Utah Targets Polyg Prophet
BY JOHN DOUGHERTY
Phoenix New Times
http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/issues/2003-08-21/feature.html/1/index.html
""We are under attack," declared fundamentalist Mormon Prophet Warren Jeffs from his pulpit in Colorado City during an August 10 sermon."
The Heretic
by John Bloom
D Magazine
http://www.dmagazine.com//article.asp?articleid=563
"IF YOU DRIVE WEST FROM THE CITY, through the neo-modern lunarscape of Las Colinas, past the airport on our denuded prairie, into the warren of faceless office buildings that make up cosmopolitan Grapevine, you'll never find Benny Hinn."
Crop circles appear in a Wilkie field
CBC
http://sask.cbc.ca/regional/servlet/View?filename=crop_circles030815
"Harvest is getting underway across the province and that means more time and attention is being paid to what's in the fields. What people find in their fields can come under a lot of scrutiny, and not just by food inspection officials."
Wilkie circle not a hoax: researcher
by Silas Polkinghorne
Saskatchewan News Network
http://www.canada.com/regina/news/story.asp?id=D6BD2DEC-9A69-4588-A4B4-57801BE93F9C
"A Saskatoon research assistant with the Canadian Crop Circle Research Network says it's highly unlikely a recent crop formation near Wilkie was a hoax."
The Untruth Hurts, Even Online
By Keith R. Taylor
Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A29305-2003Aug21.html
""Hey, take it easy, Dipsey. It can't hurt." The admonition addressed to my screen name came back over the Internet. It was tweaking me for objecting to an urban legend. As usual my friend didn't originate the tale. Those things aren't originated. They just appear and they go on forever. It's like the proverbial snake that won't die until the sun goes down, except that an urban legend goes round and round the world, always ahead of the sunset."
Once when you were Pharoah...
BY ERIC ALAN BARTON
New Times Broward-Palm Beach
http://www.newtimesbpb.com/issues/2003-08-21/feature.html/1/index.html
"Irv Mordes has a manuscript under his wrinkled and spotted hands, but he doesn't want to open it yet. It's too soon. He needs to build up anticipation for that four-inch-thick text of his life's most important work. So he ponderously goes through his story the way old men do, hitting the highlights to emphasize how successful he's been in his 84 years, first as a nobody salesman and then in a second career with its asterisk of fame. He'll end his story with that secret he's selling in his book, the one about living forever."
Forward thinking
BY DAVID VALDES GREENWOOD
Providence Phoenix
http://www.providencephoenix.com/features/out_there/documents/03106998.asp
"I think I’m supposed to find the e-mail I just opened enticing. An enthusiastic friend is passing on this amazing deal: if I just send this same e-mail to nine other people, I will get a $50 gift certificate to Applebee’s. Free food just nine mouse clicks away — how can I refuse, right? All I have to do is spam my own friends."
Astrologers fail to predict proof they are wrong
by Robert Matthews
The Telegraph [UK]
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2003/08/17/nstars17.xml
"Good news for rational, level-headed Virgoans everywhere: just as you might have predicted, scientists have found astrology to be rubbish."
Scientology wanted millions, gets $4,500
By ROBERT FARLEY
St. Petersburg Times
http://www.sptimes.com/2003/08/21/Tampabay/Scientology_wanted_mi.shtml
"A tiny smile creased Ken Dandar's face as a clerk read the first count of the jury verdict."
A push to map the mystical
By Jeremy Licht
Baltimore Sun
http://www.sunspot.net/news/health/bal-te.theology18aug18,0,1994969.story
"Sister Constance Fitzgerald of the Carmelite Monastery in Towson can't describe Unio Mystica, the direct and immediate experience of God that Christian mystics seek through contemplative prayer. All she can say is that it's a gift from God -- achieved through a lifetime of fidelity."
Man sacrificed for hidden treasure
By Bibhuti Mishra
Sify
http://sify.com/news/offbeat/fullstory.php?id=13227413&vsv=94
"In a bizarre incident reported from Jagitia village in Kantamal district of Orissa, a newly married man has been killed as human sacrifice to unearth hidden treasure."
Nursing Administrator Doris Bloch, 75, Dies
By Claudia Levy
Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A23475-2003Aug20.html
"Doris Bloch, 75, a National Institutes of Health administrator who worked to increase research programs in the nursing profession, died Aug. 10 at Suburban Hospital. She had a heart ailment."
Thou Shalt Not Pray
By Dahlia Lithwick
Slate
http://slate.msn.com/id/2087287/
"One hesitates to spill one more drop of ink over Chief Justice Roy Moore—the demagogue judge who heads the Alabama Supreme Court and who—as of midnight last night—is in violation of a federal court order to remove a 5,000-pound monument to the Ten Commandments from the rotunda of the Alabama State Judicial Building."
Power to ruin a life
by Bennett Akuaku
Ghanaian Chronicle
http://www.ghanaian-chronicle.com/230820/page2d.htm
"This is the true story of how, in Ghana, a witch is made."
Witches' Camps Violate Human Rights, Some Say
Ghanaian Chronicle
http://allafrica.com/stories/200308200522.html
""Witches' camps," set up to provide havens for people accused of being witches, are now raising concerns that their conditions violate residents' human rights."
American, Husband Nabbed in Mexico Murder
by MARK STEVENSON
Associated Press
http://www.ohio.com/mld/ohio/news/6600442.htm
"Cynthia Kiecker says she and her Mexican husband stood out as "kind of the hippies of Chihuahua," a conservative northern Mexico city where cowboy hats and boots are the norm."
Parents charged in abduction
By Matt Canham and Ashley Broughton
Salt Lake Tribune
http://www.sltrib.com/2003/Aug/08212003/utah/85706.asp
"State officials are worried a 12-year-old Sandy boy will die from a rare form of bone cancer if he does not receive chemotherapy soon."
Police press parent search
By Matt Canham
Salt Lake Tribune
http://www.sltrib.com/2003/Aug/08222003/utah/86035.asp
"Detectives are focusing on Houston as they continue their search for a Sandy couple wanted for violating a court order by refusing to treat their son's cancer with chemotherapy."
Judge rejects JP loser's claim of voting by illegal entrants
By Ignacio Ibarra
ARIZONA DAILY STAR
http://www.azstarnet.com/star/wed/30820ILLEGALVOTERS2fmst2fjmd.html
"A complaint by a McNeal woman that voting by illegal entrants cost her the election to a justice of the peace post was dismissed Tuesday by a judge."
For a paranormal investigator, he's so normal
by Charles Walsh
Connecticut Post
http://www.connpost.com/Stories/0,1413,96~3754~1585239,00.html
"Jon Nowinski takes an inside window seat in a booth at the Sherwood Diner in Westport and orders up coffee and a hefty slice of diner chocolate mocha cake (more chocolate mocha than cake)."
Doubts surface about repeated monster sightings
Midland Reporter-Telegram
<http://www.mywesttexas.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=10029580&BRD=2288&PAG=461&dept_id=475590&rfi=6>
"The monsters of our mind usually turn out to be the stuff dreams are made of -- even Nessie."
Ernest H. Taves, 87; doctor left practice to craft stories
By Laura Levis
Boston Globe
<http://www.boston.com/yourlife/heal...ves_87_doctor_left_practice_to_craft_stories/>
"Dr. Ernest Henry Taves of Cambridge, a psychoanalyst turned fiction writer, died in Mount Auburn Hospital on Aug. 16 of complications following a heart attack. He was 87."
Ghost hunters materialize in state
by Chris Stirewalt
Charleston Daily Mail
http://www.dailymail.com/news/News/200308233/
"West Virginia is considered a hotbed of paranormal activity by the supernatural sleuths gathered here this weekend."
State history includes paranormal mysteries
Associated Press
http://www.dailymail.com/news/News/200308219/
"From mysterious noises and lights in the sky to apparitions of lifelike figures, West Virginians are fascinated by unexplained phenomenon that have helped create the state's rich history and folklore."
Justices Order Commandments Monument Removed
By JEFFREY GETTLEMAN with MARK J. PRENDERGAST
New York Times
<http://www.nytimes.com/2003/08/21/n...00&en=1950c27b8952dd65&ei=5062&partner=GOOGLE>
"Chief Justice Roy Moore was overruled by his eight associates on the Alabama Supreme Court today when they ordered the removal of ``Roy's Rock'' from the lobby of their building here."
Alabama chief justice suspended
MSNBC
http://www.msnbc.com/news/954934.asp?0cv=CA01&cp1=1
"The chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court was suspended Friday pending an ethics investigation for his defiance of a federal judge’s order that he remove a monument to the Ten Commandments from the rotunda of the state judicial building."
Roy’s Rock
by Eleanor Clift
NEWSWEEK
<http://www.msnbc.com/news/956098.asp?cp1=1=?iso-8859-1?Q?Story:_=22Roy's_Rock=22?=>
"By stubbornly refusing a federal court order to remove the Ten Commandments monument in his courthouse, Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore has been hailed by Christian fundamentalists as a man of great courage. Lesser known, but no less courageous is the woman who dared stand up to Justice Moore."
Minister Fights To Add Creationism To Classes
KHBS
http://www.thehometownchannel.com/news/2421920/detail.html
"A Hometown pastor is launching an assault on local school boards in an effort to remove the concept of human evolution from Arkansas textbooks."
A textbook case of bad science
By Katharine Mieszkowski
Salon
http://www.salon.com/tech/feature/2003/08/20/textbook/index_np.html
"Charles Darwin, Satan, Joseph Stalin, aliens, Raelians and fire-breathing dragons hibernating at the bottom of the sea all put in cameos last month at a Texas board of education public hearing on textbooks."
Ohio officials warn against evangelist's 'miracle water'
By Ken Garfield
Knight Ridder News Service
http://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/mld/sunnews/news/local/6547267.htm
"If evangelist Leroy Jenkins hands you a bottle of his so-called miracle water at his revival through Sunday at the Charlotte Convention Center, you might want to think twice about letting it pass your lips."
Jesus Christ Beyond Thunderdome
By Cathy Young
Reason
http://www.reason.com/cy/cy081903.shtml
"Mel Gibson's upcoming movie The Passion is already stirring up passions more than half a year before its scheduled release—which is not surprising, since it deals with the emotionally charged subject of the crucifixion of Jesus. The intensity of the debate recalls the firestorm sparked by Martin Scorcese's 1988 movie The Last Temptation of Christ."
Silly Season: Mucky the Lake Monster
Blather
http://www.blather.net/shitegeist/000112.htm
"Welcome to the depths of the silly season...we've had pumas, wild pigs... now lake monsters. Excellent..."
James Randi
Interviewed by Paul Harris
KTRS
http://www.harrisonline.com/audio/listings/jamesrandi.htm
"Known as The Amazing Randi during his years as a magician, he's long been the top debunker of psychic and paranormal claims. He talks with Paul about the Million Dollar Paranormal Challenge, how there are psychic believers all over the world, why prosecutors should go after the phonies who perpetrate these frauds, and much more -- including his 1978 appearance on "Happy Days," in which he taught Henry Winkler how to do the classic Milk Can Escape."
Journey through time
by Bill Choy
Redding Record Searchlight
http://www.redding.com/news/stories/20030817lo032.shtml
"Dressed as a minstrel and strumming a tune on his lute, Francis Mangels played it to the hilt at Fantasy Faire 2003 at the Dunsmuir Park and Botanical Gardens on Saturday morning."
WHO Okays Traditional Healers
New Vision [Kampala]
http://allafrica.com/stories/200308181162.html
"The World Health Organisation is to recognise August 31 this year as the African Traditional Medicine Day."
Canadian healer offers touch of faith
Hindustan Times
http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/919_344756,001800010001.htm
"In a land of miracles, it's not just the locals who are doing the impossible. People in Indore queued up for Clive Harris, a faith healer from Canada, who claims to cure various ailments through touch."
FISHY RESEARCH
By DEBORAH MANN LAKE
Houston Chronicle
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/metropolitan/2056565
"Sharks, one of the most feared predators of the sea, may prove to be a potent partner in the war against cancer."
HC to hear doctor's plea for recognition of AIDS cure
Press Trust of India
http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_340659,0008.htm
"The Bombay High Court has allowed a notice of motion filed by a city-based doctor urging the Union government and various authorities to examine his research on AIDS cure and grant recognition to his study based on herbal and spiritual treatment in alternative medicine."
Prayer doctor vows to carry on 'healing'
By ELIZABETH BINNING
New Zealand Herald
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/storydisplay.cfm?storyID=3518312
"Dr Richard Gorringe was working as an "ordinary" GP until his family were struck with an illness no one seemed able to cure."
Panel backs off evolution debate
by KYTJA WEIR
Charlotte Observer
http://www.charlotte.com/mld/observer/news/local/6581373.htm
"The Union County school board on Tuesday flirted with, then backed away from, a more-than-century-long debate questioning evolution's place in science education."
Battle over evolution heating up
News 8 Austin
http://www.news8austin.com/content/headlines/?ArID=81294&SecID=2
"The debate continues over what information Texas biology books should present."
An exuberant life of Cagliostro, the count of many callings
Review By Matthew Price
Boston Globe
<http://www.boston.com/ae/books/arti...ife_of_cagliostro_the_count_of_many_callings/>
"Freemason and mystical magician, rascal and raconteur, Count Alessandro di Cagliostro was one of the most extravagant, eccentric characters of the 18th century. Cagliostro's celebrated exploits took him from the back alleys of Palermo, Italy, to the ruling circles of St. Petersburg and revolutionary Paris, where he dazzled the brightest men and women of the age with his potent psychic powers. Still, he was a divisive figure, and his long list of powerful enemies included Casanova, Goethe, Marie Antoinette, Pope Pius VI, and Catherine the Great."
Apology is issued for Web photos of body
By JORGE SANCHEZ
St. Petersburg Times
http://www.sptimes.com/2003/08/18/Citrus/Apology_is_issued_for.shtml
"The man at the center of the latest controversy surrounding the frozen body of baseball legend Ted Williams said Sunday he was sorry for posting pictures of Williams' body on a Web site."
Florida's invasion of body freezers
By TOM ZUCCO
St. Petersburg Times
http://www.sptimes.com/2003/08/19/State/Florida_s_invasion_of.shtml
"The city already had a reputation as the tabloid capital of America and ground zero for the anthrax attacks. Then a London newspaper did a study and found it is also home to 40 of the world's 200 most prolific spam operations."
State BOE elections spark evolution debates
By John Hanna
Associated Press
http://www.ljworld.com/section/stateregional/story/142609
"Connie Morris was exasperated by the battery of cameras and reporters watching her and her fellow State Board of Education members as if they were zoo animals."
The Fault, Dear Voters, Is in the President's Stars
BY DRU SEFTON
Newhouse News Service
http://www.newhousenews.com/archive/sefton082103.html
"Out in the political world, the chances for President Bush's re-election look good. But celestial bodies suggest trouble."
Texan gets 24 years for fraud
By Mike Carter
Seattle Times
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2001597442_scam23m.html
"A key player in a scam that catered to tax protesters and members of the so-called "patriot movement" was sentenced to 24 years in federal prison yesterday."
Community of rumors keep lynching theories alive
By JILL BARTON
Associated Press
http://www.theledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20030823/APN/308230669
"Three years ago in the tiny Mississippi town of Kokomo, a father found his black son's body hanging from a pecan tree, conjuring up memories of gruesome murders from the South's ugly racist past."
Pentagon: Soldiers Said Captured Are Safe
Associated Press
http://abcnews.go.com/wire/World/ap20030822_1221.html
"By the time a shadowy group of Iraqis claimed to have captured Maj. Andrew C. Peters, he had spent a week in an Army hospital in Texas recovering from a land mine explosion in Iraq."
Supposedly captured GI is BAMC patient
By Lisa Marie Gómez
San Antonio Express-News
http://news.mysanantonio.com/story.cfm?xla=saen&xlb=180&xlc=1044042
"Maj. Andrew Peters, one of the soldiers reported Friday morning by a Lebanese television station as being captured by an unknown Iraqi group, actually is recovering from a blast injury at Brooke Army Medical Center."
Houdini Days debut drawing attention
By Linda Martinez
Appleton Post-Crescent
http://www.wisinfo.com/postcrescent/news/archive/local_11825590.shtml
"People are taking a serious look at Appleton’s first-ever Houdini Days."
Do births surge after a blackout? Statistics say no
By Markus Verbeet
Philadelphia Inquirer
http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/front/6579887.htm
"Even before the power came back after last week's blackout, Toronto Mayor Mel Lastman predicted the consequences."
Iraq mayhem gives conspiracy theorists a field day
By Luke Baker
Reuters
http://famulus.msnbc.com/FamulusIntl/reuters08-21-030922.asp?reg=MIDEAST
"U.S. forces did not win the war, Saddam Hussein is a CIA agent and Ariel Sharon just bought a house on the banks of the Tigris -- so say the pages of Baghdad's newspapers, where conspiracy and rumour reign supreme."
Snake! Did government stock rattlers in Pineywoods?
By Chester Moore, Jr
Orange Leader
http://www.orangeleader.com/articles/2003/08/21/sports/sports3.txt
"Have you heard that U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) officials have stocked venomous timber rattlesnakes in the Pineywoods?"
Woman's scheme foiled when she runs into childhood friend
Associated Press
http://www.trib.com/AP/wire_detail.php?wire_num=154119
"Misty Quackenbush had almost gotten away with it - until she ran into a childhood friend in Texas."
Witchcraft fears at Katutura school
by PETROS KUTEEUE
Namibian
http://www.namibian.com.na/2003/august/national/03EF3F1EEC.html
"PARENTS at Katutura's Theo Katjimune Primary School are threatening to withdraw their children from the school because of allegations of witchcraft."
Dr Snake offers web voodoo hoodoo
Norwich Evening News
<http://www.eveningnews24.co.uk/cont...=ENOnline&itemid=NOED22+Aug+2003+12:02:02:280>
"THEY say it's better the devil you know and a Norwich voodoo practitioner is offering musicians the chance to snap up a pact with the Devil over the internet."
Charges unfairly aimed at Target
By Tom Hennessy
Long Beach Press Telegram
http://www.presstelegram.com/Stories/0,1413,204~21474~1581915,00.html
"Joseph Del Rio's war was in Korea."
'Major Incident' Staged
By Davey Porter
Crestline Courier-News
http://www.mountain-news.com/articles/2003/08/21/news/news01.txt
"In the preceding weeks - while mountain residents seriously contemplate their ability to evacuate their families and remain safely out of harm's way in the event of a major forest fire - rumors have crisscrossed the mountain alleging the coroner is storing thousands of body bags in anticipation of mass casualties; that officials are callously planning to protect residents with upscale homes, while withholding resources from communities and neighborhoods with lower property values; and claiming that fire and emergency management officials are doing nothing to further disaster or evacuation planning - that, in essence, officials have given up, and are merely marking time until a fire occurs."
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/skepticsearch/
BY JOHN DOUGHERTY
Phoenix New Times
http://www.phoenixnewtimes.com/issues/2003-08-21/feature.html/1/index.html
""We are under attack," declared fundamentalist Mormon Prophet Warren Jeffs from his pulpit in Colorado City during an August 10 sermon."
The Heretic
by John Bloom
D Magazine
http://www.dmagazine.com//article.asp?articleid=563
"IF YOU DRIVE WEST FROM THE CITY, through the neo-modern lunarscape of Las Colinas, past the airport on our denuded prairie, into the warren of faceless office buildings that make up cosmopolitan Grapevine, you'll never find Benny Hinn."
Crop circles appear in a Wilkie field
CBC
http://sask.cbc.ca/regional/servlet/View?filename=crop_circles030815
"Harvest is getting underway across the province and that means more time and attention is being paid to what's in the fields. What people find in their fields can come under a lot of scrutiny, and not just by food inspection officials."
Wilkie circle not a hoax: researcher
by Silas Polkinghorne
Saskatchewan News Network
http://www.canada.com/regina/news/story.asp?id=D6BD2DEC-9A69-4588-A4B4-57801BE93F9C
"A Saskatoon research assistant with the Canadian Crop Circle Research Network says it's highly unlikely a recent crop formation near Wilkie was a hoax."
The Untruth Hurts, Even Online
By Keith R. Taylor
Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A29305-2003Aug21.html
""Hey, take it easy, Dipsey. It can't hurt." The admonition addressed to my screen name came back over the Internet. It was tweaking me for objecting to an urban legend. As usual my friend didn't originate the tale. Those things aren't originated. They just appear and they go on forever. It's like the proverbial snake that won't die until the sun goes down, except that an urban legend goes round and round the world, always ahead of the sunset."
Once when you were Pharoah...
BY ERIC ALAN BARTON
New Times Broward-Palm Beach
http://www.newtimesbpb.com/issues/2003-08-21/feature.html/1/index.html
"Irv Mordes has a manuscript under his wrinkled and spotted hands, but he doesn't want to open it yet. It's too soon. He needs to build up anticipation for that four-inch-thick text of his life's most important work. So he ponderously goes through his story the way old men do, hitting the highlights to emphasize how successful he's been in his 84 years, first as a nobody salesman and then in a second career with its asterisk of fame. He'll end his story with that secret he's selling in his book, the one about living forever."
Forward thinking
BY DAVID VALDES GREENWOOD
Providence Phoenix
http://www.providencephoenix.com/features/out_there/documents/03106998.asp
"I think I’m supposed to find the e-mail I just opened enticing. An enthusiastic friend is passing on this amazing deal: if I just send this same e-mail to nine other people, I will get a $50 gift certificate to Applebee’s. Free food just nine mouse clicks away — how can I refuse, right? All I have to do is spam my own friends."
Astrologers fail to predict proof they are wrong
by Robert Matthews
The Telegraph [UK]
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/main.jhtml?xml=/news/2003/08/17/nstars17.xml
"Good news for rational, level-headed Virgoans everywhere: just as you might have predicted, scientists have found astrology to be rubbish."
Scientology wanted millions, gets $4,500
By ROBERT FARLEY
St. Petersburg Times
http://www.sptimes.com/2003/08/21/Tampabay/Scientology_wanted_mi.shtml
"A tiny smile creased Ken Dandar's face as a clerk read the first count of the jury verdict."
A push to map the mystical
By Jeremy Licht
Baltimore Sun
http://www.sunspot.net/news/health/bal-te.theology18aug18,0,1994969.story
"Sister Constance Fitzgerald of the Carmelite Monastery in Towson can't describe Unio Mystica, the direct and immediate experience of God that Christian mystics seek through contemplative prayer. All she can say is that it's a gift from God -- achieved through a lifetime of fidelity."
Man sacrificed for hidden treasure
By Bibhuti Mishra
Sify
http://sify.com/news/offbeat/fullstory.php?id=13227413&vsv=94
"In a bizarre incident reported from Jagitia village in Kantamal district of Orissa, a newly married man has been killed as human sacrifice to unearth hidden treasure."
Nursing Administrator Doris Bloch, 75, Dies
By Claudia Levy
Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A23475-2003Aug20.html
"Doris Bloch, 75, a National Institutes of Health administrator who worked to increase research programs in the nursing profession, died Aug. 10 at Suburban Hospital. She had a heart ailment."
Thou Shalt Not Pray
By Dahlia Lithwick
Slate
http://slate.msn.com/id/2087287/
"One hesitates to spill one more drop of ink over Chief Justice Roy Moore—the demagogue judge who heads the Alabama Supreme Court and who—as of midnight last night—is in violation of a federal court order to remove a 5,000-pound monument to the Ten Commandments from the rotunda of the Alabama State Judicial Building."
Power to ruin a life
by Bennett Akuaku
Ghanaian Chronicle
http://www.ghanaian-chronicle.com/230820/page2d.htm
"This is the true story of how, in Ghana, a witch is made."
Witches' Camps Violate Human Rights, Some Say
Ghanaian Chronicle
http://allafrica.com/stories/200308200522.html
""Witches' camps," set up to provide havens for people accused of being witches, are now raising concerns that their conditions violate residents' human rights."
American, Husband Nabbed in Mexico Murder
by MARK STEVENSON
Associated Press
http://www.ohio.com/mld/ohio/news/6600442.htm
"Cynthia Kiecker says she and her Mexican husband stood out as "kind of the hippies of Chihuahua," a conservative northern Mexico city where cowboy hats and boots are the norm."
Parents charged in abduction
By Matt Canham and Ashley Broughton
Salt Lake Tribune
http://www.sltrib.com/2003/Aug/08212003/utah/85706.asp
"State officials are worried a 12-year-old Sandy boy will die from a rare form of bone cancer if he does not receive chemotherapy soon."
Police press parent search
By Matt Canham
Salt Lake Tribune
http://www.sltrib.com/2003/Aug/08222003/utah/86035.asp
"Detectives are focusing on Houston as they continue their search for a Sandy couple wanted for violating a court order by refusing to treat their son's cancer with chemotherapy."
Judge rejects JP loser's claim of voting by illegal entrants
By Ignacio Ibarra
ARIZONA DAILY STAR
http://www.azstarnet.com/star/wed/30820ILLEGALVOTERS2fmst2fjmd.html
"A complaint by a McNeal woman that voting by illegal entrants cost her the election to a justice of the peace post was dismissed Tuesday by a judge."
For a paranormal investigator, he's so normal
by Charles Walsh
Connecticut Post
http://www.connpost.com/Stories/0,1413,96~3754~1585239,00.html
"Jon Nowinski takes an inside window seat in a booth at the Sherwood Diner in Westport and orders up coffee and a hefty slice of diner chocolate mocha cake (more chocolate mocha than cake)."
Doubts surface about repeated monster sightings
Midland Reporter-Telegram
<http://www.mywesttexas.com/site/news.cfm?newsid=10029580&BRD=2288&PAG=461&dept_id=475590&rfi=6>
"The monsters of our mind usually turn out to be the stuff dreams are made of -- even Nessie."
Ernest H. Taves, 87; doctor left practice to craft stories
By Laura Levis
Boston Globe
<http://www.boston.com/yourlife/heal...ves_87_doctor_left_practice_to_craft_stories/>
"Dr. Ernest Henry Taves of Cambridge, a psychoanalyst turned fiction writer, died in Mount Auburn Hospital on Aug. 16 of complications following a heart attack. He was 87."
Ghost hunters materialize in state
by Chris Stirewalt
Charleston Daily Mail
http://www.dailymail.com/news/News/200308233/
"West Virginia is considered a hotbed of paranormal activity by the supernatural sleuths gathered here this weekend."
State history includes paranormal mysteries
Associated Press
http://www.dailymail.com/news/News/200308219/
"From mysterious noises and lights in the sky to apparitions of lifelike figures, West Virginians are fascinated by unexplained phenomenon that have helped create the state's rich history and folklore."
Justices Order Commandments Monument Removed
By JEFFREY GETTLEMAN with MARK J. PRENDERGAST
New York Times
<http://www.nytimes.com/2003/08/21/n...00&en=1950c27b8952dd65&ei=5062&partner=GOOGLE>
"Chief Justice Roy Moore was overruled by his eight associates on the Alabama Supreme Court today when they ordered the removal of ``Roy's Rock'' from the lobby of their building here."
Alabama chief justice suspended
MSNBC
http://www.msnbc.com/news/954934.asp?0cv=CA01&cp1=1
"The chief justice of the Alabama Supreme Court was suspended Friday pending an ethics investigation for his defiance of a federal judge’s order that he remove a monument to the Ten Commandments from the rotunda of the state judicial building."
Roy’s Rock
by Eleanor Clift
NEWSWEEK
<http://www.msnbc.com/news/956098.asp?cp1=1=?iso-8859-1?Q?Story:_=22Roy's_Rock=22?=>
"By stubbornly refusing a federal court order to remove the Ten Commandments monument in his courthouse, Alabama Supreme Court Chief Justice Roy Moore has been hailed by Christian fundamentalists as a man of great courage. Lesser known, but no less courageous is the woman who dared stand up to Justice Moore."
Minister Fights To Add Creationism To Classes
KHBS
http://www.thehometownchannel.com/news/2421920/detail.html
"A Hometown pastor is launching an assault on local school boards in an effort to remove the concept of human evolution from Arkansas textbooks."
A textbook case of bad science
By Katharine Mieszkowski
Salon
http://www.salon.com/tech/feature/2003/08/20/textbook/index_np.html
"Charles Darwin, Satan, Joseph Stalin, aliens, Raelians and fire-breathing dragons hibernating at the bottom of the sea all put in cameos last month at a Texas board of education public hearing on textbooks."
Ohio officials warn against evangelist's 'miracle water'
By Ken Garfield
Knight Ridder News Service
http://www.myrtlebeachonline.com/mld/sunnews/news/local/6547267.htm
"If evangelist Leroy Jenkins hands you a bottle of his so-called miracle water at his revival through Sunday at the Charlotte Convention Center, you might want to think twice about letting it pass your lips."
Jesus Christ Beyond Thunderdome
By Cathy Young
Reason
http://www.reason.com/cy/cy081903.shtml
"Mel Gibson's upcoming movie The Passion is already stirring up passions more than half a year before its scheduled release—which is not surprising, since it deals with the emotionally charged subject of the crucifixion of Jesus. The intensity of the debate recalls the firestorm sparked by Martin Scorcese's 1988 movie The Last Temptation of Christ."
Silly Season: Mucky the Lake Monster
Blather
http://www.blather.net/shitegeist/000112.htm
"Welcome to the depths of the silly season...we've had pumas, wild pigs... now lake monsters. Excellent..."
James Randi
Interviewed by Paul Harris
KTRS
http://www.harrisonline.com/audio/listings/jamesrandi.htm
"Known as The Amazing Randi during his years as a magician, he's long been the top debunker of psychic and paranormal claims. He talks with Paul about the Million Dollar Paranormal Challenge, how there are psychic believers all over the world, why prosecutors should go after the phonies who perpetrate these frauds, and much more -- including his 1978 appearance on "Happy Days," in which he taught Henry Winkler how to do the classic Milk Can Escape."
Journey through time
by Bill Choy
Redding Record Searchlight
http://www.redding.com/news/stories/20030817lo032.shtml
"Dressed as a minstrel and strumming a tune on his lute, Francis Mangels played it to the hilt at Fantasy Faire 2003 at the Dunsmuir Park and Botanical Gardens on Saturday morning."
WHO Okays Traditional Healers
New Vision [Kampala]
http://allafrica.com/stories/200308181162.html
"The World Health Organisation is to recognise August 31 this year as the African Traditional Medicine Day."
Canadian healer offers touch of faith
Hindustan Times
http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/919_344756,001800010001.htm
"In a land of miracles, it's not just the locals who are doing the impossible. People in Indore queued up for Clive Harris, a faith healer from Canada, who claims to cure various ailments through touch."
FISHY RESEARCH
By DEBORAH MANN LAKE
Houston Chronicle
http://www.chron.com/cs/CDA/ssistory.mpl/metropolitan/2056565
"Sharks, one of the most feared predators of the sea, may prove to be a potent partner in the war against cancer."
HC to hear doctor's plea for recognition of AIDS cure
Press Trust of India
http://www.hindustantimes.com/news/181_340659,0008.htm
"The Bombay High Court has allowed a notice of motion filed by a city-based doctor urging the Union government and various authorities to examine his research on AIDS cure and grant recognition to his study based on herbal and spiritual treatment in alternative medicine."
Prayer doctor vows to carry on 'healing'
By ELIZABETH BINNING
New Zealand Herald
http://www.nzherald.co.nz/storydisplay.cfm?storyID=3518312
"Dr Richard Gorringe was working as an "ordinary" GP until his family were struck with an illness no one seemed able to cure."
Panel backs off evolution debate
by KYTJA WEIR
Charlotte Observer
http://www.charlotte.com/mld/observer/news/local/6581373.htm
"The Union County school board on Tuesday flirted with, then backed away from, a more-than-century-long debate questioning evolution's place in science education."
Battle over evolution heating up
News 8 Austin
http://www.news8austin.com/content/headlines/?ArID=81294&SecID=2
"The debate continues over what information Texas biology books should present."
An exuberant life of Cagliostro, the count of many callings
Review By Matthew Price
Boston Globe
<http://www.boston.com/ae/books/arti...ife_of_cagliostro_the_count_of_many_callings/>
"Freemason and mystical magician, rascal and raconteur, Count Alessandro di Cagliostro was one of the most extravagant, eccentric characters of the 18th century. Cagliostro's celebrated exploits took him from the back alleys of Palermo, Italy, to the ruling circles of St. Petersburg and revolutionary Paris, where he dazzled the brightest men and women of the age with his potent psychic powers. Still, he was a divisive figure, and his long list of powerful enemies included Casanova, Goethe, Marie Antoinette, Pope Pius VI, and Catherine the Great."
Apology is issued for Web photos of body
By JORGE SANCHEZ
St. Petersburg Times
http://www.sptimes.com/2003/08/18/Citrus/Apology_is_issued_for.shtml
"The man at the center of the latest controversy surrounding the frozen body of baseball legend Ted Williams said Sunday he was sorry for posting pictures of Williams' body on a Web site."
Florida's invasion of body freezers
By TOM ZUCCO
St. Petersburg Times
http://www.sptimes.com/2003/08/19/State/Florida_s_invasion_of.shtml
"The city already had a reputation as the tabloid capital of America and ground zero for the anthrax attacks. Then a London newspaper did a study and found it is also home to 40 of the world's 200 most prolific spam operations."
State BOE elections spark evolution debates
By John Hanna
Associated Press
http://www.ljworld.com/section/stateregional/story/142609
"Connie Morris was exasperated by the battery of cameras and reporters watching her and her fellow State Board of Education members as if they were zoo animals."
The Fault, Dear Voters, Is in the President's Stars
BY DRU SEFTON
Newhouse News Service
http://www.newhousenews.com/archive/sefton082103.html
"Out in the political world, the chances for President Bush's re-election look good. But celestial bodies suggest trouble."
Texan gets 24 years for fraud
By Mike Carter
Seattle Times
http://seattletimes.nwsource.com/html/localnews/2001597442_scam23m.html
"A key player in a scam that catered to tax protesters and members of the so-called "patriot movement" was sentenced to 24 years in federal prison yesterday."
Community of rumors keep lynching theories alive
By JILL BARTON
Associated Press
http://www.theledger.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20030823/APN/308230669
"Three years ago in the tiny Mississippi town of Kokomo, a father found his black son's body hanging from a pecan tree, conjuring up memories of gruesome murders from the South's ugly racist past."
Pentagon: Soldiers Said Captured Are Safe
Associated Press
http://abcnews.go.com/wire/World/ap20030822_1221.html
"By the time a shadowy group of Iraqis claimed to have captured Maj. Andrew C. Peters, he had spent a week in an Army hospital in Texas recovering from a land mine explosion in Iraq."
Supposedly captured GI is BAMC patient
By Lisa Marie Gómez
San Antonio Express-News
http://news.mysanantonio.com/story.cfm?xla=saen&xlb=180&xlc=1044042
"Maj. Andrew Peters, one of the soldiers reported Friday morning by a Lebanese television station as being captured by an unknown Iraqi group, actually is recovering from a blast injury at Brooke Army Medical Center."
Houdini Days debut drawing attention
By Linda Martinez
Appleton Post-Crescent
http://www.wisinfo.com/postcrescent/news/archive/local_11825590.shtml
"People are taking a serious look at Appleton’s first-ever Houdini Days."
Do births surge after a blackout? Statistics say no
By Markus Verbeet
Philadelphia Inquirer
http://www.philly.com/mld/inquirer/news/front/6579887.htm
"Even before the power came back after last week's blackout, Toronto Mayor Mel Lastman predicted the consequences."
Iraq mayhem gives conspiracy theorists a field day
By Luke Baker
Reuters
http://famulus.msnbc.com/FamulusIntl/reuters08-21-030922.asp?reg=MIDEAST
"U.S. forces did not win the war, Saddam Hussein is a CIA agent and Ariel Sharon just bought a house on the banks of the Tigris -- so say the pages of Baghdad's newspapers, where conspiracy and rumour reign supreme."
Snake! Did government stock rattlers in Pineywoods?
By Chester Moore, Jr
Orange Leader
http://www.orangeleader.com/articles/2003/08/21/sports/sports3.txt
"Have you heard that U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service (Service) officials have stocked venomous timber rattlesnakes in the Pineywoods?"
Woman's scheme foiled when she runs into childhood friend
Associated Press
http://www.trib.com/AP/wire_detail.php?wire_num=154119
"Misty Quackenbush had almost gotten away with it - until she ran into a childhood friend in Texas."
Witchcraft fears at Katutura school
by PETROS KUTEEUE
Namibian
http://www.namibian.com.na/2003/august/national/03EF3F1EEC.html
"PARENTS at Katutura's Theo Katjimune Primary School are threatening to withdraw their children from the school because of allegations of witchcraft."
Dr Snake offers web voodoo hoodoo
Norwich Evening News
<http://www.eveningnews24.co.uk/cont...=ENOnline&itemid=NOED22+Aug+2003+12:02:02:280>
"THEY say it's better the devil you know and a Norwich voodoo practitioner is offering musicians the chance to snap up a pact with the Devil over the internet."
Charges unfairly aimed at Target
By Tom Hennessy
Long Beach Press Telegram
http://www.presstelegram.com/Stories/0,1413,204~21474~1581915,00.html
"Joseph Del Rio's war was in Korea."
'Major Incident' Staged
By Davey Porter
Crestline Courier-News
http://www.mountain-news.com/articles/2003/08/21/news/news01.txt
"In the preceding weeks - while mountain residents seriously contemplate their ability to evacuate their families and remain safely out of harm's way in the event of a major forest fire - rumors have crisscrossed the mountain alleging the coroner is storing thousands of body bags in anticipation of mass casualties; that officials are callously planning to protect residents with upscale homes, while withholding resources from communities and neighborhoods with lower property values; and claiming that fire and emergency management officials are doing nothing to further disaster or evacuation planning - that, in essence, officials have given up, and are merely marking time until a fire occurs."
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/skepticsearch/
