Cover Story FOLEY FLEXES by Richard Blow How Tom Foley fought to remain Speaker of the House, and squelched congresssional reform in the process.

HONEY, I WARPED THE KIDS
by Carl Cannon
Forget the so-called debate. TV is messing with our kids' minds.

Passing the buck in tinseltown
Michael Krasny

I FEEL YOUR PAIN
by Richard Levine
In our interview-mad, talk-show-crazed age, the White House is beaming "The Bill Clinton Show" into every home. What's wrong with this picture?

ONLY $22 PER MONTH
by Cecilia Rodriquez and David Schrieberg
They "adopted" Martha through a foster-child program in Colombia in 1985. This year, they discovered what their money and love had done.

FOLEY FLEXES
by Richard Blow
How Tom Foley fought to remain Speaker of the House, and squelched congresssional reform in the process.

House freshmen go from lions to lambs
by  Stephen Pizzo

A TALE OF TWO COUNTRIES
by Vladimir Klimenko
In next year's most troubled region, two remote nations follow different paths.

DEPARTMENTS

EDITOR'S NOTE
BACKTALK Facing off over health-care reform and skin cancer.
OUTFRONT
The "trial of the decade" that never was
Cop ratings
Clinton's future fortold
Notes from the front
Hellraiser
MUCK Did the maker of Kent cigarettes know about its deadly filter--and not tell?
ERIC ALTERMAN Why all the pundits are wrong.
PAULA POUNDSTONE On plumbers, producers, and other prevaricators.