– Today is Thursday, May 8, the 129th day of 2008. There are 237 days left in the year.
Today’s Highlight in History:
On May 8, 1945, President Truman announced in a radio address that World War II had ended in Europe.
On this date:
In 1541, Spanish explorer Hernando de Soto reached the Mississippi River.
In 1794, Antoine Lavoisier, the father of modern chemistry, was executed on the guillotine during France’s Reign of Terror.
In 1846, the first major battle of the Mexican-American War was fought at Palo Alto, Texas; U.S. forces led by General Zachary Taylor were able to beat back the invading Mexican forces.
In 1884, the 33rd president of the United States, Harry S. Truman, was born near Lamar, Mo.
In 1958, Vice President Richard Nixon was shoved, stoned, booed and spat upon by anti-American protesters in Lima, Peru.
In 1962, the musical comedy “A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum” opened on Broadway.
In 1970, antiwar protests took place across the United States and around the world; in New York, construction workers broke up a demonstration on Wall Street.
In 1973, militant American Indians who’d held the South Dakota hamlet of Wounded Knee for 10 weeks surrendered.
In 1978, David R. Berkowitz pleaded guilty in a Brooklyn courtroom to murder, attempted murder and assault in connection with one of the “Son of Sam” shootings that had terrified New Yorkers.
In 1988, science-fiction author Robert A. Heinlein died in Carmel, Calif., at age 80.
Ten years ago: Big Tobacco settled with the state of Minnesota for $6.6 billion as the state’s lawsuit was about to go to a jury; Minnesota became the fourth state to settle with the tobacco industry over the costs of treating smoking-related illnesses.
Five years ago: The Senate unanimously endorsed adding to NATO seven former communist nations: Bulgaria, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia. A federal grand jury indicted Chinese-born California socialite Katrina Leung on charges that she’d illegally taken, copied and kept secret documents obtained from an FBI agent. (A federal judge later dismissed the case against Leung, rebuking prosecutors for misconduct.) A Russian-built cargo plane lost a door over Congo, hurling more than 100 Congolese soldiers and their families to their deaths.

washingtonpost.com

Security personnel check the chapel at St. Joseph’s Seminary in Yonkers, N.Y., on Friday. The pope will bless 50 disabled children at the chapel during his U.S. visit.
POPE BENEDICT XVI is scheduled to travel to the United States for the first time since he was elected pontiff in 2005. The trip begins in Washington, D.C., on Tuesday and ends in New York on April 20. Some of his key public events:
Wednesday: Meets President Bush and Laura Bush at the White House; prayer service with U.S. bishops at the Basilica of the National Shrine of the Immaculate Conception.
Thursday: Celebrates Mass at Washington Nationals Park; addresses presidents of Catholic colleges and universities; meets with representatives of other faiths.
Friday: Speaks at the United Nations in New York; visits a synagogue near the U.N.; attends ecumenical prayer service at historically German parish.
Saturday: Mass for Catholic clergy at St. Patrick’s Cathedral in New York; meets with seminarians, young Catholics.
April 20: Visits Ground Zero; celebrates Mass at Yankee Stadium.
Source: The Associated Press
WASHINGTON — If Pope John Paul II was an international icon, his successor, Benedict XVI, remains largely undefined in the public eye in the United States even as the Roman Catholic Church experiences a wrenching transition.
This week provides an opportunity for Benedict to establish his public image and steady the U.S. church, as he makes his first visit to the United States since ascending to the papacy after John Paul’s death three years ago.
Benedict will visit Washington, D.C., and New York on Tuesday through April 20. He’ll celebrate Mass in two baseball stadiums, address the United Nations General Assembly and meet with President Bush, Roman Catholic educators and other religious leaders. A visit to Ground Zero in lower Manhattan also is planned.
The trip comes as the Roman Catholic Church in the United States — with the third-largest Catholic population in the world — struggles against titanic pressures. Among them: a sex-abuse scandal that led six dioceses to file for bankruptcy and left others in financial straits as payouts to victims exceeded $1.5 billion; a demographic shift in U.S. religion that has saddled the church with the largest net loss of one-time members of any major faith; and a fundamental threat to church orthodoxy linked in part to the nation’s secular, polyglot culture.

seattletimes.nwsource.com

Simpsonville — It will be a happy Easter for Cookie Man and Bunny.
The two rabbits, which are the pets of Sharon Richburg, receive proper care and attention, unlike many of the bunnies that are cute and cuddly on Easter Day, only to be forgotten and discarded as they grow older.
“They can be wonderful companions, if you do your homework,” said Ms. Richburg, who is a volunteer at the Rabbit Sanctuary in Simpsonville.
For more than 30 years, Caroline Gilbert has operated the sanctuary on her farm, caring for abused and abandoned rabbits.
The sanctuary has a “home for life” policy for the rabbits. More than 50 rabbits now are at the farm.
Ms. Richburg said thousands of rabbits are sold as children’s pets, and ultimately about 90 percent of the bunnies that join families at Easter end up homeless or dead.
Jessica Medford, assistant manager at Saluda River Pet Food Center on U.S. 123 in Seneca, said proper care will help ensure a healthy pet.
“You need to make sure they have a healthy diet,” Ms. Medford said. “Iceberg lettuce does not have the nutritional values they need. Some fruits and vegetables are good, and a good brand of rabbit food is needed.”
A ceramic or metal water bowl is important because rabbits gnaw on just about everything. Ms. Medford said blocks of wood in the rabbit’s pen or cage will help the rabbit keep its teeth from growing too long.
Nicky Walthall, who also works at the Saluda River Pet Food Center, said rabbits should have bedding of cedar, aspen or North American pine shavings, and a rabbit should have its own pen or cage.
Ms. Medford said a rabbit cost roughly $20 and can be outfitted with cage and supplies for about $100. “That’s for the onetime expenses,” Ms. Medford said.

independentmail.com