No one understands the arachnid hero's appeal better than John Romita Sr. and John Romita Jr., the father-and-son team of comic-book artists most closely associated with Spidey. John Sr. drew the superhero in monthly books for seven years straight in the comic-book heyday of the late '60s and '70s. When Marvel Comics creative genius Stan Lee launched the daily Spider-Man newspaper strip in 1977, Romita Sr. drew it for the first several years.

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• Rev. Fred Phelps of the Westboro Baptist Church of Topeka, Kan., is using his Web site, www.godhatesfags.com, to organize a picket of Shepard's funeral Friday in Casper. "Fags preach tolerance but practice intimidation," the site proclaims, with a graphic combining a pink triangle with a swastika. Other features include Fag Facts, an encyclopedic list of purported gay sex practices; Fag Churches, a list of which denominations allow gay members, ordain gay clergy and bless gay marriages; and a rundown of the church's media appearances. The church claims more than 300,000 people have visited its site.

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  ]]> http://www.salon.com/1998/10/16/newsa_15/feed/ 0 http://www.salon.com/1998/07/29/29hot/ http://www.salon.com/1998/07/29/29hot/#comments Wed, 29 Jul 1998 17:45:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/life//hot/1998/07/29/29hot It was in a McDonald's, with the smell of hamburgers and fries, that Vicky Prunty was first introduced to a pretty younger woman named Martha (not her real name), who would become her husband's second wife in a polygamous marriage. Right there in the fast-food restaurant, Greg (not his real name), a former Mormon missionary, whisked a ring off Vicky's finger and placed it on the hand of her new "sister-wife."

  It was a highly symbolic moment in Prunty's plural marriage -- an institution that has been so stigmatized that it prompted fighting between Mormon settlers and U.S. Army troops almost 150 years ago and then delayed Utah's statehood until the practice was relinquished by the Mormon Church. Polygamy is still practiced by a surprisingly large number of people in Utah and nearby states. An estimated 30,000 or more adhere to what they see as a purer form of Mormonism.

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  ]]> http://www.salon.com/1998/07/29/29hot/feed/ 0 http://www.salon.com/1998/07/28/28hot/ http://www.salon.com/1998/07/28/28hot/#comments Tue, 28 Jul 1998 17:13:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/life//hot/1998/07/28/28hot Last week a judge in Brigham City, Utah, ordered John Daniel Kingston, a prominent member of a polygamist group, to stand trial for the recent assault of his 16-year-old daughter. Kingston, a vice president in a Salt Lake City accounting and auditing firm, allegedly beat his daughter unconscious because she did not want to be the 15th wife of his brother, her own uncle, in a marriage arranged by Kingston, 43.

  At the pretrial hearing, the teenager -- who is not being identified and is now in foster care -- testified that on May 24 her father took her to a remote family ranch near the Idaho border, ordered her into a barn and made her take off her jacket, then whipped her with his belt at least 28 times for rebelling against the arranged marriage to David O. Kingston, a blood relative twice her age.

  The defendant, who pleaded not guilty Monday, faces up to 15 years in prison if convicted. According to former members of the Kingston group, as the fundamentalist sect of the Mormon church is often known, the defendant himself has more than 20 wives. Yet group leaders often deny that the church practices polygamy.

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  ]]> http://www.salon.com/1998/07/28/28hot/feed/ 0 http://www.salon.com/1998/03/10/10hot_2/ http://www.salon.com/1998/03/10/10hot_2/#comments Tue, 10 Mar 1998 20:47:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/life//hot/1998/03/10/10hot One of the questions that has dominated the nature vs. nurture debate is that of sexual orientation -- are there physiological differences that determine who is gay and who is lesbian? Though researchers have detected differences in the brains of gay and heterosexual men, evidence of biological variations in women had never been reported until last week, when researchers at the University of Texas released their findings that the auditory systems -- specifically the inner ears -- of lesbians seem to operate more like those of men than those of heterosexual females. The findings were the result of a study in which microphones were placed in the external ear canal of 240 people who had previously been questioned in detail about their sexuality.

  Salon talked with the head of the study, Dr. Dennis McFadden, a professor of experimental
  psychology at the University of Texas-Austin, about the implications of his findings.

  So you've found the first strong evidence of a physical difference
  between straight and lesbian women?

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  ]]> http://www.salon.com/1998/03/10/10hot_2/feed/ 0 http://www.salon.com/1998/01/15/news_247/ http://www.salon.com/1998/01/15/news_247/#comments Thu, 15 Jan 1998 20:00:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/news/feature/1998/01/15/news Accused Unabomber Theodore Kaczynski, who's been described by his defense lawyers as a paranoid schizophrenic, is this week being tested by a court-appointed psychiatrist to determine whether he is competent to stand trial and to act as his own attorney, as Kaczynski has requested. Unless the Justice Department -- which has reopened negotiations on the subject -- agrees to a plea bargain, most observers believe that the trial will eventually proceed, with an evidently mentally ill defendant in the spotlight.

  What is the standard for "competency"? How could Kaczynski, who has already tried to commit suicide in prison, be judged able to act as his own attorney? And if the trial proceeds, what is likely to happen? Salon spoke with Mark Levy, M.D., assistant clinical professor of psychiatry at the University of California at San Francisco, who often acts as a forensic consultant in competency cases.

  What is "competence" in the legal sense?

  It's basically the ability to understand the court proceedings, to work within the context of the proceedings and function reasonably -- these are loose terms -- and to work with one's attorney in mounting a reasonable defense. You can't say, well, I'll work with my attorney as long as he argues that the Martians are invading. That's not a reasonable defense. That's part of the issue to be evaluated with Kaczynski ...

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  ]]> http://www.salon.com/1998/01/15/news_247/feed/ 0 http://www.salon.com/1998/01/05/news_396/ http://www.salon.com/1998/01/05/news_396/#comments Mon, 05 Jan 1998 20:00:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/news/feature/1998/01/05/news Federal prosecutors say they will make alleged Unabomber Theodore Kaczynski's own admissions the cornerstone of their opening statement Monday in U.S. District Court in Sacramento. They say Kaczynski, 55, has acknowledged his involvement in at least three of the four attacks of which he is accused, which killed two people and injured two more during the almost two-decade-long Unabomb campaign of terror. The prosecution will also introduce evidence relating to 12 other bombings, not mentioned in the indictment, for which Kaczynski is also alleged to be responsible.

  With an apparently overwhelming amount of evidence against the former math teacher and his own refusal to be a party to an insanity defense, it is not clear what his defense will do. His attorneys reportedly sought a plea bargain that would have put Kaczynski in prison for life, but the Justice Department turned it down.

  Can Kaczynski avoid the death chamber? On the eve of opening arguments, Salon spoke with Peter Arenella, professor of law at UCLA, a former criminal trial attorney and an expert on mental disability defenses.

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  ]]> http://www.salon.com/1998/01/05/news_396/feed/ 0 http://www.salon.com/1997/12/16/news_169/ http://www.salon.com/1997/12/16/news_169/#comments Tue, 16 Dec 1997 20:00:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/news/feature/1997/12/16/news The fate of Terry Nichols will soon be in the hands of the jury. The conventional wisdom, before the trial began on Sept. 29, was that the case against Nichols was weaker than the one against convicted Oklahoma City bomber Timothy McVeigh. After 98 prosecution witnesses and 92 defense witnesses, will the jury see it that way?

  Salon spoke with Scott Robinson, a Denver defense attorney who has been writing a column about the trial for the Rocky Mountain News.

  How strong was the prosecution case against Nichols?

  It was a potpourri of evidence, which I think the prosecution presented with mixed success. Some of the elements were proved pretty definitively and are very important to the prosecution's case. Some of the elements were not even close to being proven beyond reasonable doubt.

  What were the key elements of the prosecution case?

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  ]]> http://www.salon.com/1997/12/16/news_169/feed/ 0 http://www.salon.com/1997/12/08/news_152/ http://www.salon.com/1997/12/08/news_152/#comments Mon, 08 Dec 1997 20:00:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/news/feature/1997/12/08/news Americans, according to recent opinion polls, believe that global warming exists and would support measures to curb it, even if it means being hit in the pocketbook. One measure they could take -- and save money doing it -- would be to think twice before buying one of those sport utility vehicles that have sprung up across suburbs and cities like mushrooms. Only some 13 percent of SUVs are ever driven off-road. They're expensive, guzzle huge amounts of gas and emit a lot of pollution because many of them are classified as "light trucks," which are subject to easier emission standards.

  They are also killing people in what are called "mismatch" car crashes. Some auto insurers are planning rate raises for SUVs because research suggests they inflict worse damage to smaller vehicles and their occupants in such crashes.

  Salon talked with Kim Hazelbaker, senior vice president of the Highway Loss Data Institute. The insurance industry-funded institute, along with its sister organization, the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety, are conducting studies on "mismatch" car crashes this fall and winter.

  What are "mismatch" crashes?

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  ]]> http://www.salon.com/1997/12/08/news_152/feed/ 0 http://www.salon.com/1997/11/14/news_77/ http://www.salon.com/1997/11/14/news_77/#comments Fri, 14 Nov 1997 20:00:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/news/feature/1997/11/14/news One reason why it may take as long as a month to select a jury in the trial of Unabomber suspect Ted Kaczynski is that the jurors all have to be "death penalty qualified" -- willing to impose the death penalty if Kaczynski is found guilty.

  Kaczynski, 55, faces federal charges relating to four of the 16 Unabomber attacks which occurred from 1979 to 1995. The former maths professor has pleaded not guilty on all counts, but in light of the evidence against him, speculation has turned less on his guilt or innocence than on why he did it, and whether he will ultimately plead insanity.

  But is the Unabomber any more or less insane than other serial killers of the recent past? What makes his actions and motivations different from others? Salon spoke with Jack Levin, director of the Program for the Study of Violence and Conflict at Northeastern University in Boston, and coauthor of more than a dozen books, including "Overkill: Mass Murder and Serial Killing Exposed" (1994, Insight Books) and most recently "Killer on Campus" (1996, Avon).

  The Unabomber killed three people and clearly had hoped to kill many more in his 17-year bombing campaign. Do you see him differently than other serial murderers you have studied?

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  ]]> http://www.salon.com/1997/11/14/news_77/feed/ 0 http://www.salon.com/1997/10/21/news_86/ http://www.salon.com/1997/10/21/news_86/#comments Tue, 21 Oct 1997 19:00:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/news/feature/1997/10/21/news when British Prime Minister Tony Blair shook hands with Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams in Northern Ireland last week, he made history. The simple act signified the first official meeting between representatives of the British government and political representatives of the outlawed Irish Republican Army in 76 years.

  The meeting was the a milestone in the fragile peace process aimed at bringing an end to "The Troubles" in the torn province. That the process still has many more miles to go was evident from the jostling and shouts of "traitor" that greeted Blair after the handshake. For many Protestants, talking to Sinn Fein is the same as appeasing IRA murderers with blood still on their hands.

  Salon spoke with British television reporter Peter Taylor, who has covered the conflict in Northern Ireland for 25 years for the BBC and commercial television. Taylor is the chief reporter of "Behind the Mask," a "Frontline" two-hour special to be broadcast Tuesday on many PBS stations. The author of an upcoming book of the same name, Taylor gained unprecedented access to members of the Republican movement, including former key "Provos" engaged in the struggle, and was able to produce a detailed account of what lay behind the fratricidal "Troubles" of the past 30 years.

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  ]]> http://www.salon.com/1997/10/21/news_86/feed/ 0 http://www.salon.com/1997/09/15/news_422/ http://www.salon.com/1997/09/15/news_422/#comments Mon, 15 Sep 1997 19:00:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/news/feature/1997/09/15/news in the late 1950s, at one of the peaks of post-World War II affluence in Britain, Tory Prime Minister Harold Macmillan campaigned on the memorable phrase "You've Never Had it So Good." Much the same can be said for the United States in the late '90s. The economy appears to be going from strength to strength, along with the stock market. Analysts keep warning darkly of inflation around the corner but it never appears. The land is awash in expensive, gas-hogging sports utility vehicles, satellite dishes, theater-sized TV consoles and various other paraphernalia of good times.

  Some would call it overconsumption, or as a documentary that airs Monday night on public television calls it, "Affluenza." Partly tongue-in-cheek, partly serious, the documentary looks at what it sees as an epidemic of consumption -- "Too much stuff, too little time" -- a near-addiction that may have unanticipated social, personal and environmental consequences.

  Salon spoke with the John de Graaf, co-producer of the one-hour documentary. De Graaf, producer of the 1994 PBS show "Running out of Time," has won numerous national and international awards for his documentaries.

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  ]]> http://www.salon.com/1997/09/15/news_422/feed/ 0 http://www.salon.com/1997/09/10/news_419/ http://www.salon.com/1997/09/10/news_419/#comments Wed, 10 Sep 1997 19:00:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/news/feature/1997/09/10/news two years after President Clinton appointed a special commission to investigate the causes of various illnesses collectively known as "Gulf War Syndrome," we're no closer to an answer. After holding a final set of public hearings last week, the Presidential Advisory Committee on Gulf War Veterans' Illnesses is now working on a final report that it's scheduled to present to President Clinton next month.

  While the panel is not expected to change its earlier conclusion -- that the syndrome is caused primarily by wartime stress and not chemical arms -- it has called for the Pentagon to be banished from overseeing the investigation. Because of inaction and misstatements emanating from the Pentagon, especially its denials that U.S. soldiers may have been exposed to chemical weapons, "The well has been poisoned in essence, and the government's credibility continues to be questioned," said the panel's executive director, Robyn Nishimi, in a statement last Friday.

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  ]]> http://www.salon.com/1997/09/10/news_419/feed/ 0 http://www.salon.com/1997/06/03/news951243537/ http://www.salon.com/1997/06/03/news951243537/#comments Tue, 03 Jun 1997 19:00:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/news/feature/1997/06/03/news951243537 the doubts and fears of families of the victims of the Oklahoma City bombing were laid to rest Monday afternoon when a federal jury of seven men and five women found Timothy McVeigh guilty on all counts for the April 19, 1995, attack on the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building that killed 168 people.

  Some family members may testify in the penalty phase of the trial, which is scheduled to begin Wednesday. McVeigh, 29, was found guilty on eight counts of capital murder, which are death penalty crimes. He could be the first American to be executed under federal law since 1963.

  What led the jury to its decision, after four days of deliberation, and is McVeigh likely to receive the ultimate punishment? Just after the verdicts were announced, Salon spoke with William Pizzi, a former federal prosecutor and professor of law at the University of Colorado at Boulder. Pizzi has taught criminal law for more than 20 years and is an expert on victims' rights.

  Some victims' relatives were getting worried that the jury was taking so long to reach its verdict. Did you share those doubts as the deliberations went through the weekend?

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  ]]> http://www.salon.com/1997/06/03/news951243537/feed/ 0 http://www.salon.com/1997/05/29/news_379/ http://www.salon.com/1997/05/29/news_379/#comments Thu, 29 May 1997 19:00:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/news/feature/1997/05/29/news "We've done our best," said Timothy McVeigh's attorney after resting the defense case in just three-and-a-half days. Whether the "best" was good enough will be decided by the jury, which is likely to begin deliberations on Thursday.

  As expected, McVeigh's lawyers attempted to discredit the government's star witness, Michael Fortier, who had testified about McVeigh's alleged role in the April 19, 1995, bombing of the Oklahoma City federal building that killed 168 people. They also sought to call into question the reliability of the FBI's forensic investigation, but were thwarted by Judge Richard Matsch in raising the specter of a neo-Nazi conspiracy behind the bombing.

  Did the defense, in its truncated presentation, manage to raise "reasonable doubt" about McVeigh's alleged crime? Salon spoke with Mimi Wesson, a former assistant U.S. attorney and death penalty expert who currently teaches law at the University of Colorado at Boulder.

  By most accounts, the prosecution's case was seamless. Did the defense manage to make any tears in it?

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  ]]> http://www.salon.com/1997/05/29/news_379/feed/ 0 http://www.salon.com/1997/05/22/news_375/ http://www.salon.com/1997/05/22/news_375/#comments Thu, 22 May 1997 19:00:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/news/feature/1997/05/22/news the defense opened Thursday in the murder-conspiracy trial of Timothy McVeigh and by all accounts faces quite an uphill battle on behalf of its client. The prosecution ended its case the previous day, having called more than 135 witnesses in 19 days, ending with the testimony of a survivor of the April 19, 1995, bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City, which killed 168 people.

  How well did the prosecution perform? Salon talked with Christopher Mueller, professor of law at the University of Colorado at Boulder. Mueller is the co-author of the five-volume "Federal Evidence," the authoritative text on evidence procedure, and teaches evidence refresher courses to judges across the nation.

  How would you assess the prosecution's case against McVeigh?

  I think they've demonstrated almost ironclad proof that McVeigh was intimately involved in the bombing.

  How so?

  Primarily through two crucial pieces of evidence. The first is the axle which is known to have come from the truck that carried the bomb. That axle, which was immediately traced to Eldon Elliot's Ryder truck agency in Junction City, Kan., was shown without any doubt to have been from the truck that was rented by a Robert Kling. The second crucial thing the government showed is that Robert Kling is Timothy McVeigh.

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  ]]> http://www.salon.com/1997/05/22/news_375/feed/ 0 http://www.salon.com/1997/04/29/news_264/ http://www.salon.com/1997/04/29/news_264/#comments Tue, 29 Apr 1997 19:00:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/news/feature/1997/04/29/news an eight-member panel of experts, convened by the National Institutes of Health, is about to send an unprecedented report to NIH Director Dr. Harold E. Varmus suggesting that the medical use of marijuana shows enough promise to warrant more scientific study. The NIH effectively controls marijuana research because one of its branches, the National Institute of Drug Abuse, is the only legal source of the drug for medical experiments.

  The panel was convened after voters in California and Arizona passed initiatives in November allowing people to smoke pot legally on their doctor's recommendation. The experts listened to scientific and personal testimony for two days in February, and have been writing and rewriting their formal report ever since.

  In the interim, the Arizona legislature has passed a bill setting aside the voter-passed initiative until the Food and Drug Administration gives marijuana the go-ahead for medical use. Last week, federal law-enforcement officials raided a cannabis buyers club in San Francisco. Despite convening the panel, the Clinton administration is constantly reminding doctors that marijuana remains illegal under federal law -- and they risk their licenses and time in jail if they prescribe marijuana.

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  ]]> http://www.salon.com/1997/04/29/news_264/feed/ 0 http://www.salon.com/1997/04/18/waco970418/ http://www.salon.com/1997/04/18/waco970418/#comments Fri, 18 Apr 1997 16:29:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/news/feature/1997/04/18/waco970418 APRIL 19 has become one of the most feared dates on the American calendar. Special security precautions are thrown up around government buildings and federal law enforcement agents look nervously over their shoulders. For America's burgeoning radical right, it is a date that will live in infamy. The bloody attack on the Branch Davidian compound in Waco, Texas, is, for them, proof positive that the government is their sworn enemy. They have sworn revenge.

  Four years ago Saturday -- April 19, 1993 -- the compound of the Branch Davidians was burned to the ground, ending a 51-day standoff with
  the FBI. About 80 people died, including children and women. Two years later, on April 19, 1995, in a twisted form of payback, the federal building in Oklahoma City was blown up. It was the worst single act of domestic political terrorism in American history. One of the accused, Timothy McVeigh, had visited Waco and has said how profoundly its destruction by government forces affected his political thinking.

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  ]]> http://www.salon.com/1997/04/18/waco970418/feed/ 0 http://www.salon.com/1997/04/18/radical970418/ http://www.salon.com/1997/04/18/radical970418/#comments Fri, 18 Apr 1997 15:49:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/news/feature/1997/04/18/radical970418 saturday marks the second anniversary of the bombing of the Alfred P. Murrah Federal Building in Oklahoma City. One hundred sixty-eight people died, more than 500 were injured and two men, Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols, have been charged with the crime. Jury selection in McVeigh's trial is expected to be completed perhaps by next week. Nichols is scheduled to go on trial soon after McVeigh.

  The stunning crime focused attention on the extreme right wing in America, especially on rabidly anti-government militias. But rather than harming the movement, according to Klanwatch and other hate group monitors, the bombing and attendant publicity has actually drawn more people to it.

  Salon spoke to Catherine McNicol Stock, author of the recently published
  "Rural Radicals: Righteous Rage in the American Grain" (Cornell University Press). Stock, a Yale-trained historian, is assistant professor of history and director of the
  American Studies Program at Connecticut College in New London, Conn. Her previous book was "Main Street in Crisis: The Great Depression and the Old Middle Class on the Northern Plains" (1992, University of North Carolina Press).

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  ]]> http://www.salon.com/1997/04/18/radical970418/feed/ 0 http://www.salon.com/1997/04/08/news_253/ http://www.salon.com/1997/04/08/news_253/#comments Tue, 08 Apr 1997 19:00:00 +0000 http://www.salon.com/news/feature/1997/04/08/news The trial of Timothy McVeigh opened with a media bang last week but has since slowed to a crawl. Over 350 prospective jurors are being put through a long, detailed examination. Sixty-four "death penalty qualified" candidates will survive the first cut before a final panel of 12 will be chosen. The process will likely take several weeks.

  McVeigh is charged with murder, conspiracy and terrorism in the April 19, 1995, bombing of an Oklahoma City federal building that killed 168 people and injured more than 500. McVeigh and Terry Nichols, who will be tried later, both face the death penalty if convicted.

  Apart from the actual evidence to be presented, two major issues have arisen. First, given all the pre-trial publicity -- including reports of an alleged confession -- can the defendants get a fair trial before an impartial jury? And, secondly, how big a role should victims' rights play in the proceedings?

  Salon talked with William Pizzi, a former federal prosecutor and professor of law at the University of Colorado at Boulder. Pizzi has taught criminal law for more than 20 years and is an expert on victims' rights.

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