TIME: Almanac 1995

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<text id=93TT0596> <title> Dec. 06, 1993: Chronicles:The Week </title> <history> TIME--The Weekly Newsmagazine--1993 Dec. 06, 1993 Castro's Cuba:The End Of The Dream </history> <article> <source>Time Magazine</source> <hdr> CHRONICLES, Page 19 THE WEEK:NOVEMBER 21-27 </hdr> <body> NATION Finally, Brady Passes Republican opposition to the Brady gun-control bill collapsed under the weight of public opinion and Democratic political attacks, and the measure, already approved by the House, passed in the Senate by a voice vote nearly seven years after it was first introduced. The legislation will impose a five-day waiting period so background checks can be made on handgun purchasers. Senate minority leader Bob Dole objected to a provision calling for the waiting period to remain in place for five years; he wanted to eliminate the waiting period as soon as a computerized checking system was up and running. In the end Dole retreated, accepting a promise that his modification would be voted on next year. House Campaign Reforms Before members went home for the holidays, the House of Representatives approved congressional campaign-reform legislation that imposes voluntary spending caps (generally $600,000 for House candidates), limits PAC contributions and authorizes some public financing. The complex bill must still be reconciled with a Senate version. Another Clinton Squeaker After the Administration and its allies in Congress made a tremendous effort to defeat the measure, the House narrowly voted down a bipartisan bill crafted by younger members who sought new budget cuts of $90 billion over five years. South Korea Summit South Korean President Kim Young Sam visited Washington, and after delicate discussions he and Clinton announced that they would offer a "thorough and broad" package of rewards to North Korea if it first allowed inspection of its known nuclear facilities and resumed talks with South Korea over nuclear issues. Despite South Korea's reservations, the U.S. hinted that the inducements could include cancellation of yearly joint U.S.-South Korean military exercises. White House Resignations Just when its gears seemed to be meshing smoothly, the Administration announced the resignation of two senior aides: Howard Paster, the President's chief congressional lobbyist, and Roy Neel, the deputy chief of staff. Both men said they were leaving because of the relentless pace of work in the Clinton White House. Paster has not disclosed his plans; Neel is reportedly considering a $500,000-a-year post with a telephone trade association. Obesity Discrimination In a major civil rights decision, a Boston federal appeals court ruled that job discrimination against severely obese people can violate federal disabilities laws. The ruling was a victory for 320-lb. Bonnie Cook, who, despite impeccable credentials, was refused a job as an attendant at a mental-health center because of her weight. Clinton Sees Rushdie In a reversal of Bush Administration policy, Clinton met with Salman Rushdie, the Indian-born British writer who is under a death threat from Iran because of his book The Satanic Verses. To minimize any undue provocation of Iran, no pictures of the encounter were taken. Nevertheless, after the meeting the head of Iran's judiciary labeled Clinton "the most hated among Muslims around the world." Return of Dr. Death Out on bail after having been charged in two deaths under Michigan's law banning assisted suicides, Dr. Jack Kevorkian, the controversial right-to-die crusader, attended the suicide of Dr. Ali Khalili, 61, a rehabilitation physician suffering from extreme pain caused by bone cancer. It was the 20th suicide that Kevorkian had attended since 1990. A Deliberate Baby Swap? In a surprise statement, Patsy Webb, a former nurse's aide at the hospital in Florida where Kimberly Mays was born, said a doctor there had intentionally ordered that the girl be taken from her biological parents, Ernest and Regina Twigg, and be given to Robert and Barbara Mays. The Twiggs, who earlier this year lost their claim to Kimberly in court, called for a criminal investigation, which could begin this week. WORLD Italians Abandon Center Voting in municipal elections held across the country, Italians cast ballots for neofascist and former communist candidates in record numbers. The rejection of the ruling Christian Democrats and their coalition partners was due in part to their role in Italy's huge corruption scandals of recent years. Iraq Complies, At Last Three years after a trade embargo began crushing its economy, Iraq quietly agreed to U.N. monitoring of its industrial base to prevent any attempt to reacquire weapons of mass destruction. Baghdad demanded an immediate lifting of sanctions against purchase of Iraqi oil, once its main source of foreign revenue. But Washington, among others, called for further proof of cooperation before allowing such a move. Serbs Block Aid Convoys As winter's arrival threatened besieged Bosnian Muslims, Serb fighters temporarily blocked United Nations convoys attempting to deliver aid, then allowed them to proceed. The blockade broke an agreement made a week earlier in Geneva by all three factions fighting in Bosnia--Croats, Serbs and Bosnians--to open the country's roads. Israel and the P.L.O. Today... Israeli soldiers wounded 37 Palestinian protesters who were rioting in the Gaza Strip over the killing by Israelis of a leader of the militant Muslim group Hamas. The unrest was the most serious since the signing of the peace accord in Washington in September. On Friday Israeli soldiers killed another militant Palestinian leader. Concerned about security arrangements, Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin warned that Israel may not be able to withdraw its troops from Gaza and the West Bank town of Jericho before the Dec. 13 deadline agreed to in September. ...And Yesterday In 1972 Israel swore it would seek revenge following the massacre of 11 of its athletes by members of the P.L.O. at the Olympic Games in Munich. Last week a former Israeli director of military intelligence official revealed just how effectively that retaliation was carried out, when military censors finally allowed an interview he gave a year ago to be broadcast on national television. The official, Aharon Yariv, said between 10 and 15 Palestinians involved in the Munich attack had been assassinated by Israeli agents. December Deadline in Algeria Thousands of foreign residents of Algeria are nervously awaiting a Dec. 1 deadline for their departure from the country. And deadline is the appropriate word: an ultimatum issued by Muslim extremists declares that "anyone staying longer is responsible for his own sudden death."As many as 3,000 people have been killed by government forces and Islamic fundamentalists since January 1992, when the government canceled elections because fundamentalist candidates appeared certain to win. Infant's Murderers Convicted A jury in Preston, England, convicted two boys of the abduction and brutal murder near Liverpool last February of a two-year-old, James Bulger. Robert Thompson and Jon Venables, both just 10 years old at the time of the killing, were sentenced to prison for an indefinite term. BUSINESS Airline Strike Perhaps partly restoring his good image in labor's eyes after the struggle over NAFTA, President Clinton ended a pre-Thanksgiving strike by American Airlines flight attendants when he persuaded management to submit the dispute to binding arbitration--a victory for the workers, who had had this solution in mind from the beginning. One Round for QVC A Delaware judge blocked Paramount Communications' friendly merger with Viacom, saying that the combination was a sale, not a strategic alliance, and that Paramount must therefore give due consideration to the bid of Viacom's rival, the QVC Network. Philip Morris, NCR Layoffs Hurt by the steep drop in cigarette prices, Philip Morris Companies announced it will eliminate 14,000 jobs, 8% of its work force, largely through attrition. Faced with similar price wars, AT&T's computer firm, NCR Corp., announced a work-force reduction of 7,500, or 15%. SCIENCE The Soul of a New Tomato In another first for biotechnology, scientists have isolated a disease-resistant gene in one type of tomato, cloned it and inserted it into a variety of tomato that lacks that gene. The cloned gene signals the plant's defense system to ward off an invasion by bacteria that cause a leaf-destroying disease known as speck. Researchers predict that similar advances with other crops will significantly reduce the need for pesticides by the end of the century. Flawed Nutrition Numbers U.S. government figures on the level of fat, fiber, vitamins and other nutrients in food are essentially unreliable, says a report from the General Accounting Office. The nutritional information, contained in the government's Handbook 8, is used around the world to determine public policy, perform medical research and plan individual diets. The gao found that the data, many of which come from the food industry, often do not square with numbers from other sources. THE ARTS & MEDIA Broadway Arrivals Works by both the country's most successful veteran playwright and its most idolized newcomer opened on Broadway. Neil Simon returned to the stage with Laughter on the 23rd Floor, a nostalgic comedy based on his days as a writer for Sid Caesar. The other debut, Perestroika, is the second half of Tony Kushner's Pulitzer-prizewinning age-of-AIDS epic, Angels in America. Critics were far kinder to Kushner than to Simon. Television Sex A Washington federal appeals court struck down new FCC rules that would have restricted the broadcast of indecent TV and radio programs to the hours between midnight and 6 a.m. For now, the fcc will stick to its old policy, which permits racier material to begin four hours earlier, from 8 p.m. to 6 a.m. The court also rejected indecency rules for cable TV. By John F. Dickerson, Michael Quinn, Jeffery C. Rubin, Alain L. Sanders, Anastasia Toufexis and Sidney Urquhart AND A FAN GETS A SOUVENIR By DAVID SEIDEMAN, in New York City "Ninety thousand dollars! One hundred thousand! Selling for $120,000!" The lucky top bidder at an auction late last month in a fancy Manhattan hotel had not just won himself a Picasso drawing or a letter from Elizabeth I; no, he had agreed to pay $120,000 for a soiled, gray, away-game jersey worn by Babe Ruth during his 1929 and 1930 seasons with the Yankees. Ruth's shirt was just one of 991 items that were offered during a two-day sale of gloves, bats, rings, boxing trunks and a 1950s N.H.L. Zamboni ice-smoothing machine conducted by Leland's, a premier auctioneer of sports memorabilia. The event grossed about $2 million and was one of the largest auctions of its kind ever held. The success of the sale came as no surprise, for sports collectibles are breaking records, often commanding prices double and triple their catalog estimates. Such is the money to be made that Sotheby's and Christie's, the world's toniest auction houses, are now selling sports memorabilia, although this attracts a clientele that mixes poorly with the typical Givenchy-clad Sotheby's or Christie's customer; the slovenly, middle-aged male attendees at the Leland's sale wore team caps and shouted out their bids. With baseball cards somewhat passe nowadays, these connoisseurs came to the auction to buy genuine, "game-used" equipment and paraphernalia straight from the clubhouse, complete with "letters of authenticity" from experts, family members and previous owners. "The closer you get to the player, the better," explained Leland's chairman, Joshua Evans. "Lots of use is desirable. Our great jerseys have never been cleaned and are all sweaty and dirty." Jackie Robinson's Brooklyn Dodgers shirt from 1949 was carried down the ballroom aisle hung on a gold stanchion, like some saint's relic, and spike marks and bloodstains could be seen on the right sleeve. Robinson's widow Rachel, who consigned the jersey, watched from the front row as it sold for $66,000. Leland's auctions tend to bring the buyer very close to the player: Michael Jordan's sneakers went for $1,320, Tom Seaver's chewed-up toothpick for $440 and Mike Tyson's mouthpiece for $880. A packet of prophylactics from the 1950s with Ted Williams' picture on it, though not game-used, still sold for $165. Despite the hero worship reflected in such purchases, infamy was also a big draw. Last year actor Charlie Sheen paid $93,500 for the ball that dribbled through the legs of Red Sox first baseman Bill Buckner in a misplay that ultimately cost Boston the 1986 World Series. At last month's sale, Leland's auctioned off Buckner's Series runner-up ring accompanied by a note: "Hope you enjoy my ring. The nightmare of 1986 is over! I'm off the hook. Your pal, Bill Buckner." Ring and note brought an astonishing $33,000. Even Pete Rose's good-behavior voucher from doing prison time for tax evasion fetched $770. "I know it's a little twisted," said executive Andy Gross, the winning bidder. "But this little conversation piece will have cult value. I could display it next to the Gerald Ford letter pardoning Richard Nixon, which I own, in my new Hall of Guilt." Health Report THE GOOD NEWS -- Despite low incomes and poor access to medical care, Hispanics appear to have mortality rates from major chronic illnesses like respiratory disease, cancer and heart disease that are between 25% and 33% lower than the rates for other white Americans. Researchers speculate that one reason for the discrepancy is the stronger family ties among Hispanics. -- The Food and Drug Administration will probably approve a long-awaited vaccine for chickenpox by spring. Each year 4 million Americans, mostly youngsters, catch chickenpox; about 9,000 develop serious complications ranging from blood infections to brain damage, and about 90 die. THE BAD NEWS -- Americans fail to take their medicine as ordered half the time, says a new report from the drug industry. Some patients skip doses or stop taking their medication early; others dont even get their prescriptions filled. Such lapses cost an estimated $100 billion in added medical bills and lost productivity. -- Middle-aged men with high levels of anxiety appear to have twice the risk of developing high blood pressure as do their less tense peers, according to a 20-year study of 497 men and 626 women. Puzzlingly, highly anxious middle-aged or older women did not suffer an increased risk of hypertension. Sources GOOD: Journal of the American Medical Association; A.P. BAD: Task Force for Compliance; Journal of the American Medical Association. INSIDE WASHINGTON Making Up to the Moderates The Administration is hoping that the Democratic Leadership Council, the moderate group that helped PRESIDENT CLINTON'S election but has been ignored, will back away from the Cooper-Breaux health-care plan, the chief rival to the Clinton plan in Congress. With this in mind, Clinton will speak at the DLC's annual conference on Friday. It may be a tough sell: DLC president Al From has privately criticized the Clinton plan and said Ira Magaziner, the White Houses health guru, has a "Rasputin-like hold" on the President and Mrs. Clinton. WINNERS & LOSERS WINNERS SNOOP DOGGY DOGG Rapper's debut album is a hit. Possibly that murder charge helped? AMERICAN STRIKERS Downtrodden flight attendants win arbitration and respect BARRY DILLER Court tells QVC "be our guest" in Paramount takeover LOSERS DALLAS COWBOY LEON LETT Show-off goat of Super Bowl boots fumble and hands Miami game BOB DOLE After creating standoff over popular Brady bill, he backs down IT'S A WONDERFUL LIFE FANS A ban on unauthorized airings means just three this year Bill Clinton, The George Bush Of Our Time, Part II "We have to take our communities back. Community by community, block by block, child by child." -- Bill Clinton, Nov. 21, 1993 "Block by block, school by school, child by child, we will take back the streets." -- George Bush, Sept. 5, 1990 INFORMED SOURCES EMBARRASSING THE CIA Former Drug Enforcement Administration chief Robert Bonner suggested two weeks ago on CBS's 60 Minutes that CIA agents might be criminally liable for failing to stop a Venezuelan official from running drugs to the U.S. CIA officials then tried to persuade the DEA to disavow Bonners remarks, but current DEA officials agree with him. The CIA pleaded that Congress might cut funding for the CIA's covert counternarcotics program, but this argument fell on deaf ears; where covert narcotics operations are concerned, the DEA calls the CIA "amateurs." YOU OWE ME ONE, BILL Last August, President Clinton assured freshman Representative Marjorie Margolies-Mezvinsky, a Pennsylvania Democrat, that if she voted for his budget bill he would visit her district for a conference on entitlement spending; Margolies-Mezvinsky then cast one of the deciding vote in favor of the bill. The conference will take place on Dec. 13, and the Congresswoman's office says Clinton will give a speech and moderate an in-depth discussion. A White House official, however, says Clinton will "deliver remarks" and "participate"--but no more. A SECOND HOT LINE Throughout the cold war, the hot line--really a direct telex--between the U.S. President and the Soviet Premier was used several times in critical moments. Defense Secretary Les Aspin will soon announce the establishment of a defense hot line between himself and the Russian defense chief, General Pavel Grachev. SUP- UH, SUPPORT! THAT'S RIGHT! VOTER SUPPORT! "That is where a lot of our effort went and a lot of our planning, getting out the vote on one side and voter sup- and keeping the vote light in other areas." -- WEBSTER TODD, N.J. GOVERNOR-ELECT CHRISTINE TODD WHITMAN'S BROTHER AND FORMER CAMPAIGN MANAGER, ALMOST USING THE TERM "VOTER SUPPRESSION" </body> </article> </text>