IV OTA7’ C Tl "I O" O Associated Press
X Tl W W CT Edited by Roger Price
Russian cabinet resigns
Ministers storm
from parliament
amid criticism
MOSCOW — The Cabinet of
President Boris Yeltsin submitted its
resignation en masse Monday, telling
a combative parliament that aban
doning free market reforms could
heighten inflation and block Russia’s
entry into the world marketplace.
Yeltsin asked his ministers to
continue working a few days through
the end of the parliament session,
when he will decide whether to ac
cept their resignations, Deputy Pre
mier Yegor Gaidar said.
The Cabinet’s departure could
create the worst governmental crisis
since the Soviet collapse in Decem
ber. The ministers had been threaten
ing to quit to protest parliament’s
vote Saturday to demand changes in
Yeltsin’s economic reforms.
Several legislators said they thought
the resignations were a bluff, and
Parliament Speaker Ruslan Khasbu
latov addressed the ministers with
such derision that they walked out of
the 1,046-membcr Congress of
People’s Deputies.
“Don’t try to blackmail us. We are
not afraid of anyone or anything,”
Khasbulatov told the ministers, draw
ing cheers from many lawmakers.
“If you want to work, dear mem
bers of the government, you have
everything that is necessary to your
work,” Khasbulatov added.
Several lawmakers began chant
ing “Shame! Shamc!”atthe ministers
in the front row of the vaulted parlia
ment chamber in the Grand Kremlin
Palace. Khasbulatov cut them off.
“Don’t,” he barked. “There is no
shame. These kids have just lost their
heads,” he said, referring to the Cabi
net.
At those words, the ministers rose
to their feet, grabbed their papers and
stalked out.
“We will not allow anyone to in
sult the Russian government,” an angry
Gennady Burbulis, Yeltsin’stop aide,
told reporters.
A pro-reform bloc, Democratic
Rossiya, later announced a petition
drive to remove Khasbulatov as chair
man, the Interfax news agency said.
Khasbulatov appeared on Russian
television to apologize and profess
support for Yeltsin.
“If they are offended, then God as
my witness, I offer them my deep
Brian Shollito/DN
apologies in front of the whole coun
try,” Khasbulatov said.
The Congress of People’s Depu
ties is dominated by former Commu
nists, including many who want to
revoke Yeltsin’s decree-making
powers and have been pushing him to
soften the transition to a market econ
omy.
On Saturday, lawmakers passed a
resolution that left Yeltsin’s powers
intact, but demanded that the govern
ment raise salaries for government
workers while cutting taxes.
Labor party head
resigns after loss
LONDON — Neil Kinnock an
nounced his resignation as leader
of the Labor Party on Monday,
ending a nine-year term in which
he rebuilt the party but failed to
regain control of the government.
Kinnock called his decision “an
essential act of leadership” follow
ing the party’s fourth straight elec
tion defeat to Conservatives on April
9.
The loss was a shattering blow
to both Labor and Kinnock, who
took the party from disarray to a
credible challenge to Prime Minis
ter John Major’s Conservatives.
“He took our party from almost
political oblivion and put it on the
brink of victory,” said Labor fi
nance spokesman John Smith, 53,
a Scottish lawyer favored to be
named to succeed Kinnock at a
special party convention in June.
Kinnock, 50, looked tense and
drawn as he read a prepared state
ment in an office at the House of
Commons.
“It is not to do with any personal
sensitivity,” he said.
The leadership shuffle threat
ens even more problems tor Labor
by renewing conflicts between
moderates and left-leaning factions.
Under Kinnock, the party
dropped a raft of vote-losing leftist
policies: unilateral nuclear disar
mament, widespread nationaliza
tion of industries, withdrawal from
the European Community and curbs
on private schools.
Kinnock, a Welsh coal miner’s
son, and his deputy Roy Hatter
slcy, who will also quit, will stay
on as caretakers until June. Both
will remain in politics as rank-and
file members of Parliament.
“1 am appalled by the way we
are being bounced into this,” said
Ken Livingstone, a left-wing Lon
don legislator.
In addition, the leadership con
test will focus on the influence of
labor union chiefs in the party.
Kinnock claimed the Conserva
tive victory was due to the harsh
attacks on Labor by the vigorously
pro-Conscrvalive newspapers that
predominate in Britain’s national
press..,' -
Flooded tunnels close most of downtown Chicago
CHICAGO — Downtown Chicago virtu
ally shut down Monday when a river’s retain
ing wall ruptured, sending water cascading into
a tum-of-the-century tunnel system deep be
neath the city’s business district.
Workers apparently plugged the breach late
Monday. Power to most of downtown, which
was shut off during the day, was expected to
remain out for at least another full day while
the tunnels were drained, officials said.
Only nine building basements flooded, but
thousands of workers downtown were evacu
ated at midday, and thousands more were sent
home at the fringe of the problem area as a
precaution. Traffic was snarled and commuters
jammed trains and buses in an eerie, early rush
hour.
Broken retaining wall lets river in under city
No injuries were reported.
The flooded tunnels, which form a network
40 feet below ground throughout downtown
and once were used for coal delivery and ash
removal, house Commonwealth Edison’s elec
trical transformers. So the company shut power
off as a precaution.
“Water and electricity don’t mix, and we’re
doing this for the people’s safety,” said Marga
ret Winters, spokeswoman for the electric
company.
Mayor Richard Daley requested that the
entire Loop be evacuated.
Among the buildings to send workers home
were the Sears Tower, at 1 lOstories the world’s
tallest building, and the 80-story Amoco Build
ing. In those buildings, workers were sent home
before power was turned off, sparing them the
ordeal of walking down tens of flights of stairs.
At some tall buildings, workers had to leave on
foot.
Trading halted for the day at the Chicago
Board of Trade and the Chicago Mercantile
Exchange, both of which were forced to close.
The Board of Trade said it wouldn’t reopen
before Wednesday. The other two exchanges
expected to reopen Tuesday.
City workers threw gravel, rocks, sandbags
and mattresses off barges into the river, hoping
to plug the funnel-shaped, car-sized hole in the
retaining wall, which holds the Chicago River
in its course.
“It’s slowing it down, but we have to sec,”
Daley said.
Later, workers were planning to pour ce
ment into the hole from a truck with a long
hose. If that didn’t work, officials planned to
throw concrete blocks into the break.
The mayor said the cause of the problem
was not immediately determined. There was
no street flooding, although some buildings
pumped water from their basements through
hoses that emptied into the streets.
The problem was first reported at 6 a.m. It
occurred below water level, and was visible on
the surface only as a whirlpool in the river
filled with debris.
Arab shops open longer
to give economy a boost
JERUSALEM — Shortened work
hours and frequent strikes were once
centerpieces of the four-year Pales
tinian uprising. But now economic
reality has set in.
The PLO-backed leadership of the
revolt, under pressure from Arab
merchants, has approved longer shop
hours and reduced strike schedules.
The decision, announced in leaf
lets circulating in the occupied West
Bank and Gaza Strip for the past
week, has raised concern among hard
core activists that the move will be
read by Israel as a sign of flagging
Arab support for the revolt. And some
Israeli experts do sec it as a retreat.
But Arab businessmen, who have
watched sales and profits plummet,
were glad for the reprieve. The Pales
tinian economy is in very bad shape.
“If we want to improve our econ
omy, shopkeepers need more hours to
work,” said Walid Hawash, a grocery
wholesaler from the West Bank town
of Beit Sahour. The reduced work
day and frequent strikes had been
intended to show that the Palestini
ans, not the Israelis, were in control of
life in the territories.
In the end they were self-defeat
ing, sharply reducing Arab economic
output and sending many Arab buy
ers to Israeli outlets.
The Palestinian economy also lost
its traditional support from the oil
rich Persian Gulf states, who turned
away from the occupied territories
and the Palestine Liberation Organi
zation after they supported Iraq in the
1991 Gulf War.
An expert on economic develop
ment, Hulailch believes the uprising
leadership should encourage indus
trial production and commercial ac
tivity to build support for the peace
process.
NelJra&kan
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Nuclear activist attacks Reagan
LAS VEGAS — A man rushed
a stage while former President
Reagan gave a speech Monday,
grabbed a crystal statue Reagan
had just been given and smashed it.
Pieces of the statue hit Reagan,
who appeared startled but wasn't
hurt.
The man then tried to speak into
the microphone, but security offi
cers grabbed him and threw him to
the ground before hustling him away.
The 81-year-old Reagan was
jostled during the scuffle. Other
officers rushed Reagan to the side
of the stage.
Reagan returned to the podium
soon after, picked up a piece of the
broken statue, then finished his
speech to the National Association
of Broadcasters.
“I think I’m going to go out and
sec who that guy is,” Reagan said
at the end of his speech.
Reagan later told reporters: ‘‘He
hit me with a fist, but it just bounced
off.”
The protester was Richard Paul
Springer, 41, of Arcadia, Calif.,
said Secret Service spokesman Carl
Meyer in Washington.
Springer was in Secret Service
custody. There was no immediate
word on any charges.
Springer is the founder of the
100th Monkey anti-nuclear group,
said Lisa Law, a group organizer.
She said Springer came up with the
idea of staging a week-long series
of events protesting nuclear testing
at the Nevada Test Site.
Lawyer defends clear, concise writing
DALLAS—For purposes of para
graph (3), an organization described
in paragraph (2) shall be deemed to
include an organization described in
section 501(c)(4), (5), or (6) which
would be described in paragraph (2)
if it were an organization described in
section 501(c)(3).
Clear enough?
Most legal matters concern ordi
nary people with ordinary problems.
So why is legal writing so extraordi
narily difficult for an ordinary person
to understand?
Why docs a judge write “ab initio”
instead of “from the beginning?” Why
would a lawyer begin a sentence
“Accordingly, in the interest of brev
ity," then continue for 76 words?
Part of the answer is legal heri
tage, said Bryan Gamer, a Dallas
lawyer and author.
“Traditionally, lawyers have set
themselves apart too much from the
rest of the world by using pompous,
archaic language that has long since
disappeared from ordinary English
\
discourse,” Gamer said.
For the second year, Gamer is
leading a State Bar of Texas contest
of poor legal writing, or “legaldegook ”
Entries are submitted by the hun
dreds.
The example in paragraph (1) won
last year’s Woolincss Award.
The Serpentine Sentence Award
winner, all 174 words of it, came
from a brief filed with the Texas
Supreme Court.
Try fathoming this entry, written
by an Illinois judge: “Parens patriae
cannot be ad fundandam jurisdictio
ns. The zoning question is res inter
alios acta.”
He meant he didn’t have jurisdic
tion.
From the winner of the What
Language Is This? Award, Gamer
offers:
“No savings and loan holding
company, directly or indirectly, or
through one or more transactions, shall
. . acquire control of an uninsured
institution or retain, for more than
one year after other than an insured
institution or holding company thereof,
the date any insured institution sub
sidiary becomes uninsured, control
of such institution."
At seminars for lawyers and in a
course at Southern Methodist Uni
versity’s law school. Gamer pleads
for clear writing.
“The distinguishing characteristic
of the greatest lawyers, whether judges
or practicing lawyers, is that they
present complex legal ideas in simple,
straightforward language so that almost
anyone can understand,” Gamer said.
“Lawyers are frequently writing
about inherently interesting subjects.
And yet lawyers can make the most
exciting subjects dull.”
Sometimes, he said, the message
can be lost even when the writing is
clear. Take last year’s award-winner
for Funniest Typographical Error in
an Appellate Brief: ,
“In the index to this brief, the
Court will Find a copulation of au
thorities on this subject."
