Weekend Supervising News Editors Samira Jafari and Monte Plott - 404-827-1401
SATURDAY
Florida-Teen-Shooting
The NAACP holds a march and rally over the killing of Trayvon Martin, an unarmed 17-year-old who was shot to death by a neighborhood watch volunteer. Authorities say George Zimmerman has not been charged because there are no grounds to disprove his account that he acted in self defense. Critics say Zimmerman, who is Hispanic, racially profiled Martin, who was black. Saturday’s march is scheduled to begin at 8 a.m. ET, the rally at 11 a.m. ET.
Myanmar-Elections
FIf Sunday’s by-election in Myanmar is deemed to be free and fair, it will cap off a startling about-turn by the former military men currently running the country. For the first time ever, credible alternatives to the ruling party will appear on the ballot, including pro-democracy campaigner Aung San Suu Kyi, who was serving the final days of her house arrest during the general election in November 2010, which was widely derided as a sham. Polls open 7:30 p.m. ET Saturday and close 5:30 a.m. ET Sunday.
Syria-Unrest
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton will travel to Istanbul, Turkey, on Saturday to attend a second session of the Friends of Syria, a global conference on the Syrian crisis. It will be the group’s second meeting.
POL-Republicans-Faith
The Wisconsin Faith and Freedom Coalition will host Republican presidential hopefuls Mitt Romney, Newt Gingrich and Rick Santorum.
POL-Flotus-Nickelodeon-Awards
First lady Michelle Obama on Saturday will present an award to singer Taylor Swift for her work with tornado and flood survivors, the White House said.
FEA-Plus-Size-Confidence
Smart, gorgeous women have created a niche genre and they’re rocking their bodies all over the internet.
FEA-Belief-Jesus-Health-Care
What would Jesus say about the health care debate?
US-Scary-Guy
He calls himself The Scary Guy, and his price tag can run as much as $6,500 a day. Schools around the world book him to put a stop to bullying, but not everyone believes he offers a real solution to the problem.
SUNDAY
Myanmar-Elections
Opposition leader Aung San Suu Kyi is expected to visit several voting stations to check on the fairness of voting procedures as Myanmar votes in Sunday’s by-elections.
Syria-Unrest
U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton the second session of the Friends of Syria conference as the Syrian opposition pursues a transition to democracy.
POL-Campaign-Wrap
The latest from 2012 campaign trail.
ENT-Country-Music-Awards
Coverage of the 47th annual Academy of Country Music Awards, broadcast from Las Vegas at 8 p.m. ET Sunday on CBS.
FEA-Elmore-Leonard-Dinner
Elmore Leonard is the master of quirky characters, snappy dialogue and a style so simple it puts a bullet through your heart. Spending time with him and his son, Peter, is like curling up with their books: One good story after another.
PREVIOUSLY PUBLISHED ENTERPRISE
DOMESTIC
Florida-Teen-Shooting-Sanford-Divided (with art)
Nearly everyone in Sanford agrees on one thing: The death of 17-year-old Trayvon Martin is a tragedy. But his death has taken on a whole new meaning here, where media outlets from around the world have descended, to figure out just what happened more than a month ago when neighborhood watch volunteer George Zimmerman shot and killed Martin.
US-Trayvon-Martin-Profile
“I am Trayvon Martin” has become the catchphrase for protesters expressing solidarity with the slain Florida teenager and outrage over his killing. Even President Barack Obama declared, “If I had a son, he would look like Trayvon.” But who really was Trayvon Martin? There is plenty of speculation, including some bloggers who point to his recent school suspensions – including for drug residue in his backpack – and images of him sporting tattoos and a what appeared to be a gold tooth grill as possible evidence of a troubled teen. That portrayal is in stark contrast to the accounts from his family, friends, and teachers who described Martin as an average 17-year-old.
US-Distracted-Driving-Dangers
At a gathering of his safety-minded peers, John Lee had a confession to make. Last month, while driving to Madison, Wisconsin, Lee glanced down to review a playlist on his car’s MP3 player. He scrolled through the titles, looking for Bruce Springsteen songs, “wanting to avoid the Adele songs that my wife had put there.” Then Lee looked up… and continued driving. There was no crash. No one died. Unremarkable? Lee doesn’t think so.
FEA-Vagina-Politics (with art)
If anyone is comfortable speaking openly and boldly about women’s bodies, it’s Eve Ensler. The playwright and activist behind “The Vagina Monologues” has been at it for years. So when she watches American politics of late – especially the conversations swirling around women’s reproductive rights – she feels both amused and vindicated. “The vagina has become so real, so present, so powerful that people are going after it directly,” she said. “It’s evidence that we’re winning.” America is abuzz about women’s issues.
California-Alleged-Coach-Abuse
Anne Malver, then 11, thought she was heading to the trophy store with her gymnastics coach. Instead they ended up in his apartment – and, she said, she ended up naked as he “forced himself inside of me.” She screamed out – in pain, and for him to stop. “He wouldn’t,” she recalled. “And I’ll never forget the words he whispered in my ear at that time: ‘This is what you want. This is what all the girls want.’” Mulver is not alone, as several of Doug Boger’s ex-elite young gymnasts – speaking to CNN decades later, now as a group of adults – detailed similar, graphic allegations of sexual and physical abuse.
INTERNATIONAL
Syria-Novelist
Some Syrian writers used to like Bashar al-Assad. Choosing their words carefully, they might say they tolerated him. Those who churned out hugely popular soaps and television shows thought Syria’s president, in his mid-30s when he took power in 2000, wanted to be known as a modern leader who defended free expression. Some said al-Assad even looked the other way when a sketch comedy show aired for several seasons that made fun of corruption in Syria. At worst, many reasoned, the young president wouldn’t be anymore hard-line than his father, Hafez Assad, who had long kept a purple-knuckle grip on all media in Syria. In hindsight it seems Bashar al-Assad was the greatest actor of them all, suggested Khaled Khalifa during a recent phone interview from his Damascus apartment. It was dusk when he picked up the phone. The screenwriter and novelist, one of the most famous writers in Syria, usually spends this time of day writing. But lately he said he’s had trouble concentrating. Now he finds himself looking out to the street, watching people gather for demonstrations. Their loud demands fill the night.
SPORT-Luc-Richard-Mbah-a-Moute-NBA
Having to guard NBA stars like LeBron James and Paul Pierce can be the most daunting task for many basketball players. But for Milwaukee Bucks forward Luc Richard Mbah a Moute – who is actually a prince in his native, Cameroon – turning up against such basketball royalty is an enthralling experience.
Mandela-Online-Archive
Documents chronicling the life of South Africa’s first black president Nelson Mandela are now freely available to his fans around the world, thanks to a new online digital archive.
FlorCruz-China-Soft-Power
China conjures various images. It could be food – Peking Duck, steamed dumplings and the like. Or kung fu – Bruce Lee and his dazzling martial-arts skills or more recently Ang Lee’s “Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon.” Or the giant pandas – those cuddly creatures as photographed in the nature reserves or as portrayed in the Hollywood blockbuster, “Kung Fu Panda.” Or Yao Ming – the other cuddly giant who, until he retired last year, won games and friends in the NBA. Stereotypical or not, these are some of China’s “soft power” resources. In recent months, China has been on a “soft power” offensive to improve its national image and increase its global influence.
Bruegel-Painting-Film (with art)
Depicting, among other things, Christ’s procession to the cross, Spanish soldiers presiding over an execution in sixteenth-century Flanders and a mysterious mill perched atop a hollow cliff, Pieter Bruegel the Elder’s 1564 painting “The Way to Calvary” is a complex, multi-layered work laden with symbolism and drama. Looking at it, according to Polish director Lech Majewski, is rather like watching a movie unfold – which is why he has brought the painting to life in his new feature film “The Mill and the Cross.”
POLITICS
POL-GOP-Unpledged-Delegates
By all measures, Mitt Romney won convincingly in Puerto Rico earlier this month. He captured 83% of the popular vote and all 20 of the island’s pledged delegates. But that’s not all Romney took back to the mainland. The day after the primary, the Romney campaign announced that Carlos Méndez, chairman of the Puerto Rico Republican Party, had jumped ship, leaving Newt Gingrich’s campaign to endorse the former Massachusetts governor. The switch was a coup for Romney because many state or territory chairs – those coveted “unpledged” delegates – are holding back their support in the GOP nomination process, which is far more than symbolic.
POL-Tea-Party-Election
After six terms in the Senate, Indiana’s Richard Lugar finds himself the latest target of the tea party movement’s desire both to have more influence over the policy agenda in Congress and to make the Republican Party more conservative. “He’s an old RINO Republican,” Jim Bratten, an Indiana coordinator for Tea Party Patriots, said of Lugar, meaning he’s a Republican in name only. “He’s been there [in Washington] for over 36 years, but gradually he’s gotten closer and closer to the left, and he seems to want to compromise on things that are principle that you really can’t compromise on.” The tea party movement’s effort to oust Lugar in Indiana is part of a larger trend of conservatives dividing their attention between the White House race and other campaigns in a year when the race for the Republican presidential nomination has failed to captivate conservatives.
FINANCIAL
MONEY-Extreme-Retreats (with art)
While the business world can be a hostile place, it doesn’t often throw up situations where you’ll literally find yourself with an arrow to your throat. That’s unless you’re on one of a range of increasingly extreme corporate retreats and away-days, designed to build team spirit or put decision-making skills into practice by relocating participants away from the routine of the office and into demanding situations.
MONEY-Health-Reform
You’ve heard it a thousand times: Health reform will stifle small business and kill jobs. But some business owners are telling another story – it just might make health insurance more affordable.
MONEY-Doomsday-Dating (with art)
For people who spend every day preparing for disaster – whether it’s a 2012 apocalypse, a nuclear meltdown, an economic collapse, a hurricane or a tsunami – it can be hard to find a compatible partner. Canning venison, shooting firearms, living off the grid and creating manure from human waste just aren’t traditional interests many people look for when browsing mainstream dating sites like eHarmony or Match.com.
MONEY-Tween-Girl (with art)
When Sarah McIlroy’s oldest daughter turned five, she asked if she could design her own clothes. McIlroy liked the idea, but there was one problem: She lacked the time to help her and the skill to stitch the clothes up. So she found a way for moms and daughters everywhere to get their designs made into real clothing.
MONEY-Subcompact-Cars-Fuel-Efficient (with art)
When most people look at really tiny cars they figure they must get really good fuel economy. And when compared to trucks or family sedans, they do. But subcompact and mini-cars – the likes of the Fiat 500 and Chevrolet Sonic – usually don’t get much, if any, better fuel economy than roomier compact cars.
MEDICAL
MED-Health-Care-Insurance-Lifetime-Caps (with art)
When health care reform passed Congress more than two years ago, Julie Walters yelled for her husband to come into the living room where she was watching the vote live on television. “I was so happy,” Walters remembers. “I yelled for Matt. I said, ‘Do you know what this means? Do you know what this means?’” The historic vote meant their 18-month-old daughter, Violet McManus, would be able to keep her health insurance. Without health care reform, she would have gotten kicked off her parents’ insurance, perhaps as early as her 5th birthday, because her care is so expensive. “I was like, Violet’s covered now!” Walters remembers. “We’re okay. We can breathe.” But now Violet’s parents are worried they won’t be able to breathe easily again.
MED-Enayati-Uncertainty
Creativity has taken center stage in recent years, with a slew of books, articles and TED talks extolling the virtues of imagination and exhorting young and old to go out and exercise their creative muscle. In a 2010 IBM poll of CEOs worldwide, creativity was identified as the single most important leadership trait for success, enabling businesses to rise above an increasingly complex environment.
MED-Book-Questions-Sex-Addiction (with art)
Is sex addiction for real? Or is it “nothing more than a pop-psychology phenomenon, serving only to demonize sex, enforce moral views of sex and relationships and excuse irresponsible behaviors?” Those are the fighting words of psychologist David Ley, who, in his rousing new book, “The Myth of Sex Addiction,” expresses concern over the slippery ease with which America’s mainstream media and burgeoning “addictionology industry” have seemingly conspired to transform a debatable diagnosis into a foregone conclusion.
TECH
TECH-Retailers-Facebook-Questions (with art)
If you’ve got a question about buying a camera, shooting out a quick note to the retailer on Facebook might help. But if you’re in the market for a silky camisole? Maybe not. That’s according to a survey of 20 top online retailers on Facebook that suggests their level of responsiveness to customers is uneven, at best.
TECH-Facebook-Enemies (with art)
To the dismay of some, Facebook has no “Dislike” button. But a new application for the social network may prove to be the next-best thing. The app, EnemyGraph, encourages Facebook users to list people or places or things they dislike, then share them with like-minded haters as a way of bonding. (“You think Crocs are hideous? I think Crocs are hideous! Let’s be buds!”)
TECH-Vibrating-Wheel (with art)
Trying to find an address in an unfamiliar neighborhood can be a challenge even with a GPS device. Peering at the small screen on your dashboard distracts your eyes from the road ahead. The spoken navigation commands can be confusing – did she mean turn here, or at the next street? And pulling up your location on your phone while behind the wheel is dangerous. Researchers at AT&T Labs and Carnegie Mellon University may have a solution: a steering wheel that uses haptic technology – the same thing that makes your phone vibrate – to alert drivers when it’s time to make a turn.
MONEY-Ultrabooks (with art)
The personal computer industry is talking about ultrabooks the way New York Jets fans are talking about Tim Tebow: like a potential savior. So where are the ultrabooks?
MONEY-Founders-Card (with art)
If you’re running a tech startup, chances are you’ve heard of FoundersCard. It’s essentially the “black card” for entrepreneurs, offering up perks, networking opportunities and something even more coveted: an aura of exclusivity.
TRAVEL
TRAVEL-Hunger-Games-Travel (with art)
The young stars of “The Hunger Games” may remember the blockbuster movie as the one that propelled their careers to the next level. But the biggest breakout star of the “The Hunger Games” may well turn out to be the state of North Carolina.
TRAVEL-Stewardess-Uniforms-Airline-Muskiet
Airline uniforms may not be the fashionista’s definition of sartorial elegance but the flight attendant’s garb represents the epitome of jet-set style and glamour for one aviation enthusiast. Cliff Muskiet has been collecting stewardess ensembles since the early 1980s and has accumulated over 1,000 outfits and accessories, which he proudly displays on his website uniformfreak.com.
TRAVEL-Miami-Travel-iReport (with art)
Everyone knows the beach is the thing in Miami, and specifically South Beach, where all the beautiful people go to see and be seen. But what if you’re traveling with children or grandparents or people who don’t want to be covered in suntan lotion and little else all day? We asked for your recommendations beyond the beach, where you go when you’re not lying on a towel. “There are so many Miamis to visit when you are here,” one iReporter said. Here are a few of our iReporters’ favorites.
TRAVEL-Airline-Crew-Mental-Health (with art)
The midflight breakdown of a JetBlue pilot has sparked concerns about psychological screening for flight crews.
TRAVEL-Baseball-Spring-Training-Trip
Growing up in New York City, there are a few things I never imagined myself doing, like driving a car, living in a house or attending big high school games like the ones I’d seen on TV. Yet in the years since leaving the isolated enclave of Manhattan, I’ve taken pleasure in expanding my horizon and checking off all-American rites of passage, most recently, the baseball spring training road trip.
LIVING
FEA-Slavery-Religion
Which revered religious figure – Moses, Jesus, or the Prophet Muhammad – spoke out boldly and unambiguously against slavery? Answer: None of them.
FEA-Karl-Marlantes-War-Books
Karl Marlantes stared at the young man through the sights of an M-16 rifle and slid his muddy finger over the curve of the trigger. Turning toward him, the man locked eyes with Marlantes and froze. “Don’t throw it. Don’t throw it,” Marlantes whispered, hoping the man would surrender. Moments earlier, the North Vietnamese soldier had been hurling grenades at a group of U.S. Marines. He was cornered near the top of a hill. Blood streamed down his face from a head wound; the crumpled body of a friend lay at his feet. Marlantes is 67 now, with thick salt-and-pepper hair, a scruffy goatee and a calm, measured way of talking, but the fatigue can be seen in the lines under his eyes. He’s been sorting through his war memories for over 40 years.
FEA-History-Hoodie-Trayvon-Martin (with art)
Whether you’re a high schooler or Ted Kaczynski, a soccer mom or a Rocky Balboa fan, you’ve likely embraced the hooded sweatshirt at some point in life. For all its comfort and simplicity, the hoodie leads a dual life. Utilitarian and homogenous in form, hooded garments have been wardrobe staples of monks and hip-hop stars, Silicon Valley programmers and tycoons alike. Yet it still carries a social stigma that has made it the object of legislative bans and political speeches. Now, amid widespread outcry over the death of Florida teen Trayvon Martin, the hoodie has become a symbol of social injustice.
FEA-Citizen-Scientists (with art)
In 2009, Jill Tarter wanted to trigger the most meaningful search for extraterrestrial intelligence to date by pulling everyone together to look at the sky. The SETI Institute scientist brought her wish to the 2009 TED Conference. The idea of citizen science gave her hope. The more eyes and ears she could put on the sky and the signals being received by the Allen Telescope Array - a collection of small satellite dishes together that can simultaneously pick up signals for radio astronomy research - the better chance we have at making new discoveries. Tarter wanted people to analyze the signals the array sends back in real time – something machines can’t do.
FEA-Sacred-Thread-Foreign-Surrogacy (with art)
Adrienne Arieff went through three miscarriages before she learned she was unable to carry a child. Her search for a solution brought her to India, where she found a woman willing to carry her and her husband’s embryo in a controversial practice known as foreign gestational surrogacy. After considerable soul-searching, Arieff traveled in 2008 to Anand, a city in western India that has earned a reputation in recent years as the capital of India’s so-called “rent-a-womb” industry. The 36-year-old marketing specialist from San Francisco met Vaina, the 26-year-old married mother who would be her surrogate, and began fertility treatment at the Akanksha Infertility Clinic. Weeks later, Arieff’s husband arrived in India for the final stage of IVF, setting the stage for the emotional journey at the heart of her new book, “The Sacred Thread: A True Story of Becoming a Mother and Finding a Family—Half a World Away.”