GreatSchools, Inc. has threatened me with legal action, saying that no one may quote content from their parent to parent message board without their permission.
I suspect that Katherine Kornas of GreatSchools, Inc. made her threat because attorney Dan Shinoff requested that she do so.
Why weren't Katherine Kornas and GreatSchools, Inc. concerned about education lawyers posing as parents in order to undermine parents who are trying to use the legal system to help their children?
Sunday, March 23, 2008
Why can't people change their thinking?
Wall Street Culture Not Likely to Change
By JOE BEL BRUNO,AP
Posted: 2008-03-22 05:09:53
NEW YORK (AP) - Wall Street investment bankers got another lesson about the dangers of risk-taking this past week with the downfall of Bear Stearns Cos. The question now obviously is, how long will it last?
Those bankers, many of whom lived through market debacles like the dot-com bust at the start of this decade, turned out to have very short memories. And so analysts believe the sale of Bear Stearns to JPMorgan Chase & Co. for a stunning $2 per share ultimately won't have that much of an impact on how Wall Street conducts business.
In fact, bankers and traders are under even more pressure to reap big returns because of the ongoing credit crisis, and risk is just part of the game.
"There's an old saying on Wall Street that, for traders and bankers, you'd have to take a normal 30 year career and distill it to 15 years," said Quincy Krosby, chief investment strategist for The Hartford. "This whole episode might change Wall Street for a little while."
Krosby believes that Bear Stearns' near-collapse, which followed the company's investing too heavily in risky mortgage-backed securities, might force some bankers to change their ways in the short term. But it won't be enough to temper the financial industry's relentless pursuit of money.
Indeed, the past decade has seen a number of investing fiascoes that Wall Street doesn't appear to have learned much from. Krosby noted the go-go Internet days - when untested high-tech companies reaped piles of cash in public offerings. The lesson then was, don't put a lot of money into a venture that isn't on fairly solid ground - but mortgages granted to people with poor credit are quite akin to high-tech firms that had never turned a profit. In both cases, investors gleefully looked past the risk.
Now investors are smarting from what happened to Bear Stearns. And traders are somewhat chastened, for now.
Erin Callan, the chief financial officer for Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., said her firm has certainly become more wary about the risks it takes amid the credit crisis. However, the market's gyrations also offer Lehman's army of traders an opportunity to make money.
"We just try to come in, and run the business the best way we can," she said. "But, you can't survive if you take no risks at all. All we can do is plan in this environment, making sure we do all the things to optimize running the firm."
It seems there's little that will change an industry and a lifestyle attached to Wall Street, which is thought of by Americans as more than just the center of free-market capitalism. Its culture attracts men and women with a swashbuckling mentality - smart, aggressive risk takers with the potential to become very rich.
And, their skills in trading and investment banking were proven this past week - even after news of Bear Stearns' buyout.
Chief executives at Morgan Stanley , Goldman Sachs Group Inc., and Lehman Brothers pointed out that trading desks played a big part in offsetting massive mortgage-backed asset write-downs, which have ticked past $156 billion for global banks since last year.
As the three companies released first-quarter earnings data, Morgan Stanley said equity trading revenue surged 51 percent to $3.3 billion. Revenue at its fixed-income sales and trading group dropped 15 percent to $2.9 billion, but it was still the firm's second-highest performance ever despite having to write down $2.3 billion linked to subprime mortgages and leveraged loans.
And that pleased investors. Morgan Stanley had its largest gain in more than a decade on Wednesday, climbing 18.8 percent to $42.86. Rival investment banks also had their best week since 2001.
But, investors shouldn't get too comfortable - the investment banking industry, and Wall Street in general, still have a long way to go before they can be called healthy. It's not just the credit market problems that are an issue, it's also the struggling U.S. economy and its potential to hurt other countries.
"Until we feel more certain about the worldwide economies, we don't see things picking up dramatically," said Goldman Sachs CFO David Viniar. "We just need to keep plugging away."
http://money.aol.com/news/articles/_a/wall-street-culture-not-likely-to-change/n20080322050909990002
By JOE BEL BRUNO,AP
Posted: 2008-03-22 05:09:53
NEW YORK (AP) - Wall Street investment bankers got another lesson about the dangers of risk-taking this past week with the downfall of Bear Stearns Cos. The question now obviously is, how long will it last?
Those bankers, many of whom lived through market debacles like the dot-com bust at the start of this decade, turned out to have very short memories. And so analysts believe the sale of Bear Stearns to JPMorgan Chase & Co. for a stunning $2 per share ultimately won't have that much of an impact on how Wall Street conducts business.
In fact, bankers and traders are under even more pressure to reap big returns because of the ongoing credit crisis, and risk is just part of the game.
"There's an old saying on Wall Street that, for traders and bankers, you'd have to take a normal 30 year career and distill it to 15 years," said Quincy Krosby, chief investment strategist for The Hartford. "This whole episode might change Wall Street for a little while."
Krosby believes that Bear Stearns' near-collapse, which followed the company's investing too heavily in risky mortgage-backed securities, might force some bankers to change their ways in the short term. But it won't be enough to temper the financial industry's relentless pursuit of money.
Indeed, the past decade has seen a number of investing fiascoes that Wall Street doesn't appear to have learned much from. Krosby noted the go-go Internet days - when untested high-tech companies reaped piles of cash in public offerings. The lesson then was, don't put a lot of money into a venture that isn't on fairly solid ground - but mortgages granted to people with poor credit are quite akin to high-tech firms that had never turned a profit. In both cases, investors gleefully looked past the risk.
Now investors are smarting from what happened to Bear Stearns. And traders are somewhat chastened, for now.
Erin Callan, the chief financial officer for Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc., said her firm has certainly become more wary about the risks it takes amid the credit crisis. However, the market's gyrations also offer Lehman's army of traders an opportunity to make money.
"We just try to come in, and run the business the best way we can," she said. "But, you can't survive if you take no risks at all. All we can do is plan in this environment, making sure we do all the things to optimize running the firm."
It seems there's little that will change an industry and a lifestyle attached to Wall Street, which is thought of by Americans as more than just the center of free-market capitalism. Its culture attracts men and women with a swashbuckling mentality - smart, aggressive risk takers with the potential to become very rich.
And, their skills in trading and investment banking were proven this past week - even after news of Bear Stearns' buyout.
Chief executives at Morgan Stanley , Goldman Sachs Group Inc., and Lehman Brothers pointed out that trading desks played a big part in offsetting massive mortgage-backed asset write-downs, which have ticked past $156 billion for global banks since last year.
As the three companies released first-quarter earnings data, Morgan Stanley said equity trading revenue surged 51 percent to $3.3 billion. Revenue at its fixed-income sales and trading group dropped 15 percent to $2.9 billion, but it was still the firm's second-highest performance ever despite having to write down $2.3 billion linked to subprime mortgages and leveraged loans.
And that pleased investors. Morgan Stanley had its largest gain in more than a decade on Wednesday, climbing 18.8 percent to $42.86. Rival investment banks also had their best week since 2001.
But, investors shouldn't get too comfortable - the investment banking industry, and Wall Street in general, still have a long way to go before they can be called healthy. It's not just the credit market problems that are an issue, it's also the struggling U.S. economy and its potential to hurt other countries.
"Until we feel more certain about the worldwide economies, we don't see things picking up dramatically," said Goldman Sachs CFO David Viniar. "We just need to keep plugging away."
http://money.aol.com/news/articles/_a/wall-street-culture-not-likely-to-change/n20080322050909990002
Monday, March 03, 2008
Going to church and being homeschooled doesn't mean a kid is on the right track
Yesterday, in the small town of Alba, Texas a 16-year-old girl killed her mother and two brothers, and tried to kill her father, because her family ordered her to break up with her boyfriend. The boyfriend and two other boys assisted in the murders.
Could this crime have been prevented?
Almost certainly.
The family clearly believed that evil comes from outside, and they were half-right in this case. Outsiders were definitely involved.
But there was also something destructive inside this girl that most likely came from her family, which provided both her environment and her heredity.
I suspect that the girl wasn't given the help she needed to deal with her anger, which may have been justified to some extent. It's quite possible she was abused by her family in some way.
People with rigid beliefs about right and wrong, who believe that they are very different from lesser mortals, often also believe in punishment as opposed to positive reinforcement to shape their children's behavior. They often think it is appropriate to use verbal abuse on a child, shaming her and frequently pointing out her spiritual unworthiness.
It probably would have been better to coach the girl on how to deal with the evil in the world, rather than merely trying to isolate her from the world.
Could this crime have been prevented?
Almost certainly.
The family clearly believed that evil comes from outside, and they were half-right in this case. Outsiders were definitely involved.
But there was also something destructive inside this girl that most likely came from her family, which provided both her environment and her heredity.
I suspect that the girl wasn't given the help she needed to deal with her anger, which may have been justified to some extent. It's quite possible she was abused by her family in some way.
People with rigid beliefs about right and wrong, who believe that they are very different from lesser mortals, often also believe in punishment as opposed to positive reinforcement to shape their children's behavior. They often think it is appropriate to use verbal abuse on a child, shaming her and frequently pointing out her spiritual unworthiness.
It probably would have been better to coach the girl on how to deal with the evil in the world, rather than merely trying to isolate her from the world.
Thursday, February 28, 2008
Record-High Ratio of Americans in Prison
By N.C. Aizenman
Washington Post Staff Writer
February 28, 2008
More than one in 100 adult Americans is in jail or prison, an all-time high that is costing state governments nearly $50 billion a year, in addition to more than $5 billion spent by the federal government, according to a report released today.
With more than 2.3 million people behind bars at the start of 2008, the United States leads the world in both the number and the percentage of residents it incarcerates, leaving even far more populous China a distant second, noted the report by the nonpartisan Pew Center on the States.
The ballooning prison population is largely the result of tougher state and federal sentencing imposed since the mid-1980s. Minorities have been hit particularly hard: One in nine black men age 20 to 34 is behind bars. For black women age 35 to 39, the figure is one in 100, compared with one in 355 white women in the same age group.
While studies generally find that imprisoning more offenders reduces crime, the effect is influenced by changes in the unemployment rate, wages, the ratio of police officers to residents, and the share of young people in the population.
In addition, when it comes to preventing repeat offenses by nonviolent criminals -- who make up about half of the incarcerated population -- alternative punishments such as community supervision and mandatory drug counseling that are far less expensive may prove just as or more effective than jail time.
Florida, which nearly doubled its prison population over the past 15 years, has experienced a smaller drop in crime than New York, which, after a brief increase, reduced its number of inmates to below the 1993 level.
"There is no question that putting violent and chronic offenders behind bars lowers the crime rate and provides punishment that is well deserved," said Adam Gelb, director of the Pew Center's Public Safety Performance Project and one of the study's authors. "On the other hand, there are large numbers of people behind bars who could be supervised in the community safely and effectively at a much lower cost -- while also paying taxes, paying restitution to their victims, and paying child support."
About 91 percent of incarcerated adults are under state or local jurisdiction, and the report documents the tradeoffs state governments have faced as they have devoted ever larger shares of their budgets to house them. For instance, over the past two decades, state spending on corrections (adjusted for inflation) increased by 127 percent, while spending on higher education rose by 21 percent. For every dollar Virginia spends on higher education, it now spends about 60 cents on corrections. Maryland spends 74 cents on corrections per higher-education dollar.
Despite reaching its latest milestone, the nation's incarcerated population has actually been growing far more slowly since 2000 than during the 1990s, when the spate of harsher sentencing laws began to take effect. These included a 1986 federal law mandating prison terms for crack cocaine offenses that were up to eight times as long as for those involving powder cocaine. In the early 1990s, states across the nation adopted "three-strikes-you're-out" laws and curtailed the discretion parole boards have in deciding when to release an inmate. As a result, between 1990 and 2000, the prison population swelled by about 80 percent, increasing by as much as 86,000 per year.
By contrast, from 2007 to 2008, the prison population increased by 25,000 -- a 2 percent rise. Meanwhile, the Supreme Court has issued decisions giving judges more leeway under mandatory sentencing laws, and a number of states, including Texas, are seeking to reduce their incarcerated population by adopting alternative punishments.
"Some of these [measures] would have been unthinkable five years ago," noted Gelb. "But the bottom line is that states have to balance their budgets."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/28/AR2008022801704.html?hpid=topnews
Washington Post Staff Writer
February 28, 2008
More than one in 100 adult Americans is in jail or prison, an all-time high that is costing state governments nearly $50 billion a year, in addition to more than $5 billion spent by the federal government, according to a report released today.
With more than 2.3 million people behind bars at the start of 2008, the United States leads the world in both the number and the percentage of residents it incarcerates, leaving even far more populous China a distant second, noted the report by the nonpartisan Pew Center on the States.
The ballooning prison population is largely the result of tougher state and federal sentencing imposed since the mid-1980s. Minorities have been hit particularly hard: One in nine black men age 20 to 34 is behind bars. For black women age 35 to 39, the figure is one in 100, compared with one in 355 white women in the same age group.
While studies generally find that imprisoning more offenders reduces crime, the effect is influenced by changes in the unemployment rate, wages, the ratio of police officers to residents, and the share of young people in the population.
In addition, when it comes to preventing repeat offenses by nonviolent criminals -- who make up about half of the incarcerated population -- alternative punishments such as community supervision and mandatory drug counseling that are far less expensive may prove just as or more effective than jail time.
Florida, which nearly doubled its prison population over the past 15 years, has experienced a smaller drop in crime than New York, which, after a brief increase, reduced its number of inmates to below the 1993 level.
"There is no question that putting violent and chronic offenders behind bars lowers the crime rate and provides punishment that is well deserved," said Adam Gelb, director of the Pew Center's Public Safety Performance Project and one of the study's authors. "On the other hand, there are large numbers of people behind bars who could be supervised in the community safely and effectively at a much lower cost -- while also paying taxes, paying restitution to their victims, and paying child support."
About 91 percent of incarcerated adults are under state or local jurisdiction, and the report documents the tradeoffs state governments have faced as they have devoted ever larger shares of their budgets to house them. For instance, over the past two decades, state spending on corrections (adjusted for inflation) increased by 127 percent, while spending on higher education rose by 21 percent. For every dollar Virginia spends on higher education, it now spends about 60 cents on corrections. Maryland spends 74 cents on corrections per higher-education dollar.
Despite reaching its latest milestone, the nation's incarcerated population has actually been growing far more slowly since 2000 than during the 1990s, when the spate of harsher sentencing laws began to take effect. These included a 1986 federal law mandating prison terms for crack cocaine offenses that were up to eight times as long as for those involving powder cocaine. In the early 1990s, states across the nation adopted "three-strikes-you're-out" laws and curtailed the discretion parole boards have in deciding when to release an inmate. As a result, between 1990 and 2000, the prison population swelled by about 80 percent, increasing by as much as 86,000 per year.
By contrast, from 2007 to 2008, the prison population increased by 25,000 -- a 2 percent rise. Meanwhile, the Supreme Court has issued decisions giving judges more leeway under mandatory sentencing laws, and a number of states, including Texas, are seeking to reduce their incarcerated population by adopting alternative punishments.
"Some of these [measures] would have been unthinkable five years ago," noted Gelb. "But the bottom line is that states have to balance their budgets."
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/02/28/AR2008022801704.html?hpid=topnews
Tuesday, February 26, 2008
How come nobody mentions that Obama has the same name as Ehud Barak?
Ehud Barak was the 10th prime minister of Israel.
Monday, February 25, 2008
10% of Americans are former Catholics, 25% are Catholics, 51% are Protestants
San Francisco Chronicle
Matthai Kuruvila
Chronicle Religion Writer
Monday, February 25, 2008
Study: 25% of us have left childhood religions
More than a quarter of American adults have left the faith in which they were raised, switching to another religion or no religion at all, according to a national survey of religious affiliation.
In addition, adults who claim no ties to any religious institution have grown into the fourth largest category of religious affiliation, a trend led by California and states in the West, according to a report by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life.
Researchers said the large number of immigrants who have come to California from Central America and Asia have had an effect on the question of religious affiliation in the state as well as the makeup of particular denominations, particularly Catholics. While 10 percent of U.S. adults have left the Catholic Church, an influx of Catholic immigrants has kept the church's population stable.
Because the numbers of the unaffiliated have grown, Protestants are on the verge of becoming a minority in the United States. Only 51 percent of American adults describe themselves as Protestant.
In addition to the 28 percent of Americans who have left their childhood faith entirely, 16 percent have switched from the Christian denomination of their childhood to another Christian denomination.
The fluidity of affiliation in the United States underscores the competitiveness of the religious market, in which groups are vying for members, said Luis Lugo, director of the Pew Forum. "If you're going to rest on your laurels, you're history."
The survey of more than 35,000 adults was distinctive in the number of respondents as well as the number of questions posed. It found that 78 percent of the 220 million adults in the United States are still Christian.
Among Protestants, evangelicals are the largest single group, representing 26.3 percent of the nation's adult population. Mainline Protestant denominations - including Methodists, Presbyterians and Episcopalians - continue to see their numbers shrink, currently representing just 18.1 percent of the overall population. Historically black churches, which are increasingly taking on members of other ethnicities, represent 6.9 percent of the overall population.
Catholics are the second largest group of Christians, representing roughly 24 percent of the population - a relatively constant figure for the past 35 years.
But the constancy of that figure obscures the dramatic and unique way in which immigration patterns are reshaping America's religious identity, the survey found. Unlike in Europe, the majority of immigrants to the United States are Christian. And those immigrants are heavily Catholic, particularly those from Mexico.
Among immigrant adults, Catholics amount to 46 percent, while 24 percent are Protestants. But among U.S.-born adults, Protestants outnumber Catholics 55 to 21 percent.
The departures from the church mean that "roughly 10 percent of all Americans are former Catholics," the study found. While 31 percent of American adults were raised Catholic, only about 24 percent describe themselves as Catholic today.
These shifts are seen throughout the Bay Area, said George Wesolek, director of the Office of Public Police and Social Concerns within the Archdiocese of San Francisco.
St. Peter Church in the Mission District draws about 25,000 people every weekend, Wesolek said. The Catholic churches in East Palo Alto, the Bay Area's most heavily Latino city, hold most of their services in Spanish, he said.
The responsibilities of the parishes, the social mission of the church and the needs of the congregants are changing as a result.
"The Latino and immigrant base of the church is now making up the core, especially in California," said Wesolek, noting that Filipinos are a large portion of the archdiocese. "That has implications in almost every way." Priests must be multilingual, for example, and be able to meet the needs of different cultures.
The Western states have long been a destination for immigrants as well as the native-born, said John Green, a senior fellow at the Pew Forum and a principal author of the study. That mobility and lack of deep roots also play a role in the region's higher rate of the religiously unaffiliated, Green said, referencing other studies.
"The West was settled relatively late," he said. "It didn't have the tradition of established religious institutions that you have in the East or the South. They didn't have that history to draw upon."
That is compounded by immigration, particularly from Asia, which has brought other religious traditions, and that makes Western states like California distinct, he said.
"The West has always been quite diverse in religious terms and is especially diverse these days," he said. "And that level of diversity has created a group of people who aren't as interested in organized religion. They have other options."
Roughly 16.1 percent of the U.S. population describes themselves as not affiliated with any religious organization or body, a category that includes those who believe in God. In California, the unaffiliated account for 21 percent. Researchers said the numbers of atheists and agnostics - roughly 1.6 and 2.4 percent of the U.S. adult population - have remained consistent over time.
Those who are raised unaffiliated change their beliefs, too: Roughly half of those who were raised without a religious tradition now claim one as adults, according to the survey.
Green said the impact of the unaffiliated has yet to be seen. But it needs to be watched.
"The large size of this unaffiliated group could have a profound affect on the character of American religion," he said.
Online resources
A copy of the U.S. Religious Landscape Survey is available at:
www.pewforum.org
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/02/25/MN18V8DHG.DTL
Matthai Kuruvila
Chronicle Religion Writer
Monday, February 25, 2008
Study: 25% of us have left childhood religions
More than a quarter of American adults have left the faith in which they were raised, switching to another religion or no religion at all, according to a national survey of religious affiliation.
In addition, adults who claim no ties to any religious institution have grown into the fourth largest category of religious affiliation, a trend led by California and states in the West, according to a report by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public Life.
Researchers said the large number of immigrants who have come to California from Central America and Asia have had an effect on the question of religious affiliation in the state as well as the makeup of particular denominations, particularly Catholics. While 10 percent of U.S. adults have left the Catholic Church, an influx of Catholic immigrants has kept the church's population stable.
Because the numbers of the unaffiliated have grown, Protestants are on the verge of becoming a minority in the United States. Only 51 percent of American adults describe themselves as Protestant.
In addition to the 28 percent of Americans who have left their childhood faith entirely, 16 percent have switched from the Christian denomination of their childhood to another Christian denomination.
The fluidity of affiliation in the United States underscores the competitiveness of the religious market, in which groups are vying for members, said Luis Lugo, director of the Pew Forum. "If you're going to rest on your laurels, you're history."
The survey of more than 35,000 adults was distinctive in the number of respondents as well as the number of questions posed. It found that 78 percent of the 220 million adults in the United States are still Christian.
Among Protestants, evangelicals are the largest single group, representing 26.3 percent of the nation's adult population. Mainline Protestant denominations - including Methodists, Presbyterians and Episcopalians - continue to see their numbers shrink, currently representing just 18.1 percent of the overall population. Historically black churches, which are increasingly taking on members of other ethnicities, represent 6.9 percent of the overall population.
Catholics are the second largest group of Christians, representing roughly 24 percent of the population - a relatively constant figure for the past 35 years.
But the constancy of that figure obscures the dramatic and unique way in which immigration patterns are reshaping America's religious identity, the survey found. Unlike in Europe, the majority of immigrants to the United States are Christian. And those immigrants are heavily Catholic, particularly those from Mexico.
Among immigrant adults, Catholics amount to 46 percent, while 24 percent are Protestants. But among U.S.-born adults, Protestants outnumber Catholics 55 to 21 percent.
The departures from the church mean that "roughly 10 percent of all Americans are former Catholics," the study found. While 31 percent of American adults were raised Catholic, only about 24 percent describe themselves as Catholic today.
These shifts are seen throughout the Bay Area, said George Wesolek, director of the Office of Public Police and Social Concerns within the Archdiocese of San Francisco.
St. Peter Church in the Mission District draws about 25,000 people every weekend, Wesolek said. The Catholic churches in East Palo Alto, the Bay Area's most heavily Latino city, hold most of their services in Spanish, he said.
The responsibilities of the parishes, the social mission of the church and the needs of the congregants are changing as a result.
"The Latino and immigrant base of the church is now making up the core, especially in California," said Wesolek, noting that Filipinos are a large portion of the archdiocese. "That has implications in almost every way." Priests must be multilingual, for example, and be able to meet the needs of different cultures.
The Western states have long been a destination for immigrants as well as the native-born, said John Green, a senior fellow at the Pew Forum and a principal author of the study. That mobility and lack of deep roots also play a role in the region's higher rate of the religiously unaffiliated, Green said, referencing other studies.
"The West was settled relatively late," he said. "It didn't have the tradition of established religious institutions that you have in the East or the South. They didn't have that history to draw upon."
That is compounded by immigration, particularly from Asia, which has brought other religious traditions, and that makes Western states like California distinct, he said.
"The West has always been quite diverse in religious terms and is especially diverse these days," he said. "And that level of diversity has created a group of people who aren't as interested in organized religion. They have other options."
Roughly 16.1 percent of the U.S. population describes themselves as not affiliated with any religious organization or body, a category that includes those who believe in God. In California, the unaffiliated account for 21 percent. Researchers said the numbers of atheists and agnostics - roughly 1.6 and 2.4 percent of the U.S. adult population - have remained consistent over time.
Those who are raised unaffiliated change their beliefs, too: Roughly half of those who were raised without a religious tradition now claim one as adults, according to the survey.
Green said the impact of the unaffiliated has yet to be seen. But it needs to be watched.
"The large size of this unaffiliated group could have a profound affect on the character of American religion," he said.
Online resources
A copy of the U.S. Religious Landscape Survey is available at:
www.pewforum.org
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2008/02/25/MN18V8DHG.DTL
Saturday, February 23, 2008
Gay Teen's Killing Labeled a Hate Crime
Gay Teen's Killing Labeled a Hate Crime
By REBECCA CATHCART
The New York Times
2008-02-23
OXNARD, Calif.
Hundreds of mourners gathered at a church here on Friday to remember an eighth-grade boy who was shot to death inside a junior high school computer lab by a fellow student in what prosecutors are calling a hate crime.
In recent weeks, the victim, Lawrence King, 15, had said publicly that he was gay, classmates said, enduring harassment from a group of schoolmates, including the 14-year-old boy charged in his death.
“God knit Larry together and made him wonderfully complex,” the Rev. Dan Birchfield of Westminster Presbyterian Church told the crowd as he stood in front of a large photograph of the victim. “Larry was a masterpiece.”
The shooting stunned residents of Oxnard, a laid-back middle-class beach community just north of Malibu. It also drew a strong reaction from gay and civil rights groups.
“We’ve never had school violence like this here before, never had a school shooting,” said David Keith, a spokesman for the Oxnard Police Department.
Les Winget, 44, whose daughter Nikki, 13, attends the school, called the crime “absolutely unbelievable.”
Jay Smith, executive director of the Ventura County Rainbow Alliance, where Lawrence took part in Friday night group activities for gay teenagers, said, “We’re all shocked that this would happen here.”
The gunman, identified by the police as Brandon McInerney, “is just as much a victim as Lawrence,” said Masen Davis, executive director of the Transgender Law Center. “He’s a victim of homophobia and hate.”
The law center is working with Equality California and the Gay-Straight Alliance to push for a legislative review of anti-bias policies and outreach efforts in California schools. According to the 2005 California Healthy Kids Survey, junior high school students in the state are 3 percent more likely to be harassed in school because of sexual orientation or gender identity than those in high school.
'He Was Always Smiling'
King's Friend Comments to MTV.com
That finding is representative of schools across the country, said Stephen Russell, a University of Arizona professor who studies the issues facing lesbian, gay, transgender and bisexual youth.
Mr. Davis said “more and more kids are coming out in junior high school and expressing gender different identities at younger ages.”
“Unfortunately,” he added, “society has not matured at the same rate.”
Prosecutors charged Brandon as an adult with murder as a premeditated hate crime and gun possession. If convicted, he faces a sentence of 52 years to life in prison.
A senior deputy district attorney, Maeve Fox, would not say why the authorities added the hate crime to the murder charge.
In interviews, classmates of the two boys at E. O. Green Junior High School said Lawrence had started wearing mascara, lipstick and jewelry to school, prompting a group of male students to bully him.
“They teased him because he was different,” said Marissa Moreno, 13, also in the eighth grade. “But he wasn’t afraid to show himself.”
Lawrence wore his favorite high-heeled boots most days, riding the bus to school from Casa Pacifica, a center for abused and neglected children in the foster care system, where he began living last fall. Officials would not say anything about his family background other than that his parents, Greg and Dawn King, were living and that he had four siblings. Lawrence started attending E. O. Green last winter, said Steven Elson, the center’s chief executive. “He had made connections here,” Dr. Elson said. “It’s just a huge trauma here. It’s emotionally very charged.”
Since the shooting, hundreds of people have sent messages to a memorial Web site where photographs show Lawrence as a child with a gap in his front teeth, and older, holding a caterpillar in the palm of his hand.
“He had a character that was bubbly,” Marissa said. “We would just laugh together. He would smile, then I would smile and then we couldn’t stop.”
On the morning of Feb. 12, Lawrence was in the school’s computer lab with 24 other students, said Mr. Keith, the police spokesman. Brandon walked into the room with a gun and shot Lawrence in the head, the police said, then ran from the building. Police officers caught him a few blocks away.
Unconscious when he arrived at the hospital, Lawrence was declared brain dead the next day but kept on a ventilator to preserve his organs for donation, said the Ventura County medical examiner, Armando Chavez. He was taken off life support on Feb. 14.
Brandon is being held at a juvenile facility in Ventura on $770,000 bail, said his lawyer, Brian Vogel. He will enter a plea on March 21.
At a vigil for Lawrence last week in Ventura, 200 people carried glow sticks and candles in paper cups as they walked down a boardwalk at the beach and stood under the stars. Melissa Castillo, 13, recalled the last time she had seen Lawrence. “He was walking through the lunch room, wearing these awesome boots,” she said. “I ran over to him and said, ‘Your boots are so cute!’ He was like, ‘Yeah, I know.’ ”
She raised her chin and arched an eyebrow in imitation. “ ‘If you want cute boots,’ ” Lawrence had told her, “ ‘you have to buy the expensive kind.’ ” His boots had cost $30.
“So, for Lawrence,” Melissa said to five girls holding pink and green glow sticks, “we have to go get the expensive kind.”
http://news.aol.com/story/_a/boys-killing-labeled-a-hate-crime/20080223141909990001?ncid=NWS00010000000001
By REBECCA CATHCART
The New York Times
2008-02-23
OXNARD, Calif.
Hundreds of mourners gathered at a church here on Friday to remember an eighth-grade boy who was shot to death inside a junior high school computer lab by a fellow student in what prosecutors are calling a hate crime.
In recent weeks, the victim, Lawrence King, 15, had said publicly that he was gay, classmates said, enduring harassment from a group of schoolmates, including the 14-year-old boy charged in his death.
“God knit Larry together and made him wonderfully complex,” the Rev. Dan Birchfield of Westminster Presbyterian Church told the crowd as he stood in front of a large photograph of the victim. “Larry was a masterpiece.”
The shooting stunned residents of Oxnard, a laid-back middle-class beach community just north of Malibu. It also drew a strong reaction from gay and civil rights groups.
“We’ve never had school violence like this here before, never had a school shooting,” said David Keith, a spokesman for the Oxnard Police Department.
Les Winget, 44, whose daughter Nikki, 13, attends the school, called the crime “absolutely unbelievable.”
Jay Smith, executive director of the Ventura County Rainbow Alliance, where Lawrence took part in Friday night group activities for gay teenagers, said, “We’re all shocked that this would happen here.”
The gunman, identified by the police as Brandon McInerney, “is just as much a victim as Lawrence,” said Masen Davis, executive director of the Transgender Law Center. “He’s a victim of homophobia and hate.”
The law center is working with Equality California and the Gay-Straight Alliance to push for a legislative review of anti-bias policies and outreach efforts in California schools. According to the 2005 California Healthy Kids Survey, junior high school students in the state are 3 percent more likely to be harassed in school because of sexual orientation or gender identity than those in high school.
'He Was Always Smiling'
King's Friend Comments to MTV.com
That finding is representative of schools across the country, said Stephen Russell, a University of Arizona professor who studies the issues facing lesbian, gay, transgender and bisexual youth.
Mr. Davis said “more and more kids are coming out in junior high school and expressing gender different identities at younger ages.”
“Unfortunately,” he added, “society has not matured at the same rate.”
Prosecutors charged Brandon as an adult with murder as a premeditated hate crime and gun possession. If convicted, he faces a sentence of 52 years to life in prison.
A senior deputy district attorney, Maeve Fox, would not say why the authorities added the hate crime to the murder charge.
In interviews, classmates of the two boys at E. O. Green Junior High School said Lawrence had started wearing mascara, lipstick and jewelry to school, prompting a group of male students to bully him.
“They teased him because he was different,” said Marissa Moreno, 13, also in the eighth grade. “But he wasn’t afraid to show himself.”
Lawrence wore his favorite high-heeled boots most days, riding the bus to school from Casa Pacifica, a center for abused and neglected children in the foster care system, where he began living last fall. Officials would not say anything about his family background other than that his parents, Greg and Dawn King, were living and that he had four siblings. Lawrence started attending E. O. Green last winter, said Steven Elson, the center’s chief executive. “He had made connections here,” Dr. Elson said. “It’s just a huge trauma here. It’s emotionally very charged.”
Since the shooting, hundreds of people have sent messages to a memorial Web site where photographs show Lawrence as a child with a gap in his front teeth, and older, holding a caterpillar in the palm of his hand.
“He had a character that was bubbly,” Marissa said. “We would just laugh together. He would smile, then I would smile and then we couldn’t stop.”
On the morning of Feb. 12, Lawrence was in the school’s computer lab with 24 other students, said Mr. Keith, the police spokesman. Brandon walked into the room with a gun and shot Lawrence in the head, the police said, then ran from the building. Police officers caught him a few blocks away.
Unconscious when he arrived at the hospital, Lawrence was declared brain dead the next day but kept on a ventilator to preserve his organs for donation, said the Ventura County medical examiner, Armando Chavez. He was taken off life support on Feb. 14.
Brandon is being held at a juvenile facility in Ventura on $770,000 bail, said his lawyer, Brian Vogel. He will enter a plea on March 21.
At a vigil for Lawrence last week in Ventura, 200 people carried glow sticks and candles in paper cups as they walked down a boardwalk at the beach and stood under the stars. Melissa Castillo, 13, recalled the last time she had seen Lawrence. “He was walking through the lunch room, wearing these awesome boots,” she said. “I ran over to him and said, ‘Your boots are so cute!’ He was like, ‘Yeah, I know.’ ”
She raised her chin and arched an eyebrow in imitation. “ ‘If you want cute boots,’ ” Lawrence had told her, “ ‘you have to buy the expensive kind.’ ” His boots had cost $30.
“So, for Lawrence,” Melissa said to five girls holding pink and green glow sticks, “we have to go get the expensive kind.”
http://news.aol.com/story/_a/boys-killing-labeled-a-hate-crime/20080223141909990001?ncid=NWS00010000000001
Thursday, February 14, 2008
Dumb and Dumber: Are Americans Hostile to Knowledge?
Susan Jacoby, author of “The Age of American Unreason.”
By PATRICIA COHEN
Published: February 14, 2008
A popular video on YouTube shows Kellie Pickler, the adorable platinum blonde from “American Idol,” appearing on the Fox game show “Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?” during celebrity week. Selected from a third-grade geography curriculum, the $25,000 question asked: “Budapest is the capital of what European country?”
Ms. Pickler threw up both hands and looked at the large blackboard perplexed. “I thought Europe was a country,” she said. Playing it safe, she chose to copy the answer offered by one of the genuine fifth graders: Hungary. “Hungry?” she said, eyes widening in disbelief. “That’s a country? I’ve heard of Turkey. But Hungry? I’ve never heard of it.”
Such, uh, lack of global awareness is the kind of thing that drives Susan Jacoby, author of “The Age of American Unreason,” up a wall. Ms. Jacoby is one of a number of writers with new books that bemoan the state of American culture.
Joining the circle of curmudgeons this season is Eric G. Wilson, whose “Against Happiness” warns that the “American obsession with happiness” could “well lead to a sudden extinction of the creative impulse, that could result in an extermination as horrible as those foreshadowed by global warming and environmental crisis and nuclear proliferation.”
Then there is Lee Siegel’s “Against the Machine: Being Human in the Age of the Electronic Mob,” which inveighs against the Internet for encouraging solipsism, debased discourse and arrant commercialization. Mr. Siegel, one might remember, was suspended by The New Republic for using a fake online persona in order to trash critics of his blog (“you couldn’t tie Siegel’s shoelaces”) and to praise himself (“brave, brilliant”).
Ms. Jacoby, whose book came out on Tuesday, doesn’t zero in on a particular technology or emotion, but rather on what she feels is a generalized hostility to knowledge.
She is well aware that some may tag her a crank. “I expect to get bashed,” said Ms. Jacoby, 62, either as an older person who upbraids the young for plummeting standards and values, or as a secularist whose defense of scientific rationalism is a way to disparage religion.
Ms. Jacoby, however, is quick to point out that her indictment is not limited by age or ideology. Yes, she knows that eggheads, nerds, bookworms, longhairs, pointy heads, highbrows and know-it-alls have been mocked and dismissed throughout American history. And liberal and conservative writers, from Richard Hofstadter to Allan Bloom, have regularly analyzed the phenomenon and offered advice.
T. J. Jackson Lears, a cultural historian who edits the quarterly review Raritan, said, “The tendency to this sort of lamentation is perennial in American history,” adding that in periods “when political problems seem intractable or somehow frozen, there is a turn toward cultural issues.”
But now, Ms. Jacoby said, something different is happening: anti-intellectualism (the attitude that “too much learning can be a dangerous thing”) and anti-rationalism (“the idea that there is no such things as evidence or fact, just opinion”) have fused in a particularly insidious way.
Not only are citizens ignorant about essential scientific, civic and cultural knowledge, she said, but they also don’t think it matters.
She pointed to a 2006 National Geographic poll that found nearly half of 18- to 24-year-olds don’t think it is necessary or important to know where countries in the news are located. So more than three years into the Iraq war, only 23 percent of those with some college could locate Iraq, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Israel on a map.
Ms. Jacoby, dressed in a bright red turtleneck with lipstick to match, was sitting, appropriately, in that temple of knowledge, the New York Public Library’s majestic Beaux Arts building on Fifth Avenue. The author of seven other books, she was a fellow at the library when she first got the idea for this book back in 2001, on 9/11.
Walking home to her Upper East Side apartment, she said, overwhelmed and confused, she stopped at a bar. As she sipped her bloody mary, she quietly listened to two men, neatly dressed in suits. For a second she thought they were going to compare that day’s horrifying attack to the Japanese bombing in 1941 that blew America into World War II:
“This is just like Pearl Harbor,” one of the men said.
The other asked, “What is Pearl Harbor?”
“That was when the Vietnamese dropped bombs in a harbor, and it started the Vietnam War,” the first man replied.
At that moment, Ms. Jacoby said, “I decided to write this book.”
Ms. Jacoby doesn’t expect to revolutionize the nation’s educational system or cause millions of Americans to switch off “American Idol” and pick up Schopenhauer. But she would like to start a conversation about why the United States seems particularly vulnerable to such a virulent strain of anti-intellectualism. After all, “the empire of infotainment doesn’t stop at the American border,” she said, yet students in many other countries consistently outperform American students in science, math and reading on comparative tests.
In part, she lays the blame on a failing educational system. “Although people are going to school more and more years, there’s no evidence that they know more,” she said.
Ms. Jacoby also blames religious fundamentalism’s antipathy toward science, as she grieves over surveys that show that nearly two-thirds of Americans want creationism to be taught along with evolution.
Ms. Jacoby doesn’t leave liberals out of her analysis, mentioning the New Left’s attacks on universities in the 1960s, the decision to consign African-American and women’s studies to an “academic ghetto” instead of integrating them into the core curriculum, ponderous musings on rock music and pop culture courses on everything from sitcoms to fat that trivialize college-level learning.
Avoiding the liberal or conservative label in this particular argument, she prefers to call herself a “cultural conservationist.”
The rest of the article is at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/14/books/14dumb.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
By PATRICIA COHEN
Published: February 14, 2008
A popular video on YouTube shows Kellie Pickler, the adorable platinum blonde from “American Idol,” appearing on the Fox game show “Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader?” during celebrity week. Selected from a third-grade geography curriculum, the $25,000 question asked: “Budapest is the capital of what European country?”
Ms. Pickler threw up both hands and looked at the large blackboard perplexed. “I thought Europe was a country,” she said. Playing it safe, she chose to copy the answer offered by one of the genuine fifth graders: Hungary. “Hungry?” she said, eyes widening in disbelief. “That’s a country? I’ve heard of Turkey. But Hungry? I’ve never heard of it.”
Such, uh, lack of global awareness is the kind of thing that drives Susan Jacoby, author of “The Age of American Unreason,” up a wall. Ms. Jacoby is one of a number of writers with new books that bemoan the state of American culture.
Joining the circle of curmudgeons this season is Eric G. Wilson, whose “Against Happiness” warns that the “American obsession with happiness” could “well lead to a sudden extinction of the creative impulse, that could result in an extermination as horrible as those foreshadowed by global warming and environmental crisis and nuclear proliferation.”
Then there is Lee Siegel’s “Against the Machine: Being Human in the Age of the Electronic Mob,” which inveighs against the Internet for encouraging solipsism, debased discourse and arrant commercialization. Mr. Siegel, one might remember, was suspended by The New Republic for using a fake online persona in order to trash critics of his blog (“you couldn’t tie Siegel’s shoelaces”) and to praise himself (“brave, brilliant”).
Ms. Jacoby, whose book came out on Tuesday, doesn’t zero in on a particular technology or emotion, but rather on what she feels is a generalized hostility to knowledge.
She is well aware that some may tag her a crank. “I expect to get bashed,” said Ms. Jacoby, 62, either as an older person who upbraids the young for plummeting standards and values, or as a secularist whose defense of scientific rationalism is a way to disparage religion.
Ms. Jacoby, however, is quick to point out that her indictment is not limited by age or ideology. Yes, she knows that eggheads, nerds, bookworms, longhairs, pointy heads, highbrows and know-it-alls have been mocked and dismissed throughout American history. And liberal and conservative writers, from Richard Hofstadter to Allan Bloom, have regularly analyzed the phenomenon and offered advice.
T. J. Jackson Lears, a cultural historian who edits the quarterly review Raritan, said, “The tendency to this sort of lamentation is perennial in American history,” adding that in periods “when political problems seem intractable or somehow frozen, there is a turn toward cultural issues.”
But now, Ms. Jacoby said, something different is happening: anti-intellectualism (the attitude that “too much learning can be a dangerous thing”) and anti-rationalism (“the idea that there is no such things as evidence or fact, just opinion”) have fused in a particularly insidious way.
Not only are citizens ignorant about essential scientific, civic and cultural knowledge, she said, but they also don’t think it matters.
She pointed to a 2006 National Geographic poll that found nearly half of 18- to 24-year-olds don’t think it is necessary or important to know where countries in the news are located. So more than three years into the Iraq war, only 23 percent of those with some college could locate Iraq, Iran, Saudi Arabia and Israel on a map.
Ms. Jacoby, dressed in a bright red turtleneck with lipstick to match, was sitting, appropriately, in that temple of knowledge, the New York Public Library’s majestic Beaux Arts building on Fifth Avenue. The author of seven other books, she was a fellow at the library when she first got the idea for this book back in 2001, on 9/11.
Walking home to her Upper East Side apartment, she said, overwhelmed and confused, she stopped at a bar. As she sipped her bloody mary, she quietly listened to two men, neatly dressed in suits. For a second she thought they were going to compare that day’s horrifying attack to the Japanese bombing in 1941 that blew America into World War II:
“This is just like Pearl Harbor,” one of the men said.
The other asked, “What is Pearl Harbor?”
“That was when the Vietnamese dropped bombs in a harbor, and it started the Vietnam War,” the first man replied.
At that moment, Ms. Jacoby said, “I decided to write this book.”
Ms. Jacoby doesn’t expect to revolutionize the nation’s educational system or cause millions of Americans to switch off “American Idol” and pick up Schopenhauer. But she would like to start a conversation about why the United States seems particularly vulnerable to such a virulent strain of anti-intellectualism. After all, “the empire of infotainment doesn’t stop at the American border,” she said, yet students in many other countries consistently outperform American students in science, math and reading on comparative tests.
In part, she lays the blame on a failing educational system. “Although people are going to school more and more years, there’s no evidence that they know more,” she said.
Ms. Jacoby also blames religious fundamentalism’s antipathy toward science, as she grieves over surveys that show that nearly two-thirds of Americans want creationism to be taught along with evolution.
Ms. Jacoby doesn’t leave liberals out of her analysis, mentioning the New Left’s attacks on universities in the 1960s, the decision to consign African-American and women’s studies to an “academic ghetto” instead of integrating them into the core curriculum, ponderous musings on rock music and pop culture courses on everything from sitcoms to fat that trivialize college-level learning.
Avoiding the liberal or conservative label in this particular argument, she prefers to call herself a “cultural conservationist.”
The rest of the article is at:
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/02/14/books/14dumb.html?_r=1&oref=slogin
Tuesday, February 12, 2008
13-year-old killed his favorite teacher
Teen guilty of second-degree murder in teacher killing
May 16, 2001
Nathaniel Brazill is convicted of second-degree murder, and now faces a sentence between 25 years and life.
CNN's Mark Potter reports
WEST PALM BEACH, Florida (CNN) -- A jury Wednesday found 14-year-old Nathaniel Brazill guilty of second-degree murder for killing his middle school English teacher last May.
The verdict was a lesser charge than first-degree murder, which was sought by the prosecution and would have carried a mandatory sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole.
The jury of nine women and three men, many of them parents, had deliberated since Monday afternoon.
Brazill's attorneys conceded that he shot and killed Barry Grunow, a popular language arts teacher, on May 26 last year, but they insisted it was an accident. Brazill was 13 years old at the time of the shooting.
The teen had a quizzical look on his face when the verdict was read in the hushed courtroom. His attorney, Robert Udell, placed his head on Brazill's left shoulder and closed his eyes.
Udell said his client turned to him and said, "Not too bad," after the verdict was read.
A second-degree murder charge -- which means jurors believed the shooting was spur of the moment and not premeditated -- carries a minimum 25-year prison term up to life in prison. Brazill was also found guilty of aggravated assault for pointing the gun at another teacher as he fled the scene.
But Kurt Grunow, the slain teacher's brother, said he was "very disappointed" with Brazill's conviction on the reduced charge.
"If you want to say you're not going convict him because of his age, that's one thing. But it's clearly first-degree murder," Grunow said. "He said he was going to do it, and he went back and did it."
A sentencing hearing was scheduled for June 29 at 8:30 a.m. EDT.
Brazill's attorneys said that the judge has a lot of discretion in deciding the teen's sentence.
"I think the judge has leeway from zero time in prison to life," Udell said.
Udell said he had mixed emotions because he felt a manslaughter verdict was merited. But he was pleased a first-degree verdict was not returned.
"Apparently, (the jury) believed Nathaniel that he didn't go to school with the intent to assault and/or kill Mr. Grunow," he said. "We won a little battle today."
"I agree that it was a fair verdict. Let's see if we get a fair sentence," Udell said.
Prosecutors said the jury did a good job and delivered a "just verdict."
During the trial, the teen testified that he pointed the gun at Grunow because he would not let him speak to two girls in his class. Brazill, who was sent home earlier that day for a water balloon fight, testified that he cocked the .25 caliber pistol because he wanted Grunow to take him seriously, and the weapon went off. He said he thought the safety was on.
Prosecutors argued that Brazill brought the gun to school because he was angry about being suspended by another teacher for throwing water balloons. They said he was also upset because he was failing Grunow's class.
In his closing argument, assistant State Attorney Marc Shiner repeated his opening statement that a "storm was brewing" inside Nathaniel Brazill the day of the shooting last year.
Kurt Grunow said he was "very disappointed" with Brazill's conviction on the reduced charge
"This is first-degree murder anyway you look at it," he said. "You don't point a gun at someone and when it goes off ... call it an accident."
Prosecutors called a number of students who saw the shooting and a girl who said he made death threats just hours before the shooting. The most dramatic testimony came from Brazill himself during two days on the stand last week.
At one point, he clutched the handgun used in the shooting, showed jurors how he cocked the weapon and put a bullet in the chamber.
Brazill showed little emotion during his testimony, but shed tears when asked if Grunow took him seriously "after you shot him."
Brazill said he pulled the slide back on the gun to cock it and told the teacher to get out of his way.
"I was aiming at his head."
"Where did you hit him?" Shiner asked.
"In the head."
"Did he take you seriously after you shot him?"
Brazill did not respond.
"What did Mr. Grunow do when he fell to the ground?"
After a long pause and with tears welling up in his eyes, Brazill said, "What do you think he did?"
Udell, Brazill's defense attorney, told the jury during his closing arguments that Brazill was morally responsible for the shooting.
"We never said and I will not tell you that Nathaniel is not responsible for what happened here. His parents aren't at fault, the school is not at fault, the gun is not at fault. Nathaniel is at fault and only Nathaniel is at fault," Udell said in his summary statements.
He said Grunow was Brazill's favorite teacher, and that the teen did not intend to hurt him.
Udell urged the jury to consider Brazill's age.
"Any of you who have dealt with 13 year olds, or have one, know that they get stupid on us," Udell said.
One of the key pieces of evidence in the case was a videotape of the shooting from the school's security system.
The tape shows Brazill pointing the handgun at Grunow for about 11 seconds before cocking the weapon and then shooting the teacher. The tape also showed Brazill pointing the gun at another teacher as he ran away.
Jurors also saw Brazill make a videotaped confession to police after he was arrested.
http://archives.cnn.com/2001/LAW/05/16/teacher.shooting.04/index.html
May 16, 2001
Nathaniel Brazill is convicted of second-degree murder, and now faces a sentence between 25 years and life.
CNN's Mark Potter reports
WEST PALM BEACH, Florida (CNN) -- A jury Wednesday found 14-year-old Nathaniel Brazill guilty of second-degree murder for killing his middle school English teacher last May.
The verdict was a lesser charge than first-degree murder, which was sought by the prosecution and would have carried a mandatory sentence of life in prison without the possibility of parole.
The jury of nine women and three men, many of them parents, had deliberated since Monday afternoon.
Brazill's attorneys conceded that he shot and killed Barry Grunow, a popular language arts teacher, on May 26 last year, but they insisted it was an accident. Brazill was 13 years old at the time of the shooting.
The teen had a quizzical look on his face when the verdict was read in the hushed courtroom. His attorney, Robert Udell, placed his head on Brazill's left shoulder and closed his eyes.
Udell said his client turned to him and said, "Not too bad," after the verdict was read.
A second-degree murder charge -- which means jurors believed the shooting was spur of the moment and not premeditated -- carries a minimum 25-year prison term up to life in prison. Brazill was also found guilty of aggravated assault for pointing the gun at another teacher as he fled the scene.
But Kurt Grunow, the slain teacher's brother, said he was "very disappointed" with Brazill's conviction on the reduced charge.
"If you want to say you're not going convict him because of his age, that's one thing. But it's clearly first-degree murder," Grunow said. "He said he was going to do it, and he went back and did it."
A sentencing hearing was scheduled for June 29 at 8:30 a.m. EDT.
Brazill's attorneys said that the judge has a lot of discretion in deciding the teen's sentence.
"I think the judge has leeway from zero time in prison to life," Udell said.
Udell said he had mixed emotions because he felt a manslaughter verdict was merited. But he was pleased a first-degree verdict was not returned.
"Apparently, (the jury) believed Nathaniel that he didn't go to school with the intent to assault and/or kill Mr. Grunow," he said. "We won a little battle today."
"I agree that it was a fair verdict. Let's see if we get a fair sentence," Udell said.
Prosecutors said the jury did a good job and delivered a "just verdict."
During the trial, the teen testified that he pointed the gun at Grunow because he would not let him speak to two girls in his class. Brazill, who was sent home earlier that day for a water balloon fight, testified that he cocked the .25 caliber pistol because he wanted Grunow to take him seriously, and the weapon went off. He said he thought the safety was on.
Prosecutors argued that Brazill brought the gun to school because he was angry about being suspended by another teacher for throwing water balloons. They said he was also upset because he was failing Grunow's class.
In his closing argument, assistant State Attorney Marc Shiner repeated his opening statement that a "storm was brewing" inside Nathaniel Brazill the day of the shooting last year.
Kurt Grunow said he was "very disappointed" with Brazill's conviction on the reduced charge
"This is first-degree murder anyway you look at it," he said. "You don't point a gun at someone and when it goes off ... call it an accident."
Prosecutors called a number of students who saw the shooting and a girl who said he made death threats just hours before the shooting. The most dramatic testimony came from Brazill himself during two days on the stand last week.
At one point, he clutched the handgun used in the shooting, showed jurors how he cocked the weapon and put a bullet in the chamber.
Brazill showed little emotion during his testimony, but shed tears when asked if Grunow took him seriously "after you shot him."
Brazill said he pulled the slide back on the gun to cock it and told the teacher to get out of his way.
"I was aiming at his head."
"Where did you hit him?" Shiner asked.
"In the head."
"Did he take you seriously after you shot him?"
Brazill did not respond.
"What did Mr. Grunow do when he fell to the ground?"
After a long pause and with tears welling up in his eyes, Brazill said, "What do you think he did?"
Udell, Brazill's defense attorney, told the jury during his closing arguments that Brazill was morally responsible for the shooting.
"We never said and I will not tell you that Nathaniel is not responsible for what happened here. His parents aren't at fault, the school is not at fault, the gun is not at fault. Nathaniel is at fault and only Nathaniel is at fault," Udell said in his summary statements.
He said Grunow was Brazill's favorite teacher, and that the teen did not intend to hurt him.
Udell urged the jury to consider Brazill's age.
"Any of you who have dealt with 13 year olds, or have one, know that they get stupid on us," Udell said.
One of the key pieces of evidence in the case was a videotape of the shooting from the school's security system.
The tape shows Brazill pointing the handgun at Grunow for about 11 seconds before cocking the weapon and then shooting the teacher. The tape also showed Brazill pointing the gun at another teacher as he ran away.
Jurors also saw Brazill make a videotaped confession to police after he was arrested.
http://archives.cnn.com/2001/LAW/05/16/teacher.shooting.04/index.html
Parent drinking influences teenagers
Parents' drinking influences teenagers
Feb 12, 2008
07 Dec 2007
http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSKUA25603920080212
By Amy Norton
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - When it comes to alcohol, many teenagers may take a cue from their parents, new research suggests.
In a study of more than 4,700 teenagers, researchers found that parents' drinking habits appeared to influence their children in both direct and indirect ways.
In the first case, teenagers seemed to simply follow the example of a parent who drank excessively, the study found. In the second case, many teens seemed to view parents' drinking as a sign of lax parenting, and this, in turn, affected their likelihood of drinking.
Past studies have found that parents can be a strong influence on their children's odds of drinking. The current findings shed light on how this plays out, according to the researchers, led by Dr. Shawn J. Latendresse, of Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond.
"I think that this is an important finding for parents in that it raises an awareness of their multifaceted influence on the drinking behaviors of their adolescents," Latendresse told Reuters Health.
Knowing how they influence their kids, he noted, may encourage parents to seek help for their own drinking problems, or in improving their parenting skills.
Latendresse and his colleagues report the findings in the journal Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research.
The study included 4,731 Finnish teenagers and their parents; all were part of an ongoing health study of twins born between 1983 and 1987. Parents were asked about their past and present drinking habits, as well as any alcohol problems. Their children were asked about any drinking at the ages of 14 and 17, and about their views of their home life.
That included whether they thought their parents were "warm and caring," "indifferent" or "unjust." They also described their parents' tendency to monitor or punish them.
Overall, the researchers found, parents' drinking levels correlated with those of their teenagers. But it was more than a matter of the teenagers simply copying their parents.
Instead, the link was partially explained by the teens' perceptions of their parents as monitors and disciplinarians. Parents who drank heavily tended to be lax in monitoring their children's comings and goings, but tended to punish them more often. Those tendencies seemed to influence their teenagers' odds of drinking and getting drunk, particularly at the age of 14, the researchers found.
The findings, according to Latendresse, suggest that parents who monitor their children may lower their odds of drinking. On the other hand, he added, excessive discipline might have the unintended effect of pushing teenagers to drink.
SOURCE: Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research, February 2008.
Feb 12, 2008
07 Dec 2007
http://www.reuters.com/article/healthNews/idUSKUA25603920080212
By Amy Norton
NEW YORK (Reuters Health) - When it comes to alcohol, many teenagers may take a cue from their parents, new research suggests.
In a study of more than 4,700 teenagers, researchers found that parents' drinking habits appeared to influence their children in both direct and indirect ways.
In the first case, teenagers seemed to simply follow the example of a parent who drank excessively, the study found. In the second case, many teens seemed to view parents' drinking as a sign of lax parenting, and this, in turn, affected their likelihood of drinking.
Past studies have found that parents can be a strong influence on their children's odds of drinking. The current findings shed light on how this plays out, according to the researchers, led by Dr. Shawn J. Latendresse, of Virginia Commonwealth University in Richmond.
"I think that this is an important finding for parents in that it raises an awareness of their multifaceted influence on the drinking behaviors of their adolescents," Latendresse told Reuters Health.
Knowing how they influence their kids, he noted, may encourage parents to seek help for their own drinking problems, or in improving their parenting skills.
Latendresse and his colleagues report the findings in the journal Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research.
The study included 4,731 Finnish teenagers and their parents; all were part of an ongoing health study of twins born between 1983 and 1987. Parents were asked about their past and present drinking habits, as well as any alcohol problems. Their children were asked about any drinking at the ages of 14 and 17, and about their views of their home life.
That included whether they thought their parents were "warm and caring," "indifferent" or "unjust." They also described their parents' tendency to monitor or punish them.
Overall, the researchers found, parents' drinking levels correlated with those of their teenagers. But it was more than a matter of the teenagers simply copying their parents.
Instead, the link was partially explained by the teens' perceptions of their parents as monitors and disciplinarians. Parents who drank heavily tended to be lax in monitoring their children's comings and goings, but tended to punish them more often. Those tendencies seemed to influence their teenagers' odds of drinking and getting drunk, particularly at the age of 14, the researchers found.
The findings, according to Latendresse, suggest that parents who monitor their children may lower their odds of drinking. On the other hand, he added, excessive discipline might have the unintended effect of pushing teenagers to drink.
SOURCE: Alcoholism: Clinical & Experimental Research, February 2008.
Thursday, January 24, 2008
Does "creative chaos" mean that Richart is in control of the destruction?
The "creative chaos" that former MiraCosta president Victoria Richart approved of seems to mean is in control of the destructionut if someone attacks Richart, she calls it "terrorism."
Here's an article about the two concepts by Logan Jenkins of the San Diego Union:
"Richart, who has espoused chaos as a “creative force,” fought back tears Tuesday as she accused the faculty and other critics of conducting a campaign of “terrorism at its worst."
Let's get the devil expelled from college
by Logan Jenkins
UNION-TRIBUNE
June 7, 2007
Click HERE for original article.
MiraCosta can't be saved by practical legal advice, something it's sorely lacked in the past year.
The coastal community college is too far over the top for psychological counseling to restore its sanity.
As it stands, the campus afflictions are beyond the scope of familiar remedies.
If it's to return to normalcy, MiraCosta must adopt radical means to flush out the demons occupying, and torturing, its psyche.
In short, MiraCosta needs an . . . exorcist.
What not long ago was North County's model of academic collegiality has descended into a head-spinning projectile-vomiting horror show.
Where's Father Damien when you need him?
OK, I'm kidding. Sort of.
Advertisement Call it gallows humor, a protective reflex when faced with Silly String hate crimes, the specter of Ku Klux Klansmen hunting for green-braceleted dissidents on campus, and loaded guns under long coats in Oceanside.
The Tuesday meeting of the MiraCosta board was, as local government goes, a veritable Grand Guignol, a venom-letting featuring death threats to college President Victoria Muñoz Richart, lesser threats to a trustee, and the hateful letters “KKK” written on the home of Charles Adams, the black president of the board.
Ugly, scary stuff.
No joke, Richart and the board's four-member majority have been, figuratively speaking, beaten up over their politically and financially disastrous Palmgate investigation. In the wake of lunatic threats, however, Richart and Adams are framing themselves as victims, not of demented crimes but of a campus culture of “hate.”
Richart, who has espoused chaos as a “creative force,” fought back tears Tuesday as she accused the faculty and other critics of conducting a campaign of “terrorism at its worst.”
As for Adams, he translated his rightful anger at an unidentified racist vandal(s) into a livid indictment of anyone wearing a green rubber wristband, a symbol of anti-Richart solidarity inscribed with the words, “Restore Our MiraCosta.”
Adams' tongue-lashing, unlike anything I've heard from an elected official, is worth quoting at length:
“My world was shattered Friday morning when my wife walked in the door and said someone has put 'KKK' on the front of my house. . . . This is considered a hate crime. (Investigators) asked me who did I think. I immediately named you, you (he pointed at Classified Senate President Abdy Afzali and Academic Senate President Jonathan Cole).
“Because I named the Academic Senate with their hate-filled propaganda, their green bracelets that they're wearing here, the letter that was sent to the president and to my fellow board member Carolyn Batiste, and I said to them, 'anybody did this, that's who did it.'
“It's ironic that my neighborhood hangs together. I've got 30 people walking around my block. Some of these people are retired Marines. They're wearing long coats. Understand something. Those long coats aren't to keep them warm. . . . You woke up a blood-sucking angry dog. . . .
“Guess what? The Ku Klux Klan called my house – would you believe that? – to tell me, 'We did not touch your house,' that it was someone else. Now I don't know if you know the Ku Klux Klan, but those who are from the East, we know them. They do not appreciate you messing in their name or putting their letters on there. They're going to be looking for you, yes, sir, they're going to be looking at you. I told them who I think. That's my prerogative. You make innuendos, I'm going to make mine. I told them about green armbands. You want to know who they are, walk on campus, they've got green armbands. Those are the ones promoting hate.
“I'm tired. You woke up a sleeping dog. . . . I unlocked my gun cabinet and that's what I'm carrying. Not now. But if you come to my neighborhood, that's what you're going to walk into. I'm not threatening anybody. African-Americans do not threaten; we prophesy. Come into my neighborhood with your crap and they're going to to carry you out. Trust me. . . . This is the animal you have unleashed. Repercussions are about to come down. Had you not brought this hate to this campus and this community, you wouldn't be having the problem you're going to be having.”
MiraCosta, the North County college that once had it all, has turned, literally it seems, into armed camps.
Unfortunately, air-clearing elections aren't scheduled until 2008.
In an ideal world, which MiraCosta's clearly is not, moral bankruptcy would be declared today. President Richart, a radioactive lightning rod, would quit as an altruistic gesture. The board would resign en masse, all seven of them. All the active faculty reps would resign to focus on teaching. A clean sweep. An interim board would serve until the next election.
Of course, egos being what they are, that won't happen. Adams, for one, doesn't sound like he's about to give in to his tormentors. As for Richart, she has self-serving leverage. Before skipping out on the chaos she's helped create, Richart could demand a 24-carat golden parachute or, if she's fired without a plush severance, she could sue for damages to her standing as a college administrator.
Meanwhile, the faculty, supported by a cadre of former faculty and trustees, will keep up the political pressure to oust Richart and, over time, change the board's balance of power.
Without Father Damien giving it the old college try, it's going to be one long, hot, tense summer at MiraCosta.
Here's an article about the two concepts by Logan Jenkins of the San Diego Union:
"Richart, who has espoused chaos as a “creative force,” fought back tears Tuesday as she accused the faculty and other critics of conducting a campaign of “terrorism at its worst."
Let's get the devil expelled from college
by Logan Jenkins
UNION-TRIBUNE
June 7, 2007
Click HERE for original article.
MiraCosta can't be saved by practical legal advice, something it's sorely lacked in the past year.
The coastal community college is too far over the top for psychological counseling to restore its sanity.
As it stands, the campus afflictions are beyond the scope of familiar remedies.
If it's to return to normalcy, MiraCosta must adopt radical means to flush out the demons occupying, and torturing, its psyche.
In short, MiraCosta needs an . . . exorcist.
What not long ago was North County's model of academic collegiality has descended into a head-spinning projectile-vomiting horror show.
Where's Father Damien when you need him?
OK, I'm kidding. Sort of.
Advertisement Call it gallows humor, a protective reflex when faced with Silly String hate crimes, the specter of Ku Klux Klansmen hunting for green-braceleted dissidents on campus, and loaded guns under long coats in Oceanside.
The Tuesday meeting of the MiraCosta board was, as local government goes, a veritable Grand Guignol, a venom-letting featuring death threats to college President Victoria Muñoz Richart, lesser threats to a trustee, and the hateful letters “KKK” written on the home of Charles Adams, the black president of the board.
Ugly, scary stuff.
No joke, Richart and the board's four-member majority have been, figuratively speaking, beaten up over their politically and financially disastrous Palmgate investigation. In the wake of lunatic threats, however, Richart and Adams are framing themselves as victims, not of demented crimes but of a campus culture of “hate.”
Richart, who has espoused chaos as a “creative force,” fought back tears Tuesday as she accused the faculty and other critics of conducting a campaign of “terrorism at its worst.”
As for Adams, he translated his rightful anger at an unidentified racist vandal(s) into a livid indictment of anyone wearing a green rubber wristband, a symbol of anti-Richart solidarity inscribed with the words, “Restore Our MiraCosta.”
Adams' tongue-lashing, unlike anything I've heard from an elected official, is worth quoting at length:
“My world was shattered Friday morning when my wife walked in the door and said someone has put 'KKK' on the front of my house. . . . This is considered a hate crime. (Investigators) asked me who did I think. I immediately named you, you (he pointed at Classified Senate President Abdy Afzali and Academic Senate President Jonathan Cole).
“Because I named the Academic Senate with their hate-filled propaganda, their green bracelets that they're wearing here, the letter that was sent to the president and to my fellow board member Carolyn Batiste, and I said to them, 'anybody did this, that's who did it.'
“It's ironic that my neighborhood hangs together. I've got 30 people walking around my block. Some of these people are retired Marines. They're wearing long coats. Understand something. Those long coats aren't to keep them warm. . . . You woke up a blood-sucking angry dog. . . .
“Guess what? The Ku Klux Klan called my house – would you believe that? – to tell me, 'We did not touch your house,' that it was someone else. Now I don't know if you know the Ku Klux Klan, but those who are from the East, we know them. They do not appreciate you messing in their name or putting their letters on there. They're going to be looking for you, yes, sir, they're going to be looking at you. I told them who I think. That's my prerogative. You make innuendos, I'm going to make mine. I told them about green armbands. You want to know who they are, walk on campus, they've got green armbands. Those are the ones promoting hate.
“I'm tired. You woke up a sleeping dog. . . . I unlocked my gun cabinet and that's what I'm carrying. Not now. But if you come to my neighborhood, that's what you're going to walk into. I'm not threatening anybody. African-Americans do not threaten; we prophesy. Come into my neighborhood with your crap and they're going to to carry you out. Trust me. . . . This is the animal you have unleashed. Repercussions are about to come down. Had you not brought this hate to this campus and this community, you wouldn't be having the problem you're going to be having.”
MiraCosta, the North County college that once had it all, has turned, literally it seems, into armed camps.
Unfortunately, air-clearing elections aren't scheduled until 2008.
In an ideal world, which MiraCosta's clearly is not, moral bankruptcy would be declared today. President Richart, a radioactive lightning rod, would quit as an altruistic gesture. The board would resign en masse, all seven of them. All the active faculty reps would resign to focus on teaching. A clean sweep. An interim board would serve until the next election.
Of course, egos being what they are, that won't happen. Adams, for one, doesn't sound like he's about to give in to his tormentors. As for Richart, she has self-serving leverage. Before skipping out on the chaos she's helped create, Richart could demand a 24-carat golden parachute or, if she's fired without a plush severance, she could sue for damages to her standing as a college administrator.
Meanwhile, the faculty, supported by a cadre of former faculty and trustees, will keep up the political pressure to oust Richart and, over time, change the board's balance of power.
Without Father Damien giving it the old college try, it's going to be one long, hot, tense summer at MiraCosta.
Wednesday, January 23, 2008
Hate crimes in San Diego
Hate Crime Spikes, According to Latest Figures
By WILL CARLESS Voice Staff Writer
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BLINKLISTMonday, Jan. 21, 2008 | The number of hate crime offenses reported in San Diego County increased by 23 percent from 2005 to 2006, according to figures from the California Attorney General's Office, which tallies hate crime statistics in the state.
AUDIO: Talking Hate Crime
The statistics, the most recent figures available, also showed that the number of hate crime offenses reported against Hispanics in San Diego County tripled from 2005 to 2006, and that more hate crimes were reported against Hispanics in 2006 than in any of the last five years. In California, the number of hate crimes committed against Hispanics also jumped 16 percent from 2005 to 2006.
The statistics have led some local experts on hate crime to conclude that San Diego crime surge could be tied to an increasingly intense immigration debate raging in the region. The immigration debate, which reignited with a force in early 2006, could have increased both the number of crimes being committed and the awareness of hate crime issues for citizens and law enforcement officers alike.
"When you read some of the terms that are being used by otherwise legitimate spokespeople which categorize undocumented individuals as vermin, the bringers of disease, pedophiles, thieves, it dehumanizes them," said Morris Casuto, regional director of the San Diego Anti-Defamation League, a nonprofit group that promotes civil rights.
"The increase in hate crimes against Latino and Hispanic community suggests that this type of dehumanization is having an impact on other people that are prepared to take the law into their own hands," Casuto added.
Hate crimes are distinguishable from other property or violent crimes because they are motivated by bias against a certain social group. Most hate crimes in San Diego are committed on the basis of a victim's ethnicity or race.
Related Links
A Year of Legal Woes for Minutemen (March 30, 2007)
The Forbidden City (April 2006)
In Videos, Minutemen Shown Damaging Migrant Camp (Aug. 11, 2007)
Oscar Garcia, a deputy district attorney with the county's Special Operations Division, said that to be classified as a hate crime, the act has to be motivated by the bias itself. Hate crimes are offenses that strike fear into a certain segment of the community, he said, and prosecutors can potentially double an offender's sentence if they can prove hate of a certain group is the nexus for the crime.
Hate crime had been dipping in San Diego County for the early part of the decade. From 2002 to 2004, the total number of hate crimes reported fell almost 50 percent -- from 214 to 138 -- before staying almost level between 2004 and 2005. In 2006, the number increased to 181, still lower than 2002.
And hate crimes reported against Hispanics had remained fairly level between 2002 and 2004. Offences reported against Hispanics dropped sharply in 2005 before rising to a level far higher than any of the previous four years in 2006.
But because the overall number of hate crimes reported is relatively low, experts pointed out that any trends must be analyzed with caution. Overall, the 23 percent rise in hate crimes reported from 2005 to 2006 represented an increase of 42 crimes in a county with a population of almost 3 million.
Andrew Black, supervisory special agent in charge of the San Diego FBI Civil Rights Program, which aids local law enforcement in fighting hate crime, said the increasingly heated and public debate between anti-illegal immigration groups and immigrant rights activists could be one factor that's contributed to the crime spike from 2005 to 2006.
But Black said the increase could also partly be due to increased awareness of law enforcement officers to the existence of hate crime legislation. Outreach by local law enforcement agencies and effective training of officers in the use of hate crime laws means crimes that years ago wouldn't have been classified as hate-driven are now properly identified for what they are.
Timothy Cabal would disagree.
Cabal is currently incarcerated in the George Bailey Detention Facility in Otay Mesa. He recently pleaded guilty to two separate hate crimes that occurred about a year apart. Both involved altercations at bars in East County and both involved Cabal allegedly attacking victims and sending them to the hospital.
One of the victims was black, another, prosecutors argued, was attacked because Cabal thought the victim was gay.
Cabal, who will be sentenced to 17 years in prison, said his case was wrongly classified as a hate crime. Though prosecutors found a money clip at his home that bore an embossed image of a Ku Klux Klan figure and Cabal sports a tattoo of an iron cross, a symbol that is sometimes associated with the neo-Nazi movement, Cabal maintained his innocence during an interview at the jail.
"I'm not a racist. I have black friends. I'm an honest, church-going man and I didn't mean that to happen to that guy," Cabal said.
But the Cabal case has been held up by the County District Attorney's Office as an example of another dangerous trend in hate crimes within San Diego. Extremist white supremacist groups in East County have become increasingly violent in recent years, said Garcia of the District Attorney's Office.
"California is the center of the neo-Nazi movement in the United States and Southern California is the hotbed of that movement," Garcia said.
And as the immigration debate continues to boil, the number of hate crimes reported in the county is likely to continue to climb, said Stuart Henry, a professor of criminal justice and director of the School of Public Affairs at San Diego State University.
Whether that increase in reported crimes is because of a true rise in the number of crimes committed or is the result of heightened sensitivity of the latest politically charged issue -- in this case immigration -- is anyone's guess, Henry said.
With the immigration debate high on everyone in law enforcement's radar, there's a greater likelihood not only that more cases of racial bias arise, but also that more cases are identified as hate crimes, Henry said.
"Are they real hate crimes, or are they just seen as hate crimes because of the ongoing immigration debate?" Henry said. "I think there's got to be some degree of amplification just because this debate exists."
http://www.voiceofsandiego.org/articles/2008/01/21/news/01hatecrime012108.txt
By WILL CARLESS Voice Staff Writer
PRINT E-MAIL STORY SHARE
NEWSVINE DIGG
DEL.ICIO.US
BLINKLISTMonday, Jan. 21, 2008 | The number of hate crime offenses reported in San Diego County increased by 23 percent from 2005 to 2006, according to figures from the California Attorney General's Office, which tallies hate crime statistics in the state.
AUDIO: Talking Hate Crime
The statistics, the most recent figures available, also showed that the number of hate crime offenses reported against Hispanics in San Diego County tripled from 2005 to 2006, and that more hate crimes were reported against Hispanics in 2006 than in any of the last five years. In California, the number of hate crimes committed against Hispanics also jumped 16 percent from 2005 to 2006.
The statistics have led some local experts on hate crime to conclude that San Diego crime surge could be tied to an increasingly intense immigration debate raging in the region. The immigration debate, which reignited with a force in early 2006, could have increased both the number of crimes being committed and the awareness of hate crime issues for citizens and law enforcement officers alike.
"When you read some of the terms that are being used by otherwise legitimate spokespeople which categorize undocumented individuals as vermin, the bringers of disease, pedophiles, thieves, it dehumanizes them," said Morris Casuto, regional director of the San Diego Anti-Defamation League, a nonprofit group that promotes civil rights.
"The increase in hate crimes against Latino and Hispanic community suggests that this type of dehumanization is having an impact on other people that are prepared to take the law into their own hands," Casuto added.
Hate crimes are distinguishable from other property or violent crimes because they are motivated by bias against a certain social group. Most hate crimes in San Diego are committed on the basis of a victim's ethnicity or race.
Related Links
A Year of Legal Woes for Minutemen (March 30, 2007)
The Forbidden City (April 2006)
In Videos, Minutemen Shown Damaging Migrant Camp (Aug. 11, 2007)
Oscar Garcia, a deputy district attorney with the county's Special Operations Division, said that to be classified as a hate crime, the act has to be motivated by the bias itself. Hate crimes are offenses that strike fear into a certain segment of the community, he said, and prosecutors can potentially double an offender's sentence if they can prove hate of a certain group is the nexus for the crime.
Hate crime had been dipping in San Diego County for the early part of the decade. From 2002 to 2004, the total number of hate crimes reported fell almost 50 percent -- from 214 to 138 -- before staying almost level between 2004 and 2005. In 2006, the number increased to 181, still lower than 2002.
And hate crimes reported against Hispanics had remained fairly level between 2002 and 2004. Offences reported against Hispanics dropped sharply in 2005 before rising to a level far higher than any of the previous four years in 2006.
But because the overall number of hate crimes reported is relatively low, experts pointed out that any trends must be analyzed with caution. Overall, the 23 percent rise in hate crimes reported from 2005 to 2006 represented an increase of 42 crimes in a county with a population of almost 3 million.
Andrew Black, supervisory special agent in charge of the San Diego FBI Civil Rights Program, which aids local law enforcement in fighting hate crime, said the increasingly heated and public debate between anti-illegal immigration groups and immigrant rights activists could be one factor that's contributed to the crime spike from 2005 to 2006.
But Black said the increase could also partly be due to increased awareness of law enforcement officers to the existence of hate crime legislation. Outreach by local law enforcement agencies and effective training of officers in the use of hate crime laws means crimes that years ago wouldn't have been classified as hate-driven are now properly identified for what they are.
Timothy Cabal would disagree.
Cabal is currently incarcerated in the George Bailey Detention Facility in Otay Mesa. He recently pleaded guilty to two separate hate crimes that occurred about a year apart. Both involved altercations at bars in East County and both involved Cabal allegedly attacking victims and sending them to the hospital.
One of the victims was black, another, prosecutors argued, was attacked because Cabal thought the victim was gay.
Cabal, who will be sentenced to 17 years in prison, said his case was wrongly classified as a hate crime. Though prosecutors found a money clip at his home that bore an embossed image of a Ku Klux Klan figure and Cabal sports a tattoo of an iron cross, a symbol that is sometimes associated with the neo-Nazi movement, Cabal maintained his innocence during an interview at the jail.
"I'm not a racist. I have black friends. I'm an honest, church-going man and I didn't mean that to happen to that guy," Cabal said.
But the Cabal case has been held up by the County District Attorney's Office as an example of another dangerous trend in hate crimes within San Diego. Extremist white supremacist groups in East County have become increasingly violent in recent years, said Garcia of the District Attorney's Office.
"California is the center of the neo-Nazi movement in the United States and Southern California is the hotbed of that movement," Garcia said.
And as the immigration debate continues to boil, the number of hate crimes reported in the county is likely to continue to climb, said Stuart Henry, a professor of criminal justice and director of the School of Public Affairs at San Diego State University.
Whether that increase in reported crimes is because of a true rise in the number of crimes committed or is the result of heightened sensitivity of the latest politically charged issue -- in this case immigration -- is anyone's guess, Henry said.
With the immigration debate high on everyone in law enforcement's radar, there's a greater likelihood not only that more cases of racial bias arise, but also that more cases are identified as hate crimes, Henry said.
"Are they real hate crimes, or are they just seen as hate crimes because of the ongoing immigration debate?" Henry said. "I think there's got to be some degree of amplification just because this debate exists."
http://www.voiceofsandiego.org/articles/2008/01/21/news/01hatecrime012108.txt
Thursday, January 17, 2008
John Dransfield, Royal Botanic Gardens/AP
Scientists Discover Self-Destructing Tree
By JONNY HOGG,AP
2008-01-17
ANTANANARIVO, Madagascar (Jan. 17) - A self-destructing palm tree that flowers once every 100 years and then dies has been discovered on the Indian Ocean island of Madagascar, botanists said Thursday.
Scientists say they have found a new species of palm tree on the Indian Ocean island of Madagascar. It's no wonder it went undiscovered for so long: The tree flowers once every 100 years and then dies.
The name of the giant palm and its remarkable life cycle will be detailed in a study by Kew Gardens scientists in the Botanical Journal of the Linnean Society published Thursday.
"It's spectacular. It does not flower for maybe 100 years and when it's like this it can be mistaken for other types of palm," said Mijoro Rakotoarinivo, who works for the London botanical gardens in Madagascar.
"But then a large shoot, a bit like an asparagus, grows out of the top of the tree and starts to spread. You get something that looks a bit like a Christmas tree growing out of the top of the palm," he said.
The branches of this shoot then become covered in hundreds of tiny white flowers that ooze with nectar, attracting insects and birds.
But the effort of flowering and fruiting depletes the tree so much that within a few months it collapses and dies, said botanist Dr. John Dransfield, author of the study.
Dransfield noted that "even for Madagascar this is a stupendous palm and an astonishing discovery."
The world's fourth largest island, Madagascar is renowned for its unusual flora and fauna, including 12,000 species of plant found nowhere else in the world. Indeed 90 percent of its plant species are endemic.
The palm tree, which grows to 66 feet in height and has about 16-foot leaves, is only found in an extremely remote region in the northwest of the country, some four days by road from the capital. Local villagers have known about it for years although none had seen it in flower until last year.
The bizarre flowering ritual was first spotted by Frenchman Xavier Metz, who runs a cashew plantation nearby. After seeing it he notified Kew Gardens.
Puzzling Dransfield is how botanists had missed such a "whopping palm" until now. According to him it is the largest palm species in the country but there appear to be only about 100 in existence.
He also questions how the palm got to Madagascar. The tree has similarities to Chuniophoeniceae palms, however these are only found in Asia, more than 3,700 miles away.
Dransfield suggests the plant has been quietly living and dramatically dying in Madagascar since the island split with mainland India 80 million years ago.
Copyright 2007 The Associated Press. The information contained in the AP news report may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed without the prior written authority of The Associated Press. All active hyperlinks have been inserted by AOL.
2008-01-17 09:12:50
http://news.aol.com/story/_a/scientists-discover-self-destructing/20080117091209990001?ncid=NWS00010000000001
Wednesday, January 16, 2008
A vast cloud of antimatter lurks in space
AOL NEWS
Source of Mysterious Antimatter Found
Posted: 2008-01-16 16:45:01
Filed Under: Science News
Click HERE to see the original article.
Antimatter, which annihilates matter upon contact, seems to be rare in the universe. Still, for decades, scientists had clues that a vast cloud of antimatter lurked in space, but they did not know where it came from.
The mysterious source of this antimatter has now been discovered — stars getting ripped apart by neutron stars and black holes.
Photo Gallery
NASA/JPL Out-of-This-World
Space Photos1 of 25 For years, astronomers have been baffled by the source of antimatter. Now, researchers say the matter-annihilating material is generated when stars get ripped apart by black holes or neutron stars. In this image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, thousands of stars swirl around the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way.
While antimatter propulsion systems are so far the stuff of science fiction, antimatter is very real.
What It Is
All elementary particles, such as protons and electrons, have antimatter counterparts with the same mass but the opposite charge. For instance, the antimatter opposite of an electron, known as a positron, is positively charged.
When a particle meets its antiparticle, they destroy each other, releasing a burst of energy such as gamma rays. In 1978, gamma ray detectors flown on balloons detected a type of gamma ray emerging from space that is known to be emitted when electrons collide with positrons — meaning there was antimatter in space.
"It was quite a surprise back then to discover part of the universe was made of antimatter," researcher Gerry Skinner, an astrophysicist at Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., told SPACE.com.
These gamma rays apparently came from a cloud of antimatter roughly 10,000 light-years across surrounding our galaxy's core. This giant cloud shines brightly with gamma rays, with about the energy of 10,000 suns.
What exactly generated the antimatter was a mystery for the following decades. Suspects have included everything from exploding stars to dark matter.
Now, an international research team looking over four years of data from the European Space Agency's International Gamma Ray Astrophysics Laboratory (INTEGRAL) satellite has pinpointed the apparent culprits. Their new findings suggest these positrons originate mainly from stars getting devoured by black holes and neutron stars.
As a black hole or neutron star destroys a star, tremendous amounts of radiation are released. Just as electrons and positrons emit the tell-tale gamma rays upon annihilation, so too can gamma rays combine to form electrons and positrons, providing the mechanism for the creation of the antimatter cloud, scientists think.
Billions and Billions
The researchers calculate that a relatively ordinary star getting torn apart by a black hole or neutron star orbiting around it — a so-called "low mass X-ray binary" — could spew on the order of one hundred thousand billion billion billion billion positrons (a 1 followed by 41 zeroes) per second. These could account for a great deal of the antimatter that scientists have inferred, reducing or potentially eliminating the need for exotic explanations such as ones involving dark matter.
"Simple estimates suggest that about half and possibly all the antimatter is coming from X-ray binaries," said researcher Georg Weidenspointner of the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics in Germany.
Now that they have witnessed the death of antimatter, the scientists hope to see its birth.
"It would be interesting if black holes produced more matter than neutron stars, or vice versa, although it's too early to say one way or the other right now," Skinner explained. "It can be surprisingly hard to tell the difference between an X-ray binaries that hold black holes and neutron stars."
Weidenspointner, Skinner and their colleagues, detailed their findings in the Jan. 10 issue of the journal Nature.
2008-01-16
Source of Mysterious Antimatter Found
Posted: 2008-01-16 16:45:01
Filed Under: Science News
Click HERE to see the original article.
Antimatter, which annihilates matter upon contact, seems to be rare in the universe. Still, for decades, scientists had clues that a vast cloud of antimatter lurked in space, but they did not know where it came from.
The mysterious source of this antimatter has now been discovered — stars getting ripped apart by neutron stars and black holes.
Photo Gallery
NASA/JPL Out-of-This-World
Space Photos1 of 25 For years, astronomers have been baffled by the source of antimatter. Now, researchers say the matter-annihilating material is generated when stars get ripped apart by black holes or neutron stars. In this image from NASA's Spitzer Space Telescope, thousands of stars swirl around the supermassive black hole at the center of the Milky Way.
While antimatter propulsion systems are so far the stuff of science fiction, antimatter is very real.
What It Is
All elementary particles, such as protons and electrons, have antimatter counterparts with the same mass but the opposite charge. For instance, the antimatter opposite of an electron, known as a positron, is positively charged.
When a particle meets its antiparticle, they destroy each other, releasing a burst of energy such as gamma rays. In 1978, gamma ray detectors flown on balloons detected a type of gamma ray emerging from space that is known to be emitted when electrons collide with positrons — meaning there was antimatter in space.
"It was quite a surprise back then to discover part of the universe was made of antimatter," researcher Gerry Skinner, an astrophysicist at Goddard Space Flight Center in Greenbelt, Md., told SPACE.com.
These gamma rays apparently came from a cloud of antimatter roughly 10,000 light-years across surrounding our galaxy's core. This giant cloud shines brightly with gamma rays, with about the energy of 10,000 suns.
What exactly generated the antimatter was a mystery for the following decades. Suspects have included everything from exploding stars to dark matter.
Now, an international research team looking over four years of data from the European Space Agency's International Gamma Ray Astrophysics Laboratory (INTEGRAL) satellite has pinpointed the apparent culprits. Their new findings suggest these positrons originate mainly from stars getting devoured by black holes and neutron stars.
As a black hole or neutron star destroys a star, tremendous amounts of radiation are released. Just as electrons and positrons emit the tell-tale gamma rays upon annihilation, so too can gamma rays combine to form electrons and positrons, providing the mechanism for the creation of the antimatter cloud, scientists think.
Billions and Billions
The researchers calculate that a relatively ordinary star getting torn apart by a black hole or neutron star orbiting around it — a so-called "low mass X-ray binary" — could spew on the order of one hundred thousand billion billion billion billion positrons (a 1 followed by 41 zeroes) per second. These could account for a great deal of the antimatter that scientists have inferred, reducing or potentially eliminating the need for exotic explanations such as ones involving dark matter.
"Simple estimates suggest that about half and possibly all the antimatter is coming from X-ray binaries," said researcher Georg Weidenspointner of the Max Planck Institute for Extraterrestrial Physics in Germany.
Now that they have witnessed the death of antimatter, the scientists hope to see its birth.
"It would be interesting if black holes produced more matter than neutron stars, or vice versa, although it's too early to say one way or the other right now," Skinner explained. "It can be surprisingly hard to tell the difference between an X-ray binaries that hold black holes and neutron stars."
Weidenspointner, Skinner and their colleagues, detailed their findings in the Jan. 10 issue of the journal Nature.
2008-01-16
Saturday, January 12, 2008
Time makes more converts than reason
Perhaps the sentiments contained in the following pages, are not yet sufficiently fashionable to procure them general favor...Time makes more converts than reason.
Modern History Sourcebook:
Thomas Paine (1737-1809):
Common Sense, Jan, 1776
Modern History Sourcebook:
Thomas Paine (1737-1809):
Common Sense, Jan, 1776
Friday, January 04, 2008
Teachers should cover fewer topics with more depth
College freshmen are not ready because K-12 education contains too much rote learning, not enough teaching of concepts.
High school failing to teach right subjects
By Sherry Saavedra
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
April 10, 2007
What students learn in high school doesn't match with what they need to know as college freshmen, according to a national study released yesterday.
Professors believe high school teachers should cover fewer topics with more depth to prepare students for college. That is one of the findings of the survey by ACT, a nonprofit educational and testing organization.
“A really common complaint from (college) faculty is students not being able to put together a complete sentence properly,” said Erin Goldin, director of the Writing Center, which provides tutoring at Cal State San Marcos. “When students come in here, . . . I try to explain the rules, but they don't seem to have learned the structure of a sentence.”
...In writing, college instructors place more emphasis on the fundamentals – basic grammar, sentence structure and punctuation – than their high school counterparts.
High school teachers valued exposure to advanced math content to a greater degree than college faculty, who placed more emphasis on understanding the fundamental underlying math skills and processes.
[Blogger's note: I think this is one of the most harmful mistakes made by elementary and high school teachers. A long list of math procedures is taught, but the kids don't understand what they are doing. I suspect the teachers don't understand it very well either, so they simply teach the rule by rote. I think elementary and high school teachers should be taking the ACT to make sure that they know what they're doing.]
High school teachers rated knowledge of science content as more important than understanding the science process and inquiry skills. College faculty valued the reverse.
[Blogger's note: same as above.]
Both groups agree on the critical reading skills needed to enter college. However, the survey found a general lack of reading instruction in high school. More attention to reading complex texts is needed, according to the study, not just in English and social studies, but also in math and science.
[Blogger's note: Yes, elementary and high school teachers talk about critical reading skills, but are they actually able to teach them?]
ACT officials say the study suggests the culprit is partly state-adopted academic standards in English, math and other subjects. Often those guidelines are not aligned with what colleges expect students to know as entering freshmen.
Three-quarters of high school instructors believe that teaching their state's standards does prepare students well, but only one-third of college instructors agree, said Cynthia Schmeiser, president and chief operating officer of ACT's education division...
Fifty-three percent of San Diego County's students scored below proficient in language arts on the California Standards Tests, while more than 56 percent of local students lagged in math, according to results released in August.
Many of these students end up in college unprepared to do the work. Nearly one-third of new freshman required remedial help in English at San Diego State University in fall 2006, for example, while half were unprepared in the subject at Cal State San Marcos...
Dan Daris, principal of El Camino High School in Oceanside, said there's some truth to the report's findings.
“I've heard the statement many times that the English standards are a mile wide and an inch deep,” he said.
Consequently, Daris has encouraged teachers to home in on the most essential standards and provide more in-depth instruction, he said...
High school failing to teach right subjects
By Sherry Saavedra
UNION-TRIBUNE STAFF WRITER
April 10, 2007
What students learn in high school doesn't match with what they need to know as college freshmen, according to a national study released yesterday.
Professors believe high school teachers should cover fewer topics with more depth to prepare students for college. That is one of the findings of the survey by ACT, a nonprofit educational and testing organization.
“A really common complaint from (college) faculty is students not being able to put together a complete sentence properly,” said Erin Goldin, director of the Writing Center, which provides tutoring at Cal State San Marcos. “When students come in here, . . . I try to explain the rules, but they don't seem to have learned the structure of a sentence.”
...In writing, college instructors place more emphasis on the fundamentals – basic grammar, sentence structure and punctuation – than their high school counterparts.
High school teachers valued exposure to advanced math content to a greater degree than college faculty, who placed more emphasis on understanding the fundamental underlying math skills and processes.
[Blogger's note: I think this is one of the most harmful mistakes made by elementary and high school teachers. A long list of math procedures is taught, but the kids don't understand what they are doing. I suspect the teachers don't understand it very well either, so they simply teach the rule by rote. I think elementary and high school teachers should be taking the ACT to make sure that they know what they're doing.]
High school teachers rated knowledge of science content as more important than understanding the science process and inquiry skills. College faculty valued the reverse.
[Blogger's note: same as above.]
Both groups agree on the critical reading skills needed to enter college. However, the survey found a general lack of reading instruction in high school. More attention to reading complex texts is needed, according to the study, not just in English and social studies, but also in math and science.
[Blogger's note: Yes, elementary and high school teachers talk about critical reading skills, but are they actually able to teach them?]
ACT officials say the study suggests the culprit is partly state-adopted academic standards in English, math and other subjects. Often those guidelines are not aligned with what colleges expect students to know as entering freshmen.
Three-quarters of high school instructors believe that teaching their state's standards does prepare students well, but only one-third of college instructors agree, said Cynthia Schmeiser, president and chief operating officer of ACT's education division...
Fifty-three percent of San Diego County's students scored below proficient in language arts on the California Standards Tests, while more than 56 percent of local students lagged in math, according to results released in August.
Many of these students end up in college unprepared to do the work. Nearly one-third of new freshman required remedial help in English at San Diego State University in fall 2006, for example, while half were unprepared in the subject at Cal State San Marcos...
Dan Daris, principal of El Camino High School in Oceanside, said there's some truth to the report's findings.
“I've heard the statement many times that the English standards are a mile wide and an inch deep,” he said.
Consequently, Daris has encouraged teachers to home in on the most essential standards and provide more in-depth instruction, he said...
Wednesday, January 02, 2008
What Kucinich saw
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB119923872081461417.html?mod=fpa_mostpop
What Kucinich Saw:
Witnesses Describe His Close Encounter
Candidate's Pals Recall Three Throbbing UFOs;
Outed by Shirley MacLaine
By MICHAEL M. PHILLIPS
January 2, 2008
The 2008 presidential race has raised many questions about the candidates' personal histories. Will Barack Obama's past drug use preclude a White House future? Will Christian conservatives forgive Rudy Giuliani his two divorces? Will voters forgive Hillary Clinton for forgiving Bill?
And what exactly did Democratic candidate Dennis Kucinich see hovering above actress Shirley MacLaine's house 25 years ago?
This fall, Ms. MacLaine revealed in her new book that the Ohio congressman had seen a UFO and felt "a connection in his heart and heard directions in his mind." In a Democratic presidential debate in late October, Mr. Kucinich acknowledged seeing something airborne that he couldn't identify and then defused the issue with a joke about opening a campaign office in Roswell, N.M., the capital of unexplained sightings.
Since then, the long-shot candidate has refused to elaborate on the experience.
Now, after keeping quiet about the incident for a quarter of a century, the two people who say they were at Mr. Kucinich's side that evening have come forward to describe an event which they say left them convinced that there's intelligent life in outer space.
"At no time did I feel afraid, even though I felt very small," says one witness, Paul Costanzo. "I sensed that I was in the presence of a greater technology and intelligence."
The close encounter, says Mr. Costanzo, took place in September 1982 at Ms. MacLaine's former home in Graham, Wash. -- an expansive estate on a ridge above the Puyallup River, with a view of Mount Rainier.
The 61-year-old Mr. Kucinich, who declined several requests to comment for this article, had been the wunderkind mayor of Cleveland in the late 1970s and had met Ms. MacLaine through Bella Abzug, the late New York congresswoman and feminist. The actress says she quickly realized she and Mr. Kucinich were kindred spirits. Years later he asked Ms. MacLaine to be the godmother of his daughter.
"We just thought the same," Ms. MacLaine says in an interview. "We have the same political points of view."
When Cleveland voters ousted Mr. Kucinich after one tumultuous term, Ms. MacLaine offered him her home as a sanctuary where he could write his memoirs. He lived there for the better part of a year.
Also in residence was Mr. Costanzo, a Juilliard-trained trumpet player and jujitsu black belt, who worked as Ms. MacLaine's assistant, personal trainer and bodyguard. He and Mr. Kucinich became good friends, and Mr. Costanzo, now 55 years old, served as deputy campaign director and security chief for the congressman's unsuccessful 2004 presidential run.
Ms. MacLaine -- well-known for her fascination with things mystical and extraterrestrial -- was in Canada that weekend in 1982, performing her one-woman show. But Mr. Costanzo's girlfriend at the time, a model and actress who is now 50 years old, was visiting when the UFO incident took place. She spoke after Mr. Costanzo requested she do so, and on condition that her name not be published.
Here's what happened, according to separate interviews with Mr. Costanzo and his former girlfriend:
The day was strange from the start. For hours, Mr. Kucinich, Mr. Costanzo and his companion noticed a high-pitched sound. "There was a sense that something extraordinary was happening all day," says the girlfriend. She and Mr. Costanzo say that none of the three consumed alcohol or took drugs.
As they sat down to a dinner, Mr. Kucinich spotted a light in the distance, to the left of Mount Rainier. Mr. Costanzo thought it was a helicopter.
But Mr. Kucinich walked outside to the deck to look through the telescope that he had bought Ms. MacLaine as a house gift. After a few minutes, Mr. Kucinich summoned the other two: "Guys, come on out here and look at this."
Mr. Costanzo and his girlfriend joined Mr. Kucinich, where they took turns peering through the telescope. What they saw in the far distance, according to both witnesses, was a hovering light, which soon divided into two, and then three.
After a few minutes, the lights moved closer and it became apparent that they were actually three charcoal-gray, triangular craft, flying in a tight wedge. The girlfriend remembers each triangle having red and green lights running down the edges, with a laser-like red light at the tail. Mr. Costanzo recalls white lights, but no tail.
Mr. Costanzo says each triangle was roughly the size of a large van, while his former girlfriend compares it to a "larger Cessna, smaller than a jet certainly." Neither recalls seeing any markings, landing gear, engines, windows or cockpits.
The craft approached to within 200 yards, suspended over the field just beyond the swimming pool. Both witnesses say it emitted a quiet, throbbing sound -- nothing like an airplane engine.
"There was a feeling of wanting to communicate something, but I didn't know what," says Mr. Costanzo.
The craft held steady in midair, for perhaps a minute, then sped away, Mr. Costanzo says. "Nothing had landed," he says. "No strange beings had disembarked. No obvious messages were beamed down. When they were completely out of sight, we all looked at each other disbelieving what we had seen."
At Mr. Kucinich's suggestion, they jotted down their impressions and drew pictures to memorialize the event. Mr. Kucinich kept the notes, according to Ms. MacLaine, who said he promised her recently that he would try to find them.
In an interview with WSJ's Jeffrey Trachtenberg, actress and author Shirley MacLaine discusses the cosmic scope of her new book, "Sage-ing While Age-ing."
"It was proof to me that we're obviously not alone," says the girlfriend.
The next day, the group spotted what they thought to be military helicopters buzzing around the valley where they had made the sighting. And the high-pitched sound remained.
Mr. Kucinich called Ms. MacLaine in Canada to tell her what had happened. "He said it was beautiful, serene, and it moved him," says Ms. MacLaine, who is supporting Mr. Kucinich's candidacy. "He was not afraid of it, let's put it that way. Seeing something that close and sophisticated and gentle."
Ms. MacLaine says she has seen UFOs from a distance in New Mexico and Peru, but never up close. She was envious. "I'm the one who reports them, but they never make close visitation. What am I doing wrong?"
None of the three reported the incident to the authorities. And over the years that followed, they shared the story with very few people. "Unfortunately, people are ridiculed when they say they've had these kinds of experiences, which is why I never came forward with it," says the girlfriend.
Ms. MacLaine says she called Mr. Kucinich before she included his UFO sighting in her book, "Sage-ing while Age-ing," a recounting of her spiritual and professional journeys. "I can handle it," she says he told her.
More recently, Mr. Kucinich has dodged it. Approached by The Wall Street Journal for comment in December -- moments after he voted for a House resolution praising Christmas and Christianity -- Mr. Kucinich looked unblinkingly ahead: "I don't have any comment," he said.
What Kucinich Saw:
Witnesses Describe His Close Encounter
Candidate's Pals Recall Three Throbbing UFOs;
Outed by Shirley MacLaine
By MICHAEL M. PHILLIPS
January 2, 2008
The 2008 presidential race has raised many questions about the candidates' personal histories. Will Barack Obama's past drug use preclude a White House future? Will Christian conservatives forgive Rudy Giuliani his two divorces? Will voters forgive Hillary Clinton for forgiving Bill?
And what exactly did Democratic candidate Dennis Kucinich see hovering above actress Shirley MacLaine's house 25 years ago?
This fall, Ms. MacLaine revealed in her new book that the Ohio congressman had seen a UFO and felt "a connection in his heart and heard directions in his mind." In a Democratic presidential debate in late October, Mr. Kucinich acknowledged seeing something airborne that he couldn't identify and then defused the issue with a joke about opening a campaign office in Roswell, N.M., the capital of unexplained sightings.
Since then, the long-shot candidate has refused to elaborate on the experience.
Now, after keeping quiet about the incident for a quarter of a century, the two people who say they were at Mr. Kucinich's side that evening have come forward to describe an event which they say left them convinced that there's intelligent life in outer space.
"At no time did I feel afraid, even though I felt very small," says one witness, Paul Costanzo. "I sensed that I was in the presence of a greater technology and intelligence."
The close encounter, says Mr. Costanzo, took place in September 1982 at Ms. MacLaine's former home in Graham, Wash. -- an expansive estate on a ridge above the Puyallup River, with a view of Mount Rainier.
The 61-year-old Mr. Kucinich, who declined several requests to comment for this article, had been the wunderkind mayor of Cleveland in the late 1970s and had met Ms. MacLaine through Bella Abzug, the late New York congresswoman and feminist. The actress says she quickly realized she and Mr. Kucinich were kindred spirits. Years later he asked Ms. MacLaine to be the godmother of his daughter.
"We just thought the same," Ms. MacLaine says in an interview. "We have the same political points of view."
When Cleveland voters ousted Mr. Kucinich after one tumultuous term, Ms. MacLaine offered him her home as a sanctuary where he could write his memoirs. He lived there for the better part of a year.
Also in residence was Mr. Costanzo, a Juilliard-trained trumpet player and jujitsu black belt, who worked as Ms. MacLaine's assistant, personal trainer and bodyguard. He and Mr. Kucinich became good friends, and Mr. Costanzo, now 55 years old, served as deputy campaign director and security chief for the congressman's unsuccessful 2004 presidential run.
Ms. MacLaine -- well-known for her fascination with things mystical and extraterrestrial -- was in Canada that weekend in 1982, performing her one-woman show. But Mr. Costanzo's girlfriend at the time, a model and actress who is now 50 years old, was visiting when the UFO incident took place. She spoke after Mr. Costanzo requested she do so, and on condition that her name not be published.
Here's what happened, according to separate interviews with Mr. Costanzo and his former girlfriend:
The day was strange from the start. For hours, Mr. Kucinich, Mr. Costanzo and his companion noticed a high-pitched sound. "There was a sense that something extraordinary was happening all day," says the girlfriend. She and Mr. Costanzo say that none of the three consumed alcohol or took drugs.
As they sat down to a dinner, Mr. Kucinich spotted a light in the distance, to the left of Mount Rainier. Mr. Costanzo thought it was a helicopter.
But Mr. Kucinich walked outside to the deck to look through the telescope that he had bought Ms. MacLaine as a house gift. After a few minutes, Mr. Kucinich summoned the other two: "Guys, come on out here and look at this."
Mr. Costanzo and his girlfriend joined Mr. Kucinich, where they took turns peering through the telescope. What they saw in the far distance, according to both witnesses, was a hovering light, which soon divided into two, and then three.
After a few minutes, the lights moved closer and it became apparent that they were actually three charcoal-gray, triangular craft, flying in a tight wedge. The girlfriend remembers each triangle having red and green lights running down the edges, with a laser-like red light at the tail. Mr. Costanzo recalls white lights, but no tail.
Mr. Costanzo says each triangle was roughly the size of a large van, while his former girlfriend compares it to a "larger Cessna, smaller than a jet certainly." Neither recalls seeing any markings, landing gear, engines, windows or cockpits.
The craft approached to within 200 yards, suspended over the field just beyond the swimming pool. Both witnesses say it emitted a quiet, throbbing sound -- nothing like an airplane engine.
"There was a feeling of wanting to communicate something, but I didn't know what," says Mr. Costanzo.
The craft held steady in midair, for perhaps a minute, then sped away, Mr. Costanzo says. "Nothing had landed," he says. "No strange beings had disembarked. No obvious messages were beamed down. When they were completely out of sight, we all looked at each other disbelieving what we had seen."
At Mr. Kucinich's suggestion, they jotted down their impressions and drew pictures to memorialize the event. Mr. Kucinich kept the notes, according to Ms. MacLaine, who said he promised her recently that he would try to find them.
In an interview with WSJ's Jeffrey Trachtenberg, actress and author Shirley MacLaine discusses the cosmic scope of her new book, "Sage-ing While Age-ing."
"It was proof to me that we're obviously not alone," says the girlfriend.
The next day, the group spotted what they thought to be military helicopters buzzing around the valley where they had made the sighting. And the high-pitched sound remained.
Mr. Kucinich called Ms. MacLaine in Canada to tell her what had happened. "He said it was beautiful, serene, and it moved him," says Ms. MacLaine, who is supporting Mr. Kucinich's candidacy. "He was not afraid of it, let's put it that way. Seeing something that close and sophisticated and gentle."
Ms. MacLaine says she has seen UFOs from a distance in New Mexico and Peru, but never up close. She was envious. "I'm the one who reports them, but they never make close visitation. What am I doing wrong?"
None of the three reported the incident to the authorities. And over the years that followed, they shared the story with very few people. "Unfortunately, people are ridiculed when they say they've had these kinds of experiences, which is why I never came forward with it," says the girlfriend.
Ms. MacLaine says she called Mr. Kucinich before she included his UFO sighting in her book, "Sage-ing while Age-ing," a recounting of her spiritual and professional journeys. "I can handle it," she says he told her.
More recently, Mr. Kucinich has dodged it. Approached by The Wall Street Journal for comment in December -- moments after he voted for a House resolution praising Christmas and Christianity -- Mr. Kucinich looked unblinkingly ahead: "I don't have any comment," he said.
Lack of Deep Sleep contributes to Diabetes
Shortage of Deep Sleep May Increase Diabetes Risk
medpage TODAY
http://www.medpagetoday.com/Pulmonary/SleepDisorders/tb/7826
By Judith Groch, Senior Writer, MedPage Today
January 02, 2008
Reviewed by Zalman S. Agus, MD; Emeritus Professor
University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine.
CHICAGO, Jan. 2 -- Sleep quality appears to play a role in diabetes risk, according to researchers here. Action Points
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Explain to interested patients that, in this experimental study with healthy young adults, suppression of restorative "slow-wave" sleep without any change in sleep time, reduced their ability to regulate blood sugar levels, a risk factor for type 2 diabetes.
When in an experimental setting, deep, restorative slow-wave sleep (stages 3 and 4) was suppressed in healthy young adults, there was a 25% decrease in insulin sensitivity, with a rise in the risk of type 2 diabetes, found Esra Tasali, M.D., of the University of Chicago, and colleagues. There was no change in total sleep time.
The findings were comparable in diabetes risk to gaining 18 to 29 pounds, and the sleep quality of volunteers in their 20s was that of those in their 60s, Dr. Tasali and colleagues reported in the Dec. 31 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Slow-wave sleep is associated with transient metabolic, hormonal and neurophysiologic changes, all of which could potentially affect glucose homeostasis, the researchers wrote.
They studied nine normal-weight, healthy adults -- five men, four women -- ages 20 to 31. At baseline, the volunteers spent two consecutive nights in the sleep lab where they were monitored but slept undisturbed for 8.5 hours.
After that, they were studied for three consecutive nights, but when brain waves indicated they were drifting into slow-wave sleep, they were subtly disturbed by sounds about 250 to 300 times a night, administered through bedside speakers.
The sounds were loud enough to disrupt deep sleep but not enough to cause awakening. With this technique the researchers disrupted slow-wave sleep by about 90% (88 ± 3%, P<0.0001). The volunteers required more interventions as slow-wave pressure, the body's need for deep sleep, accumulated with each night.
After three nights, the decrease in insulin sensitivity was remarkably consistent for eight of the nine participants. Under normal circumstances, when insulin sensitivity decreases, the insulin response should increase reciprocally so that glucose tolerance is maintained.
However, after slow-wave-sleep suppression, the decrease in insulin sensitivity was not compensated for by an increase in insulin release, because the insulin response remained virtually unchanged, they said.
Consistent with an increased diabetes risk, daytime glucose tolerance measured after each night was reduced by 23% to within the range reported in older adults with impaired glucose tolerance, the researchers reported.
The researchers noted that the size of the decrease in insulin sensitivity was not correlated with measures of sleep fragmentation, including the total number of microarousals on the third night of the intervention (r=0.31, P=0.42).
Inadequate beta cell compensation for a given decrease in insulin sensitivity results in a fall in the so-called disposition index (insulin sensitivity times insulin response), which is a validated marker of diabetes risk. Indeed, they said, this measure was 20% lower after slow-wave sleep suppression.
The decrease in slow-wave sleep is similar to that occurring over four decades of normal aging. Normal young adults spend 80 to 100 minutes a night in slow-wave sleep, whereas those older than 60 generally have fewer than 20 minutes of slow-wave sleep.
Thus, Dr. Tasali said, "in this experiment, we gave people in their 20s the sleep of those in their 60s."
In exploring possible mechanisms for the decreased insulin sensitivity, the investigators wrote that insulin resistance can develop rapidly when circulating levels of cortisol are elevated.
However, they found that mean plasma cortisol profiles at baseline and after slow-wave suppression were essentially identical (P=0.92). Thus, they said, the decrease in insulin sensitivity cannot be attributed to increased cortisol concentrations.
There is an alarming rise in the prevalence of type 2 diabetes that is generally attributed to the epidemic of obesity and the aging of the population. As the burden of diabetes on public health continues to rise, so does the need to understand its pathogenesis, the researchers wrote.
The current evidence demonstrates a clear role for slow-wave sleep in the maintenance of normal glucose homeostasis. Chronic shallow non-REM sleep, decreased insulin sensitivity, and elevated diabetes risk are typical of aging, they said.
Thus, strategies to improve both sleep duration and also sleep quality should be considered as a potential intervention to prevent or delay the development of type 2 diabetes in elderly individuals as well as the obese, Dr. Tasali and colleagues concluded.
No conflicts of interest were reported.
The study was supported by the National Institutes of Health.
Primary source: Proceedings of the National Academy of Science
Source reference:
Tasali E, et al "Slow-wave sleep and the risk of type 2 diabetes in humans" PNAS Early Edition 2008: DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0706446105.
medpage TODAY
http://www.medpagetoday.com/Pulmonary/SleepDisorders/tb/7826
By Judith Groch, Senior Writer, MedPage Today
January 02, 2008
Reviewed by Zalman S. Agus, MD; Emeritus Professor
University of Pennsylvania School of Medicine.
CHICAGO, Jan. 2 -- Sleep quality appears to play a role in diabetes risk, according to researchers here. Action Points
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Explain to interested patients that, in this experimental study with healthy young adults, suppression of restorative "slow-wave" sleep without any change in sleep time, reduced their ability to regulate blood sugar levels, a risk factor for type 2 diabetes.
When in an experimental setting, deep, restorative slow-wave sleep (stages 3 and 4) was suppressed in healthy young adults, there was a 25% decrease in insulin sensitivity, with a rise in the risk of type 2 diabetes, found Esra Tasali, M.D., of the University of Chicago, and colleagues. There was no change in total sleep time.
The findings were comparable in diabetes risk to gaining 18 to 29 pounds, and the sleep quality of volunteers in their 20s was that of those in their 60s, Dr. Tasali and colleagues reported in the Dec. 31 issue of the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences.
Slow-wave sleep is associated with transient metabolic, hormonal and neurophysiologic changes, all of which could potentially affect glucose homeostasis, the researchers wrote.
They studied nine normal-weight, healthy adults -- five men, four women -- ages 20 to 31. At baseline, the volunteers spent two consecutive nights in the sleep lab where they were monitored but slept undisturbed for 8.5 hours.
After that, they were studied for three consecutive nights, but when brain waves indicated they were drifting into slow-wave sleep, they were subtly disturbed by sounds about 250 to 300 times a night, administered through bedside speakers.
The sounds were loud enough to disrupt deep sleep but not enough to cause awakening. With this technique the researchers disrupted slow-wave sleep by about 90% (88 ± 3%, P<0.0001). The volunteers required more interventions as slow-wave pressure, the body's need for deep sleep, accumulated with each night.
After three nights, the decrease in insulin sensitivity was remarkably consistent for eight of the nine participants. Under normal circumstances, when insulin sensitivity decreases, the insulin response should increase reciprocally so that glucose tolerance is maintained.
However, after slow-wave-sleep suppression, the decrease in insulin sensitivity was not compensated for by an increase in insulin release, because the insulin response remained virtually unchanged, they said.
Consistent with an increased diabetes risk, daytime glucose tolerance measured after each night was reduced by 23% to within the range reported in older adults with impaired glucose tolerance, the researchers reported.
The researchers noted that the size of the decrease in insulin sensitivity was not correlated with measures of sleep fragmentation, including the total number of microarousals on the third night of the intervention (r=0.31, P=0.42).
Inadequate beta cell compensation for a given decrease in insulin sensitivity results in a fall in the so-called disposition index (insulin sensitivity times insulin response), which is a validated marker of diabetes risk. Indeed, they said, this measure was 20% lower after slow-wave sleep suppression.
The decrease in slow-wave sleep is similar to that occurring over four decades of normal aging. Normal young adults spend 80 to 100 minutes a night in slow-wave sleep, whereas those older than 60 generally have fewer than 20 minutes of slow-wave sleep.
Thus, Dr. Tasali said, "in this experiment, we gave people in their 20s the sleep of those in their 60s."
In exploring possible mechanisms for the decreased insulin sensitivity, the investigators wrote that insulin resistance can develop rapidly when circulating levels of cortisol are elevated.
However, they found that mean plasma cortisol profiles at baseline and after slow-wave suppression were essentially identical (P=0.92). Thus, they said, the decrease in insulin sensitivity cannot be attributed to increased cortisol concentrations.
There is an alarming rise in the prevalence of type 2 diabetes that is generally attributed to the epidemic of obesity and the aging of the population. As the burden of diabetes on public health continues to rise, so does the need to understand its pathogenesis, the researchers wrote.
The current evidence demonstrates a clear role for slow-wave sleep in the maintenance of normal glucose homeostasis. Chronic shallow non-REM sleep, decreased insulin sensitivity, and elevated diabetes risk are typical of aging, they said.
Thus, strategies to improve both sleep duration and also sleep quality should be considered as a potential intervention to prevent or delay the development of type 2 diabetes in elderly individuals as well as the obese, Dr. Tasali and colleagues concluded.
No conflicts of interest were reported.
The study was supported by the National Institutes of Health.
Primary source: Proceedings of the National Academy of Science
Source reference:
Tasali E, et al "Slow-wave sleep and the risk of type 2 diabetes in humans" PNAS Early Edition 2008: DOI: 10.1073/pnas.0706446105.
Tuesday, January 01, 2008
Racial stereotyping in the Emergency Room
http://www.cnn.com/2008/HEALTH/01/01/painkillers.race.ap/index.html?eref=rss_topstories
Study: Whites more likely to get narcotics in ER
CHICAGO, Illinois (AP) -- Emergency room doctors are prescribing strong narcotics more often to patients who complain of pain, but minorities are less likely to get them than whites, a new study finds.
Even for severe pain, narcotics such as oxycodone were prescribed less frequently for minorities.
Even for the severe pain of kidney stones, minorities were prescribed narcotics such as oxycodone and morphine less frequently than whites.
The analysis of more than 150,000 emergency room visits over 13 years found differences in prescribing by race in both urban and rural hospitals, in all U.S. regions and for every type of pain.
"The gaps between whites and nonwhites have not appeared to close at all," said study co-author Dr. Mark Pletcher of the University of California, San Francisco.
The study appears in Wednesday's Journal of the American Medical Association. Prescribing narcotics for pain in emergency rooms rose during the study, from 23 percent of those complaining of pain in 1993 to 37 percent in 2005.
The increase coincided with changing attitudes among doctors who now regard pain management as a key to healing. Doctors in accredited hospitals must ask patients about pain, just as they monitor vital signs such as temperature and pulse.
Even with the increase, the racial gap endured. Linda Simoni-Wastila of the University of Maryland, Baltimore, School of Pharmacy said the race gap finding may reveal some doctors' suspicions that minority patients could be drug abusers lying about pain to get narcotics.
Don't Miss
Journal of the American Medical Association
MayoClinic.com: Pain Quiz
The irony, she said, is that blacks are the least likely group to abuse prescription drugs. Hispanics are becoming as likely as whites to abuse prescription opioids and stimulants, according to her research. She was not involved in the current study.
The study's authors said doctors may be less likely to see signs of painkiller abuse in white patients, or they may be undertreating pain in minority patients.
Patient behavior may play a role, Pletcher said. Minority patients "may be less likely to keep complaining about their pain or feel they deserve good pain control," he said.
Stricter protocols for prescribing narcotics may help close the gap.
A New York hospital recently studied its emergency patients and found no racial disparity in narcotics prescribed for broken bones. Montefiore Medical Center aggressively treats pain and is developing protocols for painkillers that dictate initial dosages and times to check with patients to see whether they need more pain medicine, said Dr. David Esses, emergency department associate director at Montefiore.
Such standards may eliminate racial disparities, Esses said.
In the study, opioid narcotics were prescribed in 31 percent of the pain-related visits involving whites, 28 percent for Asians, 24 percent for Hispanics and 23 percent for blacks.
Minorities were slightly more likely than whites to get aspirin, ibuprofen and similar drugs for pain.
Health Library
MayoClinic.com: Health Library
In more than 2,000 visits for kidney stones, whites got narcotics 72 percent of the time, Hispanics 68 percent, Asians 67 percent and blacks 56 percent.
The data came from a well-regarded government survey that collects information on emergency room visits for four weeks each year from 500 U.S. hospitals. The new study was funded by federal grants.
"It's time to move past describing disparities and work on narrowing them," said Dr. Thomas L. Fisher, an emergency room doctor at the University of Chicago Medical Center who was not involved in the study.
Fisher, who is black, said he is not immune to letting subconscious assumptions inappropriately influence his work as a doctor.
"If anybody argues they have no social biases that sway clinical practice, they have not been thoughtful about the issue or they're not being honest with themselves," he said.
Study: Whites more likely to get narcotics in ER
CHICAGO, Illinois (AP) -- Emergency room doctors are prescribing strong narcotics more often to patients who complain of pain, but minorities are less likely to get them than whites, a new study finds.
Even for severe pain, narcotics such as oxycodone were prescribed less frequently for minorities.
Even for the severe pain of kidney stones, minorities were prescribed narcotics such as oxycodone and morphine less frequently than whites.
The analysis of more than 150,000 emergency room visits over 13 years found differences in prescribing by race in both urban and rural hospitals, in all U.S. regions and for every type of pain.
"The gaps between whites and nonwhites have not appeared to close at all," said study co-author Dr. Mark Pletcher of the University of California, San Francisco.
The study appears in Wednesday's Journal of the American Medical Association. Prescribing narcotics for pain in emergency rooms rose during the study, from 23 percent of those complaining of pain in 1993 to 37 percent in 2005.
The increase coincided with changing attitudes among doctors who now regard pain management as a key to healing. Doctors in accredited hospitals must ask patients about pain, just as they monitor vital signs such as temperature and pulse.
Even with the increase, the racial gap endured. Linda Simoni-Wastila of the University of Maryland, Baltimore, School of Pharmacy said the race gap finding may reveal some doctors' suspicions that minority patients could be drug abusers lying about pain to get narcotics.
Don't Miss
Journal of the American Medical Association
MayoClinic.com: Pain Quiz
The irony, she said, is that blacks are the least likely group to abuse prescription drugs. Hispanics are becoming as likely as whites to abuse prescription opioids and stimulants, according to her research. She was not involved in the current study.
The study's authors said doctors may be less likely to see signs of painkiller abuse in white patients, or they may be undertreating pain in minority patients.
Patient behavior may play a role, Pletcher said. Minority patients "may be less likely to keep complaining about their pain or feel they deserve good pain control," he said.
Stricter protocols for prescribing narcotics may help close the gap.
A New York hospital recently studied its emergency patients and found no racial disparity in narcotics prescribed for broken bones. Montefiore Medical Center aggressively treats pain and is developing protocols for painkillers that dictate initial dosages and times to check with patients to see whether they need more pain medicine, said Dr. David Esses, emergency department associate director at Montefiore.
Such standards may eliminate racial disparities, Esses said.
In the study, opioid narcotics were prescribed in 31 percent of the pain-related visits involving whites, 28 percent for Asians, 24 percent for Hispanics and 23 percent for blacks.
Minorities were slightly more likely than whites to get aspirin, ibuprofen and similar drugs for pain.
Health Library
MayoClinic.com: Health Library
In more than 2,000 visits for kidney stones, whites got narcotics 72 percent of the time, Hispanics 68 percent, Asians 67 percent and blacks 56 percent.
The data came from a well-regarded government survey that collects information on emergency room visits for four weeks each year from 500 U.S. hospitals. The new study was funded by federal grants.
"It's time to move past describing disparities and work on narrowing them," said Dr. Thomas L. Fisher, an emergency room doctor at the University of Chicago Medical Center who was not involved in the study.
Fisher, who is black, said he is not immune to letting subconscious assumptions inappropriately influence his work as a doctor.
"If anybody argues they have no social biases that sway clinical practice, they have not been thoughtful about the issue or they're not being honest with themselves," he said.
Our teachers' skills aren't being used effectively
Edgworthy said the following on Joanne Jacobs' website.
Feb 21st, 2006 at 10:56 am
"The only way Math teaching is useful on a mass scale is if it can be taught by an average math teacher. Any conceptual method that relies upon a highly skilled, creative and flexible teacher as a prerequisite for success is doomed to failure."
But what if we have highly skilled, creative and flexible master teachers spending time in every classroom, giving instruction, taking responsibility for children's learning, and guiding "average" teachers in how to follow up on those lessons? Some of the "average" teachers would become master teachers themselves. Some wouldn't. But every child would learn.
Of course, the highly skilled, creative and flexible individuals would have to be lured by higher salaries. I suggest double the salaries of average teachers. The master teachers would be responsible for several classrooms.
And Americans wouldn't have to be embarrassed by test scores that would embarrass the citizens of much of the rest of the world.
http://joannejacobs.com/2006/02/20/procedures-first/
Feb 21st, 2006 at 10:56 am
"The only way Math teaching is useful on a mass scale is if it can be taught by an average math teacher. Any conceptual method that relies upon a highly skilled, creative and flexible teacher as a prerequisite for success is doomed to failure."
But what if we have highly skilled, creative and flexible master teachers spending time in every classroom, giving instruction, taking responsibility for children's learning, and guiding "average" teachers in how to follow up on those lessons? Some of the "average" teachers would become master teachers themselves. Some wouldn't. But every child would learn.
Of course, the highly skilled, creative and flexible individuals would have to be lured by higher salaries. I suggest double the salaries of average teachers. The master teachers would be responsible for several classrooms.
And Americans wouldn't have to be embarrassed by test scores that would embarrass the citizens of much of the rest of the world.
http://joannejacobs.com/2006/02/20/procedures-first/
Monday, December 31, 2007
Young adults most likely to use libraries
Click HERE to see the original article.
Generation Y biggest user of U.S. libraries
Sun Dec 30, 2007
powered by Sphere
WASHINGTON, Dec 30 (Reuters) - More than half of Americans visited a library in the past year with many of them drawn in by the computers rather than the books, according to a survey released on Sunday.
Of the 53 percent of U.S. adults who said they visited a library in 2007, the biggest users were young adults aged 18 to 30 in the tech-loving group known as Generation Y, the survey by the Pew Internet & American Life Project said.
"These findings turn our thinking about libraries upside down," said Leigh Estabrook, a professor emerita at the University of Illinois and co-author of a report on the survey results.
"Internet use seems to create an information hunger and it is information-savvy young people who are most likely to visit libraries," she said.
Internet users were more than twice as likely to patronize libraries as non-Internet users, according to the survey.
More than two-thirds of library visitors in all age groups said they used computers while at the library.
Sixty-five percent of them looked up information on the Internet while 62 percent used computers to check into the library's resources.
Public libraries now offer virtual homework help, special gaming software programs, and some librarians even have created characters in the Second Life virtual world, Estabrook said. Libraries also remain a community hub or gathering place in many neighborhoods, she said.
The survey showed 62 percent of Generation Y respondents said they visited a public library in the past year, with a steady decline in usage according to age. Some 57 percent of adults aged 43 to 52 said they visited a library in 2007, followed by 46 percent of adults aged 53 to 61; 42 percent of adults aged 62 to 71; and just 32 percent of adults over 72.
"We were surprised by these findings, particularly in relation to Generation Y," said Lee Rainie, co-author of the study and director of the Pew project. In 1996 a survey by the Benton Foundation found young adults saw libraries becoming less relevant in the future.
"Scroll forward 10 years and their younger brothers and sisters are now the most avid library users," Rainie said.
The survey of 2,796 Americans was conducted by telephone from late June through early September and has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.5 percentage points. It was funded by the federal Institute of Museum and Library Services, an agency that offers federal support for U.S. libraries and museums.
(Reporting by Julie Vorman; Editing by Bill Trott)
((julie.vorman@reuters.com; +1 202 898 8467; Reuters Messaging: julie.vorman.reuters.com@reuters.net)) Keywords: INTERNET/LIBRARIES
Generation Y biggest user of U.S. libraries
Sun Dec 30, 2007
powered by Sphere
WASHINGTON, Dec 30 (Reuters) - More than half of Americans visited a library in the past year with many of them drawn in by the computers rather than the books, according to a survey released on Sunday.
Of the 53 percent of U.S. adults who said they visited a library in 2007, the biggest users were young adults aged 18 to 30 in the tech-loving group known as Generation Y, the survey by the Pew Internet & American Life Project said.
"These findings turn our thinking about libraries upside down," said Leigh Estabrook, a professor emerita at the University of Illinois and co-author of a report on the survey results.
"Internet use seems to create an information hunger and it is information-savvy young people who are most likely to visit libraries," she said.
Internet users were more than twice as likely to patronize libraries as non-Internet users, according to the survey.
More than two-thirds of library visitors in all age groups said they used computers while at the library.
Sixty-five percent of them looked up information on the Internet while 62 percent used computers to check into the library's resources.
Public libraries now offer virtual homework help, special gaming software programs, and some librarians even have created characters in the Second Life virtual world, Estabrook said. Libraries also remain a community hub or gathering place in many neighborhoods, she said.
The survey showed 62 percent of Generation Y respondents said they visited a public library in the past year, with a steady decline in usage according to age. Some 57 percent of adults aged 43 to 52 said they visited a library in 2007, followed by 46 percent of adults aged 53 to 61; 42 percent of adults aged 62 to 71; and just 32 percent of adults over 72.
"We were surprised by these findings, particularly in relation to Generation Y," said Lee Rainie, co-author of the study and director of the Pew project. In 1996 a survey by the Benton Foundation found young adults saw libraries becoming less relevant in the future.
"Scroll forward 10 years and their younger brothers and sisters are now the most avid library users," Rainie said.
The survey of 2,796 Americans was conducted by telephone from late June through early September and has a margin of error of plus or minus 2.5 percentage points. It was funded by the federal Institute of Museum and Library Services, an agency that offers federal support for U.S. libraries and museums.
(Reporting by Julie Vorman; Editing by Bill Trott)
((julie.vorman@reuters.com; +1 202 898 8467; Reuters Messaging: julie.vorman.reuters.com@reuters.net)) Keywords: INTERNET/LIBRARIES
Thursday, December 27, 2007
Mike Novak, a modern Pharisee?
Christian commentator Mike Novak says his beliefs are "facts" and that only people who agree with him can lead good and just lives. Oh, and one other thing. He's more humble than people who don't believe in God.
I can't say that Mike sounds anything at all like Jesus of Nazareth. He seems to have forgotten the story of the good Samaritan, and the story of the humble publican and the boasting Pharisee.
I can't say that Mike sounds anything at all like Jesus of Nazareth. He seems to have forgotten the story of the good Samaritan, and the story of the humble publican and the boasting Pharisee.
Tuesday, December 25, 2007
Tragedy, recklessness on all sides
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/23/AR2007122302551.html?tid=informbox
Jury Convicts Black Man in Shooting Death of White Teen
Long Island Case Involved Questions of Race, Recklessness
Washington Post
By Frank Eltman
Associated Press
December 24, 2007
RIVERHEAD, N.Y. -- A black man who invoked images of lynch mobs in explaining why he killed a white teenager has been convicted of second-degree manslaughter because a jury rejected defense lawyers' arguments that his actions were justified.
Jurors reached a verdict Saturday night after four days of deliberations and an emotional three-week trial that flared around questions of race and recklessness.
The defendant, John White, raised the nation's history of racist violence in describing why he brandished a gun at a group of angry white teenagers who came to his house on Aug. 9, 2006. White ultimately shot Daniel Cicciaro, 17, in what he said was an accident but a prosecutor said was the result of poor judgment.
Saying White plans to appeal, defense lawyer Fred Brewington called the verdict "disappointing for African Americans" in the area.
"You have to survive in Suffolk County, where people can roll up on your house at 11:30 at night, threaten you, threaten your family, curse at you, call you a [N-word], and you've got to take it," he said.
But the slain teenager's mother, Joanne Cicciaro, said the case "was never about race. It was about individuals and individuals' actions."
White, 54, remains free on bail until sentencing, when he faces a prison term of five to 15 years. White was also convicted of a weapons-possession misdemeanor that carries a penalty of two to seven years in prison; it would probably run concurrently with the other sentence.
The verdict came after a 12-hour deliberation session in which jurors said they were deadlocked -- as they briefly had the day before. The judge told them about 8:15 p.m. Saturday to keep deliberating, and notice of the verdict came about 45 minutes later. Jurors declined to comment.
Outside the courtroom, the Cicciaro family's supporters chanted "Dan-O! Dan-O!" and honked their horns as they drove away. Several supporters had the teenager's nickname, "Dano Jr.," tattooed on their bodies.
"My son is finally vindicated," Joanne Cicciaro said. "The truth prevailed."
The shooting happened outside White's home in Miller Place, a predominantly white community on eastern Long Island. His 19-year-old son, Aaron, had awakened him around 11 p.m. to say that he had been feuding with other teenagers after being asked to leave a party and that several of them were headed to the Whites' house for a confrontation.
John White grabbed a shotgun, then opted for a pistol he had hidden in the garage. He and his son, who picked up the shotgun, went down the driveway to confront the group in the street.
"He wanted to stop these people who said they were coming to kill his son," Brewington said in closing arguments.
White contended that the gun fired accidentally when Cicciaro lunged for it.
Suffolk County Assistant District Attorney James Chalifoux said White should have locked the door and called police, rather than going outside to confront the unarmed teenagers with a gun.
Chalifoux also sought to play down the racial element, telling jurors that the Brooklyn-raised White never said anything about a lynch mob until the case went to trial. The prosecutor noted that the Ku Klux Klan attack on White's grandfather occurred 30 years before White was born.
He quoted White on the night he was arrested as telling police: "I did what I had to do. You might as well put the cuffs on now. This is the end of me."
After the verdict was read, Dan Cicciaro Sr. defended his son. "Maybe now they'll stop slinging my son's name and stop accusing him of all this racism," he said.
Jury Convicts Black Man in Shooting Death of White Teen
Long Island Case Involved Questions of Race, Recklessness
Washington Post
By Frank Eltman
Associated Press
December 24, 2007
RIVERHEAD, N.Y. -- A black man who invoked images of lynch mobs in explaining why he killed a white teenager has been convicted of second-degree manslaughter because a jury rejected defense lawyers' arguments that his actions were justified.
Jurors reached a verdict Saturday night after four days of deliberations and an emotional three-week trial that flared around questions of race and recklessness.
The defendant, John White, raised the nation's history of racist violence in describing why he brandished a gun at a group of angry white teenagers who came to his house on Aug. 9, 2006. White ultimately shot Daniel Cicciaro, 17, in what he said was an accident but a prosecutor said was the result of poor judgment.
Saying White plans to appeal, defense lawyer Fred Brewington called the verdict "disappointing for African Americans" in the area.
"You have to survive in Suffolk County, where people can roll up on your house at 11:30 at night, threaten you, threaten your family, curse at you, call you a [N-word], and you've got to take it," he said.
But the slain teenager's mother, Joanne Cicciaro, said the case "was never about race. It was about individuals and individuals' actions."
White, 54, remains free on bail until sentencing, when he faces a prison term of five to 15 years. White was also convicted of a weapons-possession misdemeanor that carries a penalty of two to seven years in prison; it would probably run concurrently with the other sentence.
The verdict came after a 12-hour deliberation session in which jurors said they were deadlocked -- as they briefly had the day before. The judge told them about 8:15 p.m. Saturday to keep deliberating, and notice of the verdict came about 45 minutes later. Jurors declined to comment.
Outside the courtroom, the Cicciaro family's supporters chanted "Dan-O! Dan-O!" and honked their horns as they drove away. Several supporters had the teenager's nickname, "Dano Jr.," tattooed on their bodies.
"My son is finally vindicated," Joanne Cicciaro said. "The truth prevailed."
The shooting happened outside White's home in Miller Place, a predominantly white community on eastern Long Island. His 19-year-old son, Aaron, had awakened him around 11 p.m. to say that he had been feuding with other teenagers after being asked to leave a party and that several of them were headed to the Whites' house for a confrontation.
John White grabbed a shotgun, then opted for a pistol he had hidden in the garage. He and his son, who picked up the shotgun, went down the driveway to confront the group in the street.
"He wanted to stop these people who said they were coming to kill his son," Brewington said in closing arguments.
White contended that the gun fired accidentally when Cicciaro lunged for it.
Suffolk County Assistant District Attorney James Chalifoux said White should have locked the door and called police, rather than going outside to confront the unarmed teenagers with a gun.
Chalifoux also sought to play down the racial element, telling jurors that the Brooklyn-raised White never said anything about a lynch mob until the case went to trial. The prosecutor noted that the Ku Klux Klan attack on White's grandfather occurred 30 years before White was born.
He quoted White on the night he was arrested as telling police: "I did what I had to do. You might as well put the cuffs on now. This is the end of me."
After the verdict was read, Dan Cicciaro Sr. defended his son. "Maybe now they'll stop slinging my son's name and stop accusing him of all this racism," he said.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/12/24/AR2007122401351.html
NY Juror Felt Pressured in Shooting Case
The Associated Press
Monday, December 24, 2007; 2:47 PM
RIVERHEAD, N.Y. -- A juror who helped convict a black man of fatally shooting a white teenager said he felt pressured by other jurors and the judge to change his vote to guilty during a marathon deliberating session.
The jury convicted John White of second-degree manslaughter Saturday in the August 2006 shooting of 17-year-old Daniel Cicciaro Jr. White, 54, remains free on bail and plans to appeal. He faces a prison term of five to 15 years.
The case drew national attention after defense attorneys argued that he feared a "lynch mob" had come to attack his family when a group of angry white teenagers gathered outside his home. The teens wanted to confront White's son.
Juror Francois Larche, who is white, said he and another juror changed their votes after enduring "a lot of psychological tactics" from fellow jurors during an unusual weekend session ordered by the judge over jurors' protests.
"It was a huge burden to bear," Larche, 46, told the New York Post in Monday's editions. He added, "I took a lot of heat."
Jury forewoman Maureen Steigerwald denied the judge, a 12-hour deliberating session on Saturday _ the fourth day of deliberations _ or the holidays played a role in the jury's decision.
"The jury did a very careful, conscientious deliberate job," she told Newsday in Monday's editions.
Judge Barbara Kahn said the jury would have to return on Sunday if they didn't reach a decision. Larche told the Post the judge told them a mistrial would burden the families and the next jury.
"I thought about my family and the families of the other jurors," Larche said. "It was not worth it in the end."
NY Juror Felt Pressured in Shooting Case
The Associated Press
Monday, December 24, 2007; 2:47 PM
RIVERHEAD, N.Y. -- A juror who helped convict a black man of fatally shooting a white teenager said he felt pressured by other jurors and the judge to change his vote to guilty during a marathon deliberating session.
The jury convicted John White of second-degree manslaughter Saturday in the August 2006 shooting of 17-year-old Daniel Cicciaro Jr. White, 54, remains free on bail and plans to appeal. He faces a prison term of five to 15 years.
The case drew national attention after defense attorneys argued that he feared a "lynch mob" had come to attack his family when a group of angry white teenagers gathered outside his home. The teens wanted to confront White's son.
Juror Francois Larche, who is white, said he and another juror changed their votes after enduring "a lot of psychological tactics" from fellow jurors during an unusual weekend session ordered by the judge over jurors' protests.
"It was a huge burden to bear," Larche, 46, told the New York Post in Monday's editions. He added, "I took a lot of heat."
Jury forewoman Maureen Steigerwald denied the judge, a 12-hour deliberating session on Saturday _ the fourth day of deliberations _ or the holidays played a role in the jury's decision.
"The jury did a very careful, conscientious deliberate job," she told Newsday in Monday's editions.
Judge Barbara Kahn said the jury would have to return on Sunday if they didn't reach a decision. Larche told the Post the judge told them a mistrial would burden the families and the next jury.
"I thought about my family and the families of the other jurors," Larche said. "It was not worth it in the end."
A fine balance
We're a nation of Santas and Scrooges, the statistics tell us. A nation of opposites. Liberal and conservative, rich and poor, right and left, devout and debauched, anorexic and obese, educated and ignorant, honest and deceitful, greedy and generous.
It seems that the human race was designed to be constantly finding new ways to balance opposing tendencies. Maybe a leader who won't compromise is not the wisest leader in such a world.
U.S. Is Nation of Santas and Scrooges
By John Blake,CNN
Posted: 2007-12-25
Click here to see the original post.
Which statement is true?
Americans are some the most generous people on the planet. Or: Americans are some of the stingiest.
Both are correct.
America is a country of Santas and Scrooges -- it just depends on how you look at the numbers. Americans, it turns out, are as divided by their attitudes toward giving as they are by politics.
Some numbers hint at the divisions. Americans, for example, gave $8.4 billion to Hurricane Katrina and tsunami victims in 2005, according to The Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University. Americans give more to private philanthropy than any other country, a Johns Hopkins University study concluded.
But during the same year as Katrina, the U.S. government gave 0.22 percent of its Gross National Income to foreign aid, ranking near the bottom -- 20th out of 22 -- of all Western nations, according to the Organization for Economic Development and Co-operation, an international agency that measures international economic data. Norway and Sweden were the top two.
The truth is that Americans are generous when it comes to private aid, domestic or overseas. But the U.S. government is comparatively stingy when helping the poor, here and abroad.
The disparity is nothing new. It's a reflection of a political debate over the role of government in America that dates to the 18th century, scholars say. Americans have long clashed over what's the most effective way to help the poor -- through government or charity.
"America is firmly rooted in the idea of the rugged individual -- you do it on your own and you don't turn to the government for help," says Mark Robert Rank, author of "One Nation, Underprivileged: Why American Poverty Affects Us All."
This debate divides philanthropic leaders as well. Several philanthropic and poverty experts were recently asked about the role of charity versus government in helping the poor. They couldn't agree either.
Some say the most effective way to help the poor is through charity, or private sources. Their argument: Charities are cheaper and more efficient because they depend on volunteers and personal contact.
"Americans know they're not stingy people," says Carol Adelman, a director at the Hudson Institute, a private research center that champions charitable giving.
"They've always preferred working though private institutions," she says. "Private aid doesn't try to do it all for people. It also works more at the local level because it works more people-to-people."
Charities also transform the giver, not just the recipient, says Arthur Brooks, author of "Who Really Cares," a book that says that conservatives care more for the poor than liberals because they give more money to charity.
Brooks says studies show that people who volunteer and donate to charity are happier than people who simply write a check -- though that, too, has its benefits.
"You don't become a better person when you pay taxes but you do when you give," Brooks says. "When we're responsible for voluntarily taking care of private needs in this country, we are in control. We are empowered."
Yet others say that government does a better job of helping the poor because it has the economic and public policy clout to attack poverty's root causes.
Lester Salamon, director of the Center for Civil Society Studies at Johns Hopkins University, says people often think that American's generous charitable donations compensate for any deficiency in government aid.
Charities just can't do as much for the poor because they don't have the economic muscle of the U.S. government, he says.
"There's such an enormous difference between the two that it's ludicrous to argue that one makes up for the other," Salamon says.
Besides, much of the money that goes to charity doesn't go directly to poor. It goes to administrative costs or other philanthropic endeavors that have little to do with feeding, clothing and housing the poor, he says.
"Most of the [charitable] money goes to places that aren't typically focused on the poor," Salamon says. "Only about 12 percent of our giving goes to the poor."
Rank, author of "One Nation, Underprivileged," says charities also aren't equipped to address the "structural failings" that cause poverty: the lack of affordable health care, the disappearance of manufacturing jobs and underfunded school districts.
Americans may love to give to the poor, but they don't do a good job of lifting people out of poverty, Rank said. He said America has the highest rate of poverty in the industrialized world, though it is the wealthiest nation.
The country's economic system is rigged against poor people no matter how hard some work, Rank says.
"We're playing a large-scale version of musical chairs," he says. "We have 10 people playing and only eight chairs available. We can say individual things like you need to be quicker, you need to listen to the music better, but we've set this up so that some people are going to lose out, regardless."
There's a place for donating to food pantries during the holiday season, Rank says, but people shouldn't stop there.
"We can't lose sight," Rank says, "of why people are turning to those food pantries in the first place."
http://news.aol.com/story/_a/us-is-nation-of-santas-and-scrooges/20071225083009990001?ncid=NWS00010000000001
It seems that the human race was designed to be constantly finding new ways to balance opposing tendencies. Maybe a leader who won't compromise is not the wisest leader in such a world.
U.S. Is Nation of Santas and Scrooges
By John Blake,CNN
Posted: 2007-12-25
Click here to see the original post.
Which statement is true?
Americans are some the most generous people on the planet. Or: Americans are some of the stingiest.
Both are correct.
America is a country of Santas and Scrooges -- it just depends on how you look at the numbers. Americans, it turns out, are as divided by their attitudes toward giving as they are by politics.
Some numbers hint at the divisions. Americans, for example, gave $8.4 billion to Hurricane Katrina and tsunami victims in 2005, according to The Center on Philanthropy at Indiana University. Americans give more to private philanthropy than any other country, a Johns Hopkins University study concluded.
But during the same year as Katrina, the U.S. government gave 0.22 percent of its Gross National Income to foreign aid, ranking near the bottom -- 20th out of 22 -- of all Western nations, according to the Organization for Economic Development and Co-operation, an international agency that measures international economic data. Norway and Sweden were the top two.
The truth is that Americans are generous when it comes to private aid, domestic or overseas. But the U.S. government is comparatively stingy when helping the poor, here and abroad.
The disparity is nothing new. It's a reflection of a political debate over the role of government in America that dates to the 18th century, scholars say. Americans have long clashed over what's the most effective way to help the poor -- through government or charity.
"America is firmly rooted in the idea of the rugged individual -- you do it on your own and you don't turn to the government for help," says Mark Robert Rank, author of "One Nation, Underprivileged: Why American Poverty Affects Us All."
This debate divides philanthropic leaders as well. Several philanthropic and poverty experts were recently asked about the role of charity versus government in helping the poor. They couldn't agree either.
Some say the most effective way to help the poor is through charity, or private sources. Their argument: Charities are cheaper and more efficient because they depend on volunteers and personal contact.
"Americans know they're not stingy people," says Carol Adelman, a director at the Hudson Institute, a private research center that champions charitable giving.
"They've always preferred working though private institutions," she says. "Private aid doesn't try to do it all for people. It also works more at the local level because it works more people-to-people."
Charities also transform the giver, not just the recipient, says Arthur Brooks, author of "Who Really Cares," a book that says that conservatives care more for the poor than liberals because they give more money to charity.
Brooks says studies show that people who volunteer and donate to charity are happier than people who simply write a check -- though that, too, has its benefits.
"You don't become a better person when you pay taxes but you do when you give," Brooks says. "When we're responsible for voluntarily taking care of private needs in this country, we are in control. We are empowered."
Yet others say that government does a better job of helping the poor because it has the economic and public policy clout to attack poverty's root causes.
Lester Salamon, director of the Center for Civil Society Studies at Johns Hopkins University, says people often think that American's generous charitable donations compensate for any deficiency in government aid.
Charities just can't do as much for the poor because they don't have the economic muscle of the U.S. government, he says.
"There's such an enormous difference between the two that it's ludicrous to argue that one makes up for the other," Salamon says.
Besides, much of the money that goes to charity doesn't go directly to poor. It goes to administrative costs or other philanthropic endeavors that have little to do with feeding, clothing and housing the poor, he says.
"Most of the [charitable] money goes to places that aren't typically focused on the poor," Salamon says. "Only about 12 percent of our giving goes to the poor."
Rank, author of "One Nation, Underprivileged," says charities also aren't equipped to address the "structural failings" that cause poverty: the lack of affordable health care, the disappearance of manufacturing jobs and underfunded school districts.
Americans may love to give to the poor, but they don't do a good job of lifting people out of poverty, Rank said. He said America has the highest rate of poverty in the industrialized world, though it is the wealthiest nation.
The country's economic system is rigged against poor people no matter how hard some work, Rank says.
"We're playing a large-scale version of musical chairs," he says. "We have 10 people playing and only eight chairs available. We can say individual things like you need to be quicker, you need to listen to the music better, but we've set this up so that some people are going to lose out, regardless."
There's a place for donating to food pantries during the holiday season, Rank says, but people shouldn't stop there.
"We can't lose sight," Rank says, "of why people are turning to those food pantries in the first place."
http://news.aol.com/story/_a/us-is-nation-of-santas-and-scrooges/20071225083009990001?ncid=NWS00010000000001
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