The NewsHour with Jim Lehrer

RAY SUAREZ: Good evening, I'm Ray Suarez. Jim Lehrer is off this week. On the NewsHour tonight, protecting privacy on the Internet, we get three views; Tom Bearden reports on the aftermath of the devastating wildfires in New Mexico, Margaret Warner talks to Paul Gigot and Tom Oliphant about the politics of the week, the residents of an Israeli border town worry about their future, and poet laureate Robert Pinsky celebrates a graduate. It all follows our summary of the news this Friday.

NEWS SUMMARY

RAY SUAREZ: A middle school student shot and killed a teacher today in Florida, on the last day of school. It happened in Lake Worth, just South of West Palm Beach. Police said the teacher was shot as he talked to other students in a hallway. Police arrested the shooter near the school. They said he was a 13-year-old boy who had been sent home earlier in the day for throwing water balloons. President Clinton announced plans to begin creating ocean preserves. He said he wants a proposal within 90 days to protect 1,200 miles of coral reef in Hawaii. He also ordered federal officials to develop lists of other threatened areas and ways to protect them. Those could include bans on fishing, drilling, and development. He made his announcement on Assateague Island off the Maryland and Virginia coasts.

PRESIDENT CLINTON: The old idea that we can only grow by putting more pollution into our lakes and rivers and oceans must finally be put to rest. Indeed, it is now clear that we can grow our economy faster over the long run by improving our environment. And it's reallynot enough for us just to try to keep it as it is. We have to do better.

RAY SUAREZ: Mr. Clinton's plans do not require approval from Congress. The Justice Department offered a revised plan today for breaking up Microsoft. It still calls for creating two new firms, one to sell the Windows operating system and one to sell Microsoft's other products. On Wednesday the judge in the antitrust case raised the possibility of creating three companies and he ordered the government to revise its proposals. Microsoft has the holiday weekend to reply. In South Lebanon today, the leader of the Hezbollah guerrillas returned to the region to celebrate Israel's withdrawal. We have this report from Julian Manyon of Independent Television News.

JULIAN MANYON: From all over Lebanon, Hezbollah supporters flocked to this village in the former Israeli security zone. (Chanting) Here, only a couple of miles from the Israeli border, they rejoiced in a victory that was luridly commemorated on the official podium. Above all, they came to listen to their leader, the Muslim priest Sheikh Hassan Nasrullah. He appeared in the south for the first time today, after 15 years hiding from Israeli attack. (Speaking Arabic) Nasrullah told the crowd that they had broken their chains with their blood, and he urged the Palestinians to do the same in their struggle with Israel. He called for a new Palestinian Intifada and more terror attacks, but he made no mention of any Hezbollah support. A few miles away, United Nations troops are trying to ensure that Israel's withdrawal does not lead to a new round of clashes. The U.N. has always had peace- keeping units in some positions in the southern zone, and is now starting to deploy more widely, and the Lebanese government is attempting to reassert its authority in the South. Today, its army took control of several tanks that Israel and her allies left behind.

RAY SUAREZ: On the Israeli side of the border, crews worked on building a security fence. We'll have more on how the withdrawal has affected residents in Northern Israel later in the program. President Clinton today urged Peru to delay its presidential runoff election set for Sunday. He said it was the only way to guarantee a fair vote. Opposition candidate Alejandro Toledo has refused to participate. His supporters clashed with police in Lima yesterday, demanding a delay in the vote. They attacked the election headquarters and besieged the residence of President Alberto Fujimori, who's seeking a third term. At least 4,000 demonstrators marched in Belgrade today. They demanded Yugoslav President Slobodan Milosevic end his crackdown on dissent. The regime has arrested several activists in recent weeks, and it seized a TV station and a radio station ten days ago. An even larger opposition rally is expected Tomorrow. That's it for the News Summary tonight. Now it's on to Internet privacy, fire damage in New Mexico, Gigot and Oliphant, on the edge in Israel, and a poem for a graduate.

FOCUS - INTERNET PRIVACY

RAY SUAREZ: First tonight, protecting privacy online. The federal government is reviewing earlier attempts to get web-based industries to police themselves.

RAY SUAREZ: When you click online, is the information you give out kept secret? In a report released this week, the Federal Trade Commission has concluded the online industry is failing to protect consumer privacy through self-regulation. According to an FTC survey, only 20% of frequently used web sites had implemented the commission's suggested safeguards. And of the 100 most popular U.S. sites, only 42% hadadopted those safeguards. The Commission is now asking Congress for new authority to regulate how companies use personal information collected on their web sites. The legislation recommended by the FTC would require standards built on four principles: Notice; notify consumers what information is collected and how it will be used. Choice; give consumers option to choose whether information can be shared with third parties. Access; give consumers the ability to review information a site has collected. And Security; guarantee that information during transmission and storage is secure. Under the proposed guidelines, Congress would continue to allow the industry to regulate itself, but the FTC would have the power to intervene in certain disputes. The proposal is the latest development in a growing concern over privacy, but it immediately stirred opposition from business and Republican lawmakers, and questions from the Clinton administration over whether it goes too far.

RAY SUAREZ: And joining us now to discuss privacy online, Robert Pitofsky, chairman of the Federal Trade Commission; Christine Varney is executive director of the Online Privacy Alliance, representing high-tech companies that support voluntary privacy practices on the Internet; and Marc Rotenberg, executive director of the Electronic Privacy Information Center, a research organization focusing on privacy issues concerning the Internet. Mr. Pitofsky, let's start with you. Bring us up to today. What did you try first and what have you found about how it worked that makes you seek a legislative remedy?

ROBERT PITOFSKY, Chairman, Federal Trade Commission: Well, we've issued three reports. We've been looking at this question for about five years. We've issued reports over the last three years. There's a lot of common ground here. I mean, nobody thinks that privacy is not worth protecting. The only issue is, how do you get there? Will self-regulation do it? I don't think self-regulation has been a failure. On the contrary, much has been achieved. But I'm not sure self-regulation is ever going to get to the finish line all by itself without some legislative support. That's really what the issue is about.

RAY SUAREZ: And in your recommendations, did you try to craft the, let's say the least intrusive solution for this point?

ROBERT PITOFSKY: Well, I hope we did. You listed the four information practices that we think should be supported. Certainly notice and choice are the heart of any. If you don't know what's happening to the information, and you can't say "leave me out," then have you no rights at all. On access, which means can you check to see whether there are errors in the database, we said reasonable access. We said there are some kinds of information where no access at all would be required. So we are trying to make sure that we protect consumers' rights on the Internet, rights to privacy, which we think are so important. But we certainly don't want to do that by hampering the growth of the Internet, which, itself is a tremendously pro-consumer development.

RAY SUAREZ: Well, Christine Varney, people who are not industry experts might listen to that statement and say, "gee, it doesn't sound like he's slamming on the brakes or throttling what's going on on the Internet. What's the problem?"

CHRISTINE VARNEY, Online Privacy Alliance: As well they should. I think that the chairman has laid out the problem very accurately. We've been working for over five years, industry and government and consumers together, to come to up with meaningful privacy protections for consumers. Congress has enacted three laws recently: The Children's Online Privacy Protection Act which protects data from and about children, the Financial Services Modernization Act, that does have some has privacy provisions. We can argue about the adequacy of them - and the Health Insurance Affordability and Accountability Act, whose regulations are not even finished yet, which does protect medical and health-related information. I think the question that I really have is at this point we have got three very strong laws, the children's is the only one which is fully implemented. The other two are not yet implemented. I would like to see us go a little slow. Let's get these laws up and running. Let's look at the last, you know, 10% of web sites that don't have notice and figure out how we get there. The chairman's absolutely right. It is a combination of self- regulation, legislation, and enforcement. And the Federal Trade Commission today has the authority to prosecute those web sites hat don't do what they say they're doing. They've done it and they've done a good job. If anything, I'd like to see them get more resources to do prosecution as opposed to creating regulatory framework.

RAY SUAREZ: All kinds of industries would prefer self-regulation over legislative regulation. But what do you do about the bad actors? If you were to continue with a self-regulating model, how do you take those people who go too far and sanction?

CHRISTINE VARNEY: Well, one of the things, as a former government enforcer, that I've always thought is, good laws don't stop bad people from doing bad things. They merely give prosecutors and in some cases private citizens, more tools to go after them. So, I think we have to remember that we have a lot of law in place right now. The question is whether or not existing law is adequate. As we discussed earlier, the FTC has the authority right now to prosecute bad actors under certain circumstances. I'm not sure that an additional grant of regulatory authority is going to get us all the way there in the least intrusive manner.

RAY SUAREZ: Mark Rotenberg, are the legislative remedies proposed by the FTC enough for you and your group?

MARC ROTENBERG, Electronic Privacy Information Center: Well, I think the proposals, Ray, are fairly modest, actually. They seem to track what the industry has said they are currently doing, those four principles actually mirror the principles that Miss Varney's group and other industries self-regulatory organizations say that they're currently following. So I guess one question you can ask at the outset is if these four principles are already being adopted by industry organizations, why they're not prepared to see them backed up in law? But I think a second point that really needs to be made at the outset here is the privacy problems on the Internet are getting more severe over time, which is to say that as we allow this experiment in self-regulation to go forward, the techniques for capturing personal data through web advertising, through web bugs and through cookies are accelerating rapidly. And there is a real risk, I think, if we don't put in place a legislative framework very soon, we could quickly lose control of this problem.

RAY SUAREZ: Can you give us an example of the kind of personal data that you're talking about, and the bad uses to which it can be put?

MARC ROTENBERG: The interesting thing about the Internet is that you can capture people's activities, their interests, when they visit a web site, when they read a news story, online, for example. If they go toyour web site, that information can be logged. And we've never experienced this in the off-line world. The type of information that marketers typically had in the off-line world was purchase information. And if you bought a sweater one year, a different product the next year, the company that sold you that sweater might well sell you a related accessory. But on the Internet, the information is far more detailed. And what it's leading to is the creation of detailed personal profiles of consumers operating online. And I think, as the chairman has said quite rightly, consumers today are facing an unfair choice. To go online and to take advantage of electronic commerce they're increasingly being asked to give up their privacy. And it seems to me that that's a choice that consumers should really not have to face.

RAY SUAREZ: Are stories coming back to FTC regulators, back to your office are the kinds of experiences that people are having that lead you to have this concern that you want a legislative remedy for?

ROBERT PITOFSKY: Sure. And let me put a sharper point to the - to the issue. If people put out a privacy policy and then they don't do what they say, we can and we have challenged it. The problem is that about 40 percent of the websites that are out there now either say nothing or they say something in such a confusing way that nobody can figure it out - ten pages of legal jargon that the average person isn't going to figure out, so they don't know what their rights are. Without legislation, there's no way for us to get at that kind of behavior and self-regulation won't get at it either, because, as you pointed out, we're talking about some bad actors here. We're talking about some unprincipled people. If you go to them and say shape up, we have a self-regulatory rule and we want you to abide by it, they're making a lot of money, putting together a profile that - the books you read, the music you listen to, the drugs you buy, the cosmetics you buy, the tools you take - and they say I'm - that's very nice about your self-regulation but I think I'm going to sell this information and make the profit that I'm already making. I think self-regulation itself would be more effective if there were a law that they could point to and back themselves up, and that the most successful self-regulation programs I'm aware of, they all work in exactly that way.

RAY SUAREZ: Well, have there been exaggerations of just how much retailers put a value on this kind of data mining?

CHRISTINE VARNEY: Well, I think there has been a lot of concern about what's potentially possible. And I think that both Marc and the chairman would agree that the actual practices today are not where they could be and may be in the future. The question is: What kind of law and combination of law and best practices is going to restrain them and give them a choice. If there is a company that is doing what the chairman just described, I'd like to know their name because I'd like to go talk to them and see if we can't get them to behave in a better way, but I really think that what you've got to be careful about here is what Americans care deeply about is the abuse and misuse of their personal and financial information, their personal health and medical information, including the purchasing of jobs, and the information about their children, those issues have been dealt with. Do most Americans care if a company is trying to serve them up an Internet page that they think is going to be reflective of their interests when none of that data is there? Not really. Not if they know that it's happening, if they have complete choice that's easy. And on the point that - you know - many of these privacy policies are ten pages long and written by lawyers, well, I think the industry would be happy to sit down with the government and say, okay, you want to make 'em easier, let's make them easier, but let's get your guarantee. You're not going to prosecute us for not having full disclosure because it takes ten pages to do full disclosure.

RAY SUAREZ: Well, Marc Rotenberg, what about Christine Varney's point that most Americans are pretty easy going about the kinds of information that they are often asked for and then come to certain places, insurance, medical records, those kind of things, that's when the concerns rise, and there are already regulations for that?

MARC ROTENBERG: Well, first of all, I disagree with Christine's characterization of the current legal protections for financial information and for medical information. I think most people look at those laws and regulations agree that this is very weak stuff. Even the President, himself, has committed to introducing stronger privacy legislation to protect consumer financial records - I would hardly call that adequate protection. But I think more generally if you want to talk about the views of Americans on this issue, I think their views are quite clear that they believe they're entitled to some legal rights when they go on the Internet. They don't understand, for example, why it is if they go to a website and give some information for one purpose, there's a product shift or loan approved or for some other reason, that information is going to be sold to a third party for some other purpose. Much of privacy protection is really common sense. It's about the trust and confidence in relations between consumers and businesses, and I think the chairman again has made a point well. We're operating in an environment right now on the Internet where that trust and confidence is not in place, because we don't have those signed privacy statements.

RAY SUAREZ: Let me come back - because he makes an interesting point. Why not just shift the balance of power and even things out a little bit? Yeah, you can have this information but just tell me you're taking it - you can have it but just ask me if I can have it.

CHRISTINE VARNEY: I think one of the things that's important to remember here is that this is truly a place where good business judgment and good public policy intersect, when the Federal Trade Commission did their survey, they went through the 100 most popular websites, and I think they found in overwhelming percentages those websites offer notice and choice. You can say no, don't share my information. I tell consumers all the time, when you go to a website, look for the privacy policy. If you can't find one, don't shop there. And when you find one, exercise your choice. If you don't want your information shared, say, no. Now, I believe that there are different standards that need to be in place for health and medical, financial, and children. And Marc is right. There is a lot of disagreement over whether or not protections in the financial services organization bill are adequate and we're going to be revisiting those this year.

RAY SUAREZ: So what do you feel you need?

ROBERT PITOFSKY: Let me just say after five years it's not an overwhelming percentage. Notice and choice for the best companies is 60%. For all companies is 40%. Look, we need modest, sensible legislation to make self- regulation work. And that's what our report says. I don't think we should go wild. I don't think we should burden the Internet. But you put it very well. I don't mind you collecting this information, but if you're going to collect it and sell it to a third party that I don't know and I've never heard of, I wanted a chance to say leave me out.

RAY SUAREZ: Chairman Robert Pitofsky, guests, thank you very much.

FOCUS - BURNED OUT

RAY SUAREZ: Now, the aftermath of the devastating fires in Los Alamos, New Mexico. Tom Bearden reports.

MAN: One of your porcelain dolls.

WOMAN: Completely whole.

CHILD: All right!

CHILD: Remember those?

CHILD: Hey, that was mine.

CHILD: This is mine. This is mine.

TOM BEARDEN: For the Jalbert family and their friends, it was like an archaeological dig, sifting through three feet of ashes and twisted metal, looking for anything of value.

WOMAN: That's the old button tin. It's an old, old mint tin, and it said, "you all know after dinner mints," and it was my great-grandma's sewing tin. And it's got buttons in it. Yes, look at this, guys! I mean, this is too cool. "You all know after dinner mints." And look at that, glass buttons. Old glass buttons. I'm so excited! Amanda, this is the one thing I really wanted to find.

TOM BEARDEN: They had lived in a building called a quad, four apartments in one structure. Now privately owned, the quads and duplexes were built by the Department of Energy back in the 1950's to house workers at the nearby Los Alamos National Laboratory, where the first nuclear bomb was built. Most of the buildings destroyed were these multi-family units. As the Jalberts searched, every so often a gust of wind would stir up a choking cloud of ashes. They wore facemasks to protect themselves from the asbestos insulation of the heating plants.

CHILD: Mom, my elephant, which is... can I keep him?

TOM BEARDEN: The family marveled at a fire so hot that even porcelain figurines were melted together.

TOM BEARDEN: You guys seem in remarkably good spirits for what's happened to you.

LOUIE JALBERT: Yeah, we've... it's good to be finding stuff. That really cheers us up. When we first saw it, it was pretty devastating. Of course, we knew what happened in advance, but once you start finding little doodads and things, and bits and pieces, it really...

DAWN JALBERT: It's like very little bit is a gift, because you don't really expect to find any of it.

LOUIE JALBERT: Exactly.

DAWN JALBERT: It's all a gift.

TOM BEARDEN: What's the best thing you've found so far?

DAWN JALBERT: My great grandmother's silver.

ELAINE MORRIS: The blue spruce trees my daughter-in-law planted didn't make it.

TOM BEARDEN: Dawn Jalbert's mother, Elaine Morris and her husband Don, lived in an adjacent unit. They pointed out how the fire had shattered a flagstone walkway, even changed the color of the soil. The Jalberts and Morrises were among more than 400 families who lost their homes as a result of what was supposed to have been a controlled burn in the nearby Bandelier National Monument. For the Morrises, the crowning irony is that an effort to stop that fire from approaching their house was actually responsible for destroying it.

ELAINE MORRIS: We understand now a backfire was set to stop the wildfire that was in progress on the other side of the ski hill. And it got out of control and it came through this area with a vengeance.

TOM BEARDEN: Does it make you angry that that fire was set intentionally?

ELAINE MORRIS: Yes, sir. It was an unnecessary happening. I wasn't angry until I came and saw. And yes, we're angry -- not angry just about the backfire, but the initial decision to set this.

TOM BEARDEN: Even so, the Morrises and most people in Los Alamos are effusive in praising local, state, and federal officials for their help in dealing with the disaster. But there is still some anxiety about when they might expect compensation.

ORBRY WRIGHT: It's hard to tell what was kitchen, what was living room, what was garage. It's all one pile in the basement now.

TOM BEARDEN: Others have found help from their neighbors and friends, like Orbry and Kathie Wright.

KATHIE WRIGHT: Oh, wow. Mother will be excited to see this.

ORBRY WRIGHT: She will. Oh, wow. Must be 70 or 80 years old by now.

TOM BEARDEN: Their long-time friends, Kelly and Dave Myers, had evacuated to their parent's house in nearby White Rock when the fire swept through Los Alamos. They decided to stay where they were, and invited the Wrights and their five daughters to move into their undamaged home in Los Alamos until they can find a new place to live.

ORBRY WRIGHT: It's a huge burden off us. We were motel hopping and burdening various other family members that were spread out across the state. And they didn't have quite as much room as we're able to accommodate now, and it's a huge help for us.

KATHIE WRIGHT: It's been most important for the kids, because they've always been comfortable and happy at Kelly's house. And this is a place they know and feel really good at, and it's really helped for the kids.

ORBRY WRIGHT: It's a home.

KATHIE WRIGHT: Yep.

TOM BEARDEN: But not everyone has been so lucky. Celia and Kevin Granville and their infant son, Kaelan, are staying in a motel in White Rock, a few miles south of Los Alamos. Like many people who rent, they're discovering that they don't qualify for many of the relief programs that exist for homeowners. Mrs. Granville says she met with a representative of FEMA, the Federal Emergency Management Agency, earlier this week, who filled out several forms.

CELIA GRANVILLE: Then he said it would be, like, two weeks or something before they got back with us. You know, so they might be sending us a check, but I'm not really sure.

TOM BEARDEN: Kevin Granville says he wishes the government could respond more quickly.

KEVIN GRANVILLE: It's a struggle every day to get a car seat, to get a high chair. And we can't just up and leave because we have nothing -- kind of a stressful situation.

TOM BEARDEN: The Granvilles are looking for a new place to rent, but are finding that prices have gone up dramatically. They can't find anything in their price range.

SPOKESPERSON: All you have to do is go to the help center.

TOM BEARDEN: At a town meeting on Monday, local resident Jan Jennings told assembled officials that there are a lot of people out there like the Granvilles.

JAN JENNINGS: These people are in their mostly dilapidated cars driving all around Los Alamos County, all around the valley, all around Santa Fe trying to find a place to live, trying to find a place to be. In a lot of cases they're single moms with babies and so on, and they're having a really hard time getting what we are telling them is available, aside from the $1,000 that was given out last week to the people that are uninsured.

TOM BEARDEN: At the meeting, officials told residents that plans for beginning the cleanup were nearing completion.

DAVE RIKER, Los Alamos Director of Public Works: It's our intention for the county to take over the cleanup responsibilities to really relieve that burden from the folks who have lost homes.

TOM BEARDEN: But a lot of questions remain. Zoning laws and building codes now on the books would not allow the old quads and duplexes to be rebuilt as they were before. The same codes also prevent temporary housing on the sites.

HAL DeHAVEN: We lived at 4397 Arizona-- excuse me-- and I have just a few questions. First one is, you know, we plan on rebuilding. Can we park a fifth-wheel or a trailer on our lot, and will there be temporary power available for us? And I... excuse me, it's been too much for us the last few days.

TOM BEARDEN: The answer was probably not until the debris had been scraped off, which may be several weeks away. There was also a stark warning: Prepare an emergency kit in anticipation of flooding.

CAPT. ROBERT REPASS, Los Alamos Police: That you have a three-day supply of food and water, some clothing and bedding, all that kind of good stuff ready to go. Evacuation is much less likely in a flood-type event, but we do face the possibility of having utility services cut to various portions of the town site.

TOM BEARDEN: The reason for the warning is that the heat of the fire baked the soil to the point that it is practically impervious to water. Officials are frantically trying to break up the ground in the forest watersheds above the city to restore some capacity for absorption. If the floods come, the Myers might be forced out of their temporary home.

DAVE MYERS: I work in White Rock, and they're saying that the waters down there could be as high as 15 feet, perhaps. And you know, the afternoon thunderstorms will roll in while I'm down at my office, and we could just get wiped out in the middle of the afternoon. We're really concerned.

TOM BEARDEN: If some permeability can't be regained, the water from any significant rainfall is likely to roar down canyons, like this one above the city, carrying huge amounts of debris. That may carry away several key bridges, isolating parts of the city. Joe King is the county administrator.

JOE KING, Los Alamos County Administrator: We live on mesas here that are connected by very few roads. So if one of those goes, we're in big trouble.

TOM BEARDEN: There had been concern that the fire might have stirred up radioactive material alleged to have been dumped during nuclear weapons research at the Los Alamos National Laboratory. State environmental and health officials have set up a monitoring network, and have been analyzing the results. The state's environmental director, Jim Najima, says they haven't found anything to be concerned about.

JIM NAJIMA, Director, New Mexico Department of Environment: There have been some elevated hits of radiation that are typical for a forest fire. However, as we hold them, they degrade to what we expect. We don't see anything that raises any alarms to us.

(Children Playing and Laughing)

TOM BEARDEN: There is also a lot of concern about the psychological impact on the children of Los Alamos. Classes resumed at the Mountain Elementary school this week, where the flames stopped just across the street. Teachers believe it's important to return to a normal schedule. That's why the show must go on.

STUDENT: He actually went through the war a private but we don't like to talk about that.

STUDENT: General Bigelow.

STUDENT: Hey, speak up. You're mumbling.

STUDENT: General Bigelow.

TOM BEARDEN: These fourth grade students were rehearsing for a play to be presented tonight. Principal Gloria Salazar-Shuttles says teachers are encouraging kids to talk about their experiences, particularly the 75 students who lost their homes.

GLORIA SALAZAR-SHUTTLES, Principal, Mountain Elementary School: They want to tell you about how they lost their stuffed teddy bear, or how their bike burned up. And you agree. I mean, you have to understand, they're telling you, "it's really sad. My house burned down," and yes, it is really, truly sad. And we talk about that. You can't... I think sometimes the tendency is to want to gloss over it, you know "yes, but look at what you have." But a child doesn't see what they've got, a child sees what they lost.

JOE KING, Los Alamos County Administrator: After a period of time, we would then go in and start the cleanup itself.

TOM BEARDEN: Joe King has a longer term worry, that a lot of people may choose to leave Los Alamos permanently.

JOE KING: As we bring people into our joint service center, we're asking what their intentions are. And about 30% say that they're going to leave. And we have a lot of elderly that just look at the task ahead and just say, "I just can't go through this." And we're very concerned about that.

TOM BEARDEN: Even so, most agree that despite the outpouring of help from government agencies and private citizens, it will be years before many people recover, and decades before the forests above the city are restored.

RAY SUAREZ: Interior Secretary Babbitt announced today he was extending the Park Service ban on prescribed fires indefinitely. Still to come on the NewsHour tonight: A look back at the week in politics with Oliphant and Gigot, life on the edge, a kibbutz on Israel's northern border, and a tribute in verse to the graduates from poet laureate Robert Pinsky. Margaret Warner has the end of the week political wrap.

FOCUS - POLITICAL WRAP

RAY SUAREZ: Margaret Warner has the end-of-the-week political wrap.

MARGARET WARNER: And we get that analysis from Gigot and Oliphant; that's "Wall Street Journal" columnist Paul Gigot, and "Boston Globe" columnist tom Oliphant. Mark Shields is off tonight. All right, first the China trade bill vote. This was supposed to be a cliff hanger. Tom, it won with a 40-vote margin. What happened?

TOM OLIPHANT: I think down the stretch, Margaret, that three very important trends were underestimated by some of the people caught in the heat of this battle. The most important one, I think, turned out to be the complete absence of a competing vision from the opponents of this of a relationship with China that did not include normal trading deals. That failure made it possible to portray this as a kind of security issue, because you could conjure up a notion of a relationship with China in real danger of being subject to disintegration at times. Secondly, I thought that this commission that's going to monitor Chinese behavior... You know, on the floor one of the opponents, Dennis Kucinich of Ohio waved a fig leaf to describe this. But a lot of those who used this as a peg to hang their vote on take it seriously with labor rights and human rights believe it has a chance to do some good. Finally, there were African American and Hispanic votes for this that came late, and I think in part were the result of an agreement approved earlier this spring for essentially a free trading relationship with most of Africa and much of the Caribbean. There's a kind of open market momentum in Congress today that the opponents simply got overwhelmed by.

PAUL GIGOT: Presidential leadership. When a President wants something, he can put a lot behind it. Republicans acted consistent with their principles and put aside whatever animus they had against Bill Clinton to deliver 164 votes, three out of every four members, Tom DeLay. I think the President will wait a few hours before he calls them isolationists. And the Democrats in the House, Richard Gephardt did a very deft if somewhat calculating thing in this. He was playing both sides of the street. Publicly he was opposed. Privately he wanted it to pass because he didn't want the blame for this failure to come down on the heads of the Democrats in Congress, which he felt it would do if it failed. He was right about that. He winked when one of those prominent African Americans, Charlie Rangel, the ranking Democrats on ways and means -- who wants to be chairman more than he wants to get up tomorrow -- when he came out in favor of it, he had the silent approval of Dick Gephardt because they wanted this thing. They knew that the business money would dry up if it didn't pass. President Clinton would be humiliated. They want him to carry some arguments for them later. So you're left with who's opposed to this? Labor. Labor is conflicted, too, because labor wants to beat Republicans in November more than it wants to punish Democrats for this vote.

MARGARET WARNER: But despite all this, Tom, and despite the fact that the President spent a lot of capital and time on this, he still only got a third of the Democrats. I mean he spent eight years trying to get Democrats to have a new relationship with trade. Is the split really that bad in the party?

TOM OLIPHANT: Well, it was, as of Wednesday when the vote was taken. I'm not sure what happens now because this was a watershed vote. I mean the horse is out of the barn now. We're going to have this relationship with China. Also I think behind this there was a lot more intensity among leadership officials in these interest groups than there was at the grass roots level.

MARGARET WARNER: Including labor.

TOM OLIPHANT: In fact, one of the dirty little polling secrets in this controversy is that opinion in union families in the polls was not really any different than opinion in non-union families. As a result, I don't think there was any grass roots momentum behind the opposition. There is some of it there. There is a great deal of anger here. There is a great deal of conservative grass roots anger about having this kind of relationship with a communist country. But this got overwhelmed by, I think, a clear momentum in Congress, and in the country toward open markets that I think is only going to grow in the years ahead.

MARGARET WARNER: So, you don't think that either Vice President Gore or these other 73 Democrats are going to pay any price in terms of diminished labor support in November?

PAUL GIGOT: Minimal. And I think that's because of this conflicted labor agenda. I mean John Sweeney, the head of the A.F.L.-C.I.O. basically said about Al Gore basically, we know he had to be for this. This is Bill Clinton's bill, but he really didn't do anything for it.

MARGARET WARNER: It's almost as if he wasn't part of it at all.

PAUL GIGOT: He didn't try. He was for it. And it's true. Gore was on this one, sort of Marcel Marceau. You had to read his lips to know he was for it. There is on trade a real split in the Democratic Party on this. I don't think you can cover this up, certainly at the activist level there is a real division I think that's as deep in many ways as abortion is on the Republican side. You saw that... President Clinton has changed his party in many ways. He has brought his party over on crime, able to bring it on welfare and some other things. On trade, he only did get one out of three Democrats in the House. So there still is a fundamental split. And I think that the ambivalence within the Democratic Party was reflected in Al Gore's problems in dealing with this.

TOM OLIPHANT: The one thing we don't know, the one secret list that's left, is which Democrats got dispensation from the White House to vote no who would have been there had it been very close. I suspect you got to half a dozen or so, even more.

MARGARET WARNER: In the President's pocket if he needs it.

PAUL GIGOT: Proof of that, if you were watching the vote on television, as soon as it got to the majority, six or eight Democrats were right in the "no" category.

MARGARET WARNER: Sending a press release out. Now, Tom, you said there is a momentum behind free trade. One of the arguments the President made and a discussion we had last night was freer trade with China will mean more freedom in China so some members are saying "why not Cuba?" And there is this little provision that has been tacked on to an agricultural appropriations bill. Is that going anywhere?

TOM OLIPHANT: Margaret, it had to be... I mean, the House leadership had to call a halt to proceedings this week about that even though this procedural vote they were looking for was the kind of thing where party loyalty rules and Speaker Hastert should have been able to prevail. I'm told that they would have lost by as much as 290 votes on this.

MARGARET WARNER: Just explain. What you're saying is that the leadership was trying to scuttle this without a floor vote.

TOM OLIPHANT: To get it yanked out of the bill with a pointed of order.

MARGARET WARNER: They could not succeed.

TOM OLIPHANT: They could not succeed, and as a result they need this holiday weekend. And I think it is quite clear that there are now conservatives who, having said this about China, cannot miss the logic about Cuba. And much more importantly in that Democratic group we were just talking about, there are literally a couple dozen liberals who, for some reason, couldn't bring themselves to support trade with China, who support it with Cuba. And as a result, you've got one of the weirdest coalitions in a long time. This almost happened last year, you know. This passed the Senate a year ago, there were the votes were overwhelming. And now, unless knees are broken and thumbs are broken, it is quite possible that in a week or so this could happen. Now this is not lifting the embargo entirely. This lifts with regard to food and medicine.

MARGARET WARNER: Which is one reason why agricultural interests are supporting it and big drug companies.

TOM OLIPHANT: Pharmaceuticals.

PAUL GIGOT: And there was momentum behind this after the pope's visit where the TV cameras were allowed and you saw how horrible life is in Cuba for average people. But the politics in the wake of the Elian Gonzalez thing, domestic policies in the United States is not going to lift the embargo. And there are some differences. Fidel Castro has not made anywhere close to the kind of economic reforms in allowing of contracts and private ownership and stock markets of the kind that have broken out in China and that have the sanction of the government in China. So you really are dealing purely as a business person with a government entity in Cuba. You are not doing that right now with everybody in China. So it's a different... I mean, if Castro made more attempts to open his society economically, he would have a better argument in this country.

MARGARET WARNER: But you think the Elian Gonzalez case has hardened attitudes against this?

PAUL GIGOT: Yes, I do.

TOM OLIPHANT: I think Paul is right with many members. But what is so weird about this issue is that I think it has had the opposite effect on many others, on some of what are perceived as excesses in the Cuban-American community in Florida during that incident have produced a discernible backlash.

MARGARET WARNER: Backlash against the Cuban Miami community and its interests?

TOM OLIPHANT: Very much so.

MARGARET WARNER: Also this week there was a gala fund-raiser that the Democratic National Committee held and it raised... I think the top ticket went for $500,000. And I know you were there, but in any event, it raised to public attention how much soft money these parties are raising this year. They're already double the rate than in '96, they're already at $160 million combined, I think they are going to be at $500 million again, be double 1996. We saw a lot of ads in 1996. What is this money needed for? What are they going to do with it?

TOM OLIPHANT: The stockpiling of the money... This event was so-- pardon me-- obscene, it dwarfed as a news event a $14 million fund-raiser that the Republicans had. This is almost like before World War I, Margaret, where the countries are amassing all these armaments. And yet so far the shooting hasn't started. This is for television advertising. Public, the Republicans and the Democrats, the Bush campaign and Gore campaign have found in their research consistently as I do anecdotally, that people don't want this campaign to begin. They want the candidates to basically shut up for a while so they can have some peace and quiet. As a result, there has been much less spending in the spring of 2000 even though there has been twice as much fund-raising. At some point I'm told the gore campaign is going to begin an image-building positive campaign with some party money. The Republicans may respond with some of their Buddhist temple footage. But the only evidence I'm aware of is the public still does not want this campaign to be rammed down their throats on television.

MARGARET WARNER: When it starts then, it is going to be much more concentrated.

PAUL GIGOT: I suppose it will. But hey, that's what elections are for. I don't see anything obscene about Vice President Gore and Bill Clinton raising a lot of money. I mean that's what you do. We live in a society where most people get their messages over the broadcast media. That's expensive. You got to have cash. What this fund-raiser shows is how phony the distinction is becoming between hard and soft money and these limitations. We ought to take them all down and let people donate money and just be aware of, by posting on the Internet or something, those people who are doing it and how much they're giving. Because you've got these laws that are now being violated in the breach. They don't mean anything. But hey, spend. Fine by me.

MARGARET WARNER: Got to leave it there. Have a great weekend both of you.

FOCUS - ON THE EDGE

RAY SUAREZ: Israel's departure from Lebanon means no more buffer zone for residents of northern Israel. Special correspondent Martin Himel prepared this report from the border town of Misgav Am.

MARTIN HIMEL: After 22 years of fighting, Israeli troops are pulling out of Lebanon. The question these soldiers are asking is whether the Hezbollah Islamic guerrillas will carry their war across the border after them. For now they are preparing for the worst. This road is just inside of Israel. The soldiers are exercising emergency medicinal procedures, as if Hezbollah had just detonated a roadside bomb. The frontier runs just across the hill behind these soldiers. Perched on top of that hill is the Israeli border town of Misgav Am. Army tractors are standing by to gouge out a new border fence adjacent to Misgav Am. Roni Tzvi lives in Misgav Am with his wife and three children.

RONI TZVI, Misgav Am Resident: The army is leaving me behind-- that's what this means to me. It means the border will come a lot closer to me and nobody will be between me and the other side. You can see the border now and the border that will be. The difference between the new border and the old border is the difference of five to ten minutes of them climbing up to the kibbutz, cutting the fence of the kibbutz, and I am the first one to be hurt, me and my family, of course. That's the difference.

MARTIN HIMEL: Misgav am has known a lot of hard times. This is a kibbutz, a communal village. Members equally share the income from their work. On one side Misgav Am faces the Lebanese border, on the other side, Misgav Am faces the it looks down at Israeli towns in the Hula Valley. By looking at the mountaintop, Misgav Am residents are safeguarded from the inhabitants below. Rafi Telem is a manager in the medicinal gauze factory. He has lived in Misgav Am 38 years. When Rafi came here, there were 70 members and their families. Now there are only 100 members and children. With on again-off again cross-border rocket and terrorist attacks, Misgav Am has found it hard to attract new members, not to mention thrive economically. Ever since the military went into South Lebanon, the terrorist attacks stopped. The residents of Misgav Am say they can handle the occasional rocket barrage. Rafi vividly remembers when Palestinian gunmen infiltrated the kibbutz 20 years ago and took toddlers hostage in this nursery. One of the children, Eyal Gluska, was killed in the subsequent shoot-out. With the army pulling out of Lebanon, Rafi fears Misgav Am will return to those difficult times. The military says it can provide security, but the nursery stands as a painful reminder of what happened.

RAFI TELEM, Misgav Am Resident (Translated): This house represents the heart of the kibbutz. The dining hall is here, the homes there, and right here, in the heart of the kibbutz it happened. Terrorists came in here. This is not fiction. It is a trauma that follows us from then until now. And that is why we are so sensitive about the military's withdrawal from Lebanon, because we are in essence going back to that time.

MARTIN HIMEL: Palestinian terror and rocket attacks led to Israel's first invasion of Lebanon in 1978. That eventually led to a summer siege on Beirut in 1982, which expelled the PLO from the Lebanese capital. But with the PLO gone, Lebanese Islamic militias like Amal and Hezbollah quickly took up the guerrilla fight against Israeli forces. After 18 years of ambushes and suicide bombings, Israelis say they have had enough of their children coming home to graves. New political movements like the four mothers exerted pressure on the government to bring their boys home. Eyal Gluska's grave overlooks Lebanese villages across the frontier. Misgav Am's victims of the conflict are buried here. Residents here accuse the rest of Israel of abandoning them, their losses, and their safety. Roni Tzvi and other kibbutz members are meeting to consider blocking the military's tractors from digging a new border road. While they plan their strategy, their children attend school nearby. This school hall used to be a pioneer outpost when Jews first came here a century ago. Now Roni and the other members wonder how many of these children and their parents will stay here when the army leaves Lebanon. Roni's two daughters study here. A children's bomb shelter is within quick access of the playground. Esther, Roni's wife is a nursery teacher here.

ESTHER SHAKED TZVI, Misgav Am Resident: If I want my children to be like normal kids, they can't live here, because I want them to go swim, to ride a bicycle, to be outside to play. How can they do it, if every day, once a week, the bombs are all around? Now we feel secure, really, we felt secure. But now it feels closer. It's near my house. The terrorist can go out and shoot me at the window because so near, or my kids. A week ago we had the memorial of the kid who died here in the terrorist attack. I have a boy the same age. I just thought about it. It was craziness. I can't bear it. I think if it will be hard, I won't stay here.

MARTIN HIMEL: For many residents, the question is whether the withdrawal forced by a guerrilla army is Israel's Vietnam.

RONI TZVI: That's the worst question you can ask an Israeli citizen. That's the worst. When somebody shoots you and you don't shoot him back, in the Middle East, it means you're weak. And weak is a dead person.

MARTIN HIMEL: What hangs in the balance is the future of the next generation here. The Israeli government is banking that the military withdrawal will preserve safety by ending the guerrilla war. Local residents argue the pullout will simply bring the war into their homes. For now, thousands of soldiers have been stationed between the schools, homes and parks, to provide the best security possible. Only time will tell if that is enough or not.

FINALLY - TO A GRADUATE

RAY SUAREZ: Finally tonight, a poem to the graduate. Here is poet laureate and NewsHour contributor Robert Pinsky.

ROBERT PINSKY: This is the time of year for college graduations and commencement ceremonies, the awarding of degrees. Many words will be spoken about study and its rewards. Few speakers will have a view of academic life as realistic-- or as idealistic-- as that of J.V. Cunningham in this poem entitled "with disarming and homey plainness, to a friend on her examination for the doctorate in English." "To a friend, on her examination for the doctorate in English. After these years of lectures heard, of papers read, of hopes deferred, of days spent in the dark stacks, in learning the impervious facts so well you can dispense with them. Now that the final day has come where you shall answer name and date, where fool and scholar judge your fate, what have you gained? A learned grace and lines of knowledge on the face. A spirit weary but composed by true perceptions, well-disposed, a soft voice and historic phrase sounding the speech of Tudor days. What ignorance cannot assail, or daily novelty amaze? Knowledge enforced by firm detail. What revels will these trials entail? What gentle wine confuse your head while gossip lingers on the dead, 'til all the questions wash away, for you have learned not what to say, but how the saying must be said."

RECAP

RAY SUAREZ: Again, the major stories of this Friday: A middle school student shot and killed a teacher in Lake Wood, Florida on the last day of school and President Clinton begins plans for ocean preserves and the Justice Department offered a revised proposal for splitting Microsoft into two companies. We'll see you online, and again here Monday evening. Have a nice weekend. I'm Ray Suarez. Thanks and good night.