Sunday, January 11, 2915


News Clips For The Day


http://www.worldreligionnews.com/religion-news/christianity/two-florida-pastors-promote-race-relations-merging-congregations

TWO FLORIDA PASTORS PROMOTE RACE RELATIONS BY MERGING CONGREGATIONS
POSTED BY ALISON LESLEY
 06 DEC 2014 

TWO BAPTIST PASTORS IN FLORIDA HAVE PLEDGED TO UNITE THEIR CHURCHES TO CREATE AN EXAMPLE OF GOOD RACE RELATIONS.

The merger is taking place in the state where incidents such as the one that unfolded between Trayvon Martin and George Zimmerman have created racial tension.  One of the churches is in Shiloh, where a 47-year-old white man has now been indicted for the murder of Jordan Davis, a black teenager who was gunned down in late 2012.

The pastors, H.B. Charles, Jr. of the predominantly black congregation at Shiloh Metropolitan Baptist Church, and Michael Clifford of the predominantly white congregation at Ridgewood Baptist Church in the nearby community of Orange Park, have decided to merge their churches in order to present a united front for racial relations in the state.  The merger is also expected to ease the financial problems of Ridgewood Baptist and will take place in mid-January.  Both pastors believe the merger will strengthen their congregations.

Charles, whose church serves more than 8,000 people, has stated that his congregation has been supportive of the merger and is looking forward to the new opportunities it presents.  He cites the good work done by Pastor Clifford as essential to the success of the merger plans, and the two pastors created a video for their first Unity Service, held on November 23.

While both pastors understand the difficulties, which could present themselves during the merge, they have both stated their optimism for a united congregation.  The two pastors are confident their move will help ease racial tension in the area. Charles stated the merger “requires humility, unity and a willingness to change and grow, but they’re good challenges that we’re looking forward to facing.”




“The pastors, H.B. Charles, Jr. of the predominantly black congregation at Shiloh Metropolitan Baptist Church, and Michael Clifford of the predominantly white congregation at Ridgewood Baptist Church in the nearby community of Orange Park, have decided to merge their churches in order to present a united front for racial relations in the state.  The merger is also expected to ease the financial problems of Ridgewood Baptist and will take place in mid-January.  Both pastors believe the merger will strengthen their congregations.... The two pastors are confident their move will help ease racial tension in the area. Charles stated the merger “requires humility, unity and a willingness to change and grow, but they’re good challenges that we’re looking forward to facing.”

I have been interested in the area of race relations all my life, and have had a number of occasions to get to know black people personally. I now live in a predominantly black HUD housing building for the elderly and disabled. I am convinced that blacks and whites can get along together, build personal relationships and friendships, interact fairly and without hostility or abuse. The South is a long way from the days of slavery now, and both groups need to work actively and sincerely to heal the wounds. It's time.

When the schools were segregated there were many people holding back from a true commitment to change – both whites and blacks. There are black and white racists still holding on to their grudges. We have to forgive each other. Whites need to forgive blacks for standing up and demanding their full rights as US citizens and succeeding – they were forced to eat crow after the long centuries of white privilege. It was humiliating. Many of the white Southerners who aren't rich have a particularly hard time with that. They just “don't get no respect,” from anybody at all, or so they think. They have to become more humble in the amount of “respect” that they demand and need emotionally, and learn to be an ordinary citizen rather than a “boss man” – self-acceptance, in other words. The Civil War itself hasn't fully been laid to rest yet, and that needs to go. It's doing nothing but harm. Whenever I see a Dixie flag I am depressed. When I was young, none of us white kids thought anything about that, but at this point it's a sign of vile abuse by whites. Southern whites tend to see it as “history,” but I see it as a continuation of evil conditions. It doesn't make me proud of myself.

The black people, likewise, need to forgive the whites for their pig-headed attitude about race and the overall class structure of wealth and privilege which some of them still seek to perpetuate. The old Southern class structure was almost as hard on the poor whites – “poor white trash,” remember? The first step is to get to the point of talking to whites and even trusting those who prove themselves to be behaving in good conscience. We all need to make these first relationships and then build on it to develop neighborhoods and governments that work positively together rather than continuing to hate and abuse each other.

The ever-present issue of unfair dealings in law enforcement, legal and governmental issues will need conscious and persistent work. Part of the work is to stop some of the daily irritants that exist. Whites need to stop calling blacks animal names or the hated “N work,” and blacks need to stop wearing their pants hanging down to their thighs and other disrespectful and even indecent things. President Obama even spoke against that “fashion trend.” The young men who had their music cranked up to point of being deafening should have turned their music down and left it down. Good citizens are taught to do those things. Likewise Dunn could have simply moved his car. Both parties were angry, and the fatal and tragic conflict occurred. We all need to tamp down on the hostile and abusive things that we unleash on each other. It's all “hate speech” on both sides, and it should stop.

The police officer Wilson in Ferguson said that he reacted in fear. He was afraid of the black young man, referring to him as a “goliath.” White policemen need to be able to go into black communities in relative safety because that is their job, and they likewise need to stop being aggressive as they do their job, rather than attempting to solve problems and build positive ties in those neighborhoods. In dealing with a hardened criminal, that's one thing, but these violent and abusive interactions that don't even involve a crime that amounts to a hill of beans need to stop.

What does all this have to do with blacks and whites going to church together? Simple. The more they deal closely with each other the more trust will develop, and our streets will be safer for blacks and whites alike. Blacks who have the capability to do so need to run for local offices and become known to the people. Our mayor right now in Jacksonville is a black man Alvin Brown. He is a Democrat and has proven himself to be actively involved in the community on a personal level. He comes out of his office and talks to people rather than just meeting with his council members on an official basis. I like him a great deal. I saw one complaint by a candidate planning to run against him, implying that he was inefficient about getting things done, but that was a Republican after all. As for these two churches merging, I can only say “hallelujah!” I'm proud of Jacksonville. The South is moving forward rather than backward at least in this case.






http://www.cbsnews.com/news/charlie-hebdo-attack-thousands-join-world-leaders-at-paris-unity-rally/

Thousands join world leaders at Paris unity rally
CBS/AP 
January 11, 2015

PARIS - More than 40 world leaders, their arms linked, marched through Paris Sunday to rally for unity and freedom of expression to honor the 17 victims of three days of terror.

The leaders were heading a demonstration of at least tens of thousands of people who converged on the capital after three gunmen attacked a newspaper office, kosher supermarket and police. Deafening applause rang out over the square as the leaders walked past, amid tight security and an atmosphere of togetherness amid adversity.

Although official estimates haven't been released yet, some put the number of people in attendance at the Paris rally at more than one million.

The aftermath of the attacks remained raw, with video emerging of one of the gunmen killed during police raids pledging allegiance to the Islamic State of Iraq and Syria and detailing how the attacks were going to unfold. Also, a new shooting was linked to that gunman, Amedy Coulibaly, who was killed Friday along with the brothers behind a massacre at satirical newspaper Charlie Hebdo in nearly simultaneous raids by security forces.

"Today, Paris is the capital of the world," said French President Francois Hollande. "Our entire country will rise up toward something better."

Unity against extremism is the overriding message for Sunday's rally. Among the expected attendees are the Israeli prime minister and the Palestinian president; the Ukrainian president and Russian foreign minister; and the leaders of Britain, Germany, NATO, the Arab League and African nations.

Top European and U.S. security officials are also holding a special emergency meeting in Paris about fighting terrorism.

Rallies were also planned in London, Madrid and New York - all attacked by al Qaeda-linked extremists - as well as Cairo, Sydney, Stockholm, Tokyo and elsewhere.

"We are all Charlie, we are all police, we are all Jews of France," Prime Minister Manuel Valls declared on Saturday, referring to the victims of the attacks that included employees at Charlie Hebdo, shoppers at a kosher grocery and three police officers.

The three days of terror began Wednesday when brothers Said and Cherif Kouachistormed the newsroom of Charlie Hebdo, killing 12 people.

On Friday, a member of al Qaeda's branch in Yemen said the group directed the attack on Charlie Hebdo "as revenge for the honor" of Islam's Prophet Muhammad. The member on Friday provided to CBS News a statement in English saying "the leadership of AQAP directed the operations and they have chosen their target carefully."

On Thursday, police said Coulibaly killed a policewoman on the outskirts of Paris and on Friday, the attackers converged.

While the Kouachi brothers holed up in a printing plant near Charles de Gaulle airport, Coulibaly seized hostages inside a kosher market. It all ended at dusk Friday with near-simultaneous raids at the printing plant and the market that left all three gunmen dead. Four hostages at the market were also killed.

Five people who were held in connection with the attacks were freed late Saturday, leaving no one in custody, according to the Paris prosecutor's office. The widow of the man who attacked the kosher market is still being sought and was last traced near the Turkey-Syrian border.

Early Sunday, police in Germany detained two men suspected of an arson attack against a newspaper that republished the Charlie Hebdo cartoons. No one was injured in that attack.

"The terrorists want two things: they want to scare us and they want to divide us. We must do the opposite. We must stand up and we must stay united," French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius told French TV channel iTele on Sunday.

It was France's deadliest terrorist attack in decades, and the country remains on high alertwhile investigators determine whether the attackers were part of a larger extremist network. More than 5,500 police and soldiers were being deployed on Sunday across France, about half of them to protect the march. The others were guarding synagogues, mosques, schools and other sites around France.

"I hope that we will again be able to say we are happy to be Jews in France," said Haim Korsia, the chief rabbi in France, who planned to attend the rally.

The targeting of Jews in the grocery store attack has touched a nerve for many in the country's Jewish community, which prior to the attack had expressed concern over a tide of anti-semitism following the Israel-Gaza war. Israeli premier Benjamin Netanyahu had asked French officials to step up security around Jewish sites following the recent attacks.

Before Sunday's rally, Netanyahu said in a statement that "any Jew who wants to immigrate to Israel will be received here with open arms."

He later announced the bodies of French Jews killed in the Paris grocery store will be buried in Israel.

At an international conference in India, U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry said the world stood with the people of France "not just in anger and in outrage, but in solidarity and commitment to the cause of confronting extremism and in the cause that extremists fear so much and that has always united our countries: freedom."

Posthumous video emerged Sunday of Coulibaly, who prosecutors said was newly linked by ballistics tests to a third shooting - the Wednesday attack on a jogger in a Paris suburb that left the 32-year-old man gravely injured. In the video, Coulibaly speaks fluent French and broken Arabic, pledging allegiance to ISIS and detailing the terror operation he said was about to unfold.

The Kouachi brothers claimed the attacks were planned and financed by al Qaeda in Yemen.




“The leaders were heading a demonstration of at least tens of thousands of people who converged on the capital after three gunmen attacked a newspaper office, kosher supermarket and police. Deafening applause rang out over the square as the leaders walked past, amid tight security and an atmosphere of togetherness amid adversity. Although official estimates haven't been released yet, some put the number of people in attendance at the Paris rally at more than one million.... "Today, Paris is the capital of the world," said French President Francois Hollande. "Our entire country will rise up toward something better." Unity against extremism is the overriding message for Sunday's rally. Among the expected attendees are the Israeli prime minister and the Palestinian president; the Ukrainian president and Russian foreign minister; and the leaders of Britain, Germany, NATO, the Arab League and African nations. Top European and U.S. security officials are also holding a special emergency meeting in Paris about fighting terrorism.... Early Sunday, police in Germany detained two men suspected of an arson attack against a newspaper that republished the Charlie Hebdo cartoons. No one was injured in that attack. "The terrorists want two things: they want to scare us and they want to divide us. We must do the opposite. We must stand up and we must stay united," French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius told French TV channel iTele on Sunday.... "I hope that we will again be able to say we are happy to be Jews in France," said Haim Korsia, the chief rabbi in France, who planned to attend the rally. The targeting of Jews in the grocery store attack has touched a nerve for many in the country's Jewish community, which prior to the attack had expressed concern over a tide of anti-semitism following the Israel-Gaza war. Israeli premier Benjamin Netanyahu had asked French officials to step up security around Jewish sites following the recent attacks. Before Sunday's rally, Netanyahu said in a statement that "any Jew who wants to immigrate to Israel will be received here with open arms." He later announced the bodies of French Jews killed in the Paris grocery store will be buried in Israel.”

I'm glad to see so many people from all around the world stand up in solidarity with France at this time. Satire has been given a free rein for the most part in Western Europe and the US. Making images of Muhammad is forbidden among Islamic peoples, but it isn't forbidden in other religions. The same cartoonist who drew Muhammad also drew the Pope and a Rabbi, with the same disrespectful style, so it isn't just Islam that is being targeted. Moreover, the freedom to speak our opinions, except for “hate speech” or “crying fire in a crowded theater,” under US law, is something that we have taken for granted in our society, and for which we will fight if necessary. I don't like to see nasty cartoons of President Obama, but there are quite a few of them on websites across the Internet. Political cartoons do tend to be disrespectful in general. Just as I am angry at the cartoons I sometimes see, I also take joy in those against George W Bush and some of the Tea Party members. It's part of the game in Western society, and it is accepted.

I would like to say one thing about Islamic people becoming so well known for their violence that none of them are trusted in Western countries. The average American or European citizen, when aroused in hatred against groups who stand out visibly from the norm and who have proven themselves to be a threat to others, can become dangerous as well. Peaceful Islamic people need to speak out against such violence and oust those people from their mosques. They could also stop financing those Islamic “charities” that are actually an undercover income route for ISIS, Palestinian radical groups and al-Qaeda. They can write books and letters to the newspapers to express their opinions against radicalism. They especially need to do that if they want an accepted place in Western countries. I don't want to see racial or religious warfare in the streets of our cities.

The following article on satire by the editor of Mad Magazine discusses the issue. I won't comment on it. It is self-explanatory. If you've never read Mad Magazine, you should take a look at it. This letter is beautifully written, and explains the position of importance that such satirical work has in the free press.



http://www.cbsnews.com/news/mad-magazine-editor-on-the-hazards-of-satire/

​Mad Magazine editor on the hazards of satire
CBS NEWS
January 11, 2015

This week's New Yorker is just one of countless publications around the world honoring the victims of the Charlie Hebdo massacre. The mass shooting at a satirical magazine strike very close to home for the editor-in-chief of Mad Magazine, John Ficarra:

When I was in college, a journalism professor once told me that freedom of the press is a freedom that has to be re-won every generation. I didn't quite understand what he meant back then, but given the developments of the past few weeks, I do now.

The hacking of Sony Pictures and the resulting pulling of a major American movie from theatres, at least temporarily, sent a shiver down the spine of many Americans in the creative community. Little did any of us realize that the hacking incident was prelude to a much more serious attack on free speech, artistic expression and, especially, humor and satire.

I won't pretend to understand the mindset of the extremists who massacred 12, including the four cartoonists and the editor of Charlie Hebdo. How anyone could be so offended by cartoons that they would be inspired to kill a fellow human being is something I will never comprehend.

The satirists who were murdered in cold blood were killed for simply doing their job.

Yes, they were outrageous. Yes, they were pushing the boundaries of what is acceptable. And incredibly, they were doing it under a constant threat to their own safety.

Over the years MAD Magazine has offended many powerful people, including many in the religious community.

MAD never makes fun of people's beliefs, but we were merciless on the Catholic Church for covering up the child abuse scandal. And after 9/11, we went after Jerry Falwell hard for blaming the 9/11 attacks on gays, feminists, abortionists and the ACLU.

We knew that at the end of the day, no matter how much we lampooned Falwell or the Catholic Church, we shared a common set of values and rules of engagement.

The worst that could happen to us was that we would get a stern letter from their lawyers -- we live for those. Not once did we ever fear for our safety.

Those were the good old days.

Jon Stewart, Conan O'Brien react to Charlie Hebdo attack (CBS News, 01/08/15)
Gallery: Front pages react to Charlie Hebdo attack
Gallery: The work of Charlie Hebdo

When "Sunday Morning" approached me about doing this commentary, I paused. My first consideration was, did I have something interesting to add to the discussion? You can be the judge of that. But I also paused because in this unsettling new world, I couldn't know the ramifications of my decision. By the simple act of appearing on camera denouncing the terrorists and defending the rights of cartoonists and satirists, would I be drawing a target on my back and the backs of my colleagues?

Unfortunately these days, those are not unfounded fears.

And the very fact that I had these fears? Score one for the terrorists.

On the other hand, come Monday morning, my staff and I will be back at work on the next issue of Mad.

What, us worry?



See also:
Sixty years of Mad Magazine ("Sunday Morning," 10/28/12)
Gallery: Mad Magazine, a semi-secret history




http://www.cbsnews.com/news/pope-francis-defends-himself-against-communism-claims/

Pope Francis defends himself against communism claims
CBS/AP
January 11, 2015

VATICAN CITY - Pope Francis is insisting that his concern for the poor and critique of the global economic system isn't some novel, communist-inspired ideology but rather the original and core "touchstone" of the Christian faith.

Some U.S. conservatives have branded the first Latin American pope a Marxist for his frequent critiques of consumerism and focus on a church "that is poor and for the poor." But in an interview contained in a new book, Francis explains that his message is rooted in the Gospel and has been echoed by church fathers since Christianity's first centuries.

"The Gospel does not condemn the wealthy, but the idolatry of wealth, the idolatry that makes people indifferent to the call of the poor," Francis says in "This Economy Kills," a study of the pope's economic and social teachings, excerpts of which were provided Sunday to The Associated Press.

Specifically, Francis summarized a verse from the Gospel of Matthew which is the essential mission statement of his papacy: "I was hungry, I was thirsty, I was in prison, I was sick, I was naked and you helped me, clothed me, visited me, took care of me."

"Caring for our neighbor, for those who are poor, who suffer in body and soul, for those who are in need: this is the touchstone. Is it pauperism? No. It is the Gospel."
He cites church fathers dating to St. Ambrose and St. John Chrysostom as expressing the same concerns, and noted somewhat wryly that if he had said the same "some would accuse me of giving a Marxist homily."

"As we can see, this concern for the poor is in the Gospel, it is within the tradition of the church, it is not an invention of communism and it must not be turned into some ideology, as has sometimes happened before in the course of history," an apparent reference to the Latin American-inspired liberation theology.

"This Economy Kills," by two seasoned Vatican reporters, comes out this week in Italian.

The pope has upset many in the Church with his relatively progressive views and attempts to change the way the Vatican hierarchy works.

Francis is also using his papacy, which began in March 2013, to root out corruption, inefficiency and other problems in the curia.



Pope Francis is certainly not a "Communist." He's a liberal. The "C word" has been thrown around, especially in the Southern states, since I was a child. There is a paranoid fear of communism in this country. We have some socialistic economic policies -- Social Security, Medicare, Medicaid, and now the Affordable Health Care Act. We need all of those. Dire poverty is a problem that is rampant all around the globe. It is an evil which can be controlled, at least partly, and we should keep our "Social Safety Net" in place. The Tea Party and the conservatives from a few years earlier have been trying to destroy the Social Security fund by allowing young workers to set up their own separate retirement accounts using the money that is taken from their paychecks for Social Security. That would quickly starve the SS system so that it couldn't pay its current claims. Those dastardly, sneaky Tea Partiers must not be allowed to do that.






http://www.cbsnews.com/news/holder-highest-level-of-doj-will-decide-whether-to-prosecute-petraeus/

Holder: Petraeus case to be decided at "highest levels" of DOJ
By REBECCA KAPLAN FACE THE NATION
January 11, 2015

Attorney General Eric Holder said Sunday that the decision on whether to bring charges against former CIA Director David Petraeus for passing classified information to his then-girlfriend will be made at "the highest levels of the Justice Department."

Both the FBI and federal prosecutors are recommending that Petraeus be charged with providing classified information to his former mistress, Paula Broadwell, who was writing a biography of the four-star general while the two conducted an affair.

In an interview on CBS' "Face the Nation" Sunday, Holder declined to share many details of the case, citing the fact that it is an ongoing investigation.

"The determination in any case is made at the time that all of the evidence has been acquired, all of the evidence has been reviewed, when it has been gone over with people who are the subjects of the investigation and with their lawyers and so at the appropriate time, the proper people within the Justice Department will make determinations as to what, if any, action should occur," he said.

Holder announced his resignation in September and is expected to stay on until his predecessor is confirmed. President Obama nominated Loretta Lynch, the U.S. Attorney for the Eastern District of New York, to take the job, but she will face a tough confirmation process due to GOP anger over the president's unilateral actions on immigration.

Holder said he did not know about the timing for a decision on prosecuting Petraeus, but he said, "I would expect that to the extent that there is a matter of this magnitude of - that would be decided at the highest levels of the Justice Department."

The attorney general spoke from Paris, where he met with law enforcement counterparts from around the world in the wake of the attack on a satirical French newspaper, Charlie Hebdo, by a group of apparent Islamic extremists. Holder said he was also there to pledge solidarity with the French people, and to promise to do a better job of sharing information amount the nations that participated in the meeting.

The White House announced Sunday that it will convene a conference next month on efforts to counter violent extremism such as the shooting in Paris and earlier attacks in Canada and Australia.

Asked about the potential for smaller attacks in the U.S., Holder said, "I wouldn't say it is greater but I certainly think that the possibility of such attacks exists in the United States. It is something that we worry about all the time. It is something that we meet about all the time. It's something that frankly keeps me up at night. Worrying about the lone wolf or a group of people, a very small group of people, who decide to get arms on their own and do what we saw in France this week."

Holder said the decimation of the core of al Qaeda has reduced or eliminated the possibility of an attack like the one that occurred on Sept. 11, 2001, but the group's affiliates have started moving toward smaller attacks.

"They have inspired people negatively around the world to engage in these really small attacks that involve only one or two people - a small number of arms that can have a devastating impact as we have seen in France. We have been in this phase of the fight against terrorism for some time," he said.

He said he believes the U.S. is doing a "good job" at monitoring those who might pose a threat to Americans at home.

"We're not stereotyping anybody but we are focused on those people who we have some reason to believe might engage in these kinds of these activities and I think our FBI, in conjunction with our intelligence community, and in conjunction with our state and local partners, I think we do a good job in keeping abreast of what these people are talking about and potentially what it is that they are planning," he said.




Petraeus was in the top position of the CIA. His giving sensitive information to his girlfriend is really unacceptable. He was well trusted by most people until that became known, and he deserves a harsh punishment if the charge against him is proven. I'll try to watch for other articles on the subject. I would like to know what issues were compromised. Obama has been criticized recently by a newspaper reporter for being very strict on “whistleblowers” and therefore tightening up the information flow for the press. She was implying that it is a violation of our free press, but we are in a difficult and dangerous time, especially with the ISIS group becoming so active in the West. I don't think he is being dictatorial, but cautious.





http://www.npr.org/blogs/goatsandsoda/2015/01/10/376182321/bill-gates-raises-a-glass-to-and-of-water-made-from-poop

Bill Gates Raises A Glass To (And Of) Water Made From Poop
LINDA POON
JANUARY 10, 2015

In places where fresh water is hard to come by, how do you come up with clean drinking water?

Easy — get the water from poop.

It's a scientifically sound idea, and Bill Gates has a video to prove it. In the video, released this week, he stands in front of the Janicki Omniprocessor, a giant new machine that can turn human waste into clean drinking water in minutes. He waits patiently as Peter Janicki — the engineer who invented the contraption — fills his glass with crystal-clear water from the machine.

Without the slightest hesitation, Gates takes a sip. "The water tasted as good as any I've had out of a bottle," he wrote on his blog. "And having studied the engineering behind it, I would happily drink it every day. It's that safe."

The Omniprocessor is one of the latest projects funded by the Gates Foundation (which also supports NPR), and the philanthropist wants the rest of the world to back it up as well. The machine's purpose is to help the 783 million people living without clean water and the nearly 2.5 billion who don't have adequate sanitation.

"You go into a community and you open the tap. What comes from this is even worse than [the water] you get from the roof when it's raining," says Doulaye Kone, senior program officer at the foundation.

Here's how the Omniprocessor works. Sewer sludge feeds into the machine and is boiled inside a large tube. That separates water vapor from the solid waste, and then the two part ways. Water vapor travels up and through a cleaning system that uses a cyclone and several filters to remove harmful particles. A little condensation takes place and voila — out comes clean drinking water!

One machine is designed to continually provide water for up to 100,000 people, says Kone.

What about all that dried solid waste left behind? That's cooked and turned into steam, which powers the Omniprocessor. Any leftover electricity is funneled into the community.

The first machine outside of U.S. will be tested in Dakar, Senegal later this year, Kone says. The hope is that local entrepreneurs will run the processors, collecting sludge to produce the water and energy.

The thought of drinking water derived made from poop might make some cringe, but here's the thing: The idea isn't new. Treatment facilities in the U.S. and in Singapore, for example, have long turned sewage into clean water that's technically safe for human consumption.

Take Orange County, Calif., says Dr. Dick Luthy, an environmental engineer at Stanford University and director of the National Science Foundation's Center on Re-Inventing the Nation's Urban Water Infrastructure. "You have additional treatment steps here in California — microfiltration, reverse osmosis and ultra-violet light disinfection," he says. "When you go through all that, the water is essentially safe to drink."

It's just that most of the recycled water doesn't go directly into our water supply. Rather, it goes right back into the ground. "What it does in the ground is that it sort of loses its identity," Luthy says. "It stays in the ground and mixes with ground water for a few months — maybe six — before it's pumped out."

Luthy says the Omniprocessor is a good start for what needs to be done in the future as fresh water and energy becomes scarce. The U.N. predicts that by 2030, almost half the world 's population will face water scarcity.

And consider this: "People die in hospitals [in lower-income countries] simply because there's no water running into the tap," Kone say. "Can this be an opportunity to supply the hospitals with clean water for basic [services] or for school where kids don't have any water to drink during the day?"

As Gates wrote on his blog, "One man's trash is another man's treasure."




Science news is always interesting to me, but this goes above and beyond most articles I see. First, it's so repugnant a subject that it is automatically fascinating (in the same way that watching some idiot on YouTube eating a cockroach is fascinating). Second, if it works and is financially feasible, it is one more way to get water, which we will be needing over the next twenty or so years, I think.

Seeing California drying up into a desert this year from global warming has made me very conscious of the need for new ways to produce drinking water. Lake Chad in Africa is in the same situation. The most likely way to produce large amounts of water is desalination, and several such plants are in use now in California. There was also an article on a plant called water hyacinth which purifies sewage into drinkable water. See this article on the subject. http://www.unep.or.jp/ietc/publications/techpublications/techpub-8f/c/Iraq1.asp, “Case Study 8:Wastewater Treatment Using Water Hyacinth in Iraq.”




RESTRAINT AND EXCLUSION IN PUBLIC SCHOOLS – THREE ARTICLES

I had no idea this was a common practice. I do remember a news story around two years ago about a teacher being fired for duct taping a student to her chair. The first I heard of this technique was in the semi-autobiographical novel called “I Never Promised You A Rose Garden,” by Hannah Green. That occurred in a mental hospital. The hospital staff did it to her when she “fought,” in other words went into a wild frenzy, throwing chairs around, etc. It seems to me that if a child in school is doing that kind of thing they should be removed from the school setting until the parents can get her some proper medication and psychiatric treatment. Some people don't believe in psychotropic drugs for children, but to me it's better than this “restraint.” Besides, as the article points out, some children have been unable to breathe and have died, as the black man in NYC did under police restraint that sounded a lot like the way it's described in this article. You can't put someone on their face, hold them down with your body weight as the police officer did, and guarantee that they can breathe. One of the causes of SIDS deaths was determined to be putting the baby to sleep on its stomach. I'm glad states are banning the practice entirely. It's inhumane.

http://www.npr.org/blogs/thetwo-way/2015/01/09/376154616/massachusetts-will-limit-practice-of-restraint-and-seclusion-in-schools

Massachusetts Will Limit Practice Of Restraint And Seclusion In Schools
Joseph Shapiro
January 9, 2015

Massachusetts is one of a growing number of states that are putting new restrictions on the practice of restraining and secluding public school students.

The techniques — which have been blamed for harming students and in at least 20 deaths — were used more than 267,000 times in a recent school year, according to an analysis last year of federal data by NPR and ProPublica.

Starting this year, Massachusetts will no longer allow school staff to pin students face-down on the floor, except in rare circumstances when a doctor approves it for a specific student, ProPublica reports.

Restraint and seclusion are supposed to be used in extraordinary circumstances, when a child's behavior puts himself or others at risk. But federal officials have expressed concern that restraint and seclusion are overused and have sought to limit it.

One result is that many states, like Massachusetts, have reformed their use of the practice. Research by Jessica Butler, an attorney and mother of a child with autism, finds 32 states now "provide some meaningful protections against both restraint and seclusion for children with disabilities." Butler's 2014 report, for the Autism National Committee, included Massachusetts in that count. But a state official told ProPublica that its rules were "long overdue for a very serious and thorough review."

The use of restraint has come under growing national scrutiny in schools. But so has the use of restraint by police, including in the recent death of Eric Garner, after he was put in a chokehold by police in New York, and the death of a man with Down syndrome who was pinned down by police in Maryland after he resisted leaving a movie theater.



http://www.npr.org/2014/06/19/322915388/national-data-confirms-cases-of-restraint-and-seclusion-in-public-schools

National Data Confirm Cases Of Restraint And Seclusion In Public Schools
Joseph Shapiro
June 19, 2014

The practice of secluding or restraining children when they get agitated has long been a controversial practice in public schools. Now, new data show that it's more common than previously understood, happening at least 267,000 times in a recent school year.

NPR worked with reporters from the investigative journalism group ProPublica, who compiled data from the U.S. Department of Education to come up with one of the clearest looks at the practice of seclusion and restraint.

In most cases, the practice is used with students with disabilities — usually with those who have autism or are labeled emotionally disturbed. Sometimes the students will get upset; they might even get violent. To calm or control them, teachers and aides might isolate them in a separate room, which is a practice known as seclusion. Or they might restrain them by holding or hugging them, or pinning them to the ground, or by using mechanical restraints, such as a belt or even handcuffs.

An analysis by ProPublica and NPR of data for the 2011-2012 school year of school discipline practices from the U.S. Department of Education's Civil Rights Data Collection shows:

Restraint and seclusion were used at least 267,000 times nationwide. That includes 163,000 instances in which students were restrained. Mechanical restraints were used 7,600 of those times.

Schools reported that they placed children in seclusion rooms about 104,000 times.

In 75 percent of the cases, it was kids with disabilities who were restrained or secluded.

This was the first time that federal officials required schools to report their use of seclusion and restraint. But the true numbers are almost certainly higher: Many of the nation's largest school districts reported no use of seclusion or restraint. Federal officials say it's unclear whether those districts don't use either technique or if they simply didn't report cases.

School Safety Or Civil Rights?
Some parents and federal officials are seeking to limit the practice. But school administrators say they need to be able to seclude and restrain students in order to keep them, other students and school staff safe.

Dan Domenech, the executive director of the American Association of School Administrators, the group that represents school superintendents, says restraint and seclusion should be used "sparingly," but it's a necessary tool for teachers.

"It is used when a child is acting out in a way, for example, where they are in the process of clawing their eyes out, or tearing their hair out, or smashing their head up against the wall," Domenech says. "And they need to be restrained so they can be stopped from hurting themselves. Or when a child will attack another child. Or when a child will attack a member of the staff."

But federal education officials see the issue differently: not simply as a school safety issue, but as a civil rights issue. Catherine Lhamon, assistant secretary of education in the Office for Civil Rights, says she's alarmed by the data.

"Better numbers would be that only a handful and no more are subject to restraint and seclusion," she says.

But the data show schools are commonly using restraints and seclusion to discipline students.

"Where we remove a kid from a classroom, where we seclude the child or where we restrain the child, the message that we send is that the child has low value, and so little value that we won't even try to educate that student," Lhamon says.

Resulting Injuries
Another reason federal officials want schools to limit the practice is that, sometimes, kids get hurt.

Heather Luke's son, Carson, who has autism, was 10 the day she received an urgent phone call to come to the school he then attended in Virginia. When she arrived, she found her son in pain, with his hand wrapped in gauze.

"There was a huge gash in the palm of the hand, where you could see what appeared to be the bone," she says.

It was the bone. And the bone in his hand was broken.

"We have all heard the stories of kids in prone restraints who died. I mean, very scary as hell to hear those stories. Yes. That could be us," says Heather Luke, seen here with Carson.

A report by local social service workers later absolved school officials of physical abuse. The report, based on the version of events from teachers and school officials, said Carson got upset and threw his shoes at a teacher and then hit and scratched her. Five adults restrained and then took the boy to a seclusion room. The metal door was closed — accidentally, school staff said — on his hand.

Today, Carson, now 13, goes to a new school that he likes. On a recent day, he brought home the solar oven he made in science class, to show his parents. He talks of going to college now.
Three years later, it still angers Luke that her son's hand was broken. But she knows that sometimes kids with disabilities face injuries that are worse.

"We all have heard the stories of kids in prone restraints that died," Luke says. Prone restraint is a practice of holding a student face down on the floor. "I mean, very scary as hell to hear those stories. Yeah. That could be us."

A 2009 report by the U.S. Government Accountability Office, a nonpartisan congressional investigative agency, counted hundreds of cases of abuse, including at least 20 deaths.

Legal Actions
There have been legal restrictions on the use of restraint in other places that receive federal funding, like nursing homes, or state hospitals.

Some lawmakers in Washington, D.C. — led by Sen. Tom Harkin, D-Iowa, and Rep. George Miller, D-Calif. — are now proposing legislation to strictly limit the use of restraint, and to even ban the use of seclusion, in public schools.

The legislation has gained wide support among groups that represent people with disabilities. But the lawmakers have struggled to get support from other members of Congress for their proposal. More action is happening in state legislatures, and most states now regulate the use of restraint and seclusion.

Lawmakers in Minnesota, for example, are considering whether to ban or restrict the use of prone and other kinds of restraints.

For Courtney Christians, in rural Wheaton, Minn., it's an urgent issue.

Her son Kadaan has autism. In November 2012, when he was 8, she found out that on four occasions he had been handcuffed to a chair, his arms and legs bound, and a piece of cloth, known as a spit guard, had been tied over his face.

One result of his autism is that when Kadaan gets excited about something he's doing — an art project, for example, or reading a book — he doesn't want to stop and go on to the next project. So when teachers made him stop, he sometimes got upset.

Or, as Kadaan, now 10, puts it: "I had a meltdown and stuff, and I didn't want to go to timeout and I made a bad decision. ... I had a tantrum."

Christians says her son "is a very happy, easy-going, caring little guy." But the episodes of restraint made him anxious.

She says he told her that he felt like he was on "a barbed wire full of electricity" and didn't know when he was going to break.

"He was starting to rip the skin off of his fingertips. He wasn't able to focus on anything for a period of time, he was so on edge," Christians says.

But things are better today, Christians says. She complained to school officials and her state lawmaker, and, since then, new personnel at the school have made changes to school policy. Kadaan, she says, is happy and successful at school.

Finding A Solution
One possible alternative to seclusion and restraint is the growing use of "positive behavioral intervention support." It uses positive reinforcements, instead of disciplinary ones — such as restraint and seclusion — to deal with students when they get upset or even violent.

PBIS was first started as a way to handle students with disabilities with the most challenging behaviors. But now it is taught as a way to improve school policies for all students.

Dale Young, who has implemented PBIS at the Spectrum Center Schools in California, which educate students with emotional and other disabilities, says the approach has reduced episodes of anger that can quickly escalate when a student is restrained.

"When you mention PBIS as an alternative to restraint or seclusion, I think of it a little differently. It's a prevention to me," Young says.

Domenech, at the superintendents' association, says schools want to do more of that kind of prevention. But training can be expensive. A federal grant program that paid for a lot of the training was ended by Congress in 2009, and since then, he says, schools have struggled to find other funding.



http://democrats.edworkforce.house.gov/issue/seclusion-restraint

Seclusion & Restraint

In 2009, an investigation by the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO) found hundreds of allegations where children have been abused, and some even died, as a result of misuses of seclusion and restraint in schools.  Unlike in hospitals and other medical and community-based facilities that receive federal health funding, there are currently no federal laws addressing seclusion and restraint in schools.

Seclusion means involuntarily isolating a student in an area by himself – not including a timeout. This includes putting children in dark, small rooms as punishment. Restraint means restricting a student’s freedom of movement.  Restraint can become fatal when it prevents a child’s ability to breathe. In some of the cases examined in the GAO report, ropes, duct tape, chairs with straps and bungee cords were used to restrain or isolate young children.

According to a recent report state laws on seclusion and restraint vary widely:

Only 19 States have any meaningful protections for the use of seclusion or restraint in schools.
Only 20 States prohibit restraints that restrict breathing.
Only 13 States limit the use of restraint to emergencies involving immediate risk of harm.
Only 15 States ban the use of mechanical restraints.
Only 14 States prohibit chemical restraints.
 Only 30 States have any requirement that parents be notified if their child was restrained or secluded at school.

The Keeping All Students Safe Act would for the first time, put in place minimum safety standards to prevent abusive seclusion and restraint in schools across the country. The bipartisan legislation would protect schoolchildren from inappropriate uses of seclusion and restraint. The bill would provide school personnel with the necessary tools, training, and support to ensure the safety of all students and school personnel.

Read more about the Keeping All Students Safe Act.
FAQs about the Keeping All Students Safe Act.
Supporters of the Keeping All Students Safe Act.
Resource Document from the Department of Education on Seclusion and Restraint.
Letter from Rep. George Miller (D-CA) to Rep. John Kline (R-MN), calling for a markup of the Keeping All Students Safe Act. (May 2012)
Letter from Rep. George Miller (D-Calif.) and Bobby Scott (D-VA) to Committee Chairman John Kline (R-VA), calling for action on the Keping All Students Safe Act (July 2014)
'School is Not Supposed to Hurt' -- Report from National Disability Rights Network on Seclusion and Restraint.
'How Safe Is The Schoolhouse?: An Analysis of State and Seclusion and Restraint Laws and Policies' -- from the Autism National Committee.