Texas Senator Is Reindicted On Charges Of Misconduct

SEN. Kay Bailey Hutchison (R) of Texas was reindicted on charges that she misused her job as state treasurer for personal and political ends. The original charges had been thrown out on a legal technicality.

She responded that the charges were designed to torpedo her bid for a six-year term next year. ``The political motivation of this prosecution will be exposed,'' she said Wednesday.

Ms. Hutchison won a June election to replace Treasury Secretary Lloyd Bentsen in the Senate. She became a rising GOP star for taking the district from Democrats, and the first Texas woman in the Senate.

She was accused of using Treasury staff to do personal and political chores and destroying tapes containing employees' work files to cover up. She was indicted in September on four felony counts and one misdemeanor. After original charges were thrown out, District Attorney Ronnie Earle (D) went to another grand jury, which also reindicted two former aides on official misconduct charges. Coal contract proposed

A proposed five-year coal contract would ensure United Mine Workers (UMW) jobs even at nonunion mines and could bring more industry cooperation.

Some 60,000 working and laidoff UMW members will vote next week. A selective strike, which began May 10 and grew to 17,500 miners, won't end until a new contract is in place.

Sources said Wednesday that the UMW and Bituminous Coal Operators Association members achieved many goals at talks a year ago. The UMW had sought future jobs - whether at unionized or nonunion subsidiaries - for members, who otherwise could be unemployed within seven years when mines are depleted. The proposed contract gives the union 60 percent of new jobs. The expired 1988 pact also promised 60 percent of new jobs but did not extend to new nonunion subsidiaries.

The contract also includes ``provisions that further strengthen workplace democracy and provide for miners to have a real say in the way work is performed,'' Labor Secretary Robert Reich said. It calls for ``an industrywide, labor-management cooperative committee'' that would allow miners and managers to resolve problems, he said.

The contract also includes wage hikes of more than $1.30 per hour. Under the old pact, the top scale was $16.61 an hour.