Newt Gingrich escalated the Republican assault on President Clinton's ethics. Gingrich said: 1) The Clinton administration is involved in the most "complex, interlocking lawbreaking" and "the most systematic, deliberate obstruction of justice [and] coverup" in U.S. history. 2) The Clintonites "unpatriotically undermine the Constitution ... on behalf of their client." 3) If Clinton doesn't want to fire Ken Starr, "he should tell his staff to shut up." 4) Other Republicans should denounce Clinton too. Pundits said Gingrich was retaliating against obstruction of the House fund-raising investigation by Democrats, who in turn were retaliating against Rep. Dan Burton's description of Clinton as a "scumbag." Clinton spokesman Mike McCurry suggested Gingrich is in cahoots with billionaire conspiracy theorist Richard Mellon Scaife, adding that "as soon as [Gingrich] comes back to his senses, we'll do business."(4/29/98)

The Federal Reserve Board says the Year 2000 problem will probably cost U.S. businesses at least $50 billion. The problem is that computers that designate years by two digits must be reprogrammed to distinguish 2000 from 1900. The bad news: It could slow down the economy enough to force a recession, as the 1970s oil shock did. The good news: 1) For this economy, a slowdown is just what the doctor ordered. 2) Plenty of companies are desperately seeking programmers. (4/29/98)

Daniel Petrocelli, the lawyer who won the civil case against O.J. Simpson, says Simpson murdered his ex-wife for resuming an affair with football star Marcus Allen. Petrocelli told Dateline NBC that 1) interviews with Simpson's associates always led back to Allen; 2) Simpson envied Allen for staying healthy and enjoying a longer football career than he did; 3) Nicole Brown Simpson had often used Allen to rile O.J.; and 4) her affair with Allen "made Simpson snap." Petrocelli conceded that he didn't present this theory in court because he couldn't prove it. Allen's spokesman denies that the football star had such an affair. (4/29/98)

Alabama Gov. Fob James Jr., the nation's most vigorous elected advocate of student prayer, apologized for cursing out a new Alabama law requiring a moment of silence in public schools. James, upset because the law doesn't authorize audible prayers, told its sponsor that it "ain't worth the damn paper it's written on" and "ain't going to require shit" until Congress passes a law to back it up. James later discovered that his microphone was on. (4/29/98)

Iraq celebrated Saddam Hussein's birthday. Thousands of civilians marched in his hometown. Young girls sang his praises. Children staged a play for him. The Iraqi media covered the celebration nonstop. A newspaper reported that 22 million candles were lit to honor him. The U.N. Security Council marked the occasion by renewing sanctions against Iraq for another six months. (4/29/98)

The Dow Jones industrial average fell 219 points in its second-biggest drop of the year, before recovering to close down 147. The slide was caused by reports that the Federal Reserve Board will raise interest rates. Some analysts shrugged off the drop, noting that the market rebounded before the close. But others speculated that a larger correction, possibly 5 percent to 10 percent, is underway. The spins: 1) Investors got tipsy over talk of the Dow climbing to 10,000, and the rate hike is finally sobering them up. 2) If the Fed hadn't burst the bubble, the Asian mess would have. 3) A correction may look bad, but it would help the Fed cool off the economy, which is good. 4) Politicians will denounce and try to thwart the rate hike, because they don't want voters to sober up before the election. (4/27/98)

Paula Jones attended the White House Correspondents Association Dinner, as did President Clinton. Some pundits called her presence tacky (she was a guest of Insight magazine), and some guests booed her. The Washington Post called her dress "cleavage-coercing" and reported that her handler, Susan Carpenter-McMillan, dabbed sweat from Jones' upper lip and set aside a piece of used chewing gum that Jones handed her. Most news accounts concluded that Clinton overshadowed Jones with a funny, largely apolitical speech featuring digs at Congress ("a show about nothing"), the press corps ("I hardly have any time to read the news anymore. Mostly I just skim the retractions"), and himself ("I am so sorry ... about disco"). (4/27/98)

Kenneth Starr and his deputies interrogated Hillary Clinton for several hours at the White House. The subject was her legal work for the savings and loan at the center of the Whitewater scandal. Videotape of her answers will be shown to the Arkansas Whitewater grand jury, which will disband May 7. Pundits played up the tension between Starr and the first lady (since she recently called him "a politically motivated prosecutor who is allied with the right-wing opponents of my husband") and debated whether he will indict her. The overwhelming consensus is that he won't. (4/27/98)

A 14-year-old Pennsylvania boy fatally shot one teacher and wounded another and two boys. He was charged with murder and tried as an adult. The media linked the case to other recent shootings (in Arkansas, Mississippi, and Kentucky) and focused on the warning signs and the importance of taking them seriously. Two clues in the Pennsylvania case: 1) The boy had said, "I'm going to go to the dinner dance and kill some people." 2) A friend had nicknamed him "Satan."(4/27/98)

James Earl Ray died. The chief topic of discussion is whether he really killed Martin Luther King Jr. The media agreed that the evidence of Ray's guilt is conclusive and the alternative theories are baseless, but they played up the controversy anyway, just to make things interesting. The New York Times charged Ray had murdered King and then, for the rest of his life, "cruelly toyed with Americans' desire to know the full truth of that crime." Ray died of liver failure. Or at least, that's what the government is telling us. (Here's a Slate"Assessment" of King scion and Ray supporter Dexter King.) (4/24/98)