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                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, February 4, 1993                   TAG: 9302040207
SECTION: EXTRA                    PAGE: 5   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: From wire reports
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

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PEOPLE

Harry Connick Jr. could sing a happy tune - but sounded a contrite note - after a judge dismissed a gun possession charge against him.

"I made a terrible mistake," the 25-year-old singer said outside court Tuesday.

Connick was arrested at Kennedy Airport in New York City on Dec. 27 after telling authorities he had an unloaded 9mm pistol in his luggage. Judge Martin Shulman said he gave Connick a break because he wasn't trying to hide the weapon.

Connick could have gotten a year in jail for possessing the weapon without a permit.

If he stays out of trouble for six months, according to Tuesday's plea agreement, the charges will be dropped and his record will be sealed.

Connick's part of the deal: a 30-second public-service ad, made at his own expense, warning against carrying pistols in the city.

Actor Mike Farrell, who played B.J. Hunicutt on television's "M-A-S-H," says the world's problems can't be blamed on government.

"The policies articulated by our government are ours. We have to take responsibility for them," Farrell told an audience at Minnesota's Winona State University. "Therefore, Vietnam is my responsibility; the destruction of Iraq is my responsibility; the extension of rights to women, minorities and gays is my responsibility."

Farrell is a spokesman for Concern, an international refugee aid organization, and has traveled to El Salvador, Nicaragua, Bosnia and Somalia.

Willie Nelson's lawyer says the IRS will accept $9 million from the singer to settle his $17 million tax debt. The IRS also gets money from sales of Nelson's "Who'll Buy My Memories?: The IRS Tapes" and any judgment he might win against his former accountant.

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