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Gulf Coast readies for Hurricane Gustav
Sat, 30 Aug 2008 06:30:48 -0000
Gustav has been upgraded to a hurricane in the northwest Caribbean Sea. The storm drenched Jamaica and menaced the Cayman Islands ...
Mother of missing Fla. toddler arrested again
Sat, 30 Aug 2008 05:30:56 -0000
The mother of a missing Florida girl was arrested again Friday night this time on check fraud and theft charges just over a ...
Report: NASA studies extending shuttle to 2015
Sat, 30 Aug 2008 02:04:28 -0000
NASA's staff will study whether the space shuttle program could continue operating past its scheduled retirement in 2010, according ...
Bacteria in water at Okla. E. coli outbreak site
Sat, 30 Aug 2008 00:48:15 -0000
Bacterial contamination has been found in well water at a northeast Oklahoma restaurant linked to an E. coli outbreak that killed ...
US diocese pays $1.3M to settle 4 abuse claims
Sat, 30 Aug 2008 00:30:08 -0000
The Roman Catholic Diocese of Providence will pay $1.3 million to four men who said they were abused by priests, lawyers announced ...
Plea deal accepted for Calif. man who killed wife
Fri, 29 Aug 2008 23:47:26 -0000
A judge on Friday accepted a plea deal that reduced the murder charge for a software programmer who led authorities to his wife's ...

The Economist: United States

The Democratic convention:
Thu, 28 Aug 2008 11:35:37 -0000
Barack Obama struggled this week to unite his partyTHERE were two conventions in Denver this week. One was a joyful event. Cheered on by throngs of jubilant activists, the Democratic Party’s brightest and most boisterous speakers praised Barack Obama extravagantly and rejoiced that in a mere four months the Bush-Cheney tyranny will be over. The other convention, which took place mostly behind the scenes, was more bitter. Some of Hillary Clinton’s supporters still cannot believe that Democratic primary voters spurned their brilliant and battle-tested candidate for a smooth-talking novice. And despite the party’s heroic efforts to present a united face to the cameras, the cracks kept showing. ...
The campaign trail:
Thu, 28 Aug 2008 11:35:37 -0000
Gilding the lily“To give them haircuts and make them all spiffed up for the Democratic National Convention, because they’re part of our community as well.” ...
Lexington:
Thu, 28 Aug 2008 11:35:37 -0000
Joe Biden brings both strengths and weaknesses to the Democratic ticketHIS first run for the presidency collapsed, in 1987, after a bizarre act of plagiarism. Bizarre because Joe Biden not only borrowed the words of another politician, Neil Kinnock, the leader of the British Labour Party. That is par for the course in modern politics. He borrowed his life-story, too. He claimed that he was the first Biden to go to university and that his ancestors had worked down a coal mine, both untrue. The only thing he did not claim was to be Welsh. This was doubly damaging because Mr Biden, like the man whose identity he tried to purloin, is a notorious wind-bag. He loves nothing more than the sound of his own voice. And when he talks the sentences and paragraphs tumble over each other with no obvious end in sight. Members of the audience just have to cross their fingers and hope. ...
After Katrina (2):
Thu, 28 Aug 2008 11:35:36 -0000
After the storm, the poisoningWHEN Hurricane Katrina displaced more than 1m people on the Gulf coast, the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) put in a rush order for 120,000 trailers. They were intended as temporary housing. A year ago, more than 50,000 trailers were still in use in Louisiana and Mississippi; today, about 15,000 remain. As the time passed, complaints emerged. The trailers had a funny smell, and residents were coming down with nosebleeds, asthma and headaches. Some shrugged this off: any shelter after a storm. But as early as 2006, tests showed that some of the trailers contained dangerously high levels of formaldehyde, a carcinogenic chemical used in building materials. The sweltering summers made it worse. FEMA knew about the problems, but ignored them. ...
Swing states: Missouri:
Thu, 28 Aug 2008 11:35:36 -0000
Who can win the state whose capture traditionally leads to the White House?AT A park in downtown St Louis, three women are drinking Bud Light and watching a demonstration of Scottish tossing-the-caber. It is a peaceful scene at the Festival of Nations, but worries simmer beneath the surface. The women supported Hillary Clinton, and are now undecided. Barack Obama is “a wonderful young man”, but inexperienced in foreign policy. John McCain is “honourable”, but perhaps not up to the task. These are typical concerns from an average undecided voter in this state. Missouri has 5.8m people and 11 electoral votes. Its moderate size belies its traditional role in presidential elections. There are ways to win the White House without winning Missouri, but few candidates have managed it. The state has voted for the victor in 25 of the last 26 elections. The exception was in 1956, when America went for Dwight Eisenhower, a popular Republican war hero, in a landslide. Missourians gave it to Adlai Stevenson, a cerebral Democrat from neighbouring Illinois. ...
After Katrina (1):
Thu, 28 Aug 2008 11:35:36 -0000
New Orleans is recovering its energy, but not its peopleTHREE years since Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans, the shape of the post-flood city is starting to emerge. Demographers put the city’s current population at about 325,000, two-thirds the size that it was before Katrina, and expect no dramatic change for the next few years. The Census Bureau thinks the number is quite a bit lower than that.The loss of so many residents, possibly permanently, has created a raft of problems for a city that already had plenty. A new study notes that about a third of the 50 districts that flooded have yet to regain 50% of their households. And that sorry statistic begets another. A second recent report has found that New Orleans has the country’s highest percentage of vacant residential addresses. Most of those vacant units cannot be lived in. ...

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