U.S. News Briefs
April 2, 1996
Web posted at: 12:25 a.m. ESTStar witness takes stand at Whitewater trial
LITTLE ROCK, Arkansas (AP) -- The prosecution's chief witness testified Monday that he and two Whitewater defendants devised a scheme to use his investment company to enrich themselves and also benefit "some members of the political family" in Arkansas.
David Hale was a small-time investment banker who claims President Clinton pressured him to make an illegal $300,000 loan to his Whitewater business partners. Clinton has denied the claim, calling it a "bunch of bull."
Hale's allegations are central to the Whitewater trial. Gov. Jim Guy Tucker and James and Susan McDougal -- Clinton's former Whitewater partners -- are charged with fraud and conspiracy in a 21-count indictment.
Hale testified that he, Tucker and McDougal hatched the scheme in October 1985 to use proceeds from a bogus $825,000 land deal to infuse $500,000 into Hale's small business investment company. The money would increase Hale's lending limit, enabling the firm to make loans for McDougal and Tucker.
Cardinal implores Clinton to sign abortion restriction
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Cardinal Joseph Bernadin, the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Chicago, on Monday urged President Clinton to sign a bill outlawing some late-term abortions.
Several hundred activists attended a candlelight vigil across from the White House in the pouring rain Monday night, also to protest Clinton's planned veto of the bill. The event was sponsored by the National Conference of Catholic Bishops.
In a letter to the president, Bernadin said that he was "profoundly saddened" by Clinton's intention to veto the bill, which bans a rarely performed procedure known as "intact D and E." Those who want the procedure banned refer to it as a "partial birth abortion."
Clinton and opponents of the measure charge that a total ban on intact D and E endangers the lives of women who may require the procedure late in a pregnancy due to medical problems.
In his letter, Bernadin said there was "no justification ... for allowing such an abhorrent procedure."
New York judge reverses controversial drug case decision
NEW YORK (CNN) -- The New York judge accused of "junk justice" by Newt Gingrich has reversed a ruling in a drug case he dismissed earlier this year.
Judge Harold Baer announced Monday that a police search of a woman's vehicle which uncovered over $4 million in drugs was warranted.
In his initial ruling in January, Judge Baer dismissed the case against Carol Bayless because he deemed the search of her car unwarranted, even though police officers testified they saw four men line up suspiciously at the trunk, and the men fled when the officers approached.
Baer had ruled that it would have been unusual had the men not fled, given the high rate of police corruption in that Bronx neighborhood.
The judge came under intense criticism from Mayor Rudy Giuliani, Gov. George Pataki and a group of Republican congressmen, including Speaker Gingrich.
High court refuses to set time limit for death-row appeals
WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Supreme Court refused Monday to set a time limit for state death-row inmates to file their first federal appeals, saying even last-minute appeals generally cannot be dismissed for being filed too late.
The court unanimously set aside an order that would have allowed the execution of a Georgia triple killer although his first federal appeal had not yet been heard.
However, Larry Grant Lonchar's lawyer said Monday his client now wants to drop the appeal. Lonchar filed the appeal last June as his execution was being prepared. He had resisted relatives' earlier appeals on his behalf, but said he finally decided to appeal in hopes the state would change its execution method from electrocution to lethal injection in the belief that would let him donate his organs after death.
Georgia lawmakers did not enact such legislation in their session that ended last month.
Wal-Mart loses battle to build on George Washington's boyhood home
STAFFORD COUNTY, Virginia (CNN) -- Wal-Mart lost a battle Monday in its efforts to build a store on the farm where a young George Washington is fabled to have chopped down a cherry tree.
The Stafford County, Virginia Architectural Review Board voted unanimously to deny Wal-Mart permission to build a store on the land where Washington was raised in Fredricksburg, Virginia.
At least 175 people at the hearing opposed the store. Only a handful of people at the meeting supported the store's plan.
The home site sits on 46 acres of land donated to the county. Twenty-four acres of the land are zoned for commercial use.
Charles Cabell, attorney for Wal-Mart, told CNN that Wal-Mart will appeal the decision to the Stafford County Board of Supervisors. Several of the board members have indicated they support the Wal-Mart position.
Kitty heroine recovers with her kittens
NEW YORK (CNN) -- A mother cat who raced into a burning Brooklyn building and rescued her five kittens is recuperating with her litter at an animal clinic. (753K QuickTime movie)
With her eyes blistered shut, her paws burned and her coat singed, the cat -- nicknamed Scarlet for her patches of red fur -- darted into the flames and pulled out her kittens, one by one. Once all the kittens had been rescued, their mother conducted a head count, touching each kitten with her nose to make sure they were all there.
Firefighter David Gianelli found the feline family outside the building Friday and took them to an animal shelter, where the mother and babies are receiving treatment.
Hundreds of people have offered to adopt the cats.
ATMs might charge a second fee
NEW YORK (CNN) -- Beginning Monday, many ATM customers may be charged an extra fee for using ATMs that aren't affiliated with their own bank.
Under the new rule, one fee would go to their bank and the other to the owner of the ATM. Until now, consumers were charged an average of 95 cents per transaction, if at all.
The extra charge is the result of decisions last year by major ATM systems operated by Visa International and Mastercard International. The policy already had been in effect in some states.
Visa did not set a maximum surcharge fee. However, it expects banks to charge 25 cents to $2.50 per transaction for the use of machines not owned by their bank.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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