] Researchers at Sonoma State meticulously combed through
] news reports from 2002 and the first quarter of 2003 to
] find stories that didn't get the media attention they
] deserved. This year's big stories include the attack on
] civil liberties at home, Donald Rumsfeld's plan to
] provoke terrorists, and treaty-busting by the United
] States.
]
] In many cases, these stories got little or no play %u2013
] or else were presented piecemeal, without any attempt to
] put the information in context.
]
] "The stories this year reflect a clear danger to
] democracy and governmental transparency in the U.S.
] %u2013 and the corporate media's failure to alert the
] public to these important issues," Project Censored
] director Peter Phillips told the Bay Guardian. "The
] magnitude of total global domination has to be the most
] important story we've uncovered in a quarter century."
]
] What follows is the Bay Guardian's rundown of Project
] Censored's top 10 censored or underreported stories for
] last year:

If you feel like being seriously ill and overwhelemed, read this.

Top 10 Censored News Stories of 2002-2003

] Tempting the judge presiding over the Zacarias Moussaoui
] trial to dismiss the case, federal prosecutors said
] Wednesday they will not cooperate with her latest order
] to permit two top al Qaeda captives to testify on
] Moussaoui's behalf.
]
] "The government cannot, consistent with the interests of
] national security, comply with the court's order,"
] prosecutors said in papers filed with U.S. District Judge
] Leonie Brinkema in Alexandria, Virginia.
]
] Moussaoui, 35, a French citizen of Moroccan descent and
] the lone U.S. defendant in connection with the September
] 11 terror plot, maintains that he had no role in the
] attacks, but admits belonging to al Qaeda, the Islamic
] terrorist group behind them.

Nice... Yea I know - Moussaoui is a self-professed piece-of-shit al Qaeda, but "innocent until proven guilty". And he should be allowed to call ANYONE as a witness. "interests of national security" my ass - the Bush administration is gonna play that card any time they don't want to cooperate or are feeling "holier that thou".

This judge deserves a medal for trying to be fair and unbiassed.

LB

U.S. refuses judge's order in Moussaoui trial

] MILWAUKEE, Wisconsin (CNN) -- A pastor who led a church
] service to "heal" an 8-year-old autistic boy of
] "spirits," after which the boy died, was charged Tuesday
] with one count of physical abuse to a child, the
] Milwaukee County District Attorney's Office said.
]
] Ray Hemphill, a pastor at the storefront church and the
] brother of head Pastor David Hemphill, was arrested early
] Saturday, authorities said. Ray Hemphill led the prayer
] service Friday.
]
] The medical examiner's office ruled that the official
] cause of Terrance Cottrell's death was mechanical
] asphyxia due to external chest compression, meaning the
] boy was suffocated. The death has been ruled a homicide.
]
] Witnesses at the service said Ray Hemphill had his knee
] on the boy's chest at one point.
]
] If convicted, Ray Hemphill could face up to 10 years in
] prison and a fine of up to $25,000.

Why are people so damn stupid?

CNN.com - Pastor charged in autistic boy's death at church - Aug. 26, 2003

] Tampa police have scrapped their controversial security
] camera system that scanned city streets for criminals,
] citing its failure over two years to recognize anyone
] wanted by authorities.
]
] The system was intended to recognize the facial
] characteristics of felons, sexual predators and runaway
] children by matching passers-by in Ybor City with a
] database of 30,000 mug shots.
]
] "It's just proven not to have any benefit to us," Capt.
] Bob Guidara, a department spokesman, said Tuesday. The
] cameras have led only to arrests for such crimes as drug
] deals.
]
] Tampa was the first city in the United States to install
] the permanent camera surveillance system along public
] streets and the technology was used during the 2001 Super
] Bowl.
]
] Critics welcomed the end of the program.
]
] "It's a relief," said Darlene Williams, chairwoman of the
] Greater Tampa Chapter of the ACLU. "Any time you have
] this sort of technology on public streets, you are
] subjecting people who come to Ybor to an electronic
] police lineup, without any kind of probable cause."

YAY!! Chalk up a win for civil liberties... at least for now. If in say 5 to 10 years the facial recogition biometrics have improved substantially, expect us to face this beast all over again.

LB

Tampa police eliminate controversial facial-recognition system

] The remains of as many as 1,000 people lost in the World
] Trade Center attack might never be identified, according
] to the forensic biologist leading the monumental DNA
] identification project.
]
] The city medical examiner's office has identified
] slightly more than half of the 2,792 people killed in the
] attack -- only about 100 of those in the last year, as
] technicians struggled with DNA degraded and damaged by
] fire and the elements.
]
] Robert Shaler, chief of forensic biology, had once hoped
] to reach 2,000 identifications, but he told The
] Associated Press he no longer considers that a realistic
] goal.
]
] Now, Shaler said he hopes for about 1,700 identifications
] -- 1,800 at the outside -- by the time the office
] exhausts available DNA matching methods within a year.
] City officials recently notified victims' families of the
] outlook.
]
] "I think once we've done all of the testing on all of the
] remains using the technology we have, I think we're
] finished," Shaler said.
]
] He cautioned that he doesn't mean the trade center DNA
] effort would be closed forever, but said it couldn't
] continue until new DNA processes were developed.
]
] "If three years from now somebody comes up with something
] ... that really looks like it's going to work, then we're
] going to be poised to go after it," he said.

This is sad news for the families looking for closure.

LB

Remains of up to 1,000 victims of WTC attack might never be identified

] Like many teenage girls in Minneapolis, 17-year-old
] Stacey liked to hang out after school at the Mall of
] America, Minnesota's vast shopping megaplex. Cute,
] blond and chatty, she flirted with boys and tried on
] the latest Gap fashions. One day last summer, Stacey,
] which isn’t her real name, says she was approached by
] a man who told her how pretty she was, and asked if he
] could buy her some clothes. “He was an older guy,
] dressed really well,” she recalls. “He said he just
] wanted to see me in the clothes.” Stacey agreed, and
] went home that night with a $250 outfit.

Newsweek - This Could Be Your Kid

] Unabomber Ted Kaczynski has asked the U.S. government to
] return his personal papers and other materials, including
] a bomb confiscated by the FBI seven years ago.
]
] In papers filed at federal court in Sacramento, Kaczynski
] asked that the government ship the materials to a
] University of Michigan archive that already contains more
] than 15,000 of his papers.
]
] Those items include a pipe bomb and tons of documents
] including his voluminous autobiography, according to R.
] Steven Lapham, one of the federal prosecutors who tried
] the case. Also on the list: Kaczynski's tools, a can of
] matches, a pair of tweezers and a hatchet, which were
] confiscated when he was arrested at his Montana cabin.\

"GIMME BACK MY BOMB! Of course I promise not to detonate it in my cell."

Laughing boy

Unabomber seeks return of papers, bomb

Hope died late Sunday of pneumonia at his home in Toluca Lake, with his family at his bedside, longtime publicist Ward Grant said Monday.

It is a sad day, indeed, though expected due to his age.

Entertainer Bob Hope Dies at 100

] In October, three nuns vandalized a nuclear missile silo
] to protest the use of weapons of war. For that act, all
] three will spend the next several years behind bars.
]
] A federal judge on Friday sentenced Jackie Hudson to 2
] 1/2 years, Ardeth Platte to almost 3 1/2 years and Carol
] Gilbert to two years and nine months. All three were
] given three years of supervised probation.
]
] U.S. District Judge Robert Blackburn departed from
] sentencing guidelines Friday in punishing the women.
] While the maximum term is 30 years, the guidelines call
] for a six-year minimum term.
]
] "We're satisfied," prosecutor Robert Brown said.
]
] Hudson, 68, Gilbert, 55, and Platte, 66, were convicted
] in April of obstructing the nation's defense and damaging
] government property after cutting a fence and walking
] onto a Minuteman III silo site, swinging hammers and
] using their blood to paint a cross on the structure.
]
] Officials said the women caused at least $1,000 in
] damage.

I've heard that "the problem in this world is that the nuns stopped teaching and the fear went out of the schools." Maybe more nuns like this need to teach.

Nuns sent to prison for vandalism - Jul. 26, 2003

] The House of Representatives voted overwhelmingly to
] overturn controversial rules adopted by the Federal
] Communications Commission that would greatly increase
] the number of television stations a single company is
] allowed to own.
]
] The FCC last month voted to ease ownership restrictions,
] lifting the national broadcast "cap" -- or reach of any
] single company -- to 45 percent of the national market
] from 35 percent and letting TV, radio and newspaper
] companies buy each other more freely.
]
] But by a vote of 400 to 21 the House rejected those
] changes.

Thank GOD!!! Stick THAT in your pipe and smoke it, Clear Channel.

US House of Representatives nixes FCC rules expanding ownership