This is the archive for March 2009
Principal Judy Billingsley
Courier photo
After less than a year as principal of James Logan High School, Judy Billingsley today announced her retirement.
"Today, I notified Superintendent Mc Veigh and Derek McNamara of my decision to retire effective June 30, 2009," Billingsley wrote in an email to her staff. "It has been my pleasure to serve the teachers, staff, students, and parents of James Logan High School who have welcomed me with open arms from the very beginning."
Posted by courier at 07:02 AM. Filed under: News
3 comments • Permalink
Judge Edward Korman
MELVILLE, N.Y. — A Brooklyn federal judge on Monday gave the U.S. Food and Drug Administration 30 days to begin allowing minors who don't have a prescription to buy Plan B, the morning-after pill that was the subject of intense political battles during the Bush administration.
Judge Edward Korman ruled that the FDA, which has restricted over-the-counter access to the emergency birth-control drug to women 18 and older, must begin allowing 17-year-olds to buy it, and must also reconsider its ban on nonprescription sales to minors as young as 11.
Posted by courier at 11:13 AM. Filed under: News
2 comments • Permalink
Maria Shriver and her father,
Sargent Shriver, Alzeimer's victim
WASHINGTON — Sargent Shriver once walked the halls of Congress pressing senators and members of the House of Representatives for more money for the Peace Corps, Head Start and Job Corps, his daughter, Maria Shriver, testified Wednesday.
"He knew every senator and every congressman by name. He knew their careers, their interests, their politics and, of course, their soft spots," California's first lady said. Now, at 93, the one-time adviser to two presidents doesn't remember his daughter, thanks to the ravages of Alzheimer's, the disease that's left him entirely dependent on others.
Posted by courier at 11:03 AM. Filed under: News
No comments • Permalink
By Christi Parsons
Tribune Washington Bureau (MCT)
WASHINGTON — Here are some key issues, in question-and-answer form, surrounding President Barack Obama's trip to the G-20 summit this week and his meeting with NATO allies and EU nations.
QUESTION: What is the main purpose of President Barack Obama's trip to Europe?
ANSWER: The president will gather with leaders of the world's 20 major economies at the G-20 summit, and with the NATO allies and the European Union at their meetings, before taking a side trip to Turkey to begin his promised outreach to the Muslim world.
Q: What's on the agenda?
A: The agenda items include discussion of what to do about the crashing global economy and how to stem extremist activity in Afghanistan.
Posted by courier at 04:19 PM. Filed under: News
No comments • Permalink
President Barack Obama holds a town
hall forum, taking questions from the
Internet as well as White House attendees.
(Nancy Stone/ Chicago Tribune)
MIAMI — Chatting on late-night shows. Beaming bilingual messages via satellite. Even lingering in your inbox. If the new president is anything, he's this: digital and ubiquitous.
In a sign of the Internet age, President Barack Obama has employed a range of social networking and online devices from Facebook to the White House Web site to reach out to constituents — the latest and most direct example being an unprecedented online town hall Thursday and an address delivered via satellite through the Spanish-languague Univision network.
Posted by courier at 05:28 PM. Filed under: News
No comments • Permalink
My Lobotomy
by Howard Dully and Charles Fleming
Hardcover: 288 pages
Publisher: Crown (September 4, 2007)
Language: English
ISBN-10: 0307381269
ISBN-13: 978-0307381262
By Jessica Stewart, Courier Editor-in-Chief
'My name is Howard Dully. I'm a bus driver. I'm a husband, and a father, and a grandfather. I'm into doo-wop music, travel, and photography.
I'm also a survivor: In 1960, when I was twelve years old, I was given a transorbital, or 'ice pick,' lobotomy."
So begins Dully's heartrending memoir, a chilling tale that plays rock'n roll upon the heartstrings. I cannot say I enjoyed this book because the entire time I read it I was either enraged or depressed. Nevertheless, it was difficult for me to put it down, and I definitely recommend that everybody read it. Lobotomies, as horrifying as they are, are an essential piece of mankin's history, and everybody should know about them so that history does not repeat itself.
Posted by courier at 06:32 PM. Filed under: News
No comments • Permalink
Mark Hanis,
Courier Editor-in-Chief
Mark Hanis, the Founder and Executive Director of the Genocide Intervention Network (GI-Net), came to Logan to talk to the students and teachers who attended the event about genocide. He was the second visitor to Logan this year to speak about genocide in a series of assemblies arranged by Stephanie Papas, during 7th period, March 11.
Posted by courier at 09:12 AM. Filed under: News
No comments • Permalink
Rick La Plante, New Haven Schools Public Information Officer
An Alvarado Elementary School teacher will help represent the United States next month at an international science meeting in Austria.
Kim Pratt is one of only three U.S. teachers invited to attend the European Geosciences Union General Assembly April 19-24 in Vienna, where she will meet with prominent scientists and collaborate with educators from around the world on best practices and ideas for science education.
Posted by courier at 08:58 AM. Filed under: News
No comments • Permalink
Karen Anderson of Berkeley places
a bouquet of flowers at a memorial
to the the four officers killed Saturday.
(D. Ross Cameron/Oakland Tribune/MCT)
SAN JOSE, Calif. — A fourth Oakland police officer has died following two separate shootouts in which three other officers and a parolee were killed.
John Hege, 41, who had been with the Oakland department since 1999, was pronounced dead at Highland Hospital shortly before noon today, said Jeff Thomason, a department spokesman.
The three other Oakland police officers were pronounced dead Saturday after a traffic stop and, later, as a SWAT team tried to apprehend the man.
Posted by courier at 04:41 PM. Filed under: News
No comments • Permalink
By Kevin G. Hall and David Lightman
McClatchy Newspapers (MCT)
WASHINGTON _ The national debt held by the public would double over the next decade if President Barack Obama's budget is enacted into law, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office projected Friday.
The U.S. government would run budget deficits approaching $1 trillion every year for a decade under Obama's budget, the CBO said.
Deficits and debt that big are unsustainable over the long term, economists agree. They'd threaten to send inflation spiraling upward, threaten the nation's creditworthiness and the value of the dollar _ China's prime minister publicly voiced concern about the safety of U.S. debt last week _ and force up interest rates, as investors come to see the United States as a risky, debt-ridden economy. They'd saddle future generations with a debt payable only by cutting federal spending or raising taxes sharply.
Posted by courier at 11:08 PM. Filed under: News
No comments • Permalink
Former Vice President
Dick Cheney.
U.S. Photo
WASHINGTON — Former Vice President Dick Cheney said Sunday President Barack Obama has intensified the nation's risk of terrorist attacks by jettisoning key elements of the Bush administration's aggressive approach.
The criticism came in a broad-based attack on Obama during a Sunday news program in which Cheney also disagreed with expanded White House involvement in the economy, and denied former President George W. Bush was responsible for the nation's financial ills. The White House did not comment.
Posted by courier at 09:31 AM. Filed under: News
No comments • Permalink
A Chinook salmon
USGS photo
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — The Nature Conservancy has bought ranchland near Mount Shasta to repair a cow-ravaged tributary of Shasta River, historically one of the most productive salmon streams in California.
Restoring Big Springs Creek could be "a silver bullet" in reviving runs of salmon, steelhead and other fish throughout the Klamath Basin, said Henry Little, project director for the conservancy in California.
Posted by courier at 04:32 PM. Filed under: News
No comments • Permalink
By Rick La Plante, New Haven Schools Public Information Officer
Children with special needs who are enrolled in the New Haven Unified School District’s before- and after-school program are getting extra help, thanks to United Cerebral Palsy.
Kids First, the District’s childcare program, is partnering with United Cerebral Palsy of the Golden Gate on an “Everyone In” program to provide recreational assistants to facilitate the inclusion of special needs children. The recreational assistants, who come from the Regional Center of the East Bay, “support the child’s participation to his or her maximum potential,” Kids First Manager Mark De Muri said.
Posted by courier at 04:19 AM. Filed under: News
No comments • Permalink
Space shuttle Discovery's payload
bay and robotic arm. NASA TV photo
CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — It was a long time coming, but space shuttle Discovery finally blasted its crew of seven into a cloudless Sunday evening sky _ the first orbiter flight of 2009 to the international space station.
Its mission: to provide more electricity to the orbiting lab.
A month behind schedule, the mission has been delayed four times by fragile valves inside the shuttle's propulsion system. Then a hydrogen gas leak scrubbed Discovery's first launch attempt last Wednesday.
Posted by courier at 05:29 PM. Filed under: News
No comments • Permalink
By Renee Schoof
McClatchy Newspapers (MCT)
WASHINGTON — As a candidate, President Barack Obama promised that his Department of Energy would work on a way for the United States to continue to get power from coal without dumping greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.
The work is already under way, and has been boosted with $3.4 billion in the stimulus plan. The DOE is expected to announce soon whether it will use $1 billion of that money to revive FutureGen, a planned coal-fired power plant in rural Illinois that would be the first in the world to capture its carbon dioxide emissions and bury them deep underground.
Posted by courier at 05:09 AM. Filed under: News
No comments • Permalink
Guards and a prisoner at
Guantanamo Bay.
U.S. government photo
WASHINGTON — The Obama administration on Friday abandoned two key aspects of former President George W. Bush's policies on suspected terrorists, setting off wide debate on whether the move undercut the government's rationale for holding at least some of the men who are now detained at the Guantanamo Bay military prison in Cuba or amounted to nothing new.
In a court filing in Washington, the Justice Department dropped the term "enemy combatant" to refer to those being held in Guantanamo. It also said that the government's authority to continue to jail terrorist suspects would hinge on proving that they "authorized, committed or aided" the Sept. 11 attacks or that they "were part of or substantially supported" the Taliban or al-Qaida.
Posted by courier at 06:24 AM. Filed under: News
No comments • Permalink
Shirley Manson
wikimedia photo
SAN FRANCISCO — Shirley Manson turned Garbage into gold.
She accomplished this bit of pop culture alchemy during her days as the lead singer of the alternative rock band Garbage. In the mid-1990s, the Scottish siren drew big crowds with her distinct voice and looks.
Now, Manson is acting. She's currently playing Catherine Weaver in the Fox Network series "Terminator: The Sarah Connor Chronicles." Weaver is the chief executive officer of a massive company at the center of the whole Terminator mythology. Even Weaver is one of the shape-shifting killers from the not-to-distant future.
Posted by courier at 10:17 AM. Filed under: News
No comments • Permalink
By Rick La Plante, New Haven Schools Public Information Officer
Girls participating in athletics at James Logan High School, as well as girls in physical education classes, will be able to work out on new equipment, thanks to the New Haven Schools Foundation.
The Foundation will provide a “Project Enrichment” grant worth $500 to purchase lighter weights that will help girls build shoulder and upper-body strength, granting a request from Athletic Director Tom Rosenthal and teachers and coaches Teri Johnson, Stephanie Papas and Lee Webb.
Posted by courier at 09:55 AM. Filed under: News
No comments • Permalink
By Rick La Plante, New Haven Schools Public Information Officer
Continuing to deal with the local impact of the state financial crisis, the Board of Education on Tuesday night approved the second interim report on the 2008-09 budget and projections for 2009-10 and 2010-11.
The second interim report reflects the District’s response to the state’s decision − midway through the school year − to withhold nearly $4 million in funds that already had been budgeted. It includes the elimination of four management positions, as approved by the Board in February, and three temporary teaching positions. It also includes freezes on hiring and overtime, except in emergency situations, and a reduction in Strategic Plan funding and budgets for materials and supplies.
Posted by courier at 08:43 AM. Filed under: News
No comments • Permalink
By Susan Ferriss
McClatchy Newspapers (MCT)
SACRAMENTO, Calif. — Gay marriage advocates have a steep climb to invalidate the ban voters approved in Proposition 8, according to legal experts who Thursday watched California Supreme Court justices cast a skeptical eye on their case during three hours of oral arguments.
At the same time, experts said justices appeared inclined to uphold the nearly 19,000 gay marriages performed in California between mid-June and the Nov. 4 election.
"I think the opponents of Proposition 8 faced heavy going," said Stephen Barnett, Boalt Hall law professor at the University of California, Berkeley.
Posted by courier at 09:38 AM. Filed under: News
2 comments • Permalink
This image shows the continent-wide
warming trend from 1957 through 2006.
Dark red over West Antarctica reflects
that the region warmed most per decade.
Most of the rest of the continent is orange,
indicating a smaller warming trend,
or white, where no change was observed.
NASA photo
By Scott Canon
McClatchy Newspapers (MCT)
KANSAS CITY, Mo. — No longer is David Braaten constantly cocooned in his red super parka. He left the insta-freeze winds of the Antarctic interior in January.
But as cold as the trip was for the University of Kansas scientist, he recognizes what one discovery after the next has demonstrated this year: It's getting remarkably warm for down there, and it's heating up incredibly fast.
"We're trying to find out what's happening to the ice," said Braaten, the deputy director of the KU-based Center for Remote Sensing of Ice Sheets.
Posted by courier at 09:17 AM. Filed under: News
No comments • Permalink
By Mia Tungol, Courier Daily Editor
During the weekend of the Souper Bowl, the St. Anne Youth Ministry held a fundraiser in order to support St. Anthony's Foundation in San Francisco.
Despite the complications of fewer people attending the masses, the Youth Ministry group was able to raise almost the same amount as the previous year. Last year, the group fundraised $2,729.00, but this year the group raised $2,728.00. Some of the group members were slightly disappointed since they were only one dollar off from the year before. The Youth Ministry group had hoped to raise more money, but they are glad they still met their quota.
Posted by courier at 09:05 AM. Filed under: News
1 comment • Permalink
By Rick La Plante, New Haven Schools Public Information Officer
The lights will shine more brightly this spring when drama students at Alvarado Middle School put on their performance of “Willy Wonka Jr.” – thanks to the generosity of the New Haven Schools Foundation.
AMS drama teacher Erin Ford was one of four recipients Monday as the Foundation distributed the first of its “Project Enrichment” grants for co-curricular and extra-curricular activities at schools in the New Haven Unified School District. Surprised in front of her colleagues at an afternoon staff meeting, Ms. Ford received $400 to purchase a lighting board and acting blocks for the AMS Drama Club.
x
Posted by courier at 06:07 AM. Filed under: News
No comments • Permalink
Genocide Intervention Network
Founder Mark Hanis
By Rick La Plante, New Haven Schools Public Information Officer
The founder of an organization dedicated to ending the ongoing genocide in Darfur will speak to students Wednesday at James Logan High School.
Mark Hanis, founder and executive director of the Genocide Intervention Network (GI-Net), will speak to students about the group’s efforts in Darfur, Sudan, where more than 400,000 people have been killed and more than 2.5 million have been displaced . His talk will be in the Little Theater, starting at 2:30 p.m.
Posted by courier at 09:25 AM. Filed under: News
No comments • Permalink
Author Greg Mortenson greets
students Idrees Najibi/Courier Photo
The Pennies for Peace Assembly was a successful collaboration of multiple organizations to celebrate humanitarian efforts.
The assembly was held Tuesday at the Pavilion, where schools from the Fremont, Newark, and New Haven Districts came together for this special presentation.
The Tri-city effort began when the Fremont Main Library read the novel
Three Cups of Tea holding book discussions, eventually leading the Newark and Union City Public libraries to read the book.
Posted by courier at 09:20 AM. Filed under: News
No comments • Permalink
By Rick La Plante, New Haven Schools Public Information Officer
The New Haven Unified School District will not have to lay off teachers to deal with the latest round of state budget cuts, but the Board of Education will be asked Tuesday night to give up the extra counselors that the District was able to hire two years ago.
Posted by courier at 07:59 AM. Filed under: News
1 comment • Permalink
By Tim Johnson
McClatchy Newspapers (MCT)
BEIJING — Premier Wen Jiabao Thursday said China will "significantly increase" spending to counter the effects of a global recession dragging down its export-based economy, but he didn't say how large the new stimulus package would be.
"The global financial crisis continues to spread and get worse," Wen said in an opening speech to the National People's Congress, a largely ceremonial body.
Wen said that global forces could threaten to derail the steady rise of China, which is the world's third-largest economy but is now experiencing its slowest growth in two decades.
Posted by courier at 11:29 AM. Filed under: News
1 comment • Permalink
An endangered Blackside Dace
U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service photo
WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama overrode the Bush administration on a key step in administering the Endangered Species Act on Tuesday, restoring a requirement that federal agencies consult with experts on threatened species before launching construction projects that could affect their well-being.
Environmentalists said reinstating the requirement blocks the Army Corps of Engineers, the U.S. Forest Service and others from "nibbling away" at critical wildlife habitat. Business and industry groups, on the other hand, warned that it could hamper road-building and other projects that would help jump-start the economy.
Posted by courier at 05:15 PM. Filed under: News
1 comment • Permalink
By Asma Yasini, Courier Staff Writer
Representatives of James Logan's Afghan Club will present a check for almost $600 to Afghan relief activist and fundraiser Greg Mortenson at a special assembly of attendees from various schools in the Tri-Cities area.
James Logan students, like those from other nearby schools, has helped raise money for Mortenson's Pennies For Peace project to build and supply schools in Afghanistan and Pakistan.
Posted by courier at 05:04 PM. Filed under: News
1 comment • Permalink
Paul Harvey receives
the Presidential Medal of
Freedom in 2005
wikipedia photo
CHICAGO — Paul Harvey, a Chicago radio man whose melodious voice and hearty "Hello America" were cherished by millions for more than 57 years on national broadcasts that were an entrancing mix of news, storytelling and gently persuasive salesmanship, died Saturday. He was 90.
Called "the voice of Middle America," and "the voice of the Silent Majority" by the media for his flag-waving conservatism and championing of traditional values, Harvey died surrounded by family at a Phoenix hospital, according to an ABC Radio Networks spokesman. The cause of death was not immediately available.
Posted by courier at 04:34 PM. Filed under: News
No comments • Permalink
Climate researcher and author
David Archer teaches at the
University of Chicago.
(Princeton University Press/MCT)
WASHINGTON — Until now, most discussion of climate change has been about what scientific evidence shows is likely to happen between now and 2100. However, scientific research shows that the carbon dioxide gas released from burning fossil fuels lasts in the atmosphere much longer than mere decades.
David Archer, a leading climate researcher who teaches at the University of Chicago, has written a new book that looks at carbon dioxide's "long tail" and what it means for changes on Earth in the future.
Posted by courier at 03:52 PM. Filed under: News
No comments • Permalink
