The Senate killed the McCain-Feingold campaign-reform bill. Fifty-one senators voted to end a Republican filibuster, nine short of the 60 required. Democrats unanimously supported the bill, but only seven Republicans joined them. Cynics noted that last year's congressional hearings on 1996 campaign-funding abuses failed to arouse public outrage or change senators' votes on reform. Editorialists accused the Republicans of hypocrisy and expressed hope that the issue can be used in the 1998 elections to change Republicans' votes. Democrats expressed hope that the issue can be used in the 1998 elections to replace Republicans with Democrats. (2/27)

Federal authorities charged five New York City cops with violating the civil rights of Haitian immigrant Abner Louima. The indictment accuses the officers of beating and sodomizing Louima and then covering it up. The federal charges carry possible life sentences. The rosy spin: Haitian immigrants are seeing "that the system can work for them." The cynical spin: Johnnie Cochran, Barry Scheck, and Peter Newfeld, the new lawyers for Louima (and formerly for O.J. Simpson) who plan to follow in the feds' wake with a multi-multimillion-dollar civil suit against New York City, are seeing that the system can work for them. (See David Plotz's November 1997 "Assessment" of Scheck.) (2/27)

Oprah Winfrey was cleared of liability in the Texas beef-scare suit. Cattlemen had accused her of libeling their products and ruining cattle prices. Winfrey's spin: It's a victory for free speech. Cynics' translation: It's a victory for the free speech of anyone who can spare $500,000 to defend herself against a libel suit. The cattlemen's spin: They proved that American beef is safe. Cynics' translation: They put a chill into anyone who might otherwise criticize American beef. The doubly cynical backspin: The trial raised Winfrey's profile, popularity, and earnings potential. (See Seth Stevenson's love letter to the beef hater.) (2/27)

Bob Dylan won three Grammy Awards, including Best Album, and his son Jakob won two. The elder Dylan's "long overdue" recognition (in the words of the Los Angeles Times) was the feel-good story of the evening. The younger Dylan's band won awards for Best Rock Song and Best Rock Performance by a Group. Music pundits wisecracked that the Grammy committee, having neglected Bob Dylan in his prime, was determined not to repeat that mistake with his son. Other winners included Elton John (for his tribute to Princess Diana) and three dead men: John Denver, Charles Kuralt, and Sir Georg Solti. (2/27)

Storm-driven tornadoes killed at least 38 people and injured more than 260 in central Florida. Officials said the damage looked as bad as that caused by Hurricane Andrew in 1992. President Clinton toured the area, declared 34 counties federal disaster areas, and assured the locals that the rest of the country feels their pain. Meteorologists blamed El Niño but were obliged to supply evidence, since El Niño has been blamed for everything. The next day, they blamed El Niño for another storm that killed nine people in California. (2/25)

Rep. Bill Paxon, R-N.Y., is retiring from Congress. The ritual official story: He wants to spend more time with his family. The unofficial story: He 1) lost his golden-boy status after being ousted from the Republican Party leadership for allegedly participating in a failed coup against Speaker Newt Gingrich and 2) subsequently decided not to continue his incipient campaign to unseat Majority Leader Dick Armey. Republicans are relieved that a nasty Armey-Paxon blood bath has been averted. Pundits, conversely, are disappointed. (2/25)

Comedian Henny Youngman died. Obituaries agreed that brevity was the soul of his wit, and they honored that principle by remembering him as "the King of the One-Liners." The superego spin: His jokes were dumb slapstick. The id spin: Yeah, but we loved them. The unauthorized spin: His philosophy was "get the money," and he spent as much time pitching for gigs as he did performing them. Memorable lines: "I was so ugly when I was born, the doctor slapped my mother"; "I take my wife everywhere, but she always finds her way home." His recent autobiography was presciently titled Take My Life, Please! Economist Mancur Olson, a pioneer theorist of public choice and the stagnation of national economies, also died. (2/25)

Iraq signed an agreement with U.N. Secretary-General Kofi Annan to resolve the dispute over U.N. weapons inspections. President Clinton tentatively approved the deal. The agreement reportedly permits unrestricted inspection of eight "presidential" sites and does not impose new deadlines or rules about the composition of inspection teams. The chief concession to Iraq is evidently that diplomats may accompany the inspectors to make sure that the sites are treated with dignity. The Iraqi spin: Iraq is the victor, the United Nations is the hero for pursuing diplomacy and recognizing the justice of Iraq's case, and the evil United States has been defeated in its quest for bloodshed. Annan's spin: Diplomacy has prevailed, but only because it was "backed by firmness and force." The U.S. spin: The crisis isn't over until Saddam Hussein, breaking with his history of deceit, fulfills his pledge to cooperate. Editorialists applauded President Clinton for providing the necessary threat of force and agreed with him that U.S. forces should stick around in case Saddam weasels out again. Pundits groaned that Clinton had no plausible plan if the bombing had commenced and that his luck has once again bailed him out. (For more on Kofi Annan, see David Plotz's "Assessment" in Slate.) (2/23)

The white-supremacist anthrax terrorism scare collapsed. Last week, the media trumpeted the arrests of two men charged with possessing the biological agent, ostensibly for creating a weapon. Then FBI tests determined that the material confiscated from the men was only a vaccine, not weapons-grade anthrax. Now law-enforcement officials have seized other material from the men's homes, hoping to nail them on lesser charges. The lawyer for one suspect says that 1) Ronald Rockwell, the feds' informant and a convicted extortionist, turned in the two suspects as revenge for a failed business deal and 2) the feds are now on a fishing expedition to cover up their embarrassment. (2/23)

Former Sen. Abraham Ribicoff died. Obituaries highlighted three themes of his life: 1) He helped groom John F. Kennedy as a presidential candidate and persuaded him to appoint Bobby Kennedy as attorney general. 2) He boldly denounced Chicago Mayor Richard Daley's "Gestapo tactics" at the 1968 Democratic National Convention. 3) He overcame anti-Semitism in his 1954 gubernatorial campaign in Connecticut, yielded to it by refusing to be JFK's attorney general (for fear that a Jew would attract special criticism for enforcing desegregation in the South), and defended JFK against anti-Catholic bigotry. Cynics remembered him as an author of political clichés about the wisdom of political clichés. (2/23)

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People named former Rep. Julian Bond as its new chairman. Bond promised to include Hispanics, Asian-Americans, and other ethnic groups in the NAACP's work. The media paid less attention to Bond than to the woman he replaces, Myrlie Evers-Williams, who is applauded for having restored the organization to financial and moral health after the controversial reign of former Executive Director Ben Chavis. (2/23)

Former federal prosecutor Joseph diGenova suggested that he and his wife "were being investigated by a private investigator with links to the White House," evidently because he is peripherally involved in the Lewinsky scandal. The White House denies any role in such a private investigation. DiGenova offered no evidence, said he heard the story from reporters, and did not name the reporters, their sources, or their sources' sources. Slate got the story from the Washington Post, which got it from NBC. You now have it sixth-hand, not including the original source chain. (2/23)