We needed these respectful but hardheaded men and women to ask tough questions about the Bush administration's vigilance before 9/11, and this week we needed to hear their stern questions about New York City's emergency response to the attack on the World Trade Center.
The suits focused on the kind of "no knock" raid that led to the death in May of a 57-year-old Harlem woman, Alberta Spruill, which brought an apology from the city and stern questions from public officials about the department's practices.
The Associated Press and The Los Angeles Times reported Tuesday that the F.B.I. was investigating Mr. Stern over questions concerning his $175,000 book contract and his approving salary payments to an S.E.I.U. official accused of having a no-show job.
The novel poses a number of stern ethical questions, such as whether it isn't somehow immoral to be more interested in the life of Coetzee, just because he's a famous writer, than in the life of, say, Mario Nascimento, Adriana's husband, a refugee from Brazil who worked in Cape Town as a security guard at a warehouse until a gang of robbers smashed his face in with an axe.
We asked Sterns some questions about women, contemporary art, and what it means to be bad.
Tap the relevant details into Google, though, and the real names soon appear before your eyes: the boss in question, stern and yet oddly quixotic, is Phyllis Westberg of Harold Ober Associates.
In the past, Mr. Stern shrugged off questions about such remarks.
The helpful EPA would have issued the motorist with a stern fine, no questions asked.
However, Bolloré may be made of sterner stuff.The broader question is where electric cars, notoriously slow to gain adherents, are heading.
