Saturday, November 23, 2013
CONTACT ME AT: manessmorrison2@yahoo.com



News Clips For The Day



The power of pre-K: Model early ed program in Chicago lifts entire family – NBC
In Plain Sight



A top-notch pre-school in Chicago offers Mesha Exum and her two sons a bridge to a better life.

CHICAGO––Mesha Exum wonders how her life would have turned out without a stroke of good luck 11 years ago.
She was 16 with an infant son and thought she would have to drop out of school after finding baby Adonis wet, screaming and unattended at the end of his first day of day care. But a few months later, thanks to a referral from a childbirth support program she’d participated in, Exum landed a coveted spot for her son at Educare, an extended-day, year-round preschool that accepts children as young as six weeks and keeps them until kindergarten.

In retrospect, it was like winning the early childhood education lottery.
As President Obama pushes for a major national investment in the littlest learners, a glimpse into the power of preschool sits less than a five-minute drive from his Hyde Park home.

Obama’s $75 billion proposal for universal preschool for 4-year-olds from low- and moderate-income families has been viewed as a political long shot: The funding would come from an increase in tobacco taxes, and preschools have been hard hit by the federal sequestration, indicating legislators’ willingness to cut rather than invest in early childhood education.

Then on Nov. 13, a bipartisan coalition in Congress introduced legislation that would improve access to early learning programs and boost program quality. Not only would states be able to apply for money to expand pre-kindergarten for 4-year-olds, they could receive support for earlier interventions like some seen at Educare, the flagship in a national network of 19 schools.

Funding details have yet to be worked out, and if passed, the legislation may ultimately represent a smaller investment than Obama originally sought. But at a time when it’s hard getting Congress to agree on anything, educators and advocates are cautiously hopeful that reforms they view as common sense may finally get their day in the spotlight.

“It’s truly historic legislation,” said Diana Rauner, president of the Ounce of Prevention Fund, which runs the Educare network.

Research: Good pre-k reduces future social costs
Famous research by University of Chicago economist and Nobel laureate James Heckman found that every dollar invested in a high-quality early education program saves taxpayers at least $7 in social costs later. The long-term savings decline even before kindergarten, since the older a child is, the harder deficiencies are to repair.

Adonis Exum, 11, does his science homework while his mother Mesha Exum attends a support group for single parents at Educare Nov. 6, 2013 in Chicago, Ill. (Photo by Armando L. Sanchez)

The biggest payoff comes from work with very young children because the more kids learn early, the better their school performance will be down the road.
Yet Early Head Start, the federal intervention program for disadvantaged children ages birth to 3, serves just 4 percent of those whose families are economically eligible. That compares with Head Start programs serving 42 percent of eligible 3- and 4-year-olds.

From a full-day schedule to more stringent educational requirements for teachers to a low staff-student ratio, all of the research-based best practices being pushed in Congress and then some are on display at Educare. The school enrolls 149 children, 98 percent of them African-American and all living at or below the poverty line. It is funded through public and private dollars.

With an annual budget of about $3 million, or $20,000 per child, the center isn’t likely to see mass replication of its entire program, but several specific aspects like a longer day and higher teaching standards could be adapted nationwide to help more kids. Educare’s operators seek to demonstrate––to policymakers and the public––effective strategies to stop poor children from falling behind.
In doing so, it brightens their parents’ prospects as well.

Bridge out of poverty
Exum is now 28 with a second son, 5-year-old Arimus Mosley, enrolled in his last year of preschool at Educare, which receives federal funding as an Early Head Start and Head Start site. The school provided swift assistance for speech delays in both of Exum’s boys, warding off potentially major difficulties later. Adonis Exum has tested out of speech and is on the honor roll in sixth grade at the Providence Englewood Charter School.

Arimus also got extra help with social development skills, and he is poised to enter kindergarten socially and academically ahead of many of his peers.
Thanks in part to support Mesha Exum received from the school, she went on to earn a high school diploma, an associate’s degree and then this year a bachelor’s in technology management. She recently enrolled in a Master of Business Administration program at DeVry University, majoring in accounting. Although she still works at a Potbelly sandwich shop and lives with her grandparents, along with her boys and their white rabbit Johnnie, she is on the road to a middle-class career.

The school, coupled with Exum’s own determination, has provided the family with a bridge out of poverty. “They played a big role in continuing my education,” said Exum, who wears dark glasses and is tall and thin, as are both her boys. Through the years she has attended many parent workshops, and she currently participates in a support group for mothers, all single like she is. To give back, she serves as an elected parent representative on the school’s governing body.

Rauner, of the Ounce of Prevention, considers the Educare network “a two-generation program.” A key goal is to empower parents to advocate for themselves and their children: to demand that quality continue once their kids get to elementary school and beyond, and to encourage others in their communities to do the same.

Mesha Exum takes a break from doing her homework to let her son Adonis Exum, 11, use her laptop Nov. 12, 2013, in Chicago, Ill. (Photo by Armando L. Sanchez)
“They’re learning what quality looks like––and that they deserve it,” said Rauner, whose husband is a Republican candidate for Illinois governor. To sustain the impact of early intervention, she and many others say, high-quality elementary and secondary schools are also necessary.

Strong public support for investing in early ed
Public opinion shows strong support for investing in early childhood education, a priority second only to job creation in a recent poll, and the issue has been gaining traction at state and local levels in various places. Bill de Blasio, who just won New York City’s mayoral election in a landslide, made universal pre-kindergarten a central tenet in his campaign. Yet his proposal, which would raise taxes on the wealthy, isn’t viewed as politically realistic.

Beyond politics, pragmatic hurdles stand in the way of every child having access to high-quality interventions. One is a lack of parent understanding in some poor and immigrant communities about the importance of early education. There is also a shortage of qualified early childhood teachers, who are notoriously underpaid, and of school facilities suitable for tiny people. And pre-kindergarten programs are often half-day, effectively useless for many working parents. 

In the South Side community of Grand Boulevard, Educare grew out of the ruins of a public housing project demolished in the late 1990s. Opening in 2000, the school was an offering to displaced families. Today, it draws families from across the city, some of whom endure long commutes to get there.

Exum and her family live in the southwestern part of the city. Nearby Englewood is one of Chicago’s poorest and most violent neighborhoods, but their block seems stable and well-cared for, lined with brick Historic Chicago Bungalows built circa 1940. Outside their home, a neighborhood watch group sign reminds passersby not to loiter, litter, solicit or speed. Inside, on a coffee table, Obama’s photos are framed alongside those of relatives.

'I want them to go far'
Each weekday morning, Exum and her sons pile into her navy Chevy Malibu no later than 7:15 a.m. They pass boarded-up houses, churches and auto parts stores on their 15-minute drive to Adonis’s charter school. Adonis has thrived there, but he is a quiet boy, and Exum is unsure whether the highly disciplined environment will be right for the more outgoing Arimus. Another option is a University of Chicago-run public school that many Educare graduates attend.

Another 20 minutes later, on a recent rainy and windy Wednesday, Exum carries Arimus, in a green puffy coat and Jake the Pirate backpack, into a bright white and light blue building with an enclosed playground. Educare’s modern facilities stand out on an otherwise dilapidated street.

At 7:50 a.m., Arimus is the fourth child of 16 to arrive in room 106. Educare is open from 7 a.m. to 6 p.m., with teaching assistants and aides for each room on staggered shifts and children coming and going according to their families’ schedules.
Learning is disguised as fun, with student choice guiding activities from dress-up to Play-Doh to an in-class sandbox, Arimus’s favorite. The class has collectively been studying clothes––types, shapes, colors, textures––based on the children’s fascination with putting them on and taking them off. There is plenty of time for eating, teeth-brushing, napping and using the miniature toilets.

While Arimus listens to “The Little Engine That Could,” Exum is on her way to work. She normally returns for him around 3:30 p.m., though on Wednesdays he stays in class late during her mothers’ support group while his big brother does homework in Educare’s parent center.

The family spends time together in the evening, with bedtime for the boys by 9. Then Exum begins her own schoolwork, done mostly online. These days she can usually get to bed by midnight, a luxury compared with the months when she was finishing her bachelor’s and often stayed up until 3 or 4 a.m. She’s up again before 6 to get her sons ready for a new day.

Tired though she may be, they motivate her to keep striving for the best for herself. “I want them to go far,” she said. “So I figure if I do it, they’ll go far, too.”

This story was produced by The Hechinger Report, a nonprofit, nonpartisan education-news outlet based at Teachers College, Columbia University.


Budget sequestration in 2013
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The budget sequestration in 2013 refers to the automatic spending cuts to United States federal government spending in particular categories of outlays[note 1] that were initially set to begin on January 1, 2013, as an austerity fiscal policy as a result of Budget Control Act of 2011 (BCA), and were postponed by two months by the American Taxpayer Relief Act of 2012 until March 1 when this law went into effect.[1]
The reductions in spending authority are approximately $85.4 billion (versus $42 billion in actual cash outlays[note 2]) during fiscal year 2013,[2](p14) with similar cuts for years 2014 through 2021.

The cuts are split evenly (by dollar amounts, not by percentages) between the defense and non-defense categories.[note 3] Some major programs like Social Security, Medicaid, federal pensions and veteran's benefits are exempt. By a special provision in the BCA, Medicare spending will be reduced by a fixed 2% per year versus the other, domestic percents planned for the sequester

On August 2, 2011, President Obama signed the Budget Control Act of 2011 as part of an agreement with Congress to resolve the debt-ceiling crisis. The Act provided for a Joint Select Committee on Deficit Reduction (the "super committee") to produce legislation by late November that would decrease the deficit by $1.2 trillion over ten years. When the super committee failed to act,[8] another part of the BCA went into effect. This directed automatic across-the-board cuts (known as "sequestrations") split evenly between defense and domestic spending, beginning on January 2, 2013.


http://www.educareschools.org/home/index.php
ACE Student Success Programs

The EduCare Story
From a Los Angeles seventh grade elective class in 1987 on self-esteem and success skills, to now serving thousands of students daily in Los Angeles and other cities, EduCare transforms the lives of our young people.

Assembling a team of talented professionals, Stu and Candace Semigran created a prototype program to provide interactive and hands-on character development, self-esteem and life skills education. It was called “Achievement and Commitment to Excellence” — The ACE Program, and was first presented to at-risk students in Los Angeles’ schools.

The results were profound, for the students, their teachers, the school administrators, the community, and, perhaps equally importantly, for the families of the kids in the program. Absenteeism dropped, grades improved, high school completion rates rose. Violence lessened.

By 2010, it’s work has been presented in over 400 schools, districts, and youth-serving agencies, and have reached over 40,000 youth worldwide


The article from the Educare web site did not state whether parents have to pay tuition for their children to attend this program. The featured mother Mesha Exum is poor, so I don't expect that she could pay tuition. The web site has a conspicuous “Donate Now” button, so I assume it is free.

According to the National Women's Law Center, legislation is being introduced by Senator Tom Harkin (D-IA), Representative George Miller (D-CA), and Representative Richard Hanna (R-NY) to expand access to preschools from low and moderate income levels. It would also cover infant and toddler care under Early Head Start. Parents with incomes at or below 200 percent of poverty would be qualified.

It's good that this would cover people of “moderate” income levels as well as the very poor. People in that income group struggle to get along, too, especially if they have a mortgage to pay. I know from my school years that some of my peers from the poorest white families tended to make lower grades in school and had less chance to go to college unless they got a scholarship.

This emphasis on the youngest years mental enrichment such as the infant and toddler program is important, because if a young student comes from a home where the parents read to him from books from the library and encourage his enjoyment and pride in learning, he will already know his alphabet, some simple counting, and maybe even word recognition by the time he gets to the first grade, as well as having advanced verbal vocabulary. That early learning is less likely to occur in the home of parents who both work and even have difficulty with basic nutrition and stability. It also gives them the very early socialization experiences which make fitting in with society easier.




Native American travels across U.S. photographing citizens of tribal nations – NBC

By Simon Moya-Smith, Staff Writer, NBC News

She sleeps on couches, dines with strangers and lives out of her car. Still, Matika Wilbur does it for the art and for the people.

Wilbur is Native American. Invariably strapped to her arm is a camera, and other than a few provisions and clothing, she owns little else. Last year she sold everything in her Seattle apartment, packed a few essentials into her car and then hit the road.
Since then, she's been embarking on her most recent project, "Project 562."
The plan is to photograph citizens of each federally recognized tribe, Wilbur said. Sometimes she'll journey to an isolated reservation, other times she'll meet some of the 70 percent of Native Americans living in urban settings. Yet she hopes that when her project is complete it will serve to educate the nation and "shift the collective conscious" toward recognizing its indigenous communities.

To date, Wilbur has photographed citizens of 159 tribes.
In 2010, when Wilbur first conceptualized the campaign, there were 562 federally recognized tribes in the U.S., hence the name. Since then, the U.S. government has added four more nations to the list.

Native American activist and poet John Trudell, left, and Son Coup of the Santee Sioux Nation pose for a photo in San Francisco, Calif., in July.
The project all began three years ago when Wilbur photographed her elders from both of her tribes, the Swinomish and Tulalip. She soon decided it was not enough to photograph only her people. After raising $35,000 through Kickstarter.com, an online funding platform, she had enough to realize her project and zip across the country capturing the faces of this nation's first peoples.

Wilbur said her project is aimed toward debunking the bevy of erroneous stereotypes surrounding Native American culture and society and to reiterate the continual presence of Native Americans.

"We are still here," she said. "We remain."
One of those stereotypes is the image of Indians clad in feathers, nearly naked running across the prairie, whooping it up like what's oft portrayed in western cinema. Also the caricature image of Indians as mascots.

With that in mind, Wilbur said the project is meant to drive conversations about the ubiquitous appropriation of Native American culture and to discuss how U.S. citizens can evolve beyond the co-opting of indigenous images and traditions.
"I hope to educate these audiences that it's not OK to dress up like an Indian on Halloween," she said. "I'm not a Halloween costume. I hope to encourage a new conversation of sharing and to help us move beyond the stereotypes."

Wilbur added that she hopes her photos -- her craft -- will display the "beauty of (Native) people and to introduce some of our leaders to a massive audience."
Wilbur, 29, operates on a modest budget and relies heavily on the "generosity and kindness" of the people she meets when travelling throughout Indian country. Many of her photo subjects will host her overnight and provide her with meals.

Anna Cook of the Swinomish and Hualapai tribes poses for a photo in Swinomish, Wash., earlier this month.

"I come in a good way. I bring gifts. I interact with their children well. I behave myself. I walk the red road," she said. "People believe in my project because they, too, have been affected by the stereotypical image and they want to see it change."
In between shoots, or maybe over dinner, Wilbur will tape record her subjects as they impart their wisdom and life stories. She plans to transfer the files to an application, which will coincide the corresponding photos in a future exhibition.
In the last year, Wilbur has slept in her two-seater Honda only once or twice but, following a new fundraiser in January, she hopes to get a van to sleep in on those long nights out on the open road. 

Wilbur said that the fact that there are newly recognized tribes is indicative of the progress Native Americans are making today and that she plans to photograph the four tribes as well as various others who haven't been recognized by the federal government.

Currently, Native Americans make up 1.6 percent of the entire U.S. population, according to the U.S. Census. 

On Oct. 31, President Barack Obama proclaimed November 2013 as Native American Heritage Month and designated Nov. 29, 2013 as Native American Heritage Day.
Wilbur's previous work has been showcased across the U.S. and internationally at the Royal British Columbia Museum in Canada and the Fine Arts Museum of Nantes in France.
In May 2014, the Tacoma Art Museum in Washington will host an exhibition of Wilbur's collection of photos. In the meantime, she says she'll continue her project and "let it flow as the spirit moves it."


These photographs along with DNA tests would answer some questions that archaeologists have about the early migrations across the Bering Land Bridge. It's also creates a great opportunity to celebrate the beauty of humankind. I wish I could see her pictures. Maybe she will publish a book when she finishes this project and settles down.



North Korea confirms it is holding US citizen – NBC

By Rick Gladstone


The State Department said Friday that North Korea had confirmed that it was holding an American citizen, whom family and friends have identified as an octogenarian veteran of the Korean War inexplicably detained there last month as he was concluding an officially approved nine-day tour of the country.

North Korea’s confirmation broke nearly four weeks of silence by the North Korean authorities about the detained veteran, Merrill Newman, 85, of Palo Alto, Calif. It was conveyed to the State Department by Sweden’s embassy in the North, which represents American interests in North Korea.

Mr. Newman’s wife, Lee, issued a public statement beseeching North Korea to let him come home, describing his detention there as “some dreadful misunderstanding.”
Jen Psaki, the State Department spokeswoman, told reporters at a regular news briefing in Washington that Sweden’s embassy had “been informed by North Korea of the detention of a U.S. citizen.” She would not identify the citizen by name because of the legal requirements of the department’s privacy policy, but family members had said this week that the person was Mr. Newman.

“We are working in close coordination with representatives of the Embassy of Sweden to resolve this issue, and they also have requested, actually on a daily basis, consular access,” Ms. Psaki said.

Mr. Newman is the second American citizen seized by the North Korean authorities over the past year, a barometer of the deeply estranged relations between the United States and North Korea, which remain in a technical state of war after 60 years.
Last November, Kenneth Bae, 44, an American Christian missionary and tour operator, was seized in the North Korean port of Rason and later convicted of hostile acts against the government. He is serving a 15-year sentence of hard labor.

It is unclear what accusations, if any, Mr. Newman may face from the North Koreans, who have not explained why they have detained him. His family has said that he has a heart ailment and that it was unknown whether a 30-day supply of medicine forwarded to the Swedish Embassy in Pyongyang, the capital, which it delivered to the North Korean Foreign Ministry, had ever reached Mr. Newman.

There has been speculation that Mr. Newman’s detention was precipitated by what his traveling companion on the tour, Bob Hamrdla, later described as a difficult conversation Mr. Newman had with North Korean officials concerning the war.

The newspaper Military Times reported Friday that another Merrill Newman, 84, who lives in Oregon, also was a Korean War veteran and that he had won a Silver Star in 1952 for leading a Marine platoon in attacks that inflicted heavy casualties on North Korean troops. The account appeared to raise the possibility that the North Korean authorities had mistaken one Merrill Newman for the other.

But Jeff Newman, the detained American’s son, has told reporters that there is no indication that the North Koreans have confused the two.
This story, "North Korea Confirms It Is Holding U.S. Citizen," originally appeared in The New York Times.


There are many countries around the world where I would not want to travel, due to either violence against tourists or a run-in with the government. It really does look like the head of North Korea is mentally disturbed. To consider their country to be at war with the US still after 60 years without conflict takes holding a grudge to an extreme degree. Meanwhile he lets his people starve and keeps them under the tightest subjugation. I hope Mr. Newman is released, though if the missionary's case is any indication of what to expect, it looks very bad for him. I'll try to keep up with this case.




'Colonial Bros and Nava-Hos' frat party investigated by California university – NBC
By Simon Moya-Smith, Staff Writer, NBC News

Sexism and racism were the topics of discussion during a forum Friday at a northern California university after a fraternity and sorority hosted a theme party last week deemed offensive to women and Native Americans.

Officials at California Polytechnic State University (Cal Poly) in San Luis Obispo told NBC News that they were investigating an off-campus party allegedly called, "Colonial Bros and Nava-Hos."

At the party, men reportedly dressed up in colonial-era costumes and women wore scantily clad Native American-themed attire.
"Cal Poly is currently reviewing an off-campus party that occurred on Nov. 16 that may have included culturally insensitive, sexist, and offensive behavior," university spokesman Matt Lazier wrote in an email. "While the gathering was held off campus, the university takes diversity and inclusivity very seriously."

In a campus-wide email, university President Jeffrey D. Armstrong denounced the party and said university officials "will respond to any violations of the Standards for Student Conduct" following an investigation.

"Let us be clear, events like these have no place in the Cal Poly community and are not reflective of the principles of The Mustang Way," he wrote. "Obviously, this was not a university-sponsored event."

A Cal Poly student and fraternity member named Daniel, who declined to provide his last name, told the San Luis Obispo Tribune that he didn't think the party "was meant to be racist."

“It’s unfair,” he said. “We are taught that Thanksgiving is Pilgrims and Indians.”
Tristin Moone, a citizen of the Diné (Navajo) Nation who is a student of Native American Studies at Columbia University in New York, told NBC News that she's concerned by the psychology of those who would think this type of party is acceptable.
"I think the mentality that went into the creation of this party, the mentality that thought this was OK, is ubiquitous in America," she said.

Moone, who was born and raised on the Diné reservation in northeast Arizona and northwest New Mexico, said she's concerned for the indigenous students who may attend Cal Poly and whether their peers view them as contemporary individuals.
"I’m worried about indigenous students in that institution not having an ally or advocate who can help mentor them, and guide students for a better understanding of Native peoples around the world," she said.

Lazier wrote that Friday's forum was a part of several "ongoing efforts to promote a culture of support, diversity, inclusivity and community engagement" at Cal Poly.
Moone said she believes such efforts should also include hearing and learning from the Native American community and allowing them to teach their own history.
"I think (parties) like these are very reflective of how the dominant narrative is supported and nurtured throughout American schools and universities, and how it stifles and hinders and silences the Native American narrative," she said.


Native Americans have, for the most part, been mainstreamed in American society, at least away from the reservations. They have to make their lives on their own unless there are clubs or support groups on college campuses. They are a small minority compared to black students, and among most whites on the east coast are received as individuals rather than being recipients of discrimination. In the western US they are considered second class by a greater number of whites, and are subjugated to their mistreatment.

I think undergraduate level college students tend to be immature, still, and likely to consider any drinking party to be a good thing, no matter what its theme. They come often from family backgrounds which are biased against racial minorities, and while some of the courses they take in college will tend to educate them about other groups and improve the situation, they are still likely to be insensitive.

All these stories in the news from day to day about bullying are all about status ranking among teens, and sometimes their parents don't teach them to treat all people with dignity, unfortunately because their parents don't do it themselves. We still have a long way to go in this country about race. I think this is just another example of it. I think the university may have to sanction the fraternity and sorority that dreamed this up. Fraternities and sororities have been known to be kicked off campus for their hijinks.





Army officer who wanted 'more average looking women' in PR materials steps down – NBC
By Courtney Kube and Jim Miklaszewski, NBC News

A U.S. Army colonel who wrote an email suggesting attractive women should not be portrayed in U.S. Army promotional materials stepped down from her job Friday.
Col. Lynette Arnhart recently sent an email arguing that an attractive woman shown in a photo in an Army magazine sent the wrong signal. Arnhart argued that unattractive women are perceived as competent while attractive women are perceived as having used their looks to get ahead.

She went on to argue that the Army should use "more average looking women" or women who are willing to do the dirty work. Arnhart said that photos of attractive women in uniform lead people to ask if breaking a nail is considered hazardous duty.
Until she stepped down, Arnhart was in charge of the Army research project examining women's transition into combat roles.

"In order to protect the integrity of the ongoing work on gender integration in the Army, Col. Lynette Arnhart agreed to step down as the gender integration study director," an Army spokesperson said tonight.

The public affairs officer at the Army Training and Doctrine Command -- the recipient of Arnhart's email -- has also been suspended, pending the outcome of an investigation.

That officer, Col. Chris Kubik, sent NBC News a statement about the email earlier this week, saying that it "was an internal discussion; nothing more."
"This discussion was not and is not reflective of Army policy. The intent of the message was to help ensure that images depict professional female soldiers as they are, and to ensure they are recognized based on their hard-earned achievements as members of the profession of arms," Kubik wrote.


It's time we stopped calling good looking women bimbos. I feel sorry for this (female!) army officer, because she was just trying to make a valid point. Too often the “Barbie doll” image dominates women's self-image, and it is a pressure that society in general places on young girls and women, but I agree with her superior officers that to give in to this pressure and exclude women because they are beautiful is worse. Many beautiful women are also intelligent and hard-working citizens. I think of Vanna White on the Wheel of Fortune show. She is very personable, bright and down to earth, while being a stunning bit of “eye candy.” Give them a break, people!








Army Considers Reclassifying Fort Hood Shooting, Pending Review
Reclassifying Fort Hood attack as international terrorism could allow Purple Hearts, benefits to victims
By Scott Friedman

NBC 5 Investigates has learned the United States Army plans to launch another review of the Fort Hood shooting to see if it was an act of “international terrorism. “  The result of that review could have a big impact on the victims who’ve been denied Purple Heart medals and the financial benefits that come with them.

In a letter dated Nov. 1 to South Carolina Congressman Joe Wilson, U.S.  Army Secretary John McHugh said, “the intelligence community considers Major Hasan to be a 'homegrown violent extremist' - a person who may engage in ideologically - motivated terrorist activities …"

Shawn Manning was shot six times by Maj. Nidal Hasan, the Army psychiatrist who’s been sentenced to death for gunning down 32 people and killing 13 at Fort Hood in 2009.

NBC 5 Investigates shared the letter with Manning who said, “it's the closest that the Secretary of the Army, Department of Defense, has gotten to saying this is an act of terrorism.”

Still, the secretary said Hasan's victims are not entitled to Purple Hearts because the Department of Defense has not been able to establish Hasan was acting at the direction of a foreign terrorist organization.

They're mixing words a little bit, but [I] guess it's better than them saying that this was just a mere act of workplace violence or trying to play this down,” said Manning.

In terrorism cases, Purple Hearts can only be given to soldiers wounded or killed as the result of an international terrorist attack.
Manning and other victims believe Hasan's communications with Al-Qaeda leader Anwar-al-Awlaki,  who was in Yemen before the attack, should be enough to prove an international connection.

Former Marine Corps prosecutor Colby Vokey believes the Army should simply give the victims benefits similar to those given to Purple Heart recipients.
‘We're talking about a very small, identifiable group of people that were hurt in this attack.  Why don't we just step up right now and take care of them,” said Volkey.
Congress could also step in and award Purple Hearts and currently legislation is under consideration to make that happen.

Meanwhile the Army secretary's letter said he has now "directed staff to conduct a thorough review of the records of trial in the court martial of Major Hasan," to see if the trial revealed new evidence establish a link to international terrorism.
For now, Shawn Manning and other victims continue to hope the Army will help Hasan's victims the way they helped victims of other attacks overseas.

“He took a lot of courageous men and women away from their families, ruined a lot of lives, for what?” said Manning.
McHugh turned down an interview request. 

An Army spokesman at the Pentagon sent a statement that said the following:
“Eligibility for the Purple Heart - as with other military awards - is quite specific.  Purple Hearts may be awarded to military personal killed or wounded as a result of an "international terrorist attack;" however, intelligence reports, investigations and studies such as those by the Webster Commission and Congressional Research Service, all found that Hasan acted as a lone wolf.  While there has been no intelligence or findings to date that indicate Hasan was under the direction or control of a foreign element, we are currently reviewing court transcripts to determine whether any evidence to the contrary was presented at trial.  At this point in time, victims of the Fort Hood tragedy do not qualify for the Purple Heart, but if something is found in our investigation of court records, we will, of course, act accordingly.”


I agree with those who say his contact with Anwar-al-Awlaki and subsequent radicalization is enough proof of the international connection. Give them the medals, already!



­

Miami-Area Police Force Accused Of Rampant Racial Profiling – NPR
by Eyder Peralta
­ Based on witness interviews, public records and surveillance video, The Miami Herald dropped a stunning story on Friday: It alleges that for years, the Miami Gardens Police Department has racially profiled the clients and employees of a convenience store in the Miami-area city.

Yes, you've heard that before. But the case of Earl Sampson is especially outrageous: Sampson, the paper found, has been stopped and questioned 258 times in the past four years. The paper continues:
"He's been searched more than 100 times. And arrested and jailed 56 times.
"Despite his long rap sheet, Sampson, 28, has never been convicted of anything more serious than possession of marijuana.
"Miami Gardens police have arrested Sampson 62 times for one offense: trespassing.
"Almost every citation was issued at the same place: the 207 Quickstop, a convenience store on 207th Street in Miami Gardens.

"But Sampson isn't loitering. He works as a clerk at the Quickstop."
The essence of the rest of the story is that police seem to think the Quickstop is at the nexus of the high crime that has plagued the city, but along the way the store's owner, who at first wanted to cooperate with police, noticed a pattern of abuse.
He setup a series of cameras not to protect his business from crime, but instead to capture the abuse committed by police. Now those videos will become the centerpiece of a federal civil rights lawsuit being filed by the store's owner.

The whole investigation is worth a read, so we encourage you to click over. The Herald ran a followup story today in which city leaders stood by their police department.

http://www.miamiherald.com/2013/11/21/3769823/in-miami-gardens-store-video-catches.html

Almost every citation was issued at the same place: the 207 Quickstop, a convenience store on 207th Street in Miami Gardens.
But Sampson isn’t loitering. He works as a clerk at the Quickstop.
So how can he be trespassing when he works there?

It’s a question the store’s owner, Alex Saleh, 36, has been asking for more than a year as he watched Sampson, his other employees and his customers, day after day, being stopped and frisked by Miami Gardens police. Most of them, like Sampson, are poor and black.

And, like Sampson, many of them have been cited for minor infractions, sometimes as often as three times in the same day.
Saleh was so troubled by what he saw that he decided to install video cameras in his store. Not to protect himself from criminals, because he says he has never been robbed. He installed the cameras — 15 of them — he said, to protect him and his customers from police.

Since he installed the cameras in June 2012 he has collected more than two dozen videos, some of which have been obtained by the Miami Herald. Those tapes, and Sampson’s 38-page criminal history — including charges never even pursued by prosecutors — raise some troubling questions about the conduct of the city’s police officers.

The videos show, among other things, cops stopping citizens, questioning them, aggressively searching them and arresting them for trespassing when they have permission to be on the premises; officers conducting searches of Saleh’s business without search warrants or permission; using what appears to be excessive force on subjects who are clearly not resisting arrest and filing inaccurate police reports in connection with the arrests.

“There is just no justifying this kind of behavior,’’ said Chuck Drago, a former police officer and consultant on police policy and the use of force. “Nobody can justify overstepping the constitution to fight crime.”
Repeated phone messages and emails to Miami Gardens Police Chief Matthew Boyd and City Manager Cameron Benson asking for comment on this story were not returned.

Boyd did release a statement, saying that the department is committed to serving and protecting the citizens and businesses in the city.
But Howard Simon, executive director of the American Civil Liberties Union Florida, said that’s exactly what Boyd is NOT doing.

“Where is the police chief in all this? In a police department in a city this size, this kind of behavior could not escape his attention. Doesn’t the City Commission know that they are exposing the city to either massive liability for civil rights violations? Either that, or they are going to wake up one day and find the U.S. Department of Justice has taken over its police department.’’

Saleh and his attorney, Steve Lopez, are preparing to file a federal civil rights lawsuit, contending that the police department has routinely, under the direction of the city’s top leaders, directed its officers to conduct racial profiling, illegal stops and searches and other activities to cover up illegal misconduct.



This storekeeper is a hero, it seems to me. He went to great lengths to collect the information against the police, and now is going to file a federal civil rights suit. Police, too often, go rogue and oppress the citizens, while being allowed to continue doing that by their supervisors. Most cops are good citizens, but some get on a power trip and abuse their positions. Not only is it grossly unfair, it wastes the city's time and money. No wonder many black people don't trust police enough to report crimes in their community. This story is an extreme case of police overreaching, I think, but it isn't unlike other stories in other cities. It's a problem with a situation in which someone in authority is trusted completely by many citizens, and as a result becomes corrupt.