Friday, October 3, 2014


News Clips For The Day


Colorado school board sticks with hotly contested history proposal
CBS/AP October 3, 2014, 4:15 AM

GOLDEN, Colo. -- A suburban Denver school board refused to back off a proposed review of the Advanced Placement U.S. history course on Thursday despite waves of protest from dozens of students, parents and residents who accused the board's new conservative majority of trying to influence children with their political views.

Instead, the Jefferson County board voted 3-2 to expand the membership on two existing curriculum review committees to include students, parents and administrators. The two women on the board who oppose the conservative majority held their heads in their hands after losing a bid to delay the vote so they could have more time to study the plan.

"What's the rush?" board member Lesley Dahlkemper asked. Her repeated challenges to board president Ken Witt drew applause from the crowd.

Some in the audience yelled "resign" and "recall, recall" at the board members.

It's not immediately clear whether the expanded committees will review the history course. Witt said he expected that the committees would be asked to.
The controversy is seen as "one of the most compelling political stories in the country at this time," observes CBS Denver.

Board member Julie Williams refused a call to withdraw her original proposal, which angered students and teachers by suggesting that the course be reviewed with an eye toward promoting patriotism and citizenship and downplaying civil disorder, saying she wanted to keep all options open.

The latest move won't satisfy the students and others who packed the hearing room and also watched the meeting on a big screen outside in the parking lot with popcorn. The students turned in two cardboard boxes of a Moveon.org petition they said was signed by over 40,000 people across the country.

Many people spoke out against members of the board's new conservative majority calling students who have walked out of class to protest "pawns."

"This is America. Stop calling us names when we exercise our rights," said Lisa Cooke, a mother of two students.

Another parent, Robert Gleason, after pointing at the Colorado flag in the front of the room, told the board he didn't want the school district to follow in the path of Texas, where the state school board has told teachers to stick to state history standards, not the new course framework that some view as anti-American.

One man donated a copy of George Orwell's "1984" to the board.

One of the outnumbered supporters of the conservative members held up a copy of the state constitution, pointing out that it gives local school boards the power to make decisions about curriculum.

Witt, Williams and John Newkirk listened calmly at the mounting criticism.

At issue is a new approach to AP History this year that focuses more on examining historical documents and discussing the nation's history, rather than memorizing facts. The course also gives more attention to the period before the arrival of Christopher Columbus as well as slavery and women's roles. Some conservatives say the course was influenced by a movement in academia to de-emphasize the United States' uniqueness and treat it as one nation among many.

Students across a majority of the 17 high schools in Colorado's second-largest school district have left classes in droves over the past few weeks.

The protests began more than a week ago, after the school board first proposed the U.S. history review. Teachers, who are also upset about a new merit pay plan, staged a sickout that closed two schools, and then students began walking out of class in protests.

Before the meeting, both supporters and critics of the board demonstrated outside.

Carole Morenz, holding a small American flag and a sign that said "History matters. Know the truth," traveled from Pueblo because she said she's worried the change in approach to teaching history could be the "biggest cultural shift of our lifetime."

"They will lose the knowledge of what made America great," said Morenz, adding that she has been concerned about problems in education since she began homeschooling her children in the 1980s.

Sarina Phu, 17, one of several students who spoke to about 300 opponents of the school board from the back of a pickup truck in the building's parking lot, said some of the nation's greatest achievements, including civil rights and equality for women, were achieved through protests and social unrest.

Phu, the daughter of Vietnamese immigrants, praised the U.S. for being a nation where people from all backgrounds can thrive, but she said students need to learn about the negative sides of its story, including the mistreatment of Native Americans and the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II.

"Would you like to sweep us under the rug, too, just like our histories?" she asked.




“At issue is a new approach to AP History this year that focuses more on examining historical documents and discussing the nation's history, rather than memorizing facts.... Some conservatives say the course was influenced by a movement in academia to de-emphasize the United States' uniqueness and treat it as one nation among many.... Phu, the daughter of Vietnamese immigrants, praised the U.S. for being a nation where people from all backgrounds can thrive, but she said students need to learn about the negative sides of its story, including the mistreatment of Native Americans and the internment of Japanese-Americans during World War II. 'Would you like to sweep us under the rug, too, just like our histories?' she asked.”

One of the problems I had with history in high school was that it wasn't as interesting as my English courses and biology. All I knew was the memorization of names, dates and “key words” like the “Diet of Worms.” That was one of my favorite phrases, as it made me laugh. I have no remembrance of our teacher explaining what type of “diet” that was – a government body – and that Worms was a place. My recall of high school history is like the dish called hash, a thick stew made up of small barely identifiable pieces of meat and vegetables.

When I went to college I took my first survey course called “Modern Civilization” which swiftly took Europe from the Dark Ages to WWII, within the span of two courses, by focusing on cultural movements and changes in philosophy more than an endless collection of small facts, though the facts were taught, too. They were, more importantly, easier to remember when they were presented in the overall context.

Those philosophical changes during the Age of Enlightenment were then the basis for democracy both in American and France, and though Britain has retained a parliamentary form of government with the royal family, it too has become democratic in that the people vote for all their other leaders and receive a public education, health care, etc. If anything the course improved my appreciation of our county's place in the world and our various traditions, rather than prejudicing me against them. Without being “indoctrinated” I have a true love for democracy and for America. It is clearly to me the best system, and I am completely loyal to my country. Unlike the more conservative people, I believe in peaceful civil movements when the representative system of leaders fails to bring justice, especially in localized areas where racism and entrenched poverty still prevail. Ghettos in New York City apply to that category as much as do the isolated farms of the deep South and the American Indian reservations in the West.

When I took that course I realized that I had never had a very good understanding of the timeline in my head until that time. In high school the names and dates were “hash” because they hadn't been incorporated into the overall flow of events thoroughly enough, and the relationships between countries were likewise more about wars and kings, and less about the flow of ideas from one place and time to another. Not only is the more comprehensive type of teaching more interesting by far, it brings a much better understanding of the whole picture.

A school board which tries to keep its students rooted in the past is not doing them a good service, though if they are so incurious as to pay no attention to the news or read anything beyond their required school work, they may well end up “indoctrinated” indeed – to the right wing political agenda which is behind the actions of this school board. I hope the concerned citizens and the students who have decided to march together will persist. Just because this school board is holding to its line is no reason to give in to them. School boards are elected, and besides, they are often influenced by public opinion to change their positions.

Keep up the fight, students! Write your newspaper, write your congressmen, blog on the Internet, and join together in groups of concerned citizens to promote a good education in high school. I always feel I have to remind people that not every student will be accepted into a college even if they can afford to go, and a good educational foundation in high school is vitally important to the community as it's members go to the polls to vote, interact with minority groups, work for a better environment, and other worthy goals. The high school students of today are the future.





ISIS losing hearts and minds in its heartland
By ELIZABETH PALMER, KHALED WASSEF CBS NEWS October 3, 2014, 10:58 AM

There may be a war on, but fighters for the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria (ISIS)in the northeastern city Syrian of Raqqa will be partying this weekend.

Their leader, Abu Baker al-Baghdadi, has decreed that each man in his ranks in the city will receive a pay bonus, as well as a lamb to roast for the Muslim holiday of Eid al-Adha.

Their subjects -- however many of the roughly 220,000 Raqqa residents remain in the city -- aren't so lucky. Many were poor to start with, and they've become poorer since this small city was taken over by ISIS extremists.

Many will eat their Eid meal in a soup kitchen, paid for by the few wealthy citizens who can still afford to bankroll charity.

"Abu Ibrahim al-Raqqawi," an alias adopted for his own safety, is an activist in Raqqa; a member of a collective which calls itself "Raqqa is being slaughtered silently." He and his compatriots are dedicated to letting the outside world know what life is like in the city that's become ISIS' command center and the de facto capital of the group's self-declared "Islamic State."

The perks for fighters started right away, he told CBS News in a phone interview from the area.

"As soon as they arrived, they became the elite of the community," he said of the ISIS fighters. "They were given comfortable homes and cars -- and they get a generous salary every month."

It's bound to fuel local resentment, especially as the favoritism appears to extend to essential services, like medical care.

"Raqqa's hospitals are now all shut down," says Ibrahim. "Their premises have either been turned into ISIS headquarters, or abandoned by the doctors and nursing staff because there are no more medical supplies."

"Anyone who needs care has to travel to Turkey," says Ibrahim. "It's a rough and dangerous journey and some just don't make it."

The ISIS fighters wounded in battle or airstrikes, however, get treatment at local clinics run exclusively for them and their families.

"Recently, a bombing by the Syrian government left many people, including fighters, badly hurt," says Ibrahim. "We ran to help and saw ISIS trucks arrive and remove their men for treatment, leaving the civilians just lying there."

There are also reports of boys as young as 14 and 15 being snatched from their families and sent to training camps to become ISIS warriors.

According to the U.K.-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), a monitoring group which relies on a network of activists inside Syria, oil prices in Raqqa have almost doubled since U.S. airstrikes began bombing ISIS targets. That, according to SOHR, has forced merchants at ISIS-controlled markets to hike up their prices beyond the means of locals.

"ISIS is now selling fuel for 5,000-7,000 Syrian Lyras (about $6.00 per gallon)," SOHR said. "Prices vary from one refinery to another, and there is a lot of tension in the city because of the constantly deteriorating economic situation."

SOHR posted the picture above, and others like it, showing ISIS fighters enjoying a feast at a local 5-star restaurant, which "only ISIS fighters and members of the Hesbah police (ISIS' Islamic police force) could afford."

Resentment simmers among many people in Raqqa, but it's too dangerous to let it show.

"They control Raqqa with an iron fist," says Ibrahim. "The Hesbah patrols are on every corner." Many of them are foreign -- Americans, Dutch and British -- but anyone who approaches them to talk is immediately warned off by armed men.

ISIS militants have executed at least two young activists from Ibrahim's group.

The main challenge for those left is what's known locally as the "al-Khansaa Brigade," an ISIS unit -- predominantly foreign -- of women who handle security and intelligence in Raqqa.

"The ones walking around with guns are harmless, because they can easily be spotted," says Ibrahim. "The danger comes from undercover female jihadis, who walk around looking for anyone breaking ISIS law."

So the people of Raqqa, by and large, are forced to toe the line and follow the diktats of their new rulers. But along with the smell of lamb, roasting in the commandeered ISIS house on this Eid holiday, there will be growing bitterness in the wind.




The promise of a lamb to roast for each and every ISIS soldier doesn't sound possible. I think they will run out of lambs pretty quickly. The point, of course, is that the soldiers are to be treated much better than the civilians, many of whom will eat at soup kitchens. Interestingly, giving to charity is a primary rule within Islam, and there are wealthy people even under ISIS who finance the soup kitchens.

A hated and feared female brigade walk around among the citizens to see who may be breaking the ISIS laws, and most people as a result toe the line, but a group who are organized to resist ISIS are in communication with Western news people. The name of al-Raqqawi's collective translates to mean “'Raqqa is being slaughtered silently.'”

'The U.K.-based Syrian Observatory for Human Rights (SOHR), a monitoring group which relies on a network of activists inside Syria” monitors things like the price of oil which has gone up greatly under ISIS management. The economy is in danger. “Resentment simmers among many people in Raqqa, but it's too dangerous to let it show.”

According to this article there are guards “on every corner” watching what the civilians do, with 14 year-old boys being abducted to join ISIS and at least two of the activists have been killed. If ISIS loses its control over the people they will find few friends there. Some comment to that effect was in a news article last week – they are not loved by those who live under them. In the end that will work against them.





Girl's family seeks unprecedented court order in brain-death ruling
CBS/AP October 3, 2014, 8:25 AM

SAN FRANCISCO -- The family of a California teenager who was declared brain-dead after suffering complications from sleep apnea surgery is seeking an unprecedented court order declaring her alive, the family's lawyer said Thursday.

Attorney Chris Dolan said doctors at the non-profit International Brain Research Foundation have found signs of brain functions after running a series of tests on the girl at Rutgers University last week.

The discovery came months after three doctors, including one appointed by a judge, declared Jahi McMath, 13, brain dead and Alameda County issued a death certificate after her Dec. 9 surgery went awry.

Since then, Jahi's mother has pushed for keeping her daughter's organs functioning on life support, first at Children's Hospital in Oakland and later at an undisclosed medical facility in New Jersey. In June, CBS station KPIX 5 reported that McMath was in a Catholic children's hospital in New Brunswick, New Jersey.

Dolan said Jahi and her parents moved to a house in New Jersey about a month ago where the girl remains on life support.

On Thursday, Dolan showed video clips to a small group of reporters that he says proves Jahi is still alive. One clip shows her twitching her foot after her mother asks her to move it. Another shows hand movement in apparent response to her mother's commands.

Philip DeFina, chief executive and chief scientific officer of the International Brain Research Foundation, said Jahi has responded to commands many other times.

"There is a consistency to it," said DeFina said.

DeFina said an examination of Jahi also revealed that her brain was still intact, rather than "liquefying" as would be expected if a brain-dead body was kept on life-support for many months.

DeFina also said brain scans showed electrical activity, and other tests showed blood flowing to the brain.

Arthur Caplan, head of medical ethics at New York University's Langone Medical Center, said he knows of no cases of a brain death determination being reversed. He cautioned that the data collected on Jahi has to be examined by other researchers and experts in the field before any conclusions can be made.

"Were this to be true, it would be an earth-shattering development in understanding death," Caplan said. "They're playing a high-stakes game."

Lawyers for the University of California, San Francisco Benioff Children's Hospital said the evidence in Jahi's case still supports the determination that she is legally dead.

"This is a sad situation where the court made the correct determination that Jahi McMath was dead," hospital attorney Douglas Strauss stated in court papers. "There is no factual basis or legal justification for requiring those involved to endure re-litigation of that properly reached determination."

After the December surgery, Jahi began bleeding heavily and went into cardiac arrest. She was declared brain-dead Dec. 12.

Her mother and other family members refuse to believe the girl is dead as long as her heart is beating. They went to court last winter seeking an order to prevent the hospital from removing a respirator and feeding tube.

The two sides reached an agreement allowing Jahi to be transferred if her mother assumed responsibility for further complications. She was removed from Children's Hospital on Jan. 5, less than two days before an injunction that would have allowed the hospital to remove the equipment.

Her mother and other family members refuse to believe the girl is dead as long as her heart is beating. They went to court last winter seeking an order to prevent the hospital from removing a respirator and feeding tube.





“On Thursday, Dolan showed video clips to a small group of reporters that he says proves Jahi is still alive. One clip shows her twitching her foot after her mother asks her to move it. Another shows hand movement in apparent response to her mother's commands.... DeFina said an examination of Jahi also revealed that her brain was still intact, rather than "liquefying" as would be expected if a brain-dead body was kept on life-support for many months. DeFina also said brain scans showed electrical activity, and other tests showed blood flowing to the brain.... 'Were this to be true, it would be an earth-shattering development in understanding death,' Caplan said. 'They're playing a high-stakes game.'... Her mother and other family members refuse to believe the girl is dead as long as her heart is beating. They went to court last winter seeking an order to prevent the hospital from removing a respirator and feeding tube....Her mother and other family members refuse to believe the girl is dead as long as her heart is beating. They went to court last winter seeking an order to prevent the hospital from removing a respirator and feeding tube.”

“'Were this to be true, it would be an earth-shattering development in understanding death,' Caplan said.” Well, earth-shattering though it may be, if people who are not really dead are having their bodies harvested for their living organs to be transplanted, or who are being interred prematurely, that is a real problem.

We have totally trusted doctors for the most part in our society, and in more than one way they have violated that trust. This may be just one more violation. Due to a certain paranoia on my part I have not volunteered to be an organ donor and I don't want to be “unplugged” for at least three days from life support. If my body can recover its functions I want it to have a chance. In several cases people have awakened from their coma and started talking to the people in their room. I have filled out a living will in which I ask the family member most likely to be alive when I die, assuming I don't die for another 15 years or more, to consult with doctors to see whether I am likely to be able to regain normal functions or not. If not, then after the three days, they should disconnect me from life support.





Long-ignored evidence suddenly used to catch rapists
By NANCY CORDES CBS NEWS October 2, 2014, 7:43 PM

CLEVELAND - It is shocking that just three percent of rapists in America ever serve time. CBS News reported five years ago thatinvestigators often ignore DNA evidence collected from victims in what is known as a "rape kit."

Thousands of these rape kits have gathered dust for years.

Stories such as ours persuaded some police departments to begin testing them.

Charles Steele raped at least four Cleveland women in the mid-'90s. One was at a gas station when he walked up.

"And I looked up, next thing I know I have a gun pointing at me," one survivor said.

But her case and all the others went unsolved for 20 years because police never tested the DNA rape kits that were administered when they were attacked.

When CBS asked the Cleveland Police Department back in 2009 how many untested rape kits were sitting on their shelves, a lieutenant said he didn't know and wouldn't count.

"We realize what our mistakes were," said Cuyahoga County Prosecutor Tim McGinty. "We're not going to make them again."

When McGinty took office three years ago, he responded to a call from Ohio's attorney general, Mike DeWine, to start testing all rape kits with state funds - 4,200 kits in Cleveland alone. The results astonished everyone.

"The rape kits are the gold mine for law enforcement," McGinty said.

Suddenly, investigators were tying individual suspects to five, six, sometimes seven rapes dating back decades.

"They don't stop raping until they're dead or they're physically unable to get out of bed and go attack somebody," said McGinty. "So the sooner you empty your shelves of the rape kits, the sooner you can take the serial offenders and serial rapists off the street."

Two hundred of them have already been indicted. Almost a third are accused serial rapists.

And that's just from testing half of Cleveland's backlog.

Lt. James McPike said Cleveland's violent crime rate is already on the decline.

"If you can take a thousand guys off the street, these are a thousand guys that are no longer going to commit crimes," McPike said.

And yet many other major cities are moving slowly, if at all.

According to the Joyful Heart Foundation, which works to end the backlog, Las Vegas only tests 16 percent of its kits, Seattle, 22 percent, and Tulsa, Oklahoma, is seeking funding to test 3,400 kits.

That's just a sampling, so there's a lot of DNA evidence out there that could be used to catch rapists but isn't.


The following figures on untested rape kits below are from the Joyful Heart Foundation. Here are responses from police departments contacted by CBS News.

Seattle Police Department
The Seattle Police Department has 1,276 untested kits in storage. The following statement is from Sgt. Sean Whitcomb, the department's public affairs director:
"When our detectives investigate reports of sexual assault and corresponding sexual assault kits are available that will support criminal prosecution, we will have them tested by the Washington State Patrol crime lab."

Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department
The Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department has 4,385 untested kits in storage. This statement is from Kimberley Murga, director of laboratory services at the department.
"Of the 5,200 sexual assault kits booked into the LVMPDS's Evidence Vault over the past ten years, 800 of the sexual assault kits have been analyzed and 4,400 have never been analyzed. Sexual Assault kits stored at the Evidence Vault represent a mix of many different scenarios, which may include but are not limited to the following:

1. Kits that have been subjected to non DNA analysis serology prior to the mid 1990s
2. Kits that have been subjected to DNA analysis
3. Kits that were collected and the case was adjudicated without laboratory analysis
4. Kits that were collected however were never requested for DNA analysis due to lack of probative value (for example, "consent" cases where DNA will not resolve whether sex was consensual.
5. Kits that were collected however the victim has decided to not pursue formal charges
6. Kits that were collected as a "precautionary measure" during an investigation, later to discover the elements of a sexual assault related crime have never been established."

Wisconsin Department Of Justice
The Wisconsin Department of Justice has surveyed every law enforcement agency in the state to find out how many untested kits exist statewide. Their results show over 6,000 untested kits statewide. Now, the state is in the process of figuring out the next step with the kits. The following statement is from Dean Stensberg from the Wisconsin Department of Justice:
"Now that the universe of untested and stored kits is known both in number and location, the next step is for the Attorney General's Statewide Sexual Assault Response Team to inventory and triage the untested kits to establish a protocol for disposition and handling. Not all untested kits are the same. Informing this will be whether:

It no longer requires testing (ie. linked to a case in which the perpetrator is known and DNA has already been taken at conviction)
It's past the statute of limitations - disposition of the kit will need to be arrived at through the SART to one of three options: processing and uploading; no process and uploading; continued storage

During this period, samples will be held in their current locations while the inventory and triage is underway.

Importantly, going forward all kits that have a victim cooperating with the prosecution will be immediately forwarded to the State Crime Laboratory. And, those kits from victims who have not yet decided whether to participate in the criminal justice system will also be forwarded to the State Crime Laboratory and stored for 6 years. This will avoid a similar situation from occurring in the future mindful of the victim's decision making and options."

Tulsa Police Department
The Tulsa Police Department has an estimated 3,400 untested kits in storage. The department is seeking federal funding to address their backlog. The following statement is from Officer Jillian Roberson, public information officer for the department:
"The Tulsa Police Department is working in partnership with Joyful Heart Foundation in developing a plan and funding for the untested kits. At this time the plan is not finalized however we continue to work together toward this common goal of reducing the number of untested kits."




This isn't the first time I've heard the problem discussed. The reasons given by some of the police departments for their failure to test the kits varied from money to a lack of corroborating evidence of rape, including even the charge that the sex was actually consensual. See the following article on the founder of the Joyful Heart Foundation, Mariska Hargitay, who is spearheading this study. Her comment below: “'[this is] the clearest and most shocking demonstration of how we regard these crimes in our country',” is accurate in my opinion. From not processing the rape kit to psychologically abusing the victim in court, the US hasn't lived up to its beliefs. Or maybe that's the problem, what are our people's beliefs? Luckily this doesn't happen every time a rape case is adjudicated, it's just that the number of women who don't get justice and help is too great.



Mariska Hargitay
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

Mariska Hargitay (/məˈrɪʃkə ˈhɑrɡɨteɪ/ mə-rish-kə har-gi-tay; born Mariska Magdolna Hargitay; January 23, 1964)[1][2][3] is an American actress, best known for her role as New York City sex crimesDetective Olivia Benson on the NBC television drama Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, a role that has earned her multiple awards andnominations, including an Emmy and Golden Globe.

The daughter of actress Jayne Mansfield and actor/bodybuilder Mickey Hargitay, Hargitay is a former beauty queen who made her film debut in the 1985 horror-comedy film Ghoulies, and her major television debut in the 1986 adventure drama series Downtown. She appeared in numerous roles in film and television shows throughout the late 1980s and 1990s before being cast as Olivia Benson, a role that led to her founding the Joyful Heart Foundation, which provides support to women who have been sexually abused.

Hargitay is founder and president of the Joyful Heart Foundation, an organization established in 2004 to provide support to survivors of sexual assault, domestic violence, and child abuse.[38][39] According to Hargitay, she was inspired by an encounter with a school of dolphins that surrounded her while she was swimming off the coast of Hawaii at the age of 15. The encounter, which had ignited profound spiritual feelings within her, was one that Hargitay hoped to share with others. As of November 2010, the Joyful Heart Foundation has sent over 5,000 women and children on therapeutic programs in New York, Los Angeles, and Hawaii, which combine yoga, meditation, massage, journaling, and swimming with dolphins.[17]According to Hargitay, "I started getting fan mail from survivors who felt a connection to Olivia. In many of these letters, people would disclose their personal stories of abuse — some for the very first time. I remember getting the sense that many were living in isolation with so much shame, but the shame belonged to the perpetrators. I wanted to help find a way to help people reclaim their lives and live them with a renewed sense of possibility and hope. And that's what we work to do every day at Joyful Heart."[40] According to Hargitay, the Foundation has raised $20 million and helped approximately 5,000 survivors as of April 2011.[41] Reference to the Joyful Heart Foundation was worked into episodes of Special Victims Unit, via a necklace containing two pendants representing the Foundation that Hargitay's character began wearing in the show's 13th season.[42]

Hargitay has worked with Michigan Police and Wayne Country Prosecutor Kym Worthy to raise awareness about the statistics of untested rape kits. While planning to produce a documentary called Shelved, about the thousands of untested rape kits, Hargitay has said:

“[this is] the clearest and most shocking demonstration of how we regard these crimes in our country."

Hargitay appeared in the 17th season of NBC's "The More You Know" public service announcement in 2006,[44] and again in the spring of 2009.[45] She is an honorary board member director of the Multiple Myeloma Research Foundation.[46]

On September 27, 2011, Hargitay donated $100,000 to her alma mater, the UCLA School of Theater Film and Television for scholarship.[47]

In 2012 Hargitay campaigned for the reauthorization of the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA).[48]

On February 17, 2012, Hargitay made a donation of $35,800 to the Obama Victory Fund, the maximum individual contribution allowed by law.[49][50]





Joe Biden's salty description of being VP
By STEPHANIE CONDON CBS NEWS October 3, 2014, 10:21 AM

Vice President Joe Biden, known for his occasionally blunt or off-color remarks, joked to a group of students Thursday that he doesn't particularly enjoy playing second fiddle to President Obama.

When a student at the Harvard Institute of Politics introduced himself as vice president of the student body, Biden joked, "Isn't it a bitch, I mean... that vice president thing? I mean, whoa."

His remark was met with laughter, and the vice president quickly added, "I'm joking. I'm joking. I'm joking. Best decision I ever made."

Joe Biden apologizes for using anti-Semitic term

The student, still laughing, told him, "I hope you love your job." Biden replied, "I do, actually. I love the guy I work with."

Biden was at Harvard to deliver remarks on foreign policy.

The vice president has drawn attention to himself on a number of occasions for his choice of words. He recently apologized for using an anti-semitic term to refer to mortgage lenders. Back in 2010, he famously called the passage of the Affordable Care Act a "big f**king deal."



Joe Biden apologizes for using anti-Semitic term
By REBECCA KAPLAN CBS NEWS September 17, 2014, 4:25 PM

Vice President Joe Biden said in a statement Wednesday that referring to mortgage lenders as "Shylocks" was a "poor choice of words."

Biden used the term - a reference to a nefarious Jewish character that gives loans in Shakespeare's play, "The Merchant of Venice" - in a speech to a legal aid group Tuesday. He was describing the experiences of troops who faced foreclosures at home while they were serving in the military.

"People would come to him and talk about what was happening to them at home in terms of foreclosures, in terms of bad loans that were being -- I mean, these Shylocks who took advantage of these women and men while overseas," Biden said.

The remark drew a rebuke from Anti-Defamation League (ADL) National Director Abraham Foxman, who told Yahoo News that the word "remains an offensive characterization to this day" and that the vice president "should have been more careful."



Joe Biden is an entertaining personality and I suspect, very good in an emergency, but he speaks before he thinks a little too often. I wouldn't want him to be conservative, but he represents our country around the world at times and he shouldn't be using the “F bomb” – nor “Shylock” either. I would get in trouble from shooting off my mouth, too, if I were in office, but I'm not. That's all to the good.





What's behind the high rate of infant deaths in the U.S. – CBS
By ALAIN SHERTER MONEYWATCH October 3, 2014, 5:00 AM

Why are babies in the U.S. more likely to die than infants in comparably wealthy countries?

That's the question economists set out to answer in a recent working paper, citing statistics showing that the U.S. ranks No. 56 in the world in rates of infant mortality, or much lower than considerably poorer countries. Their answer: economic inequality and poverty.

"When we compare relatively advantaged women in the U.S. to similarly advantaged women in Finland and Austria, we see they have similar levels of infant mortality," said Emily Oster, an associate professor of economics at Brown University and one of the study's co-authors, by email. "However, when we compare the remainder of the distribution, the U.S. has much higher infant mortality."

In other words, infants are more likely to die if their parents are poor and more likely to live if they were lucky enough to be born to richer parents.

Roughly six infants in 1,000 die in the U.S. before they turn one-year-old. That is roughly three times higher than in Japan, which has the second-lowest rate of infant mortality (Monaco, the uber-wealthy principality in Europe, ranks No. 1.) Put another way, that means three more infants out of 1,000 die in the U.S. compared with in Finland, which the authors examined in the study, and in other Scandinavian countries (They also looked at Austria because it has a similar rate of infant mortality to the rest of Europe.)

Most explanations of why the U.S. compares poorly to so many other countries in infant mortality have focused on health, not wealth. If infants were more likely to die in America, under this view, that was chiefly because of the higher rate of pre-term births. Researchers pointed to such factors as gestational age and birth weight in proposing that health is the main driver of infant deaths in the U.S.

But while those factors do, in fact, contribute to infant mortality, they don't tell the whole story, said Oster, who co-wrote the paper with economist Alice Chen of the University of Southern California and Heidi Williams, an economist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. For instance, they note that even U.S. infants with a normal birth rate have a higher rate of death than babies in Europe. Something else must be at work.

America's racial and ethnic make-up is also often posited to explain why infant deaths are more common in America than in many other countries. And notably, black infants in the U.S. are more likely to die than white infants, largely because of health differences at birth. But infant mortality is higher in this country even if African-Americans are excluded from the analysis, the researchers note. So while race clearly factors into the discussion, it also fails to fully explain the death gap between the U.S. and European nations.

To truly understand why more babies are likely to die in the America, it's necessary to zero in on their socioeconomic status, the researchers say. And here they find something remarkable: U.S. infants actually have a lower mortality rate, and appear healthier by some measures, in the first month of their lives than infants in Austria or Finland. But that advantage disappears as babies get older. For infants older than month, U.S. infant mortality is much higher than in Europe.

What accounts for that change? "This postneonatal mortality disadvantage is driven almost exclusively by excess inequality in the U.S." Chen, Oster and Williams write.

The researchers also underscore that the health of infants older than a month is as important as the health of babies at birth in understanding why the U.S. trails Europe rankings of infant deaths.

One reason this distinction between younger and older infants is important is that the causes of death for each group are very different. While newborn deaths are more likely to be linked to health problems, older infants are more vulnerable to accidents and Sudden Infant Death Syndrome. Meanwhile, if the high infant mortality rate in the U.S. owes largely to what happens to slightly older babies, then offering more high-tech medical care at birth is unlikely to remedy the problem.

"[T]he facts documented here suggest that, in general, if the goal is to reduce infant mortality, then policy attention should focus on either preventing preterm births or on reducing postneonatal mortality," the researchers write.

What can be done to reduce infant mortality in the U.S.? One possible approach would be to have nurses or other health professionals visit parents and infants at home, the economists suggest. That practice is common in Europe, but fairly rare in the U.S.

More broadly, the implications of the study are clear. Inequality starts at birth, and the condition can be fatal.




When we liberals complain about the relative inequality between individuals in this country, we aren't just jealous of the rich. It causes a wide range of problems for those who don't have a basically sufficient level of income. Included are things like poor quality and quantity of food and clothing; affordable housing which is available only in downtrodden and often crime-ridden neighborhoods; too little access to higher education and good legal representation; a lack of good healthy entertainment for kids growing up, often leading them into gangs; and very poor parenting because the mother and father may be addicted to drugs, depressed and lacking in knowledge of how to bring a child up to be a good citizen. If they have to deal with the problems of being in a minority racial or religious group, or being gay, they may be so depressed and lacking in self confidence that they are doomed to a low status life, and possibly to a life of crime, in other words the creation of an “permanent underclass.” . A set of parents who, though poor, are positive thinkers, intelligent and hard workers and who rear their kids to be the same can make a great difference in their outcome, of course, but the sooner they get out of the underprivileged neighbor that they live in, the better. That's one less battle the parents have to fight.

Some effects of poverty are predictable. If mothers fail to get good prenatal care due to lack of money for the necessary medical treatment, if the lack of food causes malnutrition, and if the home is infested with rodents or insects illness cam result which is sufficient to cause death. Asthma is often a problem in the presence of roaches, for instance, and an underfed child may not have sufficient resistance to diseases to survive.

The article gives an interesting twist, however. The increased death rate occurs after the first month, rather than at birth, and is largely due to “accident” and “sudden infant death syndrome.” This sounds like parental neglect and in some cases even murder. Women suffering from Postpartum Depression have been know to kill their child, and a baby should never be put to sleep on its stomach, because it may not be strong enough to breath well enough in that position. Parents need to be told that, because it is not intuitive. Likewise there have been two cases here in Jacksonville of a two year old managing to get the the front door open and wandering out in the street, or into a retention pond where he drowns. Some of the children who have been left in hot cars were left because their mother was unable to get child care so she could safely do her errands without having to leave the child in that endangered condition. That too is usually caused by poverty.

The article says that in many European countries when a baby is born a nurse is sent along to help the new mother and to check on the child as time passes, which is not usually done in this country. I wonder if health insurance companies would pay for that? Otherwise, it would have to be the government that would finance and arrange a nurse for each new mother. I can't imagine that happening here.

For an interesting article on the term “permanent underclass” see the following Wall Street Journal article which I have copied to my other blog “Thoughts and Researches”:
http://online.wsj.com/news/articles/SB10001424052702303918804579107754099736882