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Cross-posted from my other blog : A reminder, in the Asheville Citizen Times, that today is the 5th anniversary of the day Eric Rudolph was caught by Murphy police officer Jeff Postell behind the Save-a-Lot on the east side of Murphy, NC. Many Remember Rudolph Saga : ...what also stands out in (Murphy mayor)Hughes’ mind five years later is the media horde that descended on Murphy when news of the capture broke. “I think we had 26 satellite trucks in town, and I was interviewed 15 or 20 times that week,” he said. “I think I knew everyone at CNN by name. “It is an ill wind that blows the national media into your town. Far too many reporters wanted to portray us as illiterate, ignorant and anti-government hicks who approved of Rudolph’s doings, which was totally false.”

Two new reports on global warming that should make lots of people think: From the Natural Resources Defense Council and the Florida Coastal and Ocean Coalition , a report on the future of Florida, Preparing for a Sea Change in Florida (40 page PDF). The first and most important step, of course, is to curb emissions, but even if we do that we will need to address the impacts that are predicted to occur. We can do this by: * Restoring coastal and marine ecosystems so they can better cope with the stress of climate change and ocean acidification. * Discouraging development in vulnerable areas to prepare for rising sea levels, as well as restoring and protecting natural buffers. * Preparing for extreme weather events by protecting and restoring shoreline vegetation and wetlands, upgrading stormwater management, and increasing water-use efficiency through conservation and recycling treated wastewater for irrigation and industrial use. From another coastline I love, this report

There are still people out there living with the effects of polio, I've known a few who were damaged by the paralysis, and it turns out there are a few dozen left who have had to use iron lungs their whole lives. One of them, Dianne Odell of Tennessee, died yesterday when a power outage and a failed generator stopped her iron lung from breathing for her. Although she was able to get out of the lung for a few hours at a time when younger, she had lived in it for 58 years. In 1951, the year after Odell, I came down with polio. I was six and spent a few days unable to speak or swallow, three weeks in hospitals and missed the first month of first grade. My parents were terrified but I was extremely lucky: if the virus had migrated a few millimeters into my brain or spinal cord I'd have been paralyzed; or dead. You just never know. Seize the day. (Via Knoxviews.)

The Charlie Crist rumors (Bob Norman, on the Green Iguana) keep popping up, such as in this Politics1 report, repeated today at Huffington Post . 'Recount' doesn't seem to have attracted a lot of reviews, but there's an interesting recap at New York Observer: A Rendition of Bush-Gore that's long overdue . The film, which made its HBO debut on Sunday night, presents what can accurately be labeled a Gore-friendly chronicle of the legal maneuverings that settled the election. But it is also fact-friendly. There was never really any doubt that more Floridians went to the polls on Election Day 2000 to vote for Al Gore than for Bush. And, in the New Yorker, by Jeffrey Toobin, a profile of republican political consultant Roger Stone, who was involved in that Florida recount: The Dirty Trickster . The story opens with a visit to a Miami sex club, but gets more interesting: Not long ago, Stone went to the Ink Monkey tattoo shop in Venice Beach and had a portrait of Nixon’

In the Houston Chronicle, a story out of a National Press Club conference: Journalism old-timers find campaign coverage disturbing . Jack Nelson, Jules Witcover, Hal Bruno and others seem appalled at the state of journalism these days. Jules Witcover, who began covering Washington in 1954 and has covered every presidential nominating convention for the past 44 year, agreed. "To an old geezer like me" he said, " I find it very disturbing and distorting." The American Journalism Review asks, Whatever Happened to Iraq? For long stretches over the past 12 months, Iraq virtually disappeared from the front pages of the nation's newspapers and from the nightly network newscasts. The American press and the American people had lost interest in the war. Guess it's not just the press that isn't keeping a proper eye out: in Wired's Danger Room blog, Pentagon Watchdogs Swamped by Military Spending; $152 Billion a Year Goes Unaudited . And, on a completely unrel

This new form of 'political correctness' is getting scarier: Is Rachel Ray a secret Muslim? Does that sound ridiculous? Well, not to Michelle Malkin, who has caused a stir over a Dunkin' Donuts commercial in which Ray wears a scarf. Just a scarf, but it's black and white and might -- just might-- look like the one Yassir Arafat always wore. Dunkin' Donuts has pulled the commercial. More on the story, at Epicurious' Epi-log blog: The Perfect Hate Storm . Amazing. (Oh, and: Note this Gawker entry about John McCain's daughter's Kaffiyeh .) Comments are flying at Metafilter , too. In the Miami Herald, a story about The Nation of Islam and a city contract: Muslim group to help keep peace in Miami's Overtown . Think this one isn't raising a stir? Just read the comments on the story.

Wow, I didn't even know this was going on. Scott Karp at Publishing 2.0 says the New York Times Embraces Link Journalism and cites an example of a blog entry at The Lede that's full of links to other papers. Is this true of Times stories and other blogs? I usually don't click on Times links because they usually go to Times stories by category. As in this story , about the new Firefox Web browser. The link to Microsoft goes to Times stories on Microsoft , et cetera. A good sign, especially if it's not just happening at The Lede.....from Karp: ...the Times has clearly gotten over the red herring fear of “sending people away.” The Lede has helped readers make sense of what they read elsewhere, helping to make the Lede more essential than those other source.

Clay Bennett at the Chattanooga Times Free Press .

Over the last few years, several newspapers have made the expensive investment of scanning their microfilm to make stories available online that are older than their text archives, started in the early 1980s or later. ProQuest has done several newspapers, as well as Olive , Heritage , and Cold North Wind. Some are available online, by subscription, or through the newspaper's Web site, downloaded for a small fee; some public libraries offer access to ProQuest papers, too. The New York Times is one of those papers, and you can search and download individual stories from their older archives in PDF ProQuest format. But now the Times has launched Times Machine , where you can actually browse scans of an entire newspaper. If you're a home delivery subscriber you can use the full service, covering years from 1851-1922. A few papers are available for non-subscribers, covering major events and '100 years ago today'. (Note the page also suggests checking if your local library

Over the weekend, a few things have caught my eye and I wonder what they mean: At HeraldWatch , there's a rumor that the Miami Herald may be getting ready to lay off 230 people . Not surprising, but sad anyway. Things aren't good at newspapers these days. The Herald recently had some buyouts and lost long time senior reporter Martin Merzer, photographer Nuri Vallbona, and business writer Susana Barciela, among others. I guess it wasn't enough. Even more disturbing to a former Herald library employee, there was an earlier posting reporting on a memo from editor Anders Gyllenhaal suggesting the library functions may be outsourced . ( Update :) a new blog, Papercuts , is tracking newspaper layoffs. There was such a thing several months back is this the same one? (Via Buzzmachine.) ( Update: ) More on the Miami Herald from Random Pixels , who has been keeping an eye on editing on the Web site, and other Herald matters. Lots of interesting discussion going on about the future

Combing the journalism blogs is one of the best ways to find collections of links for researching background information on news of the day. A couple good examples today: Poynter's Al Tompkins has pulled together lots of background on Sen. Ted Kennedy and brain tumors . And this Guardian Newsblog entry on Mourning China earthquake victims online is really interesting for finding sources of opinion and links on China that might not otherwise show up. Lots of links here to online blogs, tweets, and videos, with some discussion of press coverage of 'mourning day'.

Somehow I think I never got around to reading anything of Julie Powell 's blog, The Julie/Julia Project , which she started in August 2002 as an attempt to reproduce all the recipes in Julia Child's Mastering the Art of French Cooking . I heard about the blog, and meant to read it, but somehow found other cooking blogs and never got back to it. Julie Powell went on to make a book out of her story: Julie and Julia: 365 Days, 524 Recipes, 1 Tiny Apartment Kitchen (on sale right now at Amazon). And now it is becoming a movie. Screenplay by Nora Ephron, who also directs and produces, and Julie is played by Amy Adams and Julia Child by....Meryl Streep! Apparently the movie will also tell the story of Julia's years in France, with Stanley Tucci playing her husband Paul. Julie & Julia, 2009 . Hmmm. Another blog leads to a huge success. There may be something in this thing.....

UN Data : search or browse all the statistics, including latest news. DMV.org , unofficial guide to DMVs in all 50 states. VINcheck from Natl Insurance Crime Bureau, find if a vehicle is reported stolen. Canadian Police Information Centre Has a similar search for Canada. Using del.icio.us to create dynamic Web links pages : great presentation showing steps to making del.iciou.us links and feeding them to populate subject guides. Newsroom intranet editors, take note. This could be really useful and is well explained. This headline caught my eye on Memeorandum today: from the L.A. Times, Negotiating isn't Appeasement , by J. Peter Scoblic. ...if there is anything that has been discredited by history, it is the argument that every enemy is Hitler, that negotiations constitute appeasement, and that talking will automatically lead to a slaughter of Holocaust-like proportions. (updated:) And one more, from Patrick Buchanan: Bush Plays the Hitler Card . ...Eisenhower, Nixon, Gerald Ford

( An occasional reminiscence on the events of 1968 ) On May 14, The SCLC's Poor People's Campaign began its Washington marches for equal justice and economic aid to the poorest in America. Resurrection City was coming to be. On 15 acres of West Potomac Park, the grounds around the Lincoln Memorial, marchers had arrived by convoy, sometimes in wagons drawn by mules, wearing denim overalls and country clothing, and they were building a shantytown near where the Vietnam memorial would rise years later. Rows of shacks made of plywood and plastic created a 'main street'. About 2600 or so residents, from cities and small towns in the South and in the North, would live here in squalor as the May rain turned the grounds to mud. I know we went to see, as did many other Washingtonians and tourists. You couldn't get in without proper credentials, but could view from the snow fence around the outer limits. I wish I had taken pictures, but it was probably hard to get anything w

In the Cleveland Plain Dealer's poltics blog: Analysis: Obama's is an Appalachia problem, not a white problem . Fascinating stuff. Another good reason why Jim Webb (" Born Fighting ") would be a great VP candidate on this ticket.

You'd think, in the last year of an administration, the president would keep a steady hand and try not to rile the waters. But that's not happening here. Two comments by George W. Bush have angered a lot of people. Will Bunch and Keith Olbermann have a lot to say about this: Olbermann on Bush's interview with Politico.com, including the comment that he's had to give up golfing out of respect for the mothers of dead soldiers, Mr. President, the war isn’t about you — or golf . President Bush has resorted anew to the sleaziest fear-mongering and mass manipulation of an administration and public life dedicated to realizing the lowest of our expectations. And he has now applied these poisons to the 2008 presidential election, on behalf of the party at whose center he and John McCain lurk. ...You, Mr. Bush, let their sons and daughters be killed. Sir, to show your solidarity with them you gave up golf? Sir, to show your solidarity with them you didn't give up your pursuit

Some days it seems the future of news is secure, especially when you see something like the list of Knight News Challenge winners, projects all listed here in a PDF. There's some good stuff here.

A post at Daily Pulp called attention to the budget cuts at Florida International University: J-school in peril; newspapers silent . South Florida's only public journalism school could be closed. Over the years I've had a lot of interaction with the FIU's j-school, and have several friends on the faculty . One, Neil Reisner, posted links in a comment in Pulp, to an article in E&P magazine (reprinted on the school's web site, and which lists several prominent alumni -- and friends), a column in this weekend's Naples Daily News , and an April story in Miami New Times . The comments on this post have multiplied since this morning, and are discouraging. On another topic, I keep finding links to this blog, which I'd never heard of until a couple weeks ago but find strangely compelling: The New Nixon . I'm at a bit of a loss on how to describe it. There are several writers, connected to the Nixon Library and Birthplace Foundation and Nixon Center, it appears

In the Miami Herald, Carol Rosenberg is covering the Guantánamo trial. She may be the only reporter who's been covering Guantánamo from the beginning. Glitches mar debut of Guantánamo war court . But over at the Los Angeles Times, they have a couple stories that I don't see linked from the Herald's front page: Miami Beach home of Versace reopens as a restaurant-hotel . The memories of that day when Versace was shot and the hunt for his murderer, who it turned out had had a cross-country spree that ended up on an empty houseboat, are chilling. And this: Luis Posada Carriles, a terror suspect abroad, enjoys a 'coming-out' in Miami . Terrorist or hero? Depends on where you're from, I guess.

Please read this story about one soldier killed in Iraq and how his death affected everyone who had anything to do with getting his body home to be buried in Indiana. In Esquire, The Things That Carried Him , by Chris Jones. Joe Montgomery was only one of more than 4,000. This is essential reading for anyone who thinks the deaths of soldiers is not important to every American. Sergeant Dunaway sat in the jump seat between the pilots, Sergeant Montgomery's paperwork and medals on his lap. As they approached Freeman Field, Jones and Linton circled, high in the bright blue sky. From the ground, it looked as though the pilots were offering a sweeping final salute. They were only getting their bearings. After they touched down and taxied toward the open-sided hangar, they took stock of the waiting crowd. This is going to be tough, Linton thought. "It just seems the smaller the town, the bigger the turnout," he said later. ...Karen Giles tells a story about another young airma

(An occasional reminiscence on the events of 1968 ) In May, the turmoil continued: On May 2, in France, the university at Nanterre was shut down by its administration after several weeks of student protests. The next day, students at the Sorbonne held a protest of the events in Nanterre, and police responded by surrounding the campus and shutting it down. The National Union of French Students and the Lecturers' Union called a strike, and on May 6 they marched to the Sorbonne. Police charged the crowd and the students created barricades. Rioting and conflicts with police would continue, including an all-night riot on the rive gauche on May 10. The Communist Party responded by calling for a national one-day strike on May 13. That day, a million people marched in Paris. Workers continued the protests, shutting down factories, around the country. The situation would continue through the month. On May 7, the Indiana primary gave Robert F. Kennedy his first big win, with 42 percent of t

I haven't posted a research update for a couple weeks as I haven't been collecting links. I am browsing the usual places but haven't seen much to save. I'm definitely not collecting nearly as many links as I did in the past. But I've always thought one day everything you'd need to find would be linked somewhere. Are we reaching that point? So here's a random collection of things I've found over the last week or so (but mostly today): Drew Pearson's Washington Merry-Go-Round copies of all the columns from 1935-1961, with a few columns from 1969. From American University, part of the WLRC Libraries Special Collections , from DC-area universities. Other interesting collections: Clifford Berryman's cartoons, student newspapers, historical photographs and postcards, lots more. The Online Encyclopedia of Mass Violence , a work in progress. Defence Image Database : official photos from UK Ministry of Defence. Conversation with Tim Rozgonyi of the St.

It's good to be a North Carolina voter today. The couple-mile drive to the polling station at the rural firehouse was in the middle of a glorious spring day, with leaves out on most of the trees and lush green grass; even the wait for the paving crew redoing our little state highway was pleasant. There's a friendly reception at the station, where only a couple other people were voting at 2:00, and the poll workers said lots of folks from our road have voted today too. There are lots of races on the ballot, at least statewide, and several interesting candidates to vote for. And, every time the phone rings the last couple days, it's Bill or Chelsea or Hillary herself on the other end. It's nice to be wanted. A few months ago it looked like this primary would have no meaning in the presidential race. How things change. ( Updated : Well, to be fair, there was one call from a candidate for state treasurer. But nothing from Barack, sob.)

A couple of encouraging stories at the New York Times: As Gas Costs Soar, Buyers Flock to Small Cars . Yaris, Fit, and Focus are the big gainers. Detroit needs to build more. Yeah, been saying that for about 40 years now. In the 60s I loved VWs, Austins, and drove my family's Falcon whenever I could borrow it. Aside from an occasional small pickup, almost all the cars I've owned have been small. (Currently a Subaru Forester, a bit bigger, but still gas-friendly.) I've never understood the mind-set that has women driving around alone in Suburbans and Expeditions -- because 'it's safer'. Besides, the more small cars on the road, the safer all of us will be. Those big SUVs are a menace. Well, more nostalgia, in this story about Kodak: At Kodak, Some Old Things Are New Again . Did you know that the first digital camera was invented by a Kodak engineer -- in the 1970s? I didn't. As the daughter of a Kodak research chemist, it's been sad to see the company cha

Back in the '60s, a lot of us really believed that women would control their lives and their sexual power would work for the positive as feminism spread around the world. Well, what happened? Women spend their lives, their youth and their family's fortunes on weddings, showers, proms, cruises and other fripperies that end up meaning nothing as everything falls apart a few years later. Nothing matters but the image and the dreams of a 'princess land' that's unobtainable. Many women have no control over their lives at all, and examples abound, from Britney to Paris to, now, Miley. Doug Thompson has some choice words about parents who ask him to photograph their young daughters in sexual images for the chance for 'fame and fortune': What are these parents thinking ? Just in today's news from Florida, a school teacher loses her job because it was so easy to make money wearing a bikini on a sleazy fishing boat to titillate rich 'sportsmen'. (Via Da

Joel Achenbach finally puts words to the uncomfortable feeling I've been having about the Obama stories recently. What's with this 'throwing under the bus' thing ? The Obama-Wright relationship has incited a massive outbreak of the phrase, which we can now officially declare to be overused. That doesn't mean that those who used it in recent days were guilty of cliche-mongering -- because this one congealed into cliche status with astonishing speed. Dave Winer wonders too, and has a lot more to say about why the Jeremiah Wright story is blown out of context: ...now I see Rev Wright in a whole new light. I still can't say one way or the other if he acted appropriately in his sermons, but that was not how you address the media. They're too dangerous. That's the way you talk on your front porch on a hot weekday evening, hanging out with your friends, arguing politics and gossiping about a neighbor. Not in front of cameras that are broadcasting your words aro