James Eagan Holmes' 1st Court Appearance & Modus Operandi: PhD Social Experiment ("Analyzing WHITE People")

Comedian Paul Mooney describes James Eagan Holmes' Criminal Behavior & how he will Fool the American Criminal Justice System to avoid Punishment:

"A WHITE Man Shoots a bunch of people and goes before the Judge."
"The Judge asks him: WHITE Man why did you Shoot those People?"
"WHITE Man Answers: I don't know. I have Multiple Personalities."
"The Judge says: Multiple Personalities? Interesting. We will have to Study You."

"A BLACK Man Shoots a bunch of people and goes before the Judge."
"The Judge asks him: BLACK Man why did you Shoot those People?"
"BLACK Man Answers: "I don't know. I have Multiple Personalities."
"The Judge answers: Well one of those Multiple Personalities is going to Pay for these Crimes today, I don't care if its Bob, Tim, Steve, Somebody is going to pay for these Crimes today."


Welcome to AmeriKKKa where there are 2 forms of JUSTICE!
A NON- JUSTICE System for WHITE People & a Harsh JUSTICE System for BLACK People!

THE MEDIA & WHITE AMERICA IS ATTEMPTING TO HELP SAVE JAMES EAGAN HOLMES' LIFE BECAUSE HE IS WHITE & CONSIDERED TO BE AN ACADEMIC GENIUS.

JAMES HOLMES BASICALLY LIVED A PRIVILEGED LIFE BACK IN CALIFORNIA WHERE HE GREW UP & EXCELLED ACADEMICALLY IN ALL HIS CLASSES.

HE LEARNED ALL ABOUT INSANE HUMAN BEHAVIOR DURING HIS STUDIES, THUS JAMES EAGAN HOLMES WILL NOW PLAY CRAZY & WILL NEVER, EVER SPEND A DAY IN PRISON, NOR WILL HE FACE THE DEATH PENALTY.

THE MEDIA & GOVERNMENT SCIENTISTS WILL USE HIM AS A CASE STUDY. (HIS MIND, HIS DEVIANT BEHAVIOR & WHAT CAUSED HIM TO FLIP.)

IN FACT JAMES IS PROBABLY LAUGHING AT THE MEDIA, HIS PARENTS, THE JUDGE & HIS ATTORNEYS RIGHT NOW BECAUSE HE IS NOW FAMOUS AND GETTING OVER ON EVERYONE WITH HIS MASTER PLAN.

WHAT WAS JAMES' MASTER PLAN?

JAMES EAGAN HOLMES' MASTER PLAN WAS TO USE THIS MASSACRE AS A THESIS FOR HIS PHD STUDIES.

i.e., A SOCIAL EXPERIMENT!!!

JAMES WILL EVENTUALLY BE SENT TO A MINIMUM SECURITY COMMUNITY FOR PEOPLE WHO NEED A BREAK FROM SOCIETY.

HE WILL LATER WRITE A BEST-SELLING BOOK AND THERE WILL BE A MOVIE MADE ABOUT HIS LIFE.

IN ESSENCE JAMES EAGAN HOLMES WILL BECOME A CELEBRITY LIKE ALBERT EINSTEIN & JEFFREY DAHMER.

On Friday July 20, 2012 James Eagan Holmes formerly of California, Assassinated 12 People & Seriously Wounded 59 others in Aurora, Colorado.

Emergency Doctors are now saying that at least 9 More People will most likely DIE from their Injuries caused by James Eagan Holmes on July 20 when he SHOT them in Cold-Blood.

James will NEVER be sentenced to Death, nor will he Ever spend Life in Prison.

He will instead become a Huge CELEBRITY & earn tons of Money!


JOHN ALLEN MUHAMMAD & LEE BOYD MALVO (2 BLACK Men) Assassinated at least 10 People in the Tri-State Area of Virginia, DC & Maryland.

John Allen Muhammad, a Former U.S. Army Soldier who Served his Country for 15 Years and completed 2 Tours in Iraq, was by all accounts Seriously Mentally-Ill and probably Suffering from PTSD.

However on November 10, 2009 was Executed by the State of Virginia.
Lee Boyd Malvo is now serving LIFE in Prison.

Again Both JOHN ALLEN MUHAMMAD & LEE BOYD MALVO are BLACK.

Welcome to AmeriKKKa where there are 2 forms of JUSTICE!
A NON- JUSTICE System for WHITE People & a Harsh JUSTICE System for BLACK People!







Colorado theater shooting suspect makes first court appearance


The man accused of opening fire Friday in a packed movie theater in Aurora, Colorado, made his first court appearance Monday, giving the public its first look at the 24-year-old former doctoral candidate since his arrest.

James E. Holmes, his hair dyed various shades of red, looked downward, then straight ahead. He sat without blinking for long periods. At times, his eyes fluttered, then squeezed tight and reopened in a blank stare. Occasionally, his eyebrows arched, giving his face a mournful mien.

But the man who identified himself to police as "The Joker," dressed in a maroon jumpsuit over a white T-shirt, gave little indication that he was paying attention to the courtroom procedure that ensured he will be continue to be held without bond.

He is to be charged next Monday. Those charges are likely to include first-degree murder -- an offense that carries a possible death penalty, if he is convicted -- in the shooting deaths, given allegations over the weekend by police that there is evidence to suggest "calculation and deliberation" in the rampage.

Holmes is being held in connection with the early Friday shootings that left 12 dead and 58 wounded, and the subsequent discovery of his booby-trapped apartment, which authorities believe he rigged before leaving for the Century Aurora 16 multiplex.

Authorities have been tight-lipped about a possible motive in the case, and police spokesman Frank Fania told CNN late Sunday that Holmes has been uncooperative with investigators and requested an attorney.

Arapahoe County public defender James O'Connor has been assigned to the case. The Colorado Judicial Department declined to say whether Holmes requested a public defender. A telephone call by CNN to O'Connor's office was not immediately returned.

Holmes' court appearance will come a few hours before his family is expected to issue a statement.

Lisa Damiani, an attorney representing the family, told CNN the statement would be made at her San Diego office.

The family, which lives in San Diego, issued a statement Friday saying, "Our hearts go out to those who were involved in this tragedy and to the families and friends of those involved." It added, "We are still trying to process this information."

Over the weekend, Aurora Police Chief Daniel Oates told reporters that there was "evidence of, I think, some calculation and deliberation."

Holmes received deliveries over the past four months to his home and work addresses, which begins to explain how he may have obtained some of the materials used in the attack and those found at his apartment, Oates said.

As of late Sunday, at least 17 people remained hospitalized -- eight in critical condition -- in five area hospitals.

President Barack Obama met Sunday in Aurora with survivors and relatives of the dead, and thousands of residents gathered in the city for a prayer vigil that drew state and local officials.

"I confessed to them that words are always inadequate in these kinds of situations, but that my main task was to serve as a representative of the entire country and let them know that we are thinking about them at this moment, and will continue to think about them each and every day," Obama told reporters after the meeting at the University of Colorado Hospital.

"It reminds you that even in the darkest of days, life continues and people are strong and people bounce back and people are resilient," the president said, after describing the recovery of some victims. "Out of this darkness, a brighter day is going to come."

Though much attention has been paid to the "perpetrator of this evil act," that spotlight will fade, leaving behind just the good memories of those affected by the tragedy, he said.

Aurora is bracing for another emotional week as families begin making funeral arrangements. It was not immediately known when the coroner would release the bodies.

It also became clear that more people may have been killed if the gunman's semiautomatic rifle had not jammed.

Josh Nowlan suffered gunshot wounds but said he is happy just to be alive. "If that gun did not jam, I am full certain that I probably would not be here," he said Saturday from his hospital bed.

A law enforcement source, who spoke Sunday with CNN on condition of anonymity, said the rifle jammed because of a problem with the 100-shot magazine feeding it.

The military-style AR-15 had a separately purchased drum magazine, which can have trouble feeding bullets into the firing chamber if the gun is fired rapidly, the source said.

Investigators say the rifle was one of three guns used Friday by the suspect, along with a shotgun and a .40-caliber pistol.







Probe of shooting suspect James Holmes intensifies

A Computer, cellphone, homemade explosives and Batman mask all seized at the Colorado apartment of James Holmes could help shed light on the mind, motive and Modus Operandi of the suspected mass killer, a federal law enforcement official said Sunday.

The official, who asked not to be identified because he is not authorized to comment publicly, said the computer could aid the effort to determine how long the suspect had been allegedly planning the attack and other details of the massacre.

A maze of incendiary devices arrayed inside Holmes' apartment included 10 gallons of gasoline that was likely intended to serve as an accelerant to any fire caused by an explosion inside, the official said.

The devices included about 30 aerial shells commonly used in commercial fireworks displays.

The official said the shells had been cannibalized, reconstructed and set up in the living room, where a stream of wires connected them to a "control box" in the unit's kitchen. The box was disabled Saturday by bomb technicians using robotic devices and a controlled detonating device.

Also Sunday, the University of Colorado said it is helping authorities determine whether Holmes used his position as a graduate student to order materials for the potentially deadly booby traps.

Police said Holmes received deliveries over four months to his Aurora, Colo., apartment and the school. They haven't identified the contents. University spokeswoman Jacque Montgomery said the school is looking into those packages received at the school.
More on the Aurora shootings

FULL COVERAGE: Full coverage of the Colorado shootings
GALLERY: Family, friends, police react
INTERACTIVE: Aurora movie theater shooting map

The latest information represents more pieces to a puzzle authorities are constructing to determine what was happening inside the mind of the quiet, intellectually gifted neuroscience student suspected of morphing into a vicious killer.

Aurora Police Chief Dan Oates says Holmes, 24, has "lawyered up" and is not talking.

Was this killer mentally ill?

"It says a lot about the type of prejudice we have when we automatically go to the presumption that a clinical mental illness was the cause," says Praveen Kambam, a professor of psychiatry at the University of California-Los Angeles. "Even the surgeon general of the United States has said there's very little risk of violence or harm from a stranger who has a mental disorder.

"Not all bad behavior comes from mental illness. Sometimes it can simply be bad behavior."

In a résumé posted on Monster.com, Holmes listed himself as an "aspiring scientist" and said he was looking for a job as a laboratory technician.

The résumé, first obtained by The Press-Enterprise in Riverside, paints a picture of a brilliant young man brimming with potential: He worked as a summer intern at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies in La Jolla in 2006 and mapped the neurons of zebra finches and studied the flight muscles of hummingbirds while an undergraduate at the University of California-Riverside.

He also worked as a summer camp counselor to underprivileged children at a Jewish camp in Los Angeles in 2008.

In Rancho Peñasquitos, a community of picturesque hacienda-style homes surrounded by hills and canyons outside San Diego where Holmes grew up, residents have a hard time squaring the quiet teen who didn't call attention to himself with the violent image of Holmes emerging now.

Those who knew Holmes in the upscale San Diego community remember a polite young man who kept to himself and excelled academically.

"He was really talented, really smart," said Porsche Parkman, 19, who attended Westview High School with Holmes' younger sister, Chris. Holmes graduated from the school in 2006. "He was so nice and his family was always there for him. Nothing seemed wrong."

Her description of the young man seen with a ready smile in his high school yearbook photo stands in stark contrast to the 6-foot-tall gunman dressed in head-to-toe black body armor whom police say opened fire with multiple weapons in a crowded suburban Denver movie theater, killing 12 people and wounding 58.

Today, Aurora police portray Holmes as a suspect intent on killing, taking the violence even further by booby-trapping his apartment to kill the first person to enter, most likely a police officer.

"This apartment was designed to kill," Oates said. He said Holmes had a "high volume" of deliveries of materials and ammunition that could explain the aerial shells, trip wires and other explosive devices found in his apartment.

"What we're seeing here is some evidence, I think, of calculation and deliberation," Oates said Saturday. "If you think we are angry, we sure as hell are angry."

In the six months before the shooting, police said Holmes bought at least 6,000 rounds of ammunition, an AR 15 assault rifle, a Remington shotgun and two 40-caliber Glock handguns. He bought them legally, according to a federal law enforcement official who was not authorized to speak publicly.

Oates said Holmes used a rifle, shotgun and one of the handguns during the attack.

At the same time that authorities say he was buying ammunition and weapons, Holmes was in the process of dropping out of the University of Colorado's graduate neuroscience program in Aurora. He had joined the program a year ago, but by June he had withdrawn, the university said in a statement.

Dan Meyers, spokesman for the University of Colorado School of Medicine, would not say why Holmes left.

Oates said the FBI Behavioral Analysis Unit is working with local police to try to determine a motive for the shooting.

Holmes seems to have little online presence. Unlike many people his age, he does not have accounts on Twitter, Facebook or other social media.

University of Colorado biology student Kaitlyn Fonzi, who was living below Holmes in a student-housing complex in northern Aurora, had seen Holmes in the building several times and remembers a student who looked like any other on the medical and academic campus across the street from their apartment building.

"You never really think anything like this is going to happen," Fonzi said after the building was evacuated when police tried to defuse the trip wires they said Holmes set up.

In Rancho Peñasquitos, the suspect's family still lives in the two-story white house with a red-tiled roof where he grew up.

Holmes, who graduated with high honors with a bachelor of science degree in neuroscience from the University of California-Riverside, was raised in a math and science household. His mother, Arlene, has been licensed as a registered nurse for more than 30 years. His father, Robert, is a mathematician who develops statistical models for financial services, specifically looking at fraud.

Theirs is a community where neighbors are friendly and know each other, said one neighbor, Rose To.

"We know the parents as good neighbors," said To, whose home is across the street. "We watch out for each other here."

Lindsay Van Leeuwen, 32, lives three doors away from the Holmes' family. She has lived there four years and said she was probably one of the newest residents in the neighborhood. She doesn't know the family well, she said, but she received a card from them when her twins were born two months ago.

"It's scary. I'm shocked that it's happened right down the street," Van Leeuwen said.

Parkman and her husband, William, 19, remember a friendly family who kept to themselves but were supportive one another.

She became friends with Holmes' sister during their freshman year at Westview, about 3 miles from where the Holmes family lived.

"Her dad was really smart. Their mom was nice, quiet. They let (their children) be who they were," Porsche Parkman said.

William Parkman marveled at how Holmes had gone from a proud example of a successful graduate of their high school to one of the most hated people in the country.

"The news reports you hear about him, it's as if people are talking about one person in San Diego and one in Colorado," he said. "Who he is now is not who he was in San Diego."

On Sunday, ABC News aired a video showing Holmes as a shy, thin teen speaking at a science camp at Miramar College in San Diego when he was 18.

His presentation is on "temporal illusion," which he defines as "an illusion that allows you to change the past."

A woman who introduces Holmes in the video says he wants to become a researcher and make scientific discoveries.

She says his dream is to own a Slurpee machine, eliciting laughter from the audience and a smile from Holmes.


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Sources: AP, CBS News, CNN, NY Daily News, TMZ, USA Today, Wikipedia, Youtube, Google Maps

North Carolina's "Stop & Frisk" Problem Is Similar To New York's: Profiling BLACK Citizens

Report: Blacks, Hispanics in North Carolina get searched by police more than whites

A trial lawyers task force has studied a decade's worth of law enforcement traffic stops in North Carolina and found that blacks and Hispanics are "systematically searched at much higher rates than whites."

The N.C. Advocates for Justice, formerly the N.C. Academy of Trial Lawyers, analyzed almost 13.5 million traffic stop records covering a period from 2000 to mid-2011.

In a report this spring, the authors called their findings "deeply disturbing and may be indicative of a problem." They have called for the creation of a broad-based state commission to study the causes of the racial disparities at traffic stops and make recommendations.

The comprehensive report is a first of its kind in North Carolina, but not many state officials are aware of it.

The report was sent to only a half dozen of the state's top leaders, including Gov. Bev Perdue and state Attorney General Roy Cooper. No legislators from Cumberland County were aware of the report's existence until a reporter contacted them this week.

The Fayetteville Observer obtained a copy of the report's summary and analysis from a source at the N.C. General Assembly on the condition of anonymity.

Among other findings, the report said blacks and Hispanics are "almost twice as likely to be searched and twice as likely to be arrested" as white drivers.

State Rep. Marvin Lucas, a Democrat from Spring Lake, expressed concern about the disparities.

"That sounds like something we ought to address," Lucas said.

The statewide findings are similar to the racial disparities in Fayetteville, where recent statistics showed almost three of every four people searched by police at traffic stops were black.

The Fayetteville City Council has responded to the controversy over the past year with police policy changes, the introduction of written consent forms and the installation of about 200 camera systems in patrol cars. The former city manager was asked to resign in March because of his handling of the issue.

Dick Taylor, the chief executive officer of the N.C. Advocates for Justice, said the task force was formed in response to a call by the American Bar Association that each state explore the role of racial bias in the criminal justice system.

Taylor said members of his organization did not feel they should lead such a statewide examination of the issue, but they wanted to at least examine public traffic-stop records that most law enforcement agencies are required to submit to the state.

"We thought it might be a good way to demonstrate the need for North Carolina to have just a broad-based study," Taylor said Thursday.

Taylor said his group has reached out to top state leaders with the results of the analysis, urging action.

Noelle Talley, a spokeswoman for the N.C. Department of Justice, said Cooper and his staff had a productive meeting about the report on March 29 in his office with members of the N.C. Advocates for Justice.

"We agreed as a group that these issues deserve deeper examination and said the DOJ would participate," Talley said in an email Thursday. "We urged continued collaboration with state leaders and legislators and inclusion of more stakeholders."

Those stakeholders would include members of law enforcement, prosecutors and judges, she said.

Spokesmen for the General Assembly's two leaders - House Speaker Thom Tillis and Senate President Pro Tem Phil Berger - could not be reached for comment.

According to the task force's report, Cabarrus, Onslow, Mecklenburg and Orange counties were among those "where disparities are significantly above statewide averages" for blacks.

Cumberland and Forsyth were among six counties that had the "lowest levels" of disparities for Hispanics.

Reporting Requirement:

In 2000, the state began requiring the State Highway Patrol to report traffic-stop data in response to complaints of racial profiling. The law eventually was applied to many other law enforcement agencies around the state, including Fayetteville and Hope Mills police and the Cumberland County Sheriff's Office. Police departments in cities with fewer than 10,000 people are not required to report the data.

One state senator, Thom Goolsby, a Republican from Wilmington, filed Senate Bill 923 on May 30 that seeks to repeal the traffic-data reporting requirements. No one else has sponsored the bill, which has been assigned to the Senate Judiciary Committee. Goolsby did not return a message Thursday to comment about this bill.

Troy Williams, a former Cumberland County sheriff's deputy, first raised the issue of Fayetteville's racial disparities in traffic stops in a guest column published in the Observer in October 2010. He said the task force's report shows "a system of biased-based policing statewide."

"It's certainly not something that just happens in Fayetteville," Williams said. "But I give them credit for the policy changes they've instituted."

Fayetteville's outgoing police chief, Tom Bergamine, has vehemently denied accusations that his department has violated drivers' rights.

In March, city consultants with the National Organization of Black Law Enforcement Executives said the racial disparities in the city were a concern, but they were unable to document instances of racial profiling. They made 24 recommendation, mostly procedural.







Study: NC Minorities Get More Scrutiny In Stops


A review of data on traffic stops in North Carolina finds law enforcement officers are twice as likely to conduct searches of vehicles driven by minorities than whites.

Researchers for North Carolina Advocates for Justice reviewed state data collected on more than 13 million traffic stops conducted between 2000 and 2011. In addition to the higher risk for being stopped and searched, the data showed blacks and Hispanics are almost twice as likely as whites to be arrested following a traffic stop.

Dick Taylor, the chief executive of the trial lawyers' group behind the study, supports the creation of a broad-based commission to study the issue of racial and ethnic disparities in how laws are enforced on the state's roads and highways.

"When you are stopped, you are more likely to have a negative outcome if you're Hispanic or African-American," Taylor said. "The disparities are there. We need to look in a serious way at why that is the case."

The data used in the report was collected by the law officers themselves, following the passage of a 1999 state law intended to monitor racial profiling.

The new report was quietly sent in March to Gov. Beverly Perdue, Attorney General Roy Cooper, legislative leaders and other state policy makers, many of whom Taylor said he and other members of the lawyers' group have met with. The report became public Friday after a copy was obtained by The Fayetteville Observer.

Taylor said the group kept the results of the study quiet, recognizing the sensitivity of the topic. While he stressed that the Advocates were not suggesting the state's law enforcement agencies are institutionally racist, he said the data does raise troubling questions that need to be addressed, possibly with new training and educational programs.

The group's report cited other recent studies have focused on racial disparities within North Carolina's criminal justice system.

Black youths are three times more likely than whites to be referred to the state's juvenile courts, and once in the system three times more likely to be sent to a juvenile correctional facility or transferred to adult court.

Blacks make up 57 percent of the state's prison population, but only 22 percent of the state population as a whole. Blacks are twice as likely as whites to be sentenced to prison for drug crimes, with the disparity growing even wider in some North Carolina jurisdictions.

In Wilson County, for example, blacks charged with drug offenses are 10 times more likely to be sent to prison than whites charged with similar crimes, according to the report.

Perdue spokeswoman Chris Mackey said the administration had arranged for members of the advocacy group to meet with the Governor's Crime Commission, which could potentially provide money for further study.

Cooper's spokeswoman, Noelle Talley, said the attorney general agrees more study is needed of the roots of the racial disparities reflected in the data.

"We urged continued collaboration with state leaders and legislators, and inclusion of more stakeholders, especially those involved in the criminal justice system at the community level, including law enforcement, prosecutors, judges and other members of the criminal justice system," Talley said.


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Sources: Fayetteville Observer, Fox News, Huffington Post, WRAL, Youtube, Google Maps

Black Boys Trailing White Boys In Public Schools: Where's Obama?

Proficiency Of Black Students Is Found To Be Far Lower Than Expected


An achievement gap separating black from white students has long been documented — a social divide extremely vexing to policy makers and the target of one blast of school reform after another.

But a new report focusing on black males suggests that the picture is even bleaker than generally known.

Only 12 percent of black fourth-grade boys are proficient in reading, compared with 38 percent of white boys, and only 12 percent of black eighth-grade boys are proficient in math, compared with 44 percent of white boys.

Poverty alone does not seem to explain the differences: poor white boys do just as well as African-American boys who do not live in poverty, measured by whether they qualify for subsidized school lunches.

The data was distilled from highly respected national math and reading tests, known as the National Assessment for Educational Progress, which are given to students in fourth and eighth grades, most recently in 2009. The report, “A Call for Change,” is to be released Tuesday by the Council of the Great City Schools, an advocacy group for urban public schools.

Although the outlines of the problem and many specifics have been previously reported, the group hopes that including so much of what it calls “jaw-dropping data” in one place will spark a new sense of national urgency.

“What this clearly shows is that black males who are not eligible for free and reduced-price lunch are doing no better than white males who are poor,” said Michael Casserly, executive director of the council.

The report shows that black boys on average fall behind from their earliest years. Black mothers have a higher infant mortality rate and black children are twice as likely as whites to live in a home where no parent has a job. In high school, African-American boys drop out at nearly twice the rate of white boys, and their SAT scores are on average 104 points lower. In college, black men represented just 5 percent of students in 2008.

The analysis of results on the national tests found that math scores in 2009 for black boys were not much different than those for black girls in Grades 4 and 8, but black boys lagged behind Hispanics of both sexes, and they fell behind white boys by at least 30 points, a gap sometimes interpreted as three academic grades.

The search for explanations has recently looked at causes besides poverty, and this report may further spur those efforts.

“There’s accumulating evidence that there are racial differences in what kids experience before the first day of kindergarten,” said Ronald Ferguson, director of the Achievement Gap Initiative at Harvard. “They have to do with a lot of sociological and historical forces. In order to address those, we have to be able to have conversations that people are unwilling to have.”

Those include “conversations about early childhood parenting practices,” Dr. Ferguson said. “The activities that parents conduct with their 2-, 3- and 4-year-olds. How much we talk to them, the ways we talk to them, the ways we enforce discipline, the ways we encourage them to think and develop a sense of autonomy.”

The report urges convening a White House conference, encouraging Congress to appropriate more money for schools and establishing networks of black mentors.

What it does not discuss are policy responses identified with a robust school reform movement that emphasizes closing failing schools, offering charter schools as alternatives and raising the quality of teachers.

The report did not go down this road because “there’s not a lot of research to indicate that many of those strategies produce better results,” Mr. Casserly said.

Other have a different response. The key to narrowing the achievement gap, said Dr. Ferguson, is “really good teaching.”

One large urban school district that has made progress is Baltimore’s, where the dropout rate for African-American boys declined to 4.9 percent during the last academic year, down from 11.9 percent three years earlier. Graduation rates for black boys were also up: 57 percent in 2009-10, compared with 51 percent three years earlier.

Andres A. Alonso, the chief executive of the Baltimore City Public Schools, said the improvement had little to do with changes at the margins, like lengthening the school day or adding mentors. Rather, Mr. Alonso cited aggressively closing failing schools, knocking on the doors of dropouts’ homes to lure them back and creating real-time alerts — “almost like an electrical charge” — when a student misses several days of school.

“Hispanic kids and African-American kids this year had a lower dropout rate than white kids,” Mr. Alonso said.


Sources: MSNBC, NY Times

"Don't Ask, Don't Tell" Ruling To Be Appealed By Obama Admin.

Obama Administration Expected To Appeal Ruling On Gays In U.S. Military

The Obama administration is expected to appeal as soon as Wednesday a federal judge's ruling that halted the Defense Department from enforcing its policy that bars openly gay people from military service, according to senior administration officials familiar with the government's plans.

U.S. District Court Judge Virginia Philips issued an injunction Tuesday that bans enforcement of the "don't ask, don't tell" policy throughout the military services.

While the government has up to 60 days to file an appeal to the Ninth Circuit Court in San Francisco, California, officials familiar with the case said that could happen in the next day or two.







Federal Judge Orders U.S. Military To Stop Enforcing "Don't Ask, Don't Tell" Policy


A Federal judge on Tuesday ordered the U.S. military to stop enforcing the "don't ask, don't tell" policy, putting an end to the ban on openly gay troops.

U.S. District Judge Virginia Phillips' permanent worldwide injunction -- praised by gay rights organizations -- orders the military "immediately to suspend and discontinue any investigation, or discharge, separation, or other proceeding, that may have been commenced" under the "don't ask, don't tell" policy.

The judge, a Clinton appointee based in the Central District of California, previously ruled that the policy regarding gays serving in the military violated service members' Fifth Amendment rights to due process and freedom of speech, but had delayed issuing the injunction.

The military was sued by Log Cabin Republicans, a gay rights group.

Justice Department spokeswoman Tracy Schmaler would say only that the department is "reviewing the ruling." The department has 60 days to appeal, but is not required to do so.

The Defense Department is reviewing the ruling to determine whether it has immediate impact and is consulting with the Justice Department, Pentagon spokeswoman Cynthia Smith said.

Air Force lawyers in a recent case argued the military -- not the courts -- is in the best position to evaluate and enforce the "don't ask, don't tell" policy.

President Barack Obama is pushing for a repeal of the controversial policy. A bill currently before Congress would overturn the measure after a Pentagon review is completed in December.

In her ruling Tuesday, Phillips stated the policy infringes on the rights of military personnel. "Furthermore, there is no adequate remedy at law to prevent the continued violation of servicemembers' rights or to compensate them for violation of their rights," the judge wrote.

More than 12,500 people have been booted from the military since "don't ask, don't tell" went into effect. Along with barring known gay, lesbian and bisexual individuals from serving, the policy prevents the military from asking them about it.

Log Cabin Republicans praised the ruling but urged "caution by servicemembers considering coming out at this time, as the Obama administration still has the option to appeal."

The group said the ruling is a victory for strong national defense.

"No longer will our military be compelled to discharge servicemembers with valuable skills and experience because of an archaic policy mandating irrational discrimination," it said in a statement following the ruling.

Servicemembers United, which describes itself as the nation's largest organization of gay and lesbian troops and veterans, also hailed the judge's ruling but urged gays who serve to be careful about coming out now.

"This order from Judge Phillips is another historic and courageous step in the right direction, a step that Congress has been noticeably slow in taking," said executive director Alexander Nicholson.

The ranking member of the House Armed Services Committee called on the administration to immediately file a motion to stay the injunction so Congress can address the issue.

"We are a nation at war. This decision could have a negative impact on military and family readiness since the Department of Defense is unprepared to address the issues that are bound to arise from such a hasty change, Rep. Howard P. "Buck" McKeon, R-California, said in a statement.

Aaron Belkin, director of the Palm Center, a research institute of the University of California-Santa Barbara, said he expects the Obama administration to appeal Tuesday's order.

"The case could be done next week if the administration decides not to appeal, or it could take five years if there is an appeal, or Congress could move faster than the Justice Department, which would render this case moot," said Belkin, whose institute researches sexual minorities in the military and advocates an end to the ban.


Sources: CNN, MSNBC, Youtube

Charlotte-Mecklenburg Child Abuse Cases Up By 22 Percent

Charlotte-Mecklenburg Child Abuse Cases Jump 22 Percent



The number of reported Child Abuse and Neglect cases in Charlotte-Mecklenburg County rose 22 percent between 2004 and 2009, according to a study released Wednesday.

Researchers found there were 12,232 reports of abuse or neglect between July 1, 2008, and June 30, 2009 - about 2,200 more than during the same time span from 2004 to 2005.

The findings were revealed during a press conference by UNC Charlotte's Urban Institute and the Council for Children's Rights, who jointly initiated the research.

The jump in reported child abuse and neglect left child advocates baffled. They said they could not explain why there was such a "significant increase," which outpaced the overall growth of the youth population and statewide trends.

"We tried to track down the answer," said Brett Loftis, executive director of the Council for Children's Rights. "We called (Mecklenburg) DSS and they said, 'We don't know.'"

A jump in reported neglect signals that high unemployment, home foreclosures and other fallout from the nation's economic downturn played a role, Loftis said. The definition of child neglect includes a failure to provide adequate food, shelter, clothing and other necessities, he said.

Anxiety about finances increases stress for adults and often leads to inappropriate discipline, Loftis said.

The study results mirror other assessments that find North Carolina does a poor job protecting children from abuse and neglect.

Action for Children North Carolina, a Raleigh-based child advocacy group, issued a report last year that graded the state on child health indicators such as immunizations, substance abuse and insurance coverage. For child abuse and neglect, North Carolina received a D.

Activists say the state doesn't spend enough money to hire social workers or pay for programs to combat substance abuse and domestic violence, which are often linked to child abuse.

North Carolina spends $43.12 per capita on child protection, less than all but eight states, according to a study released last year by Every Child Matters, a Washington-based advocacy organization. Rhode Island spent the most at $181.34 per capita, while South Carolina allocated the least at $14.72 per capita.

"People tend to think of child abuse as over and fixed" because public awareness has increased, Loftis said. "You have to move from awareness to doing something to fix it."




The Charlotte-Mecklenburg County study found:



Children younger than 5 were most likely to suffer abuse and neglect. Some 40percent of the children who were reported as victims from 2008 to 2009 were younger than 5.

>A disproportionate number of victims were African-American. More than 50 percent of reported cases of abuse and neglect involved African-American children, although the group comprises roughly a third of children in the county.

Officials said the figures do not necessarily mean African-Americans abuse and neglect children more often. They said there is a connection between poverty and abuse. And they said, some groups do not report incidents because they fear police or the government.

The number of reported sex abuse cases decreased 20 percent. There were 79 reported cases in 2008-09, compared to 98 in 2004-05.


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Sources: McClatchy Newspapers, WCNC, Google Maps

Atheism & Liberalism Linked To Higher Intelligence

Atheism, Liberalism, Male Sexual Exclusivity Linked To IQ


Political, religious and sexual behaviors may be reflections of intelligence, a new study finds.

Evolutionary psychologist Satoshi Kanazawa at the the London School of Economics and Political Science correlated data on these behaviors with IQ from a large national U.S. sample and found that, on average, people who identified as liberal and atheist had higher IQs. This applied also to sexual exclusivity in men, but not in women. The findings will be published in the March 2010 issue of Social Psychology Quarterly.

The IQ differences, while statistically significant, are not stunning -- on the order of 6 to 11 points -- and the data should not be used to stereotype or make assumptions about people, experts say. But they show how certain patterns of identifying with particular ideologies develop, and how some people's behaviors come to be.

The reasoning is that sexual exclusivity in men, liberalism and atheism all go against what would be expected given humans' evolutionary past. In other words, none of these traits would have benefited our early human ancestors, but higher intelligence may be associated with them.

"The adoption of some evolutionarily novel ideas makes some sense in terms of moving the species forward," said George Washington University leadership professor James Bailey, who was not involved in the study. "It also makes perfect sense that more intelligent people -- people with, sort of, more intellectual firepower -- are likely to be the ones to do that."

Bailey also said that these preferences may stem from a desire to show superiority or elitism, which also has to do with IQ. In fact, aligning oneself with "unconventional" philosophies such as liberalism or atheism may be "ways to communicate to everyone that you're pretty smart," he said.

The study looked at a large sample from the National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health (Add Health), which began with adolescents in grades 7-12 in the United States during the 1994-95 school year. The participants were interviewed as 18- to 28-year-olds from 2001 to 2002. The study also looked at the General Social Survey, another cross-national data collection source.

Kanazawa did not find that higher or lower intelligence predicted sexual exclusivity in women. This makes sense, because having one partner has always been advantageous to women, even thousands of years ago, meaning exclusivity is not a "new" preference.

For men, on the other hand, sexual exclusivity goes against the grain evolutionarily. With a goal of spreading genes, early men had multiple mates. Since women had to spend nine months being pregnant, and additional years caring for very young children, it made sense for them to want a steady mate to provide them resources.

Religion, the current theory goes, did not help people survive or reproduce necessarily, but goes along the lines of helping people to be paranoid, Kanazawa said. Assuming that, for example, a noise in the distance is a signal of a threat helped early humans to prepare in case of danger.

"It helps life to be paranoid, and because humans are paranoid, they become more religious, and they see the hands of God everywhere," Kanazawa said.

Participants who said they were atheists had an average IQ of 103 in adolescence, while adults who said they were religious averaged 97, the study found. Atheism "allows someone to move forward and speculate on life without any concern for the dogmatic structure of a religion," Bailey said.

"Historically, anything that's new and different can be seen as a threat in terms of the religious beliefs; almost all religious systems are about permanence," he noted.

The study takes the American view of liberal vs. conservative. It defines "liberal" in terms of concern for genetically nonrelated people and support for private resources that help those people. It does not look at other factors that play into American political beliefs, such as abortion, gun control and gay rights.

"Liberals are more likely to be concerned about total strangers; conservatives are likely to be concerned with people they associate with," he said.

Given that human ancestors had a keen interest in the survival of their offspring and nearest kin, the conservative approach -- looking out for the people around you first -- fits with the evolutionary picture more than liberalism, Kanazawa said. "It's unnatural for humans to be concerned about total strangers." he said.

The study found that young adults who said they were "very conservative" had an average adolescent IQ of 95, whereas those who said they were "very liberal" averaged 106.

It also makes sense that "conservatism" as a worldview of keeping things stable would be a safer approach than venturing toward the unfamiliar, Bailey said.

Neither Bailey nor Kanazawa identify themselves as liberal; Bailey is conservative and Kanazawa is "a strong libertarian."

Vegetarianism, while not strongly associated with IQ in this study, has been shown to be related to intelligence in previous research, Kanazawa said. This also fits into Bailey's idea that unconventional preferences appeal to people with higher intelligence, and can also be a means of showing superiority.

None of this means that the human species is evolving toward a future where these traits are the default, Kanazawa said.

"More intelligent people don't have more children, so moving away from the trajectory is not going to happen," he said.

Sources: CNN, General Social Survey, National Longitudinal Study of Adolescent Health

Fat Male Politicians Get More Respect Than Skinny Ones??

New Study Shows Heavy Male Politicians Considered More Reliable, Honest Than Thinner Counterparts


Male political candidates looking for an edge should hit their local Dairy Queen. Female pols would be better off hitting the gym.

Researchers found that pudgy male politicos are considered more reliable, honest and even more inspiring than their thinner counterparts.

For female pols, thin is still in, according to a new study.

"A candidate's physical appearance plays a greater role in evaluation than we have thought in the past," said Dr. Elizabeth Miller," a political scientist at the University of Missouri and co-author of the study.

"We assume voters only pay attention to things like issue position, but to think that they don't pay attention to physical appearance is a bit naive."

Miller's findings were affirmed in at least one recent election.

In the runup to New Jersey's gubernatorial election last fall, incumbent Jon Corzine released ads that appeared to highlight rival Chris Christie's considerable girth.

Christie went on to trample the less hefty Corzine, anyway.

While few obese pols have made it to the Oval Office, William Taft was one of the exceptions.

The rotund Taft tipped the scales at more than 300 pounds and earned the title "Tubby" after he became stuck inside the White House bathtub numerous times.

Of course, some stick-thin pols have also managed to win voter's hearts. Just ask Rep. Anthony Weiner (D-Brooklyn, Queens), whose wiry frame hasn't stopped him from winning a seat on the City Council at age 27 and serving five terms in Congress.

Miller cautioned against giving her findings too much weight.

"Partisanship, ideology and issue position still matter more than physical characteristics," she noted.

In her study, Miller split 120 volunteers into four groups.

Each group was presented with descriptions and photos of four separate phony candidates who had the same gender and body type: obese male, skinny male, obese female, skinny female.

Within each group, each phony candidate's political views differed.

The study subjects then rated the candidates based on a series of criteria, including honesty and ability to perform.

The obese males were viewed 6% more positively than skinny males, while skinny women were viewed 5% more positively than their full-figured counterparts.

Overall, obese females were viewed 10% less favorably than obese males.

The results were of little surprise to some New Yorkers.

When men "are portly or bigger or fatter, they may be associated with a ... grandfatherly image or a priestly image," said Alvaro Deprat, 46, a writer from Washington Heights.



Sources: NY Daily News