Jewish congregation pitted against US’s oldest synagogue in battle over ceremonial bells


PROVIDENCE, Rhode Island  — A disagreement over the ownership of a set of Torah finial bells from Colonial times that is worth millions has led to dueling lawsuits between leaders of the nation’s first Jewish congregation and the nation’s oldest synagogue.

The dispute started after leaders of the nearly 250-year-old Touro Synagogue in Newport, Rhode Island, agreed to sell the bells, called rimonim, for $7.4 million to the Museum of Fine Arts in Boston. The sale is opposed by leaders of Congregation Shearith Israel in New York City, who say it owns Touro and the rimonim.

They argue the sale violates religious practice and will remove ownership of the bells from the Jewish community. They’re seeking to remove the Newport congregation from practicing at Touro, which was named a National Historic Site in 1946 and is visited by tens of thousands of people every year.

Both sides have sued and countersued in federal courts in Rhode Island and New York. U.S. District Court Judge William Smith in Providence is scheduled to hold a settlement conference Thursday.

Congregation Shearith Israel, which overlooks Central Park in New York City’s Upper West Side, was first established in 1654 by Jews of Spanish and Portuguese descent. It is the nation’s first and oldest Jewish congregation.

The nation’s second Jewish congregation, also of Spanish and Portuguese origin, was established in Newport four years later, drawn by the religious tolerance established in the colony by Rhode Island’s founder, Roger Williams.

A century later, the Newport congregation bought land and constructed a synagogue, which was dedicated during Hanukkah on Dec. 2, 1763. It was named for Isaac Touro, a Dutch Jew who became the congregation’s first spiritual leader.

George Washington visited Newport in 1790, and later that year wrote a now-famous letter to the city’s Jewish community affirming the new nation’s dedication to religious tolerance, saying it “gives to bigotry no sanction, to persecution no assistance.” The letter is now read annually at Touro.

By the early 1800s, the city’s Jewish population had dwindled as Newport’s importance waned. The city’s last Jewish resident left in 1822. In the decades to come, Touro fell into disrepair. Some items, including Torah scrolls and possibly the finial bells, were transferred to the New York congregation.

Touro’s leaders claim in its lawsuits that Congregation Shearith Israel became trustee for the Newport synagogue, while Congregation Shearith Israel says it took ownership of the synagogue, its cemetery, Torahs, rimonim and other objects. Touro reopened in the late 1800s, and the Newport congregation ultimately signed a lease in 1903 to rent Touro from Congregation Shearith Israel for $1 per year.

The finial bells were made in the 1760s or 1770s by Colonial silversmith Myer Myers, a Jewish contemporary of Paul Revere’s, who operated out of New York. They are placed on the handles of a Torah scroll when not in use. Touro has two of them.

Leaders of Touro in 2010 asked the auction house Christie’s to find a buyer for one of its sets, said David Bazarsky, former president of Touro Synagogue and a third-generation member of the congregation there. Their aim was to raise money to ensure Touro will always be maintained, have services and have a rabbi in residence while also finding a place that would allow the public to see the finial bells, he said.

At the time, the MFA was about to open a new Art of the Americas wing, which included a Newport room. The bells have been on display there since 2010, and the museum in 2011 offered to purchase the bells permanently, Bazarsky said.

“Our goal is really to take the money, put it into a trust, and endowment fund, and secure the future while having the opportunity to display the finial bells. We think it’s part of history, it’s part of the culture of America, and it’s overwhelmingly positive,” he said.

The MFA’s offer has since been rescinded until the ownership dispute is resolved, a spokeswoman for the museum said.

Touro’s lawsuit, filed in November, asks Attorney General Peter Kilmartin to intervene because he administers charitable trusts. Spokeswoman Amy Kempe says the office is reviewing the case.

Representatives for Congregation Shearith Israel declined to comment on the record about the lawsuit, but in court papers, they say they learned about the proposed sale in June and had hoped to settle before Touro sued. The New York congregation says Touro is bound to follow its religious traditions, and such a sale violates them.

It suggests a long-term lease of the bells to the museum, something Bazarsky said Touro is open to and has discussed with the MFA but which they can’t pursue until they resolve the question of who owns the bells. Still, he said, he is hopeful the two sides can work out an agreement.

Israel Police - 83-year-old woman raped in south Tel Aviv


An 83-year-old woman was raped in the yard of her Tel Aviv apartment bloc, a gag order lifted Monday revealed.

On December 21, the elderly woman was found by her nephew sprawled and bleeding in the yard of her building. From her physical state it was evident that she had suffered extreme violence.

Police have arrested an Eritrean man in his twenties on suspicion of committing the rape.

The elderly woman was found by her nephew after family members arrived at her home, situated near the old Tel Aviv central bus station, for a visit. When they did not find her there, the woman's family began searching for her nearby.

The relatives who arrived at the site noticed a man fleeing, but did not attribute any importance to him at the time. After finding the woman, the family took her for medical treatment and to file a complaint to the police.

A special investigation team from the Tel Aviv police's Yiftach district took evidence from the woman, who related that the attacker arrived at the building where she has lived for many years, forcibly dragged her into the rear yard and beat her there for hours.

The woman received medical treatment and her physical condition is now said to be stable.

The investigation team collected evidence from the scene and recordings from security cameras in the area so as to assist the search for the suspect, and, early last week, an Eritrean resident of south Tel Aviv was arrested. The suspect, who has a criminal record, remained silent during questioning, but police said DNA evidence links him to the act.

Police have said that they expect violence to erupt in south Tel Aviv in response to publication of the incident, and that, while extra forces have already been deployed ahead of New Year's Eve celebrations, they are also prepared to deal with anti-migrant protests should they occur.

Judge Dorit Reich Shapira criticized Israel Police's decision to reveal the ethnic origin of the suspect at such an early stage. "It would have been fitting for the investigative unit to consider the danger to public safety that revealing the ethnicity of the suspect would have, when he hasn't yet been issued an indictment," said the judge.

The court forbade publishing the name of the suspect, who is being held in police custody and whose remand has been extended until Thursday.

Kiryas Joel - Given Sweetheart Grant


Included in the list of last week’s announcement of state economic development grants was $594,000 for the Village of Kiryas’ Joel’s.

According to the award, funds are to be used to “undertake improvements to [Kiryas Joel's] waste water treatment plant to correct conditions resulting in violations of its State Pollution Discharge Elimination System (SPDES) permit.”

“This is the furthest thing from economic development,” said Assemblyman-Elect James Skoufis. “The list of projects for the Mid-Hudson Region is tremendous: attracting commercial and residential improvement, renovating historical sites, and creating jobs. Then, there’s a grant to bail KJ out for violations against its pollution permit.”

Skoufis continued, “Any other municipality that faces environmental violations is on the hook to fix the problem. The same clearly doesn’t apply to Kiryas Joel – state taxpayers are footing their bill yet again.”

Assemblyman-Elect Skoufis vowed to continue pursuing how the state’s Economic Development Council could possibly justify the grant.
 
 
 

הסודות של גומא אגייאר נחשפים


הוא זכור לרובנו כמולטי-מיליונר שהשקיע מיליונים בבית"ר ירושלים ורצה להפוך לפילנטרופ מכובד. אבל לגומא אגייאר – אחת הדמויות המיסתוריות והצבעוניות שנחתו בארץ הקודש עם כיסים תפוחים ממזומנים – היו גם צדדים אחרים. מאחורי תדמת הבליין שאוהב את החיים הטובים הסתתרה נפש פצועה, רדופה ומסוכסכת. תחקיר "עובדה" שהתחקה אחר השנים של אגייאר בישראל מגלה מי הגורמים השונים – פוליטקאים, רבנים בכירים וגם אנשי העולם התחתון – שידעו לנצל היטב את מצבו. "הוא הגיע לישראל עם לב פתוח", אומרת רעייתו, ג'ימי, בראיון ראשון מאז היעלמותו. "אבל אנשים שם גנבו ממנו ברגעים הכי קשים שלו".

נתיב חייו של אגייאר יכול היה לפרנס תסריט של סרט הוליוודי: הצעיר שהתחיל את דרכו כמאמן טניס, החליט להיכנס להרפתקה עסקית והרוויח בענק. החברה לחיפושי נפט שהקים נמכרה תמורת 2.5 מיליארד דולר כשאגייאר עוד לא היה אפילו בן 30.

אבל ההצלחה הפתאומית הזו הביאה איתה גם לא מעט קשיים: אגייאר, כך מספרים אשתו וחבריו לצוות "עובדה", התמודד במשך השנים עם מחלת המניה-דיפרסיה, שהשפיעה לעיתים על אופן קבלת ההחלטות שלו. אגייאר החליט לעלות לישראל – ולא ידע שהחלום לבנות בית בציון יהפוך במהירות למלחמה על השפיות.

אגייאר שהה בארץ במשך שנתיים, שבהמלכן תרם עשרות מיליוני דולרים לעמותות וארגונים שונים, וגם השקיע כמה מיליונים בקבוצת הכדורגל בית"ר ירושלים. תחקיר "עובדה" חושף כעת לראשונה מי היו האנשים שדאגו לנצל את המצב הרגיש של אגייאר ואיך: הפוליטיקאים שלא התביישו לקחת תרומות, גם כשהיה ברור לסובביו שההתנהגות של אגייאר הופכת יותר ויותר קיצונית, הרבנים שניטפלו, והעבריינים שניסו לחדור לחשבונות הבנק שלו ולגנוב מהם מיליונים. אנשי צוות האבטחה שהיו צמודים אליו בימיו בישראל מספרים לכתב "עובדה", ניר שחק: "גומא, בתקופות מסוימות, היה כמו חיה פצועה שהעורבים באים אליה", הם אומרים, "והיו מסביבו הרבה עורבים". "הוא נתן כל כך הרבה לאנשים, וראיתי הרבה מאותם אנשים חוזרים ולוקחים ממנו, וגונבים ממנו, דווקא ברגעים בהם הוא היה הכי פגוע", מוסיפה אשתו, ג'ימי.

ב-19 ביוני, 2012, יצא גומא אגייאר מאחוזתו שבפלורידה עם סירתו הפרטית אל הים הסוער. כמה שעות לאחר מכן נפלטה הסירה חזרה אל החוף, קילומטרים ספורים בלבד מביתו, אבל גומא כבר לא היה בה. הוא הוכרז כנעדר, ואיש אינו יודע בוודאות מה עלה בגורלו.






mako.co.il

Orthodox Jewish inmate wins court victory against state that denied him free religious food


An Orthodox Jew who was jailed for murder has won the right to be served kosher meals in prison.

A federal appeals court ruled that Max Moussazadeh, who was sentenced in connection with a fatal shooting in Texas, U.S. in 1993, should not be denied free kosher meals because to do so would infringe upon his 'sincere religious beliefs'.

Moussazadeh, now 35, who initially sued in 2005 after the state denied his request for a kosher meal plan, had said at the time he feared he would be 'punished by God' for not practising his religion correctly.

A lower, district court dismissed the inmate's case and ruled that his commitment to a kosher diet was insincere, according to the Houston Chronicle.

That judgement has now been reversed by the ruling of the 5th Circuit Court of Appeals in New Orleans, which said that the state of Texas was infringing upon the prisoner's beliefs by failing to provide him with food in keeping with his religion.

Moussazadeh's argument was based around the 2000 Religious Land Use and Institutionalised Persons Act, which prevents the government from restricting the religious rights of an institutionalised person, the report said.

The inmate, who was jailed after acting as a lookout while three accomplices shot a man to death during a Houston robbery in 1993, was transferred to a facility in the Stringfellow Unit in Rosharon, Texas, in 2007, which had established a 'kosher kitchen' to cater to Jewish prisoners.

But he was then moved to the Stiles Unit in Beaumont, Texas, which offers basic kosher products for inmates to purchase but does not provide free kosher meals.

Lawyers representing the Texas Department of Criminal Justice had argued that Moussazadeh sometimes chose to queue for a regular meal while he was a prisoner at the Stringfellow Unit, even when he had the option for a kosher meal.

Luke Goodrich, deputy general counsel for the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty, which helped to represent Moussazadeh in his legal battle, has described the decision as a 'great victory' for human rights and religious liberty.

'Even prisoners retain their human rights, and the state cannot sacrifice those rights on the altar of bureaucratic convenience,' Mr Goodrich said.

A kosher diet is based on Jewish teachings and forbids certain foods including pork, some seafood, and mixing of dairy and meat products.

In order to remain kosher, a meal must be prepared in containers that are untainted by non-kosher food.

The prison system in Texas provides inmates with a choice between pork-free, meat-free and regular trays at most units - none of which would be regarded as kosher.

Confessions of a Russian-New-Year's-celebrating Orthodox Jew


"You know, New Year's is a Christian holiday." I say this as my mother chops onions and throws them into a frying pan.

"Kakoi Christian?" she shakes her head. "You think we knew anything about Jesus when we lived There? Do me a favor, fetch me two more onions."

I sigh and go to the pantry. It had been the same argument every year, as my yeshiva teachers continually taught us that New Year's was most definitely a Christian holiday, and as my Soviet-born parents continued to insist that we would be celebrating the holiday regardless.

For my family, 'Noviy God' was a time of tangerines wrapped in gold foil and imported from Elsewhere, a time to attend the Young Communists' annual dances and to sing guitar ballads about love, life, youth -- while in school, I learned that New Year's Eve was nothing less than a Sodom and Gomorrah erupting as people took to the streets to celebrate.

"It's the beginning of a new calendar year, that's all," my parents would say, shrugging off my complaints. Every time I told them that it was forbidden, they'd tell me simply, "It's the one holiday we had, don't you understand?" And that was that. Every year I surrendered, joining my family for their celebrations though I was sure I was guilty of utter idolatry.

It became my reluctant secret: I was a crypto-New-Year's-celebrating Orthodox Jew. On December 31st I'd come to school with a velvet dress and party shoes in my backpack, smiling uneasily to my classmates and knowing that in a matter of hours I'd be sinning and also probably enjoying it.

After classes ended, I'd run to the bathroom, change out of my long skirt and into my dress, and slip out to meet my parents and sisters waiting in the back.

Off we'd go, Brooklyn, Queens, wherever that year's celebration was being held, to loud affairs of smoked fish, beets, fried potatoes with mushrooms, catered platters of sushi and wine and vodka, too.

Violin concertos, karaoke competitions, Russian Jewish families crowding together to sing about "accidental waltzes" and short nights, "for on my palm lies your unfamiliar hand." There was a religious zeal to the way with which we celebrated the most secular of holidays, a passion which I both admired and feared.

And I knew my friends had it quite different. I knew to keep quiet, because even those girls who came from the more liberal homes didn't acknowledge the holiday, beyond perhaps watching the Times Square ball drop on television.

The few friends who knew about my celebrating the holiday looked at it with curiosity, wondering at the immigrant family pouring glasses of champagne for their young children, reading aloud Moscow's latest anecdotes and roaring with laughter over the punch line.

I don't even remember when exactly our celebration shifted. We barely noticed when suddenly our skirts grew longer, our prayer times became more regular, and somehow my parents began hosting New Year's parties for their fellow Orthodox Russian-speaking friends. It's the same loud affair of smoked fish, beets, fried potatoes with mushrooms, platters of sushi and vodka, but now, the food is kosher, the men are in kippot, and we're reciting benedictions and giving toasts that are curiously punctuated with a sly 'Shana Tova'.

By now, I've come to terms with this balance of Soviet culture and our rediscovered religion, this strange dichotomy which traditional Russian Jews maintain almost effortlessly. Perhaps it's inevitable, because if New Year's was simply a party, it would be easier for us newly-Orthodox to leave it behind.

But it's far beyond a celebration; this holiday is a glimmer of nostalgia which brands us as eternally Diaspora Jews, holding on to a relic of another place and time that we're unable to give up, as we saute our onions and prepare our anecdotes.   Whether we want to or not, and no matter how often we pray, we still find ourselves playing those violins and dancing those accidental waltzes.

NYC - Three Dead In Suspicious Early Morning Fire


NEW YORK  – An early morning fire tore through a Bronx building this New Year’s Eve.

The fire broke out at about 5:45 a.m. and grew quickly to three alarms at 733 Beach Avenue and Lafayette Avenue in the Soundview section.

Fire tore through the roof of the three-story building and spread to adjoining homes.

Three people were killed in the fire.

“Two adults, approximately in their 70s. They were found on the second floor,” Assistant Chief Ron Spadafora told 1010 WINS reporter Gene Michaels. “And one young teenager, a boy, found in the rear on the third floor.”

The names of the victims haven’t been released.

The second and third floors collapsed and the roof is gone. Fire officials are now talking to people who lived in the house, as well as neighbors, to find out what they saw.

Three tenants also suffered injuries, authorities said. They were taken to Jacobi Hospital for treatment.

The fire was brought under control around 7:20 a.m.

Fire officials deemed the blaze suspicious and are investigating the cause.

Sam Lewis told CBS 2′s Drew Levinson he woke up, smelled smoke, and tried to rescue his family.

“I brought a ladder from my building, and pulled it up to help the old lady, but it was too late,” Lewis said.

Neighbors described the victims as good, hard working people.

“They are a nice, tight family, very nice,” said Desherma Lang. “They never bother nobody, and they just got along with everybody.”

“I am devastated,” said Milagros Gutierrez. “I can’t even cry no more.”

The Red Cross is helping tenants in the building and nearby who were forced to evacuate.
 
   

ILEEN M. NEWBY










Ileen M. Newby, 93,
of Fanshawe, OK passed away Monday, December 31, 2012 in Poteau, OK.   Ileen was born May 17, 1919 in Magazine, AR
to Hoyt & Dovie (Holderfield) Rana. 
She was a homemaker.  Ileen was
preceded in death by her parents; husband, EuellA. Newby; sister, Patsy Ruth
Rana; brothers, J.T. Rana, Max Rana; son, Euell D. Newby; grandson, Allen Gene
Newby.





Survivors include her
daughter & son in law, Rene & Ray Coley of Monett, MO; son &
daughter in law, Gary & Georgetta Newby of Poteau, OK; 5 grandchildren
& spouses, Sheila & David Buck of Monett, MO, Kevin & Kara Coley of
Monett, MO, Rosalind Newby of Poteau, OK, Stacy & Angela Newby of Ft.
Smith, AR, Angela & Shane Reeves of Greenwood, AR; 9 Great Grandchildren;
12 Great Great Grandchildren; sister, Floy Osborn of Phoenix, AZ; brothers Coy
Rana of Yokern, CA, Gerald Rana of Red Oak, OK; sisters in law, Nell Watkins of
Midwest City, OK, Jerelene Rana of Fanshawe, OK; daughter in law, Vela Newby of
Ft. Smith, AR; numerous nieces, nephews; other relatives & loved ones; many
beloved friends.





Services will be 10
am, Wednesday, January 2, 2013 at the Free
Will Baptist
Church in Fanshawe, OK
with Rev. Tracy Martin & Rev. Keith Williams officiating.  Interment will follow in Fanshawe Cemetery,
Fanshawe, OK.  Pallbearers will be her grandsons, Joshua
Boucher, Jantsen Boucher, Shane Reeves, Stacy Newby, Larry Rana & Kevin
Coley.  Honorary pallbearers will be
Stewart Branscum, Tim Adkinson, Jim Bowman David Buck & Dr. Gerald Rana Jr.





The family will be
at the funeral home on  Tuesday evening
from 5-7 pm to visit with relatives & friends.







Artist Interviews: Best of 2012 (Part III)

Garrison by Brian Barber
It's been another great year here just north of Lake Woebegone. There are too many stories to tell, but I've tried to do my part and pass along some of them here. I get asked all the time how I have time to blog every day, and I reply that for thirty years I wrote in a journal every day before heading off to work. I transferred my hour for that to this. I'm not entirely sure what my all my motivations are, but it's been an interesting run. My initial interest was simply my innate curiosity.

Thank you again to everyone who shared a bit of themselves here in 2012. I've enjoyed it and so have many readers.


A Few Minutes with Artist Eric Dubnicka

A Few Minutes with Wisconsin Artist Patricia Lenz

Eight Minutes with PRØVE Collective’s Kathleen Roberts, Founder of PRØOF Magazine

Patricia Lenz, Runway Gulls
Ten Minutes with Illustrator/Animator Brian Barber

Ten Minutes with Jessica Liszewski, Artist and Gallery Owner

Five Minutes with Dublin Artist John Nolan

Exloring HyperLightness ad absurdum with Portuguese Artist Margarida Sardinha

Dialogue with Margarida Sardinha on HyperLightness ad absurdum, Part II

Dialogue with Margarida Sardinha on HyperLightness ad absurdum, Part III

Five Minutes with Artist  Lisa Eddington

Six Minutes With Rock Art Magician Peter Juhl

Eight Minutes With Artist Ernest Gillman

Tate Rich Talks About Ceramics and Community Art

Bones and Steel: Six Minutes with Sculptor Sam Spiczka

Don't Miss Master MEME Daniel Hansen Tonight at the PRØVE 

The Striking Imagery of Unda Arte

It's been a privilege getting to know so many really fascinating people. May each and all of you have a fulfilling 2013. Maybe we'll meet again at the end of the rainbow. Happiest New Year to you.

NYC Couple busted with cache of weapons, bombmaking explosives

Morgan Gliedman

The privileged daughter of a prominent city doctor, and her boyfriend — a Harvard grad and Occupy Wall Street activist — have been busted for allegedly having a cache of weapons and a bombmaking explosive in their Greenwich Village apartment.

Morgan Gliedman — who is nine-months pregnant — and her baby daddy, Aaron Greene, 31, also had instructions on making bombs, including a stack of papers with a cover sheet titled, “The Terrorist Encyclopedia,’’ sources told The Post yesterday.

People who know Greene say his political views are “extreme,” the sources said.
 
Cops found the stash in the couple’s West Ninth Street home Saturday when they went there to look for Gliedman, 27, who was wanted for alleged credit-card theft.

A detective discovered a plastic container with seven grams of a white chemical powder called HMTD, which is so powerful, cops evacuated several nearby buildings.

Police also found a flare launcher, which is a commercial replica of a grenade launcher; a modified 12 gauge Mossberg 500 shotgun; ammo; and nine high-capacity rifle magazines, the sources said.

Cops also allegedly uncovered papers about creating homemade booby traps, improvised submachine guns, and various handwritten notebooks containing chemical formulas.

The couple’s arrest Saturday was a sharp turn from their privileged backgrounds.

Gliedman, who grew up on Park Avenue, graduated from Dalton in 2002. Her dad, Dr. Paul Gliedman, is director of radiation oncology at Beth Israel Hospital, Brooklyn Division.

Paul Gliedman — who was included in New York magazine’s list of top doctors in 2011 — received his medical degree from Columbia University.

Morgan’s mother, Susyn Schops Gliedman, is a realtor with Prudential Douglas Elliman.

Greene attended Harvard as an undergraduate and did his graduate work at the university’s Kennedy School of Government.

He has five prior run-ins with the police, with the charges including, assault, and weapons possession, sources said.
 
 
 
 

Tour bus crash on icy Oregon highway kills 9, injures 20


The stretch of rural Oregon interstate where a tour bus crashed through a guardrail and plummeted 100 feet down a steep embankment is so notorious that state transportation officials have published a specific advisory warning of its dangers.

Nine people were killed and more than two dozen injured when the charter bus veered out of control around 10:30 a.m. Sunday on snow- and ice-covered lanes of Interstate 84 in eastern Oregon, according to the Oregon State Police.

The bus crashed near the start of a 7-mile section of road that winds down a hill. It came to rest at the bottom of a snowy slope, landing beaten and battered but upright with little or no debris visible around the crash site.

The East Oregonian said it spoke with two South Korean passengers, ages 16 and 17. Both said through a translator that they were seated near the rear of the bus when it swerved a few times, hit the guardrail and flipped. They described breaking glass and seeing passengers pinned by their seats as the bus slid down the hill. Both said that they feared for their lives.

The paper said that the teens, one of whom injured a knee and the other suffered a broken collarbone, were staying at a hotel arranged by the Red Cross.

More than a dozen rescue workers descended the hill and used ropes to help retrieve people from the wreckage in freezing weather. The bus driver was among the survivors, but had not yet spoken to police because of the severity of the injuries the driver had suffered.

Lt. Gregg Hastings said the bus crashed along the west end of the Blue Mountains, and west of an area called Deadman Pass. The area is well known locally for its hazards, and the state transportation department advises truck drivers that "some of the most changeable and severe weather conditions in the Northwest" can lead to slick conditions and poor visibility. Drivers are urged to use "extreme caution and defensive driving techniques," and warned that snow and black ice are common in the fall through the spring.

The bus had been carrying about 40 people. St. Anthony Hospital in Pendleton treated 26 of them, said hospital spokesman Larry Blanc. Five of those treated at St. Anthony were transported to other facilities.

Blanc did not elaborate on the nature of the injuries but told the Oregonian that the hospital brought in additional staff to handle the rush of patients and did a lot of X-ray imaging.

I-84 is a major east-west highway through Oregon that follows the Columbia River Gorge.

Umatilla County Emergency Manager Jack Remillard said the bus was owned by Mi Joo travel in Vancouver, B.C., and state police said the bus was en route from Las Vegas to Vancouver.

A woman who answered the phone at a listing for the company confirmed with The Associated Press that it owned the bus and said it was on a tour of the Western U.S. She declined to give her name.

A bus safety website run by the U.S. Department of Transportation said Mi Joo Tour & Travel has six buses, none of which have been involved in any accidents in at least the past two years.

The bus crash was the second fatal accident in Oregon on Sunday morning. A 69-year-old man died in a rollover accident on I-84, about 30 miles west of where the bus accident took place.

A spokesman for the American Bus Association said buses carry more than 700 million passengers a year in the United States.

"The industry as a whole is a very safe industry," said Dan Ronan of the Washington, D.C.,-based group. "There are only a handful of accidents every year. Comparatively speaking, we're the safest form of surface transportation."

Sunday's Oregon bus crash comes more than two months after another chartered tour bus veered off a highway in October in northern Arizona, killing the driver and injuring dozens of passengers who were mostly tourists from Asia and Europe. Authorities say the driver likely had a medical episode.



Hillary Clinton rushed to hospital with blood clot just three weeks after suffering concussion


Secretary of State Hillary Clinton was undergoing emergency treatment for a blood clot Sunday night at a Manhattan hospital.

Doctors said the clot stems from a concussion she suffered this month when she fainted while battling a stomach bug and hit her head. Clinton spokesman Philippe Reines said doctors discovered the clot while conducting a followup exam Sunday.

She was admitted to New York-Presbyterian Hospital Columbia, where she was being treated with anti-coagulants.

Clinton has a history of blood clots. In 1998, a clot was found behind her right knee and she was put on a blood thinner, but stopped when her health improved.

“That was the most significant health scare I've ever had,” Clinton told the Daily News in 2007.

Reines said Clinton, 65, will stay in the hospital for at least 48 hours so her medication can be monitored closely. He said physicians are worried about “other issues associated with her concussion” but declined to elaborate.

Clinton is in the same hospital where former President Bill Clinton underwent heart-bypass surgery in 2004.

Idalina Feliz, 39, whose mom is recovering from a stroke on the hospital’s eighth floor, said she saw a lot of activity there.“We saw Secret Service everywhere,” she said.

Clinton had been recovering at her Chappaqua, Westchester County, home. She planned to return to the State Department this week to finish up her tenure. President Obama has nominated Massachusetts Sen. John Kerry to succeed her.

Clinton’s concussion forced her skip testifying Dec. 20 before the House Foreign Affairs Committee on the Sept. 11 deadly U.S. Consulate attack in Benghazi, Libya. Her setback prompted some conservative Republicans to suggest she was faking it.

“When you don’t want to go to a meeting or conference, or an event, you have a ‘diplomatic illness,’” John Bolton, the former U.N. Ambassador under President George W. Bush, said on Fox News last week.


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Essentials of Dyslexia Assessment and Intervention Book Review by ChristineMM




My Summary Statement: A Book for Professionals - See My Note to Parents

My Star Rating: 4 stars out of 5 = I Like It

This "Essentials of" book series is intended mostly for professionals. In the preface it states, "For the experienced clinician, books in the series will offer a concise yet thorough way to master utilization of the continuously evolving supply of new and revised instruments, as well as a convenient method for keeping up to date on the tried-and-true measures. The novice (clinician) will find here a prioritized assembly of all the information and techniques that must be at one's fingertips to begin the complicated process of individual psychological diagnosis."

Let me underscore this is a professional book for clinicians not a book for laypeople. This book "is designed for assessment professionals, educators, and parents who are interested in understanding, assessing and helping individuals that have dyslexia". Although in that passage parents are mentioned I feel the bulk of the book is for professionals and is about the current way schools handle dyslexia.

The Appendix is over 60 pages long and the reference listing is over 30 pages long. There is a glossary and an index.

I am a parent and I understand the desire that some parents have to find the latest detailed information about their children's conditions so they can be the best advocate they can when working with school staff. I know the book's preface says the book is for parents but I disagree. There are issues that specifically relate to parents that this book does not cover and the book goes too far into detail about school-based testing and interventions, which is overkill for most parents. Parents need to focus on the evaluation, the PPT, and the IEP. For example I feel that parents would be served better by learning their legal rights in their state, learning how to navigate the PPT meetings and what input they can have in making the IEP. Parents need to know their rights regarding testing and may have to seek legal counsel to get their children the best plan. Two families I know were grossly underserved by the public school and wound up hiring an attorney to help get their children outplaced to schools who specialize in dyslexia, with the town footing the private school tuition. Those schools were in over their heads and they were not able to help those children learn to read after years of the school's own special ed plan in the IEP.

Another more basic thing that parents need is general encouragement, such as helping them realize that while dyslexia can make reading difficult there are other gifts that dyslexic people often have which give them superior abilities compared to non-dyslexics. Parents need to hear that kind of thing. See: [[ASIN:1573921556 In the Mind's Eye: Visual Thinkers, Gifted People With Dyslexia and Other Learning Difficulties, Computer Images and the Ironies of Creativity]]. The topic of [[ASIN:0465047688 Multiple Intelligences: New Horizons in Theory and Practice]] can also be uplifting for parents to read, even though that has not yet been proven by scientific studies to be "true". Another topic to investigate is visual spatial learners, as this can help parents find ways that their child can study at home to help master the topics such as the book by [[ASIN:1593633246 Visual-Spatial Learners]].

I mentioned in my summary statement this book is full of mainstream topics. You will not find here things which our society prefers to call "alternative" such as the issue of how lacking omega fatty acids in a child's diet can further impair learning, so supplementation with fish oil supplements is recommended by some experts (and is currently the subject of a $10 million study by the US Department of Defense). Other nutritional issues can be investigated, such as possible low serotonin, use of 5HTP supplents, and Vitamin D deficiency/supplementation, none which are mentioned in this book. I suggest parents talk to other parents of special education kids to hear of other topics they should educate themselves on.

This book does not cover other processing disorders which may exist in tangent OR which may be the real diagnosis. After testing by a teacher it was suggested that the testing indicated possible dyslexia in my then ten year old child. He never had dyslexia symptoms or reading problems in the past, but I heard her symptom list to be the same as what I'd heard termed as an "eye tracking problem". After a consult with a behavioral optometrist (schools and teachers, ophthalmologists and regular optometrists do not perform tests for those conditions) my son was diagnosed with convergence insufficiency, a visual processing disorder. He had excellent results with reading glasses with a prism lens and home therapy under the doctor's guidance. I still had no confirmation if he had dyslexia but some of the symptoms had overlapped. Four years later my son had some new symptoms such as difficulty reading for a long time and a hard time remembering what he'd read, and he had a QEEG brain map performed which showed NO dyslexia and NO ADD/ADHD but did show issues with visual processing and other things which indicated neurological damage after having Lyme Disease and high fevers from Mononucleosis. This was treated with neurofeeback therapy with success. I mention our story as an example of how a teacher suggested my son had dyslexia when in fact he never had it, but had another visual processing disorder instead -- and to illustrate the important issue for parents that this book doesn't venture into that territory. Parents need to learn somehow that learning struggles can have overlapping symptoms and that sometimes dyslexia is a misdiagnosis.

I am not equipped to judge this book from a professional level as I am not a trained professional. I did not realize that this book series was targeted to professionals when I ordered it. From what I can see this is mainstream information for schools with a lot of references to back it up. I have no reason to doubt the credibility of these cited works.

From a parent's view I would not recommend reading this clinical book for professionals. I would encourage you to read a book for a layperson about dyslexia as well as a book that celebrates the uniqueness of the dyslexic person so you are not just thinking about your child's weakness. I would encourage you to educate yourself on the laws in your state regarding your rights to services through the public school. Contact an advocate to hire to help you navigate the PPT meetings during the IEP formation process as well as for the follow-up PPT meetings. You need a plan to know if X result is not seen by X date then what, so forth and so on. As a last resort, contact legal counsel if you feel the school is not doing the right thing.

Parents should also investigate other visual processing disorders; get private consults for those, to rule out dual diagnosis or misdiagnosis. Find an expert who knows about learning disorders / disabilities and nutrition who can counsel you on nutrition and possible supplementation. Rule out possible food sensitivities or allergies which can give "brain fog", low energy, or inhibit memory - your child needs to be at the top of their game instead of being further bogged down by environmental factors.

---

I rate this book 4 stars = I Like It when I judge it from the perspective of a book for professionals by professionals working within the system who want mainstream current advice backed up with evidence based studies. The book is thorough and attempts to be credible and solid by not offering any theories or related topics (nutrition, dietary deficiencies, food allergies). I did not give it 5 stars because it fails to address misdiagnosis or other visual processing disorders which are sometimes misdiagnosed as dyslexia.

Disclosure: I received a review copy of this book from Amazon.com's Vine program for the purpose of reviewing it on the Amazon.com site. I was not paid to write the review or to blog it, nor was I under obligation to review it favorably.




Yemen: Al-Qaida offers bounty for US ambassador


SANAA, Yemen — Al Qaeda's branch in Yemen has announced that it will pay tens of thousands of dollars to anyone who kills the US ambassador in Sanaa or an American soldier in the country.

An audio produced by the group's media arm, the al-Malahem Foundation, and posted on militant websites Saturday said it offered three kilograms of gold, worth $160,000, for killing the ambassador.

The group said it will pay 5 million Yemeni riyals ($23,000) to anyone who kills an American soldier inside Yemen.

It did not say how the bounty could be collected, but said the offer is valid for six months.

The bounties were set to "inspire and encourage our Muslim nation for jihad," the statement said.

Washington considers al Qaeda in Yemen to be the group's most dangerous branch.

Artist Interviews: Best of 2012 (Part II)

The author w/ Rosvall Eyeglasses
It appears that these year-end compilations of artist interviews are becoming an annual event. I have certainly spoken with a lot of interesting people. I've also learned much and it has been my privilege to share their insights and experiences with a wider audience. Here's part two of my 2012 artist interviews, a small collection of examples as to why the Twin Ports arts scene is so vibrant right now.

Fruit from a Long Dialogue with Artist Ann Klefstad

Ann Klefstad (Part 2)

Ann Klefstad (Part 3)

Eight Minutes with Richard Hansen and the DuSu Film Festival

Eight Minutes with Northland Painter Aaron Kloss

Ten Minutes with Artist Wanda Pearcy

Eight Minutes with Artist Morgan Pease


Heino Magic
Eight Minutes with Artist/ Water Advocate Tonya Borgeson

Eight Minutes with Artist Wynn Davis

Spotlight on Photographer John Heino

John Heino (Part 2)

Five Minutes with Minnesota Artist Patricia Canelake

Jen Dietrich’s American Iconography

Ryan Tischer Discusses Washington Gallery and Artist Collective

David Moreira Talks About the Art of SkatRadioh

Andrew Floberg piece, one of many great events @ Washington Galleries
Read my upcoming article in this week's Reader for a look back at the 2012 Twin Ports arts scene. Visit tomorrow for more artist interviews from our local scene and abroad.

Ultra-Orthodox Extremists Mount Anti-iPhone Campaign


A flyer distributed in synagogues throughout Betar Illit Friday declares "war" on the increasingly common practice of entering synagogues with smartphones.

"Needless to say," it says, these people will not be given 'aliyot' – i.e., they will not be invited to recite blessings during the Torah readings, and will not be invited to lead the prayer, "even on their parents' yarzeit.

" It even warns that the children of transgressors will not be allowed to study with other children.

The flyer was signed by a group calling itself "Saving the Generations" that claims to be operating under the guidance of Torah greats. It did not rule out all cell phones, but focused on smartphones, or "unapproved" phones.

In a very long sentence, the flyer explains that, "Since the plague of iPhones, Blackberries and the likes has unfortunately spread in our camp, despite their being banned by all the Greats of Israel, to the point that those who hold these instruments do not feel ashamed to enter the congregation of G-d, and even take it out in full view in the shtibalach (prayer halls) and other public places, and no one says anything, we have therefore decided upon the advice of rabbis to create an action committee for a great campaign and to fight fiercely against this danger in every way possible."

The organization announced that it will appoint "supervisors" in every community, whose job will be to approach whoever enters the synagogue with a smartphone, and demand forcefully that he leave the premises.

Jew attacked outside Paris synagogue


Police in Paris reportedly arrested a man on suspicion that he participated in attacking a Jewish man outside a synagogue.

The suspect was apprehended shortly after he and the other three attackers, who escaped, allegedly attacked the 47-year-old Jew on Dec. 20 as the victim was coming out of a synagogue in the French capital’s 19th Arrondissement, the French daily Le Parisian reported.

The officers were stationed outside the synagogue because of frequent attacks on Jewish institutions and individuals in and around Paris.

The culprits continued to hit the man as he was on the ground, the report said. It quoted a source as saying that it was not certain that the attack was anti-Semitic in nature but that this was being investigated.