Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: WEDNESDAY, February 5, 1992 TAG: 9202050269
SECTION: EXTRA PAGE: E-9 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE:
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
PEOPLE
Michael Deaver, once deputy chief of staff in Ronald Reagan's White House and later convicted of lying to Congress, went back to the Capitol on Tuesday, this time to describe his battle with alcoholism."If someone had told me six years ago I'd be sitting in this room as Mike Deaver, alcoholic, talking about this disease, I would have said they were crazy," he told a House committee.
Deaver's success failed him after he left government in 1985. In 1987 he was convicted of lying to a House subcommittee and to a grand jury investigating allegations that he violated federal ethics laws.
Deaver's defense was that his memory had been clouded by alcoholism. He was fined $100,000 and ordered to perform 1,500 hours of community service.
Behind that public plunge was a private battle with alcoholism dating to college. "It doesn't matter if you make cars or make laws or lie in the gutters," Deaver said. "The same disease treats us all as equals."
Arjan Khalsa of Richmond, Calif., designer of a computer keyboard for the disabled, won the $10,000 first prize Monday in a yearlong competition sponsored by Johns Hopkins University to find computer solutions to barriers faced by people with disabilities.
Khalsa's device consists of a set of membranes that can be placed over a regular computer keyboard.
Michael Jackson has announced he will hit the road this summer for an 18-month world tour in hopes of raising $100 million for his Heal the World foundation.
The singer said the tour - dubbed "Dangerous" - would benefit the ecology and several children's charities, including those that fight AIDS and diabetes and ease the suffering of the incurably ill.
No definite sites and dates have been set, but the tour is likely to begin in England in June or July. It will play Europe, Asia, Latin America and Australia. No U.S. dates are planned.
John Sununu is taking a new job as co-host of CNN's "Crossfire," replacing Republican presidential candidate Pat Buchanan.
The former White House chief of staff will join the weekday political talk show March 2.