THE CHRONICLE Point Blank

Point Blank Almost a week after it opened, "Grosse Pointe Blank" is selling out at area THE CHRONICLE theaters—for good n L. See R&R, pg. 6. THURSDAY, APRIL 17. 1937 DURHAM. NORTH CAROLINA CIRCULATION: 15.000 Nation's largest tobacco companies seek settlement By JOHN BRODER been driven to the negotiating N.Y, Times News Service Deal could cost billions, bring tighter regulation table by the accelerating mo WASHINGTON — Seeking the nation's two largest tobacco Nabisco Holdings Corp. and Ge damage fund and opposition mentum of legal, political and fi to resolve its mounting legal companies have offered sweep offrey Bible ofthe Philip Morris from members of Congress and nancial pressure. and political difficulties, the to ing concessions including sub Cos. a wide array of anti-tobacco President Clinton is pressing bacco industry has initiated ne mission to Pood and Drug Ad The discussions are the most forces. for broad oversight ofthe indus gotiations that could lead to ministration regulation and dramatic evidence to date that And the price the industry try's sales practices by the FDA; tighter government regulation, payments of more than $250 bil the tobacco industry's once-im and its lawyers are demanding plaintiffs' attorneys are starting restrictions on advertising and lion over the next 25 years to pregnable resistance to compro for a settlement is high: near- to win damage cases, and one of the creation of a huge fund to compensate states and individ mise is crumbling. total immunity from lawsuits the nation's cigarette makers cover the costs of smoking-relat- uals for tobacco's health toll. The existence of the talks from states seeking compensa last month settled a case with ed illnesses in exchange for im The talks, with the compa was first disclosed by the Wall tion for the Medicaid costs of 22 states, agreeing to turn over munity from most lawsuits. nies' legal opponents, have for Street Journal on Wednesday. treating smokers, as well as potentially explosive internal In clandestine talks, which the first time included the top But the proposed deal is still from individual and class-action documents detailing industry have taken place over the past executives of the nation's two in its embryonic stages and lawsuits filed by smokers and knowledge of tobacco's harmfiil three weeks in Washington, largest tobacco companies, faces daunting hurdles, includ their families. health effects. Chicago and northern Virginia, Steven Goldstone of the RJR ing disputes over the size of the The tobacco industry has See SETTLEMENT on page 6 • Community, student investors open lounge By JENNIFER YOUNG January below the Cosmic Can Members of the Durham tina, the restaurant opened by community will have a new Lyles in September of 1995. The place to hang out on Ninth window of opportunity was Street when The Lounge, a New small, Lyles said, because he York style bar, officially opens had only three weeks to raise today under the Cosmic Canti enough money for the initial in na and around the corner from vestment. Although he was not Bruegger's Bagel Bakery. originally planning on opening With its art deco style, in the bar, Lyles said that when cluding big columns and an the opportunity arose he could tique furniture from the 1890s not resist. to the 1930s, The Lounge is Unlike with the Cantina, aimed at the local upscale which was opened on a loan, crowd. "We're going for the se Lyles decided to recruit several nior undergrads to grads to pro local investors, which include 10 fessionals," said The Lounge students from the medical owner Cosmos Lyles, Trinity school, law school, undergradu '95. The whole scheme of the ate schools and the Fuqua place was to try to make it School of Business, as well as funky but classy all at once." four Durham residents to sup KIM CLAYTON/THE CHRONICLE The idea for the bar began port The Lounge. Bartender Suzanne Forti serves up the first round of drinks at The Lounge Wednesday night. after a vacancy opened in early See LOUNGE on page 5 *• Oak Room Live, from New York... to undergo Nealon talks about his career in comedy alteration By MARSHA JOHNSON eighties. Driving through backed-up traffic "[Saturday Night Live] did seem By BRIAN HARRIS in Los Angeles does not phase Kevin to reach the crater of its existence Jim Wulforst, director of dining Nealon. He simply pops in his before we got on, and it really had services, said he plans to make a French language cassettes and nowhere to go but up, I think," he number of changes to the Oak Room transforms a frustrating situation said in a telephone interview from and the Faculty Commons—facilities into a bona fide French lesson. What his home in Los Angeles. "We really he called "old, tired and mediocre"— he has learned, he said with a laugh, had nothing to lose, and everyone in a move partially motivated by the has been most useful for "yelling vul went in with that attitude. I think it recent success ofthe Devil's Den. gar French at people out your win took a lot of pressure off us. People "Right now the Oak Room is a dow." were willing to experiment, try dif place where students go to burn up Known to many as Franz of Hanz ferent things." points," Wulforst said, adding that and Franz and Mr. No-Depth Percep It was that room for experimenta they should be receiving higher qual tion, Nealon can take pride in the tion that initially drew Nealon to the ity food for their money. The Oak knowledge that it was memorable show and kept him on the cast for Room is not producing financially, he characters such as these that con nine years, longer than any other continued, citing a $50,000 drop in tributed to Saturday Night Live's cast member, including Chevy SPECIAL TO THE CHRONICLE sales this year as compared to last rise to popularity during the mid- See NEALON on page 7 • Kevin Nealon See DINING on page 5 • THE CHRONICLE THURSDAY, APRIL 17, 1997 World and National Newsfile Officers recommend charging Netanyahu From wire reports Gorbachev chooses: Former Soviet President Mikhail Gor By SERGE SCHMEMANN 22, what came to be known as the Bar- questions about the government's abil bachev, in a visit to Northeastern N.Y. Times News Service On Affair has been a constant presence ity to remain in office. University Wednesday, announced JERUSALEM — Police officers in in the news media and a major ques The new crisis coincided with the he had chosen the university as the vestigating allegations of influence- tion mark over all Netanyahu's en arrival in Israel of Dennis Ross, the new home for the Gorbachev Foun peddling in the Israeli government deavors. American Middle East mediator, who dation of North America, an inde have recommended bringing charges Even if the current attorney gener is trying to find ways out of another cri pendent non-profit think-tank to against Prime Minister Benjamin Ne al, Elyakim Rubinstein, and the state sis plaguing Netanyahu's govern study emerging political and eco tanyahu, officials said Wednesday, attorney, Edna Arbel, decide against ment—the breakdown in Israeli-Pales nomic movements. thrusting his troubled administration an indictment against Netanyahu— tinian peace talks over Netanyahu's into an acute new political crisis. and that remains a distinct possibili decision to build more Jewish housing Details of the accusations were not ty—the fact that the police had impli in Jerusalem and the ensuing eruption Scientists announce: Scien See ISRAEL on page 4 •• tists will announce Thursday at a immediately known, and it remains up cated the prime minister raised serious White House conference that the to the attorney general and the state neurological foundations for ratio attorney to determine whether the po nal thinking, problem solving and lice findings warrant indictments general reasoning appear to be against Netanyahu or the three other CIA denies responsibility in largely established by age 1. senior politicians who were reportedly named as indictable. The government Terminator recovers:Arnold attorneys are expected to announce Gulf War chemical exposure Schwarzenegger had elective heart their ruling before Passover, which be surgery Wednesday to replace a gins Monday evening. heart valve for a congenital heart The basic allegation was evidently By PHILIP SHENON sibility that chemical arms were stored condition, even though it was not that Netanyahu appointed an attorney N.Y. Times News Service in the vicinity of a Iraqi ammunition causing him any problems. general last January under pressure WASHINGTON — The Central In depot that was blown up by U.S. sol from a key member of his coalition who telligence Agency said Wednesday that diers in March 1991. hoped in return to secure a plea bar it was being unfairly blamed for an in The CIA has been widely criticized gain in a corruption trial. cident in which thousands of U.S. because it did not, however, pass on ev Weather That attorney general, Roni Bar-On, troops may have been exposed to nerve idence it had before the war that chem Friday resigned after less than 48 hours under gas shortly after the 1991 Persian Gulf ical arms had been stored in that par High: 58 • Partly cloudy a barrage of criticism that he was not war. ticular depot in the '80s. The depot, Low: 37 • Winds: too cold for April qualified for the job. At a congressional hearing, the offi near the southern Iraqi village of 13 days until reading period!!! The allegations are the most serious cial, Robert Walpole, said that the "the Kamisiyah, was later determined to ever brought against an Israeli prime record is clear" and that the CIA "pro have contained tons of nerve gas and minister, and since they were first vided multiple warnings to our mili other chemical weapons.

Load more