USA TODAY articles from May 2004

USA TODAY archives from May 2004

From the publisher.(Editorial)
May 1, 2004... With my one-year anniversary as publisher of USA Today in the offing, I look back with a great deal of pride concerning the changes and progress we've made over the last several months. Our latest twist is the debut of a new column this issue,...

Shock jocks none of Congress' business.(Your Life)(politics and indecency on television and radio)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2004... Many politicians now complaining about indecency on television and radio are engaging in election-year posturing that could threaten freedom of expression, warns Bill Lee, professor in the Grady College of Journalism and Mass Communication,...

Rising fuel costs slowing recovery.(Your Life)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2004... Rapidly rising fuel costs might force American businesses to lay off employees or outsource work offshore. "The prices of oil and natural gas are rising significantly at a crucial point in the economic recovery. The trend threatens to take the...

Greenspan urges Social Security cuts.(Your Life)(Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2004... Federal Reserve Chairman Alan Greenspan has urged Congress to deal with the country's escalating budget deficit by cutting benefits for future Social Security retirees. Without action, he warns, long-term interest rates will rise, seriously...

Ensuring cool air is clean air.(Your Life)(air conditioner maintenance)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2004... Now that flowers are in full bloom, signaling the real arrival of spring, air conditioners are making their way out of basements, garages, and attics. Before putting that unit into the window, take a few minutes to give it a thorough cleaning...

Students "gapping" college career.(Your Life)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2004... Colleges in the U.S. and Great Britain are encouraging students to take a "gap year" in their academic careers in order to mature emotionally and intellectually before beginning their first semester of university life. This enables new high...

We marry those like ourselves.(Your Life)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2004... Given the reasons why people choose their mates, maybe men and women are from the same planet after all, says an evolutionary anthropologist from the University of California, Davis. In fact, when men and women are out shopping in the mate...

Martha's business may be in big trouble.(Your Life)(lifestyle doyenne Martha Stewart)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2004... Martha Stewart's hands-on, high-profile retailing formula--once the key to her unprecedented success--may be her brand's death sentence when she is in prison, according to Arun K. Jain, professor and chair, University at Buffalo (N.Y.) School...

Friendly neighbors found in suburbs.(Your Life)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2004... People who reside in traditional small-town neighborhoods use their cars less than do individuals living in the suburbs, but they do not feel a stronger sense of community, maintains an Ohio State University, Columbus, study. The results...

Working weekends on job search.(Your Life)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2004... Your winning job lead may come from a chance meeting at a party this weekend. Now that the taboo about discussing unemployment is gone, social contacts increasingly are the greatest source of leads, according to John A. Challenger, chief...

USDA donating food to 22 nations.(Your Life)(United States Department of Agriculture)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2004... The Department of Agriculture's 2004 Food for Progress program includes donations for 22 developing countries in Africa, Asia, Latin America, and Eastern Europe. These "allocations are part of the Bush Administration's ongoing efforts to...

Squeezing the fat out of milk.(Your Life)(a new cattle-feed supplement that dramatically boosts the content of unsaturated fatty acids over saturated fats in cows' milk has been developed by researchers at the University of California, Davis)
May 1, 2004... A new cattle-feed supplement that dramatically boosts the content of unsaturated fatty acids over saturated fats in cows' milk has been developed by researchers at the University of California, Davis. The additive, based on naturally occurring...

Are quick-fix diets the answer?(Your Life)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2004... Are the Atkins, Zone, and Carbohydrate Addict's diets the secret to losing weight? These plans focus on limiting carbohydrates--grains, beans, fruits, rice, potatoes, pasta, and starchy vegetables. Moreover, Atkins allows an individual to eat...

Food stamps still popular with poor.(Your Life)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2004... Low-income households generally have two avenues by which they can receive nutritional assistance--the Federal Food Stamp program and private efforts such as food pantries. However, a study conducted at the University of Missouri-Columbia, by...

Proud people display their pride.(Your Life)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2004... The emotion of pride has its own distinct facial expression and body language, adding it to the short list of recognizable human emotions that have been identified scientifically, report professor of psychology Richard Robins and doctoral...

Nonverbal cues are great communicators.(Your Life)
May 1, 2004... Most executive-level job applicants carefully consider what they are going to say during the interview, but few take into account the nonverbal cues they may be sending. An individual's body language when responding to questions can have as...

Motherhood hinders science careers.(Your Life)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2004... It is not a lack of math proficiency keeping women from careers in science and engineering, nor is it the lack of other college-prep classes. Motherhood is the problem, maintain Kimberlee Shauman, University of California, Davis, and Yu Xie,...

Anxiety disorders on the rise.(Your Life)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2004... If talking to new people frightens you, if you worry constantly, or have spontaneous panic attacks, you may have an anxiety disorder, America's most common mental illness, says Temple psychologist Rick Heimberg, director of the university's...

What the CIA doesn't see.(National Affairs)(United States Central Intelligence Agency)
May 1, 2004... "The problem with the [Central Intelligence Agency] lies within its structure and culture. It does not match the task because the analytic side of intelligence is unlike any other function of government." IT IS OBVIOUS that something is...

Why are we in Iraq?(State Of The Nation)(Column)
May 1, 2004... OVER 35 years ago, few could give a persuasive answer to the question: Why are we in Vietnam? That simple question contained a series of more vexing ones: How do we define winning? What would be gained by it? What would be the costs of such a...

Can America pull off a triple play? Is it possible for the beleaguered nations of Iraq, Afghanistan, and Uzbekistan to become beacons of success with the help of U.S. foreign intervention?(Worldview)
May 1, 2004... IRAQ, Afghanistan, and Uzbekistan are three very distinct countries operating under different and difficult--circumstances. During a recent visit, we bad the opportunity to see their local markets and many food and agriculture projects that...

Accentuating the negative.(Mass Media)(political ads)
May 1, 2004... "... Studies demonstrate that, as time passes, the source of a negative [political advertisement] decays, but its content remains and becomes even more powerful." BEWARE, Mr. and Ms. American Voter, highly skilled spinmeisters are coming...

Outsourcing is a good thing--mostly.(Economics)
May 1, 2004... "Cost reductions from outsourcing... open up new market opportunities for U.S. companies and generate additional jobs here at home... Outsourcing and the savings it generates are the beginning--not the end--of the adjustment process." ...

How to smooth job transition to offset overseas outsourcing.(Economics)(Column)
May 1, 2004... "Policymakers have to refocus their energies away from trying to stop outsourcing to finding ways to help those affected." Entrepreneurial activity and fluidity in the labor force--meaning the free movement of workers among industries as...

Bush's foreign policy foibles.(World Watcher)(United States President George W. Bush)(Column)
May 1, 2004... THE BUSH ADMINISTRATION inevitably resorts to name-calling whenever it is in trouble. As The New York Times noted in a March 26 editorial concerning the accusations of former top counter-terrorism official Richard Clarke, "The White House is so...

The abuses of corporate personhood.(Business & Finance)
May 1, 2004... "... Corporate 'persons' have been given many superhuman qualities. They have infinite life spans, reside simultaneously in many nations, create their own parents, and cut off parts of themselves to form new entities. They... do not need fresh...

Ensuring a happy ending.(Economic Observer)(tax laws regarding long term care plans)(Column)
May 1, 2004... YEAH, I KNOW. You are going to live forever. That may be the problem. The longer you hang on, the more likely you are going to need assisted living. That will be quite expensive. According to Christopher and James Bell of the Mobile, Ala., firm...

The Sarbanes-Oxley Act: altering the fabric of American business.(Law & Justice)
May 1, 2004... "Those empowered by the [Sarbanes-Oxley] Act--the SEC, IRS, and Oversight Board--have been put in a position where they easily could overstep their boundaries to the point where they almost are running America's companies." IN AN ERA WHEN...

D.C. Choice: another elective course in school reform.(Education)
May 1, 2004... Opportunity scholarships "can be the road to quality education and all that it means--personal growth, economic success, and a greater range of employment alternatives. Education is freedom." ON JAN. 22, 2004, Congress made a historic...

Why the Incredible Hulk is batting cleanup.(Sports Scene)(professional baseball)
May 1, 2004... CAN'T THE CLOWNS who run major league baseball make up their minds? First, they were against drugs that hun performance (unless it really is possible to locate the strike zone better when stoned or flying on coke). Now, they are against drags...

The Red Rose Girls: An Uncommon Story of Art and Love.(Museums Today)(a retrospective of illustrations by Jessie Willcox Smith (1863-1935), Elizabeth Shippen Green (1871-1954), and Violet Oakley (1874-1961))
May 1, 2004... "... In order to be viewed as serious professional artists, these women chose to forego the very domestic life they so romantically portrayed. " TWENTY-THREE YEARS before American women won the right to vote in national elections,...

Women in Illustration: Contemporary Visions and Voices.(Museums Today)(exhibition honors the contributions of 20 outstanding visual artists)
May 1, 2004... "Diverse and deeply rooted in personal aesthetic and philosophy, [these] compelling images engage the eye and imagination while satisfying the needs of commerce in its many facets." IN THE 19th and early 20th century, when women struggled...

The "Hat Ladies" of New Pilgrim Baptist Church.(Religion)(Julie Moos' portraits honor their importance as cultural leaders and celebrate their desire to praise the Lord each Sunday)
May 1, 2004... These women are paired together in portraits that honor their importance as cultural leaders and celebrate their desire to praise the Lord each Sunday, crowned with stunning headresses of fur, felt, or straw, which are adorned with feathers,...

It's a small word after all.(Science & Technology)(nanotechnology)
May 1, 2004... "... Nanotechnology deals with devices that are 1/1,000th the width of a human hair or, to put it another way, as much smaller than a football as a football is smaller than the distance from the Earth to the moon." IN NOVEMBER, 2003,...

Are more killer heat waves on the horizon.(Ecology)
May 1, 2004... "The top four warmest 12-month periods on record have come in the last six years. The 17 warmest years since record-keeping began in 1867 have occurred since 1980. It is clear that the temperature is rising" and thousands of deaths are the...

Can America feed China?(Eye On Ecology)
May 1, 2004... AFTER A REMARKABLE EXPANSION of grain output from 90,000,000 tons in 1950 to 392,000,000 tons in 1998, China's grain harvest has fallen in four of the last five years, skidding to 322,000,000 tons in 2003. This drop exceeds the total grain...

A plague of locusts: here comes Brood X.(Ecology)(cicadas)
May 1, 2004... "... When periodical cicadas emerge, they do so in enormous numbers--up to 1,500,000 individual insects per acre, weighing over one ton cumulatively. That translates into 1,000,000,000 cicadas per square mile...." FOR THE LAST 17 years...

History is our responsibility.(American Thought)
May 1, 2004... "If mankind is to avoid destructive wars, or achieve modes of life enhancing the human experience, we must work to realize these goals." MUCH OF Western thought, from its origins to the middle of the 19th century, was devoted to providing...

Beating back the blues.(Medicine & Health)(men and depression)
May 1, 2004... When afflicted with depression, men "may become frustrated, discouraged, angry, irritable, and abusive" or "engage in irresponsible behavior.... It often takes courage to ask for help." AS I HAVE SEEN MEN who were patients, volunteers in...

Psychotherapy and insurance: the double bind.(Psychology)
May 1, 2004... Many "therapists feel frustrated, threatened, and trapped in an unhealthy alliance" with insurance companies. WHEN THE PHONE RINGS in a therapist's office, prospective clients invariably ask the same questions: "Are you accepting new...

"You said a mouthful!".(Reel World)(Joe E. Brown)
May 1, 2004... DID A BOOK PROPOSAL on my favorite neglected comedian, Joe E. Brown (1892-1973). If the name does not ring a bell, think of writer/director Billy Wilder's "Some Like It Hot" (1959). This is the picture where musicians Tony Curtis and Jack...

DV delight: movie madness for the living room: from Clark Gable and James Stewart to Robert De Niro and Tom Cruise, from merry old England to modern America, here are over 20 films worth watching.(Entertainment)(Bibliography)
May 1, 2004... IF YOU ARE putting together a personalized DVD library, Columbia TriStar Home Video is a valuable resource. With seven decades of films to choose from, however, boiling down the choices is a daunting task. Yet, we have managed to select nearly...

Why can't you say--or show--that on TV?(Words Images)
May 1, 2004... EACH ELECTION YEAR, whenever the economy and the deficit become major issues, Americans are dying on foreign soil, and there is a health-care crisis that overwhelms the social fabric, it is guaranteed that Congress will hold hearings concerning...

Tressing up the garden.(What's News?)(the Harmony Arbor from the Presidio line of maintenance-free garden products produced by Westech Fence, Mt. Vernon, Ind.)(Brief Article)(Product/Service Evaluation)
May 1, 2004... Not only does it beautify any garden, it never (as in ever) will peel, flake, or rot, is impervious to termites and moisture, and remains resistant to denting and scratching. No, there isn't some new superhero tiptoeing through the tulips, just...

A "Discovery" at the store.(What's News?)(Discovery Channel Store)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2004... When there seems to be nothing worthwhile on TV and flipping with the remote is getting tedious, a stop at the Discovery Channel more often than not proves worthwhile. The same can be said for the Discovery Channel Store, headquartered in...

Let's eat, drink and play.(What's News?)(Eat-N-Play from Babies-R-Us)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2004... You're hungry; the kids are cranky; and you're not sure how clean the lunch table in the mail is. What to do? Pull out the Eat-N-Play Activity Cooler, which not only is filled with food and drinks, but contains a clean eating surface and...

The "opoly" family still growing.(What's News?)(USAopoly games)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2004... What do Jargon, Peanuts Chess, and MONOPOLY: Muppets Collector's Edition have in common? Correct. They are three excellent games from USAopoly, Encinitas, Calif. Jargon ($29.99) is for crossword lovers. For example, what do Yankees, jetlag,...

Get the lead out.(What New?)(water testing kits)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2004... Concern about the safety of the global water supply for human consumption has grown steadily throughout the last several years. Lakes, rivers, and groundwater have been found to contain unacceptably high amounts of Atrazine and Simazine,...

A little higher; a little lower.(What's News?)(Intromark Inc.)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2004... The name, Mark It Right, pretty much says it all. This practical and multifunctional tool from Intromark, Inc., Pittsburgh, Pa., can be used as a straight edge, measuring device, or general-purpose level to hang pictures straight and ensure...

Shower(s) power.(What's News?)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2004... Unhappy about the output from your shower? If so, there's an old adage that, even though it's out of context, readily applies: Two heads are better than one. In this case, we're talking about the Massaging Wall Mounted Twin Shower Heads from...

Little screws, big headaches.(What's New?)(Igo mini Powered Screwdriver)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2004... The doom is done. The gloom is gone. Rejoice, for the tiny screw is actually turning. Do you believe in miracles? We do now that the Igo Mini Powered Screwdriver from Igo Home Products, Beachwood, Ohio, has made a joyful entrance into our...

White Mountains wonderland.(What's New?)
May 1, 2004... "Remember that vulture we saw on the train?" Alex blurted out one evening at dinner. Huh? "You know," he insisted, "when we were on vacation in New Hampshire." There are a lot of these types of mutated snippets around our house--especially when...

Colorful covers better than brown-bagging.(What's New?)(Brief Article)
May 1, 2004... Funny how, as our kids reach the age where they need to cover their textbooks, they've also reached the age where they care about style. While folded grocery bags may have been good enough for us way back when, they just don't cut it anymore....

Museum memo.(Brief Article)(Calendar)
May 1, 2004... What's new in museums around the country? Among the more interesting exhibitions on view are: The Pierre and Maria-Gaetana Matisse Collection, May 18-June 26, and "People of the Twentieth Century": August Sander's Photographic Portrait of...

American Dynasty: Aristocracy, Fortune, and the Politics of Deceit in the House of Bush.(Book Review)
May 1, 2004... AMERICAN DYNASTY: Aristocracy, Fortune, and the Politics of Deceit in the House of Bush BY KEVIN PHILLIPS VIKING 2004, 348 PAGES, $25.95 In the preface of American Dynasty, Kevin Phillips confesses that his disdain of the Bushes began in...

The Working Poor: Invisible in America.(Book Review)
May 1, 2004... THE WORKING POOR Invisible in America BY DAVID K. SHIPLER ALFRED A. KNOPF 2004, 320 PAGES, $25.00 At first glance, the title The Working Poor looks like an oxymoron such as "bittersweet" or "deafening silence." After all, in this great...

Eats Shoots & Leaves: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation.(Book Review)
May 1, 2004... EATS SHOOTS & LEAVES: The Zero Tolerance Approach to Punctuation BY LYNNE TRUSS GOTHAM 2004, 209 PAGES, $17.50 Lynne Truss styles herself a "stickler," and what she stickles about is the punctuational anarchy she encounters everywhere....

Attracting Birds, Butterflies and Other Backyard Wildlife.(Book Review)
May 1, 2004... ATTRACTING BIRDS, BUTTERFLIES AND OTHER BACKYARD WILDLIFE BY DAVID MIZEJEWSKI CREATIVE HOMEOWNER 2004, 128 PAGES, $12.95 When I was a 12-year-old paperboy, a family on my route had a substantial outdoor vivarium that housed a dozen or so...

Second-fiddle females.(Parting Thoughts)
May 1, 2004... FOR A MAN TO WRITE about women may seem incongruous as most of us are familiar with that 600-page tome, What Men Know About Women. All the pages are blank! One has to feel very intrepid to touch the topic. Nevertheless, the so-called "Women's...