Thursday, April 27, 1995 (c) Copyright the News & Observer Publishing Co.

SPECIAL REPORT: Continous coverage of the tragedy in Oklahoma

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World Report

U.S. Report

SUMMARY: The Supreme Court Wednesday dealt a stinging blow to the federal government's ability to move into the realm of local law enforcement, ruling in a bitterly divided 5-4 decision that Congress acted beyond its constitutional authority five years ago when it made possession of a gun within 1,000 feet of a school a federal crime.... The right wing hardly has a corner on extremists: From the far left comes an anti-industry bomber. After 16 deadly attacks in 17 years, the Unabomber has offered to stop his terrorist attacks if national magazines or newspapers will publish a lengthy treatise of his "anti-industrial ideas"... The American Civil Liberties Union has long defended the right of people to express unpopular opinions. But when it comes to internal dissent by one of their own, Dr. Alan Bell, a longtime New Jersey ACLU member, says the organization is not so tolerant. The 30-year ACLU member is in danger of becoming the first member to be thrown out of the national ACLU since 1940 -- all because he has complained too loudly and too frequently about the organization's budgetary practices, Bell says.... O.J. Simpson's defense lawyers focused once again Wednesday on a vial of blood drawn from Simpson the day after his former wife was slain last year and suggested that the testimony of the Police Department's junior evidence collector as to how she had handled it was inconsistent, incredible and coached.... The bumper baby crop of 1990 -- the 4.2 million babies born to baby boomers who delayed childbearing, baby busters who didn't and immigrants -- is the most the nation has seen since 1962 and the peak of a boomlet of more than 4 million births annually that began the previous year.... Senate budget planners have delayed a meeting to write a balanced budget after Republicans expressed concerns about deep cuts in the growth of Medicare.... Supreme Court Justice Clarence Thomas gave dramatic support Wednesday to the view the Ku Klux Klan did not violate the separation of church and state by displaying a large cross near a state capitol.... The latest edition of Berlin, N.H.'s bruising little newspaper war is more civil than earlier editions. It has been months, for instance, since the publisher of one paper linked the publisher of the other to the colorful descriptives "psychopathic liar" and "staggering buffoon." Around Berlin, this is taken as a sign of creeping detente....

Financial Report

SUMMARY: U.S. factory orders for big-ticket goods unexpectedly rebounded last month, suggesting growth in key industries remained strong even under the weight of higher interest rates.... World airlines in 1994 made their first profit on global routes for five years and look headed for an even better result in 1995, the International Air Traffic Association reported Wednesday.... Cotton's comeback was never more apparent than it was last year, with record crops, exports and near record prices. New gins were built and old terms like "white gold" and "King Cotton" were resuscitated. This year's forecasts are even rosier.... The Supreme Court, in a setback for the insurance industry, said states can try to control health care costs by making some private insurance companies pay higher rates to hospitals for procedures... Twenty years after the fall of Saigon, Hollywood's interest in Vietnam has waned considerably, even as American companies line up to do business in the Southeast Asian country...

Information & Technology Report

"How-to" information on making bombs is available on computer networks like Internet, but users of the systems say the Oklahoma City blast should not be a reason for censoring them.... Dell Computer Corp. and other computer makers have been contacted by the Federal Trade Commission as part of a wide-ranging probe into the practice of selling computers with used parts as new, the Houston Chronicle reported.... FTC Indonesia, still fearful of communist influence three decades after it was outlawed, has seized Nintendo video-game cassettes it says contain the hammer and sickle symbol.... With today's modems and telephone networks, sending data via telephone from a conference in Germany to your London office should be child's play, right? Wrong.

Sports Report

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