The Medal Stops Here; Truman Honored by Reagan

--President Reagan honored President Harry S. Truman with a Congressional Gold Medal at a ceremony in the Oval Office. Congress authorized the medal in honor of the 33rd President, who died at age 88 in 1972. Truman’s daughter, Margaret Truman Daniel, accepted it. Reagan often invoked Truman’s feisty spirit in his political campaigns, and the Missourian was the last Democratic presidential candidate Reagan supported before his eventual conversion to the GOP. Daniel was accompanied to the White House by her husband, Clifton Daniel, members of the Missouri congressional delegation and Truman adviser Clark M. Clifford. She told reporters later: “We both made references to the fact that he helped Dad in 1948. He told a lot of stories.” Asked how she felt about Reagan campaigning on her father’s themes, she said: “If they want to run on his coattails, that’s all right with me.”

--As pop star Michael Jackson and his bodyguards stepped off the plane in London, the singer said: “Gee, it’s so good to be in London. I am looking forward to seeing everything.” He was then stopped by police and spent the next 35 minutes in a security area before customs officials cleared him, his baggage and his retinue. “I didn’t mind,” said Jackson, 26, a devout Jehovah’s Witness and ardent anti-drug campaigner. “Why should I when there is nothing to find?” Jackson, dressed in a purple tunic decorated with gold braid, was in London to unveil a wax figure of himself at Madame Tussaud’s new Super Stars gallery. “I’m looking forward to seeing myself at Madame Tussaud’s,” Jackson said. He will unveil the figure--which is wearing a fiber optic waistcoat with strobe lights dazzling from his raised, gloved hand--on Friday. Other figures in the gallery include David Bowie, Dolly Parton, Boy George and John McEnroe.

--Rosie Jones, 75, took an honest look at the facts. Her hearing is getting bad and her vision leaves a lot to be desired, especially in her trade. Further, she confessed, “My fingers are not as good as they used to be. I’m getting too old for this.” After her latest and 31st conviction, Jones told the London court, she is “definitely going to give up pocket picking.” She was first convicted as a pickpocket in 1926 and has spent a total of 20 years in London prisons.