September 2004

9/11 Anniversary is Marked Around the Country - Sep 12, 2004
They gathered at a hole in the ground in Lower Manhattan, a lonely patch of earth in rural Pennsylvania and a spot near the healed breach in the seat of military power, the Pentagon. The crowds were smaller than in past years, the grief perhaps muffled a bit by the gauze that time weaves over raw wounds, as hundreds drew close to the sites of the worst terrorist attack in United States history yesterday to remember and mourn those lost three years earlier, on Sept. 11, 2001. (New York Times )

Some Mourning 9/11 Losses Avoid Ground Zero - Sep 12, 2004
Recent interviews with more than 300 relatives of those killed on September 11, 2001 found that scores have not been to ground zero since the attacks. They have their own reasons: dread. Privacy, a feeling at odds with something as public as a ceremony shown live on television. Anger at officials they believe did not do enough to prevent the attacks. Fear, among some who do not live in Manhattan, of going to the place that was forever changed and that forever changed them. (New York Times )

As 9/11 Slips into the Past, New York Pauses to Mark Anniversary - Sep 12, 2004
With broken voices and shattered hearts, parents of 9/11 victims read the litany of the lost at the World Trade Center site yesterday to mark the third anniversary of the terror attacks. But the constant noise of traffic on the adjacent West Side Highway was a reminder of how, for many in New York and the nation, the horrors of 9/11 have begun to slip into the past. (New York Daily News)

9/11 Families Make What May Be Last Trip to Ground Zero - Sep 12, 2004
Relatives of those who died at the World Trade Center walked seven stories down to the bedrock yesterday, knowing the descent to the hallowed ground may be their last. (New York Daily News)

600 Sue Over Health Problems From Ground Zero Cleanup - Sep 12, 2004
More than 600 people have filed a class-action lawsuit contending they suffered health problems from the cleanup of the World Trade Center, officials said yesterday. (New York Daily News )

Fresh Tear on Third Anniversary of Attacks - Sep 12, 2004
Thousands of weeping mourners, four dramatic moments of silence and one gut-wrenching recitation of the names of the dead combined yesterday at Ground Zero to somberly mark the third anniversary of the 9/11 attacks. (New York Post )

Laughing and Crying, Grieving Family of a Firefighter Moves On - Sep 12, 2004
She remained bliss fully serene until she repeated her husband's last words before 9/11 took him away. (New York Post )

Firefighter Honor Those Killed on 9/11 - Sep 12, 2004
Quiet ceremonies honoring the hundreds of firefighters killed at the World Trade Center were held across the city yesterday, as a large number of Bravest chose to mourn the third anniversary of 9/11 away from Ground Zero. (New York Post )

Honoring Coworkers Killed On 9/11, Restaurant Workers Plan New Eatery - Sep 12, 2004
Windows on the World staffers gather at Pier 25 yesterday to honor their 73 fallen co-workers. They plan to open a new eatery. (New York Post )

9/11 Widow Expecting a New Child - Sep 12, 2004
Today, Star, who moved to Florida with her young daughter to escape this place, badly wanted to return. Only now, she can't. Star had two very good reasons for missing the third anniversary ceremony of the World Trade Center atrocity: First, the approach of Hurricane Ivan made it impossible for her to get a flight. Second, Star, now 24, is just a month away from giving birth. (New York Post )

Woman Who Witnessed 9/11 Marries on Attack's Third Anniversary - Sep 12, 2004
Catherine Wragg and John Fulbrook are all smiles outside St. Patrick's Cathedral, where they got married yesterday Ñ three years after she saw the towers fall near her workplace. Julie Stapen On Sept. 11, 2001, Catherine Wragg watched the Twin Towers come down from the window of the downtown insurance company where she's vice president of human resources. (New York Post )

New Yorkers Who Left After 9/11 Return Home - Sep 12, 2004
New Yorkers who fled the city after 9/11 are returning, some to within a stone's throw of Ground Zero. (New York Post )

Claims Linger for 9/11 Victims - Sep 12, 2004
Mayor Michael Bloomberg recently proclaimed the city "back in business," three years after the devastating World Trade Center attack of Sept. 11, 2001. Still, few New Yorkers would deny the lingering effects of the attacks. (Newsday )

Quotes from 9/11 Commemoration - Sep 12, 2004
"There's no other place to be. It's just a place to reconnect. This is where he was last." -- Anne Allen of Fort Lee, N.J., who lost her brother, Salvatore Pepe, and was at the ground zero memorial. (Newsday )

Widow of Firefighter Resents Political Use of Attacks - Sep 12, 2004
She is the former Carla Dennis and she is 38 and she had a real marriage with her firefighter. Now she lives with her two kids in Manhattan. She did not join any group of widows because she felt 9/11 was being used by the worst politicians and beliefs. (Newsday )

Suspending Campaigns, Kerry, Bush Mark 9/11 Anniversary - Sep 12, 2004
On a day reserved for remembrance, President Bush and Sen. John Kerry stepped off the campaign trail Saturday to mark the three-year anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks with warm words for the victims' families. (Chicago Tribune )

Police Officers Honor Those Killed on 9/11 - Sep 12, 2004
Three years later their duty as police officers remains the same, but their lives have drastically changed. (NY1)

For New Yorkers Not Directly Affected by Attack, Life Goes on - Sep 12, 2004
As the nation mourned the deaths of close to 3,000 people, many New Yorkers were out and about. During the precessions at ground zero, NY1's Itay Hod grabbed a camera and took to the streets to check out how some New Yorkers are spending this anniversary. (NY1)

Staten Island Memorial Unveiled - Sep 12, 2004
Rounding out a long and intense day of events marking the third anniversary of 9/11, a memorial to Staten Island victims was dedicated on the borough's waterfront at the ferry terminal across the harbor from the Trade Center site. (NY1)

Families Mark Third Anniversary of 9/11 at Ground Zero - Sep 11, 2004
With quavering voices, parents and grandparents of those killed at the World Trade Center slowly read the names of the victims early Saturday to mark the third anniversary of the attacks that brought down the twin towers. Moments of silence were observed at 8:46 and 9:03 a.m., the times two planes slammed into the trade center towers on Sept. 11, 2001, and at 9:59 and 10:29, when the two towers collapsed. (Associated Press)

With Constant Reminders, Children of 9/11 Victims Grow up Grieving - Sep 11, 2004
For all the dark assumptions and the outpouring of sympathy and money, the children of the victims of 9/11 receded from public view. Their families protected them. Journalists shied away from them. Social workers struggled to find them. And psychotherapists confronted a novel clinical challenge: how to treat children who have suffered a loss so brutally intimate yet spectacularly public. Only now is a portrait of these children emerging. (New York Times )

With a Collage of 9/11 Audio Clips, Artists Create a Ground Zero Walking Tour CD - Sep 11, 2004
From the hundreds of calls and audio clips they collected, the Kitchen Sisters created "The Sonic Memorial Project," created from hundreds of phone calls and audio clips related to 9/11, has been turned into an audio walking tour of the Trade Center site: "Ground Zero: A Sonic Memorial Soundwalk." (New York Times )

As Deadline Approached, A Rush to Sue Over 9/11 - Sep 11, 2004
A deadline yesterday for lawsuits related to the Sept. 11 attacks prompted a rush to the New York federal courthouse where all such suits have been filed. (New York Times )

Marking 9/11's Anniversary on City Island - Sep 11, 2004
New York has its ends of the earth, odd little places so psychically removed from the rest of the city that they barely heed the urban scat. Places like City Island, that Bronx curio of a community lingering like an afterthought in the chop and sway of the Long Island Sound. But it is the second week in September, the third anniversary, and remote City Island is still New York City. (New York Times )

Pain Still Fresh for 9/11 Families - Sep 11, 2004
The first year they were numb. The second they gathered enough strength to pull what was left of their families together. Now it's the third anniversary and the anguish of life forever without their husbands and wives, fathers and mothers, children and grandchildren has become painfully real. (New York Daily News)

Fundraising For Memorial Has Yet to Begin - Sep 11, 2004
Eight months after the World Trade Center memorial design was unveiled, Gov. Pataki and Mayor Bloomberg have yet to find a prominent person willing to lead the foundation that's raising the money to build it. (New York Daily News)

New Images Give Best View Yet of Future Ground Zero Development - Sep 11, 2004
A stunning new look of the future World Trade Center site was unveiled yesterday, complete with the world's tallest building, a poignant memorial to the victims of the terror attacks, and a striking new cultural complex and rail station. (New York Post )

Couple Who Met on 9/11 Remembers Worst, Best Day of Their Lives - Sep 11, 2004
For Jason Newberg and Jennifer Elias, Sept. 11 remains one of the worst days of their lives Ñ and one of the best. That's because, just hours after the Twin Towers crashed to the ground, they met for the first time Ñ and quickly fell in love. (New York Post )

Omens Lead 9/11 Widow to New Love - Sep 11, 2004
Brave Kellie Lee beams with joy as she reveals she has finally found love again Ñ three years after her husband died in the 9/11 terror attacks. (New York Post )

Midwestern Parents of 9/11 Victim Are Now Linked to New York - Sep 11, 2004
Andrea Haberman was not a New Yorker. She was a 25-year-old Wisconsinite turned Chicagoan who came to New York for the first time on a business trip on Sept. 10, 2001. She was murdered 10 hours later by al Qaeda at Carr Futures on the 92nd floor of One World Trade Center. Three years on, Andrea's parents, Gordon and Kathy, and her younger sister, Julie, are forever linked with New York and with New Yorkers. (New York Post )

New Yorkers Honor 9/11 Memory By Helping Californians - Sep 11, 2004
This weekend, 14 New Yorkers Ñ including 11 city firefighters Ñ are volunteering in Harbison Canyon, a small community outside San Diego, helping rebuild houses destroyed during last fallÕs wildfires. How they got there is one of the great legacies of 9/11. (New York Post )

9/11 Families Wonder Whether Loved Ones Jumped From Towers - Sep 10, 2004
The families of some Sept. 11 victims are exploring how their loved ones died, but the topic of those who jumped from the World Trade Center is especially sensitive. (New York Times )

Football Star to Sing At 9/11 Anniversary Ceremony - Sep 10, 2004
A former football star, Morris Robinson will provide the soundtrack for Friday's ceremony at ground zero marking the third anniversary of 9/11. (New York Times )

Visitor Center Planned for Ground Zero - Sep 10, 2004
Yesterday, the Lower Manhattan Development Corporation extended its support - but not any money so far - to the Tribute Visitors Center being planned for a storefront at 120 Liberty Street, opposite ground zero and next to Ladder Company 10 and Engine Company 10. (New York Times )

Companies Cash in on 9/11 Anniversary Souvenirs - Sep 10, 2004
There's no shortage of retailers making a play for Patriot Day paydays, shamelessly linking their products to commemorate the nearly 3,000 people killed in the attacks. (New York Daily News)

Navy Ship Being Built With Trade Center Steel - Sep 10, 2004
The World Trade Center will live on in a new Navy warship called the New York. The $1.2 billion amphibious transport dock ship, which Secretary of the Navy Gordon England will officially name today, is to include steel salvaged from the wreckage of the twin towers. (New York Daily News)

Parents Will Read Name at Modest 9/11 Anniversary Ceremony - Sep 10, 2004
Parents and grandparents of victims, will be the emotional heart of tomorrow's Ground Zero ceremony, where they will read the names of all those killed in the attacks. But as older generations step to the podium, they will be presiding over a decidedly trimmed-down day of remembrance. (New York Daily News)

9/11 Anniversary Events - Sep 10, 2004
Events commemorating the third anniversary of the terror attack on the World Trade Center are scheduled throughout the city. Following is a sampling: (Newsday )

Some New Yorkers Still Having Trouble Coping With 9/11 - Sep 10, 2004
In the three years since the Sept. 11 attacks, most New Yorkers have adjusted emotionally, learning to cope in a world where terrorism is an ongoing threat. For many others, the coping remains difficult. (Newsday )

City Prepares Soggy Ground Zero for Anniversary Ceremony - Sep 10, 2004
The ground was still water-soaked yesterday at the World Trade Center site, but Sept. 11 observances will go on rain or shine tomorrow, city officials said yesterday. (Newsday )

Bush Now Supports Larger Role for New Intelligence Post - Sep 09, 2004
President Bush said on Wednesday that he wanted to give a new national intelligence director "full budgetary authority,'' a sharp shift from an earlier position and an acquiescence to a major recommendation of the Sept. 11 commission. (New York Times )

Image of Twin Towers Remains Throughout City - Sep 09, 2004
They are lost, of course. But they have not disappeared. Three years after it seemed that the name and image of the twin towers would be mournfully expunged from the cityscape, the World Trade Center survives. Not on the skyline, but on street signs and shopping bags and book covers, in Fire Department insignia and the logo of the Alliance for Downtown New York, in a subway station and a parking garage, at the gateway to SoHo and in the lobby of an apartment building that was especially hard hit on Sept. 11, 2001. (New York Times )

Many 9/11 Court Battles Remain Unresolved - Sep 09, 2004
Despite all that has happened in the last three years, despite all the rebuilding and all the talk of recovery, there are still places where the terrorist attack on the World Trade Center reverberates more strongly than ever. In the hearts of many Americans, for example. In the minds of many New Yorkers. And, of course, in the courts. (New York Times )

Frederic Schwartz: Designer of Two 9/11 Memorials - Sep 09, 2004
Frederic Schwartz is standing on a peninsula at Liberty State Park where ground is to be broken tomorrow for the 9/11 memorial he has designed for New Jersey, only three-and-a-half hours after ground is broken in Westchester County for the 9/11 memorial he has designed there. But for a moment, his sad eyes are not focused on the empty sky across the Hudson River where the World Trade Center is supposed to be. (New York Times )

As Charitable Funds Expire, Questions About Long-Term Needs Remain - Sep 09, 2004
An astonishing $3 billion was raised to help the victims of the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, and nearly all that money has been spent, the bulk of it handed over in cash grants, some without regard to financial need. Three years later, some are wondering whether this was the best way to make use of this unprecedented charitable windfall. (New York Times )

Website Offers "Living Memorial" To 9/11 Victims, Families - Sep 09, 2004
A high-profile 9/11 organization launched an Internet-based memorial yesterday that will serve as a "portal of reflection, remembrance, interaction, education and scholarly research" about the terrorist attacks. (New York Daily News)

Art Exhibit Traces Children's Recovery from 9/11 - Sep 09, 2004
The magic marker drawing of an empty baseball diamond adorned with two little yellow crosses told Allison Hobbs just how much her 12-year-old son, Steven, misses his dad, who was killed on 9/11. (New York Daily News)

City Trying to Remove Rainwater from Ground Zero to Prepare for Anniversary - Sep 09, 2004
The city launched a round-the-clock effort yesterday to pump 2 feet of rainwater from the lowest levels of Ground Zero, so that the area is dry for Saturday's observance of the third anniversary of the terror attacks. (New York Daily News)

9/11 Related Cancer May Not Emerge for Decades, Says Doctors - Sep 09, 2004
A patchwork of post-Sept. 11 health screening programs will not detect any increases in more serious, long-term illnesses like cancer, experts told Congress on Wednesday. Doctors and government investigators told a House subcommittee it could take decades to pick up on all of the lingering health woes stemming from Sept. 11 and the cleanup effort around the World Trade Center. (Newsday )

Memorial Planned For Flight 93 Victims - Sep 09, 2004
The 40 innocent passengers and crew who died on hijacked United Airlines Flight 93 should be honored because they played a role in the "only victory" during the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, said the father of one of the victims. That's what planners hope people remember as they submit designs for a crash site memorial in a national competition announced Wednesday. (Newsday )

Bipartisan Bill Would Adopt All Recommendations of 9/11 Commission - Sep 08, 2004
An influential bipartisan group of members of Congress, backed by leaders of the Sept. 11 commission, said on Tuesday that they were offering a bill in the House and Senate to enact virtually all the commission's recommendations, including its call for a national intelligence director to oversee all of the government's spy agencies. (New York Times )

Study Finds Lack of Data on 9/11 Air Quality - Sep 08, 2004
Days before the third anniversary of the destruction of the World Trade Center, federal agencies have yet to make a coordinated and comprehensive effort to study the health effects of the debris that filled the air in the weeks after the attack, according to a draft copy of a government study to be presented to Congress today. The study also shows that there is still no federal treatment program for those suffering from related problems. (New York Times )

Photographing Ground Zero, Minute by Minute - Sep 08, 2004
In the fall of 2001 when the dust and ash from the World Trade Center were still in the air, Jim Whitaker, a documentary filmmaker, decided to photograph everything happening at ground zero. By the spring of 2002 three cameras were pointed at the pit, each taking one shot every five minutes, round the clock. Months later, three more cameras were added. That was the beginning of Project Rebirth, a nonprofit organization dedicated to creating a historical record of the rebuilding. (New York Times )

New York Officials Reject New Homeland Security Funding Plan - Sep 08, 2004
A Republican plan to give New York more anti-terror funding in time to mark Saturday's 9/11 anniversary hit a wall yesterday after Mayor Bloomberg and other lawmakers said the proposal is useless. (New York Post )

On Eve of Anniversary, A Look at Rebuilding Progress - Sep 08, 2004
The past year has seen plans move forward in re-developing the World Trade Center site, including the start of work on the Freedom Tower. In the following report, NY1Õs Roger Clark takes a look at the progress as we close in on the third anniversary of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks. (NY1)

Children of 9/11 Victims Display Art in Chelsea - Sep 08, 2004
Fifty pieces of art now on display in Chelsea were created by children who lost a parent during the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center. Forty children contributed pieces for the exhibit at the Terrapin Art Gallery. (NY1)

9/11 Commission Bill Among Priorities of Congress - Sep 07, 2004
House and Senate leaders are planning to advance legislation that carries out recommendations from the Sept. 11 commission report that was issued just before Congress recessed for six weeks. (New York Times )

Survey Studies Three Years of Recovery for 9/11 Families - Sep 07, 2004
In the three years since the attacks, there have been hints of the struggles the families have fought, of the lingering toll of their losses, of the agony of deciding, among many other things, whether to accept money from the federal compensation fund or to sue in pursuit of accountability. There have been, too, hints of recovery, or at least of a determination to repair their ruptured lives as best they could. Some have, over the nearly 36 months since Sept. 11, 2001, made their voices heard - some publicly, some only at memorial ceremonies when the names of the dead were read out. (New YorkTimes)

Trade Center Veterans Plan Cooperative Restaurant - Sep 07, 2004
Memory can make a bitter dish, but a group of 50 waiters, cooks and busboys who once worked at the Windows on the World restaurant are intent on honoring 73 colleagues who died when the twin towers collapsed by opening what may be New York's first cooperatively owned restaurant. (New York Times )

Mets Mark 9/11 Anniversary With First Pitch From Firefighter - Sep 07, 2004
A rookie Brooklyn firefighter, who lost his firefighting dad on 9/11, has been tapped to throw out the first pitch at Shea Stadium on the third anniversary of the event that changed the nation, The Post had learned. (New York Post )

Some Couples Plan 9/11 Weddings - Sep 07, 2004
Why would anybody in their right mind want to get married on Sept. 11? Dan Dunleavy and Tracey Bobst are going to do just that this Saturday Ñ mere blocks from Ground Zero Ñ and they have a very good reason. "We're celebrating life," said Dunleavy, a 30-year- old energy trader with Shell Oil and Gas. (New York Post )

Third Annual Walk Honors Fire Chaplain Killed on 9/11 - Sep 07, 2004
With the three-year anniversary of the 9/11 attacks less than a week away, friends and supporters of Mychal Judge retraced the final steps of the popular Fire Department chaplain who was killed in the terror attacks. Judge was honored Sunday in the third annual Walk of Remembrance. (NY1)

Ground Zero Documentary Details "Sad Compromise" - Sep 07, 2004
If you're looking for a fly-on-the-wall view of one of the nastiest architectural catfights in recent memory, be sure to watch Tuesday's "Frontline," which charts the tumultuous first year in the rebuilding effort at ground zero. There are less shameful reasons to tune in too. (Chicago Tribune)

Despite Terror Concerns, New York Builds Glass Skyscrapers - Sep 06, 2004
Defying concerns after the attack on New York three years ago that post-9/11 construction would be dominated by brute concrete bunkers, the designers of significant new public and private buildings in the city are turning again and again to glass facades. (New York Times )

Cantor Fitzgerald Sues Saudi Arabia Over 9/11 - Sep 04, 2004
Cantor Fitzgerald, the brokerage firm that lost 658 employees in the Sept. 11 attack, has sued Saudi Arabia, charging that the kingdom "provided funding and material support and substantial assistance" to Al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden. (New York Times )

9/11 Families Want Victims Remains Removed from Fresh Kills - Sep 02, 2004
About 40 relatives and friends of Trade Center victims turned out at Ground Zero to insist that dust containing tiny fragments of blood, bone and human ashes be removed from the Staten Island's Fresh Kills landfill to a burial ground. (New York Daily News)

Stuyvesant Students Protest GOP's Use of 9/11 - Sep 02, 2004
Less than two weeks before the third anniversary of 9/11, about 30 current and former Stuyvesant students rallied against President George W. Bush, and the GOP Convention's use of Ground Zero. (Newsday )

Serving Delegates, Former Trade Center Workers Silently Recall Windows on the World - Sep 01, 2004
As Republicans rally and party in New York this week, they have frequently raised the subject of the terrorist attacks of September 11th, some more delicately than others. That day is history, of course. But in the city they have chosen for their political coronation, it is also personal - so personal that they may be closer to the tragedy than they realize, in the form of that silent person before them, offering tenderloin tips on a tray. (New York Times )

Giuliani Has Told Story About 9/11 Prayer for Bush Before - Sep 01, 2004
The anecdote seemed almost too scripted, too on-message to be true. Rudolph W. Giuliani told the Republican National Convention on Monday night that, in a spontaneous moment, in the midst of the attacks on Sept. 11, he had grabbed the arm of his police commissioner and said, "Thank God George Bush is our president." (New York Times )

Father Who Abandoned Son Will Get 9/11 Cash - Sep 01, 2004
The state's highest court yesterday let stand a decision making a man who abandoned his son at age 20 months eligible for half of a death benefit after the son perished in the World Trade Center attacks. (New York Daily News)

Delegates Continue to Flock to Ground Zero - Sep 01, 2004
Energized by speeches that framed President George W. Bush as the right leader in the aftermath of the Sept. 11 attacks, Republican delegates flocked to Ground Zero Tuesday to see the site where they say a presidency was forged. (Newsday )

New Yorkers Split on GOPs Use of 9/11 - Sep 01, 2004
Some New Yorkers expressed outrage yesterday over the Republicans' use of the Sept. 11 terror attacks for political purposes, while others said the GOP was correct in keeping alive the memory of the tragic event. (Newsday )