Child’s Eye View: Peggy Charren, president of...

Child’s Eye View: Peggy Charren, president of the children’s advocacy group Action for Children’s Television, last week asked federal regulators to close a loophole in the 1969 law that banned cigarette advertising from television. The group said cigarette companies still sponsor televised sports events such as tennis tournaments and car races and make their brands part of the names of the events. And TV cameras routinely show billboards with cigarette advertising behind the sports action, ACT said, calling them “hidden commercials.”

Fine Fix: Gerald Wallace, younger brother of former Alabama Gov. George C. Wallace, was fined $100,000 Friday for income tax evasion. Wallace, 68, a once-influential lawyer, pleaded guilty in October to two counts of failing to report $165,195 in income. “I have heard you are the most powerful man in Alabama,” U.S. District Judge Joel Dubina said in Montgomery, Ala. “I don’t know if that is true, but it is a tragedy to see you before me.”

Sununews: “It’s Darth Vader . . . It’s Dr. No . . . It’s James Watt . . . No. It’s John Sununu, White House chief of staff and environmentalists’ chief White House worry.” Thus begins the inaugural issue of Sununews, a newsletter from the National Wildlife Federation, created specifically to chide Sununu. Featuring a caricature of a grinning Sununu hoisting a chain saw, the newsletter cites him for trying to weaken federal wetlands laws and the Clean Air Act and for resisting efforts to combat global warming.

Ollie’s Secret: “Please hold this letter in confidence,” the appeal begins. Iran-contra figure Oliver North tells the “dear friend” recipients that he has been asked to head the Freedom Alliance, but he isn’t sure whether he should do it. The group would “educate our citizens, enlist supporters and activists and raise funds” to promote traditional values and to counter the “left-wing dominated” mass media. North asks: “Should I fade away or build the Freedom Alliance out of the fires of my adversity?” Along with advice, North asks for “your tax deductible check of $25” to the group.