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: http://www.dailypress.com
Jan 16, 2009
A grand jury this week indicted a Confederate soldier who shot a Union fighter last September during a re-enactment.
An indictment has been issued charging a Virginia Beach Civil War re-enactor with reckless handling of a firearm — a misdemeanor — while filming a Civil War documentary at Heritage Park last September, said Commonwealth's Attorney Wayne Farmer.
Although the indictment is not sealed, he declined to identify the man Thursday because the warrant had not yet
Source: NYT
Jan 16, 2009
Just 14 months ago, at his confirmation hearing, Attorney General Michael B. Mukasey frustrated and angered some senators by refusing to state that waterboarding, the near-drowning technique used on three prisoners by the Central Intelligence Agency, is in fact torture.
This week, at his confirmation hearing, Eric H. Holder Jr., the attorney general-designate, did not hesitate to express a clear view. He noted that waterboarding had been used to torment prisoners during the Inquisit
Source: AP
Jan 16, 2009
The news release didn't say who Mark Ndesandjo was. Nor did the posters and e-mails promoting the concert Friday in this southern Chinese boomtown where he played piano to raise money for orphans.
But the 200 or so people who showed up for the fundraiser at a posh hotel resort knew the man in a Chinese-style brown silk shirt was the half brother of President-elect Barack Obama. They had a rare encounter with Ndesandjo, who has been dodging the media since his family ties were made
Source: Foxnews
Jan 16, 2009
The Smithsonian Institution will keep its museum doors open through Inauguration Day, and has extra security staff on hand to accommodate the expected crowd.
FDR's "fireside chat" microphone. Satirical bronze sculptures of Jimmy Carter and Richard Nixon. And an iron wedge Abraham Lincoln used to split wood in the early 1830s.
These are just a few of the historical oddities the Smithsonian is putting on display for visitors coming to watch President-elect Ba
Source: Newsweek
Jan 16, 2009
Imagine—just for a second—that it's 2020, and George W. Bush has restored his reputation. (I know, it's hard to imagine, but be creative.) Now try to answer this question: what would it take to actually make that happen?
The easy answer is that somehow between now and then, Iraq becomes a flourishing democracy, a source of cheap oil for the U.S., and a staunch ally in fending off the spread of terrorism in the region. Or that—by some sort of miracle—the American economy recovers, an
Source: AP
Jan 16, 2009
SANTA ROSA, Calif. -- Mark Felt, the former FBI second-in-command who helped unlock the secrets of Watergate as the shadowy "Deep Throat," was remembered Friday by family and friends as a man who stood up for truth in deceptive times.
About 300 people, including journalists Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, attended the service in Santa Rosa to remember Felt, who died in December at the age of 95. The Washington Post reporters wrote the stories based on Felt's tips and guid
Source: Chicago Tribune
Jan 16, 2009
In the summer of 1966, three years after delivering his "I Have A Dream" speech, Rev. Martin Luther King spoke to several hundred congregants in the sanctuary of a Highland Park synagogue.
Barely a footnote in the civil rights movement, King's visit continues to resonate at Congregation Solel, which for the first time will commemorate the unlikely event with a special service Friday, three days before Martin Luther King Day.
"I believe that the presence
Source: BBC
Jan 16, 2009
A wealthy businessman who stole and defaced pages from priceless books in the British and Bodleian libraries has been jailed for two years.
Farhad Hakimzadeh, 60, of Knightsbridge in London, pleaded guilty in May to 14 counts of theft from the libraries in London and Oxford.
Judge Peter Ader said the offences were "very serious" whether or not they were motivated by financial profit.
Source: CBS
Jan 16, 2009
President Bush will leave office as one of the most unpopular departing presidents in history, according to a new CBS News/New York Times poll showing Mr. Bush's final approval rating at 22 percent.
Seventy-three percent say they disapprove of the way Mr. Bush has handled his job as president over the last eight years.
Mr. Bush's final approval rating is the lowest final rating for an outgoing president since Gallup began asking about presidential approval more than 70
Source: Secrecy News, written by Steven Aftergood, is published by the Federation of American Scientists
Jan 16, 2009
The President of the United States has broad and essentially unfettered authority to issue pardons for offenses against the United States, a new Congressional Research Service report on the subject explains.
"It also appears that a pardon may be revoked at any time prior to acceptance or delivery" of the warrant of pardon, according to the CRS assessment, which finds no flaw in the recent decision by President Bush"not to execute" a previously announced pardon in the case of real estate deve
Source: BBC
Jan 16, 2009
While Mr Bush has been severely criticised for the invasion of Iraq, his green credentials and the general deterioration of relations with the rest of the world, his African record has won considerable support.
More controversially, Mr Bush led the international community in declaring that the atrocities in Darfur amounted to genocide.
The US put increasing pressure on Sudan, but since Mr Bush refused to recognise the International Criminal Court in The Hague, refused
Source: CNN
Jan 16, 2009
Mary Dowden smiles when she thinks about this moment in history. At 80 years old, she's the granddaughter of a slave who was born in a cotton field outside of Como, Mississippi.
It's difficult to put into words how she feels about Barack Obama, the issues so complex for a black country girl who lost both her parents by the age of 18 and then had to work a hard-scrabble life as a sharecropper.
"I was really afraid for him, because I didn't want nobody to kill him,&q
Source: Times (UK)
Jan 16, 2009
Robert Burns owed his fame to the English, an academic said at the start of a three-day celebration of the poet’s life. Jon Mee, of the University of Warwick, said that hostility south of the border to Burns’s work spurred the poet to be more radical.
Source: Washington Post
Jan 16, 2009
Streams of people, these momentous next few days, will flood the city of Washington to honor the man becoming the next president.
And with every step, they will tread in the shadows of greatness.
Consciously or not, they will trace paths blazed long ago by Jefferson, Jackson and Adams. They'll pass the spot where Lincoln slept, and the one where he was killed. They'll cross the ghost of Teddy Roosevelt blazing through an urban forest, hear echoes of the fateful cannon f
Source: Belfast Daily Telegraph
Jan 16, 2009
The notorious serial killer who stalked London's East End, butchering prostitutes and terrorising the population, may not have been Jack the Ripper - but Jill.
An Australian scientist has used swabs from letters supposedly sent to police by the Ripper to build a partial DNA profile of the killer. The results suggest that the person who murdered and mutilated at least five women from 1888 onwards may have been a woman.
Ian Findlay, a professor of molecular and forensic d
Source: ABC News
Jan 15, 2009
Archaeologists in Indonesia have uncovered a 1,000-year-old temple that could shed light on the country's Hindu past.
The intricately carved statues and reliefs are some of the best preserved in Indonesia, but the dig is being conducted under tight security to protect the site from well-organised relic thieves.
The temple was found on the grounds of Yogyakarta's Islamic University as workers probed the ground to lay foundations for a new library, and they realised the e
Source: BBC
Jan 15, 2009
Oscar-winning director Steven Spielberg is to produce a TV documentary series on the rebuilding of New York's World Trade Center, to be shown in 2011.
Rebuilding Ground Zero will chronicle the engineering and building of the skyscraper being built on the site of the World Trade Center's Twin Towers.
It will also pay tribute to those who died in the 11 September 2001 attacks.
Source: Telegraph (UK)
Jan 15, 2009
Australian Aborigines plan to ask Prince William for help finding and returning the head of an indigenous warrior who was killed and decapitated by British soldiers more than 200 years ago.
Prince William will visit Australia for three days next week, after an official trip to New Zealand. It will be the first time the Prince has set foot in Australia since visiting as a baby with his parents in 1983.
Elder Michael Mundine of the Aboriginal Housing Company said he bel
Source: China Daily
Jan 15, 2009
Two press conferences and dozens of interviews by experts over the past two weeks have failed to quiet the unprecedented public debate on the ownership of an ancient tomb discovered in Anyang, Henan province.
Archaeological officials believe the tomb belongs to Cao Cao (AD 155 to 220), a legendary ruler during China's most dramatic historical period, the Three Kingdoms (AD 220 to 280). But skepticism spread like wildfire soon after the discovery was revealed to the public on Dec 7.
Source: Lee White at the website of the National Coalition for History (NCH)
Jan 15, 2009
On January 14, 2009, the National Archives and Records Administration (NARA) opened more than 150 cubic feet of records of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks upon the United States, known as the 9/11 Commission, an independent, bipartisan commission created by Congress. The records that were released represent 35% of the Commission’s archived textual records.
NARA has posted the released Memoranda for the Record (MFRs) online. The MFR series contains summaries of 709 inter
