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CHICAGO (AP) — Benjamin Nathaniel Smith bought the guns he used in his racist shooting spree from an illegal street dealer after he was turned away by a gun shop that did the required background check, investigators said Tuesday. The background check showed that an ex-girlfriend of Smith's had taken out a protective order against him because of abuse. Gun control activists said the case demonstrates the inadequacy of the nation's gun laws, while the gun lobby said the problem is lax enforcement. Smith, 21, killed himself during a struggle with police Sunday night after a series of drive-by ...

NEW YORK, July 6 — Observing quaint local customs helps us better understand exotic places, people, and their politics. In New York, for example, there is a common (and illegal) street card game called Three Card Monte.   THE MONTE DEALER sets up shop on a very portable surface, usually a cardboard box, on a busy street. He uses only three cards, two black queens and a red one. After loudly announcing the chance to win big money, the dealer shows to the crowd the faces of the cards, then flips them over and shuffles them poorly. Very poorly. ...

EAST ST. LOUIS, Ill. (AP) — President Clinton decided Tuesday to extend his seven-state trip across the country through the weekend so he can attend the women's World Cup final. The undefeated American team faces China on Saturday at the Rose Bowl in Pasadena, Calif. Clinton attend a quarterfinal game last week outside Washington as the U.S. team defeated Germany to advance to the semifinals. The U.S. women defeated Brazil on Sunday to move to the final. White House Press Secretary Joe Lockhart said the women's team had invited the president. "I think, like all Americans, he's been caught ...

UNITED NATIONS (AP) — Frustrated that Congress hasn't resolved Puerto Rico's political status, the commonwealth's pro-statehood governor urged the United Nations on Tuesday to get more involved and urge Washington to act. Gov. Pedro Rossello asked the U.N. decolonization committee to reverse a 1953 decision by the General Assembly and place Puerto Rico back on the list of non-self-governing territories whose status is to be resolved by 2000. Puerto Rico was removed from the list when it adopted its present constitution and U.S. commonwealth status, and relinquished its territorial status. The former Spanish colony was ceded to the United ...

THE OTHER DAY I picked up a phone message on my answering machine which concerned a charity event for homeless youngsters I was organizing with some liberals in Hollywood. The voice was female and said she had found a friend who was willing to volunteer her home for a fund-raiser we had planned for the children—then she paused—"but not if Charlton Heston comes." Then she paused again. "In fact," she said, "none of my friends’ homes will be available if Charlton Heston comes." It was unnecessary for her to tell me, as she did under her breath, that "they ...

They call it "The Night of the Witches", those horrible hours that began at precisely 1am on April18, when NATO bombs and missiles rained in force on Pancevo. Within seconds, they demolished a refinery, a fertiliser plant and an American-built petrochemical complex that released a toxic cloud so dense and potentially lethal that its effects can be felt even today - and will be, perhaps, for decades to come. The sun never shone the next morning. A thick, greyish-white fog containing concentrations of carcinogenic vinyl chloride monomer that were 10,600 times above human-safety limits had settled over the city at ...

06 July 1999 TEXT: STATE DEPT. REPORT ON ACCIDENTAL BOMBING OF CHINESE EMBASSY (Oral presentation by Pickering to Beijing Government) (5130) Washington -- The NATO attack on the Chinese embassy in Belgrade was a mistake, according to an internal investigation conducted by the U.S. Government. The results of that investigation were presented by Under Secretary of State Thomas Pickering to the Chinese government June 17. Pickering's statement to the Chinese government explained how a series of errors and omissions led to the accidental bombing of the embassy. "Let me emphasize," Pickering said at the outset, "no one targeted the Chinese ...

The GOP is shaping up for an amazing Quintuple Play in politics in 2000 (and you don't see those very often). 1) President. This has the Dems in hysterics, and it isn't even Y2K! Gore is as dead a duck as Dole ever was---in fact, might Algore be a long lost Dole child? Maybe from his first marriage? This is what is so precious about this: Clinton, no matter what, CANNOT cut Gore loose, having invested so much of his "legacy" in a Gore election. So we will have Billy torpedoing BOTH Bradley and Gore, one deliberate, one unintentional. "Dubya" ...

ISRAEL ARRESTS ISLAMIC MILITANTS HEBRON, West Bank (AP) - Israel arrested five Islamic militants in the West Bank on Tuesday on suspicion they planned a terrorist attack in Israel, Israel army radio reported. The army confirmed arrests were made, but declined to give any numbers. Palestinian police said they knew of two arrests. The radio said the arrests were made in the three villages around the southern West Bank town of Hebron. The militants belong to Hamas and Islamic Jihad, militant Islamic groups that oppose the peace agreements with Israel and are behind a series of attacks, including suicide ...

Hillary Rodham Clinton faces a unique political problem as she begins the first trip of her all-but-announced Senate candidacy tomorrow: She's going to receive almost too much attention. Never has a First Lady run for anything. And, it is safe to say, never has there been a Senate candidacy facing the kind of hoopla, scrutiny, media horde and security that will envelop Clinton's trip upstate. "I have been in this business 35 years; I remember the Kennedy years when Bobby ran for senator, and I have never seen anything like this," said Assembly Majority Leader Michael Bragman (D-Onondaga County), ...

RNC Will Direct More to Congress, Leaders Say Texas Gov. George W. Bush's (R) record-smashing fundraising performance will increase contributions to House Republicans and help expedite the leadership's plans to coordinate a 2000 electoral strategy with the presidential frontrunner, several prominent leaders and party strategists said. Bush's six-month, $36 million money grab opened the door to thousands of potential new donors to House Republicans and positioned the Texas governor to help Congressional candidates much earlier than expected, officials said. His campaign account also solidified the belief among Washington insiders that Bush will wrap up the nomination early enough to ...

Naked Corpse Found On Whale In Florida's SeaWorld By Brad Liston ORLANDO, Fla. (Reuters) - An unidentified man was found naked and dead on the back of a killer whale in a tank at SeaWorld Orlando Tuesday morning, apparently after hiding in the Florida theme park after closing time, police said. ``The man was sort of draped over the whale´s back behind the dorsal fin,´´ said Jim Solomons, spokesman for the Orange County Sheriff´s office. ``There was no obvious trauma -- he wasn´t bitten or chewed up or anything.´´ The 11,000-pound (4,990 kg) orca named Tillikum, the largest at any ...

Didn't the '94 Republican Revolution push the notion of term limits? Hell, I'd settle for FAMILY LIMITS.The HOUSE of BUSH (and DOLE) must be destroyed...

Los Angeles Times Tuesday, July 6, 1999 TEXAS SCHOOLS GAIN NOTICE AND SKEPTICISM By RICHARD LEE COLVIN, Times Education Writer HOUSTON--Texas schools have long been known for producing powerhouse prep football teams. But in the past few years the state has received national attention for its academic prowess, most notably for narrowing the persistent gap in test scores between white and minority students. "It's not a matter of boasting, but we have made tremendous strides in comparison to other states because we have most of the components of a good accountability system," said Felipe T. Alanis, the state's deputy commissioner ...

At the National Archives rotunda in Washington, D.C., visitors line up to examine the glass-encased founding documents of our country: the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution of the United States, and the Bill of Rights. Archives officials, fearful that the cases are inadequate to the documents' protection, plan to spend $4.8 million to upgrade them. When the project is completed in 2003, the precious pages of our national charter will be safe for another hundred years. The pages will be safe, but what of the spirit they embody? We've often pointed out how constitutional limits are flouted by our ...

BLOOMINGTON, Ind. THEY called him the "one doing the Lone Wolf activity." That's the way the skinheads on the Internet referred to Benjamin Smith - the 21-year-old Indiana student who carried out a murderous racist rampage through two Midwest states. But Smith hadn't wanted to be a lone wolf. He had seen himself as a leader - perhaps a modern-day Hitler spreading a warped message of hate to cheering crowds. But America is not Germany in the '30s - and Smith died hated and an abject failure. "He wanted his message to get out, and he was going to ...

WASHINGTON -- As the United States deploys 7,000 troops to Kosovo, a study quotes senior U.S. military commanders who say such peacekeeping operations provide valuable field experience and are central to the military's future. The officers, both retired and active duty, concede that peace operations can sap military readiness if they supersede combat training. But they say such operations also can give troops and commanders valuable real-world experience in chaotic post-Cold War trouble spots. The report this month by a private group with both Republicans and Democrats on its board challenges oft-repeated Capitol Hill arguments that the Clinton administration's ...

WASHINGTON — Top health groups ripped into Vice President Al Gore Tuesday for hiring as his new media advisor an advertising guru who helped kill a landmark bill in Congress designed to curb smoking by children. The American Lung Association and the Campaign for Tobacco-Free Kids charged that Gore undermined his own credibility as a self-described protector of children by bringing in Carter Eskew to help present his case as the Democratic front-runner in the race for the White House. "It shows poor judgement,'' said Paul Billings, deputy director of government relations at the American Lung Association. "We are very ...

During the course of this weekend, the subject of using a WebTV for freeping came up in a thread I was posting on. The lovely & talented Geezerette responded how happy she was to learn that one could create symbols using the “alt” key .Well, this sent us off and running and I was pleased to help a fellow freeper learn how to make this nifty little box easier to use in Freeperland.I am ,by no means, an expert with WebTV, but I was frustrated at having to remain mostly a lurker until I painfully learned some tricks to mimic ...

Caspian Watch # 8: 'Silk Road' Legislation Opens New Opportunities For U.S. Strategic, Commercial Interests In The Caspian Basin (Washington, D.C.): America's long-term interests in the Caspian Basin will be the focus of action in the Senate today thanks to initiatives by two of that institution's rising stars -- freshmen Senators Chuck Hagel (R-NE) and Sam Brownback (R-KS). In his capacity as Chairman of the Foreign Relations Committee's Subcommittee on International Economic Policy, Export and Trade Promotion, Senator Hagel will be presiding this afternoon over an extremely important hearing on the strategic and economic stakes associated with the energy-rich Caspian ...