For The Record

* Hillary Clinton, introducing president at gun-control event: "Part of growing up is learning how to control one's impulses." . . . "What say we into the open muzzle of this tragedy, cocked and aimed at our hearts?" asks Vice President Gore at ceremony following Columbine High School massacre. Several hours later, Gore addresses NAACP in Detroit. "The critics of affirmative action . . . talk about a colorblind society. Give me a break! Hel-lo! They use their 'colorblind' the way duck hunters used their duck blind. They hide behind it and hope the ducks won't figure out what they're up to." . . . Environmental Defense Fund, Natural Resources Defense Council, Sierra Club, and other green groups sign letter to Gore citing "deep disappointment with the lack of an administration proposal to require significant reductions in global- warming pollution." . . . "Someday Earth will be like Mars, because as our planet cools off we'll go through the same changes," NASA's Steve Maran tells USA Today, after reviewing data collected by Mars Global Surveyor. . . . Geraldo Rivera questions Susan McDougal: "Did [Starr's prosecutors] help speed your husband's illness and his ultimate death?"

* CNN/WMUR poll of New Hampshire voters: 37 percent pick Texas governor George W. Bush as first choice for GOP presidential nomination, followed by Elizabeth Dole with 16 percent and Sen. John McCain (Ariz.) with 14 percent. Dole has "lost half her support since our last poll in January," notes WMUR. . . . Bush delays formal announcement until after summer, allowing him to dodge Iowa straw poll on August 14 and avoid making major policy statements, but not inhibiting travel and fundraising. . . . Griffin Strategy Group's PrimaryScoop (www.griffinsg. com) reports presidential campaign consultants with highest revenues. Leader is Bush's Karl Rove & Co., with $220,225 through March 31. . . . Jeane Kirkpatrick endorses Elizabeth Dole. . . . Steve Forbes, Bill Bradley, and Sen. Bill Frist-on Princeton's board of trustees-have no comment on hiring of infanticide advocate Peter Singer. . . . McCain, on CNBC's Hardball, describing the two duties of a vice president: "One is to inquire daily as to the health of the president, and the other is to go to Third World dictators' funerals."

* Associated Press reports that 37 recently departed House members handed out nearly $1.5 million in bonuses to staff before leaving office. Most generous was Rep. Bill Hefner (D., N.C.), who gave most staffers $10,000. Asked if he thinks it is "right to use money that way," Hefner replies: "I just don't care." . . . In midst of China spy scandal, Sen. Rod Grams (R., Minn.) and Rep. Todd Tiahrt (R., Kan.) propose abolishing Department of Energy as cabinet-level agency. In Washington Post op-ed, Daniel S. Greenberg of Johns Hopkins University calls DoE "a legendary sinkhole of bungling and confusion that long ago outlived its original purpose" and "America's most dysfunctional government department." . . . Sen. Rick Santorum (R., Pa.) reintroduces bill banning partial-birth abortion. . . . Gov. Christie Whitman (R.) and ex-Gov. Jim Florio (D.) in dead heat for 2000 N.J. Senate race, with conservative radio host Bob Grant garnering 14 percent, according to Schroth & Associates poll.

* Geoffrey Fieger, onetime lawyer for Jack Kevorkian and Democratic nominee for governor of Michigan last year, races to Littleton, Colo., and plans wrongful-death lawsuit on behalf of slain student's family. . . . Baltimore Orioles owner Peter Angelos bans Immigration and Naturalization Service officers from ballpark during exhibition game against Cuban national team, an effort to prevent defections. Pitching coach seeks asylum anyway. . . . Officials in Manhattan, Kan., remove granite tablet engraved with Ten Commandments from City Hall site, where it had been on display for more than 40 years, following ACLU lawsuit. . . . Cardinal Newman Society urges Catholic colleges to cancel pro-choice graduation speakers, including Bill Bradley (Mount St. Clare College, Iowa), ex-representative Rev. Robert Drinan (St. John's University Law School, Ind.), author Garry Wills (Niagara University, N.Y.), and NBC's Tom Brokaw (College of Santa Fe, N.M.), who in an interview declared the issue of abortion "comes down to whether a woman has a right to control her own body."

* Georgian president Eduard Shevardnadze, former KGB official and Soviet foreign minister, announces his country will actively seek NATO membership. . . . Poland will spend $2.5 million in 1999 on repatriation of Poles from Kazakhstan deported there by Communists in 1930s and 1940s. . . . Wealthy Austrian family demands secretary of state Madeleine Albright and relatives return paintings alleged to have been removed from Prague apartment by Albright's father when he worked for Czech government following Second World War. . . . Russian customs officials confiscate half a ton of elephant tusks from baggage of North Korean diplomat's wife. . . . Mireya Moscoso, widow of leftist politician, wins Panama's presidency and will preside over transfer of Panama Canal ownership from United States to Panama at end of year. . . . World Resources Institute puts nine Chinese cities on list of world's 10 most polluted.