Democratic lawmakers and Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger on Wednesday struck a groundbreaking environmental deal to reduce the state's greenhouse gas emissions by 25 percent over the next two decades.
Assembly Speaker Fabian Nunez, D-Los Angeles, hailed the long-bargained agreement as the first in the nation to impose limits on all greenhouse gases -- a move environmentalists hope will influence the federal government and other states.
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Comair 5191 never made it much beyond the moist green earth from which it had broken free.
An hour before sunrise in clearing weather, the airplane with 50 souls aboard ran out of runway. The Atlanta-bound plane lasted less than a minute aloft before falling a mile west of the airport, casting 50,000 pounds of debris and jet fuel about as it all burned mercilessly to a halt.
Forty-nine people on board were killed.
Immediately, the early-morning quiet enveloping Blue Grass Airport was no more.
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The Ledger, August 24, 2006
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August 24, 2006: An excerpt from a story in the Lakeland, Florida newspaper, The Ledger:
Kidnappers Demand A Trade With U.S.
By GREG MYRE
The New York Times
JERUSALEM -- An unknown Islamic group on Wednesday issued a sweeping demand for the release of all Muslim prisoners held in the United States in exchange for two Fox News television journalists seized at gunpoint last week in Gaza City.
The group, calling itself the Holy Jihad Brigades, had not claimed responsibility for the abductions or made any demands until Wednesday, when it released a statement along with a video of the two men, Steve Centanni, 60, an American based in Washington, and Olaf Wiig, 36, a cameraman from New Zealand.
More than a dozen Westerners have been kidnapped in the Gaza Strip in the past two years, though in every case, they were released unharmed, and almost always within 24 hours. By contrast, the video and the demand for the release of prisoners Wednesday echoed kidnappings by Islamic militant groups in Iraq, Pakistan and elsewhere. And it was another sign of the worsening security situation in Gaza one year after the Israelis pulled out.
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Izvestia, August 23, 2006
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August 23, 2006:
The Moscow, Russia newspaper, Izvestia, reports on the Russian passenger jet that crashed in a Ukrainian field. At least 170 passengers and crew members were killed.
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Publico, August 22, 2006
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August 22, 2006:
The Lisbon, Portugal newspaper, Publico, remembers Joe Rosenthal's famous World War II photograph of Marines raising the American flag atop Mount Suribachi, Iwo Jima, on Feb. 23, 1945.
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San Francisco Chronicle, August 21, 2006
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August 21, 2006: An excerpt from a story in the San Francisco Chronicle:
Joe Rosenthal 1911-2006
By KEVIN LEARY
Retired Chronicle photographer Joe Rosenthal, who won the Pulitzer Prize and international acclaim for his soul-stirring picture of the World War II flag-raising on Iwo Jima, died Sunday in Novato.
Rosenthal, 94, retired from The Chronicle in 1981 after a distinguished 35-year career and many professional honors, but the flag-raising picture was his masterpiece for which he will always be remembered.
The Pulitzer Committee in 1945 described the photo as "depicting one of the war's great moments," a "frozen flash of history."
Rosenthal, born Oct. 9, 1911, in Washington, D.C., was found dead at about 10:45 a.m. in his bed at his home in the Atria Tamalpais Creek assisted living center.
He was a 33-year-old Associated Press photographer on Feb. 23, 1945, when he captured the black-and-white image of five battle-weary Marines and a Navy corpsman struggling to raise a flag atop Mount Suribachi on Iwo Jima.
He took the picture on the fifth day of the furious 36-day battle that left 6,621 American dead and 19,217 wounded. All but 1,083 of the 22,000 dug-in Japanese defenders were killed before the island was secured.
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The Detroit News, August 18, 2006
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August 18, 2006: An excerpt from a story in The Detroit News:
Bush wiretaps illegal
Feds will appeal Detroit judge's ruling
By GREGG KRUPA
DETROIT -- In a sharp rebuke to the Bush administration's tactics in the war on terrorism, a Detroit federal judge Thursday ordered a halt to a spying program in which international telephone and Internet communications are intercepted without warrants.
U.S. District Judge Anna Diggs Taylor declared the program, conducted by the National Security Agency, unconstitutional and granted a permanent injunction requested by a group of lawyers, academicians, journalists and residents of Michigan. Taylor also ruled that the president had no authority to order spying without a warrant based on the Constitution or powers granted by Congress after the attacks of Sept. 11.
She also found that Bush had violated the constitutional provision for the separation of powers among the three branches of government, in part because Congress adopted a law requiring a warrant for such surveillance -- whether the permission is obtained before or up to three days after the surveillance begins.
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Detroit Free Press, August 18, 2006
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August 18, 2006: An excerpt from a story in the Detroit Free Press:
Challenge promised over ruling in spy case
Detroit judge: Program illegal
By DAVID ASHENFELTER and JOE SWICKARD
The Bush administration pledged Thursday to mount a fierce legal challenge after a federal judge in Detroit struck down a program that secretly intercepts the international phone calls and e-mails of thousands of people in the United States in the pursuit of terrorism suspects.
"We're going to do everything we can do in the courts to allow this program to continue," U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said at a Washington news conference. "We've had numerous statements by leaders of the intelligence community about the effectiveness of the program in protecting America."
In her 44-page decision declaring the National Security Agency's program unconstitutional, U.S. District Judge Anna Diggs Taylor wrote: "It was never the intent of the framers to give the president such unfettered control, particularly where his actions blatantly disregard the parameters clearly enumerated in the Bill of Rights."
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The Denver Post, August 17, 2006
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August 17, 2006: An excerpt from a story in The Denver Post:
Surprise confession in JonBenet case
Former teacher confesses to '96 slaying of JonBenet. Family rejoices at lifting of "umbrella of suspicion"
By KEVIN SIMPSON
A 41-year-old man arrested in Thailand Wednesday has admitted to killing 6-year-old JonBenét Ramsey, the head of Thailand immigration police said, adding a sudden, shocking twist to the sensational 1996 Boulder case that cast suspicion over the girl's parents.
John Mark Karr, who once lived about 35 miles from the Ramseys' suburban Atlanta home, admitted to the killing after he was arrested at his Bangkok apartment Wednesday night, Lt. Gen. Suwat Tumrongsiskul said.
Suwat said Karr arrived in Bangkok on June 6 from Malaysia to look for a teaching job. It was not clear whether he got a position, the police officer said.
Karr will be taken to Boulder within the next week, where he has been charged with murder, kidnapping and child sexual assault, Ann Hurst, Department of Homeland Security attaché at the American Embassy in Bangkok, said at a news conference in Bangkok.
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Rocky Mountain News, August 17, 2006
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August 17, 2006: An excerpt from a story in Denver, Colorado's Rocky Mountain News:
Big breakthrough in JonBenet case
Teacher's arrest in Thailand writes stunning chapter in 10-year mystery
By CHARLIE BRENNAN and TODD HARTMAN
The decade-long search for JonBenet Ramsey's killer came to a startling end in Thailand on Wednesday.
Thai authorities swooped down on a 41-year-old teacher in his downtown Bangkok apartment after Boulder County and U.S. officials linked him to the brutal murder of the 6-year-old beauty queen on Christmas night, 1996.
John Mark Karr's arrest comes less than two months after the death by cancer of JonBenet's mother, Patsy Ramsey, who never fully escaped an "umbrella of suspicion." If the arrest holds up, it could end an anguishing mystery that has left law-enforcement careers in ruins and many lives forever marked.
Sources close to the investigation said Karr had confessed to parts of the crime unknown to the public.
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Houston Chronicle, August 16, 2006
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August 16, 2006: An excerpt from a story in the Houston Chronicle:
Make space for three new planets
By ERIC BERGER
Parents helping their children with science-fair models of the solar system may want to double the Styrofoam budget.
An influential panel of astronomers, writers and historians has recommended the addition of three planets to the solar system's roster, bringing the total to 12, and suggested that number could grow.
As part of its decision, the panel also affirmed that Pluto, its planetary status under increasing fire in recent years, should remain a member of the club.
If approved, the new additions would be: Ceres, the largest object in the asteroid belt that orbits the sun between Mars and Jupiter; Charon, once considered Pluto's moon but now described as its companion in a "double planet" system; and 2003 UB313, an as-yet-unnamed, larger-than-Pluto object far beyond the orbit of all the other planets.
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Yedioth Ahronoth, August 15, 2006
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August 15, 2006:
The Tel Aviv, Israel newspaper, Yedioth Ahronoth, reports on the cease-fire between Israel and Lebanon.
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An-Nahar, August 15, 2006
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August 15, 2006:
The Beirut, Lebanon newspaper, An-Nahar, reports on the cease-fire between Israel and Lebanon.
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The Christian Science Monitor, August 14, 2006
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August 14, 2006: An excerpt from a story in The Christian Science Monitor:
Hostage: The Jill Carroll Story
Part 1: The kidnapping
An interview with an Iraqi politician turns deadly.
By JILL CARROLL and PETER GRIER
My chief captor had an idea about how to prod the US government into action: another video.
He said this one would be different, and left.
I turned to the two guards sitting on cushions a few feet away and started to panic. Really, really panic.
"Oh my God, oh my God, they're going to kill me, this is going to be it. I don't know when but they're going to do it," I thought.
I crawled over to Abu Hassan, the one who seemed more grown-up and sympathetic. His 9mm pistol was by his side, as usual.
"You're my brother, you're truly my brother," I said in Arabic. "Promise me you will use this gun to kill me by your own hand. I don't want that knife, I don't want the knife, use the gun."
I started to cry hysterically. By now I'd been held captive by Iraqi insurgents for six weeks. They'd given me a new hijab, a new name (Aisha), and tried to convert me to Islam. They'd let me play with their children – and repeatedly accused me of working for the CIA.
At night I'd fall asleep and be free in my dreams. Then I'd wake up and my situation would land on me like a weight. Every morning, it was as if I was kidnapped anew.
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The Guardian, August 11, 2006
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August 11, 2006: An excerpt from a story in the London newspaper, The Guardian:
'A plot to commit murder on an unimaginable scale'
By Sandra Laville, Richard Norton-Taylor and Vikram Dodd
British suicide bombers were within days of blowing up 12 passenger jets above five US cities in an unprecedented terrorist attack designed to commit "mass murder on an unimaginable scale", counterterrorism sources claimed last night.
Anti-terrorist agents said they had uncovered the plot from surveillance of a group of young British Muslims, which began nearly a year ago and was on a scale never before undertaken.
US and British counterterrorism officials claimed the men, the majority British Muslims of Pakistani descent, were going to disguise liquid explosive as bottles of soft drink and carry them in their hand luggage on to US-bound planes leaving British airports.
When the jets were in midair over American cities, they planned to combine the explosives and detonate them using an electric charge from an iPod, the security services believe. BA flights were among the targets. US officials said the bombers had been seeking to hit New York, Washington, San Francisco, Boston and Los Angeles. Other airlines targeted were thought to be United, American and Continental.
Loss of life might have surpassed the 2,700 killed in the attack on the twin towers in New York five years ago. "This was our 9/11," a British security source said.
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The Des Moines Register, August 10, 2006
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August 10, 2006: An excerpt from a story in The Des Moines Register:
A father of US space program dies
Famed Iowa City physicist a father of space program
By ERIN JORDAN
Iowa City, Ia. - James Van Allen, the Iowa physicist who was one of the world's pioneers in space exploration, died Wednesday at age 91.
The Mount Pleasant native was heavily involved in America's first successful space flight in 1958 - the launch of a satellite named Explorer I.
He was considered one of the fathers of the U.S. space program, but around Iowa City he was recognized as a revered University of Iowa professor - one who trained space scientists for 50 years and also taught an introduction to astronomy course for several generations of students studying liberal arts or business.
"He was an inspiration to all of us," said Tom Boggess, chairman of the U of I Physics and Astronomy Department. "To be as famous as he was and as intelligent and creative, he was a very humble man."
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Hartford Courant, August 9, 2006
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August 9, 2006: An excerpt from a story in the Hartford Courant:
Lieberman Defiant In Defeat
By MARK PAZNIOKAS
With the nation watching, Connecticut Democrats thronged to the polls in unexpectedly high numbers Tuesday to reject Sen. Joseph I. Lieberman and endorse his anti-war challenger, Ned Lamont.
Lamont, a first-time candidate for statewide office, defeated a three-term incumbent who had come to be defined by his defense of the war in Iraq, despite a late advertising blitz begging voters to judge him on a progressive labor and environmental record.
Lieberman, 64, his party's 2000 vice presidential nominee and a presidential hopeful only two years ago, conceded at 11:03 p.m. in a Hartford ballroom packed with national and international press. He then defiantly announced he would press on as a petitioning candidate, forcing a three-way race in November.
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Anchorage Daily News, August 8, 2006
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August 8, 2006: An excerpt from a story in the Anchorage Daily News:
Massive repairs
By WESLEY LOY and RICHARD RICHTMYER
BP announced Monday it will replace miles of key pipelines across the giant Prudhoe Bay oil field, and executives admitted the company's program to find and prevent corrosion-caused leaks is seriously flawed.
The announcements came a day after BP decided to shut down the nation's largest oil field, news that drove up crude oil and gasoline prices across the country and raised financial, supply and labor worries in Alaska.
BP executives said the oil outage could last weeks or even months.
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Ottawa Citizen, August 4, 2006
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August 4, 2006: An excerpt from a story in Canada's Ottawa Citizen:
'The worst day ever'
Deaths come on day two fallen soldiers laid to rest
By DONALD MCARTHUR
"We are truly thankful to have such a son as Christopher," she said. "He was doing what he loved, and was doing it with the guys he loved and trusted," his mother said. "We are very proud of our son and the effort he was making to improve the quality of life for Afghans."
Meanwhile, Prime Minister Stephen Harper issued a statement: "On behalf of all Canadians, I extend my deepest sympathy to the loved ones of the four Canadian soldiers who died while serving their country. I pray for the swift recovery of the soldiers who were also injured today," he said. "Their courage, in the face of complex challenges, speaks to a profound commitment to Canada and our mission in Afghanistan."
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Daily News, August 3, 2006
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August 3, 2006: An excerpt from a story in the New York Daily News:
At 102, it's too hot to handle
By MICHAEL SAUL
New York City wilted under a blanket of triple-digit heat yesterday, with subway platforms turning into scorching saunas, scattered power failures plaguing neighborhoods and men and women of all ages struggling to stay cool.
Although the high at Central Park reached only 97 degrees, LaGuardia Airport recorded a high of 102.
And meteorologists with the National Weather Service expect temperatures in the five boroughs to hover around 100 degrees again today, and the heat index, which takes into account temperature and humidity, to soar as high as 112.
Relief, though, is on the way.
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The Miami Herald, August 1, 2006
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August 1, 2006: An excerpt from story in The Miami Herald:
A prelude: Miami streets burst with spontaneous joy
By OSCAR CORRAL, TERE FIGUERAS NEGRETE, SUSANNAH A. NESMITH and SUSAN ANASAGASTI
For two generations, Cuban Americans in Miami have waited patiently for the news that reached them through cellphones, televisions, BlackBerries and radios Monday night: Fidel Castro is no longer the leader of Cuba.
At least temporarily.
But the disclaimer meant little to the thousands who took to the streets, oozing 47 years of pent-up joy as they leaned madly on car horns to awaken anybody who may not have heard:
Fidel Castro, suffering from a serious illness, ceded power Monday night to his brother, 75-year-old Raúl Castro, the leader of Cuba's armed forces.
Minutes after the announcement from Havana, news spread like electronic wildfire, with countless hands reaching simultaneously for telephones and television remotes. Nostalgia clashed with disbelief in an electrified Miami.
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El Neuvo Herald, August 1, 2006
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August 1, 2006:
The Miami newspaper, El Nuevo Herald, reports that Cuban leader Fidel Castro has ceded power to his brother.
