TIME: Almanac 1995

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<text id=93TT0123> <title> July 12, 1993: The Week:June 27-July 3, 1993 </title> <history> TIME--The Weekly Newsmagazine--1993 July 12, 1993 Reno:The Real Thing </history> <article> <source>Time Magazine</source> <hdr> THE WEEK, Page 11 NEWS DIGEST JUNE 27-JULY 3 </hdr> <body> NATION Attack on Iraq President Clinton's June 26 cruise-missile attack on Baghdad briefly boosted his popularity at home, but the effect soon faded, and a Washington Post survey last week showed that he has the highest disapproval rating of any post-World War II President at this point in his first term. And while U.S. officials (and Clinton most emphatically) claimed that the strike crippled Saddam Hussein's intelligence capabilities, three of the missiles went astray, killing eight innocent Iraqi civilians and wounding a dozen more. The Sheik Is Taken After a 20-hour standoff, Sheik Omar Abdel Rahman, the radical Muslim cleric who federal authorities believe is connected to terrorists, left a mosque in Brooklyn, New York, and surrendered peaceably to immigration authorities. The Justice Department decided to detain Abdel Rahman after he tried to elude surveillance by federal agents. House Votes No on Abortion In an unexpected setback for pro-abortion-rights forces in Congress, the House voted 255 to 178 to maintain the Hyde amendment--the 16-year-old ban on Medicaid funding of abortions for poor women, except when the mother's life is jeopardized and in cases of rape or incest. The Senate could still revise the language. Racial Redistricting In a 5-to-4 ruling that seriously challenges the common practice of drawing black-majority congressional districts as a means to implement the 1965 Voting Rights Act, the Supreme Court said the creation of one such district in North Carolina may have violated the constitutional rights of white voters. White House Travel Mess In a highly self-critical report on its bungled travel-office shake-up, the White House pointed the finger at itself for improperly dismissing seven staffers. Four Clinton staff members were publicly reprimanded, though none was fired. A Compromise on Logging No one was satisfied when President Clinton approved a plan to reduce logging by nearly two-thirds on federal lands--and put habitats of the spotted owl off limits--while providing more than $1 billion to retrain loggers and help tide over their communities. The timber industry attacked the compromise, saying it would devastate struggling businesses. And environmentalists complained it would permit cutting across large areas. Atomic Tests Canceled Choosing to avoid a fight with Democrats in Congress, the Clinton Administration scrapped a plan to conduct nine underground nuclear tests, extending its moratorium through September 1994 unless another nation starts testing first. The Pentagon and the State Department say a few tests are needed to ensure the safety of the U.S. arsenal. AIDS Commission Wraps Up The National Commission on AIDS completed four years of work with a bitter report charging that prejudice and political inertia have prevented the nation from making an adequate response to the epidemic. "I think a lot of people in America don't believe the roof is about to cave in on them," said one member. Mississippi Flooding Not in a generation has the upper Mississippi River flooded as badly as it did last week, destroying crops and bringing river traffic to a halt along a 500-mile stretch from St. Paul, Minnesota, to St. Louis, Missouri. With the water cresting more than 7 ft. above flood level in some places, the Governors of Wisconsin, Minnesota, South Dakota, Iowa and Illinois sought federal disaster aid. A Ruling on Baby Jessica The Michigan Supreme Court overruled a lower court and gave a Michigan couple, Jan and Roberta DeBoer, until Aug. 2 to return Baby Jessica, the two-year-old girl they adopted at birth, to her biological parents, Daniel and Cara Schmidt, in Iowa. When Cara Schmidt, then a single mother, gave up the child in 1991, she knowingly named the wrong man as the father on adoption papers. After changing her mind about the adoption, she informed the real father and married him. Ivan the Terrible? U.S. District Judge Thomas A. Wiseman Jr. ruled that the U.S. government--unintentionally--withheld evidence that cast "substantial doubt" on whether John Demjanjuk, the retired autoworker who was extradited to Israel and sentenced to death, was once "Ivan the Terrible," a guard who executed Jews at Treblinka. But the court upheld his extradition anyway, saying there was good evidence he had indeed served at a Nazi SS training facility. WORLD A Plan for Haiti After some 11th-hour diplomatic pressure, deposed Haitian President Jean-Bertrand Aristide, in New York City, said he would sign a U.N.-brokered plan to restore him to power. Haiti's military leader, Lieut. General Raoul Cedras, who participated in the coup that ousted Aristide in 1991, had accepted the plan earlier. Somalia Ambushes In a bloody replay of the June 5 attacks that killed 24 peacekeepers, Somali militiamen loyal to General Mohammed Farrah Aidid ambushed a U.N. search party on Friday, killing at least three Italian soldiers and wounding 21. Earlier in the week two Pakistanis were killed and two Americans and two Pakistanis wounded in encounters with Aidid's men. Receding Concern for Bosnia Citing a steep drop in donations and the ongoing problem of protecting convoys, the U.N.'s largest refugee-relief agency will halve its food distribution in Bosnia for the rest of the summer. In New York City, the Security Council defeated a resolution supported only by the U.S. and five nonaligned nations that would have lifted the arms embargo that hobbles the Bosnian Muslims. "The world community has abandoned all its principles, all its obligations," said a Bosnian official. Middle East Talks In an effort to accelerate the torpid pace of the Middle East peace talks, which have just concluded a 10th round, the U.S. has agreed to send a high-level State Department delegation to the area, perhaps to be followed by a visit by Secretary of State Warren Christopher later this year. Nigeria's Military Protest At least 30 army officers with the rank of colonel or above are asking for early retirement to protest the decision of General Ibrahim Babangida, the country's dictator, to annul the June 12 elections. Chinese Greenspan Axed What do you do when your banking system is overwhelmed by capitalist symptoms like cash shortages, a depreciating currency and rampant credit expansion? You blame your top banker. The designated scapegoat is Li Guixian, governor of the People's Bank of China. He will be replaced--temporarily--by Vice Premier Zhu Rongji, the man in charge of China's economy. BUSINESS Trouble for NAFTA In a ruling that may kill chances for congressional passage of the North American Free Trade Agreement, U.S. District Judge Charles Richey ruled that the accord cannot be submitted to Congress until the government prepares an environmental impact statement on such matters as whether increased manufacturing on the U.S. border with Mexico might lead to increased pollution. The delay will give opponents more time to organize and push the controversial vote into a congressional election year. "My fear is that NAFTA is finished unless this ruling is overturned," fretted Missouri Senator John Danforth. Another Day, Another Downer Once again, it was a week of discouraging economic reports. The index of leading economic indicators fell 0.3% in May. In the same month new-home sales plunged to a 12-month low, despite the best mortgage rates in two decades. One possible reason: the index of consumer confidence sank to its gloomiest reading in eight months. Firms remained wary of hiring: only 13,000 net new jobs were added to payrolls in June, as the unemployment rate nosed up to 7%. Denny's and Blacks Faced with five suits charging Denny's with racial discrimination against black customers, the restaurant chain signed a sweeping agreement with the N.A.A.C.P. to increase by one-third the number of Denny's franchises owned by minorities and to increase purchases from minority suppliers. German Greenspan Listens The day after President Clinton publicly urged it to do so, Germany's Bundesbank cut key interest rates. That could help stimulate the inert German economy, a U.S. aim. SCIENCE Life Imitates Fiction The fanciful premise of Jurassic Park--that DNA could be recovered from fossils and cloned to create live dinosaurs--has already turned into partial truth. Jack Horner, the paleontologist who advised Steven Spielberg on the movie, thinks he has found red blood cells in a chunk of Tyrannosaurus bone, and extractable DNA might be inside them. The cloning part is still fantasy, but the DNA could be used to test the theory that dinosaurs and birds are closely related. MEDIA & THE ARTS TV Violence Under pressure from Congress, which had threatened to impose a ratings system like the one used for films, all four television networks agreed that this fall they will begin broadcasting a parental advisory before and during programs that contain unusual violence. The networks will decide what's unusual. FCC Backs Murdoch In its first waiver ever of a rule forbidding ownership of a newspaper and a TV station in the same market, the Federal Communications Commission gave Rupert Murdoch permission to buy New York City's Post even though he owns the city's Fox TV affiliate. Murdoch had threatened to shut down the tabloid paper, which he has been running provisionally for months. By Ginia Bellafante, Tom Curry, Christopher John Farley, Richard Lacayo, Alexandra Lange, Michael D. Lemonick, Michael Quinn, Sidney Urquhart The Silence of the Psychopaths After New Yorker Joel Rifkin confessed last week to murdering 17 prostitutes, a high school classmate said he was "quiet, shy, not the kind of guy who would do something like this." It's the quiet ones you've got to watch. DAVID BERKOWITZ Convicted of six "Son of Sam" murders, 1976 and 1977 "He was quiet and reserved and kept pretty much to himself."--ARMY BUDDY. "That's the way he was here, nice--a quiet, shy fellow."--BOSS JUAN CORONA Convicted of 25 murders of itinerant workers, 1971 "That's the kind of man he is--kept to himself and never said much, for the most part."--FRIEND JEFFREY DAHMER Confessed to killing and dismembering 17 people, 1991 "He didn't have much to say about anything, just `Hi, nice to meet you' He seemed quiet."--FRIEND OF VICTIM WESTLEY ALLAN DODD Executed in 1993 for the kidnapping, rape and murder of three small boys "Wes seemed so harmless, such an all-around, basic good citizen."--NEIGHBOR JOHN ESPOSITO Charged with kidnapping Katie Beers, 10, and keeping her in an underground bunker for 16 days, 1993 "He was such a quiet, caring person. He was a very nice person."--NEIGHBOR MICHAEL GRIFFIN Confessed to murdering a doctor who performed abortions, 1993 "Very nice and well-spoken mild-mannered, very quiet."--FRIEND Love Means Never Having to Say Mid-Life Crisis "You think I'm too young for you, don't you? You do, don't you?" Billy Baldwin, 30, says to Sharon Stone, 35, in Sliver. Men in other recent movies haven't had this worry with their female love interests. IN THE LINE OF FIRE Clint Eastwood, 63 Rene Russo, 38 JURASSIC PARK Sam Neill, 45 Laura Dern, 26 CLIFFHANGER Sylvester Stallone, 47 Janine Turner, 29 INDECENT PROPOSAL Robert Redford, 55 Demi Moore, 30 MAD DOG AND GLORY Robert De Niro, 49 Uma Thurman, 23 WINNERS & LOSERS WINNERS HENRY HYDE House backs his curb on Medicaid abortions RUPERT MURDOCH FCC allows mogul to reacquire the New York Post KIRK BLOODSWORTH DNA test frees alleged killer from a life sentence LOSERS ANTHONY YOUNG Unbowed Mets pitcher sets record losing streak THOMAS DINE Fired pro-Israel flack implied Orthodox Jews "smelly" SHEIK OMAR ABDEL RAHMAN Cleric linked to Trade Center bombers pulled in by feds Informed Sources O, Mighty Gergen! Washington--It has taken hardly a month for David Gergen to become the White House Svengali: a top West Wing aide says he's now the non-Hillary person the President listens to most. It was Gergen who pushed Clinton to have dinner with Bob Dole last week, who helped dispose of the travel-office scandal and the owls-vs.-timber brouhaha. "We're taking out the trash," says a Clinton aide in the White House. "When we come back in July and go into conference on the budget, we cannot have this stuff lying around." Is the Department of Energy Wasting Billions? Washington--Jim Courter, chairman of the Defense Base Closure and Realignment Commission, left out one conclusion when he submitted his panel's report to the President last week. While taking testimony on redundant military bases, Courter found out that there was even more post-cold war waste at Department of Energy facilities. The budgets for Los Alamos National Laboratory and Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory are each over $1 billion, and DOE insiders concede that both could be closed and their tasks taken over by another facility. Courter says another commission is needed to sort out the glut, which could mean the squandering of billions of dollars: "DOE has excess capacity you wouldn't believe." The N.A.A.C.P. vs. Jesse Jackson New York--According to a highly placed source in the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People, Jesse Jackson has been blocked from speaking at the group's annual convention in Indianapolis, Indiana, this month. Earlier this year, Jackson campaigned hard to become the head of the N.A.A.C.P. and was rebuffed. This new conflict does not figure to be a high-minded struggle over principles: extra security guards have been hired to keep Jackson away from the speakers' platform, in case he tries to make an unauthorized stage appearance. The Bush Administration: Where Are They Now? JAMES BAKER Then: Secretary of State, White House chief of staff Now: Partner in the Carlyle Group, a Washington investment bank; affiliated with Houston-based Baker & Botts, his family's law firm; columnist with Los Angeles Times Syndicate; writing book (high-six-figure advance) NICHOLAS BRADY Then: Treasury Secretary Now: Director, H.J. Heinz GEORGE BUSH Then: President Now: "Answering his mail, trying to get the Bush library up and running," according to his office RICHARD DARMAN Then: Director of the Office of Management and Budget Now: Managing director of the Carlyle Group MARLIN FITZWATER Then: White House spokesman Now: Partner in new Washington p.r. firm, Fitzwater & Tutwiler; writing book ROBERT GATES Then: CIA director Now: Writing book C. BOYDEN GRAY THEN: White House counsel NOW: Head of cable-TV production company CARLA HILLS Then: Trade representative Now: Runs Hills & Co., international trade consultants WILLIAM KRISTOL Then: Quayle's chief of staff Now: Director of conservative study group ANNA PEREZ Then: Barbara Bush's press secretary Now: Flack at Hollywood talent agency CAA DAN QUAYLE Then: Vice President Now: Writing book (million-dollar advance) BRENT SCOWCROFT Then: National Security Adviser Now: Runs Scowcroft Group, foreign policy consultants SAMUEL SKINNER Then: Transportation Secretary, chief of staff Now: President of Commonwealth Edison JOHN SUNUNU Then: Chief of staff Now: Lobbyist for W.R. Grace & Co.; has pinch-hit for Patrick Buchanan as co-host of CNN's Crossfire MARGARET TUTWILER THEN: State Department spokeswoman NOW: Partner in Fitzwater & Tutwiler DISPATCHES Latter-Day Grunge By CHRISTOPHER JOHN FARLEY, in Ogden, Utah The sky is bright and without clouds, the mountains flecked with snow, and mist hangs over the lifeless Great Salt Lake. In this old railroad town near Salt Lake City, the land of Latter-Day Saints has provided a curious backdrop for a latter-day carnival. The Lollapalooza tour--a festival of determinedly edgy alternative music featuring ethnic food, political forums and 12 bands, including rappers Arrested Development and female grunge rockers Babes in Toyland--has pulled into clean-living Utah. Lollapalooza began three years ago as the inspiration of singer Perry Farrell of the now defunct group Jane's Addiction; this year the tour visits more than 20 cities. Today Rage Against the Machine, a thrash metal band, performs first. Many of the 25,000 concertgoers surge to the front, churning up a cloud of dust that will hang in front of the stage all day like a dirty shower curtain. The lead singer is wailing "F you, I won't do what you tell me," again and again and later attacks the price of Lollapalooza souvenirs. "We like this band because they're pissed off," says 18-year-old Jeremy Jones, a Mormon in a T shirt decorated with multicolored marijuana leaves. Other kids also affect somewhat un-Utah fashions: shaved heads with ponytails on top, T shirts that read YOU SUCK, nose rings and lip rings. University of Utah freshman Matt Irvine says many dress alternatively but have firm morals--a buddy of his at the concert leaves for his two-year Mormon mission in a week. Lis Calder, 22, says the Utah alternative-music scene is a reaction to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints: "I was raised in a strict Mormon family. My aunt thinks there's an evil spirit surrounding rock music and if I listen to it I'll never find a husband." A few hundred yards from the stage, in an area known as the Village, a man named Ellisdee Rick is selling an "LSD Flight Simulator," a kaleidoscope-like device that straps on over the eyes: "It's the ultimate binocular looking into the neuroverse. It will probably replace the frisbee, and has already replaced Rubik's Cube." In the speaker's tent, a more serious exploration of the mind is under way as teenage audience members step onto a central stage and debate. "Utah is a hypocritical state." "You got the choice before you get pregnant." "If it's wrong, it's between me and God." The ringmaster-moderator is 23-year-old Mud Baron. He claims police are secretly taping the debate from a nearby building because they fear concerts attract a bad element: "But I can't get one of them to come down here and tell kids to stay off drugs." Days after the festival, Lieutenant Mike Wells of the Weber County sheriff's department confirms the video surveillance, saying it was "just for our own benefit." He adds that on-scene deputies declined to lecture because of the possibly hostile crowd: "It could develop into a dangerous situation." So for an afternoon in Utah, with its lifeless lake and unbending mores, the kids performed their rites, and the law just watched. Health Report THE GOOD NEWS Israeli scientists have found that giving elderly insomniacs melatonin--a hormone produced in the human pineal gland, which regulates sleep cycles--dramatically improves their chances of getting to sleep. It also seems to work for people whose insomnia is caused by Alzheimer's disease and other brain disorders. Digitalis has been used for more than 200 years to treat chronic heart failure. But more powerful new medications made doctors wonder if the old standby had outlived its usefulness. A 12-week study of 178 patients with mild to moderate heart failure has laid those fears to rest. According to the report, combining digitalis with more modern drugs decreased by sixfold a patient's odds of getting sicker. THE BAD NEWS Despite EPA, rules limiting the use of dangerous pesticides, children are still at risk from pesticide residues in food. Environmental Protection Agency standards are based on estimates of how much residue is dangerous to adults, but children tend to be much more sensitive. An advisory panel of the Food and Drug Administration has concluded that heavy drinkers should not take excessive amounts of acetaminophen, the active ingredient in Tylenol and similar painkillers. Acetaminophen is already known to cause liver damage in very large doses; since alcohol also puts a strain on the liver, the combination can be dangerous. The panel wants the FDA to put warning labels on the medicine bottles. SOURCES: Proceedings of National Academy of Sciences; New England Journal of Medicine; news reports </body> </article> </text>