LOS ANGELES, Dec. 27 -- Wearing peel-off paper tags with their names crossed out, a small group of protesters supporting etoy, a seven-member Swiss performance art cooperative, against a giant toy retailer went to the Los Angeles County Court House Monday morning to see a trial. [MORE]

TOKYO -- U.S. diplomat William Perry has a policy of "cautious realism" on North Korea and South Korean President Kim Dae-jung is pursuing his positive "Sunshine policy" with Pyongyang. But it would be generous and accurate to characterize Japan's policy toward the regime of General Secretary of the Central Committee of the Korean Workers' Party Kim Jong-il as "darkness at noon." [MORE]

BLOOMSBURG, Pa. -- Because most media believe December 31, 1999, is the end of a millennium -- although some believe it may be the end of the world -- but mostly because they aren't able to find anything better to do with their time, the media have been creating lists. [MORE]

WASHINGTON -- The arrival of 2000 reminds us that life is short. Deadening routines often squander our time, while evasions take unnecessary tolls in human suffering. But much better possibilities remain. [MORE]

Though visions of Seattle's anti-globalist's debutante ball are still fresh in our minds, the dress rehearsal for the November WTO protests really took place last summer in London. British anarchists took to the streets of the city in a "Carnival Against Capitalism" that was a year in the planning. [MORE]

WASHINGTON -- The Clinton administration is doing the right thing in response to "credible threats" of Muslim terror attacks against Americans during the millennium celebrations. [MORE]

DUMMERSTON, Vt. -- Normally this time of year, I take a look back on how the press performed over the previous 12 months. But with a century wrapping up (officially on Jan. 1, 2001, contrary to the prevailing media hype), I thought I'd take a longer view at how the press evolved over the past 100 years. The transition from straight news to a hybrid of news and entertainment has been taking place for over a century. [MORE]

LAKE WORTH, Fla. -- The investment story of this century is actually rooted in the last one. It's a story of less being more. It's a story epitomized by two emigres from far-off lands whose visions now permeate two-thirds of all American households. [MORE]

BETHANY, Okla. -- Note to any Herald Angels who might want to do a little public singing: Make sure it's on private property in this Oklahoma City suburb. [MORE]

VANCOUVER, B.C., Canada -- This week's issue of "Sports Illustrated" features an interview with Atlanta Braves' reliever John Rocker. Don't buy it. [MORE]

OKLAHOMA CITY -- The century drawing rapidly to a close saw millions of Americans desert the farms and move to cities and suburbs, but the federal agency that keeps tabs on such things says there actually is more farmland now than there was in 1900. But a 1982 dollar that would fetch $10 in merchandise in 1913 would only $0.60 worth in 1998. [MORE]

BOSTON -- A war can bring out both the best and the worst from the media. The public can either get important information about serious events affecting their country or have to suffer "talking heads" who repeat only what their government wants them to know. [MORE]

ST. PAUL, Minn. -- A cold wind blew through my holidays. [MORE]

WASHINGTON -- Journalism's end-of-year lists carry a tinge of sadness because we look back one last time to recall those who left the world stage in 1999. [MORE]

SEATTLE -- Two recent arrests of Algerian nationals carrying falsified Canadian passports at a pair of remote U.S.-Canada border crossings have caused the United States Customs Service to redeploy 350 inspectors to border duty in preparation for possible millenial terrorism, the agency said Tuesday. [MORE]

TOKYO -- The recent spirited speculation over whether or not Japan's 36-year-old Crown Princess Masako is pregnant with her first child and potential heir to the Chrysanthemum Throne has produced a range of reactions. [MORE]

LAKE WORTH, Fla. -- Stick with me from age 20-through feast, famine, war, and assassinations -- and when you retire at age 62, I will have averaged 12.22 percent per year on your investments. Sounds good? [MORE]

BLOOMSBURG, Pa. -- It's the end-of-the-year holiday season, and that means in the spirit of giving we spend our savings bonds and Christmas Club accounts to help American business earn about 40 percent of its annual income. [MORE]

ST. PAUL, Minn. -- I recently sent a letter-to-the-editor of a major online publication. In reply I got this e-message: [MORE]

LOS ANGELES, Dec. 20 -- In an extraordinary admission of a serious breach of journalistic ethics, the Los Angeles Times Sunday published a front-page apology to readers admitting it shared profits from a story with an advertiser. And on Monday, that remarkable hour in American journalism was followed by another that more than gave credence to Sunday's ringing re-affirmation of the paper's commitment to the fundamental journalistic principle of newsroom independence. [MORE]

CLAREMONT, N.H. -- In this town four years ago, when House Speaker Newt Gingrich was riding high and President Bill Clinton was struggling to prove he was still relevant, the two appeared at an event here and shook hands on a pledge to establish a bipartisan commission to reform the campaign finance laws. [MORE]

ST. SIMONS ISLAND, Ga. -- It was a dead giveaway. One look at her purchases sliding along toward the cashier and I knew how she planned to spend her evening. A package of aroma therapy, the bottle of Robert Mondavi Chardonnay, Brie cheese, a copy of Cosmopolitan and a bottle of nail polish all told me what only another woman would know. [MORE]

LOS ANGELES, Dec. 16 -- A groundbreaking digital film by director Mike Figgis that has been the talk of Hollywood is "in the can" but won't be released in theaters until March instead of New Year's Day as once planned because distributor Sony Pictures "really likes the film" and wants additional time to prepare audiences for it, Figgis told the American Reporter at cable television's Western Show today. [MORE]

WASHINGTON -- We who are steeped in popular culture and journalism are the connoisseurs of the new. Few are alive who lived in the last century. Journalism by default favors the "new," but the approaching year 2000 has stretched our backward vision. [MORE]

SYRACUSE, Ind. -- If you ever spent any time in a doctor's or dentist's office as a child, you probably read "Highlights" magazine, the educational magazine for young children. Included in the magazine are children's favorites, like Hidden Pictures, stories, and The Timbertoes (a comic strip about a family made out of wood -- 3-D "stick" figures, as it were). [MORE]

LAKE WORTH, Fla. -- The tv commercial opens with a close-up of Al Gore. Next, a Gore look-alike is on a phone clearly marked "DNC" in the White House, standing while engaged in animated and cheerful discussion. The camera pulls back revealing a busy White House fundraising phone bank and Gore the actor says: [MORE]

CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Football star Rae Carruth was arrested today on a murder warrant in Wildersville, Tenn. by FBI agents who found the North Carolina Panthers receiver hiding in the trunk of a female friend's car parked in a Best Western Hotel parking lot. Late Tuesday night his red Mercedes was found parked outside another friend's apartment. [MORE]

EAST FELICIANA PARISH, La. -- Welcome to the world of gumbo and AOL, whitetail deer and Pfizer, and catfish and Conagra. [MORE]

HONG KONG -- Can Walt Disney's Mickey Mouse save Hong Kong? [MORE]

ST. PAUL, Minn. -- I forgot the millennium and holidays came together this year. We have to prepare for two big deals simultaneously. [MORE]

SAN DIEGO, Calif. -- I was only 17 years old when I visited the Panama Canal. Nearly thirty years later, I can still see that very young girl in a calico dress holding onto the rail watching as millions of tons of water lifted our ship through the locks that make the canal one of the engineering marvels of the world. [MORE]

WASHINGTON -- President Clinton's "Drug Czar," General Barry McCaffrey, has opposed medical marijuana and clean needle exchange because he doesn't want to send the wrong message to kids, but one has to wonder: What is his position on anorexia? Since our society finds it so loathsome, why not criminalize it? [MORE]

ZAGREB, Dec 11 -- Franjo Tudjman, the man who led Croatia to independence from the Serbs has died in Zagreb, Croatian television reported early Saturday morning. He was 77. [MORE]

DUMMERSTON, Vt. -- They came from all over -- from cities such as Dublin, Toronto, Montreal, Seattle, Atlanta and New York, and small towns like Brattleboro, Vt., and Claremont, N.H. [MORE]

PHILADELPHIA, Dec. 9 -- As he came crashing to the floor with just over four minutes left in the Houston Rockets' game with the '76ers Wednesday night at First Union Center in Philadelphia, Rockets forward Charles Barkley's career crashed with him when he ruptured the quadriceps tendon in his left knee -- one of the rarest, but most painful and intractable injuries in sports. [MORE]

SYRACUSE, Ind. -- Hi, it's me, Erik's daughter. He's really busy this month, so I'm writing his column for him. I know I'm only three, but I'm very smart. At least my Daddy says so. [MORE]

NEW ORLEANS, La. -- Securities and Exchange Commission Chairman Arthur Levitt should hire Sye LaSalle to say in 36 seconds what Levitt has been trying to say for 36 months. [MORE]

BEIJING, China -- On weekends, we like to go east of our Los Angeles home for dinner. In a little over a quarter of an hour, we can be in the new Asian areas of Monterey Park, Alhambra or San Gabriel, where we can explore the foods of Malaysia, Singapore, Japan, Vietnam, Korea, Thailand and China. [MORE]

WASHINGTON -- When the World Trade Organization summit collapsed in Seattle, major American news outlets seemed to go into shock. The failure to launch a new round of global trade talks stunned many journalists who were accustomed to covering the WTO with great reverence. [MORE]

MOSCOW, Dec. 8 -- The commander of Russian forces in the North Caucasus said Tuesday that leaflets dropped Monday to warn residents of the capital of Chechnya that intensive bombing will begin after December 11 were addressed to Chechen fighters, not the civilian population. It was one of the few hopeful signs that the Russian campaign against the breakaway republic may be feeling the sting of worldwide rebukes. [MORE]

SEATTLE -- In the wake of last week's riots in Seattle, Norm Stamper, the recently maligned Chief of Police, has announced that he will resign his position effective the end of March. Mayor Paul Schell immediately accepted his resignation. [MORE]

FORT GIBSON, Okla. -- A 13-year-old described as a popular, straight-A student opened fire on a group of fellow students with a 9 mm handgun outside the middle school in this northeastern Oklahoma town Monday morning, wounding four, police said. [MORE]

MACAU -- The longest-running "theme park" on the China coast is changing hands after more than 400 years of Portuguese management. [MORE]

WASHINGTON -- It's a pro-democracy movement. And it's global. [MORE]

LAKE WORTH, Fla., May 2, 2000 -- The most horrendous stock market crash of all time -- the 30 percent tumble of the Dow which started last Friday, and continued through May Day trading, was right in front of your nose, if you had only looked. [MORE]

ST. PAUL, Minn. -- This year's Metamoron Awards -- awarded annually by the Why Things Don't Work Institute to organizations and individuals that typify brutal change or leadership in denial -- were difficult to compile. [MORE]

OKLAHOMA CITY -- Timothy McVeigh undoubtedly would rank at the top of any Oklahoma most-hated list for blowing up the federal building, but comments by his mother in a television interview this week got her a pretty prominent spot. [MORE]

ENID, Okla. -- Huck Finn and Jim, the runaway slave, will still go rafting down the Mississippi River in the new millennium, but the kids in the Enid public schools won't have to go along. [MORE]

BOSTON -- Twenty-three year-old Ivana Jovanovic recently returned from a month-long visit to her hometown of Belgrade, and she is still shaken by state of her country. According to her, Serbia is slowly trying to rebuild itself as people try to recover from the emotional distress of the NATO bombing of the the former Yugoslavia four months ago. [MORE]

SEATTLE -- After enjoying a free ride in American news media for many years, the World Trade Organization just hit a brick wall. The credit should go to a vast array of civic activists -- represented by tens of thousands of protesters from every continent who took to the streets here with determined nonviolence. [MORE]

LAKE WORTH, Fla. -- Now that you think you're set to make an online killing on Wall Street, here's a strategy that the old pros have used for years to be even more greedy. Here's how they manipulate gains to keep the Internal Revenue Service at bay for up to 16 months. [MORE]

SYRACUSE, Ind. -- If you've ever thought that young people (i.e. people younger than you) had sex on the brain, you were right. A recent survey commissioned by condom-maker Durex showed that almost half the world's young people hope to conclude their millennial celebrations with sex. The poll covered nearly 5,000 people, between the ages of 16 and 21, in 14 countries. [MORE]

SEATTLE -- President Clinton arrived in the hub of the Pacific Northwest in the wee hours of the morning Wednesday, took a tour of the Port of Seattle and addressed attendees at the World Trade Organization's Third Ministerial Conference today as chaos again reigned outside and hundreds of protesters suffered arrest. [MORE]

SEATTLE, Dec. 1 -- Thousands of demonstrators at Tuesday's scheduled opening of the World Trade Organization (WTO) talks in Seattle reset the agenda as they rallied at the talks site and delayed the start of key trade negotiations until police, warned by the FBI of possible disruptions, fired waves of tear gas and pepper spray and drove them away. [MORE]

LONDON, Dec. 1 -- Beginning today, the Royal Opera House at Covent Garden is not only an elegantly renovated space for the Royal Opera, Ballet and Orchestra, but an all-day cultural center that invites visitors to attend free concerts and take tours that include looking in on master ballet classes. [MORE]

WASHINGTON -- During his recent European trip, President Clinton could not pass up the opportunity to gather together his merry band of Third Way world leaders at a summit in Florence, Italy. Putting aside the fact that no one at the conclave could actually explain the true philosophy of their so-called centrist political movement. [MORE]

CAMBRIDGE, Mass., Nov. 30 -- WTO, IMF, EU: has one of these changed your life recently? How about SDMI, PICS, or CALEA? [MORE]

SAN DIEGO, Calif. -- It's not likely that many of us will be celebrating the new millennium in Paris or Patagonia. We probably won't be cruising Antarctica or drinking vodka and fermented mare's milk with Mongolians. Most of us will just be at home with the folks we love in our ordinary houses, on our ordinary streets, in our ordinary towns. [MORE]

WASHINGTON -- When thousands of protesters converge on Seattle at the end of this month to challenge the global summit of the World Trade Organization (WTO), they're unlikely to get a fair hearing from America's mass media. [MORE]

TOKYO -- The Japanese trial balloon to place one of its financial stars -- Eisuke "Mr. Yen" Sakakibara -- in the running for International Monetary Fund (IMF) managing director is still rising. [MORE]

SAN FRANCISCO -- Believe it or not, but Pat Buchanan, Robert Bowman, Harvey Carroll, Daniel Clay, Charles Collins, Dr. John Hagelin, Scott Kendall and George Weber have something in common. [MORE]

GUANGZHOU, China, Nov. 30 -- As ordered by a worried Chinese government early this year, the largest airline in the People's Republic of China will welcome the new millenium with the airline's top executives on board China Southern Airlines flights at midnight on January 1, 2000 to endorse and promote the airline's complete Y2K compliance. [MORE]

PALM BEACH, Fla. -- Online trading, had it been popular in 1985, would have erased the single most rewarding day in the career of the late Kenneth Morie. [MORE]

Last spring I embarked on an experiment in e-capitalism. Using an inexpensive credit-card escrow service called Buy-It, I offered up some of my books and other writings for sale ($15.95 plus $3.20 shipping), then sat back and waited for the orders. [MORE]

OKLAHOMA CITY -- A small state committee that hardly anyone ever heard of has kicked up a mammoth furor over evolution that rumbles from border to border in Oklahoma, and into other states as well. [MORE]

DUMMERSTON, Vt. -- It took several years and a platoon of antitrust lawyers to confirm what folks working in the computer industry have known all along -- Microsoft is a greedy, ruthless and monopolistic company that will stop at nothing in its quest to have total control over the industry. [MORE]

NEW YORK -- There is always some irony in the annual awards by the Committee to Protect Journalists (www.cpj.org) being handed out by celebrity American television anchormen who have relegated foreign coverage to a few hasty minutes after the really "important" news about other celebrities, the political horse race and various soft items of "human interest." [MORE]

WASHINGTON -- In a media world with few bright spots, I'm thankful for "Mister Rogers' Neighborhood." [MORE]

SAN DIEGO, Calif. -- I should have known when she broke out the aromatherapy and hung crystals in the doorway that she was one of "them." [MORE]

TOKYO -- If Texas Gov. George W. Bush wins the Republican Presidential nomination and then also captures the Presidency, it is likely that he will name Condoleezza Rice as either Secretary of State or National Security Adviser. In the first post, the Alabama-born daughter of a Presbyterian minister and former Provost of Stanford University would be in the direct line of succession to the presidency, and in either, one of the most influential black Americans in history. [MORE]

BLOOMSBURG, Pa. -- I hadn't talked with Marshbaum for almost two years, ever since he left newspaper journalism for more lucrative work in the fast food industry. But here he was, in my office, asking if I wanted a better job. [MORE]