AA1

Sunday, July 6, 2008

NEWS

INSIDE
Nation, AA2: John McCains campaign analyzed. World, AA3: Zimbabwes turning point was a meeting. Movie Times, AA4

In pursuit of

Iraq
There is a sense of helplessness everywhere you look. Its like youre stuck in one spot, and you cant do anything about it.

HAPPINESS
Associated Press In this May 26, 2008, file photo, a tattered American flag sits atop a mound of debris at a destroyed convenience store in Parkersburg, Iowa, a day after a tornado struck the

Nuclear material spirited to safety

Tons of yellowcake now in hands of Canadians
BY BRIAN MURPHY Associated Press

PARKERSBURG, IOWA

The last major remnant of Saddam Husseins nuclear program a huge stockpile of concentrated natural uranium reached a Canadian port Saturday to complete a secret U.S. operation that included a two-week airlift from Baghdad and a ship voyage crossing two oceans. The removal of 550 metric tons of yellowcake the seed material for higher-grade nuclear enrichment was a significant step toward closing the books on Saddams nuclear legacy. It also brought relief to U.S. and Iraqi authorities who had worried the cache would reach insurgents or smugglers crossing to Iran to aid its nuclear ambitions. Whats now left is the final and complicated push to clean up the remaining radioactive debris at the former Tuwaitha nuclear complex about 12 miles south of Baghdad using teams that include Iraqi experts recently trained in the Chernobyl fallout zone in Ukraine.

Please see NUCLEAR/AA6

Many Americans are struggling mightily to see good on horizon

BY PAULINE ARRILLAGA AP National Writer

You cant get ahead. You cant save money. You cant buy a house. It just stinks.

Father turned loss into action

After son died in Iraq, he started company to help
BY MARK JEWELL Associated Press

Associated Press In this May 26, 2008, file photo, Army Spc. Evan Cole, of Traverse City, Mich., pauses as he looks at headstones at Section 60 of Arlington National Cemetery on Memorial Day in Arlington,

Even folks in the Optimist Club are having a tough time toeing an upbeat line these days. Eighteen members of the volunteer organizations Gilbert, Ariz., chapter have gathered, a few days before this nations 232nd birthday, to focus on the positive: Their book drive for schoolchildren and an Independence Day project to place American flags along the streets of one neighborhood. They beam through the Pledge of Allegiance, applaud each others good news a house that recently sold despite Arizonas down market, and one members valiant battle with cancer. I didnt die, she says as the others cheer. But then talk turns to the state of the Union, and the Optimists become decidedly bleak. They use words such as terrified, disgusted and scary to describe what one calls this mess we Americans find ourselves in. Then comes the list of problems constituting the mess: a protracted war, $4-a-gallon gas, soaring food prices, uncertainty about jobs, an erratic stock market, a tougher housing market, and so on and so forth. One members son is serving his second tour in Iraq. Another speaks of a daughter whos lost her job in the mortgage industry and a son in construction whose salary was slashed. Still another mentions a friend who can barely afford gas. Joanne Kontak, 60, an elementary school lunch aide inducted just this day as an Optimist, sums things up like this: Theres just entirely too much wrong right now. Happy birthday, America? This year, were not so sure. The nations psyche is battered and bruised, the sense of pessimism palpable. Young or old, Republican or Democrat, economically stable or struggling, Americans are questioning where they are and where

ARLINGTON, VA.

You have no faith in anybody at the top. I dont trust anybody, and Im really disgusted about it.

TYNGSBOROUGH, Mass. The knock on Brian Harts door came at 6 a.m. An Army colonel, a priest and a police officer had come to tell Hart and his wife that their 20-year-old son had been killed when his military vehicle was ambushed in Iraq. Brian Hart didnt channel his grief quietly. Committed to preventing the senseless from recurring, he railed against the mili- BRIAN HART tary on his blog for shortcomings in supplying armor to soldiers. The one-time Republican teamed with liberal Sen. Edward Ken-

Please see FATHER/AA6 Associated Press In this March 15, 2008, file photo, a realtors sign is seen on the lawn of a foreclosed home in Egg EGG HARBOR TOWNSHIP, N.J.

Next gen longs for an identity

BY IAN SHAPIRA The Washington Post

Your joy cant be about your circumstances.

Associated Press

Associated Press Photos

Please see HAPPINESS/AA5

NEW YORK CITY

WASHINGTON Everyone knows the G.I. generation of World War II and the baby boomers who followed. And everyone knows the late-20thcentury demographic labeled with the non-label generation X. But the next generation a burgeoning force in presidential politics, the job market and the spread of social networking is harder to define. Lumped under millennials or generation Y, some in their 20s and early 30s say those titles and others ginned up almost daily in a brand-obsessed pop culture confuse them. They are unsure what most encapsulates their experience. For Doan Nguyen, 26, a photo editor at the nonprofit Conservation International, figuring out her generation has become a mission, prompted

Please see IDENTITY/AA6

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104174

The IU South Bend Elkhart Center. Enroll Now.

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