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Edited by Kristine Long 1 I V V V k-/ JL/XVJAJk^ A Tu«»d«y, March i o, 1994
White House official resigns
WASHINGTON — Associate At
torney General Webster Hubbell, a
longtime friend of President and Mrs.
Cl inton, resigned Monday, saying dis
tractions from a probe at his former
law firm “will interfere with my ser
vice to the country.”
Hubbell was the second high-rank
ing Clinton official to resign in just
over a week. White House Counsel
Bernard Nussbaum quit March 5 after
revelations of White House briefings
with federal regulators who arc inves
tigating an Arkansas savings and loan
with ties to the Clintons.
The president said Hubbell had
done valuable work at the Justice De
partment, but “he made the right de
cision” to resign and return home to
Arkansas to deal with an investiga
tion into billings he charged while in
private law practice.
Clinton said he found it “hard to
believe” that Hubbell was guilty of
wrongdoing.
Attorney General Janet Reno said
his departure would be a loss for the
Justice Department, where he had been
the No. 3 official for nine months.
“I don’t believe he did a thing
wrong,” she said.
Hubbell did not attend Rcno’sbricf
news conference, but released a state
ment recalling the “wonderful jour
ney” he took from Little Rock, Ark., to
Washington a year ago when Clinton
was inaugurated.
He lamented that “private issues”
involving his billings at the Rose Law
Firm in Little Rock, where he and
-44
I believe too much in
this country, the
president, the
attorney general, the
Justice Department,
my wife and family,
and my colleagues.
—Hubbell
former associate attorney
general
-ft -
Hillary Rodham Clinton were part
ners, were “elevated topublic specula
tion.” He said he was confident the
dispute would be resolved satisfacto
rily.
The law firm has been investigat
ing whether Hubbell overbilled cli
ents. He has denied doing so and has
said he was cooperating with the firm’s
probe.
Hubbell recused himself last fall
from any role in the department’s
investigation of the Clintons’ invest
ment in the Whitewater Development
Corp., the co-owner of which also
owned Madison Guaranty Savings &
Loan. The Rose firm had represented
Madison in the past, and Hubbell later
sued an accounting firm blamed in the
thrift’s failure on behalfof the Federal
Deposit Insurance Corp.
Hubbcll said he would “stand and
take the blows from wherever they
came” if they affected only him. He
decided to resign, he said, because “1
believe too much in this country, the
president, the attorney general, the
Justice Department, my wife and fam
ily, and my colleagues.”
“After a thoughtful weekend, I be
lieve that my continued service will
not be as effective as it has been; that
the distractions on me at this time will
interfere with my service to the coun
try and the president’s agenda, and
that my family, although totally sup
portive, is being harmed,” he said.
Hubbell said his association with
Reno “has meant more to me than
words can describe. She knows that I
consider her one of America’s he
roes.”
As for the Clintons, Hubbell said
their 20-year friendship “has been a
never-ending source of pride and sus
tenance. Their support of me has been
unfailing.”
House Republican Whip Newt
Gingrich of Georgia, renewing a call
for congressional hearings on
Whitewater, said he was disturbed
that Reno said Hubbell was leaving to
take care of old private issues.
“Issues about whether the federal
government was overbilled, issues
about how the Rose Law Firm handled
savings and loan legal affairs for the
federal government, these kind of is
sues are notprivatcmatters,”Gingrich
said.
Job summit promotes cooperation
DETROIT — President Clinton
Monday urged America’s major trad
ing partners to combine their “collec
tive energy and ideas” to solve the
world’s crisis of chronic unemploy
ment and stagnant wages.
Clinton, speaking to the top cco
nom ic pol icy-makcrs of the seven rich
est industrial countries, said every
nation faced a “stubborn and persis
tent problem” of how to create more
and better-paying jobs.
He said that the problem was dif
ferent for each country, with the Unit
ed States hampered by stagnant wages
and Europe saddled with high unem
ployment rates.
“I asked for this conference to sum
mon the same collective energy and
ideas and experience to one of the
greatest problems of our era,” Clinton
said. The president said the most ad
vanced industrialized countries had to
learn how toobtain and maintain grow
ing living standards for its citizens.
The president continued to pres
sure Europe and Japan to do more to
end the global recession by stimulat
ing domestic demand. He said the
United States would do its part by
continuing with efforts to reduce its
budget deficits.
Clinton also urged the world’s in
dustrialized powers to talk openly
about the challenges they face in a
rapidly changing global economy.
“If we can honestly debate these
problems, we can help people over
come their fear of change,” Clinton
said.
“We’ve got to make our people
believe that productivity can be a source
of gain, not pain,” the president said.
Clinton’s remarks came at the open
ing of a two-day conference that the
administration hopes will foster free
wheel ing discussions among finance,
labor and economics ministers from
the so-called Group of Seven coun
tries —t he Un i ted S tates, J apan. Ger
many, Britain, France, Canada and
Italy.
The president said the conference
participants needed to have the cour
age to ask the “hard questions,” such
as why unemployment has remained
high even in periods of economic
expansion, and how fears of inflation
can be balanced against the need to
promote growth.
“None of us can find the answers to
these questions just within the borders
of our own countries,” Clinton said,
urging the nations to learn from each
other.
“Today we are beginning a serious
conversation about the economic well
being of people in all countries,”
Clinton said. “This is an historic,
important and longoverdue moment.”
In advance of the speech, Clinton
had said he planned to seek a new
coordinated strategy among Ameri
ca’s major trading partners. However,
in the speech the president laid out no
major new initiatives.
While urging Europe to do more to
cut interest rates, Clinton earlier in
the day had told reporters that he did
not think that rising American rates
would choke off the U.S. recovery.
“I think that since there’s no infla
tion in the economy, the interest rates
should not continue to go up,” the
president told reporters be fore a break
fast meeting with economics minis
ters.
“If they moderate, tail off a little,
we’ll be all right,” he said. Low inter
est rales arc the cornerstone to
Clinton’s strategy to strengthen the
economy.
World
unemployment
We are currently in the worst
global employment crisis since
the Great Depression of the
1930’s. Worldwide, one of
three men and women are
either unemployed or not
earning enough for a minimum
standard of living.
Nebraskan
Editor Jeremy Fitzpatrick
472-1 rW Night News Editors Jed Robb
Managing Editor Adeana Leftln Matt Woody
Assoc. News Editors Jed Zeleny DeDra Janssen
Assoc. News Editor/ Steve Smith Melissa Dunne
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Christopher optimistic
about Chinese meetings
BEIJING — After two days of
gloomy reports, Secretary of State
Warren Christopher gave an up
beat assessment Monday at the
conclusion of his visit to China.
“I find the differences between
China and the United States arc
narrowing somewhat,” he said.
He said the Chinese turned over
information about political prison
ers, agreed to procedures to inspect
suspect sites of prison labor and to
work to resolve remaining emigra
tion matters.
Christopher then was flying to
Vladivostok for a meeting with
Russian Foreign Minister Andrei
Kozyrev before returning to Wash
ington.
Christopher’s final meeting in
China was with Foreign Minister
Qian Qichen who he said told him
that “the Chinese side now under
stands the views of the United
States” on human rights.
Despite the secretary of state’s
cautiously upbeat assessment, there
were no public statements from the
Chinese indicating they were ready
to yield to U.S. demands for human
rights reform.
Rather, Qian told a separate
- «
I find the
differences
between China and
the United States
are narrowing
somewhat.
—Christopher,
secretary of state
-ft -
news conference that China and
the United States would continue
to have different human rights con
cepts “for a long time to come.”
Qian also warned that if the
United States withdraws China’s
low-tariff trade status, as Wash
ington has threatened to do over
human rights, U.S. businessmen
“will not be able to enter the Chi
nese market.”
The United States has insisted
the Chinese make significant
progress toward improving human
rights as the price for getting re
newal of trading preferences for
goods entering the U.S. market.
Student credit spending
causes national debate
WASHINGTON —When Connie
Bedell of Springfield, Va., sent her
twin daughters to college, she offered
them the standard advice: Don’t drink,
don’t stay out too late and buckle up.
In retrospect, she wishes she had of
fered one more admonition: No credit
cards.
The daughters, Michclcand Diana,
now seniors at Radford College in
Virginia, both got into debt trouble
after obtaining credit cards as sopho
mores.
Neither had a job or a regular in
come beyond what their parents pro
vided. They did not need their par
ents’ co-signatures to obtain their Visa
and Discover cards. Yet when both
daughters fell behind, their creditors
turned to their parents to repay the
more than $4,000 they owed.
According to Rep. Joseph P.
Kennedy II, D-Mass., college students
and credit cards are becoming an in
creasingly bad mix thanks to the card
companies’ aggressive marketing
campaigns and easy standards for
granting cards.
“Why in God’s name would they
say students don’t need a job or a co
signer?” asked Kennedy, whose dis
trict includes Harvard, MIT and other
major universities.
Credit card companies say students
seem to handle credit cards at least as
well as older adults.
“College students arc some of the
most responsible credit users in the
market today,” said Susan Murdy, a
vice president at Visa U.S.A. Inc.
“College students pay their balance in
full more than half the time, and when
they do carry a balance, the amount is
about one-third that of the average for
other consumers.”
Gary Flood, senior vice president
for MasterCard International Inc., said
his company’s educational campaign
includes free videos and teacher’s
guides on sound financial practices.
Bedell and her daughters told their
stories recently to the House Banking
consumer subcommittee, which
Kennedy chairs.
Like hundreds of other parents, she
is facing a choice: Pay off debts she
didn’t know were accruing or see her
children’s credit rating ruined for the
crucial seven years following gradu
ation when they arc buying their first
cars, renting apartments and, perhaps,
buying their first homes.
Ruth Susswein, executive director
of Bankcard Holders of America, a
consumer advocacy group, said an
estimated 61 percent of the nation’s
eight million college students have at
least one credit card. And card issuers
are pushing aggressively, with give
aways and promotions, to sign up
even more.
“Students are one of the very few
untapped markets left,” she said.
“Some of the largest issuers... are now
targeting college-bound high school
seniors. ... However, too many stu
dents have no idea what they’re get
ting into.”
Japanese businessman
wants Harding to wrestle
TOKYO — It might not have the
prestige of an ofTer from Disney or
Revlon. But one Japanese business
man says Tonya Harding has just the
image he’s looking for.
“Tonya was made to be a pro wres
tler.’’ Takashi Matsunaga. chairman
of the All Japan Women’s Profession
al Wrestling Association, said Mon
day.
“She’s about as tough as they come,
and she’ll last a lot longer in our sport
than she will in figure skating."
Matsunaga says he’s willing to pay
Harding $2 million to get into the
ring.
“If that’s what Disney’s paying
Nancy Kerrigan, that’s what we’ll pay
Tonya,even if I have to go into debt to
do it,” he said.
A representative of the wrestling
association has been sent to Oregon to
make Harding an offer, Malsunaga
said. He said he hopes to meet Harding
while she is in Japan for the World
Figure Skating Championships, which
begin outside Tokyo next week.
Both men’s and women’s profes
sional wrestling arc popular in Japan.
Wrestlers have been known to record
hit songs and become fixtures on va
riety shows. One wrestler, Antonio
Inoki, holds a seat in parliament on
the Sports-Peace Party ticket.
“1 think we have a 70 percent chance
of signing her,’’ Malsunaga said. "Ol
course, she’d have to be the bad guy at
first, but I think she can learn to be a
heroine as well.”