Cots for the Senate?

FED up after six days of talk and no action, Senate Democratic Leader Mitchell says he'll force the Senate into 24-hour sessions to pressure Republicans to end a stall on health care reform.

But Republican senators complain that Senator Mitchell's massive plan is a moving target that keeps changing on them.

Mitchell was hoping the prospect of spending long summer nights camped outside the Senate chamber on cots would jog the Republicans into allowing the first votes Aug. 16 on changes to his 1,443-page blueprint.

``If there is going to be delay, then the senators who are going to delay will simply have to be here around the clock,'' he said on Aug. 15. Whitewater probers sacked

A TRIO of federal regulators whose initial investigation led to the criminal probe of Whitewater have been placed on administrative leave by their agency.

Resolution Trust Corp. investigator L. Jean Lewis was placed on paid leave for 14 days on Aug. 15, along with her boss, Richard Iorio, and another top manager in the agency's Kansas City, Mo., office. The RTC confirmed the administrative action after the Associated Press obtained an agency electronic mail message detailing the move.

``They have been placed on leave, and I have no further comment,'' said Jane Jankowski, a spokeswoman in the agency's Kansas City office.