Shorts (right)
The head of California’s health department said Monday that the agency planned to sanction the University of California, Los Angeles, Medical Center after hospital workers improperly viewed the records of more than 60 patients, including the actress Farrah Fawcett and the state’s first lady, Maria Shriver.
Shorts (left)
The Washington Post won six Pulitzer Prizes on Monday, the second most that any newspaper has won in a year, including awards for reporting that helped define much of the national political dialogue in 2007.
Inflation in Asia Pressures Prices for Western Consumers
The free ride for American consumers is ending. For two generations, Americans have imported goods produced ever more cheaply from a succession of low-wage countries — first Japan and Korea, then China and now increasingly places like Vietnam and India.
Go Out and Enjoy
The presence of a high off the New England coast will dominate weather over the next couple of days. As the high moves towards the east, the southerly flow will bring relatively warm temperatures and clear skies that are, at this time of the year, modulated by the relatively cool ocean temperatures (about 40 F). As the air in near contact with the ocean follows the ocean temperature, a pressure gradient across the coast builds up, making a steady and moist sea breeze possible along coastal regions. This “sea breeze” was mostly responsible for the stratocumulus clouds and heavy drizzle observed during the last few days. With a stronger southerly flow, we could expect this low level influence to be less important, specially during Wednesday and Thursday, where temperatures will rise to about 60 F.
Pres. Candidates Converge As Iraq War Enters Spotlight
Three presidential candidates and two very different views of Iraq will be on full display on Tuesday as Gen. David H. Petraeus, the top American commander in Baghdad, testifies before the Senate in a marathon session of war and White House ambitions.
In One Law, Congress Grants Power to Trump Many Others
Securing the nation’s borders is so important, Congress says, that Michael Chertoff, the homeland security secretary, must have the power to ignore any laws that stand in the way of building a border fence. Any laws at all.
Youth Voters Supporting Sen. Obama Exhort Their Elders to Follow
The daily phone calls. The midnight e-mails. And when college lets out, those dinner table declamations? Oh, please.
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North Korea’s rising tensions with South Korea and the United States, coupled with soaring international grain prices and flood damage from last year, will probably take a heavy toll among famine-threatened people in the isolated country, relief experts said Thursday.
Appeals Court Panel Throws Out Class Action Over ‘Light’ Cigarettes
In a victory for the tobacco industry, a federal appeals court threw out on Thursday an $800 billion class-action lawsuit on behalf of smokers who said they had been misled that light cigarettes were safer than regular ones.
Americans Voice Serious Concern Over U.S. Future
Americans are more dissatisfied with the country’s direction than at any time since the New York Times/CBS News poll began asking about the subject in the 1990s, according to the latest poll.
Testimony Offers Details of Bear Stearns Takeover
Three weeks after the market crisis that forced the rescue of Bear Stearns, federal officials and senior Wall Street executives offered their first public account on Thursday of the harrowing four days of negotiations that led to a deal to sell the investment bank to JPMorgan Chase.
Former Kosovo Leader Acquitted in Hague Trial
The U.N. war crimes tribunal in The Hague on Thursday acquitted a former commander of the rebel Kosovo Liberation Army of all charges of war crimes in a decision that could inflame anti-Kosovo sentiment in Serbia just weeks after Kosovo unilaterally declared independence.
Shorts (left)
Zimbabwe’s government staged separate police raids on Thursday against the main opposition party, foreign journalists and at least one democracy advocate, raising the specter of a broad crackdown aimed at keeping the country’s imperiled leaders in power.
NATO Endorses Missile System, More Troops for Afghanistan
NATO leaders agreed Thursday to endorse a U.S. missile defense system based in Europe and to provide more troops for Afghanistan, but they refused to back President Bush’s proposal to bring Ukraine and Georgia closer to NATO membership.
WxChallenge
The letters “wx” stand for the weather, hence the name WxChallenge, a national collegiate weather forecasting competition. MIT has competed in both this competition since its inception in 2006 and also its predecessor, the NCWFC (National Collegiate Weather Forecasting Competition). In fact, we have taken the national title five of the past six years. In the contest, we forecast for a different city every two weeks, estimating the high and low temperatures on any given day, the highest wind speed, and also the precipitation amount. The contest ends today, and what happens today at the Minneapolis-St. Paul airport will determine if MIT takes the title again, or if our rival, Mississippi State University, comes out with a narrow victory. The final results will be posted on the “cumulative results” page of the WxChallenge Web site tomorrow afternoon, so check it out: <i>www.wxchallenge.com</i>.
The Day Before Yesterday
Historians at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology announced Tuesday that they have recovered the lab notebooks of famed Radiation Laboratory researcher Dr. Ira Hoaxe. The writings of Dr. Hoaxe, notable for discovering the weather forecasting technique of Doppler auguration, detail the scientist’s first forays into meteorology. Archaeologists have managed to decipher portions of Hoaxe’s texts, excerpts of which are presented here.
Increase in Disability Cases Overloading Social Security
The Social Security system is choking on paperwork and spending millions of dollars a year screening dubious applications for disability benefits, according to lawsuits filed by whistle-blowers.
Democratic Candidates Hit the Campaign Trail in Pennsylvania
The Democratic campaign took on the feel of the early voting states on Monday, back when the candidates’ buses would crisscross paths in a single state. Sens. Hillary Rodham Clinton and Barack Obama were both in eastern Pennsylvania courting voters, on a day in which Obama gained a superdelegate.
Shorts (right)
The Speech is his finely polished sword, a transcendent weapon. Seen and heard on a thousand YouTube postings, Sen. Barack Obama’s speeches have made a happening of that hoariest of campaign forms, the stump speech.
Shorts (left)
In the Katib Wilayat mosque one recent Friday, the imam was discussing the wiliness of the Jew.