To Our Readers

By Walter Isaacson, Managing Editor

JAMES CARNEY, TIME's Capitol Hill correspondent, told Nation editor Priscilla Painton two weeks ago that Texas Congressman Tom DeLay would play a major role in the impeachment hearings. "In the absence of any other Republican leader, he's taking the reins," says Carney of the man he and fellow congressional correspondent John Dickerson profile this week. Carney's prescience has proved invaluable during his 10 years at TIME, which has included stints as a correspondent at the White House, in Moscow and in Miami. "He's wired into what's happening on the Hill," says Painton. "And he's always way ahead of the competition."

SAM GWYNNE was in Huntsville, Texas, covering the search for an escaped convict when he got word from Washington correspondent Adam Zagorin that the General Accounting Office was releasing a report on Citibank's relationship with an accused murderer. For four months, Gwynne, a former banker and TIME's Austin bureau chief, had been investigating private banking, traveling around the U.S. and to Switzerland to track down money trails, so he rushed back to Austin to begin writing. "This story evolved in a perfect way," he says. "We researched a good idea for months, and when a news peg finally came, we were able to seize on it, offering readers the latest information along with a rich context in which to put it."

DAVID VAN BIEMA, TIME's chief religion writer, reports this week on the historical, mythical and religious interpretations of Moses. "He's a compelling character as a human being and as an archetype because he connects important stories from different religions," says Van Biema. "The Prince of Egypt and some new books remind us of his extraordinary power and the mystery that still surrounds him." Van Biema, who has written cover stories on the Shroud of Turin and the Book of Genesis, says exploring faith in contemporary times presents a challenge: "It's like reporting on last week's politics and spending as much time on the Founding Fathers as on the current Congress."

We are pleased to note that TIME won seven awards, the only ones given to newsmagazines, at the New York Association of Black Journalists' annual dinner last week. Christopher John Farley and James Willwerth's report "Dead Teen Walking," the story of a young man who may have been wrongly convicted of murder, won both the Griot (the top award of the evening) and the Public Affairs award. Other TIME winners were stories on Aretha Franklin by Farley, Toni Morrison by Paul Gray, Michael Jordan by Joel Stein, "Kids and Race" by Farley and "Africa Rising" by Johanna McGeary and Marguerite Michaels.

Walter Isaacson, Managing Editor