An Illinois community southwest of Chicago is astir after the local police chief proposed a new method to protect students: bring more guns to school.

Plainfield Police Chief John Konopek wants officers regularly assigned to district high schools to be allowed to keep an AR 15 semi-automatic rifle under lock and key in school offices so they are better prepared to handle school shootings, if the situation were to arise.

School officers will be the only ones able to access the weapons, NBC Chicago reports. Konopek notes that training exercises have shown that officers are "much better equipped to handle this type of incident" while using a long gun -- with greater range, accuracy and stopping power -- versus a handgun.

"Unfortunately, in today's society, active shooter incidents are no longer something we see on TV," Konopek said in a statement according to the station. "They are reality." ,,,,,,,,,,,,,(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/22/guns-in-school-plainfield_n_1823107.html

Witnesses Made Case Against Armstrong Potent

By JULIET MACUR
Published: August 24, 2012


The morning after Lance Armstrong gave up his fight against doping accusations, Travis Tygart, the chief executive of the United States Anti-Doping Agency, which brought the most recent drug charges against Armstrong, received an unexpected phone call.

He said it was from yet another person who was offering information about the systematic doping that the agency claims occurred on Armstrong’s Tour de France-winning teams.

“At the end of the day, a lot of people knew the truth, but they were silenced by the internal pressure from the team to keep everything secret,” Tygart said, adding, “This is the most witnesses we’ve ever had in any case come forward.”

Tygart would not divulge the names of any of the witnesses. But one thing was clear: they were the crux of the antidoping agency’s evidence against Armstrong. And in the doping world, that is known as a nonanalytical positive — an athlete implicated not by a positive drug test but by supporting evidence. ......................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/25/sports/cycling/antidoping-officials-move-to-wipe-out-armstrongs-titles.html?_r=1&ref=sports

Getting a gun in Chicago quick and easy
BY FRANK MAIN Staff Reporter August 25, 2012



Want to know how to get a gun?

Just ask Chris.

The skinny teen attends high school in Chicago and is a talented athlete. But he’s also a notorious gunslinger.

As a shooter in a South Side gang, he can get his hands on a gun as quick as you can get a burger at a fast-food restaurant.

“I will make a call and say I need a gun. I will ride down the street on my bike and get it — five minutes.”

.....(snip).....

He knows men whose full-time job in the underground economy is to buy guns from suburban stores and illegally sell them to criminals. ............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.suntimes.com/news/metro/14618767-418/getting-a-gun-in-chicago-quick-and-easy.html

https://


Invisible Americans Get the Silent Treatment

August 24, 2012
by Bill Moyers and Michael Winship

It’s just astonishing to us how long this campaign has gone on with no discussion of what’s happening to poor people. Official Washington continues to see poverty with tunnel vision – “out of sight, out of mind.”

And we’re not speaking just of Paul Ryan and his Draconian budget plan or Mitt Romney and their fellow Republicans. Tipping their hats to America’s impoverished while themselves seeking handouts from billionaires and corporations is a bad habit that includes President Obama, who of all people should know better.

Remember: for three years in the 1980’s he was a community organizer in Roseland, one of the worst, most poverty-stricken and despair-driven neighborhoods in Chicago. He called it “the best education I ever had.” And when Obama left to go to Harvard Law School, author Paul Tough writes in The New York Times, he did so, “to gain the knowledge and resources that would allow him to eventually return and tackle the neighborhood’s problems anew.” There’s a moving line in Dreams from My Father where Obama writes: “I would learn power’s currency in all its intricacy and detail” and “bring it back like Promethean fire.”

Oddly, though, for all his rhetorical skills, Obama hasn’t made a single speech devoted to poverty since he moved into the White House. ...............(more)

The complete piece is at: http://billmoyers.com/2012/08/24/invisible-americans-get-the-silent-treatment/

https://


When Nuns Get Political
August 24, 2012

Weeks before Republican Paul Ryan was selected to run for vice president, Sister Simone Campbell — who heads NETWORK, a Catholic policy and lobbying group – hit the road to protest the so-called “Ryan budget” recently passed by the House of Representatives. She and some of her sister nuns rolled across the heartland on a bus trip designed to arouse public concern over what the Ryan plan would mean for social services in America, especially its slashing of programs for the poor. Sister Simone says his budget is inconsistent with Catholic social teaching. The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops agrees.


http://billmoyers.com/segment/inside-nuns-on-a-bus-on-a-mission-of-faith-and-morality/

from Consortium News:


Is Mitt Romney a Racist?
August 25, 2012

Exclusive: Mitt Romney “jokingly” observed that “no one’s ever asked to see my birth certificate” as he once again pandered to “birthers” and their racist conspiracy theory. But TV commentators rushed to put down any suggestion that Romney is a racist. But is he, asks Robert Parry.

By Robert Parry


U.S. media pundits were quick to reassure the American people that – despite a tasteless “joke” referring to the racist lie that Barack Obama was born in Kenya – Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney is surely no racist. We were told it was just an unfortunate off-the-cuff attempt at humor. But is that true?

Romney may not be a crude racist, the sort who would dress up in white sheets and burn crosses on someone’s lawn. But America has had a long – and equally grim – history of country-club racists whose personal contempt toward blacks, Hispanics, Arabs and other dark-skinned people is cloaked in more genteel phrasing.

The Republican presidential candidate more fits that mold. In his book, No Apology, Romney delved into academic theories about the alleged cultural inferiority of Mexicans and Palestinians. Discussing his thoughts as he traveled the world, he wrote:

“I wondered how such vast differences could exist between countries that were literally next door to each other. How could Americans be so rich and Mexicans so poor? How could Israelis have created a highly developed, technology-based economy while their Palestinian neighbors had not yet even begun to move to an industrial economy?” .................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://consortiumnews.com/2012/08/25/is-mitt-romney-a-racist/

from Der Spiegel:



[font size="1"]AFP[/font]


Hailed as a "miracle of modern politics," Denmark consistently earns top marks for its efficient governance, innovation and transparency. Nowhere is this more apparent than with its successful embrace of wind power, making it a role model for the world.

The blades of the wind turbine are made of plain wood painted red, and they measure exactly 1.2 meters (3.9 feet) long. Their curved edges are only roughly sanded. Nothing seems to suggest that this unremarkable-looking device heralded the rise of a global corporation and the restructuring of an entire country.

"At the time, I found the thing in a dusty corner of the barn," says Henrik Stiesdal. "I still clearly recall how I held it in the wind for the first time."

His blue eyes gleam as if he were reliving the experience from 35 years ago, saying: "I suddenly felt this power and thought: That's just the ticket!"

Stiesdal jumps up from his chair, which he had been casually rocking on only a moment ago. He wants to leave his office on the first floor and show his visitors what has evolved from this red piece of wood. The 55-year-old technical director at Siemens Wind Power rushes toward a large production hall with its walls of black granite sparkling in the sun. ..................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.spiegel.de/international/europe/how-wind-energy-is-transforming-denmark-into-a-modern-marvel-a-849227.html