NBA great Barkley begins 3-day sentence in Tent City

Basketball great Charles Barkley began serving a three-day sentence in Arizona’s infamous Tent City on Saturday, jailed by the same sheriff whose autobiography he endorsed 12 years ago. “You come here when you screw up,” Barkley said at a news conference hours after he reported at the Maricopa County jail

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Army reports another month of high suspected suicides

Up to 18 deaths of soldiers in February may have been suicides, which if confirmed would continue an unwelcome trend, the Army said Thursday Two of the deaths have been confirmed as suicides, and the other 16 are being investigated as suspected suicides, the Army said. The report follows a spike in January, when 24 soldier suicides or suspected suicides were reported

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The Afghanistan Problem: Can Obama Avoid a Quagmire?

On the Friday after he was inaugurated, Barack Obama held a full-scale National Security Council meeting about the most serious foreign policy crisis he is facing — the deteriorating war in Afghanistan and Pakistan. “It was a pretty alarming meeting,” said one senior Administration official.

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America’s Ski Resorts: Saved by the Snow

The early-March snowstorm that creamed the Eastern seaboard largely missed Vermont’s big skiing areas. But resort operators were delighted nevertheless, because the storm whetted the appetite of all those coastal skiers. The industry calls it the “backyard syndrome,” and it can either feed or starve the sport in a given year.

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Job Forecast for College Seniors: Grimmer Than Ever

Smith College’s career office sent its jittery job-hunting seniors a letter last month with a reassuring message: “There ARE jobs, and you can find employment.” Unfortunately, there are far fewer jobs than anticipated, according to a report out today from the National Association for Colleges and Employers . The companies surveyed for the group’s spring update are planning to hire 22% fewer grads from the class of 2009 than they hired from the class of 2008, a big letdown from the group’s projections in October that hiring would hold steady. Some 44% of companies in the survey, conducted last month, said they plan to hire fewer new grads, and another 22% said they do not plan to hire at all this spring, more than double last year’s figure

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Should hunters switch to ‘green’ bullets?

Three years ago, Phillip Loughlin made a choice he knew would brand him as an outsider with many of his fellow hunters: He decided to shoot “green” bullets. “It made sense,” Loughlin said of his switch to more environmentally friendly ammo, which doesn’t contain lead. “I believe that we need to do a little bit to take care of the rest of the habitat and the environment — not just what we want to shoot out of it.” Lead, a toxic metal that can lower the IQs of children, is the essential element in most ammunition on the market today

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Moderates may lose power in Spain’s Basque election

The incumbent Basque nationalists won the most seats in Basque regional parliamentary elections on Sunday, but they could lose a 29-year hold on power because three non-nationalist parties won a combined majority for the first time, according to official election results. The vote for the powerful 75-seat regional parliament and Basque president are seen as a bellwether of the region’s sentiment on how to end decades of violence by the Basque separatist group ETA. The moderate Basque Nationalist Party won 30 seats, and its traditional smaller party allies won seven more

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Behind the Troop Surge at the U.S.-Mexico Border

The ebbing stretch of Rio Grande that divides the Texas city of El Paso from the Mexican city of Juarez may soon become one of the world’s most militarized borders. This week, as Texas Governor Rick Perry went to El Paso to announce that has asked Washington for 1,000 more “boots on the ground” to enforce the border, Mexico’s government ordered 5,000 extra soldiers to Juarez. The armies massing on both sides of the border are marching against a common foe — drug cartels — and the coming months will be a crucial test as to whether they can effectively work together to fight it

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Commentary: Lifting image ban respects war dead

The reversal of two decades of policy on images of returning war casualties is an important and welcome milestone for the American people. NEWARK, Delaware (CNN) — The reversal of two decades of policy on images of returning war casualties is an important and welcome milestone for the American people.

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