Newsweek articles from December 2003

Newsweek archives from December 2003

A New Kind Of Poverty: America is a country that now sits atop the precarious latticework of myth. It is the myth that working people can support their families.
December 1, 2003... Byline: Anna Quindlen Winter flits in and out of New York City in the late fall, hitching a ride on the wind that whips the Hudson River. One cold morning not long ago, just as day was breaking, six men began to shift beneath their...

No Master, No Commander: A voyage that ranks with Lewis and Clark's finally gets its due.("Sea of Glory")(Book Review)
December 1, 2003... Byline: Malcolm Jones Avast! the armada of recent books on global exploration and seafaring disaster has swelled far beyond the limits of a mere trend. It is now a genre unto itself. Antarctica's Scott and Shackleton have their own...

Had He No Sense of Decency, Sir?("McCarthyism in Twentieth-Century America")(Brief Article)(Book Review)
December 1, 2003... Byline: David Gates Joe McCarthy doesn't roar into sight until halfway through Ted Morgan's "Reds," his 685-page history of "McCarthyism in Twentieth-Century America," and he drinks himself to death, at 48, with 100 pages to go. Morgan, a...

Black Eye for Conrad Black: The SEC is questioning payments to the feisty media boss.
December 1, 2003... Byline: Johnnie L. Roberts Conrad Black was doing his best last week to promote his just-released book--a massive tome, "Franklin Delano Roosevelt: Champion of Freedom," that he penned as a sideline to his day job. But for all his efforts...

Three for the Road: For today's American family, two cars just aren't enough. We need a nice ride for every occasion. Date car, anyone?
December 1, 2003... Byline: Keith Naughton Robert Baller is an American everyman. The earnest 40-year-old software engineer works out of his stucco-style home in suburban Sacramento, Calif. He has a wife, a 13-year-old daughter and an 80-pound Labrador. But...

Meet Ted, United's Odd Little Friend.(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... Byline: Barney Gimbel Let's say you want to start a new airline, and all the obvious names are taken. So you hire a branding firm to come up with something different, funny. For United, the answer came back "Ted." "It's part of Uni-ted,"...

Work and Play: Corporate road warriors are discovering how to take the family along. And it's completely legit.
December 1, 2003... Byline: Barney Gimbel and Karen Springen Dave Nowicki, a marketing director for a Silicon Valley wireless-telecom company, has a job that should wreak havoc on his family: he spends 50 percent of his time overseas on business. But rather...

Expedia.com Seeks the Suits: The online travel firm wants more than leisure travelers. A QA with the CEO.
December 1, 2003... Byline: Brad Stone Erik Blachford, 36, has witnessed the eventful journey of Expedia.com from the very beginning. Now the Net's most visited travel site, Expedia was formed inside Microsoft in 1996. It was spun out as a publicly traded...

Staying Connected: In the car, in the air, here or there, it's easy to be reachable by cell phone or e-mail. Sorry.
December 1, 2003... Byline: Linda Stern No business traveler should be out of touch for a second: the boss, the spouse, the babysitter might need to get through. But while cell phones, PCs, PDAs and even airline seats are increasingly wired (or wireless, as...

Sedan Begone: Want to impress clients? Rental agencies now offer Lamborghinis and other fancy motorcars.
December 1, 2003... Byline: Keith Naughton When he's on the road selling banking software, Mark Oliver of Houston typically rents a Ford Taurus. But recently he took a ride on the wild side: he splurged on a 2004 Cadillac DeVille. He rationalized spending the...

How to Stay Sane: Solitary business travel can lead to health problems and poor job performance. Experts say developing a routine is critical.
December 1, 2003... Byline: Adam Piore Not everyone gets to mix in leisure or family with a business trip. For those solitary executives and consultants with relentless travel, enduring can require serious steps. Jean Ratner, a clinical social worker,...

Concierge to the Geek Set: Your modem died? Need batteries? Here's your guy.
December 1, 2003... Byline: Daniel McGinn Preston Rowe can't get you Celtics tickets. He isn't buddies with the maitre d' at Boston's top restaurants. And most guests at the Colonnade Hotel, where Rowe works, are happy never to encounter him during their...

It Beats Biting Your Nails.(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... Byline: Linda Stern Airplane passengers can't smoke anymore. So what to do about those nicotine cravings? Enter bottled NicoWater, which has as much nicotine as a couple of cigarettes. It's tasteless, odorless, and coming to drugstores and...

Mail Call: Our readers write on Cheney's Role in Going to War.(Letter to the Editor)
December 1, 2003... A Vice President With Powers of Persuasion Was Dick Cheney fooled by bad intelligence on Iraq, or did he manipulate it to his liking? Readers responding to our Nov. 17 cover story debated that question. "Dick Cheney is too smart to have...

Holy War 101: Next wave: Rumsfeld frets that radical Islamic schools are training a new army of jihadists--that 'the harder we work, the behinder we get.' He's right to worry.
December 1, 2003... Byline: Ron Moreau, Sami Yousafzai and Zahid Hussain Abdul Bari's school day begins at 4 a.m. The freckle-faced, outgoing 9-year-old, an Afghan poppy farmer's son, wakes up on the tile floor he shares with four dozen other students at the...

We Need to Get The Queen Bees: 'When America and Europe are divided, when Japan is hesitant,' Lee cautions, 'the extremists are emboldened'.
December 1, 2003... Byline: Fareed Zakaria Richard Nixon once remarked that had Singapore's Lee Kuan Yew lived in a different country in a different time, he would have achieved the status of a major historical figure--a Churchill, Disraeli or Gladstone. Lee...

Death Scare On The Nile: Succession question: Will Mubarak's son be the next leader?
December 1, 2003... Byline: Christopher Dickey Lately Hosni Mubarak isn't looking well. Rumors have circulated for months in Cairo and other Middle Eastern capitals that the 75-year-old president of Egypt, who has ruled for 22 years, seems distracted and...

Moving Targets: Terror wave: New bombings, and worries about a 'spectacular.' Al Qaeda is badly wounded, but far from defeated.
December 1, 2003... Byline: Evan Thomas and Mark Hosenball The timing was, at the very least, interesting. At Buckingham Palace on Wednesday night, the president of the United States and the Queen of England traded toasts to their common birthright. George W....

The Editor's Desk.(Editorial)
December 1, 2003... Peter Jackson was going to be a very tough interview, people warned Jeff Giles when he first traveled to New Zealand in 2001 to talk to the director. Known for making small, indie films like "Heavenly Creatures," Jackson was the surprise pick...

Secrets of 'The King': Can't break this hobbit: Will Frodo destroy the ring? Will Aragorn wear the crown? An exclusive first look at director Peter Jackson's exhilarating 'Lord of the Rings' finale, 'The Return of the King'--and at the battles the cast waged on-screen and off.
December 1, 2003... Byline: Jeff Giles Peter Jackson's "The Return of the King" begins with a flashback to what seems like the beginning of time--young Deagol is fishing with his creepy brother Smeagol when suddenly a fish on his line pulls him out of the...

The Oscar Race: Ladies and Gents, Place Your Bets: With Academy Award nominations two months off, 'Ring' is a sure thing.
December 1, 2003... Byline: Sean Smith Historically speaking, "The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King" doesn't stand a hobbit's chance in Mordor of winning this year's best-picture Oscar. No fantasy film has ever won, nor has the third part of a...

Gaffes: Fellowship of the Nitpickers: A Web site traces Peter Jackson's every step--and misstep.
December 1, 2003... It ain't easy making movies. Tiny blunders--the kind normal folks don't notice--get made all the time. But nothing escapes the hawks at moviemistakes.com. For kicks, NEWSWEEK ran the site's best catches past Peter Jackson to get his side of the...

Africans Need More Than Our Sympathy: It's easy to feel overwhelmed by the AIDS crisis, but only real action will help those who are suffering.
December 1, 2003... Byline: Paul S. Zeitz It was a beautiful fall afternoon when I arrived at the soccer game in which my 16-year-old son Cletus was playing. This was his first opportunity to play on the varsity team of Churchill High School. As the sun...

'My Mommies Can Marry': A ruling green-lighting gay marriage echoes loudly through the country--and in the 2004 campaign.
December 1, 2003... Byline: Howard Fineman and T. Trent Gegax Eight-year-old Annie Goodridge was in gym class in suburban Boston, working on floor hockey, when her mothers arrived on the scene, grinning. Hillary Goodridge (a foundation director) and Julie...

How 'Thriller' Lost Its Thrill.
December 1, 2003... Byline: Jonathan Alter History, Karl Marx said, repeats itself first as tragedy, then as farce. So what does farce repeat itself as? Cliche? We're told the sick saga of Michael Jackson has everything--race confusion, gender-bending,...

From Moonwalk To Perp Walk: 'One more chance': The King of Pop has a new single. Prosecutors have a new child-molestation case. How Michael Jackson met his accuser--and drew a charge that could send him to Neverland for good.
December 1, 2003... Byline: David J. Jefferson and Andrew Murr The young boy lay in bed in a Hollywood hospital with a tumor in his belly and a death sentence on his head. "The doctors gave him two weeks to live," says Jamie Masada, a comedy-club owner who had...

Show Me the Money: Patriot Act helps the Feds in cases with no tie to terror.
December 1, 2003... Byline: Michael Isikoff For FBI agents in Las Vegas, cases don't get any juicier. Earlier this year the Feds were closing in on Michael Galardi, the city's biggest strip-club baron, who was suspected of bribing local officials. Facing...

Newsmakers.
December 1, 2003... Byline: N'Gai Croal, Mark Starr Sounds Shady, Slim: Did the real Slim Shady just stand up? Last week David Mays and Raymond (Benzino) Scott of The Source magazine, once considered the bible of hip-hop, held a press conference to play what...

Perspectives.
December 1, 2003... Byline: Sources from top to bottom: Chicago Sun-Times, CBS2.Com, The Hill, Associated Press, rushlimbaugh.com, Cigar Aficionado, GQ, Sarasota Herald-Tribune, Ecologist Magazine, Associated Press, BBC "Lies run sprints, but the truth runs...

State Visit A Royal Success: How Bush Played the Palace.(George W. Bush)
December 1, 2003... Byline: Tamara Lipper George W. Bush may have been the first American president to make a state visit to Britain, but that didn't win him much hospitality from the hostile press corps or the protesters crowding London streets last week....

Welcome To the Hotel Iowa.(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... The Iowa Democratic Party quietly warned the presidential campaigns there recently that officials would be on guard against the possibility that non-Iowans might try to take part in January's first-in-the-nation caucuses. The warning was...

Mail: Left Out in the Cold?(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... As winter settles on the Iraqi desert, nighttime temperatures are dipping into the 30s. And while troops are provided with "topnotch stuff" to keep warm, says a Defense Department official, it's their responsibility to haul it into the field....

POLYGAMY Gone Wilde.(plural wife Anne Wilde asked to help Utah Attorney General's Office)(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... Byline: Elise Soukup Tapestry Against Polygamy, a leading anti-polygamy group, has long pushed for a network of support for women fleeing polygamy. But they're offering no help with a proposal by the Utah Attorney General's Office. Why?...

WTC Memorial: How Should We Remember?(World Trade Center )
December 1, 2003... Byline: Cathleen McGuigan The eloquent simplicity of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial changed forever the idea of what a place for collective mourning should be. The eight finalist designs for the World Trade Center Memorial, unveiled last...

Legos: All Work, All Play.
December 1, 2003... Byline: Elise Soukup Remember all those times Mom told you to stop playing and do your homework? Her contention: you can't make a living by playing with Legos. Turns out you can. Last week Legoland embarked on a nationwide job search for a...

Testing: Cheater Teacher.(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... Byline: Jason McLure Pressure to make the grade has led more than a few students to jot answers on the soles of their sneakers. But new research published in the journal Education Next reveals that teachers are sometimes cheaters, too....

Scooters: The Italian Stallion.(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... Byline: Bret Begun Between 1998 and 2002, motor-scooter sales grew 360 percent, according to the Motorcycle Industry Council, making them the fastest-growing part of the U.S. two-wheel sector. Piaggio became a niche player in this market...

Medicare as Pork Barrel.
December 1, 2003... Byline: Robert J. Samuelson Given all the excitement, you'd think that passing a Medicare drug benefit would solve one of the nation's pressing social problems. It won't. But you wouldn't know that from politicians or the press. They treat...

A New Age for AARP: A venerable group draws heavy fire for backing a prescription-drug plan. Seniors and politicians are up in arms. What gives?
December 1, 2003... Byline: David Noonan and Mary Carmichael William Novelli had a hell of a week. Last Monday at the White House, President George W. Bush personally thanked him and AARP, the huge organization of seniors Novelli heads, for endorsing a...

Real Rhapsody in Blue: A quirky phenomenon that scientists once dismissed could help explain the creativity of the human brain.
December 1, 2003... Byline: Anne Underwood As a child, Julian Asher had a theory about the symphony concerts he attended with his parents. "I thought they turned down the lights so you could see the colors better," he says, describing the "Fantasia"-like...

The Skinny on Bad Fat: A new book offers clear explanations of how trans fats cause disease. Also recipes for french fries and cake.(Book Review)
December 1, 2003... Byline: Mary Carmichael One of the great virtues of "The Trans Fat Solution," a new cookbook/health primer, is that you can read the entire thing in less time than it takes to make the Walnut-Cardamom Coffee Cake on page 41. Trans-fatty...

Special Money Guide: A Tax Cut Just For You.
December 1, 2003... Byline: Jane Bryant Quinn Tax cuts are the gift that keeps on giving. The laws passed in 2002 and 2003 offer some-thing to almost everyone, with bright red ribbons wrapped around the presents for married couples with children. There are a...

Alternative Minimum Tax: Warning: This Trap Hurts.(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... Byline: Linda Stern The Alternative Minimum Tax is creepy, in both senses of the word. It's scary, because it can blindside taxpayers with a bigger tax bill than they were expecting. And it's creeping up on everybody. "The day of reckoning...

Tax Shelters: Honey, Can You Say 'Deduction'?
December 1, 2003... Byline: Linda Stern Yes, kids are priceless. But one child costs more than $300,000 to raise to the age of 17, and that's before senior-class trips and college. Surely Uncle Sam should help. In fact, there are plenty of ways to save taxes...

Deductions: Home Sweet Business.
December 1, 2003... Byline: Linda Stern Here's a tip: if you've always dreamed of turning your hobby into a business, there's never been a better time. It's not hard. Print out a few business cards, open an eBay sellers' account and adopt a profit motive....

The Savings: Breaking Down the Tax Breaks.(Brief Article)
December 1, 2003... The four tax rates on higher incomes are down this year, with the rich getting the largest cut. The 10 percent bracket is wider for both couples and singles, meaning that more of your money will be taxed at that low rate. The 15 percent bracket...

Conventional Wisdom: LOST IN NEVERLAND EDITION.
December 1, 2003... Here we are with Iraq war and terrorism, but America's been taken over by celebrity sightings, foibles and crimes. When will we get a life? C.W. Bush = Says the right things, but doesn't have the credibility to make...

The Mutual Fund Scandal: Unfair Fight: Mutual funds were supposed to be the smart, safe choice for small investors. But the latest scandal shows how Wall Street big shots make profits, while the little guys take a beating.
December 8, 2003... Byline: Allan Sloan On Wall Street, there are big, well-connected fish. And then there are regular, little investors, who are the fish food. Exhibit A? The case of fund manager Gary Pilgrim, perhaps the most startling example of alleged...

Fighting the Fund Cheats: What you don't know can cost you. A guide to what money managers hide.
December 8, 2003... Byline: Jane Bryant Quinn Are you disgusted enough with mutual funds to raise a stink? So far, savers don't seem nearly as outraged as they were about Enron--yet deceptive funds and sneaky "financial advisers" have swiped more money, from...

The Litigation: Looking For Payback: Their trust betrayed, investors are joining class-action suits.
December 8, 2003... Byline: Debra Rosenberg When Peter Kugi decided to set up a college fund for his young son six years ago, he chose a local Milwaukee firm, Strong Capital Management. The founder, Dick Strong, had "the reputation of the guy next door who...

Mail Call and Corrections: Our Digital Future: What Lies Ahead?(Letter to the Editor)(Correction Notice)
December 8, 2003... Readers responding to our Nov. 24 cover package on the Next Frontiers reflected on the fate of technology. Many took to task Microsoft and Bill Gates, profiled on our cover, for "missing the boat" on new technology and then "desperately playing...

Conservatism, Um, Evolving: Congressional Republicans must assume they will never be in the minority and vulnerable to payback. They are mistaken.
December 8, 2003... Byline: George F. Will By the time the conservatives running Congress and this conservative president are done doing what they think will win the next election, tweezers may be needed to pick up the remnants of conservatism as...

Getting Rid of Extra Pounds.
December 8, 2003... Publisher correction: December 19, 2003 A photo/diagram that accompanied the article "Getting Rid of Extra Pounds" (Dec. 8), part of our report on the top medical stories of 2003, referred incorrectly to Topiramate. Though often prescribed as...

That's Why We Call It Junk Food: It's not just a metaphor: fats and sweets may be addictive.
December 8, 2003... Byline: Anne Underwood Few foods are more alluring than fine chocolate, with its seductive blend of complex sweetness and velvety texture--and few become the object of such ardent obsessions. "Chocolate is a drug of abuse in its own...

How to Halt Another Outbreak: Severe acute respiratory syndrome infected 8,098 people in 2003; 774 died.
December 8, 2003... Byline: Fred Guterl At this time of the year, the animal markets in southern China's Guangdong province are usually crowded with civets, raccoon dogs, turtles, snakes and even kittens, all destined for local restaurants. Entrees in this...

New Inroads Against AIDS.
December 8, 2003... Byline: Geoffrey Cowley Strolling through San Francisco's Castro district or New York's Chelsea--places where wheelchairs and funeral processions crowded the sidewalks a decade ago--you might guess that the scourge of AIDS had been beaten....

Muppets With a Message of Hope: Using cartoons and soap operas to promote public health.
December 8, 2003... Byline: Geoffrey Cowley UNICEF may be a household acronym all over the world, but the agency knows its limitations. So when executive director Carol Bellamy took the stage in Geneva last week to unveil a new report on Africa's orphan...

Going Beyond Prozac.
December 8, 2003... Byline: Michael C. Miller, M.D. In his 1968 novel "Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep?" (which inspired the movie "Blade Runner"), Philip K. Dick introduced his hero fighting with his wife over what mood to be in. The couple, living in...

How Genes Affect Moods.
December 8, 2003... Byline: Michael C. Miller, M.D. Genes don't stop working the day we're born. They're active throughout life, switching on and off in response to cues from the environment. Unfortunately, they don't always respond in optimal ways. For every...

Relief That May Be Too Risky: Hormones: About nine million women use hormones, down from 15 million last year.
December 8, 2003... Byline: Karen Springen and Barbara Kantrowitz For 15 years Sidney Constien of Malvern, Pa., took hormone therapy for symptoms of menopause. "I kept asking the doctor, 'How long do I have to take this?' He kept saying, 'How long do you want...

Breast Implants: Continue to Be Cautious: There is still no end to the controversy over implant safety.
December 8, 2003... Byline: Robert H. Shmerling, M.D. For a while this fall, it looked as if silicone breast implants were poised to make a comeback. The Food and Drug Administration pushed the devices off the market in 1992 because of safety concerns. Unhappy...

Weighing the Medical Evidence: How can we lose weight? Protect our hearts? Control blood pressure? Docs are divided.
December 8, 2003... Byline: Anthony L. Komaroff, M.D., Frank M. Sacks, M.D., Richard C. Pasternak, M.D., Thomas H. Lee, M.D., James S. Winshall, M.D., Robert C. Goldszer, M.D. Science is the foundation of good medicine, but it rarely offers complete or...

Next: The Polypill Prescription.
December 8, 2003... Byline: Jerry Adler Nick Wald's great brainstorm, which came to him a few years ago during his father-in-law's struggle with cardiovascular disease late in life, has the virtue of utter simplicity, and perhaps also its drawbacks. As Wald,...

A Step Past Chemotherapy.
December 8, 2003... Byline: Claudia Kalb Cancer researchers are a stubborn lot. They know the numbers: more than 1,500 Americans die from cancer every day. They know the enemy: an insidious disease that ravages virtually every organ in the body, killing...

Growing Up Healthy, Afterward: How to avoid the long-term effects of kids' cancer treatments.
December 8, 2003... Byline: Claudia Kalb New cancer drugs may have their biggest impact on the littlest patients. Conventional treatments have worked wonders in children with cancer: before 1970, young patients had little chance of survival; today, three...

To Save the Stricken Brain.
December 8, 2003... Byline: Andrew Murr Just two weeks after giving birth to a daughter last November, Michelle Larwood suffered a major stroke. One moment, the Los Angeles woman, 38, sat calmly in a doctor's waiting room. The next, she recalls, "I couldn't...

When the Body Attacks Itself.
December 8, 2003... Byline: Anne Underwood The immune system is a thing of beauty--subtle enough to distinguish dangerous invaders like viruses from benign interlopers such as food; clever enough to recognize when the body's supposedly friendly cells turn...

Into the Darkness of the Mind: Alzheimer's cost U.S. businesses about $61 billion last year.
December 8, 2003... Byline: Anne Underwood When Wayne Huizenga of Blockbuster fame bought the Miami Dolphins in 1994, he asked a trusted colleague to write the $127 million check: Gillian Bristol of Ft. Lauderdale, Fla. Bristol handled important financial...

Unraveling the Secrets of the Cell: Five decades after DNA came to light, we're finally learning how RNA brings it to life.
December 8, 2003... Byline: Anthony L. Komaroff, M.D., and Gary Ruvkun, Ph.D. In 2003 we celebrated the 50th birthday of modern molecular biology. It was a half century ago that James Watson and Francis Crick discovered the structure of DNA--the stuff that...

Health 2003: The Top Ten: Dramatic advances and frustrating setbacks. In medical research, the biggest challenges are not always the technical ones. A look at the key health stories of the year.(Brief Article)
December 8, 2003... It was a year that saw major advances in medicine and health--fields that are ever more complicated and confusing. Cutting-edge technology and new (often contradictory) studies seemed to appear every day, making it hard for readers concerned...

'Wrap These Guys Up': As an occupier, General Petraeus did everything right. Then a lot went wrong.
December 8, 2003... Byline: Christian Caryl and John Barry No U.S. commander in Iraq has done a smarter job than Maj. Gen. David Petraeus. Practically every military observer agrees: in the seven months since his troops took charge in the northern city of...

No Way to Make Friends: Bush could surely have arranged to meet in Baghdad with troops from allied countries who are also fighting and dying in Iraq.
December 8, 2003... Byline: Fareed Zakaria President Bush's Thanksgiving trip to Iraq was a generous and bold-hearted gesture of support to American troops. What made it such a success, however, was that it managed to severely limit an otherwise unavoidable...

The Editor's Desk.
December 8, 2003... Byline: Mark Whitaker The reporters who worked on this week's cover story are a truly ecumenical team. Anne Underwood comes from a family that includes several Episcopal priests. Pat Wingert went to Catholic schools. Karen Springen was...

The Marketing of Missy: The electrifying Ms. Elliott gets commodified.
December 8, 2003... Byline: Lorraine Ali and Jennifer Ordonez Ask any kid who watches BET, MTV or just TV, and you'll hear that Missy Elliott is at the top of her game. Over the past 10 years, the producer turned rapper has established herself as queen of the...

Sweet on Keaton: In her new film, Diane finally gives Nicholson some age-appropriate love. Women will cheer. So should everybody.(Movie Review)
December 8, 2003... Byline: Sean Smith When the two-sentence synopsis of "Something's Gotta Give" started circulating around Hollywood last year, guys laughed when they heard it. (Here's how it goes: an older man who dates only younger women goes out to his...

How Would My Rape Shape My Kids' Lives? I'd always taught my daughters to be fearless. Now I had to tell them how treacherous the world can be.
December 8, 2003... Byline: Ellen Sussman Years ago, when I was 18 and traveling in a foreign country, I was raped and left to die. I now have two daughters, one 15, one 17--almost the age I was then. I have vanquished most of the demons that have haunted me...

Amending Their Ways: Author of a bid to enshrine marriage has surprising allies.
December 8, 2003... Byline: Debra Rosenberg Matt Daniels was ahead of his time. Long before gay marriage became a potent political issue--even before it was a realistic possibility in the eyes of gay activists--Daniels worried that liberal judges might one...

Gangland's New Face: The South sees a surge in violence by Latino groups.
December 8, 2003... Byline: Arian Campo-Flores The initiation began with a ritual beating. On a hot summer day in 1999, in the wooded area of a Charlotte, N.C., park, some 70 gang members encircled "Jorge." Three of them stepped forward and unleashed a fury...

The Right Stuffing: Stealing away in the dark, Bush makes a secret trip to Iraq, boosting troop morale and confounding cynics.
December 8, 2003... Byline: Howard Fineman and Tamara Lipper Turkey and trimmings alone weren't enough of a draw, and neither, concluded the American brass in Baghdad, was the prospect of listening to a speech by Paul Bremer, head of the Coalition Provisional...

Reluctant Witness to Terror.(Brief Article)
December 8, 2003... Byline: Photos by Jerome Sessini It took French photographer Jerome Sessini two months to arrange a meeting with members of the Iraqi resistance. He got more than he bargained for. Sessini was standing in a tomato field near Baghdad...

Newsmakers.
December 8, 2003... Byline: Jac Chebatoris and David Gates, Vanessa Juarez Mrs. Claus's Cause President Bush wasn't the only one to spring a holiday surprise last week. The day before Thanksgiving, Harvey Fierstein, currently appearing as Edna Turnblad in...

Perspectives.
December 8, 2003... Byline: Quotation sources from top to bottom: Los Angeles Times, Ireland Online, Associated Press (2), The Hill, Associated Press, USA Today, Komo 1000, Reuters, BBC News "You want to hang me, OK, poke me, shock me." Suspected sniper Lee...

Politics: What's in Howard Dean's Secret Vermont Files?
December 8, 2003... Byline: Michael Isikoff As investigative reporters and "oppo" researchers flock to Vermont to dig into Howard Dean's past, they have run into a roadblock. A large chunk of Dean's records as governor are locked in a remote state...

Gay Marriage: Touting the His-His Suite.(Brief Article)
December 8, 2003... Byline: Jason McLure Provincetown, Mass., may very well become the gay Niagara. With Massachusetts' ruling to legalize same-sex marriages set to take effect in less than six months, merchants in Provincetown--long a gay mecca--are readying...