Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!news.media.mit.edu!americast.com!americast.com!usa-post Newsgroups: usa-today.news From: usa-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: usa-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: news Tue, Jul 14 1992 Date: Tue, 14 Jul 92 05:08:58 EDT Message-ID: DECISIONLINE: News USA TODAY Update July 14, 1992 Source: USA TODAY:Gannett National Information Network WOMEN LEAD DEMOCRATIC CHARGE: Democrats, demanding change and fired with hope Bill Clinton can reclaim the presidency, opened their convention Monday - and women led the charge. "As far as this White House is concerned, honey you can turn out the lights because the party's over!" said Texas Gov. Ann Richards. Six female U.S. Senate nominees vowed to lead what Richards called "a crusade to save this nation." ASBESTOS FIRMS FOUND NEGLIGENT: A jury Monday found six companies negligent in the USA's largest asbestos trial, which took four months and involved 8,555 plaintiffs. GAF Corp., Keene Corp., Pittsburgh Corning Corp., AC&S Inc., MCIC, and Porter-Hayden Co. were found negligent for making, installing or selling asbestos products in Maryland. Jurors must put a dollar value on damages and decide what each firm will pay. EMISSION STANDARDS TIGHTENED: One of three cars built before 1990 likely would flunk tough new emissions tests announced Monday by the Environmental Protection Agency. Motorists in 177 urban areas in 38 states will have to put their autos through inspections. That includes 55 cities that don't test emissions. EPA said the tailpipe program is the greatest air pollution reduction measure proposed under the Clean Air Act. U.N. BEGINS RESCUE: The U.N. rescue of the little victims of besieged Sarajevo began Monday. First to leave: 6-week-old Zinaida Agica, born with a hole in her heart. She was flown on an Italian cargo plane to the region's best clinic in Slovenia. Seventy critically ill children and 130 adults are in hospitals short on supplies and electricity - "open targets" for attack, says the U.N.'s Ron Redmond. LICE ATTACKING CALIF. WINERIES: California's vineyards are being sucked dry by tiny plant lice that enjoy grape juice. An invasion of grape phylloxera may slash wine production by 16 million gallons by 1997, says a study out Monday. Motto, Kryla & Fisher predicts Sonoma and Napa counties won't match last year's bumper crop until 2002. About 50,000 acres will have to be bulldozed and replanted. Cost: up to $1 billion. JUDGE TO DECIDE ON RU-486: America's abortion-rights controversy Tuesday moves to a New York federal court where a judge is to decide whether to allow a French abortion pill into the USA. The first court challenge to the U.S. Food and Drug Administration ban on the pill, RU-486, is being brought by Leona Benten, a pregnant, unmarried, unemployed social worker whose 12 pills were confiscated by U.S. Customs. FORMER HUD AIDE PLEADS INNOCENT: Deborah Gore Dean, a top aide to Samuel Pierce when he was Secretary of Housing and Urban Development in the 1980s, pleaded innocent to a federal indictment charging her with steering $157 million in contracts to favored developers. She also is accused of taking $4,000 in illegal gratuities from a consultant, and lying to Congress. MIDWEST STORMS CONTINUE: Severe storms hit Ohio for a second straight day Monday. New tornadoes were reported in central and northwestern parts of the state even as residents were assessing damage from 10 tornadoes that lashed the state Sunday. In western Ohio and eastern Illinois, up to 8 inches of rain sent rivers and streams out of their banks. Hardest hit: Madison County, Ill. BANKS MAY NOT TAKE CALIF. IOUS: California's debt is increasing faster than expected and some banks are rethinking their promise to finance state operations through this month. The state has been issuing IOUs for two weeks because the governor and Legislature can't agree on a $10.7 billion budget. The California Bankers Association said the amounts of the state vouchers "are somewhat larger than expected." RHODE ISLAND BANKER CHARGED: A Rhode Island grand jury indicted Joseph Mollicone, 48, on charges of embezzlement, bank fraud and conspiracy in the theft of $15.8 million from Heritage Loan and Investment Bank, whose collapse 17 months ago triggered the state's worst banking crisis since the Great Depression. Mollicone, once president of Heritage, is being held pending arraignment July 22. IT'S GOING TO BE HOT, HOT, HOT: The Southeast will continue to sizzle under searing sunshine Tuesday, with temperatures reaching triple digits in some spots. The mid-Atlantic will hang onto haze, heat and humidity. Showers and thunderstorms will sweep across the lower Midwest, Great Lakes and Northeast. Fair weather will be the rule across most of the Rockies. Showers may tease parts of California. DOW JONES OPENS ON UPSWING: The Dow Jones average of 30 industrials opens Tuesday at 3337.31 after closing up 6.75 Monday. The New York Stock Exchange composite opens at 228.04, up 0.16. The American Stock Exchange market value opens at 383.14, up 0.82. The NASDAQ OTC composite opens at 570.22, up 2.42. News Editor: William Snoddy. (1-919-855-3491) Making copies of USA TODAY Update (Copyright, 1992) for further distribution purposes violates federal law. This article is copyright 1992 Gannett News Service. Redistribution to other sites is not permitted except by arrangement with American Cybercasting Corporation. For more information, send-email to usa@AmeriCast.COM