HIStory: Michael Jackson Leads USa into the Four of July Weekend

today's papers
HIStory
By Daniel PolitiPosted Friday, June 26, 2009, at 6:35 AM ET
The New York Times leads with a look at how Iraq's government is celebrating the withdrawal of U.S. combat troops from its cities by June 30, which, contrary to what many expected, appears to be moving along right on schedule. The Wall Street Journal leads its worldwide newsbox with Iranian opposition leader Mir Hossein Mousavi vowing to keep on contesting the official results from the presidential election, despite facing strong pressure to keep quiet. The Washington Post leads with the Supreme Court's ruling that a strip-search of a 13-year-old girl by school officials who thought she was hiding ibuprofen was unconstitutional. In an 8-1 decision, the justices said the school officials went too far, particularly considering that the evidence against the student was weak and the medication posed no real danger to students. While they may have been justified to search her outer clothes and backpack, the school officials had no reason to carry out an "embarrassing, frightening and humiliating search," as Justice David Souter wrote in what may be his final opinion for the court.

The real big news of the day though, is, of course, the death of Michael Jackson. The Los Angeles Times banners the news and devotes three-quarters of its front page to the King of Pop. USA Today hands over practically all of its Page One real estate to a huge picture of the icon. Jackson was 50, and had been in the public limelight for at least 40 of those years, when the Jackson 5 released their first hit I Want You Back. Jackson died yesterday afternoon, shortly after going into cardiac arrest at his rented home in Los Angeles, where he was preparing for 50 sold-out concerts at London's O2 Arena. When paramedics arrived at his home, Jackson's personal physician was performing CPR. They treated him for almost 45 minutes at his house but was in a coma when he arrived at the UCLA Medical Center. He was pronounced dead at 2:26 p.m. The Los Angeles Police Department said it would launch an investigation into the death, but cautioned that this is simply standard procedure for someone who was so famous and they have no reason to believe any foul play was involved. An autopsy is expected to be performed today.
To continue reading, click here.Daniel Politi writes "Today's Papers" for Slate. He can be reached at todayspapers@slate.com.