"The Transcript" of Norman, Oklahoma
http://www.normantranscript.com/
FEMA awardsgrant to area firefighters
The Norman Transcript
Noble, Slaughterville, Lexington, Cedar Country join forces to apply for communications funding
By Melissa A. Wabnitz
Transcript Staff Writer
They aren't held together by duct tape and luck, but many of the handheld radios used in day-to-day operations of the Noble Fire Department aren't exactly top-of-the-line. In fact, said Noble Chief Gary Bonner, many of them are downright dangerous.
"The problem is that when we get into hills and try and dispatch, the signal can't make it over that," Bonner said. "Say we're at a fire or a car wreck or nearly anything like that where we're working on something and we're away from our trucks. Most of the problems we've run into with these radios is that if we're trying to dispatch out, we have to leave the scene, walk back to the truck and then call out. You can't just do that when you're with a patient at a wreck or when you're handfighting a fire."
http://www.normantranscript.com/localnews/local_story_124005718
Some assembly required
By Althea Peterson
The Norman Transcript
By Althea Peterson
Transcript Staff Writer
Like a jigsaw puzzle, it just did not look complete until the last piece was in place.
After several hours of construction, when "A T. rex named Sue" finally had her skull in place, Sam Noble Oklahoma Natural History Museum's Great Hall crowd broke out in applause. Children on field trips, museum staff and the general public gathered during the final moments of construction Tuesday afternoon to watch as the final piece of the dinosaur's cast fit into place with the assistance of a forklift.
http://www.normantranscript.com/homepage/local_story_123004345?keyword=topstory
Bob Sullivan takes business approach to state leadership
The Norman Transcript
By Althea Peterson
Transcript Staff Writer
The race for Oklahoma governor includes three candidates who have law backgrounds and one with a business background.
Will it take a business chief executive to be Oklahoma’s chief executive? One candidate for governor said he thinks so. Bob Sullivan, an oil businessman from Tulsa, is one of three Republican candidates, including State Senator Jim Williamson and U.S. Representative Ernest Istook, who is looking to unseat incumbent Democrat Brad Henry.
In an interview with The Transcript, Sullivan said he was born in Illinois, but “got to Oklahoma as fast as he could” when he was 4 months old. He is the owner of Sullivan and Co. in Tulsa and also started Lumen Energy Corp. He said he believes working with business itself is the best prerequisite for working with business at a state level.
http://www.normantranscript.com/localnews/local_story_124004508
Festival opens Friday for 32nd season
The Norman Transcript
Transcript Staff
More than 100 artists and dozens of food vendors from throughout the country will begin setting up shop at Andrews Park today in preparation for Friday’s opening of the 32nd May Fair Arts Festival.
The show, sponsored by the Assistance League of Norman, will be Friday, Saturday and Sunday at the park, on Daws Avenue north of the Norman Public Library. Hours are 10 a.m. to 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday and noon to 6 p.m. Sunday.
“We’re confident this year’s May Fair is going to be the best ever,” said May Fair co-chair Maureen Crook. “May Fair always attracts many of the best artists and craftsmen from across the state and the nation. Norman continues to gain a reputation as regional center for art and creativity. Visitors from across the Southwest find May Fair weekend is the perfect time to explore the rich variety of fine arts in Norman and get a touch of the Old West.”
http://www.normantranscript.com/localnews/local_story_124003928
Weather Synopsis...Thunderstorms will overspread areas to the west of Interstate 35 through 3 am...before expanding farther eastward toward morning, as an upper level disturbance arrives. Marginally severe storms with quarter size hail and 60 mph winds are possible, along with frequent lightning and heavy rain. Thunderstorm chances continue Thursday as well.
http://www.srh.noaa.gov/oun/enhanced.php
The weather for Enid, Oklahoma
Oddly cool for this time of year.
Tonight
Chance Of T-Storm
Low 51°F
Mostly cloudy. Chance of thunderstorms in the evening...Then thunderstorms likely after midnight. Lows in the lower 50s. Southeast winds 10 to 15 mph shifting to the east after midnight. Chance of thunderstorms 60 percent.
Thursday
Chance Of T-Storm
High 69°F
Mostly cloudy with thunderstorms likely. Cooler. Highs in the upper 60s. Northeast winds 10 to 15 mph. Chance of thunderstorms 70 percent.
Thursday Night
Chance Of T-Storm
Low 49°F
Mostly cloudy with a 50 percent chance of thunderstorms. Lows in the upper 40s. Northeast winds 10 to 15 mph.
Friday
Chance Of T-Storm
High 65°F
Mostly cloudy with a 40 percent chance of thunderstorms. Highs in the mid 60s. Northeast winds around 10 mph.
Friday Night
Chance Of T-Storm
Low 49°F
Mostly cloudy with a 40 percent chance of thunderstorms. Lows in the upper 40s. Northeast winds around 10 mph.
Saturday
Chance Of T-Storm
High 65°F
Mostly cloudy with a 30 percent chance of thunderstorms. Highs in the mid 60s.
Saturday Night
Chance Of T-Storm
Low 50°F
Partly
http://www.weathercentral.com/weather/us/cities/ok_enid.html
The Enid News and Eagle
http://www.enidnews.com/
Rain a boost for farmers
Staff and wire reports
The most significant rainfall in Ok-lahoma in months has boosted prospects for some farmers and ranchers and has helped fill depleted lakes.
Some parts of Oklahoma received up to 7 inches of rain over the weekend. Light rain fell in northern Oklahoma Monday, and thunderstorms were spreading across the state Tuesday.
In northwest Oklahoma, most areas received rain Friday. The Mesonet weather-reporting site at Breckinridge recorded 3.81 inches of rain Friday — the most in the area. Watonga reported 2.07 inches.
Other Mesonet rain figures Friday in the area were: Alva, .75; Cherokee, .32; Fairview, 1.16; Freedom, 1.24; Kingfisher, .74; Lahoma, 1.56; Marshall, 1.43; Medford, 1.41; and Woodward, .29.
On Saturday, Kingfisher and Marshall received .92 and .77 of an inch, respectively.
The rain’s benefits are mixed, according to Roger Don Gribble, Oklahoma Cooperative Extension Service northwest area agronomist.
For the area wheat crop, the rain “probably will be of very little help,” he said.
“Basically, the crop is too far along.”
The rain, though, could create some problems as far as weeds in wheat.
Wheat stands, because of the prolonged drought, aren’t that good, Gribble said. Usually, full stands of wheat help reduce the threat of weed pressures by keeping sunlight from reaching the ground. Since wheat stands are thin this year, the sunlight will reach the ground and “weeds could become a problem,” he said.
That means farmers may have to use a pre-harvest treatment to battle weeds.
“That’s another cost these guys will have to bear,” Gribble said.
Other agriculture officials echoed his thoughts. The rain came too late to boost Oklahoma’s sagging winter wheat crop, which normally is worth more than $300 million, said Sam Knipp, spokesman for the Oklahoma Farm Bureau.
However, other crops grown in the area should see more benefits from the rain, Gribble said.
Those who planted soybeans early will see benefits from the recent rain. However, those farmers who plan to plant soybeans after harvesting wheat will need more rain to see any benefits, Gribble said.
Grain sorghum and alfalfa crops will be boosted by the rain, Gribble said.
A “huge benefit” will be seen by ranchers who have cattle out on native grass pastures, he said. The grass really needed rain.
“My spirits, and the spirits of the other farmers I saw over the weekend were greatly lifted,” said Scott Dvorak, a fourth-generation cattle producer from Perry who also grows wheat, corn and soybeans.
“For cattle, it’s really a great deal,” he said. “It’s a blessing to get this rain right now and make the grass grow.”
The moisture also should help farmers planting corn this spring for fall harvest, Knipp said.
“There’s an old saying on the farm about a $1 million rain. That’s what this one was,” Knipp said.
“It really changed the mood of farmers overnight. ... The rain will really, really give these guys a chance for a spring crop. That’s a chance they didn’t have five days ago,” he said.
The rain will help alfalfa hay growers statewide, who typically begin to cut the crop in May, said Jack Carson, spokesman for the Oklahoma Department of Agriculture, Food and Forestry.
The 2.42 inches of rain that fell in Oklahoma City over the weekend was the highest two-day total since last June, National Weather Service spokesman Daryl Williams said. Tulsa County received 2.86 inches of rain, Muskogee got 2.63 inches and McAlester got 3.36 inches.
The rain boosted lake levels as summer season approaches.
Lake Hulah in northeast Osage County gained more than 10 feet since start of weekend rain. Keystone Lake near Sand Springs will gain about 10 feet. Lake Texoma gained about 11⁄2 feet to move about a foot above normal.
Other lake levels remain far below normal.
At Lake Eufaula, the water is about 41⁄2 feet below normal. During the drought’s peak, the lake was about 8 feet below normal, he said.
Associate Editor Kevin Hassler contributed to this story.
http://www.enidnews.com/localnews/local_story_123004833.html
Officials: Business incubator project alive in Legislature
By Robert Barron Staff Writer
As the legislative session winds down, funding for a small business incubator at Autry Technology Center still is awaiting approval.
Jim Strate, Autry Tech superintendent, said the incubator project is alive and will be a part of budget negotiations between the House and Senate.
Strate would not say the bill is facing problems in either chamber, but he reiterated it is in the process. He is hopeful it will benefit when appropriations are made.
“It’s not hung up anywhere, it’s just in the process,” he said. “I’m optimistic. It’s still very favorable.”
http://www.enidnews.com/localnews/local_story_124014521.html
Words of support prompt Roggow to rethink retiring
By Robert Barron Staff Writer
State Rep. Curt Roggow said he is humbled by support he has received since announcing he will not seek re-election to a fifth term.
So much so, he said Wednesday he is thinking over his decision.
“I’ve been visiting with a lot of people in the last couple of days, people who came to my office and stopped me to talk,” he said. “At a reception Tuesday night, a lot of friends across the state of Oklahoma did not want me to leave.”
Among those urging Roggow to stay are Oklahoma Republican Party Chairman Gary Jones, chairman-elect Tom Daxon and Enid Mayor Ernie Currier.
Roggow, R-Hillsdale, represents District 41.
“I’m extremely disappointed at Curt’s decision not to run for re-election,” Currier said. “I would like for him to change his mind because he’s already proven himself as a leader, and his presence will only further benefit Enid and the surrounding communities.”
http://www.enidnews.com/localnews/local_story_124014445.html
Nerves, experience mix at annual Tri-State Music Festival
By Scott Fitzgerald Staff Writer
Fourth-grader Josh Brennan didn’t exhibit nervousness moments before he took the floor Tuesday with other members of the Hillsdale Christian School show choir.
When asked if he was nervous, Brennan clenched his fist and twisted it slightly, a movement that aptly described participating in Tri-State Music Festival competition for the first time.
Nearby was sixth-grader Katelin Moore, who practiced a few of her dance steps.
Was she nervous?
Not really, she answered. A year ago, she and other show choir members lined up in the same spot in the Northern Oklahoma College Enid Gantz Center to perform.
http://www.enidnews.com/localnews/local_story_124011024.html
St. Paul’s church sets fundraiser auction Saturday
St. Paul’s Lutheran Church, 1626 E. Broadway, will host an auction beginning at 11 a.m. Saturday. Lunch will be available. Proceeds will be applied to St. Paul’s Work Program.
Those wishing to help can bring donated items to the church between 7 and 9 a.m. through Saturday.
http://www.enidnews.com/localnews/local_story_124013933.html
Lady Blazers state champs in academics
By Teresa Brakhage Lahoma correspondent
Cimarron Lady Blazers are the Class 2A softball state academic champions. They will be presented with a trophy at the state finals today at Hall of Fame Park in Oklahoma City. The girls had a combined grade point average of 3.72.
------------------------------------
The Lady Blazers track team advanced to the state meet Friday and Saturday in Mustang. Cortney Brakhage, Chasity Romero, Shamika Thompson and Shanelle Griffin will compete in the 800-meter and 400-meter relays. Romero will compete in the 100-meter 200-meter dashes. Kirsti Duncan also is a participant.
http://www.enidnews.com/localnews/local_story_124013747.html
Anger should be focused on lawmakers
By Cindy Allen Commentary
Well, it’s been a long time coming.
More than a million immigrants — legal and illegal — and their supporters took to the streets and stayed away from jobs May 1 to protest what they consider harsh measures to bring illegal immigration under control.
As a nation, we’ve ignored illegal immigration for a long time, at least since the last time amnesty was granted back in the 1980s. We’ve watched the census figures and the statistics that have shown Hispanic populations increasing dramatically in the United States.
We’ve all known these vast increases in the population have not all occurred legally. We all know there is a system for legal immigration into the United States and that process takes time.
Many Americans have participated in the flow of illegal immigrants to the country. We just can’t blame big companies wanting a cheap work force. Many of us have hired immigrants as yard workers, housekeepers or day laborers. How many asked for documentation? Not many, I’d guess.
So, we shouldn’t be surprised this clash would some day come. Only the threat of terrorism has awakened our lawmakers to the problems illegal immigration poses. Our borders are porous and our will is weak, but in the back of our mind, we all wonder how many terrorists we have unwittingly let into our country due to our complacency in allowing illegal immigration to spiral out of control.
So, what was accomplished with this May 1 boycott?
Well, just about everyone is mad, now. The main effect of the boycott is it has driven a wedge further between groups of people. And that’s the last thing we need in this nation.
Instead of Hispanics focusing their anger on “gringos” or legal American citizens focusing their anger on “illegal” residents, how about we all come together and work toward getting our lawmakers to finally and fully address the problem?
Most of the folks who come here from Mexico or South American countries are trying to obtain a better life, and they see the United States as a beacon of opportunity. And that’s a good thing.
But, what is the United States doing to hold these countries south of our border accountable for their economic policies that drive their people to the United States? It appears these countries encourage their citizens to flee to the United States, work illegally and send the money back to family in their home country.
It sounds drastic, but I’d be willing to entertain a complete shutdown of the U.S.- Mexico border for a three-month period. And I mean both ways. No one comes in, no one goes out. That certainly would get everyone’s attention, particularly Mexico and South American countries that depend on tourism for much of their economy.
During this time-out, the United States, Mexico and South American countries could sit down and hash out policies that would reform economic policies on both sides of the border. Certainly we have enough policy makers and bureaucrats to make such a task a three-month priority.
Also, perhaps our country needs to take an honest look at our immigration process. Is it too cumbersome or unreasonable? Does it meet the objectives we want as a nation? Let’s listen to people who have tried to go through the process and have found unfair obstacles in their way. If there are legitimate problems, let’s fix them.
But, lets stop all this talk of boycotts and rallies because that alone will not accomplish anything other than to raise the ire of everyone. It’s time to focus on fixing the problem, and that lies squarely on the shoulders of our lawmakers in Washington D.C.
http://www.enidnews.com/opinion/local_story_124012129.html?keyword=topstory
Tsunami Warning Lifted after 7.8 quake
The South Pacific quake prompted warnings for as far away as Fiji and New Zealand, but the alerts were lifted after a tsunami of less than 2 feet was recorded. (May 03)
http://video.ap.org/v/en-ap/v.htm?f=201264&g=23e7db5d-faa4-4d2e-bec4-f7fab6503691&p=&t=s59
‘Dreamer’ good prelude to thoroughbred season
Rexton Kuchinsky, Commentary
Since the “Run for the Roses” is just around the corner — what better way to get into the mood than to watch a good movie about a horse. To make it even more interesting, this story is based upon a true event. The movie is “Dreamer,” starring Kurt Russell, Dakota Fanning, Kris Kristofferson and Elisabeth Shue.
Russell plays Ben Crane, a down-on-his-luck horse trainer. Fanning plays his 10-year-old daughter, Cale. Ben trains horses for a stable owned by Palmer, played by David Morse. The stable’s prize filly, Sonador (Spanish for Dreamer) unfortunately breaks her leg in the race. Ben, in a dispute with Palmer, decides not to put the horse down, but instead uses his severance pay to buy her and bring her home.
It is here that the magic begins as Sonador brings a once dysfunctional family back together and in turn the family nurses the thoroughbred back to health. Kristofferson plays Pop Crane. Shue plays Lily, Ben’s wife. When they almost lose Sonador in a claiming race, Ben decides to give Cale controlling ownership of the horse. Cale, in turn, decides to train her further and enter her in the Breeder’s Cup.
http://www.enidnews.com/entertainment/local_story_118000152.html?keyword=topstory
The Houston Chronicle
KILLINGS IN MEXICO
Fear for women's safety spreads
Is the violence of Juarez being repeated? Victims' advocates see chilling parallels to unchecked killings in six other cities
By MARION LLOYD
Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle Foreign Service
CHIMALHUACAN, MEXICO - In the past eight months, the raped and strangled bodies of young, working-class women have been turning up in construction sites in this dust-choked slum outside the Mexican capital.
The spate of violence itself is terrifying. But residents fear it's a sign of something even worse.
"We ask ourselves, is this the beginning of another Ciudad Juarez?" said Emerenciana Lopez, a human rights activist in this grim satellite community of 500,000 built alongside the capital's trash dumps and a reeking sewage canal.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/3839399.html
Zogby poll on legal status goes against tide
By GEBE MARTINEZ
Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle Washington Bureau
WASHINGTON - A poll conducted for a group that wants immigration restricted shows that two-thirds of American voters agree with its goal and that only 43 percent favor a Senate bill that would let most illegal immigrants apply for legal status.
The poll, conducted by Zogby International for the Center for Immigration Studies, runs counter to recent surveys by news organizations that show voters favoring a Senate plan to provide "earned legalization" for about 10 million illegal immigrants.
In the latest Zogby survey, 69 percent responded favorably to the House bill, which was described as a plan "that does not increase the number of people allowed into the country legally." A virtually equal portion said legal and illegal immigration should be reduced.
The poll interviewed 1,008 likely voters between April 17 and April 24 and had a margin of error of 3.1 percentage points.
Support for the Senate bill was lower in the poll for the Center for Immigration Studies because the bill was described as doubling the number of green cards "in the future from 1 to 2 million a year," said research director Steven Camarota.
Experts generally agree with the green card estimate.
"When you tell them that, they don't like that," Camarota said of the proposed legalization plan. "They say, 'What?' "
The poll's methodology was faulted by Tamar Jacoby, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute for Public Research, which is urging passage of the Senate bill.
"If you look at polling done by all the major polling organizations this past month, voters do think that illegal immigrants here should have a chance to earn their way to citizenship," Jacoby said. "There's been a sea change in public opinion."
The Zogby survey overlapped with an NBC/Wall Street Journal poll, conducted April 21-24, in which 61 percent favored letting illegal immigrants stay if they pass a security check, pay taxes and meet other conditions similar to those listed in the pending Senate bill.
Pollsters have been closely tracking voter sentiment on the immigration issue, especially since late March, when immigrant rights activists began staging marches that have drawn about 2 million people across the country.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/headline/nation/3839349.html
Demographics show immediate boost in Latino voting unlikely
By R.G. RATCLIFFE
Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle Austin Bureau
AUSTIN - The masses of young Hispanics who have been turning out for protests against immigration legislation pending before Congress once again have raised the prospect that Latino voting power finally will erupt, although demographic realities still appear to trump the demonstrators' passion.
Hispanics have been the fastest-growing major population segment in Texas since 1990, adding at least 3.5 million people.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/special/immigration/3780403.html
Backlash grows after immigration protests
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — While a series of marches focused much of the nation's attention on the plight of illegal immigrants, scores of other Americans quietly seethed. Now, with the same full-throated cry expressed by those in the country illegally, they are shouting back.
Congressional leaders in Washington have gotten bricks in the mail from a group that advocates building a border fence, states in the West and South have drawn up tough anti-immigrant laws, and ordinary citizens, such as Janis McDonald of Pennsylvania, who considers herself a liberal, are not mincing words in expressing their displeasure.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/special/immigration/3836971.html
Migrants, Border Patrol fear deadliest summer yet for border crossers
Associated Press
SASABE, Mexico — Wearing tight jeans and a glittery "bebe" T-shirt, the 17-year-old scrambled out of a packed van as the temperature edged toward 90 degrees in this barren stretch of the U.S.-Mexican border.
Carrying no hat or sunscreen, the teenager who called herself Adriana Brenda said the longest hike she'd taken was through a shopping mall. But here she was, ready for a three-day trek across the desert.
She carried two gallons of water — enough, experts say, to keep her hydrated for two hours.
As temperatures rise, the U.S. Border Patrol and aid groups are gearing up for what they fear could be one of the deadliest summers for migrants sneaking into the United States.
The U.S. Senate is debating a bill that could lock the border tighter than ever, and activists fear the flow of migrants is moving to an even hotter and more remote section of desert than the current favorite, an area south of Tucson, Ariz., where hundreds of people have died since 1994.
The desert around Tucson is crawling with 2,400 U.S. Border Patrol agents. Rifle-bearing civilians known as Minutemen are also keeping watch.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/special/immigration/3836961.html
Youths rally beside immigrant parents
Thousands skip school to voice their support
By DAVID CRARY
Associated Press
NEW YORK - Shoulder to shoulder with their parents and schoolmates, legions of young people have turned out for the nationwide immigrants-rights rallies, some motivated by the predicaments of their families, others by a sense that their voices matter.
"Even we have been surprised by the recent level of activity by young people — the sheer numbers, the passion," said Marco Davis, director of youth leadership development for the National Council of La Raza, a Latino advocacy group.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/special/immigration/3839351.html
Minuteman tour off to rough start
Efforts to recruit black members are met with protests in Los Angeles
By PETER PRENGAMAN
Associated Press
LOS ANGELES - Leaders of the Minuteman Project began a cross-country tour Wednesday to seek support for tighter border security, launching a caravan to the nation's capital from a heavily black neighborhood where many residents shouted at the civilian patrol group to go home.
Minuteman leaders started the trip from a black neighborhood as part of a push to attract more blacks as members.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/special/immigration/3839352.html
Anthem angst
Despite Bush's English-only stance, Spanish is old tradition
By CLAUDIA FELDMAN and EYDER PERALTA
Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle
President Bush has spoken out against the translated version of the national anthem, saying it should be sung in English only. If so, that's actually a break with American tradition, says Walter Kamphoefner, a history professor at Texas A&M University.
The Library of Congress archives dozens of versions of the anthem, including a couple in German and a Spanish translation commissioned by the U.S. Department of Education in 1912.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/special/immigration/3839009.html
First lady agrees, then disagrees about singing anthem in Spanish
Associated Press
WASHINGTON - Laura Bush has a knack for making it known when she doesn't agree with her husband.
But on the subject of belting out The Star-Spangled Banner in Spanish, it's not clear whether the first lady is in President Bush's camp or not.
A Spanish-language variation of the national anthem, called Nuestro Himno, which means "Our Anthem," debuted last week.
It stirred controversy because it rewrites some of the English version.
President Bush fed the debate with a terse "No, I don't" when asked last week whether the anthem holds the same value when sung in Spanish.
"I think the national anthem ought to be sung in English," he said. "And I think people who want to be a citizen of this country ought to learn English, and they ought to learn to sing the national anthem in English."
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/special/immigration/3839480.html
State is late on its payments — and it's not paying
It has a surplus of $8 billion, but red tape keeps 600 claimants empty-handed
By TERRI LANGFORD and POLLY ROSS HUGHES
Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle
When a Texas jury awarded Patti King $250,000 in 2000 for the sexual harassment she suffered while working for the state prison system, she knew she wasn't going to get the money that day.
But she didn't think she would be waiting years for the state to pay up.
On Wednesday, King inched closer to collecting her judgment, which with six years of interest, court costs and fees totals more than $640,000 because the state never paid the original jury award after it withstood appeal.
On Wednesday, the House Appropriations Committee passed a measure to pay the judgment.
But the committee failed to take action on nearly $8 million in other outstanding "miscellaneous" claims that haven't been paid for years, including things such as nursing home services and road construction projects that cities paid for because they were to be reimbursed later by the state.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/3839476.html
'Forever' postage stamp in the works
No need to buy any 2- or 3-cent extras to meet postage increases
By RANDOLPH E. SCHMID
Associated Press
WASHINGTON - Call it the stamp that just keeps on delivering.
The Postal Service is planning a "forever" stamp that would remain valid for mailing a letter despite future rate increases.
That means folks could say goodbye to those annoying 2- or 3-cent stamps that have to be added to letters every time rates go up. Sheets, rolls, books or loose stamps in the drawer would still be good.
Forever.
The idea for the special stamps, which would be sold at the same price as other first-class stamps, was included in proposals Wednesday that would also raise stamp prices 3 cents — to 42 cents — next year.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/3839126.html
Postal Service wants another raise
Associated Press
WASHINGTON — The Postal Service said today it wants to raise the price of a first-class stamp by 3 cents — to 42 cents — and proposed a "forever" stamp that people could use as hedge against future rate increases.
The changes would take effect in the spring of 2007 if approved by the independent Postal Rate Commission.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/headline/nation/3837501.html
Police think suspect may be a serial killer
HPD detectives say 2 local deaths bear similarities to Fort Bend case
By ROSANNA RUIZ and ERIC HANSON
Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle
After taking the lives of two young women, the killer posed the bodies of his victims in their bathtubs.
Those morbid poses, considered the calling card or "signature" of the killer, led Houston police to suspect Edward George McGregor in the grisly slayings of Danielle L. Subjects, 28, and Mandy R. Rubin, 25, both of Houston.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/3839479.html
MOUSSAOUI LIFE TERM STUNS MANY IN COURT
Jury apparently believed convicted terrorist played a minor role in 9/11
By NEIL A. LEWIS
New York Times
ALEXANDRIA, VA. - A federal jury rejected the death penalty for Zacarias Moussaoui on Wednesday, apparently concluding that he had played only a minor role in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
The verdict seemed to stun most in the courtroom, notably Justice Department prosecutors who had relentlessly urged the jurors that Moussaoui, who pleaded guilty in April 2005, should be executed for his role in the deaths and destruction caused by the Sept. 11 attacks.
The jury appeared to have considered several mitigating factors, even giving weight to his troubled upbringing in a dysfunctional Moroccan family in France leading to a childhood in orphanages. Jurors left the courthouse without speaking, but court officials read aloud details of what factors the jurors had voted to consider.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/3839478.html
Convicted al Qaeda Terrorist Facing Death Penalty Sentencing TrialUnited States v. Zacarias Moussaoui aka Shaqil, aka Abu Khalid al Sahraw
http://news.findlaw.com/legalnews/us/terrorism/cases/index.html
Property values hit home for taxpayers
Another strong year in real estate means many are being taxed more
By BILL MURPHY
Copyright 2006 Houston Chronicle
Property values that gave taxpayers the blues and helped keep governments in the black aren't rising as fast as a few years ago, but plenty of Harris County homeowners still are getting bad news about their 2006 taxes.
Market values on single-family homes, as determined by the Harris County Appraisal District and contained in notices mailed to homeowners in the past month, rose on average nearly 7 percent. That's up from 4 percent in 2005 appraisals, but below the 12 percent average recorded in 2001.
http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/front/3839513.html
Radar Map
http://www.srh.noaa.gov/hgx/
SHORT TERM FORECASTNATIONAL WEATHER SERVICE FORT WORTH TX316 AM CDT THU MAY 4 2006TXZ091>095-100>107-115>123-129>135-141>148-156>162-174-175-041030-ANDERSON-BELL-BOSQUE-COLLIN-COMANCHE-COOKE-CORYELL-DALLAS-DELTA-DENTON-EASTLAND-ELLIS-ERATH-FALLS-FANNIN-FREESTONE-GRAYSON-HAMILTON-HENDERSON-HILL-HOOD-HOPKINS-HUNT-JACK-JOHNSON-KAUFMAN-LAMAR-LAMPASAS-LEON-LIMESTONE-MCLENNAN-MILAM-MILLS-MONTAGUE-NAVARRO-PALO PINTO-PARKER-RAINS-ROBERTSON-ROCKWALL-SOMERVELL-STEPHENS-TARRANT-VAN ZANDT-WISE-YOUNG-316 AM CDT THU MAY 4 2006.NOW...A LINE OF STRONG THUNDERSTORMS WILL MOVE FROM A MINERAL WELLS TOCOMANCHE LINE AND REACH A DENTON...FORT WORTH...TO GOLDTHWAITE LINEBY 530 AM. WIND GUSTS UP TO 40 MPH...SMALL HAIL...VERY HEAVYRAINFALL...AND CLOUD TO GROUND LIGHTNING WILL ACCOMPANY THESTRONGEST STORMS. THE LINE OF STORMS WILL MOVE EAST AT 35 MPH.A LARGE AREA OF RAIN WITH EMBEDDED THUNDERSTORMS WILL CONTINUE TOAFFECT LOCATIONS BEHIND THE MAIN LINE OF STORMS. SOME PONDING OFWATER ON ROADWAYS IS LIKELY...ESPECIALLY WEST OF A JACKSBORO TOPALO PINTO LINE.RAIN AND THUNDERSTORMS WILL BEGIN TO IMPACT LOCATIONS EAST OFINTERSTATE 35 AFTER 6 AM.
http://www.srh.noaa.gov/wwamap/wwatxtget.php?cwa=hgx&wwa=all
The Houston/Galveston National Weather Service 2006 Hurricane Workshop, presented by CenterPoint Energy, will take place on Tuesday, May 30, from 4:00 to 9:00 p.m. at the George R. Brown Convention Center in downtown Houston, Texas.
The 2005 Hurricane Season will go down as one of the most disastrous seasons on record. Numerous long-standing records were broken, including the costliest hurricane on record when Hurricane Katrina struck South Florida and the middle Gulf Coast states at the end of August. Katrina killed more than 1,300 people. With Katrina fresh on the minds of citizens in Southeast Texas, Hurricane Rita became a serious threat to our area less than one month later. Although Rita eventually made landfall just to our east in the Texas-Louisiana border area, massive evacuations, along with a shortage in gasoline and other supplies, occurred across Southeast Texas.
This workshop will consist of a main session with several keynote speakers along with numerous breakout sessions that will cover the lessons learned from Hurricane Katrina and Hurricane Rita. Other hurricane related topics will also be covered. A vendor area will also be available for companies involved in hurricane preparedness and hurricane protection.
Stacy Stewart, a hurricane specialist with the National Hurricane Center, will be the workshop's featured speaker. Mr. Stewart will talk about the active 2005 season and discuss some of the meteorological reasons that the United States had so many landfalling tropical storms and hurricanes. Mr. Stewart will also offer some projections on the 2006 Hurricane Season and what we can expect for the Atlantic Basin.
The Houston/Galveston National Weather Service Hurricane Workshop will move from the Pasadena Convention Center to the George R. Brown Convention Center for 2006. This change in venue is being made possible by the City of Houston. The City of Houston is donating space at the George R. Brown Convention Center to hold this very important workshop.
For the second year in a row, CenterPoint Energy will be the presenting sponsor for the workshop. CenterPoint Energy, the company that maintains the electrical lines throughout the Greater Houston area, is very involved in helping the Houston area prepare for and recover from major hurricanes.
We look forward to seeing you at the 2006 Hurricane Workshop!
http://www.srh.noaa.gov/hgx/tropical/workshop06.htm
Daily Mail and Guardian
Could it be that the British have moved in?
New front line in the war on terror
04 May 2006 07:11
As hideouts go, the Shawal Valley in northern Pakistan is a militant's dream. Lonely goat trails wind through a rocky 40km corridor that nudges the Afghan border. Its fiercely conservative tribesmen and forbidding high-walled compounds have sheltered Taliban fighters and probably al-Qaeda fugitives.
Last weekend Brigadier Imtiaz Wyne, a Pakistani army commander, stood on the top of one of its highest peaks and declared his 5 000 troops had tamed the wild valley -- almost. "This border is sealed," he said, pointing to a line of observation posts along the border.
But the cornered militants were fighting back, he admitted. His soldiers had suffered five major attacks in the previous month; on one occasion a captured soldier was gruesomely mutilated before being executed.
"They are a mix -- foreigners, locals, Afghan Taliban, criminals," said the officer. "It's difficult to say who is the leader, but ultimately it is al-Qaeda."
A vicious mini-war has erupted between the Pakistani army and the "Pakistani Taliban" in North Waziristan, a turbulent tribal area that has moved to the front line of the Pakistani and US "war on terror". Every day sees fresh violence between the army and militants -- a loose coalition of radical clerics, tribal leaders and al-Qaeda fighters.
The biggest upset occurred in early March, when 1 500 self-styled Taliban assaulted a military base in the main town, Miran Shah. The ensuing four-day battle involved artillery and helicopters gunships and left 145 militants dead, 25 of them foreigners, according to the army figures.
http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=270716&area=/breaking_news/breaking_news__international_news/
Huge Pacific earthquake sparks tsunami panic
Chris Foley Wellington, New Zealand
04 May 2006 08:32
A massive earthquake with a magnitude of 7,8 rocked the island nation of Tonga on Thursday, triggering a panic evacuation in a New Zealand town after tsunami warnings were briefly issued for the South Pacific.
Although the warnings were withdrawn within two hours, hundreds of people in the New Zealand coastal town of Gisborne, more than 2 200km from the quake's epicentre, fled their homes.
"Most of the coastal communities in Gisborne evacuated," regional civil defence controller Richard Steele told national radio.
"Things got a bit out of control."
The US Geological Survey (USGS) said a "great" quake, initially measured at magnitude 8,0, struck at 4.26am (15.26pm GMT Wednesday) in the middle of the islands that make up Tonga.
http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=270727&area=/breaking_news/breaking_news__international_news/
Twenty-seven missing after ship sinks off SA
Fran Blandy Johannesburg, South Africa
04 May 2006 07:46
Twenty-seven people are still missing after their ship sunk off the coast of Port Alfred, the National Sea Rescue Institute (NSRI) said on Thursday.
"The Fortune Express [a bulk carrier] has launched a lifeboat and her crew are continuing to search for survivors," said search and rescue coordinator Mark Hellenberg.
An Air Force C-130 was due on scene at first light on Thursday.
All 33 crew on the Alexandros T abandoned ship on Wednesday night when the vessel began breaking up. Despite all crew standing by to abandon ship, only five people made it to life rafts.
The Fortune Express was only two nautical miles from the scene and rescued the five crew from a life raft.
http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=270719&area=/breaking_news/breaking_news__national/
Blowin' in the wind: DJ Dylan makes radio debut
04 May 2006 07:46
Early morning, somehow, does not seem to be Bob Dylan's natural time of day. Nevertheless, the legendary singer-songwriter made his debut as a radio DJ on Wednesday at 10am on America's east coast, which is 7am on the west coast -- although anyone expecting a peppy, caffeinated rundown of the day's news, perhaps with some traffic updates, would have been disappointed.
There was lots of weather, though. The Theme Time Radio Hour -- "with your host, Bob Dylan" -- will take a different theme each week, showcasing songs selected from his personal record collection, and Wednesday's topic was the weather.
The result was an eclectic stew of blues, pop, easy listening, jazz and rock, featuring Fats Domino, Judy Garland and Stevie Wonder, to name just a few. But the show's celebrity presenter will not be playing his own songs, so his own forays into meteorology -- Blowin' in the Wind and A Hard Rain's A-Gonna Fall, among others -- were absent.
http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=270720&area=/breaking_news/breaking_news__international_news/
Jury spares Moussaoui from death penalty
Stephen Collinson Alexandria, Virginia, United States
04 May 2006 08:32
A United States jury rejected the death penalty for al-Qaeda conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui and ruled he should be jailed for life without parole for his role in the September 11 attacks conspiracy.
The verdict handed down on Wednesday was a setback for the US government which threw enormous resources into pressing for the execution of the only person charged in the United States over the 2001 attacks on New York and Washington in which almost 3 000 people died.
True to his stormy and unpredictable character, Moussaoui shouted "America you lost ... I won", as he was led from the court. Judge Leonie Brinkema will formally pronounce the sentence in court on Thursday morning.
Relatives of the September 11 victims expressed mixed emotions. Many were just happy that the trial was over.
"I am glad to see this will be the last day that Mr Moussaoui is in the headlines," said Carrie Lemack, whose mother, Judy Larocque, was a passenger on one of the planes that crashed into the World Trade Center in New York.
"He deserves to rot in jail," she added.
http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=270725&area=/breaking_news/breaking_news__international_news/
Boeremag accused still on the run
Pretoria, South Africa
04 May 2006 07:46
Police have worked through the night in the search for two Boeremag treason trial accused who escaped from the Pretoria High Court on Wednesday, police said on Thursday.
"They have been working through the night but at this moment in time there have been no new developments," said Director Sally de Beer, national police spokesperson.
Herman van Rooyen (33) and Rudi Gouws (28) went missing during the lunch hour recess. One of them had allegedly bankrolled the organisation.
"We have launched a massive search to track down these two, and are investigating the circumstance under which they went missing," De Beer said earlier.
Van Rooyen was caught in Pretoria in December 2002 in a bakkie allegedly rigged with 384kg of explosives and two bags of nuts and bolts for shrapnel.
At the time it was speculated that the car bomb was meant for a soccer game between Kaizer Chiefs and Sundowns at Loftus Versfeld.
http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=270721&area=/breaking_news/breaking_news__national/
Republicans push to end monarchy in UK
Deborah Haynes Leeds, United Kingdom
03 May 2006 11:59
Britain's Prince Charles may have a fight on his hands when the time comes to inherit the crown from his elderly mother, Queen Elizabeth II, if a growing band of republicans has its way.
The movement wants to swap the monarchy for an elected head of state, effectively making Charles and the rest of the royal family redundant.
Standing in its way, however, is this centuries-old institution, which is still loved by millions of loyal subjects.
Republic, the pressure group demanding an end to Britain's hereditary based system of privilege and wealth, admits it has its work cut out. But, in a sign of a rising, albeit still meagre, support-base the organisation held its first spring conference in the northern English city of Leeds on Saturday to discuss campaigns and policy.
http://www.mg.co.za/articlePage.aspx?articleid=270698&area=/insight/insight__international/
The dangers of drinking too much water
Experts now believe that drinking too much water when exercising poses a far greater risk to health, reports Peta Bee in London
rink as much as you can to avoid dehydration’’ has become a mantra. But some sports-medicine experts now believe that drinking too much water when exercising poses a far greater risk to health.
Overdosing on water causes changes in blood dilution that trigger the potentially fatal condition hyponatremia. A recent study in The New England Journal of Medicine confirms the problem is on the rise. Researchers claim that, during the 2002 Boston marathon, 13% of the runners drank enough to send their blood-salt levels plummeting to an abnormal low.
How does the danger arise? During intense exercise, the kidneys can’t excrete excess fluid, so if someone keeps drinking, the water is leeched into the body’s cells. The more they drink, the more is retained, especially in the highly water-absorbant brain cells. With no room to expand, the brain pushes against the skull, compressing the brain stem. Eventually, primary functions such as breathing and heartbeat are shut down. “Water intoxication can result in dizziness, respiratory problems or worse. Some people collapse into a coma. In the worst cases, it can kill,” says Dr Dan Tunstall-Pedoe of St Bartholemew’s hospital, London, and medical director of the London marathon.
http://www.chico.mweb.co.za/art/2006/2006apr/060428-water.html
The Christian Science Monitor
Bible's profile at the Capitol touches a chord
By Gail Russell Chaddock Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
WASHINGTON – Bible reading wasn't on the itinerary. But when Hun Jang stepped off a Washington tour bus this week and heard scripture coming from the west lawn of the US Capitol, he walked over to see what was going on.
Volunteers at the 17th Annual US Capitol Bible Reading Marathon invited the South Korean soldier to the podium. He began at Proverbs 5 - "My son, attend unto my wisdom ..." - using a Korean Bible, one of 84 translations on hand. "I feel really good when I am reading the Bible," he says. "I feel something full in my mind."
The 90-hour marathon, which will include readings by about two dozen members of Congress and their staffers, is a lead-up to Thursday's National Day of Prayer. President Harry Truman signed the day into law in 1952 as an interfaith event. But in recent years, evangelical Christian groups have taken the lead in organizing activities around the day, especially those located near seats of government. And in Washington, as in real estate, location counts.
Critics say that evangelical groups and their allies in Congress are staging events like the Bible Marathon near centers of power as a bid to link secular Washington to Christian ideals.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0504/p01s03-uspo.html
Episcopalians face key votes over gays
An election Saturday of a California bishop may force the hand of the US church, set to decide its stance in June.
By Jane Lampman Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
Several Christian and Jewish denominations have been divided over issues of homosexuality, but none has come as close to schism as the global Anglican community, and its US branch, the Episcopal Church.
For three years since the US church approved the ordination of a gay bishop, the worldwide Anglican Communion has sought ways to avoid a devastating split. It has called on the church to express regret and to refrain from such steps in the future.
Next month, the church's 2006 general convention will meet and decide on a response, but parishioners in California could force its hand as early as this weekend. The Diocese of California votes Saturday to elect a new bishop and, in what some view as a provocative step, three of the seven nominees are gay or lesbian pastors living in committed relationships.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0504/p02s01-ussc.html
Iran, US share Afghan goals
But Iran could use leverage in Afghanistan to create trouble for US, some warn.
By David Montero Correspondent of The Christian Science Monitor
HERAT, AFGHANISTAN – The smooth blacktop roads and 24-hour electricity of Herat set this Afghan commercial capital apart as a model of stability in a country still struggling to get on its feet. Much of the wealth in this western city, with its tree-lined streets and handsome shops, is credited to the largesse of Iran.
The Shiite republic, one of Afghanistan's greatest trading partners, has a visible hand here, building roads and schools, and keeping shops afloat with electricity and goods. What's more, these projects represent only a fraction of the $204 million Iran has spent in aid, ranking it among the top donors to post-conflict Afghanistan.
Even though the US and Iran are locked in an international struggle over Iran's alleged pursuit of nuclear weapons, the long-time foes have worked together well in Afghanistan, a place where they have common ground. Pushing Iran against the wall through sanctions or war could deal a setback to the recovery here, the first battlefield in the war on terror, some observers say.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0504/p06s02-wosc.html
Officials target Hong Kong public radio
Pro-Beijing forces say that the station, which patterns itself after the BBC, is not respectful enough.
By Robert Marquand Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
HONG KONG – A quiet battle over whether the only free and independent broadcaster on the land mass of China will remain so is intensifying. Over a 77-year span, Hong Kong public radio has dished out a blend of credible news and cultural programming in three languages, served as a link between expatriates and the Hong Kong street, and has gained increasing editorial autonomy and respect in China's most sophisticated city.
Yet that is exactly what bothers influential pro-Beijing forces who wish media to more fully trumpet government policies. Many of them see Radio Television Hong Kong, or "RTHK" as it is popularly known, as an irritant at best and a damaging critic at worst - allowing a broad range of opinion, including mild satire and programs that may challenge official proposals, all at taxpayer expense.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2006/0504/p07s02-woap.html
How Moussaoui's sentencing trial ended with 'life'
The federal judge in the case is expected to formally sentence him Thursday morning.
By Warren Richey Staff writer of The Christian Science Monitor
Despite what at times appeared to be his best efforts to convince the jury that he deserved to be executed, Zacarias Moussaoui must now endure the rest of his life behind bars.
The only person ever charged in the United States with involvement in the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks may well have earned the status of Islamic martyr among Al Qaeda members and supporters had he been executed. But the nine men and three women on the jury at his death-penalty sentencing trial in Alexandria, Va., declined to help him along that route.
After 40 hours of deliberation spanning seven days, the jury announced Wednesday that death was not the appropriate punishment for Mr. Moussaoui.
Instead, Moussaoui will be sentenced to life in prison without the possibility of parole. The federal judge in the case is expected to formally sentence Moussaoui on Thursday at 10 a.m.
The action by the jury represents a partial rejection of the government's theory that Moussaoui deserved a death sentence even though he was in US custody on Sept. 11, 2001. Prosecutors argued that he was just as responsible as the hijackers for the death and destruction of the attacks because he had preknowledge of 9/11 plot, but failed to disclose details of the plan to FBI agents upon his arrest in August 2001. Had he told the truth to the FBI, the Al Qaeda plot would have been foiled, prosecutors said.
http://www.csmonitor.com/earlyed/earlyUS0503a.html
Reporters on the Job
• What's Up with Jill?: Readers have asked us: Whatever happened to Jill Carroll after her US homecoming?
In the Monitor
Jill is currently recovering from her ordeal and writing about her 82 days in captivity in Iraq.
While there have been dozens of Western hostages taken in Iraq, including other journalists, Jill is one of the few Arabic-speaking correspondents who have spent this much time observing how insurgents operate - often without them knowing what she was hearing or seeing. Her captivity was a terrifying experience, but she also got a rare look inside one of the most hard-line Islamic insurgent groups in Iraq. Stay tuned for the upcoming series.
Nearly 1,000 readers have generously contributed to the Allan Enwiya Fund. Allan, Jill's interpreter in Iraq for two years, was killed in her abduction. He is survived by his wife and two small children. Members of his family, at risk in Iraq as Christians, have been moved by the Monitor out of the country. They are applying for US government permission to join their extended family in the US. The fund, including a contribution from the Monitor, will help Allan's family start a new life.
The fund address:
The Allan Enwiya Fund
C/O The Christian Science Monitor
One Norway Street
Boston, MA 02115
http://search.csmonitor.com/search_content/0503/p06s02-wogn.html
Cultural snapshot
BOXED IN: Playwright Katherine Giovenali takes notes in a plastic box near Sydney Harbor. As part of a three-day celebration of The Playworks, an Australian women's playwright organization, a series of women writers are spending an hour inside the box while recorded extracts from Gabrielle Macdonald's play, "The Colour of Glass," are played.
http://search.csmonitor.com/search_content/0503/p06s02-wogn.html
The New York Times
Moussaoui Given Life Term by Jury Over Link to 9/11
By NEIL A. LEWIS
Published: May 4, 2006
ALEXANDRIA, Va. May 3 — A federal jury rejected the death penalty for Zacarias Moussaoui on Wednesday, with some jurors concluding that he played only a minor role in the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
Multimedia
The verdict, calling for life in prison, seemed to surprise most people in the courtroom, notably Justice Department prosecutors who had relentlessly urged the jurors that Mr. Moussaoui should be executed for his role in the attacks.
Jurors left the courthouse without speaking about their reasoning. But the verdict form they filled out indicated what factors they had considered as they decided Mr. Moussaoui's fate, including his troubled upbringing in a dysfunctional immigrant Moroccan family in France, and extended periods in orphanages.
The decision means that the sole individual charged in a United States courtroom in connection with the worst attack on American soil will spend the rest of his life in solitary confinement in a federal prison in Colorado with no possibility of release.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/04/us/04moussaoui.html?hp&ex=1146801600&en=706db5f9a7ef7ab0&ei=5094&partner=homepage
Due Process
Published: May 4, 2006
The jury in the trial of Zacarias Moussaoui has determined that he should spend his life in jail rather than be executed for his role in the Sept. 11 terror attacks. This seems like the best possible outcome. For all his bombast, Mr. Moussaoui had no direct role in the 9/11 attacks. And it is good to know that he will not achieve a fanatic's martyrdom.
The most important thing about the Moussaoui trial, however, was that it happened. The proceedings — including the jury deliberations — were long and difficult, but they were also fair and in accordance with the rules of American justice.
That is not the story for hundreds of other people, many far less complicit than Mr. Moussaoui, who are languishing in the prison at Guantánamo because the United States rounded them up haphazardly during the Afghan war and plunked them down in Cuba without any clear plan on what to do with them over the long run.
So far only 10 of the 490 people still stashed away in Guantánamo have ever been charged with anything. The rest were hauled up before military proceedings that were a joke, if the available transcripts are any indication, to determine whether they should continue to be held without any rights or process under the phony label of "unlawful enemy combatant" that the Bush administration concocted after 9/11 for just this purpose. This is not even a half-hearted stab at a day in court, and it leaves hundreds of people under indefinite, illegal detention.
Among them are about 150 prisoners whom the government says it would like to send home because they pose no threat to the United States, but feels it can't. Some, like the Uighurs — Chinese Muslims — would face possible prison or torture if sent back to countries without basic regard for human rights. The Bush administration has put itself in a bizarre situation when it is forced to worry about the humane treatment of people it whisked off to Guantánamo without any serious attempt to determine who they were, much less what crime they may have committed. They were then held without charges, many under abusive conditions that sometimes amounted to torture, for more than three years.
The Moussaoui trial was a messy process, marked by embarrassing lapses on the part of the prosecution, court fights about what information the defense could have access to and the weird demeanor of the defendant himself, which threatened at times to make the whole exercise seem ridiculous. It summarized, in the end, almost all the things about playing by the rules that the hard men who surround the president dislike.
But it worked. The whole world was able to watch this country's judicial system struggling gamely and fairly toward a proper conclusion, upholding the principle that even semideranged outsiders who claim to rejoice in the deaths of more than 2,000 innocent civilians deserve their day in court.
Meanwhile, the bitter fruits of the fast, easy, tough route are hidden away on a military base. It seems apparent now that many of them are simply luckless men who were in the most utterly wrong place in the world at the worst possible time. Those who may be something more sinister cannot be tried because their rights have been so compromised during their imprisonment. They are damaged goods, their very presence staining the honor of the country that imprisoned them, willy-nilly, because it seemed the easiest thing to do at the time.
http://www.nytimes.com/2006/05/04/opinion/04thur1.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
The Boston Globe
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/
Shooting own docuemntary footage, N.E. soldiers blaze a path
By Bryan Bender, Globe Staff May 4, 2006
WASHINGTON -- ''It'll be a better country in 20 years because we were there," Army Sergeant Stephen Pink declares on camera before adding, almost in a whisper, ''I hope."
That is how the Kingston native, 24, sums up his yearlong tour in Iraq with the New Hampshire National Guard. It also captures the essence of the gripping documentary film that he and fellow soldiers from New England filmed with digital cameras packed in their rucksacks.
The battlefront documentary has taken on a new twist in ''The War Tapes," the first of its kind to be filmed by soldiers themselves. The 94-minute film, to be released next month, traces Pink, Specialist Michael Moriarty, a native of Beverly, and Sergeant Zack Bazzi of Watertown as they chronicled their 2004 deployment in the vicious Sunni Triangle -- on camera and via e-mail exchanges with director Deborah Scranton, who outfitted five soldiers in the unit with 10 digital cameras in what she called ''virtual embedding."
The odyssey of Charlie Company and the trials of their loved ones back home captivated the film industry at its debut at the Tribeca Film Festival in New York last week, where it received standing ovations from audiences. The military community, too, is embracing the documentary for its unvarnished glimpse of the war in Iraq -- both the good and the bad.
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/washington/articles/2006/05/04/the_war_in_close_up/
As Iraqis convene, violence surges
Parliament forms rules committee
By Borzou Daragahi, Los Angeles Times May 4, 2006
BAGHDAD -- A spike in violence left dozens of Iraqis dead yesterday even as the first working session was convened of the nation's new parliament, a body aimed at stemming bloodshed by drawing Iraq's disparate ethnic and religious groups into the political arena.
In the restive Sunni Arab-dominated city of Fallujah, a suicide bomber wearing an explosives-laden belt set off a blast amid a crowd of aspiring police recruits, killing 18 Iraqis and injuring 20, police and hospital officials said. The US military said in a statement that at least seven civilians were killed and 13 wounded in the attack.
http://www.boston.com/news/world/middleeast/articles/2006/05/04/as_iraqis_convene_violence_surges/
When a smoke causes fire
May 4, 2006
OF ALL THE deaths the tobacco industry shares blame for, some of the most preventable are those caused not by lung cancer or emphysema but fire. For years, the tobacco companies have known that a simple change in cigarette paper design could keep dropped cigarettes from smoldering and starting fires. A bill that has been approved by the state Senate would, if passed by the House and signed by Governor Romney, require that all cigarettes sold in this state meet a ''reduced ignition" standard.
In the past, the tobacco companies resisted the change, fearing that their customers would dislike the taste of these cigarettes and stop buying them. The experience of New York State has disproved that argument. It inaugurated a law requiring that cigarettes meet an extinguishing standard in mid-2004, and data on sales and taxes show no drop in consumption. There was also no jump in prices, undercutting another industry argument against the change.
Even before the New York law, Philip Morris had produced a version of its Merit brand using tiny bands in the wrapping to slow down burning. Once New York demonstrated the feasibility of requiring safer cigarettes, two other states -- Vermont and California -- passed similar laws, and a bill in Illinois needs only the governor's signature. A national law mandating reduced ignition cigarettes would save the most lives, but Congress has failed to pass such legislation.
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/editorials/articles/2006/05/04/when_a_smoke_causes_fire/
Why Kent State is important today
By Michael Corcoran May 4, 2006
THIRTY-SIX years ago today, Ohio National Guardsmen shot 13 college students at Kent State University who were protesting US incursions into Cambodia as part of the Vietnam War. Nine victims survived, including one who is confined to a wheelchair for the rest of his life. Four students -- Jeffrey Miller, Allison Krause, Bill Schroeder, and Sandy Scheuer -- were killed.
The students were unarmed, and the closest was more than 60 feet away from the Guard at the time of the shooting. There was no warning shot; the National Guard never issued an apology; and no one ever spent a day in jail for the killings despite the fact that the President's Commission on Campus Unrest, appointed by President Nixon in 1970, found the shootings to be ''unwarranted and inexcusable."
Yearly, since the tragedy, Kent State students, alumni, and others have met on the anniversary of the shooting to reflect and remember. Alan Canfora, who was shot by the Guard, says, ''The students today act as the conscience of the college, and the country . . . just like the students did in 1970."
This year's memorial will come, as the last three have, in the midst of a war that has become increasingly divisive. While the memory of Kent State and other violent clashes from that time between protesters and authorities did not deter the incumbent president from leading the country into another unpopular war, it is important to honor Kent State's spirit of dissent and what it taught about the bloody consequences of intense division.
http://www.boston.com/news/globe/editorial_opinion/oped/articles/2006/05/04/why_kent_state_is_important_today/>
The Washington Post
Jurors Reject Death Penalty For Moussaoui
By Jerry Markon and Timothy Dwyer
Washington Post Staff Writers
Thursday, May 4, 2006; Page A01
Al-Qaeda conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui will spend the rest of his life in a maximum security prison for his role in the Sept. 11 attacks after a federal jury rejected the government's four-year quest to secure his execution for the deadliest terrorist strike on U.S. soil.
After weeks of listening to harrowing testimony from 9/11 family members, hearing heartbreaking emergency calls and watching painful footage of victims jumping to their deaths, the anonymous jury of nine men and three women methodically deliberated for 41 hours over seven days before reaching its verdict yesterday
Pasted from <http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/03/AR2006050300324.html
Security Council Is Given Iran Resolution
Pressure Builds to End Tehran's Nuclear Efforts
By Colum Lynch
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, May 4, 2006; Page A18
UNITED NATIONS, May 3 -- Britain, France and Germany presented the U.N. Security Council on Wednesday with a draft resolution that urges states to restrict nuclear trade with Iran and requires Tehran to halt enriching uranium or face "further measures," a veiled reference to possible sanctions.
Russia and China immediately signaled they will oppose the U.S.-backed resolution, which demands that Iran halt nuclear research and development activities, and stop construction on a heavy-water nuclear reactor at Arak because it could be used to produce weapons-grade fuel. The resolution calls on governments to prevent the transfer to Iran of all "items, materials, goods and technology" that could be used to enrich or reprocess nuclear fuel or advance the Islamic state's missile programs.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/03/AR2006050302137.html
U.S. Commander in Afghanistan Thinks Locally
By Pamela Constable
Washington Post Foreign Service
Thursday, May 4, 2006; Page A18
MEHTAR LAM, Afghanistan -- While the world may be wondering whether U.S.-led troops will ever find Osama bin Laden, Lt. Gen. Karl W. Eikenberry has his eye on smaller, more immediate tasks.
During a day in remote Laghman province last week, the top U.S. commander in Afghanistan immersed himself in the daily concerns of local residents: the lack of a market road for farmers, the danger of bomb attacks against schools, the remoteness of the national government in Kabul.
"The real soldiers in Afghanistan are not necessarily wearing uniforms," Eikenberry said in a brief speech to Afghans in this provincial capital northeast of Kabul. "They are providing health care, teaching your families, building the community."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/03/AR2006050302372.html
Another Way for Iraq?
By David S. Broder
Thursday, May 4, 2006; Page A25
On Monday, to mark the third anniversary of President Bush's appearance on the USS Lincoln to announce that "major combat operations in Iraq have ended," Senate Democratic leader Harry Reid of Nevada issued a news release in which Bush's text was set in contrast to barbed reminders of everything that has gone wrong in Iraq since that boast.
It was a rhetorical low blow, apparently aimed at further weakening public support for the war but offering no alternative strategy for ending it.
That same morning, another senator, Joe Biden of Delaware, set forth a much more useful and responsible approach in a speech to the World Affairs Council in Philadelphia; in a New York Times op-ed written with Leslie Gelb, president emeritus of the Council on Foreign Relations; and in a phone interview with me as he drove from Philadelphia to Washington.
Biden, the senior Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, is a supporter of the war who -- like John McCain -- has been a consistent critic of the administration's military strategy and diplomacy. This week, after his sixth trip to the war zone, he said that the threat of sectarian violence -- an incipient civil war between Shiites and Sunnis -- has become so great that the United States must redefine its political goals in Iraq. Instead of betting everything on the creation of a unified government in Baghdad, Biden said, we should encourage the development of separate but linked regional authorities in northern Iraq for the Kurds, in southern Iraq for the Shiites and in central Iraq for the Sunnis.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/03/AR2006050302201.html
Post Office Hopes Idea Of 'Forever Stamp' Sticks
First-Class Rate Would Be Locked In
By Christopher Lee
Washington Post Staff Writer
Thursday, May 4, 2006; Page A01
Nothing lasts forever -- except, just maybe, the cost of mailing a letter.
After increasing rates 13 times in 32 years, the U.S. Postal Service proposed a way yesterday for consumers to lock in the price of a first-class stamp, which officials want to raise by 3 cents, to 42 cents, next year.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/05/03/AR2006050301039.html
The Daily American of Somerset County, Pennsylvania (Shanksville, Pennsylvania)
http://www.dailyamerican.com/
County residents mixed on casino
By JUDY D.J. ELLICH
Daily American Staff Writer
Thursday, May 4, 2006 12:15 AM EDT
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Most who attended the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board hearing Wednesday at the Quality Inn in Somerset Borough on a proposed slots casino at Seven Springs Mountain Resort stood by the applicant.
Many of the speakers worked at the resort, owned homes there or had professional connections with the applicant.
“When we heard that Seven Springs was applying for a slots license our reaction was that it is a natural fit,” said Scott K. Rodgers, who has been a homeowner at the resort for more than 20 years and longtime patron of the resort.
Only one of the speakers, many who were homeowners with families, voiced concerns that the family-oriented resort would be compromised by bringing a casino into its midst.
A Somerset County resident for nearly 40 years, Lois Brant questioned the possibility of a gambling casino being too tempting for underage gambling in a resort that welcomes youth.
“There is no question that gambling introduces an increase in crime,” she said, adding she obtained her information from the U.S. Department of Justice.
http://www.dailyamerican.com/articles/2006/05/03/news/thursday/news01.txt
Bridge begins journey to trail
By JUDY D.J. ELLICH
Daily American Staff Writer
Thursday, May 4, 2006 12:15 AM EDT
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On Tuesday, a big yellow crane will lift the Wells Creek Bollman Bridge from where it rests atop CSX Transportation property near the Salisbury Viaduct and deposit it on the ground nearby Long Road.
From there, the 135-year-old bridge will be disassembled for shipping to a new home on the Allegheny Highlands Trail section of the Great Allegheny Passage where it will be reassembled.
“Our goal is to work on the Bollman Bridge relocation over the summer and have it in place on the trail this year,” Somerset County Trail Coordinator Brett Hollern said.
The Bollman Bridge was constructed in a cast and wrought iron style. There are only 75 bridges in the United States that are constructed in that style, according to a list compiled by the Historic American Engineering Record.
The bridge is believed to be one of the last remaining bridges of the Pittsburgh Division of the Baltimore and Ohio Railroad, Hollern said.
“We have been trying to get it moved for three years,” he said.
The first phase of the relocation project has had many issues that delayed the project. The issues dealt with who owned the bridge, and once that was settled, how much state and local officials needed to pay. The first phase cost about $104,000 to complete.
http://www.dailyamerican.com/articles/2006/05/03/news/thursday/news02.txt
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