Sunday, April 20, 2014


News Clips For The Day



College Tours Demystify Campus Life for Parents New to Higher Ed – NBC
By Nona Willis Aronowitz
First published April 20 2014


CLEVELAND—“O-H…” a chaperone shouted expectantly to a bus full of bleary-eyed passengers.

“I-O!” the group responded. It was 8:30 a.m. on a recent Thursday, and the bus was headed to Ohio State-Mansfield’s campus, a smaller, sleepier version of Ohio’s flagship university, about an hour outside the city. The bus was filled with kids of various ages, from eighth graders already anticipating college to seniors doing some last-minute planning for next year. But the bus was also filled with their parents—many of whom had never visited a college campus before.

These parents are pupils of Parent University, part of an effort by the Cleveland Metropolitan School District to get parents, especially low-income ones, more involved in their kids’ schoolwork and, eventually, their college admissions processes. Launched in 2011 and inspired by a similar program in Boston, around 1,500 parents to date have attended sessions, which provide information about anything from Common Core standards to financial aid forms for college. The idea for the college tours originated when Tracy Hill, the district’s executive director for the Office of Family and Community Engagement, went on a five-college tour in Ohio with her own daughter and noticed a dearth of diversity.

“We were one of the only African-American families there,” she said. “There was just a sea of white…Cleveland parents were not represented there. They don’t know that these things are going on.”

Hill partnered with College Now, a nonprofit that helps Cleveland students apply for college scholarships and financial aid, to launch the parent tours last year. At first it was hard to get parents to come, even on a Saturday—50 people would register, Hill said, yet only five would show. But eventually, the word spread and the buses began filling up.

“Many of these students will be the first in their family to go to college, so their parents don’t know what a college campus is like,” Hill said “They get their information from the movies and think it’s all frats and party-party stuff. We demystify the college process for them. [These parents] don’t know to call colleges and say, ‘When is your visitation day?’”

Families from Parent University College Tours look around at the recreation center on the Ohio State Mansfield campus on Mar. 26, in Mansfield, Ohio.

These dual-generation college tour programs have sprung up in a few other places nationally; the Los Angeles school district has been conducting them for four years through their Parent College. This year, more than 1,000 parents and children have signed up for the tours in Cleveland, including Samone Austin, a 32-year-old mother of three. She took a day off from work doing hair at a salon to get on the bus that Thursday with her 16-year-old daughter, Shania, who is interested in becoming a nurse or a social worker.

“[Shania] needs to see everything that’s available to her,” said Austin, who had never gone on a college tour or visited a campus outside the city. She managed to finish high school and a semester of community college before she dropped out to work full-time at Sears. She remembers struggling in her math and English classes even before she got pregnant at 16—and no one in school or at home helped her with her coursework, let alone the college process.

“I probably would have either majored in business or something in health care,” she said. “I don’t want my children to have those regrets, and I know they need to be supported.”

Toby Parcel, a sociologist at North Carolina State University who co-authored a study linking parent involvement directly to student achievement, said these tours are part of building “social capital” for kids who otherwise don’t have it.

“[Middle-class] children just grow up with this notion that college is important,” giving them a head start when they get to high school, said Parcel. “Going on these college tours may be part of that catch-up for low-income kids. The earlier parents start talking about college with their children and setting that as a goal, the earlier kids will take on that goal for themselves.”

Having their parents there, said Parcel, will only crystallize kids’ motivation.
“If the kids are just going on the college tours by themselves, and the parents aren’t there to signal that this is important, some at-risk kids may not take it seriously,” she said.

“[Middle-class] children just grow up with this notion that college is important,” giving them a head start when they get to high school.

Upon arriving at the campus, the group was herded into an auditorium, where admissions officers and student volunteers handed out packets and ran down the basics: deadlines, facilities, majors, housing. Some of the parents dutifully took notes on the backs of their pamphlets.

After the presentation, a fresh-faced student tour guide named Tom brought the group on a tour of the grounds. It was a raw, gloomy day—void of the outdoor scenes on college brochures of students lounging in the courtyards—and the rural campus itself was made up of a few drab, institutional buildings. Still, a muted buzz of excitement permeated the group as they eyed the gym, the computer lab, the glittery sign advertising a 90s house party, the roomy, Febreze-scented student housing. Tom provided the group with promotional facts: The campus is ethnically diverse. None of the classes are taught by teaching assistants. It’s easy to get tickets to Ohio State football games.

“I know they’re happy about that,” said Jesse Prather, with a chuckle. He’s on the tour today with his two teenaged boys, Jai-Shon Stanard, 15, and Tyron Folds, 14. “They love sports, but I want them to have a plan B and plan C if basketball doesn’t work out.”

Prather never took college seriously as an option. His parents had worked in the cotton fields in Georgia until they moved up north, and “they never did the things I’m doing like showing up and signing up for things.” And it didn’t seem difficult to find work, anyway. Prather starting working at the General Electric plant right after high school.

“Cleveland was slightly different back then,” said Prather, who now works for a transportation company. “There were actually jobs around. Now you kind of need that college degree.”

Prather, who has seven sons, was looking forward to the last chunk of the tour: the part where the admissions officers talked frankly about money. The confusion and bureaucracy of paying for college—not to mention the cost itself—seemed to be the most daunting part of the college process for the Cleveland parents on the tour that day.

“A kid may have very good grades,” said Hill. “But the parents are the ones who have to sign the waivers for the application fee. They have to make sure they do their income taxes because they do the [Free Application for Federal Student Aid] before the February deadline.”

Back on the bus after the tour, Austin was still a little nervous about the price tag—“those apartments seem expensive,” she said. But she admitted she now understood more about FAFSA and was glad to know the deadlines. “Hopefully we can get scholarships together. It seems like there’s stuff out there for [Shania],” she said.

Beyond practical information, Hill sees the tours as a chance for the school district to earn back parents’ trust. Cleveland’s school district has one of the worst reputations in the state—it’s ranked 608 out of 611 in academic performance—and as a result, 30,000 children have fled the system to charter or private schools.
Hill said many teachers and principals blame the parents. “They say, ‘they’re terrible. They’re ignorant. They don’t care.’” These tours, she said, not only expel this myth by their sheer participation rates, but also “change the culture from ‘parents are the problem’ to ‘parents are our partners.’”
For the longest time, “parents were the excuse for the kids not achieving,” said Hill. “You have to take that excuse away.”




Parent University, created by the Cleveland Metropolitan School District, is a program set up to educate parents and kids as to what to expect when going to college and the preparation in the years beforehand. It aims to involve parents, especially low-income people, more fully in their kids' school work and later the college admissions efforts. Like many simple and direct ideas, it is brilliant. It takes away the fear of the unknown and informs the students of what to expect and how to prepare scholastically.

It began with Tracy Hill, of the Office of Family and Community Engagement, when she and her daughter toured five college campuses in the state for possible attendance. She found largely white students on the campuses. She said, ““We were one of the only African-American families there,” she said. “There was just a sea of white…Cleveland parents were not represented there. They don’t know that these things are going on.” Hill joined with College Now, a nonprofit for helping Cleveland students with their financial paperwork, and produced the tours.

Enrollment was slow to develop, but finally they had their buses full of participants. Other areas of the country have started similar programs as well. In Cleveland this year enrollment reached 1,000, including both parents and students.

Toby Parcel has co-authored a program linking student achievement to parental involvement. He says that while Middle Class kids grow up knowing that they should aim for college, the poorer kids may not. The parental presence on the tours helps “crystallize” it for the kids. “If the kids are just going on the college tours by themselves, and the parents aren’t there to signal that this is important, some at-risk kids may not take it seriously,” she said.

Jesse Prather, a parent said of his two boys, “They love sports, but I want them to have a plan B and plan C if basketball doesn’t work out.” This is one of the main problems with teenagers. Unless they have been specifically educated by their parents about the adult world of work they know little, and when it comes to the question “What do you want to do when you grow up?” they will say something like “be a basketball or football player.” If it's a girl she may want to become a model. They don't know that by the age of 40 they won't be able to continue with those jobs, not to mention the very high degree of competition to be hired on in the first place.

“Hill said many teachers and principals blame the parents. 'They say, ‘they’re terrible. They’re ignorant. They don’t care.’ These tours, she said, not only expel this myth by their sheer participation rates, but also “change the culture from ‘parents are the problem’ to ‘parents are our partners.’” It is often true that poor people who came from generations of poverty are “ignorant,” indeed. That is blacks, Latinos, American Indians and yes, whites. We have a population in this country that is largely fairly ignorant, though school participation is not the only way to measure whether or not a person is educated. I continue to maintain that people who don't continue to read, watch the news on television or read it, try to catch some of those good documentaries on Public Television and the History channel, and in general try to maintain mental alertness and thinking ability will, of course, be “ignorant.” Not all those parents are “terrible” or uncaring, though. Many of them have tried to do their part toward making their kids into good students. They just can't afford the tuition and expenses of going to college. A course like this for the parents along with their kids is a really helpful intermediate step forward toward getting a good base of overall knowledge, especially in their first four years, which they probably didn't get in the public schools.




420 Denver Weed Rally Celebrates Legalization, Protests Restrictions – NBC
By Elisha Fieldstadt
First published April 19 2014

Denver’s first 420 Rally since Colorado’s legalization of marijuana is expected to be the largest yet — but don’t expect attendees to light up in a joint celebration.

As the Mile High City’s police step up security for the growing annual event, organizers say they’ll focus on protesting the state’s existing marijuana restrictions.

“It is time to make your voice heard in response to the proposed regulations that have been handed over to the Colorado General Assembly,” 420 Rally organizers said in a statement on the group's website.

While Amendment 64 allowed recreational marijuana use to become legal on Jan. 1, supporters are pushing for the lawful right to openly use weed in public, as well as for legalization nationwide.

“If they want to celebrate 4/20, they should do so in the privacy of their home.”
Colorado Gov. John Hickenlooper has long opposed the original amendment and expanding on it.

“Colorado is known for many great things — marijuana should not be one of them,” Hickenlooper has said.

“As for this weekend, [Hickenlooper] encourages people to act responsibly,” the governor’s spokesman, Eric Brown, told NBC News.

Some Colorado politicians argue that the event — expected to draw some 80,000 people over Saturday and Sunday to Denver’s outdoor Civic Center — should have been cancelled altogether.

“The state constitution and city ordinances make smoking pot in public illegal. … If they want to celebrate 4/20, they should do so in the privacy of their home,” said Denver City Councilman Charlie Brown.

Vanessa Vitali plays with a hoop at the annual 4/20 marijuana festival near downtown Denver at Civic Center Park, on April 19. The two-day festival, which is expected to draw tens of thousands of people, features music, vendors and speakers in Civic Center Park in front of the state capitol building.

The Denver Police Department “will have a large presence” at the 420 event, but officers will use “discretion” when handing out citations to those lighting up at the rally, police spokesman Sonny Jackson told NBC News.

Event officials have also bolstered security after a shooting halted the festivities last year. The 420 website said a fence will secure the perimeter of the square and people should expect precautions similar to those at a sporting event.

“We don’t know what we’re going to see today,” Jackson said. “It’s a lot bigger than it has been in the past.”

The free event is featuring musicians such as Wyclef Jean and hip-hop artist B.o.B, art installations, vendors and plenty of munchies, organizer Miguel Lopez told NBC affiliate KUSA.

And pot revelers across the state have their choice of 46 other weed-centric 420 events, according to the Cannabist, the Denver Post’s site for all things marijuana.
So why exactly is the number 420 — celebrated on April 20 — the universal symbol for pot? The truth remains hazy, said Dale Gieringer, a coordinator at the National Organization for the Reform of Marijuana Laws.

As urban legend has it, the term was coined by a group of students in the 1970s calling themselves the “Waldos,” who would smoke a joint after school at 4:20 p.m., Gieringer told NBC News.

“The first time I heard about it being celebrated as a date, April 20th, was in the early 1990s, when it had become a local hippie custom,” he added.
The 420 Rally website backs up that version of the lore, and encourages festivalgoers to use the origin of the number as a “conversation starter” — just in case anyone there is at a loss for interesting topics to talk about.




Colorado Amendment 64
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Colorado Amendment 64 was a popular initiative ballot measure to amend Colorado's constitution, outlining a statewide drug policy for cannabis. The measure passed on November 6, 2012, and along with a similar Washington measure marked "an electoral first not only for America but for the world."[2] Now enacted as Article 18, section 16 of the state constitution, the law addresses "personal use and regulation of marijuana" for adults 21 and over, as well as commercial cultivation, manufacture, and sale, effectively regulating cannabis in a manner similar to alcohol.[3] The first stores officially opened on January 1, 2014.[4]

Personal use[edit]
Adults 21 or older can grow up to three immature and three mature cannabis plants privately in a locked space, legally possess all cannabis from the plants they grow (as long as it stays where it was grown),[5] legally possess up to one ounce of cannabis while traveling,[6] and give as a gift up to one ounce to other citizens 21 years of age or older.[7] Consumption is permitted in a manner similar to alcohol, with equivalent offenses proscribed for driving.[8]
The new legislation does not apply to medical cannabis.[9]


Amendment 64 is taking effect and there are celebrations that look like images from Woodstock. As for this amendment, the state's governor Hickenlooper continues to oppose it, saying that it denigrates the state's reputation. Smoking pot in public is still illegal. The festival, however, goes on, featuring “music, vendors and speakers,” in an open air party atmosphere. The police will be on the scene, “but officers will use 'discretion' when handing out citations to those lighting up at the rally, police spokesman Sonny Jackson told NBC News.” A turnout of about 80,000 is expected.




I am of mixed feelings about the legalization of marijuana, though in general I don't think it is a very dangerous drug in small quantities and I do think that the penalty of several years in prison for people who weren't actually trying to sell the drug is unfairly high. Prisons are like mental hospitals, they need more bed space for all the really vicious offenders.

I am also in favor of a pretty high degree of freedom of thought and behavior for US citizens. Adultery is a very inferior personal choice, and if you are a member of most of the world religions it's a sin, but I don't believe it should be against the law. I am with the Libertarians about many of the laws that regulate what people do in their own homes. It should be within the personal freedoms that are protected by our constitution.

After all, the people who are smoking pot are much more likely to be too involved in their own “trip” to go out and rob someone or even start a fight. They're more likely to get a case of the giggles. It does make the likelihood of an outbreak of “free love” to go higher, though, and is particularly dangerous for the brains of young people which are still developing until their early twenties. Marijuana with frequent or heavy use does do brain damage. If it is freely available and legal to possess it is almost certain that a larger percentage of the population will use and abuse it.

Unlike codeine or other depressants it is not exactly addictive, but it is mentally addictive because it brings about a temporary state of euphoria, and can become a crutch to people who are chronically anxious or depressed. They need to go to a good therapist and get some legitimate drugs along with some talk therapy instead, so I'm not without worries about its legalization. Its use is sometimes fun, but it doesn't improve a person's character, ability to do a job, or ability to think clearly. The decriminalization of marijuana is what I think we really need. I would be behind that one.





Senators: We Should Not Wait to Help Ukraine – NBC
By Elisha Fieldstadt
First published April 20 2014


Following Ukrainian Prime Minister Arseniy Yatsenyuk exclusive interview with NBC News' David Gregory on Meet The Press Sunday, U.S. senators said America should not wait for Russia to make more threats before sending more security aid.
"Certainly we should beef up our security relationships with Ukraine," said Senator Bob Corker, R-Tenn.

"I think the time is now to ratchet up our sanctions," said Senator Chris Murphy, D-Conn.

Corker agreed, saying, "I think we need to step on out and do the things that we've threatened."

The administration's reluctance to place sanctions on Russia indicates to Putin that he can do what he'd like in Ukraine as long as it doesn't "embarrass" the West, Corker said.

Ukraine only has 6,000 troops, Corker pointed out, and the U.S. will "lose Eastern Ukraine if we continue how we are."

"We need to be in very good shape in order to stop Russia," Yatsenyuk had told Gregory earlier on the show.

The interim prime minister said Ukraine needs financial support in order to "modernize Ukrainian military" to defend the country against Putin's plans of reunifying the Soviet Union.

"President Putin has a dream to restore the Soviet Union. And every day, he goes further and further,” Yatsenyuk said. “And God knows where is the final destination."

Even though Russia, the European Union, the United States and Ukraine signed an April 17 accord in Geneva calling on people to desist from using violence or intimidation, gunfire erupted near the eastern Ukrainian city of Slovyansk on Sunday and Russian forces haven't relinquished the borders.

Yatsenyuk also condemned those who handed out bulletins in the eastern Ukrainian city of Donetsk mandating that Jewish people publicly identify themselves.

Yatsenyuk said he made a statement Saturday morning pressing Ukranian forces to find who handed out the pamphlets that U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry called “grotesque."

Ukrainian military and security forces and Ukrainian Department of Homeland Security are to “urgently find these bastards and to bring them to justice," Yatsenyuk said.




Unfortunately I didn't watch Meet the Press this morning. I would so like to hear Yatsenyuk talk. It must have been really convincing because it got the senators and congressmen's attention. “Ukraine only has 6,000 troops, Corker pointed out, and the U.S. will "lose Eastern Ukraine if we continue how we are." Then, "We need to be in very good shape in order to stop Russia," Yatsenyuk had told Gregory earlier on the show.” These things have been painfully obvious to me for the last few months. My horror at these developments grows as time goes on. Its like a recurring nightmare.

I was born in 1945 when the relationships between world powers were so intertwined and fraught with anxiety that I felt anxious as a child because the whole family did watch the news, and I was aware of what was going on. I remember watching Kruschev take off his shoe and pound on the table at a UN meeting (another very naughty Russian boy), the Nurenberg trials, the building of the Berlin Wall, and during those things there was the ever-present shadow of the atomic bomb. I don't want to go through this stuff again. Even the pogroms against the Jews are popping up again, and “gunfire erupted again” on the border. People in Ukraine aren't taking the roadmap for peace seriously, it looks like.

I am waiting eagerly to see what forceful things Ukraine can do even though it even has an army of 6,000, for instance the arrest and imprisonment of those men who made the foul anti-semitic threat last week, and I do want to see Congress act to shore up our forces in the Baltic area and in direct aid to Ukraine, both financial and military. I don't believe we can let Russia go back to its old behavior. Such a rogue nation is a threat to the safety of every law-abiding and peaceful society.




How much change can Pope Francis bring to the Catholic Church?
CBS News April 20, 2014


The "mass appeal" of Pope Francis was on clear view as he celebrated Easter at the Vatican this morning. Popular as he is, he is still just one man, and the church he leads is large and complex. Mark Phillips reports from Rome:

It's not too much of a leap of faith to think of the Catholic Church over the past few decades as a big multi-national corporation in trouble -- its product no longer selling like it once did, its reputation tainted by the whiff of corruption and scandal.

It did, after all, do what big businesses in trouble do: Its CEO announced he was retiring.

Its board of directors was called in to appoint new management, to try to restore the appeal of its products -- to re-launch Brand Vatican.

And Pope Francis is its face. In just over a year since the election of this outsider from Argentina, who was given a papal mitre and a figurative broom to sweep out the ecclesiastical cobwebs, the Catholic Church is a place transformed.

"The change in the image of the papacy and the Vatican throughout the world" in one year, said Father Robert Dodaro, who teaches early Catholic philosophy at Rome's Pontifical Lateran University, "is nothing short of remarkable."

But a church riven by internal conflict and laboring under the shame of its priestly child-abuse scandal -- which Pope Francis again addressed earlier this month -- is still waiting to see what substantive changes this "Pope of the People" might bring.
"So the question comes up then: what's changed really?" asked Phillips.

"Nothing," Father Dodaro replied, "unless you think style is a lot more important than content -- and a lot of people do."

It is the now-familiar change in the style of this pope that has made him such an international headline-getter: The pope who rejected the lavish papal residence in the Apostolic Palace, to live in a simple three-room apartment in the Vatican's clerical guest house.

The pope who carries his own bag, and who travels, not in a limo, but in a reasonably-priced car.

The pope who washes the feet even of non-Catholics, and who is more likely than not to give a kid a lift.

But all this atmospheric change has raised expectations that other changes must surely be in the papal pipeline.

This is the pope, after all, who when asked about his attitude toward homosexuals, did not echo the Catholic line that they had an "intrinsic disorder." Instead, he asked, "Who am I to judge?" Ears pricked up.

Was the Catholic Church about to reconsider its positions on gays? On divorce? On birth control? Well, yes and no.

"There's a difference between changing the teaching and changing the approach," said Father Dodaro. "We can change the approach, we can be welcoming to people whose lifestyles we cannot accept."

But if you're gay, or if you're divorced, and you feel yourself ostracized by the Church, the "welcoming" stance of the Church hasn't really changed, according to Father Dodaro. (For example, homosexuals can't take communion.)

Still, Francis has raised expectations of change in at least one area -- the complex theological quagmire of the Church's response to Catholic couples who divorce and then re-marry. It is anticipated that they might be accepted back into the Church.
"That's the expectation, yes," said Father Dodaro.

Will it happen? "I don't know," he said. "Pope Francis wants this debate to take place. That's remarkable in itself."

It's remarkable because Francis is no theological revolutionary. He's the product of a College of Cardinals selected by the two previous, very conservative popes, Benedict and John Paul II. Radical reform of Church doctrine is not what they had in mind when they chose Francis.

Longtime writer on Church affairs Massimo Franco thinks the popular view of Francis as a potential reformer may be based on wishful thinking.

"The major paradox with this pope is that he's wearing the clothes that other people want him to wear," Franco said. "But I'm not sure that they are the clothes he wants to wear."
"So he's still a very traditional man in terms of doctrine?" Phillips asked.
"I think he is a traditional man," Franco replied.

But Francis is a traditional man who doesn't come from the Roman tradition, or even the European one. In fact, much of his appeal is based on the fact he is an outsider, who has no stake in the mess at the center of the Church.

Francis' problem is the Vatican. He was elected by cardinals to fix this place -- its bureaucratic jealousies, its financial corruption, its sense of isolation from the real world where the Church should be doing its work.

And it's still Francis' problem, because there are parts of this place that don't want to be fixed.

Already there is grumbling that Francis doesn't understand how the Church's powerful administrative structure -- the Roman Curia -- really works; that he doesn't value the Cardinals who run its various departments or appreciate the work they do.
"Is he running up against opposition within this place to the changes he's trying to make?" asked Phillips.

"These cardinals who are working in the Roman Curia are seasoned Church bureaucrats," said Farther Dodaro. "So there's pushback, yes. Now, is that significant? I think not. You'd have to be naive to think you were going to come in and reform the Roman Curia and everyone was going to applaud you."

"And they wouldn't squeak."
"That's right. So, yeah, there's pushback."
There's also irony. The Church may have needed Francis, but he needs the Church. If he doesn't get the Vatican on his side, reform it in his image, he won't be able to single-handedly turn the Catholic Church into the more welcoming, more merciful place he says he wants it to be.

"Francis knows very well is that he can win worldwide only if he wins in Rome," said Franco. "If he doesn't win in Rome, then he cannot win worldwide."




“The church he leads is large and complex.” That is the understatement of the week. It is a fortress and a living mythology. I think this pope wants to bring it down closer to the lives of its people, especially its poor, as the Protestant churches usually do. Some Protestant churches are as dogmatic and without warmth as the Catholic, of course – the Presbyterians, for instance, who believe in the doctrine of predestination, that some people are as doomed to hell from the moment of their birth as others are destined for heaven.

I think the difference in Pope Francis and some others is that he knows beyond the shadow of a doubt that he is a man and not even slightly a god – not infallible. When he asks for our prayers, I think he means it. He wants to serve his people with humility.

"The change in the image of the papacy and the Vatican throughout the world" in one year, said Father Robert Dodaro, who teaches early Catholic philosophy at Rome's Pontifical Lateran University, "is nothing short of remarkable." "So the question comes up then: what's changed really?" asked Phillips. "Nothing," Father Dodaro replied, "unless you think style is a lot more important than content -- and a lot of people do."

So far Pope Francis hasn't made such changes as allowing gays and divorced people back in the church for communion. But, according to Dodaro, he has initiated debates on these very emotional kinds of things. “That's remarkable in itself," he says. According to Massimo Franco, Pope Francis is in reality “a traditional man” about the basic doctrines of the church.

There is a backlash against him, however. “Already there is grumbling that Francis doesn't understand how the Church's powerful administrative structure -- the Roman Curia -- really works; that he doesn't value the Cardinals who run its various departments or appreciate the work they do.” He wants to reform the church from the inside and make it more “welcoming and merciful.” I am reminded here of the very good movie I saw a few months ago called Philomena. The most striking thing about that movie is that it is a true story. Doctrine when applied without compassion can be very damaging.





Deadly Easter shootout shatters truce in Ukraine
CBS/AP April 20, 2014


Last Updated Apr 20, 2014 1:26 PM EDT
DONETSK, Ukraine - Within hours of an Easter morning shootout at a checkpoint manned by pro-Russia insurgents in eastern Ukraine, Russia's Foreign Ministry issued a statement blaming militant Ukrainian nationalists and Russian state television stations aired pictures of supposed proof of their involvement in the attack that left at least three people dead.

The Ukrainian Security Service, however, said the attack was staged by provocateurs from outside the country. And the presented evidence - particularly a pristine business card said to have been left behind by the attackers - was met with widespread ridicule in Ukraine, where it soon had its own Twitter hashtag.

The armed clash appears to be the first since an international agreement was reached last week in Geneva to ease tensions in eastern Ukraine, where pro-Russian supporters have seized government buildings in at least 10 cities.

In Moscow, the Russian Foreign Ministry blamed the clash on the Right Sector, a nationalist Ukrainian group that has supported the interim government in Kiev, the capital.

The Right Sector denied any role, saying Russian special forces were behind the clash, Reuters reports.

After the deaths, Russia questioned whether Ukraine's Western-backed government was complying with the Geneva agreement.

The fault for the failure of the Geneva agreement could determine whether or not the United States and its European partners impose tougher sanctions on Russia.
Two members of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee called Sunday for tougher Western sanctions against Russia to include its petrochemical and banking industries and warned that Moscow thus far has ignored U.S. and European efforts to persuade it to back off its confrontation with Ukraine.

"We've helped in many ways to create the problems that exist there. And to leave them alone in the manner that we're leaving them alone to me is just unconscionable," Sen. Bob Corker, the committee's senior Republican member, said on NBC television's "Meet the Press."

"I don't think Putin really believes we're going to punish them in that way," he said.
Democratic Sen. Chris Murphy, a member of the same committee, said, "I think the time is now to rapidly ratchet up our sanctions, whether it's on Russian petrochemical companies or on Russian banks."

"If Russia does get away with this, I do think that there's a potential that a NATO ally is next. And, yes, there will be economic pain to Europe (under tightened sanctions). But it's time for them to lead as well."

President Barack Obama has said his administration is prepared to take further action against Russia if diplomatic efforts to destabilize the conflict fail.
Vice President Joe Biden plans to be in Kiev, the Ukrainian capital, on Monday and Tuesday to meet with government leaders and democracy advocates.

The truce agreement signed in Geneva last week by the European Union, Russia, Ukraine and the United States agreed that illegal armed groups would go home.

The agreement worked out in Geneva Thursday to ease the crisis in Ukraine isn't changing much on the ground so far. The deal between Russia, Ukra...
So far, the pro-Russian militants have shown no signs of budging, though there was some hope of progress after Kiev said it would not move against the separatists over Easter, and international mediators headed to eastern Ukraine to try to persuade them to disarm.

CBS News met with pro-Russian separatists who have no intentions of leaving the public buildings they've taken over.

They've occupied a building in Donetsk for nearly two weeks, and have barricaded themselves inside with razor wire. The insurgents are demanding a separate state, or at least more autonomy for their region.

They are suspicious of Ukraine's pro-Western government in Kiev, and want closer ties with Moscow.

They have now begun calling themselves the Republic of Donetsk. In the republic's offices CBS News met spokeswoman Yekatarina Mihaylova.

Mihaylova told CBS that they will only leave if there's a referendum on the future of eastern Ukraine, and if rival protestors in the capital Kiev also go home.




The Russians say the Ukrainians Right Sector started it and the Ukrainians say that outside “provocateurs” from Russia did it. Apparently we had some masked men again. Meanwhile our Senate Foreign Relations Committee is beginning to call for harsher Western sanctions against Russia to include its petrochemical and banking industries. "We've helped in many ways to create the problems that exist there. And to leave them alone in the manner that we're leaving them alone to me is just unconscionable," Sen. Bob Corker. Meanwhile all armed groups are maintaining their stances despite the agreement last week. More tomorrow on the new, I'm sure.




New portrait unveiled for British queen's birthday – CBS
AP April 20, 2014

This portrait of Queen Elizabeth II taken and made available on Sunday, April 20, 2014, by British photographer David Bailey, has been released to mark her 88th birthday on Monday April 21, 2014. [See today's CBS website for this photograph. I remove all photos from the blog before I publish it.]

LONDON - A portrait of Queen Elizabeth II by renowned British photographer David Bailey has been unveiled to mark the monarch's 88th birthday.

The black-and-white photograph, taken at Buckingham Palace in March, shows the queen smiling broadly. Bailey described his subject as a "very strong woman" with "very kind eyes with a mischievous glint."

The portrait, unveiled Sunday for the queen's birthday on Monday, was commissioned for a government campaign to promote Britain's heritage and tourism to potential visitors abroad.

Britain's monarchy and royal history is one of the biggest drivers of its strong tourism industry.

The queen celebrates two birthdays each year: Her actual one on Apr. 21 is celebrated privately, while a public ceremony in June marks the occasion with a Trooping the Color parade in London.





“Bailey described his subject as a "very strong woman" with "very kind eyes with a mischievous glint." It is really a very beautiful portrait of her, but not at all formal. It shows her liveliness, imagination, sense of joy, and simplicity, and reminds me of the youngest news footage of her and Prince Philip before they were married playing boisterously around on the deck of the royal yacht in a game of chase. When I think of her I wish I could be British. Like the Pope, she has kept her humanity alive through everything.





FDA warns against procedure for uterine fibroids, hysterectomy – CBS
By Dennis Thompson Health Day April 18, 2014

A surgical technique used to grind up uterine growths and remove them through tiny incisions could increase a woman's risk of cancer, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration warned Thursday.

The FDA said that the procedure, known as "laparoscopic power morcellation," can inadvertently spread cancerous tissue beyond a woman's uterus and into other parts of her body.

Surgeons frequently use laparoscopic power morcellation when they perform a hysterectomy or remove uterine fibroids, which are noncancerous growths on the smooth muscle tissue on the wall of the uterus.

The minimally invasive procedure uses a power tool to chop up the tissue of the fibroids or, in the case of a hysterectomy, the uterus itself. These tissue fragments are then removed through tiny incisions, according to background information from the agency.

The FDA estimates that about one in 350 women undergoing a hysterectomy or fibroid removal has an unsuspected type of cancer called uterine sarcoma.

If a surgeon performs power morcellation on these women, there's a risk the procedure will spread the cancerous tissue within the patient's abdomen and pelvis.

About 60,000 of these procedures are performed every year, estimated Dr. William Maisel, deputy director for science and chief scientist at the FDA's Center for Devices and Radiological Health.

The FDA stopped short of banning the power morcellation device from the market, but is urging physicians and patients to weigh the risk prior to its use.
"Women should ask their health care provider if power morcellation will be used during the procedure, and explain why it's the best option," Maisel said at a Thursday news conference.

Women who already have undergone power morcellation don't need to get a cancer screening, because some of the tissue removed during the procedure would have been sent for pathologic analysis, Maisel said. If cancer had been detected, they would have been informed, he added.

"We think that most women who have undergone these procedures require routine care," he said. "If they don't have any ongoing or recurrent symptoms, they should be fine."
Most women will develop uterine fibroids at some point in their lives, according to the U.S. National Institutes of Health. These fibroids can cause symptoms such as heavy or prolonged menstrual bleeding, pelvic pain or frequent urination.

Women who need a hysterectomy or fibroid removal can still undergo traditional or laparoscopic surgery, just without the use of a power morcellator, Maisel said.
The agency has instructed manufacturers of power morcellators to review their current product labeling for accurate risk information for patients and health care professionals.

The FDA also will convene a public meeting this summer of its obstetrics and gynecological medical devices panel to discuss the matter and weigh whether further measures are required.

The FDA approved the first power morcellator for use in 1995, Maisel said. A non-power version of the morcellator received FDA approval in 1991.

The medical community has been aware of the risk of cancer spread during power morcellation since the device came onto the market, but "the magnitude of the risk appears to be higher than what was appreciated in the clinical community," Maisel said.

Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston and the Cleveland Clinic both recently strengthened their informed consent for the procedure, warning women of the potential cancer risk, according to recent news reports.

In particular, specialists at Brigham and Women's tell patients about their own in-house research, which found a ninefold higher rate of unexpected uterine sarcoma during a review of the medical records of more than 1,000 women who received morcellation for fibroids, according to The New York Times.




The very popular "laparoscopic power morcellation," which saves women from having the large sickle shaped scar on their stomach, previously was not considered dangerous. It is now seen to spread unsuspected cancer cells to other locations in the body. “The FDA estimates that about one in 350 women undergoing a hysterectomy or fibroid removal has an unsuspected type of cancer called uterine sarcoma.” That does sound like a lot of unsuspected cancers. Doctors have been aware of the possibility of cancer being spread this way, but were unaware of the number of cases that had occurred.

"Women should ask their health care provider if power morcellation will be used during the procedure, and explain why it's the best option," Maisel said at a Thursday news conference.” Apparently women are sometimes scheduled for the operation without having the process explained to them. It is possible to have the laparoscopic surgery without the use of the power morcellation technique. There has apparently been no action to ban the procedure. Hopefully that will happen soon.