February 26, 1996

As Assistant Secretary of Commerce under President George Bush, Janice Obuchowski was a passionate evangelist for what was then a radical idea: selling licenses to the nation's airwaves through auctions, rather than giving them away free. Today, such auctions are real, and Ms. Obuchowski is still a true believer. Only now, she is backing her convictions with nearly $2 billion.

Congress will begin final debate this week on the most restrictive immigration laws in 30 years and the first cuts in the number of foreigners entering the country legally since the 1920's. As lawmakers return from a three-week recess, Republican leaders are counting on passage of a major immigration bill to enhance their thin legislative record this term. But the bills in the House and Senate face resistance from an unlikely alliance of high-technology companies, grass-roots immigrant groups, civil-liberties organizations and conservative research groups.

The United States called an emergency meeting of the United Nations Security Council today as President Clinton weighed retaliating against Cuba for downing two civilian aircraft carrying anti-Castro Cuban-Americans. Secretary of State Warren Christopher said two Cuban MIG fighter jets failed to warn off the American pilots before blowing two Cessna aircraft out of the sky with missiles on Saturday. He said such a failure violated international law and "the norms of civilized behavior."

Six-year-old Valerie Pickett went sledding with friends in the foot of new snow last Saturday. That night, she told her mother, Julie, that her fingers felt "tight and dry." "I thought it was from gripping the sled," Mrs. Pickett recalled. "So we massaged them and put on some lotion and she went to bed."

Richard Smullen, Supervisor of this upstate mill town, got all worked up the other day when he heard that the state might build a maximum-security prison here to house murderers, rapists and the like. But his was not the predictable not-in-my-backyard battle cry. Far from it.