This Day in History 8/31/12

          Prostitute Mary Ann Nichols, the first victim of London serial killer "Jack the Ripper," is found murdered and mutilated in Whitechapel's Buck's Row. The East End of London saw four more victims of the murderer during the next few months, but no suspect was ever found.
          In Victorian England, London's East End was a teeming slum occupied by nearly a million of the city's poorest citizens. Many women were forced to resort to prostitution, and in 1888 there were estimated to be more than 1,000 prostitutes in Whitechapel. That summer, a serial killer began targeting these downtrodden women. On September 8, the killer claimed his second victim, Annie Chapman, and on September 30 two more prostitutes--Liz Stride and Kate Eddowes--were murdered and carved up on the same night. By then, London's police had determined the pattern of the killings. The murderer, offering to pay for sex, would lure his victims onto a secluded street or square and then slice their throats. As the women rapidly bled to death, he would then brutally mutilate them with the same six-inch knife.
          The police, who lacked modern forensic techniques such as fingerprinting and blood typing, were at a complete loss for suspects. Dozens of letters allegedly written by the murderer were sent to the police, and the vast majority of these were immediately deemed fraudulent. However, two letters--written by the same individual--alluded to crime facts known only to the police and the killer. These letters, signed "Jack the Ripper," gave rise to the serial killer's popular nickname.
          On November 7, after a month of silence, Jack took his fifth and last victim, Irish-born Mary Kelly, an occasional prostitute. Of all his victims' corpses, Kelly's was the most hideously mutilated. In 1892, with no leads found and no more murders recorded, the Jack the Ripper file was closed.

This Day in History 8/30/12

          On this day in 1967, Thurgood Marshall becomes the first African American to be confirmed as a Supreme Court justice. He would remain on the Supreme Court for 24 years before retiring for health reasons, leaving a legacy of upholding the rights of the individual as guaranteed by the U.S. Constitution.
          From a young age, Marshall seemed destined for a place in the American justice system. His parents instilled in him an appreciation for the Constitution, a feeling that was reinforced by his schoolteachers, who forced him to read the document as punishment for his misbehavior. After graduating from Lincoln University in 1930, Marshall sought admission to the University of Maryland School of Law, but was turned away because of the school's segregation policy, which effectively forbade blacks from studying with whites. Instead, Marshall attended Howard University Law School, from which he graduated magna cum laude in 1933. Marshall later successfully sued Maryland School of Law for their unfair admissions policy.
          Setting up a private practice in his home state of Maryland, Marshall quickly established a reputation as a lawyer for the "little man." In a year's time, he began working with the Baltimore NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People), and went on to become the organization’s chief counsel by the time he was 32, in 1940. Over the next two decades, Marshall distinguished himself as one of the country's leading advocates for individual rights, winning 29 of the 32 cases he argued in front of the Supreme Court, all of which challenged in some way the 'separate but equal' doctrine that had been established by the landmark case Plessy v. Ferguson (1896). The high-water mark of Marshall's career as a litigator came in 1954 with his victory in Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka. In that case, Marshall argued that the 'separate but equal' principle was unconstitutional, and designed to keep blacks "as near [slavery] as possible."
          In 1961, Marshall was appointed by then-President John F. Kennedy to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, a position he held until 1965, when Kennedy's successor, Lyndon B. Johnson, named him solicitor general. Following the retirement of Justice Tom Clark in 1967, President Johnson appointed Marshall to the Supreme Court, a decision confirmed by the Senate with a 69-11 vote. Over the next 24 years, Justice Marshall came out in favor of abortion rights and against the death penalty, as he continued his tireless commitment to ensuring equitable treatment of individuals--particularly minorities--by state and federal governments.

Republican Convention Begins

 

Mitt Romney becomes the Republican Party’s official candidate in the race against President Obama

August 29, 2012

By Scholastic News Kid Reporters Topanga Sena and Shelby Fallin

After the first day of the Republican National Convention was cancelled due to Tropical Storm (now Hurricane) Isaac, the party got started in a big way on Tuesday. Ann Romney, wife of Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney, and New Jersey Governor Chris Christie were the biggest names in a night of heavy-hitter speakers.

Romney spoke about her 42-year marriage to the presidential candidate, saying they did not have a storybook relationship. “We had a real marriage,” she said, noting their lives of raising five sons and her battles against breast cancer and Multiple Sclerosis.

Mrs. Romney mostly left politics out of her speech.

“Tonight, I want to talk about love,” she said. She talked about how the couple jumped into marriage as college students, living in a basement apartment. “Our desk was a door propped up on sawhorses; our dining room table was a fold down ironing board in the kitchen,” she said. “Those were very special days.”

She quickly moved on to outlining her husband’s successes as a businessman.

“He is successful at everything he does,” she said, as she wrapped up her speech.

As delegates jumped to their feet applauding, her husband surprised her on stage with a hug and kiss.

They then took seats in the audience to listen to New Jersey Governor Chris Christie’s keynote address, the final speech of the first night of the convention.

Christie began his speech in support of Romney’s presidency by talking about his own background, a similar theme with every speaker last night.

“I am the son of an Irish father and a Sicilian mother,” he said. “Mom was tough as nails and didn't suffer fools at all. The truth was she couldn't afford to. She spoke the truth—bluntly, directly, and without much varnish.”

That’s a characteristic Christie is also famous for, which proved true as he took on the Democratic administration’s handling of health care legislation and the national debt. He drove home the evening’s message of “We Built It,” by defining a list of differences between the Republican and Democratic party philosophies.

"We believe in telling seniors the truth about our overburdened entitlements," he said. "They believe seniors will always put themselves ahead of their grandchildren."

REACTIONS FROM THE FLOOR

Ann Romney’s job as one of the main speakers of the night was to give a human face to the Republican candidate. According to the response from delegates in the hall, she succeeded.

“I loved Ann Romney’s speech,” said Marcia Silva, a delegate from New Jersey. “It definitely showed a softer side of Mitt Romney that a lot of people didn’t know. I cried at times.”

Delegates also seemed inspired by Christie's speech as they filed out of the convention center after the speech, which ended around 11 p.m.

“When he was talking about some of the problems that we have right now and what we need to do to correct them, I think he was very straightforward with it and that’s a good thing," said California delegate Maurice Lieberman. "We need more of that.”

Victor Marani, also a delegate from California, agreed.

“Governor Christie is the most genuine person you are ever going to see in politics," he told Scholastic News. "He’s straightforward, he tells it to you the way it is, and he speaks right to you, which is very important."

The Scholastic News Kids Press Corps will be at the Republican National Convention and will have all the latest news from the convention floor. Stay tuned to the Scholastic News Kids Press Corps Blog and the Election 2012 website for the most up-to-date stories, videos, and interviews from Tampa!

ELECTION 2012
Keep up with all the latest election news on the Election 2012 website.

This Day in History 8/29/12

          Hurricane Katrina makes landfall near New Orleans, Louisiana, as a Category 4 hurricane on this day in 2005. Despite being only the third most powerful storm of the 2005 hurricane season, Katrina was the worst natural disaster in the history of the United States. After briefly coming ashore in southern Florida on August 25 as a Category 1 hurricane, Katrina gained strength before slamming into the Gulf Coast on August 29. In addition to bringing devastation to the New Orleans area, the hurricane caused damage along the coasts of Mississippi and Alabama, as well as other parts of Louisiana.
          New Orleans Mayor Ray Nagin ordered a mandatory evacuation of the city on August 28, when Katrina briefly achieved Category 5 status and the National Weather Service predicted "devastating" damage to the area. But an estimated 150,000 people, who either did not want to or did not have the resources to leave, ignored the order and stayed behind. The storm brought sustained winds of 145 miles per hour, which cut power lines and destroyed homes, even turning cars into projectile missiles. Katrina caused record storm surges all along the Mississippi Gulf Coast. The surges overwhelmed the levees that protected New Orleans, located at six feet below sea level, from Lake Pontchartrain and the Mississippi River. Soon, 80 percent of the city was flooded up to the rooftops of many homes and small buildings.
          Tens of thousands of people sought shelter in the New Orleans Convention Center and the Louisiana Superdome. The situation in both places quickly deteriorated, as food and water ran low and conditions became unsanitary. Frustration mounted as it took up to two days for a full-scale relief effort to begin. In the meantime, the stranded residents suffered from heat, hunger, and a lack of medical care. Reports of looting, rape, and even murder began to surface. As news networks broadcast scenes from the devastated city to the world, it became obvious that a vast majority of the victims were African-American and poor, leading to difficult questions among the public about the state of racial equality in the United States. The federal government and President George W. Bush were roundly criticized for what was perceived as their slow response to the disaster. The head of the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA), Michael Brown, resigned amid the ensuing controversy.
          Finally, on September 1, the tens of thousands of people staying in the damaged Superdome and Convention Center begin to be moved to the Astrodome in Houston, Texas, and another mandatory evacuation order was issued for the city. The next day, military convoys arrived with supplies and the National Guard was brought in to bring a halt to lawlessness. Efforts began to collect and identify corpses. On September 6, eight days after the hurricane, the Army Corps of Engineers finally completed temporary repairs to the three major holes in New Orleans' levee system and were able to begin pumping water out of the city.
          In all, it is believed that the hurricane caused more than 1,300 deaths and up to $150 billion in damages to both private property and public infrastructure. It is estimated that only about $40 billion of that number will be covered by insurance. One million people were displaced by the disaster, a phenomenon unseen in the United States since the Great Depression. Four hundred thousand people lost their jobs as a result of the disaster. Offers of international aid poured in from around the world, even from poor countries like Bangladesh and Sri Lanka. Private donations from U.S. citizens alone approached $600 million.
          The storm also set off 36 tornadoes in Mississippi, Alabama, Georgia, Pennsylvania, and Virginia, resulting in one death.
          President Bush declared September 16 a national day of remembrance for the victims of Hurricane Katrina

This Day in History 8/28/12

          While visiting family in Money, Mississippi, 14-year-old Emmett Till, an African American from Chicago, is brutally murdered for flirting with a white woman four days earlier. His assailants--the white woman's husband and her brother--made Emmett carry a 75-pound cotton-gin fan to the bank of the Tallahatchie River and ordered him to take off his clothes. The two men then beat him nearly to death, gouged out his eye, shot him in the head, and then threw his body, tied to the cotton-gin fan with barbed wire, into the river.

          Till grew up in a working-class neighborhood on the south side of Chicago, and though he had attended a segregated elementary school, he was not prepared for the level of segregation he encountered in Mississippi. His mother warned him to take care because of his race, but Emmett enjoyed pulling pranks. On August 24, while standing with his cousins and some friends outside a country store in Money, Emmett bragged that his girlfriend back home was white. Emmett's African American companions, disbelieving him, dared Emmett to ask the white woman sitting behind the store counter for a date. He went in, bought some candy, and on the way out was heard saying, "Bye, baby" to the woman. There were no witnesses in the store, but Carolyn Bryant--the woman behind the counter--claimed that he grabbed her, made lewd advances, and then wolf-whistled at her as he sauntered out.

          Roy Bryant, the proprietor of the store and the woman's husband, returned from a business trip a few days later and found out how Emmett had spoken to his wife. Enraged, he went to the home of Till's great uncle, Mose Wright, with his brother-in-law J.W. Milam in the early morning hours of August 28. The pair demanded to see the boy. Despite pleas from Wright, they forced Emmett into their car. After driving around in the Memphis night, and perhaps beating Till in a toolhouse behind Milam's residence, they drove him down to the Tallahatchie River.

          Three days later, his corpse was recovered but was so disfigured that Mose Wright could only identify it by an initialed ring. Authorities wanted to bury the body quickly, but Till's mother, Mamie Bradley, requested it be sent back to Chicago. After seeing the mutilated remains, she decided to have an open-casket funeral so that all the world could see what racist murderers had done to her only son. Jet, an African American weekly magazine, published a photo of Emmett's corpse, and soon the mainstream media picked up on the story.

          Less than two weeks after Emmett's body was buried, Milam and Bryant went on trial in a segregated courthouse in Sumner, Mississippi. There were few witnesses besides Mose Wright, who positively identified the defendants as Emmett's killers. On September 23, the all-white jury deliberated for less than an hour before issuing a verdict of "not guilty," explaining that they believed the state had failed to prove the identity of the body. Many people around the country were outraged by the decision and also by the state's decision not to indict Milam and Bryant on the separate charge of kidnapping.

          The Emmett Till murder trial brought to light the brutality of Jim Crow segregation in the South and was an early impetus of the African American civil rights movement.

This Day in History 8/27/12

          On August 27, 1937, Captain George E. T. Eyston breaks his own automobile land speed record at the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah, raising the mark to 345.49 mph.
          Located approximately 80 miles west of Salt Lake City, Utah, the Bonneville Salt Flats were formed by the evaporation of a huge Ice Age-era lake. Near the end of the 19th century, the flats hosted a bicycle competition arranged as a publicity stunt by the publishing magnate William Randolph Hearst. Then, in 1914, the daredevil racer Teddy Tezlaff drove his Blitzen Benz vehicle at 141.73 mph to set an unofficial land speed record at the flats. Bonneville truly took off as a racing destination thanks to the efforts of Utah native Ab Jenkins, who set several endurance speed records there beginning in 1925, driving a Studebaker dubbed the Mormon Meteor. In 1935, the British racing legend Sir Malcolm Campbell set a world land speed record of 301.126 mph in his famous Bluebird, and since then the flats became the standard course for land speed record attempts.
          Drivers who attempted to set the world land speed record, or the fastest speed traveled on land in a wheeled vehicle, had to complete two mile-long runs in opposite directions, within a space of sixty minutes. George Eyston, an engineer and retired British Army captain, had set the previous record of 311.42 mph at Bonneville in November 1936. On his August 27 run, he hit 347.49 mph on the outbound trip and 343.51 on the return; his new record, 345.49, was the average of the two. As Eyston told the press at the time, he did not even bring his vehicle, the Thunderbolt, to full throttle to achieve the record-setting speed: "I had a very comfortable ride and not once did I feel there was any danger... I wanted to be certain I set a new record, but I also wanted to be sure that the car and I got through in good shape."
          By September 1938, Eyston had raised the land speed record to 357.5 mph. In a lecture he delivered that month, Eyston described his built-for-speed Thunderbolt as having two 2,000-horsepower Rolls Royce motors geared together; the vehicle measured 35 feet long and weighed nearly 7 tons. One of Eyston's rivals, John Cobb, set a new world land speed record of 394.194 mph in 1947 at Bonneville in a car with a piston engine; thereafter, most record holders have driven jet- or rocket-powered vehicles. In October 1997, a twin turbofan jet-powered car dubbed ThrustSSC achieved 763.035 mph (the first supersonic world land speed record) over one mile at Nevada's Black Rock Desert.

This Day in History 8/24/12

          After centuries of dormancy, Mount Vesuvius erupts in southern Italy, devastating the prosperous Roman cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum and killing thousands. The cities, buried under a thick layer of volcanic material and mud, were never rebuilt and largely forgotten in the course of history. In the 18th century, Pompeii and Herculaneum were rediscovered and excavated, providing an unprecedented archaeological record of the everyday life of an ancient civilization, startlingly preserved in sudden death.
          The ancient cities of Pompeii and Herculaneum thrived near the base of Mount Vesuvius at the Bay of Naples. In the time of the early Roman Empire, 20,000 people lived in Pompeii, including merchants, manufacturers, and farmers who exploited the rich soil of the region with numerous vineyards and orchards. None suspected that the black fertile earth was the legacy of earlier eruptions of Mount Vesuvius. Herculaneum was a city of 5,000 and a favorite summer destination for rich Romans. Named for the mythic hero Hercules, Herculaneum housed opulent villas and grand Roman baths. Gambling artifacts found in Herculaneum and a brothel unearthed in Pompeii attest to the decadent nature of the cities. There were smaller resort communities in the area as well, such as the quiet little town of Stabiae.
          At noon on August 24, 79 A.D., this pleasure and prosperity came to an end when the peak of Mount Vesuvius exploded, propelling a 10-mile mushroom cloud of ash and pumice into the stratosphere. For the next 12 hours, volcanic ash and a hail of pumice stones up to 3 inches in diameter showered Pompeii, forcing the city's occupants to flee in terror. Some 2,000 people stayed in Pompeii, holed up in cellars or stone structures, hoping to wait out the eruption.
          A westerly wind protected Herculaneum from the initial stage of the eruption, but then a giant cloud of hot ash and gas surged down the western flank of Vesuvius, engulfing the city and burning or asphyxiating all who remained. This lethal cloud was followed by a flood of volcanic mud and rock, burying the city.
          The people who remained in Pompeii were killed on the morning of August 25 when a cloud of toxic gas poured into the city, suffocating all that remained. A flow of rock and ash followed, collapsing roofs and walls and burying the dead.
          Much of what we know about the eruption comes from an account by Pliny the Younger, who was staying west along the Bay of Naples when Vesuvius exploded. In two letters to the historian Tacitus, he told of how "people covered their heads with pillows, the only defense against a shower of stones," and of how "a dark and horrible cloud charged with combustible matter suddenly broke and set forth. Some bewailed their own fate. Others prayed to die." Pliny, only 17 at the time, escaped the catastrophe and later became a noted Roman writer and administrator. His uncle, Pliny the Elder, was less lucky. Pliny the Elder, a celebrated naturalist, at the time of the eruption was the commander of the Roman fleet in the Bay of Naples. After Vesuvius exploded, he took his boats across the bay to Stabiae, to investigate the eruption and reassure terrified citizens. After going ashore, he was overcome by toxic gas and died.
          According to Pliny the Younger's account, the eruption lasted 18 hours. Pompeii was buried under 14 to 17 feet of ash and pumice, and the nearby seacoast was drastically changed. Herculaneum was buried under more than 60 feet of mud and volcanic material. Some residents of Pompeii later returned to dig out their destroyed homes and salvage their valuables, but many treasures were left and then forgotten.
          In the 18th century, a well digger unearthed a marble statue on the site of Herculaneum. The local government excavated some other valuable art objects, but the project was abandoned. In 1748, a farmer found traces of Pompeii beneath his vineyard. Since then, excavations have gone on nearly without interruption until the present. In 1927, the Italian government resumed the excavation of Herculaneum, retrieving numerous art treasures, including bronze and marble statues and paintings.
          The remains of 2,000 men, women, and children were found at Pompeii. After perishing from asphyxiation, their bodies were covered with ash that hardened and preserved the outline of their bodies. Later, their bodies decomposed to skeletal remains, leaving a kind of plaster mold behind. Archaeologists who found these molds filled the hollows with plaster, revealing in grim detail the death pose of the victims of Vesuvius. The rest of the city is likewise frozen in time, and ordinary objects that tell the story of everyday life in Pompeii are as valuable to archaeologists as the great unearthed statues and frescoes. It was not until 1982 that the first human remains were found at Herculaneum, and these hundreds of skeletons bear ghastly burn marks that testifies to horrifying deaths.
          Today, Mount Vesuvius is the only active volcano on the European mainland. Its last eruption was in 1944 and its last major eruption was in 1631. Another eruption is expected in the near future, would could be devastating for the 700,000 people who live in the "death zones" around Vesuvius.

Tips for high school to college could help the high school to work transition too!

My View: Making the jump from high school to college

By Omar Jimenez, Special to CNN

Editor’s note:  Omar Jimenez of Kennesaw, Georgia, is a sophomore in Northwestern University’s Medill School of Journalism. He is going into his second year of training on the Northwestern basketball team.

          (CNN) – The time has finally come to venture off to college. The emotional roller coaster of excitement and apprehension is a common theme for students and parents alike.
          College is not just a place of higher learning but a preview for the real world. The social and academic environment is completely different from that of high school, making the transition tough for some students. However, it doesn’t have to be that way. Here are five keys to making the jump from high school to college and landing squarely on both feet.

Responsibility

          Honestly, just being responsible goes a long way. There are opportunities to have great social lives in college, but no one will be happy if it comes at the expense of academics.  The key is to find a personal balance between having fun and doing schoolwork.  The real responsibility comes from being able to make these decisions without the seemingly endless parental nudges given throughout high school.
          Personally, I always find that getting work done before hanging out with friends is the best route to take. It is definitely a drag to force yourself to sit down and knock out all your work, but it makes the reward of finishing for the day that much more worth it.

Studying

          Being responsible will take you pretty far in college, but what about the schoolwork? Isn’t there a lot to keep up with? Everybody says, “Don’t fall behind on your assignments,” but it is much easier said than done. Instead of focusing on a broad goal such as not falling behind, break it down into more manageable pieces.
          For starters, being organized makes studying easier and much less intimidating. Getting a planner (and using it often) is not a bad idea either. School will seem much easier through organization and proper pacing. For example, if it is Monday and there is a 140-page reading due the following Monday, don’t wait until Sunday night. Read 20 pages a night for the next week, and things will work out much better - guaranteed.

Stress relief

          Stress is something that will never go away in college, but dealing with it makes all the difference. Join a club, find a sport to play, get a Hulu or Netflix account; just find a way to pass the time where classes and grades do not matter. It will lead to more happiness, and being involved in clubs, sports, etc., will help you gain friends and popularity. From personal experience, I have found that I work much better when I am happy. I relieve stress through extracurricular activities and work more efficiently from then on. Yes, it may be a simple process, but sometimes simplicity is what makes things effective.

Communication

          It seems like all we do in life is talk, and college is no different. Being able to talk to people in college, from the dean to a dining hall worker, is important. Learning happens by communicating with other people, and part of the college experience would be wasted by always being isolated. Don’t be afraid to talk to professors after class if you need to, or to e-mail them. It often helps tremendously. Additionally, communicating with peers is critical as it creates opportunities both socially and academically. Forming a study group benefits everyone as one person can catch something that others miss and vice-versa.

Stepping back

          The last, but most important, key to making a good transition is to take a step back and realize how special it is to be in college in the first place. Take it as a privilege to get smarter, rather than a burden of more work. Getting a bad grade on an assignment sucks, but it is definitely not the worst thing that can happen.

          Schoolwork is important, yes, but don’t forget there is more than just work in college. Have some fun.

          In college, when you have days in which nothing seems to be going right, just remember what a privilege it is to be there, and that really it is not a bad day, not at all.

The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Omar Jimenez.

This Day in History 8/23/12

          On this day in 1814, first lady Dolley Madison saves a portrait of George Washington from being looted by British troops during the war of 1812.
          According to the White House Historical Society and Dolley's personal letters, President James Madison left the White House on August 22 to meet with his generals on the battlefield, as British troops threatened to enter the capitol. Before leaving, he asked his wife Dolley if she had the "courage or firmness" to wait for his intended return the next day. He asked her to gather important state papers and be prepared to abandon the White House at any moment. The next day, Dolley and a few servants scanned the horizon with spyglasses waiting for either Madison or the British army to show up. As British troops gathered in the distance, Dolley decided to abandon the couple's personal belongings and save the full-length portrait of former president and national icon George Washington from desecration by vengeful British soldiers, many of whom would have rejoiced in humiliating England's former colonists.
          Dolley wrote to her sister on the night of August 23 that a friend who came to help her escape was exasperated at her insistence on saving the portrait. Since the painting was screwed to the wall she ordered the frame to be broken and the canvas pulled out and rolled up. Two unidentified "gentlemen from New York" hustled it away for safe-keeping. (Unbeknownst to Dolley, the portrait was actually a copy of Gilbert Stuart's original). The task complete, Dolley wrote "and now, dear sister, I must leave this house, or the retreating army will make me a prisoner in it by filling up the road I am directed to take." Dolley left the White House and found her husband at their predetermined meeting place in the middle of a thunderstorm.
          The next night, August 24, British troops enjoyed feasting on White House food using the president's silverware and china before burning the building. Although they were able to return to Washington only three days later when British troops moved on, the Madisons were not again able to take up residence in the White House and lived out the rest of his term in the city's Octagon House. It was not until 1817 that newly elected President James Monroe moved back into the reconstructed building.

This Day in History 8/22/12

          On this day in 1938, Hollywood’s most famous dancing duo, Fred Astaire and Ginger Rogers, are featured on the cover of Life magazine, offering readers a graceful vision at a time when America is in the grips of the Great Depression.
          Born Frederick Austerlitz on May 10, 1899, in Omaha, Nebraska, Astaire began touring the vaudeville circuit with his sister and dancing partner, Adele, in early childhood. By 1917, the siblings were performing in New York and London. After Adele married an English lord, Astaire began working in films, starting with a small role in Dancing Lady (1933). In his second film, Flying Down to Rio (1933), he was paired with Ginger Rogers, who had been born Virginia Katherine McMath on July 16, 1911, in Missouri. As a teenager, Rogers had been a champion Charleston dancer and had also toured on the vaudeville circuit. In 1930, she made a splash on Broadway in George and Ira Gershwin’s musical Girl Crazy.
          Astaire and Rogers turned out to be a perfect match on the dance floor, and audiences flocked to see their dazzling, complex routines in the 10 movie musicals they made together, including The Gay Divorcee (1933), Top Hat (1935), Swing Time (1936) and Shall We Dance? (1937). The actress Katherine Hepburn once famously said of the couple: “He gives her class, and she gives him sex.” The pair’s final film together was 1949’s The Barkleys of Broadway.
          Although best known for her partnership with Astaire, Rogers made some 70 films during her career and won a Best Actress Academy Award for Kitty Foyle (1940). A savvy businesswoman, she invested her earnings wisely and became one of Hollywood’s wealthiest actresses. Married and divorced five times, Rogers had no children and continued to perform for most of her life, scoring triumphs on Broadway in Hello, Dolly! in 1965 and in London with Mame in 1969. Rogers died on April 25, 1995, at the age of 83.
          After his partnership with Rogers in the 1930s, the debonair Astaire continued dancing onscreen with other partners, including Paulette Goddard, Rita Hayworth and Lucille Bremer. He went on to make such films as 1957’s Funny Face, with Audrey Hepburn, and 1974’s The Towering Inferno, which co-starred Steve McQueen and Paul Newman; his performance in the latter film earned Astaire his only Oscar nomination, for Best Supporting Actor. Astaire died at age 88 on June 22, 1987.

This Day in History 8/21/12

          The modern United States receives its crowning star when President Dwight D. Eisenhower signs a proclamation admitting Hawaii into the Union as the 50th state. The president also issued an order for an American flag featuring 50 stars arranged in staggered rows: five six-star rows and four five-star rows. The new flag became official July 4, 1960.
          The first known settlers of the Hawaiian Islands were Polynesian voyagers who arrived sometime in the eighth century. In the early 18th century, American traders came to Hawaii to exploit the islands' sandalwood, which was much valued in China at the time. In the 1830s, the sugar industry was introduced to Hawaii and by the mid 19th century had become well established. American missionaries and planters brought about great changes in Hawaiian political, cultural, economic, and religious life. In 1840, a constitutional monarchy was established, stripping the Hawaiian monarch of much of his authority.
          In 1893, a group of American expatriates and sugar planters supported by a division of U.S. Marines deposed Queen Liliuokalani, the last reigning monarch of Hawaii. One year later, the Republic of Hawaii was established as a U.S. protectorate with Hawaiian-born Sanford B. Dole as president. Many in Congress opposed the formal annexation of Hawaii, and it was not until 1898, following the use of the naval base at Pearl Harbor during the Spanish-American War, that Hawaii's strategic importance became evident and formal annexation was approved. Two years later, Hawaii was organized into a formal U.S. territory. During World War II, Hawaii became firmly ensconced in the American national identity following the surprise Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor in December 1941.
          In March 1959, the U.S. government approved statehood for Hawaii, and in June the Hawaiian people voted by a wide majority to accept admittance into the United States. Two months later, Hawaii officially became the 50th state

This Day in History 8/20/12

          Lyle and Erik Menendez shoot their parents, Jose and Kitty, to death in the den of the family's Beverly Hills, California, home. They then drove up to Mulholland Drive, where they dumped their shotguns before continuing to a local movie theater to buy tickets as an alibi. When the pair returned home, Lyle called 911 and cried, "Somebody killed my parents!" The Menendez murders became a national sensation when the new television network, Court TV, broadcast the trial in 1993.
          Although the Menendez brothers were not immediately suspected, Erik couldn't take the guilt and confessed his involvement to his psychotherapist, Dr. L. Jerome Oziel. Ignoring his own ethical responsibilities, Dr. Oziel taped the sessions with his new patient in an apparent attempt to impress his mistress. But the woman ended up going to the police with her information and, in March 1990, Lyle, 22, and Erik, 19, were arrested.
          For the next three years, a legal battle was fought over the admissibility of Dr. Oziel's tapes. Finally, the California Supreme Court ruled that the tapes could be played. When the trial began in the summer of 1993, the Menendez brothers put on a spirited defense. In compelling testimony lasting over a month, they emotionally described years of sexual abuse by Jose and Kitty Menendez. They insisted that they had shot their parents in self-defense because they believed that Jose would kill them rather than have the abuse be exposed.
          The first two juries (one for each brother) deadlocked, and a mistrial had to be called. For the most part, the lack of a conviction was considered a travesty. At the retrial, which began in October 1995, the judge was much more restrictive in allowing the defense attorneys to focus on the alleged sexual abuse. In March 1996, both Lyle and Erik were convicted and sentenced to life in prison.
          Lyle Menendez married his pen-pal girlfriend, Anna Eriksson, in a telephone conference call from jail on July 2, 1996, the day he was sentenced, but the marriage didn't last; Eriksson found out that Menendez began corresponding with another woman. A few years later, Erik married Tammi Ruth Saccoman.

This Day in History 8/17/12

          The 19th Amendment to the Constitution, guaranteeing women the right to vote, is ratified by Tennessee, giving it the two-thirds majority of state ratification necessary to make it the law of the land. The amendment was the culmination of more than 70 years of struggle by woman suffragists. Its two sections read simply: "The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of sex" and "Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation."
          America's woman suffrage movement was founded in the mid 19th century by women who had become politically active through their work in the abolitionist and temperance movements. In July 1848, 200 woman suffragists, organized by Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Lucretia Mott, met in Seneca Falls, New York, to discuss women's rights. After approving measures asserting the right of women to educational and employment opportunities, they passed a resolution that declared "it is the duty of the women of this country to secure to themselves their sacred right to the elective franchise." For proclaiming a woman's right to vote, the Seneca Falls Convention was subjected to public ridicule, and some backers of women's rights withdrew their support. However, the resolution marked the beginning of the woman suffrage movement in America.
          The first national women's rights convention was held in 1850 and then repeated annually, providing an important focus for the growing woman suffrage movement. In the Reconstruction era, the 15th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was adopted, granting African American men the right to vote, but Congress declined to expand enfranchisement into the sphere of gender. In 1869, the National Woman Suffrage Association was founded by Susan B. Anthony and Elizabeth Cady Stanton to push for a woman suffrage amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Another organization, the American Woman Suffrage Association, led by Lucy Stone, was formed in the same year to work through the state legislatures. In 1890, these two groups were united as the National American Woman Suffrage Association. That year, Wyoming became the first state to grant women the right to vote.
          By the beginning of the 20th century, the role of women in American society was changing drastically: Women were working more, receiving a better education, bearing fewer children, and three more states (Colorado, Utah, and Idaho) had yielded to the demand for female enfranchisement. In 1916, the National Woman's Party (formed in 1913 at the Congressional Union for Woman Suffrage) decided to adopt a more radical approach to woman suffrage. Instead of questionnaires and lobbying, its members picketed the White House, marched, and staged acts of civil disobedience.
          In 1917, America entered World War I, and women aided the war effort in various capacities, which helped to break down most of the remaining opposition to woman suffrage. By 1918, women had acquired equal suffrage with men in 15 states, and both the Democratic and Republican parties openly endorsed female enfranchisement.
          In January 1918, the woman suffrage amendment passed the House of Representatives with the necessary two-thirds majority vote. In June 1919, it was approved by the Senate sent to the states for ratification. Campaigns were waged by suffragists around the country to secure ratification, and on August 18, 1920, Tennessee became the 36th state to ratify the amendment. On August 26, it was formally adopted into the Constitution by proclamation of Secretary of State Bainbridge Colby.

 

Chicago’s Shootings Didn’t Happen In a Movie Theater, But It’s Still the World’s Deadliest City

Aug 14, 2012 4:56 PM
By: Cord Jefferson
          Two months before alleged killer James Holmes stormed a Colorado movie theater, murdering 12 and injuring dozens more, police and politicians in a different place were trying to squelch the tremors from their own mass killing. It was in Chicago, over Memorial Day weekend, when police responded to more than 40 shooting victims in about 72 hours. Ten of those victims were shot dead, including four teenage children. Alas, despite the fact that more people died that weekend than in both the August 5 Sikh killings and yesterday's College Station shootings combined, there will be no flags at half-staff for those 10 Chicagoans. It's likely you didn't even know those people were dead, just like most of your friends and family. In a summer of now three much-lamented shootings with multiple victims, Chicago's murdered are the forgotten ones.

          Because people in the media like to compare and contrast things in order to add perspective, there are now dozens of ways to look at Chicago's murder rate: In May, it was up 49 percent from last year. For a time, more Chicagoans were getting killed than soldiers in Afghanistan, a literal war zone. It's worse than New York, a city three times its size. And trumping them all: It's the worst murder rate out of every so-called "Alpha" city in the entire world, a grouping that includes even historically rough locales like Sao Paulo, Mexico City, Los Angeles, and New York.

          Some people, especially the police, like to blame the violence on gangs, but Berkley law professor Franklin Zimring told the Daily Beast last month that saying Chicago violence is mostly gang-related is "both helpful and extremely mysterious." "Because there is no sense that Chicago has a gang profile which is vastly different from that of Los Angeles, and yet [the murder rate in] Los Angeles has continued [to be] low," he said.

          I emailed Chicago Tribune crime reporter Peter Nickeas to ask him how the lack of attention given to Chicago's violence makes him feel. President Obama, I pointed out, had visited Aurora and made calls to the Oak Creek temple members just after the respective shootings. But his last visit to Chicago, on a weekend in which seven people were killed and 35 wounded by gun violence, was for a wedding and a round of golf. Here's what Nickeas wrote:

          I love my job. It matters. I don't see any other reporters, most nights, at the crime scenes I visit. I don't see anyone else standing next to crying family members or cops who are desensitized to it because it happens every shift, like clock work, across the city. Someone has to put these shootings into context, and make people realize that the nightly stories are more than box scores, even if we can't get out to a crime scene to illustrate it that night.
          Everytime someone gets shot, someone in the neighborhood has to hear the gunfire, kids in the neighborhood see the police and hear the screaming relatives, they have to find out what happens as word trickles out into the community. So, that needs to be covered. I do what I can, and I'm proud of my organization's coverage. My editors give me wide leeway to go out and chase these stories overnight and I'm thankful for that.
          Overall, the general lack of media coverage of Chicago violence bothers me. I wish more people paid attention. I feel like people just say "oh well, that's Chicago," with its 450 or so homicides a year. No other big city in the country would tolerate this. New York City is three times the size and is on pace for about 400 homicides this year. Chicago is looking at a real possibility of passing 500, if trends in both cities hold.
          Regarding the presidential visit - I don't know why there's no visit. You'd have to ask his PR shop, I can't speak for him. I would note that if he visited after every weekend where 30+ people were shot, he'd be here every summer weekend, it seems.
          I absolutely am not comparing the shootings in Aurora or Milwaukee recently to Chicago violence - they are two totally different things. I think part of the media coverage in those two places is that it was unexpected, it's a crazy outburst of violence by a single offender targeting people who have no reason to be targeted.
          I think people here are numb to it. There are parts of the city where it's normal to hear gunfire. I've heard gunfire standing next to crime scenes and waited for someone in the neighborhood to call it in, only to hear silence on my portable scanner. I've listened to the scanner and heard cops calling in gunfire while they're guarding a crime scene from earlier in the night, only to hear the dispatchers keep saying "no tickets yet," (which means nobody's called 911 to report shots fired calls).
          The reality is, Chicago was clocking 800+ murders 10 years ago and was down to about 440 last year, might be more than that this year (we're up about 30% year over year at this point, though the Superintendent has noted, the rate of the increase is decreasing. We were up 60% at one point this spring. I think we're at 320 or 330 this year compared to maybe 250 or 260 last year). A lot of the shootings here are gang related, and a lot of times the people shot are mutual combatants. It's a matter of people settling scores with each other, often times, and not someone walking into a random crowded place and shooting.
          So what I try to do is show that the violence ripples out, even when it's confined to gang members and the people shooting hit only their targets. Nobody lives in a vacuum. The only thing we can do is keep visiting crime scenes, talking to families, talking to neighbors, talking to cops, and piecing together stories that show what the violence does to the city.

          For his part, Chicago Mayor Rahm Emanuel has responded to the killings with his unique brand of tough love, saying that he doesn't really care if gang members kill each other, just as long as they do it away from children and other innocents. "Take your stuff away to the alley," he told a press conference in early July. "Don't touch the children of the city of Chicago. Don't get near them." In Emanuel's words is the tacit understanding that it's not kids committing these crimes—at least not very small ones. It's young men committing these crimes, and the vast majority of those young men are black (though blacks make up only 33 percent of Chicago's population, they're 78 percent of the murder victims).

          Wherever and why-ever and whomever is doing these shootings, it's been interesting to juxtapose them with the recent spate of mass killings that has America rapt. Chicago is on track to have 504 homicide victims by year's end, or about twenty-five times more than the casualties in the Aurora, Oak Creek, and College Station shootings combined.

          To be sure, there is a problem of false equivalency here in that tragedy befalling people in one fell swoop—as it did in Aurora and Oak Creek—is jarring in a way that a consistent barrage of little tragedies is not. It's the difference between a home being flooded and a home suffering a steady leak in the ceiling. But that doesn't explain away why we as a nation care less when it's Chicagoans dying in their neighborhoods instead of Batman fans in a movie theater.

          New pieces in the New Yorker and the New York Observer have pointed out the differences in how people have treated the Aurora shooting versus the Sikh temple shooting. The Observer's Hunter Walker noted that some Oak Creek Sikhs are disappointed Obama hasn't yet paid them a visit. In the New Yorker, political science professor Naunihal Singh wrote, "Unlike Aurora, which prompted nationwide mourning, Oak Creek has had such a limited impact that a number of people walking by the New York City vigil for the dead on Wednesday were confused, some never having heard of the killings in the first place."

          When a hospital is overwhelmed with people in need of care, they perform triage to decide which patients to see first. Those hemorrhaging blood and on the verge of death take precedent, and those with headaches are told to wait. Society institutes triage, too, though it's mostly unspoken. Tragedies like the Aurora shooting get months and years of press, and Americans of all stripes cry together over the preciousness and loss of life. After that, tragedies like the Sikh shooting and the College Station shooting get political statements, and maybe some people wonder what went wrong. But as Naunihal Singh lamented, there simply isn't the same level of interest as there is other times, perhaps because the victims were less in number or of an esoteric religion. Then, after all of those, comes Chicago, and the 100 or so people mowed down by gunfire there every few months.

          Maybe if everyone killed annually by guns in Chicago was executed at the same time on Wrigley Field, the world might decide to pay attention. Life, for whatever reason, seems to be valued more when a lot of it is snatched away unfairly all at once. Also possible, and far more chilling, is that maybe people don't think it's so unfair for young black people to get killed in Chicago's ghettoes.

          This post has been updated to note that, for a time, more citizens were killed in Chicago than U.S. soldiers were killed Afghanistan, though the murder rate wasn't higher.

Points of View: Don’t ban social media from schools

By Steve Nicholls, Special to CNN

          The New York Education Department recently stated that in the first 11 months of 2011 there were 69 cases where teachers were accused of inappropriate conduct with students on Facebook. Some were fired as a result, and there is a growing trend by schools across the country to put a ban on social media.

          This raises a question: Is prohibiting social media in schools the right way to protect children?

          In my view, if the answer is yes then that would mean that as technology grows, schools are forbidden to grow with it, and that would somewhat be of a contradiction to what a school is supposed to be in the first place.

          I believe it is critical that social media is allowed in schools as it presents a world of opportunities that far outweigh the risks if it is implemented safely and properly. Social media has become far too integrated into daily life on a global basis; failing to incorporate it into schools would do our children a disservice.

          Think of how far the space has grown in just a few years (remember Myspace?) and imagine where it will be by the time your child is out of college. Trying to ban social media will simply not work. Just ask certain autocratic countries that have tried in vain. The question at the core of the issue is: Why ban it?

          Concerned parents may point to the potential dangers and risks. What about inappropriate interaction with teachers? Or scams from online predators? Even adults fall prey to human emotion and post things they would love to have back. Why put my 10-year-old in that position?

          My answer is to first acknowledge that these concerns are warranted and the threats are real. That being said, while the risks of social media are very serious, the biggest risk of all is not to embrace it. Bad people exist in all walks of life, and while we must protect against them, we must not let them hinder progress. For example, if a pedophile is found near a school playground, would you homeschool your child? I think in most instances the answer would be no.
          The fact that the risks associated with social media are real is exactly the reason why it is important to make it part of school teaching. What better place is there to educate our youth about these potential risks so they can avoid them in the “real world?” Ignoring them will not make them go away.

          As discussed in my book, Social Media in Business, I have helped implement social media across a variety of business sectors, and the core principles apply to schools, too. The key is to put a strong social media policy in place that identifies the potential risks and mitigates them so you can enjoy all the benefits social media has to offer. In the fast-changing digital world, there is not a “one size fits all” formula, but by adhering to certain principles and putting certain safeguards in place, schools can implement a safe and effective policy that will protect the school, the children and the teachers while maximizing learning.

          I believe there are 10 important principles to consider that will help implement a safe and effective social media policy in schools:

          1.  Bring in experts: Working with both a legal team and social media experts is a good way to ensure the crafting of a solid social media policy, one that takes into account the benefits, risks and fast-changing landscape.

          2.  Make a clear written policy: The policy needs to plainly inform teachers, students and parents about what is and isn’t acceptable behavior and list the consequences of inappropriate behavior. The policy can be written and reinforced verbally and signed by all to confirm their understanding of every aspect of it.

          3. Highlight past transgressions: The best way to connect with people is to humanize the issue. Schools could talk about previous cases of misconduct which led to firing of teachers and expulsions of students.

          4. Strive for accountability: Remind teachers and students that they will be held accountable for everything they write on social media sites.

          5. Create a classroom page: Teachers could consider establishing a separate classroom Facebook fan page that is safe and secure. By doing so, you are creating a safe environment to facilitate an online community full of learning.

          6. Report inappropriate behavior immediately: If somebody writes or does something inappropriate through social media, reporting it immediately is very important. The good news with social media is that there will be electronic proof, and this avoids the typical “he said, she said” scenario found in many schools.

          7. Remind students of proper use: On school time, social networking sites need to be used for learning activities and not leisure activities such as video gaming.

          8. Assess policy vs. reality: Just because a policy is written does not mean it will be followed. Many “unwritten” rules will take shape, and the school needs to be vigilant and continuously reshape policy to match what is happening “on the ground.”

          9. Involve parents and the community: Involving parents and the community is also important as this allows them to “police” proper conduct and keep a watchful eye.

          10. Bring the risks to light: Children will use social media outside the classroom, thus the classroom is the perfect place to teach them about risks. Just as teachers tell children not to get in a stranger’s car, talking about the dangers of online predators can be incorporated into school learning and prepare them for life outside school.

          I think the topic of social media in schools is worthy of great debate, but ultimately, it is in our children’s and our nation’s best interest to embrace its use as it will only become more of a core form of communication as we move further into the 21st century.

Editor’s note: Steve Nicholls is the author of Social Media in Business. He is a social media strategist hired by business executives to teach them how to implement a winning social media strategy into their organization. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of Steve Nicholls.

What do you think?