Israeli
police have recommended indictments against Prime Minister Benjamin
Netanyahu , his justice minister, and his chief of staff. The charges
concern an alleged deal to appoint an attorney general who would go soft on a
Netanyahu ally (the nominee subsequently quit). Labor Party leaders have
scrapped the idea of joining a coalition government with Netanyahu, since they
now think they can dump him outright. As with the controversial relationship
between Bill Clinton and Janet Reno, the decision whether to indict Netanyahu
now falls to the attorney general. (4/16)
Philip
Morris and RJR Nabisco are discussing a possible $300 billion settlement of
all cigarette liability suits against them, according to the Wall Street
Journal . They would also accept FDA supervision and restrictions on their
advertising in exchange for an act of Congress that would require plaintiffs to
seek compensation from a general tobacco-industry fund rather than from the
companies. Deputy White House Counsel Bruce Lindsey and Senate Majority Leader
Trent Lott have been briefed on the secret talks. Among the possible hitches:
1) Congress might amend the bill in ways unacceptable to the companies; 2) the
White House might reject the bill if it provides too much legal immunity and
too little money to the fund; and 3) a congressional ban on tobacco lawsuits
might be unconstitutional. (4/16)
Republicans are turning up the heat on Attorney General Janet Reno for
failing to appoint an independent counsel to investigate the Democratic
fund-raising scandal. House Speaker Newt Gingrich compared Reno to Nixon
henchman John Mitchell, and threatened to summon her before Congress and
investigate whether she was involved. Senate Minority Leader Tom Daschle,
D-S.D., replied that Gingrich, "the guru of ethics," had neither the right nor
the credibility to intimidate the attorney general. The press contrasted
Gingrich's invective with the more careful and substantive criticisms leveled
at Reno by Senate Judiciary Chairman Orrin Hatch. The New York Times and
Los Angeles Times joined in the criticism of Reno, while the
Washington Post and the Chicago Tribune came to her defense.
(4/16)
The
Supreme Court struck down a Georgia law requiring drug tests for political
candidates . The court ruled 8-to-1 that the urine tests were an
unreasonable search under the Fourth Amendment because: 1) there's no evidence
of a drug problem among Georgia politicians and 2) the law was designed to be
symbolic rather than effective (e.g., it allows candidates to pick the day they
will be tested). The Fourth Amendment spin is that the court, having upheld a
series of drug-testing laws (for railroad crews, customs-service workers, and
student athletes), finally encountered one too preposterous to tolerate. The
ideological spin is that the principled left and principled right (including
Justices Thomas and Scalia) defeated the unprincipled center (Chief Justice
Rehnquist). (4/16)
Major
League Baseball retired Jackie Robinson 's number. To commemorate
Robinson's shattering of the color barrier in sports 50 years ago, no player
will ever again be assigned the number 42. President Clinton and Baseball
Commissioner Bud Selig joined Robinson's widow at a ceremony honoring Robinson
during a Mets-Dodgers game at Shea Stadium. Sports writers boasted that
baseball was once again crystallizing the story of American progress. Killjoys
pointed out that blacks own none of the league's teams, that the stadium failed
to sell out, that the crowd was overwhelmingly white (as is usual at baseball
games), and that nearly everyone left the game after the 5 th inning
ceremony. The New York Times ' George Vecsey suggested that latter-day
black sports heroes such as Tiger Woods and Michael Jordan have insulted
Robinson's legacy of sacrifice by devoting themselves to self-promotion and
corporate marketing. (4/16)
The
Dow Jones industrial average bounced back strongly after falling nearly
10 percent below its March peak Friday. The drop had wiped out this year's
gains and persuaded some market watchers to declare the slide a correction.
Healthy corporate earnings reports and near-zero inflation in the consumer
sector turned stock speculators exuberant. Irrationally so? asked the Wall
Street Journal . Probably not, said most analysts, while agreeing that the
market was likely to keep lurching in response to changes in economic
indicators. (4/16)
China defeated a U.N. resolution criticizing its human-rights abuses.
Under threats from Beijing, several nations abstained. Germany and France
refused to co-sponsor the resolution (human-rights groups blamed France's
eagerness to conclude an airplane deal with China). Nevertheless, U.S.
Secretary of State Madeleine Albright said she would attend the ceremonies in
Hong Kong when the British colony reverts to Chinese control--to show her
support for continued democracy in Hong Kong. (4/16)
An
Illinois insurance company is selling life insurance to people with HIV .
This is the first such insurance offer since the onset of AIDS, and is viewed
as tentative commercial confirmation that AIDS is now, in the company's words,
"a treatable chronic illness rather than a terminal disease" for many people.
The Wall Street Journal hailed it as proof of the success of new drugs.
If the company makes money on the policy, other insurers are expected to
follow. (4/16)
Tiger Woods
won the Masters golf tournament and was anointed a
Transcendent Sports Phenomenon. Woods became the first black or Asian-American
to win a major golf tournament, and broke the course records for best score (18
under par), biggest margin of victory (12 strokes), and youngest victor (he is
21). Pundits declared it a triumph of youth and racial progress, comparing
Woods to Jackie Robinson (whose 50 th anniversary of breaking the
color barrier is being celebrated simultaneously), Arthur Ashe, and Lee Elder
(who became the first black golfer to play in the Masters in 1975, the same
year Woods was born). The game's current stars declared Woods the best player
in the world and possibly in history. Optimists predicted that Woods will make
golf hip and popular, especially among nonwhite kids. Pessimists grumbled that
Woods is so superior he'll make tournaments boring, and that his corporate
marketing machine (whose hour-long biography of him was aired by CBS during the
tournament) is tarnishing his divinity. (4/14)
Iran
is being fingered in two cases of terrorism. 1) The Washington Post
reported that a top Iranian official has been linked to the group suspected in
last year's bombing of a U.S. military base in Saudi Arabia. Newt Gingrich said
that if the evidence holds up, the United States should consider a military
strike against Iran. 2) A German court implicated Iranian leaders in four
recent assassinations in Berlin. More than 100,000 Iranians marched on
Germany's embassy in Tehran to protest the ruling. Students trying to storm the
embassy were thwarted by Iranian troops. The betting is that neither side will
let the crisis escalate, because their trade relationship is too cozy.
(4/14)
A
federal judge struck down the Line-Item Veto
Act , saying it gives
the president legislative powers constitutionally reserved to Congress. The
ruling is seen as a victory for constitutional purists and a political blow to
President Clinton, who had hoped to use the threat (if not the reality) of a
line-item veto as leverage in budget negotiations with Congress.
(4/11)
Newt
Gingrich is back . On the heels of his widely acclaimed trip to China, the
House speaker has delivered high-profile speeches bashing Clinton, Yasser
Arafat, taxes, unions, the IRS, and government-funded art. Conservatives are
heartened, though a few winced at his boast that Republican ideas are carrying
the day--in Mongolia. (See Slate's Jacob Weisberg on "Newt
Descending.") The contrary theory is that Gingrich is flaming out in a
final, futile attempt to regain his authority in the GOP. The Wall Street
Journal editorial page urges him to crown his comeback by announcing that
he will pay off his $300,000 ethics penalty using campaign funds and other
donations instead of his own money--exactly the step that many analysts think
will turn him back into a pariah. (4/11)
New
satellite pictures substantially increase the probability that life exists
on Europa , a moon of Jupiter. Scientists are now convinced that a vast
internal ocean is, or was recently, roiling the surface and providing the heat
and chemicals necessary to create life. Ironically, much of the optimism that
life could exist in Europa's ocean arises from the recent discovery that
microbes are thriving in an even less hospitable environment: volcanic vents on
the Earth's ocean floor. (4/11)
President Clinton announced the federal government will hire 10,000 people
off welfare in the next four years to do its share in putting welfare
recipients to work. There are nearly 4 million adults on family welfare and 2
million jobs in the federal government. (4/11)
The CIA admitted it had
evidence of chemical weapons in an Iraqi bunker years before the Persian
Gulf War, but failed to give the armed forces clear warning before they blew up
the bunker. The admission contradicts the CIA's previous assurances that U.S.
soldiers couldn't have been exposed to nerve gas, and (after that assurance
proved false) that the agency had been unaware of chemical weapons in the
bunker. Editorialists still doubt that the bunker's destruction accounts for
the putative "Gulf War Syndrome," but scoff that the government has lost all
credibility on the issue. Analysts agree that the new disclosure throws a
wrench in confirmation hearings for CIA Director-designate George Tenet, who
was involved in providing the misleading assurances. (4/11)
