Former Elmo puppeteer wins 3 Daytime Emmy awards

LOS ANGELES (AP) ? Kevin Clash, the Elmo puppeteer who resigned amid allegations that he sexually abused underage boys, won three Daytime Emmy Awards for his work on "Sesame Street."

Clash won as outstanding performer in a children's series at the creative arts ceremony held Friday night. He shared trophies for outstanding pre-school children's series and directing in a children's series, giving Clash 26 Daytime Emmys for his work on the venerable PBS show.

He played Elmo for 28 years before quitting last November. Clash's lawyer has said that related lawsuits filed against the entertainer are without merit.

The main Daytime Emmys ceremony is Sunday in Beverly Hills.

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/4e67281c3f754d0696fbfdee0f3f1469/Article_2013-06-15-TV-Elmo%20Actor/id-d619b991fb5e4fc497c53b354da48316

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Facebook: We can now say more on user surveillance

MENLO PARK, Calif. (AP) ? Facebook's top attorney said Friday night that after negotiations with national security officials the company has been given permission to make new but still very limited revelations about government orders to turn over user data.

Ted Ullyot, Facebook's general counsel, said in a statement Friday that Facebook is only allowed to talk about total numbers and must give no specifics. But he said the permission it has received is still unprecedented, and the company was lobbying to reveal more.

Using the new guidelines, Ullyot said Facebook received between 9,000 and 10,000 government requests from all government entities from local to federal in the last six months of 2012, on topics including missing children investigations, fugitive tracking and terrorist threats. The requests involved the accounts of between 18,000 and 19,000 Facebook users.

Facebook was not allowed to make public how many orders it received from a particular agency or on a particular subject. But the numbers do include all national security related requests including those submitted via national security letters and under the Foreign Intelligence Surveillance Act, or FISA, which companies had not previously been allowed to reveal.

Ullyot said the company wanted to reveal the information because of "confusion and inaccurate reporting" on the issue, and to show that only "a tiny fraction of one percent" of its 1.1 billion users have been affected.

In a rare alliance, Facebook, Google and Microsoft Corp. have been pressuring the Obama administration to loosen their legal gag on government surveillance orders.

The companies have sought to distance themselves from the Internet dragnet code-named "PRISM" that was revealed in leaks last week.

Google said late Friday that it was waiting to be able to reveal more specific and meaningful information before releasing its surveillance figures.

"We have always believed that it's important to differentiate between different types of government requests," Google said in a statement. "We already publish criminal requests separately from National Security Letters. Lumping the two categories together would be a step back for users. Our request to the government is clear: to be able to publish aggregate numbers of national security requests, including FISA disclosures, separately."

An after-hours phone message left for Microsoft spokesman Pete Wootton was not immediately returned.

Facebook repeated recent assurances that the company scrutinizes every government request, and works aggressively to protect users' data. Facebook said it has a compliance rate of 79 percent on government requests.

"We frequently reject such requests outright, or require the government to substantially scale down its requests, or simply give the government much less data than it has requested," Ullyot said." And we respond only as required by law."

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/facebook-now-more-user-surveillance-031323158.html

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Radio Communication system improvement procurement grinds into ...

Guzi reviews the Communications System for Botetourt County.

Sheriff Ronnie Sprinkle had been concerned for months about the radio communication system for Botetourt County. Earlier this year the system failed for? 12 hours leaving deputies and EMS unable to communicate effectively with Dispatch. In Botetourt County, school buses are on the system as well.? Sprinkle? had understood after the 2014 budget sessions the solutions to the problem had begun, but recently learned that was not the case.? Parts on the current system were so old and antiquated that EBay was used to acquire them.

However after Sprinkle had talks with Fincastle Supervisor Jack Leffel and County Administrator Kathleen Guzi, a special meeting of the Board of Supervisors took place. On Friday June 14, the Board of Supervisors held a meeting to speed up the procurement? with a vote to allocate needed funds. It may still take up to? 6 months due to the manufacture of the needed parts.? Leffel lauded the Sheriff for his concern and actions for the safety of Botetourt citizens and emergency and public safety employees.

The three Supervisors members present, Terry Austin, Mac Scothorn and Leffel voted to begin the process and approved the funding? for solving the communications problem. The cost is over $450, 000 for the needed upgrades, though all of it will not take place at one time. The contractor, Pro Com will be contacted to begin and a time line will be formed for the process, noted Austin.

The Roanoke Times has additional coverage of the radio system here.

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You might have left one of the fields blank, or be posting too quickly

'); }, success: function(data, textStatus){ if(textStatus=="success") { //statusdiv.html('

Thanks for your comment. We appreciate your response.

'); newComment = 1; commentRefresh(); } else { alert("moderated?"); //statusdiv.html('

Please wait a while before posting your next comment

'); //commentform.find('textarea[name=comment]').val(''); } } }); return false; } else { return false; } }); function validateEmail(email) { var reg = /^([A-Za-z0-9_\-\.])+\@([A-Za-z0-9_\-\.])+\.([A-Za-z]{2,4})$/; var x = email.val(); if (reg.test(x) == false) { return 0; } else { return 1; } } function addComment(){ jQuery('html,body').animate({scrollTop: jQuery("#respond").offset().top - 350},1500,"easeOutQuint"); // Stop the animation if the user scrolls. Defaults on .stop() should be fine jQuery('html,body').bind("scroll mousedown DOMMouseScroll mousewheel keyup", function(e){ if ( e.which > 0 || e.type === "mousedown" || e.type === "mousewheel"){ jQuery('html,body').stop().unbind('scroll mousedown DOMMouseScroll mousewheel keyup'); // This identifies the scroll as a user action, stops the animation, then unbinds the event straight after (optional) } }); }

Source: http://blogs.roanoke.com/botetourtview/2013/06/radio-communication-system-improvement-procurement-grinds-into-gear/

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Two Areas Where Innovations Are Not Happening | edtechdigest.com

Empowering families, parents and caregivers in early childhood education.

GUEST COLUMN | by Chris Drew

Saul Khan is flipping classrooms. Coursera and other MOOCs are opening access to elite universities in unprecedented ways. School choice and the chartered school movement are shaking up traditional district structuring. Tablet devices, gamification, big data, badging, learning apps?if you?re reading this blog you?re likely pretty well versed on all this and the state of edtech and innovation. You?ve read about these K-12 and higher education transformations. This piece, though, does not address any of these innovations, but instead focuses on two areas in which innovations are not happening:

1. early childhood education (birth to age five) and why this is significant, and

2. empowering the mobilization of underutilized infrastructure (families).

With the current education transformation mood being as it is, now is as timely a moment as we have seen for innovating to empower families, parents and caregivers to be more effective early childhood educators.

Until President Obama?s most recent State of the Union address, early childhood education has received little to no effective attention in the education transformation movement. But even Mr. Obama?s plea for more early childhood education access is not particularly inspiring. It calls only for the expansion of day care centers, mostly Head Start. At this moment, only 1 in 6 families eligible for Head Start have access to Head Start programs. And an expansion of centers would certainly address some of these access issues. But since fewer than 30 percent of U.S. families have access to high-quality early childhood education and care, even 100 percent access for every Head Start eligible family would only put a minor dent in the overall problem.

And we know from over five decades of longitudinal data collection and analysis that high-quality early childhood education has meaningful and lasting positive impacts. We have seen from the Perry Scope Preschool project, the Carolina Abecedarian Study and the Chicago Longitudinal Study, for example, that children who have such experiences are less likely to drop out, less likely to become a part of the criminal justice system, less likely to become teenage parents, more likely to go to college, more likely to repay college loans, more likely to be homeowners, more likely to have high paying jobs. The list goes on. And what it means is an economic return of $7 for every $1 invested.?

In addition to making economic sense, early childhood education intervention is just common sense. But it?s also scientific sense. For example, neuroscientists tell us that 90 percent of human brain development occurs within the first five years of life. Attitudes, habits are set, language, learning and problem-solving exposure are creating (or not creating) strong neural pathways. Education researchers tell us that for many students their academic trajectory is already determined by age six. Caregivers in care centers, at home and in the community are modeling behavior, providing rich language experiences, setting expectations and more, and all these have great impacts on children?s life trajectories. But because high quality early childhood education is so limited, before K-12 teachers and schools ever meet their students, there is a lot that has already been determined for our students, for the short term at the very least.

And even though there are over 805,000 daycares and preschools in the U.S., the problem is that the average entry-level education for early childhood caregivers is a high school diploma. Same goes for babysitters and nannies. This means that the overwhelming majority of those caring for our little ones at the most critical point in their development are not trained in how to do so effectively. Having a grown up watch a child and ensure a child is safe and well fed does not equate to early childhood education.

So what innovative supplements are available?

As for early childhood education media, PBS?s Sesame Street and their various cross platform assets are still an important force. Disney has nudged their way onto the scene through acquisitions such as Babble.com and Baby Einstein. But sitting a zero-to-five year-old child in front of a television set or computer screen does not an education make. Johnson & Johnson?s BabyCenter has a global audience of over 30 million, but they are focused on delivering advice on family wellness and health.

Parents are a child?s first and most important teacher. For the reasons outlined above, the impact that family, friends and peer groups have on a young child may be even more powerful than great schools and great teachers. And every parent wants the best for their child. So why not mobilize parents, family members and caregivers to be more effective early childhood educators. If a parent is a child?s most important teacher, why can?t we make them a child?s best teacher? Consider how MOOCs are opening access to college courses. Parents do not need a degree, they simply need easy access to resources. Parents do not need ? nor are they likely to have the time ? to invest hours a week studying developmental psychology or language development theory. Easily accessible, not-overly complex, efficacious resources will go a long way.

There is an entire infrastructure in place, one that is deeply committed, motivated and energized to provide the best for a child. Why not mobilize those bodies? Why not empower those families? The outsourcing of our children?s development need not be the standard. Teachers and schools will always play an important role. But every teacher I know pines for the day when parents at home are able to support and supplement student learning.

What are ways you can think of for mobilizing and empowering families and caregivers to be their child?s best teacher? This has been our next big challenge for too long now.

?

After 10 years in the classroom as a professor and scholar of effective literacy training practices, Chris Drew, Ph.D., left academia and founded Parent University. http://www.parentuniversity.co. His venture focuses on empowering and mobilizing parents and caregivers of learners from birth to age eight.

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Source: http://edtechdigest.wordpress.com/2013/06/13/two-areas-where-innovations-are-not-happening/

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Major General Michael T. Harrison Suspended By Army For Allegedly Mishandling Sexual Assault Case

WASHINGTON ? A two-star general who commands U.S. Army forces in Japan has been suspended from his duties for allegedly failing to report or properly investigate an allegation of sexual assault, the Army said Friday.

Maj. Gen. Michael T. Harrison was suspended by the Army chief of staff, Gen. Ray Odierno, and Army Secretary John McHugh, the Army said. It provided no details about the alleged sexual assault case.

Until the investigation of Harrison's role is completed, Maj. Gen. James C. Boozer will take his place in Japan, the Army said.

Harrison already had been selected to become deputy commander of the Army component of U.S. Central Command, based in Kuwait. That new assignment was publicly announced in February by the Pentagon, which said at the same time that Boozer would replace Harrison as commander in Japan.

Typically, an officer who has been suspended rather than relieved of command could be reinstated in his job if cleared of all allegations. But this won't happen in Harrison's case because Boozer already was scheduled to take over the command in Japan next week, which is sooner than the investigation is expected to be completed.

Harrison, a 33-year Army veteran, began his assignment in Japan in October 2010.

Amid increased political pressure to crack down on sexual abuse in the military services, the Air Force said Friday it is expanding the office responsible for sexual assault prevention and placed a female two-star general in charge.

Maj. Gen. Margaret H. Woodward, who ran the U.S. portion of the allied air campaign over Libya in 2011 and is one of the Air Force's brightest stars, is running the reorganized office. She will report to the vice chief of the Air Force.

The move won praise from the chairman of the House Armed Services Committee, Rep. Howard P. "Buck" McKeon, R-Calif., who called Woodward a "breath of fresh air."

The office previously was run by a lieutenant colonel, Jeffrey Krusinski, who was arrested in May and charged with sexual battery. That incident escalated public debate over whether the military was taking seriously the problem of sexual abuse.

The House is scheduled to vote next week on a defense policy bill that would take away the power of military commanders to overturn convictions in rape and assault cases. The legislation also would require that anyone in uniform found guilty of a sex-related crime receive a punishment that includes, at a minimum, a dismissal from military service or a dishonorable discharge.

McKeon said Woodward is well-suited to the challenge she is facing.

"I welcome her voice to this fight," he said.

The Pentagon estimated in a recent report that as many as 26,000 military members may have been sexually assaulted last year, up from an estimated 19,000 assaults in 2011, based on an anonymous survey of military personnel.

An Air Force spokesman, Lt. Col. John Dorrian, said Friday that Woodward's office will be given additional resources, including a much larger staff than in its previous configuration. He said Woodward began the job this week.

Woodward entered the Air Force in 1983 with an aerospace engineering degree from Arizona State University. She has one master's degree in aviation science and another in national security strategy.

A command pilot with more than 3,800 flight hours, she flew aerial refueling aircraft and commanded air operations in numerous U.S. military operations, including the Iraq and Afghanistan wars. As commander of 17th Air Force, based in Germany, she commanded the U.S. portion of the allied air campaign over Libya in 2011.

Most recently she served as the Air Force's chief of safety. She also oversaw an investigation of the sexual abuse scandal at the Air Force's training headquarters at Lackland Air Force Base in Texas.

___

Follow Robert Burns on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/robertburnsAP

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2013/06/07/major-general-michael-harrison-suspended_n_3406246.html

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A-Rod adds Braun's lawyer to his legal team

NEW YORK (AP) ? The lawyer who helped overturn Ryan Braun's drug suspension last year has been added to Alex Rodriguez's legal team.

David Cornwell has joined Jay Reisinger to represent Rodriguez in baseball's drug investigation, a person familiar with the hiring said Friday. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because no announcement was authorized.

His hiring was first reported by ESPN.

Cornwell successfully argued the grievance filed by the players' association on behalf of Braun, whose positive drug test was thrown out by an arbitrator in February 2012 because the collector of the urine sample didn't take it directly to a Federal Express office on a Saturday evening, instead storing it at home until the following Monday.

Anthony Bosch, head of the now-closed Biogenesis of America anti-aging clinic, agreed this week to cooperate with MLB's investigation. Rodriguez, Braun and more than a dozen other players have been linked to the clinic, which was accused in January by the Miami News Times of providing banned performance-enhancing drugs.

Bosch was to meet Friday in Miami with MLB officials, another person familiar with the investigation said, also on condition of anonymity because no statements were authorized.

MLB sued Biogenesis, Bosch and five others in March. The case file in Florida's Circuit Court for Miami-Dade County showed that MLB lawyers issued subpoenas to UPS and Metro PCS asking for records, in addition to document demands made on Federal Express, AT&T Mobility and T-Mobile USA.

UPS spokesman Dan McMackin said the company "responds to all lawfully issued subpoenas." Metro PCS did not respond to an email and phone message seeking comment.

The court file also showed former University of Miami pitching coach Lazaro Collazo objected to having his deposition taken by MLB lawyers because he said he had no connections with Biogenesis and Bosch and he had no documents relevant to the subpoena.

Collazo filed a motion saying he was interviewed at his home by Neil Boland, MLB's vice president for information security, and MLB labor lawyer Patrick Houlihan, which Collazo's motion said was an encounter "fraught with intimidation, coercion, embarrassment and repeated questioning" about Biogenesis. Collazo claimed the deposition was an effort to "annoy and harass" him.

"They did no such thing," MLB executive vice president Rob Manfred said Friday.

The deposition was canceled May 28.

___

AP Legal Affairs Writer Curt Anderson in Miami contributed to this report.

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/rod-adds-brauns-lawyer-legal-team-232726564.html

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Senate panel looks at IRS targeting (CNN)

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