The Weak, The Spin
Washington news, most of it coming out of Congress' summer session,
dominates. The New York Times
leads with the decision by Republican leaders in the Senate to abandon their
push for a big tax cut this year. Following its lead earlier in the week about
the Clinton administration's intention to more strictly police nursing homes,
USA
Today leads with more information about how lax government supervision
has been, reporting that between July 1997 and April 1998, only six of the
nation's 16,000 nursing homes lost eligibility for government reimbursement.
The Los
Angeles Times leads with the Senate's unexpected vote Thursday for an
overhaul of the laws governing immigrant farm workers that would make it easier
for farms to bring in workers from abroad. Both of California's senators
opposed the measure, says the paper, citing a recent government finding that
there's no farm labor shortage. It's unclear, says the LAT what will
happen to the measure in the House, where Republicans are divided: some want to
help agribusiness hiring, while others worry that workers brought in tend to
stay illegally. The Washington Post lead concerns a shake-up in the local
schools, but the off-lead is a local story of broader interest: According to
the Census Bureau, there's been more residential building going on in the
Washington-Baltimore corridor during the 90s than anywhere else in the country.
In fact, in that time, reports the Post , D.C.'s housing stock grew more
than a third faster than the population. Among the causes cited: the
Baltimore-Washington region has one of country's highest concentrations of baby
boomers.
The Times says one of the main political facts that has scared top
Senate Republicans off a tax-cut is their fear that any such move would be met
by President Clinton's charge that the GOP would risk Social Security's
long-term health to give tax cuts to the wealthy. But, the paper reports, House
Republicans are intent on plans to bring to a September vote a ten-year $700
billion tax reduction. The Times account leaves the Washington outsider
reader mystified by so much tax-cutting zeal in one branch of the legislature
and virtually none in the other. The Wall Street Journal "Washington Wire" also notes, but also
does not explain, this difference.
The USAT lead quotes one senator as saying the nursing home
enforcement numbers are "shocking," and that the federal agency charged with
overseeing the homes "has failed." Meanwhile, the paper says, the agency head
puts the blame on state inspectors.
USAT 's off-lead, reefered by the NYT and carried inside
everywhere else, is California juice maker Odwalla's agreement to pay the
biggest criminal fine ever in a food injury case--$1.5 million. The company's
1996 shipment of unpasteurized apple juice led to an E. coli outbreak that
killed a 16-month-old girl and sickened at least 66 other people. Some of the
fine will pay for expanding E. coli research.
Two other developments get front coverage at USAT but are inside
elsewhere: 1) The House vote to override a Clinton veto of the ban on the
late-term abortion procedure involving partial vaginal delivery followed by
removal of the fetus' brain. The Senate is thought to be a few votes short of
an override. 2) The Senate vote to ban most forms of Internet gambling.
Perhaps reflecting L.A.'s large Persian population, the LAT is alone
in fronting the conviction of Tehran's mayor in his corruption trial. The
sentence: five years in prison, getting whipped and being fined more than
$300,000. Because the mayor is a staunch ally of the country's rather
d,tente-oriented leader, Mohammed Khatami, the harsh sentence is viewed,
explains the paper, as a setback to Iran's incipient liberalization.
In light of those cloned mice "Today's Papers" has taken to calling the
"Hawaiian Five-O," the WP runs a front-pager addressing how various
religions view genetic replication. Christianity, Islam and Judaism each have a
wing that considers cloning an abomination. This includes the Vatican, which
condemned cloning, says the Post , ten years ago. The Southern Baptists
are in the same ballpark. Denominations that take a cautious but not condemning
approach include Lutherans, conservative and reformed Jews, and many Muslims.
And Hindus and Buddhists are open to cloning. The paper says that's because of
the religions' doctrine of reincarnation, but doesn't satisfactorily explain
why this is thought to support the liberal view. After all, clones are not,
unlike reincarnated souls, the very same person.
The WSJ "Washington Wire" reports that some presidential aides think
Kenneth Starr is about to subpoena President Clinton, and notes a new question
making the rounds, "Will a Secret Service agent take a subpoena for the
president?" The column notes another sex-scandal-in-the-making: a Hong Kong
shore-leave sex orgy indulged in by at least seven members of the
gender-integrated crew of the aircraft carrier Abraham Lincoln .
*Department of Corrections* If to err is human, yesterday's column was
overflowing with humanity. The WP 's science writer Rick Weiss is not
married to the NYT science writer Gina Kolata--he is married to the
NYT science writer Natalie Angier. It wasn't Elizabeth I who died the
same day as Shakespeare--it was Cervantes. (Other examples of co-mortality
"Today's Papers" meant to include: Thomas Jefferson and John Adams, and JFK and
Aldous Huxley.) And Snoop Doggy Dogg is spelled with double-gs throughout. The
"Today's Papers" pledge: no more recreational NyQuil.
