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The Tampa Tribune

Published: November 8, 2008

Obama Will Reach Across Aisle For Cabinet, Aides Say

WASHINGTON - Enough euphoria.

The first true test of whether President-elect Barack Obama will keep his promises to reach across the aisle will come long before he's sworn in. We'll know when we see how many Republicans he includes in his Cabinet.

The bar is not all that high. Having one member of the other party in the 14 statutory Cabinet positions or the handful of Cabinet-rank slots - such as U.S. trade representative or head of the Environmental Protection Agency - has been the norm.

Obama insiders say he's serious about being bipartisan and bringing in people from the high-tech world or other business sectors. If so, he will have to do better than his predecessors, probably putting at least three non-Democrats in the Cabinet ranks, or it will look much like same-old, same-old.
French Scientists Discover A New Species Of Gecko

PARIS - French scientists say they found a new species of gecko, after hatching an egg 12,000 miles from its South Pacific island home.

Named Lepidodactylus buleli, the gecko lives near the tops of trees on the west coast of Espiritu Santo in the Vanuatu archipelago islands east of Australia, France's National Museum of Natural History said.

Proposed Name For Ship Stirs Uproar In Netherlands

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands - It ought to be a proud milestone in Dutch seafaring heritage - the construction of a new ship that its owner claims will be the world's largest. But there's just one problem: its name.

Edwin Heerema, founder of the company that commissioned the $1.7 billion vessel, wants the ship named Pieter Schelte after his late father, Pieter Schelte Heerema, who was a renowned maritime engineer but was condemned for his service in the murderous Nazi Waffen SS.

The choice of name has provoked an outcry and has revived painful questions about Dutch collaboration with the country's World War II occupiers.

"For people who know his pitch-black history, this ship should not be named for him. Not now, not ever," said Ronny Naftaniel, the director of CIDI, which monitors anti-Semitism in the Netherlands.

Shakespeare Works To Go To London Theater

LONDON - Love's labor won't be lost when U.S. playwright John Wolfson dies. Wolfson has pledged his collection of historic Shakespeare works, including a rare First Folio of the bard's plays, to London's Globe Theatre, the Globe said Friday. The collection was never valued, but some texts may be worth $1.6 million, the Globe said.

A wire report

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