Digital Extra: The Journal's 175th Anniversary

07.21.2004

The passing news

With fireworks booming and crowds cheering, Rhode Island and Southeastern Massachusetts greeted the new millennium amid noisy and high-spirited celebrations that were most remarkable for their similarity to any other New Year's Eve.

For despite the much-publicized fears, the lights stayed lit, the trains ran, the bombs lay safe in their bunkers, the ATMs delivered cash, and the earth continued rotating as smoothly as ever.

Jan. 1, 2000

We must avoid snap judgments and remain calm, lest our outrage lead to precipitous acts that make things worse. Our leaders need to gather much new information on how to act against those who perpetrated the attacks and may be planning more. And, of course, they must deal immediately with the human and economic damage of yesterday's catastrophe, especially in the war zones that are lower Manhattan and the Pentagon.

Editorial, Sept. 12, 2001

Struggling Aaron Boone, who wasn't even in the starting lineup, crushed Tim Wakefield's first pitch in the bottom of the 11th inning into the seats in left field, giving New York a sudden-death, 6-5 victory over the stunned Red Sox in the deciding Game 7 of the American League Championship Series.

Oct. 16, 2003

Vincent Albert Cianci Jr., the longest-serving mayor in Providence history, was sentenced to 5 years and 4 months in federal prison yesterday for running a racketeering enterprise at City Hall.

Sept. 7, 2002

Thirteen years after the murder of Victoria E. Cushman, a man unknown to investigators before Friday has stepped forward to claim responsibility for the slaying.

The stunning revelation apparently exonerates former Warwick police Detective Jeffrey Scott Hornoff, who was convicted of the murder in 1996 and is serving a life sentence.

Nov. 5, 2002

It was a scene undoubtedly repeated in a thousand taverns all over New England last night, as anxiety-ridden fans erupted in a chorus of cheers at Murphy's Deli and Bar on Union Street as Adam Vinatieri's field goal cleared the upright and gave the Patriots the team's first Super Bowl championship.

Feb. 4, 2002

In a democracy, access to information is equivalent to having air to breathe. [Governor] Carcieri seemed stunned that a poorly drafted bill he thought was accomplishing specific, limited objectives could draw charges of McCarthyism. He said that's not his thing. Good. So let's regard the moment as a time to rededicate ourselves ... Let us recall what CBS's Edward R. Murrow said as McCarthyism raged in 1954: "We proclaim ourselves -- as indeed we are -- the defenders of freedom, what's left of it, but we cannot defend freedom abroad by desertng it at home."

Columnist M. Charles Bakst, Feb. 24, 2004, on the governor's failed homeland security bill, which The Journal had attacked