2003 06 Headline Archive

Some websites don't keep material a real long time, so some of these links will expire.

675,848 hits here in June (rate = 8 million annually)
Hit sources in order of volume: Network, US Commercial, Unresolved/Unknown, US Military, US Educational, United States, US Government, Non-Profit Organization, Canada, Australia, Japan, United Kingdom, Old style Arpanet (arpa), Switzerland, Netherlands, France, Singapore, Mexico, Poland, Belgium, Brazil, Argentina, New Zealand, Czech Republic, Germany, Denmark, Israel, Finland, Austria, Costa Rica.

Clear Channel buys FCC Thanks Joe P.
WASHINGTON (AP)-- The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) announced today that it has agreed to be acquired by Clear Channel Communications (CCU) of San Antonio, Texas.
In announcing the deal, FCC Chairman Michael Powell said "This transaction will greatly expedite the demise of the antiquated concept of local ownership of media outlets. Critics of deals such as this need to understand that Clear Channel embodies all that is good and decent in the broadcast industry. Anyone that believes otherwise clearly isn't listening to the news."
In a statement issued today, Clear Channel CEO Lowry Mays said "This acquisition is a perfect strategic fit for Clear Channel. The FCC has been a wonderful business partner for the past several years, and has carried out our directions with great enthusiasm. We are proud to welcome the FCC into the Clear Channel family of companies." Although terms of the deal were not immediately available, It is said that the acquisition will include all components, operating units and assets of the FCC, except for its soul, which was sold in a prior transaction to Satan, Inc. in 1996.
Clear Channel, which owns broadcast facilities, shopping malls, billboard advertising, and concert promotion units all across North America, has been on an acquisition binge for the past several years, and has recently broadened the scope of its acquisitions to include government entities. In a recent deal, CCU purchased a 50% interest in the U.S. Congress, and is reportedly close to striking a deal to purchase The White House.

It is proposed that a quarry be built not far from Castroville, and that the quarry company be given the right of eminent domain— the power to buy the land of others, against the owners' will, for the "good of the public" which translates "company's own financial gain" (in this case, right of way for a rail spur). The "good" also would include more than 100 new jobs and perhaps a half-million dollars per year in tax revenue.

Bush again vows WMDs will be found
Mr. Bush defended the decision to go to war, and he again said there were ties between Al Qaeda and Mr. Hussein's government. But he stopped short of declaring that Iraq had weapons ready for use rather than just programs to develop them.

No WMDs: who's accountable? Krugman commentary
I'll tell you what's outrageous. It's not the fact that people are criticizing the administration; it's the fact that nobody is being held accountable for misleading the nation into war.

CIA aware of doubtful war motive
".. the CIA knew for months that a connection between Saddam Hussein and al-Qaeda was highly unlikely."

email 6/12/2003
I attended the AACOG Air Technical Committee meeting "No swimming alert mulled for clean air" (June 11).
A research paper co-authored by Dr. Jim Neece, Texas Commission on Environmental Quality, reported that swimming pools in the Houston area produce 5-7 parts per billion ozone.
Mr. Pete Breitenbach, a TCEQ air modeler, repudiated his co-worker's findings. Presenting no scientific calculations and unscaled graphs, Breitenbach declared pools only produced 1-2 ppb ozone.
Still, this amount would make pools the third largest ozone source in San Antonio.
The committee rejected swimming pool testing, but continues to support vehicle emissions testing. Soon, poor car owners may be paying big bucks for testing and repairs while rich people enjoy their ozone producing pools.
Charles Ruppert. Cibolo [he's the mayor]

Tom DeLay targeted by NYTimes columnist
Wrigley has patent on Viagra-type chewing gum
Woodpecker attacking cars' side mirrors
Fake cop pulls over real cop, gets really arrested
Dog-killing wacko hands out cookies as his house burns
Shoplifting mom abandons 7-year-old daughter
Emailed to me and posted here 6/12/2003
At the inaugural awards ceremony of the Texas Radio Hall of Fame in 2002
On the left is one of the radio guys whom I respect the very most, Herb Humphries, who created the Westinghouse All-News format at KFWB/Los Angeles: "You give us 22 minutes, we'll give you the world." Herb is truly a class act, ultimate news pro, and legitimate radio legend. I worked for him at KNOW/Austin in 1963. That's Herb's friend next to him, and my wonderful wife Carole to my left.

June 16
snopes.com Are rectal thermometers "personally tested"? Was Hillary Clinton named after the Everest climber?
Spurs owner's life of battles, bottles
Head of priest abuse panel to resign
eating standing by secrecy charge
Mini-watermelon looks like little green cantaloupe
Military Fathers Day: "He's in Heaven, Baby."
CBS in "checkbook journalism" flap over Pvt. Lynch

WAR UPDATE Okay, you want stories about how successful the war has been, and stories about the US being accurate in warning about WMDs— you send me the story links.

Iraqi mobile labs nothing to do with germ warfare, report finds An official British investigation into two trailers found in northern Iraq has concluded they are not mobile germ warfare labs, as was claimed by Tony Blair and President George Bush, but were for the production of hydrogen to fill artillery balloons, as the Iraqis have continued to insist.
U.S. hunt humiliates, angers villagers
Iraqis ignore gun turn-in deadline 123 pistols nationwide
More Special Forces ordered overseas
US marines diverted to Liberia
Daughter says Saddam is alive (she "hopes")
US support in Iraq fades after raids

Texas drought changing lives
Naval Academy boss: I'll kill you if you disclose file-swapping scandal
Texans will vote on using homes for lines of credit
June 17
Robbery victim chases thieves in his Hummer and crushes their car (with photo)
Effects of Child Protective Services cuts not known yet
The continuing story of Pvt. Lynch "... Men in black slapping Lynch? "That's some Hollywood crap you'd tell the Americans." Hassona said he suspected the lawyer embellished his story.
June 18
San Antonio council willing to dicker over proposed Smoking Ban and one councilman suggests a $1000 tax
Gov. Perry calls special session of legislature to reconsider Republican redistricting scheme (if you feel "scheme" has a negative connotation, make it "plan")
Annapolis lawmaker puts toy guns in cross hairs
Canadians clubbing baby seals again
Coke admits rigging test marketing
Bush falls off Segway
Lawyer wants fast-food addiction warnings
Jealous husband sealed wife in house
Dad needs handcuff help, ends up in jail
Jesus box is a fake
Mom dead after Toughman fight
Monica Lewinsky to narrate Hillary audio book
Iraqis don't want male GIs frisking women
Austin may sucker into car emissions tests "There's no alternative to taking action now," said Williamson County Commissioner Mike Heiligenstein, who chairs the Clean Air Force of Central Texas. "Without an inspection and maintenance of vehicles program, we're not going to be able to reach our goals.

EPA questions value of emissions tests
Ward’s AutoWorld
June 2003, page 24
by Bob Brooks

Growing concern at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency regarding the value and “fairness” of state-run inspection/maintenance (I/M) vehicle emissions testing programs has kicked off an internal EPA review, with new directions to be announced by late summer.

The EPA acknowledged in 1999 that the focus should be taken off the emissions testing process and instead put on “cleaning the air by whatever method makes the most sense.”

Greg Green, director of the EPA’s Certification and Compliance Section in Ann Arbor, MI tells Ward’s the emissions-reduction gains attributed to I/M programs are small - and declining annually because of the annual turnover to new vehicles with more effective emissions-control systems.

He says the EPA also is increasingly concerned about the cost to repair older, complex-technology vehicles. State-run I/M programs, whether using tailpipe testing or data generated by the vehicle’s onboard diagnostic (OBD) systems, require owners to have the vehicle repaired - often at considerable cost - in order to be driven legally.

Green acknowledges emissions tests that rely on OBD systems magnify motorist repair liability by signaling more “problems,” some of which are temporary. And older owners, who drive infrequently and seldom at speeds and loads adequate to clear catalysts from sulfur effects, are another group disproportionately impacted by emissions testing.

A spokesman for the Missouri AAA Motor Club says the impact of I/M on lower-income drivers must be viewed in context with the unfortunate fact that 30 percent to 50 percent of urban motorists don’t carry legally required vehicle insurance, and there is a growing problem of stolen license plates and registration tags. The spokesman says expensive repair consequences of I/M programs effectively adds to the number of vehicles driven illegally.

While the EPA is now reacting to the situation and shows concern for the social consequences of expensive emissions-related repairs, states with emissions-test programs are finding it difficult to adjust.

One example is Illinois. Its EPA office recently issued a forecast (state implementation plan) for vehicle pollution reduction. But in a document obtained by Ward’s, Illinois’ SIP does not outline its I/M programs’ actual contribution to pollution reduction.

Meanwhile, the EPA’s latest computer-model estimates (M6) indicate that in a typical urban area, about 95 percent of vehicle hydrocarbon reduction can be attributed to ongoing vehicle technology improvements - and just 5 percent to I/M programs. The data has led one researcher to label emissions-testing programs as “irrelevant.”

June 19
Smoke Ban more likely with compromises
Two soldiers from S.A. killed in Iraq
Climate-change report gutted
Congress begins closed-door Iraq intel hearings
How messed up are the income tax laws?
Kerry: "Bush misled every one of us."
Thong Man shows his butt
Snoop's buses searched for pot at Bishop Dairy Queen
Second lightning bolt kills climber
Los Alamos can't find plutonium
Family says pilot of missing 727 not terrorist
June 20

Public may get to vote on Smoking Ban Good for you! Enough people are raising a fuss and some councilmen are wavering, so keep calling and emailing to protest Mother Government's move to redirect restaurant and bar money, and to tell business owners what to do. WE AREN'T AUSTIN!

"..no evidence from other cities that smoking bans have a negative impact on businesses."

Oh? Perhaps not overall and on average, but ask the restaurants and bars that had huge losses because their former customers abandoned them and patronized businesses in nearby non-regulated jurisdiction. Smokers don't quit because of a ban: they just go someplace else. Louie Barrios told me yesterday that his Los Barrios customers are likely to be driven away to nearby Alamo Heights. Don't be seduced by the Government Mothers' claim that this is a health issue. It is a political-correctness and money issue.

Frustrated New Yorkers get around smoke ban
Hussein "probably alive" in Iraq "..a view that has been strengthened in recent weeks by intercepted communications.."
Iraq's cruise missile attack reexamined "..what is troubling is that none of the missiles were detected by the American warning systems and that the American military was powerless to intercept them."
GIs frustrated with peacekeeping role "What are we getting into here?" asked a sergeant with the U.S. Army's 4th Infantry Division who is stationed near Baqubah, a city 30 miles northeast of Baghdad. "The war is supposed to be over, but every day we hear of another soldier getting killed. Is it worth it? Saddam isn't in power anymore. The locals want us to leave. Why are we still here?"
What Bush knew, when The question arises again because of a bitter dispute, in part between the CIA and the White House, about how President Bush came to make a representation about an Iraqi nuclear program known in the intelligence community to be based on forged documents.
D/FW wants $1 drop-off charge
D.C. students are worst readers in nation
Hospital covers "Virgin Mary" window
Ashcroft wants media help on odorous Patriot Act
Air Force Academy women feared reporting attacks

June 21-24 Carole and I were moving

June 25
Good for you who agitated on this!
SMOKING BAN WILL GO TO PUBLIC VOTE
WINDSHIELD PROSECUTION RESTS! The Dallas News is doing a terrific job covering the Chante Mallard Windshield Trial, with website updates several times a day. Thanks to staff reporter Dave Levinthal for the live update during the lunch breaks Tuesday and today. 1:15 p.m. - Homeless man's son testifies in windshield trial
Secrecy Wall around village hit in U.S. raid "Stop right there," said Specialist Arthur Myers of New Jersey. "If you take a picture, I will break your camera."

Six Brits killed not in combat but by mob

"..."there was never any evidence linking Saddam Hussein to Al Qaeda" NY Times editorial—
Denial and Deception
Two-faced slicks in Congress keep denying retired, disabled military veterans the benefits they are owed, and keep saying they are working to instate those benefits. One of the slimy slicks is Rep. Lamar Smith, as detailed in these emails

The driver heard a squeak and thought: Fan belt. She popped the hood and thought: Must. Run. Now.

The world is catching up on the Pvt. Jessica Lynch story, which you knew the truth about before any other radio audience of which I'm aware, thanks to the initial report in the Toronto Star. Now here's the DallasNews.com take on it as of yesterday, in the Editorial section— Saving Private Lynch: The myth was what we wanted to believe There are a lot of links to aspects of the Lynch story at the bottom of this commentary that ran June 6th.
And now something completely different—
TV station criticized for tying 150 helium balloons to hen
"The bird went adrift, ended up tangled in power lines and had to be retrieved by a lineman from Pacific Gas & Electric Co., which shut off power to more than 1,800 homes. She survived the ordeal."

AGAIN TOMORROW JUNE 26
Car and Driver magazine's editor told me on 6/23/2003 that tailpipe emissions tests are virtually useless. I'll be replaying the clip on my programs, hoping that AACOG Clean Air Planners will hear it and be embarrassed.

Ward's AutoWorld EPA emissions test story has been moved to June Headline Archive under June 18

Vehicle emissions testing – the $40 Inspection Tag – is a possibility under the area Clean Air Plan now being formulated (see Express-News story 5/29/2003 Clean-air strategies cautiously approved).
Email or phone your councilman and county commissioner. Easy contact links are always in my left column at Mayor/Council phones+e-mail and Bexar Cmsn phones+email also find good CLEAN AIR info at Citizens Organized for Good Science

AIR FORCE ACADEMY ISSUE
The Air Force Academy is changing its leadership -- but can it transform its culture? by Julie Jargon in Denver (the reporter who broke the story of the sexual assaults and denials at AFA).
email
Hi Brad, Thanks for having me on your show again. I'm curious to know what your listeners think about this report and about the problems at the AFA in general. If you have a moment sometime, let me know what kind of calls you got after I left the air. --Julie [Jargon]
World's worst front yard?

Former Texas Attorney General Dan Morales jailed
June 26

GUILTY VERDICT IN WINDSHIELD TRIAL
Former Texas Attorney General Dan Morales jailed
MAYOR RETREATS! SMOKING BAN WILL GO TO PUBLIC VOTE Good for you who agitated on this! Commentary
Albuquerque beats down wildfires
Baptists kick out preacher after seeing his police mugshot in a woman's wig and makeup See mugshot here on The Smoking Gun website
Dallas cops set up red light patrols
Driver distracted by pet parakeet causes bad wreck
Another hot-car child death in Austin
Supreme Court kills Texas gay-sex laws
Helium-balloon flying hen followup
Drop in teen pregnancies sends U.S. birthrate to cellar
The income of the 400 wealthiest taxpayers grew steadily in the years 1992 to 2000, while their tax burden plummeted
Coalition losing the peace in Iraq thru poor planning

State Dep't intel memo: trucks weren't biolabs
Screwed-up guy won $4.3M lottery, remained screwed-up
Online music swappers to be sued


Hillary's Arkansas days		More recently

Matt Drudge notes change in Hillary's eye color

June 27
National DO NOT CALL list registration begins Click the house <<< or call 1 888 382-1222 from the phone number which you want to have blocked from telemarketers.

Distorted Intelligence? Secret German records cast doubt on the Saddam-Al Qaeda connection
House says no to deeper probe of Iraqi weapons
One Marine killed, two missing in separate Iraq encounters
Deaths of two Afghanis in US custody probed as homicides: Bush administration promises no torture of prisoners
Ex-AG Morales is back in jail

Photographer said "art" but jury said "porn" " After their verdict, jurors questioned Tovar’s court-appointed attorneys on why they never brought in an art expert to testify in their client’s behalf. Attorney David Cuellar said he was working under a limited budget..."
Therapy Pets gaining ground
FBI: Mexican ID card "terrorist threat"
Iraq raids are 'ugly business'
Murdered Brit soldiers 'made photo plea' The six British soldiers killed in an Iraqi police station made a desperate attempt to save their lives by showing their attackers photographs of their families.
Supreme Court strikes down Texas' ban on homosexual sex

Poor Choice of Words
"Today, America was dealt a serious blow...."
-- Rev. Louis Sheldon of the Traditional Values Coalition, refering to the Lawrence sodomy case.

June 30

POLLUTION "FACTS" POLLUTED The San Antonio Express-News' editorial on local air pollution lacked balance and contained errors. The editorial, and a Citizens Organized for Good Science refutation, on my clean air page

snopes.com

Email reports tell of (1) a man who put a power drill up his nose to cure an itch, hurt himself, and is suing for $25M. and (2) this guy with a different nose situation

Accurate or not?

US troops to Africa? Officials in Washington met round the clock over the weekend to plan a possible armed response [in Liberia] - its first mission to Africa since the disastrous intervention in Somalia almost a decade ago.
Feds increasingly using privacy exemption
Waiting for a bus that will never come
Deputies arrest naked burglar
GM's new pitch: an apology
The Smoking Gun David Carradine divorce: sexual deviancy and so on

Who Lost the WMD?
As the weapons hunt intensifies, so does the finger pointing

Iraqis outraged at US shooting of 12-year-old

U.S. forces storm Iraqi towns in massive sweep
The raids by the 4th Infantry Division and Task Force Ironhorse troops which began early Sunday came as the U.S. civilian administrator of Iraq said U.S. forces must kill or capture Saddam so he can no longer be a rallying point for anti-coalition attacks.

U.S. grapples with refugee challenge in Iraq
Handling the return of millions of Iraqis who fled to other countries or were driven from their homes during Saddam Hussein's rule stands as one of the most daunting long-term challenges for the U.S. administrators running Iraq.

Convincing Iraqis that US troops are in Iraq to help them is an uphill battle

G.I. Joe collectors' convention
Japanese return to WWII internment camp
Internet huge, huger
Big surprise about human underwater vision
Three computer programs to spy on those you love
ABC News tests start Reagan-is-dead rumor
"To be honest, I don't think 7 inches is all that long," he says. "Yes, it's big, but it may not be a record breaker." STORY
Nausea-free pregnancy?
New words
Kid allowances
Trial date set in grisly Brownsville child murders The couple confessed, Brownsville police have testified, to severing their children's heads with a large kitchen knife, pausing to clean house and have sex between the slayings.
"I don't look like the average lesbian. They look like boys, they don't shave under their arms, they have short hair. They just automatically assume that I'm straight." STORY