August 16, 1993

The Federal Reserve's 12-member group that sets short-term interest rates will meet on Tuesday for the first time since Congress passed the President's budget. But despite fears that higher taxes and spending restraint will crimp economic growth, the committee is not likely to provide the kind of quid pro quo -- easier money for tighter fiscal policy -- that the Bush Administration received in the fall of 1990. Back then, the Fed lowered rates a couple of days after the budget passed -- after promising ahead of time that it would do so. Now, the widespread expectation is that when the monetary-policy panel, the Federal Open Market Committee, meets on Tuesday, it will do nothing.

Over strenuous objections by some drug companies, the Federal Government is establishing a program guaranteeing free vaccine for millions of children who are poor or uninsured. Under the program, which Congress created as part of the budget bill and the President signed into law on Tuesday, the Government will buy the vaccine at discount prices from drug manufacturers and distribute it at no charge to doctors who choose to participate. The doctors, in turn, will not charge patients for the vaccine. Though they may charge a fee for administering the vaccine, they cannot turn away a child whose parents are unable to pay.

The Republicans' pledges of bipartisanship on the Clinton health care package may be more than just talk. The party is too divided on the specifics of health care to present a unified front on the issue. Article, page A14.

Perhaps it is simply not meant to be for Greg Norman at the Inverness Club. Or perhaps it was just Paul Azinger's time. Either way, nothing but fate can describe the dramatic end of the 75th PGA Championship today. After the two players tied over 72 holes, Norman watched two putts in sudden death roll hard against the left edge of the hole only to spin out to the left.

At 2 P.M. on July 19, seven men with machine guns burst into an automobile showroom on Leninsky Prospekt and opened fire. Security guards shot back, and four people died. Two weeks later, in another mid-afternoon attack, gunmen leaped from a BMW and shot up a downtown building, killing four people before someone rolled a grenade under their car.