Decades

The headlines from last month's Iranian nuclear talks in Istanbul could not have been more misleading: "Iran is ready to resolve nuclear issues. " The accumulation of historical fact in this long crisis proves just the opposite: The Iranian regime is bent on acquiring a nuclear weapon, and will take full advantage of diplomacy toward this end if allowed to do so, including this week's talks in Baghdad. Indeed, the Iranian strategy of exploiting diplomacy to further advance the nuclear program is a matter of regime policy.

They gathered to mourn a young man, another young black man gunned down by other young men. In the Mattapan of 1992, in a city ravaged by drug and gang violence, the grief had become a familiar litany. But when the violence crossed the threshold of Morning Star Baptist Church that May night 20 years ago this week, and a stabbing and shooting during a solemn funeral turned the sanctuary into just another street corner, Boston reached a breaking point. "Everyone recognized a line had been crossed," said the Rev. Jeffrey Brown.

For decades, those with high cholesterol have been given a list of don'ts when it comes to their diet: Don't eat cholesterol-rich eggs; don't eat butter; don't eat red meat or regular ice cream. Well, now researchers have identified a list of do's for the diet that may work to lower cholesterol levels better than avoiding those don'ts. In a study published last week in the Journal of the American Medical Association, researchers found that eating cholesterol-lowering foods like nuts, soy protein, and certain fiber-rich items result in bigger drops in "bad" LDL cholesterol than avoiding...

MADISON, S.D. - A 74-year-old South Dakota man accused of fatally shooting his long-ago classmate in a grudge reaching back decades pleaded guilty but mentally ill on Tuesday to a second-degree murder charge. Carl Ericsson was charged in the Jan. 31 killing of retired Madison High School teacher and track coach Norman Johnson. Johnson was shot twice in the face after answering his door at his home in Madison. Johnson's wife, Barbara, found him lying on the floor and saw a man walking to a dark sedan.

After years of suffering from chronically inflamed and infected sinuses, I finally decided I'd had enough. I chose to do what 500,000 other Americans do every year - have sinus surgery. It wasn't an easy decision. I had to balance my need for a fix against my fear of surgery and research that raised questions about the procedure. I was miserable. My sinuses, those supposedly hollow spaces around the nose, had become clogged by scar tissue and the build-up of thickened mucus from decades of infections and inflammation.

MIDDLEBURY, Vt. -- The Rev. Charles Powell Scott, known affectionately by decades of Middlebury College students as "Chaplain Charlie," died at his home yesterday. He was 84. Rev. Scott served as Middlebury's chaplain for more than 30 years. "The Middlebury community has lost an icon," said Middlebury College President Ronald D. Liebowitz in a statement to the college community. "Chaplain Scott counseled and advised generations of Middlebury students," Liebowitz said.

It was 50 years ago this month — Oct. 20, 1960 — that one of America’s favorite language disputes showed up in print, in the form of a letter to Ann Landers. A reader wanted Ann to settle a dispute with his girlfriend: “You know that common expression: ‘I couldn’t care less,’ ” he wrote. “Well, she says it’s ‘I COULD care less.’ ” Ann voted with her reader — “the expression as I understand it is ‘I couldn’t care less’ ” — but she thought the question was trivial.

THE REPUBLICANS are very quick to raise the cry of "class warfare" in response to President Obama's proposal for taxes on the very wealthy. Republicans raise this cry whenever the class they've been making war on for decades - quite successfully, by the way - finally shows any sign of fighting back. Robert Abruzzo Burlington

Veteran New York City news anchor Sue Simmons will go off the air when her contract expires in June. New York Post columnist Cindy Adams reports ( http://nyp.st/xWxM5v) that Simmons' bosses at WNBC Channel 4 told her last week that her contract would not be renewed. Adams says the 68-year-old Simmons would happily have stayed. WNBC said in a statement that it is "engaged in ongoing conversations with Sue about her transition from WNBC. " Station managers said they'll work with Simmons on plans to "celebrate her many contributions to WNBC and the New York market.

The number of measles deaths worldwide has apparently dropped by about three-quarters over a decade, according to a new study by the World Health Organization and others. Most of the deaths were in India and Africa, where not enough children are being immunized. Health officials estimate about 9.6 million children were saved from dying of measles from 2000 to 2010 after big vaccination campaigns were rolled out more than a decade ago. Researchers guessed the number of deaths fell during that time period from about 535,300 to 139,300, or about 74 percent.

WASHINGTON - Production at US factories dropped in March for the first time in four months as the industry cooled following the strongest surge in three decades. Manufacturing, which makes up about 75 percent of industrial output, decreased 0.2 percent last month as appliance and furniture makers cut back, data from the Federal Reserve showed Tuesday in Washington. The decline followed a revised 3.4 percent gain from December through February that marked the biggest three-month jump since March 1984.

The Canton Community Theatre celebrated its 10th anniversary season with a comedy show fund-raiser on April 14 at the Canton Town Club, featuring comedians Frank Santorelli, Patty Ross, and Donny Soares. The theater, which performs benefits for the Friends of the Canton Public Library, Canton Community Problem Solving Teams, and the Canton Historical Society, launched its first show, "You're a Good Man, Charlie Brown," in the spring of 2002. - Meg Murphy

Major League Baseball ticket prices are flat for the first time in two decades. The average is $26.92 this year, up 1 cent from last season and the smallest increase in the survey's 21-year history, the Team Marketing Report said Friday. That's a 1.5 percent increase in 2010 and 1.2 percent last year. The average was $77.36 in the NFL last year, and $57.10 in the NHL and $48.48 in the NBA in their current seasons. Boston has the highest average for a nonpremium ticket at $53.38, followed by the New York Yankees at $51.55.

JEFF JACOBY'S March 21 op-ed column "A safer society with guns" relies on isolated data from Washington, D.C., and two schools in Colorado, while ignoring decades of US and international data on gun-related deaths. Research from the schools of public health at UCLA and Harvard shows that homicide rates in the United States are nearly seven times higher than those in other high-income countries, and are driven by firearm homicide rates nearly 20 times higher. In the US population age 15 to 24, firearm homicide rates are almost 43 times higher than in other...

FAYETTEVILLE, Ga. - Famed Georgia sportswriter Furman Bisher, who covered everything from major golf tournaments to the Triple Crown in a career that spanned six decades, died Sunday of a massive heart attack outside Atlanta. He was 93. The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reported Mr. Bisher's death on its website Sunday evening. Jim Minter, former editor of the paper, said family members told him that Mr. Bisher had planned to watch golf at home Sunday but complained of feeling ill, at which point his wife, Lynda, called 911. He died at a nearby hospital.

Major League Baseball ticket prices are flat for the first time in two decades. The average is $26.92 this year, up 1 cent from last season and the smallest increase in the survey's 21-year history, the Team Marketing Report said Friday. That's a 1.5 percent increase in 2010 and 1.2 percent last year. The average was $77.36 in the NFL last year, and $57.10 in the NHL and $48.48 in the NBA in their current seasons. Boston has the highest average for a nonpremium ticket at $53.38, followed by the New York Yankees at $51.55.

MADISON, S.D. - A 74-year-old South Dakota man accused of fatally shooting his long-ago classmate in a grudge reaching back decades pleaded guilty but mentally ill on Tuesday to a second-degree murder charge. Carl Ericsson was charged in the Jan. 31 killing of retired Madison High School teacher and track coach Norman Johnson. Johnson was shot twice in the face after answering his door at his home in Madison. Johnson's wife, Barbara, found him lying on the floor and saw a man walking to a dark sedan.

Veteran New York City news anchor Sue Simmons will go off the air when her contract expires in June. New York Post columnist Cindy Adams reports ( http://nyp.st/xWxM5v) that Simmons' bosses at WNBC Channel 4 told her last week that her contract would not be renewed. Adams says the 68-year-old Simmons would happily have stayed. WNBC said in a statement that it is "engaged in ongoing conversations with Sue about her transition from WNBC. " Station managers said they'll work with Simmons on plans to "celebrate her many contributions to WNBC and the New York market.

Don Garber was still in the infancy of his tenure as commissioner of Major League Soccer when the league faced legitimate uncertainty about its future and was forced to fold two underperforming franchises. That was 10 years, nine new franchises and 13 new or renovated soccer stadiums ago. "There were many times where we were wondering whether or not we would be able to continue to operate," Garber said. "The league came out with that launch in 1996 and at that time everybody thought we had cracked the code for soccer in America, and all of a sudden the league would...