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July 10, 2009

Oops, Justice press aide's comment slips out

WASHINGTON (AP) — Has the Justice Department taken President Barack Obama's promise of openness too far?

The dozens of reporters who receive department press releases by e-mail were suprised to get one Wednesday evening with this startling subject line:

"FEDERAL GRAND JURY RETURNS INDICTMENT ON INTERNET BOMB THREATS — good luck, this one sucked."

Eleven minutes later a corrected version was transmitted, without the editorial comment.

Turns out the department wasn't evaluating its own work in public. Justice spokeswoman Tracy Schmaler said the "unfortunate comment, put there by a junior press aide, referred to the difficulty in formatting the press release, not to its content." The line was meant to alert a press office editor to possible typographical errors.

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Local News

Local News
  • Health care law debated About 100 city union members packed the Wiggin Auditorium in City Hall last night, as the Peabody City Council debated the merits of a new law that would curb the unions' ability to negotiate their health benefits.

    February 10, 2012

  • Borders site is next chapter for auto dealer DANVERS — Danvers-based Kelly Automotive Group is ramping up expansion plans along Route 114 in both Danvers and Peabody.
    Kelly is mulling the creation of a two-story dealership out of the vacant former Borders Books and Music store on Andover Street in Peabody. The Danvers native and the company's president, Brian Kelly, acquired the property in December.

    February 10, 2012

  • Road race issue crosses finish line SALEM — The City Council agreed last night to track and monitor Salem's many road races through creation of a master calendar.
    Salem's volume of road races, and the fact that many of them run through the same sections of the city, had come under scrutiny by the council this winter.

    February 10, 2012

  • Salem businessman offers firsthand insight on Egypt SALEM — David Williams, 55, had a good feeling when he was asked to go to Egypt as part of a team of Americans dedicated to teaching that country's new democrats just how politics works.
    Today, he's less positive about a process that has seen revolution followed by elections and then, to his shock, the prosecution of Americans and others working to assist in the creation of a stable democracy.

    February 10, 2012

  • A Salem flag-raising in Afghanistan SALEM — For Veterans Day, third-graders from the Witchcraft Heights School wrote letters to U.S. troops in Afghanistan.
    The school has done this in the past, but this time was different. This time they sent them to a soldier from Salem, U.S. Army Pfc. Michael Levesque.

    February 10, 2012