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Hillary Straddles Gay Rights Issues: Empire State Senate Battle Updates By Eileen A. Murphy ABCNEWS.com N E W Y O R K, Dec. 9 — First lady Hillary Rodham Clinton is diving into New York’s combative world of gay politics this week, with positions that put her at odds with the president and many prominent Democrats. At a meeting this morning with Irish-American leaders, Mrs. Clinton said she will march “with her friends” in New York’s St. Patrick’s Day parade, breaking from many Democrats who have boycotted the parade because it has traditionally excluded gay marching groups. Asked whether she ...

Crime Beat: The End Is Near for Y2K HuckstersHome - Yahoo! - My Yahoo! - News Alerts - HelpClick Here! Home | Top Stories | Business | Tech | Politics | World | Local | Entertainment | Sports | Science | Health Yahoo! NewsCrimes And Trials Headlines Thursday December 09 12:49 PM ESTCrime Beat: The End Is Near for Y2K Hucksters NEW YORK (APBnews.com) -- Michael S. Hyatt -- aka "Mr. Y2K" -- was kind enough to send Crime Beat three or four mass mailings in the past few weeks, lest we find ourselves short of cheese powder and textured vegetable protein as Armageddon draws nigh. "I am concerned about your welfare," Hyatt wrote earnestly in one of his missives, a 30-page catalog ...

Moscow Rattles Nuclear Saber (CBS) Following stepped up criticism of Russia's war against Chechen separatists, President Boris Yeltsin on Thursday lashed out at President Clinton, reminding Washington that Moscow still has a nuclear arsenal. At a meeting with Li Peng, China's legislative chairman and the communist government's most hard-line leader, Yeltsin told reporters he wanted to send a message to Mr. Clinton, who this week criticized Russia for causing civilian casualties in Chechnya. "It seems Mr. Clinton has forgotten Russia is a great power that possesses a nuclear arsenal. We aren't afraid at all of Clinton's anti-Russian position," Yeltsin said. ...

White House Warns on Oil Prices By H. JOSEF HEBERT The Associated Press WASHINGTON (AP) - The Clinton administration warned Thursday that ``dangerously high'' oil prices could affect economic growth and said it was prepared to intervene if costs continue to soar. Energy Secretary Bill Richardson said little about what actions might be taken, and some analysts said the administration's options are limited largely to jawboning friendly producing nations. Richardson told reporters he wanted to send a message to the oil markets that the administration will take ``whatever steps are necessary'' to ensure continued economic growth and to protect U.S. ...

Inside Russian ranks in Chechnya: Military vows to take Grozny by New Year By Dana Lewis, NBC NEWS CORRESPONDENT ZNAMENSKOYE, Russia, Dec. 9 — The Russian army went on the defensive on Thursday in this Kremlin-controlled town 10 miles inside Chechnya — seeking to counter mounting Western criticism of its plans for a full-out assault on the rebel republic’s capital, Grozny. But while a senior commander in Russia’s military campaign told NBC News that an ultimatum for civilians to quit the besieged city had been “softened,” he said the army was determined to take the capital by the New Year. ...

WASHINGTON (AP) - With his own campaign bank account bulging, Republican presidential candidate George W. Bush has directed his fund-raising chiefs to help finance party operations in 20 states that are critical to his general election strategy.The month-old effort is expected to raise $2 million to $3 million by year's end - a financial boon for grassroots operations that will benefit Republicans up and down the November ballot. The Texas governor's ``State Victory Fund Committee'' takes advantage of a little-known provision in federal law that allows campaigns to raise money jointly with state parties.``This will help the state parties with ...

My dad is a member and I am a new member as of today. I have a question for all of you. I would really appreciate a response if you have knowlegde about this subject. I am writing a term paper on euthanasia and I was wondering if you know about the law in Oregon. Is active euthanasia allowed in Oregon? If so, when was the law passed and what does it entail. I am aware that both New York and Washington have not passed laws to legalize euthanasia. I was just wondering about the legal aspect of euthanasia and ...

YELTSIN BLASTS CLINTON: REMEMBER, WE HAVE NUKES! A cold war of words: Russian President Boris Yeltsin in China on Thursday blasted U.S. President Bill Clinton over attempts "to put pressure on Russia" over Chechnya, noting that Moscow has a nuclear potential. >{? "Bill Clinton permitted himself yesterday to forget by a second, by a minute, by half-a-minute what Russia means and that Russia has a complete arsenal of nuclear weapons," said Yeltsin in Beijing. "We shall dictate the world how to live rather than Mr. Clinton alone." The Chechen problem is Russia's internal matter, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Zhang Qiyue ...

Cubans dismiss U.S. overture HAVANA, Dec. 9 — Hundreds of thousands of Cubans marched past the U.S. diplomatic mission in Havana Thursday during the largest anti-American protest yet in the custody dispute over the shipwrecked 6-year-old boy Elian Gonzalez. The demonstration came as a resounding rebuke to the U.S. government, which had just made an overture to meet with Elian’s father in Cuba to resolve the problem. IN AN EXTRAORDINARY show of mobilization by Cuba’s ruling Communist Party, the mass of demonstrators stretched the length of Havana’s five-mile seafront Malecon boulevard, filing past the fortified U.S. compound chanting: “We Want ...

Cuban Boy Headed Home? (CBS) The father of six-year-old Elian Gonzales is expected to meet with U.S. immigration officials in Havana Thursday, reports CBS News Correspondent Byron Pitts. They will explain to Mr. Gonzales what steps he must take to regain custody of his son. That possibility has changed the mood in Cuba. Wednesday night's scheduled protest in Havana looked more like a party. A spokesman for Fidel Castro read a statement announcing the planned meeting, which could lead to the return of the boy to Cuba before Christmas. Meanwhile, President Clinton said Wednesday he hopes U.S. and Cuban officials ...

7:00am Tom Clark *Hold on to your hamburgers...the calorie cops are coming! TOM CLARK’s guest after seven wants to curb obesity in America by levying a “fat tax” to discourage overeating. (CB 12/10)Kelly Brownell, professor of Psychology at Yale University; and director of the Yale Center for Eating & Weight Disorders

Telling the truth about the liberal lobby http://www.jewishworldreview.com -- THE MOST REVEALING thing about political scientist Jeffrey Berry's recent book ( "The New Liberalism: The Rising Power of Citizen Groups") is that hardly anyone noticed it, even though its conclusion starkly contradicts conventional wisdom. After much research, Berry rejects the common view that liberalism died in the 1980s, suffocated by Ronald Reagan, wealthy business lobbies and conservative political groups. Judged by congressional legislation and press coverage, precisely the opposite is true. Liberal lobbies in Washington have flourished. They rival business lobbies in power and crush conservative groups, such as ...

Among GOP activists in Iowa, Alan Keyes may as well change his name to "Mudd". Most who are active in the State Party believe that Keyes can talk the talk but doesn't walk the walk. At the August Straw Poll in Iowa, event organizers wanted to explain to all the candidates the time restraints placed upon speeches and how that each candidate would be warned when they were approaching their speech's time limit. The only candidate who refused to be briefed by the organizers was Alan Keyes. As most of you know, Keyes' speech went over the alloted time by ...

Cuban Boy Symbolizes Divisions in Two Countries By Karen DeYoung Washington Post Staff Writer Friday, December 10, 1999; Page A1 CARDENAS, Cuba, Dec. 9 – The door is open to the small house on Cosio Street, a narrow, potholed avenue of crumbling wood and plaster dwellings near the center of this dilapidated town 90 miles east of Havana. Just inside, neighbors are quietly chatting, and a woman is weeping softly into the telephone. Atop a television is a school photo of a smiling, 5-year-old boy dressed in red shorts and a crisp white shirt, knee socks and new sneakers. The ...

Poll Gives McCain His First Edge The Associated Press CONCORD, N.H. (Dec. 9) - One day after a poll showed Sen. John McCain with a narrow lead over George W. Bush in New Hampshire, another released Thursday shows the Arizona senator pulling well ahead of the Texas governor. McCain drew the support of 43 percent of likely Republican voters compared with 28 percent for Bush in the survey by Franklin Pierce College and WNDS-TV. On the Democratic side, the poll found former New Jersey Sen. Bill Bradley slightly ahead of Vice President Al Gore, 45 percent to 37 percent. The ...

Bush Criticizes Gore on Free Trade By HOLLY RAMER The Associated Press GOFFSTOWN, N.H. (AP) -Republican presidential front-runner George W. Bush accused President Clinton and Vice President Al Gore of not being forceful enough in supporting free trade amid the protests surrounding the World Trade Organization meeting in Seattle. ``Vice President Al Gore has been amazingly silent,'' Bush said Thursday. ``He's starring in a new movie called `Silent in Seattle.''' Bush offered the criticism of the Democratic front-runner during a day that he greeted New Hampshire residents at three restaurants. Gore spokesman Chris Lehane responded that: ``Al Gore has been ...

A little different type of unscientific poll here. Who would you want on the ticket you want to vote for? Please, don't trash this thread with attacks. Let's see who people support, and why.

Bush Sees 'A Heck of a Race' in N.H. By Dan Balz Washington Post Staff Writer Friday, December 10, 1999; Page A1 Texas Gov. George W. Bush said yesterday that rival John McCain "may very well be the front-runner now in New Hampshire," as a round of polls taken after two recent GOP candidate debates showed the Arizona senator overtaking Bush's once-commanding lead in the nation's first primary state. "I've got a heck of a race on my hands," Bush said in a telephone interview from Austin hours after returning to Texas following two days of campaigning in the Granite ...

AN environmental campaigner who has spent two years sitting in a tree in protest against plans to cut it down has ended her demonstration after reaching agreement with the logging company that owns it. Julia "Butterfly" Hill, who has been perched 180ft high on a giant Humboldt County redwood near San Francisco, is believed to have reached an agreement with the Pacific Lumber Company to save some of the 1,000-year-old trees. Under the terms of the arrangement, Miss Hill and her many supporters will pay $50,000 (£31,250) to the company to stop it chopping down the trees. The money will ...

Bush Reviews: Simpleton or Just Simple? By David Von Drehle Washington Post Staff Writer Friday, December 10, 1999; Page A1 BEDFORD, N.H. – Certain questions come up in town meetings year after year, primary after primary. Taxes. Education. Abortion. Health care. This was one rarely put into words: A supporter of Texas Gov. George W. Bush rose to ask -- in the nicest possible way, hemming and hawing and obviously uncomfortable -- whether Bush is, you know, well . . . dumb. "Intellectually curious" was the gentle phrase the man used. But Bush did not miss the point of the ...