Albuquerque Journal from Albuquerque, New Mexico • Page 8

I A8 Albuquerque Journal Thursday, September 25, 1997 Clinton smgBrea irir i i to i Masts in 1994 jtieia ena-Jtai Lincoln Bedroom and named a vice chairman of the Democratic Party's fund-raising division, according iQ documents and officials. Lausell ultimately did not stay overnight at the White House, officials said. "Absolutely not," Washington lawyer Gerald McGowan said when asked whether Clinton asked him for money during a June 22, 1994, breakfast. Six days later, McGowan wrote a $35,000 check to the DNC healthcare fund. He said the donation was a coincidence and he did not even know his money had gone to the health-care fund.

"I'm an old friend of the president's and I gave money and I was more than delighted to do it," he said. lawyer from San Juan, Puerto Rico, who attended a breakfast with a friend on June IS, 1994. Lausell said Clinton spoke about minority issues and universal health care. Lausell wrote a $100,000 check to the DNC health care fund on July 18, 1994. The same day, his wife is listed as writing two checks one for $80,000 to the health fund and another for $20,000 to the party's hard money accounts.

In the months that followed, Lausell was given royal White House treatment. He was invited back for a second donor event a week after his breakfast, attended an official state dinner at the White House, was recommended for an overnight stay in the these meetings, the answer is yes," the individual said. "The donors weren't naive going in about us wanting to ask them for money but the requests got made afterwards." The fact that these were political events also weren't lost on donors either DNC chairman David Wil-helm or the party's chief fund-raiser, Terence McAuliffe, are listed as attending most of the breakfasts. Some breakfast attendees sensitive about the recent debate about White House fund raising emphatically said they didn't Clinton making a specific solicitation. "At the meeting I was at, there was no talk of donations.

And that I'm prepared to swear to in any forum," said Miguel D. Lausell, a "soft money." The Justice Department has said it believe those donations are exempt from the prohibition on federal property. An individual familiar with the planning of the breakfasts, who spoke only on condition of anonymity, said the events were designed to assist the party with raising money for a health-care fund that was not a top priority for many big donors. The individual said most of the breakfasts were dominated by "small talk" and not health-care policy and that the plan in most cases was simply for the president to have "face time" with donors. Fundraisers would ask for contributions before or after.

"If you are asking whether the intent was to raise money from "These events provided them with the chance to discuss the administration initiative and to seek their support," Davis said. Attorney General Janet Reno is weighing whether to appoint a special prosecutor to investigate the president and vice president. Federal law generally prohibits soliciting federal campaign contributions in government buildings. Reno's current review is focused mostly on whether fund-raising calls from the White House in 1996 violate a century-old prohibition on soliciting contributions from inside government buildings. Whether the earlier events will have much effect on those deliberations is not clear donations to the DNC health care fund were mostly from PAGE A1 ton also hosted a luncheon in April and a breakfast in June for healthcare donors, officials said.

All of the events were in the residence portion of the White House nine in the Map Room and one in the Family Dining Room, officials said. I "The purpose of the events was to generate support, both political and financial, for health-care reform and thank those supporters who had contributed to the Democratic National Committee national health Care campaign," Davis said. "Of course, the president and first lady asked for people's help in combatting the Harry and Louise ads and other ongoing efforts to undermine the health care initiatives. Nora's Traces Could Hit N.M. by Friday E) Salle KIvj CHOOSE TWIN, FULL OR QUEEN ANY SLEEPER! ir.

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State Police on Wednesday evacuated four residents from the mountains north of Silver City who had been stranded by last weekend's storm and began preparing for possible new problems from Nora. i "That area can't take any additional rainfall," said Darren White, head of the state Department of Public Safety. Forecasters struggled Wednesday to predict Nora's path and effects, frustrated by the fact that it is rare for a Pacific hurricane to reach land. By midday Wednesday, Nora was centered off Baja California, moving north at 15 miles per hour and expected to reach land somewhere on the Northern Baja Peninsula sometime early this morning. Its winds were measured at a steady 85 miles per hour with higher gusts, but that was expected to increase before Nora made landfall, said Kelly Redmond, deputy director of the Western Regional Climate Center in Reno, Nev.

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Hurricanes in the Pacific are common, Redmond said, but they usually spend their lives over the ocean, starting off the coast of Central America and heading northwest, dying in the colder waters of the North Pacific. But a warming current in the ocean this year, called El Nino, is causing winds that are steering hurricanes back toward North America, Redmond said. The warm water also makes the storms more powerful. This is only the beginning. Forecasters say the rapid El Nino warming is also likely to bring heavier winter rains and snows to the Southwest this year.

takes shouldn't be surprising in a system that collected $1.49 trillion and processed 209 million tax returns. The Clinton administration said it has made numerous changes to improve customer service and responsiveness and is pursuing further IRS overhaul. Long initially was scheduled to testify today with her identity concealed from the public by a screen, but she told the committee her attorney advised her to testify publicly. Several IRS agents are scheduled to testify silhouetted behind screens during today's final day of hearings. Long said complaints sent to the agency's inspection division "were routinely ignored (and) often result in retaliation against the IRS employee reporting the problem." Long also said she was personally disturbed at a recent focus on auditing lower-income people.

She described visiting the homes of audit targets some of whom were so poor they couldn't afford air conditioning in the sweltering Houston climate. "What are we looking for with someone who does not have air conditioning?" Long asked. "In the past, I would audit people that would hire someone from a large accounting firm from someone downtown or a well-known attorney to defend them. I don't see that anymore," Long said. Keith, the IRS spokesman, rejected charges the IRS unfairly targets the poor, saying statistics show higher-income people are audited more frequently than lower-income people.

In recent years, however, the IRS has had a special examination program to investigate fraud in the Earned Income Tax Credit program, which benefits the working poor. IRS Plays Favorites, Agent Tells Senate 25 26 27 Thursday Friday Saturday 28 29 30 Sunday Monday Tuesday ON A PURCHASE OF $50 OR MORE OF REGULAR OR Not all stores open Sunday. Credit Terms Available VISA 1997 The Sherwin-Williams Company. Not responsible lot I SALE PRICE MERCHANDISE typographical or artwork errors. Sherwin-Williams reserves the 4 -4 right to correct errors at point of purchase.

3 from PAGE A1 Acting IRS Commissioner Michael P. Dolan will tell the committee today the IRS will no longer rank its district offices in terms of their collections, according tfanIRS official who declined to be identified further. This change responds to repeated testimony that IRS employees were pressured to meet collection quotas, which were outlawed LONG: Decided not to remain anonymous iti 1988. In addition, the IRS will order its district directors to conduct a new review of complaint letters for any patterns of misconduct. And IRS districts will begin holding monthly "problem-solving days" where taxpayers will have face-to-face meetings with IRS staff to resolve problems.

top IRS executives and law enforcement officials will be called to Washington within a month to review the Finance Committee's findings, the IRS official said. Katherine Lund Hicks of Apple Valley, choked back tears at times when she described how she divorced her husband and filed for bankruptcy to protect her property from what she called a wrongful collection action. credit is completely destroyed, and my husband's credit is seriously damaged," she said. "We will suffer the effects of the IRS collection for the rest of our lives." IRS officials, while deploring any illegal behavior or wrongdoing, sought to put the day's anecdotal testimony into context, saying mis BfriMTHIr iKiBfit- ii.i ii j.r iir 9k..