| Obituary: Ex-strongman Suharto leaves controversial legacy
That view faded as Indonesia embraced democracy and recovered, and many could never forgive the graft and human rights abuses of the Suharto era. Critics say Suharto and his family amassed as much as $50 billion in kickbacks or deals where political influence was a key to who won a contract, charges he denied. Attempts, some half-hearted, by subsequent governments to prosecute him over corruption charges failed as the courts accepted that he was too ill to stand trial. Suharto rejected accusations he had stashed wealth overseas. Last year, the Supreme Court ordered Time magazine to pay him more than $113 million in damages in a libel suit over a 1999 cover story that said he and his family had a fortune of around $17 billion. Time has challenged the ruling.
Smart Choices: A worthy 'coach' for heart health
Joe Piscatella spent the first half of his life eating whatever he liked. He's spending the second half eating healthily. That's why he's still alive today. He might be the person to help you save your own life. As his Web site attests, the best-selling author of heart-healthy books is "no ordinary Joe." Piscatella was at North Central Baptist Hospital in San Antonio recently where he delivered lectures on healthy eating and lifestyle to medical professionals and the public. "One of the physicians had seen him speak and was impressed," said Karen May, regional director of public relations for the Baptist Health System. "Baptist is upgrading and expanding its cardiac program, and this was an excellent way to help people associate Baptist with good heart care, preventative treatment and follow-up rehabilitation." Piscatella has been preaching heart-healthy eating for decades and exploring the link between stress and how we use food in response.
Revolution of the Snails: Encounters with the Zapatistas
I grew up listening to vinyl records, dense spirals of information that we played at 33-1/3 revolutions per minute. The original use of the word revolution was in this sense — of something coming round or turning round, the revolution of the heavenly bodies, for example. It's interesting to think that just as the word radical comes from the Latin word for "roots" and meant going to the root of a problem, so revolution originally means to rotate, to return, or to cycle, something those who live according to the agricultural cycles of the year know well. Only in 1450, says my old Oxford Etymological Dictionary, does it come to mean "an instance of a great change in affairs or in some particular thing." 1450: 42 years before Columbus sailed on his first voyage to the not-so-new world, not long after Gutenberg invented moveable type in Europe, where time itself was coming to seem less cyclical and more linear — as in the second definition of this new sense of revolution in my dictionary, "a complete overthrow of the established government in any country or state by those who were previously subject to it." We live in revolutionary times, but the revolution we are living through is a slow turning around from one set of beliefs and practices toward another, a turn so slow that most people fail to observe our society revolving — or rebelling.
Substantial vouchers provide a real choice of schools
A $1,000 tuition tax credit to those at or below the poverty level would still keep private schools out of reach for them so they still wouldn't have had a choice. One way to get enrollment back up at private schools is to institute vouchers, meaningful vouchers to the tune of $3,000 per child. Put them in the hands of parents and let them decide where to send their children. In 1995, Cleveland enacted a publicly funded voucher program. They offered vouchers in the amount of $2,250 per student to attend any private, religious or public school in the city or surrounding suburbs. Initially it was offered as a lottery to 3,000 low-income families up to third grade, and has expanded every year since to now include kindergarten through 10th grade. To no one's surprise, Cleveland's voucher program was challenged in court and eventually made its way to the Supreme Court.
China: Due for a Reality Check
Waste disposal and pollution will grow into bigger and bigger problems, as the landscape sprouts more factories and industrial complexes. Some Beijing officials, as well as those at local levels—the country has 41,636 townships—have a stronger interest in winning business than they do in preserving the environment. A significant number are undoubtedly in bed with the factories seeking building permits and other privileges. Yes, the Chinese government is good about assuring its foreign trading partners of its ecologically sound policies, but enforcement ranges from tricky to impossible. Communist officials in localities have great power. A mayor who likes the idea of a new tool-and-die factory can make it happen with relatively few checks and balances. And no Chinese official at any level seems capable of stopping the intellectual-property theft.
David Foxley
Governor orders review of 2-year-old's future
The governor and the head of the Oregon Department of Human Services have decided to rethink a decision to send 2-year-old Gabriel Allred to live with his grandmother in Mexico. Gabriel's foster parents, Steve and Angela Brandt of Toledo, have appealed a decision to allow relatives to raise the boy they've cared for since he was 4 months old. The Brandts say they've become attached to the boy and they fear he could be harmed if he is sent to another country. Gov. Ted Kulongoski and Human Services director Bruce Goldberg have asked Bryan Johnston, the newly appointed head of the state's Children, Adults and Families Division, to work with both families toward a solution that will be in the boy's best interest. They've given Johnston two weeks --until Dec. 3 --to complete the process.
Knucklehead of the Week
C) A businessman had his briefcase stolen in Germany. Police found it ransacked but the thieves never noticed two envelopes tucked inside. A good thing. They contained more than $13,000 in cash. August 27, 2007
WINNER: B A) A North Carolina man is 93 years old and still hard at work. But cops aren't too keen on his profession. They nabbed him for dealing drugs and cocaine possession. B) A Massachusetts man made it really easy for police. He stole from a drug store then made a quick getaway. But he left his i.d.card at the counter. Cops tracked him down. C) A California man got hungry but when it came time to pay for his sandwich he slapped down some marijuana instead of money. Cops found him with more drugs and arrested him. August 20, 2007
WINNER: A A) A Georgia woman called police to complain about the $20 she spent on crack cocaine.
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