Monday, April 27, 2009

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Swine Flu Live Webcast: Dr Jon LaPook Of CBS News Answers Your Questions (VIDEO) Top
At 7pm ET tonight, Dr. Jon LaPook and the CBS News medical team will field your questions on the swine flu outbreak live on CBSNews.com. Please send us your questions at: doc@cbs.com. We may use your response tonight! More on Swine Flu
 
Trip Van Noppen: A Global Warming Story You Haven't Heard [VIDEO] Top
John Kerry and Barbara Boxer are two of the greenest members of the Senate. Jim Inhofe is the Senate's chief global warming denier. But last week - on Earth Day, no less - they came together to introduce a bill requiring the EPA to look at ways to control a dangerous pollutant that kills millions worldwide and accelerates global warming, particularly in the Arctic. No, not carbon dioxide, which remains the main driver of worldwide climate change, but black carbon, airborne microscopic particles of soot. In the United States and Europe, black carbon comes from diesel engines and industrial smokestacks. In the developing world, the main source is primitive cooking and heating fires. Breathing black carbon causes serious respiratory illness responsible for 1.6 million deaths a year, from the sprawling suburbs of California to the slums of Mumbai. And when it falls on ice or snow in the Arctic, it causes faster melting, accelerating tipping points like the thawing of the Greenland ice sheet. Just within the last 18 months, climate scientists have determined that black carbon could be responsible for up to half of all Arctic warming. The good news: Since black carbon stays in the atmosphere only a short time, fast action to control it will buy time for addressing the larger issue of CO2 emissions. Here's a video www.stopsoot.org that tells everything you need to know in two minutes and 14 seconds. On Tuesday, the eight nations of the Arctic Council, including the U.S., meet in Tromso, Norway, and black carbon is on the agenda for early action. At the meeting, Secretary Hillary Clinton's State Department team must stand up and take leadership on this issue. We've already significantly cut our domestic emissions of black carbon, although there's a still a long way to go. But the U.S. and Europe must also commit to a big increase in financial assistance to developing countries to help them switch to cleaner fuels and stoves - some of which cost less than $10 per family. Let's be clear: Curbing black carbon is an effective strategy for fighting global warming only when combined with aggressive action against CO2. The technologies are already available. Now we need the political will and financial support to put them in place as soon as possible. Sec. Clinton must get the message.
 
91 Protesters Arrested At White House Protesting For Disabilities Health Care Legislation Top
WASHINGTON (AP) - U.S. Park Police say they have arrested 91 protesters in front of the White House, including some in wheelchairs who chained themselves to a fence. The protesters are calling on the president to support legislation that would give people with disabilities in need of long-term care alternatives to nursing homes. Sgt. David Schlosser says a large group gathered on a sidewalk outside the White House on Monday without a protest permit required for groups of more than 25 demonstrators. He says some protesters are in wheelchairs and have chained themselves to a fence. Police may use a bolt-cutter to cut the chains. The protesters are receiving written citations from officers, but are not being handcuffed or taken to a detention facility. Copyright 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
 
Felon In Stroger Hiring Affair Questioned By State's Attorney Top
Fired Cook County employee Tony Cole said from jail this morning he's been questioned by the Cook County State's Attorney's office in the wake of not only his ouster but that of the county Chief Financial Officer Donna Dunnings.
 
Mary Ann Glendon, Former Vatican Ambassador, Rejects Notre Dame Award Over Obama Flap Top
SOUTH BEND, Ind. — A former U.S. ambassador to the Vatican said Monday she won't accept the University of Notre Dame's top honor at commencement next month because of the Roman Catholic school's decision to have President Barack Obama speak to graduates. Harvard University law professor and anti-abortion scholar Mary Ann Glendon said in a letter to the school president that giving Obama an honorary degree violates the U.S. bishops' 2004 statement that Catholic institutions shouldn't honor people whose actions conflict with the church's moral principles. "That request, which in no way seeks to control or interfere with an institution's freedom to invite and engage in serious debate with whomever it wishes, seems to me so reasonable that I am at a loss to understand why a Catholic university should disrespect it," she wrote in the letter to the Rev. John Jenkins. The letter posted on the Web site of the conservative journal First Things. Glendon was ambassador to the Vatican in the final year of President George W. Bush's administration. She was to receive the school's Laetare (Luh-TAR'-eh) Medal. Dozens of bishops have criticized the Obama invitation because of his support for abortion rights and embryonic stem-cell research. Jenkins issued a statement Monday saying the university was "disappointed that Professor Glendon has made this decision." "It is our intention to award the Laetare Medal to another deserving recipient, and we will make that announcement as soon as possible," he said. At the White House, Obama press secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters the president looks forward to giving the commencement address May 17. He also said Notre Dame has a history of vigorous discussion and looks forward to visiting. University spokesman Dennis Brown said he did not know of anyone else who had agreed to accept the award but then declined it. The Laetare Medal, which the university describes as the most prestigious honor for American Catholics, has been awarded annually since 1883 to a Catholic "whose genius has ennobled the arts and sciences, illustrated the ideals of the church and enriched the heritage of humanity." Previous winners have included President John F. Kennedy, anti-death penalty activist Sister Helen Prejean, actor-activist Martin Sheen and jazz musician Dave Brubeck. A message was left for Glendon at her Harvard office. She said in the letter to Jenkins she planned no further comment. More on Barack Obama
 
GOP Still Filibustering Sebelius Despite Flu Outbreak Top
So Kathleen Sebelius will get her confirmation vote as Health and Human Services secretary tomorrow in the Senate -- but even with the flu outbreak, her confirmation will still have to clear a big hurdle, requiring 60 votes. More on Swine Flu
 
Andrea Chalupa: Goodbye, Portfolio. Thanks, Uncle Si Top
Jeff Bercovici, Portfolio.com 's Mixed Media blogger, broke the news at 10 a.m.: Condé Nast is shutting down Portfolio magazine and its website. Eighty-five people, including editor-in-chief Joanne Lipman and publisher William Li, have been let go. This is a sad, sad day. I write this news with a heavy heart: I was at Condé Nast Portfolio for two years, before joining WalletPop , and I worked on the highly scrutinized (one might even say Gawked ) launch of Portfolio.com in early 2007. The magazine's launch is generally estimated to have cost Condé Nast some $150 million. Portfolio had the misfortune of being an interesting publication at an interesting time. It was founded to capture the extreme excess of life on Wall Street and the insane wealth circulating the globe. The world had a new class of super-rich, and Portfolio would be the magazine to document their lives. It viewed itself as a resource of business insight and lifestyle tips for executives and CEOs -- the new rock stars -- and their fans, who aspired to be like them. Some detractors, and even some admirers, viewed it as rich-people porn. Along with the sober, prescient business analysis of Jesse Eisinger and Felix Salmon, there were eye-popping stories: how to buy an island, how to develop your own golf course, a $40,000 iPhone, a billion-dollar house. It covered smart, sane economics, and luxurious oligarch-bait. Within a year, all that changed -- sort of. On its November 2007 cover, when Eisinger predicted major bank collapses, even some of us staffers had thought he sounded as wild as a doomsday prophet. That feeling only lasted a couple of months, until Bear Stearns capsized suddenly in early 2008. The editors toned down the lifestyle stories, keeping more tightly focused on how our business leaders were impacting the world rather than how many cars they kept in their garages. With the economic world in turmoil, it seemed like this was the right time for a magazine like Portfolio , and particularly a website. "Condé Nast, as successful a company as it is, it's not in the business of publishing business news. It's in the business of aggregating high-end readers and selling them to luxury advertisers," Bercovici told me by phone this morning. He was, for the record, drinking a beer at his desk, upholding a sacred layoffs tradition begun at Portfolio in late October, during its first round of sweeping layoffs at the magazine and web site. "I don't think it's a doomsday scenario," Bercovici told me, "in the sense of magazines surviving as magazines. Condé Nast is the fittest of the companies to survive that transition. The whole industry is going to be more like the British magazine industry, in terms of staffing levels and cost structure. [But] you can't beat brands like Vogue and Vanity Fair ; they will survive a lot better than a lot of other brands." If magazines want to survive, they have to rely more on freelancers, smaller staffs, Bercovici says -- and you can forget all about those glamorous, Devil Wears Prada perks. (To quote Dumb and Dumber : "So you're saying there's a chance?") The latest and final issue of Condé Nast Portfolio is, in my opinion, one of its best. On Friday, I ran into Bill Tonelli, a Portfolio senior editor (and a decorated former features editor for Rolling Stone , who worked with such writers as David Foster Wallace). He handed me a copy of the May issue. This weekend I read it cover-to-cover in a single sitting: a first for me, with this magazine. I've always been a bigger fan of Portfolio.com . We produced dynamic info-graphics, through the cutting edge talents of Shazna Nessa, now running AP 's digital department, and Jacky Myint, and produced zany viral videos on the web. The web was the future, and under the anything-goes (as-long-as-it's-smart) leadership of Dan Colarusso, we were having fun with it. I always thought the website would outlast the magazine: We were the future! Then last October, Condé Nast shut down Portfolio.com , sending a communal "Huh?" through the blogosphere. Isn't that backwards, in this day and age? To give up your promising digital strategy in favor of dead trees? I remember being in the ritzy Condé Nast cafeteria one day a month earlier spotting chairman S.I. Newhouse in his usual booth, where he eats lunch with his storied editors Graydon Carter ( Vanity Fair ), David Remnick ( The New Yorker ), and Anna Wintour ( Vogue ), who's perhaps more recognizable to the general public as the character of Miranda Priestly in The Devil Wears Prada . On this particular day, Si looked like he'd been punched in the stomach. To read more, go to WalletPop.com
 
Sahil Kapur: Learning From History On Health Care Reform Top
President Obama is preparing to execute a major health care overhaul. After decades of a crumbling system, this is long overdue. Americans are hurting more than ever before and are eager for a change. But the many failed attempts at reform during the last century attest to how complicated and challenging this issue is. Although Obama seems poised to make it happen this time, Democrats must keep in mind some key lessons from history if they are to succeed. Fortunately, Obama faces a more conducive political climate than Bill Clinton did during the '90s. Public support for national health care has risen dramatically . Democrats, with a popular president and robust majorities in Congress, are in a more commanding position to enact reforms. Unlike the divided effort on Clinton's health plan, current Democratic leaders are cohesively working toward a solution. The Red Scare has dissolved and the Reagan era is long gone, which means Americans are less likely to be bamboozled when the right wing equates universal health care with "big government," "socialism," "communism," "fascism" and my personal favorite, "totalitarianism." Progressives are better organized and more determined than ever before. The support for liberal ideas and the " Health Care For America NOW " campaign will help counterbalance the inevitable backlash from special interest lobbies like the AMA, HIAA and PhRMA. The AARP and AFL-CIO , with copious besieged members, are prepared to fight the good fight. Moreover, the conservative movement is a wretched mess, harboring less legitimacy and support than perhaps ever in our lifetimes. Despite better conditions, however, success will be far from a cakewalk. Unlike the '90s, America faces a major economic crisis and an extraordinarily fiscal deficit, which will restrict Obama's playing field. Congressional Republicans, without any ideas or alternatives, will cry foul no matter what Obama proposes, especially if there's money involved. With nothing left to lose, they'll fight as dirty as they can. (It won't matter that they have no credibility on fiscal responsibility.) The medical lobbies that have partnered with the GOP to block reforms for a century will once again wage war to preserve their power. And they've only grown stronger over time. Obama can still fail if he doesn't learn the lessons of history. Bill Clinton and Harry Truman, despite their noble and thoughtful attempts to implement universal health care, both flopped. Neither would settle for anything less than complete coverage, which was admirable, but also politically fatal as it required the radical changes many feared. Medical lobbies crushed the movements with malicious anti-reform campaigns worth millions, and both times the GOP capitalized to regain control of Congress. While a complete transformation may be substantively ideal, proposing to tear apart existing structures has historically been a deal-breaking poison pill. Democrats might be wise to play this one cautiously and pragmatically, because if they falter, Republicans could reclaim the levers of power sooner than we can afford. To the country's benefit, Obama knows his history. Unlike Clinton and Truman, he isn't trying to demolish the system and rebuild it. Obama seeks to invest in present structures while also creating a supplementary public program that is more affordable and accessible to the tens of millions struggling. This would accomplish two things: 1) It would allow Americans to hold on to their existing plans if they choose to, quelling another potential Harry and Louse -style backlash; and 2) It would liberate the middle class from the augmenting costs and ineffectiveness of HMOs and private care. Some progressives have criticized Obama for not pushing full-force on a single-payer plan. While single-payer would be the ideal system in the long-term (such programs have the best track record worldwide ), another failure to make any amends will be catastrophic. A big advantage of Obama's strategy, along with the relief it'll bring to millions of families, is that it's relatively fail-safe. Lest we forget, the most transformative health care overhauls that succeeded in the last century were Medicare and Medicaid, both of which employed the same strategy: build on what we've got and let the changes happen organically. More on Barack Obama
 
Swine Flu: UK Confirms First Cases Top
A couple admitted to a Scottish hospital after returning from a holiday in Mexico have been confirmed as the UK's first swine flu cases. More on Swine Flu
 
Mexico Tourism Braces For Swine Flu Slowdown Top
Mexico City - Europeans today were told to avoid travel to Mexico unless essential. The biggest tour operators in Germany and Japan canceled all trips to Mexico. More on Swine Flu
 
Mike Malloy: Republicans = Death Top
Several weeks ago, following President Obama's non-state-of-the-union State of the Union message, Louisiana Governor Piyush Jindal was trotted out to give a boiler-plate Republican Talking Points rebuttal. In those remarks, Piyush (The Smiler, to his close friends) mocked an Obama budget item targeted to volcano eruption detection. Smiling into the camera like a swaying cobra he mockingly said, "Instead of monitoring volcanoes, what Congress should be monitoring is the eruption of spending in Washington." Wow. Acerbic. Incisive. Exactly what a "Republican Rising Star" (Homeland Security? Department of Defense? Justice Department?) is programmed to say. Jindal was singling out a $140 million appropriation for the U.S. Geological Survey as an example of questionable government spending. The Republican Rising Star wanted to know why "something called 'volcano monitoring' " was included in the nearly $800 billion economic stimulus bill Obama signed earlier that month. Piyush snickered and sneered into the camera and it was clear why he has had such luck in performing exorcisms. (Or, was it only one?) Shortly after his smarmy remark about funds for volcano eruption detection Marianne Guffanti, a volcano researcher at the U.S. Geological Survey, said, "We don't throw the money down the crater of the volcano and watch it burn up." The USGS, which received the money Jindal criticized, is monitoring several active volcanoes across the Pacific Northwest, Alaska and Hawaii. One of those is Mount St. Helens, about 70 miles north of Vancouver, Washington, and neighboring Portland, Oregon. The volcano killed nearly 60 people when it erupted in 1980 and sputters back into action periodically, most recently in 2004 and 2005, when it sent plumes of steam and ash thousands of feet into the air. Want another example of what Republicans consider an "eruption of spending" and ridiculously unnecessary? Hmmmm . . . let's see . . . Oh, here's one: Pandemic Preparation. You know, trying to prepare for a global disaster caused by a heretofore non-existent virus. Maybe one that has mutated from a combination of swine flu, avian flu, and human flu viruses. One that has the potential to kill . . . u m . . . hundreds of millions of people and against which we have no protection, no vaccine. As reported today by John Nichols of The Nation Magazine , when House Appropriations Committee chairman David Obey, the Wisconsin Democrat who has long championed investment in pandemic preparation, included roughly $900 million for that purpose - pandemic preparation - in this year's emergency stimulus bill, he was ridiculed by conservative operatives and congressional Republicans. Former White House-based psychopath Karl Rove and key congressional Republicans aggressively attacked the notion that there was a connection between pandemic preparation and economic recovery. Yeah. What a crazy idea, right? A link between economic recovery and preparing for a possibility epidemiologists and other scientists have been warning about now for several years: A global viral catastrophe that brings everything - including an economic recovery plan - to a complete, dead, stop. Nichols: Obey and other advocates for the spending argued, correctly, that a pandemic hitting in the midst of an economic downturn could turn a recession into something far worse -- with workers ordered to remain in their homes, workplaces shuttered to avoid the spread of disease, transportation systems grinding to a halt and demand for emergency services and public health interventions skyrocketing. Indeed, they suggested, pandemic preparation was essential to any responsible plan for renewing the U.S. economy. And, therein lies the Republican resistance - pandemic preparation (is) essential to any responsible plan for renewing the U.S. economy. Republicans do not want the economy renewed. Renewal would mean Obama has succeeded. Republicans would rather see disease, disaster, chaos, death, panic . . . anything, so long as Obama does not succeed. As Nichols writes, the attack on pandemic preparation became so central to the GOP strategies that the AP reported in February: "Republicans, meanwhile, plan to push for broader and deeper tax cuts, to trim major spending provisions that support Democrats' longer-term policy goals, and to try to knock out what they consider questionable spending items, such as $870 million to combat the flu and $400 million to slow the spread of HIV and other sexually transmitted diseases." Astonishing? Irresponsible? Criminal? No, just typical Republican political activism. Remember, all Republicans hate America. They hate our political system. They hate our electoral system. And, they especially hate - and deny - the science that explains mutating viruses, because it is exactly the same science that establishes natural selection and evolution of the human species, as well, of course, as the evolution of every other form of life on earth. And, we'll have none of that atheistic bullshit! So, here we are, Truthseekers. Poised, again, on the cusp of . . . what? Another silly Y2K scare? A Mayan prediction of the end times arriving in December, 2012? An approaching planet X that is going to suck all humanity into oblivion? A predicted eruption of sun activity soon to wipe out not only our carelessly constructed global electric grid system with titanic waves of super-hot plasma, but also the earth's magnetic field? Or . . . an easily understandable disease pandemic that could be stopped cold if this country's political, environmental and medical experts did not have to deal with the insanity of brain-dead right-wing radio talkers, Republican office holders, Republican voters, and wing-nut religious crazy people? Quick answer: Call your family medical provider and get a supply of Tamiflu or Relenza - just in case. Long term? Remove Republicans from public life forever. Like cigarettes, they are a danger to our health. Republicans equal death. - MDM Mike Malloy can be heard daily on his radio show 9pm - 12pm ET. Visit www.mikemalloy.com to stream live or find a station near you. More on Karl Rove
 
Brian Dickie: Sitzprobe Top
The little orchestra that Marius Constant contrived for the Peter Brook adaptation of Carmen which opens next week is a miracle of compactness. We heard them for this first time Friday evening in the theater and a remarkably effective arrangement it is indeed. And Alexander Platt welds his little band into an instrument of many colors. Tomorrow we get to the piano dress stage - really the first time to see all the physical elements in place. And it will be a rich source for pictures. You should find them here and on my photo site before the end of the weekend. I had a somewhat odd day having risen early in Washington to get a 7.20 flight from Reagan Airport; a Blue Line train in to Chicago after a punctual arrival; a casting meeting for 2010 young artist assignments; and then a quick dash up to Evanston with Roger Weitz to have a short session at the School of Communication of Northwestern which comprises an odd assortment of different disciplines, including theater. It has been really hot today and most of the students decided to go to the beach instead of coming to class. So we had a small turn out. But those who were there were lively and interested. And when the warm weather comes everyone turns up in the street in the city. Below you see the crowd in Millennium Park around 6.20 this evening as I arrived at the theater for the evening rehearsal.
 
Venezuela, Palestinians Establish Official Ties Top
CARACAS, Venezuela — Venezuela on Monday established formal diplomatic ties with Palestinian officials, who are opening a diplomatic mission in the South American country. Palestinian Foreign Minister Riad al-Malki thanked President Hugo Chavez's government for its support during the recent Israeli military offensive in the Gaza Strip, which prompted the Venezuelan leader to break off relations with Israel. Venezuelan-Palestinian relations have warmed as tensions have grown between Chavez's government and Israel. Venezuela expelled Israeli diplomats on Jan. 6 to protest the Gaza offensive, and Israel later responded by kicking out Venezuelan envoys. Chavez has labeled Israeli leaders "genocidal." Venezuelan Foreign Minister Nicolas Maduro said Monday that the Palestinian cause is "like our own," while al-Malki praised Chavez as "the most popular leader in the Arab world," in part for his staunch support of Palestinians. The two officials signed a document formally establishing diplomatic relations, and a Palestinian Embassy in Caracas was to be inaugurated later. Al-Malki said it will be one of 10 such embassies in Latin American nations from Cuba to Chile. Palestinian officials say there are 97 embassies and representative offices worldwide. More on Venezuela
 
Prince Charles, Pope Talk Environment Top
VATICAN CITY — Pope Benedict XVI and Prince Charles discussed their mutual concern for the environment as the heir to the British throne brought his campaign to fight climate change to the Vatican on Monday. Charles, accompanied by his wife, Camilla, looked relaxed but the Duchess of Cornwall appeared less so in a private meeting in the pope's private library. The couple sat across a wooden table from Benedict for the 15-minute conversation in English. It was Charles' first visit with the pontiff since Benedict was elected pope in 2005. The prince and his late wife Diana had met with John Paul II, whom Benedict succeeded. Charles and Camilla postponed their wedding by a day in 2005 so he could attend John Paul's funeral in St. Peter's Square. "He was a wonderful man," Charles told the pope as he left the library. "We miss him terribly." Both Charles and Benedict have made several appeals in recent years on the need to protect the environment. "The cordial discussions provided an opportunity for an exchange of views on certain questions of mutual interest, including the human promotion and development of peoples, environment protection and the importance of intercultural and interreligious dialogue for furthering peace and justice in the world," Vatican spokesman the Rev. Federico Lombardi told reporters after the talks. "The pope often speaks of responsibility for the environment," Lombardi told reporters. Last year, the Vatican installed solar panels on the roof of its main audience hall to save energy. Charles has campaigned from Latin America to Asia as well as Western Europe to encourage efforts to battle climate change. The Vatican statement on the meeting did not elaborate on "interreligious" dialogue. But Britain, with its Anglican royals, seems to be entertaining moves to reach out to Roman Catholics. Prime Minister Gordon Brown's government recently said British monarchs should be allowed to marry Catholics, endorsing the lifting of a ban on Catholic royals. Just before meeting with Benedict, Charles, in a speech to a select audience in a hall in the Chamber of Deputies, said that our "grandchildren will never forgive us" if the efforts to save the environment failed. For the Vatican appointment, Charles wore a double-breasted, dark blue suit with black tie and polka-dot pocket handkerchief. Camilla wore all black except for a pearl necklace: black silk dress, stockings, pumps and lace veil. Benedict wore simple white robes. Charles gave the pope 12 ceramic dessert plates with hand-painted flowers from his estate at Highgrove, saying he hoped they would be "of use" to Benedict. The couple also gave Benedict a signed photo of themselves. Benedict gave the standard gift of medals of his pontificate and an etching of St. Peter's Basilica. Charles thanked him, saying: "I am most touched." In his appearance in the Chamber of Deputies, the home of Italy's lower legislative chamber, Charles appealed to Italy to use its leadership of the Group of Eight nations to fight climate change. Italy will host the annual G-8 summit of leading industrialized nations this July. Chamber of Deputies President Gianfranco Fini praised Charles for rejecting the use of genetically modified crops. Charles was scheduled to participate later Monday in an event on "sustainable agriculture and climate change" at the British ambassador's residence in Rome. For Tuesday, his last day in Italy, the prince has scheduled an appearance at Confindustria, Italy's politically influential business lobby, to discuss the role of business in the fight against climate change. After Rome, Charles and Camilla will head to Venice, where they will visit La Fenice opera house and meet with local business leaders on Tuesday. More on The Pope
 
Steve Dolinsky: Magical Mangos Top
There are certain foods that instantly transport you. Sometimes, when a kao soi has just the right balance of coconut milk, chile and pickled mustard greens, I'm whisked off to that night market in Chiang Mai. Similarly, a warm, puffy homemade pita that's slathered in a crunchy, herbal, sesame-flecked za'tar takes me back to a brief visit in Israel many years ago. The same is true of the Alphonso mango from India, which I had on a trip to the subcontinent seven years ago; the floral, fruity aroma and mind-bendingly sweet, juicy flesh has haunted me to this day. Fortunately, the good folks at Patel Brothers have once again tapped their connections in India, and have imported these beauties for a second year in a row. The Devon Avenue grocery store is always a must-visit for any kind of Indian spices. But the family also owns the Swad brand of frozen and shelf-stable foods, which always surprise me with their bold flavors and reasonable prices. The coveted Alphonsos are not exactly reasonably priced - about $25 for a case of 12 - but that's still far less than the $35 they charged last year. They've apparently figured out the shipping details and distribution, and have made these fruity gems available for a limited time. How good are they? Consider that most of the mangos we see in Chicago are the popular Julies, often sold unripe and, even when they're at their peak, their interiors have the texture of stringy jicama or daikon radish. A lot of Mexican markets will carry the smaller, oblong, yellow-colored Manila mangos, but even those are unreliably tart and often under or too overripe. The Alphonsos are small - about half the size of the gargantuan Whole Foods variety - and yet they pack a wallop: just cut down the sides of the middle seed, score each half with a knife into cubes, and then pull the sweet flesh off with your teeth. A small squirt of fresh lime juice might help, but these wonders of nature need little help. The aroma will entice you, and then the sweet, juicy flesh will suck you in like a crack addict. One case for the family? Hell, you'll be running back to Devon Avenue before you know it. More on Food
 
Solar Cooling: What Does It Mean For Us? Top
The sun's activity is winding down, triggering fevered debate among scientists about how low it will go, and what it means for Earth's climate. Nasa recorded no sunspots on 266 days in 2008 - a level of inactivity not seen since 1913 - and 2009 looks set to be even quieter. Solar wind pressure is at a 50-year low and our local star is ever so slightly dimmer than it was 10 years ago.
 
Osama Bin Laden Is Dead, According To Pak Intel: Zardari Top
President Asif Ali Zardari said Monday that Pakistani intelligence believes Al-Qaeda leader Osama bin Laden is dead but acknowledged they had no evidence. More on Pakistan
 
Shashi Tharoor: The world's greatest democracy keeps breaking its own record Top
On April 16, the largest exercise of the democratic franchise in history began taking place, as Indian voters headed to the polls to elect a new national Parliament. They have done this 14 times since India gained its independence in 1947. Each time India has voted has been the world's largest exercise in electoral democracy. India's growing population is why the country keeps breaking its own voting record in terms of numbers. This time, the electorate includes 714 million voters, an increase of 43 million over the previous general election in 2004. Votes will be cast in 828,804 polling stations scattered throughout the country for over 5,000 candidates from seven national political parties and several state and other parties. The process involves 4 million electoral officials and 6.1 million police and civilian personnel. The numbers involved are so huge that the elections will be staggered over five phases, ending only on May 13, with electoral and security personnel being moved from state to state as polling is concluded in each place. Despite the phased voting, the counting takes place nationwide immediately after the last phase, and the results of the elections everywhere will be announced on May 16. A new Parliament will be convened on June 2 to elect a national government to succeed the outgoing administration of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. India's elections, conducted by the autonomous (and all-powerful) Election Commission of India, are an extraordinary event, and not just because of their sheer scale. It takes the felling of a sizeable forest to furnish enough paper to print the 714 million ballots used in the voting process, and every election has at least one story of officers battling through snow or jungle, or traveling by elephant and camel, to ensure that the democratic wishes of remote constituents are duly recorded. (There is even one polling booth for a single voter, who lives much too far from civilization to travel to another polling station.) Nor is any Indian election complete without the media publishing at least one picture of a female voter whose enthusiasm for the suffrage is undimmed by the fact that she is old, blind, crippled, toothless, purdah-clad, or any combination of the above. The exotic aspects of the Indian elections do not end there. Because so many voters happen to be illiterate, India invented the party symbol, so that voters who could not read the name of their candidate could vote for him or her anyway by recognizing the symbol under which they campaigned. Symbols range from the open palm of the ruling Indian National Congress to the lotus of the Bharatiya Janata Party and variants of the hammer and sickle for India's profusion of Communist parties. Independent candidates can choose from an assortment of alternatives, ranging from a cricket bat to images of various large animals. (Small ones were removed from the list when one candidate, running against another whose symbol was a parrot, wrung the neck of a live parrot at a public meeting to signify what he would do to his rival.) India was also the first country to use an indelible stain on the voter's fingernail to signify that he or she had already cast a ballot. At every election, someone "discovers" a new chemical that will remove the stain and permit voters to vote twice, though this is unlikely to make a great difference in constituencies that are the size of those in India, where each Member of Parliament represents more than 2 million people. Likewise, some distinguished voter invariably claims that his name is missing from the rolls, or that someone has already cast his vote (but usually not both). In any case, India's elections also happen to have a reputation for honesty. In this year's election, as in previous ones, votes will be cast on electronic voting machines that were invented in India, which combine the virtues of simplicity, reliability, and ruggedness. The electoral rolls carry photographs of every individual voter, as does each voter's identity card. Elections have also been increasingly free of violence in recent years. There was a time when, in certain parts of India, workers could stuff ballot boxes for a candidate and political parties could "capture" polling booths. Electronic voting machines and strict security arrangements have largely eliminated that possibility. It has been some time since there were reports of the occasional election worker, candidate, or voter being assaulted, kidnapped, or shot. Nothing (short of the death of a major contender) interrupts the electoral process. Elections are an enduring spectacle of free India, and have provided foreign journalists with the opportunity to remind the world that India remains the world's largest democracy. Indeed, Indians now take for granted that elections will take place, that the process will be free and fair, and that they will result in actual transfers of power in Delhi. There are few developing countries in the world where this is true, and fewer still where poverty and illiteracy are both rife. That may be the real miracle of what will occur in India over the next few weeks into May. Note: this article was previously published on April 20, 2009 by Project Syndicate. More on India
 
LCD Monitor Watches You, Saves Energy Top
The EcoView feature, allows the monitors--using motion detectors--to detect if a person is sitting in front of it. If it senses for 40 seconds that no one is there, it puts the monitor into sleep mode. More on Energy
 
Francisco Toro: Five Years From the End of Venezuela's Democracy Top
Some events are so momentous, so history shaking, all you need to refer to them is a date. 911 is, I suppose, the grand-daddy of them all, not to mention the main reference point American readers will have for the whole idea of the History Changing Date. In Venezuela, we have bunches of them. Our convention, though, is to name them by the day of the month, followed by the month's first letter. So when you say "27F" everyone knows you're talking about February 27th, 1989, the day violent rioting swept through the country in response to a fuel price hike. 4F is February 4th, 1992, the day Chavez attempted to violently overthrow the elected government of the time, while 11A is its mirror image: the date of the coup attempt against Chavez 10 years later, on April 11th . A number and a letter is all you need to conjure up these events in Venezuelans' minds, because they're the turning points of our contemporary experience, key moments when our national narrative changed course, often in ways that are still hotly disputed today. But not every turning point gets the number-and-letter treatment. A date like "1M", for instance, means nothing at all to Venezuelans. Which is ironic, because it was on May 1st, 2004 that Venezuelan democracy died and was replaced by one of the new breed of "Competitive Authoritarianisms" - a regime where electoral competition coexists with the openly autocratic use of state authority. On Friday, it will be five years since Venezuela's National Assembly voted narrowly to approve a new Framework Law of the Supreme Tribunal . The law expanded the number of sitting magistrates from 20 to 32, and enabled new magistrates to be appointed by a simple majority vote in the National Assembly, effectively packing the court to ensure a permanent chavista majority . The twist is that, in Venezuela, the Supreme Tribunal is more than just a final court of appeal: it's also the ruling body over the entire court system. Procedures for appointing new judges are set by a Supreme Tribunal committee - the so-called Direccion Ejecutiva de la Magistratura - which also controls the process for removing judges. Which means that, in Venezuela, controlling the Supreme Tribunal means controlling not just the highest court in the land, but all lower courts as well. Thing is, 1M didn't produce any spectacular TV footage. It didn't make it onto the front pages of foreign newspapers. It barely made it into the front pages of our own newspapers! It was a one day story, soon overtaken by some flashier bit of news, a more galling outrage that seemed more pressing at the time but would soon be forgotten. And so, 1M soon got filed away over the category of "outrageous things chavismo does that we can't do anything about" and forgotten. But that act, more than any other, marked the end of Venezuelan democracy. With it, chavismo ended the pretense that any part of the state could act as a curb on the president's power. The move heralded the era of the robed magistrate chanting pro-Chavez slogans inside the Tribunal chamber and of Supreme Tribunal chairmen openly declaring that the justice they were there to implement was "revolutionary justice" - openly partisan justice unabashedly dedicated to furthering the political needs of the leader. In short, 1M was the day all the credibility was drained out of Venezuela's judicial system, the day any possibility that citizens could again use the law to seek redress against the abuses of power was closed for good. The 2004 Supreme Tribunal Law did away, at a single stroke, with society's most important means for protecting itself from the authoritarian inclinations of its rulers, ensuring a subservient justice system that would never again dare to act as a check on the power of the powerful. Much more than we realize, Venezuelans are still living under the shadow of that day. So as we approach the 5th anniversary of 1M, lets take a moment to reflect on the grim legacy of the day democracy died. More on Venezuela
 
Erica Boeke: SIBLING RIVALRY: The Manning Brothers help settle the score in a classic Sister Kisser Top
To many, the biggest sports story of the weekend was the NFL Draft in New York City. I had the chance to go to the Draft, just a quick subway ride away. Instead, I chose to drive two hours to Easton, PA -- a small, former steel town. The game in Easton didn't mean anything in terms of stats -- but it meant everything to this community. The NFL Draft, on the other hand, is all stats, all the time. Apologies to those of you who have been holding mock drafts for weeks, but I chose to spend my weekend experiencing all of the things that I love about sports: tradition, redemption, underdogs, hope, cheerleaders, marching bands, bonfires and ice-cold beverages This chill-inducing, get-all-choked-up-weekend was provided by Gatorade, through their ingenious "Replay" program. Here's how it worked: >> Gatorade found one of the country's most intense high school football rivalries -- Easton, PA, vs. Phillipsburg, NJ. Separated by the Delaware River, P'Burg is more blue-collar, Easton is swankier. Every Thanksgiving Day for more than 100 years, the teams battle it out. In 1993, the big game ended in a 7-7 tie -- a classic "Sister Kisser." >> So Gatorade gathered together the 1993 teams, trained them for three months, and launched the "Replay" program, in conjunction with their low-calorie G2 drink. "Replay" shows that we're all athletes -- or that we can be. (Even if some of us haven't picked up a football or put on the pads in more than 15 years.) >> Finally, on Sunday, the two teams replayed the game -- complete with cheerleaders and band members from 16 years ago. >> Gatorade also provided some celebrity muscle by inviting football's good guys -- Peyton and Eli Manning -- to serve as honorary coaches for the game. The result? Maybe the best sports weekend ever. To add to the Sister Kisser vibe, I invited my sister Christa, a GoGameFace.com contributor, to join me for the festivities. The Saturday night bonfire was "Friday Night Lights" meets "All the Right Moves." The community block party on Sunday morning was congenial, lively and had the feel-good spirit of people who knew that it didn't really matter who won. It was about being able to suit up again ... about getting a second chance ... about what could have been. Finally, at 3pm, it was time to replay the game. There were some amazing plays. There were some Bad News Bears plays, as well. It doesn't really matter. I will tell you that the underdogs won -- blue-collar P'Burg beat swanky Easton 27 - 12, in front of 14,000 fans. But there were no hard feelings on either side at the end of the game. Just sunburnt faces, grins of satisfaction, and that rare moment that allows you to look back at what could have been, and simultaneously be inspired by what could be. For us, another highlight of the weekend was the opportunity for the Boeke Sisters to tackle the Manning Brothers, via an on-field interview at halftime. EB: Eli, what game would you replay if you could? EM: In my junior year, we lost in the third-round playoffs to ... I think it was West St. Johns. That is a game that sticks with me, and one that I would love to play again. CB: Peyton, what game would you replay if you could? PM: Everyone asks that. I think you have to play every game like it's your last -- that's the intensity. But the great thing about this is that these guys do get another shot. EB: Eli, this weekend brings up a lot of high school memories -- for us sisters, too. Did you and Peyton ever date the same girl, or did you ever date sisters? EM: Well, no. We didn't go to school at the same time, so we didn't have a chance. EB: Good, because it just makes things awkward. EM: But we did wear the same number and we both wore the same ugly, lime-green t-shirt under our uniforms. I think it was my dad's. CB: Peyton, in high school did you and Eli ever date the same girl, or sisters? PM: Is this about the game at all? CB: Um, not really. So would you replay anything about high school over again? PM: There are lots of great things about high school I'd do over -- playing ball sophomore year with my older brother Cooper ... that was amazing. School dances, Prom -- all that stuff I'd do again. EB: Eli, I interviewed Serena Williams a couple weeks ago and she said that she and Venus would beat you guys in doubles. Should we set it up with the Gatorade folks? EM: We were actually with them a few weeks ago and we played mixed doubles ... Peyton was definitely the weak link. EB: Eli, would you and Peyton ever co-host SNL together? EM: Well, [Peyton] has already done it ... but maybe somewhere down the road. EB: Eli ... why Hoboken? EM: (Slightly annoyed.) I have lived there for five years. I love it. I wanted to be in New Jersey so I could be close to the stadium. EB: I hear that N.J. Senator John Corzine lives or used to live in your building. Is he a good neighbor? EM: (Slightly confused.) Yeah, I think so. I don't remember him ever causing problems or being a bad neighbor. EB: How did it feel when you won the Super Bowl, saving the world from cheaters and bringing down the Death Star? EM: (Still confused.) Winning the Championship made me really proud and it was a great moment. EB: (Thinking she better knock it off.) What was your favorite part of this "Replay" experience? EM: The fact that Gatorade made all of this possible, and just talking to the fans and seeing how hard these players have worked. It's really inspiring. And he's right. The whole damn weekend was inspiring: From Easton kicker Kendall Hochman, a leukemia survivor who played Sunday, to Tyrone Randolph who was abandoned by his mother in high school and moved in with his teammate's family -- not to mention the couple of guys who lost 60+ pounds during their "Replay" experience. Check out missiong.com for their stories. Through our Facebook and Twitter updates, my sister and I inspired a few people, as well. Our high school friends in Southern California have been chattering all weekend about a classic football game back in 1986, between Sunny Hills (us) and Valencia (them). In the fourth quarter, the lights suddenly went out -- and the game went into double OT. To this day, there is still much speculation about who turned out the lights, and how things might have ended if they hadn't. We nominated our school on Facebook for the next installment of "Replay" -- in hopes that our town can experience that "what could've been" moment ourselves. Wish us luck.
 
Andy Borowitz: GOP Reaffirms Pro-Swine Position Top
Responding to the furor over the Republican party's opposition to pandemic preparedness funding in the recent stimulus bill, GOP leaders came forward today to reaffirm the party's pro-swine position. "The Republican Party has traditionally been the pro-swine party," said GOP strategist Karl Rove on Fox News. "This is a moment in our history when everyone must ask themselves: Are you with the pigs, or are you against them?" Gov. Sarah Palin (R-AK) also voiced her solidarity with swine, telling reporters in Anchorage, "The only difference between a pitbull and a pig is lipstick." Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME), one of the staunchest opponents of pandemic preparedness spending, said that the public should ignore the "scare tactics" of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and should "go about their normal business with pigs." Rove agreed, telling Fox's Sean Hannity, "I think it's the pinnacle of hypocrisy that the same forces on the left who support same-sex marriage are now trying to limit our contact with pigs, which is the most normal thing in the world, and one of the most beautiful." More on Swine Flu
 
Fox Not Airing Obama Press Conference Top
NEW YORK — The Fox network is sticking with its regular schedule over President Barack Obama this week. The network is turning down the president's request to show his prime-time news conference on Wednesday. The news conference marks Obama's 100th day in office. Instead of the president, Fox viewers will see an episode of the Tim Roth drama "Lie to Me." It's the first time a broadcast network has refused Obama's request. This will be the third prime-time news conference in Obama's presidency. ABC, CBS and NBC are airing it. More on Barack Obama
 
Paula Duffy: Who is most embarrassed Yankee after Sox steal home? Top
Even the director of Sunday Night Baseball on ESPN was caught off guard. We didn't see the steal until Boston's outfielder Jacoby Ellsbury was on top of the plate. It took the technical people almost a minute to find one of their cameras that had a long view of the play as it happened. Here's a link to youtube.com to check it out. On the Yankees' side of things you've got to ask yourself who is more humiliated today? Is it manager Joe Girardi, catcher Jorge Posada or pitcher Andy Pettite? Here's a thought: how about the Yankees third base coach, Rob Thomson? There hasn't been much talk about the Yanks missing manger Joe Torre after the nasty way his departure went down eighteen months ago. I'll bet the Baby Steinbrenners have issued an edict that his name not be spoken. But who did he take with him when he was whisked away to LaLa-Land? Along with hitting coach, Don Mattingly Torre took third base coach, Larry Bowa. Seemingly an asterisk when asked to name the important parts of the Torre regime, Bowa is known as a task master when it comes to the fundamentals of baseball. He played the game as he teaches it and I'd bet what's left of the equity in my home that he would have seen the possibility of the steal in real time, not after the fact. Ellsbury the stolen base leader in the American League already had a generous lead off third. He'd stolen second earlier in the game and yet Pettite had his back to the speedy outfielder. The pitcher admitted after the game that Posada had warned him to watch out for Ellsbury. And yet with the bases loaded he felt comfortable enough to go into his windup rather than pitch from the stretch. And you can't absolve Posada who didn't have a right handed batter to block his view of the base path from third base. With the lead Ellsbury had, Posada could have called time and gone out to the mound to remind his pitcher or called for a fastball. A guy like Bowa who was a decent base stealer in his day would have sized up the situation and seen that home plate was ripe for the picking. Since this isn't a move that is tried very often or executed effectively, you'd have to be a guy who is obsessed with the basics of the game to have the light bulb go on. The team's current third base coach, Rob Thomson hasn't spoken much to the press after the incident and of course Girardi has to accept the load of responsibility. But think of the accumulated number of years experience of people on that field who just got fooled. Pettite is 36, Posada is 37, Thompson, 59 has been in the Yanks organization more than 19 years and Girardi was a catcher before he managed. I'd love to ask Bowa about it. If he's smart he'll take the high road on it. But then again, they say that revenge is a dish best served cold.
 
Colbert Study: Conservatives Don't Know He's Joking Top
Last week, Stephen Colbert revisited a segment he had done on Florida Representative Bill Posey , who sponsored a bill that "would require future presidential candidates to provide a copy of their original birth certificate," in order to put insane rumors of President Barack Obama's birthplace to bed. Colbert thought a similar measure be taken to end the whisperings that Posey was a human-alligator hybrid. Posey, in response to Colbert, said, "I expected there would be some civil debate about it, but it wasn't civil...There is no reason to say that I'm the illegitimate grandson of an alligator." And one wondered, "Does Posey not realize that Colbert is not speaking in earnest? His reaction seems uniquely stupid!" Stupid, yes. But apparently it's not unique at all, according to a study from Ohio State University, which proves, with math and stuff, that lots of conservatives seem to not understand the intrinsic, underlying joke of The Colbert Report : This study investigated biased message processing of political satire in The Colbert Report and the influence of political ideology on perceptions of Stephen Colbert. Results indicate that political ideology influences biased processing of ambiguous political messages and source in late-night comedy. Using data from an experiment (N = 332), we found that individual-level political ideology significantly predicted perceptions of Colbert's political ideology. Additionally, there was no significant difference between the groups in thinking Colbert was funny, but conservatives were more likely to report that Colbert only pretends to be joking and genuinely meant what he said while liberals were more likely to report that Colbert used satire and was not serious when offering political statements . Conservatism also significantly predicted perceptions that Colbert disliked liberalism. Finally, a post hoc analysis revealed that perceptions of Colbert's political opinions fully mediated the relationship between political ideology and individual-level opinion. I think a lot of conservatives are going to pissed when they realize that Stephen Colbert's performance at the 2006 White House Correspondents' Dinner was not , in fact, an awkward and ineffective attempt to praise President George W. Bush, but actually a bitter and satiric criticism of his incompetence! PREVIOUSLY, on the HUFFINGTON POST: Florida Congressman Continues To Stonewall On His Half-Alligator Genetic Heritage (VIDEO) Anti-Gay Group Sends Letter To Colbert Thanking Him For Mocking Them [Would you like to follow me on Twitter ? Because why not? Also, please send tips to tv@huffingtonpost.com -- learn more about our media monitoring project here .] More on Stephen Colbert
 
SPANISH FLY: Carla Bruni-Sarkozy Visits Madrid, Kisses Queen (PHOTOS) Top
When Carla Bruni-Sarkozy accompanied husband President Nicolas Sarkozy to Madrid on Monday, she stole the show with her outfit change, wearing black and white to meet Queen Sofia and King Juan Carlos and royal purple to lunch with Princess Letizia and Prince Felipe. She also stirred a mini-controversy reminiscent of Michelle Obama's embrace of Queen Elizabeth when she kissed Spain's Queen Sofia on both cheeks instead of curtsying. According to the Agence France-Press curstying before a Spanish monarch "is not an absolute obligation, but a habit adopted by some people," said a spokesman for the palace. Bruni-Sarkozy went on to kiss Princess Letizia as well. Photos below. More on Photo Galleries
 
Dave Hackel: Torture Makes My Head Hurt Top
Please help me out. I'm very confused about the whole torture situation so I'm trying to collect all the various points of view and make sense of them. And the duality of the arguments is giving me a headache. All I want is to find something, or someone, to believe. Let's review: We don't torture. But we did. But we don't. So we didn't. We couldn't. And we shouldn't. So we didn't. No, wait, I think we did. It was legal. And it was also illegal. So we broke the law. But maybe we didn't. But if we did, we must have had a good reason. But there's never a good reason to break any law. So we didn't. Unless we had to. If their people torture our people, that's bad. But if our people torture their people, that's okay. So we did. No we didn't. It was useful. It was useless. Some commentators say it was helpful. But people who were actually there say it wasn't helpful at all. But commentators know more than the people they comment about. But how could they? John McCain was tortured and says it doesn't work. Dick Cheney wasn't tortured and says it does. Some say releasing the memos will tip off our enemies and allow them to train against our interrogation techniques. Others say that makes no sense because these techniques have been known of since the Spanish Inquisition. Our enemies already know we use guns and they haven't yet trained themselves to duck quickly enough to dodge the bullets. Or maybe they have. Apparently reading a memo about waterboarding is more instructive than actually being waterboarded. Because they did it to Khalid Sheikh Mohammed 182 times and didn't think he'd figured it out, so they did it one more time. So it's okay to break the law if you're trying to do good. But it's wrong to ever break the law. But torturing people -- which we didn't do -- works. So we did. But we didn't. Except when we had a good reason. Bill O'Reilly says that waterboarding one person to save the lives of another 3000 is okay. Understood. So how many people could we waterboard before it wouldn't be okay? A hundred? Two hundred? Twenty-nine hundred and ninety-nine? Doesn't matter anyway, because America does not torture. Except that according to the Geneva Conventions, we did. But if someone never signed the Geneva Conventions, we can do anything we want to them. Then they can do anything they want to us. And then we can kill them. And they can kill us back. And they do. And so do we. But that's okay because this is war. Except it's not really. But it is. Isn't it? The Obama administration says it's important to release memos which prove what the Bush administration did, and to whom. But they also say it's wrong to punish the people involved. Unless they decide to. But they want to look forward, not backward. So if someone robs your house and you don't find out who did it until eight years later, you shouldn't arrest them. But they definitely should be held accountable. Shouldn't they? Or maybe not. After eight years of non-transparency, we were offered change. And we got it. But this isn't change we can believe in. This is change we're being asked to ignore. It's important that we know what was done in our name. But we're told it's not a good use of our time to punish the people who did it. The right calls it enhanced interrogation. The left calls it torture. The right says it's kept us safe from our enemies. The left says it's created even more people who want to do us harm. The right says they're right. The left says they're right. But, as Arianna Huffington put it so succinctly -- "This isn't about right and left. This is about right and wrong."
 
Queen Noor of Jordan: Countdown to Zero Top
Earlier this month in London, Presidents Obama and Medvedev issued an historic joint statement announcing that they had committed their two countries to achieving a nuclear free world. The two presidents -- the first to ever jointly commit the U.S. and Russia to work for the elimination of all nuclear weapons worldwide -- declared that they had "agreed to pursue new and verifiable reductions in [their] strategic offensive arsenals in a step-by-step process, beginning by replacing the Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty with a new, legally-binding treaty." Three days later in Prague, President Obama reinforced his commitment to leading an international effort to eliminate all nuclear weapons and declaring his intention to "seek to include all nuclear weapons states in this endeavor." The North Korean missile launch just hours before President Obama's speech underscored the urgency for all the nuclear powers to commit to this effort. President Obama called the spread of nuclear weapons the "gravest threat to humanity." Today, nine countries have more than 23,000 nuclear weapons. Terrorist groups have been trying to buy, build, or steal nuclear weapons, and in the last two decades, there have been at least 25 instances of nuclear explosive materials being lost or stolen. If terrorists were to finally get their hands on a bomb and explode it in a major city, hundreds of thousands of people would die instantly. Whatever stabilizing impact nuclear weapons may have had during the US-Soviet Cold War confrontation, any residual benefits of these arsenals are overshadowed today by the growing risks of proliferation and terrorism. I, and all of the 100-plus leaders of Global Zero, are thrilled that Presidents Obama and Medvedev are demonstrating bold and historic leadership on this agenda, and taking an approach that is fully in line with the plan we presented at the launch of Global Zero in December 2008. Global Zero is an international, non-partisan initiative formed in response to the growing threats of proliferation and nuclear terrorism, dedicated to achieving a binding, verifiable agreement to eliminate all nuclear weapons. The group includes many who have worked at senior levels with issues of national security such as former heads of state, former foreign ministers, former defense ministers, former national security advisors, and nineteen former top military. At our December launch, we presented a step-by-step plan for the phased, verified elimination of nuclear weapons, calling for initial deep reductions to the U.S. and Russian arsenals -- which account for 96 percent of the world's nuclear weapons -- to be followed by multi-lateral negotiations among all nuclear weapons states for an agreement to eliminate all nuclear weapons -- global zero. Now, following on the historic Obama-Medvedev announcement, we are urging the leaders of the other nuclear weapons countries to commit to supporting this effort and participating in multi-lateral negotiations on an agreement for global zero. The good news is that broad consensus already exists for a nuclear free world. The United States and Russia are among 189 countries that have signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. Seven nuclear weapons-free zones currently encompass half the world's landmass. And in a recent Global Zero poll of 21 nuclear and non-nuclear countries, more than three-quarters of citizens polled favor the total elimination of all nuclear weapons. I am tremendously encouraged that there is unanimous support in the Middle East for the creation of a regional weapons of mass destruction-free zone, although differences exist on its timing. All Arab countries have signed the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty, and over the past 30 years have pursued intensive diplomatic efforts to bring Israel into the treaty. Getting to global zero will be one of the greatest political challenges of our time. We can only do it if citizens get involved and make sure political leaders know where they stand. Thousands of citizens from more than 100 countries have signed the Global Zero declaration and joined the campaign. I encourage everyone to go to globalzero.org to stay informed and get involved. As long as these weapons exist, they will continue to spread. The only solution to the threats of proliferation and nuclear terrorism is global zero. This will not happen overnight, nor unilaterally. It will require the phased and verified elimination of all nations' nuclear arsenals. It is urgent to begin now. More on Barack Obama
 
Hoyt Hilsman: Waterboarding Sean Hannity Top
Sean Hannity's offer to undergo waterboarding for charity is almost too good to refuse. However, before we undertake any such extraordinary interrogation techniques (EIT's, for short) on the Fox talk show host, we should be sure to get some airtight legal opinions to make sure we won't run afoul of the Geneva Convention. I know a couple of former Justice Department employees who would fit the bill perfectly -- and I'm pretty sure they'll find a way to carve out a broad exception to the rules against torturing right-wing blowhards. If there ever was an open and shut threat to national security, Mr. Hannity fits the bill. But what's the real purpose of waterboarding slick Sean? Is this a case of exigent circumstances? A ticking clock? "Hell, yes," as they say in neocon lingo. We need to know if Mr. Hannity really believes all the tripe he spews or is he just doing it to grab viewers and sell books? Well, actually, we already know the answer to that question without torturing the guy. But what else does he know that he's not telling us? Is there really a vast right-wing conspiracy, or is it actually a few wingnuts like Sean and Rush who are making a couple of bucks by stirring up the hackles of the left and tickling the cockles of the right? And after we get through waterboarding Sean -- 183 times sounds about right -- will we really have gotten any useful information out of him? (What do you think?) And beyond all the legal mumbo-jumbo about international rules and conventions, would it be morally right to torture Sean the talk show man? Of course it would. If anyone deserves waterboarding, it is clearly Sean Hannity. In fact, he's asking for it. But what about the American tradition against torture? Didn't we actually prosecute Japanese officers as war criminals for waterboarding? That's true, but I'm sure there are a number of folks who would gladly face a war crimes tribunal for a chance to strip Hannity naked and subject him to simulated drowning. In the end, we have to ask whether America would be any better off for having tortured people like Mr. Hannity. And the answer to that question is -- of course we would. In fact, televising the event would probably drastically improve America's image around the world. Which brings me to what is clearly a budding new concept in reality TV, and probably the debut of a clever marketing campaign by Fox. Look for the new series Torture the Talk Show Host to premiere this spring, featuring bloviators from the left and right. Picture Rush Limbaugh after a week of forced sleep deprivation. Or how about Lou Dobbs with women's underwear on his head? Or Keith Olbermann crawling on the floor with a collar around his neck? True, it may go beyond the bounds of good taste, but when did that ever slow down the onslaught of reality television? After all, the bottom line of reality TV, not to mention talk shows and cable news and much of the rest of lowest-common denominator media is (what else?) -- the bottom line. So don't preach to me about morality, folks. For a crack at Hannity on the rack, I'm almost ready to cross over to the dark side. More on War Crimes
 
WHO Raises Flu Alert Level To Phase 4 Top
MEXICO CITY — Mexico says the World Health Organization has raised its pandemic alert for swine flu by one level, two steps short of declaring a full-blown pandemic Mexico health department spokesman Carlos Olmos confirms the move. WHO says the phase 4 alert means sustained human to human transmission causing outbreaks in at least one country. It signals a significant increase in the risk of a global epidemic, but doesn't mean a pandemic is inevitable. Many experts think it may be impossible to contain a flu virus already spreading in several countries. WHO has confirmed human cases of swine flu in Mexico, the United States, Canada and Spain. Only Mexico has reported deaths from the new strain. THIS IS A BREAKING NEWS UPDATE. Check back soon for further information. AP's earlier story is below. GENEVA (AP) _ The World Health Organization says there are now 40 confirmed cases of swine flu in the United States and that it "very concerned" about the disease's spread. WHO says none of the cases in the U.S. have been fatal. But the U.N. agency says it could decide in a matter of hours whether to raise its pandemic alert level as a result of the increasing number of confirmed swine flu cases in Mexico and elsewhere. Spain confirmed the first swine flu case outside North America on Monday. WHO spokesman Paul Garwood said an emergency meeting is being led Monday by the agency's chief Dr. Margaret Chan. He said in the Spanish case the disease was transmitted in Mexico and not passed among people in Spain. More on Swine Flu
 
Weight Loss Lies: 6 Fat-Burning Fallacies Debunked Top
By this time, you know that you should never skip breakfast, all carbs are not bad for you, fasting is a dubious get-thin-quick solution with negative short- and long-term repercussions, and cutting up your food up into tiny pieces before eating it doesn't decrease your caloric intake, despite what Alicia Silverstone's diet-obsessed character in Clueless says. But just when you think you've found a clear path in the labyrinth world of fitness, nutrition, and health, a whole new set of myths, exaggerations, and flat out lies pop up, ready to thwart your wellness goals. This means that you have to be forever vigilant, separating the bad information from the good to ensure that your health doesn't suffer as a result. Here are a few common fallacies explored to help you stay on track. More on Health
 
Dennis Markatos: Kansas Wind May Power Graceland Top
We've all heard of Renewable Portfolio Standards (RPS) within states, directives that at least a chosen percentage of a state's electricity be provided by renewable energy sources. Goals range from 25% renewables in NY by 2013 to 12.5% in NC by 2015. But the American Council on Renewable Energy (ACORE) presented today that Kansas would reap great benefits from a 200% RPS, giving neighbors toward the southeast access to Kansan renewable electricity. Kansas has huge wind potential, equal to 12 times the state's current demand of ~10 GW. This past quarter, the state surpassed its 2015 goal to have 1 GW of wind turbines built, despite not having an RPS. With such progress achieved, elected leadership of Kansas recently asked ACORE to help guide their future goals for wind deployment and the results were announced in a webinar I was fortunate to attend this afternoon. The webinar began with an introduction by industry professional and former FERC commissioner Pat Woods, III. He laid out an overview of Kansas's position in the US electrical grid - a member of the Southwest Power Pool which is part of the Eastern interconnection. Then Lieutenant Governor of Kansas, Mark Parkinson, described how Kansas has rich wind resources in the western part of the state - a rural area that would benefit greatly from the economic development of more wind power generation. After Lt. Governor Parkinson spoke, Rob Church laid out ACORE's proposal for Kansas to deploy 20 GW of renewable energy by 2030. Liberty from Coal Dependence Kansas currently gets more than 70% of its electricity from coal. Nuclear power provides ~18%, followed by natural gas and wind generating ~5% each. Since Kansas produces only a negligible amount of coal and such electricity will get more expensive when its global warming costs are finally internalized, the ability of wind and other renewables to free the state from coal dependence is significant. Wind Power Can Create Jobs and Economic Prosperity After showing a more business as usual growth to 7 GW by 2030, Mr. Church described the many benefits to Kansas if the state chose a bigger goal of 20 GW. ACORE used studies by the Southwest Power Pool and the Joint Coordinated System Plan to guide their estimate of useful wind power, ensuring that their was a market for renewable energy exports. Their research led ACORE to a recommendation for 18 more GW of wind, 1.4 GW of solar, and ~1 GW of bio-power (converted coal plants). The addition of 20 GW over the next 20 years is estimated to generate 12,000 jobs and over $20 billion for the state's economy. Many of the jobs are in construction of turbines and four large Concentrating Solar Power (CSP) plants. But a significant share of the jobs are also in the potential for Kansas to attract wind turbine manufacturers to the eastern part of the state. This combination of construction jobs in western KS and manufacturing jobs in eastern KS enhances the proposal as a benefit for the whole state. Benefits to Neighbor States as well And the benefits don't stop in Kansas. The people of Arkansas and Tennessee and other neighbors eastward who have less wind potential can get access to the economical power source of strong Kansas wind. Transmission investment and developments toward a smart grid that can store and deploy energy as-needed will be crucial in this 20 GW plan. But with Kansas leadership and federal leadership working together with nonprofits like SET and ACORE and innovative renewable businesses, such inspiring energy progress is attainable. Congratulations to ACORE on the best webinar I have yet attended! And here's to continued progress in every state of our union maximizing their renewable resources to create jobs and drive a robust economic recovery. Onwards in the Sustainable Energy Transition - More on Climate Change
 
Governor Quinn 'Sees No Reason Not To Run' In 2010 Top
SPRINGFIELD, Ill. (AP) -- Illinois Gov. Pat Quinn intends to seek a full term as chief executive in 2010. Quinn told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch he planned to seek election to the post he took over from impeached and ousted Gov. Rod Blagojevich. Spokeswoman Marlena Jentz confirmed that Monday. She says Quinn believes "he is doing a good job and sees no reason not to run." Jentz emphasizes that the Democrat hasn't formally announced. She says he's focused on the budget crisis and that it calls for governing, not campaigning. -ASSOCIATED PRESS
 
Reproductive Justice: Lessons of Hate in the Bible Belt Top
By Debra Taylor, former Grandfield Oklahoma high school Ethics teacher who was forced to resign for using The Laramie Project in her class Teaching about intolerance in my high school ethics class in a small town in Oklahoma lead to a real life lesson for my students when I was forced to resign for insubordination. Conflicts had escalated between the superintendent of schools, my students and me over his biased decision to suspend my class because I was teaching The Laramie Project . I had sought and received approval from the principal to teach the tragic story of Matthew Shepard, a gay young man brutally murdered in Laramie, Wyoming by two young men who "hated" gay people. I chose The Laramie Project because of its prevailing themes of intolerance and hate crimes. The students and I studied the criminal investigation and examined how different citizens of Laramie responded when they learned Matthew's murderers--Aaron "A.J." McKinney and Russell Henderson-- were life-long residents of the rural Wyoming community. One thing is for sure, I did not use The Laramie Project to teach about gay rights or to teach a unit on gay lifestyles, as the superintendent Mr. Turlington has alleged. It is not necessary to teach about gay lifestyles to my students' generation. Several students have gay family members; some of the family members have been in long-term, same-sex relationships. In truth, I was challenging them to examine where and how the two young men--McKinney and Henderson-- learned to hate; because hate, like love, is learned behavior. I wanted them to understand where the lessons of hate and intolerance are typically learned: parents, teachers, members of the community, even in churches. I had hoped that by using The Laramie Project each student would examine their prejudices and form healthier practices of tolerance, compassion and advocacy. The irony is that the students learned the lesson well, but not inside the walls of a Grandfield High School classroom. They had their classroom moved into the real world where they have experienced the real life lessons of intolerance; witnessed acts promoted by homophobic fears and ideology and yes, encountered hatred. Even in this small town of 1,100 people, it's not all black and white. As one local resident told Hunter Stuart, a video journalist, "We don't live in the fifties anymore." Another told him, "I know people who are gay. I don't like what they do, but I treat them with respect." But as one thing led to another, I asked a member of the school board to get involved. I was accused of insubordination by Superintendent Turlington and felt I had no alternative but to accept the superintendent's agreement of resignation. As the editor of the local newspaper admonished in an editorial "it was wrong to question the decisions of your superiors." I am humbled by the fact that people across the country find the story of my students and me important. The media has become our courtroom. The more people advocate for us against the injustices we have experienced, the better I feel about losing my job. No matter where we live or go to school we need to promote attitudes of compassion and tolerance for all students, all people-- gay or straight. I would be naïve to think what has happened to my students and me is an isolated incident. Unfortunately, those in charge of the school just don't get it. I know any gay student at Grandfield High School has been taught a dubious lesson. They have learned they better keep quiet until they are old enough to leave town. Originally published on rhrealitycheck.org
 
Mountaintop Mining Rule REVERSAL Could Be Coming Top
WASHINGTON — The Obama administration is taking steps to reverse a last-minute Bush-era rule that allows mountaintop mining waste to be dumped near streams. Interior Secretary Ken Salazar said Monday the administration will ask a federal court to abandon the rule that made it easier for coal mining companies to dump waste near streams. If the court agrees, the Obama administration could start drafting a new regulation that better protects waterways and communities sooner than if it sought to rewrite the measure itself. Salazar said the rule, finalized with a little more than a month before President George W. Bush left office, was bad policy. Two lawsuits pending in federal court sought to block or overturn the rule. The Obama administration's decision puts the federal government in the rare position of siding with the parties that filed the lawsuits. "The responsible development of our coal supplies is important to America's energy security," Salazar said in a conference call with reporters. "But as we develop these reserves we must also protect our treasured landscapes, our land, our water and our wildlife." Earthjustice, which represents the plaintiffs in one of the lawsuits, accused Salazar of attempting to spike the litigation. "This came out of the blue," spokeswoman Joan Mulhern said, adding that no one in the administration talked with Earthjustice before Monday's announcement. Mulhern also complained that reverting to the status quo is not enough because it won't prevent coal companies from filling valleys with mine waste. "That's not helping the communities concerned with mountaintop removal." Prior to the change, regulations in place since 1983 have barred mining companies from dumping waste within 100 feet of streams if the disposal would diminish water quality or quantity. "The Secretary of the Interior's move to undo a seven year rulemaking process is precipitous and will only add to the uncertainty that is delaying mining operations and jeopardizing jobs," National Mining Association Chief Executive Hal Quinn said in a statement. "We trust the Secretary of the Interior does not plan on engaging in a de facto rulemaking, thereby avoiding the transparency integral to a fair and legal regulation." The action is the latest by the Obama administration to address mountaintop removal for coal, a process in which mining companies remove vast areas to expose coal. While they are required to restore much of the land, the removal creates many tons of rocks, debris and other waste that are trucked away and then dumped into valley areas, where streams flow. Last month, the Environmental Protection Agency announced it was cracking down on mountaintop removal by taking a closer look at 150 to 200 permits. Kentucky Coal Association President Bill Caylor says it's unclear what the administration's action will mean for the industry. A primary reason for the Bush administration's changes was to clarify whether the 1983 rules covered ephemeral streams that occasionally carry water. "The original rule was clear that it did not apply to these little, small, dry ditches," Caylor said. "It helped by clarifying it because there was starting to be litigation." Salazar said he talked to West Virginia Gov. Joe Manchin before Monday's announcement. Manchin spokesman Matt Turner said the governor invited Salazar to the state to visit a mountaintop removal mine. "There has to be a balance and that is what he (Manchin) is looking for," Turner said. "There has to be a realistic understanding of how much energy comes from coal. We just can't instantly wean ourselves from this energy source." Manchin complained to the administration after the EPA announced it wanted to review permits the U.S. Army Corps of Engineers was considering for mountaintop removal mines in West Virginia, Kentucky and Virginia. ___ Associated Press Writer Brian Farkas and AP Business Writer Tim Huber contributed to this report from Charleston, W.Va. More on Barack Obama
 
Michael Schwartz: An Ugly and Symptomatic Consequence of Israel's Palestinian Occupation Top
A recent article written by Israeli journalist, Uri Blau, and published in the Israeli national newspaper Haaretz, details a small, but symptomatic aspect of Israel's colonial policy toward the Palestinians: the dehumanizing attitudes that some Israeli soldiers adopt toward the Palestinians. Apparently, it is a custom that small units (squads, platoons, etc) in the Israel Defense Forces commission custom-made t-shirts and other apparel "featuring their unit's insignia, usually accompanied by a slogan and drawing of their choosing." The slogan and drawing typically express various (often x-rated or iconoclastic) attitudes, which the members of these units then wear in informal or civilian settings. The problem is that there is apparently a widespread trend for these slogans and drawings to express racist and even genocidal attitudes toward Palestinians among the soldiers commissioning and then wearing them. Here is just one example: "A T-shirt from the Givati Brigade's Shaked battalion shows a pregnant Palestinian woman with a bull's-eye superimposed on her belly, with the slogan, in English, "1 shot, 2 kills." Yes, it is that bad, and this is not even the worst of them. And what makes it even more significant and scary is that the officers have to approve of these slogans and captions -- because the Unit's insignia is on them -- so there is institutional sanctioning of these incredible images and statements, which the unit members then wear in all sorts of informal settings. Complaints about them are dismissed on the basis that these are lighthearted and playful, but I think we can see the sinister significance and brutal consequences of advertising and therefore validating these attitudes -- and the actions they encourage. More broadly, the bland acceptance of this in Israel suggest corruption of military and civilian authorities, and the depth of the racism flooding through segments of the population there. Oh my.
 
Swine Flu PSAs From 1976 (VIDEO) Top
"A swine flu epidemic could be coming..." says an ominous voice as deep drums rumble in the background. "It could make you very sick. You'll want to be protected." One man on a basketball court shrugs it off. "The swine flu? Man, I'm too fast to let it catch me!" Moments later, he's shown sprawled in his bed with a thermometer in his mouth. The scenes (as you can quickly tell from the video below) are from the 1970s, when the last swine flu scare led to a national vaccination campaign. Here's a brief synopsis from the Centers for Disease Control : In 1976, 2 recruits at Fort Dix, New Jersey, had an influenzalike illness. Isolates of virus taken from them included A/New Jersey/76 (Hsw1n1), a strain similar to the virus believed at the time to be the cause of the 1918 pandemic, commonly known as swine flu. Serologic studies at Fort Dix suggested that >200 soldiers had been infected and that person-to-person transmission had occurred. We review the process by which these events led to the public health decision to mass-vaccinate the American public against the virus and the subsequent events that led to the program's cancellation. Watch the PSAs: More on Swine Flu
 
Dan Sweeney: How Many More Cops Must Die? Top
Maybe it's because it just happened yesterday -- or maybe it's because all the national news networks are currently obsessed with SARS or Avian Flu or Mad Cow Disease or whatever the current potential pandemic that, like all the others, will surely result in the end of civilization as we know it -- but the national news has been missing the story that, here in Florida, we just had a cop-killing that bears eerie similarity to the recent case in Pittsburgh , in which Richard Poplawski allegedly shot and killed three police officers and tried to kill as many as nine others before being arrested. Afterward, much was made of Poplawski's belief that President Obama would soon be taking his guns away. In Pennsylvania, it began because of dog piss. Here in Florida, it started with a pair of Okaloosa County Sheriff's deputies arriving at a shooting range to arrest a man for domestic violence. According to the Associated Press story , deputies Warren York and Burt Lopez Tasered suspect Joshua Cartwright, who fell to the ground and then came up shooting with a concealed weapon, killing both officers. That led to a car chase, which ended when Cartwright's truck flipped over and Cartwright, a member of the Florida National Guard, burst out of the truck shooting, dying himself after a half-minute gunfight in which more than 60 rounds were fired. And sure enough, buried in the 12th paragraph of the AP story linked above, is the Okaloosa sheriff's comment that "Cartwright was interested in militia groups and weapons training." When Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano's office put out a report warning of growing "right-wing extremism," she was pilloried in the conservative media. Glenn Beck went totally haywire ... well, more haywire than usual. Michael Savage sued the DHS. It was all good for publicity. But all it did was tacitly tie the kooky ideology espoused by Beck and Savage to the explicitly dangerous actions of men like Poplawski and now, Cartwright. Beck's and Savage's followers seem equally ignorant of the stupidity of their actions. At the myriad tea parties held a couple weeks ago, many folks held up signs proudly declaring themselves "Right-wing extremists," a reference to the DHS report. I attended the tea party in Fort Lauderdale , and saw several signs of that ilk. But the far-right's anchoring themselves to the even-farther-right is hardly the big takeaway from all this. With Poplawski and now Cartwright, and who knows how many others to follow, the point to be made is that this sort of right-wing extremism does exist and represents a serious threat to both police officers and law-abiding citizens that disagree with the viewpoints of these pissants. (Recall the case of Jim Adkisson , who pleaded guilty this past February to marching into a Unitarian Universalist Church in Knoxville, Tenn., to "go kill liberals." He murdered two people with a sawed-off shotgun and wounded seven others before the church congregation wrestled him to the ground.) It may be a weird point coming from me, given some previous posts I've made on the subject of law enforcement on my old blog, Doomed Generation. But in a Nixon-goes-to-China sort of way, I suppose it makes sense. Indeed, the last thing we need is any reason to give police officers more fear of the citizenry they are supposed to protect. I don't know what the answer is. I don't think tighter gun control will do a damn bit of good, and I'm fairly pro-gun myself, a point of contention among my more-liberal friends. But something needs to be done, and soon. Burt Lopez had five kids. Warren York had a 10-year-old. Joshua Cartwright was a waste of humanity who beat his wife. The difference is huge.
 
Corona, Dos Equis Beer Hurt By Swine Flu Top
April 27 (Bloomberg) -- Grupo Modelo SAB, the maker of Corona beer, fell the most in six months after authorities ordered the closure of bars in some parts of the country in an effort to contain an outbreak of the deadly swine flu. Modelo, Mexico's largest brewer, declined 9.2 percent to 39.4 pesos. Fomento Economico Mexicano SAB, Latin America's largest beverage company, also slumped, dropping 5.3 percent to 38.25 pesos. The decline in Femsa, the maker of Dos Equis beer, was the biggest since March 5. More on Swine Flu
 
Richard E. Hicks, Maersk Alabama Sailor, Sues Company Over Pirate Safety Top
HOUSTON — A member of the crew on the U.S.-flagged ship hijacked by African pirates sued the owner and another company Monday, accusing them of knowingly putting sailors in danger. Richard E. Hicks alleges in the suit that owner Maersk Line Limited and Waterman Steamship Corp., which provided the crew, ignored requests to improve safety measures for vessels sailing along the Somali coast. Hicks was chief cook on the Maersk Alabama. Pirates held the ship's captain hostage for five days until the U.S. Navy rescued him. Hicks' lawsuit seeks at least $75,000 in damages and improved safety. Officials for Norfolk, Va.-based Maersk Line and Mobile, Ala.-based Waterman said their companies don't comment on pending litigation. Hicks asked that the two companies improve safety for ships by providing armed security or allowing crew members to carry weapons, sending ships through safer routes, and placing such safety measures on ships as barbed wire that would prevent pirates from being able to board vessels. "We've had safety meetings every month for the last three years and made suggestions of what should be done and they have been ignored," Hicks said. "I'm just trying to make sure this is a lot better for other seamen." Hicks also asked the two companies pay at least $75,000 in damages, saying he doesn't know if he will ever work on a ship again. "My family is not looking forward to me going back out to sea. But I'm not sure if I'm going back. I'm still nervous, leery. I might find something else to do, said Hicks, who has worked 32 years as a merchant seaman. "We think (the companies) should be more concerned about the personnel on their ships than the profits the companies make," said Terry Bryant, Hicks' attorney. Both companies do business in Texas, which is why the suit was filed in Houston, he said. Pirates took over the Alabama on April 8 before Capt. Richard Phillips surrendered himself in exchange for the safety of his 19-member crew. The captain was taken on a lifeboat and held hostage for five days before U.S. Navy SEAL snipers on the destroyer USS Bainbridge killed three of his captors and freed him. Hicks said crew members have been trained on what to do if pirates or others threaten the ship. "We need more than training," said the 53-year-old who lives in Royal Palm Beach, Fla., and has two grown sons. "I never thought nothing like this would ever happen." Hicks said pirates had tried to board the ship two other times that week, but the Alabama had managed to outrun them. But on April 8, as Hicks was preparing food for the crew, the ship's alarm rang and the captain announced the ship was being boarded by pirates. Hicks and the other crew members went to their designated safety room, which was the engine room, and they waited there for more than 12 hours in 125 degree heat. "I didn't know if I was going to live or die," Hicks said. The crew managed to take a pirate hostage, wounding him with an ice pick, and attempted to use him to get back Phillips. But the bandits fled the ship with Phillips as their captive, holding him in the lifeboat until the SEAL sharpshooters rescued him. "He did a hell of a job saving us," Hicks said of Phillips. But Bryant said the Maersk Line and Waterman share the blame for putting the crew at risk. "We want to bring more attention to the shipping industry and the dangers in pirate-infested waters," he said.
 
Swine Flu: Chicago's Mexican Community Prepares, School Bans Handshakes Top
CHICAGO (AP) -- Religious and community leaders in Chicago's Mexican neighborhoods are trying to educate residents and calm fears about a swine flu outbreak. A spokesman for the Mexican Consulate in Chicago says officials are trying to keep people from panicking. Consulate workers prepared informational fliers in Spanish about preventive measures and planned to hand them out. Meanwhile, pastors and religious leaders listened to resident concerns in Chicago's Little Village neighborhood, which has one of the largest Mexican communities in the Midwest. Pastor Jose Landaverde says people have been stopping by Our Lady of Guadeloupe Anglican Church and are worried about family members in Mexico. Concern about a deadly strain of swine flu has prompted one Chicago school in a largely Hispanic neighborhood to forbid students from shaking hands. Orozco Community Academy Principal Coralia Barraza also says when parents call to say their children are home sick, school officials are being told to ask more questions about the illness than they typically do. Barraza says the school in Chicago's Pilsen neighborhood is being particularly vigilant because it has a lot of Hispanic children and routinely enrolls students who've just arrived from Mexico - including one just last week. She also says students travel with their families to and from Mexico. -ASSOCIATED PRESS More on Swine Flu
 

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