News In Brief
Prominent senators from both sides of the aisle joined in calling for the resignation of Attorney General Janet Reno over the administration's response to alleged nuclear-weapons spying by China. Robert Torricelli (D) of New Jersey, normally a staunch defender of administration actions, told CBS's "Face the Nation" Sunday President Clinton should have a talk with Reno about "whether it is in the national interest for her to continue." Appearing on the same program, Intelligence Committee chairman Richard Shelby (R) of Alabama said Reno should quit "and take her top lieutenants with her" because of her refusal to approve FBI requests to wiretap suspected spy Wen Ho Lee. The controversy is expected to come to a head today as a House panel makes public its long-delayed report detailing how China stole or otherwise obtained US nuclear technology.
Educators in federally supported schools and colleges may be in violation of the law if they deliberately ignore the sexual harassment of one student by others, the Supreme Court ruled. By a 5-to-4 vote, the justices said educators can be forced to pay the victims in such cases. The ruling reversed a lower court decision in a Georgia case. Without comment, the high court also refused to force the city of Phoenix to accept religious, political, or other noncommercial advertising for display on the outside of public buses. Among other decisions, the justices ruled that police can be sued for allowing TV camera crews or other journalists to accompany them into people's homes to observe arrests or searches.
Presumed 2000 GOP presidential candidate George W. Bush of Texas picked up a key endorsement from a fellow governor, New York's George Pataki. Pataki, once considered to have his own presidential ambitions, also said he had "no intention" of seeking the Senate seat being vacated by the retiring Daniel Patrick Moynihan (D). He did not, however, rule out backing New York Mayor Rudolph Giuliani (R), with whom he is not close, for the Senate post.
A jury in San Francisco was to begin deliberating whether biotechnology giant Genentech Corp. should pay up to $1.2 billion in penalties for allegedly using a patented DNA molecule in its research without the permission of the University of California. The material disappeared from a university refrigerator on New Year's Eve 1978, and Genentech is accused of using it to develop a popular human growth hormone, Protropin. The company later paid the school $2 million for the DNA. Genentech also recently paid $50 million to settle a federal investigation into its marketing of Protropin.
The World Wrestling Federation was investigating a fatal accident during a sold-out Sunday night program in Kansas City, Mo. Owen Hart of Calgary, Alberta, also known as "Blue Blazer," died in an unscripted fall as he was being lowered by cable into the ring from the ceiling of Kemper Arena. The fall was not seen by a pay-per-view TV audience, although the program was carried live.
