Links to the News

Toronto Star, Feb. 13, 2010 Newseum Image

February 13, 2010: An excerpt from a story in the Toronto Star:

Ecstasy and agony at the Olympics
Thrill of first day of Vancouver Games marred by tragedy

By ROSIE DIMANNO 

VANCOUVER -- Last coming in, first going out.

The final team to enter B.C. Place in Friday night's Opening Ceremonies; the top medalled nation when the Vancouver Olympics come to a close on Feb. 28. At least, that's the plan.

But, my God, how the unplanned and unimaginable can seize the day and squeeze the heart – a pall hovering over events all yesterday with the shocking news that Georgian luger Nodar Kumaritashvili, only 21 years old, had died following a ghastly accident while training on the course in Whistler.

In the midst of all this youth and near physical perfection, the robust health of some 5,500 athletes, premature death came as a stranger, despite the risks involved in many of the Winter Games sports, some of which have veered off into "X'' Games recklessness.

The team from Georgia decided collectively, however, to stay in Vancouver, compete in their events, and even attend the opening ceremonies, wearing black arm bands and leaving a spot in their Parade of Nations formation for the lost friend. The opening ceremonies were formally dedicated to the memory of Kumaritashvili. The small and sombre-faced team received a stirring standing ovation.
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The Times-Picayune, Feb. 8, 2010 Newseum Image

February 8, 2010: An excerpt from a story in The Times-Picayune:

New Orleans Saints win Super Bowl XLIV for Who Dats everywhere

By BRUCE NOLAN 

At 8:15 p.m, when Jeremy Shockey’s touchdown put the New Orleans Saints ahead late in the game, the crowds at Pat O’Brien’s exploded. Fifteen minutes later, when Tracy Porter’s interception sealed the deal, strangers were hopping up and down, high-fiving and hugging. And when the gun went off about 8:45 p.m., all of New Orleans -- and all lovers of New Orleans in faraway places – leaped, or wept or punched the air for joy.

Dear Lord, Hallelujah! Who Dat Nation had reached the Promised Land.

After 43 seasons of marital loyalty, of occasional fan abuse and frequent heartbreak, the Saints and their battered, deliriously joyous city stood atop the world Sunday as the Saints beat the Indianapolis Colts, 31-17 in Super Bowl XLIV in Miami.

It meant so much more than football.

It meant victory for a recovering city that in some places still bears the dirty water lines of Hurricane Katrina. Victory for people who lived two years in trailers. Victory for new post-Katrina friends who fell in love with New Orleans rebuilding it. Victory for New Orleanians cheering in exile from Alaska to Miami. Victory on Facebook and on Twitter. Victory on Bourbon Street, on Caffin Avenue, in Chalmette, in Lakeview and St. Tammany.

And it meant victory for countless New Orleanians like Desana Williams, who left Holly Grove in 1998 for a new life in Stafford, Va. But this weekend, Williams and his wife, Malaika, fought their way off the snowbound Atlantic seaboard to get back home for this.

They could be nowhere else, he said.
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Union Leader, Jan. 29, 2010 Newseum Image

January 28, 2010: An excerpt from a story in the Manchester, New Hampshire newspaper, the Union Leader:

'Catcher in the Rye' Author J.D. Salinger Dies

By HILLEL ITALE (AP Writer)

NEW YORK -- J.D. Salinger, the legendary author, youth hero and fugitive from fame whose "The Catcher in the Rye" shocked and inspired a world he increasingly shunned, has died. He was 91.

Salinger died of natural causes at his home on Wednesday, the author's son, actor Matt Salinger, said in a statement from Salinger's longtime literary representative, Harold Ober Associates, Inc. He had lived for decades in self-imposed isolation in a small, remote house in Cornish.

"The Catcher in the Rye," with its immortal teenage protagonist, the twisted, rebellious Holden Caulfield, came out in 1951, a time of anxious, Cold War conformity and the dawn of modern adolescence. The Book-of-the-Month Club, which made "Catcher" a featured selection, advised that for "anyone who has ever brought up a son" the novel will be "a source of wonder and delight -- and concern."
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The Washington Post, Jan. 28, 2010 Newseum Image

January 28, 2010: An excerpt from a story in The Washington Post:

First State of the Union speech by President Obama: 'We face a deficit of trust'

By ANNE E. KORNBLUT and MICHAEL D. SHEAR 

President Obama delivered an urgent plea for unity on Wednesday night during his first State of the Union address, seeking to recapture the energy that propelled him into office and to reverse his party's trajectory after a series of recent setbacks.

A year after entering the White House with a broad mandate, Obama reframed his agenda around a single, central mission: continuing the nation's delicate economic recovery. He focused on jobs, casting himself as the advocate of average citizens, and acknowledged that his administration had "some political setbacks this year, and some of them were deserved."

"But I wake up every day knowing that they are nothing compared to the setbacks that families all across this country have faced this year. And what keeps me going, what keeps me fighting, is that despite all these setbacks, that spirit of determination and optimism -- that fundamental decency that has always been at the core of the American people -- lives on," he said.
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San Jose Mercury News, Jan. 28, 2010 Newseum Image

January 28, 2010: An excerpt from a story in the San Jose Mercury News:

Apple tablet: Steve Jobs unveils $499-and-up iPad

By JOHN BOUDREAU

SAN FRANCISCO -- Apple CEO Steve Jobs unveiled the biggest nonsecret in the tech world Wednesday -- a multimedia tablet computer named the iPad -- yet still managed to surprise his audience with the low price of the latest creation from the iconic Cupertino company.

The magazine-thin tablet, which starts at $499, is a full-color e-reader, game device and video player all in one that some analysts say could create a new and lucrative product line for a company with a track record for transforming consumer technology.

Users can navigate Web pages with their fingertips; a pinch of the multitouch screen zooms in on a satellite map, a tap on the right side turns a page. The iPad can be viewed vertically or horizontally -- the content instantly reconfigures to fit the position of the tablet. Although it comes with a virtual keyboard, Apple also offers a real keyboard that includes a docking station that can charge the iPad.
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The Boston Globe, Jan. 20, 2010 Newseum Image

January 20, 2010: An excerpt from a story in The Boston Globe:

Big win for Brown
Republican trounces Coakley for Senate, imperils Obama health plan

By MATT VISER and ANDREA ESTES 

Republican Scott P. Brown pulled off one of the biggest upsets in Massachusetts political history last night, defeating Democrat Martha Coakley to become the state's next US senator and potentially derailing President Obama's hopes for a health care overhaul.

The stunning, come-from-behind victory caps a dramatic surge in recent days as Brown, a state lawmaker from Wrentham once thought to have little chance of beating a popular attorney general, roared ahead of Coakley to become the first Republican senator elected from Massachusetts since 1972.
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The Miami Herald, January 14, 2010 Newseum Image

January 14, 2010: An excerpt from a story in The Miami Herald:

Massive damage stymies Haiti relief efforts as bodies pile up

By JACQUELINE CHARLES, LESLEY CLARK, FRANCES ROBLES AND TRENTON DANIEL

PORT-AU-PRINCE, Haiti -- Survivors of Haiti's devastating earthquake waded through thousands of bodies strewn around the Port-au-Prince morgue, as rescue workers from across the globe raced against the clock to reach the shattered nation.

With emergency crews from the United States, Spain and Venezuela already on the ground, others were being turned away from landing at the city's airport due to over-crowding.

President Barack Obama said U.S. troops were on their way in what he called "one of the largest relief efforts in history."

As crowds camped out in city parks, bodies lay along sidewalks as common citizens did their best to tend to the wounded.

The Haitian Red Cross now esimates the number of deaths at between 45,000 and 50,000.
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St. Louis Post-Dispatch, January 12, 2010 Newseum Image

January 12, 2010: An excerpt from a story in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch:

McGwire comes clean on steroid use

By JOE STRAUSS

Mark McGwire, who rejuvenated baseball with his 1998 run to the single-season home run title and then became one of the faces of the game's steroid era with his uncomfortable testimony before Congress in 2005, said Monday that he used performance enhancing drugs for much of his career.

Describing it as "one of the toughest days of my life," McGwire made his admission through a prepared statement released by the Cardinals to The Associated Press. He later elaborated in a sometimes emotional 20-minute interview with the Post-Dispatch, followed up with select interviews with other national media and ended with a televised interview with Bob Costas on the MLB Network.
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San Francisco Chronicle, January 6, 2010 Newseum Image

January 6, 2010: An excerpt from a story in the San Francisco Chronicle:

Google versus Apple

By BENNY EVANGELISTA

The rivalry between Apple and Google intensified Tuesday as the Silicon Valley giants pushed into each other's home turf.

In separate developments, Apple -- an icon of consumer electronics -- bought a mobile-advertising startup, while online ad king Google began selling its own smart phone.

Apple is "on path to collide with Google," said analyst Tim Bajarin of Creative Strategies Inc. in Campbell.

And with a Google-branded phone "aimed directly at the iPhone, Google could clearly become one of Apple's biggest rivals in the future."
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Gulf News, Jan. 4, 2010 Newseum Image

January 4, 2010: An excerpt from a story in the Dubai, United Arab Emirates newspaper, the Gulf News:

Burj Khalifa offers amazing high-rise experience

By ARNO MAIERBRUGGER 

The Burj Khalifa is not only the tallest man-made structure ever built, it is also -- compared to other super high-rises worldwide -- a true multi-purpose building.

While other comparable skyscrapers like the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur, the Taipei 101 or the Willis Tower in Chicago (formerly Sears Tower) are mainly used for offices or business purposes, the Burj Dubai has it all: It comprises a hotel, residential apartments, offices as well as public facilities.