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Dotcom blues threaten Salon By Garry BarkerJune 28 2002 It began as an exciting experiment in online publishing: an intelligent, quality magazine that could be read for free on your computer screen.Salon, founded in 1995, boasted columnists including controversial academic Camille Paglia and writers Garrison Keilor and Greil Marcus. It covered the worlds of politics, pop culture, books, the media and technology and had a long-running column called "Mothers Who Think". It was witty, smart, newsy, irreverent and adored by the cultural cognoscenti.But this week Salon's future looked dire. In its annual report, the Salon Group announced a deficit of $US76.6...

BOARD OF ED. OF INDEPENDENT SCHOOL DIST.NO. 92 OF POTTAWATOMIE CTY. V. EARLS (01-332) Web-accessible at: http://supct.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/01-332.ZS.html Argued March 19, 2002 -- Decided June 27, 2002 Opinion author: Thomas =============================================================== The Student Activities Drug Testing Policy (Policy) adopted by the Tecumseh, Oklahoma, School District (School District) requires all middle and high school students to consent to urinalysis testing for drugs in order to participate in any extracurricular activity. In practice, the Policy has been applied only to competitive extracurricular activities sanctioned by the Oklahoma Secondary Schools Activities Association (OSSAA). Respondent high school students and their parents brought this 42 U.S....

The EZ-Rocket lifts in to the air under rocket power after circling once and landing. This "touch-and-go" is the first ever in a rocket powered aircraft.                                                                                                                                      - Photo by Mike Massee XCOR EZ-Rocket Performs Touch-and-goFirst time ever for rocket powered airplane Mojave, CA, Tuesday, June 25, 2002:  XCOR Aerospace announced that its rocket engine test-bed, the XCOR EZ-Rocket, performed a "touch-and-go" maneuver, yesterday, Monday, June 24, at their test facility at the Mojave Airport in Mojave, CA. The "touch-and-go" maneuver was the first time ever for a rocket-powered airplane. XCOR Chief engineer Dan DeLong congratulates pilot Dick Rutan...

(CNSNews.com) - Thursday's Supreme Court ruling upholding the Cleveland school choice program is "groundbreaking" for parents of low-income students, conservatives said. But, America's major teachers' unions and many liberals called the vouchers "divisive." President Bush praised the ruling, calling it "a victory for parents and children throughout America." "School choice offers proven results of a better education, not only for children enrolled in the specific plan, but also for children whose public schools benefit from the competition," he said. "The Milwaukee choice plan, begun in the early 1990s, has resulted in substantially improved ready and math scores for thousands...

<p>Couric not affable in 'Today' fray Coulter has referred to host as 'affable Eva Braun' NEW YORK (Reuters) --Not one to shy away from confrontation, Ann Coulter took on "the affable Eva Braun of morning television" Wednesday on "The Today Show," Variety reports.</p>

DETROIT, June 27 (Reuters) - Shares of General Motors Corp. (NYSE:GM - News) were briefly halted on the New York Stock Exchange on Thursday and fell after trade resumed amid unconfirmed market rumors of accounting irregularities at the world's largest automaker. A GM spokesman had no immediate comment on the rumors. GM shares down $1.08 to $52.00 or about 2 percent, in midday trade. The shares hit a low of $51.50 earlier on Thursday. "GM is down on vague accounting rumors flying around today," said Brian Pears, head of equity trading at Victory Capital Management. "That's why we sold off."...

FRANKFORT, Ky., Jun 27, 2002 (AP Online via COMTEX) -- The faculty twice voted no-confidence in George Reid and censured him two other times. Students protested against him. And the Board of Regents voted to strip him of all authority and told him to leave university property. Yet it was only when a judge this week refused to let him stay that Reid agreed to end his stormy four-year tenure as president of Kentucky State University, a small, black college with a history of turmoil at the top. Reid, 57, had tangled with the Board of Regents over a...

Shock and outrage greeted the 9th Circuit Court of Appeal’s decision yesterday to ban the Pledge of Allegiance from public schools. Even liberal Democrats in Congress have voiced their disappointment. While it is satisfying to see the almost universal support for keeping God in the Pledge, it must be noted that the Court’s decision is part of a long and successful effort by secularists and leftists to ban God from the public square. Think twice then, if you believe this decision will be easily overturned by the Supreme Court. Already, decades ago, the Courts, including the Supreme Court, successfully banned...

<p>Dreaded by fish biologists, it is capable of clearing out a pond of all living creatures and then wriggling on to new hunting grounds on its belly and fins.</p> <p>Even worse, the fisherman - perhaps thinking it was a rare native species - released it.</p>

Today is the 17th day of Tammuz, the day on which the walls of Jerusalem were breached following a prolonged siege. The story hasn't changed much, though there does seem to be some role reversal: today, it is Israel that is building a wall around Jerusalem and through the country, voluntarily entering into a state of siege. Today is a fast day that begins a 3 week period of national mourning, culminating with the fast of Tisha B'Av, the day on which both the First and Second Temples were destroyed. The historical precedent for sorrow on that day, leading to...

<p>Our manned space infrastructure is extremely fragile — even brittle.</p> <p>NASA just found a problem with the Space Shuttle Orbiters Atlantis and Discovery. They have hairline cracks in some jackets in the main propellant lines.</p> <p>These aren't cracks in the lines themselves, so there's no danger of a leak of oxygen or hydrogen, but they could result in a small piece of metal getting ingested into the engines, which could potentially cause anything from a premature engine shutdown to a turbopump explosion.</p>

HYDERABAD, Pakistan - (Reuters) - A Pakistani judge testified on Thursday that the man accused of masterminding the kidnap and murder of U.S. reporter Daniel Pearl had surrendered to police in February a week earlier than police said they arrested him, a state lawyer said. British-born Islamic militant Ahmed Omar Saeed Sheikh and three other men charged with the kidnap and murder of Wall Street Journal reporter Pearl are being tried by an anti-terrorism court behind closed doors in a prison in the southern Pakistani city of Hyderabad. They have all denied the charges. Chief prosecutor Raja Qureshi told reporters...

Police: Baby Sitter Bound Toddler, Took Picture Baby Sitter Charged With Aggravated Child Abuse POSTED: 7:44 a.m. EDT June 27, 2002 TAVARES, Fla. -- Police arrested a baby sitter for allegedly binding the ankles, wrists and mouth of a toddler with duct tape and taking a picture. Sondra Lynn Giffin, 18, of Leesburg, was charged Tuesday with aggravated child abuse. She was released Wednesday from the Lake County Jail on $10,000 bail. A developer at Wal-Mart, where Giffin also works, saw the picture of the bound 22-month-old girl and turned it over to police. The photo shows the girl...

WASHINGTON, D.C. -- U.S. Sen. Jon Kyl today issued the following statement in response to the U.S. Supreme Court ruling supporting the Cleveland school-choice program: "Today's decision is the most important decision for America's schoolchildren since Brown v. Board of Education. For too long, defenders of a system that has failed millions of American children have hidden behind pseudo-constitutional arguments to keep alternatives at bay. Now we can and must have an honest debate about whether parents should be entrusted with choosing the best schools for their children. "The Supreme Court handed a great victory to parents seeking the best...

By John W. Baer, professor of economics, Anne Arundel Community College Every class day over 60 million public and parochial school teachers and students in the US recite the Pledge of Allegiance along with thousands of Americans at official meetings of the Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, Elks, Masons, American Legion, and others. During the televised bicentennial celebration of the US Constitution for the school children on September 17, 1987, the children as a group did not recite any part of the Constitution. However, President Reagan did lead the nation's school children in reciting the Pledge. Yet probably not one of...

Germany Sees Threat of Love Parade Attack - Paper Tue Jun 25, 1:23 PM ET BERLIN (Reuters) - German authorities have gathered information about a possible attack on the annual Love Parade techno music festival next month, a newspaper reported on Tuesday. The mass-circulation Bild daily said police had information that an Albanian Muslim helped smuggle 11 pounds of explosives into the German capital on June 12 for possible use in a car bomb attack on the Love Parade. The Love Parade brings together as many as one million mostly young fans of electronic dance music to the wide boulevard...

<p>WASHINGTON — Pentagon employees will no longer be able to spend like they're using daddy's credit card when they charge on government-issued plastic.</p> <p>A Pentagon task force has suggested that soldiers and staff who illegally use cards for personal purposes be prosecuted and forced to pay the cash back.</p>

MICROSOFT to set to invest $750 million in China over the next three years in a deal outlined today. Chief executive Steve Ballmer signed a memorandum of understanding with China's State Development Planning Commission (SDPC) during a two-day visit this week, Reuters reports. Ballmer told reporters the deal with China covers a "wide variety of fronts: outsourcing, exports, local training, development, just to name a few." "We want the Chinese industry to grow, " said Balmer. "The success of Microsoft in every market, including China's, is highly dependent upon the growth of local industry. What's good for the local industry...

WASHINGTON (AP) -- The Supreme Court on Thursday declared unconstitutional an Alabama prison practice of handcuffing inmates to a metal pole for hours in the summer heat. The court ruled that a prisoner could sue over his chaining. The punishment, revived in that state in 1995 as part of a get-tough program for criminals, is obvious cruel and unusual punishment, the court ruled 6-3. The victory for inmates was partly symbolic. Alabama was the only state to use ``hitching posts'' in recent years and it has since ended the punishment. But the ruling halts a string of Supreme Court decisions...