Civil and Uncivil Actions
The New York
Times goes local. New York Gov. George Pataki endorsed Mayor Rudy
Giuliani, despite their chilly history, for the upcoming New York Senate race.
The national Republican Party reportedly pressured Pataki to do it so there'd
be a strong Republican campaign against the probable Democratic contender,
Hillary Rodham Clinton.
The Washington Post also leads a local piece, about how two
Maryland counties are handling a Wednesday gubernatorial announcement. It, not
spelled out in the story, declared mandatory restrictions on water usage
throughout the state. Montgomery County is printing educational pamphlets,
fining violators, and authorizing police and county workers "to confront
scofflaws." Conversely, Prince George's County hasn't planned to do any of
these things. PG officials note the "water authority serving both counties
insists it has enough water to last into November" even with no rain till then.
(All of which begs the question, not addressed in the piece, what does the term
"mandatory restrictions" mean?) Clinton announced Friday that the drought was
the worst in history for the agriculture of Maryland, New Jersey, Delaware, and
Rhode Island.
The Los
Angeles Times goes with a U.S. economy update. In July, 310,000 jobs
were added, wages roses at the fastest rate this year and unemployment was
steady at 4.3 percent. The shrinking manufacturing sector added 31,000 jobs,
its biggest gain in a year and half. (Back then, notes a similar NYT
piece, in August 1998, striking General Motors workers returned to work.) The
news increases the possibility that the Federal Reserve will raise interest
rates at its next meeting, on Aug. 24, to protect against inflation.
A Texas manicurist, charging heart damage after taking a weight-loss
cocktail called fen-phen, won a $23.3 million jury verdict Friday, fronts the
LAT . This was the first case against American Home Products (AHP) for
making fenfluramine, the dangerous half of the combination, which "cause[s]
heart valve damage in some patients and lung problems in others." The larger
significance of the case: Defendants "usually win the initial cases in such
product liability law suits" so that this loss "could lead to thousands of new
cases." The piece mentions other liability suits AHP has faced. It does not,
and should, discuss other recent product-liability cases of national
importance, such as asbestos, tobacco, and hand guns. The fen-phen ruling
supports a trend of decisions against product-liability defendants.
"The wife of an Army officer who until recently commanded a U.S. military
unit running anti-drug operations in Colombia has been charged with smuggling
cocaine into the United States. Laurie Hiett, 36, wife of Col. James Hiett,
surrendered to federal authorities in Brooklyn on Thursday." The Post
(quoted) and NYT off-lead this story; LAT fronts it. Both
off-leads credit the Village Voice for the scoop and report that two
other people, who received the packages, have also been charged. Hiett mailed
about 16 pounds of pure coke via six packages. She claims to have sent them for
her husband's chauffeur, who charges Ms. Hiett abuses cocaine, without
knowledge of their contents. Both Times report that the colonel
voluntarily stepped aside last week in light of the allegations, though he
doesn't seem to have been involved; and that Columbia gets $289 million in
American aid this year, most of it to fight drugs. The NYT sets the
scene best, reporting an anonymous Columbian government official who said
Colombians frequently ask foreign diplomats they know to send mail for them
because lots of Latin American countries have unreliable mail services.
However, says the source, it's customary to leave such mail unsealed to show
nothing illegal is being sent. The NYT piece also claims investigators
have evidence that Hiett knew what she was sending, and reports the street
value of the coke was in the $230,000 range. The LAT focuses on how the
situation will affect the American anti-drug effort in Columbia.
The Post fronts a piece analyzing the budget shenanigans. Congress
passed a tax bill Clinton has promised to veto, and passed spending bills
intended to financially disable his priorities despite Clinton's consistent
triumphs in budget standoffs over the past four years. But even if Clinton does
win this time, some have admitted that his goals of long-term Medicare and
Social Security stability may not be realized. A NYT editorial makes
similar points but is more aggressively anti-Congress. It also comments that
presidential hopeful Gov. George W. Bush of Texas is rhetorically moving
against his fellow Republicans in Congress. And the surpluses projected for the
next 10 years are enough "to save Social Security, save Medicare, increase
defense spending, run the Government in a way that would be satisfactory to
most Americans and even provide a modest tax cut."
The Post profiles Vice President Gore's presidential campaign
chairman, former House Democratic whip Tony Coelho. Gore reached outside his
inner circle to recruit Coelho. Some like him; some don't--such as former vice
presidential chief of staff Ronald A. Klain, who resigned this week. TP doesn't
come away with much sense of whether to like Coelho, or Gore's campaign, from
the piece.
