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August 30, 2007
We suppose that if you're a UN inspector who just investigated an Iraqi chemical weapons facility, you might be too tired to store poisonous chemicals properly and might just throw them into storage. Last week, archivists at the United Nations Monitoring, Verification and Inspection Commission discovered phosgene, a hazardous material that was "used during World War I as a choking agent" in files dating back to the 1990s, prompting the FBI and NYPD to head... [continue]
| August 29, 2007
Today is the second anniversary of Hurricane Katrina's appearance in New Orleans. The storm eventually killed more than 1,600 people in Louisiana and Mississippi and raised many questions about infrastructure of levees and the federal response. President Bush spoke in New Orleans today (text here) where the Times-Picayune printed an editorial asking the President to treat New Orleans fairly: "Nobody wants to have to compete for disaster relief. But that is what Louisianians have... [continue]
August 27, 2007
This is some way to start off the week before Labor Day weekend: U.S. Attorney General Alberto Gonzales has resigned. The NY Times reports, per a White House source, that Gonzales called President Bush (who was at his ranch in Crawford) on Friday to submit his resignation: "His decision was not immediately announced, the official added, until after the president invited him and his wife to lunch at his ranch." Bush apparently accepted the resignation... [continue]
August 24, 2007
Grace Paley, New York's official state author from 1986-88, died at the age of 84 yesterday. She had been battling breast cancer for quite some time. The author, born in the Bronx on December 11th, 1922, still kept an apartment in Manhattan -- but was at her home in Vermont at the time of death. The NY Times recaps her life in literature:Ms. Paley’s output was modest, about four-dozen stories in three volumes: “The Little... [continue]
August 13, 2007
Yesterday Merv Griffin lost his battle to prostate cancer at Cedars Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles at the age of 82. He received his first treatment for this in 1996 and in late July of this year it was publicized that the cancer had come back. In a statement on Merv.com his son Tony said: "My father was a visionary. He loved business and continued his many projects and holdings even while hospitalized. We take... [continue]
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August 13, 2007
Karl Rove, the political mastermind who maneuvered George W. Bush to the White house twice, will be stepping down from his role as President Bush's political adviser at the end of the month. In an interview with the Wall Street Journal, Rove explained, "I just think it's time. There's always something that can keep you here, and as much as I'd like to be here, I've got to do this for the sake of... [continue]