New York Times Upfront articles from February 2006

New York Times Upfront archives from February 2006

Fat cats and dog pounds.(obesity in pets)
February 20, 2006... Dogs and cats often share traits with their humans, including weight problems. Between 25 percent and 40 percent of America's pets are obese, according to George Fahey, a professor of nutrition at the University of Illinois Animal Sciences...

When Dubai freezes over.(Mall of the Emirates, indoor ski resort)
February 20, 2006... After spending a day in the 120-degree desert heat of Dubai, capital of the United Arab Emirates, it's now possible to hit the ski slopes without flying to Switzerland. Tucked inside a 25-story building at the Mall of the Emirates is the first...

Google's-eye views.(Google Earth)
February 20, 2006... Google Earth, free software introduced by Google in June, combines satellite and aerial images with mapping capabilities. It arrows Internet users to zoom in on their own house, locate a restaurant, or view high-resolution "flyover" images of...

Numbers in the news.(news & TRENDS)
February 20, 2006... 7,486 Number of performances of Andrew Lloyd Webber's musical Phantom of the Opera as of Jan. 9, when it surpassed Webber's Cats as the longest-running show on Broadway. SOURCE: THE NEW YORK TIMES $100 Price of the "Volcano" sundae...

Noted & quoted.(SOUNDBITES)
February 20, 2006... 'Tell all--I see them on the other side. It wasn't bad, I just went to sleep.' --Martin Toler Jr., 51, in a farewell note to toyed ones written on the back of an insurance form, before dying with 11 other miners after an explosion at a...

Studying a 'strategic' language.(Chinese)
February 20, 2006... An estimated 50,000 U.S. students, from kindergarten through high school, are now Learning the world's most-spoken language: Mandarin Chinese. With encouragement from the American and Chinese governments, the number of Chinese-language programs...

For kids in need, the gift of wheels.(Clayton Lillard)(Interview)
February 20, 2006... Seven years ago, Clayton Lillard, 17, of San Antonio, Texas, started Clayton's Backyard Crew, a group that refurbishes and assembles old and new bikes to give as Christmas gifts to children with a parent in prison. This junior at Communications...

War's heavy toll.(CASUALTIES)
February 20, 2006... President Bush said in December that an estimated 30,000 Iraqi citizens have been killed since American-led coalition forces invaded Iraq in March 2003. ESTIMATED CIVILIAN DEATHS 2001- Afghan...

A scholarship with your name on it?(COLLEGE)
February 20, 2006... Are you a Catholic with the last name of Zolp? Would you be witting to change you: middle name to Huntington? you a Jewish orphan studying aeronautical engineering? If you answered "yes' to any of these, you may be eligible for one of many...

Supreme Court jesters.(Antonin Scalia, Supreme Court Justice with sense of humor)
February 20, 2006... It's official: Antonin Scalia, long admired for his keen wit, is the funniest U.S. Supreme Court Justice. In fact, a recent study concludes that he is 19 times funnier than Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg. Transcripts of oral. arguments at the...

Multiple minimums: Congress hasn't raised the federal minimum wage in years, but many states are increasing theirs.(NATIONAL)
February 20, 2006... BACKGROUND The first minimum-wage law passed in 1938 during the Depression, when millions rived in poverty. There has been a debate ever since between those who say minimum-wage hikes hurt job creation, particularly for the young and...

Is the government listening? The expansion of domestic spying after 9/11 raises some thorny constitutional issues.(Cover Story)
February 20, 2006... BACKGROUND The debate over domestic surveillance is not new. During the Vietnam War, the FBI and even the CIA--which is not supposed to operate against American citizens--spied on antiwar groups. And FBI Director J. Edgar Hoover personally...

The 300 millionth American? Later this year, the U.S. population will reach a milestone. A look at how the nation has changed since we hit 200 million in 1967.(NATIONAL)
February 20, 2006... Sometime in October, if the experts are right, the 300-millionth American will be born. How can experts make such a prediction? Well, as of mid-January, the population of the United States was almost 297,900,000, according to the Census Bureau....

Prescription drugs: their use and abuse.(HEADS UP: REAL NEWS ABOUT DRUGS AND YOUR BODY)
February 20, 2006... Prescription drugs have helped millions of people with any number of medical problems. Many people wouldn't even be alive without these medicines. But you've probably noticed that prescription drugs come with warnings such as: Caution: Federal...

Mideast muddle: with Israel's Prime Minister disabled and Hamas the victor in Palestinian elections, what's next for the region?(Ariel Sharon )
February 20, 2006... The always-volatile Middle East has been made even more unpredictable by two recent events: On January 4, Israeli Prime Minister Ariel Sharon suffered a major stroke that left him in a coma. Three weeks later, in their first legislative...

Africa's child brides: forced by tradition to marry when they're as young as 10 or 11, girls in rural sub-Saharan Africa pay a lasting price.(INTERNATIONAL)
February 20, 2006... BACKGROUND "Africa's Child Brides" focuses on Malawi. But the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF) says child marriages are also widespread in South Asia. And recent reports from Iraq say they are on the rise there. Cultural traditions...

1946: the iron curtain & the Cold War: after World War II, the United States and its Allies began a 40-year struggle to contain the spread of Soviet Communism.(TIMES PAST)
February 20, 2006... BACKGROUND The 40-year Cold War put the world on a dangerous course. In the U.S., the fear of nuclear war had adults and children alike scrambling for cover during air-raid drills. It also led to witch hunts for suspected Communists and...

Dragon slayers for hire: young people in China will play your favorite computer game for you, hour after hour--for a fee. In fact, it's becoming a booming business.(TECHNOLOGY)
February 20, 2006... Wealthy countries like the United States have exported an increasing amount of work in recent years to China, with its vast pool of cheap labor. Now, however, in the latest wrinkle on "outsourcing," young Chinese are being hired to do our...

Should there be a federal shield law for journalists? Thirty-one states and the District of Columbia already protect the right of journalists to refuse to testify and identify their sources.(DEBATE)
February 20, 2006... YES Our nation's Founders believed a democracy could be successful only if basic freedoms were protected. Freedom of the press is the freedom that makes all the others work so well. In a functioning democracy, an independent press...

'Las tortugas son mis amigas'.(student exchange programs)
February 20, 2006... Before I left to be an exchange student in Costa Pica in February of my junior year, I had never been apart from my parents for more than a week. And I never expected to be changed in so many ways in just six months. I lived with a family...

Helping kids like Abdul.(Abdul Quadar)
February 20, 2006... We need to wage a global war on poverty. If the 2004 tsunami demonstrated how generous Americans could be, it also showed the blindness of a system that responds to natural, disasters but neglects ongoing suffering. In northwest Sri Lanka, for...

In dealing with athletes, playtime is over.(OPINION)
February 20, 2006... The year 2005 was not a good one in sports to be a radical or a renegade: The pendulum swung to create a more stringent culture that sat suspected sinners before Congress and suspended the insufferable. This pattern of anti-petulance had much...

'No one, not even the president, is above the law'.(OPINION)
February 20, 2006... It has become fashionable to say that the controversy surrounding President Bush's domestic spying program is about the problem of balancing civil liberties and national, security. But I think the real issue is Bush's apparent belief that he...

Cartoons.(Comic)(Cartoon)
February 20, 2006... DON'T BELIEVE THOSE LYING WESTERN DOGS. IRAN IS NOT ENRICHING URANIUM FOR NUCLEAR WEAPONS. THIS NEVER HAPPENED. IT IS A MYTH! LIKE THE HOLOCAUST!! Stuart Carlson * Milwaukee Journal Sentinel * Universal Press Syndicate I SOMETIMES...

Letter from the editor.
February 20, 2006... Our Cover Story looks at the controversy over President Bush's authorization, following the 9/11 terror attacks, of domestic surveillance without warrants. His actions raise several critical constitutional questions related to presidential...

Raising the minimum wage.(GRAPH: NATIONAL)
February 20, 2006... The federal minimum wage has been the focus of intense debate ever since its inception during the Depression, in 1938. That year, the minimum wage was set at 25 cents an hour. It has been raised 19 times since, over the objections of opponents...

Game show.
February 20, 2006... Use with articles identified. The statements are answers to questions (modeled after the TV show Jeopardy). Students must answer in the form of questions. Divide the class into teams. Read the statements. Call on the first...

Correction.(Correction notice)
February 20, 2006... Due to a production error, the Jan. 30 Teacher's Edition omitted the fast sentences of Background for Lessons 1 and 2. Background 1 should have read: More than 2,000 people who committed crimes as teens are in prison with no hope of parole....