"Just when you thought it couldn't get any better... they pull out all the stops!" - Erica Durance
On Thursday, September 18, 2008 the legend continues...
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ARCTIC EXPLOSION
Incident Still Unexplained
by RON TROUPE
Last month's seismic disturbance in the Arctic, which literally sent shockwaves around the world, has yet to be satisfactorily explained, scientific watchdog groups agree. Registering 9.3 on the Richter scale, the massive event has not even been formally termed an earthquake, although LuthorCorp scientists continue to assure the public that they are close to announcing their findings.
As the weeks drag on without a suitable clarification of just what happened in a remote area of one of the most inhospitable regions on Earth, Metropolis residents have joined community groups and civic leaders around the country in condemning LuthorCorp's airtight lid on all data surrounding the incident. (The Daily Planet is a unit of LuthorCorp.) Many in the scientific community were stunned by the swiftness of the almost military-style information crackdown imposed by the company, which has successfully added lucrative defense contracts to its portfolio over the past few years.
"LuthorCorp's secretiveness has been nothing short of outrageous," said seismologist Thomas C. Bishop-Jepperer of Metropolis University, who has joined a coalition of 28,476 colleagues in the scientific community demanding answers. "This could be the geophysical event of the millennium, and yet we have been told nothing. All expeditions to the site are being turned away by Lex Luthor's people, and not one fact has been provided to any peer-reviewed journal for public dissemination."
Others claim that the U.S. government deliberately contracted LuthorCorp to keep the investigation under wraps because of a possible extraterrestrial connection, citing their belief that a similar explosion in Tunguska, Russia, almost exactly a century earlier to the day, was an alien encounter that was subsequently suppressed by governments worldwide.
And both camps have expressed dismay at the conspicuous absence of CEO Lex Luthor, who has not only avoided addressing the matter but has disappeared from the public eye altogether.
Speaking to a Congressional subcommittee last week, LuthorCorp spokesman Mitchell Taylor dismissed the controversy as a smear campaign "perpetrated by a few fringe conspiracy wackos" and asserted that Lex and the corporation are only acting in the public's best interest. "Mr. Luthor feels that the premature release of our team's discoveries would only incite undue panic among the
Continued on Page A3
Stories reprinted by permission of "The Daily Planet."
LIONEL LUTHOR SUICIDE REPORT
Did He Fall, or Was He Pushed?
by JOHN K. McGUINESS
The passage of a reasonably respectful
mourning period has resulted in some of deceased business titan Lionel
Luthor's former colleagues finally voicing what has undoubtedly been on
the minds of many since the tragedy occurred several weeks ago: Was there
indeed foul play?
Company heir Lex Luthor has long been cleared of any official suspicion,
having provided the vital details that led to a ruling of suicide after
the elder Luthor crashed through a LuthorCorp Tower window and plummeted
to his death on the pavement below.
And the facts of the case seem to strongly support Lex's story. In the
months prior to his death, Lionel had retreated into relative seclusion,
with some people speculating that poor
Continued
on Page A4
AROUND THE PLANET: June 26, 2008
METRO
METROPOLIS POWER GRID REPAIRED
No Charges in Major Vandalism
of Downtown Plant
PAGE C5
CRIME
CUB REPORTER ALMOST CAGED
Details Revealed Concerning Recent Arrest of Former Planet Journo
PAGE B3
SOCIETY
TEAGUE TRUST HOLDS INAUGURAL BALL
Esteemed Lawyer Honored in True Metropolis Style
PAGE D1
BUSINESS
WRANGLING A HERD OF CASH COWS
Lionel Luthor's Limitless Legacy
Leaves Lex Loaded
PAGE C1
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