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: Telegraph (UK)
December 31, 2069
An 18th-century French plot to invade with an American army during the War of Independence has been discovered by historians.
The plan, which was drawn up by a French general, was to bring over 10,000 American soldiers and capitalise on a Britain that was distracted by the war on the other side of the Atlantic.
The general also proposed that the force include a corps of American Indians, or “sauvages”, as he termed them, that would strike terror into the British
Source: 4-15-09
December 31, 2069
The 20th anniversary of the death of reformist Chinese leader Hu Yaobang has passed without being marked in China.
The anniversary is seen as the start of an ultra-sensitive period for Beijing, in the run-up to the 20th anniversary of the 1989 Tiananmen Square protests.
It was Hu's death that set in motion the chain of events leading to the 4 June crackdown.
Meanwhile students in Hong Kong are holding a vote on whether China should apologise for the Tian
December 31, 2069
Federal-budget worrywarts (myself included) have been fretting for years about the arrival of the Dread Fiscal Year 2017, when Social Security was projected to start becoming a drag on federal finances.
Well, no need to worry about 2017 anymore. Thanks to the worst economic downturn since the 1930s, the moment of reckoning is already almost here: according to both the budget proposed by the White House in February and projections issued by the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) in March, S
Source: 4-1-09
December 31, 2069
More than 2,400 languages around the world are in danger of extinction, according to Unesco, and the US is second only to India in having the highest number of endangered languages.
The US has already lost more than a third of the indigenous languages that existed before European colonisation, and the remaining 192 are classed by Unesco as ranging between "unsafe" and "extinct".
As recently as 2008, the Alaskan tongue Eyak became officially extinct w
Source: 4-3-09
December 31, 2069
The University of Massachusetts in Amherst said Friday it would scan, catalog, digitize and put online papers of civil rights movement pioneer W.E.B. Du Bois.
The university's W.E.B. Du Bois Library has an estimated 100,000 diaries, letters, photographs and other items related to Du Bois, who helped found the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People.
UMass received a $200,000 grant from the Verizon Foundation to put the collection online during the two
Source: 2-22-09
December 31, 2069
Museum authorities at the former Nazi German Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp in Poland are struggling to save the enduring symbol of the Holocaust from the impact of time and the elements.
In the drive to stop the site falling into ruin and preserve the memory of the 1.1 million overwhelmingly Jewish victims who died here during World War II, they face tall odds.
"This is our last chance," warned Piotr Cywinski, director of the state-run museum.
The
Source: 3-20-09
December 31, 2069
In his latest mug shot, Charles Manson's wild-eyed stare is gone, as is most of his hair. Except for the swastika he carved into his brow during his murder trial, he could be any gray-bearded senior citizen.
If the photo authorities released early this week is any indication, the leader of a murderous band called "The Family," has mellowed some after almost 40 years in a California state prison.
He has had a lot of alone time.
Manson receives a l
Source: 3-17-09
December 31, 2069
The number of Americans who think another Great Depression will occur within the next year is on the rise, a poll released Tuesday shows.
Forty-five percent of people questioned in a CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey said another depression is likely.
"Will the Great Recession turn into another Great Depression? A growing number of Americans think it might," said CNN Polling Director Keating Holland. "Last December, 38% said a depression like the on
Source: IHT
December 31, 2069
A quarter century ago, a Ukrainian historian named Stanislav Kulchytsky was told by his Soviet overlords to concoct an insidious cover-up. His orders: to depict the famine that killed millions of Ukrainians in the early 1930s as unavoidable, like a natural disaster. Absolve the Communist Party of blame. Uphold the legacy of Stalin.
Professor Kulchytsky, though, would not go along.
The other day, as he stood before a new memorial to the victims of the famine, he recalled
Source: CNN
December 31, 2069
More than 60 years after reneging on a promise to the hundreds of thousands of Filipinos who fought for the United States during World War II, the U.S. government will soon be sending out checks -- to the few who are still alive.
During the war, the Philippines was a U.S. commonwealth. The U.S. military promised full veterans benefits to Filipinos who volunteered to fight. More than 250,000 joined.
Then, in 1946, President Truman signed the Rescission Act, taking that p
Source: BBC
December 31, 2069
Exactly 30 years ago, a coalition of Cambodian and Vietnamese troops forced Pol Pot and his followers from power - after a four-year reign which left as many as two million people dead.
There was no hero's welcome for the conquering troops. But nor was there a nervous population, fearful about the intentions of the incoming army. Because Phnom Penh was almost completely deserted.
As many as two million Cambodians are thought to have died because of the policies of Pol
Source: azcentral
December 31, 2069
After almost 70 years of waiting, some in the Valley are finally on their way to getting money long owed to them by the Mexican government. They are known as braceros, who first came to the U.S. from Mexico as guest workers during World War II to fill the jobs of soldiers off at war. Monday was the deadline for them to process their claims to get this money, and dozens waited until the last minute.
During the bracero program, the U.S. took 10 percent from the workers' paychecks and
Source: Military
December 31, 2069
Toward the end of the Civil War, former slave Thomas Smith joined the 125th United States Colored Troops unit in Butler County, Kentucky.
Within two years of his 1864 enlistment, he was dead at age 23. The surgeon listed the cause as inflammation of the bowels from cholera. He was a private at Fort Craig, N.M., an Army post along the Rio Grande south of Socorro.
Well over a century later, a brown paper grocery bag containing the Buffalo Soldier's skull was handed over
Source: BBC
December 31, 2069
Cuba has opened up electronic access to thousands of documents belonging to the writer Ernest Hemingway, who wrote some of his greatest works on the island.
The archive includes photographs, letters and manuscripts, as well as an unpublished epilogue to Hemingway's novel, For Whom the Bell Tolls.
"We are talking about 3,194 pages of documents, close to 2,000 plus of documents, some already digitalised," said Ada Rosa Alfonso Rosales, director of the Museo Er
Source: Telegraph (UK)
December 31, 2069
A 300-year-old journal of a British explorer who saved the real-life Robinson Crusoe and defeated pirates of the Caribbean has been discovered.
The extremely rare account chronicles a three-year round-the world voyage of the swashbuckling privateer Capt Woodes Rogers, who made a fortune pillaging from pirate ships and Spanish galleons.
It is thought only a hundred copies of his book, A Cruising Voyage Around the World, were printed seven years after Rogers completed
Source: Telegraph (UK)
December 31, 2069
A Second World War RAF veteran has been reunited with the plane he was shot down in over enemy lines in 1942.
George Shepherd, 91, had a close call when the Handley Page Hampden torpedo bomber was shot down by German fighters in 1942.
He avoided serious injury and managed to escape. He went on the run for 32 hours before being captured by German forces, and was eventually put in a prisoner of war camp in Poland. He was later forced on the Nazi death march before being
December 31, 2069
Within days of the Penguin Group's decision to cancel the publication of Herman Rosenblat's Holocaust memoir, York House Press, a small publishing house, has announced it will print the book, minus the fictionalized apple stories. Below is the publisher's announcement.
Related Links
Deborah Lipstadt: Apples Over the Fence: A Ne
December 31, 2069
2008 Civics Summit
September 19, 2008
Capitol Building, Richmond, VirginiaCivic Engagement in a Changing WorldSUMMIT SESSIONSThe Hidden Dimension of Civic Education and Engagement
Professor David Wilkins
Kirkland and Ellis Professor of Law, Harvard Law SchoolCivic Engagement in the 2008 Election
Dr. Robert Holsworth
Professor of Political Science and Public Administration
Virginia C
Source: AP
December 31, 2069
A Civil War center that examines all sides of that historic conflict is considering whether to add a statue of Confederate President Jefferson Davis to its Richmond collection.
The Virginia Division of the Sons of Confederate Veterans has offered the $100,000 art work to the American Civil War Center. The center's board is expected to act Wednesday on the gift.
The heritage group said the offer of the life-sized bronze casting is intended to mark the bicentennial of Dav
