Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, March 14, 1993 TAG: 9303140250
SECTION: HORIZON PAGE: D-5 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: BETTY PARHAM and GERRIE FERRIS COX NEWS SERVICE
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
QUESTIONS ABOUT THE NEWS
Q: Aren't the FBI's activities limited to the United States?A: An FBI spokesman said agents can pursue criminals to foreign countries where American deaths were involved. The United States is supposed to get the host country's permission, but doesn't let that stand in its way. In 1989, the Justice Department issued an opinion that recognizes the president's right to dispatch FBI agents abroad to arrest foreigners as part of his "inherent constitutional power." Mexico was outraged when the FBI kidnapped a suspect in the murder of a DEA agent, but the U.S. Supreme Court upheld such an operation in Mexico as a legitimate "enforcement tool."
Q: Who or what sets the value of a dollar?
A: The marketplace determines the dollar's value. Dollars and other currencies are traded on international currency exchanges much like stocks. And like stocks, currency values fluctuate under the influences of the world marketplace. From 1945 to 1973, currency exchange rates were fixed by the International Monetary Fund. Since then, exchange rates have been allowed to float.
Q: Why were military tanks being used in the Waco standoff? Isn't there a prohibition against civilian use of military equipment?
A: The tanks moved to Waco belong to the Texas National Guard, and their use was authorized by the governor, said a Pentagon spokesman. A law passed after the Civil War called the Posse Comitatis Act prevents the military from getting involved in civilian law enforcement, although there is a provision that allows for exceptions such as when the Marines went into South Florida after Hurricane Andrew. But the military doesn't like a waiver of this law. The Pentagon spokesman said the military's purpose is overseas missions, period.
Q: What proof of wrongdoing did federal agents have to prompt their attack on the group of religious fanatics in Waco?
A: Their actions were prompted by reports of illegal weapons stockpiles. The reports were based on eyewitness accounts from an inside source, an ATF spokesman said.
Q: How is it that alcohol, firearms and tobacco happen to be grouped into one federal agency? Could you give more information about ATF?
A: Although it wasn't until 1968 that the Bureau of Alcohol Firearms and Tobacco took its current name, its roots go back to 1794, when George Washington, to establish the government's authority to enforce taxes, mustered 15,000 militiamen to put down the Whiskey Rebellion. That uprising was precipitated by a tax on distilled spirits to finance the Revolutionary War. In 1862, to enforce another whiskey tax and the Civil War, the Office of Internal Revenue was created and detectives hired to track tax evaders. These agents were made civil service employees in 1875, and were the forerunners of the "Untouchables" during Prohibition. Firearms became part of the ATF's activities with America's first gun control law in 1934, and tobacco tax enforcement came in 1951.
Q: Is marijuana legal in any Western countries?
A: In the last year and a half, laws have been relaxed or activities have been decriminalized on the use and personal growing of marijuana in Germany, Italy and the Netherlands, with legislation forthcoming in Switzerland. Recently, the commercial growing of hemp was legalized in Britain.
Q: Under President Clinton's tax proposals, is it true that Hollywood stars would be exempt from paying certain taxes that other wealthy people would have to pay?
A: Clinton didn't single out entertainers for a special break, but under his plan there is what The Wall Street Journal headlined as the "Mick Jagger Loophole." Clinton has proposed that executive salaries of more than $1 million be included in the taxable income of the corporation. That means that corporations, in order to come out even, could be less likely to increase an executive's salary above that level. Or they could avoid the whole thing by offering incentive payments, rather than salaries, above the $1 million mark. None of this would affect big rock stars, since they don't get salaries. They are self-employed entrepreneurs.
Q: Vice President Al Gore has been given the task of streamlining the government by going after fraud and waste. How can I write to him?
A: The vice president said in a recent TV interview that he welcomes letters and suggestions. Write him at the White House, 1600 Pennsylvania Ave. N.W., Washington, D.C. 20500. Put "Reinventing Government" somewhere in the address. If you want to write Hillary Rodham Clinton about health-care reform: Health Care Task Force, Old Executive Office Building, Room 287, Washington, D.C. 20500.
Q: I heard that President George Bush vetoed a bill the day after the election that contained money he promised South Central Los Angeles when he toured there after the riots. Is this true?
A: On the day after the election he did veto a bill in which one part contained $30 million to $50 million for enterprise zones in LA. But that was not all he had promised. So far, about $636 million has been spent, with another $500 million in the pipeline.
Q: A recent article said shark breeding season begins in March, which brings pregnant sharks close to shore to lay eggs. Don't sharks give live birth?
A: Most sharks bear their young alive, but some lay large yolky eggs individually encased in a tough leathery cover. The empty covers found along the shore are sometimes called mermaids' purses.