> Comments?
absolutely standard classical electromagnetic theory in a funny medium (anomolous dispersion).
for example, my 1979 edition of Optics by Hecht and Zajac (in some ways much better than Born and Wolf) already shows theoretical possiblity of group velocity v_g > c, BUT SIGNAL VELOCITY v_s ALWAYS < c. as daniel davies said, its all in the interpretation of the experimental results within the theory of signals and wave propagation and fourier analysis.
its getting the funny medium and doing the experiment carefully, thats the whopper here. (there were earlier experiments as well)
more later if time and interest.
les schaffer