Inside Washington

Housing Secretary HENRY CISNEROS is being sued by former mistress, Linda Medlar, who says he broke an "oral contract" to pay her $4,000 a month for damages following the exposure of their affair in 1990. Cisneros, who reconciled with his wife, denies a contract but admits giving Medlar "intermittent" $4,000 payments as well as $36,000 as a final settlement. The Secretary told TIME he leased a car for Medlar, gave her a $16,000 down payment on a house and paid her daughter's tennis-camp tuition. Medlar says she received no settlement, no car, no tuition.