Legislation United States

The story is powerful, almost mythic, yet tragically true. A young woman goes to a fine university in a rural community and, asleep in her dorm room during her freshman year, is raped and beaten by an intruder. He strangles her with a Slinky toy. The shattered mother, Connie Clery, stands at the end of her driveway a week after the funeral and tells a friend: Something must be done. A wrong must be righted.

President Clinton said Wednesday that he is "quite favorably disposed" toward a new proposal to grant all death row inmates a chance to prove their innocence by using DNA testing. At his first formal press conference of the year, Clinton, a death penalty supporter, praised as "courageous" the recent decision by Republican Gov. George Ryan to suspend executions in Illinois after several high-profile cases in which convicted murderers awaiting execution were exonerated.

Hours after the 105th Congress adjourned, President Clinton on Thursday signed a law that encourages states to set up more high-quality charter schools. Clinton cited the legislation as a rare example of bipartisan cooperation in the GOP-controlled Congress. "That is the right way to strengthen our public schools," the president said in brief remarks on the South Lawn of the White House. Clinton blasted the Republicans for torpedoing his top legislative priorities.

In findings that are expected to help shape reform of the nation's welfare system, new research in California released today shows that large-scale welfare-to-work programs can move a substantial number of recipients into the work force and provide savings to government.

One year after the Columbine High School shooting, newly energized gun-control forces are grappling with a potentially critical split within their ranks over a key strategic decision: How far can they hope to go in reining in guns? For all the recent talk of "smart" guns, trigger locks and other innovations in weapons safety, an increasingly vocal minority in the gun-control community is arguing that nothing short of a ban on handguns will stem gun violence.

For nearly two decades, scientists have possessed the technology to "tag" explosives, a method that could enable law enforcement officers to track a terrorist bomber almost as surely as if they had a fingerprint. And for virtually all those years--even after the 1993 World Trade Center bombing--the firearms industry and the National Rifle Assn. have succeeded in making sure such explosive markers were never required by law.

The Bush Administration on Tuesday quietly backed away from its earlier proposal to curtail the ammunition capacity of semiautomatic assault weapons, as the Senate cast a preliminary vote against banning the military-style guns. Under mounting pressure for federal action to take the weapons out of the hands of drug dealers and other criminals, the White House reluctantly announced a year ago that it would back a 15-round limit on the ammunition clips sold with the guns.

President Reagan on Thursday signed the first major overhaul of the nation's welfare system since it was created in the Great Depression, and said the new law is a "message of hope" to those mired in a life of dependency and destitution. But that message to welfare recipients, the President said, also contains a demand from the citizens who pay the bills: "That you will do your share in taking responsibility for your life and for the lives of the children you bring into this world."

The Senate Judiciary Committee, in an initial attempt to outlaw American-made assault rifles, Thursday approved a bill imposing a three-year ban on sales of several domestic models while allowing current owners of such weapons to keep them. The committee voted, 7 to 6, to approve what would become the Anti-Drug Assault Weapon Limitation Act, sponsored by Sen. Dennis DeConcini (D-Ariz.).

With the budget deadlock unlocked, members of Congress are returning to their districts to explain what the fight in Washington was all about. In the case of Rep. Randy (Duke) Cunningham (R-San Diego), the fight was a real one, albeit brief. Cunningham says he is unscathed and forgives his Democratic assailant, Rep. Jim Moran of Virginia. Late Friday, Moran pushed Cunningham from behind as they were leaving the House chambers and then took a swing at him, which Cunningham blocked.