American Notes

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Reports from El Salvador, however, soon cast doubt on whether the retaliation hit those directly responsible for the June attack. Said one U.S. military observer: "As far as saying 'This guy was at the Zona Rosa,' if that is the case I don't know it." A Salvadoran military spokesman said, more conclusively, that the rebels captured and killed "were not specifically the ones responsible." With that, Weinberger's office backpedaled a bit. "He was not intending to say that we had identified the actual triggermen," a spokesman explained. At week's end the State Department said the reward offer for those who actually carried out the killings was still in effect.

SPACE Challenger's Greatest Challenge

"It sure scared us," said Flight Director Cleon Lacefield. Less than six minutes after launch last week, while the space shuttle Challenger's speed remained well below the velocity of 17,500 m.p.h. that it must achieve to go into orbit, onboard computers shut down one of its three main engines. Reason: sensors were signaling overheating in the fuel pump. Two and a half minutes later, another engine seemed to overheat. "If the right engine had failed ... we would have been in the water," Lacefield said afterward, meaning that Challenger, with its crew of seven, would have fallen in a controlled glide. By firing its remaining two engines for an additional 86 sec., Challenger finally reached a safe orbit 197 miles above the earth, 45 miles below that planned.

Safely in space, the crew performed a round-the-clock schedule of experiments, including observation of flares on the sun's surface and study of the behavior of liquid helium at zero gravity. Crowed Mission Scientist Eugene Urban: "We have been able to assure ourselves that the science return . . . will be very high."

BOSTON Black Chief for an Ailing System

Boston's public schools have been a national symbol of racial conflict for more than a decade. But last week black, Hispanic and white members of the city's school committee united to elect Boston's first black school superintendent, Laval Wilson, 49, a no-nonsense administrator who has led the public schools in Rochester since 1980. "I'm thrilled," said School Committee President John Nucci, a resident of the blue-collar East Boston neighborhood, adding, "We're off to an optimistic start."

Wilson will take over just as Judge Arthur Garrity Jr. prepares to relinquish the tight federal-court control of Boston's schools that he imposed eleven years ago to effect his sweeping desegregation plan. In Rochester, Wilson boosted student test scores and reduced absenteeism, while trimming $8 million from the budget. When fistfights broke out at school basketball games, he won plaudits by banning spectators for three weeks. In his application letter for the Boston job, Wilson called himself "the most qualified urban educator in the U.S." Now he will have a chance to prove it. High school illiteracy now runs 30% in Boston, and the daily absentee rate is an astonishing 48%.

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3. The Palin Pick: Bold or Disastrous?
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6. Obama's Risky Stadium Gig
7. Exclusive Poll: Obama's Swing Leads
8. Is McCain Overplaying the POW Card?
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10. Clinton Builds a Bridge to Obama