Word: specializations
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Dates: during 1980-1989
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Last February Congress tried to give itself a hefty raise by playing the political equivalent of three-card monte: let the 51% increase recommended by a special commission go into effect, then appease constituents by voting against it, and keep the cash. But scandal-weary voters saw through the game, and the pay hike for Congressmen, federal judges and skilled federal employees died a humiliating death. Ever since, the search has been on for a more palatable proposal. Last week there were indications from House Speaker Thomas Foley and aides to President Bush that new ideas for boosting top Government...
Foley is thinking along similar lines. Several proposals for limiting honorariums (as lucrative speaking fees paid by special-interest groups are euphemistically labeled) are being considered by a bipartisan House panel. The plan considered most likely to succeed would gradually phase out speaking fees as House and Senate salaries increased from their present level of $89,500. Thus a 7% pay raise would be accompanied by a 7% lowering in the earnings allowed from speeches, which at present are 30% of salary for a House member and 40% for a Senator...
...single most enduring theme, warfare in space; Donkey Kong, whose endearingly quirky scenario had a little man racing up a skyscraper to rescue a girl from the clutches of a giant gorilla; and Tron, the only video game that was more popular than the movie that inspired it. Special attention is paid to technological innovations like the 3-D graphics introduced by Subroc 3-D in 1982 and the computerized voice in Berzerk, which lured passersby when the game was idle by calling out, "Coin detected in pocket...
...Economic Priorities publishes a booklet titled Shopping for a Better World. The 132-page guide, which has sold 300,000 copies at $4.95 each, ranks 1,300 products and their manufacturers according to ten criteria, including the promotion of women and minorities, testing on animals and environmental sensitivity. Special commendations go to S.C. Johnson, maker of Raid, for banning ozone-depleting chlorofluorocarbons from its products. Dishonorable mention falls on pesticide manufacturers like Dow Chemical...
...issue a temporary restraining order -- and perhaps turn the Rose investigation over to the courts -- or leave Rose to face Baseball Commissioner A. Bartlett Giamatti and the music early this week. After four months of husky whispers, the worst charges imagined were spoken aloud at last. Giamatti's special investigator, John Dowd, asserted in court that he has found nine witnesses and enough corroborating evidence to prove that Rose committed baseball's capital crime: from 1985 through 1987 the hustling heir to Ty Cobb routinely bet on his own Cincinnati Reds. Even for history's leading hitter, who retired after...