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Gregory Michie: If a Parent Who Reads to Her Child is "Good," is One Who Doesn't "Bad?"

2012-02-11T01:29:14Z

If I'm in Chicago, then I'm in Illinois. I'm not in Chicago, therefore I must not be in Illinois.

In the field of logic, that's an example of what's called "denying the antecedent" -- a logical fallacy that assumes that because a implies b, then not a implies not b.

The fault in the logic is obvious in the example above, but the reasoning underlying such fallacies is not so uncommon in our daily lives.

Many of us would probably agree, for instance, that parents who buy organic food products for their children must care a great deal about their kids' health and well-being. So do we believe the opposite to be true as well? I've heard parents say they would never feed their children any non-organic dairy product, and the unspoken implication seemed to be that a parent who would is bordering on being unfit.

But on the southwest side of Chicago, where I live, you have to go on a bit of a wild goose chase to even track down a gallon of organic milk. And if you're a parent struggling to make ends meet for your family, you're probably going to choose to spend $1.99 for a gallon at Aldi rather than $6.99 for organic at Whole Foods. Does that mean you don't care as much about the health of your child as organic-buying parents do?

Similar logical fallacies can sometimes be heard in teachers' lounges, school hallways, and graduate education classes -- especially when the topic of discussion is low-income students and their families.

A teacher friend once told me of a counselor at her school who, during a lunch-time discussion, expressed dismay at what she perceived as the limited experiences of some of her school's low-income Mexican-American students. "I can't believe these kids haven't been to Navy Pier," the woman said, referring to a downtown Chicago tourist attraction. "Their parents don't take them places. When I was little, my mom would pack up the car and take us to Grant Park." She added, "And we weren't rich, either. But she still took us places."

The unspoken subtext was pretty clear to my friend: Since the counselor's mom had taken her on excursions, that meant she was a caring parent. And because her students' parents didn't take them places (at least according to the counselor), they must not be. Again -- if a implies b, not a must imply not b.

Never mind that many parents at the school work low-wage jobs and may not own a car to pack for a day at the park. Besides, how much did the counselor really know about her kids' lives outside of school? How much of her comment was based on careful observation and listening, and how much on ill-formed assumptions?

Another area of school life where logical fallacies can paint poor parents as unconcerned or uncaring is their perceived involvement -- or lack of it -- in school activities. If we believe parents who participate at school in traditional ways -- showing up for open houses, volunteering to chaperone field trips -- do so because they value their child's education, then we may also believe that parents who don't participate in those ways simply don't care enough to do so. In fact, I've heard teachers voice this opinion, or something similar, a number of times.

But it's important to take a closer look. A parent with a salaried position who takes a half day off to attend his daughter's school play likely wouldn't be penalized financially, and might even be congratulated by colleagues for being an involved parent. A dad who works as an hourly-wage security guard would get docked pay, and possibly reprimanded or worse, for doing the same.

As a teacher of teachers, one of the assignments I sometimes give my students is a "literacy autobiography," in which they reflect on their own memories of learning to read and write. In a typical class, where most students are from middle-class backgrounds and many grew up in two-parent families, common themes often show up in their essays. Students often recall being read to by a parent before bed each night, having a wide selection of books in their homes, or practicing their writing or spelling with a family member (usually their mother) before entering school as a kindergartener.

Based on these memories, teachers in my classes usually conclude that their caregivers placed a high value on literacy and education. And in most cases they're probably right about that. But in their papers and their comments in class, it becomes clear that some also believe the inverse to be true: Parents who don't read to their kids nightly or have dozens of books in their home -- some of the parents of the kids they teach -- must not care much about their children learning to read and write.

When I hear this assumption surfacing, I try to engage my students in discussing how our own experiences of literacy act as lenses by which we may judge others. We also talk about other, perhaps less visible, ways that low-income parents might be assisting in the literacy development of their children (for much more on this, see Catherine Compton-Lilly's Re-Reading Families). But for some of the teachers in my classes, especially those who grew up in families with plenty of resources, it can still be hard to let go of a long-held belief: that parents who truly value education demonstrate it with certain actions and choices -- individual and societal circumstances be damned.

In an educational climate where the "no excuses" mantra is hailed by everyone from charter school operators to President Obama, such views may not be so surprising. But they are a troubling starting point for any teacher, and a recipe for misunderstanding when it comes to working respectfully with low-income students and families.

The good news is that many teachers who work with poor children and families choose a more productive approach. Instead of denying antecedents, they begin with far different assumptions: that every parent cares, that every parent wants good things for their child, that every parent values education -- even if they don't all show it in the same way.

The Parking Ticket Geek: No Winners in City Sticker Controversy

2012-02-10T23:13:33Z

Damned if you do, damned if you don't.

This popular idiom was never more true, and more dramatic, than in Chicago this week for City Clerk Susana Mendoza.

Faced with some incendiary allegations that this year's winning city sticker design contained covert gang symbols, and with the deadline to go to press with the 2012-2013 city sticker just a few days away, Mendoza had to move quickly.

After the story originated on local police blog Detective Shaved Longcock, news media brought the alleged issues with city sticker design contest winner Herbie Pulgar's artwork to the Clerk's attention Tuesday afternoon. The Clerk's office immediately reached out to Pulgar's school, Lawrence Hall School, to investigate the issue.

"They told me, 'You have nothing to worry about,'" according to City Clerk spokesperson Kristine Williams who was advised there was no basis for the story by school officials.

But based on the alarming photos and other evidence posted by DSL and Second City Cop blog, possibly linking Pulgar and/or his family to gang activity, the Clerk's office contacted the police and the Chicago Crime Commission for their input. Both organizations believed the art could be interpreted as containing gang symbols used by the Maniac Latin Disciples according to Williams.

"The Chicago Police Department and the Crime Commission both said we have to take this seriously," explained Williams. "At this point we had hundreds of phone calls from people telling our office they were not going to put a city sticker with gang symbols on their car."

The Clerk, communicating with school officials throughout the entire dilemma, tried to connect with Pulgar before the announcement to personally explain her decision but was told by Lawrence Hall officials, "'Herbie is too emotionally distraught,'" according to Williams.

At a press conference late Wednesday afternoon, Mendoza announced the 2012-2013 Chicago city sticker would sport the second place winner's artwork.

In reality, the controversy stopped being about the artwork, the intentions behind his design, the artist himself or even Herbie's supposed background the instant the allegations were posted.

Winston Churchill once said, "A lie gets halfway around the world before the truth has a chance to get its pants on."

Nearly a century later, with the world moving at internet speed, the "gang banger city sticker" urban legend may never be scraped from the windshield of Chicago folklore.

"There was no other option," explained Williams firmly. "She had to make this decision. This comes down to public safety. We had the girlfriend of a gang member call us to thank us because she said her boyfriend would have been shot for having that city sticker on his car's windshield."

Since the decision, the Clerk announced she believes Pulgar is still entitled to the prize that comes with winning the contest and will pay for the $1000 savings bond personally.

In the meantime, the Clerk's office has reached out multiple times to try setting up a face-to-face meeting with Pulgar to explain why she had made the decision.

Some ankle biters in the media say Mendoza could have handled the situation better. She should have delayed her decision, she should have given Herbie the benefit of the doubt, she should have stood up for the "truth" and printed Herbie's design anyway.

It is very likely, based on information from our police sources, Mendoza did the kid a favor by being firm and decisive.

If the controversy played out a few days or weeks longer, even more damning evidence about Pulgar may have come out, making things even worse for the boy.

Williams is right, there were was no other choice.

But that's the problem of being a leader. There's always someone who's going to be unhappy with the tough decisions they have to make. Because you see, leaders don't have the luxury of writing about something after the fact. Leaders actually have to make decisions and sometimes, even the right decisions can be painful.

In Chicago and Illinois, political leaders have spent decades putting off making difficult decisions and we can see where that has brought us--a city drowning in debt and a state with the worst credit rating in the nation and literally, verging on financial collapse.

Mendoza deserves credit for bucking this spineless trend and for having the guts to make the correct, but polarizing decision.

"She's very upset about it," Williams says softly. "This was not an easy decision for her."

Armchair quarterbacking the head coach when the game is over is easy.

But there's a problem with using a sports analogy here.

Because in this case, unfortunately there are no winners.

Tammy Duckworth: Preserving America's Safety Net

2012-02-10T22:50:38Z

I was on Martin Bashir's MSNBC show this week and one of the things we talked about was Newt Gingrich's effort to brand President Obama as the "food stamp president." I think it's just more proof that Gingrich is wildly out of touch. When I hear from people who are struggling to put food on the table, I understand because I've been there.

When I was young, my dad, a Veteran who attended college on the GI Bill, lost his job at age 55 when the company he worked for was sold. My entire family pitched in -- my mom took in sewing and I got a minimum wage job after school. But even with that extra work, there were lots of times when we wouldn't have eaten had it not been for the food stamps that kept our family going.

Nobody wants to be on food stamps, but when my family lost everything, we were grateful for it. I was grateful the program was there so I could concentrate on my schoolwork and not on my empty belly. We were grateful that we had the support we needed to roll up our sleeves and rebuild our lives.

What seems like comfort and security one day can all be taken away the very next. That's what the safety net is there for -- to support people who've fallen on hard times while they get back on their feet.

And it's not just about food stamps. It's about programs like Pell grants, which allowed me to go to college. It's about providing incentives for small business to hire people who are unemployed so that they can get back to work. It's about job training programs that allow people to get the skills they need to be hired. It's about making sure that even if you don't come from a wealthy family, you can get a good education and have a fair shot at the American Dream.

Life isn't fair and it isn't government's job to make life fair. But if you're not willing to give up on yourself, then we shouldn't give up on you either.

Tammy is running for Congress in Illinois' 8th District. To learn more, visit www.tammyduckworth.com.

Watch Tammy talk about food stamps here:

Former Wall Street Journal Columnist, Best-Selling Author Dies

2012-02-10T22:39:07Z

DETROIT — Best-selling author Jeffrey Zaslow was killed Friday when he lost control of his car on a snowy road after promoting his latest book in northern Michigan. He was 53.

Zaslow, co-author of the million-selling book "The Last Lecture," was also a former columnist for The Wall Street Journal and former advice columnist for the Chicago Sun-Times. Zaslow, who had an affinity for stories of heroism and resilience, worked on memoirs of U.S. Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and airline pilot Capt. Chesley "Sully" Sullenberger.

"Jeff was a beautiful writer, wonderful collaborator, loving husband, father and friend," Sullenberger, who was praised for his skill after safely ditching a plane in the Hudson River in 2009, said in a written statement Friday. "Our whole family loved him dearly and he will be sorely missed."

Zaslow was killed in an accident Friday morning in Warner Township, about 160 miles northwest of Lansing, according to the Antrim County sheriff's office. Zaslow's car slid into the path of a semitrailer. He was killed on impact.

The sheriff's department did not release the name of the victim, but literary agent and friend Gary Morris confirmed Zaslow's death. Morris said he was told of Zaslow's death Friday evening by the author's wife.

Zaslow was in northern Michigan speaking about "The Magic Room: A Story About the Love We Wish for Our Daughters." The book, based on a Michigan bridal shop, was published in December.

"His great talent was to find stories that had heart that people could relate to," Morris said.

Morris said Zaslow's first book was based on a 2007 column he wrote for The Wall Street Journal. "The Last Lecture" was published in 2008 and has been translated into 40 languages. It was inspired by Carnegie Mellon University professor Randy Pausch's "last lecture" of his life's lessons. Pausch died in 2008 of pancreatic cancer.

"He was the most industrious and hardest working author I know," Morris said. "He never turned anything in late. He turned in the cleanest copy. It really was ethics. He was completely selfless in the writing of his own books and collaborations with others."

Zaslow was a writer for The Wall Street Journal when he was selected by the Sun-Times in 1987 to write a column to replace Ann Landers. Zaslow and Diane Crowley, daughter of the original Ann Landers, wrote side-by-side columns. Zaslow wrote the column, called "All That Zazz," until 2001.

Zaslow, a native of Philadelphia, lived in the Detroit area. He is survived by his wife, Sherry, and three daughters, Alex, Eden and Jordan.

WATCH: Tilted Kilt Employees File Sexual Harassment Lawsuit

2012-02-10T22:23:22Z

Nineteen employees of the Celtic-themed "breastaurant" Tilted Kilt's Chicago Loop location on Wednesday filed a lawsuit alleging that the eatery's bar manager sexually harassed them.

The lawsuit [PDF] contains disturbing details of incidents that allegedly occurred between the manager, the location's owners and their scantily-clad staff at the restaurant, located at 17 N. Wabash Ave.

According to CBS Chicago, Mark Roth, an attorney representing the women, accused the location's former manager, whom he described as a "predator," and the location's owners of making numerous disturbing comments to his clients.

"There were requests for sex," Roth told CBS. "There were degrading comments that were made. Something that no woman should have to put up with anywhere, let alone by their manager in the workforce."

As the Chicago Tribune reports, the women in June filed a sexual harassment complaint with the U.S. Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, upon which they received "right to sue" letters.

The women, according to the Tribune, allege a "sexually hostile, offensive, humiliating and degrading work environment" where, among the 30 incidents outlined in the lawsuit, the location's manager and owners made comments such as "Meow, meow, you're a dirty kitty" and "You don't know what I'd like to do to you" to the employees. Women who spoke out against these remarks alleging were giving less busy shifts.

According to Fox Chicago, other incidents included grabbing employees' breasts, putting licking employees' ears and attempting to kiss the women.

The manager and many of the plaintiffs in the lawsuit no longer works at that specific Tilted Kilt location, according to the Tribune.

A company spokeswoman said in a statement that Tilted Kilt "does not tolerate sexual or other types of harassment either within its own organization or within its franchiseesâ organizations" and pointed out that the company utilizes a franchise model where each location is independently owned and operated, NBC Chicago reports.

The chain is no stranger to controversy in its Chicago-area operations. When the chain opened a Schaumburg location, it was met with complaints from several area residents, including one who argued that the restaurant attracted "men that come in there want more than just hot wings."

Teeny Lamothe: Why Pie?

2012-02-10T22:13:46Z

For me pie is home. Pie is standing next to my mum with floury hands, nibbling scraps of crust, watching her chop rhubarb and slice strawberries. Pie is the tiniest of rolling pins and tins given to me one Christmas so I could bake alongside all the grownups. Pie is Thanksgiving, where each of my aunts comes bearing the pie they are best at baking and the phrase, "I'll just have a tiny slice of each" is uttered by every single person at some point after the coma-inducing meal. Pie is eating warm raspberry pie with my grandmother, with berries picked fresh from her garden and an extra large dollop of homemade whipped cream. Pie is moving into my first apartment away from home and realizing that my mum packed a rolling pin and a pastry cutter into my kitchen supplies, just in case. Pie is a year of Sunday night baking. Pie is the discovery of favorite recipes, miniature pies, birthday pies, breakfast pies, and pie journeys.

There are still so many things to learn, pie people to meet, and new bakeries in which to do both of those things that I have yet to visit. Occasionally, pie shops or pie plans fall through and I have to re-think where to go next. Sometimes, usually when I've packed way too much and am trying to navigate public transportation, I feel like a chicken with my head cut off. Running from here to there, only staying a moment, (yes, it's gotten to the point where a month feels like a moment) meeting new people, making new friends only to leave and start all over again.

Sometimes is seems overwhelming. When my head is spinning from all that needs to get done, when I can't seem to turn my mind off long enough to sleep, when it feels like I'm never in one place long enough, I have to go back to pie. I take a deep breath and remember what pie is for me. Pie is home.

to read further ramblings of a lady pie baker go to teenypies.tumblr.com

Rob Perks: House Transportation Bill Would Worsen Traffic

2012-02-10T22:12:52Z

House Republicans have an opportunity to pass transportation legislation that would help create new jobs, fix our roads and bridges, and improve our commutes. What have they decided to do instead? Load up their version of a transportation bill (HR. 7) with an ideological wish list that will prevent Congress from passing a measure that could provide real transportation improvements.

Unfortunately, House Republican leaders are doing exactly what they promised they wouldn’t do. In their “Pledge to America,” after taking control of the House of Representatives, the GOP promised it would not package unpopular legislation with must-pass bills. They promised they would take up major legislation one piece at a time, and not sneak in politically motivated provisions. They’ve done the exact opposite with the transportation bill.

Among many reasons, NRDC strongly opposes the legislation because it is a blatant bait-and-switch to boost drilling off our shores and even in the pristine Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. But another big problem with this partisan "poison pill" bill is that it essentially declares war on public transportation.

Everyone should be alarmed that the House transportation bill threatens to derail dedicated funding for mass transit throughout the United States. Currently, roughly 3 cents of every 18 cents collected from the federal tax on a gallon of gasoline goes to fund light rail, subways and buses in cities and towns all across the country. Since President Reagan created this cost-share arrangement in 1982, approximately $1 out of every $5 in federal funding has gone to transit, with the rest spent on highways. House Republicans are now seeking to undo the Reagan legacy by restricting gas tax revenues to highways and leaving transit projects to compete for shrinking general funds.

Less Transit, More Traffic

Make no mistake: It is a really bad idea to slash transit funding, not just for riders who rely on that system but for drivers too. After all, less money for transit means fewer alternatives to travel than by car. So the House bill perversely promotes congestion on our roads and highways. Washington Post political satirist Tom Toles captured this problem perfectly in his cartoon today.

In her blog "Seven Fatal Flaws in the House Highway Bill," Donna Cooper noted increased congestion as a big problem:

Increased access to affordable and reliable mass transit is a certain way to deal with congestion. Millions of Americans already spend the equivalent of a week of work or more a year sitting in traffic.[1] Frustration with gridlock is a raging bipartisan complaint. The late Paul Weyrich, a central player in the forming of the Heritage Foundation and the American Legislative Exchange Council, said in 2009, “Conservatives are just as tired as everybody else of sitting stuck in traffic.”[2]

Yet this bill terminates the Reagan legacy of using a small portion of gas tax revenues to pay for mass transit. To assuage the pro-transit outrage, the bill cynically establishes a separate four-year fund for transit improvements. But that measure has been widely attacked by business leaders, mayors, and others who looked behind the curtain and found out that the special transit fund is far too small and worse yet dependent on imaginary annual appropriations of federal general-fund dollars. It’s a farce to think that general-fund dollars will be allocated for transit when the federal deficit is the Republicans’ favorite cudgel.

The inevitable result of this bill will be more Americans stuck in their cars, higher cost for American businesses that will pay truckers even more to sit in traffic, and higher fares for transit- and rail-reliant commuters.

A book I read recently -- Moving Minds: Conservatives and Public Transportation -- reinforces why transit is a non-partisan solution, not a partisan problem:

If transit suddenly ceased operating in any large American city, commuting would become almost impossible. Rush-hour traffic is already horrendous, to the point where in places like Los Angeles and Washington...the rush hour itself has become rush many-hours, even "permanent rush hour." In urban areas, there isn't any place to put more higways...If all the people now on trains, subways, light rail lines and buses suddenly joined the rush-hour drive, getting to work might take as much time as the job itself.

Consider this: every rail car has the potential to remove up to 125 passengers from our roadways (and every bus full of passengers removes 40 cars from traffic). Therefore, the more people who have access to trains -- as well as buses, carpool lanes, bike baths and walkable communities -- the less they have to hit the roads in their cars to get where they want to go. But aside from traffic reduction, there are several other societal benefits of transit:

More transit means more jobs: Spending on transit makes economic sense because every $1 invested in public transportation generates approximately $6 in economic returns. In fact, over 300,000 jobs and $30.8 billion in economic activity is supported through transportation spending in the recent congressional appropriations bill -- including some 6,200 jobs in Virginia.
More transit makes us more secure: Giving people the freedom to travel other than by automobile is good for national security because less driving helps lessen America's dependence on oil. On average each person riding transit rather than driving alone in a car saves 200 gallons of gasoline a year. It's worth noting that the House bill, by boosting oil drilling, would only feed our nation's fossil fuel addiction.
More transit means less pollution: Simply put, reducing the distance and frequency people may be forced to drive reduces dirty, harmful, unhealthy tailpipe exhaust that pollutes the air and cook the planet. Federally mandated vehicle-pollution controls help, but more cars on the road idling on congested roadways will drive up pollution and make it harder for all us to breath clean air.

NRDC is joined by environmental advocates, transportation experts, fiscal conservatives and even right-wing think tanks in calling on Congress to kill this bill for a variety of reasons. The threat to federal transit funding is a major concern of NRDC and many others who are fighting the bill. Feel free to visit our website to learn more about the bill and to take action. You can also make your voice heard by dialing 1-877-573-7693 and urging your representative to vote NO on HR.7.

This post was first published on NRDC's Switchboard blog.

'Rosie Show' Drops Live Audience From Tapings

2012-02-10T22:09:06Z

Rosie O'Donnell's Chicago-based talk show will no longer be taped in front of a live studio audience, the host explained in a video blog on her show's webpage Friday.

"The other way just didn't feel authentic for me anymore," O'Donnell said on her blog. "I couldn't get real conversations going with an audience."

Modeled in part after Oprah Winfrey's iconic talk show--and owned by Winfrey's Harpo Studios Inc.--O'Donnell's show was previously taped in front of an audience for days per week. This change follows an announcement earlier this month that the show would be "evolving" with a new set, smaller in-studio audience and downsizing across the company, including layoffs of about 30 employees not needed for a smaller-scale operation.

The show had been increasingly shifting away from in-studio guests and featuring more on-on-one, taped interviews, which Rosie said in a Feb. 3 episode "confused" some viewers, while others "get it," according to Crain's Chicago Business. O'Donnell said that taping the show with a live audience was more representative of her time as a stand-up comic than of the type of material she's working with now.

"[It] doesn't feel real for who I am today," O'Donnell told Crain's. "I want to have real conversations. I don't want to perform or present, I just want to talk."

Subway Employee Fatally Shot During Robbery

2012-02-10T20:44:01Z

A female employee was fatally shot in the neck Thursday night during a holdup at a Subway restaurant in Chicago's Ukrainian Village.

Lyn Ward, 57, and one other employee were working at the restaurant on the 1100 block of North Western Avenue when an armed man entered just before 9 p.m. and demanded money, the Chicago Tribune reports. Ward reportedly ran toward the back of the store and the man fired, striking her in the neck. The man then ordered another employee to open the store's register, grabbed an unknown amount of cash and fled the scene.

Ward was rushed to Stroger Hospital in critical condition late Thursday night, but was pronounced dead around 7:45 a.m Friday, according to the Chicago Sun-Times.

There are no suspects currently in custody, but police are investigating footage from a Chicago Police Department camera located across the street from the Subway, ABC Chicago reports. This was the third recent robbery at the restaurant.

PHOTOS: Local Pets In Need Of Valentine's Homes

2012-02-10T20:43:51Z

Whether you'll be spending this Valentine's Day solo or coupled, wouldn't the holiday, trite as it may be, be better with a new furry friend by your side?

This week, we have been sure to pick out an extra special, midwinter group of Chicago area cats, dogs and rabbits that are currently available for adoption.

To our knowledge, all animals are spayed or neutered, microchipped and up-to-date with their tests and vaccinations.

If this slideshow doesn't satisfy your cute animal-viewing fix, be sure to check out past features linked below the gallery either by scrolling down or clicking here. Many of the previously featured animals remain homeless -- those who've already been adopted are noted with a "Spoken For!" tag.

As always, if you have an adoption shelter success story you would like to share, please send a note (and a picture) to chicago@huffingtonpost.com and we will be sure to feature your pet's story.

Lawmakers Propose ALEC Accountability Act In Arizona And Wisconsin

2012-02-10T20:43:09Z

Democratic lawmakers in Arizona and Wisconsin have introduced state legislation seeking public disclosure of who funds the conservative group known as the American Legislative Exchange Council

ALEC, as the group is known, finances trips for Republican state lawmakers to learn about model legislation it pushes at the state level. Arizona tate. Rep. Steve Farley (D-Tucson) and Wisconsin state Rep. Mark Pocan (D-Madison) have separately put forward legislation designed to disclose ALEC's funding sources. The bills, called the Alec Accountability Act and pending in their respective Republican-controlled legislatures, would redefine ALEC as a lobbying organization since it develops model legislation.

"It is a pretty big lobbying group," Farley told HuffPost. "People deserve to know who is funding ALEC," added Farley, who has collaborated with Pocan as well as discussed the issue with legislators in other states.

Among the two bills' provisions would be an attempt to define any organization promoting model legislation as a lobbying group and require disclosure of its funding sources.

Pocan described ALEC as a "dating service" matching model legislation with lawmakers in various states, according to a Center for Media and Democracy release.

Farley's and Pocan's bills are in introductory stages of consideration by their respective legislatures, awaiting committee hearings. The Republican leadership has yet to assign Farley's bill to a committee, he said, and time is running out for a committee hearing, according to Arizona's legislative rules. Farley plans to introduce his bill as a floor amendment to another piece of legislation so as to win a debate and a full chamber vote on the issue, he said.

Arizona state Rep. Debbie Lesko (R-Glendale), the state chairwoman for ALEC in Arizona, has read a brief summary of Farley's legislation, she said, but did not have an opinion about it or whether ALEC should be required to disclose its funding. "I have not thought about it," Lesko said, adding that she is working with Farley and other legislators on what she described as bipartisan "candidate public disclosure and transparency."

In Wisconsin, Pocan expects committee action this spring on his bill, but noted that he does not expect it to pass given the GOP dominance of the legislature. "My guess is it won't pass given the makeup of the legislature."

ALEC's public affairs department did not return a call for comment.

Formed in 1973 as a "nonpartisan" group for "conservative state lawmakers" interested in "limited government, free markets, federalism, and individual liberty," ALEC creates model legislation that has resulted in the introduction of 1,000 bills a year at the state level with 20 percent becoming law, its website claims.

At ALEC's November conference in Phoenix Republican Gov. Jan Brewer of Arizona used her speech to unveil proposed changes to her state's personnel system to make all workers be employees at will. Brewer, and her Wisconsin counterpart, Gov. Scott Walker, became involved in ALEC as state legislators, according to the Center for Media and Democracy, which operates the website ALEC Exposed.

Over the last several years ALEC has successfully promoted legislation to eliminate collective bargaining, require voter identification and allow for school vouchers to be used. Wisconsin and Arizona are both engaged in a current debate over collective bargaining legislation that similar model legislation that ALEC has been promoting.

Gov. Walker, who signed a measure to ban collective bargaining last year, now faces the likelihood of a recall election after labor and progressive grops submitted more than a million signatures in an effort to remove him from office as a result of that legislation.

While Republicans in the Arizona Senate have introduced a similar collective bargaining ban, Gov. Brewer has indicated that she will not consider the bill until after the legislature passes her proposal to redefine state government employees as employees at will, another ALEC priority. Last week, opponents filed paperwork to launch recall petitions against Brewer because of her support for the personnel and collective bargaining measures.

For their part, both Pocan and Farley are engaged in bids for higher office. Pocan has declared his candidacy for a Madison area congressional seat being vacated by U.S. Rep. Tammy Baldwin. Farley is seeking a seat in the state Senate and will decide this month whether to run for Gabrielle Giffords' former congressional seat in southern Arizona.

Joseph Erbentraut: Closer Than I'd Like To Admit

2012-02-10T20:04:13Z

In a moment of journalistic synchronicity, Rolling Stone and The New Yorker recently published in-depth stories digging deep into a handful of the spate of suicides of LGBT youth that, in the fall of 2010, served as a stern reminder of a very serious problem that persists in the shadows of the queer community -- a problem that, for many, persists on a daily basis via our own personal shadows.

Reading both stories, I felt almost instantly jolted from my 26-year-old self back in time to a decade before when, at 16, I was in the midst of growing up in the rural Midwest, going to school and coming to terms with a secret I considered at the time to be very dark -- that I couldn't much longer deny my budding gayness.

As I read Sabrina Rubin Erdely's piece -- "One Town's War On Gay Teens" -- it was almost as though I could again smell the refuge of my childhood bedroom where I spent hours upon hours wondering if a happy life as an adult gay man would ever be a possibility. And while I can't say I was very often bullied, as so many other queer youth struggle with, that fear of an unknown future was almost debilitatingly terrifying. Every social interaction felt veiled by fear and self-deprecation as I felt the pangs of future sadnesses and explicated them in my angsty attempts at poetry.

But, as they now say, thanks in large part to Dan Savage and Terry Miller, it got better. I got an after-school job, made close friends, got more active in school and began to leave the confines of my bedroom more often.

I also came out to close friends and began to meet and date. As the prospective of college approached, I awaited my move to Madison, Wis. -- the liberal jewel in the Republican rough of the Badger State -- impatiently. When I met G., a fellow gay, incoming freshman on a gay teen-centric social networking site a few weeks before I was to move into the dorms, I was ecstatic. He played music, I loved music! He wore sweatshirts, I did too! I was convinced my next big life trauma, beyond acclimating to campus life in a new zip code, would be contemplating just how I'd introduce my new friend/boyfriend/homosexual life partner to my family come Thanksgiving.

Reading Ian Parker's excellent piece -- "The Story of a Suicide" -- resonated deeply with this time in my young life.

Tyler Clementi, Parker reports in devastating detail, appeared to be a witty but shy, sweet if jaded young gay man who, like me, went into college with little romantic experience under his belt. Hell, it reads as though he had little interpersonal experience under his belt and only counted a few close friends located off-campus among his confidants.

Reading details of the intimate interactions Clementi shared with a male visitor to his dorm (and were recorded by his roommate Dharun Ravi, who will stand on trial later this month for charges relating to the incident), I couldn't help but draw a parallel to the first night I spent in the dorm.

Enter my fellow sweatshirt lover/"future husband" G. We had exchanged phone numbers over the Internet prior to arriving on campus and made a plan to meet at an off-campus party near Camp Randall, about a mile's walk from the dorm. I remember G. and I walking past the massive stadium as I felt so, so small, unimportant and anonymous in a way not possible in the population-of-2,000 town where I grew up.

When we arrived at the party, I remember meeting a neon pink-haired girl, an older friend of G.'s from his hometown, wearing neon green-rimmed sunglasses. She lived at the house currently occupied by dozens of screaming teens, likely many fellow freshmen also experiencing their first night of parentless freedom.

She handed us neon yellow-hued drinks.

"Drink up! Welcome to college," she proclaimed as she flung her arm into the air. I probably threw back at least four of those orange juice/pineapple rum concoctions that night.

The next thing I clearly remember was waking up on my stomach, wearing only underwear in a bed in a bedroom I had never been before.

"Come on. Keep going," G. said from behind me. I hadn't realized we started anything.

As I turned around to face G.'s only slightly familiar face, I saw blurry figures of at least a half-dozen others standing around the bed. Weeks later I admitted to myself that I'd been raped. That day was August 24, 2004.

They shuffled out when I screamed "No."

And then G. hit me.

I collected my clothes while G. struggled to keep me in the room, pushing me to the bedroom floor at one point.

I finally broke away and ran out of the bedroom. Out of the house and onto the sidewalk. And then I ran.

As I fell asleep in my stiff dorm bed that night, I felt empty, betrayed and invaded. I also felt as though I had nowhere to turn -- that no one would believe my story, a story that (until now) I've never recounted in much detail to anyone -- except for G., whose only rationale for that night was that he'd been intoxicated.

It was a feeling the permeated every romantic involvement and friendship I entered into from that night forward. It made me question whether I deserved love -- or even kindness or compassion, for that matter. It's an experience that I, like many survivors, will probably continue to struggle with for the rest of my life.

I wonder if that's how Tyler felt after he realized his roommate has spied on him and spoke mockingly of his intimate encounters publicly, via Twitter and instant messages. I also wonder, though no one except Tyler's guest would ever truly know, what truly happened between the time when Ravi turned off his camera and his guest left the room. I wonder if Tyler said "No" before he ended his life by jumping from the George Washington Bridge.

Again, we will never know exactly why Tyler Clementi chose to jump from that bridge.

But as I read Parker's feature, which tells a very different story than that of what the mainstream media reported in the headline firestorm that followed his death, I was startled by my overwhelmingly feeling of closeness to Tyler. His is an experience incredibly common for so many LGBT teens who suddenly find themselves as a precipice between oppression and freedom, between loneliness and love.

Tyler chose to jump.

As a Facebook friend wrote in his reaction to the feature, Clementi was not a "naÃ¯ve victimized helpless waif" and no one involved in the incident was a "raging murderous monster." The matter was not as simple as the mass media made it out to be in the midst of the spate of tragic suicides in the fall of 2010. These incidents are not isolated and those involved must not serve as poster children for the political cause du jour. They are human beings within a culture that tends to isolate victims of "active" violence from the rest of the "passive" world through over-simplified, oft-sensationalized caricatures.

But this is an issue we should no longer keep at a safe distance. As a culture, we have no choice but to face our demons. As individuals working toward recovery, we are instructed to do just that, so why are we not, as a collective, urged to do the same? The onus remains, instead, on the victims of prejudice and abuse.

Maybe Tyler felt he'd be more free somewhere else than he did while alive, walking on this earth. And if that is the case, we, as a human race, have so, so much work ahead of us to ensure no one ever feels that way again.

In the case of gay teens, full, federal marriage equality may help, but it's only one tiny piece of a much bigger puzzle.

RAINN operates the National Sexual Assault Hotline, which can be accessed online and at 1-800-656-HOPE.

Man Convicted Of Erectile Pump Scam Sentenced To 3 Years

2012-02-10T18:27:24Z

PROVIDENCE, R.I. — An Illinois man was sentenced Friday by a federal judge in Rhode Island to more than three years in prison for shipping unwanted penis enlargers to diabetes patients as part of a larger fraud scheme that prosecutors say bilked $2.2 million from Medicare over four years.

Gary Winner, 50, of Wheeling, Ill., must also forfeit more than $2.2 million that prosecutors say Medicare lost because of the plot.

U.S. District Court Judge William E. Smith also ordered Winner to pay a $12,500 fine and serve three years of supervised release following his prison sentence.

Lawyers for Winner had sought a maximum sentence of 1 1/2 years. The guidelines for determining Winner's punishment recommended that he get a prison term between just under six years and a little more than seven years. Winner's attorneys argued that punishment was too harsh, according to court papers.

Winner's attorneys also asked that his emotional problems and difficult childhood, including physical and psychological abuse at his father's hands, be taken into consideration, court papers show.

Prosecutors sought a prison term at the low end of the sentencing range. Winner pleaded guilty in November to two counts of health care fraud, the introduction of an adulterated and misbranded medical device into interstate commerce and money laundering. He faced up to 33 years in prison.

Winner purchased penis enlargers for an average of $26 each from online sex shops and then repackaged and shipped them to patients with information claiming the so-called "erectile pumps" helped "bladder control, urinary flow and prostate comfort," according to court papers outlining the charges against him.

The online stores peddling adult sexual products sold the devices under a variety of names, prosecutors said.

Winner targeted Medicare beneficiaries through his medical equipment company, Planned Eldercare, based in Buffalo Grove, Ill., and persuaded patients to provide their Medicare information by offering free medical equipment and supplies, prosecutors said.

The plot targeted arthritis and diabetes patients through telemarketing, prosecutors said.

Diabetes patients received the penis enlargers repackaged in clear plastic bags with an information sheet claiming "regular use" increases blood flow in the urinary tract and prostate. Winner then charged Medicare an average of $284 each for a total of $370,305, authorities said.

In charging Medicare, Winner claimed the devices treated erectile dysfunction, prosecutors said. Medicare reimburses for products treating organic impotence and erectile dysfunction and requires the devices be "medically necessary" and prescribed by a physician. The erectile pumps shipped by Winner served "no medical purpose," prosecutors said.

Winner is accused of swindling an additional $1.8 million by seeking reimbursement for arthritic packages he claimed Medicare beneficiaries and their physicians ordered.

When employees confronted Winner about sending out supplies regardless of need, authorities allege he responded: "It doesn't cost the client anything as the government is paying for it, and that the government would just print more money, so order more." Prosecutors also say he told patients inquiring about items they didn't order to "put them under the sink."

Prosecutors also alleged Winner waived copayments for Medicare patients, which the program prohibits. By doing this, Winner induced beneficiaries to accept products they had not ordered and not report the fraudulent billing to Medicare, prosecutors said.

New Rankings Finds D.C. Is A Great Place For Single Men

2012-02-10T17:54:40Z

Valentine's Day should come easy for men in the nation's capital looking for love. There are plenty of eligible women around.

Men's Health looked at 100 American cities to see which had the most single women and which had the least.

Washington, D.C. took top slot, earning an A+ for its bevy of eligible women.

Miami scored a C, falling in the middle, between Tucson, Ariz., and Sioux Falls, S.D. Las Vegas, surprisingly, got an F and came in dead last, ranking just below Cleveland, Wichita, Kan., and Toledo, Ohio.

The magazine's methodology is a little opaque -- the survey purports to take into account "the ratio of single women to single men, the percentage of college-educated women, the percentage of gainfully employed single women (all from the Census), and the number who work out (Experian Simmons)" -- but there's no explanation about how those numbers were processed.

Here's a sampling of where some major U.S. cities fell on the list, including New York, Chicago, Denver, Miami, Los Angeles, Detroit and San Francisco.

RELATED VIDEO: NBC's guide to dating in Washington, D.C.

Chicago Weekend Plans: Shakespeare, Cars And Bloody Marys

2012-02-10T17:39:04Z

The snow is here! But that doesn't mean you should spend your weekend inside. If this week's tributes to Chicago's gritty legacy and silver-screen fame haven't tempted you to go out on the town, our top picks for this weekend's events should be enough to lure you out. We've got plenty of chances for you to woo or shop for your loved one before next week's big day--and a few rowdier options where you can snag a partner just in time. Shunning V-Day this year? Don't worry, we've got that covered too.

ALL WEEKEND
Chicago Auto Show
Whether you're dream-gift shopping or ready to wrap up something sparkly with a larger-than-life red bow, the Chicago Auto Show at McCormick Place is not to be missed. Featuring the newest innovations and the hottest rides headed for the market, car buffs and casual drivers alike will enjoy this preview of the next big things on wheels.
Where: McCormick Place, 2301 S. Lake Shore Dr.
When: 10 a.m. - 10 p.m. Friday, Feb. 10 - Sunday, Feb. 12
Price: $11 adults, $7 seniors and children

The Vintage Bazaar
Got a quirky date? By them something to match at the Vintage Bazaar, returning to its roots at the historic German cultural center DANK Haus, home of the arts fair's very first sale. Browse vintage, retro and hand-made crafts and products from 35 vendors at the two-floor showcase, while Chicago's independent radio station CHIRP pumps in tunes to spice up your shopping trip.
Where: DANK Haus, 4740 N. Western Ave., Chicago
When: 12 p.m. - 6 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 11; 11 a.m. - 5 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 12
Price: $5

FRIDAY
Improvised Shakespeare
They say you can't rewrite Shakespeare--but that won't stop the iO from trying. Watch the Improvised Shakespeare Co. spin an Elizabethan web from an audience suggestion, complete with all the "thee's" and "thou's" fans of the bard have come to expect. The hour-long show also promises to bring sword-play, rhyming couplets and period insults worth saving up for any Feb. 14 altercations.
Where: Del Close Theater, 3541 N. Clark St., Chicago
When: 8 p.m. and 10:30 p.m. Friday, Feb. 10
Price: $16

SATURDAY
Glunz Beer Anti-Valentine's Day Pub Crawl
If you're not looking forward to Valentineâs Day this Tuesday, blacking out until Wednesday morning is one way to power through. Get a head start at the Glunz Beer Anti-Valentine's Day Pub Crawl, and drink for charity at Schubas, Southport Lanes, Mystic Celt and Toons. Specials are offered at each bar and proceeds will benefit the Make-A-Wish Foundation.
Where: Schubas Tavern, 3159 N. Southport Ave., Chicago
When: 2 p.m. Saturday, Feb. 11
Price: $10

SUNDAY
Sunday Bloody Sunday Pub Crawl
In Chicago, Valentine's Day has special significance for its bloodier historical plot point--the famous gangster massacre arranged by kingpin Al Capone. Pay homage to the city's gorier V-Day story with the Chicago History Museum's Sunday Bloody Sunday Pub Crawl for a tour of the city's best bloody marys.
Where: Location announced after ticket purchase
When: 1 p.m. - 4 p.m. Sunday, Feb. 12
Price: $30, $25 for museum members

THE WEEK AHEAD
Slo 'Mo: Slow Jams For Homos (And Their Fans)
Got some make-up work to do after the big day? Swing by the Whistler for a night of music dedicated to duets at this month's installment of Slo 'Mo: Slow Jams For Homos (And Their Fans). DJ Tess will be spinning vinyl grooves from the likes of Sonny and Cher, Mariah and Boyz II Men, J Lo and Ja Rule and more. Want to make sure your favorites get a nod? Submit a request on the event's Facebook page.
Where:
When: 9 p.m. - 2 a.m. Thursday, Feb. 16
Price: Free