Doubts Emerge In Case Against Ex-IMF Chief

Lawyers from the office of Manhattan District Attorney Cyrus Vance and Dominique Strauss-Kahn, the former head of the International Monetary Fund, are due in court Friday at 11:30 a.m. for what’s being described as a proceeding that could ease the bail conditions for Strauss-Kahn, accused in a high-profile rape case. Investigators charged Strauss-Kahn with assaulting [...]

Business, Free Speech Winners In High Court Term

The U.S. Supreme Court term that ended Monday significantly altered the nation’s legal topography, making it much more difficult for people to sue big business. At the same time, the court continued its First Amendment march, making clear that at least five justices, and often more, prize the First Amendment guarantee of free speech over [...]

There’s Nothing Funny About Colbert’s SuperPAC

Show-biz celebrities just gravitate toward someplace in Washington: Capitol Hill, the White House, certain restaurants. But on Thursday, Comedy Central star Stephen Colbert showed up at the Federal Election Commission, which was weighing his bid to launch a political action committee. TV camera crews turned out, Colbert tweeted, and a crowd gathered. And along the [...]

‘Terri’: A Troubled Teen, Moping In Comfort

The eponymous teenager in Terri — a tender, heartfelt character study from director Azazel Jacob — shuffles glumly to high school every morning, carrying his immense frame across the dried-out creek bed between his dilapidated house and the soccer field. He’s persistently late for homeroom, owing to the shuffling, which can only partially be blamed [...]

‘Perfect Host’: A Party Planner Who Loves Surprises

Unpredictability is normally a virtue in the movies, especially for filmmakers who want to create the anything-can-happen dread and consequent shocks of the thriller. Adapting his own award-winning 2001 short film into his first feature, writer-director Nick Tomnay takes a more-is-more approach to the surprises of The Perfect Host. Around every corner is a new [...]

Chipper ‘Crowne’ Tries To Upturn Economy’s Frown

In the lumbering new dramedy Larry Crowne, Tom Hanks directs and plays a Gump-ishly good-hearted salesman whose fondest dream is to rack up yet another Employee of the Month at the Walmart-like megastore where he has worked ever since retiring from the Navy. Instead, Larry finds himself abruptly terminated on the trumped-up excuse that he [...]

Oklahoma Expected to Struggle to Meet New Ozone Standards

Oklahoma has seen more high ozone days this year than in the previous two years.

Foreign Policy: Future Of Post-Tsunami Japan

On March 11, 2011, Japan’s northern coast was shaken by the biggest earthquake ever to strike the island in recorded history. With a gigantic tsunami and the nuclear meltdown that followed, 3/11 was the worst disaster to hit the developed world for a hundred years. Confronted with tough questions about its dependence on nuclear power, [...]

Snow Delay At The Airport? Blame Planes And Clouds

The next time you’re delayed by rain or snow at an airport, consider this: It’s possible that an airplane actually caused the bad weather. When aircraft fly though certain clouds, they can trigger a chain of events that causes precipitation for miles around, according to a study in the journal Science. The idea for the [...]

Aluminum Panels Set To Take On Pollution As ‘Smog Eaters’

In the witch’s brew of gases and particles that make up smog in most cities, nitrogen oxides are a plentiful ingredient. The pollutants also help create ground-level ozone, a nasty irritant for lungs, and bothersome fine particles. The family of chemicals, called NOx in shorthand, can inflame people’s airways and trigger asthma attacks, according to [...]