Top 50 News Stories (Of Last Wednesday)

By BRUCE HANDY

1. Senate votes to give military 4.8% pay hike

2. NBC airs interview with Clinton rape accuser; White House denies charge

3. Lauryn Hill wins five Grammys, record for a woman artist; Shania Twain wears skimpy outfit, Madonna kimono

4. Supreme Court okays deporting aliens for their political views

5. Second killer avalanche hits Austrian ski resorts; death toll hits 17

6. Observers dutifully wonder why avalanche story given much greater coverage than death of 61 in crash of Chinese airliner en route from Chengdu in Sichuan province to coastal city of Wenzhou

7. Dad asks Texas jury to spare life of racist killer John William King

8. Report says Clinton defense fund raised $4.5 million in 1998

9. Congress urged to kill special-counsel law; coy President says he has "some ideas" on subject

10. Mike Tyson gets 20 days in solitary for his jailhouse TV toss

11. Amazon.com buys stake in online drugstore

12. Judge grants new O.J. custody trial

13. Interior Secretary Babbit asks Congress for $9.1 million to probe U.S. frog-population decline; waning salamanders and toads also slated for probe

14. Mark McGwire makes first spring-training appearance

15. Long-term interest rates surge on short-term fears

16. NBC orders 13 episodes of new Carsey-Werner animated series, God, the Devil and Bob; James Garner to voice God

17. FDA rejects new flu-drug inhaler

18. Musical Bright Lights Big City opens off-Broadway; critics sorely tempted to write reviews in second person

19. Software glitch takes out Schwab website

20. Coke named "official city beverage" by Huntington Beach, Calif.

21. N.J. Supreme Court okays age-discrimination lawsuits brought by kids

22. Top vote getters for Post Office's '80s-themed stamp series include fall of Berlin Wall and The Cosby Show

23. Ricky Henderson says Cardinal manager Tony La Russa is not a racist

24. Actress Minnie Driver trapped in elevator, rescued by former uber-agent Mike Ovitz

25. Matt Drudge reports Washington Post will report that Barbara Walters will report that Monica Lewinsky is no longer in love with Clinton

26. Aretha Franklin denies deadbeat accusation by Detroit Free Press

27. GM to resurrect See the U.S.A. in your Chevrolet jingle

28. U.S. jets strike two Iraqi missile sites; Albright warns Serbs not to attack Kosovo; Indonesia convulsed by religious riots; clashes continue between Ethiopia and Eritrea; Mexico, Canada, something or other

29. Newseum announces list of century's Top 100 news stories

30. List based on Virginia journalism museum's survey of editors and historians

31. Observers puzzled why "violence erupts outside Democratic convention in Chicago" is ranked No. 85 while "Sigmund Freud publishes Interpretation of Dreams" is ranked No. 86

32. Observers also question placing Titanic sinking (No. 36) over Nazi surrender (No. 37)

33. No O.J.?!! No invention of the pop-top?!!

34. Atom bomb (No. 1) a "safe" choice?

35. Observers brand Newseum list arbitrary, pointless exercise, decry glut of similar end-of-century rankings, call Newseum name queer, silly

36. TIME editors continue to prepare unarbitrary, pointful list of century's most influential people

37. Lakers fire coach Del Harris

38. Sarge dismayed by Beetle's attitude; Cathy has exercise issues

39. Jawbreaker screens at 7:30 and 9:45 p.m. at Loew's 84th Street Theatre

40. Ad in USA Today promises FREE VIAGRA (with $75 "physician consultation")

41. American Airlines offers $213 fare from Los Angeles to Cincinnati, $205 from Los Angeles to Memphis

42. Fares are each way based on round-trip travel

43. Seats are limited

44. Other restrictions may apply

45. If you're still reading, please raise hand

46. Nets fall to Blazers

47. Celtics rip Magic

48. Writer's kid poops successfully in potty, eyes big-girl panties

49. Experts say round numbers make lists seem more authoritative, attract more publicity, even at risk of stretching point, adding filler

50. Utah at Denver (too late for this edition)