Week In Review A Look Back At The Top Stories From The Last Week
GOVERNMENT AND POLITICS
Protection money
A Delaware contractor, a California bank worker and even an 82-year-old Catholic priest testified that they were pursued for years, trapped in a never-ending cycle of payoffs to the organization. When they couldn’t or wouldn’t pay, their life savings were taken from them and their lives were shattered.
The next day, six witnesses from within the nationwide operation testified from behind a screen and with their voices electronically altered about how they were driven to sate the beast’s appetite for bigger “adjustments.”
Mario Puzo couldn’t have topped last week’s “Tales from the IRS” as the Senate Finance Committee held hearings into the workings of the nation’s tax collection agency.
“The IRS is judge, jury and executioner - answerable to none,” said Katherine Lund Hicks, one of a series of witnesses savaged by the Internal Revenue Service.
Leaving no doubt about the veracity of the allegations, acting IRS Commissioner Michael Dolan issued a landmark apology, saying: “No one should have endured what these citizens describe as their experience at the hand of the tax system. At this point, I offer my sincere apology to these taxpayers for any mistakes we have made and for any anguish we have caused.”
Fast medicine
A week after the Food and Drug Administration forced half of the diet combination fen-phen from the market because of the risk of serious heart damage, the Senate overwhelmingly passed a bill that would require the Food and Drug Administration to speed the availability of drugs and medical devices while giving manufacturers greater authority in reviewing and promoting their products.
The bill passed on a vote of 98 to 2, capping a three-year effort by Republicans to revamp the agency’s regulatory authority.
Open to debate
His administration bombarded by allegations of abuses in political fund raising, President Clinton on Tuesday threatened to convene a special session of Congress if necessary to force a debate on reforming campaign finance laws.
Senate leadership reluctantly agreed to a public airing of the issue but if the comments from House Speaker Newt Gingrich’s office are a gauge, congressional approval this year appears unlikely: “If the president would like to call a special session of Congress, we would be happy to spend the extra time investigating with laser-sharp focus any of the 30 current Clinton-Gore scandals …”
CRIME
Loukaitis convicted
Barry Loukaitis was convicted of murder Wednesday in a 1996 classroom attack that killed three people and wounded a fourth at a Moses Lake junior high school.
Loukaitis, who was 14 at the time of the attack, was tried as an adult and pleaded innocent by reason of insanity. He faces life without parole when he is sentenced Oct. 10.
Killer pleads guilty
David Dodge, 17, stunned friends and prosecutors Wednesday by pleading guilty as an adult to first-degree murder, rape and burglary charges in the death of 12-year-old baby sitter Ashley Jones.
Ashley was watching five young children at a neighbor’s house in Stanwood, Wash., when Dodge entered through an unlocked door, bludgeoned the girl with a piece of wood and raped her while she was unconscious, prosecutors said.
Prosecutors said they will ask for the maximum penalty, life in prison, when he is sentenced Nov. 3.
SPORTS
West is won
For the second time in 21 years, the Seattle Mariner’s year won’t end when the regular-season schedule does.
After spending 132 days in first place, the Mariners finally put away the Anaheim Angels to win the American League West championship.
In front of 52,884 screaming fans in the Kingdome Tuesday night, the M’s finished what began with an opening night victory April 1.
, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: 2 Photos
The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = Compiled by News Editor Kevin Graman from wire reports