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| WOMEN TODAY |
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Norah Jones, a young, jazz-trained Texan who found her songwriting voice in the small clubs in this city, dominated the 45th annual Grammy Awards on Sunday night by capturing the marquee categories of year's best album, record and new artist.
The diminutive Jones, wide-eyed and beaming, seemed as surprised as anyone that her debut album had so thoroughly swept an event that many thought would belong to Bruce Springsteen.
 ABC News
Supreme Court Denies Abortion Law Appeal 2-24-03
The Supreme Court turned down an appeal over a requirement that women get in-person counseling before they can have an abortion, a case that could have reopened the emotional question of when restrictions on abortion become unconstitutional.
The court did not comment in rejecting Monday's appeal from women's health clinics and an abortion doctor in Indiana, who argued that the face-to-face meeting is too onerous. A lower court judge had found that the requirement would deny abortions to an estimated 10 to 12 percent of women who wanted them.
This is not to say that black women have climbed the storied crystal stair. They remain “in the proving stage,” observes Alabama Power executive Alice Gordon. Nearly 14 percent of working black women remain below the poverty level. And women don’t yet out-earn black men. But the growing educational-achievement gap portends a monumental shifting of the sands. College-educated black women already earn more than the median for all black working men—or, for that matter, for all women.
And as women in general move up the corporate pyramid, black women, increasingly, are part of the parade.. .
NYTimes
Lifetime TV Takes Magazine form 2-24-03
The magazine version of Lifetime, which debuts in April, appears at a time when a recession-pounded industry has pulled back and the traditional women's magazines and newer entrants to the field like Real Simple and Lucky are competing for increasingly finite ad dollars. While some TV personalities like Ms. Winfrey or networks like ESPN have successfully created flanker brands, other efforts, like Biography, a magazine developed from an A& E program, have had mixed success. . .
Kansas City Star
Women at Work 2-25-03
The conventional wisdom has been that juggling personal and professional responsibilities creates a lot of stress, and it can.
But that's not the whole picture, according Marian Ruderman, a research scientist at the Center for Creative Leadership, a nonprofit educational institution in Greensboro, N.C., devoted to leadership research and training.
Contrary to the widely held belief that multiple roles deplete a woman's effectiveness, Ruderman and her colleagues found that the skills women developed outside the office often "beneficially impact her ability to perform on the job."
Washington Times
Court, states consider same-sex unions 2-24-03
Legally recognized same-sex unions and "expanded" domestic partnerships are up for debate in Connecticut and California legislatures, and a lawsuit with national implications for recognizing same-sex unions has a hearing next week.
At noon today, hundreds of people are expected to jam a hearing room of the Connecticut General Assembly Judiciary Committee to testify about three bills associated with marriage.
Love and marriage, in that order. The ethos so dominates mainstream Western culture, from Billboard charts to Hallmark racks, that other matrimonial approaches barely register. But in much of the Muslim world, in many Asian societies, among Hasidic Jews, and certainly in India -- which has sent roughly three-quarters of a million immigrants to the United States since 1980 -- it's still common for people to pair up the other way around: marriage first, set up by one's elders and wisers, and then, with time, love.. .
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WOMEN
INTERNATIONAL |
Guardian UK
Sex and slavery 2-23-03
Police estimate that 10,000 illegal immigrants are working as prostitutes in Britain today. Many are from Eastern Europe, brought here by ruthless Balkan pimps who sell them into a life of enforced vice for as little as £150. John Gibb travels from the mountains of Moldova to the saunas of King's Cross and Chingford on the trail of the human traffickers.
From 700,000 to 4 million women and children are trafficked annually into places such as Jamaica, Saudi Arabia, France and the United States for prostitution and labor, according to the United Nations. This year, there are fresh efforts being put into the fight against this $7 billion business.
The U.S. State Department, in conjunction with the War Against Trafficking Alliance, will sponsor a conference starting today and ending Wednesday, and devoted to discussions of strategies for fighting sex trafficking and victim rehabilitation. Representatives from 113 nations, including border guards to judges to vice presidents, are expected to participate.
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| THINKING
OUT LOUD |
Guardian UK
Sex, secrets and lies 2-23-03
A campaign of slurs against the first woman to head London's Stock Exchange came to a head last week. Allison Pearson, who interviewed scores of City women as research for a bestselling novel, here reveals the true scale of chauvinism inside the Square Mile
The case of Clara Furse may be a lot harder to clean up. In 2001 Furse was named chief executive of the London Stock Exchange, the first woman to take the helm in the institution's 242-year history. It was a landmark appointment. Furse, 45, is the person they point to when equal opportunities busybodies complain that City guys are like the middle drawing in the Ascent of Man: the mono-browed one with the knuckles scraping along the ground.
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| WOMEN'S HEALTH |
BBC News
Gene therapy breakthrough 2-24-03
The modification of genes offers the potential to treat or cure many diseases.
But the use of viruses to deliver the modified genes to the target tissue is not always safe, and other methods do not seem to work well.
The latest technique, developed by scientists at Imperial College London and the Medical Research Council in the UK, appears to be effective - and does not require the use of viruses.
Guardian UK
Chemical threats to boys' sex health investigated 2-24-03
The government is already funding research on trends in male reproductive health and the possible causes of the reported falls in sperm count and quality, and the increased incidence of malformed genitals and testicular cancer.
But advisers to the Department of Health and the food standards agency want wider-ranging checks made to discover whether the well-documented findings of changes in the sexual characteristics of animals and fish caused by exposure to chemicals can properly be considered significant for humans.
NYTimes
Large Trial Finds AIDS Vaccine Fails to Stop Infection 2-24-03
The first AIDS vaccine ever to be tested in a large number of people has failed, over all, to protect them from infection with the virus that causes the disease, the company that makes it, VaxGen, said today.
Even VaxGen said it was hoping its vaccine would prevent 30 percent of infections, which is far lower than for most vaccines, but could have been enough for approval. But even that level was not attained.
Many scientists now say a more effective vaccine approach would be to spur a second arm of the immune system, the so-called killer T cells, to destroy cells infected by the AIDS virus.
LATimes
Steeped in science 2-24-03
Recent research has focused on biomarkers, measurements of specific substances or chemicals in the body, that can reveal what is happening -- such as whether tea consumption lowers cholesterol or kills harmful bacteria in the stomach. (Studies show tea does both.)
But even without the research, scientists have a good idea of why tea appears to confer a broad range of health benefits. Tea -- whether it's black or green or oolong -- contains compounds called polyphenols, or flavonoids, powerful antioxidants that can eliminate free radicals that damage cells. Free radicals are produced naturally in the body as byproducts of chemical processes.
NYTimes
Repress Yourself 2-23-03
The new research is rooted in part in the experience of Sept. 11, when swarms of therapists descended on New York City after the twin towers fell. There were, by some estimates, three shrinks for every victim, which is itself an image you might want to repress, the bearded, the beatnik, the softly empathic all gathered round the survivors urging talk talk talk. ''And what happened,'' says Richard Gist, a community psychologist and trauma researcher who, along with a growing number of colleagues, has become highly critical of these debriefing procedures, ''is some people got worse. They were either unhelped or retraumatized by our interventions.''. .
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DESIGN STUDIO |
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NYTimes
Color Therapy 2-23-03
You can never have too much color in your life or in your closet. (And really, aren't they the same?) Black-and-white is great if you want to look elegant, glamorous and chic. But if you want to look hot, you need color. Imagine a couple waltzing in black-and-white. Easy. Imagine them doing the samba. Migraine.
LATimes
Special Spring Fashion Issue 2-23-03
Spring's clothes go global, taking inspiration from California, France, Asia and Greece. These far-flung influences converge through the camera lens of photographer Robert Trachtenberg.
Fashion involves a certain amount of escapism. The clothes on the runway don't usually find a place in our daily lives, but they're fun to admire—from a distance. This spring the escapism is more a state of place than a state of mind.
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STYLE.COM
Vogue and W online
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| CREATORS
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Style.com
Editors Top Picks: NY Collections 2-24-03
Designers used the Fall collections to deliver a simple, direct message: sportswear, over easy. What looked strongest were clean, short skirts ending somewhere above the knee; bright Pop colors; lightly rendered luxe touches; and formfitting, figure-flattering dresses.
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AMERICAN
PERSPECTIVES |
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The messages from U.S. embassies around the globe have become urgent and disturbing. Many people in the world increasingly think President Bush is a greater threat to world peace than Iraqi President Saddam Hussein.
"It is
rather astonishing," said a senior U.S. official who has access to the reports. "There is an absence of any recognition that Hussein is the problem." One ambassador, who represents the United States in an allied nation, bluntly cabled that in that country, Bush has become the enemy.
Christian Science Monitor
US death penalty creates international snarl 2-24-03
Earlier this month, the International Court of Justice ordered a stay of execution for three Mexican nationals who claim they weren't given access to their consulates when arrested in the US. It's the third time in five years that a foreigner has accused the US of such a violation.
Texas, which is holding two of the Mexicans, says it is not bound by the World Court and will go ahead with the executions. Oklahoma, holding the third, is still considering its position.
In the last several weeks, as preparations for the war against Iraq have heated up, it has begun to sink in that this will be a different conflict from what we have seen before -- that there may, in fact, be two fronts, one far away on the ground in the Middle East, the other right here at home. For the first time in history, it seems plausible that an enemy might mount a sustained attack on the United States, using weapons of terrorism. The term ''soft targets,'' which refers to everyday places like offices, shopping malls, restaurants and hotels, is now casually dropped into conversation, the way military planners talk about ''collateral damage.''
Seattle Times
Alternative/Urban 2-23-03
LIVE LIGHT. Live close. Live high.
Is downtown condominium living the new environmental ideal? Is the proper abode of the Northwest planet protector not a cabin on five acres, cutting the landscape to ribbons, but 1,000 square feet on the 25th floor — with the VW microbus gathering dust in the underground garage, a P-Patch around the corner, and a street tree to hug by the bicycle rack outside?
Alan Durning, director of Northwest Environment Watch, thinks it is. He wrote an op-ed piece for The New York Times calling compact Manhattan an "Ecotopia on the Hudson" for fighting sprawl. He pointed out that we Northwesterners, per person, drive more, eat more land and consume more energy.
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PBS
FRONTLINE
serious tv journalism
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NYTimes
Bush Proposes Major Changes in Health Plans 2-24-03
President Bush has begun one of the most ambitious efforts to reinvent Medicare and Medicaid since the programs were created 38 years ago. Combined with his earlier plan for Social Security, the proposals offer a fundamentally different vision of social welfare policy, many experts say.
Mr. Bush's proposals for Medicare and Medicaid, taking shape in recent weeks, would transform these pillars of the Great Society and their guarantee of health benefits to the elderly, disabled and poor.
Washington Times
'Soft skills' give Hispanics edge in job maket 2-24-03
"This 'they are taking our jobs' is oversimplifying it, yet they say it," Mr. Johnson says of the reaction among blacks. "It's more complex. Employers want cheap labor, they want people who can work long hours. They want those soft skills. Labor recruitment is very informal, and that's a big way these jobs are handed out."
In Memphis, Tenn., some personnel agencies almost exclusively select Hispanics over black or white workers. A Panamanian clerk at Paramount Staffing, a temporary employment service, says "blacks and many whites fail their drug tests."
Washington Post
DemocratsChallenge Bush's Credibility 2-24-03
After months of searching for a unified political attack against President Bush, congressional Democrats have settled on a new and, some say, controversial strategy: questioning the president's truthfulness.
On an almost daily basis now, congressional Democrats are warning of a "credibility gap" between what Bush says to the American people and what he does through new government policies.
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