ShareThisThursday, June 14, 2007
Here is the Scripps Howard News Service NEWS budget for Thursday, June 14, 2007. If you have questions or comments, SHNS editors can be reached at 202-408-1484. For all SHNS content and archives, visit our Web site at www.shns.com.
NATIONAL
TOADTUNNEL (Lindelof, Sacramento Bee) -- DAVIS, Calif.: Twelve years after the famed Davis Toad Tunnel was built to keep the amphibians from becoming roadkill, the critters are gone and experts now believe they never used the tunnel. 600.
HEALTH AND SCIENCE
DIETPILL (Allday, San Francisco Chronicle) --The first diet pill approved for over-the-counter sale hits stores Friday, but it faces a tough audience of doctors and dieters who have been burned by decades of weight-loss drugs that haven't lived up to promises or have turned out to have dangerous side effects. 800.
DINOBIRD (Perlman, San Francisco Chronicle) -- Scientists working in the Gobi Desert have found the fossil of a previously unknown and very large dinosaur bird they've named Gigantoraptor. 600.
CRANIOFACIAL (McCune, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette) -- PITTSBURGH: Children's Hospital holds its first Cleft-Craniofacial Symposium to help educate health-care providers about treating patients with head deformities. 700.
SUNSCREEN (Rouvalis, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette) -- Just in time for the summer season, new sunscreens are lining the shelves, touting better protection and lighter creams and more stable formulas. 350.
INTERNATIONAL
EARLESSPUP (Alphonso, Toronto Globe and Mail) -- WINDSOR, Ontario: The German shepherd-Rottweiler puppy that was found on an apartment balcony here last month with its ears cut off is the new addition to the family of a local couple. 450.
MACARONIMADNESS (Mickleburgh, Toronto Globe and Mail) VANCOUVER, British Columbia: It began with Kraft Dinner, and ended in gunfire. Now, six years later, fallout from a fit of macaroni madness that overtook a warring family is still reverberating in the halls of justice. 350.
IN THE WEST
MOTORISTFEES (Yi, San Francisco Chronicle) -- SACRAMENTO, Calif.: Legislation that would increase fees on California motorists by nearly $167 million each year to pay for cleaner air is breezing through the state legislature with little debate and even less fanfare. 600.
CAL-GOPAIDE (Marinucci, San Francisco Chronicle) _ SAN FRANCISCO: The California Republican Party has decided that no American is qualified to take one of its most crucial positions -- state deputy political director -- and has hired a Canadian for the job through a coveted H-1B visa. 800.
