Notebook

Verbatim

"I guess my first reaction was, 'Ask not what you can do for your cousin, but what you can do for his magazine.'"
Representative Joseph Kennedy, on the article criticizing him that appeared in cousin J.F.K. Jr.'s publication, George

The Scoop

Swiss Finance: Like, Say, Banking For Chocolate

(TIME August 25) -- In the heady world of international business, so many interests seem to overlap. PAUL VOLCKER, a former chairman of the Federal Reserve who serves on a variety of high-powered boards, is a paid director of Nestle, Switzerland's largest company. Nothing odd there, except that other Nestle directors include the bosses of Switzerland's three largest banks, and these are among the banks Volcker is charged with investigating as head of a committee of "eminent persons" looking into Switzerland's role during World War II. Why are questions about Volcker's Nestle position being raised now? Perhaps because in a recent letter to a federal judge who must decide whether or not to dismiss a multibillion-dollar class action brought by Holocaust victims against the Swiss banks, Volcker argued that their suit would have a potentially "crippling" impact on his investigation. Other members of the eminent-persons group immediately dissociated themselves from Volcker's letter, and made it clear that it was his concern, not theirs. Lawyers for the victims are questioning Volcker's business ties. Volcker had no comment.

--By Adam Zagorin/Washington

Paula Jones: It's Always A Battle Between Love And Money

Clinton lawyer Bob Bennett, constrained by politics from delving into PAULA JONES' sexual history as he prepares for a possible trial in her harassment suit, intends to probe what he asserts was Jones' real motive for coming forward: money. To that end, a crucial witness could be CARRIE FERRARO, who rented Paula and Steve Jones a Glendale, Calif., house in May 1993. Ferraro told TIME that almost from the start, the couple complained of being broke. They were frequently late paying the $900 monthly rent, she says, and Paula often asked to borrow money. The chatty Paula, she claims, never mentioned meeting Clinton, much less being pawed by him. After paying only part of October's rent, they skipped November entirely, then told Ferraro the Joneses were breaking their lease and moving out, according to Ferraro. Just 2 1/2 months later, Jones went public with her claim that Clinton asked her for oral sex in an Arkansas hotel room in 1991. She filed suit in May 1994. Ferraro contacted the White House after she saw Jones on a TV news broadcast, and has spoken several times to Clinton's private lawyers. Jones and her husband, claims Ferraro, "were always wanting something for nothing." Jones' lawyers have consistently denied that she was motivated by money. On Friday, federal judge Susan Webber Wright is likely to set a trial date. But given the arsenal each side has built, observers say there are better-than-even odds of a settlement. Neither side really wants to see the other in court.

--By Viveca Novak/Washington

Terrorism: Putting America's Best Face Forward

The U.S. State Department's bureau of diplomatic security has turned to a curious spokesman in its attempt to stop worldwide terrorism. Besides placing macabre, slasher-movie-style newspaper ads in the International Herald Tribune offering up to $2 million for information about assaults on American citizens abroad, the State Department has enlisted none other than bad-boy actor CHARLIE SHEEN to lend encouragement in a series of public-service ads at its www.heroes.net Website. "Are you the next hero?" asks Sheen, whose unheroic scrapes with the law have included serving as a prosecution witness in the HEIDI FLEISS tax-evasion case (Sheen admitted spending more than $50,000 on "sexual services" arranged by Fleiss) as well as making a more recent court appearance in which he pleaded no contest to charges he attacked his former girlfriend.

--By Elaine Lafferty and Jeffrey Ressner/Los Angeles

Post Box

PHILATELIC FELINE The Central African Republic, it seems, has a soft spot for Socks. But you don't have to go there to lick the back of the First Cat's stamp. The International Collectors Society, a privately owned stamp company, sells a block of nine for $12.95. The company, based in Maryland, is appointed by post offices around the world to help market and distribute special-interest or collector stamps, which are legal for postage in the country where they are produced and recognized by postal authorities worldwide. I.C.S. buys the stamps from the government, usually paying above face value, and covers distribution costs. The country takes a cut from the company's profits.