The James Logan Courier

By Rick LaPlante
New Haven Schools Public Information Officer

UNION CITY – Four New Haven Unified School District elementary schools continue to be members of the “800 Club” of schools where results from standardized tests exceed state expectations.

The Accountability Progress Reports (APR) released today by the California Department of Education include both Academic Performance Index (API) and Adequate Yearly Progress (AYP) data. The results come from Standardized Testing and Results (STAR) scores and from California High School Exit Exam (CAHSEE) scores taken during the 2006-07 school year.

By Bill Hanna
McClatchy Newspapers (MCT)

WILLS POINT, Texas — If you hate creepy-crawlies, you might want to avoid Lake Tawakoni State Park, where a 200-yard stretch along a nature trail has been blanketed by a sprawling spider web that has engulfed seven large trees, dozens of bushes and even the weedy ground.

But if you hate mosquitoes, you might just love this bizarre web.

Courier Staff Report

Students, as many as 3940 of them, flocked back to the James Logan campus Wednesday, for the start of the 2007-2008 school year, greeted by staff and scheduling difficulties.

Computer and printing problems led school administrators to abandon plans for teachers to hand out student schedules. Instead they set up distribution stations around campus. Principal Don Montoya announced the new process via email and the school's public address system minutes before the school day began.

All the school's buses were late due to traffic snarls resulting from a major accident, Montoya said.

"Today may be more challenging than we are used to...but working together we will accomplish all that needs to be accomplished and the quality education we provide at the Home of the Colts will begin."

By William Mullen
Chicago Tribune (MCT)

HOUSTON — When Ethiopia six years ago decided it needed to find a goodwill ambassador to send on the road to spruce up its image as a nation and a tourist destination, the government turned to one of its oldest residents and perhaps the only one to be truly world-famous, a diminutive bag of bones named Lucy.

A special exhibition built around the 3.2 million-year-old pre-human fossil was unveiled to the press Tuesday at the Houston Museum of Natural History, the first stop of a six-year American tour much criticized by top international anthropologists and paleontologists. Ethiopian officials on hand defended the exhibit by saying that Lucy, considered by many to be the most important hominid fossil in the world, has to serve other interests in addition to science.

"To suggest that research trumps everything else" that has to do with Lucy is wrong, said Samuel Assefa, Ethiopia's ambassador to the U.S., suggesting the fossil should be used to educate as well. "Lucy belongs to the world. She is the origin of humanity. We all see ourselves in Lucy."

By Marisa Taylor and Margaret Talev
McClatchy Newspapers (MCT)

WASHINGTON — With the resignation Monday of Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, the Bush administration faces its most daunting task: repairing the reputation of a Justice Department reeling from the controversy over the firings of nine U.S. attorneys last year.

After months of damaging disclosures about his competency and congressional scrutiny of his leadership, Gonzales announced that he'd be leaving Sept. 17 but offered little explanation for the timing.

With no immediate replacement named by the White House, legal experts said the administration needed to select a new attorney general with significant legal experience and an unassailable reputation to end the criticism that had undermined the department since January.

By Fred Tasker
McClatchy Newspapers (MCT)

MIAMI — The Food and Drug Administration on Thursday proposed new labels for sunscreens that would eliminate misleading claims such as "sunblock" and "waterproof" and create a new system for rating products' effectiveness against damaging ultraviolet rays.

The new rules, which must go through a 90-day public comment period, are meant to get sunscreen makers to replace what the FDA has called "unsupported, absolute" claims with less definitive language such as "water resistant" or "very water resistant."

New Haven Schools

Back-to-school shopping -- with a twist -- will be going on Saturday in the parking lot at James Logan High School when the New Haven Schools Foundation hosts its monthly Union City Flea Market.

By Rick LaPlante
New Haven Schools Public Information Officer

The Board of Education on Tuesday night received the first annual report on the District’s Strategic Plan, the five-year blueprint for budgeting and decision-making crafted by New Haven students, parents, teachers, classified employees, administrators and other community members and adopted by the Board of Education in 2005-06.

By David Ovalle, Jacqueline Charles and Martin Merzer
McClatchy Newspapers (MCT)

TULUM, Mexico — Tourists fled the Mayan ruins, shack dwellers in remote areas sought sturdier refuge and oil field workers turned off the spigots Monday night as a savage Hurricane Dean launched its attack on Mexico's Yucatan Peninsula.

On the brink of becoming a top-rank Category 5 terror, poised to escalate its assault early Tuesday under cover of darkness, Dean menaced a tourist region called the Maya Riviera, the city of Chetumal and one of the world's most crucial oil operations.

Its work was done in Jamaica, where at least two people died, many houses were shattered or flooded or both, and the cleanup was under way.

Now, it was Mexico's turn. Rain arrived around 5 p.m. EDT, the leading edge of genuine trouble.

By Jacqueline Charles, Jim Wyss, Trenton Daniel and Martin Merzer
McClatchy Newspapers (MCT)

KINGSTON, Jamaica — Hurricane Dean blasted into Jamaica on Sunday, its initial bursts of rain and wind flooding streets, dimming lights and heralding the arrival of a fierce storm capable of inflicting casualties and extensive damage.

Torrential rain fell in Kingston, flooding the capital's streets. The wind began to pick up, cutting power to street lights and many homes. Forecasters warned of sustained 145 mph blasts of wind.

"Remain calm. Do not panic," the government urged residents early Sunday. "Your ability to act logically is important during stressful events like a hurricane."

By Tyler Bridges
McClatchy Newspapers (MCT)

PISCO, Peru — Peru's prime minister pleaded for emergency aid — "even coffins" — as the toll from the strongest earthquake to hit this country in 35 years climbed Thursday to 510 dead, at least 1,550 injured and tens of thousands homeless.

With both the hospitals and a crowded 18th century church in this city of 130,000 destroyed, two dozen people were being treated on a concrete soccer field across the street from one of the hospitals.

Virtually every block of Pisco appeared to have sustained damage, especially houses and walls made of sun-dried mud bricks. Many residents wandered without purpose, some sobbing, some carrying their belongings, all apparently dazed by the level of destruction.

By Mary Anne Ostrom
San Jose Mercury News (MCT)

SAN JOSE, Calif. — A Japanese pioneer in stem cell research is opening a lab in San Francisco, a significant milestone in the state's bid to become an international draw for the world's leading regenerative medicine experts.

Last year, Shinya Yamanaka of Kyoto University was the first to identify genes in mouse skin cells that allow scientists to "reprogram" the cells to an embryonic state from which they could create some tissue types.

By Kevin G. Hall
McClatchy Newspapers (MCT)

MIDLAND, Va. — The Labor Department's most recent inflation data showed that U.S. food prices rose by 4.1 percent for the 12 months ending in June, but a deeper look at the numbers reveals that the price of milk, eggs and other essentials in the American diet are actually rising by double digits.

Already stung by a two-year rise in gasoline prices, American consumers now face sharply higher prices for foods they can't do without. This little-known fact may go a long way to explaining why, despite healthy job statistics, Americans remain glum about the economy.

UNION CITY – Seventh-graders in English/language arts made the biggest improvement among New Haven Unified School District during the 2006-07 school year, according to preliminary STAR (Standardized Testing and Results) scores made public today.

Fifth-grade scores improved across the board – in English/language arts, math and science – and eighth-grade science scores and 11th-grade English/language arts and history/social science scores were also among those that improved.

Overall, results were “mixed,” said Craig Boyan, Director of Assessment and Evaluation, noting that scores declined in some areas, including eighth-grade English/language arts, Algebra II and world history.

View the STAR test results for the New Haven School District.

By Dave Montgomery and Marisa Taylor
McClatchy Newspapers (MCT)

WASHINGTON — Karl Rove's imminent departure as President Bush's closest White House adviser is the latest and most dramatic signal that Bush himself is heading toward the exit as Americans prepare to choose his replacement next year.

Rove's departure — effective at the end of the month — leaves Bush facing the loss of his most trusted political adviser as he heads into the final year and a half of his presidency. The two men have been friends for three decades and have been politically inseparable for the past 14 years.

But Rove, in a telephone interview with McClatchy Newspapers, said he expects to continue to have an advisory role with Bush, who told him, "I know your phone number and you'd better know mine."

By Chris Collins and Leila Fadel
McClatchy Newspapers (MCT)

BAGHDAD — A roadside bomb Saturday killed the governor and police chief of an oil-rich southern Iraqi province that's been a bloody and complex battleground for U.S.-Iraqi security forces and powerful Shiite factions.

Elsewhere, Gen. David Petraeus, the top U.S. military commander in Iraq, added his voice to U.S. claims linking Iran to the deaths of increasing numbers of American troops.

By Jeff Kunerth
The Orlando Sentinel (MCT)

ORLANDO, Fla. — The head of the nation's oldest and largest black fraternity Saturday called on the black community to ban the N-word from its vocabulary. The offensive racial epithet should be purged from music lyrics, movie dialogue, talk radio and playgrounds, said Darryl R. Matthews Sr., general president of the Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity.

"I don't know many ethnic groups other than the black community that use such harsh language with each other and empower other people to think it's OK to use it," Matthews said in an interview following his address to 3,000 fraternity members attending their annual convention in Orlando.

"The word has evil intent. It's not a term of endearment. It is not just symbolic."

From The Courier Archives:

By Martin Merzer and Phil Long
McClatchy Newspapers (MCT)

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla. — It took 21 years, but NASA finally redeemed the promise of shuttle Challenger and its lost crew Wednesday evening:

Teacher Barbara Morgan accompanied six astronauts on a field trip that took them 140 miles from home — straight up. They soared into orbit aboard shuttle Endeavour, relaunching the nation's educator-in-space program.

By Paul Salopek
Chicago Tribune(MCT)

ADDIS ABABA, Ethiopia — Petroleum nearly killed Eskedar Demissew. Or at least the illusion of it did.

In the pre-dawn gloom of a morning in April, insurgents rousted the stocky truck driver from his tent at a remote oil prospecting camp in Ethiopia's Ogaden desert. They lined him up in the sand with other workers. And without further ceremony, they sprayed them with machine-gun fire.

Demissew survived, just barely, by playing dead. But 74 other people, including nine Chinese contractors, died in one of the worst attacks on an African oil facility in recent memory.

"I will never work in oil again," Demissew said quietly at his tiny house in the Ethiopian capital, Addis Ababa, where he was popping painkillers and hoping to regain full use of his nerve-damaged arms. "It isn't worth it."

From The Courier archives:

By Ray McDonald, VOA News

McDonalds has dropped a million-selling rapper from its nationwide concert series.

Citing controversial lyrics, the fast-food giant has released Twista from an appearance in its 10-city series of free concerts across the United States.

The rapper - who reportedly once worked at McDonalds - is known for his lightning-fast delivery in such hit songs as "Overnight Celebrity" and "Slow Jamz," his collaboration with Jamie Foxx and Kanye West. He has used profanity and referenced drugs in some of his lyrics.

By Shelley Schlender, VOA News

Boulder, Colorado —In the United States, food that's grown locally and organically -- without the use of man-made fertilizers and pesticides -- is becoming increasingly popular with consumers. But the supply of organic foods is not keeping up with demand. This is an important issue among farmers and organic industry leaders.

Colorado farmer Anne Cure employs methods that are not in wide use in the U.S. Take her contented flock of quacking ducks and clucking hens. Instead of being caged indoors, night and day, they are kept in a large fenced yard with plenty of places to explore.

By Polya Lesova
MarketWatch (MCT)

NEW YORK — In a landmark victory, Pratibha Patil will become India's first female president after she won almost two-thirds of the votes cast by state assemblies and the country's parliament on Saturday, according to media reports.

Patil, 72, the candidate of the governing Congress Party, defeated incumbent Vice President Bhairon Singh Shekhawat, the candidate of the opposition Bharatiya Janata Party, reports said. Patil's candidacy was supported by Congress leader Sonia Gandhi.

By Howard Witt
Chicago Tribune (MCT)

HOUSTON — Like so many of their poor and working-class Hispanic neighbors, Rosario Marroquin's family settled in the southeast Houston neighborhood of Manchester a generation ago because the clapboard houses were cheap, the streets were safe, transportation was convenient and downtown was only 20 minutes away.

It was an ideal neighborhood, except for the coughing spells, the nosebleeds, the burning odors and the acrid smoke.

Marroquin's family, like most everyone else in the neighborhood, did their best to ignore all that, because few could afford to move anywhere else. And they tried not to notice the dozens of oil refineries, petrochemical plants and waste disposal sites expanding all around them, their towering smokestacks and huge storage tanks lining the Houston Ship Channel, the city's principal outlet to the sea.

But then the cancers started to appear. First the neighbor in back, then another across the street, then a boy down the block. And finally, in 2003, Marroquin's son, Valentin, came down with leukemia at the age of 6.