2008 Woodie Awards
Headlines
COMPILED BY ARBITER STAFF
Issue date: 10/13/08 Section: News
World
Arab countries investing in educational revolution
DOHA, Qatar – On a vast, half-built campus rising from the desert sands of this Arab emirate, the Medill School of Journalism’s newest freshman class is being schooled in basic journalistic principles such as asking questions and challenging authority.
It’s a world away from the lush green environs of Northwestern University’s Evanston, Ill., campus, but the 17 students from 10 nations in the journalism program are being taught the same courses as their Evanston counterparts, by professors from Evanston.
And when they conclude their degrees in four years, they will get certificates identical to those of their Evanston peers, with no mention that they completed studies in a desert 7,000 miles away.
Medill’s new Qatar campus, which opened in August, puts Northwestern on the cutting edge of a lavishly bold experiment aimed at bringing top-flight U.S. education directly to the Arab world, funded by the vast influx of oil and gas wealth that has accompanied soaring energy prices in recent years.
U.S. Embassy appeals for information on Americans missing in Lebanon
BEIRUT – The U.S. Embassy in Lebanon issued an appeal for information Wednesday on behalf of the families of two missing Americans who have not been heard from since they checked out of a Beirut hotel a week ago.
Taylor Luck, 23, of Oak Park, Ill., and Holli Chmela, 27, reportedly of the Washington D.C. area, have not been heard from since they left the hotel Oct. 1, telling friends they planned to travel north to the Lebanese port city of Tripoli and then to Syria, a statement from the U.S. Embassy said.
The two worked at the Jordan Times in the Jordanian capital, Amman, and went to Lebanon for a vacation during the five-day Muslim Eid festival marking the end of Ramadan, the newspaper’s editor-in-chief Samir Barhoum said.
National
American heartland suffers from Wall Street’s woes
WASHINGTON – While all eyes were on Wall Street’s plunge Thursday, its cause is being felt across America as the snowballing financial crisis sends an already weak economy into an accelerating decline.
Dispatches from McClatchy newspapers in 30 U.S. cities make it clear Main Street America is suffering from the deteriorating health of Wall Street. Banks are unable or unwilling to lend amid the growing crisis, and that’s deepening the downturn.
In Sacramento, Calif., Bertram Chatham runs seasonal Halloween stores that stay open just a few months of the year. Last year, he received a $26,000 line of credit, but as the credit crunch worsened, Wells Fargo allowed Chatham to tap just $10,000. He opened one store instead of two this year. That means 30 fewer jobs.
“We didn’t understand it [but] we understand it now. They simply don’t have the money to lend,” Chatham told The Sacramento Bee.
Citi steps aside; Wells Fargo proceeds with Wachovia deal
CHARLOTTE, N.C. – In a dramatic battle over the future of Wachovia, Wells Fargo prevailed Thursday, saying it will move forward with its merger with the Charlotte bank after Citigroup stepped aside.
After making dueling bids for Wachovia, Citi and Wells had been negotiating a compromise that included the possible splitting up of Wachovia’s operations between the two companies. But talks broke off Thursday afternoon, and Citi said it would not try to stop a Wells-Wachovia deal, although it will proceed with a lawsuit against the banks.
“We are delighted to stride ahead with Wells Fargo in creating a coast-to-coast financial institution – one of the strongest financial firms in the world,” Wachovia Chief Executive Bob Steel said in a statement.
Did U.S. government snoop on Americans’ phone calls?
WASHINGTON – The Senate Intelligence Committee is examining allegations by two former U.S. military linguists that the super-secret National Security Agency routinely eavesdropped on the private telephone calls of American military officers, journalists and aid workers.
NSA interceptors supposedly shared some intercepts of highly personal conversations, including “phone sex.”
If the allegations are true, they could re-ignite a political firestorm over the administration’s post-Sept. 11 eavesdropping operations and its efforts to collect vast quantities of data about Americans’ tax, medical and travel records, credit card purchases, e-mails and other information.
President Bush and other senior officials have repeatedly asserted that after the Sept. 11 attacks the NSA only monitored the private communications of Americans who were suspected of links to al-Qaida or other terrorist groups without court orders.
Local/BSU
Idaho economists: layoffs come as no surprise
BOISE – The 1,500 layoffs Micron announced Thursday came as no big surprise to Idaho economists, who cited this as just the latest news in an industry reeling since the end of 2006.
State Economist Mike Ferguson foresaw pink slips for high-tech workers in the most recent quarterly economic forecast released in July. However, he said the Micron announcement might cause the state to adjust its long-term forecast in the next quarterly report to be released later this month.
“We’ve already had job losses in that sector and we are anticipating further losses,” Ferguson told the Idaho Press-Tribune Thursday. “In other words, it doesn’t really come as a surprise because we’ve noticed that the semiconductor manufacturing industry is facing very difficult conditions.”
ITD report covers funding
Idaho needs an extra $240 million a year to fix and improve its roads and highway systems, according to Gov. C.L. “Butch” Otter and state transportation officials.
Citizens who attended seven transportation funding conferences around the state this summer said they see the need for the money.
The question now – as it has been for many years – is what taxes or fees should be increased to meet those needs and just how much money should come out of Idahoans’ pockets to do so.
“The whole discussion has been ‘Where can we find more funding,’ and none of the talk has been ‘Where can we cut back,’ ” Nampa GOP Rep. Steve Kren said.
The state is auditing the Idaho Transportation Department to see if it can find more ways the agency can save money. ITD leaders recently found areas in which it can save $50 million through 2012.
Options for raising more money for roads include raising fuel taxes, registration fees or increasing other user fees.
What The?
No, you’ve got the wrong guy
Facing a domestic charge, a man in Portsmouth, N.H., didn’t want the police to know his true identity because there was a warrant out for his arrest, so he showed them his friend’s driver’s license. Unfortunately for him, there was also a warrant out for the friend’s arrest.
Now we have to call her B-Stab
At a gang meeting at a house in Wichita, Kan., two young men began arguing over which of them would get the nickname “C-Thug.” When the argument got out of hand, a 44-year-old woman who lived in the residence stabbed one of them to put a stop to it.
Just my way of honoring her
A businessman tried to open an All Terrain Vehicle rental shop in the small, mountain town of Allenspark, Colo., but a local woman rallied opposition to stop him and, as a result, he was denied the special-use permit he needed to open. In response, he decided to open a Triple X-rated porn gallery instead and name it after the woman who mounted the campaign against him.
Arab countries investing in educational revolution
DOHA, Qatar – On a vast, half-built campus rising from the desert sands of this Arab emirate, the Medill School of Journalism’s newest freshman class is being schooled in basic journalistic principles such as asking questions and challenging authority.
It’s a world away from the lush green environs of Northwestern University’s Evanston, Ill., campus, but the 17 students from 10 nations in the journalism program are being taught the same courses as their Evanston counterparts, by professors from Evanston.
And when they conclude their degrees in four years, they will get certificates identical to those of their Evanston peers, with no mention that they completed studies in a desert 7,000 miles away.
Medill’s new Qatar campus, which opened in August, puts Northwestern on the cutting edge of a lavishly bold experiment aimed at bringing top-flight U.S. education directly to the Arab world, funded by the vast influx of oil and gas wealth that has accompanied soaring energy prices in recent years.
U.S. Embassy appeals for information on Americans missing in Lebanon
BEIRUT – The U.S. Embassy in Lebanon issued an appeal for information Wednesday on behalf of the families of two missing Americans who have not been heard from since they checked out of a Beirut hotel a week ago.
Taylor Luck, 23, of Oak Park, Ill., and Holli Chmela, 27, reportedly of the Washington D.C. area, have not been heard from since they left the hotel Oct. 1, telling friends they planned to travel north to the Lebanese port city of Tripoli and then to Syria, a statement from the U.S. Embassy said.
The two worked at the Jordan Times in the Jordanian capital, Amman, and went to Lebanon for a vacation during the five-day Muslim Eid festival marking the end of Ramadan, the newspaper’s editor-in-chief Samir Barhoum said.
National
American heartland suffers from Wall Street’s woes
WASHINGTON – While all eyes were on Wall Street’s plunge Thursday, its cause is being felt across America as the snowballing financial crisis sends an already weak economy into an accelerating decline.
Dispatches from McClatchy newspapers in 30 U.S. cities make it clear Main Street America is suffering from the deteriorating health of Wall Street. Banks are unable or unwilling to lend amid the growing crisis, and that’s deepening the downturn.
In Sacramento, Calif., Bertram Chatham runs seasonal Halloween stores that stay open just a few months of the year. Last year, he received a $26,000 line of credit, but as the credit crunch worsened, Wells Fargo allowed Chatham to tap just $10,000. He opened one store instead of two this year. That means 30 fewer jobs.
“We didn’t understand it [but] we understand it now. They simply don’t have the money to lend,” Chatham told The Sacramento Bee.
Citi steps aside; Wells Fargo proceeds with Wachovia deal
CHARLOTTE, N.C. – In a dramatic battle over the future of Wachovia, Wells Fargo prevailed Thursday, saying it will move forward with its merger with the Charlotte bank after Citigroup stepped aside.
After making dueling bids for Wachovia, Citi and Wells had been negotiating a compromise that included the possible splitting up of Wachovia’s operations between the two companies. But talks broke off Thursday afternoon, and Citi said it would not try to stop a Wells-Wachovia deal, although it will proceed with a lawsuit against the banks.
“We are delighted to stride ahead with Wells Fargo in creating a coast-to-coast financial institution – one of the strongest financial firms in the world,” Wachovia Chief Executive Bob Steel said in a statement.
Did U.S. government snoop on Americans’ phone calls?
WASHINGTON – The Senate Intelligence Committee is examining allegations by two former U.S. military linguists that the super-secret National Security Agency routinely eavesdropped on the private telephone calls of American military officers, journalists and aid workers.
NSA interceptors supposedly shared some intercepts of highly personal conversations, including “phone sex.”
If the allegations are true, they could re-ignite a political firestorm over the administration’s post-Sept. 11 eavesdropping operations and its efforts to collect vast quantities of data about Americans’ tax, medical and travel records, credit card purchases, e-mails and other information.
President Bush and other senior officials have repeatedly asserted that after the Sept. 11 attacks the NSA only monitored the private communications of Americans who were suspected of links to al-Qaida or other terrorist groups without court orders.
Local/BSU
Idaho economists: layoffs come as no surprise
BOISE – The 1,500 layoffs Micron announced Thursday came as no big surprise to Idaho economists, who cited this as just the latest news in an industry reeling since the end of 2006.
State Economist Mike Ferguson foresaw pink slips for high-tech workers in the most recent quarterly economic forecast released in July. However, he said the Micron announcement might cause the state to adjust its long-term forecast in the next quarterly report to be released later this month.
“We’ve already had job losses in that sector and we are anticipating further losses,” Ferguson told the Idaho Press-Tribune Thursday. “In other words, it doesn’t really come as a surprise because we’ve noticed that the semiconductor manufacturing industry is facing very difficult conditions.”
ITD report covers funding
Idaho needs an extra $240 million a year to fix and improve its roads and highway systems, according to Gov. C.L. “Butch” Otter and state transportation officials.
Citizens who attended seven transportation funding conferences around the state this summer said they see the need for the money.
The question now – as it has been for many years – is what taxes or fees should be increased to meet those needs and just how much money should come out of Idahoans’ pockets to do so.
“The whole discussion has been ‘Where can we find more funding,’ and none of the talk has been ‘Where can we cut back,’ ” Nampa GOP Rep. Steve Kren said.
The state is auditing the Idaho Transportation Department to see if it can find more ways the agency can save money. ITD leaders recently found areas in which it can save $50 million through 2012.
Options for raising more money for roads include raising fuel taxes, registration fees or increasing other user fees.
What The?
No, you’ve got the wrong guy
Facing a domestic charge, a man in Portsmouth, N.H., didn’t want the police to know his true identity because there was a warrant out for his arrest, so he showed them his friend’s driver’s license. Unfortunately for him, there was also a warrant out for the friend’s arrest.
Now we have to call her B-Stab
At a gang meeting at a house in Wichita, Kan., two young men began arguing over which of them would get the nickname “C-Thug.” When the argument got out of hand, a 44-year-old woman who lived in the residence stabbed one of them to put a stop to it.
Just my way of honoring her
A businessman tried to open an All Terrain Vehicle rental shop in the small, mountain town of Allenspark, Colo., but a local woman rallied opposition to stop him and, as a result, he was denied the special-use permit he needed to open. In response, he decided to open a Triple X-rated porn gallery instead and name it after the woman who mounted the campaign against him.
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