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 29 1992 Date: Thu, 29 Oct 92 04:43:05 EST Message-ID: DECISIONLINE: News USA TODAY Update Oct. 29, 1992 Source: USA TODAY:Gannett National Information Network RACE IS TOO CLOSE TO CALL: President Bush and Bill Clinton sharpened their attacks on the campaign trail Wednesday as what looked like a landslide just a week ago seems to have turned into a cliffhanger. The latest USA TODAY:CNN:Gallup poll of likely voters finds the race too close to call. Clinton's lead over Bush fell to 2 points, 40% to 38%. Ross Perot fell to 16% in Monday-Tuesday polling. Margin of error: 3%. OTHER POLLS SHOW VARIETY: An ABC News poll of likely voters shows Bill Clinton leading President Bush at 7 points, as does an NBC-Wall Street Journal poll. Both have larger margins of error than the USA TODAY:CNN:Gallup poll, indicating the Clinton lead is in the 2% to 7% range. Differences could be due to the way the polls screen likely voters. CAMPAIGN IS AT FULL STRENGTH: The TV talk show campaign kicked into full gear Wednesday, and it has only just begun. Beyond Wednesday's three appearances, the three major candidates have agreed to 10 more TV interviews through Friday night. On Wednesday, President Bush and Bill Clinton each talked with morning TV shows, and Clinton began a final round of interviews with CNN's Larry King. ARK. MEDICAID TO BE CUT: Arkansas' acting governor, Lt. Gov. Jim Guy Tucker, will meet privately with legislators this week to plan deep cuts in the state's Medicaid program. State Republicans say Clinton hoped to disguise the problem until after the election. But Clinton's administration has warned for weeks that reductions were coming. WISHART HIRED AS HOUSEKEEPER: After a year of messy scandals, House leaders have hired a new housekeeper - a spit-and-polish retired Army general, picked for his resume, not his politics. Leonard Wishart, 58, a West Point graduate who served 34 years, will take charge in January of all House operations, including the embattled post office and duties handled by the scandal-plagued bank. His salary will be $119,000. RACIAL RIOTS HIT CALIF. SCHOOLS: Racial brawling between black and Hispanic students erupted for a third consecutive day in city schools as officials in Los Angeles scrambled to restore order. On Wednesday, youngsters at Olive Vista Junior High shouted, spit and fought at recess. Two were injured, one seriously, and school authorities sent most of black students home early. Olive Vista has 5% black students, 80% Hispanic. DEPORTATION IS ON RISE: The United States deported a record 35,390 non-citizens in the fiscal year ending Sept. 30, the Immigration and Naturalization Service said Wednesday. That's a 25% increase from last year. Nearly half - 16,841 - were criminal deportations resulting from drug or other criminal convictions. That's a 30% increase from last year. Another 1,068,882 non-citizens were removed voluntarily. `LOLITA' IS BACK IN COURT: Amy Fisher, the "Long Island Lolita" who admitted trying to kill the wife of an older man she says was her lover, was released from a Huntington, N.Y., hospital after surviving a drug overdose last month. Fisher, 18, is due in court Friday to determine if she may remain free on $2 million bail until sentencing Dec. 1. She has pleaded guilty to assault in the shooting of Mary Jo Buttafuoco. SHUTTLE CREW CONTACTS SHIP: In a historic link-up between explorers in space and at sea, Columbia's crew circling the Earth at 17,500 mph contacted the Hawaiian outrigger Hokule'a, a replica of the vessels sailed by Polynesian explorers 3,000 years ago. Astronaut William Shepherd saluted the seafarers in their 65-foot canoe. The shuttle is scheduled to return to Cape Canaveral at 8:55 a.m. ET Sunday. GAYS TO MARCH IN PARADE: Members of the Irish Lesbian and Gay Organization must be permitted to march in the New York St. Patrick's Day Parade, the city's Human Rights Commission ruled. The decision reverses an administrative law judge's finding that banning gay marchers is discriminatory, but allowed because the parade is a First Amendment-protected religious event. The rights panel said it is secular. TENN. SUSPECT IS NOT NAMED: Tennessee officials Wednesday said they have a suspect in the deaths of four women whose bodies have been found in Knoxville within the past two weeks. Police have refused to identify the suspect or elaborate on the killings, but media have identified him as Tommy Dee Huskey of Pigeon Forge. Huskey, serving a 30 day sentence, was charged in February with raping two prostitutes. DENNY FILES CLAIM IN L.A.: Trucker Reginald Denny, severely beaten in the early hours of the Los Angeles riots, is among nearly 2,500 residents and business owners who filed claims against the city before Thursday's noon deadline. Denny, 36, is seeking more than $10,000. Other claims range from $100 for ruined laundry at a dry cleaners to tens of thousands of dollars in looted store inventories. WASHINGTON VOTES ON DEATH: The murder of a young Senate staffer has set up an important test of the death penalty in Washington, D.C. Now voters decide whether to reinstate the death penalty - repealed in 1981. The vote Tuesday comes as both murders and executions are on the rise nationwide. It will mark the first time the death penalty has been put to a direct vote in many years. DEFICIT INCREASES RECORD AMOUNT: The federal budget deficit widened to a record $290.2 billion the fiscal year ended Sept. 30, the Treasury Department said Wednesday. That gap between what the U.S. government spends and what it collects in taxes, interest and fees was 8% higher than 1991's $269.5 billion deficit. In fiscal 1992, the government took in $1.1 trillion and spent $1.4 trillion. DOW JONES OPENS ON UPSWING: The Dow Jones average of 30 industrials opens at 3251.40 Thursday after closing up 15.67 Wednesday. The New York Stock Exchange composite opens at 230.91, up 0.90. The American Stock Exchange market value opens at 379.00, up 2.35. The NASDAQ OTC composite opens at 601.39, up 4.44. RAIN AND WIND HIT THE WEST: Stormy weather will cover much of the West Thursday. Rain covers Washington south through northern California, and gusty winds are along the Northwest coast. Rain will also cover the Rockies, the Southern Plains and the northern high Plains. Sunshine will return to the upper Midwest with chilly 30s and 40s readings expected. Partly sunny skies will hug the Southeast. News Editor: Kate Coughlin. (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