Copyright 1999 The Baltimore Sun Company
THE
BALTIMORE SUN
February 12, 1999, Friday ,FINAL
SECTION: TELEGRAPH ,2A National Digest
LENGTH: 919 words
BYLINE: From
wire reports
BODY:
In Washington
Government
puts ban on road building in some national forests
The
Clinton administration ordered yesterday an 18-month ban on new road building in
many of the country's national forests, long a battleground
between environmentalists and loggers.
The moratorium includes the
Hiawatha, Huron-Manistee and Ottawa National Forests in
Michigan and Chequamegon and Nicolet National Forests in
Wisconsin, but it excludes vast tracts in Alaska and the Pacific Northwest.
The moratorium gives the U.S. Forest Service time to develop a new plan
for roadless areas that would be based on recreation and
environmental-protection needs as much as access for loggers.
Ouster of
INS commissioner urged for prisoner release
A Republican congressman
called yesterday for the removal of Immigration Commissioner Doris Meissner over
the pending release from crowded detention facilities of illegal immigrants with
criminal records. "If this horror story goes forward, the commissioner's
credibility as a law enforcement officer would be shattered," said Rep. Lamar
Smith of Texas. The Immigration and Naturalization Service denied that dangerous
criminals would be released.
A shortage of detention beds is forcing the
INS to release illegal immigrants who have served their sentences for nonviolent
crimes, officials said.
Park service defends plans for Gettysburg
battlefield
The National Park Service defended its proposed
$40 million renovation at the Gettysburg battlefield yesterday
against complaints that a new visitors center and retail complex would cheapen
the Civil War site.
The agency already has scaled down the privately
funded proposal in south-central Pennsylvania by eliminating an IMAX theater and
cutting back the number of retail shops.
Some preservationists and
community groups complained that the Park Service failed to consider other
alternatives for replacing existing facilities that agency officials consider
cramped and "below atrocious."
Mellon willed $75
million, art to National Gallery
Billionaire philanthropist Paul Mellon,
who died Feb. 1 at age 91, bequeathed $75 million in cash and
more than 100 of his favorite artworks to the National Gallery of Art, the
museum said yesterday. A spokeswoman said the gift was "the largest in the
gallery's history."
Among the paintings that Mellon willed to the
gallery were two oils by Vincent Van Gogh, "Still Life of Oranges and Lemons
with Blue Gloves" (1889) and "Green Wheat Fields, Auvers" (1890).
He
also gave the museum 13 paintings by Georges Seurat, three by Edouard Manet, 10
by Pierre Bonnard and many others by a host of French artists.
After
near-miss as speaker, Livingston will be lobbyist
Rep. Robert L.
Livingston, the almost speaker of the House, isn't burning any bridges when he
leaves Congress at the end of the month: He plans to set up his own lobbying
shop.
While Livingston won't be joining an established lobbying firm in
Washington, he plans to affiliate with the firm of Jones, Walker, Waechter,
Poitevent, Carrere & Denegre, officials close to the Louisiana Republican
said.
The firm is based in New Orleans but has a Washington office.
In the Nation
Whitewater figure loses bid to avoid fraud trial
LITTLE ROCK, Ark. -- Whitewater figure David Hale lost a bid yesterday
to avoid trial on charges that he tried to fool regulators into thinking he had
enough money in his insurance company to pay claims.
Lawyers for Hale,
who has claimed that then-Gov. Bill Clinton pressured him into lending money for
a land deal, argued before the Arkansas Supreme Court that the charge is based
on statements he gave under an immunity agreement with Whitewater independent
counsel Kenneth W. Starr.
Hale's lawyers claim those statements cannot
be used against him, but the Arkansas court sided with prosecutors who say they
developed their case independently of Starr's office.
Robbery-murder
defendant acquitted despite confession
NEW YORK -- The second defendant
in the robbery and murder of a high school teacher was acquitted yesterday of
all charges despite 13 pages of self-incriminating statements that he gave to
police.
A jury found Montoun Hart, 26, innocent of second-degree murder
and first-degree robbery in the 1997 slaying of Jonathan Levin, the son of Time
Warner Chairman Gerald Levin.
Michigan patient records published on
Internet
ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- Several thousand patient records at the
University of Michigan Medical Center inadvertently lingered on public Internet
sites for two months.
The problem was discovered Monday when a
university student searching for information about a doctor on the medical
center's Web site was linked to files containing private patient records.
The records contained names, addresses, phone numbers, Social Security
numbers, employment status, treatments for specific medical conditions and other
data. The information was used to schedule appointments, spokesman Dave Wilkins
said.
2 crew members rescued after Marine copter ditches
NEW
BERN, N.C. -- A Marine helicopter on a night training mission crashed into the
Atlantic Ocean, military officials said yesterday. The two crew members were
rescued.
The AH-1W Super Cobra went down Wednesday night in the Atlantic
near Pamlico Sound, off the North Carolina coast.
Capt. John W. Selby,
33, of Reseda, Calif., and Capt. Dennis C. Derienzo, 27, of Old Bethpage, N.Y.,
were taken to Cherry Point Naval Hospital for treatment.
LOAD-DATE: February 13, 1999
