Charles Mathias

Former Sen. Charles Mathias was named chairman of First American Bankshares Inc. on Tuesday in a shake-up of the company's officers. Mathias, a Maryland Republican, replaces Nicholas Katzenbach, a former U.S. attorney general who succeeded former Chairman Clark Clifford when he resigned in August after charges stemming from the BCCI scandal. First American Executive Vice President Paul G. Adams III was named president and chief executive. He succeeds George L. Davis.

Former Sen. Charles Mathias was named chairman of First American Bankshares Inc. on Tuesday in a shake-up of the company's officers. Mathias, a Maryland Republican, replaces Nicholas Katzenbach, a former U.S. attorney general who succeeded former Chairman Clark Clifford when he resigned in August after charges stemming from the BCCI scandal. First American Executive Vice President Paul G. Adams III was named president and chief executive. He succeeds George L. Davis.

Eight former high government officials asked President Bush today to write to Nelson Mandela, the jailed South African black freedom leader whom American officials are not permitted to see, as a step toward nudging both sides in South Africa toward negotiations. For Bush to contact Mandela "could well contribute to his release and return to political life," the ex-officials said. Their call for a U.S.

Conservatives grappling with the question of whether their movement has life after Reagan were urged today to campaign against moderate Republican senators up for reelection in 1986. Howard Phillips, chairman of the Conservative Caucus, cited five GOP senators he said ought to be targeted for defeat: Robert Packwood of Oregon, Warren Rudman of New Hampshire, Charles Mathias of Maryland, Mark Andrews of North Dakota and Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania.

California Sen. Alan Cranston is doing so well raising money for his 1986 reelection campaign that he probably will not get any help from the finance committee set up to help Senate Democrats, according to Sen. George Mitchell of Maine, chairman of the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee. "Alan is doing a great job raising money on his own," Mitchell said Wednesday at a breakfast with reporters in Los Angeles.

"As I walked through the cemetery this morning, I saw all the gravestones--Spanish-American War, World War I, World War II," Thomas McGowan said quietly. "I thought about some of the friends I'd lost, people who were killed right in front of me. . . . "If they hadn't given their lives," he said, "there might be a lot more people dead today."

Republicans waited almost 50 years to win control of the White House, the Senate and the House at the same time--the branches of the federal government with vast power over national policy. But barely four months after the GOP achieved this goal, it apparently will slip from its grasp with the expected announcement today by Sen. James M. Jeffords of Vermont that he is leaving the Republican Party.

Vice President George Bush Thursday cast a tie-breaking vote as the Senate approved U.S. production of a new generation of chemical weapons, the third time he has done so on this issue. The 51-50 vote killed an effort by Sen. David Pryor (D-Ark.) to deny the Reagan Administration $56.8 million in fiscal 1987 to begin production of the so-called Bigeye bomb--one of two new binary chemical weapons the United States plans to produce in the near future.

Although he has harshly criticized his opponent in the governor's race for taking special-interest money, Pete Wilson has himself intervened on behalf of a number of political supporters with a considerable stake in federal government decisions, a review of his record in the U.S. Senate shows.