Week In Review A Look Back At The Top Stories From The Last Week

NATION

The ad-lib Senate trial

The Senate on Friday finally agreed to a plan for conducting the impeachment trial of President Clinton - for now.

The House “managers” will be given 24 hours, starting Thursday, to present their case based on the evidence already compiled by during the House Judiciary Committee’s hearings.

Following that, the president’s lawyers have 24 hours to rebut the House’s case.

The arrangement, brokered in private by all 100 senators, also leaves open the possibility that witnesses such as Monica Lewinsky will be called to testify, thus extending the trial to an indeterminate point.

The crucial moment will come the week of Jan. 25, after House prosecutors and the president’s lawyers argue their cases. At that point, senators will have a chance to vote whether to dismiss the case, seek testimony from witnesses or, if both those efforts fail, to vote to convict or acquit the president on the articles of impeachment.

WORLD

Our men in Baghdad

U.S. intelligence officials said last week that American spies had worked undercover on teams of U.N. arms inspectors ferreting out secret Iraqi weapons programs.

Iraq has long condemned the inspectors as tools of American intelligence. In October it issued a statement saying it would never cooperate with U.N. teams riddled with “American spies and agents.”

The disclosure came after the Boston Globe reported on Wednesday that American intelligence agents had used the team as a cover to spy on President Saddam Hussein.

The Washington Post also reported on Wednesday that the commission had worked with American spy agencies to collect intelligence that was used to undermine Saddam.

Embargo light

The Clinton administration formally announced an easing of some restrictions on Cuba last week, but supporters and opponents of lifting the trade embargo insisted the new policy will bring the average Cuban little relief.

The new steps, taken after Pope John Paul II’s call last March for ending the embargo, will allow U.S. residents to send up to $1,200 to any Cuban family except government officials. They will ease travel restrictions for athletic, religious and cultural exchanges, expand direct passenger flights between the two countries, authorize the sale of food and agricultural products to private entities and farmers in Cuba, and restore direct mail service. One outcome is an expected baseball game between the Baltimore Orioles and the Cuban national team.

The administration, however, rejected a call for a national commission to conduct a full-scale review of U.S. policy toward Cuba. A State Department official said the administration did not want to give “even the slightest hint” that it was willing to reconsider the trade embargo against Cuba.

SPORTS

NBA? What NBA?

NBA owners unanimously approved a settlement, clearing the way for the professional basketball season to start in early February, and the league immediately went to work to woo fans back.

The 29-0 vote by the Board of Governors came a day after the agreement to end the 6-month-old lockout was ratified by the players union.

The most divisive labor battle in league history ended at dawn Wednesday - the 191st day of the player lockout - when NBA Commissioner David Stern and union director Billy Hunter shook hands on a collective bargaining agreement. Union approval came later in the day.

Stern said the league hopes to start the season Feb. 5 and play about 50 games. But if the NBA survived, it’s not yet clear how much damage has been done to fan morale.

REGION

Not-so-great Northwest

Thousands of Northwest residents work full time for less than what amounts to a living wage, according to the Northwest Job Gap Study jointly released last week by the University of Washington’s Northwest Policy Center and the Northwest Federation of Community Organizations.

About half the job openings in Idaho, Montana, Oregon and Washington pay less than what a single adult must earn to meet basic needs and plan ahead, the study said. About 70 to 80 percent of job openings don’t meet the needs of a single parent with two children.

“This study shows what working people have known for awhile - that a job is not necessarily a living today,” said LeeAnn Hall, executive director of the federation, whose study was based on labor and wage statistics for 1996, the most recent year for which complete data was available.