The MacNeil/Lehrer NewsHour

MR. LEHRER: Good evening. I'm Jim Lehrer in Washington.

MR. MacNeil: And I'm Robert MacNeil in New York. After tonight's News Summary, we update the latest fighting in Bosnia and hear differing congressional news on where U.N. sympathy should go. We have a report from Seattle on the endangered law on endangered species, then a Newsmaker interview with NASA administrator Daniel Goldin on last night's successful satellite recovery. Finally, essayist Roger Rosenblatt with further thoughts on Rodney King. NEWS SUMMARY

MR. LEHRER: The latest cease-fire in Bosnia-Herzegovina did not hold. The fighting today was some of the worst since the republic declared an independence from Yugoslavia in March. At least four people were reported killed. A Worldwide Television News cameraman was hit and wounded by shrapnel shells. Foreign journalists and United Nations officials were pinned down after their hotels were struck by mortar shells and sniper fire. The undeclared war has so far claimed 1300 lives. We'll have more on the story after the News Summary. Robin.

MR. MacNeil: The Intelsat communications satellite was propelled towards its working orbit this afternoon 22,000 miles above Earth. That followed the daring rescue last night when three astronauts made a space walk and grabbed the satellite by hand. They attached the rocket booster to it before heading back inside the shuttle, Endeavour. Then after several tries, the satellite was released into space.

SPOKESMAN: 10-KP, we see a good deploy.

SPOKESPERSON: Astonished.

SPOKESMAN: I'll tell you, that old boy didn't want to go, did he?

SPOKESMAN: The very stubborn Intelsat 6 satellite is now on its way.

MR. MacNeil: Today, two astronauts took a record fourth space walk, this time to test construction techniques for a space station. The crew will return to Earth on Saturday at Edwards Air Force Base in California. And we'll talk to NASA's administrator, Daniel Goldin, later in the program.

MR. LEHRER: The House of Representatives today approved $822 million in emergency loans and grants for Los Angeles. It is to help rebuild businesses destroyed in the riots two weeks ago. Some of the money will also be available for flood damaged businesses in Chicago. The measure goes now to the Senate. President Bush said he supports it. Also on Capitol Hill in today, Secretary of Housing and Urban Development Jack Kemp called for swift action on the President's long-term plans for helping the nation's cities. One key element, enterprise zones, drew criticism from Jesse Jackson. Both testified before the Senate Committee on Banking, Housing & Urban Affairs.

JACK KEMP, Secretary, Housing & Urban Development: I think it has to be said that most minority young people trained in jobs in the United States of America are trained in the private sector. And we need to create more private sector jobs. Government doesn't create jobs. Entrepreneurs create jobs. You can't create employees without first creating an employer.

REV. JESSE JACKSON: While there is great merit to the theory of encouraging investment in depressed urban areas, the administration's versions do not address the root cause of the urban decay and the staff. It is not enough to create top down business investment opportunities in a depressed area. That becomes too easily exploitative. We must first invest in the people of the area, and create human opportunity so that the community in businesses, schools, and other institutions can flourish bottom up.

MR. LEHRER: Jackson said black, Hispanic and female owned businesses should be first in line for contracts to rebuild riot- damaged communities.

MR. MacNeil: A cabinet level panel today voted a one time suspension of the Endangered Species Act to allow logging on 1700 acres of Oregon forests. The vote was five to two. It was only the second time the panel, known as the "God Squad," has granted an exemption to the Act. The Oregon land is critical to the threatened Northern Spotted Owl. Environmentalists are expected to appeal the decision in court. It was taken to save about 1,000 of the estimated 32,000 logging jobs that will be lost because of the Endangered Species Act. Interior Sec. Lujan, Manuel Lujan, explained why he voted for the exemption.

MANUEL LUJAN, Interior Secretary: As chairman of this committee, it's my goal to ensure a balance between the need to protect both the environment and the economic livelihood of families and communities in the Pacific Northwest. President Bush is committed to finding and achieving this balance. The Endangered Species Act obligates us to protect the Northern Spotted Owl. But we must also consider the impact of our actions on the people of the Pacific Northwest and throughout the entire country.

MR. MacNeil: The vote went ahead only on the condition that the government come up with a long-term plan to save the owl. One of the two dissenting votes was cast by Environmental Protection Agency chief William Riley. We'll have more on the Endangered Species Act later in the program. In economic news, initial claims for unemployment benefits rose by 10,000 in the week ending May 2nd. The Labor Department said total claims reached 424,000. It was the second straight rise.

MR. LEHRER: The Libyan News Agency reported today Libya would cut all ties to terrorist groups and expel anyone proved to be involved in terrorism. Such a declaration as a condition for lifting United Nations' sanctions imposed as a result of a Pan Am 103 bombing. Today's statement said nothing about the extradition of two Libyans indicted in the 1988 attack that killed 270 people. In Washington, State Department Spokeswoman Margaret Tutwiler said today's statement was words. "We want to see action."

MR. MacNeil: The Bank of Credit and Commerce scandal was back in the news today. A former U.S. attorney from Miami told a Senate Committee that Justice Department officials impeded his investigationinto the bank. He said they denied his request to enforce subpoenas against the bank. Sen. John Kerry, the chairman of a Senate Foreign Relations Subcommittee, has accused justice officials of foot dragging in their prosecution of BCCI. It pleaded guilty earlier this year to federal racketeering charges and agreed to forfeit $550 million in U.S. assets. The 202 year old amendment on congressional pay is now a formal part of the U.S. Constitution, at least according to House Speaker Tom Foley. Today he said he accepts the decision by a U.S. archivist to publish it as the 27th amendment. It limits the ability of Congress to raise its pay. Foley initially had challenged it because it took two centuries to win ratification by a majority of states.

MR. LEHRER: Former Soviet President Gorbachev said today it is in the interests of the United States to provide assistance to Russia. He made the plea for help in a speech to the Senate and House members on Capitol Hill. He urged them to consider Russia a good and reliable partner in foreign policy.

MIKHAIL GORBACHEV: [Speaking through Interpreter] There's no difference of you today between it and the United States, on the basic problems of human existence. Geopolitically, Russia is not in opposition to the United States. Nor is it a competitor. It has no real interest in that and lacks any immediate motivation. In any case, the super power era will presumably fade further and further into the past.

MR. LEHRER: Gorbachev concludes his two week visit to the United States tomorrow in Boston.

MR. MacNeil: Lyle Alzado died today of brain cancer at his home in Portland, Oregon. The former all pro lineman began his career in the NFL in 1971. He played with the Denver Broncos, the Cleveland Browns, and the Los Angeles Raiders before retiring in 1985 to pursue an acting career. He was diagnosed with brain cancer in 1991. Alzado blamed the cancer on his use of steroids. He was 43 years old. That's our News Summary. Now it's on to blood letting in Bosnia, the Endangered Species Act, a NASA newsmaker,and a Rosenblatt essay. FOCUS - BLOOD LUST

MR. LEHRER: We return tonight to the world's newest date line for war and death, that place called Bosnia-Herzegovina. It was once a part of Yugoslavia. Now, as an independent republic, it is being torn apart itself by a civil war between people with a deep and long history of conflict and hate. We will hear from two members of the U.S. Congress, who come down hard on either side, after an update report on the battle for the Bosnian capital of Sarajevo by Terry Lloyd of Independent Television News.

MR. LLOYD: Shortly after 5 o'clock this morning, hopes of a lasting cease-fire were shattered as our hotel came under fire. According to the Serbian troops who control this area, they were attacked by Bosnian forces, consisting of Muslim and Croat fighters who were trying to break out of the city to reach stronger positions. It was the cue for a ferocious battle. Snipers had moved in close enough to fire through the windows, forcing camera crews to flee their rooms. Attempts to film outside were thwarted. A cameraman working for Worldwide Television News taking these pictures was hit by shrapnel. Luckily, his facial wound was slight. The hotel came under direct fire and was hit six times by heavy mortars. This was BBC Television's office, which now lies in ruins. For weeks, international press and European Community monitors had shared this building, but a few days ago, Bosnian forces declared it a legitimate target. It's now 7 o'clock in the morning and this hotel which is surrounded by Serb militia is still under attack. Two days ago, the EC monitors who were staying here left in convoy, saying, it was unsafe for them to remain. News crews transferred to the corridors to tell their stories as attacks continued. There was also a warning from the Serb militia that if anyone ventured outside, they would be shot on sight. Local families and staff moved to ground floor levels for better protection but were not spared the terrifying noise. In the distance, homes were burning. The fighting had started here, but it spread across the entire capital. The headquarters of the U.N., who yesterday announced the withdrawal from the city, was also hit. Around the hotel, the Serbs regrouped and re-armed, preparing for a major counter-offensive. They had warned that if the Bosnians broke their cease-fire, their revenge would be swift and harsh. In advance, they'd stockpiled a massive ammunition and a few days ago, they began mobilizing the locals to train them for this very battle. On their side, they had all types of weapons, from tanks to mortars, rockets, and grenades. Their enemies were replying with mortars and machine guns, small in comparison, but enough to keep the Serbs pinned down. The hotel became the new army headquarters from where the local commander described this as the heaviest fighting of the war so far. He had no idea of the casualty toll, but when it's known, it's likely to send a chill through the outside world.

MR. LEHRER: ITN Correspondent Alex Thompson in London has been monitoring the developments this week in Sarajevo, and he prepared this backgrounder on the situation.

MR. THOMPSON: The Serbian-led federal army has the city surrounded. In town, Serbs opposing independence slug it out against the Muslim Croat majority who voted for it with EC recognition. Another cease-fire earlier this afternoon lasted all of three minutes. Muslims and Croats blame the Serbs and so does the international community. Serbs blame the Muslims and Croats.

RADOVAN KARADZIC, Bosnian Serbs' Leader Speaking from Belgrade: I would not guard any fight, because we have our parts of city and we don't come to Northern parts of city to attack them. On the contrary, they come to our parts of city and attack us.

MR. THOMPSON: Muslims and Croats would fiercely reject that in this country at war with itself. Some might reflect that Bosnia's tragedy increasingly resembles Croatia's last year.

JONATHAN EYAL, Royal United Services Institute: It was always expected that after achieving a certain military position within Bosnia, the Serbs are going to do exactly what they did in Croatia, which is to call for a cease-fire and negotiation from strength.

MR. THOMPSON: After last year's fighting in Croatia, Serbia now has de facto control of three former areas of the state, Krajina, Western Slavonia, and Eastern Slavonia. In neighboring Bosnia- Herzegovina, broadly the same thing applies after just weeks of fighting. Serbs now control the Northwest of the state, the Northeast, the South, and the Southeast. As Serbian irregulars rearmed this morning, Sarajevo Radio called on the Croats and Muslims to defend the city with petrol bombs against these men. With the city surrounded, escape is difficult. So most civilians just continue to sit it out in cells, as they've done for weeks, wondering where it'll all end.

MARK WHEELER, School of Slavonic Studies, London University: The rational strategy, of course, is to carve out territories which will ultimately form a continues arc of land from Serbia proper through to the Serbian enclaves in Croatia. This is where the madness comes, is that Sarajevo, itself, should somehow be divided into ethnic neighborhoods or ethnic stories of apartment blocks, and this, of course, is nonsense. But that doesn't stop people from thinking in these terms, that they must have their own ethnic purity, however so small the actual territorial unit eventually becomes, whether it's just simply a flat on one floor, but that will be recognizably Serb and flying the Serb flag.

MR. THOMPSON: This, of course, has wrecked lives villages, cities, and it's wrecked the Serbian economy.

JONATHAN EYAL, Royal United Services Institute: The Serbian economy is utterly destroyed. It is a country with a huge army, but with increasingly less ability of maintaining its military strength. It is isolated and it will not be recognized as Yugoslavia's successor until many more issues on top of Bosnia are solved.

MR. THOMPSON: And the Serbian President, Slobodan Milosovitch, runs an increasingly isolated state. For six months, there have been EC economic sanctions against it. There's a long-term United Nations arms embargo. The EC and U.S. ambassadors have been recalled from Belgrade and Serbia's excluded from Conference on Security and Cooperation in Europe decisions on Bosnia. Serbian industry, once dependent on the internal Yugoslav market, has crumbled. Yet, economic pressures have not stopped the war. And so people wait in Bosnia, where the food queues lengthen, where even the symbol of the Red Cross has scarcely been respected during the recent weeks of fighting. Only the United Nations Refugee Agency and the Red Cross now remain in Sarajevo. A U.N. convoy of 50 trucks will soon attempt to deliver food and medicines to Muslims, Croats and Serbs.

MR. LEHRER: Like most international conflicts, this one has triggered a U.S. congressional debate. Congresswoman Helen Delich Bentley, Republican of Maryland, is the only Serbian American member of Congress. Congressman Tom Lantos, Democrat of California, was born in Hungary, which borders Yugoslavia. He is a member of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, and the European Subcommittee. Congressman Lantos, you also are sponsoring a resolution that's now before the House that puts the blame for this blood letting on the Serbs, is that correct?

REP. LANTOS: Almost, not on the Serbs, but on the Serbian regime of the last Communist dictator of Europe, Mr. Milosovitch. Just as Saddam Hussein was to blame for the outrage of the invasion of Kuwait so this last bloody Communist dictator in Europe who still is in control in Belgrade is clearly overwhelmingly responsible for the bloodshed that is tearing apart one of Europe's most beautiful countries. Now, historically, there is a great deal of blame to be shared, but as the withdrawal of all the ambassadors of the European Community and the withdrawal of our Ambassador clearly indicates, as the Secretary General of the United Nations, Butras Butrasgali indicated, the blame for the current bloodshed is squarely on the shoulders of Milosovitch, who is trying to maintain a greater Serbia, contrary to the establishment of independent and sovereign states. This is no longer a civil war. We recognized the independence of Bosnia-Herzegovina in April. So did the European Community. And what Milosovitch and his communist henchmen are doing, they are invading a sovereign country.

MR. LEHRER: Congresswoman Bentley, do you ascribe to that?

REP. BENTLEY: Not exactly. I really don't. I think one of the things that we did that was wrong, I think theearly recognition before this very complex ethnic situation that exists in Bosnia-Herzegovina was resolved, the recognition should not have been given by either the European Community or the United States. People forget and Mr. Lantos did refer to the long history which plays an important role here. But the Serbians have a national memory of about 500 years of being a persecuted minority. And when they did help out with the allies in that, each time they got tramped on. World War I, before, when they were leaders and working with the allies, Germany came down hard on them. In World War II, when they were the only ones down there who helped with the allies, and they were the ones who really kept Germany from plowing in and taking Russia, they kept the German troops tied up for long enough, they were able to take Russia, then we handed more to the Communists. We handed the whole thing over to the Communists -- to Tito. A lot of this comes from Tito. This whole situation today in that beleaguered country is from the oppression of Tito for many years. And this is where we are. We recognized Bosnia-Herzegovina too early. The European Community did it too early. They should have waited until this was resolved. You know, in Switzerland they have Cantons. They have the French, the Italians, the German, the Swiss. We should have done something like that in Bosnia- Herzegovina before.

MR. LEHRER: The reason being that the Serbians who live in Bosnia-Herzegovina are afraid that they will be persecuted --

REP. BENTLEY: That's right.

MR. LEHRER: -- by the Muslims with the help of the Croats --

REP. BENTLEY: And it's just like --

MR. LEHRER: -- because that's been the history.

REP. BENTLEY: Yeah. It's been the history. It's just like in the Croatian part, you know, nobody really objected to Croatia being independent. What they objected to was the Serbian part, that Krajina section, that Serbians remember, World War II, when 750,000 Serbians, Jews and Gypsies were holocausted --

MR. LEHRER: So that's why these young people are dying over there now, because of what happened in World War II and World War I?

REP. BENTLEY: Their memory is very, very deep, believe me, it is. It really is.

MR. LEHRER: Well, what --

REP. BENTLEY: And I think what we need to do, if I may make a suggestion --

MR. LEHRER: Sure.

REP. BENTLEY: I think we should --

MR. LEHRER: "We" meaning the United States?

REP. BENTLEY: The United States, yes, we should push the European Community, since we've laid it all in their hands, and you know, we've said to Germany, you go ahead and take a lead -- and remember, Germany and Croatia were the big friends in World War II and in World War I, got to remember that, that's important -- they should have admit -- we should admit that we made a mistake and that what we're trying to do with Bosnia-Herzegovina is a failure, and then let's treat the situation as a separate problem from the rest of Yugoslavia.

MR. LEHRER: I want to come back to that in a moment as to how this thing might be resolved, but I want to go first of all back to you, Congressman Lantos. Just on Congresswoman Bentley's point that the Serbians have an understandable fear of persecution because of history and that's what they're trying to do is preserve their own --

REP. LANTOS: Well, Jim, there is a basis for what my good friend, Helen, says, but her conclusions are dead wrong. Let me give you an analogy. There are millions and millions and millions of Russians in the other republics which are now independent republics.

MR. LEHRER: These republics of Yugoslavia, you mean?

REP. LANTOS: No, the Soviet Union.

MR. LEHRER: All right.

REP. LANTOS: In Lithuania, in Latvia, in the Ukraine, tens of millions of Russians.

MR. LEHRER: Right.

REP. LANTOS: Now, if you accept this notion that since the Russians will now be minorities in these new independent republics, then what Yeltsin should do is to invade the Ukraine, to invade the Baltics, to protect the Russians who have now become minorities. This is absurd. What is lacking in this very complex equation is democracy in Belgrade. If there were democracy in Belgrade, we would be the first ones to fight for the human rights of every single Serb who lives in Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, and elsewhere. The problem is that Milosovitch and the Communist-led army is occupying sovereign countries under the pretext of defending the minority Serbs. Well, that is an absurdity. We are in the Balkans, where ethnic groups are intertwined. There are 2 1/4 million Hungarians living in Romania. Now, Hungary does not invade Romania to protect those people.

REP. BENTLEY: Let me just say something, Mr. Lantos, and he is my good friend. These people were not holocausted during World War II, the ones you're referring to. There was no genocide. You had a genocide of 750,000 Serbians, Jews.

REP. LANTOS: But that was two generations ago, Helen. And the problem --

REP. BENTLEY: Some of them are still alive, Tom.

REP. LANTOS: And the problem now is that the war was started by the Yugoslav national army, run by the Communist regime of Milosovitch.

REP. BENTLEY: I'm not defending the army.

REP. LANTOS: I am happy to hear that you are not defending it. Do you agree that Milosovitch is a Communist dictator?

REP. BENTLEY: Well, let's put it this way. All of the -- five of the six heads of the different republics in Yugoslavia, what was Yugoslavia, were all Communist dictators.

REP. LANTOS: Who is controlling the Yugoslav national army now?

REP. BENTLEY: Nobody. And I don't think anybody really is, if you want to know the truth. And I have that from the Macedonian president.

MR. LEHRER: All right. Let's see if we can figure out a way to solve this war.

REP. BENTLEY: Okay.

MR. LEHRER: All right. You, Congressman Lantos, heard what Congresswoman Bentley says, which is for the United States and the European Community to back off --

REP. LANTOS: I think that's absurd. I think all of these new republics like Slovenia, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, have opted in free elections to be independent, democratic republics. When elections were held in Bosnia-Herzegovina, the people who went to the polls, 99.7 percent of them voted for independence. We recognize them as an independent country just as Jim, we recognize Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia. We did the right thing. We didn't do it soon enough.

MR. LEHRER: But the Serbs in Bosnia did not vote in that election, is that right?

REP. BENTLEY: They did not vote in that election.

MR. LEHRER: Why did they not participate?

REP. BENTLEY: Very frankly, I don't know. And I'll be very candid with you. I do not know that.

REP. LANTOS: Well, I can tell you why they didn't vote, because they knew they would be in a minority and they would lose that vote and they chose to abstain.

MR. LEHRER: What do you think of the -- the approach that Congressman Lantos has endorsed, at least with his resolution, and it's the process, it's already in the works because of the European Community and the United Nations, which is to put the heat on Serbia, to isolate it from arms and other things, do you think that'll work?

REP. BENTLEY: You know, we're talking about isolating from arms. Let me point out, Der Spiegel Magazine two weeks ago had a long list of arms --

MR. LEHRER: It's a German magazine.

REP. BENTLEY: -- that come from -- that are coming down from Germany into Croatia. I don't hear any criticism of that at all. And we have -- in Western Bosnia-Herzegovina, the Croatian flag is flying. There is no criticism of that! You know, this is what I'm saying. I'm not saying that the Serbians should be -- there are two sides. I mean, the others are just as much at fault too, but let me say --

MR. LEHRER: Did you believe his approach will solve this?

REP. BENTLEY: No. I'll tell you why, because the more pressure you put on Serbian people -- and right now, they're isolated and you're pushing them like you would a porcupine. You know, when you push a porcupine, a porcupine fights hard, you're pushing him closer to Milosovitch.

REP. LANTOS: Helen --

REP. BENTLEY: You're pushing him closer to Milosovitch.

REP. LANTOS: -- with all due respect, there was a demonstration in Belgrade of 25,000 wonderful Serbs who wanted peace --

REP. BENTLEY: The opposition.

REP. LANTOS: -- and who wanted to get rid of this Communist dictator. Unless the proposal that I have put forth of placing maximum pressure on Milosovitch and the Communists in Serbia works, the only alternative will be physical force. And we may have to come to that, Jim.

MR. LEHRER: "We" meaning the European --

REP. LANTOS: NATO, Europeans, obviously. After all, here we have NATO. It's like the guns of Singapore. NATO is -- that were never fired in the second world war -- they were expecting the attack from the sea; it came from the land. NATO is there aimed at what used to be the Soviet Union and next door to NATO, there is a blood bath in Europe.

MR. LEHRER: What is the alternative to that, to sit back and let this war go on, Congresswoman Bentley?

REP. BENTLEY: The State Department says that. I don't agree. I still say that we should put the pressure on.

MR. LEHRER: Both of them?

REP. BENTLEY: And say come on, let's all sit down. I have some people, for your information, Mr. Lantos, who are trying to work out an economic solution and getting all the different republics together economically.

REP. LANTOS: Now Milosovitch has promised cease-fires time and time again.

REP. BENTLEY: I'm not talking about Milosovitch in this. I'm talking about the others.

MR. LEHRER: Let me ask each of you a personal question just for the record. How influenced are you in your position by the fact that you are of Serbian descent?

REP. BENTLEY: Well, let me put it this way. I am very proud to be of Serbian descent and naturally, that has been my interest. I did not run because I'm Serbian. I mean, I happen to be an American too.

MR. LEHRER: Sure.

REP. BENTLEY: But my parents --

MR. LEHRER: I mean your position on this.

REP. BENTLEY: My parents happen to have come right from that Slavonia area.

MR. LEHRER: That we showed on the map.

REP. BENTLEY: That we saw on the map.

MR. LEHRER: How influenced are you, Congressman Lantos, by -- having come from Hungary, which has never been really friendly with the Serbs?

REP. LANTOS: Well, Jim, I have the highest regard for the Serbs. This is not a problem of the Serbs. This is the leadership of the Serbian Communist regime. That's all we are dealing with. Today your piece earlier showed Gorbachev talking to the House and the Senate. A group of us had lunch with him after that talk. This was a man who changed history. Milosovitch is trying to cling to the old dictatorial Communist history.

REP. BENTLEY: We need the opportunity to have a real free election there.

REP. LANTOS: That's correct. I couldn't agree more.

REP. BENTLEY: And I have been working with the Democratic Party there. I want you to know that.

REP. LANTOS: I'm happy to hear that, Helen.

MR. LEHRER: Thank you both very much.

REP. LANTOS: A pleasure.

MR. MacNeil: Still ahead on the NewsHour, the Endangered Species Act, the head of NASA, and Roger Rosenblatt. FOCUS - ENDANGERED JOBS?

MR. MacNeil: Next tonight, endangered species versus endangered jobs. As we reported earlier, the loggers beat the owls today in a showdown before a federal environmental panel. The high level committee voted to override the Endangered Species Act and permit logging operations on 1700 acres of Oregon timberland. Those forests provide a natural habitat for the spotted owl, which faces extension. The 1973 Endangered Species Act expires this year and must be renewed by Congress if it's to remain law. Opponents, especially in the Northwest, say the law preserves wildlife with no regard for preserving jobs. Correspondent Greg Hirakawa of public station KCTS-Seattle has our report.

BOB GILCHRIST, Owner, Red Wolf Marina: Do you see the twists? That's caused from water being inside that.

MR. HIRAKAWA: Bob Gilchrist owns what's left of the Red Wolf Marina on Idaho's Snake River. This time of the year he would normally be getting ready for the summer boating season. Instead, he is surveying damage to his docks.

MR. GILCHRIST: See the waving, the warping. That's caused -- the under structure is broken.

MR. HIRAKAWA: Gilchrist says high repair costs have forced him to file for bankruptcy. The damage was caused by a radical experiment to save the sock eye salmon from extinction in the Snake River. The experiment was undertaken because of the federal Endangered Species Act, a law that requires government at all levels to do whatever it can to protect the nation's wildlife. The state of Idaho is now trying to preserve the sock eye salmon. Only four adults swam back upstream last year to spawn in this waterway.

SPOKESMAN: We have radio tagged fish in the reservoir and we will be following the movement of those fish.

MR. HIRAKAWA: After baby salmon hatch, they instinctively head down river to the ocean, but recent studies show that as few as 2 percent may survive the journey. Most of the other 98 percent are killed in the turbines and spillways of eight hydroelectric dams along the way. So in March, the Army Corps of Engineers tried a month long experiment. To help young ocean bound salmon migrate safely, water held back by two hydroelectric dams was released to increase the river's velocity. Scientists hope the rushing water would harmlessly flush the small salmon through these dams. Sara Wick is a fish biologist with the Army Corps of Engineers.

SARA WICK, Fish Biologist: We know that natural increases in flows, at least up to a certain point, if not beyond, can improve fish survival. What we don't know is that if that by artificially creating that whether it will have the same effect.

MR. HIRAKAWA: But finding out will cost the government almost $3 million. Another 3 million will be lost in hydroelectric power sales and then there is the still uncalculated costs for lost business and damage to private property. Bob Gilchrist, whose marina snake into the Snake River mud says the price of protecting sock eye is simply too high.

BOB GILCHRIST, Owner, Red Wolf Marina: We have one river where the fish is in trouble and that species of fish is found everywhere else in abundance. And I think that the moneys that are going to be spent economically to correct that is wasted money right now.

MR. HIRAKAWA: Others along the river agree that enforcing the Endangered Species Act can cause economic hardship. Joe Stegner and his family have made their living barging grain down the Snake for 40 years. During the one-month draw down, barges could not operate and his grain docks were empty.

JOE STEGNER: In our company's case we haven't laid off any employees and we feel that we've taken the hit on that. Some of our neighbors here though have laid off some employees.

MR. HIRAKAWA: The shipping industry is the mainstay of the economy in this part of Idaho. Barges move everything from raw timber to shipping containers down the Snake. When engineers drew down this waterway, the docks were out of business. While this time it was only a test, people fear if the Snake is drained annually, it could mean closing the ports. Ron McMurray manages the Port of Lewiston in Idaho.

RON McMURRAY, Manager, Port of Lewiston: It's the rivers that brought the people here and it's the rivers that build us -- it's exactly why this is here, because of the river. You're going to see exodus. You'll see a decrease in population. You won't see capital stimulation in the community. It's hard enough to get venture capital into a rural area like this. You know, that'll be gone.

SPOKESMAN: When you don't have the capability in the law to take into consideration other human needs, and for that matter other species' needs, you don't have a workable law that will in my opinion stand the test of time.

MR. HIRAKAWA: These Idaho residents are not alone in their criticism of the Endangered Species Act. In California, angry farmers are protesting plants to limit irrigation water in order to save fish in the Sacramento Delta. Along the Oregon-California border, saving the endangered short nosed sucker may mean less water for farmers there as well. But nowhere are there more public protests over the Act than in the Pacific Northwest.

SPOKESMAN: We don't need no more wetlands. We don't need any more scenic rivers. We need jobs.

MR. HIRAKAWA: Business people though on the Snake River have now joined laid off Northwest timber workers rallying against the environmental law. Protesters say it is time to gut the Endangered Species Act so environmental protection does not mean putting people out of work.

DEMONSTRATORS: People count too! People count too!

MR. HIRAKAWA: Protests over the Act come as Congress decides whether to renew the law for another five years. Opponents know they must make changes now, or it may be five more years until they can do so again. As a result, the Endangered Species Act is a campaign issue for political candidates in the Northwest. Washington State Republican Congressman Rod Chandler is running for the U.S. Senate. He thinks the Endangered Species Act should be weakened.

REP. ROD CHANDLER, [R] Washington: When you look at the Snake River situation, are we serious about destroying agriculture along the Snake River by not allowing irrigation, because you've drawn down the river? Are we going to say to everybody in the state of Washington, Oregon, and Idaho, maybe in Montana, your power rates are going to go up 7, 8 percent a year for the very questionable idea that we're somehow going to get four Snake River sock eye salmon into what it was in the past? It just doesn't seem to me to make sense.

MR. HIRAKAWA: But that argument has never carried Congress. Two years ago, the Senate by a two to one margin rejected a proposal weakening the Endangered Species Act. When House members last voted on the Act, they backed the law overwhelmingly. Critics like timber industry lobbyist William Jacobs question the logic of the act in the current economic recession.

WILLIAM JACOBS, Timber Industry Lobbyist: To reauthorize it, authorize it just as it's now written, will continue to have tremendous impacts on our economy. And you listen to the debates that go on across the country on people that are running for their party's nomination for President, and the top of the list for all of them is the economy and jobs. Why then should the economy and jobs be ignored in this major public policy decision to be made by Congress this year?

MR. HIRAKAWA: But supporters of the Act, like Democratic Congressman Les AuCoin, call the law a cornerstone of environmental legislation. AuCoin is seeking Oregon's U.S. Senate seat. He thinks environmental protection under the Endangered Species Act outweigh the economic hardship.

REP. LES AuCOIN, [D] Oregon: The way to build an economy in the future is not through dirtier air, degradation of the water quality, and the destruction of our natural resource base. That's the faith I have that we're not going to have a gutting of the Endangered Species Act, even though there are people who want to demagogue the issue and pretend that that's the way out of the problems we're having today.

MR. HIRAKAWA: Environmentalists are also gearing up for the congressional battle over the Endangered Species Act using computer maps and dwindling old growth forests. They point out the benefits of leaving these huge trees standing. Clear cutting forests, environmentalists say, can cause soil erosion. The erosion can cause tributaries, making it impossible for salmon to spawn. Environmental activist Jeff DeBonis used to work for the U.S. Forest Service, the agency that manages public forest land.

JEFF DeBONIS, Environmental Activist: The Endangered Species Act is nothing more than a last ditch safety net. It's when we have mismanaged so inappropriately to the point that you have something like a spotted owl, which is an indicator species, being in trouble. It means a whole eco system is basically in danger.

MR. HIRAKAWA: Environmentalists deny the Endangered Species Act is the economically devastating law portrayed by critics. According to an environmental group study, a majority of conflicts between land users and government regulators are resolved to both sides' satisfaction. The Wilderness Society's Jean Durning says the Act allows for both economic development and environmental protection despite what industry lobbyists say.

JEAN DURNING, The Wilderness Society: They have been claiming that there's terrible damage to people or people's lives. And that's not true. There have been 73,000 examples of times when some particular project might affect a species and out of all those thousands upon thousands of times 18 projects have had to be stopped. We have a law which is designed to save species as an absolute last resort. It's the fire alarm. You don't turn off the fire alarm because there's a fire.

MR. HIRAKAWA: But along the Snake River, Bob Gilchrist and his neighbors wonder if lowering the water level is a way to put out this fire and wonder whether the term "endangered species" will one day apply to them. NEWSMAKER

MR. MacNeil: Next tonight, America in space. Yesterday's dramatic and successful satellite rescue mission provided a much needed boost for NASA. Since the Challenger disaster in 1986, the space agency has suffered a series of setbacks with its shuttle fleet, a flawed Hubbel Space Telescope, a battle with Congress over funding for a manned space station, and the dismissal of administrator Richard Truly early this year. But yesterday for eight hours, the nation saw the side of NASA some had forgotten. A trio of weightless astronauts grabbed, wrestled with and finally coaxed a four and a half ton communications satellite into their space ship with their gloved hands. The Earth beneath them glistened and the earthbound marveled. Here's how it looked. [SCENE OF ASTRONAUTS WRESTLING SATELLITE]

MR. MacNeil: The job was finished this afternoon. A signal from Earth ignited a motor attached to the satellite by the astronauts and sent it on its way to its original destination, some 22,000 miles above the Earth. For more on the mission and the space agency, we're joined by Daniel Goldin, NASA's new administrator. Mr. Goldin is a former aerospace business executive appointed after the dismissal of Richard Truly, a former astronaut. Mr. Goldin, thank you for joining us.

MR. GOLDIN: It's a pleasure to be here.

MR. MacNeil: When will the satellite reach its proper orbit?

MR. GOLDIN: I am not sure, but it generally takes about six hours for the transal orbit. I would expect sometime late tonight.

MR. MacNeil: You said today at a press conference, an internal press conference in NASA, that you were going to review your pricing policies now for this kind of operation. Could you explain that.

MR. GOLDIN: Yes. There -- in addition to the pricing policies, we also want to review the policies for the approach to the satellites. We had a very, very difficult save. It was doable. We were able to do it safely. But there's always a better way. Had we had special grappling hooks attached to the satellite we wouldn't have to have gone to the extremes we did in space. And I believe that we have to have a policy that allows the satellites that are going to be built in the future, if they want to be saved by the NASA space shuttle, to have a much simpler approach to that save, in addition to which we have to make sure that the American taxpayer who pays for our space program feels that they get value and they want to be sure that there's a fair and proper pricing approach. So it's towards that end that we want to review both those items.

MR. MacNeil: Let me just discuss the arithmetic here for a moment. As I understand it, Intelsat paid you $93 million to rescue the satellite, which was worth $157 to them, but which over 12 years can earn a billion dollars in income. And yet, the cost of your shuttle mission -- I've seen estimates as high as $500 million. So that you earned through the operation that occupied most of the time and energy of your astronauts a fifth of what it cost to do the mission, am I roughly right about that?

MR. GOLDIN: Your numbers are correct. I am not sure I agree with the conclusion. But let me give you a little background on this. The primary purpose of this mission was to gain experience of humans in the space environment, to get us ready for the type of assembly operations we're going to require for the shuttle. So as NASA was preparing for a series of missions in space, we looked for ways to gain experience. We had a plan for a manned mission and Intelsat approached us and had asked could we save the satellite. We took a look at it and one of the attractive features of this particular mission was we had to do rendezvous with two moving bodies and then to fly formation. This is going to be required for future missions. We had to perform rather complex human operations in space also required for the space station freedom assembly operations. So we felt that it was appropriate to take on this mission not to provide primarily a service for Intelsat but to use this as a vehicle to learn and in the process to gain what was at the time felt to be a fair price. Now, I was not part of the pricing policy. I have to assume that it was logical and that it had been approved right through the system. But now, as we move forward, we want to re-look at this and in light of what we know today establishes this is the right thing to do. I also would like to point out that commercial space launches range in price from 50 million to 150 million dollars, irregardless of the price of the satellite. And this is not out of line with the price range that's normally charged for commercial launches and/or a save. So we don't think it's inappropriate.

MR. MacNeil: Does the -- another part of your mission, as I understand it -- perhaps you confirm this -- at least on the shuttle, on the satellite launching aspect of things -- is to lessen dependence on the shuttle, is that not correct?

MR. GOLDIN: Yes, sir. I believe --

MR. MacNeil: Because the shuttle is, as you've said, a too expensive gateway to space for this country.

MR. GOLDIN: Well, right now, the shuttle is America's human access to space.

MR. MacNeil: Right.

MR. GOLDIN: It should be used for that purpose. The shuttle should not be used for launching commercial vehicles into space. It should not be used for launching robotic missions into space that could be launched by other means. And towards that end, we've begun a very systematic program of shifting off those spacecraft from the shuttle program so we could reduce the number of shuttle flights, so we could reduce the infrastructure course and give America a much more balanced program and use the investment dollars much more wisely.

MR. MacNeil: How will we see dependence on the shuttle lessened?

MR. GOLDIN: Well, as time marches on, we're working off the backlog of satellites that were committed to go up on the shuttle. There are very few defense satellites left that are going to be launched on the shuttle. There are just a few scientific satellites that will be launched on the shuttle. And for the most part, the missions will be Space Lab, which does experiments in microgravity, industrialization and commercialization activities in space, and life sciences. That'll be the primary payload for the shuttle. And the shuttle will be used as a tool for helping assemble the space station where human interaction is required, again a very very appropriate use of that machine, but it should not be used for other things if there are other methods to be undertaken.

MR. MacNeil: Since the Russians have very powerful launch rockets and very successful ones and are quite anxious now to make money out of their space program, will you start in any way using their technology while the U.S. is developing its own rockets specially for launching such things?

MR. GOLDIN: Well, NASA has an open mind. We sent a delegation to Russia some four or five weeks ago to begin the initial exploration of what the possibilities were. And rather than starting with a very major list that we might look at everything and then perhaps in the process of looking at everything end up with nothing, we focused on two primary areas, the possibility of using the Soyeuse vehicle as an assured crew rescue vehicle for the space station Freedom, and also to take a look at automatic rendezvous and docking which may minimize the number of astronaut operations and EVA activities in space to make it simpler and more efficient and less expensive. So we're going to focus on those two activities and see if there's something to be gained there and as we begin to develop an understanding on working with the Russians and should we be able to take the steps forward on those two things I think then it's time to expand into other areas.

MR. MacNeil: I see. I read that someone made the argument that the Russians have such enormous lifting capacity with their launch rockets that you could launch into space with many fewer launches much bigger pieces of the space station as it comes time to assemble that than you could on shuttle missions.

MR. GOLDIN: That could be a possibility. The Russians have the Enagea, which is a very, very large rocket. Only I believe it's had two flights so far and we have some very, very expensive high priority items, so once again, before we rush into things, we want to understand the reliability and we want to understand all the other aspects of it to see if it fits into our program, but we have an open mind.

MR. MacNeil: When will the shuttle attempt the repairs to the Hubbel Telescope?

MR. GOLDIN: I believe it's going to be in late '93 and a lot of the learning that we took out of this mission I think will help us do a much better job on the shuttle.

MR. MacNeil: Many scientists complain -- you must be very familiar with this argument -- that manned space costs retard U.S. space research, that you could a lot more with robots and unmanned vehicles. Now, since you made your reputation building unmanned satellites and robots, are you beginning to use that experience and your new sort of clout as the newcomer to change NASA's emphasis at all away from manned activities?

MR. GOLDIN: I believe the nation's space program requires balance. And I think that's the key here. You can't say all human and all robotic. I think what we have to do is get a better balance in the program. So as we move forward and take a look at what we're doing, I think we have an obligation to do a variety of robotic missions and not just multibillion dollar, multi-decade missions, but I think there are ways of doing it safer, faster, better, cheaper by looking at small spacecraft, small sats, things that could be done in small chunks of time, have missions that could go for a hundred and a hundred and fifty million dollars in three years, and return scientific information back to the nation. And I think that you will see in the next few years at NASA a better balance in the program between human and robotic spacecraft, between looking at Earth, looking out at the heavens.

MR. MacNeil: In view of the congressional resistance to the estimated cost of the space station, that resistance expressed just before you came on board, are you now modifying the plans for that?

MR. GOLDIN: We're taking a look at the entire NASA program from top to bottom. And once again, we're not just going to focus on any one thing, but we want to make sure we have balance in the program. You know, the night they had the vote on the space station in the House, I sat in the gallery and I watched the whole debate. This was my first experience in interacting with Congress, and as I said there, I was overwhelmed with the whole American process and I felt that even those that were speaking against the space station really wanted America in space but they were sending a message toNASA, why don't you see if you could do it more efficient and give the taxpayer more value for the dollar, but they recognize America's future is in space.

MR. MacNeil: Yeah. Well, Mr. Goldin, thank you very much for joining us.

MR. GOLDIN: Thank you. ESSAY - "CAN'T WE GET ALONG?"

MR. LEHRER: Finally tonight, essayist Roger Rosenblatt on the Rodney King verdict and its aftermath.

MR. ROSENBLATT: No one offered more accurate testimony to the effect of the Los Angeles riots than Rodney King. It wasn't only his words. His words have been quoted frequently as a plea for conciliation.

RODNEY KING: People, I just want to say, you know, can we, can we all get along? Can we get along?

MR. ROSENBLATT: Rather the power of King's testimony lay in the quality of his voice. His voice was the public voice, the national voice. Not as personally attached to the terrible events as was Rodney King, but nonetheless, broadcasting the feelings of horror and sorrow and aghast bewilderment experienced by most everybody. King's voice was a sob, a sob with words inside. He spoke sentences, but they came out with the inflection of deep, unhappy questions, and the unhappiness inherent in the questions abetted by the expression in King's eyes arose from the anticipation that no one was going to answer them. "Can we get along?" Who knows. Some days getting along seems possible, other days, preposterous. We watch our country by way of the news and ride a daily train that one moment stops at a scene of kindness or generosity. The next moment it stops at the videotape of Rodney King being clubbed by the LA police. We cannot believe our eyes. And then a California jury confirms the fact -- we could not believe our eyes. All aboard. The next stop is LA on fire and a new videotape of the truck driver, Reginald Denny, kicked in the head by a mob. All aboard. Scenes of commissions and panel discussions and politicians and promises of help, yet people realized that the scene of a new atrocity waits at the next station. And every year the train seems to be moving faster, wilder, and the brakes may be gone.

RODNEY KING: We've got to quit. We've got to quit, you know. After all, I mean, I could understand the first upset for the first two hours after the verdict, but to go on, to keep going on like, like this and see the security guard shot on the ground --

MR. ROSENBLATT: All that sense of panic and despair bubbled in the voice of Rodney King, the voice of helplessness blurting out, helplessness in the middle of dizzying catastrophe. That's how most of us have felt lately, sorry and scared, scared of others, of ourselves, of a national life out of control, or worse, a life that appears to be under control on the surface, yet is, in fact, ready eager to turn warrior at the drop of a hat, rich against poor, race against race. Can we get along? I will tell you. I was not in the least prepared for the painful effect of Rodney King's brief statement. I expected something packaged. We condemn the jury's verdict but we want the killing stopped, that sort of thing. Instead, King spoke from a much deeper place. His voice went down into chaos, it touched America where America does not like to be touched, the frightened unswaggering, un-unified America, a place of suppressed self-knowledge, of stories without happy endings and no heroic myths, America's basement. It exists below immediate matters, below a particular injustice, below a particular act of savagery, below the dead. It is probably time to go down to that basement with Rodney King. Something good may emerge from the visit, the creation of jobs, consistent attention to the poor, the correction of police abuse where it occurs, the respect for law, a condemnation of sub-humans, wherever they pop up, an authentic sense of unity. If such things should come, they would be the product of clear minds, clear minds born of clear hearts. Few minds were clear when Rodney King spoke his piece, but his heart was clear. It was choked with remorse and fear and it made a sound like crying. Look again at the beating or Rodney King. Look again at the beating of Reginald Denny. Who would not cry? I'm Roger Rosenblatt. RECAP

MR. MacNeil: Again, the main stories of this Thursday, savage battles shattered a day old cease-fire in the Bosnian capital of Sarajevo. The shuttle Endeavour astronauts set another record today by making an unprecedented fourth space walk in a single mission. Earlier, the communications satellite they rescued blasted off towards its proper orbit thousands of miles above the Earth. Good night, Jim.

MR. LEHRER: Good night, Robin. We'll see you tomorrow night with Gergen and Shields, among other things. I'm Jim Lehrer. Thank you and good night.