Time

TO OUR READERS 4

LETTERS 6

CHRONICLES 11

MILESTONES 19

COVER: What Has George Done? 20

Stephanopoulos says he was "blowing off steam," but was the President's trusted aide trying to get a potentially pesky Whitewater prober dismissed? Is this obstruction of justice?

Clinton's Shadow: The young master of the White House

The Administration: More loopy management in Washington

The First Couple: Taxing questions

HEALTH CARE: A Bloody Clash of Egos 28

Five legislative committees vie to craft a historic medical bill

EDUCATION: Do Teachers Punish Blacks More Often? 30

Charges of discrimination rock the Cincinnati school system

PUBLIC EYE: Beauty and the Breast 31

The torture of the push-up bra and other indignities

MEXICO: Death of a Candidate 32

An assassin's bullets shake the country's confidence

NORTH KOREA: War Talk 60

Pyongyang plays brinkmanship over nuclear inspection

RUSSIA: Kremlin Hangover 62

Rumors of Yeltsin's drinking give Moscow a case of coup jitters

CRIME: Dances with Werewolves 64

Is America's fascination with serial killers only breeding more?

BUSINESS: Is Bill Gates Too Powerful? 67

Microsoft's founder is reaching for the skies

ENVIRONMENT: Where Did All the Fish Go? 70

Depleted seas threaten fishermen and, ultimately, consumers

& Ocean Boom Boxes: A project may deafen some whales

RELIGION: Why Was Christ Crucified? 72

A top scholar finds mixed motives for a most vexing question

SCIENCE: Reverse Racism in the Classroom 74

Some black-studies courses tout the powers of a skin pigment

SOCIETY: Silence Really Does Equal Death 76

Many deaf people don't know about AIDS. It's killing them.

THE ARTS & MEDIA

Music: Bonnie Raitt has a sultry sound in her new album and a clear-eyed take on life as a onetime hard-living rocker

78

Cinema: Anna Paquin, the actress you should have bet on 80

Germinal is a minor work on a huge canvas 80

Classical Music: Look out, rap, here comes Gregorian chant

82

Placido Domingo in a triumphant new Otello 82

Books: Dwight MacDonald was a brilliant gadfly 83

Theater: Carousel tarnishes Broadway's Golden Age 85

PEOPLE 87

ESSAY 88