November 10, 1995
Web posted at 12:05 a.m. EST
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- More than 1 million children will sink into poverty if the GOP welfare legislation is passed, a White House study estimates.
That finding could give President Bill Clinton the needed arsenal to push through changes in the Senate welfare reform bill, and thus back out of his earlier support for the plan.
The administration study released Thursday recommends setting a minimum level for state spending on welfare programs. It also said a permanent increase in child care funding is needed.
Under the Republican legislation, Aid to Families With Dependent Children would be abolished. It would also require welfare recipients to work after two years, and would chop off families' cash benefits after five years.
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Former Presidential Counsel Lloyd Cutler acknowledged that he "may have gone too far" in saying that a Whitewater investigation cleared the White House of wrongdoing.
Testifying before a Senate Whitewater committee Thursday, Cutler said his 1994 testimony on Capitol Hill was incorrect, but not intentionally misleading.
At that time, Cutler had held that the Office of Government Ethics (OGE) had cleared the White House of improprieties for its contacts with the Treasury department during the Whitewater probe.
But Cutler indicated Thursday that the OGE had never directly examined the White House. Their interpretation was based solely on Cutler's findings. Cutler told the committee that the OGE had never indicated that the procedure followed was objectionable.
McMINNVILLE, Tennessee (CNN) -- A 21-year-old woman was sentenced to 18 years in prison for leaving her children to die in an airless car while she slept in her boyfriend's motel room.
On June 6, Jennie Ducker's two sons, ages 1 and 23 months, were strapped in their car seats with the windows rolled up. They suffocated to death.
The judge who sentenced her Thursday said Ducker did not appear remorseful, and that her demeanor was hostile.
Ducker will have to serve at least six years before she is eligible for parole.
WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Clinton administration will announce reforms intended to expedite the approval process for high-tech drugs.
The proposed new regulations are expected to make it easier for manufacturers to get new drugs on the market. Manufacturers would also not need a second license to operate drug manufacturing plants.
There are 33 biotech drugs on the market including a genetically produced human growth hormone, insulin and Hepatitis B vaccine.
It now takes a decade or longer to get a drug to market. It is hoped that the new rules will shorten the wait significantly.
The 560 biotech companies are considered a prime growth industry, with about 60 million consumers worldwide.
LOS ANGELES (CNN) -- Los Angeles Deputy District Attorney Marcia Clark, who led the prosecution team in the O.J Simpson murder trial, reportedly signed a multi-million dollar book deal Thursday.
Naturally, the book is about the case, but it will also focus on the shortcomings of the U.S. justice system, Viking publishers told Reuters news agency.
Viking, a division of Penguin USA, is said to have paid Clark between $3 million and $4.2 million. The announcement came as reports filtered in that Clark's colleagues were upset about the 11 percent bonus she and two other Simpson trial prosecutors received.
Clark was represented by the William Morris Agency, which also signed on her colleague, Christopher Darden. The agency is reported to have signed a $1.7 million book deal with Darden last week.
PENTAGON (CNN) -- The Navy is conducting a criminal investigation as the result of a sexual assault allegation. A drunken senior Navy enlisted man repeatedly groped a female sailor seated beside him on a commercial airliner, Navy sources at the Pentagon told CNN. At the same time, the sources said, some 20 other sailors on the flight did nothing to help her. The group was headed to new assignments following the decommissioning of their ship, the USS Samuel Gompers.
The alleged incident, involving Chief Petty Officer George Powell, 49, and an unnamed 23-year-old third-class petty officer, occurred October 27 on an American Airlines flight from Norfolk, Virginia, to San Diego, California, the sources said. Despite the young woman's screams and curses of protest, Powell continued to touch her breasts, crotch and legs, the sources said, while the Navy group, which included a chaplain, did not put a stop to it.
Navy spokesman Cmdr. Steve Pietropaoli told CNN that the Navy intends to pursue the case as a sexual assault and not as sexual harassment. He said the case "goes beyond harassment ...and it is being treated as a criminal allegation."
The incident reportedly ended when an Air Force colonel demanded the ranking Navy officer aboard take charge. The Navy has been embarrassed in recent years by a string of harassment reports, most notably allegations of sexual assaults by aviators attending a Tailhook Association convention of naval aviators in Las Vegas in 1991.
LOS ANGELES (CNN) -- A hearing will be held next Wednesday to determine if pretrial proceedings will be open to news coverage before O.J. Simpson faces lawsuits accusing him of wrongful death. News organizations and the family of murder victim Ronald Goldman filed separate court papers Tuesday opposing Simpson's efforts to keep the proceedings secret.
CNN and six other news organizations contend that Simpson failed to show he would be harmed by the release of videotapes of him giving depositions.
Simpson was acquitted last month of the June 1994 murders of his ex-wife Nicole Brown Simpson and her friend Goldman. The victims' families are suing Simpson for damages in civil court.
LOS ANGELES (CNN) -- The three lead prosecutors in the O.J. Simpson case are getting bonuses totaling $43,000 and some of their colleagues in the Los Angeles district attorney's office want equal treatment, saying they work long, hard hours, too. "I'm beyond upset," said Deputy District Attorney Lea D'Agostino, who is among a group considering a grievance to protest the extra pay.
Marcia Clark was retroactively awarded an extra $14,330 for the 16-month case; her annual salary is $96,828. William Hodgman was paid $17,760 above his $120,000 annual salary. Christopher Darden, who earns the same as Clark but joined the Simpson prosecution team three months after Clark, received an extra $10,750.
District Attorney Gil Garcetti defended his decision, saying the three deserved the bonuses for efforts that went "way beyond" hard work. (230K AIFF sound or 230K WAV sound) "The fact that Clark, Darden and Hodgman made 11 percent more is not going to pay for the sacrifices they made, not just for themselves and their families, but for the people of this county." Garcetti also said he wished he could be as generous with all of the prosecutors in his office. (197K AIFF sound or 197K WAV sound)
Clark, Darden and Hodgman are currently on leave. They were allowed to take compensatory time off in return for working hundreds of hours of overtime on the case. Compensatory time also was given to all other members of the Simpson prosecution team, including law clerks.
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