NEWSWEEK Media Lead Sheet: May 21, 2007 Issue (on newsstands Monday, May 14)

Pressroom — Thu, 17 May 2007 19:13:12 GMT
COVER: "The Mystery of Gender" (p. 50). With the growing number of
Americans who consider themselves transgender, Assistant Managing Editor
Debra Rosenberg and a team of Newsweek correspondents examines the
question: what makes us male or female? According to the National Center
for Transgender Equality there are estimated between 750,000 and 3 million
Americans (fewer than 1 percent)-many taking their intimate struggles
public for the first time-who consider themselves transgender. With more
and more young people identifying as a gender other than the one they were
born with, and a growing number of schools like Smith College supporting
their desire to live as the gender of choice, history and science suggest
that gender is more subtle and more complicated than anatomy. Correspondent
Julie Scelfo is available for interviews.
    http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18618970/site/newsweek/
    (Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20070513/CLSU002 )
    TERROR: "The Threat in Our Midst" (p. 26). Investigative Correspondents
Michael Isikoff and Mark Hosenball report on U.S. homegrown terror cells
and Federal law-enforcement efforts to combat these copycat jihadist cells
that spring up inside the United States without any concrete connection to
Al Qaeda central or other foreign terror organizations. But terrorists
overseas do aim to encourage such freelancers, who-in theory-are harder to
identify and track because they can spring up anywhere.
    http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18628582/site/newsweek/
    IRAQ: "Prison Blues" (p. 32). Baghdad Bureau Chief Babak Dehghanpisheh
reports from Baghdad on the growing detainee population in Iraq. This is
the other side of the surge: as thousands of U.S. and Iraqi troops flood
Baghdad's neighborhoods, the jails are also filling up. According to
figures from the Ministry of Human Rights, the number of Iraqis detained
nationwide from the end of January until the end of March-a period that
includes the first six weeks of the new Baghdad security plan-jumped by
approximately 7,000 to 37,641. Some of these detainees are falling into a
kind of legal limbo, held for weeks without a hearing. Others are allegedly
suffering even worse fates.
    http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18631180/site/newsweek/
    IRAN: "Paranoid in Tehran" (p. 34). Deputy Washington Bureau Chief Dan
Ephron reports on how with two concurrent crackdowns, in the name of
national security and what they call "public order," Iran's hard-liners are
frantically lashing out at anyone they imagine might somehow pose a
challenge to their increasingly unpopular rule. The Revolutionary Guards
have been staging sweeps against "immodestly dressed" young people, while
the Intelligence Ministry has been rounding up women's rights activists,
labor organizers and Iranian- American visitors.
    http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18628577/site/newsweek/
    WASHINGTON: "With the Best of Intentions" (p. 36). Senior Editor
Michael Hirsh reports on whether or not Paul Wolfowitz's days at the World
Bank are numbered, as the first president dismissed in the 62-year history
of the Bank if its board of directors votes him out this week. Wolfowitz's
attorney, Bob Bennett, told Newsweek recently that his client believes he
did nothing wrong; last week Wolfowitz enlisted not only the help of the
White House, but that of Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, who called
European Finance ministers on his behalf.
    http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18628587/site/newsweek/
    FAREED ZAKARIA: "The Democrats' Trade Troubles" (p. 38). Newsweek
International Editor Fareed Zakaria writes that the Democratic Party is
seriously going awry on the issue of world trade, which is a bad strategy
for the party and the country. Bill Clinton's most important political
achievement was to transform the image of the Democratic Party into one
that was in favor of growth, markets and trade. Zakaria writes that, "when
you talk to Democrats now, they could not sound more different. Far too
many of them are parochial, pessimistic and paranoid about the global
economy." Too many Democrats including most of their presidential
candidates, simply wish the subject would go away.
    http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18628576/site/newsweek/
    BUSINESS: "Easy Money, A Click Away" (p. 41). Contributing Editor Jane
Bryant Quinn writes the best cyber banks emphasize low costs, simplicity
and full fee disclosures, putting them ahead of bank officers in business
suits. Highlighting the benefits and services being offered with online
banking including higher interest rates than consumers will find at
traditional banks, Quinn reports that according to Informa Research
Services today consumers can earn up to 5.05 percent on basic savings in
online accounts. That compares with 0.45 percent at the 50 highest-paying
traditional banks.
    http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18629186/site/newsweek/
    RELIGION: "A Portrait of Faith" (p. 42). Who was Jesus, really?
Religion Editor Lisa Miller writes that it has become acceptable, even
fashionable, lately to speak of the Christian Lord in casual terms, as
though he were an acquaintance with a mysterious past. Pope Benedict XVI's
answer to secularism is Christ, and in 'Jesus of Nazareth,' he fights back
against 'the dictatorship of relativism' by showing the world his vision of
the definitive truth of Christ. It is an orthodox biography-one that
acknowledges the role of analytical scholarship while in fact leaving
little room for a critical interpretation of Scripture, Miller writes.
    http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18629187/site/newsweek/
    EXCERPT: "The Meaning of Baptism" (p. 46). "Everything" in
Christianity, ancient or modern, depends on building an "intimate
friendship with Jesus," the Pope writes. Newsweek features an exclusive
excerpt of Joseph Ratzinger, Pope Benedict XVI forthcoming book "Jesus of
Nazareth," releasing this week in the U.S. and Canada, that examines Jesus'
public life from his baptism to the transfiguration.
    http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18618066/site/newsweek/
    ESSAY: "A Jesus Beyond Politics" (p. 49). George Wiegel, Newsweek
contributor and papal biographer, writes that Pope Benedict XVI, in his
book, 'Jesus of Nazareth,' reveals the core of his personality as he
invites readers into a master teacher's classroom-a teacher who has
absorbed the best of modern biblical scholarship and has emerged from that
encounter with his faith enriched.
    http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18629516/site/newsweek/
    SHARON BEGLEY: "The Truths We Want to Deny" (p. 58). Science Columnist
Sharon Begley writes that denying the evidence of your eyes is the most
extreme form of the coping mechanism called denial. Psychologists and
psychiatrists-although judging President Bush from afar, obviously-are in
agreement that Bush exhibits all the signs of someone who is using denial
as a coping mechanism when to comes to the war in Iraq. "I do think there
is denial on Bush's part in his running of the war," says Kerry Sulkowicz,
clinical professor of psychiatry at New York University Medical Center.
    http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18629197/site/newsweek/
    TECHNOLOGY: "A Silicon Valley Boot Camp for Start-Ups" (p. 61). No
matter where the start-ups came from-Sweden, Chicago, Oxford or even the
South Pole (yes, one person arrived straight from graduate research
there)-their lives would never be the same. Senior Editor Steven Levy
reports on Y Combinator, the latest boot camp for techies with start-up
ideas, if they can make it through the three month intensive
entrepreneurial program, that gives seed money to fledgling start-ups. Y
Combinator's inspiration is Paul Graham, a high-energy 42-year-old, who
himself had a monumental start-up experience.
    http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18628572/site/newsweek/
    THE TIP SHEET: "Saving Your Seed Money" (p. 79). Contributing Editor
Linda Stern reports that last year Americans invested some $34 billion on
their lawns and gardens, with three of every four homeowners getting into
the dirt. Stern offers suggestions from starting small, to cozying up to
the government, and more for saving money in the garden.
    http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/18629200/site/newsweek/
Pressroom : Cover

NEWSWEEK Media Lead Sheet: May 21, 2007 Issue (on newsstands Monday, May 14)
