European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - March 12, 1993, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Targets civilians for buyout offers by the Washington Post Washington a buyouts Worth up to $25,000 per employee Are coming for selected defense department civilian employees in offices and shipyards from Philadelphia to the Norfolk va., area. Thousands of Federal workers in the Washington area will be offered Early retirement. In some instances the Pentagon will sweeten the pot with a Cash offer to get civilians to quit or take Early or regular retirement that would save the jobs of younger less senior workers. One fourth of the Washington areas 365,000 Federal government workers Are employed by army Navy air Force or other defense units. Defense is the Only department with the authority to offer buyouts a equal to the value of the employees Severance entitlement or $25,000, whichever is less a to leave. The first buyouts went to defense civilians in Texas but they will soot by offered Here. The Pentagon originally said Only 3,000 of its $50,000 civilians would get buyouts. It also said no offers would be made to employees eligible for regular retirement or to workers at bases being shutdown or to anyone paid a special rate because they Are in hard to fill jobs. That included Many clerical employees engineers scientists and medical personnel. A but things have changed. Defense is now braced to offer upward of 30,000 buyouts this year and will Likely give some to employees at bases being shut Down and to special rate workers on a Case by Case basis. During Early outs employees can retire on immediate pension if they have 25 years of Federal service or if they Are age 50 with 20 years. Locally army Materiel come has Early retirement authority through june 11. It has about 1,200 civilians and 280 arc eligible for Early retirement. Fort Belvoir va., has 1,400 workers and about 140 Are eligible to take Early retirement by june 11. Aberdeen proving ground md., with 3,100 workers is offering Early retirement through sept. 28 to 967 eligible employees. The National Security Agency a Carly out and buyouts end april 30. The Philadelphia naval shipyard with 6,900 workers has 450 eligible for Early retirement and Norfolk naval shipyard has 1,600 eligible for Early retirement out of a workforce of 11,000. Both Early out offers end May 4.vets chief orders harassment classes from wire reports Washington veterans affairs Secretary Jesse Brown on wednesday ordered major changes in the Way his department handles sexual harassment complaints and directed All 259,549 a employees to attend four hours of sexual harassment. Lectures. Browne a directives were announced two hours after sen. Barbara a. Mikulski d-md., condemned a administrators for ignoring a decade of sexual harassment by top officials at the Atlanta veterans Hospital. A investigators found that top officials at the Atlanta Hospital a including the Man who handled All. Harassment complaints there a had harassed female workers for years. The abuses were common knowledge among the staff. The hospitals former director Deputy director its senior doctor personnel chief and research director were among those implicated in a recent report by the vans inspector general. Brown said he also will establish a toll free Telephone hotline so a workers can complain directly to  to step Down Washington or. William l. Roper resigned wednesday As chief of the Federal centers for disease control and prevention continuing the removal of some Bush administration appointees from top health posts. Roper 44, a paediatrician who was appointed to the position in 1990, was asked to step Down said officials of the department of health and human services which oversees the centers. The resignation will take effect june 30, and a successor has not yet been  freeze criticized Washington the Clinton administration acknowledged at a congressional hearing wednesday what Many in the government work Force contend that a Federal pay freeze is unfair. Nevertheless the Clinton team argued that the government should set an example As the president asks americans to pay More taxes. A no question that Federal employees Are being asked to make More of a sacrifice a said Alice m. Rivlin Deputy director of the office of management and budget. Quot no question that a freeze is  Rivlin said the Federal salary reductions proposed in president Clinton a economic plan must be considered an a integral part of his deficit reduction Effort. A we Are not out to get the civil servants but we Are in an economic crisis Quot she said. A a. A it Senate unanimously confirms Janet Reno As attorney general Washington a the Senate unanimously confirmed Janet Reno thursday As the first female attorney general approving a Veteran prosecutor As the nations top Law enforcement official. The vote was 98-0, and officials said Reno would be sworn in within a few Days to head an Agency grappling with the investigation into the world Trade Center bombing and the lingering stand off with heavily armed cult members in Waco Texas. The lopsided confirmation vote stood in contrast to the difficulty president Clinton a earlier selections had encountered. His first nominee Zoe Baird withdrew after acknowledging she had hired illegal aliens. Another Choice judge Kimba m. Wood withdrew before being appointed in a related controversy. A i would submit that president Clinton albeit not the first time at Bat has hit a Home run Quot sen. Joseph r. Biden a Del said just before the vote. Biden presided Over two Days of judiciary committee confirmation hearings that produced Little but Praise for the 54-year-old Miami prosecutor. He said her record and confirmation testimony Quot portend great Promise at the department of  while a number of policies await her review the bombing in new York City and the standoff Between Federal agents and an armed religious cult in Texas will focus Reno a attention immediately on Day to Day operations. Reno also must review Justice department findings of unethical conduct by Fri director William s. Sessions including his taking Fri aircraft for personal trips and avoiding payment of taxes on the use of a government limousine. Sessions denies any impropriety and has campaigned to keep his Job. Janet Reno first female attorney general the report released by former attorney general William p. Barr As his parting shot questioned whether sessions should Complete the last half of his 10-year term in office. President Clinton said his attorney general must review the report and sessions rebuttal before any decision is reached. Reno will also be thrust into the continuing debate Over gun control and crime legislation measures that were killed last year by a Republican filibuster in the Senate. Clinton and Reno both support a five Day waiting period for handgun purchases. Since the Trade Center Komning feb. 26, there Are fresh proposals on Capitol Hill to regulate the purpose of explosives or chemicals that can be used to make bombs. As for policy reversals the civil rights division under Reno May be More aggressive in pushing affirmative action programs to end employment discrimination against women and minorities. Quot i would speculate there will be Large changes rather than Small Quot particularly in the areas of civil rights and the prosecution of polluters said Michael w. Mcconnell a University of Chicago Law professor and former Justice department lawyer. Mcconnell predicted that Reno will use the Justice department As an instrument for social change Quot to transform so City in directions sine thinks arc More just rather than just enforcing the  Quot i would expect her to be rather hard nosed and prosecutor Al about it a a he said. An outspoken proponent of Tough environmental enforcement Reno takes Over a department that has been criticized in Congress for failing to bring criminal prosecutions of some corporate polluters. As head of the Agency that oversees immigration Reno will be drawn into the Controvert Over the Clinton administrations decision to continue intercepting and turning Back haitians who try to sail for . Shores. As a candidate Clinton denounced the Bush administration policy As inhumane but As president he has continued the practice while he searches for a Long Range solution. The Justice department under acting attorney general Stuart m. Gerson a Republican Holdover defended the policy in a Case before the supreme court. Reno also will be called on to formulate the administrations position on reviving the Law under which special prosecutors were appointed to investigate the Iran Contra affair and other Reagan administration scandals. Defense bid in King trial rejected los Angeles a a Federal judge thursday rejected an angry defense request to strike All of Rodney Kings references to racial epithets from the trial of four police officers. Attorney Harland Braun extended that prosecutors committed misconduct by failing to Tell the defense that King would Waffle on his allegation that officers shouted the word Quot Nigger Quot As he was being beaten in March 1991. "1 can to think of anything in this Case that was More serious More prejudicial to the defendants and More serious to the Community at Large Quot Braun said. Braun said he would have asked for a mistrial except Quot we done to want to go through another  King testified this week that at some Point during his beating he heard a chant from policemen using the words a a killer and  but on further questioning he said he Wasny to sure that the racial epithet was used. Assistant . Attorney Steven Clymer denounced the defense motion calling the allegation of misconduct Quot not Only frivolous but  Quot what or. Braun really wanted was to hide the truth from the jury. Or. Braun does t like that testimony Quot he said. . District judge John g. Davies said the defense should have objected when King was still on the stand. He indicated the government had no obligation to inform the defense of Quot a slight change Quot in testimony the defense already knew about. �?o1 see no misconduct absolutely none a the judge said. A the government turned Over All of or. Kings statements in a timely  officers Theodore j. Briseno Laurence m. Powell and Timothy e. Wind and sgt. Stacey a Koon who Are White Are charged with violating the civil rights of King a Black Man by clubbing and kicking him during a Highway arrest. The beating was videotaped by an onlooker and the television broadcast of tape infuriated americans nationwide. Anger turned into murderous rioting on april 29 when a California jury acquitted the four officers on most state in arcs. Days of riots left More than 50 people dead and entire neighbourhoods looted and burned. With Kings testimony Over attention in the trial will again focus on the videotape of his beating As Well As expert testis Many about the nature and cause of his injuries