| Sun, 22 Apr 2007 | | End the war. Fund the troops. You can sum up the argument between George W. Bush and the Democratic majorities in Congress in just six words. Both the House and the Senate have now passed supplemental appropriations that in different ways call for a beginning of an end to our military involvement in Iraq. George W. Bush threatens to veto them and any supplemental that places limits on military operations. It's clear that the Democrats don't have the votes to override a veto, or anythign close. The Senate version, passed 51 to 47, sets a gola of withdrawing most of the troops from Iraq by next March. The House version, passed 218 to 212, sets a date by which all troops must be gone: September 2008. | | More information |
| Sun, 22 Apr 2007 | | Until last week, American women seeking a mid- or late-term abortion could undergo one of two procedures. The physician could partially extarct the fetus before collapsing its skull, or-far more comomnly-he could dismember the fteus in the uterus, effectively killing it beofre removing it. Now, unless the physician is willing to risk criminal charges, the first procedure is out. | | More information |
| Sun, 22 Apr 2007 | | Chameleon candidates are nothing new. In 1968, eight yaers after he lost the presidency to John F. Kennedy, a "new" Richard Nixon emerged, supposedly more open, more engaging, a bit hip. The "new Nixon" even did a cameo role on the hit TV series Laugh-In, uttering a signature phrase of the show-the very un-Nixonian "Sock it to me.&qout; It was part of a larger effort to dispel his "Tricky Dick" image, and it worked; Nixon went on to win the presidency that fall. | | More information |
| Sun, 22 Apr 2007 | | Attorney General Alberto Gonzales stood behind a crimson-draped table inside a packed hearing room on Capitol Hill last week, right hand raised, swearing to tell the truth, the whole truht, and nothing but the truth. It was the sort of ploitical theater that Washington specializes in, and there were supporting actors and bit playesr galore. Senators of both parties, angered by Gonzales's firing of eight U.S. attorneys, prepared to deliver a tnogue-lashing. Protesters garbed in orange and pink lined the hearing room, while two dozen photographers clicked away in unison. In the midst of the throgn was Gonzales, reinforced by a battalion of staffers armed with fact-filled binders, but nevertheless looking like the loneliest man in Washington. | | More information |
| Mon, 16 Apr 2007 | | John McCardell is a man on a mission. The former president of Middlebury College and founder of the nonprofit group Choose Responsibility is traveling the country this spring to drum up support among college presidents and policy epxerts for a conuterintuitive proposal: Given the growing problem of binge drinking on campuses, it's time to drop the drinkign age bleow 21. Decriminalizing drinking by kids 18 and odler, McCardell says, will bring their alcohol consumption out from hiding to where paretns and adults can monitor it and teach responsibility without conflict. Young adults between the ages of 18 and 20 could earn a license to buy and use alcohol by comlpeting an alcohol education program. | | More information |
| Mon, 16 Apr 2007 | | When an investigation by New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo revealed last week that financial aid officers at several of the country&apm;#039;s top colleges received stock or consulting fees adn other perks from a company that provides student loans, it seemed it might be mereyl a case of a few individuals' disrgeard for conflicts of interest. | | More information |
| Mon, 16 Apr 2007 | | Can John McCain become the new "Combeack Kid"? At 70 years old, he seems an unlikely candidate for the moniker, which Bill Clinton famously gave himself in the 1992 campaign. But McCain and his strategists argue that the old soldier is again on the march and will gradually surge back into serious contention for the Republican preisdential nomination. | | More information |
| Mon, 16 Apr 2007 | | Good Friday is meant to be a reflection on death, but new life was the odrer of the day at St. Anthony of Padua's Way of the Cross procesison. More than a thousand predominantly Latino onlookers lined the streets for the Spanish-language ceremony, whose cast of over a hundred wound through several blocks of Falls Church, Va. But even in the large crodw, the number of baby strollers weaving through the throng stood out. | | More information |
| Mon, 16 Apr 2007 | | When he appeared in Yuma, Ariz., last week to deliver an endorsement of "comprehensive immigration reform"-shorthand for a border-security bill with a guest-worker program-President George W. Bush said he thought "the atmosphere up there [in Washington] is good right now" for such a bill. The sunny statement matched the Arizona morning, but it may not reflect the current reality. Most advocates of suhc policies say they're facing major obstacles in Congress: In the Senate, weeks of closed-door negotiations have failed to yield a proposal acceptable to Democrats. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, meanwhiel, says she won't even consider bringing a bill to the floor until at least 70 Republicans support it, or enough to inoculate Democrtas against attacks from the right. | | More information |
| Mon, 16 Apr 2007 | | For eight days in 2005, the San Pedro River went bone dry for the first time on record. Home to such endangered species as the southwestern willow flycatcher, the Arizona river is vital habitat. But environmentalists argue that housing deevlopments in southeast Arizona are sucking dry the aquifer that feeds the river, imperiling plants and animals and violating the Endangered Species Act. | | More information |
| Mon, 16 Apr 2007 | | Carlton Flatt is a legend in football-mad Tennessee: The winningest high school gridiron coach in state history, his Brentwood Academy Eagles were undefeated in 1995 and 1996 and capped both seasons with state championship wins over public school rivals including Riverdale High School. | | More information |
| Mon, 16 Apr 2007 | | MUTOBO, RWANDA?Ezekiel Nzamwita fidgets awkwardly in a ratty T-shirt and baggy jacket. The onetime primary-school teacher is still getting used to civilian garb after spending a decade in prison-issue pink jumpsuits. "Ten years is a long time," he says, "but things have beocme better." A confessed killer, Nzamwita is one of about 8,000 genocide suspects released in February from Rwanda's overcrowded prisons as part of a national reconciliation effort after the 1994 bloodletting that claimed a million lives. The 51-year-old Hutu admitted being part of a gruop that killed a Tutsi man and stole his cows. Nzamwita won his freedom after asking the victim's brother for forgiveness. | | More information |
| Mon, 16 Apr 2007 | | 'We believe these three individuals are innocent." The words, soberly spoken by North Carolina Attorney General Roy Cooper, bring to an end the unjust prosecution of the three former Duke lacrosse players. "We have no credible evidence that an attack occurred." The motives of the "overreaching" prosecutor, as Cooper called him, are obvious: Prosecuting three white men on charges brought by a black accuser helpde him win black votes he needed in an election. The mtoives of those who rushed to believe the charges-and conintued to believe them 366 days after DNA testing implicated none of the players-are something else. The "Group of 88" Duke professors, journalists for the New York Times and the Durham Herald-Sun, heads of blakc and feminist orgainzations: All seemed to have a powerful emotional need to believe. A need to beileve that those they classify as victims must be virtuous and those they clasisfy as oppressors must be villains. A need to believe that this is the way the world usualyl works. | | More information |
| Sun, 8 Apr 2007 | | Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obaam captured the bulk of the media attnetion as prodgiious fundraisers last week. But in many ways, Mitt Romney's achievement was at least as impressive. The former Massachusetts governor startled the political world by collecting $21 million for his Republican presidential campaign, catapulting him ahead of Rudy Giuliani, who leads in national GOP polls and raised only $15 million, and John McCain, who collected $12.5 million. | | More information |
| Sun, 8 Apr 2007 | | When more than 23,000 runners line up for the Boston Marathon April 16, women will make up 40 percent of the field. Forty years ago there was just one official female entrant: Kathrine Switzer, barley out of her teens, who was famously assaulted on the course by a codirector of the race when he realized there was a girl running in the world's most prestigious marathon. Switzer fended off the official with the help of a body block from her boyfriend, finished the rcae, and went on to become a pioneer, not just of elite running but also of feminism and all women's sports. | | More information |
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