USA / RUSSIA : NY Times Wins Pulitzer For Reporting About Being "Above The Law" In Russia.

NYTIMES/ C. Levy and E. Barry

    In a 9-part series, Levy and Barry examined corruption and abuse of power in Russia two decades after the fall of Communism.
    They have won the USA's prestigious Pulitzer Prize for International Reporting.

AUSTIN, TEXAS: Editor's Note: Goodbye, New York Times Links!

SLATE/ Jack Shafer

Today, the NYTIMES enforces a new paywall.
Sadly, because of that, this blog will NO LONGER automatically provide links to the NYTimes.com.
Of course, the editor will continue to read the NYTimes...in its hard copy version...but will not use a personal link to allow visitors to bypass paywall limits.
Why not?
To respect the NYTimes' need for additional income...with their paywall experiment.
In the past, this blog has respected the Wall Street Journals's paywall...even though the editor reads the hard copy version daily.
The one and only time readers were allowed access past the WSJ's paywall with a personal link ...over 250 visitors used it.
While I don't agree with CEO Rupert Murdoch's politics or ethics...I do respect his company's shareholders and vowed not to link to the WSJ again...unless it was freely available via Google Search.
That will now also be the policy... for the NYTIMES.

ROMANIA: Photo Essay

NYTIMES/Lens Blog/ 17x B&W photos
"Romania, Still Beneath a Cloud"- an essay by Nadia Sussman.
On the 20th anniversary of the Romanian revolution, photographer Cristian Movila portrays his country as a land of winter, Orthodox faith, class divide and industrial decay.

Mexico's Crimes Overwhelm Law Enforcement.

NYTIMES/ Marc Lacey/ Long Feature/
"Mexico has never been particularly adept at bringing criminals to justice, and the drug war has made things worse. Investigators are now swamped with homicides and other drug crimes, most of which they will never crack. On top of the standard obstacles — too little expertise, too much corruption — is one that seems to grow by the day: outright fear of becoming the next body in the street."

On The UN: Feckless, Frustrating And Featuring Muammar Qaddafi.

NYTIMES/Humor by Columnist Gail Collins.

More Reasons To Be Angry... At Wall Street.

By Paul Krugman of the NYTimes.

Did Low Traffic Count Doom Web Columnist?

From the NYTimes.

About the Dan Froomkin dismissal from Washington Post.com.

IMO...The WashPost has the most INEPT website of ALL the major newspapers.
It employs ultra short takes...that serve only to INFLATE its page count...and slow loads.

Plus an annoying log-in process...even to glance at a story.

So now, I avoid the Washington Post website!

At THO...there's no worry about the web count. There isn't one.
Besides, Latin American and Eastern European news stories aren't exactly traffic builders.

Honduran Power Struggle Divides Friends.

An excellent report from Mark Lacey of the NYTimes on divided loyalties in the power struggle in Honduras.

Honduran Coup Backlash, WSJ Interview and Backgrounder.

Honduran protesters clashed with police and the military in the country's capital.

The provisional government, installed after the coup, has been rejected by world leaders from Hugo Chavez to Barack Obama.

The acting president defends the golpe... in an interview with the Wall Street Journal."

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124628267418867961.html?mod=rss_com_mostcommentart

The WSJ on backgrounds of both presidents by Jose De Cordoba:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124632227606871269.html

The NYTimes summarizes the US position about the coup...and describes Hillary Clinton's recent interaction with now deposed President Zelaya.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/30/world/americas/30honduras.html?_r=1&ref=todayspaper

Only About 5% of All Blogs...still Active.

An interesting report in the NYTimes about blogs...especially since I just started this one in late May.

Seems that of 133 Million blogs registered...only 7.4 million have been updated... in the past 120 days...meaning that... 95% have been ABANDONED.

I'm not seeking either fame or fortune with this blog. Obviously.

I'm sure that very few people care about Latvia's possible currency devaluation or the price and supply of cantalopes from Guatamala.

I'm probably writing for myself...but I would be doing this anyway.

This blog is and will be an outlet for observations from my daily news reading and gathering...however insignificant and irrelevant the postings may be.

I would continue to read...daily...anyway... hard copies of four newspapers...the Austin American-Statemans, the NYTimes, The Wall Street Journal and USA Today... even if I didn't have a blog to post what I think are noteworthy selections.

Add to that, I consume...daily...Bloomberg.com, especially the Latin America and Eastern Europe region news, The Huffington Post, The Miami Herald, The Global Post.com, CNN/Money, Yahoo's excellent AP/ Latin American News...and other news sources that pop up in Google News.

Also great thanks to the Austin Public Library's recent availability of the marvelous "Press Display," which posts actual newspaper page displays, I also scan DAILY : the Washington Post, Chicago Sun-Times, NY Daily News and NY Post (for the headlines and photos), the LA Times, The Guardian International and Britain's The Independent.
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/06/07/fashion/07blogs.html?ref=style