Word: usual
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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Those attitudes, according to forensic psychiatrist Eric Goldsmith, are "the usual combination" for volunteers. Murderers can be astonishingly sensitive to criticism, and offering to die can be seen as an effective shield from the accusations of society or the pangs of conscience. Ross's public defenders have told him that he could have an additional 5 to 10 years of appeals left and that his mental instability might win him commutation to life without parole. But for Ross, who wept at how few responses his more than 200 goodbye letters to pen pals and supporters elicited, the prospect...
...subway trains coasted into motionlessness, and tourists stood around in knots, prevented by guards from entering the darkened Capitol. But no mere utility collapse could be allowed to shut down the U.S. Senate. Under the pallid glow of a lone emergency light, the lawmakers went about their business as usual. Since the bells normally used to call the Senate to order had been knocked out, a clerk gained the attention of the nation's most exclusive debating society by thumping loudly on a metal trash can. Quipped Majority Leader Robert Dole: "We work in the dark most of the time...
...years, unscrupulous dealers in Europe and the U.S. have begun passing off the Chinese truffles as Umbrian or Périgord black diamonds. The deception has roiled the luxury-food industry, particularly as European harvests have dwindled. Last season, when a heat wave cut the Périgord bounty from the usual 50 tons to 9, the import of Chinese truffles skyrocketed to an estimated 30 tons, from 20 the year before. This season the U.S. is facing its own Chinese-truffle deluge. A strong euro has sent the price of French-truffle imports up 30%, to $1,800 per kg wholesale...
...This was not Chinese politics as usual. For the next eight hours these citizens grilled local officials, learned about their town's budget, debated various proposals for bridges, roads, parks and sewage-treatment plants, and then voted (through a second, identical questionnaire) on which 10 to build. Usually, such decisions are reserved for Communist Party officials conferring behind closed doors. But cadres in Zeguo and its parent city, Wenling, have pioneered a more participatory approach, putting them at the vanguard of China's experiments in political reform. President Hu Jintao has vowed never to adopt "Western-style" democracy. "But events...
...attempt by officials to bolster the Party's authority. In 1999 a political education campaign was under way, but leaders couldn't get locals to show up. So they changed tack, offering "dialogues" in which residents could exchange ideas with their leaders, instead of being lectured as usual. "We propaganda officials aren't in the democracy business," says Mu Yifei, deputy director of Wenling's Publicity Bureau, "but slowly this idea caught on. The people and the leaders started to value each other's input...