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urged creation of a completely new oversight board -- a move that would require new legislation since Congress set up the existing one.
• The new board, the review group said, "should have broad authority to review government activity relating to foreign intelligence and counterterrorism whenever that activity has implications for civil liberties and privacy."
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Portland, Ore., bar provides bright place to raise a glass on the shortest day of the year
• PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) -- Saturday marks the shortest day of the year -- the pinnacle of dread for people who feel depressed when there's less sunshine. When they go out for a drink or coffee in the dreary wintertime Pacific Northwest, they could also order up a dose of something else entirely: a few rays of bright light.
• Designed to mimic sunlight, light boxes are now being featured at a bar in Portland and a cafe in Seattle to help those with seasonal affective disorder, or SAD, an energy-sapping depression that occurs at the same time each year and affects an estimated 3 percent to 5 percent of Americans.
• "I really call it atmosphere therapy in here more than anything," says Alex Carlson, the owner of Portland's Lightbar, where walls leading to the high, barrel-vault ceiling are bathed in ever-changing colors, such as a deep blue that mimics the sky just before sunrise and a red that evokes a winter sunset.
• Booths have light-therapy lamps that can be dialed up to 10,000 lux, the recommended dosage for SAD sufferers, and are draped by white canopies that provide a cocoon-like coziness. DJs play ambient music as bartenders serve craft cocktails under a tree-like chandelier that includes hundreds of crystals.
• A Seattle cafe owner started offering light therapy this fall after learning of Lightbar.
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Russian President Vladimir Putin signs decree pardoning jailed tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky
• MOSCOW (AP) -- Russian President Vladimir Putin on Friday signed a decree pardoning jailed tycoon Mikhail Khodorkovsky, the man who has been described as his archrival.
• Khodorkovsky has spent the past 10 years in prison on charges of tax evasion and embezzlement. His arrest in 2003 and the subsequent prosecution have been (Continued on page 28)
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