Well, technically you cannot reprint it without permission; why don't you try contacting the publisher of the newspaper and asking permission there.

Could you copy, paste Wikipedia content?
Would that be legal as long as you link to them?
Would Google penalize you for duplicate content?

Linking to a site does not give you any exception with copyright ownership.

You can summarize and article and link to the original. You can comment on an article and link to the original.

YOU CANNOT COPY AN ARTICLE OR CONTENT AND JUST GIVE OWNERSHIP. It is their copyright, and therefore they are supposed to have control of where and how it is presented.

Hope that helps,
Jeff

Could you copy, paste Wikipedia content?

IIRC, Wikipedia is different in that they use some kind of creative commons license. You'd have to read the specific wording of their license to see what you can do legally with their content. Unless you can outrank Wikipedia on the right key word ;) , google isn't likely to give you the credit for the original content.
__________

If the newpaper's local, why don't you phone the author? If he's a staff writer, the paper might hold the copyright instead of him - if it's considered work for hire. That might even be one reason he's not responding.

Someone not saying "no" to your request to use their copy isn't the same thing as someone saying "yes". If the content's worth investing a little of your time, try a contact method other than email; people who don't spend their lives on the computer (like a reporter) sometimes see email as something that can be shrugged off. And, believe it or not, some people don't check their email all that often, especially if they're busy with other things.

No you can't...

You can create a substantially unique derivative work with appropriate citations.

Or go and try notorious "youtube" approach.

Make your website open, and let a user post all copyright infringed material. When copyright holders complain, you pretend to be as innocent as youtube and immediately delete it. :>

There is "Fair Use", which doesn't mean that you can copy the whole article, but you can for example copy the first paragraph and link back to the full article on the other site. You do not need any permission for this.

I have worked as a journalist until recently and I can confirm what was said in the beginning: You need explicit permission to put the article on your web site.

I also think that it is quite likely that it is the newspaper and not the author who holds the copyright.

Having said that, 2lame2rank is correct in saying that you could take e.g. the first few sentences of the text and then link to the full text.

Timo

how can it be copyrighted if any one can modify the content?

Modifying a bit is making it a derivative work, which is still plagiarism and still in violation. Look up fair use: you can quote about 4-5 sentences at the maximum, with appropriate attribution and a link back to the source. That's it, without specific permission from the copyight holder, in writing.