Outside Chicago, a Grim Tale of Unearthed Graves

The first report, that 50 or so graves had been disturbed at the historic Burr Oak Cemetery in Alsip, Ill. — the final resting place of civil rights icon Emmett Till, and the singer Dinah Washington — was grotesque. But by week’s end, the macabre tally had grown: Nearly 300 graves, possibly more, were destroyed in an apparent grave-resale scheme that took in an as yet unknown amount of money.

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Cemetery with missing grave sites declared crime scene

A Cook County cemetery where hundreds of graves were dug up and allegedly resold has been declared a crime scene, meaning that relatives of people believed buried there will not be allowed to visit for several days, an official said Friday. “It would be the height of irresponsibility for me to invite people in, to raise expectations and then crash them,” Cook County Sheriff Thomas J

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4 charged with digging up graves, reselling plots

Four people face felony charges after authorities discovered that hundreds of graves were dug up and allegedly resold at a historic African-American cemetery near Chicago, Illinois, authorities said Thursday. Cook County Sheriff Tom Dart said the four would resell the plots in Burr Oak Cemetery in Alsip, excavate the graves, dump the remains and pocket the cash.

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Jackson still ‘King of Pop’ on Billboard charts

Michael Jackson’s music sales keep soaring as fans purchased more than 800,000 of his albums last week, Billboard magazine said. Jackson’s albums hold all 10 top positions on Billboard’s top pop catalog albums chart, according Nielsen SoundScan sales data released Wednesday

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Yes, I Suck: Self-Help Through Negative Thinking

In the last 50 years, people with mental problems have spent untold millions of hours in therapists’ offices, and millions more reading self-help books, trying to turn negative thoughts like “I never do anything right” into positive ones: “I can succeed.” For many people — including well-educated, highly trained therapists, for whom “cognitive restructuring” is a central goal — the very definition of psychotherapy is the process of changing self-defeating attitudes into constructive ones. But was Norman Vincent Peale right Is there power in positive thinking A study just published in the journal Psychological Science says trying to get people to think more positively can actually have the opposite effect: it can simply highlight how unhappy they are

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Study: A Fairer Way to Cut Global CO2 Emissions

At the end of the year, governments from around the world will meet in Copenhagen hopefully to hammer out a new treaty — the successor to the Kyoto Protocol, which expires in 2012 — to reduce global greenhouse-gas emissions. Their lack of time aside, diplomats face a very large, very immovable hurdle on the way to a new Kyoto. Developed countries like the U.S., which refused to ratify the original treaty, are responsible for most of the CO2 in the atmosphere — and more than a century of industrialization has helped make them rich — which would indicate that they should shoulder the lion’s share of future emissions reductions.

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