Selected Media Coverage: September 22, 2005
Feds Raise Rate, See Katrina Impact as 'Near-Term' Only
09/20/2005 - GlobeSt.com (cir. )
For Montgomery Group, a Hero's Welcome
09/19/2005 - Washington Post, The (cir. 707,690)
Pa. district in court over 'intelligent design'
09/18/2005 - Associated Press (cir. )
Pa. district in court over 'intelligent design'
09/18/2005 - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review (cir. 63,906)
Intelligent design debate takes center stage in federal court
09/18/2005 - phillyburbs.com (cir. 300,000)
Searching Students
09/01/2005 - Principal Leadership (cir. 30,387)
Help Desk
09/01/2005 - Greentree Gazette (cir. 30,000)
Custody's Last Stand?
09/01/2005 - Phi Delta Kappan (cir. 90,293)
Cool Him Down
09/01/2005 - Cosmopolitan (cir. 2,996,093)
con_paperclip.gif alt=>Feds Raise Rate, See Katrina Impact as 'Near-Term' Only
09/20/2005 - GlobeSt.com (cir. )
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Last updated September 20, 2005 02 23pm NEW YORK CITY-In the 11th consecutive quarter-point increase, the Federal Open Market Committee has raised the benchmark federal funds rate from 3.5% to 3.75%. In a statement on the increase, the committee says that 'output appeared poised to continue growing at a good pace before the tragic toll of Hurricane Katrina. The widespread devastation in the Gulf region, the associated dislocation of economic activity, and the boost to energy prices imply that spending, production, and employment will be set back in the near term. The committee notes that higher energy and other costs have the potential to add to inflation pressures.
It's no surprise, says Gary Gabriel, executive director of financial services at Cushman & Wakefield. We view the Katrina storm to be more of humanitarian tragedy than an economic tragedy. It has very localized impact. He agrees that there is the risk of inflation due to government stimulus that will be put in place to rebuilding the Gulf Coast region.
Consumer confidence is down, but once they see region on the mend, the country will get back to doing its business. The National Association of Realtors says the storm's impact will cause the economy to grow more slowly than in earlier projections, but the economy will get a lift once rebuilding gets under way. The US gross domestic product is forecast to grow at a pace of 2.3% in the third quarter and 2.7% in the fourth quarter, with GDP for all of 2006 pegged at 3.8%. My guess is that any effect on the demand for costal real estate will be short-lived. Jeffrey D. Fisher, professor of finance and real estate and director of the Center for Real Estate Studies at Indiana University's Kelley School of Business, says.
New Orleans residents have been warned for years that their city was vulnerable to severe hurricane-triggered flooding, while coastal Florida residents realize they're sitting ducks during hurricane season. The condo market in Florida has been very hot this past year, despite the damage from hurricanes last summer.' And Stephen F. Thode, associate professor of finance and director of the Murray H. Goodman Center for Real Estate Studies at Lehigh University, says concerns involving information technology and weather risk will determine the future of the commercial real estate market in and around New Orleans. Many firms already are questioning whether critical functions like record keeping and data storage centers need to be relocated to prevent significant organizational downtime. Companies also will reconsider whether impacted areas can reclaim the labor talent pool needed to thrive, and may end up making their current 'temporary' locations permanent.
Also everyone and their mother should be taking a run at buying in either Houston or just Gulf Coast in general, a source tells GlobeSt.com. Tragic as it is now, there's gold in those bricks, if you've got patient dollars to either make a play on existing, condos, hotels, offices or if you've got an appetite for development. E-Mail Printer-Friendly Version Reprints
con_paperclip.gif alt=>For Montgomery Group, a Hero's Welcome
09/19/2005 - Washington Post, The (cir. 707,690)
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Almost 60 Montgomery County firefighters, their necks festooned with Mardi Gras beads, were greeted by a ceremonial police department bagpiper and scores of family members as they arrived home yesterday from a two-week stint in New Orleans.
The firefighters, and another contingent of about 30 who arrived late last night, spent the trip helping their fellow firefighters in the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina.
Welcome Home MONTGOMERY COUNTY'S FINEST read the huge banner from the ceiling of a large garage at the county's Public Safety Training Academy in Rockville. Children held bunches of balloons and hand-lettered signs saying, Welcome Home Dad, as relatives hoisted toddlers on shoulders so their fathers could spot them readily as they got off the bus that brought them from the airport.
Ryan Loher scooped up 5-week-old Carter, the son he'd left behind to go to New Orleans. It was very hard, Loher said of leaving his newborn. But it was worth it. It was fabulous; we got to help a lot of people.
The Montgomery firefighters stayed in the Algiers neighborhood of New Orleans on the west bank of the Mississippi River with fellow firefighters from New York and the Chicago area. For the most part, group members said yesterday, they concentrated on assisting members of the devastated city's firefighting force, helping clean out their muddied homes. They also refurbished several fire stations.
Capt. John Bosco of Darnestown said he was most affected by the huge personal losses that New Orleans firefighters suffered. A couple of days ago, one guy came back to work in flip-flops, a T-shirt and shorts. That's all he had, he said.
I really think that we made a difference in two weeks, Bosco added, saying that they had gotten some fire stations open and that firefighters who didn't have homes that were livable, now they have homes that are livable.
I'm here to welcome home my sons, said Rena Damskey, who was at the academy with her husband, retired Montgomery battalion fire chief John Damskey. The large delegation of Damskeys -- 11 in all -- wore matching T-shirts greeting their relatives as heroes.
About 15 county police officers were sent to provide security for the firefighters. About 100is an explanation of the origin of life that differs from Darwin's view.
The reference book 'Of Pandas and People' is available for students who might be interested in gaining an understanding of what intelligent design actually involves. 'With respect to any theory, students are encouraged to keep an open mind. The school leaves the discussion of the origins of life to individual students and their families. As a standards-driven district, class instruction focuses upon preparing students to achieve proficiency on standards-based assessments.'
con_paperclip.gif alt=>Pa. district in court over 'intelligent design'
09/18/2005 - Pittsburgh Tribune-Review (cir. 63,906)
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HARRISBURG -- The latest chapter in a long-running legal debate over the teaching of evolution in public schools is about to unfold here in federal court. In a civil trial set to begin Sept. 26, the Dover Area School District will defend its policy requiring ninth-grade students to hear about 'intelligent design' in a preamble to biology lessons on evolution. Intelligent design, a concept some scholars have advanced over the past 15 years, holds that Charles Darwin's theory of natural selection causing gradual changes over time cannot fully explain the origin of life or the emergence of highly complex life forms.
It implies that life on earth was the product of an unidentified intelligent force. Critics say intelligent design is merely creationism -- a literal reading of the Bible's story of creation -- camouflaged in scientific language, and it does not belong in a science curriculum. Eight Dover families are suing the school district, alleging that the policy violates the constitutional separation of church and state. 'The intelligent-design movement is an effort to introduce creationism into the schools under a different name,' said Eric Rothschild, a Philadelphia attorney representing the families. 'Our objective is to demonstrate that the prior (legal) precedent, which forbids the teaching of creationism, applies here as well.' The history of evolution litigation dates back to the famous 1925 Scopes Monkey Trial, in which Tennessee biology teacher John T. Scopes was fined $100 for violating a state law that forbade teaching evolution. The Tennessee Supreme Court reversed his conviction on the narrow ground that only a jury trial could impose a fine exceeding $50, and the law was repealed in 1967. In 1968, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned an Arkansas state law banning the teaching of evolution.
And in 1987, it ruled that states may not require public schools to balance evolution lessons by teaching creationism. Dover is believed to have been the first school system in the nation to require students to hear about the concept under the policy adopted in October 2004. But the clash over intelligent design is evident far beyond this rural district of about 3,500 students 20 miles south of Harrisburg. In August, the Kansas Board of Education gave preliminary approval to science standards that allow intelligent design-style alternatives to be discussed alongside evolution.
President Bush has also weighed in, saying schools should present both concepts when teaching about the origins of life. Richard Thompson, president and chief counsel of the Thomas More Law Center, which is defending the school district, says Dover's policy takes a modest approach. It requires teachers to read a statement that says intelligent design differs from Darwin's view and refers students to an intelligent-design textbook, 'Of Pandas and People,' for more information. 'All the Dover school board did was allow students to get a glimpse of a controversy that is really boiling over in the scientific community,' Thompson said. The Discovery Institute, a Seattle-based think tank that represents many scholars who support intelligent design, opposes mandating it in public schools.
Nevertheless, it considers the Dover lawsuit an attempt to squelch voluntary debates over evolution. 'It's Scopes in reverse. They're going to get a gag order to be placed on teachers across the country,' said institute senior fellow John West. To help build their respective cases, each side is enlisting a battery of academic experts.
Expert witnesses for the defense include biochemist Michael Behe of Lehigh University, who defended intelligent design in his 1996 book, 'Darwin's Black Box The Biochemical Challenge to Evolution.' Behe declined an interview request by The Associated Press, citing his involvement in the trial. However, in testimony before a state legislative panel in June on a bill to allow the teaching of intelligent design in Pennsylvania, Behe cited the bacterial flagellum -- a whiplike appendage that enables bacteria to swim -- as an example of intelligent design at work. 'Whenever we see such complex, functional mechanical systems, we always infer that they were designed. ... It is a conclusion based on physical evidence,' Behe said. Eugenie Scott, executive director of the National Center for Science Education, which supports the teaching of evolution in public schools, said the controversy has little to do with science because mainstream scientists have rejected the intelligent design theory. Intelligent design supporters 'seem to have shifted virtually entirely to political and rhetorical efforts to sway the general public,' Scott said. 'The bitter truth is that there is no argument going on in the scientific community about whether evolution took place.' What it says Text of the statement on intelligent design that Dover Area High School administrators are reading to students at the start of biology lessons on evolution 'The Pennsylvania Academic Standards require students to learn about Darwin's theory of evolution and eventually to take a standardized test of which evolution is a part. 'Because Darwin's theory is a theory, it continues to be tested as new evidence is discovered.
The theory is not a fact. Gaps in the theory exist for which there is no evidence. A theory is defined as a well-tested explanation that unifies a broad range of observations. 'Intelligent design is an explanation of the origin of life that differs from Darwin's view.
The reference book 'Of Pandas and People' is available for students who might be interested in gaining an understanding of what intelligent design actually involves. 'With respect to any theory, students are encouraged to keep an open mind. The school leaves the discussion of the origins of life to individual students and their families. As a standards-driven district, class instruction focuses upon preparing students to achieve proficiency on standards-based assessments.'
con_paperclip.gif alt=>Intelligent design debate takes center stage in federal court
09/18/2005 - phillyburbs.com (cir. 300,000)
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The latest chapter in a long-running legal debate over the teaching of evolution in public schools is about to unfold here in federal court.
In a civil trial set to begin Sept. 26, the Dover Area School District will defend its policy requiring ninth-grade students to hear about intelligent design in a preamble to biology lessons on evolution.
Intelligent design, a concept some scholars have advanced over the past 15 years, holds that Charles Darwin's theory of natural selection causing gradual changes over time cannot fully explain the origin of life or the emergence of highly complex life forms. It implies that life on earth was the product of an unidentified intelligent force.
Critics say intelligent design is merely creationism - a literal reading of the Bible's story of creation - camouflaged in scientific language, and it does not belong in a science curriculum. Eight Dover families are suing the school district, alleging that the policy violates the constitutional separation of church and state.
The intelligent-design movement is an effort to introduce creationism into the schools under a different name, said Eric Rothschild, a Philadelphia attorney representing the families. Our objective is to demonstrate that the prior (legal) precedent, which forbids the teaching of creationism, applies here as well.
The history of evolution litigation dates back to the famous 1925 Scopes Monkey Trial, in which Tennessee biology teacher John T. Scopes was fined $100 for violating a state law that forbade teaching evolution. The Tennessee Supreme Court reversed his conviction on the narrow ground that only a jury trial could impose a fine exceeding $50, and the law was repealed in 1967.
In 1968, the U.S. Supreme Court overturned an Arkansas state law banning the teaching of evolution. And in 1987, it ruled that states may not require public schools to balance evolution lessons by teaching creationism.
Dover is believed to have been the first school system in the nation to require students to hear about the concept under the policy adopted in October 2004. But the clash over intelligent-design is evident far beyond this rural district of about 3,500 students 20 miles south of Harrisburg.
In August, the Kansas Board of Education gave preliminary approval to science standards that allow intelligent design-style alternatives to be discussed alongside evolution.
President Bush has also weighed in, saying schools should present both concepts when teaching about the origins of life.
Richard Thompson, president and chief counsel of the Thomas More Law Center, which is defending the school district, says Dover's policy takes a modest approach.
It requires teachers to read a statement that says intelligent design differs from Darwin's view and refers students to an intelligent-design textbook, Of Pandas and People, for more information.
All the Dover school board did was allow students to get a glimpse of a controversy that is really boiling over in the scientific community, Thompson said.
The Discovery Institute, a Seattle-based think tank that represents many scholars who support intelligent design, opposes mandating it in public schools. Nevertheless, it considers the Dover lawsuit an attempt to squelch voluntary debates over evolution.
It's Scopes in reverse. They're going to get a gag order to be placed on teachers across the country, said institute senior fellow John West.
To help build their respective cases, each side is enlisting a battery of academic experts.
Expert witnesses for the defense include biochemist Michael Behe of Lehigh University, who defended intelligent design in his 1996 book, Darwin's Black Box: The Biochemical Challenge to Evolution.
Behe declined an interview request by The Associated Press, citing his involvement in the trial. However, in testimony before a state legislative panel in June on a bill to allow the teaching of intelligent design in Pennsylvania, Behe cited the bacterial flagellum - a whiplike appendage that enables bacteria to swim - as an example of intelligent design at work.
Whenever we see such complex, functional mechanical systems, we always infer that they were designed. ... It is a conclusion based on physical evidence, Behe said.
Eugenie Scott, executive director of the National Center for Science Education, which supports the teaching of evolution in public schools, said the controversy has little to do with science because mainstream scientists have rejected intelligent-design theory.
Intelligent design supporters seem to have shifted virtually entirely to political and rhetorical efforts to sway the general public, Scott said. The bitter truth is that there is no argument going on in the scientific community about whether evolution took place.
con_paperclip.gif alt=>Searching Students
09/01/2005 - Principal Leadership (cir. 30,387)
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Perry Zirkel, professor, college of education, wrote an article for Principal Leadership magazine. For a complete view of the article, please click on the paperclip above.
Help Desk
09/01/2005 - Greentree Gazette (cir. 30,000)
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In many ways today's universities are risk averse environments with little or no dissemination of best practices. The Lehigh Lab is a virtual environment where librarians, media specialists, instructional technologists, and computing consultants disseminate best practices and encourage the entire community to think differently about instructional support.
Timothy Foley
Director Client Computing & Library
Services, Lehigh University
con_paperclip.gif alt=>Custody's Last Stand?
09/01/2005 - Phi Delta Kappan (cir. 90,293)
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Perry Zirkel, professor, college of education, wrote an article for Phi Delta Kappan magazine. For a complete view of the article, please click on the paperclip above.
con_paperclip.gif alt=>Cool Him Down
09/01/2005 - Cosmopolitan (cir. 2,996,093)
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Maria Bykhovskaia, assistant professor of biological sciences, wrote an article for Cosmopolitan magazine. For a complete view of the article, please click on the paperclip above.
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Wednesday, September 21, 2005
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