By Bill Kisliuk, Los Angeles Times

August 19, 2010

Reaching from Los Angeles to Yerevan, local doctors are healing the eyes of Armenian infants who otherwise would go blind.

In June, the doctors performed surgeries at a neonatal clinic in the Armenian capital, delivered key equipment and trained about 200 Armenian doctors in how to treat retinopathy of prematurity.

The illness strikes premature infants whose eyes have not developed enough to be exposed to the outside environment, said Dr. Thomas Lee, director of the Retina Institute at the Vision Center at Childrens Hospital Los Angeles, which partnered with the Armenia Eye Care Project on the mission.

Lee said the condition was unknown until recent medical advances helped save the lives of premature babies who in earlier times would not have survived. Serious cases are more likely to surface in developing countries, he said.

If the condition, which often corrects itself, becomes serious, doctors have only about two days to save a child's eyesight.

"It is a very time-sensitive disease, not like cataracts or glasses, when you have all the time in the world to take care of it," Lee said. "If you don't get to the kid in a brief, specific period of time, that kid will go blind."

Inspiration for the visit came from Dr. Roger Ohanesian, an Orange County ophthalmologist who founded the Armenia Eye Care Project in 1992. Ohanesian has spearheaded more than three dozen medical missions to Armenia and brought several Armenian eye specialists to the United States for training.

What started as a brief training sortie turned into a major effort in which the Armenia Eye Care Project provided two digital retinal cameras, each worth as much as $100,000, to the Malayan Ophthalmic Center in Yerevan.

The doctors offered lectures and then worked side by side in the neonatal intensive care unit with Armenian doctors.

Now, Lee and others are conducting weekly video conferences in which the Armenian doctors send photos of patients via the Internet, then offer diagnoses with the counsel of American advisors.

Ohanesian's group will pay to continue the effort for 2 1/2 years, then the Armenian Ministry of Health will pick up the tab, said Ohanesian.

"They felt they could do that because the cost of treating blind children is enormous," he said. "They felt by paying for early treatment and prevention, there is an economic benefit for the country, in addition to the social benefit."

Lee said the trip has blossomed into a full-fledged partnership with the Armenia Eye Care Project, Childrens Hospital and clinics in Yerevan, with plans to expand assistance and training well beyond what the eye can see.

"This is just the beginning," Lee said.

Over the years, Ohanesian said, doctors trained through the Armenia Eye Care Project have performed 10,000 surgeries and seen more than 300,000 patients who could not afford to pay.

"That's 10% of the whole country," Ohanesian said. "And it is the Armenians that are doing it. We trained them, granted, but once trained they shouldered the burden and are treating their countrymen for free."

http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-yerevan-doctors-20100819,0,3308017,print.story

By Tracy Wilkinson, Los Angeles Times

5:01 PM PDT, August 20, 2010

Reporting from Mexico City

Mexican authorities on Friday announced the arrest of six police officers as suspects in the slaying this week of the mayor of a wealthy northern city.

The suspects include a police agent who served as the mayor's bodyguard. But as Jose Alberto Rodriguez and the other five suspects were paraded before journalists Friday, Rodriguez proclaimed his innocence. "I did not participate!" he protested.

Separately, the army announced the capture of four suspected gunmen who may be implicated in the slaying, caught in a raid Friday on a house where a small arsenal of grenade launchers and other weapons was seized. A dozen or more gunmen escaped the raid.

Edelmiro Cavazos, the mayor of Santiago, was grabbed from his home Sunday night by at least 15 armed assailants wearing uniforms from a defunct police agency. His bound body was found Wednesday morning dumped alongside a road.

Adrian de la Garza, head of the state investigations bureau, said four of the suspects kept watch over the highway leading to Cavazos' house while a fifth accompanied gunmen, who were working for drug traffickers, in the abduction. It was originally thought that Rodriguez, the guard, was a victim because he had said he was also kidnapped and stuffed into a car trunk before being released unharmed.

State prosecutor Alejandro Garza said the detainees had "confessed" and implicated other participants. He predicted additional arrests.

Santiago is a picturesque vacation town near Monterrey, Mexico's most affluent city and its principal business hub. The region has been increasingly sucked into deadly drug-war violence as the powerful Gulf cartel battles with its former allies, the Zeta paramilitaries, for control of drug-running corridors, production operations, local markets and a raft of other illicit businesses.

Authorities did not say what gang was involved in the slaying of Cavazos, a 38-year-old, U.S.-educated member of President Felipe Calderon's political party, who had been on the job for less than 10 months.

At his funeral Thursday, his mother, Rubinia Leal, said amid sobs that she had warned him to quit because he was surrounded by "traitors." Mauricio Fernandez, mayor of nearby San Pedro Garza Garcia, said Cavazos had told him of a visit from traffickers who warned him not to interfere with their operations.

The five men and one woman arrested represent about a quarter of the Santiago police department. Municipal police across Mexico are considered the most corrupt, worst-paid, worst-equipped law enforcement agents in the nation. Many cities have started a program to purge local officers, in some cases firing entire departments.

Genaro Garcia Luna, the country's top security official and an advocate of replacing local police with state agencies reporting to a single command, said this month that traffickers allocate nearly $100 million a month to buy off municipal police. Nearly 8% of the more than 28,000 people killed in Mexico's drug gang crackdown since December 2006 were police officers at state, local and federal levels, according to government statistics.

Also Friday, the judge handling a drug trafficking case against the mayor of Cancun survived an attack that claimed the life of one of the judge's bodyguards.

And a prominent businessman was slain overnight in a trendy bar in Mexico City's Roma district. Oscar Paredes Echegaray was "executed" by three gunmen, city prosecutor Miguel Angel Mancera said. Paredes was scheduled to testify against a kidnapping ring that allegedly abducted his son in 2008.

http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/world/la-fg-mexico-arrests-20100821,0,1601756,print.story

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From the New York Times

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Despite Sanctions, Iran Fuels First Nuclear Reactor

By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS

BUSHEHR, Iran (AP) -- Iranian and Russian engineers began loading fuel into Iran's first nuclear power plant on Saturday, a major milestone as Tehran forges ahead with its atomic program despite U.N. sanctions.

The weeklong operation to load uranium fuel into the reactor at the Bushehr power plant in southern Iran is the first step in starting up a facility the U.S. once hoped to prevent because of fears over Tehran's nuclear ambitions.

Iran's nuclear chief celebrated the plant as ''a symbol of Iranian resistance and patience'' and said it demonstrated the country's nuclear aims are entirely peaceful -- an assertion that many governments around the world seriously question.

''Despite all pressure, sanctions and hardships imposed by Western nations, we are now witnessing the startup of the largest symbol of Iran's peaceful nuclear activities,'' Ali Akbar Salehi told reporters inside the plant.

Russia, which helped finish building the plant, has pledged to safeguard the site and prevent spent nuclear fuel from being shifted to a possible weapons program. After years of delaying its completion, Moscow says it believes the Bushehr project is essential for persuading Iran to cooperate with international efforts to ensure Iran does not develop the bomb.

The United States, while no longer formally objecting to the plant, disagrees and says Iran should not be rewarded while it continues to defy U.N. demands to halt enrichment of uranium, a process used to produce fuel for power plants but which can also be used in weapons production.

On Saturday, a first truckload of fuel was taken from a storage site to a fuel ''pool'' inside the reactor building under the watch of monitors from the U.N.'s International Atomic Energy Agency . Over the next two weeks, 163 fuel assemblies -- equal to 80 tons of uranium fuel -- will be moved inside the building and then into the reactor core.

Workers in white lab coats and helmets led reporters on a tour of the cavernous facility.

It will be another two months before the 1,000-megawatt light-water reactor is pumping electricity to Iranian cities.

Iran denies an intention to develop nuclear weapons , saying it only wants to generate power with a network of nuclear plants it plans to build.

The Bushehr plant is not considered a proliferation risk because the terms of the deal commit the Iranians to allowing the Russians to retrieve all used reactor fuel for reprocessing. Spent fuel contains plutonium, which can be used to make atomic weapons. Additionally, Iran has said that IAEA experts will be able to verify that none of the fresh fuel or waste is diverted.

Of greater concern to the West, however, are Iran's stated plans to build 10 new uranium enrichment sites inside protected mountain strongholds. Iran said recently it will begin construction on the first one in March in defiance of the U.N. sanctions.

Nationwide celebrations were planned for Saturday's fuel loading at Bushehr.

''I thank the Russian government and nation, which cooperated with the great Iranian nation and registered their name in Islamic Iran's golden history,'' Salehi said. ''Today is a historic day and will be remembered in history.''

He spoke at a news conference inside the plant with the head of Russia's state-run nuclear corporation, Sergei Kiriyenko, who said Russia was always committed to the project.

''The countdown to the Bushehr nuclear power plant has started,'' Kiriyenko said. ''Congratulations.''

Iran's hard-liners consider the completion of the plant to be a show of defiance against U.N. Security Council sanctions that seek to slow Iran's nuclear advances.

Hard-line leader Hamid Reza Taraqi said the launch will boost Iran's international standing and ''will show the failure of all sanctions'' against Iran.

President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad reiterated Friday that Tehran was ready to resume negotiations with the six major powers trying to curb Iran's program -- the five permanent Security Council members plus Germany.

Ahmadinejad, however, insisted Iran would reject calls to completely halt uranium enrichment, a key U.N. demand. The president had earlier said the talks could start in September, but in an interview with Japan's biggest newspaper, The Yomiuri Shimbun, he said the talks could start as early as this month.

Russia signed a $1 billion contract to build the Bushehr plant in 1995 but has dragged its feet on completing the work.

Moscow had cited technical reasons for the delays, but analysts say Russia used the project to try to press Iran to ease its defiance over its nuclear program.

The uranium fuel used at Bushehr is well below the more than 90 percent enrichment needed for a nuclear warhead. Iran is already producing its own uranium enriched to the Bushehr level -- about 3.5 percent. It also has started a pilot program of enriching uranium to 20 percent, which officials say is needed for a medical research reactor.

The Bushehr plant overlooks the Persian Gulf and is visible from several miles (kilometers) away with its cream-colored dome dominating the green landscape. Soldiers maintain a 24-hour watch on roads leading up to the plant, manning anti-aircraft guns and supported by numerous radar stations.

There are several housing facilities for employees inside the complex plus a separate large compound housing the families of Russian experts and technicians. The site is about 745 miles (1,200 kilometers) south of Tehran.

Russians began shipping fuel for the plant in 2007 and carried out a test-run of the plant in February 2009.

Iran says it plans to build other reactors and says designs for a second rector in southwestern Iran are taking shape.

The Bushehr project dates backs to 1974, when Iran's U.S.-backed Shah Mohammed Reza Pahlavi contracted with the German company Siemens to build the reactor. The company withdrew from the project after the 1979 Islamic Revolution toppled the shah.

The partially finished plant later sustained damages after it was bombed by Iraq during its 1980-88 war against Iran.

Before making the Russian deal to complete Bushehr, Iran signed pacts with Argentina, Spain and other countries only to see them canceled under U.S. pressure.

http://www.nytimes.com/aponline/2010/08/21/world/middleeast/AP-Iran-Nuclear.html?_r=1&ref=world

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After Iraq, Troops Fill Base Towns

LAKEWOOD, Wash. — At Galloping Gerties Grill here, Sue Rothwell can spot the soldiers who have returned to nearby Joint Base Lewis-McChord by their tanned faces and the way their children cling to their necks.

Up the block at Plaza Cleaners and Laundry, a pile of dusty Army dress blues and greens await altering for a homecoming ball scheduled for this weekend. And three freeway exits north at Mina's Nails, a line of military wives and girlfriends wait to get their nails painted with extravagant designs that match their evening gowns.

“They all left in dribs and drabs, and all of sudden, this town was empty,” said Ms. Rothwell. “Now, it's a sea of green here in the morning.”

These are scenes that play out in military base towns whenever troops return from war — but rarely with the frequency and intensity that this town and others across the country are seeing now as the Pentagon draws down troops in Iraq.

This week the United States officially ended its combat mission in Iraq, leaving 50,000 troops — down from 140,000 a year before — to train and support Iraqi security forces.

Though the Pentagon has been pulling units out of the country for months, the process will continue into the fall as thousands more service members flow back to their home bases to reunite with families, enter life beyond the military — or prepare for new missions.

The returns are moments of celebration and relief, but tension and peril can lie ahead. Suicides, crime and marital problems often spike in the months after a deployment ends, military mental health experts say. And while the police in Lakewood said they have seen no problems yet, the base took the precaution of tripling its mental health staff, to 50, in preparation for the returning soldiers. Other bases around the country have also done so.

“I've been bracing for all the things that come with the return of troops,” said Andrew VanDenBergh, a former Marine and a war critic who helped start Coffee Strong, a nonprofit cafe that helps soldiers find services. “I sound pessimistic when I say it's a matter of time.”

Joint Base Lewis-McChord is experiencing among the largest influxes of returning troops. At the beginning of the year, nearly 18,000 of its servicemen and -women — almost half the base — were deployed, most to Iraq. By late fall, nearly all will be back.

At Fort Bragg, in North Carolina, two brigades of the 82nd Airborne Division will return by fall, and the post expects to have most of its 55,000 soldiers home for Christmas for the first time in nine years, its garrison commander has said. A brigade has about 3,000 soldiers.

And the Third Infantry Division, based at Fort Stewart in Georgia, is scheduled to bring back nearly 14,000 soldiers by late fall from three combat brigades, a headquarters unit and a combat-aviation brigade.

Kevin Larson, a spokesman for Fort Stewart, said that by the end of the year, five of the division's six brigades will be home, only the second time that has happened since 2001.

Senior military officials say they hope that with fewer troops needed in Iraq, the Pentagon will be able to keep troops home longer, perhaps reducing some of the deployment stress that experts say has contributed to record high numbers of suicides in the military. But with the surge under way in Afghanistan, where there are now more than 100,000 American troops, many soldiers and Marines know that new deployments are inevitable.

“We all know he's going back to Afghanistan,” said April Berry, 29, the wife of a Joint Base Lewis-McChord soldier just back from Iraq.

At Galloping Gerties, the waitresses — many of them military wives themselves — squeal when they see familiar faces come in. The cooks remember soldiers by their menu choices.

Michelle Barrett, 34, a bartender at Gerties, said seeing her husband, a staff sergeant, after a year was better than having a child. For him, it was a chance to meet his 8-month-old daughter, Ellie, whose premature birth he had watched via the Internet from Iraq. “She's so small,” he said, cradling her in his arms.

But the staff at Gerties has also seen difficult reunions. Recently, they watched as a woman who had been deployed tried to reconnect with her infant child, only to be rejected. The mother, Ms. Rothwell said, sat through the meal with tears in her eyes.

Another time, a group of young mothers and babies came into the restaurant. Before they left, one took her child up to the wall where there are photos of Fort Lewis soldiers who were killed in combat. “That's your daddy,” the woman said, pointing to one of the photos.

Ms. Rothwell said it was too hard to watch such scenes. “You have to turn and leave,” she said. “Or soldiers come in and see their buddy there, and they didn't know that he had died.”

At the dry cleaners, Maria Dibbens offers alterations with a listening ear. Ms. Dibbens knows precisely when units will return and when the homecoming balls take place. “These young kids, they need support,” she said. “Sometimes I give out my number.”

But for now, the mood is festive as soldiers march in parades, dance at the balls and zip down the highway in new cars and motorcycles bought with combat pay.

At the nail salon, Wynn Nguyen, 18, said business spiked as Army wives spiffed up before their husbands return. Mr. Nguyen said he could tell when units had finally arrived when female soldiers came in, primping in ways that do not violate the Army's strict dress code. (Doing designs on fingernails is forbidden, but toenails are O.K.)

“When Army women come back, they do their toenails, which they hide in their boots,” Mr. Nguyen said. “They tell me the colors they want, and I freestyle — yellow, white, pink, with silver and gold sparkles.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/21/us/21troops.html?ref=us&pagewanted=print

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Program Offers Support for Victims of Domestic Violence, but It Is Challenging

For any first-time visitor, Cook County's Domestic Violence Courthouse — with its unmarked hallways and frequently abandoned information desk — presents a navigational challenge. For an abuse victim, who may be terrified and injured, the blank walls and empty corridors are just the first bewildering step in a long, convoluted and impersonal process.

Many who seek protection from an abuser come to this West Loop building and muddle through alone, but a few are assigned court advocates — largely by luck of the draw — who translate legal jargon and literally stand up for victims during court proceedings. Now, as Springfield's budget cuts threaten human services statewide, those advocacy programs are at risk.

“Can you imagine, if you were in trauma, trying to figure this out?” said Therasa Zito, who manages the Domestic Violence Court Advocacy Program of the Jane Addams Hull House Association . “It's totally overwhelming.”

Ms. Zito was talking about the crowded room on the first floor of the courthouse where victims file their first round of paperwork, but her words could just as easily describe the maze of domestic-violence law and the legal system in place to deal with such issues.

In 2009, there were 18,248 reports of domestic violence filed in Cook County, down slightly from 2008, according to the county clerk's office. Those numbers represent a fraction of actual cases, because most victims do not report abuse. For those who do seek legal help, advocates can make the process more bearable.

When Danena Sanders, 21, arrived at the courthouse in May with her broken jaw wired shut, an advocate helped her fill out a form for an order of protection, told her what to expect during court and helped her learn to eat through a straw. Advocates' other duties might include speaking with lawyers or judges who can seem intimidating, or finding a client a new home or a child-friendly shelter.

“She made things much easier,” Ms. Sanders said. “The situation is still there, and you have to get through it. But someone's there, paying attention and taking notes.”

As Ms. Sanders talked about her ordeal, her voice broke. “Going through it, you're confused and scared,” she said.

She said there were girls younger than her who were walking into the courthouse alone. “What are they supposed to do?” she asked.

Ms. Sanders's advocate, Sue, said: “A lot of people we work with are on the verge of giving up. Without us, they might do just that.” (Hull House requested that advocates be identified only by their first names in the news media.)

The Hull House advocacy program was founded in 1984, the first of its kind in the Chicago area. Independent of the court system and financed by five grants, the largest of which is from the Illinois Department of Human Services, the program currently employs seven advocates, down from nine a few years ago.

Those advocates are able to work with only about 1 percent of cases, said Ms. Zito, who manages the court advocacy program. In 2009, the group served 1,487 clients on a budget of $450,000. Ms. Zito said the financing had not kept up with inflation or day-to-day costs.

Terri Johnson, vice president of public policy and advocacy at Hull House, is keeping a wary eye on state budget cuts. “Domestic violence funding is very vulnerable,” Ms. Johnson said. “We're not sure how this is going to shake out.”

While every victim's story is different, an advocate's goal is almost always the same. “At the very least,” Ms. Zito said, “we want clients to walk out of here with an order of protection.”

Having the order on file, she said, will help them next time. “And, unfortunately,” she added, “there is almost always a next time.”

Orders of protection establish a Maginot Line against abusers: They sound daunting, but they are easy to circumvent. So advocates also give their clients grimly sensible advice like “keep a full tank of gas in your car” and “have a bag packed with essentials.”

The long-term fate of the advocacy program rests in the state legislature. In the meantime, “we're just going to ride it until the wheels fall off,” Ms. Zito said. “I know our staff does good work. And it's hard work.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/20/us/20cncadvocate.html?ref=us&pagewanted=print

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Appearance on TV Show Is Request From Beyond

It is like a message from the afterlife.

David Lewis, strong and healthy, his shaved head gleaming beneath television spotlights, urged viewers to “make the call” on the public-access show of the same name.

“It's not snitching,” he said. “It's being able to be a true community member.”

Mr. Lewis's appearance on the episode, which is showing this month, lasts a mere 10 minutes. But the message, taped in 2008, has renewed salience after his June 9 murder.

Mr. Lewis, a 54-year-old from East Palo Alto, was known for his work on rehab and re-entry programs. He was shot to death while walking to his car at the Hillsdale Shopping Center in San Mateo. Witnesses heard an argument and gunfire before seeing a black sedan speed away, and the San Mateo police have said they believe Mr. Lewis knew his killer.

But even after Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger , at the San Mateo police chief's request, offered a $50,000 reward, the crime remains unsolved. Investigators believe someone has information that could help them crack the case, but whoever it is is not interested in “snitching.”

The concept of snitching originated with outlaws and gang members seeking to justify vengeance on conspirators who informed on their partners-in-crime. Now, along with witness intimidation and distrust of the police, that threat of retribution is why fewer people step forward to help authorities.

The problem is worse in East Palo Alto than in other Bay Area cities. Of the 17 homicides the police have investigated since 2008, just two have resulted in arrests — a clearance rate of about 12 percent. Oakland cleared 37 percent of cases in the same period, and San Francisco 43 percent.

“The challenge for us is creating the venue for you to tell us without telling us your name,” Chief Ronald L. Davis of the East Palo Alto police said. “I think law enforcement cannot be naïve and pretend like there's no risk.”

Two years ago, Chief Davis put into effect a strategy to counteract anti-snitching sentiment: a public-access TV show.

The department was already dispersing fliers about homicide victims from its cold-case files. The chief hoped that focusing on individuals might compel people to come forward.

The idea for a show came from Karen Adams, a staff producer at the nonprofit Midpeninsula Community Media Center. “We felt like if they had more help from the community, they'd solve the murders,” Ms. Adams said. “We humanize the victims.”

Each nearly hourlong show features interviews with family members and friends, encouraging viewers to call or text an anonymous tip line. The fourth episode, which is showing several times this month, includes the segment on Mr. Lewis.

“It's surprising to me that no one has come forward,” Chief Davis said, but he is hopeful.

And Mr. Lewis might have been as well. “You don't get away with murder,” he says in the episode. “I suggest that people understand there is a price to pay.”

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/20/us/20bcsnitch.html?ref=us&pagewanted=print

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Too Long Ignored

A tragic crisis of enormous magnitude is facing black boys and men in America.

Parental neglect, racial discrimination and an orgy of self-destructive behavior have left an extraordinary portion of the black male population in an ever-deepening pit of social and economic degradation.

The Schott Foundation for Public Education tells us in a new report that the on-time high school graduation rate for black males in 2008 was an abysmal 47 percent, and even worse in several major urban areas — for example, 28 percent in New York City.

The astronomical jobless rates for black men in inner-city neighborhoods are both mind-boggling and heartbreaking. There are many areas where virtually no one has a legitimate job.

More than 70 percent of black children are born to unwed mothers. And I've been hearing more and more lately from community leaders in poor areas that moms are absent for one reason or another and the children are being raised by a grandparent or some other relative — or they end up in foster care.

That the black community has not been mobilized en masse to turn this crisis around is a screaming shame. Black men, according to the Bureau of Justice Statistics, have nearly a one-third chance of being incarcerated at some point in their lives. By the time they hit their mid-30s, a solid majority of black men without a high school diploma have spent time in prison.

Homicide is the leading cause of death for young black men, with the murderous wounds in most cases inflicted by other young black men.

This is a cancer that has been allowed to metastasize for decades. Not only is it not being treated, most people don't even want to talk about it. In virtually every facet of life in the United States, black people — and especially black boys and men — are coming up short. White families are typically five times as wealthy as black families. More than a third of all black children are growing up in poverty. In Ohio, according to the National Center for Children in Poverty, the percentage is more than half.

There are myriad reasons for this awful state of affairs. As with so many other problems in American society, a lack of gainful employment has been a huge contributor to the problems faced by blacks. Chronic unemployment is hardly a plus-factor for marriage and family stability. And the absence of strong family units with mature parental guidance is at the very root of the chaotic environment that so many black youngsters grow up in.

The abominable incarceration rates among blacks are the result of two overwhelming factors: the persistence of criminal behavior by a significant percentage of the black population, and a criminal justice system that in many respects is racially discriminatory and out of control. Both of these factors need to be engaged head-on, and both will require a staggeringly heavy lift.

Education in the broadest sense is the key to stopping this socioeconomic slide that is taking such a horrific toll in the black community. People have to understand what is happening to them before they can really do much about it. Young blacks who have taken a wrong road, or are at risk of taking a wrong road, have to be shown a feasible legitimate alternative.

The aspect of this crisis that is probably the most important and simultaneously the most difficult to recognize is that the heroic efforts needed to alleviate it will not come from the government or the wider American society. This is a job that will require a campaign on the scale of the civil rights movement, and it will have to be initiated by the black community.

Whether this is fair or not is irrelevant. There is very little sentiment in the wider population for tackling the extensive problems faced by poor and poorly educated black Americans. What is needed is a dramatic mobilization of the black community to demand justice on a wide front — think employment, education and the criminal justice system — while establishing a new set of norms, higher standards, for struggling blacks to live by.

For many, this is a fight for survival. And it is an awesomely difficult fight. But the alternative is to continue the terrible devastation that has befallen so many families and communities: the premature and often violent deaths, the inadequate preparation for an increasingly competitive workplace, the widespread failure to exercise one's intellectual capacity, the insecurity that becomes ingrained from being so long at the bottom of the heap.

Terrible injustices have been visited on black people in the United States, but there is never a good reason to collaborate in one's own destruction. Blacks in America have a long and proud history of overcoming hardship and injustice. It's time to do it again.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/08/21/opinion/21herbert.html?ref=opinion&pagewanted=print

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Real Americans, Please Stand Up

All this talk about the mosque reminds me of two things I heard growing up in Nebraska.

I had a 6th grade teacher who referred to American Indians as “sneaky redskins” and our enemies in the Pacific as “dirty Japs.” This abated somewhat after I asked one day in class, “Mrs. G., do you think our parents would like to know that you teach race prejudice?” She faded three shades.

The rest of that year was difficult.

As a war kid, I also heard an uncle of mine endorse a sentiment attributed to our Admiral “Bull” Halsey: “If I met a pregnant Japanese woman, I'd kick her in the belly.”

These are not proud moments in my heritage. But now, I'm genuinely ashamed of us. How sad this whole mosque business is. It doesn't take much, it seems, to lift the lid and let our home-grown racism and bigotry overflow. We have collectively taken a pratfall on a moral whoopee cushion.

Surely, few of the opponents of the Islamic cultural center would feel comfortable at the “International Burn a Koran Day” planned by a southern church-supported group (on a newscast, I think I might have even glimpsed a banner reading, “Bring the Whole Family,” but maybe I was hallucinating). This all must have gone over big on Al Jazeera news.

I like to think I'm not easily shocked, but here I am, seeing the emotions of the masses running like a freight train over the right to freedom of religion — never mind the right of eminent domain and private property.

A heyday is being had by a posse of the cheesiest Republican politicos ( Lazio , Palin , quick-change artist John McCain and, of course, the self-anointed St. Joan of 9/11, R. Giuliani ). Balanced, of course by plenty of cheesy Democrats. And of course Rush L. dependably pollutes the atmosphere with his particular brand of airborne sludge.

Sad to see Mr. Reid's venerable knees buckle upon seeing the vilification heaped on Obama, and the resulting polls. (Not to suggest that this alone would cause the sudden 180-degree turn of a man of integrity facing re-election fears.)

I got invigorating jolts from the president's splendid speech — almost as good as Mayor Bloomberg's
— but I was dismayed, after the worst had poured out their passionate intensity, to see him shed a few vertebrae the next day and step back.

What other churches might be objectionable because of the horrific acts of some of its members? Maybe we shouldn't have Christian churches in the South wherever the Ku Klux Klan operated because years ago proclaimed white Christians lynched blacks. How close to Hickam Field, at Pearl Harbor, should a Shinto shrine be allowed? I wonder how many of our young people — notorious, we are told, for their ignorance of American history — would be surprised that Japanese-Americans had lives and livelihoods destroyed when they were rounded up during World War II? Should all World War II service memorials, therefore, be moved away from the sites of these internment camps? Where does one draw the line?

I just can't believe that so many are willing to ignore the simple fact that nearly all Muslims were adamantly opposed to the actions and events that took place on 9/11, and denounced them strongly, saying that the Islamic religion in no way condones it.

Our goal in at least one of our Middle East wars is to rebuild a government in our own image — with democracy for all. Instead, we are rebuilding ourselves in the image of those who detest us. I hate to see my country — and it's a hell of a good one — endorse what we purport to hate, besmirching what distinguishes us from countries where persecution rules.

I've tried real hard to understand the objectors' position. No one is untouched by what happened on 9/11. I don't claim to be capable of imagining the anguish, grief and anger of the people who lost their friends and loved ones that day. It really does the heart good to see that so many of them have denounced the outcry against the project. A fact too little reported.

And it seems to have escaped wide notice that a goodly number of Muslims died at the towers that day. (I don't mean the crazies in the planes.) What are their families to think of being told to beat it?

“Insulting to the dead” is a favorite phrase thrown about by opponents of the center. How about the insult to the dead American soldiers who fought at Iwo Jima and Dunkirk, defending American citizens abiding by the law on their own private property and exercising their freedom of religion?

Too bad that legions oppose this. A woman tells the news guy on the street, “I have absolutely no prejudice against the Muslim people. My cousin is married to one. I just don't see why they have to be here.” A man complains that his opposition to the mosque is “painting me like I hate the whole Arab world.” (Perhaps he dislikes them all as individuals?)

I remain amazed and really, sincerely, want to understand this. What can it be that is faulty in so many people's thought processes, their ethics, their education, their experience of life, their understanding of their country, their what-have-you that blinds them to the fact that you can't simultaneously maintain that you have nothing against members of any religion but are willing to penalize members of this one? Can you help me with this?

Set aside for the moment that we are handing such a lethal propaganda grenade to our detractors around the world.

You can't eat this particular cake and have it, too. The true calamity, of course, is that behavior of this kind allows the enemy to win.

http://opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2010/08/20/real-americans-please-stand-up/?pagemode=print

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Chicago Sun Times

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Chicago Sun Times

August 20, 2010

BY MARY ELIZABETH WILLIAMS

To tell it one way, a British judge let the two accused sexual assailants of an 8-year-old girl go free Wednesday.

Or to put it another way, a pair of little boys have been put on trial for their innocent curiosity, and now carry the stigma of being registered sex offenders.

In this story, nobody wins.

On Oct. 27, in West London, a little girl told her mother she had been assaulted. She said that two local 10-year-old boys lured her out of her home, exposed themselves to her, pulled down her pants and attacked her. She said they threw her scooter into the bushes and told her she had to do what they said. She said they raped her.

Later, under intense questioning, she said she had lied about being raped, but that she had been "naughty," and that she had been afraid to tell her mother. Attorneys in the case described it as a game of "show me yours and I will show you mine." In her testimony, the girl said she had not been penetrated, and there was no forensic evidence to suggest she had been.

The boys, who now have the distinction of being Britain's youngest registered sex offenders, received three years of probation. They will be supervised and will work with social workers who will "train, guide and educate" them.

In handing down the sentence, the judge said, "The jury decided that you did something very wrong which if you had been older would have very serious consequences for you. But you are very young and while I do not accept what happened was a game, I do accept that you didn't realize how serious what you were doing was."

Because of the ages of the three children involved, the details of exactly what went on during the alleged attack are very sketchy.

Back in May, the barrister for one of the boys, Linda Sprudwick, told the jury, "Maybe it went too far, maybe it went to touching."

But how far is too far? How young is too young to be accountable? Does it matter that one of the boys was described as a model student whose teacher wrote a glowing endorsement for the jury, while the other had been expelled from his previous school and moved to one for children with behavioral disorders?

Is this a story in which, as the Irish Herald described, "Boys walk free after trying to rape an eight-year-old girl"?

Or is writer Philip Johnston correct to ask: "Why did the authorities respond to a story of rape from an eight-year-old, who cannot possibly know what it means?"

Actress Mo'Nique has said the inspiration for her monstrous "Precious" character came from her brother, who began molesting her when he was 13, at a time, she says, "We were both children."

We are reminded on an agonizingly regular basis that, despite Johnston's blustery naivete, a child doesn't have to know what sex abuse is to have it happen -- or even to perpetuate it.

In handing down that sentence, it would appear the judge tried to strike a compassionate balance of sensitivity for all involved -- allowing that something went "too far" for the girl, but that the boys may not have fully understood that themselves.

The boys will be 14 when their probation ends. And we will only know if their sentence was too harsh or insufficient by what they become and how they behave in the next few years.

Lacking the vocabulary to define events, children leave it to us to tell them what happened to them.

They leave it to us to decide if they are victims or abusers, and then that is the label they have to live with. And we struggle, incompletely, unsatisfactorily, to make sense of what happened between three children in an English field on an October day.

http://www.suntimes.com/news/otherviews/2617998,CST-EDT-open20.article

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From the White House

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"This flooding has already affected more people than the Indian Ocean tsunami, the Haiti earthquake, and the 2005 Pakistan earthquake combined," Secretary of State Hillary Clinton said yesterday during an address to the United Nations.  Over 20 million Pakistanis have been affected during this humanitarian crisis and as the rains relentlessly fall the risk of expanded flooding continues.  Shortages in food, shelter, clean drinking water, and medical supplies face families across the region and as the water continues to rise, it may get worse before it gets better.

That is why the United States Government through the Department of State created the Pakistan Relief Fund for people like you to contribute money to the ongoing relief efforts in Pakistan.  Though Secretary Clinton acknowledged that these are tough economic times and everyone has tight budgets, every dollar makes a difference in providing immediate relief and assistance to support a sustained recovery.  Five dollars can buy 50 high energy bars providing desperately needed nutrition, $10 can provide a blanket for a mother or a child, and about $40 can buy material to shelter a family of four who has lost their home in the floods.

Americans can help the Pakistani people confront this challenge by donating $10 through their mobile phone by texting the word FLOOD to 27722.  Your contribution will provide life sustaining items to help people in the flood-affected area. 

President Obama is committed to continuing to assist the Government of Pakistan in their immediate response and being a partner in the long term recovery.  After the Government of Pakistan requested help, the United States responded swiftly.  Secretary Clinton described the response: 

Under the direction of the Government of Pakistan and the National Disaster Management Authority, the United States has been working since the earliest days of the flooding to provide assistance to those it can reach and who need it most. Our civilian helicopters began assisting in relief efforts almost immediately. American military helicopters were redirected to rescue Pakistanis within hours of the Pakistani Government's request for help. Less than a day later, American military aircraft began delivering 400,000 halal meals from storehouses in Dubai. These efforts continue. And to date, U.S. aircraft have carried more than 6,000 Pakistanis to safety and distributed more than a million pounds of relief supplies.

We've also provided enough heavy-duty waterproof sheeting to construct temporary shelters for more than 100,000 people. And we have supplied the Pakistani Government with rescue boats, concrete cutting saws, water filtration units, and a dozen prefabricated bridges.

The initial response by the Pakistani Government and people, the United States, and the international community has helped to alleviate suffering and save lives. But the combined efforts so far pale against the magnitude of the challenge.

Secretary Clinton then urged the international community and the American people to come to the aid of Pakistan.  You can donate online now or learn about additional opportunities to help assist those being affected by this monumental crisis.

http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2010/08/20/flooding-pakistan-join-relief-recovery-and-reconstruction-effort

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From the Department of Justice

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WASHINGTON – A federal grand jury returned an indictment charging Natchez, Miss., Police Department Officers Elvis Prater, 35, and Dewayne Johnson, 32, with civil rights offenses and other offenses related to the beating of two men in custody, the theft of an arrestee's credit and debit cards, and the officers' false statements to federal investigators. Prater and Johnson were arrested Thursday morning.

Prater was charged with two counts of deprivation of rights under color of law and one count of false statements. If convicted, he faces a maximum punishment of 10 years in prison for the civil rights offenses and five years in prison for the false statements offense. Johnson was charged with two counts of deprivation of rights under color of law, one count of conspiracy to commit identity theft, credit card fraud, and bank fraud, and two counts of false statements. If convicted, he faces a maximum punishment of 10 years in prison for the civil rights offenses and five years in prison for the conspiracy and false statements offenses.

According to the indictment, on May 23, 2009, Prater assaulted two arrestees who were in custody of the Natchez Police Department, Johnson failed to protect an arrestee in his patrol car from Prater's assault, and Johnson stole credit and debit cards from an arrestee in his custody. The indictment further charges that Johnson conspired with his cousin, Patricia Wilson, to fraudulently use the arrestee's credit and debit cards at a gas station, restaurants, and retail stores in Natchez, Miss., and Vidalia, La. Finally, the indictment charges that Prater and Johnson lied to the FBI during the course of their investigation into these offenses.

Wilson, 34, of Woodville, Miss., previously pleaded guilty to conspiring with Johnson to commit identity theft, credit card fraud and bank fraud.

During her plea, Wilson acknowledged that on May 23, 2009, Johnson arranged a meeting and gave her a credit card, which she believed he had stolen. Johnson, who appeared to be holding a second credit card in his hand, asked Wilson to buy beer for an upcoming party he was throwing. Johnson also informed Wilson that the credit card had a $3,000 credit limit, and told Wilson she could also use the stolen credit card to buy something for herself. Wilson took the credit card to a retail store in Vidalia, La., where she attempted to make a purchase, but the credit card, which had been reported as stolen, was declined. The information to which Wilson pleaded guilty also charges that the police officer made or caused to be made several other charges with the stolen credit and debit cards at retail stores, restaurants and a gas station in Natchez and Vidalia, La.

Wilson faces a maximum penalty of up to five years in prison. Her sentencing date has not yet been scheduled.

The case is being investigated by the Jackson Field Office of the FBI and the Mississippi State Office of the Attorney General. The case is being prosecuted by Trial Attorney Erin Aslan of the Justice Department's Civil Rights Division and Assistant U.S. Attorney Glenda Haynes of the U.S. Attorney's Office for the Southern District of Mississippi.

The charges set forth in an indictment are merely accusations and the defendants are presumed innocent until proven guilty.

http://www.justice.gov/opa/pr/2010/August/10-crt-944.html

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From ICE

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LAS VEGAS - A total of 35 individuals with ties to more than a dozen different street gangs are facing criminal charges or deportation following a three-day, multi-agency enforcement action in the Las Vegas area spearheaded by the U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE) Office of Homeland Security Investigations (HSI).

The arrests were made as part of Operation Community Shield, an ongoing initiative by ICE-HSI's National Gang Unit in which the agency uses its powerful immigration and customs authorities in a coordinated strategy to attack and dismantle criminal street gangs across the country. As part of the initiative, ICE partners with other federal, state and local law enforcement agencies to target the significant public safety threat posed by transnational gangs.

Of the gang members and gang associates arrested during the enforcement action that concluded late Thursday, six are currently facing prosecution on state criminal charges, including outstanding warrants for gang-related violations. A seventh individual, and two of the subjects arrested on state charges, will also be presented to the U.S. Attorney's Office for prosecution for felony re-entry after deportation, a federal violation that carries a potential penalty of up to 20 years in prison.

"This effort shows our collective resolve in the Las Vegas area to attack and dismantle these dangerous street gangs," said Richard Curry, assistant special agent in charge for ICE-HSI in Las Vegas. "For too long, gangs here and elsewhere have used violence and intimidation to hold communities hostage. As this operation shows, now it's the gang members who have something to fear."

Among those arrested during the enforcement action was a 26-year-old previously deported Mexican national with ties to the Park Avenue street gang who has prior arrests for weapons charges and drug possession. Another of the individuals taken into custody was an 18-year-old Mexican national member of the 18th Street gang who had been previously arrested for attempted murder for his role in a drive-by shooting.

ICE received substantial assistance with this week's operation from the Nevada Department of Public Safety (two divisions, Probation and Parole and Investigations); the Las Vegas Metropolitan Police Department; the Mesquite Police Department; and the North Las Vegas Police Department.

Three of the gang members and gang associates arrested during the operation are U.S. citizens. The remaining 32 individuals are foreign nationals. The majority of the foreign nationals are from Mexico (27), but the group also includes citizens from six other countries: El Salvador, the Philippines, Honduras, Cuba, Guatemala and Laos. Those foreign nationals who are not being prosecuted on criminal charges are being processed for removal from the United States.

Since Operation Community Shield began in February 2005, ICE agents nationwide have arrested more than 18,000 gang members and gang associates. As part of the effort, HSI's National Gang Unit identifies violent street gangs and develops intelligence on their membership, associates, criminal activities and international movements to deter, disrupt and dismantle gang operations. Transnational street gangs have significant numbers of foreign-born members and are frequently involved in human and contraband smuggling, immigration violations and other crimes with a connection to the border.

To report suspicious activity, call ICE's 24-hour toll-free hotline at: 1-866-347-2423 or visit www.ice.gov .

http://www.ice.gov/pi/nr/1008/100820lasvegas.htm

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