Sunday’s election in Iraq drew a high turnout among the nation’s Shia majority and Kurds. As expected, the turnout among the Sunnis was low, and the challenge of bringing that disgruntled minority into the political process remains daunting.
Iraq’s interim Prime Minister Ayad Allawi pronounced the election a major victory over terrorism. The hope now is [...]

Cincinnati-based Procter & Gamble, the maker of Pampers, Bounty, Tide and Crest, has offered more than $50 billion to Boston-based Gillette, Inc. for its Sensor and Mach3 razors and the rest of its business.
The Procter & Gamble-Gillette affair is a merger of consumer products giants that are getting increasingly squeezed by retailers. Their merger is [...]

The nation’s largest insurance brokerage house today became the latest major company to settle a lawsuit with New York’s crusading Attorney General Eliot Spitzer. Marsh & McLennan agreed to pay 850-million-dollars to end an investigation into charges it took payoffs from insurance companies to steer clients their way.
Spitzer, a candidate for Governor of New [...]

Sherlock Holmes is the most famous sleuth in English fiction. And 118 years after his adventures with Dr. Watson first hit the magazine pages of Victorian England, Holmes remains an iconic character the world over.
From “A Study in Scarlet” to “The Musgrave Ritual” to “The Hound of the Baskervilles,” Holmes epitomizes the supreme man [...]

Today, mixed news on the economic front were released. The swelling trade deficit took wind out of the U.S. economy and slowed growth to 3.1 percent during the fourth quarter of 2004. The outlook for all of 2004 was more encouraging. The economy grew 4.4 percent, its best performance since 1999.
Hear Greg [...]

Among the major news that made headlines this week:
1) Wednesday marks the deadliest day yet for U.S. troops in Iraq. A total of thirty-seven Americans perish, including 31 in a helicopter crash.
2) Preparations are underway for this weekend’s elections in Iraq.
3) Edward Kennedy becomes the first U.S. Senator to call for a timetable for [...]

The elections in Iraq taking place on January 30, 2005 have been hailed by the Bush administration as the historic first step towards a free and democratic Iraq. Many analysts caution that even a high turnout will not quell the violence which has been steadily escalating.
Major issues include whether or not the Sunni minority [...]

When well-known critic Stanley Crouch surveys today’s American culture, he sees a problem. He sees black music moguls celebrating a hip-hop gangland of larger-than-life thugs and hussies. He sees white writers fashioning an American fiction devoid of race and color, blacks turning their backs on education, and whites projecting a primitive tribalism on blacks.
Crouch [...]

Conservative marriage researcher, columnist and three-time On Point guest Maggie Gallagher found herself in a whirlwind of controversy this week when it was disclosed that she was paid to do work for the federal government. The Gallagher controversy follows last month’s revelation that conservative commentator Armstrong Williams was paid more than $200,000 to push President [...]

“Moral Values” was the headline story the day after the 2004 U.S. presidential election. Religion was a big factor in the election throughout the entire campaign. George Bush talked frequently about his faith, while John Kerry talked about “loving thy neighbor” only near the end of the campaign.
Jim Wallis is an evangelical. He says [...]

Edward Kennedy today became the first member of the U.S. Senate to call for a detailed timeline for bringing U.S. troops home from Iraq. In a speech at Johns Hopkins University’s School of Advanced International Studies, the Massachusetts Senator labeled the U.S. presence in Iraq an occupation and drew parallels between Iraq and Vietnam.
“The U.S. [...]

Undersecretary Douglas Feith, Donald Rumsfeld’s top policy adviser, has said that he is stepping down from the Pentagon this summer.
Over the past four years, Feith has been harshly criticized for his role in the leadup to the war in Iraq. Most notably, he’s been criticized for misrepresenting intelligence showing connections between al Qaeda and [...]

January 27, 2005 marks the 60th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, the concentration camp that has come to symbolize the terror and genocide of the Holocaust.
Auschwitz is the site of the greatest mass murder in human history. More than 1.1 million people were taken to this camp, the majority of which died in [...]

In his inaugural address President Bush mentioned it no less than 27 times. But just what does Bush mean, when he speaks of freedom?
Harvard sociologist Orlando Patterson argues that Bush is invoking two definitions of freedom. One is the classic version of individual freedom embraced by most Americans today. The other one [...]

President Bush held a last-minute press conference this morning in response to one of the deadliest days for American forces in Iraq.
A Marine helicopter crash took 31 lives, and 5 other troops died in insurgent attacks. At the press conference, Bush continued to pound on his theme of “freedom” reinforcing the message of his [...]

Harvey Pekar’s been called a schlep, a crank, and eternal pessimist. He is the creator of the autobiographical comic series “American Splendor,” about his 30 years as a file clerk at a V.A. hospital.
In 2003, Pekar’s life became the subject of the movie “American Splendor,” which won the Grand Jury Prize at [...]

White House officials predicted today that the budget deficit will hit a new record of $427 billion. Next month, President Bush is expected to ask Congress for an additional $80 billion, mostly to fund the war in Iraq and bringing the total costs of the war to more than $200 billion by the end [...]

Today in Alabama the trial of Richard Scrushy, the former high-flying CEO of HealthSouth medical clinics, got under way. In a Birmingham courtroom, lawyers for both sides delivered their opening arguments. Scrushy is accused of orchestrating a $2.7 billion dollar accounting fraud. He could face 450 years in prison and up to $30 [...]

The next time high school students sit down and take the SAT exam, things are going to be different. Beginning in March, there will be a new writing section, harder math, grammar, and no more analogies.
What won’t change is the controversy. Since the SAT was first introduced in 1926, educators, students, and parents have [...]

It’s a dreaded sight for college-bound high school seniors: the thin envelope from the college of their choice. In many teens’ minds, rejection from a college represents failure on their part. Maybe if they had just studied a little harder or put a little more effort into that essay…
But former Boston Globe [...]