Critics' Lists: Summer 2012
6:03 am
Tue July 10, 2012

What's The Big Idea? 5 Books To Inspire Innovation

Credit Harriet Russell

Originally published on Tue July 10, 2012 12:33 pm

The human brain is a piece of meat, a few pounds of pale pink jello inside the skull. It's also the wondrous source of consciousness and creativity, the place from which our emotions and insights emerge.

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Law
5:55 am
Tue July 10, 2012

Congolese Warlord Sentenced By Court In The Hague

Originally published on Tue July 10, 2012 6:52 am

It's been a decade since the first permanent International Criminal Court was created. On Tuesday, it delivered its first sentence. The Hague-based court ordered Congolese warlord Thomas Lubango to serve 14 years in prison. He was convicted in March of recruiting and using children as soldiers in his militia.

Europe
5:55 am
Tue July 10, 2012

Batman is No Match For Physics

Originally published on Tue July 10, 2012 6:53 am

Batman may be able to save Gotham from villians but the rules of physics apply to him. Four British graduate students produced a paper called "Trajectory of a falling Batman." It says Batman could glide off a 500-foot building as he does in the 2005 movie but he'd hit the ground at a life-threatening 50 miles-per-hour.

Business
5:00 am
Tue July 10, 2012

The Last Word In Business

Originally published on Tue July 10, 2012 6:52 am

Over a decade ago, Britton Nicholas Newlife bet with a bookmaker that Roger Federer would win Wimbledon seven times. The bet was for $2,300 and the odds were 66-1. Newlife died three years ago, but he left his betting ticket to the international charity Oxfam. On Sunday, Federer won his seventh Wimbledon title. Oxfam will receive more than $150,000 in winnings.

Black Lung Returns To Coal Country
3:45 am
Tue July 10, 2012

Black-Lung Rule Loopholes Leave Miners Vulnerable

Originally published on Tue July 10, 2012 9:41 pm

Part two of a two-part series.

Thousands of coal miners continued to suffer and die from black lung during the 40 years that tough new limits on exposure to coal dust were supposed to provide protection.

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It's All Politics
3:43 am
Tue July 10, 2012

Romney Outraises Obama By $35 Million In June

Originally published on Tue July 10, 2012 1:02 pm

The latest fundraising numbers are in for the two presidential campaigns, and the amounts are eye-popping. President Obama and the Democratic Party raised $71 million, which is an enormous haul. But it was dwarfed by Mitt Romney and the Republican National Committee, which together raised $106 million in the month of June.

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Election 2012
2:57 am
Tue July 10, 2012

Bush Tax Cuts: The New Middle-Class Norm

Credit Courtesy of Randi Cartmill
Josh Walling and Randi Cartmill with their children, Jacqueline, Josh and Ryan. Josh Walling says his family, whose household income is below the national median, would lose a substantial amount of money if the Bush tax cuts expired.

Originally published on Thu July 26, 2012 1:42 pm

The first in an occasional series, Fiscal Cliff Notes, which breaks down the looming "fiscal cliff" of expiring tax cuts and deep automatic spending cuts set to hit around the first of year.

Much of the political focus when discussing the Bush-era tax cuts is on the wealthy, but they're not the only ones who would be affected if the tax cuts are allowed to expire at the end of this year.

The vast majority of American taxpayers would take a hit, including Randi Cartmill and Josh Walling, who live in Madison, Wis., with their three children.

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Dead Stop
2:52 am
Tue July 10, 2012

A City's History Writ Small, In One Cemetery

Originally published on Tue July 10, 2012 1:07 pm

On Florida's northeast coast, trams filled with families and school groups run constantly in St. Augustine, hitting nearly all of the old city's historic sites.

But down a side street lies an important piece of St. Augustine's history most visitors don't see, because it's only open one day a month.

"This is Tolomato Cemetery. It was formerly the parish cemetery for what is now the cathedral parish," says Elizabeth Gessner, who heads the cemetery's preservation association.

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Middle East
2:51 am
Tue July 10, 2012

Walls Of Palestinian Homes Come Tumbling Down

Originally published on Sat July 14, 2012 7:46 am

Israel has dramatically increased its demolitions of unauthorized Palestinian homes in the West Bank and east Jerusalem, according to a recent United Nations report.

Last year, 1,100 Palestinians — more than half of them children — were displaced, an 80 percent increase from the previous year. And demolitions this year continue at a high rate.

For Sami Idriss, the Israeli bulldozers came while the 26-year-old Palestinian was at work.

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