COVER: "FEAR & THE FLU. The New Age of Pandemics." Contributor Laurie Garrett writes about the H1N1 flu virus and how it has spread from pigs and birds to humans around the globe. She explains why microbes like the H1N1 flu have become a growing threat. "We live in a globalized world, filled with shared microbial threats that arise in one place, are amplified somewhere else through human activities that aid and abet the germs, and then traverse vast geographic terrains in days, even hours -- again, thanks to human activities and movements. If there is blame to be meted, it should be directed at the species Homo sapiens and the manifest ways in which we are reshaping the world ecology, offering germs like the influenza virus extraordinary new opportunities to evolve, mutate and spread."
http://www.newsweek.com/id/195692
(Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20090503/NY10048 )
PERISCOPE: "Fresh Questions About the CIA's Interrogation Tapes." Investigative Correspondents Michael Isikoff and Mark Hosenball report that despite President Obama's assurances that CIA operatives who relied on Bush-era Justice Department interrogation memos would not face criminal prosecution, a Justice Department special counsel is quietly ratcheting up his probe into the CIA's destruction of hundreds of hours of videotape showing the waterboarding of two high-value Qaeda suspects. At the same time, a Senate panel is planning the first public hearing dealing with CIA interrogations, including testimony from a star witness: Ali Soufan, the former FBI agent who vigorously protested the questioning of one of the detainees, terror suspect Abu Zubaydah. And one continuing point of inquiry could spell trouble for the agency: allegations that CIA officials may have made false statements or obstructed justice in the case of the convicted Qaeda conspirator Zacarias Moussaoui.
http://www.newsweek.com/id/195678
JACOB WEISBERG: "Our Tacit Approval of Torture." Contributor Jacob Weisburg writes that the use of torture on suspected terrorists after 9/11 has already earned a place in American history's hall of shame, alongside the Alien and Sedition Acts, Japanese internment during WWII and the excesses of the McCarthy era. "It is the aftermath of such episodes -- what happens when a country comes to its senses -- that reveals the most about a nation's character," he writes. The forced confinement of Japanese-Americans after Pearl Harbor provides the most useful comparison to our current situation. "Unlike the Japanese internment, waterboarding was ordered and served up in secret. But it, too, was America's policy -- not just Dick Cheney's. Congress was informed about what was happening and raised no objection. The public knew, too. By 2003, if you didn't understand that the United States was inflicting torture upon those deemed enemy combatants, you weren't paying much attention... The issue we need to come to terms with is not just who in the Bush administration did what, but our collective complicity in their decision."
http://www.newsweek.com/id/195622
BUSINESS: "Watching Us Save, One Cart at a Time." National Correspondent Daniel McGinn tags along with a Wal-Mart manager at a superstore near Denver to see first hand how consumers are adapting to the tough economy. Manager Karissa Porter says one barometer of customers trying to discipline their spending is an increase in the number who carry shopping lists. Giant packs of ground beef are now selling briskly while nearby shelves of Angus steaks languish. And sales of frozen vegetables have picked up, too, because tight-fisted shoppers won't take the risk that fresh food will spoil.
http://www.newsweek.com/id/195663
MEDICINE: "File Under 'Hodgepodge'." Senior Editor Jerry Adler looks at the major change occurring in medical record keeping. The Obama administration's economic-stimulus package allocates almost $20 billion to help move this jury-rigged system into the 21st century, including direct subsidies to physicians for purchasing health-records systems... as soon as the nation figures out what the system should be. At a minimum, experts say, a national electronic health-records system should permit immediate electronic information exchange between doctors, saving time on taking patients' history and money on tests or X-rays that may have already been performed; replace handwritten prescriptions with an electronic network linking doctors and pharmacies; facilitate "data mining" for information about new (or existing) treatments, and establish standards of care for disease against which actual treatments can be measured.
http://www.newsweek.com/id/195693
VIEWPOINT: "Michelle Hits Her Stride." National Correspondent Allison Samuels writes that when First Lady Michelle Obama unveiled the bronze bust of abolitionist Sojourner Truth last week at the U.S. Capitol, the moment was heavy with symbolism. Truth is the first African-American woman to be honored with a statue in the Capitol. "It was the kind of scene I'd been hoping for when Barack Obama won the presidency last fall," Samuels writes. "I knew that Michelle Obama was already changing the way we see ourselves as African-American women. But I also hoped she would begin to knock down ugly stereotypes and educate people about American black culture. What's remarkable now... is how quickly and decisively Michelle has taken on the issues that matter most to us."
http://www.newsweek.com/id/195690
ARCHITECTURE: "The Goodbye Swirl." Contributing Editor Cathleen McGuigan previews the upcoming exhibition devoted to the work of architect Frank Lloyd Wright at the Solomon R. Guggenheim Museum in New York, the last building that Wright designed. The museum, Wright's most celebrated building today, is about to commemorate its 50th birthday. McGuigan also looks back at Wright's first great large-scale project, the Larkin Soap Company building in Buffalo, New York. The Larkin's interior plan was revolutionary in the world of business, and within its mighty brick walls, it expressed the optimism of its era and the excitement of a booming city. But all that's left of it now is a fragment of one massive brick pier left in the corner of a parking lot where it once stood.
http://www.newsweek.com/id/195658
TECHTONIC SHIFTS: DANIEL LYONS: "Time for a Trade-In." Senior Editor Daniel Lyons writes that the Toyota hybrid Prius is out and the new electric cars are in. A new generation of carmakers is shunning the traditional hybrid format in favor of pure electric powertrains (driven completely by batteries) or "plug-in hybrids." The auto industry is being disrupted by rapid waves of new technology, a phenomenon that feels normal for the folks in Silicon Valley but is perhaps unfamiliar for the folks in Detroit. "We are on the cusp of a period of technical innovation like the auto industry has never seen," says Mike Jackson, CEO of AutoNation, the largest U.S. auto retailer. "There will be more change in the next five to 10 years than there was in the last 100."
http://www.newsweek.com/id/195662
MUSIC: "And the Cat Came Back." Contributing Editor Lorraine Ali reviews the upcoming album by the man formerly known as Cat Stevens, Yusuf Islam, who pulled out of the spotlight 30 years ago but is now back to playing music again, at 60. His new album "Roadsinger (To Warm You Through the Night)" tackles secular themes, and these days he has a lot more stories to tell. It's a compelling mix of Cat Stevens's simple but deep songwriting, Islam's optimistic world view and that voice, Ali writes. He's also going on a mini-blitz on the late-night talk-show circuit, morning radio and on the road, quite a switch for a man who spent the past three decades in retreat quietly raising five kids, running two Islamic schools in the U.K., founding a charity for kids and making only a few faith-based, benefit records that catered to other Muslims.
http://www.newsweek.com/id/195670
/PRNewswire -- May 3/
