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: Baltimore Sun
May 7, 2006
The current controversy over hordes of Hispanics coming over the border singing "The Star-Spangled Banner" in Spanish is only the latest rise of a tide that ebbs and flows in the United States at regular intervals.
The debate over whether those who come from "out there" to "in here" are to be welcomed or repelled illustrates a paradox at the heart of this national enterprise - at once America is a country of immigrants and a country threatened by immigr
Source: NYT
May 7, 2006
For the Gypsies of Eastern Europe, like Agnes Krappai, life never seems to improve. She lives in an impoverished section of this Hungarian town, in a house with no running water. Her neighbor washes a rug in the street, coaxing water out of a hand-pumped well. "It's a constant crisis, if there is such a thing," Ms. Krappai says.
But now, some leaders of the Gypsies, or Roma, are looking to a new model to try to achieve equality: the civil rights struggle of black Americans
Source: NYT
May 7, 2006
When Porter J. Goss resigned on Friday as director of the C.I.A., he found himself in good company. In one way or another, the job of C.I.A. chief has confounded nearly every man who has held it.
With few exceptions, each of the 19 directors of central intelligence has resigned in frustration, given his walking papers by the president or been pressured out of the agency's headquarters seven miles up the Potomac from the White House.
"Here is one of the most peculia
Source: NYT
May 7, 2006
Booker T. Washington died of high blood pressure, a review of his medical records has determined, lifting a cloud over his death left by one of his doctors more than 90 years ago.
The doctor wrote in 1915 that Washington had died of "racial characteristics," an often dismissive term that included high blood pressure, but also syphilis.Washington's records were obtained with the permission of his descendants for a University of Maryland med
Source: Knight Ridder
May 6, 2006
President Bush, Congress and anyone else upset over the Spanish translation of the national anthem might be interested to know that the U.S. government gave its blessing to a different version 87 years ago.
That translation of "The Star-Spangled Banner," prepared by the Bureau of Education in 1919, has been available on the Library of Congress Web site for two years without so much as a sniff of disapproval.
Besides Spanish, the library has vintage translation
Source: National Geographic News
May 5, 2006
Just days after the rare discovery of an untouched royal Maya tomb in Guatemala comes news of plundered Maya treasure in that same Central American country.
Looters have stolen a rare and exquisitely carved 1,500-year-old stone box from a cave near the city of Cancuén, experts told the National Geographic Society this week. Archaeologists expressed dismay that the artifact was stolen, saying the theft was most likely to benefit a collector in the United S
Source: BBC
May 5, 2006
Lord Buckingham – as the inmate in a British prison styles himself – is likely to be a former US spy called Charlie
THE mystery surrounding the identity of a man who stole a name from a baby’s headstone and styled himself the Earl of Buckingham is about to be solved.
The Times has learnt that the bogus earl, who is in Elmley Prison, Kent, is believed to be an American citizen and former member of a US Navy intelligence unit who disappeared from his home in Flori
Source: BBC
May 5, 2006
On the 25th anniversary of the death of IRA hunger striker Bobby Sands, the BBC News Website examines the events which resulted in 10 men starving themselves to death.
The seeds of the 1981 hunger strike by republicans at the Maze prison were sown five years previously when the British government decided newly convicted prisoners would be treated as ordinary criminals.
Source: Star Bulletin
May 5, 2006
The remains of Princess Fatafehi, the daughter of a royal dynasty that ruled Tonga more than 600 years ago, will return home today after 85 years at the Bishop Museum.
Along with the princess, the remains of about 20 other individuals from Tongan burial sites will be escorted home by a delegation of high Tongan officials and Maile Drake, the museum's cultural collections manager, who is also Tongan.
"This is a great and right thing to do," said Drake. "In
Source: Wa Po
May 5, 2006
Under intense pressure from Republican leaders, a key member of the House Appropriations Committee abandoned his two-year effort to block federal funds for a memorial to the passengers and crew of United Airlines Flight 93, agreeing to a $5 million request to purchase land for the monument near Shanksville, Pa.
Rep. Charles H. Taylor (R-N.C.), chairman of the House Appropriations subcommittee that funds the Interior Department, added the money yesterday to a $25.9 billion spending b
Source: Inside Higher Ed
May 5, 2006
It was not a public performance — a few dozen students and faculty were the only ones to witness the final presentation of three theater majors at Cornish College of the Arts, in Seattle. But that hasn’t stopped the nature of the performance from becoming the center of a campuswide controversy that has prompted calls from some students for immediate administrative action.
The presentation, which took place March 31, was part of a theater course in which students are asked to perform
Source: NYT
May 5, 2006
The man once called King Tiger, a description fitting for one of the most militant of radical Latino leaders of the 1960's, now walks with a cane. Almost forgotten by new generations of Latinos clamoring for immigrant rights, the man, Reies López Tijerina, faces his own immigration dilemma. Hobbled by diabetes and years of self-exile in Mexico, Mr. Tijerina, born 79 years ago to a family of cotton pickers in South Texas, spends his days at a community center here
Source: NYT
May 5, 2006
One of the abiding curiosities of the Bush administration is that after more than five years in office, the president has yet to issue a veto. No one since Thomas Jefferson has stayed in the White House this long without rejecting a single act of Congress. Some people attribute this to the Republicans' control of the House and the Senate, and others to Mr. Bush's reluctance to expend political capital on anything but tax cuts for the wealthy and the war in Iraq. Now, thanks to a recent article i
Source: NYT
May 5, 2006
The projected cost of building the World Trade Center memorial complex at ground zero has soared to nearly $1 billion, according to the most authoritative estimate to date.
Rebuilding officials concede that the new price tag is breathtaking — "beyond reason" in the words of one member of the World Trade Center Memorial Foundation board — and it is sure to set off another battle over development at the 16-acre site, with calls to cut costs, scale back the design or even sta
Source: NYT
May 5, 2006
The Greek authorities said Thursday that they would press charges against Marion True, the former antiquities curator at the J. Paul Getty Museum in Los Angeles, for illegal possession of 29 ancient artifacts police officers found this spring in her Greek villa.
George Gligoris, head of a special police unit that investigates antiquities smuggling, said that the scope of the charges would hinge on archaeologist appraisals of the objects. If their value is determined to be less than
Source: San Francisco Chronicle
May 5, 2006
As Barry Bonds chases Babe Ruth's treasured spot in home run history, with only Hank Aaron on the horizon, it's worth wondering where Josh Gibson might fit in this illustrious group. He was the preeminent home-run hitter in the Negro Leagues, a stout catcher whose displays of power rivaled Ruth's.Neither Ruth nor Gibson competed against players of all ethnicities. Ruth swatted his 714 home runs before the major leagues became integrated. Gibson, widely known as "the bla
Source: Washington Times
May 5, 2006
Driving past the grassy battlefields of Gettysburg, Pa., on a moonlit night, Robert J. Monahan Jr. heard the faint drumbeat of 1,000 boots, the boom of cannonballs and bullets whizzing past his ears.
He wasn't delirious. He just had a dream. Now, several years later and $7 million poorer, the Gucci-loafered, pinstripe-suit-wearing real estate developer and Washington resident has realized his goal: a stunningly visual, hauntingly realistic 30-minute high-tech film called "
Source: Discovery News
May 4, 2006
King Tutankhamen's rediscovered penis could make the pharaoh stand out in the shrunken world of male mummies, scientists say.
They've taken a close look at old pictures of the 3300-year-old mummified king.
His sexual organ has been just another puzzle in the story of the best-known pharaoh of ancient Egypt.Harry Burton (1879-1940) photographed the royal penis intact during Howard Carter's excavation of King Tut's tomb in 1922.
Bu
Source: LiveScience.com
May 4, 2006
It's either one of the greatest archaeological discoveries of our time, or man has made a giant pyramid out of a molehill.
In the wake of recent news that evidence of colossal pyramids had been found in the small Bosnian town of Visoko, many in the archaeological community are speaking out and dismissing both the discovery and the man who made it, businessman Semir Osmanagic.
Some critics have gone as far as to call the pyramid an absurd publicity stunt.
But Osmanagic stands by his claim."Th
Source: People's Daily Online
May 4, 2006
Archaeologists have discovered an unprecedented large group of 900-year-old tombs in Horinger County in north China's Inner Mongolia Autonomous Region.
The tombs, dating back to the Liao Dynasty (916-1125), were excavated in the ancient city of Tuchengzi, said Li Qiang, head of the archeology team.
He said it was the largest group of Liao tombs ever discovered at the southern foot of the Yinshan Mountains running west-east through Inner Mongolia.
