Responding to new pressure over his fund-raising activities, Vice President Al Gore forcefully denied knowing that a 1996 gathering at a Buddhist temple was a Democratic Party fund-raising event. "I sure as hell did not have any conversations with anyone saying this is a fund-raising event," Gore repeated. Asked why he attended an event at a Buddhist temple, the Vice President told Untrue News "I like those little finger-cymbals they have, I enjoy seeing the colorful saris, I love curry, I really love it, and their many-armed god Shiva is...oh wait, that's the wrong briefing book. Look, I'm no more a crook than Nixon is."

 

This week a federal appeals court denied a request by the Miami relatives of Elian Gonzales to reconsider the custody battle over the boy. The relatives said they would take the case to the Supreme Court. A distraught Marisleysis Gonzales said "I will throw myself at the feet of Justice Clarence Thomas. I will put a pubic hair on a coke can if I have to, to get his attention. Elian is more important to me than pubic hairs and coke cans." A fainting spell interrupted Ms. Gonzales at that point and she was rushed to a hospital by waiting paramedics.

 

A federal jury found Albert J. Pirro Jr., influential Republican businessman and husband of Jeanine F. Pirro, the Westchester County district attorney, guilty of conspiracy and tax evasion. Mrs. Pirro, could have been a strong contender for the Republican nomination for the United States Senate this year were it not for her husband's legal woes. Commenting on the verdict, Hillary Rodham Clinton said "Oh, a real-estate development lawyer who's a thief, what a surprise." Asked what it meant to her candidacy, Ms. Clinton said "This guilty verdict destroys his wife's chance of becoming Senator, the prostate cancer destroyed Giuliani's chance, and faced with that evidence I have to believe God wants me to win."

 

Peter Harrigan and Stan Baker on their honeymoon after the Vermont State Senate allowed gay couples to wed in a "civil union." Two hours after this picture was taken, a sobbing Harrigan telephoned his mother, while Baker stormed off angrily to the bar.