Bedtime Stories: When the President can’t sleep,...

Bedtime Stories: When the President can’t sleep, he says he doesn’t take a pill. Instead, he likes to read things that are not “particularly weighty,” George Bush said Tuesday in Washington. He included Tom Wolfe’s novel “Bonfire of the Vanities,” Arthur Hailey’s “Network News” and Robert Caro’s biography of Lyndon Johnson.

* Baby Appeal: Barbara Bush told 26 senior citizen volunteers invited to the White House on Monday that “we’re running out of you. We’ve got to get more help because, unfortunately, the boarder babies and the babies that need you are multiplying.” Bush was celebrating the 25th anniversary of ACTION’s Foster Grandparent Program.

* Helmsman Woes: Sen. Jesse Helms said Tuesday in Raleigh, N.C., that he will not fire aide James Meredith for putting out a news release claiming that the vast majority of delegates to the recent NAACP convention in Los Angeles were drug users or engaged in immoral acts. NAACP leaders have demanded that Helms, a conservative Republican, fire Meredith, a former civil rights activist. “Of course, I have no knowledge whether those figures are right or wrong,” Helms said.

* Health Report: Czechoslovakia’s ambassador to the United States has leukemia and is deciding whether to remain in America for treatment or return home. “It’s not that we don’t have good doctors at home,” Rita Klimova said in Washington. “But we don’t have the ability to protect patients from infection.” Klimova, who became ambassador five months ago, said she does not want to run up a big medical bill for her government.