Surgeons reattach boy’s three severed limbs

Tuesday, March 29, 2005A team of Australian surgeons yesterday reattached both hands and one foot to 10-year-old Perth boy, Terry Vo, after a brick wall which collapsed during a game of basketball fell on him, severing the limbs. The wall gave way while Terry performed a slam-dunk, during a game at a friend’s birthday party.

The boy was today awake and smiling, still in some pain but in good spirits and expected to make a full recovery, according to plastic surgeon, Mr Robert Love.

“What we have is parts that are very much alive so the reattached limbs are certainly pink, well perfused and are indeed moving,” Mr Love told reporters today.

“The fact that he is moving his fingers, and of course when he wakes up he will move both fingers and toes, is not a surprise,” Mr Love had said yesterday.

“The question is more the sensory return that he will get in the hand itself and the fine movements he will have in the fingers and the toes, and that will come with time, hopefully. We will assess that over the next 18 months to two years.

“I’m sure that he’ll enjoy a game of basketball in the future.”

The weight and force of the collapse, and the sharp brick edges, resulted in the three limbs being cut through about 7cm above the wrists and ankle.

Terry’s father Tan said of his only child, the injuries were terrible, “I was scared to look at him, a horrible thing.”

The hands and foot were placed in an ice-filled Esky and rushed to hospital with the boy, where three teams of medical experts were assembled, and he was given a blood transfusion after experiencing massive blood loss. Eight hours of complex micro-surgery on Saturday night were followed by a further two hours of skin grafts yesterday.

“What he will lose because it was such a large zone of traumatised skin and muscle and so on, he will lose some of the skin so he’ll certainly require lots of further surgery regardless of whether the skin survives,” said Mr Love said today.

The boy was kept unconscious under anaesthetic between the two procedures. In an interview yesterday, Mr Love explained why:

“He could have actually been woken up the next day. Because we were intending to take him back to theatre for a second look, to look at the traumatised skin flaps, to close more of his wounds and to do split skin grafting, it was felt the best thing to do would be to keep him stable and to keep him anaesthetised.”

Professor Wayne Morrison, director of the respected Bernard O’Brien Institute of Microsurgery and head of plastic and hand surgery at Melbourne’s St Vincent’s Hospital, said he believed the operation to be a world first.

Retrieved from “https://en.wikinews.org/w/index.php?title=Surgeons_reattach_boy%27s_three_severed_limbs&oldid=440114”

Afghanistan holds first democratic general elections

Monday, September 19, 2005

On Sunday, Afghanistan held its first democratic general elections. They are the first elections held in the country since last year’s presidential elections.

There was voter participation of about 50%, compared with 70% for the previous presidential election. According to Bimillah Bismal, head of the Afghan-UN Joint Electoral Management Body, “The election was held in a peaceful manner…there was also a high level of political awareness and participation amongst the Afghan people.”

Voting proceeded calmly, with little violence at the polling stations, most of which were able to remain open throughout Saturday.

There are approximately 5,800 candidates, competing for 420 slots in the provincial court, and 249 deputy positions in the wing of the Afghani Parliament (Wolesi Jirga).

Violence did sprout up occasionally, with four election officials killed in the past year, as well as seven contenders for deputy positions. However, the US-led coalition is working to minimize these problems during the elections, and, so far, Taliban militant actions have not been an overwhelming issue.

Women have a sizable role to play in these elections–they can vote, and 10 percent of the candidates are female. Even in the more conservative southern areas of Afghanistan, a sizable number of female voters came to the polling stations.

Preliminary election results are expected by October 10.

Retrieved from “https://en.wikinews.org/w/index.php?title=Afghanistan_holds_first_democratic_general_elections&oldid=434067”

Joe McElderry wins UK X Factor final

Sunday, December 13, 2009

Joe McElderry has won the sixth series of the UK X Factor, in a hotly contested final with Olly Murs, after the third finalist, Stacey Solomon was voted off last night. McElderry was the favourite earlier this evening with odds of 2/9 from both Ladbrokes and William Hill, compared to 3/1 odds for Murs. Joe’s family had clubbed together to bet on his winning the show, even before the first live show was aired, at odds of 14/1. They are expected to receive approximately £14,000.

On Saturday night, McElderry sung Don’t Let The Sun Go Down On Me with George Michael, who said that Joe “rose to the occasion…I think he’s got a great future.” He also received a video message from Kylie Minogue after his performance, in which she said “I’m sending you lots of love and kisses. Have fun.” McElderry is from South Shields, Newcastle and born in 1991, began singing at 14. He auditioned for The X Factor in 2007, but felt too young when compared to the other contestants. Together with Lloyd Daniels and Rikki Loney he was mentored by Cheryl Cole, one of the four X Factor judges.

The weekend’s prime time shows are expected to have had more than 18 million viewers, with one analyst estimating £100m of revenue going to ITV from the autumn show. ITV also hope that it will aid in turning around their declining revenue.

As is tradition, McElderry will release a single next week in an attempt to gain the Christmas Number 1 chart spot. In recent years, the X Factor single has always gained that accolade.

Retrieved from “https://en.wikinews.org/w/index.php?title=Joe_McElderry_wins_UK_X_Factor_final&oldid=1135618”

Freelance Writing For Trade Magazines

By Brian Scott

The most visible magazines are mainstream magazines sold on newsstands and in bookstores to the public. Trade magazines, on the other hand, are more exclusive; they are not sold to the public at retail chains and they usually circulate to the magazine’s elite class of subscribers and members. Just as there are countless mainstream magazines on sports, pets, travel, weddings, and lifestyle, you can also find just as many trade magazines that cover the same subjects. Writing for trade magazines pays well (sometimes higher than mainstream magazines) and they regularly use freelance writers.

Breaking into trade magazines as a freelance writer can be tricky. Many editors of trade magazines choose not to list their writer’s guidelines. Editors of trade magazines are extremely busy and short-staffed. These editors avoid having an open call for submissions to avoid a ceaseless cycle of reviewing, critiquing and rejecting unsolicited articles and query letters sent in by writers, non-writers and their moms. You will not find their writer’s guidelines in Writer’s Marketplace and they may not post their guidelines online at their website. Many freelance writers break into trade magazines by pitching an idea to the editor or contacting the editor directly. These freelance writers pitch brilliant article ideas, they’ve reviewed the magazine in advance, and they aggressively market themselves and their work with confidence.

Here are some frequently asked questions about freelance writing for trade magazines:

Question # 1: What are some advantages of writing for trade magazines, as opposed to writing for mainstream (newsstand) magazines?

Answer: The first advantage is the smaller number of competitors (other freelance writers). Many writers, especially amateurs, don’t routinely research trade magazines for potential writing assignments. However, this also means it’s often up to you, the writer, to educate an editor on the advantage of using your work.

The second advantage is that trade magazines are usually understaffed. When an editor finds a good freelancer, they not only accept the initial story but also ask the writer to accept future assignments.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E-6_pW0OuXg[/youtube]

A third advantage is the reputation you develop when you write for trade magazines within that industry. As your reputation builds, you often experience unexpected opportunities, such as referrals and writing assignments from other editors.

Question # 2: What’s the best research method to uncover hard-to-find trade magazines?

Answer: The best method is to find a Standard Rate & Data for business publications (http://www.srds.com). This directory contains almost every trade magazine published in the U.S. Second, find out what your friends and neighbors read in their business. Do they have any copies you can borrow? What about the mechanic who just fixed your car? What trades are on his waiting room table? How about the barber? How about the manager of that gift store near your house? How about the restaurant manager? A real estate agent? A roofing contractor? A bricklayer? A computer programmer? Your tax accountant? The third way is the Internet. Find trade magazines at Freebizmag.com, tradepub.com and freetradepubs.com.

Question #3: What’s the best way to pitch an article to a trade magazine?

Answer: Call the editor, tell him what you have in mind, and get feedback. Otherwise, you can send an email query. Once you have some credits, the best approach is calling the editor. Even if the editor doesn’t need the story you are pitching, he may have one he would like to see, but haven’t found anyone to do it.

Question #4: What do you do if the trade magazine doesn’t have writer’s guidelines?

Answer: Less than 10 percent of trade magazines have writers’ guidelines. If you don’t have a copy of the magazine you want to pitch to, find a way to get one and then go through it to see how the headlines are put together and how long the articles run. Check the masthead for full-time staff and the number of contributors. Are the contributors industry gurus or independent writers like yourself? How much of the magazine is staff written? If the trade magazine has one editor and he’s written more than 60 percent of the magazine, then he probably needs a good freelance writer from time to time.

Question # 5: What are some challenges freelance writers might face with trade magazines?

Answer: The first challenge is finding the people with the right information. Specialization is a good idea for a trade journalist just as it is for a mainstream journalist. You write based on “who” you know. A second challenge is learning to leverage what you’ve developed. If you specialize in writing on construction, you can also tie this topic to other industries, such as restaurant management, small hospital management, manufacturing, hospitality, real estate, golf course management, etc.

Another challenge is to learn discretion. Businesses have secrets they don’t want their competitors to know about; they do have techniques or practices or processes that give them an edge. To maintain your contacts’ trust, you must develop good judgment about just how much information you can pass along in your article and how much you can’t. Never cheat your contacts. Be fair with them and they will be fair with you. They may get mad occasionally when they get called on a mistake, but as long as it’s a fair call, then you’ll keep them.

Question # 6: What other types of articles do trade magazines find popular?

Answer: The most popular type of article in trade magazines is: “Who did what, and why?” Readers love to get ideas by seeing what others in their industry are doing. They also want to see who’s doing what so they can decide if the article subject might be a potential customer. “List” articles are another favorite. Trade magazines are where people go to talk shop and to see who’s who, who’s new, and what’s new.

About the Author: Brian Scott is a freelance writer for

FreelanceWriting.com

, a free website offering

freelance writing jobs

and hundreds of

writer’s guidelines

to paying magazines. Read his

blog for freelance writers

at http://workingwritersnewsletter.blogspot.com

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Wikinews interviews Steve Burke, U.S. Democratic Party presidential candidate

Sunday, December 13, 2015

 This article is a featured article. It is considered one of the best works of the Wikinews community. See Wikinews:Featured articles for more information.

Macomb, New York Councilman Steve Burke took some time to speak with Wikinews about his campaign for the U.S. Democratic Party’s 2016 presidential nomination.

Burke, an insurance adjuster and farmer, was elected councilman in Brookhaven, New York in 1979. He left the town after being accused and found not guilty of bribery in the 1980s. Since 1987 he has served as Macomb councilman off-and-on and currently holds the post. From 1993 to 1996 and 1999 to 2002 he worked as chairman of the Democratic Party of St. Lawrence County, New York. Among his many political campaigns, Burke unsuccessfully sought the Democratic Party’s presidential nomination in 1992 and recently attempted to run for U.S. Congress in 2014 but too many of his ballot petition signatures were found invalid. Burke filed with the Federal Election Commission to run for president in the 2016 election on September 18, 2015 and has qualified for the first-in-the-nation New Hampshire Primary.

With Wikinews reporter William S. Saturn?, Burke discusses his political background, his 2016 presidential campaign, and his policy proposals.

Retrieved from “https://en.wikinews.org/w/index.php?title=Wikinews_interviews_Steve_Burke,_U.S._Democratic_Party_presidential_candidate&oldid=4567472”

Open source game developer Perttu Ahola talks about Minetest with Wikinews

Tuesday, June 30, 2020

Recently, Finnish open-source video game developer Perttu Ahola discussed Minetest, his “longest ever project”, with Wikinews.

Started in October 2010, Minetest was an attempt by Ahola to create a sandbox game similar to Minecraft. Minecraft is a multi-platform commercial game, which was in alpha version when Ahola challenged himself to create something similar to it from scratch, he told Wikinews.

Minetest is an open-source game, which is free for anyone to download and play. It is written in the C++ programming language, and the source code is available on code-hosting site GitHub. According to Ahola, Minetest attempts to run on older hardware, with limited graphics, but to be accessible to more people: those who have outdated technology, and making it available for no cost. Minecraft, on the other hand, is a paid game, currently costing USD 26.95 for its computer version. Minecraft is currently owned by Microsoft, and performs poorly on older hardware.

A correspondent from French Wikinews contacted Perttu Ahola via Internet Relay Chat a few weeks ago, discussing Minecraft. This interview is built on top of the previous interview, as we take a deeper dive into knowing more about this free game which is about to turn ten years old in a few months.

Retrieved from “https://en.wikinews.org/w/index.php?title=Open_source_game_developer_Perttu_Ahola_talks_about_Minetest_with_Wikinews&oldid=4589743”

Surgeons reattach boy’s three severed limbs

Tuesday, March 29, 2005A team of Australian surgeons yesterday reattached both hands and one foot to 10-year-old Perth boy, Terry Vo, after a brick wall which collapsed during a game of basketball fell on him, severing the limbs. The wall gave way while Terry performed a slam-dunk, during a game at a friend’s birthday party.

The boy was today awake and smiling, still in some pain but in good spirits and expected to make a full recovery, according to plastic surgeon, Mr Robert Love.

“What we have is parts that are very much alive so the reattached limbs are certainly pink, well perfused and are indeed moving,” Mr Love told reporters today.

“The fact that he is moving his fingers, and of course when he wakes up he will move both fingers and toes, is not a surprise,” Mr Love had said yesterday.

“The question is more the sensory return that he will get in the hand itself and the fine movements he will have in the fingers and the toes, and that will come with time, hopefully. We will assess that over the next 18 months to two years.

“I’m sure that he’ll enjoy a game of basketball in the future.”

The weight and force of the collapse, and the sharp brick edges, resulted in the three limbs being cut through about 7cm above the wrists and ankle.

Terry’s father Tan said of his only child, the injuries were terrible, “I was scared to look at him, a horrible thing.”

The hands and foot were placed in an ice-filled Esky and rushed to hospital with the boy, where three teams of medical experts were assembled, and he was given a blood transfusion after experiencing massive blood loss. Eight hours of complex micro-surgery on Saturday night were followed by a further two hours of skin grafts yesterday.

“What he will lose because it was such a large zone of traumatised skin and muscle and so on, he will lose some of the skin so he’ll certainly require lots of further surgery regardless of whether the skin survives,” said Mr Love said today.

The boy was kept unconscious under anaesthetic between the two procedures. In an interview yesterday, Mr Love explained why:

“He could have actually been woken up the next day. Because we were intending to take him back to theatre for a second look, to look at the traumatised skin flaps, to close more of his wounds and to do split skin grafting, it was felt the best thing to do would be to keep him stable and to keep him anaesthetised.”

Professor Wayne Morrison, director of the respected Bernard O’Brien Institute of Microsurgery and head of plastic and hand surgery at Melbourne’s St Vincent’s Hospital, said he believed the operation to be a world first.

Retrieved from “https://en.wikinews.org/w/index.php?title=Surgeons_reattach_boy%27s_three_severed_limbs&oldid=440114”

Why It Pays To Invest In Gold

By Bob Schwartz, California Gold Nugget Prospector

There is a giant vacuum scooping up most of your financial wealth and you dont even hear the noise. Quite simply, you are going broke. The US currency was designed to be, literally, as good as gold, from the very beginning. The Constitution states that our currency was meant to be only gold and silver to prevent exactly what is been happening to the US dollar right now.

When the gold standard was set in place the price of gold remained a constant $20.65 per ounce and fluctuated only one penny over the years 1833 to 1890. From the years 1891 to 1930 the price of gold was still pretty stable. The low was $20.58 and the high $21.32 per ounce. This means that for the period of 1833 through 1930, a total of 97 years, the price for 1 ounce of gold changed only 74 in US dollars. An interesting fact is that gold hit an all-time low $17.06 during the Depression year of 1931.

Many people believe that the 1931 goal was influenced by the newly formed Federal Reserve which kept the money supply very tight. Some believe that it was the Great Depression that created the Federal Reserve. Actually, the Federal Reserve was created in 1913, well before the Great Depression. Since the Fed’s creation, the US has been slowly going off the gold standard. On August 15, 1971, President Nixon announced that the United States would no longer redeem US currency for gold. This was actually the final step for the US abandoning the gold standard.

Since going off the gold standard the value of the US dollar has been steadily and continuously declining. While the actual price of gold remained fairly consistent, one has to look at the value of the dollar. Since going off the gold standard, the dollar has declined.

Recently the price of gold hit all time highs at over $1400 an ounce. Since then the rate has dropped below $1400 but the Federal Reserves latest scheme to buy 600 trillion of the Treasury’s debt, it seems certain that gold is about to reach a new high once again.

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d4TqNI9rU_s[/youtube]

Now here’s an interesting fact: In 1964, a quarter would buy you a gallon of gas. Quarters made in 1964 and earlier were roughly 90% silver and 10% copper. Today, with gas going for about three dollars a gallon, the silver in that pre-1964 quarter would buy over a gallon and a half worth of gas. So you can see, it’s not that the price of silver has gone up so much. It’s the fact that the dollar has been tumbling that makes this possible.

There are many out there that are saying this is a gold and silver bubble and it’s about to bust.

The uncontrolled spending here in California by the state government, as well as the Federal government, indicates the dollar value will continually erode, at least in the foreseeable future.

It takes about 5 1/2 pre-1964 quarters to make up 1 ounce of silver. In my example above you can see that the price of gold and silver actually remains quite constant, while the paper currencies that are not tried to gold and silver have actually declined. One can look to the European countries to see the crisis that’s happening with the Euro and individual currencies.

Today the current country in economic distress is Ireland, a few weeks ago it was Greece, and people believe Spain is in the same boat.

This overspending and debt creation has been driving the purchasing power of the dollar down. This is exactly what the founders of the Constitution warned us about and foresaw to prevent by putting us on a gold standard to back our currency. The current $600 trillion Treasury note debt purchase by the Federal Reserve, is just a tax on all US citizens. The government is taking money from each and every citizen by pushing down the value of the dollar. The vast majority of citizens don’t realize this is a tax; in reality that’s exactly what it is.

If you listen to the government, you’ll hear there is no inflation. Go to the grocery store and look at prices for basic staples (milk, fresh vegetables, cheese); they’ve all gone way up. Even though ones salary has been pretty consistent, youre able to purchase much less and have much less disposable income. The concern is not the fact that these commodities are going up; it is that the dollar value is going down.

Investor portfolios should include gold investment in order to offset the decline in the dollars purchasing power.

The majority of the worlds gold mining results in fine gold dust and natural gold nuggets are rare. Everyone should have some investments in gold.

My personal passion is weekend gold nugget hunting. The adventure of finding my own nuggets is a joy. Meeting many other prospectors has been educational and fun.

About the Author: The latest gold info: FREE – Subscribe to Bob’s

Gold Nugget Prospecting

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Internet group Anonymous hacks No Cussing Club’s website, owner’s e-mail account

Friday, January 23, 2009

Wikinews has learned that the internet group known only as “Anonymous” has hacked the website of the No Cussing Club (NCC), nocussing.com, for at least two days in a row. On day one, the group hacked into the website, replacing the content with links to images of alleged e-mail conversations. The e-mails appear to be from the founder’s e-mail account, accusing organization members of forgery and using the site for their own personal financial gains. The website was also replaced with Anonymous’s logo and a message. On January 22, they again attacked the website, by means of a Distributed Denial-of-service attack (DDoS), bringing it offline periodically throughout the day. Anonymous attacked the Scientology website in 2008 with a DDoS attack, taking it off-line for at least two days.

“It has come to our attention that the creators of the no cussing club, McKay and Brent Hatch have done so at great personal gain. Their material promotes the organization as the brainchild of their 14-year-old son, when actually the material is written by his parents, who also manage his profitable career while using his speaking events to plug their own material,” said Anonymous on the hacked website. On Encyclopedia Dramatica, a satire Wiki, they claim further responsibility for the hack and exposition saying they managed to break into McKay and Brent Hatch’s email accounts. “[the accounts got] haxx0rd and via this astonishing development passwords were got and a certain website got its shit ruined.”

According to the NCC’s website, it has 20,000 members worldwide, was founded in 2007 by McKay Hatch, a 14-year-old boy, and aims at discouraging swearing in public places such as schools. In 2008, McKay even succeeded in making cussing illegal in his hometown of South Pasadena, California and has appeared on various talk shows such as that of Doctor Phil. However, according to e-mails leaked to Wikinews, allegedly written by the boy’s father Brent, a motivational speaker also owning Dawson Publishing, the parents are allegedly using the site and their son’s material for their own personal financial gain. Anonymous also claims that the parents have forged some of their son’s writings and claim it to be his.

The e-mails allege that Brent along with his publishing company, the name which “nocussing.com” is also registered under, were trying to set up assemblies in the No Cussing Club’s name at schools across the United States for US$1,500.00 per show and would then pocket the money, doing the same for postcards they created for churches and schools.

“McKay spoke last night to a group of 40 people, and at the end of his presentation, there wasn’t a dry eye in the crowd. I know this is going to work because the message is so important. Thanks for all you do and I hope we can work together for a long time, and of course make money in the process,” said Brent in an alleged e-mail conversation on November 25, 2008. Earlier in August 2008, Brent spoke about hoping to reach a “goal” of “2.5 million dollars” by selling thousands of postcards to “schools and churches”.

On January 19, 2009, ABC News.com reported that McKay claimed Anonymous was sending him and his family hate e-mail and death threats, nearly 50,000 per day, “almost all of them filled with obscenities” and spam. On the NCC’s website, McKay calls himself the “most cyberbullied kid on the planet” because of Anonymous’s attacks.

“A lot of people were saying I was taking away their freedom of speech,” said McKay to ABC News on January 16. “All I was trying to do was raise awareness.” He says he formed the club because his schoolmates were sick of hearing people swear in public. Wikinews contacted the NCC to confirm or deny the reports, but would only say that “the FBI is [working] on it [the case]” including “our attorney and we will press charges” against those who are responsible for the crimes.

Anonymous is known to prank and hack websites and e-mail accounts. In September 2008, the group hacked into BillOreilly.com, the official website of Fox News Channel commentator Bill O’Reilly, exposing personal information of the site’s users in a document posted on the internet.

The NCC is located in South Pasadena. According to the California Penal Code §502 part C of the computer hacking laws, depending on the offense if caught, punishments could be a “fine not exceeding ten thousand dollars ($10,000), or by imprisonment in the state prison for 16 months, or two or three years, or by both that fine and imprisonment, or by a fine not exceeding five thousand dollars ($5,000), or by imprisonment in a county jail not exceeding one year, or by both that fine and imprisonment”.

On October 20, 2008, Dmitriy Guzner, aged 18 from New Jersey, admitted to the charges related to carrying out the DDoS attack on Scientology’s website. He was subsequently charged with computer hacking crimes and faces a maximum sentence of ten years imprisonment.

Retrieved from “https://en.wikinews.org/w/index.php?title=Internet_group_Anonymous_hacks_No_Cussing_Club%27s_website,_owner%27s_e-mail_account&oldid=1719936”

Fear and loathing on the campaign trail, June 2008

Tuesday, July 1, 2008

June in the United States 2008 presidential election rolled by as a month with many similarities to the 2004 election. The Clintons were sent to the sidelines again, old faces took new roles and some took the same. An issue was raised that once again could drive conservatives to the Republicans and attacks on a candidate’s military record was prominent in the press. But what changed the election forever was the death of Tim Russert who helped to cover everything that happened and shape America’s perception of the candidates on the trail.

Republicans
  • The presumptive Republican presidential nominee John McCain exchanged barbs with Senator John Kerry over the history of conflict in Iraq. Kerry stated that McCain “doesn’t understand Iraq, or the Middle East, or the war on terrorism.” This was a change of heart for Kerry who as the Democratic nominee in 2004 considered McCain as a running mate. Retired General Wesley Clark said McCain’s military record lacked command experience, and endorsed Obama. In 2004, Clark was among those who questioned Kerry’s military record.
  • Many in the media likened the Supreme Court ruling that granted Habeas corpus rights to detainees in the Guantánamo Bay detention center to the influx of marriage licenses granted by San Francisco Mayor Gavin Newsom in 2004 as a rallying point for conservatives. Pundits stated that the future of the Supreme Court could be an important issue on the minds of voters that could drive the religious right to McCain.
  • John McCain released a new platform that called for more offshore drilling of oil off the coasts of Florida and California. The plan hoped to increase supply of oil to reduce the price of gasoline for the American consumer and encourage energy independence. The plan was widely heralded by conservatives some of whom have called for drilling in ANWR despite McCain’s opposition. Obama responded to the plan by stating that McCain’s solution would only help in the long run.
Democrats
  • The final three presidential primaries were held. Hillary Clinton won in Puerto Rico and South Dakota but Barack Obama won in Montana. Obama secured the Democratic nomination following the primaries when a stream of superdelegates came out to support Obama. Hillary conceded the race a few days later and named herself as the best choice to be Obama’s running mate.
  • As the nomination was secured for Obama the media speculated about a spirited discussion on the Senate floor between Obama and Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman. Lieberman was the Democratic Vice presidential nominee in 2000 but left the party in 2006 after a senatorial primary defeat. He has endorsed John McCain in the 2008 presidential election.
  • Obama was also in the media when two of his campaign volunteers refused to allow two women wearing headscarves to sit in the front row of an Obama campaign event. The move was characterized in the media as an attempt to prevent the candidate from being associated with Muslims in light of false rumors circulating that Obama is secretly a Muslim.
  • The leader of the Congressional Black Caucus Representative Carolyn Cheeks Kilpatrick of Michigan announced that former Senators Sam Nunn and John Edwards’ names were forwarded by the caucus to a team on the Obama campaign dealing with selecting a vice-presidential nominee.
Third parties
  • Independent candidate Ralph Nader proclaimed in an interview that despite no coverage of his campaign, he was at 6% in Associated Press opinion polls against John McCain and Barack Obama. He actually stood at 3% in the most recent Associated Press poll. The campaign acknowledged the mistake and clarified that it was instead a CNN/Opinion Research Corp. poll that placed Nader at 6%.
  • With the green party national convention slated for July 10-14, Cynthia McKinney leads all candidates with 291.5 delegate votes of the 419 needed to secure the nomination. Despite not being a candidate for the Green Party nomination, Ralph Nader is in second place with 137 and Kent Mesplay is in third with 28.5 delegates.
  • Libertarian Party presidential nominee Bob Barr and Ralph Nader each received some media attention by appearing on Sunday morning talk shows at the end of June. Barr appeared on Fox News Sunday where he defended his run against criticism that he could hurt John McCain in the general election and stated that his campaign would hit full gear after the Fourth of July holiday.
Retrieved from “https://en.wikinews.org/w/index.php?title=Fear_and_loathing_on_the_campaign_trail,_June_2008&oldid=4641416”