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International: One-of-a-kind
stamp treasure, missing 38 years, turns up By STACY FINZ
- It was the lost treasure in the philatelic world - the only
known envelope bearing a 90-cent Abraham Lincoln stamp from 1869.
For years, collectors assumed
the envelope, or cover, as it's known in the stamp world, had
been destroyed sometime after it was stolen from a home in Indianapolis
in 1967. Then, a month ago, a couple casually walked it into
a Chicago stamp shop, and ever since, collectors have been salivating
at the prospect of getting their hands on the artifact.
A San Jose, Calif., attorney,
who has one of the most comprehensive assemblages of 1869 postal
history, says he believes he has a guarantee dating back nearly
three decades that would grant him first dibs. The problem is
that his proof is Duane Garrett, a Democratic political strategist
who threw himself off the Golden Gate Bridge more than 10 years
ago. - More...
Friday - February 10, 2006
Thomas Hargrove: The
Week In Review - Anti-cartoon demonstrations become violent
- Violent Muslim demonstrations in protest of European newspaper
cartoons of the prophet Muhammad continued around the globe this
week. Kenyan police shot a demonstrator while trying to stop
hundreds of protesters from storming the home of the Danish ambassador.
Denmark advised its citizens to leave Indonesia after its embassy
was stormed by a mob and pelted with eggs. The Danish embassy
in Beirut was torched.
'Brownie' swings back at former
bosses
Disgraced former federal emergency
chief Michael Brown told senators that White House and Homeland
Security Department officials knew immediately when the New Orleans'
levees were breached by Hurricane Katrina last year, raising
new questions over the slow federal response to the disaster
that claimed more than 1,300 lives. "For them to claim that
we didn't have awareness of it is just baloney," Brown said.
Cheney ordered release of secrets,
Libby said
Former vice-presidential chief
of staff I. Lewis "Scooter" Libby had told a federal
grand jury that Dick Cheney authorized him to give reporters
information from the usually classified National Intelligence
Estimate in 2003. The release, disclosed this week in court papers
filed by special prosecutor Patrick Fitzgerald, was made to justify
the administration's decision to invade Iraq.
Senators reach Patriot Act
pact
Republican senators reached
an agreement on several key compromises intended to clear the
stalled reauthorization of the Patriot Act. Among the changes
are guarantees that libraries will not be subject to secret FBI
demands for records and the elimination of a gag rule for people
who've been subpoenaed in terrorist investigations. One Democratic
senator, Russell Feingold of Wisconsin, has threatened to filibuster
the bill.
Abramoff details White House
meetings
Convicted influence peddler
Jack Abramoff said he had nearly a dozen conversations with President
Bush, increasing apparent White House connections in the lobbying
scandal. Abramoff, in an e-mail to Washingtonian magazine made
public this week, said Bush "joked with me about a bunch
of things, including details of my kids." The White House
has refused to release photographs of Abramoff and Bush together.
"I frankly don't even remember having my picture taken with
the guy," Bush said last month. "I don't know him."
Two more victims of bird flu
Two women died in China and
Indonesia after handling poultry and contracting a deadly bird-flu
strain, officials with the World Health Organization reported.
At least 88 people have perished from the new disease. Also,
Nigeria reported the first known bird-flu outbreak in Africa
among fowl, prompting health workers to go door-to-door immunizing
children and warning adults to watch for any fatalities from
pneumonia-like symptoms. Authorities fear a pandemic if the flu
mutates into a form that can be transmitted from one person to
another. - More...
Friday - February 10, 2006
Washington Calling: Better
cable choices? ... Heavy armor ... More By LANCE GAY - Expect
federal regulators to speed new cost-cutting cable-TV choice
plans.
In a startling about-face,
the Federal Communications Commission says it was flat wrong
about the costs to consumers in letting them pick and choose
which cable channels they want - known in the industry as a la
carte options.
The agency acknowledges that
consumer groups were correct, that they could enjoy big savings
by picking only the channels they want.
Consumer groups predict speedy
FCC approval of new choice plans.
X...X...X
The demise of the Cold War
threatened to beach the U.S. Navy's prized fleet of nuclear submarines,
but the admirals are now mapping ambitious plans to refit the
underwater Navy for clandestine operations in the global war
on terrorism.
The new idea: fleets of submarines
carrying newly created U.S. Marine special-operation units, which
can be covertly landed at hot spots around the world, and have
their beachheads backed up with submarine-launched cruise missiles.
To find the money for the ambitious program, the admirals intend
early retirement for the USS John F. Kennedy carrier. That would
then mean an 11-carrier Navy.
The admirals are dyspeptic
about the Great White Fleet's diminished role in the fighting
in landlocked Afghanistan and Iraq, and fear the service is heading
for hard times unless new roles are found for Navy ships. - More...
Friday - February 10, 2006
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