USA TODAY articles from May 2008

USA TODAY archives from May 2008

Homeowner situation not as bleak as reported.(Brief article)
May 1, 2008... Americans may own a larger share of their homes than is suggested by a Federal Reserve report, according to a nationwide survey by Ohio State University, Columbus. In its quarterly report, the Federal Reserve says that, in 2007, Americans'...

Government meddling hurts economy.(Brief article)
May 1, 2008... The Libertarian Party is warning against excessive and rash government intervention in the American economy in response to recent market woes. "It is almost as if Congress and the President set out to de something half-baked and cheesy in...

Congress squeezing middle class.(Brief article)
May 1, 2008... With a U.S. senator set to assume the presidency for the first time since 1960 and with an eye on the 470 other Federal elections scheduled for Nov. 4, the Drum Major Institute for Public Policy (DMI), Washington, D.C., has released its...

Oil demand stagnates but not prices.
May 1, 2008... Oil prices have skyrocketed despite the fact that world oil demand grew just one percent in 2007, according to a study by the Worldwatch Institute, Washington, D.C. Contrary to published reports, the new era of $100-plus-a-barrel oil is not...

Are feds bailing out wrong people?(YOUR LIFE)
May 1, 2008... In order to stave off a systemic collapse of U.S. financial markets, the Federal Reserve should shift its focus from protecting banks to protecting markets directly, according to Steven L. Schwarcz, professor of law and business at Duke...

Public's mixed feelings on war in Iraq continue.(Brief article)
May 1, 2008... Now that the Iraqi War has marked its fifth anniversary, senior fellow and public opinion specialist Karlyn Bowman of the American Enterprise Institute, Washington, D.C., has an updated collection of survey data on public attitudes concerning...

Homeland security says northern border at risk.(YOUR LIFE)
May 1, 2008... The U.S. is at risk from invasion through its northern border, a 4,000mile stretch of mostly unattended territory in 12 states, with the confirmed presence of a number of terrorist and extremist groups in Canada, states a report from the...

And you thought it was your room.(YOUR LIFE)(Roommate.com)(Brief article)
May 1, 2008... Is it legal for a roommate locator service to match up customers according to their mutual preferences: male or female, gay or straight, have children or childless? Probably not, according to a recent Federal appellate court decision in Fair...

"Recession rumination" strikes worried workers.(Your Life)(Brief article)
May 1, 2008... Employees waste 25% of their workday, and that number is up 44% over last year, according to a study by Leadership IQ, Washington, D.C. The biggest reason for this increase can be traced to "recession rumination." In 2007, these...

Tuesday ranks as most productive day.(Brief article)
May 1, 2008... Why tackle today what can be put off until Tuesday?. In a survey by Accountemps, Menlo Park, Calif., a specialized staffing service for temporary accounting, finance, and bookkeeping professionals, 57% of executives maintain Tuesday is the most...

Bankruptcies again on the rise.(Your Life)(Brief article)
May 1, 2008... On the eve of the three-year anniversary of Pres. George W. Bush's controversial bankruptcy bill becoming law, data indicates that, in the last two years, nearly 1,500,000 individuals have filed for personal bankruptcy. The data further...

Children at risk from chained dogs.(Your Life)
May 1, 2008... Dogs chained to trees and fences often become neurotic, aggressive, and pathologically protective of the patch of dirt where they spend their lives. Frustrated and unsocialized, chained dogs pose a year-round danger to unsuspecting children who...

Politics and sports compete at Olympics.
May 1, 2008... While the Olympics are meant to stand above politics, politics always has been a part of these Games, points out a sports historian from Purdue University, West Lafayette, Ind. "Even the 1896 revival of the modern-day Olympics, thanks to...

Does religion belong on campaign trail?(Your Life)(Brief article)
May 1, 2008... A major debate in the 2008 presidential race has focused on religion and its role in the life of the candidates. In recent years, this has served the Republican candidates well, as they have embraced religious values openly and made it a part...

School lunch trays can be recycled.(Brief article)
May 1, 2008... Democratic Councilman Bill de Blasio of Brooklyn, N.Y., wants to ban all polystyrene food trays from the area's schools--and no wonder. With New York City schools using 4,000,000 cafeteria trays a day and not recycling them, valuable landfill...

Debt & deficit.(national debt)
May 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] U.S. FOREIGN POLICY has made two critical mistakes: Uncontrolled defense expenditures have undermined the economy, and America's global reach has exceeded its grasp. As the economy falters, members of the Bush...

Recession cures no cure at all.
May 1, 2008... THE OLD NOSTRUM from the physician's Hippocratic Oath, "First, do no harm" should apply to government with even greater force. In the past, government interventions designed to help the economy resulted in the cure only exacerbating the...

Learning the right lessons from Iraq.
May 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] FOREIGN POLICY specialists and analysts are misreading the lessons of the war in Iraq. The emerging conventional wisdom holds that success could have been achieved with more troops and cooperation among U.S....

Israel at 60 (or 3,000-plus).
May 1, 2008... NO NATION HAS IMPACTED the globe or other countries and their peoples like Israel has. It is better known than any other nation-state. Its government has a global reach; its peoples are influential; its military is feared widely and respected...

The candidates go to war: the three main players in the race for president--especially Republican hopeful John McCain--really do not seem to understand the intricacies of the war in Iraq.(Hillary Clinton and Barack Obama)
May 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] IT IS ASTOUNDING and disheartening to watch the presidential candidates wander through the increasingly desolate Iraqi landscape over the period of this extended campaign. With all the information that is available...

The Obama vs. Clinton sincerity sweepstakes.(Barack Obama versus Hillary Clinton)
May 1, 2008... IF ONE WERE TO WRITE a book on this year's presidential campaign, it might well be titled, The Making of a Sincere President: 2008. The appearance of sincerity always has been a crucial, if not sufficient, ingredient in winning the presidency,...

The new face of business news.
May 1, 2008... STATE-OF-THE-ART COMPUTER ANIMATION is changing the way we get our information and it is enticing the "Sesame Street" generations into learning more about the world around them. Business news is a good example. It used to be a hard sell filling...

Stop the on climate change: The concern for future generations is misplaced, as they "not only will be better off, they will have at their disposal better and more effective technologies to address not just climate change, but any other sources of adversity.".
May 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] THE STATE-OF-THE-ART British-sponsored fast-track assessment (F/A) of the global impacts of climate change, whose authors include leading contributors to the latest report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate...

The Gandhi connection: the Mahatma secured India's independence some 60 years ago with the assistance of Nandalal Bose and Rabindranath Tagore.(The World Yesterday)
May 1, 2008... THE INNOVATIVE philosophy of Nandalal Bose (1882-1966) concerning art and art education was influenced to a large extent by the ideas of two of his distinguished contemporaries, Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi (1869-1948) and Rabindranath Tagore...

Gustave Courbet: France's fearless provocateur: the radical and rebellious 19th-century painter "rejected artistic convention, challenged academic norms, and created artworks that scandalized the public.".(Museums Today)
May 1, 2008... A PIONEERING FIGURE in the history of modernism and one of the major artists of mid 19th-century France, Gustave Courbet (1819-77) constantly was at odds with authority. He rejected artistic convention, challenged academic norms, and created...

MDA is ready to turn the corner.(Life in America)(Muscular Dystrophy Association)
May 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] SIXTY YEARS AGO, the term "muscular dystrophy," even though it designates a group of devastating diseases, was meaningless to most people. Today, it almost is a household word thanks to a dedicated group of...

Putting the greatest show on earth "over the top".(circus act)
May 1, 2008... WITH CLOWNS as babysitters, afternoons spent applying sequins to costumes, and even tiding atop an elephant, I grew up more behind the scenes than in front at The Greatest Show On Earth. As producers of Ringling Bros. and Barnum & Bailey, my...

Content vs. style.
May 1, 2008... MY CLASS IN FILM THEORY keys upon the dichotomy of realism versus formalism. The former approach accents con. tent over style and attempts to tell its story without drawing attention to the filmmaking. Hallmarks range from the comedies of...

The powerful hand of George Bellows: these "images--ranging from intimate studies of the artist's friends and family to public sporting events and social gatherings--have not been seen together since the 1950s.".
May 1, 2008... BEST KNOWN FOR a relatively small number of controversial boxing images, George Bellows (1882-1925) long has been respected for his ability to capture the spirit and character of American life early in the 20th century. He equally is notable...

America in the 1960s.(Focus)(America in the Sixties and Marilyn Monroe)
May 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] THE HARROWING 1960s come back to life thanks to an exhibition by renowned photographer, journalist, and film director Lawrence Schiller. It is made up of 60 photographs that provide a cutting-edge view of the...

I do not think my feelings will change ... but at least I hope they will.(Psychology)
May 1, 2008... IT IS MAY in a presidential election year and, in the midst of what ought to be one of the most intellectually rich dialogues of our culture, we have mushy, if not soupy, babbling in which words that originally referred to the highest...

Twice as nice: one brother throws left and bats right; the other throws right and bats left, and now they're finally together on the same baseball team, fulfilling a father's dream.(SPORTS SCENE)
May 1, 2008... OF ALL THE REAL AND IMAGINED joys of parenting, I cannot escape the cliched--but wonderful--experience of watching my boys play Little League baseball together. In past winters, when they shared the same basketball court (Alex as a power...

The tremendous burden of psoriasis.(Medicine & Health)
May 1, 2008... [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] WHAT DISEASE affects nearly 8,000,000 Americans, lasts a lifetime, and has no cure, causing not only physical distress. but often emotional and social difficulties, too? Chances are you did not guess psoriasis. The...

The great debate: democratic capitalism still has not vanquished the idea of collectivism. As proof, merely look at how our government embraces the concepts of socialism at the expense of free trade and other economic truths.(Economics)(Essay)
May 1, 2008... THE GREAT ECONOMIC debate of the 20th century was between collectivists and free-marketers. In one sense, the free-marketers won: When the Berlin Wall fell in 1989, it widely was acknowledged that Soviet socialism had been a catastrophic, not...

Quest for the (living room) cup.(WHAT'S NEW?)
May 1, 2008... La Coupe Stanley is the oldest professional team trophy in North American sports history. Yes, we know, winter is long gone, but the favorite sport of Canada (and of many parts of good old America) simply goes on and on--get used to it folks;...

MLB 2K8 baseball honors Green Cathedrals.(WHAT'S NEW?)(Major League Baseball )
May 1, 2008... Way back when, our national pastime was played in a host of wonderful old ballyards: Chicago's Comisky Park, Cincinnati's Crosley Field, Pittsburgh's Forbes Field, Brooklyn's Ebbets Field, Philadelphia's Shibe Park and Baker Bowl, New York's...

Traveling light, packing right.(WHAT'S NEW?)(Product/service evaluation)
May 1, 2008... "We see travel as intensified living--maximum thrills per minute and one of the last great sources of legal adventure. Travel is freedom, and good travel does not need to be expensive," says Rick Steves, founder of Europe Through the Back Door,...

Give your laptop the ride it deserves.(laptop bags from Solo)(Brief article)
May 1, 2008... Our laptop bag is not just a laptop bag--it's an everyday accessory. Like a favorite pair of jeans, it needs to be durable, broken-in, and made to fit just right, which is why we turned to the Urban Collection from Solo, Hauppauge, N.Y., a...

Have diaper bag, will travel.(WHAT'S NEW?)(Brief article)
May 1, 2008... As part of the Daimler Chrysler empire, Jeep says its branded products are created for living without limits. That certainly is a tricky proposition when it comas to bringing up a baby. After all, what could be more limiting than caring for an...

Ending the free pass to identity theft.(travel accessories)(Buyers guide)
May 1, 2008... It seems like travel just keeps getting tougher and tougher. On the one hand, air passengers wrestle with increasingly stringent security restrictions, yet, personal security is more perilous than ever, since identity thieves now can pick your...

Something for everyone.(VIDEO GAMES)(Product/service evaluation)
May 1, 2008... With so many titles, how do you choose? From beloved characters to updates of our favorite games, whatever your preferred platform, there's something for everyone: In the mood for a worldwide race? Mario Kart Wii includes a Wii Wheel that...

Pushing your body to perfection.(What's New?)(Brief article)
May 1, 2008... It's that time of year again--when the warm sunshine feels wonderful, but our bodies, stripped of their winter ware, look anything but. Yikes! While you can approach the winter flab dilemma any way you want, you know that there really is just...

Why Mom is center of the universe.(What's New?)(Brief article)
May 1, 2008... Angelina Jolie, Kelly Ripa, and Julia Roberts--to name just a few--are glamorous stars who also are mothers. Why not treat your mom like the star she is with a thoughtful, one-of-a-kind celestial gift from Oregon-based, online retailer...

Museum memo.(What's New?)(Calendar)
May 1, 2008... What's new in museums around the country?. Among the more interesting exhibitions on view are: America in the Sixties & Marilyn Monroe, Pop International Galleries, New York, May 15-June 30. New Orleans: A Sense of Place, New Orleans...

Kids are in motion at playskool.(What's New?)(Brief article)
May 1, 2008... Our two older sons play organized baseball, soccer, basketball, and hockey. Their older sister plays soccer, and their younger brother, who will be three in a couple of months, gets to watch. However, our three athletes are not content to wait...

A good way to bug your parents.(What's New?)(Brief article)
May 1, 2008... You're on a jungle expedition and discover a Rhinoceros Beetle--reportedly the strongest creature on Earth. Using a branch-shaped radio controller, you direct it to crawl forward, then turn in reverse. It moves like the real insect, leading...

Constructing a dream builders clubhouse.(What's New?)(Brief article)
May 1, 2008... True, blankets, sheets, towels, pillows, and assorted chairs can make for an interesting indoor structure, but there is an alternative to having every blanket in the house dragged down into the basement so your kids can construct a fort or a...

A lamp with a bright idea.(What's New?)
May 1, 2008... A lamp that allows you to see well--and sounds great. Huh? Soundolier Integrated Wireless Technologies, a new division of Mitek Corporation, Phoenix, Ariz., has developed a state-of-the-art omnidirectional wireless speaker hidden within a...

Homo Politicus: The Strange and Scary Tribes That Run Our Government.(Book review)
May 1, 2008... HOMO POLITICUS: The Strange and Scary Tribes That Run Our Government BY DANA MILBANK DOUBLEDAY, NEW YORK 2008, $26.00, 277 PAGES [ILLUSTRATION OMITTED] Once past the garish cover and "HOMO" in one-inch caps, the reader will find Homo...

I wish I'd known.(PARTING THOUGHTS)
May 1, 2008... WHEN DONALD RUMSFELD pointed out that there are things we do not know that we do not know, some members of the press corps mocked the then-Secretary of Defense for weeks. He was correct, however--there are factors outside of our awareness and,...