The Pantagraph
Reprinted with permission of the Pantagraph
 
Mental health program paying off in Livingston County- Kevin Barlow
"Families across Livingston County will utilize and value a comprehensive continuum of services to promote children's social and emotional development, which will, in turn, effectively reduce at-risk behaviors and strengthen relationships."
 
 
Calendar, pet contest to aid Humane Society- Phyllis Coulter
"... they decided to use an already-named day - Dress Up Your Pet Day - and bring it to their school for a fundraiser that could involve classmates and teachers."
 
 
Boy who 'hates' cancer raising money for a cure- Phyllis Coulter
"A.J. was 8 when his friend, Lexi Wendel, 6, died of cancer. He honored her memory by raising about $400 in her name; this year, he hopes his I Hate Cancer campaign raises at least $4,000 by Feb. 2nd."
 
 
3-D works by students at Normal West sure to make an impression- Phyllis Coulter
"The work of these students will be immortalized for 40 years. Art makes your world better. These are dramatic things"
-Tom Eder, Principal
Normal Community West High School
 
 
Mountain cabin a perfect place to be unplugged- Susan Hazlett
"I used to hate going to the cabin. Who wants to be in the middle of nowhere with no mental diversions, not even a Wal-Mart? How's a girl supposed to live with no connections? No newsfeed? No online shopping? Quite well, actually. When you look up from your cellphone screen or computer monitor, you notice all kinds of things."
 
 
 
AM 1230 WJBC
 
When thousands stand up together- Mike Williams
"Although this is not the first memorial to an African-American in Washington, D.C., Dr. King is the first African-American honored with a memorial on the National Mall and only the fourth non-President to be memorialized in such a way. The mission of the national memorial is stated as follows ..."
 
 
Are labor unions a thing of the past?- Jim Ftizpatrick and R.C. McBride
"Victor Devinatz, distinguished professor in the Department of Management and Quantitative Methods at Illinois State University, joined WJBC’s R.C. McBride and Jim Fitzpatrick to discuss the state of labor unions in the U.S."
 
 
Justice Sotomayor’s thoughts on privacy- Bob Bradley
"In her concurring opinion, Justice Sonia Sotomayor raised several concerns about the interrelationship between technology and privacy for the government and society to ponder. Among those concerns were the following ..."
 
 
 
The History Channel
 
Black History Month- TUTORIAL
"Black History Month is an annual celebration of achievements by black
Americans and a time for recognizing the central role of African Americans in U.S. history. The event grew out of "Negro History Week," the brainchild of noted historian Carter G. Woodson and other prominent African Americans. Since 1976, every U.S. president has officially designated the month of February as Black History Month. Other countries around the world, including Canada and the United Kingdom, also devote a month to celebrating black history."
 
 
 
CNBC
 
Countries With Aging Populations-  Rajeshni Naidu-Ghelani
"So, which countries have the biggest gap between old and young?
Click ahead to find out."
 
 
 
Religion Dispatches
 
A Nobel Prize for LGBT Civil Rights?- Jay Michaelson
"Kato’s murder comes the same week as yet another LGBT suicide,
this time of 14-year-old Philip Parker, a victim of bullying in his school in Tennessee. In both cases the religious and political sources of hateful rhetoric have deplored, condemned, and above all distanced themselves from these horrible and unexpected tragedies. Which is, in industry parlance, bullshit." 
 
 
New York Times
 
They Will Say We Are Not Here - Katherine Fairfax-Wright and Malika Zouhali-Worrall
"Today, as we revisit our memories of David Kato, we remember his fortitude and remarkable legal achievements, boldy guided by his vision of establishing a Ugandan gay village. But perhaps most of all we recall these words, spoken with more logic than defiance: "If we keep on hiding, they will say we are not here."
 
 
 
AARP The Magazine
 
Sharon Stone Opens Up- Meg Grant and Lawrence Grobel
"She nearly died, suffered unbearable blows and somehow found bliss outside Hollywood."
 
 
 
The Atlantic
 
How My Mother Beat the Public School System- Gayle Tzemach Lemmon
"Long before school choice, here's how one woman in a downtrodden district managed to get a good education for her child."
 
 
 
Taipei Times
 
Leading thinkers list ‘deep, elegant and beautiful explanations- Alok Jha
"In its annual question, intellectuals told Edge magazine their favorite explanations ranged from evolution to ant intelligence, ‘deep time’ to universal disorder."
 
 
 
National Geographic
 
How to Build a Dog- Evan Ratliff, Photograph by Robert Clark
"So why are dogs so different? The answer, the researchers say, lies in their unusual evolutionary history. Canines were the earliest domesticated animal, a process that started somewhere between 20,000 and 15,000 years ago, most likely when gray wolves began scavenging around human settlements."
 
 
 
The Smithsonian Magazine
 
Remembering the Horrors of Auschwitz - Video produced by: Lyn Garrity, Ryan Reed and Brian Wolly
"From the moment they arrived at the concentration camp, Jews and other Holocaust victims were treated like animals, and only a lucky group survived the experience."
 
 
 
Der Spiegel
 
The 'Vogue of the Veiled'- Daniel Steinvorth
"Every lifestyle has its own magazine, from sailors to hunters, athletes
to musicians. But headscarf-wearing women have been forced to do
without - until now. The Turkish glossy Alâ has found a niche, and is fighting the 'battle against nudity'."
 
 
 
Tavis Smiley
 
Etta James Tribute- Exclusive Video Interview
"Tavis devotes tonight's show to the legacy of the three-time Grammy-winning blues matriarch."
 
 
 
Union Leader
 
Republicans should be for same-sex marriage- Ken Mehlman
"The party of Lincoln and Reagan should stand first and foremost for freedom."
 
 
 
Black Voice News
 
Who Gets Food Stamps?- Julianne Malveaux
"The true food stamp story goes something like this ..."
 
 
 
The Buddhist Channel
 
A covering that bares one's faith- The Bangkok Post
"In the past few decades, the issue of hijab - to wear or not to wear, to allow wearing or not to allow - has become the central debate in the politics of Islamic identity and global multiculturalism, perhaps second only to the topic of terrorism."
 
 
 
Religion & Ethics
 
World’s Biggest Congregation- Lucky Severson
"There are big churches, and then there’s the Yoido Full Gospel Church
here in Seoul, South Korea. It’s the mother of megachurches, with the largest congregation in the world. On a typical day 200,000 will attend one of seven services along with another two or three hundred thousand watching them on TV in adjoining buildings or satellite branches."
 
 
 
The Seattle Times
 
Free-market socialism: globalization and social decay- David Brooks
"The idiocy of our current political debate is that neither side seems capable of talking about the interplay of economic and social forces."
 
 
 
Miami Herald
 
Practicing the politics of racial resentment- Leonard Pitts Jr.
"There has been a lot of talk about whether Gingrich’s recent language,
including his performance at last week’s South Carolina debate and his earlier declaration that Barack Obama has been America’s best "food-stamp president," amounts to a coded appeal to racist sensitivities. The answer is simple: yes."
 
 
 
NPR
 
Twitter Announces It Can Now Block By Country- Eyder Peralta
"Twitter announced, last night, that it now has the ability to block content by country. This means, for example, that if a Tweet breaks a German law, Twitter can now block it in Germany but leave it up in the rest of the world."
 
 
 
Famous American Trials
 
Amistad Trials 1839 - 1840- Douglas Linder
"The Amistad case energized the fledgling abolitionist movement and intensified conflict over slavery, prompted a former President to go before the Supreme Court and condemn the policies of a present Administration, soured diplomatic relations between the United States and Spain for a generation, and created a wave of interest in sending
Christian missionaries to Africa."
 
 
 
The Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade Data Base
 
Voyages- Reference
"The trans-Atlantic slave trade was the largest long-distance coerced movement of people in history and, prior to the mid-nineteenth century, formed the major demographic well-spring for the re-peopling of the Americas following the collapse of the Amerindian population."
 
 
 
PINK Magazine
 
Top Women in Philanthropy- Caroline Cox
"It’s one thing to give to charity or volunteer on weekends. But it’s entirely another to dedicate your life to assisting those in need and improving people’s lives."
 
 
 
Los Angeles Times
 
Love, disease and a killing- Steve Lopez
"Was it a case of murder or an act of love? In the eyes of the law, such human complexities don't matter. There is no charge of mercy killing. Those who support physician assistance in dying - which exists in Oregon, Washington and Montana - argue that the absence of such an option often leads to desperate acts."
 
 
 
American Experience
 
Custer's Last Stand- Documentary
"General George Custer, his martyrdom was shrouded in controversy
and contradictions. The final act of his larger-than-life career played out on a grand stage with a spellbound public engrossed in the drama."
 
 
 
Reporters Without Borders
 
Press Freedom Index 2011/2012- Staff Report
"This year’s index sees many changes in the rankings, changes that reflect a year that was incredibly rich in developments, especially in the Arab world."
 
 
 
The Wall Street Journal
 
On Religious Freedom, Years of Battles Ahead - David Skeel
"A pair of momentous new government decisions on religion - in particular on whether religious institutions are exempt from secular laws - has given advocates of religious liberty a severe case of whiplash."
 
 
 
TIME
 
Portraits of the Homeless by Lee Jeffries- Photo Essay
"He didn’t want to exploit these people or steal photographs of them like so many other photographers who had seen the homeless as an easy target. In an effort to make intimate portraits, Jeffries would try to connect with each person on an individual basis first."
 
 
 
EMPIRES
 
Martin Luther: Reluctant Revolutionary- Documentary
"The Catholic Church uses all of its might to try and silence Luther,
including accusations of heresy and excommunication."
 
 
 
Live Science
 
Low IQ & Conservative Beliefs Linked to Prejudice- Stephanie Pappas
"There's no gentle way to put it: People who give in to racism and prejudice may simply be dumb, according to a new study that is bound to stir public controversy."
 
 
 
Washington Times
 
Welfare wars: Anatomy of a smear- Robert Knight
"As the federal government lurches toward a $16 trillion national debt
and states face bankruptcy, the welfare state is strangling freedom
and the economy while keeping millions in wretched dependency.
Every attempt to rein in the behemoth is met with threats by public-employee unions, fusillades from left-wing think tanks, and media smears."
 
 
 
Speaking of Faith
 
The Inner Landscape of Beauty- Krista Tippett
"The late Irish poet and philosopher is beloved for his book Anam Ċara, Gaelic for "soul friend," and for his insistence on beauty as a human calling and a defining aspect of God. In one of his last interviews before his death in 2008, he articulated a Celtic imagination about how the material and the spiritual, the visible and the invisible worlds intertwine in human experience."
 
 
 
The Miller Center
 
Keys to the Kingdom- Senator Bob Graham
"Senator BOB GRAHAM is a former two-term Governor of Florida who
served 18 years in the U.S. Senate.  He was appointed by President Obama to co-chair the bipartisan National Commission the the BP oil spill and to chair the Financial Crisis Inquiry Commission. Keys to the Kingdom is Senator Graham's explosive political thriller but it is infused with the kind of startling, dramatic, and concrete covert information for anyone interested in the future of America within our dangerous, volatile world."
 
 
 
Christian Science Monitor
 
Wind power: Clean energy, dirty business?- Erik Vance
"For all the hope that wind energy offers a world eager to move away from costlier, more environmentally disruptive forms of electric power production, the industry is barreling into some of the same controversies and conflicts that its predecessors in natural resource exploitation faced, particularly in the developing world."
 
 
 
The Huffington Post
 
Teen Beating Video Has Teens Concerned About Their Safety At School, In Community - Julianne Micoleta, Erik Martinez and Salomon Navarro
"Young people need to challenge their peers and say, ‘Look this isn’t right and we’re not about to do this.’ It has to come from their peers."
 
 
 
Irish Times
 
Stem cells - where are we now?- Claire O'Connell
"IN OCTOBER 2011, the European Court of Justice ruled to ban patents on procedures that involve the destruction of human embryos at any stage. Numerous scientists expressed their horror at the ruling ..."
 
 
 
Washington Post
 
Mean girls at work- Selena Rezvani
"While workplace studies show women are routinely underestimated
compared to men, we don’t give much credence to the fact that women hampering other women is also to blame. In nearly every leadership talk I give, whether to the women’s network of a Fortune 500 company or to incoming female MBA students, I actively steer away from this topic. Why?"
 
 
 
The Guardian
 
Davos: if women are the future, where are they?- Jane Martinson
"Various studies suggest greater involvement by the poorest and the wealthiest women could help the global economy. The World Food Programme has found that girls and women reinvest 90% of each dollar in their families by buying food, books and medicine, for example. For men, that figure is more like 30% to 40%."
 
 
 
The Kansas City Star
 
Black teachers: A tragically endangered species- Roger C. Williams Jr.
"Please don’t get me wrong. I am not advocating the establishment of
a quota system to retain black teachers regardless of their effectiveness.
Nor would I recommend embarking on a mission to entice blacks into
the teaching profession without paying close attention to every candidates’ potential for success."