Newser Story Index from June, 2008

Welcome to the Newser Story Index. Here you find stories written by Newser writers and editors, assembled with supporting photos and videos from the files of the news story.

N. Dakota's New Crop: Instant Millionaires
Associated Press | Jun 30, 08 8:57 PM CDT
(Newser) - Many North Dakotans are enjoying their own milkshakes as oil makes landowners instant millionaires. Oil companies are drilling new wells at record rates, and those lucky enough to own the land above deposits are becoming wealthy overnight, the AP reports. "It's the easiest money we've ever made," says an ex-sales clerk.

Coughlin Gives Up, Regains World Record
Los Angeles Times | Jun 30, 08 8:26 PM CDT
(Newser) - The US Olympic swim trials in Omaha, Neb., today looked more like a final in Beijing, as Hayley McGregory took the 100-meter backstroke world record from Natalie Coughlin—who promptly took it back, the Los Angeles Times reports. McGregory swam it in 59.15 seconds, and Coughlin stroked it in 59.03 in the next heat. "I really didn't want...

Some Calif. Workers Rake In 6-Figure OT
San Francisco Chronicle | Jun 30, 08 7:58 PM CDT
(Newser) - As California kicks off the fiscal year with a $17.2 billion deficit and no budget, the San Francisco Chronicle reports that state workers are raking in big overtime bucks—some as high as six figures. Including a nurse who collected $198,000 and an official who banked $403,000 in overtime, the state paid out more than $1.1 billion in OT payments...

More Young Men Go Into the Wild in Alaska
Associated Press | Jun 30, 08 7:18 PM CDT
(Newser) - Just as residents of Healy, Alaska feared, more men have come looking for the bus—the old jalopy where Christopher McCandless died on his famous quest, the AP reports. Portrayed in the book and film, Into the Wild , his trip to Alaska has inspired dozens to trek through dicey weather and mosquito clouds to the bus. "I don't want people...

Candidates Grapple With Timing of VP Picks
New York Times | Jun 30, 08 6:41 PM CDT
(Newser) - Barack Obama and John McCain must do more than pick VP candidates—they have to time the announcements carefully, a key tactical move in a busy summer, the New York Times reports. Two national conventions, the Beijing Olympics, and Obama's Aug. 4 birthday all help or hinder the timing, but it appears that Obama, with a convention closer to the...

NY Billionaire Guilty on Hooker Charges
New York Post | Jun 30, 08 6:04 PM CDT
(Newser) - Manhattan banker and billionaire Jeffrey Epstein pleaded guilty in Florida today to hiring an underage prostitute, and began serving an 18-month sentence. A year of house arrest and a life on the national sex offender list will follow. "They will be tracking you for the rest of your life," a judge told Epstein, 55, a philanthropist who has...

Don't Adjust Your Set: You See Gray
Variety | Jun 30, 08 5:32 PM CDT
(Newser) - The average live TV watcher is 50 years old for the first time in history, Variety reports. The five broadcast networks' average viewer aged out of the desirable 18-to-49 demographic last season. Four of the five nets are rapidly skewing older, while CBS is remaining more or less steady, according to a new study.

Marriage on the Rocks? Maybe It's Your Birth Order
Divorce360.com | Jun 30, 08 5:00 PM CDT
(Newser) - Whether a marriage reaches its gold anniversary or ends up in divorce court could depend on the spouses' birth order, reports Divorce360.com.“There is strong connection between birth order and divorce rates,” says one counselor. “The most successful marriages are those where the oldest sister of brothers marries the youngest brother...

Luxe Knockoffs Cost eBay $63M
Wall Street Journal | Jun 30, 08 4:48 PM CDT
(Newser) - A French court sided today with couturier Louis Vuitton in a suit against eBay, ruling the auctioneer must pay $63.1 million in damages for fake goods sold on its site—a ruling the Wall Street Journal says will force eBay to step up anti-counterfeiting protections. EBay says it will appeal the judgment, its second recent defeat in French courts.

Yahoo's Defensive Stance: Microsoft 'Inconsistent' in Bid
MarketWatch | Jun 30, 08 4:34 PM CDT
(Newser) - As it tries to fend off investor Carl Icahn's attempt to replace its board of directors, Yahoo today presented its version of buyout negotiations with Microsoft to shareholders, MarketWatch reports. Yahoo portrayed Microsoft as “unresponsive, inconsistent,” and loose on logistic details of the proposed merger. "The record casts doubt...

Pregnant Soldier's Death Homicide: Cops
Fayetteville Observer (NC) | Jun 30, 08 4:20 PM CDT
(Newser) - Police say the pregnant soldier whose body was found in a North Carolina motel last week was murdered, the Fayetteville Observer reports. The Observer , meanwhile, received a letter from someone claiming to be the killer, which contains a symbol sources say was also drawn in lipstick in the room where Megan Touma, 23, was found.

China Quake Beat the Odds
LiveScience | Jun 30, 08 4:06 PM CDT
(Newser) - The earthquake that leveled parts of China’s Sichuan province last month was a geological oddity arising from usually inactive faults, LiveScience reports. The bizarre seismological coincidences behind the quake explain why no one was able to predict the event, which claimed 69,000 lives.

Obama Rejects Clark's Remark About McCain
Los Angeles Times | Jun 30, 08 3:52 PM CDT
(Newser) - Barack Obama today rejected surrogate Wesley Clark’s suggestion that being shot down in Vietnam didn’t qualify John McCain for the presidency, the LA Times reports. A rep said Obama “honors and respects” McCain’s service. In a speech in Independence, Mo., Obama said: “Patriotism is supporting your country all the...

Mixed Results Cap Ugly June
CNNMoney | Jun 30, 08 3:39 PM CDT
(Newser) - Stocks ended mixed today—the last day of the second quarter—and couldn't prevent the Dow and S&P from their worst June since the Great Depression, CNNMoney reports. The Dow ended up 3.50 today, to 11,350.01; the Nasdaq was down 22.65 to 2,292.98, and the S&P up 1.62 to 1,280.00. Each of the major indices was down at least 8.6% for...

Germans Can't See Forest of US Culture for the Trees
Esquire | Jun 30, 08 3:20 PM CDT
(Newser) - German college students aren't impressed with American culture—they're not even sure it exists, author Chuck Klosterman finds at the outset of a teaching stint in Leipzig. "The proliferation of media has made it virtually impossible to tell the difference between a) what information is unilaterally interesting," Klosterman writes in...

Latino Voters: Four Myths
Newsweek | Jun 30, 08 3:07 PM CDT
(Newser) - Pundits are way off on Hispanic voters, writes Arian Campo-Flores in Newsweek . Four common misconceptions: Immigration is everything. A recent survey showed that education, health care, the economy, and crime were more important in the demographic. Recent immigrants are most likely to care about immigration—and least likely to be voters....

World Becomes a Happier Place
LiveScience | Jun 30, 08 2:54 PM CDT
(Newser) - People around the world are getting happier, according to a new study. Researchers asked people in 52 countries how happy they were annually for an average of 17 years, and the world's happiness index has risen substantially, reports LiveScience. The team speculates that reasons include economic growth and increased social tolerance for women and minorities....

Dutch Smoking Ban Leaves Pot Users in a Fog
USA Today | Jun 30, 08 2:40 PM CDT
(Newser) - Effective tomorrow, the Netherlands bans smoking tobacco in public places, and the new law means big changes for Amsterdam's famously relaxed coffeehouses, reports USA Today. Because the law doesn't cover cannabis or hashish, users can continue to smoke them inside. But those who prefer their pot mixed with tobacco, as many do, will have to step...

US Insurers Warming to Medical Tourism
MSNBC | Jun 30, 08 2:26 PM CDT
(Newser) - If you’re in need of high-priced surgery, your insurance company might have a plane ticket for you. Insurers are starting to warm to “medical tourism” for the same reason uninsured Americans are: Surgery is significantly cheaper overseas. At least 150,000 Americans go abroad for medical procedures every year; insurance typically covers...

Bill: Obama Can 'Kiss My Ass'
Daily Telegraph (UK) | Jun 30, 08 2:13 PM CDT
(Newser) - Barack Obama and Bill Clinton spoke on the phone this morning, but earlier the ex-president privately told friends the future Democratic nominee must “kiss my ass" to win his full support, the Telegraph reports. Clinton remains “very unhopeful” Obama can win in November, another source says, and is still so peeved at perceived...

Gay Is Fastest Man, Ever*
ESPN | Jun 30, 08 2:10 PM CDT
(Newser) - Tyson Gay might have used the Olympic trials yesterday to cover 100 meters faster than any human in history, but he is not the world record-holder because track, unlike any other sport, attaches asterisks to records, Jim Caple writes on ESPN.com. Strong tailwinds propelled Gay to victory, but his breathtaking time of 9.68 seconds would have been 9.86...

Big US Food Shipment Marks Korea Progress
Washington Post | Jun 30, 08 1:56 PM CDT
(Newser) - After a major US food shipment arrived yesterday, North Korea has approved a plan for the UN's World Food Program to expand aid delivered to the country, and has agreed to allow UN monitors more access to track where the food ends up, the Washington Post reports. "This marks a major advance in the way we work in this country," an official...

Romney Takes Lead in VP Derby
Politico | Jun 30, 08 1:43 PM CDT
(Newser) - Mitt Romney is today's top candidate to fill out John McCain’s ticket, Politico reports. The ex-Massachusetts governor has conservative cred, Michigan roots, fundraising chops—and not much chemistry with McCain. McCain hopes to wait out Barack Obama and see the Democratic ticket before announcing his choice, a play one staffer called a...

Kenyan PM: Intervene in Zimbabwe
BBC | Jun 30, 08 1:30 PM CDT
(Newser) - Kenya’s prime minister blasted Zimbabwe's Robert Mugabe today, saying it would set a dangerous precedent for the African Union to accept him as "a duly elected president," the BBC reports. "They should suspend him and send peace forces to Zimbabwe to ensure free and fair elections," Raila Odinga said at the AU summit.

Obama Needs to Shift Iraq Strategy
New Yorker | Jun 30, 08 1:17 PM CDT
(Newser) - “There will be no such thing as victory in Iraq,” George Packer writes in the New Yorker , “but the next President, if he remains nimble, may be able to keep the damage under control.” Packer argues that the dramatic improvement since the surge poses a problem for Barack Obama, whose proposal to withdraw troops in 16 months...

Americans Have Less in Their Shopping Carts
Time | Jun 30, 08 1:04 PM CDT
(Newser) - Food prices are rising, but thanks to some chicanery on product labels, many Americans may not realize it. Instead of raising prices, manufacturers are slimming cereal boxes, juice cartons, and bars of soap, and they’re doing it very quietly. If asked, they’ll say it offsets rising fuel and commodity costs, but most keep quiet and hope...

2, 4 Seeds Fall; Williamses Roll
Associated Press | Jun 30, 08 1:00 PM CDT
(Newser) - Today's fourth-round play at the All England Club produced more upsets at the top of the women's seedings but also offered more convincing wins from the champions and title contenders.Second-seeded Jelena Jankovic, hobbled by a knee injury, fell 6-3, 6-2 to Tamarine Tanasugarn. No. 4 Svetlana Kuznetsova lost 6-4, 1-6, 7-5 to 19-year-old Agnieszka Radwanska.

Bush's North Korea Deal Is 'Total Intellectual Collapse'
Wall Street Journal | Jun 30, 08 12:36 PM CDT
(Newser) - The latest US deal with North Korea—taking the North off its state terror list in exchange for a nuclear declaration—is a travesty and intellectual capitulation in pursuit of burnishing President Bush's legacy, former UN ambassador John Bolton writes in a predictably scathing piece in the Wall Street Journal . It’s a final sign that...

Landis Can't Overturn Ban
Reuters | Jun 30, 08 12:23 PM CDT
(Newser) - Cyclist Floyd Landis lost perhaps his final chance to keep his 2006 Tour de France title today, the AP reports, with a key panel upholding a 2-year doping ban. The three-person Court of Arbitration for Sport said Landis’ drug test was the product of “less than ideal laboratory practices, but not lies, fraud, forgery or cover-ups”...

McCain's War Record Now Fair Game
Politico | Jun 30, 08 12:10 PM CDT
(Newser) - Wesley Clark's answer to a question on Face the Nation yesterday has exposed a simmering campaign issue, Politico reports: whether John McCain’s Vietnam ordeal translates to relevant experience for the presidency. "I don't think riding in a fighter plane and getting shot down is a qualification to be president," said Clark, a Barack...

$50K to Host This Guy's Party?
New York Post | Jun 30, 08 11:58 AM CDT
(Newser) - His rep denies it, but Entourage star Adrian Grenier is said to be “shopping” rights to host his birthday party to various Hamptons hotspots: "He's been asking clubs for $50,000 for the honor,” a source told the New York Pos t. Grenier apparently knows how to put his celeb status to work: He reportedly charges $30,000 for...

Tech Giants Join Forces Against 'Patent Trolls'
Wall Street Journal | Jun 30, 08 11:45 AM CDT
(Newser) - Some of tech's biggest players are banding together to corner the market on patents key to their various businesses, the Wall Street Journal reports. Companies like Google and Verizon are afraid of being held hostage by small players with a claim on key bits of intellectual property, and wary of so-called "patent trolls," outfits that buy...

Tarantino May Turn to Porn for Next Project
New York Post | Jun 30, 08 11:30 AM CDT
(Newser) - Porn star Tera Patrick is being considered for a role in Quentin Tarantino's remake of Faster Pussycat, Kill! Kill! , the New York Post reports. "Quentin loves her, and she's a dead ringer for original star Tura Satana," says a source. The original cult film, released in 1966, follows three go-go dancers on a violent trip across the desert.

Big Oil Deals Absent as Iraq Opens for Bids
Associated Press | Jun 30, 08 11:13 AM CDT
(Newser) - The Iraqi government opened six oil fields to bidding today, without mention of expected no-bid contracts with big Western oil companies, the AP notes; it had been reported that several big companies were close to signing short-term deals with Iraq's government. "There is no preferential treatment for anyone, no matter who," a spokesman said.

Gas Prices Screw Nev. Brothels
Associated Press | Jun 30, 08 11:00 AM CDT
(Newser) - Here's one more casualty of soaring oil prices: Nevada brothels catering to lonely truckers are seeing business plummet. Sky-high diesel prices means that long-haul truckers have less discretionary income, so many brothels are offering promotions to give business a boost. At one establishment, customers get double what they pay for if they use a government...

Phelps, Hoff Smash Records in Omaha
USA Today | Jun 30, 08 10:53 AM CDT
(Newser) - Records fell at the Olympic trials in Omaha yesterday as both Michael Phelps and Katie Hoff triumphed in the 400 IM, USA Today reports. Each swimmer had a personal motivation: Phelps took almost a second of his own world record, and Hoff recaptured the record from Stephanie Rice.

Actors' Family Feud Creates More Hollywood Labor Unrest
Los Angeles Times | Jun 30, 08 10:45 AM CDT
(Newser) - In the escalation of a long-simmering turf war, the largest Hollywood actors union is attempting to scuttle a deal reached by its smaller rival with studios, the Los Angeles Times reports. Though the Screen Actors Guild isn't planning to strike when its contract expires tonight, it's urging members who also belong to the American Federation of Television...

Conservatives Break With Anglican Church
Guardian (UK) | Jun 30, 08 10:30 AM CDT
(Newser) - Traditionalist Anglican bishops, most of them representing the developing world, have broken away from the Anglican communion and formed their own global church. Galvanized by the consecration of Gene Robinson, the openly gay bishop of New Hampshire, the disgruntled clergymen have formed the Fellowship of Confessing Anglicans, which rejects the supremacy...

Soldier Held as French Probe Display That Left 17 Injured
AFP | Jun 30, 08 10:15 AM CDT
(Newser) - French authorities are investigating a military demonstration gone terribly wrong yesterday, the AFP reports, in which 17 people were wounded when a soldier fired live rounds instead of blanks during a demonstration of hostage-situation techniques. The soldier has been detained, but has no history of psychological problems. "The theory being worked...

Marketing Coup: Just Add Water
Washington Post | Jun 30, 08 10:01 AM CDT
(Newser) - A commodity that's widely available practically free is also on sale for thousands of times the actual cost, repackaged as a luxury item. It's transported around the country and even across the world, generating untold volumes of CO2. It's water, of course. The Washington Post looks at a marketing effort that has Americans paying top dollar for...

Mayors Call for Middle Ground on Guns
Wall Street Journal | Jun 30, 08 9:44 AM CDT
(Newser) - Extremist-driven debate over gun control “made for good political theater,” but it hasn’t accomplished much, mayors Michael Bloomberg of New York and Thomas Menino of Boston write in the Wall Street Journal. Now that the Supreme Court has clarified the issue, it’s time to implement some common-sense consensus changes to the...

Dark Days Ahead for Little Movies
New York Times | Jun 30, 08 9:26 AM CDT
(Newser) - This has been a banner year for Hollywood blockbusters, but things look dour for explosion-free cinema, David Carr writes in the New York Time s reports. Small movies have flooded multiplexes, choking each other out—a sign, producer Mark Gill says, of big-money backing meeting the ease of digital film-making. The money's disappearing, and eventually...

US and Pakistan Let al-Qaeda Regroup
New York Times | Jun 30, 08 9:00 AM CDT
(Newser) - Nearly seven years after 9/11, America has not only failed to capture Osama bin Laden; it has also allowed al-Qaeda to rebuild itself in lawless northwest Pakistan, near the Afghan border. The New York Times conducted more than four dozen interviews to discover how rivalries among American agencies, trouble with Pervez Musharraf, and the distraction...

US Airlines May Need Foreign Aid
Wall Street Journal | Jun 30, 08 8:43 AM CDT
(Newser) - Troubled US airlines could be looking to Congress to ease foreign ownership laws, as financial woes push them into the arms of new investment partners, the Wall Street Journal reports. Overseas companies, barred from holding more than 25% of the voting stock of US carriers, are eager to relax the rules. "It could be the financial exigencies...

Euro-Weary French Village Reverts to Franc
New York Times | Jun 30, 08 8:32 AM CDT
(Newser) - Six years after scrapping the franc for the euro, one sleepy town in southern France has reverted, the New York Times reports. Says the mayor of Collobrières, population 1,600, “We lost something with the franc. We lost an identity. We moved very quickly into Europe, maybe too quickly.” Villagers also blame the euro for rising...

Subdued Meet the Press Now Squirm-Free
New York Times | Jun 30, 08 8:31 AM CDT
(Newser) - Meeting the press is a much more laid-back experience with Tom Brokaw temporarily in Tim Russert’s old seat, the New York Times reports. Hosting his first standard-format show yesterday, Brokaw “kept the mood at a sober but easygoing tempo,” writes Alessandra Stanley. But with the presidential race heating up, things were perhaps...

Obama Aims to Take Back the South
New York Times | Jun 30, 08 8:22 AM CDT
(Newser) - Barack Obama thinks he can do something Democrats have found impossible for 40 years: win the South. Dixie has been bright red ever since the Civil Rights Movement, but it's also full of black and young voters who either aren't registered or don't usually vote. So the potential in demographic groups key to Obama's candidacy "is just incredible,”...

Polluting Pentagon Rebuffs EPA Orders
Washington Post | Jun 30, 08 8:00 AM CDT
(Newser) - The Pentagon is holding out on an Environmental Protection Agency order to clean up pollutants from three military bases where chemicals have become an "imminent and substantial" threat to the public health and environment, the Washington Post reports. The Defense Department also won’t sign contracts to clean up 12 other military...

Windsor Bills a Royal Pain for Taxpayers
ABC News | Jun 30, 08 7:49 AM CDT
(Newser) - Britain’s royal family is facing the effects of tough financial times, ABC News reports—but it's easier to cope when you have taxpayers to foot the monarchy's $80 million in annual expenses. While that’s just $1.30 per taxpayer, Buckingham Palace says, critics note unnecessary expenses, like a $44,000 helicopter trip to the Kentucky...

Export Bans Push Food Costs Even Higher
New York Times | Jun 30, 08 7:23 AM CDT
(Newser) - Alarmed by high food prices and shortages worldwide, some 29 countries are banning or reducing exports of foods to make sure they have enough at home. Such limitations pose a threat to countries that rely on imports, forcing prices up further, the New York Times reports. What’s more, the restrictions are in turn fueling private hoarding. "People...