January settling in and the news heats up.
U.S. Attorney General Janet Reno declined to reverse the Immigration and Naturalization Service’s decision to return 6-year-old Elian Gonzalez to his father in Cuba, as hundreds of Cuban Americans marched in a mostly peaceful but determined protest. “Based on all the information we have to date, I see no reason to reverse the decision,” Reno said at her regular Thursday news briefing in Washington, responding to a formal request to intervene by the legal team representing Elian’s Miami relatives. “What (the INS) took into consideration is who, under the law, can speak for the 6- year-old boy who really can’t speak for himself,” she said. “He has a father and there is a bond between father and son that the law recognizes and tries to honor.” The child’s fate has become an international dispute since he was found Thanksgiving Day, drifting in an inner tube a few miles off the Florida coast. Elian’s mother and nine others drowned when their boat capsized as they tried to reach the United States. A custody fight ensued when Elian’s father in Cuba, Juan Miguel Gonzalez, and the Fidel Castro government demanded the boy’s return. Wednesday’s INS decision set a Jan. 14 deadline for that to occur, sparking demonstrations that paralyzed traffic in downtown Miami.
Meanwhile on Wall Street, it was in with the old and out with the new. Investors bought up old standby stocks such as DuPont Co. and J.P. Morgan Inc. while shunning the high-flying Internet and technology favorites of only last week. The blue-chip Dow Jones industrial average was up a robust 130.61 points, or 1.17 percent, to 11,253.26. The NASDAQ composite index dropped for the third straight day, falling another 150.41, or 3.9 percent, to 3,727.13. The technology-heavy NASDAQ, which last year became the hottest index in U.S. history, climbing 86 percent, is now down 8 percent this year, close to the 10 percent analysts consider a “technical” correction. Most experts, however, attributing the downfall to profit taking and tax-selling, not any type of fundamental problem with tech stocks.
And after his first night as a New Yorker, President Bill Clinton told reporters he will register to vote in the state in time to cast a ballot for his wife in her Senate race this year. “I’ve got a particular interest in the election, and I want to make sure my vote counts,” the president said as he and Hillary Rodham Clinton paused in front of their new home to talk with reporters. The Clintons spent Wednesday night in the $1.7-million Dutch colonial in Westchester County that will be their home after his term expires next January. “It was a little overwhelming because there is so much to be done,” Hillary Clinton said of their first night in their new home. “We stayed up very late, getting things organized and put away.’ The president said the couple, unpacking boxes of belongings, discovered possessions they hadn’t seen in 17 years, including a table bought shortly after they were married in 1975. “This is the first home we have had since January, 1983, when we moved into the governor’s mansion in Little Rock,” he said.
And while the drama over Elian Gonzalez continued, that’s just a little of what happened, this January 6, 2000 as reported by The CBS World News Roundup Late Edition.
