Time

LETTERS 4

TO OUR READERS 10

CHRONICLES 13

MILESTONES 22

CONGRESS: Remodeling the House 24

Gingrich ascends and institutes reforms, but are they enough?

DIVIDING LINE: The G.O.P. and African Americans 29

They have common ground; now if they'd only stop shouting

THE POLITICAL INTEREST: A Poverty of Compassion 32

The Speaker's agenda defies his rhetoric

SOCIETY: The Abortion Wars Continue 34

Both sides struggle to cope with John Salvi's rampage

THE PUBLIC EYE: Rhymes with Rich 36

Newt's mother shared a secret about the nastiest dig of all

CONTROVERSY: A King-Sized Showdown in Atlanta 37

Heirs of Martin Luther King Jr. battle the Park Service

JUSTICE: Guilty, Innocent, Guilty 38

Texas executes a man after imprisoning his sister for the crime

RUSSIA: In Deep 42

The Chechnya war is a bloody chaos with no good way out

On the Front Lines: Life and Death in Grozny 46

Anatomy of a Debacle: Why the Russian Army Stumbled 50

MEXICO: What's in It for Us? 53

How Zedillo's economic rescue will affect the U.S.

SCIENCE: A Genetic Atlas of the World 54

Human "races" are not nearly as different as they seem

ELECTRONICS: Mighty Morphin' Gadgetry 56

TVs are turning into telephones, and PCs into video games

TECHNOLOGY: Throwing Snowballs in Cyberspace 57

And other stupid things you can do on the Internet

Netwatch: Scientology flamewar 57

COVER: The Plumping of America 58

The secret scandal of the health and fitness craze is that after all

the salad bars and diet programs and Jane Fonda videos,

Americans are fatter than ever. Where did we go wrong?

Diet Drugs: The search for the perfect pill 62

SPORT: Blow the Men Down 66

An all-female team has a fighting chance at the America's Cup

THE ARTS & MEDIA*

Television: Networks are so hot, even Hollywood wants a piece

of the action. Here come Paramount and Warner 68

Cinema: Paul Newman's glamour falsifies Nobody's Fool 72

Theater: Tony Kushner writes a coda to Angels in America 73

Books: Felicia's Journey tells an old story in a fresh way 73

A Thomas Hardy biographer is obsessed with predecessors 74

Music: The all-male troupe La Gran Scena skewers opera 75

PEOPLE 77

ESSAY 78

TIME (ISSN 0040-781X) is published weekly except for two issues combined into one at year-end for $59.80 per year by Time Inc. Principal Office: Time & Life Building, Rockefeller Center, New York, N.Y., 10020-1393. Reginald K. Brack Jr., Chairman; Don Logan, President, CEO; Joseph A. Ripp, Treasurer; Harry M. Johnston, Secretary. Second-class postage paid at New York, New York, and at additional mailing offices. (c) 1995 Time Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part without written permission is prohibited. TIME and the Red Border Design are protected through trademark registration in the United States and in the foreign countries where TIME magazine circulates. POSTMASTER: Send address changes to TIME, P.O. Box 30601, Tampa, Florida 33630-0601. For subscription queries, call Customer Service at 1-800-843-TIME (8463).