatorio , or city hall , and delivered an address to `` the citizens of Rome '' that recalled the liberation of the city a half-century ago from Germans who occupied it after Italy surrendered in World War II . `` I have come to Europe to recall its cruelest war , and to help secure its lasting peace , '' he said as thousands of people jammed the plaza , many waving small American and Italian flags . `` This week , as the sons and daughters of democracy , we must resolve never to forget such hallowed words as Anzio , Nettuno , Salerno , Normandy . '' Friday morning , Clinton is to fly over Anzio , scene of an Allied landing that became one of the most controversial of the Italian campaign , and visit the nearby U.S. cemetery at Nettuno , where 7,862 Americans who died in the fighting were laid to rest . In the days that follow , the president will make similar appearances at a U.S. cemetery in Cambridge , England , for those lost in the air campaign against Nazi Germany , and at the U.S. cemetery overlooking Omaha Beach , scene of the bloodiest battle of the D-Day landing . After his private session with the pope , Clinton tried to emphasize issues on which they agreed , but the Vatican focused on the core of their differences over abortion underscoring a new strain in relations . Clinton has reversed anti-abortion policies of his two Republican predecessors . Although Clinton told reporters they had made `` some progress '' on finding common ground , Vatican spokesman Joaquin Navarro said their differences could be narrowed only if the president moved toward the pope 's opposition to abortion . `` The Holy Father made an appeal to the responsibility of a great nation such as America , whose origin and historical development has always promoted ethical values that are basic to every culture , '' the Vatican said in a communique issued after the meeting . The communique cited `` grave ethical problems '' with some population-control measures to be discussed at a U.N. conference in Cairo , Egypt , this fall . The conference is expected to endorse expanded contraception and abortion rights for Third World women . ( Optional add end ) The pope looked frail at the meeting , his first major public appearance since breaking his hip and then undergoing surgery this spring . After seeing the pontiff , Clinton and first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton moved to a reception room to meet with North American seminarians who are studying in Rome . Ray Flynn , the former Boston mayor who is now the U.S. ambassador to the Vatican , introduced Clinton to the gathered priests , nuns and others . `` I make this promise to you : Every single one of them are Democrats , '' Flynn told Clinton . That elicited hissing and laughter from the audience and a comment from Clinton that Flynn would need to go to confession . WASHINGTON Former House Ways and Means Committee chairman Dan Rostenkowski , D-Ill. , parted company with his third criminal defense team Thursday , issuing a terse written statement saying he and Robert S. Bennett `` mutually decided to go our separate ways . '' `` I soon will retain new counsel and will present a vigorous defense to the charges recently brought against me , '' Rostenkowski said . Rostenkowski was indicted Tuesday on 17 felony counts , including misappropriating more than $ 500,000 , tampering with a witness and using taxpayers ' money to enrich himself , his friends and his family . Relations between Bennett and Rostenkowski had become increasingly strained after Rostenkowski rejected a plea bargain with U.S. . Attorney Eric H . Holder Jr. that would have required him to go to jail . Rostenkowski has maintained that he is innocent of all charges . He balked at a deal in which he would have had to plead guilty to a felony count of concealing material facts in relation to `` ghost employees . '' The proposed deal also would have required him to spend six months in jail and repay the government $ 150,000 . That total included the $ 82,000 that Rostenkowski had already repaid and repossession of vehicles . Some of Rostenkowski 's friends and colleagues privately questioned the legal wisdom of the talks , which they felt created a media frenzy and left the impression that the lawmaker was guilty of something . In addition , Rostenkowski became disenchanted when Bennett agreed to represent President Clinton on sexual harassment allegations , sources said . He was concerned that Bennett would not have time to devote sufficient attention to his case , they said . Bennett , meanwhile , became increasingly frustrated about his growing lack of control in the case and at the influence of Rostenkowski 's aides and friends , sources said . Bennett 's departure , prompting Rostenkowski 's search for his fourth set of attorneys , should not hinder his chance of a successful defense , some observers said , noting that the case can be attacked on several fronts . `` This is a winnable case because each separate scenario ( in the indictment ) is weak , '' said Nancy Luque , who represents Rostenkowski 's campaign committee and his Chicago office manager . `` I 'm always suspicious of kitchen-sink indictments where the prosecutors throw everything on the wall and hope some of it will stick , '' said Ronald S. Liebman , a former federal prosecutor . `` Often it 's a hodgepodge of weak allegations. . . . ' ' Henry Asbill , a Washington defense lawyer , added that the government 's case appears a `` mile wide and an inch deep . '' Many of the allegations involving the ghost employees are `` so ancient '' that they will be open to attack by the defense , and if pressed at trial , could make it appear prosecutors unfairly `` piled on '' charges , said lawyer Alan Strasser , a former federal prosecutor . The indictment charges that the lawmaker misappropriated $ 500,000 in government funds to pay them . The use of old conduct makes it look `` like the government was unable to prove sufficiently telling charges about the immediate past , so they relied on the distant past to shore up charges that otherwise would be weak , '' Strasser said . According to the indictment , Rostenkowski , beginning in 1971 , directed the House Finance Office to place 14 ghost employees on the payroll . Some mowed lawns for the congressman , picked up his laundry or took pictures at his daughters ' weddings , the grand jury charged . But the alleged conduct of eight of the 14 ghost employees inolving the payment of nearly $ 235,000 did not occur within the five-year statute of limitations on most federal crimes , lawyers said . Instead , it appears the prosecutors `` have lumped together unrelated conduct in order to allege a 23-year scheme to defraud under the mail fraud statute , '' said Luque . `` It is doubtful whether it will survive . '' In addition , some attorneys questioned whether the case should have resulted in a federal indictment at all . Instead , they argued , it was , perhaps , an internal matter for the House to resolve . `` Prosecutors are trying to make a federal case about deficiencies in House of Representatives housekeeping matters , '' Asbill said . Defense attorney John Dowd agreed , noting that the Constitution provides for Congress `` to discipline its own members . '' `` You could have a serious separation of powers issue , '' he said . A critical prosecution witness , former House postmaster Robert V. Rota , who made contradictory statements at different points in the investigation and pleaded guilty to embezzlement charges , may also be easily attacked , several lawyers said . Rota may be seen by jurors as someone who became a government witness to `` save his own skin , '' said New York lawyer Gustave Newman . Despite the perceived flaws , the prosecution already has achieved the public relations coup of `` portraying Rostenkowski as having committed a monumental fraud over a lot of his career , '' said Baltimore defense lawyer Arnold Weiner . The lawyers were almost unanimous in their belief that the charge that Rostenkowski tried to persuade a witness to withhold testimony will be troublesome for the defense . Dowd said that if the government can prevail on the obstruction of justice charge , it could `` poison the entire case . '' LOS ANGELES Rodney King , making his first public comments since the verdicts in his civil damage suit trial , said Thursday he was not surprised the jury awarded him no punitive damages , but King 's lawyer said the jurors themselves might provide grounds for appeal . `` After the first ( verdict ) in Simi Valley , nothing surprises me , '' King said , referring to the state court trial in which the police officers accused of beating him were acquitted , sparking the 1992 Los Angeles riots . `` I 've gotten the short end of the stick from the Simi Valley trial until now . '' But King said he had to concentrate on the millions of dollars that came out of an earlier verdict on compensatory damages and `` make something out of that . '' He said he is attending classes to learn how to `` hold on to the money . '' King 's lead attorney , Milton Grimes , said Thursday discussions with a juror troubled with how the verdict came about could provide the basis of an appeal . `` I think there are areas that warrant an investigation , '' said Grimes , flanked by King at a news conference outside his office . `` It does bring out some information .. . that the verdict may be impeachable . '' King said he would not have sued for punitive damages if the officers `` had shown some sign of remorse . None of them came up to me and said they were sorry . '' Grimes declined to identify the juror who contacted him . But the juror , Cynthia Kelly a self-employed seamstress from South Pasadena met with Grimes at his office later in the afternoon . Grimes said he was concerned by statements made by Kelly , the lone African American juror , that justice had not been not done and that she had to `` fight like hell '' to get the earlier verdicts favoring King . Grimes said he had been contacted by a second juror , whom he did not identify . `` I don't think we can say this is the final chapter in the trilogy of Rodney King , '' he said . `` We 're still looking for justice . '' After 11 days of deliberations , a nine-member federal jury found Wednesday that former Los Angeles Police Department officers Laurence Powell and Stacey C. Koon had acted with malice in the 1991 beating of King . But the jury decided unanimously that the officers had been punished enough and declined to award King as much as $ 15 million in punitive damages . Earlier , the jury had awarded King $ 3.8 million in compensatory damages , payable by the City of Los Angeles , for the police beating . Grimes said he could not say how much of the $ 3.8 million King will receive , after attorney fees and the expenses of the defendants are subtracted , but `` Mr. King will be left with a substantial part of the money . '' Grimes refused to let King comment on the possibility of another trial , but said the jury `` left us with an unresolved type of feeling . '' Grimes said he planned to investigate reports that three jurors may have discussed the case during a weekend barbecue and challenged the dismissal of former Los Angeles Police Chief Daryl F. Gates as a defendant , and said he is considering appealing it . BEIJING Chinese authorities appeared to have cut off outside contact Thursday with two Beijing professors whose son was shot dead by troops in the crushing of the 1989 democracy movement here . The couple had planned to begin a hunger strike Thursday to protest police harassment over the mother 's challenge to official accounts of the army assault , in Tiananmen Square . Ding Zilin , 57 , the boy 's mother , had said that she and her husband , Jiang Peikun , 59 , would begin a two-day hunger strike in their apartment Thursday night if police did not halt surveillance of the couple and harassment of their visitors . `` I don't want to be confrontational , '' she said , before all contact was cut off , `` but I want an immediate stop to this . '' Ding has for years contacted families of those who were killed and wounded in the attack and her research on the attack has been the subject of Western press reports in advance of Friday 's fifth anniversary of the massacre , in which troops killed hundreds of Chinese calling for democracy in this country . The government says it was `` counterrevolutionary rebels '' or `` thugs '' who attacked soldiers in Tiananmen Square-and has enforced tight security to prevent any commemoration of the anniversary . Ding said by telephone early Thursday that police had prevented the couple from receiving visitors for the past few days and had reinforced a 24-hour police presence outside their apartment on the campus of People 's University . She told reporters they would stay at home and asked them to call her back Thursday evening . But about 11 a.m. , calls to her home began ringing unanswered . It was unclear whether the couple 's line had been cut off , or whether they might have been detained . The university switchboard that routes calls to their home said simply that there was no problem with their line . A heavy police presence at the university part of the tightened security for the anniversary has made it impossible for journalists to enter the campus . A correspondent for the Wall Street Journal , Kathy Chen , was detained for several hours this week after she chatted with students at Beijing University without registering at the gate . As part of the crackdown , at least one labor activist and six Christians have been detained , the Associated Press reported . The labor activist , Wang Zhongqiu , a principal organizer of an independent labor organization and a postgraduate student at Beijing University , was taken into custody last week . The Christians were detained last weekend , and all but one have been released . In Tiananmen Square , where thousands of students camped five years ago to protest corruption and demand greater freedom , plainclothes policemen could be seen in force this week along with the usual tourists and schoolchildren . Officers carried walkie-talkies wrapped in newspapers , slung compact video cameras over their shoulders . Several hotels have been ordered to cut their transmission of the CNN television channel to guests ' rooms , hotel sources said , apparently out of worries that the network might air footage from the 1989 demonstrations . In some cases , the blackout of CNN may last as long as a week , hotel guests have been told . Although security in Beijing always tightens before the June 3 date , authorities are particularly uneasy this year . Because of widespread corruption , high inflation and discontent among peasants , laid-off workers , and others on fixed incomes , authorities fear that even small commemorative events may spark wider protests . Work units have been ordered to keep staff members on duty at night in the event of any protest , dissident sources said . Surveillance of foreign journalists has increased . Even foreign embassies have been pressured to cancel cultural exhibits and other events unrelated to the anniversary . RICHMOND , Va. . Federal officials threatened Thursday to block every major new road project in Northern Virginia , including those needed for the planned Walt Disney Co. theme park near Haymarket , because Gov. George Allen has balked at a stringent pollution control program . In a letter to Allen , Environmental Protection Agency officials declared that Virginia has not met requirements for car emissions tests under the federal Clean Air Act , and announced that they will withhold approval of transportation improvements beginning in 30 days . The agency , which sets clean-air standards for projects that add cars and pollution to urban roadways , said it would lift the road-building moratorium if Allen were to reverse his stand within the next month . `` We needed to get their attention , '' said Peter H. Kostmayer , the regional EPA administrator who oversees Virginia . `` The governor has given every indication that he does not want to do it our way . '' The move is an unusually aggressive attempt by the EPA to enforce new anti-pollution laws , and it reflects the gulf that has developed between federal officials and Allen 's pro-business administration over how to clean the Washington region 's air . It also puts Allen in a sticky situation politically . The new Republican governor does not want to retreat from his opposition to the EPA demands , which have become a cause celebre for GOP lawmakers from Northern Virginia who believe its provisions to toughen car exhaust inspections are too severe for their constituents . But Allen is anxious to avoid doing anything that would threaten construction of the Disney 's America project , which has been the priority of his young administration . During the recent General Assembly session , Allen joined Disney officials in persuading lawmakers to approve $ 132 million in road improvements in the area near the 3,000-acre Disney site , about 35 miles west of Washington in Prince William County . Among other things , the package calls for widening Interstate 66 west of Manassas and building a new interchange to the amusement park and related development . The EPA has demanded that Northern Virginia cars which now may be inspected at service stations be checked at state-contracted facilities that would do such tests exclusively . EPA officials believe that would yield stricter tests and eliminate conflict-of-interest concerns that arise when a station inspects a car , then makes any repairs it needs to pass inspection . Kostmayer , a former Pennsylvania congressman , played down any relationship between the EPA 's action and Disney 's America . `` This is certainly not an effort to sidetrack Disney , '' he said . Disney representatives expressed concern Thursday , but stressed that theirs would not be the only project stalled . `` It 'd be pretty disastrous for the region , '' said Leon G . Billings , the company 's environmental consultant . Park opponents hailed the decision , repeating their contention that Disney 's project would attract thousands more cars to the area that would damage the air quality . `` What 's going on is that EPA is calling their bluff , '' said Chris Miller , a spokesman for the Piedmont Environmental Council . FREDERICK , Md. Armond Pastore remembers vividly that night four decades ago when he crouched beside a dying Frank Olson and looked into the eyes of the man who had just fallen from a 10th-floor window of New York 's Statler Hotel . `` He couldn't say anything , '' recalled Pastore , who was night manager of the Manhattan hotel . `` He was trying to say something . He was looking straight at me . '' Thursday , a team of researchers exhumed Olson 's body from a hillside grave here in hopes of giving posthumous voice to a man who had been an unwitting victim of one of the most egregious government-run experiments of the Cold War era . Olson 's death plunge Nov. 28 , 1953 , occurred nine days after he had been a given a drink laced with LSD without his knowledge or consent by a researcher for the CIA . Olson , a 43-year-old biochemist , was a civilian employee of the Army 's biolological warfare lab at Fort Detrick , Md. , when he died . He and others had been given the hallucinogen at a gathering of Army and CIA personnel at a rural Maryland cabin . He was told within 20 minutes that he had taken LSD , but he had difficulty coping with the experience , according to later investigations . He was depressed and upset in the days that followed , and the CIA arranged for him to see a New York doctor . Olson 's death in New York was considered a suicide by investigators at the time , but his family has never been convinced that he willingly leapt through a closed window . `` This story has been a tough one to put to rest , '' said Eric Olson as he watched cemetery workers using a backhoe and shovels to uncover the brown concrete vault containing his father 's casket . Eric Olson , 49 , a psychologist , and his brother Nils , 45 , decided to have their father 's body analyzed now because they were going to have it moved anyway to another Frederick cemetery , where they buried their mother last summer . The Olsons asked James Starrs , a professor of law and forensic sciences at George Washington University , to assemble a team to do a thorough autopsy and to look for any clues suggesting that their father might have been forced out the window . `` They deserve whatever knowledge we can give , '' said Starrs , who previously had done forensic investigations into the deaths of explorer Merriweather Lewis , the ax-murdered parents of Lizzie Borden , assassinated Louisiana Sen. Huey Long and the victims of Albert Packer , a 19th-century Colorado cannibal . Starrs said the original autopsy on Olson was perfunctory . No X-rays were taken , and there was little examination of the internal organs . He said the team will be looking for any evidence of LSD or other hallucinogens in Olson 's tissues as well as any hints of coercion such as a blunt-force wound to the head or a dislocated shoulder . He acknowledged that it will be `` a tricky question '' to sort out such evidence in a body that suffered massive trauma and also was embalmed before burial . Olson never told his wife , Alice , that he had been given LSD . The family first learned that there might be more to his death than they suspected in 1975 , when the Rockefeller Commission , studying illegal CIA domestic operations , reported that a man fitting Frank Olson 's description had leapt from a New York hotel shortly after the CIA had given him LSD . Former President Ford later personally apologized to the Olson family , and Congress passed a bill in 1976 to pay $ 750,000 in compensation to Alice Olson and her three children . But the questions remained . What had happened that night in the hotel room shared by Olson and Robert Lashbrook , a CIA official who had accompanied him ? Pastore , a former Mineola , N.Y. , resident who is now retired in Florida , said he found the incident suspicious from the outset . `` Nobody jumps through glass , '' he said in a telephone interview . `` They open the window and go out , '' the method used by several suicides when he was working at the hotel . ( Optional add end ) Pastore also said that a hotel telephone operator had told him that `` the man in the room ( Lashbrook ) called somewhere out on Long Island '' immediately after Olson 's plunge and reportedly said , `` Well , he 's gone . '' Pastore said the other party responded , `` Well , that 's too bad , '' and hung up . Lashbrook , reached at his home in Ojai , Calif. , said he made two calls after Olson 's death one to his CIA superior and one to the doctor who treated Olson . He denied making any comments such as those reported by the hotel operator . Lashbrook repeated his long-held view that Olson committed suicide . `` I was asleep at the time , and I didn't see him go out the window , '' Lashbrook said . He said he was awakened by a noise and saw the window shade flapping . The CIA said in a statement that Olson 's death was `` a sad and tragic event . '' David Christian , an agency spokesman , said , `` The role of CIA employees in the events leading up to his death was extensively investigated in the 1970s . The facts were made public at that time . The investigations indicated no reason whatsoever to suspect that homicide was involved . '' In OLSON ( Lane , Newsday ) sub for 10th graf ( Deleting reference to previous cases ) xxx the window . `` They deserve whatever knowledge we can give , '' said Starrs . PICK UP 11th graf : Starrs said xxx WASHINGTON Five deaths in a 1993 hepatitis drug trial were an `` unavoidable accident , '' an advisory panel of the National Institutes of Health concluded Thursday . The new report , which clears the NIH 's scientists of wrongdoing , contradicts the view of the Food and Drug Administration , which said last month that researchers in the NIH drug trials had committed `` serious violations '' of federal regulations . The advisory panel , a subcommittee of the Advisory Committee to NIH director Harold Varmus , found that `` only in retrospect are there clues '' to the hidden toxicity of the experimental drug fialuridine ( FIAU ) . Fialuridine was believed to be a promising treatment for chronic hepatitis B . The disease , which can cause liver damage and death , has no other satisfactory treatment . Two previous human trials of the drug produced no apparent toxic effects . But in the 1993 tests , five of the 15 NIH patients died and two others survived only after receiving liver transplants . After the deaths , the FIAU researchers had said the drug 's deadly effects were hidden because they resembled symptoms of hepatitis B and tended to occur months after the initial doses . The NIH advisory panel agreed : `` There is no villain other than the emergence and identification of a new and unique form of delayed drug toxicity , '' they concluded Thursday . `` The FIAU studies represent the best of current practice in clinical investigations and exceeded regulatory requirements where such applied . '' The recent FDA investigation produced very different results . The `` compliance letters '' released last month detailed numerous violations of FDA regulations , including not informing the agency immediately of adverse side effects . The drug 's sponsor , Eli Lilly & Co. , and the trial 's principal investigator Jay H. Hoofnagle of the NIH have until the end of June to respond to the FDA letters . An earlier FDA report suggested that optimism on the part of researchers may have led them to evaluate information in too favorable a light and to miss warning signs . In that November 1993 report , the FDA said that four patient deaths prior to the 1993 trial might have been caused by FIAU , but were attributed to other causes . Liver toxicity had also showed up in two healthy patients who were given FIAU by Lilly , the FDA said , but the incidents were not reported until after the 1993 FIAU patients had begun to die . The FDA is formulating new rules requiring scientists to gather more data about side effects and obliging themto assume from the outset that medical problems in test subjects are caused by the drug . FDA spokesman Jim O' Hara said Thursday that agency officials had not yet had a chance to review the NIH panel 's report , but `` we stand by our report of November and the compliance letters that were issued in May . '' The NIH panel said that some of the FDA recommendations especially one that called for all new drug trials to track patients for an extended period to catch other examples of delayed toxicity would be too expensive , and suggested that such steps only be taken where such toxicity might be expected . But the panel recommended that animal tests for new drugs mimic as nearly as possible the treatment that human test subjects will receive . Animals were injected with FIAU ; humans took the drug orally . Subsequent animal tests have shown toxicity with oral doses . The stark difference between the two reports which NIH panelists referred to only as an `` apparent discrepancy '' could be seen a conflict between regulators at the FDA and the scientists at NIH . NIH panelists said that the FDA report was concerned mainly with whether the agency 's procedures were followed in the trials . The NIH panelists , many of whom are experienced clinical researchers , went through a four-foot stack of patient reports , charts and diaries to determine what the researchers knew or should have known at each step of the process and interviewed the scientists , nurses and surviving patients at length . Critics of the 's panel 's conclusions said that the NIH investigators were overly charitable about signals the FIAU researchers might have missed . Rep. Edolphus Towns , D-N.Y. , who has been sharply critical of the NIH , called the report a `` whitewash '' which showed that `` NIH is simply not sufficiently removed from culpability to evaluate impartially the tragic events that occurred . '' A surviving patient from the FIAU trial , Carl Schmid , complained Thursday of his interview with the NIH panel , saying `` I don't think it was a thorough review or a thorough follow-up , and that was disappointing . '' The Department of Health and Human Services has said it will request a separate study of the FIAU affair by the independent Institute of Medicine ; NIH panel members said Thursday that the IOM might be able to reconcile the FDA and NIH versions of events . Stephen Straus , one of the chief FIAU researchers , said that panel members interviewed him for four hours and that he was gratified by the result : `` They did a fabulous job of investigating and unraveling a complex and tragic series of events . '' Allan J. Weinstein , vice president of Lilly Research Laboratories , said `` We 're pleased that an independent group of outside experts has concluded that this was a novel toxicity and an unpredictable one . '' As for the tougher response by the Food and Drug Administration , Weinstein said , `` We respectfully disagree with the FDA . '' NIH director Varmus said he pressed the panelists to be `` critical '' and `` skeptical '' because at the outset , `` I was concerned something was wrong '' in the FIAU drug trials . Opening the advisory panel meeting Thursday morning , Varmus cited the FIAU trials and the recent scandal concerning tainted data in breast cancer studies , and said `` the confluence of these two episodes '' had been cause for `` concern about the state of clinical trials in this country . '' AT&T Corp. Thursday disputed an assertion that one of its computer scientists had uncovered a critical flaw in controversial encoding technology that the Clinton administration has embraced . The technology , which is known as the `` clipper chip , '' is meant to protect the privacy of telephone and computer conversations , while still allowing law enforcement agencies to eavesdrop on suspected criminals . The clipper chip , which was designed by scientists at the National Security Agency ( NSA ) , is being used in civilian government communications , and the administration is urging private telephone and computer companies to adopt the technology . The standard has come under heated criticism from many in the computer community who fear that a `` backdoor '' built to allow legal wiretaps also might be used for unwarranted snooping by government officials and others . An article in the Thursday New York Times raised another potential problem with the clipper chip that criminals can close that back door and keep law enforcement officials out . It cited research by AT&T scientist Matthew Blaze . But AT&T officials said that Blaze 's findings did not apply to the clipper chip standard adopted by the federal government . That standard covers voice , facsimile and low-speed data transmission . Blaze 's research , which will be presented in a few weeks to a scientific group , was examining vulnerabilities with computer-to-computer electronic mail encryption devices that are under development by the NSA , said Dave Maher , chief scientist for AT&T secure communications systems . AT&T said Blaze was not available to answer questions . In his paper , Blaze concluded that the technique he discovered would have limited application for telephone calls , but that it would be relatively easy to keep law enforcement officials from eavesdropping on computer-to-computer conversations . He based his conclusion on a review of a prototype that was supplied by the NSA , Maher said . While the NSA said it would review Blaze 's study and consider modifications , it said his techniques `` are not practical in real-world applications and are considered to be acceptable risks . '' The NSA statement also noted that there are simpler ways to prevent law enforcement eavesdropping . Lance Hoffman , a computer science professor at George Washington University , said one way might be to build another layer of encryption around the clipper chip , a `` super encryption '' that would keep eavesdroppers out . Dorothy Denning , a computer science professor at Georgetown University who evaluated the clipper chip standard for the government , said the Blaze finding would have no effect on the current standards , which are targeted at telephone and not at computer communications . But Hoffman called the study another `` chink in the armor '' of the clipper chip . He and other clipper critics are skeptical about the comments that the flaw outlined by Blaze would be limited to computers . They said their ability to evaluate the NSA and AT&T assertions were hampered by the fact that the underlying mathematics are a classified secret . `` This goes to the heart of our criticism that you cannot trust a secret algorithm to grant you security , '' said Jerry Berman of the Electronic Frontier Foundation , a public interest group advocating the rights of computer users . `` The irony of it is while we have been attacking it from a privacy point of view , this research pointed out a flaw that undermines the law enforcement side of the clipper chip . '' When IDB Communications Group 's stock price collapsed Wednesday in the wake of news that its auditors quit in a huff , the company 's 38-year-old founder admits he faced the same basic question over and over again from shareholders : Was he a crook ? No , Jeffrey Sudikoff insists , he 's not a crook . He understands that he 'll have to prove that , he says , and probably in court ( the shareholder lawsuits are already piling up ) . But whatever else people want to say about him , Sudikoff has 900 employees , tons of telecommunications hardware and a long list of clients worldwide to show that his 10-year-old , Culver City , Calif.-based business isn't some grandiose fraud . The devil , however , is in the details , and that 's why Wall Street let the stock plummet from 14 Tuesday to 7 1/8 by Wednesday 's close in wild trading . IDB 's auditors , Deloitte & Touche , abruptly resigned in an apparent dispute over certain IDB accounting practices . IDB says the disagreements are minor . But until Deloitte gives its side of the story ( it must , by law , within the next 10 days ) many investors will assume the worst that IDB 's books have been cooked . Ultimately , this is probably what we 'll find out : IDB didn't grossly misrepresent its sales and earnings growth over the past few years . But in remaking itself from a $ 61 million TV and radio signal relayer in 1989 to a $ 311 million international long-distance phone company by 1993 , IDB was guilty of too much hype and overly `` aggressive '' accounting . This is a game that small and large companies alike play , and it is aided and abetted by institutional investors on Wall Street . They want hot stocks , and once the Street identifies a certified `` growth stock , '' the institutions and their legions of analysts create high standards for the company to meet quarter after quarter . If your earnings come in under expectations just once , your stock may plummet by almost as much as if , say , your auditors were to quit . If , like IDB , you 're using stock to make big acquisitions within your rapidly consolidating industry competing with the likes of AT&T and MCI it 's more than a little important to keep the stock price up . Thus , companies like IDB find themselves in the business of managing earnings . With a sharp pencil , you can adjust and readjust your numbers take a capital gain here , delay a charge there to make sure that your quarterly results meet Wall Street 's estimates . Wall Street understands this , and doesn't much care , as long as the basic trend in the business is strongly up . Purists may argue that there is only one set of accounting rules , and that aggressive accounting is by definition wrong . But the reality is that `` there 's discretion in accounting , and companies can be more aggressive '' if they choose , says Bruce Miller , a professor of that trade at the University of California , Los Angeles . The role of the independent auditor is to make sure that aggressiveness doesn't turn into outright fraud . And because Deloitte gave unqualified opinions in support of IDB 's financial reports in 1992 and 1993 , the auditors would face potential billions of dollars in liability claims if they now were to recant those earlier opinions . `` Do we have aggressive accounting and a unique business that has subtleties of accounting ? Yes , '' Sudikoff admits . But Deloitte `` never had a problem with that in that past , '' he says . Disagreements about the numbers in 1992 and 1993 were always ironed out , Sudikoff says . And he notes , correctly , that it isn't unusual for companies and their auditors to have disagreements . When the Deloitte partner in charge of the IDB account changed this year , the disagreements , from Deloitte 's point of view , evidently became insurmountable . Why ? Sudikoff contends he doesn't know , because the individual accounting items in dispute don't appear major . IDB 's president , Edward Cheramy , blames a personality clash between himself and the new Deloitte partner . We 'll have to wait and hear from Deloitte . Thursday , some investors felt intrigued enough with IDB 's future potential in its international long-distance phone business to bid the battered stock up $ 1.19 to $ 8.31 on NASDAQ , in still-heavy trading . Sudikoff says three of the Big Six accounting firms are already vying to take over the IDB account . Assuming new auditors can certify that IDB has grown as it said it has , Sudikoff says IDB 's course in international long-distance will remain the same : Eat , or be eaten . And he concedes that with his stock price cut in half , IDB is as much a potential target now as it may be an acquirer . LOS ANGELES When New York businessman Laurence A . Tisch made his first investment in CBS Inc. nine years ago , he was dubbed a short-term player . Wall Street expected him to sell his CBS shares quickly for a tidy profit . But Tisch confounded the skeptics and is now completing his eighth year as CBS 's largest shareholder and chief executive . Instead of a short-term player , critics now say he 's a short-term thinker whose miscalculations are coming home to roost . As evidence , they cite Fox Broadcasting Co. 's raid last week of eight CBS affiliates , and CBS 's loss of National Football Conference broadcast rights to Fox for the next four years . These critics predict that CBS 's value will inevitably diminish under a protracted Tisch regime . Tisch in Los Angeles Thursday for a CBS affiliates ' meeting shrugs it off . `` I think we 're doing the right thing by shareholders , '' said the 71-year-old chairman during a breakfast interview . `` I think long-term , not short-term . '' With understandable pride , he points to 1993 earnings of $ 316.8 million , or $ 20.39 per share , nearly double the results of the previous year . Among the networks , CBS ranked No. 1 last year in daytime , prime time and late night ratings , in a `` triple crown '' feat accomplished only once before in network television , when CBS dominated the 1983-84 season . His long-term strategy ? To invest in programming . `` We 've built this asset ; we haven't diminished it , '' he continued , citing the increased market value of CBS ' radio stations as an example . The radio properties could fetch $ 800 million if they were for sale , compared to $ 400 million or $ 500 million five years ago , he said . Indeed , Tisch worked hard to turn the network around , and he won the respect of some of Wall Street 's most prominent analysts , who praise his discipline . `` The crazies are not in charge of this thing , and football is the classic example of that , '' said David Londoner , a managing director of Wertheim Schroder in New York . By his calculation , CBS would have reduced its per share earnings by 25 percent if it had matched Fox 's winning bid for a four-year package of Sunday football games . Still , the criticism persists . By selling off CBS 's recorded music business and publishing , the company 's remaining broadcast business is hobbled by government restrictions , and vulnerable to economic downturns or new competitors . And unlike the other networks , CBS has not invested in cable television or business overseas . `` His primary asset is getting attacked and he 's got nothing else to draw on . If I were him , I 'd sell it , '' said one big media investor who holds Capital Cities/ABC stock . But the investor who spoke on the condition of anonymity mused that Tisch does appear to relish his status as a network chief , adding : `` I don't know how much he likes it as a toy . '' To such talk , Tisch responded : `` How could it be a toy after eight years ? I don't run around after stars ; you don't see me at the parties . I 'm not there because it 's a game or a toy . '' ( Begin optional trim ) As a youth in Brooklyn , he worked in his father 's clothing business and his New Jersey summer camp , then entered New York University at age 15 . Tisch has a master 's degree in industrial engineering from the University of Pennsylvania . During World War II , he worked in Washington on military codes . Then , in 1946 , he dropped out of Harvard Law School to invest in a resort hotel with his close-knit family . Over the next decade , the family built a chain of resorts before Larry and his younger brother Preston ( or Bob ) invested in Loew 's Theaters . After the death of their father in 1960 , the Tisch brothers merged their hotels with the theater chain and Larry became chief executive . Loews became their vehicle for shrewd investments in cigarette manufacturer Lorillard , CNA Financial and , eventually , CBS . Although the theater chain was sold in the 1980s , the Tisch family still controls 26 percent of Loews Corp. , which boasted $ 13.7 billion in 1993 revenue . Loews controls 19.6 percent of CBS . Although Tisch has characterized his CBS holdings as a legacy to be passed on to his family , he acknowledged Thursday that none of his children have expressed interest in joining the CBS executive ranks . Nor does he think his brother Bob would step in as chairman , if anything unforeseen happened to him . He said the question of succession would fall to the CBS board . Like Loews , CBS has no chief operating officer . CBS directors have not questioned the need for one , Tisch said . With just one business , he said CBS Broadcast Group President Howard Stringer effectively fills the role . The management is lean but collegial , Tisch said . `` You don't have to go through channels . '' ( End optional trim ) `` We don't have our heads buried in the sand . But you show me the niche where we can be successful . I 'd like to see it ! '' said Tisch . Broadcasting , he said , has a `` bright future '' while he foresees trouble for cable TV operators who will have to engage in a price war with telephone companies to expand their businesses . `` We have over $ 1 billion in cash that 's earning 7 percent , 8 percent , 9 percent . What better security does a company have , than to have that liquidity and those earnings that can't disappear on you ? '' he asked . If Random House had planned it down to the last banana cream pie , it could not have staged a more successful or appealing fracas to accompany the publication of Peggy Noonan 's new book . It began with a brief and curious pre-publication profile in New York magazine suggesting she was an original new self-launched star in the Manhattan social orbit without ever suggesting there was anything remotely original about her or what she has to say . There followed newspaper reviews of the book which were of such heroic savagery that they 'd have been more appropriate in tone for the latest self serving drivel published by Richard Nixon or Henry Kissinger , desperately trying to secure their place in history against such devastating assaults as the publication of H.R. Haldeman 's diaries and , as the clock ticks , the more damning revelations that are sure to come from all the Nixon tapes still locked up in the National Archives . Noonan , after all , was merely a speechwriter for Ronald Reagan and George Bush . She wrote the thousand points of light speech into which some White House superior penciled `` kinder and gentler '' in place of her `` more inclusive '' nation . Then there was a counter-flurry of whispering among those who asked if Noonan 's book could really be as dreadful as they say . And now , that redoubtable enemy of wealth and privilege , Michael Thomas , writing in the New York Observer , has flown gallantly to her defense with the argument , as near as I can tell , that while the book may well be `` trite , silly , superficial and dumb , '' it is `` harmless at worst '' and unworthy of the volcanic mauling it has taken from Andrew Sullivan in The New York Times and Jonathan Yardley in The Washington Post . You 've never heard of Peggy Noonan ? Don't worry , she 's working hard to correct this . What is her new book about ? I haven't the faintest idea because , having sentenced myself to read her first one which served up Reagan covered with syrup and his wife Nancy covered with Noonan 's scratch marks I feel excused . I am strictly neutral on its merits , on Noonan 's charms and on the intriguing question of whether a dreadful book of no particular consequence deserves the onslaught of criticism that has engulfed hers and , incidentally , ensured both its commercial success and Noonan 's climb up whatever socio-economic tree it is she is so assiduously trying to get to the top of . Anyway , as potential keeper of the flame of Reaganism , who 's to say that Noonan isn't a more decorative figure than some of the other candidates , say , Patti Davis or Oliver North . Davis ' naked romp through the pages of the latest Playboy and North 's romp from the very threshold of the penitentiary to riches and fundamentalist stardom are hardly better credentials . Anyway , all three of them say they are right with God . Noonan rhapsodizes , I 'm told , about her rediscovery of Catholicism . North 's worn-on-the-sleeve religiosity has given his campaign for the Senate the timbre of a Southern televangelical tent show . And even the buck-naked Davis , between undaughterly swipes at her despised mother , tells Playboy how much she appreciates her father 's `` gift of faith . '' Put them all in a painted wagon and just imagine the evil , the unmitigated un-Godliness , the worldly moral squalor and un-Christly liberalism they can save us from . AUGUSTA , Ga. . The first time Jesse L. Jackson rode buses through the South , he joined black and white Freedom Riders who worried about white racists shooting at them during the civil rights movement as they campaigned for blacks ' right to vote . Three decades later , Jackson is embarked upon another bus tour of the South , accompanied by black and white aides . Once again voting rights and violence are concerns , but this time the specific issues are black-on-black violence and preservation of majority black congressional districts created under the Voting Rights Act . Jackson has preached the `` dual subject of voting empowerment and stop the violence '' on a two-week tour of new congressional districts being challenged in five states as unconstitutional segregation . The legal question is headed to the Supreme Court . Originally , the bus tour was conceived as a means to educate the public about the redistricting lawsuits , including one going to trial next month against the 60 percent black district of freshman Rep. Cynthia McKinney , D-Ga. , which stretches 260 miles from Atlanta 's suburbs to Augusta 's slums . The tour of seven states , which ends Sunday in Newport News , Va. , is being financed by Jackson 's National Rainbow Coalition , the affiliated Citizenship Education Fund and the Congressional Black Caucus Foundation . Jackson estimated the cost at $ 250,000 . With crime a pre-eminent concern across the nation , the anti-violence message was added to Jackson 's `` southern voting rights tour '' and has often overwhelmed the original theme . In Dallas , where the trip began a week ago , his visit to the family of a 9-year-old boy killed while eating ice cream on his porch dominated news coverage . In Atlanta , which experienced 29 killings in the 31 days of May , Jackson 's plea for peace Wednesday obscured his defense of McKinney 's district . `` Cynthia 's struggle .. . is in competition with 29 killings , '' Jackson acknowledged en route to Augusta Friday . `` You can't keep your credibility and moral authority unless you address the violence . '' But Jackson maintained that there is a connection between violence and voting rights . For instance , he said fighting crime and mourning its victims have diverted African Americans ' attention from jobs , justice and political empowerment . `` On that journey from Selma to Montgomery , if three or four of us had shot each other , or there had been a drug bust , it would have undercut our right to vote , '' Jackson said . He that lawmakers from districts drawn to have a black majority could help address criminal justice issues like stiffer federal sentences for possessing crack-cocaine than for possessing powder cocaine . The disparate sentences have primarily affected black drug offenders . `` We have to have politicians in office to protect us from the crime of the crime system , '' Jackson said . The creation of black majority districts after the 1990 census led to the election two years ago of a dozen black southerners , who helped boostthe Congressional Black Caucus to a record 40 members . The redistricting lawsuits are a threat , at least indirectly , to all of the southern newcomers . Reps. Melvin Watt , D-N.C. , and Eva Clayton , D-N.C. , await the decision of a three-judge panel in Raleigh , which most observers expect to uphold the remap . In Texas , a challenge to three districts , including a majority Latino one , in Houston and Dallas is scheduled for trial later this month . Based on a judge 's comments at a pretrial hearing , McKinney 's district is so threatened with being overturned when a trial begins here July 18 that her father , longtime state Rep. Billy McKinney , D-Ga. , has renounced his decision to retire from the legislature . `` When they redraw those lines , Billy McKinney is going to be sitting in that room , '' he told elected officials and leaders of youth programs here . McKinney 's district stretches from the predominantly black section of suburban DeKalb County whose upscale demographics one McKinney aide compared to Prince George 's County through rural farm areas to urban Savannah and Augusta . `` That 's the thing about these districts they bring black and whites together in a new kind of relationship , '' McKinney said . `` Previously , it 's been very comfortable for the defenders of southern tradition . '' Jackson said the political configurations the Supreme Court condemned last summer in the North Carolina case as `` political apartheid '' were themselves a product of racial segregation . `` The reason these lines look the way they is white bankers and real estate agents determined where we lived until we got open housing , '' he said . Jackson 's dire warnings about the loss of the black majority districts , and the threats to similar ones for state and local offices , have not caught fire with his audiences , who tend to focus on the anti-violence message . The tour has drawn modest crowds , usually of several hundred , and the number of voters registered has also been modest . It was about 30 at DeKalb College , a half a dozen at an Atlanta church and about 45 at an Augusta high school . Jackson suggested the tour 's impact might not be immediate or predictable , just his voter registration drive through the South in 1983 and 1984 paid unexpected dividends , including inspiring activists to run for political office . In addition , newly registered black voters were credited with helping elect white Democrats to the Senate at a time former President Ronald Reagan was attracting the support of conservative white Democrats . `` That 's why I like the crusade thing : It 's like planting seeds , '' Jackson said . `` You never know which seeds will sprout , but you know some seeds will sprout . '' JOHANNESBURG , South Africa In the two weeks since President Nelson Mandela 's inauguration , a host of international organizations have rushed to embrace South Africa . The country 's new flag flies in Addis Ababa , Ethiopia , at the headquarters of the Organization of African Unity , once one of apartheid 's bitterest enemies . On Wednesday , South Africa rejoined the British Commonwealth , more than three decades after storming out because of objections to its racist political system . And full re-integration into the United Nations is expected this year . But as South Africa re-emerges onto the world stage , its immediate neighbors have the most to gain and to lose . They look on with a mixture of expectation and alarm after decades of mutual hostility . The anti-apartheid bloc known as the Frontline States Organization formally welcomes its neighbor at a meeting in Zimbabwe Friday , which Mandela is attending . The group does so in the hope that South Africa 's renewal also will be their own , but member countries fear being swamped by its much stronger economy . Already the gravitational pull southward is draining some African nations of their best brains and threatening to divert international investment and aid . In Pretoria , the Foreign Ministry 's deputy director-general for Africa , Derek Auret , says one of Mandela 's priorities in meeting with frontline leaders will be to assess ways of establishing political and economic stability in southern Africa . Auret says South Africa 's peaceful transfer of power to Mandela 's African National Congress might encourage a settlement of the continuing civil war in Angola and provide a reassuring example to Mozambique before it holds multiparty elections in October . But the key to stability , he argues , will be ensuring that South Africa 's expected economic growth spills over to neighboring countries . `` Perhaps the best chance is in coming together around common economic objectives and achieving collective economic growth , which will lead to all the benefits that this government would like to see accrue to South Africans ( and to ) all southern Africans , '' Auret said . `` South Africa cannot be an island of prosperity in a sea of poverty . '' But Pretoria is keen to discourage exaggerated expectations . `` South Africa 's potential is a long-term issue , '' Auret said , `` and willn't have any immediate spinoffs for the rest of the continent . '' Some of South Africa 's new leaders do feel a deep emotional debt to nations such as Zambia , Zimbabwe and Tanzania because they helped hold the line against apartheid over the years . They also recognize that assisting their neighbors eventually will conflict with their own government 's interests and priorities . Mandela needs rapid economic expansion if he is to provide jobs and housing to his constituents , yet South Africa 's economy is already three times larger than the economies of the seven frontline states combined . It exports five times as much to the continent as it imports . Economists point out that further expansion will likely widen the financial gap between South Africa and its neighbors . Among the few African exports into South Africa today are professionals doctors from Ghana and Zaire , managers from Nigeria , teachers from Zimbabwe . While South Africa welcomes them , the other nations despair at the loss . ( Optional add end ) And domestic pressure is building on Mandela to stem the flow of unskilled migrant labor from Zimbabwe , Mozambique , Malawi and Lesotho a vital source of revenue for those nations . There are estimated to be at least 2 million illegal immigrants in South Africa holding jobs the ANC urgently needs to provide to its own citizens . Other African nations also fear Pretoria will garner a sizable chunk of what little foreign investment and western aid the continent gets . For all the talk of regional cooperation , the key to South African prosperity lies in trading beyond African shores . The world once heard out Zimbabwe 's President Robert Mugabe when he called for sanctions against apartheid following his own successful struggle against white rule . The ANC hopes that if Mandela now tells the international community it has a moral obligation not to turn its back on southern Africa , the world might listen . MOSCOW Just when President Boris N . Yeltsin thought it was safe. .. . Just when it looked like Russia 's spasm-wracked political system might finally be on the road to stability .. . along came Alexander Sobyanin . Sobyanin , a bespectacled physicist-turned-political scientist , does not look like the kind of man to shatter parliaments and constitutions with a single blow . But the numbers he crunches pack such a charge that they threaten Russia 's whole new political system by casting doubt on its foundation the Dec. 12 balloting that approved the Russian Constitution and put the current Parliament in place . His computations indicate massive fraud in the critical vote . `` These figures are political dynamite , '' said the respected daily Izvestia . Late last month , the Russian Duma , the lower house of Parliament , ordered its Credentials Commission to look into Sobyanin 's allegations . The commission chairman brushed off a proposal for a two-week deadline on a commission report , but sooner or later the truth will emerge . And if Sobyanin is right , it is a truth that nobody particularly wants to hear . The trouble began when Sobyanin 's group of Kremlin-appointed sociologists began to analyze the Dec. 12 results , using samples and mathematical principles to dissect overall results . His team has worked over results of every Russian election since 1989 . This time around , charges of widespread cheating abounded after the election , mainly from Russia 's Choice , the pro-Yeltsin party that gained only an embarrassing 15 percent of the vote compared to the whopping 23 percent that went to neo-nationalist Vladimir Zhirinovsky and his party . The falsification charges gained credence after local counters took more than two days to send their tallies to Moscow , with many results coming in much later . The longer the delay , election monitors know , the more chances for fiddling with the numbers . On May 4 , Sobyanin dropped his bombshell . Quoted in an Izvestia article , he alleged that some 9 million votes out of an electorate of 106 million had been falsified , apparently mainly by regional leaders intent on their own election . He identified three types of election fraud padded voter lists , ballot-stuffing after the fact and official coercion of voters . He estimated that the fraud had largely worked against reformers and in favor of both Zhirinovsky and the Communist Party . That calculation , with the prospect that it could be corrected and reformers given more seats , was sure to please Yeltsin . But any pleasure was outweighed by horror at the flip side of Sobyanin 's allegations that the faked ballots had so plumped up the total voter participation that it had passed the 50 percent mark needed to make the referendum on the constitutiton valid . In fact , Sobyanin believes , only some 46 percent of the population voted which means the new charter never really passed . The Russian president had thrown every ounce of his political weight behind the constitution , touting it as the only way to avoid the kind of political bloodshed that Moscow suffered last fall when the fight between the president and Parliament climaxed in artillery fire at the White House , the old Parliament building . Yeltsin 's aides have responded to Sobyanin 's charges with outrage and denial . The president 's chief of staff , Sergei Filatov , huffed that the charges `` smell of a well-thought-out provocation . '' Sobyanin 's group of experts has lost its government office space and been disowned by the administration . Sobyanin gave an interview late last week in a hallway of the Duma and was promptly approached by a deputy who wanted to shake his hand for `` disclosing what we all knew was the truth . '' Sobyanin himself does not want to see the Constitution invalidated . He believes that if his fraud allegations are proven , Yeltsin can simply hold a nationwide public opinion poll asking people if they think the Constitution needs to be voted on once again , and the vast majority will decline . ( Optional add end ) In any case , Sobyanin believes , his findings are likely to end up as nothing more than a historical footnote because neither the reformers , who want the constitution to remain in force , nor opposition members , who would lose seats , believe a challenge to the election results to be in their interest . The Credentials Commission , he noted , does not even have computers with which to check his data . At best , he hopes the ruckus over his findings will lead to a change in the slapdash laws that would allow such rampant abuse . `` Our main goal is to get new election laws passed that would exclude this kind of falsification , '' he said . `` We must not let the elections once again fall into bosses ' hands in a restoration of the totalitarian system . '' BEIJING Five years after the crackdown on Tiananmen Square protests , few dissidents remain openly active in China 's capital . But the wounds of those days still fester . Ding Zilin 's son , a gentle high school student named Jiang Jielian , was shot to death by China 's army one day after his 17th birthday in the military assault on the unarmed demonstrators June 3 and 4 , 1989 . There still has been no accurate public accounting of how many people were killed in the massacre . The Beijing regime says about 300 died , mostly members of the military trying to restore order . Many human-rights activists believe the death toll exceeds 1,000 , mostly students and workers protesting the government . Ding , a 57-year-old philosophy professor , has doggedly documented more than 100 of these deaths . Her courageous research and contacts with other victims ' families have cost her her teaching job and brought her heavy surveillance . And with the arrival of the Tiananmen anniversary , her harassment has been round-the-clock . ( Begin optional trim ) Ding is a special case in that she is the rare relative of a victim willing to speak out . But the official pressure that has been brought to bear on her life is typical . Six plainclothes agents roost across the street from her apartment at People 's University in northwest Beijing . More hang around the building 's other three sides . Recent visitors have been interrogated for hours after they left her apartment . She is allowed out only for necessary chores . `` My home is a special prison , but even a special prison doesn't need that many watchdogs , does it ? '' Ding says . `` I 've lost too much , '' she says . `` I 'm not allowed to teach . Anything I write will not be published . Thirty percent of my salary was taken away . My colleagues were told not to have anything to do with us . These are the things that were taken away from me that the eye can see . But right now they 're taking away things that the eye can't see . `` I just want some peace and privacy . I just want some peace with my son . '' ( End optional trim ) There aren't many dissidents left in Beijing now . Some , such as the father of China 's modern democracy movement , Wei Jingsheng , have been arrested again . Others , such as leading labor activist Han Dongfang , have been allowed to go abroad but not return home . Still others , such as former Tiananmen student leader Wang Dan , have left Beijing for the anniversary . Virtually all others have been warned by the government to keep quiet . Thousands of armed police reportedly have been brought into Beijing 's suburbs in recent days . Police were rechecking the residence permits of those living near Tiananmen Square . The square itself is thick with plainclothes agents , some openly brandishing walkie-talkies while trying to pose as tourists . At the heart of the square , the Monument to the People 's Heroes , where the last of the Tiananmen protesters waited for the lethal advance of the Chinese army , is cordoned off by a chain as it has been since 1989 . Signs there admonish against unapproved `` commemorative activities , '' `` the laying of wreaths or garlands , '' taking pictures or even `` joking or playing . '' The fear inherent in these warnings underscores that the Tiananmen massacre remains an open wound on the Chinese body politic . This contrasts starkly with China 's remarkably rapid international recovery from the debacle , a recovery capped by the recent ending of the U.S. threat to withdraw China 's favorable trade status . Economically , these are the best times for the world 's largest nation . Many Chinese are freer than ever , except in challenging their government . But in terms of domestic politics , the Tiananmen wound still could play a major role in overturning this regime . The much anticipated death of China 's ailing 89-year-old patriarch , Deng Xiaoping , will likely launch a scramble for scapegoats for Tiananmen , with the various factions within the leadership trying to tar each other if not Deng with the blame . A measure of how politically unresolved the massacre and the preceding `` counter-revolutionary '' protests remain here is the case of Bao Tong , the most senior official jailed in connection with the 1989 protests . Bao , 62 , was the top aide to former Communist Party chief Zhao Ziyang , Deng 's reformist heir who was toppled from power in Tiananmen 's wake and who remains in political limbo . Human rights groups say Bao , sentenced to prison until 1996 , is seriously ill , perhaps with cancer . He has had five operations while in jail . But although China has released many well-known dissidents in the past few years in response primarily to U.S. pressure , Bao remains in solitary confinement at the notorious Qincheng Prison north of Beijing one of thousands believed still imprisoned because of the Tiananmen protests . `` They can't release Bao without resurrecting Zhao Ziyang , and they can't resurrect Zhao without reversing the Tiananmen verdict , and they aren't at all ready to do that , '' a Western diplomat says . But underneath the Tiananmen taboo , pressure builds . Seven dissidents led by Wang , the former Tiananmen leader recently issued a public letter to China 's legislature , asking it to `` untie the knot in the people 's hearts '' by reassessing the Tiananmen protests . The Tiananmen knot , they said , holds back China 's `` political development '' . `` The movement was a nationwide popular patriotic movement , '' the dissidents wrote . `` We believe the government 's characterization of it as a riot and a counter-revolutionary rebellion is unjust . '' Other dissidents aren't waiting for a reversal of the Tiananmen verdict , having gone underground to organize workers under the banner of a recently formed group called the Labor Alliance . Some of its founders already have been arrested . Its leader , Liu Nianchun , reportedly is in hiding . An urban workers ' rebellion is one of Beijing 's worst nightmares , and conditions are brewing for a big one . State enterprises two-thirds don't turn a profit have reached the point where they must go bankrupt or lay off millions of workers from their previously guaranteed jobs ; they 're only being kept afloat by state deficit spending . Reports of illegal strikes are on the rise . Inflation and corruption , the two key concerns driving the 1989 protests , are as bad as then , if not worse . To make matters more volatile , with the gap between urban and rural incomes widening , millions more peasants have filtered into China 's cities where they could well serve as a ready supply of dry kindling for the next major flare-up . ( Optional add end ) The Chinese leadership 's answer to this daunting situation has been to try to run faster than the rapidly rising expectations of its more than 1.2 billion people allowing more opportunities to make money while stressing that those opportunities rest on `` stability , '' meaning the maintenance of the Communist Party 's absolute power . But expanding even just economic freedoms has a price . Many of Beijing 's dictates already are largely irrelevant in huge parts of China , which are aflame with the fever of speculation . Nevertheless , the regime has run fast enough and retained enough of the appearance of control that party chief Jiang Zemin had the confidence to openly declare recently that it had been necessary to use lethal force to break up the Tiananmen protests in order to continue China 's economic reforms . `` A bad thing has been turned into a good thing , '' he said . `` As a result , our reform and opening program has forged ahead with steadier , better and even quicker steps . '' But for Ding , the mother of one of Tiananmen 's dead , Jiang 's logic is so absurd as to almost not warrant a response . `` To achieve stability , politically or economically , isn't there another way to do it than killing ? '' she asks . `` I don't need to say anything else . Anyone with a conscience understands . '' SEOUL , South Korea Ask sixth-graders here about Japanese comic books , and their eyes light up . Slam Dunk , a macho basketball player , is hot , says one boy . So are Dragon Ball , a futuristic space warrior , and Dr . Slump , a mad scientist who designed the perfect robot girl . Japanese comics deliver the ultimate in thrills , chills and `` interesting stuff with girls , like nakedness , '' he said . `` We all like Japanese comics better , because Korean comics are too sissy . '' That is exactly what worries Kwag Young Jin , a Ministry of Culture bureaucrat , and other officials . Bootleg Japanese comics may be runaway hits , they say , but the violence and sex rampant in them are twisting young Korean minds . Likewise , they predict , if samurai movies were freely shown , violence would increase as people imitate the slashing warriors . To hear Korean officials tell it , all that stands between their refined Land of Morning Calm and a hellish descent into Japanese cultural vulgarity is an import ban on Japanese movies , music , videos and other forms of pop culture . The ban was adopted in 1945 , after South Korea was freed from 35 years of Japan 's repressive colonial rule . It remains the most prominent symbol of the lingering sense of han , or bitter resentment , that many Koreans still feel toward the Japanese . ( Korean officials acknowledge the ban also protects their media markets from well-financed Japanese competitors . ) But now the long-entrenched prohibitions may soon be lifted . Earlier this year , President Kim Young Sam broke the taboo and pushed Korea closer to reconciliation with its erstwhile enemy by declaring in a goodwill gesture that the ban should be ended . Saying it conflicts with global trends toward open markets , Kim ordered the Ministry of Culture to review how and when this should be done . The review is expected to be finished this month . At issue , however , is far more than whether Koreans will get to see samurai slasher flicks or Dragon Ball videos . The ban reflects what Kwag called the Korean people 's `` complex feelings of jealousy , contempt and hatred all mixed together '' toward Japan . It has become a lightning rod for centuries of accumulated grievances : Claims that Japan robbed Korea of cultural treasures in raids of priceless art and decimated its national identity by forcing Koreans to adopt Japanese customs , language and names during the colonial period . To make matters worse , they say , Japan still refuses to acknowledge adequately its cultural debt to Korea . Scholars say that Koreans introduced everything from the tea ceremony and flower arranging to temple architecture and kabuki during waves of migration to Japan beginning in the fourth century . Some even claim that Japan 's indigenous religion , Shintoism , stemmed from Korea 's shamanism and that the Imperial family originated from Korean aristocrats in Japan . ( Most Japanese authorities reject that view . ) Against this backdrop of bitterness , talk of Slam Dunk and Dr . Slump provokes withering looks . `` The teacher was hurt by his student in a barbaric way , '' said Kwag . `` Our pride was hurt . This feeling will not go away soon . '' Admitting it is flagrantly ignored , he added : `` We don't think this import ban means much . But we need something to remind the Japanese that they need to frankly admit their acts and do something to comfort Koreans . '' Such attitudes perplex many Japanese . Although they understand the emotion and feel a sense of guilt , many wonder what they can do about it today and why Koreans cling to hatreds a half-century after the colonial period . For their part , a growing number of Japanese scholars are starting to acknowledge Korean influence on Japan 's culture . However , many view Korea largely as a bridge through which Chinese culture passed to Japan . The tea ceremony , for instance , originated in China and was introduced by Korea to Japan . Despite the passage of time , the Korean sense of `` han '' still comes up at surprising times . Etsuo Miyoshi , a Shikoku island glove maker , decided to close his factory in Korea in 1989 because rising labor rates made it unprofitable . Korean labor activists protested at his Shikoku headquarters , coming by the busloads from nearby Osaka . `` They said : ` You occupied us for 35 years ! This is a historical problem ! ' I couldn't say anything , '' Miyoshi recalled . Japanese officials were likewise startled when then-Prime Minister Kiichi Miyazawa visited South Korea in 1992 . He was told by then-president Roh Tae Woo that Japan was obliged to provide economic assistance because it was better off than Korea , which was having hard times . The meeting eventually resulted in the establishment of a joint foundation for scientific and technical cooperation , and a package to promote Korean exports in Japan . Still , Roh 's logic was lost on many Japanese . `` Probably a lot of Japanese couldn't understand this . Economic relations and private business are not like an older brother helping a younger brother , '' said a Japanese Foreign Ministry official . `` If it 's profitable , they 'll do it . If it 's not , they willn't . '' Katsuhiro Kuroda , dean of Japanese correspondents in Seoul as the Sankei Shimbun 's bureau chief , said the resentment toward Japan may be a form of `` self-confirmation '' for Koreans . `` Perhaps because Korea was constantly invaded from long ago , they can unite themselves '' by harboring collective grudges against an external enemy , Kuroda said . `` It is not necessary for we Japanese to get excited about it . '' ( Begin optional trim ) Some Koreans agree . Lee Jan Soo , a popular producer with the Seoul Broadcasting Station , is airing a 16-part series , `` The Ghost Is Going , '' that examines what he argues is a basic lack of identity among Koreans . He asserts that a true national identity has not been allowed to bloom under the overwhelming influence of Chinese culture , which Korea absorbed as a vassal state until the late 19th century , the Japanese colonization , and today 's hybrid of Japanese and Western pop culture . The series aims its barbs not only at the Japanese , but also at Koreans who slavishly imitate their ads , TV shows and fashions . `` It is not important to assert that Japanese culture is actually Korean culture , '' Lee said . `` What we need to do is rediscover Korean identity . '' He says Korean identity is so diluted that the first page of middle-school textbooks reads : `` Contribute to the common prosperity of humankind . '' In Germany , the textbooks say : `` Be a good German , '' he said . Asked what , exactly , represents Korean culture , Lee himself falters . Maybe `` arirang , '' the traditional folk song , he muses . Or `` hanbok , '' the brightly colored traditional woman 's dress . Yet Lee and others lament that such culture is not widely known outside Korea . `` We need to be assertive , '' he said . That is precisely Kim 's aim as he nudges his nation to lift the ban and put old grudges behind . Thanks to a generational shift , increasing economic ties and new political overtures between Kim and Japan 's coalition government , a growing number of Koreans seem ready to mend fences . ( End optional trim ) Just as Japan absorbed Chinese culture through Korea centuries ago , Koreans are absorbing Western culture through Japan today imitating everything from Japanized grunge fashions and torn jeans to henna-dyed hair . And then there are the ubiquitous comic books . About 200 kinds command 70 percent of the market , most of them pirated . But even as sixth-graders snap them up , they do not forget their lessons in political correctness . `` Japan is a bad country , '' said Song Ju Hwan , a sixth-grader at Kwan Ak Primary School in Seoul . `` They attacked Korea and beat Koreans in older days . I 'm going to strike them back ! '' she added , with a rambunctious punch in the air . Indeed , Korea-Japan relations continue to have their bad moments . One of the hottest best-sellers is `` Japan Is Nothing , '' by Chon Yo Ok , a former Tokyo correspondent for the Korean Broadcasting System . The book castigates everything from Japan 's cramped homes to its sexism and racism to its `` infantile '' culture . Judging from casual interviews , a fair number of Koreans have read it and shifted their image of Japan from bad to worse . `` Underneath the economic might , there is a people whose history is dirty , whose culture infantile and who are discontented and twisted , '' Chon writes . `` Koreans and Japanese may look alike , but they are a world apart . '' But , in general , Muto and others say the long and uneasy relationship between the two peoples is definitely on the mend . TAKE YOUR CHOICE `` Stocks will decline slowly over the next several months , with the Dow Jones average dropping from its high of 3,978 to about 3,200 . '' ( Michael Metz , chief strategist , Oppenheimer & Co. ) .. . `` We 're very positive on stocks because profit growth and cash flow look excellent . We recommend 75 percent in stocks . '' ( Abby Joseph Cohen , Co-Chairman , Goldman Sachs ' Investment Policy Committee ) JUNE JOURNAL `` Workers are adding more stock funds to their 401 ( k ) s and IRAs . Even people whose sole investments are 401 ( k ) s and other retirement accounts are relying more heavily on stocks . '' ( Money magazine , June ) .. . `` People are becoming investors earlier . The median age of shareholders declined from 53 to 43 recently . '' ( New York Stock Exchange survey ) .. . `` Only stocks win . The average annual rates of return after taxes and inflation since 1974 are : Blue-chip stocks plus 7.2 percent ; long-term government bonds minus 0.6 percent ; money market funds minus 5.9 percent . '' ( Ibbotson Associates ) .. . The T. Rowe Price International and New Asia mutual funds are now favored by nine financial newsletters , according to The Hulbert Financial Digest . WALL STREET WISDOM : `` Investments aren't safe if they don't earn more than inflation . There are two types of risks short-term risk of loss of value and the long-term risk that an investment willn't provide for your future needs . Fearful investors often focus only on the first risk and invest too conservatively . Best strategy : Place money you will need in safe , no-loss investments . Place longer-term funds in stocks for greater gains , realizing that stocks ' short-term volatility shouldn't concern you when investing for the long term . '' ( `` Wealth : How to Get It and Keep It '' by Herb Vest , $ 24.95 . ) NOTES & QUOTES : June in Wall Street has historically been a slightly `` up '' month , edging ahead an average 0.1 percent over 44 years . But cheer up : July has proved to be the year 's fourth best month , rising 1.2 percent over the same time span . MONEY SAVERS ( 1 ) : `` Don't invest everything in your company 's stock . Doing that could make you overly dependent on your employer 's fortunes . If your firm does poorly , you could lose the money you 've invested as well as your job . '' ( Ted Benna , benefits consultant . ) MONEY SAVERS ( 2 ) : `` A stock that drops suddenly because of unexpected bad news may seem like a bargain but don't rush out to buy . Our study of 2,000 companies that had single-day drops of 10 percent or more found that their prices continued to fall after the initial drop . '' ( David Dreman , Dreman Value Management . ) MARKET BEAT : `` We have become more cautious toward the stock market . Although stocks may bounce from oversold conditions , the prospect of rising interest rates and a slowing economy are not developments that sit well with investors . '' ( First National Bank of Maryland ) . WALL STREET WATCH : `` Ever so slowly , market fundamentals are improving . '' ( Trade Guide Indicator ) ... . `` I see a coming stock market crash which will take the Dow all the way down to 2,000 by the first quarter of 1995 . '' ( Joseph Granville ) .... `` The last two bear markets ( 1987 and 1990 ) were mercifully short in duration . So short that many investors acquired the notion that markets always snap back quickly . Investors who suffered through the long bear market of 1973-74 know differently . Don't be suckered into this rally . '' ( Cabot Market Letter ) ... . `` Unfortunately , buying on dips this time around will probably cause more harm than good . '' ( Wall Street Bargains ) The following editorial appeared in Friday 's Washington Post : The Clinton administration has asked a federal judge in Seattle to lift an injunction of three years ' standing and let logging resume on a limited basis in federal forests in the Northwest . The environmental groups whose lawsuit led to the logging ban in 1991 don't like some aspects of the administration 's proposed new plan ; they want it tightened . Most of them nonetheless are not objecting to the lifting of the injunction . Instead they will come back and try to tighten the timbering plan around the edges later . Partly they have adopted this accommodating posture for political reasons . They fear they would lose if they took the harder line , that the judge would be unlikely to go along with them and that if he did and extended the injunction , Congress might well step in and change the underlying law . The groups are taking a certain amount of heat from some of their brethren for `` selling out '' like this . Our own , contrary sense is that maybe the environmentalists are finally learning how to win . Judge William Dwyer issued the logging ban because of what he found to be a `` deliberate and systematic refusal '' of the executive branch then the Bush administration `` to comply with the laws protecting wildlife '' in the forests . The policy was to let the industry log . If instead the law was to be observed and the logging was to be limited , someone else the judge was going to have to take the political heat for it . An administration devoted to law and order in so many other circumstances was in this case going to sit on its hands . The Clinton administration has come up with a plan for much less logging . Most of the old-growth federal forest the fragment of the forest that remains , that is would be preserved . So would the threatened wildlife within it , whose celebrated proxy has been the reclusive northern spotted owl . The administration says the plan is scientifically based and well within the area of discretion set by the law . The critics complain that 20 to 30 percent of the remaining old-growth forest would still be open to logging , that the owl and other threatened species would remain at risk or near enough to justify further protection and that the runoff from logging under the plan would continue to damage salmon and other spawning areas . They want the judge to order the plan made more protective in those respects-but in the meantime would let the logging resume . That 's reasonable . Environmental disputes as complex and bitter as this will never be settled to the total satisfaction of any side . But the administration seems to have come up with a plan that meets the tests of both pretty good policy and the law . That , too , is what the acquiescent position of the environmental plaintiffs should be taken to signify . WASHINGTON The General Accounting Office has concluded that inadequate inspections are being done to enforce a law that is supposed to protect thousands of children from devastating and irreversible lead poisoning . Homes where more than 300,000 children younger than 7 reside are not being tested adequately for the presence of lead-based paint until many of the children living in them are already sick , said the GAO , which is the congressional investigative agency . Children in this age group are most vulnerable to lead poisoning . Health experts say high levels of lead can damage a child 's nervous system , kidneys , reproductive system and mental development . Even low levels of lead can inhibit development and result in lower IQ scores and behavior problems . The agency 's investigation , mandated by the Residential Lead-Based Paint Hazard Reduction Act of 1992 , concluded that the regulations intended to protect children are not being fully enforced . The families covered live in privately owned homes and apartments and get federal subsidies to help pay their rent . Most of them live in housing built before 1978 , when paint makers began removing lead from paint , the GAO said . When officials from public-housing authorities in Boston , New Orleans , Minneapolis and St. Paul , Minn. , inspected homes and apartments in visual searches , they failed to spot such existing lead hazards as intact paint on window sills and sashes and floors , the GAO said . These hazards were found by local health agencies in seven of the 11 residences covered by the probe , even though `` public-housing authorities had recently inspected these homes visually and had not identified any such hazards . '' Lack of coordination among health and housing workers also caused children to go untreated and housing uninspected , the GAO said . Local health agencies , which are responsible for testing the children , often did not ask where lead-poisoned children lived and did not notify housing authorities of the test results so that homes then could be checked for paint , according to the GAO . Public-housing authorities are responsible for administering Section 8 housing programs in which tenants ' rents are subsidized by the federal government . The program is one of the largest sources of housing for low- and moderate-income Americans . `` Our work shows that HUD 's regulations to protect children with elevated lead levels from further poisoning are not being implemented , '' the GAO report said . Only after a child was found to be poisoned was the intact paint in the home tested for the presence of lead , the report said . This practice has led advocates for lead-paint removal to contend that HUD is using children as `` guinea pigs '' to locate lead-based paint . The GAO said HUD has a responsibility to see that `` public-housing authorities receive the information they need to protect children with elevated lead levels from further poisoning . '' The GAO recommended that HUD require property owners to notify public-housing officials when a local health agency finds dangerous levels of lead-based paint in a home or apartment . Public-housing authorities also should be required to get addresses of children with high lead levels in their blood and match them with addresses of residences that are part of the subsidized housing program . Murky wording of the anti-lead legislation and congressional reports make it unclear whether Congress intended for the law to cover Section 8 housing , the GAO said . The agency 's report said HUD officials nevertheless intend to apply the act 's requirements to Section 8 housing , but also suggested that HUD consider clarifying the law . The investigators found that some regulations intended to protect children who already have elevated levels of lead in their blood from further poisoning also are not being implemented . Some lead-abatement advocates have expressed concern that numerous private landlords will stop participating in the Section 8 program to avoid the expense of removing lead-based paint from their properties . If Jimmy Buffett really is as laid-back and likable as he makes out , why does `` Fruitcakes '' ( MCA-11043 ) leave me wanting nothing so much as to smack him hard ? Could it be the cookie-cutter Caribbean rhythms that make each song sound almost exactly like the next ? Or is it his showy remake of the Kinks ' `` Sunny Afternoon , '' which drains both the charm and the irony from the song ? No , the truly irritating thing about Buffett 's trademark whimsy is that it 's about as subtle as a surly drunk , grinding its nose into the listener 's face and demanding that we act amused a tall order , given that songs like `` Quietly Making Noise '' or `` Apocalypso '' are no funnier than their titles . So do yourself a favor , and give Buffett 's `` Fruitcakes '' as wide a berth as you 'd give the Christmas kind . -0- No sooner did He-Who-Used-To-Be-Called-Prince close the doors on his Paisley Park empire than he uncorked his biggest hit in years , the endearingly drippy `` The Most Beautiful Girl in the World . '' What this means in terms of the Symbolic One 's career longevity is hard to say , but judging from `` The Beautiful Experience '' ( NPG 710003 ) , it 's way too early to count him out . Even though six of the seven tracks here are mere variations on the single , they 're so completely reconfigured that it 's less like a remix EP than a sort of `` Most Beautiful Girl '' suite . There 's plenty of interesting rhythm play , from the stylish techno throb of `` Beautiful '' to the Sly Stone-inflected dub of `` Sexy Staxaphone and Guitar . '' But it 's the `` Mustang Mix , '' with its slow , sexy lead vocal , that really makes this EP a truly beautiful experience . -0- Some folks might wish for eternal youth , but the truly wise would settle for merely aging as well as Lena Horne has . Even though more than a half century has passed since she made her first recordings ( with the great Teddy Wilson ) , `` We 'll Be Together Again '' ( Blue Note 28974 ) demonstrates that Horne 's voice remains as stylish and expressive as ever . That 's not to say there hasn't been some wear on her voice ( understandable for a 76-year old ) , but Horne 's careful phrasing and well-shaded vibrato keeps that from becoming an issue . In fact , she more than holds her own against Johnny Mathis on `` Day Follows Day , '' and seems perfectly at home with the brassy funk of `` Love Like This can't Last . '' Class tells , as they say , but it 's singers like Lena Horne that make it truly listenable . -0- Country , as we all know , is the last bastion of family values in popular music , so what could be more appropriate given the current state of the American family than a pair of albums like `` Great Divorce Songs for Her '' ( Warner Bros. 45594 ) and `` Great Divorce Songs for Him '' ( Warner Bros.45598 ) ? Tellingly , most of the songs on the `` For Her '' collection are variations on the theme of `` what a louse he was , '' with Highway 101 's `` Someone Else 's Trouble Now '' serving as a particularly stellar example . But ironically enough , it 's the `` For Him '' album that shows the most emotional range , from the traditional tear-in-my-beer approach of Eddie Rabbitt 's `` Drinkin ' My Baby ( Off My Mind ) '' to the barely concealed glee of Hank Williams Jr. 's `` All My Rowdy Friends Are Coming Over Tonight . '' Could this really be where the Men 's Movement has made the most progress ? NEW YORK When Peter Lefcourt sat down recently to discuss his new novel , he had no idea that the book was about to kick up a front-page storm in Britain . The next day 's Sunday Express screamed : ` ` ` MY AFFAIR WITH DIANA ' BOOK ROW . '' Romance novelist Barbara Cartland , a step-grandmother to Princess Diana , told the London tabloid that Lefcourt 's `` Di and I '' should be banned , saying , `` It 's appalling that Diana can be used to sell fiction like this . '' Though it was doubtful that Cartland and other detractors had read the fictionalized account of a love affair with the princess the book has yet to go on sale in Britain the Reuters news service picked up the story and exported it to the United States . In New York , where Lefcourt grew up , taught school and drove a taxi before moving to Los Angeles , WCBS-TV anchorman Tony Guida reported the `` Di and I '' story on Memorial Day with not-so-veiled disgust . But `` Di and I , '' published in the United States by Random House , is not trash . Two years after publication of `` The Dreyfus Affair , '' Lefcourt 's well-received tale of two major-league baseball players who fall in love ( with each other ) , his wildly improbable `` Di and I '' has enough page-turning hilarity and romance to make it a worthy candidate for beach reading . `` Di and I '' works like this : Embittered screenwriter Leonard Schecter , a Hollywood deal and divorce papers in hand , arrives in London to prepare a TV miniseries about Diana . He manages to grab a dance with her at a formal party and they click . Clandestine meetings then lead to a sexually rich romance , and a bold escape from royal boredom , before Leonard and Di settle down and open up a McDonald 's franchise in Rancho Cucamonga , Calif. . In this Cinderella story in reverse , Diana is portrayed as as appealingly sweet and fragile , an innocent who finds love outside of her painfully loveless marriage . `` My reaction is that it 's really irrelevant for Cartland to comment without first reading the book , '' Lefcourt said . `` The book is meant to be romantic and sweet and I think that Diana herself would be pleased . '' Lefcourt , 52 , a soft-spoken son of New York City , moved to Los Angeles in 1972 . He had managed to sell a script for a murder mystery to Universal . `` Here I was , in L.A. , in my corduroy jacket , looking at Porsches , '' he recalled . The movie was not made , but by 1975 Lefcourt was writing for TV 's `` Eight Is Enough . '' He won an Emmy in 1985 for his work on `` Cagney and Lacey . '' In this country , the interest of `` Entertainment Tonight '' and other American shows should help move the 25,000 copies that make up Random House 's first printing . In Britain , where Sue Townsend 's humorous `` The Queen and I '' was a best seller last year , the horrified response of recent days should light , or maybe scorch the path when Lefcourt arrives to promote his book on June 19 . -0- Book Talk From L.A. : Visitors to the American Booksellers Association 's annual convention left Los Angeles this week with piles of books , catalogs , T-shirts and publishing tales such as these : The next headache for President Clinton may come in the form of Bob Woodward 's `` The Agenda : Inside the Clinton White House . '' Woodward 's view at the top was described by one who has read the book as unflattering when it comes to Clinton 's decision-making skills . Simon & Schuster plans to put the book on sale immediately after `` 60 Minutes '' offers a first peek Sunday .. . Chuck Hogan , a young writer who has been supporting himself by working in a Boston video store , scored a $ 500,000-plus contract from Doubleday for his first novel . Film rights are now in play for `` The Standoff , '' praised by Doubleday publisher Stephen Rubin as `` pure action , a thriller about a hostage negotiator who has to deal with a white supremacist in Idaho '' .. . ( Optional add end ) Random House has ambitious plans for the October publication of Marlon Brando 's long-awaited autobiography . `` Brando : Songs My Mother Taught Me , '' which includes as many as 100 photos from the actor 's collection , will be advertised extensively to support an anticipated print run of 500,000 copies . But whether the enigmatic and reclusive Brando will step forward to support his own cause on the chat circuit appears doubtful . Random House publisher Harold Evans said that Brando has agreed to answer p repared questions in front of a camera and this video will then be made available to interested media . Meanwhile , Hyperion intends to publish Peter Manso 's unauthorized bio of Brando , a book that Evans called `` a spoiling operation '' .. . Barbara Bush said she felt `` kind of guilty hiding behind the dog '' when she wrote the canine chronicle `` Millie 's Book '' ( and Millie , by the way , is `` absolutely wonderful , a great companion still '' ) . But when the former first lady 's autobiography is published by Scribners at summer 's end , she will be out on her own , with everyone from Barbara Walters to yes David Letterman planning to catch up with her life outside the White House . Mrs. Bush presented an overview of her memoir at an afternoon te a in Beverly Hills , Calif. , and boasted that she wrote every word on a laptop computer .. . Simon & Schuster Interactive took visitors aboard the Starship Enterprise as the publisher unveiled its lead CD-ROM title for the fall , `` Star Trek : The Next Generation Interactive Technical Manual , '' a virtually real tour of the TV spaceship in which ROM-equipped Trekkies are sure to get lost for hours . Good thing it 's an extra-long truck , with a name like Nissan XE-V6 King Cab 4X4 Pickup . Every bit of it means something important , though . Nissan , of course , is Japan 's second-largest carmaker . `` XE '' is an equipment level added for '94 that has most of the important items in the more expensive `` SE , '' but fewer frills to keep the price down . `` V6 '' refers to the optional engine , which produces 19 more horsepower than the standard four-cylinder . It runs on regular gas , but gets 3 mpg less than the four-cylinder in the city and highway . `` King Cab , '' not to be confused with king crab , means there 's extra storage space behind the main seats , along with two , strictly-for-occasional-use , jump seats . `` 4X4 '' means four-wheel drive , in this case engaged from within the vehicle via a floor lever . That 's better than systems that require going outside and locking the hubs , but not as good as the more modern full-time systems or those engaged via pushbutton . The King Cab is available without the four-wheel drive for $ 12,489 with freight . So its name tells you quite a bit about this truck . But it doesn't indicate that Nissan 's pickups are built in Tennessee , with engines built mostly in Japan and transmissions built entirely in Japan . Nor does the name indicate that , like any small pickup , the XE-V6 etc. etc. rides a lot rougher than most cars and is generally less stable , particularly in aggressive driving . And that , again like most competitors , it lacks an air bag . Or that the dashboard is new for '94 but lacks a cupholder , though the optional console is an acceptable substitute . The name indicates nothing about price , either , which can be steep . Our tester listed for $ 17,984 with freight , a plastic bed liner and optional air conditioning , tilt wheel , cruise control , tachometer , AM-FM stereo/cassette player , fancy wheels and several other cosmetic and convenience items . Power windows and locks are not available in the XE-V6 etc. etc . Automatic transmission would add $ 1,000 . The five-speed is typical of those in light trucks , with a very low first-gear ratio for off roading , and with long throws compared with those of most cars . The name gives no hint , either , of the quality of Nissan 's trucks , which is above average , according to J.D. . Power and Associates . Nor does the name indicate that the King Cab has the medium-sized of three cargo box lengths offered in Nissan pickups . It 's about an inch longer than the standard bed , but 14.6 inches shorter than the long bed . But , then , a more specific name like `` Nissan XE-V6 King Cab 4X4 Medium-Sized Bed Hard Riding Not Too Cheap But Pretty Good Quality Tennessee-Built Air Bag-Less and Cupholder-Less '' pickup might have to be continued on the next truck . Engine : 3.0-liter V-6 , 153 horsepower . Transmission : Five-speed manual , rear- or four-wheel drive . Safety : Manual belts , side-impact beams , rear antilock brakes . Weight : 3,765 pounds . Box Size : 74.6 inches long , 59.8 inches wide . Base Price : $ 16,989 , including destination charge . EPA Mileage : 15 mpg city , 19 mpg highway . Incongruous or what ? The hotel dining room is posh , brocaded in silks , and through its stately aisles rush liveried waiters with the muted aplomb of funeral directors . Swanky bouquets detonate their expensive colors on each linen-shrouded table , and the silverware and crystal gleam like diamonds in a tiara . And there , in the middle of it all , sits .. . Laverne ? Yes , Laverne that is , Penny Marshall , with those sad Brooklyn eyes and the look of being endlessly put-upon , sitting in a funk of exhaustion so dense it would , a few days later , cause her to collapse and briefly enter the hospital . Her eyes are blue , her hair is blond , she 's tan as a surfer and yet everything about her says Brooklyn . Go figure . You can take the woman out of Brooklyn , but you can't take Brooklyn out of the woman . Marshall , like her colleague Ron Howard , has the entwined good luck/bad fortune to be forever identified by a television role ; no matter that , like Howard , she has since leaving the tube built an extraordinarily successful career as a film director . After a shaky start on `` Jumpin ' Jack Flash , '' she segued neatly into three first-class projects `` Big , '' `` Awakenings '' and `` A League of Their Own . '' To these she brought her learned-on-TV professionalism , a shrewd sense of comedy and feeling , and rigorous toughness . Now , fighting off the exhaustion that attended the ordeal of finishing her latest film , she 's out on the hustings beating up some attention for it . It 's `` Renaissance Man , '' with Danny DeVito as a former ad man who 's forced to take a job on an Army post teaching some dim basic trainees the art of `` comprehension , '' which he does through the use of Shakespeare 's `` Hamlet . '' `` I liked what it had to say , '' says Marshall , firing up a cigarette and sucking down a lungful of tar , then expelling it in a blast of haze . `` It 's a teaching movie , like ` Goodbye , Mr . Chips ' and ` To Sir With Love . ' The Army is the last place for a lot of kids to go to get a chance to become someone . '' She also was attracted to the character DeVito plays , a Detroit advertising man named Bill Rado who , in his 50s , loses his job and has to start over . `` He loses his job at that age ; it 's like losing everything . But he manages to survive and even triumph ; it shows that it 's never too late to find something that is meaningful for you . '' ( Begin optional trim ) That almost sounds like Marshall herself , who after 7 prosperous years on television lost her job , with few prospects . How on earth did she go from whiny , adenoidal Laverne to the person who gets to yell `` Action '' ? `` I wish I could say it was something I 'd worked my whole life to get and that I was really prepared for . But what happened was that they were having a lot of trouble with ` Jumpin ' Jack Flash ' and had just fired the director . And someone saw me eating dinner with Whoopi Goldberg and said , ` Oh , she can get along with Whoopi . ' So I got the job , even though at the time I 'd only directed a few TV shows . I was in way over my head , but somehow I got through it . '' The next three films were big , Oscar-nominated hits , of the sort that would make a male director employable for the rest of his life . But here she is , handing out interviews in a dining room to get the project a few more yards of ink . The script came to her from Jim Burnstein , a professor of English in the Detroit area , who actually had spent some time in the '70s teaching Shakespeare to air national guardsmen at a base in Michigan . ( End optional trim ) `` I chose Danny for two reasons . First of all , because he was the complete antithesis of everything that said ` Army . ' And second , because in teacher movies , the guy who loves Shakespeare always has graying temples and a perfectly clipped accent . I wanted the Shakespeare lover to sound like a normal person , a regular guy . For the same reason , when I use the St. Crispian 's Day speech from ` Henry V , ' I put it in the mouth of someone else who sounds like me Lilo Brancato Jr. , who has that New York sound . '' Ultimately , she says , the purpose of `` Renaissance Man '' is practical . `` When I was in school , boy , did I not want to flunk . Teachers had power , and if you had homework , you handed it in geometry , history , math ; it didn't matter , you handed it in . I didn't care about any of those things , just as the kids in the movie might not care about Shakespeare or ` Hamlet . ' But I learned the discipline of learning and that applied across the board , and it became a necessary skill for everything that came afterwards . `` Now the teachers don't have the power to enforce anything , and you can see the results . The movie is finally about that : doing your homework , studying hard and learning the discipline of education . '' The week 's Top 10 national video rentals are : 1 . `` Mrs. Doubtfire '' 2 . `` A Perfect World '' 3 . `` Carlito 's Way '' 4 . `` Malice '' 5 . `` Cool Runnings '' 6 . `` The Three Musketeers 7 . `` The Remains of the Day '' 8 . `` Addams Family Values '' 9 . `` The Fugitive '' 10 . The last video you 'd expect to need a giant ad campaign is `` Jurassic Park , '' the world box-office champ . You 'd think that an ordinary campaign plus word of mouth would be enough to trigger stampedes to video outlets . But when it debuts on video Oct. 4 , priced at $ 25 , `` Jurassic Park '' will be supported by a whopping $ 65 million promotional and advertising campaign . Overkill ? A waste of ad dollars ? Andrew Kairey , MCA/Universal 's senior vice president of marketing and sales , doesn't think so . `` Nothing is an easy sell , '' he said . `` You have to make consumers aware of the tape and make it an attractive purchase . '' This video , though , has to be the lock of the year in the video market . The betting is that `` Jurassic , '' which will be routinely discounted to the $ 14 to $ 15 range , will gobble up the sales record of Disney 's `` Aladdin , '' which has topped 24 million copies . Yet video retailers are unhappy about one aspect of MCA/Universal 's promotional plan a tie-in with McDonald 's . Starting Nov. 18 , by making a purchase at the hamburger outlet , you can buy for $ 6 one of four MCA/Universal videos : `` The Land Before Time , '' `` An American Tail : Fievel Goes West , '' `` Back to the Future '' or `` Field of Dreams . '' Each tape will include a $ 2.50 mail-in rebate on a `` Jurassic Park '' video . Retailers simply don't want McDonald 's meddling in the video business . Not only is a tape sold at a fast-food outlet money out of their pockets , it also primes consumers for further purchases at such restaurants , rather than video stores . And the low price undercuts the retailers , prompting fears that customers will balk at paying the average store cost of $ 15- $ 20 for a video . MCA/Universal 's Kairey defends the rebate deal , arguing that it sends consumers back to video stores . `` They have to purchase the ( ` Jurassic Park ' ) tape at a retail store , which increases traffic at the retail level , '' he said . -0- VIDEOBITS : The early returns are in on `` The Return of Jafar , '' Disney 's direct-to-video sequel to `` Aladdin . '' The company reports that nearly 5 million of the 8 million units shipped were sold in the first week . Consumers were obviously responding to the ads and ignoring the negative reviews. .. . MCA/Universal is following in Disney 's footsteps with a direct-to-video sequel to its 1988 animated feature `` The Land Before Time . '' The tape , `` The Land Before Time : Great Valley Adventure , '' is due Dec. 27 at $ 20 . -0- SPECIAL INTEREST VIDEOS : The best of the Jackie Onassis tapes is A&E 's documentary `` Jacqueline Kennedy Onassis , '' priced at $ 20. .. . The market is jammed with tapes that are the video equivalent of elevator music , but `` Coral Sea Dreaming '' is much better than the norm . It features gorgeous visuals of the Great Barrier Reef accompanied by an intriguing score . From Small World Music for $ 30 . ( 800-757-2277 ) . .. . Cabin Fever Entertainment has just put out four new Laurel and Hardy titles at $ 10 each : `` Scram ! , '' `` Their First Mistake , '' `` Towed in a Hole '' and `` Twice Two. '' .. . On June 15 , CBS-Fox will put out , at $ 15 , `` Dream Team II , '' showcasing the National Basketball Association players on the team participating in the world basketball championships in Toronto Aug. 4-14 . -0- TECH NEWS : Portable CD players are a lot more attractive these days . The hot models are equipped with anti-shock memory buffers , which cut down on sound skipping that happens when the machine is moved around . These machines , which had been retailing in the $ 300 range , are selling as low as $ 150 from Sony and Sanyo/Fisher . Also , more companies , such as Kenwood and Panasonic , have introduced models this year . Two more have joined the bandwagon . Aiwa has a $ 190-model coming next month and Magnavox has one , priced at $ 219 , due in early fall . -0- WHAT 'S NEW ON VIDEO : `` Short Cuts '' ( Columbia TriStar ) . For about three hours , co-writer-director Robert Altman weaves together myriad mini-dramas about unhappy Californians , featuring a star-studded cast including Andie McDowell , Robert Downey Jr. and Madeline Stowe . The film earned Altman an Oscar nomination for best director . If you prefer movies with linear story lines and few subplots , you 'll likely have a hard time getting into this one . `` Firecreek '' ( Warner , $ 30 ) . An excellent but often overlooked 1968 Western about a kindly sheriff ( James Stewart ) battling a gang of bad guys , with Henry Fonda playing the chief villain . It would be wonderful to report that the Image Entertainment release of Billy Wilder 's `` The Private Life of Sherlock Holmes '' ( $ 60 ) is the 1970 film as the co-writer/director originally intended it . Alas , it is not . But it is as close as we are likely to come in the foreseeable future , unless Holmes himself unearths the original roadshow edition shot by the fabled director but never released by United Artists . What Image 's laser wizards have done , however , is reassemble as closely as possible a glimpse of what might have been had the studio kept faith with the director of `` Some Like It Hot '' and `` Sunset Boulevard . '' The original `` Private Life ... , '' written by Wilder and longtime collaborator I.A.L. Diamond , was a two-hour , 45-minute exploration of the previously untold private life of Arthur Conan Doyle 's legendary master of deductive reasoning . Wilder said that he designed the film as a symphony in four movements , structured around a prologue in which Dr. Watson 's grandson discovers four of his grandfather 's unpublished stories from 221B Baker St. . One of many road-show films that dotted the late '60s to lure `` Laugh-In '' and `` Welby '' couch potatoes into theaters for `` event '' movies , it had the misfortune to follow several failed events ( `` Star ! , '' `` Paint Your Wagon '' ) , and so the studio hacked it down to two hours and five minutes . What was trimmed was the prologue and two cases that helped reveal what Wilder intended as `` a serious study of Holmes , '' an attempt to explain the cerebral , ascetic `` dope addict '' and `` misogynist . '' Starring as Holmes is Robert Stephens ( Wilder 's original choice was Peter O' Toole ) and Colin Blakely ( Peter Sellers was the original choice for the good doctor ) . The missing elements are diabolically frustrating . First , the producers of the two-disc laser found the video of the missing `` The Dreadful Business of the Naked Honeymooners '' but not the audio track . The clever reconstruction includes the video with subtitled dialogue from one of the found original scripts . As such , it 's a chance for true interactivity for aspiring thespians and Holmes fans : Just assign the parts to viewers in your living room . Then , the producers found only the audio of the second missing sequence , `` The Curious Case of the Upside Down Room . '' No video was ever found . The audio alone is wonderfully effective , like listening to an old radio program . All in all , the missing pieces seem to come together to give us more than a hint of what Wilder originally had in mind . The film itself , in a sharp digital film transfer using the original 2.35:1 Panavision aspect ratio ( annoying to those who hate large black borders and narrow video ) , is an enjoyable piece of work even in its abbreviated version . The atmospheric Miklos Rozsa score can be heard without dialogue and sound effects since it has been isolated on the right digital and analog tracks . Music cue sheets also are included . Excellent liner notes detail Wilder 's vision , from writing the film itself to using Rozsa 's passionate Violin Concerto , Opus 24 . The concerto , originally written for Jascha Heifitz , ultimately served as the skeleton around which the movie was fleshed out . -0- LASERBITS : New Movies Just Out : `` The Piano '' ( LIVE , letterboxed , $ 40 ) ; `` The Remains of the Day '' ( Columbia TriStar , $ 40 ) ; `` Short Cuts '' ( New Line , $ 50 ) ; `` The Joy Luck Club '' ( Hollywood/Image Entertainment , letterboxed , $ 40 ) ; `` A Dangerous Woman '' ( MCA/Universal , $ 35 ) . Coming Soon : Paramount 's `` Wayne 's World 2 '' with Dana Carvey and Mike Myers is due Wednesday ; Columbia TriStar 's `` Rudy , '' starring Sean Astin , is scheduled for June 22 , at $ 35 ; Buena Vista 's `` Aladdin , '' released through Image Entertainment , will be released Sept. 21 , at $ 30 , with a letterboxed THX special edition going for $ 50 ; `` Tim Burton 's Nightmare Before Christmas , '' also on Image , will be released Nov. 16 , at $ 30 and in a $ 100 collector 's edition . HOLLYWOOD Good morning , Normandy ! This is an invasion . The D-Day documentaries , black-and-white newsreel footage and testimonials from military veterans and former riveting Rosies are this spring 's blitzkrieg , dusting off memories while massing on television in such force that you can hardly keep count . With the 50th anniversary of the Allies ' liberating invasion of France so near , U.S. media are hitting Normandy with everything they 've got , waves and waves of camera crews scurrying across its beaches like sand crabs . Although the elements of spectacle are ever present , it 's encouraging , at least , to see television cover an event not of its own making . The invasion cost the lives of 23,000 American troops . `` Only those who were there know how horrendous it was , '' ABC 's Peter Jennings reported on videotape from the French coast during Wednesday night 's `` Turning Point . '' Surely most on the home front never understood the horror . Especially the children . Reared on simplified war movies that were as dispensable as popcorn and isolated from the actual killing fields by their geography , that generation of American kids sealed themselves inside an impenetrable play world where war was a dreamy reality at best and death was an abstraction . There was no television to speak of during World War II and the immediate post-war years . No slaughters in Los Angeles , Bosnia , Haiti , Sudan , Gaza or Rwanda that anyone could see , no nightly pictures of rotted , fly-buzzed corpses baking in the sun . No wretched victims dying right there on the screen , nothing on a mass scale that could convey to the very young just how gory and grim war was . That wouldn't happen until Vietnam . `` Real war is never like paper war , '' Ernest Hemingway wrote , `` nor do accounts of it read much the way it looks . '' To many kids of that era , it looked this way : Bang-bang , you 're alive . I remember playing lots of baseball with my friends as a kid in Kansas City , Mo. . Just as vivid are my memories of having fun playing guns . For us , only one thing could compare to the crack of a bat hitting a ball , and that was the crack of gunfire , at least as we innocently imagined it . We provided our own sound effects , even our own danger ( dum-de-dum-de-dum-de-dum ) music . There was something very romantic about the fantasy of both shooting someone and pretending to get gunned down yourself , grunting and clutching your chest in mock agony while keeling over , then getting back up and starting the game again . To us , war was a game , an exercise in heroism minus real casualties . Some things stay in your head . One afternoon in the winter of 1949 , my neighbor Jody Aldrich and I returned from the Fiesta Theater excited and energized after watching a Saturday matinee of `` Battleground , '' a movie about Americans fighting and dying in the Battle of the Bulge . Hearts pounding , we tore into our houses and in only a few minutes were back outside with our plastic guns ( I think mine was a Thompson 's submachine gun ) , brown infantry helmets and other soldier gear , re-fighting World War II in the snow . Being two years older than I , Jody pulled rank and , as a result , I got killed probably a dozen times that afternoon , hitting the white ground so often that my clothes took on a glacial rigidity . What fun . It all came back to me while watching `` Turning Point . '' I contrasted my childhood war games with the recollections of Normandy survivors , their voices at times cracking with emotion after all these years . `` I curled up as small as I could . '' `` Twenty or 30 G.I.s who had gotten up ran smack into a shell . '' `` They were just mowed down . '' `` Men were getting hit , you know , drowning . '' `` His eyeballs .. . were hanging down . '' Reuniting America with its dead sons , the 90-minute program ended with an overview of white crosses at Normandy 's military cemetery , where so many soldiers are buried beneath a bit of the ground they fought to free . During `` The MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour '' on PBS Tuesday , artist and Normandy survivor Tracy Sugerman asserted that the memory of what happened there will be `` dusty and meaningless '' to today 's children and future generations . A disturbing thought . Yet sadly , he 's right , and it 's something that cannot be changed by all the history lessons in the world . Time is too great a barrier to overcome , rendering us all uncaring amnesiacs when it comes to the major crises experienced by our predecessors . Thus , a lot of people are probably tiring of this history lesson that is now preoccupying so much television , even though it memorializes a seminal event of a war that changed the 20th century . It must seem as abstract to them as it was to war-playing kids in 1949 , especially compared to the contemporary violence that intersects their lives nightly via their favorite newscast . On CNN Thursday came this report from Rwanda : `` We saw nine bodies . When we got closer , we could see five were alive , barely alive . Then we witnessed a government soldier shooting one . '' In the 1990s , business as usual . Unfortunately , it 's hard for many to get worked up over Normandy when there 's so much in the present that competes for our attention and fear , as television relentlessly reminds us of today 's killing fields both abroad and in the United States , where even children no longer the innocents of yesteryear have access to firearms . And instead of toys , these guns are real . Bang-bang , you 're dead . It was almost a year ago that five male livery cab drivers in suburban New York accused a male police officer of rape , and for most of that year local reporters , usually gluttons for sex and sensation , didn't write a word . Now , when they do mention the charges , many employ adjectives like `` outlandish '' and `` bizarre , '' as though the very idea of male rape by a law officer is almost beyond belief . So it may come as a surprise that at least one highly regarded anti-rape organization estimates that the rape of men is as common as the rape of women in our society , and that law enforcement officials frequently play at least a peripheral role . I 'm referring to male rape in prison , which claims about 290,000 victims a year , according to the group Stop Prisoner Rape . By comparison , the Bureau of Justice Statistics of the U.S. Department of Justice estimates that 150,000 females are raped annually . True , some independent experts consider SPR 's 290,000 estimate which does not include consensual sex in prison something of an overcount , and some anti-rape activists consider the BJS ' 150,000 figure something of an undercount , but that still leaves the figures for male and female rape in roughly the same ballpark . ( For the record , anti-rape activists distinguish male rape from homosexual rape : Whether in prison or out , male rapists are seldom gay . ) Why , then , do we hear so little about male rape ? For one thing , SPR president Stephen Donaldson says , victims of male rape are rarely middle-class types with easy access to the media , and even if they were , the stigma attached to male rape dissuades most victims from complaining . For another , there is a widespread sentiment in this lock-'em-up society that violent criminals who get raped are getting just what they deserve . The irony , says Donaldson , is that the victims are generally the least violent inmates . But perhaps the most problematic aspect of prisoner rape is the tacit acquiescence of many law officers . It 's one thing for some violent male criminals , locked away for years , to attempt rape as a vehicle for social domination , sexual release or both . It 's quite another for law enforcement personnel to wink at the problem . Or worse , contribute to it . Yet , says Donaldson , prison authorities generally deny that rape exists in their institutions , take few steps to prevent it , and sometimes even set it up . Donaldson himself , a Quaker pacifist arrested during an anti-war demonstration in 1973 , says a guard placed him amid violent criminals as punishment . He was raped more than 40 times his first night in the cellblock . As to the rape of prisoners by guards themselves , Donaldson says , `` It is not as common as assaults by prisoners , but more common than most people realize . '' Yet we virtually never hear about it , which is hardly surprising . `` Where it 's a prisoner 's word against a guard 's , nobody 's going to take the prisoner seriously . '' His group advises those who have been sexually assaulted by guards to `` band together and show a whole pattern of abuse , on the assumption that a guard who gets away with raping one prisoner is likely to be doing it to others . '' That sounds logical . Demonstrating a pattern of rape by a law officer should be more convincing than a single accusation . But it doesn't seem to have convinced law enforcement officials in the Rockaways , where five civilians have charged that that a cop raped them , four others claim to have witnessed one of the rapes , and yet there is no indictment . I don't know what , if anything , happened in the New York incident , and neither does Donaldson , but he isn't surprised at the reaction to the charges . `` On the contrary , '' he says , `` what I find incredible is the notion that a bunch of working-class guys would invent a story in which they would popularly be considered to have lost their manhood . In that sense , it 's far more incredible to think that this didn't happen than to think that it did . '' Provided , of course , one acknowledges that male rape happens regularly in our society , and often under the watchful eye of the law . Utopian writer Edward Bellamy put it this way : `` If bread is the first necessity of life , recreation is a close second . '' That was a century ago . Since then , through the cycle of the Industrial Revolution with all its gilded promises of machines to save us time and work , Americans remain uneasy with play . We yearn for it , fret about it and throw our money in quest of it . But we don't regard it seriously . `` It 's a very contradictory part of America , '' says John R. Kelly , professor of sociology and leisure studies at the University of Illinois . `` There is increased emphasis in people 's lives on what we call leisure . Still , in the social ideology is the concept that if something is not productive , it 's not important . '' Now the nation crosses the threshold of a new Information and Technology Revolution . And it appears Americans once again are beguiled by the promise of machines . These new electronic devices will make us smarter , bring to our fingertips the wonders of the world and worlds beyond , entertain us and delight us . If you follow the breathless promotions closely , you might even arrive at a neo-utopian vision wherein technology can erase the distinction between work and play , so we willn't have to feel guilty about leisure any more . One machine will do it all we will earn our livelihoods from it , play on it , learn , organize ourselves , establish friendships , let it entertain us , and have the unheard of mobility to do all of this while we roam the countryside on our own schedules . Finally , we will be in charge of our lives . Not buying this promise are some of those who study leisure as a necessary component to human balance and satisfaction . These thinkers offer at least two contrasting expressions of skepticism about tomorrow 's technology . Kelly subscribes to the `` big mirage theory . '' That is , technology is evolutionary and not revolutionary ; it may alter how we do things , but not what we do . `` Vastly overblown , '' Kelly says about foretold changes in American life . The huge costs of technology , its inherent complexity and longstanding patterns of cultural behavior will naturally , and significantly , modulate the process of social transformation . `` Technology doesn't change things very much in the small worlds in which people live . Most people still live in families , they eat dinner , go on vacation . Change will have to fit in with that , '' he says . So , a 12-year-old obsessively playing with dolls or toy soldiers in 1950 is not so much different from today 's youngsters fixated on their beeping Game Boys . A more disturbing view comes from other scholars . As they see it , technology is rapidly separating us from the natural world , blurring the distinctions between what is real and what is not , substituting vicarious stimulation for actual experience , and giving us no leisure relief from the relentless acceleration of time . The ballyhooed coming of virtual reality is particularly unsettling to these experts . As envisioned , these machines will simulate places and experiences without requiring physical effort or skill , for instance deep sea diving without getting wet . `` Our definition of mental illness and sanity is the ability to distinguish between what is real and what is not , '' says Geoffrey Godby , professor of leisure studies at Penn State . `` People already are yearning for what is real . Why else would a highly sugared nut beverage be marketed as ` the real thing ? ' .. . Leisure is giving oneself to an act , not taking something from it . And technology is no friend of that . '' ( Optional add end ) At California State University , Northridge , Al Wright , professor of leisure studies , says he is staggered , overwhelmed and depressed at how little students know of the real world around them . For example , urban youth have seen so many images of rivers that real rivers hold no mystery . `` Then I take them out to a river , and they say , ` Oh my gosh , I didn't know this is what a river sounds like. ' ' ' Wright fears that Americans will accept simulated experience and never know what they are missing . `` And it willn't result in the same benefit , '' he adds . Virtually all experts in the field say Americans undervalue leisure even in the face of overwhelming data that show that well-rounded individuals live longer and happier . Rather than trying to intermingle work and play , these scholars say Americans need more thoughtful emphasis on leisure apart from toil . How important is it ? `` I 'll answer that with a question , '' says Brett Wright , a professor of recreation at George Mason University . `` How important is it to sleep ? To eat ? To breath ? We can't continue to rob ourselves of it . We can't sustain our lives without it . Psychologically , we 're beginning to reach that point . '' Perhaps the most important ingredient of leisure is the release from the pressure of time . And in this regard , even the most enthusiastic futurists offer little consolation . Rather than measure time by the seasons as their ancestors did , Americans now rush to upgrade their IBM 286 computers for the marginally faster 486 , compressing time into ever quickening bursts . This , despite their lament , expressed in poll after poll , that society is too fast-paced already . Says Godby : `` Efficiency is the most important value in American life . We are becoming ever more efficient , at the resultant death of tranquillity . Whatever happened to tranquillity anyway ? '' It would probably be overstating things to suggest that revenge was the main thing John Lydon had in mind when he wrote his memoir of the Sex Pistols but not by much . After all , the Sex Pistols ' saga has been hashed over from every imaginable angle . There have been music histories , such as Jon Savage 's award-winning `` England 's Dreaming , '' cultural analyses along the lines of Greil Marcus ' wide-ranging and impenetrable `` Lipstick Traces , '' even a few films , like Alex Cox 's `` Sid & Nancy . '' But none of them , in Lydon 's view , came close to getting the story straight . `` It 's terrible that my own life has been taken away from me in that respect , and re-written for me , without me supposed to have a word to say about it , '' he says , over the phone from Los Angeles . So Lydon ( or Johnny Rotten ) decided to do something about it , and wrote his own book : `` Rotten : No Irish , No Blacks , No Dogs , '' a 329-page memoir that traces his path from the slums of London to the height of pop culture infamy . It 's a fascinating book , and not just because it tells about the original Sid Vicious ( a `` soppy white hamster that used to live in a cage on the corner table in my parents ' living room '' ) or what Lydon 's audition with the Sex Pistols was like ( `` No , I will not mime to ` Maggie May ''' ) . What Lydon offers is a warts-and-all view of what was then the world 's most-feared rock band , one that balances his own recollections with sometimes contradictory comments from others who were part of that scene . It 's not the most flattering way to assemble an autobiography , but then , Lydon wasn't interested in feeding the Sex Pistols myth . `` People seem to thrive on fantasy , '' he complains . `` It 's a shame , because I think the truth is far more interesting and certainly more useful . Reality at least you can learn something from . '' That 's not to say Lydon 's memories aren't occasionally shaded to his own benefit . Just ask Pretenders frontwoman Chrissie Hynde , who knew Lydon even before the Sex Pistols started to pop . Hynde is apparently miffed about an interview Lydon did with the English music magazine Q , in which he dismisses the story that he was once to have married Hynde so she could have stayed in England . `` He says , ` Oh , I wouldn't have married Chrissie Hynde , that would have been a lifelong commitment , '' ' she huffs . `` Which was the last thing any of us was thinking about at the time . `` He never mentions in his book that he got married to a woman who was a multi-millionaire , and who was just about to inherit a great deal of money . He doesn't really talk about a lot of the stuff that I could have talked about ! But he turns around and trashes me the minute the book comes out . `` I still love him , '' she adds . `` I mean , we all know he 's a back-stabber . Everyone knows that . '' He 's also more than happy to own up to contradictions like that one . `` Rotten , '' to its credit , does include a lengthy interview segment in which Hynde gives her side of the muddled matrimony story as well as similar bits drawing upon the memories of scenesters like Billy Idol , Julien Temple and Macro Pirroni , plus fellow Pistols Paul Cook and Steve Jones . Why the interviews ? `` As the book slowly but surely started to come together , I wanted to introduce other voices , '' Lydon explains . `` And have you ever tried interviewing your own father ? Well , it doesn't work . So I got Keith and Kent ( Zimmerman ) in to help me on things like that . Because it became impossible for me to do it any more on my own . '' Lydon insists that , by writing `` Rotten , '' he can finally put the whole Sex Pistols era behind him . On the one hand , it 's easy to believe him when he says there will never be a Sex Pistols reunion ( he 's too happy with his own music , particularly the solo album he 's working on ) ; on the other hand , it 's hard to imagine him passing up the opportunity to wax sarcastic on his old band 's legacy . Take , for example , the Sex Pistols ' impact on today 's bands : `` I 'm sure there are some who genuinely do appreciate us for what we were , '' he says . `` But I 'm mystified as to what element they get from it . They can imitate the music , but that 's where they stop . They don't seem to be dealing with serious problems . They shy away from them , in fact . I find that rather sad . '' Six days before he was shot while delivering a speech at the University of California , Riverside , Khallid Muhammad , the former national spokesman for the Nation of Islam , appeared in a pre-taped session of the `` Donahue '' show . Anyone who saw the show May 23 would not have been surprised by the events of May 29 . During the show Muhammad expressed love for Colin Ferguson , the man accused of killing whites and Asians on a commuter train in New York . In an analogy drawn by those who hover perilously close to the lunatic fringe , he confided that he loved Colin Ferguson just as white America loved its killers Generals Schwarzkopf , Westmoreland , Patton , MacArthur and Eisenhower . So suspect No. 1 in the shooting might have been some neo-Nazi or skinhead type who took Muhammad at his word that white America and black America are in a shooting war in which soldiers from each side are expected to go out and gun down unarmed civilians . It would be unlike Muhammad to go an entire hour without hurling some bit of invective against Jews . And so he did . Phil Donahue played a segment of a Muhammad speech in which he referred to the `` hook-nosed , bagel-eatin ' , lox-eatin ' , imposter-perpetrating-a-fraud , johnny-come-lately , just-crawled-out-of-the-caves-and-hills-of-Europe wanna-be Jew ... '' Since Muhammad repeated the phrase at Cal-Riverside in his Sunday speech , we can only assume it must be one of his favorites . So suspect No. 2 might have been some member of the Jewish Defense League whipped into a state of high dudgeon after hearing the insult one too many times . Folks on the lunatic fringe , you see , often have a fatal attraction for one another . Thus it came as no surprise that the suspect in the Muhammad shooting turned out to be a former Nation of Islam minister one James Edward Best . Violence in the Nation of Islam is nothing new . When I mentioned that obvious and well-documented fact in an opinion piece a while back , some folks in the Nation of Islam pretended not to know what I was talking about . One wrote to me from Dayton , Ohio . Dr. Waheed S. Al- ' Araby took issue with my assertion that a hit squad from the Newark , N.J. , mosque of the Nation of Islam assassinated Malcolm X in Harlem 's Audubon Ballroom Feb. 21 , 1965 . `` I challenge Kane to produce any evidence to support this one more deranged innuendo , '' Dr. Al- ' Araby sneered . I don't need any evidence . I 've got something even better a confession from the only man arrested at the scene of the crime and convicted for it . Talmadge Hayer 's confession has been on record for some time now . I urge members of the Nation of Islam to give it a careful reading . But the Malcolm X assassination is only the most famous example of factional violence spawned by disputes within the Nation of Islam . Others are : The beating of Aubrey Barnette , the secretary of the Boston mosque in 1964 . Barnette left the Nation of Islam at about the same time as Malcolm X . ( Louis Farrakhan then Louis X of the Boston mosque called Barnette a `` bourgeois Negro '' for asserting his independence . ) Barnette wrote an expose for the Saturday Evening Post that same year describing how top Nation of Islam officials were fleecing their followers . For his trouble , Barnette received a fractured vertebra , broken ribs and ankle and kidney damage from the beating . The beating of another Malcolm X ally , Leon 4X Ameer , in a Boston hotel in December 1964 by a Nation of Islam goon squad . Ameer was left unconscious in the bathtub of his hotel room with broken ribs and ruptured eardrums . The murder of Hanafi Muslims in Washington in January 1973 by eight members of the Nation of Islam 's Philadelphia mosque . The target of the attack was Amaas Abdul Khaalis , a former minister of the Nation of Islam who had been critical of then-leader Elijah Muhammad . Khaalis wasn't home , so the thugs took their wrath out on his family and members of his sect . Khaalis ' 10-year-old son was shot in the head and killed . His 23-year-old daughter was also shot in the head but survived . Two other sect members were shot , one fatally . Most tragic and despicable of all was the drowning of three infants whom the murderers found in Khaalis ' home . Yet Al- ' Araby took issue with a claim in my earlier column suggesting that the Nation of Islam has only been violent with black people . He ordered me to apologize publicly to Louis Farrakhan , which I intend to do one split second before hell freezes over . As for Farrakhan 's former national spokesman who is recovering in a Riverside hospital perhaps he has learned that vitriolic language only attracts members of the lunatic fringe . Some of them may be for you today and against you tomorrow . As Khallid Muhammad recovers from his wounds , we can only hope that he has learned the value of keeping a civil tongue in his head . Three years ago , some 38 million Americans in their 20s were dubbed Generation X : a grungy , angry , hopeless group of gripers . But a backlash is emerging as many say that stereotype is wrong . Here 's a brief history of the labeling of a generation . 1990 In a July cover story , Time magazine christens today 's young adults `` the twentysomething generation , '' spawning similar articles in other publications . 1991 Douglas Coupland 's novel `` Generation X '' is published in April . Critics call it a guidebook for the twentysomething set . His book 's user-friendly pages include Gen X lingo such as `` McJob '' `` A low-pay , low-prestige , low-dignity , low-benefit , no-future job in the service sector . '' The first Lollapalooza tour a packaging of bands popular among the Generation X crowd sells out amphitheaters across the country during the summer and attracts throngs to its midway of body-piercing booths . In July , the film `` Slacker '' is released , setting off a bandwagon effect of other Gen X movies . In September , Kurt Cobain and his band , Nirvana , release the album `` Nevermind , '' bringing the alternative Seattle sound and grunge wear plaid flannel shirts and ripped jeans to the Gen X masses . Fans hail Cobain 's anti-anthem single , `` Smells Like Teen Spirit '' and tag him the voice of antisocial slackers . Less than three years later , Cobain commits suicide . 1992 `` The Real World '' an MTV docu-soap makes its debut in May , depicting a cross-section of Gen Xers living under the same roof in New York , allowing viewers to eavesdrop on their secrets , squabbles and sexual sparks . In 1993 , the video verite program switches locales to the Southern California beach community of Venice and moves to San Francisco beginning later this month . In July , `` Melrose Place '' Angst , Gen X-style debuts on Fox television to a slow start . Later , Heather Locklear arrives to goose the ratings . 1993 Signs of a Gen X backlash begin to surface . Movies with a twentysomething sensibility `` Bodies , Rest and Motion '' ( April ) , `` Three of Hearts '' ( April ) , `` Poetic Justice '' ( July ) , `` Kalifornia '' ( September ) and `` True Romance '' ( September ) under-perform at the box office . A year later , `` Reality Bites '' tries to sink its teeth into Gen X movie-goers . The $ 11 million film brings in less than $ 20 million at the box office . Twenty-six-year old Harvard graduate Michael Lee Cohen , tired of the press overkill that has over-generalized his generation , treks across America to prove that young adults are hopeful and optimistic . After interviewing almost 200 people , he writes `` The Twentysomething American Dream '' ( Dutton ) , published in October . It explores how his generation is shaping the world it will inherit . 1994 Twenty Twenty Insight , a business newsletter , advises corporate America to shun Generation X-themed marketing . Michael Krugman , 29 , and Jason Cohen , 26 , ( no relation to Michael Lee Cohen ) write `` Generation Ecch ! The Backlash Starts Here , '' ( Fireside ) , to be published in August . Says Cohen , a self-professed overachiever : `` We worry too much about what the media says about our generation . Ecch is about getting a life . '' LOS ANGELES Lydia Ramos , 24 , sips mango tea while she chats about her active life one with no time for slacking . She works full time at the University of Southern California as a high school recruiter . On Sundays she teaches at an East Los Angeles church . In the evenings she researches her idea for a consulting business . While driving around town , she soaks in audio books , not Pearl Jam . Clearly , Ramos surrounded by other twentysomethings one recent evening at a trendy downtown cafe is not your aimless and angry Generation X clone . Yes , she has read Douglas Coupland 's novel `` Generation X '' ( St. Martin 's Press , 1991 ) , in which he coined the term to describe 46 million Americans between 18 and 29 as generally blase and bitter over problems AIDS , the national debt , pollution , a jobless economy and the meaninglessness of marriage created or made worse by their predecessors , some 72 million baby boomers . But when it comes to talkin ' ' bout her generation , Ramos is no whiner . She just doesn't relate to the McMarketing moniker that has lumped her with a pouting bunch depicted as over-educated , under-motivated elitists hooked on `` Melrose Place . '' And she has plenty of post-boomer company ready to wage a war against the tag and its implications , which they agree do not entirely represent their generation . Many already consider the term `` Generation X '' passe , but they must battle other downbeat labels : Slackers , Numb and Dumb , the Doofus Generation , the Lost Generation , the Motorbooty Generation , the New Petulants , the Posties , Baby Busters , Baby Bummers , Twentynothings and Thirteeners because they are supposedly the 13th generation to come of age in America . Indeed , they have an X to grind and the backlash has begun : The term `` Generation X '' is a turn-off to most who would qualify as members , according to a recent MTV poll . Twenty Twenty Insight , a newsletter that provides marketing reports on people in their 20s , advises businesses to `` lose the X unless , of course , you 're referring to Malcolm , Madame , Racer or the Planet '' and to treat these millions of consumers as individuals . According to the `` Bellwether Generation , '' a national study conducted by Saatchi & Saatchi Advertising , `` cynical , aimless twentysomethings are not at all the dominating segment of this group . '' In Washington , two social-activist groups Lead or Leave , started in 1992 , and Third Millennium , formed a year later have set out to give their generation a better image through political activism and community-based projects . And books such as `` The Twentysomething American Dream , '' ( Dutton , 1993 ) ; `` 13th Gen '' ( Vintage , 1993 ) , and the upcoming `` Generation Ecch ! '' ( Fireside , 1994 ) also focus on the flip side of the movement by countering some of the stereotypes about the generation . Michael Lee Cohen , a 28-year-old Dallas lawyer and author of `` The Twentysomething American Dream , '' said he 's had it with the zings . Two years ago after reading articles and watching TV programs that clumped him and his friends in the same Gen X lot as the audience that worships Beavis and Butt-head Cohen set out to see for himself `` if my generation was really that bad . '' With a Harvard fellowship after graduating from Harvard Law School , he trekked across 51 cities and interviewed 161 twentysomethings of various racial and economic backgrounds . `` Most of us are striving to carve out a life for ourselves in the face of scary obstacles , '' he said about the experience . `` We 're apolitical but not apathetic . '' He says the people he interviewed rejected greed . `` They just want material comfort , if not prosperity . They don't want to be homeless or hungry . '' Sure , he said , he heard from `` wary , distrustful and worried '' twentysomethings , cynical about organized politics , religion and institutions . But the cynicism he encountered `` seems to be partly an unexpressed idealism . We seem to be waiting not only for a hero , but for a mission . '' For now , his mission is to help set the record straight . He said in the last several years the media , marketers , sociologists and pundits have bashed and disparaged his generation and the jig is up . `` We have been over-generalized as oversexed and overdosed with overstated lives , '' he said , adding that efforts to define today 's young adults `` have excluded the majority of the nation 's twentysomething generation , '' including 76 percent of the generation who never attended or completed college . `` And what about the people who weren't born into affluent families ? '' he asked . `` They are a part of the twentysomething generation '' that has virtually been ignored . Cohen said most of his generation 's bashing `` comes from the age-old tradition of older generations viewing the generations coming up behind them as the worst horde of ingrates since the vandals sacked Rome . '' ( Begin optional trim ) Camille Mosley , 23 , of Los Angeles , said baby boomers have `` made statements to set up Generation X for failure . '' `` They don't give us a lot of credit for the ideas and the creativity that we have . We are very bright and capable , and we have been prejudged unfairly , '' she said , even though she doesn't entirely feel a part of the movement . `` Being African-American and because of my culture it 's a little bit different for me , '' she said . `` I think that there 's pressure on me either put on myself or from cultural consciousness to do just as well or better than what my parents did so that my children can do just as much for their children . `` Now that I am on my own , I am realizing the things that I need to take care of . I need health and car insurance , stuff that my parents always took care of . Some of us haven't really had to struggle and suffer , and I think that 's why people really think that we 're the Lost Generation and that we 're just out of it . `` But , I do have a sense of responsibility as an African-American woman , not as a Gen Xer . '' Andrew Barrett , 24 , also of Los Angeles , said : `` Everyone is typecasting us as white rich kids raised on the Brady Bunch . I 'm white but I 'm not rich . I worked my way through college . '' Barrett , a registered nurse , said he disagrees with the common wisdom about his generation : grunge-attired gripers who hang out in coffeehouses complaining about being overqualified for jobs and out of work . `` That 's not my reality . I don't even like coffee , '' he said . Henry Rincon , a 25-year-old graduate of the University of California , Los Angeles , and Bank of America accountant , said if he must align himself with a generational handle , he 'd rather go with Generation Mex . `` My identity is with my family and my culture , '' said Rincon , who lives on his own in East Los Angeles , buys his own groceries and pays his own bills , none of which include credit card debts . He praises his parents married for almost 44 years for `` giving me good family values , especially in respecting the work ethic . '' `` My parents didn't raise me to be a bum , '' added Rincon , who is a mentor to middle-school students in East Los Angeles and one day hopes to enter politics `` to help my barrio progress . '' `` It 's up to us who don't fit the Generation X mold to break it , to trash the stereotype , '' Rincon said . `` I don't watch Beavis and Butt-head . I don't live at home . And I expect to have a better life than my parents . '' LOS ANGELES In 1990 , Nate Sanders took the 12-year-old autograph business he had been running from his Pikesville , Md. , home and headed for California . No one exactly told him to `` Go west , young man , '' but if you 're running a business that depends on the rich and famous , it makes sense to hang out where they do . `` I figured there would be more business out here , '' he says , decked out in a Los Angeles business suit blue jeans , striped cotton shirt and no socks . `` I wanted to get away from home and I liked L.A. . My nights in Baltimore were filled with trips to the Fair Lanes , where here you can do something more exciting . '' Today , Nate 's Autographs employs six people , operates out of a fourth-floor apartment a few miles from Beverly Hills and sells about $ 1 million worth of autographs a year . Not bad for a 21-year-old guy who never went to college . Of course , he gets a lot of help from people like Abraham Lincoln , the Wright Brothers , Rudolph Valentino , Marilyn Monroe , Albert Einstein and scores of others who were considerate enough to sign their names a few thousand times , as well as those customers willing to spend thousands of dollars to obtain what it took these famous people seconds to create . For Sanders , his association with the autograph business began when he was still in elementary school . Using a cousin 's book of celebrity addresses , he wrote to a handful of stars and ended up with autographs of Lillian Carter , Mel Blanc , Jimmy Stewart and others . Sanders hasn't looked back . ( Begin optional trim ) `` I was just always into it , '' he says from his apartment in the Brentwood section of Los Angeles , trying to explain what made him decide to make a living from other people 's penmanship . `` As a kid , I could make relatively good dollars . If you 're a 13-year-old and you 're going to a show and you 're making $ 200 in a day , that 's darn good . '' His parents , who still live in Pikesville , can't quite explain their son 's avocation . But he 's always been a collector including an early brush with `` Star Wars '' figurines and always seemed driven to have a better collection than anyone else . `` If he was to get involved in it , he had to get the best and most involved and most complete collection , '' says Hildagarde Sanders , who teaches biology at Villa Julie College . `` Whatever little boys collected at the time , he had to have the best . '' His father , Elli , a science teacher at Pikesville Middle School , says he encouraged Nathan to write away for celebrity autographs , but admits to an ulterior motive . `` I thought that was a good idea , so he could become familiar with writing , communicating with the written word , '' says the elder Sanders , who subsidized those initial forays by contributing a nickel toward each stamp . Are they surprised by their son 's success ? `` Yeah , I think anyone would be surprised , '' Mrs. Sanders says . `` When a kid goes out and is on his own , you wonder how he 's going to do . I wouldn't have been surprised if it had been a problem . '' ( End optional trim ) While not on a level with such burgeoning hobbies as comic books or sports memorabilia , autographs occupy a comfortable niche in the world of collecting . Hard-core hobbyists may be hard to find , but almost everyone owns an autograph or two , whether it 's a Cal Ripken obtained after standing outside the gates of Camden Yards for a few hours or the Franklin Roosevelt handed down by a grandfather . The money can be impressive . According to a recent article in Newsweek , the going rate for a George Washington signature is $ 6,500 . James Dean 's scrawl can fetch $ 2,950 , probably tops among entertainment figures . Mark Twain would cost a collector around $ 1,500 . Sanders sold his first autograph at age 10 , through the same cousin who had gotten him hooked in the first place . But he soon gave up the hobby in favor of the profit . `` I don't collect anymore , '' he says . `` I always found that to be a conflict of interest . Whenever I tried to hold stuff back , I 'd always have to end up selling it , because there would be someone who would want it and it would be ridiculous to hold onto it . You would start keeping more than you were selling and you would be out of business . '' For Sanders , the growth from small-time autograph dealer to big-time moneymaker was steady . He started selling at the occasional collectibles or antiques show , graduated to a largely mail-order business promoted through catalogs published four times a year and has reached the point now where he deals exclusively with high-end pieces . A recent catalog includes not a single item priced under $ 500 ; in February , his second auction included a letter from Robert E. Lee that sold for $ 28,500 . A letter from Buffalo Bill Cody , in which the Wild West promoter tries to lend frontier doctors the same sort of notoriety he had already created for cowboys and Indians , has an asking price of $ 62,500 . Most of his stock , Sanders says , is obtained during periodic maybe four times a year buying trips . Just last month , during an eight-city East Coast spree , he landed a letter from George Washington to Gen. Benjamin Lincoln , written from Yorktown , Va. ; a letter from John Hancock , written one day before the British surrendered to end the Revolutionary War ; and a letter from Andrew Jackson , written just after the Battle of New Orleans , giving the British a flag to put on ships so no Americans would shoot at them . `` I think we 're busy enough with just the high end , '' he says , estimating his business needs to bring in at least $ 1,000 a day to remain profitable . `` There 's not much point in trying to make 10 sales when all you have to do is try to make one . `` These things are skyrocketing , as far as values are concerned , '' he adds . `` I think they said ( Abraham ) Lincolns have an average return of 14 percent in the last 50 years , which is way more than anything else would have given you per year . '' Even though autographs can mean big money , not all collectors are attracted by the potential for profit . For some , Sanders notes , it 's the closest they may get to people they admired , or to people whose lives were an inspiration . With an autograph , he says , `` you actually get to have a piece of history on your wall . '' Memorial Day weekend is over . Are you sick of `` The Flintstones '' yet ? You will be . Even if you avoid the movies , shun the toy aisles , and don't drive by RocDonald 's , chances are you 'll hear `` ( Meet ) The Flintstones '' shouting out from the Top 40 stations . It 's the scarily faithful version by the B-52 's , who change their name for the occasion to the B.C.-52 's . The B.C.-52 's theme kicks off `` The Flintstones : Music From Bedrock '' soundtrack album ( MCA ) , one of several new musical titles inspired by the mad rush to merchandising in conjunction with the mega-hyped movie . But if nostalgia fuels the ascent of `` ( Meet ) The Flintstones '' up the pop charts for the first time since its unveiling two dozen years ago , it isn't because we haven't heard it for a while . Besides the incessant reruns of the original episodes , the theme has been picked up in the intervening decades , most prominently by jazz artists from Clark Terry to Herb Ellis and Ray Brown and Barry Harris . Lyrics to the familiar theme , whose strangest lyrics are `` courtesy of Fred 's two feet , '' are credited to Flintstone creators , William Hanna and Joseph Barbera , while the music was handled by studio music director Hoyt Curtin . Besides creating Huckelberry Hound , Yogi Bear and Magilla Gorilla , Hanna and Barbera had a bit of an urge to crash the pop charts . In the '60s , they owned their own HBR label . As noted by Billboard magazine , the label 's greatest success was a No. 26 tune in 1966 by the Five Americans , `` I See the Light , '' and `` Roses and Rainbows '' a No. 73 hit in 1965 by Danny Hutton , who would go on to join Three Dog Night . Pop music played a role in the original TV show , as reflected in `` The Flintstones : Modern Stone Age Melodies , Original Songs from the Classic TV Show Soundtrack '' ( Rhino ) . Made-up parodies of stars of the day , from Hi-Fye , swinging at the Rockadero to made-up bands like the Wipeouts , and the Termites . And , years before `` The Simpsons , '' they used cartoon versions of real life people , from James Darren , who becomes James Darrock , doing a surf song called `` Yabba-Dabba-Doo '' ( as Fred , with the voice of Alan Reed , massacres `` Stardust '' ) . ( Begin optional trim ) The most prominent human guest star was probably Ann-Margret , who told Larry King that she is still recognized as Ann-Margrock . Ann-Margrock 's absence is the most jarring void on the Rhino collection . Her tunes , `` The Littlest Lamb , '' tearfully sung to Pebbles , and `` ISn't Gonna Be Your Fool No More , '' were originally planned for the disc , but cut soon before it was issued , probably because of contractual problems . The Rhino disc also includes lots of versions of the show 's theme - two versions of the ending track ( which was titled `` Rise and Shine '' ) and three variations of the opening singalong , including one that has a second verse : `` Rubbles ! Meet the Rubbles ! They 're the other Stone Age family . '' One strange rediscovery on the collection is from a dream episode in which Fred imagines the infant Pebbles to be a pop singer . The resulting , `` Open Up Your Heart and Let the Sun Shine In '' sung with a pair of sped-up harmonies , is a weird song about the devil . Part Shelley Fabares , part David Lynch . The most famous rockers on the show were the Beau Brummelstones , a cartoon re-creation of the Beau Brummels singing `` Laugh Laugh . '' Sure , that band just inserted their prerecorded hit `` Laugh , Laugh '' into their episode , but just playing the song here without the surrounding introduction by Jimmy O' Neillstone on `` Shinrock '' seems like cheating . At any rate , it still sounds great alongside the other animation-manufactured tracks . ( End optional trim ) But the best rock track ever on the Flintstones TV show was `` The Twitch , '' a rockabilly stomper by someone called Rock Roll . Already covered by cool bands ( especially memorable is a version by San Francisco 's Buck Naked and the Bare Bottomed Boys ) , it is the other song covered by the B.C.-52 's on the soundtrack album . It sounds bloated and overdone compared to the original . More to the original Rock Roll spirit on the movie soundtrack is `` Rock With the Caveman , '' just about the most straight rockabilly ever done by Mick Jones as a part of his current Big Audio Dynamite . Another good new track on the album is `` Yabba Dabba Doo '' by Us3 , who sat down to write some clever Flintstone-inspired lyrics instead of just inserting a few sound effects . For the flipside of the soundtrack , the producers dug up some previously issued tracks that fit fine , especially Screaming Blue Messiah 's `` I Wanna Be A Flintstone , '' and the insidious `` Anarchy in Bedrock '' that splices the Sex Pistols with Saturday-morning cartoons and ends up with Barney Rubble in a Mohawk . Weird Al Yankovic 's recent `` Bedrock Anthem , '' which ties cartoon themes to two Red Hot Chili Peppers hits , is also welcome . The producers may have overlooked a few Flintstone related songs such as the 1982 underground hit `` Bedrock Rap/ ( Meet ) the Flintstones , '' which brilliantly transformed Fred 's persona into Bruce Springstone . Rap strangely suited Fred and Barney , when they appeared as a prehistoric Run-D.M.C. on a 1980s Fruity Pebbles commercial . Therefore , it 's nice to see it returning on `` Bedrock Hop , '' one of two new Flintstone titles on Kid Rhino Records ( the other is the more straightforward `` The Flintstones Story '' ) . On the cover , Fred , with a devilish look on his face , jewelry on his wrists and a knit hat with the initials `` D.J.F. , '' scratches a prehistoric disc on a stone-age turntable affixed with a bird beak needle . Titles include `` Disco Dino Dinosaur , '' `` Welcome to the Gravel Pit '' and two versions of `` Bedrock Hop . '' But something must be wrong here not a single version of the `` ( Meet ) The Flintstones . '' Perhaps more than any other hobby , autograph collecting can be a difficult , if not downright intimidating , field for the beginner . Forgeries abound , and the variety of autographs to be collected seems almost endless a lot of famous people over the years have signed their names . Some basic rules : the cheapest autograph is just that , a plain autograph on a piece of paper , maybe cut off a letter or other document . Checks and letters are more desirable letters especially , depending on their content ( a letter from Judy Garland asking that someone pick up her laundry would not be nearly as valuable as one in which she discussed whether she truly enjoyed playing Dorothy in `` The Wizard of Oz '' ) . When possible , autographed photos can be valuable , and also make for the nicest display . James Lowe , a New York City autograph dealer , says beginning collectors should pick a specific subject movies , authors , Civil War figures , signers of the Declaration of Independence , whatever and pick the brains of someone already in the field . Collectors , he says , should specialize in `` what interests them , what type of people they hold as ideals . '' Charles Searle , a dealer from Asheville , N.C. , says collectors need to figure out how much they can afford to spend , then concentrate on quality over quantity . `` Try to buy the best piece you can afford , '' he says . `` Don't buy an autograph if you can buy a nice letter . Don't buy a nice letter if you can afford a nice photograph . '' As for forgeries , `` the rule for the general public is , buy from dealers you know and trust , '' dealer Nate Sanders says . `` Don't buy from the flea market dealers , because you 're liable to get burnt . '' Lowe , who has been selling autographs for a quarter-century , says he will often do considerable research to establish a signature 's authenticity . If for example , a letter from Ulysses S . Grant is dated Sept. 4 , 1866 , in New York City , he 'll try to find out if the Union general and 18th president of the United States really was in New York at the time . There are also tricks of the signing trade collectors should know . Many famous people use rubber stamps or autopens electronic contraptions that can inscribe a signature thousands of times . Valentino , Sanders says , used rubber stamps a lot , while Richard Nixon was big on the autopen , making his autograph probably the most difficult to obtain among modern presidents . Jean Harlow presents her own unique problem . Most autographed photos of the actress , who died of uremic poisoning in 1937 , were actually signed by her mother . Jean Harlow 's autograph , noticeably sloppier than her mother 's , will cost you about $ 3,000 if it 's on a photograph , $ 1,000 if it 's just on a slip of paper . But a mother-signed picture can be had for $ 50- $ 100 provided its new owner doesn't mind owning a second-hand Jean . Are you smart enough to appreciate the Beastie Boys ? A ridiculous question , right ? Bela Bartok that takes brains to understand . Be-bop too . But the Beasties ? How many IQ points do you need to understand a few rhymes and a beat ? That depends on how carefully you listen . Because few albums reward close attention more assiduously than the Beastie Boys ' latest , `` Ill Communication '' ( Grand Royal/Capitol 28599 , arriving in stores this week . It isn't just a matter of being able to sort through the pop-culture references and dropped names that litter these raps , though it 's difficult to savor a rhyme like `` So I kick out the jams and tell you who I am/And talk to the people like Les McCann '' without knowing that `` Kick Out the Jams '' was a landmark release by the MC5 , while `` Talk to the People '' was the title of an album by soul-jazz keyboardist McCann . There 's also a lot of musical information to process , thanks to the Beasties ' fondness for densely layered grooves and astonishingly eclectic taste . Take `` Root Down , '' for example . Most of the track is straight retro-funk , from MCA 's bone-simple bass line to the lock between Mike D' s drums and Eric Bobo 's congas . But when DJ Hurricane drops a few bars of Jimmy Smith 's `` Root Down ( And Get It ) '' into the chorus , the music 's flavor shifts dramatically , adding a rhythmic and harmonic tension that revitalizes the track . At the same time , the mixture of musical elements creates just the right mood to convey the Beasties ' own sense of hip-hop roots . Soul , jazz and '70s funk , remember , were the most popular sounds on the early rap scene , back when the Beasties were just Brooklyn high-schoolers going to `` Harlem world battles on the Zulu Beat show/It 's Kool Moe Dee Vs . Busy Bee , there 's one you should know . '' Granted , it 's not necessary to catch every lyrical reference or musical allusion to get the basic effect here . In fact , there are some tracks where what the Beasties do sonically seems almost intended to obscure the rap 's verbal content . On the lyric sheet , `` The Update '' comes across as an urgent warning about the impending apocalypse , as the Beasties rap about `` searching for unity '' and how `` a transition is occurring '' in global consciousness . Sounds cosmic and kind of preachy , doesn't it ? But the track itself masks that didacticism in a dense , percussion-heavy mix that not only distorts MCA 's rap with fuzz and echo , but places far greater emphasis on the group 's Afro-Cuban percussion and fusion-jazz keyboards . Then again , it 's worth noting the Beasties have always placed greater value in musical impact than on lyrical content or stylistic allegiance . That 's one reason `` Ill Communication '' can so easily sustain such a wide range of musical interests . After all , how many other acts can sound as at home moshing through a punk tune like `` Tough Guy '' as trading rhymes with Q-Tip ( from A Tribe Called Quest ) on `` Get It Together '' ? Who else would dare mix hip-hop with Tibetan Buddhist chant the way the Beasties do on `` Shambala , '' or mix fusion jazz and klezmer music as freely as `` Eugene 's Lament '' does ? But that 's precisely the sort of thing that makes `` Ill Communication '' worth hearing even if it does take some effort to appreciate . WEST HOLLYWOOD , Calif. . The phone rang , and it was Bruce . That probably meant it was time for the band to tour . But that 's not what it meant . This time , in late 1989 , Bruce Springsteen told Danny Federici he was breaking up the band . `` I was surprised , '' Federici recalled . `` I was very hurt . It was the only life I had known for 22 years . '' Five years later , Federici , 44 , isn't completely healed . He says he is still `` working through all that stuff , '' but he is happy . For the first time since the E Street Band hit the road , for good , its former keyboardist is excited about his work . He plays Monday nights for the house band the Sacred Hearts at one of the hottest clubs in town , the new House of Blues in West Hollywood . He is his own Boss . `` I 'm having a bit of the fun that I used to have , '' he said . `` I had forgotten why I became a musician . '' He can see his audience again . After Springsteen became a superstar during the mid-1980s , Federici said , the band lost that once magical intimacy with its fans . `` You could see maybe the first 10 rows of the crowd , and that was it , '' Federici said . `` Now , I play for people I can hear , people I can see . '' Federici envisions himself as an `` R&B kind of guy , '' which matches his group 's blend of contemporary and old-fashioned blues . The band plays Muddy Waters , Al Green and Albert King . These are the songs Federici loves , not just the ones Springsteen preferred . But he 's no fool . He understands the climb back to success is very steep , and so he calmly accepts his band 's secondary role . `` We 're not there to be the stars , '' Federici said . `` We 're there to make others look good . '' That means he will pull out his rock 'n' roll Rolodex , and bring in the best names possible . So far , Gregg Allman , Johnny Rivers and Paul Shaffer have stopped by to jam . Federici said there will be more guests . `` We want to give people a sense , '' he said , `` that anything can happen on Monday nights . '' The band is moving slowly with its music as well . Eventually , members plan to introduce original songs into their repertoire , but for the immediate future , covers will suffice . The group also includes guitarist Steve Chrismar , who played with George Thorogood ; lead vocalist Jimmie Wood , who recorded with Bruce Hornsby , and drummer Tony Braunagel , who has toured with Ricki Lee Jones , Bette Midler and Bonnie Raitt . Braunagel said Federici has had the perfect attitude for a new band . `` He doesn't walk around with his ego , '' Braunagel said . `` He 's very open to musical suggestions , and quite full of his own . '' ( Optional add end ) Yet , while Federici says the breakup of the E Street Band has liberated him , both musically and emotionally , he still misses the good life . He puts `` room service '' at the top of that list . `` I walked into the lobby of this hotel recently after a Billy Joel concert , '' he said , `` and I saw someone with a room service tray . I don't miss the music , but I do miss the hotels . '' He also misses the dedication of the Springsteen days . When the band needed to rehearse , the band rehearsed . That wasn't always the case when Sacred Hearts first got together . `` I came from a different scene , '' he said , `` and either you 're committed or you 're not . I wasn't used to that . But I understand these guys have to hustle to make it in L.A. . '' That includes himself . Since moving out here in 1992 , his resume has gotten him into meetings , but it hasn't clinched the deal . He had hoped to write music for films or television but so far nothing major has clicked . `` It would have been good , '' he admits , `` if I had just been a bit more famous . '' But Federici 's only regret may be that he didn't leave it all sooner . `` I wasted a lot of good time , '' he said . `` That 's what happens when you make too much money . '' In fact , it was Springsteen who made him realize it was time to move to Los Angeles . One day , he visited Federici 's New Jersey farm and told him there was nobody left in New York . Everyone had moved west . `` It was true , '' he said . And it wouldn't be a total shock if Springsteen pops up soon at the House of Blues to play with his former keyboardist . The two saw each other a few weeks ago , and have remained good friends . `` He digs the club , '' Federici said . HOLLYWOOD `` Rap is a man 's world and for women rappers it 's sometimes a hostile world where you have to walk on eggshells , '' says Karryl Smith of Conscious Daughters , which many consider the best female rap group to emerge in the '90s . `` Sometimes it 's like working with the enemy . '' The vast majority of hit rappers and their audiences is male and often seems to thrive on one of the favorite pastimes in rap circles : female-bashing . `` You can't let that bother you , '' says Smith , who , with partner Carla Green , recently had a huge hit with `` Something You Can Ride to ( Fonky Expedition ) '' one of the biggest hits ever by a female rap group . `` When guys use the word bitch , I don't get too upset , '' she says . `` It 's just a word . '' Isn't that just a rationale ? `` Not really but you do things you have to do to survive in this business , '' Smith says . `` I 'd like men to use nice , respectful terms for women but they don't and probably never will . We use the word bitch on our record too . It works in the context of our music . But there 's uglier things in rap than men calling women disrespectful names . '' The two 26-year-old women , who come from the Oakland area , steer clear of those uglier things like the excessive violence in gangsta rap . But their music , though generally positive , isn't exactly wholesome . Their debut album on Scarface/Priority Records , `` Ear to the Street , '' is nowhere near as extreme as the music of some other female rappers , but it does include some crude language and images . `` There 's a street quality to what we do you need that , '' Smith explains . `` If you don't use the same language the kids use , they willn't want to hear your music . The problem is that they willn't be able to relate to it . '' Smith knows how crucial that aspect is . `` I got into rap when I was about 10 because I could relate to what they were saying , '' she recalls . `` Rap was just starting then but it had something no other music had . Black kids can relate to rap better than any other music because it 's talking about what happens in their community . '' When Smith and Green got mesmerized by rap back in the early '80s , they were high school students in El Cerrito , near Berkeley . Though they branched out into other areas , their passion for rap never waned . Both are 5-foot-10 , and Smith made use of her height playing basketball at San Francisco State , where she majored in radio broadcasting . Green has been working in the computer business , developing software for computer games . On the side , though , they were building the foundation for a rap career . `` We were hanging out at clubs working on our rapping and writing and looking for a break , '' Smith says . `` We wanted to be rappers in the worst way . '' Before ever recording an album , they had some minor successes , including an opening slot on a tour headlined by the group Fu-Schnickens . But their big break came at a party in 1991 where they met Paris , a prominent rapper who was looking to sign artists for his Scarface label . Paris , who produced their debut album , was impressed by both their rap skills and their writing ability . He gave them free rein within certain limits . `` I wouldn't put anything out that was excessively violent or had a lot of negative images of the black community , '' he explains in a separate interview . `` There are some references here and there to things like that but it 's not a major theme of the songs . '' ( Optional add end ) Conscious Daughters , Paris insists , offer an honesty and reality missing from the work of what he calls the `` fake '' rappers . `` A lot of record companies are putting together a bunch of pretty faces for hip-hop albums and have other people write all their music , '' Paris says . `` It 's not real and the fans know it . That 's why a lot of these female rappers fail . '' Smith , though , points to another reason . `` These female rappers rap about stuff men don't want to hear about , '' she says . `` We avoid doing that . Sure , we have songs geared to women , but there are so many male rap fans we don't want to turn them off . `` What we don't do is shake our butts and flirt and tease and show men what we can do for them in bed , '' Smith explains . `` That 's the bimbo way . We can get our messages across and still maintain our dignity as women . '' President Clinton has met Pope John Paul II twice , and one topic abortion has dominated both meetings . Last summer in Denver , the pope publicly rebuked the president for his support of abortion rights . Thursday at the Vatican , the pope further pressed his adamant opposition to contraception and abortion and , in particular , to a document being prepared for a U.N. conference on population and development to be held in September in Cairo , Egypt . After Thursday 's encounter , the president told American seminarians that he and Pope John Paul discussed `` how we could come together on a policy that would promote responsible growth in the world 's population and still reaffirm our common commitment to the central role of the family in every society . '' That seems to have put the most optimistic spin possible on the conversation . A Vatican official told reporters , `` If he says there was a narrowing of differences , it 's clear it can be only in one direction . '' Obviously , President Clinton would be foolish to hope for much common ground as long as the Vatican 's concerns about human reproduction center so strongly on opposition to contraception and abortion . The president would be equally wrong to capitulate to the pope 's desire to shape U.N. policies in ways that would hamper efforts to give people around the world more control over the size of their families . Certainly moral and religious concerns should be central to these decisions , and the Catholic Church has every right to press its case . But governments everywhere are now recognizing the link between slower population growth and any reasonable hope of providing their citizens with adequate food and shelter . The central issue in this debate is not abortion , but rather population specifically , whether world population will be stabilized before it outstrips the resources necessary to sustain human communities . As it is , too many millions of people already subsist in abject poverty . Those conditions give rise to the reason abortion cannot be overlooked in population debates . International family planning programs rarely get tangled up in questions of legalizing or subsidizing abortion . Rather , abortion forces itself into the debate in the ugliest of ways the 100,000 women each year who are so desperate not to have another child that they resort to unsafe , illegal abortions and end up paying for that desperation with their lives . That 's the messy reality . President Clinton has long said abortion should be safe , legal and rare . But without adequate contraception , that will never happen . Unfortunately for a world that desperately needs guidance on these issues , the Vatican 's opposition to both abortion and to any form of contraception it regards as artificial severely constricts its ability to participate in any realistic policy debate . President Clinton is now facing his biggest foreign policy crisis . North Korea , breaking a written promise , has prevented international inspectors from examining the spent fuel rods it is withdrawing from its only operating nuclear reactor . At a minimum , that action feeds worries that Kim Il Sung 's regime is indeed covertly diverting plutonium to build its own nuclear weapons . The refusal also effectively ends U.S. efforts to coax North Korea into compliance with the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty by offers of closer diplomatic ties and economic aid . The administration 's next step is to ask the U.N. . Security Council to impose economic sanctions . Kim 's regime , now in its fifth decade of iron control , has already warned that it would regard sanctions as an act of war . Responsible world powers may soon decide they have no choice but to test the threat implicit in that declaration . Washington and South Korea know the risks of confronting an antagonist as nuttily irresponsible as North Korea . With a million-man army and with far more artillery pieces and tanks than the South Korean army and the 38,000 U.S. troops that directly support it , Kim Il Sung could risk all on one roll of the dice and rapidly strike south , as he did 44 years ago this month . There is no chance that North Korea could win a second Korean war . But before it was thrown back and militarily annihilated it could inflict enormous damage on Seoul , home to 25 percent of South Korea 's 44 million people . It 's this possibility that prompted the Clinton administration to seek a diplomatic solution to the challenge posed by the North 15 months ago when it announced it was quitting the NPT . All good-faith efforts have now failed . The International Atomic Energy Agency , along with Washington , has been repeatedly bamboozled . If North Korea succeeds in making a mockery of the NPT , other nuclear aspirants Iran , Iraq , Libya will not be far behind . If North Korea can build nuclear weapons and put them aboard the medium-range missiles it is developing , South Korea , Japan , much of China and parts of Russia will fall within its target zone . Pressures within South Korea and probably Japan to go nuclear would be enormous . It willn't be easy getting a U.N. . Security Council consensus on sanctions ; China and Russia both have expressed their distaste for such an approach . But with its economy a shambles , North Korea could be highly vulnerable even to partial sanctions . If , for example , Japan acted to halt money transfers to the North from Koreans living in Japan , Pyongyang 's primary source of hard currency would be gone , and its ability to pay for vital imports would shrink . President Clinton should promptly speak to the American people , and to the world , about just how serious the threat now emanating from North Korea is . He should candidly concede that there are grave risks in implementing sanctions . He should be no less clear in emphasizing that the ultimate risks of doing nothing in response are immeasurably greater . WASHINGTON I remember Pearl Harbor because my father , a World War I veteran , at once volunteered for military service ; he was turned down . I remember D-Day for the blurred combat photographs of American soldiers going bravely ashore into a hail of fire . We who are now pushing into our sixties grew up thinking that it was as American as apple pie to take a turn in uniform . The Korean War was still on when we were leaving college . Some graduates were ready to taste war and some were not , but without debate except as to the particular branch or program you were applying for , almost everyone went in . What 's more , almost everyone in my gang thought there was something good about military service . Either it taught you a lot about a much broader spectrum of Americans than any one of us had ever been exposed to , or it provided a first look at how a big organization gets things done , or it gave you a certain satisfaction for `` serving '' your country despite the fact that those of us who ended up in what was the peacetime military did not serve in any dangerous way . A young second lieutenant who had never bossed a soul suddenly found himself formally in charge of the work and welfare of 30 or 40 people , including kids but also older noncommissioned officers who had seen combat . It was a maturing experience . It left many of us quietly appreciative of the system that had offered this opportunity . Mark me down as one who regrets that a few years of military service no longer constitute part of an average young person 's universe . Alas , the whole notion of service turns out to be generational . As we embark on what will be a long year of 50th anniversary observances of victory in World War II , it is worth noting what has been gained and what lost by this fundamental change in a citizen 's public obligations . What is gained is an extra two or three years ' worth of personal freedom no battlefield risk and no one ordering you around . To serve is now often considered , I gather , strange , nutty , uncool , a waste . Even in peacetime circumstances , the benefits of nonparticipation are prized by many young people , and not only young people . They are prized specifically over the forgone benefits of military life in terms of people met , places seen and challenges faced . What is lost is the experience of working in a public enterprise . True , service in uniform can breed cynicism as well as civic-mindedness . I would not insist that military veterans make better citizens . But at the more enlightened end of the spectrum , there are lessons to be learned from living under a code of discipline lessons of personal reliability and public purpose that bear directly on the matter of concern for others in the society . The military is one place where those precious lessons can be learned . Vietnam fouled us up terribly and still on the issue of military service . The Vietnam conflict gave life to the notion that individuals should choose the wars in which they take part and should not leave this question up to the elected government alone . Down that path lies a triumph of participatory democracy but a series of dilemmas for representative democracy , which is the kind we have . Bill Clinton as a student was a pick-your-war man . He had conscientious objections to the war that happened to be on when his time came , and he chose not to serve . Now he 's the commander in chief , struggling to be true at once to an oath of office that commands him to protect the nation and to a personal code that inclines him to leave room for individual choice . His awkward straddle in these circumstances leads him to reduce to the minimum the contingencies in which American lives would be put at risk . It was a bit jarring to hear him on the radio last Saturday holding out the sacrifice of D-Day veterans as a model for America 's continuing commitment to freedom . But he was right about the D-Day veterans even if the words did not fall naturally from his lips . Such words used to come much more naturally from Ronald Reagan . Who does not recall his thrilling salute to the D-Day heroes in 1984 ? But of course he was never there , in battle , either , although he made you feel he was . The military draft distributed service and risk more or less fairly across the American male landscape . President Nixon ended the draft by way of proving to the American people he would not send their sons to Vietnam . For a short-term political purpose he did a long-term social harm : separating the population into protectors and protected and thinning the exchange between them . Certainly we have a fine fighting force . We also have a military not fatally but in some degree less able than it might be to learn from the society and to teach the society in return . WASHINGTON The legends of the West stamps that were sold by various post offices before being recalled earlier this year will probably be among the rarest stamps produced by the U.S. Postal Service . Azeezaly S. Jaffer , manager of the agency 's stamp services , said that postal officials believe that the number of sheets sold was `` under 200 . '' Since only three full sheets of the stamps have surfaced , it seems likely that most of the other stamps were torn apart and used in the mail . Those stamps , for all practical purposes , have disappeared . The 250 million recalled stamps the ones with the wrong portrait of Wild West star Bill Pickett are locked in postal vaults in Kansas City , Mo. . They are scheduled to be burned despite protests from U.S. Rep. William L . Clay , D-Mo. , chairman of the House Post Office and Civil Service Committee , and representatives of stamp publications , who want the stamps sold to collectors . Postal officials say that Postmaster General Marvin T. Runyon is not waivering from his determination to destroy the stamps , which cost more than $ 1 million to print . He ordered them recalled Jan. 18 after members of the Pickett family complained that the portrait of `` Bulldogger '' Pickett was based on an incorrectly labeled photograph of the Wild West performer . After the destruction of the recalled stamps , the few surviving stamps in private hands will be among the rarest American stamps , probably worth far more than the $ 4,200 that a sheet purchased at a McLean , Va. , post office brought at an auction in New York earlier this year . Other sheets were purchased in Princeton , N.J. , and Bend , Ore. , but postal officials have yet to release their breakdown of where the stamps were sold , well before officials had fixed a release date for the stamps . Postal officials are finishing their validation of the portraits and descriptions on the other 19 stamps on the Legends sheet . Once that is finished and officials have decided what other changes to make to the stamps , Jaffer said it will take at least another 120 days before 400 million of the new stamps can be printed and shipped to post offices . An internal postal review has suggested changes to which will push their release from June , as officials once hoped , toward fall . The delay presents Jaffer with a dilemma . A number of other stamps are scheduled for release in the fall , including the booklets of blues and popular singer stamps in September and the Four Wonders of the Sea stamps in October . Because the Postal Service is determined to boost the price of a first-class letter to at least 32 cents in early January , post offices will have little time to sell lots of new 29-cent stamps this fall before the rates change . So Jaffer , the top stamp official in the Postal Service , is still deciding when to release the revised Legends stamps . One thing seems certain : There will be a strong demand for the stamps whenever they are released , if only as a result of the furor that the Pickett stamp generated . -0- The second high-valued stamp based on a design created 125 years ago will go on sale Aug. 19 at a stamp show in Pittsburgh . The dark green $ 5 stamp features portraits of George Washington and Andrew Jackson and is one of the few U.S. stamps to be printed in a diamond format . In revealing the unusual design in New York last month , Jaffer said the planned release at the American Philatelic Society show `` reinforces the commitment shared by stamp collectors and the Postal Service to promote the world 's most popular hobby . '' His comments were aimed at easing tensions between APS officials and the Postal Service over the agency 's support for stamp collecting , an issue that arose after Runyon 's restructuring eliminated some stamp promotion programs . The new $ 5 stamp will replace a stamp in the Great Americans series featuring Western writer Bret Harte , which was first issued in 1987 . The Washington-Jackson stamp joins a new $ 1 stamp based on another 19th-century stamp design released last month . Postal officials say that original copies of the design for the latest stamp could not be located , but based on published descriptions , they believe the design was planned as a 3-cent stamp by a company bidding on an 1869 printing contract . Like the new $ 1 stamp , the latest was printed by Stamp Venturers of Chantilly , Va. , on intaglio presses . Engraver Yves Baril was said to have reversed a Gilbert Stuart portrait of Washington for the stamp and used a John Wood Dodge portrait of Jackson for his final design . Baril also created engraved flourishes and lettering for the stamp , which is being printed in sheets of 20 stamps . Individuals interested in securing first-day cancellations of the $ 5 Washington-Jackson stamps should purchase the stamps at their local post office and place them on addressed envelopes . These should be placed in a larger envelope and mailed to : Customer-Affixed Stamps , $ 5 Washington-Jackson Stamps , Postmaster , Pittsburgh , PA 15290-9991 . All envelopes must be postmarked by Sept. 18 . Spring and summertime sports activities offer a chance for some of the best pictures of your kids when they are engrossed in something they love , and don't have to be cajoled , bribed or threatened to look interested , much less happy . Taking good action shots is sometimes easier said than done , because it often can mean letting your instincts take over while shooting . Sometimes it can mean breaking the rules moving the camera while shooting , for example to make a dramatic panning shot . But if you work on developing your instincts and realize that the only rule is that there are no rules , making good action photos becomes that much simpler . The best sports photographers have developed an anticipatory eye as well as a photographic one . You can do this too . For example , in a softball game with the bases loaded , it stands to reason that a base hit will lead to a play at the plate , especially in a close game . So instead of looking all over the place for a shot , set your focus on home plate and wait for the action to come to you . Good sports shots most often are made with conventional 35mm cameras rather than point-and-shoots because they offer more flexibility and speed . Even a zoom lens on a point-and-shoot can be less value than a similar lens on a conventional camera because the point-and-shoot lens can't be immediately racked in and out in reaction to fast-changing events on the playing field . As for the best zoom lens , I 'd recommend a 28-85mm or 35-105mm to start with since that will give you a nice range of wide-angle to medium telephoto shots . A longer telephoto or zoom , like a 200mm , will have the added benefit of letting you make close-ups of faces unobtrusively . ( Your son or daughter on the sidelines , for example , or waiting a turn at bat . ) Unless you absolutely prefer it , I wouldn't use slide film for action shooting leave that to the pros . Use more forgiving print film so that even if you happen to be a stop or so off in exposure during a dramatic shot , the damage can be undone when the photo is printed . On most sunny days , a good all-around 400-speed film like Kodak Ultra Gold 400 or Fuji 's new Super G 400 will allow you to shoot comfortably at 1/500 or even 1/1000 of a second , ensuring sharper pictures of flying bodies while also lessening the effect of camera shake . If the day is overcast , switch to Fujicolor 800 or Kodak 's Ektapress 1600 to retain the option of shooting at high shutter speeds . Note : Automated metering systems today are pretty impressive and generally can be relied upon to give adequate exposure . But if you 've got the time , I 'd suggest taking a reading off shaded grass and using that reading for most lighting situations that day unless , of course , the lighting changes dramatically . It 's old-fashioned , I know , but it works like a charm . When shooting sports , don't assume all the action takes place on the field . Try turning away from the field now and then and shooting your fellow frenzied moms and dads for some humorous photos that will do as much to capture the atmosphere of the game as your shot of Jimmy or Cathy kicking the winning goal or batting in the winning run . Henry Horenstein , a professional photographer and author of more than 20 sports and instructional photography books , notes that , just as athletes practice before their best performances , so too an amateur sports photographer might shoot some test rolls before a crucial game . Horenstein is working with Canon USA to promote this year 's World Cup soccer matches around the United States . He stopped by recently to chat about shooting sports . It seems only sporting , then , to give him the last words : `` Change your position don't just stay in the same place . Try walking around to get different angles . Also , the subject doesn't always have to be in the center of the photo . When photographing the players , avoid distracting backgrounds . For example , use the field as a background instead of the crowd . `` Silhouettes make interesting photos , but unless you 're trying for a special effect , don't shoot directly into the light , even on cloudy days . `` Taking good action pictures is a lot like playing the game itself : The more you practice , the better you can be . '' We were playing Ticket , a game that went like this : Nobody obeyed the New Jersey Turnpike 's posted speed limit of 55 miles per hour . Nobody drove under 65 mph . Everybody tried to stay in the middle of speeding traffic . The first driver to complete the entire 135-mile length of the turnpike without a traffic ticket won . None of us knew one another not by name anyway . Our identities were wrapped in our vehicles and their license plates . I was driving the 1994 Ford Mustang Cobra a flaming red sports coupe with blue Michigan manufacturer 's tags . That meant there was no way I could win . The art of mastering Ticket is inconspicuous speeding , which is why most players try to remain in the middle of traffic until an opportune time to break away . But there was no way to remain inconspicuous in the new Cobra not with its red paint , polished aluminum wheels , its snake-nostril hood ; not with its flared rear fenders , high rear spoiler , high rear end . Too sexy . It attracted attention in `` park . '' That meant I was forced to run in the worst possible positions way behind the pack or way ahead of it , or abandoned in the left or right lanes , all spots vulnerable to radar . Anyway , for me , it didn't matter . I finished the Delaware-to-New York turnpike run in reasonable time . I didn't have an accident , and didn't get a ticket ; and even though I had to drive the Cobra under speed most of the way , I had a hell of a good time . Background : The new Cobra is a real snake , nothing like the cobbled-together , phony , marketing-exercise , jive-time Mustang Cobra it replaced . This Cobra comes with big , 13-inch diameter , vented front and rear disc brakes ; modified MacPherson strut front suspension ; rigid-axle rear suspension with four trailing links and two leading hydraulic links . In other words , folks , the thing stops right and handles even better . The engine is Ford 's 5-liter V-8 , bumped up to produce 240 horsepower at 4,800 rpm . That 's 25 more horsepower than found in the Mustang GT , but 35 less horsepower than found in the humongous 5.7-liter V-8 of the comparable Pontiac Firebird Formula . Big whoop . Not on this side of the jail cell will you ever come close to using all of the horsepower in any of those cars . Torque in the new Cobra is set at 280 foot-pounds at 4,000 rpm . Four-wheel , anti-lock brakes are standard . Ditto dual-front air bags and a standard five-speed manual transmission and 17-inch diameter Goodyear Eagle GS-C tires . The Cobra can be bought as a coupe or convertible . Complaints : The five-speed gearbox could use a bit more finesse . I found it a bit choppy . And though the suspension is mostly righteous , there 's a bit more wallow in the Cobra 's body than exists in the comparable Firebird Formula . Praise : ISn't nothin ' but a whole lot of fun . But if you really want to have a good time in this front-engine , rear-drive muscle car , buy it in a color less conspicuous than red . Head-turning quotient : Star of the turnpike rest stops . Lotsa whoops . Ride , acceleration and handling : Superb ride and acceleration . Darned good handling , especially when you anticipate and then prepare to take sharp curves . Excellent braking . Mileage : Down the hatch ! About 18 miles per gallon ( 15.4-gallon tank , estimated 265-mile range on usable volume of 89-octane unleaded ) , running mostly highway , driver only with light cargo . Sound system : Kick butt ! Optional Mach 460 Electronic AM/FM stereo radio and cassette and compact disc . One of the best auto audio sound systems ever . Price : Estimated base price is $ 21,000 . Estimated dealer 's invoice price is $ 18,458 . Estimated price as tested is $ 23,000 , including $ 1,525 in options and a $ 475 destination charge . Purse-strings note : The Cobra is in limited production 5,000 coupes , 1,000 convertibles which means dealers can charge anything they want . Compare with Chevrolet Camaro GT/Pontiac Firebird Formula . For Dwight D. Eisenhower , June 5 , 1944 , was `` the longest day . '' For over a year the Supreme Allied Commander had been preparing history 's mightiest invasion force more than 5,000 ships , almost 12,000 aircraft and 155,000 soldiers . Originally set for that day , the assault on Hitler 's Atlantic Wall would have to be postponed 24 hours because of high winds and ominous waves in the English Channel . Then the storm broke and the most momentous decision of Eisenhower 's life was made . `` Okay , let 's go , '' he told the men around him . For better or for worse , tomorrow was D-Day . Outside his tent the gray English skies began to clear . Inside he prepared for the worst . `` Our landings .. . have failed , '' he wrote in a statement he hoped would never be used . `` If any blame or fault attaches to the attempt , it is mine alone . '' Eisenhower , the global strategist , remained at heart a self-effacing Kansas farmboy , embodying the democratic virtues of the soldiers he led . War is an unpredictable mix of organized confusion , improvised ingenuity and timeless courage . Eisenhower recognized this when he returned to the battlefield beside the sea in June 1964 . On D-Day-plus-20 years , he spoke not of planes or tanks or guns or ships , nor strategies or commanders , Allied or Axis . Instead he thought of what might have been of all the men buried in French soil and all their families from whom they were forever separated . He said how blessed he and Mamie felt to have had grandchildren . And he reflected with sadness on the other American couples who would be denied that blessing because their sons had fallen in the fields of northern France . I had similar feelings in June 1984 when I visited Normandy for the 40th anniversary of the great invasion . As I gazed out upon the endless rows of white crosses and Stars of David , Ike 's lament took on a special and personal poignancy . Within sight of Omaha Beach , I singled out Pfc . Peter Zanatta , whose daughter Lisa had written to tell me of her father 's extraordinary bravery . Pfc. Zanatta had died of cancer several years before the 1984 commemoration , but he was very much in our thoughts . On that day I promised both Lisa and her father , `` We will always remember . We will always be proud . We will always be prepared , so we may always be free . '' Much has changed in the decade since . The Iron Curtain that rose in the tragic aftermath of the war has been consigned to the history books . Germany has united . Yet for these changes and more , our debt of gratitude remains to the boys of Pointe du Hoc and all the heroes who liberated a continent in chains . Age has its privileges , not least among them the opportunity to distill whatever wisdom comes from a long life of experiences . My generation has lived through a cold war and a nuclear nightmare that for 40 years haunted the dreams of children everywhere . During this same time , we have seen the United States become , however reluctantly , a great player on the world stage . Today , 50 years after the stark contrasts of D-Day , many Americans question our role in a world less clearly divided between dictatorships and democracy . Aware of our power , we seem uncertain as to our purpose . Some in Congress , who confuse leading with meddling and ignore the lessons of a century scarred by false Utopias and Maximum Leaders , would have us lower our global profile . On the eve of D-Day-plus-50 they propose the removal of 75,000 American soldiers from Europe unless Europeans pay a significantly greater share of the cost of keeping them there . Many oppose such short-sighted policies , and for good reason . Let 's be honest . Evil still stalks the planet . Its ideology may be as simple as bloodlust , its program not more complex than economic or military plunder . Call it what you will , it is evil all the same . As such , it must be recognized and countered . Acknowledging trouble is not the same as looking for it . In the post-Cold War world it is fashionable to assert that nations must focus their energies on economic , not military factors . In the long run , it is true , no nation can remain militarily strong while economically exhausted . But it is also true that defeats on the battlefield can and do occur in the short run . Enemies driven by nationalism , religion , ethnicity or ideology are unlikely to be impressed by American automobile production or diplomatic skills , especially if the latter are divorced from military strength . Lest we forget , Kuwait 's wealth did not protect it from the predatory Saddam Hussein . Moreover , can anyone truly believe that progress toward a Middle East peace has occurred in a vacuum , or that Israel 's age-old enemies would consider making peace but for the disappearance of the Soviet Union as a regional military power ? The question answers itself . As long as military force remains a necessary fact of modern existence , we should employ it in the service of vital humanitarian objectives . For example , what is being done to the people of Bosnia-Herzegovina shreds every definition of human morality . `` Ethnic cleansing '' is a savage euphemism for an evil we 've seen before in Europe . By the same token , in parts of Africa , mankind is an endangered species . The ultimate lesson of D-Day should not be the willingness of freedom 's friends to come to its defense in an hour of grave peril . It should rather be how unnecessary such sacrifice is . If statesmen do their jobs with vision and resolution , then soldiers needn't be exposed to murderous fire . Ten years ago I promised Lisa Zanatta that we would always remember . It would be tragic as well as ironic if the 50th anniversary of D-Day was marked only by political amnesia . Private Zanatta deserves better . So do his grandchildren . WASHINGTON A Washington Post article about Bedford , Va. , incorrectly stated that the deaths of 23 Bedford soldiers on D-Day prompted the military to stop forming units from single communities . A Pentagon spokesman said the story is not true , even though it is a much-repeated World War II story . National Guard and military reserve units activated for combat still comprise people from the same region . The article also misstated the year in which the 29th Infantry Division sailed for Britain . It was 1942 . WASHINGTON A Washington Post article about Commerce Secretary Ronald H. Brown 's business interests incorrectly reported a statement from Harry Barnett , the attorney for Washington business executive Nolanda Hill . Barnett said he was not aware of the specifics of Brown 's sale of his interest in First International Communications Corp. , a Washington investing firm that Hill and Brown owned . You see them all the time now , on the trunk lids of new cars , sporty-looking and not-so-sporty-looking . They resemble oversized lift handles or misplaced aircraft wings . They are called rear spoilers , and they are being offered increasingly as options on new cars . Not just on overpowered , pseudo sports cars like the Chevy Camaro or the Ford Mustang . Spoilers can also be found on such otherwise sedate models as the Toyota Camry , Honda Accord , Oldsmobile Achieva , Nissan Sentra , and Mercedes 190E . They 're attached to the rear ends of the Volvo 850 and the Ford Tempo and Escort . Even Saturn , which bills itself as a no-nonsense , straightforward automobile , offers an optional spoiler . You now can order a spoiler for virtually every new car model sold in America . If it doesn't come from the factory , the dealer will be happy to install one for you for a price . The idea isn't new . Formula I racing cars have been using them for years . The principle is simple : It 's the reverse of an aircraft wing . The spoiler generates downward airflow on the rear of the car , thereby increasing traction without requiring an increase in curb weight . It 's an effective racing device , provided you 're running the track at about 200 mph . But street vehicles are a different story . You simply aren't going to reach speeds where a spoiler 's effects would be significant . Furthermore , most of the spoiler manifestations cropping up on our highways aren't engineered components . They 're added for styling . They 're gingerbread . And they 're very expensive , especially when you consider that they 're basically useless . How expensive ? About $ 700 on a Toyota Celica or Honda Accord . Or $ 500 on the Volvo . Only GM , which is fighting for market share at the moment , seems to be reticent about gouging for spoilers . On most of its models , the option runs under $ 200 . But even GM 's price is exorbitant , compared with the manufacturing cost . In a recent and informal survey of new-car dealers in the Washington area , I asked every salesperson who approached me about spoilers . I also collected as many brochures on new cars as I could , looking to read what the automobile manufacturers were saying about spoilers in their promotional literature . The results of my little expedition should be eye-opening for cost-conscious car-shoppers . The typical pitch is that the spoiler will help improve traction . But when you ask for specifics engineering data , say you immediately get a verbal shuffle about how it 's too complicated for a layperson to understand . In some cases , however , the salespeople willn't try to mislead you . `` What does a spoiler do ? '' I asked at a Honda dealership . `` It makes the car look better , '' was the reply . `` Oh yeah ? For how much ? '' `` About $ 700 . '' `` Would you spend that kind of money on the thing ? '' I asked . `` Not me , man , '' the salesman replied , sheepishly . One hint of the uselessness of spoilers , and the unspoken line over which the car manufacturers willn't step , is how they are described in the sales literature . Only a few of the brochures I collected categorized spoilers as a performance-enhancing feature . Those were for high-end , high-performance models . Instead , loose references were made to their sporty appearances . In other words , no carmaker will claim in print that a rear spoiler actually does you any good on the road . The closest I found to an overt statement was contained in the brochure for the Toyota Supra , which sells for nearly $ 50,000 . In it , the company touts the $ 700 option as `` Helping to increase downforce and stability at the higher speeds. .. . ' ' At exactly what higher speeds ? The brochure doesn't specify . The Volvo brochure is more circumspect . The spoiler option on its 850 model series , which runs about $ 500 , `` Adds distinctive , performance oriented visual accent. .. . ' ' We 're talking about a spoiler on a Volvo , for crying out loud ! Although they have been an option for several years , none of the major consumer magazines has turned its attention to spoilers not Consumer Reports , the Car Book , Consumer Guide , Car & Driver , or Road and Track , for instance . -O- Possibly the height of absurdity is the sight of spoilers on the rear decks of such models as the Camry and the Accord , which have front-wheel drive . An idle question : If spoilers were truly effective , shouldn't carmakers install them on the hoods of their front-drive models ? True , there are many other options that are just as expensive . But this isn't like a sunroof , which costs a lot but at least has a function . Or fog lamps . Or even a tachometer for a model with an automatic transmission . The spoiler has no function whatsoever except to liberate more of your money . So what 's a consumer to do ? First and foremost , don't waste a dime on a spoiler . If you absolutely must have one , insist the dealer give you a discount equal to its mark-up on the sticker price . My recommendation is that you take the money you would have spent on a spoiler and go out and buy yourself a bicycle rack and a good bicycle to put on it . You 'll have purchased a much more useful addition to your car 's rear deck , a wonderful alternative mode of transportation , and a boon to your personal fitness . President Clinton recently treated word-watchers to a linguistic `` two-fer . '' On a single , red-letter day , he dusted off the venerable American phrase `` red cent '' and coined a new word , `` delink . '' `` The Treasury will not be out one red cent , '' Clinton announced , explaining that the government would be fully reimbursed for an aide 's use of a White House helicopter for a golf outing . Hot on the scent of `` red cent , '' we discover that the U.S. government 's first penny , minted between 1793 and 1857 , was made from reddish tinted copper , earning it the name `` red cent . '' Since then , Americans haven't been reticent about using `` red cent '' to mean something of small value . Clinton might have plugged that spot in his prose with `` plugged nickel , '' a term circulated during the 1800s for a gold or silver coin whose center has been removed and plugged with a cheap metal . Some might contend that there 's not a dime 's worth of difference between these two terms . But in coins , as in religion , denomination is everything . By choosing a penny ante expression , Clinton was trying to make it clear that he 'd give such corruption no quarter and trying to prevent his own de-nomination in 1996 . Which brings us to `` delink . '' Was President Clinton a `` delink-quent '' when he coined this word for detaching U.S. trade policy with China from our disapproval of Chinese human rights violations ? Some newspapers not only greeted Clinton 's decision with an unchained melody of boos , but placed `` delink '' in quotation marks , the journalistic equivalent of dangling a dead rodent at arm 's length and holding your nose . True enough , `` un '' is the more common prefix to indicate that an action has been reversed , and we already have a perfectly good word `` unlink '' to indicate the concept of detachment . But the prefix `` de '' also means `` to reverse '' or `` remove , '' as in `` delouse , '' `` demystify '' and `` demagnetize . '' Besides , `` delink , '' in the diplomatic tradition of `` dealignment '' and `` depoliticize , '' sounds crisper and more decisive than `` unlink . '' But , please , spare us `` delinkization . '' An extraordinary collection of original documents , including a 1575 memo from Queen Elizabeth I to a servant requesting that her closets be cleaned out and some of her clothes given to 40 poor women on Maundy Thursday , is on view at an exhibit that opened May 27 at the Biltmore Estate in Asheville , N.C. . The show is called `` George Washington Vanderbilt : A Man and His Treasures '' to mark the centennial of Biltmore , the largest house in America . The 250-room French Renaissance-style mansion was designed by noted architect Richard Morris Hunt for the grandson of the dynasty 's founder , Cornelius Vanderbilt . Biltmore , which is now a museum , remains in the family ; its owner , William Cecil , is a sixth-generation Vanderbilt . The royal correspondence is among approximately 1,000 original documents inserted into a set of 29 gilded volumes entitled `` The History of Holland House , '' published in the 1850s . Holland House was the London abode of an aristocratic English family from the 17th century until it was destroyed by bombs during World War II . The folio-size volumes were purchased more than a century ago by George Vanderbilt . They have remained ever since in storage at Biltmore , uncataloged and unseen by scholars , according to Jerry Patterson , author of `` The Vanderbilts . '' Another exceptional document in the collection is a 1782 letter from the Marquis de Lafayette to Benjamin Franklin telling him it would be tough to get more `` pecuniary assistance '' from France for the young United States . Asked by Cecil to authenticate the collection , Patterson , formerly a rare-book expert at Sotheby 's , said in an interview it contains unique items such as an autograph of Edward VI , Henry VIII 's son who died as a teen-ager , and funeral bills for William III showing how much his shroud cost . There are unpublished missives from literati such as Lord Byron , Samuel Johnson , Richard Sheridan , Samuel Taylor Coleridge , Alexander Pope and William Wordsworth . There is a letter in Old Russian signed by Catherine the Great and a 1799 note about a soldier 's pension from Napoleon when he was still Bonaparte . Napoleon was a friend of the Holland family . Other treasures collected by George Vanderbilt that are on public display for the first time since the museum opened in 1930 include numerous pieces of silver by famed 18th-century English silversmiths Paul DeLamerie and Paul Crespin . There are also memorabilia that shed light on the personality of Biltmore 's original owner , who died in 1914 : his boyhood diaries , French royalty cards ( an antique version of baseball cards ) , pocket watches and even a ticket stub from a bullfight of long ago . A companion show entitled `` Biltmore Estate : The Most Distinguished Private Place '' will be mounted at the Octagon museum in Washington starting Oct. 17 . The centennial exhibit will remain until the end of 1995 . For information , call the Biltmore Estate , ( 800 ) 323-6804 . WASHINGTON The State Department , in a highly unusual move , has quietly yanked career foreign service officer Jon David Glassman from his job as ambassador to Paraguay only a few months before his three-year tour was to have been completed . Glassman , a national security aide to former Vice President Dan Quayle , was summarily bounced by Assistant Secretary of State Alexander F. Watson and principal deputy Michael Skol around mid-February and was given until April 30 to leave Asuncion . Administration officials insist that the move had nothing to do with Glassman 's identification with Quayle or his authorship of a controversial `` white paper '' that the Reagan administration used to `` prove '' that the Salvadoran rebels were Cuban and Soviet puppets . Officials said that the problem was mostly one of style . The hard-charging Glassman had been U.S. charge d' affaires to Afghanistan and closed the U.S. . Embassy there in 1989 . He was sent to Paraguay by President George Bush . Word is that he was too undiplomatic in leaning on the Paraguayan government to crack down on drug smugglers and money launderers . He had simply stepped on too many toes too often . Sources said the Paraguayan government had twice sent senior officials to Washington in recent months to complain and press for Glassman 's removal . `` We simply lost confidence in his reporting '' on the situation in Paraguay , an administration source said , adding that Glassman 's departure `` has been a long time coming . '' Bush administration officials also had been unhappy with his performance but took no action before the Clinton administration came in , that source said . While style may have had much to do with the decision , there appears to have been a substantive dispute as well between Glassman and the State Department . Glassman reportedly pushed to have the newly elected Paraguayan government branded as noncooperative with U.S. antinarcotic efforts in the South American country . Other agencies working in Asuncion agreed with that assessment , a source said . But officials here disagreed and kept Paraguay on State 's `` good guys '' list of nations this year . Glassman is now awaiting his next assignment , which will be working in Washington at the Industrial College of the Armed Forces at Fort McNair , described by one source as `` truly Siberia . '' Word is Glassman 's replacement is to be another career foreign service officer , Robert E . Service , who has served in posts in Latin America and as director of Southern Cone affairs , the bureau that handles Argentina , Chile , Uruguay and Paraguay . Service is the son of John Stewart Service , one of the career foreign service `` China hands '' who fell victim to the McCarthyite witch hunt of the 1950s . BUDAPEST , Hungary The successors to the Communists won last weekend in the final round of Hungary 's 1994 national elections . With some trepidation , the world took note that Hungary , like Lithuania and Poland before it , had returned the former ( if somewhat reformed ) Communist Party to power . The wins by the Communist remnants are leading some to wonder about the fate of regional democratic reforms . But only a paranoid few anticipate the restoration of the old one-party dictatorship and state-controlled centralized economy . With a 54 percent majority , the Hungarian Socialist Party ( MSZP ) registered the third and largest victory by Communist successors in the former Soviet bloc . The Polish Democratic Left Alliance won 37 percent of seats in the Polish Sejm in September 1993 . The Lithuanian Democratic Worker 's Party gained 52 percent of parliamentary seats the next month . The regional trend may reflect nostalgia for communism to the extent that free-market reforms hurt , and the standard of living for many East Europeans was higher in the late 1980s than it is now . But it is perhaps better understood as a product of the post-Communist Zeitgeist , a combination of determination to see democratic reforms through with popular disillusionment with the euphoria of 1989 . In Hungary , the election went to the Socialists , not to socialism . An absolute majority , 209 of 386 parliamentary seats , went to the MSZP , the legal successor to the Communist Hungarian Socialist Workers ' Party that governed Hungary from 1956 to 1989 . The Socialist victory stems from several factors . First , many Hungarians voted with their wallets , perceiving the MSZP 's promise of `` capitalism with a human face '' as the best of both worlds . Hungary 's post-Communist economic health has been plagued by chronic and acute pain , including rising prices , 13 percent unemployment and a widening gap between rich and poor . Because the MSZP 's moderate platform included a firm commitment to continuing Hungary 's reforms , the electorate was spared an agonizing choice between self-interest and democracy . To date , Hungary has attracted some $ 7 billion in foreign investment since 1990 , more than the rest of Eastern Europe put together . The privatization of state-owned concerns has resulted in some 60 percent of the gross domestic product stemming from the private sector , including the black market . Most Western political analysts agree the Socialist leadership will pose no threat to Hungary 's long-term stability . The Socialist leadership 's credibility was crucial to the MSZP 's victory . Polls show MSZP leader Gyula Horn is the politician Hungarians most strongly associate with the change of regime . In his role as foreign minister in the last Communist government , Horn opened the border to allow East German refugees to move from Hungary into Austria , creating a dramatic movement of people that hastened the collapse of communism . Another element contributing to the credibility of the MSZP is that the party did not change its ideological stripes after the Berlin Wall fell . Unlike Poland , where transformed ex-Communists ran as free-market democrats , the MSZP campaigned as unrepentant , if revamped , Socialists . This was possible because of the liberal nature of Hungary 's `` goulash communism , '' so called for its mix of some private enterprise with a planned economy . This relatively moderate climate under communism earned Hungarians a reputation as the happiest campers in the Eastern barracks . The MSZP benefited from the absence of substantive distinctions among the mainstream party platforms , political analysts said , giving image precedence over ideology : Polls show that voters regard the Alliance of Free Democrats , a party largely composed of former dissidents that came in a remote second with 70 seats , as principled , but inexperienced and idealistic . Voters held the current ruling party , the conservative Hungarian Democratic Forum , guilty by association for the economic troubles of the last four years . It won 37 seats , a humiliating drop from 164 seats in the 1990 elections . The Young Democrats ' Party made a surprisingly poor showing , gaining only 20 seats despite its earlier popularity . Voters perceived that the former alternative student party had moved too far to the right , positioning itself as a party of pragmatic yuppies . At this juncture , it seems premature to see a new , regional Red Menace . The MSZP , democratically elected by a landslide , proposes no significant changes in national policy . While the prospect of former Communists attaining power frightens some , especially in this part of the world , it should be remembered that the voters ' choices , in Hungary and the other emerging democracies , are limited . As a Budapest intellectual observed , `` If everyone associated with the old regime was forbidden from power , then by default the country would have to be run by waitresses and bus drivers . '' The triumphant success of Operation Overlord and the ensuing Normandy campaign , launched 50 years ago Monday , led to the destruction of German armies totaling more than 250,000 men , making it the greatest success by the Western Allies in all World War II . Its very success , however , tends to lead modern-day historians , in the brilliance of hindsight two generations later , to take it all for granted , as a forgone conclusion . Yet it was far from that . Realization of the grim losses on Omaha Beach had , by mid-day on June 6 , caused Gen. Omar Bradley , a competent and `` unflappable '' commmander , to fear that his 29th and 1st Divisions had `` suffered an irreversible catastrophe . '' He came within an inch of ordering withdrawal of the Omaha force representing the main bulk of the American D-Day effort . Such a Dunkirk-style evacuation , disastrous as it would have been , illustrates just what a risky and courageous undertaking it was to invade Normandy in June 1944 . It was , however , only one of the ways in which D-Day might have failed . D-day was one of the greatest single achievements in all military history , a triumph of Anglo-American cooperation . The vast armada that set forth from England on June 6 was the largest that ever put to sea . In it were nearly 6,000 vessels of all sizes from vast battleships down to tiny invasion craft at least 11,500 aircraft , 156,115 ground troops plus three elite airborne divisions . ( Of these the majority , by a margin of 10,000 , were in fact British and Canadian . ) The intense risks involved in that gigantic operation , have reminded me of a conversation with Gen. Norman Schwarzkopf . It was shortly after the Gulf War , and I had asked what had been his biggest headache . His immediate response : `` the media . '' Separately I put the same question to Sir Peter de la Billiere , the British commander in the Gulf , and received the identical answer . ) Schwarzkopf told me that , in the Gulf , he had gone so far as to ban all TV sets in his headquarters , lest any of his staff be influenced by what they saw on CNN 's instant coverage of the battlefield . With D-Day in mind , I asked him what might have happened if CNN had been on Omaha Beach on June 6 , 1944 where the U.S. . Army suffered some of its most severe casualties of World War II . His reply : `` There would have been no D-plus-2 . '' In contrast to Vietnam , and the Gulf , civilian populations during World War II were well shielded from the impact of battlefield carnage . U.S. censorship discreetly forbade the showing of photographs or film of any dead or badly wounded GIs . And of course there were no television cameras . -O- History can play strange tricks ; D-Day could so easily have gone terribly wrong . Secret papers recently released in London now suggest that , by 1944 , it was by no means impossible for Hitler actually to have won the war improbable as that may seem today . In the first place , the invasion might have taken place in 1943 or earlier . Stalin wanted an invasion Operation Sledgehammer as early as 1942 . So did the U.S. . Joint Chiefs of Staff , who were impatient with apparent British lethargy . But British caution , and in this instance good judgment , prevailed . It was the disastrous Dieppe landing of August 1942 , where the Canadians lost 3,369 out of a total force of 5,000 , that illustrated the catastrophe that would almost certainly have overtaken any premature all-out invasion of northwest Europe . Success in June 1944 was predicated very largely on massive Allied superiority in the air which had not yet been achieved the previous year . Equally in 1943 the British and Americans had neither the numbers of tanks , nor more crucially of landing craft , that were essential to success . Secondly , there was the weather , always particularly unpredictable in Normandy and on the English Channel . To get the right combination of tides and moon , there were only a few days in June 1944 that were acceptable . As it happened , the invasion was postponed on the decision of the supreme Allied commander , Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower , from June 5 to June 6 because of bad-weather reports . Had it been called off yet again , the next possible date would have been June 18-19 . But on those days , the worst storm in 40 years struck ; 800 vessels were destroyed together with the whole American floating harbor called Mulberry . Thus , if postponed to June 18-19 , the Anglo-American invasion force would almost certainly have suffered the same fate as the Spanish Armada in 1588 scattered and sunk without a shot being fired from shore , in this case by Gen. Erwin Rommel 's German defenders . Thirdly , D-Day could equally have failed if the Germans had had access to anything resembling British Ultra intelligence and were `` reading our mail '' as we were indeed reading theirs . In this way , Rommel would have known where we were going to land , enabling him to rush some of his 60 available divisions ( including 11 powerful Panzers ) to the threatened area . An absolutely essential ingredient of Allied success on D-Day was the skillful ( and British-initiated ) deception scheme , Operation Fortitude . By pretending to have a whole army group under the swashbuckling U.S. Gen. George S. Patton in readiness in southeastern England , the Allies deceived the Germans into believing that the main invasion effort would take place in the heavily defended Pas de Calais . This was a logical invasion zone ; the channel was narrowest here , and it offered the shortest route to Paris and the industrial German Ruhr . But it was also the most heavily defended . Operation Fortitude succeeded so well that it fooled Hitler into keeping a whole German army , the 15th , tied down uselessly in the Pas de Calais even after Patton 's U.S. 3rd Army had landed in Normandy , six weeks after D-Day . What might have happened had Fortitude failed is suggested by two disasters that overtook Bradley 's U.S. 1st Army . During a landing exercise off Slapton Sands in April , fast German patrol boats sneaked through the Royal Navy screen to sink two LSTs . Six hundred American assault troops of the 7th Corps were killed more casualties than they suffered in the June 6 landing on Utah Beach . If the German patrol boats and submarines had been properly alerted by their intelligence on D-Day , losses inflicted on the Allied armada could have been devastating . Then , when landing on deadly Omaha Beach , Bradley 's men ran unexpectedly into a first-class German division , the 352nd , the only one of its standard in Normandy . Casualties were appalling , higher than anywhere else though slender in proportion to what was at stake , and in terms of the whole costly battle of Normandy . If Bradley had been forced to withdraw from Omaha , and had it been repeated on the British and Canadian beaches ( where , thanks chiefly to Fortitude , the landings had met only limited resistance ) , the cutting edge of the D-Day forces would have been lost . Almost certainly a large proportion of the indispensable invasion craft would have been lost too . Such a reverse would have meant the almost certain postponement of another Overlord attempt to the following summer of 1945 . The Americans were under strong pressure from the `` Pacific First '' lobby of Adm. Ernest King , the chief of naval operations , to transfer forces and landing-craft to the Pacific . With British manpower critically depleted , the main effort against Germany would have been American . Under the rain of Hitler 's `` secret weapons , '' the pilotless V-1 missiles ( which began landing , and causing terrible damage and civilian losses , one week after D-Day ) , Britain 's economy and morale would have been seriously impaired . It was Rommel 's hope that , if he could destroy the Allies on the western beaches , Germany might be able to force Soviet leader Joseph Stalin to some kind of stalemate peace in the east . The 60 German divisions deployed in the west could conceivably have tilted the balance against the Red Army , which had already suffered millions of casualties . The Soviet economy was under severe strain , and as its supply lines grew longer , so proportionally did German logistical problems ease . If D-Day had failed , at best continental Europe would have been subjected to another year and certainly the most terrible year of war before liberation . Hundreds of thousands would have succumbed to starvation . The `` Final Solution '' would have consumed the last remnants of European Jewry . Finally , Hitler 's scientists had been working for years on an atomic bomb . They might have been unlikely to have achieved it by 1945 ; but , with greater certainty , the Allies would have dropped `` Fat Boy '' in Europe , not Japan . With Allied ground forces stalled in the west , then in all likelihood the war would have ended with the Red Army occupying all of a `` nuked '' Germany , confronting the Allies with a largely communist Western Europe . The recently released papers from the British Public Records Office show Hitler by April 1945 planning self-immolation accompanied by a terrible Wagnerian Gotterdammerung of destruction in Europe . With the war continuing through 1944 and 1945 , it would have given him much greater opportunity to destroy Paris at his leisure . That none of these dread scenarios took place depended very largely on two men Eisenhower , and his ground-forces commander , Gen. Bernard Montgomery `` Monty . '' One of Montgomery 's sharpest American critics was Eisenhower 's tough chief of staff , Maj. Gen. Bedell Smith , but he confessed after the war : `` I don't know if we could have done it without Monty . It was his sort of battle . Whatever they say about him , he got us there . '' Almost equally indispensable , as superbly qualified to weld together harmoniously all the disparate Allied forces , was Ike . But the detailed planning , and actual command of all the invasion forces , he had entrusted to Montgomery . As of D-Day , Montgomery was the one man on either side who could have lost the war that day . It almost certainly would have been lost , if in addition to the big ifs of timing , air superiority , weather and success of the Allied deception plan , Fortitude Monty had accepted the plans he inherited in January 1944 . These had prescribed a wholly inadequate landing by three divisions . From the very beginning , Monty insisted the Allies land five divisions on a 50-mile-wide beachhead . As it turned out , although final victory was to be delayed another year ( not least through disagreements over strategy between the Allies ) success at D-Day assured the fall of Hitler . It also shaped the modern world . With U.S. predominance in the war manifestly established as her troops in Europe grew from parity with the British to a ratio of 3 to 1 , D-Day was the moment when America took over lead of the alliance . Today 's frontiers in Europe and the structure of the 50 years of peace that followed hark back to that success . Without it , what remained of Europe would surely have been left to face liberation by the Red Army . -O- ( Historian Alistair Horne , co-author of `` The Lonely Leader ; Monty 1944-45 '' ( Harper Collins-USA , Macmillian-UK ) was training in England for the Guards Armoured Division when D-Day was launched . ) American policy on Rwanda is difficult to understand . Statements made by Madeleine Albright , the U.S. ambassador to the United Nations , indicate that Rwanda is viewed as a traditional peace-keeping problem , when it is really a `` Call 911 ! '' problem . Traditional peace-keeping calls for a negotiated cease-fire followed by the arrival of lightly armed multilateral forces who monitor and observe . Rwanda , on the other hand , is a case of planned , systematic murder of men , women and children who happen to belong to a particular group the Tutsi . Both the self-proclaimed government of Rwanda , which has armed the death squads who are doing the ethnic killing , and the rebel Rwanda Patriotic Front fighters , do not want to stop fighting until they can finish the genocide or dominate militarily . Waiting to intervene until there is `` progress toward a cease-fire , '' in Albright 's words , is like a doctor telling a heart attack victim , `` Take two aspirins , and call me in the morning . '' Giving one or both of the fighting groups in Rwanda a veto on international intervention is the height of folly . If anything is going to destroy the credibility of the international community in the area of conflict resolution , the American policy is going to do it . The Rwandan crisis has all of the characteristics of a situation requiring urgent action : Rwanda is inflicting emotional and financial pain on the world community . Let 's face it , whatever we do in Rwanda , there will be a bill to pay one way or another . Rwanda has become simultaneously a failed state and a delegitimized state . It has failed because the previous government has self-destructed into semi-anarchy . It is delegitimized because the new self-proclaimed government is by definition a pariah because of its determination to exterminate an entire ethnic group . A significant population is at risk . Indeed , in areas controlled by the death squads , the Tutsi have essentially been wiped out . Genocide is qualitatively a lot worse than any of the normal human rights situations we worry about around the globe China , for example . For the above three reasons , the appropriateness of international intervention could not be more apparent . The fighting is clearly not susceptible to an early cease-fire , and even if a cease-fire could be arranged , the endangered populations would still be endangered wherever there are death squads still roaming the countryside . In addition to the demand that a cease-fire be on hand before the dispatch of troops , the United States is making matters worse by insisting that any U.N. troops work from the outside to protect Rwandans fleeing the fighting in camps in the border areas . That tactic would only increase the number of refugees spilling over into neighboring countries , which cannot handle the ones already there . The only way what is left of the Tutsi population can be saved is for troops to work from the center so that death squads will be intimidated into melting into the general population . By standing in the way of African troops intervening in Rwanda under `` combat '' terms of engagement , the United States is effectively imposing upon the Security Council the same rule that it applies to itself . That is to say , the administration sees no vital American interest engaged in Rwanda , and therefore does not want U.N. troops to have a muscular mandate even though African troops would be willing to take on such a difficult and dangerous assignment . Is the U.S. government worried that such an operation would constitute a slippery slope to eventual American troop involvement if the military situation gets worse rather than better ? With such a `` what if '' policy , the United Nations is effectively paralyzed from doing anything except traditional peace-keeping , which is exactly where it was during the Cold War . It may be too late to save the Tutsi of Rwanda . After three weeks of systematic killing that must be called `` genocide , '' we can probably only learn some lessons for the `` new world order , '' which seems to be eluding us . First , we should remember that while five big powers in the Security Council can veto action , they cannot force the Security Council to take action . That takes nine votes . When the Americans sought Security Council approval for military action against Iraq after it invaded Kuwait , a majority vote was not ensured . The non-aligned members of the council were dubious at first . Thanks to the hard work and support of Ethiopia and Zaire , the council voted to use force against Iraq . After the current wimpish approach to the genocide in Rwanda , will the three African Security Council votes be with us in the future when we need support for an action we consider to be in America 's vital interest ? It may not be a sure thing . Second , Rwanda and Bosnia appear to be setting a new ugly pattern in post-Cold War politics . Small groups of determined fanatics are willing to ride a wave of hatred and ethnic fear in order to obtain power or remain in power regardless of the human cost . Former communists in Serbia are now ethnic nationalists . Hutu extremists in Rwanda saw democracy coming and decided that genocide was the price to pay for remaining in power . Where there is a history of ethnic animosity , it only takes a simple `` Kill them before they kill us '' to set off the powder keg . International inaction in Rwanda and insufficient action in Bosnia are sending a signal to nasty people everywhere : `` You can get away with it now . '' Finally , the United States and other important powers should start working to give the United Nations the ability to put out fires while they are still smoldering . The U.N. secretary general proposed such a rapid reaction capability in his `` Agenda for Peace '' proposal of July , 1992 , which has so far received very little attention . If the Agenda for Peace cannot be implemented throughout the world , why not start it at least in Africa ? At the opening of the Holocaust Museum , President Clinton pledged that `` we will never allow another Holocaust . '' Another Holocaust may have just slipped by , hardly noticed . WASHINGTON Last year , the caretakers of the Capitol blasted clean the corroding statue of `` Freedom '' that is perched above the imposing domed building . Today , the rest of the once-revered institution is finding itself in need of some serious clean-up and repair . Once again , scandal has landed on the grand marble steps of the U.S. Congress with last week 's indictment of Chicago Rep. Dan Rostenkowski . And although the accusations against the powerful congressman are unproven at this point , they still seem to have succeeded in confirming the public 's worst suspicions about an already scarred and battered body of government . Polls taken last week suggested that the majority of Americans believe most members of Congress are corrupt , and they furthermore believe that Congress is more corrupt today than it was 20 years ago . But former members , including some who left under the cloud of the House banking scandal of 1992 , as well as Congressional watchdogs believe that there is today a heightened sensitivity among members regarding their behavior . They believe that , while the lax rules of Congress , the perquisites and privileges still lead to occasional abuses of power , the actions outlined in the Rostenkowski indictment are atypical . What is so striking about the list of charges against Rostenkowski , says former Rep. Vin Weber of Minnesota , `` is that it stands in contrast to the standards members are setting for themselves now . '' Weber , who left Congress in 1992 after 12 years ( and 125 overdrafts on the now-closed House bank ) , believes that , a decade ago , members were more cavalier , were in fact aggressive , about racking up the free lunches , the trips to Barbados , whatever perks or privileges they could find . He believes that behavior was fostered by the great respect and admiration , even awe , the public once bestowed on elected officials and the institution . `` People bowed and scraped a little too much in the old days , '' says the former House Republican . `` We did have an imperial Congress in terms of the way the public treated elected officials . So the members thought , ` I must deserve all these goodies. ' ' ' In the last several years , he says especially since the 1989 fall of former House Speaker Jim Wright over alleged ethics violations the pendulum has swung in the other direction , with a public that has `` almost no regard for the institution . '' The days of the imperial Congress and , thus , members expecting royal treatment are over , says the former congressman . `` The two go hand-in-hand . '' Former New York Rep. Stephen Solarz says the increased scrutiny today deters abuses of power . `` If anything , people are excessively cautious , '' says Solarz , who lost his seat in 1992 , at least in part because he was found to have abused banking privileges with 743 overdrafts . `` They don't want to be snake-bit . With everyone looking over their shoulder and with the press eager to expose miscreants , most people bend over backward to stay within the rules . '' But even staying within the rules when the rules are as arcane , loosely defined and unenforced as some of them are often results in unethical , albeit legal , behavior , Congress watchers say . `` When there is not specific guidance on how to relate to certain perks and certain uses of money , you run the risk of seeing members stretch that to the limit , '' says Greg Kubiak , author of a book that examined congress . `` Laws are going to get strained and pushed until they get broken . '' Similarly , Ellen Miller , executive director of the Center for Responsive Politics , believes that the widespread corruption in Congress `` mostly has to do with things that are legal and sanctified , but are still corrupt in the public 's mind. .. . What better evidence do we need than all the people caught up in the House banking scandal ? '' Indeed , before the House bank was shut down two years ago , there were no clear rules against overdrafts there . Without much regulation , 325 former and sitting House members had overdrawn their accounts anywhere from one to nearly 1,000 times in a three-year period . But Miller and other Congressional observers believe that campaign financing with special interests allowed to contribute large sums of money to candidates in hopes of buying future influence and favors is the premiere avenue for institutionalized corruption on Capitol Hill . `` It leads to a lot of members losing touch with reality , starting to feel they deserve certain kinds of perks and privileges without realizing what those perks and privileges look like to the outside world , '' says Bob Schiff , staff attorney for Public Citizen 's Congress Watch . Still , even such critics say there are signs that the culture of permissiveness that has long pervaded Capitol Hill what Fred Wertheimer of Common Cause calls `` a culture of lax rules and lax enforcement of rules '' is beginning to change . They note that the makeup of the legislative bodies has shifted , with many of the freshmen elected in 1992 having campaigned against `` business as usual '' and the entrenched elite , and more committed to reform than many of their more senior colleagues . And recently , the House and Senate passed bills that greatly restrict the gifts , meals and trips that members can receive from lobbyists . But Charles Lewis , executive director of the Center for Public Integrity , believes there is still an `` anything goes '' mentality in Congress , and fears that the recent passage of the gift ban legislation merely reflects a heightened concern about appearances . `` Their main preoccupation was , not whether it was right or wrong , but how it would look , '' says Lewis . `` They 're trying harder to avoid the appearance of abuses . '' And others believe such concessions are little more than token gestures by a legislature that knows the public is disgruntled , but has little interest in major reform . `` The real ethical questions about issues like campaign finance reform haven't been answered , '' says Kubiak . Former members are quick to defend the institution and their colleagues , insisting they are an honest bunch who are unfairly tarred by the actions or even the alleged actions of a few . `` It comes down to the character of the individual , '' says former Chicago Democrat Frank Annunzio , a 28-year House veteran . `` When you have such an aura of power , some people can't handle it. .. . ' ' The buzz on Wall Street these days is about `` Hard Assets . '' No , it 's not the name of a new Sylvester Stallone movie . It 's the strategy of investing in what market analysts like to call `` stuff-you-can-touch . '' Stuff like oil , gold , copper , aluminum , timber , coffee , orange juice , cocoa and , yes , even real estate . The concept is that this stuff will keep its value if rising interest rates and mounting inflation seriously erode the value of stocks , bonds and currencies . In fact , the rush to invest in hard assets is well under way . Commodity prices have been rising sharply for six weeks , creating a whiff of inflation that has scared stock and bond investors . The ferment has prompted investors to wonder if there are any mutual funds that can help them keep pace with the emphasis on commodities and the growing demand for industrial materials . The answer is yes but indirectly . By custom and regulation , most mutual funds are effectively discouraged from taking part in the high-risk futures markets and from trading in such items as copper futures and grain futures . But funds can and do invest in the stocks of companies in the copper business or in the grain business . And those stocks are a reasonably efficient way to reflect the changes in commodity pricing , according to Richard Fontaine , who runs the Fontaine Capital Appreciation Fund in Towson , Md. . Fontaine , for example , rode the upward move in copper futures by investing in copper producers Phelps Dodge Corp. and Freeport McMoran Copper & Gold Inc. . To get on the agricultural bandwagon , he bought shares in Archer-Daniels-Midland Co. , a company that dubs itself `` supermarket to the world . '' However , Fontaine cautioned investors to remember that `` a stock is still a stock '' and thus can be hurt by market or company events . If a stock drops in price , it also can affect a fund 's performance . To pursue the commodities theme , investors can choose from funds in several categories : precious and non-precious metals ; oil and gas ; and industrial materials and manufacturing equipment . There are also funds that focus on real estate . Remember that gold funds are notoriously volatile . Here , with the help of Morningstar Inc. , a mutual-fund research service , are several funds that might give investors a chance to keep up with the commodities boom , with higher inflation and the growing economic recovery . Warburg , Pincus Growth & Income Fund ( 800-257-5614 ; no load ) . Taking a contrarian , value-driven approach , manager Anthony G. Orphanos dumped most of his interest-rate-sensitive securities last year and put 38 percent of his fund 's $ 78 million into industrial stocks that would do well as the economy picked up . He also invested heavily in precious-metals stocks all of which reduced the fund 's yield but propelled it to a 37 percent gain in 1993 . The strategy also helped bolster the fund during the recent market slide , and it is up 6.6 percent this year . T. Rowe Price New Era Fund ( 800-638-5660 ; no load ) . This 25-year-old fund , managed by George A . Roche , has invested 80 percent of its $ 823 million in oil and gas , precious metals , chemicals , forest products , non-precious metals , miscellaneous resources and real estate . The Roche strategy is to diversify widely within these volatile sectors and to anchor his fund in non-natural-resources securities such as Wal-Mart Stores Inc. , in which the fund has invested almost 7 percent of its money . While this strategy has tended to mute the fund 's returns in recent years the fund gained 15 percent last year it has taken on less risk than comparable funds . The New Era fund is up 1.6 percent this year . Fidelity Select Chemicals Fund ( 800-544-8888 ; 3 percent sales charge , plus exchange and redemption fees ) . An expanding economy requires a vast array of chemical products , and the companies that supply them are benefiting by the increased demand . This $ 57 million fund , managed by Steve Wymer , has had a history of positive returns , except for 1990 . It gained 12.8 percent last year and is up 12.7 percent so far this year the best 1994 performance among 35 Fidelity Select funds . Fidelity Select Industrial Materials Fund ( 800-544-8888 ; 3 percent sales charge , plus exchange and redemption fees ) . Petroleum , chemicals and glass are among the industrial materials that have been in growing demand during the current economic recovery and this $ 131 million fund invests in these products and the railroads that transport them . The fund , under manager Louis Salemy , gained 21.4 percent last year and is up 8.1 percent so far this year . Invesco Strategic Portfolios Gold ( 800-525-8085 ; no load ) . Manager Daniel B . Leonard targets North American gold-mining companies with strong growth potential . These often include `` junior '' producers that are adept at cutting costs , exploring new territories and increasing bullion reserves . The fund , in recent years , has stayed out of South Africa and thus avoided some of the gains but much of the volatility of those stocks . The fund , which has $ 362 million , gained a whopping 73 percent last year but is down 8.4 percent this year . United Services World Gold Fund ( 800-873-8637 ; withdrawal fee within 30 days of investing . ) . This is a gold fund with a difference . Manager Victor Flores packs the World Gold portfolio with `` junior '' mines and exploration companies . Flores has put about 35 percent of his $ 231 million in Australian , West African and Latin American mines . The rest is in North America , all of which gives the fund a conservative tone . The fund , whose charter bars investments in South Africa , gained 90 percent last year and is down 5.6 percent so far this year . Cohen & Steers Realty Shares ( 800-437-9912 ; no load ) . Co-managers Martin Cohen and Robert Steers invest chiefly in real-estate investment trusts ( REITs ) , which have multiplied rapidly . The managers recently reduced their stake in apartment REITs in favor of those that specialize in shopping centers . The fund , which has $ 287 million , gained 18.8 percent last year and is up 8.6 percent this year . The rankings for hard-cover books in the Washington , D.C. , area as reported by selected book stores : FICTION : 1 . THE CELESTINE PROPHECY , by James Redfield . 2 . THE CHAMBER , by John Grisham . 3 . INCA GOLD , by Clive Cussler . 4 . REMEMBER ME , by Mary Higgins Clark . 5 . `` K '' IS FOR KILLER , by Sue Grafton . NON-FICTION : 1 . IN THE KITCHEN WITH ROSIE , by Rosie Daley . 2 . STANDING FIRM , by Dan Quayle . 3 . BEYOND PEACE , by Richard Nixon . 4 . EMBRACED BY THE LIGHT , by Betty J. Eadie with Curtis Taylor . 5 . THE HALDEMAN DIARIES , by H.R. . ANN ARBOR , Mich. . According to Israeli law , if I revealed the names of the directors of the Shabak and Mossad , I could go to jail . The Shabak , a Hebrew acronym , is the General Security Service , which combines the tasks of a police force and the U.S. . Federal Bureau of Investigation . The Mossad is Israel 's foreign-espionage arm . Israeli law , as well as tradition and precedent , forbids Israelis , regardless of where they reside , to publish or privately disclose the two names . Its origins go back to pre-statehood days and was inspired by British emergency regulations targeting the Jewish underground and censoring the Hebrew press . Every few years , the government appoints two officials to the intelligence posts without making any formal announcement of who has been appointed . The problem is that virtually anyone who cares to know , including Israel 's arch enemies , can uncover this `` secret '' except the Israeli public . How can such a practice be justified and defended ? In Israel 's early days , there may have been some security justification for the imposed anonymity . The two Israeli directors , for example , could enjoy more freedom to maneuver in a country constantly challenged by war and terrorism . More than two years ago , however , even Britain abandoned its hush-hush tradition and revealed the names of its top two intelligence directors . The Israeli government , moreover , is less able to justify the practice on national-security grounds . First , many well-informed Israelis already know the names of the Mossad and Shabak directors . Indeed , it has become something of a game at parties to open conversations with `` The Shabak chief told me the other day , ' ' or `` I met the head of the Mossad and he said .. . . '' Those who can't fill in the names are simply not `` in . '' The practice , at times , comes close to farce . The personal lifestyle and managerial conduct of the Shabak chief were recently questioned in the Israeli press . An official government committee also investigated whether he misused public funds . All this was duly reported without naming the subject . The episodes ' major victim was the government 's claim that its heads of intelligence maintain a low-key posture in public life . Foreigners , whether friendly American agents or hostile Arab officials , usually have no trouble in lifting the cloak of secrecy . The director of the Mossad , for example , accompanied Israeli Defense Minister Moshe Arens to a meeting in Washington two weeks before the Iraqi invasion of Kuwait . As an experienced case officer who ran networks of Iraqi informers , he was in a particularly good position to impress his CIA counterpart and other senior officials of the Bush administration with his knowledge and understanding of the inner workings of Saddam Hussein 's regime . And the Shabak chief recently met in Cairo with officials of the Palestine Liberation Organization to coordinate the transfer of authority in Palestinian-ruled Gaza and Jericho . In neither case did the intelligence head attempt to hide his identity . There seems only two remaining reasons for the Israeli government to maintain the practice of refusing to name its chiefs of intelligence . It helps to preserve the mystique surrounding the art of espionage and the heroic glory of spymasters . At the same time , it serves as an impediment to genuine , independent scrutiny of the secret services by the Knesset , Israel 's Parliament , and the news media . This month , Israel 's supreme court will hear a petition filed by a newspaper in Jerusalem seeking to overturn the law barring publication of the name of the Shabak chief . The Israeli government could do itself some good if it went ahead and freely disclosed the name . Especially after Foreign Report , a British newsletter , disclosed in August 1993 that Jacob Pery runs the Shabak and Shabtay Shavit the Mossad . The new Israel , already shaking off many of its old practices in politics , economics and culture , should not be afraid to break one of its last taboos . By confirming the names and identities of its current heads of intelligence or if they are soon replaced , naming their successors the Israeli government would make a small but significant gesture toward preparing the country for the new and exciting era of peace and security . FREDERICK , Md. . The body of Frank R. Olson , a government biochemist who plunged to his death in 1953 after unwittingly taking LSD in a CIA experiment , was exhumed this week and handed over to forensic scientists trying to find out whether he was murdered . Olson 's son , Eric , a Frederick psychologist , stood by with members of the scientific team as the concrete burial vault was hoisted from a hillside grave at Frederick Memorial Park . The dark wooden coffin was removed from the asphalt-sealed vault , wrapped in black vinyl and loaded into a van . Eric Olson , 49 , said he had been haunted by inconsistencies in government accounts of his father 's death , and he expressed hope that his father 's body would unlock the secrets that he believes have been kept for four decades . `` I don't know if we 're going to find out what happened to my father , but I want to feel we did what we could do to find out , '' he said . `` I was only 9 years old when he died , and it was an overwhelming shock for me and something from which , in a lot of ways , I 've never recovered . '' Frank Olson plummeted from a 13th-floor window at the Hotel Statler in New York in the early morning hours of Nov. 28 , 1953 , and authorities labeled his death an apparent suicide . The family did not learn until 1975 that Olson , a civilian scientist working on top-secret germ warfare projects at Camp Detrick , Md. , had been subjected to an LSD test nine days earlier . In 1976 , the government paid Olson 's family $ 750,000 to settle claims that the CIA was responsible for his suicide . But new evidence showing foul play might lead to new legal action , Eric Olson said . CIA spokesman Dave Christian , calling Olson 's death `` a tragic event , '' said exhaustive investigations into the role of agency employees `` indicated no reasons whatsoever to suspect that homicide was involved . '' Frank Olson 's body was taken to a police laboratory in Hagerstown , Md. , and will be examined for a month by a team of investigators led by James E. Starrs , a George Washington University professor of law and forensic sciences . Starrs has conducted similar investigations into the deaths of the ax-murdered parents of Lizzie Borden and assassinated Louisiana Sen. Huey P . Long . The investigators will test for drugs and toxins , document bone fractures and use other modern techniques to test official explanations of Olson 's death . A final report could be released within a month . `` We certainly expect to find what the nature of the injuries were that he suffered when he went out the window , '' Starrs said . `` Hopefully we 'll also find out whether he suffered any injuries before he went out the window , which might be attributable to .. . foul play . If we find nothing ( in toxicology examinations ) , then there 's nothing that could have been found , I assure you of that . '' Olson said he and his brother , Nils , 45 , decided to have the tests performed at the same time they were transferring the body to the cemetery where their mother was buried last summer . Olson said his father 's body was well preserved . `` They said the condition of the body was such that there were none of the tests they could not perform , '' Olson said . The autopsy performed at the New York medical examiner 's office in 1953 was `` very cursory '' and included no X-rays or graphs cataloguing Olson 's injuries . `` The doctor was misled . He was told that it was an out-and-out suicide , '' Starrs said . `` If he had known there was something more sinister , I 'm sure he would have gone much further than he did . '' STUDIO CITY , Calif. . There it is , 65 seconds into the show , the first joke based on bodily functions : `` Order now and get the Nancy Poo books , about a girl who dropped out ( of school ) and had to clean toilets . '' Yuk , yuk , you say . That 's really unfunny . But it gets a big laugh from the 9-to-teen-year-old studio audience , a reaction the creators of `` The Roundhouse '' are fully anticipating . The show is a kind of `` Saturday Night Live' ' / `` Laugh-In '' for pre- and mid-adolescents , surprising in its relative wit and occasional literacy . In a television world where such grotesqueries as `` Beavis and Butt-head '' or `` Ren and Stimpy '' pass for youth culture , such qualities are worthy of note . And , while vulgarity rules , the show also owes an unexpected debt to musical comedy , that old-fashioned American art form that keeps threatening to die but doesn't . The packaging may be grungily hip , but when you strip away the style , what you 've got is a bunch of extroverted kids putting on a show , with a big , belting number in the middle . Few parents seem to know about `` The Roundhouse , '' which may be part of its charm . Now entering its third year on the Nickelodeon cable network , its devoted audience of about 2 million households tunes in every Saturday night ( there 's a rerun on Sunday ) for a weekly homily encoded ( and sometimes obscured ) in a series of quick sketches , songs and choreographed hip-hop . The show is aimed at the ages when a kid is between identities no longer a child but not yet a cool teen , worried about pimples and friends and what he 's supposed to like . One reason `` The Roundhouse '' may seem excessive to adults is that it reflects some of the social brutality of that age group . Grandmas might be appalled at the frequent jokes about the noises and substances that the body emits , but most parents have already been numbed and willn't be too grossed out . It 's no use groaning at the mention of `` Napoleon Bonafart '' or Boogertown , or fake commercials for `` Fig Spewtons '' ( the cookie that will make you really vomit so you don't have to go to school ) or `` Chia Pits '' that will grow instant hair under your arms . Each show centers on Anyfamily , a massively dysfunctional takeoff on a `` stereotypical television family . '' Dad Anyfamily tools around in a motorized recliner , with lamp and barbecue attached . He is unemployed , stupid and spends all day watching television and eating pork rinds . Mom is usually baking cookies or lecturing the kids , and Sis is the perfect child . Skip Anykid ( also known as Doug , Joey and various other names ) is the quintessential goof-up , failing school and life in general . There are numerous recurring characters , such as the mean Neighbor Lady who keeps all the Frisbees and balls that land in her yard , and Where 's Walnut , a weird guy in a red-and-white-striped shirt who poses conspicuously in tableaux and asks the audience to find him , and the Principal , who sounds like George Bush and whose head is always covered by a loudspeaker . Few pop-culture figures escape the vicious attack of the youthful `` Roundhouse '' writers not `` Vanna Very Very White '' ; not Michael Bolton ( whose hair is sold for dish scrubbers ) ; not `` Sylvester Shalom '' with a hanger in his jacket , `` coming soon out of a coat closet near you . '' There 's `` Dr. Seuss , M.D. , '' who talks only in rhymes : `` Open your mouth and say ah/ Raise your arm and say ha-ha-ha . '' And the `` Pointless Sisters , '' who are about to quit . `` We push the envelope right out there without going too far , '' said Buddy Sheffield , 44 , who created the show with his ex-wife , Rita , 47 . `` Kids today know so much more than we think they do . '' Don't expect great , profound thinking here . Like much of modern life , this show is fast , over almost before you know it , relying on an in-group familiarity with the characters and the shortcut vocabulary of television culture . Each half-hour episode , with an original script and music , plus fresh dances , is produced in one frantic week and played live before the audience on Friday night . Tomorrow the show will be broadcast live without a net to kick off the summer season . It 's kind of like vaudeville in Doc Martens . A roundhouse , explains Rita Sheffield , is where trains come in and `` go anywhere from . '' The first read-through of the script is on Monday afternoon . Seated at tables in a double-wide trailer next to the theater , the cast of 15 , who range in age from 17-year-old Natasha Pearce to 32-year-old John Crane , flies through the script with deliberate nonchalance . There are 33 `` items , '' or bits , in this 26-minute script , ranging from plot moments ( `` Our kid hates school '' ) to commercial parodies ( `` Hooked on Moronics '' ) . After a few run-throughs they break for lunch in late afternoon , most of them turning to the table of fruit and packaged goodies in the rehearsal room . `` They used to have all low-fat , healthy stuff here , '' said cast member Shawn Daywalt . `` We had to put a stop to that . '' Meanwhile , three teams of writers are laboring in a nearby office on future scripts , meeting occasionally at a long table supplied with Gummi Bears and Tums to audition their ideas for Buddy Sheffield , who laughs appreciatively at many of them . And then cuts most . The show is done on what in television passes for a shoestring , reportedly around $ 300,000 per half-hour episode . ( Nickelodeon willn't say what the show 's budget is , or what its Nielsen ratings are , and had a press representative sit in on every interview . ) The low budget influenced the show 's creatively minimalist style there are no costume changes , the set pieces are movable and made of found objects , and when the actors break into a commercial parody they hold up a cardboard rectangle to represent a TV . ( That is unless the commercial has been turned into a major bit , such as a recent skit about `` Tried-it , the pre-chewed gum collected by janitors across the country , '' or a sun tanning lotion called `` Toxzema , which contains actual material found at the beach cigarette butts , raw sewage and contaminated syringes . Give your skin that burnt blistery look the girls love . '' Alfred Carr Jr. , one of the cast 's two black members , then gave a testimonial : `` I used to be a white guy until Toxzema gave me a major dose of sun poisoning ! '' ) Although the Sheffields are divorced , they seem to work well together , and the team now includes Rita 's husband , Benny Hester . All three are listed as executive producers , but the division of labor is that Buddy is in charge of the scripts , Benny is in charge of music , and Rita does most of the directing . Benny and Buddy won a CableACE Award for the song `` I Can Dream . '' `` We 've all raised kids , so we know what they 're like , '' said Rita Sheffield . `` Especially the teen-age years . By the time they are 20 you 've loosened up a lot . '' The show is so fast it 's easy to miss something ; by the time you realize it , there 's something else center stage . The skits are never longer than two minutes because `` a kid 's attention span is much shorter , '' said Buddy Sheffield , who also wrote for the Fox show `` In Living Color . '' `` You don't give 'em a chance to get bored . '' WASHINGTON In yet another blow to the perks of office , senators and their senior staffers were notified this week that they no longer are entitled to free assigned parking in underground garages unless they are willing to pay taxes on it . Underground parking at the Russell , Dirksen and Hart Senate office buildings will remain tax free for those willing to hunt for an open parking space . But senators and their aides who insist on reserved parking will be socked with additional income taxes on the imputed value of that space , based on new Internal Revenue Service regulations governing employer-provided parking . `` I doubt there will be very many who will require reserved space , '' said James O . King , staff director of the Senate Committee onRules and Administration , which issued the notice May 25 . The new rules became effective on Wednesday . `` But that 's speculative . It might not be a choice spot , but there will be parking spaces available ( for members and staff ) if you drive around long enough . '' The new tax regulations , which also apply to House members and their staffers , have generated little grumbling on Capitol Hill so far , and for good reason . It was Congress , after all , that approved a little-noticed amendment to the 1992 Energy Policy Act requiring workers who receive free or subsidized parking from their employees to pay income taxes on the value above $ 155 a month . Rep. Robert T. Matsui , D-Calif. , drafted the amendment to raise revenue to offset the cost of tax credits for employers who offer employees mass transit vouchers . A spokesman for Matsui said that his office has received a number of `` queries '' about the parking provision but no complaints . At the time the legislation was approved , some assumed that the parking-tax provision would apply primarily to well-paid corporate executives working in urban centers . But IRS regulations circulated early this year indicated that the free , reserved underground spaces provided to members of Congress and their aides , were worth far more than $ 155 a month and were subject to taxation . A recent survey conducted by the accounting firm of Ernst & Young for the Architect of the Capitol showed that parking in the congressional office buildings has a fair market value of $ 290 a month . Technically , those continuing to receive free reserved underground space on Capitol Hill would be subject to taxes on $ 135 a month ( $ 290 minus $ 155 ) or $ 1,620 a year . Those in the 36 percent tax bracket would have to pay an additional $ 583 a year in taxes . However , executives at the IRS who were also subject to the tax recently found a way to mostly sidestep the new law and save themselves hundreds of dollars annually , according to news reports . The IRS officials discovered that a monthly permit at nearby commercial lots that guaranteed a space every day but not a particular space cost only $ 178 a month . Assessing IRS parking that way would mean that officials who didn't insist upon a particular space would have to pay tax on only $ 23 a month the difference between the $ 178 fair market value of the space and the $ 155 threshold in the law . Now the Senate is following the IRS 's lead , ruling that members and staff who agree to hunt for a parking space in the underground garages are not subject to additional taxes because the cost of comparable unassigned parking nearby is less than $ 155 a month . WASHINGTON As the acting chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee , Rep. Sam Gibbons , D-Fla. , has big shoes to fill . He also has some catching up to do to match the prowess of Rep. Dan Rostenkowski , D-Ill. , at filling campaign coffers . Membership on the tax-writing committee long has been a magnet for campaign donations , especially from corporate America , where small changes in the federal tax code can greatly affect a firm 's bottom line . As one veteran committee member remarked : `` I just send out the invitations ( to fund-raising events ) and the money pours in . '' Rostenkowski , who turned over the chairmanship to Gibbons under House Democrats ' rules , raised and spent $ 1.5 million in the 1992 election , and spent $ 1.8 million more to win a contested primary election in March and pay legal fees in connection with the investigation that led to his indictment on corruption charges this week , according to Federal Election Commission records . He still had more than $ 1 million in the bank as of March 30 . Gibbons , who has been chairman of the trade subcommittee , spent $ 960,000 in the 1992 election to win 53 percent of the vote over an opponent who spent about $ 50,000 . Gibbons had $ 41,000 in the bank after the close call . In the 15 months ended March 30 , he raised $ 490,000 and had $ 166,000 left in cash . Gibbons has raised money from many of the same sources and in the same proportion as Rostenkowski , according to Josh Goldstein , of the Center for Responsive Politics , who analyzed Congress 's 1992 fund-raising habits for a forthcoming book . Gibbons and Rostenkowski raised about 60 percent of their money from political action committees ( PACs ) , the most visible source of special interest money . Each raised his largest chunk of money from financial circles , including banks , insurance and securities firms . Goldstein noted that Gibbons ranked 23rd among House members in receipts from health and insurance businesses with the biggest stake in health care reform . Rostenkowski ranked second . Goldstein added that the health care industry was still a major source of funding for the new chairman . The only sector in which Gibbons outraised Rostenkowski in the 1991-92 election cycle was among donors identifying themselves as lawyers or lobbyists , the center 's analysis found . Gibbons 's son , Clifford , is a lobbyist , although he is not listed as giving to his father or anyone else in the 1992 cycle . He does raise money for his father 's campaigns , according to news accounts , and has taken a client the president of Mutual Life Insurance Co. to meet his father in the House dining room . `` That takes to an extreme level the incestuous relationship that exists between lobbyists and members of Congress that we see all the time in Washington , '' Goldstein said . Gibbons spokesman Rich Davis said the congressman and his son `` have a strict understanding . Son will not lobby father and father will not ask son about his clients , nor will he discuss business before the Ways and Means Committee with his son . '' WASHINGTON Thegrown-ups leave the press conference looking like kids , carrying big cardboard `` toolboxes '' bigger than lunch boxes . In a landscape littered with fashionable new literacies , they 've been pitched yet another : `` media literacy , '' a set of skills for intelligent handling of one 's relationship with TV . The curriculum for kids , dubbed `` Master Control , '' is a refreshing break from mostly circular discussions about violence on TV and how to control it . The favored current approach , especially by Congress , seems to be to jawbone the networks to change their ways and , every so often , make dark allusions to the possibility of censorship the rhetorical equivalent of my father 's once-habitual `` Turn that thing off , kids , or I 'll throw it out the window . '' Continental Cablevision , the cable company that 's launching the toolbox , has an obvious interest in refocusing the discussion on how parents can influence their kids ' experience of TV from the kids ' end . Of course , teaching consumers to resist your own prime product is a double-edged task . The campaign 's tag line betrays that tug-of-war : `` Learn how kids can control the impact of TV and enjoy it more than ever ! '' But what they say makes sense . Producers and broadcasters of violent programming , no matter how educationally minded , no matter how leaned upon by Congress , no matter how spattered by public-opinion spitballs , still are driven by a nearer and more urgent set of incentives to sell their products . Most consumer attempts to influence TV content directly are manifestly ineffective . Boycotts , though popular , are clumsy , indirect and slow . The occasional family `` takes the pledge '' to manage without TV altogether or starts a campaign to encourage others to do so ; this is especially popular among the home-schoolers ' and evangelical movements . But no one really expects society to back away from TV altogether . How much better to give kids a cultural vaccination by teaching them how to approach their TV viewing intelligently , parse what they watch for bias and decide actively what 's worth watching . The literacy `` toolbox '' is basically a kit for running school or family workshops , accompanied , of course , by videotapes ; the theme is that `` media are not windows on the world , media are not mirrors of society , but carefully manufactured products . '' The exercises expand on the notion . `` TV has a point of view . Challenge it . TV isn't real life . Spot the illusions . TV manipulates . Identify its techniques and your reactions . TV is limited . Guess what was left out . TV is a business . Understand your economic role-and power-as a viewer . '' That last point contains , if subtly , the most explosive concept in the package : the notion that the viewer who doesn't like the answers to the questions can always turn the TV off . `` The on-off switch is the number one product control device , '' says Continental Cablevision executive Henry James , `` and every TV has one . '' The opening workshop sequence on TV news coverage , which takes the L.A. riots/Rodney King coverage as its specimen for dissection , ends with the big question : `` Did parents consider the option of turning off the television when the events were being covered ? '' Not surprisingly , this concept is otherwise handled in gingerly fashion . Most of the exercises use a measure of indirection , not just because , as James says , `` We believe there 's a lot of good stuff on TV , '' but also because it 's more effective psychologically to let kids figure out by themselves that they may be watching too much . In one game , kids guess how much the family watches in a week and then check the estimate ( invariably it 's low ) by keeping a notebook . Another is intended to illustrate the limits inherent in the standard evening-news version of any event : `` Think of something that happened to you today or yesterday . Something significant . Something you want to tell your family . Try to explain it in 90 seconds ( the average length of a TV news item , according to the package ) . Can you do it ? What parts of the story might you decide to leave out if you only have 90 seconds ? '' The target isn't TV news per se but the tendency `` to watch TV , not TV programs , '' passively sitting in front of whatever 's on . And yet this is exactly the tendency on which networks depend , the one programming decisions are calculated to create . To many sponsors , any mention of the on-off switch is anathema . The resistance comes through also in the words of David Kleeman , director of the American Center for Children 's Television sponsor of the children 's television `` Ollie '' awards who is hoping Congress will grant , and the networks will agree to , an antitrust exemption so that networks can work together on developing the `` children 's educational programming '' mandated by a 1990 act . Kleeman recently mapped out a vision of the future if this exemption were granted : Ideally , networks would agree not to compete directly for the same hour , but instead to spread their children 's programming throughout the day , thus avoiding a `` roadblock '' a time when adults would have nothing to watch and might wander off . If segments could be shorter than the standard half-hour , `` a failed experiment wouldn't ruin the entire schedule '' kids wouldn't turn off the set even if they got bored . Promotion departments would `` pitch the children 's hours as too unpredictable to miss even a single day , '' and kids would `` quickly make them ` appointment viewing. ' ' ' Children , Kleeman says , `` could benefit from all the programs and not have to choose among them , providing kids with a lineup that ran straight from the end of school to dinner time . '' Great . Not exactly what you 'd hope if the aim is to `` evolve a practical definition of ` quality ' children 's programming , '' as the group states . But it does suggest that network self-regulation no less than congressional ham-handedness offers limitations . When it comes to the viewer and the off switch , the stuff in the toolbox sounds a lot more promising . WASHINGTON Cynical reporters generally act like blood-sniffing sharks when a member of Congress is indicted . But much of the coverage of Rep. Dan Rostenkowski , who has known some Washington journalists for 35 years , has been strikingly sympathetic . As a federal grand jury charged the Chicago Democrat this week with defrauding the taxpayers of more than $ 500,000 , a number of reporters and pundits portrayed the 17-count indictment as a Beltway tragedy . `` Anybody who thinks that what Rostenkowski did deserves a prison sentence , I think they 've got a distortion of reality , '' Robert Novak said on CNN 's `` Capital Gang . '' Washington Post columnist David Broder called the charges `` a source of genuine sadness , '' writing that `` Rosty is a warrior , someone who is willing to take on tough fights . '' `` The idea that we 're even considering sending someone to prison for ( no-show employees ) strikes me as kind of a bizarre perversion of the judicial process , it 's so widespread , '' Chicago Tribune columnist Jon Margolis said on `` Washington Week in Review . '' The obvious affection for the longtime House Ways and Means Committee chairman contrasts with the generally negative coverage that surrounded the resignation of former House speaker Jim Wright , the sexual harassment allegations against Sen. Bob Packwood and the recent indictment of Sen. Dave Durenberger . Had another lawmaker been charged with embezzling cash for House postage stamps and hiring `` ghost employees '' who mowed his lawn and picked up his laundry , the press probably would have pilloried him as a symbol of congressional corruption . James Warren , the Tribune 's Washington bureau chief , said that while the congressman deserves the presumption of innocence , `` I find preposterous the notion of Rostenkowski as a victim of changing political and ethical mores . If what the indictment alleges is true , especially about ghost payrollers , jury tampering and other chiseling of federal funds .. . a lot of this is old-fashioned illegality . '' Yet Warren 's own paper , in a front-page story , described the indictment as `` new politics taking sharp aim at the old ways . '' And the Tribune 's Margolis has called Rostenkowski a `` giant '' being `` toppled by pygmies . '' Some journalists acknowledge that personal relationships can color their perceptions . Broder , a Chicago native , said he feels `` a common bond '' with Rostenkowski because they have often chewed over Illinois and congressional politics . `` I have a real bias on this one , '' Broder said . `` I would hate to see Rosty end up in jail . My sympathies are entirely with Rosty . '' Said Margolis : `` I concede that I kind of like him. .. . It still makes no sense to me that this guy would steal money in small amounts . '' Cokie Roberts said on National Public Radio that `` by way of full disclosure , I 've known Dan Rostenkowski for more than 30 years and consider him a friend , so I am not completely impartial about this , but I think that even people who don't feel that way about him can say that this is a sad end to what has been a noted political career . '' Roberts said in an interview that `` I just thought that was appropriate to say ; otherwise I 'd be criticized for not saying it . Even though he 's gruff and bluff , he 's a likable sort of guy . '' Novak , for one , says the press has treated Rostenkowski gently because `` he 's for all the things all the reporters are for big government , health care , redistribution of income . '' As for the indictment , Novak said : `` That 's the trouble with the country we live in a federal prosecutor makes a charge and everyone thinks he 's guilty . '' Some South Florida hotels are pulling the plug on the Fox station in Miami , saying its heavy diet of crime stories is scaring their guests . WSVN-TV helped popularize a tabloid news format that relies on sensational headlines , slow-motion footage , dramatic music and such features as `` Crime Check '' and `` Most Wanted . '' But the formula has proved too lurid for some area hotels , which are blocking WSVN from their cable systems . Victor Farkas , who has shut off WSVN at his Thunderbird and Chateau by the Sea hotels , told the Miami Herald that the station is `` doing an injustice to local residents and especially to tourists . They look at Channel 7 and they 're afraid to go out on the street . '' The Fox folks dismissed the criticism . `` Crime is the number one concern of our viewers , '' said Charlie Folds , WSVN 's director of press and community relations . `` We 're not going to censor the news to placate the hoteliers . '' A Herald editorial backed the station , saying that `` banning any source of news is a dangerous gambit . '' Michael Kinsley is abandoning his prestigious `` TRB '' column in the New Republic , a name-brand franchise that is carried by The Washington Post , New York Post , Los Angeles Times , Philadelphia Inquirer and about 20 other papers . `` I 've been doing it for 11 years , '' said the co-host of CNN 's `` Crossfire . '' `` I thought I 'd quit while I 'm ahead . Most columns tend to peter out . The deadline pressure of writing a column is relentless . '' WASHINGTON `` Renaissance Man , '' Penny Marshall 's intellectually ambitious new comedy , is an extravagant and all-too-familiar Hollywood contradiction a movie that celebrates the life of the mind and the uniqueness of the individual but does so in glib slogans and is , itself , a sort of knockoff . Set in an Army training camp near Detroit , where an ex-advertising man named Bill Rago ( Danny DeVito ) is reduced to taking a job teaching underachieving recruits , `` Renaissance Man '' comes across at first glance as little more than an olive-drab reincarnation of `` Dead Poets Society . '' And that holds true for the second and third glance , too . Ostensibly based on the real-life experiences of Michigan screenwriter Jim Burnstein , the film picks up Rago 's life just as his downward career path lands him in front of a ragged bunch of would-be warriors who are an IQ point or two shy of being all that they can be . From the beginning , it 's clear that Rago 's task to improve their `` basic comprehension '' is mighty . And most of the first part of the film is spent scoring cheap points off this sad-sack group 's lack of brainpower . Still , this squad 's stupidity is irresistible . Squeezed into their desks , they seem happy in their cluelessness , bantering and dissing each other cutely without a trace of genuine conflict , like some slightly older , racially balanced incarnation of the Little Rascals . They 're not troublemakers or bad eggs , and , from all evidence , they want desperately to be soldiers and fight for Uncle Sam . It 's just that they 're a trifle slow , and if Rago can't help them make progress , they 'll wash out and be tossed back into the hell of their real lives . It 's appropriate that Marshall has chosen an adman for her main character , because that 's the way she works here , in little message nuggets that she packages and sells to her audience . Early on , the recruits are marched in and introduced in the same easy shorthand fashion that the infantrymen were in old war films . There 's the inner-city kid with the thick Brooklyn accent , the quiet black football star , a couple of Midwestern rubes and the like , each one proudly and generically representing his stereotype . In addition , like contestants in the Miss America pageant , each recruit 's past is shaped around a relevant social issue . ( One is beaten by his father , another forgotten by her prostitute mother etc . ) Before Rago gets to know his squad , he grouses and harrumphs , making sure that everyone knows he hates every minute of this khaki purgatory . But after the kids read their bios in class , each one telling a tale of heartache , poverty , neglect and worse , Rago changes his tune . At this point , there is a shift in the film 's tone as well , eliminating the last vestige of dramatic conflict . And when Rago decides that the best way to rescue these borderline illiterates is to teach them `` Hamlet , '' the movie loses all contact with reality . The rest of the picture is spent reducing Shakespeare to the literary equivalent of fast food , while at the same time demonstrating how being smart builds character . `` Victory , '' says DeVito , pointing to his head , `` begins here . '' Marshall scores these facile intellectual points with her usual proficiency , but her material here is far too thin for the audience not to see through it . Also , there 's no flow to her storytelling ; we 're bumped along from one hard-sell episode to another . In some scenes like the one in which one of the recruits is carried off to jail for selling crack back home her tear-jerking is merciless . And from the shameless way she casts her characters as symbolic victims you 'd think that the film was an act of penance . Still , finding uplift in tragedy is Marshall 's specialty and she 's gotten damn good at it . ( She 's the only woman filmmaker with two pictures `` Big '' and `` A League of Their Own '' to earn more than $ 100 million . ) This time , though , her manipulations throw us out of the story rather than pull us in . There are so many positive social messages flying around here that it 's almost impossible to keep track of them . And Marshall 's cast of charming young actors suffers most . In one scene , Stacey Dash ( who is sweetly appealing as the only girl in the class ) is asked to sum up what she has learned from playing her character , Ophelia , and she answers , `` Suicide is not the way . '' As strange as it sounds , DeVito 's performance is about the only aspect of the film that isn't wholly fraudulent , if only because his typical feisty abrasiveness protects him from sinking to the level of Marshall 's mawkishness . Still , those who found his Penguin repellent in `` Batman II '' will spit up their popcorn over his Gertrude . `` Hamlet '' may be the most indestructible of Shakespeare 's plays , but `` Renaissance Man '' pounds it into politically correct dust . `` Renaissance Man '' is rated PG-13 . The ashtray may soon be a collector 's item . The nation 's 50 million smokers are feeling like an oppressed minority . Tobacco-control advocates have snuffed out cigarettes in airplanes , theaters , ball parks and shopping malls . Many cities prohibit smoking in restaurants and other public places . Congress is now considering a hefty tax increase on cigarettes , a nationwide workplace smoking ban and legislation to put the sale and manufacture of tobacco products under the regulation of the U.S. . Food and Drug Administration . The states of Florida and Mississippi are suing tobacco companies , trying to recover costs of treating disease caused by smoking . To paraphrase a famous cigarette ad : We 've come a long way , baby . These accomplishments to curb tobacco use are even more remarkable considering the strength of the tobacco industry . The tobacco lobby is one of the most powerful and well-funded . That lobby reflects the earning power of the business in 1992 , a tobacco company , Philip Morris , was the most profitable business in America , netting almost $ 5 billion . One of tobacco 's most vocal foes wears one of its most familiar names . In 1911 , R.J. Reynolds created Camel cigarettes today the fastest-selling brand in the country . And today R.J. 's grandson , Patrick Reynolds , 45 , works full-time as a lecturer and crusader against the cigarette industry financing his ventures in part with an inheritance rooted in the tobacco fields of North Carolina . When Reynolds was a teen-ager , his father died of emphysema . Even that didn't stop the young Reynolds from taking up the tobacco habit . He finally kicked it in the mid '80s , after selling all his tobacco stock . In 1986 , he shocked his family by testifying on Capitol Hill in favor of a ban on cigarette advertising , and quickly became a spokesman for the growing tobacco-control movement . Before finding his calling as an anti-smoking crusader , Reynolds was an aspiring actor . He uses his thespian skills and his famous name to hold the media 's attention and keep tobacco executives ' feet to the fire . He works out of a modest home in Beverly Hills , Calif. , where he talked about the tobacco industry 's impressive political power and his vision of a smoke-free America . Q : There 's been all this activity congressional hearings , FDA proposals to regulate smoking , workplace smoking bans . Have we reached some sort of critical mass in the anti-smoking movement ? A : I really hope so . I 've been calling for FDA regulation of cigarettes for a long time , and now we have an FDA administrator , David Kessler , who 's saying the same thing . He says he 's prepared to show that cigarette manufacturers manipulate the levels of nicotine in their products , and he 's waiting for a mandate from Congress . The greatest thing that will come out of FDA regulation is that manufacturers will have to print the ingredients on the packs so that people will know what chemicals they are ingesting when they smoke . Meanwhile , ( Rep. ) Henry Waxman ( D-Calif. ) has a bill to ban smoking in the workplace . That would be a national ban , and , of course , the tobacco industry is fighting it tooth and nail , with all their power and might . But the core issue as I see it is the power of the tobacco lobby . It 's a microcosm of what 's going on on a larger scale . The special interests have often kept from being passed legislation which is in the best interest of the public health . So we have to get rid of the power of the special interests . Q : What sort of regulation would you like to see on the sale and marketing of cigarettes ? A : Appropriate regulation regulation which at least duplicates what 's going on in other countries . We should have the warning label on the front of the pack , as Canada requires . Ban advertising and raise taxes , as Canada has done . The difference between the Canadian government and ours ? It 's the power of the special interests and the money that goes into the hands of the politicians . Another important regulation would raise the age for purchasing cigarettes to 21 . It would require merchants to have a license to sell cigarettes , just like liquor . There are statistics which really make the case for this of all smokers , 60 percent start by the age of 14 years old , and 90 percent by the age of 19 . That means only one smoker in 10 starts after the age of 19 . If we can keep cigarettes away from kids until they reach 21 , we could go a long way towards eliminating the problem . So the purchase of cigarettes must be regulated as seriously as alcohol . This means banning vending machines as well . You can't buy a beer in a vending machine . But vending machines are how children are getting cigarettes . ( Begin optional trim ) Q : Where do the 54 million people who smoke fit into this debate ? Don't we need to focus on them at some point . A : Yes , but I will tell you candidly that we have limited dollars and it costs a lot more to get someone to stop smoking than it does to educate children not to ever start smoking . It 's vastly more costly to get addicts off cigarettes . I don't think we can ignore or neglect the issue of smoking cessation however . And I think the tobacco industry 's assertion that smokers have choice sounds good , but how much of a choice do smokers really have when cigarettes are as addicting as heroin ? I do believe that if under Clinton 's health-care program , employers are going to pay for the health care of their employees , then smoking cessation programs should be included in the national health-care program . Q : Do you believe people have a right to smoke , and if so what rights do they have ? A : Smoker 's have a right to smoke , but the right of non-smokers to breathe clean air supersedes the right of smokers . So it is very appropriate to ban smoking in the workplace , in public places like restaurants and airports , in enclosed spaces where people have to breathe . But I don't believe in a cigarette prohibition . The tobacco industry would love to have tobacco-control advocates such as myself take the position that cigarettes should be banned , because then they could call us zealots or fanatics , and dismiss us . I take a moderate and what I feel is an appropriate position . ( End optional trim ) Q : Some years ago you talked about achieving a smoke-free America by the year 2000 . It seemed like an outrageous idea just a few years ago , and now it 's seeming to be something that might almost be achievable . When do you think you can put yourself out of business ? A : I don't think I will be out of business in my lifetime . With hundreds of millions of addicts around the world , there will always be plenty of work for tobacco-control advocates . In my lectures I always point out that , a few years ago , we thought we 'd never get smoking off airplanes , and today we look back and wonder if it was really true that there ever was smoking on airplanes . So one day we are going to look back and say , `` You mean people used to actually smoke ? '' That day is coming , and that 's a promise . MADISON , WIS . President Clinton 's decision to continue China 's `` most-favored-nation '' trade status , a favor enjoyed by virtually all nations , was more than a matter of economic expediency . Coming shortly after a bewildered Secretary of State Warren Christopher was embarrassed in Beijing , the president 's apparently agonized decision was a reluctant but definitive recognition that the United States cannot significantly influence the domestic politics of China . It is a lesson that should have been learned a half-century ago . Had it been understood then , it might have prevented what proved to be a futile U.S intervention in the Civil War between Chiang Kai-shek 's Nationalists and Mao Tse-tung 's Communists , with unhappy consequences for both China and America . But now that the lesson is better appreciated than it was prior to the recent ( and probably final ) MFN debate over China , it would be unwise to embrace the opposing view that capitalist economic development will produce political democracy in China . This was the argument , with many variations , offered by those who lobbied in favor of preserving China 's most-favored-nation status . Prominent among them , of course , were U.S. business interests including Boeing , IBM and AT&T who profit handsomely ( or anticipate doing so ) from trade and investment in China . `` Economic engagement , '' it is self-servingly maintained , is the best means to bring about the democratization of China . Yet it requires an extraordinary measure of gullibility to believe that foreign economic interests have any serious desire to promote democracy in China . Foreign capital is attracted to China , in large measure , because the country offers the services of a huge labor force that is disciplined , comparatively literate and , above all , inexpensive . In addition , the strong state guarantees `` stability and order '' ensuring that the labor force remains obedient . There is , understandably , little enthusiasm for any process of democratization that might , say , nurture the establishment of free trade unions for China 's huge and rapidly expanding industrial work force now more than 200 million . On the matter of free workers ' unions , international capitalism and the Chinese Communist Party stand together on common economic ground . To this the Communist Party , haunted since 1980 by `` the Polish fear '' of the rise of a Solidarity-type movement , adds political considerations as well . But the political direction of the world 's most populous country which can now claims the world 's third-largest economy as well as the most rapidly growing one will ultimately be determined not by foreign capitalism but rather by the workings of its own quasi-capitalist system . And here the prospects for some process of democratic evolution are less than promising not least of all because the peculiar Chinese version of capitalism lacks an independent capitalist class , a consequence of its communist origins . At the end of 1978 , when Deng Xiaoping began dismantling the old Soviet-style `` command economy '' in favor of what is now called a `` socialist market economy , '' China had no entrepreneurial class . The Chinese bourgeoisie had largely been destroyed by the Communist Revolution of 1949 , and what remained was gradually absorbed by the new state in the 1950s . Thus with the decision to pursue economic reform , a class of capitalist entrepreneurs had to be created to construct a market economy and permit that market to function . The task of creating a capitalist class , ironically , could be performed only by the communist state itself . And it was , of course , bureaucrats of the communist regime who were best positioned to take advantage of opportunities the new market mechanisms offered and to heed Deng 's injunction to `` get rich . '' Thus it should not be surprising that the new Chinese bourgeoisie ( or rural and urban `` entrepreneurial elites , '' if one prefers ) is not only a creature of the communist state and its policies but is actually largely composed of party-state officials ( or ex-officials ) , their relatives and friends . While a portion of the bourgeoisie is `` private '' not having sprung directly from the bureaucracy they are , nonetheless , dependent on bureaucratic patronage for their existence and economic functioning . This dependence is reinforced by the eagerness of the most successful private entrepreneurs to join the Communist Party , an organization whose principal qualifications for membership are now two : wealth and loyalty to the Communist regime . It has been noted that China 's new capitalists are hostile to popular democratic elections , which they fear would be dominated by the country 's rural majority a hostility and fear shared by the Chinese Communist Party . It is unlikely that a democratic political role will be played by a Chinese bourgeoisie so dependent on the state and indeed so much a part of the party-state bureaucracy . It is most improbable that a bourgeoisie whose economic fortunes are so dependent on the political fortunes of the communist state will mount a serious challenge to the authority of that state . Over several generations , it is conceivable that China 's new entrepreneurs will shed their bureaucratic roots , evolve into a genuinely independent bourgeoisie and assert their interests ( which may or may not be favorable to democracy ) against the state . But for the time being , the members of China 's new capitalist classes from rural party cadres turned petty entrepreneurs to the sons and daughters of powerful communist leaders wheeling and dealing in international finance and trade from high-rise offices in Shenzhen appear more agents of the state than its antagonists . In fact , they are providing the bureaucracy with a lucrative economic base while at the same time providing the Communist Party with a new social base . In playing this dual role , China 's capitalists contribute not to `` pluralism , '' as most Western observers reflexively assume , but rather further blur the line between state and society . The history of China 's new moneyed elites thus far provides little support for the currently faddish notion of an emergent `` civil society '' that strives to separate itself from the clutches of the state . Indeed , the new entrepreneurs , having largely sprung from the bureaucracy , are psychologically as well as economically dependent on the communist state and rely on that state for political protection . While the economic future of Chinese capitalism may be bright , there is little reason to expect it will be a politically democratic capitalism . Democratic promise in China today resides not in capitalism but rather in the illegal union and other organizing activities of those who seek protection from the working of the capitalist market and from the communist state the more than 100million workers exploited in the burgeoning rural industrial sector , workers in state industries threatened with loss of job security and the peasants who are again the victims of rapacious officials . WASHINGTON `` The Endless Summer II '' is one of those rare bits of movie marginalia that are entirely without merit and , still , a pleasure to sit through . Directed by Bruce Brown , who 30 years ago made the same surfer 's trek around the globe , the sequel is still the ultimate surfer 's home movie , and a great part of its appeal is its unpretentiousness and lack of polish . But this handmade quality is also its downside . Though marginally slicker , the movie is as flat and corny in concept , sensibility and execution as its predecessor . The photography is ravishing but unimaginative , like the most banal calendar art . The continuity is jerky and arbitrary . And the narration is the worst sort of travelogue prose , alternating among the ungrammatical , the redundant and the hackneyed . Other than that , it 's perfection . Watching the film , you experience the somewhat happy , somewhat disturbing sensation of being sucked into a time warp . About the only differences are the fashions and the performers , who in this bright-spirited sequel are the one major improvement . As before , the kids whose names are Patrick O' Connell and Robert `` Wingnut '' Weaver are surfers , not performers , but they 're charmers nonetheless . The bleached-blond O' Connell , who rides a short board and runs up and down his waves like the arm of a lie detector , is a sort of happy idiot , giggling his way around the world . By contrast , Weaver is quieter , darker and more of a soul surfer , taking long , elegant rides like the surf dudes of old on his long board . The movie definitely tests your patience and begins to live up to its name . Regardless of the beauty of the setting , one wave looks pretty much like another , and Brown isn't enough of a filmmaker to break the monotony . But you have to love these kids . No matter what happens , they 're stoked . ` The Endless Summer II ' is rated PG , despite the bare bosoms in France . ' JERUSALEM Israel sent reinforcements to the Lebanese border Friday in the wake of its raid on a Hezbollah training camp , as leaders of the Muslim group vowed revenge and thousands of Lebanese fled northward to avoid further hostilities . Hezbollah fighters rained Katyusha rockets into Israel late Thursday night in retaliation for the attack earlier in the day , but there were no casualties . Thousands of Israelis were ordered to sleep in bomb shelters , and northern Israeli resorts reported a wave of cancellations as tourists fled . In Lebanon , shops , banks and schools were closed for a day of national mourning as the victims were buried . Hezbollah said 26 fighters were killed when Israeli helicopter gunships and warplanes attacked the training camp in Lebanon 's Bekaa Valley , close to the border with Syria . Others said the death toll could be as high as 45 . Sheik Hassan Nasrallah , Hezbollah 's general secretary , delivered a defiant address to more than 15,000 who marched in Beirut 's southern suburbs to mourn the victims of the attack . Nasrallah declared that Hezbollah would avenge the deaths with suicide bombers . `` Yesterday we had tens of suicide attackers . Today we have not hundreds , we have thousands , '' Nasrallah said , according to the Reuter news agency . The crowd shouted , `` Zionists wait , wait , Hezbollah are coming . '' The pre-dawn raid on the training camp was the deadliest single attack ever launched by Israel on Hezbollah , although last summer 's week-long Israeli artillery bombardment of southern Lebanon killed 149 people , many of them civilians . The raid was the second recent Israeli incursion into southern Lebanon . Twelve days earlier , Israeli commandos kidnapped a Muslim guerrilla leader , Mustafa Dirani , from his house and flew him back to Israel . Both operations have heightened tensions between Israel and Hezbollah . According to witnesses , Israel sent heavy artillery to its northern border , as it often does in preparation for hostilities . Long convoys of armor and troops were seen heading toward Lebanon . `` I hope Hezbollah and others understand that an attack on northern Israel will open them up for strong attacks by us , '' said Yitzhak Mordechai , commander of Israeli forces in the north . Security sources in southern Lebanon said civilians were fleeing villages and heading for Beirut to avoid further violence . Last year 's operation sent nearly a half-million Lebanese fleeing northward . Israel and its client militia , the South Lebanese Army , exchanged fire throughout the night Thursday with Hezbollah fighters in the buffer zone controlled by Israel . Israeli analysts offered differing explanations for the timing of the raid , which was approved by the cabinet on Wednesday . Military and intelligence officials said the training camp became a `` hot '' target because the fighters were there . `` We are carrying out the simple rule of rising up to kill the one who seeks to kill you , '' said the Israeli military chief of staff , Lt. Gen. Ehud Barak . But others suggested that Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin was taking advantage of an impasse in peace talks with Syria to strike at Hezbollah . This week , Rabin complained that the U.S.-mediated effort was `` exhausted . '' Syria is the main power broker in the region where Hezbollah operates . South Carolina Gov. Carroll Campbell , a Republican who has been actively testing the waters for a possible 1996 presidential campaign , abruptly announced Friday that he would forego the race to become president of the American Council of Life Insurance when his term expires next January . Campbell , the current chairman of the National Governors ' Association , was seen in Republican circles as a longshot for the Republican nomination but a potential vice presidential candidate in 1996 . But his press secretary Tucker Eskew said that after weighing the odds and the offer from the life insurance council , `` He came to the conclusion that he didn't want to run around the country for two years for the possibility of a vice presidential nod . '' Campbell made the decision to enter the private sector a week ago after consulting with his family , who reportedly were not enthusiastic about a grueling presidential campaign in 1996 . Although friends said they believed Campbell personally wanted to run for president , Eskew said , `` He came to the conclusion that it was about a 15 percent chance ( of winning the nomination ) and a 30 to 35 percent chance for the vice presidency . '' Given those long odds , Campbell opted for the private sector and the opportunity to build some financial security for himself and his family . Campbell was on his way to Kentucky to speak to a Republican Party event Friday when the announcement was made , an indication of the intensity with which he had begun to explore a presidential campaign . He has made several trips to Iowa and New Hampshire , and was well received at party events in the South and elsewhere . Campbell saw himself as a conservative , southern alternative to President Clinton , but concluded other Republicans had larger electoral bases and greater financial resources to launch a presidential campaign . The conservative Campbell is finishing his second term as governor and cannot run for a third . During his tenure he has reshaped the Republican Party in his state and has been a leader among governors on educational reform . He served four terms in the House before running for governor . Campbell was a political soulmate of the late GOP strategist Lee Atwater , a fellow South Carolinian . In 1988 , he was one of George Bush 's strongest supporters and , with Atwater , helped to engineer the beginning of a southern sweep for Bush that locked up the Republican nomination . On health care , Campbell has been a vocal and often partisan voice , wearing his two hats as NGA chairman and Republican partisan . He has called for modest reforms to assure health insurance for more Americans , but has vehemently attacked Clinton 's proposal as a big-government intrusion that would hurt the economy . He will succeed former Republican senator Richard Schweiker at the American Council of Life Insurance . MOSCOW When Soviet athletes and artists visited South Korea for the 1988 Olympics after decades of hot and cold war , many envisioned a Moscow-Seoul friendship that would blossom into love , enriching both nations and sparking jealousy in the rival capitals of Beijing and Tokyo . This week , with South Korean President Kim Young Sam in town for his first official Moscow summit , it is clear that the rosy expectations have not been fulfilled . Relations are correct but not warm , and if anyone has turned into a wallflower , it is Russia , not China or Japan . `` Seoul is having all the fun , '' the chief editor of Izvestia , Igor Golembiovsky , wrote this week with Sergei Agafonov . `` Moscow is reduced to the unenviable role of a passive extra , engrossed in its internal problems . '' Undoubtedly , the establishment of relations between the Soviet Union and South Korea in 1990 helped stabilize regional politics . For Seoul , recognition from Moscow after an 86-year hiatus carried special benefits , isolating rival North Korea , easing Seoul 's opening to China and legitimizing South Korea 's claim to world recognition . Russia also has handed over documents and the black box from the Korean Air Lines airliner shot down by the Soviets in 1983 . This week , President Boris Yeltsin gave Kim documents the Russians said will prove that North Korea started the Korean War of 1950-53 , as Seoul always has contended . But in 1988 , and again in 1990 when Soviet President Mikhail Gorbachev first met South Korean President Roh Tae Woo in San Francisco , the expectations especially in Moscow were considerably higher . South Korea , with its dynamic economy and rapidly advancing technology , would provide Russia an entry into Asia while jump-starting the economy of Russia 's Far East . Japan 's long-standing territorial dispute with the Soviet Union meant it would not soon agree to increased economic ties , the theory went . But Seoul would be eager to step into Japan 's place , buying Russia 's raw materials and investing and upgrading Soviet technology . As a first step , the South Koreans promised $ 3 billion in loans . But as of June 1993 , South Korea had invested a mere $ 26 million in Russian projects . Its investment in China , by comparison , has grown from $ 6 million in 1987 to $ 598 million last year , according to South Korean official statistics . Even the far smaller economies of the former Soviet republics of Central Asia have attracted more Korean investment than Russia has . Before the Soviet Union collapsed , Seoul did lend Moscow about $ 1.5 billion , much of it tied to the purchase of Korean goods . But Russia has not repaid that money , giving Seoul a welcome excuse not to lend any more . `` No major joint projects , conceived and lauded at a top level , were completed or even launched , '' Izvestia noted . South Korean officials said this week that their companies have stayed away for familiar reasons : instability , corruption and lack of clear legal protection for foreign investment in Russia . `` It 's not only Korean investment , but also investment in general , '' said South Korea 's foreign minister , Han Sung Joo . `` Individual decisions are made by individual firms on the basis of profitability and future prospects and so far , there was a clear tendency , in many cases , for investments in China or Southeast Asia . '' Trade between the two countries has risen , from a total turnover of $ 889 million in 1990 to $ 1.6 billion last year , with the balance shifting to Russia 's favor . South Korea imported mostly fish and raw materials , while selling machinery , electronic goods and vehicles . The opening of relations also has spurred an active trade by Russians who travel back and forth , carrying huge bags of clothes and other goods to sell in open markets . And South Korean firms have taken advantage of Russian economic troubles to hire a large number of scientists to work in computer , aerospace and other high-tech industries . But bilateral trade still makes up only 1 percent of South Korea 's overall trade volume . Russian Trade Minister Oleg Davydov recently complained that South Korea not only refuses to provide credits but also will not provide state insurance for trade or investment here , thus crimping chances for rapid growth . In a brief interview this week , South Korean Trade Minister Park Chol Su said he is confident Seoul 's investment here will grow . He said South Korea is particularly interested in developing and importing natural gas from Sakhalin Island and from the vast Siberian territory of Yakutia . `` It 's obviously a country with a great potential , although they are currently in economic difficulties , '' Park said . `` The investment climate here is improving . '' In a Kremlin news conference Thursday , both presidents hailed the prospects for their countries ' future relations . But the only concrete accomplishment they announced was a program of youth exchanges , and Yeltsin hinted at Russia 's disappointment with the accomplishments thus far . `` We have repeatedly stressed that we are interested in full-scale economic relations , '' the Russian president said . `` We would like to see a growth of investments by South Korean firms in our economy , especially in the Far East . '' WASHINGTON No , that 's not a pistol in Woody Harrelson 's pocket , it 's his raison d' etre . Leastways , it sure seems that way after you get a load of the showboating buckaroo in `` The Cowboy Way . '' A really crummy rip-off of `` Crocodile ' Dundee , '' this rode-hard horse opry is supposed to be a buddy comedy , but as far as Harrelson is concerned , co-star Kiefer Sutherland is just scenery for his strut fest . Uninventively directed by Gregg Champion from Bill `` Lonesome Dove '' Wittliff 's screenplay , the movie follows Pepper ( Harrelson ) and his disgruntled rodeo partner , Sonny ( Sutherland ) , from their New Mexico stomping ground to Manhattan . After the pair bust a couple of broncos , they head east to find Nacho ( Joaquin Martinez ) , a friend who disappeared while searching for his daughter ( Cara Buono ) . The girl , a Cuban immigrant smuggled into New York to work for a sweatshop , is now in the hands of the ring 's evil leader ( Dylan McDermott ) , who decides to keep her for his own amusement a plot left over from the Lillian Gish era . Unlike Dundee , McCloud or even the Muppets , the cowboys act more like rube conventioneers than fish out of water . They order an expensive dinner at a posh hotel , where Pepper beguiles the ladies with tongue tricks , and later they visit Central Park , where they meet a mounted police officer ( Ernie Hudson ) and his pretty horse . When they do get down to business , they don't employ their rodeo skills , they just speed around town in their pickup truck . Sonny , who is captured by the bad guys , remains on ice while Pepper goes to a glitzy party , does a striptease and becomes an underpants model for Calvin Klein . Harrelson rustles up a guffaw or two with this bump and grind . This is , however , something of a comedown after an earlier nude scene in which he manages to hang a 10-gallon hat on his raison d' etre . Harrelson is perhaps overcompensating because the role was originally intended for Kevin Costner , who no longer takes it off to get attention . Then again , maybe he was just trying to distract the audience from his face . Swear to God , the man looks like a talking onion . And old Mr . Onion Head hasn't got the stuff to disguise a plot with more holes than Miss Kitty 's fishnet stockings . The film finally attempts to live up to its premise as the partners commandeer horses from the mounted cop and charge after the bad guy , who 's aboard a crosstown subway . They may be bumpkins , but they never have to stop and ask directions because that 's not the cowboy way . ` The Cowboy Way , ' is rated PG-13 for profanity , violence and sexual innuendo . Thomas B . Edsall , a Washington Post reporter , has won the Carey McWilliams Award for political coverage . The $ 500 award , bestowed by the American Political Science Association , is made annually `` to honor a major journalistic contribution to our understanding of politics , '' the group said . Edsall has written extensively on the intersection of race and politics , the changing demographics of the Democratic and Republican political parties and the new crop of GOP big-city mayors . Edsall , 52 , joined The Post in 1981 from the Baltimore Sun . He is the author of three books about politics , most recently `` Chain Reaction : The Impact of Race , Rights and Taxes on American Politics , '' written with his wife , Mary D. Edsall . The award committee consisted of Kathleen Hall Jamieson , dean of the University of Pennsylvania 's Annenberg School of Communications ; Stephen Hess of the Brookings Institution and Kathleen Frankovic of CBS News . NETTUNO , Italy He came on a mission of remembrance , a young man paying homage to the sacrifice of so many young men who died to make a world free . President Clinton arrived at the beautiful , mournful Sicily-Rome American cemetery here on a muggy , cloud-dappled day to give thanks to the thousands of GIs who survived the bloody campaign to liberate Italy and to the 7,862 dead who are buried here . To the crash of cannon and the haunting strains of Chopin 's `` Funeral March , '' a somber Clinton saluted the more than 1,000 military veterans and guests at the Nettuno memorial service . `` You cannot leave memory to chance , '' he said . `` We are the sons and daughters of the world they saved . '' Friday 's ceremony was the first of three major commemorative events to mark the 50th anniversary of the beginning of the end of the bloodiest conflagration in history . At Nettuno , 40 miles south of Rome , Clinton honored the men who struggled their way from Sicily northward , up the mountainous spine of the Italian peninsula through a winter of ice and mud , hardship and death . The caps of the aging veterans spelled out the names of the units that shed their blood so that the people of Italy might be free of the blight of fascism and German occupation : the 36th Infantry Division , the 45th , the Tenth Mountain , the 14th , the 85th . Their name tags bore the names of places of horror that will live in history , Salerno , Anzio , Monte Cassino . The Nettuno cemetery lies just inland from Anzio , the port where Allied troops landed in January 1944 to stiff German resistance . They were pinned down under intense artillery and air bombardment until late May , when they broke out , linked up with other troops who finally pushed through the fortified German Gustav line and marched into Rome 50 years ago Saturday . Clinton noted that his father , William Jefferson Blythe , served in Italy and recalled a story told to him about his father , who died in 1946 three months before Clinton 's birth . `` Back home , his niece had heard about the beautiful Italian countryside and wrote him asking for a single leaf from one of the glorious trees here to take to school , '' Clinton said . `` My father had only sad news to send back there were no leaves ; every one had been stripped by the fury of the battle . '' The leaves have now returned , and the Nettuno cemetery is a lush memorial garden of evergreen holly oak and cypress trees . Row on row of perfectly aligned white marble crosses mark the graves . Before Friday 's ceremony , Italian school children placed Italian and American flags and a single red or yellow carnation upon each grave . `` We stand today in fields forever scarred by sacrifice , '' Clinton said , in one of his most eloquent and brief speeches as president . `` But amid the horror of the guns , something rare was born a driving spirit of common cause . '' ( Begin optional trim ) In a gesture of conciliation , Clinton honored his chief nemesis on Capitol Hill , Senate Minority Leader Robert Dole , who as a 21-year-old platoon leader with the Tenth Mountain Division was gravely wounded in Italy . Dole was joined at the Nettuno ceremony by three other Senate veterans of the Italian campaign : Daniel Inouye of Hawaii , who lost an arm to his war wounds in 1945 ; Ernest `` Fritz '' Hollings of South Carolina ; and Claiborne Pell of Rhode Island . `` We honor what they did for us here , '' Clinton said . He called them `` each a young American who came of age here ; each an American patriot who went home to build up our nation . '' ( End optional trim ) Clinton and Italian President Oscar Luigi Scalfaro laid a wreath at the steps of the American-built memorial , near the base of a statue depicting an American soldier and sailor linked as brothers in arms . `` Why war ? '' Scalfaro asked in his remarks . `` Why destruction and death ? And the answer is only one : because violence and thirst for power prevailed over reason ; because the natural and inviolable rights of the human person were transgressed by dictators , with the idea of hegemony of a ` superior race ' that kills human brotherhood and generates extermination and genocide . '' ( Optional add end ) He said that Italian history its embrace of fascism and its alliance with Nazi Germany cannot be rewritten . But he but vowed that Italy would remain committed to a democratic course and alliance with the free peoples of Europe and America . As the ceremony concluded , three waves of jet fighters roared overhead in the missing-man formation . The third group wreathed the cemetery in smoke in red , green and white , the Italian national colors . Afterward , Clinton hosted a reception at the cemetery for several hundred veterans of the Italian campaign . Later in the day , Clinton spoke to embassy employees and toured ancient Roman ruins . The evening was spent at a formal dinner given by Scalfaro at the Quirinale Palace . It was closed to the news media . WASHINGTON In a significant policy shift , the White House has concluded it will be unable to reduce America 's growing trade deficit with Japan during President Clinton 's first term in office , and no longer considers it a key political objective , the administration 's chief trade negotiator said Friday . Instead of aiming for a specific reduction in the U.S.-Japan trade deficit , currently about $ 60 billion a year , the administration will emphasize Clinton 's efforts to increase exports in key industries , said U.S. . Trade Representative Mickey Kantor . In an interview with Los Angeles Times reporters , Kantor sought to downplay the notion that the administration has backed away from its previous attempts to get tough with Japan on trade . He noted that talks are continuing on developing a new framework for trade relations between the two nations in a number of key industrial sectors . Still , it appears the administration has effectively backed away from the notion of attempting to set specific targets for reducing the overall U.S.-Japan trade deficit , which has become a political lightning rod for frustrations about America 's global competitiveness . The absolute size of the U.S.-Japan deficit `` is less important .. . than the content of the deficit , '' Kantor said . `` You can find no correlation between the size of the trade deficit and whether or not you 're creating or not creating employment , '' he said . `` What has worried us most about the closed markets in Japan , and what the framework talks are aimed at , are those sectors where we have the highest potential growth : semiconductors , electronics , computers , super-computers , auto and auto parts , services like insurance and financial services . '' In another candid observation , Kantor said America 's trade gap with China ultimately could rival in size the troublesome deficit with Japan . Speaking just a week after Clinton announced renewal of Beijing 's most-favored-nation trade status , he said tough negotiations lie ahead to ensure China complies with international trade laws as it grows into a trading powerhouse . `` If we don't continue to be aggressive and work with China on a day-to-day basis and , in fact , insist that they adhere to the same norms as the rest of the major nations .. . who have access to our market , then yes , we 're going to create a problem for ourselves , '' he said . Kantor said he met with China 's ambassador to the United States on Thursday , and engaged in a `` very candid discussion '' on trade issues . In Friday 's breakfast session at the Times Washington Bureau , Kantor complained about China 's refusal to abide by international rules governing intellectual property rights . He cited in particular rampant production of bootleg versions of Western music . `` They don't protect intellectual property , '' Kantor said . `` They have 26 plants in Southern China which last year produced 75 million compact discs , only 2 million of which were consumed in China 73 million were exported . '' And it 's not just the U.S. music industry that is being hurt , he said . `` It is also computer software , computer hardware , pharmaceuticals , you name it . That 's a serious situation we have to address . '' Kantor 's remarks contrast with those of Commerce Secretary Ron Brown , who said last month that the renewal of most-favored-nation status would help shrink or even eliminate America 's growing trade deficit with China . In 1993 , the United States logged a $ 23 billion deficit with China , second only to the gap with Japan . Critics have warned that future growth of U.S. exports to China will not offset the potential expansion of imports from multinational corporations that relocate manufacturing plants in China to take advantage of the country 's extremely low wages . ( Optional add end ) Meanwhile , Kantor said the administration is beginning to rethink U.S. policy toward exports of American cigarettes and other tobacco products . At a time when the tobacco industry is facing mounting pressure at home , it has seen international markets as an important source of future profits and growth . But Kantor said the administration has already reversed a Bush administration policy by no longer opposing efforts by other nations to block sales of U.S. cigarettes because of local health and safety regulations . Before the policy shift , the United States objected to such obstacles on the grounds that they represented unfair trading rules . `` Past administrations would , from time to time , challenge health-based regulations or advertising prohibitions regarding cigarettes used by other countries as a burden on trade , '' Kantor said . `` We willn't do that . We 've changed our policy . If it 's a legitimate health-based standard or an advertising prohibition that affects all cigarettes , then we will not challenge those . '' Kantor said the administration would not attempt to reverse such policies as long as American brands are treated no different than local tobacco products . A Bush administration challenge to health-related restrictions imposed by Taiwan on cigarette sales already has been allowed to lapse , Kantor said . He indicated that other countries , which he would not identify , could impose similar restrictions . Kantor said he has established a joint committee with Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala to further study tobacco trade policy . TOKYO Emperor Akihito said Friday that he feels grief for the millions who died or suffered during World War II , but he declined to say anything about Japan 's role in starting the Pacific war or about the responsibility of his father , the late Emperor Hirohito . At a rare palace news conference prior to a state visit to the United States that begins next week , Akihito , 60 , and Empress Michiko , 59 , said their goal in America was simple : `` to advance our friendly relations based on mutual understanding . '' The couple met the press in a large red-carpeted meeting room in the Imperial Palace , simply furnished and lined with traditional rice-paper shoji screens . Akihito wore a stylish , double-breasted , gray flannel suit . Michiko wore a dress of burnt amber with a glittering pearl-and-diamond brooch and a single strand of perfectly matched pearls around her neck . Under Japan 's postwar constitution , written by American occupation forces , the emperor is nothing more than a `` symbol of the state , '' with no governing authority . His travels and speeches are decided for him by the nation 's political leadership . The upcoming 16-day trip , with stops in 11 American cities , has become a political issue because of one stop the royal couple will not make . The government canceled Akihito 's visit to the USS Arizona Memorial in Honolulu , which commemorates the 2,400 Americans who died in the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941 , the event that started the war in the Pacific . The cancellation was strictly a matter of domestic politics . The government reportedly feared that an imperial trip to Pearl Harbor might be taken as an apology for the surprise raid and there are some elements in Japanese society who strongly oppose any apology to Americans . Friday , Akihito declined to discuss the Pearl Harbor raid , and he ducked all questions dealing with Japan 's responsibility for the war . Rather , he said , `` My heart grieves when I think of the many dead or wounded in the war , or those who had to bear great suffering . '' As with every public function of Japan 's royalty , the session was planned to the second and scripted to the last comma . Officials of the Imperial Household Agency , the bureaucracy that overseas palace events , gave the reporters assigned seats and detailed instructions on the correct way to introduce oneself when asking a question . Reporters were warned to turn off pagers , portable phones and alarm watches so that `` the atmosphere will not be spoiled with beeping . '' The questions for the session were written out in advance by the palace press corps using a stylized formal language rarely heard in normal conversation and assigned to individual reporters . The answers had been scripted by the bureaucracy ; both emperor and empress appeared to have memorized every word they said Friday . I was assigned to read the question about the Pearl Harbor attack . It is impossible to convey in English the hierarchical honorifics the Japanese use when talking to an emperor , but a direct translation of the question will give the general idea . `` I humbly direct my respectful question to his royal majesty , '' I began . `` What might your honorable opinion be , your highness , on the question of whether the Japanese military raid on Pearl Harbor in 1941 was justified ? '' Akihito handled this question the same way he likely will handle any specific question about the war during his visit to the United States : He declined to answer . `` It is extremely important to get to the truth about these historical questions , '' he said . `` But in my position , I cannot comment on such matters . '' TOKYO Japanese Emperor Akihito evaded questions on Friday about the `` war responsibility '' of his father , the late Emperor Hirohito , and whether Japan 's 1941 attack on Pearl Harbor was justified . But in a scripted news conference , he said that an awareness of `` the lives that were lost , the wounds that were inflicted , the feelings of those suffered anguish never disappears from my heart however many years and months pass . '' The statement referred to the war that Japan began in China in 1931 , expanded into World War II with its attack on Pearl Harbor in 1941 , and ended , as the emperor put it , `` many years and months ago '' in 1945 . He repeated the same thought in partial reply to both of the questions that remain so sensitive in a country still divided over whether its old record of colonialism and invasion constitute aggression or not . Just last month , a Cabinet minister was ousted for disclaiming World War II aggression . Pearl Harbor , originally included in an itinerary for a 17-day imperial tour of 11 American cities that will begin next Friday , was dropped from the schedule because of fears of stirring political controversy in Japan . As to whether the surprise attack was justified `` considering the situation in 1941 , '' the emperor said `` understanding correctly historical facts is very important . But in my position , I would like to refrain from commenting on this kind of problem . '' His father , Emperor Hirohito , he added , `` treated peace more importantly than anything , '' but `` acted by obeying the Constitution . I imagine he endured many hardships . '' Hirohito himself declared in 1971 that he had always acted as `` a constitutional monarch '' obeying decisions of the country 's political leaders , as his grandfather , the Emperor Meiji , had instructed him . It was in the name of Hirohito , who died in 1989 after a reign of 62 years , that Japan declared war on the United States shortly after its bombers raided Pearl Harbor . And it was in his name that Japan agreed to `` bear the unbearable '' in surrender four years later . Akihito , who was 8 when Pearl Harbor was attacked , will lay wreaths at Arlington National Cemetery in Washington and at the Punch Bowl Cemetery in Honolulu . The emperor , 60 , said his wife , who collapsed on her 59th birthday last Oct. 20 and lost the ability to speak , still has not recovered completely . `` Her voice is still very weak and she gets rather tired when speaking , '' he said . `` I am worried about her because of the busy schedule in the United States and the burden it will impose upon her . '' He indicated she had remained stricken until about a month ago . ( Optional add end ) `` I cannot say I have absolutely no unease in making this trip with its long schedule , '' Michiko confessed in a voice so soft it often became inaudible . `` But I will do my best to take care of myself and perform my duties . '' Like almost all of the imperial couple 's appearances , the news conference was scripted from start to finish . Reporters read presubmitted questions , and though neither Akihito nor Michiko held any notes , both gave what appeared to be memorized answers . One reply did break the tone of studied tact . Asked by American reporters what concerns she had about her own country , Michiko appeared to criticize Japan for possessing only a passive desire for peace , for indulging in decadence and for losing its traditional value of courtesy . `` Peace is not merely the passive condition of not being at war but rather an earnest desire and a strong will to continue the state of peace. .. . Wisdom and effort are necessary to realize this , '' she said , adding , `` It would be a source of joy if the thinking and the culture of the people should be directed not toward decadence but to a higher level of strength and refinement and if we Japanese could always preserve a sense of modesty , respecting other people and other nations . '' TUNIS , Tunisia The Palestine Liberation Organization has conducted two rounds of meetings with the Islamic fundamentalist group Hamas and has received assurances from a range of opposition organizations that they will not create clashes in the new autonomy zones , PLO leadership sources say . Hamas leaders , who met with an envoy of PLO chairman Yasser Arafat last week in Jordan , had appeared close to an agreement for accepting seats on the new 25-member Palestinian Authority before the talks were derailed by leaks in Tunis and Amman , the sources said . But Abbas Zaki , a leader of Arafat 's mainstream Fatah faction , said he won assurances from radical groups such as the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine-General Command which had called for the streets to be washed in Arafat 's blood in the wake of his accord with Israel that opponents will mount no attacks against the PLO leader or members of the new Palestinian Authority . `` They will not join , '' he said in an interview , after meeting with opposition leaders such as Nayef Hawatmeh of the Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine , Abu Ali Mustafa of the Popular Front and two leaders of the PFLP-GC . `` But they let me know that if we deal with them in good will , and allow everybody to have his own opinion , we can prevent any clashes. .. . ' ' Arafat so far has packed the governing authority with his supporters , most from his Fatah organization and the tiny Palestinian Democratic Union , which also backs the peace plan with Israel . With 20 seats filled so far , the PLO chairman has left open the last bloc of seats in the hope of attracting the opposition into the peace fold . Key among those groups is Hamas , whose threat to continue a violent campaign against the Israeli occupation could derail the fledgling autonomy effort in Jericho and the Gaza Strip . ( Begin optional trim ) Zaki said he met with a Hamas delegation May 25 in Amman to try to learn the organization 's conditions for backing the peace effort . He said they discussed Hamas having seats on the ruling council : `` I told them , ` Come . ' I offered to them the seats and I astonished them . They said , ` How many members ? ' I said , ` I don't know , but .. . maybe four or five . ' They said , ` Tell me , is there any condition from Israel or ( Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak ) Rabin ? ' I said to them , ` I represent Arafat , and I don't know what Rabin wants . Arafat told me if you want , it 's good. ' .. . They said , ` Please keep it a secret , we can study this with our leadership and tell you after two days . '' ' Meantime , another delegation led by purported Hamas leader Sheik Said Bilal headed to Tunis for direct talks with Arafat ; Zaki proceeded to Syria for meetings with left-wing opposition groups , in and out of the PLO fold . ( End optional trim ) Arafat advisers said after the Hamas meetings in Tunis that they believe there are factions within Hamas leaning toward cooperating with the peace agreement . They said part of the talks with Hamas focused on an attempt to win a pledge that there would be no more attacks against Palestinians accused of collaborating with Israel . ( Optional add end ) The PLO pressed Hamas leaders for information on the perpetrators of the recent attack against two alleged collaborators , as well as the Hamas-claimed attack on two Israeli soldiers near the Gaza Strip . But PLO officials admitted there are few immediate hopes of persuading any opponents to join the authority early on . `` The attempts are still going on . I don't want to say whether we succeed or fail . Even though some of these organizations declare they refuse , that doesn't mean anything in politics . It 's a position to improve one 's conditions , '' said one senior Arafat adviser . In CLINTON-SUIT-ANALYSIS adv12 ( Denniston , Sun ) sub for 24th ( penultimate ) graf ( Changing year from 1991 to 1981 ) xxx Fitzgerald . Powell , trying to draft an opinion for the apparent majority , told Burger in mid-December 1981 : `` I am now prepared to defer to the wishes of you , Bill Rehnquist and Sandra , and prepare a draft opinion holding that a president has absolute immunity from damage suit liability '' for the reasons he had spelled out in the broadest of all of his earlier drafts . PICK UP 25th ( last ) graf : He also xxx : NAIROBI , Kenya For two months , the world has looked on with horror at the genocidal killing in Rwanda . But , in testimony to the limits of outsiders ' power , no international effort has been able to stop it . `` Enough of this blood , '' pleaded Pope John Paul II , and from Washington and London to the capitals of Africa , similar calls have echoed across the bloodied Rwandan countryside . But they have stopped not a bullet nor saved a life . Now , with the Rwandan Patriotic Front closing in Friday on Gitarama seat of the interim government and battling a defiant but crumbling army in the capital , Kigali , a rebel victory seems increasingly likely . Most human-rights groups even those with no particular affinity for the rebels would welcome such a victory as the fastest way to stop the appalling massacre of civilians . When Kigali falls , it will join Kampala , Uganda , in 1978 , and Addis Ababa , Ethiopia , and Mogadishu , Somalia , in 1991 , as the only African capitals in recent times to succumb to a rebel army . Kigali 's collapse will be a reminder of how much has changed in Africa since the not-so-distant days when European powers were willing to rush in troops to prop up their former colonies . Britain always stood ready to guarantee the stability of Kenya and still conducts military exercises here . France used troops at least a dozen times to stave off coups in its former African colonies ; a decade ago , Paris might well have sent combatants into French-speaking Rwanda , whose military France armed and advised . As often as not , the mere landing of European troops in Africa was sufficient to restore order . But in Rwanda the world has done little more than shed a tear and shrug helplessly . Rwanda 's two former colonial masters , Germany and Belgium , have declined a U.N. request for help . Only three African nations Ethiopia , Senegal and Ghana have agreed to participate in an African peacekeeping force for Rwanda . But their offer of 2,100 troops fell far short of the 5,500 soldiers that the United Nations requested and it was never clear who would equip or pay for the mission . What is apparent from the world 's reluctance to enter Rwanda , Western diplomats say , is that governments realize there is little they can do militarily to pacify dedicated , warring factions unless they are willing to bring to bear the full power of their guns . In Somalia , they weren't ; the lesson was a painful one . Somalia started as a humanitarian mission , just as any effort in Rwanda would . But when , inch by inch , the peacekeepers ' military resolve was tested as it surely would be in Rwanda the U.N. response was at first confused and timid . The more undefined the response became , the bolder the belligerents grew , until , in the end , they came to understand that none of the governments in the peacekeeping force had national interests they were willing to stand and fight for in Somalia . The same scenario could be repeated in Rwanda , the most destitute of African countries . ( Optional add end ) Although the world will remain morally haunted by its passivity , the fact is that politically , economically and militarily , Rwanda holds importance for not a single nation , except perhaps for neighboring Burundi . With peace talks between the rebels and the army having broken off in Kigali Thursday and no future sessions planned , that leaves the international community to hope that one side or the other will achieve military dominance , thus ending the slaughter . But even if the predominantly Tutsi Rwandan Patriotic Front defeats the Hutu-controlled army , African observers are less than confident that Rwanda 's troubles will be over . NETTUNO , Italy With the graves of nearly 8,000 young Americans arrayed in stark symmetry before him , President Clinton Friday honored the generation that fought to liberate Italy during World War II and summoned his own generation , `` the sons and daughters of the world they saved , '' to remember and honor their sacrifice . Hundreds of American veterans of the Italian campaign some missing limbs , some tearful , all grown old listened in rapt silence as their struggles on Nettuno Beach and Anzio 50 years ago were remembered . John Shirley , a Californian who was part of the battle to break out of the beachhead and to liberate Rome , vividly recounted the story of the bloody months on the Italian coast that produced nearly 30,000 Allied casualties . Clinton followed with a brief tribute , recalling not only the dead who are buried here in row upon row of graves marked with simple white crosses or Stars of David , but the men and women who went home to build up their nation . `` Fifty years later , we can see the difference their generation has made , '' he said , `` America is strong ; freedom is on the march. .. . Our job is not only to praise their deeds but to pursue their dreams ; not only to recall their sacrifice for freedom but to renew freedom 's promise once again . '' At the end , the silent crowd raised its eyes to the sounds of American jets , flying in the missing-man formation , and to the sight of Italian jets dropping a gentle blanket of green , red and white smoke , the colors of the Italian flag , over the American graves as a final tribute . The ceremony , amid the 77 gently sloping acres of graves in the Sicily-Rome American Cemetery , is the first of a series of commemorations the president will lead across Italy , England and France , culminating June 6 at the 50th anniversary observance of the Allied landing at Normandy . Many of the veterans here were thankful that `` their '' war , the Italian campaign , received its moment of acknowledgment in this ceremony before the D-Day observances take center stage . Before his speech , Clinton walked through the rows of graves , stopping at a handful to speak with relatives or friends of those buried here . At one grave , that of American Red Cross nurse Ophelia Tiley , he was greeted with a smart salute by June Marion Wandrey , 74 , dressed in her perfectly preserved brown-wool World War II Army Nurse Corps uniform . Although Clinton 's efforts to avoid service in Vietnam , a war he opposed , have rankled some veterans , his lack of military experience seemed to have little relevance to Wandrey and other veterans at the ceremony , many of whom lauded the president for coming here to recognize them . `` I have to look at it this way : He 's my president , and I respect the office , '' said Wandrey . Asked if it was time to move on from Clinton 's past , she paused , looked down for a moment and answered : `` Well , each to his own . You have to look in your own heart and see what you can forgive . '' Muriel Flake , a psychologist from Houston whose late husband fought in the Italian campaign , endorsed the president 's message of remembrance in a voice choked with emotion . `` He said it is your responsibility to carry on and preserve what these men fought for , '' she said , noting that her children 's generation `` doesn't have a sense of what these men gave . Many of my high school and college friends were killed at Normandy . They were just gone . So young . '' John Bender of Aberdeen , Md. , watching Clinton from the sidelines , said the president 's war protest as a young man `` bothers me a little , '' but `` he grew up . Maybe he has changed . He should be aware of things . I think he is , since he is here . There 's so much at stake . '' Bender , who said he was a Republican , was as pleased to see Robert J. Dole , R-Kan. , the Senate majority leader , as he was Clinton . Dole was one of four senators who fought in the Italian campaign and were invited here for this ceremony . Like Dole , Bender suffered a serious wound that cost him the use of his arm . `` My arm is crippled , like Dole 's , '' he said proudly , noting he had had his picture taken with the senator . The Republican , at odds with Clinton on virtually everything in Washington and a potential presidential opponent , received a salute from Clinton as they shared a platform at the ceremony . Clinton cited Sens. Dole , Ernest Hollings , D-S.C. , Daniel K. Inouye , D-Hawaii , and Claiborne F. Pell , D-R.I. , as `` young Americans who came of age here , each an American patriot who went home to build up our nation. .. . We honor what they have given to America . '' Clinton , in his eight-minute address , also touched on the need for Americans to remember their history . `` Too many Americans , '' he said , `` do not know what that generation did. .. . We cannot leave memory to chance . We must recall Elie Weisel 's commandment to fight forgetfulness . And we must apply it to the valor as much as to the horror for to honor , we must remember , and then , we must go forward . '' Clinton 's moment of memory came in his recounting of a story about his father , William Blythe , who served in Italy . Back home , Clinton said , a niece had heard of Italy 's beauty and asked Blythe to send her a single leaf from one of the trees to take to school . `` My father had only sad news , '' he said . `` There were no leaves . Every one had been stripped by the fury of the battle . '' MEXICO CITY A government prosecutor investigating the assassination of Mexico 's leading presidential candidate is backing away from his own widely publicized conspiracy theory , saying now that the accused gunman appears to have acted alone . Special prosecutor Miguel Montes Garcia said in a statement that he will continue searching for evidence against three men accused of assisting alleged gunman Mario Aburto Martinez in the March 23 shooting death of ruling party candidate Luis Donaldo Colosio . But he acknowledged no new evidence has surfaced against the three , all of whom were arrested and charged on the basis of photographs depicting suspicious-looking actions by them moments before Colosio was shot at a Tijuana campaign rally . Montes 's statement , issued late Thursday , was only the latest development effectively slowing the investigation into Colosio 's death while the nation gears up for hotly contested presidential elections on Aug. 21 . Officials of the ruling Institutional Revolutionary Party ( PRI ) say they fear that voter cynicism prompted by an inconclusive investigation could harm the party 's chances . It has not lost a presidential election in 65 years . Other factors affecting the inquiry 's progress include : A federal judge threatening legal action on Thursday against two of Colosio 's government-appointed bodyguards one of whom is an army general for defying a court summons to testify in the case . The governor of Baja California , where Tijuana is located , saying Wednesday that he had suspended a probe into the killing of Tijuana police chief Jose Frederico Benitez , because he could not guarantee the safety of his investigators . In late April , Benitez , who claimed to have independent evidence suggesting a second gun was involved in Colosio 's shooting , was shot to death while driving on a Tijuana street . In an interview the day before his death , he said files he kept on suspects in the Colosio case had been stolen from his office . A committee appointed by President Carlos Salinas de Gortari to conduct an independent investigation resigning , with members complaining Salinas never gave them legal or constitutional authority to carry out their mission . Salinas two weeks ago replacing Montes 's boss , attorney general Diego Valades , who had been accused by opposition parties of politicizing the Colosio investigation . Salinas named the five-member independent investigative committee in April to help eliminate what he called `` a climate of suspicion '' surrounding Colosio 's assassination . Opinion polls at the time showed one-third of respondents believed the PRI was behind the killing . Last week , PRI workers began painting over old Colosio campaign signs with new ones promoting the party 's replacement candidate , Ernesto Zedillo . Although Zedillo has repeatedly called for a thorough government investigation into the Colosio case , PRI officials acknowledge that lingering public suspicions about the party 's involvement in the killing may be hurting the new candidate , whose popularity has dropped dramatically in some polls . `` We are the object of all of these conspiracy theories . The Colosio assassination was put on our liabilities sheet from day one , '' said Jose Angel Gurria , a senior PRI official . `` The proliferation of conspiracy theories will continue until this is resolved . '' Prosecutor Montes said he has collected 80 videotapes and 1,621 photographs related to Colosio 's assassination , which occurred as the candidate was passing through a crowd of roughly 3,000 supporters . Since the beginning , Montes said , he has pursued the investigation based on two theories : that Aburto acted alone , or that he was aided by several accomplices who coordinated to block Colosio , impede his bodyguards and clear a path so Aburto could gain close access . Montes said that he has always presumed the assassination was the result of a `` concerted action '' and that three men currently in jail with Aburto Tranquilino Sanchez , Vicente Mayoral and his son , Rodolfo Mayoral played key roles in assisting Aburto . `` I must note in good faith that .. . up to now , the investigation has not uncovered new elements of proof '' to bolster the case against the three other defendants , Montes said . `` In the light of recent investigations .. . the hypothesis has been bolstered that the homicide was committed by one single man : Mario Aburto . '' Early in his investigation , Montes distributed photographs to the news media appearing to show Sanchez and Rodolfo Mayoral speaking with Aburto moments before Colosio was shot . Sanchez also is shown in photos appearing to grab one of Colosio 's bodyguards around the neck at the same time a shot is fired . Colosio was shot twice at point-blank range , with one bullet entering his head from his right side and another entering his abdomen from the left . Montes said he believes only one gun was used in the shooting and that Aburto was the only gunman . The seemingly opposite trajectories of the bullets , he explained , were the result of Colosio 's body spinning reflexively after the first shot to the head . WASHINGTON The unemployment rate fell sharply across the nation during May as the economy continued to generate steady job growth , the Labor Department reported Friday . The national jobless figure fell to 6 percent , down from 6.4 percent in April . But government officials said the sizable decline appears to overstate the actual improvement in the nation 's labor market last month . While the declines in the official unemployment rates were impressive , a separate calculation of the number of people working across the country showed the economy generated fewer than 200,000 new jobs in May . The figure was smaller than expected , and some economists said it could signal that the pace of the recovery is slowing to a more moderate level . The prospect of more restrained growth appeared to reassure the stock and bond markets , where investors have expressed growing concern that the robust growth of recent months could lead to a resurgence of inflation . The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 13.23 points to close at 3,772.22 , while the yield on the Treasury 's 30-year bonds , a key indicator of long-term interest rates , fell to 7.27 percent from 7.35 percent a year earlier . Lower yields suggest that investors are more confident that inflationary pressures remain under control . Clinton administration officials welcomed the jobs report , insisting that their policies will lead to steady growth without significant price hikes . `` The economy is entering the summer in exceedingly good shape , '' Labor Secretary Robert Reich said at a White House briefing . `` We are deep in a jobs recovery , a jobs expansion . '' But Reich expressed concern about the widening gap between the prospects of skilled , high-wage Americans and those workers who lack the necessary education and training to fully enjoy the benefits of the economic resurgence . He noted that 20 percent of the Americans currently without jobs have been unemployed for six months or more . The sharp drop in the national jobless rate is somewhat exaggerated because the government has changed the way it conducts its monthly surveys and adjusts the results to reflect conditions affecting the nation 's total labor pool of more than 130 million workers . Such statistical changes could account for as much as half of last month 's decline , said Katherine Abraham , Commissioner of Labor Statistics , suggesting that the true rate of unemployment could be closer to 6.2 percent . The agency 's separate survey of business payrolls showed a net increase of 191,000 jobs in May , a figure that includes 71,000 people who returned to work after the end of the trucking industry strike . The payroll survey is considered a more reliable measure of employment conditions than the household poll used to calculate the unemployment rate . While the employment figure signaled that the recovery is still on track , it was slightly smaller than expected and fell short of the average monthly job growth of 247,000 so far during 1994 . An increase of 191,000 jobs `` is not the type of figure that should panic the markets , '' said Martin Regalia , chief economist for the U.S. . Chamber of Commerce . `` This is a continued verification of our expectation that the economy is slowing somewhat from the pace at the end of last year and during the first quarter . '' ( Optional add end ) Nationwide , job growth was noticeably more robust in April , when the economy added a revised 358,000 non-farm jobs , and in March , when payrolls swelled by 379,000 . Last month 's job gains came mostly in services , particularly the motion picture industry and retailing . Job losses continued in manufacturing , especially defense and aerospace-related fields , along with the finance , insurance and real estate . The `` hemorrhage '' of defense jobs , which disappeared at the rate of 15,000 jobs a month last year , has slowed to about 8,000 monthly , according to Thomas Plewes , associate commissioner of labor statistics . DETROIT Ford Motor Co. grounded its fleet of electric vans Friday following an early-morning fire that erupted in a vehicle battery as it was being charged at a Southern California facility . The fire is the second to occur in the last month in a Ford Ecostar , the company 's test electric-powered vehicle . On May 2 , a Ford electric vehicle was damaged by a similar battery fire . No one was hurt in either incident . In Friday 's fire , damage largely was confined to the batteries , which are located in the rear of the vehicle , under the van bed . The vehicles are powered by sodium-sulfur batteries made by ABB , a Swedish electrical engineering firm with battery operations in Canada and Germany . Sodium-sulfur batteries provide good range and acceleration . But safety has been a concern throughout their development , because the batteries must be kept at a constant temperature of 600 degrees Fahrenheit . Ford has 34 electric vehicles being tested nationwide by 12 customers , mostly utilities . In the wake of Friday 's incident , it has asked the customers not to use the vehicles and to park them outside until the cause of the fires can be determined . After the first fire , Ford said the problem had been traced to faulty welds in the battery cells . Other batteries built using the same procedure have not been placed in service . But the second fire on Friday is forcing Ford and ABB to re-evaluate . `` We thought the first fire was an isolated incident , '' said Ford spokeswoman Pam Keuber . `` We want to proceed very cautiously . '' ARB spokesman Bill Sessa said the California Air Resources Board had been testing the Ecostar for a couple of weeks . An employee discovered Friday 's fire upon arriving at work about 6:40 a.m. . `` These are research vehicles , '' said Sessa . `` Anytime you conduct research , you can expect setbacks as well as steps forward . '' WASHINGTON The Clinton administration describes the stakes in its tense standoff with North Korea as crucial to regional and global peace , yet Washington has stepped gingerly around the question of how far it would go to stop development of nuclear weapons by the reclusive Communist regime . For now , the United States has settled on trying to place economic sanctions on North Korea , an effort no one expects to stop the nuclear program in its tracks . Imposing sanctions also runs an ironic risk . Meant to force North Korea to confess to past efforts to create a bomb , they may prompt Pyongyang to retaliate by formally withdrawing from the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty . That would free North Korean nuclear engineers of even the minimal constraints they have observed for the past two years , and possibly help them to build more nuclear devices than they already may have . One U.S. official said that risk is the prime reason for not going further now . `` We are doing all that we reasonably should do to not provoke the North Koreans to stop cooperating on the most important issue , '' which is ensuring continued inspections to prevent diverting fuel to build new bombs , the official said . `` One doesn't throw the baby out with the bath water , '' the official said . Beyond sanctions , no one seems clear on which direction the policy might go , should North Korea resist and simply continue to build its weapons . Will Washington simply try to wait out North Korea in the expectation that Pyongyang will at some point choose to join the world rather than hoard a few atom bombs ? Encourage the overthrow of North Korean government ? Go to war to destroy the weapons and facilities ? One U.S. official warned that there may be no significant progress on the issue until North Korea 's octogenarian leader Kim Il Sung dies and is replaced . But there is no guarantee his replacement will be more amenable to U.S. interests . In the meantime , administration officials say , sanctions are a necessary means of maintaining Washington 's credibility and that of the International Atomic Energy Agency , which is responsible for policing global nuclear arms proliferation . North Korea 's defiance must be shown to have costs , they say . `` What is immediately at stake is the IAEA safeguards regime . The regime would be seriously challenged and put in jeopardy if the international community does not respond properly , '' said a senior administration official . The U.S. push for sanctions is likely to face resistance , however . China , with a veto in the United Nations Security Council , is reluctant to endorse them . Russia has proposed an alternate route , an international conference , but has not ruled out supporting sanctions . Following its longstanding habit of making bellicose threats , North Korea has said sanctions would be an act of war . But many South Korean officials say they do not expect any North Korean military action . There have been hints from North Korea that the `` act of war '' statements merely signify that enactment of sanctions would violate the armistice agreement that ended the Korean War . But the risk of war is attested by the hundreds of thousands of troops who line the heavily fortified border between North and South Korea . North Korea may have built at least one nuclear bomb , and possibly two , U.S. intelligence analysts say . It is evidence of this process the IAEA is being blocked from examining . North Korea may be able to build four to six more by year 's end , if they proceed with diversion of plutonium and spent reactor fuel from their nuclear facilities . For now , IAEA inspectors are permitted to be on guard against diversion . Such bombs could in theory be carried by boat or plane , although North Korea has visions of more sophisticated vehicles . It is developing a ballistic missile capable of reaching Japan . U.S. analysts expect the missiles could be armed with nuclear warheads by decade 's end . A big risk with sanctions is that , in practice , they take time to produce results , if they succeed at all . Already , North Korea has used a year 's worth of negotiations to increase its capacity for producing weapons from nuclear fuel . In Haiti , more than two years of heavy commercial isolation has yet to force a change in regime and the Clinton administration is pondering an invasion to overthrow the government . Serbia has resisted two years of United Nations sanctions and continues to aid insurgent Serbs in neighboring Bosnia . Five years after the sabotage of Pan Am Flight 103 , Libya has refused to give up a pair of suspects , despite bans on imports of oil equipment , military supplies and other machinery . Saddam Hussein perseveres in power despite a grab bag of U.N. sanctions that permit nothing more than humanitarian supplies and food to enter . The threat to isolate an already largely-isolated North Korea seems minimal considering the stakes as defined by the administration . Non-proliferation is a central facet of Clinton 's foreign policy . Washington fears that North Korea could trigger an arms race in East Asia , with a nervous Japan prompted to rearm . The 40-year old armistice line between North and South Korea would become a more dangerous flashpoint with the introduction of nuclear bombs . `` This conjures up a vision of an isolated and embattled North Korea run by a personalistic regime , with a nuclear weapons arsenal and a large conventional army on the border of South Korea . This is not a recipe for a secure East Asia , '' the U.S. official said . Outside of East Asia , other nuclear-ambitious countries , including Iran , Iraq and Libya , are watching to see whether IAEA inspections can be repelled with ease , a senior U.S. official said . The agency has never turned to the U.N. . Security Council to help it implement inspections . `` This is the first test , '' the official said . North Korea also sells military equipment to states that the Clinton administration describe as rogue . Beyond missiles and technology , U.S. officials worry about North Korea selling an off-the-shelf bomb . Washington rejects simple deterrence as a solution , which would threaten annihilation if North Korea used the weapons . Deterrence theory based on forty years ' experience with the Soviet Union is not applicable , officials say , because Washington wants to block Korea 's acquisition of a nuclear arsenal , not just its use of one . That is the goal in part because the dynamic of Korea 's ancient rivalry with Japan is unpredictable , as is the chance of a conflict with South Korea . `` No one can be confident that ( nuclear ) accidents or incidents willn't take place , '' a senior official said . `` We much prefer to prevent the chance from ever arising . '' WASHINGTON Haiti 's exiled President Jean-Bertrand Aristide stepped up his barely veiled call for U.S. military intervention Friday , asking the Clinton administration for `` swift and determined action to remove the coup leaders .. . and restore democracy . '' Aristide said he could not call explicitly for military action , claiming that Haiti 's constitution prohibits him from inviting foreign troops to intervene . `` However , I do believe that action can be taken to rid the nation of the thugs who have taken her hostage , '' he said . Aristide 's chief American adviser , former Democratic Rep. Michael D. Barnes of Maryland , added : `` We all know what he means ; he 's just constrained from saying it explicitly . '' The exiled Haitian president made his statement in a speech , delivered in English , in a U.S. Senate hearing room part of a concerted effort to mobilize pressure by members of Congress and human rights groups in favor of a U.S. invasion of his homeland . Clinton administration officials said they have made no decision to invade Haiti to topple the military regime that overthrew Aristide , the nation 's first democratically elected leader , in 1991 . Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott said the administration still hopes the military rulers can be forced from office peacefully , through economic sanctions . But Clinton has also said he would not rule out the option of military force if economic sanctions fail , and other officials have said an explicit invitation from Aristide would make it easier for the United States to act . One U.S. official said Aristide 's not-quite-explicit plea Friday did not go significantly beyond earlier statements . But the Haitian leader 's speech , at a conference sponsored by TransAfrica , an African-American foreign policy lobby , signaled a stepped-up effort to pressure the administration toward military action . `` I am in favor of intervention , '' said TransAfrica director Randall Robinson , who helped push the administration to provide hearings for Haitian refugees by holding a hunger strike last month . He said a multinational force could overthrow the Haitian military `` in a matter of days .. . ( and ) could be very quickly replaced by United Nations peacekeepers . '' Aristide offered a four-step plan for solving the Haitian impasse : `` Swift and determined action should be taken to remove the coup leaders . '' `` The immediate deployment in Haiti of .. . ( a ) United Nations technical assistance mission , '' numbering as many as 4,000 , to retrain Haiti 's military and police forces . `` Third , my prompt return to Haiti . '' Fourth , implementation of internationally supervised judicial reform and economic aid programs . ( Optional add end ) Aristide said he does not favor a `` military occupation '' of Haiti , but added that he would accept the deployment of U.N.-sponsored military trainers in his country for at least six months and probably longer . A U.S. official involved in Haiti policy said any U.N. trainers would need to be a virtual military force because of the need to defend themselves . `` There 's no reason to believe that Haiti would somehow be quiet .. . if Aristide were restored , '' he said . As a result , the United States is discussing the formation of a larger , better-equipped U.N. force for Haiti with its allies . Until that is accomplished , he said , the administration and its allies aren't quite ready for a change of power in Haiti . North Korea , often dubbed `` The Hermit Kingdom '' because it has kept itself so isolated from the world community , has vaulted onto front pages as the Pyongyang and Washington governments argue about a difficult issue nuclear proliferation . In brief , does the North have nuclear weapons or doesn't it ? And if it has , what dangers does that pose to South Korea , the region and the world ? Here 's a briefing on the key elements in this controversy . Q : Why are the United States and North Korea at odds ? A : The United States suspects that North Korea has acquired nuclear weapons . But Pyongyang willn't allow international inspectors to test its reactor and other nuclear plants so they can tell for sure . Under the international nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty , Pyongyang is obliged to allow inspectors to do their work . It hasn't . Q : Does North Korea actually have nuclear weapons now ? A : No one really knows . The Central Intelligence Agency believes that Pyongyang probably has processed enough plutonium to manufacture at least one nuclear bomb and may well have one or two more such weapons in its arsenal . North Korea denies having any nuclear weapons and hasn't yet tested any . Q : Why should anyone care whether Pyongyang has a nuclear arsenal ? A : Two reasons : First , North Korea would be able to use its nuclear weapons to threaten South Korea , Taiwan and Japan intensifying pressures in the entire region . Second , Pyongyang also could sell nuclear bombs to other countries , such as Iraq , Iran , Libya and Syria as it has in the case of missiles and other weapons . This would worsen the problem of spreading nuclear arms around the globe . And if North Korea had a bomb , South Korea , Taiwan and Japan most likely would push to acquire their own nuclear weapons . ( Begin optional trim ) Q : What are nuclear fuel rods and why are they so important ? A : Fuel for a nuclear reactor is shaped into thousands of rods , which are inserted into the reactor 's core . In North Korea 's case , the fuel that it uses is unenriched uranium a cheap material that it can cart off from its own mines . The problem is , it is also very easy to turn unenriched uranium into into weapons-grade plutonium-239 the material needed to provide the explosive power for nuclear weapons . This is done simply by removing used fuel rods from a reactor and extracting the plutonium during reprocessing . The reactor core at Yongbyon holds seven to 10 tons of fuel enough to provide plutonium for four or five nuclear bombs . Q : What is the International Atomic Energy Agency and why does it have any business in North Korea ? A : The IAEA is a U.N.-related organization set up to serve as a clearinghouse and inspection agency to help administer the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty . Based in Vienna , Austria , it maintains a staff of about 100 bureaucrats and nuclear scientists to help carry out this task . Q : How can IAEA inspectors use the disposed fuel rods to determine whether a country such as North Korea is diverting its spent fuel to make nuclear bombs ? A : They analyze the fuel to see how much radioactive waste and contamination they contain , which tells them how old the fuel is and , therefore , how recently the North Koreans replaced their spent fuel . That , in turn , can help them tell whether fuel has been reprocessed . Q : But hasn't North Korea been permitting some inspections by the IAEA ? News reports said that the team was there last week ? A : It has , but the inspectors have been very restricted , and the North Koreans have denied them permission to take the necessary samplings and make the tests that they need . Essentially , Pyongyang has been playing a cat-and-mouse game for 15 months . ( End optional trim ) Q : What brought on the current crisis ? A : North Korea decided abruptly two weeks ago to shut down its reactor and begin removing fuel rods leaving IAEA inspectors high and dry . IAEA officials thought they had a few more months to negotiate over inspection rights . But the shutdown meant they had to act quickly or they would lose the chance to analyze the spent rods completely and tell for sure whether Pyongyang has been making nuclear weapons . IAEA inspectors were denied access to the materials and records that they needed , and the North Koreans removed the spent fuel rods so rapidly that the IAEA inspectors were unable to complete their work in time . As a result , while the IAEA has confirmed that North Korea isn't now diverting spent fuel for use in nuclear weapons , it could not tell whether the Koreans did so in 1989 the last time the reactor was shut down . That was the key point in determining whether Pyongyang actually has nuclear weapons . Because the United States had warned repeatedly that that would be the critical point in its dealings with North Korea , the administration has begun a push to get the U.N. . Security Council to impose punitive economic sanctions against Pyongyang . Q : How likely is it that the administration will succeed in persuading the Security Council to impose sanctions ? A : It 's unclear . Although the Western allies generally agree it 's time to crack down on North Korea , China and Russia two of five permanent members of the Security Council , who have power to veto a sanctions resolution say they still aren't ready to support punishments for Pyongyang . The administration is trying to work out a compromise . But it may have to settle for gradual imposition of sanctions . China 's vote is crucial . If Beijing were to veto a sanctions resolution , the United States would have to try to go outside the Security Council to muster a coalition . And the sanctions likely would be far less effective . Washington also faces resistance from South Korea and Japan , both of which fear that imposing sanctions on North Korea might spur Pyongyang into military action . The North Koreans already have warned repeatedly that they would regard sanctions as an act of war . North Korea has 80 percent of its 1.2 million heavily armed troops massed near the South Korean border , ready to invade . And it has long-range missiles admittedly crude , but still dangerous that could reach portions of Japan . Q : What impact would imposing sanctions have ? A : Proponents say that imposing sanctions would squeeze North Korea economically and , hopefully , force the regime of long-time leader Kim Il Sung to halt its nuclear program and become less-aggressive toward its neighbors . The North Korean economy already is in dire straits . Food is at a premium . And fuel supplies are short . Others mainly the Russians and Chinese argue that tightening the noose now will only make the regime more desperate and force it to become even more recalcitrant . There also is some question even among Western economists about how effective sanctions would be . Q : Would the United States be ready to intervene militarily if the situation got worse ? And who would be the winner of such a conflict ? A : Presumably , it would . The Clinton administration already has pledged to protect South Korea with all the resources at its command . The United States has some 37,000 troops in the country . Over the past few months , the Pentagon has begun beefing up U.S. forces in the region , sending Patriot missile batteries to help protect South Korean cities and military bases , and it is deploying more fighter aircraft and expanding supplies . But the U.S. would only act in defense that is , North Korea would have to be preparing to launch an attack . There 's little doubt that the United States and South Korea have the firepower and troops ultimately to win a war with the North . But the allies are certain to take heavy casualties in the process . Not only is North Korea 's army sizable about double the size of the 650,000-person South Korean force but it 's capable of doing extensive damage to Seoul , which is only a few miles from the border . In short , the allies clearly would win , but the price could be very high . In CLINTON-TIMES ( Broder ) sub for 10th graf ( adding `` Stars of David '' ) xxx battle . '' The leaves have now returned , and the Nettuno cemetery is a lush memorial garden of evergreen holly oak and cypress trees . Row on row of perfectly aligned white marble crosses and Stars of David mark the graves . Before Friday 's ceremony , Italian school children placed Italian and American flags and a single red or yellow carnation upon each grave . PICK UP 11th graf : `` We xxx : WASHINGTON Insistent advice from Federal Reserve Board Chairman Alan Greenspan to President Clinton during the presidential transition and early in the new administration led Clinton to pursue lower deficits at the expense of the economic populism of his campaign , according to a new book . The book , `` The Agenda : Inside the Clinton White House '' by Washington Post Assistant Managing Editor Bob Woodward , is an intimate look at how the new Democratic president and his stumbling , feuding team of advisers struggled to formulate and adopt an economic program during Clinton 's first year in office . It depicts a chaotic policy-making operation , crucial intercessions by Hillary Rodham Clinton and an active policy role played by four outside political advisers . The four were given open access to the White House , which they used in part to criticize the economic team . They complained that Clinton 's fall in popularity was a result of policies being promoted by the economic advisers or at least the way those policies were packaged for sale to the public . The two groups are described as virtually at war with each other . The book describes Clinton temper tantrums , and it depicts him as frequently indecisive and reluctant to delegate . It portrays virtually every member of Clinton 's inner circle , including Hillary Clinton , as critical of the president 's management style . On the vital economic front , Greenspan is described as a central player , albeit once removed from the inner circle . The book recounts what Woodward calls a crucial meeting between Clinton and Greenspan in Little Rock , Ark. , in December 1992 , the month before Clinton 's inauguration . During the 2 1/2-hour session , the Fed chairman told the president-elect that reducing the long-term federal budget deficit was `` essential '' and that the economic recovery could fall on its face if policies credible to Wall Street , particularly to bond-traders , were not advanced . Greenspan , in later conversations with Treasury Secretary Lloyd Bentsen , put a number on what would be credible : cutting the deficit $ 140 billion or more by 1997 . By tradition and law , the Fed is an independent agency it sets monetary policy while the White House and Congress decide how much the government will spend , raise in taxes and borrow . It is customary for the president and the Fed chairman to hold periodic meetings . But in Woodward 's recounting of their relationship , Greenspan , a Republican appointed by President Ronald Reagan and reappointed by President George Bush , comes across as a senior adviser , almost a teacher to Clinton . In what became a pattern , the Fed chairman made suggestions , Clinton acted on them , and Greenspan rewarded the action with approving words to Congress , or other public comments meant to signal his approval . Greenspan outlined to Clinton an economic policy Woodward calls the `` financial markets strategy , '' in which policy was constructed to send a message to Wall Street , which responded by driving down in long-term interest rates that allowed Greenspan to keep short-term rates down as well . According to the theory , the economy would then improve , Clinton would have more to spend on favored domestic programs in later years and ultimately would be re-elected . But the theory , and the policy Clinton adopted , bore little resemblance to the economic program on which Clinton had campaigned . Clinton 's `` Putting People First '' campaign banner stressed government `` investment '' in programs that would improve the lives of middle-class Americans such as job training , early education , government promotion of cutting-edge technology . A middle-class tax cut and health care for all Americans were additional sweeteners . As events developed , Greenspan 's economic scenario was not entirely accurate either . The bond market did react positively to Clinton 's economic package initially , but then early this year nervousness about inflation began to push interest rates up again , and Greenspan 's Fed raised its basic lending rate by 1.25 percent . Today long-term interest rates are nearly identical to what they were when Clinton took office . But the economy is stronger now than in January 1993 and has added 3 million jobs since then . Woodward 's 334-page book recounts the anguish and infighting produced by the transition from Clinton 's winning campaign platform to a national economic policy . It attributes words and thoughts to participants in the debate , including both Clintons and virtually all of their top aides , without saying directly who provided these words to the author . In an introduction Woodward writes that whenever he quotes someone , the quotation comes from `` at least one participant , from memos , or from contemporaneous notes or diaries of a participant. .. . ' ' It appears that Woodward has talked to all the principals in his narrative , including the Clintons and Greenspan . He writes that all his interviews were conducted on ` ` ` deep background , ' which means that I agreed not to identify these sources . '' The Washington Post will publish four excerpts from `` The Agenda '' beginning Sunday . The book goes on sale next week . Greenspan 's advice to Clinton that a long-term deficit-reduction program was of paramount importance was backed not only by Bentsen , but also by Budget Director Leon E. Panetta and his deputy , Alice M. Rivlin , according to the book . The president 's economic advisers , with his assent , quickly jettisoned the tax cut , delayed health care reform , and then added an energy tax and spending cuts . Clinton 's political team campaign advisers James Carville and Paul Begala , media adviser Mandy Grunwald and pollster Stan Greenberg are portrayed as horrified and disgusted with this effort to please the market . Carville is quoted as joking he used to want to die and come back in a second life as the pope or president , but now he just wanted to be the bond market because it seemed to run the world . The four seem to have spent much of last year decrying what that saw as mismanagement at the White House and firing off memos arguing that the president and some of his aides had lost their souls to the deficit-cutters . In one memorable scene depicted in the book , Grunwald told White House deputy economic adviser Gene Sperling who had helped formulate the campaign budget plan that his new emphasis on deficit-cutting was coming `` dangerously close '' to betraying the themes that had gotten Clinton elected . Later , Grunwald told others that Sperling 's body had been snatched by Washington insiders and deficit hawks and that `` hostile forces '' were seizing control of Clinton 's White House . Even Clinton , while intellectually acquiescing in the devastation of his investment programs , raged nonetheless at how it happened . While the book depicts him as highly intelligent and energetic , it recounts several Clinton temper tantrums , quoting senior aide George Stephanopoulos as calling them `` the wave '' overpowering , prolonged rages that shocked outsiders and often seemed far out of proportion to their cause . In one scene late in the campaign , a low-level aide had told an audience that Clinton did not want local voters at an event . The president , discovering this , angrily said of the culprit , `` I want him dead , dead . I want him horsewhipped . '' He sent aides to Little Rock to find and fire the young man . After he cooled down , Clinton relented . In another scene , with the campaign en route to Chicago , Clinton discovered his staff had told Mayor Richard M. Daley the candidate had no time for a requested meeting with him . A furious Clinton asked , `` Who the hell could make such a dumb .. . mistake ? '' and ranted on and on . White House counselor David R. Gergen , witnessing the Clinton temper for the first time , is said to have been so alarmed that he raised it with Stephanopoulos , the frequent recipient of Clinton 's verbal abuse . Stephanopoulos brushed it off as part of Clinton 's personality . A recurring theme in the book is Clinton 's inability to terminate debate and make a decision and his reluctance to delegate . Amid the internal debate over the budget , Clinton is portrayed as holding repeated , seemingly endless meetings at which issues rarely were decided , and during which he frequently changed his mind . Once the budget was passed by one vote in the House and a tie-breaking Senate vote by Vice President Al Gore Bentsen is said to have taken Clinton aside and warned him he was mismanaging the presidency by trying to make every small decision and refusing to delegate . Bentsen believed Clinton had a superior , inquisitive mind and was capable of genuine vision , Woodward reports . Bentsen compared Clinton to Jimmy Carter displaying admirable energy and intellect but getting bogged down in the range of opinion and debate he demanded inside his government . Clinton `` could not contain his own doubts , '' Bentsen told associates . `` The lapses of discipline and restraint '' kept him from acting methodically as a president should . Some of those concerns appeared to grow out of a White House with little management structure , in which the four political aides had unusual status . Outside the normal avenues , they sent anguished , internal memos into the White House warning of the near-collapse of the Clinton presidency and demanding meetings with the president and senior advisers . One of the memos , written in July as the White House headed into the crucial month leading up to the budget vote , warned apocalyptically that the `` current course , advanced by our economic team and congressional leaders , threatens to sink your popularity further and weaken your presidency . '' The memo , referring to extensive polling and focus groups , recommended dropping the gasoline tax , paring back the deficit-reduction package , and repackaging and reselling an economic program so it was not about taxes but about getting the nation 's economic house in order . The memo prompted Hillary Clinton to go to White House Chief of Staff Thomas F. `` Mack '' McLarty and insist it was `` panic time , '' with no plan to sell the program they were about to send to Congress , no strategy and no decisions made on key elements . Hours of debate , presided over by the president , ensued among the political team and policy advisers . One of the advisers , congressional liaison director Howard Paster , is described as being in a `` slow burn '' over the series of meetings and arguments from the outside consultants . Paster thought `` it was outrageous the outside consultants were providing the president with major policy option papers in confidential memos '' many senior staffers never saw , according to the book . The consultants got `` valuable inside information '' and `` conflicts abounded . '' The consultants were trying to remake policy to respond to polls , a risky course , Paster felt , according to Woodward 's account . At one crucial meeting last July attended by the president and the first lady , Hillary Clinton chastised both the economic and political teams for ill serving Clinton , for lacking organization and planning , for creating a `` dysfunctional '' White House . She complained they had allowed Clinton to appear to be a `` mechanic-in-chief , '' erased his `` moral voice '' and changed his economic program from a `` values document '' to a bunch of numbers . `` I want to see a plan '' for selling the program , she demanded . Most saw Hillary Clinton 's denunciations in that meeting , which were followed by a burst of anger from Clinton himself at his staff , as an indictment of McLarty , whom the book portrays as an ineffective , sometimes bumbling character with no feel for politics and a fundamental misunderstanding of congressional relations . Hillary Clinton 's July critique , Woodward writes , amounted to a `` scalding indictment of McLarty . At crucial moments like this , Hillary was often de facto chief of staff . '' She insisted on the creation , with her assistance , of a campaign-like war room to run the budget operation . At the end of the budget battle , Paster resigned , citing a desire to return to private life . Woodward attributes the resignation to McLarty 's failure to manage the White House . `` Everyone and anyone freelanced , '' Paster is quoted as saying , and his job had been made impossible . The book describes tension between Gergen , the Republican brought in by McLarty on the advice of Sen. David L. Boren , D-Okla. and many of Clinton 's advisers , such as Stephanopoulos and the outside political consultants . Gergen concluded that the campaign team was captive of a mentality that needed someone to be against , and he was that someone . Carville and Begala argued against Gergen incessantly and Stephanopoulos is described as finding him `` almost intolerable . Whenever Clinton did something Republican , Gergen proclaimed that the president was standing up for principle . Whenever Clinton did something Democratic , it was caving . '' WASHINGTON U.S. officials began consultations here and at the United Nations Friday over how to deal with North Korea 's defiance of international nuclear inspectors . But the officials stressed in public and private comments that their aim was to nudge North Korea back to the bargaining table , not to provoke a confrontation . President Clinton telephoned Russian President Boris Yeltsin and South Korean President Kim Young Sam , who agreed that the U.N. . Security Council should be asked to consider economic sanctions against the Pyongyang regime , a White House statement said . Assistant Secretary of State Robert Gallucci , the Clinton administration 's point man on the Korean nuclear issue , said sanctions on impoverished , isolated North Korea are necessary to show any nations bent on acquiring nuclear weapons that violating the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty `` is not a cost-free exercise . ` ` Gallucci met with South Korean and Japanese officials here Friday and is scheduled to do so again Saturday to discuss possible next steps . At the United Nations , U.S. . Ambassador Madeline K. Albright said `` the next steps must include consideration of sanctions '' because `` North Korea has chosen to thwart the will of the international community . '' But Friday 's statements by U.S. officials , taken in the aggregate , left open the possibility that North Korea could still avoid international retribution by providing information sought by the International Atomic Energy Agency ( IAEA ) . Officials stressed that the Clinton administration still hopes to resolve the Korean nuclear issue through negotiation rather than punitive steps that might provoke North Korea into desperate action . `` Nobody wants sanctions for the sake of sanctions , '' several officials said , as if quoting each other . As expected , IAEA director General Hans Blix notified the U.N. . Security Council Friday that his agency 's ability to reconstruct the history of the North Korean reactor at Yongbyon had been destroyed by North Korea 's refusal to allow inspectors to take samples of fuel rods currently being removed . But Gallucci and other U.S. officials said it is still possible for North Korea to provide enough information about past plutonium production to satisfy IAEA requirements . The agency 's ability to determine if North Korea diverted plutonium from fuel rods removed in 1989 has been `` seriously eroded . That does not mean destroyed , '' Gallucci said at a State Department briefing . Albright said Blix 's conclusions were `` not unexpected but they were alarming nonetheless . '' Russian Ambassador Yuli Vorontsov , however , took a view more in line with Gallucci , saying Blix `` didn't sound absolutely hopeless on this issue . He didn't sound desperate . He said there are other methods '' of determining if North Korea has hidden weapons-grade plutonium . The possibility that North Korean intransigence might require the United Nations to impose economic sanctions has been discussed in many forums since North Korea announced early last year that it was pulling out of the Nonproliferation Treaty . But it is far from clear that China , Russia or other Security Council members agree that sanctions should be imposed or , if they are , what they should cover . North Korea is totally dependent on imported oil , for example , but its two main suppliers are China and Iran . If China vetoes a Security Council resoultion , no oil embargo is possible . If China accepts an oil embargo , Iran is unlikely to comply with it , many analysts have said . Albright said the United States `` will begin to consult with other ( Security ) Council members regarding the timing , the objective and the substance of a sanctions resolution in the near future . '' Japan has been widely reported to be uncomfortable over sanctions on North Korea because the Korean community in Japan is extensively involved in legal business dealings with North Korea . Disrupting that commerce might cause unrest in Japan , according to several analysts . But Foreign Minister Koji Kakizawa said the Japanese parliament yesterday that Tokyo would `` do its utmost to cooperate '' if the United States , Japan and South Korea were to agree on a set of punitive economic restrictions against Pyongyang . FAIRFAX , Va. . The drops fell through the sunroof and onto Philip Bayer as he backed his 1988 BMW sedan out of the driveway of his Washington suburban home Thursday evening . Probably sprinkles from scattered clouds , Bayer thought as he stopped the car to close the roof . `` Then the smell hit me , '' Bayer , 46 , recalled Friday . `` The smell was unmistakable . It was human poop . '' His sport coat was covered with brown splotches , Bayer said , and the black car had about a half-dozen spots per square foot , including the leather upholstery . About 2,000 feet overhead , Bayer said , a jet was flying toward Dulles International Airport , about four miles west of his house . The only explanation for the dumping , he said , is that a plane discharged its waste before landing . `` Do I need to wear a hat ? Wear protective clothing ? Carry an umbrella all the time ? '' Bayer asked sarcastically . `` This can't be permitted to happen . '' It isn't , said airline and Federal Aviation Administration officials , who are investigating what aircraft landed at Dulles between 6 and 6:30 p.m. Thursday , when Bayer says the incident occurred . About seven private and commercial planes landed during that time period , the FAA said . Officials said they aren't sure what the substance was . A spokeswoman for Boeing said `` I can't think of anything '' that could leak from an airliner . The fuel system , for example , is a pressurized storage system ; a leak there could lead to a fire . A valve that seals waste into tanks on most planes could have been loose , FAA officials said , causing liquified sewage to leak . Airline maintenance crews at Dulles would have to report such a leak , and the FAA was checking yesterday to see whether anyone had . Pilots can't dispose of waste while in flight . The tanks can only be opened and drained when a plane is serviced at an airport . Chemicals that break down solid waste and disinfectants and perfume are added to the tank , and the blue liquid can leak through the valve outside the plane if it is not closed properly . At high altitudes , the liquid freezes and sometimes falls in its frozen form . Bayer surmises that the liquid thawed at a lower altitude as a plane approached Dulles . The drops apparently fell only on Bayer 's car and a Dodge Omni parked next door at the home of Skip Gerdes , who said it was strange that none of the drops landed on the driveway or house . `` I don't know what it is '' on the car , Gerdes said . A spokesman for the Air Transport Association , an airline industry organization , said the event is rare because waste disposal units on airliners are closed systems . At any rate , spokesman Timothy Neale said , solid waste cannot escape through the narrow valve . `` To be hit with excrement is very perplexing , '' Neale said . Not to mention messy . Bayer spent the next eight hours taking a shower , washing his clothes , scrubbing the car seats and having the car cleaned at a car wash . He was dressed in a sports coat and polo shirt and was to meet his wife , Linda ; 9-year-old-daughter , Lindsay ; and other relatives at a restaurant to celebrate a niece 's high school graduation . He didn't make it . Bayer , a program manager for a systems integration company , said he also made some phone calls . He said he reported the incident to police , the FAA and Dulles Airport 's operations office . And like any distressed suburbanite , he called his homeowners association , whose representative told him there hadn't been any other reports of droppings from not-so-friendly skies . Bayer , a frequent business flier , said residential areas must be protected from such discharges . `` I willn't harass their pilots , '' he said , `` if they don't poop on my kids and me . '' LOS ANGELES A small park in the heart of the working-class neighborhood where he grew up may soon be renamed `` Ritchie Valens Park '' to honor the late rock 'n' roll legend . The Los Angeles City Council voted unanimously Friday to rename Paxton Park , drawing applause from half a dozen of Valens ' family and friends who carried a banner and photo of the teen rock star . The name change must be approved by the city 's Recreation and Parks Commission . Born Richard Valenzuela in the Pacoima area of the San Fernando Valley , Valens gained fame in the 1950s before dying at 17 in a 1959 plane crash that also claimed the life of singer Buddy Holly . Valens received a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame in 1990 after the movie `` La Bamba '' recounted his life and sparked a resurgence of interest in the young musician . The U.S. Postal Service later issued a 29-cent stamp bearing his likeness . Councilman Richard Alarcon , who represents the neighborhood , said he proposed the name change so that children in the area can remember Valens ' humble background and emulate his accomplishments . `` Ritchie Valens was someone I admired while growing up , '' Alarcon said . `` He came up against all the odds . '' ( Optional add end ) Francisco Flores , a community activist and friend of Valens ' family , echoed those sentiments . The park should be renamed `` so children can have a role model and shoot for the stars , just like Ritchie did , '' he told the council . Valens rose from obscurity as a teen-age guitar player in Pacoima to gain international attention for such hits as `` Come On , Let 's Go '' and `` Donna , '' a love song about his high school sweetheart . But he will probably be best remember for `` La Bamba , '' a rock rendition of a Latino folk dance tune that was on the flip side of `` Donna . '' NETTUNO , Italy At a quiet ceremony before a broad field of white marble crosses and Stars of David , Judah Rosenblatt of New York City listened to President Clinton pay tribute to the American GIs who fought in the `` forgotten '' Italian campaign of World War II and said he was glad he had finally returned to the scene of such fierce battles long ago . `` I was always afraid to walk in cemeteries , ordinary cemeteries . But not here , '' where so many friends are buried , the 77-year-old retired accountant said , his old Army jacket with the First Armored Division insignia draped over his shoulders and a faded Yankees cap on his head . `` It 's the first time I 'm back in 50 years , and time was getting away from me , '' he added ruefully . `` I 'm getting old . '' On a European tour commemorating World War II anniversaries , the president Friday went to the U.S. . Cemetery near Anzio Beach to pay tribute to the U.S. soldiers whose liberation of Rome 50 years ago Saturday was quickly overshadowed by the D-Day invasion of Normandy that followed two days later . `` We stand today in fields forever scarred by sacrifice , '' Clinton declared before an audience of perhaps 1,000 veterans and their families , as well as hundreds of local residents from this Mediterranean village . `` Today it is hard to imagine , ( now ) that this is .. . a place of peace . It is lush with the pines and the cypresses . But 50 years ago , when freedom was in peril , this field ran with the blood of those who fought to save the world . '' The soldiers who were slender young men then are stooped old men now . They wore their medals pinned to suit jackets and windbreakers as they strolled in the spring sunshine among the curving rows of graves , peering at the marble engravings for a familiar name . Rosenblatt was looking for the grave of a guy named Feinstein who , he recalled with a laugh , was always singing `` Minnie the Moocher '' until he was killed at Anzio by an artillery shell . Clinton noted that his father , William Jefferson Blythe II , who died in a car accident before he was born , had served in Italy about 100 miles north of here . A niece wrote him about the beautiful Italian countryside she had heard about , he said , and asked that he send a single leaf home for her to take to school . `` My father had only sad news to send back , '' he said . `` There were no leaves ; every one had been stripped by the fury of the battle . '' To his side sat four U.S. senators who served in the Italian campaign ; two were disabled by the wounds they received . Nodding to Sens. Bob Dole , R-Kan. , Daniel Inouye , D-Hawaii , Claiborne Pell , D-R.I. , and Ernest Hollings , D-S.C. , he called `` each a young American who came of age here ; each an American patriot who went home to build up our nation . '' And Dole , who lost the use of his right arm during a 1945 battle in the Italian mountains , was hailed as a hero by other veterans before the ceremony began as he walked among the rows of men . `` When you drive into this cemetery , you know what it 's all about all these fine people , 8,000 Americans ( buried ) here , '' the senator said . `` Smile for me , '' one veteran shouted at Dole as he snapped a photograph , adding approvingly , `` Our next president . '' While the audience was respectful of Clinton , some of the veterans expressed quiet disapproval of his efforts to avoid military service during the Vietnam War . ( Begin optional trim ) `` It bothers me a little , his activities during war protests and so forth , '' said John Bender , 71 , of Aberdeen , Md. , whose arm was crippled by a mortar shell during the liberation of Rome . `` He 's my president and I respect the office , '' said June Marion Wandrey , 73 , of Portage , Mich. , who was wearing her old dark green Army uniform and brown boots of the Army Nurse Corps as she waited to give Clinton a briefing about one of the graves . Asked if it was time to move on from questions about his military history , she looked down for a moment . `` You have to look in your own heart and see what you can forgive , '' she said . When Clinton arrived , she greeted him with a smile and smart salute ; he returned the salute , but tentatively . ( End optional trim ) But Ignatius Turnes of Long Island , asked about Clinton , replied with the fervor of the youthful field medic he once was . `` As commander in chief , if he called us , we would do whatever we had to do , '' he vowed . During the ceremony , he began to weep . `` I never wanted to come back here in 50 years because it brought back bad memories , '' he said , recalling the 157th Infantry 's battles in Sicily and southern France and its liberation of the Dacchau concentration camp in Germany . But after the fighter jets had roared overhead in the `` missing man '' formation and two buglers had blown a plaintive `` Taps , '' he said he felt overwhelmed and gratified . `` God spared me to come back , '' he said . WASHINGTON The nation 's unemployment rate took an unexpected nose dive last month to 6 percent from 6.4 percent in April as more than a half-million workers found jobs , the Labor Department reported Friday . But the report contained mixed signals , as the department 's separate survey of business and government payrolls found a more modest rise of 191,000 jobs last month , compared with an average gain of 315,000 in the three previous months . Most analysts had expected a larger increase in payroll employment , particularly since about a third of last month 's increase was due to the return to work of 70,000 striking truck drivers . The smaller increase in payroll was in line with other recent data suggesting the heady pace of economic growth late last year and early this year is slowing to what is likely a more sustainable , non-inflationary pace , a number of private analysts said . `` All of this is good news for American workers , American businesses and American families , '' Laura D' Andrea Tyson , chairman of the president 's Council of Economic Advisers , told reporters at the White House . `` So far the good news on the employment front has also been accompanied by good news on the inflation front . '' At a separate news conference , Katharine G. Abraham , commissioner of labor statistics , said the unusually large drop in the unemployment rate should be interpreted `` cautiously . '' When there have been such large monthly movements in the past , `` the magnitude of those changes often turns out to have been overstated once additional data become available . '' In addition , analysts are uncertain about the accuracy of the jobless statistics since the Labor Department made significant changes in the questions about jobs asked each month of 60,000 U.S. households in January . But Abraham said that with the latest numbers , despite all the uncertainties , it is `` nonetheless clear that unemployment continues to trend downwards . '' The disparate messages from the separate surveys of households , on which the unemployment rate is based , and payrolls made the Labor Department report particularly hard to interpret . Tyson said the payroll survey probably gave more reliable information about the state of the economy . However , the sharply smaller number of jobs added to payrolls last month does not yet signal a trend toward lower employment gains , she said . Some analysts thought otherwise . `` The May employment report was more confusing than most , '' said Bruce Steinberg , macroeconomics manager for Merrill Lynch & Co. in New York . `` The most important message : Economic momentum is slowing . '' Steinberg said the lower-than-expected payroll gain `` is consistent with other data showing that the consumer and housing sectors are slowing sharply in the second quarter and that industrial momentum is easing . '' Supporting that point was a small drop in the amount of overtime hours in manufacturing and an absence of hiring by firms in that sector for the first time in several months . Analysts said that as a result , figures on industrial production will be up only slightly for last month . Most of last month 's payroll increases came in industries that provide various services , including education and health care . Retail trade employment was also up by 31,000 . Abraham also released revised monthly figures for payroll employment over the last two years based on more complete information from businesses ' unemployment insurance tax returns . The revisions raised the number of payroll jobs by 239,000 in March 1993 , the last month for which full official tax return data is available . In addition , those revisions and other factors raised the monthly increases in payroll jobs from that month through April by almost 600,000 jobs . Abraham also announced Friday that as a cost-saving measure the Labor Department would no longer conduct a separate survey to determine the national , monthly unemployment rate using the method employed before January . Congressional Democrats had pressed for the second survey using the old method because they feared the new method would result in a higher unemployment rate . But the old method resulted in an unemployment rate higher rather than lower than the new method . In a rare corporate rebellion , K mart Corp. shareholders defeated a controversial stock plan Friday , striking a blow to the top management of the nation 's No. 2 discount retailer . The plan called for K mart to issue stock linked to the performance of its specialty stores : Sports Authority , Waldenbooks-Borders BookShop , OfficeMax and Builders Square . But dissidents , frustrated by the lack of progress in recent years under Chairman Joseph Antonini and openly skeptical of his plan , pulled off a surprise victory at the annual meeting at company headquarters in Troy , Mich. . They said K mart should find ways to bolster sales at its flagship discount stores , which contribute most of the company 's revenues , and which have been losing sales to other big discount retailers such as Wal-Mart , the nation 's No. 1 chain , and Target Stores . Although management garnered a majority of the shares voting , it needed a majority of the shares outstanding for its plan to win . It got only 44 percent . Institutional investors have become more vocal in recent years , but it 's still rare for management to be defeated in a shareholder vote . `` Joe Antonini has more pressure on him now than at any time during his tenure , '' said Wayne Hood , an analyst at Prudential Securities in New York . `` He probably has three more quarters to get the business stabilized and improving . '' The retailer lost nearly $ 1 billion last year and has seen its stock drop roughly 40 percent since November . The victory surprised even dissidents , who as late as Thursday were saying that they expected to lose but hoped they could send management a message . The State of Wisconsin Investment Board , which owns 3 million K mart shares , led the campaign to overturn the stock issue . It hired people to call other investors and took out ads in the Wall Street Journal . Antonini expressed disappointment that his proposal had failed . `` K mart 's management and board will assess the alternatives available , '' he said . Five directors were re-elected , even though dissidents opposed this move also . UNITED NATIONS Haiti 's remaining lifeline to the outside world , commercial flights that transport thousands of people a week in and out of the country , will soon be cut , diplomats here said Friday . `` It 's going to start happening as of next week , '' Dante Caputo , the U.N. and Organization of American States special envoy to Haiti , told Newsday . U.S. officials attending Friday 's meeting on the issue said the United States would send telegrams asking U.N. member nations to ban commercial flights to and from Haiti , according to a Latin American diplomat at the meeting . The U.N. . Security Council imposed a near total trade embargo on Haiti two weeks ago , but continued to allow air traffic between Haiti and the outside world . Laura Hurd , a spokeswoman in Fort Worth , Texas , for American Airlines , the largest carrier flying to Haiti , said she has heard rumors that the United States is planning to stop flights in about a week . But she has not received any official word on the matter , she said . President Clinton 's special ambassador to Haiti , former Rep. William Gray , had lunch with top foreign affairs officials from France , Canada , Venezuela and Argentina , and discussed the air cutoff , sources here said . The countries are collectively known at the United Nations as the Five Friends of Haiti because of their continuing interest in the Haitian crisis . Neither Gray nor his deputy , James Dobbins , was available for comment after diplomats ended their formal meeting Friday afternoon . The group issued a statement expressing `` their readiness to consider .. . further measures such as suspension of commercial air flights . '' Questioned as he left the meeting , Caputo said the cutoffs would begin next week , but he did not say which nations would make the first move . Besides American , airlines from Panama , France and the Dutch Antilles fly to Port-au-Prince , diplomats said . France was described by the Latin American diplomat Friday as reluctant to order Air France to stop its flights . In CLINTON-NDY ( Page , Newsday ) sub for penultimate graf ( Correcting spelling of Dachau ) xxx to weep . `` I never wanted to come back here in 50 years because it brought back bad memories , '' he said , recalling the 157th Infantry 's battles in Sicily and southern France and its liberation of the Dachau concentration camp in Germany . But after the fighter jets had roared overhead in the `` missing man '' formation and two buglers had blown a plaintive `` Taps , '' he said he felt overwhelmed and gratified . PICK UP last graf : `` God spared xxx . In CLINTON-NDY ( Page , Newsday ) sub for penultimate graf ( Correcting spelling of Dachau ) xxx to weep . `` I never wanted to come back here in 50 years because it brought back bad memories , '' he said , recalling the 157th Infantry 's battles in Sicily and southern France and its liberation of the Dachau concentration camp in Germany . But after the fighter jets had roared overhead in the `` missing man '' formation and two buglers had blown a plaintive `` Taps , '' he said he felt overwhelmed and gratified . PICK UP last graf : `` God spared xxx . WASHINGTON Even as the Clinton administration Friday took its first steps toward seeking economic sanctions against North Korea , key lawmakers and experts increased pressure for military moves to end Pyongyang 's nuclear ambitions and deter any attack on South Korea . After 15 months of patient , cautious , U.S. diplomatic efforts to persuade North Korea to permit inspections of its nuclear facilities , Assistant Secretary of State Robert Gallucci said the basis for continuing the dialogue `` has been destroyed '' and `` we need to discuss alternative options . '' North Korea 's refusal to permit inspections by the United Nations ' International Atomic Energy Agency , Gallucci said , has all but destroyed any way of learning whether Pyongyang is or has been illegally diverting plutonium from its small nuclear reactor for the purpose of making nuclear weapons . North Korea has denied that it is developing nuclear weapons . North Korea signed the 1968 worldwide nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty , under which it is required to submit its nuclear program to inspections . The U.N. . Security Council has threatened economic sanctions if North Korea refuses to abide by its treaty obligation . Gallucci said the United States has begun consulting with other members of the Security Council `` on appropriate next steps in response to North Korea 's actions , including sanctions . '' He would not say when a sanctions resolution might be presented to the council , but he said `` certainly the intensity of those consultations will pick up next week . '' North Korea has warned that economic sanctions would be regarded as an act of war . And China 's traditional opposition to sanctions remains an obstacle to Security Council action , administration officials said . A leading congressional critic , Sen. John McCain , R-Ariz. , said the United States should take a tougher stance to gain China 's support and to discourage North Korea from carrying out its military threats . McCain , a Vietnam veteran and member of the Senate Armed Services Committee , opposed using military force in Bosnia , Somalia and Haiti . But he argues , as he did in a lengthy speech on the Senate floor May 24 , that the administration 's weakness and a policy of `` appeasement '' have permitted North Korea to build its stockpile of plutonium while stalling in negotiations . He noted that the United States has repeatedly retreated on its policies toward North Korea for the sake of continuing negotiations . Although President Clinton had pledged that North Korea would not be allowed to develop a nuclear bomb , there is evidence it has one or two such weapons , according to U.S. intelligence agents . The United States shifted its position , warning North Korea against diverting any more plutonium for possible new bombs . Although North Korea is defying that warning and has failed to live up to its promises in talks with Washington , the administration hopes sanctions will persuade North Korea to begin negotiating again , Gallucci said Friday . South Korea and Japan , which would be vulnerable if North Korea is provoked , have called on the United States to proceed with caution . China has counseled patience . But McCain accused the administration of `` a failure of nerve '' and said the United States , in seeking sanctions , `` should make clear to China , quietly but very forcefully , that there is no other issue involved in our relations of comparable importance . '' While seeking sanctions , McCain said the United States should warn North Korea that it faces destruction if it moves to attack South Korea , as it did 44 years ago this month . To deter such an attack , McCain said , the United States should beef up its 37,000 forces in South Korea , deploy additional fighter aircraft and helicopters and send an aircraft carrier force and bombers and tankers to the region . ( Optional add end ) Echoing McCain , Sen. Richard Lugar , R-Ind. , a ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee , has been telling constituents during the current congressional recess that the United States should be sending back some tactical nuclear weapons that were withdrawn from South Korea more than two years ago . He called on Clinton to prepare the American people for a possible confrontation . James R. Lilley , former U.S. ambassador to South Korea and China , said on Fox Morning News Friday that sanctions could pressure North Korea into compliance if China supports them . But beyond sanctions , he added , it 's time to get tough with North Korea . `` If you appease the North Koreans , they 'll take advantage of you , '' he said . `` What you need is a very strong , unambiguous deterrent . If they turn to force , they will be obliterated . '' WASHINGTON After months of disagreements and recriminations with the United States , exiled Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide Friday spoke encouragingly of President Clinton 's recent policy changes while urging more aggressive steps against Haiti 's military rulers . In a veiled endorsement of military intervention , Aristide called for `` swift and determined action '' to remove the army generals who deposed him in 1991 and for the deployment of a large international force to help him reestablish democracy in Haiti . Aristide 's comments signaled an important convergence with the administration on the Haitian crisis . Until recently the administration had urged Aristide to reconcile with his political opposition , a move the deposed president refused to make . The administration has since dropped that line . Now both Clinton and Aristide are talking about the need to oust the Haitian military and the possibility of doing it by force . Making his first extensive public remarks since Clinton took a new stance on Haiti , Aristide said , `` President Clinton needs help , and I am helping him as he can help us . '' Aristide said the tightened embargo against Haiti promoted by the administration is `` a good step '' and he avoided any direct criticism of Clinton 's new policy toward Haitian refugees . The kind words were all the more remarkable because they came at a Capitol Hill luncheon sponsored by the TransAfrica lobbying group , which has led the opposition to Clinton 's Haiti policies among civil rights groups and refugee advocates . Responding to a 27-day hunger strike by Randall Robinson , executive director of the group , Clinton announced May 8 that the United States would begin offering Haitian boat people a chance to seek refugee status rather than automatically returning them to their homeland . The new policy won an important measure of international support Friday when the Turks and Caicos Islands , a British dependency in the Caribbean , agreed to let the United States set up a 5-acre refugee processing facility on Grand Turk Island . Two days earlier , Jamaica had offered to allow the United States to conduct processing aboard ships anchored in its territorial waters . `` It buys them time , '' Rep. Kweisi Mfume , D-Md. , said of the administration 's success in winning support from the Caribbean states . Mfume , chairman of the Congressional Black Caucus , emphasized that he does not agree with the administration 's approach but acknowledged , `` It certainly allows them for some time to work with other nations in the region . '' In stepping up the pressure on Haiti 's military and in dealing with the refugees fleeing the island republic , the Clinton administration has emphasized its determination to find international solutions that will win the endorsement and participation of other countries in the region . In calling for the ouster of the military , Aristide also emphasized the need for multilateral action . Aristide , who was elected by an overwhelming majority but only ruled for seven months before the military overthrew him in 1991 , was careful not to openly invite the invasion of his homeland . But he nonetheless made his intentions clear . `` As you know , we do not seek military occupation , '' he said , `` and if I were to ask for a military intervention , I would be impeached under my constitution . However , I do believe that action can be taken to rid the nation of the thugs who have taken her hostage and restore democracy to Haiti . `` Therefore , swift and determined action should be taken to remove the coup leaders within the framework of the Governors Island agreement . I will not waste time describing what this action would be . The international community knows how to proceed . '' Aristide was referring to an agreement signed under the United Nations 's auspices last July 3 , in which the commander of the military government , Lt. Gen. Raoul Cedras , promised to leave office and allow Aristide to resume power by last Oct. 30 . Cedras failed to fulfill several preliminary steps to the accord and it collapsed last fall . `` The military breached the agreement , and Aristide is just calling on the international community to enforce it , '' said Michael Barnes , the former Maryland congressman who advises Aristide . Aristide argued Friday that after Cedras and the other top officers are removed from power , the other provisions of the agreement should be implemented . These include the dispatch of a sizable international mission to reform the Haitian military and other measures to promote democracy . Aristide suggested that with sufficient international support , no prolonged occupation of Haiti by the U.S. military would be necessary . Yet even as he offered Clinton a measure of encouragement , Aristide urged his supporters to keep pressing the president : `` Once we keep the pressure on , he will continue , I hope , I wish , I think , he will continue building the pressure on the military , on the thugs to get rid of them . '' Strong national job figures released Friday managed to signal economic growth without alarming the stock and bond markets about inflation . The markets ' subdued response stemmed partly from the mixed messages out of the U.S. . Labor Department . While the national unemployment rate dropped to 6 percent in May from 6.4 percent in April the biggest one-month drop in 11 years a separate count of job growth came in at 191,000 , much below the expected 300,000 . Economists and market analysts interpreted the numbers as indicating slow but continued growth . They don't want the news to be too good , for fear the Federal Reserve Board will renew its anti-inflation activity . The Fed already has raised interest rates four times this year , even though inflation is running at less than 3 percent . Higher rates hurt the value of stocks and bonds and could slow the nation 's economic recovery . On Wall Street , the Dow Jones industrial average gained 13.23 points to 3,772.22 , ending the week up 15.08 . Standard & Poor 's 500-stock index rose 2.48 to 460.13 , up 2.80 for the week . The price of the 30-year Treasury bond traded up 13-16 point . Its yield , which moves in the opposite direction , fell to 7.26 percent from 7.34 percent Thursday . The dollar advanced against other major currencies , rising to a two-week high against the German mark . In New York , the dollar closed at 1.6700 marks , up from 1.6535 . Republic National Bank quoted gold at $ 380.60 an ounce , down $ 3.30 . On the New York Commodity Exchange , silver for current delivery brought $ 5.292 an ounce , down from $ 5.369 . Two of the nation 's largest cable television companies tentatively agreed Friday to a $ 2.3 billion merger , part of a move among the country 's balkanized cable systems to unite into regional powerhouses . Cox Enterprises Inc. , the Atlanta-based newspaper and TV company , reached a tentative agreement to buy the cable systems owned by Times Mirror Corp. , publisher of the Los Angeles Times and Baltimore Sun , Times Mirror said . The deal would bring under one management a nearly seamless string of cable systems running from San Diego to Los Angeles , one of the most populous and wealthiest regions in the country . It would create the nation 's third-largest cable company , with 3 million subscribers in California and other states . Cable companies generally have scattered holdings the Washington area is served by more than a dozen companies . But the consolidation envisioned by Cox and Times Mirror would permit the companies to compete on a more equal basis with Pacific Bell , California 's regional phone company , which is planning to enter the TV business . The cable and phone industries are racing each other to upgrade their networks of wires to enter each other 's business and provide a new generation of communications and entertainment services the `` information highway . '' Cox not only hopes to be in cable and telephone markets , it also has a tentative license to offer `` personal communications services '' new wireless phone and data links to people on the go-in southern California . Bigger and more concentrated cable companies may be the wave of the future , analysts say , because such companies could more efficiently complete the job of rewiring millions of households . `` You 're going to see more trading , buying and consolidating '' of cable systems to achieve mass , an industry executive involved in the bidding for Times Mirror cable said Friday . `` Just as telephone companies have a seamless network in their markets , a cable operator needs a similar effect to be competitive . '' In fact , Tele-Communications Inc. ( TCI ) , the nation 's largest cable company , is attempting to assemble a regional string of cable systems in the San Francisco Bay area . Thus , both TCI and Cox would take on Pacific Bell , which has said it will spend as much as $ 18 billion in the next few years to make its ubiquitous phone network capable of carrying TV pictures . At the same time , Time Warner Inc. , which owns most of the cable TV systems in New York City , is reported to be discussing a buyout of the Long Island cable systems owned by Cablevision Systems Inc. . Wall Street analysts and other observers said the announcement also indicates that another wave of mega-deals may be building in the cable and phone businesses after a brief period in which several mergers fell apart . Only a few months ago , cable-industry executives , including those at Cox , were blaming recent price rollbacks ordered by the federal government for scuttling alliances that were aimed at accelerating construction of the information highway . Among the deals that went sour in the wake of a Federal Communications Commission order to cut rates by 17 percent were Bell Atlantic Corp. 's proposed $ 26 billion purchase of TCI , and a proposed multibillion-dollar partnership between Cox and regional telephone company Southwestern Bell Corp. . Now , however , `` I think what Cox is saying is ` This is still a good business , ' ' ' said analyst John Reidy of Smith Barney Inc. in New York . `` This is the beginning of a new look . '' Reidy predicted major telephone companies will be investing in cable companies again within six months . In fact , two telephone companies , Bell Atlantic and GTE Corp. , were early bidders for the Times Mirror cable systems , but both dropped out as the bidding rose , sources said Friday . FCC chief of staff Blair Levin stopped short of declaring vindication for the agency 's action on cable prices . But he said , `` Mergers occur because of people 's view in the long term , not the short term . Both Cox and Times Mirror understand the long-term strength of the cable industry . '' NEW YORK When 7-year-old Kenneth Yeglinski II was struggling against a big rottweiler that had a hold on his neck , he knew what to do . He kicked the dog in the neck , using the same technique he 'd learned in studying tae kwon do for the past year . Thanks to his timely kick , the freckled , red-haired first-grader was around Friday to tell the story of a harrowing attack from a 3-year-old , 121-pound male rottweiler . `` I was scared , but I didn't show it , '' he said in a news conference at Maimonides Medical Center in Brooklyn . Ken , who plays with two rottweilers at home , was visiting a friend 's home in Brooklyn Thursday when he went to pet a dog owned by a tenant in the building . `` The dog jumped on me . He started biting on my neck , '' Ken said Friday. `` .. . Then I kicked him in the neck . Then I went in the house for ice . '' Ken was bitten severely on the neck not far from the jugular vein , on his right ear and chin , officials said . Dr. David Feldman , who performed plastic surgery on Ken at Maimonides , said it was the worst bite he 'd ever seen . `` If that dog had been on him a little longer , it could have been a lot worse , a lot worse , '' he said . Ken was quiet but proud Friday . Other kids who hadn't studied tae kwon do `` would have kicked him but not gotten him off , '' he said . His father , Port Authority Police Sgt. Kenneth Yeglinski , was relieved . `` My wife and I , we cried gallons , asking God for help , '' he said . The dog is being held by the ASPCA and will be examined . City Health Department spokesman Steve Matthews said there could be a ruling that the dog be muzzled , trained or destroyed . Ken 's father said that while his initial , emotional reaction was `` to go shoot the dog myself , '' now he 's not so sure . He 's just glad to have his son . The tae kwon do , he said , `` saved his life , absolutely . '' WASHINGTON The nation 's unemployment rate in May continued to drop virtually across the board , the government reported Friday for men and women , blacks and whites , adults and teen-agers . For everyone , that is , except black teen-gers . Among black teen-agers looking for jobs , 40 percent can't find them , the Labor Department said in its monthly survey , up from 32 percent rate in January . By contrast , joblessness for white teenagers has been declining , dropping to 15 percent last month . For the 740,000 black teenagers who have either graduated from high school or dropped out of school , the news is equally bleak : Only 33 percent have either full- or part-time jobs . For white teen-agers , the comparable figure is 60 percent . Experts Friday warned that persistently high levels of unemployment are leading to a growing alienation of black youth from the larger economy , aggravating other social problems . `` I think it should be pretty obvious that if these kids don't get a foothold in the legitimate economy , we can expect a fair number of them to turn to hustling of some kind , '' said Ronald Mincy , an expert on youth employment at the Ford Foundation . Economists offer several standard explanations for high rates of joblessness among black youth . Most of the new jobs being created , they argue , call for higher levels of skill and education than most non-college graduates can offer . Most of the new jobs also are being created at firms located in suburbs far from the inner cities where many African American families live . Experts also say that because black youths come from neighborhoods where rates of adult employment are low , they are less likely to take advantage of the sort of informal networking through which people learn about jobs and get hired . But Jared Bernstein , a labor economist with the Economic Policy Institute in Washington , said various studies show these factors do not fully explain the widening job gap between black and white teen-agers . Like Joshua Denbow , 18 , he suspects that various forms of discrimination also play a role . Denbow , a 1993 graduate of Ballou Senior High here , recalled trying to apply for a job at a mall , when a manager turned away from him . `` I saw him give out an application to another teen-ager , '' he said . `` I approached the store and he turned his sign over to closed . Ten minutes later , when I walked back past it , it was open . '' `` Because we 're young , black teen-agers , they think we sell drugs , '' Denbow said . Brandee Baggatts , 16 , an 11th-grade student at Dunbar , has applied at numerous stores , including Footlocker , the Gap and Fashion Bug . Most of the places never called her and those who did said they weren't hiring . As bad as the job situation is for Brandee , however , it 's worse for her male friends , she said , because of the stereotypes many employers hold about black teen-agers . `` They think about all the killings , but not every black boy is bad . We have some good ones , '' Brandee said . `` They just don't want to hire them because they are afraid of us . '' Much the same point was made by sociologist Elijah Anderson of the University of Pennsylvania , whose book , `` Streetwise , '' is based on three years spent hanging around a corner in a black neighborhood in Chicago . Anderson said that while most kids from such neighborhoods want to enter the economic mainstream , they often adopt some of the `` emblems '' of an what he calls the `` oppositional culture '' certain dress , mannerisms and ways of speech . `` White society has little ability to distinguish between the decent and the street kids , '' Anderson said . `` As a result , discrimination has remained a persistent part of the culture of the workplace . '' But even when they dress neatly and speak well , black teen-agers can be at a disadvantage . Margaret Simms , an economist with the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies in Washington , cited tests that used teen-agers with similar resumes , wearing similar clothes and coached to say the same things . White job applicants , she said , were chosen disproportionately over the black applicants . Simms and other analysts said that because black teen-agers and their friends have such trouble getting jobs , many become discouraged and simply stop looking . The Labor Department survey for May showed that only 36 percent of black teen-agers were active participants in the labor market , compared with 57 percent of white teen-agers . WASHINGTON The Federal Aviation Administration ordered Friday a broad-scale retreat from one of the most ambitious computer modernization projects undertaken by the U.S. government . FAA Administrator David Hinson said the agency will cancel outright two components of the modernization of the nation 's air traffic control system . He has ordered an intensive 90-day review of a third key component . Deputy Administrator Linda Daschle said the government will save `` hundreds of millions of dollars '' as a result of the decisions , which also will mean the loss of an undetermined number of jobs at the former IBM Federal Systems unit in Montgomery County , Md. , now owned by Loral Corp. . This allows companies such as BDM International Inc. , Hughes , Unisys and Raytheon to win portions of a contract still expected to run and valued in excess of $ 5 billion by the time it is completed after the year 2000 . The overall FAA project , called the Advanced Automation System , was supposed to provide air traffic controllers with state-of-the-art computers , systems and workstations that would tie the vast array of radars , satellites and communications facilities that help guide thousands of flights across the country . Many current computer facilities date to the 1960s . `` The fact that it is a smaller program is not discouraging to Loral . It will turn out to be a better program , '' said Loral Chairman and chief executive Bernard L. Schwartz . Schwartz says Loral is assessing the number of jobs that will be affected and expects an answer within the next two weeks . `` We owe it to our people and to subcontractors to come out with as quick an answer as possible , '' he said . Hinson said the remaining $ 2 billion software program designed to give air traffic controllers sophisticated new workstations will be reviewed by an expert team from the Lincoln Laboratories and Carnegie-Mellon Institute working together with FAA and Loral experts . Hinson said he ordered this review because he was confronted with conflicting opinions about the program 's feasibility and wanted a third viewpoint . The FAA has already spent $ 1 billion ; if the program is scrapped , that money will be lost . An earlier study for the FAA by the Center for Naval Analysis found the software design being used by IBM ( now Loral ) `` seriously flawed '' and riddled with errors , a position Loral disputes . Schwartz said in an interview Friday that Hinson 's announcement `` demonstrates the FAA 's determination to proceed with this important modification program . It validates the overall conceptual approach subject to the fact that the software does what it is supposed to do . '' Of the new study , Schwartz said , `` If I were he , I would do the same . '' Some of Friday 's steps could prolong the automation project since some of it is to be put out for a new `` competition '' among prospective contractors , often a time-consuming process . The initial program , which dates to the early 1980s , was in deep trouble when the Clinton administration took office . But officials insisted it could be salvaged . A broad review ordered by Hinson and Transportation Secretary Federico Pena initially questioned the premise and said that if it could be completed at all , the cost would escalate by almost $ 2.2 billion from Bush administration estimates . Friday , with the FAA facing a five-year budget freeze , they acknowledged even that may not be possible and embarked on the new , streamlined strategy . In addition to the review of the Loral software program , Hinson canceled : -- A major computer program that would have linked segments of the nationwide system , speeding up the integration and flow of information . Its price : $ 1 billion . -- A similar program to consolidate computer activities in areas of very heavy air traffic , with a projected cost of $ 654 million . Also , a program to modernize the equipment in airport towers was slashed to cover about 70 of the busiest airports from the 150 envisioned initially . That program was to have cost about $ 447 million . A sub-set of the remaining disputed Loral program the replacement with electronic data of paper strips controllers use to track each flight also is being cancelled . Its cost was put in the hundreds of millions of dollars and it was opposed by air traffic controllers . Not all of the money in these canceled or reduced programs will be saved since some of the roles they were designed to do will remain functional . Instead of relying on Loral to do them , however , they will be open for new bidding or Loral will be directed to turn to off-the-shelf technologies . FAA officials declined to put a price on these parts of the project . WASHINGTON The Clinton administration began consultations Friday with key U.S. allies on imposing punitive sanctions against North Korea , but officials said the plan initially calls for only mild restrictions , to avoid pushing Pyongyang into further isolation . Robert L. Gallucci , assistant secretary of state for political-military affairs , met separately in Washington with South Korean and Japanese officials in preparation for a broader conference involving all three allies Saturday . . At the same time , senior administration policy-makers traveling with President Clinton in Europe conferred privately with British , French and German counterparts . They also telephoned Chinese officials , whose support is considered crucial for approval of a sanctions resolution . Clinton himself called South Korean President Kim Young Sam , who agreed on the broad American strategy . The president also phoned Russian President Boris N . Yeltsin , rejecting a new Russian proposal to convene an international conference to discuss the standoff over North Korea 's nuclear program . The flurry of activity marked the start of what is expected to be a complex effort to build a coalition in favor of some sort of sanctions by the middle of next week , officials hope , when the U.N. . Security Council is scheduled to take up the issue . Hans Blix , director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency , briefed Security Council members on his agency 's conclusion that Pyongyang has made it all but impossible for inspectors to determine whether it has diverted spent fuel to make nuclear weapons . Meanwhile , North Korea appealed for a new round of talks with the United States . But it was rebuffed by the administration , which repeated its intention to pursue imposition of sanctions instead . Pyongyang also test-fired another anti-ship missile . There were some initial signs that China might be easing its longstanding opposition to U.N. sanctions against North Korea possibly a result of Clinton 's decision last week to continue special trade preferences for Beijing . Both American and foreign officials indicated that the discussions involving the Japanese and South Koreans were preliminary and did not result in decisions . `` It 's really too early at this point , '' one insider said . But Washington-based diplomats said the administration is considering the possibility of pushing for relatively modest sanctions at first to avoid provoking Pyongyang into withdrawing from the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty , which governs reactor inspections . If Pyongyang still does not yield , the allies then would press for a freeze on North Korea 's financial transactions , and , finally , for a cutoff of oil and food supplies the most drastic step in the proposed sanctions arsenal . ( Optional add end ) One concession that Washington wants Pyongyang to make immediately is to allow international inspectors to take samplings and measurements at its two major radioactive waste sites an alternative to analyzing spent fuel rods in its reactor , which already has been emptied . All sides conceded that pushing a sanctions resolution through the Security Council is likely to be difficult . Even Japan , which opposes North Korea 's nuclear program , said it wants the United Nations to issue another warning before invoking sanctions . Han Seung Soo , South Korea 's ambassador to the United States , said in a telephone interview that the contents of the allies ' proposed sanctions resolution could vary widely , `` depending upon the reactions from China and Russia . '' `` China has repeatedly said they prefer dialogue , '' he said . `` Unless we are assured that they will abstain from a Security Council resolution , it would be very difficult '' to pass a formal proposal , even for gradual imposition of sanctions . Gallucci told reporters that the United States would `` not be intimidated '' by Pyongyang 's continual warnings that it would regard any imposition of sanctions as an act of war . One of only two low-level nuclear waste dumps in the nation will close to most outsiders at the end of June , a move that will leave 31 states with no sanctioned disposal site . The decision by the South Carolina legislature to limit access to their facility at Barnwell will mean that hospitals , biomedical companies and other industries in states that use radioactive materials must store their own nuclear waste . South Carolina officials gave no reason for their decision to limit access to the Barnwell dump to eight southeastern states , Alabama , Florida , Georgia , Mississippi , North Carolina , South Carolina , Tennessee and Virginia . Closure of the South Carolina dump means that `` 65 percent of all radioactive waste in the nation will have to be stored at the point of generation , '' said Holmes Brown , a spokesman for the Low-level Waste Forum , an organization of state officials who work on nuclear waste issues . In California alone , about 100,00 cubic feet of contaminated waste are produced each year . Many of the facilities that are now forced to store their own radioactive waste are in populated areas . `` Hospitals and biotech companies completely surrounded by residential neighborhoods certainly aren't the best places to be storing this stuff , '' said Donald Womeldorf , director of the Southwestern Low-level Radioactive Waste Commision , which represents four states California , Arizona , North Dakota and South Dakota . ( Begin optional trim ) The perils of keeping nuclear waste on site , instead of burying it in a licensed dump was underscored by the Jan. 17 Los Angeles earthquake , which damaged storage facilities at three hospitals , according to Cathleen Kaufman , head of radiation management for the Los Angeles County Department of Health Services . There were no reports of contamination after the earthquake . But at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles , the loss of storage space because of earthquake damage may put a crimp in medical research . `` I have put researchers on notice that after the first of the year they may find the use of radioactive materials restricted , '' said Donna Early , the hospital 's director of radiation and environmental safety . ( End optional trim ) Apart from the South Carolina facility , a dump in Richland , Wash. is the only facility in the country that accepts low-level waste . The Washington dump , however , serves only 11 western states , Alaska , Colorado , Hawaii , Idaho , Montana , Nevada , New Mexico , Oregon , Utah , Washington and Wyoming . The two dumps are classified as `` low level '' to distinguish them from facilities designed to accept spent fuel rods and other debris from nuclear power plants contaminated with highly toxic , long-lasting substances , such as plutonium that can remain dangerous for many thousands of years . But even `` low-level '' dumps can accept some long-lasting radioactive materials . ( Optional add end ) Under a 1980 law , several states assumed responsibility from the federal government for disposing of low-level nuclear waste . Regional compacts were formed with the idea that each would be served by existing dumps in Nevada , South Carolina and Washington or by one of four new ones that were supposed to be in operation by now . Until the new dumps opened , the three states with existing dumps agreed to accept waste from states outside their compacts . Those arrangements , however , were not popular with public officials in the those states , who feared they would become permanent repositories for the nation 's nuclear waste . Nevada subsequently closed to all users . Closing the South Carolina dump will increase the pressure on California to build the proposed Ward Valley disposal facility in the eastern Mojave desert , a controversial project currently tied up in litigation and the focus of bitter opposition for a decade by anti-nuclear and environmental organizations . MEXICO CITY A lone gunman assassinated presidential candidate Luis Donaldo Colosio in March , according to the special prosecutor 's latest theory , which was roundly rejected by human rights activists , opposition politicians and citizens on Friday . Late Thursday , special prosecutor Miguel Montes Garcia sharply backed away from the government 's previously described view that a conspiracy was responsible for the death of Colosio , who was widely expected to be the next president of Mexico . `` Recent investigations .. . strengthen the theory that the murder was committed by one man alone : Mario Aburto Martinez , '' Montes said in a statement . It came three days after a special commission to investigate the assassination disbanded because the panel 's five members said they could not gain access to needed information . A Mexican congressional committee , created to investigate the crime , has made similar complaints . According to surveys , many Mexicans believe the government is covering up a high-level conspiracy to assassinate Colosio . In his statement , Montes denied rumors that Aburto , who has been imprisoned while he awaits trial on charges connected with the assassination , is not the same suspect who was originally arrested . He also denied assertions that the one-inch difference in the size of the two bulletholes in Colosio 's body indicates that the wounds were made by bullets of different calibers . Montes did not say where Aburto obtained the gun he allegedly used in the assassination . He also did not discuss whether Aburto belonged to a political group , as relatives and friends have indicated . Nor did he mention a motive . Montes ' spokesman denied that the prosecutor 's statement signaled the end of an investigation that has embarrassed the government and overshadowed the presidential campaign . Even so , the latest development in the inquiry met with wide skepticism . ( Begin optional trim ) `` It 's a joke , '' said Sergio Aguayo , chairman of the independent Mexican Human Rights Academy in the capital . `` It is unacceptable , a public relations game . They play with us all the time . That 's the problem with a totalitarian regime . '' Pedro Chavez , a 27-year-old news vendor , chalked up Montes ' statement to pressure . `` The government and the people want an answer before the ( Aug. 21 presidential ) elections , '' he said . `` Still , the majority of the public says it is a conspiracy , and this will make the public more demanding than ever of a satisfactory answer . They have to get to the bottom of this . It 's not as simple as just going back to the original theory . '' But Baja California Gov. Ernesto Ruffo Appel said the probe indeed appeared to have returned to square one , telling reporters Friday in Tijuana : `` It seems that the information is concentrating on a scenario that existed in the first days of the investigation . The scenario is the same one that there was two months ago . '' ( End optional trim ) Immediately after Colosio 's March 23 killing at a campaign rally in a working-class Tijuana neighborhood , police had portrayed the assassination as the act of a disturbed young man . But investigators shifted to a conspiracy theory after broadcasters aired a videotape that appeared to show another man clearing a path for Aburto toward Colosio . Largely based on that tape and two other videotapes , three men have been imprisoned along with Aburto . They are awaiting trial as alleged accomplices in the killing . Citing a lack of evidence , a judge dismissed charges against a fifth man , who had recruited the accused accomplices for crowd control at the rally . `` To date , the investigation has not turned up new evidence that would strengthen ( the material ) used to jail Tranquilino Sanchez Venegas , Vicente Mayoral Valenzuela ( and ) Rodolfo Mayoral Esquer , '' Montes said . Angel Terrazas , the Mayorals ' Tijuana lawyer , said he plans now to seek his clients ' release . The charges against them were based on a hasty prosecution and thin evidence , he said . But Jorge Mancillas , a University of California , Los Angeles , professor and human rights activist who is acting as an adviser to the Aburto family , accused the Mexican government of trying to put an end to the Colosio case without a thorough investigation of the possibility of a high-level plot . ( Optional add end ) Aburto 's behavior and prior contacts with suspicious people connected to the Colosio case , his family said , make them suspect that he was part of a wide-ranging plot . His father has said that Aburto had spoken of attending mysterious political meetings in Tijuana with two of the suspects , the elder Mayoral and Sanchez , as well as two federal security agents who were investigated but not charged . Aburto 's relatives believe that the guards and others were trying to draw the 23-year-old factory worker into a plot in which he would be set up as a scapegoat , Mancillas said . The Aburtos remain willing to accept the special prosector 's request that they give formal declarations about what they know to investigators , Mancillas said . But the elder Aburto has not acted on that request , said Montes spokesman Miguel Angel Sanchez de Armas . In JAPAN-TRADE ( Risen , Times ) sub for 4th-7th grafs ) ( Clarifying , adding grafs ) xxx industrial sectors . Still , it appears the administration has effectively backed away from the notion of attempting to set specific targets for reducing the overall U.S.-Japan trade deficit , which has become a highly visible reminder of America 's uncertain standing in the increasingly competitive global marketplace . Administration officials and many private economists agree that the level of U.S. exports is a more direct measure of America 's ability to eliminate the barriers that make it difficult for U.S. companies to do business in foreign markets . That is because the trade deficit also reflects purchases of foreign goods by Americans , and the gap can widen even if U.S. exports are rising and contributing to job growth in this country . The absolute size of the U.S.-Japan deficit `` is less important .. . than the content of the deficit , '' Kantor said . `` You can find no correlation between the size of the trade deficit and whether or not you 're creating or not creating employment , '' he said . `` What has worried us most about the closed markets in Japan , and what the framework talks are aimed at , are those sectors where we have the highest potential growth : semiconductors , electronics , computers , super-computers , auto and auto parts , services like insurance and financial services . '' During the 1992 election campaign , Clinton cited the growing deficit with Japan as evidence that the Bush administration had not moved aggressively enough to open up restricted markets . He promised to make vigorous trade policy a central element of his strategy for economic renewal , estimating that every $ 1 billion in additional U.S. exports would create 20,000 to 30,000 new jobs in this country . Kantor , addressing another touchy competitiveness issue , said America 's trade gap with China ultimately could rival in size the troublesome deficit with Japan . Speaking just a week after Clinton announced renewal of Beijing 's most-favored-nation trade status , he said tough negotiations lie ahead to ensure China complies with international trade laws as it grows into a trading powerhouse . PICK UP 8th graf : `` If we xxx . Greenspan outlined to Clinton an economic approach Woodward calls the `` financial markets strategy . '' Policy was to be designed to send a message to Wall Street and ultimately , drive down interest rates . According to the theory , the economy would improve and as a result , Clinton would have more tax revenue to spend on favored domestic programs and be re-elected in 1996 . The theory , and the policy Clinton adopted , bore little resemblance to the economic program on which Clinton had campaigned . Clinton 's `` Putting People First '' campaign banner stressed government `` investment '' in programs that would improve the lives of middle-class Americans such as job training , early education , government promotion of cutting-edge technology . A middle-class tax cut and health care for all Americans were additional sweeteners . WASHINGTON Workers should not be forced to speak only English on the job unless their employer can prove such a rule is necessary for business reasons , the Justice Department told the U.S. Supreme Court this week . `` Depriving persons of the opportunity to use the language in which they communicate most effectively cannot be characterized as a ` de minimius ' ( minor ) injury , '' Justice Department lawyers said in a brief filed on behalf of two Latino in California challenging their employer 's English-only requirement . The court had requested the brief before deciding whether to accept the case . The dispute over whether employers can legally bar employees from speaking languages other than English on the job is seen by many lawyers and lawmakers as a symptom of concern over increased immigration to the United States . But others see the issue revolving around immigrants ' ability to preserve their ethnic heritage . In the California case , the two Latinos were accused of making racist remarks in English and Spanish to three co-workers one black , one white and one Chinese at Spun Steak , a company that processes beef into frozen meat patties . Besides instituting a policy banning racial harassment and separating the two Latino employees , the company issued a regulation requiring workers to speak only English on the job . The Latino employees won a discrimination claim before the federal Equal Employment Opportunity Commission and sued when the company refused to settle . But Spun Steak 's policy , struck down by a federal judge , was upheld by a federal appeals court , which said it would be illegal only if imposed on workers who spoke little or no English . The workers appealed to the Supreme Court . The case is not an isolated one , government officials say . Jennifer Goldstein , a lawyer for the EEOC , said Friday that 120 such claims against 67 employers are pending . In urging the Supreme Court to hear the case , the Justice Department said the federal court decision upholding the English-only rule was `` wrong '' and makes it too difficult for ethnic groups to challenge such rules that weren't promulgated strictly for legitimate business reasons . ( Begin optional trim ) `` It is disappointing to see that the Clinton administration is trying to eliminate English-in-the-workplace rules , '' said George Tryfiates , executive director of English First , a Virginia-based advocacy group that wants English declared the nation 's official language . Tryfiates said the administration has done `` everything in its power to divide America along language lines . '' Rep. Toby Roth , R-Wis. , has introduced a bill that would make English the official language and repeal federal funding for bilingual education . But Ed Chen , director of the American Civil Liberties Union 's Northern California office , said English-only rules `` send a message to would-be job applicants , that if you 're going to work here you have to leave your ethnicity at the door . '' ( End optional trim ) The EEOC issued guidelines in 1980 declaring English-only rules legal only when there was a business reason for them . For example , Goldstein said , a hospital could require that all personnel working in an operating room speak English because it is imperative everyone understand one another instantly . `` I 'm disappointed but not surprised , '' Kenneth Bertelsen , president of Spun Steak , said of the Justice Department brief . Bertelsen said he believes the EEOC guideline is flawed and that the 1964 civil rights act `` guarantees equal opportunity , not the right to discuss your ethnic background or heritage in the workplace . '' NEW YORK The rattlesnakes were hungry , so the cops were very , very careful . As police investigated a reported burglary , they stumbled across a veritable rattlesnake clearing house hidden behind the tinted windows of a storefront in Queens early Friday . Authorities found 62 live western Diamond-back rattlesnakes inside a Plexiglas-topped wooden box in the store , whose marquee read `` Queens health store . '' Inside a freezer police found about 40 dead snakes , twirled around each other tightly as if they had continued coiling after being placed there . They had not been packed in boxes or bags . Displayed on shelves were jars ranging from pint- to quart-sized , containing snake eggs packed in alcohol . More dead snakes were curled in stewpots one pot contained several snakes and was still warm when police arrived , filling the storefront with a strong odor . Smaller reptiles , about a foot long , were pickled in pint-sized vodka bottles also displayed on shelves . `` I heard the rattling , but I thought it was steam , '' said Police Officer Robert Charlton of Emergency Services . `` Who knew the thing would be filled with snakes . '' Bronx Zoo snake expert John Behler said the live reptiles , ranging from 2 to 4 feet in length , appeared to be dehydrated . He said they had not been fed or washed for several days . `` They can be very dangerous , '' Behler said . Queens patrol Capt. Rocco Romano said the snakes were used and sold for food and , when boiled into an herb soup , as a traditional Korean cure for various ailments . Bags of the root , ginseng , and other herbs were also found inside the store . Because it is illegal in New York state to possess live poisonous snakes , police arrested the owner of the store and two clerks , all of whom are related . Arrested were Chang Kim , 27 , Chung Kim , 27 , and Jung Kim , 45 . They were charged with felony endangerment and violations of state environmental conservation law . The trio faces fines of up to 15 days in jail and $ 250 for each violation . Fines could total $ 20,000 . Police officers and Bronx Zoo workers removed the snakes one at a time from the box using tongs and hooks , placing them into yellow , steel salvage cans to be taken to the Bronx Zoo . Behler said the zoo will try to find a home for the snakes at a zoo or a research group . It is not against the law to own dead snakes , so those remained inside the business , police said . Police also left behind the six hotplates apparently used to boil the rattlers . The business was then padlocked . `` The family said they use the snakes for their own medicinal purposes , '' said Romano . Snakes have long been used as a medicinal remedy in many Asian societies , including Korea and China . Korean herbologists often boil the reptile into a soup that is believed to cure fatigue and improve vitality , even the sex drive . SAN FRANCISCO Federal agents sifted through smoking rubble Friday in a search for clues to a massive explosion that killed three people , demolished an unoccupied three-story building and sparked a fire in a neighborhood near Union Square . The blast , which occurred shortly before 10 p.m. PDT Thursday , shattered windows for blocks around and hurled boulder-sized chunks of debris hundreds of yards . One brick shot through the window of a passing car , leaving the driver with severe facial injuries . Four other people also were injured , none critically . Witnesses said the mysterious explosion packed the force of a bomb and gave the intersection of Post and Hyde streets below Nob Hill the look and feel of a war zone . `` The force was incredible 100 times worse than an earthquake , '' said Elisa Magidoff , who was standing outside a neighboring grocery store and was badly cut by flying glass . `` It came up from the ground , lifted my body and knocked me right over . Then there was screaming , smoke and chaos . '' Lisa Demitro , a palm reader , was closing her shop for the night when the explosion blew out her front windows , shattered her crystal ball and knocked her sideways . `` I got jolted , and suddenly the street was filled with a big orange ball of fire , '' Demitro said . `` Then that building just disintegrated . Big pieces of it came flying down the street . '' Ten structures were damaged by the explosion , and 11 cars were battered by falling rubble . Fractured window frames , glass and mattress stuffing littered the pavement , and bedsheets hung from lampposts and overhead wires . About 50 people were evacuated from neighboring apartments ; 34 of them spent Thursday night on cots in the ballroom of the St. Francis Hotel . ( Optional add end ) The explosion obliterated the 1907 apartment building , leaving only a blackened hole . The structure was owned by Margarita Delpeck , who was its sole occupant and lived there only part-time . She was elsewhere at the time of the blast . By late Friday , investigators with the San Francisco Fire Department and the federal Bureau of Alcohol , Tobacco and Firearms had not pinpointed the source of the blast . Their hunt for clues in the rubble was slowed when the one wall left standing had to be demolished for safety reasons . Several neighbors reported smelling gas in recent weeks , and noted that utility crews had done some work on their street just last month . But Pacific Gas & Electric officials said a survey turned up no leaks or other evidence suggesting that natural gas was to blame . The meter to the building was intact , as were pipes leading inside . And a check of the street work , concluded in early May , showed nothing was amiss , PG&E spokesman Paul Ward said . Speculation also centered on the possibility that a methamphetamine lab had operated clandestinely in the basement of the building . Neighbors , meanwhile , wondered whether there was a connection with the building owner 's long-running feud with drug dealers and prostitutes who work the neighborhood . Delpeck 's brother was assaulted after an argument with the loiterers more than a year ago , they said . NEW YORK Touched by the magic of Hollywood greats , bidders spent thousands of dollars at Christie 's auction house for the one-time personal belongings of such stars as Clark Gable , Orson Welles and Harriet Brown . Harriet Brown ? Better known , no doubt , as G.G. , or Greta Garbo who wanted to be alone . A collection of handwritten letters from Garbo to Hollywood hairstylist Sydney Guilaroff fetched $ 10,925 at the Thursday night sale . The letters were addressed to `` Darling Gilly '' and signed , `` Love , Harry , '' a reference to Garbo 's alias , Harriet Brown . In her last letter to Guilaroff , true to her `` vant-to-be-alone '' legend , Garbo wrote , `` I am sorry , but for the moment I can speak to no one . G.G. . '' Going for $ 5,750 was Gable 's monogrammed dressing gown , and bringing in $ 9,200 was a set of his golf clubs . An autographed cast photo of `` The Misfits , '' his last film and also that of Marilyn Monroe sold for $ 8,050 . The film was released shortly after he died . But it was a Welles item a script of the 1938 radio play `` War of the Worlds '' that brought the best price in the sale . The broadcast frightened many listeners out of their wits because they believed they were hearing a live news broadcast about Martians landing in New Jersey , and the notoriety skyrocketed to fame the man who would drink no wine before its time . The script brought $ 32,200 . LOS ANGELES In a complex deal worth $ 2.3 billion , Times Mirror Co. is planning to spin off its cable television operations to form a new , publicly held company with Atlanta-based Cox Enterprises Inc. . The combination of the two companies ' cable units would create the nation 's third-largest cable operator , with 3 million subscribers . Cox would acquire the cable system by assuming about $ 1.4 billion worth of Times Mirror debt , and swapping about $ 900 million worth of privately held Cox shares , sources said . Analysts called the deal equivalent to about 11 times the expected 1994 cash flow for Times Mirror 's cable operations positive for both sides . `` We think Times Mirror is getting a very good price and Cox is getting a very good system , '' said John Reidy , who follows the cable industry for Smith Barney Shearson in New York . `` Times Mirror shareholders may well end up with ( stock in two companies ) which sell for more than today 's one . '' Analysts said the deal could signal a new round of consolidation in the cable industry , driven by the massive technology investments required to compete with the telecommunications industry for control over the coming era of interactive communications . Tele-Communications Inc. , the country 's largest cable operator , and Viacom Inc. , the 13th-largest operator , are said to be close to an agreement to combine their cable systems in San Francisco and Seattle . Times Mirror stock closed up 4 Friday , at 36 a share on the New York Stock Exchange . The company whose holdings include the Los Angeles Times , Newsday in New York as well as magazine and book publishing interests issued a statement confirming an `` agreement in principle for the disposition of its cable television business to Cox Enterprises , '' but declined further comment on the continuing negotiations . The deal , first reported in USA Today on Friday , is expected to be finalized this weekend . Cox is expected to manage the company , but it was not immediately clear how big a stake Times Mirror shareholders would have . Sources said the Outdoor Channel , the first effort of Times Mirror 's new cable programming division , would be guaranteed a spot on the new system 's lineup . The cable programming arm will remain part of Times Mirror . Cox 's cable unit is the nation 's sixth-largest cable company with 1.8 million subscribers , including systems in San Diego , southeastern Virginia and the New Orleans area . Times Mirror Cable is ranked 11th with 1.2 million cable subscribers , including systems in Phoenix , Ariz. , Orange County , Calif. , and suburban San Diego . The agreement also could mark the beginning of a trend in which media conglomerates move to separate information and entertainment divisions , such as those that produce newspapers and programming , from the delivery systems , at a time when each is taking on new roles . `` This is the inverse of the Time Warner merger , '' said Jonathan Seybold , a Malibu , Calif.-based new media analyst , referring to the largest media merger in history , in which movie , record and TV production was merged with cable and magazine operations . Time Warner is the nation 's second-largest cable operator . But in an age in which information , entertainment and advertising can be easily converted to digital formats and sent over delivery mechanisms ranging from the global computer web known as the Internet to wireless personal communications devices , some argue that it may make more sense for producers of such content to operate unfettered by the interests of any particular transmission system , and vice-versa . ( Optional add end ) Times Mirror has been exploring delivery of its magazine and newspaper content via CD-ROM and the Prodigy on-line service , which could be viewed as competitive with cable delivery . Under the Cox-Times Mirror deal , Cox 's cable systems would also apparently be spun off into the new entity . `` In the end a content company should be in the position of delivering its content over any and all delivery mechanisms , and a company that operates the pipelines and the servers should be offering the broadest possible content over its services , '' Seybold added . The ongoing consolidation of the cable industry was interrupted over the last year as cable and phone companies flirted with the idea of joining forces across industries to pay for the costly roll-out of the `` information superhighway . '' But two such planned alliances Bell Atlantic 's with Tele-Communications Inc. and Cox 's with Southwestern Bell collapsed this year when the Federal Communications Commission slapped stiffer rate regulations on the cable industry and company stocks slipped precipitously . Now that the Baby Bells appear to have decided to go it on their own , analysts say , consolidating resources within the cable industry is even more crucial . And with FCC Chairman Reed Hundt signaling at the national cable conference last month that the worst of his agency 's actions were over , the regulatory environment appears more receptive to mergers of this kind . `` Over the next several years the cable business is going to get more competitive , require bigger investments in technology , and become much more difficult to manage , '' said Melissa Cook , an analyst at Prudential Securities in New York . `` Only the biggest companies have a chance of surviving . '' In paying a healthy premium for Times Mirror 's cable systems , Cox appears to be giving a vote of confidence to the industry , which has been rocked by rate rollbacks , climbing interest rates and the perception that the phone companies have the upper hand in the digital highway race . Times Mirror 's cable unit accounted for 28 percent of the company 's pretax profit year ( after accounting for one-time charges ) , and 13 percent of its revenue . Earnings for the cable division came to $ 106.5 million . MIAMI In the first successful criminal prosecution of new federal oil pollution laws enacted after the Exxon Valdez spill , the owners of a cruise ship Friday pleaded guilty to dumping bilge oil into the Atlantic Ocean . The Viking Princess , a Panamanian flag passenger ship , was returning to Palm Beach when it was ensnared in an unprecedented high-tech sting operation carried out by Coast Guard planes and cutters in February 1993 . The sting operation , part of a get-tough policy by the Coast Guard to catch oil dumpers , will continue again this month along the coast from Florida to North Carolina . In the case of the Viking Princess , a Coast Guard Falcon jet , outfitted with side-viewing radar system called AIREYE , spotted an oily slime trail snaking some two miles behind the cruise ship as it sailed home after a day lolling in international waters , where it is legal for its passengers to gamble . Coast Guard cutters , with Environmental Protection Agency and FBI agents aboard , took samples of the oily water , as jets overhead videotaped the sheen around the vessel . Friday in federal court here , Asbjoern Junger , executive vice president of the Viking Princess 's owner , Palm Beach Cruises , S.A , pleaded guilty to two felony counts of violating the Oil Pollution Prevention , Response , Liability and Compensation Act of 1990 , which was written to include criminal penalties after the Exxon Valdez spill off Alaska in 1989 . Under a plea agreement reached with federal prosecutors , the company said it would pay $ 500,000 over the next five years . The maximum fine is $ 1 million . Coast Guard officials have complained in the past that they often see evidence of oil dumping , but that the cases are difficult to prosecute . The new oil pollution act makes it easier and the penalties greater . `` We think of this as a foghorn to the industry to stop polluting , '' said Lois Schiffer , assistant attorney general for the environmental crimes division of the Justice Department , which has been criticized in the past for not vigorously prosecuting environmental scofflaws . Coast Guard Lt. Cmdr. Jim Howe said that over the years his service routinely spots ships that appear to be dumping oil out of their bilges . Indeed , until recently it was common practice for vessels to pump out the oily water that collects in areas beneath their engines . While the individual bilge releases are not considered sizable , as oil spills go , their cumulative effects are large . Moreover , they are intentional . Until the new law was passed , it was difficult to prosecute dumpers who were more than three miles offshore . Many times , the Coast Guard simply had to inform the ship 's flag country ( most often Liberia or Panama ) that one of the vessels was suspected of dumping . The new law makes it easier to prosecute cases involving dumping out to 12 miles , and in some cases as far as 200 miles . Advanced clean-up technology , which makes it possible to separate oil from water aboard the ships , also has made it less necessary to dump oily water out of bilges . Dumping by the Viking Princess was a rather egregious example , Howe said . A sheen more than two miles long followed the boat , and when the ship turned , the oil followed it . Friday in federal court , U.S. . District Judge Stanley Marcus warned the cruise ship 's owners that he may not accept the plea agreement , and instead may sentence the dumpers to the maximum fine . Sentencing is set for October . WASHINGTON The Justice Department is investigating allegations that Air Force One , the president 's jet , and almost 7,000 other government and military planes may be equipped with faulty engines that could fail in mid-flight . The allegation that the General Electric Co. engines are unusually prone to flame-out or stall-out in flight is in a lawsuit brought against the company by Ian Johnson , a British citizen employed as an electrical engineer at GE 's aircraft engine division in Evendale , Ohio . However , Justice and other federal officials emphasized that their investigations should not be taken as proof of a defect . To date , according to federal and GE officials , there have been no known incidences of aircraft failure due to the alleged defect , federal officials said . The Air Force , which operates Air Force One , is taking all necessary steps to ensure the safety of President Clinton and his staff aboard the jet , said White House spokeswoman Ginny Terzano . `` The Air Force is fully confident that Air Force One is completely safe to fly , '' she said . Johnson 's petition , filed in December in U.S. . District Court in Cincinnati and unsealed Thursday , contends that GE was aware of test results showing that the engines were susceptible to electromagnetic interference and , thus , could malfunction in a way that could lead to engine fires or sudden losses of power . The Federal Aviation Administration , Defense Department and the FBI are examining Johnson 's charges , the White House confirmed yesterday . The investigation was first reported by the Cleveland Plain-Dealer . GE , in a pointed rebuttal , called the charges `` frivolous and outrageous , '' and said they have `` no basis in fact . '' `` GE engines have the world 's best safety and reliability record . . . meet or exceed all safety requirements-and have safely powered hundreds of thousands of military and commercial flights over the past two decades , '' the company said . `` Despite its hyped rhetoric , the complaint itself does not cite even one instance of an in-service aircraft engine failure due to '' the alleged product defects , the company said in a prepared statement . TASHKENT , Uzbekistan Uzbek authorities arrested two key opposition figures this week before they were to meet with Sen. Arlen Specter , R-Pa. , who said the ex-Soviet republic 's `` deliberate pattern '' of repression could threaten relations with Washington . Specter said he was `` absolutely not '' satisfied with an official response by President Islam Karimov about the detention of the two women . He quoted Karimov as asserting during a 75-minute meeting , `` These two women are not so important to take up our time . '' Karimov 's government , widely regarded as the former Soviet Union 's worst human rights offender , routinely has detained perceived opponents and also has kidnapped them from abroad . Thugs have beaten dissidents severely , leaving them hospitalized for weeks . Most of the president 's leading critics have fled the republic . One of the women Specter was to meet Thursday , Vasilya Inoyatova , is a leader of Birlik , believed to be the leading opposition group . She was tried last year for allegedly insulting Karimov in a poem , and this was at least her second arrest this year . The other was Diloram Iskhakova , a spokeswoman for a smaller party , called Will , which also has been banned . Specter said that he was scheduled to meet the women for breakfast at the home of U.S. . Ambassador Henry Clarke but that drivers sent for them returned without passengers . A third , little-known opposition figure , Ibrahim Buriyev , reached the meeting . In a letter to Karimov , released to reporters by the U.S. . Embassy , Specter said : `` I protest this interference with the rights of Uzbekistan citizens to meet with me and my rights to meet with them. . . . The denial of normal contacts between individuals of our two countries creates a serious obstacle to closer relations . '' In a news conference , Specter noted that the Uzbek government also had detained opposition figures who were to meet Deputy Secretary of State Strobe Talbott and Carter-era national security adviser Zbigniew Brzezinski in separate visits late last year . `` It is a deliberate pattern , '' Specter said , `` and it is the pattern that is of great importance . '' Central Asia has attracted Western interest over its large deposits of oil , natural gas , gold , chrome and uranium . But it is the most politically and economically conservative region of the former Soviet Union , with all five republics retaining some form of Soviet-style authoritarianism . Elections and referendums are routinely decided by 99 percent majorities , and genuine opposition parties operate freely only in tiny Kyrgyzstan . Uzbekistan , however , has come under the greatest Western criticism after a series of show trials and severe beatings of political critics . No opposition newspapers operate , and Karimov has banned most Moscow-based publications , including Izvestia and Nezavisimaya Gazeta , which have published scathing reports on his government . Still , Karimov has retained wide popular support at home , largely by pointing in televised speeches to problems in Moscow and arguing that too much political and economic liberalization can lead to chaos and social upheaval . At the same time , Karimov has remained almost impervious to Western criticism , dismissing it as interference . Some analysts say they believe he is aiming toward a semblance of Chinese-style economic reform while maintaining tight political control . He has the usual trappings you might expect of a wealthy Saudi prince a 130-room palace in Riyadh , a Bedouin bodyguard , his own Boeing 727 and one of the world 's most luxurious yachts to navigate the waters of the French Riviera . But Prince Waleed Bin Talal Bin Abdulaziz Al Saud is gaining a reputation as more than a flamboyant royal . The 37-year-old , American-educated prince also is the savvy investor who last week agreed to acquire a $ 400 million to $ 500 million stake in the struggling French theme park Euro Disney . If the prince 's former investments are any guide , Euro Disney may be poised for a rebound . In 1991 , bought an $ 800 million stake in the then-staggering financial giant , Citicorp . Though it was considered a risky venture at the time , the prince 's $ 600 million investment in preferred stock is now worth about $ 2 billion , and some investment analysts describe it as one of the most profitable deals of the decade . The prince , who is a grandson of the founder of Saudi Arabia and a nephew of King Fahd , also owns a 10 percent interest in the Saks Fifth Avenue department store chain and is working on a deal to take control of Air France 's four-star luxury hotel chain , Meridien . `` He is a brilliant financial analyst , '' said Stephen L. Norris , a partner in the Washington-based Carlyle Group who advised the prince on both the Citicorp and Euro Disney deals . But others say he is far more than a clever investor . `` He is a rising star in the Middle East , '' said a Washington lawyer who knows Waleed . He noted that the image of Middle Eastern business executives has been tarnished in recent years by names such as Adnan Khashoggi and Ghaith Pharaon , and that Waleed is a welcome standout among both royals and the Saudi commercial elite . `` His name is magic here because of his business acumen , '' said Vernon A . Cassin Jr. , a corporate attorney with Jones , Day , Reavis & Pogue in Riyadh who has had dealings with the prince . `` But he is also making investments that are strategic , not just opportunistic. . . . He 's a great advertisement for what a responsible young royal family member should be doing building bridges with business leaders in other countries . '' The prince is Western in much of his education and thinking . After graduating with honors from Menlo Park College in California in a little over two years , he received a master 's degree from Syracuse University . He speaks Arabic , English and French fluently and , like some other westernized Saudis , he has only one wife , though his Muslim religion allows him four . He indulges in the occasional flamboyant gesture . At a birthday party several years ago for his son , Khalid , for example , the entertainment was provided by the American rapper , Hammer , in the ballroom of the Georges V Hotel in Paris . Yet for a prince , he lives relatively unostentatiously , according to lawyers , preferring to spend his weekends in the desert when he is home in Saudi Arabia . Unlike some international investors who rely solely on a team of advisers and bankers to do their deals , the prince is a hands-on investor who frequently flies to New York to talk with Citicorp management and who is intimately involved in the details of his businesses and investments . His mornings are spent in the chairman 's office of the United Commercial Bank of Saudi Arabia , a once-troubled bank he purchased in 1988 . It is one of the Middle East 's most profitable financial institutions , according to analysts . After his midday prayer break , the prince spends the rest of the day in the office of Kingdom Establishment for Trading and Contracting , his diversified holding company that includes interests in real estate , construction , communications , travel and supermarkets in Saudi Arabia . `` I don't know when he sleeps , '' said Norris . `` He often calls me at two or three in the morning Riyadh time . He frequently stays at his office until the markets close in the U.S.-which is midnight Riyadh time . '' When the details of the Citicorp investment were being worked out , Waleed did not think it would be appropriate for him , as a member of the royal family , to leave his country while it was under attack in the Persian Gulf War , according to Norris . So Waleed spent hours on the telephone with Norris , working on the details . In the Euro Disney deal , he waited and watched for many months before making his investment , according to sources . His cash infusion , which includes a pledge to build a convention center that would draw more tourists and business people during the park 's off-season , may mean a turnaround for the company , analysts said . `` It 's certainly a good investment . But it will take quite a few years to find out if it 's truly a great investment , '' said Alan Snyder of Snyder Capital Management , who follows Disney . But the real question may be whether the Disney perks will top those of Citicorp . Through the bank the prince was able to purchase his yacht , the former Trump Princess , when Donald Trump was having financial difficulties . Rechristened `` Kingdom '' by the prince , the yacht features a helipad , an operating room and a movie studio . Maybe Disney will provide him with a magic carpet . TBILISI , Georgia Georgia , which has just begun to find a measure of peace after more than two years of civil war , is now grappling with one of the most severe economic crises in the former Soviet Union . Much of the country is without hot water , heat or , very often , electricity . The new currency , the Georgian coupon , is devaluating so quickly that a can of Coca-Cola costs nearly 1 million of them . The average wage is about 50 cents a month , with the government forced to provide bread rations . The country 's production slump is so severe that Russia 's more gradual collapse seems like a boom in comparison . Refugees , displaced by the fighting , clog rooms and corridors in Tbilisi hotels . Georgia 's leader , former Soviet foreign minister Eduard Shevardnadze , does not even try to take an optimistic tone . `` Economically , we are one of the worst , '' a glum Shevardnadze said during a recent interview in his office . The sudden collapse of the Soviet Union and its massive , Kremlin-controlled economy 2 years ago left the country 's 15 republics in desperate economic shape . Some , such as Latvia , Lithuania and Estonia , have begun , painfully , to inch toward recovery . Many , including Russia , are fitfully trying to put the building blocks of a new economic order in place , with mixed success . But in Georgia and several other southern republics that have been ravaged by war since the Soviet Union 's collapse , no signs of turnaround have emerged . The situation has so deteriorated that many Georgians find cause for optimism simply in the fact that the disorder has not seriously worsened . `` We have a stable , catastrophic situation , '' said George Nodia , chairman of the Caucasian Institute for Peace , Democracy and Development . Indeed , with the grimmest winter of recent history behind them and the civil and separatist wars over for now , the country seems at least calmer than it has for many months . Paramilitary groups , which terrified the capital city by wandering its tree-lined streets in camouflage gear with automatic weapons slung over their shoulders , have given way to armed policemen . Renovations of the main government building wrecked in the internecine battles is underway . With warmer weather , food has returned to the farmers ' markets and stores , although not with the abundance and variety for which Georgia was once known . But in most other ways , the future of this nation of 5.4 million people , which used to be known as the most lively and successful in the Soviet Union , looks bleak . A recent report by Nodia 's institute noted that Georgia 's gross national product fell in 1993 to its 1960s level . The annual inflation rate , meanwhile , was about 9,000 percent . Real estate values have fallen because so many people have fled the country for Russia , the United States , Turkey or any other place else that will take them . There is virtually no prospect of new foreign investment . Many factories , farms and shops are shuttered because of the energy crisis , and some estimates suggest that fully half of Georgia 's working population is unemployed or on permanent leave earning a mere 50 cents a month . `` For most people it almost doesn't matter if they get their salary or not , since it 's so small , '' said Nodia . Most people eke out a living by finding something to sell or getting support from friends or family members outside Georgia . At the Tbilisi farmers ' market , crowded with refugees selling bits of food and clothing or just begging , an old woman grimaced and waved her hand in disgust when asked whether she thought things would get any better . `` We don't live here , '' she said . `` We just survive . '' Nearby an old woman shoeless , her hands wrapped in bandages and her face drained of color lay motionless on the ground , barely breathing , as people hurried by . The silver-haired Shevardnadze , who returned to his homeland two years ago to `` save '' it from the post-communist chaos , has had his reputation severely tarnished by the collapse . His government , although not Shevardnadze personally , is considered thoroughly corrupt by many Georgians . It has yet to come up with any comprehensive plan for revitalizing the country . Many blame him for losing the war with Russian-backed Abkhazian rebels , who bested Georgian government irregulars in a long , bloody battle and now control their native Black Sea region . Nationalists lambaste him for striking a `` devil 's deal '' with Russia , which will allow Russian troops to remain based in Georgia in exchange for Russia 's help in settling the Abkhazia problem and , possibly , in setting up a new Georgian army . A few also criticize him for agreeing to join the Commonwealth of Independent States , the weak organization of former Soviet republics that many Georgians believe Russia will use to reassert its empire . Georgia had refused to join the commonwealth until this spring . `` This is treachery against Georgia , capitulation , '' said Georgian nationalist leader Nodar Natadze , who asserted that most of Georgia 's current troubles were instigated by Russia specifically to `` force us to kneel . Now we can see what the ambitions of the Russian empire in the Soviet Union are . '' Shevardnadze said that Russia , Georgia 's huge neighbor to the north , remains key to his country 's stability and revival . Economic and political ties , severed by the country 's anti-Russian nationalist leader in 1991 , had to be restored for that reason . `` Those who wish to gain cheap popularity might say I 'm too pro-Russia . But what I am in reality is a realist , '' Shevardnadze said . `` Russia has its interest in the Transcaucasus , but Georgia has its own interests in Russia as well . We willn't be able to overcome the crisis unless we revive and reestablish relations . '' But Shevardnadze did not seem too optimistic about the future . `` Very many people really are starving , '' he said , as he sat in his office in the deserted , darkened government building . `` Maybe in two or three years ' time we 'll see the revival of the economy . The main thing now is that Georgia must be saved , and by whose hand is not that important . '' BEIJING The young man came up beside me in the bike lane on the west side of Tiananmen Square Friday and silently glided until he matched my slow cadence of pedaling . `` Today is a kind of special day , isn't it , '' he murmured , steadfastly gazing straight ahead . `` Of course , '' I said noncommittally , not knowing if he was partners with the public security agent who had been cycling about 75 yards behind me almost since I left my apartment about a half hour earlier . Friday , of course , was the onset of the fifth anniversary of the two-day period in which the Chinese army killed hundreds of unarmed protesters near this square in the center of Beijing . Nothing much of note went on here Friday , except an impressive display of the Chinese Communist Party 's fear of it own people . As a result of the Tiananmen anniversary , the government security apparatus has been locking down China 's capital for weeks now . And by Friday , all the screws seemed to be firmly in place . Nevertheless , it was a bright , sunny day , a good day for a bike ride to a place and a symbol that has been never far from the heart of the story that I 've been covering for most of the last five years . `` You 'd better be careful , '' I told my new cycling companion , motioning behind me with my thumb . `` Public security . '' `` Just ride , '' he said , never looking my way . And so we pedaled on in parallel , I and this man in his late 20s whose true purpose I could not guess and likely would never entirely fathom an apt metaphor for much of what the foreign new media encounter here . We rolled past the public-security and armed-police vans and buses parked every 40 to 50 feet on the sidewalk between the Great Hall of the People and the massive square . Past the clumps of plainclothes agents , many of whom apparently were issued the same straw sun hats . And past the Monument to the People 's Heroes , the obelisk erected in memory of those who died for the Communist revolution and the site where five years ago Thursday the last Tiananmen protesters courageously hung on . `` Many people have forgotten , '' my fellow cyclist said as we hit the south end of the square and sliced through the edge of Qianmen , a busy shopping district enlivened by the consumption boom that has swallowed Beijing and other Chinese cities in recent years . My tail the agent riding behind us was still there . But Qianmen 's commotion seemed to temporarily mute his presence . `` The government would like to pretend it never happened , '' the young man said . `` But it willn't let us . '' We slowly turned north to cycle along the east side of the square . In the weeks after the crackdown on the Tiananmen protests in 1989 and again on its first anniversary in 1990 , foreign reporters coming around here could easily end up with assault rifles pointed at the tips of their noses . It wasn't fun . Two years ago , a colleague working for a U.S. TV network was so badly beaten up on the square that he still is disabled by the neurological damage . Authorities have never recognized the incident . No guns were openly evident Friday . In recent years , Chinese security `` apparatchiks '' seemed to have gained a degree of experience in handling these matters in less heavy-handed ways . But their para-military presence was as unsubtle as ever . Within a baseball 's throw of the People 's Heroes monument , more than half the would-be tourists lingering around appeared to be agents . Many were readily identifiable from their not-so-concealed beepers , portable phones , briefcase cameras or binoculars . ( Begin optional trim ) The overkill was consistent with the last couple of weeks here in which the government faced with relatively little challenge from the few dissidents still in the open has acted as though it was under siege . This has been so much the case that it 's prompted some foreign reporters and diplomats to muse that the government must know something that the entire China-watching corps is missing . Or it could just be a kind of dress rehearsal for how the regime will handle the death of Deng Xiaoping , China 's elderly and ailing paramount leader . Aside from aggressively harassing dissidents , following foreign reporters and tapping phone lines all of which have become standard practices this time each year security agents have been noticeably more quick this spring to react to any ripple that might infringe on their sense of control . Gatherings primarily of foreigners parties , charity bazaars , film viewings have been canceled by authorities . The usual excuse has been an electrical power failure , a problem that typically arises at the last minute and lasts only as long as the scheduled event . Beijing hotels Thursday were ordered by police to turn off their satellite TV broadcasts of the U.S.-based Cable News Network . In the city 's foreign-apartment compounds , CNN was still was available , but the broadcasts were blacked out whenever a news item about China came on . ( End optional trim ) `` What do they have to fear ? '' the young cyclist asked as we reached the north end of the square and turned into the much larger swarms of riders flowing down the Avenue of Everlasting Peace , the broad boulevard that bisects Beijing from east to west . `` They have all the power , '' he said in answer to his own question . I thought a moment , was about to say something and found he wasn't at my side any longer or anywhere within the mass of bikes now around me . In this crowded Beijing street , I suddenly was alone again except for the thug on the bike still behind me . PORT-AU-PRINCE , Haiti The generals still give the orders and their gunmen still rule the streets . But as diplomats and Haitians look to scenarios for the future , the vision isn't pretty especially , they say , if the United States succeeds in restoring President Jean-Bertrand Aristide to power . Almost every Haitian expert and most foreign sources interviewed over a week 's time agreed that , as one leading businessman put it , `` there is no other option to the ( U.S. ) military option '' to put Aristide back in office more than 32 months after he was driven into exile by the Haitian army . This conviction has been strengthened by Aristide 's statements last week giving qualified approval to a limited U.S. military strike to remove Haiti 's ruling army officers . With the prospect that the deposed leader might somehow be back , sources all of whom opposed the September , 1991 , coup and have worked to end military rule are showing signs of great caution , if not outright fear , of an Aristide government . This concern is based on what they say have been shortsighted U.S. policies and the uncompromising opposition by the ousted president to broadening his government to include differing political and economic views from his populist and partisan approach . `` It 's the same old thing , '' said a Haitian diplomatic expert who said he voted for Aristide and wants him restored `` as a matter of democratic principle . '' `` Aristide and his advisers in Washington ( where the ousted president lives ) think they can rule alone , that anyone who opposes a policy is an enemy , '' he said . His view , shared by many of those interviewed , is rooted in what is seen as duplicitous Aristide actions over the last year , particularly in insisting that he has accepted the need for a broader government . He did this , a political analyst said , `` only under American pressure and to keep American support . Now that it seems certain that he will come back , he 's the same old Aristide . '' The expert 's main example is Aristide 's failure to nominate a new prime minister to replace Robert Malval , the moderate who resigned over Aristide 's refusal to accept a broadened government . `` If Aristide had learned anything or was sincere in seeking reconciliation , he would certainly have named a prime minister acceptable to more people , '' he said . `` I know his advisers are telling him there 's no need now , that he will come back and do whatever he wants . '' ( Begin optional trim ) This source , contacted after word of Aristide 's acceptance of possible U.S. military action here , said even the limited endorsement was a sign of Aristide 's ambiguous attitude . `` You note he called for a surgical strike , for the American forces to come in and get out and only to remove the military , '' the analyst said . Aristide `` said nothing about the structural changes we need and can only be accomplished if there is stability imposed from the outside . '' `` You know what is going to happen ? '' he asked . `` Right after he gets back and Cedras , Biamby and Francois are forced out , Aristide is going to condemn ` American intervention ' and demand the U.S. forces leave . '' The source was referring to Lt. Gen. Raoul Cedras , the military coup leader ; army chief of staff Gen. Philippe Biamby ; and Police Commander Michel-Joseph Francois . The three are seen as architects of the coup and the brutal policies that have followed . ( End optional trim ) Other concerns , which appear to reflect class and economic distinctions as well as differing political views , are based on a belief that in the seven months of Aristide 's government , he was violently anti-business and instigated the nation 's poor the overwhelming majority here against Haiti 's middle and upper classes . `` There was less human rights abuse ( under Aristide ) than at any time in Haitian history , '' said a onetime Aristide associate . `` Economic measures were improving . The problem was his lack of a political vision , his lack of understanding of the political process and his inability to realize he was a politician and needed more than a vision from God to govern . '' Now , the source said , `` Aristide believes that his only problem the ( Haitian ) military will be removed . He doesn't understand that Haiti 's problems are far deeper than a corrupt and abusive army . '' Others said that misunderstanding goes beyond Aristide to include the Clinton administration , which , one source said , `` is now driven entirely by domestic political concerns and seems based on the idea that if the military is driven out , the United States can forget Haiti . '' Of possible U.S. military action , a political expert , once favored to be a senior Aristide Cabinet official , observed : `` It is all well and good . But the Americans are totally crazy if they don't look at the day after '' the U.S. troops arrive . Under the best of circumstances , Aristide 's return will present huge challenges not only to him but to long-range U.S. interests here the creation of a stable economic and political climate to finally remove the threat of massive Haitian migration to the United States . While Aristide is still judged to hold the support of most of the 70 percent who made him Haiti 's first democratically elected president , his enemies will remain powerful and determined to protect their economic and social advantages . He has no political party and what little support he had in the Parliament is dissipated , one diplomat said , pointing out that `` Aristide is a lame duck with little more than a year and a half before he 's out of office . '' `` So figure it out , '' the source said . Aristide is `` returning on the backs of American troops ; that weakens him among nationalists . He has virtually lost the trust of the middle and progressive upper classes and the business sector , even the ones who opposed the coup . You know the Americans dislike him and just want to get rid of him and Haiti . And there is the brutal opposition he will face from all aspects of the politicians here . It will be a mess . '' ( Optional add end ) But that is not necessarily true , a former Aristide associate said , noting : `` Look , first of all , Aristide will have to use some of the very people you have interviewed , if for no other reason that he needs technically aware people to run the central bank , to administer aid to just run the government . And the lame duck argument can be turned around . He 's only in office for 18 more months or so . He willn't have time to do any real harm , and all those politicians who will be staking out the future for themselves certainly willn't let him . '' Another source , though , who seemed to voice the prevailing mood , said that `` if nothing is done beyond disbanding the military and there are no serious efforts to dismantle the old institutions , then Haiti will remain the same . In 10 years we 'll still be the mess we are . '' JERUSALEM For six weeks , Israeli women have not been able , except in a few emergencies , to get the official approval required for abortions . Cases of suspected child abuse have gone largely uninvestigated . Judges have been unable to decide child custody in divorces . And the elderly have not been able to get home health care . Israel 's extensive social safety net , in short , has all but disappeared with a strike by the country 's 9,500 social workers and the government 's refusal to pay the cost of restoring their services a virtual doubling of their poverty-line salaries . `` Our job is to help people at the most difficult times of their lives , and we are not there , '' said Nehama Feder , deputy director of social services at a Jerusalem hospital . `` For society , the line of defense that protects abused children and battered wives , that rehabilitates drug addicts , that comforts the victims of terrorism is gone . '' ( Begin optional trim ) For those directly affected , the strike in its 45th day as negotiators on both sides press for a settlement this weekend has added greatly to their private traumas : A woman , 43 , discovered in her 20th week of pregnancy that she was carrying a baby with Down 's syndrome and applied for an abortion . But no social worker was available for the panel that , under Israeli law , had to approve the operation and had to have a social worker as a member . A 12-year-old girl telephoned her caseworker to complain that her father was sexually abusing her again , but all the social worker could do was call the girl 's school counselor . Normally , the social worker would interview the girl , bring in the police and obtain court orders to protect her . An elderly widower , recovering from a heart attack , has been kept in a Tel Aviv hospital for an additional month , not permitted by physicians to return home until he can have regular care there . The social workers who must authorize home care , and would do so routinely , are on strike . Taken cumulatively , the social workers ' caseload could prove tragic if left unattended much longer . ( End optional trim ) Social workers regularly check on the well-being of about 1,600 children who have suffered abuse in their homes or who have been abandoned by their families . By law , only social workers can interview children in cases of domestic violence and sexual abuse . Social workers must make recommendations on all adoptions and child custody cases . Ora Namir , minister of labor and social affairs and a social worker by profession , ordered 70 strikers back to work to deal with urgent cases , and the Cabinet has authorized her to bring 710 more back under emergency regulations . `` I can't wait any longer and take responsibility for the damage being done to the needy , '' Namir said . The strikers ' grievance is low pay . A starting social worker is paid $ 623 a month after a welfare supplement of more than $ 200 to bring the salary above Israel 's minimum wage of $ 500 a month . After 17 years , a social worker gets $ 900 a month . Israeli professionals with similar training in psychology or sociology earn about $ 335 more a month at most levels than do social workers . ( Optional add end ) Social workers fell behind in wages because of poor union leadership and the fact that 87 percent of social workers are women , whose salaries are regarded as supplemental family income . The social workers , who have been without a contract for 17 months , initially demanded an across-the-board pay increase of $ 965 , more than doubling most salaries . The current demand is for an additional $ 635 a month , effective immediately . The government is offering a raise of $ 535 , but spread over nearly four years . `` The law has given us tremendous responsibility for individuals and for society , '' said Esther Sapira , chief of a social work team in Jerusalem . `` To do that , we must be paid decently . '' BUJUMBURA , Burundi All but forgotten by the world , this nation hangs in nerve-racking suspension , balanced between forces that dare pray for conciliation and those who would turn this troubled land into another Rwanda . The slightest misstep could tip the balance . And after a year in which Burundi witnessed its first free elections , the murder of two of its presidents and a massacre that claimed as many as 100,000 lives , the specter of uncontrolled slaughter in a neighboring land is very real , very chilling . `` Rwanda is terrifying and terrible , '' said Venerand Bakevyumusaya , Burundi 's minister of labor . `` One would think it would have taught us to avoid that kind of madness , but there is a very real danger that what happened there could happen here . The calm you see here now is not a reassuring calm . '' In colonial times , the two countries were governed first by Germany , then Belgium , as part of a single territory known as Rwanda-Urundi . As in Rwanda , the Tutsis here are a minority , making up 15 percent of Burundi 's 6 million people . But unlike in Rwanda , the Tutsis still control the army , and that , people here say , is what has spared them from genocide . The deep mistrust between the Tutsis and Hutus in Burundi , combined with fears that chaos in Rwanda could inflame extremists on both sides here , has filled this ramshackle capital with anxiety and a well-founded xenophobia . The countdown is under way , but no one knows if it is toward war or peace . Sadly , only last June , Burundi was being hailed as a model of democratic reform in Africa . Its president , Col. Pierre Buyoya , a Tutsi , was soundly defeated by the civilian Hutu candidate , Melchior Ndadaye , in the country 's first free elections . And , much to everyone 's surprise , Buyoya agreed to honor the results . Ndadaye pledged a new era in human rights . Four months later , in October , Ndadaye was spirited away one night to an army camp where he was beaten , stabbed and strangled . The vice president and several other senior government officials also were killed . In a response that drew little attention in the world , Hutu mobs throughout the countryside hunted down and killed as many as 100,000 Tutsis . The Hutus called the massacre a preemptive strike . Five days after the assassination , Foreign Minister Sylvestre Ntibantunganya , a Hutu and the de facto head of government , summoned Bujumbura 's tiny diplomatic corps , which includes North Korea and Russia as a holdover from Cold War days . The diplomats pleaded with Ntibantunganya whose wife had been killed in the blood-letting and who himself had barely managed to escape with his life to denounce the killings and to act to end the bloodshed . `` Ntibantunganya was unmoved , '' said an envoy at the meeting . He told the diplomats that they were asking for something he could not do . The assassination apparently convinced Hutu extremists that even though they had won political power via elections including 80 percent of the seats in Parliament and 60 percent of the Cabinet posts real power would not be theirs until they controlled the guns . In clandestine fashion , they began arming civilians with South African weapons slipped into the country from Rwanda via Zaire . The shipments gave rise to a rebel army , created , ironically enough , by a government wanting to protect itself from its own institutions . Hundreds of Tutsis took to the streets in Bujumbura on April 6 to dance and march in celebration when the Hutu presidents of Burundi and Rwanda Cyprian Ntaryamira and Juvenal Habyarimana , respectively were killed in Kigali . The crash of their plane , which had been hit by a rocket , unleashed an orgy of massacres in Rwanda . To date , aid workers estimate the blood-letting has claimed 200,000 to 500,000 lives . ( Optional add end ) In Bujumbura , Ntibantunganya , apparently having learned some lessons from the October massacres , went on national television within hours of the crash . Flanked by the minister of defense and army chief of staff , he urged his countrymen to stay calm . Their presence signaled that the army and the government had reached some sort of understanding . Ntibantunganya also gave his approval for the army to disarm the recently equipped civilian militia . But a cordon operation in Kamenge and other Hutu neighborhoods turned up relatively few weapons . Western diplomats said most of the leaders of the makeshift rebel army appeared to have slipped away into the mountains or into Zaire . TBILISI , Georgia Eduard A . Shevardnadze , who helped keep the world from exploding as he negotiated the end of the Cold War , somehow has been unable to do the same in his own small , forgotten homeland . Shevardnadze , the last Soviet foreign minister , the diplomat who was the toast of the world as he oversaw the dismantling of the Berlin Wall and the growth of the Soviet Union 's friendship with the United States , now spends his days surrounded by bodyguards , increasingly disregarded and even reviled as Georgia destroys itself . Shevardnadze returned to his newly independent nation in March 1992 to rescue it from civil war . He was quickly elected chairman of the Parliament by a grateful citizenry who saw him as a savior . Now , instead of leading a hero 's life , he is suffering the bitter harvest of the new world order he helped create . `` The demise of the empire was unmanageable , '' he said in a late-evening interview . `` I favored the idea of a transition period , but somehow the coup in August 1991 hastened this process and it all happened in an unmanageable way . `` Then the Georgian government took a wrong turn , which led the country to isolation and confrontation . Now we are bearing the fruit of that confrontation . '' Georgia began to fall apart when the terrifying power that had silenced ethnic desires and rivalries for so many years lost its grip . Its first leader after independence , Zviad Gamsakhurdia , was ousted in a coup in January 1992 after behaving erratically . He fled the country , but he returned to launch an offensive against the government last fall . At the same time , separatists from the Abkhazia region along the Black Sea took up arms in earnest . Shevardnadze flew to the regional capital of Sukhumi to rally his troops and vowed to defend the city to the end . But his troops were routed , and he barely escaped with his life . About 250,000 Georgians were driven out of their homes by the minority Abkhaz ethnic group , and many now are living a bleak existence in Tbilisi hotels . Another ethnic battle is being waged in South Ossetia . Between the two regions , Georgia has lost control over about one-fifth of its territory . `` Georgia is in the worst trouble economically of all the former republics , '' Shevardnadze said , speaking quietly , almost sadly in his large , spartan office after having spent the day arguing with his fractious Parliament . War and political uncertainty have very nearly destroyed the economy . The average wage in the country is 50 cents a month , down from $ 1 a month last fall . Georgia issued its own currency , called the coupon , a year ago because it couldn't get enough rubles from Russia . The coupon , which was introduced at parity to the ruble , now sells for a million to the dollar , while the ruble trades for about 1,800 to the dollar . ( Begin optional trim ) The demise of the currency has nearly destroyed the older generation . The pension of Tsiala Mchedlishvili , 64 , is now worth 9 cents a month . `` I worked all my life in construction , '' she said as she walked along Leselidze street . `` I had to haul cement and drag blocks . `` Now , '' she said , throwing her arms out , `` nothing . '' `` My whole month 's pension will only buy half a cup of yogurt , '' she said . Like other Georgians , Mchedlishvili spent the winter with intermittent electricity and without heat or hot water . Georgia can no longer afford to buy much fuel from Russia , another consequence of the breakup of the Soviet Union and one that prevents most factories from operating . While people suffer , the politicians hurl accusations at each other . Shevardnadze 's nationalist critics accuse him of humiliating Georgia by crawling to Russia for help . Many Georgians loathe Russia , certain that it intends to rebuild its empire . Russians are accused of fighting on the Abkhazian side an assertion diplomats here support to weaken Georgia so it would seek Russian protection and to sabotage Shevardnadze , who , paradoxically , is blamed by Russians , especially in the military , for destroying the Soviet Union . In fact , as soon as Shevardnadze agreed to join the Commonwealth of Independent States and promised military bases to Russia , Russia intervened and put a stop to the fighting in Abkhazia . A cease-fire was signed in Moscow May 14 , but clashes still have been reported . ( End optional trim ) Georgia is deeply important to Russia , said George Tarkhan-Mouravi , a member of the board of the institute , even though it shouldn't be . `` Rationally , Georgia would only weaken the ruble zone , '' he said . `` Mostly , Russians feel a sense of loss , that they lost something that belonged to them . '' Nodar Natadze , a member of Parliament and head of the nationalist Popular Front party , said Russia wants nothing less than the restoration of its empire . `` Oh yes , oh yes , oh yes , '' said Natadze , `` they want the empire . The average Russian has no hope of prospering personally . He knows he 'll never win in a peaceful competition with Germany or America . The only satisfaction he can feel as a man is to know Russia as a superpower and to know his country as all powerful . `` And if he can only achieve that by sacrificing democracy and his personal welfare , he will do it . The only way to lure the average Russian to democracy is to make him lose any hope of restoring the empire . '' Vladimir V. Zemsky , Russia 's ambassador to Georgia , denied that Russia has any wish to rebuild the empire . `` We want a strong , healthy Georgia , '' he said . `` Russia wants peace on its southern border . '' Natadze , 65 , a courtly linguistics professor , praised Shevardnadze for bringing Georgia out of international isolation . But he said he is too steeped in the past to save Georgia . Shevardnadze counters that some criticize him for being too pro-Russian and others for not being pro-Russian enough . `` I 'm a realist , '' he said . `` At this stage , only Russia can help . We have nothing . We don't even have guns for our police . There is no other way . '' ( Optional add end ) Georgia , a small nation of 5 million people , must find peace and stability to attract investment . So far , there are only two signs of Western investment here : Coca Cola , which has lots of flashy advertisements but a market of paupers , and a lovely , four-star Austrian-built hotel a $ 175-a-day island of luxury . Back in the late 1970s it was Shevardnadze who persuaded his friend Mikhail S. Gorbachev that the Soviet system was rotten and needed rebuilding . The glory days of perestroika ensued . Now most of the world has forgotten those euphoric days of watching as an empire slowly freed itself of a repressive past . No one 's thanking Shevardnadze any more , though Maria Barlett , a former music teacher in St. Mary 's County , Maryland , who answers his English correspondence , says former U.S. Secretary of State James A . Baker III still writes . But in Georgia , Shevardnadze looks a tragic figure indeed . He seems very alone in his large office , tired and dispirited , though pink-cheeked and charming as ever . He answers slowly and thoughtfully questions that he has been asked many times before , as if for the first and most important time . `` Personally , I 'd be happier if I could be in Gorbachev 's situation , '' he said . `` But my personal happiness would be incompatible with my country 's . I must be here if my country needs me . '' And , while no one is thanking him here , no one can come up with a better alternative , either . `` Georgia must be saved , '' said Shevardnadze . `` By whose hand it 's saved is not important . '' MEXICO CITY Bracing for a long throw , the young man in the print shirt drew his arm back and let fly an egg . The crowd behind him cheered as yolk splattered across the district offices of the Institutional Revolutionary Party that has ruled Mexico for 65 years . No party faithful rushed out to stop the vandalism ; the egg-thrower and his cheering section are party faithful . They were sullying their own headquarters to protest the selection of labor boss Carlos Aceves as candidate for federal deputy in their district . They supported a different local leader . Across Mexico , grass-roots activists have blocked streets and roads , occupied party offices and resigned from the PRI , as the governing party is known , in protest over the congressional candidate roster for the Aug. 21 federal elections . Officially , party leaders pass off the protests as signs of healthy competition . But privately , some PRI members worry that disappointed rank-and-file activists may stay away from the polls in protest or even vote for the opposition . `` Face it , '' one longtime party member said . `` They picked some really bad candidates this time . '' In too many districts , he said , candidates have influence inside the PRI because of their ties to labor unions , farm groups and party leaders but little popular recognition , much less support . Getting them elected will be tough . Beyond the quality of the candidates , the protests reflect conflicts over the selection process and the PRI 's identity as a party . Traditionally , the PRI is made up of three groups : labor unions , peasant farmers and a nebulous `` popular sector . '' The party also has a parallel regional structure of municipal- and state-level activists . Candidate selection is a power struggle among those groups . The popular sector and regional groups press for a more openly democratic selection process that favors local leaders who will represent each district 's interests . Unions and farmers press for their quotas of congressional seats to look after their interests . Those seats are usually assigned by the party leadership , often ignoring the wishes of grass-roots activists . This month , dozens of those activists refused to be ignored . Breaking party discipline , those `` natural leaders , '' as they called themselves , registered their candidacies at party headquarters , even though they had not received the nod from higher-ups . That forced a vote at their local conventions instead of the usual selection by unanimous acclaim . ( End optional trim ) Getting union and farm candidates approved by local convention delegates in the face of competition required fancy footwork in some cases . A lexicon of dirty tricks that has grown up around election fraud came into play . There is `` the crazy mouse , '' changing the location of a convention at the last minute without advising delegates ; `` madruguete , '' changing the time ; and `` acarreo , '' bringing in outsiders to vote as delegates . Mexican newspapers published accusations of and in some cases documented the use of each of those tricks during local party conventions this month . Some grass-roots activists tried pre-emptive strikes , such as taking over party offices . After the egg-throwing did not convince party leaders that they were serious , members of the Independent Popular Organization invaded district headquarters to prevent the local convention . ( End optional trim ) As pressure grew , some labor candidates such as Juana Maria Gonzalez in the mining state of San Luis Potosi who resigned for health reasons stepped down in favor of local candidates . Party leaders tried to calm protests by offering disappointed candidates congressional seats as party representatives offices that are distributed after the election based on the percentage of votes each party receives . But for many , consolation prizes were not enough . Emilio Serrano , president of the Neighbors Committee of Iztacalco , a working-class borough of Mexico City , resigned from the PRI after losing the party nomination for city assemblyman . `` Other parties have offered me a candidacy , particularly the PRD , '' he explained , referring to the Democratic Revolutionary Party , whose leadership includes former PRI activists . However , Serrano may be disappointed with that party as well . `` None of us can be completely happy with the way our candidates were chosen , '' PRD Chairman Porfirio Munoz Ledo acknowledged at a swearing-in ceremony for those candidates . He proposed `` re-founding '' the party to better ensure respect for democratic ideals . CHICAGO On the sun-swept streets of Kostkaville , on sandlot ball fields and in the pews of cavernous limestone churches , there is no confusing the plight of the neighborhood congressman with the fate of the nation . Named after a Polish saint , this grid of row houses is the heart of Rep. Dan Rostenkowski 's home base , a place where the embattled House Ways and Means chairman matters more for the little things he does than for his legendary Washington clout . It is the little things toasters and appliances for the sisters of St. Stanislaus Kostka , park fees for fast-pitch softball teams , a lucrative fund-raiser for the Polish Museum of America that many of Rostenkowski 's constituents fear they will miss most if he is convicted in the 17 federal criminal charges leveled against him Tuesday . `` This is a guy who 's always giving back to the community , '' said Kelly Torres , a city supervisor at Pulaski Park , a square-block field across the street from Rostenkowski 's home . `` He helps people around here in a thousand different ways . Nobody wants to see him go . '' His prominence atop the committee overseeing the nation 's tax laws has helped Rostenkowski become Congress ' leading earner of honorariums , fees that legislators earn for making personal appearances before lobbyists and special interest groups . Last year , Rostenkowski made $ 80,500 in honorariums . Under federal law , the fees must go to charity , providing Rostenkowski with ample amounts to donate to pet causes ranging from orphanages to hot dog lunches for neighborhood children . Those who rely on the chairman 's speaking engagements and on excess funds from his campaign coffers are , predictably , among his most ardent loyalists . They talk protectively of his generous nature a side of Rostenkowski they insist the outside world rarely sees . And they worry that any successor might sorely lack his human touch . `` People realize that if we lose him , we lose something special , '' said the Rev. Joseph Glab , a priest at St. Stanislaus Kostka , Rostenkowski 's home church . `` He has a real connection with people in this neighborhood . A city is only as important as its neighborhoods and he 's part of ours . '' ( Begin optional trim ) It was Rostenkowski who quietly wrote a check to the church 's nuns after he learned in a conversation with Glab that the appliances in their convent had fallen into disrepair . And it was Rostenkowski who made the largest donation six years ago to a $ 140,000 renovation campaign to repair the church 's bell tower , electric system and scarred interior . Rostenkowski has chipped in for trophies and park fees for neighborhood Little League teams and bought uniforms for the Deadmen , an amateur football club . A contribution from his campaign funds paid for a Polish Constitution Day performance by the Li ' l Richard Polka Band which replied in kind by playing `` The Danny Rostenkowski Polka . '' There are times when goodness has little to do with altruism and much to do with the unspoken quid pro quos of politics . Joanna Janowski , the curator of the Polish Museum of America , is grateful for Rostenkowski 's occasional contributions . But she appreciates even more the donations that have come in his honor . When Rostenkowski was awarded the Polish Spirit Award at the museum 's annual Summer Ball in June 1992 , his presence brought the museum $ 85,000 in donations more than four times what it normally brings in for the event , Janowski said . Among the contributors were lobbying and commercial giants like the Philip Morris Co. ( $ 5,000 ) , the Sara Lee Corp. ( $ 5,000 ) and the National Food Processors Association ( $ 2,000 ) . ( End optional trim ) But others in his district concede that Rostenkowski calls in on old favors from those he has helped with his charity . In the furious final days of last March 's Democratic primary , Rostenkowski 's aides boasted that his extensive network of prominent friends helped dispel the stigma of corruption that hampered his re-election bid against two Democratic Party challengers . Rostenkowski was praised in letters written on behalf of his campaign by Rev. James Close , director of the the Mercy Home for Boys and Girls , a well-known local orphanage , and by Rev. John Smyth , head of the Maryville City of Youth , a Catholic academy . After President Clinton determined last month to extend normal trading arrangements with China , the Beijing regime responded that `` the current situation offers a historic opportunity for the enhancement '' of bilateral relations . With North Korea pushing ahead with its nuclear weapons program , that `` historic opportunity '' is already at hand . China holds the key to effective international sanctions against Pyongyang . If it turns that key , it would not be due to U.S. pressure ; it would reflect China 's assessment of its own national interests . Having de-linked trade and human rights issues , the United States should not try to link China 's nuclear non-proliferation policies with any other significant feature in the relationship . If we are to have mature ties with Beijing , they must be based on respect , not threat . This will be the best way to deal with the Hong Kong and Taiwan questions as well as the immediate crisis posed by North Korea . The pressure is on Beijing as the Security Council nears consideration of international sanctions against Pyongyang . Will China vote yes , abstain ( most likely ) or cast a veto ? As the major supplier of food , oil and coal to North Korea , it is loath to weaken a fellow Communist regime right on its border . Yet it also has reason to fear the instability that would be created by a nuclear North Korea threatening war against South Korea and stimulating Japan to develop its own nuclear capability . Obviously these considerations must loom large in Chinese calculations . Beijing should seize the moment to demonstrate that it is ready to play a vigorous role in stopping the spread of nuclear weapons . North Korea has rebuffed International Atomic Energy Agency inspection of its Yongbyon nuclear reactor . As a result , the IAEA has lost any chance of determining if fuel has been diverted for bomb-making purposes . This being the case , a tough new question arises : How should North Korea be punished for its past violations without jeopardizing any chance for bringing future North Korean nuclear operations under control ? Unlike Somalia or Bosnia or Haiti , North Korea would challenge vital U.S. security interests if it succeeds in setting a precedent that nations can violate the Non-Proliferation Treaty with impunity . Therefore , global economic sanctions are needed . There are , however , ways to steer this situation to a solution short of a second Korean war . The sanctions could be gradual and tailored to China 's wishes . Russia 's proposal for an international conference could give North Korea the chance for a climb-down without loss of face . Japan could move to curb more than $ 1 billion a year in remittances from expatriate North Koreans to their homeland . And the United States could explicitly raise the prospect of full diplomatic relations with North Korea if it stops defying international rules of conduct and becomes a law-abiding nation . China , however , is the decisive factor . Clearly , the situation cries out for Sino-American cooperation at a level never achieved before . WASHINGTON Helen Briggs Ramsey spent two years in Europe during World War II helping injured soldiers of the Army 's 101st Airborne Division as one of the Red Cross 's `` Donut Dollies . '' By all accounts a gutsy woman , she once tried in vain to persuade the paratroopers to take her on a jump . For the rest of her life , `` Briggsy '' had a special place in her heart for the airborne soldiers who landed in Normandy on June 6 , 1944 . She attended many of their reunions and even considered going to France with the veterans for the 50th anniversary celebrations taking place during the next few days . A friend who visited her in her Capitol Hill home on Memorial Day found her videotaping shows about the D-Day invasion . Early Tuesday , a burglar broke into her house while she was outside summoning her cat , Canteen . He bound and gagged her , beat her up and stole some small objects , police said . Ramsey , 78 , died of her injuries Thursday . Across the area last week , Ramsey 's friends remembered her dedication to the military and the hundreds of photographs , plaques and other memorabilia she kept in her home . They remembered how her eyes lit up when she talked about `` my guys '' and the enthusiasm with which she was anticipating the D-Day anniversary on Monday . Steve Baka , president of the District of Columbia chapter of the 101st Airborne Division Association , a veterans group , met Ramsey at the commemoration of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial a decade ago . He said many of her friends are in France for the anniversary and aren't aware that she had been slain . `` Everyone is going to be devastated , '' he said . On Sunday , he said , she was with a group of veterans who laid wreaths at the Wall and at the 101st Memorial at Arlington National Cemetery in honor of members of the division who died in battle . `` She was something else , '' said D.C. police Capt. Glenn Hoppert , a longtime friend of Ramsey . `` She probably knows more generals than any woman I know . She was well liked among the members of the 101st . '' D.C. police have made no arrests in the slaying of Ramsey , who had lived alone in a two-story row house on Capitol Hill since she was widowed 20 years ago . Military officials , many of whom got to know Ramsey during her volunteer work organizing reunions for the 101st , were shaken by the news of her death . Gen. J.H. Binford Peay III , Army vice chief of staff and commander of the 101st Airborne Division during Operation Desert Storm , said through a spokesman that he was not aware of Ramsey 's death until a reporter called his office . He had spoken with her recently and knew her well . `` Not only will I and other members of the 101st Airborne Division Association miss Briggsy , but also the members of the United States Army , '' he said . `` She selflessly contributed her time and talent to the men and women in the Army from World War II to the present , and for that we are grateful . '' Ramsey worked for the Red Cross as a civilian for two years during World War II , and at one point operated a hotel for transient Red Cross volunteers in Europe . She also ran a night club for the soldiers . Though Ramsey never got to make her parachute jump during World War II , she fulfilled that dream last year when she parachuted in tandem with a member of the Golden Eagles jump team near Fort Bragg , N.C. . LOS ANGELES The University of California , Los Angeles , has paid out more than $ 1 million in confidential settlements over four years to women who were raped , sexually harassed or faced gender discrimination at the school , according to documents released by the school . In one case , the school paid $ 300,000 to a female student who was raped by two men at Reiber Hall , a student dormitory , and in another it paid $ 330,000 to an employee who was allegedly raped , molested and subjected to sexual abuse by a supervisor described by the employee 's attorney as a figure of `` power and prestige within the university . '' More than 1,600 pages of documents from four secret settlements were released last week under a recent court order obtained by the Daily Bruin , the UCLA student newspaper . The Bruin filed its lawsuit after Chancellor Charles E . Young mentioned the settlements in a 1992 news conference but refused to provide further details . Joe Mandel , UCLA 's vice chancellor for legal affairs , said Friday that university officials consider any case of sexual misconduct or discrimination regrettable , but he said the number and amounts of the confidential settlements were modest for a campus with 20,000 employees , 33,000 students and an annual budget of $ 1.5 billion . Mandel said the confidential settlements were intended to do the right thing for the victims while saving taxpayers money by avoiding the potential expense of litigation . The attorney for one of the victims , however , said UCLA 's response to her client 's sexual harassment allegations were pitiful and excruciatingly slow . Lisa Bloom , the attorney , also said it was the university , not her client , who insisted the final 1993 settlement be confidential . The documents show that UCLA agreed to pay more than $ 163,000 to Bloom 's client , a former manager in the school 's Department of Business Enterprises who supervised a crew of 40 to 60 student employees . The woman complained that on her first day of work in 1988 , her boss came into the room and unzipped his pants to tuck his shirt in . She also complained that he made profane and sexual remarks , discussed his vasectomy and its subsequent reversal , and once declared that he was going home to have `` industrial sex '' with his wife to conceive a child . An internal university fact-finding report , dated July 1992 , upheld the woman 's complaints and confirmed that her supervisor 's behavior contributed to a department `` filled with sexual language , gestures , racial jokes , stories of rape and even an alleged suicide attempt . '' Mandel said the supervisor was fired . In another case , UCLA agreed in May 1990 to pay $ 330,000 to a woman who accused a married faculty member of coercing her into having sexual contact as a condition of her employment . She said the faculty member raped her twice one evening in his home , then continued to harass her on campus , making sexual remarks and locking her in his office to watch him masturbate . The woman eventually suffered an emotional breakdown . Although the faculty member maintained that the sexual relationship was consensual , the university concluded that the woman was a victim of sexual harassment . Mandel said Friday that the faculty member was suspended without pay in the wake of the allegations but gave no other details . In a third case , UCLA paid $ 300,000 in 1990 to a female student who was raped by two intruders in January 1987 in Reiber Hall . Her attorney , Daniel C. Cathcart , said Friday that the university agreed to the settlement after a civil court jury deadlocked over charges that UCLA was negligent because it failed to provide security in the dorm . In the fourth case , UCLA paid $ 255,000 in 1992 to a woman who said she was discriminated against on the job because of medical leave she took in the early 1980s due to complications from a pregnancy . The woman said she was harassed because she wanted to work a four-day schedule . MOSCOW The world 's leading industrial nations agreed Saturday to reschedule much of Russia 's debt for 1994 , giving the country 's troubled economy some badly needed breathing space . The agreement , reached after two days of negotiations in Paris , reflected the West 's desire to support Russian President Boris Yeltsin and his economic reforms . It also reflected a degree of realism , since Russian officials have said they are unable to repay all of the Soviet debt now falling due . Russia owes about $ 80 billion to foreign governments and banks , most of that inherited from the Soviet Union , which collapsed in 1991 . According to initial reports , the agreement reached Saturday will save Russia about $ 7 billion this year . Yeltsin and his government have promised to make good on the Soviet debt eventually , but they have asked for reschedulings to ease the current painful transition from socialism to a free market . Some Western economists have criticized Western governments and banks who come together in groups known respectively as the Paris Club and the London Club for not being more forthcoming in rescheduling Russia 's debts at a time when Yeltsin is under strong political pressure at home . Despite all the talk about Western aid , the critics have said , Russia has had to pay more in interest on old debts than it has received in new aid . But Western officials and bankers have maintained that an orderly rescheduling of debt , rather than a write-off or default , is important in order to maintain Russia 's credit-worthiness and allow it to continue borrowing on the international market . Russia 's acting finance minister , Sergei Dubinin , who led the negotiations in Paris , welcomed Saturday 's agreement but said Russia would soon seek a longer-term , more comprehensive debt rescheduling . Saturday 's agreement , Dubinin said , `` creates a very favorable external economic environment that will allow us to work within the country to get out of the crisis . '' But he added that he expects `` fairly difficult negotiations '' this fall on a longer-term rescheduling . The rescheduling reflects a vote of Western confidence not only in Yeltsin but in Prime Minister Viktor Chernomyrdin and his economic team . To the surprise of some critics here and in the West , Chernomyrdin has maintained a relatively tight budget policy , which has helped reduce Russia 's monthly inflation rate from more than 20 percent last fall to less than 10 percent this spring . Many in the West feared that the triumph of communists and nationalists in last December 's parliamentary election , followed by the resignations from the government of leading reformers Yegor Gaidar and Boris Fyodorov , would spell the end of Russia 's tight-money policy , its radical privatization program and perhaps its reforms altogether . But Chernomyrdin , Dubinin and their team have kept the reform program more or less on course , according to most observers here . The International Monetary Fund responded earlier this year by agreeing to loan Russia another $ 1.5 billion , with a $ 4 billion credit possible later this year . The agreement reached with the Paris Club Saturday is roughly similar to one negotiated last April , rescheduling payments coming due in 1992 and 1993 . According to officials in Paris , Russia owes the Paris Club governments about $ 45 billion and London Club banks about $ 26 billion , with other countries , such as South Korea , and banks claiming the rest . So far , some $ 22 billion of the $ 45 billion owed to the wealthiest nations has been rescheduled , the officials told the Reuter news agency . The new schedule of repayments is intended to give Russia as much leeway as possible during the next two or three years , assuming that the economy will gradually gather strength . Some payments have been set back as many as 17 years , Dubinin said . But Russia is still expected to have to pay back more than $ 4 billion this year in principal and interest , officials said . BEIJING Chinese authorities arrested a provincial labor organizer and a leading Shanghai dissident , part of an effort to ensure that Saturday 's fifth anniversary of the Tiananmen Square crackdown passed quietly . Zhang Lin , 31 , a pro-democracy organizer , was arrested in Beijing and sent to a detention center in his native Anhui Province , his wife said by telephone . Zhang , a member of a recently formed independent labor organization , has been on the run for two months . The group models itself on Poland 's Solidarity and claims to have 300 members nationwide . Zhang suggested that dissidents were going to try to stage symbolic commemorative acts to mark the June 3-4 Chinese army crackdown on demonstrators five years ago , in which hundreds , perhaps thousands , were killed . Public security directives were sent out weeks ago and hundreds of police as well as office workers were mobilized to prevent even the smallest protest in Beijing 's Tiananmen Square or the sensitive university district . The hunger strike of Ding Zilin and Jiang Peikun , two People 's University professors whose 17-year-old son was killed by Chinese soldiers , was the only known public protest on the anniversary . Zhang 's wife , Ji Xiao , said she received a police notice Thursday saying Zhang had been turned over to authorities in their hometown of Bengbu , in central China 's Anhui Province . She was not told when he was arrested by Beijing authorities or what charges he may face . The couple 's home has been under heavy surveillance for two months . Zhang was nearly caught a few weeks ago when he returned home because his wife was about to have a baby , he said in an interview before his arrest . `` They said he had done a lot of bad things , '' said Ji , who had her baby on May 21 . Zhang , a nuclear physics graduate from prestigious Qinghua University in Beijing , has been jailed five times . Five years ago , while thousands of pro-democracy demonstrators poured into Tiananmen Square , Zhang led local demonstrations and hunger strikes in Bengbu , an industrial city of 700,000 . In Shanghai , dissident Bao Ge , one of the would-be founders of a human rights group , was arrested late Friday night , according to news agency reports . Bao , a Christian , had planned to visit a Shanghai Protestant church today to pray for those killed in 1989 . Bao had sent an open letter to the government asking for a national human rights group to be set up , his sister Bao Yin was quoted by the Reuter news agency as saying . The purpose of the organization was to investigate issues such as the rights of peasants , free labor unions and freedom of religion . Shortly before midnight , about 10 plainclothesmen burst into his apartment and took him away . CAMBRIDGE , England With the mournful , bagpiped notes of `` Amazing Grace '' echoing across acres of simple graves , President Clinton Saturday continued his World War II journey of remembrance with a salute to the American airmen who `` completed their mission , whether they walk among us or lie among us today . '' Nostalgic remembrances the music of Glenn Miller and 1940s chocolates and gum formed part of the setting as solemn British and American veterans gathered in the U.S. . War Cemetery here beneath the skies where thousands of bombing raids against the Nazis were flown . One of those airmen , Lloyd Bentsen , now the secretary of the treasury , began flying combat missions in 1944 , eventually completing 35 across Europe . It was , he said , a time of `` numbing fatigue . Faceless danger . Fiery death . These were an airman 's constant companions . In the face of this , these men not only flew and fought , they soared and triumphed . Many never had the chance to walk the land their sacrifice helped liberate . '' These fallen airmen , Bentsen said , `` live on Saturday on the wings of our dreams dreams of freedom . Heroes every one . May they rest in peace . '' Part of a week-long commemoration of World War II in Italy , France and England , Saturday was a day to look to the skies to honor American airmen , including the 57,000 who died in the European theater . It was also a day of transatlantic friendship . British Prime Minister John Major , joining Clinton at the cemetery , recalled that for a period during the war , every 30th person in Britain was a member of the U.S. armed services . Fifty years ago this week , more than 1.5 million American military personnel were serving in Britain . `` Those who came here from America were not , as we were , protecting their homes and families , '' Major said , but were fighting to defend freedom and democracy , `` to help liberate the people of Europe from tyranny and to seek to build a better world . '' Clinton recalled the infusion of Americans to the British countryside , where hundreds of Allied air bases sprang up and where almost 4,000 Americans are buried in the war cemetery , each grave marked with a simple white cross or Star of David . On the cemetery 's Wall of the Missing , more than 5,000 other Americans lost in the war are remembered . One is Lt. Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. , brother of President John F. Kennedy ; another is Glenn Miller , whose `` Moonlight Serenade '' and other tunes , played here by the U.S. . Air Force European Band , brought smiles to the faces of those who remembered first dancing to them more than five decades ago . In recalling the Allied air campaign in Europe , Clinton noted that by D-Day , June 6 , 1944 , the Allies controlled the skies , helping them , after long bloody months , to control the ground in time to win the war . In a traditional salute at the ceremony 's conclusion , British and American jets performed a roaring fly-over in the missing-man formation in which one of their number abruptly soars into the clouds and out of sight . At the end , planes returned , but this time they were planes of 50 years ago . The B-17 Flying Fortress , used for the first U.S. attack against Germany in 1943 , the P-51 Mustang fighter and the British Spitfire flew over the heads of airmen who once piloted them . The ceremony blended into the opening of D-Day observances in Portsmouth , where Clinton and Major joined with 12 other heads of state in driving , bitterly cold rain to officially open the commemoration of the 50th anniversary of Operation Overlord , the Allied invasion that began the liberation of Europe . It was from Portsmouth on the British coast and other nearby ports that the massive invasion flotilla of Allied ships was launched toward the beaches of France on June 5 , 1944 . Joining the United States and Britain in the operation were Australia , Belgium , Canada , Czechoslovakia , France , Greece , Luxembourg , the Netherlands , New Zealand , Norway and Poland . Queen Elizabeth II , in a dinner this evening for leaders of all of the nations that participated in the D-Day invasion , repeated a portion of the address her father , King George VI , delivered to the British people on June 6 , 1944 . In that speech , he asked the nation to face `` the supreme test '' in a `` fight not to survive but to win the final victory for the good cause . '' The queen called Overlord `` a mighty deed '' undertaken by nations coming together in a common cause . `` We are right to look back on it with pride , '' she said , calling on the world leaders and veterans at the dinner to `` keep faith with those who landed on the beaches of Normandy . . . by continuing vigilance in defense of peace and freedom . '' Clinton and First Lady Hillary Rodham Clinton were to spend the night on the Britannia , the British royal yacht . On Sunday , they are scheduled to participate in the Drumhead ceremony , in which an international flotilla will be sent off in commemoration of the traditional British religious ceremony of `` the Forces Committed , '' the point at which troops cannot be pulled back from battle . The flotilla , with Clinton aboard the aircraft carrier USS George Washington , will cross the English Channel overnight to arrive at the French invasion beaches before dawn on June 6 , just as the D-Day operation did . VIENNA , Austria Hungary 's Socialist Party named its chairman , Gyula Horn , Saturday to be the country 's next prime minister , bringing to the forefront of Hungarian politics a man who is still trying to live down his past as a hard-line Communist . The Socialists , who won an absolute majority in last month 's elections for Parliament , had held off naming an official candidate for this central post because of Horn 's controversial history and uncertainty over its impact on finding a coalition partner . At one point , leaders of the Alliance of Free Democrats said they would not join a government led by Horn because of his past . They questioned whether he was fit to preside over ceremonies scheduled for October to commemorate the failed 1956 uprising against the Soviet-backed Communist regime . The Socialists also voted today to open negotiations to form a coalition with the Free Democrats , who had the second-highest vote total in the elections . If the Free Democrats refuse , the Socialists have the votes to form a government on their own , but a coalition partner would broaden their support in the difficult economic times expected . During the 1956 revolution Horn , now 61 , belonged to several secret police units that were instrumental in restoring a Communist regime after the Soviet invasion that crushed the revolt . But three decades later , he was part of the reformist wing of the Hungarian Socialist Workers Party that handed over power peacefully after the first democratic elections in 1990 . Horn thus projects contradictory images out of different chapters of his 40-year political history-one as a dedicated communist and the other as a nonideological , pragmatic reformer . Though he says his conscience is clear and he `` never mistreated or abused anybody , '' he still seems extremely ill at ease with his 1956 role whenever reporters ask him about it . He has been known to end interviews when the question is raised . He told a local newspaper recently that he was ready to go to the Koztemeto Cemetery in Budapest , where many of the leaders of the 1956 revolt were buried after being executed , to `` ask for forgiveness from the nation . '' Apparently , it is an act he has yet to perform . Trained as an economist , Horn was educated partly in the Soviet Union , where he attended the School of Public Accounting in Rostov for four years . After working in the Finance Ministry , he became a diplomat and rose to foreign minister . His father , also a dedicated communist , took part in a 1919 communist revolt led by Bela Kun and was killed by the Nazis in 1941 . During the campaign , leaders of the ruling Hungarian Democratic Forum sought to discredit Horn by comparing him to former Austrian president Kurt Waldheim , whose World War II service as a German army officer in the Balkans was exposed after his term as U.N. secretary general . Unlike Waldheim , however , Horn has not tried to conceal his role in the 1956 revolution , although whether he has told the whole truth is not totally clear . In his autobiography , `` Stakes , '' Horn wrote about his activities starting on Oct. 30 , 1956 , seven days after the initial democratic uprising in Budapest , when he said he was called up to serve in the National Guard patrolling the streets . One of his duties , he wrote , was saving pro-Soviet secret police agents from the fury of the crowds . On Dec. 12 , about six weeks after Soviet forces had moved in to crush the revolution , Horn said he was called in by the Communist Party and `` asked to serve '' in a special police unit , the Janos Hunyadi Brigade named after a 16th-century Hungarian patriot who fought against Turkish invaders . The brigade 's job , according to Horn , was `` to secure the legal order in the country , '' first by guarding strategic points in the city and then by `` helping to restore public security . '' Horn 's critics say his brigade also helped hunt down and arrest democratic activists . On Dec. 15 , his brother Geza , who was trying to organize the Communist Party in the Budapest suburb of Sashalom , was caught by a crowd of revolutionaries , taken to a park and lynched after his body was mutilated . In January 1957 , Horn joined another police unit , the R Group , for six months . This unit also was apparently involved in tracking down and arresting revolutionaries . Horn wrote that he once intervened to stop a detainee from being beaten and was denounced as `` a traitor '' for this by his colleagues . But his reputation apparently remained intact . According to a recommendation written by his superiors at the Finance Ministry in 1957 , Horn was a `` very well-trained comrade '' and a `` firm working-class fighter . '' He had helped establish the party cell at the ministry and `` stood firmly on the side of the party and working class during the counterrevolution , '' as the Communists called the 1956 uprising . Horn sought to recast his image in the late 1980s , when he took the side of Communist Party reformers who put an end to Janos Kadar 's 30-year rule and held free elections that brought the anti-communist Democratic Forum to power . Horn 's great moment of fame came as foreign minister on the night of Aug. 22 , 1989 , when , after consulting Moscow , he cast aside a treaty with East Germany and opened Hungary 's border with Austria . This act allowed tens of thousands of East German refugees to flee to the West a fatal blow to the communist system in Eastern Europe . The world should never forget what happened five years ago in Tiananmen Square . The searing image of a lone , unarmed Chinese demonstrator facing down tanks is a chilling reminder that Beijing turned its army and its guns on peaceful protesters . On June 3 and 4 , 1989 , an orderly , seven-week demonstration on behalf of greater freedom turned into a bloody confrontation . Hundreds were killed , injured or imprisoned . To this day , many are still in jail or unaccounted for . Only recently did the government release two of the most important Tiananmen dissidents , Wang Juntao and Chen Ziming . Now , as China seeks to become a respected citizen of the world , Beijing is tarnishing its march toward modernization by its continuing policies of repression . Over the last several days it has blanketed Tiananmen Square with tight security to prevent any commemoration of the 1989 demonstrations . Police ordered hotels to turn off the Cable News Network , apparently fearing it might broadcast pictures of the 1989 events . But while the blood of those June days long has been washed from the streets , the horror of Tiananmen Square remains indelibly in the mind . The demonstrations began in mid-April in 1989 upon the death of Hu Yaobang , the reform-minded leader of the Communist Party who was forced to step down in 1987 . Students turned out to mourn his death and to protest rampant official corruption and nepotism . But at no time during the demonstrations did they ever attack the authority of the Communist Party , nor did they demand a multi-party system . The government responded first with patronizing equivocation , then with threats and finally with brutal repression . In the years since , China has opened up to trade , investment and technology . That has exposed many Chinese to new ideas . But Beijing 's human rights record has not significantly improved . The abuses include use of prison labor and imprisonment of Tibetans demanding political and religious independence . Washington tried unsuccessfully for a year to use trade privileges as leverage to persuade Beijing to make improvements . President Clinton took heavy criticism last week when he decoupled trade from human rights in an effort to build a long-term security , political and economic relationship with Beijing . That was a hard decision and an unavoidable one . Clinton is betting that , as in other Asian nations like South Korea and Taiwan , prosperity will result in a more open society . So the United States will now pursue a low-profile human rights strategy , including broadcasting to China over the new Radio Free Asia , developing voluntary human rights standards for U.S. firms doing business in or with China and promoting international attention to and support for human rights in China . For its part , Beijing must be willing to play by international rules beyond the rules of trade . Only progress in human rights will earn China the respect it covets . But Beijing has not signed the U.N. . Universal Declaration of Human Rights ( although it says it supports the document 's key ideas ) and it has yet to agree in talks with the International Committee of the Red Cross to permit prison visits . Thanks to television , Beijing 's human rights abuses in Tiananmen were put on worldwide display . Now China strives to hide its repression under a cloak of national sovereignty . It is fooling no one . CAMBRIDGE , England President Clinton looked skyward on a sodden English morning Saturday to salute the Allied airmen who mastered the skies over Europe in World War II at a grievous cost in lives . Speaking in a steady drizzle before a field of crosses at the Cambridge American Cemetery and Memorial , Clinton honored the pilots , bombardiers and ground crews who `` walk among us or lie among us today . '' Clinton called the airmen `` knights borne on wings '' and said they helped turn the tide of the war and made possible the D-day landings that he has journeyed to Europe to commemorate . The lush Cambridge cemetery holds the graves of 3,812 Americans and memorializes more than 5,000 others officially listed as missing in action . Among the names enshrined on the Wall of the Missing are those of bandleader-turned-airman Glenn Miller , whose flight vanished in 1944 , and Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. , the older brother of the late President Kennedy . Joseph Kennedy was a Navy pilot killed when his plane blew up during a special bombing mission . `` America gave to England an infusion of arms and men and materiel , '' Clinton said . `` The British gave our troops the feeling that they were not so far from home after all . The British gave us inspiration ; the Americans gave , in return , hope . At every level , Yanks and Brits worked together like family . '' England was the second stop of Clinton 's three-nation trip to commemorate D-day . The president earlier visited Italy and is to cross the English Channel to France Sunday . Unlike the somber and restrained memorial event at the American cemetery at Nettuno , Italy , on Friday , Saturday 's commemorative events had an almost festive feel . An Air Force ensemble entertained the guests with Miller swing standards like `` Moonlight Serenade , '' `` In the Mood '' and `` St. Louis Blues March . '' White House officials and politicians worked the crowd before Clinton and British Prime Minister John Major spoke . The ceremony ended with a flyover by vintage aircraft , including a lumbering B-17 bomber as well as a British Spitfire and American P-51 Mustang zooming through acrobatic maneuvers . As they left the memorial service , Clinton and Major walked among guests , shaking hands and posing for pictures . In his remarks , Major spoke of the `` invasion '' of England by GIs preparing for the landings on the European Continent . He noted that , just before D-day , more than 1.5 million soldiers and airmen were based on British soil under the command of Supreme Allied Commander Dwight D. Eisenhower . `` For a while , '' Major said , `` every 30th person in Britain was an American serviceman . '' And he recalled the sacrifice they made to free Europe from tyranny 150,000 lives in the European theater , including 57,000 airmen . `` We remember today why those lives were given . Those who came here from America were not , as we were , protecting their homes and families , '' Major said . `` They didn't come here for national glory , not for profit , not for material gain . `` They came , many of you here today came , above all , to defend the values which Britons and Americans hold sacred : to defend freedom and democracy , justice and human rights , '' the prime minister said . ( Begin optional trim ) Perhaps the most affecting remarks of the day came from a former B-24 bomber pilot who flew 35 missions over Nazi-held territory , including the vital Ploesti oil fields in Romania . The pilot 73-year-old U.S. Treasury Secretary Lloyd Bentsen said that during the war `` boys grew into men far too fast . '' He recalled the daily routine of the flight crews : `` Scared ? Of course . Anyone who wasn't was either a fool or didn't have any imagination .. . Numbing fatigue . Faceless danger . Fiery death . Those were an airman 's constant companions . In the face of this , these men not only flew and fought , they soared and triumphed . '' ( End optional trim ) Clinton and Major met privately afterward at Chequers , the prime minister 's country home near Oxford . The two leaders said they discussed Bosnia-Herzegovina , agreeing that they would continue to press all sides to settle the territorial issues still in dispute . Major said that continued fighting would yield no significant territorial gains and would only `` continue to strain international patience . '' Neither he nor Clinton said what they were prepared to do about the 2-year-old civil war in the former Yugoslav republic if their patience actually ran out . From Chequers , Clinton took a motorcade to a hotel 15 minutes away for a brief courtesy call on Margaret Beckett , the acting leader of Britain 's opposition Labor Party . She assumed the leadership of the party last month after the sudden death of party leader John Smith . Later , Clinton attended an elaborate garden party and a formal dinner hosted by Queen Elizabeth II in the English Channel city of Portsmouth , one of the chief jumping-off points for invasion forces . ( Optional add end ) The entertainment included U.S. . Air Force personnel dancing the Lindy hop and British sailors in a rigging and climbing exhibition . It was at times difficult , amid all the distractions , to remember the solemnity of the occasion that thousands were gathered to commemorate . The queen , in a rare speech at the black-tie dinner for visiting dignitaries , reminded her guests of the sacrifice of those who fought for liberation . She said that today 's generations must keep faith with those who landed on the beaches and those who prayed for their success . `` It is up to us to make sure that the prayers of 50 years ago are truly answered , by rededicating ourselves to the creation of a world at peace , '' the queen said . A 125-foot ship carrying 61 Cuban refugees reportedly was fired on by a Cuban armed vessel as the refugee boat moved in international waters early Saturday . Four Cubans were seriously injured . The Coast Guard , responding to a distress signal relayed by a ham radio operator in Panama at about 4 a.m. , sent out a search jet , a cutter and helicopters , which located the refugee vessel about 67 miles southwest of Key West , Fla. Coast Guard officials said the boat was boarded at 8:45 a.m. . The injured four were airlifted to Florida Keys Memorial Hospital in Key West . A hospital spokesman said Saturday afternoon that one had been released . Another , in stable condition , had been airlifted to Jackson Memorial Hospial in Miami . A third had been admitted to the Key West hospital , and the fourth in critical condition with gunshot wounds was in surgery . Three other persons were slightly injured , though not by gunfire , and were treated aboard the refugee ship after the Coast Guard took control of it , officials said . A Coast Guard spokesman said there was no sign of an attacking vessel at the time the refugee ship was located , and reports that a Cuban gunboat had attacked and inflicted the injuries were based on accounts from passengers . He said refugees discovered at sea in the area usually are taken to Key West . Larisa Cuesta , a daughter of one of the refugee boat 's officers , was quoted by the Associated Press as having told a Miami radio station : `` They kept shooting at us . We showed them the children , they still kept shooting . We shouted , `` One of them is dead , ' and they still kept shooting . At one point they threw ropes to try to drag us in ; we cut the rope to get loose again . '' Ninoska Perez of the Cuban American National Foundation , an exile organization with centers in Miami and Washington , said in a telephone interview from Miami that she had spoken to Cuesta by phone and that Cuesta 's father was one of the four persons shot . She said he had been shot in the neck in his case and was in serious condition . Perez said she had been told that the refugee ship took off secretly from Mariel , Cuba , at 1 a.m. and was about 30 miles off the coast of Havana in international waters when attacked by Cuban craft . She said occupants of the refugee boat had shouted that a child had been killed in an effort to stop the firing , but actually no child had been killed . The Coast Guard center in Miami identified the ship as the Rene Bedia Morales . A State Department spokeswoman said that according to information received by the department , the refugee ship left Mariel with 61 people aboard . Cuban patrol craft may have pursued and fired on it , then abandoned the chase , she said . Coast Guard officials said that so far this year , 2,647 persons from Cuba had been found on boats and rafts seeking to reach the United States . Perez , who said her group monitors ham radio operators to track incidents such as Saturday 's , said `` this has happened on many occasions '' inside Cuban territorial waters and had been reported , but `` nothing happens '' because such incidents have been viewed as a Cuban internal matter . The reported Rene Bedia Morales incident is only the latest in numerous acts against Cubans attempting to flee the impoverished communist nation . For example , a year ago , according to news accounts , the Cuban coast guard shot and killed three Cubans as they boarded a speedboat in Cojimar , near Havana , a sleepy fishing town , for an escape to the United States . Last October , Cuban security forces shot and killed one man and captured five others in what Cuban papers called a plan by `` anti-social and dangerous '' would-be emigrants to escape the country using a small boat . Last July , a dozen others were wounded , according to a news report . ATLANTA Barron Williams , his suit jacket buttoned on a Saturday morning , pivoted in the hotel lobby , thrust out his hand and introduced himself to the fast-walking man with the African name written on the oversized tag around his neck . `` What I 'm trying to do is find a trading partner , a teaming partner , whatever you want to call it , '' Williams , owner of a computer systems company outside Atlanta , explained to an onlooker . Williams , like other entrepreneurs engaged in a fury of networking in the lobby , was hoping to reach across 8,000 miles and line up business deals between American and South African firms . Hunting for deals is commonplace at business conferences , but this one was unusual because the host was the federal government and it had diplomatic as well as financial objectives in mind . The U.S. . Information Agency invited 400 leaders from the business , government and nonprofit sectors of the two countries to the two-day conference , which ended Saturday , to stimulate U.S. ties to South Africa . About an equal number of observers showed up uninvited . The agency organized a similar meeting in St. Louis last October for Russia and other independent states of the former Soviet Union . In the case of those emerging nations , the Clinton administration 's goal has been to help build market economies where none existed . With South Africa , administration officials aim to boost a market economy that contracted in the face of international sanctions and needs investment to expand and raise the standard of living of its black majority under the post-apartheid government . `` The key to the future of South Africa and of our relationship will be the private sector , '' Vice President Al Gore said at a dinner Thursday night . `` That 's where the long-term jobs will be created . That 's what will create the infrastructure . That 's what will create the income . '' South African Deputy President Thabo Mbeki said participants from his nation `` have not come carrying a begging bowl '' but instead sought to increase U.S. investment , `` two-way trade '' and `` mutually beneficial technology and skills transfers . '' The Clinton administration is considering the creation of a government fund to stimulate joint ventures with South Africa . `` That 's something the administration is looking at closely , because it 's had some success in Poland and elsewhere in the world , '' said Ernest Wilson , director of international programs at the National Security Council . Private entities announced a dozen joint ventures during the conference , while Commerce Secretary Ronald H. Brown and South African Minister of Trade and Industry Trevor Manuel said the governments have formed a joint committee to promote business deals . Brown predicted Americans soon would invest `` hundreds of millions '' in South Africa . `` South Africa is one of the few countries in the world where there 's no McDonald 's , '' Manuel said . `` While Secretary ( Brown ) may want South Africans to get accustomed to McDonald 's , we want Americans to get used to boerewors , and pap and vleis . '' He was referring to sausages and a meat stew over corn meal eaten in South Africa . Major American companies that withdrew investments from South Africa to protest apartheid are slowly returning . The South African Embassy in Washington has received 20 calls a day in response to a mailing to small businesses . But U.S. and South African officials acknowledged that attitudinal barriers , as well as fears of political violence , could block interest from turning into investment . Gore criticized `` Afro-pessimism , '' a view among some foreign policy specialists that political and civil upheavals preclude sustained development in Africa . A similar opinion was once held about Asia where some countries are growing rapidly `` and they 're wrong about Africa , as well , '' he said . During a meeting with international business leaders about investing in South Africa , Manuel recalled , an American contractor inquired about political tumult in the African nation of Zaire . `` We 're far from Zaire , '' Manuel said . `` Zaire is to South Africa what Colombia is to the United States , and I don't quite see the Medellin cartel operating as well in the United States . '' Deputy President Mbeki cited a potential for U.S. investments in building new housing , processing raw materials such as platinum and constructing hotels for tourism . South African entrepreneur Rob Williams and Douglas Jerome Brown , an agribusiness adviser with the U.S. . Agency for International Development , chatted about the possibility of joint ventures to export South African wine , which is known for its high quality and low price . `` The ( South African ) rand is so weak you can buy a bottle of wine for about a dollar .. . good table wine , '' Williams said . Allan A . Boesak , economic affairs minister in the Western Cape province , said such networking must to yield `` concrete results '' for ordinary South Africans to be beneficial . `` If it doesn't do that , '' Boesak said , `` this is a handshaking exercise that doesn't have much meaning at all . '' PORTSMOUTH , England Standing in a chill rain at a cemetery in the English countryside filled with the graves of fallen American airmen , President Clinton vowed Saturday that the political heirs of the D-Day generation would remember its sacrifices and carry on its work of expanding democracy . `` The victory of the generation we honor today came at a high cost , '' he said in a somber address at the Cambridge American Cemetery and Memorial . `` After D-Day it took freedom another year to reach the Elbe ; it took another 44 years to reach Warsaw and Prague and East Berlin . And now it has reached Kiev and Moscow and even beyond . `` The mission of this time is to secure and expand its reach further , '' he declared . Then , speaking of the 3,812 Americans buried in the cemetery and the 5,126 more missing in action who are memorialized on a long marble wall , he declared : `` We shall always carry on the work of these knights borne on wings . '' The speech sounded the theme Clinton is to strike again at Monday 's climactic ceremonies in Normandy commemorating the 50th anniversary of the D-Day invasion , the massive amphibious assault that turned the tide in World War II . Clinton , born a year after the war ended , has begun to talk in broad terms about the continuing obligations facing a new generation that has benefited from the sacrifices of the generation that fought World War II . But the difficulty of delivering on that powerful rhetoric was underscored a few hours later when Clinton met with British Prime Minister John Major at Chequers , the British leader 's official country retreat . They spent most of the session discussing the escalating nuclear crisis with North Korea and the continuing bloodshed in Bosnia , where the West has failed to end a two-year campaign of `` ethnic cleansing '' and civil war . Both men urged the Serbs , Muslims and Croats to accept a peace plan and end the fighting in the former Yugoslav republics . `` Continued war will not advance their positions but would continue to strain international patience , '' Major said . And Queen Elizabeth II alluded to Bosnia in her toast at a spectacular state dinner here Saturday night for the 14 heads of state from the countries that participated in D-Day . `` We have seen that the peace which victory brought is a fragile thing , '' she said , glittering in a sapphire-encrusted crown and matching earrings and necklace at the black-tie dinner at Portsmouth Guildhall . `` Events ' round the world , some of them close to home in Europe , prove that to us day after day . It is up to us to make sure that the prayers of 50 years ago are truly answered by rededicating ourselves to the creation of a world at peace . '' This seaside town was the scene of celebration , with troops marching , bands playing and entrepreneurs selling commemorative T-shirts and `` crickets , '' the tiny noisemakers issued to the D-Day troops as a means of signaling one another . The president and first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton spent the night as the queen 's guests aboard the royal yacht Britannia . But the redoubtable British weather provided the same sort of challenge it did a half-century ago , when driving rains forced Supreme Allied Commander Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower to delay the invasion for a day . A fierce , cold rain rattled the tents on the Portsmouth docks and jeopardized some of the plans for a commemorative naval armada to cross the choppy English Channel Sunday night . ( Optional Add End ) `` It would have been historically incorrect to have good weather , '' Gen. John Shalikashvili , chairman of the U.S. . Joint Chiefs of Staff , said at a rain-drenched garden party hosted by the Queen Mother . Earlier , at the Cambridge cemetery , the rain had been gentler and the mood grayer . An Air Force band played the songs of bandleader Glenn Miller `` St. Louis Blues , '' `` String of Pearls , '' `` Pennsylvania 6-5000 '' that make up a sort of soundtrack of the World War II era . Miller , lost as he flew to France for a Christmastime concert in 1944 , is one of the names on the `` Wall of the Missing '' ; so is Lt. Joseph P. Kennedy Jr. , older brother of President Kennedy who was killed on a bombing mission . U.S. Treasury Secretary Lloyd Bentsen , a bomber pilot and squadron leader in the war , recalled the terror of battle . `` Scared ? Of course , '' he said . `` Anyone who wasn't was either a fool or had no imagination . '' PORTSMOUTH , England President Clinton said Saturday that North Korea can avoid international sanctions if it complies with inspections of its nuclear program . While standing firm on U.S. demands , he rejected as `` saber rattling '' North Korea 's claims that sanctions would be an act of war . `` I do not want a lot of saber rattling over this , or war talk , '' Clinton said . `` This is peace talk . We 're trying to enforce '' the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty , which North Korea has signed . His comments came in a short exchange with reporters following a meeting with British Prime Minister John Major . Clinton 's statements underscored U.S. determination not to back down from its demands on North Korea despite the warnings from Pyongyang . At the same time , the president made clear that the administration is pursuing what it sees as a diplomatic not a military solution to the standoff . The United States is discussing sanctions with members of the U.N. . Security Council following certification by international inspectors earlier this week that North Korea is not complying with nuclear plant inspection regimes it had agreed to under the treaty . At the same time , a senior official traveling with Clinton said that China , with which North Korea retains friendly relations , is continuing to try to persuade Pyongyang to comply with the inspections without the threat of sanctions . China has stated its opposition to sanctions , but U.S. officials say it has not yet said it would veto a sanctions resolution at the United Nations . The senior official said `` it would be both premature and possibly wrong to assume that the Chinese would veto '' a sanctions resolution . While they `` have been very unenthusiastic '' about such a move , he said , they have not said either publicly or privately that they would veto . The official said the United States would be engaged in `` a good bit of consulting '' to construct a sanctions response that both conveys `` the maximum amount of leverage '' with North Korea and also has behind it a broad international consensus . Clinton , in his comments , dismissed North Korea 's contention that sanctions are an act of war . `` Clearly , any sanctions are not an act of war and should not be seen as such , '' the president said . `` All we want them to do is keep their word . '' Repeating his call for North Korea to allow International Atomic Energy Agency inspections of its nuclear reactor activity , as required under the Non-Proliferation Treaty , Clinton said , `` There 's still time for North Korea to avoid sanctions actually taking effect .. . but this is in their hands . '' Clinton made the remarks at the British government 's country retreat during a stop on his week-long trip to Europe for the commemoration of the 50th anniversary of the D-Day invasion . The United States began consultations Friday with South Korea , Japan and Russia on how to retaliate for North Korea 's removal from its Yongbon reactor of vital evidence about its nuclear weapons capability . The talks explored options ranging from a full cutoff of trade to milder measures . In a joint statement issued in Washington Saturday , the United States , Japan and South Korea said `` the situation demands that the international community , through the U.N. . Security Council , urgently consider an appropriate response , including sanctions . '' The three nations also agreed that `` North Korea 's actions created a serious situation on the Korean peninsula and a threat to the peace and stability of the Northeast Asian region as well as to international non-proliferation efforts . '' Assistant Secretary of State Robert Gallucci , who read the statement to reporters outside the State Department , refused to answer questions on it . In Rome on Friday , Clinton telephoned Russian President Boris Yeltsin and South Korean President Kim Young Sam , who was visiting Moscow . Yeltsin has proposed an international conference on the North Korean crisis . The White House said Clinton told Yeltsin `` such a meeting might be appropriate at some point , while underscoring the need first to return the North Korean nuclear issue to the U.N. . Security Council . '' A senior official said Secretary of State Warren Christopher will be consulting with his Russian counterpart on a conference but said that the United States believes Russia will not block sanctions , if it comes to that , with or without a conference first . Christopher and British Foreign Secretary Douglas Hurd also had extensive discussions on North Korea here Saturday , the senior official said . The official said each man also talked with South Korean Foreign Minister Han Sung Joo , who stopped in London en route from Moscow to U.N. headquarters in New York , as part of the effort to construct a sanctions package . In Seoul , government security officials met in emergency session Saturday and set up a task force to assess military readiness . `` We and the United States are fully prepared and have enough military power ready to meet any emergencies , '' President Kim said in Russia , according to South Korea 's Yonhap news agency . Japanese newspapers reported Saturday that the Tokyo government has prepared a 10-point draft package of sanctions against North Korea , including bans on trade , flights and all cash transfers , including an estimated $ 600 million a year carried into the country by Koreans from Japan . The government refused comment on the reports . WASHINGTON President Clinton stepped up efforts Saturday to increase diplomatic pressure on North Korea by calling it `` virtually imperative '' that the world community impose economic sanctions on Asia 's nuclear renegade . With British Prime Minister John Major by his side during a D-Day appearance in Portsmouth , England , Clinton sought to quell talk of armed conflict , saying sanctions were `` clearly .. . not an act of war and should not be seen as such . '' But North Korea 's ambassador in Beijing , Chu Chang Jun , repeated warnings Saturday that `` any kind of economic sanctions '' against North Korea would be regarded as `` a declaration of war . '' In Washington , the United States , Japan and South Korea greeted new evidence of North Korea 's nuclear bomb-making activity with a unified call for economic sanctions . The allies ended two days of talks Saturday warning of `` a serious situation on the North Korean Peninsula '' caused by Pyongyang 's efforts to thwart inspections designed to determine how plutonium North Korea possesses . American diplomat Robert L. Gallucci , flanked by a South Korean special ambassador and a senior official of the Japanese Foreign Ministry , said the three countries agreed that the U.N. . Security Council must `` urgently consider an appropriate response , including sanctions '' to bring North Korea to heel . And in Seoul , South Korean government officials met in an emergency session Saturday and set up a task force to assess national readiness . President Kim Young-sam told reporters that U.S. and South Korean forces `` are keeping a round-the-clock surveillance on the North 's ( military ) movements , '' and added that the two allies `` are fully prepared and have enough military power ready to meet any emergencies . '' The latest swirl of rhetoric and diplomacy came two days after the director-general of the International Atomic Energy Agency , Hans Blix , told members of the Security Council that North Korea had shifted spent fuel rods inside its principal nuclear reactor in ways that would obscure any efforts to use plutonium to manufacture nuclear bombs . The disclosure deepened suspicions about North Korea 's nuclear intentions and added urgency to international efforts aimed at halting the nation 's nuclear program . Clinton administration officials have said that , in light of Blix 's testimony , Pyongyang should allow IAEA inspectors to take samples and measurements at the nation 's two major radioactive waste sites . That would give inspectors an alternative to analyzing spent fuel rods as a means of accounting for North Korea 's weapon-grade plutonium . `` All we want them to do is keep their word , '' Clinton said Saturday . `` There 's still time for North Korea to avoid sanctions actually taking effect .. . but this is in their hands . '' Washington hopes to escalate pressure on North Korea gradually in an effort to persuade the Pyongyang government to let inspectors in . If Pyongyang still refuses to yield after an initial tightening of trade , the allies would press for a freeze on North Korea 's financial transactions and , finally , for a cutoff of oil and food supplies . ( Optional Add End ) Clinton administration officials acknowledged Saturday that negotiating a sanctions strategy that would both pinch North Korea and win the support of reluctant allies has proven a difficult and delicate task . In an effort to win international backing for sanctions , the United States has pressed high-level contacts with Russia , as well as with China . The opposition of either country could veto any bid to tighten sanctions on North Korea . Both have been reluctant to go along with sanctions until further diplomacy has been tried . RICHMOND , Va. Oliver North , the ramrod Marine who emerged from the Iran-Contra scandal as a conservative icon , won the Virginia Republican Senate nomination Saturday . His victory virtually ensured an unpredictable four-way contest for the seat now held by embattled Democrat Charles S. Robb . At a tense and emotional party convention here , North comfortably defeated fellow conservative James C. Miller III , who had centered his campaign on the argument that North could not win in the general election . North carried 55 percent of the delegates ' votes , to 45 percent for Miller , former director of the Office of Management and Budget under President Reagan . `` Bring on the liberal elites : ( President ) Clinton , Congress , ( Ted ) Koppel and above all Chuck ( Robb ) , '' North declared exuberantly in a speech just before the vote . `` It 's time to take a stand : Whose side are you on ? '' In selecting North an intense , charismatic former lieutenant colonel who drew both reknown and disdain for his combative 1987 testimony to a Congressional committee investigating the Iran-Contra arms-for-hostages scandal the state party ensured a public split with its top-ranking federal official . Republican Sen. John W. Warner has condemned North as unfit to serve in the Senate and said he will back an independent candidacy by Republican J. Marshall Coleman , a former Virginia state attorney general . Although Coleman has not formally declared his candidacy , he seems certain to run now that North has been nominated . North 's victory also makes virtually certain a second independent candidacy from former Democratic Gov. L. Douglas Wilder , who contends his arch-rival , Robb , is so politically weakened that he cannot retain the Senate seat for the Democrats in November . At the convention , North 's strength was greatest in the southern part of the state . He ran particularly well among rural voters and evangelical Christians , who responded enthusiastically to his Reaganesque appeals to family values and populist attacks on Washington . North 's pre-vote speech centered on the conservative agenda for restraining government the balanced budget amendment , line item veto and term limits as well as opposition to abortion . ( Begin optional trim ) North has acknowledged misleading Congress during the Iran-Contra affair , in which the Reagan administration traded arms to Iran for the release of American hostages in Lebanon and used part of the proceeds to fund the Nicaraguan contras . In proceedings brought by special prosecutor Lawrence Walsh , North was convicted of shredding government documents , accepting an illegal gift of a home security system and obstructing Congress . But his convictions were overturned in 1990 by a Federal appeals court , which ruled that North 's trial was tainted by testimony he gave to Congress while under a guarantee of immunity for prosecution . In the aftermath , North quickly built a national following in conservative circles through speeches and extensive direct mail appeals for a foundation and political action committee he established . ( End optional trim ) Although Miller and North differed little on issues , the race polarized their supporters . At receptions , in hallways , waiting on line for credentials , the nearly 15,000 delegates here regularly combusted into spontaneous debates that inevitably turned on the same questions . Could North win a general election ? Would Miller send to Washington the same stick-in-the-eye message as North ? ( Begin optional trim ) Outside the party dinner Friday night , Robert Dunn , an engineer from the Richmond suburbs , was explaining why he supported North when Mark Roseneker , a Miller supporter from Northern Virginia , challenged him . `` Why gamble for ideology when you can win the election , '' Roseneker asked Dunn . `` We are talking about a candidate ( North ) who reflects poorly on the Republican Party . '' Dunn replied : `` I believe Oliver North can articulate the issues better , motivate the people better , give them a better direction . I believe we need somebody who can really send a message very clearly not muddled like it has been for so long . '' ( End optional trim ) In the weeks leading up to the vote , North had endured a steady barrage of criticism from fellow conservatives and former colleagues , ranging from Reagan to former chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Colin Powell , who had raised questions about his character and veracity . The Democrats will select their nominee in a June 14 primary . Robb , who has been battered by revelations of marital infidelity , faces conservative state Sen. Virgil H. Goode Jr. , Richmond lawyer Sylvia Clute and Nancy Spannaus , a supporter of political extremist Lyndon H. LaRouche Jr. . Polls have shown Robb with a substantial lead , but Goode has been pounding Robb with mailings and television advertisements citing memos from the senator 's own staff detailing allegations that he had committed adultery ; Goode 's television ads accuses Robb of associating with `` prostitutes and drug criminals . '' Wilder and Coleman have until 7 p.m. on June 14 , when the polls close in the Democratic primary , to file the relatively modest 15,000 signatures needed to launch an independent campaign . If the four-way race materializes , Virginia voters will face a tough choice . Keeping track of the grudges alone is a formidable task . Robb and Wilder have a long-standing feud ; Coleman lost the 1981 gubernatorial race to Robb , and a second round to Wilder in 1989 . The religious conservatives fervent for North still bristle at Coleman for abandoning his opposition to abortion in the 1989 race . The political calculations are equally intricate . Paradoxically , the proliferation of candidates may actually help all of the contenders each of whom , for different reasons , would likely have difficulty attracting an absolute majority of votes . In a race with four candidates , though , the winner may need only about 40 percent of the vote a prospect that helps the candidate with the strongest base of committed supporters . North has such a base among evangelical Christians and other ideological conservatives , Wilder among African-Americans ( who constitute between 15-20 percent of the statewide vote in a general election ) ; Robb has already won endorsements from the institutional ligaments of the Democratic Party organized labor , the teachers ' union , and abortion rights groups . To the extent Coleman can match such assets , it will be through what is expected to be the vigorous support of Warner , who remains extremely popular in the state . CAMBRIDGE , England When the speeches were over Saturday at the Cambridge American Cemetery and Memorial , a handful of those who rushed forward were not trying to shake President Clinton 's hand but were trying to get the autograph of the aging New York veteran who had formally introduced him during the program . Ed MacLean , 72 , a retired business executive from Valley Stream , N.Y. , had reminisced about his days as a 22-year-old fighter pilot flying P-47 Thunderbolts in the skies over Germany 97 treacherous missions in all . During the D-Day invasion he had shepherded gliders to Normandy ; later he was part of the `` flying artillery '' that supported Gen. George Patton 's third Army drive into France . `` Back then , we were a bunch of scared kids who had a job to do , and those who died over here were brave individuals doing a tough job under hazardous conditions , '' the portly , balding man told the audience as Clinton looked on . MacLean added that the harsh memories of war `` survive , no matter how deeply buried , and sometimes , like today , they emerge . '' In introducing the president , he said the nation was `` blessed with a commander-in-chief who knows that the military 's ability to meet its commitments still depends on the people who we honor here today . '' The White House asked World War II veterans to introduce Clinton at each of three major speeches he is giving at U.S. cemeteries during a European tour commemorating the 50th anniversary of D-Day . MacLean , president of the 9th Army Air Force Veterans Association and a recipient of the Distinguished Flying Cross and the Air Medal with 16 clusters , was chosen for Saturday 's service honoring the crews that flew from bases in England . MacLean , whose fighter often escorted lumbering B-17s on bombing runs , was introduced by Treasury Secretary Lloyd Bentsen , himself a bomber pilot during the war . `` Ed , on behalf of every bomber pilot who enjoyed the protection of our fighter planes , thank you , '' Bentsen told MacLean . Later , as Scottish pipers played `` Amazing Grace , '' tears rolled down MacLean 's cheeks ; his wife , Genevieve , patted his arm . `` It 's very sad , '' he said later . RICHMOND , Va. Oliver L. North won the Republican nomination for the Senate here Saturday and immediately set the stage for a four-man campaign for the seat of the embattled Democratic incumbent , Charles S. Robb . North defeated James C. Miller III , a former Reagan administration budget director , with more than 55 percent of the vote at a noisy but generally orderly party convention at the Richmond Coliseum . The success of the hard-line conservative figure from the Iran-Contra affair was expected to draw two more candidates into the race as independents , Democratic former Gov. L. Douglas Wilder and Republican former state Attorney General Marshall Coleman . Both already are circulating petitions that would qualify them for the ballot by the deadline June 14 , the same day Robb is expected to win renomination in a Democratic primary . The Senate election in Virginia has been taking on added importance in the past few weeks as political professionals in both parties have come to the view that there is a realistic chance the Republicans could win the seven seats they need to control the Senate in the next two years of President Clinton 's term . Conceding his loss , Miller offered a quick , if perfunctory , promise to put the bitter contest for the nomination into the past . `` It is important , ladies and gentlemen , '' he told more than 13,000 delegates , `` that we now unite . We will get rid of Chuck Robb and put Bill Clinton on the run . '' Gov. George Allen , who had remained neutral in the North-Miller competition , also joined the call for Republican unity . `` I 'll be in the trenches with you , '' he declared . But many of the Miller delegates pointedly avoided joining the demonstration of unity and quickly left the hall suggesting that they have not changed their view that North 's 1987 conviction on three felony counts , later reversed on appeal , makes too much political baggage for him to carry against Robb . North was characteristically defiant in victory , saying his success would send a message to the politicians in Washington that : `` This is our government , they stole it , and we 're coming to take it back . '' Deriding the `` Washington crowd '' with his usual vehemence , he told cheering admirers , `` They 'll never see Ollie North crawl up Capitol Hill to kiss their big , fat rings . '' North 's convention victory fulfilled almost precisely his campaign 's predictions . He won seven of Virginia 's 11 congressional districts and held his losses in strong Miller areas to minimal figures . In the 11th District in the Washington suburbs , for example , Miller won only by 758-708 . Statewide , it was North 4,858 , Miller 3,724 . The post-convention rhetoric did little to paper over the basic schism in the party over which Republican would have the best chance of defeating Robb , whose negatives in opinion polls are as high as North 's because of Robb 's personal indiscretions when he was governor of the state . Miller originally had been given little or no chance of mounting a serious challenge to North . But assaults on the former Marine officer by such fellow Republicans as Sen. John W. Warner , Virginia 's most popular politician at the moment , former President Reagan and former Gov. Linwood Holton nourished open doubts among regular Republicans about North as a viable candidate , even in a race against a compromised Democratic incumbent . And opinion polls showed that Miller , but not North , could defeat Robb in the November general election . ( Optional Add End ) `` Many powerful people will try to stand in our way , '' North said in an obvious reference to Warner 's promise to help Coleman 's independent candidacy , `` but I 'd rather do what is right than be anointed by some professional politician . '' The prospect of two independents with some political standing has set off puzzled speculation among political handicappers . Wilder , the first black ever elected to a state governorship when he won here in 1989 , would be expected to get overwhelming support from black voters who might make up 17 percent to 18 percent of the total meaning that even with a modest white vote he could be a contender in a four-way race in which there is no runoff requirement . Coleman 's potential is harder to measure . He has been advanced by Warner and others as a way to provide moderate Virginia Republicans a palatable alternative in the general election to North . But Coleman already has lost three statewide races , and some Virginia strategists question his potential to match North 's following among devout conservatives and voters from the religious right . RICHMOND , Va. Oliver L. North won Virginia 's Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate Saturday , beating back a vigorous challenge from James C. Miller III and then launching a blistering attack on `` the tyranny of professional politicians . '' In a state party convention jammed with about 14,000 delegates , North won about 55 percent of the vote to Miller 's 45 percent . The theme music from the movie `` Rocky '' boomed through the Richmond Coliseum , as he acknowledged his victory and served strident notice of the way he would run this fall . `` Virginians are sick and tired of a Congress run by back-slapping good old boys and a White House governed by a bunch of twentysomething kids with an earring and an axe to grind , '' he told roaring delegates . `` I 've got news for them . They will never see Ollie North crawling up the steps of Capitol Hill to kiss their big fat rings . '' Flashing the gap-toothed grin made famous during his 1987 testimony before Congress on the Iran-Contra scandal , the retired Marine lieutenant colonel laid out the themes that advisers said will form the primary thrust of this , his first campaign . He attempted to link the Democratic incumbent , Sen. Charles S. Robb , with President Clinton , and cast himself as a renegade populist waging a one-man war against `` the Washington establishment . '' `` Today , we send the Clintons and their cronies a simple but unmistakable message , '' he said . `` This is our government . You stole it . And we are going to take it back . But North 's 10-point victory margin fell short of the predictions his campaign made early this year and exposed his political weaknesses as he enters the general election . Despite spending more than $ 6 million on the race so far , he ran well behind Miller in the critical urban centers of Northern Virginia , Richmond and Hampton Roads . North , 50 , also faces the immediate prospect of a revolt by members of his own party who consider him too conservative or unworthy of support because of his role in the Iran-Contra affair . Former State Attorney General J. Marshall Coleman is considering renouncing the GOP to run for the Senate as an independent . Coleman would not comment Saturday , but a key booster said a petition drive to put him on the ballot has gathered more than 20,000 signatures , several thousand more than is needed . Along with Coleman , former Gov. L. Douglas Wilder , a Democrat , is moving toward an independent candidacy , setting up the prospect of a four-way Senate race this fall . The Democratic nominee will be chosen in a June 14 primary election , with Robb favored over three challengers . Political analysts said Saturday that North 's core of intensely loyal supporters gives him a stong start in a contest with several candidates . But they said his poor showing in urban Virginia shows how hard it will be for him to expand his base . `` Ollie North has a very fervent following , but it will be a tall order for him to credibly appeal to voters in Northern Virginia , '' said Mark J. Rozell , a political scientist at Mary Washington College . `` He lost that vote even within his own party , among conservatives . '' As media from around the world recorded the partisan speeches and merrymaking of one of the largest nominating conventions in U.S. history , North 's ebullient supporters took no notice of any losses . Their man played unashamedly on emotion and adrenaline , and when he spoke , there was genuine electricity in the air . The Marine Hymn preceded his first appearance on the podium , and after he concluded his nominating speech , his wife , Betsy , and three children joined him there . The voting started about 1:30 p.m. and continued for more than an hour . The arena broke into booming cheers as soon as Fairfax County Board Chairman Thomas M. Davis III announced North 's tally and put him over the top . Miller , a former federal budget director who was given very little chance of winning early this year , benefited substantially from anti-North sentiment . Many party activists said Saturday that Miller 's campaign had gained credibility and skill in the contest 's closing weeks . In the end , he won four of the state 's 11 congressional districts . `` Give 'em credit , '' said Mark Goodin , a senior North adviser . `` They did a very good job . '' As he conceded the nomination , Miller , 51 , pledged his support to North , but he was obviously shaken and dejected . `` I am hurt but I am not slain , '' he told the convention , quoting from a work he identified as `` The Ballad of Sir Andrew Barton . '' `` I will lay me down and bleed a while , '' Miller said . `` Then I will rise and fight again . '' Both men-onetime members of the Reagan administration-are expected to appear together here Sunday at a Republican `` unity breakfast , '' an occasion designed to demonstrate that the party is already beginning to heal its wounds . But the task of healing will be extremely difficult , and in some cases impossible . North hardly had finished his victory speech when one local party official from Nottoway County in Southside Virginia announced on the floor that he was resigning his post . `` There is no way in hell I can support Ollie North , '' said Greg Eanes , 35 , a 15-year Air Force veteran who is chairman of the 61st House of Delegates District GOP committee . Referring to North 's admitted lies before Congress , Eanes said , `` He betrayed the Constitution . '' Party officials played down the prospect of a rupture , saying that the vast majority of those attending would back North . Every delegate who attended Saturday 's convention signed a loyalty oath , pledging in advance to support the winner of the contest . Rep. Thomas J. Bliley , of Richmond , was one of Miller 's strongest supporters . But after the vote he said that North `` will be a very charismatic candidate . He 'll campaign very hard , and he 'll have all the money he needs . '' Bliley predicted a tough race , but he said he believes North will win . What few people mentioned were the polls showing that North would lose badly against Robb . Some moderate Virginians have said they view him less as an anti-establishment hero than as a reckless ideologue . North 's rousing acceptance speech likely gave them and certainly Democrats further concern . He railed about `` a liberal government that is up to its caboose in the peccadilloes and personal distractions of its president . '' He also made clear that he would not run from his past as a staff member of Reagan 's National Security Council , a position in which he secretly negotiated to trade arms in exchange for U.S. hostages . He called for new leadership in a boastful reference to his days on Reagan 's National Security Council and his role in trading arms to Iran for hostages : `` In our hearts , we know it 's just this simple : Our government is being held hostage a captive of the potentates of pork who live high on the hog off of big government . Well , I know something about liberating hostages . '' Aides to North acknowledged after his victory that his defeat in Virginia 's most populous areas is a significant problem for him . But they say North will overcome it by reintroducing himself to voters in those areas with a barrage of television advertising . North is on track to challenge the all-time record for fund-raising by a Senate candidate , $ 12.5 million , and political observers expect him to be a formidable presence on the state 's airwaves this fall . Despite the convention 's enthusiastic conclusion , the party 's differences were apparent . Sen. John W. Warner a 16-year Capitol Hill veteran who is the party 's longest-serving and most popular statewide official came under assault from party conservatives for his repeated criticisms of North . But they failed in an effort to change party rules in a way that could damage his renomination prospects in 1996 . Warner was traveling in Europe Saturday and could not be reached for comment . He said recently that he would support a bid by Coleman , and he threatened to seek reelection himself as an independent in 1996 . SALT LAKE CITY In a triumphant but somber funeral , the world 's 8.8 million Mormons bid farewell Saturday to Ezra Taft Benson , the Idaho `` plowboy '' who rose to become the 13th president of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints and the man whom the faithful considered to be God 's prophet on earth . Held in the Mormon Tabernacle , just a few yards from the historic Mormon Temple with its heroic gilded statue of the angel Moroni blowing a trumpet atop a stylized Gothic steeple , the funeral drew an estimated 5,000 Mormons and others , and messages from President Clinton , Vice President Al Gore , U . N. Secretary-General Boutros Boutros-Ghali , Utah Gov. Michael O . Leavitt and other dignitaries . The Mormon Tabernacle Choir sang several of Benson 's favorite hymns , including `` Love at Home , '' and `` An Angel from on High . '' Benson , who served as Secretary of Agriculture in the Eisenhower administration and became president-prophet of the Mormon church in 1985 , died May 30 of congestive heart failure . He had been incapacitated for the past two years . He was 94 . Thousands of people lined the highway between Salt Lake City and Whitney , Idaho , as the funeral procession made the two-hour drive to Benson 's birthplace . There , surrounded by the faithful , including his children , grandchildren and great grandchildren , he was buried in a rural cemetery beside his late wife , Flora , who died in August , 1992 . It was the only second time a president-prophet of the church had been laid to rest outside the state of Utah . Former Los Angeles attorney Howard W. Hunter , the most senior member of the Council of the Twelve Apostles , is expected to succeed Benson within a matter of days , church officials said . Hunter , 86 , who spoke with a sometimes frail voice and required assistance to reach his chair and the podium , said Benson would be remembered for his love of the Book of Mormon . Hunter drew some appreciative laughter when he said that although Benson 's passing was a time of sadness , `` it thrills us to think of the joyful reunion President Benson is having with his beloved sweetheart , Flora , who has been waiting patiently or perhaps even a little impatiently for her husband of 66 years to join her on the other side . '' Mormons believe in life after death and that marriages are eternal . Tributes to Benson were numerous . Clinton hailed Benson as `` a spiritual man .. . and someone who believed the priestly idea that families come first . '' Thomas S. Monson , Mormon president and former second counselor to Benson , recalled Benson 's work in Europe following World War II in bringing food and clothing to the hungry and homeless . He was hailed for his work with the Boy Scouts of America and for his ardent anti-communism . Gordon B . Hinckley , another Mormon president and former first counselor to Benson , said he had no doubt that the sight of war-ravaged Europe and desperate people was responsible for Benson 's outspoken anti-communism . Benson once offered outspoken support for the ultraconservative John Birch Society . ( Begin optional trim ) `` I am confident that it was out of what he saw of the bitter fruit of dictatorship that he developed his strong feelings , almost hatred , for communism and socialism , '' Hinckley said . Over the years , however , Benson directed his fullest attention to the church . During his eight years as president , he stressed the importance of missionary work and for his exhortations to Mormons to read the church 's sacred Scripture , the Book of Mormon and pattern their lives after the prophets and Jesus Christ . He had been a force within the denomination since 1943 when he became an apostle , a high-ranking position in the church 's all-male hierarchy . ( End optional trim ) But the recurring theme Saturday was that of a simple farm boy who rose to political greatness and spiritual heights . `` The plowboy who became God 's prophet has gone home , '' Monson said . Moments later , Hinckley returned to that theme . `` He was a farm boy , literally and truly , an overall-clad , sunburned boy who at a very early age came to know the law of the harvest : ` Whatsoever a man soweth , that shall he also reap ' , '' Hinckley said , quoting from Galatians 6:7 . The funeral service was broadcast by satellite to 3,000 church locations throughout the United States and the world . BUENOS AIRES , Argentina When ABC Television aired Sam Donaldson 's in-your-face interview with Erich Priebke early in May , the American network not only revealed the presence of an accused Gestapo war criminal in southern Argentina . It also put a prime-time spotlight on this South American country 's shadowy role as a haven for World War II Nazis . Priebke , a former German SS captain who participated in the execution of 335 Italian civilians in 1944 , has lived peacefully and quietly in Argentina since 1948 . He and hundreds of other Nazis who came to South America after the war found anonymity and security , precious commodities for men who were hated and hunted elsewhere in the world . How Third Reich killers and collaborators were able to hide out in this country is now becoming increasingly clear : In the past two years , the Argentine government has opened previously secret archives to researchers who want to trace the steps of Nazis in this country . And as the painstaking research proceeds , under the auspices of Argentina 's Jewish community , it is turning up documents that detail a historical pattern of tolerance and complicity on behalf of fugitive Nazis . `` There was a network of protection if not legal , at least bought that made it very difficult to find them and bring them to justice , '' says Ruben Beraja , leader of the Delegation of Argentine Israelites Associations , which is sponsoring the research dubbed Project Testimony . Exactly how the protective systems worked and who was involved has long been a subject of speculation . Nazi-hunters have discovered some of the puzzle 's pieces over the years as they tracked down war criminals in Argentina , including the notorious Adolf Eichmann . But important information in the form of official documents diplomatic notes , police reports , administrative memoranda was largely out of reach until Project Testimony . Although the documents uncovered have yet to be catalogued and cross-referenced , researchers showed the Los Angeles Times copies of hundreds of pages containing intriguing information on notable Nazi figures . Many of the documents show that Nazis entered Argentina with travel papers issued by the International Red Cross , reinforcing allegations of Red Cross negligence or complicity in the flight of Nazi war criminals to South America . Red Cross officials now say that it was not the organization 's job to investigate applicants for travel documents . An Argentine Federal Police memorandum from 1964 notes that death-camp doctor Josef Mengele `` entered the country on 20 May , 1949 , carrying passport No. 100,501 , issued by the International Red Cross in the name of Gregor Helmut . '' That document also shows that German authorities were also careless , at the very least , in Mengele 's case . `` In November of 1956 , '' the memo says , `` he presented his birth certificate with his true name , certified by the Embassy of the Federal German Republic in our country , and requested the rectification of his name and surname . '' Argentine authorities issued him a new identification card with his real name . Mengele was known as the `` Angel of Death '' for his role in the extermination of thousands of Jews at the Auschwitz death camp , where he performed experiments on prisoners . Other documents found by Project Testimony say Mengele practiced medicine here , reportedly specializing in illegal abortions . One paper explains Argentina 's refusal to arrest Mengele for extradition because `` the crimes attributed to the subject are political in nature . '' An order for his arrest was finally issued in 1961 , but he was never found . Mengele later lived under another name in neighboring Brazil , where he drowned at an Atlantic resort in 1979 , according to Brazilian authorities and international investigators . Another Nazi war criminal who came to Argentina was Josef Schwammberger , an SS sergeant who participated in thousands of killings as the commander of Jewish slave labor camps in southeastern Poland during the war . An Argentine police document says Schwammberger entered the country in 1949 . The only Nazi war criminal ever extradited from Argentina , Schwammberger was convicted in Germany and sentenced to life in prison in 1992 . In several notable cases , Argentine authorities have refused to extradite Nazi war criminals . In 1947 , for example , the Communist government of the former Yugoslavia requested the extradition of Ante Pavelic , a former Croatian leader and Nazi collaborator , for war crimes . A previously secret Argentine Foreign Ministry document recommended refusal . `` The ` war crime ' is what we could call a recent juridical creation .. . akin to that of political crime , '' the document said . `` Argentine legislation only contemplates extradition for common crimes , and it prohibits it for political crimes . '' ( Begin optional trim ) A June 1947 letter from the U.S. . Embassy in Buenos Aires asked Argentina not to admit Milan Stoyadinovich , a pro-Nazi former premier of Yugoslavia . On Sept. 22 , a man named Branko Benzon asked Director of Migration Pablo Diana to allow Stoyadinovich and his family to enter Argentina . The next day , Diana authorized the entry . According to Project Testimony , the Yugoslav-born Benzon was a member of a secret commission that advised Diana 's office on entrance permits for refugees from Europe , and the commission 's members were natives of European countries who frequently made recommendations in favor of Nazis . Project Testimony is preparing to release a document that shows how the commission played a key role in influencing immigration policy on behalf of fleeing Nazis . ( End optional trim ) Admiration for Germany was widespread in South American countries during the 1930s . President Juan Peron , who governed Argentina with an authoritarian hand from 1946 to 1955 , has been accused of neo-Nazi tendencies an accusation heatedly denied by Peronists . Project Testimony coordinator Beatriz Gurevich emphasized that Argentina was not the only Nazi haven and not all Argentine officials were pro-Nazi . `` It would be mistaken to think that in Argentina there was a generalized anti-Jewish and pro-Nazi attitude , because it wasn't so , '' she said . Some documents uncovered by Project Testimony have shown that some Argentine diplomats in Europe helped protect Jews from persecution before and during the war . Others , however , denied visas to Jews and helped Nazis after the war . Argentine diplomats in China sold visas to Jews and Nazis alike for up to $ 2,500 , according to researchers . In the Foreign Ministry files , researchers have discovered a 1946 note from the U.S. . Embassy that speaks of large-scale efforts to sneak Nazis into Argentina . `` There exists a concerted plan to arrange the clandestine departure from Spain and entry into Argentina of former German agents , '' the note says . `` It appears that it is becoming increasingly difficult for such German agents in Spain to remain concealed and that , as a consequence , some 150 to 200 Germans expect to come to Argentina under false identification . '' ( Begin optional trim ) Project Testimony is being carried out by a handful of researchers . Gurevich keeps copies of some key documents in her office but often is unable to locate requested papers . Only one researcher is assigned to the laborious work of entering all the data in computers . Research in the government archives is laborious . Uncounted boxes of documents , often in disorder and without indexes , remain to be studied . Gurevich said many documents will never be found because they have been thrown away or purged . Information on Nazi arch-criminal Eichmann , she said , `` is almost all purged . '' The government says the Eichmann files were lost . Eichmann , mastermind of Hitler 's genocidal policy against Jews , was abducted from Argentina by Israeli agents in 1960 , tried in Israel and hanged . ( End optional trim ) So far , the archives have yielded no information on Priebke , the former Nazi now being held in southern Argentina at Italy 's request . Gurevich said she had no knowledge of most other Nazis said to still be living in Argentina . Her project 's purposes are historical , she said , with no priority on tracking down or gathering evidence against living war criminals . ( Optional add end ) The Simon Wiesenthal Center in Los Angeles has proposed that Argentina form a special task force to look for Nazi war criminals in this country . Argentine President Carlos Saul Menem recently said he thought such an investigative group would be a good idea . Menem also has said that Priebke would be extradited `` immediately , if all the documents are in order . '' But Leonidas Moldes , the judge now in charge of the Priebke case , ruled in 1988 against the extradition of Abraham Kipp , a former SS policeman from the Netherlands who has lived in Argentina since 1949 and been convicted in absentia of war crimes by a Dutch court . Priebke has admitted that he was the second-in-command of troops that executed 335 Italians , including about 75 Jews , at the Ardeatine Caves south of Rome . But he told Argentine reporters recently that all the victims were Communist terrorists and were killed in reprisal for an attack that killed 33 Nazis . In late May , after Priebke 's house arrest , the Italian Embassy asked Argentine authorities to take special security measures to prevent the ex-Nazi from escaping with the help of `` organized groups . '' Priebke , 81 , is reported to be deeply depressed and in poor health , with high blood pressure and an irregular heartbeat . It remains to be seen whether he will live to become the second Nazi war criminal to be extradited from Argentina . The Federal Aviation Administration 's top scientist warned prior to two fatal airplane accidents that wake turbulence from Boeing 757 jetliners would cause a `` major crash '' if the agency failed to take preventive measures , internal documents show . The documents reveal for the first time that experts within the FAA itself had , before the tragedies in Billings , Mont. , and Santa Ana , Calif. , expressed serious concerns about the potential danger to planes operating behind 757s . Eleven days before the Dec. 18 , 1992 Billings crash killed eight people and a year before the Dec. 15 , 1993 , Santa Ana accident claimed five lives , chief scientist Robert E. Machol predicted a `` catastrophe '' due to 757 wake turbulence at a a special meeting with the FAA 's hierarchy . Yet it wasn't until after the Santa Ana accident that FAA Administrator David R. Hinson first drew nationwide attention to the problem , issuing a bulletin instructing air traffic controllers to routinely alert pilots to the threat posed by 757s . The plane 's unique , fuel-efficient design creates invisible , `` horizontal tornadoes '' emanating from each wingtip that are more powerful and last longer than any produced by other aircraft its size . `` It 's true , '' Machol said in a recent interview . `` I was the first guy within the agency who got up and said we 're likely to have a catastrophe , a real catastrophe , probably involving a DC-9 or a Fokker , and lose 70 to 100 people , if we don't do something . `` I wanted to speak to the associate administrators because I was scared . '' The 226 pages of FAA letters and memorandums were obtained by the Los Angeles Times under the Freedom of Information Act , after officials fought their release . An FAA spokesman said last week that the agency is investigating whether the records were withheld in violation of the federal disclosure law . Sources have also provided the Times with documents indicating that agency officials were concerned about how Machol 's warnings might be viewed . On one of Machol 's memos , an official jotted a cautionary note that Machol should temper his words lest someone interpret the document to be a `` smoking gun . '' The FAA has resisted efforts to increase separation distances between 757s and tailing airplanes because it could potentially decrease the number of flights at airports . That could cut into revenues of the fiscally hobbled airline industry . Even mid-sized passenger jets such as MD-80s , DC-9s and Boeing 737s , which can carry 100 passengers or more , can be `` rolled '' and knocked out of control when they encounter the 757 's `` wake vortex . '' The hazard is greatest during landing and take-off when the smaller plane can inadvertently fall below the 757 's flight path and find itself entangled in a danger zone of swirling , hurricane-force winds . Tony Broderick , the FAA 's associate administrator for regulation and certification , attended the Dec. 7 , 1992 meeting and recalls Machol `` expressing concern about wake vortices on a 757 , '' he said . But Machol failed to provide `` specific data '' to justify the agency 's immediate intervention , Broderick said . Yet when Hinson recently announced a set of new policies on 757s including a requirement that pilots of smaller planes landing behind 757s maintain a one-mile greater distance it came with no new data other than the two fatal accidents and three serious incidents over the past 18 months . Most of the new policies , which require air traffic controllers to be more cautious when dealing with planes trailing 757s , take effect this summer . In retrospect , Broderick acknowledged , the FAA could have acted sooner . `` I think it 's certainly fair to say that these two tragic accidents caused us to place more emphasis on the wake vortex ( research and development ) project than we had in the past , '' Broderick said . The combination of the accidents , Machol 's concerns and the existing research on 757s , he said , `` convinced us that there were an awful lot of holes in our knowledge . '' ( Optional Add End ) Leo Garodz , a former FAA manager who expressed his concerns about 757 wake turbulence to the FAA in 1991 as a consultant , was surprised to learn that Machol had raised red flags on the agency 's wake turbulence policies as far back as 1989 . `` They had their own guy saying the same thing and they still kept it quiet . That 's amazing , '' said Garodz , a former fighter pilot who worked in the FAA 's wake turbulence program for two decades before retiring in 1986 . Machol , who retired from the FAA April 30 , said it was not unusual that his warnings went largely unheeded . `` Well , it is , in general , true that the FAA does not put a significant amount of time and money into something until they have a tragedy , '' he said . Reflecting the sobering calculus that the FAA and the airline industry employ , Machol said that the 13 deaths in 18 months was not an alarming- enough figure to prompt drastic action . `` The 13 ? That 's not much , really , '' he said . `` We fly about 500 million people a year in the United States , and .. . about 100 ( are killed ) , on average . That 's not a bad number . '' WASHINGTON Rep. Dan Rostenkowski 's trial on charges of fraud and embezzlement may be months away but many of his fellow lawmakers particularly Democrats fear that the public has already found the entire Congress guilty . `` No matter how it turns out for Rosty , we 've all been indicted in the public 's mind .. . and sentencing is set for Nov. 8 , '' said a House leadership aide , referring to the widespread concern that Congress ' latest scandal will fuel voter anger at incumbents seeking re-election this fall . Thomas Mann , director of governmental studies at the Brookings Institution , said the Chicago Democrat 's alleged misdeeds are far from typical of the way lawmakers behave . Despite that , he said , the allegations are likely to confirm the prejudices of disillusioned voters who think that the very word `` Congress '' has but two synonyms : pork and corruption . For worried Democrats , Rostenkowski 's indictment earlier this week on 17 felony counts also raises the specter of a high-profile trial that will refocus public attention just before congressional elections on the way they have run the institution . `` Congress as a whole and the Democratic leadership in particular will in some ways be on trial with Rostenkowski , and that has a lot of people concerned about what will happen in November , '' said the House leadership aide . Some Democratic strategists are still hoping that the political damage will be minimal . Unlike the House bank scandal two years ago , when many members were found to have abused the free overdraft priviliges that went with their congressional checking accounts , the current allegations involve only Rostenkowski , an Illinois Democrat who is accused of defrauding taxpayers of more than $ 500,000 through a series of illicit transactions that allegedly included kickbacks , misuse of government funds and fraudulent stamps-for-cash swaps at the House post office . As for its repercussions in November , `` this has nowhere near the importance or the dimensions of the House bank scandal , where you had widespread personal culpability , '' said Democratic pollster Mark Mellman . The case against Rostenkowski remains unproved . But the allegations that he padded his payroll with ghost workers and that he obtained thousands of dollars worth of free stamps and illegally converted them into cash at the House post office are so juicy that Republican strategists hope to use them against all incumbent Democrats in the fall . While paying lip service to the notion that the deposed Ways and Means Committee chairman is innocent until proven guilty , the Republicans are already touting Rostenkowski 's indictment as proof that corruption has been allowed to run rampant in a Democratic Congress . `` Rosty deserves the right to plead innocent just like any other American but , when it comes to enforcing ethics in Congress , the Democrats who 've controlled the House for 40 years are guilty of criminal negligence , '' said Rep. Dick Armey of Texas , chairman of the House Republican Conference . Other analysts caution , however , that a strategy that relies too heavily on Congress-bashing and anti-incumbency could easily backfire on the Republicans . `` Once you stir up anti-incumbency sentiments , it 's very hard to steer them in a particular direction , '' said William Schneider , a political analyst at the American Enterprise Institute . ( Optional Add End ) `` The risk for Republicans in raising the Rosty issue is that the public willn't see it in partisan terms '' and that all incumbents will suffer , he added . The Republicans , moreover , have some ethical baggage of their own . The ranking Republican on the House Appropriations Committee , Rep. Joseph M. McDade of Pennsylvania , has been under indictment on rackteering charges for two years . In the Senate , Republican Bob Packwood of Oregon is being investigated by the Ethics Committee on charges of sexual misconduct . SARAJEVO , Bosnia-Herzegovina In some Bosnian Serbs , the bushy-haired psychiatrist who claims to be their political leader evokes emotions of resentment , anger and disgust . While the outside world sees Radovan Karadzic as the defender of Serbian interests in this savaged republic , many of those he claims to speak for condemn his nationalist course and accuse him of destroying their country . `` To me , he is not a president but a war criminal , '' says housewife Gordana Kitic , squeezing the air out of a collapsible baby bottle as she prepares to feed her 3-month-old daughter . `` He represents only a minority of Serbs in Bosnia , '' insists biology professor Ljubomir Berberovic , poking at a sheaf of statistics contending that a greater number of his fellow Serbs have fled the country or remained loyal to the Sarajevo government . `` Who elected him ? No one . So why does the world accept him as our leader ? '' asks publisher Gavrilo Grahovac , a look of incredulity coming over his bearded face . Grahovac and other Serbs who reject the aggressive , segregationist course charted by Karadzic concede that they know very well why the world deals with the rebel leader accused of committing atrocities in pursuit of ethnically `` pure '' territory for Greater Serbia . Regardless of whether they are legitimate representatives or renegades , Karadzic and his nationalist patrons are backed by the awesome arsenal of the Yugoslav army . In the might-makes-right reality of the Balkans in this third year of war , the voices of moderation are routinely drowned out by those whose words are punctuated with gunfire . Yet despite their lack of military clout , Bosnian Serbs who have refused to side with their bellicose brethren have banded together and insist on at least a peripheral role in international efforts to resolve Bosnia 's crisis . Grahovac and other members of a newly constituted Bosnian Serb Assembly have traveled to Moscow and to West European capitals to explain their objections to ethnic partitioning , and some international mediators are now weighing their views along with those of Karadzic . `` We 've proposed to all the negotiators that they at least stop dealing with Karadzic as the sole representative of the Serbs in Bosnia-Herzegovina , '' says Mirko Pejanovic , a vice president of Bosnia and president of the Bosnian Serb Assembly . `` I think there is a growing acceptance that he does not speak for all of us . '' An inaugural session of the Serb Assembly in March was attended by U.S. special envoy for the Balkans Charles Redman , as well as by the American , British , French and other ambassadors recently posted to Bosnia . Diplomats report that their governments are in a quandary about how to deal with the rival Bosnian Serb faction , particularly since they find the assembly 's support for a multicultural Bosnia more politically palatable than the nationalists ' bloody quest for ethnic segregation . `` We support their views , but we have to recognize they have no power , '' one senior Western envoy said of the loyalist Serbs . `` The reality is that Karadzic has the weaponry and the JNA ( Yugoslav army ) behind him , which is a factor that cannot be ignored . '' Berberovic , who was the last rector of Sarajevo University before education was disrupted by the Serbian rebellion against independence in April 1992 , has compiled an analysis of the fate of Bosnia 's Serbs . He has concluded that Karadzic is supported by only a subjugated minority . ( Optional Add End ) His research contends that of the 1.4 million Serbs in prewar Bosnia , at least 350,000 took refuge in Serbia , mostly to escape the hazards of rebel artillery attacks against the integrated towns and cities they lived in . Records of the Office of the U.N. . High Commissioner for Refugees , responsible for feeding and providing shelter for the displaced , suggest that this estimate is not far off . A report compiled by the U.N. agency late last year set the number of Bosnian refugees in Serbia at 322,000 , nearly all of them ethnic Serbs . Of the 1.2 million Bosnian refugees who scattered beyond the former Yugoslav federation , at least one-third are thought to be Serbs . Presumably , Berberovic says , many fled in opposition to the nationalist attacks on their fellow Bosnians or to escape being conscripted into the rebel army . Berberovic also claims that 100,000 Bosnian Serbs have been killed in rebel-held territory over the course of the war and that at least 150,000 Serbs remain in those areas of Bosnia still under government rule . Those figures , however , are regarded by foreign aid agencies and diplomats as somewhat inflated . Considering the number of refugees , fatalities and loyalists , Karadzic rules over only about 500,000 Bosnian Serbs , Berberovic argues . However , Sarajevo high school teacher Bozo Djondovic notes that not all of those in government territory are remaining there of their own free will . `` There are a lot of people , and not only Serbs , who can't wait to leave this city , '' says Djondovic , who like all adult men in the Bosnian capital is prevented from leaving by a wartime security order . `` I still wouldn't go to Karadzic 's side . My family is in Montenegro , and I would go to join them in a minute if I could . It will not be much better there , but it couldn't be as bad as it is here . '' After the Serb Assembly proclaimed its aim of restoring Bosnia 's territorial integrity and restated its commitment to ethnic tolerance , an anti-nationalist underground movement based in the rebel stronghold of Banja Luka contacted the Serbian loyalists in Sarajevo through a circuitous network of supporters reaching as far as Australia . `` If there are some brave enough to risk contacting us , we have to assume that there are a lot of people who don't support Karadzic but are too frightened to show any sign , '' says Stevo Latinovic , a Serbian journalist working for Bosnia 's government-controlled radio . SARAJEVO , Bosnia-Herzegovina In some Bosnian Serbs , the bushy-haired psychiatrist who claims to be their political leader evokes emotions of resentment , anger and disgust . While the outside world sees Radovan Karadzic as the defender of Serbian interests in this savaged republic , many of those he claims to speak for condemn his nationalist course and accuse him of destroying their country . `` To me , he is not a president but a war criminal , '' says housewife Gordana Kitic , squeezing the air out of a collapsible baby bottle as she prepares to feed her 3-month-old daughter . `` He represents only a minority of Serbs in Bosnia , '' insists biology professor Ljubomir Berberovic , poking at a sheaf of statistics contending that a greater number of his fellow Serbs have fled the country or remained loyal to the Sarajevo government . `` Who elected him ? No one . So why does the world accept him as our leader ? '' asks publisher Gavrilo Grahovac , a look of incredulity coming over his bearded face . Grahovac and other Serbs who reject the aggressive , segregationist course charted by Karadzic concede that they know very well why the world deals with the rebel leader accused of committing atrocities in pursuit of ethnically `` pure '' territory for Greater Serbia . Regardless of whether they are legitimate representatives or renegades , Karadzic and his nationalist patrons are backed by the awesome arsenal of the Yugoslav army . In the might-makes-right reality of the Balkans in this third year of war , the voices of moderation are routinely drowned out by those whose words are punctuated with gunfire . Yet despite their lack of military clout , Bosnian Serbs who have refused to side with their bellicose brethren have banded together and insist on at least a peripheral role in international efforts to resolve Bosnia 's crisis . Grahovac and other members of a newly constituted Bosnian Serb Assembly have traveled to Moscow and to West European capitals to explain their objections to ethnic partitioning , and some international mediators are now weighing their views along with those of Karadzic . `` We 've proposed to all the negotiators that they at least stop dealing with Karadzic as the sole representative of the Serbs in Bosnia-Herzegovina , '' says Mirko Pejanovic , a vice president of Bosnia and president of the Bosnian Serb Assembly . `` I think there is a growing acceptance that he does not speak for all of us . '' An inaugural session of the Serb Assembly in March was attended by U.S. special envoy for the Balkans Charles Redman , as well as by the American , British , French and other ambassadors recently posted to Bosnia . Diplomats report that their governments are in a quandary about how to deal with the rival Bosnian Serb faction , particularly since they find the assembly 's support for a multicultural Bosnia more politically palatable than the nationalists ' bloody quest for ethnic segregation . `` We support their views , but we have to recognize they have no power , '' one senior Western envoy said of the loyalist Serbs . `` The reality is that Karadzic has the weaponry and the JNA ( Yugoslav army ) behind him , which is a factor that cannot be ignored . '' Berberovic , who was the last rector of Sarajevo University before education was disrupted by the Serbian rebellion against independence in April 1992 , has compiled an analysis of the fate of Bosnia 's Serbs . He has concluded that Karadzic is supported by only a subjugated minority . ( Optional Add End ) His research contends that of the 1.4 million Serbs in prewar Bosnia , at least 350,000 took refuge in Serbia , mostly to escape the hazards of rebel artillery attacks against the integrated towns and cities they lived in . Records of the Office of the U.N. . High Commissioner for Refugees , responsible for feeding and providing shelter for the displaced , suggest that this estimate is not far off . A report compiled by the U.N. agency late last year set the number of Bosnian refugees in Serbia at 322,000 , nearly all of them ethnic Serbs . Of the 1.2 million Bosnian refugees who scattered beyond the former Yugoslav federation , at least one-third are thought to be Serbs . Presumably , Berberovic says , many fled in opposition to the nationalist attacks on their fellow Bosnians or to escape being conscripted into the rebel army . Berberovic also claims that 100,000 Bosnian Serbs have been killed in rebel-held territory over the course of the war and that at least 150,000 Serbs remain in those areas of Bosnia still under government rule . Those figures , however , are regarded by foreign aid agencies and diplomats as somewhat inflated . Considering the number of refugees , fatalities and loyalists , Karadzic rules over only about 500,000 Bosnian Serbs , Berberovic argues . However , Sarajevo high school teacher Bozo Djondovic notes that not all of those in government territory are remaining there of their own free will . `` There are a lot of people , and not only Serbs , who can't wait to leave this city , '' says Djondovic , who like all adult men in the Bosnian capital is prevented from leaving by a wartime security order . `` I still wouldn't go to Karadzic 's side . My family is in Montenegro , and I would go to join them in a minute if I could . It will not be much better there , but it couldn't be as bad as it is here . '' After the Serb Assembly proclaimed its aim of restoring Bosnia 's territorial integrity and restated its commitment to ethnic tolerance , an anti-nationalist underground movement based in the rebel stronghold of Banja Luka contacted the Serbian loyalists in Sarajevo through a circuitous network of supporters reaching as far as Australia . `` If there are some brave enough to risk contacting us , we have to assume that there are a lot of people who don't support Karadzic but are too frightened to show any sign , '' says Stevo Latinovic , a Serbian journalist working for Bosnia 's government-controlled radio . LAS VEGAS Sounding like a conservative politician and preacher , Nation of Islam leader Louis Farrakhan spoke reproachfully Saturday night of a vain society `` where greed , lust and an inordinate self-interest have taken over , '' and scolded blacks for not organizing and taking more economic control of their communities . Speaking in Las Vegas , the 61-year-old Muslim leader avoided much of the politically explosive language that in the past 10 years has made him a controversial figure and drawn the enmity of a broad spectrum of political and religious leaders . Instead , Farrakhan emphasized his theme of self-empowerment and self-discipline among blacks , urging them to organize economically and socially . `` The Polish organize , the Jews organize , '' he said in a speech before 6,000 at the Thomas & Mack Center at the University of Nevada Las Vegas . `` What is wrong with you ? .. . You have been here longer than any racial or ethnic group , and you have less to show for it . '' Six days after his former spokesman was shot in Riverside , Farrakhan did not comment directly on the ambush , but said : `` We live in such a dangerous hour. .. . To hurt people because you disagree with them is totally unacceptable in civilized society . '' Farrakhan spent much of his speech addressing the much-publicized criticism of him . `` While talk of racism and anti-Semitism swirl around my head , I 'm here to let you know that calling Farrakhan a racist and a bigot and an anti-Semite is not going to help you solve your problems , '' he said to sustained applause . `` I deplore racism . I am saying it again : I deplore racism . `` To be a racist , to me , is to be one who promotes his or her race as superior to , or better than .. . any other race. .. . That 's wickedness . '' Farrakhan spoke extemporaneously for several hours . In a thundering voice , he railed against depriving other human beings of their rights . `` Although I want to see black people uplifted , '' he said , `` I will never resort to evil to uplift black people at the expense of others . '' He also described the notion of him being against white people as `` silly . '' `` We have done nothing to keep white people from being successful . We have done nothing to keep Jewish people from being successful . We do not marshal our energy , time , money or talent to block any individual from achieving their talents , '' he said . `` So do not use false labels to describe Louis Farrakhan . '' Farrakhan 's remarks were dramatically different in tone from those by Khallid Abdul Muhammad , who spoke a week ago in Los Angeles . Muhammad , who had been suspended as a top aide and spokesman because of anti-Semitic and anti-white remarks during a speech in November , reiterated those sentiments last week . Farrakhan who had gotten in trouble in February for saying he basically agreed with Muhammad did not make any direct reference to the shooting of Muhammad in Riverside , Calif. , allegedly by an ousted Nation of Islam member . Farrakhan suspended Muhammad , 46 , as his senior aide after a speech in which Muhammad called Jews `` the bloodsuckers '' of the black community , criticized the Pope and urged the killing of South African whites . Muhammad was shot last week in the legs in an ambush in which four of his bodyguards and a bystander were also wounded . ( Optional add end ) James Edward Bess , 49 , an ousted minister of the Nation of Islam , pleaded not guilty to charges of attempted murder and assault . Police believe he acted alone . In his speech Saturday , Farrakhan apologized to the audience for the stringent security requirements . Everyone in the arena was searched with hand-held metal detectors and frisked before being allowed to enter . Mindful of his venue , Farrakhan also noted that `` gambling is forbidden in the Koran , '' and called Las Vegas `` a city founded in sin . '' He said prepaid reservations at a hotel were canceled at the last minute , forcing him to make a last-ditch effort to find a room to stay so he could speak . Saying that his reservations were canceled because `` they must have found out it was I who was coming , '' Farrakhan said : `` Since I 've been here , I have felt like Mary trying to find a place to give birth to her baby . '' The following editorial appeared in Sunday 's Washington Post : North Korea has flagrantly and deliberately broken the rules by which the world is trying to prevent the spread of nuclear weapons . President Clinton is right to demand sanctions , but to be effective , sanctions will require vigorous enforcement by China , Japan and Russia . Clinton has to build an alliance among a group of countries that are all , in varying degrees , unenthusiastic and disinclined to take real action . But to fail to respond to North Korea 's transgressions would be horribly dangerous , especially for its neighbors . If the North Koreans can build warheads with impunity , they already have missiles capable of reaching Beijing , Osaka and Vladivostok . And the risks don't end at the 1,000-kilometer radius . The North Koreans have been willing to sell missiles to anyone with cash and might be ready to do the same with warheads . If the world lets their present behavior pass without response , it might as well abandon any further attempts to enforce the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty where it counts . That will send an unambiguous message to Iran , Iraq , Libya and all the other despotisms with large ambitions and scores to settle . The North Koreans have said they would regard sanctions as an act of war . That would be national suicide , but it 's impossible to be sure that they wouldn't attack . The United States has rightly said that the rest of the world can't allow that kind of threat to deter penalties for violating a crucial treaty . It is , unfortunately , worth chancing a war to enforce the nuclear rules in North Korea , just as it was worth a war to enforce them in Iraq . In Iraq the United States was able to organize rapidly an alliance that drew on some of its longstanding NATO allies in Europe , as well as Arab countries that it had armed or otherwise helped over the years . Building a similar alliance in the Pacific will be much harder . This country has a deep relationship with Japan , but it 's characterized in security matters by Japanese passivity reflecting the strain of pacifism in Japanese politics . Russia is in the turbulent process of working out an entirely new posture toward this country . As for China , it still regards the United States with deep suspicion as an adversary if not an enemy . The North Korean nuclear case is the anvil on which American diplomacy will now try to hammer out this new Pacific alliance . If it fails , the costs could be enormous . If it succeeds , it will not only make all countries safer , but also will set an impressive precedent for co-operation among what may well be , in the next century , the world 's four most powerful states . COLLEVILLE-SUR-MER , France One was a hunter with Indian blood in his veins who trapped coyotes and could fix anything mechanical . Another had dark hair and wore glasses and remains something of a mystery . Another was a quiet boy who weighed maybe 100 pounds and probably should have leaned a bit more on the trigger of his machine gun . For 50 years the three have lain here among thousands of others , beckoning relatives and friends who wish they had known them better . `` I think he said he was married , '' says George Wilson , 73 , of the quiet , thin buddy he has come to visit at the American cemetery and memorial for the first time in a half-century . Nearly 4,000 visitors are defying chilly weather to pass through this resting place above Omaha Beach for the 50th anniversary of the Normandy invasion . The parade includes veterans from other World War II campaigns , history buffs , the curious and John Q . Public. For these visitors the white Italian marble crosses and Stars of David symbolize the massive scope of an event that freed Europe and changed history . But for people like Wilson each piece of marble has a face . `` Every chance we got , me and him were together , '' says the Rockford , Ohio , farmer here for his first visit since landing near Pointe-du-Hoc on June 6 , 1944 . `` Probably be my last , '' he says . All day the visitors file into a cemetery reception center with names written on scraps of paper . A woman opens a fat book and runs her finger down the list on one of the pages . The questioners watch until it stops . If the person asking is a relative , an electric cart pulls up to take him or her to the gravesite . A caretaker wipes the marble face with wet sand from Omaha Beach to bring out the letters . Then he takes a snapshot that is given to the relative free of charge . Others , for whom the names represent friends , are given locator maps of the burial spot amid the 9,386 sites . Then they set off for the last part of a pilgrimage that sometimes started an ocean away . One of the main reasons Wilson returned was to find the grave of his friend Russell Woodward . He was about 20 , didn't smoke or drink and liked Red Cross donuts . `` He was kind of like me , '' Wilson says . Sometimes for the men who come here the experience is a confrontation with how little they actually knew about someone upon whom they often depended for their lives . Even though he and Woodward were good friends , Wilson did not know what his job was before the war or where to locate his relatives . What he does remember is seeing his friend battle a Nazi machine-gun nest . Woodward was new to the gun and peppered the Germans with small bursts instead of a steady stream of fire . The enemy knew better . In seconds Woodward was slumped over his gun , Wilson says . Sometimes the face on the marble reflects only a photograph . Joanne Miller was born after the war and never knew her uncle except as a dark-haired man with spectacles in a photo . The Boston woman knows that William Babbitt was past draft age and didn't have to go to war but chose to anyway . He was hit in the head by a sniper a month after landing on Omaha Beach . This is her first visit to the cemetery , and she wishes she had known him . In a book that relatives fill with comments , she simply writes , `` God bless . '' When Harold Lucey looks at the cross on his brother 's grave , he sees a stocky hunter who shot rabbits and trapped coyotes in rural Nevada . His brother , Raymond , 23 , made it safely ashore on Utah Beach but was killed by shrapnel in mid-July in the battle for St. Lo . Raymond , like his brother one-fourth Shoshone Indian , was always helping out neighbors when their cars and lawn mowers broke down , and despite being his big brother , never shooed him away on his frequent hunting trips . Even after 50 years , Luceycan hardly talk about the loss without being overcome by his emotions . Lucey wants his two grandchildren he brought on the trip to know the reason the cross is there . `` I want them to know the reason he died , '' he says . `` It can't be forgotten . It 's that simple . '' Traveling the battlefields of Europe , President Clinton got what he called `` good news from the home front '' as the unemployment rate dropped sharply from 6.4 percent to 6 percent in May , the lowest level since 1990 . That wasn't the only good news . During the month 191,000 new jobs were created much less than the 285,000 feared on inflation-antsy Wall Street but well over the 170,000 monthly rate required for Mr. Clinton to achieve his goal of 8 million new jobs by election day , 1996 . Financial markets remained calm . The May numbers are likely to heat up debate among economists and within the administration about what constitutes `` full employment '' the optimum number of jobs that can be filled without triggering inflation . In the 1970s , Democrats and labor unionists aimed at getting unemployment below 4 percent . But with increased volatility in the work force , as more people move more rapidly to different kinds of jobs , there is a growing consensus that 6 percent is the more correct number . If so , the May figure ( which is subject to readjustment , probably higher ) would indicate that the Federal Reserve Board had it about right by pushing up short term interest rates from 3 percent to 4.25 percent in the February-to-May period . The larger question now is whether further increases will be necessary to keep the economy from overheating . On this , the various economic indicators are mixed . Laura Tyson , the president 's chief economic adviser , offers as good a diagnosis as any when she says the `` economic expansion continues right on track . '' By her definition , this would be 3 percent growth rate this year and 2.9 percent next a pattern that leads Treasury Secretary Lloyd Bentsen to say the economy appears stronger than at any time in the past 20 years . Bentsen and Tyson have consistently refrained from criticism of the Fed 's interest rate increases while softly suggesting enough is enough . If this is constructive caution , it is clearly attuned to the president 's wishes . History shows that while former President Carter succeeded in pushing down the unemployment rate from 7.7 percent to 5.8 percent during his first two years , he also ignited the double-digit inflation that led to his defeat in 1980 . That is a pattern President Clinton must want to avoid . Politicians exult in job growth for the 8 million currently unemployed , but wise ones know that inflation is a curse that affects the entire voting public . So while Fed chairman Alan Greenspan takes his licks from growth-minded Democrats , Clinton seems well and rightly content to let interest rates rise and unemployment rates drop to levels where they are in equilibrium . The economy seems to be in that pleasant state right now , which is indeed good news from the home front . RIVERSIDE , Calif. . As story lines go , this one could rejuvenate a flagging soap opera : A freshman congressman picks up a known prostitute , parks his car on a side street and is caught by police with his pants unzipped . He starts to flee but thinks better of it . For five months , the police withhold information about the incident and the congressman stonewalls , saying `` nothing happened''-until the local newspaper sues the city for the police reports . Then the congressman confesses to being found `` in an extremely embarrassing situation , '' but says he didn't know the woman was a prostitute , didn't pay for sex and thus didn't do anything illegal . He apologizes for his `` inappropriate '' behavior and attributes the escapade to his father 's suicide and the breakup of his 15-year marriage . He asks for understanding , notes he has sought counseling and gets on with his reelection campaign . Do the voters believe he has told the whole truth ? Will they forgive him ? Find out Tuesday night after the polls close in the California primary and The Days of Ken Calvert 's Life continue . Calvert , R-Calif. , a real-life lawmaker who barely won his seat two years ago , is trying to fend off a Republican challenger and recover from a damaging scandal that has made him the subject of jokes in his own community and good material for Jay Leno as well . While President Clinton grapples with the future political consequences of the Whitewater affair and a pending sexual-harassment lawsuit , at least a dozen members of Congress have seen their own careers jeopardized by either personal indiscretions , alleged ethical breaches or allegations of criminal misconduct . The most powerful , Rep. Dan Rostenkowski , D-Ill. , was indicted last week on 17 felony counts of fraud and embezzlement and forced to surrender his Ways and Means Committee chairmanship . He maintains he is innocent . Although the number of scandalized lawmakers is relatively small , and the controversies surrounding them vary in severity , each new episode adds a layer to the public 's deep suspicions about their politicians . `` Nobody feels good about who 's representing them anymore , '' said Sande Burman-Wilson , a mortgage lender interviewed at a candidates ' forum in Riverside . `` It used to be a highly touted kind of job . '' Calvert 's race in western Riverside County is being watched nationally as a barometer of how voters respond to tainted incumbents . The Capitol Hill newspaper Roll Call named Calvert the most vulnerable House member facing re-election . Democrats , who came within 519 votes of beating Calvert two years ago , are salivating at the thought of a rematch this year . Republicans , even some of those who support him , are nervous about the general election should Calvert dispose of his conservative GOP challenger , who has strong support from evangelical Christians . Interviews conducted in Calvert 's district last week indicate several strains of dissatisfaction among voters . Some are upset with Calvert , believing he exercised poor judgment and then tried to cover up his actions . Other voters are upset with the news media for what they see as too much scrutiny of politicians ' private lives . Still others have grown so accustomed to the transgressions of elected officials that they have tuned out . As they seek another term , lawmakers whose political reputations have been jeopardized by controversy are employing varying strategies to combat their problems and improve their images . Rep. Walter R. Tucker III , D-Calif. , reportedly a target of an FBI bribery investigation of Compton city government , has portrayed himself as the latest victim of a `` pattern of attacks on African-American politicians '' that is a carryover from Republican administrations . A former Compton mayor and member of a prominent political family , Tucker took out an ad in a community newspaper circulated among black churches proclaiming his innocence and planting the notion of a racially motivated conspiracy . Rep. Martin R. Hoke , R-Ohio , who was caught on videotape referring to a TV producer 's `` beeeg breasts '' and denied an allegation by a law firm 's secretary that he pinched her on the thigh , has been meeting periodically with leaders of women 's groups in his district . At their urging , he recently held a town hall meeting on women 's issues . Rep. Joseph M. McDade , R-Pa. , who has been under indictment since 1992 for allegedly taking more than $ 100,000 in bribes and illegal gratuities , said , `` There 's no strategy . I 've announced I 'm innocent and fighting the charges . Plain and simple , my people don't believe it . '' McDade also reminds voters that he is the ranking Republican on the House Appropriations Committee , a lawmaker with seniority . `` The guy is bringing home bacon , '' said a Democratic official , who acknowledged being unable to mount a serious challenge against McDade . Sen. Charles S. Robb , D-Va. , trying to address lingering questions about his personal life , released an extraordinary five-page letter before announcing his re-election campaign . In it , he denied ever using drugs but admitted to behavior `` not appropriate for a married man . '' Calvert , a 40-year-old real estate developer from a prominent Riverside County family , tried the Robb approach , releasing a statement on April 22 to explain his actions after midnight on Nov. 28 , 1993 . That is when Corona police , checking on a driver they suspected was asleep or unconscious , found Calvert in a parked car with Lore Lindberg , a twice-convicted prostitute with a heroin habit . His campaign manager says polling indicates the episode is not hurting Calvert and shows him with a big lead over S. Joseph Khoury , a finance professor at the University of California at Riverside who finished second in the 1992 GOP primary . ANAMOSA , Iowa Richard Schwarm , Iowa 's Republican Party chairman , describes Rep. Fred Grandy , R-Iowa , as a `` risk-taker . '' He earned that reputation in 1986 , when he returned to his home state and recaptured for the GOP a House seat Democrats had held 12 years . That made Grandy , an actor whose best-known role was as `` Gopher , '' the purser in the television series `` The Love Boat , '' a hero to Iowa Republicans . But these days Grandy 's hero status has been severely tarnished in the eyes of many Iowa Republicans because of another high-risk venture his primary challenge to three-term Gov. Terry E. Branstad , R , that has exposed deep fissures in the state party . During the last two weeks before Tuesday 's primary , Grandy has roamed Iowa 's back roads in a recreational vehicle dubbed `` The Guv Boat , '' assailing Branstad for `` a pattern of abuse and mismanagement '' of state government and pressing a Bill Clinton-type theme change . With the public growing increasingly sour toward politics , and the term-limits movement gaining momentum , Branstad 's 12-year tenure in office is both a major campaign issue and probably his most serious handicap . Part of the GOP establishment has rallied to his side , including Schwarm , former Gov. Robert Ray , who served a record 14 years , and Sen. Charles E. Grassley , R-Iowa , who last month suggested Grandy should quit the race . `` He 's got a future in Iowa politics if he wants to be patient , '' Grassley said . But the toll of 12 years in the executive mansion and a distant relationship with GOP legislative leaders have come back to haunt Branstad . Harold Van Maanen , Republican speaker of the Iowa House , has endorsed him , but other top GOP legislative leaders are backing Grandy . So is state Auditor Richard Johnson , only Republican besides Branstad to hold statewide elective office . `` He 's been there so long , there 's an anti-Branstad mood , '' said state Senate Minority Leader Jack Rife as he and Johnson campaigned with Grandy last week . `` There are people who think this is his career , this is his life. .. . I personally want new vision . I want change . '' Less than two years before Iowa Republicans , meeting in precinct caucuses , will make the first meaningful judgment of their party 's 1996 presidential contenders , this rare contested primary could provide a glimpse of the GOP mood here . Democratic candidates carried the state in the last two presidential elections , and Iowa Democrats have built a 100,000-vote advantage in voter registration . Meanwhile. the conservative Christian Coalition has been gaining GOP strength and this year seized majority control of the state central committee . To preserve its tax-exempt status , the coalition does not endorse candidates , but few here doubt its members and sympathizers will provide strong backing to Branstad , which could be decisive in a low-turnout primary . In a voters ' guide distributed by the coalition , Grandy differed with Branstad and the coalition on several issues , including flag burning , homosexuals in the military and government grants for `` obscene arts . '' `` Anyone reading this voters ' guide could pretty much know '' how coalition members are likely to vote , said Ione Dilley , the organization 's president . Grandy does not say so directly , but he is clearly running in part to stem the growing influence of conservative religious activists in the Iowa GOP . After speaking at a restaurant here , he was told by a local official that a woman in the audience who wore a veil was an evangelical activist in the home schooling movement and has converted her home into a church to gain a tax exemption . `` If that is now the Republican Party in Iowa , you have to ask yourself if it 's worth the struggle , '' Grandy said . `` A lot of this campaign is to recapture the heart and soul of this party . '' Branstad , 47 , has come under fire from state Auditor Johnson for allegedly keeping `` two sets of books '' to conceal a state budget deficit . He also angered political and business leaders in populous river towns such as Davenport by what critics charge has been his wavering , indecisive attitude toward the future of riverboat gambling in the state . But Branstad is a seasoned , indefatigable campaigner who has a clear organizational advantage over an opponent making his first statewide race , who fired his first campaign manager and more recently changed media consultants . Asked in an interview about Grandy , he said , `` What you 've got is an ambitious guy who , I guess , was bored with being in Congress and decided he wanted to try this . '' The Harvard-educated Grandy , 45 , is nothing like the dim-witted character he played in `` The Love Boat . '' He said he never planned to make the House his career and speaks with an edge of disdain about that institution , where Republicans have been in the minority for more than 40 years . `` It 's either this ( the gubernatorial campaign ) or work myself up to some ranking minority membership on some subcommittee , '' he said . OMAHA First came the delegation from the American Association of Retired Persons ( AARP ) , seeking assurance the long-term care and prescription benefits promised by President Clinton will be in the health bill passed by Congress . Next Rep. Peter Hoagland , D-Neb. , sat down with executives of 10 major insurance firms , among them several of the city 's largest employers . They wanted to be sure the legislation will keep them in business , impose no price controls on their policies and rid them of the increasing threat of restrictive state regulation . Immediately afterward , Hoagland returned to his office to find 10 labor leaders , led by the state AFL-CIO president , waiting to tell him to support a requirement that all employers buy health insurance for their workers and to fight taxation of health benefits . Hoagland 's situation is typical of the cross-pressures nervous incumbents of both parties faced at home last week on their last break before House and Senate committees must make critical decisions on health care legislation . The 52-year-old third-term congressman , an uncommitted swing vote on the Ways and Means Committee and a politician who carried his district with just 51 percent of the vote in 1992 , took it all in stride until he was most of the way through the meeting with labor . He had tried to give each group some comfort , while making it clear Congress could not satisfy all their demands . Suddenly he found himself talking about his own quandary . `` This Congress , we 've already made so many tough decisions , '' he said . `` Assault weapons . The Brady bill . The budget . Tax hikes . The stimulus package . What else ? '' `` NAFTA , '' prompted one of the unionists , a reminder of Hoagland 's vote for the trade pact bitterly opposed by most of the people in the room . `` Right , '' Hoagland said ruefully . `` You know , I used to think the fault lines in politics ran between the Republicans and the Democrats or the liberals and the conservatives . Now , '' he said , drawing an imaginary line from his navel to the top of his nose , `` the fault lines runs right through yours truly . '' In Massachusetts , freshman Rep. Peter I . Blute , R , was trying to balance conflicting constituent demands while looking out for his political survival in a district that tilts decidedly toward the Democrats . `` I predict we will see some type of reform bill in October , '' Blute told senior citizens eating lunch in a Plainville , Mass. , church basement . `` I think it will be a much more modest plan than originally envisioned . '' But his potential Democratic opponents are prepared to make an issue of health care if Blute supports something they see as too modest . He is under pressure from major health maintenance organizations in his district to support something more significant than many conservative Republicans in Congress may like . Hoagland is one of four Ways and Means Democrats who have withheld the votes needed to clear a variant on the Clinton health plan , and his position has made him a special target for pressure . While meeting with retirees , insurers and labor , his office phones periodically were ringing off the hook . Opposing lobbies the pro-Clinton Health Care Reform Project and the anti-Clinton Citizens for a Sound Economy were running radio and TV spots that included his Omaha office phone number . `` You can tell when one of them goes on , '' said a harried aide . `` All the phone lines light up . '' Hoagland said he finds the public 's response to advertising simplicities `` distressing . '' But the sophisticated people in the three delegations that came to plead their cases were having problems figuring out just what they want done . `` We met before we went in to see him , and we don't all agree among ourselves , '' said AARP member Jerry Austin . `` I hope they ( members of Congress ) just use their common sense . '' Frank Barrett , a lawyer who put together the consortium of insurance executives , said , `` It took us two years to get where we are-and there are still differences among our members . '' But the public 's ambivalence and interest groups ' conflicting agendas make Hoagland 's job tougher , not easier . What he is saying , with different emphasis for each group , is that he cannot support the Democratic bill the Ways and Means health subcommittee put before the full panel , the bill acting Chairman Sam Gibbons , D-Fla. , said he wants to use as his starting point when Congress returns from its Memorial Day recess . That bill would expand Medicare to bring in what Hoagland said could be as many as 100 million more people . `` I think we should give managed competition and the marketplace much more of a chance before we expand the government , '' Hoagland said in all his meetings . Hoagland will vote for employer mandates , with big escape hatches for small business and retail firms . That makes labor , AARP and the insurance executives happy , but not the small merchants he met with the previous day . But he also said he does not see the votes to pass mandates this year , something none of the other three delegations wanted to hear . He said he thinks Sen. John H. Chafee , R-R.I. , is right in saying that insurance reforms and managed competition should be required to produce projected savings before Clinton 's promise of universal coverage is implemented , `` even though that means a real delay in reaching an important objective . '' But he does not support Chafee 's requirement that every individual buy health insurance . `` We should take the first step this year , '' he said , `` and realize we 'll have to come back to this issue in every Congress to come . '' That is not a position that fully satisfied anyone , especially not seniors and unionists who are at the heart of his constituency . `` It 's going to be very hard to do something that makes sense to everyone . '' Blute , like Hoagland , favors a go-slow approach this year and feels pressure for significant reform has waned . `` It 's somewhat faded as a major issue , '' he said . `` Crime has overtaken it . '' That was evident in Plainville , when he talked to senior citizens . After outlining his views of health care and talking about other issues , he asked for questions . No one asked about health care . `` The seniors don't know where it 's going or what it 's going to cost them or whether they 'll be covered , '' said Pauline Kirby , who heads the Plainville Council on Aging . `` They 're more worried than enthusiastic . '' -- Broder reported from Nebraska , Balz from Massachusetts . POMONA , Calif. . One day last summer , the Latino mayor of this inland valley town more than 100 miles from the Mexican border was stopped by Border Patrol agents and ordered to produce his papers , documents to prove that he is a legal resident . Eddie Cortez , dressed in jeans and sitting at the wheel of his pickup , argued and then , facing the threat of being detained , pulled out his mayor 's badge . The patrol officers , he recalled recently , `` stumbled over themselves to make excuses '' before they let him go . `` If they can treat a mayor like this , who knows how they treat a normal , Hispanic person just going about his business . The whole immigrant population is at risk , '' said Cortez , who was elected 1 years ago on a law-and-order platform . Cortez 's story is being shared by many California Latinos who use it to illustrate how embattled they feel by increasing attacks on immigration . This year , about two dozen new or rejuvenated `` anti-immigrant '' bills are winding through the state legislature , and voters will decide this fall on an initiative that would dramatically cut services to undocumented immigrants . Immigration is the election-year issue that is testing and dividing the state where nearly one-third of the 32 million residents identify themselves as Hispanic and where as many as 1.3 million people are estimated to reside illegally . A soon-to-be released poll by the Field Institute , a public opinion survey group here , has found that proposals to limit services to illegal immigrants have polarized Californians . There is broad agreement among all ethnic groups that border restrictions should be enforced or enhanced . But the differences come in what services should be provided . Non-Hispanic whites generally agree on restrictions of services while Latinos are increasingly rejecting proposals to deny them , according to Mark DiCamillo , the institute 's vice president . It is clear to politicians which side offers the biggest advantage : Although Latinos account for 28 percent of all Californians , they are about 10 percent of the actual voters . `` It 's an interesting but troubling development , '' DiCamillo said . `` It 's an issue that has long been lurking in California : You may have an electorate that votes in a way that may not be representative of the state 's population . '' Since February , dozens of community-based Latino groups have attempted to build alliances and political muscle by joining a newly created California Latino Civil Rights Network . Last month , the coalition kicked off a drive to register voters and encourage citizenship and rallied tens of thousands of Hispanics . They marched across the lawn of the Los Angeles City Hall to protest what political organizers Mario Salgado call a `` sea change toward immigration . '' Money is at the heart of the turmoil as it has been throughout California 's history . Chinese workers were singled out during a 19th century economic downturn . In the 1920s and again in the 1950s , during hard economic times , Latinos became the targets . This year , two former immigration officials who have been lobbying for several years to cut back the illegal tide from Mexico have proposed an initiative that appears to have captured the frustrations of many people within this economically fragile state . Known as the Save Our State initiative SOS to its proponents it would deny state services , including education and health care , to undocumented immigrants and their children . The cost savings , according to an estimate prepared by Gov. Pete Wilson 's administration , would be $ 3.1 billion . Last week Wilson , a Republican who is facing a surprisingly strong primary challenge from computer software millionaire Ron Unz , indicated that he supports the initiative . `` People can try to make this into a racial thing or an anti-immigration thing but that 's not true , '' said Alan Nelson , a sponsor of the measure who was Immigration and Naturalization Service commissioner during the Reagan administration . `` People are just realizing there 's huge cost associated with illegal immigration and we have to do something about it . '' Eddie Cortez is a staunch Republican in a town of 135,000 that has seen its Latino population spiral upward from 30 percent to 51 percent over the past 15 years . But he believes the proposal , paired with the governor 's unrelenting campaign , is creating an atmosphere that threatens civil rights and erodes respect . It also devalues immigrants ' contributions , he said . There are conflicting reports about the costs and benefits of illegal immigrants , but a recent study by the Urban Institute , a Washington think tank , shows immigrants nationwide contribute $ 30 billion more in taxes each year than they receive in benefits and services . `` Not only does the rhetoric have an effect but it 's the cause of what we 're seeing here , '' said Cortez . `` At the least , it 's promoting discrimination . At the worst , it 's racism . '' On a personal level , it also means the loss of at least one Latino vote for Wilson . Cortez , who voted for the governor last election , said he willn't this year . Pomona 's mayor and its city council , one of the few in California with a Latino majority , were so angered by a Border Patrol arrest of two illegal immigrants last month near an elementary school-an arrest witnessed by local children-that they protested to federal immigration and justice officials . But Border Patrol officials insist the political climate has had no effect on their patrols or arrest rate , which increased only slightly from the previous year . `` All we 're doing is what we normally do , '' said Allen Kenrick , assistant patrol agent in charge of the inland region . `` They just don't like us . '' The debate over illegal immigration has pointed out a serious political flaw for Latinos . Their lack of statewide organization and political heft has become a liability that shuts them out of serious discussions about who is welcome at the American border . `` The game going on at the ( U.S.-Mexican ) border is not new , '' said Kevin McCarthy , a Rand Corp. researcher who specializes in immigration issues . `` But this is an election year and it 's likely to be a tight election year and I think there 's a bigger question here . Is this a short-term phenomenon or are people looking to cut off immigration generally ? '' Since January , Wilson has trekked to the Mexican border to spotlight the tide of illegal aliens who jump the border , flown to Washington four times to lobby for money to pay for illegal immigrant services , and joined lawsuits filed by Florida and Arizona governors to try to force the federal government to pay for immigrant services . Wilson , whose latest television advertisement shows illegal immigrants toppling down the hills of Tijuana toward California , is the most obvious target of Latino ire . But few politicians have shied away from illegal immigration as a threat to California 's future . Democratic Sen. Dianne Feinstein , facing a challenge from millionaire Republican Michael Huffington , has proposed a border toll to help offset the costs of border protection . Last year , Sen. Barbara Boxer , D , suggested that the National Guard assist the Border Patrol in closing the border . State Assemblyman Richard Polanco , a Los Angeles Democrat who is chairman of the Latino Caucus , said he has been disheartened by the tone and intent of what he sees as a neo-nativist campaign , spawned by economic fears and manipulated for political gain . Last year , Polanco watched nearly two dozen bills , described as anti-immigrant by Latino activist groups , come up for vote in the Assembly . Four of them became law , including provisions that : allow local police to cooperate with immigration agents in locating and arresting illegal immigrants ; require state corrections personnel to help deport prisoners who are illegal ; and require proof of residency for job seekers and driver 's license applicants . `` These are ugly times . These are very difficult times , '' Polanco declared . `` After all is said and done , what remains is that Californians will still have problems that need to be addressed . And you have to ask whether we 'll be too polarized psychologically to do that . '' BERLIN A small building set in a grove of chestnut trees on Berlin 's once-grand Unter den Linden houses Germany 's central war memorial : Inside its walls , heavily incised by machine-gun fire from half a century ago , stands a single bronze sculpture of a woman cradling the body of her son . `` To the victims of war and tyranny , '' reads the inscription . If there were any interest on the part of Germans in commemorating the Normandy landings Monday , it ought to be be evident here . Young men drafted into Adolph Hitler 's Wehrmacht were , after all , victims of war about 100,000 German soldiers died in the two months it took the Allies to consolidate a front in northern France . But in unavoidable contrast to the surging crowds and victors ' pageantry marking D-day 's 50th anniversary 700-odd miles to the west , this shrine stands silent and largely empty . A little rain falls through the open-air skylight above the sculpture ; a few wilted bouquets lie on the stone floor in front of the statue ; visitors trickle silently in and out of the door . That is all . `` Germany looks at the D-day festivities with mixed feelings , '' said Klaus Bering of the German news agency Deutsche Presse Agentur . `` While the Allies celebrate , the Germans are just watching from the sidelines . '' Indeed , there are no ceremonies in Germany Monday , no government pronouncements , no scheduled moment of silence . German television is airing `` The Longest Day , '' and a few German veterans are making independent pilgrimages to the French beaches , but , on the whole , the proceedings that have captured so much attention in the United States have made for a virtual non-event here . True , for Germany , the landings in Normandy were really just a sideshow to the 1942-43 Battle of Stalingrad , which for this country was the turning point of World War II . And Germany doesn't commemorate that high-casualty catastrophe either , because the Allied occupiers banned veterans groups here in the first years after the war , and a clubby veterans tradition hasn't flourished in Germany the way it has in the United States . But Germany 's reluctance to note the passing of the D-day anniversary is more than just a reflection of how few veterans groups there are or of how much greater emphasis Germans place on the Eastern Front than on France . It is also a reflection of Germany 's everlasting struggle to come to terms with its past . Even 50 years of good relations with the Western democracies and a successful grafting of democratic tissue onto the German character have not been enough to erase the horror of the Third Reich . So reluctant are most Germans today to connect with their collective past that they are slow even to salute their dead . In Bonn , for instance , there were hurt feelings when the French left Chancellor Helmut Kohl off the official Normandy guest list . Yet Kohl merely responded that he hadn't wanted to go to Normandy , anyway , and went on to forbid German diplomats to participate in most D-day events . `` Let these people celebrate this day , '' Kohl said in a recent interview with the British Broadcasting Corp. . `` Let the survivors commemorate it in honor of their fallen comrades ... . This is no day for us Germans to join in the commemoration . '' ( Optional Add End ) Indeed , to the extent there has been discussion of D-day among German commentators in the past week , virtually all has `` looked forward , '' dealing with the years since World War II and not the war years themselves , or any other aspect of National Socialism . Much of the commentary has been upbeat , concentrating on the achievements of the past half century and the fruitful association with the United States , and calling the fall of the Third Reich a `` liberation '' for Germans too . But a recent survey highlights the difficulty Germans still have , half a century after the war , in coming to grips with the rise of Hitler and agreeing upon what it may say about German society . When asked who was to blame for the start of World War II , 56 percent of those surveyed named Germany , but a full quarter said they blamed `` the confused international situation . '' More than 90 percent said they did not doubt that the Nazi Holocaust had happened , but when asked how they viewed the political concepts of the Nazis , nearly a quarter 24 percent said they were `` not so bad at all . '' The German weekly Die Woche , which published the survey results , called this level of tolerance for Nazi ideology `` alarming '' and noted that the only good thing about such a figure was that it was smaller than it had been in previous surveys . In 1955 , according to Die Woche , almost half of West Germans said they would have considered Hitler a great statesman if he hadn't tried to wipe out the Jews , and in 1989 another survey turned up 46 percent of Germans saying they could find some good things about National Socialism . PORTSMOUTH , England Senior U.S. officials , worried that China will veto a U.N. attempt to impose economic sanctions on North Korea , have begun to explore avenues outside the United Nations to thwart the Pyongyang regime 's purported nuclear ambitions . Defense Secretary William J. Perry said Sunday that it was `` entirely possible '' that China would block a U.N. . Security Council resolution against North Korea , which has incurred international wrath because of its suspected nuclear weapons program . Perry suggested publicly for the first time Sunday that Washington would be prepared to go outside the United Nations to rally Asian and European allies to isolate North Korea economically . Perry and other senior officials here for ceremonies commemorating the 50th anniversary of D-day insisted that the administration will continue to work through the United Nations and privately with Beijing to try to reach a consensus on a U.N. sanctions resolution . But officials noted China 's continued reticence about punishing and possibly provoking its communist neighbor and important trading partner , and they are making plans to move unilaterally or create a coalition outside the United Nations to act against the Pyongyang regime . Perry , interviewed on NBC 's `` Meet the Press '' program , said that the specific form of sanctions the United States was seeking has not yet been decided . `` We have discussions under way with our allies at this point on the particular sanctions , and we 'll be discussing that with the other members of the Security Council , '' Perry said . `` There 'll be intensive and detailed discussions over the next week or so . I think it 's premature to try to specify at this point what kind of sanctions are going to come out . '' Other officials caution that the administration sees sanctions as a difficult and potentially dangerous step and would prefer to compel Pyongyang to accept international oversight of its nuclear facilities through less drastic means . But North Korea said Sunday that it would not bow to outside pressure to open up its nuclear program , which it insists is peaceful . `` We do not want confrontation , '' said the North Korean Workers Party daily Rodong Sinmun , according to the official Korean Central News Agency monitored in Tokyo . `` But we do not have the intention to meet an unjustifiable demand under continued pressure and cannot tolerate our sovereignty encroached upon . '' President Clinton said Saturday that North Korea could avoid sanctions by complying with International Atomic Energy Agency inspections . IAEA inspectors say North Korea has made it impossible to verify whether or not it diverted weapons-grade plutonium from an experimental nuclear reactor . ( Optional Add End ) Perry also tried to downplay talk of possible military confrontation with North Korea over the nuclear issue . But he said that the United States is prepared to defend its ally South Korea and enforce adherence to international obligations . `` Certainly we 're not seeking , we will not provoke , a war , '' Perry said . `` But at the same time , we will not invite a war by not being ready. .. . We have been building up our forces over the last six months . We will continue to develop them as necessary as the situation on the ground warrants . '' Perry said the United States and South Korea believe their military forces are adequate to deter an attack from the North . But he said that if North Korea moves its forces closer to the border or makes other threatening moves , `` we will take whatever actions are necessary . '' Adm. Jeremy Boorda , the chief of naval operations , said that the Navy was involved in a major military exercise in the Sea of Japan involving the aircraft carrier Independence and its battle group plus warships from several other nations . He said that while the exercise had been planned for several years , the armada would send a message to Pyongyang . The admiral said `` It 's a very serious situation and the United States is taking it seriously . '' MOSCOW Russian officials and veterans have expressed bitter resentment that they were not invited to the D-Day commemoration in Normandy where President Clinton , Queen Elizabeth II and other world leaders will preside on Monday . Many also have expressed irritation at Western news media accounts that treat the D-Day landing as the key turning point in the war . Soviet troops of course did not join with the American , British and Canadian soldiers who conducted the daring amphibious assault 50 years ago . But most Russians believe that it was their sacrifice on the eastern front and particularly their long and almost unbearably costly victory at Stalingrad that broke the back of the Nazi army and allowed the D-Day invasion to succeed . `` Only two of the most important participants in the war were not invited to the commemoration , '' the Rossiskaya Gazeta newspaper commented on Saturday . `` The first is clearly understood : After all , it is Germany that was defeated in the war . `` But probably it is also clear why Russia was not invited , '' the newspaper wrote . `` It would be uncomfortable to highlight your own military successes in the presence of those who made the main contribution to the victory over Hitler 's Germany . '' The Russian resentment at being excluded Monday is part of a wider sense among many here that the West does not accord this nation the respect it deserves as a great power . Many politicians and others here are convinced that Washington and its traditional allies are happy to see Russia poor and weakened and would do whatever is necessary to keep this country on its knees . The unhappiness over D-Day follows a similar dispute with Germany , which has scheduled a host of triumphal ceremonies in Berlin to mark the departure of Allied troops from that city without including the Russians in the celebrations . German Chancellor Helmut Kohl and Russian President Boris Yeltsin instead will lead a lower-key ceremony in Weimar to mark the departure of the last Russian troops , whom most Germans viewed as occupiers rather than liberators . But the exclusion from the D-Day commemoration has touched an especially sensitive nerve , rekindling longstanding resentments about the West 's role in what Russians call the Great Patriotic War . Soviet textbooks , while paying scant attention to the war in the Pacific , taught that the West waited too long to open a western front against Germany , allowing Russia to bear the brunt of Nazi might . More than 20 million Soviets were killed during the war compared with 405,000 Americans with 1.1 million dying during the Battle of Stalingrad alone . Scarcely a Soviet family escaped without some loss . Last week , a spokesman for the Russian Foreign Ministry made clear that Russia 's view of that particular part of history has not changed , despite all the other reassessments since the Soviet Union 's collapse . `` History attests that Moscow wanted the Allies to open a second front from the very beginning of the war against Germany , '' the official spokesman , Grigory Karasin , said Thursday . But the Allies delayed , he said , `` in keeping with their strategy of safeguarding the lives of their soldiers . '' Only when the Western powers concluded that further delay `` would be prejudicial to their postwar position in Europe '' did the Western Allies begin the operation , Karasin said . `` While giving due to this successful Allied operation carried out 50 years ago , we remember that its success had been ensured by all the preceding actions of the Soviet armed forces , '' he concluded . Even after the Allied assault on Nazi positions in France began , Russia continued to shoulder the heaviest burden , Krasnaya Zvezda , the Russian army 's official newspaper , wrote . While 292,902 German soldiers died on the western front , the paper said , 916,860 Germans died under Soviet attack in Byelorussia during exactly the same period . `` The world has begun to forget to whom it owes the victory over fascism , ` ` agreed the Nezavisimaya Gazeta . Maj. Gen. Valentin Larionov , a veteran of the Soviet capture of Berlin , told the Moscow Times that he found Russia 's exclusion from the ceremonies `` offensive . '' `` It is a great blow to the dignity of all those who participated in the war , '' he said . SAINTE-MERE-EGLISE , France Forty-one aging paratroop veterans , who leaped into history 50 years ago , reclaimed their chutes and jumped again Sunday , this time into the hearts of France . On a day when the hedgerowed checkerboard of Normandy glowed rich and green under a warm spring sun , the members of the Return to Normandy Association floated down out of a cloud-flecked sky , laden with flags and memories of World War II dead they had vowed to honor with their jump Sunday . Gazing up at them from below were politicians and dignitaries , Pentagon brass and brass bands , hundreds of French and American troops and more than 30,000 flag-waving spectators , picnicking with baguettes and red wine in pastures dusted with buttercups . The day was filled with D-Day commemorative pageantry , but they were all anyone really cared about . `` Quand sont les anciens ? '' asked little boys pedaling bicycles and old women peddling sausage sandwiches . `` When do we see the old guys ? '' Guests in the VIP area ignored Ambassador to France Pamela Harriman and Postsmaster General Marvin Runyon unveiling a special commemorative stamp in order to shake the veterans ' hands and get their autographs . Even a massive re-enactment drop of hundreds of younger airborne troops failed to claim the crowd 's full attention . How about those old guys ? `` I was coming down between this cow and the river , '' said a mud-covered Richard Tedesky , 73 , of the Bronx , explaining his late post-jump arrival at the ceremony area . `` I avoided the cow . '' Tedesky , a 5-foot-4 ( `` and 135 pounds of pulsating fury '' ) scaffolding man in the New York construction trades , had landed north of here 50 years ago and had to fight his way into town . It was easier this time , he said . `` Even with my arthritis and everyone wanting autographs . '' The old guys provided both drama and suspense . Earl Draper , 70 , of Florida found himself with a tangled main parachute and a malfunctioning emergency rip cord . When he reached 1,000 feet , a safety device automatically triggered , deploying the reserve chute he rode to a bumpy landing in a ditch conveniently near the first aid tent . A French doctor pronounced him healthy but he was taken to a local hospital as a precaution . Rene Dussaq , the 83-year-old former revolutionary , soldier of fortune and Hollywood stunt man who parachuted into Normandy before D-Day to coordinate the French underground , failed to turn up in a post-jump muster at the drop zone in nearby Amfreville . He was eventually discovered several hours later peacefully signing autographs here in town where he had been carried by local farmers after riding wind gusts for several miles . Other jumpers rode back from their landing in an ambulance , but only because that was the quickest way through the narrow traffic-clogged country roads . `` It was a hell of a lot of work and I feel really good about the day , '' said Richard Mandich , the 69-year-old San Diego engineer and 101st Airborne veteran who founded the Return to Normandy Association and organized the memorial jump . `` But remember , we 're not the real story . The story is why we 're here . '' Mandich and a handful of other veterans had been working since last fall to make their jump the centerpiece of D-Day activities here . With a fierce sense of personal mission , they believe they owed it to the thousands of airborne veterans killed during the war eight out 10 in many units to make certain their deaths are not forgotten . Guy Whidden , 70 , a soft-voiced retired school teacher from Frederick , Md. , carried the names of 3,000 airborne dead , and , in response to TV reporters asking about any fears during his jump , read instead a prayer for war-slaughtered comrades that he had written and recited on landing . Rolland Duff , 79 , of Fort Myers , Fla. , displayed on his jump an American flag that had covered the casket at his brother 's military funeral . He had landed close to where he had landed 50 years ago , as part of a group of `` pathfinders '' advancing the D-Day airborne drop with radar locator beacons . Of the 20 men who jumped with him , only six survived the battle they found on landing . The seriousness of purpose of `` les anciens , '' far from sobering their visit for the French , has endeared them a hundred times more . When the Pentagon spurned the association 's request for assistance getting here , the French showered offers of help . Families fought for the privilege of housing them . Mayors vied to hold dinners . Friday night in the little village of Baron-sur-Odon , after a celebration at the local high school , families lined up like airport chauffeurs for an incoming flight , proudly displaying on cards the name of the veteran who would be their guest . The following afternoon the whole village turned out in a pouring rain for a jam-packed home-cooked luncheon for the veterans in the workshop-garage of Mayor Pierre Collard , whose wrenches and screwdrivers adorned the walls above the pate being served . The luncheon was capped by the mock-formal installation of four Return to Normandy members in the proudest gastronomic society of Caen , The Golden Order of Tripe-Eaters . While few outside France might leap at the chance to eat pieces of stewed cow stomach , the veterans brightened on discovering that the tripe had been stewed in Calvados , the famous apple brandy of Normandy . `` The tripe worried me more than the jump , '' said Ed Manley , 72 , of Briney Breezes , Fla. , on later reflection . The veterans ' adulation from the French , however , has involved more than tripe and Calvados . They have been headliners in newspapers and magazines and the subject of nationwide television specials . They are recognized and applauded on the street . Sunday , when their bus halted at a crossroads between here and Amfreville , women in nearby houses raced to shower them with all the flowers in the garden . `` What they do is very beautiful , '' said Veronique Debouillet , 22 , who drove all the way from Caen to see the veterans . `` I think it is magnificent that they jump at their age for this memory . No one my age is so formidable . '' PORTSMOUTH , England President Clinton , Queen Elizabeth II and a shipload of Allied leaders sailed in a massive flotilla late Sunday from this historic English Channel port for France to observe the 50th anniversary of D-day . En route , the fleet dropped wreaths in the Channel . Two million red poppies , symbolizing remembrance , fluttered down from a low-flying World War II-vintage Lancaster bomber . The armada planned to anchor offshore before going on to the five D-day beaches two stormed by American troops , two by British and one by Canadian . In a commemorative message that had overtones of Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower 's message to the troops on D-day , Clinton declared , `` The heroic men who fought and died during those difficult days helped to give rise to a new era of hope and progress , starting a trend toward democracy and human dignity that continues to this day . `` The peoples of nations around the world persist in throwing off the shackles of tyranny and in seeking the blessings of liberty . On this historic occasion , we , the benefactors of the freedom won by our courageous armed forces , rededicate ourselves to embracing these epic changes . `` In memory of all those who lost their lives on Normandy 's shore , we reaffirm our commitment to building a safer , more peaceful world for the generations to come . '' The fleet of ships steamed Sunday afternoon from this main invasion supply port after daylong ceremonies . The seaside was lined with tens of thousands of Britons and Americans , young and old , who turned out to see off the armada heading for Normandy . They waved farewell to the ships , watching as they moved past concrete forts in the harbor , just as previous generations had done at this ancient navy town . Many with binoculars could spot the national flags of the warships and call out the identifications to their children . A vendor moved among the crowd chanting , `` Cockles , mussels , prawns . '' Many families picnicked on the green lawns of the seafront in a festive Sunday outing , listening to radios describing the events . Clinton boarded the nuclear-powered carrier George Washington at 97,000 tons , the world 's largest whose crew he addressed when he was brought aboard in the afternoon . Earlier , Queen Elizabeth II , with many visiting heads of state , boarded the royal yacht Britannia to review naval warships of the Allied nations that participated in the D-day landings June 6 , 1944 . Among those present were British Prime Minister John Major , Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien , Polish President Lech Walesa , Czech President Vaclav Havel , Slovakian President Michal Kovac , Australian Prime Minister Paul Keating , New Zealand Prime Minister Jim Bolger , King Harald of Norway , King Albert II of Belgium and Prince Bernhard of the Netherlands . They were joined by members of the British royal family , including Princess Diana . The yacht arrived in France later to the cheers of thousands of well-wishers . In contrast to the drenching , cold weather that dampened the spirits of Saturday 's ceremonies , the weather in Portsmouth Sunday was crisp and clear , though changeable . The morning began here with a Drumhead Ceremony , which was once the traditional religious observance to bless the colors and uplift the hearts of the soldiers and sailors `` at the point at which troops cannot be pulled back from the battle . '' ( Begin optional trim ) The archbishop of Canterbury , assisted by a dozen other clergymen , blessed the fleet that was preparing to leave for Normandy and large-scale , daylong observances and events Monday . Senior U.S. military officers , including members of the Joint Chiefs of Staff , attended the ceremony which was also watched by thousands of visitors . As an estimated 4,000 small craft , from yachts to dinghies to motor launches , bobbed around the bigger warships , 40 ships participated in the naval review including the Canberra , a luxury liner that ferried British fighting battalions to the Falklands , and the Fearless , which carried Royal Marine commandos in that action . ( End optional trim ) The fleet review was preceded with a flyover by World War II aircraft : an old biplane Swordfish torpedo bomber , British Spitfire and Hawker Hurricane fighters , a U.S. . B-17 Flying Fortress bomber , a P-51 Mustang fighter and a C-47 Dakota transport followed by low-flying modern jet fighters from Allied nations , some forming the number `` 50 . '' ( Optional Add End ) On board the George Washington , President Clinton told the crew : `` You are , beyond question , the best-trained , the best-equipped fighting force the world has ever known . And I want you to know that I am committed unequivocally , absolutely , to ensuring that you continue to have what you need to do your job . You deserve it . Our security demands it . '' The president added , `` The strength of our military is not really in our ships , our tanks or our aircraft , it is in you the dedicated professionalism of the men and women of the United States armed forces . '' `` You know what encapsulates this all for me ? '' the president asked . `` Eisenhower 's words , in which he said that D-day was the fury of an aroused democracy . Those words say it all . '' WASHINGTON Insistent advice from Federal Reserve Board Chairman Alan Greenspan to President Clinton during the presidential transition and early in the new administration led Clinton to pursue lower deficits at the expense of the economic populism of his campaign , according to a new book . The book , `` The Agenda : Inside the Clinton White House '' by Washington Post Assistant Managing Editor Bob Woodward , is an intimate look at how the new Democratic president and his stumbling , feuding team of advisers struggled to formulate and adopt an economic program during Clinton 's first year in office . It depicts a chaotic policy-making operation , crucial intercessions by Hillary Rodham Clinton and an active policy role played by four outside political advisers . The four were given open access to the White House , which they used in part to criticize the economic team . They complained that Clinton 's fall in popularity was a result of policies being promoted by the economic advisers or at least the way those policies were packaged for sale to the public . The two groups are described as virtually at war with each other . The book describes Clinton temper tantrums , and it depicts him as frequently indecisive and reluctant to delegate . It portrays virtually every member of Clinton 's inner circle , including Hillary Clinton , as critical of the president 's management style . On the vital economic front , Greenspan is described as a central player , albeit once removed from the inner circle . The book recounts what Woodward calls a crucial meeting between Clinton and Greenspan in Little Rock , Ark. , in December 1992 , the month before Clinton 's inauguration . During the 2-hour session , the Fed chairman told the president-elect that reducing the long-term federal budget deficit was `` essential '' and that the economic recovery could fall on its face if policies credible to Wall Street , particularly to bond-traders , were not advanced . Greenspan , in later conversations with Treasury Secretary Lloyd Bentsen , put a number on what would be credible : cutting the deficit $ 140 billion or more by 1997 . By tradition and law , the Fed is an independent agency it sets monetary policy while the White House and Congress decide how much the government will spend , raise in taxes and borrow . It is customary for the president and the Fed chairman to hold periodic meetings . But in Woodward 's recounting of their relationship , Greenspan , a Republican appointed by President Ronald Reagan and reappointed by President George Bush , comes across as a senior adviser , almost a teacher to Clinton . In what became a pattern , the Fed chairman made suggestions , Clinton acted on them , and Greenspan rewarded the action with approving words to Congress , or other public comments meant to signal his approval . Greenspan outlined to Clinton an economic approach Woodward calls the `` financial markets strategy . '' Policy was to be designed to send a message to Wall Street and ultimately , drive down interest rates . According to the theory , the economy would improve and as a result , Clinton would have more tax revenue to spend on favored domestic programs and be re-elected in 1996 . The theory , and the policy Clinton adopted , bore little resemblance to the economic program on which Clinton had campaigned . Clinton 's `` Putting People First '' campaign banner stressed government `` investment '' in programs that would improve the lives of middle-class Americans such as job training , early education , government promotion of cutting-edge technology . A middle-class tax cut and health care for all Americans were additional sweeteners . As events developed , Greenspan 's economic scenario was not entirely accurate either . The bond market did react positively to Clinton 's economic package initially , but then early this year nervousness about inflation began to push interest rates up again , and Greenspan 's Fed raised its basic lending rate by 1.25 percent . Today long-term interest rates are nearly identical to what they were when Clinton took office . But the economy is stronger now than in January 1993 and has added 3 million jobs since then . Woodward 's 334-page book recounts the anguish and infighting produced by the transition from Clinton 's winning campaign platform to a national economic policy . It attributes words and thoughts to participants in the debate , including both Clintons and virtually all of their top aides , without saying directly who provided these words to the author . In an introduction Woodward writes that whenever he quotes someone , the quotation comes from `` at least one participant , from memos , or from contemporaneous notes or diaries of a participant. .. . ' ' It appears that Woodward has talked to all the principals in his narrative , including the Clintons and Greenspan . He writes that all his interviews were conducted on ` ` ` deep background , ' which means that I agreed not to identify these sources . '' The Washington Post will publish four excerpts from `` The Agenda '' beginning Sunday . The book goes on sale next week . Greenspan 's advice to Clinton that a long-term deficit-reduction program was of paramount importance was backed not only by Bentsen , but also by Budget Director Leon E. Panetta and his deputy , Alice M. Rivlin , according to the book . The president 's economic advisers , with his assent , quickly jettisoned the tax cut , delayed health care reform , and then added an energy tax and spending cuts . Clinton 's political team campaign advisers James Carville and Paul Begala , media adviser Mandy Grunwald and pollster Stan Greenberg are portrayed as horrified and disgusted with this effort to please the market . Carville is quoted as joking he used to want to die and come back in a second life as the pope or president , but now he just wanted to be the bond market because it seemed to run the world . The four seem to have spent much of last year decrying what that saw as mismanagement at the White House and firing off memos arguing that the president and some of his aides had lost their souls to the deficit-cutters . In one memorable scene depicted in the book , Grunwald told White House deputy economic adviser Gene Sperling who had helped formulate the campaign budget plan that his new emphasis on deficit-cutting was coming `` dangerously close '' to betraying the themes that had gotten Clinton elected . Later , Grunwald told others that Sperling 's body had been snatched by Washington insiders and deficit hawks and that `` hostile forces '' were seizing control of Clinton 's White House . Even Clinton , while intellectually acquiescing in the devastation of his investment programs , raged nonetheless at how it happened . While the book depicts him as highly intelligent and energetic , it recounts several Clinton temper tantrums , quoting senior aide George Stephanopoulos as calling them `` the wave '' overpowering , prolonged rages that shocked outsiders and often seemed far out of proportion to their cause . In one scene late in the campaign , a low-level aide had told an audience that Clinton did not want local voters at an event . The president , discovering this , angrily said of the culprit , `` I want him dead , dead . I want him horsewhipped . '' He sent aides to Little Rock to find and fire the young man . After he cooled down , Clinton relented . In another scene , with the campaign en route to Chicago , Clinton discovered his staff had told Mayor Richard M. Daley the candidate had no time for a requested meeting with him . A furious Clinton asked , `` Who the hell could make such a dumb .. . mistake ? '' and ranted on and on . White House counselor David R. Gergen , witnessing the Clinton temper for the first time , is said to have been so alarmed that he raised it with Stephanopoulos , the frequent recipient of Clinton 's verbal abuse . Stephanopoulos brushed it off as part of Clinton 's personality . A recurring theme in the book is Clinton 's inability to terminate debate and make a decision and his reluctance to delegate . Amid the internal debate over the budget , Clinton is portrayed as holding repeated , seemingly endless meetings at which issues rarely were decided , and during which he frequently changed his mind . Once the budget was passed by one vote in the House and a tie-breaking Senate vote by Vice President Al Gore Bentsen is said to have taken Clinton aside and warned him he was mismanaging the presidency by trying to make every small decision and refusing to delegate . Bentsen believed Clinton had a superior , inquisitive mind and was capable of genuine vision , Woodward reports . Bentsen compared Clinton to Jimmy Carter displaying admirable energy and intellect but getting bogged down in the range of opinion and debate he demanded inside his government . Clinton `` could not contain his own doubts , '' Bentsen told associates . `` The lapses of discipline and restraint '' kept him from acting methodically as a president should . Some of those concerns appeared to grow out of a White House with little management structure , in which the four political aides had unusual status . Outside the normal avenues , they sent anguished , internal memos into the White House warning of the near-collapse of the Clinton presidency and demanding meetings with the president and senior advisers . One of the memos , written in July as the White House headed into the crucial month leading up to the budget vote , warned apocalyptically that the `` current course , advanced by our economic team and congressional leaders , threatens to sink your popularity further and weaken your presidency . '' The memo , referring to extensive polling and focus groups , recommended dropping the gasoline tax , paring back the deficit-reduction package , and repackaging and reselling an economic program so it was not about taxes but about getting the nation 's economic house in order . The memo prompted Hillary Clinton to go to White House Chief of Staff Thomas F. `` Mack '' McLarty and insist it was `` panic time , '' with no plan to sell the program they were about to send to Congress , no strategy and no decisions made on key elements . Hours of debate , presided over by the president , ensued among the political team and policy advisers . One of the advisers , congressional liaison director Howard Paster , is described as being in a `` slow burn '' over the series of meetings and arguments from the outside consultants . Paster thought `` it was outrageous the outside consultants were providing the president with major policy option papers in confidential memos '' many senior staffers never saw , according to the book . The consultants got `` valuable inside information '' and `` conflicts abounded . '' The consultants were trying to remake policy to respond to polls , a risky course , Paster felt , according to Woodward 's account . At one crucial meeting last July attended by the president and the first lady , Hillary Clinton chastised both the economic and political teams for ill serving Clinton , for lacking organization and planning , for creating a `` dysfunctional '' White House . She complained they had allowed Clinton to appear to be a `` mechanic-in-chief , '' erased his `` moral voice '' and changed his economic program from a `` values document '' to a bunch of numbers . `` I want to see a plan '' for selling the program , she demanded . Most saw Hillary Clinton 's denunciations in that meeting , which were followed by a burst of anger from Clinton himself at his staff , as an indictment of McLarty , whom the book portrays as an ineffective , sometimes bumbling character with no feel for politics and a fundamental misunderstanding of congressional relations . Hillary Clinton 's July critique , Woodward writes , amounted to a `` scalding indictment of McLarty . At crucial moments like this , Hillary was often de facto chief of staff . '' She insisted on the creation , with her assistance , of a campaign-like war room to run the budget operation . At the end of the budget battle , Paster resigned , citing a desire to return to private life . Woodward attributes the resignation to McLarty 's failure to manage the White House . `` Everyone and anyone freelanced , '' Paster is quoted as saying , and his job had been made impossible . The book describes tension between Gergen , the Republican brought in by McLarty on the advice of Sen. David L. Boren , D-Okla. and many of Clinton 's advisers , such as Stephanopoulos and the outside political consultants . Gergen concluded that the campaign team was captive of a mentality that needed someone to be against , and he was that someone . Carville and Begala argued against Gergen incessantly and Stephanopoulos is described as finding him `` almost intolerable . Whenever Clinton did something Republican , Gergen proclaimed that the president was standing up for principle . Whenever Clinton did something Democratic , it was caving . '' ALGIERS Ending a two-month lull , Islamic insurgents in the third year of a bloody struggle to turn Algeria into an Islamic republic have resumed attacks against government targets from barracks to troop convoys , dashing President Liamine Zeroual 's hopes of quelling the rebellion by a combination of force and dialogue . The country , North Africa 's largest and endowed with oil and gas riches , thus seems headed for still more low-grade violence as a majority of the population persistently refuses to choose between the Islamic underground and an army-based government seeking to preserve the secular state that emerged when Algeria won independence from France in 1962 . The rebels ' renewed military operations have undercut Zeroual 's innovative twin-track policy , designed to crack down on guerrilla activity while initiating controversial contacts with jailed leaders of the Islamic Salvation Front . As a result , a stalemate appears to have set in nearly 29 months after the army precipitated the conflict by canceling independent Algeria 's first free multiparty elections when the Islamic Front seemed headed for victory . The attacks also tarnished major government success in winning support from international financial institutions and creditor governments for rescheduling Algeria 's crushing $ 26 billion foreign debt , devaluing an overvalued currency by 40 percent and adopting its command economy to market forces . Coupled with the failure of Zeroual 's initial contacts with Islamic Front leaders , the surge in fighting has heightened concerns in Paris , Madrid , Rome and Washington about Algeria 's potential disintegration and repercussions in nearby southern Europe , already the main destination for thousands of Algerian emigrants . In an apparent hedging of bets that has troubled Algerian officials , U.S. diplomats in Washington said the Clinton administration has initiated contacts of its own with Islamic Front representatives . But Foreign Minister Mohammed Saleh Dembri , citing Russia , argued in an interview that Algeria deserves the same special treatment as other countries making a transition away from single-party politics and command economies . As if to underline their staying power and ability to strike seemingly at will , in the past two weeks Muslim guerrillas have killed dozens of draftee soldiers , often by slitting their throats , in widely separated parts of the country . Despite an official news blackout , key Algerians and foreign diplomats reported clashes at Telagh , 50 miles south of the western port city of Oran ; in Tenes , on the Mediterranean coast 75 miles west of Algiers , the capital ; in Medea , 50 miles south of Algiers ; and around the port of Jijel , nearly 200 miles to the east . Diplomats said the insurgents ' operations were only the most spectacular incidents in day-in , day-out violence in which the terrified citizenry is cut down by Islamic killers or shadowy government death squads conducting summary executions in random reprisal . Although information from within the Islamic movement is sparse , specialists here say they are convinced the imprisoned Islamic Front leadership cannot direct the smaller , more radical Armed Islamic Group , led by veterans of the Afghanistan war , and may not be in total control of the Islamic Front 's own military wing , the Armed Islamic Movement . Because of Algeria 's government censorship , no official casualty statistics are published , apparently for fear of panicking the country 's 27 million citizens and its neighbors on both sides of the Mediterranean . Often the only widely publicized deaths are those of prominent citizens such as the rector of one of Algiers University 's campuses , who was assassinated this week . But educated guesses suggest that some 4,000 Algerians were killed in the first two years of strife and that in the last few months the accelerating toll has reached up to 40 fatalities daily , including many civilians . Foreigners have been specifically targeted since September . Thirty-seven have been killed by Islamic extremists , provoking the departure of most of the foreign community and discouraging desperately needed investment from abroad . Foreigners still here lead circumscribed lives , often without their families , who have been sent abroad for safety . Diplomats rarely leave their embassy grounds . Other foreigners constantly vary their movements and do not stray far from neighborhoods reputed to be safe . Algiers streets , clogged with car traffic and strolling pedestrians during the day , are generally deserted by nightfall , well before the curfew , from 11:30 p.m. to 4 a.m. , takes effect . Further sapping Algerian society is the flight abroad of thousands of doctors , lawyers , architects , professors , journalists , managers , engineers and others who considered themselves likely targets for Islamic assassins . Timid hopes of initiating meaningful peace negotiations between the army and the Islamic Front foundered late last winter . The failure has frustrated many mainstream Algerians ' dreams of reconciling moderate political Islam with secular institutions . Zeroual 's mid-winter decision to meet jailed Islamic Front leaders Ali Benhadj and Abassi Madani in Blida prison outside Algiers broke a taboo . But it frightened many in the so-called democratic parties representing educated , Westernized Algerians . They feared the army and Islamic Front might cut a deal excluding their rival constituencies , often disorganized but important . Two of these parties won seats in the first round of the 1991 elections-before the second round was canceled-although the two parties finished far behind the Islamic Front . They are the Socialist Forces Front , strong among the ethnic Kabyle minority , and the National Liberation Front , which monopolized power after Algeria 's independence from France but has tried to move toward democracy over the last half-dozen years . The 150,000-man army , made up overwhelmingly of conscripts , is widely viewed as the last institutional bastion of the secular state , even by critics who bemoan its lack of imagination , denounce its human rights violations and say they wish it would negotiate a settlement with its Islamic adversaries . Whatever its shortcomings , the army has confounded predictions of inevitable collapse . These were first made after key generals violated Algeria 's institutional legitimacy by forcing then-President Chadli Bendjedid from office and canceling the elections on Jan. 11 , 1992 , reversing what had been a limited but noticeable move toward increased democracy . Nonetheless , conversations with politicians , military men , former cabinet ministers , doctors , business people , housewives , analysts , journalists and diplomats revealed a profound pessimism about the future . In one measure of the atmosphere , all refused to allow their names to be published . `` The population refuses to take sides , '' a retired senior military officer said . `` The overwhelming majority of Algerians reject the regime because they want new faces after more than 30 years of the same people in power . Equally overwhelmingly , Algerians reject an Islamic republic because they are convinced the Islamic resistance is nihilist and incapable of running the country . '' RICHMOND , Va. . One day after Oliver L. North won Virginia 's Republican nomination for the U.S. Senate , Senate GOP leader Robert J. Dole rained on North 's victory celebration by refusing to endorse him and reaching out to potential North opponent J. Marshall Coleman . Dole , of Kansas , said in a nationally televised interview Sunday that `` it 's going to take a while '' before he decides whether to support North , and that North 's victory `` makes it very difficult for some in the Republican Party '' to stay loyal . He also said he plans to meet this week with Coleman , a former state attorney general who appears likely to bolt the Republican Party and run for the Senate as an independent . Although Dole said `` I don't know what ( Coleman ) has to say , '' some political analysts immediately interpreted the meeting as a highly public slap at North . North got more unwelcome news from another Republican senator , John McCain of Arizona , and from the man he beat Saturday , former federal budget director James C. Miller III . Both offered North tepid support , but McCain , appearing with Dole on the CBS News program `` Face the Nation , '' said he thinks North is a weak candidate . Miller , in remarks to reporters after a GOP breakfast here this morning , said he has no plans to campaign for his erstwhile rival . In a press conference this afternoon , North minimized the statements by Dole and McCain , noting that they came from two lawmakers `` neither of whom are running in Virginia . '' `` I 'm running for the families of Virginia , '' he said . `` I 'm not running anywhere else but Virginia . '' North had hoped to start his general election drive on an emotional high note Sunday , attending a `` unity breakfast '' with Virginia Republicans and beginning a four-day bus tour through rural Virginia . He vowed to press ahead , even though his hoped-for political honeymoon lasted less than 18 hours . `` The only thing that 's going to slow this parade down , '' North said , `` is a flat tire between here and Danville . '' The criticism of North by senior members of his own party `` is simply remarkable , '' said Robert Holsworth , a political scientist at Virginia Commonwealth University . `` North 's candidacy is already becoming a national issue ... . You have an extraordinarily divided Republican Party in Virginia at the moment . ( North ) is perhaps the most polarizing figure on the political scene . '' North and Coleman are only two contenders in what could become an unprecedented four-man field in this year 's Virginia Senate race . Democratic incumbent Charles S. Robb faces three underdog challengers in a party primary election June 14 . If Robb wins , former Gov. L. Douglas Wilder appears likely to break away from the Democrats and mount his own campaign as an independent . Sunday started well enough for North , as he and Miller addressed a breakfast of about 300 Republicans who offered both men enthusiastic applause . Gov. George Allen , who had shied away from any involvement in the Senate race , appeared wearing a North sticker on his lapel and told the crowd , `` Ollie 's army won fair and square . '' The morning 's featured speaker , Mississippi Gov. Kirk Fordice , invoked Dole 's name , saying that by electing North , Virginians could help change Dole 's title from Senate minority leader to Senate majority leader . But while the breakfast was under way , Dole was taping the `` Face the Nation '' interview in which he distanced himself from North . `` I intend to meet with Marshall Coleman , I think , on Wednesday or Thursday of this next week and see what he has to say , '' Dole said . When asked whether Republicans should rally around North , he said , '' I think it 's going to take a while to sort that out . `` There may be another candidate in the race , a Republican may enter the race as an independent ... . So we 're not certain what 's going to happen ... . It makes it very difficult for some in the Republican Party . '' Dole was later joined on the show by McCain , who said he will support North but `` I think that from a clear political standpoint our chances of winning that seat are dramatically diminished ( by North 's nomination ) . There 's no doubt about that . '' In remarks to reporters after Sunday 's breakfast , Miller seemed equally unenthused about the coming campaign . Miller has pledged to support North , but said that `` I have no specific plans '' to campaign for the nominee and that `` I 'm not sure what I could do '' on North 's behalf . `` You wouldn't believe all the jobs I have backed up , '' Miller said , ticking off a list of personal concerns that included tending to his finances and cleaning out his swimming pool . `` Those are going to be my top priorities . '' Coleman declined to comment Sunday on any of the remarks . Asked whether he intends to seek Dole 's backing , he said , `` I 'd be honored to have anyone 's support . Dole has been traveling in Europe for the past week with a Senate delegation that includes Sen. John W. Warner of Virginia , the Republican who has emerged as North 's most vocal critic . Warner said before North was nominated Saturday that he likely would support Coleman in the event of a North victory . Warner was in France Sunday and could not be reached for comment . But his top aide , Susan Magill , said the coming meeting between Dole and Coleman `` is not a meeting that we requested . '' Virginia Republican Chairman Patrick M. McSweeny chided Dole Sunday , saying the Senate leader `` ought to know better '' than to interfere in a state election . But he admitted that the prospect of a damaging division remains . He said the shots from Dole and McCain `` foretell what 's going to come . This is not a contest between Republicans and Democrats , but between insiders and outsiders . '' `` It 's obvious things are not resolved yet with Dole , '' McSweeney said . `` But we 're not going begging , particularly to somebody from out of state , not even to John Warner , to accept our nominee . '' SAINTE-MERE-EGLISE , France Thomas Rice , a retired San Diego high school teacher , gave the thumbs-up sign to his comrades Sunday and then stepped out of a plane 3,500 feet above France . As a brisk wind opened his parachute and snapped at the crease in his new pants , Rice looked down on the green fields of Normandy . `` I just kept thinking I didn't want to land in that field with the three bulls in it , '' the 73-year-old Rice said moments later , safely on the ground , his angular face smeared with mud . `` But , thank goodness , I just got a little wet . '' Rice and 39 other World War II veterans , ranging in age from 68 to 83 , parachuted near this village Sunday , re-enacting their daring invasion of German-held France 50 years ago . With a crowd of dignitaries and a fully equipped medical unit waiting below , the men filled the sunny afternoon sky like multicolored confetti . `` We did it because , well , a lot of our friends were killed here 50 years ago , '' said Rice , who had been a platoon leader in the 101st Airborne on D-day and suffered shrapnel wounds to a leg and arm . `` And sometimes over the years we have felt some guilt about that . But today I feel like I can bury that guilt and not worry about it anymore . '' Added Robert Dunning , 73 , from Atlanta : `` It was a great feeling . Back in 1944 , it was 2 a.m. , we were under sniper fire and I missed the target by 20 miles . It was easier this time . Nobody was shooting at us . '' But winds did push several of the veteran paratroopers off course . Rene Dussaq of Los Angeles , the oldest of the veteran jumpers , landed miles away from the drop zone , and U.S. spotters in helicopters lost sight of him . He was eventually found by French firefighters , and two hours later Dussaq was having a drink in Sainte-Mere-Eglise . `` There was a little wind , but it was not too bad , '' Dussaq said . `` It was very pleasant . You could look around at the countryside . It was very beautiful . '' In the town square of Sainte-Mere-Eglise , a crowd of more than 8,000 turned up to greet the jumpers and other returning U.S. veterans . The grinning jumpers , wearing replicas of the uniforms they wore in 1944 , signed autographs , shouted `` Bonjour '' to well-wishers and accepted kisses from women in the crowd . Despite widespread fears for their safety , not the least from their own families , only two of the aging paratroopers were injured in the jump . One twisted his ankle , and a second , Earl Draper , 70 , of Inverness , Fla. , was hospitalized with minor back injuries . Draper 's main chute opened , but the lines became snarled . As the crowd watched in fearful silence , he deployed an emergency backup chute , which is harder to control , and landed a few dozen feet from the MASH unit . He was taken by helicopter to a local hospital , where an Army spokesman said he was `` doing fine . '' `` Mr. Draper did just the right thing , '' said U.S. . Army Col. Richard M . Bridges , himself a paratrooper . `` My hat 's off to him . He did a terribly courageous thing . But I 'm proud of them all . I just hope I can do that when I 'm their age . '' The veterans ' jump was followed by a spectacular jump by 700 U.S. and French paratroopers , who alighted without incident on the pastures amid the yellow buttercups . The show was part of a daylong celebration at Sainte-Mere-Eglise , which was the first French town liberated on D-day , freed by U.S. paratroopers even before Allied troops landed at the nearby Utah and Omaha beaches . The town has hosted U.S. veterans and their families every year since the war , and for years the mayor 's wife wrote to families of U.S. servicemen and tended the graves of those who died here . ( Optional add end ) On Sunday , the community was bedecked with U.S. and other Allied nations ' flags . One sign in the crowd read , `` We Never Forget You Guys . '' Among those on hand to welcome the veterans was Prime Minister Edouard Balladur and Sam Gibbons , D-Fla. , the House Ways and Means Committee chairman and D-day veteran who is President Clinton 's representative to the festivities . `` We came to see them because of the memories , '' said Jean-Charles LePouder , 38 , who brought his wife and two children from a nearby town . `` This is really an important part of our history . '' A full day of activities , attended by Clinton and other heads of state , was scheduled for Monday in Normandy . Clinton will first address veterans at Pointe de Hoc , the cliff taken by courageous U.S. . Army Rangers in 1944 . Later , he will talk to several thousand veterans at the American Cemetery on the cliff above Omaha Beach . ABOARD THE USS GEORGE WASHINGTON A young sailor , watching President Clinton somewhat stiffly address sailors and officers aboard this nuclear-powered aircraft carrier as it steamed toward the beaches of Normandy , remarked with sympathy on Clinton 's record of trying to avoid military service in Vietnam as a young man . `` I think he feels the stigma more than we in the military do , '' he said , adding , `` He said all the right things here . '' If Clinton , the first president born after World War II and one of the few without military service , feels any stigma , he showed no sign of it here on the eve of the observance of one of the greatest military triumphs in U.S. history , the D-Day invasion that helped liberate Europe . Aboard the George Washington , Clinton was the commander-in-chief who saluted the crew of 6,000 and spent chunks of his evening eating with enlisted sailors and shaking hands with dozens upon dozens of them . `` Exactly 50 years ago at this very time , '' he told the sailors , `` young people just like you were right here in this channel on some 5,000 ships ... . Imagine how they must have felt . '' As the nation honors those who served in World War II , he said , `` we must also honor those who serve now , who are continuing the legacy they left us ... . Your country is deeply in your debt . '' Clinton began his day in the company of the leaders of 12 nations that participated in the D-Day invasion 50 years ago this night . A traditional religious ceremony for ships embarking on military action was held in Portsmouth , England , and then a huge flotilla , led by Queen Elizabeth 's giant yacht , the Brittania , set sail across the channel to Normandy . A sunrise ceremony off the coast will begin the official D-Day observances . The Brittania first sailed past this carrier before delivering Clinton , and the George Washington gave him a one-of-a-kind salute . Hundreds of sailors lined up in formation on deck , who lifted their hats in unison and chanted , three times , `` hip-hip-hooray '' into the chilly winds . Some of the sailors here said that before Clinton and first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton arrived , there had been some grumbling about his lack of military service , of downsizing the Navy and of Democratic presidents in general . Eldon Cline , a sailor from Savannah , Ga. , said some of those complaining the loudest were pushing the hardest to shake Clinton 's hand and meet the first lady . Cline , in his respect for the office of the presidency , seemed to reflect an attitude repeated frequently by others aboard this ship , if not throughout a military that has had an uncomfortable time its first 18 months with a new president who has seemed less than at ease with things military . If the gods had devised a week of torture for someone discomfited by the military , this would be it : one military ceremony after another of sad , moving tributes to the memory of the thousands of young men who died to liberate Europe from the Nazis . Cline , in describing his joy at seeing Clinton , said : `` Hey , it 's got nothing to do with his policies or anything like that . I joined the Navy to defend the country . He is my commander-in-chief . I 've never seen a president before . It was great . '' His face crinkled in disgust at the actions of one of his fellow sailors , Anthony Bonnici , who literally begged television correspondents to interview him about his dislike for the president . Bonnici said Clinton dodged the draft and should not be leading the nation 's commemoration of D-Day . He said Clinton `` never served one day of his life in the military '' and could not possibly understand what motivates military men and women . He said a lot worse about the Clintons , quoting conservative radio talk-show host Rush Limbaugh and G. Gordon Liddy , both of whom he listens to frequently . He said he wanted to meet the person in charge of the country , and the president too a dig at Hillary Rodham Clinton . A half-hour later , the ecstatic Bonnici , of Virginia Beach , was back with a picture of both Clintons that he had talked each into autographing . He also got the Clintons to autograph a picture of his child . `` Hey , I don't have to like the guy , '' he said , `` He is the president . How many times in your life do you get to meet the president ? '' JERUSALEM With its whole system of social services on the point of collapse , the Israeli government agreed Sunday to raise the pay of its 9,500 striking social workers by an average of $ 550 a month , almost doubling the salaries of three-quarters of them . Eli Ben-Gara , secretary general of the Israel Social Workers Union , said the 46-day strike had wrought `` a very significant revolution '' in forcing the government to rethink its spending priorities and treat social workers once again as professionals . The strike had closed shelters for battered wives , shut down drug rehabilitation programs , kept patients otherwise ready for release in mental hospitals and left runaway children in the streets . Abortions , adoptions and divorces , all of which must involve social workers here , were held up . `` I think the social workers deserved ( the raise ) because they really work on the front lines of distress , '' said Shalom Granit , the government 's chief wage negotiator . `` The fear is always what will others say .. . because everyone has a reason on why they deserve a significant raise in pay . '' Under the old salary scale , starting social workers were paid $ 625 a month , including a supplement to bring them above the legal minimum wage ; a veteran with 17 years experience was paid $ 900 a month . The social workers had originally demanded across-the-board raises of $ 965 a month , and the government offered 18 percent over four years . PORTSMOUTH , England President Clinton , under fire from critics who have accused him of being too soft in opposing North Korea 's purported nuclear ambitions , significantly stepped up his rhetoric Sunday , saying that the United States would consider imposing sanctions without the United Nations if the Security Council proves unable to make a decision . He also warned that the North would risk `` certain , terrible defeat and destruction '' if it retaliated . The remarks , made in nationally televised interviews as Clinton sailed toward France for the commemoration of the D-Day landing , came only a day after the president had said he did not want `` a lot of saber-rattling talk over this . '' Together , the president 's comments illustrate the narrow line he and his top aides are trying to walk as they try to manage the crisis that has developed from North Korea 's refusal to allow International Atomic Energy Agency IAEA inspections of its nuclear facilities . On the one hand , the administration wants to counter the attacks of domestic critics who have accused Clinton of being weak and vacillating in his foreign policy . On Sunday , for example , Sen. John McCain of Arizona , a leading Republican foreign policy spokesman , charged the administration with `` appeasement '' of the North Koreans and said Clinton was acting in the `` tradition of Neville Chamberlain , '' the British prime minister who appeased Hitler in seeking to avoid war over Czechoslovakia before World War II . McCain made his comments on the CBS `` Face the Nation '' program . At the same time , Clinton and his aides want to play down the talk of war that has buzzed through Washington in recent days , fearing , among other things , that bellicose language from U.S. officials could get out of hand , potentially prompting the unpredictable North Korean leaders into a preemptive strike that could open a full-scale war . The United States , Japan and South Korea have agreed to seek sanctions against North Korea in the wake of the declaration by the IAEA that North Korean actions had made it impossible to verify whether or not Pyongyang had diverted weapons-grade plutonium from an experimental nuclear reactor . Such acts by North Korea would violate the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty . In the past , North Korean spokesmen have said any sanctions would be considered an act of war , but American officials have dismissed those statements as bluster . Clinton , interviewed by ABC News , said he did not believe the North Koreans would carry through on those threats . `` I don't think that they would risk the certain , terrible defeat and destruction that would occur if they did that , '' he said . But while the administration proceeds to seek sanctions from the United Nations , senior U.S. officials , worried that China will veto any sanctions resolution , have begun to explore additional avenues to thwart the Pyongyang regime . Defense Secretary William J. Perry said Sunday on NBC 's `` Meet the Press '' program that it is `` entirely possible '' that Beijing would block a U.N. . Security Council resolution against North Korea . And Clinton , interviewed by NBC News , said that while he still hopes support from China and from Russia will allow the United Nations to move forward , `` if it doesn't we 'll have to look at who else wants to do it , and what else we can do . '' Sanctions could be imposed by a `` so-called coalition of the willing , '' Clinton added . Perry and other senior officials here for ceremonies commemorating the 50th anniversary of D-Day insisted that the administration will continue to work through the United Nations and privately with Beijing to try to reach a consensus on a U.N. sanctions resolution . But officials noted China 's continued reticence about punishing and possibly provoking its Communist neighbor and important trading partner . ( Optional Add End ) Other officials caution that the administration sees sanctions as a difficult and potentially dangerous step and would prefer to compel Pyongyang to accept international oversight of its nuclear facilities through less drastic means . But North Korea said Sunday that it will not bow to outside pressure to open up its nuclear program , which it insists is peaceful . `` We do not want confrontation , '' said the North Korean Workers Party daily Rodong Sinmun , according to the official Korean Central News Agency monitored in Tokyo . `` But we do not have the intention to meet an unjustifiable demand under continued pressure and cannot tolerate our sovereignty encroached upon . '' Clinton and Perry both tried to downplay talk of possible military confrontation with North Korea over the nuclear issue . `` I do not think we are facing imminent danger , '' Perry said . `` I think this whole talk of war is quite premature and it 's creating a sort of hysteria which is not appropriate to the present situation . '' SAN MARINO , Calif. . Two young people wielding semi-automatic weapons sprayed gunfire through a high school graduation party at a home in one of the nation 's wealthier cities early Sunday , killing two students and wounding seven other people , authorities said . A 14-year-old boy died at the scene , a house valued at nearly $ 1 million on a cul-de-sac in northeast San Marino , a city of 13,000 located eight miles east of downtown Los Angeles . Another victim , an 18-year-old man , died at a hospital , a Los Angeles County sheriff 's department spokesman said . Authorities said the wounded were between 17 and 21 . The assailants were a young man and a young woman who fired semi-automatic weapons into the crowd at 1 a.m. , according to a San Marino High School student who was wounded in the fusillade . `` It was a gang thing , '' the wounded student told reporters when he returned to the house with his parents Sunday afternoon . `` I don't want any pictures . I don't want any identification because I 'm afraid of retaliation . `` I 've just seen one of my friends shot in the intestines , and one was shot in the chest . And we 're all very scared . '' About 100 students had shown up at the party , an `` End of the Year Jam '' that charged $ 2 at the door . Flyers advertising the event said it would run `` from 7:30 to whenever the pigs come . '' The high school student who was wounded at the party and asked that his name not be used described the moment : `` I thought I was going to die because it was just rat-a-tat-tat-tat-tat . They didn't say anything . I just heard my friends yell , ` Duck ! Duck ! ' There were eight of us all in a row , and we all got shot . '' The young man described an argument at the party between the disc jockey and several people , two of whom later came back shooting . After the guests argued with the disc jockey , they reassured others that `` everything was OK , '' the teen-ager said . `` But they were just fooling us . They were setting us up for the slaughter . '' Deputies said between eight and 12 suspects , who had left the party after the dispute , returned in three separate cars . The two who did the shooting went into the back yard , armed with semi-automatic weapons , and `` opened fire at the partygoers , spraying the exterior and the interior of the house , '' a deputy said . No arrests had been made as of midday Sunday . The suspects were described as `` predominantly Asian males and females . '' The wounded student and several friends were playing cards in the back yard `` when all of a sudden they came back . '' He said the man carried what he thought was an AK-47 assault rifle , and the young woman with him had a pistol . As the pair were shooting , deputies said , other suspects were damaging cars parked in front of the home . ( Optional add end ) San Marino residents pride themselves on their good school system and manicured lawns . The community , founded by old California families southeast of Pasadena , has become home to a new Asian-American gentry virtually overnight . An American-born real estate agent of Asian descent described the community two years ago as being `` like Beverly Hills to Asians . '' The city is the birthplace and boyhood home of WWII tank commander Gen. George S. Patton and home to the Huntington Library , which houses a renowned collection including Thomas Gainsborough 's `` Blue Boy , '' Thomas Lawrence 's `` Pinkie , '' a Gutenberg Bible , a manuscript of Chaucer 's `` Canterbury Tales , '' and many other works of art and literature . LOS ANGELES Times Mirror Co. confirmed Sunday that it has agreed to spin off its cable operations into a new venture with Atlanta-based Cox Enterprises Inc. for $ 2.3 billion as part of a long-term strategy to become a major player in providing information services for the digital age . Cox will manage the cable company created under the deal , which will become the nation 's third-largest , with 3.1 million subscribers . Times Mirror 's shareholders will retain 20 percent of the new company . In addition , Times Mirror will receive about $ 932 million worth of Cox Cable 's common stock , and Cox will also assume $ 1.364 billion in new Times Mirror debt . Times Mirror plans to use at least part of the proceeds to develop new programming ventures . As part of the strategy , it will form a partnership with Cox to develop new cable TV channels to be carried over the combined systems . At a time of on-again , off-again media mergers when companies are struggling to deal with technological changes that could dramatically alter the way consumers receive information Times Mirror in effect has decided to divide itself in two . The move separates the production of information which has traditionally been the company 's core business from its delivery . `` You come to a fork in the road where you have to decide what to do with your business , and we took the content side , '' said Times Mirror Chairman and Chief Executive Robert F. Erburu. `` Our feeling is that in order to be successful in cable you have to get a lot bigger , and to do that would have interfered with our intention to focus on content . '' With the cable business consolidated under Cox , the publishing giant will turn its attention to new ways of leveraging its existing assets : the Los Angeles Times , Newsday and New York Newsday , The Baltimore Sun , The Hartford Courant and some smaller papers ; consumer magazines such as Popular Science and Outdoor Life ; a profitable professional and textbook publishing business ; and a recently launched television programming division . Concerns about the future of newspapers in their current form is another reason Times Mirror is focusing on developing new modes of production and a wider breadth of media . Some analysts believe that most information will be delievered electronically in the future , rather than on paper . `` A substantial part of our business will still be the traditional newspaper business in five years , '' Erburu said . `` I don't think things are going to change that fast . But the challenge for us will be to build the new businesses as fast as we can because that is the only hedge we have against something happening to the traditional business faster than we think . '' After agressively moving into cable TV in the 1970s , Times Mirror has not substantially expanded its holdings recently . In a statement Sunday , Cox said that the Times Mirror systems in Orange County , Calif. , Phoenix , Ariz. , and other places would continue to operate as usual for the coming months . Cox added that the new company may not go into effect until the start of 1995 . Cox is currently the nation 's sixth largest cable operator , with subscribers in San Diego , New Orleans and Virginia , among other places . The combined operations will form a regional cluster of systems in the Southwest . For privately held Cox , the deal signifies a commitment to become a major force in delivering information services and entertainment . The Atlanta-based company , whose holdings include the Atlanta Journal-Constitution and several TV and radio stations , has been in an agressive mode recently . Last year , it offered $ 500 million toward QVC 's failed bid for Paramount Communications . The company also tried to merge its cable system with Southwestern Bell in a deal that ultimately failed over regulatory problems and other complications . At a time when cable , phone , computer and consumer electronics firms are all squabbling over what the various forms of delivery systems will look like , analysts have noted that the companies producing the most versatile programming are in a particularly strong position . To that end , Times Mirror and Cox said they plan to `` explore a collaborative test '' to provide an array of interactive information and entertainment services to homes and businesses over a fiber network in the Southern California community of Irvine later this year , as many other phone , cable and programming companies are doing in superhighway test-beds around the country . Indeed , the company has already signaled its interest in providing information that others can relay to consumers . In January , Times Mirror joined with Pacific Telesis Group in a venture that will offer electronic-shopping services . In April , it invested in Digital Pictures Inc. of San Mateo , with plans to provide interactive versions of Times Mirror 's magazines and newspapers to be distributed on CD-ROM . And distribution of an interactive version of the Los Angeles Times via Prodigy Co. 's on-line computer service is in the works . Still , some analysts question the logic of dividing production from distribution , especially when cable generated 28 percent of Times Mirror 's pre-tax operating profit last year nearly equal to that of the newspaper group , which accounted for 53 percent of its revenue . While the newspaper group 's operating profit plunged to $ 107.3 million in 1993 , from $ 310 million in 1989 , cable 's earnings steadily climbed to $ 106.5 million last year , from $ 58.1 million in 1989 . ( The profit figures take into account various restructuring charges . ) ( Begin optional trim ) The loss of cable 's profits `` is a very valid concern '' to Times Mirror going forward , said Douglas M. Arthur , an analyst with Kidder Peabody & Co. . `` Why sell it ? Strategically , having the cable operation might be a great vehicle down the road . '' But most analysts believe that consolidation in the cable industry is inevitable , as the race to rewire the nation with high-speed fiber cables requires bigger and bigger outlays of capital . And the consensus is that Times Mirror got a good price . The spinoff will enable the company to avoid a sharp tax bite that it would have incurred had the company sold the cable business for cash , and its transfer of debt to the new venture will vastly improve Times Mirror 's balance sheet , analysts said . ( End optional trim ) Following the sale of the cable operations , Times Mirror said it expects to cut the quarterly dividend on its common stock to between one-fifth and one-third its current level of 27 cents . Times Mirror will first spin off all of its businesses other than cable into the new Times Mirror company , and all Times Mirror shareholders will receive one new Class A or Class C common share for each share they owned in the old Times Mirror . Voting interests in the new Times Mirror will thus remain unchanged . ( Optional Add End ) The Chandler family , the company 's largest shareholder , which through two trusts owns 31 percent of Times Mirror 's equity and over 50 percent of its voting stock , will not receive any shares of Cox Cable in the merger , because the terms of their trusts do not allow it . Instead , they will receive a new class of dividend-paying , non-voting preferred stock in the new Times Mirror , which will be equivalent to their proportionate interest in the stock distributed to other shareholders . While many industry observers believed the Chandlers ' desire for greater liquidity had fueled the search for a cable partner or buyer , Times Mirror executives said the Chandlers were not expected to sell their shares . Cox Chairman James C. Kennedy will serve as chairman of the new Cox Cable , and James O . Robbins , the current president of Cox Cable , will be president and chief executive officer . Erburu has been invited to take a seat on the company board of directors , but he said he has not yet responded to the offer . ON THE ENGLISH CHANNEL A flotilla of battleships , aircraft carriers , cruisers and ferries crossed the English Channel Sunday night on a celebratory re-enactment of the D-day invasion that began Europe 's liberation 50 years ago Monday . A queen ( of England ) , a king ( of Norway ) , four presidents , four prime ministers and tens of thousands of sailors , soldiers and citizens prepared to arrive Monday morning on the Normandy beaches to commemorate the massive amphibious assault that marked the beginning of the end of World War II . `` Exactly 50 years ago , at this very time , young people just like you were right here in this channel on some 5,000 ships preparing for the most important battle of the century , '' President Clinton told the crew of the aircraft carrier George Washington late Sunday . `` Imagine how they must have felt , in choppy seas and bad weather . Imagine how they must have looked to the enemy when they came across the horizon . '' The lesson from that `` magnificent , heroic , almost unbelievable endeavor , '' he said , was `` that if the Allies would stay together and stay strong , we would never need another D-Day . '' Earlier the president and first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton visited the Jeremiah O' Brien , an authentic World War II liberty ship that made 11 shuttle voyages to the Normandy beachheads after June 6 , 1944 . It was the only ship that participated in the invasion to also be a part of the anniversary armada . After crossing the Channel on the George Washington , which was scheduled to moor off the French coast , the president was to attend a sunrise ceremony Monday . Then he was to travel by helicopter Monday morning to Pointe du Hoc for an address to the U.S. Rangers who scaled that cliff in the bloody battle for Omaha Beach . His speech later Monday at the American Cemetery at Colleville sur Mer overlooking Omaha is to be the climax of his eight-day `` journey of remembrance '' across Europe that has revived memories of a time when the world was at war and the future at risk . At mid-Channel Sunday night , a World War II British Lancaster bomber flew low and dropped red poppies , one for each of the soldiers who took part in the initial invasion . Ships representing the 14 nations whose troops were involved at Normandy laid wreaths at sea to honor those who died . `` If somebody asks me what it was like , I say hell , '' recalled Harry Pickford , 71 , a British Navy veteran who landed at Normandy `` about tea-time the second day '' of the invasion . Leaning on a cane , faded medals pinned to his jacket , he was one of perhaps 100,000 people who attended a `` Drumhead '' ceremony on Southsea Common in Portsmouth to bless the fleet . ( Optional add end ) `` You want to come and you don't , because .. . it brings a lot back which I didn't want , '' the retired bricklayer said of the commemoration . `` But you don't want the next generation to forget , because if you know what it was like , you 've got a better chance of avoiding it again . '' Unlike 50 years ago , when a driving storm almost prompted Supreme Allied Commander Dwight D. Eisenhower to postpone the invasion , the weather Sunday was clear and cold , with brisk winds snapping the flags and chopping the water . The outer harbor , called the Solent , was filled with thousands of sailboats and powerboats jostling for a view of the warships and the dignitaries . With a boom , the British aircraft carrier Illustrious fired a 42-gun salute across the Portsmouth seafront , and the royal yacht Britannia its decks lined with the leaders of the allied nations whose troops had taken part in D-Day reviewed the fleet . Distributed by the Los Angeles Times-Washington Post News Service . LOS ANGELES By merging its cable TV assets with Cox Enterprises , Times Mirror Co. is signaling that the old rules that shaped the diversified media conglomerates of the past 30 years may no longer apply in an era of rapid technological change in communications . After decades of following a cautious path and staying close to its publishing roots , Times Mirror is dramatically repositioning itself as a `` content provider '' for the coming age in which information and entertainment will be received over everything from computers to interactive TV 's . `` The fundamental decision is that we want to focus on the content side , '' says Robert F. Erburu , chief executive of Times Mirror . `` That 's the strength we 're best able to build upon in the future . '' As Times Mirror executives envision it , becoming a content provider means everything from launching and investing in cable TV networks , such as The Outdoor Channel , to using the information gathered by its newspapers and magazines for new programming services and ideas . The emphasis on content also means that Times Mirror does not have to worry about which `` platform '' cable TV , telephone lines , wireless personal communications services or satellites delivers the information into the home and can become a provider to all of them . Times Mirror 's decision to spin-off its 1.2 million subscriber cable TV assets to Cox comes at a time when all major media companies are looking to what role they will play in the coming so-called information superhighway , where it 's expected that consumers will be able to order movies-on-demand , play video games and shop electronically over their cable TV . Media companies like Times Mirror also face a thundering heard of competition , from local phone companies to giant entertainment conglomerates and computer firms , which all want to cash in on ways to deliver information to the consumer at home and work . The plan , perhaps most significantly , indicates that Times Mirror is bearish about the company 's long-term prospects as a cable TV operator , and would rather provide information that cable firms , telephone companies and other electronic distributors can sell to the public . `` It pretty clearly tells you that Times Mirror feels the future of the business is providing content into the business-oriented distribution market , '' said James D. Dougherty of the investment bank of Dean Witter Discover & Co. . The company believes , he added , that `` it 's better for Times Mirror to be out of the ( cable ) business when they can get a good price for it , and when they feel the returns on cable are just going to shrink over a long period of time . '' Erburu , however , said that making the capital investments to build the broad-band infrastructure would use up Times Mirror resources at a time when it wanted to invest the money elsewhere . Once a diversified media conglomerate , Times Mirror in recent years has refocused on its core business of big-city newspapers and professional-textbook publishing , as well as making some forays into new media technologies . Such a strategy is unusual in the clubby world of media empires , where the conventional wisdom has been that stakes in as many areas as possible newspapers , broadcasting , cable TV , magazine and book publishing is the best way to hedge bets and ensure growth . The shift in Times Mirror 's strategy also has been accompanied by a move away from a family-run business to a multibillion-dollar corporation run by professional managers . Although the founding Chandler family still controls more than 50 percent of Times Mirror 's voting stock and have four seats on its 14-member board , no one in the family has been involved in the top management since Otis Chandler retired as publisher of the Los Angeles Times in 1980 . Beginning in the 1960s , after it went public , Times Mirror aggressively expanded , buying TV stations , cable TV systems , major newspapers , magazines , and book publishing companies . The strategy paralleled that of other media firms . Indeed , over a 30-year period Times Mirror spent $ 2.2 billion in cash and stock on acquisitions and another $ 3.4 billion in capital expenditures . The acquisitions propelled Times Mirror into the leading ranks among media companies and earned it a spot as No. 135 on the Fortune 500 as recently as 1991 . But Times Mirror 's diversification strategy included a string of misfires along the way . For example , it eventually had to unload unprofitable newspapers in Dallas and Denver , taking a $ 65 million charge against earnings in 1991 when the buyer of the Denver paper couldn't pay its note . A $ 650 million investment in The Baltimore Sun will take years to pay off . A trade magazine it bought in 1987 for $ 75 million was sold four years later for $ 32 million . And last year Times Mirror sold its four network affiliate TV stations at the bottom of the market for $ 320 million , only to have the buyer sell them six months later for $ 717 million . ( Optional add end ) Not surprisingly , the missteps coupled with the economic downturn in the markets where Times Mirror owns newspapers advertising at The Times is off $ 150 million since 1991 have made the company 's stock one of the worst performers among media companies over the last two years . Although the stock market achieved record highs , Times Mirror 's stock price has languished between $ 25 and $ 38 per share since 1990 , far off its 1987 peak of $ 52 . The spotty record in diversifying a notable exception has been the specialty book and professional publishing division , which now accounts for one-third of Times Mirror 's revenues and more than half its operating profits and sagging stock price has led to speculation that the Chandler family is unhappy and wanted to take cash out of the company . Most of the Chandler holdings in Times Mirror are locked up in trusts that cannot be dispersed until sometime toward the end of the first quarter of the next century . Tom Untermann , general counsel of Times Mirror , said that it is not anticipated that the preferred shares that the Chandlers Trusts receives as part of the deal will be sold . Erburu said that , `` The Chandler Trusts were solidly behind this arrangement , as were outside directors . There 's unanimity among the Chandler Trusts , the management , and independent directors . '' The proposed merger of Times Mirror 's cable television operation into Cox Cable Communications would create the nation 's third-largest cable television operator in terms of subscribers . Here is a look at the two parent companies behind the deal : TIMES MIRROR CORP. . Headquarters : Los Angeles Chief Executive : Robert F. Erburu Employees : 26,936 Major holdings : Publishes five metropolitan and two suburban newspapers and nine special-interest magazines . Also publishes medical , business , aviation , economics , art and law books . Its cable television division is the nation 's 10th-largest , with more than 1.2 million customers in 13 states . 1993 revenue : $ 3.7 billion Approximate revenue and percent by division , in millions of dollars : Division Revenue Percent of total Newspapers $ 1,981 53 Cable Television 470 13 Book , Magazine & Other Publishing 1,263 34 1993 profit : $ 317.2 million Earnings per share : $ 2.46 Friday stock price : $ 36 , up $ 4 a share -0- COX ENTERPRISES INC. . Headquarters : Atlanta Chief Executive : James C. Kennedy Employees : 31,000 Major holdings : Publishes 18 daily and eight weekly newspapers , six broadcast TV stations and 13 radio stations . It owns 24 cable television systems , the nation 's sixth-largest cable operation , with 1.8 million subscribers . 1993 revenue : $ 2.7 billion Approximate revenue and percent by division , in millions of dollars : Division Revenue Percent of total Newspapers $ 802.5 30 Cable television 668.8 25 Automobile auctions 615.3 23 Broadcasting 588.4 22 1993 profit : As a private company , not reported PORTSMOUTH , England The daily news summary faxed across the Atlantic Ocean Sunday for President Clinton and his senior aides didn't include anything about the story that has riveted and dismayed the White House most : The first excerpt from Washington Post reporter Bob Woodward 's new book on Clinton . The book , `` The Agenda : Inside the Clinton White House , '' portrays the president as indecisive , his staff as fumbling and first lady Hillary Rodham Clinton as the de facto chief of staff . Asked for his reaction during a morning jog Sunday that took him through the Portsmouth dockyards , Clinton , wearing a `` Commander-in-Chief '' cap , ignored the question and ran on . But ignoring the book willn't make it go away , officials privately concede . It comes as one more blow at a time when Clinton 's approval rating has been on a slide . And his eight-day European trip , which in some ways has burnished Clinton 's standing , also has revived the public debate over whether his efforts to avoid the draft during the Vietnam War should be held against him . Now , the book , written by the country 's most prominent investigative reporter and based on interviews with members of the administration , is sure to reinforce questions about the competence of the Clinton White House . Senior White House officials traveling with the president in Europe generally have dismissed the particulars of the book as `` old news , '' noting that accounts of chaos in the White House operation already have been widely reported . `` I don't think there 's anything new , '' press secretary Dee Dee Myers said . ( Begin optional trim ) `` A lot that 's there we 've read before about process , '' White House counselor David Gergen said in an impromptu session with reporters in Portsmouth Sunday . `` We have a strong feeling that the president ought to be judged by results . '' But when he was asked if the book would erode Clinton 's reputation , Gergen glared at the questioner , shook his head and left . ( End optional trim ) White House officials had hoped Clinton 's European tour would improve his public image , especially the perception of him as commander in chief . In Italy and England , he presided over emotional ceremonies in historic places , paying tribute to the U.S. armed forces and pledging his support for a strong defense . But his reception from the World War II veterans he has addressed has been more respectful than enthusiastic . In Italy , at the U.S. . Cemetery in Nettuno on Friday , some of the veterans seemed more excited about seeing Senate Minority Leader Bob Dole , R-Kan. , who was wounded in the Italian campaign . `` You have to be a veteran to understand about all this , and he 's not a veteran , '' Norman Myhra , a retired postmaster from Stevens Point , Wis. , said of Clinton . Now 69 , Myhra was a teen-ager when he lost both hands to a German booby trap during the invasion of Italy . Paul Wagner , 81 , a retired school superintendent from Ashland , Pa. , said Clinton `` definitely '' shouldn't have avoided the draft . `` It 's our country , '' he protested . In England Saturday , at the Cambridge American Cemetery and Memorial , members of the U.S. congressional delegation discussed Clinton 's military history as they waited for the president to arrive . `` I don't think it 's something he can shake , '' said Rep. Robert Dornan , R-Calif. , one of Clinton 's most vociferous critics . `` A lot of vets I 've talked to thought he should have sent Al Gore , '' the vice president and a Vietnam veteran , to the D-Day commemoration . He called Clinton `` a draft dodger , '' and added , `` Every time we see the president at a grave , we just feel total phoniness . '' But J.J. . Pickle , D.-Texas , who served in the Pacific theater for more than three years during World War II , angrily called Dornan 's comments `` totally inappropriate . '' He said of Clinton , `` I think he has every right in the world to be here and I admire him for coming here . '' ( Optional add end ) At a ceremony in Portsmouth to bless a commemorative D-Day armada Sunday , some of the aging British veterans considered the question of Clinton 's global leadership . `` People here are doubtful , '' said Harry Pickford , 71 , of Manchester . `` You want some better people behind him , more than he 's got . '' `` They wanted a youngster , '' Leonard Adgington , 74 , of Birmingham , said of U.S. voters , `` and they got one . '' Distributed by the Los Angeles Times-Washington Post News Service . Some of Wall Street 's long-favorite consumer growth stocks have quietly become the market 's leaders again , after two years or more in the doghouse . Software giant Microsoft , retailer Home Depot and beer king Anheuser-Busch are among the classic 1980s growth issues that have rebounded sharply this year , after tumbling in 1993 . The return of these old favorites is sparking debate over which stocks are likely to lead the next market rally , assuming the bull market that began in 1990 is intact . In 1992 and 1993 , `` value '' stocks were by far the market 's best performers . The value group includes many industrial , financial and utility shares that typically sell for relatively low prices compared to their per-share earnings hence the term `` value . '' `` Growth '' stocks , meanwhile , usually sell for higher prices relative to earnings , but for a reason : As the category name implies , these companies typically boast above-average and consistent earnings growth , as opposed to the often-cyclical earnings of value stocks . Growth stocks had a terrific run between 1989 and 1991 , far outperforming value stocks in each of those years . But by the beginning of 1992 , the tide turned in favor of value stocks , for two big reasons . Many growth stocks had become overpriced after their 1989- '91 run-up . And when earnings growth for some major drug companies and food companies began to slow in 1992 ( victims of health care reform and slower consumer spending , respectively ) , investors became suspicious of the entire growth-stock universe . Wall Street began to bet heavily on a turnaround for large industrial companies , as demand for their products increased and as years of cost-cutting translated into vastly improved earnings potential . Financial stocks also surged as interest rates continued to fall . The end result : Value stocks handily beat growth stocks in 1992 and in 1993 , the first time value had back-to-back better years than growth since 1983- '84 . Wilshire Associates , which tracks separate growth and value stock indexes , says its value index rose 14 percent in 1992 , versus a 5.6 percent rise in the growth-stock index . In 1993 , value rose 12.7 percent while growth fell 0.8 percent . ( All figures are total returns : net price change plus dividend income . ) So far this year , both Wilshire indexes were down about 2 percent through the end of May . The growth sector has been hurt by continued weakness in some big-name stocks , including Coca-Cola and Wal-Mart . The value sector has suffered from declines in utilities and some major industrial names , such as the Big Three auto stocks . But measured since last October when the market began to rally briskly after stagnating for much of 1993 growth stocks have been outrunning value stocks by a wide margin , says Wilshire Associates analyst Mike Palmer . From October through May , Wilshire 's growth index was up 2.2 percent , while the value index dropped 5.2 percent , Palmer says . Even if you consider only year-to-date performance , the simple fact that growth and value are about even in performance may suggest that investors are less interested in buying value stocks , and perhaps less interested in selling growth stocks as well . `` One could argue that value stocks ' outperformance has come to an end , '' Palmer says . However , other yardsticks still give value an edge . The Standard & Poor 's /Barra Inc. growth and value indexes , which split the S&P 500 into the two camps , show value up 0.4 percent through May and growth down 2.3 percent . In any case , it 's clear that value is no longer way out in front . And the powerful resurgence this year of classic growth stocks such as Microsoft and Home Depot demonstrates that Wall Street 's appetite for its old favorites has improved markedly from 1993 . Why the return to growth stocks ? William Dodge , strategist at Dean Witter Reynolds in New York , says growth stocks are benefiting in part because investors realize that at this stage of the economic cycle , `` just any old ( industrial ) stock isn't going to work anymore . '' Two years ago , you bought auto stocks because auto sales were still depressed but sure to rebound eventually . Today , after two years of strong sales , it 's reasonable to wonder how much better things can get for the auto industry . If you believe auto company earnings will peak in 1995 , you probably aren't going to buy the stocks now . At the same time , earnings of many classic growth companies have continued to rise at annual rates of 15 percent or better since 1992 , even as the stocks have been dashed . The result : Price-to-earnings ratios , or P-Es , of growth stocks are in many cases significantly lower today than two years ago . If Wall Street takes an increasingly dim view of the earnings potential in value stocks , investors will naturally look to growth stocks as an alternative . And if they find lowered P-Es on those stocks , the justification for buying them becomes that much greater . Of course , it may still be too early to say that growth stocks are taking over for value stocks . We may be in a stock-picker 's market where some issues in both camps will do well , while the aggregate indexes perform poorly . But it 's worth noting that Wall Street responds to momentum . If more investors begin to perceive that the momentum is shifting back to growth stocks , their rebound could become a self-fulfilling prophecy . WASHINGTON As if the Democrats didn't already face enough trouble forestalling big Republican gains in the Senate this year , Sen. Edward M. Kennedy , D-Mass. , may have a serious re-election challenge for the first time in decades . A recent poll by the Boston Globe found that a majority of Massachusetts voters believe someone else should be given a chance to serve . Kennedy , who is seeking a seventh term , is expected to be opposed by W. Mitt Romney an articulate venture capitalist and the son of former Michigan Gov. George Romney who has the backing of the Massachusetts GOP and is likely to be well-financed. .. . Although Kennedy 's supporters maintain that the 32-year incumbent has reversed his plunge in voter esteem resulting from the 1991 rape trial of his nephew William Kennedy Smith , the Senate titan has shown surprising signs of vulnerability in other polls as well . At a minimum , the challenge will force the liberal lawmaker to expend considerable time and resources campaigning at a time when he is a key player in President Clinton 's health care reform effort. .. . Said one national Democratic strategist : `` He is taking this ( election ) very seriously. '' .. . The Democrats , who have a 56-44 Senate majority , are bracing for an overall loss of several seats in November 's mid-term elections . -0- WATKINS REDUX : With his notorious helicopter-borne golf outing , former White House aide David Watkins destroyed on one balmy afternoon the personal ties to Clinton that he had been profitably cultivating for years . Or did he ? .. . Washington lobbyists and some White House aides believe Watkins would be a prime catch for the lobbying trade , and some wouldn't be surprised to hear that he had landed a six-figure job . Although the flap over the trip sorely strained Watkins ' relationship with some administration heavyweights , he still has close ties to some in the Arkansas crowd . During Clinton 's 1992 campaign and since , Watkins proved he could get things done , aides say . And ethics rules , while making the White House off limits , wouldn't keep him from lobbying Congress or federal agencies on most kinds of business. .. . Watkins said lobbying was not one of the opportunities he was exploring . But he conceded that he 's `` not ruling anything out. '' .. . One big problem remains : Such a career move would renew complaints about the flexible ethics of a White House crowd that had once pledged to end such practices . -0- WITH FRIENDS LIKE THIS : Guess who is racing to Clinton 's defense in the Whitewater flap ? Political extremist Lyndon LaRouche . A slick , 64-page magazine put out by LaRouche followers suggests the attack on Clinton is a plot by British intelligence , angered by U.S. opposition to the International Monetary Fund 's policy of `` shock therapy '' for Russia . `` It is your presidency they are assaulting , '' the journal declares with alarm . -0- NO MORE MR . NICE GUY ? A month after he was passed over for a seat on the Supreme Court , Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt has begun to develop cracks in his much-heralded even temper . Babbitt is known for his consensus-building style , but when Sen. Hank Brown , R-Colo. , last week started slamming the compromise Babbitt had carefully crafted on grazing fees for federal lands , Babbitt got steamed . He packed his bags and headed to Colorado to stare down Brown on his own turf . Brown had been a key player in the grazing compromise and Babbitt was apparently furious that he had started bad-mouthing the plan. .. . Babbitt 's fit of pique came after the laid-back Arizonan unleashed a string of public epithets against the mining industry , which is fighting a sweeping reform plan passed by the House . WASHINGTON On a Thursday afternoon in late May , the justices of the Supreme Court gathered together in an ornate conference room for a music recital . Justice Harry A . Blackmun , who had conceived the idea and invited six distinguished musicians , said he thought listening to music together would have a salutary impact on his often-combative colleagues . The recital and the reception that followed would `` increase the level of joviality among the justices at this time of year , '' Blackmun commented in introducing the program . For the Supreme Court , `` this time of the year '' is decision time . In the last week of May and first weeks of June , the justices must finally decide their cases , some of which have been pending since the first week in October . Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist , a stickler for working by the clock , insists that all the opinions be ready for announcement by the last week in June . While the court has heard fewer cases during this term , it now finds itself in the usual spot with the hardest cases left for last . Here are highlights among the 35 cases still awaiting decision : ABORTION PICKETING Can a judge block anti-abortion protesters from picketing and praying at the gates of an abortion clinic , or does such an order violate their free-speech rights ? A ruling in the case of Madsen vs . Women 's Health Center could affect the constitutionality of the newly enacted federal law designed to protect abortion facilities . CABLE TV Does the 1992 law that requires local cable operators to broadcast virtually all the nearby over-the-air stations violate the First Amendment rights of the cable companies ? If the justices agree with the cable TV industry , the ruling in the case of Turner Broadcasting vs. FCC could have broad impact in the communications field . DEATH PENALTY Is the California death penalty law unconstitutional because it permits jurors to consider vague factors when deciding upon life in prison or death for a convicted killer ? A ruling in Tuilaepa vs. California could affect the fate of all 375 inmates on Death Row , but the justices indicated during the March argument that they would likely uphold the law . VOTING RIGHTS Is a state required to maximize the number of legislative seats for blacks and Latinos when drawing boundaries ? This case from Florida raises a series of complicated questions because benefiting blacks can hurt Latinos and vice versa . The justices heard arguments in Johnson vs. DeGrandy on the first Monday in October , but have struggled since then to issue a decision . RETROACTIVE TAXES Can Congress repeal a tax benefit after a taxpayer has taken advantage of it and order the Internal Revenue Service to seek retroactive payments ? Since the 1930s , the high court has given state and federal officials broad powers to impose retroactive taxes , but the case of U.S. vs. Carlton has forced the justices to rethink that doctrine . RELIGION Can a state carve out a special school district so as to serve a separatist religious sect ? If the answer is `` yes '' in this New York case , other sects are likely to seek the same benefits . But the ruling in the Village of Kiryas Joel vs. Grumet is likely to be narrowly focused and will not have a broad impact on other cases involving the separation of church and state . ( Optional Add End ) UNITARY TAXES Is California 's now-repealed unitary tax on multinational corporations unconstitutional ? A loss in the case of Barclay 's Bank vs . Franchise Tax Board could cost the state as much as $ 4 billion , but during the oral argument the justices sounded as though they will reject the bank 's claim . SIGNS Can a city outlaw the display of all signs and billboards , except those necessary to identify a residence or business ? If the court were to rule for the city in Ladue vs. Gilleo , local officials would have far broader authority to ban billboards and other `` visual clutter . '' PROPERTY RIGHTS Can city officials force a store owner to give up some of his property to a bike path as a condition of getting a building permit , or is that requirement an unconstitutional `` taking '' of private property ? In a 1987 case involving a Ventura , Calif. , beachfront home , the court said it would frown on a public agency 's demands that amounted to `` extortion '' of property owners , but the justices have been unable to agree on a clear standard . The case of Dolan vs. Tigard gives them another chance . ATLANTA The Clinton administration is stepping for the first time into the uncertain , but potentially lucrative business of trying to guide the economic resurgence of a newly democratic South Africa . But the job of redrawing the nation 's economy in a way that ensures that the transition to democracy translates into fundamental improvements in living standards for all South Africans is easier said than done . Just listen to Trevor Manuel , once an African National Congress intelligence officer and now South Africa 's minister of trade and industry . `` We 've inherited an economy that is fairly skewed , '' said Manuel , a man who displays a penchant for flowery ties and down-to-earth rhetoric . The Johannesburg stock exchange is the 10th largest in the world , he notes , yet `` South Africa is one of the few countries in the world where there is no McDonald 's . '' With personal encouragement from Vice President Al Gore and South African Executive Deputy President Thabo Mbeki , senior U.S. and South African officials teamed up with business executives from both countries in Atlanta over the weekend to begin wrestling with the economic needs facing the new multiracial government . `` We want to build an economy , '' said Harry L. Schwartz , South Africa 's ambassador to the United States . `` We have tremendous resources to become a major economic power . '' True , say less-biased observers , eyeing a potential $ 20 billion market . But what about the promises Nelson Mandela made to the black majority as he campaigned successfully to become the country 's first black president ? What about building houses in black townships , supplying them with electricity and clean water , and revamping the educational system ? At its heart , the dilemma is this : Can South Africa attract the outside investment it needs for growth and wealth redistribution , while also meeting the political goal of reconciliation of the races and the economic goal of raising living standards of the black majority ? Gore is among those who answer affirmatively . The blueprint for change drafted by the African National Congress `` doesn't ask for utopia , '' Gore said . `` It asks for running water , flush toilets , schools , health clinics . But how can South Africa finance even these things in a country where the majority of the people have less than 10 percent of the wealth ? '' According to South African officials , the commitment to both democracy and the free market is unwavering . `` We have not come carrying a begging bowl , but a national commitment to invest in people by investing in democracy , '' said Mbeki , who is calling for increased U.S. investment and two-way trade between the United States and South Africa . How important is outside investment ? `` It is vital , '' he said . The Clinton administration has committed itself to providing $ 200 million a year for three years in grants , loans and loan guarantees to assist in the process . But the real investment must come from outside government . `` The key to the future of our relationship will be the private sector , '' Gore said . `` That 's what will create the jobs . That 's what will create the income . '' Commerce Secretary Ronald H. Brown says there is a short-term need for `` hundreds of millions of dollars '' of U.S. investment . The U.S.-South Africa Conference on Democracy and Economic Development was the first effort to bring the new South African elite together with those in the United States who are in a position to provide assistance without a massive commitment of government funds . `` If you just throw money at South Africa , you willn't necessarily create a successful economy . The South Africans don't have the skills in public administration .. . that are part of a market economy , '' said a U.S. official involved in organizing the meeting . From the South African perspective , the objective is much broader . `` The battle in South Africa is to ensure we can give this hard-won democracy some content .. . and reposition South Africa in the global economy , '' Manuel said last week in Washington . On the positive side , said Witney Schneidman , senior vice president of Samuels International Associates , an international trade and investment consulting firm , `` the prospects are quite good . '' South Africa , Schneidman said , `` has a first-world infrastructure . '' He cited its banking network , an established system of contract law , a relatively open , market-based economy , and a geographical location that provides access to markets in other regions , such as the Indian Ocean rim . South Africa 's $ 112 billion economy is beginning to grow , after four years of recession , and it has major deposits of gold and platinum . ( Optional add end ) On the other hand , `` there are a lot of misplaced expectations , '' Schneidman said . `` Most people don't understand the gap between the white business Establishment and black business . '' The unemployment rate in South Africa is approximately 46 percent , average income of blacks is one-tenth that of whites , and the black literacy rate is half that of whites . In fact , the upbeat tenor of the current discussions may involve a considerable amount of `` blue-sky '' expectations , said Walter Kansteiner , an African affairs expert who served on the National Security Council staff during the Bush administration . `` You 're not going to achieve reconciliation with the white community if you 're going to slap huge taxes on the whites and go into a budget deficit , '' Kansteiner said in an interview . The increasingly loud debate over whether the U.S. economy is overheating or in danger of it will increase a few decibels as a result of the Labor Department 's employment report for May released last week . Confounding the forecasters , who had expected it to remain stable , unemployment fell to six percent , down from 6.4 percent April . This pushed joblessness well below what many conservatives consider the `` natural rate of unemployment '' which they define as the point beyond which further improvement would cause an escalation in wage demands and a new inflationary spiral that can only be cured by bludgeoning the economy back into a recession . The thinking at the Federal Reserve Board these days is that the `` natural '' rate is somewhere above six percent . So the improvement in May will not only be used to justify the successive interest rate increases already put in place this year but strengthen the voice of those at the Fed who argued strongly that the central bank should have gone even further to apply brakes to the economy . The trouble with the `` natural '' rate is that it cannot be set with precision and indeed there are strong arguments in favor of the notion that recent changes in the economic climate have driven the natural rate far lower than the militant inflation fighters would have you believe . Indeed , there were periods in the post World War II era when six percent or 6.4 percent would have been considered an abnormally high jobless rate . In the early 1950s unemployment fell below three percent . In the late 1960s it stayed below four percent . This isn't the 50s or 60s , of course , but neither is it the 70s or 80s . The sharp decline in union membership as a percentage of the work force and the weakened position of unions in pace-setting industries steel , automobiles , trucking come to mind argue strongly that the natural rate is significantly lower than it was 15 years ago . So do several other trends . Increased price competition in the 1990s is another factor . It has resulted from cultural changes in U.S. corporate management , increased foreign competition and greater consumer awareness of price . Whatever , it means that even with a lower unemployment rate and higher wage demands , corporations are finding it far more difficult to make price increases stick and therefore far more likely to control costs through technology and innovation . But what , really , is the big difference between a six percent unemployment rate and a five percent unemployment rate , especially if the higher rate buys us insurance against the possibility , however remote , of a resurgence of inflation ? I 'll tell you what it is . Lower unemployment not only means fewer families in a state of economic distress . It means thousands of workers more likely to switch out of jobs they hate . It means that desperate middle-aged victims of corporate downsizing have a far better chance at re-employment . It means increased opportunity in the states and regions where joblessness is still at recession levels despite the general improvement nationwide . It means that thousands of underemployed , part-time and temporary workers will have a chance for something better . These are all things that most decent people would think of as both `` natural '' and desirable in a fair society . SHIROTORI , Japan Far from the high-tech dazzle of an economic superpower , the people in this small seaside village still labor by hand and worry that their livelihoods may become obsolete . One of the most prominent local industries glove-making is struggling to survive amid a labor shortage , the yen 's appreciation and brisk competition from China , the Philippines and other countries with low-cost labor . `` Everyone is wondering , ` What shall we do ? ' ' ' lamented Kenji Tanaka , special assistant to the president of Urushihara Co. , a local glove-maker . `` No one knows what the future will bring . '' Shirotori is in Kagawa , the smallest prefecture on the smallest of four main islands of Japan , and its quandary exemplifies the quiet struggles of Japan 's far-flung provinces . They are places that technological advancement and rapid industrial growth have in varying degrees by-passed . `` Most foreigners think of Japan as a high-tech country , but in the provinces there are still a lot of labor-intensive industries , '' said Yoshihisa Goto , a planning specialist with the Ministry of International Trade and Industry . The provinces are not taking their fate passively : From the glove-makers here on Shikoku Island to central Honshu 's textile firms , from Hokkaido 's fish processors to the shipping suppliers of Kyushu , the provinces are aiming to revamp and revitalize . Prodded by mounting cries for help , parliament passed a special law in 1992 establishing a 10-year program to help resuscitate local industry through subsidies , low-interest loans , tax breaks and other financial schemes . The government has also renewed a program to help save traditional industries , crafts that create such culturally unique items as lacquerware , pottery , dolls and wooden sandals . The program , first begun in 1974 and renewed in 1992 , grants subsidies to train young successors to the master artisans and to develop new products using traditional techniques for modern-day goods , for instance . But the challenges facing local and traditional industries are formidable . Few young people want to succeed the aging artisans , who labor by hand in small mom-and-pop operations . In the lacquerware industry , for instance , an onslaught of cheap products from China and South Korea is underselling Japanese goods . And the increasing Westernization of lifestyles here has shrunk the demand for traditional items , industry officials say . Many young consumers would prefer to buy Tiffany crystal than Japan 's famous Wajima lacquerware . The exquisite pieces featuring glossy black surfaces painted with gilded cranes and other traditional scenes command as much as $ 950 for a single sake cup . Overall , manufacturing output in Japan 's traditional industries has declined from $ 5.3 billion in 1983 to $ 4.7 billion in 1992 . The number of workers has dropped from 290,000 in 1979 to 210,000 in 1992 . And as young people of the province are drawn to the bright lights of Tokyo and Osaka , the percentage of workers aged 30 and younger has declined from 28.7 percent in 1973 to just 10.3 percent in 1992 , according to MITI figures . `` It 's a serious situation , '' said Ryosuke Chiba of MITI 's traditional industries division . `` Whether Japan likes it or not , cheap imports are coming in . There is nothing we can do but develop new products . '' In the provinces themselves , however , that is far easier said than done . Take , for instance , Japan 's lacquerware industry . Aizu-Wakamatsu , a town nestled in a resort area of mountains and lakes 115 miles north of Tokyo , has long been known as one of Japan 's chief lacquerware centers . The craft came to the region more than 100 years ago when the reigning feudal lord sent for a Kyoto artisan to develop it locally . The painstaking process involves several steps , from mixing the pitch-black lacquer brew to shaping the wooden bowl or tray , to applying the lacquer and then painting it with delicate designs . Most craftspeople specialize in just one of the steps . But these days , Chamber of Commerce chief Yoshihiro Ichinose and lacquerware association head Tsutae Baba see their proud heritage about to disappear . The recession of the last few years has pushed sales down by 20 percent . Already , the association has lost 16 of its members to bankruptcy . The average age of craftspeople is 60 . Although the association is sponsoring a successor 's training school with 12 students , that is hardly adequate to replace the imminent wave of retirees , Baba said . `` Working conditions in the lacquerware industry don't suit today 's young people , '' he fretted . `` Who wants to work until the middle of the night in a small , dark room ? Young people want to work in big companies . '' ( Begin optional trim ) To make matters worse , the area is reeling from the impact of cheap Chinese lacquer , whose wholesale price is one-fourth that of the Japanese products . Aizu-Wakamatsu is more vulnerable to the competition than its rival to the south , Wajima , which has carved out a high-priced niche for itself . Wajima lacquer is viewed as more art than utilitarian , with an elegant workmanship that the Chinese cannot yet match . But Aizu-Wakamatsu made a fateful decision in the 1960s to downgrade its product , after the supply of cheap raw lacquer from China was cut off in a diplomatic row . Now , more than 90 percent of its product uses a plastic base instead of the traditional wood ; on many items , a synthetic coating instead of authentic lacquer is used . The decision was smart at the time , as lacquered soup bowls , trays and boxes were moving into mass use for the first time . Exports began to boom . But now the low-end items can be duplicated by Japan 's Asian rivals . Already , most Japanese lacquerware artisans use half-completed products from Korea and China and apply the all-important finishings themselves . What concerns officials here is the growing number of finished products entering the market and the discernible improvement in quality . `` Lacquerware is becoming a product of developing countries , '' Haruo Fukunishi , the industry association president , said with a sigh . But suggest that the region should give up the craft , or seek to benefit from China 's competitive advantage by importing more of it , and the response is sharp : `` Our intention is to preserve and protect the tradition of Aizu-Wakamatsu , '' Baba said . `` If Aizu-Wakamatsu became known only as a place that sells Chinese lacquer , our name and meaning would disappear . '' Solutions , however , are elusive . The industry petitioned the central government for an import ban on Chinese products but was rejected . Now , there is talk of designing new products , but few ideas have surfaced : lacquered nameplates or telephone cards , the use of lacquer in construction , such as doors or interior accents . ( End optional trim ) Over in Shirotori , glove-making executives and officials are less bound to preserve a culture and tradition . They mainly want to preserve jobs and long-established knitting and sewing techniques that have made the town the glove-making capital of Japan . As a result , rather than fight China and other Asian nations , they are working with them . The Swany Corp. first moved to China in 1984 and now has four companies making gloves near the Shanghai area . President Etsuo Miyoshi 's company was one of the first in Shikoku to go abroad , setting up Korean factories as early as 1972 , when labor rates in Japan started to rise . `` In the past 20 years , we 've moved from exporting gloves to importing them , and 90 percent is from China , '' he said . `` That 's a very big change . '' Other prominent glove-makers , such as Kazuyoshi Urushihara , plan to automate more of their production , investing heavily in robotics to combat both the labor shortage and rising labor costs . Just as young people balk at becoming traditional artisans , they also shun the manual labor of the glove industry . But such options are out of reach for most of Shikoku 's 170 glove-makers , said Eiichi Nagata , director of the Kagawa office of the Japan External Trade Organization . `` Overseas production , mechanization with robots and other measures require huge capital , and these companies can't afford to do it so easily , '' Nagata said . `` If I were mayor , '' said Urushihara , who doubles as chairman of the Japan Glove Industries Association , `` I 'd forget about the glove industry . It does not have a bright future . '' PRESCOTT , Ariz . Once a brash , bawdy territorial capital where the faces of its painted women rivaled the brilliant hues of its majestic Granite Mountain Wilderness Prescott has been metamorphosed into a tranquil valley where California equity barons battle longtime landowners for available space . Where ranchers and miners once shook hands on business deals in bars decorated with cattle horns , an older generation of Americans has come to look on this city of 29,000 as a retirement mecca . They arrive by the dozens sometimes hundreds each month . Especially since Money magazine earlier this year proclaimed Prescott , with its temperate climate and intemperate history , the most desirable area in the country for those seeking affordable respite from teeming cities and soaring crime rates . Peggy Collins , tourism director for Prescott 's Chamber of Commerce , notes with satisfaction that phone inquiries are up 33 percent over 1993 and mail responses have risen 240 percent . But many in what may be the last major true frontier city in the West do not share her good humor . There are new Prescott-ites , caught in an inflationary spiral that threatens their Social Security income , who prefer that the spotlight on their city quickly fade . And there 's an equal or greater number of Prescott pioneers who share that sentiment . Founded in 1864 as the first territorial capital of Arizona , Prescott despite its reputation for hangings and gunfights has always had a softer side . The women 's Monday Club began collecting for a Carnegie Library that today boasts a 110,000-volume collection that much larger cities would envy . There are museums , concert halls , a community college , a liberal arts college and an aeronautical university . Victorian homes are restored and open to tours . College students make up the vast majority of Prescott 's working class earning $ 4 to $ 5 an hour at grocery stores , hotels and gas stations . The other end of the economic scale belongs to those whose fathers and grandfathers staked out the wilderness and then subdivided it into great wealth . Says L.W. . `` Budge '' Ruffner , whose family roots here date to the post-Civil War days and who is a Western historian of some note , `` There really isn't ( much of ) a middle class . '' Those arriving add to the disparity . They include Californians and others with hundreds of thousands of equity dollars in the modern equivalent of their saddlebags . Other newcomers bring only fixed pensions and optimism . All are greeted by realtors known for elevating prices when out-of-town license plates are spotted on the curving highway leading to the top of the mountains . And while Prescott 's growth is limited by the mountains that encircle it , Prescott Valley ( once known more improperly as Jackass Flats ) remains there for the taking . Today it is the third-fastest-growing area in Arizona , Collins says . The 150-member Yavapai tribe , indigenous to the Prescott area , is making its presence known by licensing a giant shopping center and hotel complete with gambling on its reservation . But Prescott will see little if any tax revenue from the shoppers and gamblers because the center sits on federal land . Prescott 's antecedents are a glossary of things as varied as the landscape itself : The Samuel Hill Hardware store is supposedly the source of the old expression , `` What the Sam Hill ? '' a phrase that was a tribute to Hill 's floor-to-ceiling inventory of almost everything imaginable . Barry Goldwater thought of Prescott as his good-luck city and launched his political campaigns there . Fiorello LaGuardia spent many of his high school years in Prescott , where his Army officer father was stationed as the local military bandmaster . He and Ruffner 's father became friends , and Ruffner fought for years to build a lasting monument to the former New York mayor . Today there rises above Granite Creek a bridge named in his honor . Sinclair Lewis also would have loved Prescott ; there is a tribe of Babbitts entwined in the city 's past whose descendants include Interior Secretary Bruce Babbitt . So Prescott sits poised between its past where tour groups today are told that the old whorehouse above the Palace Bar ( opened in 1901 ) was a `` hotel , '' and its present where its reputation as a mecca for retirees threatens to push its average age to a statistic rivaling the elevation of the mountains . So if you wish to help those who pine for the past , forget you read this . But if you promise not to tell , it still is a city where people actually turn around when your car burglar alarm goes off . PANAMA CITY You would think Jasmine Nelson , a Panamanian law student , would have more reasons than most people to want to see an end to 90 years of U.S. domination of her country . After all , U.S. firepower destroyed her neighborhood during the 1989 invasion that ousted Gen. Manuel A . Noriega. She spent her formative years schooled in the anti-imperialist rhetoric of the 1980s . She believes that the Panama Canal ought to be run by Panamanians and that U.S. military installations that control her country 's midsection are an affront to national sovereignty . But she says she wants to be realistic . `` If the gringos go , there goes our economic stability , '' she says . `` Without the dollar , we are nothing . We don't want the gringos to go . '' For years , Panamanians dreamed of the day they would take charge of the canal and the acres of U.S.-controlled real estate attached to it . As the deadline for the hand-over inches closer , however , they are racked with doubts and fears about whether they are ready and whether perhaps they are losing more than they are gaining . The election last month of a president whose government will handle most of the transition has focused new attention on Panama 's spotty preparations to receive the canal and the network of U.S. military bases built along it . President-elect Ernesto Perez Balladares promises a smooth transfer at century 's close . But his words have yet to calm the uncertainty , which in many ways highlights the longstanding ambivalence Panamanians have felt toward the United States and toward their own sense of national identity . Created as a nation so the canal could be built , Panama faces daunting questions about whether it can operate the waterway efficiently and properly develop the accompanying 500 square miles of land . And the departure of U.S. troops attached to the Panama-based U.S. . Southern Command will mean a huge loss of income and jobs . Under 1977 treaties , the United States must hand over the canal and all property ; all troops which until last week numbered close to 10,000 must leave by Dec. 31 , 1999 . Governments until now have done little to get Panama ready . Although the date for concluding the transfer may seem far off , the prerequisite changes are monumental . Only recently has the pace of both the turnover and the preparations quickened : A government commission has finally drafted a plan for the canal 's future operation , and an autonomous agency is entertaining development projects for the land that is coming under Panamanian control . As the first contingent of U.S. troops began pulling out on Friday , senior U.S. officers said they hope that the withdrawal of the 193rd Infantry Brigade will force Panamanians to overcome their doubts and realize that the United States is serious about leaving . The issue of Panama 's readiness weighs heavily on governments such as Japan , whose trade relies on transit through the canal , and on the multibillion-dollar shipping industry . Yet for thousands of workers who depend on the canal and the military bases , there are much more basic questions about jobs and livelihoods . Panama is home to multiple generations of both Panamanians and Americans whose lives are intertwined with the canal , and the world they have known is ending . Beverly and Joe Wood are part of the dwindling community of Americans connected to the canal . Once called `` Zonians , '' the Americans had numbered more than 4,000 , but now there are fewer than 800 . As the canal is transferred to Panamanian control , Americans are being phased out of the operation , and the Woods must leave their home next year . Second-generation canal employees , the Woods had what they considered ideal lives , serving their country , serving the world and residing in paradise . They were born here and met , married and had children in the territory once known as the Panama Canal Zone a strip of land around the waterway that was physically part of Panama but that administratively belonged to the United States . It was a separate and privileged world of neat clapboard homes and manicured lawns lined with palm trees and orchids . The Zonians had their own schools , stores and hospitals a last bastion of U.S. colonialism that is fading . The Woods , in essence , must find a new country . ( Begin optional trim ) `` The whites who were in South Africa , the British who were in India .. . they probably had similar feelings , '' Joe Wood said , seated on the couch in his home in Balboa , once a part of the Zone off limits to Panamanians without special permits . `` Our home is gone . Our kids can't come back . It 's a wonderful life that is coming to an end . '' The Zone officially was dissolved as one of the first steps of the 1977 treaties . Now called the Panama Canal Area , parts still belong to the United States , but it no longer has a separate U.S. governor or U.S. police force . Under the treaties , the commission will cease to exist and land totaling 17 percent of national territory will revert to Panama as the U.S. . Southern Command and its troops withdraw . Some estimates value the land which includes hundreds of vintage 1940s buildings and a corridor of triple-canopy jungle full of exotic birds , big cats and lemurs at $ 30 billion , but only if developed wisely . Most of what has transferred thus far has been badly neglected . What Panama loses , at least in the short term , is $ 300 million to $ 400 million in annual income and at least 4,000 well-paying jobs . ( End optional trim ) Luis Salazar has spent 21 years collecting the trash and repairing the plumbing at Fort Davis and Fort Espinar on the Atlantic end of the canal , near the city of Colon . Like many Panamanians , he has little faith that the country 's traditionally corrupt governments can be trusted to administer the canal and the potential windfall from the land grants . `` They ( government leaders ) want more and more and more , and then they can't handle the burden , '' he said of the haphazard land acquisition . `` Instead of moving forward , we are just falling behind . '' Standing at Fort Espinar , Salazar looked with disgust at the row of three-story barracks that once housed American troops , then Noriega 's army , but that have remained empty for years . Since being turned over to the Panamanian government , the buildings have fallen into woeful disrepair . Nearby is the original School of the Americas , the U.S. military 's controversial training center for Latin armies for decades until its transfer to Fort Benning , Ga. , in 1984 . The school was the center of a U.S. hemispherical military strategy aimed at fighting communism . The once-imposing building is a shambles ; scavengers have chipped away the marble walls , and granite columns lie toppled on the ground , which is overgrown with willows and weeds . Upkeep for the 10 bases still under U.S. control costs the American government $ 80 million a year . If structures are not maintained in the humid tropics , they are rapidly lost to the jungle . Panamanian officials contend they can't afford to pay for the maintenance . Joaquin J. Vallarino , one of Panama 's richest men and head of the presidential commission assigned to draft a transition plan for the canal , acknowledged that doubts about Panama are justified . `` Many things were done badly .. . both sides , '' Vallarino said . `` The Panamanians themselves have doubts . They are frightened . But it is perfectly within the capacity of Panamanians ( to manage the canal ) , as long as it is not politicized . '' Now that there are new nutrition labels on food packages , what happens to the claims about those same products made by advertisers ? Will it all be consistent ? The answer , like many in the world of government regulation , is as complex as a fine wine . Here 's a brief outline : As of May 8 , manufacturers have had to comply with the Food and Drug Administration 's new labeling law , meaning that every jar of jam or pickle relish leaving a factory has to list exactly what 's in it for example , the amount of fat , saturated fat , cholesterol and sodium . Many of the new labels are already appearing on food packages , but it may take a while before they all get through the pipeline and onto supermarket shelves . As part of the law , FDA also defined a host of terms , such as `` low fat , '' `` reduced calorie '' or `` high in fiber , '' and sanctioned five diet-and-disease claims ( such as calcium reducing the risk of osteoporosis ) for products that comply with certain nutrient guidelines . Meanwhile , meat and poultry products regulated by the Department of Agriculture will have until July 8 to comply with the new law . Now here 's where it gets even more complicated . Neither of these agencies FDA or USDA is responsible for overseeing food ads . That 's the bailiwick of the Federal Trade Commission , which operates under a different set of bureaucratic authorities and philosophies . The FTC does not preapprove ads or dictate what advertisers may say ; it challenges claims it finds false and misleading . But given the broad changes brought about by FDA 's labeling law , the FTC wanted to clarify its position . So on May 13 the agency announced it would seek to reconcile its policies with FDA 's new regulations to `` the fullest extent possible . '' `` Our goal is to help ensure that the messages consumers get from food advertising are consistent with those they see in food labeling today and in the future , '' said FTC Chairman Janet D. Steiger . But at least one watchdog group believes consumers could end up getting a lot of mixed messages instead . `` The FTC 's policy is filled with loopholes that will permit food companies to make food and nutrition claims in advertising that are not permitted in labeling , '' said Sharon Lindan , assistant director of legal affairs for the Center for Science in the Public Interest . Lindan cited a number of examples where she believes consumers might find confusing inconsistencies . For example , the FDA allows manufacturers to use terms such as `` less '' fat or `` reduced '' cholesterol only if there has been at least a 25 percent reduction in the nutrient . Under the FTC 's policy , advertisers would be allowed to make a `` less '' or `` reduced '' claim if the reduction is less than 25 percent , so long as the ad indicates exactly what the reduction was ( `` 20 percent less fat in our frozen entree as compared to Brand X '' ) . Nevertheless , the FTC said it would carefully scrutinize claims that differ from the FDA 's 25-percent reduction rule . And while advertisers would have to follow the FDA 's definitions for terms such as `` low , '' `` high '' and `` lean , '' when describing nutrients such as fat , saturated fat or fiber , they may use any synonyms so long as they 're not deceptive . `` I understand the need to market products with catchy phrases , '' said Lindan . She cited an ad for a frozen turkey dinner that says `` you get a lot of taste and not a lot of salt . '' `` Is that low sodium ? '' she asked . `` If so , the product doesn't meet the FDA 's definition . '' Ann Maher , assistant director of the division of advertising practices at the FTC , said the few exceptions in the agency 's policy `` reflect the limits to our authority . '' It can't ban ads that aren't deceptive . So what does the food industry think ? `` In its ( the FTC 's ) effort to harmonize , we think they went farther than they needed to go , '' said Toni Guarino , general counsel of the Grocery Manufacturers of America . Still , it may be too early to tell , she said . `` Before anybody makes too many dire predictions about how horrible or wonderful it ( the policy ) is , we should see how it pans out . '' YOUNTVILLE , Calif. . Dawnine Dyer 's footsteps echo as she walks the concrete floor of Napa Valley 's Domaine Chandon winery . Six dozen 14,000-gallon stainless-steel tanks tower above her , as if standing at attention for the 43-year-old winemaker . `` It 's amazing how much is going on in here , '' says Dyer . `` But you can't see it , because all the action the fermentation , everything is going on inside the tanks . '' Dyer seems right at home in this American subsidiary of the renowned French holding company Louis Vuitton-Moet-Hennessey . And she should be , having helped build the 17-year-old sparkling-wine facility . Dyer joined Domaine Chandon as a chemist while the facility was under construction . Her mission : to design and develop a lab for a quality-control program . Today she 's the chief winemaker and vice president . Dyer is one of the new breed of this nation 's winemakers : young , energetic , well educated and female . Today , in California , the nation 's leading wine-producing state , there are at least half a dozen women executives running big wineries , more than three dozen women winemakers and scores more working in the vineyards , cellars , labs and marketing departments . `` It seems like a sudden explosion of women , '' says Janet Pagano , general manager and director of winemaking at Codorniu Napa winery , the American subsidiary of the Spanish Codorniu sparkling-wine producer , `` but women have been working their way up the ranks . It 's only in the last several years that they 've emerged in positions of responsibilities , '' says the 36-year-old executive , who was tapped to head Codorniu Napa in 1989 . Ask wine experts about top-notch woman winemakers and executives and names quickly tumble out : Dyer , Pagano , Zelma Long at Simi Winery , Eugenia Keegan at La Bouchaine Vineyards , Cathy Corison at Corison Winery , Michaela Rodeno at St. Supery Vineyards & Winery , Margaret Davenport at Clos du Bois , Eileen Crane at Domaine Carneros , Alison Green at Firestone Vineyards , Christina Benz at Murphy-Goode Winery . It 's a growing list and one that 's hard to fathom when you consider that , for many centuries , women weren't even allowed to touch wine as it was being made their mere presence , it was believed , could contaminate the wine . Even after that primitive superstition faded , women were still not welcome in the wineries . Among other things , owners believed they lacked the requisite physical strength and emotional makeup . Consider a 1943 `` Women in Wineries '' article in The Wine Review , which earnestly discussed the prospect of wineries ' hiring women during World War II . `` Employing women in your winery is nothing to worry about if you go at it in the right spirit and proper care , '' the article said . Among other things , the piece cautioned : `` Women tire faster than men , and where possible , they should be seated at their work . Also they are more sensitive to noise , dirt , unpleasant odors , which far from being a problem tends to promote orderliness and sanitation in the bottling room , which is as it should be . '' It was only in the late 1970s and early '80s that women started living down these preconceptions . It was a particularly propitious time for women , recalls Rodeno , chief executive officer of St. Supery. `` The California wine industry was just starting to expand . There were lots of opportunities then for anyone man or woman . And everyone who was interested in wine took them . '' What 's more , she adds , `` there were fewer social barriers '' to overcome in this relatively new industry than in the more entrenched , male-dominated distribution end of the business . Rodeno , now 47 , first worked as a tour guide for Beaulieu Vineyards in fact , she was BV 's first female tour guide . Within months , though , she learned that Moet-Hennessey was going to build a sparkling-wine facility in Napa . Fluent in French , Rodeno introduced herself to the head of the new Domaine Chandon winery and told him she could help . She was hired as assistant to the president and became vice president for marketing and communications before she was hired by another French company to head St. Supery six years ago . Take a tour of St. Supery and one of the first things you 'll notice is a picture of the management team : five women , one man ( the winemaker ) . It 's not intentional , Rodeno says . Every time there 's an opening , `` I try hard to find a guy , but then a woman walks in and blows every other candidate out of the water . '' Ironically , it 's the Europeans doing business in America who seem the most open to hiring and promoting women . `` Doing business in America is probably so different for a European company that having a woman manager is just one more thing different about America , '' says Codorniu Napa 's Pagano . American men , on the other hand , often have a hard time accepting women at the top , Pagano adds . `` When I was hired by Codorniu Napa , I was asked repeatedly by men in the industry how I happened to get this job . They were genuinely baffled , and the obvious answer that I was the most qualified wasn't evident to them . '' Among the first women to break into the production end of the business was Simi 's Zelma Long , now considered one of the nation 's leading winemakers , racking up industry awards year after year . So far in 1994 , she 's won the Woman of the Year Award from the Roundtable for Women in Food Service and was a finalist for the James Beard wine and spirits professional-of-the-year award . Her entry into the business `` was definitely by happenstance , '' says the 50-year-old Long , who trained as a dietitian `` at a time when nutrition got no respect . '' When her husband 's parents bought a vineyard in Napa Valley , Long decided to get a master 's in enology at the University of California at Davis . `` It was one of those seriously considered career decisions , '' she says with a big grin . That was in 1968 , and Long was only the second woman to enter Davis 's enology program . She was only halfway through when the Robert Mondavi Winery wooed her away . It was the harvest , and `` they were desperate , '' she says . Once at Mondavi , `` I fell in love with the business '' and stayed . Long 's presence has helped open the door for many other women partly because she gave many their first jobs , including Dyer of Domaine Chandon and Davenport of Clos du Bois . `` She helped send a lot of people on their way , '' says Davenport . YOUNTVILLE , Calif. . One of the few women entrepreneurs in the wine business is Cathy Corison , whose Corison Cabernet Sauvignon has won critical acclaim ever since it was first released in 1987 . For those who praise her wines , it 's hard to believe that Corison was rejected for a cellar job 18 years ago . Winery officials at Freemark Abbey Winery doubted that the petite Corison , now 40 , was strong enough for the physically demanding job . When the man who won the job didn't work out , winery officials reluctantly agreed to hire her a year later , making her the first woman to hold a cellar position in Napa Valley since Prohibition . ( Long , by contrast , started her career in the lab . ) Eventually , Corison became top winemaker at Chappelet Vineyard , producing highly rated cabernets . Yet that was not enough for her . `` I was using their vineyards , their concepts , their budget . I wanted a chance to make wine the way I wanted to . '' So in 1987 she went part-time to produce her own wine . `` I was clearly crazy . '' And also successful . This past year she released 2,500 cases of her wine and sold out within two months . Now Corison , working full time for herself , has discovered another challenge that faces women winemakers : juggling a wine career and motherhood . Her first child , Rose ( named after the flower , not the wine , Corison says ) was born last January . `` It was the most carefully timed baby , '' she jokes . `` She came in our only slow time of the year . '' This lime-flavored shrimp and vegetable salad is perfect for hot summer nights when you want to escape the kitchen for dinner on the porch or balcony . SHRIMP SALAD WITH CUMIN LIME DRESSING ( Makes 4 servings ) 1 large red bell pepper 2 tablespoons plus cup olive oil pound snow peas , cleaned 3 cloves garlic , finely chopped 1 jalapeno pepper , finely chopped 2 tablespoons chopped fresh ginger root 1 teaspoons cumin powder ( or more to taste ) 1 teaspoons sugar 1 tablespoons fresh lime juice Salt and pepper to taste 1 pound shrimp , shelled ( and deveined if desired ) cup fresh cilantro , cleaned and coarsely chopped Cut the bell pepper into 4 slices , cutting from the top to the bottom of the pepper . Discard the inner ribs and seeds . Very lightly coat the skin of the slices with about 1 tablespoon of the olive oil . Broil under a hot broiler for 5 minutes , until the slices begin to blacken slightly . Cut the slices into inch strips . Set aside . Blanch the snow peas in boiling water for 3 minutes , until slightly tender . Rinse in cold water . Set aside . In a saute pan or skillet , saute the garlic , jalapeno and ginger in 1 tablespoon of olive oil for 2 minutes , or until the garlic starts to color . Transfer the mixture to a small bowl with a slotted utensil , leaving as much oil in the pan as possible . To the bowl , add the cumin , sugar , lime juice , salt , pepper and the remaining cup olive oil . Stir vigorously to mix . Set the dressing aside . Reheat the saute pan until it is almost smoking hot . Toss the shrimp in the pan , and cook briefly on each side , until pink ( about 15 to 20 seconds on each side ) . If your pan is not big enough to hold all of the shrimp in one layer , then cook the shrimp in batches . Combine the shrimp , snowpeas , pepper slices , dressing and cilantro , and toss gently . Serve immediately or refrigerate and serve later . The premiere issue of Saveur , the American version of the French food magazine , is out this month with a cover story on Oaxacan cooking and a hefty price tag : $ 5 . The bimonthly magazine also has some heavy-hitter names on the masthead , including Metropolitan Home 's founding editor Dorothy Kalins as editor-in-chief , restaurant critic Colman Andrews as executive editor and Bill Sertl , formerly with Travel and Leisure , as travel editor . The first issue 's stories are somewhat scattershot : yet another gee-whiz paean to Parma 's prosciutto and parmigiano , an affectionate tour of Charleston 's Low-country cooking , a treatise on eggs and a wine story on a duo whom Andrews calls `` the Beavis and Butthead of the Santa Barbara County wine scene . '' A little something for everyone , obviously . -O- Life really is a bowl of cherries this month . California Bing cherries are in season , and the state is reporting the biggest crop since 1987 . That 's good news for consumers , who can expect to pay lower prices this year . California cherries should be at their peak for the next two to three weeks , then Northwest cherries will be arriving . -O- SOS ! Share Our Strength , a not-for-profit group dedicated to feeding the hungry , is raising money for food by selling culinary art that looks great , and that you can feel good about having or giving . The gift collection includes fruit-and-vegetable-decorated aprons , pins , scarves , ties and T-shirts ( $ 12 to $ 70 ) . Alternatively , there 's also the SOS Hot Chefs Crate ( $ 34.95 ) , a collection of hot salsas and sauces from three-star SOS chefs Mark Miller , Larry Forgione and Chris Schlesinger . To order , or to request a gift brochure , call 1-800-969-4767 . WASHINGTON The cut-flower garden combines the ornamental richness of perennials with the productivity of annuals . Indeed , no other blend more satisfactorily delivers cottage-garden charm without the time and commitment required for a cutting garden of perennials alone . The cut-flower garden is grown , simply , to provide a wide array of flowers for indoor bouquets throughout the growing season . Traditionally , it was planted as part of the `` working '' garden , the site that served as the primary source of food and medicine for families and communities . Today , the tradition of cut-flower beds as part of the backyard garden continues in many parts of the world , especially Europe . In American gardens , however , the practice of planting or sowing a flower bed specifically for harvesting stems is still a scarcity . Yet there is a demand for cut flowers : Witness the success of market gardeners and farmers who sell them at farmers ' markets . Flowers for cutting are grown in the same enriched garden soil that suits hard-working vegetable varieties : plenty of organic matter , a neutral pH ranging from 6.5 to 7.5 , good drainage and a tilled or dug depth of six to eight inches . A boost of organic fertilizer before seeds are sown or seedlings planted is always a good idea . The cut-flower garden , like the vegetable garden , will require periodic applications of the same fertilizer , when plants are 2 to 3 weeks old , again one month later and finally in early September . I prefer organic fertilizers because they don't cause excessive foliage growth at the expense of flower production . A formula containing nitrogen , phosphorus and potassium ( N-P-K ) within a couple of numbers of each other ( 5-4-2 or 8-6-4 , for example ) is good . And there is a wonderful forgiving quality about organic fertilizers : The concentrations don't have to be precise . Cut-flower gardens are less flexible when it comes to sunlight . The sunnier the better . They will still flower in partial shade but full shade will be a bust . This doesn't mean you have to give over the choicest sunny spot in the garden to them many blooms will fit into a small area , say , four feet square . Also , they can be planted within or around the vegetable garden or in an existing border . The flowers themselves can be a combination of annuals and perennials or all annuals . The goal is to have a variety of flowers blooming at all times . It can take years of trial and error and of effort and patience to achieve this in a perennial garden ; but with annuals , which bloom continuously all summer , getting a good selection for indoor bouquets is nearly instantaneous , once plants are established . In selecting flowers , consider what you want , whether it is ease of care , height , scent , color or flower form . The availability of plants in garden centers also will influence what will go into the cut-flower garden , although many excellent annuals can be sown from seed now and still produce a spectacular show by midsummer . Plants that grow tall are more versatile as cut flowers than dwarf or miniature varieties . Flower stems on tall varieties are generally longer than on small ones and the foliage itself can contribute to dramatic arrangements . In this regard , cosmos stands out as one of the most desirable and useful of the cutting flowers . Easily grown from seed , this rugged annual belies the delicacy of its bloom and foliage . Cosmos comes in a range of colors and even styles . There are two distinct strains , one producing sunny yellow , gold and orange ruffled blooms and the other sporting fragile-looking daisy-faced blossoms in shades of deep red , pink , purple , lilac and white . Today 's varieties include scalloped , ruffled , single and double flowers . All make stunning cut flowers , either alone or in combination with others . Depending on the variety , cosmos ranges in height from two to five feet , and the taller and most commonly available ones will need support , either against a wall or trellis or with caging . For scent , nicotiana is a good choice . This aromatic member of the tobacco family produces a profusion of slightly trumpeted , open-faced blooms , varieties ranging in color from deep red to white , with pinks in between . There is a dwarf version , which gets up to about two feet tall ; the traditional form grows to three or sometimes four feet . Other scented annuals that lend themselves to cutting include stock , sweet peas and nasturtium . For sheer endurance , one of the most reliable annuals is the zinnia . For some reason there seem to be fewer choices of this trusty variety than there once were ; I can remember when catalogs routinely devoted two or three pages to the zinnia . Cut and Come Again is perhaps the most durable of the zinnias , yielding an abundance of brilliant , multicolored blooms between two and three inches across , borne atop stiff stems throughout the summer . Their name reflects reality the more you cut them , the more they 'll bloom . Generally , this rule applies to all annual flowers . The cut-flower garden is primarily a harvesting garden , handled the same way as tomatoes or strawberries . If flowers are left to mature into seed pods , plants will tend to stop blooming . In addition , virtually all the annuals withstand and even benefit from severe pruning of the sort that accompanies harvesting for bouquets foliage and all . Cutting flowers that can be sown from seed now include cosmos , zinnia , nasturtium , honesty and sunflowers . Dahlia tubers also can be planted ; be sure to add plenty of decomposed organic matter , such as old leaves . Flowers to put in as plants include gerbera , dahlia , dianthus , cockscomb , statice and daisies . Drying for winter arrangements takes special techniques , but a group known as everlastings dry naturally . They include honesty , pearly everlasting , globe amaranth , strawflower and statice . Stock up on beetle traps now if you had problems with Japanese beetles last year . In mid-June traps should be put in place , well away from prized plants . Traps put too close to plants will result in much-greater damage from beetles than if no controls are used . The following editorial appeared in Monday 's Washington Post : Having taken a week off , Congress returns to the subject of health-care reform with none of the problems having become any easier or gone away . There continue to be two contradictory goals to expand the health-care system while containing its cost . The president has wrapped himself in the first of these . He wants universal coverage , from which he and his aides believe all else will follow . Politically that may be the best way to proceed . You order the lunch and only then discuss the price . But this is the wrong way around . Congress , following the president 's lead , has tended to put the question of cost containment aside for the moment . Yet health-care costs are eating up every budget in the country , crowding out much else . That 's as true for businesses and too many families as it is for the federal and state governments . Without cost containment , the country can't afford even the health-care system it has , much less an expanded one . Here is a Congress nervous about imposing either employer mandates or new taxes , but not wanting to discuss serious cost containment , either . How else does it propose to raise the large amount of money that expanded coverage will cost ? Cost containment means saying no , at some point , to someone . There are only so many ways to do it , and each has its detractors . The president would rely in the first instance on a system of regulated competition health plans competing for business in large pools on the bases of quality and price . As a backup he would look to premium caps limits on the amount that insurance premiums could go up each year . The effect would be to limit the funds available to the health-care system and thereby total health-care spending . Critics oppose such premium caps on grounds they would amount to either government rationing or government price controls , take your pick . The so-called single-payer system is likewise denounced on grounds that it would give too large a role to government . The alternative is said to be managed competition , which relies much more on market forces . But it , too , is denounced on grounds that it would end up giving too much power to the insurance companies that are busily transforming themselves into managed-care providers . Congress has thus far finessed the issue . The debate there has mainly been about constructing a benefit system : Who should be guaranteed what , and who should pay ? Those indeed are difficult questions , but Congress has created benefit systems before ; it knows how to answer them . Not so with regard to cost containment ; that 's new territory and will be the great test as Congress tries between now and October to write a bill . Health care today consumes a seventh of all the dollars Americans have to spend , and the figure is said to be rising toward a fifth . That 's too large a share . A bill to broaden the health-care system without at the same time containing its cost would end up doing the country more harm than good . BURBANK , Calif. Renate Leuschner handles hair the way a grocer handles fresh endive , the way a haberdasher fingers Italian silk . Each time her supplier receives a new shipment of human hair , in cropped bundles , she hurries down to pick through the lot . `` The best hair comes from poor countries where the women still wear it long and will sell it , '' Leuschner says . `` These women get paid almost nothing . '' Some strands are too thick and difficult to weave . Dark hair must be chemically treated , bleached and dyed , making it stiff . Only fine brown and blond locks from Eastern Europe suffice . This stock ends up , sorted by length and color , in clear plastic containers that line the shelves of Leuschner 's Burbank studio . And this is where well-known actors come when they need a wig to make them look curly or sexy or prim , when they need a wig to look like they were born on a different continent or in a different era . In this tiny workshop down the driveway , through the back yard and above a three-car garage Hollywood 's fantasies are reduced to the stuff of their facades . Sharon Stone amounts to nothing more than a pile of brown and blond bundles . Robin Williams is a dummy 's head , carefully measured , made of gray cloth and featureless . `` And big , '' Leuschner says . `` Robin , even for a man , has a big head . '' Theater and wigs share a long history . Greek characters marked themselves by the color of their coif : black for the tyrant , blond for the hero and red for the comic servant . Modern actors don wigs to protect their natural hair from stage lights and to avoid the damage of continual cutting , styling and coloring with each new role . The hairpieces they purchase from Leuschner are custom-fitted and hand-sewn , strand by strand , at a price of $ 3,000 . On a recent morning , the wig-maker and her two young assistants , Natascha and Hildegard , hurried to finish an order of seven wigs for a fashion show . The girls were sewing while their mentor brushed and clipped a completed piece . There was very little talk , all of it in thick accents , while insistent Chopin played from a stereo in the corner . Scissors and combs lay scattered about the place , along with gray head forms . In addition to the Williams facsimile , used for his `` Mrs. Doubtfire '' curls , there were faceless likenesses of Bette Midler , Nicole Kidman and Tom Cruise , who needed a wig for `` Interview With a Vampire . '' Demi Moore was there in form too . `` Tiny head , '' she says . `` You can hardly mistake her for anyone else . '' The names of actors mark many of the containers on the shelves : Ann-Margret , Melanie Griffith , Carol Burnett . Other containers are noted by color : `` Light blond to medium light blond . '' Each wig that Leuschner makes begins with a fitting session , during which she measures the actor 's head and takes note of his or her facial features . Perfectly even hairlines are good . Wide foreheads are bad . Oval faces , yes . Round faces , no . Cher , it seems , was put on this earth to wear a wig . Next comes a form-fitting lace cap , the edges of which can be blended into skin with makeup . Hair is sewn into this cap in much the same way a rug is hooked , one strand at a time in front and several at a time in back . ( Begin optional trim ) To look real , a wig must include strands of various shades and the roots must be darker than the ends . A brown wig , for example , will contain a quantity of brown hair as a base , with darker and lighter strands to provide the highlights . But before the sewing begins , a sample of the hair must be screen-tested . Bright lights and camera filters can alter hue . When Bette Midler was cast as a witch in the 1993 film `` Hocus Pocus , '' she ordered a red wig from Leuschner . Midler 's scenes were shot in dim lighting to simulate night and a truly red wig would have shown up purple on film . Renate used strands that were dyed fire-engine red and orange . Once the color is perfected , the hair is sewn onto its lace cap . This can take a week or more and is often performed by the assistants . `` I like hair , '' Hildegard says . Then Leuschner must return to the movie set to fine-tune the styling . For `` Mrs. Doubtfire , '' the fine-tuning required numerous visits . `` We had to adjust certain things to make him look feminine and not like a drag queen , '' she says . `` Honestly , it wasn't easy . '' ( End optional trim ) Trained as a stylist in her native Germany , she came to Hollywood and grabbed the only job she could find , in a wig shop . In 1972 , she was hired to work on `` The Sonny and Cher Comedy Hour '' which , short of garnering an exclusive contract with Dolly Parton , was pretty much the Valhalla of wig-making . `` I 've made 100 , maybe 120 wigs for Cher over the years , '' Leuschner explains . `` She has always been my major client . And when I was doing that show , everyone wanted to look like Cher , so that 's how my business got started . '' HOLLYWOOD James Garner does not go to the movies . `` Ohhh , I don't like to sit there too long , '' he explains in a perfect Jim Rockford-esque grumble of a drawl . `` I don't like the crowds , I don't like to get out of the house if I don't have to . Parking. It 's such a chore . '' Yet , here he sits in the Hotel Bel Air dining room , cheerfully saying you 're going to want to do all those things to see his new movie , `` Maverick . '' `` It 's going to be a kick , '' he says . `` We did have a ball making it . I asked ( director ) Dick Donner the second week , ` We 're having so much fun , are we laughing ourselves into trouble here ? ' ' ' It has been 37 years since Warner Bros. officials called over to Japan where Marlon Brando was filming `` Sayonara '' and asked the producers to hurry up and send home a young contract actor , James Garner , to play Bret Maverick in their new television series . By the time Garner was finished with `` Maverick , '' the tongue-in-cheek Western had supplanted most others and Garner was on his way to being a star . `` Well , we just killed Westerns , '' Garner says chuckling . When a character once declared `` He went that-a-way , '' Maverick looked at him and deadpanned , `` And you know a shortcut , right ? '' In fact , `` Maverick '' established two seminal things about Garner . One was that he is brazen enough to stand up to a studio in a legal battle . ( Long before his famous 1980s suit against Universal , he successfully sued Warners for laying him off his 52-week contract during a writers ' strike . ) The second was that he is the master of the wry , bemused everyman character . In the four decades of his career , Garner has proved to be one of the most enduring and endearing actors in the business , accessible enough for television , commanding enough for movies , unpretentious enough for commercials . He has done things you 've probably forgotten `` The Americanization of Emily '' and `` Victor/Victoria , '' both with Julie Andrews and things he 'd rather forget about . ( `` A Man Called Sledge '' is what he regularly offers up when asked for his biggest stinker . ) And along the way there were films like `` Support Your Local Sheriff , '' `` Grand Prix '' ( he loved that because he got to drive race cars ) , `` The Children 's Hour '' and `` The Great Escape . '' But it has been television that let him distinguish himself from the pack , first with his charming gambler-adventurer , Bret Maverick , and then later with the witty , beleaguered private detective , Jim Rockford , of `` The Rockford Files . '' In 1993 , he starred in HBO 's Emmy-winning version of `` Barbarians at the Gate , '' but for most TV fans , Maverick and Rockford were the quintessential Garner roles . In many ways , Rockford was a 1970s reincarnation of Bret Maverick and had a similar skewering effect on TV private eyes . `` We kept sticking our tongue in our cheek , and that ruined a lot of detective shows , '' says Garner . `` People would get to thinking , ` What would Rockford have done ? He wouldn't have gotten a gun and gone chasing him. ' ' ' Bret Maverick has never been quite out of circulation , living on in fans ' fond memories and getting resuscitated in a short-lived 1981 series that Garner says never made him particularly happy . But now , there 's a big screen rebirth , and Garner is passing on the torch to Mel Gibson , who plays the glib gambler in Richard Donner 's movie `` Maverick , '' which also stars Jodie Foster and Garner . Here , the actor says , he 's content to sit by at the poker table and on the stagecoach playing straight lawman Zane Cooper to Gibson 's wisecracking Maverick . Garner says his Maverick days are over . `` That was a long time ago , '' he says . `` I don't own it . It 's wonderful to see Mel play it . He has such charm and wit . I 've said before I don't know anybody who could play it like Mel could . '' At 66 , Garner is a veteran of bypass surgery who no longer smokes ( well , he sneaks one now and then ) and drinks only wine . ( Begin optional trim ) `` I had 'em working nights trying to make enough whiskey for me to drink , '' he recalls of his hard-liquor-drinking days that ended , he says , when he was 27 . He allows himself about six ounces of beef a week and this from a guy once famous for beef commercials . `` I got letters from people : ` I hope you die eating beef . ' All these vegetarians . '' He 's aging about as well as , oh , say , Warren Beatty ( Garner is older ) , which is to say quite well . Tall and broad shouldered , Garner is dressed in a black sweater and black slacks , a black leather jacket tossed across the seat . The face is ruddy pink , thicker and not as chiseled as in his Rockford days . ( End optional trim ) It was only nine years ago that his performance in `` Murphy 's Romance '' as the pharmacist who falls slowly in love with Sally Field won him an Oscar nomination for best actor . It 's one of his favorite roles and he plays Murphy as an unapologetic eccentric , comfortable with his life and his thickening waist , even sexy . `` Careful , girl , '' he says when this observation is made . He says he has never tried to project himself as a sexually alluring figure . `` I just don't see myself like that . '' ( Begin optional trim ) He thinks movies are too violent today and laments the loss of the understated picture. ` ` ` Murphy 's Romance ' was a good example , '' he says . `` It has no violence , no sex as we 've come to know it in movies . And it was a charming film . ` Driving Miss Daisy ' is another example . But they don't make many of those . They want to make the ones where they kill everybody . '' ( End optional trim ) Garner is in some ways an old-fashioned Hollywood story . He never made it through 10th grade , leaving Norman , Okla. , where he 'd been a high school athlete , for Hollywood , where his father had relocated and was working as a carpet layer . He briefly enrolled in Hollywood High School , earned some money doing swimsuit modeling and then shipped out with the merchant marine . Later , he spent 21 months in the Korean War where he earned two Purple Hearts . When he returned to Hollywood after his stint in the Army , he considered himself qualified for nothing . So he went off to see an agent friend who had once told him he ought to be in pictures . The agent signed him that day , and Garner has never wanted for work since . He 's married to his first and only wife , Lois , whom he met at an Adlai Stevenson rally 37 years ago . With the exception of a two-year separation more than a decade ago , they 've been together ever since . ANNAPOLIS ROYAL , Nova Scotia One of the longest Main Streets in Canada runs almost 200 miles , from Yarmouth clear to the outskirts of Halifax . It seems to roll halfway across the world , from France and Scotland to colonial America . Tooling along its two-lane blacktop , you 'll pass Gargantuan wooden churches built by faithful French settlers , stockaded fortresses almost 400 years old , pastoral valleys stippled with fruit-heavy trees , mile after mile of rugged and rocky seacoast , bays packed with fishing boats , and villages that put even the prettiest of postcards to shame . They call it the Evangeline Trail , a route named for the tragic heroine of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow 's epic poem about the expulsion of the first European settlers of Nova Scotia , the French . The settlers were driven from their adopted homeland in 1755 , victims of the long struggle between France and England for mastery of the New World . Nova Scotia 's French settlers scattered throughout British colonies from Massachusetts to Louisiana , where an isolated group of French-speaking Americans came to be known as the Cajuns . Cajun came from l' Acadie , or Acadia , as the French called their stretch of Nova Scotia coastline . It was a place of rural peace , a pastoral paradise . And as increasing numbers of visitors are discovering , it still is . The historic heart of old Acadia is Annapolis Royal , the cradle of Canada . For Canadians , it 's Jamestown , Plymouth Rock and Philadelphia rolled into one . Ironically , the town looks as if it might have been transplanted from New England 's rocky soil . In a sense it was . Yankee loyalists fleeing the American Revolution flocked to Nova Scotia , and many settled in the area around the Annapolis River . More settled around the rim of the Annapolis Basin , a handsome estuary linked to the Bay of Fundy by Digby Gut ( a channel , not a local intestinal disease ) . Anyway , Annapolis Royal has more than its share of historic landmarks . Nearby there 's Port Royal National Historic Park , marked by a faithful replica of Canada 's first settlement the stockaded trading post founded by French adventurers Samuel de Champlain and Sieur de Monts in 1605 . The post-and-beam extravaganza , reconstructed by the last of the region 's old-time shipwrights , is a wonder of craftsmanship . In town , the Fort Anne National Historic Site belongs to a later era . This is the fourth fort built to defend the town , which seesawed between the French and the English during 100 years of struggle for control of the region . The first fort was built in 1643 , when the French-ruled town was known as Port Royal . When the English finally assumed dominion in 1710 , they dubbed the place Annapolis Royal , after Queen Anne . Today visitors can ramble over massive earthworks surrounding the fortress and can sight down ancient cannons still aimed downriver . Less than a cannonball 's flight distant , Annapolis Royal Historic Gardens display garden styles from Canada 's past . Within its 10 manicured acres are formal Victorian arrangements , European-style knot gardens and a re-created Acadian cottage and adjoining vegetable plot . The gardens overlook a salt marsh veined with dikes built by the Acadians to turn marsh into farmland . Back downtown , you can take in the sights on a self-guided walking tour . The free `` Footprints With Footnotes '' brochures that guide the way are widely available around town . Like many Nova Scotian towns , Annapolis Royal has fallen on hard times , and the windows of once elegant shops now advertise used clothing for sale . But there 's still a chic shop or two in town , not to mention a few fine restaurants and plenty of historic buildings , so it 's a delightful place for strolling . Most explorers are drawn to the waterfront , where docks reach out into the Annapolis River . Across the waterway lie the picturesque white steeples and snug frame houses of Granville Ferry , one of the most photographed towns in the Canadian Maritimes . The river , rushing out of the orchard-filled Annapolis Valley , is just the place to appreciate the quicksilver tidal changes for which the Bay of Fundy is famed . The tide rises and falls so quickly , you can literally watch it . A marker on one of the piers charts tidal changes of about a foot every 15 minutes . The moving water 's power is harnessed by the Annapolis Royal Tidal Power Project , where the whooshing tides churn huge turbines to generate electric power . The facility is open for tours . The next stop southbound on Nova Scotia 's Main Street is Digby , home port for one of the world 's biggest scallop fishing fleets . The town is also known for its smoked herrings , dubbed Digby Chicks after a stark Christmas Day when the locals had nothing else to eat . Fanning out across the base of a low hill , Digby is an inviting place for a walk , especially when morning fog blankets the basin , the fleet is in and clouds of gulls whirl through the skies . The best thing about Digby is Digby Neck , a 30-mile splinter of stone jabbing into the Bay of Fundy . The whole peninsula is ideal for picnicking , hiking , gazing at spectacular rock formations or just admiring bays where quaint fishing villages are anchored . The villages , strung along the shore like brightly painted bobbers , are piled high with lobster traps , fishing buoys and boats colored in Kodachrome hues of red , blue or yellow . Part of each day , retreating tides leave the ships marooned on mud flats , like tossed-off toys . ( Optional add end ) At Gulliver 's Cove , named for a pirate said to have buried his treasure nearby , visitors can poke around old fishing boats and examine the net and log weirs that local fishermen construct to trap fish swept back and forth by the sluicing tides . Though you willn't unearth Gulliver 's treasure , you might uncover a semiprecious stone or two on the beach . Overlooking the white clapboard churches and prim homes of Sandy Cove , the Bay of Fundy and St. Mary 's Bay is Mount Shubal . A quick climb through a moss-floored spruce forest deposits you on its stony brow , where the region 's most panoramic views unfold . Locals say there 's no better spot to watch a sunset . Farther on , villages and rock formations invite prowling . At the end of the line , super-scenic Brier Island and the little burg of Westport attract nature lovers , artists and photographers by the carload . Another worthwhile detour from Digby leads to Bear River , the self-proclaimed `` Switzerland of Nova Scotia . '' Tiny Bear River , with its houses and shops perched on stilts and cantilevered out over a tidal river , is another of those communities settled by American Revolution refugees . In this case , loyalists and Hessian mercenaries were rewarded with a tract of Nova Scotia land . For a time this was a thriving community . Seven shipyards pumped out sailing vessels , and lumber cut from the surrounding hills was shipped as far as Hong Kong and Bombay . Today there 's little sign of that past industry . Bear River is now a backwater with a few craft shops , a couple of bed-and-breakfasts and great charm . Back on Main Street , the road runs south through old Acadia . Here there 's no shortage of quaint towns and dramatic seascapes . Numerous roadside eateries offer beignets a la rapure , or a rappie pie , a starchy specialty made from grated potatoes that 's a tradition in these parts . After a while , distinctions between the towns seem to blur . Each knot of brightly painted houses looks more and more like the previous one . And Main Street just keeps rolling on . HOLLYWOOD Perhaps no other profession in the world requires you to show up for work bringing your own bags of dirt . Vivian Turner 's does . As a wardrobe stylist to the stars , she works in one of Hollywood 's quirkiest professions . She must be able to size up a celebrity , shop for clothes and arrive on a set with everything necessary to make him or her look great . She 's part miracle worker , part invisible woman , part lingerie expert , part best friend . And yes , she brings her own dirt . It 's actually Fuller 's Earth , a powdered stone in different shades used to age clothing on the spot , and it 's just one of a dozen items in her bag of tricks . Turner has put Christian Slater in young hunk clothes to host the MTV awards , to shoot editorial layouts and meet the press . Geena Davis wore her choice of sexy ruffles for the February cover of Premiere magazine . Turner dressed Axl Rose in wedding-day finery for his elaborate `` November Rain '' video . In nine years of styling , she 's always been on target , never once having the star or director reject everything on her wardrobe rack . Turner 's secret for success , says Susan Culley , head of Susan Culley & Associates , which represents Slater , is that you can't tell she was there . `` Celebrities want to look like themselves , '' says Culley , `` and a lot of stylists pull things that the celebrity would not wear . Vivian has this incredible knack for picking things out that the client and the magazine both love . '' Her career began when , as a favor to her boyfriend , Turner prepared some clothes for bands he represented . One member , Charlie Sexton , was to go in front of the camera of top photographer Greg Gorman , who noticed the ease with which Turner clothed the singer . Gorman asked her to come the next day and help out with Arnold Schwarzenegger , and the day after that with Alexander Godunov . The next day the photographer asked Turner to be his in-house stylist . Turner now works free-lance through the Cloutier Agency . `` I started at the top and I didn't have the background , '' says Turner . `` I didn't even know what Topstick was . '' ( That 's the double-stick toupee tape used between the star and the strapless gown so the gown stays up . ) `` We did a shoot with Keanu Reeves last year and he 's not known for doing , or enjoying , photo sessions , '' says Gorman , recalling one of the biggest challenges the two faced together . `` She put him in a dozen changes and it was amazing . The clothes made him feel comfortable and he was incredible . '' For `` The Hideaway , '' the modern-day thriller Jeff Goldblum is was shooting in Vancouver , the clothes-savvy star requested that Turner design and style his costumes . One recent prep day she presented him with a rack of Calvin Klein , Industria , Donna Karan and custom-made shirts , jackets and pants for approval . `` She 's brilliant , '' Goldblum says simply . `` She 's great and she 's got great ideas . '' `` Vivian tells people ` This is what your needs are , ' and she says it in an inoffensive way , '' says Maxfield sales manager Janet Gaertner , who 's always happy to see Turner coming in the door . People respect this honesty , says Gaertner . `` I 'll see Vivian shopping with an actress again after the film is over . '' `` You 're working with individuals , and there 's something that makes them who they are . You tap into that , '' says Turner . `` You enhance a personality , not take it away . '' e ( ATTN : Feature editors ) ( Includes optional trims ) Hopi Leader Sees Himself as Bridge Between Two Worlds By Connie Koenenn ( c ) 1994 , Los Angeles Times Ferrell Secakuku , the new chairman of Arizona 's Hopi tribe , grew up working in his father 's trading post , where groceries were often exchanged for the pottery , baskets and silver jewelry that are the Hopi artisan 's signature . `` That was the traditional way , '' says the soft-spoken Secakuku , 56 , who spent his early years on the Hopi reservation , a series of arid villages in the high desert of northeastern Arizona . When his father sent him to Ganado Mission High School , run by the Presbyterian Church on the Navajo reservation , he had known little beyond his birthplace , the land the Hopi regard as the center of the universe . `` It was a total shock , '' he recalls . `` I was a full-fledged Hopi . I didn't even know how to speak English and I had no idea the world was made up of many difficult , different environments . '' But Secakuku learned fast . Very few Hopi went to college in the 1950s , but Secakuku 's father had sent him off with instructions to `` be somebody . '' Secakuku graduated from Northern Arizona University with a business degree . `` He told me to learn the white man 's ways and lifestyle , and learn their business , and then come back and help develop our people . There were no jobs on the reservation . '' Secakuku came home with his business degree and converted the family trading post to the only supermarket on the reservation . Secakuku may have learned the white man 's ways , but he never abandoned tradition . He is the first chairman of the Hopi tribe to be both a businessman and fully initiated into the Hopi religious societies . `` I 'm a member of the Snake Clan we dance the religious dances . '' When he decided two years ago to run for chairman of his 10,000-member tribe , he turned over the business to his family . `` I have six daughters and they grew up in the business , '' he says . `` I like to say that the best man for the job is a woman . '' Describing himself as a bridge between two worlds , the Hopi chairman has an ambitious agenda for development projects in education , jobs , communications , business and health care . His blueprint for the Hopi people was reiterated on a large scale recently as Native American leaders from throughout the country sat down with Clinton administration officials for a `` listening conference '' that followed a high-profile meeting with the president at the White House . Although the 500-plus Native American tribes have various special needs , a common thread running through the discussions was a need for more tribal sovereignty . Says Secakuku : `` We want to move into the 21st century on our own terms . '' For the Hopi , heading the action list is an issue as old as the tribe itself water . On the landlocked Hopi reservation which has an average annual rainfall of 10 inches the sustaining water supply is a naturally pure aquifer , a layer of porous rock 3,000 feet underground containing water that bubbles up to the surface in springs and washes . Water shapes the entire culture . Not only have the Hopi used aquifer water for farming , drinking and bathing for 900 years , Secakuku says , but `` water is so sacred to the Hopi that is it like a bloodline to our heart . '' But for the past few years , the water has been drying up , leading to a classic water-rights dispute . Under a lease signed 24 years ago , the St. Louis-based Peabody Western Coal Co. mines coal from the Hopi Black Mesa . To transport it to Southern California Edison 's plant in Nevada , Peabody pulverizes the coal , mixes it with ground water and delivers it through a pipeline . The unusual process gulps up a billion gallons of aquifer water a year , more than the Hopi use in a decade . And although the Hopi , and the neighboring Navajo Nation , leased both the water and coal rights to Peabody and consider the mining a business partnership the Hopi now see the slurry line as draining away their very existence as a prolonged drought makes water more precious . `` Without water , our entire culture and people are at risk , '' says Secakuku . Revenues from the mining partnership are essential to the tribal budget and Secakuku emphasizes that `` no one wants the mining operation to end , but after making one mistake , we don't want to further it . '' The Hopi have suggested substituting pipeline water from Utah 's Lake Powell for the ground water . In St. Louis , Peabody spokesman Ron Greenfield reiterated the company 's position that the pumping is not the culprit . `` Several studies have been done and they 've all shown no effect , '' he says . Nevertheless , Peabody has agreed to study alternatives . Secakuku and other tribal leaders were in Los Angeles last month to attend a forum , `` Energy 2000 and Beyond , '' at the Sheraton Grande . Relaxing in the hotel lobby before lunch , they talked about Hopi self-determination . `` On one hand we want to diversify our economy , '' Secakuku says . `` On the other , we are trying to reach back and find ourselves as Hopi people . '' The two goals are equal in priority , adds Wayne Taylor , 39 , the tribe 's new vice chairman . That was the message they got from voters when they went door-to-door campaigning before the election in February . ( Optional add end ) There is concern that young people aren't carrying on the traditions . `` We 're worried that young Hopi no longer speak their language , '' says Taylor , who has a business administration degree from the University of Arizona . `` We 're worried about the brain drain our people move to Flagstaff and Phoenix for jobs . We want to develop our economic base . '' Education and scholarships are major items , along with economic development , on the action plan Secakuku has drawn up for his four-year term as chairman of the Hopi Tribal Council . Looking toward the 21st century , they also can see potential in tapping Arizona 's abundant solar energy for rural areas , and in producing their own electrical energy through a tribal utility authority . `` We 're doing a feasibility study for a wireless communication system throughout the reservation , '' Taylor says .