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A bagman for a bigshot mobster is conned out of his money by con men. In revenge, the bigshot mobster has one of the con men killed. Later the mobster works with the one of the con men in a scheme to illicitly earn some big bucks but the con men pull a switcheroo on the mobster. One element of the switcheroo involves a federal agent apparently trying to bust the leading con man, thereby fouling the scheme of conning the mobster. However, it turns out that the federal agent is really working for the con men. At the...

OTTAWA -- Canada's largest tobacco company is questioning whether the millions of dollars allocated by the federal government on anti-smoking measures would be better spent battling other diseases such as breast cancer, AIDS and diabetes. The provocative message is posted by Imperial Tobacco Canada on its Web site in a bid to kickstart a public discussion. The Montreal-based company says it has serious questions about whether Health Canada's $480-million, five-year Tobacco Control Strategy -- which funds everything from hard-edged TV ads to smoking cessation programs -- is producing "sound policies." But a spokesman for a leading anti-tobacco group says Imperial...

FBI might drain Md. pond as part of its anthrax probe Spores reportedly found during Dec., Jan. searches of waters near Frederick -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- By Scott Shane Sun Staff Originally published May 12, 2003 ------ In addition, The Washington Post, citing anonymous sources, reported yesterday that divers retrieved a "clear box" with holes that could accommodate protective biological safety gloves, as well as vials wrapped in plastic. Scientists working with dangerous microbes often use a "glove box," a sealed container made of glass or clear plastic with glove ports fixed in place to allow the researcher to manipulate equipment without being...

THE crisis in Zimbabwe and the post-Iraq war role of multilateralism are likely to form much of the focus of talks between British Foreign Secretary Jack Straw and Foreign Affairs Minister Nkosazana Dlamini-Zuma this week. Straw arrives in SA tomorrow for a two-day visit along with UK Education Minister Stephen Twigg and Environment Minister Michael Meacher. UK officials are stressing that the talks will not be bogged down by differences between the UK and SA on their approach to Zimbabwe, and will cover a range of other issues, including peace efforts in the Great Lakes region, the New Partnership for...

It's doubtful the names Miguel Estrada and Priscilla Owen would be a part of any lunch counter or barroom conversation. Senate Democratic filibustering of these presidential nominees to federal circuit judgeships is of little interest outside of Washington, D.C. -- even though the Democratic power grab that these nominees are a part of is not authorized by the Constitution. Many Americans hardly know most, if any, of the names of the federal district of circuit judges in their areas. Yet, the great majority of cases before these judges, often affecting the lives of many of us, are decided in these...

The United States has forced the Iranian opposition based in Iraq to disarm.United States officials said thousands of Mujahadeen fighters located in Northeastern Iraq have agreed to lay down their weapons.They said the Iranian opposition insurgents, surrounded by United States tanks, relayed their agreement amid heavy pressure by the United States Army V Corps. The Muhajahadeen has controlled five camps near the northern border with Iran. The bases which contain tanks, artillery and armoured vehicles, are around the city of Baqubah in the Diyala province, about 70 km North of Baghdad.About 4,000 Muhajahadeen troops are belived to be located in...

American Jews who lobby for pressure on Israel are pushing the envelope http://www.jewishworldreview.com | At a recent meeting of the Conference of Presidents of Major American Jewish Organizations in New York, the Jewish Telegraphic Agency reports that the members of this ill-defined but prominent group were discussing the Middle East "road map." During this gathering, where pro and con views about the plan put forward by the diplomatic "Quartet" of the United States, the United Nations, the European Union and Russia were aired, Ronald S. Lauder, president of the Jewish National Fund, is said to have spoken up preaching the...

As a Middle Eastern nation stood on the brink of installing a new government, the U.S. diplomat greeted the incoming leaders warmly. Although there were many stories published by major media outlets saying horrific things about the emerging rulers, the high-ranking State Department official chose to ignore the critics. She was upbeat about what the future might hold under their guidance, even remarking to her colleagues how friendly they were. The country was Afghanistan in summer 1996, and the new leaders were the Taliban. The U.S. official was Assistant Secretary of State for South Asia Robin Rafael, whose current job...

THE ASSOCIATED PRESS/J. SCOTT APPLEWHITE President Bush and friend Roland Betts play the Las Campanas golf course in Santa Fe, N.M., on Sunday. Employees of a plastics plant will have to make up the time they're off work while the plant is used as the site of a speech today by President Bush on his economic and employment proposals.The president, who has been campaigning across the country to drum up support for tax cuts being debated in Congress, will speak to Airlite Plastics Co.'s 575 employees about how his economic stimulus plan would benefit them.Airlite President and CEO Brad...

<p>May 12, 2003 -- Disgraced ex-New York Times reporter Jayson Blair was reportedly in a hospital dealing with "personal problems" yesterday, as his former employer published an unprecedented article that detailed widespread plagiarism, ineptitude and outright lying in his career at the Gray Lady. Times sources told Newsweek magazine that Blair, 27, was "in a hospital setting" as of yesterday, less than two weeks after quitting the newspaper upon being exposed as a plagiarist.</p>

<p>ITHACA -- Those involved in Common Council's passage of a resolution expressing concerns about the USA Patriot Act say they don't plan to engage in a back-and-forth with the FBI, which recently wrote to the city about council's resolution.</p> <p>"There's no immediate plans to do anything with this, short of having publicized it and encouraging people to continue to let elected officials at all levels of government know how they feel about this," Alderman Daniel Cogan, D-5th Ward, said Thursday.</p>

It looks as if Syria is back trying to dance circles around the State Department. Immediately after Secretary of State Powell's recent visit to Damascus, word came down that weeks of U.S. warnings had had their desired effect. Syrian President Bashar Assad had assured Powell that Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein's fugitive cohorts would no longer be allowed to seek refuge in Syria. There were also assurances that Syria would block the flow of cash from Iraq into Syria, as well as the flow of fanatic fighters from Syria into Iraq. What's more, in supposed support of U.S. efforts to broker...

ROME, MAY 11, 2003 (Zenit.org).- Over a 23-year period the number of priests in the world decreased, while the number of seminarians increased. This is the conclusion of a study by Father Vito Magno of the vocational review Rogate. The study compared the data of the Church's Statistical Yearbook from 1978 with December 2001. In 1978, the total of diocesan and religious priests was 420,000; at the end of 2001 their number had dropped to 405,067. The decrease is due above all to the reduced number of religious-order priests, especially in Europe, North America and Oceania, in whose countries the...

A mildly autistic seven-year-old from Niagara Falls, Ont., unwittingly tested the beefed-up U.S. border security system over the weekend. It failed the test. Mitchel David Hernder didn't intend to cause an international flap when he ran away from his Menzie St. home about 4:15 p.m. Saturday. He was simply disgruntled with his dad's decision to ground him, so he left home with his sister's bicycle. After reaching the Whirlpool Rapids Bridge, the boy threw the bike down the gorge because a sign on the bridge said "No bicycles allowed," his father Mark Hernder said yesterday. While neighbours and Niagara Regional...

Last Friday, in his regular contribution to ANC Today, Thabo Mbeki warned of a vicious circle in Zimbabwe. "The longer the problems of Zimbabwe remain unresolved, the more entrenched poverty will become. The longer this persists, the greater will be the degree of social instability, as the poor try to respond to the pains of hunger. The more protracted this instability, the greater will be the degree of polarisation and generalised social and political conflict. To respond to this, the state will inevitably have to emphasise issues of law and order, even as it has ever fewer means to address...

But most astonishing is Arthur Sulzberger's response to this: "Maybe this crystallizes a little that we can find better ways to build lines of communication across what is, to be fair, a massive newsroom," said Mr. Sulzberger, the publisher. But Mr. Sulzberger emphasized that as The New York Times continues to examine how its employees and readers were betrayed, there will be no newsroom search for scapegoats. "The person who did this is Jayson Blair," he said. "Let's not begin to demonize our executives — either the desk editors or the executive editor or, dare I say, the publisher."Scapegoats? Sulzberger...

An American team searching for unconventional weapons has uncovered what is thought to be the strongest source of radiation in Iraq, at a long abandoned test range near Amiriya, just west of the capitol, nuclear experts and military officials said today.According to the initial report, one of the pits was registering radiation levels 1,000 times nornal background radiation levels.But when the team got to the site, it found relatively moderate levels of radiation at the base of each of the eight poles, along with signs in German warning about exposure to radiation.

NewsMax.com's religion editor, Fr. Mike Reilly, updates the latest challenge for Pope John Paul II. As Europe struggles to assemble a Constitution, Pope John Paul II has been pressing its authors to craft a document that reflects Europe's Christian identity and heritage. "The old nations of Europe retain a Christian spirit, which constitutes a whole with the genius and history of the respective peoples," Zenit News quotes the pontiff as telling pilgrims to St. Peter's Square. "Unfortunately, secularism threatens the fundamental values," he added, "but the Church is determined to work continually to maintain alive this spiritual and cultural tradition."...

Here's the Times' summary of what went wrong: Some reporters and administrators did not tell editors about Mr. Blair's erratic behavior. Editors did not seek or heed the warnings of other editors about his reporting. Five years' worth of information about Mr. Blair was available in one building, yet no one put it together to determine whether he should be put under intense pressure and assigned to cover high-profile national events.Actually, the Times' own reporting shows that's not entirely true. When you read the full account, it's clear that many people not only connected the dots but put their concerns...

This thread is meant to be a single place to discuss all of the days talk and news shows. Here's a direct streaming audio link for the IMUS in the Morning show followed by the G. Gordon Liddy show.WTNT AM 950 There's also a streaming audio link to the IMUS show via www.tantalk1340.com