Vol. 130 No. 19

A No-Frills Summit
After an embarrassing flip-flop, Gorbachev will come to Washington

American Notes LABOR
Solidarity -- And Shelter

American Notes LOUISIANA
Goodbye to Good Times

American Notes POVERTY
The Steady Hold of Hunger

American Notes SPACE
Lift-Off At Last

American Notes TEXAS
Celebrating For Jessica

Evan Mecham, Please Go Home
Arizonans are poised to recall their foot-in-mouth Governor

If At First You Don't Succeed
Reagan picks another conservative for the court -- or so he hopes

The New Kid
A cop is shot at a Texas school

Central America Still Gunning for Peace
Remember the Nov. 5 cease-fire deadline? Don't count on it

China Balancing Act
Party reformers and conservatives reach an uneasy compromise

Communism Two Crossroads of Reform
A TIME correspondent takes an intriguing journey through the Soviet Union and China, comparing the substance and pace of the changes that are dramatically transforming the two Communist powers

Human Rights Moscow Cracks the Gates
More Jewish emigrants get the green light -- for now

Kim vs. Kim (South Korea)
The opposition splits apart

World Notes ETHIOPIA
Let Them Eat Bullets

World Notes IMMIGRATION
Who Killed Mary Poppins?

World Notes THE GULF
Bull Market In Silkworms

World Notes THE PHILIPPINES
Target: Americans

Putting On Ancient Airs

The Importance of Being Blue
New genetically altered bacteria may lead to safer testing

Roll Out the Barrel (Food)
Microbreweries tout flavor and freshness

Strange Trip Back to the Future (Medicine)
The case of Robert R. spurs new questions about AIDS

Was This Trip Necessary?
A Synod of Bishops rushes to vagueness on the status of women

New Formation: Odd Man Out
Some regulars are displaced, but the teams go on

Sight For Sore Ears

A Deficit on the Trail (The Crash)
Few candidates, so far, show much economic leadership

Caution in The Boardroom (The Crash)
Companies try to assess the damage from the stock blowout

Cranking Up the Reform Machine (The Crash)
A welter of investigations ponder new limits on the marketplace

Who's in Charge? (The Crash)
The nation calls for leadership, and there is no one home

Raiders Retreat -- for Now (The Crash)

Riding Out the Aftershocks (The Crash)
A shaken Wall Street struggles to steady its nerves and stage a rally

Risks In Every Direction (The Crash)
Trimming the deficit will be perilous but unavoidable

Slump At The Sales Window (The Crash)

The Budget's Sacred Cow (The Crash)

The Presidency (The Crash)
The Hands-On Manager

Ups And Downs in the Global Village (The Crash)
Outside the U.S., the economic shock waves look different

Yapping From The Right (The Crash)

Heroism's End? THE MASK OF COMMAND (Books)
by John Keegan Viking; 368 pages; $18.95

Not Playing It for Laughs (Video)
From AIDS to the homeless, sitcoms take a turn for the gloomy

Spectral Light, Anxious Dancers (Art)
In New York, the disquieting visions of Susan Rothenberg

Stagecraft As Soulcraft (Music)
Nixon, Mao and Chou En-lai meet again -- in Houston

The Empire Strikes Out (Cinema)
Two films of revolution in South Africa and South London

The Haves and the Have-Mores THE BONFIRE OF THE VANITIES by Tom Wolfe; Farrar, Straus & Giroux; 659 pages; $19.95 (Books)

A Letter From the Publisher (A Letter From The Publisher)