SAN FRANCISCO, 7-30-09 – California state courts have been ordered to close one day each month as part of the state’s budget compromise. The courts, including the state’s Supreme Court, will close the third Wednesday of each month in order to save the court system $84 million.
SACRAMENTO, 7-30-09 – Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger has given the go-ahead on planning for a new Death Row at San Quentin State Prison. Legislators had attempted to block the construction because they feel that the state’s plan to double-cell up to two-thirds of the inmates will not withstand a federal court challenge.
ROME, 7-30-09 – A Rome-based human rights watch group announced that there were 5,727 executions worldwide in 2008. China remained the world’s top executioner, while executions in the U.S. were down.
BEIJING, China, 7-31-09 – China, with 13 million abortions, continues to be the world leader in that category. The official China Daily newspaper also reported that 10 million abortion pills are sold every year.
IRAQ, 8-02-09 – Three American vacationers hiking in the mountainous, poorly marked border area with Iran were arrested by Iranian authorities after wandering across the border. The two men and a woman were hiking near a popular waterfall.
WASHINGTON, 8-03-09 – A nearly two-decades-long search came to an end when the remains of Navy Capt. Michael Scott Speicher’s jet were found in the Iraqi desert. The pilot was shot down in the opening days of the Persian Gulf War.
MANILLA, Phillipines, 8-01-09 – Former President Corazon Aquino died of cancer at the age of 76. After the assassination of her husband, Aquino rose to power more than 20 years ago in a peaceful revolution that brought down the regime of Ferdinand Marcos.
NORTH KOREA, 8-05-09 – Former President Bill Clinton flew to North Korea and returned home with two Bay Area journalists who had been imprisoned since March 17 for entering North Korea. They had been tried and sentenced to 12 years of hard labor
WASHINGTON, 8-07-09 – Sonia Sotomayor was confirmed as the first Latina member of the U.S. Supreme Court. Sotomayor, who was confirmed by the Senate on a 68-31 vote.
ISLAMABAD, 8-05-09 – Reports claim that top Taliban commander Baitullah Mehsud has been killed in a U.S. missile strike. Mehsud is suspected in the assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto as well as numerous suicide bombings across Pakistan.
WASHINGTON, 8-14-09 – Critics have accused President Obama of losing control of the debate over national health care. In town hall meetings across the nation, Obama has struggled to squelch doubts about the program rather than promote its virtues.
LIMA, Peru, 8-16-09 – Peru has become the world’s largest counterfeiter of U.S. dollars, based on information from the U.S. Secret Service. The Peruvian imitations are nearly perfect, including the watermark. Police seize approximately $10 million each month in the capital city, Lima.
WOODSTOCK, NY, 8-16-09 – A 40-year anniversary concert was held at Woodstock, the site of the “concert that defined a generation.” A few of the original musicians were on hand to entertain a crowd estimated at 15,000.
GAINSVILLE, FL, 8-18-09 – For the first time in 63 years, the population in the state of Florida has declined. Economists blame the recession for the loss of 58,000 residents in the past year.
WASHINGTON, 8-19-09 – Robert Novak, the syndicated columnist and TV commentator who “outed” CIA operative Valerie Wilson in 2003, has died of brain cancer. Novak was 78.
WHITE PLAINS, NY, 8-14-09 – Les Paul, 94, who invented the solid-body electric guitar, has died to complications from pneumonia. Paul was also a performer who had 36 gold records to his credit.
RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil, – More than 10 million Brazilians have symptoms of sexually transmitted diseases, according to a recent survey. Of that figure, 6.6 million are men and 37 million are women. While 99 percent of women sought treatment from a physician, one in four men sought out pharmacies only.
LOS ANGELES, 8-25-09 – The winning bid of an E-Bay auction for the right to purchase a burial crypt above that of Marilyn Monroe was a Japanese man who offered $4,602,100, then later withdrew his bid. Thee was no immediate word on whether any of the other 11 bidders whose offers exceeded $4.5 million will step in to make the purchase.
MASSACHUSETTS, 8-26-09 – Ted Kennedy, 77, a son of one of the most storied families in American politics, died of a brain tumor. Fans say he will be remembered as one of the most effective lawmakers in the history of the Senate, where Kennedy served for 47 years.
NEW YORK, 8-26-09 – Author Dominick Dunne, 83, died at his home of bladder cancer. A columnist for Vanity Fair, Dunne rose to fame for his daily coverage of the O.J. Simpson murder trial in 1994.
JERUSALEM, 8-31-09 – Former Israeli prime minister Ehud Olmert was indicted in a corruption scandal that led to his resignation last year.
TOKYO, 8-31-09 – Japan’s ruling party was dumped in national elections. Japan is mired in the worst economic slump since World War ll, and is suffering record unemployment.
DUXBURY, VT, 9-02-09 – Vermont became the fourth state to allow same sex marriage, joining Connecticut, Massachusetts and Iowa. New Hampshire will become the fifth state on Jan. 1, 2010.
WASHINGTON, 9-06-09 – Van Jones, President Obama’s green jobs czar, announced his resignation in a middle-of-the-night E-mail. Jones, 40, a San Francisco Bay Area activist, had been under fire for derogatory comments about Republicans and because his name had appeared on a petition questioning the Bush administration’s advance knowledge of the Sept. 1, 2001 terrorist attacks.
KABUL, 9-05-09 – A U.S. air strike on two hijacked gasoline tanker trucks killed more than 70 civilians, according to Afghan police.
WASHINGTON, 9-06-09 – Unemployment rose to 9.7 percent in August, the highest rate since 1983. Economists expect it to top 10 percent.
WASHINGTON, 9-07-09 – The U.S. sold more than 2/3, or 68.4 percent, of all the weapons purchased worldwide in 2008. Weapons agreements signed by the U.S. were valued at $37.8 billion of a worldwide total of 55.2 billion in 2008. Italy was a distant second at $3.7 billion, while Russia was third with $3.5 billion.
