Washington briefs

Compiled from Times wires

© St. Petersburg Times, published January 5, 2001

Depleted uranium poses no risk to soldiers, Pentagon repeats

WASHINGTON -- Amid a rising chorus of European concern, the Pentagon on Thursday denied there is a health hazard to U.S. or allied peacekeepers in the Balkans from remnants of U.S. weapons containing depleted uranium.

"We have not found any link between illnesses and exposure to depleted uranium," said Kenneth Bacon, chief spokesman for Defense Secretary William Cohen. "We're pretty confident of what we've said, which is we have found no direct link."

The Pentagon has been investigating the issue since the 1991 Gulf War, when such weapons were first used in combat.

Reno buys a pickup

Attorney General Janet Reno has finally bought a red pickup truck for the cross-country tour she has long promised to take after leaving office.

She refused to disclose the make.

"I can't tell you that. That would be advertising something," she told reporters Thursday.

Reno couldn't say whether it has a standard or automatic transmission.

"Don't know," Reno said. "I haven't seen it yet."

The purchase was made for her in Florida by her brother-in-law, Jim Hurchalla, her aides said.

In election news . . .

SUIT AGAINST GORE: A federal judge in Washington denied a request Thursday to stop Vice President Al Gore from recognizing Florida's slate of presidential electors when Congress makes its formal count of electoral votes this weekend.

U.S. District Judge Royce C. Lamberth said the people making the request had no jurisdiction in the motion brought against Gore, who serves as the Senate president.

The lawsuit filed by two District of Columbia voters, Robert Asa Gordon and Lawrence Douglass Jamison, alleged that Florida election officials disenfranchised tens of thousands of blacks on Election Day by making it difficult for them to vote.

CBS REPORT: CBS on Thursday blamed errors in its Florida presidential vote call on a communications breakdown between its anchors and analysts, a lack of oversight by an executive with enough power to make on-the-spot corrections and an unhealthy reliance on a single source for ballot totals and exit polls.

As ABC, NBC and Fox have already done, CBS promised not to declare a winner in any state until all of its polls are closed.

The network wouldn't say whether it will continue as a part of Voter News Service, a consortium composed of ABC, CBS, NBC, CNN, Fox and the Associated Press to conduct exit polls and tabulate results.

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