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Buck Sawyer starts every class with a prayer thanking God for keeping his family safe. He also prays he'll know when to draw his gun. The soft-spoken, retired law enforcement officer teaches a concealed-weapons permit class for legal residents over the age of 21 who don't reside in a mental institution, have a criminal history or harbor a notion to overthrow the government. These days, a lot of law-abiding folks who never had much interest in gun ownership are rethinking self-defense. Sawyer's class was an eclectic mix of talents from first-time shooters -- well into their AARP years - to...

September 17, 2008 The tenth and final nuclear-powered Nimitz-class supercarrier, George H. W. Bush, enters service in 2009, but the next-generation is on its way. The Gerald R. Ford CVN 78 is the first ship in the first new carrier class in over 40 years. Northrop Grumman has received a $5.1 billion, seven-year contract for construction of the CVN 78, which is scheduled to be delivered to the Navy in 2015. Northrop Grumman began advance construction of the Gerald R Ford in 2005, under a separate $2.7 billion contract. Roughly one third of the ship’s 1,200 structural units are currently...

George Ledin teaches students how to write viruses, and it makes computer-security software firms sick.In a windowless underground computer lab in California, young men are busy cooking up viruses, spam and other plagues of the computer age. Grant Joy runs a program that surreptitiously records every keystroke on his machine, including user names, passwords, and credit-card numbers. And Thomas Fynan floods a bulletin board with huge messages from fake users. Yet Joy and Fynan aren't hackers—they're students in a computer-security class at Sonoma State University. And their professor, George Ledin, has showed them how to penetrate even the best antivirus...

In her remarkable story, "Beyond Rape: A Survivor's Journey" Joanna Connors, a reporter at The (Cleveland) Plain Dealer, writes about her experiences getting raped. But the story isn't just about rape. It also addresses important issues of race and class. The essential tension resides in a simple and explosive event, now 20 years old: A black man raped a white woman. The history of that potent narrative is packed with truth and lies, racist injustice and racial suspicion, cliché and mythology. This story lurches powerfully into race in the first of five chapters, as Connors speculates that she might have...

On the night of Apr 24, a group of 300 men and women, armed with bows and arrows and sickles and led by gun-wielding commanders, emerged swiftly and silently from the dense forest in India's Chhattisgarh state. The guerrillas descended on an iron ore processing plant owned by Essar Steel [Get Quote], one of India's biggest companies. There the attackers torched the heavy machinery on the site, plus 53 buses and trucks. Press reports say they also left a note: Stop shipping local resources out of the state - or else. The assault on the Essar facility was the work...

<p>Last summer, in Detroit’s St. Paul Church of God in Christ, I watched Bill Cosby summon his inner Malcolm X.</p> <p>He began with the story of a black girl who’d risen to become valedictorian of his old high school, despite having been abandoned by her father.</p>

<p>Last summer, in Detroit’s St. Paul Church of God in Christ, I watched Bill Cosby summon his inner Malcolm X. It was a hot July evening. Cosby was speaking to an audience of black men dressed in everything from Enyce T-shirts or polos to blazers and ties...</p>

...He's releasing a "campaign" video for Christmas that suits his political and movie character style perfectly...We don't even see the tall guy from Tennessee at all...Thompson's effort stands out in its simple eloquence and contrast from the other candidates' obvious Christmas ad wars that desperately -- but, oh, so politely -- want to plug the candidates and their families...

The full title of this book is--CLASS AND SCHOOLS: Using Social, Economic and Educational Reform To Close The Black-White Achievement Gap by Richard Rothstein INTRODUCTION This book discusses the black-white achievement gap and how to eliminate it. Dr. Rothstein no longer believes schools are the answer; he has other remedies. While this book was published in 2004, it has the imprimatur of both Economic Policy Institute and the Teachers College of Columbia University. Such formal recognition suggests educators are changing their focus in respect to the genesis of both the black-white and social class achievement gaps. SUMMARY Professor Rothstein on...

The newest sensation at the center of Hollywood's fashion scene isn't a famous designer or starlet. It's a 56-year-old homeless man who spends his days dancing on roller skates.... In a plot twist worthy of Tinseltown, Mr. Jermyn now has a clothing label named after him. Since it was introduced last month, "The Crazy Robertson" brand of T-shirts and sweatshirts, created by a trio of 23-year-olds, has flown off the shelves at Kitson, a haunt of tabloid stars like Paris Hilton. The clothes feature stylized images of Mr. Jermyn, including one design -- available on a $98 hoodie -- that...

OK, "hokum" is our word. The study, to be released today, is a careful, detailed piece of research by professional economists that avoids political judgments. But what it does do is show beyond doubt that the U.S. remains a dynamic society marked by rapid and mostly upward income mobility... The Treasury study examined a huge sample of 96,700 income tax returns from 1996 and 2005 for Americans over the age of 25. The study tracks what happened to these tax filers over this 10-year period. One of the notable, and reassuring, findings is that nearly 58% of filers who were...

Nearly half of African Americans born to middle-income parents in the late 1960s plunged into poverty or near-poverty as adults, according to a new study -- a perplexing finding that analysts say highlights the fragile nature of middle-class life for many African Americans. Overall, family incomes have risen for both blacks and whites over the past three decades. But in a society where the privileges of class and income most often perpetuate themselves from generation to generation, black Americans have had more difficulty than whites in transmitting those benefits to their children. Forty-five percent of black children whose parents were...

Middle classes abandon state schools By Graeme Paton and Toby Helm Last Updated: 2:27am GMT 10/11/2007 A growing proportion of middle-class parents are giving up on state education after 10 years of Labour rule by paying to educate their children in the independent sector, official figures have disclosed. Many families outside the traditional fee-paying heartland of the South East are shunning comprehensives The scale of the exodus is shown for the first time in statistics indicating that many families outside the traditional fee-paying heartland of the South East are shunning comprehensives in favour of private schools. In almost a third...

A You Tube video featuring a Williams Field High School teacher dancing in front of her class is causing controversy in the district. Somebody using a recording device captured Christina Mallon, a cheer coach and Humanities/English teacher, performing a cheer dance in front of her Gilbert class. The You Tube video, called WFHS Humanities Class, does not explain why Mallon was performing the dance or what the circumstances were, but students are worried their teacher's job could be in jeopardy. At least one You Tube comment indicated the viewer thought the dancing was inappropriate for inside a classroom. School officials...

St. Paul man was catching a bus to his anger management class when a fellow bus rider reportedly ticked him off. Justin John Boudin's anger management class didn't help him avoid the confrontation, police say. But his paperwork from the class helped authorities nab Boudin on suspicion of assault, according to a criminal complaint. Ramsey County prosecutors charged Boudin with felony fifth-degree assault, alleging he hit a woman at the bus stop. Police identified him after he dropped his class paperwork at the scene.

BASIC CONCEPTS This book is now 5 years old and has yet to receive a formal, academic review. Payne’s last book, A Framework For Understanding Poverty, also never received an academic review. In spite of academic inattention, both books are popular. The Understanding Poverty book sold over 1,000,000 copies. In Hidden Rules of Class At Work both Dr. Payne and her co-author, Don Krabill, explore social class as an important facet of workplace adjustment and success. To make their point they use a mental model for discussion---a triangle comprised of resources, connections and hidden rules. By using this oversimplification, they...

June 25, 2007 -- A Brooklyn mother and father got the shock of their lives when school officials informed them their brilliant 11-year-old girl was denied admission to an elite public school - solely because she's of Indian descent. "I feel bad because I would have gotten in if I was white," Nikita Rau lamented over her failed bid to attend the Mark Twain School, IS 239, in Coney Island, a magnet school for gifted students. It turns out Mark Twain - unlike all but one other city public school - admits students according to racial quotas established in 1974...

One of the most touching photos in years taken by an AP photographer moved across the wires last night (Thursday) and few newspapers published it. The Daily Mail did. It showed President Bush helping Robert Byrd walk. The occasion was the overdue awarding of a congressional Gold Medal to the Tuskegee airmen who served in World War II. There is irony there. But there also is compassion from President Bush. This may be why the photo received so little play in the newspapers today.

I wanted to write something about the degenerative effects of incivility in politics in the wake of the comments and commentary today. Instead, a CQ reader sent me a link to a speech three years ago by Heritage Foundation president Dr. Edwin J. Fuelner. In speaking to the graduating class of Hillsdale College on May 8, 2004, Dr. Fuelner warned the young men and women that our democracy depends on the healthy exchange of ideas and arguments -- and that incivility degrades the social compact on which that debate depends: This is the real danger of incivility. Our free, self-governing...

GREENCASTLE, Ind. — When a psychology professor at DePauw University here surveyed students, they described one sorority as a group of “daddy’s little princesses” and another as “offbeat hippies.” The sisters of Delta Zeta were seen as “socially awkward.” Elizabeth Haneline, who was among those evicted, said, “The Greek system hasn’t changed at all, but instead of racism, it’s image now.” Worried that a negative stereotype of the sorority was contributing to a decline in membership that had left its Greek-columned house here half empty, Delta Zeta’s national officers interviewed 35 DePauw members in November, quizzing them about their dedication...

With high school students under mounting pressure to achieve high grades and gain acceptance to select colleges, a new trend is taking hold—getting rid of class rankings, which some say just intensify the pressure teens already feel in the competitive college application environment. A recent story in Time reports that Naperville, IL, noted for its excellent school system, has jettisoned the rankings, which colleges have traditionally used to sort the academically weak from the strong. The rankings will be phased out over the next year; 2007's upperclassmen will choose whether to include a rank in their official transcripts, Time reports....

The Gift of Language - Theodore Dalrymple No, Dr. Pinker, it’s not just from nature.Now that I’ve retired early from medical practice in a slum hospital and the prison next door, my former colleagues sometimes ask me, not without a trace of anxiety, whether I think that I made the right choice or whether I miss my previous life. They are good friends and fine men, but it is only human nature not to wish unalloyed happiness to one who has chosen a path that diverges, even slightly, from one’s own. Fortunately, I do miss some aspects of my work:...

Growing income disparity doesn’t presage a new labor movement at home — but it may signal more terrorism for us abroad. In 1914, Henry Ford paid his factory workers $5 a day, twice the going rate, with the aim of creating a broad middle class able to buy the cars they were building. Today, that project isn’t faring so well: The Economist reports that in the U.S. “the gap between rich and poor is bigger than in any other advanced country.” And it’s growing. According to the Congressional Budget Office, from 1979 to 2001, the after-tax income of the...

For more than a decade, the Democratic Party -- the self-proclaimed party of the middle class -- has consistently lost the middle class at election time. In 2004, voters with family incomes between $30,000 and $75,000 went for Bush by 6 percentage points, while Congressional Democrats lost this group by 4 points. Among white middle-class voters (one-third of the electorate), Bush won by 22 points and Congressional Republicans by 19 points. What's the matter with the middle class? Democrats like to pin their defeats on national security and culture issues alone, but the progressive economic message is also to blame....

Singer Steve Nicks is doing her part to support U.S. troops by donating hundreds of iPods to soldiers wounded in Iraq. The former Fleetwood Mac star regularly visits soldiers at the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, Maryland. She explains, "I refuse to be pulled into the politics of war. But once these soldiers sign up, go to war and come back to a hospital, I will do whatever it takes to make them better." Nicks has provided iPods loaded with her music, along with fellow artists Aerosmith and Elvis Presley. She has also sent baby clothes to war widows,...

Jethro Tull's soloist: Show must go on Ian Anderson, Jethro Tull's soloist and flutist, is still planning to come to Israel. 'I don’t think any of us should succumb to terror, I am afraid of coming to Israel but I am also afraid to cross the street' Sagie Ben Nun Ian Anderson, Jethro Tull's soloist and flutist since 1967, is due to appear in Israel on October 16th, 2006 for the fifth time. Anderson will be playing in concert with the Raanana Symphony Orchestra set to take place at the city's famed amphitheatre. As of now, it doesn’t appear as...

LEVITTOWN, Pennsylvania (June 6) - A deal is being negotiated that would allow a high school's class president to participate in Friday's graduation ceremony despite concern that he could be targeted by a gang. Tyrone Lewis, 18, had been scheduled to be one of the speakers at the Truman High School commencement ceremony, but police were worried that he could be targeted by a gang from Trenton, New Jersey, because his sister had testified in a murder trial. Lewis had been barred from the ceremony. Dave Truelove, the Bristol Township School District's solicitor, confirmed Tuesday that talks are in progress...

SYRACUSE, N.Y. - A soldier said he was only showing his gratitude when gave his Purple Heart to a 13-year-old student being honored for winning a contest for writing letters to American troops. "It's important what these children do for us in sending these letters," said Staff Sgt. Phillip Trackey, after giving away the medal he received for injuries in Iraq. "The letters mean so much to us. So I thought this was a big way of giving something back to them." Trackey and a group of fellow Fort Drum soldiers were attending a ceremony Thursday at West Genesee Middle...

Iraqi Signal School students salute the Iraqi flag during a graduation ceremony at the school in Taji, Iraq, May 13, 2006. Students from all Iraqi services and the Ministry of Defense attend the school to learn communications skills. Multiational Security Transition Command—Iraq photo by U.S. Army Sgt. 1st Class Rick Brown Iraqi Signal School Graduates Latest Class A move to a larger facility this summer will enable the school to expand its class size from 120 students at present to as many as 300 students. By U.S. Army Sgt. 1st Class Rick Brown Multiational Security Transition Command—Iraq CAMP FALLUJAH,...

WASHINGTON, May 8, 2006 – The top U.S. military general told members of The Citadel's graduating class accepting commissions into the military on May 6 they're serving their country in its time of need and offered them his own personal formula for leadership success. Marine Gen. Peter Pace, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, , addresses the 397 graduates at The Citadel for their May 6 commencement in Charleston, S.C.. He told them that their country, at war, needed them. Photo by Tech. Sgt. Cherie Thurlby, USAF  (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. "Your country needs you. We...

One of Germany's crack new fuel-cell-powered submarines has set a world record with a two-week-long dive, the German Navy said Wednesday. The trip by the U212A-class sub with a crew of 27 from Eckernfoerde in Germany to Rota in Spain involved the longest period that any non-nuclear vessel had ever spent under water. The navy did not say what the previous record had been. US and Russian nuclear submarines can stay under water for longer. Germany, which has no nuclear weapons and no nuclear-powered ships, developed the high-tech hybrid-powered submarines to replace diesel-electric vessels that need to surface more often...

Corpus, Christi, Texas (April 27, 2006) - Hospital Corpsman 2nd Class Juan M. Rubio, of San Angelo, Texas, was awarded the Silver Star Medal for conspicuous gallantry against the enemy on Jan. 1, 2005, while serving as a Marine platoon corpsman in support of Operation Iraqi Freedom (OIF). Medical Corps, Commander, Navy Medicine East and Commander, Naval Medical Center, Portsmouth, Va., Rear Adm. Thomas R. Cullison, left, made the presentation in front of the Naval Hospital on board Naval Air Station Corpus Christi. U.S. Navy photo by Mr. Bill W. Love (RELEASED)

The Navy's submarine force is in trouble. A shrinking number of boats is struggling to meet steady demand from regional commanders. Meanwhile, the cost of the only U.S. submarine currently in production, the super-high-tech Virginia-class attack boat, has risen to $2.3 billion apiece. At that price, the Navy can afford to buy only one per year. Do the math: since attack boats last only 30 years, building one boat per year means your fleet is eventually going to shrink to 30 boats from the current 55. Long-range plans call for 48 attack subs, so how is the Navy going to...

Afghan National Army Maj. Gen. Mohammad Mangal (right) congratulates Afghan National Army Col. Fatah, who graduated from the intermediate-level operator and field-level tactical radio maintenance class. Fatah also was recognized as an exceptional performer. Courtesy photo Afghan Army Graduates Radio Operator Class The class was taught in English, but the Afghan soldiers – aided by interpreters and student leaders – led the class in team exercises and design problems. By Combined Forces Command-Afghanistan KABUL, Afghanistan, April 12, 2006 — The Afghan National Army recently graduated 28 students from its first intermediate-level operator and field-level tactical radio maintenance class at...

CARLISLE BARRACKS, Pa., March 27, 2006 – Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld told senior officers at the Army War College here today that the American people must stay resolved in fighting terrorism. Secretary of Defense Donald H. Rumsfeld speaks to students and faculty at the U.S. Army War College at Carlisle Barracks in Carlisle, Pa. The institution educates future senior leaders of the Army and joint, interagency, intergovernmental and multinational communities. Photo by Petty Officer 1st Class Chad J. McNeeley, USN   (Click photo for screen-resolution image);high-resolution image available. "It's up to us, military and civilian, to commit ourselves to patiently...

RAMADI, Iraq, March 25, 2006 – One newly graduated 196-member Iraqi police unit returned here for duty yesterday, while another group -- about 220 Iraqi police recruits -- left here and arrived safely at the Baghdad Iraqi Police Basic Training Academy yesterday. The Iraqi police unit, made up of 196 Iraqis known as the Sons of al Anbar, successfully graduated from the Baghdad Police Academy on March 23. This Iraqi police class left Ramadi for the Baghdad Police Academy on Jan. 13, and they represent the first trained group of Iraqi police officers to graduate and secure the neighborhoods of...

Did you hear the one about the high school teacher in Colorado who compared President Bush to Adolf Hitler? We're not joking. Read about what social studies teacher Jay Bennish told his class at Overland High School the day after Bush' state of the union address. Using an MP3 player, a student recorded Bennish's remarks about Bush's speech: "Sounds like a lot of things that Adolf Hitler used to say. We're the only ones who are right, everyone else is backward, and our job is to conquer the world." Bennish's criticisms of Bush and U.S. foreign policy – during which...

3/6/2006 - ROME, N.Y. (AFPN) -- Forty men and women from across the country will focus on a futuristic "cybercraft" as they participate in the 2006 Class of the Advanced Course in Engineering Cyber Security Boot Camp. A joint selection committee of Syracuse University and Air Force Research Laboratory officials reviewed the credentials of applicants and identified 40 candidates who will make up the class of 2006, comprised of 36 new students and four returning graduate assistants. The profile of the 36 students of the ACE 2006 class includes 33 men and three women who attend colleges in 22 states...

Venezuelan middle class flees Chávez rule of hate By Sophie Arie in Caracas (Filed: 05/03/2006) Venezuela's once-thriving middle class is packing its bags and fleeing the country, afraid for the future as the socialist president, Hugo Chávez, calls on the slum-dwelling masses to rise up and seize wealth from those better off than themselves. Growing numbers of professionals, business owners and shopkeepers are fed up with the climate of hostility that the Left-wing president has encouraged in his effort to boost his populist credentials. President Hugo Chávez María Carolina García was blowing up helium balloons in her party-decorations shop in...

Today, President and Mrs. Bush traveled to Atlanta, Georgia today to attend the funeral of Coretta Scott King at New Birth Missionary Baptist Church. The President spoke from the heart, showing his class and character in honoring Mrs. King, in contrast to the petty political digs of others who spoke. For a complete reading of the President's remarks, go HERE. Last evening the President and First Lady hosted The Dance Theatre of Harlem with a dinner in the State Dining Room followed by a dance performance in the East Room at the White House, where he made remarks, and himself...

First Iraqi Cadet Class Wraps Up Officer Training The group is the first class to complete the basic officer training course under the new Iraqi army. By U.S. Air Force Senior Airman Mark Woodbury Multinational Security Transition Command-Iraq BAGHDAD, Iraq, Dec. 12, 2005 — The Iraqi army will mark another first this week with the expected graduation of 77 cadets at the Iraqi Military Academy at Ar Rustamiyah. The group is the first class to complete the basic officer training course under the new Iraqi army. The 42-week course focuses on developing leaders of soldiers from all backgrounds and...

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE: Monday, Dec. 5, 2005 CONTACT: Gary Glenn 989-835-7978 Professor David Halperin 734-647-5884 Family group renews criticism of tax- funded college class "How to be Gay" U-M catalogue calls class "an experiment in the very process of initiation it hopes to understand." ------- ANN ARBOR, Mich. -- A statewide family values group Monday renewed its criticism of a controversial University of Michigan class -- offered this fall for the first time since 2003 -- again calling on state lawmakers to pressure university officials to drop the course altogether. The American Family Association of Michigan, in a letter to...

In a recent message on a Yahoo listserv — a venue where groups of people post questions and comments on a particular topic — Paul Mirecki, chairman of KU’s department of religious studies, described his upcoming course “Special Topics in Religion: Intelligent Design, Creationisms and other Religious Mythologies.” “The fundies want it all taught in a science class, but this will be a nice slap in their big fat face by teaching it as a religious studies class under the category ‘mythology,’” Mirecki wrote. He signed the note “Doing my part (to upset) the religious right, Evil Dr. P.”

This is a rather simple thread; who do YOU think is the classiest player (or players, if you have multiple choices) currently playing? You may even list a team. On the flip side, what about those with the least class (points at Randy Moss)? You may even list a team (points at Vikings). Also, you may even list those who have played and gone (players from the older days had a lot of class. Remember Gale Sayers?). Who's your choice?

Free Republic: Art Appreciation/Education “class” #10: Postmodernism Now it is time to truly finish these mini-lectures on the development of modern art with this final lecture of Postmodernism. Andy Warhol and other Pop artists may have made the first forays into Postmodernism, and some textbooks begin their postmodern sections with Pop Art. But I like to save Postmodernism for the 1980’s and thereafter. One question to consider is whether postmodernism (or at least its validity) might have come to a screeching halt on 9/11, (when thinking people realized that there were indeed evil people in the world and that the...

I saw this show last night. I can't remember when I've seen someone play so hard for so long. And take no shortcuts. He had two drummers, a second guitar, bass, keyboard, and percussion/backup vocal. He didn't have to pay for two drummers, but he did. With his name, he could tour as a trio. Point being, again, no corners cut. Some tight originals indicate he's definitely not living in the past.I had a friend who played next to him in St. Pete at a benefit a few years ago, so I was paying close attention to the interaction between...

The Death Penalty in Georgia William John Hagan Houston Home Journal This week I was assigned the unpleasant duty of reporting on the murder of 16-month-old Christian Edward Martinez. For those of you that didn’t read my article in Tuesday’s newspaper, I’ll briefly bring you up to speed.(Original report at: http://news.mywebpal.com/partners/963/public/news653608.html ) Christian was murdered last August, and authorities believe the killer was Gregory Class. The details of this case are sickening, so if you have a weak stomach I suggest you turn a few pages and read the more comforting words of your daily horoscope. For those who want...

The Death Penalty in Georgia William John Hagan Houston Home Journal This week I was assigned the unpleasant duty of reporting on the murder of 16-month-old Christian Edward Martinez. For those of you that didn’t read my article in Tuesday’s newspaper, I’ll briefly bring you up to speed.(Original report at: http://news.mywebpal.com/partners/963/public/news653608.html ) Christian was murdered last August, and authorities believe the killer was Gregory Class. The details of this case are sickening, so if you have a weak stomach I suggest you turn a few pages and read the more comforting words of your daily horoscope. For those who want...

Trivia Tidbit Of The Day: Part 23 -- Baby Names. BABY NAMES: Girls, by income- Most Popular High-End White Girl Names in the 1990s 1. Alexandra 2. Lauren 3. Katherine 4. Madison 5. Rachel Most Popular Low-End White Girl Names in the 1990s 1. Amber 2. Heather 3. Kayla 4. Stephanie 5. Alyssa Boys, by income- Most Popular High-End White Boy Names 1. Benjamin 2. Samuel 3. Jonathan 4. Alexander 5. Andrew Most Popular Low-End White Boy Names 1. Cody 2. Brandon 3. Anthony 4. Justin 5. Robert WHITEST AND BLACKEST GIRL NAMES- The 20 Whitest Girl Names 1. Molly...

The Navy will commission the newest Arleigh Burke class guided-missile destroyer, Halsey, Saturday, July 30, 2005, during an 11 a.m. PDT ceremony at Pier J, Naval Air Station, Coronado, Calif. Sen. John McCain of Arizona will deliver the ceremony's principal address. Heidi Cooke Halsey, Anne Halsey-Smith, and Alice “Missy” Spruance Talbot will serve as sponsors of the ship named for their grandfather. In a time-honored Navy tradition, they will give the first order to "man our ship and bring her to life!" Halsey honors U.S. Naval Academy graduate Fleet Adm. William F. Halsey Jr. (1882-1959). During World War I, Cmdr....