Hartford Courant from Hartford, Connecticut • Page 8

A6 THE HARTFORD COURANT Saturday, July 31, 1999 The National Bate Approve nets i ax A. uui JL JL The bill faces a certain veto by President Clinton, but sets up a fall battle over how to use the projected $3 trillion surplus. By DAVID LIGHTMAN Washington Bureau Chief WASHINGTON The Senate passed a sweeping, $792 billion, 10-year tax cut Friday that has virtually no chance of becoming law but a big chance of Setting the stage for a. bruising fight between Congress and the White vote was 5743. The ambitious, Republican-authored plan would lower the 15-percent income tax bracket by 1 percentage point beginning in 2001 and provide new breaks for married couples, investors, employer-provided health care, businesses and people who save for retirement and pay estate taxes.

Connecticut Sens. Christopher J. Dodd and Joseph I. Lieberman joined 41 of the Senate's Democrats in opposirfg the plan. Fifty-three of the 55 Republicans voted soon as this weekend, on crafting a single bilL The House, with the su port of 217 Republicans and six Democrats, passed its version last week, a bill that includes a 10 percent across-the-board cut in income tax rates.

Senate Majority Leader Trent Lott, predicted that a compromise measure could be ready for House approval Thursday and Senate passage Friday, though it is virtually certain Clinton would find their consensus unacceptable. Whatever the outcome, cans are now assured they can fan out across the country during that recess, and for that matter the next 16 months, and remind voters they were eager to give them a big tax cut, only to be thwarted by big-government Democrats. Lott and his allies offered a preview Friday. "With the money left over in the surplus, we want to cut taxes. The president wants to spend it" Lott said But Democrats, buoyed by polls showing tax cuts are not high on constituents' priority lists, were unconcerned They believe massive tax cuts will only create new defi- for it; the only GOP dissenters were Sens.

George y. Voinovich, R-Ohio, and Arlen Specter, R-Pa They and the Democrats sided with President Clinton, who saw the bilL as "so large it would undo our fiscal discipline and imperil our prosperity." Clinton Friday reiterated his earlier pledge: "I will not "sign a plan that signs away our future. If Congress passes that kind of plan, I will veto it" The bill is nonetheless significant for two key reasons: It firmly establishes the Republican Party as the party that wants a big tax out In Washington, the bill figures to be the opening bid in what looms as an autumn showdown over how to use the projected $3 trillion budget surplus. Likely to be included in that debate, which many believe will wind up as September or October negotiations between the White House and Republican leaders, is how to keep Social Security and Medicare solvent "Tax relief is only one of a number of priorities," said Sen. John tt Chafee, "We need to take a break in August and listen to our constituents and figure out how to write a Medicare reform bill," said Sen.

John B. Breaux, D-La. Breaux led an unsuccessful effort this week to craft a bipartisan compromise on taxes. Breaux, one of the Democrats who wound up voting for the GOP tax pjan, had worked with several Republicans, including Chafee, to find common ground on taxes. Their coalition was pushing a $500 billion plan, but they decided not to even seek a vote, figuring party lines had hardened so much their effort would be fruitless.

Their instincts proved right A bid by Lieberman and Sea Ernest F. Hollings, to defer any tax cut arid use surpluses to pay down the debt was killed Friday, 65 to 35, after Senate Finance Committee Chairman William V. Roth R-DeUuped its rejection. "To deny the working people of America a tax break they deserve today makes no sense at all," he said. Negotiators from the House and Senate will begin work, probably as cits and thus higher interest rates.

"What we need now," Lieberman said, "is a little more of the fiscal discipline and responsibility that helped bring this economy to the point of great growth it is at now." Some Republicans conceded that Friday's tax bill would be dramatically revised once serious talks with the White House begin, and thus stressed that they were trying to stake out a position. That's why many senators backed both the $792 billion plan and also voiced support for Brgaux's less-expensive package. Connecticut's two senators disliked the Republican plan and were unenthusiastic about the Democratic choices. Lieberman opposed all the tax-cutting plans, while Dodd supported a $290 billion Democratic proposal Wednesday, a plan that was soundly defeated Dodd, though, had one of the few Democratic triumphs Friday, winning unanimous passage of an amendment to spend an extra $10 billion on child care programs over the next 10 years. The funds will come from scaling back some of the estate tax benefits for the very rich.

Tripp Indicted; Faces Wiretap Charge By GREG TOPPO Associated Press ELLICOTT CITY, Md Linda Tripp, whose secretly recorded phone conversations with Monica Lewinsky led to the impeachment of President Clinton, was charged with illegal wiretapping on The charge makes her the only major figure in the sex scandal to face a criminal charge. A grand jury indicted Tripp on two counts of breaking Maryland's wiretapping law. Each offense could carry as much iiiiii "iJ" i. jm mum" 1 'tJ- NATION Jones' Lawyers Accept Order LITTLE ROCK, Ark. The lead law firm for Paula Jones said Friday it will not appeal a federal judge's order awarding it $79,999 from President Clinton for costs incurred because of his false testimony about his relationship with Monica Lewinsky.

The decisionby the Dallas-based firm of Rader, Campbell, Fisher Pyke all but wraps up Jones' dispute with Clinton. The president has said he is willing to comply with the court order issued Thursday by U.S. District Judge Susan Webber Wright Army SchooPs Funds Targeted WASHINGTON The House moved early Friday to cut funds for a controversial Army school in Georgia that has been criticized for human rights abuses in Latin America by some of its graduates. The 230-197 vote during debate on a foreign aid bill marked the first congressional setback for the school since church activists launched a campaign a decade ago to have it closed. The school had survived four previous House votes.

The House action, which will be an issue for a conference with the Senate on the foreign aid spending bill, would cut about 10 percent of the $20 million earmarked next year for the school at Fort Benning. The rest of the school's funding comes from the Pentagon budget. The school's critics have ar- gued that its alumni include some of the worst human rights abusers in Latin American history, including many of the soldiers responsible for the 1989 murder of six Jesuit priests and two women in El Salvador. No Charges In WWF Death KANSAS CITY, Mo. Criminal charges will- not be filed in the death of professional wrestler Owen Hart, who fell to his death during an aerial accident Jackson County Prosecutor Robert Beaird said Friday.

Hart also known as The Blue Blazer was killed May 23 when he fell from a cable as he was being lowered into the ring at a WWF spectacle at Kemper Arena. The World Wrestling Federation is based in Stamford, Conn. Hart, 34, fell 78 feet when the quick release on his harness opened early. The impact ruptured Hart's aorta Beaird said his review of Kansas City police investigation files showed there was no basis for a criminal charge of involuntary manslaughter against the rigging coordinator. Privacy Clause Out Of Bill WASHINGTON The House backed away from a controversial medical privacy provision.

Friday that it had included in a bill to overhaul the financial services industry. By a 241-132 vote, the House dropped the provision, unrelated to the rest of the bill after medical privacy experts said it could have enabled insurance companies, credit card agencies and banks to examine an individual's medical records without the individual's knowledge or permission. Gerber Drops Some Suppliers SUMMIT, N.J. Gerber, the nation's largest maker of baby food, will no longer buy genetically engineered corn and soybean products from suppliers. Gerber's parent company, No-vartis AG of Switzerland, said it was considering the move even before the environmental group Greenpeace asked for information about the company's use of bioengineered products.

Other baby-food makers have made similar decisions. From Wire Services as five years in -IT" prison and a $10,000 fine if she is if ASSOOATED PRESS AS A HEAVY FOG begins to lift in Scarborough, Maine, Sylvia Fengler of Scarborough and Crystal Marshalhof Old Orchard Beach, Maine, walk on the beach Friday morning. Fengler, a retired teacher, is being treated for leukemia and is awaiting a donor for a bone marrow transplant. Tripp's spokesman, Philip Coughter, called the indictment "the Embassy Attack Deal Reached U.S., China Agree To $4.5 Million In Compensation MIT Revokes Man's Diploma Associated Press CAMBRIDGE, Mass. The Massachusetts Institute of Technology has revoked a graduate's diploma for his involvement in the 1997 death of a student who suffered alcohol poisoning after a fraternity party.

Charles Yoo, 23, now a Philadelphia stockbroker, was called back to his alma mater this week for a hearing in which his diploma was rescinded said his lawyer, who plans to sue the school. "They chose to scapegoat my client and take his degree, which he had earned and been awarded over a year ago," lawyer Timothy M. Burkesaid "Frankly, it's outrageous." Police said Scott Krueger, 18, died in September 1997 after he was forced to drink huge quantities of liquor as part of a pledge contest at "Animal House Night" at the Phi Gamma Delta fraternity house. Krueger's blood alcohol level was 0.401 percent when he was hospitalized more than five times the state's legal limit for drivers. Yoo was the pledge trainer at the fraternity, and prosecutors said he gave the freshmen, including Krueger, whiskey and beer he had purchased.

most disgrace- TRIPP ful, transparent campaign of politically motivated vengeance in recent American history." Her attorneys suggested that Tripp should be protected as a government whistleblower, and that they would challenge the state's authority to bring charges because she was given federal immunity by Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr when she turned over the tapes. State Prosecutor Stephen Mon-tanarelli waved off suggestions that the case would be viewed as politically motivated "I can't help how it will be seen. I think we've done our duty," he said Montanarelli, a Democrat appointed to his post in 1984, said he would handle the case himself. After a yearlong investigation, the grandjury indicted Tripp on a count of illegal interception, a charge stemming from a phone conversation taped Dec. 22, 1997, after she was told by her lawyer that secret taping was illegal will be entirely voluntary and does not acknowledge any legal liability," Andrews told reporters after wrapping up intensive negotiations with his counterpart at the Chinese Foreign Ministry.

"This payment will not create any precedent" Talks over restitution for the destruction of the Chinese Embassy, as well as return compensation for damage inflicted by Chinese protesters on U.S. diplomatic missions in Beijing following the bombing, will be held next month, Andrews said. The announcement of the payout to the families should help nudge the United States and China closer toward patching up frayed relations, at their lowest point in three years. Since the May 8 bombing, China has demanded compensation for the human and property loss, the punishment of those responsible and a full accounting of the missile strike, which NATO insists was a mistake born of faulty maps. Andrews said the decision reflects the importance the White House attaches to ties.

By HENRY CHU Los Angeles Times BEIJING U.S. officials Friday agreed to pay $4.5 million to the families of those killed and wounded in the NATO bombing of the Chinese Embassy in Belgrade, Yugoslavia, in May. After three days of talks on his second trip here this month, U.S. State Department legal adviser David Andrews announced the decision to'provide what the United States terms "humanitarian payments" to the bombing victims and their families. The money, Andrews said, would be given to the Chinese government to divide and disburse, at Beijing's discretion, to the families of the three people killed and 27 injured in the attack.

But mindful of concern that such payments might spur similar claims for damages following future military actions, Andrews said the decision should not be viewed as setting a precedent "The U.S. has made clear that this payment Scieritists Discover Why Breast Cancer Drug Stops Working This story was dropped from some editions tion of breast cells to tamoxifen changes over time until the drug starts to behave like the hormone it is supposed to block. Estrogen has been shown, to promote the growth of about half of breast cancers. Tamoxifen blocks this action by preventing estrogen from linking up to a receptor on the surface of cells. But clinical experience has shown that after two to five years, the anti-estrogen effect of tamoxifen fades, often allowing estrogen-sensitive cancers to start growing again.

Researchers have been puzzled about why this tamoxifen resistance occurs. Dr. John D. Norris, first author of the study, said that an analysis of the tamoxifen action showed that over time, the drug causes the estrogen receptor on cells to change and form a pocket-like structure that allows other proteins to bind there. The action of these proteins somehow changes the cell's reaction to tamoxifen.

The drug converts from an anti-estrogen effect to a proestrogen effect "The cells learn how to recognize that new receptor shape as estrogen," said Norris. "We're not sure why." Norris said the research shows that tamoxifen resistance can be reversed using peptides that block the pocket-like structures on the cell receptor. This causes tamoxifen to once again have an anti-estrogen effect He said the new understanding could also help researchers find a new anti-estrogen drug that does not produce the cell receptor reshaping that is caused by tamoxifen. Estrogen is a double-edged sword in the health of women. While its presence has been shown to promote breast and uterine cancer, the hormone also has been shown to be pn tective against osteoporosis and heart disease.

Tamoxifen is a widely used dug for breast cancer because it blocks the cancer-promoting action of estrogen in breast tissue. Friday. Associated Press WASHINGTON Doctors have long known that tamoxifen, a drug that fights breast cancer by blocking the action of the hormone estrogen, eventually loses its effectiveness and then actually may help the cancer grow. Researchers now say they may know why. In a study published Friday in the journal Science, scientists at Duke University Medical Center said they have found that the reac.