Week of March 23, 1988

Former Reagan aides Oliver North, John Poindexter and two associates plead

not guilty to charges they ran the Iran-contra scandal as a vast criminal

conspiracy and defrauded the government of $17 million.

Sandinista and Contra leaders sign a preliminary agreement to end the

Nicaraguan war.

The Senate gives approval to a $48-million humanitarian aid bill that will break a

one-month draught in the flow of U.S. supplies to Nicaragua’s contra rebels and

send medical care to war-injured children.

President Reagan is ready to campaign for George Bush, convinced that his vice

president has the Republican presidential nomination sewed up.

Rev. Jesse Jackson defeats Gov. Michael Dukakis in the Michigan Democratic

presidential caucuses.

Sen. Bob Dole ends his Republican presidential bid saying, “You come to trust

your instincts to tell you it’s over.”

President Reagan says that he still thinks fired National Security Council aide

Oliver L. North is a hero and that he does not believe any of the Iran-Contra

criminal defendants committed a crime.

Rep. Richard Gephardt, who fell short of the

“Michigan miracle” he needed to revive his

candidacy, quit the race for the democratic

presidential nomination but said “our effort was

not in vain.”

In New York - 28 current and former health

inspectors are named in complaints accusing

them of extorting hundreds of thousands of

dollars from restaurants to ignore sanitary code

violations.

President Regan scoffs at those who se his

political strength diminishing, telling a business group that despite all the talk of

his lame-duck status, “I have not quacked once.”

Week of March 23, 1988

Business - Wall Street “whiz kid” David Bloom pleads guilty to mail and

securities fraud for allegedly bilking investors out of $10 million which he sunk

into artwork, cars and two homes.

Disgraced TV evangelist Jimmy Swaggart is barred from the pulpit for at least a

year and ordered not to appear on his television show for a year in connection

with allegations he hired a prostitute.

Jimmy Swaggart decides to

return to the pulpit and the

airwaves, defying national

Assemblies of God church officials

who suspended him for a year

over visits to a prostitute.

Mary Beth Whitehead-Gould

admits that she sold the story of

her wedding and photos of Baby

M. the child she bore under a

surrogate motherhood contract to

a supermarket tabloid for $20,000

last November.

New Jersey - Surrogate mother Mary Beth Whitehead-Gould has asked for twice-

a-week visitation with Baby M. while the child’s father wants to block all visitation,

according to court briefs.

President Reagan and his wife, Nancy sign a three-year lease on a $2.5 million

estate in the Bel-Air section of Los Angeles to live in after they leave the White

House next January.

The price of first-class postage will go up to 25 cents beginning April 3.

Consumer prices inch-up .2% in February as GNP increases at a yearly 4.8%

Music news - Singer “ Tiffany ” Renee Darwish - the

16-year-old teen hit sensation, is living with her aunt

and is at the center of a legal tug-of-war between her

manager and her mother. The matter is in the hands of

a juvenile court mediator in Los Angeles. She is

seeking rights to execute her own contracts. Her

mother, Janie Williams has retained sole custody of

Tiffany since her divorce from Tiffany’s stepfather -

Week of March 23, 1988

Daniel Williams. Her real father, James Darwish, relinquished custody to Mrs.

Williams after their early 1970’s divorce.

Hip Hop rivalry - L.L. Cool J. and Kool Moe Dee, who take pot shots at each

other on records.

Passing - Robert Joffrey of ballet fame. He was 57.

Entertainment news -

James Bridges-directed “Bright Lights, Big City,” opens

this week and it stars Michael J. Fox. It’s the first time

Michael J. Fox will star in a dramatic and “ugly” role.

Television news -

Veteran CBS newsman Douglas Edwards signs-off after

40 years on network television.

Actor Howard Rollins Jr. is freed on a $5,000 bond in Baton Rouge after being

charged with possession of crack.

Nickelodeon cable - After “Raffi” the singer, the children’s cable channel is

adding another Canadian show and talent to its line-up. Look for “Sharon Lois &

Bram’s Elephant Show” which has been on Canadian television for the past four

years.

Because of a writer’s strike, producers of ABC’s “Moonlighting” were forced to fill

abut 10 minutes of air time this week. What did they do? The cast sang “Wooly

Bully,” the 1965 hit. During the song, the show’s writers sat at desks waving

picket signs to the beat.

Sunday night television -

CBS - CBS, Murder, She Wrote, Movie

NBC - Our House Family Ties, Day by day, Lincoln

ABC - Movie, Supercarrier, Movie

Fox - 21 Jump Street, Werewolf, Married With Children, It’s Garry Shandling’s

Show, Duet, Tracey Ullman

PBS - Nature, Masterpiece Theatre

MTV - Monty Python, Young Ones, Comic Strip Presents, 120 Minutes

Our House - David is in a coma after a bicycle accident.