THE WEEK: SEPTEMBER 17-23

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NATION

WELFARE REFORM PASSES

By an overwhelming vote of 87 to 12, the Senate approved the Republican-propelled plan to overhaul welfare--a sweeping about-face on 60 years of social policy. The bill eliminates federal guarantees of assistance to the needy and relies instead on capped block grants, mostly to be administered as each statehouse decides. President Clinton indicated he would sign the measure unless a House-Senate conference reinstates "extremist" provisions, such as banning aid to unwed teenage mothers, earlier adopted by the House. Dispirited liberal Democrats assailed the overhaul as a catastrophe for the nation's poor and criticized the President for not rejecting the plan.

HEALTH-CARE WARS

The House Commerce Committee passed a Republican proposal that drastically revamps Medicaid, the health-care program for the poor, following the general G.O.P. prescription for welfare: no more federally guaranteed benefits; instead, lump-sum grants to the states to spend as they see fit. Senate Republicans unveiled a similar plan. But the G.O.P.'s decision to hold short and swift hearings on the $182 billion cost-savings plan--as well as on the even more controversial G.O.P. Medicare overhaul--prompted a full-scale rebellion by Democrats, who held alternative "hearings" on the lawn of the Capitol. The party leadership vowed to use every stalling tactic at its disposal to prevent the plans from being rammed through.

THE RUBY RIDGE PROBE

Former FBI Deputy Director Larry Potts, who has been suspended along with four other officials pending a Justice Department investigation, testified before the Senate panel probing the FBI's 1992 fatal standoff with white separatist Randy Weaver's family. Contradicting previous testimony by the on-scene FBI commander, Potts insisted he never approved the agency's controversial shoot-on-sight rules of engagement.

AN EVEN GRANDER OLD PARTY

Multimillionaire publisher Malcolm S. Forbes Jr. threw his hat into the crowded 1996 G.O.P. presidential contest, running on a promise of lower taxes, economic growth and fewer regulations.

NEWS ON DEMAND

On the recommendation of Attorney General Janet Reno and the FBI, and after weighing the ethical questions for three months, the Washington Post published the full 35,000-word text of the Unabomber's manifesto urging revolution against the "industrial-technological system." The Post and the New York Times split the cost of the printing and said they acted "for public-safety reasons." The Unabomber had threatened to resume his murderous mail-bomb campaign unless one of the two papers published the treatise by week's end.

A DEADLY WRONG TURN

Even for hardened Angelenos, the news was ghastly. A wrong turn down a gang-infested dead-end alley, known as Avenue of the Assassins, cost the life of three-year-old Stephanie Kuhen. Gang members reportedly ambushed her family's car and opened fire. At week's end Los Angeles police had four suspects in custody.

SIMPSON: THE END IN SIGHT