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LOS ANGELES - Former teen idol Leif Garrett is hooked on heroin, his mom says - and she blames hard-partying rock 'n' roll legends like the Rolling Stones for steering her son toward drugs. "Leif idolized rock stars ... that whole life of rock 'n' roll and drugs ... the Rolling Stones. He figured if they could do it, so could he," Garrett's distraught mother, Carolyn Stellar, told the Daily News yesterday.

After 10 years and $23 million, Independent Counsel David Barrett's report on an investigation of Henry Cisneros, a former Bill Clinton housing secretary, will reveal additional details of the particularly slimy nature of Slick Willie & Co. According to The New York Sun, citing specifics from a report set to be released Thursday, "there was a coordinated effort by Clinton administration officials to first block and then limit the probe as a way of taking pressure off an administration that was already beset by scandals." Among those said to be implicated -- then-Attorney General Janet Reno.

Conservatives planning to attend Grover Norquist's popular Wednesday Group meeting tomorrow will be the target of a MoveOn.org protest outside Norquist's downtown Washington, D.C., office building. Tom Matzzie of MoveOn.org Political Action announced the protest in an e-mail to supporters Tuesday morning. Norquist's meeting is attended by a broad range of Republicans. It starts at 10 a.m. "The group hosting the meeting—Grover Norquist's Americans for Tax Reform—is at the center of the Republican power machine in Washington and has been implicated in the corruption scandals from lobbyist Jack Abramoff," Matzzie wrote in the e-mail. "But they still meet even after...

There will be a replay of the South Park episodes from the second half of Season 9, starting tonight (Wednesday) at 10:00 PM on Comedy Central.In looking over the replay schedule, you may notice that the controversial final episode of the season, Bloody Mary (Episode 914), is missing. 10:00 PM Two Days Before The Day After Tomorrow (Episode 908) A global warming state of emergency is declared in South Park. The world's largest beaver dam breaks and floods the adjacent town of Beaverton. As the victims wait for help to arrive, everyone in South Park tackles priority number one: who...

The Los Angeles Police Department has instructed its officers to stop using Glock 21 pistols because of concerns that the weapons could misfire. According to Assistant Chief Jim McDonnell, the LAPD's Armory discovered that there may be a mechanical flaw with about two percent of the guns. Officials with Austria-based Glock Inc. are expected to investigate the matter with the LAPD next week, he said. The moratorium is being taken as a safety precaution for officers. The lighter-weight, easier-to-shoot Glocks were approved in August 2003. About 70 percent of law enforcement agencies across the country use Glocks, a futuristic-looking plastic...

XXXXX DRUDGE REPORT XXXXX TUE AUG 09, 2003 08:02:25 ET XXXXX JAGGER ROCKS BUSH, RICE: 'HOW COME YOU'RE SO WRONG, MY SWEET NEO-CON' "You call yourself a Christian, I call you a hypocrite/ You call yourself a patriot. Well, I think your are full of sh*t!... How come you're so wrong, my sweet neo-con." Ready to drop in the coming weeks, a new Bush-bashing tune from the ROLLING STONES: "Sweet Neo Con." "It is direct," Mick Jagger says with a laugh to fresh editions of NEWSWEEK. "Keith [Richards] said, 'It's not really metaphorical.' I think he's a bit worried because...

A featured speaker at Saturday's civil rights march in Atlanta said the Bush administration and Republican Party leaders are "thieves" who "need to be locked up" for stealing the past two presidential elections and presiding over federal budget deficits and the war in Iraq. "They all need to be locked up because they are all criminals and they are all thieves," said Judge Greg Mathis, the star of the syndicated television program "The Judge Mathis Show." Mathis made his remarks to an enthusiastic crowd assembled in Atlanta to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the Voting Rights Act of 1965. Participants...

WHAT'S LOVE got to do with it? Bill Dalrymple, 56, and best friend Bryan Pinn, 65, have decided to take the plunge and try out the new same-sex marriage legislation with a twist -- they're straight men. "I think it's a hoot," Pinn said. The proposal came last Monday at a Toronto bar amid shock and laughter from their friends. But the two -- both of whom were previously married and both of whom are looking for a good woman to love -- insist that after the humour subsided, a real issue lies at the heart of it all. "There...

BELFAST (Reuters) - The IRA admitted on Friday to the 1973 killing of a teenage girl that it had blamed on the British army and apologised to her family who had called on the paramilitaries to accept responsibility. Kathleen Feeney was shot dead near her home in Londonderry. At the time, the IRA, which put its violent, 30-year campaign against British rule on hold in 1997, blamed British soldiers for the 14-year-old's murder. "We wish to apologise unreservedly to the Feeney family for the death of Kathleen and all the grief that our actions have caused to them," the IRA...

U.S. counterterrorism officials rank Abu Farraj al-Libbi as Osama bin Laden's No. 3 man. He is now being held in Pakistani custody and officials hope he can lead them to the elusive Al Qaeda leader. The Lybian born terrorist has been a suspect in two attempts on the life of Pakistan's President General Pervez Musharraf and he was among six suspects identified as Pakistan's "Most Wanted Terrorists" in a poster campaign last year. Thank you Pakistan for your efforts in the war on terror.

ORCHARD PARK, N.Y. (AP) - Ten years after a firefighter was left brain-damaged and mostly mute during a 1995 roof collapse, he did something that shocked his family and doctors: He perked up. "I want to talk to my wife," Donald Herbert said out of the blue Saturday. Staff members of the nursing home where he has lived for more than seven years raced to get Linda Herbert on the telephone. It was the first of many conversations the 44-year-old patient had with his wife, four sons and other family and friends during a 14-hour stretch, said Herbert's uncle, Simon...

Mr. Chris Matthews Host, MSNBC’s Hardball with Chris Matthews 400 North Capitol Street, Suite 850 Washington, DC 20001 Dear Chris, We understand that you will be airing tonight on Hardball, the famous segment from the Republican National Convention in which former Senator Zell Miller challenged you to a duel. It was a dramatic moment in television and we’re so pleased that you have been able to use the segment as a promo to boost the show’s ratings for the last 9 months. We are even more pleased that you will be playing it again tonight as it will be a...

An immigration activist group is drawing attention to a photograph showing a billboard ad for a Spanish-language TV newscast in L.A. on which the "CA" abbreviation after "Los Angeles" has been crossed out and the word "Mexico" added in its place.

A POWERFUL blast occurred near Iran's Gulf port of Daylam today and witnesses reported seeing a missile being fired from an unidentified plane, local television reported. The blast came at a time of high tensions between the US and Iran, which is under intense international pressure over its nuclear activities. Local officials have been dispatched to the site to identify the cause of the explosion in an uninhabited area in the south of the country, according to Arab-language television Al-Alam. A government source told the television the explosion could have been the result of a fuel tank falling from an...

By Linda Thomas SEATTLE (Reuters) - There's more to a kiss than meets the lips, as couples are learning at a kissing school in Seattle. Psychotherapist Cherie Byrd, 56, got the idea for teaching kissing classes while dating a man who was a horrible kisser. "Yuck. He was clumsy, unskilled and half-hearted," Byrd said. "I told him if he wanted the relationship to continue he had to let me teach him to kiss." The boyfriend didn't last, but Byrd, a self-described "luscious kisser," said that gave her the idea to teach the art and craft of kissing to other couples....

Rep. Charlie Rangel is blasting ex-President Bill Clinton as "a redneck" after New York Sen. Hillary Clinton refused for the second year in a row to support his bill to help the mother of police shooting victim Amadou Diallo stay in the country "I don't have the slightest clue who Hillary really is," the dismayed Harlem Democrat tells New York Magazine this week. "All I see is a gal who knew she was as good as anyone else, and she saw this guy she could make something of, so she forfeited Illinois and went to Arkansas." Rangel then added, "That's...

The American republic died at Appomattox in 1865, replaced by a national government that has gradually evolved into an empire in a permanent state of war. Most of us don't pay much attention to such stuff as history and perspective. Certainly the news media don't. Nevertheless, there are consequences of living in a war state, both to our own individual freedom and to our pocketbooks. This past week, President Bush made a big deal about signing a military authorization bill with a $30 billion increase. Here we are, 12 years after the collapse of the Soviet Union, and without a...

Some people just don't get it! Many of you remember my friend Jack Kelly from Kensington who was with me at the Santa FReep there last year and who delivered Doctor Raoul's lumps of coal to the Kensington Council. According to my good Kensington source, the Council is again planning to ban Santa Claus from the Christmas celebrations there. Apparently, they think no one will be paying attention this year. Guess again. It looks like they may need to be re-FReeped.

But Al Gore and his rivals already are campaigning like it's 2004. And then there's Tipper There were only about 40 people on hand to witness it last Tuesday night when Al Gore dipped a tentative toe back into politics. At a fund raiser for Massachusetts Representative Richard Neal at a downtown Washington steak house, Gore—still bearded and not yet back in fighting trim—tried out a few self-deprecating one-liners. He spends his days teaching a bit, he told the smallish room. "I'm a visiting professor—v.p. for short. It's a way of hanging on." Three days later, Gore was thinking about...