ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1997, Roanoke Times
DATE: Thursday, March 13, 1997 TAG: 9703130072
SECTION: NATIONAL/INTERNATIONAL PAGE: A-12 EDITION: METRO
Senate OKs Pena for energy post
WASHINGTON - Federico Pena won Senate confirmation Wednesday as energy secretary, leaving only two Cabinet nominees - Alexis Herman at Labor and Anthony Lake at the CIA - still to be approved.
The Senate cleared Pena's nomination by a 99-1 vote with only Sen. Rod Grams, R-Minn., lining up against the former transportation secretary and onetime mayor of Denver.
-ASSOCIATED PRESS
Security Council warned Clinton staff about donor
WASHINGTON - Democratic donor Johnny Chung returned to the White House 17 times - mostly visiting the first lady's offices - after national security officials warned that he appeared to be ``a hustler'' and should be treated with suspicion.
Eight of the visits came after a second cautionary memo was directed to President Clinton's then-national security adviser, Anthony Lake, warning aides to be ``very careful'' about granting Chung political favors.
Lake's nomination to head the CIA is now under scrutiny in the Senate.
The initial National Security Council memo - cautioning that Chung was bringing Chinese associates into the White House to enhance his own business interests - was forwarded to a staff assistant in the president's office, a senior White House official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
White House special counsel Lanny Davis declined to say who saw the memo but acknowledged the NSC ``gave, when asked, pretty good counsel that should have been more closely heeded'' by presidential aides.
-ASSOCIATED PRESS
Ectopic pregnancies a risk of tubal sterilization
Those who have had a tubal sterilization, the most widely chosen form of contraception among American women, should be aware of the risk of ectopic pregnancy, a potentially life-threatening condition, according to a study published today in the New England Journal of Medicine.
In the largest study to date with the longest period of follow-up, researchers at the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention found that ectopic pregnancies represented more than one-third of all pregnancies after sterilization. The risk of ectopic pregnancy, in which a fertilized egg develops outside the womb, was 7.3 per 1,000 tubal sterilization procedures - a rate that was low, according to the study, but still higher than the researchers had expected.
-NEWSDAY
Survey: Internet use doubled in last 18 months
SAN FRANCISCO - Internet use in the United States and Canada doubled over the past 18 months, with women rapidly catching up to men in going online, a Nielsen survey reports.
Almost one out of four people over the age of 16 in the United States and Canada now use the Internet, 23 percent, as opposed to a mere 10 percent who did in the fall of 1995, the CommerceNet/Nielsen Media Research survey found.
That works out to 50.6 million people, a doubling since the original survey.
Women, who only five years ago made up 10 percent of the online world, now are nearing parity with men. This year's survey, taken in December and January and released Wednesday, reported that 42 percent of online users are women, up from 34 percent 18 months ago. Figures on minority users were not disclosed.
-ASSOCIATED PRESS
Democratic fund-raisers may have solicited tribes
WASHINGTON - The inspector general of the Interior Department will investigate the solicitation of poverty-stricken Indian tribes by Democratic Party fund-raisers seeking personal business and political contributions, a spokesman for Secretary Bruce Babbitt said Wednesday.
House Republicans called for the Interior Department probe and for an investigation by the Justice Department.
Meanwhile, the attorney for the tribes - the Cheyenne-Arapaho of northwest Oklahoma - said he has been contacted by the FBI. Richard Grellner said he was called Tuesday by an agent who wanted to know the location of recent meetings between tribal officials and a top party fund-raiser soliciting personal business.
Tribal representatives said Nathan Landow, a longtime fund-raiser for Vice President Gore, sought to represent the tribes and brought in Clinton-Gore campaign manager Peter Knight's lobbying firm to help win return of the tribes' native lands. Tribal officials said Landow touted his access to top Clinton administration aides, and even explicitly warned the tribes would not get their land back if they did not sign a development contract giving him 10 percent of the land's potentially lucrative mineral rights.
Landow denied threatening the tribe and said he met with them only to be ``polite.'' He never intended to follow through on the proposed contract, he said.
-THE WASHINGTON POST
LENGTH: Medium: 92 linesby CNB