Newsweek articles from July 2005

Newsweek archives from July 2005

Here Comes Trouble; A video queen's sordid memoir tells of bed-hopping with superstars. We won't name names. She will.(Confessions of a Video Vixen by Karrine Steffans)(Book Review)
July 4, 2005... Byline: Allison Samuels Most likely you've never heard Karrine Steffans's name, but perhaps you've seen her... face, in such hip-hop videos as Jay-Z's "Hey Papi" and Mystikal's "Dangerous," or opposite Vin Diesel in "A Man Apart." A few...

Grand Theft Identity; Be careful, we've been told, or you may become a fraud victim. But now it seems that corporations are failing to protect our secrets. How bad is the problem, and how can we fix it?(Cover Story)
July 4, 2005... Byline: Steven Levy and Brad Stone (Reported by William Lee Adams, Holly Bailey, Jennifer Barrett, Juliet Chung, Temma Ehrenfeld, Charles Gasparino, Andrew Horesh, Nicole Joseph, Susannah Meadows, Ben Whitford and Kathryn Williams Graphics by...

Kicking the Tires On a Rental Deal; No big corporate buyer would likely want a Hertz if it's burdened with a possible Ford pension problem.(Ford Motor Co.'s pension fund deficit and its plan to sell Hertz Corp.)(Column)
July 4, 2005... Byline: Allan Sloan This is a hot reading season. No, I'm not talking about beach books and awaiting the upcoming "Harry Potter." I'm talking about the stuff that number crunchers like me read. Hot off the presses: documents about Hertz,...

Conventional Wisdom; Fighting Words Edition.(Brief Article)
July 4, 2005... The CW apologizes if anyone was ever offended by anything CW ever said. Pass the hanky, please. CW Bush = It's hard to get back on track when you're fixated on staying the course. But gets points for consistency. ...

Mail Call; The Fathers--And Sons--Who Serve America.(Letter to the Editor)
July 4, 2005... Our June 20 cover story on the enduring tradition of sons following their fathers into service drew praise for providing a window into the lives of military families. One reader said, "Unlike the breathless urgency given to much reporting from...

A Debate That Does Not End; 'The most widely publicized misdemeanor case in American history' went to trial 80 years ago this month in Dayton, Tenn.(Tennessee)(the Scopes trial)(Column)
July 4, 2005... Byline: George F. Will John Scopes attended high school in Salem, Ill., where his commencement speaker was the town's most famous native son, William Jennings Bryan. Their paths would cross again. Eighty years ago Scopes, 24, a...

The Mullahs Win Again; A backer likens the new president to a 'booster vaccine for Islamic principles.' Opponents call him an 'Iranian Taliban.'(Iran)
July 4, 2005... Byline: Babak Dehghanpisheh A surging crowd, chanting religious slogans, clambered around Mahmoud Ahmadinejad as he made his way to the central mosque in Narmak, the working-class district where he had grown up in east Tehran. The Iranian...

The Good News And Bad News; This is the picture in Iraq: A conflict that the United States cannot easily lose, but also cannot easily win.(Column)
July 4, 2005... Byline: Fareed Zakaria (Write the author at comments@fareedzakaria.com.) I don't see how Iraq's insurgency can win. It lacks the support of at least 80 percent of the country (Shiites and Kurds), and by all accounts lacks the support of...

The Editor's Desk.(Editorial)
July 4, 2005... Byline: Mark Whitaker The two reporters who spearheaded this week's cover story have long experience covering the alarming world of digital identity theft. Steven Levy has written books on the people who can break into computers...

Citizen Cane; Johnny Depp, Hollywood's hottest eccentric, meets his match playing Willy Wonka in Tim Burton's 'Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.' How sweet is that?(Interview)
July 4, 2005... Byline: Sean Smith Playing Willy Wonka is not for the timid. It requires courage, imagination and flawless fashion sense. "I like these heels," Johnny Depp says, pulling up his pant cuff to reveal a sleek boot emblazoned with a swirly W....

Depp Dish; Johnny holds forth on Wonka, Bugs Bunny and why being weird works.(actor Johnny Depp)(Interview)
July 4, 2005... Byline: Sean Smith For years he seemed dead set on being anything other than a movie star, playing so many offbeat characters in so many offbeat movies that he practically became his own genre. Between 1989 and 1998, not a single Johnny...

I'm Not Willing to Settle for Crumbs; Without the option of a 'real' wedding, we're left to try to document our commitment with legal papers.(same-sex marriage)(Column)
July 4, 2005... Byline: Kim Severson (Severson lives in New York City.) There is such a sweet light in the face of the straight people who want me to get married. It starts with that sparkly, conspiratorial smile. They squeeze my arm, leaning in like a...

War of Nerves; The politicians say we're winning. The generals aren't so sure. How Bush hopes to persuade a wary nation to stay the course.(U.S. President George W. Bush on the war in Iraq)
July 4, 2005... Byline: John Barry, Richard Wolffe and Evan Thomas (With Howard Fineman and Holly Bailey in Washington and Melinda Liu and Scott Johnson in Iraq) Generals must always speak truth to civilian power. That is the conclusion of a book...

Peace At the Last; The flesh was weak, but the spirit was as strong as ever. Backstage at the Reverend Billy Graham's final American crusade.(Biography)
July 4, 2005... Byline: Jon Meacham As the shadows lengthened, he grew ever brighter. In a wooden pulpit adorned by a single, simple cross, Billy Graham--older, slower, unmistakably weakened in body--stood illuminated by a mass of stage lights in the...

Newsmakers.(Shirley Maclaine, Lindsay Lohan, Oprah Winfrey)(Interview)
July 4, 2005... Byline: Nicki Gostin, Stephen Saito, George Lyle IV Q&A: SHIRLEY MACLAINE In her latest incarnation, Shirley MacLaine plays witchy Endora in "Bewitched." The Oscar winner talked to NEWSWEEK's Nicki Gostin. Why are you wearing two...

Perspectives.(quotations from people in the news)
July 4, 2005... Byline: Quotation sources: Newsday, GQ Magazine, The Washington Post, USA Today, The Washington Post, CNN, The Washington Post, "Today" Show, BBC, MSNBC "We can't undo what was done here 41 years ago." Mississippi prosecutor Mark...

Exclusive: A Sharp New Look at 'Material Witness' Arrests.(terrorist suspects wrongfully detained)
July 4, 2005... Byline: Michael Isikoff Since 9/11, the Justice Department has used a little-known legal tactic to secretly lock up at least 70 terror suspects--almost all of them Muslim men--and hold them without charges as "material witnesses" to...

Politics: Jeb Bush's Surprise Move.(Brief Article)
July 4, 2005... Byline: Arian Campo-Flores and Lynn Waddell Jeb Bush's request (that a state attorney investigate alleged discrepancies in Michael Schiavo's statements about how long he took to call 911 after Terri's collapse) startled even his closest...

Texas: When Mom Calls...(state comptroller Carole Keeton Strayhorn to enter gubernatorial race)(Brief Article)
July 4, 2005... Byline: Holly Bailey Carole Keeton Strayhorn is known in Texas as "one tough grandma." Last week the feisty state comptroller announced she would challenge Gov. Rick Perry in the state's Republican gubernatorial primary, in what's expected...

Intel: The Bolton Standoff.(nomination of John Bolton as U.S. ambassador to the United Nations)(Brief Article)
July 4, 2005... Byline: Mark Hosenball The Senate dead-lock over John Bolton's nomination to the United Nations centers on requests by Democrats for secret info relating to Bolton's State Department tenure. But three congressional sources (who declined to...

Pets: Big Breath, And Bark.(pet oxygen masks from Connecticut-based pet salon Best Friends Pet Care)(Brief Article)
July 4, 2005... Byline: William Lee Adams Found on the bathroom floor, the 3-year-old victim of a house fire appeared lifeless. Boynton Beach, Fla., firefighter William Drumm administered oxygen immediately. "She started biting the mask and looking...

Flossing: That's Way Too Many Mr. T's! (The Lie Is 'A.').(Mental Floss: The Trivia Game)(Brief Article)
July 4, 2005... Byline: Lisa Helem At your typical college dorm, very little good is accomplished at 3 a.m. Dukies Will Pearson, Mangesh Hattikudur, Neely Harris and Lisako Koga provided no exception. "We'd stay up late debating politics, religion or...

Cereal: Trix Are for Traders.(specialty restaurant chain Cereality)(Brief Article)
July 4, 2005... Byline: Nick Summers The concept behind Cereality, the chain of all-cereal-all-the-time stores, sounds like a no-brainer for a college campus: for breakfast, lunch or dinner (or maybe all three), $2.95 gets you two scoops of more than 30...

Oil: China's Shutout Bid?(Chevron Corp.'s bid to acquire Unocal Corp.)(Brief Article)
July 4, 2005... Byline: Allan Sloan It's not often that corporate-takeover battles migrate from Wall Street to Main Street. And even less often do giant companies like Chevron, No. 6 on the Fortune 500, complain about unfair competition from a bigger...

Schools: Battling 'E-Bullies'.(Brief Article)
July 4, 2005... Byline: Jessica Silver-Greenberg Harvard-Westlake, a private high school in Los Angeles, is facing a $100 million lawsuit filed by parents of a 15-year-old student who got anonymous death threats on his Web site. (One read: "I am going to...

Car Celebs: They've Got a Lot of Drive.(Brief Article)
July 4, 2005... ***** CORRECTION: Our July 4 Periscope graphic "They've Got a Lot of Drive" on celebrity cars used in TV and film said that "Chitty Chitty Bang Bang" was a Disney movie. In fact, it was a United Artists movie (part of the MGM library)....

Snap Judgment: Books.(The Icarus Girl)(Our Fathers' War)(Finding George Orwell in Burma )(Brief Article)(Book Review)
July 4, 2005... Byline: Sarah Childress, David Gates, Malcolm Jones The Icarus Girl by Helen Oyeyemi This chilling first novel by the 20-year-old Nigerian-born British author explores the mind of a bright but unstable 8-year-old. Jessamy Harrison,...

Red, White & Proud; In a new series, NEWSWEEK honors Americans who help others be healthy and free.
July 4, 2005... Byline: Hilary Shenfeld and Dirk Johnson, Susannah Meadows, Jonathan Darman What does it mean to be "the best"? In honor of Independence Day, NEWSWEEK launched a nationwide search for people and projects that exemplify American values. Not...

Health: Going Straight for IVF.(in vitro fertilization)
July 4, 2005... Byline: Raina Kelley Three years ago, Leslie Bienen, a veterinarian from Missoula, Mont., easily became pregnant with her first child, a boy she named Pel. Now 39 and ready for her second child, Bienen isn't taking any chances. After seven...

Checklist; Our top picks for the week ahead.(videos, books, YouthAIDS bracelet)(Brief Article)
July 4, 2005... BUY: 'Indecision 2004' ($28; amazon.com). The election is long over, but Jon Stewart's bitingly funny coverage deserves a second look. It comes with this smart maintenance tip: "Do not break DVD." TRY: the One-Time-Use video camcorder...

Catch me if you can.(the Carrera GT from Porsche)(Brief Article)(Product/Service Evaluation)
July 4, 2005... Byline: Tara Weingarten What the... well, I never swear. But a few laps around the California Speedway in the Carrera GT, and I was cussing like Chris Rock. It wasn't at the car, per se. It's just that this GT is so insanely powerful--a...

Technology: We've Got Your Back.(Brief Article)
July 4, 2005... Byline: Peter Suciu Backing up your computer used to mean transferring documents to a 3.5-inch floppy disk. But with digital photos, music and video files, even CD-ROMs are falling short. Some newer options: DVD-ROMs. DVDs offer...

Money: Cruising For Savings.(car rentals)(Brief Article)
July 4, 2005... Byline: Linda Stern Summer car rentals are getting pricey, thanks to rate increases from Avis, Hertz and many other companies. The average mid-size rental will cost $38.95 a day for the Fourth of July weekend, reports the American...

Meal Ticket: Summer Resorts.(seafood restaurants)(Brief Article)
July 4, 2005... For many, June, July and August are all about fried clams, crab cakes and lobster rolls. Here's where you can enjoy the best summer fare at top vacation spots across the country. SAN FRANCISCO AQUA (415) 956-9662. "Stunning floral displays are...

Sports Tour De Lance.(cyclist Lance Armstrong in the Tour de France, 2005)(Brief Article)
July 4, 2005... Byline: Vicky Sama Will Lance Armstrong win a record-breaking seventh straight Tour de France? To find out, 1.5 million American cycling fans will tune in to Outdoor Life Network's daily Tour coverage beginning July 2 (olntv.com ). Here...

Style: Wonder Briefs!(men's underwear)(Brief Article)(Product/Service Evaluation)
July 4, 2005... Byline: Ramin Setoodeh Men's briefs are borrowing an old trick from the Wonderbra: companies are engineering their latest styles to provide more of a lift. Why? Guys who wear tighter pants are demanding undies with snugger cuts. Plus,...

Ask Tip Sheet.(origins of the term dibs)(Brief Article)
July 4, 2005... Byline: ALICE FISHBURN What is the origin of the term "dibs" when you're laying claim to something? --Jim Boguski,Cherry Hill, N.J. Chances are you learned about dibs on the playground, and that's probably where the meaning...

Now Available: Middle Ground; If access to a pill that decreases the number of abortions is not a welcome development, what is the point of the anti-abortion exercise?(emergency contraceptive Plan B)(Column)
July 11, 2005... Byline: Anna Quindlen In theory, access to the drug called Plan B should be a no-brainer. It's safe, it's effective, it's easily available in dozens of countries. But Plan B is a drug used to prevent pregnancy, and nothing about preventing...

Revving Up GM; Mark LaNeve's tough new assignment: build buzz and boost sales at General Motors. He likes his chances.(Biography)
July 11, 2005... Byline: Keith Naughton There hasn't been much to celebrate at General Motors lately. So as its "employee discount for everyone" deal filled showrooms last month, the automaker's new marketing chief, Mark LaNeve, gathered his troops in...

Pensions: A Bold Move Pays Off; Two years ago, GM launched a risky strategy to shore up its huge pension fund. Inside Project Alpha.(General Motors Corp.)
July 11, 2005... Byline: Allan Sloan General Motors has been criticized for years for its timid strategy when it comes to making and selling vehicles. But when it comes to its pension fund, a drag on the company for years, GM has been bold and decisive....

The Comeback King; John Mack will try to heal the wounds at Morgan.(Morgan Stanley)
July 11, 2005... Byline: Charles Gasparino John Mack figured he was the last guy Morgan Stanley would consider to run the firm after chief executive Phil Purcell resigned under pressure last month. After all, when Mack left the company in 2001 following a...

Finding a New Groove; The music biz is upbeat about downloads and wireless.(Industry Overview)
July 11, 2005... Byline: Johnnie L. Roberts It was an unusual but fitting code name: "Project Tapas" was launched a year ago by Andy Lack, the new CEO of Sony BMG Music Entertainment, to end a raging war between music companies and peer-to-peer networks...

Conventional Wisdom; Quagmire Edition.(Brief Article)
July 11, 2005... Yes, the Vietnam comparisons are facile, but even GOPs are beginning to demand some straight talk about what's really going on. CW Bush - Polls say: What's he's selling about Iraq, people are no longer buying. Cue...

A New Look at Some Ancient Creatures.(Letter to the Editor)
July 11, 2005... Dinosaur lovers of all ages responded enthusiastically to our June 27 cover story. "'Buried Treasure' is excellent!" said one. "I am a middle-aged engineer who still gets excited reading about progress in science." A father in Ohio reported...

Iran's Nuclear Lies; Iran says its nuclear program is for peaceful uses only. But a history of deception raises doubts.
July 11, 2005... Byline: Christopher Dickey (With Babak Dehghanpisheh at Bushehr, Dan Ephron in Tel Aviv and Michael Hirsh in Washington Graphic by Andrew Romano) Beyond the antiaircraft-gun emplacements and the early-warning radar systems, and shortly...

'Iran Wants to Be a Major Player'.(International Atomic Energy Agency director-general Mohamed ElBaradei comments on Iran's nuclear capabilities)
July 11, 2005... Byline: Christopher Dickey Iran has been one of Mohamed ElBaradei's biggest worries since International Atomic Energy Agency inspectors uncovered the country's secret nuclear program in 2003. Last week, in his first interview since winning...

Chopper Down Over Kunar; A Special Ops unit calls for help, and a rescue goes awry.(Chinook helicopters and crew downed by gunfire, Afghanistan)
July 11, 2005... Byline: John Barry and Michael Hirsh (With Zahid Hussain in Islamabad and Sami Yousafzai in Peshawar) The two special forces Chinook helicopters had come in, unfortunately, at sunset. They were racing to rescue their comrades on the...

The Editor's Desk.(Editorial)
July 11, 2005... Byline: Jon Meacham Twenty-four summers ago, when Ronald Reagan--still recovering from his gunshot wound and only weeks away from signing his historic tax cut into law--made Sandra Day O'Connor the nation's first female Supreme Court...

Invinceible; He broke big in comedy, but he wanted people to see his range. Bad idea. Mr. Vaughn kills again in 'Wedding Crashers.'.(actor Vince Vaughn)(Interview)
July 11, 2005... Byline: Devin Gordon For the first hour and a half of his interview with NEWSWEEK, Vince Vaughn is--oh, might as well come right out and say it--a bit of a snooze. He is polite, professional and completely unrevealing. His agenda on this...

Is Anybody Making Movies We'll Actually Watch In 50 Years? Forget fame and money. Forget paparazzi chases, phone throwing and couch jumping.
July 11, 2005... Byline: David Ansen She was "America's sweetheart." For 10 years in a row she appeared on the list of the top-10 Hollywood stars, and in 1943 she was the most popular star in the world, her pinup a keepsake accompanying American soldiers...

Struggling to Make Peace With the Atom; One of the things Dad and I shared was our uneasiness about his contribution to history.(Correction Notice)
July 11, 2005... ***** CORRECTION: The July 11 My Turn, "Struggling to Make Peace With the Atom," stated that the half-life of depleted uranium is 4.5 million years. It is actually 4.5 billion years. NEWSWEEK regrets the error. ***** Byline:...

Married to a Monster; Husband, father, serial murderer: the BTK killer is not the only one. What the families of serial killers go through.(serial killer Dennis Rader)
July 11, 2005... Byline: Dirk Johnson and Jessica Silver-Greenberg (With Courtney Cloyd in Kansas and Karen Springen in Chicago) From his jail in Wichita, Dennis Rader, the sadistic serial killer who called himself BTK--short for his method: bind, torture,...

The Commandment Mystery; The court ruled on a settled sacred text. Or did it? An analysis.(Supreme Court rules on display of Ten Commandments on Texas capitol grounds)(Column)
July 11, 2005... Byline: Allan Sloan You may think that the Supreme Court ruled last week that the state of Texas could continue to display a Ten Commandments monolith on its capitol grounds in Austin. But you'd be wrong. Look at the monolith--you can find...

You Shield Us, We'll Shield You; Once federal prosecutors get in the habit of forcing reporters to cough up their sources, readers will be dining on handouts and hokum.(Column)
July 11, 2005... Byline: Jonathan Alter As a general rule, journalists shouldn't be in the business of lobbying Congress. But once in a long while an issue comes along that so threatens what we do--and what you read and see--that we need to use whatever...

Queen of the Center; The Swing Vote: She's a cowgirl from sagebrush country, a pioneer who defied the odds. The life and legacy of a moderate justice.(Cover Story)(Correction Notice)
July 11, 2005... ***** CORRECTION: In "O'Connor's Odyssey" we said that Justice Sandra Day O'Connor was president of Arizona's State Senate, when, in fact, she served as majority leader. In addition, a photo caption said that O'Connor was on the Arizona...

The Holy War Begins; Bush must choose between the big tent or the revival tent. Inside his Supreme Machine.(U.S. President George W. Bush)(appointment of supreme court justices)(Cover Story)
July 11, 2005... Byline: Howard Fineman and Debra Rosenberg (With Richard Wolffe, Tamara Lipper and Holly Bailey) As soon as President George W. Bush officially got the news--Justice Sandra Day O'Connor was retiring--he huddled with his innermost circle....

The Rove Factor? Time magazine talked to Bush's guru for Plame story.(Karl Rove found to be one of reporter Matthew Cooper's sources for story on intelligence agent Valerie Plame)
July 11, 2005... Byline: Michael Isikoff Its legal appeals exhausted, Time magazine agreed last week to turn over reporter Matthew Cooper's e-mails and computer notes to a special prosecutor investigating the leak of an undercover CIA agent's identity. The...

Newsmakers.(actor Jennifer Connelly)(Interview)
July 11, 2005... Byline: Nicki Gostin, George Lyle IV, David Gates Q&A: Jennifer Connelly Jennifer Connelly does a lot of crying and screaming in her new scary movie, "Dark Water." But she spoke calmly about skin care and apartment hunting with...

Perspectives.
July 11, 2005... Byline: Quotation sources: Associated Press (2), The Washington Post, Associated Press, CNN, San Jose Mercury News, CNN (2), New York Times (2) "A high standard of legal ability, judgment and integrity." President George W. Bush, on...

Presidential Books: A Space on the Shelf.(discussion of possible autobiography by President George W. Bush)
July 11, 2005... Byline: Richard Wolffe and Tamara Lipper Bill Clinton offered an exhaustive look at his life. George H.W. Bush authored a foreign-policy tome with his national-security adviser, and followed with a collection of his letters. Now George W....

Star Power: Cruising Along.(movie actor Tom Cruise's reputation)(Brief Article)
July 11, 2005... Byline: Elise Soukup Maybe it's a backlash against the backlash. Despite taking a beating in the press for his recent couch-jumping, psychiatry-slamming antics, Tom Cruise's movie and religion are doing just fine, thank you. "War of the...

Host Cities: Olympic Calculations.(2012 Olympics)
July 11, 2005... Byline: Mark Starr If New York City loses its bid for the 2012 Olympics this week, the United States immediately becomes a heavy favorite to host the next Summer Games in 2016. On Wednesday, the International Olympic Committee will vote on...

Energy: Finally On the Way in France? It's Fusion.(international agency ITER plans fusion reactor for Cadarache, France)(Brief Article)
July 11, 2005... Byline: Fred Guterl Fusion energy wasn't new back in 1972, when physicist Robert Goldston first arrived at the Princeton Plasma Physics Laboratory as a graduate student. His colleagues were ecstatic over generating one tenth of a watt of...

Ground Zero: Freedom Tower, Take 2.
July 11, 2005... Byline: Cathleen McGuigan On July 4, 2004, New York Gov. George Pataki laid the cornerstone (actually a granite slab buried way down in the foundation) for the new Freedom Tower at Ground Zero. Turns out he was a little hasty. Last week,...

Get Out of The Water!(shark attacks)
July 11, 2005... Byline: Prakash Gandhi, William Lee Adams and Arian Campo-Flores Four years after a spate of shark attacks prompted a media frenzy, is another "summer of the shark" about to break over us? A week ago last Saturday, a shark killed a...

Appreciation: Shelby Foote, Voice of the South.(Obituary)
July 11, 2005... Byline: Malcolm Jones If Foote, who died last week at 88, had never written "Shiloh," his terse, unsentimental novel about the 1862 Civil War battle, he might not have gone on to become the best-known narrative historian of the Civil War....

Let's Stay Out Of This Fight; It's an incendiary mixture: China and oil. But Washington should stay out of the battle between Chevron and CNOOC for Unocal.(Column)
July 11, 2005... Byline: Robert J. Samuelson We cannot decide whether China is a threat or an opportunity, and until we do, every discussion of our relations seems to slide into confusion and acrimony. The latest example is the noisy controversy over the...

And the Beat Goes On; More than 20 percent of the coronary bypass operations in the country are done 'off pump,' with the heart pounding in the chest like the living thing it is.
July 11, 2005... Byline: David Noonan (With Dan Berrett) Five minutes after you meet Joel (Barlow) Davis, it feels as if you've known him for years. As open and affable as a handshake, Davis, a retired country-music bass player and singer, wasn't trying to...

The Supremes Hit The Pirate Ships; A legal win for Hollywood on file sharing won't necessarily translate to the real world.
July 11, 2005... Byline: Steven Levy There is something about the pomp and circumstance of a Supreme Court decision, especially a long-awaited one like last week's file-sharing case, that tempts one to view any conclusion of nine justices as a historic...

BlogWatch.(Brief Article)
July 11, 2005... A weekly mainstream- media snapshot of what's hot (and what's not) in the ever-widening world of web logs. Think one of your favorite stars may have had some work done? goodplasticsurgery.com has before-and-after pics. Several lefty...

We Need To Cool It; Even without federal leadership on global warming, states and businesses are starting to take action. A leading advocate for clean energy explains.(Eileen Claussen)(Interview)
July 11, 2005... Byline: Anne Underwood In 1997, Eileen Claussen, a former assistant secretary of State and onetime EPA official, received an intriguing call from officials at the Pew Charitable Trusts: if they wanted to spend a lot of money to address...

Money: Cheaper By The Bucket.(exchange-traded funds)
July 11, 2005... Byline: Linda Stern Here's a Wall Street riddle: what's highly technical, dry (some would say boring), and very hot this summer? If you follow the money, you already know the answer: exchange-traded funds, or ETFs. These index-fund clones...

Checklist; Our top picks for the week ahead.(Brief Article)
July 11, 2005... SEE: 'Robert Mapplethorpe and the Classical Tradition' at New York City's Guggenheim Museum ($15; through Aug. 24), which explores the dialogue between Mapplethorpe's photographs and 16th-century Flemish Mannerist prints. BUY: Golden...

Road Test: Isuzu Ascender; All Aboard!(Product/Service Evaluation)
July 11, 2005... Byline: Tara Weingarten The car industry may be moving in the direction of smaller crossovers and compact SUVs. But how do big families get around these days? Check out the new seven-seat Ascender, comfy as a living room and large enough...

Software Rx For Paperwork.(Quicken Medical Expense Manager)(Brief Article)
July 11, 2005... Byline: Linda Stern If you've been sick recently, you know that dealing with all the doctors' bills and insurance forms can quickly give you a relapse. Now financial-software maker Intuit has released a program to help sort it all out. ...

Travel: Caffeine Tourism.(Brief Article)
July 11, 2005... Byline: Paul Tolme Americans' love of coffee has given rise to a new travel trend: coffee tourism. Hoping to mimic the success of vineyard tours, coffee farms are welcoming vacationers. Finca Irlanda in the Sierra Madres of Chiapas,...

Style: Some Hot Pockets.(men's handkerchiefs)(Brief Article)
July 11, 2005... Byline: Ramin Setoodeh Designers known for women's scarves are putting their prints on men's pocket squares. Below, a yellow one with hearts (Salvatore Ferragamo; $70 at Bloomingdale's), Pucci's pretty shapes ($68; Bloomingdale's) and...

Family: Ant Misbehavin'.(ant farmsusa)(Brief Article)(Product/Service Evaluation)
July 11, 2005... Byline: Alice Fishburn Reminiscing about that childhood ant farm? Order some large harvester ants, recommended for maximum viewing ($4 for 25; antsalive. com ) and take our advice on which farm has the most bite (on a scale of one to five...

Games: Listen Up, Soldiers.(new online game Battlefield 2 from Electronic Arts)(Brief Article)
July 11, 2005... Byline: Peter Suciu It takes nerves of steel and good communication to command troops in battle, even one of the digital variety. You must direct your squads, track enemy movements and keep your forces supplied--all while coming under...

Food: It's All Chinese.(books help Chinese-food enthusiasts read menus )(Brief Article)(Bibliography)
July 11, 2005... Byline: Jim Leff and chowhound.com Chinese-food devotees would rather starve than order Americanized items. But what to do when a restaurant's wall signs are all in Mandarin? Jim Leff and Chowhound.com recommend these tools for unlocking...

Taxes: Special Cases.(parents' right to claim private-school tuition for children as tax deduction)(Brief Article)
July 11, 2005... Byline: Linda Stern The Internal Revenue Service has opened the door for some parents to write off their child's private-school tuition as a medical expense. In a recent ruling, it said that one family's dyslexic children required special...

Online: Trading Plates.(vanity license plates)(Brief Article)
July 11, 2005... Byline: Ben Whitford You've got the fuzzy dice; all you need is a personalized plate. But only one driver per state can have a given license plate--and what if somebody's already snagged 2FAST4U? Try GreatPlateExchange.com , the would-be...

Health: Another Donut?(gaging metabolic rates)(Brief Article)
July 11, 2005... Byline: Karen Springen It's easy to blame that extra flab on a "slow metabolism." Now you can find out if you really have one. Devices that measure your resting metabolic rate, or RMR, with a 10-minute Breathalyzer test are popping up in...

Ask Tip Sheet.(different placement of buttons on men's and women's clothing)(Brief Article)
July 11, 2005... Byline: Alexandra Silver Why do men's and women's clothing have buttons on opposite sides? --Jason Taff, St. Louis, Mo. Gender-based button placement can probably be traced to once practical considerations, and the assumption that...