CONTRIBUTORS

THOMAS SANCTON, TIME's Paris bureau chief and roving European correspondent, had no sooner returned from the World Economic Forum in Davos two weeks ago than he did a quick U-turn back to Switzerland to report and write this week's cover story on the Holocaust bank accounts and Nazi gold. It turned out to be something of a journalistic U-turn as well. "Previously my reporting in Switzerland was limited to the occasional business item," says Sancton. "Suddenly I was confronted with a Swiss story of major proportions, one with intrigue, human drama and historical scope." The tale, as Sancton tells it, is broader than Swiss banks and gold ingots. "It's all part of a great reckoning that is taking place as the world prepares to turn the page on the 20th century," he says. "It's a healthy, if often painful, process."

MICHAEL WEISSKOPF joined our Washington staff as a correspondent only four weeks ago, but he's already reported two exclusive stories for TIME: a profile of chief Democratic fund raiser Alan Solomont; a report on the secret White House database used to track potential donors; and this week's lead story about the growing scandal over foreign donations to the Democratic Party. It's all in a month's work for Weisskopf, who in 19 years at the Washington Post garnered a fistful of journalism honors, including Pulitzer nominations and a George Polk Award. He was well prepared to follow the Asian money trail with the fluent Mandarin he perfected in two tours in Beijing--from 1980 to 1985, and again in 1989 to cover the Tiananmen uprising.

SAM GWYNNE, our Austin bureau chief, has been covering labor issues for TIME on and off for the past nine years, first as Detroit bureau chief and later as national economic correspondent. His story this week on the dramatic showdown at American Airlines presented him with an unusual twist: the pilots' strike deadline came at just about the same time as our editorial deadline, so Gwynne had to fashion most of his story without knowing whether the pilots would walk out. "I reported it as though we were heading toward a major strike," he says, "while at the same time rooting for them to find a way to avert a shutdown. I found myself in the odd position of hoping that most of the work I was doing wouldn't be necessary by the end of the week."

STEVE WULF, TIME's sportswriter, usually covers pampered, overpaid athletes. At last week's Westminster Kennel Club show, however, he found himself covering some pampered athletes of another species. As Wulf watched a Gordon setter and a Brittany spaniel finish one-two among sporting dogs, he found himself reliving childhood memories of Troy, New York, where his family kept two dogs--a Gordon setter named Beau and a Brittany named Brill. "They were like George and Lennie from Of Mice and Men," remembers Wulf. "Brill was a small but brilliant hunting dog. Beau was big and not very bright; he always seemed to be asking Brill to tell him about the rabbits." Like the Westminster winner, Wulf's report on the show is both handsome and smart.