Out of Law: Cable News Network anchorwoman...

Out of Law: Cable News Network anchorwoman Catherine Crier told a gathering of lawyers in Grand Rapids, Mich., that courtroom competition and unnecessary lawsuits drove her from her post as a Texas district judge. Crier, 35, told members of the Grand Rapids Bar Assn. last week she accepted CNN’s offer in October, 1988, in part because she was frustrated by unnecessary litigation, including the case of a woman who sued her obstetrician because she suffered pain during childbirth.

Another Merger: Let’s forget East and West Berlin for a minute and give North and South Yemen equal time. Thousands in those states of the United Arab Emirates danced the weekend away to celebrate the imminent merger of North and South Yemen, with people from both sides embracing and shouting “Long Live Yemen” as loudspeakers blared the national anthem of the new country. “The celebrations will continue until unification is proclaimed later this month,” North Yemeni ambassador Mohammed Hatem al-Khawi told reporters in Abu Dhabi.

Auctioning Dad’s Advice: A New York auction house is selling a 1967 letter Ronald Reagan wrote to daughter Patti, counseling her on smoking’s dangers and the benefits of telling the truth. The handwritten, four-page letter, signed “Love, Dad,” is expected to bring between $40,000 and $45,000 when sold next month. The letter responds to a note Patti, then 14, wrote from boarding school to tell her father she had admitted to smoking cigarettes and was being punished. He warned her against “compromising the truth no matter how trivial” and put a sexist twist on smoking. “Unfortunately, women are more susceptible to habits than men and find them much harder to break or change,” he wrote.

Meanwhile, Back in Bonn: On the day the two Germanys signed a treaty to allow market forces to rule in East Germany, East Berliners got a chance to make--and lose--money in the country’s first casino. Doors opened Friday evening at the modest gaming room with three roulette and two blackjack tables, where the minimum stake is $3. But as long as men wear jackets and ties and women do not wear jeans, they can play the slot machines for just 60 cents a shot. Croupiers are West German, but East Germans are being trained and will take over in July.