Politicians are the new arbiters on abortion and 1990 is the year they'll be expected to make their decisions.
Those politicians have the Supreme Court to thank for their new role: A decision in July pushed abortion out of the courts and into legislative and electoral politics.
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Mississippi looks to future; Takes pride in 'how far we've come'; Barriers to racial unity 'crumble'
Feb. 9, 1990
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JACKSON, Miss. - The magnolia trees appear at spring luster, the grass billows bright green - and the temperature hovers, unseasonably, at 70 degrees outside the state Capitol.
A bubbly group of 100 black and white kindergarteners ambles through the Capitol rotunda, on a field trip from their North Pike classrooms.
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Death penalty politics; California case revives states' struggle; 'Frenzy' in state likely to spread
March 29, 1990
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SAN QUENTIN, Calif. - If all goes according to the state's plan, just before 3 a.m. Tuesday, Robert Alton Harris will be strapped into a metal chair in the prison's green room. The last words he'll hear are an executioner's usual advice: "Take a big whiff, and it won't bother you."
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Labor day special; USA's deadliest roads; A first-ever look at killer highways; Idaho sheriff tired of I-84's broken bodies
Aug. 31, 1990
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CASSIA COUNTY, Idaho - Sheriff Billy Crystal is tired of "bodies broken apart, people lying all over the place" on a stretch of Interstate 84 running through this windswept rural countryside.
Trucker Mitch Miller spent "the toughest 24 hours of my life" on I-84.
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USA's deadliest roads; New Mexico tops danger list; Death waits for victims on 'Triple 6'
Sept. 4, 1990
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SANTA FE, N.M. - You are more likely to die on the highways of New Mexico than in any other state in the USA. And if you do die in an accident, chances are someone was drinking.
In this state of stark contrasts, where tourists crowd trendy Santa Fe and alcohol plagues the American Indians of nearby Gallup, the carnage on the highways is the worst in the nation. A USA TODAY computer analysis of nationwide accident records in 1988 and 1989 finds: There are more motor vehicle deaths per capita in New Mexico than in any other state, and more people die in interstate fatalities for every mile traveled.
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Capital's 'promise'; Mayor-elect hopes to revive beleaguered city; Dixon file
Dec. 17, 1990
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Washington, D.C., Mayor-elect Sharon Pratt Dixon comes on strong. She leans forward and looks you straight in the eye, glad to answer questions - but asking them, too.
Dixon, who as a child had no difficulty dreaming of being a major league baseball pitcher, now dreams of resuscitating her hometown. She says she loves challenges. If so, she's won her dream job.
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Big Apple feels budget bite; Fiscal cloud could have a silver lining
May 15, 1991
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NEW YORK - The city is on the brink, an invalid, a financial basket case.
A relentless drone of Big Apple-rotting-to-the-core hype, fed by the threat of a fiscal apocalypse, is rising to a furious crescendo.
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Big river gamble; Iowa bets riverboats will pay off in tourists, jobs; "It's not Vegas, but it's close'
June 14, 1991
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SOMEWHERE ON THE MISSISSIPPI RIVER - Mark Twain once said, before a modern world downsized the wonders of this old, raging river, that all his pals wanted only to be a steamboat man.
Actually, Mark Twain still is saying it - on a rambling stretch of river where a pack of entrepreneurs are betting that nostalgia, the river's natural romantic appeal and an all-American lust for a painless buck can build a new generation of river rats.
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U.S. joins Wichita abortion fray; Kansas town 'tied up' by fierce debate
Aug. 7, 1991
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WICHITA, Kan. - Federal marshals patrol the city. Police arrest more than 1,900. A federal judge gets into a shoving match in his front yard. Once-quiet streets are avenues of TV trucks, protesters, placards and barricades.
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'A coast to coast crisis'; States chase every penny of revenue
Jan. 23, 1992
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When Oregon Gov. Barbara Roberts surveys the horizon, she can see the misery rolling in like a big winter squall that brings a freezing rain.
Tonight, in her state-of-the-state speech, Roberts lays out the gloomy future: With a $1 billion hole in its $6 billion budget, Oregon faces the same fiscal nightmare haunting a dozen other states.
