Chafee

WASHINGTON -- Sen. John H. Chafee, leader of a band of renegade Republicans bucking their party on President Clinton's health care reform legislation, was walking across the Capitol grounds the other day when a voice called out: "Employer mandates!"Among Republicans, that's an especially nasty epithet. It implies a Clinton-like desire to force businesses to buy health insurance for workers. Mr. Chafee turned to confront his tormentor, former Sen. Charles McC. Mathias of Maryland, who was grinning merrily.

A moment after a visitor walked out of the Oasis strip club on The Block and turned to shake hands with the owner, a city police officer walked by and sternly warned, "Can't stand out here, gentlemen." Up the street, another officer holding a nightstick stared down a clump of patrons who had just emerged from another club. "No loitering in The Block," he told them. "Find someplace to be." At 1 a.m., the seedy, once-famed burlesque strip that is East Baltimore Street turns into a mini-police state.

JOHN H. CHAFEE'S legacy to Rhode Island and the nation includes cleaner air and better health care.His greatest gift, though, may be an image of what it should mean to be a U.S. senator.Mr. Chafee, who died Monday at age 77, was a Republican. But partisanship ranked low in his senatorial priorities. He is hailed as a beacon of service in a time shrouded by corrosive strategies of political advantage.A flinty, patrician New Englander, he had a sense of humor as well as the prickly resilience to endure defeat and come back.

After booking a cruise with Princess Cruises and paying for it, I learned that $11 a day per person would be added to our stateroom bill for tips. For an 18-day cruise, that adds up to $396 for two of us. I called to object to this and was told I would have to go to the purser's desk when we are on board. Am I to spend every day in line at the purser's office to cancel a charge that should not have been there in the first place? When did this way of tipping become the norm? I thought one tipped for good service after receiving it, not before.

In her dissent, Justice Sandra O'Connor said, "Congress retains the power to force the constitutional question by legislating more explicitly." Congressional sentiments are clear. At least the Senate's are. Last year, Sen. John Chafee, R-R.I., proposed that regulations be changed to specify that women at family planning clinics be advised of all options, including abortion. This passed easily, 62-36, but did not become law because the underlying bill got sidetracked. The Senate leadership should give Senator Chafee's proposal high priority now.

WASHINGTON -- New hope for Senate agreement on health care reform was offered yesterday by a bipartisan group of moderates who are developing a plan to require individuals, rather than employers, to buy insurance.The group, led by Sen. John H. Chafee, a Rhode Island Republican, plans to unveil its compromise proposal tomorrow before the Senate Finance Committee. Other legislators on the deadlocked panel hope that the Chafee plan will provide a basis for formal committee action beginning next week.

WASHINGTON -- A health care debate between leading Republican and Democratic senators grew sharply partisan yesterday as Sen. John D. "Jay" Rockefeller IV, a West Virginia Democrat, accused Senate GOP leader Bob Dole of Kansas of opposing reform in order to advance his presidential ambitions."

WASHINGTON -- New hope for Senate agreement on health care reform was offered yesterday by a bipartisan group of moderates who are developing a plan to require individuals, rather than employers, to buy insurance.The group, led by Sen. John H. Chafee, a Rhode Island Republican, plans to unveil its compromise proposal tomorrow before the Senate Finance Committee. Other legislators on the deadlocked panel hope that the Chafee plan will provide a basis for formal committee action beginning next week.

WASHINGTON -- A bipartisan group of Senate moderates hopes to be ready today to offer the compromise proposal that many lawmakers believe is the best hope for breaking the stalemate over health care reform.But the package to be unveiled by Sen. John H. Chafee, a Rhode Island Republican, and his band of a dozen or so "mainstream" senators will be far less generous that Mr. Chafee and his allies had hoped it would be."What we will have is very basic and important changes to the health care system," Mr. Chafee said.

WASHINGTON -- The unique combination of Rhode Island Republican politics and a threatened filibuster by Sen. Christopher J. Dodd, who rarely uses such tactics, combined yesterday to stall Senate confirmation of John Bolton as United Nations ambassador. Bolton has been in the job for 13 months, but serves without the formal nod of the U.S. Senate. The Bush administration thought it finally had the votes yesterday after a switch by Sen. George V. Voinovich, an Ohio Republican, who opposed Bolton last year.

Recapture Canyon, Utah -- It's a small gesture of defiance - a narrow metal bridge that allows off-road vehicles illegal access to this archaeologically rich canyon. But the modest structure, built by San Juan County officials on U.S. government land, is a symbol of the widespread local resistance to federal authority across much of southern Utah's magnificent countryside. Historically, residents of the rural West have challenged federal jurisdiction, claiming authority over rights of way, livestock management and water use. But nowhere is the modern-day defiance more determined, better organized or better funded than in Utah, where millions of taxpayer dollars are being spent fighting federal authority, and where the state government is helping to pay the tab - much of it, critics say, without oversight.

THIS COLUMN IS ABOUT underwear. Specifically, my underwear. So you might want to avert your eyes now, or send the children out of the room. My question is this: How many pairs of underwear do I need to buy in order to find one in my dresser drawer when I go to get dressed in the morning? A dozen, a hundred, a thousand? I thought this was my problem until a conversation with my friend, Kate, revealed that she has the same complaint. Upon further discussion, an additional coincidence emerged: Our husbands do the wash.

Some users of MySpace feel as if their space is being invaded. MySpace.com, the Web's largest social network, has gradually been imposing limits on the software tools that users can embed in their pages, like music and video players that also deliver advertising or enable transactions. At stake is the ability of MySpace, which is owned by News Corp., to ensure that it alone can commercially capitalize on its 90 million visitors each month. But to some formerly enthusiastic MySpace users, the restrictions hamper their abilities to design pages and promote new projects.

WASHINGTON -- The unique combination of Rhode Island Republican politics and a threatened filibuster by Sen. Christopher J. Dodd, who rarely uses such tactics, combined yesterday to stall Senate confirmation of John Bolton as United Nations ambassador. Bolton has been in the job for 13 months, but serves without the formal nod of the U.S. Senate. The Bush administration thought it finally had the votes yesterday after a switch by Sen. George V. Voinovich, an Ohio Republican, who opposed Bolton last year.

WASHINGTON -- The U.S. ambassador to the United Nations, John R. Bolton, launched a second campaign to win congressional approval yesterday, insisting that he had done his best "to work with others to advance our national interests." "Important advances have been made," said Bolton during a 3 1/2 -hour hearing before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee. Bolton failed to win Senate confirmation to the U.N. post last year. During the divisive debate, critics cast Bolton as a smart but ill-tempered and inflexible ideologue who screamed at subordinates and was incapable of compomise.

State officials have tried to sell Southwest Airlines on relocating their headquarters to Maryland as the large discount flier continues its battle against an arcane federal law that keeps it from expanding in its home state of Texas. Southwest officials have repeatedly said they do not plan to move, but that hasn't discouraged Maryland and other states from the pursuit. The efforts have gotten more aggressive recently, as Southwest has gotten more vocal in its frustration with limits at its Dallas Love Field headquarters.

Washington -- DEMOCRATS accuse Republicans of delaying crime and health bills to make President Clinton look bad. But the truth is Democrats are rushing to judgment to avoid having to heed the voice of the people in an election only 12 weeks away.The crime bill, temporarily stymied by the gun lobby, is far from dead. That is not merely because a president and a majority leadership can use puissant patronage -- and a reprise of last year's "Don't kill my young presidency" -- to snatch back the votes of enough of the 58 recalcitrant House Democrats to save the party from gridlockjaw.

WASHINGTON - With President Bush's tax-cut and spending plans facing stiff resistance from Senate Democrats, Republicans say they nevertheless expect passage of Bush's budget proposals by the end of the week. But just in case, Vice President Dick Cheney is prepared to cast a tie-breaking vote in the Senate, which is divided 50-50 along party lines. Just yesterday, Cheney cast his first tiebreaker - on a proposed amendment to the budget blueprint - and he plans to stay close by for the rest of the week.

Dr. George Q. Daley sums up the impact of the three-year-old federal restrictions on stem cell research in two words: missed opportunities. The associate professor at Harvard Medical School has shown in mice how stem cell therapy might successfully treat patients with two bone marrow disorders. But because the government won't fund his work, he says, he can't move his research forward. "The policy, in some sense, has been a brake on the otherwise very rapid acceleration of the field," said Daley.

HOLLYWOOD, Calif. -Steve Jobs, chief executive of Pixar Animation Studios, stunned the Walt Disney Co. and Wall Street last week by abruptly ending negotiations with the Burbank, Calif., entertainment giant to extend one of Hollywood's richest relationships, one that has produced five straight hit films. Disney executives and many independent financial analysts said Pixar was demanding too much, including sole ownership of the films the two had made under the existing pact, such as the Toy Story series and Monsters, Inc. But sources close to Eisner and Apple Computer Inc. founder Jobs said the stunning split was less about the math of the deal than about the personalties involved.