ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Saturday, August 3, 1996 TAG: 9608050051
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A3 EDITION: METRO
WASHINGTON - The National Security Council that advises the president is not subject to the Freedom of Information Act, a federal appeals court ruled Friday in a case dating to the closing days of the Reagan administration.
The three-judge panel overturned an earlier decision that ordered the council to comply with freedom-of-information requests from journalists and the National Security Archive, a Washington research group.
``It's a dark day for government accountability,'' said Kate Martin, counsel for the National Security Archive. ``If this had been the law in 1989, President Reagan would have been free to destroy all of the White House e-mail tapes as he was leaving office.''
White House spokesman David Johnson said, however, that ``The president has directed the NSC to maintain its previous practice of allowing voluntary disclosure of appropriate NSC records, and that's exactly what we're doing now.''
The council should not be subject to the law because it is an advisory group for the president and ``does not exercise substantial independent authority,'' Judge Douglas Ginsburg concluded, writing for himself and Chief Judge Harry T. Edwards. - Associated Press 2nd nicotine patch goes over counter
WASHINGTON - The Food and Drug Administration allowed a second nicotine patch to go on sale without a prescription Friday, giving smokers another aid in kicking the habit.
Nicoderm CQ will be in drugstores by Labor Day offering separate plans for light and heavy smokers to gradually wean themselves off cigarettes.
The treatment costs light smokers about $240 and heavy smokers $300, said SmithKline Beecham, which will market the patches. - Associated Press
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