Zut Alors!

Italian’s Detention Illustrates Dangers Foreign Visitors Face

nobody@vox.com(Xtine) — Thu, 15 May 2008 11:45:54 -0700

By NINA BERNSTEIN
The New York Times
Published: May 14, 2008

He was a carefree Italian with a recent law degree from a Roman university. She was “a totally Virginia girl,” as she puts it, raised across the road from George Washington’s home. Their romance, sparked by a 2006 meeting in a supermarket in Rome, soon brought the Italian, Domenico Salerno, on frequent visits to Alexandria, Va., where he was welcomed like a favorite son by the parents and neighbors of his girlfriend, Caitlin Cooper.

Ms. Cooper, 23, who had promised to show her boyfriend another side of her country on this visit — meaning Las Vegas and the Grand Canyon — eventually learned that he had been sent in shackles to a rural Virginia jail. And there he remained for more than 10 days, locked up without charges or legal recourse while Ms. Cooper, her parents and their well-connected neighbors tried everything to get him out.

Mr. Salerno’s case may be extreme, but it underscores the real but little-known dangers that many travelers from Europe and other first-world nations face when they arrive in the United States — problems that can startle Americans as much as their foreign visitors.

“We have a lot of government people here and lobbyists and lawyers and very educated, very savvy Washingtonians,” said Jim Cooper, Ms. Cooper’s father, a businessman, describing the reaction in his neighborhood, the Wessynton subdivision of Alexandria. “They were pretty shocked that the government could do this sort of thing, because it doesn’t happen that often, except to people you never hear about, like Haitians and Guatemalans.” [Italics mine; thoughtlessness his.]

Each year, thousands of would-be visitors from 27 so-called visa waiver countries are turned away when they present their passports, said Angelica De Cima, a spokeswoman for Customs and Border Protection, who said she could not discuss any individual case. In the last seven months, 3,300 people have been rejected and more than 8 million admitted, she said.

Though citizens of those nations do not need visas to enter the United States for as long as 90 days, their admission is up to the discretion of border agents. There are more than 60 grounds for finding someone inadmissible, including a hunch that the person plans to work or immigrate, or evidence of an overstay, however brief, on an earlier visit.

While those turned away are generally sent home on the next flight, “there are occasional circumstances which require further detention to review their cases,” Ms. De Cima said. And because such “arriving aliens” are not considered to be in the United States at all, even if they are in custody, they have none of the legal rights that even illegal immigrants can claim.

Government officials have acknowledged that intensified security since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks has sometimes led to the heavy-handed treatment of foreigners caught in a bureaucratic tangle or paperwork errors. But despite encouraging officers to resolve such cases quickly, excesses continue to come to light.

One recent case involved an Icelandic woman who was refused entry at Kennedy Airport because, a dozen years earlier, she had overstayed her visa by three weeks. The woman, Erla Osk Arnardottir Lillendahl, was deported Dec. 10 after what she described as 24 hours of interrogation and humiliating treatment — locked in a cell and barred from making phone calls. The Department of Homeland Security later issued a letter of regret.

In questioning Mr. Salerno, customs agents seemed to suspect that he intended to work here. Ms. Cooper, a copy editor for an educational publication, said she was in the airport lobby when an agent called to ask about Mr. Salerno’s income and why he visited so often.

The youngest son of a prosperous contractor in Calabria, Mr. Salerno helps out in his brother’s law firm in Rome and is able to visit the United States several times a year. Neighbors said he joined volunteers in refurbishing the Wessynton recreation center in 2006, then became one of its summer attractions, kicking a soccer ball with the kids and playing tennis with the adults.

“He just is a very open, fun and helpful guy,” said Christopher M. Porter, a resident of Wessynton.

Ms. Cooper said that at the airport, when she begged to know what was happening to Mr. Salerno, an agent told her, “You know, he should try spending a little more time in his own country.”

Another agent eventually told her to go home because Mr. Salerno was being detained as an asylum-seeker.

“The border patrol officer said to my face that Domenico said he would be killed if he went back to Italy,” she recalled, voicing incredulity that, in his halting English, he could express such a thought. “Also, who on earth would ever seek asylum from Italy?”

Twelve hours later, when Mr. Salerno was granted a five-minute phone call, he called Ms. Cooper and denied saying anything of the kind. Instead, he said, the asylum story seemed to be retaliation for his insisting on speaking to his embassy.

After being turned over to Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he was taken to the Pamunkey Regional Jail in Hanover, Va., where he ended up in a barracks with 75 other men, including asylum-seekers who told him they had been waiting a year.

Ten days after he landed in Washington, Mr. Salerno was still incarcerated, despite efforts by Senator John W. Warner, Republican of Virginia, and two former immigration prosecutors hired by the Coopers.

“He’s just really scared,” Ms. Cooper said in an interview last Thursday. “He asked me if Virginia has the death penalty.”

Luis Paoli, a lawyer hired by the Coopers, said there was no limit on detention while waiting for an asylum interview. But even after officials agreed the asylum issue had been a mistake, Mr. Salerno was not released.

“Now an innocent European, who has never broken any laws, committed any crimes, or overstayed his visa, is being held in a county jail,” Ms. Cooper wrote in an e-mail message to The New York Times last Wednesday, prompting a reporter’s inquiries.

Less than 24 hours later, immigration officials intervened and arranged to deliver Mr. Salerno to Dulles, where last Friday he flew to Rome. Ms. Cooper, who said she was now considering moving to Italy, was by his side.

Mr. Salerno was still shaken. “In America,” he said, “there are so many good people and beautiful people that don’t deserve to be showing these terrible things to the world.”

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Horses abandoned in West as feed prices rise

nobody@vox.com(Xtine) — Tue, 13 May 2008 23:40:21 -0700

Tue May 13, 2008
By Laura Zuckerman

SALMON, Idaho (Reuters) - In the classic Hollywood western, a cowboy portrayed by John Wayne gallops across the sagebrush steppe and rocky ridges of the American West with only his horse for a companion.

What the films don't show is the cowboy buying and hauling hay for his horse, or what happens to the horse when it is too aged, infirm or irascible to ride.

Those more mundane details are at the heart of a debate about growing cases of mistreatment of horses in the United States, at a time when hay and grain prices are skyrocketing and when options for disposing of unwanted horses are dwindling.

Just a year ago, the sale of an average horse suitable for recreation -- one with neither prized bloodlines nor a performance record to heighten its status -- would have fetched several thousand dollars.

Today, prices in some cases have dropped to just hundreds of dollars, largely because of higher costs for their maintenance and transport.

The situation for marginal horses -- horses whose poor physical condition or disposition makes them targets for slaughter -- is even worse, after a court ruling sought by animal-rights groups effectively shut down the U.S. horse slaughter industry last year.

The result is that a growing number of unwanted horses are being starved or turned loose to fend for themselves in the U.S. West, according to animal welfare advocates.

"What concerns me is a fate worse than slaughter," said Temple Grandin, professor of animal science at Colorado State University and an authority on the handling of livestock such as horses. "We've got people turning horses loose in fields, dropping horses off in the night -- my worst nightmares are coming true."

Such images have strong resonance in the West, the land of the rider on the range immortalized in art by Frederic Remington and in popular culture by actors such as the late President Ronald Reagan.

Far from Kentucky, where thoroughbreds race the Churchill Downs, owning a horse in the West is a middle-class occupation. The average horse owner rides for recreation and keeps their horse on their own land or land rented for the purpose, rather than at a commercially run barn.

Horses eat hay made from either grass or alfalfa, or a mix of both, and a modest amount of grain. Prices fluctuate, but in east central Idaho, hay prices have risen to $145 from $120 per ton a year ago, a jump of 21 percent. In northern Idaho it costs $220 per ton and as much as $300 per ton in parts of California. Feeding a horse can cost $2,000 a year or more.

TURNED LOOSE

The West is also the region where the historic practice of releasing domesticated horses into the wild -- first by Spanish explorers and last by ranchers -- gave rise to the herds of Mustangs, or feral horses, that still inhabit the vast public lands of Western states.

But the romantic concept of freeing a tamed horse to roam the West's wide open spaces bears no resemblance to the reality, said Kirk Miller, livestock investigator in Idaho and Montana for the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

"They have no survival instinct in the wild, no clue as to what's dangerous to eat, no knowledge of how to grub for food under the snow," he said.

Miller and Colorado State's Grandin are among animal experts who say the campaign led by the Humane Society of the United States to end domestic horse slaughter was well-intentioned but misguided.

Now the tens of thousands of American horses marked for slaughter are shipped to Canada and Mexico, where long, stressful journeys end in what some horse advocates say can be unduly painful deaths.

Most horses are slaughtered for human consumption, with Europe and Asia providing markets for their meat.

Some horse associations are siding with the Humane Society in its fight to end export of horses for slaughter altogether. But others are seeking to re-establish processing in the United States to broaden the outlet for unwanted horses and to ensure the animals are killed by a mechanical method approved by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Keith Dane, director of equine protection for the Humane Society, said for Americans to have their horses killed for their meat would be akin to sending their pet dogs to slaughter for human consumption.

But unlike its canine counterpart, a horse weighs an average of 1,000 pounds and disposal of its carcass after Humane Society-recommended euthanasia has become burdensome. Where permitted by law and where able, owners can bury carcasses on their own land or pay several hundred dollars in assorted fees to deposit the remains at a local landfill.

Those complications may be behind what state livestock officials and federal land managers in the West say is a spike in the number of horses shot dead and dumped on public lands.

Scot Dutcher, animal protection chief with the Colorado Department of Agriculture, said the abandoned horse cases officials are addressing now is a ripple compared to the wave that may come.

"If it becomes illegal to export horses for slaughter, we'll be dealing with an equine tsunami," he said.

Meanwhile, officials at some sale barns in Montana are asking owners of especially old or underweight horses to pay the auction house if the animals do not bring a sufficient price.

And horse rescues, nonprofit groups that rehabilitate and place unwanted and often abused horses, are reporting a rise in the number of calls they are fielding and the number of horses they turn away for lack of resources.

"I could have 500 horses here tomorrow," said Brent Glover, head of Orphan Acres, an Idaho rescue operation that can maintain a maximum of 130 horses.

You can thank "president" shrub and his briliant economics policies for this - he's directly responsible. Idiot breeders ain't helpin' either.

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Texas authorities investigate more polygamy charges

nobody@vox.com(Xtine) — Tue, 13 May 2008 12:47:27 -0700

By ANGELA K. BROWN
Associated Press Writer
13 May 2008

CLYDE, Texas (AP) -- Behind guarded, ornate gates at the end of a rural road, a self-proclaimed prophet warns his followers about the end of time and rails against a dangerous and unclean world outside their West Texas compound.

The women are covered in long skirts and long-sleeve shirts. Many of the children have different mothers and share the same father.

But this isn't the Fundamentalist Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints' ranch, which authorities raided last month in Eldorado after receiving reports that underage girls were being forced to marry much older men.

This is the House of Yahweh: a different, even darker sect that the state has been investigating for years. Authorities in February charged the group's 73-year-old leader with performing polygamous weddings and forcing about 40 children - some as young as 11 - to work jobs at his 44-acre compound.

"If a bunch of adults want to get together and follow some con man and throw their lives away, that's their right in this country," said Callahan County District Attorney Shane Deel. "But to me, when you do that to children and they don't have a chance, that's where the biggest concern is."

If convicted on the most serious charges, Yisrayl Hawkins faces up to 20 years in prison.

Another sect leader, Yedidiyah Hawkins, goes to court this summer on charges of sexually abusing a teenager, bigamy and welfare fraud.

Questions have also been raised about at least two deaths within the sect.

A 7-year-old died in 2003 after her mother and another member performed home surgery on her infected leg. Both women were convicted of injury to a child.

And in 2006, a woman bled to death after giving birth because she was prevented from going to the hospital, according to a wrongful-death lawsuit filed by her husband.

Although members deny they practice polygamy, former members say Yisrayl Hawkins has at least two dozen wives - and state records show he fathered two babies last year with women ages 19 and 22. ...

Yisrayl Hawkins, who has pleaded not guilty in his criminal case, told The Associated Press that he and his church are misunderstood and persecuted because of their religious beliefs.

"We have nothing to hide," said the bearded, white-haired Hawkins, who declined to address specific allegations against him and his sect.

The House of Yahweh compound, about 120 miles northeast of the FLDS ranch, has wind generators, a cafeteria, a food-processing plant and dozens of tractor-trailer rigs holding canned goods. It also has a few stores carrying homemade toiletries and clothing.

Unlike the FLDS members who stay on the 1,700-acre ranch, most House of Yahweh followers members live in mobile homes surrounding the sect's compound, which is occupied only by a few caretakers. Other members own homes nearby or live in trailer parks owned by Hawkins in Abilene.

"Anyone can come here and can leave at any time," Hawkins said.

After the April 3 raid on the FLDS ranch, Child Protective Services took more than 460 children into custody.

Child-welfare officials said they cannot comment on possible investigations of House of Yahweh members unless youngsters have been removed. Only one such case has occurred: Four children living in Yedidiyah Hawkins' home are now in foster care.

Yisrayl Hawkins was born Buffalo Bill Hawkins but legally changed his name. He founded the House of Yahweh in 1980 - three years after the former Abilene police officer was fired for having beer in his patrol car. The group moved to rural Clyde several years later so they would have room to celebrate weeklong Old Testament feasts.

Hawkins began preaching polygamy in the early 1990s, saying women had to accept it or leave and forfeit heaven, several former members said.

"It's definitely a cult that follows mind-control techniques," said Miryam Martin, a House of Yahweh member from 1986 to 2000. "So many people's lives have been destroyed by what's been going on over there."

But Tanah Hawkins, a member for 20 years, said its Scripture-based beliefs offer something missing in mainstream churches. She blames disgruntled former members for the criminal investigations.

"When people leave the House of Yahweh, they go out and feed the rumors and add more lies," she said. "But I actually pray for them."

The sect claims to have hundreds of members scattered worldwide. One group in Kenya gained international attention in 2006 by building nuclear fallout shelters, believing Hawkins' apocalyptic prophecy.

Former members describe Hawkins as a zealot whose teachings are a blend of Old Testament directives on diet and cleanliness, New Testament beliefs in Jesus, and Hawkins' own prophecies rooted in the Book of Revelation.

Hundreds of his followers have legally changed their last names to Hawkins - including Yedidiyah and Tanah. Many have taken biblical first names that - like their leader's - include the letter "y."

Some former members also say Hawkins' followers tithe nearly a third of their incomes to the church. Many purchase the church's organically grown food, herbal drinks and dairy products, believing similar items available elsewhere are "unclean."

Public records show Yisrayl Hawkins owns at least $2.1 million in land, housing and mobile homes.

Nowhere is his influence more apparent than in the sect's 1,200-seat warehouse-like sanctuary, where a dozen poster-size pictures of Hawkins adorn the front wall.

Worshippers must first remove their shoes, and feet and hands are then sprayed with disinfectant before they come in. Men and women are seated on separate sides of an 8-foot wall dividing the sanctuary. Women wear long clothing and veils for modesty, and everyone wears gloves for cleanliness.

Some authorities fear Hawkins will lead his group to a tragic end like David Koresh, who the government said urged his Branch Davidian followers to set their compound on fire and kill themselves in 1993, when federal authorities tried to end a 51-day siege. Survivors blame the deaths on federal agents.

Concerned about a similar confrontation, police did not arrest Hawkins until nearly three months after obtaining the warrant - when they spotted him driving through town.

Bail was initially set at $10 million, partly because of a perceived threat in a sermon.

"I'm not asking much out of you - I'm just asking that you be willing to die rather than leave this house," Hawkins told his congregation in November.

A judge later relented, and Hawkins was released on $100,000 bond after testifying that his security guards are unarmed and suicide is counter to the church's teachings.

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NY man sues US airline over flight spent in toilet

nobody@vox.com(Xtine) — Tue, 13 May 2008 11:02:47 -0700

by Edith Honan
May 12, 2008

NEW YORK (Reuters) - A New York man who says he was denied a seat on a five-hour jetBlue flight and was instead told to "hang out" in the plane's bathroom has sued the airline for $2 million, saying he suffered "extreme humiliation."

When Gokhan Mutlu arrived to check in for a jetBlue flight from San Diego to New York in February he was told the flight was full, according to the lawsuit filed in New York State Supreme Court.

But Mutlu was allowed to board after a jetBlue flight attendant agreed to give up her seat and travel in an airline employee "jump seat." It was not clear in the lawsuit whether the flight attendant was working.

However 90 minutes into the flight, the pilot told Mutlu the flight attendant was uncomfortable and he would have to give up his seat and "hang out" in the bathroom for the remainder of the flight, the lawsuit said.

The pilot "became angry at (Mutlu's) reluctance" and said Mutlu "should be grateful for being onboard," the lawsuit said. When Mutlu volunteered to sit in the "jump seat," he was told it was reserved for airline personnel.

At one point, the airplane experienced turbulence and Mutlu sat on the toilet seat without a seat belt, causing him "tremendous fear," the lawsuit said.

JetBlue was not immediately available for comment.

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U.N. frustration grows at Myanmar's junta over aid

nobody@vox.com(Xtine) — Tue, 13 May 2008 11:01:51 -0700

Mon May 12, 2008
By Louis Charbonneau

UNITED NATIONS, May 12 (Reuters) - U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon ratcheted up the pressure on Myanmar on Monday, saying he was extremely frustrated by the junta's slow delivery of aid to more than 1.5 million victims of Cyclone Nargis.

"Today is the eleventh day since ... Nargis hit Myanmar," Ban told reporters. "I want to register my deep concern -- and immense frustration -- at the unacceptably slow response to this grave humanitarian crisis."

In his most critical comments on Myanmar's military government to date, Ban said that despite repeated attempts to contact the junta's senior general, Than Shwe, he had been unable to speak with him and had sent him a letter.

"We are at a critical point," he said. "Unless more aid gets into the country very quickly, we face an outbreak of infectious diseases that could dwarf today's crisis."

"I therefore call, in the most strenuous terms, on the government of Myanmar to put its people's lives first. It must do all that it can to prevent this disaster from becoming even more serious."

U.N. humanitarian affairs chief John Holmes told reporters a problem with visas for U.N. relief officials had improved somewhat. He said a total of 34 Myanmar visas were being granted to U.N. aid workers, though more would be needed.

France's Deputy U.N. Ambassador Jean-Pierre Lacroix raised the issue at a meeting of the Security Council. He told reporters that Paris fully supported Ban's statement about the government of Myanmar, formerly known as Burma.

"We share that frustration," he said. "If there is no progress (on aid delivery)...we will again raise that issue in the Security Council and will consider submitting a text."

Western diplomats said the French were considering asking the 15-nation council to adopt a nonbinding statement calling on Myanmar to lift all restrictions on foreign aid workers.

But if Myanmar continues to ignore international appeals, Paris might want the council to go a step further and adopt a legally binding resolution, the diplomats said, adding that the council might return to the issue on Tuesday.

BRITAIN, FRANCE BACK BAN'S CRITICISM

Last week, France called on the council to invoke a U.N. concept known as the "responsibility to protect" to authorize foreign delivery of aid shipments to Myanmar's population without the junta's authorization.

However, a number of countries, including Britain, said this concept was conceived for situations like genocide or war crimes, not natural disasters.

British Ambassador John Sawers, the Security Council's current president, said some members felt Myanmar's humanitarian crisis was not an appropriate issue for the council. Diplomats say China, Russia, Vietnam, South Africa and Indonesia were among those.

Western members of the Security Council strongly disagree.

"The cyclone there 11 days ago took tens of thousands of lives, but the inability to get aid through is risking hundreds of thousands of lives," Sawers said.

He also condemned Myanmar senior general Than Shwe's refusal to speak with Ban Ki-moon.

"I think it's shocking, frankly, that at a time of natural disaster like this, when the whole international community under the leadership of the United Nations is lined up to help, that the leaders of that country are not prepared to engage in discussions as to how that help can best be deployed."

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Woman fired for giving 16-cent treat to toddler

nobody@vox.com(Xtine) — Fri, 09 May 2008 09:31:54 -0700

by Claire Sibonney
Thu May 8, 2008

TORONTO (Reuters) - An attendant at a Canadian restaurant who was sacked for giving a bite-sized doughnut, worth 16 cents, to an agitated toddler was given her job back on Thursday after the case received wide media attention.

Nicole Lilliman, a single mother, said she was dismissed from a London, Ontario, outlet of the Tim Hortons coffee and doughnut chain after video cameras captured the 27-year-old giving a Timbit to a toddler.

"It was just out of my heart, she (the toddler) was pointing and going 'ah, ah...' I should have gone to my purse and got the change, but it was busy," Lilliman told the Toronto Star newspaper.

Tim Hortons said on Thursday that the firing was a mistake.

"It was the unfortunate action of one manager who unfortunately made an overzealous decision, and thankfully we were able to rectify the situation," said company spokeswoman Rachel Douglas.

Douglas said the company, a Canadian icon with stores on virtually every high street across the country, told Lilliman that she could have her job back, and Lilliman had accepted.

A single Timbit sells for 16 Canadian cents (16 U.S. cents), but most shoppers buy boxes of 10, 20 or 40 of the deep-fried goodies, which come in a variety of flavors.

Douglas said Tim Hortons had received a number of complaints. "Thankfully we're able to go back to them and say we were able to fix the situation," she said.

It is my sincerest hope that "manager who unfortunately made an overzealous decision" lost its job and won't be asked back.

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shrub sucks some more.

nobody@vox.com(Xtine) — Tue, 29 Apr 2008 09:46:42 -0700

our flourishing economy

Bush Fixes Economy Whines About Congress

Dorkus W. Dildo had a press conference today, in his garden. He is very rich and has an entire hospital to attend to him and bombs anything that makes him confused and no matter what crime he does, he never gets sent to prison, so he is exactly like ordinary poor Americans like you. Bush Junior has heard about how maybe the "economic" is a problem, so he told those losers who still have to act like he's important — you know, the White House correspondents — that he "figured out" what was wrong and guess what, it's Congress, which has Democrats.

"The average person wants to know whether or not we know that they're paying higher gasoline prices and they're worried about staying in their homes," Bush said. Yes, that's a bunch of jumbled nonsense with a slight relation to the subject, so Consumer Confidence immediately plunged to its lowest level in nearly six years and consumer sentiment plunged to its lowest level in 26 years and inflation rose again and home prices are falling faster than ever with "no sign of the bottom" and the number of Americans who can even dream of affording a little vacation in the next six months fell to a 30-year low.

Said Bush Junior: "I repeatedly submitted proposal to help address the problems. Time after time, Congress chose to block them."

Nobody has any idea what he's talking about, or even cares about how he thinks he "repeatedly submitted proposal."

Congress and the White House did agree to send everybody in America a little bit of money, and those checks will start arriving this week. Many people plan to "splurge" by spending their Economic Stimulus money on the heating bill, or a 50-lb. sack of rice, or half a tank of gas.

Bush Says Congress Blocking Progress [CNN]

Too stupid to learn how to speak Yankistani let alone English, but can make $$$ hand over fist while we move and change jobs so we can afford gasoline.

Wonkette's so lovely.

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Give me the lesson without the spin

nobody@vox.com(Xtine) — Sun, 27 Apr 2008 20:31:23 -0700

A high school student finds conservative bias in his American government textbook.

By Matthew LaClair
April 27, 2008

Throughout my life, my teachers have told me that school is a neutral environment where my classmates and I can count on teachers and textbooks to provide us with the factual and unbiased information that will equip us for life. Lately, though, I've begun to wonder whether they really mean it.

In my junior year of high school in New Jersey, my U.S. history teacher used the first week of class to preach his religious beliefs. He told students, among other things, that they "belong in hell" if they reject Jesus as their savior, that evolution and the Big Bang are ridiculous and unscientific theories, and that there were dinosaurs on Noah's Ark.

When I confronted him in the principal's office, he denied making the remarks. What he didn't realize was that I had recorded the classes. But even after I informed school officials what had happened, they ignored my concerns. So after more than a month, my parents and I took the news to the media.

At first, I was harassed and intimidated by other students. School officials ignored the harassment and even a death threat I received.

Only after the story became national news did the school district begin to take us seriously. After lengthy negotiations (and against continuing opposition from the school board), we finally persuaded the district to address the teacher's false and inappropriate remarks. The Anti-Defamation League was brought in to teach the faculty about the separation of church and state, and experts in the fields of church-state separation, evolution and cosmology came to our school to conduct assemblies.

After that, I thought I was done with controversy for a while. But now, in my senior year, I am back in the midst of it. In one of my classes, we use the 10th edition of "American Government" by James Q. Wilson, a well-known conservative academic, and John J. DiIulio, a political scientist and former head of President Bush's Office of Faith-Based and Community Initiatives. (2005). The text contains a statement, repeated three times, that students may not pray in public schools. In this edition of the text, the authors drive the point home with a photograph of students holding hands and praying outside a school. The caption reads: "The Supreme Court will not let this happen inside a public school."

I knew this was false. In fact, students are allowed to pray in schools; courts have ruled many times that a student's right to pray may not be abridged. What's generally impermissible is state-sponsored prayer, in which school officials lead prayer or students are called on or required to pray. It seemed clear to me that the purpose of the discussion in the textbook was to indoctrinate, not to educate.

Continued reading revealed numerous other instances of bias, as well as erroneous and misleading statements. For example, the section on global warming begins with a few well-chosen words to set the tone: "It is a foolish politician who today opposes environmentalism. And that creates a problem because not all environmental issues are equally deserving of support. Take the case of global warming."

The authors neglect to mention the growing scientific consensus on this subject. They dismiss those who are concerned about global warming -- that is, the overwhelming majority of scientists -- as "activists" motivated not by data but by "entrepreneurial politics." Those who deny or downplay it are described as "skeptical scientists."

Pointing out dissent within the scientific community is appropriate. Suggesting that the majority, but not the minority, is politically motivated is not appropriate. If a controversy truly exists, then the authors should not instruct students which side to "support."

I contacted a not-for-profit group called the Center for Inquiry. It enlisted support from scientists, including James Hansen, NASA's top climate scientist, and organizations, including Friends of the Earth and People for the American Way, to address concerns about the textbook.

What is most distressing is not that some public school teachers preach their religion, or that some authors put politics ahead of education. It is that it is so rare for anyone to call them on it. This text is widely used. Yet to my knowledge, no one has challenged these incorrect and misleading statements.

As Americans, we should stand up for our common values. We should champion education and settle for nothing less than the best. Our teachers should do the same and should not misuse their positions to promote their personal agendas.

Matthew LaClair is a high school student in Kearny, N.J.

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Family Stuck With House Possibly Built On Dump

nobody@vox.com(Xtine) — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 11:19:41 -0700

Massachusetts Family Demands Answers From Town, Builder
April 23, 2008

MANCHESTER-BY-THE-SEA, Mass. -- A Massachusetts homeowner said she cannot live or sell her new $850,000 home because it may have been built on an old dump.

Julie Gesner and her family did not know about the land's history until they tried to sell the Manchester-By-The-Sea home last year and potential buyers walked away just before making an offer on the property.

"They walked away the day that they were going to put in the offer, saying, 'We heard a rumor that your house was built on the old town dump,'" Julie Gesner said. "I was horrified."

That is when the Gesners had the soil tested.

"The lead, at least, is six times the prescribed limit from the (Department of Environmental Protection) for pregnancy and children. There are other things out in the yard -- mercury and arsenic, chromium," Gesner said.

Two weeks away from having a baby, the family immediately moved out.

They began investigating the property and found a letter from November 2000 from the Board of Health to the builder, ordering him to cease and desist construction of the home. There was no follow-up.

"Do we think there was something there? I think it was probably there, but I can't prove what it was," town administrator Wayne Melville said. "So, it is a big step to shut down a project. You are going to cost people money."

Melville said he was unaware of the Board of Health letter until Tuesday. He maintains there is no hard evidence that the land was a dump or landfill.

"The town, obviously, should have let us know what was going on -- and the builder and the broker. The broker that sold us the house actually said he had heard rumors that the house was built on the dump," Gesner said.

The Department of Environmental Protection has ordered the town to explain how it will clean up the site unless it can prove it is not responsible.

melville and the builder should have to clean up that place themselves before starting their new jobs bussing tables down the local.

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Accuracy of Detroit police crime lab is questioned

nobody@vox.com(Xtine) — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 10:51:58 -0700

All firearms investigations temporarily suspended
BY ERIC D. LAWRENCE and BEN SCHMITT
FREE PRESS STAFF WRITERS
April 26, 2008

The Wayne County Prosecutor's Office plans to review a year's worth of Detroit criminal cases involving firearms amid concerns raised about the accuracy of police ballistics testing.

The case that caused the review is the May 27 shooting deaths of two men sitting in a car on Detroit's east side.

The Detroit Police Department's crime lab tests showed 42 shell casings were fired by the same weapon, while two other tests showed that the casings came from at least two weapons, Chief Ella Bully-Cummings said at a Friday news conference.

Now, Detroit attorney Marvin Barnett, who first discovered the error, said thousands of appeals could be forthcoming in criminal cases.

"This is a very serious matter," Maria Miller, a spokeswoman for Wayne County Prosecutor Kym Worthy, said Friday. "That's why Prosecutor Worthy took immediate action."

A source told the Free Press Friday that federal authorities would be called in if any evidence of criminality is turned up. At the moment, however, the problem appears to have resulted from sloppy work performed by a former employee, the source said.

Miller said the results from the office's review will be made available to every defense attorney involved.

At the news conference, Bully-Cummings announced she was suspending all firearms testing through the department's crime lab pending an audit from the Michigan State Police.

While it has not been determined which agencies will handle firearms testing for Detroit police during the suspension, State Police and the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives will be assisting, said George Krappmann, a spokesman for the ATF.

Barnett said he initially asked Detroit police to retest the casings, and they refused. He then tested the equipment with his own investigator. Barnett said he has found discrepancies in three other cases involving firearms and one drug case.

The State Police crime lab's findings confirmed Barnett's tests, Miller said.

"It's devastating, because if you have one bad lab, it just spoils the whole bunch," Barnett said.

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