 |  | 
May 17, 2012 | | TRAGEDY Robert Kennedy Jr.’s estranged wife was found dead on Wednesday after reportedly hanging herself at the family’s Bedford, N.Y. home. Her friends tell The Daily Beast’s Eleanor Clift about how she battled drug and alcohol problems and was depressed that her marriage could not be reconciled. Plus, read about other Kennedy family tragedies. NEW MINORITY White people have been on the way out in America for a long time, but it’s finally official: the U.S. Census Bureau announced Thursday that, of all births in the 12-month period ending in July 2011, non-Hispanic white babies made up less than half. Of 2.5 million births, 49.6 percent were non-Hispanic whites, while 50.4 percent were Hispanics, blacks, Asians, and others of mixed races. The new racial makeup represents a milestone for a country founded by white Europeans, and represents a generational divide between younger Americans and those who grew up in a predominantly white society. WAR CRIMES Before his trial was suspended indefinitely Thursday due to the prosecution's errors, former Bosnian Serb general Ratko Mladic nodded, smiled and clapped his hands on his lap as 16-year-old footage was shown at his U.N. war crimes tribunal. The film showed the “butcher of Bosnia” screaming at a Dutch general, demanding to know why he authorized NATO planes to bomb advancing Serbian forces. After the footage, Mladic signaled a time-out and the tribunal broke for five minutes. The trial is turning to Mladic’s involvement in a massacre of Muslim men and boys in the Srebrenica region, a U.N. safe haven for Bosnian Muslims who had fled the conflict. The Dutch withdrew when it was clear Bosnian Serb forces were overrunning them, and 8,500 people were killed within a few days. NO WORRIES The feds may be conducting a criminal probe of the bad bet placed by the bank run by Jamie Dimon. But the track record suggests he has no worries, say The Daily Beast’s Peter J. Boyer and Peter Schweizer. RACE-BAITING Backed by a conservative billionaire, a cadre of top Republican strategists are considering a hard-line attack on President Obama timed to disrupt the Democratic convention. The strategists wrote that they are preparing to “do exactly what John McCain would not let us do”—which includes a blitz of television ads linking Obama to the incendiary comments of his former pastor, Rev. Jeremiah Wright. The $10 million project, known as the Ricketts Plan, calls for hiring an “extremely literate conservative African-American” to accuse Obama of lying in presenting himself as a “metrosexual, black Abe Lincoln,” rather than a radical supporter of “black liberation theology.” | | 
GET The Cheat Sheet A speedy, smart summary of news and must-reads from across the Web. You'll love the featured original stories on politics, entertainment, and more from The Daily Beast's diverse group of contributors.  GET The Yes List Weekly cultural recommendations from The Daily Beast.
| |
No comments:
Post a Comment