It’s the same old story: The rich get richer. But now there’s a new twist. The New York Times reports that while rich people are prospering, the working class and poor are losing income or stagnating, more so than at any time since World War II. The widening gap was discovered by the Census Bureau, but the Times says some of the increase might be due to new ways of collecting information. The paper says the first two years of the Clinton administration were good for the country’s top 5% of households, with their income growing at a faster rate than during the Reagan era.

A day after House hearings, a Senate panel is set to hear testimony in the FBI files flap. Lawmakers are looking into why the White House obtained 408 FBI files, including those of some top Republicans. The GOP charges the Democrats were looking for dirt. Former White House Travel Office Director Billy Dale is among the witnesses scheduled to testify today. Seven months after the White House fired him in 1993, it asked the FBI for Dale’s background file. No one has yet explained why.

Bruce Lindsey always was there for Bill Clinton. He had Clinton’s ear in 1980, when the young Arkansas governor’s career hit the skids, and again in '92, when it soared. Now it's Clinton’s turn to stand up for the man who’s always stood by him. Prosecutors in the Little Rock, Arkansas, trial of two bankers are poised to implicate Lindsey in what they say was an illegal transaction involving Clinton’s 1990 campaign for governor. Although Lindsey does not face charges, a defense attorney in the case said yesterday the Clinton confidant will be named as an unindicted co-conspirator.

President Clinton is pledging an all-out effort to halt a rash of church burnings, saying the attacks should be of concern to people in all walks of life. Clinton said he would marshal more federal resources to help states prosecute those who burn churches, rebuild the churches and prevent future fires. His administration is seeking a fund to guarantee up to $10 million in private loans for rebuilding burned churches and is distributing a church threat assessment guide to help communities protect places of worship. He still, though, has not answered the question as to why the FBI is not in charge of the investigation and why he hasn’t called the burnings domestic terrorism.

Abortion rights advocates won a rare victory in the Republican-controlled Congress as the Senate voted to allow abortions at U.S. military hospitals overseas. The 51-45 vote yesterday would repeal a new law banning those abortions. But first, the House and Senate must resolve their disagreement on the issue. Last month, a similar move in the House to overturn the abortion ban failed. Kate Michelman, president of the National Abortion and Reproductive Rights Action League called the vote a welcome break from Congress’s unprecedented assaults on women’s reproductive freedom.