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- NATION, Page 22Grapevine
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- READ HIS LIPS -- OR ELSE. Chicago's Mob boss, Joe Ferriola,
- has passed the word that the "street tax" bookies pay to stay in
- business and in one piece will double from an average $1,000 to
- $2,000 a month. Ferriola, reportedly about to be indicted on
- racketeering and other charges, apparently needs the money to
- pay his lawyers.
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- BENNETT'S BIG BATTLE. Since it wouldn't look right for the
- commander of the war against drugs to be in thrall to a
- habit-forming substance, drug czar William Bennett spent a $700
- week in a West Virginia resort to learn to just say no to his
- two-pack-a-day cigarette habit. A lot of fruit, gum and
- lollipops later, Bennett pronounced the experience "character
- building." At press time, it had been 13 days since the czar's
- last smoke.
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- ALL FOR OLLIE. Back in 1983, New Mexico businessman Terry
- Reed filed an insurance claim for the theft of his $33,000 Piper
- turboprop. After the plane turned up in a Little Rock hangar
- rented in Reed's name, federal prosecutors charged him with
- insurance fraud, and he is facing trial. Reed, a former
- military-intelligence man, blames the caper on Oliver North,
- who wanted the plane for supplying aid to the contras. Reed says
- the plot was blown when Ollie's partners in a Mexican
- arms-export company (set up by Reed on North's behalf) panicked.
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