Officials announced Tuesday that an American woman soldier was raped early Saturday morning in the area of a Czech battalion in northern Bosnia. The investigation was focusing on Czech soldiers with the NATO-led peace mission. The soldier was evacuated Sunday to the Taszar Air Base in Hungary for treatment. U.S. Army Europe spokeswoman Capt. Leela […]
Wilson Wants Dole to Show His True Anti-Affirmative Action Colors
California Gov. Pete Wilson is urging Presidential candidate Bob Dole to speak up on the issue of affirmative action before it gets claimed by Pat Buchanan. At a debate two weeks ago, the Rev. Jesse Jackson predicted that Wilson would end up supporting Buchanan for president because of Buchanan’s strong stand against affirmative action programs […]
Anti-Choice Measures Rejected in Virginia
In a setback for antiabortion forces in Richmond, the Virginia House of Delegates defeated a measure Monday to make the killing of a fetus a criminal act of murder. “Feticide” would have become a crime punishable by 20 years to life in prison. Pro-choice voices said the measure would begin to erode the legal right […]
Defense Witnesses Say Salvi Heard Voices
In the abortion clinic murder trial of John Salvi, defense witness Dr. Phillip Resnick was cross-examined Monday. The psychiatrist acknowledged that Salvi only revealed some of his paranoid delusions after learning that his lawyers planned an insanity defense. Salvi did not bring up certain topics during two interviews with Resnick following the December 1994 attacks. […]
Sex Ed Program Not Considered “Indecent” by Supreme Court
In an appeal Monday, the Supreme Court said that a 90-minute sex education and AIDS education program held at a school assembly did not violate religious freedom or parents’ right to raise their children as they saw fit. Two former Massachusetts high school students and their parents had objected to the program; their lawsuit had […]
Clinton Proposes Funding Decrease for Military, Increase for Education and the Environment
President Clinton announced a proposal Monday to reduce the fiscal 1997 military budget by $9.2 billion to $242.6 billion. His plan includes reductions in spending on both new weapons and operations and maintenance. Clinton also said Monday he will veto a spending bill needed to keep the government open past March 15 if Congress does […]
Women Fight to Save Affirmative Action and Sex Discrimination Law in California
Across the nation, women’s rights groups and civil rights groups are galvanizing support to defeat an initiative on the November ballot in California which would end state and locally sponsored affirmative action programs. At a press conference last week after the initiative supporters filed more than their required signatures, the Campaign to Save Women’s Rights […]
Most Sex Offenders Assault Children
The Justice Department released a report Sunday showing that two-thirds of state inmates imprisoned for rape had committed their crime against a child. Three out of four of the victims in the sexual assaults were girls, and 88 percent were known to the assaulter. “This high rate of child victims is behind the heightened concern […]
Buchanan’s Supporters Want to Ban Abortion
According to a new CNN-TIME Election Monitor, a clear majority of Pat Buchanan’s supporters want the Republican platform to include a call for a constitutional amendment to ban abortion. In contrast, of supporters of the other major Republican candidates, less than a quarter want such an amendment. The survey interviewed 1,002 registered Republicans between February […]
Defense Pursues Insanity Defense in Abortion Clinic Murder Trial
Forensic psychiatrist Dr. Phillip Resnick testified last week that accused murderer John Salvi suffered delusions brought on by paranoid schizophrenia when he killed two and wounded five at two Brookline, Mass. abortion clinics in December 1994. Resnick’s defense testimony contradicted the evidence of Salvi’s careful planning provided by the prosecution. Two witnesses testified to watching […]
Witnesses for Defense Describe Salvi’s Church Outburst
The defense called former New Hampshire state Sen. Robert Preston to the stand Thursday to testify that he remembered accused murderer John Salvi screaming in a Roman Catholic church on Christmas Eve 1994, two days before he attacked two abortion clinics. Preston testified that Salvi ranted that the church wasn’t doing enough to help Catholics, […]
Republican Congress Changes Strategy after Winter Break
According to the American Political Network, the Republican Congress that reconvenes Tuesday after a winter break will follow a strategy that is “far less aggressive” than last session’s 100-day “forced march” centered around the “Contract with America.” House Speaker Newt Gingrich and GOP leaders are reportedly moving on a “more patient agenda with fewer issues, […]
Breast Cancer Gene Can Fight or Cause Tumors; Mutation Decides Function
Scientists have concluded that BRCA1, the human breast cancer gene, is a true “suppressor gene” and causes cancer only when it mutates to yield to a faulty protein. Two research teams have discovered that the same genes can halt or shrink the growth of human breast and ovarian cancers, and even make some tumors disappear. […]
Navy Cook Sentenced for Sexual Harassment
On Tuesday, Chief Petty Officer George Powell was convicted of indecent assault, simple assault, and drunk and disorderly conduct for sexually harassing an enlisted woman on a commercial jet in October of 1995 and another woman on a flight in November. The 23-year-old woman on the October flight had testified that Powell, 49 grabbed her […]
Antiabortion Activists Taken into Custody in Virginia
Two antiabortion activists, Rae Powell and Carol McAdoo, were taken into custody Wednesday after refusing to answer some questions of a federal grand jury investigating abortion clinic violence. At least one of these questions related to the Army of God manual. Federal officials have called the Army of God a terrorist group and describe its […]
Judge Denies Custody to Lesbian Mother
Judge William G. Boice Tuesday upheld an earlier ruling and denied a lesbian custody of her four-year-old son. Sharon Bottoms had argued that her son, Tyler Doustou, is not developing well under his grandmother’s care and that she could give the boy more loving care. The 1993 custody decision was upheld by the State Supreme […]
Governors and White House Clash on Welfare, Medicaid; Shalala Says Conflicts Can Be Worked Out
Despite differences in governors’ plan for welfare and Medicaid and the White House vision, Health and Human Services Secretary Donna Shalala said Wednesday that conflicts could be fixed “in 24 hours if everyone got to the table.” She told the Senate Finance Committee that Congress must make a number of changes to win approval from […]
Women Executives Say Stereotypes Persist in the Corporate World
Catalyst, a women’s professional support organization, has released a study on female executives that shows women at the top in business are characterized by long work hours and being flexible. Women indicated that the best explanation for their success was they deliver results superior to male colleagues, consistently exceeding expectations. The study showed that 85 […]
Prosecutors Rest in Salvi Case; Defense Tries to Show Evidence of Schizophrenia
On Tuesday, prosecutors rested their case in the murder trial of John Salvi, accused of murdering two women in an attack on two abortion clinics in Brookline, Mass. They concluded their case with graphic testimony from Dr. Richard Evans, the chief Massachusetts medical examiner, describing the damage to the bodies of Lee Ann Nichols, shot […]
Salvi Script Shows Motivation, Delusions of Grandeur
Shortly before attacking two abortion clinics and killing two people, John Salvi portrayed himself as a rebel combating an evil, anti-Christian cabal in a skit he wrote. Prosecutors presented the handwritten script and religious diatribe hoping to show that Salvi was motivated by his anti-abortion views when he attacked the clinics in Brookline, Mass. in […]