Looking out for Iraq veterans and their kin
To say that the urban warfare American troops are seeing in Iraq is scary is certainly an understatement. Just ask Anthony Principi. He ran a riverboat unit in Vietnam's Mekong Delta and has two sons who've seen duty in Iraq. "I think anytime you're going door to door and you're not sure you're going to be hit," he says, "you're constantly living in that state of anxiety." It's enough to drive vets to booze, drugs, or mental hospitals. Principi should know: He's secretary of veterans affairs. But he also has a plan to help. Principi says the VA is getting ready to handle Iraq veterans suffering from war stress. "We learned some hard lessons from Vietnam," he says. He's also trying to deal with a more modern-day problem related to the war: two-income families who lose paychecks when a spouse has to leave home and a job to visit far-off hospitals. "What are we doing about that?" he frets. One solution Principi's studying: expanding war insurance to provide money for families of badly injured troops. "It's tough on the families," says Principi. "I mean these kids are frustrated."
A new ride for Jackie's bubble-top It's one of the most famous limos in the presidential fleet of Lincolns and Caddies. And now you could own it--for a cool million dollars. Whispers hears that the so-called bubble-top Lincoln, reserved for Jackie Kennedy-Onassis and a smaller sister to the limo JFK was assassinated in, is going on the auction block early next year. "The bubble-top might be the most important presidential car ever offered at auction," says Rob Myers of RM Auctions, which is manning the gavel at the Arizona Biltmore January 28. He thinks the car with the clear plastic roof could fetch $1 million. "We expect there will be considerable interest in this rare piece of American history." One reason: White House limos rarely make it to auction. And it won't be just Jackie O fans bidding. The car was used from 1962 to 1969 by LBJ, Vice Presidents Hubert Humphrey and Spiro Agnew, Pope Paul VI, and the Apollo 8 crew. For gearheads, the options include flashing lights and a phone but no armor. Asked why anyone would sell this gem, an RM spokesman said simply, "The collector is cashing out."
Honest Abe's secret
Here's proof that nuthin's sacred in American politics. A new scholarly work about former President Abraham Lincoln, being published by Simon & Schuster in February, suggests that Honest Abe was gay. In The Intimate World of Abraham Lincoln, author C. A. Tripp writes that Lincoln slept with men and even wrote a poem about two men getting married. But historians are rushing to protest. Joan Flinspach, president of Indiana's Lincoln Museum, says: "The evidence is circumstantial."
Disney World, really
How did power couple Democrat James Carville and Republican Mary Matalin celebrate the election? They went to Disney World. Carville now plans to pen a book calling for a new Democratic strategy. "It will be sufficiently short," he says, "that it won't require a great deal of thought."
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