National

Forget traditional Greek life and sports clubs. A new movement has emerged among a few college campuses across the nation: students are choosing to forgo sex.

"That dumbass." Jeanne De Leon poured a customer a cup of hot coffee at Harriman Cafe and muttered a mild expletive about President Bush under her breath. She was responding to the president's anticipated veto Wednesday of a congressional Iraq funding bill that would require American troops to begin withdrawing from Iraq by Oct. 1.

Virginia Tech students are responding to the deadliest campus shooting in U.S. history via social networking web sites like Facebook, expressing anger and offering condolences to victims.

FBI sources told National Public Radio that more than 30 people have been killed and at least 21 were wounded Monday when a gunman opened fire on a Virginia Tech classroom and dormitory before he was killed. Police said the gunman shot himself.

President Bush admits to authorizing the National Security Agency to begin a secret program to spy on American citizens and foreign nationals. The NSA monitored the phone calls and emails of hundreds and possibly thousands of Americans and foreign nationals as part of a counterterrorism push. But it was done illegally and in contempt of the Constitution and the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act of 1978 (FISA).

According to a report released today by the Associated Press, the cost of mailing a letter via the United States Postal Service will increase to 39 cents on Jan. 8. This is a two cent increase from the current rate and marks the first pricing alteration since June 2002.

Amidst the drone of helicopters and the beating of drums on Saturday, what may have been the largest anti-war rally in recent history took place in Washington, D.C., attracting buses from all parts of the country and amassing what is estimated by some to be more than 100,000 people.  Stony Brook was represented by a busload of people organized by members of the local chapter of the Social Justice Alliance, and a van organized by the Graduate Student Employees Union.

This weekend, thousands of protesters are expected to converge on our nation’s capital to protest the unjust death of scores of youths in our little mistake in Iraq. I am proud to say that students from Stony Brook University will be represented in concert with the Social Justice Alliance. However, the large outcry we’ve come to expect from the youth of America is still very much missing.

Peter Jennings passed away yesterday, due to lung cancer. He was 67 years old. Today, most news programs touched upon his legacy in some way; some more than others. CNN's Anderson Cooper, Paula Zahn and Aaron Brown, all ABCNews alumni, spent considerable time interviewing current and former ABCNews correspondents. Cooper and MSNBC's Keith Olbermann used Peter's death to focus on the dangers of cigarette smoking. ABCNews, obviously, paid solemn tribute to Jennings on World News Tonight and Nightline.  Even Fox News got into the act, as Bill O'Reilly interviwed Barbara Walters (and couldn't stop making ridiculous comparisons between Jennings and himself). 

Public disapproval of the Administration's mishandling of the Iraq war and occupaiton is growing, according to recent polls.

Despite GOP opposition and media apathy, Congressman John Conyers chaired a public hearing on the Downing Street memo in a small room in the Capitol on June 16. The hearing examined whether there is cause to formally investigate and possibly impeach President Bush for misleading or even lying to Congress in his case for war.

Analysis and discussion of the infamous Downing Street memo, complete with the text of the original memo. The memo expresses doubt on whether there was an imminent threat posed by Iraq, and suggests that officials fabricated their prewar intelligence. British officials were concerned with legal aspects, although American officials were gung-ho for war.

The Senate is set to vote on the Real ID Act. Supporters say the bill makes it harder for immigrants to seek asylum in the US, but opponents argue that it is unconstitutional, invades people's privacy, and creates the risk of identity theft.

The House of Representatives has passed a bill that critics claim amounts to creating a de facto national ID card. The Real ID Act (HR 418), passed on Thursday, February 10, requires that states comply with federal standards for driver’s licenses. Licenses would henceforth contain what the bill calls “a common machine-readable technology,” which could mean a magnetic strip and/or an RFID chip. RFIDs (Radio Frequency Identification tags) transmit information about a person’s movements to a central computer.