In Talking, They’ll Sometimes Lead With Their Chin

Rep. Gary L. Ackerman (D-N.Y.) shaved off his goatee of 17 years because “I just got tired of reading in the newspapers that I won by a whisker or had a close shave in the last election.” Likewise, Rep. Robert K. Dornan (R-Garden Grove) rid himself of his flaming red chin whiskers before winning a sixth term in November. But freshman Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-Lomita) ignored his media experts’ advice and refused to shave his beard. The voters elected him anyway. Rohrabacher is one of only five remaining members of the House Beard Caucus, an informal group whose sole purpose is “to allow members to fraternize about the politics of having hair on your face,” said Rep. David E. Bonior (D-Mich.), the caucus chairman. The other hirsute individualists are Reps. Mickey Leland (D-Tex.), Ronald V. Dellums (D-Berkeley) and Floyd H. Flake (D-N.Y.). There are no beards in the Senate.

A mentally disabled 7-year-old girl stricken with AIDS entered a classroom for the first time in her life and was greeted with cheers from supporters and hugs from classmates. A judge cleared the way for Eliana Martinez to attend class at the Manhattan Exceptional Center in Tampa, Fla., without being confined to a glass isolation booth, as an earlier ruling required. Her mother, Rosa, called the day the most important in Eliana’s life. “She’ll finally, for the first time in her life, be able to be with children and spend all the time she can with them,” she said. U.S. District Judge Elizabeth A. Kovachevich initially ordered that Eliana be placed in an isolation booth because she was incontinent and sucked her fingers and school officials feared she posed a health risk. But Eliana’s mother, declaring “my daughter is not a monkey,” appealed the ruling--and won. Eliana contracted AIDS from blood transfusions.

Reporters camped outside the federal courthouse in Washington awaiting a verdict in the Oliver L. North Iran-Contra trial got a scare when CBS reporter Rita Braver raced outside on a practice dash to the camera. “Verdict! Verdict!” photographers yelled into walkie-talkies when they spotted Braver on the run. But when they realized it was only a rehearsal, they returned to their lawn chairs. The jury ended a sixth day of deliberations of 12 felony charges against the former national security aide without reaching a verdict.