Total Clips: 11

Headline		Date	Outlet
	Road Trip: NAIBA Trunk Show in Syracuse, N.Y	06/28/2007	Shelf Awareness
	The College Rejection Blues	06/27/2007	Hartford Courant
	What Keeps Poor People Poor	06/26/2007	Chronicle of Higher Education, The
	Exeter man to study primates in Africa	06/26/2007	Seacoast Newspapers
	Making math fun is first step in evolution	06/25/2007	Times-Picayune - Online
	Upstate & Upbeat: NAIBA Trunk Show a Hit	06/21/2007	Bookselling This Week
	Elisabeth Tone: Love of English takes Darien salutatorian to Colgate	06/20/2007	Ridgefield Press
	Next for Oneidas: Land-into-trust	06/19/2007	Observer-Dispatch, The
	Police officers learn bike skills	06/19/2007	News 10 Now
	A generation of parents learns to let go	06/18/2007	Newsday
	Abortion polls I'd like to see	06/17/2007	Post-Standard

Road Trip: NAIBA Trunk Show in Syracuse, N.Y 06/28/2007 Shelf Awareness	Return to Top
I hit I-81 to Syracuse, N.Y., on a 91-degree day armed with iced coffee and Santana on CD (I know; I'm hopeless), on my way to fill in for beloved, PW rep-of-the-year-nominated telesales rep Kim Gombar. Kim had a scheduling conflict, so off I went with her list of fall picks and holiday catalog titles; boxes of ARE's were sent ahead to the lovely Holiday Inn. (Ah, the smell of chlorine; flashback to my days as a Midwest Random House rep and the hell of Holidomes.) But I digress. Central Upstate New York is home to the Mohawk settings for Richard Russo's early novels; hundreds of town and lakes with Indian names; beautiful dairy farms; the gorgeous Finger Lakes; legendary colleges; brutal winters and lovely summer resort towns; and a wonderful group of bookstores that NAIBA has dubbed "The Other New York." I've been to three of the stores, and all the visits made me yearn to live in those towns (ok, except in winter): the spacious Creekside Books & Coffee in the resort town of Skaneateles (I checked the speling); Oswego's downtown gem River's End Bookstore, near the banks of Lake Erie (the E in HOMES); and Colgate Bookstore, a glorious three-story building in Hamilton. I hope to get to some of the other nearby stores next time, especially Syracuse University Bookstore, Talking Leaves Books in Buffalo and Lift Bridge Book Shop in Brockport. It's always good to see Elena, Lucy and Pat, respectively, from those stores, and Pat took the opportunity to applaud our children's group for the wonderful Fancy Nancy event kit. The Trunk Show itself was short and sweet. A table, a stack of ARE's and a rep picks session. NAIBA's Eileen Dengler hatched up this idea with Rob Stahl of Colgate with the goal of getting some extra attention to these geographically removed but vital stores. I finished early so my group of booksellers had a discussion about the digital future. We agreed that it's a matter of when not if, and that we all need to be ready to give customers what they want in the format they want it in. Lastly I spent time talking with Jack Herr and Carolyn Bennett of Bookstream. (Carolyn is the sister of my assistant Whitney and daughter of the Bookselling Bennetts of New Jersey, not to be confused with the Lighthouse Stevensons of Jersey.) Anyway, they just had Tommie de Paolo up to sign stock, which went back out the door right away. We should all get some authors up there to sign stock and stop at the Hudson Valley's wonderful Merritt Books, Oblong Books, Spotty Dog and Inquiring Minds, too. A new B&N in booming Newburgh, too. (Future home of New York metro's fourth major airport? Hmmm, we'll see. Newburgh does have the best Hudson Riverside dining anywhere. Oh, Gulf Coast Bar on the West Side H'way, we miss you.) Anyway, email Carolyn.bennett@bookstream.com. Five hours and more iced coffee and the occasional view of the Erie Canal and I was back in bustling Manhattan, better off thanks to the time to think in the car and talk with some very savvy booksellers.
The College Rejection Blues 06/27/2007 Hartford Courant Frahm, Robert	Return to Top
As she narrowed her choices for college, 18-year-old Jackie Presutti had every reason to be confident. A straight-A student, she had Georgetown and Harvard universities at the top of her list. She applied to seven colleges in all, banking on a high school record filled with demanding courses, a fistful of honors, and activities ranging from the crew team to the literary magazine. The first rejections came from Harvard and Dartmouth. Georgetown was next. Then came the letter from Colgate University, a school her counselors and teachers thought would be a good match. Colgate turned her down, too. "All my teachers were really shocked," said Presutti, a Farmington High School senior who, like thousands of other seniors across the U.S., has found this spring to be an agonizing admissions season. As the number of graduating seniors has shot up over the last decade, the competition to get into college has grown more intense. It will remain tight as the pool of high school graduates in the U.S., after hitting a low point in 1994, is expected to peak at more than 3.3 million in 2009. In the Northeast, including Connecticut, the peak is expected in 2008. Which means - as a Tuesday deadline approaches for seniors to make up their minds about which college to attend - many students are learning to live with disappointment. Even in places such as Farmington High School, where more than nine out of 10 graduates go on to college - including some of the nation's top schools - many seniors are not getting into the college of their choice. "In the late '90s, these kids would have gotten into every school they applied to," said David Berrill, the high school's director of guidance. "These are great students." Presutti, for example, compiled a sparkling academic record in advanced courses such as statistics, Spanish and European history. She is president of the student council, anchors a weekly school TV news broadcast, and is a member of the chamber singers. "Who's getting in if she's not? She's got the whole package," Spanish teacher Lisa Hanratty said. In addition to the rejections, Connecticut College put Presutti on a waiting list. She was accepted by Wheaton College in Massachusetts, a school she had viewed as a safety. She's going there in the fall - and is looking on the bright side. "It's right near Boston and Providence, two of my favorite cities," she said. "It's definitely a beautiful campus. They have some amazing scholars come out of there. ... I've only heard good things." At Hall High School in West Hartford, senior Bennett Weinerman, a straight-A student who has been captain of the school's soccer and tennis teams, thought he might have a leg up at Duke University, where his father went to school. Or perhaps at Williams College, his mother's alma mater. Duke and Williams turned him down. So did Georgetown and Amherst College. Bates and Colby colleges put him on their waiting lists. He applied to eight schools and was accepted by two, the University of Connecticut and Hamilton College in New York. He will attend Hamilton, where he plans to play soccer. "I was a little surprised at all the rejections, but it's nice to fall back on a school that accepted me. ... I knew these were all highly competitive." The problem chiefly affects students applying to the most selective private colleges and some flagship state universities. At Yale University, officials expect to admit fewer than one in 10 applicants this year, roughly the same rate as in recent years. "One of the most challenging things about this work is ... that we do not have enough places to offer a tremendous number of the truly superb students who apply," said Jeff Brenzel, Yale's dean of undergraduate admissions. "There are many students we could not admit that we would have loved to see in the class." At Colgate, Presutti's application was one of a record 8,752 this year. The university accepted about one-fourth of its applicants, the lowest rate ever, said Gary L. Ross, dean of admission. Ross credited the college's growing reputation, along with the larger pool of high school graduates, for the surge in applications. "Four or five of the last six years we've set records in terms of academic quality [of applicants] and the number of applications received," he said. "We have some heated battles in our committee room about people we consider to be admissible." Compounding the problem is that students often submit multiple applications to a variety of colleges, inundating admissions offices. "They used to apply to three or four schools. Now they're applying to six or seven," said M. Dolan Evanovich, head of the office of enrollment management at UConn. The number of annual applications at UConn has more than doubled over the past decade, and competition among applicants is getting tougher, he said. "Absolutely," Evanovich said. "Our SAT scores are up. We ask for higher and higher [grade point averages]. ... We look for students taking really strong academic programs." But experts also say that, even with admissions getting tougher at the more selective institutions, many opportunities exist at other colleges. Nationwide, 67 percent of new college freshmen got into their first-choice college in 2006, and about 90 percent got either their first or second choice, according to an annual survey of college freshmen by the Higher Education Research Institute at the University of California, Los Angeles. For students who have been turned down by elite schools, "the important thing is to look around at similar institutions that are probably less selective but can be awfully good," said George Dehne, president of GDA Integrated Services, a higher education research and consulting firm based in Old Saybrook. David Hawkins, director of public policy for the National Association for College Admission Counseling, said, "Not getting into your first-choice college is absolutely not the end of the world. ... It's really not so much where you go as what you do when you're there."
What Keeps Poor People Poor 06/26/2007 Chronicle of Higher Education, The	Return to Top
Despite our self-image as a country of great social mobility, a surprising proportion of children born poor in America grow up to be poor. The immediate causes of their poverty as adults are not in much dispute. One big factor is not working full time, year round. Another is not saving for a rainy day, or for investment in occupational tools or training. The real question is why these patterns prevail among the poor. On the surface, the behavior looks paradoxical. The economics textbooks concur that the less of a good one is consuming, the more satisfaction one gets from a little more. Hunger is the best sauce. But then the poorest people should get the most from a dollar of earnings or investment returns. And by similar logic, rich and poor alike get most satisfaction from a dollar when they have fewest of them. So poor people no less than rich should smooth over their financial low points by saving in relatively better times. Virtually everybody involved in the American poverty debate has one of four responses to the paradoxical conduct of the poor. The theory of dysfunctionalism notes that no integrated and healthy person would throw away satisfaction. So some kind of dysfunction must be at work in these patterns — depression, short-term outlook, impulsiveness, or something of the kind. From that diagnosis, it's a short step to paternalistic remedies. The middle class needs to help by acculturating, treating, sermonizing, regulating, or otherwise motivating the poor to stop harming their own interests. Liberals insist that the departure from textbook rationality is apparent but not real. Underemployed and nonsaving poor people only seem to be throwing away satisfaction. In fact they're doing the best they can given their limited opportunities — the shortage of jobs, the shortage of banks in low-income areas, and so forth. The answer to poverty is more opportunity. Laissez-faire conservatives agree with liberals that the inefficiency of the poor is a mirage. Underemployment and nonsaving seem to waste potential satisfaction only because we forget that poor people often have different preferences from the rest of us. Huck Finn gets more satisfaction on balance from floating down the river on a half-empty stomach than from working all day to put food on his table. But so what? Eccentricity is not irrationality. And likewise for most underemployment and nonsaving by the poor. It's not a question of overall satisfaction foregone. It's a question of different strokes. So let's leave the poor alone. The fourth theory is defined by its opposition to Great Society antipoverty programs and their progeny. Like the liberal view and laissez-faire conservatism, this theory sees underemployment and nonsaving as perfectly rational, under the circumstances. Both are traceable to perverse public policies that support poor people even when they don't work and preserve them from rainy days even when they don't save. The answer is to get the government out of the way. Let labor-market incentives and disincentives guide able-bodied poor people into habits of work and saving. There in a nutshell is the modern poverty debate, with its four familiar alternatives. But a fifth response to the puzzle seems to have been entirely overlooked. What if the economics books are wrong? In particular, what if the choices that truly benefit typical human beings when they're poor are working little and not saving? Common experience suggests the appeal of this alternative. Consider the following scenarios: In the first, a poor worker with no car or bus fare must walk six miles to work. And let's say this long walk results in six blisters, and six unwashed dishes in the sink at home, and workplace mistakes that bring six reprimands from the boss. Suppose too that getting a bus ride for part of the way would reduce the worker's troubles proportionately, so that each mile she didn't have to walk would mean one fewer blister, unwashed dish, and reprimand. What will the poor worker give up to get a one-mile ride, given that she still has five miles to walk? Probably not much. After all, the sixth blister, unwashed dish, and reprimand tends to be drowned out, like a shout in a riot, by the other five anyway. But now imagine she has just been given a five-mile bus ride, free. She has only one mile left to walk. What will she give up to get a one-mile ride now? Probably much more than in the first scenario because the difference between the discomfort of one blister, unwashed dish, and reprimand and the discomfort of none is far greater than the difference in discomfort between six and five. If the effect of getting a one-mile bus ride in the first scenario is like that of quieting a shout in a riot, in this scenario the effect of the one-mile bus ride is like that of quieting a shout in an otherwise quiet street. The psychological phenomenon at work here has long been recognized and studied. Human attention tends to diminish progressively the impression made by successive stimuli. Hence the lesson of the walk to work appears to be generalizable. What holds for miles on the bus, and for the dollars that buy those miles, holds broadly for goods that are serving to relieve misery: The benefit grows faster than the consumption. The least useful bit of the good is the first, and the most useful bit is the last. In economists' jargon, the marginal utility of goods that serve to relieve misery is increasing rather than diminishing. This simple insight casts a strong light on the conduct of the poor, because poor people, by definition, typically consume at low levels, where goods serve to relieve unhappiness and not to bring positive satisfaction. That means that very poor people typically benefit less than moderately poor people from small increases in consumption — not more. Given this crucial fact, their underemployment should hardly be surprising. One mile's bus fare will be worth very little sweat to someone with five miles left to walk, and certainly less sweat than one mile's bus fare would be worth to someone with only a couple of miles to go. In a word, the nonwork of the poor may be rational because of poverty itself. For the very same reason, we should expect serious poverty to weaken theinvestment motive for saving, including the willingness to invest in education. Poverty can be expected to depress saving for another reason too: Contrary to the classical model, it is smoothing consumption, not letting it vary, that wastes the benefit of resources when one has insufficient amounts. Go back to the worker and her six-mile walk. If she has six miles' worth of bus fare that has to last her for two days, she will get more relief over all by spending her bus fare on one day than by saving half the money overnight and riding three miles each day. For we know that the relief from riding three miles only on a given day will be less than half as great as the relief from riding all six miles at once. Many people find this view obvious once they hear it and wonder why it is not conventional wisdom. One reason may be that earlier versions (one proposed by economists associated with the University of Leiden, another by Milton Friedman and L.J. Savage) failed to stress how well the view is supported by everyday experience. Whatever the roots of the mistake, the fact that the marginal utility of goods that relieve misery is increasing and not diminishing should change our approach to poverty. Two items from a longer list: First, the insight should increase our regard for the Earned Income Tax Credit program and other net wage supplements. Conventional wisdom gives these programs just two cheers because it fears they press on work motivation in opposite directions at the same time: up by making hours of work more worthwhile, but down by diminishing the satisfaction to be had from a next dollar of earnings. But the downward pressure is a myth. Where dollars are buying relief, the more dollars one has, the greater the benefit from getting another dollar — and from the work required to earn that dollar. Three cheers, not two, for the EITC. Second, we should reopen the welfare debate that preoccupied liberal and conservative poverty reformers during the 90s. Having agreed that giving poor people resources undermines their motivation for self-help, the liberal and conservative camps fell to wrangling over whether generosity or maintaining incentives ought to be the top priority. (The liberals lost.) But the choice between generosity and maintaining incentives is a false one if generosity actually enhances the motivation for work and investment — by increasing the relief that poor people stand to get from the next dollar. It's time to take another look at no-strings welfare for the truly poor, this time on pragmatic grounds rather than philosophical ones. Charles Karelis is research professor of philosophy at George Washington University and former president of Colgate University. This essay is adapted from his book The Persistence of Poverty: Why the Economics of the Well-Off Can't Help the Poor, recently published by Yale University Press.
Exeter man to study primates in Africa 06/26/2007 Seacoast Newspapers Feals, Jennifer	Return to Top
Exeter native Adam Hermans will travel to South Africa, Madagascar and Cambodia to learn the history, life and culture of primates. Over the next year, Exeter native Adam Hermans will experience nature and animals that many will never have the opportunity to see in their entire lives. While exploring countries like South Africa, Madagascar and Cambodia, Hermans will be searching to learn the history, life and culture of primates like orangutans, gibbons and langurs and the humans who surround them. A graduate of Exeter High School and 2007 graduate of Colgate College, Hermans was awarded the Thomas J. Watson Fellowship, which pays $25,000 for a year of independent exploration outside the United States. While he has traveled extensively around North America, Oceania and Central and South America, on July 16, he leaves the United States for Tokyo, from which he will head to numerous other countries he has never seen before. Throughout the year he cannot come back to the United States. 'It's all about self discovery,' he said. 'I like the freedom of it. It allows independence. It's liberating.' Hermans, an art and art history major, is one of 50 recipients of the fellowship from universities across the country. Nearly 1,000 students from up to 50 selective private liberal arts colleges and universities apply for the award annually. This year, 179 students competed on the national level after their institution nominated them. To receive the fellowship, Hermans submitted a proposal of what he will complete over the year titled 'Wise Old Men of the Forest: Films of Primate Appreciation and Conservation.' From his travels he will create two films on several different species of primates including orangutans, gibbons, langurs, macaques and sifakas. The first film will focus on the beauty of the animals and their respective habitats. The second will address the challenges to primate conservation as seen through the eyes and lives of their nearest human neighbors. 'What I'll be doing is pointing my camera at primates and primitive conservation in Asia and Africa,' he said. 'I will film primates for one year and look at the habitat and make one film about the nature, animals and beauty of it and another on conservation, environmental justice and the people that live there and the situation they are put in, seeing how conserving the monkeys challenges that.' Though he has been making movies since he was in middle school, Hermans said he hasn't completed a video project like this before. But he is looking forward to the challenge. 'My goal in life is to keep filming,' he said. 'And monkeys are really smart. To deal with an animal that can reach out and put your camera in its pocket will be really exciting.' Hermans is a morning person and said that is what he is most looking forward to as he travels through the countries. 'Waking up will be really exciting ... hearing new birds every day,' he said. 'When you're alone, the nights can get very lonely, but waking up in the morning is always exciting.' Of all the places he will head, Hermans found it difficult to pick the location he is most eager to visit. While he took Japanese in high school and is looking forward to visiting the country, he is also looking forward to South Asia and Africa. 'Japan is a mystical culture and history for me,' he said. 'But it's such a broad experience.' While traveling on his own is a little intimidating at first, Hermans said it will lead to a better experience. 'I think that's the way you have to do it. Get out of your comfort zone,' he said. 'It's good for filming.'
Making math fun is first step in evolution 06/25/2007 Times-Picayune - Online By Debra J. Groom	Return to Top
The first-grader works on math each night at home with her dad, Vito. 'I learn a lot,' Giovanna said at a recent Family Math Night at her school. 'He adds things up and then I count 'em.' Math is one of those school subjects that often causes consternation for students. But those in the know say it doesn't have to be that way. There are tips that parents and teachers can use to make math fun and interesting. At Walberta Park Primary School, Principal Maureen Mulderig makes math enjoyable by putting on three Family Math Nights each year. Parents come to school to join their children for a night of math. 'We like to show them math can be a lot of fun,' Mulderig said. 'And I like to get parents involved with working with kids at home.' Some math experts believe that the more parents and teachers work with children on math, the more the children will like it, understand it and not fear it. Colgate University math professor Thomas Tucker said math just isn't considered cool in the United States for some reason. 'Society in general excuses difficulties with technical things like math and science,' Tucker said. 'By doing this, you are giving somebody an out, telling them it's perfectly OK to hate math.'
Upstate & Upbeat: NAIBA Trunk Show a Hit 06/21/2007 Bookselling This Week	Return to Top
On Wednesday, June 20, the New Atlantic Independent Booksellers Association (NAIBA) held its third Trunk Show, in as many years, at the Holiday Inn Carrier Circle in East Syracuse, New York. The Trunk Show, a kind of informal, joint "frontlist appointment," was created as a way to provide local booksellers with the opportunity to meet with publishers' sales reps in person and to hear about upcoming titles. A second Trunk Show is scheduled for Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, on July 10. Rob Stahl, a NAIBA board member and general book manager of Colgate Bookstore in Hamilton, New York, was decidedly happy with yesterday's event. Some 22 publishers and 20 bookstores attended the event. "It was fantastic -- a great show," he said. "I spent most of my day writing orders, and everybody seemed very pleased. I think we now have a tradition here." The Trunk Show featured formal catalog presentations by major publishers, along with display tables from a variety of publishers, wholesalers, and independent rep groups. The presentations were held in four different rooms from 9:15 a.m. - 12:45 p.m., while the afternoon was devoted to appointments, visits to publishers' tables, and placing orders. Said Stahl, "It's all about writing orders.... The fall lists [from participating publishers] all look pretty strong." NAIBA will hold a second Trunk Show on Tuesday, July 10, in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, where it will be joined by the Great Lakes Bookseller Association. Information and sign-up information is available via the NAIBA website.
Elisabeth Tone: Love of English takes Darien salutatorian to Colgate 06/20/2007 Ridgefield Press	Return to Top
When Elisabeth Tone found out she was salutatorian for Darien High School’s Class of 2007, she was surprised, despite a 4.13 grade point average. “There are a lot of smart people in my grade,” she said. Elisabeth said she worked really hard throughout high school, though, so was glad to be rewarded for that effort. Elisabeth, the youngest of three siblings, said the reaction from her two older brothers and one older sister has been a “combination” of teasing her and being proud of her. “We were at dinner for my brother’s graduation from college a few weeks ago, and they were all trying to come up with speech ideas,” she said. The speech part is not something Elisabeth, who considers herself shy, is looking forward to. She said her parents, Pat and Mike Tone, are “really excited.” Elisabeth said English is probably her favorite subject, and she likes history a lot too. She also took an elective class in neuro-science this year, which she enjoyed. Elisabeth said she liked the whole Darien school system, especially the high school. “Teachers make themselves very available — you learn a lot,” she said. While she liked all of her English teachers, Elisabeth said she particularly enjoyed classes with Mr. Pavia and Mrs. Rubin. For the future, Elisabeth said she’d like to do something with English and writing, including possibly working for a newspaper. She’s already had experience working on the staff of Neirad, the high school newspaper. Before embarking on her career, though, Elisabeth will attend Colgate University in the fall. Colgate has become a tradition among her siblings. Elisabeth will be the fourth and last child in her family to attend Colgate. Despite all four of them choosing Colgate, Elisabeth said she and her brothers and sister are different. “They are good writers, but we have different interests,” she said. One positive to attending Colgate is she knows it well. “I’ve been there a few times,” she said. Going up there for her brother’s graduation recently made leaving for school more of a reality for her. “It got me really excited about it,” Elisabeth said. Why did she choose to continue the Colgate family tradition? “Part of it is that my siblings went there, and part of it is they have a really good study abroad program, which is something I really want to do,” she said. Her brother took advantage of that program by studying in Austria. Elisabeth hopes to study English or history in London, but hasn’t made a final decision yet. “I might possibly major in English, but I haven’t decided yet,” she said. In addition to the newspaper, Elisabeth played soccer and was on the track team, and also volunteered for Safe Rides and Person-to-Person. After high school graduation, Elisabeth plans to travel with friends to London to visit another friend, and then will be baby-sitting before leaving for Colgate mid-August. And while she’ll miss Darien High School, she’s looking forward to the future. “I’ll miss the school, but I’m so excited to get out and experience something else.”
Next for Oneidas: Land-into-trust 06/19/2007 Observer-Dispatch, The Fusco, Jennifer	Return to Top
What now? Local leaders, experts and residents are wondering what's at stake after Wednesday's federal decision declaring the validity of the Turning Stone Resort and Casino's gaming compact. At the forefront: the Oneida Indian Nation's request to put more than 17,000 acres of land into federal Indian trust, which is still under consideration by the U.S. Bureau of Indian Affairs. "They're Indians dealing with Indian problems, and you expect something that would come out to be positive for their needs," said Rocco DiVeronica, chairman of the Madison County Board of Supervisors. "We take one at a time, and right now, making the compact legal was a bizarre decision." Land-into-trust would be the next big decision after the U.S. Department of the Interior reconsidered the 1993 gaming compact signed by the Nation and then-New York state Gov. Mario Cuomo, allowing the Nation to open the casino. On Wednesday, the Interior Department said the compact remains in effect for purposes of the Indian Gaming Regulatory Act, and the six-year time limit to challenge it has expired. David Vickers, president of Upstate Citizens for Equality, said the Department of the Interior's decision could impact how the Bureau of Indian Affairs, a division within the Interior Department, will rule on the Nation's land trust request. "I think they are not going to make a decision based on neutral facts, they are going to make a decision based on a political bias," he said. What's at stake? After the 2005 U.S. Supreme Court decision ruling saying Nation-owned properties in the city of Sherrill were subject to local taxes and regulations, the Nation applied to place thousands of acres into trust. If the application is granted, the land and the businesses on it would be exempt from state and local taxes and regulations. The Bureau of Indian Affairs is considering several options, from placing 35,000 acres into trust to none at all, and a decision is expected in late summer. Neither the Interior Department nor the Bureau of Indian Affairs returned phone calls Thursday. Oneida County Executive Anthony Picente said he believes the two issues are not related, but stressed the importance of having a resolution to land-into-trust. "I believe some land will go into trust but how much remains the question," he said. "For us, it's what we do with the land and how we work together and come to some agreement (with the Nation) for the future." Although the two issues are separate and will likely be made by different decision makers within the government, they are related, said Christopher Vecsey, Colgate University's director of Native American studies. "Decision makers in the Department of the Interior have an idea about how much autonomy a tribe should have. They might say politically, 'Well, we've given them enough autonomy this way - let's not give them anymore,'" he said. "Or they could think logically, and say, "If we are recognizing autonomy here, we have to recognize autonomy there.'" Vecsey said the decision could go either way, but that each decision has some influence on the next. However, Syracuse University's Center for Indigenous Law, Governance and Citizenship Director Robert Odawi Porter said the two are completely different decisions and the compact decision does not have any bearing on land-into-trust. "This decision is routed in gaming law," he said. "They still have to work out the land issues, and that's all pending the trust application." Nation spokesman Mark Emery also said both are completely different issues. A representative from Gov. Eliot Spitzer's officer, who had argued the compact was void, did not return phone calls Thursday. Unresolved issues Nation Chief Executive Officer and Representative Ray Halbritter said with the gaming compact decision behind it, the Nation can now focus on building its enterprises. He also acknowledged that other issues affiliated with the Nation, such as land into trust, will eventually be resolved. The status of the land continues to be a problem and the validity of the compact doesn't change that, said Madison County Attorney John Campanie. The casino would still need to be put into trust for the casino to be operating legally, he said. Emery argued the casino is on Indian land, and said the Interior Department wouldn't have reaffirmed the gaming compact was valid otherwise. He also noted a June 2006 federal court ruling that said the Oneida Reservation was never disestablished. Terry Tubbs, owner of Rays Service in Oneida, said he believes the compact decision should have been made by the state, not the federal government "It was kind of a step back," he said. However, he was unsure if that will have any effect on the land-into-trust ruling, and said it will be interesting to see what happens. Following Wednesday's decision, state Assemblyman David Townsend, R-Sylvan Beach, said putting the casino into trust should no longer be an issue. "Now that the compact is in effect, that should mean the land-into-trust issue is dead and puts the land claim to bed," he said.
Police officers learn bike skills 06/19/2007 News 10 Now	Return to Top
"Shift your weight forward a bit, take some of the pressure off of the back rim," says Ithaca College Police Mountain Bike School Director Erik Merlin. A group of police officers from across New York state is in Ithaca this week learning how to patrol on bikes. "We focus on slow speed skills, suspect contact, we go over health and fitness, nutrition, bike maintenance and mechanics, a little bit of history and so forth," said Merlin. Merlin says getting to situations faster and conserving energy are some of the benefits for cops who ride bikes. But, everyone has their own reasons for taking the course. "I want to use the bike on patrol. Another aspect, another way, to meet the community and get out there besides just walking," said Ithaca Police Officer Erik Doane. "It is great training. We started off, we couldn't even go through the cones and now after four to six hours of going through the cones constantly, we've learned a lot. We can navigate corners, the obstacles, it's great," said Cortland Police Officer Mark Flint. It's a five day course the officers are taking and each day the level of intensity gets harder. "We teach them to ride through crowds simulated through the cones and tight spots. And, what we do is we just shrink down the distances so the student knows how they can control the bike effectively," said Merlin. "I'm expecting it to get harder. They've already let on that it's going to anyway," said Colgate University Patrol Officer Anthony Lawrence. But, Merlin thinks this group can handle all the challenges ahead. He says they've been doing. "Excellent. They work really hard. It hasn't been easy in the heat. But, obviously, we tell them to drink a lot of water, keep hydrated and we just move on," said Merlin. Everyone who passes the course will become certified bike officers by the New York State Division of Criminal Justice Services.
A generation of parents learns to let go 06/18/2007 Newsday Marcus, Dave	Return to Top
When Randy and Valerie Rowe speak about their daughter's departure for college this summer, they sound anxious, as if they're sending her far, far away. "Honestly, I'm trying to block this out of my mind ... ," said Valerie Rowe. "I'm not going to tuck her in at night. It's another planet -- she's not under our roof." Actually, Liana will be at Marymount Manhattan College, 45 miles from her home in Northport. While doing errands the other day, Liana told her mother she'd made a plan: "For the first month of college, I'll stay in the city to make friends. You can come meet me, but I'm not going home." Her mom agreed, but on one condition: Liana must call home every day. After years of being highly involved parents, the Rowes are trying to find a balance between staying in touch with Liana and smothering her. Among the parents of the roughly 37,000 Long Island high school seniors scheduled to graduate over the next few days, the Rowes are certainly not unique. College deans say that this generation of "helicopter parents" is accustomed to hovering nearby -- overseeing play dates, cheering at soccer practices and providing lots of hands-on help with science projects. These days, even as their children head off to college, many of those parents have trouble letting go. Fixated on kids' success The "helicopter" term was coined by a Wake Forest administrator, and the phenomenon is starting to attract the attention of academic researchers. They say parents are more fixated than ever on their children's college success as American industry tightens its belt and sends some jobs overseas. At the same time, advances in technology make possible an unprecedented level of contact between parents and children, whether they are enrolled in college near or far. During a study a year ago at Middlebury College, psychology professor Barbara Hofer found that the average freshman called, e-mailed or text-messaged home 10 times a week. "That's a lot of contact in a period of life that you would expect would be more autonomous and a little more detached." She also found that 12 percent of college students say their parents edit their term papers. "One of eight. That's distressing." Hofer said she thought her findings may have been skewed because she studied only freshmen in a remote corner of Vermont. So this year, she studied University of Michigan students from freshmen to seniors. She found even more frequent contact with parents. Ann Hanson, Middlebury's dean of student affairs, says mothers and fathers show up on campus far more frequently than they once did for plays, sporting events and informal dinners. In the last few years, several Middlebury parents even invited themselves to sit in while a student defended a thesis, an academic activity that used to be considered off-limits to relatives. Putting limits on parents At least some colleges are telling parents to back off. Five years ago, Barnard College president Judith Shapiro attracted nationwide attention when she wrote that parents should drop their children at the gates of college and let them stumble and mature on their own. Shapiro stands by her view. "I have no doubt that these parents truly love their children, but I think they have too much of an ego involvement in their kids," she said earlier this month. "Too many parents are using their children to bolster their own status." Hanson, the Middlebury dean, has a different explanation: As the cost of tuition and fees has soared to $50,000 at many private colleges, parents have become consumers protecting their investments. Sandra Johnson, the vice president for student affairs at Stony Brook University, said that when she worked at another college in New York, the career development office complained that parents interfered while a senior was negotiating her salary with a company that offered her a job. William Howe, a higher education consultant and author of "Millennials Go to College," a study of children born after 1982, said baby boomer parents and children relish spending leisure time together more than previous generations did. These are moms and dads who Rollerblade, play video games and watch the same movies. He said colleges "are grasping to figure out how to show respect for these parents while setting limits." Some colleges favored by Long Island students are taking a stand. Colgate University, in upstate Hamilton, stresses that students must learn self-reliance. "As hard as it may be, parents need to remember that we want them to come home independent, self-sufficient and confident," said Mark Thompson, the director of counseling and psychological services. Long Island campuses also are trying to set limits. "We encourage parents' involvement, but we also say that young adults need room for their own growth," said Jerry Stein, Stony Brook University's associate vice president for student affairs. To serve increasingly curious parents, this year, Hofstra University opened an Office of Parent and Family Programs to work with parents so that they can help students while giving them some space. Close, but not too close Administrators say they understand the instincts of deeply committed mothers and fathers. Parents' stay-close approach to child-rearing has been shaped by, among other things, a 24-hour news cycle that plays up kidnappings and other crimes that are sensational but rare. "This generation grew up with missing children's faces on milk cartons every morning while eating breakfast," said Elizabeth Wissner-Gross, an educational consultant in Great Neck. She said the April massacre at Virginia Tech only heightened the sense of insecurity. A cultural pendulum has swung since many of today's parents went to college. In 1974, Congress passed the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act, which prohibited administrators from telling parents about mental health problems, discipline problems or grades -- even if the parents were paying the bills. For decades, Wissner-Gross said, parents willingly left their children off at college and relied on weekly phone calls and occasional letters. It's hard to imagine parents such as Tom and Ginny Lynch taking such an approach. For years, Ginny has been intensely involved: pizza mom for the first grade. Ice-cream mom for the second grade. Elementary school plant-sale mom. Middle school PTA president, high school PTA president. Even though her husband Tom commutes to a job in Manhattan, he returns home early as often as possible to watch track meets and he's a member of the Lynbrook School Board. When the varsity cross-country team was about to cancel a trip to Rhode Island because no staff member wanted to chaperone, Ginny persuaded the school to let her drive behind the bus. When 32 girls on the team wanted to have a sleepover before homecoming, the Lynches opened up their sofas and rugs. While Ginny Lynch's own parents were supportive, they weren't nearly as entwined in her day-to-day life, she recalled. "It just wasn't done then." The Lynches' 17-year-old twins graduate from high school this Friday, then get ready to leave for college. Carly, their daughter, will go to Middlebury and Jason, their son, to Stonehill College in Massachusetts. "I have to admit I'm scared to death," Ginny Lynch said the other day. "I'm going to have all these hours to fill." Responding to such concerns, Middlebury offers parents a reception with the president and a morning for observing classes before saying goodbye. The school recommends books for parents, including, "You're On Your Own (But I'm Here if You Need Me): Mentoring Your Child During the College Years." Ways to detach During freshman orientation at Seton Hall University in New Jersey, parents put together a teddy bear that says "someone at Seton Hall loves me." The school calls it a "letting go" exercise for parents. Marymount Manhattan, where Liana Rowe will go in August, has a parents' Web site with information about internships, financial aid and other topics. And last year, the dean of residential life began sending home a monthly newsletter that covers issues such as drinking and mental and physical health. These things ease the transition for Rowe's parents, who worry about their daughter's safety in Manhattan -- anxiety they attribute in part to the Sept. 11 attacks (the family lived in Queens at the time). In Oyster Bay, Angela Bianculli, a widow, began to worry as her son Dan became intrigued by colleges in the Sun Belt. After being admitted to Cornell, Carnegie Mellon, Lafayette, Vanderbilt, Binghamton and Rice universities, Dan chose the one farthest from home. He's heading to Houston this summer to study engineering at Rice. "He's going to be so far away," she said, "and he's my baby." Colleges have even started to reach out to parents of commuters. Isabel Pinto, a senior at Mineola High School, will live at home and attend St. John's University, a 20-minute drive. Yet later this month, she and her parents will take part in a three-day orientation (adults and children stay in separate dorms). "We want to tap into the parents more, to have them know what's going on with their son or daughter," said Beth Evans, St. John's associate vice president. That's exactly what Maria Pinto, Isabel's mother, will do: "When Isabel leaves a night class, she knows to call me on the cell and tell me where she is as she walks to the parking lot. Or I'll pick her up if I can." In Lynbrook, Carly Lynch says her parents "were pretty good about being involved, but not smothering us. They drew a line between helping out and doing everything for us." As for Tom and Ginny Lynch, they're already feeling nostalgic. Their oldest son has graduated from college and moved upstate; they'll just have one teenage daughter left at home when Carly starts classes in Vermont and Jason starts in Massachusetts in two months. Meanwhile, Ginny Lynch has taken on an education project of her own: She's learning to text-message so she can keep in touch with the twins.
Abortion polls I'd like to see 06/17/2007 Post-Standard	Return to Top
Public opinion polls on abortion suggest that many Americans believe abortions should be (in former President Clinton's felicitous phrase) "safe, legal, and rare." Since Roe v. Wade, abortions are legal and much safer than before, but they are not rare. Few Americans realize how many abortions occur in the United States each year. If they knew, the responses to abortion polls might look very different. Interviewers sometimes choose to provide information about a topic before asking a question or series of questions about it. Where some respondents know less about a subject than others, providing information within the survey can give all respondents the same baseline of knowledge from which to express opinions. For example, a December 2005 Wall Street Journal poll asking whether respondents would like to see Roe v. Wade overturned included a sentence telling respondents what the decision was. I would like to include information on just how common abortions are in the United States along with the questions currently asked by pollsters. For example, a May 2007 CBS News/New York Times poll asked whether abortions should be generally available, available under stricter limits than is now the case, or not permitted. When asked by itself, the question yielded 39 percent in favor of abortions being generally available, 37 percent for stricter limits, and 21 percent saying abortion should not be permitted. Imagine how this distribution of opinion might shift, however, if any or all of the following sentences were included with the same question. (The facts cited below were obtained from Web sites of the Center for Bio-Ethics Reform and the Alan Guttmacher Institute.) 1. Approximately 1.2 million abortions occur within the United States each year, and it is estimated that more than 40 percent of all women will have an abortion by the time they reach 45 years of age. Should abortions be available generally to those who want them, available under stricter limits, or not permitted? 2. Almost half of all abortions in the United States nowadays are repeat abortions - that is, the person having the abortion has had at least one abortion previously. Should abortions be available generally to those who want them, available under stricter limits, or not permitted? 3. Less than 1 percent of all abortions occur because of rape or incest, and about 7 percent occur because of potential health problems involving either the mother or the child. Should abortions be available generally to those who want them, available under stricter limits, or not permitted? There is good reason to believe conventional opinion polls overstate public support for abortion. The first two responses in the May 2007 CBS News/New York Times poll cited above can be combined to suggest that 76 percent of Americans favor abortion, albeit with some restrictions. In fact, the headline for the poll article on the CBS news Web site was "Most Americans Favor Abortion." Of course, this result can be read another way: 58 percent believe abortion should either not be permitted or available only under stricter limits. But what percentage of respondents would opt for "stricter limits" if the question were preceded by a sentence providing information on how common abortions are? I want to know. Don't you? Michael Hayes is a professor of political science at Colgate University and a member of the Democrats for Life of New York.