Informed Sources

Girls Stepping Up to the Altar

Many priests started out as altar boys, so it may be significant that Pope John Paul II appears to be prepared to allow girls to serve at Roman Catholic Masses. The shift has nothing to do with complaints from American feminists. The Pope is simply considering a practice that is already established in some parishes. After details are worked out by the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments, the Vatican is expected to announce the policy later this year.

The Elite Eastern Media Conspiracy

In a move that could bring two of the country's most celebrated and well- regarded newspapers under one corporate roof, the parent company of the New York Times in January entered serious discussions to buy the Boston Globe. Takeover rumors have swirled around the Globe in years and months past; now a deal seems imminent, for a price of about $1 billion. Says a top staff writer: "If the Globe goes, I would certainly want it to go to a respectable news organization, which the Times of course is."

Ghana But Not Forgotten

John Doggett -- the limitlessly self-regarding lawyer who testified during the Clarence Thomas hearings that Anita Hill "fantasized" about him -- was recently arrested and held in a Ghana police station for a night. Doggett says the arrest was the result of a pay dispute with one of his employees; he's currently fighting the employee's claim against him in court, although he would like to settle the case without any further legal wrangling. According to a source, Doggett was in the country because, a year after his testimony, his firm received a $2.7 million U.S. government contract from the Agency for International Development to train businessmen there.