Glowing Reports
Threatened with municipal lawsuits that could cost hundreds of millions of
dollars in losses, top gun makers have agreed to discuss with representatives
of various cities safety improvements and distribution control, according to a
New York Times
exclusive. The Los Angeles
Times leads with the return of radiation levels to normal at the site
of Thursday's nuclear accident in Japan, a story which the other papers front.
The Washington
Post offers GOP boohooing over candidate George W. Bush's opposition to
a deferral of tax credits to low-income families. The NYT runs a similar
story inside.
Gun industry executives met on Monday in Washington with municipal
officials, who said they will withdraw their lawsuits if an agreement is
reached. An industry spokesman suggested that negotiators aim for a reduction
in accidental deaths and injuries and a way to prevent guns from reaching
criminals. New York state's attorney general proposed that an independent
monitor be appointed to make sure any agreement is carried out. Absent from the
meeting were representatives from Chicago, Detroit, New Orleans, and Newark,
and from Los Angeles' "Ring of Fire" companies, which produce inexpensive guns
that criminals can't get enough of.
The LAT mildly tempers official Japanese reports that the radiation
level in the nuclear facility and surrounding region has normalized with
critics' fears that it is too early to tell what exactly the plant spat out.
But overall, scientific and political reassurances are being reported louder
than anything else. A NYT front-pager voices local residents' anger at
the government's negligence before the accident, official response to it, and
the proximity of their homes to the facility. (The LAT supplies the
detail that 39 families who live within 400 yards of the plant still hadn't
been allowed home yet). Lest we think of Tokaimura residents as monolithically
hysterical, the WP runs a story inside on locals impervious to
panic.
Speaker Dennis Haskert said that last month Republicans in Congress had
discussed with Bush's aides their budget strategy, part of which defers earned
income credit payments totaling $8.7 billion. No one on Bush's team objected
then. Yesterday a spokeswoman said that the campaign does not habitually
coordinate stances with Congress. The candidate himself broke party solidarity
with a properly alliterative soundbite ("I don't think they ought to balance
their budget on the backs of the poor."), which an aide told the NYT was
"too good" to be spontaneous. The Post reveals in the 18th paragraph
that W. himself did not learn of the plan until briefed on Thursday. The
NYT fronts Bush's centrist "standard stump speech" to the Christian
Coalition, in which he did not address crowd-pleasing issues like abortion (in
depth), prayer in schools, or gay rights.
Faced with the prospect of renewed rioting, Iran's chief cleric told
hard-liners to chill out over a campus newspaper piece in Tehran that many
found offensive, the NYT reports. Ayatollah Ali Khamenei also spoke up
for President Mohammed Khatami, usually his sparring partner, who has been
trying to bring the government, police, and judiciary in line with law.
A $100 million missile launch tonight will test technology spun off from
original forays into a "Star Wars" missile defense system, according to the
LAT. A Minuteman missile, topped with a dummy warhead, will lift off
from Vandenberg Air Force Base, north of Santa Barbara. Twenty minutes later an
interceptor will be fired from 4,300 miles away. A direct hit could eventually
lead to implementation, but also to an arms race, critics say, as other
countries try to develop technology that outmaneuvers the new defense.
A Connecticut law that went into effect yesterday allows police to
confiscate guns from anyone considered by a judge to be dangerous, the
LAT reports. Critics have dubbed it the "turn-in-your-neighbor law" and
said it amounts to "unreasonable search and seizure" that violates the Fourth
Amendment. Interest, though, is not confined to the Constitution State:
Illinois legislators will review a similar bill next month and California Gov.
Gray Davis signed a bill this week requiring police to take guns found in
people's homes for two days following reports of domestic violence.
An FAA radar monitoring system designed to prevent airplanes from colliding
with each other on the ground may not be installed until 2002 -- ten years
behind schedule, the WP reports. Even then, the software may not be able
to foresee accidents on taxiways or with trucks and other equipment. Nor can
the radar spot misbehaving schoolkids. One of the two novelty stories on the
WP front follows 12-year-old Christopher Peregory on an impromptu tour
of the Midwest. Instead of reporting to the principal for putting down a
colleague, the Fairfax, VA elementary school student took the subway to Reagan
National Airport, walked on to a plane, and flew without incident or ticket to
St. Louis, the hub of TWA travel. The airline returned him without charge to
his concerned parents, who promptly grounded him. No word on the principal's
reaction. (The other novelty: Egyptologists north of Los Angeles hope to dig up
what could be the second most important Pharaonic-era (or at least -themed)
discovery of the year: the Ueber-set from DeMille's 1927 "The Ten
Commandments.")
And the TP award for implacable skepticism goes to ... A NYT
reader who responds to both Reagan aide Michael Deaver's Wednesday op-ed piece
on working with the former president and Edmund Morris' new biography: "The
Reagan that I'm finding in Dutch is a complex man. Had I read Mr.
Deaver's description six months ago, I would have dismissed it as pro-Reagan
propaganda. Now I have to admit that to a great extent, it rings true."
