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the Joint Chiefs of Staff, who conveyed their concern about a growing strain on troops and their families from long and repeated combat tours in Iraq. President Bush announced a set of modest proposals to deal with an alarming rise in mortgage defaults. Mike Nifong, the disgraced former district attorney of Durham County, N.C., was sentenced to a day in jail after being held in criminal contempt of court for lying to a judge when pursuing rape charges against three falsely accused Duke University lacrosse players.
• One year ago: The Wartime Contracting Commission issued a report saying the U.S. had lost billions of dollars to waste and fraud in Iraq and Afghanistan and stood to repeat that in future wars without big changes in how the government awarded and managed contracts for battlefield support and reconstruction projects. Betty Skelton Erde, 85, an aviation and auto racing pioneer once called the fastest woman on Earth, died in The Villages, Florida.
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• Today's Birthdays: Japanese monster movie actor Katsumi Tezuka is 100. Baseball Hall-of-Famer Frank Robinson is 77. Actor Warren Berlinger is 75. Rock musician Jerry Allison (Buddy Holly and the Crickets) is 73. Actor Jack Thompson is 72. Violinist Itzhak Perlman is 67. Singer Van Morrison is 67. Rock musician Rudolf Schenker (The Scorpions) is 64. Actor Richard Gere is 63. Olympic gold medal track and field athlete Edwin Moses is 57. Rock singer Glenn Tilbrook (Squeeze) is 55. Rock musician Gina Schock (The Go-Go's) is 55. Singer Tony DeFranco (The DeFranco Family) is 53. Rhythm-and-blues musician Larry Waddell (Mint Condition) is 49. Actor Jaime P. Gomez is 47. Baseball pitcher Hideo Nomo is 44. Rock musician Jeff Russo (Tonic) is 43. Singer-composer Deborah Gibson is 42. Rock musician Greg Richling (Wallflowers) is 42. Actor Zack Ward is 42. Golfer Padraig Harrington is 41. Actor Chris Tucker is 40. Actress Sara Ramirez is 37. Rhythm-and-blues singer Tamara (Trina & Tamara) is 35.
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• Thought for Today: "Every man in the world is better than someone else and not as good someone else." -- William Saroyan, American author (1908-1981).
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