To the Point

Security and Readiness for the Athens Olympic Games

On Friday, August 13, 2004, the Summer Olympic Games are scheduled to open in Athens. After four years of construction, Greece is racing to finish preparations for the games. At a cost of $1.2 billion, what security measures are being taken to thwart possible terrorist attacks? With less than 100 days to go and half of the venues still under construction, will athletes have a place to compete? What-s all the fuss about one particular roof? What about future Olympics? Will other cities be willing, or able, to pay such a high price? Guest host Sara Terry answers these questions and others with historians, sports writers in the US and Greece, an American Gold-Medal winner and the Secretary General of the Olympic Games. Making News: Political Fallout from Latest Poll Numbers Today, US officials released nearly 300 prisoners from Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison, with promises of more releases to come. It-s the latest round in a week filled with coverage of the Iraqi prison-abuse scandal. The fallout has had worldwide repercussions, as well as political repercussions for George W. Bush. Ken Fireman, who covers the White House for Newsday, interprets the numbers for the President and rival John Kerry. Reporter's Notebook: The Nebulous Origins of Baseball The baseball world was aflutter this week when a Massachusetts town released a 1791 document the Baseball Hall of Fame called -irrefutable- evidence of the first written baseball reference ever found. The text predates an 1823 newspaper article about baseball in Manhattan. Does that make Pittsfield baseball-s real Garden of Eden, as the city-s mayor declared? Historian-novelist-baseball aficionado Kevin Baker calls the claim semantic.