Links to the News

Orange County Register, May 31, 2006 Newseum Image

May 31, 2006: An excerpt from a story in The Orange County Register:

Goodbye to Katie

By RICHARD HUFF
New York Daily News

Anchoring a network newscast was never on Katie Couric's career radar.

"When I started out, all I wanted to do was be a damn good reporter, respected by my peers," Couric told the New York Daily News.

"I was never the kind of person where news directors said, stick her in the anchor chair," Couric said. "I was never really viewed in that light. The notion that I aspired to be an evening news anchor is laughable."

But America better get used to seeing Couric in that light.

Today, she'll say her on-air farewell to NBC's "Today" show - her home of the past 15 years. And come September, she'll anchor the "CBS Evening News," the first woman in the history of the medium to hold the position.
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Chicago Tribune, May 30, 2006 Newseum Image

May 30, 2006: An excerpt from a story in the Chicago Tribune:

Baghdad bombing kills 2 in CBS crew

By LIZ SLY 

Baghdad -- CBS television correspondent Kimberly Dozier and her two-man crew became part of the Memorial Day story they had set out to report when a car bomb exploded Monday beside their patrol in central Baghdad, killing the two British crew members, an American soldier and an Iraqi translator.

Dozier, 39, was critically injured, and six U.S. soldiers from the patrol with which she was traveling also were hurt in the midmorning blast in central Baghdad's Karradah neighborhood, just one of a surge of bombings that ripped across the capital and its surrounding provinces, killing at least 40 people.

CBS named the dead TV journalists as veteran cameraman Paul Douglas, 48, and sound man James Brolan, 42. Both based in London and veterans of many wars, they were embedded with Dozier at the time of the attack with soldiers from the 4th Brigade Combat Team, 4th Infantry Division in Baghdad, according to a statement issued by the network.
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Pedoman Rakyat, May 29, 2006 Newseum Image

May 29, 2006: The Indonesian earthquake's death toll is more than 5,000 and an estimated 200,000 are homeless. The Makassar, Indonesia newspaper, Pedoman Rakyat, continues to provide Page One stories about the devastation.

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Kompas, May 28, 2006 Newseum Image

May 28, 2006: The Jakarta, Indonesia newspaper, Kompas, reports on the magnitude 6.3 earthquake that jolted the central Indonesian island of Java.

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Houston Chronicle, May 26, 2006 Newseum Image

May 26, 2006: An excerpt from a story in the Houston Chronicle:

Ex-Enron Bosses Closer to Prison

By MARY FLOOD

More than four years after the collapse of their company stunned a city and sent shockwaves through corporate boardrooms across the country, former Enron executives Ken Lay and Jeff Skilling failed one last time: to convince a jury that it was not their fault.

The two once-exalted kings of industry were found guilty of 25 charges against them. U.S. District Judge Sim Lake added four more guilty verdicts against Lay on separate personal banking charges.

The jury of eight women and four men rejected the pair's insistence that their mistakes were ones of omission and that Enron's failure was a freakish event wrought by forces beyond their control.
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Beaver County Times, May 25, 2006 Newseum Image

May 25, 2006: An excerpt from a story in Pennsylvania's Beaver County Times:

Final Swats
Babe Ruth's Last Hurrah Came in Pittsburgh 71 Years Ago Today

By ALAN ROBINSON
The Associated Press

Babe Ruth was 40 years old, with a pot belly that couldn't be supported by his spindly legs and a fast-growing realization his career was over.

His batting average hovered nearly 200 points below his career average of .343, and the Boston Braves' pitchers were upset at his inability to run down even the easiest of flyballs. He couldn't run, couldn't field, couldn't hide in a sport that was 38 years away from having a designated hitter.

But the Babe still had something left in him exactly 71 years ago today, when he and the downtrodden Braves wrapped up a three-game series in Pittsburgh. Ruth still had the grandest home-run stroke the game has ever seen, and he powered not one, not two, but three homers that sunny Saturday afternoon -- Nos. 712, 713 and 714, the last the Sultan would ever swat.
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The Philadelphia Inquirer, May 24, 2006 Newseum Image

May 24, 2006: An excerpt from a story in The Philadelphia Inquirer:

Phila. investors buy Inquirer, Daily News
The price: $562 million for papers, online and other holdings.

By JOSEPH N. DISTEFANO and JENNIFER LIN

A group of Philadelphia investors will return the region's largest daily newspapers to local control, ending 36 years of corporate ownership under Knight Ridder Inc.

Philadelphia Media Holdings L.L.C. will pay $515 million in cash - most of it borrowed from banks - to Knight Ridder's successor, the McClatchy Co., and assume $47 million in pension liabilities, to take over The Inquirer, the Philadelphia Daily News, Philly.com, and related publications and Web sites.

The investors, who include some of Philadelphia's most prominent business people, were brought together by advertising and public-relations entrepreneur Brian P. Tierney, who promised they would not interfere with the news and editorial sides of the business.
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Philadelphia Daily News, May 24, 2006 Newseum Image

May 24, 2006: An excerpt from a story in the Philadelphia Daily News:

Our kind of people
Local group cuts $562 million deal for Daily News, Inky

By WILL BUNCH and CHRIS BRENNAN

From the very beginning, the hardest part for Brian Tierney may not have been raising the $562 million he would need to buy the Daily News and the Inquirer, or outbidding and outsmarting some of the biggest moguls in the media business.

For Tierney, the boyishly enthusiastic 49-year-old Upper Darby native who'd spent most of his life in public relations and advertising, the most difficult part would be getting people to take him and his local investors seriously.

After all, in an era of Wall Street-backed media conglomerates, what Tierney was trying to do - take back hometown control of Philadelphia's two newspapers - was simply something that wasn't done. At least, that's what people thought - before they actually talked with Tierney.
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The Times of India, May 23, 2006 Newseum Image

May 23, 2006: An excerpt from a story in the New Delhi newspaper, The Times of India:

10 Drowning Street
On day of crazy swings, sensex sinks below 10k

Mumbai -- It was a raging storm. The market turned crazily wild, lashing at the sensex with such ferocity that at one point it plumbed down over 1,100 points.

Trading had to be suspended, or else the ship might have sunk. When trading resumed, the storm hadn't cleared, but the market clung to the lifeline of assurances thrown by the finance minister, the RBI and SEBI and clawed back some 700 points, but still 450 points down.
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Le Figaro, May 22, 2006 Newseum Image

May 22, 2006: The Paris, France newspaper, Le Figaro, published a Page One story about the Taliban in Afghanistan. (You may need to use a language translation site.)

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Pittsburgh Tribune-Review, May 19, 2006 Newseum Image

May 19, 2006: An excerpt from a story in the Pittsburgh Tribune-Review:

Hayden holds the line

By JAMES KUHNHENN
Knight Ridder Newspapers

WASHINGTON -- Justice Department lawyers had signed off and the president of the United States had issued his orders.

So less than a month after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Air Force Gen. Michael Hayden decided to carry out a covert warrantless eavesdropping program to help thwart future attacks.

"The math was pretty straightforward," Hayden told the Senate Intelligence Committee on Thursday during his confirmation hearing to head the Central Intelligence Agency. "I could not not do this."

Hayden, who headed the National Security Agency when it began the eavesdropping program, defended the Bush administration's effort to wiretap calls between suspected al-Qaida allies and U.S. residents, saying the practice is subject to strict internal reviews to prevent civil rights violations.

Hayden seems assured of Senate confirmation to take over the CIA and would become the agency's third director since the Sept. 11 attacks.
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The Record, May 18, 2006 Newseum Image

May 18, 2006: An excerpt from a story in the Kitchener, Canada newspaper, The Record:

In the line of fire

KANDAHAR, AFGHANISTAN -- Canada suffered its first-ever death of a female combat soldier during a lengthy firefight yesterday with Taliban rebels.

Capt. Nichola Goddard, of 1st Royal Canadian Horse Artillery based in Shilo, Man., was killed in action at 6:55 p.m. local time, 24 kilometres west of Kandahar city, said Brig. Gen. David Fraser, commander of the multinational brigade in Kandahar.

"Our hearts, our prayers and our sympathies go out to the family of Nichola Goddard,'' said Fraser, standing in front of a Canadian flag at half-mast. "It's a hard day but it's also a day of achievements here. The government of Afghanistan and the Afghan national security forces have had a good successful day. There was significant Taliban casualties both killed and captured.''

Although Canadian women lost their lives in action in both the First and Second World Wars, Goddard, 26, was the first to do so in combat. Combat roles were first opened to Canadian women in 1990.
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Telegram & Gazette, May 17, 2006 Newseum Image

May 17, 2006: An excerpt from a story in the Worcester, Massachusetts Telegram & Gazette:

Assessing the damage
FLOOD OF 2006

By RICHARD NANGLE 

HAVERHILL -- The landscape and faces were different, but all that water where it wasn't supposed to be, well, that was very familiar.

Soldiers assigned to the 1st Battalion of the 181st Infantry, Massachusetts National Guard, Worcester, got the call Monday afternoon to assemble at the unit's headquarters in Worcester that night before shipping out to help in the severe weather that had pounded northeastern portions of the state.

Many of those same soldiers had received a similar call last Sept. 3 and were deployed a day later to New Orleans, which along with much of the Gulf Coast had been devastated by Hurricane Katrina.  ______________________________________________

La Frontera, May 16, 2006 Newseum Image

May 16, 2006: This excerpt deals with President Bush's border speech.  The story comes from the McAllen, Texas newspaper, La Frontera. (You may need to use a language translation site.)

EE.UU. se arma contra ilegales

La Prensa Asociada

WASHINGTON -- El presidente George W. Bush ordenó el lunes la movilización de hasta 6 mil efectivos de la Guardia Nacional hacia la frontera con México, pero le aseguró al presidente mexicano Vicente Fox de que no se trata de una militarización fronteriza. _______________________________________________

Union Leader, May 15, 2006 Newseum Image

May 15, 2006: An excerpt from a story in the Manchester, New Hampshire Union Leader:

In city, flooding fears rise

By RILEY YATES

MANCHESTER -- The basement of Jim Walker's riverfront home has plush red carpet, new leather recliners, a bar and a 63-inch flat screen television.

Yesterday, it also had several inches of the Merrimack River.

Residents fought flooding throughout the day and hoped for the best, as the water continued to rise at levels they said they haven't seen before.

A dock in front of Walker's Gonnan Road home on the West Side had risen nearly 10 feet. And more rain and more water was coming.

"We're a little nervous as to what we're going to wake up to," Walker said. "We're worried what tomorrow will bring."
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Poughkeepsie Journal, May 12, 2006 Newseum Image

May 12, 2006: An excerpt from a story in New York's Poughkeepsie Journal:

Ex-champ remembered fondly

By JIM SHEAHAN

NEW PALTZ -- There was one moment in the career of former heavyweight boxing champion Floyd Patterson that exemplified the kind of man he was.

It was June 2, 1960, at the Polo Grounds in New York. Patterson had just knocked out Ingemar Johansson in the fifth round, avenging a humiliating loss he suffered to the big Swede a year before.

After Johansson was counted out, Patterson ran over and cradled the man nicknamed 'The Hammer of Thor' in his arms until ringside doctors could get there.

An unusually gentle man who succeeded in a brutal business, Patterson died Thursday at the age of 71 at his home in New Paltz. He had prostate cancer and Alzheimer's disease.

"My heart's just broken," said Ron Lipton, a Hyde Park resident and a former professional boxing referee. "Yes, he was quiet and taciturn. If you were with him, a lot of times it was just quiet. But if he had something to say, you could build a house on it."
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The New York Times, May 11, 2006 Newseum Image

May 11, 2006: An excerpt from a story in The New York Times:

A. M. Rosenthal Dies at 84;
Editor of The Times

By ROBERT D. McFADDEN

A. M. Rosenthal, a Pulitzer Prize-winning foreign correspondent who became the executive editor of The New York Times and led the paper's global news operations through 17 years of record growth, modernization and major journalistic change, died yesterday in Manhattan. He was 84.

His death, at Mount Sinai Medical Center, came two weeks after he suffered a stroke, his son Andrew said. Mr. Rosenthal lived in Manhattan.

From ink-stained days as a campus correspondent at City College through exotic years as a reporter in the capitals and byways of Europe, Asia and Africa, Mr. Rosenthal climbed on rungs of talent, drive and ambition to the highest echelons of The Times and American journalism.

Brilliant, passionate, abrasive, a man of dark moods and mercurial temperament, he could coolly evaluate world developments one minute and humble a subordinate for an error in the next. He spent almost all of his 60-year career with The Times -- he often called it his life -- but it was a career in three parts: reporter, editor and columnist.
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The Courier-Mail, May 10, 2006 Newseum Image

May 10, 2006: An excerpt from a story in Brisbane, Australia's newspaper, The Courier-Mail:

'Tough miners' in good shape

Brant Webb checked himself out of hospital after less than three hours and one of the first requests from Todd Russell was for steak, eggs and chips.

It demonstrated how good a condition the pair was in despite spending a fortnight trapped underground.

Arriving on a stretcher from Beaconsfield gold mine just after 7am, Mr. Webb checked himself out of the Launceston General Hospital shortly before 10am, avoiding waiting media.

While Mr. Russell did not leave at the same time, he was seen later with mourners at colleague Larry Knight's funeral at 1pm.

Hospital chief executive officer Stephen Ayre said he was surprised just how healthy the men were and that they both walked from the mine, having been unable to stand in a tiny cage for so long.

"These two are tough Tasmanian miners, and they have held up remarkably well," he said.
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Florida Today, May 9, 2006 Newseum Image

May 9, 2006: An excerpt from a story in Florida Today:

Gov. Bush declares fire emergency
Firefighters combat lingering brush blazes in Volusia, Brevard

By BRITT KENNERLY

NEW SMYRNA BEACH -- Firefighters Monday battled fallout from brush fires that consumed 1,320 acres and damaged or destroyed three New Smyrna Beach homes. The latest fire, which started Sunday, shut down a section of Interstate 95 in Volusia County and left residents scrambling for shelter. That part of I-95 remained closed Monday night and may open this morning.

The inferno unfolded 45 miles north of the Port St. John-Cocoa area, where firefighters from Brevard and beyond have battled brush fires for almost two weeks.

"The wind just makes it horrible," said Matt DiNeglio of New Smyrna Beach, who parked off State Road 44 to watch the fire with his friend, Jimmy Riley.
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Townsville Bulletin, May 8, 2006 Newseum Image

May 8, 2006: 
Australia's Townville Bulletin reports on the two miners trapped since April 25:

13 Days…
Families, workmates continue vigil at mine rescue site

Brant Webb's father won't be able to speak when his son is finally rescued -- but his tears will be falling all over him, he said yesterday as the Webb and Russell families continued their vigil at the Beaconsfield mine. 

As teams of rescuers worked six-hour shifts to drill through rock harder than anything they have ever come across in their careers as miners, the disappointment of having to wait another night before the two men see the light of day was beginning to tell.

As the two miners enter their 13th day underground, all Australians are holding their breath, desperate for the moment when the news finally comes that the men are freed from their dark tomb. ___________________________________________

Kompas, May 5, 2006 Newseum Image

May 5, 2006: The Jakarta, Indonesia newspaper, Kompas, reports on an active volcano.  Molten lava has begun exuding from Mount Merapi on the Indonesian island of Java.

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The Roanoke Times, May 4, 2006 Newseum Image

May 4, 2006: An excerpt from a story in The Roanoke (Virginia) Times:

Life in Prison

By The Associated Press

ALEXANDRIA, VA -- Al-Qaida conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui escaped the death penalty Wednesday as a jury decided he deserved life in prison instead for his role in the bloodiest terrorist attack in U.S. history.

"America, you lost," Moussaoui taunted.

After seven days of deliberation, the nine men and three women rebuffed the government's appeal for death for the only person charged in this country in the four suicide jetliner hijackings that killed nearly 3,000 people on Sept. 11, 2001.
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The New York Sun, May 3, 2006 Newseum Image

May 3, 2006: A Page One photo caption from The New York Sun:

A fire labeled 'suspicious' laid waste to seven warehouses on Brooklyn's waterfront yesterday. Eighty units and more than 400 firefighters joined the battle against the blaze, which continued late yesterday. 

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Daily Breeze, May 2, 2006 Newseum Image

May 2, 2006: An excerpt from a story in Torrance, California's newspaper, the Daily Breeze:

Many Marches, One Message
By The Associated Press

Far from the boisterous streets where more that 1 million illegal immigrants and their supporters marched Monday, many of the restaurants, factories and construction sites they boycotted stood silent.

Kitchens that normally serve food were empty. Meat-processing plants came to a halt. Fields were barren of workers. Truckers avoided the nation's largest shipping port, and tens of thousands of students skipped school.

Despite divisions over whether the "Day Without Immigrants" sent the right message to lawmakers mulling reforms to federal law, the impact of the economic boycott was evident, though hardly uniform, at workplaces nationwide.
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Richmond Times-Dispatch, May 1, 2006 Newseum Image

May 1, 2006: An excerpt from a story in the Richmond Times-Dispatch:

A prayer for Darfur
Virginians demand more aid, money for the region

By DENA SLOAN

WASHINGTON -- Ten years ago, Apajok Deng was in a refugee camp in Kenya after fleeing civil war-ravaged Sudan in eastern Africa. Yesterday, she stood in front of the U.S. Capitol, surrounded by tens of thousands of demonstrators calling for the international community to help her native country.

"I'm really grateful" for the large crowd, said Deng, 21, who relocated to Richmond about five years ago when a Catholic organization sponsored her move to the U.S. "If something changes, that would be good. We need to save lives."

Deng, who now lives in Norfolk, was one of an estimated 10,000 to 15,000 people at a rally yesterday to draw attention to the humanitarian crisis in Darfur, the western section of Sudan. Since February 2003, the Sudanese government has escalated the violence of that country's civil war and begun engaging in activities that humanitarian groups call ethnic cleansing.