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- ETHICS, Page 62MOST OF '90
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- Most Principled Congressperson. Would nobody step forward
- and accept responsibility for the $500 billion S&L debacle?
- Wait! Who's that dowdy Representative resigning her seat to
- atone for Congress's sins? Lacey Davenport, the heart-of-gold
- legislator from the glorious state of Doonesbury. The grande
- dame was swept back into office in a write-in campaign.
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- Most Surprising Taint. Pristine Minnesota was sullied by a
- thin layer of political grime. In July, Republican David
- Durenberger was denounced by the Senate for unethical conduct.
- Three months later, G.O.P. candidate Jon Grunseth abandoned the
- gubernatorial race after charges arose that he had skinny-dipped
- with teenage girls nine years ago.
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- Least Eternal Punishment. "Lifetime" bans on Canadian
- sprinter Ben Johnson and U.S. long jumper Larry Myricks for
- using performance-enhancing drugs proved short-lived. The
- sanctions were lifted by their respective nations' sports
- officials -- in plenty of time for the athletes to enter the
- 1992 Olympics.
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- Bleeder of the Pack. American Psycho, the latest novel by
- brat-pack golden boy Bret Easton Ellis, 26, contained detailed
- descriptions of female mutilations that outraged women staff
- members at Simon & Schuster, Ellis' publisher. Did that give S&S
- second thoughts? Nope. But shortly before the book was to hit
- the stores, bad press notices finally persuaded the firm to
- scrap the project and forfeit the reported $300,000 advance.
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- Most Divisive Murder. Investigation When Charles Stuart, 30,
- the manager of a Boston fur shop, reported the slaying of his
- pregnant wife by a black mugger in October 1989, police
- unleashed a massive manhunt, and racial tensions in Boston
- worsened. In January, Stuart's brother revealed that Stuart was
- the murderer. The next day Stuart took his own life.
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- Most Disconcerting Academic. Inquiry Stanford University
- researchers discovered that Martin Luther King Jr. had borrowed
- heavily from other works without giving credit while preparing
- a doctoral dissertation in the mid-1950s. After much angst, they
- called it plagiarism.
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- Sleaziest Election Campaign. When Republican Senator Jesse
- Helms of North Carolina faced a stiff challenge from black
- Democrat Harvey Gantt, he bashed gays, then feminists, linking
- Gantt to their causes. Finally, he turned to race baiting,
- airing a TV spot that depicted white workers' frustration at
- racial quotas. Helms won.
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- Worst Screening Policy. Texas' McAllen Medical Center, which
- sits in a crossing zone heavily trafficked by aliens, outfitted
- security guards in olive-colored togs that bear a strong
- resemblance to the uniforms of U.S. Border Patrol agents.
- Legal-aid lawyers charge that the dress code scared off poor
- Hispanics in need of health care.
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- Smarmiest Denial. He didn't do it, he didn't do it -- O.K.,
- so maybe he did it. But Washington Mayor Marion Barry did not
- fess up to a cocaine problem until he was convicted on a
- misdemeanor charge of possession. Even then, Barry's contrition
- was about as deep as a one-snort line of cocaine.
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- Most Painful Dilemma. The right-to-die issue heated up when
- the parents of Nancy Cruzan, a comatose Missouri woman,
- petitioned the Supreme Court for permission to remove her
- feeding tube. The high court upheld a state's right to demand
- evidence of the patient's intent. A Missouri judge then ruled
- that the tube could be removed.
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