George Nethercutt

With anti-incumbent politics at a fever pitch this year, supporters of fixed terms for members of Congress believe next month's midterm elections could give them virtually unstoppable momentum at a pivotal point in their movement's history. Prodded by polls indicating overwhelming support for term limits, congressional challengers across the country are taking up the movement's mantra, pledging to support a constitutional amendment to limit the number of terms they can serve in Washington.

It was a diamond within a diamond within a diamond, a 4-inch-by-4-inch swatch of red on a white base on a dirt-brown infield. Smaller than a bag of peanuts, smaller than a box of Cracker Jack, it caused the sport of baseball to sputter and actually concede a possible mistake, which is a kind of superpower Spider-Man no doubt would like to learn. One day after Major League Baseball announced plans to load the bases with advertising for the upcoming movie "Spider-Man 2," the bags are empty again.

Bill Jones strode to the podium at the Republican National Convention last week and, in a speech that lasted two minutes, took a telling verbal detour. Whereas fellow Republican Senate candidates delivered tag-team endorsements of President Bush, Jones mentioned the head of the Republican ticket only once, almost as an afterthought, while praising a certain former movie actor three times.

President Clinton and the new Republican leaders of Congress proffered olive branches to each other but simultaneously clenched their fists amid strong signs that the post-election cease-fire may prove fragile and fleeting. Though both sides vowed to work together on a broad range of issues, including welfare reform and government streamlining, each laid down markers that seem to make collision inevitable. In press conferences Wednesday, Sen. Bob Dole (R-Kan.) and Rep. Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.

Like neighbors bickering over dog droppings, politicians in Washington and Idaho are battling over who should clean up decades' worth of mining pollution in the Silver Valley. The pollution, including lead and arsenic, flowed into Idaho's Lake Coeur d'Alene and entered Washington through the Spokane River, traveling all the way to its confluence with the Columbia. All sides agree the river basin should be cleaned up, but they differ on the approach.

China's President Jiang Zemin relaxed in the Cuban beach resort of Varadero on Saturday, basking in the glow of multimillion-dollar trade deals, warming ties and a meeting of the world's two most visible Communist leaders. Two nights earlier, Jiang sang "Guantanamera" and Chinese opera over dinner with an amiable and animated President Fidel Castro.

Sen. John McCain is scheduled to campaign today with President Bush in Washington state and Nevada -- appearances likely to finally squelch speculation that he might run as the vice presidential candidate on a Democratic ticket headed by Sen. John F. Kerry. The prospect of a Kerry-McCain "unity" ticket has intrigued some Democrats -- inspired in part by the Arizona Republican's appeal to independents and in part by the frosty relations between McCain and Bush.

House and Senate negotiators on Thursday reached agreement on legislation to allow the sale of food and medicine to Cuba, moving to relax a trade embargo central to U.S. policy toward the communist regime of Fidel Castro for nearly four decades. Proponents hailed the measure, which now goes to the House and Senate for final approval, as a sea change in the U.S. approach to Cuba.

The Snake River has quietly meandered through the hills and farms of southeastern Washington state for generations, lacking the fame of the Mississippi, the Rio Grande or the Pacific Northwest's most famous river, the Columbia. But that is changing. "Saving" the Snake has become a battle cry from Washington, D.C., to grass-roots environmental offices from coast to coast. It's the subject of strategy sessions and full-page national newspaper ads.