Blog: Intern’s Insight

As featured on the Happening Now page of Foxnews.com

http://happeningnow.blogs.foxnews.com/2009/10/30/interns-insight-5/

By: Nina Terrero

We’ve all heard about the consequences of the recession – a struggling economy, lost jobs, and a depression which has had wide-spread effects in nearly every sector of professional and familial life. However, have you looked beyond your immediate household  to consider what the consequences may have been beyond the grim statistics, past the video of men in suits that continually plays when a story on finance is run, and thought about the “unknowns” who play a large part in the American narrative?

I am, of course, referring to the children of our nation. It has come to my attention recently that there have been other victims of the recession beyond those commonly portrayed in mainstream media. Through a series of introspective articles and papers on the subject of children who have been subject to the negative consequences of the recession, I’ve learned that this situation is due to the pressure which has increasingly mounted within the familial unit – leading to a contemporary version of Dickensian “hard times”. In a recent NY Times article, historian Steven Mintz said the following of the situation impacting our nation’s most vulnerable victims:

“Economic hardship has a very destructive impact on parenting. Parents become depressed, withdrawn and quick to anger. Physical punishment often increases. Then, and now, the young are the unheralded victims of economic hard times." (Courtesy NY Times, October 29 - "Perils of the Recession Generation")

By all accounts, the effect of the recession on children and youth has extended beyond the immediate consequences of job loss within the household as federal financing for childcare, education, and even state assistance has dwindled. As we approach the weekend, I would urge you all to spend just a few minutes thinking about these unintended victims of adult exploitation, especially given that the larger debate here is entrenched in the tension between federal assistance versus private charitable effort in bridging the gap of need. Desperate times call for desperate measures, and what’s to be done next? Well that’s up to you…

-N

Blog: Intern’s Insight

As featured on the Happening Now page of Fox News.com

http://happeningnow.blogs.foxnews.com/2009/10/23/interns-insight-3/

By: Nina Terrero

Yesterday on “Happening Now” we reported the story of 48-year old Faleh Hassan Almaleki of Glendale, AZ who, according to police reports, fled the scene immediately after he ran over his daughter, 20 year-old Noor Faleh Almalek, in his 2000 Jeep Grand Cherokee. His motive is reported to have been his wrath over his daughter’s assimilation into American culture, and the consequence is that Noor is currently hospitalized and suffering from life-threatening injuries. A father who would calculatingly harm his offspring alerts us to a situation in which their relationship had clearly deteriorated, and given the nature of the circumstances, it’s difficult not to become immediately outraged at the deliberate and pre-meditative nature of the crime.

However, it seems to me that an incident such as this is laden with both meaning and contention as the father’s motive for the crime was reportedly outrage at his daughter’s withdrawing from an arranged marriage. Does this signal the extent to which he considered his daughter’s assimilation to be excessive? As of this morning, there are many unknown details, but an interesting aspect of consideration is whether or not Faleh and his daughter had become American citizens. If they had been, Faleh would have sworn to abide by American law, and do we consider that by natural extension law includes American norms and values? Do we strictly define norms and values as applied to the general population or do we include those of other cultures as a nod to America’s heritage as a “melting pot”? To what extent was Faleh un-American himself? And as an immigrant, to what extent do we approach foreign cultures – with or without unwarranted suspicion? How do we define “Westernization” or “assimilation”? In turn, do we view the father’s actions as being excessively “Iraqi” or “Middle-eastern”? We are taught not to judge others on the basis of cultural norms, and yet can we given that the enactment of a cultural norm in this case resulted in a clear violation of American law (attempted manslaughter)?

How would we react if the situation was reversed and Almaleki had hurt his daughter under the pretext that she hadn’t become “American” enough? How does one interpret being “American,” especially given Noor’s youth? Was it solely her desire to refrain from entering a presumably loveless, arranged marriage? What type of events lead to this incident -- did Noor wear provokingly low cut pants & belly-baring tops, or did she thoughtfully attempt to assert her independence through more conscientious means? Did her father attempt an honor killing, or was this a drastic means of teaching Noor a lesson? We don’t know the details & so the questions I am asking are part of a larger debate regarding the definition of casually used terms such as “Westernization,” “American“ and “assimilation.” This incident clearly illustrates the consequences that can be derived from their interpretation. As further details in this matter emerge, I know I will be evaluating the story in terms of a father defending a culture left behind and a daughter living life according to her own interpretation of mores, with the knowledge that the reality we face addresses a far deeper concern which underscores the existing tensions between cultures -- which we can only hope will be gradually eroded and yet without cost to the distinctive nuances of the respective traditions to which we belong.

-N

Meet the REAL Young Indiana Jones

Meet the REAL Young Indiana Jones

Blog: Intern’s Insight

Intern’s Insight

Preaching For A Green Campaign

By: Colleen Stufflebeem  

        It’s the morning of September 28th and Reverend Billy hasn’t had his coffee. His brightly dyed hair hides his wrinkles; he’s a man of nearly 60 but doesn’t look a day over 40. He’s planned an interview in his campaign headquarters on Lafayette and Broadway, but his passion for preaching hasn’t kicked in yet.

            Billy Talen was born a Calvinist in Minnesota prior to moving to San Francisco in the late 1990s where he developed his televangelist alter ego, Reverend Billy. He soon took to Staten Island and the five boroughs whereupon he plans to exorcise the evil out of consumerism. His beginnings were on the street corners in Times Square where he preached out against the building of a monolithic Disney Store that he believed would destroy the spirit of the neighborhood. Quickly following, he created a green robed choir to aid in his performances and named this The Church of Life After Shopping (formerly known as The Church of Stop Shopping); he changed the name due to the recession.

            In the midst of his high energy, anti-consumerism performances, Reverend Billy poised himself as the 2009 Green Party mayoral candidate of New York City. His hopes being that his booming personality and grassroots objectives will not win him the election, but help to degenerate the images of his running mates. Ideally, this degeneration will be the outcome of as many as 500 angry neighborhoods pitting themselves against big business and gentrification.

            On this morning, Reverend Billy isn’t going to perform, but rather discuss his campaign for mayor. After finding his cup of coffee he addressed the purple elephant in the room, noting that he is the odd man out as the Green Party candidate running against giants like Independent/Republican Michael Bloomberg and Democrat Bill Thompson. He makes his intentions well known right from the beginning: “we’re adopting an issue that isn’t usually a part of a mayoral campaign - peace.”

            Talen is eager to discuss what role the G-20 placed on his new political enlightenment as he reminisces on the heavy police coverage at the summit. Rev. Billy was invited by Carnegie Mellon to stay on their campus and speak on the school commons.

            The Reverend quickly plunged back into Green Party politics discussing the liberty inherent in being an Independent candidate. He emphasized the freedom of governing without concern for particular demographics, saying, “you have to be even handed as the mayor of New York.” His objectives began stretching as far as the Middle East as his tangled tresses began to shake more fervently. “So many cultures through history have been partners in war,” he says. His reddened face was lost in thought as he began preaching about global peace.

            But what about being mayor of New York? Jolted out from his ranting, Rev. Billy introduces his young intern who traveled that morning from a college in Costa Rica.  It wasn’t long before he was back on topic, further reiterating the obligations of the Green Party: “the Green Party has the freedom to speak outside the horse race narrative. You have to be a student of the message.” He began stirring his luke warm coffee, and the bags under his eyes spoke louder than he did as he discussed performing in Staten Island and the railways the night before. Without warning he bursted into song, which he then explained was actually the First Amendment.

            Rev. Billy believes strongly in freedom of speech and freedom of religion. His church of Life After Shopping is a non-fundamental religion, which he prides as being beholden to no god in particular, but gladly professes it having a new god everyday. He calls out his enemy saying, “consumerism is the most fundamentalist religion of them all.” He also links his religious beliefs with politics by adding, “we think shopping must be right winged.” When asked why then he chose such a loaded preacher image, his demeanor bordered on possessed. He believes that his preacher campaign is a satirical symbol of conservative religion and claims that it has "worked for the past 14 years."

            As quick as Rev. Billy is to dismiss the mainstream names of Starbucks and Wal-mart, he’s a little less eager to negate titles for himself. He exclaims, “We’re the conscience of the campaign” and the “rise of the neighborhoods”. His ardor for these titles comes from his belief that the Green Party is the most popular outside of the two main parties and feels it is responsible for bringing up issues the other two can't.

            What the other two parties are doing, says Rev. Billy’s, is destroying neighborhoods. He claims that real estate is the most important thing to his two opponents. “The view of real estate now is that neighborhoods are undercover property projects.” His solution is not to modernize Brooklyn neighborhoods, but to build better relationships within them, or what he calls “sustainable human scale economics." Neighborhoods, to Rev. Billy, should exchange skills, knowledge and protection.  His emotions change drastically again as he discusses the state of spirituality surrounding neighborhoods and his skill as a preaching performer seep through. He concludes this speech by saying the basis to a sustainable economy is through the caring of each neighbor, and that “peace comes from people who are not patriotic through the things they buy.”

            Is Rev. Billy capable of providing solutions through his beliefs?  He’s quick to say that he wants to bring elections back to the issues and stop them from being so conservative, but this is coming from a man who has never held office. He doesn't believe he is handicapped by his lack of experience but rather expects his oddity to win the masses.  Above all, it’s the negatives in Bloomberg’s and Thompson’s campaigns that makes Rev. Billy believe in his own. First dispelling Bloomberg, Rev. Billy says, “our current mayor doesn’t like the Statue of Liberty, doesn’t like that this is an immigrant city. The Statue of Liberty is a bigger message than anything Bloomberg has said.” He starts off on Bloomberg’s carbon footprints and his abuse towards the environment. “Six hundred tons of plastic toothbrushes go across the Hudson River to somewhere. It’s our shit", he says. Then he ends with a final blow, “[Bloomberg] is consumerism in human form.”

            Rev. Billy then turns his contempt towards Bill Thompson, calling him “quite conserative” and then tells a horror story about how under Thompson, eviction notices where put on people’s door steps for no reason and without warning. The Independent is telling the Democrat that “he should have been with residents telling them their rights.” In the end, however, Rev. Billy would vote for Thompson if it came down to it but only because “he’s such a low level corrupt guy compared to Bloomberg.”

            Not one to rise above negative campaigning, Rev. Billy repeatedly shouted amen and hallelujah throughout the interview. His coffee was never fully drunk, but the heat of his preaching blood kept his pace. In the end there is a man masked behind a tangle of bleached hair, a loud mouth and the image of a televangelist with a mission to spread unity. What are his policies? Where is his experience? It doesn’t seem to matter to him as long as the soul is in it. Rev. Billy will never stop protesting and performing at large public spectacles,  he won’t stop advocating for the return of the old New York City spirit, and he will never support Bloomberg. Rev. Billy is a man on a mission with the ideals of the Green Party and a persona torn between politician and performer.

Article: Psoriasis: A Nuisance or a Deadly Disease?

By: Brian Donnelly

While all chronic health conditions are difficult to live with, the skin condition known as psoriasis not only has a negative effect on a person’s well-being, but it can also be fatal.

Psoriasis is often unpleasant and debilitating for the 7.5 million Americans living with the disease, which presents as an unsightly build-up of dead skin cells on the skin, and in the nails and joints.

Country singer LeAnn Rimes has psoriasis and is outspoken about her condition, which once covered 80 percent of her skin.

“Psoriasis is a predisposition for your immune system to react with your skin,” said Dr. Ellen Marmur, chief of the Division of Dermatologic and Cosmetic Surgery at Mount Sinai Hospital in New York City. “Something that would normally… trigger a little, tiny reaction in most of us triggers a domino effect in somebody with psoriasis.”

Beneath the surface, a psoriasis patient’s immune system overreacts and begins to attack itself. This abnormal activity is characteristic of an autoimmune disease such as multiple sclerosis or rheumatoid arthritis.

As a result of inflammation, skin cells regenerate every two to four days, as opposed to every 28 days in healthy skin, causing an excessive build up of cells.

When this happens, patches of the skin develop plaque, which is thick, red and scaly. The dead cells surface on top of irritated areas as loose, dry skin. They have a silver-white color and can flake off or crack. Depending on the type and severity, psoriasis can be painful and itchy.

And psoriasis patients who scratch their skin may encounter further damage.

“If you scratch your skin, or if you have a piece of clothing that rubs against your skin in the area that is irritated, you can develop psoriasis. This is called the Koebner phenomenon,” said Dr. Mark Lebwohl, chairman of the Department of Dermatology at Mount Sinai School of Medicine and Mount Sinai Hospital.

Outbreaks are usually triggered by environmental factors like skin injuries; cold weather, infections, such as strep throat; bad reactions to medications; and even stress.

Psoriasis isn’t contagious. It can affect anyone and can plague anyone from babies to the elderly, Lebwohl said.

While some cases are so mild the patient doesn’t realize they have psoriasis, severe cases can cover nearly the entire surface of the body.

The elbows, knees and scalp are the most common areas to be affected, however, psoriasis can present anywhere on the body, Marmur said.

Mild psoriasis is defined as 3 percent body coverage and severe psoriasis as 10 percent or more. Approximately 25 percent of those with psoriasis have a moderate or severe case.

The Types of Psoriasis

Where it turns up and how severe it is has a lot to do with which of the five types of psoriasis you have.

1. Psoriasis vulgaris, also known as plaque psoriasis, is the most common, affecting more than 80 percent of all psoriasis patients.

“It can be a really well circumscribed pink, red plaque with a silvery or gray scale,” Marmur said.

2. Guttate psoriasis is also red and scaly but smaller and typically covers larger body parts. It affects approximately 10 percent of psoriasis patients and can be triggered by strep throat.

3. Inverse psoriasis is red but doesn’t have the silvery-white scales. It presents as moist and red and covers smooth, creased areas of the skin like the armpits, the groin and underneath the breasts. Obese patients are most prone and tend to have more severe symptoms

A large portion of psoriasis patients are obese, said Lebwohl, who includes a heart-healthy diet as one course of action to improve your condition.

4. Pustular psoriasis looks like little spots of acne all over the body, Marmur said.

5. Erythrodermic psoriasis is the most severe form of the disease when plaque covers most of the body surface

Pustular and erythrodermic psoriasis are the rarest and the most dangerous. While they can occur independently, patients who develop them generally have plaque psoriasis. They are potentially fatal because they compromise the body’s ability to ward off infections and control body temperature.

“The typical story will be a patient with plaque psoriasis is given systemic steroids, cortisone,” Lebwohl said. “That clears psoriasis, but as you take them off of the steroids, you can develop a horrific flare where your body gets covered head to toe with red skin, or covered with puss pimples… Many of these patients will grow bacteria in their blood and can actually die from sepsis.”

Problems Associated With Psoriasis

Patients can become anemic from dangerously low amounts of protein in the blood, or suffer from other factors as a result of these debilitating forms of the disease.

When treating a psoriasis patient, doctors will ask a series of questions called the SF-36 to measure how it has impacted there lives.

In addition to its debilitating physical and psychological effects, psoriasis can force patients to miss work in order to manage their disease. Some of Lebwohl’s psoriasis patients have lost, or quit their jobs because of the amount of time they had to take off, he said. Others quit because of the embarrassment of not being able to perform.

“The National Psoriasis Foundation has looked at the incomes of patients and, basically, you can correlate income negatively with the various severities of the disease. The more severe, you’re going to earn less money,” said Lebwohl, who is also the chairman of the Medical Board of the National Psoriasis Foundation.

The disease is also linked to cardiovascular disease, diabetes and depression.

“Not only can it be debilitating socially and emotionally, but people with psoriasis also have a risk of other internal diseases,” Marmur said. “It’s like running your car at maximum, you’re just going to burn out the engine and other things are going to go wrong.”

The Changing Face of Can Collecting

In 1983, New York passed the Bottle Bill – a program that gives a nickel return on many bottles and cans. But what started as a means to promote recycling has turned into a livelihood for many.

25 years later, the failing economy is changing the face of can collecting.

Annie Aho reports.

ISM: Overall Econony Grew More Than Expected in July

ISM: Overall Econony Grew More Than Expected in July

Oil Falls, But Stays Above $70 as Inventories Rise

Oil Falls, But Stays Above $70 as Inventories Rise

Mortgage Rates Fall Amid Positive Economic Reports

Mortgage Rates Fall Amid Positive Economic Reports