The FBI may have uncovered a white-supremacist anthrax terrorism plot. Agents busted two microbiologists in Las Vegas on charges of possessing the deadly biological agent and said one of them, Larry Wayne Harris, claimed he had enough of the stuff to "wipe out the city." Harris has been linked to far-right racist groups. The conspiracy theory: Harris intended to make good on a previous threat to unleash a plague in the New York City subway, killing hundreds of thousands of people and letting Iraq wrongly take the blame. New York Mayor Rudy Giuliani spent the day debunking that theory. The counter-conspiracy theory, suggested by Harris and his lawyer: Iraq was indeed planning to spawn a plague in the United States, and Harris was cultivating the agent in order to develop a vaccine and save his country. (2/20)

President Clinton sought to reaffirm public support for military intervention in Iraq after a raucous "town meeting" at Ohio State University challenged his three top national security aides on the rationale behind U.S. strategy. Earlier in the week the president made his case for military action, describing in a speech the threat Saddam Hussein's weapons programs poses to the world and to the credibility and effectiveness of the United Nations. Analysts noted Clinton's lowering of the standards of success, from 1) forcing Saddam to let U.N. weapons inspections resume as before or 2) wiping out Iraq's capacity to wield weapons of mass destruction to 3) diminishing that capacity, with no guarantees that inspections will resume. The Los Angeles Times declared Clinton's speech unnecessary; the Washington Post and New York Times declared it insufficient; the Chicago Tribune faulted Clinton for failing to explain why the United States shouldn't try to topple Saddam. Cynics concluded that Clinton once again has defined the goal to match what can certainly be achieved, thereby guaranteeing short-term political success and long-term policy failure. (For more on how Washington is framing this issue, see Jodie T. Allen's "The Republican Endgame.") (2/20)

A grand jury convened by Alabama's attorney general indicted Barnes & Noble on 32 kiddie-porn charges for selling two books of photography that include some pictures of naked children. This follows a similar indictment of Barnes & Noble by a Tennessee grand jury. Followers of former Operation Rescue chief Randall Terry take credit for staging protests, tearing up the books, and prodding officials in both states to launch investigations. Barnes & Noble refuses to drop the books, citing the First Amendment. The punch line: Thanks to publicity generated by the activists, sales of the books are up. (2/20)

Holy Cow! Baseball announcer Harry Caray has died. Obituaries fondly remember him as colorful, if occasionally acerbic. The Chicago Tribune extolled "his vocal exuberance" as the longtime voice of the Cubs. Fans compared his death to losing Grandpa. The Los Angeles Times called him the perfect sportscaster for "a town that adores the common touch in its heroes. Caray's gargling, malaprop-laced baseball narratives were a link to the golden age of sports broadcasting." Cynics agreed that his greatest accomplishment was keeping Cubs fans entertained even though the team perpetually sucked. (2/20)

The U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum ousted its director, Walter Reich. The official story: Reich, a tin-eared zealot, screwed up Yasser Arafat's potential visit to the museum by opposing the invitation and then refusing to escort him on a tour. The alternative story peddled by Reich's lawyer and journalist friends: He sacrificed his career in defense of "a matter of conscience in a museum of conscience" and was scapegoated by the museum's chairman, a Clinton sycophant. The more interesting subplot: Sources involved in the Arafat fiasco say that Arafat skipped the museum because he figured the Lewinsky scandal would overshadow his visit. (2/20)

The U.S. women's hockey team won the Olympic gold medal by defeating Canada, the favorite and four-time defending world champions. The Washington Post called it "the most important women's hockey game ever played." The authorized spin: It's a "stunning upset," reprising the 1980 "Miracle on Ice" in which the U.S. men's team upset the Soviet Union's. The unauthorized backspins: 1) What miracle? Insiders already knew that the U.S. women's team was one of the two favorites and had beaten Canada in five of their last seven games. 2) What cultural breakthrough? American women already had won gold medals in soccer, basketball, and softball. 3) The U.S. men's team dampened the victory by scheduling "a stupid, meaningless team dinner during the women's gold medal game" and then slinking out of the men's tournament with a loss to the Czech Republic. (2/18)

Former Naval Academy cadet Diane Zamora was convicted of capital murder and sentenced to life in prison for helping her boyfriend kill Adrianne Jones, a girl who had come between them. On the stand, Zamora played the victim, claiming to have been seduced, intimidated, and sexually abused by her boyfriend. When prosecutors pointed out that she had told police and four friends of her participation in the killing, she dismissed their stories as lies and misunderstandings. The jury went for the simpler explanation: Zamora was lying. Having trembled on the stand, Zamora took the verdict with a stone face. Prosecutors called her a sociopath. Trial pundits agreed that the murder has ruined three promising young lives. (2/18)

President Clinton's lawyers requested that Paula Jones' lawsuit be dismissed. Newspapers focused on the technicalities of Clinton's argument and buried the interesting part: the release of Jones' testimony about the alleged encounter. She says Clinton 1) began "pulling me over like he has done this a million times and grabs me and pulls me over to the windowsill and tries to kiss me"; 2) went for her again, rubbing her legs and waist with his hands; and 3) "pulled his pants down, sat down and asked me to perform oral sex," with the words "Would you kiss it for me?" Reporters are looking forward to the release of Clinton's account of the incident when Jones' lawyers get around to filing their response. (2/18)

The FBI charged Eric Robert Rudolph with last month's bombing of an Alabama abortion clinic. Agents are hunting for Rudolph in western North Carolina. He could also be linked to three recent bombings in Atlanta: one at the 1996 Olympics (of which Richard Jewell was wrongly accused), another at an abortion clinic, and a third at a lesbian night club. Hate-group researchers have linked Rudolph to racist, anti-government militias but not to anti-abortion groups. (2/16)

Dale Earnhardt won the Daytona 500, the premier event in stock-car racing. This ends his 59-race losing streak and marks his first victory in 20 attempts at Daytona. Earnhardt won more than $1 million for the victory before a record crowd of 185,000 fans. Racing pundits had concluded that Earnhardt was cursed at Daytona, since in previous years he has, among other things, 1) run out of gas three laps from victory; 2) lost a tire one mile from victory; and 3) struck a sea gull and then crashed two laps from the finish line. His fans celebrated this year's victory by tearing up grass touched by his tires. (2/16)

Ex-Rep. Bob Dornan, R-Calif., announced his candidacy for the congressional seat he lost two years ago. Dornan has spent the entire 15 months since his 1996 defeat trying to get the Republican-led Congress to unseat Rep. Loretta Sanchez, D-Calif., the woman who defeated him, on charges of illegal voting by Hispanic noncitizens. Last week, Congress finally threw out Dornan's challenge, concluding that the votes in question weren't enough to have changed the outcome. Now that Sanchez is nearing the end of her term, Dornan is already leading her in fund raising in his new campaign to unseat her. (2/16)