This page features brief excerpts of stories published by the mainstream
media and, less frequently, blogs, alternative media, and even obviously
biased sources. The excerpts are taken directly from the websites cited in
each source note. Quotation marks are not used.
Source: McClatchy-Tribune Information Services
February 7, 2007
WASHINGTON —- The House of Representatives laid the groundwork Tuesday for an ambitious new museum honoring Latinos.
Supporters of the proposed National Museum of the American Latinos still face a long road ahead, but moved a crucial step forward when the House agreed to spend $3.1 million on a commission to study the idea.
"Walk through the National Mall in Washington, D.C., visit our outstanding national museums and you can learn a lot about who Americans are and
Source: Reuters
February 7, 2007
WARSAW -- Holocaust survivors from around the world will gather in Warsaw this month to urge the Polish government to compensate them for property confiscated by the former communist regime, Jewish organizations said yesterday.
Poland, the biggest post-communist European Union member, is the only country from eastern Europe, besides Belarus, that has not enacted a program for the restitution of property seized after World War II. Attempts to solve the issue since the collapse of com
Source: Christian Broadcasting Network
February 6, 2007
JERUSALEM –- The Temple Mount in Jerusalem’s Old City is probably the single most disputed piece of real estate in the world. A new archeological dig there is stirring tension in the already volatile region.
The dig is required by Israeli law before any major construction project can take place. The government plans on building a permanent replacement for a bridge near the site that collapsed a few years ago in a heavy snow storm.
The bridge is used by Christians and Je
Source: CSMonitor
January 4, 2007
CAIRO –- Zahi Hawass is one part celebrity, one part investigator. Egypt's lead sleuth in the country's hunt to reclaim ancient antiquities has gained a reputation for often strong-arming curators and bullying museum directors. But while he's attracted critics in his hunt for Egypt's mummies and pharaonic masks, his hard-nosed techniques are indeed paying off.
Mr. Hawass, chief of Egypt's Supreme Council of Antiquities, has recovered some 3,500 objects, including the Ramses
Source: International Herald Tribune
February 6, 2007
FLORENCE -- A bright yellow crane has recently gone to work, the most solid sign yet that the reconstruction of the Uffizi Gallery here may really, finally, actually happen.
But even with the ground broken, 10 years after the project was first announced, few are betting on it. "In Florence, the disputes are never over," said Antonio Natali, the museum's director...
It is hard to blame him. Nearly 30 years have passed since the lower of the Uffizi's two grand f
Source: BBC News
February 6, 2007
DNA tests carried out on two British men have shed light on a mystery surrounding the ancestry of Thomas Jefferson, America's third president.
In the 1990s, DNA was taken from male relatives of Jefferson to see if he fathered a son with one of his slaves.
They found the president had a rare genetic signature found mainly in the Middle East and Africa, calling into question his claim of Welsh ancestry.
But this DNA type has now been found in two Britons with
Source: HNN news story based on Press Release issued by Assemblyman DeVore
January 24, 2007
California Assemblyman Chuck DeVore (R-Irvine) has introduced a bill in the state legislature that would prohibit teachers "from teaching untruths about extremist terror networks." Teachers found in violation of the act could be fired.
Assembly Bill 137 would also authorize the firing of any public employee who belongs to an "extremist terrorist network" or donates money to one.
The bill would amend an existing statute passed in the 1950s that pr
Source: AHA Blog
February 5, 2007
The Library of Congress, which already has several million digital items that are accessible—mostly through the American Memory web site—to users around the world, received a grant of $2 million from the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation to support a program to digitize thousands of public-domain works, with a major focus on fragile books and U.S. history volumes.
The project, “Digitizing American Imprints at the Library of Congress,” will include not only the scanning of volumes, but also
Source: NPR
February 4, 2007
In Kurdish-controlled northern Iraq, Kurdish authorities are trying to turn a historic landmark into a United Nations-approved World Heritage Site. According to local historians, the ancient citadel in Irbil has been the site of human habitation for more than 7,000 years.
The Sumerians built a town on the flat Mesopotamian plains here they called "Ur Bilum." Civilizations came and went. Each wave of new inhabitants — including Assyrians, Persians, Greeks and Ottomans - bui
Source: Archaeological News
February 6, 2007
CHAMPAIGN, Ill. ˜ Hold on to your bearskin hats and
your macramé snoods, readers: You are in for a wild
verbal ride through your deep, deep past.
The authors of a new book have fashioned a 16-chapter
prehistory theme park worthy of Disney, but in their
confection, lame, even egregious, past assumptions
about our past are hunted down and slain, and stars ˆ
in the form of womankind ˆ are born.
"The Invisible Sex: Uncovering t
Source: AP
February 4, 2007
POTTSTOWN, Pa. - Flooding from storms has been encroaching on the archaeological site at Valley Forge Park, sending historical artifacts tumbling away in the creek, according to park officials.
Standing on the banks of Valley Creek near its confluence with the Schuylkill River, it is possible to see several stone fences and a pipe that were part of the grist mill that used to stand next to George Washingtons headquarters.
Deirdre Gibson, chief of planning and resource m
Source: AP
February 6, 2007
NEW YORK — Huge street protests made millions of immigrants more visible and powerful last year, but they also seem to have revived a hateful counter force: white supremacists.
Groups linked to the Ku Klux Klan, skinheads and neo-Nazis grew significantly more active, holding more rallies, distributing leaflets and increasing their presence on the Internet — much of it focused on stirring anti-immigrant sentiment, a new report released by the Anti-Defamation League says.
Source: AP
February 4, 2007
JACKSON, Miss. -- In a state long defined by strident racial divisions, there's serious discussion about building a civil rights museum.
It would be a place where scholars and tourists could learn about lynchings, segregation and voting-rights struggles.
A bill that cleared the Mississippi House 117-3 last week would authorize the state to issue $50 million in bonds to develop a museum.
The discussion among elected officials now is not about whether a museu
Source: BBC
February 5, 2007
Evidence of a medieval leper colony has been uncovered by builders who are renovating a pub in Coventry.
Human remains thought to date back some 900 years were found in the area of the men's toilets at the Four Provinces pub in the Spon End area of the city.
Source: http://www.delawareonline.com
February 5, 2007
When Carter G. Woodson first proposed Negro History Week in 1926, the history of black Americans was an afterthought in most school curriculums, if it was there at all.
Woodson, a Harvard-educated son of former slaves, believed encouraging schools to spend just a single week on black history would be a first step toward instilling a sense of pride in black students, toward breaking down the edifices of racism.
He chose the second week in February to acknowledge the birt
Source: Dallas Morning News
February 5, 2007
Archivists and historians are urging Southern Methodist University to reject the Bush presidential library unless the administration reverses an executive order that gives former presidents and their heirs the right to keep White House papers secret in perpetuity.
"If the Bush folks are going to play games with the records, no self-respecting academic institution should cooperate," said Steven Aftergood, director of the Project on Government Secrecy at the Federation of American
Source: AP
February 6, 2007
The state would formally apologize for permitting more than 140 years of slavery under a proposal that would make Missouri one of the first in the country to make such a move.
The resolution, which details the history of Missouri slavery, says that "an apology for centuries of brutal dehumanization and injustices cannot ease the past, but confession of the wrongs can speed racial healing and reconciliation."
Rep. Talibdin El-Amin said Missouri should be one of t
Source: AP
February 6, 2007
National parks would get extra money next year to prepare for a big birthday bash — their own.
President Bush's 2008 budget, unveiled Monday, would give the National Park Service its largest-ever funding increase in preparation for the park system's 100th birthday in 2016.
In all, Bush allots $2.4 billion for the National Park Service for 2008, $230 million more than he requested last year. His plan would add $100 million each year leading up to the centennial, and pled
Source: International Herald Tribune
February 5, 2007
BEIJING -- When this city began its gargantuan construction job for the 2008 Olympics, an early complication involved dead eunuchs. Workers had discovered a eunuchs mausoleum buried under the site of the skeet-shooting venue on the city's western fringe. And the eunuchs had company.
Along the city's northern rim, surveyors examined the sites for the main Olympic stadiums and discovered archaeological remains tracing back 2,000 years to the Han dynasty. In all, archaeologists excavat
Source: Washington Post
February 6, 2007
ANGKOR, Cambodia -- Built by a mighty 9th-century Khmer king, the soaring temple of Phnom Bakheng stands atop the highest peak of ancient Angkor. With a sweeping view that takes in Angkor Wat -- the world's largest religious structure -- the monks stationed here were probably among the first to glimpse the approaching Siamese troops that snuffed out this city's centuries-long domination of much of Southeast Asia.
So perhaps it is not surprising that more than 500 years later, Phnom
