NATIONAL & WORLD DIGEST - October 13, 2008

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New York Times
http://www.nytimes.com/
Go to the links for the following articles:

-Under 'No Child' Law, Solid Schools Faltering
Fawzia Keval, the principal of Prairie Elementary in Sacramento, which had not missed a testing target since the No Child Left Behind law took effect. Until now. [...] But this year, California schools were required to make what experts call a gigantic leap, increasing the students proficient in every group by 11 percentage points. For the first time, Prairie, and hundreds of other California schools, fell short, a failure that results in probation and, unless reversed, federal sanctions within a year. "And they're asking for another 11 percent increase next year and the next, and that's where I'm saying I just don't know how," Fawzia Keval, the school's principal, said. "I'm spending sleepless nights."
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/13/education/13child.html?hp

-The Man Behind the Whispers About Obama
Andy Martin, credited with starting a whisper campaign about Barack Obama, has been thrust into the spotlight. [...] But an appearance in a documentary-style program on the Fox News Channel watched by three million people last week thrust the man, Andy Martin, and his past into the foreground. The program allowed Mr. Martin to assert falsely and without challenge that Mr. Obama had once trained to overthrow the government.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/13/us/politics/13martin.html?hp

-Abortion Rights on the Ballot, Again
The measures that South Dakota, Colorado and California have taken to end or limit abortion rights have much larger implications.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/13/opinion/13mon1.html?ref=opinion

-UK's Gordon Does Good
PAUL KRUGMAN
With stunning speed, the British government defined the character of the worldwide rescue effort. Now other wealthy nations have to catch-up.
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/13/opinion/13krugman.html?ref=opinion

-Paul Krugman Wins Economics Nobel
Paul Krugman, a professor at Princeton University and an Op-Ed columnist for The New York Times, was awarded the Nobel Memorial Prize in Economic Sciences on Monday. "It's been an extremely weird day, but weird in a positive way," Mr. Krugman said in an interview on his way to a Washington meeting for the Group of Thirty, an international body from the public and private sectors that discusses international economics. He said he was mostly "preoccupied with the hassles" of trying to make all his scheduled meetings today and answer a constantly-ringing cell phone. Mr. Krugman received the award for his work on international trade and economic geography. In particular, the prize committee lauded his work for "having shown the effects of economies of scale on trade patterns and on the location of economic activity." [...] Mr. Krugman has been an Op-Ed columnist at the New York Times since 1999.
http://economix.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/10/13/paul-krugman-wins-economics-nobel/?hp

-Buttons and Bows
Campaign buttons are a staple of any political season, but this year they are also central to yet another dispute about the rights of classroom teachers. The dispute has both a K-12 and a college version. In New York City, Department of Education Chancellor Joel Klein announced that his administration would enforce a longstanding policy prohibiting teachers from wearing campaign buttons when they are at work. In Illinois, the state university ethics office stated in its newsletter that faculty are barred not only from wearing campaign buttons in the classroom, but also from placing political bumper stickers on their cars and attending political rallies on campus. [...] Mr. Krugman was the only winner of the award, which includes a prize of about $1.4 million.
http://fish.blogs.nytimes.com/2008/10/12/buttons-and-bows/?ref=opinion

-Italy's Attacks on Migrants Fuel Debate on Racism
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/13/world/europe/13italy.html?hp

-GM Shares Rebound After Detroit Merger Reports
http://www.nytimes.com/reuters/business/business-us-gm.html

-Economy: U.S. Missteps Are Evident, but Europe Is Implicated
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/10/13/business/worldbusiness/13euro.html


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Washington Post
http://www.washingtonpost.com/
Go to the links for the following articles:

-Obama Up by 10 Points as McCain Favorability Ratings Fall
With just over three weeks until Election Day, the two presidential nominees appear to be on opposite trajectories, with Sen. Barack Obama gaining momentum and Sen. John McCain stalled or losing ground on a range of issues and personal traits, according to a new Washington Post-ABC News poll. Overall, Obama is leading 53 percent to 43 percent among likely voters, and for the first time in the general-election campaign, voters gave the Democrat a clear edge on tax policy and providing strong leadership.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/12/AR2008101202333.html?hpid=topnews

-The Crisis's Silver Lining
Fareed Zakaria
Amid the financial chaos and economic uncertainty that has rocked world markets, I can see one silver lining. This crisis has forced the United States to confront the bad habits it developed over the past few decades. If we can kick those habits, today's pain will translate into gains in the long run. Since the 1980s, Americans have consumed more than they produced and have made up the difference by borrowing. Two decades of easy money and innovative financial products meant that virtually anyone could borrow any amount for any purpose. Household debt ballooned from $680 billion in 1974 to $14 trillion today. The average household has 13 credit cards, and 40 percent of these carry a balance, up from 6 percent in 1970. But the average American's behavior was virtuous compared with government behavior.
http://newsweek.washingtonpost.com/postglobal/fareed_zakaria/2008/10/the_crisiss_silver_lining.html

-Alaska's Family Feud
Meddlesome Sarah Palin does not come off well.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/12/AR2008101201626.html

-The World Vote
Barack Obama is almost universally favored over John McCain outside the United States. Should that matter to Americans? BY NOW it is well known that if the rest of the world had a vote, Barack Obama would be the next U.S. president. Polls and studies by the Pew foundation, BBC and the Gallup organization have shown that Europeans, Latin Americans, Africans and Asians not only favor Mr. Obama overwhelmingly over John McCain but believe he will improve U.S. relations with the rest of the world. Americans seem to be attracted by such findings; polls here show that many voters are concerned about the deterioration of U.S. prestige during the Bush administration and want the next president to restore it. This invites a question: If Mr. Obama were elected, how likely would he be to fulfill those high expectations? And could he really deliver results that are beyond the grasp of Mr. McCain? The answer is not as obvious as the survey results suggest.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/12/AR2008101201624.html

-GOP Head Compares Obama to Bin Laden
Va. Party Leader Criticized, Including By McCain Team
The chairman of the Virginia Republican Party has compared Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama to Osama bin Laden because of the Illinois senator's past association with Bill Ayers, who has confessed to domestic bombings as a member of the Vietnam War-era Weather Underground.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/12/AR2008101201956.html

-Atlanta Jews remember 'bomb that healed'
The bombing of a prominent Atlanta synagogue in 1958 claimed no lives, but the community outrage that it prompted helped galvanize the city's nervous Jewish community to embrace the civil rights movement. Members of The Temple gathered Sunday for the blast's 50th anniversary, recalling its terrifying aftermath and the way it changed their congregation's mission to promote racial equality.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/12/AR2008101201258.html?hpid=sec-religion


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Southern Poverty Law Center
http://www.splcenter.org/

-Morris Dees on Discovery Channel and National Geographic this week
As we near the first presidential election with an African-American candidate, Ted Koppel and SPLC founder Morris Dees discuss race in America for a Discovery Channel special that airs tonight. The program features three Americans whose lives were "profoundly affected by incidents of hatred and racism" and examines an historic Southern Poverty Law Center lawsuit that destroyed one of the nation's most violent Klan groups for the 1981 lynching of Michael Donald. The National Geographic Channel interviewed Morris Dees and Intelligence Report editor Mark Potok about today's Ku Klux Klan. The program looks at the violent tactics of these groups and how the immigration issue is sparking a resurgence.
http://www.splcenter.org/news/item.jsp?aid=339&splcnewsletter=dnewsgen-101308

-Kentucky Klan trial begins next month
Our legal team is preparing for the November trial of our case against the Imperial Klans of America, whose members viciously beat teenager Jordan Gruver while on a recruiting mission at a county fair in Meade County, Kentucky. We hope to win justice for Jordan in court and put another violent hate group out of business.
http://www.splcenter.org/news/item.jsp?aid=312&splcnewsletter=dnewsgen-101308

-Fox's Cavuto blames mortgage crisis on minorities
We awarded our first Dobbsy Award to Neil Cavuto of Fox News. The host recently blamed poor minority borrowers for the subprime mortgage meltdown. In doing so, Cavuto exemplified what it means to be a Dobbsy winner. Send us your own Dobbsy Award nomination.
http://www.splcenter.org/blog/2008/10/06/cavuto-mortgage-dobbsy/?splcnewsletter=dnewsgen-101308


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Fort Report
http://www.fortreport.com/
Go to the links for the following articles:

-Barack's Cool Pop
He spent months trying to find the right economic voice. And his steady, understated, optimistic populism arrived just in time. In presidential politics, nothing tells you more about a candidate's strategy-and his campaign's perception of his standing in the race-than his schedule. So it spoke volumes when, on the morning after the second debate between John McCain and Barack Obama, the Democratic nominee flew straight from Nashville to a rally in Indianapolis. As Senator Evan Bayh reminded the 21,000 Obamaphiles assembled on a drizzly weekday at the state fairgrounds, no Democrat has carried Indiana since 1964. George W. Bush trounced John Kerry there by a whopping 21 points. And yet most recent statewide polls show Obama running neck and neck with McCain. The Republican National Committee is pumping cash into Hoosier country to stave off an upset.
http://nymag.com/news/politics/powergrid/51166/

-Obama Gains as New South Trumps Old Race Card: Albert R. Hunt
Harvey Gantt is exuberant over Barack Obama's prospects of carrying Gantt's home state of North Carolina: ``This state has changed.''
http://bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601070&sid=aLQTM7OfObyA&refer=politics

-Obama to unveil economic rescue plan
U.S. Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama will give a "major" speech outlining his economic rescue plan at 1:30 p.m. EDT (1730 GMT) on Monday, his campaign said.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2008/10/13/AR2008101300337.html

-Study: Many cancer patients forgoing care because of cost
At a time when they're already fighting for their lives, more cancer patients are now struggling to pay for their medicines. One in eight people with advanced cancer turned down recommended care because of the cost, according to a new analysis from Thomson Reuters, which provides news and business information. Among patients with incomes under $40,000, one in four in advanced stages of the disease refused treatment.
http://www.usatoday.com/news/health/2008-10-12-cancer-costs_N.htm

-4,550 Appeal Benefit Cuts For Florida's Disabled
More than three-fourths of the 7,500 developmentally disabled people scheduled to lose benefits this month have appealed the cuts, said a spokeswoman with the state Agency for Persons with Disabilities. The volume of appeals is extraordinary, spokeswoman Melanie Etters said.
http://www2.tbo.com/content/2008/oct/13/na-4550-appeal-benefit-cuts-for-disabled/news-metro/


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