The Washington Times stories: National

300 graves tampered with near Chicago

Sophia Tareen ASSOCIATED PRESS — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 15:27:00 -0400

ALSIP, Illinois — Four workers were charged Thursday in an elaborate scheme in which hundreds of corpses were dug up at a historic black cemetery near Chicago and strewn in a weeded area or reburied with other bodies so that plots could be resold, authorities said. Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart said more than a dozen FBI agents would help sort through the evidence and identify bodies at the Burr Oak Cemetery, as distraught families waited to find out if their loved ones were among those whose graves were plundered. Many notable black Americans were buried at the site, including ...

D.C. panda Tai Shan celebrates 4th birthday

Michelle Bollman THE WASHINGTON TIMES — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 14:04:38 -0400

It's hard to believe the Washington, D.C., panda was the size of a stick of butter 4 years ago, but now the 200-pound bear celebrated his birthday on Thursday with his own cake and about 100 adoring fans. At 8:30 a.m., Tai Shan enjoyed his "cake" — a frozen treat made of water, bamboo, shredded beets and beet juice. Tai Shan, which is Chinese for "butterstick," was the first panda cub to survive after birth at the Smithsonian National Zoological Park and the third to live after birth in captivity in the United States. Tai Shan parents, Mei Xiang and ...

Homeless numbers include more families

Kevin Freking ASSOCIATED PRESS — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 11:36:56 -0400

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The face of homelessness in the United States is changing to include more families and more people who live in the suburbs and rural communities. The number of homeless has remained steady since 2007, but within the overall count are trends that can tell officials where federal resources would do the most good, the Housing and Urban Development Department says in its annual report to Congress being released Thursday. About 1.6 million people used a homeless shelter or lived in transitional housing between Oct. 1, 2007, and Sept. 30, 2008 -- about the same as the year ...

Ill. sheriff: Graves dug up to resell plots

ASSOCIATED PRESS — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 10:25:35 -0400

ALSIP, Ill. (AP) -- Workers at a historic Illinois cemetery may have dug up more than 100 bodies and dumped them in mass graves at the back of the 150-acre property in a scheme to resell plots to unsuspecting customers, authorities said Wednesday. Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart said his office was questioning five employees from Burr Oak Cemetery in Alsip, about 20 miles southwest of Chicago. But no charges were announced and investigators were working to determine how many plots may have been resold. The sheriff's investigation began six weeks ago when the cemetery's owner reported that an employee ...

HOLMES: Deja vu on dictators, double standards

Kim R. Holmes — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 04:45:02 -0400

OPINION/ANALYSIS: Thirty years ago, Jeane J. Kirkpatrick charged the Carter administration with hypocrisy and doublethink. Why, she asked in "Dictatorships and Double Standards," did President Carter always seem to find fault with the human rights records of friendly powers while letting unfriendly states off the hook? Why, she wondered, was the triumph of unfriendly states considered beneficial to America's "true interests?" Mr. Carter had no good answers. Neither does President Obama, who appears to be heading down a similar path of hypocrisy. His siding with a leftist authoritarian, Venezuela's Hugo Chavez, against pro-American groups in Honduras is an approach right ...

YON: Girl with no future

Michael Yon — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 04:45:01 -0400

AFGHANISTAN It's not the troops; it's not the economy; it's not that it's mountainous and landlocked like Austria and Switzerland. It's the society. I write these words from Ghor province, and it's like the Jurassic Park in Helmand, Kandahar, Zabul, Nangahar ... keep going. A person can tool around in towns like Kabul, Jalalabad or Mazar-i-Sharif and build up hopes, but to extrapolate beyond the tangible is folly. Iraq is 1,000 years more advanced than Afghanistan. Nepal is far more connected to and cognizant of the outside world. After nearly eight years of war and billions spent, there is not ...

U.S. sued over gay marriage

ASSOCIATED PRESS — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 04:45:00 -0400

BOSTON (AP) | Massachusetts, the first state to legalize gay marriage, sued the U.S. government Wednesday over a federal law that defines marriage as a union between a man and a woman. The federal Defense of Marriage Act (DOMA) interferes with the right of Massachusetts to define and regulate marriage as it sees fit, Massachusetts Attorney General Martha Coakley said. The 1996 law denies federal recognition of gay marriage and gives states the right to refuse to recognize same-sex marriages performed in other states. Massachusetts is the first state to challenge the federal law. Its lawsuit, filed in federal court ...

1 in 4 early abortions by pill, study finds

Linda A. Johnson ASSOCIATED PRESS — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 04:45:00 -0400

About one-fourth of American women getting early abortions last year did so with drugs rather than surgery, statistics show, as a new study reported improved safety in using the so-called abortion pill. Some experts predict the percentage of such "medical abortions," which offer more privacy than surgical termination at an abortion clinic or hospital, will rise even more because of the new study. The research, done at Planned Parenthood clinics across the country, shows that a new way of giving pills to induce abortion virtually eliminated the risk for a rare but dangerous infection. "This is the first really huge ...

Blagojevich aide pleads guilty to seat for sale

Mike Robinson ASSOCIATED PRESS — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 04:45:00 -0400

CHICAGO | A former chief of staff to Rod Blagojevich pleaded guilty Wednesday to taking part in a scheme to sell or trade President Obama's Senate seat and vowed to testify at the ousted governor's corruption trial. John Harris, 47, admitted in his signed plea agreement that he repeatedly talked with Mr. Blagojevich about how the then-governor could turn his power to name a successor to Mr. Obama to his own financial advantage -- such as trading it for a high-paying job. Harris' defense attorney, Terry Ekl, said he expects Mr. Blagojevich to go to trial on racketeering conspiracy charges ...

DUIN: Di Noia slated for archbishop post in Rome

Thu, 09 Jul 2009 04:45:00 -0400

An unusual person will become an archbishop Saturday afternoon at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception here in Washington; unusual, in that he's a home-grown Dominican priest soon to be second-in-command at the Vatican's Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments. That is important, as that congregation will soon release a new Mass translation for the world's English-speaking Catholics, and the Vatican needed a native English speaker and theologian to oversee it. Enter the Rev. Augustine "Gus" Di Noia, who turns 66 on Friday and who, in 2002, was whisked from his job ...

Hot Button

Thu, 09 Jul 2009 04:45:00 -0400

The unions' pope The unions may be losing Democrats in pursuit of their No. 1 legislative priority, but they say one powerful ally remains on their side: God. The Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), which would ease union organizing rules, is widely supported by Democrats who control the House, the Senate and the White House, but progress on the bill has stalled in light of the economic downturn and the 2010 elections. Rep. Charlie Melancon, Louisiana Democrat, who may challenge Republican Sen. David Vitter in 2010, is the latest to fall off the EFCA wagon. The Hill reported Wednesday that ...

Hard times hit church retreats

Jay Reeves ASSOCIATED PRESS — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 04:45:00 -0400

GALLANT, Ala. Camp Sumatanga has meant Bible stories and softball games for generations of Methodist families. Young and old alike come to the old church retreat for renewal in its quiet coves and chapels. Today, though, the 1,700-acre retreat is in danger of shutting down. Nestled in the Appalachian foothills, it's among hundreds of church camps nationwide that are on the critical list. Years of declining usage and the recession have forced administrators to consider closing or cutting services. The president of the Christian Camp and Conference Association, Bob Kobielush, said dozens of camps nationwide ceased operating in the past ...

Across the Nation

From wire dispatches and staff reports — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 04:45:00 -0400

ALASKA Group to sue EPA over polar bears ANCHORAGE | An environmental group has given formal notice that it will sue the federal government to protect polar bears from pesticide pollution. The Center for Biological Diversity on Wednesday gave 60-day notice it will sue the Environmental Protection Agency for failing to consider the effects of pesticides on polar bears and their Arctic habitat. The group said pesticides reach the Arctic through the atmosphere and the ocean, plus the food chain as pesticides are digested but not broken down. Spokeswoman Rebecca Noblin said the pollutants become concentrated in polar bears, the ...

Protesters add face to Rushmore

ASSOCIATED PRESS — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 04:45:00 -0400

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. (AP) -- Environmentalists using park service rock anchors scaled Mount Rushmore on Wednesday and unfurled a banner along President Abraham Lincoln's face challenging America's leaders to stop global warming. Eleven people were charged with trespassing and the misdemeanor crime of climbing on Mount Rushmore National Monument, U.S. Attorney Marty Jackley said. They pleaded not guilty to all charges. The environmental group Greenpeace said in a statement that three of its members hung the banner on Mount Rushmore while other activists blocked access to the site. Greenpeace said the climbers, using existing rock anchors that the park service ...

Girlfriend shot sleeping McNair

Lucas L. Johnson II ASSOCIATED PRESS — Thu, 09 Jul 2009 04:45:00 -0400

NASHVILLE, Tenn. | Former NFL star Steve McNair was shot dead in his sleep last week by a 20-year-old girlfriend distraught about mounting financial problems and her belief that he was seeing someone else, police said Wednesday. Sahel Kazemi "was spinning out of control" when she shot McNair four times as he dozed on a sofa early Saturday, then turned the gun on herself, Police Chief Ronal Serpas said. Interviews with friends revealed she was making payments on two cars, her rent was doubling and she suspected the married McNair was having a second affair with another young woman. She ...

Police: McNair's girlfriend behind murder

Lucas L. Johnson ASSOCIATED PRESS — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 16:12:57 -0400

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (AP) -- Police confirmed Wednesday that ex-NFL star Steve McNair's 20-year-old girlfriend killed him before turning the gun on herself. They said they may never know what was going through Sahel Kazemi's mind when she shot McNair in his condominium early Saturday, but interviews with friends led detectives to conclude she was becoming increasingly distraught over events in her life, including financial problems. Police said she also suspected McNair was seeing another woman. Police earlier had labeled McNair's death a homicide, but awaited further tests and investigation before saying for sure what happened. At one point, Kazemi told ...

Google's new operating system to take on Microsoft

Michael Liedtke ASSOCIATED PRESS — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 09:50:58 -0400

SUN VALLEY, Idaho (AP) -- Google Inc. is working on a new operating system for inexpensive computers in a daring attempt to wrest away Microsoft Corp.'s long-running control over people's computing experience. The new operating system, announced late Tuesday night on Google's Web site, will be based on the company's nine-month-old Web browser, Chrome. Google intends to rely on help from the community of open-source programmers to develop the Chrome operating system, which is expected to begin running computers in the second half of 2010. The Mountain View, Calif.-based company disclosed its plans for the operating system shortly after an ...

King of Pop may live on -- image remade

Wed, 08 Jul 2009 04:45:10 -0400

By the time it ended, he was viewed as an oddity by those who had followed his trajectory, a boy-man with a sculpted netherworldly face but with talent as extraterrestrial as his look. At 50, despite his obvious creative genius, Michael Jackson seemed a bleached, wandering contradiction to some, a global icon and a drug-connected has-been, living with the pain -- and hubris -- of his largesse and in a creative abyss that forced him to perform himself out of debt. Could he have known that in death he would be celebrated around the world with a soulful tribute a ...

Jurors view tape of Jefferson taking briefcase

Wed, 08 Jul 2009 04:45:09 -0400

"Would you like to look inside the briefcase?" former Rep. William J. Jefferson is asked by an FBI informant on a surveillance tape played for the jury at the Louisiana Democrat's bribery trial Tuesday. "No, I would not," the congressman replies as he takes the briefcase containing $100,000 in cash from the trunk of the informant's car -- providing what the prosecution cites as clear evidence of a criminal act. Prosecutors say the July 30, 2005, payment was a bribe facilitated by Mr. Jefferson and intended for the vice president of Nigeria. In exchange for the money, American companies hoped ...

World bids farewell to Jackson

Joseph Weber, Julie Pendray and Michelle Bollman THE WASHINGTON TIMES — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 04:45:07 -0400

LOS ANGELES | The world stopped Tuesday for the Michael Jackson memorial. Millions around the globe set aside whatever they were doing and watched the tribute to the King of Pop on television, via Internet streams or inside Staples Center if they were lucky enough to secure tickets. The public memorial had been billed as an unparalleled Hollywood-style event, but it unfolded into a largely somber farewell with goodbyes from family, friends and some of the entertainment industry's biggest stars. "The more I think about Michael Jackson, the more I think 'the King of Pop' is not big enough for ...