Spying, Jury Tampering Questions Raised as Bear Lincoln Trial Nears	by Nicholas Wilson State Attorney General's office investigates possible jury tampering by deputy, while covert tape of defense attorney is purchased in Round Valley; defense asks for change of venue as the jury pool dips below minimum
Bear Lincoln: "They'll Try To Kill Me"	New letter from Lincoln charges phony escape attempt will be excuse for murder; also accuses jailers of keeping potential witness drugged in isolation cell
Stage Set As Trial Opens With All-White Jury	by Nicholas Wilson Pretrial motions end with gag order still in place, few seats available in courtroom; large crowd attending rally in support of Lincoln hears defense attornet Serra, AIM leader Dennis Banks
Power Companies Use Sham "Grassroot" Groups In Push For Deregulation	by Ruth Conniff Big companies and their friends in Congress are launching a crusade they say will help consumers get cheaper electricity. Don't bet on it
Little Known Fed Bank Funding Deforestation, Arms Projects	by Pratap Chatterjee Bulldozers clearing Amazon rainforests are only a small portion of the projects financed by the Export-Import Bank; nuclear power plants and military transport upgrades -- programs that even the World Bank has rejected -- receive loans from this agency
Free Legal Services Proposed For Congress	House Appropriations has approved a generous new perk for Congress which would require the federal government to pay legal expenses when the Justice Department prosecutes a Member of Congress and loses in court
Nowhere to Process Ex-Soviet Nuke Waste	by Andrei Ivanov and Judith Perera So precarious is the safety situation at the massive naval bases on the Kola Peninsula in north west Russia, that shipping the waste from Ukraine, Hungary, Slovenia and Bulgaria to storage at a closed plant is seen as a safer bet
Funds to Close Creaky Nuclear Plants Keep Them Going	by Judith Perera "Extending the life of old and potentially dangerous reactors was not our intention," but programs extend the operational life of the reactors by five to seven years beyond the initial design period
Unwanted Nuclear Subs Threaten Pacific Waters	by Andrei Ivanov and Judith Perera Fewer than half the submarines removed from combat duty in the Pacific have had their fuel removed
Nuke Whistleblower Facing Trial For Treason	by Andrei Ivanov and Judith Perera Retired Soviet nuclear submarine captain who exposed controversy faces sham trial directed by Russian navy, former KGB
Ralph Reed's Hour of Need	by Frederick Clarkson The extraordinary docket of cases under scrutiny includes rigging "independent" voter guides and phone banking for Republican politicians, including George Bush, Jesse Helms, Oliver North and Newt Gingrich
Unification Church Continues Latin America Push	by Ufran Garcia and Thelma Mejia Sun Myung Moon efforts to spread church throughout Latin America raises concerns of human rights workers
Social, Enviro Cost of Mexico's Maqiuila Boom Not Considered	by Diego Cevallos "Maquilas," the foreign assembly plants which sprung up in Mexico following ratification of NAFTA account for 40 percent of Mexico's exports, and are a key source of jobs
Child Abuse Causes Lifelong Health Problems For Women	Women abused as children have dramatically more physical and emotional health problems in adulthood, according to a new study
Mexican Election Is Victory For Poor Majority	by Andrew Reding Cardenas' landslide victory heralds a Mexico whose leadership will be browner, more democratic, more accountable to the country's poor majority, and less amenable to guidance from Washington
Ecuador Mangroves, Galapagos Islands Threatened	by Mario Gonzalez Ecuador's Galapagos Islands and the country's mainland mangroves are in serious trouble because of illegal fishing, heavy tourism, and powerful economic interests
Amazon Deforestation Risk to "Overwhelming" Number of Unknown Species	by Jim Sliwa One small scale study identified 100 different DNA sequences, none of them ever previously reported, and eighteen percent could not be classified in any known bacterial kingdom
Amazon Tribe Fighting Off Gold Miners	One hundred Macuxi, including women and children, are blockading an access road to protest the invasion of their lands by small-scale miners who use highly toxic mercury to extract gold
U.S. Corporations Mobilize To Protect Secrets	by Abid Aslam Should private companies should be left to work free from scrutiny when their projects are government funded?
San Quentin Investigating Suspicious Death of Psychotic Inmate	by Michael Kroll Not knowing that his death sentence was reversed, psychotic Sammy Marshall screamed "please, please don't kill me" as guards used pepper spray to subdue him before performing an "Extraction" -- going into his cell and physically removing him