This page features brief excerpts of stories published by the mainstream
media and, less frequently, blogs, alternative media, and even obviously
biased sources. The excerpts are taken directly from the websites cited in
each source note. Quotation marks are not used.
Source: NYT
January 31, 2009
HNN EditorThis news story concerns an article submitted to the American Historical Review by independent historian Peter Klingman that claims historian Stanley Kutler misrepresented Watergate transcripts in such a way as to exonerate John Dean. The article remains under wraps while it is being considered for publication. But in the meantime a 2002 article by Klingman that lays out his case against John Dean (and Kutler) can be read
Source: NYT
February 2, 2009
Stephen I. Zetterberg, a California Democrat whose loss to Richard M. Nixon in a primary race for Congress in 1948 helped propel Nixon’s early career, died on Jan. 30 in Claremont, Calif. He was 92.
The cause was heart failure, his son Charles said.
Nixon, an incumbent in the House of Representatives who had no Republican primary opponent, ran against Mr. Zetterberg in the Democratic primary, as California law then permitted. By defeating him, Nixon effectively won re-e
Source: AP
February 3, 2009
A black state senator is pushing a bill that would require South Carolina cities and counties to give their workers a paid day off for Confederate Memorial Day or lose millions in state funds.
Democratic Sen. Robert Ford's bill won initial approval from a Senate subcommittee Tuesday. It would force county and municipal governments to follow the schedule of holidays used by the state, which gives workers 12 paid days off, including May 10 to honor Confederate war dead. Mississippi an
Source: AP
February 3, 2009
A Rwandan professor has been suspended with pay from teaching French at Goucher College while officials there investigate claims that he was involved in the 1994 genocide in his home country.
College President Sanford Ungar told faculty and students in an e-mail Saturday that Professor Leopold Munyakazi, 59, was removed from teaching after officials learned he had been indicted in 2006 on genocide charges in Rwanda.
More than a half-million Tutsis and moderate Hutus wer
Source: Slate
February 2, 2009
Last week, Slate published an analysis of Elizabeth Cheney's senior thesis from Colorado College, which author Zac Frank discovered in a bin of discarded books at the college's library. Frank found Cheney's 125-page treatise on presidential war powers to be eerily similar to the philosophy of the unitary executive that her father would expound years later as vice president.
At the time this thesis was written, Dick Cheney was Wyoming's lone member in the House of Representatives. Af
Source: LAT
February 3, 2009
People in AD 1000 may have made drinks from cacao beans, which researchers had believed were brought from Mexico in the 15th century.
Cacao, the staple of Valentine's Day chocolates and hot drinks by a cozy winter fire, made it to the American Southwest by AD 1000, centuries earlier than researchers had believed.
Source: USA Today
February 2, 2009
The setting was a hidden island filled with pint-size men who feasted on pygmy elephants and battled dragons. The story of paleontology's "Hobbits," the extinct human species called Homo floresiensis, packs plenty of drama.
But the 2003 discovery by an Australian-Indonesian of the undersize bones inside Liang Bua cave on the Indonesian island of Flores has long also suffered from a modern-day human rivalry. Add in the scientific back-story — a five-year feud over the whether the
Source: The Jakarta Globe
February 1, 2009
A sarcophagus, or stone coffin, estimated to be up to 2,500 years old has been found in Bali’s Gianyar district, a local archaeologist said on Monday.
Wayan Suantika, the head of the Denpasar Archeology Agency, told the Jakarta Globe that the sarcophagus had been found on Saturday in Keramas village by Muksin Riadi, a brick maker, while he was digging for brick-making material. It was found 1.5 meters below the surface.
Wayan said the size of the sarcophagus suggests th
Source: BBC
February 3, 2009
German Chancellor Angela Merkel has said the Vatican's clarifications over the readmission of a bishop who queries the Holocaust do not go far enough.
"In my opinion these clarifications are not yet sufficient," Mrs Merkel said.
The Vatican says it was unaware of Bishop Williamson's views on the Holocaust when the decision was made to readmit the group.
Source: Telegraph (UK)
March 2, 2009
In Nazi art, films and magazines, women were always portrayed as the fairer sex, fighting on the home-front as their menfolk fought on the battlefields.
Adolf Hitler awarded them gold crosses for rearing children and honoured their role as wives and mothers - a soft image that was rarely questioned after the war.
But a new book by the historian Kathrin Kompisch has revealed a very different reality.
"Apart from a few particularly cruel examples, the p
Source: Telegraph(UK)
February 3, 2009
The Vatican has conceded for the first time that it may have made 'errors' in its rehabilitation of a British bishop who questioned the Holocaust.
A senior Vatican official acknowledged that the Holy See made "management errors" with its decision to lift the excommunication of Bishop Richard Williamson, who has said that the Nazis did not use gas chambers to kill and that a maximum of 300,000 Jews, not six million, lost their lives.
Pope Benedict XVI's decisi
Source: Telegraph (UK)
February 1, 2009
Paintings looted by Hitler's right hand man Hermann Goering have been documented for the first time.
The prominent Nazi collected some of the world's most important pieces of art to adorn the walls of his country retreat near Berlin.
Now photographs of every painting possessed by Goering will be published in April in a book that is expected to become an essential research tool museums around the globe.
Researchers also hope the catalogue will help reunite
Source: Charlotte Observer
February 1, 2009
Mint Hill resident Dan Oke is taking special care of a piece of history he knows doesn't belong to him. And he's working to return it to its rightful owner.
Oke has a 20-by-30-inch, white silk Japanese flag with a bright red circle in the middle.
He discovered it among other mementos while cleaning out his late father's garage.
When his father passed away in 1999, he found himself with a Japanese flag that had black writing all over it, a few holes he think
Source: Chicago Tribune
February 2, 2009
U.S. Rep. John Dingell has received a recount, and it means he'll set a longevity record three days earlier than thought.
The U.S. House historian's office says the 82-year-old Dearborn Democrat will become the longest serving member Feb. 11, 2009. That will be his 19,420th day in office.
The current record-holder is ex-Rep. Jamie Whitten, D-Miss., who died in 1995.
The Congressional Research Service earlier said Dingell would break the record Feb. 14.
Source: http://www.lafayette-online.com
February 3, 2009
The connections between presidents Barack Obama and Abraham Lincoln define Obama’s image today, but these associations also influence how Lincoln will continue to be remembered, says a Purdue University historian.
“Lincoln, who was born 200 years ago on Feb. 12, is known as a great speechwriter, thinker and consensus builder,” says Caroline E. Janney, an assistant professor of history who studies Civil War memorials and remembrance. “While people are watching how Obama is following Lincol
Source: http://www.vancouversun.com
February 1, 2009
Black History Month Commemorative Stamps Stamps honouring two eminent Afro-Canadians will be unveiled tonight at a special fundraising event at the Vancouver Playhouse.
Rosemary Brown (1930-2003), a Jamaican immigrant, had a distinguished political career after being the first black woman elected to public office in Canada. She won a seat in the British Columbia legislature for the New Democratic Party in 1972.
Abraham Doras Shadd (1801-1882) was a prominent anti-slaver
Source: USA Today
February 2, 2009
Frederick Barron, 17, a senior at North Atlanta High School in Atlanta, says the election of Barack Obama as the first African-American president is making Black History Month come to life.
"Barack Obama is opening our hearts and minds to the true meaning of Black History Month," Barron said. "African Americans won't be viewed as just a minority but as people who make a difference."
Obama's election, and this year's 100th anniversary of the NAACP, me
Source: The Cutting Edge
February 3, 2009
The Library of Congress is the largest library in the world, housing millions of books, recordings, photographs, maps and manuscripts. Like many other great research libraries, the Library of Congress has been moving into the digital world.
One way they're doing it is through a scanning project that has so far put 25,000 books online for anyone to read or download.
Doron Weber of the Alfred P. Sloan Foundation, which is funding the $2 million project, stresses the impor
Source: NPR
February 2, 2009
President Obama hopes the proposed $800 billion-plus stimulus package can jump-start the economy and lay the groundwork for long-term prosperity. If it doesn't show immediate results, New York Times columnist David Leonhardt says the state of the economy could end up dominating Obama's term.
Some of the current economic trouble is rooted in what Leonhardt calls "investment deficit disorder."
"I think our economy has been far too dependent on consumption o
Source: Newark Advocate
February 1, 2009
The Civil War flag that was brandished by the 42nd Ohio Volunteer Infantry is wrapped tightly around its pole. It's a delicate task to unfurl the almost 150-year-old banner without it crumbling.
Yet, the humidity-raising chamber used to loosen the material consists of a homemade aluminum frame covered with a plastic-like film. It was built with parts from Lowe's that cost less than $500. The work is being done in a warehouse and in a homemade chamber instead of with state-of-the-art
