The Post: Briefly

Friday, April 16, 1999

THE POST

Athens, Ohio An Independent Daily Newspaper Ohio University

Briefly

Roberto Candia/AP
Relatives of the "detained and disappeared" during the regime of former Chilean dictator Gen. Augusto Pinochet react to the decision by British Home Secretary Jack Straw in Santiago. British Home Secretary Jack Straw yesterday announced a ruling to allow procedures to continue for Pinochet's extradition to Spain to face charges for the human rights violations during his regime.

Clinton investigation cost surpassed $1.2 million

WASHINGTON- The House paid its top impeachment investigators as much as $20,000 a month, part of the $1.2 million-plus price tag for the five-month congressional proceedings that ended with President Clinton's acquittal, expense records show.

In addition, chief Republican investigator David Schippers and Democratic counsel Abbe Lowell were given special consultant status that allowed them to bypass congressional restrictions on outside income and continue work at their private law firms.

Schippers, whose private practice is in Chicago, was paid at the rate of $20,000 a month during the height of the investigation, according to House Judiciary Committee records. Lowell, a Washington lawyer, was paid at a monthly rate of $18,000, according to expense records reviewed by The Associated Press.

Adjusted to annual salary, both men were being paid at a rate of more than $200,000 per year.

In contrast, staff lawyers for Independent Counsel Kenneth Starr earn between $66,563 and $118,400 annually.

Two new planets part of distant solar system

SAN FRANCISCO - The first evidence of the existence of another solar system somewhat like our own was reported yesterday.

The discovery indicates the Milky Way, which contains about 200 billion stars, probably has numerous planetary systems, San Francisco State University researchers said in announcing the find.

Astronomers knew one planet was circulating around Upsilon Andromedae, 44 light years from Earth. But after years of studying 107 stars for 11 years at the Lick Observatory near San Jose, scientists said evidence of two additional planets has been spotted. The discovery would mean for the first time a true solar system - with multiple planets - had been located.

"It implies that planets can form more easily than we ever imagined, and that our Milky Way is teeming with planetary systems," said Debra Fischer, one of the researchers.

The planets were discovered using a method that measures their gravitational pull on their star, not by direct observation. Planets' gravity tugs on their stars, causing them to wobble slightly. By examining the star's ultraviolet light transmissions, astronomers can calculate back-and-forth shifts in the ultraviolet wavelengths. A larger wobble indicates the orbiting planet is large.

Astronomers from the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Mass., and at the High-Altitude Observatory in Boulder, Colo., independently identified the two new planets.

Filing day prompts protest, taxation debate.

WASHINGTON - Hated tax-filing day? So did about 100 anti-tax activists who enlivened a Capitol Hill news conference yesterday by ripping and tossing copies of a 1040 tax form.

It was part of an effort to drum up interest in abolishing the Internal Revenue Service and replacing the national income tax with a national sales tax.

"America wants to get rid of this awful income tax code," said Rep. Billy Tauzin, R-La., the lead sponsor of the national retail sales tax bill.

Ohio Rep. Jim Traficant, one of the plan's supporters, said the idea has gained additional support in the two years since Tauzin proposed it, and House passage is an achievable goal.