AMAZON

Inside Newark: Decline, Rebellion, and the Search for Transformation (Rivergate Regionals Collection) Hardcover
June 11, 2014
by Robert Curvin (Author)

For decades, leaders in Newark, New Jersey, have claimed their city is about to return to its vibrant past. How accurate is this prediction? Is Newark on the verge of revitalization? Robert Curvin, who was one of New Jersey’s outstanding civil rights leaders, examines the city, chronicling its history, politics, and culture. Throughout the pages of Inside Newark, Curvin approaches his story both as an insider who is rooting for Newark and as an objective social scientist illuminating the causes and effects of sweeping changes in the city

Based on historical records and revealing interviews with over one hundred residents and officials, Inside Newark traces Newark’s history from the 1950s, when the city was a thriving industrial center, to the era of Mayor Cory Booker. Along the way, Curvin covers the disturbances of July 1967, called a riot by the media and a rebellion by residents; the administration of Kenneth Gibson, the first black mayor of a large northeastern city; and the era of Sharpe James, who was found guilty of corruption. Curvin examines damaging housing and mortgage policies, the state takeover of the failing school system, the persistence of corruption and patronage, Newark’s shifting ethnic and racial composition, positive developments in housing and business complexes, and the reign of ambitious mayor Cory Booker.

Inside Newark reveals a central weakness that continues to plague Newark—that throughout this history, elected officials have not risen to the challenges they have faced. Curvin calls on those in positions of influence to work for the social and economic improvement of all groups and concludes with suggestions for change, focusing on education reform, civic participation, financial management, partnerships with agencies and business, improving Newark’s City Council, and limiting the term of the mayor. If Newark’s leadership can encompass these changes, Newark will have a chance at a true turnaround.

Watch a video with Robert Curvin:

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http://featuresblogs.chicagotribune.com/entertainment_tv/2008/01/barack-obama-on.html

January 14, 2008
Barack Obama on his favorite TV show

Sen. Barack Obama has previously said that HBO’s "The Wire" is his favorite show. But now Obama's revealed another tidbit. In a story from Monday's Las Vegas Sun, the presidential candidate said that the bold thief Omar is his favorite character on "The Wire."

“That’s not an endorsement. He’s not my favorite person, but he’s a fascinating character,” Obama said, who noted in an audio clip on the site that Omar, who is gay, is also “the toughest, baddest guy on the show.”

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Speaking of “The Wire,” there’s an excellent piece in the Columbia Journalism Review that gives more background on creator David Simon’s history at the Sun and how that has informed his worldview and his show, which, in its last season, is spending time on story lines set at a fictional version of the Baltimore Sun. Also, Simon himself writes vividly about his tenure at the Sun in this Esquire piece.

My own Season 5 "Wire" piece is here.

http://featuresblogs.chicagotribune.com/entertainment_tv/2008/01/david-simon-tal.html

January 10, 2008
David Simon talks about his career in journalism and the final chapter of 'The Wire'

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But Simon’s indelible achievement is “The Wire,” an unflinchingly realistic portrait of life in Baltimore, from the magisterial chambers in which craven political decisions are made, to the threadbare classrooms in which the poorest kids attempt to learn, to the beat-up row houses that are home to the city’s flinty, resourceful inner-city residents.

The heart of the show, which debuted in 2002, is Baltimore’s Police Department — the street cops and detectives who attempt to keep some kind of order in the city, despite endless budget cutbacks and superiors who often spend their time fiddling with crime stats in order to win themselves promotions.

Over its four previous seasons, “The Wire” has shown how indifferent institutions and selfish individuals often stand in the way of those with intelligence and initiative. But the show’s great accomplishment is that it never preaches — it’s even quite funny at times, in a dry, roundabout way. Instead of rote lessons about urban decay, Simon’s conclusions arrive via meticulous character studies that rarely feel plotted or predictable. To watch the show is to be immersed in an interlocking series of utterly realistic worlds, from the street corner to the cop bar to the mayor’s office.

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http://www.bbc.com/news/uk-england-leeds-12984994

Sharon King's family and autism

6 April 2011

BBC VIDEO

Sharon King, from Wakefield, is the mother of three children who all have autistic disorders.

Her exceptional family, in particular her eldest daughter, were the inspiration for a children's book featuring a character with autism.

Mrs King shows how the condition affects each of them in different ways, and hopes it will help raise awareness.

BBC Look North's Shirley Henry reports.

Wrights Discuss Vatican Conference on Andrea Mitchell
Published on Nov 20, 2014

https://twitter.com/TACAfoundation/status/468790197870542848

TACA ‏@TACAfoundation May 20



Committee on Oversight & Government Reform had an #autism hearing... recording starts at 26 mins.
FULL VIDEO embedded in tweet.

START @ ~01:18:25

"I THINK IT'S REALLY HELPFUL TO PUT ALL OF THIS IN SOME CONTEXT, AND THE REASON WHY I KEEP HARPING ON THIS BEING THE WRONG RABBIT GOING DOWN THE WRONG HOLE IS THAT WHEN YOU COMPARE AUTISM TO AIDS, IT'S REALLY QUITE EXTRAORDINARY.

SO AS YOU SAID, CHAIRMAN MICA, $160M IS BEING SPENT IN 2012, IT'S A LITTLE BIT MORE THAN THAT, BUT THAT'S BASICALLY THE AUTISM FIGURE, AND YOU ALSO, BOTH OF YOU, CITED THE ENORMOUS PUBLIC HEALTH COST AND ECONOMIC COST.

AIDS AFFECTS ABOUT A MILLION PEOPLE IN THE UNITED STATES. DO YOU WANT TO GUESS WHAT THE AIDS BUDGET IS FOR RESEARCH AT THE NIH?

IT'S 3 BILLION DOLLARS.

WE'RE TALKING ABOUT 160 MILLION DOLLARS FOR A DISORDER (AUTISM) THAT AFFECTS AT LEAST AS MANY CHILDREN AS ARE AFFECTED BY, AS ARE AFFECTED WITH AIDS THROUGHOUT THE ENTIRE COUNTRY."

http://www.ageofautism.com/2013/03/dr-tom-insel-on-autism-if-there-is-a-true-increase-if.html

...Then in 2010, Insel spoke for an hour and a half at the National Institutes of Health (link moved). Insel made the stunning statement, "Eighty percent of the people with a diagnosis of autism [in the U.S.] are under the age of eighteen."

In addition, Insel said, "We have responded to this as if it's a crisis. We see this as an enormous public health challenge. If you look at those numbers, the increase and recognize how many of those kids will become adults, we ...also need to be thinking about how we prepare the nation for a million people who may need significant amounts of services as they are no longer cared for by their parents or as their parents are no longer around."

How Recent Is Autism?

So recent that the late great director Mike Nichols, born 11.6.31, was just a few weeks younger than Vivian Murdock, oldest child in the first case study on autism, born 9.13.31. ASSERTION: Autism is man-made.

http://www.ageofautism.com/2014/11/age-of-autism-weekly-wrap-.html#more

When Mike Nichols died Thursday, I noticed that he was born in 1931, the same year that autism began (in the person of Vivian Murdock, oldest child in Leo Kanner’s case series from 1943, whom Teresa Conrick, Mark Blaxill and I first identified on AOA – an example, come to think of it, of what financial support helps accomplish).

When I learn about other people born then, it reminds me how recent autism is – within the span of one lifetime, this catastrophe has descended upon us. The reason, we believe, is the first use of ethylmercury in commercial compounds starting then, including in vaccines as thimerosal.

So I wrote a brief note about the coincidence of birth year, as I often do (it’s still up there in the right hand corner). Then, reading his obit in the Times on Friday morning, I came across this: “Young Michael’s sense of being a stranger in a strange land [a Holocaust refugee from Germany] was aggravated by the loss of his hair at age 4, the result of a reaction to an inoculation for whooping cough.” That’s called alopecia. He would have gotten the shot in Germany. That nice head of blond hair, it turns out, was a toupee.

Well, then. A vaccine caused him a severe reaction in 1935 or 1936. I assume that the vaccine – pertussis, later to become the worst part of the deadly and damaging DPT -- contained thimerosal. (Remember, Asperger’s was showing up in neighboring Austria then. Bayer, which used ethylmercury in pesticides, was based there.)

Here’s a counterfactual exercise. What if, instead of musing about bad parenting, Leo Kanner had realized the toxic exposure in autism, just as Mike Nichol’s doctors did in alopecia, and the Age of Autism had been stopped as soon as it started?

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Dan Olmsted is Editor of Age of Autism.

http://www.scribd.com/doc/115393658/Andrew-Zimmerman

Andrew Zimmerman / Poling v HHS Exhibit 3

Published by Heather Rhodes White

In a second case Zimmerman was called to give his expert report on was Poling v. HHS. He revised his testimony, which was in complete contradiction from Cedillo v. HHS. His report to the Special Masters;

“The cause for regressive encephalopathy in Hannah (Poling) at age 19 months was underlying mitochondrial dysfunction, exacerbated by vaccine-induced fever and immune stimulation that exceeded metabolic energy reserves. This acute expenditure of metabolic reserves led to permanent irreversible brain injury. Thus, if not for this event, Hannah may have led a normal full productive life. Presently, I predict Hannah will have a normal lifespan but with significant lifelong disability.”

http://najms.net/wp-content/uploads/v06i03.pdf#page=34

...The data presented in Dr. Mumper’s review of the medical literature, suggests that ASD may be impacted by environmental toxicants, duration of breastfeeding, gut flora composition, nutritional status, acetaminophen use, vaccine practices and use of antibiotics and/or frequency of infections. In her current general pediatric practice (Advocates for Children), she has noted a modest trend toward a lower prevalence of ASD than in her previous pediatric practice or recent prevalence estimates from the CDC.

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The final commentary was written by Dr. Herbert, who presents her paper entitled “Everyday Epigenetics from Molecular Intervention to Public Health and Lifestyle Medicine.” She asserts that it may well take a grass roots epigenetic/lifestyle medicine revolution to avert the worsening health trends we are facing in the setting of a progressively more toxic and endangered planet. She posits that everyday epigenetics can inform science of what is possible so that society can respond on an appropriate scale to the magnitude of the crisis we are facing...