TIME: Almanac 1995

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<text id=94TT1570> <title> Nov. 14, 1994: Chronicles-The Week:Oct. 30-Nov. 5 </title> <history> TIME--The Weekly Newsmagazine--1994 Nov. 14, 1994 How Could She Do It? </history> <article> <source>Time Magazine</source> <hdr> CHRONICLES, Page 33 The Week: October 30 - November 5 </hdr> <body> NATION The Union County Nightmare After a weeklong national alert and a frantic series of fruitless tips and searches set off by Susan Smith's vivid accounts, the hunt for the carjacking kidnapper of 3-year-old Michael and 14-month-old Alexander ended in Union County, South Carolina, the place where the tragedy began. Authorities accused Smith of murdering the children after police found her car with the boys inside at the bottom of a local lake. The arrest shocked the community and appeared to confirm some of the worst infanticidal suspicions of early doubters of Smith's tale. The White House Rifle Case Francisco Martin Duran, the Colorado man accused of opening fire on the White House with a semiautomatic rifle, was ordered held without bail and charged with four felonies that could result in 35 years behind bars. Prosecutors indicated they were studying notes seized from Duran, as well as the statements of acquaintances, to determine whether or not the charges should be upgraded to an attempted assassination of the President. Meanwhile, Treasury Secretary Lloyd Bentsen announced that the review of White House security begun after the September plane incident would be intensified. CIA Uncloaked and Daggered In a scathing report, the Senate Intelligence Committee accused the CIA of gross ineptitude for failing to unearth agency mole Aldrich Ames during a period of nine years. Ames' sale of secrets to the Soviets--the most damaging security breach in U.S. spy history--is believed to have cost the lives of at least 10 agents behind the Iron Curtain and compromised more than 100 operations. The committee blasted the agency for its inability to investigate itself and properly recognize Ames' suspicious activities. The panel also criticized Director R. James Woolsey for his mild reprimands of those responsible for the botched probe. Death for a Pro-Life Killer A Florida jury recommended death for antiabortion extremist Paul Hill after convicting him of murdering Dr. John Britton and his escort James Barrett outside a Pensacola clinic in July. Hill, already convicted on federal charges, had told the jury beforehand, "You may mix my blood with the blood of the unborn...However, truth and righteousness will prevail." A judge will decide later whether to impose the death sentence. A Deadly Plane Crash A packed ATR-72 plane, American Eagle Flight 4184, heading to Chicago's O'Hare International Airport from Indianapolis, crashed in a northwestern Indiana soybean field during a heavy rainstorm. All 68 people aboard perished. The Simpson Case The prosecution and defense in the murder trial of O.J. Simpson agreed on a 12-person jury composed of eight blacks, two Hispanics, one white and one person of white and American Indian background. Eight of the panelists are women, four are men. Still to be selected: 15 alternate jurors. One Tailhook Lesson Learned In sharp contrast to the dithering example set by the Navy in the Tailhook scandal, Army officials at West Point moved swiftly and decisively to investigate complaints by female cadets that they had been groped by members of the academy's football team during a pep rally last month. An inquiry found three players guilty: they were given demerits, restricted to academy grounds for 90 days, ordered to march for 80 hours and kicked off the team for the rest of the season. The N.A.A.C.P.'s Money Crunch Strapped for cash and still reeling from accusations that some of its leaders may have engaged in financial irregularities, the N.A.A.C.P., the nation's premier civil rights organization, temporarily stopped paying most of its professional staff. The organization also announced a massive fund-raising drive to erase its $3.8 million deficit. Reagan Has Alzheimer's Former President Ronald Reagan, 83, announced in an open letter to the public on Saturday that he's in the early stages of Alzheimer's disease, an incurable ailment that causes a progressive loss of mental faculties. Reagan said he and his wife Nancy want to promote public awareness of the disease. "I only wish there was some way I could spare Nancy from this painful experience," he wrote. "When the time comes I am confident that with your help she will face it with faith and courage." WORLD Bosnian Army Gets Croat Help Bosnian Croat militias joined the resurgent Muslim-led Bosnian army to retake Kupres, a town 60 miles west of Sarajevo, which had been overrun by Bosnian Serbs in 1992. The combined Croat-Muslim forces captured materiel abandoned by the fleeing Serbs. Meanwhile, the United Nations General Assembly voted to pass a nonbinding resolution exempting the Bosnian army from the arms embargo imposed by the Security Council. The Kremlin's New Moneymen As part of the continuing fallout from the Oct. 11 crash of the ruble, Russian President Boris Yeltsin shuffled his economic team, appointing as Finance Minister Vladimir Panskov, a Soviet-era budget specialist who had been briefly imprisoned on bribery charges that were later dropped. Alexander Shokhin, Economics Minister and Deputy Prime Minister, resigned, saying, "The economy is becoming a hostage to politics." Yeltsin then promoted reformer Anatoli Chubais to first Deputy Prime Minister, charged with overseeing the ministries of Economics and Finance. Wave of Fire Kills Hundreds Blazing oil borne by floodwaters swept into an Egyptian town, killing some 500 people, many of them incinerated as they slept. Survivors "thought it was the Day of Judgment," according to one witness who saw "a wave of people running toward the mosque screaming `There is only one God!'" The conflagration in Durunka, located 213 miles south of Cairo, was ignited when government oil-storage tanks ruptured and spilled their inflammable contents. Canada to Limit Immigration Bowing to increasing anti-immigrant sentiments, the Canadian government announced that it will accept fewer immigrants next year and change government policy to emphasize marketable skills as an entry criterion. Arafat Gets the Boot Islamic militants denounced P.L.O. chief Yasser Arafat as an Israeli collaborator and pushed him out the back door of a Gaza City mosque into a downpour as he tried to join a funeral service. Shouting "Get out of here, Arafat, get out!," the angry crowd forced him to leave the ceremony for Hani Abed, an Islamic Jihad activist who was killed in a car bombing that many Gazans blame on Israel. U.N. Troops to Leave Somalia The Security Council voted unanimously to end the U.N.-peacekeeping mission to Somalia by March 31, admitting defeat in its nation-building efforts there. BUSINESS New Age Soft-Drink Merger In an attempt to avoid a hostile takeover, the Quaker Oats Co. will purchase Snapple Beverage Corp. for $1.7 billion. Quaker is already home to Gatorade, the leading U.S. sports drink. The acquisition of Snapple, known for its fruit juices and natural sodas,will make the firm the third largest producer of nonalcoholic beverages in North America, after PepsiCo Inc. and the Coca-Cola Co. SCIENCE From Lab Bench to Dinner Table The family of genetically engineered foods continues to grow. The FDA declared five more genetically enhanced vegetables--three tomatoes with longer shelf lives and a squash and potato that resist common crop pests--safe for human consumption. This Land Is Our Land President Clinton signed into law this week the California Desert Protection Act, designating 7.7 million acres of federal land in California as wilderness, of which 3 million acres now become national parks. The law expands the boundaries of the Joshua Tree and Death Valley National Monuments and includes them, along with the Mojave National Preserve, in the National Park system. SPORT By George, He Did It In recent years, he's been a bear of an actor, a roly-poly pitchman and a clown connoisseur of everything edible. Now, once again, just call him champ. In the 10th round of the big fight Saturday night, George Foreman, 45, knocked out Michael Moorer, 26, to regain the heavyweight title he lost 20 years ago to Muhammad Ali. Foreman's incredible victory was an inspiration to his aging generation and proved that baby boomers still have some boom left. By Philip Elmer-DeWitt, Lina Lofaro, Alice Park, Michael Quinn, Jeffery C. Rubin, Alain L. Sanders and Sidney Urquhart HEALTH REPORT THE GOOD NEWS -- If you reach 70, you may be able to stop worrying about cholesterol. Of nearly 1,000 men and women in that age group who were studied, one-third of the women and one-sixth of the men had high cholesterol levels but did not suffer any more heart attacks than those with normal or low levels of cholesterol. Some experts noted, however, that too few patients were involved in the study for it to be conclusive. -- Troglitazone, an experimental drug for treating the most common form of diabetes, may also help prevent the disease in nondiabetic obese people who have trouble metabolizing sugars even though they produce normal amounts of insulin. THE BAD NEWS -- A recent survey of people ages 18 to 44 shows that more white women are lighting up (2% more in 1992 than in 1987), reversing a trend that saw the percentage of females who smoke slip from 34% in 1965 to 27% in 1992. But at least one group is quitting: the percentage of black women between the ages of 18 and 24 who smoke went from 22% in 1987 to 6% in 1992. -- Colon cancer does seem to run in families. A study of more than 1 million Utah residents showed that a person with parents, siblings or children with colon cancer is almost three times as likely to develop it as a person whose immediate family is free of the disease. Sources--GOOD: Journal of the American Medical Association; New England Journal of Medicine. BAD: Centers for Disease Control report; Journal of the National Cancer Institute GUN-CONTROL POSTER BOY OF THE WEEK Pennsylvania Avenue rifleman Francisco Duran raises new questions about keeping the President safe. INSIDE WASHINGTON Desperately Seeking a New D.N.C. Chairman The White House is scrambling to replace Democratic National Committee chairman David Wilhelm with a more effective politician. The postelection contenders and their handicaps: Gerald Baliles--the former Virginia Governor is a Clinton favorite but may not be flashy enough for TV; Don Fowler--the savvy South Carolina committeeman appears unthreatening to turf-conscious White House officials; Mike Synar--the defeated Oklahoma Congressman is aggressive, but can he raise money?; Kathleen Brown--a proven fund raiser, but California Democrats don't want to reward her for losing their shot at the statehouse; Mack McLarty--Clinton's kindergarten chum was too nice for the White House. Would the cutthroat D.N.C. be a better fit? WINNERS & LOSERS Winners MICHAEL OVITZ--Superagent carpooling with Baby Bells on the info superhighway. "SCOTT DOE"--HIV+ lawyer settles with firm that fired him--in Philadelphia. BOSNIAN ARMY--Alliance with Croats puts Serbs on the receiving end of defeat. Losers MIGHTY MORPHIN POWER RANGERS--Canadian TV group denounces their violence. Hockey, anyone? SENATOR JOE BIDEN--Book says he chose collegiality over truth in Thomas hearings. CNN TV NETWORK--Facing fine over airing of Manuel Noriega's chats with his lawyers . SECRETS OF CAMPAIGN CONSULTANTS REVEALED! It's not hard to figure out what candidates are being told to say: "There have been a lot of polls before elections; the only one that counts is the one that's taken on Election Day." --Representative Thomas Foley (D-Wash.) "The only poll that really counts happens on Election Day." --spokeswoman for California Republican Senate candidate Michael Huffington "I've said this before, but the only poll that really counts is the polling that takes place in the voting booths on Election Day." --Representative Jack Quinn (R-N.Y.) VOX POP QUESTION: What is your impression of Prince Charles? <table> <row><cell type=a>Favorable<cell type=i>14% <row><cell>Unfavorable<cell>53% <row><cell>Not Familiar<cell>22% </table> From a telephone poll of 1,000 adult Americans taken for TIME/CNN on Oct. 25-26 by Yankelovich Partners Inc. Sampling error is plus or minus 3.5%. Not Sures omitted. MR. CLINTON'S NEIGHBORHOOD In the past two months, a single-engine Cessna crashed into the White House and a lone gunman fired 27 rounds into the building. TIME asked authorities on various aspects of sealing buildings how to beef up presidential protection: Major General U.S.A.F. (ret.) Richard Secord, Iran-contra alum; procured a pricey home-security system for Ollie North: "Close National Airport, but you can't do that politically; Congressmen like to have their perks. Move the White House to Denver." Bob Leonard, owner of N.Y.C.'s the Spy Store: "You need trained military personnel, night-vision equipment, trick trip wires and intrusion detection. Put stakes in the ground so you can hear or feel footsteps where they shouldn't be. Otherwise, close down Pennsylvania Avenue." John Horn, director of Kroll Associates, largest security-management consulting company: "You can adjust radar around the perimeter of the White House, but you would get a whole lot of clutter, atmospheric stuff, dust clouds." Tom Clancy, author: "Close National Airport. Buy up the old Berlin Wall and plant it around the White House, but it might give the wrong impression. Move the White House to Cheyenne Mountain, headquarters for the North American Aerospace Defense Command." Paul Silver, architect; Rikers Island renovator: "Grow very thick trees like on Tara or Twelve Oaks so as not to destroy the aesthetic of the environment but to provide effective barriers against the threat." Christo, avant-garde artist given to wrapping monuments in nylon: "Unable to answer your question" (but sends a resume). NETWATCH--News, Culture, Controversy on the Internet Where Is Wired @? In its editorial pages, glossy, brash Wired magazine takes the position that information wants to be free. It runs articles arguing that Gutenberg-era concepts like copyrights and patents can't be adapted to something as fleeting as digital expression. But Wired is a lot less freewheeling about its own intellectual property: it has bullied smaller publications into dropping the word wired as the name of a column. Now the newsletter Information Law Alert reports that Wired once tried to trademark @ (the symbol universally used on the Internet to separate a user's name from his domain) as the magazine's logo. "We see no inconsistency between the editorial and business practices of Wired," says editor Louis Rossetto (lr@wired.com). Besides, he adds, Wired lost all interest in the "at sign" when it was adopted by the online service of the fuddy-duddy New York Times. Crackdown at Carnegie Mellon For years universities have turned a blind eye to the Internet traffic passing through their computer systems--including the sexually explicit words and pictures in such USENET newsgroups as alt.sex and rec.arts.erotica. Those days may be over, at least at Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. According to a new policy scheduled to go into effect this week, C.M.U. will no longer distribute dozens of sexually oriented bulletin boards--even those that are primarily discussion groups. Experts in constitutional law say C.M.U.'s new policy may be ill advised. "The idea that you can't discuss sex in a university is absurd," says Mike Godwin, staff counsel at the Electronic Frontier Foundation. "Have they given any thought to the copies of Henry Miller in the university library?" Scooped by the Strikers The day after 2,600 employees walked out of San Francisco's two daily newspapers--the Chronicle and the Examiner--management tried to get around the picket lines by publishing the news on the Internet. But the strikers put out their own electronic tabloid--complete with columnists Herb Caen and Jon Carroll--and were the first to report that Dianne Feinstein may have once employed an illegal alien as a housekeeper. E-mail Netwatch at timestaff1@aol.com </body> </article> </text>