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Many days, Jamal King stands at South Vermont Avenue and West 46th Street in South Los Angeles, his muscled arms covered with tattoos flaunting his membership in the Rolling 40s, a drug-running criminal gang. His former foster father often drives past slowly, wagging his finger. "I know people look at me and just see a gangbanger," King said. "It's not really who I am. It's just temporary." But King's hope for a better life is hobbled by more than poverty and his surroundings -- he lacks a birth certificate.

Rock legend Bob Dylan was treated like a complete unknown by police in a New Jersey shore community when a resident called to report someone wandering around the neighborhood. Dylan was in Long Branch, about a two-hour drive south of New York City, on July 23 as part of a tour with Willie Nelson and John Mellencamp that was to play at a baseball stadium in nearby Lakewood. A 24-year-old police officer apparently was unaware of who Dylan is and asked him for identification, Long Branch business administrator Howard Woolley said Friday. "I don't think she was familiar with his...

Exactly one week after the highly-publicized arrest of Harvard professor Henry Louis Gates stirred a national discussion on race relations, legendary singer-songwriter Bob Dylan was detained by police officers in a "low-income, predominantly minority neighborhood" in Long Branch, New Jersey. Makes one wonder why it took so long for this to get reported, and if news outlets that were convinced Gates's arrest was racially motivated will see the delicious irony in a white rock star being questioned by police just because he was "wandering around the neighborhood." The Associated Press sure didn't (h/t Clarence Page): Rock legend Bob Dylan was...

Plowing through the 85 essays of the Federalist Papers, one can read how the Founding Fathers foresaw the problems of impeachment, corruption of government, regulatory excess, gun control, and all the other headline grabbing issues we read about today!

Remember how Barack Obama called Hillary Clinton one of the most secretive politicians in America? That apparently applies to both Hillary and her husband as a team. Archivists at the Clinton Presidential Library have decided to keep the records of Bill’s pardons locked away from prying eyes — such as those of Obama, John McCain, and the media: Federal archivists at the Clinton Presidential Library are blocking the release of hundreds of pages of White House papers on pardons that the former president approved, including clemency for fugitive commodities trader Marc Rich.That archivists’ decision, based on guidance provided by Bill...

NEW YORK - Defendants in lawsuits resulting from the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks must turn over materials from as far back as 1992, when it appears that Osama bin Laden called for a holy war against the United States, a federal judge said Friday. The ruling by U.S. District Judge George B. Daniels affects defendants in lawsuits seeking billions of dollars in damages from numerous banks, charities and individuals worldwide who are alleged to have supported al-Qaida before the 2001 terrorist attacks. Daniels said it was reasonable to require organizations such as the Muslim World League, the International Islamic Relief...

Congress Pressed on Founders' Papers More than 200 years after they were written, huge portions of the papers of America's founding fathers are still decades away from being published, prompting a distinguished group of scholars and federal officials to pressure Congress to speed the process along. Teams of experts have been laboring since Harry Truman was president in the late 1940s to compile and annotate the letters, correspondence and documents of George Washington, John Adams, James Madison, Benjamin Franklin and Thomas Jefferson. About $58 million has been spent in the past 30 years alone. Yet, according to a study by...

(IsraelNN.com) Three boxes of documents belonging to Israel Kastner, whose negotiations with Eichmann for Jews remain controversial to this day, were presented to Yad Vashem Holocaust Museum in Jerusalem this week. The private archives, comprising three boxes of letters of correspondence with Nazi officials, Jewish organizations and families, were presented in an official ceremony on Sunday. In attendance were Kastner's daughter, his granddaughter Merav Michaeli (a popular television personality who MC'ed the event), survivors of the “Kasztner Train,” and others. The papers, which also document Holocaust rescue efforts of the Relief and Rescue Committee in Budapest, were given to the...

WASHINGTON - The CIA released hundreds of pages of internal reports Tuesday on assassination plots, secret drug testing and spying on Americans that triggered a scandal in the mid-1970s. The documents detail assassination plots against foreign leaders such as Fidel Castro, the testing of mind-altering drugs like LSD on unwitting citizens, wiretapping of U.S. journalists, spying on civil rights and anti-Vietnam war protesters, opening of mail between the United States and the Soviet Union and China and break-ins at the homes of ex-CIA employees and others. The 693 pages, mostly drawn from the memories of active CIA officers in 1973,...

In a 2005 article in the Journal of the American Medical Association, epidemiologist John Ioannidis showed that among the 45 most highly cited clinical research findings of the past 15 years, 99 percent of molecular research had subsequently been refuted. Epidemiology findings had been contradicted in four-fifths of the cases he looked at, and the usually robust outcomes of clinical trials had a refutation rate of one in four. The revelations struck a chord with the scientific community at large: A recent essay by Ioannidis simply entitled "Why most published research findings are false" has been downloaded more than 100,000...

WASHINGTON - Republican activists Grover Norquist and Ralph Reed landed more than 100 meetings inside the Bush White House, according to documents released Wednesday that provide the first official accounting of the access and influence the two presidential allies have enjoyed. The White House released the Secret Service visit records to settle a lawsuit by the Democratic Party and an ethics watchdog group seeking visitors logs for the two GOP strategists and others who emerged as figures in the Jack Abramoff lobbying scandal. Earlier this month, the White House suggested to the judge in that lawsuit that such records need...

China gives Rumsfeld secret papers on friend's mystery death By Francis Harris (Filed: 20/07/2006) When communist Chinese jets shot down an American surveillance aircraft 50 years ago, the Beijing government did not care that the co-pilot was a close friend of a young US naval officer called Donald Rumsfeld. But now China cares so much that when it sent its most senior military officer to the United States for a visit this week, Gen Guo Boxiong handed over previously classified papers on the incident to Defence Secretary Rumsfeld. An American official said the documents had yet to be translated, but...

Papers from Jefferson office raid in limboBy MARK SHERMAN, Associated Press Writer 15 minutes ago WASHINGTON - Prosecutors and investigators building a bribery case against Rep. William Jefferson have been unable to examine the documents and computer files seized in a search of the lawmaker's Capitol Hill office. The materials were placed off limits by President Bush for 45 days, a cooling-off period that ended Sunday. Yet there has been no resolution of the court fight or talks between congressional leaders and the Justice Department. The president acted after congressional leaders denounced the FBI's search on May 20 and May...

Top editors from the Los Angeles Times and The New York Times, responding to criticism over publishing stories about a government program that tracked millions of financial records in search of terrorists, on Saturday defended their decisions to publish government secrets. "We weight the merits of publishing against the risks of publishing," wrote Dean Baquet, Los Angeles Times editor, and Bill Keller, New York Times executive editor, in an op-ed piece that ran in both newspapers. "There is no magic formula, no neat metric for either the public's interest or the dangers of publishing sensitive information," the piece continued. "We...

UK police hunt for "dirty" chemical bomb -papersSat Jun 3, 2006 02:39 PM BST By Michael Holden LONDON (Reuters) - British anti-terrorist police are hunting for a "dirty" chemical bomb that could be used in an attack in Britain after a major raid failed to uncover a device they believe exists, newspapers reported on Saturday. More than 250 officers, some wearing chemical, biological and radiological protection suits, shot one man and arrested another during a dawn raid on an east London house on Friday. Police made no official comment on the reports but said nothing suspicious had been found in...

[ . . . ] The publication of cartoons depicting the prophet Muhammad by the Danish newspaper in September eventually sparked violent demonstration in the Islamic world, where millions were offended by the caricatures. . . Then things quieted down again and the crisis seemed to have passed. But has it? A special issue of the online journal of Ansar al-Sunna, which means "Supporters of Sunni Islam," could respark the flames. The online journal has taken the unprecedented step of listing dozens of European newspapers that reprinted the Muhammad cartoons. . . Terrorism experts who follow the site believe the...

WASHINGTON - Not long after columnist Jack Anderson's funeral, FBI agents called his widow to say they wanted to search his papers. They were looking for confidential government information he might have acquired in a half-century of investigative reporting. The agents expressed interest in documents that would aid the government's case against two former lobbyists for the American Israel Public Affairs Committee, or AIPAC, who have been charged with disclosing classified information, said Kevin Anderson, the columnist's son. In addition, the agents told the family they planned to remove from the columnist's archive — which has yet to be catalogued...

Lott Lawyer: State Farm Destroying Papers Monday April 10, 2006 11:31 PM By MICHAEL KUNZELMAN Associated Press Writer BILOXI, Miss. (AP) - A lawyer for U.S. Sen. Trent Lott said Monday that State Farm Insurance Co. is destroying documents that could show the insurer has fraudulently denied thousands of claims by Lott and other policyholders whose homes were destroyed by Hurricane Katrina. Zach Scruggs, one of Lott's attorneys, says his client has a ``good faith belief'' that several State Farm employees in Biloxi are destroying engineering reports that gave conflicting conclusions about whether wind or water was responsible for storm...

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The U.N.-established panel that investigated the Iraq oil-for-food program will stay open until the end of the year to allow prosecutors access to its documents, the United Nations said on Friday. Investigators and prosecutors from 28 countries have already requested documents from the Independent Inquiry Committee since it released its final report on October 27, said Michael Holtzman, spokesman for the IIC, whose Manhattan office has been reduced to a skeletal staff. The IIC had been scheduled to close at the end of this month. The panel, headed by former U.S. Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker,...

Pentagon papers offer insight into al-Qa'eda's hidden world of terror By Anton La Guardia (Filed: 22/02/2006) It could be any employment contract setting out salary, paid holidays, home leave and grievance procedures - except in this case the employer is al-Qa'eda and the recruit's job is "carrying out jihad". By signing the contract, the recruit commits himself to al-Qa'eda's objectives: "Support God's religion, establishment of Islamic rule, and restoration of the Islamic Caliphate, God willing." Osama bin Laden with Ayman al- Zawahiri, leaders of al-Qa'eda An al-Qa'eda "mujahed brother" is paid a monthly wage of 1,000 Pakistani rupees (about £10...

KANSAS CITY, Mo. - Archivists released documents from Dwight Eisenhower's administration that historians say could help refine their understanding of the president's positions on national security and civil rights. The Eisenhower Presidential Library in Abilene, Kan., announced Thursday the release of 40,000 pages of previously classified documents on subjects including J. Edgar Hoover's domestic intelligence operation, construction of the Berlin Wall and Middle East policy. Chester Pach, an Ohio University professor who authored "Presidency of Dwight D. Eisenhower," said historians have many unanswered questions about the president, including his role in planning the failed 1961 Bay of Pigs invasion. "There...

More European papers defy Muslim protests Gwladys Fouché Thursday February 2, 2006 More newspapers across Europe today reprinted the 12 cartoons of the prophet Muhammad that have sparked protests across the Middle East - although most refrained from publishing them on their websites. Earlier this week hackers attacked the website of Danish newspaper Jyllands-Posten, which first published the controversial pictures last September, and the site became unavailable for a time. When the website reappeared it published a statement in Danish, Arabic and English stating that the cartoons "were not intended to be offensive, nor were they at variance with Danish...

WASHINGTON - Hundreds of available trucks, boats, planes and federal officers were unused in search and rescue efforts immediately after Hurricane Katrina hit because FEMA failed to give them missions, new documents show. Additionally, the Federal Emergency Management Agency called off its search and rescue operations in Louisiana three days after the Aug. 29 storm because of security issues, according to an internal FEMA e-mail given to Senate investigators. The documents, released by the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, are further evidence of lapses in FEMA's response to Katrina. They also detail breakdowns in carrying out the National...

In 1971, the New York Times published the top secret "Pentagon Papers" which resulted in much angst in government. Years ago, I read that the reason for that angst was that the publishing of the papers blew the cover of a extremely valuable CIA spy. As I remember it, one comment in the Pentagon Papers could be traced back to a conversation that could have only come from the interior of Nikita Khrushchev's limo. The CIA had recruited Khrushchev's chauffeur and he had planted a bug in the limo. When the Russians read the Pentagon Papers in the Times, they...

Contemporary Military Issue Papers - Army War College Many, Many documents to read. Far too many to post each one. Have fun.

Meet Deborah Davis. She's a 50 year-old mother of four who lives and works in Denver, Colorado. Her kids are all grown-up: her middle son is a soldier fighting in Iraq. She leads an ordinary, middle class life. You probably never would have heard of Deb Davis if it weren't for her belief in the U.S. Constitution. This is not America. When honest, law-abiding citizens can't commute to work on a city bus without a demand for their 'papers', something is very, very wrong. One morning in late September 2005, Deb was riding the public bus to work. She was...

UNITED NATIONS - The United States urged the U.N. Wednesday to prevent any destruction of documents collected during the investigation that found massive corruption in its Iraq oil-for-food program. U.S. Ambassador John Bolton asked Secretary-General Kofi Annan to direct the Independent Inquiry Committee, which just completed its yearlong probe of the $64 billion program, "to preserve the integrity of the files" so law enforcement officials can pursue criminal cases against companies and individuals named in the report. The United States is very concerned that if documents are returned to the countries that provided them, they could disappear, complicating prosecutions, he...

Weldon: Atta Papers Destroyed on Orders By DONNA DE LA CRUZ Associated Press Writer September 15, 2005, 9:09 PM EDT WASHINGTON -- A Pentagon employee was ordered to destroy documents that identified Mohamed Atta as a terrorist two years before the 2001 attacks, a congressman said Thursday. The employee is prepared to testify next week before the Senate Judiciary Committee and was expected to name the person who ordered him to destroy the large volume of documents, said Rep. Curt Weldon, R-Pa. Weldon declined to name the employee, citing confidentiality matters. Weldon described the documents as "2.5 terabytes" -- as...

Most published scientific research papers are wrong, according to a new analysis. Assuming that the new paper is itself correct, problems with experimental and statistical methods mean that there is less than a 50% chance that the results of any randomly chosen scientific paper are true. John Ioannidis, an epidemiologist at the University of Ioannina School of Medicine in Greece, says that small sample sizes, poor study design, researcher bias, and selective reporting and other problems combine to make most research findings false. But even large, well-designed studies are not always right, meaning that scientists and the public have to...

America is suffering from a bunch of P.E.S.T.’s. Victims of Post Election Selection Trauma, or more commonly know as crazy liberals who have decided to hate democracy because George Bush beat them twice. Shortly after the November election, the American Health Association identified this affliction in Boca Raton, Florida, with some of its symptoms being: “feelings of withdrawal, feelings of isolation, loss of appetite, sleeplessness, nightmares, and pervasive moodiness, including endless sulking.” How Rob Gordon, Executive Director of the AHA, was able to differentiate these symptoms from the normal behavior of most liberals I have no clue, but none the...

WASHINGTON - The Bush administration does not intend to release all memos and others documents written by Supreme Court nominee John Roberts during his tenure with two Republican administrations, a White House representative said Sunday.Fred D. Thompson, the former Tennessee senator who is guiding Roberts through the nomination process on behalf of the White House, said material that would come under attorney-client privilege would be withheld.He said previous administrations, both Republican and Democrat, have followed that principle.A leading Senate Democrat disputed the assertion that privacy was at stake and called such a position a "red herring."Attorney General Alberto Gonzales said...

NEW YORK Public trust in newspapers and television news continued to decline in Gallup's annual survey of "public confidence in major institutions" in the United States, reaching an all-time low this year. Those having a "great deal" or "quite a lot" of confidence in newspapers dipped from 30% to 28% in one year, the same total for television. The previous low for newspapers was 29% in 1994. Since 2000, confidence in newspapers has declined from 37% to 28%, and TV from 36% to 28%, according to the poll. However, some other institutions fared far worse this year, suggesting a broad...

More Papers Barring Some Gun Sales From Classifieds By Mark Fitzgerald Published: June 08, 2005 11:35 PM ET CHICAGO Since November 2001, a group called Iowans for the Prevention of Gun Violence has been trying to persuade newspapers to not accept classified ads for guns from people who are not licensed dealers. Wednesday, its "Campaign to Close the Newspaper Loophole" announced the policy had been adopted by four more Ohio papers, including the Cincinnati Enquirer and its joint operating agency partner the Cincinnati Post, as well as three Iowa dailies and a Nebraska daily. The group said since its campaign...

SCIgen - An Automatic CS Paper Generator About Generate Update Examples Code Donations Related People About SCIgen is a program that generates random Computer Science research papers, including graphs, figures, and citations. It uses a hand-written context-free grammar to form all elements of the papers. Our aim here is to maximize amusement, rather than coherence. One useful purpose for such a program is to auto-generate submissions to conferences that you suspect might have very low submission standards. A prime example, which you may recognize from spam in your inbox, is SCI/IIIS and its dozens of co-located conferences (check out the...

All of us who make our living inside the Beltway tend to develop pretty thick hides. I know Tom DeLay has one of the thickest. I am also fully aware of the time-honored tradition in a minority party--a "bombs away" attack agenda. The problem I have is the seemingly complete abdication of any independent thought by major media like the New York Times and the Washington Post. These two venerable newspapers are confirming every Republican suspicion about East Coast media institutions. Coming on the heels of the Dan Rather and CBS News debacle during the presidential campaign, even the most...

WASHINGTON - The Internal Revenue Service recently refused to provide two university researchers with records requested under the Freedom of Information Act while simultaneously asserting, "We are not denying the release" of the documents. The Education Department recently cut off all communication with an interest group about its FOIA request after the group published a critical report based on the first batch of documents released in response to that request. Both requesters now have filed federal lawsuits in Washington to obtain the records they seek. David Burnham and Susan Long, researchers with the Transactional Records Access Clearinghouse at Syracuse University,...

Anyone who was awake during high school English class will remember reading a story called "Harrison Bergeron." In it, Kurt Vonnegut describes society in 2081, when everyone is finally equal. "Nobody was smarter than anybody else. Nobody was better looking than anybody else. Nobody was stronger or quicker than anybody else." All this equality was enforced by the Handicapper General so that average folks wouldn't "feel like something the cat drug in." I was reminded of Vonnegut's story recently when I read about the latest target of child self-esteem mongers: red ink. That's right. Red ink, as in the age-old...

Dan Rather, making his first TV appearance since leaving the CBS Evening News, said on the April first edition of 60 Minutes/Wednesday, “Finally, a personal note.  Partisan political operatives drove me from my rightful place as anchor of the CBS Evening News, alleging, without proof, that our story on President Bush’s evasion of his National Guard service was somehow based on quote, ‘fraudulent,’ unquote, memos.  Following in the footsteps of O.J. Simpson, I am committing to you here tonight that I will go to any rodeo, to any part of the Earth, to track down proof of the authenticity...

White House Heavily Redacts Clinton Papers Bush Administration Blacks Out Almost All Information in Documents on Clinton Pardons The Associated Press WASHINGTON Mar 19, 2005 — The Bush administration blacked out almost all the information in hundreds of documents before releasing them to a conservative organization looking into President Clinton's controversial pardons four years ago on his last day in office. The only items not deleted from the material are the names of the person who wrote the document and the person it was sent to. The government accountability group Judicial Watch said Friday that it received the Justice Department...

State and federal investigators have indicted 15 Greater Cincinnati residents on charges of participating in a ring to create Ohio driver's licenses and ID cards for immigrants who didn't legally qualify for them. Heading up the scheme, according to the indictment, were Tammy Black, a 40-year-old Cleves resident who worked at the Bureau of Motor Vehicles on Court Street, downtown, and Mohammed "Mike" Shalash, 30, of Forest Park. Shalash acted as liaison for immigrants who wanted the IDs, charging $200 to $300 a customer for the service, according to the indictment. They successfully created IDs for the 13 others indicted,...

Gannett to buy Michigan-based newspaper group 11/19/2004, 6:34 p.m. ET The Associated Press McLEAN, Va. (AP) — Gannett Co. Friday said it will buy newspaper group HomeTown Communications Network Inc. from the company's chairman and founder, Philip Power, for an undisclosed amount. HomeTown publishes the Livingston County Daily Press & Argus of Howell, Mich. and 62 weekly and twice-weekly newspapers in Michigan, Ohio and Kentucky. The groups has overall circulation of more than 740,000. HomeTown also controls community telephone directories, shopping guides and Web operations, McLean-based Gannett said. Hometown, based in Livonia, Mich., expects 2004 revenue of more than $86...

UNITED NATIONS (Reuters) - The head of an independent panel investigating alleged corruption in the now-defunct U.N. oil-for-food program for Iraq (news - web sites) rejected on Tuesday a request to immediately turn over evidence that he has gathered to U.S. congressional investigators. Former U.S. Federal Reserve (news - web sites) Chairman Paul Volcker instead pledged to make virtually all the evidence public at his own pace, beginning early in 2005. Volcker, who leads the Independent Inquiry Committee on the scandal-ridden U.N. relief program, had been asked by two U.S. senators for immediate access to documents and U.N. witnesses for...

Release of Clinton and Bush Presidential Papers under Scrutiny Former President Bill Clinton has said he wants to make 100,000 domestic-policy records available to researchers when his presidential library opens in Little Rock November 18, but the decision is actually up to President Bush. The Presidential Records Act of 1978 allows for public access to presidential records through the Freedom of Information Act beginning five years after the end of an administration; the sitting president must approve the release of any records to be opened earlier. “In the weeks after November 18, we’re going to make every effort to open...

Here in the LA Times report above:The network's new reporting will be wrapped up soon, perhaps this weekend or early next week, Howard said. More sources have come forward in recent days, and CBS is leaning on its original sources to see if they will go on the record, he added. In the Washington Post:In a related development, White House press secretary Scott McClellan hinted that more documents regarding Bush's National Guard service may soon be released. Asked whether officials in the White House have seen unreleased documents, McClellan called that "a very real possibility." Other officials with knowledge of...

Having compared the CBS documents I observed occlusions, which peaked my curiosity, and two signatures, which are not from the same person. 24 June 1973 04 May 1972 18 August 1973

Journal Register completes acquisition of newspaper chain The Associated Press 8/13/2004, 4:27 p.m. ET TRENTON, N.J. (AP) — The Journal Register Co. said Friday that it has completed its $415 million acquisition of a Michigan newspaper chain. Pontiac, Mich.-based 21st Century Newspapers Inc.'s holdings include four daily newspapers with a combined daily circulation of about 137,500 and a combined Sunday circulation of about 176,000. The newspapers include The Daily Oakland Press in Pontiac, The Macomb Daily, The Daily Tribune in Royal Oak, and The Morning Sun in Mount Pleasant. "We are very happy to complete this acquisition and welcome the...

Berger still under investigation Washington, DC, Aug. 5 (UPI) -- The investigation of former national security adviser Sandy Berger's use of classified material "is ongoing and continuing," a U.S. official said Thursday. The Justice Department does not acknowledge that Berger is a target of an investigation, but the source told United Press International a report saying Berger has been "cleared" is untrue.

Kerry Adviser Sandy Berger Sees Potential 3 Year Force Presence in Iraq WASHINGTON, Jul. 09, 04 /PRNewswire/ -- WASHINGTON, July 9 /PRNewswire/ -- In a wide-ranging and exclusive interview with Bisnow on Business released today, former National Security Adviser Sandy Berger, now a chief foreign policy adviser to Senator John Kerry, says, in answer to a question about how long a "substantial U.S. force presence" might remain in Iraq: "I can certainly imagine us having a force there in three years. I hope it will be a smaller force." In answer to a question about whether the U.S. is better...

ROME (AP) — Italian police are trying to learn if a document-forging operation in Turin served as a logistical base for al-Qaida, authorities said Monday. The document center, an apartment in a Turin neighborhood populated by many illegal immigrants, was raided in December, said Luciano Nigro, a Turin police precinct chief, and investigation into its operations have been going on since. On Monday, La Stampa, a Turin daily, reported that police believe the place furnished documents for recruits for al-Qaida, Osama bin Laden's terrorist network. ``I don't have proof,'' Nigro told The Associated Press, but ``we are investigating.'' Nigro said...

REPORTS THAT the MBTA is implementing a first-in-the-nation plan to stop subway passengers for random identification checks and to question them about their activities at T-stops should alarm anyone who worries about civil liberties. Having to carry and produce identification has historically been a method of control. In 19th century America, the requirement of carrying identity documents was for the most part limited to slaves and Asian immigrants. More recently, we have the example of identification papers in Nazi Germany and the infamous pass system used to control the movements of black South Africans. "Your papers, please," is a phrase...