Datebook
Datebook
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 16
REMEMBERING RFK. Three events on Capitol Hill commemorate the 80th anniversary of Robert F. Kennedy's birth (actually November 20). The former attorney general and president's brother was assassinated while campaigning for the Democratic presidential nomination in 1968. A current Democratic star, Sen. Barack Obama of Illinois, who was 6 years old when Kennedy was killed, will be the keynote speaker.
NO, IT'S MY INTERNET. The United Nations World Summit on the Information Society opens in Tunisia and promises an acrimonious debate over who controls the Internet and freedom of speech on the Web. The European Union and countries including China and Brazil contend that the Internet should be overseen by an international body or a group of nations, not the American-based private organization that now regulates domain names and that ultimately answers to Washington. But the United States says it won't yield that power.
AUTHOR, AUTHOR! The 2005 National Book Awards are presented at a dinner in New York. Among this year's finalists are E. L. Doctorow (The March) and William T. Vollmann (Europe Central) in fiction, Joan Didion (The Year of Magical Thinking) in nonfiction, John Ashbery (Where Shall I Wander) and W. S. Merwin (Migration: New and Selected Poems) in poetry, and Walter Dean Myers (Autobiography of My Dead Brother) in young people's literature.
CHUBBY CHILDREN. Everyone agrees there are too many fat kids in America, but what will happen when manufacturers try to develop devices to treat the problem of childhood obesity? A Food and Drug Administration advisory committee meets today and tomorrow in Gaithersburg, Md., to discuss ethical and scientific issues that could arise in running clinical trials of such devices. Now, only one device is marketed to treat obesity in adults, and none are approved for children. Yet applications for devices to treat adults have increased, and the FDA expects that companies will soon turn their attention to kids. Among questions that need answering: How old should a child be to take part in a clinical trial, and how long should trials of devices for kids last?
FRIDAY, NOVEMBER 18
AND REMEMBERING JFK. Dogged investigators of the Nov. 22, 1963, assassination of President John F. Kennedy in Dallas open a three-day conference in Bethesda, Md. Among the speakers are former Sen. Gary Hart and a journalist who is suing the CIA to release still-secret documents.
CONCLAVE AT THE KWIKEE MART. The National Association of Convenience Stores winds up its convention in Las Vegas with a speech by former Secretary of State Colin Powell.
SUNDAY, NOVEMBER 20
JUDGMENT AT NUREMBERG. Sixty years ago today, the trials of 24 Nazi leaders in World War II began in Nuremberg, Germany, before the International Military Tribunal. They were charged with crimes against peace, crimes against humanity, war crimes, and conspiracy. Ten were eventually hanged. Now, in what would be the first war-crimes trials of foreign prisoners since the post-World War II era, the Bush administration plans to try foreigners accused of terrorism in special military courts. But, in a case brought by lawyers for a driver of Osama bin Laden held at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, the Supreme Court agreed last week to hear a challenge that contends the Bush plan would violate prisoners' rights under the Geneva Conventions.
HOW FAST CAN YOU DRINK PICKLE JUICE? A contest at the eighth International Picklefest in Rosendale, N.Y., could provide the answer.
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 21
"BORKED" AND "MIERED." Clement Haynsworth, President Nixon's nominee for the Supreme Court, was rejected by the Senate, 55 to 45, on this date in 1969. At the time, he was the first nominee rejected on a Senate vote since 1930. The following year, Nixon's next nominee, G. Harrold Carswell, was also voted down. Only one other Supreme Court nominee since, Robert Bork, has lost in the Senate (and his name became a verb that describes his treatment in Washington). Two others have withdrawn: Douglas Ginsburg in 1987 and Harriet Miers last month. And liberal groups are gunning for the latest nominee, Samuel Alito.
TUESDAY, NOVEMBER 22
ONE MORE CHANCE TO GET INSIDE THE MIND OF GREENSPAN. The Federal Reserve Board releases the minutes of its November meeting. Economists and Wall Street money managers are sure to pore over them. They'll be looking for any signs that high energy prices are bleeding into the broad economy. Already, there is a growing sense that the Fed might raise interest rates by half a percentage point--not the typical quarter point of the past dozen rate increases--at its December meeting to stave off inflation. Such a move would also allow current Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan to finish his fight against inflation before stepping down on January 31, when he is scheduled to hand over the Fed's reins to Bush nominee Ben Bernanke.
With Silla Brush, Betsy Querna, Paul J. Lim and Carol Hook
This story appears in the November 21, 2005 print edition of U.S. News & World Report.