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  United States Department of DefenseNews TranscriptOn the web: http://www.defenselink.mil/news/Jun2002/t06252002_t0625kadish.html Media contact: media@defenselink.mil or +1 (703) 697-5131 Public contact: public@defenselink.mil or +1 (703) 428-0711 Presenter: Air Force Lt. Gen. Ronald T. Kadish, director Missile Defense Agency Tuesday, June 25, 2002 - 1:30 p.m. EDT Lt. Gen Kadish Special Briefing on Missile Defense (Special Briefing on missile defense. Slides shown during this briefing are located at http://www.defenselink.mil/news/Jun2002/g020625-D-6570C.html .) Staff: Good afternoon, and thank you for joining us this afternoon. Today we welcome back to the briefing room Lieutenant General Ronald Kadish, the director of the Missile Defense Agency. I kind...

KANANASKIS, Alberta (AP) - The United States and its wealthy Group of Eight allies agreed Thursday to spend up to $20 billion over the next decade helping Russia dismantle stockpiled dangerous weapons and pledged billions of dollars in new development aid to Africa. President Bush and Russian President Vladimir Putin sealed the 10-year pact on Russia, the newest G-8 member, in their one-on-one talks as an economic summit of the world's industrial powers drew to a close. Canadian Prime Minister Jean Chretien announced the separate agreement on Africa following discussions with the presidents of four African nations and U.N. Secretary-General...

Parents praise court's ruling on school vouchers By PAUL SINGER, Associated Press CLEVELAND (June 27, 9:54 a.m. PDT) - The Supreme Court's endorsement of school vouchers was praised Thursday by parents who have used them to put their children in religious rather than public schools. In Florida, voucher critics vowed to press their court fight. Elaine Barclay, 35, who has two daughters attending a Baptist school under Cleveland's voucher program, said the ruling was an answer to her prayers. "It means everything to us," she said. "We were praying they would rule for the vouchers." In a 5-4 ruling, the...

06/27/2002 HIV Testing Today is the eighth annual National HIV testing day. It's estimated 280,000 Americans are infected with HIV and do not know it. Doctors say everyone is at risk and should be tested as early diagnosis is critical. Free, anonymous AIDS testing is available today at the AIDS Services office on Texas Avenue, as well as at the Brazos County Health Department, the Health for All Clinic and the Beutel Health Center on the Texas A&M campus.

Everything You Know Is Wrong The Disinformation Guide to Secrets and Lies By Russ Kick (Editor) The Disinformation Co. Ltd. SC, 352 pgs. US$24.95 ISBN: 0-9713-9420-2 In search of the truthBy Steven Martinovichweb posted June 24, 2002It takes a lot of chutzpah to entitle a book Everything You Know Is Wrong: The Disinformation Guide to Secrets and Lies, a successor of sorts to last year's You Are Being Lied To: The Disinformation Guide To Media Distortion, Historical Whitewashes & Cultural Myths. Like its predecessor, Everything You Know Is Wrong is a mixed effort composed of some stellar efforts which sit...

**Exclusive** Fresh off his Academy Award for Best Picture this year, superproducer Brian Grazer is now quietly telling associates he's found a new candidate for Oscar: shock-rapper and controversialist, EMINEM! "He's turned in a performance that reminds me of Stallone in ROCKY," Grazer told a studio executive touting the lead of his production 8 MILE. "I think the audience is going to be blown away, so will the Academy. I think we've got a good shot at getting nominated," declared Grazer, producer of A BEAUTIFUL MIND, who has publicly called Eminem a "sweet guy". UNIVERSAL has set a November release...

Is World Wrestling Entertainment down for the count? Long viewed as the best (if not most tasteful) way to reach teenage boys, the league has begun to suffer serious ratings erosion of its marquee shows. Vince McMahon and company have attempted to stem the slide by rolling out a new trio of cable shows whose appeal is limited mainly to wrestling's hardcore faithful. But such measures, or even better conceived ones, may not do much more than slow the WWE's descent, with wrestling's popularity entering one of its cyclical downturns in the view of some analysts. The slip in ratings...

<p>Ward Connerly looks to the 2004 election for his initiative.</p> <p>Anti-affirmative action activist Ward Connerly's initiative to prevent state and local governments from collecting racial data will not make the November ballot, election officials said Wednesday.</p> <p>The initiative, which Connerly says will lead to a "colorblind" society in California, likely will be on the 2004 presidential primary ballot instead.</p>

Digital Driver's Licenses on the Way in Rhode Island Jun 25, 06:35 The Rhode Island Department of Motor Vehicles has signed a three-point-two million dollar contract for a new digital driver's license system. In addition to taking photos digitally, and capturing signatures with an electronic tablet, the system will spit out driver's licenses with two-dimensional bar codes on the back. The little black strips, when swiped, will reveal a name, age, address and a black-and-white picture. The information that should match exactly what's listed on the front of the card. Massachusetts-based Viisage Technology Incorporated is building the new system for...

Providence police again ordered to comply with traffic reporting law By Eyewitness News Jun 22, 2002, 7:14pm PROVIDENCE, RI (AP) - City police are still not complying with a state law requiring it to report all traffic stops, according to a Superior Court judge. ``I'm very frustrated,'' said Judge Joseph F. Rodgers Jr., who six months ago ordered the department to take steps toward compliance. ``None of us, particularly the citizens of Providence, can be guaranteed that the City of Providence is complying with the state statute.'' City officials told The Providence Journal they intend to follow the law, and...

The [UN] report claims that most women desire children, and are thus unwilling to use prophylactics that also act as contraceptives. The report states that "In a number of Western and Central African countries, the difficulty in promoting the use of condoms is compounded by the fact that the large majority of women who are sexually active intend to become pregnant; therefore, they are not likely to resort to using the condom." UN REPORT SUGGESTS CONDOMS ARE NOT THE ANSWER TO AIDS EPIDEMIC ¨ According to a United Nations report released on June 23, the UN's massive effort to supply...

Family Feud Starts After Ann Landers' Death Daughter Says 'Dear Abby' Columnist Profiting From Aunt's Death POSTED: 8:37 a.m. EDT June 27, 2002 CHICAGO -- The death of Ann Landers, (pictured, left) is causing a family feud. Landers' daughter is accusing her cousin -- who writes the "Dear Abby" column -- of trying to cash in on her mother's legacy. Margo Howard said she's "highly offended" by Jeanne Phillips' interview on CNN's "Larry King Live" on Tuesday. The Ann Landers and Dear Abby columns are both syndicated across the country, and compete for newspaper subscribers. Howard, who writes an advice...

After the resounding defeat of Rep. Earl Hilliard (D-Ala.) on Tuesday marked the end to a contest that strained relations between black and Jewish Democrats, observers said the same tensions are all but certain to erupt in other races in this cycle. As some members of the Congressional Black Caucus Wednesday began reaching out to Artur Davis, who defeated Hilliard by a solid 56 percent to 44 percent margin in a Democratic runoff, political operatives wondered aloud how Hilliard's demise might impact a Democratic primary in neighboring Georgia.Even before Tuesday's runoff, some had sought to draw parallels between the Hilliard-Davis...

Wednesday June 26 08:48 AM EDT State: Veiled Muslim woman 'hypersensitive' By Pedro Ruz Gutierrez A Muslim woman from Winter Park is being "hypersensitive" because she refuses to show her full face for a drivers-license picture and should be required to remove her veil for the photograph, an attorney for the state said in a recent court brief. The court filing outlines the state's arguments going into Thursday's showdown between the American Civil Liberties Union (news - web sites) and the state's Department of Highway Safety and Motor Vehicles in the case of Sultaana Freeman. In the document, the state...

June 27, 2002 Libertarians applaud federal court ruling striking down mandatory Pledge of Allegiance WASHINGTON, DC -- Libertarians are applauding Wednesday's federal court ruling striking down the mandatory Pledge of Allegiance, because a nation in which a government can coerce religion or patriotism is no longer free. "America is made great by its freedom, not by a flag," said Steve Dasbach, Libertarian Party executive director. "Our children should have the freedom to pledge or not to pledge, and the freedom to worship or not to worship." The 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals on Wednesday struck down a California...

<p>RALEIGH, N.C. -- A panel of federal judges refused today to stop North Carolina's legislative elections under districts created by a state court judge.</p> <p>The three-member panel in the District of Columbia says there is no compelling reason to issue an injunction. The court had been asked to stop the approval process of the districts which is now under way.</p>

Traditional Values Coalition Opinion Editorial For Publication On Or After Wednesday, June 26, 2002 Spanier Administration Evangelizes For Deviant Sex At Penn State By Rev. Louis P. Sheldon Chairman, Traditional Values Coalition Washington, DC – The Penn State administration of President Graham Spanier is continuing a crusade in support of sexually deviant behavior.    The Spanier administration’s most recent outrage has been its tepid response to the appearance of Patrick Califa Rice at a radical feminist health fair on campus this past March. Rice is a female-to-male transgender who has written approvingly of adult/child sex and has been a vocal...

Here's your chance to make a difference. Be a part of our effort to urge the City of Orlando to ask the Human Relations Board to establish objective standards before creating any new protected classes in Orlando. Click here to open the Adobe Acrobat PDF for more details and information. Then print this information, sign and mail it to the City Commissioners and the Mayor. Act on this soon. As American citizens, our voices should be heard!

NEW YORK (AP) - Cheered by news of stronger-than-expected economic growth and lured by lower prices following nearly six weeks of selling, investors decided to take some chances on stocks and bid the market sharply higher. The upturn came despite lingering uneasiness over corporate ethics and followed Wednesday's volatile session, when stocks tumbled on WorldCom's news but recovered late in the day as program buying kicked in. In midafternoon trading Thursday, the Dow Jones industrial average was up 115.26, or 1.3 percent, at 9,235.37. The Dow fell as much as 200 points Wednesday and traded below 9,000 for the first...

<p>Washington, June 27 (Bloomberg) -- The U.S. economy expanded during the first quarter at a 6.1 percent annual rate, the fastest in more than two years, boosted by the first increase in business spending on equipment and software since 2000.</p>