Good Times: Best-selling author and New York...

Good Times: Best-selling author and New York Times columnist Russell Baker will be the 17th recipient of the National Press Club’s Fourth Estate Award at a black-tie dinner Nov. 9. Baker is the author of 11 books, including the current best-seller “The Good Times.”

Presidential handiwork: The White House has opened its doors for the annual Fall Garden Tour through 18 1/2 acres of grounds. Park Service horticulturist Dale Haney said things aren’t much different from administration to administration, but George Bush and his extended family have brought a few changes. Top of the list: 11 new sets of hand-prints and footprints for the Children’s Garden.

Magazine marital bliss: Husband and wife Michael Ruby, 47, and Merrill McLoughlin, 44, will become the new editors of U.S. News & World Report. They replace Roger Rosenblatt, who resigned, and become the first married couple to share editorship of a major magazine.

Ready to rock around the clock: A Russian described as the first person granted a visa from the Soviet Union solely to visit Elvis Presley’s Graceland arrived in Memphis--wearing blue suede shoes. “I am ambassador of Russian rock ‘n’ roll,” Kolya Vasin, 44, a rock concert organizer from Leningrad, told about 100 well-wishers at Memphis International Airport. “I listen to ‘Jailhouse Rock’ for the first time in 1958. After this shocking moment, I love Elvis forever.”

Homosexuals demonstrated Monday outside a Dallas courthouse where a state judge faced a misconduct hearing for telling a reporter he sentenced a murderer to only 30 years in prison because his victims were homosexuals. A representative of the State Commission on Judicial Conduct will hear evidence this week and make a report to the commission on State District Judge Jack Hampton. The commission can take no action, censure Hampton or remove him from the bench.