Bush Blows the Whistle on Pushers at White House

--Normally, the South Lawn of the White House is where helicopters deliver VIPs, bands march and presidents speak. But for one day it is turned over to children for the annual Easter egg roll. Admission was limited to children 8 years old and younger and their parents, and the White House said 23,000 people passed through its gates. Vice President George Bush, standing in for President Reagan, who is vacationing with his wife, Nancy, in California, presided over the event. Bush was accompanied by his wife, Barbara, and five of their 10 grandchildren. He clapped his hands, saying, “All right, kids, here we go,” and blew a whistle starting one of the egg roll contests. At the starting line, children dressed in Easter suits and dresses began pushing eggs to the finish line with long-handled plastic spoons. Ursula Meese, wife of Atty. Gen. Edwin Meese III, wore her annual Easter bunny costume and joined cartoon characters, including Bugs Bunny and Huckleberry Hound. “Webster” star Emmanuel Lewis also helped entertain the youngsters.

--Philippine President Corazon Aquino has no plans to marry again, saying she is content with her life and wary of the risks involved in walking down the aisle a second time. “I think I am happy enough the way I am. As you know . . . I am not really a gambler,” she said in Manila in answer to a caller’s question on a weekly radio broadcast. The 55-year-old widow was catapulted to power in 1986 almost three years after her husband, opposition leader Benigno Aquino, was shot dead at the Manila airport. “I am already fortunate enough to have had a happy marriage. I do not want to try again,” she said.

--The Alabama Journal will use its prize money from a 1988 Pulitzer Prize to battle the problem that was the subject of the award-winning articles--infant mortality. Publisher Richard Amberg said the Montgomery newspaper will donate the $3,000 prize to the Gift of Life Foundation, a group dedicated to lowering Alabama’s infant mortality rate, which is the highest of any state. The paper’s parent company, Multimedia, will match the $3,000 donation, Amberg said. “We want to demonstrate our personal commitment to this problem . . . “ he said. The newspaper won a Pulitzer for general news reporting for a series on why more than 13 of every 1,000 babies born in Alabama die before their first birthday.