Contributors

PATTI DAVIS has long hoped to understand why John Hinckley tried to kill her father, President Ronald Reagan, on that chilly day in 1981. She was especially shocked when she learned that Hinckley, found not guilty by reason of insanity, was recently granted leaves from a Washington hospital. "I find it really offensive when his attorney says, 'This poor boy,'" says Davis, currently working on a novel. "This poor boy shot other people out of the way to get to my father."

ADAM COHEN has been tracking the troubles that Microsoft has been having with antitrust lawyers. It's a perfect assignment for Cohen, a lawyer by training and technophile by inclination. Says he: "It's ironic to envision all these lawyers using Microsoft's technology to prepare the case that might break up the company." So which is the better beat, Adam, tech or law? It's a tough call, but he just voted with his mouse: he'll soon be joining TIME's technology-coverage team.

DOLLY MASCARENAS is a TIME stringer who has interviewed key figures in the Elian Gonzalez story, and writes this week from Elian's hometown. She is worried about Elian: "He hasn't been allowed to grieve for his mother. The people in Miami parade him around, and the ones in Cuba have made a symbol out of him. What's going to happen to him in five years?" She's chagrined that a child now symbolizes the division between Cubans and Cuban Americans.