Stephen McGee for The New York TimesIn Trauma Units, Feeling WarehousedBy JAMES DAO and DAN FROSCH Warrior Transition Units were intended as sheltering way stations for injured soldiers. But the units are far from being restful sanctuaries. Specialist Michael Crawford, above, tried to commit suicide at one unit. Read Article   

  Doug Mills/The New York TimesHolder Sees Milestone on GuantánamoBy JACK HEALY The attorney general told a Senate panel that terrorism prosecutions were a step toward closing the facility, but President Obama said the deadline wouldn’t be met.  "And Mr. Obama, speaking to NBC News, defended the decision to try Mr. Mohammed in New York, saying that any anger at the civilian trial would disappear “when he’s convicted and when the death penalty is applied to him.” “I have complete confidence in the American people and our legal traditions and the prosecutors,” he said."    

   A Bravura Opening
      By David S. Broder
      Thursday, April 23, 2009
    As we approach the 100-day mark for the Obama administration, you will hear and see a wide variety of grades for the new president's performance. Remember this: What has happened so far is no more than the overture to the first act of this opera. The big stuff is still to come. The soprano has not opened her mouth for her signature aria. That will be health-care reform. The devilish baritone is still offstage. Wait for the first international crisis. Barack Obama has launched a lot of initiatives but has fulfilled few of them. What he has shown -- and it is an important accomplishment in itself -- is a mastery of the art of managing the presidency. It is important because it is the first and most basic test of his ultimate ability to be a successful president. And it is surprising, because there was no reason to assume that he had the skills to direct such a large enterprise. Never before in Obama's 47 years had the lawyer-writer-politician had to recruit, assign and motivate a professional staff of this size and skill and organize it to meet his needs and carry out his purposes. His staffs in the Illinois legislature and the U.S. Senate were minuscule. The campaign itself was by far his largest organizational challenge, and he passed with flying colors. But the presidency poses far tougher tests than a need to amass 270 electoral votes. Obama had a few stumbles in assembling his Cabinet and, as a result, lost the services of one potential major asset, Tom Daschle, his original choice to manage his health-care initiative. Many of the Cabinet members are still learning their jobs, but the White House staff has supported what so far has been a bravura performance on Obama's part. Particularly striking has been the staff's ability to move at a rapid pace to tackle inherited challenges and launch ambitious efforts without creating a sense of confusion about the priorities of the president. Hardly a day has gone by in the first three months that Americans have not seen Obama on their TV screens in a variety of roles -- chiefly as economic salvage director for seriously shattered housing, credit and employment systems. But they've also seen him as commander in chief of armed forces fighting two wars, diplomatic traveler engaged with world leaders, and agenda-setter for Congress -- to say nothing of first father, first fan, first consort of Michelle and first master of Bo. Making this kaleidoscope look coherent -- and not confusing -- requires enormous discipline, and nowhere more than in the management of the White House schedule. The task and the tools were sketched for me last week by chief of staff Rahm Emanuel, who had a close-up look at the near-fatal costs of losing control as a White House staff member in…

The writing's on the wall for the old-style American newspaper The Chicago Tribune Company is bankrupt – and The New York Times is deep in debt. Can there be any future for printed news in the US? Stephen Foley reports from New York Monday, 15 December 2008
GETTY IMAGES Troubled times: the 'Chicago Tribune' on a newspaper stand   'Will old media survive the 'perfect storm'?" wondered the Chicago Tribune, the day after its parent company filed for bankruptcy. "Tribune's collapse rings alarm bells for newspapers," rang out the headline in London's Evening Standard. For the Wall Street Journal – which denies it has become more "tabloid-y" under Rupert Murdoch's ownership – it was a moment to wallow in the "Media industry's trials and Tribune-ations." The headlines were black. These are dark times for newspapers everywhere in the developed world, after all, as the slow ebb of circulation figures has been suddenly and shockingly compounded by a collapse in advertising revenue brought on by the recession. The spectacular bankruptcy of the Tribune group – owner of the Los Angeles Times and the Chicago Tribune, two of the top 10 best-selling papers in the US – and the humbling of Sam Zell, the billionaire property tycoon whose ego is as famously large as he is famously short – provided an irresistible hook for another traipse around these grim subjects. And the inescapable conclusion is that more US newspaper owners will be following Zell along his arc from hubris to nemesis. The storied American families who carved up the industry between them over many generations – the McClatchys, for example, with their empire of regional titles, and the Ochs-Sulzbergers, who have controlled The New York Times since 1896 – will face unprecedented challenges in keeping hold of their debt-laden possessions. Journalists, too, are expecting convulsions, including the demise of many local titles and savage cost-cutting at those that remain. Across the country's 1,400 titles, 15,000 jobs have been lost this year, according to Paper Cuts, a website monitoring lay-offs – more than one out of every eight. Regional newspapers' Washington and overseas bureaux are being shuttered, as the US industry's resources – still rich by international standards – become stretched. In the US, as in perhaps no other country, this is more than the pain of a harsh new competitive reality. For an industry whose foundation myth is written in the First Amendment to the Constitution and whose patron saints are Bob Woodward and Carl Bernstein, whose Watergate investigations for the Washington Post brought a president to book, the difficulties facing the newspaper industry represent a collective psychological trauma. "A free press is the only business stipulated by the Constitution," thundered a cadre of past and present LA Times journalists, as they launched a lawsuit against Zell over his leadership of their parent company. "News organisations are both businesses and public trusts. No other entity – no website, no blogger – is on the horizon…