Johannesburg - One of the world's top collections of African literature is finally on its way back to Africa, officials said on Wednesday.

Rare first editions signed by giants of African literature such as Nigeria's Chinua Achebe and Wole Soyinka and South Africa's Nadine Gordimer form part of the collection of 13 000 items being sent from Texas to South Africa to launch a new Centre for African Literary Studies at the University of Natal.

"This collection constitutes a key intellectual and cultural resource which can be seen as a cornerstone for scholarly contribution and African renaissance," Professor Liz Gunner of the University of Natal said.

She declined to say how much was spent to acquire the collection, known as the Lindfors Library after University of Texas English Professor Bernth Lindfors, who spent four decades putting it together.

The books will arrive in December at the university where the new research centre will be up and running early next year.

"We'll have time to look at it and determine whether or not our grid needs to be modernized. I happen to think it does, and have said so all along."
- George Bush, 8/14/03 [LINK]

FACT

In June of 2001, Bush opposed and the congressional GOP voted down legislation to provide $350 million worth of loans to modernize the nation's power grid because of known weaknesses in reliability and capacity. Supporters of the amendment pointed to studies by the Energy Department showing that the grid was in desperate need of upgrades as proof that their legislation sponsored by U.S. Rep. Sam Farr (D-CA) should pass.

During Reagan's administration, the issues and concerns of the Dixiecrats became principally those of the Republican Party. It was precisely at this juncture that the Republican Party ceased being the Party of Lincoln and evolved into what it is today to the vast majority of black America -- almost racially exclusive and dedicated to protecting and maintaining the status quo.

Posted August 14, 2003 -- In an increasingly common racial discrimination case, a Black man won a settlement against another Black man for being degraded because of his skin color.

A dark-skinned Black waiter at an Applebee's restaurant near Atlanta alleged that his light-skinned Black supervisor was discriminating against him. To settle the suit, the company paid him $40,000.

Dwight Burch, a former employee, accused his manager at the Jonesboro, Ga., restaurant of repeatedly referring to him as a "tar baby" and "Black monkey" during his three months at the restaurant. Burch also alleged in his suit that his manager told him to bleach his skin and that he was fired when he threatened to report the man to officials at Applebee's headquarters.

The Equal Employment Opportunity Commission helped settle the "color discrimination" lawsuit, saying that such cases are on the rise. The number of cases involving allegations of skin-tone discrimination jumped from 413 in fiscal year 1994 to 1,382 in 2002, according to the EEOC. About 20 of the complaints filed during that time period have led to lawsuits, while most of the rest have been settled out of court. They currently comprise roughly 3 percent of the 85,000 cases the agency gets annually.

New Dem Play | Make low-income health insurance coverage available through employers
Where It's Working | Idaho, Massachusetts, and other states
Players | State officials

Low-income workers frequently have trouble getting health insurance coverage through the public programs technically available to them. The problem is that public health insurance programs for low-income workers and their families are separate from the system of job-based coverage used by most workers. In effect, this separation is a barrier because it means low-income workers must first hear about the opportunity to get coverage through a public program and then they must sign up, typically by going through a welfare agency. That requirement penalizes workers who cannot get time off from work to visit the welfare office and adds the stigma of welfare in the eyes of many workers. In contrast, workers who have job-based insurance conveniently sign up when they do their employment paperwork and then easily remain covered, since their employer pays their insurance premium.

The rates of insurance coverage among the working poor illustrate most clearly the problem with two separate systems. While very few workers with job-based coverage remain without insurance, nearly 20 percent of children eligible for the federal SCHIP (State Child Health Insurance Program) or Medicaid coverage are not enrolled. That low participation rate leaves nearly five million kids uninsured.

In order to remove barriers to health insurance coverage, state policymakers should mainstream coverage for low-income workers by making it available through their jobs. One strategy is to use the worksite to enroll people in public programs when an employer doesn't offer coverage [p6: actually, not a bad concept]. Another is to use Medicaid and SCHIP funds to pay for job-based coverage when it is available. Several states offer policymakers examples of how this second strategy works in practice.

I have an attraction / repulsion to the Republican Party because it knows, above all, how to make things happen. They are brazen, single-minded and fierce. They bulldog as soon as they have the opportunity. They are purposeful and resolute. These aspects of tenacity would be extraordinarily good for the country if the Republicans applied consistently on behalf of actually good ideas. Instead, Republicans are all about building momentum and weight in their express train, but they are less than choosy about what fills their baggage compartments and adds mass to their momentum.

The Religious Right and the vaguely dissatisfied middle therefore find the Republican Party to be the right way to take their various ideas and get somewhere. The Republican Party gets them to the station on time.

I have issues with the rabble in the Big Tent, but that's an ongoing war that doesn't frustrate. But I understand something about the Republican Party which is that despite what the staunchest paleos will say, they will carry the freight of Arnold. The Republican Party depends so much on mindless catchphrases and 'common sense' that doesn't really matter who is in the driver's seat. Dennis Hastert, George W. Bush, Tom Delay, George Pataki, William Bennett, Newt Gingrich, Bob Dole, JC Watts. These people have nothing in common but the train they rode in on. Arnold only has to have the merest sliver of brains to understand what to do. Picture him in Reaganesque cowboy duds standing on the cab of a reigned locomotive. Ride 'em cowboy.

I'm taking Barnum's position here. It's not so important what Arnold's ideas are, the idea of Arnold is too big to lose. The signing on of Warren Buffet is a masterstroke. Understand that Arnold only has to express the rudiments of public speaking in order to carry credibility. So long as he has masterminds behind him, all will be well, right? We used to call that 'shadow government'. Now we call it the Bush administration. Its perils should be self-evident, but as an election strategy, it works.

I can tell you all about the ne're-do-wells that put out our lights tonight. I came up against these characters -- the Niagara Mohawk Power Company -- some years back. You see, before I was a journalist, I worked for a living, as an investigator of corporate racketeers. In the 1980s, "NiMo" built a nuclear plant, Nine Mile Point, a brutally costly piece of hot junk for which NiMo and its partner companies charged billions to New York State's electricity ratepayers.

To pull off this grand theft by kilowatt, the NiMo-led consortium fabricated cost and schedule reports, then performed a Harry Potter job on the account books. In 1988, I showed a jury a memo from an executive from one partner, Long Island Lighting, giving a lesson to a NiMo honcho on how to lie to government regulators. The jury ordered LILCO to pay $4.3 billion and, ultimately, put them out of business.

And that's why, if you're in the Northeast, you're reading this by candlelight tonight. Here's what happened. After LILCO was hammered by the law, after government regulators slammed Niagara Mohawk and dozens of other book-cooking, document-doctoring utility companies all over America with fines and penalties totaling in the tens of billions of dollars, the industry leaders got together to swear never to break the regulations again. Their plan was not to follow the rules, but to ELIMINATE the rules. They called it "deregulation."

Talk about preaching to the choir. President Bush and his clueless team of economic advisers held a summit at the president's ranch in Crawford, Tex., yesterday. This is the ferociously irresponsible crowd that has turned its back on simple arithmetic and thinks the answer to every economic question is a gigantic tax cut for the rich

…After the meeting, Mr. Bush said, "This administration is optimistic about job creation."

It's too bad George Akerlof wasn't at the meeting. Mr. Akerlof, a 2001 Nobel laureate in economics, bluntly declared on Tuesday that "the Bush fiscal policy is the worst policy in the last 200 years." Speaking at a press conference arranged by the Economic Policy Institute, Mr. Akerlof, a professor at the University of California at Berkeley, said, "Within 10 years, we're going to pay a serious price for such irresponsibility."

Also participating in the institute's press conference was Robert Solow, an economist and professor emeritus at M.I.T. who is also a Nobel laureate. He assailed the Bush tax cuts as "redistributive in intent and redistributive in effect."

"There has been a dissipation of the huge budget surplus," he said, "and all we have to show for that is the city of Baghdad."

…a front-page Wall Street Journal article…spelled out how sweet just one of the Bush tax cuts has been for those in the upper brackets: "The federal tax cut, which slashed the tax rate on dividends and prompted many companies to increase their payouts, is proving to be a boon for some corporate executives who are reaping millions in after-tax gains."

By STEVEN R. WEISMAN with FELICITY BARRINGER

WASHINGTON, Aug. 13 — The Bush administration has abandoned the idea of giving the United Nations more of a role in the occupation of Iraq as sought by France, India and other countries as a condition for their participation in peacekeeping there, administration officials said today.

Instead, the officials said, the United States would widen its effort to enlist other countries to assist the occupation forces in Iraq, which are dominated by the 139,000 United States troops there.

In addition to American forces in Iraq, there are 21,000 troops representing 18 countries. At present, 11,000 of that number are from Britain. The United States plans to seek larger numbers to help, especially with relief supplies that are coming from another dozen countries.

…The Pentagon said today that besides the United States and Britain, the other countries that have already sent troops to Iraq are Albania, the Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Georgia, Hungary, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Spain and Ukraine[p6: BWAAA-HAHAHHAHAHAHA!!!]. The troops in Iraq serve under American and British command, and so would the troops of any other countries that took part.

…In addition, another dozen countries have been asked to help with forces to protect and carry out relief. They include Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, the Dominican Republic, El Salvador, Honduras, Kazakhstan, Moldova, Mongolia, Nicaragua, the Philippines, Portugal and Thailand [p6: Now there's a force to be reckoned with…].

In all, a Pentagon official said, the United States hopes to round up 44 countries to participate in the occupation.

By Jonathan Berr
Bloomberg News

SCO Group executives have sold about 119,000 shares of their company since it filed a lawsuit against IBM in March and the stock price increased more than fourfold.

The company has accused IBM of illegally transferring software from the Unix operating system into Linux. SCO bought licensing rights to Unix in 1995 and is threatening to sue other companies that use Linux, which IBM backs as a cheaper alternative to Microsoft's Windows program.

Chief Financial Officer Robert Bench began the $1.2 million in executive share sales four days after Lindon -based SCO filed its lawsuit against Armonk, N.Y.-based IBM on March 6. Before Bench's sale, SCO insiders had not sold shares in more than a year, according to the Washington Service, a firm that tracks insider transactions.

"Insider sales picking up is a negative sign," said Richard Campagna, who helps manage $750 million as director of research for Cleveland-based Shaker Investments. Shaker, which owns no shares of SCO, has stakes in computer-related companies including Flextronics International.

August 13, 2003

In the November 2000 presidential election, George W. Bush beat Al Gore in Florida — and ultimately gained the presidency — by 537 votes. More than 170,000 ballots went uncounted in Florida, however, either because no vote for president was recorded (an "undervote") or because votes were cast for more than one candidate (an "overvote"). There is no doubt that these uncounted ballots — many of which resulted from poor ballot design and faulty voting equipment — determined the outcome in Florida and the nation.

Could California's first-ever gubernatorial recall election likewise be determined by the form of the ballot and the voting machines we use?

Elections experts have long known that in a close contest, these factors can make a difference between winning and losing. And with a ballot that will include about 150 candidates vying to replace Gov. Gray Davis if he is recalled — with the winner inevitably receiving a relatively small percentage of the total vote — the design of the ballot is all the more likely to play a critical role in what could be a very close election.

By Derrick Z. Jackson, 8/13/2003

DALLAS

THE COLD WAR QUEEN remained frozen in facts that melted into fiction as she talked. Speaking last week before the National Association of Black Journalists, National Security Adviser Condoleezza Rice said, "Let us be very clear about why we went to war against Saddam Hussein. Saddam Hussein's regime posed a threat to the security of the United States and the world. This was a regime that had pursued, had used, and possessed weapons of mass destruction." Rice did not dare tread upon the issues that were not clear. Her cocksure posture could not hide the fact that she made no other mention of weapons of mass destruction in her prepared remarks. The United States has yet to find any after nearly five months of war and occupation. This was after a war buildup where Bush officials boasted they were certain where the weapons were.

Just as significant is that there was not a single reference in her set speech about Saddam trying to acquire nuclear weapons. Before the war, Rice said, "we don't want the smoking gun to be a mushroom cloud." The scary vision of mushroom clouds was repeated by Bush and General Tommy Franks, head of Central Command. Vice President Dick Cheney declared Saddam to be a "mortal threat" on his way to "nuclear blackmail."

In a question-and-answer session after her speech, Rice continued to assert that she was "certain to this day that this regime was a threat, that it was pursuing a nuclear weapon."

This is brazen, as Rice has yet to produce even a smoking gun. President Bush has already been shamed by his usage in his State of the Union address of the discredited claim that Saddam was trying to buy uranium in Africa.

Now there is more news that Bush officials trumped up the nuclear threat. The Washington Post reported over the weekend that administration officials repeatedly made claims in diplomatic and weapons inspections briefings that were not backed up, even by our own intelligence.

By Glenn McKenzie, Associated Press, 8/13/2003

MONROVIA, Liberia -- The nation's leading rebel movement agreed yesterday to lift its siege of the capital and vital port within two days, allowing food to flow to hundreds of thousands of hungry people. The accord came as a second rebel group launched a push on Monrovia, sending refugees fleeing vicious new assaults a day after warlord-turned-president Charles Taylor resigned and went into exile. Witnesses reported machete-wielding fighters were attacking indiscriminately near the airport.

Rebels from Liberians United for Reconciliation and Democracy, the main insurgent group, agreed to pull back from Monrovia by noon tomorrow and surrender control to peacekeepers.

The pledge was secured by US Ambassador John Blaney and military commanders of a West African peacekeeping force and a 2,300-member US Marine expeditionary force in a meeting with rebel leaders in the looted, rubble-strewn, and heavily shelled rebel-held side of Monrovia.

Blaney called the accord "extremely important for the delivery of humanitarian relief."

The deal obliges the multinational peacekeeping force to speed its deployment throughout the city.

By Farah Stockman, Globe Staff, 8/13/2003

Some charge it was the kind of broad-daylight construction site violence that Boston hasn't seen in decades: About 40 men -- some with Ironworkers Local 7 logos on their hard hats -- allegedly slashed tires, smashed windshields, and threatened the nonunion workers.

"One guy told us, `Why don't you go home? This is our jurisdiction, you [expletive] scabs,' " said Michael Furia, a nonunion ironworker who said he witnessed the alleged attack.

Ajax Construction, the nonunion steel erector whose workers were allegedly attacked, has filed charges with the National Labor Relations Board against Local 7, one of Boston's most powerful and politically connected unions. From arrests of union business agents for trespassing on nonunion construction sites, to alleged acts of vandalism, to the rise in charges filed at the labor relations board, confrontations between the union and nonunion companies have climbed in the past two years, both union and nonunion workers say.

WASHINGTON -- In the strongest signal yet that retired US Army General Wesley K. Clark, the former NATO commander, is planning to join the Democratic presidential race, Clark told volunteers last week to step up their efforts and prepare for an announcement on Labor Day.

By Michael James Rocha

"Work is not supposed to be easy. It's hard, but you do it anyway," my wise mother told me over dinner. This conversation occurred soon after my promotion to features design editor at The San Diego Union-Tribune in October 2002. It was my first foray into the world of management, and at 31, I felt as if I were jumping into the shallow end of the pool, head first.

Since stepping into my first professional newsroom (Pasadena Star-News) back in 1990, I have had my share of trials and tribulations, mostly brought on by self-doubt in a world where I always felt out of place, like I didn't quite belong.

There are many stereotypes about Asian Americans, and for the most part, I was a living, breathing Asian American stereotype. I was never one to rock the boat. I was always reserved. I respected my elders. I aimed to please. I never questioned authority. I refrained from tooting my own horn. My work should speak for itself, I often thought. Work hard, and the next day, work even harder. Suffer in silence. The needs of others come before mine. Succeed in everything, fail at nothing.

"In other words, live up to the expectations of what it means to be a "model minority."

Enter the Asian American Journalists Association (AAJA).

NEW YORK (AP) - Fox News Channel has sued liberal humorist Al Franken and the Penguin Group to stop them from using the phrase "fair and balanced" in the title of his upcoming book.
Filed Monday in Manhattan, the trademark infringement lawsuit seeks a court order forcing Penguin to rename the book, "Lies and the Lying Liars Who Tell Them: A Fair and Balanced Look at the Right." It also asks for unspecified damages.

Fox News registered "Fair & Balanced" as a trademark in 1995, the suit says.

Franken's "intent is clear - to exploit Fox News' trademark, confuse the public as to the origins of the book and, accordingly, boost sales of the book," the suit said.

By Robert Hanashiro, USA TODAY

As Americans file for bankruptcy in record numbers and credit card debt explodes, more workers are a paycheck away from losing their homes. Now the frail economy is pushing them over the edge. With 9 million unemployed workers in July, the face of homelessness is changing to include more families shaken by joblessness.

Former neighbors and co-workers are on the streets, live with relatives or stay in shelters. Unemployed managers are living with their elderly parents. Families who once owned their own homes now sleep on bunk beds in homeless shelters. Job seekers in suits and ties stop by soup kitchens heading out to afternoon interviews. With no place to live, some homeless are camping out in their cars until work comes along.

"There is still a mind-set that the homeless are substance abusers who have made bad life decisions," says Ralph Plumb, CEO of the Union Rescue Mission in Los Angeles. "But more and more, they are individuals responding to a catastrophic financial event. The homeless are us. They're regular folk."

Requests for emergency shelter assistance grew an average of 19% from 2001 to 2002, according to the 18 cities that reported an increase — the steepest rise in a decade. The findings are from a 2003 survey of 25 cities by the U.S. Conference of Mayors. Among the trends:

• Families with children are among the fastest-growing segment of the homeless population, according to the National Coalition for the Homeless. The Conference of Mayors found that 41% of the homeless are families with children, up from 34% in 2000. The Urban Institute reports about 23% of the homeless are children.
• Cities and shelters are also seeing the shift. In New York, the number of homeless families jumped 40% from 1999 to 2002. In Boston, the number of homeless families increased 8.3% to 2,328 in 2002 compared with 2001.
• An estimated 3.5 million people are likely to experience homelessness in a given year, the Urban Institute reports. People remained homeless for an average of six months, according to the Conference of Mayors survey — a figure that increased from a year ago in all but four cities.

In fact, the majority of cities polled by the Conference of Mayors expect homelessness to increase over the next year.

By JANITA POE
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

Jacqueline Rosier is a Latina who loves her culture and speaks Spanish as fluently as English.

But Rosier -- a native of Panama who is of African descent -- has struggled to identify herself as part of the Latin American community since coming to the United States 28 years ago.

"I always shock people and get a lot of questions when I say I'm a Latina," said Rosier, 38, a marketing and public relations manager in Duluth. "I've found a lot of white people don't accept me or respect me, on a certain level, because of my color. And I've found a lot of African-Americans want to put me in their box."

For dark-skinned Latinos in the United States, the American dream is often punctuated with dismaying experiences of trying to fit into a classification-oriented society. Black Latinos share a culture and language with white Latinos, but some say the race consciousness of America forces them to adopt an identity -- as black Americans -- that is not really their own. If they eschew the label, Afro-Latinos say they still are treated as African-Americans by most people and resented by some blacks who think they are ashamed of their African heritage.

NAIROBI, Kenya, Aug. 11 - There was a time when Africa might have condemned what happened in Liberia today as inappropriate outside meddling.

After all, the president of Ghana, John Kufuor, was on hand in the Liberian capital to announce the terms for Charles Taylor's successor. What business was it of his? Troops from Nigeria and South Africa were there as well to ensure that the civil war had really come to an end. Shouldn't they be back home where they belong?

Africa has a troubled history when it comes to sorting out its own affairs. Tyrants have long been protected by an unwritten rule of noninterference. The typical way of persuading an unpopular leader to leave has been to secretly support rebels.

But the departure of Mr. Taylor is being heralded as a sign that Africa has adopted a new activist approach toward its trouble spots and its troublemakers. "Africa is coming of age in handling its own affairs," said Maria Nzomo, director of the Institute of Diplomacy and International Studies at the University of Nairobi. "There's a new sense that Africa ought to be refereeing its own disputes."

By RAPHAEL TENTHANI, Associated Press Writer, 8/11/2003

i BLANTYRE, Malawi -- Malawi's top Anglican leader said Monday he was considering severing ties between his 600,000-strong flock and the U.S. Episcopal Church if it does not reverse its confirmation of a gay bishop.

Archbishop Bernard Malango, who heads the church in Malawi, Botswana, Zambia and Zimbabwe, said his members refused to support "the odd and unnatural" decision by the American branch of the Anglican church to confirm Bishop-elect V. Gene Robinson, an openly gay cleric.

"We can't support Canon Robinson's election because it is not compatible with our tradition and faith, and if they insist on having him as bishop, we will cut ourselves away from the operation of the U.S. church," he told The Associated Press.

…Anglican bishops in Africa, Asia and Latin America condemned the vote, with some threatening to sever ties with the U.S. church.

…Malango said a crisis meeting of 12 African bishops is scheduled for Nairobi, Kenya, next month.

August 12, 2003

SACRAMENTO — Democratic lawmakers said Monday they hope to introduce a bill next week that would undo the recently approved tripling of car and truck registration fees and make up the $4 billion in lost revenue with higher taxes on wealthy people and cigarettes.

If successful, the legislation would dismantle an unpopular fee hike — one that was a major impetus behind the campaign to recall Gov. Gray Davis — and replace it with taxes that Democrats believe would be more politically acceptable.

Republicans called the move a ploy designed to boost the popularity of Davis less than two months before the Oct. 7 recall election, and they questioned the legality of switching taxes a month after the state budget was approved.

August 12, 2003

ATLANTA — It took little time following the death of former Mayor Maynard Jackson Jr. for admirers to suggest what they saw as a perfect tribute to Atlanta's first black mayor: placing his name on the city's international airport.

Jackson had taken special pride in advances at the airport during his three terms as mayor, which began in 1974. A huge expansion turned the facility into a world-class hub, and Jackson struck a blow for black empowerment by insisting that minority contractors get a share of the lucrative airport business.

His lasting affection for the airport was so strong, according to friends and family, that Jackson made it clear he would like his name placed on it someday.

"He felt the activity, the affirmative action, the overall development of the airport that took place under his watch warranted that his name be there," said C.T. Martin, an Atlanta city councilman.

There is only one problem. The airport already bears the name of another former Atlanta mayor: William B. Hartsfield, a long-reigning leader who is considered the father of aviation in the city and who viewed the airport as his baby.

By Elizabeth Shogren and Edwin Chen, Times Staff Writers

DENVER — President Bush nominated Utah Gov. Mike Leavitt on Monday to head the Environmental Protection Agency, again turning to his fraternity of governors to help him address the nation's problems.

In Leavitt, Bush chose a like-minded Republican who wants to shift authority over pollution control from the federal government to the states and who favors voluntary cleanups by industry rather than mandatory government regulations.

Leavitt "rejects the old ways of command and control from above," Bush said. He hailed the 52-year-old, three-term governor as "a trusted friend" and a man who "understands the obligations of environmental stewardship."

Industry groups, applauding Leavitt's nomination, said he would take a balanced approach to pollution control.

But environmentalists said Leavitt had a poor record on protecting Utah's air, water and land and would probably weaken environmental protections nationwide in the lead job at EPA.

SEATTLE (Reuters) - A federal jury in Chicago awarded the University of California and a browser technology company $520.6 million after finding on Monday that their patents were infringed by Microsoft Corp. .

The suit, originally brought against the world's largest software maker in 1999 by Eolas Technologies Inc., charged that Microsoft had used Eolas' patented Web browser technology which allows other mini-applications to work with Microsoft's Internet Explorer browser, according to court documents.

Eolas had argued that the technology for "plug-ins" and "applets" made it possible for Microsoft to compete against the Netscape Navigator browser.

Netscape, which eventually became part of AOL Time Warner Inc., later lost its position as the top Web browser to Microsoft's Internet Explorer.

Eolas, a closely held Illinois company founded by former University of California professor Michael Doyle, had originally sought licensing fees that would potentially have totaled $1.2 billion.

They’d known each other for a long time, having gone to the same Baptist college together. They had been good friends first, before falling in love. And now? How could she marry him if her father wouldn’t grant his permission, wouldn’t give his blessing? What would become of her if she were to give up her love simply because her father was bigoted? Her father had already been furious with her, her brother equally unsupportive over this relationship. What would happen if she lost the approval of the family she had left?

She’d already risked much by being involved with this young Asian man, on a campus that had only recently allowed inter-racial relationships. She was breaking ground, exposing herself and her family to pressure from those who still have it otherwise.

…Second, lacking an adequate response to IBM's legal claims, SCO is resorting to big-time FUD-slinging by trying to change the debate to "indemnification." Basically, trying to paint Big Blue as the bad guy because they're not giving their customers legal guarantees about GPL'ed software. Never mind that indemnification is not standard in the software industry.

…Also note the interesting timing: Microsoft changed its legal terms to provide this fabled indemnification just five days before SCO filed its suit against IBM. Coincidence? I think not.[p6: note that Microsoft paid SCO the Linux licensing fees]

…Finally, now we see what it's really all about. In the past McBride and company have stated that they don't have a problem with open source or the GPL, just the idea that their IP might have been misappropriated. No longer:

…One other interesting thing came out in IBM's response: SCO's "right" to cancel IBM's AIX license is subject to veto by Novell. Even if IBM's license could be revoked (they still contend that it can't be), Novell can exercise a veto power. They have done so by sending letters to SCO telling SCO that it should cease saying that it has revoked the AIX license -- yet SCO's management has not mentioned this, and they continue to publically claim they have the right to revoke the AIX license, which is part of what has driven their stock price up so dramatically.

Check out the SEC filings -- SCO execs have been cashing in on their shares like there's no tomorrow, yet they haven't given all the information to their shareholders that they have. (Namely, the Novell letters...) The SEC really needs to be looking into the behavior of the folks in Lindon.

August 11, 2003

SANTA CRUZ — As another summer day fades, the sick and dying begin to gather.

An elderly woman leans unsteadily on her walker. A hip young paraplegic fellow glides his electric wheelchair past a dapper old man clutching a cane. Men wiry with AIDS sidle into folding chairs in the cramped meeting hall. A blind man hunkers at the edge of the throng. There is talk of housing and finances, discussions of dipping health and impending death.

They finish by flouting federal law.

Marijuana, deemed illegal by the U.S. for any purpose, is dispensed in small baggies to the group, most of them terminally ill with AIDS or cancer. They say their brand of medicine, justified under California's 1996 medicinal marijuana initiative, brings relief from pain and suffering.

But it has also brought the federal government down on the 220-member Santa Cruz collective, the Wo/Men's Alliance for Medical Marijuana. Last year, drug agents arrested WAMM's founders, Valerie and Mike Corral, during a raid of the group's small pot garden on a secluded hillside terrace up the coast.

The bust, part of a broader campaign by the Bush administration to trip up California's medical marijuana movement, prompted a publicity backlash. With the national media watching, Santa Cruz council members invited WAMM activists to conduct their weekly pot handout at City Hall.

Now the city and county of Santa Cruz, a liberal bastion, have joined the medical marijuana collective in a lawsuit against Atty. Gen. John Ashcroft and the U.S. government.

Despite the unequivocal U.S. stance against marijuana, these advocates argue that their cultivation and use of pot — approved by Santa Cruz police, free of profit motive, unfettered by illegal transport over state lines — is a constitutionally protected right that trumps federal narcotics laws. They want to grow marijuana free of federal raids.

U.S. officials, who consider medical marijuana a Trojan horse for the drug legalization movement, counter that the law prohibits the use of pot by anyone, even the seriously ill. A federal judge in San Jose is expected to decide the case within the month.

Whatever the ruling, the legal battle appears destined to end up at the U.S. Supreme Court. Gerald Uelmen, the University of Santa Clara law professor who served on O.J. Simpson's defense team and now represents WAMM, figures he's found the perfect test case, "the gold standard" for a credible medical marijuana dispensary.

By John Donnelly, Globe Staff, Photos by Dominic Chavez, Globe Staff, 8/10/2003

DAKAR, Senegal -- This report continues a series, begun on Jan. 26, on world health challenges and solutions that are within reach. Lives Lost special section

The two women slept in their nightshirts on a thin mattress, their tired bodies curled around each other.

One held a baby doll whose startling blue eyes stared into the darkness. Neither woman stirred, not after a night of carousing, dancing, and enduring the rough grasps of men. This was a moment of precious peace.

Day broke, and amid barking dogs and crying babies in their concrete apartment block, the two women, both prostitutes, lingered on their bed. They were irritable. To eat, they needed to work, to ''go out into the night,'' as they put it.

''This is a violent life,'' Anthonia Jacob, 28, said in her husky voice, still clutching her doll. ''One thing, though - I'm very careful. I make sure they always use condoms. That's why I'm healthy.''

On a continent where a breathtakingly high percentage of prostitutes carry and spread the AIDS virus, Jacob and her roommate, Kate Eno, are HIV-free.

Senegal deserves some credit.

This impoverished nation of 10 million people on Africa's west coast has shown how AIDS can be held at bay in places where the disease is a persistent, voracious killer. In 12 other African countries, more than 10 percent of people ages 15 to 49 are infected with HIV, the virus that causes AIDS. In Senegal, the infection rate has never risen above 2 percent; its prevention efforts have saved tens of thousands of lives.

Friday, August 8, 2003; Page A03

Labor, environmental and women's organizations, with strong backing from international financier George Soros, have joined forces behind a new political group that plans to spend an unprecedented $75 million to mobilize voters to defeat President Bush in 2004.

The organization, Americans Coming Together (ACT), will conduct "a massive get-out-the-vote operation that we think will defeat George W. Bush in 2004," said Ellen Malcolm, the president of EMILY's List, who will become ACT's president.

ACT already has commitments for more than $30 million, Malcolm and others said, including $10 million from Soros, $12 million from six other philanthropists, and about $8 million from unions, including the Service Employees International Union.

…A network of liberal groups has formed America Votes to coordinate the political activities of civil rights, environmental and abortion rights groups among others, and former Clinton aide Harold Ickes is trying to set up a pro-Democratic group to finance 2004 campaign television ads.

…The shifting focus of Soros, who is worth $5 billion and is chairman of Soros Fund Management LLC, from the international sphere to the domestic political arena is considered significant.

In a statement describing his reasons for giving $10 million, Soros said, "I believe deeply in the values of an open society. For the past 15 years I have focused my energies on fighting for these values abroad. Now I am doing it in the United States. The fate of the world depends on the United States and President Bush is leading us in the wrong direction."

…ACT plans to concentrate its activities in 17 states, all of which are likely to be presidential battlegrounds: Iowa, Maine, Michigan, Minnesota, New Mexico, Oregon, Pennsylvania, Washington, Wisconsin, Arizona, Arkansas, Florida, Missouri, Nevada, New Hampshire, Ohio and West Virginia.