New Era update

Harvard and Princeton both announced on April 10 intentions to return $467,000 and $2.1 million respectively in money received from the Foundation for New Era Philanthropy, a failed pyramid scheme that crumbled last May, dealing harsh blows to scores of evangelical institutions that had invested money in it. So far, 23 organizations that profited from New Era before it collapsed have agreed to return more than $8.5 million to help offset losses of more than $500 million by about 600 other groups.

Unclean animals

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention April 11 reported that 131 people, mostly in 24 Western states, have been diagnosed with a rodent-borne respiratory disease called hantavirus pulmonary syndrome; 65 of the 131 have died. Meanwhile a doctor at the California Institute of Technology announced April 11 that he's developed a test for the British "mad cow" disease that could prevent the mass slaughter over the next five years of British cattle. In South Dakota, a bull with British origins was killed as a precaution, as were 112 other British-origin cattle across the United States; the CDC on April 11 said that the incidence of Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease-a possible human counterpart-in the United States has stayed constant at one case per million persons between 1979 and 1993.

The Godfather cracks

Actor Marlon Brando on April 12 wept in penance and apologized before Jewish leaders after stating a week earlier on CNN's Larry King Live that Hollywood is run by Jews, a statement taken by Jewish groups as anti-Semitic. "It took 30 to 45 seconds before he was able to compose himself," Rabbi Marvin Hier said of the movie star after their three-hour meeting. In his television appearance, Mr. Brando had said some Jewish filmmakers didn't show enough sensitivity to portraying minority groups.

Middle East fighting

Israeli helicopter gunships attacked the Lebanese command center of the Hezbollah guerrillas and Beirut's slums April 11 and 12, retaliating for Lebanese guerrilla shelling of northern Israel and the ambush of Israeli troops. The attacks on Beirut that led into attacks on other targets were the first since Israel invaded Lebanon in 1982. A Syrian soldier and at least one civilian were reported killed in the Israeli attacks.

Chaos in Liberia

U.S. armed forces last week evacuated from Liberia more than 1,000 people, of which more than 150 were Americans. Many American missionaries were part of an overland convoy that trekked from a World Relief Organization safe haven to the port at Monrovia for evacuation. Meanwhile, chaos ruled the country. A U.N. spokesman said up to 60,000 Liberians were "roaming the streets, seeking shelter where they can." United Nations officials announced April 12 they would try to get nearly 100 of their workers out of the capital by boat, even as the United States moved ships and aircraft fighters into the region. Attempts at peace accords have failed in Liberia, where seven factions have killed more than 150,000 people in six years of civil war.

Budget bravado

President Clinton April 9 signed legislation passed overwhelmingly by Congress that gives future presidents elected in 1996 and beyond the power to veto individual items in congressional spending bills, and promised if re-elected to use the line-item veto to cut "special-interest boondoggles, tax loopholes, and pure pork." Federal employees immediately filed a court challenge to the "Contract with America" reform law. Mr. Clinton has maintained long public support for the measure; as governor of Arkansas, he had line-item veto power. But during his tenure, Mr. Clinton wielded the line-item veto just nine times in 10 years-a period in which about 2,500 spending bills crossed his desk. Meanwhile, the president's Office of Management and Budget April 9 employed some creative accounting to avoid billions in automatic, across-the-board budget cuts during election season that would have been required under a rarely used budget mechanism known as "sequestration." It requires automatic budget cuts when a session of Congress ends if lawmakers have increased spending-or cut taxes-without finding offsetting savings elsewhere. Because the White House/Congress budget standoff likely will not be resolved before the November elections, the Congressional Budget Office projected the need for about $7.1 billion in cuts under the sequester after Congress adjourns in September or October. But by law, the White House's calculations-not the CBO's-are binding on this sequestration process.

Oops

In the Whitewater trial of Arkansas Gov. Jim Guy Tucker and President Clinton's Whitewater business partners James and Susan McDougal, an errant question April 10 by Mrs. McDougal's lawyer during cross examination of the government's star witness opened the door for the jury to hear evidence of a crime Mr. Tucker allegedly committed 13 years ago. The evidence will help Whitewater prosecutors demonstrate for the jury a pattern of fraudulent transactions and a knowledge on the part of the conspirators of how to pull off such scams. Mr. Tucker's lawyer tried in vain to sever his client's case from the McDougals' and get a new, separate trial for the governor. The judge denied the motion. The crucial moment came when Mrs. McDougal's lawyer, Bobby McDaniel, asked witness David Hale whether he expected the jury to believe that Mr. Hale would help plan a fraud scheme at his first meeting with Mr. Tucker, who was a former prosecutor. Mr. Hale responded, "It wasn't the first time." Prosecutor Ray Jahn then began to get into the matter further, and the judge let him, citing an appeals court case that said questioning by one defendant's lawyer could open the door to evidence against another defendant during a trial involving multiple defendants. According to Mr. Hale's testimony, Mr. Tucker asked Mr. Hale in 1983 to make a fraudulent loan to a former aide who was in danger of losing a lakefront home. Mr. Jahn contends the transaction was structured similarly to a transaction mentioned in the 21-count fraud and conspiracy indictment. On April 12, the prosecution introduced evidence that helps bolster the government's contention that the 1985 taxpayer-backed small business loan for $300,000 from Mr. Hale was used for fraudulent purposes. Mr. Hale contended in earlier testimony that then-Gov. Clinton was involved in the loan negotiations and unlawfully benefited from some portion of it. Prosecutors showed the jury that four days after Mr. Hale's company lent the money to Mrs. McDougal, money from her and Mr. McDougal's personal account paid off the $111,524 balance on a separate loan from Stephens Security Bank. Richard Smith, whose company owns Stephens Security Bank, testified his bank made the earlier loan, which originally was $135,000, and that he pressed Mr. McDougal to pay the note four months before Mr. McDougal did so. James McDougal insisted after Friday's court session that the timing of the payback was just a coincidence.

Bugging out

Forty U.S. military facilities speckle about 20 percent of the Japanese island of Okinawa, but U.S. Ambassador Walter Mondale last week announced that Japan and the United States have agreed on a plan to return at least some of the U.S. holdings: One large airfield on Okinawa will revert back to local landowners within seven years. Okinawans have complained about the heavy U.S. troop presence on the island ever since the September rape of a 12-year-old schoolgirl by American servicemen.

"Shameless"

Two years after vowing to "fight these false charges," former Rep. Dan Rostenkowski, the Chicago Democrat, pleaded guilty April 9 to two counts of mail fraud and was immediately sentenced to 17 months in prison and fined $100,000. U.S. District Court Judge Norma Holloway Johnson accepted the plea agreement and lectured Mr. Rostenkowski: "You have brought a measure of disgrace [on Congress].... You shamelessly abused your position." The 68-year-old former lawmaker persisted in his shamelessness, emphasizing "that I have pled guilty to the least serious charges set forth in this indictment." The charges: that he converted congressional office funds to his own use for gifts such as Lenox china and armchairs and that he hired people on the government payroll who did little or no official work-but took care of his lawn, took photographs at political events and family weddings, helped his family's business, and supervised the renovation of his house. Mr. Rostenkowski also bitterly complained he was being "singled out" by prosecutors. Clinton-appointed U.S. Attorney Eric Holder handled the plea agreement. Mr. Rostenkowski has 30 days to report to prison. Despite his conviction, Mr. Rostenkowski will keep his annual pension, estimated last fall at $96,462 by the National Taxpayers Union, to spend as he sees fit.

The Nixon anthology

The estate of former President Nixon agreed April 12 under legal pressure to release almost 3,700 hours of still-unheard tapes made by Mr. Nixon while he was in the White House. To date, only 63 hours of tapes had been available for public listening. The first installment of the tapes, approximately 201 hours dealing with abuses of government power, is expected by November. The second release, with a time not set, involves 278 hours of tapes recorded in the White House Cabinet Room. The Nixon estate agreed to allow future releases even though one major issue remains unresolved: whether the National Archives is entitled to keep both originals and copies of taped segments of purely private conversations.

No guts, no Gloria

Planned Parenthood Federation of America on April 9 elected vitriolic activist Gloria Feldt, who has been serving as head of its Phoenix-based affiliate, as its new national president. She immediately promised to reverse the relatively less extreme course of her interim predecessor, Jane Johnson, who in two years tried to shift the group's focus more toward health concerns. In the past, Mrs. Feldt has called all pro-lifers "guerrilla fighters who sabotage our positive agenda by intimidating legislators."

Children's rights

In Los Angeles, a judge on April 12 granted a homosexual man custody of a retarded eight-year-old girl over the protest of her biological mother, whose visitation rights were also limited to a single phone call a week. The judge ruled that the man would provide a better home than the biological mother, who has other children living with her. In San Antonio, Texas, convicted child molester Larry Don McQuay last week begged for people to give him money so he could be castrated; otherwise, he warned, he would molest again. Mr. McQuay, who has often called himself a "demon," has served six years of an eight-year sentence for molesting a six-year-old boy; he claims to have molested 240 children. While San Antonians are furious he is even being paroled, many have sent money for his castration. Meanwhile, reports last week indicated that scores of male Mexican teens are crossing the U.S. border to prostitute themselves to homosexual men, as well as find work in child pornography. Often they are paid with new clothes, mostly shoes. Immigration and Naturalization officer Anne Estrada told Reuters, "Most of these kids are from economically depressed areas in Mexico, and if you live in an area like that you get to thinking you'll never own a pair of Reeboks."

Kantor gets the nod

U.S. Trade Representative Mickey Kantor became commerce secretary April 12, replacing Ron Brown, two days after Mr. Brown's funeral. President Clinton bypassed the usual Senate confirmation process by appointing Mr. Kantor to the post during a congressional recess; the appointment was effective immediately. Mr. Kantor was chairman of Mr. Clinton's 1992 campaign.

Child pilot

Many around the nation questioned the wisdom of even letting a young girl try to fly an airplane after seven-year-old Jessica Dubroff was killed April 11 when her plane crashed nose-first into a Wyoming residential area after taking off in a storm. Her father, Lloyd, and flight instructor Joe Reid also died. The accident occurred on the second day of their flight aboard a single-engine Cessna; Miss Dubroff was seeking a place in the record books as the youngest person to fly cross-continent.