Path: bloom-picayune.mit.edu!snorkelwacker.mit.edu!news.media.mit.edu!americast.com!americast.com!usa-post Newsgroups: usa-today.news,americast.usa-today.news From: usa-post@AmeriCast.Com Organization: American Cybercasting Approved: usa-post@AmeriCast.com Subject: news Thu, Oct 8 1992 Date: Thu, 8 Oct 92 04:25:12 EDT Message-ID: DECISIONLINE: News USA TODAY Update Oct. 8, 1992 Source: USA TODAY:Gannett National Information Network WASHINGTON PREPARES FOR SHIFT: The prospect of a Bush loss in the presidential race has official Washington dizzy with urgency. Most everyone - those in power, and those outside - are positioning themselves for a potentially massive Beltway shift. The stakes are as high as in any other one-industry town: A new president controls 3,020 jobs, from Cabinet secretaries to agency heads and other appointed workers. BUSH GOES ON ATTACK: President Bush Wednesday said Bill Clinton should "tell the truth" about his actions during the Vietnam War. While saying "I don't have the facts," Bush fueled claims that Clinton's 1970 trip to Moscow was linked to his anti-war protests while at Oxford. "To go to a foreign country and demonstrate against your own ... is wrong,' Bush said on CNN's "Larry King Live." STRIKE COULD GRIND GM TO HALT: General Motors might be in for a strike that could bring the entire company to a halt. The United Auto Workers gave notice that it might strike next Wednesday at GM's Inland Fisher Guide complex in Anderson, Ind., which supplies tail lights, parking lights and bumpers to all GM assembly plants. Other GM factories receive parts daily from Anderson, Ind. PEROT'S 30-MINUTE AD DOES WELL: Ross Perot's Tuesday TV ad - which finished second in its time slot - was a "home run," aides says. The 16-20 million watching shows "the American people are far more serious than the parties give them credit for," says Perot aide Orson Swindle. Fewer people watched Perot's ad than similar ads by Bush and Dukakis camps in '88, but they were on three networks. BUSH DENIES REPORTER BLACKLIST: President Bush denied Wednesday he keeps a "blacklist" of unfriendly reporters. "There's no blacklist to it," Bush told CNN's Larry King, who asked why Bush hasn't spoken to more traditional journalists such as Dan Rather and Peter Jennings. "I like to go where you get a fair shake," Bush said. "I've got a list of people I keep inside of me for whom I've lost respect." RU 486 A `MORNING AFTER' PILL: The controversial French abortion pil RU 486 works well as an emergency "morning-after" birth control method, a new Scottish study says. The results provide ammunition for those who want U.S. approval of RU 486, whose import into the USA is banned. PEROT CLAIMS HE WAS MARKED MAN: Ross Perot told a Senate panel that North Vietnam asked Black Panther hitmen to assassinate him in 1970 because of his activities on behalf of U.S. POWs, according to testimony made public Wednesday. In the July 1 deposition to a Senate investigating committee on POW-MIAs, Perot said the FBI warned him about the assassination plot, a claim the FBI says it can't confirm. BUSH PUSHES TRADE AGREEMENT: President Bush shunned the campaign trail Wednesday to push the North American Free Trade Agreement. Bush, in San Antonio with the leaders of Canada and Mexico, predicted the trade agreement will transform North America into a single $6 trillion market. After ministers initialed the pact, Bush met with Canadian Prime Minister Brian Mulroney and Mexican President Carlos Salinas de Gortari. KIDS GO WITH BUSH: One survey finds President Bush with a commanding lead: Weekly Reader found that 55% of more than 600,000 students surveyed back Bush while 39% supported Bill Clinton. Ross Perot was not listed. Editor Sandra Maccarone called the Bush choice a "surprise," saying Bush drew heavy support among those in kindergarten through fourth grade. Students through 10th grade were surveyed. CLINTON GETS HIGHEST GRADE: An economic report card to be issued Thursday by a coalition of female economists gives President Bush a D, Bill Clinton a B-, and Ross Perot an incomplete. The candidates were rated on six issues the economists consider vital to women - welfare reform, workplace discrimination, child care and family leave, abortion rights, health care and taxes. TROOP PULLOUT IS DELAYED: The Bush administration is ready to delay the pullout of more U.S. troops from South Korea due to concerns over North Korea's nuclear arms program, news reports said Wednesday. Another 6,500 troops were scheduled to be withdrawn by 1995, the second step in a slow reduction of the force of 37,400 on the divided peninsula. FISHER NAMED TO AIDS PANEL: Mary Fisher, a prominent Republican and AIDS activist whose emotional address to the Republican National Convention in August moved many to tears, is the newest member of the National Commission on AIDS. Her appointment was announced by the White House Wednesday after a meeting with President Bush. She replaces basketball star Magic Johnson, who resigned from the panel. SENATORS TO FINISH THURSDAY: The Senate hopes to finally wrap up Thursday with votes on tax, energy and water bills already passed by the House. The Senate could have disposed of these Tuesday, but senators unhappy with some provisions of the bills used stalling tactics. Senate Majority leader George Mitchell, D-Me., said Wednesday an agreement had been reached to put the provisions in question into separate bills. NEW YORK LACKS BLACK OFFICERS: New York City has the worst ratio of black police officers to black residents, a survey of the USA's largest cities, conducted by a professor at the University of Nebraska at Omaha, shows. Of 27,154 New York police officers, only 3,121 - or 11.4% - are black, compared with a city population that is 28.7% black. The department had the same percentage of black officers in 1983. DOW JONES OPENS ON DOWNSWING: The Dow Jones average of 30 industrials opens at 3152.25 Thursday after closing down 25.94 Wednesday. The New York Stock Exchange composite opens at 222.84, down 1.25. The American Stock Exchange market value opens at 366.88, down 0.83. The NASDAQ OTC composite opens at 569.20, down 1.35. STORMS HIT MISSISSIPPI VALLEY: Rain and storms will stretch from the Great Lakes to the Gulf Coast Thursday. The mid-Mississippi Valley cools off with gusty winds and showers. The storms should miss Texas and Louisiana; most of the south-central USA will be dry. In Florida, expect temperatures in the 70s and 80s, with humidity and showers. The mid-Atlantic up through New England will be crisp and cool. 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