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, Aug 4 1992 Date: Tue, 4 Aug 92 07:01:11 EDT Message-ID: DECISIONLINE: News USA TODAY Update Aug. 4, 1992 Source: USA TODAY:Gannett National Information Network BUSH DISAVOWS STATEMENT: President Bush retreated Monday from a campaign official's innuendo about Bill Clinton's private life. Bush political director Mary Matalin, in a three-page fax to news organizations Sunday, referred to rumors of Clinton's extramarital affairs - a topic Bush has decreed is off limits. Bush disavowed the statement and said: "This is not how I want to run the campaign." SENATE PASSES TEST BAN: The Senate voted Monday to ban nuclear weapons testing. President Bush has said he would veto the bill, but that may be overridden. It passed 68-26; 67 votes are needed to override a veto. In June, the House voted 237-167 for a 1-year ban. The Senate version calls for a 9-month test moratorium, allows some tests from July 1993 to October 1996, and halts all tests after that. CALIF. BUDGET WOES CONTINUE: California Republican Gov. Pete Wilson continues meeting with legislative leaders Tuesday, but there's no end in sight to the 35-day state budget battle. "It would be a miracle if we had a budget by the end of the week," says Cindy Katz of the state's Finance Department. The state is facing a crushing $11 billion deficit. Banks say they will begin rejecting the state's IOUs Wednesday. FIRES BURN IN WESTERN STATES: At least 14 major forest fires are burning across six Western states Tuesday, and officials fear winds will fan the flames. Fires have charred 40,000 acres. Hardest hit: Elko County, Nev., with 10,000 acres blackened. A dozen families were evacuated late Monday from central Idaho's Wood River Valley. NORTH'S ROLE WAS `OPEN SECRET': Oliver North's undercover assistance to the Nicaraguan contra rebels was an "open secret" in Washington, an ex-CIA officer testified Monday. The testimony by Alan Fiers, at a perjury trial of former CIA spy chief Clair George, resurrects questions about how much knowledge various U.S. officials, including then-vice president George Bush, had about the Iran-contra operation. SOLDIERS LEAVE FOR GULF: About 250 soldiers from the Army's 1st Cavalry Division load up Tuesday for a flight from Fort Hood in Killeen, Texas to the Persian Gulf. They are the lead element of 2,400 troops headed for a training exercise in Kuwait aimed at sending a warning to Iraqi President Saddam Hussein. The two-month exercise also involves troops from Fort Campbell, Ky., and Marines now in the gulf region. SERBS SET UP DEATH CAMPS: The U.S. State Department confirmed Monday that Serbian forces have set up detention camps to torture and kill civilians. Bosnia and Croatia have set up similar camps, but spokesman Richard Boucher said the USA has no reports of similar abuses. He said the administration has no special plans to make an issue of the detentions. NEW YORK POLICE HEAD RESIGNS: New York City Police Commissioner Lee Brown, credited with making city streets a little less mean, is resigning to care for his ailing wife. The resignation comes at an awkward moment, as the biggest city police corruption probe in 20 years begins. Mayor David Dinkins, who announced the move Monday, says Brown's wife, Yvonne, is battling a "serious illness." TAXOL TO BECOME MORE AVAILABLE: Thousands of breast cancer victims who have failed to respond to standard treatments will get the chance to try taxol in coming months, a National Cancer Institute official said Monday. Through a nationwide "compassionate use" program, the NCI will distribute the substance called the most promising cancer-fighting treatment in 25 years, says Susan Arbuck, who oversees NCI's taxol trials. OREGON PLAN REJECTED: The Bush administration Monday rejected Oregon's plan for rationing health services for the poor, saying it would violate a new federal law protecting the disabled. Oregon planned to bring 120,000 more poor people under Medicaid health coverage, but to do that, it would limit what services would be paid for with public money. ATLANTIS READY FOR EXPERIMENT: Shuttle Atlantis Tuesday tries out what managers call the toughest feat in spaceflight - flying tethered to a satellite. Monday, four of the shuttle's seven astronauts test-fired electron beam guns to prepare for Tuesday's unraveling at 2:19 p.m. ET. The half-ton Italian satellite is on a shoestring-thin, 12-mile-long tether. The operation has never before been attempted in space. SENATE KEEPS COLLIDER FUNDING: The Senate refused to go along with a House move to deny nearly all funding for the superconducting super collider being built south of Dallas. Senators voted 62-32 Monday to reject an amendment deleting $516 million of the $550 million allocated for the giant atom smasher in a fiscal 1993 energy and water funding bill. The White House is seeking $650 million for the project. PANEL PROPOSES END TO TV MARTI: A White House-appointed, bipartisan panel Monday urged that the U.S. government shut down its TV Marti, an anti-Fidel Castro television service beamed at Cuba but not seen there because of jamming by Havana authorities. The panel also said two U.S.-funded, Germany-based radio stations broadcasting news behind the former Iron Curtain should also be shut down because they waste money. STORMS TO HIT PLAINS, NORTHEAST: Heavy showers and thunderstorms will march across portions of the Northeast, mid-Atlantic and Plains Tuesday. Clouds and sun will be the rule across much of the mid-Atlantic region. Evening showers will be followed by cooler and drier conditions. Showers will sweep through the Southeast by evening. Partly cloudy skies and fall-like weather continues to chill the upper Midwest and Great Lakes. DOW JONES OPENS ON UPSWING: The Dow Jones average of 30 industrials opens Tuesday at 3395.40 after closing up 1.62 points Monday. The New York Stock Exchange composite opens at 233.66, up 0.51. The American Stock Exchange market value opens at 390.87, up 2.02. The NASDAQ OTC composite opens at 582.36, up 1.53. News Editor: Ed Kelleher. (1-919-855-3491) Making copies of USA TODAY Update (Copyright, 1992) for further distribution 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