Joseph Kennedy Will Not Seek Uncle’s Senate Seat
Former Rep. Joseph P. Kennedy II announced Monday that he would not seek the Senate seat held by his late uncle, Edward M. Kennedy.
18 Are Killed at MexicanDrug Rehab Center
As many as a dozen masked men armed with automatic weapons stormed into a drug rehabilitation center in this violent border city on Wednesday night, lined up recovering drug addicts and alcoholics against a wall and opened fire at point-blank range, killing 18 people.
Jeter Nears a RecordGehrig Couldn’t Savor
His body betraying him for reasons he could not understand, Lou Gehrig came to bat at Yankee Stadium in the fourth inning against the Washington Senators on April 29, 1939.
Shorts (right)
Unseasoned investigators from the SEC were alternately intimidated and enthralled by a name-dropping, yarn-spinning Bernard Madoff as he dodged questions about his financial house of cards, according to a scathing new report on the agency’s repeated failure to uncover the fraud.
Shorts (left)
President Barack Obama’s plan to deliver a speech to public school students on Tuesday has sparked a revolt among conservative parents, who have accused the president of trying to indoctrinate their children with socialist ideas and are asking school officials to excuse the children from listening.
Obama Advisers Are Split On Size of Afghan Force
The military’s anticipated request for more troops to combat the insurgency in Afghanistan has divided senior advisers to President Barack Obama as they try to determine the proper size and mission of the U.S. effort there, officials said Thursday.
Berlusconi Clashing with Catholic Church Over His Lifestyle
For months, the staid newspaper of the Italian Bishops’ Conference, Avvenire, steered largely clear of the major topic of conversation here: the spicy personal life of Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi.
Who Will Sawyer Replace at ‘Good Morning America’?
When David Westin solved his evening news problem with the promotion of the “Good Morning America” co-host Diane Sawyer this week, he created a much more onerous problem for himself in the morning.
Tropical Cyclones Remain Active in Pacific
While New England has recently felt the effects of Hurricane Bill and Tropical Storm Danny in the Atlantic, two other tropical cyclones are currently causing trouble in the Pacific Ocean. Recently, Hurricane Jimena has impacted areas of Northwest Mexico, strengthening to the verge of Category 5 status on the Saffir-Simpson Hurricane Wind Scale. On August 31, Jimena had sustained winds of 150 miles per hour while off of the Mexican West coast. Since then, the hurricane made landfall near Cabo San Lazaro, Mexico as a Category 2 storm. As of Thursday evening, Jimena continues to churn as a Tropical Storm over the Gulf of California. Meanwhile, in the East Pacific Ocean, Tropical Depression Dujuan formed on September 2nd about 80 km east of the Philippines, and is forecast to attain hurricane strength and impact the Japanese islands by the end of next week.
Attorney General Plans Overhaul At Civil Rights Division
Seven months after taking office, Attorney General Eric Holder is reshaping the Justice Department’s Civil Rights Division by pushing it back into some of the most important areas of American political life, including voting rights, housing, employment, bank lending practices and redistricting after the 2010 census.
Shorts (right)
Amid fevered speculation about possible contenders for the late Edward M. Kennedy’s U.S. Senate seat, Gov. Deval Patrick on Monday scheduled a special election for Jan. 19 and said he would keep pushing the state Legislature to change the law so he could name an interim successor.
Shorts (left)
The Walt Disney Co.’s surprise deal to acquire Marvel Entertainment for $4 billion redraws the architecture of Hollywood and spotlights how the media giant has become more aggressive than its peers about growth.
Unusual Wildfire Threatens Hundreds of Homes in Calif.
A deadly wildfire that has burned for nearly a week in the foothills north of here threatened hundreds of homes on Monday and frustrated firefighters with its unusually rapid and unpredictable spread.
Japanese Opposition Wins Elections in a Landslide
Japan’s voters cast out the Liberal Democratic Party for only the second time in postwar history on Sunday, handing a landslide victory to a party that campaigned on a promise to reverse a generation-long economic decline and redefine Tokyo’s relationship with Washington.
El Niño Projected to Strengthen
As the student population returns to MIT, it hardly seems the time to be looking ahead to the end of the semester and beyond. However, meteorologists must be aware of the atmosphere’s current patterns, and what can be expected to come; being aware of the climate in the next few months is both economically and socially advisable. For example, if drought is expected, farmers and economists alike can prepare for and hopefully mitigate any losses.
Obama to Weigh Buildup Option in Afghan War
A new report by the top commander in Afghanistan detailing the deteriorating situation there confronts President Barack Obama with the politically perilous decision of whether to deepen U.S. involvement in the eight-year-old war amid shrinking public support at home.
Shorts (left)
Even though financial stocks have rallied nearly 70 percent since the end of March, the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp. issued another grim quarterly report Thursday on the health of the nation’s banks.
Shorts (right)
For more than a decade, Dennis Rivera was New York’s mightiest labor leader, running a union of 300,000 health care workers that often bent Albany to its will as it scared — and angered — governors, Democratic and Republican, with its hard-hitting ads.
O-Rain-tation
With the Obamas in Martha’s Vineyard and the passing of Senator Kennedy, there hasn’t been a shortage of national news coverage of Massachusetts this past week. Nonetheless, tropical storm Denny is jockeying for attention as it makes its way towards Boston. Although there’s significant uncertainty in the storm’s track (and hence how much rain will fall here on campus), there is confidence in the prediction of the storms intensity. Because of the surrounding dry air, the upper-level convergence, and a southern shift of the jet stream, Denny will likely not become a hurricane.
Obama Seeks ‘New Beginning’ With Islamic World
President Barack Obama pledged on Thursday to “seek a new beginning between the United States and Muslims around the world,” imploring America and the Islamic world to drop their suspicions of one another and forge new alliances to confront violent extremism and heal religious divides.