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George Stephanpoulos has assured executives at ABC NEWS that he will be ready to fly solo and take on NBC's Tim Russert in the Sunday morning TV wars. (snip)Steppy is a champ at emotional manipulation of women on a grand scale, which made him a perfect campaign boss for Clinton, who is a champ at emotional manipulation of women on an immediate scale....Like Bubba the he is an intellectual lightweight....(snip) For complete article click HERE

WASHINGTON, Jul 02, 2002 (AP Online via COMTEX) -- Water laced with nicotine is billed as a "refreshing break to the smoking habit," but the Food and Drug Administration ruled Tuesday that it's also illegal - ending a California company's bid to begin selling bottles later this month. The crackdown had been expected since the FDA ordered nicotine-laced lollipops and lip balm off the market last April, calling them unapproved drugs that had enough nicotine to endanger children lured by the candy resemblance. But NicoWater underwent additional scrutiny because its maker was promoting the bottled water as a dietary...

<p>NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - U.S. investors, learning every day that some of the same companies that swept them off their feet in the 1990s were cheating on them all along, are so jaded they're even starting to wonder if the '90s economic boom, a rock-steady source of comfort, was a big lie, too.</p>

By Diana Lynne © 2002 WorldNetDaily.com While the whole country debates a controversial court ruling declaring "under God" in the Pledge of Allegiance unconstitutional, a federal lawsuit filed in another California court last week seeks to stop a public school from having its seventh-graders pray to Allah. On behalf of parents and four children, the Thomas More Law Center filed suit against the Byron Union School District and various school officials to stop the use of the "Islam simulation" materials used in the Excelsior Elementary School in Byron, Calif. As WorldNetDaily reported in January, the public school students at Excelsior...

Filed at 1:41 p.m. ET NEW YORK (AP) -- Hey, Toby Keith, how about this: Peter Jennings owns one of your CDs. Jennings, preparing for his ``PJ the DJ'' debut as host of a three-hour ABC musical special on the Fourth of July, is a country fan who has Keith's 2001 album, ``Pull My Chain,'' in his collection. Keith lashed out at Jennings and ABC last month for not including his Sept. 11-themed song, ``Courtesy of the Red, White and Blue (The Angry American),'' in the special. ABC said Keith was considered but not invited because he insisted on opening...

A LOOK BACK AT THE PROSECUTION'S CASE(07-02-2002) - The prosecution began its case with emotional testimony from Brenda and Damon van Dam. "I asked that the room not be cleaned. So we put one of the dog gates up and put a 'do not enter' sign on the door," said Damon van Dam as he talked about Danielle's room. "Do you need a moment, or are you able to continue?" asked prosecutor Jeff Dusek on the second day of the trial. "I'll try. I'll try," replied Damon van Dam as he began to get choked up. Brenda van Dam then...

Minister's wife says cops without warrants burst into her home with guns drawn When do police officers need a search warrant to enter a home? That’s a question that is plauging Southside residents who are complaining that increasingly Monroe Police Officers are coming to their homes, demanding entry saying they do not need search warrants. The latest incident happened last week when Monroe Police Officers came to the home of Pamela McCall, 3911 Gayton Street and entered her home with guns drawn, without a warrant and against her wishes. The officers, according to McCall said they had information that a...

MOSCOW, JULY 2 /from RIA Novosti's Eduard Puzyryov/ - Officials at the State Civil Aviation Service of Russia's Transport Ministry surmise that the crash of the Russian Tupolev 154 airliner over Germany may have happened "due to a concurrence of a great number of negative circumstances." A high-ranking specialist with the service, who asked that his named not be used, told RIA Novosti Tuesday one such circumstance was that the paths of the Boeing 757 cargo plane and the Tupolev, which was on a charter flight, crossed both in time and in altitude. Parameters set for regular and charter...

LOS ANGELES "I am terrified of you and all people who look like you," the elderly woman said. "What can you do to reassure me against people like you?" I was in New York City and had just concluded my hourlong lecture on human rights and Islam at a law school conference where the subject was tolerance. She informed me that she has nightmares about Muslim and Arab-looking people like me. The pain of hearing comments like this cannot be described. For more than 20 years now, moderate Muslim intellectuals living in the West have been fighting a thankless battle,...

Sentimental Journey on a Long-Distance Amtrak Route Threatened With Cancellation By LAURENCE ARNOLD Associated Press Writer ABOARD THE CALIFORNIA ZEPHYR (AP) — It creeps through the twilight into Ottumwa, Iowa, a silver ghost from the past. In 1923, 57 passenger trains a day called here. Today there is only the California Zephyr — eastbound in the morning, westbound at night. Ottumwa's two-story brick depot has been in continuous use since 1889, but only barely. Amtrak rents a glass office for its one attendant. Most of the building is used by the local historical society, as a museum. The Zephyr...

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use. CINGULAR WIRELESS is hoping that its risky and expensive effort to break into the crowded New York market will be received more like the return of the Dodgers to Brooklyn than the resumption of alternate-side-of-the-street parking after a holiday weekend. Cingular, the nation's second-largest provider of wireless telephone services, plans to spend about $20 million on the extensive effort. The campaign, which begins this week with elements that include print advertisements, commercials, a dedicated Web site, promotions and retail marketing, is tailored to the tastes and "all right, already" tone of...

HiatusMrs. MITS and I are about to embark on our annual Fourth of July sojourn up to the wilds of northern Michigan. Therefore the blog will not be updated again until July 8th. Have a happy Fourth. Celebrate your Constitutional Liberties while you still have them. Here's a parting gift. A play in one act. PLACE: A city street in your town, USA. TIME: The not too distant future. FBI: Are you A. Citizen? CITIZEN: Yes I am. FBI: Come with us, you're under arrest. CITIZEN: On what charge? FBI: We don't have to tell you that. CITIZEN: I want...

By BLAINE HARDEN Buniah al-Saud, a Saudi princess, will not have to go to court today to face charges that she injured her maid at her home in Florida. With the prosecution's star witness unavailable to testify, a wealthy Saudi princess with legal troubles appears to be headed for a soft landing today in a Florida court. The princess, Buniah al-Saud, a niece of King Fahd, does not have to be in court to face accusations that last December in Orlando she pushed her maid down a flight of stairs, a Florida prosecutor said. Through her lawyer, Princess Buniah will...

Tuesday, July 2, 2002 Lawsuit Threat Complicates Thinning Plans By Brendan Smith Journal Staff Writer     A threatened lawsuit from environmentalist Sam Hitt could delay the thinning of the Santa Fe watershed, which is needed to reduce the risk of catastrophic wildfire and subsequent flooding.     State legislators on the Water and Natural Resources Committee heard Monday about the U.S. Forest Service plan to thin about 7,300 acres of the 17,384-acre watershed, which provides about 40 percent of the city's water supply from the Nichols and McClure reservoirs.     Hitt, who formed a group called Wild Watershed after leaving Forest...

For education and discussion only. Not for commercial use. Mulally predicts bottom next year, better in 2004 After handing out pink slips for months, The Boeing Co. expects layoffs to taper off at around 30,000 employees, Alan Mulally, head of its commercial aircraft unit, said yesterday. Barring unforeseen jolts to existing market forecasts, production rates will bottom out in 2003 and improve in 2004, according to Mulally. If the estimates hold, total layoffs would hover at the high end -- 30,000 -- of projections Boeing made after the terrorist attacks rocked commercial aviation in September. Mulally had said the company...

<p>WASHINGTON — Students at more than 8,600 public schools nationwide will have the right to transfer to better schools in their districts when classes start in the fall, the Department of Education said Monday.</p> <p>The new education law signed by President Bush in January requires low-income students whose schools don't meet state academic standards for two years to be allowed to transfer, and states must help pay the cost of transportation.</p>

(CNSNews.com) - A Washington state Superior Court Judge has fined the National Education Association for allegedly taking union dues paid by nonunion teachers and illegally spending them for political purposes. Judge Daniel Berschauer issued his default judgment after NEA lawyers missed a court deadline to respond to a lawsuit filed by the Evergreen Freedom Foundation. The EFF is a policy research organization based in Olympia, Washington. It has been in a legal battle for over a year with the NEA, contending that the union has been using non-members' dues for political purposes. EFF sued the NEA after the staff...

Doctors, dentists go on one-day strike demanding salary hikes ZAGREB, Croatia - Doctors and dentists employed in the public sector went on a one-day strike across Croatia Friday, demanding pay hikes of over double the average salary. As many as 13,000 doctors and dentists were believed to take part in the strike which started at 7 a.m. (0500 GMT) and was to end at 3 p.m. (1300 GMT), a statement from the Croatian Physicians´ Union said. Doctors said medical care and treatment of patients would not be neglected during the strike, suggesting strikers were taking turns to ensure adequate staffing....

By Molouk Y. Ba-Isa, Arab News Staff RIYADH, 2 July — Despite the discovery of an explosive device attached to a US citizen’s vehicle in Riyadh, Americans in the Kingdom are going about their business as usual. Many US dependents had already left the Kingdom for their annual leave and are not expected back until August. For those who remain, their compounds have round-the-clock security and police patrols, so no additional security measures are deemed necessary. According to a US Embassy statement issued on Sunday, Saudi authorities are investigating the discovery of an explosive device on the personal vehicle of...