FEATURES
By Tim Smith and Tim Smith,SUN MUSIC CRITIC | May 5, 2001
"Where are you going," Melisande asks of the older man who has found her lost, alone and frightened in a dark wood and asks her to come with him. "I don't know," the man says. "I'm lost, too." In a way, these lines from Claude Debussy's only completed opera, "Pelleas et Melisande," define the mysterious drama that follows. Everyone in this haunting work is lost; some know it, some don't. By the end, Melisande, on her death bed, says, "I don't know what I know." She's not alone. Some audiences are frustrated by the vagueness of "Pelleas et Melisande"; they crave clear-cut characters, motivations, denouements -- and more direct music to delineate those elements.
NEWS
By NEW YORK TIMES NEWS SERVICE | December 25, 1998
HELENA, Mont. -- Montana's one-of-a-kind daytime speed limit -- written in law as whatever speed is "reasonable and proper" and widely interpreted as wide open -- has been struck down by the Montana Supreme Court, prompting fears that the lack of even the vague limit will lead people to drive at breakneck speeds.In a 4-3 ruling on Wednesday, the court said the law was unconstitutionally vague and did not give drivers fair notice of what speed was fast enough to be illegal."The court held that based on speed alone you cannot cite somebody because they don't reasonably know what speed will violate the law," Beth Baker, Montana's chief deputy attorney general, said yesterday.
NEWS
By Laura Sullivan and Ariel Sabar and Laura Sullivan and Ariel Sabar,SUN NATIONAL STAFF | June 20, 2002
WASHINGTON - The National Security Agency intercepted two brief messages on Sept. 10 that warned that some kind of event would happen the next day, but the agency did not translate the messages until Sept. 12, a senior intelligence official said yesterday. The messages said in Arabic: "The match begins tomorrow," and "Tomorrow is zero" day. They were detected by the Fort Meade spy agency as its satellites and computers eavesdropped on phone calls and electronic messages worldwide. Intelligence officials cautioned, however, that the messages were so vague that even if the NSA had translated them before the attacks Sept.
NEWS
By Jonathan Weisman and Jonathan Weisman,SUN NATIONAL STAFF | January 12, 1999
WASHINGTON -- Charging toward a showdown on the Senate floor, the White House formally responded yesterday to the House articles of impeachment, contending that they are unconstitutionally vague, illegally worded and completely false.But the president's lawyers declined to file motions that might have delayed the start of opening arguments, scheduled for Thursday."We believe the public has had enough of this," said Joe Lockhart, the White House spokesman. "We're at the final stage of this process, and we can do it two ways: We can do it fairly and expeditiously, or we can do it fairly in a process that's open-ended and takes months and months."
BUSINESS
By KNIGHT RIDDER/TRIBUNE | October 20, 1999
Richard W. Vague, the Texas lender who built Wilmington, Del.'s First USA Bank into the biggest credit-card company in the world, has quit in the wake of disappointing earnings and a consumer revolt.First USA's owner, Chicago-based Bank One Corp., said Vague quit "to pursue other interests." Chairman John B. McCoy said it was Vague's decision.The resignation was announced late yesterday, after Bank One's disclosure that its third-quarter earnings dropped because First USA posted flat profit instead of the rapid growth it had previously projected.
NEWS
By William F. Zorzi Jr. and William F. Zorzi Jr.,SUN STAFF | February 8, 1996
At a 7th District congressional forum in Randallstown this week, each of the 19 candidates who showed up had two minutes to tell the public about his or her background and platform.Most of the more than 150 people in the placard-cluttered audience already had their minds made up, however; they appeared to be campaign workers and volunteers for one candidate or another.Then, three questions were posed to each candidate -- one on crime, one on the controversial Moving To Opportunity federal housing program, and the last on education.