Fargo ND. – Although Congress is still working on health care reform legislation and it is far from final, rural North Dakota may be at the center of what some believe is the crowning achievement of the Obama Administration’s first year in office. Virginia Wolking, rural organizer with the Center for Rural Affairs, says the lack of health care services in rural areas has led to more serious and chronic medical conditions for many small town residents. She say one problem is that there are too few places for new doctors to learn the ropes.

“It is one of the big issues that, even if somebody wanted to practice in a rural area for their residency, there just are not enough slots for them. And research shows that when someone comes to a rural area to do their residency, they end up staying there, so that’s a really positive thing. ”

Wolking says she is sometimes discouraged by the politics around health care reform, but she thinks the benefits to people outweigh the benefits to corporations, if the outcome is that most people will be insured.

“More rural people are uninsured than people in urban areas, and people who are uninsured receive fewer preventive services. That’s part of why having 95 percent of people covered by insurance is so important, so that people can get the preventive care that they need.”

Critics continue to point out the costs involved, but Wolking says that while the House and Senate bills are being combined there’s a chance to work out the best possible compromise.

Menards Hall collapses at North Dakota State University.

Definition of “Creeping Meatballism” The idea of thinking individually has become a big joke. Old Thomas J. Watson of I.B.M. came up with the idea for a sign which just said: “Think”. And today, it’s a gag! This is the result of “Creeping Meatballism”.

On the first of December, Dr. Richard Hanson became the interim president of NDSU. I recall thinking at the time that he might becoming president of an institution on the verge of collapse.  I had no idea that it might happen literally.  I’m referring, of course, the collapse of the north side of that grand old structure Minard Hall.

For those unfamiliar with the NDSU campus, Minard Hall is the four floor yellow brick building with maroon trim across Albrecht Blvd from the NDSU Library, sandwiched between Askanase Hall(the Little County Theatre), the heating plant and Festival Hall.  It was built in three stages, the first being in 1901. It houses the College of Arts, Humanities and social Sciences, as well s the Mathematics and Psychology Departments of the College of Science and Mathematics.

For those not involved in higher education at a research university, this is a catastrophe of indescribable proportion.  To me, it is symbolic of the neglect  a state with a billion dollar surplus and its population treats its higher education system.  I don’t expect to make any friends by saying this, but for me, this is the straw that broke the camel’s back.  I no longer care whether the youth of North Dakota get quality education or not.  Much as I love my students, the state just doesn’t deserve the effort.

So let’s return to Minard Hall, clearly one of the most important buildings on campus.  Currently it is closed to everyone.  There is hope to get the offices and classrooms not affected by the collapse ready for the start of spring semester.  There will supposedly be a window of opportunity for faculty with offices in the safe part of the building to return to their offices to retrieve important materials, such as books and papers, before the building is closed again.  I find that many don’t understand that NDSU is a research university, meaning that just because classes are not in session does not mean the faculty don’t need to use their offices.  I think the NDSU administration, in particular provost/academic vice president Craig Schnell, and, for that matter, some of the students, of publicizing the fact that many of the lost books and papers are irreplaceable.  I can only imagine how much research has been lost.

Bruce Frantz, who is in charge of the physical buildings on campus, would have us believe that this was an unforeseeable accident, and there were no mistakes made by his office or the contractor.  Snort.  This is an engineering school with a strong construction engineering program and excellent construction engineering faculty.  They just didn’t pay attention, in my view.  Franz is probably right to say the collapse happened at one of the few times no one would get hurt.  I’m glad, of course, that no-one did, but if someone had, I would have enjoyed the embarrassing national publicity that might have followed.

Franz would also have us believe that the damage can be fixed(for half a million.  The loss to the affected faculty, of course, can’t.  Even if it could, it turns out that NDSU carries no liability insurance).  I question whether Minard Hall should be repaired.  The building has been an expensive disaster for decades.  My office is in Minard Hall, but not in the affected area.  But my library and research papers and very probably my health has suffered much over the years.

Sometime in my first few years at NDSU the roof above(by a floor or two) sprang a leak and much of my library, carefully and costfully assembled while I was a graduate student and new faculty member, was drenched, rendering many of the books unusable, as the pages are all stuck together. This has happened so many times since that during a rain storm there is apparently a stand-by crew available  that can go rushing into faculty offices and cover everything with plastic if the roof leaks.  I read something about this once, but since I’ve observed it happening a few times, there’s no need to cite it.

Air quality has also been an issue in Minard Hall, due to its proximity to the heating plant.  In fact, the state health department once declared my office as uninhabitable.  My department and college administration was unable to find another office for me, but fortunately I was able to generate two invitations from departments in other buildings to reside there.  Yes, that is a dig at the problem solving abilities of the NDSU administration.

So, what we have here is an historic building that houses many important departments and in which many classes are taught that is virtually collapsing.  We didn’t have enough space for our 14,000 students before this happened.  And all of this at the end of an eleven year term of a president, Forum’s man of the year, that could raise millions for athletics, but couldn’t keep a major building safe in a state with a billion dollar surplus.

There’s many more problems Chapman left us with, but that could be the topic of another essay.

On Saturday, December 19, NDSU held the first commencement since the “retirement” of Forum Man of the Year Joseph chapman.  Presiding over the ceremonies was interim president Dr. Richard Hanson.

Anyone that has not been to a major(well, in this case, maybe semi-major) college graduation shuold go, at leatt once.  They are colorful, precise and a true ceremonial tribute to the students, faculty and institution.  It is much more interesting if you know someone that is being awarded a degree.  Also, NDSU is almost unique in institutions of higher learning in that there are no outside speakers.  A couple of hours ofn watching people walk across a stage is boredom enough, I guess.  Not all universities award all the degrees individually.  When I got my PhD at the University of Minnesota, the university had about 60,000 students, and the spring commencement awarded about 10,00 degrees.  so individual awards were not possible, except for the PhD’s(but not the MD’s).

The proceedings start with the processional, first of the faculty.  I sometimes wish I didn’t have to watch this part from the inside, as each faculty member wears a PhD gown with a large hood with the colors of blue(for philosophy) and the colors of the institution were the PhD was rewarded, in my case, maroon and gold.  Oh, yes, they march by seniority, which means not how long at NDSU, but how long at NDSU with their present rank.  Some universities have thieir own gowns with other colors than black, and the same for the cap.  It is wuite a colorful sight.

Thjen comes the “stage party,” consisting of the president, academic vice president, the deans of the several colleges along with the Distinguished Professors, in this case a member of the State Board of Higher Education, some people that read names, all lead by the Presiding Officer of the University Senate, carrying the mace that is the symbol of authority of the university, symbolizing that the ral autority of the university lies with the University Senate.  Then, of course the students, who march be degree and college.

President Hanson made a few opening remarks.  He commented that this exercise was the most important day of the fall semester, and that this day would be the most important in the careers of the degree recipients thus far.  Of course, he congratulated everyone on their work ethic, perseverance, etc.  Greetings were also presented by Sue Andrews of the State Board of Higher Education.  Finally, before the awarding of degrees, there were remarks by a representative of the graduating class, Patricia Romaine.  I’m not sure when this tradition got started, but I think it an excellent one.

The degrees were then awarded, with the highest(PhD’s) first and moving down, if I can use that word here: I don’t think of any of these degrees as down, to the Bachelors degrees. Most institutions do it the other way around.  In the spring, there are actually two different ceremony’s, one for advanced degrees and one for the undergraduate degrees.  There’s a reason for this, which I’ll explain in a bit.

Then there is applause, the playing and singing of the “school song,,” The Yellow and the Green.  Then the recessional, of course, followed by a reception in the concourse of the Dome.

I always feel good for a couple of days aftr attending one of these events, possibly because I take my own advice and don’t go unless someone close to me is graduating, in this a very special student of mine that actually got two degrees(BS and MS) degrees, and this was no exception.  I also was gladdened byu the fact that no one from the Athletic Department was present, threw was no mention of athletics, except for the last line of the description in the program of Dr. Hanson’s credentials, where it was mentioned that he had played for the Bison and the New York Giants.

I promised I would explain the inverted order of the awarding of degrees.  I hate to bring this up in such a positive, but to me it is symbolic of what appears to me(and many of my colleagues) is the total lack of understanding and therefore respect the population of North Dakota has for higher education.

NDSU used to use the more popular of lowest to highest, but by the time the graduate degrees were awarded, most of the parents and the like had left their seats and were milling around the stage talking and laughing, taking pictures and the like, creating such a ruckus that the announcer could not be heard over the din.  Contrast that with the ceremony in Minneapolis when my PhD was conferred.  There was complete silence until it was over, at which point we got a standing ovation.  From everybody.

Even in this ceremony, when each degree was awarded, there would be four or five people in the audience that felt they had to yell and shout.  Most of my colleagues in my neighborhood did not appreciate this, and neither did I.  Usually, there is announcement to hold the applause until the end, but there wasn’t this time.  In my experience, it doesn’t matter.  In case I did not make the point clear, this is supposed to be a solemn, formal occasion.  Shouts in the middle are not called for nor appreciated.

These events are always learning experiences for me; a chance to join in the congratulation of the graduates, renew acquaintances among my colleagues and administrators, and in my case, to visit with former students that are now faculty.  I definitely recommend attendance at a commencement if someone close to you is graduating.

The unemployment rate has surpassed 10 percent for the first time since 1983 — and is likely to go higher. Nearly 16 million people can’t find jobs even though the worst recession since the Great Depression has apparently ended. Many economists worry that persistently high unemployment could undermine the recovery by restraining consumer spending, which accounts for 70 percent of the economy. Read more Here

Finally Roxana Saben has been released from an Iranian prison and returned home among much publicity.  I’m not sure what all the politics were that were involved in this, but I’m glad she’s not any longer in danger in an Islamic rogue state.

Are all Islamic states rogue?  Decidedly not: Egypt and Jordan are two that, to me, clearly aren’t.  I will not dispute thta the Islamioc Republic of Iran is.  But I think it helpful to realize how they got that way.

In World War II, Iran was sympathetic to the Axis powers, as wee most of the middle east countries.  However, they had oil that the Russians wanted,and we wanted  them to have.  Further, we didn’t want the Axis, particular the Germans, to have it.  What to do such a situation?  Why, occupy them of course and support an oppressive regime, in this case that of Shah Pahlvi, to keep the people in line.  It is not clear to me why humankind and the Western posers, in particular the US, have never realized that doing so has its consequences.  Eventually, the people revolted, threw out the Shah and became an Islamic republic, which, for very understandable reasons, was anti-American, anti-Russian and, for reasons not as clear, anti-Israeli.

As a general rule, I am not as sympathetic with victims that intentionally put themselves in harms way as I am with others.  For example, when people follow hooligan teenagers instead of calling the police and just leaving them alone, then if they are harmed by the hooligans, they have contributed to their own harm.  Now, I am not saying that Roxana should have not visited Iran: she likely had good reason to do so.  And I don’t think she was a spy.  Not because she couldn’t have been, but because I don’t see what she could have contributed to our intelligence on Iran.  As a sidelight, missionaries and peace corps workers are very suspect when it comes to the espionage game.  But she did, once in Iran, visit Israel.  Rogue nation or not, the middle eastern Islamic nations, except for Egypt and Jordan, take a dim view of people entering, or re-entering, their country with an Israeli visa in their passport.  Often, they don’t survive the experience.

So we are all glad that Roxana made it home safely.  It could have been a lot worse

Fargo Phantom, ND — President Barack Obama’s overall job approval rating has been highly stable since mid-February, averaging 62% since Feb. 16, as well as in the most recent week, from March 30 through April 5.

Still enjoying a honeymoon period, Obama’s approval rating has fallen only slightly from its 67% starting point even as he has outlined an ambitious agenda that has been controversial to some with regard to the costs to taxpayers and the proposed expansion of the federal government’s role in the economy.

So far, Obama’s actions have served to turn off only a rather limited number of Republicans. He began his term with a 41% approval rating among Republicans — not outstanding but certainly healthy when juxtaposed against the largely single-digit approval ratings for George W. Bush among Democrats in the last year and a half of his presidency.

Obama’s approval rating among Republicans declined rather quickly in the weeks after his inauguration and was 27% this past week. So even though he still claims a substantial minority of Republicans as supporters, this group is about one-third smaller than at the outset of his presidency.

Meanwhile, Obama’s approval ratings among Democrats and independents have been highly stable. Last week’s averages of 90% approval from Democrats and 60% from independents nearly match the averages for his presidency to date.O

Warning: Holy Crap is Congress Corrupt and We Have the Goods… WATCH video.

FARGO, N.D. (FargoPhantom.com)–On Tuesday night, the NDSU Bison Men’s basketball won the Summit League tournament and thus qualified for the NCAA tournament.  This is indeed laudable, since this is the first year Bison were eligible for the tournament.  This has only been done once before (L:ong Beach State in 1970).  Even more impressive to me is that the Bison are primarily made up of home grown talent(North & South Dakota, Minnesota and Montana).  Our area is known, for a variety of reasons more for producing football and hockey players.

But of course I do not need to point out this is an impressive accomplishment: we’ve heard and read little else in the media in the last few days.  I looked to me like the front page headline in Thursday’s Forum were six inches high.  NDSU President Chapman was interviewed in Souix Falls just after final game.  The TV station that showed the game and conducted the interview said Chapman would explain why this win was so important to the University and the state.  All I heard him say was “this is a great win for the school and the state.”  He didn’t say why.

The next night, in the same time slot with an equal amount of coverage during and after the game as given the Bison, Robert Morris University won the Northeast Atlantic Athletic Conference and thus qualified for the NCAA tournament.  Only this will be their sixth appearance, so they must really be a well known school.  Unfortunately, I had never heard of the school academically or athletically.  I surmised they must be in New England somewhere. since they call themselves “the Colonials<” and the name of their conference puts them in the northeast somewhere. I know that Robert Morris was ne of the signatories of the Constitution, but I had no idea what town the school is in or what state it is in.  I wonder how many others are in the same situation.  I now know(and there is no town associated with the institution), but I’ll keep the information to myself.  Other “important” qualifiers are Sienna, Radford and Charleston.  Real academic and athletic powerhouses.

Now, I’m not trying to rain on anybody’s parade.  I’m just trying to bring a little perspective to the situation.  Certainly in would be nice to see the Bison advance even one round, but that’s not likely.  Let’s face it: the Oakland University team they beat on Tuesday resembled, to me, a disorganized, badly coached high school team.  The only reason they were in the game is that they were so much taller.  But they threw up more air balls than a bingo parlor, were fond of throwing the ball to nobody, and one of their seven footers even went up for what was presumably a dunk and slammed the ball off the side of the backboard.  To me, if this was representative of Summit  League basketball, I’m not impressed.

It actually bothers me to watch the time and effort followed by the expectations that people put into Bison Athletics.  I’ve heard TV sportscasters talk about the “signature” win over Wisconsin a couple of years ago.  Yeah, along with the signature 40 point loss to Kansas State the same season.  Does this mean that Grand Valley State’swin over Michigan State(admittedly in an exhibition game). Gardner Webb’s win over Kentucky and Hampton Institute’s win over North Carolina are all “signature” wins for significant programs?

The move to division one was, I think, driven by football.  But football is expensive.  I don’t think we have the fan or financial base to support a big time program, actually in either sport.  I’m not impressed by a near win and a win over a dispirited and disinterested Gopher team.  I might be if, after that game, the Bison had to play another Big Ten team the next week, and another the week after that.  But I think we saw last season what would have happened.  Many were surprised at the number of losses the Bison incurred last fall and I’ve heard people ask “what’s up with that.”  To me, the answer’s simple: for the first time, the Bison actually had to play a schedule of established division one programs.  No weeks off to play Concordia of St Paul and lick the wounds of the previous week.

It pains me even more to hear people interviewed on television talk about how they love tie Bison, wouldn’t miss a game, etc.  Love the bison, OK, but what about the University?  Even with our huge state surplus NDSU is still one of the worst funded research institutions in the country.  Of course, many don’t understand the level of competence in their fields of many of the faculty, or what a strong land grant school does for a state.  If you need some indications, look at our financial situation, which regardless of what you here is not good.  And we essentially feed the world.  We should have many communities like Apple Valley, Edina, Eden Prairie, al in the Twin City area.  But we don’t.  We don’t have the people with the education to make it happen, in my view.

NDSU’s mission is supposedly “Teaching, Research and Service.”  President Chapman used to think it was “Athletics, Education and Research” until the faculty reminded him otherwise.  Somehow, NDSU does a good job with its stated mission.  The opening night of the Fargo Film Festival showed a documentary about two NDSU geology professors and their trip to Antartica with two of their students.  They made an extremely important discovery on this particular trip, and the film gave an excellent description, I thought, of what drives driven researchers like these two professors.  Oh yes, somehow Dr. Chapman seemed to have missed that event, as well as the play “Mr Lincoln” held in Lincoln’s 200th birtday, as well as many other concerts, plays and other academic events at NDSU and elsewhere.

As impressive as I think NDSU’s faculty is,, this needs to be kept in perspective too.  The University of Minnesota is currently growing hearts, presumably for replacements.  I won’t go into the details, but that’s impressive.  I’m sure most of us have heard of the Collider that has been built in Europe to create sub=atomic collisions bewteen particles in an effort to understand the nature of matter(believe me, we’re still very much in the dark: in joke, pun intended).

We’ve got a fine little University here in Fargo.  Should be smaller, according to many faculty, many of whom think the increase in enrollment has actually hurt the overall quality of student.  We ought to support it, and support does not mean making a big deal of a mid-level athletic program.

FARGO, N.D. (FargoPhantom.com)–On Tuesday night at Babbs Coffee Shop the College of Science andMathematics at NDSU held its fourth “Science Café.”

There will be a fifth in April. with hopes of a more regular schedule during the
2009-2010 academic year.  According to Dr. Kevin McCaul, the Dean of the
college, the meetings are held downtown to make them more informal and
more attractive to the general audience for which they are intended.
For this presentation, that strategy seem to have worked as nearly 100
were in attendance.  I’m not sure of the exact purpose of these
meetings, but they certainly expose the adademics of NDSU and the
College of Science and Mathematics in particular to the general
population.  I think this a good thing, and should have been done long
ago.

Tuesday night’s leader was Dr. Jim Coykendall, Professor and Chair of
the Mathematics Department.  Professor Coykendahl has an impressive
liist of accomplishments, including his bachelors degree from Caltech
and phD from Cornell.  He also held the James A. Meir junior
professorship, one of only two chaired professorships in the college.

Professor Coykendall’s discussion was about solving the Rubic’s cube,
and the presentation was certainly accessible to a general audience.
The discussion began with a little history of the Rubic’s cube and Jims
own experience with solving it.

With much participation from the audience, the astronomical number of
possibilities to attempt to solve the cube was demonstrated.  Then Jim
discussed ways to go about forming strategies to solve the cube without
trying all possibilities.  This led to a discussion, again with a lot
of audience participation, to the mathematical analysis of the
structure of permutations.  A permutation of a number of objects is
simply an arrangement of those objects.

Professor Coykendall is from Tennessee originally, and his easy going
hill country delivery was easy to listen to.  There were many questions
at the end, and all present seemed to enjoy themselves.

I think the Science Café’s an excellent opportunity to view NDSU’s
highly qualified faculty at work in a relaxed setting and can give us
some idea of what they do when they’re having fun.  I hope they
continue to be so successful.

For more Info on when the next meeting email:

kevin.mccaul@ndsu.edu

WASHINGTON — President Obama urged the nation on Tuesday to see the economic crisis as reason to raise its ambitions, calling for expensive new efforts to address energy, health care and education even as he warned that government bailouts have not come to an end.

In his first address to a joint session of Congress, Mr. Obama mixed an acknowledgment of the depth of the economic problems with a Reaganesque exhortation to American resilience. He offered an expansive agenda followed by a pledge to begin paring an ever-climbing budget deficit. Read more

Lately the news, particularly the sports news, has been filled with news about Yankee baseball star Alex Rodriguez

and his history of steroid and performance enhancing drug use.  There is also an old saying that “those that don’t learn from history are destined to repeat it.”

What do these things have to do with each other?  A lot, I think.

No one denies that our country is in a deepening recession, perhaps the worst in our history.  There seems to me to be no indication of recovery.  Since I have always behaved myself fiscally, I am one of those that don’t like my mounting tax dollars going to bail out those that were, or are, fiscally irresponsible.  But if that’s what it takes, that’s what it takes.  But there is no indication that these bailouts will work.

So, what’s the connection?
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I think everyone knows our country is in trouble.

Most politicians and civic leaders alike agree that we desperately need to put differences aside and work hard to get us out of this mess.  Everybody, it seems, except Republican Congressmen and a certain far right talk show host I’ll mention later.

To set the record straight, I consider myself a-political.  Some strong conservatives call me a liberal, but when asked to define liberal, it seems to be anyone that disagrees with them.  Those more moderately conservative call me a conservative.  I think of myself in terms of a line from an old Kingston Trio Song, “… and I don’t like anybody very much.”

Cheered on by the far right, it seems to me that President Bush, while spouting much rhetoric about preserving freedom, proceeded to remove much of our freedom through the Patriot Act and Homeland Security.  I don’t really believe either of these is necessary, but that’s another issue.  It is true that you could at least be investigated if not arrested for bad-mouthing the President, had to be screened in order to hear him speak, without the opportunity to plead your own case, and that those citizens choosing to exercise several of their first amendment rights in his presence(petitioning the government for redress of grievences is one of these rights) had to do so out of his sight and, presumably, hearing.

What’s all this got to do with the present, when Bush is out of office?  Well, the other day I saw a full page ad in a local publication showing a large photo of talk show host Scott Hennen, with the quote “I hope Obama’s socialist policys are a disaster.

Mr Hennan, if you had said a similar thing about your hero Mr. Bush you could well have wound up in jail.  You would at least have been investigated.  I would point out that in Mr Obama’s town meeting in Indiana, people that disagreed with him were admitted without screening and allowed to question him.  If you have an issue with his polices, it seems that you can go ask him about them instead of being screened out.

One might question conservative talker Scott Hennen loyalties at this point.

Fear the Lutefisk

“there are no institutions of higher learning that have as part of their mission statements “entertain the local population by having athletic teams.”

By:The Norwegian Explorer

A recent local topic of discussion is the consideration of the North Dakota Legislature somehow requiring the football teams of NDSU and UND to play each other on an annual basis.  Even though I don’t care if the two institutions ever play each other again in anything, or for that matter even have football teams, or even athletic programs, I think that if the legislature considers such an act it would be right up there with when the Tennessee legislature decreed that the irrational number pi is, in fact 3.

First, according to ESPN, there are no institutions of higher learning that have as part of their mission statements “entertain the local population by having athletic teams.”  What would be the content of such legislation if one or both of the institutions decided to drop football a la Western Washington, or follow the lead of some of the finest research universities, e.g. University of Chicago, University of Rochester, Carnegie Mellon to name a few, and eliminate athletics altogether?

This, of course, is not likely to happen. But let’s suppose such legislation does become law.  In that case, we would have the situation where the legislature has interfered in the internal affairs of it’s flagship institutions, a clear violation of the academic freedom of both institutions and one or more of their academic departments(yes, the Athletic Department is an academic department).  This could besmirch the academic reputations of the schools to the level of affecting their ability to attract outside funding for their research.

OK, so you don’t care if the schools are any good or not.  Fine.  But when NDSU went to Division 1 athletics the case was made by President Chapman when speaking to the NDSU University Senate that the funding was coming entirely from outside donations, and was therefore none of the Senate’s business.  Well, if the football teams are funded primarily by private donations, what business is it of the legislature’s whom or if they play?  And some say the smoking ban violates their individual rights.

In summary, I have no dog in the fight of whether NDSU and UND play each other in anything.  But I think that if the legislature meddles in the situation, it would serve no-one and possibly harm all parties.

In our last installment, we discussed some positive signs in the race relations situation.

I have now graduated from college and am hanging around Raleigh, taking courses and working for the Raleigh Recreation Department in preparation for graduate school in the fall.  This was the summer of 1963, called by some the “long hot summer,” or by others, the summer the police turned around.

To set the time frame, this was the summer of the Greensboro lunch counter sit it, the Selma, Alabama march and other large acts of civil disobedience in which African Americans let it be known that they would no longer accept second class citizenship.  Many cities in the Southeastern United States  were  “integrated” thus, and Raleigh was no exception.  The only difference was that the leaders of both sides agreed to keep the press out of it, and the only coverage was short articles on the back page of the Raleigh News and Observer.
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The new president has made a pledge to spend money on infrastructure across the United States because he believes it is a way to strengthen the economy.

While the country is spending money to build/maintain roads and bridges, Caterpillar in North Dakota will reap the benefits of increased demand for their equipment.
Read more

• What’s going on in Gaza…Same as usual just more intense.

Israel expanded its most lethal air offensive to date (some 300 air strikes since midday Saturday) against Gaza’s Hamas leaders yesterday. The successful attacks dolled out more damage than ever before, making rubble out of parts of the city. They are amassing what appears to be a large ground force attack as well
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In our last submission, I was attending a Southern institution of higher learning that was ahead of its time in that it did admit some African Americans, allowed them almost equal rights with their white(and asian and middle eastern counter-parts), even though all other surrounding schools were strictly segregated, as was the town of Raleigh, NC, where the college was located. Read more

“We were really busy leading up to the storm,” Thompson United for the Homeless Director said. “Some days we can get all of them in, some days we can’t.”

Area shelters have similar ways of dealing with homeless who have to be turned away.

The New Life Center can house about 100 men and serves 180 or more meals each day.
Read more

Citing the usual suspects…credit crisis and dwindling sales, Chrysler LLC on Wednesday said it would shut down all of its manufacturing operations from the end of this week for at least a month. Read more

Lets Just Say Millers Spot on Here

10. Larry Craig

9. Ted Turner & Deepak Chopra

8. “The Pregnant Man” Thomas Beatie

7. Fischer Stevens “He Dumped Michelle Pfeiffer and he resembles a toad.”

6. Fidel Castro “Head Moran in Cuba”

5. Plaxico Burress Read more

Republican opposition killed a $14-billion auto industry bailout plan in the Senate on Thursday night, putting the future of U.S. automakers in doubt and threatening to deliver another blow to the economy. Read more

CHICAGO – President-elect Barack Obama asked the White House if his family could move to Washington earlier than normal, but aides say the White House couldn’t give them the official guest house as early as his family wanted. Read more

BREAKING NEWS: Gov. Blagojevich, wearing a black and blue jogging suit, appeared before a federal judge this afternoon on corruption charges. U.S. Magistrate Judge Nan Nolan set a $4,500 personal-recognizance bond for the governor, who was arrested at his North Side home this morning. Blagojevich and his chief of staff were arrested at their homes this morning in a probe involving the governor’s quest to fill Sen. Barack Obama’s open Senate seat and focusing on wire fraud and bribery charges.
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