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: The Wall Street Journal
Sep 29, 2009
Hundreds of school buildings across the U.S. have caulk around windows and doors containing potentially cancer-causing PCBs, the Environmental Protection Agency said.
The danger to students is uncertain, and EPA doesn't know for sure how many schools could be affected. But the agency is telling schools that they should test old caulk and remove it if PCBs turn up in significant amounts.
EPA Administrator Lisa Jackson said PCBs remain in schools and many other buildings
Source: National Parks Traveler
Sep 29, 2009
Thomas Edison's inventions changed the world, and starting on October 10th you'll be able to tour his laboratory complex at Thomas Edison National Historical Park in New Jersey. Key areas, including Edison’s private laboratory, original music recording studio and a photography studio will open to the public for the first time in the history of the site.
It would be hard for most Americans alive today to imagine life without recorded music, movies or electric lighting, and those are
Source: Discovery News
Sep 28, 2009
A number of ancient Roman statues might lie beneath the turquoise waters of the Blue Grotto on the island of Capri in southern Italy, according to an underwater survey of the sea cave.
Dating to the 1st century A.D., the cave was used as a swimming pool by the Emperor Tiberius (42 B.C. - 37 A.D.), and the statues are probably depictions of sea gods.
Carried out in collaboration with the archaeological superintendency of Pompeii, the Marevivo project aims at returning th
Source: Latin American Herald Tribune
Sep 28, 2009
SANTIAGO – A Chilean family who was removing the soil from the yard of their home where they were planning to do some construction got a big surprise when they found four skeletons dating from 320 B.C., La Segunda daily reported Monday.
The Valdes Navarro family found the relics of the Bato culture on Saturday in Con-Con, a municipality located about 130 kilometers (81 miles) west of Santiago.
Francisco Allendes, an archaeologist, historian and former director of the Co
Source: The Christian Science Monitor
Sep 28, 2009
Damascus, Syria - The US demonstrated its commitment to reengage Syria as a partner for Middle East peace Monday, advancing a process that some Arab countries had declared dead in recent weeks. At Washington's invitation – the first one extended to a high-ranking Syrian official in five years – Deputy Foreign Minister Fayssal Mekdad came to town to meet US officials.
Syria's cooperation is crucial to the chief goal of President Obama's Middle East policy: Arab-Israeli peace. With ti
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Sep 28, 2009
For hundreds of years history followers have visited Ambion Hill in Leicestershire, believing it to be the site of the Battle of Bosworth, which marked the end of the War of the Roses and the beginning of the reign of the Tudors.
It was also the last time a British king was killed on a battlefield and immortalised by Shakespeare’s Richard III’s famous offer of his kingdom for a horse.
However, after an extensive three-year archaeological survey, experts now believe that
Source: NPR
Sep 28, 2009
The former chief executive of Enron Corp.'s failed Internet business was sentenced Monday to 16 months in prison for lying about the capabilities of the once mighty energy giant's broadband network in order to help pump up the company's stock price.
The former broadband unit CEO also agreed to pay $8.7 million in restitution.
Joseph Hirko apologized for his actions before being sentenced. He had previously pleaded guilty to one count of wire fraud as part of a plea deal
Source: Politico
Sep 28, 2009
The past few months have seen a marked improvement in Sen. Chris Dodd's (D-Conn.) poll ratings, to the point where the most recent Quinnipiac poll had him within 5 points of his best known GOP challenger, former Rep. Rob Simmons. In that same survey, Dodd's disapproval rating had dropped below 50% for the first time in roughly six months.
But Monday's Wall Street Journal report about Countrywide Financial Corp., which refinanced mortgages for Dodd in 2003, threatens to put the brake
Source: Mother Jones
Sep 28, 2009
Carmen Reinhart and Kenneth Rogoff have done something that, apparently, no one has done before: rigorously collect data on debt and risk management (or lack thereof) over the past 800 years, rather than only since 1980. Their conclusion: excessive debt accumulation is always and everywhere a very, very bad thing.
Also: credit booms and busts happen over and over throughout history, with only the details changing; public sector debt crises are common and devastating; banking crises
Source: BBC
Sep 28, 2009
An ex-mayor has denied charges he took part in the 1994 Rwandan genocide when he appeared at a UN-backed tribunal.
Gregoire Ndahimana is accused of responsibility for the massacre of some 2,000 ethnic Tutsis sheltering in a church which was bulldozed.
He was arrested in August during operations against Rwandan rebels in the Democratic Republic of Congo.
The US had offered a $5m (£3.2m) reward for information leading to his arrest, but nobody claimed the m
Source: AP
Sep 28, 2009
An 89-year-old white supremacist charged with killing a security guard at the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum has arrived at a North Carolina prison for an evaluation of whether he's competent to stand trial.
Earlier this month a judge ordered von Brunn to undergo the evaluation requested by his lawyer despite von Brunn's objections.
Von Brunn has been indicted on charges including first-degree murder in the June 10 death of Stephen T. Johns, who was black. Four of the c
Source: CNN
Sep 28, 2009
Sarah Palin's much-anticipated memoir now has a title and a new release date, two advisers to the former Alaska governor confirmed to CNN on Monday.
Palin's book will be called "Going Rogue: An American Life" — a reference to the anonymous criticism directed at Palin by aides to Republican presidential nominee John McCain during the final days of last year's presidential race.
After Palin strayed from the campaign playbook several times in October 2008, one Mc
Source: CNN
Sep 28, 2009
WASHINGTON (CNN) — President Barack Obama will travel this week to Copenhagen, Denmark, to make a big push for the 2016 summer Olympic Games in Chicago, the White House said Monday.
Obama will join First Lady Michelle Obama and other administration officials in pitching Chicago to the International Olympic Committee on October 2, spokesman Robert Gibbs said.
No other U.S. president has ever attended an IOC meeting...
... The United States has hosted four Su
Source: BBC
Sep 28, 2009
Couples in China's biggest provincial municipality will not be allowed to divorce during celebrations of 60 years of communist rule.
But weddings will go ahead in Chongqing during the eight-day holiday beginning on Thursday, according to China Daily.
Officers at marriage registration centres said they could not cope with the high demand for weddings and also issue divorces.
Seven out of 10 districts told the newspaper they would not process them.
Source: Chron (The Houston Chronicle)
Sep 28, 2009
AUSTIN — Texas schoolchildren should know how God and religion greatly influenced the country's Founding Fathers more than 230 years ago, say some of the experts reviewing the state's social studies curriculum.
It is a viewpoint that troubles others who worry that a controlling majority of conservatives on the State Board of Education may go too far in pushing Christianity in public schools.
To characterize the origins of this country as a Christian nation would be wron
Source: CNSNews.com
Sep 28, 2009
Stara Boleslav, Czech Republic (AP) - Pope Benedict XVI issued a call to holiness Monday as he wrapped up a three-day visit to the Czech Republic -- one of Europe's most secular nations -- with an open-air Mass for at least 40,000 faithful.
The 82-year-old pope told believers who packed a meadow in Stara Boleslav, 25 kilometers (15 miles) northeast of Prague, that they could learn from the country's patron saint, Wenceslas, who was murdered here by his pagan brother in 935 A.D.
Source: CNSNews.com
Sep 28, 2009
The government is prosecuting only about one out of four of those charged in connection with terrorism, according to a study that suggests federal agencies don't agree on who is a terrorist.
People charged with terrorism often go free because the evidence wasn't strong enough to bring them to trial, says the study by the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse, a data research group at Syracuse University.
Since 2002, the percentage of terrorism cases that federal pr
Source: Yahoo News
Sep 28, 2009
OKLAHOMA CITY – Long-secret security tapes showing the chaos immediately after the 1995 bombing of the Oklahoma City federal building are blank in the minutes before the blast and appear to have been edited, an attorney who obtained the recordings said Sunday.
"The real story is what's missing," said Jesse Trentadue, a Salt Lake City attorney who obtained the recordings through the federal Freedom of Information Act as part of an unofficial inquiry he is conducting into th
Source: Politico
Sep 28, 2009
Sarah Palin’s publisher plans to announce Tuesday that the title of her eagerly awaited memoir will be “Going Rogue: An American Life.”
Publication is being moved up from spring to Nov. 17 in order to catch the holiday book-buying season. The former Alaska governor has been in huge demand as a speaker, and continues to harvest a bounty of media attention.
A mammoth first printing of 1.5 million copies has been ordered — the same first run as “True Compass,” the memoir o
Source: Times (UK)
Sep 28, 2009
The sister of an American soldier who was killed in the Lockerbie bombing said that she had met Colonel Muammar Gaddafi during his visit to New York to offer him forgiveness.
Lisa Gibson, 39, and another Lockerbie family met the Libyan leader after his rambling speech to the UN General Assembly on Wednesday.
“I did not know what to expect. He was quite friendly to us, quite cordial. He welcomed us,” Ms Gibson, a lawyer, told The Times yesterday.
Ms Gibso
