(CNN) -- North Korea's longtime leader Kim Jong Il, the embodiment of the reclusive state where his cult of personality is deeply entrenched, has died.
He was believed to be 69.
Regarded as one of the world's most-repressive leaders, Kim Jong Il always cut a slightly bizarre figure. His diminutive stature and characteristically bouffant hair have been parodied by some in the West.
"He's a mysterious person -- I think by design," said Han S. Park, director of the Center for the Study of Global Issues at the University of Georgia and a frequent visitor to North Korea. "Mystery is a source of leverage and power. It's maintaining uncertainty."
But for the citizens of his Democratic People's Republic of Korea, Kim was well regarded.
Tuesday, December 20, 2011
Sunday, December 18, 2011
Last American troops pull out of Iraq whoop
STAR/TRIBUNE
KHABARI CROSSING, Kuwait - The last U.S. soldiers rolled out of Iraq across the border into neighboring Kuwait at daybreak Sunday, whooping, fist bumping and hugging each other in a burst of joy and relief. Their convoy's exit marked the end of a bitterly divisive war that raged for nearly nine years and left Iraq shattered and struggling to recover.
The war cost nearly 4,500 American and well more than 100,000 Iraqi lives and $800 billion from the U.S. Treasury. The question of whether it was worth it all — or whether the new government the Americans leave behind will remain a steadfast U.S. ally — is yet unanswered.
The 5-hour drive by the last convoy of MRAPS, heavily armored personnel carriers, took place under cover of darkness and under strict secrecy to prevent any final attacks on the withdrawing troops. The 500 soldiers didn't even tell their Iraqi partners they were leaving before they slipped out of the last American base and started down the barren desert highway to the Kuwaiti border before dawn Sunday.
The atmosphere was subdued inside one of the vehicles as it streamed down the highway, with little visible in the blackness outside through the MRAP's small windows. Along the road, a small group of Iraqi soldiers waved to the departing American troops.
But after crossing the berm at the Kuwaiti border, lit with floodlights and ringed with barbed wire, the troops from the 3rd brigade of the Army's 1st Cavalry Division were elated. They cheered, pumped fists in the air and gave each other chest bumps and bear hugs. "We're on top of the world!" shouted one soldier from the turret of his vehicle. "It's just an honor to be able to serve your country and say that you helped close out the war in Iraq," said Spc. Jesse Jones, a 23-year-old who volunteered to be in the last convoy.
The quiet withdrawal was a stark contrast to the high-octane start of the war, which began before dawn on March 20, 2003, with an airstrike in southern Baghdad where Saddam Hussein was believed to be hiding, the opening shot in the famed "shock and awe" bombardment. U.S. and allied ground forces then stormed from Kuwait across the featureless deserts of southern Iraq toward the capital.
Saddam and his regime fell within weeks, and the dictator was captured by the end of the year — to be executed by Iraq's new Shiite rulers in 2006. But Saddam's end only opened the door to years more of conflict as Iraq was plunged into a vicious sectarian war between its Shiite and Sunni communities. The near civil war devastated the country, and its legacy includes thousands of widows and orphans, a people deeply divided along sectarian lines and infrastructure that remains largely in ruins.
In the past two years, violence has dropped dramatically, and Iraqi security forces that U.S. troops struggled for years to train have improved. But the sectarian wounds remain unhealed. Even as U.S. troops were leaving, the main Sunni-backed political bloc announced Sunday it was suspending its participation in parliament to protest the monopoly on government posts by Shiite allies of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.
President Barack Obama stopped short of calling the U.S. effort in Iraq a victory in an interview taped Thursday with ABC News' Barbara Walters. "I would describe our troops as having succeeded in the mission of giving to the Iraqis their country in a way that gives them a chance for a successful future," Obama said.
In the final days, U.S. officials acknowledged the cost in blood and dollars was high, but tried to paint a picture of victory — for both the troops and the Iraqi people now freed of a dictator and on a path to democracy. But gnawing questions remain: Will Iraqis be able to forge their new government amid the still stubborn sectarian clashes? And will Iraq be able to defend itself and remain independent in a region fraught with turmoil and still steeped in insurgent threats?
Some Iraqis celebrated the exit of what they called American occupiers, neither invited nor welcome in a proud country. Others said that while grateful for U.S. help ousting Saddam, the war went on too long. A majority of Americans would agree.
KHABARI CROSSING, Kuwait - The last U.S. soldiers rolled out of Iraq across the border into neighboring Kuwait at daybreak Sunday, whooping, fist bumping and hugging each other in a burst of joy and relief. Their convoy's exit marked the end of a bitterly divisive war that raged for nearly nine years and left Iraq shattered and struggling to recover.
The war cost nearly 4,500 American and well more than 100,000 Iraqi lives and $800 billion from the U.S. Treasury. The question of whether it was worth it all — or whether the new government the Americans leave behind will remain a steadfast U.S. ally — is yet unanswered.
The 5-hour drive by the last convoy of MRAPS, heavily armored personnel carriers, took place under cover of darkness and under strict secrecy to prevent any final attacks on the withdrawing troops. The 500 soldiers didn't even tell their Iraqi partners they were leaving before they slipped out of the last American base and started down the barren desert highway to the Kuwaiti border before dawn Sunday.
The atmosphere was subdued inside one of the vehicles as it streamed down the highway, with little visible in the blackness outside through the MRAP's small windows. Along the road, a small group of Iraqi soldiers waved to the departing American troops.
But after crossing the berm at the Kuwaiti border, lit with floodlights and ringed with barbed wire, the troops from the 3rd brigade of the Army's 1st Cavalry Division were elated. They cheered, pumped fists in the air and gave each other chest bumps and bear hugs. "We're on top of the world!" shouted one soldier from the turret of his vehicle. "It's just an honor to be able to serve your country and say that you helped close out the war in Iraq," said Spc. Jesse Jones, a 23-year-old who volunteered to be in the last convoy.
The quiet withdrawal was a stark contrast to the high-octane start of the war, which began before dawn on March 20, 2003, with an airstrike in southern Baghdad where Saddam Hussein was believed to be hiding, the opening shot in the famed "shock and awe" bombardment. U.S. and allied ground forces then stormed from Kuwait across the featureless deserts of southern Iraq toward the capital.
Saddam and his regime fell within weeks, and the dictator was captured by the end of the year — to be executed by Iraq's new Shiite rulers in 2006. But Saddam's end only opened the door to years more of conflict as Iraq was plunged into a vicious sectarian war between its Shiite and Sunni communities. The near civil war devastated the country, and its legacy includes thousands of widows and orphans, a people deeply divided along sectarian lines and infrastructure that remains largely in ruins.
In the past two years, violence has dropped dramatically, and Iraqi security forces that U.S. troops struggled for years to train have improved. But the sectarian wounds remain unhealed. Even as U.S. troops were leaving, the main Sunni-backed political bloc announced Sunday it was suspending its participation in parliament to protest the monopoly on government posts by Shiite allies of Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki.
President Barack Obama stopped short of calling the U.S. effort in Iraq a victory in an interview taped Thursday with ABC News' Barbara Walters. "I would describe our troops as having succeeded in the mission of giving to the Iraqis their country in a way that gives them a chance for a successful future," Obama said.
In the final days, U.S. officials acknowledged the cost in blood and dollars was high, but tried to paint a picture of victory — for both the troops and the Iraqi people now freed of a dictator and on a path to democracy. But gnawing questions remain: Will Iraqis be able to forge their new government amid the still stubborn sectarian clashes? And will Iraq be able to defend itself and remain independent in a region fraught with turmoil and still steeped in insurgent threats?
Some Iraqis celebrated the exit of what they called American occupiers, neither invited nor welcome in a proud country. Others said that while grateful for U.S. help ousting Saddam, the war went on too long. A majority of Americans would agree.
Thursday, December 15, 2011
Polls confirm Newt Gingrich’s rise to top of GOP — and potential to fall
THE HILL By Jonathan Easley
Newt Gingrich has sustained his surprising rise in the polls for more than a month, and a slew of new state polling data has cemented the former House Speaker as the GOP’s leading candidate for the nomination.
Of the four early-voting states, polling shows Gingrich leading in three of them — Iowa, South Carolina and Florida — and gaining ground in New Hampshire. But the polls also show that a majority of voters are undecided, meaning Gingrich could face the reality that has plagued so many other GOP contenders — what goes up could also come down.
In Iowa, which is first to vote, with its Jan. 3 caucuses, Gingrich leads with 22 percent, according to an American Research Group poll of likely caucus-goers released on Monday. Mitt Romney and Ron Paul both came in at 17 percent, followed by Rick Perry at 13, Michele Bachmann and Rick Santorum at 7 percent and Jon Huntsman at 5 percent. Only two months ago, Gingrich was an afterthought in the Hawkeye State, at 8 percent.
Gingrich also leads in South Carolina and Florida, the third and fourth states to vote, according to a NBC News-Marist poll released Monday.
Gingrich is highly popular with the older voters who make up a large part of the Republican electorate in Florida. And perhaps surprisingly for a candidate who is so closely tied to Washington, Gingrich is buoyed by Tea Party support in South Carolina.
New Hampshire is the only one of the first four early-voting states where Gingrich doesn’t lead. Romney is widely viewed to have an advantage in the Granite State because of its proximity to Massachusetts. The former Massachusetts governor also owns a home in New Hampshire. But here too Gingrich is closing the gap, within 10 points of Romney, according to a CNN-Time-ORC poll released last week. Gingrich campaigned in New Hampshire on Monday and debated rival Jon Huntsman in Hollis, N.H., on Monday evening.
Gingrich has also opened up a lead nationally, beating Romney 33 percent to 23, according to Gallup’s Daily Tracking poll. Gingrich has maintained a double-digit lead in the poll since Dec. 1. However, in a Republican nomination process that has seen Perry, Bachmann, Cain and Donald Trump all spend time at the top of the polls, a lot could change. According to the CNN-Time-ORC poll, 55 percent of voters in Iowa and South Carolina said they were open to changing their minds, while 53 percent of Florida voters and 48 percent of New Hampshire voters said the same.
Newt Gingrich has sustained his surprising rise in the polls for more than a month, and a slew of new state polling data has cemented the former House Speaker as the GOP’s leading candidate for the nomination.
Of the four early-voting states, polling shows Gingrich leading in three of them — Iowa, South Carolina and Florida — and gaining ground in New Hampshire. But the polls also show that a majority of voters are undecided, meaning Gingrich could face the reality that has plagued so many other GOP contenders — what goes up could also come down.
In Iowa, which is first to vote, with its Jan. 3 caucuses, Gingrich leads with 22 percent, according to an American Research Group poll of likely caucus-goers released on Monday. Mitt Romney and Ron Paul both came in at 17 percent, followed by Rick Perry at 13, Michele Bachmann and Rick Santorum at 7 percent and Jon Huntsman at 5 percent. Only two months ago, Gingrich was an afterthought in the Hawkeye State, at 8 percent.
Gingrich also leads in South Carolina and Florida, the third and fourth states to vote, according to a NBC News-Marist poll released Monday.
Gingrich is highly popular with the older voters who make up a large part of the Republican electorate in Florida. And perhaps surprisingly for a candidate who is so closely tied to Washington, Gingrich is buoyed by Tea Party support in South Carolina.
New Hampshire is the only one of the first four early-voting states where Gingrich doesn’t lead. Romney is widely viewed to have an advantage in the Granite State because of its proximity to Massachusetts. The former Massachusetts governor also owns a home in New Hampshire. But here too Gingrich is closing the gap, within 10 points of Romney, according to a CNN-Time-ORC poll released last week. Gingrich campaigned in New Hampshire on Monday and debated rival Jon Huntsman in Hollis, N.H., on Monday evening.
Gingrich has also opened up a lead nationally, beating Romney 33 percent to 23, according to Gallup’s Daily Tracking poll. Gingrich has maintained a double-digit lead in the poll since Dec. 1. However, in a Republican nomination process that has seen Perry, Bachmann, Cain and Donald Trump all spend time at the top of the polls, a lot could change. According to the CNN-Time-ORC poll, 55 percent of voters in Iowa and South Carolina said they were open to changing their minds, while 53 percent of Florida voters and 48 percent of New Hampshire voters said the same.
Wednesday, December 14, 2011
NTSB recommends full ban on use of cell phones while driving
Washington (CNN) -- A federal safety board called Tuesday for a nationwide ban on the use of cell phones and text messaging devices while driving.
The recommendation is the most far-reaching yet by the National Transportation Safety Board, which in the past 10 years has increasingly sought to limit the use of portable electronic devices -- recommending bans for novice drivers, school bus drivers and commercial truckers. Tuesday's recommendation, if adopted by states, would outlaw non-emergency phone calls and texting by operators of every vehicle on the road.
It would apply to hands-free as well as hand-held devices, but devices installed in the vehicle by the manufacturer would be allowed, the NTSB said. The recommendation would not affect passengers' rights to use such devices.
NTSB members say the action is necessary to combat a growing threat posed by distracted drivers. While distracted driving has been a problem "since the Model T," in the words of NTSB Chairwoman Deborah Hersman, authorities say it has become ubiquitous with the explosion in the number of portable smart phones. At any given daylight moment, some 13.5 million drivers are on hand-held phones, according to a study released last week by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
Some 3,092 roadway fatalities last year involved distracted drivers, although the actual number may be far higher, NHTSA said. "This (distracted driving) is becoming the new DUI. It's becoming epidemic," said NTSB member Robert Sumwalt.
Accident investigators routinely seek protective orders to preserve smart phones for use as evidence in accident investigations, Hersman said. But because distracted drivers sometimes do not own up to their actions, or because they die during the crash, determining whether distraction was a factor in an accident can be difficult.
That was the case in a 2010 chain-reaction accident near Gray Summit, Missouri. During the 11 minutes prior to that incident, the driver of a pickup truck received five text messages, and sent six, and he was seen leaning over just before the accident, leading investigators to believe the driver was likely distracted when his truck plowed at 55 mph into the rear of a tractor trailer, which had slowed or stopped because of a highway work zone. Two school buses then plowed into the wreckage. Two people -- including the pickup truck driver and a bus occupant -- were killed; 38 other people were injured.
The driver of the pickup truck was 19 years old, and was in violation of a Missouri law prohibiting drivers under the age of 21 from texting while driving. But the safety board focused little on the age of the driver, casting "distracted driving" as epidemic among people of all ages.
A Virginia Tech Transportation Institute study of commercial drivers found that a safety-critical event is 163 times more likely if a driver is texting, e-mailing or accessing the Internet.
The recommendation is the most far-reaching yet by the National Transportation Safety Board, which in the past 10 years has increasingly sought to limit the use of portable electronic devices -- recommending bans for novice drivers, school bus drivers and commercial truckers. Tuesday's recommendation, if adopted by states, would outlaw non-emergency phone calls and texting by operators of every vehicle on the road.
It would apply to hands-free as well as hand-held devices, but devices installed in the vehicle by the manufacturer would be allowed, the NTSB said. The recommendation would not affect passengers' rights to use such devices.
NTSB members say the action is necessary to combat a growing threat posed by distracted drivers. While distracted driving has been a problem "since the Model T," in the words of NTSB Chairwoman Deborah Hersman, authorities say it has become ubiquitous with the explosion in the number of portable smart phones. At any given daylight moment, some 13.5 million drivers are on hand-held phones, according to a study released last week by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration.
Some 3,092 roadway fatalities last year involved distracted drivers, although the actual number may be far higher, NHTSA said. "This (distracted driving) is becoming the new DUI. It's becoming epidemic," said NTSB member Robert Sumwalt.
Accident investigators routinely seek protective orders to preserve smart phones for use as evidence in accident investigations, Hersman said. But because distracted drivers sometimes do not own up to their actions, or because they die during the crash, determining whether distraction was a factor in an accident can be difficult.
That was the case in a 2010 chain-reaction accident near Gray Summit, Missouri. During the 11 minutes prior to that incident, the driver of a pickup truck received five text messages, and sent six, and he was seen leaning over just before the accident, leading investigators to believe the driver was likely distracted when his truck plowed at 55 mph into the rear of a tractor trailer, which had slowed or stopped because of a highway work zone. Two school buses then plowed into the wreckage. Two people -- including the pickup truck driver and a bus occupant -- were killed; 38 other people were injured.
The driver of the pickup truck was 19 years old, and was in violation of a Missouri law prohibiting drivers under the age of 21 from texting while driving. But the safety board focused little on the age of the driver, casting "distracted driving" as epidemic among people of all ages.
A Virginia Tech Transportation Institute study of commercial drivers found that a safety-critical event is 163 times more likely if a driver is texting, e-mailing or accessing the Internet.
Wednesday, December 7, 2011
Obama praises Marvin Windows
STAR/TRIBUNE
President Barack Obama gave Warroad-based Marvin Windows and Doors a shout out during his remarks on the economy in Kansas Tuesday.
According to a White House transcript, he said:
"I think about a company based in Warroad, Minnesota. It’s called Marvin Windows and Doors. During the recession, Marvin’s competitors closed dozens of plants, let hundreds of workers go. But Marvin’s did not lay off a single one of their 4,000 or so employees -- not one. In fact, they’ve only laid off workers once in over a hundred years. Mr. Marvin’s grandfather even kept his eight employees during the Great Depression.
Now, at Marvin’s when times get tough, the workers agree to give up some perks and some pay, and so do the owners. As one owner said, “You can’t grow if you’re cutting your lifeblood -- and that’s the skills and experience your workforce delivers.” (Applause.) For the CEO of Marvin’s, it’s about the community. He said, “These are people we went to school with. We go to church with them. We see them in the same restaurants. Indeed, a lot of us have married local girls and boys. We could be anywhere, but we are in Warroad."
That’s how America was built. That’s why we’re the greatest nation on Earth. That’s what our greatest companies understand. Our success has never just been about survival of the fittest. It’s about building a nation where we’re all better off. We pull together. We pitch in. We do our part. We believe that hard work will pay off, that responsibility will be rewarded, and that our children will inherit a nation where those values live on. "
President Barack Obama gave Warroad-based Marvin Windows and Doors a shout out during his remarks on the economy in Kansas Tuesday.
According to a White House transcript, he said:
"I think about a company based in Warroad, Minnesota. It’s called Marvin Windows and Doors. During the recession, Marvin’s competitors closed dozens of plants, let hundreds of workers go. But Marvin’s did not lay off a single one of their 4,000 or so employees -- not one. In fact, they’ve only laid off workers once in over a hundred years. Mr. Marvin’s grandfather even kept his eight employees during the Great Depression.
Now, at Marvin’s when times get tough, the workers agree to give up some perks and some pay, and so do the owners. As one owner said, “You can’t grow if you’re cutting your lifeblood -- and that’s the skills and experience your workforce delivers.” (Applause.) For the CEO of Marvin’s, it’s about the community. He said, “These are people we went to school with. We go to church with them. We see them in the same restaurants. Indeed, a lot of us have married local girls and boys. We could be anywhere, but we are in Warroad."
That’s how America was built. That’s why we’re the greatest nation on Earth. That’s what our greatest companies understand. Our success has never just been about survival of the fittest. It’s about building a nation where we’re all better off. We pull together. We pitch in. We do our part. We believe that hard work will pay off, that responsibility will be rewarded, and that our children will inherit a nation where those values live on. "
Sunday, December 4, 2011
Islamists dominate Egypt's elections
STAR/TRIBUNE
CAIRO - Islamist parties captured an overwhelming majority of votes in the first round of Egypt's parliamentary elections, setting up a power struggle with the much weaker liberals behind the uprising that ousted Hosni Mubarak 10 months ago. A hard-line religious group that wants to impose strict Islamic law made a strong showing with nearly a quarter of the ballots, according to results released Sunday.
The tallies offer only a partial indication of how the new parliament will look. There are still two more rounds of voting in 18 of the country's 27 provinces over the coming month and runoff elections on Monday and Tuesday to determine almost all of the seats allocated for individuals in the first round. But the grip of the Islamists over the next parliament appears set, particularly considering their popularity in provinces voting in the next rounds.
The High Election Commission said the Islamic fundamentalist Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party garnered 36.6 percent of the 9.7 million valid ballots cast for party lists. The Nour Party, a more hard-line Islamist group, captured 24.4 percent.
The strong Islamist showing worries liberal parties, and even some religious parties, who fear the two groups will work to push a religious agenda. It has also left many of the youthful activists behind the uprising that ousted Mubarak in February feeling that their revolution has been hijacked.
The Brotherhood has emerged as the most organized and cohesive political force in these elections. But with no track record of governing, it is not yet clear how they will behave in power. The party has positioned itself as a moderate Islamist party that wants to implement Islamic law without sacrificing personal freedoms, and has said it will not seek an alliance with the more radical Nour party.
The ultraconservative Salafis who dominate the Nour Party are newcomers to the political scene. They had previously frowned upon involvement in politics and shunned elections. They espouse a strict interpretation of Islam similar to that of Saudi Arabia, where the sexes are segregated and women must be veiled and are barred from driving. Its members say laws contradicting religion can't be passed.
Many in Egypt's Coptic Christian population, which makes up 10 percent of the country, fear the Salafis will push for laws that will make them second-class citizens.
CAIRO - Islamist parties captured an overwhelming majority of votes in the first round of Egypt's parliamentary elections, setting up a power struggle with the much weaker liberals behind the uprising that ousted Hosni Mubarak 10 months ago. A hard-line religious group that wants to impose strict Islamic law made a strong showing with nearly a quarter of the ballots, according to results released Sunday.
The tallies offer only a partial indication of how the new parliament will look. There are still two more rounds of voting in 18 of the country's 27 provinces over the coming month and runoff elections on Monday and Tuesday to determine almost all of the seats allocated for individuals in the first round. But the grip of the Islamists over the next parliament appears set, particularly considering their popularity in provinces voting in the next rounds.
The High Election Commission said the Islamic fundamentalist Muslim Brotherhood's Freedom and Justice Party garnered 36.6 percent of the 9.7 million valid ballots cast for party lists. The Nour Party, a more hard-line Islamist group, captured 24.4 percent.
The strong Islamist showing worries liberal parties, and even some religious parties, who fear the two groups will work to push a religious agenda. It has also left many of the youthful activists behind the uprising that ousted Mubarak in February feeling that their revolution has been hijacked.
The Brotherhood has emerged as the most organized and cohesive political force in these elections. But with no track record of governing, it is not yet clear how they will behave in power. The party has positioned itself as a moderate Islamist party that wants to implement Islamic law without sacrificing personal freedoms, and has said it will not seek an alliance with the more radical Nour party.
The ultraconservative Salafis who dominate the Nour Party are newcomers to the political scene. They had previously frowned upon involvement in politics and shunned elections. They espouse a strict interpretation of Islam similar to that of Saudi Arabia, where the sexes are segregated and women must be veiled and are barred from driving. Its members say laws contradicting religion can't be passed.
Many in Egypt's Coptic Christian population, which makes up 10 percent of the country, fear the Salafis will push for laws that will make them second-class citizens.
Thursday, December 1, 2011
Governor to appoint task force on bullying
STAR/TRIBUNE
Article by: MARIA ELENA BACA
Gov. Mark Dayton will appoint a task force to tackle the problem of school bullying and search for solutions by looking at what's working and what's not all over the country.
Speaking at the Capitol on Tuesday, Dayton said the panel will comprise 15 members, including people from his administration, legislators and community members with expertise in the area. The governor wants the group to report back to his office, the Legislature and the public by Aug. 1, 2012.
Dayton is the most recent public official to issue a call to action for a problem that affects more than 100,000 students a week in Minnesota, according to a study by the state departments of health and education.
Last week, Minnesota Attorney General Lori Swanson proposed a bill that would require all school districts in the state to respond to bullying reports within 24 hours. The measure also would require districts to create policies for reporting, documentation, as well as protection for students who are subject to bullying and those who report it. It is modeled after a law that garnered bipartisan support earlier this year in North Dakota. If passed, the law would take effect in 2013.
With the shortest anti-bullying law in the nation at 37 words, Minnesota requires only that school districts have written policies in place prohibiting all forms of intimidation and bullying. The law earned a C-minus grade from the watchdog group BullyPolice USA, the lowest grade of any state that has an anti-bullying law. Three do not.
Article by: MARIA ELENA BACA
Gov. Mark Dayton will appoint a task force to tackle the problem of school bullying and search for solutions by looking at what's working and what's not all over the country.
Speaking at the Capitol on Tuesday, Dayton said the panel will comprise 15 members, including people from his administration, legislators and community members with expertise in the area. The governor wants the group to report back to his office, the Legislature and the public by Aug. 1, 2012.
Dayton is the most recent public official to issue a call to action for a problem that affects more than 100,000 students a week in Minnesota, according to a study by the state departments of health and education.
Last week, Minnesota Attorney General Lori Swanson proposed a bill that would require all school districts in the state to respond to bullying reports within 24 hours. The measure also would require districts to create policies for reporting, documentation, as well as protection for students who are subject to bullying and those who report it. It is modeled after a law that garnered bipartisan support earlier this year in North Dakota. If passed, the law would take effect in 2013.
With the shortest anti-bullying law in the nation at 37 words, Minnesota requires only that school districts have written policies in place prohibiting all forms of intimidation and bullying. The law earned a C-minus grade from the watchdog group BullyPolice USA, the lowest grade of any state that has an anti-bullying law. Three do not.
Thursday, November 17, 2011
Penn State Child Sex Abuse Scandal
State College, Pennsylvania (CNN) --
The mother of one of Jerry Sandusky's alleged victims -- the first to come forward in the case -- said her son is afraid the former Penn State coach might go free. The son, who is identified as Victim 1 in the indictment, watched an NBC interview with Sandusky this week and cried, the mother told CNN on Wednesday.
"I said, 'Well, why did you cry?' And he said, 'Because I'm afraid that he might go free,' " said the woman, whose face and voice were altered to protect her -- and by extension her son's -- identity.
Sandusky told NBC's Bob Costas on Monday that he has been falsely accused, saying that he only "horsed around" with kids in the shower after workouts. Sandusky denied being sexually attracted to boys, and his lawyer, Joe Amendola, told CNN on Monday night that showering with children does not equate automatically to sexual assault. In the NBC interview, Sandusky denied one of the charges in the grand jury report that assistant coach Mike McQueary had walked in on him raping a boy about 10 years of age.
Sandusky was arrested on November 5, after the release of the grand jury report detailing crimes that he allegedly committed between 1994 and 2009. Sandusky is free on $100,000 bail, against the wishes of prosecutors.
In other developments, representatives of Penn State's campus police and State College police said Wednesday they have no record of having received any report from a Penn State assistant football coach about his having witnessed an alleged rape of a boy by Sandusky.
The alleged locker room rape witnessed by McQueary, who was then a graduate assistant, was detailed in a grand jury report released this month. According to the report, McQueary told Joe Paterno, who was then the team's coach; Paterno then alerted his boss, the school's athletic director.
The scandal revolves around Sandusky, charged by Pennsylvania's attorney general with 40 counts in what authorities allege was the sexual abuse of eight boys, and allegations that Penn State officials failed to inform police when the complaints reached them.
The mother of one of Jerry Sandusky's alleged victims -- the first to come forward in the case -- said her son is afraid the former Penn State coach might go free. The son, who is identified as Victim 1 in the indictment, watched an NBC interview with Sandusky this week and cried, the mother told CNN on Wednesday.
"I said, 'Well, why did you cry?' And he said, 'Because I'm afraid that he might go free,' " said the woman, whose face and voice were altered to protect her -- and by extension her son's -- identity.
Sandusky told NBC's Bob Costas on Monday that he has been falsely accused, saying that he only "horsed around" with kids in the shower after workouts. Sandusky denied being sexually attracted to boys, and his lawyer, Joe Amendola, told CNN on Monday night that showering with children does not equate automatically to sexual assault. In the NBC interview, Sandusky denied one of the charges in the grand jury report that assistant coach Mike McQueary had walked in on him raping a boy about 10 years of age.
Sandusky was arrested on November 5, after the release of the grand jury report detailing crimes that he allegedly committed between 1994 and 2009. Sandusky is free on $100,000 bail, against the wishes of prosecutors.
In other developments, representatives of Penn State's campus police and State College police said Wednesday they have no record of having received any report from a Penn State assistant football coach about his having witnessed an alleged rape of a boy by Sandusky.
The alleged locker room rape witnessed by McQueary, who was then a graduate assistant, was detailed in a grand jury report released this month. According to the report, McQueary told Joe Paterno, who was then the team's coach; Paterno then alerted his boss, the school's athletic director.
The scandal revolves around Sandusky, charged by Pennsylvania's attorney general with 40 counts in what authorities allege was the sexual abuse of eight boys, and allegations that Penn State officials failed to inform police when the complaints reached them.
Sunday, November 13, 2011
Mississippi voters reject 'life begins at conception' initiative
AL.COM
JACKSON, Mississippi -- Mississippi voters Tuesday defeated a ballot initiative that would've declared life begins at conception, a proposal that supporters sought in the Bible Belt state as a way to prompt a legal challenge to abortion rights nationwide.
The so-called "personhood" initiative was rejected by more than 55 percent of voters, falling far short of the threshold needed for it to be enacted. If it had passed, it was virtually assured of drawing legal challenges because it conflicts with the Supreme Court's 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that established a legal right to abortion. Supporters of the initiative wanted to provoke a lawsuit to challenge the landmark ruling.
Opponents said the measure would have made birth control, such as the morning-after pill or the intrauterine device, illegal. More specifically, the ballot measure called for abortion to be prohibited "from the moment of fertilization" — wording that opponents suggested would have deterred physicians from performing in vitro fertilization because they would fear criminal charges if an embryo doesn't survive.
Opponents said initiative supporters were trying to impose their religious beliefs on others by forcing women to carry unwanted pregnancies, including those caused by rape or incest.
Amy Brunson voted against the measure, in part because she has been raped. She also has friends and family that had children through in vitro fertilization and she was worried this would end that process.
Hubert Hoover, a cabinet maker and construction worker, voted for the amendment. "I figure you can't be half for something, so if you're against abortion you should be for this. You've either got to be wholly for something or wholly against it," said Hoover, 71, who lives in a Jackson suburb.
Specifically, the proposed state constitutional amendment defined a person "to include every human being from the moment of fertilization, cloning, or the functional equivalent thereof."
Mississippi already requires parental or judicial consent for any minor to get an abortion, mandatory in-person counseling and a 24-hour wait before any woman can terminate a pregnancy.
JACKSON, Mississippi -- Mississippi voters Tuesday defeated a ballot initiative that would've declared life begins at conception, a proposal that supporters sought in the Bible Belt state as a way to prompt a legal challenge to abortion rights nationwide.
The so-called "personhood" initiative was rejected by more than 55 percent of voters, falling far short of the threshold needed for it to be enacted. If it had passed, it was virtually assured of drawing legal challenges because it conflicts with the Supreme Court's 1973 Roe v. Wade decision that established a legal right to abortion. Supporters of the initiative wanted to provoke a lawsuit to challenge the landmark ruling.
Opponents said the measure would have made birth control, such as the morning-after pill or the intrauterine device, illegal. More specifically, the ballot measure called for abortion to be prohibited "from the moment of fertilization" — wording that opponents suggested would have deterred physicians from performing in vitro fertilization because they would fear criminal charges if an embryo doesn't survive.
Opponents said initiative supporters were trying to impose their religious beliefs on others by forcing women to carry unwanted pregnancies, including those caused by rape or incest.
Amy Brunson voted against the measure, in part because she has been raped. She also has friends and family that had children through in vitro fertilization and she was worried this would end that process.
Hubert Hoover, a cabinet maker and construction worker, voted for the amendment. "I figure you can't be half for something, so if you're against abortion you should be for this. You've either got to be wholly for something or wholly against it," said Hoover, 71, who lives in a Jackson suburb.
Specifically, the proposed state constitutional amendment defined a person "to include every human being from the moment of fertilization, cloning, or the functional equivalent thereof."
Mississippi already requires parental or judicial consent for any minor to get an abortion, mandatory in-person counseling and a 24-hour wait before any woman can terminate a pregnancy.
Wednesday, November 9, 2011
Preaching Virtue of Spanking, Even as Deaths Fuel Debate
PLEASANTVILLE, Tenn. — After services at the Church at Cane Creek on a recent Sunday, a few dozen families held a potluck picnic and giggling children played pin the tail on the donkey. The white-bearded preacher, Michael Pearl, who delivered his sermon in stained work pants, and his wife, Debi, mixed warmly with the families drawn to their evangelical ministry, including some of their own grandchildren.
The pastoral mood in the hills of Tennessee offered a stark contrast to the storm raging around the country over the Pearls’ teachings on child discipline, which advocate systematic use of “the rod” to teach toddlers to submit to authority. The methods, seen as common sense by some grateful parents and as horrific by others, are modeled, Mr. Pearl is fond of saying, on “the same principles the Amish use to train their stubborn mules.”
Debate over the Pearls’ teachings, first seen on Christian Web sites, gained new intensity after the death of a third child, all allegedly at the hands of parents who kept the Pearls’ book, “To Train Up a Child,” in their homes. On Sept. 29, the parents were charged with homicide by abuse.
More than 670,000 copies of the Pearls’ self-published book are in circulation, and it is especially popular among Christian home-schoolers, who praise it in their magazines and on their Web sites. The Pearls provide instructions on using a switch from as early as six months to discourage misbehavior and describe how to make use of implements for hitting on the arms, legs or back, including a quarter-inch flexible plumbing line that, Mr. Pearl notes, “can be rolled up and carried in your pocket.”
The furor in part reflects societal disagreements over corporal punishment, which conservative Christians say is called for in the Bible and which many Americans consider reasonable up to a point, even as many parents and pediatricians reject it. The issue flared recently when a video was posted online of a Texas judge whipping his daughter.
Mr. Pearl, 66, and Mrs. Pearl, 60, say that blaming their book for extreme abuse by a few unstable parents is preposterous and that they explicitly counsel against acting in anger or causing a bruise. They say that their methods, properly used, yield peace and happy teenagers.
In the latest case, Larry and Carri Williams of Sedro-Woolley, Wash., were home-schooling their six children when they adopted a girl and a boy, ages 11 and 7, from Ethiopia in 2008. The two were seen by their new parents as rebellious, according to friends.
Late one night in May this year, the adopted girl, Hana, was found face down, naked and emaciated in the backyard; her death was caused by hypothermia and malnutrition, officials determined. According to the sheriff’s report, the parents had deprived her of food for days at a time and had made her sleep in a cold barn or a closet and shower outside with a hose. And they often whipped her, leaving marks on her legs. The mother had praised the Pearls’ book and given a copy to a friend, the sheriff’s report said. Hana had been beaten the day of her death, the report said, with the 15-inch plastic tube recommended by Mr. Pearl.
Some of the Williamses’ other tactics also seemed to involve Pearl advice taken to extremes; the Pearls say that “a little fasting is good training,” for example, and suggest hosing off a child who has potty-training lapses. The Williamses have pleaded not guilty and are awaiting trial.
The Skagit County prosecutor said that he was not charging the Pearls and that the case for homicide did not depend on the Williamses’ readings or religion.
But Dr. Frances Chalmers, a pediatrician who examined Hana’s death for the Washington State Department of Social and Health Services, said of the Pearl methods: “My fear is that this book, while perhaps well intended, could easily be misinterpreted and could lead to what I consider significant abuse.”
Some conservative Christian parents reject the Pearls’ teachings and have started a petition drive asking sellers like Amazon not to stock their books. Crystal Lutton, who runs Grace-Based Discipline, one of several Christian blogs that oppose corporal punishment, said the danger with the Pearls’ methods is that “if you don’t get results, the only thing to do is to punish harder and harder.”
Parents at Mr. Pearl’s church said they largely followed the couple’s approach and were puzzled by the controversy. The Pearls’ children, too, say the attacks on their parents are misguided. “I had a wonderful childhood,” said their daughter Shoshanna Easling, 28, who is training her two children the same way. “My parents never spoke to me in anger, and I can only remember being spanked a couple of times.”
Mr. Pearl said that Shoshanna was spanked probably 50 times as a toddler but that it soon became unnecessary.
The pastoral mood in the hills of Tennessee offered a stark contrast to the storm raging around the country over the Pearls’ teachings on child discipline, which advocate systematic use of “the rod” to teach toddlers to submit to authority. The methods, seen as common sense by some grateful parents and as horrific by others, are modeled, Mr. Pearl is fond of saying, on “the same principles the Amish use to train their stubborn mules.”
Debate over the Pearls’ teachings, first seen on Christian Web sites, gained new intensity after the death of a third child, all allegedly at the hands of parents who kept the Pearls’ book, “To Train Up a Child,” in their homes. On Sept. 29, the parents were charged with homicide by abuse.
More than 670,000 copies of the Pearls’ self-published book are in circulation, and it is especially popular among Christian home-schoolers, who praise it in their magazines and on their Web sites. The Pearls provide instructions on using a switch from as early as six months to discourage misbehavior and describe how to make use of implements for hitting on the arms, legs or back, including a quarter-inch flexible plumbing line that, Mr. Pearl notes, “can be rolled up and carried in your pocket.”
The furor in part reflects societal disagreements over corporal punishment, which conservative Christians say is called for in the Bible and which many Americans consider reasonable up to a point, even as many parents and pediatricians reject it. The issue flared recently when a video was posted online of a Texas judge whipping his daughter.
Mr. Pearl, 66, and Mrs. Pearl, 60, say that blaming their book for extreme abuse by a few unstable parents is preposterous and that they explicitly counsel against acting in anger or causing a bruise. They say that their methods, properly used, yield peace and happy teenagers.
In the latest case, Larry and Carri Williams of Sedro-Woolley, Wash., were home-schooling their six children when they adopted a girl and a boy, ages 11 and 7, from Ethiopia in 2008. The two were seen by their new parents as rebellious, according to friends.
Late one night in May this year, the adopted girl, Hana, was found face down, naked and emaciated in the backyard; her death was caused by hypothermia and malnutrition, officials determined. According to the sheriff’s report, the parents had deprived her of food for days at a time and had made her sleep in a cold barn or a closet and shower outside with a hose. And they often whipped her, leaving marks on her legs. The mother had praised the Pearls’ book and given a copy to a friend, the sheriff’s report said. Hana had been beaten the day of her death, the report said, with the 15-inch plastic tube recommended by Mr. Pearl.
Some of the Williamses’ other tactics also seemed to involve Pearl advice taken to extremes; the Pearls say that “a little fasting is good training,” for example, and suggest hosing off a child who has potty-training lapses. The Williamses have pleaded not guilty and are awaiting trial.
The Skagit County prosecutor said that he was not charging the Pearls and that the case for homicide did not depend on the Williamses’ readings or religion.
But Dr. Frances Chalmers, a pediatrician who examined Hana’s death for the Washington State Department of Social and Health Services, said of the Pearl methods: “My fear is that this book, while perhaps well intended, could easily be misinterpreted and could lead to what I consider significant abuse.”
Some conservative Christian parents reject the Pearls’ teachings and have started a petition drive asking sellers like Amazon not to stock their books. Crystal Lutton, who runs Grace-Based Discipline, one of several Christian blogs that oppose corporal punishment, said the danger with the Pearls’ methods is that “if you don’t get results, the only thing to do is to punish harder and harder.”
Parents at Mr. Pearl’s church said they largely followed the couple’s approach and were puzzled by the controversy. The Pearls’ children, too, say the attacks on their parents are misguided. “I had a wonderful childhood,” said their daughter Shoshanna Easling, 28, who is training her two children the same way. “My parents never spoke to me in anger, and I can only remember being spanked a couple of times.”
Mr. Pearl said that Shoshanna was spanked probably 50 times as a toddler but that it soon became unnecessary.
Sunday, November 6, 2011
Tribe sues NCAA to let UND use name
UPI.COM
GRAND FORKS, N.D., Nov. 1 (UPI) -- The Spirit Lake tribe Tuesday sued the NCAA for blocking its attempt to let the University of North Dakota use the sports nickname Fighting Sioux.
Tribal attorney Reed Soderstrom said the lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court challenges the NCAA's policy banning the use of Native American names and imagery by collegiate athletic teams.
He said the suit against the National Collegiate Athletic Association was brought on behalf of more than 1,004 members of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe "in direct response to their attempt to take away and prevent the North Dakota Sioux Indians from giving their name forever to the University of North Dakota" despite a tribal vote in 2009 and a "sacred and religious spiritual ceremony" by tribal leaders in 1969 that granted "perpetual use" of the name to the school.
"However, the NCAA has unilaterally decided that the name 'Fighting Sioux' is derogatory to the very people who feel honored by the name -- the North Dakota Sioux tribes," Soderstrom said in a statement posted on the tribe's Web site. "The NCAA has declared, without input from the Dakota Sioux, that UND will be prevented from hosting any post-season sporting events; and is encouraging other universities to boycott UND if the university does not remove the name 'Fighting Sioux' and the accompanying logo honoring the traditions and customs of the proud Dakota Sioux people. These actions are a violation of the religious and first amendment rights of the Dakota Sioux tribes, and show the NCAA believes it knows the interests of the North Dakota Sioux community better than Sioux people themselves."
Soderstrom noted while the NCAA considers "Fighting Sioux" derogatory, it allows the University of Illinois to use "Fighting Illini" and Florida State University to use the name "Seminoles" with an Indian mascot.
"Inexplicably, the NCAA fails to accept the tribal vote and the sacred religious ceremony as endorsements of the name 'Fighting Sioux' by the North Dakota Sioux Nation," he said. "The NCAA's actions violate Native American civil rights, equal protection rights, and religious rights."
GRAND FORKS, N.D., Nov. 1 (UPI) -- The Spirit Lake tribe Tuesday sued the NCAA for blocking its attempt to let the University of North Dakota use the sports nickname Fighting Sioux.
Tribal attorney Reed Soderstrom said the lawsuit filed in U.S. District Court challenges the NCAA's policy banning the use of Native American names and imagery by collegiate athletic teams.
He said the suit against the National Collegiate Athletic Association was brought on behalf of more than 1,004 members of the Standing Rock Sioux Tribe "in direct response to their attempt to take away and prevent the North Dakota Sioux Indians from giving their name forever to the University of North Dakota" despite a tribal vote in 2009 and a "sacred and religious spiritual ceremony" by tribal leaders in 1969 that granted "perpetual use" of the name to the school.
"However, the NCAA has unilaterally decided that the name 'Fighting Sioux' is derogatory to the very people who feel honored by the name -- the North Dakota Sioux tribes," Soderstrom said in a statement posted on the tribe's Web site. "The NCAA has declared, without input from the Dakota Sioux, that UND will be prevented from hosting any post-season sporting events; and is encouraging other universities to boycott UND if the university does not remove the name 'Fighting Sioux' and the accompanying logo honoring the traditions and customs of the proud Dakota Sioux people. These actions are a violation of the religious and first amendment rights of the Dakota Sioux tribes, and show the NCAA believes it knows the interests of the North Dakota Sioux community better than Sioux people themselves."
Soderstrom noted while the NCAA considers "Fighting Sioux" derogatory, it allows the University of Illinois to use "Fighting Illini" and Florida State University to use the name "Seminoles" with an Indian mascot.
"Inexplicably, the NCAA fails to accept the tribal vote and the sacred religious ceremony as endorsements of the name 'Fighting Sioux' by the North Dakota Sioux Nation," he said. "The NCAA's actions violate Native American civil rights, equal protection rights, and religious rights."
Sunday, October 30, 2011
Should a cop killer ever be set free?
STAR/TRIBUNE
A cop lay dying at the hands of Tim Eling. The former Marine had botched yet another pharmacy robbery, escaping after a gunfight with police officer Richard Walton. Now, bleeding from a gunshot to the leg, Eling lay holed up at a relative's house in St. Paul, drifting in and out from a heavy dose of painkillers.
His brother-in-law walked in and dropped the morning newspaper. "The guy's dead,'' he said in disgust. He left Eling to read about the trail of grief he had blazed at Mounds Park Hospital in St. Paul the night before.
Today, 29 years later, Eling still walks the corridors at the Stillwater prison. A former drug addict and a first-degree murderer, he learned last week that his life sentence has been brought to an end with an extraordinary parole decision by state Corrections Commissioner Tom Roy. Corrections officials say they cannot recall the last time a first-degree murderer of a police officer was granted a parole.
Roy's decision has triggered an emotional debate over justice and forgiveness that has quickly spread to the State Capitol. On Friday, the Legislature's top Republicans, Sen. Amy Koch and Rep. Kurt Zellers, sent a letter to Gov. Mark Dayton protesting the parole and calling for legislative hearings.
The state's largest organization of police officers not only opposes parole for Eling, it says that cop killers deserve capital punishment. "I don't think anyone who kills an officer should ever get out alive,'' said Dennis Flaherty, executive director of the Minnesota Police and Peace Officers Association. "Where do you draw the line, what kind of world would you be creating?''
Roy and his deputies understand the reaction, but say they believe their decision speaks to the ability of some violent criminals to transform themselves. They say Eling's conduct over the past 15 years suggests he will lead a life of service on the outside. They also note that, across several previous Corrections administrations, he had to repeatedly prove he was making changes in his life.
Eling, now 62, says he knows the gravity of the decision. Despite the parole, he must still complete four more years of a companion 1996 sentence for smuggling drugs while in prison. At the same time he'll try to outlast a cancer that doctors discovered several years ago.
In the course of a two-hour interview last week, Eling said he understands the disgust felt by police. "I'd probably feel the same way," he said. "The record speaks for itself. I have not been a good person in this life."
MaryAnn Walton, 74, the officer's former wife, said last week that she accepts the judgment of state parole officials. But she added: "I believe in transformations of heart and that people can be forgiven by God. What bothers me is I know how hard this will be on police officers. What kind of example is it going to be to have a cop killer turned loose?''
Several days before his September parole hearing, he said, Commissioner Roy spoke with him privately for an hour.
Life in prison didn't mean staying clean. Eling found himself part of a smuggling operation involving cocaine and marijuana. His urine screens kept coming back dirty and by the mid-1990s authorities went to his daughter's home to search for a possible connection. The warden at Oak Park Heights told him during a parole review: If you're trying to make sure you never get out, you're doing a good job of it, Eling recalled.
"The warden said, 'You need to find a reason to get up in the morning. Why don't you go back to school?' Out of nowhere this thought came to my head, 'You know, I'm done with it' and I've never been high since then."
Eling became a founding member of Stillwater's Restorative Justice Program, which brings crime victims in to speak to offenders about the pain they've caused. He took up painting, and today teaches a daily art class to 22 offenders. During Mass in the prison chapel, he gives the first reading.
"You have to ask yourself, 'How do I make amends for this?' '' Eling said. "If you stole something from somebody you can pay them back. If you broke something, it can be fixed. But how do you make amends for taking somebody's life?"
If he beats the cancer long enough to get out, Eling said he hopes to travel to Grand Marais and live along the North Shore, performing volunteer work and painting.
Yet he has a recurring dream in which he is stopped for a driving violation. The officer runs a license check that comes back with the murder conviction that pops up on the computer screen.
"Some things you just don't get past,'' he said. "If you go by just the record, holy mackerel, look at this guy here. He doesn't deserve anything. It doesn't show anything else.''
A cop lay dying at the hands of Tim Eling. The former Marine had botched yet another pharmacy robbery, escaping after a gunfight with police officer Richard Walton. Now, bleeding from a gunshot to the leg, Eling lay holed up at a relative's house in St. Paul, drifting in and out from a heavy dose of painkillers.
His brother-in-law walked in and dropped the morning newspaper. "The guy's dead,'' he said in disgust. He left Eling to read about the trail of grief he had blazed at Mounds Park Hospital in St. Paul the night before.
Today, 29 years later, Eling still walks the corridors at the Stillwater prison. A former drug addict and a first-degree murderer, he learned last week that his life sentence has been brought to an end with an extraordinary parole decision by state Corrections Commissioner Tom Roy. Corrections officials say they cannot recall the last time a first-degree murderer of a police officer was granted a parole.
Roy's decision has triggered an emotional debate over justice and forgiveness that has quickly spread to the State Capitol. On Friday, the Legislature's top Republicans, Sen. Amy Koch and Rep. Kurt Zellers, sent a letter to Gov. Mark Dayton protesting the parole and calling for legislative hearings.
The state's largest organization of police officers not only opposes parole for Eling, it says that cop killers deserve capital punishment. "I don't think anyone who kills an officer should ever get out alive,'' said Dennis Flaherty, executive director of the Minnesota Police and Peace Officers Association. "Where do you draw the line, what kind of world would you be creating?''
Roy and his deputies understand the reaction, but say they believe their decision speaks to the ability of some violent criminals to transform themselves. They say Eling's conduct over the past 15 years suggests he will lead a life of service on the outside. They also note that, across several previous Corrections administrations, he had to repeatedly prove he was making changes in his life.
Eling, now 62, says he knows the gravity of the decision. Despite the parole, he must still complete four more years of a companion 1996 sentence for smuggling drugs while in prison. At the same time he'll try to outlast a cancer that doctors discovered several years ago.
In the course of a two-hour interview last week, Eling said he understands the disgust felt by police. "I'd probably feel the same way," he said. "The record speaks for itself. I have not been a good person in this life."
MaryAnn Walton, 74, the officer's former wife, said last week that she accepts the judgment of state parole officials. But she added: "I believe in transformations of heart and that people can be forgiven by God. What bothers me is I know how hard this will be on police officers. What kind of example is it going to be to have a cop killer turned loose?''
Several days before his September parole hearing, he said, Commissioner Roy spoke with him privately for an hour.
Life in prison didn't mean staying clean. Eling found himself part of a smuggling operation involving cocaine and marijuana. His urine screens kept coming back dirty and by the mid-1990s authorities went to his daughter's home to search for a possible connection. The warden at Oak Park Heights told him during a parole review: If you're trying to make sure you never get out, you're doing a good job of it, Eling recalled.
"The warden said, 'You need to find a reason to get up in the morning. Why don't you go back to school?' Out of nowhere this thought came to my head, 'You know, I'm done with it' and I've never been high since then."
Eling became a founding member of Stillwater's Restorative Justice Program, which brings crime victims in to speak to offenders about the pain they've caused. He took up painting, and today teaches a daily art class to 22 offenders. During Mass in the prison chapel, he gives the first reading.
"You have to ask yourself, 'How do I make amends for this?' '' Eling said. "If you stole something from somebody you can pay them back. If you broke something, it can be fixed. But how do you make amends for taking somebody's life?"
If he beats the cancer long enough to get out, Eling said he hopes to travel to Grand Marais and live along the North Shore, performing volunteer work and painting.
Yet he has a recurring dream in which he is stopped for a driving violation. The officer runs a license check that comes back with the murder conviction that pops up on the computer screen.
"Some things you just don't get past,'' he said. "If you go by just the record, holy mackerel, look at this guy here. He doesn't deserve anything. It doesn't show anything else.''
Thursday, October 27, 2011
Amy Winehouse drank herself to death
STAR/TRIBUNE
LONDON - Amy Winehouse drank herself to death. That was the ruling of a coroner's inquest into the death of the Grammy-winning soul singer, who died with empty vodka bottles in her room and lethal amounts of alcohol in her blood — more than five times the British drunk driving limit.
Coroner Suzanne Greenaway gave a verdict of "death by misadventure," saying Wednesday the singer suffered accidental alcohol poisoning when she resumed drinking after weeks of abstinence.
"The unintended consequence of such potentially fatal levels (of alcohol) was her sudden and unexpected death," Greenaway said.
The 27-year-old Winehouse had fought a very public battle with drug and alcohol abuse for years, and there had been much speculation that she died from a drug overdose. But a pathologist said the small amount of a drug prescribed to help her cope with the symptoms of alcohol withdrawal had nothing to do with her death.
Instead, a resumption of heavy drinking killed the singer, best-known for her tall beehive hairdos and Grammy-winning album "Back to Black." A security guard found Winehouse dead in bed at her London home on July 23.
"She's made tremendous efforts over the years," said Dr. Christina Romete, who had treated Winehouse. But "she had her own way and was very determined to do everything her way."
Winehouse gave up illicit drugs in 2008, but had swerved between heavy alcohol use and abstinence for a long time, Romete said. The singer had resumed drinking in the days before her death after staying away from alcohol for most of July, she said.
Romete said she warned Winehouse of the dangers of alcoholism. "The advice I had given to Amy over a long period of time was verbal and in written form about all the effects alcohol can have on the system, including respiratory depression and death, heart problems, fertility problems and liver problems," she said.
Winehouse joins a long list of celebrities who died after fighting alcohol problems, including jazz great Billie Holiday, AC/DC lead singer Bon Scott, film legend Richard Burton, writers Dylan Thomas and Jack Kerouac, and country music pioneer Hank Williams.
Police Detective Inspector Les Newman said three empty vodka bottles — two large and one small — were found in her bedroom.
Pathologist Suhail Baithun said blood and urine samples indicated Winehouse had consumed a "very large quantity of alcohol" prior to her death. The level of alcohol in her blood was 416 milligrams per 100 milliliters, he said — a blood alcohol level of 0.4 percent. The British and U.S. legal drunk-driving limit is 0.08 percent.
LONDON - Amy Winehouse drank herself to death. That was the ruling of a coroner's inquest into the death of the Grammy-winning soul singer, who died with empty vodka bottles in her room and lethal amounts of alcohol in her blood — more than five times the British drunk driving limit.
Coroner Suzanne Greenaway gave a verdict of "death by misadventure," saying Wednesday the singer suffered accidental alcohol poisoning when she resumed drinking after weeks of abstinence.
"The unintended consequence of such potentially fatal levels (of alcohol) was her sudden and unexpected death," Greenaway said.
The 27-year-old Winehouse had fought a very public battle with drug and alcohol abuse for years, and there had been much speculation that she died from a drug overdose. But a pathologist said the small amount of a drug prescribed to help her cope with the symptoms of alcohol withdrawal had nothing to do with her death.
Instead, a resumption of heavy drinking killed the singer, best-known for her tall beehive hairdos and Grammy-winning album "Back to Black." A security guard found Winehouse dead in bed at her London home on July 23.
"She's made tremendous efforts over the years," said Dr. Christina Romete, who had treated Winehouse. But "she had her own way and was very determined to do everything her way."
Winehouse gave up illicit drugs in 2008, but had swerved between heavy alcohol use and abstinence for a long time, Romete said. The singer had resumed drinking in the days before her death after staying away from alcohol for most of July, she said.
Romete said she warned Winehouse of the dangers of alcoholism. "The advice I had given to Amy over a long period of time was verbal and in written form about all the effects alcohol can have on the system, including respiratory depression and death, heart problems, fertility problems and liver problems," she said.
Winehouse joins a long list of celebrities who died after fighting alcohol problems, including jazz great Billie Holiday, AC/DC lead singer Bon Scott, film legend Richard Burton, writers Dylan Thomas and Jack Kerouac, and country music pioneer Hank Williams.
Police Detective Inspector Les Newman said three empty vodka bottles — two large and one small — were found in her bedroom.
Pathologist Suhail Baithun said blood and urine samples indicated Winehouse had consumed a "very large quantity of alcohol" prior to her death. The level of alcohol in her blood was 416 milligrams per 100 milliliters, he said — a blood alcohol level of 0.4 percent. The British and U.S. legal drunk-driving limit is 0.08 percent.
Wednesday, October 26, 2011
Student survey links teen soda consumption with violence
STAR/TRIBUNE
High school students who drink a lot of soda pop are also more likely to be violent, according to a study of surveys completed in 2008 by more than 1,800 Boston high school students. The study, released late Monday in the British medical journal Injury Prevention, does not suggest a cause and effect -- only an association between soda consumption and violence.
It is possible – even likely, researchers say – that other social or biological factors make teens who are prone to violence also prone to drinking a lot of soda. Maybe poor parenting or low-blood sugar are the catalysts that make students pursue both bad habits.
Even without proving cause and effect, the study makes a meaningful contribution because there has been little focus on this connection between soda consumption and violence before. The surveys asked students how much soda they had consumed in the prior week, and whether they had carried a weapon or been violent to classmates, boy/girlfriends or relatives in the past year. Perhaps soda consumption is simply a red flag that schools and parents can monitor for a higher likelihood of violent behavior. “If we want to understand youth violence and we want to reduce it, then we want to look at everything that can impact it,” said Sara Solnick, the chairwoman of the University of Vermont’s economic department who co-authored the Boston student study. “This was something that was not on the radar. Maybe we need to start paying attention.”
Students who drank a lot of soda also drank more alcohol and smoked. Those are behaviors that are strongly correlated with youth violence. However, even when the latest study factored out tobacco and alcohol use, there still was a strong relationship between heavy soda consumption and a higher rate of self-reported violence.
Researchers at the University of Minnesota (not involved with the study) urged great caution in interpreting the results, and certainly discouraged anyone from believing soda causes aggression at this point. The U's Simone French noted it can't simply be the sugar in soda that agitates teens and makes them more violent. "Using this logic, Halloween, a socially supported sugar-overdose, should cause an increase in violent behaviors among adolescents across the country," she said.
High school students who drink a lot of soda pop are also more likely to be violent, according to a study of surveys completed in 2008 by more than 1,800 Boston high school students. The study, released late Monday in the British medical journal Injury Prevention, does not suggest a cause and effect -- only an association between soda consumption and violence.
It is possible – even likely, researchers say – that other social or biological factors make teens who are prone to violence also prone to drinking a lot of soda. Maybe poor parenting or low-blood sugar are the catalysts that make students pursue both bad habits.
Even without proving cause and effect, the study makes a meaningful contribution because there has been little focus on this connection between soda consumption and violence before. The surveys asked students how much soda they had consumed in the prior week, and whether they had carried a weapon or been violent to classmates, boy/girlfriends or relatives in the past year. Perhaps soda consumption is simply a red flag that schools and parents can monitor for a higher likelihood of violent behavior. “If we want to understand youth violence and we want to reduce it, then we want to look at everything that can impact it,” said Sara Solnick, the chairwoman of the University of Vermont’s economic department who co-authored the Boston student study. “This was something that was not on the radar. Maybe we need to start paying attention.”
Students who drank a lot of soda also drank more alcohol and smoked. Those are behaviors that are strongly correlated with youth violence. However, even when the latest study factored out tobacco and alcohol use, there still was a strong relationship between heavy soda consumption and a higher rate of self-reported violence.
Researchers at the University of Minnesota (not involved with the study) urged great caution in interpreting the results, and certainly discouraged anyone from believing soda causes aggression at this point. The U's Simone French noted it can't simply be the sugar in soda that agitates teens and makes them more violent. "Using this logic, Halloween, a socially supported sugar-overdose, should cause an increase in violent behaviors among adolescents across the country," she said.
Saturday, October 22, 2011
Moammar Gadhafi's bloody end seals rebel triumph in Libya
STAR TRIBUNE
Article by: CHRISTOPHER GILLETTE and KIM GAMEL , Associated Press
SIRTE, LIBYA - Dragged from hiding in a drainage pipe, a wounded Moammar Gadhafi raised his hands and begged revolutionary fighters: "Don't kill me, my sons." Within an hour, he was dead, but not before jubilant Libyans had vented decades of hatred by pulling the dictator's hair and parading his bloodied body on the hood of a truck.
The death Thursday of Gadhafi, two months after he was driven from power and into hiding, decisively buries the nearly 42-year regime that had turned the oil-rich country into an international pariah and his own personal fiefdom. It also thrusts Libya into a new age in which its transitional leaders must overcome deep divisions and rebuild nearly all its institutions from scratch to achieve dreams of democracy.
"We have been waiting for this historic moment for a long time. Moammar Gadhafi has been killed," Prime Minister Mahmoud Jibril said in the capital of Tripoli. "I would like to call on Libyans to put aside the grudges and only say one word, which is Libya, Libya, Libya."
President Obama told the Libyan people: "You have won your revolution."
Bloody images of Gadhafi's last moments in his hometown of Sirte -- where revolutionary fighters overwhelmed the last of his supporters after weeks of heavy battles -- raised questions over how he died after he was captured wounded, but alive.
The official version of events -- that Gadhafi was killed in cross-fire -- was not supported by the photographs and videos. Forensics experts said the wounds appeared to have been caused by handgun fire at close range and not higher-velocity assault-rifle fire from a distance, raising the possibility that he was executed at the hands of anti-Gadhafi fighters. The conflicting accounts seemed to reflect an instability that could consume Libya after the euphoria fades about Gadhafi's death.
A senior Western official said there had been strong suspicions for days that Gadhafi and his sons were hiding in the northwest quadrant of the city, but that they might attempt to flee at any time. He said U.S.-supplied surveillance drones alerted NATO to an 80-vehicle convoy leaving that area at dawn, and that French jets blasted two of the convoy's armed vehicles. That's when Gadhafi and a handful of his men appeared to run from their convoy and take shelter in two drainage pipes, fighters on the ground said.
Jibril said Gadhafi was armed with a pistol and was wearing pants and a long-underwear shirt, a far cry from his famously flamboyant outfits. He did not resist arrest.
As he was being walked to a truck, he was shot in the right arm in an exchange of gunfire between his supporters and revolutionaries, Jibril said. The truck then got caught in crossfire as it headed toward a hospital, and Gadhafi was shot in the head, Jibril said. "That was the deadly shot," he said.
But in another version, told to Al Arabiya, Gadhafi was shot moments after his capture by an 18-year-old fighter who was hailed as a hero by his comrades.
Cellphone videos showed a crowd of fighters shoving and pulling Gadhafi, who had blood splattered on his face and soaking his shirt.
"We got you!" revolutionaries yelled as they crowded around him. Gadhafi struggled against them, stumbling and shouting "What do you want from me?" One fighter held him down, pressing shoes against his thigh in a show of contempt. Fighters propped him on the hood as they drove for several moments, apparently to parade him around.
Later footage showed fighters rolling Gadhafi's lifeless body over on the pavement, stripped to the waist and a pool of blood under his head. His body was then paraded on a car through Misrata, which suffered a brutal siege by regime forces during the eight-month civil war that eventually ousted Gadhafi. Crowds cheered, "The blood of martyrs will not go in vain."
Across Tripoli well past midnight, people packed into Martyrs' Square, shouting "God is great." In Sirte, the ecstatic former rebels celebrated the city's fall after weeks of fighting by firing endless rounds into the sky, pumping their guns, knives and even a meat cleaver in the air and singing the natinal anthem.
The outpouring of joy reflected the deep hatred of a leader who had brutally warped Libya with his idiosyncratic rule. After seizing power in a 1969 coup that toppled the monarchy, Gadhafi created a system of "rule by the masses," which supposedly meant every citizen participated in government but really meant all power was in his hands. He wielded it erratically, imposing random rules while crushing opponents, often hanging anyone who plotted against him in public squares.
Abroad, Gadhafi posed as a Third World leader, while funding terror groups. His regime was blamed in the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, and the downing of a French passenger jet in Africa in 1989, as well as the 1986 bombing of a German discotheque frequented by U.S. servicemen that killed three people.
Thursday's final blows to the Gadhafi regime allow Libya's interim leadership, the National Transitional Council, to declare the country liberated -- something it will announce on Saturday. That begins a key timetable toward creating a new system: The council has always said it will form a new interim government within a month of liberation and will hold elections within eight months. But underscoring the challenge ahead in building a new Libya, revolutionary forces already have exchanged accusations that each is trying to dominate the new rule.
The Washington Post, McClatchy and New York Times contributed to this report
Article by: CHRISTOPHER GILLETTE and KIM GAMEL , Associated Press
SIRTE, LIBYA - Dragged from hiding in a drainage pipe, a wounded Moammar Gadhafi raised his hands and begged revolutionary fighters: "Don't kill me, my sons." Within an hour, he was dead, but not before jubilant Libyans had vented decades of hatred by pulling the dictator's hair and parading his bloodied body on the hood of a truck.
The death Thursday of Gadhafi, two months after he was driven from power and into hiding, decisively buries the nearly 42-year regime that had turned the oil-rich country into an international pariah and his own personal fiefdom. It also thrusts Libya into a new age in which its transitional leaders must overcome deep divisions and rebuild nearly all its institutions from scratch to achieve dreams of democracy.
"We have been waiting for this historic moment for a long time. Moammar Gadhafi has been killed," Prime Minister Mahmoud Jibril said in the capital of Tripoli. "I would like to call on Libyans to put aside the grudges and only say one word, which is Libya, Libya, Libya."
President Obama told the Libyan people: "You have won your revolution."
Bloody images of Gadhafi's last moments in his hometown of Sirte -- where revolutionary fighters overwhelmed the last of his supporters after weeks of heavy battles -- raised questions over how he died after he was captured wounded, but alive.
The official version of events -- that Gadhafi was killed in cross-fire -- was not supported by the photographs and videos. Forensics experts said the wounds appeared to have been caused by handgun fire at close range and not higher-velocity assault-rifle fire from a distance, raising the possibility that he was executed at the hands of anti-Gadhafi fighters. The conflicting accounts seemed to reflect an instability that could consume Libya after the euphoria fades about Gadhafi's death.
A senior Western official said there had been strong suspicions for days that Gadhafi and his sons were hiding in the northwest quadrant of the city, but that they might attempt to flee at any time. He said U.S.-supplied surveillance drones alerted NATO to an 80-vehicle convoy leaving that area at dawn, and that French jets blasted two of the convoy's armed vehicles. That's when Gadhafi and a handful of his men appeared to run from their convoy and take shelter in two drainage pipes, fighters on the ground said.
Jibril said Gadhafi was armed with a pistol and was wearing pants and a long-underwear shirt, a far cry from his famously flamboyant outfits. He did not resist arrest.
As he was being walked to a truck, he was shot in the right arm in an exchange of gunfire between his supporters and revolutionaries, Jibril said. The truck then got caught in crossfire as it headed toward a hospital, and Gadhafi was shot in the head, Jibril said. "That was the deadly shot," he said.
But in another version, told to Al Arabiya, Gadhafi was shot moments after his capture by an 18-year-old fighter who was hailed as a hero by his comrades.
Cellphone videos showed a crowd of fighters shoving and pulling Gadhafi, who had blood splattered on his face and soaking his shirt.
"We got you!" revolutionaries yelled as they crowded around him. Gadhafi struggled against them, stumbling and shouting "What do you want from me?" One fighter held him down, pressing shoes against his thigh in a show of contempt. Fighters propped him on the hood as they drove for several moments, apparently to parade him around.
Later footage showed fighters rolling Gadhafi's lifeless body over on the pavement, stripped to the waist and a pool of blood under his head. His body was then paraded on a car through Misrata, which suffered a brutal siege by regime forces during the eight-month civil war that eventually ousted Gadhafi. Crowds cheered, "The blood of martyrs will not go in vain."
Across Tripoli well past midnight, people packed into Martyrs' Square, shouting "God is great." In Sirte, the ecstatic former rebels celebrated the city's fall after weeks of fighting by firing endless rounds into the sky, pumping their guns, knives and even a meat cleaver in the air and singing the natinal anthem.
The outpouring of joy reflected the deep hatred of a leader who had brutally warped Libya with his idiosyncratic rule. After seizing power in a 1969 coup that toppled the monarchy, Gadhafi created a system of "rule by the masses," which supposedly meant every citizen participated in government but really meant all power was in his hands. He wielded it erratically, imposing random rules while crushing opponents, often hanging anyone who plotted against him in public squares.
Abroad, Gadhafi posed as a Third World leader, while funding terror groups. His regime was blamed in the 1988 bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland, and the downing of a French passenger jet in Africa in 1989, as well as the 1986 bombing of a German discotheque frequented by U.S. servicemen that killed three people.
Thursday's final blows to the Gadhafi regime allow Libya's interim leadership, the National Transitional Council, to declare the country liberated -- something it will announce on Saturday. That begins a key timetable toward creating a new system: The council has always said it will form a new interim government within a month of liberation and will hold elections within eight months. But underscoring the challenge ahead in building a new Libya, revolutionary forces already have exchanged accusations that each is trying to dominate the new rule.
The Washington Post, McClatchy and New York Times contributed to this report
Sunday, October 16, 2011
Occupy Wall Street movement goes global
New York, NY -- After triumphing in a standoff with the city over the continued protest of Wall Street at Liberty Square in Manhattan's financial district, the Occupy Wall Street movement has spread world wide today with demonstrations in over 1,500 cities globally and over 100 US cities from coast to coast. In New York, thousands marched in various protests by trade unions, students, environmentalists, and community groups. As occupiers flocked to Washington Square Park, two dozen participants were arrested at a nearby Citibank while attempting to withdraw their accounts from the global banking giant.
Occupy Wall Street began on September 17, 2011 in Liberty Square in Manhattan’s Financial District, and has spread to over 100 cities in the United States and actions in over 1,500 cities globally. Protesters say they are fighting back against the corrosive power of major banks and multinational corporations over the democratic process, and the role of Wall Street in creating an economic collapse that has caused the greatest recession in generations.They say they aim to expose how the richest 1% of people who are writing the rules of the global economy are imposing an agenda of neoliberalism and economic inequality that is foreclosing our future.
While the spotlight is on New York, "occupy" actions are also happening all across the Midwestern and the Southern United States, from Ashland, Kentucky to Dallas, Texas to Ketchum, Idaho. Four hundred Iowans marched in Des Moines, Iowa Saturday as part of the day of action:
Protests filled streets of financial districts from Berlin, to Athens, Auckland to Mumbai, Tokyo to Seoul. In the UK over 3,000 people attempted to occupy the London Stock Exchange. "The financial system benefits a handful of banks at the expense of everyday people," said Spyro Van Leemnen, a 27-year old public relations agent in London and a core member of the demonstrators. "The same people who are responsible for the recession are getting away with massive bonuses. This is fundamentally unfair and undemocratic."
There were also demonstrations in South Africa, Canada, and Australia.
The movement's success is due in part to the use of online technologies and international social networking. The rapid spread of the protests is a grassroots response to the overwhelming inequalities perpetuated by the global financial system and transnational banks. More actions are expected in the coming weeks, and the Occupation of Liberty Square in Manhattan will continue indefinitely.
Occupy Wall Street began on September 17, 2011 in Liberty Square in Manhattan’s Financial District, and has spread to over 100 cities in the United States and actions in over 1,500 cities globally. Protesters say they are fighting back against the corrosive power of major banks and multinational corporations over the democratic process, and the role of Wall Street in creating an economic collapse that has caused the greatest recession in generations.They say they aim to expose how the richest 1% of people who are writing the rules of the global economy are imposing an agenda of neoliberalism and economic inequality that is foreclosing our future.
While the spotlight is on New York, "occupy" actions are also happening all across the Midwestern and the Southern United States, from Ashland, Kentucky to Dallas, Texas to Ketchum, Idaho. Four hundred Iowans marched in Des Moines, Iowa Saturday as part of the day of action:
Protests filled streets of financial districts from Berlin, to Athens, Auckland to Mumbai, Tokyo to Seoul. In the UK over 3,000 people attempted to occupy the London Stock Exchange. "The financial system benefits a handful of banks at the expense of everyday people," said Spyro Van Leemnen, a 27-year old public relations agent in London and a core member of the demonstrators. "The same people who are responsible for the recession are getting away with massive bonuses. This is fundamentally unfair and undemocratic."
There were also demonstrations in South Africa, Canada, and Australia.
The movement's success is due in part to the use of online technologies and international social networking. The rapid spread of the protests is a grassroots response to the overwhelming inequalities perpetuated by the global financial system and transnational banks. More actions are expected in the coming weeks, and the Occupation of Liberty Square in Manhattan will continue indefinitely.
Wednesday, October 12, 2011
U.S. foils Iranian plot to assassinate Saudi ambassador
STAR TRIBUNE
The United States has apparently broken up an Iranian plan to assassinate the Saudi Arabian ambassador to the United States.
The U.S. criminal complaint said the Iranian plotters hired a would-be assassin in Mexico who was a paid informant for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and told U.S. authorities all about their plot, which they code-named "Chevrolet."
Manssor Arbabsiar, a 56-year-old U.S. citizen who also holds an Iranian passport, was charged along with Gholam Shakuri, who authorities said was a Quds Force member and is still at large in Iran. The Treasury Department listed addresses for Arbabsiar in two Texas cities — the Austin suburb of Round Rock and the Gulf city of Corpus Christi — and prosecutors say he frequently traveled to Mexico for business.
FBI Director Robert Mueller said many lives could have been lost. But Preet Bharara, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, said no explosives were actually placed and no one was in any danger because of the informant's cooperation with authorities.
Shortly after the announcement, the Treasury Department announced economic penalties against Arbabsiar and four Quds Force officers it says were involved. The Quds force is a feared special operations wing of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guard military unit.
The Obama administration has often said that no option is off the table with Iran, a position that a U.S. official said had not changed Tuesday. But the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the policy publicly, said the emphasis now is on increasing diplomatic and economic pressure on Iran.
The alleged target was Al-Jubeir, a commoner educated at the University of North Texas and Georgetown University who was foreign affairs adviser to Saudi King Abdullah when he was crown prince. A month after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, in which 15 of the 19 Arab hijackers were from Saudi Arabia, Abdullah sent al-Jubeir to the United States to rebuild Saudi Arabia's image here. He was appointed ambassador in 2007.
The Saudi Embassy said in a statement that it appreciated the U.S. efforts to prevent the crime. "The attempted plot is a despicable violation of international norms, standards and conventions and is not in accord with the principles of humanity," the statement read.
The complaint alleges this past spring that Arbabsiar approached the DEA informant, who he believed was associated with a well-known Mexican drug cartel with access to military-grade weapons and explosives and has a history of assassinations. Justice Department officials say Arbabsiar initially asked the informant about his knowledge of plastic explosives for a plot to blow up a Saudi embassy.
But through subsequent meetings in Mexico over the past six months in which they spoke English, secretly recorded for U.S. authorities, Arbabsiar offered $1.5 million for the death of the ambassador. He eventually wired nearly $100,000 to an account number that the informant provided, authorities said.
Arbabsiar was arrested Sept. 29 at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport and was ordered held without bail during his brief first court appearance Thursday afternoon. Prosecutors said he faces up to life in prison if convicted.
The complaint said that after his arrest, Arbabsiar made several calls to Shakuri in which they discussed the purchase of their "Chevrolet," and Shakuri urged Arbabsiar to "just do it quickly."
Iran's parliament speaker, Ali Larijani, called the Justice Department's claims a "childish game." "These are cheap claims. By giving it a wide media coverage, it was evident that they are trying to cover up their own problems," Larijani told an open session of the parliament Wednesday. "They (Americans) suffered a political stroke and learned that they had begun a childish game," he said. "We have normal relations with the Saudis. There is no reason for Iran to carry out such childish acts."
In New York, Alireza Miryousefi, head of the press office of the Iranian mission to the United Nations, sent Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon a letter "to express our outrage" over the allegations. "The U.S. allegation is, obviously, a politically-motivated move and a showcase of its long-standing animosity toward the Iranian nation," the letter said.
In the AP interview, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton predicted an Iranian denial, but added: "We want to reassure our friends that the complaints against Iran are well-founded."
Saudi Arabia is the main Sunni Muslim power center in the Middle East, and the one most closely allied with the United States, Iran's declared enemy. Iran is the most powerful and influential Shiite Muslim state. The two have long vied for power and influence across the region. Saudi Arabia and other countries like Bahrain have accused Iran of trying to create dissent in their countries this year, during democracy movements across the region.
But it is not clear what motive Iran might have had for trying to kill the Saudi official. An assassination might have ignited anti-American sentiment in Saudi Arabia and beyond by highlighting the close relationship, which is one explanation for Iran's alleged involvement. Yet Iranian fingerprints on the killing surely would have meant retribution that Iran's military is ill-prepaed to meet.
The United States has apparently broken up an Iranian plan to assassinate the Saudi Arabian ambassador to the United States.
The U.S. criminal complaint said the Iranian plotters hired a would-be assassin in Mexico who was a paid informant for the U.S. Drug Enforcement Administration and told U.S. authorities all about their plot, which they code-named "Chevrolet."
Manssor Arbabsiar, a 56-year-old U.S. citizen who also holds an Iranian passport, was charged along with Gholam Shakuri, who authorities said was a Quds Force member and is still at large in Iran. The Treasury Department listed addresses for Arbabsiar in two Texas cities — the Austin suburb of Round Rock and the Gulf city of Corpus Christi — and prosecutors say he frequently traveled to Mexico for business.
FBI Director Robert Mueller said many lives could have been lost. But Preet Bharara, the U.S. attorney for the Southern District of New York, said no explosives were actually placed and no one was in any danger because of the informant's cooperation with authorities.
Shortly after the announcement, the Treasury Department announced economic penalties against Arbabsiar and four Quds Force officers it says were involved. The Quds force is a feared special operations wing of Iran's elite Revolutionary Guard military unit.
The Obama administration has often said that no option is off the table with Iran, a position that a U.S. official said had not changed Tuesday. But the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he was not authorized to discuss the policy publicly, said the emphasis now is on increasing diplomatic and economic pressure on Iran.
The alleged target was Al-Jubeir, a commoner educated at the University of North Texas and Georgetown University who was foreign affairs adviser to Saudi King Abdullah when he was crown prince. A month after the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, in which 15 of the 19 Arab hijackers were from Saudi Arabia, Abdullah sent al-Jubeir to the United States to rebuild Saudi Arabia's image here. He was appointed ambassador in 2007.
The Saudi Embassy said in a statement that it appreciated the U.S. efforts to prevent the crime. "The attempted plot is a despicable violation of international norms, standards and conventions and is not in accord with the principles of humanity," the statement read.
The complaint alleges this past spring that Arbabsiar approached the DEA informant, who he believed was associated with a well-known Mexican drug cartel with access to military-grade weapons and explosives and has a history of assassinations. Justice Department officials say Arbabsiar initially asked the informant about his knowledge of plastic explosives for a plot to blow up a Saudi embassy.
But through subsequent meetings in Mexico over the past six months in which they spoke English, secretly recorded for U.S. authorities, Arbabsiar offered $1.5 million for the death of the ambassador. He eventually wired nearly $100,000 to an account number that the informant provided, authorities said.
Arbabsiar was arrested Sept. 29 at New York's John F. Kennedy International Airport and was ordered held without bail during his brief first court appearance Thursday afternoon. Prosecutors said he faces up to life in prison if convicted.
The complaint said that after his arrest, Arbabsiar made several calls to Shakuri in which they discussed the purchase of their "Chevrolet," and Shakuri urged Arbabsiar to "just do it quickly."
Iran's parliament speaker, Ali Larijani, called the Justice Department's claims a "childish game." "These are cheap claims. By giving it a wide media coverage, it was evident that they are trying to cover up their own problems," Larijani told an open session of the parliament Wednesday. "They (Americans) suffered a political stroke and learned that they had begun a childish game," he said. "We have normal relations with the Saudis. There is no reason for Iran to carry out such childish acts."
In New York, Alireza Miryousefi, head of the press office of the Iranian mission to the United Nations, sent Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon a letter "to express our outrage" over the allegations. "The U.S. allegation is, obviously, a politically-motivated move and a showcase of its long-standing animosity toward the Iranian nation," the letter said.
In the AP interview, Secretary of State Hillary Clinton predicted an Iranian denial, but added: "We want to reassure our friends that the complaints against Iran are well-founded."
Saudi Arabia is the main Sunni Muslim power center in the Middle East, and the one most closely allied with the United States, Iran's declared enemy. Iran is the most powerful and influential Shiite Muslim state. The two have long vied for power and influence across the region. Saudi Arabia and other countries like Bahrain have accused Iran of trying to create dissent in their countries this year, during democracy movements across the region.
But it is not clear what motive Iran might have had for trying to kill the Saudi official. An assassination might have ignited anti-American sentiment in Saudi Arabia and beyond by highlighting the close relationship, which is one explanation for Iran's alleged involvement. Yet Iranian fingerprints on the killing surely would have meant retribution that Iran's military is ill-prepaed to meet.
Sunday, October 9, 2011
Perry backer says Mitt Romney is not a Christian
POLITICO
By ALEXANDER BURNS
Texas evangelical leader Robert Jeffress, the Baptist megachurch pastor who introduced Rick Perry at the Values Voter Summit, said Friday afternoon he does not believe Mitt Romney is a Christian.
Jeffress described Romney's Mormon faith as a “cult,” and said evangelicals had only one real option in the 2012 primaries.
“That is a mainstream view, that Mormonism is a cult,” Jeffress told reporters here. “Every true, born again follower of Christ ought to embrace a Christian over a non-Christian.” Asked by POLITICO if he believed Romney is a Christian, Jeffress answered: “No.”
Jeffress's comments represent the first major attack of the 2012 cycle on Romney over his membership in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, an issue that some Romney supporters believe cost the former Massachusetts governor in his last presidential run.
The attack on Romney wasn’t just faith-based. Jeffress called the Republican presidential candidate a “conservative out of convenience” who “does not have a consistent track record on the subject of marriage, on the sanctity of life.”
“I just do not believe that we as conservative Christians can expect him to stand strong for the issues that are important to us,” he said.
Jeffress said that he had not spoken with Perry about his views on Romney's faith and was “in no way speaking for him.” In an email, Perry campaign spokesman Robert Black said that the campaign didn’t choose Jeffress to introduce Perry and does not share his view of Mormonism.
The Romney campaign did not respond to a request for comment, nor did the campaign of former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman, the other Mormon candidate in the Republican presidential race.
Looking ahead to the general election, Jeffress warned that in a race between Romney and Obama, he believes many evangelicals will stay home and leave the GOP nominee without their votes. “I do not think evangelical voters are going to be motivated to go out and vote for Mitt Romney,” he said.
The conservative Christian leader said that he himself would vote for Romney and does not doubt that he is a good man. “I think he’s a fine family person,” Jeffress explained. “It is only faith in Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ alone that qualifies you as a Christian.”
Jeffress said he does not believe that Mormonism is a disqualifier for the presidency, pointing out that constitutionally, the “government can impose no religious test.” “Private citizens can impose all kinds of religious tests,” he added.
By ALEXANDER BURNS
Texas evangelical leader Robert Jeffress, the Baptist megachurch pastor who introduced Rick Perry at the Values Voter Summit, said Friday afternoon he does not believe Mitt Romney is a Christian.
Jeffress described Romney's Mormon faith as a “cult,” and said evangelicals had only one real option in the 2012 primaries.
“That is a mainstream view, that Mormonism is a cult,” Jeffress told reporters here. “Every true, born again follower of Christ ought to embrace a Christian over a non-Christian.” Asked by POLITICO if he believed Romney is a Christian, Jeffress answered: “No.”
Jeffress's comments represent the first major attack of the 2012 cycle on Romney over his membership in the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints, an issue that some Romney supporters believe cost the former Massachusetts governor in his last presidential run.
The attack on Romney wasn’t just faith-based. Jeffress called the Republican presidential candidate a “conservative out of convenience” who “does not have a consistent track record on the subject of marriage, on the sanctity of life.”
“I just do not believe that we as conservative Christians can expect him to stand strong for the issues that are important to us,” he said.
Jeffress said that he had not spoken with Perry about his views on Romney's faith and was “in no way speaking for him.” In an email, Perry campaign spokesman Robert Black said that the campaign didn’t choose Jeffress to introduce Perry and does not share his view of Mormonism.
The Romney campaign did not respond to a request for comment, nor did the campaign of former Utah Gov. Jon Huntsman, the other Mormon candidate in the Republican presidential race.
Looking ahead to the general election, Jeffress warned that in a race between Romney and Obama, he believes many evangelicals will stay home and leave the GOP nominee without their votes. “I do not think evangelical voters are going to be motivated to go out and vote for Mitt Romney,” he said.
The conservative Christian leader said that he himself would vote for Romney and does not doubt that he is a good man. “I think he’s a fine family person,” Jeffress explained. “It is only faith in Jesus Christ and Jesus Christ alone that qualifies you as a Christian.”
Jeffress said he does not believe that Mormonism is a disqualifier for the presidency, pointing out that constitutionally, the “government can impose no religious test.” “Private citizens can impose all kinds of religious tests,” he added.
Thursday, September 29, 2011
Opinion: Running for president is crazy
a href="http://news1.capitalbay.com/news/296282-opinion-running-for-president-is-crazy.html">CAPITAL BAY•Dean Obeidallah
(CNN) -- I'm struck by one big question as I watch the Republican presidential candidates battle each other while President Obama tries to win re-election: Why does anyone want to be president?
It's like auditioning to be bandleader on the Titanic. And yes, I said bandleader and not captain because the captain of a ship has more of an impact on the direction of a voyage than President Obama, or any president who might follow him, can have in our hyperpolarized political climate.
With the onslaught of problems he faces today, I wouldn't be shocked if in the coming weeks President Obama appeared on national TV and declared: "I have an important announcement: I was actually born in Kenya. Joe Biden you take over, I'm outta here!"
But he won't quit. Instead, he will raise close to a billion dollars for his re-election campaign. Meanwhile, the Republican presidential candidates will viciously fight each other, like gladiators in the Roman Coliseum -- which, frankly, the past two Republican debates resembled. The audience jeered and booed, with some at times even applauding the death penalty and cheering the notion of allowing a person with no health insurance to die. All that was missing was a thumbs up or down from the crowd indicating if a candidate should be executed. (This, too, would undoubtedly have been met with cheers.)
Think about it: When you run for president, you are running for the worst job in America. If elected (or re-elected) you must deal with a cascade of domestic and international headaches.
But to me the greatest challenge facing our president (or a new president) is not the economy or the European debt crisis. It's not the growing influence of China, the Arab Spring or even the issue of Palestinian statehood.
Nope, the biggest challenge the president faces is us. Yes, "We the People." Simply put, we are horrible. We have become unreasonably demanding. We want everything now and we won't compromise.
"We the People" have become Veruca Salt from "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory," making demands in our high-pitched voices: "I want a goose that lays golden eggs and I want it now!!" "I want the deficit reduced now, Daddy!" "I want low taxes but the same government services!"
And if you won't give us what we want, when we want it, we will turn our back on you. For example, President Obama had almost a 60% approval rating after the killing of Osama Bin Laden in May, but just four months later a recent poll shows his approval rating at 39%. The left wants him to be more liberal, the right wants him to be more conservative and the middle just wants more.
The Republican presidential candidates have seen this, too, with Rick Perry being welcomed only a few weeks ago into the race like the "prodigal son," but now only a few weeks later, he looks more like a doomed NASA satellite about to fall from the sky.
What has caused us to become so demanding? The 24-hour news cycle and social media allowing instant real-time commentary have contributed. But an even bigger factor is our conditioning to reality show competitions on TV. On any number of TV shows each week, we watch, judge and vote on whether a person performs to our liking. One week we sing their praises, but the next week, if they misstep, they are dead to us.
We now treat our candidates this way. It's a presidential version of "Celebrity Apprentice," where we want to fire -- or at least dissect and scrutinize -- the president and presidential candidates for every small gaffe. I have seen better treatment for contestants on Gordon Ramsay's "Hell's Kitchen" than for our candidates for president.
If this keeps up, what type of candidates for president will we attract in the future? Will it be the smartest and the most qualified or those who, like reality show stars, can weather the cruel glare of an unending spotlight and the fickleness of our affection?
Even reality-show veteran Donald Trump's skin was too thin to run for president, which is shocking since his skin looks like leather. And, yes, that snarky comment is just the kind of thing I'm talking about, but I'm no better than the rest of us.
Since this seems to be what we crave, why not commit 100% to it and create political reality shows to choose our future presidents? What about shows like: "The Amazing Electoral Race," "Dancing with the Candidates," or "So You Think You Can Govern?"
We can vote people off until we are left with the man or woman who has survived by telling us exactly what we want to hear each and every week.
But if we don't take a break from this "American Presidential Idol" mentality, we will have no one to blame but ourselves when the 2016 presidential campaign pits Mike "The Situation" against the Kardashians.
(CNN) -- I'm struck by one big question as I watch the Republican presidential candidates battle each other while President Obama tries to win re-election: Why does anyone want to be president?
It's like auditioning to be bandleader on the Titanic. And yes, I said bandleader and not captain because the captain of a ship has more of an impact on the direction of a voyage than President Obama, or any president who might follow him, can have in our hyperpolarized political climate.
With the onslaught of problems he faces today, I wouldn't be shocked if in the coming weeks President Obama appeared on national TV and declared: "I have an important announcement: I was actually born in Kenya. Joe Biden you take over, I'm outta here!"
But he won't quit. Instead, he will raise close to a billion dollars for his re-election campaign. Meanwhile, the Republican presidential candidates will viciously fight each other, like gladiators in the Roman Coliseum -- which, frankly, the past two Republican debates resembled. The audience jeered and booed, with some at times even applauding the death penalty and cheering the notion of allowing a person with no health insurance to die. All that was missing was a thumbs up or down from the crowd indicating if a candidate should be executed. (This, too, would undoubtedly have been met with cheers.)
Think about it: When you run for president, you are running for the worst job in America. If elected (or re-elected) you must deal with a cascade of domestic and international headaches.
But to me the greatest challenge facing our president (or a new president) is not the economy or the European debt crisis. It's not the growing influence of China, the Arab Spring or even the issue of Palestinian statehood.
Nope, the biggest challenge the president faces is us. Yes, "We the People." Simply put, we are horrible. We have become unreasonably demanding. We want everything now and we won't compromise.
"We the People" have become Veruca Salt from "Willy Wonka and the Chocolate Factory," making demands in our high-pitched voices: "I want a goose that lays golden eggs and I want it now!!" "I want the deficit reduced now, Daddy!" "I want low taxes but the same government services!"
And if you won't give us what we want, when we want it, we will turn our back on you. For example, President Obama had almost a 60% approval rating after the killing of Osama Bin Laden in May, but just four months later a recent poll shows his approval rating at 39%. The left wants him to be more liberal, the right wants him to be more conservative and the middle just wants more.
The Republican presidential candidates have seen this, too, with Rick Perry being welcomed only a few weeks ago into the race like the "prodigal son," but now only a few weeks later, he looks more like a doomed NASA satellite about to fall from the sky.
What has caused us to become so demanding? The 24-hour news cycle and social media allowing instant real-time commentary have contributed. But an even bigger factor is our conditioning to reality show competitions on TV. On any number of TV shows each week, we watch, judge and vote on whether a person performs to our liking. One week we sing their praises, but the next week, if they misstep, they are dead to us.
We now treat our candidates this way. It's a presidential version of "Celebrity Apprentice," where we want to fire -- or at least dissect and scrutinize -- the president and presidential candidates for every small gaffe. I have seen better treatment for contestants on Gordon Ramsay's "Hell's Kitchen" than for our candidates for president.
If this keeps up, what type of candidates for president will we attract in the future? Will it be the smartest and the most qualified or those who, like reality show stars, can weather the cruel glare of an unending spotlight and the fickleness of our affection?
Even reality-show veteran Donald Trump's skin was too thin to run for president, which is shocking since his skin looks like leather. And, yes, that snarky comment is just the kind of thing I'm talking about, but I'm no better than the rest of us.
Since this seems to be what we crave, why not commit 100% to it and create political reality shows to choose our future presidents? What about shows like: "The Amazing Electoral Race," "Dancing with the Candidates," or "So You Think You Can Govern?"
We can vote people off until we are left with the man or woman who has survived by telling us exactly what we want to hear each and every week.
But if we don't take a break from this "American Presidential Idol" mentality, we will have no one to blame but ourselves when the 2016 presidential campaign pits Mike "The Situation" against the Kardashians.
Sunday, September 25, 2011
Saudi monarch grants kingdom's women right to vote, but driving ban remains in force
STAR/TRIBUNE
Article by: ABDULLAH AL-SHIHRI and HAMZA HENDAWI , Associated Press
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia - Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah, considered a reformer by the standards of his own ultraconservative kingdom, decreed on Sunday that women will for the first time have the right to vote and run in local elections due in 2015.
It is a "Saudi Spring" of sorts. For the nation's women, it is a giant leap forward, though they remain unable to serve as Cabinet ministers, drive or travel abroad without permission from a male guardian.
Saudi women bear the brunt of their nation's deeply conservative values, often finding themselves the target of the unwanted attention of the kingdom's intrusive religious police, who enforce a rigid interpretation of Islamic Shariah law on the streets and public places like shopping malls and university campuses.
That women must wait four more years to exercise their newly acquired right to vote adds insult to injury since Sunday's announcement was already a long time coming — and the next local elections are in fact scheduled for this Thursday. "Why not tomorrow?" asked prominent Saudi feminist Wajeha al-Hawaidar. "I think the king doesn't want to shake the country, but we look around us and we think it is a shame ... when we are still pondering how to meet simple women's rights."
The announcement by King Abdullah came in an annual speech before his advisory assembly, or Shura Council. It is an attempt at "Saudi style" reform, moves that avoid antagonizing the powerful clergy and a conservative segment of the population. Additionally, it seems to be part of the king's drive to insulate his vast, oil-rich country from the upheavals sweeping other Arab nations, with popular uprisings toppling regimes that once looked as secure as his own.
The United States, Saudi Arabia's closest Western ally, praised the king's move.
The king, in his own remarks, seemed to acknowledge that the Arab world's season of change and the yearning for greater social freedoms by a large segment of Saudi society demanded decisive action. "Balanced modernization, which falls within our Islamic values, is an important demand in an era where there is no place for defeatist or hesitant people," he said.
The question of women's rights in Saudi Arabia is a touchy one. In a country where no social or political force is strong enough to affect change in women's rights, it is up to the king to do it. Even then, the king must find consensus before he takes a step in that direction.
Prominent columnist Jamal Khashoggi said that giving women the right to vote in local elections and their inclusion in the Shura council means they will be part of the legislative and executive branches of the state. Winning the right to drive and travel without permission from male guardians can only be the next move.
"It will be odd that women who enjoy parliamentary immunity as members of the council are unable to drive their cars or travel without permission," he said. "The climate is more suited for these changes now — the force of history, moral pressure and the changes taking place around us."
Article by: ABDULLAH AL-SHIHRI and HAMZA HENDAWI , Associated Press
RIYADH, Saudi Arabia - Saudi Arabia's King Abdullah, considered a reformer by the standards of his own ultraconservative kingdom, decreed on Sunday that women will for the first time have the right to vote and run in local elections due in 2015.
It is a "Saudi Spring" of sorts. For the nation's women, it is a giant leap forward, though they remain unable to serve as Cabinet ministers, drive or travel abroad without permission from a male guardian.
Saudi women bear the brunt of their nation's deeply conservative values, often finding themselves the target of the unwanted attention of the kingdom's intrusive religious police, who enforce a rigid interpretation of Islamic Shariah law on the streets and public places like shopping malls and university campuses.
That women must wait four more years to exercise their newly acquired right to vote adds insult to injury since Sunday's announcement was already a long time coming — and the next local elections are in fact scheduled for this Thursday. "Why not tomorrow?" asked prominent Saudi feminist Wajeha al-Hawaidar. "I think the king doesn't want to shake the country, but we look around us and we think it is a shame ... when we are still pondering how to meet simple women's rights."
The announcement by King Abdullah came in an annual speech before his advisory assembly, or Shura Council. It is an attempt at "Saudi style" reform, moves that avoid antagonizing the powerful clergy and a conservative segment of the population. Additionally, it seems to be part of the king's drive to insulate his vast, oil-rich country from the upheavals sweeping other Arab nations, with popular uprisings toppling regimes that once looked as secure as his own.
The United States, Saudi Arabia's closest Western ally, praised the king's move.
The king, in his own remarks, seemed to acknowledge that the Arab world's season of change and the yearning for greater social freedoms by a large segment of Saudi society demanded decisive action. "Balanced modernization, which falls within our Islamic values, is an important demand in an era where there is no place for defeatist or hesitant people," he said.
The question of women's rights in Saudi Arabia is a touchy one. In a country where no social or political force is strong enough to affect change in women's rights, it is up to the king to do it. Even then, the king must find consensus before he takes a step in that direction.
Prominent columnist Jamal Khashoggi said that giving women the right to vote in local elections and their inclusion in the Shura council means they will be part of the legislative and executive branches of the state. Winning the right to drive and travel without permission from male guardians can only be the next move.
"It will be odd that women who enjoy parliamentary immunity as members of the council are unable to drive their cars or travel without permission," he said. "The climate is more suited for these changes now — the force of history, moral pressure and the changes taking place around us."
Thursday, September 22, 2011
Georgia executes man who claims he didn't do it
STAR/TRIBUNE
JACKSON, Ga. - Strapped to a gurney in Georgia's death chamber, Troy Davis lifted his head and declared one last time that he did not kill police officer Mark MacPhail. Just a few feet away behind a glass window, MacPhail's son and brother watched in silence.
Outside the prison, a crowd of more than 500 demonstrators cried, hugged, prayed and held candles. They represented hundreds of thousands of supporters worldwide who took up the anti-death penalty cause as Davis' final days ticked away.
"I am innocent," Davis said moments before he was executed Wednesday night. "All I can ask ... is that you look deeper into this case so that you really can finally see the truth. I ask my family and friends to continue to fight this fight."
Prosecutors and MacPhail's family said justice had finally been served. "I'm kind of numb. I can't believe that it's really happened," MacPhail's mother, Anneliese MacPhail, said in a telephone interview from her home in Columbus, Ga. "All the feelings of relief and peace I've been waiting for all these years, they will come later. I certainly do want some peace." She dismissed Davis' claims of innocence. "He's been telling himself that for 22 years. You know how it is, he can talk himself into anything."
Davis was scheduled to die at 7 p.m., but the hour came and went as the U.S. Supreme Court apparently weighed the case. More than three hours later, the high court said it wouldn't intervene. The justices did not comment on their order rejecting Davis' request for a stay.
Hundreds of thousands of people signed petitions on Davis' behalf and he had prominent supporters. His attorneys said seven of nine key witnesses against him disputed all or parts of their testimony, but state and federal judges repeatedly ruled against him — three times on Wednesday alone.
When asked Thursday on NBC's "Today" show if he thought the state had executed an innocent man, civil rights leader the Rev. Al Sharpton said: "I believe that they did, but even beyond my belief, they clearly executed a man who had established much, much reasonable doubt."
Davis' execution had been halted three times since 2007. The U.S. Supreme Court even gave Davis an unusual opportunity to prove his innocence in a lower court last year. While the nation's top court didn't hear the case, they did set a tough standard for Davis to exonerate himself, ruling that his attorneys must "clearly establish" Davis' innocence — a higher bar to meet than prosecutors having to prove guilt. After the hearing, a lower court judge ruled in prosecutors' favor, and the justices didn't take up the case.
His attorney Stephen Marsh said Davis would have spent part of Wednesday taking a polygraph test if pardons officials had taken his offer seriously. But they, too, said they wouldn't reconsider their decision. Georgia's governor does not have the power to grant condemned inmates clemency.
Davis' supporters included former President Jimmy Carter, Pope Benedict XVI, a former FBI director, the NAACP, several conservative figures and many celebrities, including hip-hop star Sean "P. Diddy" Combs.
JACKSON, Ga. - Strapped to a gurney in Georgia's death chamber, Troy Davis lifted his head and declared one last time that he did not kill police officer Mark MacPhail. Just a few feet away behind a glass window, MacPhail's son and brother watched in silence.
Outside the prison, a crowd of more than 500 demonstrators cried, hugged, prayed and held candles. They represented hundreds of thousands of supporters worldwide who took up the anti-death penalty cause as Davis' final days ticked away.
"I am innocent," Davis said moments before he was executed Wednesday night. "All I can ask ... is that you look deeper into this case so that you really can finally see the truth. I ask my family and friends to continue to fight this fight."
Prosecutors and MacPhail's family said justice had finally been served. "I'm kind of numb. I can't believe that it's really happened," MacPhail's mother, Anneliese MacPhail, said in a telephone interview from her home in Columbus, Ga. "All the feelings of relief and peace I've been waiting for all these years, they will come later. I certainly do want some peace." She dismissed Davis' claims of innocence. "He's been telling himself that for 22 years. You know how it is, he can talk himself into anything."
Davis was scheduled to die at 7 p.m., but the hour came and went as the U.S. Supreme Court apparently weighed the case. More than three hours later, the high court said it wouldn't intervene. The justices did not comment on their order rejecting Davis' request for a stay.
Hundreds of thousands of people signed petitions on Davis' behalf and he had prominent supporters. His attorneys said seven of nine key witnesses against him disputed all or parts of their testimony, but state and federal judges repeatedly ruled against him — three times on Wednesday alone.
When asked Thursday on NBC's "Today" show if he thought the state had executed an innocent man, civil rights leader the Rev. Al Sharpton said: "I believe that they did, but even beyond my belief, they clearly executed a man who had established much, much reasonable doubt."
Davis' execution had been halted three times since 2007. The U.S. Supreme Court even gave Davis an unusual opportunity to prove his innocence in a lower court last year. While the nation's top court didn't hear the case, they did set a tough standard for Davis to exonerate himself, ruling that his attorneys must "clearly establish" Davis' innocence — a higher bar to meet than prosecutors having to prove guilt. After the hearing, a lower court judge ruled in prosecutors' favor, and the justices didn't take up the case.
His attorney Stephen Marsh said Davis would have spent part of Wednesday taking a polygraph test if pardons officials had taken his offer seriously. But they, too, said they wouldn't reconsider their decision. Georgia's governor does not have the power to grant condemned inmates clemency.
Davis' supporters included former President Jimmy Carter, Pope Benedict XVI, a former FBI director, the NAACP, several conservative figures and many celebrities, including hip-hop star Sean "P. Diddy" Combs.
Monday, September 19, 2011
'Don't ask, don't tell' repeal will be big relief for civilian partners of gay servicemembers
STAR/TRIBUNE
Article by: DAVID CRARY , Associated Press
NEW YORK - After 19 years hiding her relationship with an active-duty Army captain, Cathy Cooper is getting ready to exhale. On Tuesday, the policy known as "don't ask, don't tell" will expire. And Cooper will dare speak her love's name in public.
"This is life-changing," said Cooper, choking up. "I just want to be able to breathe — knowing I can call my partner at work and have a conversation without it having to be in code."
Much has been reported about the burdens that "don't ask" placed on gay and lesbian service members who risked discharge under the 1993 policy if their sexual orientation became known in the ranks. There's been less attention focused on their civilian partners, who faced distinctive, often relentless stresses of their own.
In interviews with The Associated Press, five partners recalled past challenges trying to conceal their love affairs, spoke of the joy and relief accompanying repeal, and wondered about the extent that they would be welcomed into the broader military family in the future.
Even with repeal imminent, the partners — long accustomed to secrecy — did not want to reveal the full identity of their active-duty loved ones before Tuesday.
Cooper, who works for a large private company, moved from the Midwest to northern Virginia to be near her partner's current Army post, yet couldn't fully explain to friends and colleagues why she moved. "It's been really difficult — it's really isolated us," she said. "I became much more introverted, more evasive."
Cooper said her partner's Army career is thriving, though she's had to hide a major component of her personal life.
"I don't know any of her co-workers," Cooper said. "She says, `You're the best part of me and I have to pretend you don't exist.'"
Looking ahead, Cooper is unsure how same-sex partners will be welcomed by the military establishment.
"Will it be, `Hey, come join all the family support programs'?" she wondered. "I'm not going to be so naive as to think that ... I'm just hoping the door is open."
___
Article by: DAVID CRARY , Associated Press
NEW YORK - After 19 years hiding her relationship with an active-duty Army captain, Cathy Cooper is getting ready to exhale. On Tuesday, the policy known as "don't ask, don't tell" will expire. And Cooper will dare speak her love's name in public.
"This is life-changing," said Cooper, choking up. "I just want to be able to breathe — knowing I can call my partner at work and have a conversation without it having to be in code."
Much has been reported about the burdens that "don't ask" placed on gay and lesbian service members who risked discharge under the 1993 policy if their sexual orientation became known in the ranks. There's been less attention focused on their civilian partners, who faced distinctive, often relentless stresses of their own.
In interviews with The Associated Press, five partners recalled past challenges trying to conceal their love affairs, spoke of the joy and relief accompanying repeal, and wondered about the extent that they would be welcomed into the broader military family in the future.
Even with repeal imminent, the partners — long accustomed to secrecy — did not want to reveal the full identity of their active-duty loved ones before Tuesday.
Cooper, who works for a large private company, moved from the Midwest to northern Virginia to be near her partner's current Army post, yet couldn't fully explain to friends and colleagues why she moved. "It's been really difficult — it's really isolated us," she said. "I became much more introverted, more evasive."
Cooper said her partner's Army career is thriving, though she's had to hide a major component of her personal life.
"I don't know any of her co-workers," Cooper said. "She says, `You're the best part of me and I have to pretend you don't exist.'"
Looking ahead, Cooper is unsure how same-sex partners will be welcomed by the military establishment.
"Will it be, `Hey, come join all the family support programs'?" she wondered. "I'm not going to be so naive as to think that ... I'm just hoping the door is open."
___
Thursday, September 8, 2011
Students paying for budget cuts
Article by: COREY MITCHELL and KELLY SMITH , Star Tribune staff writers
As schools open across Minnesota on Tuesday, the tough economic times will be more noticeable to students, teachers -- and soon, taxpayers.
In November, a record 133 school districts say they'll ask taxpayers to support referendums to ward off cuts that have condensed class schedules, provoked higher pay-to-play fees and forced schools to resort to in-school advertising to make ends meet.
"We don't see an end in sight to the difficult budget cuts," North Branch Superintendent Deb Henton said. "It makes it extraordinarily difficult to look to the future and believe that things are going to improve."
When indexed for inflation, school revenue across the state has declined by double digits over the past eight years, according to a state Education Finance Working Group convened this winter. Referendums helped close that gap and, as costs rise, more districts than ever will seek help from taxpayers this fall. But with an economy that has left families cash-strapped, too, voters may be less likely to approve them.
In 2005, voters supported 80 percent of referendum questions. Last fall, the approval rate dropped to 23 percent, state records show.
In North Branch, school leaders will appeal to voters this fall for the eighth time after seven failed attempts. As students return to the second year of four-day school weeks, more crowded classrooms and cuts to everything from jazz band to middle-school soccer, leaders have pared back their request.
"Our kids just lack so many opportunities [because] we've cut so much," school board chairwoman Kim Salo said.
North Branch has joined the growing list of districts turning to advertising to drum up dollars, plastering ads on lockers and school mailings, football games and in staff lounges. The district is also allowing businesses to solicit at parent-teacher conferences. At a recent school open house, a local gym paid to set up a table and hawk memberships. The desperate measures follow $14 million in cuts over the past eight years, and "it just keeps getting worse and worse," Henton said, blaming the shift of raising property taxes from the state to the local level. "It's absolutely frustrating."
In Lakeville, voter rejection of a tax increase last fall left the school board facing a projected two-year, $15.8 million budget deficit. The impact was felt across the district: An elementary school closed. Scores of jobs were cut. Activity fees shot up, with the district charging up to $600 for hockey.
As president of the Minnesota Association of School Business Officials, Jeff Solomon has heard his colleagues across the state lament. Rosemount-Apple Valley-Eagan, where he's finance director, redrew walking boundaries in the spring, eliminating transportation for 2,000 students.
"Every school district has to be doing (that)," Bloomington district spokesman Rick Kaufman said. "There is no district in Minnesota that can sustain the current funding levels.
As schools open across Minnesota on Tuesday, the tough economic times will be more noticeable to students, teachers -- and soon, taxpayers.
In November, a record 133 school districts say they'll ask taxpayers to support referendums to ward off cuts that have condensed class schedules, provoked higher pay-to-play fees and forced schools to resort to in-school advertising to make ends meet.
"We don't see an end in sight to the difficult budget cuts," North Branch Superintendent Deb Henton said. "It makes it extraordinarily difficult to look to the future and believe that things are going to improve."
When indexed for inflation, school revenue across the state has declined by double digits over the past eight years, according to a state Education Finance Working Group convened this winter. Referendums helped close that gap and, as costs rise, more districts than ever will seek help from taxpayers this fall. But with an economy that has left families cash-strapped, too, voters may be less likely to approve them.
In 2005, voters supported 80 percent of referendum questions. Last fall, the approval rate dropped to 23 percent, state records show.
In North Branch, school leaders will appeal to voters this fall for the eighth time after seven failed attempts. As students return to the second year of four-day school weeks, more crowded classrooms and cuts to everything from jazz band to middle-school soccer, leaders have pared back their request.
"Our kids just lack so many opportunities [because] we've cut so much," school board chairwoman Kim Salo said.
North Branch has joined the growing list of districts turning to advertising to drum up dollars, plastering ads on lockers and school mailings, football games and in staff lounges. The district is also allowing businesses to solicit at parent-teacher conferences. At a recent school open house, a local gym paid to set up a table and hawk memberships. The desperate measures follow $14 million in cuts over the past eight years, and "it just keeps getting worse and worse," Henton said, blaming the shift of raising property taxes from the state to the local level. "It's absolutely frustrating."
In Lakeville, voter rejection of a tax increase last fall left the school board facing a projected two-year, $15.8 million budget deficit. The impact was felt across the district: An elementary school closed. Scores of jobs were cut. Activity fees shot up, with the district charging up to $600 for hockey.
As president of the Minnesota Association of School Business Officials, Jeff Solomon has heard his colleagues across the state lament. Rosemount-Apple Valley-Eagan, where he's finance director, redrew walking boundaries in the spring, eliminating transportation for 2,000 students.
"Every school district has to be doing (that)," Bloomington district spokesman Rick Kaufman said. "There is no district in Minnesota that can sustain the current funding levels.
Wednesday, May 11, 2011
U.S. hikers in Iran face possible death penalty
(CNN) -- The scheduled trial of two Americans accused of espionage in Iran was delayed again Wednesday after the suspects were not brought from jail to the courthouse, a Swiss diplomat told CNN.
"I have been able to verify that the session has actually been postponed due to the absence of the two prisoners. They were not brought in from prison," said an official with the Swiss Embassy in Tehran, who according to protocol, asked not to be identified. Switzerland represents U.S. interests in Iran.
Iranian authorities had once again barred Swiss diplomats from monitoring trial proceedings of Josh Fattal and Shane Bauer, who were charged with espionage after being arrested 22 months ago while hiking along an unmarked border between Iran and Iraqi Kurdistan.
The last time Fattal and Bauer appeared in court, Swiss diplomats and the prisoners' defense attorney were not allowed into the courtroom. In an interview with CNN on Tuesday night, defense attorney Masoud Shafii said he had yet to be granted a private meeting with his clients.
Human rights organizations have launched direct appeals to Iranian officials calling for the Americans' release. "
The endless prosecution of the two hikers appears to be little more than a political jab at the United States," said Sarah Leah Whitson of the New York-based organization Human Rights Watch. "This case highlights the cruel and arbitrary nature of the Iranian justice system."
Fattal and Bauer's cell "contains two beds, a sink, a toilet, a shower and an empty space about the size of a large beach towel. With fluorescent lights continuously kept on, Josh and Shane never enjoy the luxury of darkness; in order to sleep at night they have to tie a shirt around their eyes.
An Iranian prosecutor said investigators found "compelling evidence" all three Americans were spies. Suspects convicted on espionage charges can face the death penalty in Iran. The American prisoners have maintained their innocence.
"They were strictly travelers who were near an unmarked border that no one would be able to know whether it was Iraq or Iran," defense lawyer Shafii said. The picturesque mountain border region where the Americans were detained is a popular picnic and camping destination for Iraqi Kurds. The border is also porous. Smugglers regularly cross the frontier on donkeys and horseback, bringing fuel to Iraq and alcohol into the Islamic Republic of Iran.
"I have been able to verify that the session has actually been postponed due to the absence of the two prisoners. They were not brought in from prison," said an official with the Swiss Embassy in Tehran, who according to protocol, asked not to be identified. Switzerland represents U.S. interests in Iran.
Iranian authorities had once again barred Swiss diplomats from monitoring trial proceedings of Josh Fattal and Shane Bauer, who were charged with espionage after being arrested 22 months ago while hiking along an unmarked border between Iran and Iraqi Kurdistan.
The last time Fattal and Bauer appeared in court, Swiss diplomats and the prisoners' defense attorney were not allowed into the courtroom. In an interview with CNN on Tuesday night, defense attorney Masoud Shafii said he had yet to be granted a private meeting with his clients.
Human rights organizations have launched direct appeals to Iranian officials calling for the Americans' release. "
The endless prosecution of the two hikers appears to be little more than a political jab at the United States," said Sarah Leah Whitson of the New York-based organization Human Rights Watch. "This case highlights the cruel and arbitrary nature of the Iranian justice system."
Fattal and Bauer's cell "contains two beds, a sink, a toilet, a shower and an empty space about the size of a large beach towel. With fluorescent lights continuously kept on, Josh and Shane never enjoy the luxury of darkness; in order to sleep at night they have to tie a shirt around their eyes.
An Iranian prosecutor said investigators found "compelling evidence" all three Americans were spies. Suspects convicted on espionage charges can face the death penalty in Iran. The American prisoners have maintained their innocence.
"They were strictly travelers who were near an unmarked border that no one would be able to know whether it was Iraq or Iran," defense lawyer Shafii said. The picturesque mountain border region where the Americans were detained is a popular picnic and camping destination for Iraqi Kurds. The border is also porous. Smugglers regularly cross the frontier on donkeys and horseback, bringing fuel to Iraq and alcohol into the Islamic Republic of Iran.
Monday, May 9, 2011
Amid concerns, feds remind districts all students — legal or not — are entitled to education
STAR/TRIBUNE
CHRISTINE ARMARIO , Associated Press
MIAMI - The U.S. Department of Education sent a letter to districts around the country Friday, reminding them that all students — legal or not — are entitled to a public education.
The letter comes amid reports that schools may be checking the immigration status of students trying to enroll, and reminds districts they are federally prohibited from barring elementary or secondary students on the basis of citizenship status.
"Moreover, districts may not request information with the purpose or result of denying access to public schools on the basis of race, color or national origin," said the letter, which was signed by officials from the department's Office of Civil Rights and the Department of Justice.
"We put this letter out now because we know school districts are in the process of planning for the next school year, and wanted to make sure they had this in hand," said Department of Education spokesman Justin Hamilton. "We were concerned about the number of reports that we've received and heard about, and felt it was necessary to make it clear that this has been the law of the land since Ronald Reagan was president."
A 1982 Supreme Court case, Plyer v. Doe, held that states cannot deny students access to public education, whether they are in the U.S. legally or not. The court ruled that denying public education could impose a lifetime of hardship "on a discrete class of children not accountable for their disabling status."
The letter comes as the Office of Civil Rights investigates three complaints, and less than a week before the president is expected to deliver a speech on immigration during a visit to Texas.
The Office of Civil Rights is also currently evaluating a complaint filed last month by the Southern Poverty Law Center against schools in Durham County, N.C.
The organization claims discrimination against Latino students. In one instance, a girl attempting to enroll in a district high school was asked for her passport and visa and was told that if she didn't have one, she must be an illegal alien, said attorney Gerri Katzerman.
Ken Soo, a lawyer representing Durham Public Schools, said the district was looking into the complaint and would correct any problems found.
Katzerman said the issue has become increasingly common in the Deep South as demographics change and more Latino families move in.
"We hear from them a very similar experience, where they attempt to enroll and are asked about their immigration status, are asked for documents they don't have, and they basically disappear back into the population without having the opportunity to participate in public education," she said.
Civil rights officials are also investigating a complaint in Hazleton, Penn., where school officials considered requiring four proofs of residency for new students. The proposal has been changed, though some believe the requirements are still too onerous.
Legislation has been introduced in a number of states this year that would authorize districts to inquire about immigration status when students enroll in the district.
Republican Rep. Becky Nordgren, of Alabama, for example, sponsored a bill that would have required students and their parents to provide proof of citizenship to enroll. She said her district has seen a rise in the number of undocumented immigrants and that this has placed an undue cost on the local government.
"Quite frankly, I believe that these issues need to be addressed," she said.
Nordgren said that her bill stalled after she learned about the 1982 Supreme Court case.
The letter Friday said districts can require students to provide proof of residency within a district, such as phone or water bills, but that immigration status would not be relevant. Districts can also require a birth certificate to confirm a student's age, but cannot bar enrollment if the certificate is from another country. Nor can they deny enrollment if a student does not provide a social security number.
CHRISTINE ARMARIO , Associated Press
MIAMI - The U.S. Department of Education sent a letter to districts around the country Friday, reminding them that all students — legal or not — are entitled to a public education.
The letter comes amid reports that schools may be checking the immigration status of students trying to enroll, and reminds districts they are federally prohibited from barring elementary or secondary students on the basis of citizenship status.
"Moreover, districts may not request information with the purpose or result of denying access to public schools on the basis of race, color or national origin," said the letter, which was signed by officials from the department's Office of Civil Rights and the Department of Justice.
"We put this letter out now because we know school districts are in the process of planning for the next school year, and wanted to make sure they had this in hand," said Department of Education spokesman Justin Hamilton. "We were concerned about the number of reports that we've received and heard about, and felt it was necessary to make it clear that this has been the law of the land since Ronald Reagan was president."
A 1982 Supreme Court case, Plyer v. Doe, held that states cannot deny students access to public education, whether they are in the U.S. legally or not. The court ruled that denying public education could impose a lifetime of hardship "on a discrete class of children not accountable for their disabling status."
The letter comes as the Office of Civil Rights investigates three complaints, and less than a week before the president is expected to deliver a speech on immigration during a visit to Texas.
The Office of Civil Rights is also currently evaluating a complaint filed last month by the Southern Poverty Law Center against schools in Durham County, N.C.
The organization claims discrimination against Latino students. In one instance, a girl attempting to enroll in a district high school was asked for her passport and visa and was told that if she didn't have one, she must be an illegal alien, said attorney Gerri Katzerman.
Ken Soo, a lawyer representing Durham Public Schools, said the district was looking into the complaint and would correct any problems found.
Katzerman said the issue has become increasingly common in the Deep South as demographics change and more Latino families move in.
"We hear from them a very similar experience, where they attempt to enroll and are asked about their immigration status, are asked for documents they don't have, and they basically disappear back into the population without having the opportunity to participate in public education," she said.
Civil rights officials are also investigating a complaint in Hazleton, Penn., where school officials considered requiring four proofs of residency for new students. The proposal has been changed, though some believe the requirements are still too onerous.
Legislation has been introduced in a number of states this year that would authorize districts to inquire about immigration status when students enroll in the district.
Republican Rep. Becky Nordgren, of Alabama, for example, sponsored a bill that would have required students and their parents to provide proof of citizenship to enroll. She said her district has seen a rise in the number of undocumented immigrants and that this has placed an undue cost on the local government.
"Quite frankly, I believe that these issues need to be addressed," she said.
Nordgren said that her bill stalled after she learned about the 1982 Supreme Court case.
The letter Friday said districts can require students to provide proof of residency within a district, such as phone or water bills, but that immigration status would not be relevant. Districts can also require a birth certificate to confirm a student's age, but cannot bar enrollment if the certificate is from another country. Nor can they deny enrollment if a student does not provide a social security number.
Thursday, May 5, 2011
Gay marriage debate grips Capitol
Hundreds of Minnesotans from the two sides of the gay marriage issue jammed a Capitol hearing room Friday, and both passionately assured lawmakers that God and justice are on their side. They came to argue for and against a constitutional amendment to define marriage as between one man and one woman.
"I'm here to pray for the marriage amendment because family is the bedrock of society. If it falls apart, so will the society," said Janis Hackman, a retired teacher from Centerville, Minn., who came to watch.
"Why isn't my daughter's family worthy of support?" countered Bruce Ause, a Red Wing resident who has a lesbian daughter, before the proceedings started.
After hours of testimony, a panel of lawmakers debated -- and approved -- the amendment.
The near-perennial fight is newly charged this year as Republicans control the Legislature, giving backers little doubt that the amendment will be before the voters in 2012. It takes approval from a simple majority of lawmakers to get an amendment on the ballot. That certainty only heightened the intensity.
"This is without doubt an emotional issue," said Republican Sen. Scott Newman, R-Hutchinson. He began the three-hour hearing by warning the activist crowd that security officials were present and prepared to act. The crowd let their emotions spill but kept it peaceful.
"Same-sex marriage redefines marriage, and same-sex marriage redefines parenthood," said Jennifer Roback Morse, who works at an outreach arm of the National Organization for Marriage.
"I'm at a loss for words how to appeal to your humanity," Rosemount resident Jeff Wilfahrt told lawmakers. His gay son, Andrew, was a soldier killed in Afghanistan two months ago. "Minnesota's better than that."
Opponents may have time on their side. Over the last decade, amid deep contentious debate, the nation's mood has changed on gay marriage. Where once the majority of backers were against it, now there is a clear split.
"I'm a self-identified Republican, and I'm straight," Madeline Koch told the committee when she testified against the amendment. The 24-year-old who works at a Fortune 500 company said her generation believes gay marriage is a "human right."
She was one of only a handful of the 24 who testified to win a roar of approval from the large crowds watching the hearing. "Public opinion is moving quickly toward full equality," she said.
Her testimony had little bearing on the outcome; the committee passed the measure, 8-4, on partisan lines.
Supporters, nearly all of them members of the clergy, argued that same-sex marriage violates tenets of the Torah, the Bible and the Qur'an and that it will irreparably harm families and children. Such marriages run counter to "the intent of Almighty God," said the Rev. Tom Parrish, pastor of Hope Lutheran Church in Minneapolis. "I've sat at the bedside of many [dying] gay men. I deeply love them, but I deeply disagree with them."
The Rev. Bob Battle, pastor of Berean Church in the shadow of the Capitol, also said gay marriage runs counter to the Adam and Eve creation story in Genesis. A longtime politically conservative civil rights leader, he added that, "I don't think this has anything to do with civil rights."
A House committee is scheduled to hear the bill Monday at 12:30. Chief Senate sponsor Warren Limmer, R-Maple Grove, said he expects the measure will get a vote by the full Senate, possibly as soon as next week. "We should give this to the public to decide," Limmer said. "This is the time for Minnesota to have this public dialogue."
"I'm here to pray for the marriage amendment because family is the bedrock of society. If it falls apart, so will the society," said Janis Hackman, a retired teacher from Centerville, Minn., who came to watch.
"Why isn't my daughter's family worthy of support?" countered Bruce Ause, a Red Wing resident who has a lesbian daughter, before the proceedings started.
After hours of testimony, a panel of lawmakers debated -- and approved -- the amendment.
The near-perennial fight is newly charged this year as Republicans control the Legislature, giving backers little doubt that the amendment will be before the voters in 2012. It takes approval from a simple majority of lawmakers to get an amendment on the ballot. That certainty only heightened the intensity.
"This is without doubt an emotional issue," said Republican Sen. Scott Newman, R-Hutchinson. He began the three-hour hearing by warning the activist crowd that security officials were present and prepared to act. The crowd let their emotions spill but kept it peaceful.
"Same-sex marriage redefines marriage, and same-sex marriage redefines parenthood," said Jennifer Roback Morse, who works at an outreach arm of the National Organization for Marriage.
"I'm at a loss for words how to appeal to your humanity," Rosemount resident Jeff Wilfahrt told lawmakers. His gay son, Andrew, was a soldier killed in Afghanistan two months ago. "Minnesota's better than that."
Opponents may have time on their side. Over the last decade, amid deep contentious debate, the nation's mood has changed on gay marriage. Where once the majority of backers were against it, now there is a clear split.
"I'm a self-identified Republican, and I'm straight," Madeline Koch told the committee when she testified against the amendment. The 24-year-old who works at a Fortune 500 company said her generation believes gay marriage is a "human right."
She was one of only a handful of the 24 who testified to win a roar of approval from the large crowds watching the hearing. "Public opinion is moving quickly toward full equality," she said.
Her testimony had little bearing on the outcome; the committee passed the measure, 8-4, on partisan lines.
Supporters, nearly all of them members of the clergy, argued that same-sex marriage violates tenets of the Torah, the Bible and the Qur'an and that it will irreparably harm families and children. Such marriages run counter to "the intent of Almighty God," said the Rev. Tom Parrish, pastor of Hope Lutheran Church in Minneapolis. "I've sat at the bedside of many [dying] gay men. I deeply love them, but I deeply disagree with them."
The Rev. Bob Battle, pastor of Berean Church in the shadow of the Capitol, also said gay marriage runs counter to the Adam and Eve creation story in Genesis. A longtime politically conservative civil rights leader, he added that, "I don't think this has anything to do with civil rights."
A House committee is scheduled to hear the bill Monday at 12:30. Chief Senate sponsor Warren Limmer, R-Maple Grove, said he expects the measure will get a vote by the full Senate, possibly as soon as next week. "We should give this to the public to decide," Limmer said. "This is the time for Minnesota to have this public dialogue."
Monday, May 2, 2011
U.S. Navy SEALS Kill Osama Bin Laden
DELL NEWS
WASHINGTON (AP) - Osama bin Laden, the glowering mastermind behind the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks that killed thousands of Americans, was slain in his luxury hideout in Pakistan early Monday in a firefight with U.S. forces, ending a manhunt that spanned a frustrating decade.
"Justice has been done," President Barack Obama said in a dramatic announcement at the White House.
A jubilant crowd of thousands gathered outside the White House as word spread of bin Laden's death. Hundreds more sang and waved American flags at Ground Zero in New York - where the twin towers that once stood as symbols of American economic power were brought down by bin Laden's hijackers 10 years ago.
Another hijacked plane slammed into the Pentagon on that cloudless day, and a fourth was commandeered by passengers who forced it to the ground - at cost of their own lives - before it could reach its intended target in Washington.
The United States attacked Afghanistan within months, pursuing al-Qaida, and an invasion of Iraq followed as part of the Bush administration's global war on terror.
U.S. officials said the CIA tracked bin Laden to his location, then elite troops from Navy SEAL Team Six, a top military counter-terrorism unit, flew to the hideout in four helicopters. Bin Laden was shot in the head in an ensuing firefight, these officials said, adding that he and his guards had resisted his attackers. U.S. personnel identified him by facial recognition, the official said, declining to say whether DNA analysis had also been used.
The U.S. team took custody of bin Laden's remains. A U.S. official later said bin Laden had been buried at sea and the remains were handled in accordance with Islamic practice, which calls for speedy burial.
The official, who spoke Monday on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive national security matters, said it would have been difficult to find a country willing to accept the remains. The official did not say where the body was buried.
Obama said no Americans were harmed in the operation. Three adult males were also killed in the raid, including one of bin Laden's sons, whom officials did not name. One of bin Laden's sons, Hamza, is a senior member of al-Qaida. U.S. officials also said one woman was killed when she was used as a shield by a male combatant, and two other women were injured.
The operation occurred in pre-dawn darkness on Monday in Pakistan - Sunday afternoon in Washington. Obama went on television late Sunday night to make the announcement.
WASHINGTON (AP) - Osama bin Laden, the glowering mastermind behind the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks that killed thousands of Americans, was slain in his luxury hideout in Pakistan early Monday in a firefight with U.S. forces, ending a manhunt that spanned a frustrating decade.
"Justice has been done," President Barack Obama said in a dramatic announcement at the White House.
A jubilant crowd of thousands gathered outside the White House as word spread of bin Laden's death. Hundreds more sang and waved American flags at Ground Zero in New York - where the twin towers that once stood as symbols of American economic power were brought down by bin Laden's hijackers 10 years ago.
Another hijacked plane slammed into the Pentagon on that cloudless day, and a fourth was commandeered by passengers who forced it to the ground - at cost of their own lives - before it could reach its intended target in Washington.
The United States attacked Afghanistan within months, pursuing al-Qaida, and an invasion of Iraq followed as part of the Bush administration's global war on terror.
U.S. officials said the CIA tracked bin Laden to his location, then elite troops from Navy SEAL Team Six, a top military counter-terrorism unit, flew to the hideout in four helicopters. Bin Laden was shot in the head in an ensuing firefight, these officials said, adding that he and his guards had resisted his attackers. U.S. personnel identified him by facial recognition, the official said, declining to say whether DNA analysis had also been used.
The U.S. team took custody of bin Laden's remains. A U.S. official later said bin Laden had been buried at sea and the remains were handled in accordance with Islamic practice, which calls for speedy burial.
The official, who spoke Monday on condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive national security matters, said it would have been difficult to find a country willing to accept the remains. The official did not say where the body was buried.
Obama said no Americans were harmed in the operation. Three adult males were also killed in the raid, including one of bin Laden's sons, whom officials did not name. One of bin Laden's sons, Hamza, is a senior member of al-Qaida. U.S. officials also said one woman was killed when she was used as a shield by a male combatant, and two other women were injured.
The operation occurred in pre-dawn darkness on Monday in Pakistan - Sunday afternoon in Washington. Obama went on television late Sunday night to make the announcement.
Wednesday, April 27, 2011
Motorist who reached for cell phone gets 4 years for fatal crash
STAR/TRIBUNE
A motorist whose car rear-ended another vehicle as she reached for her cell phone, setting off a chain-reaction crash that killed a 14-month-old boy, was given a maximum four-year sentence Tuesday by an Anoka County judge.
Jessica Howe sobbed uncontrollably when Judge Alan Pendleton handed down the sentence. Pendleton said that he found the sentencing very difficult but that when he weighed the options of either a shorter or a probationary sentence, he couldn't find a reason to validate something other than the maximum.
Before the sentencing, the parents of Grayson Jett gave emotional statements to the judge. Both parents said that at various times since the March 2010 accident in Columbia Heights they didn't feel they could go on with their lives.
Howe apologized several times to the family and said she thinks about Grayson's death every day.
The accident occurred at 11 a.m. on March 18, 2010, on southbound Central Avenue at 50th Avenue NE., inflicting head injuries to Grayson Jett The child was properly strapped into a car seat.
Howe's parents and other friends and relatives were also in the courtroom Tuesday and they expressed shock over the sentence.
A motorist whose car rear-ended another vehicle as she reached for her cell phone, setting off a chain-reaction crash that killed a 14-month-old boy, was given a maximum four-year sentence Tuesday by an Anoka County judge.
Jessica Howe sobbed uncontrollably when Judge Alan Pendleton handed down the sentence. Pendleton said that he found the sentencing very difficult but that when he weighed the options of either a shorter or a probationary sentence, he couldn't find a reason to validate something other than the maximum.
Before the sentencing, the parents of Grayson Jett gave emotional statements to the judge. Both parents said that at various times since the March 2010 accident in Columbia Heights they didn't feel they could go on with their lives.
Howe apologized several times to the family and said she thinks about Grayson's death every day.
The accident occurred at 11 a.m. on March 18, 2010, on southbound Central Avenue at 50th Avenue NE., inflicting head injuries to Grayson Jett The child was properly strapped into a car seat.
Howe's parents and other friends and relatives were also in the courtroom Tuesday and they expressed shock over the sentence.
Wednesday, April 20, 2011
Want to drive? Stay in school
STAR/TRIBUNE
A bipartisan bill moving through the Legislature would deliver what backers say is tough love to keep kids in school by barring young high school dropouts from getting driver's licenses.
"Driving is not a right, it's a privilege, and it's perfectly within bounds for the state government to expect a quid pro quo when it comes to extending privileges," said bill sponsor Rep. Carlos Mariani, DFL-St. Paul. Although the state only requires students to stay in school until they are 16, it can look for leverage to keep them in school longer, he said.
If the measure were to become law, Minnesota would join at least 20 other states, including Wisconsin and Illinois, that tie driving privileges to school attendance.
It could mean thousands fewer teens getting licensed. According to the Minnesota Department of Education, more than 4,000 Minnesota high school students dropped out in 2009, a dropout rate of 5.6 percent, based on the state's four-year graduation rates.
Recent high school graduate Alex Greenhalgh said the proposed law could be effective. Getting licensed is "a big deal," said the Minneapolis teen preparing to get his license. He said he didn't like the proposal.
"If students drop out, they should still have the opportunity to drive," Greenhalgh said.
Vanessa Fedde said she needed her driver's license.
Fedde, now 25, dropped out of high school at 17 to care for her ailing mother. She said her mother had severe post-traumatic stress disorder and needed her daughter to work, shop and drive her around.
Fedde said the law could work for some but that it should have a "fail-safe" for kids who have family responsibilities.
"There's just so many gray areas," Fedde said.
Had the law been in effect when she was a young dropout, she said she would have probably just driven anyway.
"I needed it. I had to have it," she said of her license.
Bill cosponsor Gen Olson, R-Minnetrista, the chair of the Senate Education Committee, said she typically opposes compulsory attendance laws.
"If they don't want to be [in school], they're going to be more disruptive," Olson said. But the driver's license linkage could provide would-be dropouts another reason to stay in school.
Despite its bipartisan support, it's unclear what chance the proposal has of becoming law this year, with legislators more focused on the state's $5 billion budget deficit than school attendance issues.
Former Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty supported similar initiatives in 2003 and 2004. Democratic Gov. Mark Dayton has not reviewed the proposal, his office said, and had no advance opinion on it.
Support for the measure may end up splitting along geographic lines.
"In greater Minnesota, if you're not driving, you're not getting around," Mariani said. "For the sake of their local economies, they might argue that this is a little bit too coercive."
No hearing has yet been scheduled for the bill.
A bipartisan bill moving through the Legislature would deliver what backers say is tough love to keep kids in school by barring young high school dropouts from getting driver's licenses.
"Driving is not a right, it's a privilege, and it's perfectly within bounds for the state government to expect a quid pro quo when it comes to extending privileges," said bill sponsor Rep. Carlos Mariani, DFL-St. Paul. Although the state only requires students to stay in school until they are 16, it can look for leverage to keep them in school longer, he said.
If the measure were to become law, Minnesota would join at least 20 other states, including Wisconsin and Illinois, that tie driving privileges to school attendance.
It could mean thousands fewer teens getting licensed. According to the Minnesota Department of Education, more than 4,000 Minnesota high school students dropped out in 2009, a dropout rate of 5.6 percent, based on the state's four-year graduation rates.
Recent high school graduate Alex Greenhalgh said the proposed law could be effective. Getting licensed is "a big deal," said the Minneapolis teen preparing to get his license. He said he didn't like the proposal.
"If students drop out, they should still have the opportunity to drive," Greenhalgh said.
Vanessa Fedde said she needed her driver's license.
Fedde, now 25, dropped out of high school at 17 to care for her ailing mother. She said her mother had severe post-traumatic stress disorder and needed her daughter to work, shop and drive her around.
Fedde said the law could work for some but that it should have a "fail-safe" for kids who have family responsibilities.
"There's just so many gray areas," Fedde said.
Had the law been in effect when she was a young dropout, she said she would have probably just driven anyway.
"I needed it. I had to have it," she said of her license.
Bill cosponsor Gen Olson, R-Minnetrista, the chair of the Senate Education Committee, said she typically opposes compulsory attendance laws.
"If they don't want to be [in school], they're going to be more disruptive," Olson said. But the driver's license linkage could provide would-be dropouts another reason to stay in school.
Despite its bipartisan support, it's unclear what chance the proposal has of becoming law this year, with legislators more focused on the state's $5 billion budget deficit than school attendance issues.
Former Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty supported similar initiatives in 2003 and 2004. Democratic Gov. Mark Dayton has not reviewed the proposal, his office said, and had no advance opinion on it.
Support for the measure may end up splitting along geographic lines.
"In greater Minnesota, if you're not driving, you're not getting around," Mariani said. "For the sake of their local economies, they might argue that this is a little bit too coercive."
No hearing has yet been scheduled for the bill.
Monday, April 18, 2011
Soaring gas prices cause changes in habits
STAR/TRIBUNE
Ann Freeman was filling up her Pontiac Vibe, watching the numbers on the pump spin so fast they blurred, when she noticed something she'd never seen before.
"I had never broken 40 bucks on gas before," she said, muttering to herself: "This is ridiculous."
She went home, got out her bicycle and took it in for a tuneup.
"My knees aren't what they used to be," Freeman, 54, said Monday afternoon. "But thanks to higher gas prices, I am motivated to drive less, ride more, save money and consume less."
As the average price of regular gasoline hit $3.88 a gallon Monday in the Twin Cities -- and threatened to enter the $4 orbit last reached in June 2008 -- Freeman wasn't the only one changing habits.
Buses are packed. Bike lanes are jammed. People are juggling child visitation dropoffs and making errand loops instead of separate trips to the vet, the cafe and the grocery store.
"The empirical evidence shows that escalating gas prices prompt people to cut back on driving and travel, work more from home and combine trips," said Prof. Akshay Rao, a marketing expert at the University of Minnesota's Carlson School of Management. "We are seeing a lot more sensitivity to energy consumption."
For five straight weeks, Americans have bought less gas than in comparable periods last year, according to MasterCard Spending Pulse, which monitors gas sold at 140,000 stations nationwide. The first week of April saw drivers pumping 2.4 million fewer gallons than they did last April -- a 3.6 percent drop despite an economic warmup that has created roughly 1 million jobs in the past year.
"More people are going to work and they should be buying more gas," said John Gamel, MasterCard's gas research director. But more than two-thirds of major gas station chains reported lower sales in a March survey. In the Twin Cities, where the price of gas soared 30 cents this month, that drop is showing up in places large and small.
"The buses are really packed," said Laura Kittelson, who commutes from Chanhassen to her downtown Minneapolis accounting job. "I used to be able to park on the second floor of my park-and-ride ramp. Now they need overflow lots."
Steve Basile and his wife, Naomi Sack, used to make a few errand runs a week from their south Minneapolis home. Both own economy cars, but now Basile says they do "giant errand loops together on the weekend." Recently, that meant combining the dropoff of their dog at the vet for an annual checkup, a grocery run, visits to a book and thrift store, and lunch at a cafe -- all on the same outing. "We sit there and plan it," Basile said. "It cuts our errand driving in half."
For Freeman, that recent $42 fill-up proved to be the boiling point. She used to commute by bike from the Seward neighborhood to her job at the University of Minnesota. She'd use her bike to visit friends, buy groceries and pick up prescriptions. But then she raised two kids, dropping them off at different day-care centers.
Now a grandmother of two with somewhat creaky knees, Freeman says gas prices have motivated her to saddle up again. "That $40 tank," she said, "renewed my commitment to return to those good habits."
Ann Freeman was filling up her Pontiac Vibe, watching the numbers on the pump spin so fast they blurred, when she noticed something she'd never seen before.
"I had never broken 40 bucks on gas before," she said, muttering to herself: "This is ridiculous."
She went home, got out her bicycle and took it in for a tuneup.
"My knees aren't what they used to be," Freeman, 54, said Monday afternoon. "But thanks to higher gas prices, I am motivated to drive less, ride more, save money and consume less."
As the average price of regular gasoline hit $3.88 a gallon Monday in the Twin Cities -- and threatened to enter the $4 orbit last reached in June 2008 -- Freeman wasn't the only one changing habits.
Buses are packed. Bike lanes are jammed. People are juggling child visitation dropoffs and making errand loops instead of separate trips to the vet, the cafe and the grocery store.
"The empirical evidence shows that escalating gas prices prompt people to cut back on driving and travel, work more from home and combine trips," said Prof. Akshay Rao, a marketing expert at the University of Minnesota's Carlson School of Management. "We are seeing a lot more sensitivity to energy consumption."
For five straight weeks, Americans have bought less gas than in comparable periods last year, according to MasterCard Spending Pulse, which monitors gas sold at 140,000 stations nationwide. The first week of April saw drivers pumping 2.4 million fewer gallons than they did last April -- a 3.6 percent drop despite an economic warmup that has created roughly 1 million jobs in the past year.
"More people are going to work and they should be buying more gas," said John Gamel, MasterCard's gas research director. But more than two-thirds of major gas station chains reported lower sales in a March survey. In the Twin Cities, where the price of gas soared 30 cents this month, that drop is showing up in places large and small.
"The buses are really packed," said Laura Kittelson, who commutes from Chanhassen to her downtown Minneapolis accounting job. "I used to be able to park on the second floor of my park-and-ride ramp. Now they need overflow lots."
Steve Basile and his wife, Naomi Sack, used to make a few errand runs a week from their south Minneapolis home. Both own economy cars, but now Basile says they do "giant errand loops together on the weekend." Recently, that meant combining the dropoff of their dog at the vet for an annual checkup, a grocery run, visits to a book and thrift store, and lunch at a cafe -- all on the same outing. "We sit there and plan it," Basile said. "It cuts our errand driving in half."
For Freeman, that recent $42 fill-up proved to be the boiling point. She used to commute by bike from the Seward neighborhood to her job at the University of Minnesota. She'd use her bike to visit friends, buy groceries and pick up prescriptions. But then she raised two kids, dropping them off at different day-care centers.
Now a grandmother of two with somewhat creaky knees, Freeman says gas prices have motivated her to saddle up again. "That $40 tank," she said, "renewed my commitment to return to those good habits."
Monday, April 11, 2011
Build a new stadium for the Vikings: Time is running out
Adam Platt STAR/TRIBUNE
It seems preposterous to advocate for hundreds of millions of dollars in state, county and municipal spending to build a football palace while the Republican majority in the Minnesota Legislature looks to balance the state's budget via $5 billion dollars in cuts to state programs and services.
Yet this is where we are today, we stadium advocates, insisting the time is now, with just a few months left on the Vikings lease and the Metrodome in a state of collapse.
Trust me, I am are aware of the pitiful context. Yet remember where we came from. We were told by opponents that spending on stadia would impair the state's ability to fund more important public services.
The Legislature punted year after year on a Vikings stadium, yet even so our roads are ever worse, our municipalities have even less money and our public schools have not been fixed. There has been no connection.
But to finally fund this effort while trying to impose draconian budget cuts? That's chutzpah, no? Well, yes, it is. But two wrongs don't make a right and the state should move forward with a Vikings stadium funding bill.
The state has played politics with this issue for too long. Even now the Legislature pretends to not be dealing with it until it "resolves" the budget via a set of bills sure to be vetoed. The ruse is to not inflame voter sentiment by appearing to prioritize the stadium ahead of the budget. Perhaps they can't walk and chew gum at the same time, either. Or maybe we're that gullible.
Don't be played for a sucker by accepting the idea that the choice is between a repaired Metrodome or a billion-dollar football palace. The choice is whether we want the Vikings long term, because the NFL has shown it will abandon communities over far less. Cleveland and Baltimore lost NFL teams and had to build new arenas and pay millions in franchise fees to finagle new teams (see: Minnesota Wild).
Why should we care? The Vikings are our most popular sports franchise, and their fate grips a majority of us every autumn. Why else are the malls empty at Sunday noon during the Christmas rush?
I'm not going to claim the Vikes matter more than roads, schools and caring for our seniors -- but they are part of the fabric of a healthy community. Repeated brinksmanship with sports franchises is a symptom of a government that can't work up the pride and fortitude to invest in things people care about. And typically the signs of that malaise are everywhere, not just in professional sports.
Target Field has given downtown Minneapolis a type of vibrancy that no Downtown Council initiative, hot restaurant or contrived festival could hope to produce. We are proud of the Twins, proud of their decidedly nonutilitarian ballpark, and we are proud to have people downtown any given evening.
It seems preposterous to advocate for hundreds of millions of dollars in state, county and municipal spending to build a football palace while the Republican majority in the Minnesota Legislature looks to balance the state's budget via $5 billion dollars in cuts to state programs and services.
Yet this is where we are today, we stadium advocates, insisting the time is now, with just a few months left on the Vikings lease and the Metrodome in a state of collapse.
Trust me, I am are aware of the pitiful context. Yet remember where we came from. We were told by opponents that spending on stadia would impair the state's ability to fund more important public services.
The Legislature punted year after year on a Vikings stadium, yet even so our roads are ever worse, our municipalities have even less money and our public schools have not been fixed. There has been no connection.
But to finally fund this effort while trying to impose draconian budget cuts? That's chutzpah, no? Well, yes, it is. But two wrongs don't make a right and the state should move forward with a Vikings stadium funding bill.
The state has played politics with this issue for too long. Even now the Legislature pretends to not be dealing with it until it "resolves" the budget via a set of bills sure to be vetoed. The ruse is to not inflame voter sentiment by appearing to prioritize the stadium ahead of the budget. Perhaps they can't walk and chew gum at the same time, either. Or maybe we're that gullible.
Don't be played for a sucker by accepting the idea that the choice is between a repaired Metrodome or a billion-dollar football palace. The choice is whether we want the Vikings long term, because the NFL has shown it will abandon communities over far less. Cleveland and Baltimore lost NFL teams and had to build new arenas and pay millions in franchise fees to finagle new teams (see: Minnesota Wild).
Why should we care? The Vikings are our most popular sports franchise, and their fate grips a majority of us every autumn. Why else are the malls empty at Sunday noon during the Christmas rush?
I'm not going to claim the Vikes matter more than roads, schools and caring for our seniors -- but they are part of the fabric of a healthy community. Repeated brinksmanship with sports franchises is a symptom of a government that can't work up the pride and fortitude to invest in things people care about. And typically the signs of that malaise are everywhere, not just in professional sports.
Target Field has given downtown Minneapolis a type of vibrancy that no Downtown Council initiative, hot restaurant or contrived festival could hope to produce. We are proud of the Twins, proud of their decidedly nonutilitarian ballpark, and we are proud to have people downtown any given evening.
Wednesday, April 6, 2011
Numbers of Children of Whites Falling Fast
NEW YORK TIMES
WASHINGTON — America’s population of white children, a majority now, will be in the minority during this decade, sooner than previously expected, according to a new report.
The Census Bureau had originally forecast that 2023 would be the tipping point for the minority population under the age of 18. But rapid growth among Latinos, Asians and people of more than one race has pushed it earlier, to 2019, according to William Frey, the senior demographer at the Brookings Institution who wrote the report about the shift, which has far-reaching political and policy implications.
The single largest increase was among Hispanics, whose birthrates are far above those of non-Hispanic whites, largely because the white population is aging and proportionally has fewer women in their child-bearing years. The median age of whites is 41, compared with 27 for Hispanics, the report said.
As a result, America’s future will include a far more diverse young population, and a largely white older generation. The contrast raises important policy questions. Will the older generation pay for educating a younger generation that looks less like itself? And while the young population is a potential engine of growth for the economy, will it be a burden if it does not have access to adequate education?
The population of white children fell by 4.3 million, or about 10 percent, in the last decade, while the population of Hispanic and Asian children grew by 5.5 million, or about 38 percent, according to the report, which was based on 2010 Census numbers.
The number of African-American children also fell, down by 2 percent. Over all, minorities now make up 46.5 percent of the under-18 population.
Whites are now the minority of child populations in 10 states, double the number from the previous decade, according to the report, and in 35 cities, including Atlanta, Phoenix and Orlando, Fla. Vermont had the largest drop in its child population of any state.
The changes also have political implications. Though whites are still 63 percent of the population as a whole, that is down from 75.6 percent in 1990, and minorities, particularly Hispanics, who now outnumber blacks, are becoming an increasingly important part of the electorate.
Mr. Frey estimates that whites will slip into the minority by about 2041. The number of whites grew by just 1.2 percent in the population as a whole in the last decade, a fraction of the 43 percent growth among Latinos.
WASHINGTON — America’s population of white children, a majority now, will be in the minority during this decade, sooner than previously expected, according to a new report.
The Census Bureau had originally forecast that 2023 would be the tipping point for the minority population under the age of 18. But rapid growth among Latinos, Asians and people of more than one race has pushed it earlier, to 2019, according to William Frey, the senior demographer at the Brookings Institution who wrote the report about the shift, which has far-reaching political and policy implications.
The single largest increase was among Hispanics, whose birthrates are far above those of non-Hispanic whites, largely because the white population is aging and proportionally has fewer women in their child-bearing years. The median age of whites is 41, compared with 27 for Hispanics, the report said.
As a result, America’s future will include a far more diverse young population, and a largely white older generation. The contrast raises important policy questions. Will the older generation pay for educating a younger generation that looks less like itself? And while the young population is a potential engine of growth for the economy, will it be a burden if it does not have access to adequate education?
The population of white children fell by 4.3 million, or about 10 percent, in the last decade, while the population of Hispanic and Asian children grew by 5.5 million, or about 38 percent, according to the report, which was based on 2010 Census numbers.
The number of African-American children also fell, down by 2 percent. Over all, minorities now make up 46.5 percent of the under-18 population.
Whites are now the minority of child populations in 10 states, double the number from the previous decade, according to the report, and in 35 cities, including Atlanta, Phoenix and Orlando, Fla. Vermont had the largest drop in its child population of any state.
The changes also have political implications. Though whites are still 63 percent of the population as a whole, that is down from 75.6 percent in 1990, and minorities, particularly Hispanics, who now outnumber blacks, are becoming an increasingly important part of the electorate.
Mr. Frey estimates that whites will slip into the minority by about 2041. The number of whites grew by just 1.2 percent in the population as a whole in the last decade, a fraction of the 43 percent growth among Latinos.
Monday, April 4, 2011
Koran-Burning Pastor Unrepentant in Face of Furor
NEW YORK TIMES
GAINESVILLE, Fla. — His church’s membership is down to just a few of the faithful. He is basically broke. Yet Terry Jones, the pastor who organized a mock trial that ended with the burning of a Koran and led to violence in Afghanistan, remained unrepentant on Saturday. He said that he was “saddened” and “moved” by the deaths, but that given the chance he would do it all over again.
“It was intended to stir the pot; if you don’t shake the boat, everyone will stay in their complacency,” Mr. Jones said. “Emotionally, it’s not all that easy. People have tried to make us responsible for the people who are killed. It’s unfair and somewhat damaging.”
Violent protests against the burning continued on Saturday in Kandahar, Afghanistan, where 9 people were killed and 81 injured. The previous day, 12 people were killed when a mob stormed a United Nations building in Mazar-i-Sharif, though on Saturday the top United Nations official in Afghanistan blamed Taliban infiltrators for the killings. He said the victims had been deliberately murdered rather than killed by an out-of-control mob.
“Did our action provoke them?” the pastor asked. “Of course. Is it a provocation that can be justified? Is it a provocation that should lead to death? When lawyers provoke me, when banks provoke me, when reporters provoke me, I can’t kill them. That would not fly.”
Mr. Jones, 59, with his white walrus moustache, craggy face and basso profundo voice, seems like a man from a different time. Sitting at his desk in his mostly unadorned office, he keeps a Bible in a worn brown leather cover by his side and a “Braveheart” poster within sight. Both, he said, provide spiritual sustenance for the mission at hand: Spreading the word that Islam and the Koran are instruments of “violence, death and terrorism.”
For protection, Jones and his followers — the 20 to 30 who are left — openly carry guns (they have licenses, he said) and have become more rigorous about checking their cars and visitors’ bags. Police protection is sometimes required when members travel, he said.
Mr. Jones said the decision to hold the mock trial of the Koran on March 20 was not made lightly. “We were worried,” he said. “We knew it was possible. We knew they might act with violence.”
There were similar predictions last year when Mr. Jones threatened to burn the Islamic holy book on Sept. 11. Throngs of reporters descended on the church, and Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates personally called and asked Mr. Jones not to do it. President Obama appealed to him over the airwaves.
This time would be different. This time, Mr. Jones said, there would be a trial, a fact that he said added heft to his decision. He teamed up with The Truth TV, a satellite channel out of California that is led by Ahmed Abaza, a former Muslim who converted to Christianity and who, Mr. Jones said, sympathizes with the church’s message.
The pastor said The Truth TV reached out to him last year after he canceled his plan to burn the Koran, and a partnership of sorts has since flourished. Mr. Abaza helped provide him with most of the witnesses and lawyers for the mock trial, Mr. Jones said. The Truth TV streamed the mock trial live in Arabic but chose not to broadcast the actual burning. Video of the trial can be found at the church Web site.
Mr. Jones’s mission is not a popular one in these parts. The Dove World Outreach Center’s membership evaporated after his preaching began to focus on what Mr. Jones said are the dangers of Islam. “We don’t have any members,” he said. “It’s not something your average person wants to do. “People want to hear the good news. But the church has a responsibility to speak about the word of God. But it also has to speak out about what is right — be it abortion or Islam. Churches and pastors are afraid.”
GAINESVILLE, Fla. — His church’s membership is down to just a few of the faithful. He is basically broke. Yet Terry Jones, the pastor who organized a mock trial that ended with the burning of a Koran and led to violence in Afghanistan, remained unrepentant on Saturday. He said that he was “saddened” and “moved” by the deaths, but that given the chance he would do it all over again.
“It was intended to stir the pot; if you don’t shake the boat, everyone will stay in their complacency,” Mr. Jones said. “Emotionally, it’s not all that easy. People have tried to make us responsible for the people who are killed. It’s unfair and somewhat damaging.”
Violent protests against the burning continued on Saturday in Kandahar, Afghanistan, where 9 people were killed and 81 injured. The previous day, 12 people were killed when a mob stormed a United Nations building in Mazar-i-Sharif, though on Saturday the top United Nations official in Afghanistan blamed Taliban infiltrators for the killings. He said the victims had been deliberately murdered rather than killed by an out-of-control mob.
“Did our action provoke them?” the pastor asked. “Of course. Is it a provocation that can be justified? Is it a provocation that should lead to death? When lawyers provoke me, when banks provoke me, when reporters provoke me, I can’t kill them. That would not fly.”
Mr. Jones, 59, with his white walrus moustache, craggy face and basso profundo voice, seems like a man from a different time. Sitting at his desk in his mostly unadorned office, he keeps a Bible in a worn brown leather cover by his side and a “Braveheart” poster within sight. Both, he said, provide spiritual sustenance for the mission at hand: Spreading the word that Islam and the Koran are instruments of “violence, death and terrorism.”
For protection, Jones and his followers — the 20 to 30 who are left — openly carry guns (they have licenses, he said) and have become more rigorous about checking their cars and visitors’ bags. Police protection is sometimes required when members travel, he said.
Mr. Jones said the decision to hold the mock trial of the Koran on March 20 was not made lightly. “We were worried,” he said. “We knew it was possible. We knew they might act with violence.”
There were similar predictions last year when Mr. Jones threatened to burn the Islamic holy book on Sept. 11. Throngs of reporters descended on the church, and Defense Secretary Robert M. Gates personally called and asked Mr. Jones not to do it. President Obama appealed to him over the airwaves.
This time would be different. This time, Mr. Jones said, there would be a trial, a fact that he said added heft to his decision. He teamed up with The Truth TV, a satellite channel out of California that is led by Ahmed Abaza, a former Muslim who converted to Christianity and who, Mr. Jones said, sympathizes with the church’s message.
The pastor said The Truth TV reached out to him last year after he canceled his plan to burn the Koran, and a partnership of sorts has since flourished. Mr. Abaza helped provide him with most of the witnesses and lawyers for the mock trial, Mr. Jones said. The Truth TV streamed the mock trial live in Arabic but chose not to broadcast the actual burning. Video of the trial can be found at the church Web site.
Mr. Jones’s mission is not a popular one in these parts. The Dove World Outreach Center’s membership evaporated after his preaching began to focus on what Mr. Jones said are the dangers of Islam. “We don’t have any members,” he said. “It’s not something your average person wants to do. “People want to hear the good news. But the church has a responsibility to speak about the word of God. But it also has to speak out about what is right — be it abortion or Islam. Churches and pastors are afraid.”