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Teachers head: Don't link tests to evaluations yet

altnews.asia - Wed, 01/05/2013 - 05:14

The head of the country's second-largest teachers union said Tuesday governments should hold off on linking standardized test results with evaluations of schools, students and teachers until everyone is on the same page.

Randi Weingarten, president of the American Federation of Teachers, called for a moratorium on penalties associated with tests aligned to the national standards called Common Core benchmarks until the standards have been fully implemented.

"The fact that the changes are being made nationwide without anything close to adequate preparation is a failure of leadership, a sign of a broken accountability system and, worse, and an abdication of our responsibility to kids, particularly poor kids," Weingarten told the Association for a Better New York, a business group.

Forty-five states and the District of Columbia have adopted the Common Core standards.

The issue in New York, among the first states to test students based on the standards, has been contentious. New York students in grades 3 through 8 took Common Core-aligned math and English tests during the last two weeks although most schools in the state have not fully implemented the standards.

Some New York students complained that the Common Core-aligned English tests were too difficult to complete in the allotted time, and there were reports of students crying from stress.

Weingarten said she supports the Common Core standards, which are intended to increase rigor and prepare students better for college and careers, but she urged New York not to evaluate teachers or students based on this year's tests.

"Across the state, scores from this spring's assessments may be used to determine whether students advance or are held back, to designate a school's performance, and even to determine whether schools stay open or shut down. And they will be used as 20 percent of teacher evaluations," she said.

Merryl Tisch, the head of New York's Board of Regents, said the same percentage of teachers will be rated "effective" based on this year's tests as in the past. But she noted the state Education Department has said it will not designate any schools as failing based on the tests.

She added: "We believe strongly that this is the right thing for students and teachers right now."

Andrew Kirtzman, a spokesman for the city Department of Education, said, "This is about a special interest that doesn't want this to happen because of fear for their jobs."

The AFT says it has 1.5 million members. The National Education Association claims to be the largest teachers union with 3 million members.

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Syrian envoy: Chemical weapons can't be tolerated

altnews.asia - Wed, 01/05/2013 - 05:13

Syria's U.N. ambassador said Tuesday that the use of chemical weapons is not only "a red line" but "a blood line" that cannot be tolerated and again demanded a U.N. investigation of an alleged chemical weapons attack in Aleppo that it blames on rebels.

Bashar Ja'afari said at a news conference that his government has bodies and other proof that chemical weapons were used in Khan al-Assad in Aleppo on March 19 and it wants this incident investigated first. The rebels blame the government for the attack.

Ja'afari said Damascus is demanding details of another alleged chemical weapons attack that Britain and France say was carried out by the government in Homs on Dec. 23 before it will even consider allowing U.N. experts to conduct an investigation in that city.

He disclosed that Qatar also sent a letter to the United Nations "claiming the use of chemical weapons in other parts of Syria," without giving dates or locations.

Pressed by reporters, Ja'afari declined to confirm that Syria has chemical weapons. "The Syrian government has always emphasized that the Syrian government will not use, if it possesses any, chemical weapons on its own people," he said.

He added, "The use of chemical weapons in Syria and elsewhere in the world is not only a red line, it's a purple line, it's a blood line, and nobody is tolerated or will be tolerated to use such horrific weapon of mass destruction."

He was speaking as President Barack Obama strongly suggested at a news conference in Washington that he would consider military action against Syria if it can be confirmed that President Bashar Assad's government used chemical weapons in the country's two-year-old civil war, which the U.N. says has killed more than 70,000 people.

Obama said that while there is evidence that chemical weapons were used inside Syria, "we don't know when they were used, how they were used. We don't know who used them. We don't have a chain of custody," he said.

If it can be established that the Syrian government used chemical weapons, he added, "we would have to rethink the range of options that are available to us."

Ja'afari blamed opponents of the Syrian government, which he didn't name, for launching "a campaign of incitement" which has included "trumped-up charges and fraudulent accusations against Syria" as well as a media, diplomatic and political campaign.

He said it was similar to the campaign leading to the Iraq War in 2003, when the United States and Britain claimed Iraq had weapons of mass destruction. The claim proved to be false.

"What happened in Iraq is still alive in our minds," he added.

Ja'afari insisted that the U.N. team of chemical weapons experts should immediately go to Syria to investigate the Khan al-Assad incident, but made no commitment to investigating the other claims.

"The Syrian government is still waiting to receive information on these situations," Ja'afari said. "Then, if the Syrian government and the secretary-general and the Security Council members feel that these allegations are also credible, the Syrian government might — might — examine the possibility of asking for further investigation," he said.

If such information is delivered to Damascus, "then it would be up to us" to make a decision, Ja'afari said.

U.N. spokesman Martin Nesirky said later that the U.N. experts "will look into the incidents in the order received," so the Khan al-Assad attack "is the first one, but the secretary-general feels that he cannot engage in a partial investigation, there needs to be investigation of all allegations."

Nesirky approved of Syria's desire to have a quick investigation of Khan al-Assad. "However, such cooperation should also be extended to Homs, the site of the other allegation," he said.

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Online poker back: Legal website launches in Nev

altnews.asia - Wed, 01/05/2013 - 05:13

Poker devotees can now skip the smoky casino and legally gamble their dollars away on the couch — at least in the state of Nevada.

A Las Vegas-based casino subsidiary launched the first fully legal poker website in the United States on Tuesday morning.

The site, run by Ultimate Gaming, is only accepting wagers from players in Nevada for now, but likely represents the next chapter in gambling nationwide.

Internet poker, never fully legal, has been strictly outlawed since 2011, when the Department of Justice seized the domain names of the largest offshore sites catering to U.S. customers and blacked them out.

This crackdown, dubbed "black Friday," left poker fanatics with two options: They could either get dressed and visit a card room, or break the law and log into an offshore site.

More recently, the federal government softened its stance on Internet betting, and three states — New Jersey, Delaware and Nevada— have legalized some form of online wagering within their borders.

With Tuesday's launch, Nevada wins the race to bring Texas Hold 'em back to the Internet.

"There was black Friday, and now we're going to have 'trusting Tuesday,'" said Ultimate Gaming CEO Tobin Prior. "Players won't have to worry if their money is safe. They are going to be able to play with people they can trust and know the highest regulatory standards have been applied."

About 20 other companies— including Zynga, the creator of FarmVille— are preparing to open their virtual doors in the Silver State.

UltimatePoker.com will look familiar to anyone who participated in the poker craze of the 2000s. Only the account setup and login process have changed. Instead of checking a box certifying they are older than 18, players will click through a lengthy setup process involving Social Security and cell phone numbers. Only those older than 21 will be allowed to play.

Ultimate Gaming hopes to win the trust not only of players, but of regulators and politicians.

"It's an opportunity to show the world how to properly run online poker," Ultimate Gaming chairman Tom Breitling said.

Several cash-hungry states are weighing legislation that would allow them to tap into what is expected to be a multibillion-dollar market. Some bills would legalize only poker, as Nevada has, while others would throw open the gates to all casino games, including slots, as New Jersey and Delaware have done.

Earlier this year, Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval approved legislation that gives him the ability to sign interstate Internet gambling deals with other governors.

Players around the world currently wager an estimated $35 billion online each year, according to the American Gaming Association. A fully realized U.S. online poker market could generate $4.3 billion in revenue its first year, and $9.6 billion by year five, according to London-based research firm H2 Gambling Capital.

Still, with federal efforts to legalize Internet poker stalled, it may be a while before a critical mass of states link together to lure professional players back from overseas and drive up jackpots.

Nevada, a state of just 2.8 million, attracts 52 million visitors a year— more than the population of California. But who wants to go on vacation just to fire up their laptop and play some virtual cards?

"I think the real excitement will be when we get a very populous state like a California or a New York allowing these companies to expand," ITG casino analyst Matthew Jacob said. "But these changes often take longer to occur than people assume. It requires a change in law and then it takes a while from when the law passes until the sites are up and running."

Prior says he intends to make Ultimate Poker profitable within a matter of years, in part through cross-promotion with mixed martial arts giant Ultimate Fighting Championship. Both companies are owned by brothers Frank and Lorenzo Fertitta, who also control Station Casinos Inc., a chain that caters to locals in Las Vegas.

The Ultimate Poker logo has enjoyed prime placement in the UFC fight octagon for months. The Ultimate Poker Facebook page, which steers fans to a zero-stakes version of the site, features a mix of UFC glamour shots and stock images of guys in hoodies staring into laptop screens.

"When you look at the demographic of the UFC fan and the online poker player, it's almost a perfect overlap," Breitling said.

In the coming months, Ultimate Gaming will have to prove that its technology and 111 employees can prevent minors and out-of-state players from wagering real dollars, and guard against money laundering. The site will use several factors to track location, including the virtual customer's mobile phone and their IP addresses, the strings of numbers that identify computers on the Internet, according to chief technology officer Chris Derossi.

It will also have to pay 6.75 percent of its revenue in Nevada state taxes.

It's unclear how much of a boon the new market will be to the cash-strapped state. In 2012, the Pew Center on the States analyzed 13 states that had recently legalized new types of gambling, and found that more than two-thirds of "failed to live up to the initial promises or projections."

The gambling industry is hoping the return of Internet poker will revitalize interest in the game and help brick and mortar casinos capture a younger market.

The rise of Internet poker is generally credited with helping spark the poker fad of the last decade. The end of online gambling is thought to have helped quash interest in the game.

In the coming months, the industry will be watching closely to see if poker players come flocking back from their new hobbies, replacement computer games and illegal offshore gambling sites.

"This is a really huge moment for our company, the state of Nevada and the gaming community," Breitling said. "We're hoping to make poker fun again."

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Laying bare your finances to apply for health care

altnews.asia - Wed, 01/05/2013 - 05:12

After a storm of complaints, the Obama administration on Tuesday unveiled simplified forms to apply for insurance under the president's new health care law. You won't have to lay bare your medical history but you will have to detail your finances.

An earlier version of the forms had provoked widespread griping that they were as bad as tax forms and might overwhelm uninsured people, causing them to give up in frustration.

The biggest change: a five-page short form that single people can fill out. That form includes a cover page with instructions and another page if you want to designate someone to help you through the process.

But the abridged application form for families still runs to 12 pages, even if most households will not have to fill out every page. Most people are expected to take another option, applying online.

The ease or difficulty of applying for benefits takes on added importance because Americans remain confused about what the health care law will mean for them. A Kaiser Family Foundation poll released Tuesday found that 4 in 10 are unaware it's the law of the land. Some think it's been repealed by Congress. In fact, it's still on track.

At his news conference Tuesday, President Barack Obama hailed the simplified forms as an example of how his team listened to criticism from consumer groups and made a fix. The law's full benefits will be available to all next year, he emphasized, even if Republicans in Congress still insist on repeal and many GOP governors won't help put it into place.

When the first draft of the application turned out to be a clunker, "immediately, everybody sat around the table and said, 'Well, this is too long, especially...in this age of the Internet,'" Obama recounted. "'People aren't going to have the patience to sit there for hours on end. Let's streamline this thing.'"

The flap over the application forms was a "first test" of the administration's ability to confront problems as they emerge, said Sam Karp, vice president of programs at the California HealthCare Foundation.

"Being nimble enough to identify, then fix, problems will be critical to successfully enroll millions of Americans who will become newly eligible for coverage," he said.

The applications will start becoming familiar to consumers less than six months from now, on Oct. 1, when new insurance markets open for enrollment in every state. They are not for people already signed up in their employer's plan, only the uninsured.

Filling out the application is just the first part of the process, which lets you know if you qualify for financial help. The government asks to see what you're making because Obama's Affordable Care Act is means-tested, with lower-income people getting the most generous help to pay premiums. Consumers who aren't applying for financial help still have to fill out a five-page form.

Once you're finished with the money part, actually picking a health plan will require additional steps, plus a basic understanding of insurance jargon.

Under the law, middle-class people who don't get coverage through their jobs will be able to purchase private insurance. Most will be able to get tax credits to make their premiums more affordable. The lowest-income uninsured people will be steered to government programs like Medicaid.

Benefits begin Jan. 1, and nearly 30 million uninsured Americans are eventually expected to get coverage.

While the first drafts of the applications were widely panned, the new forms were seen as an improvement. Still, consumers must provide a snapshot of their finances to see if they qualify for help. That potentially includes multiple sources of income, from alimony to tips to regular paychecks.

The list includes: unemployment, pensions, Social Security, other retirement checks and farming and fishing income. Individuals will have to gather tax returns, pay stubs and other financial records before filling out the application.

"Given the amount of information necessary to determine eligibility, it's hard to see how the forms could be any shorter," said Robert Laszewski, a former insurance executive turned industry consultant.

Although the new forms are shorter, the administration wasn't able to get rid of all the complexity. One question asks family applicants with at least one member covered through a job for "the lowest-cost plan that meets the minimum value standard offered only to the employee." Huh?

Administration officials expect most people to apply online. The process will route consumers to either private plans or Medicaid. Identification, citizenship and immigration status, as well as income details, are supposed to be verified in close to real time through a federal "data hub" pinging Social Security, the Homeland Security department and the Internal Revenue Service.

Under Obama's overhaul, insurers will no longer be able to turn away the sick or charge them more. The pitfalls of giving the wrong answer to a health care question will be gone, but consumers who underestimate their incomes could be in for an unwelcome surprise later on in the form of smaller tax refunds.

Among the sections eliminated in the new form was one that asked applicants if they also wanted to register to vote. Some congressional Republicans had criticized that, calling it politically motivated.

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Man gets life term for killing 4 in North Dakota

altnews.asia - Wed, 01/05/2013 - 05:12

A Somali national was sentenced to life in prison Tuesday for killing the mother of his child and three other people in North Dakota two years ago.

Omar Mohamed Kalmio, 28, declined to comment following the 30-minute sentencing hearing, the Minot Daily News reported (http://bit.ly/ZxYxSA ). Judge Douglas Mattson sentenced Kalmio to four consecutive terms of life in prison without the possibility of parole.

Kalmio was convicted of fatally shooting 19-year-old Sabrina Zephier on Jan. 28, 2011, at her Minot home. Authorities said he then killed her 13-year-old brother, Dillon Zephier; her mother Jolene Zephier, 38; and Jolene's 22-year-old boyfriend, Jeremy Longie, at the mother's nearby mobile home. The baby girl was found unharmed in Sabrina Zephier's home. They were members of the Yankton Sioux Tribe.

Kalmio, who had a history of violent crime, was working in North Dakota's oil patch at the time of the killings and said he was in the U.S. under political asylum.

According to court documents, a witness said Kalmio and Zephier argued days before she was found dead. Kalmio's co-workers at an oil rig site near Williston claimed he had told them Zephier purposely became pregnant and that she had ruined his life. Authorities said Kalmio described injuries to Zephier that had not been publicly disclosed.

Kalmio and a group of other Somali men were accused of attacking a man in Minneapolis in January 2006, and Kalmio stabbed him three times in the back with a knife. He was convicted of second-degree assault with a dangerous weapon and sentenced to about a year in prison. Kalmio also was convicted of theft in 2006, and ordered to pay a fine.

Multiple slayings are virtually unheard of in North Dakota, which had only 10 murders and non-negligent homicides in all of 2010 and 24 homicides the next year, according to data compiled by the FBI.

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2nd body found after S. Calif. midair collision

altnews.asia - Wed, 01/05/2013 - 05:11

A second body was found Tuesday at a rugged site in the Santa Monica Mountains where a small plane crashed and burned after a midair collision with another small plane that managed to make a belly landing on a golf course, authorities said.

The discovery was made as investigators examined the crash site and firefighters stood by to make sure the fire did not rekindle in advance of predicted windy conditions, said Los Angeles County Fire Department Inspector Tony Imbrenda.

The site of Monday's crash is a ridge in the mountain range north of Malibu near Calabasas, about 25 miles west of downtown Los Angeles.

The crash of the single-engine Cessna 172 sparked a half-acre brush fire that was quickly controlled.

Television footage showed the plane, which had taken off from Santa Monica airport, was nearly completely destroyed.

Three people on the other plane, also a Cessna, suffered minor injuries as it landed wheels-up on a fairway at Westlake Golf Course, about six miles away. One was hospitalized after complaining of back pain.

Stunned golfers said the single-engine plane hit a tree, spun around 180 degrees and came down surprisingly gently on the grass.

"All we heard was a thud and then he made a gentle bounce and slid down the center of the fairway," golfer Aaron Jesse, 47, told the Los Angeles Times.

Preliminary radar records showed the two flight paths crossed about 2 p.m., according to Federal Aviation Administration spokesman Allen Kenitzer.

The plane that ended up on the golf course was flying west at an altitude of 3,500 feet as the other Cessna headed east, Kenitzer said.

The National Transportation Safety Board and FAA were investigating.

FAA records showed the plane on the golf course was manufactured in 1980 and is registered to Ameriflyers of Florida, LLC. A message left at a number listed for the company was not immediately returned.

Firefighters were expected to remain on the scene near Calabasas for two more days. The National Weather Service predicted winds up to 45 mph in the area on Wednesday.

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Anti-abortion movement seeks new laws with Gosnell trial

altnews.asia - Wed, 01/05/2013 - 05:11

Anti-abortion activists are harnessing the outrage generated over the trial of a Philadelphia abortion doctor to pressure lawmakers to pass more restrictive abortion laws.

The activists say the trial of 72-year-old Kermit Gosnell, which concludes Monday as attorneys on both sides make their closing arguments, shows that late-term abortions are inhumane and unsafe and should be banned.

Gosnell is charged with murder in the deaths of four babies who were born alive after abortion procedures (he is alleged to have cut their spinal cords) and in the death of a woman who died of a drug overdose he allegedly administered.

Gosnell faces other charges, including violating Pennsylvania's law against performing abortions after 24 weeks of pregnancy; violating a state law requiring a 24-hour waiting period for patients before obtaining an abortion; and of endangering child welfare by employing a 15-year-old in the clinic, which investigators labeled a "house of horrors."

Abortion foes say Gosnell's crimes are representative of larger abuses in late-term abortion clinics, while abortion rights advocates say he is a criminal outlier who would not have been stopped by more regulations.

One player in the anti-abortion movement, the Susan B. Anthony List, is lobbying for a bill to ban all abortions performed in Washington, D.C., after 20 weeks of pregnancy. The group has generated thousands of letters to lawmakers in support of the "D.C. Pain-Capable Unborn Child Protection Act," which was introduced by Arizona Republican Rep. Trent Franks. The group is also hoping to convince lawmakers to introduce a national version of the bill.

"What is the difference between killing a baby minutes before delivery compared to moments after? Only the barest of legal nuances," SBA List President Marjorie Dannenfelser said in a statement tying the proposed D.C. law to Gosnell's alleged crimes. “It is an outrage that in the shadow of the Capitol, children can legally have their lives ended through methods equally brutal to those employed by Gosnell."

The proposed 20-week ban is part of a wave of anti-abortion legislation that is attempting to directly challenge the Supreme Court's 1973 Roe v. Wade ruling, which said the government cannot ban abortions that take place before a fetus can survive outside the womb. (The point of viability is considered to be at about 24 weeks, though that point is debated.)

This year, 10 states have passed or are poised to pass legislation to ban abortions after 20 weeks, according to the Guttmacher Institute, which tracks reproductive health issues. Arkansas and North Dakota went even further, recently banning abortions that occur when a fetal heartbeat can be detected, which can happen as early as six weeks into a pregnancy.

On Friday, President Barack Obama criticized some of those laws in a speech to Planned Parenthood.

“A woman may not even know that she’s pregnant at six weeks,” he said of the North Dakota law.

Those who support abortion rights note that Gosnell was allegedly in violation of dozens of existing laws.

"The important thing to remember is that Kermit Gosnell was running a criminal enterprise, not a health care facility," said Eric Ferrero, a spokesman for Planned Parenthood, the leading reproductive health care provider and a proponent of abortion rights. (Planned Parenthood does not generally perform late-term abortions.)

"He was violating dozens and dozens of laws and regulations that were already on the books. New regulations would not have stopped him," Ferrero said.

Federal law requires health care providers to try to save the lives of babies born alive during abortion procedures. Abortions after 21 weeks make up less than 1 percent of all abortions performed in the U.S. each year; the vast majority of abortions take place during the first trimester.

Others in the anti-abortion movement think the Gosnell case may help their cause to regulate clinics more strictly, as well as win over more supporters in the general public to their cause.

James Bopp Jr., the general counsel for National Right to Life, told Yahoo News that the case gives fuel to the argument that abortion clinics should be more strictly regulated. "When the realities of abortion are exposed to the public, it tends to be a rather gruesome business and people do react to that," Bopp said.

The Gosnell case has already prompted Pennsylvania lawmakers to pass a law that requires clinics to be regulated in the same way that outpatient surgery centers are. That means doors, hallways and elevators in the clinic must fit a stretcher, for example, in case a patient needs to be rushed to a hospital. Texas passed similar legislation.

Ferrero said such regulations tie up legitimate clinics in red tape, and would not have stopped someone like Gosnell—who is accused of flouting a number of federal, state and local laws—from criminal practices. The larger campaign to restrict abortion predates the furor over Gosnell, Ferrero said.

"Extreme activists and politicians will certainly try to use this to try to advance their agenda of making abortion inaccessible and unavailable for women, but that is clearly part of a larger, long term political agenda and political campaign among these folks," Ferrero said.

Meanwhile, the anti-abortion group Live Action, led by activist Lila Rose, released undercover videos Monday showing employees at two late-term abortion clinics explaining what would happen if a baby were born alive during an abortion to women they believed were patients.

One unidentified staff member at a Bronx clinic said babies born alive would be placed in a "solution" that would kill them. (The clinic's manager told the Washington Post a baby had never been born alive during an abortion there and that the staff member was uninformed.) A doctor in Washington, D.C., is seen on the tape saying he would be legally obligated to help a baby born alive, but that it would probably die.

In an interview, Rose said she was not interested so much in convincing politicians to ban late term abortions, but rather to change "hearts and minds."

"I think the most important thing is making sure that every person and particularly women in America know exactly what these procedures are and what they do," she said.

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World leaders love Twitter

altnews.asia - Wed, 01/05/2013 - 05:10

It’s not just celebrities who love Twitter: South American leaders, it turns out, heart to tweet. Some may even have gone overboard and may have over shared.

A Reuters story reports that when some 1 million protesters hit the streets to criticize the government of Argentina President Cristina Fernandez, she responded by posting 61 tweets over a nine-hour period.

According to the account, the posts from Fernandez ran the gamut from declaring herself “stubborn,” to defending the benefits of a state-run literacy program, to admiring a fresco in her “gorgeous” palace.

And in Venezuela, the candidates vying to succeed the late Hugo Chavez had a war of words on Twitter. The eventual winner of the election, Nicolas Maduro, who had been handpicked by Chavez, tweeted that his opposition was “fascist.” The losing candidate, Henrique Capriles, posted that Maduro was “an illegitimate president.”

Chavez, who had had his own TV show, had also taken to tweeting. He had 4 million followers when he died.

Being out of office hasn’t quieted the former president of Colombia, Álvaro Uribe, who has ruffled feathers for apparently posting multiple tweets a day criticizing the current leader.

Over in France, public figures are only too aware of the impact a tweet can have. Valerie Trierweiler, the companion to the president of France, Francois Hollande, got in hot water for her impolitic post supporting the opponent of Hollande’s ex, who was running in a local election.

Maybe this explains former President Bill Clinton’s reluctance to try out the social medium. He only just joined with the encouragement of satiric news host Stephen Colbert, who first started Clinton with the Twitter handle @PrezBillyJeff.

Clinton officially introduced the more respectable @billclinton. Launched last week, the former president already has more than 500,000 followers.

Barack Obama, who famously would not give up his Blackberry when he got to the White House, rarely is the one tweeting from his account @BarackObama. If he does, the posts are signed “bo.”

There is one leader who's definitely not a Twitter fan. According to Reuters, Brazil's president, Dilma Rousseff, stopped tweeting after she was elected in 2010. An aide told Retuers, "She thinks it's a total waste of time."

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Teachers head: Don't link tests to evaluations yet

Syrian envoy: Chemical weapons can't be tolerated

Online poker back: Legal website launches in Nev

Laying bare your finances to apply for health care

Man gets life term for killing 4 in North Dakota

2nd body found after S. Calif. midair collision

Anti-abortion movement seeks new laws with Gosnell trial

World leaders love Twitter