The Texas House speaker was indicted on charges he accepted $5,000 from a law firm and didn't disclose it, joining legislative leaders in the two other most populous states under an ethical cloud. House speakers in New York and California also are under scrutiny as they prepare for new legislative sessions. The investigation in Texas also involves other legislators. A Travis County grand jury returned indictments on two misdemeanor charges Friday against Gib Lewis, alleging he solicited and received a gift from the San Antonio-based law firm of Heard Goggan Blair & Williams, then failed to report it. Despite the charges, Lewis' lawyer said the lawmaker would seek an unprecedented fifth term as House speaker. Lewis has denied the allegations and his lawyer said he'd plead innocent to the charges. ---&equals; NEW YORK (AP) - Authorities blamed the first snowstorm of the season for an electrical fire that trapped four rush-hour trains in a smoke-filled subway tunnel, killing one person and injuring more than 150 others. In Boston, authorities investigating a trolley accident that injured 33 people Friday said tests showed the trolley driver had high levels of alcohol in his system. It was the second rail accident this month in the city's Back Bay section. The driver of the trolley, which rammed a streetcar that was unloading passengers, blamed faulty brakes for the collision, officials said. But investigators ruled that out as a possible cause, said Peter Dimond, spokesman for the Massachusetts Bay Transportation Authority. The fire Friday morning in New York filled trains with smoke in a subway tunnel linking Manhattan and Brooklyn. Fire and transit officials said melting snow from a 7-inch snowfall overnight apparently caused an electrical short-circuit. ---&equals; WASHINGTON (AP) - Vice President Dn Quayle doesn't abide discrimination at golf clubs, his office says, but he still plays at one of the most exclusive all-male courses near the capital as an honorary member. Quayle on Friday canceled a second round of golf at the all-white Cypress Point golf club near Monterey, Calif., after he learned the facility was mired in a racial controversy, said his press secretary, David Beckwith. He had played there Thursday, unaware, Beckwith said, that the club was ruled ineligible for its share of the 1991 AT&T Pebble Beach National Pro-Am tournament next month because it has no black members. Quayle was ``unwilling to leave any impression that he condones any form of discrimination,'' so he left California and returned to Vail, Colo., where he had been on a skiing vacation, Beckwith said. But the spokesman said he could not explain why Quayle is an honorary member of the Burning Tree Club in suburban Bethesda, Md., which bars women from its course. ---&equals; SAN FRANCISCO (AP) - California stopped telling casual marijuana users ``smoke a joint, go to jail'' 15 years ago. But the federal government's new version - ``smoke a joint, lose your driver's license'' - promises to rekindle debate over the state's pot law. A little-noted amendment to a new federal highway funding law seeks to use federal funding as a weapon against liberal state drug laws. It would particularly affect California and New York because of those states' relatively liberal marijuana laws and large amounts of federal funding. The federal law calls for every state to pass a law in 1991-92 requiring a six-month driver license suspension for anyone convicted of violating any drug law, including possession of marijuana for personal use. States that refuse could lose 5 percent of their federal highway aid in the 12 months starting Oct. 1, 1993. That would be $60 million at current levels of aid to California, said the amendment's sponsor, Rep. Gerald Solomon, R-N.Y. The amendment passed in July. Leaders of California's Democratic-controlled Legislature chafed at the federal interference, but Gov.-elect Pete Wilson, a Republican, agrees that the state's drug laws are too lenient. Solomon's amendment lets a state avoid a monetary penalty only if both the Legislature and the governor oppose the requirement of license suspensions.
