October 21, 1998 All Things Considered (entire program) Requires the RealAudio Player

An index of the day's stories:

Budget Bill Passed -- The Senate passed a 500-billion dollar budget bill today, including funding to help failing foreign economies, to pay for new teachers in America's schools and to bolster U.S. military readiness. But many senators complained that the bill was hastily put together and that they had not had sufficient opportunity to study its contents before voting on the measure. NPR's Peter Kenyon reports from Capitol Hill. (3:00)

Health Issues in the Budget -- All Things Considered host Robert Siegel talks with NPR's Julie Rovner who has followed health-related items on the Hill this session about what made it into the Omnibus Spending Bill and what didn't. The much-talked-about health care reform never happened -- the only element to make it into the budget was a provision to require health plans to provide reconstructive surgery after mastectomies. They also discuss what Congress did with medicare and transplant-organ allocation. (5:00)

Internet Legislation -- NPR's Larry Abramson reports that among the many tidbits included in the omnibus spending bill passed by Congress this week were a number of measures aimed at the Internet and the telecommunications industries. This Congress saw a lot of activity directed at either liberating or reining in the on-line world. Internet legislation has cut across party lines, and left many members uncertain whether the new medium will be better able to thrive with or without the help of federal laws. (4:00)

Banknotes Resignation -- NPR's Elaine Korry reports that Banknotes president David Coulter will step down, a week after the bank reported $1.4 billion in actual and anticipated losses in the global economic downturn. Bank of America recently merged with Nationsbank to become the first coast-to-coast bank in the country. Until recently, Coulter was viewed as the heir-apparent to run the newly combined banks. There are conflicting stories as to whether Coulter's resignation was voluntary. (2:30)

Venture Capital -- NPR's Snigdha Prakash reports that in the last decade private money managers have invested billions of dollars in start-up companies -- hoping to stumble upon the next Microsoft or Netscape. Venture capitalists, or VCs as they call themselves, put their money into highly uncertain investments that no one else is will touch. One researcher says venture capital is still a small fraction of over all equity investing, but that venture investments pack an outsize punch in terms of spurring innovation. (5:30)

Truth Commission Pt. 3 -- In part three of her series on South Africa's Truth Commission, NPR's Charlayne Hunter-Gault reports on how the Commission's public hearings transformed the thinking of a minister in the Dutch Reformed Church -- the church of apartheid. Johan Van der Merwe had always been a staunch supporter of white minority rule, and never questioned the Church's teaching that apartheid was the will of God. But he shed his supremacist views after hearing the revelations of massive apartheid-era human rights abuses presented to the Truth Commission. Now he seeks subtly to change the views of his conservative, mainly Afrikaner congregation. (9:30)

Dealing With the Past -- Commentator Iain Guest thinks countries like South Africa, Chile, and Argentina should have more political support from the international community as they wrestle with past abuses. (3:00)

Representative Bill Paxon -- All Things Considered host Linda Wertheimer speaks with New York Representative Bill Paxon who is leaving Congress after serving 5 terms in the House. He represented New York's 27th district of Victor and Williamsville. Once a part of the Republican leadership, Paxon stepped down the ranks after an unsuccessful attempt by young conservative Republicans to overthrow House Speaker Newt Gingrich. Representative Paxon feels he helped accomplish major change in the institution that is Congress, bringing his party to the majority. (5:00)

San Francisco Poet Laureate -- Commentator Andrei Codrescu recounts the coronation of poet Laureate - Lawrence Ferlingetti in San Francisco. Ferlingetti spoke of wanting to restore the soul of his city. (3:00)

Summit Tensions -- NPR's Ted Clark reports that U.S. mediators plan to draw up the details of proposed interim Middle East agreement and hand it to both Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Palestinian chairman Yasser Arafat in an effort to break the continuing impasse over security issues after seven days of negotiations. The U.S. move came after Israeli officials threatened to walk of the talks if Palestinians did not meet their security demands. (4:15)

Settler Protests -- NPR's Jennifer Ludden reports that the U.S.-sponsored Israeli-Palestinian talks on a West Bank troop pullout prompted demonstrations today by both Jewish settlers on the West Bank and by Palestinians in the Gaza strip. Hardliners in Israel's coalition government threaten to bring down Prime Minister Netanyahu if he agrees to let go of more West Bank land. But opposition parties in Israel have decided to support any deal reached between the two sides. (2:00)

Clinton as Peacemaker -- NPR senior news analyst Daniel Schorr says that President Clinton has an extra motivation in struggling to keep the Mideast peace process afloat. (2:15)

Netscape on the Stand -- Robert talks with NPR's John McChesney about developments in the government's antitrust case against Microsoft. Today Microsoft lawyers sought to portray an offer to invest in rival Netscape as merely a response to an earlier proposal from Netscape. Microsoft's lead attorney produced an e-mail from Netscape co-founder Jim Barksdale in which Barksdale suggests Microsoft might want to take an equity position in the upstart company. Microsoft attorneys are trying to show that offers that the government presents as new and surprising were actually part of an ongoing discussion. (3:45)

Mexico Environmental Storm -- Carrie Kahn of member station KPBS reports from Tijuana on an effort by Mexican and American activists to use the North American Free Trade Agreement to compel Mexico to clean up an abandoned lead smelter that is polluting parts of the border city. NAFTA's environmental side agreements were supposed to lead to greater enforcement of environmental laws in the U.S., Canada and Mexico. Critics say the side agreements' complaint process is of little use, because it cannot lead to fines or other sanctions. An author of the side agreements admits they can do little more than expose a government to embarrassing media coverage. (6:00)

Fear of Immigration -- Commentator Guillermo Gomez-Pena makes fun of paranoia about immigrants and blames politicians for creating those fears in this produced satirical commercial. (2:00)

Impeachment Inquiry -- NPR's Brian Naylor reports on today's meeting between House Judiciary Committee staff lawyers and attorneys for President Clinton. The two sides met to discuss ground rules for the impeachment investigation which is supposed to begin in mid-November. Issues to be discussed included how much evidence presented by independent counsel Kenneth Starr would be accepted by the committee without challenge, potentially speeding the process and also sparing committee members from the potential embarrassment of asking sexually sensitive questions of witnesses. (4:00)

New Mexico House Race -- Linda travels to New Mexico to report on the race for the third Congressional district. The Green party is strong in New Mexico and in past close races, the Green party candidates have drawn votes away from the Democratic party -- enough votes to help the Republican candidate win. In the Third district, the Republican incumbent, Bill Redmond, won his seat in just that situation, and now the Democratic challenger, Tom Udall, is trying to convince Democratic voters to come back to the party instead of supporting the Green candidate, Carol Miller. (8:30)

Infanticide Risk -- In the Unites States homicide is the leading cause of infant deaths due to injury, accounting for almost a third of such deaths annually. A report in the October 22nd issue of the New England Journal of Medicine which which reviewed data on the circumstances surrounding more than 3-thousand infant deaths has identified the factors which put an infant at increased risk of death from physical abuse. The most important risk factors include being the second or subsequent child born to a mother less than 17 years old. NPR's Jon Hamilton reports on the study and on what is known about prevention of child abuse and infanticide. (5:00)

Physical Exams -- Commentator Elyssa Ely reaches back to the days when she was learning to do physical exams in medical school and realized she was having trouble because she was so afraid to be around people who were dying. (2:30)