ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Friday, July 26, 1996 TAG: 9607260063
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-3 EDITION: METRO
WASHINGTON - The FBI would establish a national registry to track the movement of convicted sex offenders from state to state under legislation passed by the Senate on Thursday.
Without dissent, the Senate approved a bill by Sens. Phil Gramm, R-Texas, and Joseph Biden, D-Del., requiring creation of a national registry to track people convicted of sex crimes involving violence or minors.
Although 49 states already operate or are establishing their own registries, as mandated under the 1994 anti-crime law, there is no central database that allows law enforcement to keep track of sexual offenders once they move to another state, Gramm and Biden said.
Under the bill, convicted sex offenders would have to register with the FBI if they live in a state that doesn't have a registration program. The bill also would require that the FBI put into a central database information each time a sexual offender moves, whether within the state or out-of-state. State and local law enforcement would have access to the national registry. Community organizations and private groups also could tap into the database via local law enforcement agencies.
Offenders who fail to register with the FBI would face a series of penalties, the most severe being up to 10 years incarceration and a $100,000 fine.
Biden said nationwide warnings would be issued whenever a sexual offender cannot be located or fails to verify his location by fingerprint and photo.
Companion legislation has been introduced in the House, but has yet to be considered at the subcommittee level. |- Associated Press
`Primary Colors'
writer quits CBS
NEW YORK - CBS News on Thursday accepted the resignation of Joe Klein, the political journalist and Newsweek magazine columnist who has been under fire for lying to preserve his anonymity as the author of the novel ``Primary Colors.''
Klein had been a consultant to CBS News and contributed occasional commentaries for four years.
In a memo to his staff, CBS News president Andrew Heyward said Klein had offered to resign this week. The memo quoted a note Klein wrote to Heyward as saying:
``This has been a confusing and exhausting few weeks for me - and I feel a strong need to simplify my life at this point. Specifically, I believe it would be extremely difficult to continue to keep my commitments to both Newsweek and CBS for the rest of this election year.''
By resigning, Klein spared Heyward the task of making a decision, at least publicly, about the propriety of keeping Klein as a commentator after he had lied.
Klein, who had denied authorship many times, admitted on July 17 that he had written ``Primary Colors,'' a fictional account of the 1992 Clinton campaign. The Washington Post had published a handwriting analysis linking him to the book.
Klein, reached by telephone at home, said he did not expect his resignation from CBS to affect his status at Newsweek. |- The New York Times
LENGTH: Medium: 65 linesby CNB