New York Times Upfront articles from March 2002

New York Times Upfront archives from March 2002

Teens need Z's. (letters).
March 11, 2002... We believe kids should be going to bed earlier on school nights ("Let Me Sleep!" 2/11/02). The reasons for staying up late are partly the fault of teachers--for giving us too much homework--and partly our fault--for having too many after-school...

Punish drug users. (letters).
March 11, 2002... After reading about Ecstasy ("The Fight Against Ecstasy," 12/10/01), I began to see that punishment for drug use is way too lax. You will never stop people from using drugs if you just slap them on the wrist. I say that if you are caught with...

"Militants" or "Terrorists"? (letters).
March 11, 2002... "The Olympics of Terror" (2/11/02) calls the people who massacred the Israeli athletes Palestinian "militants." Why is it that people who terrorize Israelis are called militants, while people who terrorize Americans--such as Osama bin...

Online survey. (upfrontmagazine.com).(opinions on recession)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
March 11, 2002... Will the recession end before summer arrives? Here's how you voted on the question posed on UPFRONT ONLINE: YES 3,667 (42%) NO 5,044 (58%)

Brain: no more free answers. (voices).(girl ostracized after refusing to give out answers in class)(Brief Article)
March 11, 2002... ATLANTA, GA.--I'm far from a perfectionist, but I've always completed my assignments on time, and I've never failed a class. Ultimately, though, all of that seemed to do me little good. I have never been considered anything more than a...

Sound bite.(Ayatollah Ali Khamenei quote)(Brief Article)
March 11, 2002... SOUND BITE: "The Islamic Republic is proud to be the target of the rage and hatred of the world's greatest Satan."--Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, supreme religious leader of Iran, on his country's inclusion in the "axis of evil"

Climbing out of war. (Photo).
March 11, 2002... Two Afghan children play on an abandoned tank in the capital city of Kabul. As the focus there shifts from war to peace, Afghanistan's new leaders hope to rebuild after decades of battle.

Cells allowed. (Schools).(states lifting ban on student cell phones in school)(Brief Article)
March 11, 2002... OK, maybe you do need a cell phone at school. Administrators across the country are realizing that cells may do more good than harm. About 10 years ago, many states saw cell phones and beepers as tools of drug deals, and made it illegal for...

AIDS rises. (Health).(China)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
March 11, 2002... AIDS in China is spreading fast. Reported cases were up 67 percent last year over those in 2000, partly because citizens are so poorly informed. With only limited government AIDS programs in China, people at high risk often don't protect...

Big eater. (Art).(art project mimics human digestive system)(Brief Article)
March 11, 2002... Artist Wim Delvoye has created artwork with an appetite--a roomsize machine named Cloaca, from the Latin word for sewer. On exhibit through April in New York City, Cloaca eats lunch and dinner dally. Food enters its glass mouth and is chewed in...

Napster meets Blockbuster. (Circuits).(online file-trading moves to TV and movies)(Brief Article)
March 11, 2002... The Internet is looking more like a vast video library, with no return policy. Napster-style file-swapping has led to an impressive video catalogue that's expanding rapidly. The selection depends on who happens to be online running the...

A U.S. IOU? (National).(debt in federal budget)(Brief Article)
March 11, 2002... According to President Bush's new $2.13 trillion budget proposal, the U.S. doesn't have enough money to pay for everything it needs. So he'll charge it. One of Bush's priorities is bolstering national security amid the war on terrorism....

The strange Odyssey of John Walker Lindh: like many teens, he was searching for a spiritual connection. But his journey led to radical Islam -- and charges that he betrayed his country. (National).
March 11, 2002... San Anselmo, Calif., across the Golden Gate Bridge from San Francisco, is a town of tree-lined streets, where Mercedes SUVs and Porsche coupes glide past million-dollar bungalows. The area is noted for its professional, educated residents and...

The great Enron disappearing act: who is responsible for the biggest business scandal in a generation? Where did all the money go? Everyone from the public to Congress wants answers. (National).
March 11, 2002... At the peak of its power, Enron Corporation was a warpspeed money-making machine that brought in $100 billion a year trading contracts around the globe for oil, gas, electricity, and other commodities from its gleaming 50-story office tower in...

Attacking the "axis of evil": with activity in Afghanistan winding down, the U.S. ponders targets from Africa to Asia. (International).
March 11, 2002... Nobody would have predicted that only six months after suicide attackers brought down the World Trade Center towers and set the Pentagon on fire, the U.S. would be ready to move on to Phase 2 in its war on terrorism. But with the swift...

Is Iraq next? The U.S. accuses Saddam Hussein of developing nuclear and biological weapons. Some say he should be the next target in the war on terror. (International).(Brief Article)
March 11, 2002... If ever there was a time for the United States to topple Iraqi dictator Saddam Hussein, this might well be it. That, at least, is how an increasing number of U.S. officials and policy analysts see it. Their rationale: Hussein's dangerous, we've...

Who needs human actors? As digital characters become more real, advances in technology threaten to make actual people obsolete in Hollywood. (arts).(Brief Article)
March 11, 2002... Thanks to digital technology, seeing is no longer believing in movies, even to the tiny degree it once was. Not-really-there computer-generated characters are popping up more and more. Films this spring will feature a new crop, including...

Housewives 1, Feminists 0: divided over women's rights, the two sides waged a battle over the Equal Rights Amendment. (times past).
March 11, 2002... On June 30, 1982, Phyllis Schlafly threw one very big party. She and more than 1,400 other conservatives in Washington popped corks, sang songs, and danced on the grave of the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA). The clock had run out on having...

Is feminism still relevant? Has feminism already achieved its goal of equality between the sexes and become obsolete? Or is there still work to be done? (opinion).(Brief Article)
March 11, 2002... YES Some people say feminism is outdated and unnecessary. They say women needed it a hundred years ago when they couldn't vote or own property. Or 30 years ago, before women were Supreme Court Justices and space-shuttle pilots. But nowadays,...

Graph execise: Americans speak out on the Enron collapse.(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
March 11, 2002... The economic and psychological shocks from the collapse of the Enron Corporation, once the seventh-largest company in the U.S., will reverberate through America's economy and political and justice systems for a long time. Even as Congress...

Quiz 1.
March 11, 2002... Use with NATIONAL, pages 8-11. MULTIPLE CHOICE 1. John Walker Lindh's father says his son's life took a dramatic turn after he read The Autobiography of (a) Muhammad (b) Elijah Muhammad (c) Malcolm X (d) Sulayman. 2. In 1998, the...

Quiz 2.
March 11, 2002... Use with National, pages 12-17. Multiple Choice. 1. Enron is being investigated by Congress, the FBI, and the (a) Nuclear Regulatory Commission (b) Securities and Exchange Commission (c) Department of Defense (d) Congressional Budget...

Quiz 3.
March 11, 2002... Use with INTERNATIONAL, pages 18-23. FILL IN THE BLANK/MULTIPLE CHOICE 1. President Bush has identified three countries--Iran, Iraq, and North Korea--as an "-- of --." 2. The U.S. is concerned that the three countries identified...

Quiz 4.
March 11, 2002... Use with History, pages 26-28. Multiple Choice. 1. The spark that helped push the drive for the Equal Rights Amendment (ERA) was Betty Friedan's 1963 book (a) Feminists Forever (b) The Feminine Mystique (c) Feminine Fairness (d) Feminine...

Anti-sleep pills: cheating.(Letter to the Editor)
March 25, 2002... Pills to make teens stay awake are a bad idea ("Let Me Sleep!" 2/11/02). Teens should get enough sleep on their own. If they are late for class, it's their fault. If they don't do their homework because they fall asleep doing it, it's their...

Let's help Afghanistan.(Letter to the Editor)
March 25, 2002... At some point, every country has a need to change, but few as badly as Afghanistan ("Karzai's Quest: the Man & the Plan," 2/11/02). Afghanistan should get the support it needs from other countries. From my reading, Hamid Karzai looks like the...

Girls in youth detention.(Letter to the Editor)
March 25, 2002... "Girls Done Wrong" (1/21/02) was very interesting to me, as I teach at a coeducational juvenile detention facility. A good article until the last paragraph, in which an expert says the juvenile detention system is designed for boys. Our...

Irresponsible drinking.(Letter to the Editor)
March 25, 2002... I am responding to "Old Enough to Drink?" (Letters, 2/11/02). I understand that as an 18-year-old citizen I have the right to vote and die for my country. The thing is, do I take responsibility? I have the right to do many things, but taking...

Get serious about drugs.(Letter to the Editor)
March 25, 2002... I think "The Fight Against Ecstasy" (12/10/01) tells the truth about teenagers and drug abuse. I'm a teenager who wants to go someplace in life and not mess up or kill myself. I think school boards should be more strict about drug use, because...

Girls' hockey scores!(Letter to the Editor)
March 25, 2002... I'm happy you wrote an article on girls' hockey. ("Hockey's New Ice Age," 2/11/02). I play in an all-girls league out of Milwaukee, and although it's still gaining in popularity, there are many more opportunities available to us than there...

Coming out gay--and happy. (voices).(Brief Article)
March 25, 2002... ST. LOUIS PARK, MINN.--My name is Ryan, I'm a freshman, and I am gay. I finally came out this year. I told one of my best friends first. I went to her after class and said, "What would you say if I told you I was gay?" She said, "I would...

Planet, er, Peninsula of the apes. (Photo).(Gibraltar)(Brief Article)
March 25, 2002... As in the movies, humans may have to battle monkeys. Spain and Britain are discussing Gibraltar, the British colony at Spain's southern tip. Legend says as long as the Barbary macaques live there, so will the British. The monkeys have staked...

Sound bite. (news & trends).(Arthur Caplan on the ethics of cloning)(Brief Article)
March 25, 2002... "The commercial future of cloning is absolutely in animals.... Human cloning will turn out to be of interest only to the vain or the desperate." --Dr. Arthur Caplan, ethicist, on cloning pets

Fit fight. (Russia).(physical fitness policy)(Brief Article)
March 25, 2002... Russian President Vladimir V. Putin has an answer to his country's woes: calisthenics. A slothful population, he warns, is sapping not only Russia's health but also its potential to rebuild as a great power. Putin's advice may have failed...

No guns allowed. (National).(University of Utah banning weapons)(Brief Article)
March 25, 2002... A classroom of guns can be an intimidating place to learn. That's why the University of Utah wants to keep its longtime ban on weapons. But Utah, whose gun standards are permissive even by American West standards, has recently ordered all...

Be like Kobe? (Society).(University of California report on role models)(Brief Article)
March 25, 2002... Do role models make a difference? A new study from the University of California at Los Angeles says yes. In the survey of 749 teens, the most popular role models were parents, followed by sports figures, siblings, and singers. Youths who...

A compromise on creationism. (Education).(Ohio Board of Education)(Brief Article)
March 25, 2002... Somewhere between evolution and creationism is the theory of "intelligent design." The Ohio Board of Education is debating whether to teach it in science classes. Intelligent design supporters accept that organisms change over time,...

Weeded out. (Science).(research on whether marijuana is addictive)(Brief Article)(Statistical Data Included)
March 25, 2002... Scientists are working to settle an old question: Is marijuana addictive? Research is surging, driven in part by the debate over medical marijuana use. It appears that some 10 to 14 percent of users can become strongly dependent on the...

Are tests the answer? As more high schools start using standardized exams, the stakes get higher. (National).
March 25, 2002... HENRY MYER, A SOPHOMORE IN Cambridge, Mass., can think of plenty of ways he'd choose to spend two weeks with no classes. "I would definitely play a lot of basketball," says the 16-year-old. As it turns out, Myer will be free from many of...

Charge it! Hoping to coax more teens into buying online, marketers offer teens their own brand of plastic. (National).
March 25, 2002... Imagine you own a shop selling CDs, or shoes, or clothes, or books, or sports equipment. A teen girl enters with $155, but all she spends with you is $1. It's not that your customer doesn't want to buy what you're selling. The problem is that...

Lawless land; Somalia is so broken-down that a regularly scheduled drug flight is the easiest way in. A reporter goes along and finds ruins, warlords, and a whole lot of guns. (International).
March 25, 2002... MOGADISHU, Somalia--One clear sign that a government has failed is that no one asks for your passport when you fly into the country. There will, however, be someone--the representative of whatever warlord controls the dirt landing...

Girls, villains, and x-ray vision; in the hit show Smallville, the teenage Clark Kent experiences a sort of superpuberty in his journey to not only survive high school, but become a true American hero. (arts).(Brief Article)
March 25, 2002... IN THE FIRST EPISODE OF THE WB SERIES SMALLVILLE, A teenage Clark Kent collapses at the feet of Lana Lang, the girl of his dreams. His books scatter onto the ground, among them a copy of The Portable Nietzsche. As Lana returns the book, she...

Peace Corps: what you can do; President Kennedy enlisted youthful idealism in a global volunteer effort, a mission that President Bush is reviving. (times past).
March 25, 2002... IT WAS NEARLY 2 A.M. ON OCT. 14, 1960, AND SEN. JOHN F. Kennedy desperately wanted some sleep. After a grueling day of campaigning for President, he planned to spend a quiet night at the University of Michigan. To his surprise, though, a crowd...

Should the U.S. sign the Kyoto Protocol? It was supposed to commit nations to solving global warming. But opponents question whether the treaty would even help. (opinion).(Brief Article)
March 25, 2002... YES Global warming could profoundly affect human health and livelihoods as well as natural ecosystems around the globe. The good news is that we know how to start solving the problem now. Global warming is caused by the buildup of carbon...

Drawing on the news.
March 25, 2002... REMIND ME -- IS "DRILL 'N GRILL" MY EDUCATION POLICY OR MY ENERGY POLICY? [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Dan Wasserman ** The Boston Globe * Tribune Media Services LADIES AND GENTLEMAN, DUE TO THE PRESENCE OF A BELLIGERENT AND...

Graph Exercise: Arts students score higher on SAT.(Brief Article)
March 25, 2002... The national debate over standardized testing comes in the middle of another school debate. In many school districts, the arts are one of the first classes to go when budgets are squeezed. But the latest data give new weight to the value of...

Quiz 1.
March 25, 2002... Use with NATIONAL, pages 8-11 FILL IN THE BLANK 1. Many states now require high school students to pass -- exams before they can graduate. 2. Students who fail standardized tests may be required to attend -- school. 3....

Quiz 2.
March 25, 2002... Use with National, pages 12-13. Fill in the blank. 1. Although teenagers spend about $155 billion yearly, only about $--of that is spent on purchases online. 2. At present, most teens use the Internet primarily for playing games,...

Quiz 3.
March 25, 2002... Use with INTERNATIONAL, pages 14-17. MULTIPLE CHOICE/FILL IN THE BLANK 1. Journalist Donald G. McNeil Jr. flew to Somalia on a drug-packed airplane from Nairobi, capital of (a) Kenya (b) Ethiopia (c) Sudan (d) Uganda. 2. Khat, the...

Quiz 4.
March 25, 2002... Use with History, pages 20-21. Multiple Choice. 1. John F. Kennedy first issued a call to young Americans to volunteer their service in foreign countries during (a) an address to Congress (b) a radio speech to the nation (c) a speech to...