Utah Gets Tough With Texting Drivers

He pleaded guilty to two counts of negligent homicide, but his record will be cleared if he fulfills the sentence imposed by the judge. It included 30 days in jail, 200 hours of community service, and a requirement that he read "Les Misérables" to learn, like the book's character Jean Valjean, how to make a contribution to society.

“It was like being in a prison inside a jail inside another jail. Everybody will try to catch you. You have no friend.”

"It was like being in a prison inside a jail inside another jail.
Everybody will try to catch you. You have no friend."

-- Marc Aubriere, a French security adviser who was held hostage in
Somalia for more than a month but escaped after his captors somehow
overlooked an unlocked bolt. Aubriere and a colleague — who is still
in captivity, being held by a separate radical Islamist group — had
come to Somalia on behalf of the French government to help train the
security forces of Somalia's fledgling government. But the two were
snatched from a Mogadishu hotel on July 14 by rogue security forces
who had defected to the insurgency. For many people in Somalia, his
yarn was too much to believe, with doubters contending that Aubriere
made up the story after being released for cash. The most unlikely
part of his midnight escape, they argued, was the five-hour odyssey
through the bullet-riddled maze of central Mogadishu, where hundreds
of thousands of people live in the ruins of a city that has been
relentlessly strafed and bombed throughout 18 years of civil war.
Mogadishu is one of the world's most dangerous cities and has a
history of kidnappings of foreigners, mainly aid workers and
journalists. Amanda Lindhout, a young Canadian journalist, has now
been held hostage in Somalia for a full year, but hostages have
normally been released for substantial ransom payments after days or
weeks in captivity. Somali kidnappers on Aug. 12 released six foreign
hostages, four European aid workers and their two Kenyan pilots, after
eight months of captivity. Action Against Hunger is one of a few aid
groups that have continued working in the country. "As most of the
NGOs working in Somalia, most of these programs are running in rebel
controlled territory, so there are no expatriates currently in
Somalia," said spokesperson Sylvain Trottier. "They just make some
quick visits from time to time."

Peter L. Baldwin
www.peterbaldwin.info

NYTimes: Truck-Stop Girls

From The New York Times:

LIVES: Truck-Stop Girls

Dark realities off the highway in Swaziland.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/23/magazine/23lives-t.html

Get The New York Times on your iPhone for free by visiting http://itunes.com/apps/nytimes

Peter L. Baldwin
www.peterbaldwin.info

NYTimes: Why We Need Health Care Reform

From The New York Times:

OP-ED CONTRIBUTOR: Why We Need Health Care Reform

In the end, health care reform isn't about politics and fear. It's
about changing a system that often works better for the health-
insurance companies than it does for millions of Americans.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/16/opinion/16obama.html

Get The New York Times on your iPhone for free by visiting http://itunes.com/apps/nytimes

Peter L. Baldwin
www.peterbaldwin.info

NYTimes: Staving Off a Spiral Toward Oblivion

From The New York Times:

PROTOTYPE: Staving Off a Spiral Toward Oblivion

Consumer acceptance of new technologies takes time — and that can be
valuable in helping old-technology companies survive.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/09/business/09proto.html

Get The New York Times on your iPhone for free by visiting http://itunes.com/apps/nytimes

Peter L. Baldwin
www.peterbaldwin.info

NYTimes: Climate Change Seen as Threat to U.S. Security

From The New York Times:

Climate Change Seen as Threat to U.S. Security

A growing number of policy makers say that the world's rising
temperatures, surging seas and melting glaciers are a direct threat to
the national interest.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/08/09/science/earth/09climate.html

Get The New York Times on your iPhone for free by visiting http://itunes.com/apps/nytimes

Peter L. Baldwin
www.peterbaldwin.info