Monday, December 10, 2007

Local News:

ISTEP-Plus scores were released Wednesday by the Indiana Department of Education, stirring reactions ranging from pride to disappointment across the Madison County area. The ISTEP test is administered yearly to students in grade 3-10 in Indiana schools. The test is designed to measure whether schools are making yearly progress mandated by the federal No Child Left Behind Act. It is also a barometer of the academic progress of individual students. While some classes did well enough to deserve a pat on the back, such as the Lapel sixth-graders, 84 percent of whom passed overall, there is lots of room for improvement. At the low end of the spectrum, only 23 percent of third-graders at Anderson Elementary passed overall. Almost 8 in 10 failed. This is unacceptable.

State News:

Students at the Winamac middle and high schools, which share a building, were sent home early Thursday after a threat was found written on a mirror in a boys' restroom. Police searched the building using bomb-sniffing dogs but found nothing, said Robert J. Klitzman, superintendent of Eastern Pulaski Community Schools. He said officials think the threat, found in the middle school section of the building, was a hoax. Classes will resume as normal today, he said. There have been many threats in the past year between schools. Officials are concerned that students are doing this to get out of school.



National News:

Americans from Oklahoma to New England are bracing for more harsh winter weather as a storm system continues to bring waves of misery. In the Midwest, where 1 million customers were blacked out at the storm's peak, about 500,000 homes and businesses remained without power early Friday in Oklahoma, Kansas and Missouri. A blast of heavy snow forecast for Friday was likely to slow utility crews in Oklahoma. Another storm was also expected to hit the Northeast this weekend, with a mix of rain and sleet hitting the coast, and heavy snow farther inland. As the system gets to the Northeast, it's really going to intensify and deepen and this is going to cause a lot of trouble.



World News:

An Indonesian man died of bird flu, bringing the death toll in the country worst hit by the virus to 93. Authorities were trying to ascertain how the 47-year-old man contracted the deadly strain of the disease, which has infected 115 people in Indonesia. The man began showing signs of illness on December 2 and died Thursday night at a hospital in Jakarta, after being admitted with a fever, cough and other flu-like symptoms.Indonesia has recorded regular deaths from bird flu since the virus began ravaging poultry stocks across Asia in 2003. And its 93 deaths now account for almost half of the recorded fatalities worldwide.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/WORLD/asiapcf/12/13/bird.flu.ap/index.html



Business News:

Analysts say there is a reason why shoppers aren't splurging: Not enough new fashion. Must-have fashion bolsters retail sales by making people feel their current wardrobes are out of date. That was the case in 2003, when color made a comeback and suddenly the black and gray of the previous decade looked stale. It happened again in 2004, when lady-like styles such as boucle jackets and ruffled blouses replaced the utilitarian looks of prior years. Most recently, in 2006, there were skinny jeans and baby doll dresses styles that ushered in a whole new silhouette. Clothing still accounts for a majority of holiday shopping, although it has been losing ground in recent years. Some 54 percent of shoppers said they planned to purchase clothing this holiday season, according to a survey of 1,943 consumers conducted by NPD in September.


Health News:

Scientists think they have figured out why pregnant women don't lose their balance and fall over despite ever-growing weight up front. Evolution provided slight differences from men in women's lower backs and hip joints, allowing them to adjust their center of gravity. This elegant engineering is seen only in female humans and our immediate ancestors who walked on two feet, but not in chimps and apes. Harvard anthropology researcher Katherine Whitcome found two physical differences in male and female backs that until now had gone . One lower lumbar vertebra is wedged-shaped in women and more square in men; and a key hip joint is 14 percent larger in women than men when body size is taken into account.

Iraq News:

The FBI is investigating the special inspector general for Iraq reconstruction. The investigation of Stuart Bowen involves possible electronic tampering, including alleged efforts by the inspector general to go through e-mails of employees in his office. It is being handled by the FBI's Washington field office, according to law enforcement officials, who like the first officials spoke on condition of anonymity because of the ongoing investigation. According to one of the officials close to the investigation, the FBI is looking into several issues of possible fraud and abuse and has interviewed a number of former and current employees, some two or three times. A grand jury has been impaneled, and has issued subpoenas for documents.

Election News:

Former Arkansas Governor, Mike Huckabee made his way to the top among Republican presidential candidates in South Carolina, while Hillary Clinton's lead over Barack Obama among Democrats. The Opinion Research Corporation poll of South Carolinians was released Friday and Huckabee was the choice of 24 percent of South Carolina Republicans in the survey conducted by telephone between Dec. 9 and 12. When the same poll was conducted in July, Huckabee was in the lower tier with just 3 percent of support from registered GOP voters. Fred Thompson was second with 17 percent, slightly down from his previous 18 percent.

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.com/2007/12/14/sc-poll-huckabee-bolts-to-top-of-gop-obama-cuts-into-clinton-lead/


Technology News:

Japanese researchers tested chimps against adults in tests of short-term memory, and it turned out to be that the chimps won. This challenges the belief of many people. Matsuzawa, a pioneer in studying the mental abilities of chimps, said even he was surprised. He and colleague Sana Inoue report the results in Tuesday's issue of the journal Current Biology.The chimps saw nine numbers displayed on a computer screen. When they touched the first number, the other eight turned into white squares. The test was to touch all these squares in the order of the numbers that used to be there.

http://www.cnn.com/2007/TECH/science/12/03/chimp.memory.ap/index.html?iref=newssearch


Sports News:

There will be no backing off from the challenge of perfection. No taking a pass on history in favor of resting starters for the playoffs. The team that can not lose is going for it all. Their desire level stands as mid-December approaches, just review Sunday's 34-13 dismantling of Pittsburgh, the team that supposedly was best positioned to end New England's 2007 magic carpet ride. Once again we discovered these Patriots are not messing around. They mean business. Not only did they want to just win on Sunday, they wanted to win mean.

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