Two officials at US public radio station NPR, including the chief executive, have resigned after one of them was recorded calling the Tea Party political group “racist” in a sting operation. Ron Schiller, fundraiser for the organization, which has hundreds of member public radio stations across the country, had already announced his resignation but moved the date up to make it effective immediately after a video was released Tuesday that showed him calling conservative Tea Party members “racist” and suggesting that perhaps NPR would be better off without federal funding.
His remarks were made to supposed would-be donors who were working for James O’Keefe, whom ABC News labels a “conservative prankster” although O’Keefe labels himself a journalist who does undercover work.
NPR’s board then met and recommended that CEO Vivian Schiller (no relation to the fundraiser) resign “in the wake of the second high-profile controversy to hit the organization in the past six months,” reports NPR in a blog that tracks events leading to CEO Schiller’s resignation.
In an earlier incident a commentator who was being paid by both NPR and conservative Fox News was fired for not respecting NPR rules after he said he feared flying on planes with people wearing Muslim garb. NPR’s news editor resigned under pressure after outcries from the political right over the firing. The commentator now works for Fox.
Public broadcasting in the US receives about $430 million a year in funding from Congress, where Republicans have in recent weeks stepped up a “defunding” campaign. The Washington Post notes that the “stunning series of public gaffes comes at a time when NPR is otherwise performing admirably. Its array of news and discussion programs – from “All Things Considered” to “Car Talk” and “The Diane Rehm Show” – reached a combined weekly audience of 27 million listeners. Under Schiller, NPR has also expanded its online operations, with a popular news Web site, NPR.org, and an influential musical site, NPRmusic.org.”
Links to other sites: AOL on the fallout (includes sting video), AP/MacLeans (Canada), Fox News, The Village Voice
ABC News on “who is James O’Keefe”
It will take Haiti a decade to rebuild, says engineers testing buildings in the country badly damaged by a 12 January earthquake. The UN has estimated that 20 percent of the buildings collapsed and 80 percent of those remaining are damaged. Volunteer engineers who are checking the buildings one by one say that many are too safe to be left standing, reports NPR.
Update 13:26 New statistics on the incidence of autism in the US, published by the US government’s Maternal and Child Health Bureau, indicate that the rate is increasing, to 110 per 10,000 in 2007 (one in 91 children). Earlier data showed figures of 66 and 67 per 10,000 from surveys in 2000 and 2002. These widely used numbers were released by the US Center for Disease Control and Prevention’s Autism and Developmental Disabilities Monitoring Network. The methods for surveying, and the groups questioned varied, but the new study’s authors note in the journal Pediatrics, which published their work 5 October, that “The reported increasing prevalence of autism spectrum disorder (ASD) and attendant health and family impact make monitoring of ASD prevalence a public health priority.”
The Autism Research Institute in San Diego, California, a leading advocacy group, pointed out that this is the first time a survey offers hope from treatments, noting that 40 percent of the children once diagnosed are no longer considered to have autism. The group says the new study shows the “silent epidemic” of autism and calls for public health funding and preparedness on a level with that for the H1N1 flu.
The team surveyed 78,000 households and estimated that 673,000 children under 17 have ASD. “Odds of having ASD were four times as large for boys than girls. Non-Hispanic (NH) black and multiracial children had lower odds of ASD than NH white children. Nearly 40 percent of those ever diagnosed with ASD did not currently have the condition; NH black children were more likely than NH white children to not have current ASD. Children in both ASD groups were less likely than children without ASD to receive care within a medical home.
The study’s authors conclude that the prevalence is increasing, without explaining why, although they note that “more inclusive survey questions, increased population awareness, and improved screening and identification by providers may partly explain this finding.”
Links to other sites: Audio report on National Public Radio
US President Barack Obama focused in his weekly national address on what he labeled “misinformation” being spread as a dubious way of fighting his efforts to reform the healthcare system. “Let me start by dispelling the outlandish rumors that reform will promote euthanasia, cut Medicaid or bring about a government takeover of health care. That’s simply not true. This isn’t about putting government in charge of your health insurance; it’s about putting you in charge of your health insurance.” (NPR) Former Republican office holders Newt Gingrich and Sarah Palin referred to the plan in public attacks on it, with Gingrich saying it could lead to euthanasia and Palin calling it evil. CS Monitor
In an extraordinary side story, National Public Radio‘s Howard Berkes writes about the soberign experience of joining a two-day free clinic in Virginia in July, where for “two-and-a-half days, about 800 doctors, nurses, dentists and optometrists treated 2,700 uninsured and underinsured people, most from Appalachia. No one was asked for an insurance card. There were no co-pays. And there were no bills.”
The number is so large it takes two to three weeks just to test it with massive computing power just to see if it is truly a Mersenne prime number (Ed. note: please forgive us for not giving you the number here), but Odd Magnar Strindmo from Melhus, Norway has indeed found the 47th one. Mersenne prime numbers are rare jewels in the world of number theory, NPR reports, because of their rarity and their size. A group of Mersenne hunters are part of what is known as Gimps (Great Internet Mersenne Prime Search), which links thousands of computers around the world. The first Mersenne primes were discovered by ancient Greek mathematicians. NPR carries an explanation, in case you’ve forgotten your math.
Roxana Saberi, who holds dual US and Iranian citizenship, has been sentenced by an Iranian court to eight years in prison for spying. US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton earlier in April called on Iran to release her. Saberi grew up in the US where she played soccer for Concordia College in Minnesota and was named Miss North Dakota in 1997. She has spent the past six years in Iran working on a book. BBC, Freeroxana.net, Huffington Post
