While you were slaving away at a summer internship, hooking up with your ex-girlfriend and watching Real World reruns, stuff still happened in the actual real world. Since you may have missed them during the blur that was the last 3 months, The Daily Orange is here to brief you on the summer’s biggest stories.

Election Fever

Dissatisfied Californian voters petitioned to fire their governor, Gray Davis – who they held responsible for massive deficits and the exodus of businesses out of the once-prosperous state. On October 7, Californians will vote on whether to replace Davis and choose one of the 134 other candidates for the job. It’s cheap and easy to become a candidate, so personalities like child star Gary Coleman and porn mogul Larry Flynt have come out of the woodwork for the campaign. Arnold Schwarzenegger is the most prominent movie star candidate, but he’s not kidding around like the others. His universal name recognition and heavy media exposure have made him a serious threat to Davis and the rest of the field. No one is really sure what his policies are, but hopefully he’ll work that out before his gubernatorial premiere.

The Democratic Party has spent the summer recruiting for its campaign against President George W. Bush in 2004, and more than half a dozen Democrats have thrown their proverbial hats into the ring. Hillary Clinton – some say she’s the Democrats’ best chance – isn’t running, and claims not to have plans to do so in 2008. No clear leaders have emerged, but some of the big names are Vermont Governor Howard Dean, Massachusetts Senator John Kerry and Connecticut Senator Joe Lieberman. Ever-present longshots like the Rev. Al Sharpton are keeping things interesting. Still, the primary election won’t be about who’s the best Democrat, but who can beat Bush.

The War in Iraq

A series of ambushes, bombings and guerrilla attacks has killed 65 Americans since Bush declared an end to ‘major combat’ in Iraq on May 1. The total number of American combat deaths is now 179, which is 32 more than in the first Gulf War. Last week, a major attack on the U.N. headquarters in Baghdad, the capital of Iraq, killed at least 24 and injured more than 100. It was one of the deadliest and boldest of the attacks that have plagued the U.S.-British occupational force.

Despite the attacks, Bush insists that Iraqi reconstruction is progressing and the nation is moving steadily toward safety and democracy. The search for solid evidence of weapons of mass destruction has yet to yield results, so the government has tried to shift the focus to the rebuilding of Iraq’s government and infrastructure. The U.S. is appealing to other nations to provide support in Iraq, and though the war is far from over, some American soldiers that have been in Iraq since the invasion are slowly returning home.

Church and State

Federal judges last week ordered the removal of a 5,300-pound monument to the Ten Commandments that stands at the Alabama Supreme Court building. They ruled the monument violates the constitutional separation of church and state. However, Alabama Justice Roy Moore, who installed the monument in 2001 without consulting the other justices, refused to comply with the court order and has been suspended and charged with six ethics violations.

Meanwhile, the Catholic Church’s priest abuse scandal continues to escalate. Defrocked and convicted priest John Geoghan was allegedly strangled by a fellow prisoner who was already serving a life sentence. Last year, the Boston archdiocese settled with 86 victims of the priest, paying out $10 million. A lawyer that represents 147 other alleged victims says that at least some of the pending cases will continue, even after the priest’s death.

The Vatican revealed a highly classified document this summer that described the procedure for dealing with accusations of sexual abuse by priests. The document, written in 1962, focused on priests that propositioned churchgoers in the confession booth. It instructed dioceses to handle the situation as secretly as possible, and threatened those who publicized the accusations with excommunication. Victims of abuse and opponents of church policies said it was the ‘smoking gun’ they needed to prove that the higher-ups in the Catholic Church knowingly covered up the epidemic of priest molestation.

The Episcopalian Church in New Hampshire elected an openly gay bishop, Rev. V. Gene Robinson, sparking a major upheaval within the church and eliciting condemnation from more conservative Anglicans. Many opponents to his election believe that the Bible prohibits homosexuality and that Robinson’s sexual orientation puts him in direct conflict with the word of God. A British church has called a worldwide conference in London this October in hopes of preventing a major split in the embattled Anglican Communion.

The Blackout

If you live in the Northeast, you may have noticed on August 14 that your TV was a little darker and your beer was a little warmer. The biggest blackout in American history cascaded across seven states and Ontario, leaving about 50 million people (including all of New York City) without power. Some parts of Syracuse lost power for almost a day, signing us off AOL Instant Messenger and ruining our 36-day online streak. The cause of the blackout remains unclear, but we know it wasn’t a terrorist act. So for the time being, we’ll stick with blaming it on Canada.

Published on August 24, 2003 at 12:00 pm