She scored high marks in her role as co-chairman of the 1972 Democratic National Convention and made history as the first member of Congress to be granted a maternity leave. But after six years of involvement in national politics, California Representative Yvonne Brathwaite Burke, 45, has decided to go local. Instead of trying for a fourth term in the capital, she is now running for state attorney general. "In Washington, I was only one out of 43 members of the California congressional delegation. In California, I will be one out of one," says Burke. When asked whether California voters are ready to have a woman as top cop, Burke likes to point out that a woman already holds the top spot on the bench: Rose Bird, chief justice of the state supreme court.

More than two months after the theft of Charles Chaplin's remains from a grave in the Swiss village of Corsier-sur-Vevey, police last week recovered the body in a cornfield near Lake Geneva. The kidnapers, it turns out, were a Polish car mechanic and his Bulgarian accomplice. The motive? Money. The pair have been telephoning Chaplin's widow, Oona, for several weeks, demanding at first $600,000 in ransom. Police tapped the calls through it all, and finally closed in on one of the robbers in a Lausanne phone booth. The idea for the grisly theft, the robbers admitted to the authorities, came from "reading about Italian kidnapings in the papers."

It has the makings of a good script: a crusty major league baseball manager spots a player on a prison team, gives him a tryout and watches him become a star. Which is just how Detroit Tigers All-Star Outfielder Ron LeFlore was discovered by New York Yankees Manager Billy Martin, during his stint at the helm of the Tigers. Now LeFlore's sto ry, One in a Million, will make it to the screen as a CBS-TV movie. LeFlore is played by LeVar Burton (Roots), and Billy Martin by--who else?--Billy Martin. Has he made a hit on camera? Says Burton: "He follows instructions like a Little Leaguer at tryouts. You know, Billy's a pussycat, really." Come again, Burton? "A pussycat with chutzpah."

Paul Stookey "sings to his plants" on his Maine farm. Peter Yarrow is co-producing a television special about the adventures of Puff the Magic Dragon. Mary Travers spins out solo albums. Ever since they disbanded seven years ago, the folk-singing trio have kept music on their minds, and now comes a coda: a P-P-M reunion. Last week the three announced that they will cut a record and in August they will set out on a monthlong, 17-city tour. "We're living in a different time now, so some of the styles may make some leaps to the side," says Peter. As for the new lyrics they are writing, he adds, they are "conversations we'd like to have."

On the Record

William Randolph Hearst Jr. on his niece Patty before she had to go back to jail: "You know, one of the latest things that happened while she was out was that the president of the bank they had robbed and his wife invited her to their home for dinner."

Lewis Thomas, M.D., cancer specialist and author (Lives of a Cell), on the world: "We do not, in any real way, run the place. It runs itself, and we are a part of the running."

Les Aspin, Congressman from Wisconsin: "The CIA can't be the only arbiter of what is or isn't classified. There ought to be somebody you can appeal to --an arbitrator set up by an act of Congress."

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