A time for choosing

The partial-birth abortion issue, if nothing else, is helping draw a bright line between the good guys and the bad guys. Evangelist Billy Graham, whom we've criticized in the past for not being a sufficiently strong voice for life, told President Clinton face-to-face that he was wrong-dead wrong-to veto the partial-birth abortion bill. Mr. Graham reported the confrontation personally to columnist Cal Thomas, who told WORLD he regarded the evangelist's act as an "example of great courage." Indeed, Mr. Graham, in Washington last week to receive the Congressional Gold Medal, was in good company, even as Mr. Clinton was in bad company. A few days earlier, Pope John Paul II also publicly criticized Mr. Clinton's veto-an action earlier used by this pope toward only four other heads of state, Iran's Ayatollah Khomeini (1979), Iraq's Saddam Hussein (1980), Nicaragua's Daniel Ortega (1988), and Cuba's Fidel Castro (1993). So who are you with: Billy Graham and the pope, or Fidel Castro and the president? Casting their lots with the latter pair, several mainline church leaders last week congratulated Mr. Clinton by letter for his abortion veto. Signers included James Andrews, stated clerk of the Presbyterian Church (USA); Edmond L. Browning, presiding bishop of the Episcopal Church; Paul Sherry, president of the United Church of Christ; Thomas White Wolf Fassett, executive secretary of the General Board of Church and Society of the United Methodist Church.

Presidential politics

Jockeying for advantage over six major legislative issues served as the backdrop for two presidential campaigns: one being conducted from the Senate floor, the other from the Oval Office. Budget: After President Clinton and congressional leaders April 24 wrapped up the remaining 1996 federal budget issues, Mr. Clinton began pressing Senate leader Bob Dole for a face-to-face meeting to discuss Fiscal Year 1997. Mr. Dole's aides are wary; 1995 and early '96 budget negotiations with the White House cost Republicans dearly in the polls. Gasoline: Justice Department officials April 30 announced an investigation into alleged price fixing by oil companies, as gasoline prices rose to their highest levels since the Persian Gulf war. In Congress, House and Senate Republicans promised relief at the pump by scheduling a vote by Memorial Day to repeal President Clinton's 4.3-cent-a-gallon gasoline tax increase enacted the year he took office. Minimum wage: After weeks of being on the defensive over the minimum wage, House Republicans regrouped and vowed to resist a minimum wage vote. On April 24 House Speaker Newt Gingrich promised votes on more market-based proposals-a $500-per-child tax credit; tax incentives for businesses to create more jobs; and reform of the Earned Income Tax Credit-to raise the wages of lower-income working families. Health care: The Senate voted 100-0 April 23 to approve a bill that would require insurers to guarantee that those covered by health insurance at work be allowed to retain coverage if they change jobs, even if they have preexisting health problems. Still unresolved between the House and Senate: whether to include tax deductibility for medical savings accounts. Term Limits: Democrats April 23 successfully held their filibuster blocking a vote on a constitutional amendment to limit congressional terms. The tally was two short of the 60 votes needed to end debate. Legal reform. Mr. Clinton May 2 vetoed legislation that would limit punitive damage awards in state and federal courts. Republicans pounced on the veto as proof that the president is in the pocket of trial lawyers. Even in vetoing the bill, Mr. Clinton agreed with the GOP premise for it: The legal system is, he said, "too expensive, too time-consuming, and does contain too many frivolous lawsuits."

Border battle

With only three dissenting votes, the Senate May 2 approved legislation aimed at curbing illegal immigration. Differences between the Senate bill and one passed by the House remain to be resolved before the bill goes to the White House. The most contentious issue: a House provision that would let states deny public education to undocumented immigrant children. White House officials have threatened a veto if that provision remains. What all parties agree on-Congress and the White House-in the core legislation are provisions that would increase border patrol guards to about 10,000, authorize pilot projects that would let employers easily verify whether a worker is eligible for a job in the United States, and increase penalties for document fraud and alien smuggling. The pilot projects could not be made nationwide or permanent without congressional OK.

Border battle

The Supreme Court April 29 refused to revive an invalidated South Dakota law that required most young girls seeking abortions to first notify one of their parents. The justices, over three dissenting votes, let stand rulings that struck down the abortion law because it did not contain a judicial bypass provision.

Canoeing mishap

Rescue workers searched last week for William Colby, 76, CIA director from 1973 to 1976, whose empty canoe showed up April 28 on a Wicomico River sandbar near his Cobb Island, Md., home. Officials presumed Mr. Colby drowned.

Ford's Job One

After initially delaying the action, Ford Motor Co. April 25 announced the recall of 8.7 million cars and trucks in the United States and Canada in order to replace potentially dangerous ignition switches that are combustible not only when in use, but even when the car is not running. It is the biggest automotive recall ever, expected to cost Ford about a half billion dollars. Ford reports 816 documented incidences of fires from such ignition switches.

Hostage situation

A gunman who was injured while helping to build the headquarters of Focus on the Family stormed into the complex May 2 and took four hostages. They were released unharmed after nearly two hours and the gunman, who claimed falsely to have explosives strapped to his chest, later surrendered. Focus on the Family's Tom Minnery said the man apparently was injured while helping put up the three-building complex and felt the $40,000 cash settlement plus monthly payments of $1,126 was not adequate compensation. Focus employee Sherry Lohse said it was ironic the standoff occurred during the National Day of Prayer. "Other organizations gathered to pray for the man, the situation, and for us when they heard about it," she said.

Ten visits, ten years

President Clinton met April 22 with Russian president Boris Yeltsin to discuss a wide range of issues including arms control, NATO expansion possibilities, and Bosnia; it was the tenth time the two heads of state have met. Four days later, on the very day of the tenth anniversary of the Chernobyl disaster, the world's worst nuclear accident, a Chernobyl plant worker improperly disposed of some radioactive material. Two days prior to the anniversary, five local villages deserted since the Chernobyl disaster were engulfed in flames, sending radioactive particles into the air again. Ten years ago a 10,000-square-mile radioactive cloud first spread across Ukraine when Chernobyl exploded.

Natural-born killer

In Australia, a 28-year-old man with a history of mental instability was charged with carrying out the worst one-man massacre in modern history, methodically and calmly slaughtered at least 34 people, mostly tourists, at Tasmania's historic colonial Port Arthur. Martin Bryant was arrested April 28.

In other news

The family of Gilbert Murray, timber lobbyist and victim of a mail-bomb attack, filed a wrongful-death lawsuit in Sacramento, Calif., April 25 against Unabomber suspect Theodore Kaczynski. In New York, Bernhard Goetz, now 48, who shot four black teens 12 years ago in a subway train because he thought they were going to rob him, was ordered on April 23 to pay $43 million to one of those he shot, Darrell Cabey, 30, who was left paralyzed and brain damaged. Just days after the verdict, Mr. Goetz, who in 1987 was cleared of criminal charges related to the incident, filed bankruptcy. In Georgia, Robert Staff III and William McCranie Jr. were arrested April 26 and charged with conspiracy to possess explosive devices. Their arrest raised concerns about safety at Atlanta's Olympic Games. South Carolina officials have ruled an April 26 fire that gutted the 114-year-old Effingham Baptist Church an arson. The growing list of fires at black churches in recent months prompted the Christian Coalition on April 22 to offer a $25,000 reward for any information leading to the convictions of those responsible for the spate of arsons.

Fire and rain

Fires, thunderstorms, and tornadoes plagued the country. A major batch of tornadoes-at least 111 in all-struck the South and Midwest April 22, killing six in Kentucky and Arkansas. Meanwhile, wildfires tore through the Southwest and California: In New Mexico, more than 900 firefighters struggled to contain a blaze covering more than 14,741 acres in the Santa Fe National Forest, managing to stave it off within only two miles of the Los Alamos National Laboratory. Fires in Arizona's Tonto National Forest caused some Phoenix residents to evacuate. In California, nine early-season fires had state firefighters worried this could be a busy year. Meanwhile, nearly 10 inches of rain in some parts of the Midwest caused destructive flooding, killing six people in Illinois, Ohio, Indiana, and Missouri.

Total depravity

Four-week-old Ignacio Bermudez Jr., his skull fractured in two places, last week lay attached to life support systems in critical condition from internal bleeding at Children's Hospital of Oakland after a 6-year-old neighborhood hooligan and two 8-year-old twins pummeled the infant with a stick and kicked him while he lay in his bassinet. The three children reportedly slipped into the Richmond, Calif., house to steal a Big Wheel; they are being held pending charges and a thorough investigation. But Ignacio's father told reporters, "I tried in my own mind to think of what would cause a small boy to act so vicious"; he found no answer. Ask the Detroit jury that convicted Martell Welch, 20, of second-degree murder for brutally beating Deletha Word, 33, until she leapt from a bridge to her death-while onlookers watched and did nothing.

Separate but unequal

Three days after Alabama prison chief Ron Jones announced plans to expand the state's chain-gang program to include female prisoners, Gov. Fob James fired him. Mr. Jones contended equal enforcement would protect the state from charges of sex bias and a spate of recent suits by male prisoners citing discrimination; but women's rights advocates called the proposed equal treatment inhumane.

Good luck

The United Nations went officially broke April 30. But just as the U.N. was about to borrow $50 million to stay alive, the United States government rushed $600 million to the world organization, which supplies continued funding for the U.N. peacekeeping force in Bosnia. But the bailout is short-term: "At the end of August, we are going to be broke again, unless something happens," said spokeswoman Sylvana Foa, "like winning the lottery."

One-two punch

Wisconsin governor Tommy Thompson signed into law welfare and abortion-reform bills.Gov. Thompson on April 25 signed a bill that requires most state welfare recipients to work; called Wisconsin Works, the plan will phase out conventional welfare in Wisconsin by the turn of the century. "The days of something for nothing are over," said the governor, who also last week signed a bill mandating a 24-hour waiting period and assigned reading for women before they undergo an abortion.

Bo doesn't know

Efforts by former Green Beret James "Bo" Gritz to secure the surrender of Montana's so-called Freemen at first seemed promising, but broke down as the Freemen announced they had taken an oath not to go down without a fight. As early as April 21, the FBI had mounted new surveillance cameras on a hill overlooking the compound, which contains more than 10 people who face state and/or federal charges. But on April 25, Mr. Gritz, accompanied by Randy Weaver-a surviving victim of the deadly FBI raid at Ruby Ridge, Idaho,whose surrender Mr. Gritz negotiated-showed up at FBI's Montana site, offering to help negotiate a settlement.

Middle East tensions

The Council of the Palestinian Liberation Organization met April 22 and voted the next day 504-54 to overturn the PLO charter advocating "armed struggle" against Israel. Meanwhile, Secretary of State Warren Christopher met with Syria's President Hafez Assad to negotiate a ceasefire between Hezbollah fighters and Israel in southern Lebanon, where 155 have been killed. At the U.N., American diplomats voted with Israel against a motion in the General Assembly calling for an immediate end to the Israeli-Lebanese warfare, and condemning Israel's strikes against Lebanese civilians. On April 28, U.S. officials committed to offer Israel new laser and satellite technology to boost its missile defense systems.