Fire call hits close to home for 911 dispatcher

http://edition.cnn.com/2009/US/09/29/Massachusetts.911.dispatcher.fire/index.html

(CNN) -- From baby deliveries to unexpected deaths, Mike Bowes, a 911 dispatcher from Quincy, Massachusetts, has handled a wide range of emergency calls.

Emergency dispatcher Mike Bowes received a call that his home was in flames Monday night.

But Monday night, the 44-year-old received an unexpected call from his neighbor: His own house was on fire.

The 911 call came in about 10:45 p.m. Monday, a little more than an hour before Mike Bowes' shift ended.

My neighbor's house just blew up, the caller said.

"What's the address?" Mike Bowes asked patiently, just as he did with every emergency call for the past 11 years with the Quincy Police Department.

The caller frantically relayed the address, Bowes' home address for 20 years.

"It was shocking," Mike Bowes said. "I thought she was kidding. It's a long shot. I mean, what's the chances it will be your house?"

Out of 90,000 people who reside in Quincy, Massachusetts, a suburb of Boston, Mike Bowes' was the home in flames, and he had answered the emergency call.

Thoughts raced through his mind: Are my parents OK? Are the neighbors safe? What about my stuff?

Following procedure, Mike Bowes transferred the call to the fire department. Soon, dozens of calls about the fire from other neighbors began to pour into the control room.

One of the callers was his mother, Elizabeth Bowes, 68. She and her husband, Donald Bowes, 72, had escaped unharmed.

About 10:45 p.m., Elizabeth Bowes was reading a novel in the kitchen when she heard the explosion and saw flames shoot through the kitchen window. She ran to wake her husband in a first-floor bedroom.

There was also a landlord living in upstairs. Firefighters arrived within minutes and helped her to safety.

Within five minutes of receiving the call, police escorted Mike Bowes to his home. He could see the fire light up the dark sky from afar. Anxious neighbors gathered in the park nearby. He was relieved to find his parents together on the sidewalk.

"My parents are alive; my neighbors are alive," he said. "It's an inconvenience, but we'll get through it."

In another coincidence, one of the first firefighters to arrive on scene was Mike Bowes' cousin, Tom Bowes.

Tom Bowes, a firefighter for the past eight years, scrambled into the house to salvage old albums with wedding and baby photos amid the flames.

But everything else -- the clothes, electronics and furniture -- were destroyed.

No one was injured in the fire, and firefighters have yet to determine what caused the blaze. They say it started in the garage, about 15 feet from the home.

Mike Bowes says his job prepared him to deal with the challenging circumstances. Bowes and his family are living in a hotel, and local police officers and firefighters have donated clothes and money.

"A lot of people think dispatchers are strange because I've been joking about what happened," he said. "I say, 'If I'm not laughing, I'll start crying.' This is what I have to do."

Secret Service Probing Facebook Poll That Asked Whether Obama Should Be Killed

http://www.abcnews.go.com/Politics/secret-service-investigates-facebook-obama-assassination-poll/story?id=8696126

The Secret Service is investigating the origins of a poll that appeared on Facebook that asked whether President Obama should be killed.

The Secret Service is investigating the origins of a Facebook poll that asked whether President Obama should be killed.

(Alex Brandon/AP Photo)

Posted over the weekend, the poll was removed by Facebook after the Secret Service received a tip and contacted the company, which was not aware of the survey, sources tell ABC News.

"When the Secret Service became aware of the poll we worked with Facebook to have it taken down and are conducting an investigation," said a spokesman for the Secret Service.

The poll asked: "Should Obama be killed?" The answer choices: "No," "Maybe," "Yes" and "Yes if he cuts my health care."

As the health care debate intensified over the summer, experts tracking hate groups expressed concern over what they described as violent rhetoric and "a genuine backlash" against the president.The Secret Service will be reaching out to the person who developed and posted the poll to determine intent.

"The third-party application that enabled an individual user to create the offensive poll was brought to our attention this morning," Barry Schnitt, Facebook's spokesman for policy, told The Associated Press.According to a spokesman for Facebook, the poll was created by an independent person using an add-on application.

He told the AP that the application was taken down.

"We're working with the U.S. Secret Service," Schnitt said.

Sleep disorder victims surge

http://www.koreaherald.co.kr/NEWKHSITE/data/html_dir/2009/09/28/200909280021.asp

The number of Koreans suffering from sleep-related problems has increased nearly five times over the past eight years, a government report said yesterday.

According to the National Health Insurance Corporation, a total of 228,000 sleep patients visited hospitals last year, up 4.5 times from 51,000 in 2001.

The increase was more apparent among women in their 20s, with their figure growing 6.7 times during the same period. Symptoms of sleep disorders were 1.5 times more common in women than in men.

Common sleep disorders include: primary insomnia, chronic difficulty in falling asleep and/or maintaining sleep; bruxism, involuntarily grinding or clenching of the teeth while sleeping; delayed sleep phase syndrome, inability to awaken and fall asleep at socially acceptable times but no problem with sleep maintenance; and hypopnea syndrome, abnormally shallow breathing or slow respiratory rate while sleeping.

Experts say several social and psychological factors could possibly prevent people from sleeping well.

"Due to the recent economic and job crisis, more people are experiencing anxieties about an uncertain future, pressure and mental illness such as obsessive-compulsion disorder. With lifestyles becoming varied, a growing number of shift-workers and travelers with jet-lag also show symptoms related to sleep disorders," said Park Sang-jin, doctor at the NHIC Ilsan Hospital.

Some medicines that affect the nerve system and irregular eating habits also could lead to sleep problems, Park added.

Despite the recent surge in sleep problems, many Koreans still hesitate to seek medical help or counseling because it is widely considered a taboo here.

"Sleep problems cannot be improved without intentional effort. If the causes are not verified, medicines or conventional remedies may deepen the symptoms further. People having difficulty in sleeping should see a doctor for close examination," Park said.

Saying some changes in lifestyle are helpful to improve the symptoms, Park offered several tips that include: getting up at a regular time; avoiding taking a nap or lying down during the daytime; doing other activities when feeling uneasiness; lying down as long as the usual sleeping time; refraining from doing exercise after 7 p.m. as it could stimulate the brain functions and cause insomnia; and avoiding overeating, painkillers, alcohol and beverages containing caffeine such as coffee, tea and cola..

(jylee@heraldm.com)

By Lee Ji-yoon

Random Checks for Illegal Aliens Upset Foreigners

http://www.koreatimes.co.kr/www/news/nation/2009/09/117_52277.html

By Ines Min
Contributing Writer



The Korea Immigration Service's crackdown on illegal immigrants this year has been met with controversy due to allegations its officers are making random checks on those who look like foreign workers. 

Members of the legally residing foreign community are also upset at the failure to stick to a legal set of procedures. 

"Immigration officials make raids on the street," said a foreign scholar in Seoul who spoke on condition of anonymity. 

She said three Nepalese foreigners were grabbed on their way to get a haircut recently, while a pregnant woman was taken outside of the city last week. Others are caught during routine shopping errands, she said. 

"The intense crackdown was to start from November, but it's been very terrible since September," the scholar said. 

KIS spokesman Ahn Kyu-suk neither denied nor confirmed these allegations in an e-mail interview with The Korea Times, but simply cited the legal procedures. 

Ahn said the Immigration Law dictates that "if foreigners residing here always carry a copy of their passport and alien registration card, the concerned shall satisfy the requirements of immigration and passport officials." 

"Therefore, suspected foreigners in these circumstances must show their identification" during on-the-spot checks, the spokesman added. 

"Enforcement will start in October or November," Ahn said, denying that the crackdown has begun without public notice. 

This year the office will join with regional police forces and other related agencies to help find as many illegal immigrants as possible, he said. 

"The system doesn't work properly and foreign workers are suffering," the anonymous scholar said. 

She added that the illegal foreigners are given no time before being sent back to their native countries, which was refuted by the spokesman. 

"To actually investigate violation of law, the signature of the person is received in a written format, followed by a deportation order and then deportation," Ahn said. "It can take anywhere from two to three days, to one to two months." 

This excludes the case of an Iranian national known locally as Peter Talebi, who it is claimed was deported from South Korea in July with no time to gather his belongings.

The scholar, however, said that the government was also lacking in efforts to enforce the rule equally to foreigners and give aid where needed. 

The problem lies in that the system is broken and immigrants are often left with nowhere to turn, the scholar said.

Under the Lee Myung-bak administration, crackdowns on illegal aliens has intensified. Under the previous liberal administrations, foreigners overstaying their visas were allowed to live here as long as they didn't violate laws, the scholar said. 

"They want to control foreigners in Korea," she said. "Natives have more rights, while foreigners have fewer rights because they are foreigners."

The KIS said the number of illegal immigrants in South Korea was 185,000.


Facebook gets caught in Golan Heights dispute

http://edition.cnn.com/2009/TECH/09/21/israel.syria.facebook/index.html

JERUSALEM (CNN) -- Logging onto Facebook as a resident in the Golan Heights, should you enter Syria or Israel as your home country?

Facebook now has 300 million users -- almost as many as the population of the United States.

Decades of war and occupation have not provided an answer to that question -- but the social networking Web site now permits both options, sparking fears about an anti-Facebook cyber-war.
The Golan Heights is Syrian territory that was captured by Israel during the Six-Day War in 1967. Since then it has been internationally classified as Israeli-occupied territory.
Up until recently, Facebook fans in the Golan Heights could only choose Syria as their country of origin or else leave it blank. Pro-Israel Web site honestreporting.com sought to change that, starting a group called "Facebook, Golan residents live in Israel, not Syria."
Alex Margolin says the campaign was never political. "It was never a question of the future of Golan... it's totally possible that at some time in the future the Golan will change hands and go to Syria."
The group welcomed 2,500 members in the first week. Shortly afterwards Facebook policy changed. Do you think Facebook was right to change policy?
"We have enabled users in Golan Heights to choose either Syria or Israel in the listings," a Facebook spokesperson told CNN. "We currently have the same dual-listing options for the West Bank settlement, which is listed in both Palestine and Israel.
"We deal with the listings for disputed territories on a case-by-case basis, and with Golan Heights we decided a dual listing made sense in this instance."
Eighteen-year old Ofri Bazaz is delighted she can finally change her profile to Israel, squealing with delight as she tries it for the first time. She said: "It's very important on the Internet when somebody comes to my profile on Facebook they will see Israel and not Syria. I'm not Syrian."
But a 20-minute drive away in the Druze town of Majdal Shams, the reaction is very different. Facebook users here consider themselves Syrian and refuse to accept the change, as they fear it undermines their peaceful resistance to the Israeli occupation.
Shopkeeper Sakar abu Sabit said: "Even if it's just on the computer, I want people to always recognize me in the Golan Heights as a Syrian citizen."
Reaction from Syria is likely to be muted according to Syrian scholar, Ammar Abdulhamid. He told CNN that Facebook and other social networking sites have already been banned in Syria. "The Syrian government has really taken a strong stance on Internet activism and social networking sites," he said.

"The real reason is nothing to do with the Arab-Israeli conflict, it's because these sites are very popular with Syrian activists."
But with 300 million users worldwide and an estimated 120 million logging in every single day according to Facebook, there will inevitably be fears about a backlash against the site that now finds itself at the center of a 40-year-old conflict.

Students told to prove Texas residency or leave

http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/32958239/ns/us_news-education/

Despite law, hundreds of students living in Mexico attend U.S. schools

DEL RIO, Texas - Students living in northern Mexico have skirted residency requirements to attend U.S. public schools for generations, but when the superintendent in one Texas border town got word that about 400 school-age children were crossing the international bridge each day with backpacks but no student visas, he figured he had to do something.
The community is connected by a bridge to Ciudad Acuna, Mexico, and like most border cities, the towns operate in tandem, with U.S. citizens and legal residents living, working and shopping on both sides. All of it is legal, but public school attendance by children living in Mexico is another issue.
"We had several van loads (with Mexican license plates) pulling up at the schools and kids getting out. It's like 'C'mon, it's obvious what's going on,'" said Kelt Cooper, superintendent of the San Felipe Del Rio Consolidated Independent School District.
Complaints from civil rights groupsHe directed district officials to stake out the bridge and warn students they could face expulsion if they don't prove they live in the district — a move that's brought complaints from civil rights groups and support from anti-immigrant proponents.
"We have a law. We have a policy. We follow it," said Cooper, whose spent most of his life near the border and is uncomfortable with attempts to make him a cause celebre for either side of the immigration debate. "I'm just doing my job."
Like parents elsewhere who send their children to a better school across town, some parents living in northern Mexico send their children to American public schools believing they are safer and offer better education. Many also hope a U.S. education will provide better access to American colleges and universities.
Immigration status isn't an issue in these cases. A decades-old Supreme Court ruling prevents school officials from even asking about citizenship. Regardless, according to U.S. Customs and Border Protection officials, students who use the bridge enter the U.S. legally because they are U.S. citizens, permanent residents with green cards or Mexicans with student visas. Those visas are used by Mexican students who pay tuition, primarily at parochial schools.
But for tuition-free public school attendance, state law requires students to live in the district — a rule that many officials don't rigidly enforce. Some are uncomfortable with following the letter of the law because doing so could deny U.S. citizen children access to public schools. Also, turning away students cost the districts money.
Schools get funding per studentTexas schools get funding for each student. Statewide, it works out to about $9,400 per student, primarily from local property taxes and state supplements designed to balance rich and poor school districts. Additional grants from the federal government for low-income and special education students account for about $920 per student. Cooper estimates his district of 10,000 students would lose $2.7 million if 400 students were expelled.
At the start of this school year, Cooper's district asked that Border Patrol agents count students crossing the bridge one weekday. Agency spokesman Rick Pauza said 550 students crossed, about 150 of them had student visas. The rest, Cooper said, are probably attending one of his schools.
School officials staking out the bridge handed out letters that warned parents they would be required to show proof they lived in the district. Within a few days, most parents offered documentation, meaning their children won't be expelled.
Cesar Casillas, who was picking up his 9-year-old nephew at Lamar Elementary School last week, said some parents were scrambling to find apartments in Del Rio, about 130 miles (210 kilometers) west of San Antonio. He disagrees with what the district is doing.
"These kids have all the rights to an American school," said Casillas, a 49-year-old who grew up in Del Rio.
It's a common argument, though legally, it has little weight.
"Citizenship doesn't give you the right to attend school. Residency does," said Elena Castro, assistant superintendent at California's Calexico Unified School District.
Several years ago, her district strictly enforced requirements that every student annually document residency. The district tried posting a photographer to snap students at the crossing but has since stopped that because it was difficult to identify the students, Castro said.
‘Cheating the system’David Hinojosa, an attorney for the Mexican-American Legal Defense and Educational Fund, said he's concerned about students being singled out because they were on an international bridge before school.
Cooper, who conducted similar port-of-entry checks several years ago when he led the district in Nogales, Arizona, said no Del Rio students have been expelled so far.
Bob Dane, a spokesman for the Federation for American Immigration Reform, said Cooper's bridge stakeout prevented parents from taking advantage of a "duty-free education."
"It's very obvious the parents are cheating the system. The kids are getting quality education without contributing," he said.
Texas Education Agency officials know that most border communities have some students surreptitiously commuting from homes in Mexico, but there's been no recent effort to count them, said spokeswoman Debbie Ratcliffe.
"It does cost us to educate these children, but we also get a benefit because we know they are likely to impact our economy in some way," said Ratcliffe, noting that many will work in the U.S. as adults.
‘I'm not going now’One of Texas' largest school districts, which is in El Paso, checks residency when students enroll, but spokeswoman Berenice Zubia said officials don't look for students at the international crossings that come from nearby Ciudad Juarez, Mexico.
Some parents in Del Rio say they're not taking any chances their children could be expelled.
Minerva Garcia, 50, hoped to move to her family's home in Ciudad Acuna to save money.
"If the students are willing to get up early to get across, it shouldn't be held against them," said Garcia, as she waited to pick up her 5-year-old and 8-year-old from school. "But I'm not going now."

Mary Travers of 1960s folk anthem trio dies at 72

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090917/ap_en_mu/us_obit_mary_travers

AP – FILE ---In a July 6, 1965 photo singers Paul Stookey, left, Mary Travers, center, and Peter Yarrow of …

• Slideshow:Singer Mary Travers of Peter, Paul and Mary dies

By JAY LINDSAY, Associated Press Writer – 1 hr 6 mins ago

BOSTON – Mary Travers, of the folk trio Peter, Paul, and Mary, that used beautiful, tranquil harmonies to convey the angst and turmoil of the Vietnam antiwar movement, racial discrimination and more, died after a yearslong battle with leukemia. She was 72.

The band's publicist, Heather Lylis, said Travers died Wednesday at Danbury Hospital in Connecticut.

Bandmate Peter Yarrow said that in her final months, Travers handled her declining health with bravery and generosity, showing her love to friends and family "with great dignity and without restraint."

"It was, as Mary always was, honest and completely authentic," he said. "That's the way she sang, too — honestly and with complete authenticity."

Noel "Paul" Stookey, the trio's other member, praised Travers for her inspiring activism, "especially in her defense of the defenseless."

"I am deadened and heartsick beyond words to consider a life without Mary Travers and honored beyond my wildest dreams to have shared her spirit and her career," he said.

Mary Allin Travers was born on Nov. 9, 1936, in Louisville, Kentucky, the daughter of journalists who moved the family to Manhattan's bohemian Greenwich Village. She quickly became enamored with folk performers like the Weavers and was soon performing with Pete Seeger, a founding member of the Weavers who lived in the same building as the Travers family.

With a group called the Song Swappers, Travers backed Seeger on one album and two shows at Carnegie Hall. She also appeared (as one of a group of folk singers) in a short-lived 1958 Broadway show called "The Next President," starring comedian Mort Sahl.

It wasn't until she met up with Yarrow and Stookey that Travers would taste success on her own. Yarrow was managed by Albert B. Grossman, who later worked in the same capacity for Bob Dylan.

In the book "Positively 4th Street" by David Hajdu, Travers recalled that Grossman's strategy was to "find a nobody that he could nurture and make famous."

The budding trio, boosted by the arrangements of Milt Okun, spent seven months rehearsing in herGreenwich Village apartment before their 1961 public debut at the Bitter End.

Their beatnik look — a tall blonde flanked by a pair of goateed guitarists — was a part of their initial appeal. As The New York Times critic Robert Shelton put it not long afterward, "Sex appeal as a keystone for a folk-song group was the idea of the group's manager ... who searched for months for `the girl' until he decided on Miss Travers."

The trio mingled their music with liberal politics, both onstage and off. Their version of "If I Had a Hammer" became an anthem for racial equality. Other hits included "Lemon Tree," "Leaving on a Jet Plane" and "Puff (The Magic Dragon.)"

They were early champions of Dylan and performed his "Blowin' in the Wind" at the March on Washington in August 1963.

And they were vehement in their opposition to the Vietnam War, managing to stay true to their liberal beliefs while creating music that resonated in the American mainstream.

The group collected five Grammy Awards for their three-part harmony on enduring songs like "Leaving on a Jet Plane," "Puff (The Magic Dragon)" and "Blowin' in the Wind."

At one point in 1963, three of their albums were in the top six Billboard best-selling LPs as they became the biggest stars of the folk revival movement.

It was heady stuff for a trio that had formed in the early 1960s in Greenwich Village, running through simple tunes like "Mary Had a Little Lamb."

Their debut album came out in 1962, and immediately scored a pair of hits with their versions of "If I Had a Hammer" and "Lemon Tree." The former won them Grammys for best folk recording and best performance by a vocal group.

"Moving" was the follow-up, including the hit tale of innocence lost, "Puff (The Magic Dragon)" — which reached No. 2 on the charts, and generated since-discounted reports that it was an ode to marijuana.

Album No. 3, "In the Wind," featured three songs by the then-22-year-old Dylan. "Don't Think Twice, It's Alright" and "Blowin' in the Wind" both reached the top 10, bringing Dylan's material to a massive audience; the latter shipped 300,000 copies during one two-week period.

"Blowin' In the Wind" became another civil rights anthem, and Peter, Paul and Mary fully embraced the cause. They marched with the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. in Selma, Alabama, and performed with him in Washington.

In a 1966 Times interview, Travers said the three worked well together because they respected one another. "There has to be a certain amount of love just in order for you to survive together," she said. "I think a lot of groups have gone down the tubes because they were not able to relate to one another."

With the advent of the Beatles and Dylan's switch to electric guitar, the folk boom disappeared. Travers expressed disdain for folk-rock, telling the Chicago Daily News in 1966 that "it's so badly written. ... When the fad changed from folk to rock, they didn't take along any good writers."

But the trio continued their success, scoring with the tongue-in-cheek single "I Dig Rock and Roll Music," a gentle parody of the Mamas and the Papas, in 1967 and the John Denver-penned "Leaving on a Jet Plane" two years later.

They also continued as boosters for young songwriters, recording numbers written by then-little-knownGordon Lightfoot and Laura Nyro.

In 1969, the group earned their final Grammy for "Peter, Paul and Mommy," which won for best children's album. They disbanded in 1971, launching solo careers — Travers released five albums — that never achieved the heights of their collaborations.

Over the years they enjoyed several reunions, including a performance at a 1978 anti-nuclear benefit organized by Yarrow and a 35th anniversary album, "Lifelines," with fellow folkies Ramblin' Jack Elliott, Dave Van Ronk and Seeger. A boxed set of their music was released in 2004.

They remained politically active as well, performing in 1995 on the anniversary of the Kent State shootings and performing for California strawberry pickers.

Travers had undergone a successful bone marrow transplant to treat her leukemia and was able to return to performing after that.

"It was like a miracle," Travers told The Associated Press in 2006. "I'm just feeling fabulous. What's incredible is someone has given your life back. I'm out in the garden today. This time last year I was looking out a window at a hospital." She also said she told the marrow donor "how incredibly grateful I was."

But by mid-2009, Yarrow told WTOP radio in Washington that her condition had worsened again and he thought she would no longer be able to perform.

Travers lived for many years in Redding, Connecticut She is survived by her husband, Ethan Robbins, and daughters, Alicia and Erika.