News In Brief
The US
US Rep. Bill Paxon denied participating in a plan to oust House Speaker Newt Gingrich. The New York Republican resigned late last week as chairman of the party's House leadership after press reports implicated him in the incident. There was concern that confusion in GOP ranks could complicate party efforts to reach a tax accord with the White House.
More than 100 Canadian fishing boats surrounded an Alaskan ferry in Prince Rupert, B.C., blocking its departure and demanding progress in a salmon-fishing dispute between the US and Canada. The two nations have been holding talks for months on how to divide Pacific salmon stocks, but failed to reach an accord before the start of the fishing season.
Bell Atlantic and Nynex apparently removed a major hurdle to the second-biggest merger in US history, promising to take steps to make it easier for rivals to compete in local phone markets. Three of four Federal Communications Commissioners reportedly said the pledge clears the way for the $23 billion merger, announced last year. It would create the second-biggest US phone company, controlling lines from Maine to Virginia.
President Clinton announced the nomination of Felix Rohatyn as US ambassador to France. Rohatyn retired this year as managing director of Lazard Freres & Co., a New York investment bank. Rohatyn was a key player in restructuring New York City finances during a fiscal crisis in the mid-1970s. He is a big contributor to the Democratic Party.
The Federal Election Commission said it had fined a German businessman $323,000 for numerous illegal political contribitions. Thomas Kramer agreed to pay the fine, the largest the FEC has levied against an individual, to settle the case. It involved $322,600 in illegal donations made in 1993 and 1994. The agency also fined the Republican Party of Florida $82,000 for accepting illegal contributions from Kramer. And it sent letters of admonishment to a long list of political candidates - including Democrats - but took no further action against them.
Episcopal Church leaders came within one vote of approving a motion to recognize same-sex marriages. Delegates attending the denomination's annual convention also voted to enforce a 1976 action that provides for ordaining and recognizing women priests. Four dioceses have refused to recognize women priests, a church spokesman said.
Some 5,800 auto workers voted to return to work in Pontiac, Mich., after overwhelmingly approving a tentative agreement with General Motors. It calls for GM to add 557 new workers and pay $9.5 million to settle grievances and other demands.
The state of New York sued the Environmental Protection Agency, saying it had failed to address the state's acid-rain problem. The lawsuit says the EPA failed to develop "deposition standards" to regulate emissions from Midwestern factories as required by law. Meanwhile, the American Trucking Associations, the US Chamber of Commerce, the National Coalition of Petroleum Retailers, and three freight firms also filed suit, saying EPA failed to consider the impact its clean-air standards will have on small businesses and had based the standards on "inadequate science."
