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: WaPo
Apr 29, 2009
It was March 4, 1933, and Franklin D. Roosevelt was being sworn in as president after his Democratic Party assumed control of the levers of power in a country deeply troubled by a historic economic collapse.
Over the next 3 1/2 months, he would amass a slew of legislative victories, help set in motion the recovery from the Great Depression and establish a new yardstick for chief executives.
Roosevelt accomplished so much during his first 100 days in office, presidential
Source: Oregonian
Apr 29, 2009
Portland's cost to change the name of 39th Avenue to Cesar Chavez Boulevard would be $86,000, according to the city's road maintenance bureau.
The figure is contained in a memo to the planning commission, which is holding a public hearing on the renaming proposal at 7 Tuesday night in City Hall, 1221 S.W. Fourth Ave.
The memo states that the 7.22 miles of 39th Avenue have 172 intersections, and would require 242 Chavez signs.
Source: AP
Apr 29, 2009
Pope Benedict XVI apologized Wednesday to native Canadians who were physically and sexually abused at church-run boarding schools they were forced to attend, saying he was sorry for their anguish and was praying they would heal.
Benedict met with a group of former students and victims and told them of his "personal anguish" over their suffering, they said. They emerged from the meeting happy and comforted, said Phil Fontaine, national chief of the Assembly of First Nations
Source: Edge of the American West (blog)
Apr 29, 2009
Source: Time Magazine
Apr 29, 2009
1. Specter
2. TR
3. Wendell Willkie
4. Hillary Clinton
5. Reagan
6. Strom Thurmond
7. Condi Rice
8. Richard Shelby
9. Michael Bloomberg
10. Jim Jeffords
Source: Time
Apr 29, 2009
The 100-day timeline can be traced back to Napoleon Bonaparte, because that's how long it took him to return from exile, reinstate himself as ruler of France and wage war against the English and Prussian armies before his final defeat at the Battle of Waterloo. (It actually took 111 days, but we'll give him a mulligan.) Napoleon reclaimed power in 1815, however; Americans didn't start assessing their Presidents in 100-day increments until Franklin Delano Roosevelt came along more than a century
Source: NYT
Apr 29, 2009
How bad have the last two quarters been?
Over the last six months, the economy shrank at its fastest rate since late 1957 and early 1958. That’s the only decline, in fact, that was worse than the current one, since the government began keeping quarterly records just after World War II.
Here are the worst six-month declines in economic activity since 1947:
3rd quarter, 1957 - 1st quarter, 1958: -3.7 percent
3rd quarter, 2008 - 1st quarter, 2009: -3.2
Source: Telegraph
Apr 29, 2009
Herbertus Bikker, a wanted Dutch Nazi war criminal known as 'the hangman of Ommen', has died aged 93.
Although he died last year, German police have only now confirmed that he was buried in the Ruhr city of Hagen after dieing peacefully, aged 93, at home.
Bikker, a member of the Waffen SS, became infamous as De Beul van Ommen for his cruelty while serving as a prison guard at the Erika concentration camp, in the Dutch province of Overijssel.
Source: BBC
Apr 29, 2009
A rare Roman millefiori dish has been unearthed by archaeologists from the grave of a wealthy Londoner.
The dish, which has gone on display at the Museum of London in Docklands, was found during excavations in Prescot Street, in Aldgate, east London.
It was pieced together from its many fragments.
It is made up of hundreds of translucent blue indented glass petals, bordered with white embedded in a bright red glass background.
Source: Poughkeepsie Journal
Apr 29, 2009
Graves, very likely those of hundreds of Revolutionary War soldiers, have been found, at long last, on undeveloped land in the Town of Fishkill that was proposed to be a shopping center.
Archaeological digs and a survey using ground-penetrating radar confirmed existence of long-suspected remains in the historic site known as the Fishkill Supply Depot, according to letters from state historic officials.
Historians deem the depot to have been a major resource in the Ameri
Source: Evening Standard (UK)
Apr 29, 2009
An internationally-renowned scholar who was jailed for cutting out and stealing pages from rare and ancient literary texts had his sentence halved today.
Wealthy book collector Farhad Hakimzadeh, 61, of Knightsbridge, took pages from 10 books worth £71,000 at the British Library and carried out four raids on Oxford University's Bodleian Library.
Hakimzadeh pleaded guilty to 14 counts of theft in May last year at Wood Green crown court and was jailed for two years in Jan
Source: AFP
Apr 29, 2009
Cambodian and Thai defence ministers on Wednesday concluded border talks but said they could not agree to pull back troops from a tense territorial dispute near an ancient temple.
At least seven Thai and Cambodian troops have been killed in recent months in sporadic clashes between the neighbouring countries on disputed land around the 11th-century Preah Vihear temple.
Ownership of the temple was awarded to Cambodia in 1962 but the two countries are in dispute over five
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Apr 29, 2009
Herbertus Bikker, a wanted Dutch Nazi war criminal known as 'the hangman of Ommen', has died aged 93.
Although he died last year, German police have only now confirmed that he was buried in the Ruhr city of Hagen after dieing peacefully, aged 93, at home.
Bikker, a member of the Waffen SS, became infamous as De Beul van Ommen for his cruelty while serving as a prison guard at the Erika concentration camp, in the Dutch province of Overijssel.
Source: BBC
Apr 29, 2009
A new award is to be created to recognise the efforts of people who helped Jews and others escape the horrors of the holocaust.
The Prime Minister has approved calls from Dumfries and Galloway MP Russell Brown for a symbol of recognition.
UK ministers rejected the idea of reforming the honours system to allow posthumous awards but are open to discussions on setting up a new award.
A potential beneficiary is Jane Haining from Dunscore in southern Scotland
Source: BBC
Apr 29, 2009
Auschwitz survivor Albert Veissid does not know who put his name on a list that remained hidden inside a bottle for more than 60 years.
Builders working near the site of the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp found the bottle recently. It had been left in a cement wall by inmates.
"I'm surprised by all of this," the 84-year-old told BBC News from his home in a village in the south of France.
The note bears Mr Veissid's name along with those of six P
Source: AP
Apr 29, 2009
A banner across the main square in Jesus' boyhood town condemns those who insult Islam's Prophet Muhammad — a message by Muslim hard-liners for Pope Benedict XVI during his pilgrimage to the Holy Land next month.
The pontiff may have to tread carefully with his visit to Nazareth. Many Muslims are still angry over a 2006 speech in which Benedict quoted a medieval text depicting the prophet as violent.
The banner — clearly visible from the church, which Benedict is to vis
Source: Press Release--Clark University
Apr 29, 2009
Is Freud still relevant a century after laying out the course of psychoanalysis? This fall, in celebration of the centennial of the five landmark lectures Sigmund Freud presented at Clark University in 1909, some of the world’s leading scientists will gather to explore the workings of the mind and new developments in the study of brain and genetics, the psychological approach, and how thought, motivation and emotion play a role in behavior.
The academic conference, from Oct. 3 to 5
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Apr 29, 2009
Ali, 25, and Shakil, 32, both from Leeds, admitted knowing the bombers - but denied helping them.
At Kingston Crown Court, Ali and Shakil were cleared of conspiracy to cause explosions, but found guilty of a second charge of conspiracy to attend a training camp in Pakistan, after being arrested in 2007 at Manchester Airport.
A third man, 28-year-old Sadeer Saleem, was acquitted of all charges. The men were originally tried in 2008, but the first jury failed to reach v
Source: BBC
Apr 29, 2009
The work of carving the names of 67 service personnel killed in service during 2008 is beginning at the Armed Forces Memorial in Alrewas, Staffs.
It will take a single stonemason three weeks to carve the names on the walls at the National Memorial Arboretum.
The engraving process, which began at 0600 BST, takes place every spring.
Prince William visited the memorial on Friday and became patron of an appeal which aims to raise £8m for the site.
Source: BBC
Apr 29, 2009
Alex Lees, 97, and born in Manchester, had been the gardener in the famous PoW camp in Germany during World War II.
Mr Lees used his work to help get rid of the spoil dug from the escape tunnels at the camp.
Of those who broke out of the camp only three reached safety and of the 73 recaptured, 50 were shot.
