ANCESTOR VOWS TO PRESERVE SLAVE CEMETERY
Born into slavery, Mike and Phoebe -- who never had last names -- were buried among other slaves in unmarked graves scattered deep in an Alabama pine forest.
The hillside cemetery was long lost under dense growth. For a time, a landowner prohibited relatives from coming near. Then, a decade ago, a descendant of Mike and Phoebe rediscovered it.
(LA Daily News, unearthed by Bill Messick)

THC CAN COMBAT ALZHEIMERS
A synthetic version of the marijuana compound tetrahydrocannabinol (THC) appears to reduce agitation and stimulate weight gain in patients with Alzheimer's disease, according to clinical trial data presented earlier this month at the annual meeting of the American Geriatrics Society.
(NORML, unearthed by Paul Whitehurst)

MAN SHOOTS SELF OUTSIDE TAX PREPARER'S OFFICE
(MPR)

PARAMILITARY GROUP WORKING IN US
An anti-Castro paramilitary group that holds training manuevers in Florida's swamps, claims it shot -- but did not kill -- a former spy who lived in Miami and was linked to the Cuban military's shoot-down of two Brothers to the Rescue planes. Rodolfo Frometa, director of Comandos F-4, said his group was involved in the Dec. 19 shooting of Juan Pablo Roque. The alleged hit on Roque, according to Frometa, occurred this past December 16 near the intersection of Ayesteran and Boyeros in the El Cerro section of Havana. It was carried out by several F-4 members based in Havana, according to the Miami New Times. He said Roque was in serious or critical condition at a Havana hospital, but the incident could not be independently confirmed and is denied by the Cuban government. A policeman named Luis Ramirez Echeverria was killed, as was the gunman, identified as Ramón Sosa, 32, an operative in one of Comandos F-4's clandestine cells within the island, Frometa said.
(Miami Herald and Miami New Times)