LIRR Strikes Pedestrain

By James Brierton
Editor-in-Chief

KINGS PARK (TheMatadorOnline.com) - A pedestrian was struck Friday evening around 5 p.m. by a Long Island Rail Road train in Kings Park.

The pedestrian was struck by the eastbound train at the crossing on Indian Head Road, just east of the Kings Park train station.

The unidentified pedestrian was taken by helicopter to Stony Brook University Medical Center. Their condition is unknown at this time.

Investigators from the Suffolk County Police Department and MTA Police were on hand at the scene.

Police shut down Indian Head Road between Meadow Road and 25A while they investigated. The incident created a 30 to 60 minute delay for the railroad on its Port Jefferson branch.

An investigation is on going.

U.S. to cut 12,000 troops in Iraq over next 6 months

By Greg Miller and Usama Redha
Tribune Washington Bureau
(MCT)

BAGHDAD _ The U.S. will reduce its military presence in Iraq by 12,000 troops over the next six months as part of the first major drawdown since President Barack Obama announced his plan to end combat operations in the country in 2010, U.S. military officials in Baghdad said Sunday.

The announcement came just hours after a suicide bomber on a motorcycle struck a crowd of police recruits outside an Interior Ministry compound in Baghdad, killing at least 33 people and wounding 61.

Despite that grim reminder of the lingering danger, U.S. officials said the drawdown reflected growing confidence in the security gains in Iraq over the past two years. It also reflects a major shift in priorities for the U.S. military, which increasingly is focused on efforts to arrest the deteriorating situation in Afghanistan.

The plan would reduce U.S. troop strength by nearly 10 percent just as Iraq is preparing for nationwide elections in the fall _ a step that would have been unthinkable at the height of the insurgency but was endorsed in this case by top U.S. military officials.

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"The time and conditions are right for coalition forces to reduce the number of troops in Iraq," Army Gen. Ray Odierno, the top U.S. commander in Iraq, said in a prepared statement. Successful provincial elections in January "demonstrated the increased capability of the Iraqi army and police to provide security," he said.

In the coming months, Odierno said, "Iraqis will see the number of U.S. forces go down in the cities while more and more Iraqi flags go up at formerly shared security stations."

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The plan calls for the number of U.S. combat brigades to drop from 14 to 12. Two brigades that had been scheduled to redeploy in the next six months will not be replaced.

A British brigade of 4,000 troops also will leave without being replaced, the final British combat troops in Iraq.

When the American move is completed, the U.S. military presence in Iraq will have been reduced to about 128,000 troops, dipping for the first time below the number of troops in the country before then-President George W. Bush ordered the buildup he referred to as the surge in 2007.

The schedule for the withdrawal represents a compromise between the 16-month timetable Obama advocated during his campaign and a 23-month plan pushed by the military.

Under the compromise, all combat forces will be pulled out of Iraq by Aug. 31, 2010, but a residual force of 35,000 to 50,000 soldiers will remain for training and support missions.

The Iraq withdrawals are crucial to the Obama administration's plans to devote more military resources to Afghanistan, as well as to limit spending at a time when the government is facing record deficits.

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Senior U.S. national security officials are nearing completion of a strategic review of the U.S. mission in Afghanistan, a step that Obama has described as an effort "to stabilize a deteriorating situation," one he has implied was neglected by Bush.

Seven years after the U.S. invasion, Afghanistan's stability is threatened by a Taliban insurgency, as well as frustration with a central government regarded by its own people as corrupt and ineffective.

In February, Obama announced plans to send 17,000 additional U.S. soldiers and Marines to Afghanistan _ deployments that would more than offset the troop reductions in Iraq outlined Sunday.

Despite the suicide bombing Sunday, U.S. military spokesman Maj. Gen. David Perkins said violence had dropped to its lowest level since summer 2003, just months after the U.S.-led invasion of Iraq. In February, 221 civilians were killed, despite violence during a major Shiite religious festival that saw at least 60 people killed.

Even with the dramatic turnaround, bombings and assassinations occur almost daily, and Iraqi Defense Ministry spokesman Mohamed Askari said it was impossible to fully stop the violence.

"Definitely the security situation is improving, but such terrorist thoughts are not easy to eliminate. There are breaches. They want to affect the situation," Askari told the satellite news channel Al-Arabiya.

He vowed more precautions would be taken around recruiting centers, where large crowds are an appealing target for armed groups.

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© 2009, Tribune Co.

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services

North Korea threatens war if U.S. shoots down satellite

By Tim Johnson
McClatchy Newspapers
(MCT)

BEIJING _ North Korea on Monday put its armed forces on standby, severed a military hot line with South Korea and warned that any attempt by the United States to shoot down a rocket launch would trigger an immediate war.

The escalation in tensions coincided with the onset of joint U.S.-South Korean war games, which brought a U.S. nuclear-powered aircraft carrier off the Korean Peninsula.

Scores of South Koreans were stranded at the Kaesong industrial complex several miles inside North Korea, where dozens of companies from South Korea have set up factories.

Pyongyang appeared to be moving ahead with plans to send what it claims is a communications satellite into orbit. U.S. and Japanese officials charge that the launch is a cover for a test of North Korea's latest-generation ballistic missile, potentially powerful enough to hit Alaska, and that their own antimissile batteries may try to shoot it down.

"Shooting our satellite for peaceful purposes will precisely mean a war," said a statement in the name of Pyongyang's general staff of the military, carried by the official Korean Central News Agency.

Pyongyang said it had put its armed forces on "full combat readiness," and it vowed immediate retaliation for any strike.

Apparently to clear the skies before the expected launch, North Korea said last week that it couldn't ensure the safety of commercial jetliners within its airspace.

The senior Obama administration envoy for the North Korean nuclear crisis, Stephen Bosworth, warned Pyongyang that firing a ballistic missile would violate a U.N. Security Council resolution adopted after a previous test of a Taepodong-2 missile in 2006. Later that year, North Korea tested a nuclear device.

"Whether they describe it as a satellite launch or something else makes no difference. This would be a violation of the U.N. Security Council Resolution 1718," Bosworth said in Seoul, South Korea, where he was visiting, according to the semiofficial Yonhap news agency.

Neighboring China, which serves as host to longstanding disarmament talks that include the Koreas, the United States, Japan and Russia, has said that it's aware that North Korea plans a launch, but it has declined to characterize it as an act that would defy the U.N. resolution.

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Unification Ministry spokesman Kim Ho-nyou said in Seoul that 621 South Koreans were at the Kaesong industrial complex or elsewhere in North Korea, and that 80 of them who were scheduled to return to South Korea on Monday were unable to do so, Yonhap said. The complex was built earlier in the decade when South Korea sought to defang North Korea through major investment schemes.

Some 25,000 U.S. military personnel and an undetermined number of South Korean troops are taking part in the war games, which have occurred annually and are scheduled to last through March 20 this time.

"It's purely a defensive exercise," said Dave Palmer, a spokesman in Seoul for U.S. Forces Korea.

Pyongyang charged that the war games were aimed at launching a "second Korean war."

Kim Jong Il, the North Korean leader, is widely thought to have suffered a stroke last August, and a possible succession drama in the Stalinist state has drawn international attention.

North Koreans went to the polls Sunday to vote on the country's parliament, and Kim won re-election to a seat with 100 percent support, North Korea's official news agency said.

Late Monday, North Korea released the names of all 687 lawmakers who had been elected to the body, and the names didn't include Kim's Swiss-educated youngest son, Kim Jong Un, 26, who some analysts said was a likely successor. Once again, signs are murky over who may be the heir apparent to North Korea's 67-year-old ruler.

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© 2009, McClatchy-Tribune News Service

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

Iraqi who threw shoes at Bush sentenced to 3 years

By Laith Hammoudi
McClatchy Newspapers
(MCT)

BAGHDAD _ An Iraqi court Thursday sentenced television journalist Muntathar al Zaidi to three years in prison for throwing his shoes at former U.S. President George W. Bush.

The decision by Iraq's Central Criminal Court provoked an outcry among those at the trial. "Hero, hero, Muntathar. God is great," a group of relatives chanted.

Zaidi's immediate family wept on hearing the sentence. His brother Udai accused the court of being Americanized. "This was expected from an Americanized court," he said. "We don't feel sorry for Muntathar, we only feel sorry for Americanized Iraq."

Zaidi, who reports for the satellite channel al Baghdadiyah, threw his shoes at Bush during the former president's final media appearance with Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al Maliki in December. "This is the farewell kiss, dog," Zaidi shouted as he threw the first shoe.

Bush ducked nimbly. Zaidi threw the second shoe, and Bush ducked again. Later, the president joked that he'd noticed that the shoes were a size 9. He also said the incident reflected the new freedom of expression that had taken hold in Iraq.

To Muslims in many countries, it wasn't a joke but an act of defiance against what's widely seen as an oppressive American presence in Iraq and throughout the region.

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In his first court appearance last month, Zaidi almost bounced into the courtroom. On Thursday, however, arriving under heavy guard, he almost stumbled in, exhausted and looking worried, and no longer wearing an Iraqi flag scarf.

Chief Judge Abdul-Amir al Rubaie started the proceedings by reading a ruling that Bush's visit had been an official visit of state, implying that Zaidi could be sentenced under criminal law.

Tariq Harb, a leading defense attorney, urged the court instead to follow Bush's words and consider the incident an act of democratic expression.

"There should be no case without the approval of the prime minister, which didn't happen. I trust the justice of the Iraq judiciary, but I can't ignore the law," he said.

Dhia al Saadi, who headed the defense team, told the court that Zaidi had committed an action "meant to insult, not attack, the U.S. president."

Saadi added that his client had a right under international law to "fight the occupier" and that his "patriotic motives" shouldn't be overlooked. He admitted that Zaidi had broken the work rules for journalists. Saadi insisted, however, that this was an issue for the journalists union, not the courts.

Zaidi's sentencing came the same week that a car bomb killed two of his co-workers as they covered a national reconciliation conference in Abu Ghraib.

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© 2009, McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

Visit the McClatchy Washington Bureau on the World Wide Web at www.mcclatchydc.com.

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ARCHIVE PHOTO on MCT Direct (from MCT Photo Service, 202-383-6099): Dhia al Saadi

Florida principal seeks donations from parents to help balance budget cuts

By Leslie Postal
The Orlando Sentinel
(MCT)

ORLANDO, Fla. _ Faced with slashing half a million dollars from his budget, an Orange County, Fla., elementary-school principal turned to fundraising but went way beyond the traditional wrapping paper and cookie sales. He asked parents to chip in $500 per child so the school could avoid laying off teachers in the coming months.

Trevor Honohan, principal of Audubon Park Elementary, sent his fundraising plea to parents Thursday _ even suggesting naming rights to the school could be sold for "large financial contribution."

In his letter, he said Audubon is slated to lose $500,000, or the equivalent of more than eight teachers, for the 2009-10 school year. These cuts would "rip apart the foundation" of the school, he wrote.

"Our backs are against the wall. I need your help today!" added Honohan, promising he would contribute $1,000 because he has two children at the school. Parents were given "Honohan's Hero" pledge cards and asked to turn them in within five days.

The letter was a clear sign of how desperately worried public-school administrators are about pending budget cuts, which could require them to slash 15 percent from next year's spending plan because of Florida's tanking economy.

Jean Hovey, president-elect of the Florida PTA, said she had not heard of any other public school in the state asking parents to help stanch the budget bleeding by chipping in to keep teachers on the payroll.

"Wow," said Hovey, a longtime Seminole County PTA member, when told of Honohan's letter.

District school leaders had about the same reaction _ convening a meeting after learning about the letter, which had not been approved by top Orange County administrators.

They decided late Thursday the letter had been sent prematurely and asked Honohan to send a telephone message to the parents of Audubon Park's 875 students Thursday night telling them to disregard it, said district spokesman Shari Bobinski.

District officials needed time to figure out whether such an effort was legal in a district that must equitably fund all campuses, Bobinski said.

"The district has to stay fair to every school. Cuts are cuts. We can't favor one school over another just because of the economic makeup of that school," she added.

Honohan did not return calls or an e-mail asking for his comment.

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His A-rated school is housed in a new campus in Orlando's upscale Baldwin Park community.

In his letter, Honohan estimated 52 percent of Audubon Park parents could afford to make a donation. If each of those parents wrote a check for $500 per child enrolled, he wrote, the school could replace the $500,000 it expects to lose. Otherwise, "hard working teachers we know and love will be unemployed," he wrote.

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The letter also detailed how parents could purchase naming rights for the school cafeteria, media center and classrooms if they would donate at least $10,000, and how Honohan would be open to discussions about renaming the school for an unspecified but "large financial contribution." The last action would require School Board approval, however, the letter stated.

Parent Monica Abel said Thursday afternoon she planned to contribute $1,500 for her three children who attend Audubon Park.

"It's going to put a financial strain on us. But I believe this is what the school needs. My family will make it happen right now. I certainly will miss it, but it's about priorities."

Abel, treasurer of the school's PTA, said she appreciated that Honohan was a "forward-thinking" principal who was trying to find creative approaches to the budget crisis. She admitted it was "kind of foreign" to be asked to donate money for teacher salaries at a public school. Still, she added, "I appreciate what he is doing to keep Audubon at the level where it's at."

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Across Florida, many administrators have warned they will have no choice but to lay off large numbers of teachers to keep their budgets in the black during the 2009-10 school. They also expect to enact other unpleasant cuts, such as closing schools, trimming sports programs and eliminating some academic programs.

Hovey of the Florida PTA worried Honohan's effort undermined education advocates' central argument during the current budget crisis: it is the state's responsibility to fund public schools.

Audubon Park's extraordinary effort also raised "fairness issues," Hovey said.

"What happens when at the school down the road the parents can't afford the $500?"

For now, Honohan's plans are on hold. In his follow-up phone message to parents Thursday night, he said some of his information, such as the size of the school's pending budget cut, was premature.

"I appreciate the positive responses I have received," he said, "and want to clear up any misconceptions derived from the letter. Thank you all for your continued support."

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© 2009, The Orlando Sentinel (Fla.).

Visit the Sentinel on the World Wide Web at http://www.orlandosentinel.com/.

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

Teen hands out thousands of dollars after finding drug money

By Joy Powell
Star Tribune (Minneapolis)
(MCT)

MINNEAPOLIS _ It's believed to have been $18,000 in drug loot that a 16-year-old found along a bicycle trail in Farmington, Minn., this week, and then took home _ for the night, at least.

"By morning, he shared his fortune with everybody," or so it seemed, said Dawana Witt, a Dakota County sheriff's deputy who cracked the case.

The teen gave away fistfuls of hundred-dollar bills, which soon showed up in four south metro schools Tuesday.

By day's end, Witt and three fellow school resource officers had snapped up about $11,000 the boy gave away. Investigators ended up recovering $18,000 _ nearly all the cash the boy found and either kept or gave away, Witt said.

The case began with the teen's discovery as he pedaled his bike near Pilot Knob Road and 195th Street after school Monday.

Investigators suspect not long before that, a marijuana dealer, who feared he was being tailed, had tossed the loot out a car window _ along with several pounds of high-grade marijuana and scales, said Chief Deputy Dave Bellows of the Sheriff's Office.

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"We're confident that both the money and marijuana wound up in the ditch at the same time," Bellows said.

It's understandable why the boy missed the pot, he said.

"It's a weedy area. This kid goes down, opens up the bag and sees a large quantity of cash," Bellows said. "I don't think he's looking for anything else."

On Tuesday morning, Witt fielded a call from a supervisor of Marschall Line Inc., a Farmington bus company serving the alternative school the boy attends, Alliance Education Center in Rosemount. Students attend that school part-time, while also enrolled at other high schools or Dakota County Technical College.

A bus aide reported the teen had asked her early Tuesday whether she could accept gifts. She told him no, but after he exited the bus, she found $1,200 in her bag, Witt said. The aide told Witt the teen apparently also gave cash to a classmate on the bus.

Witt interviewed the aide, and then the teen with the loot. He first said the cash was from his allowance before telling the truth. Witt asked him why he gave cash to the bus aide.

"She has a kid and she needs the money," the teen replied.

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The teen led skeptical Dakota County authorities to the ditch where he found the money, and there, they spotted 4 pounds of marijuana and the scales.

Witt and Bellows said they expect no charges against the teen for not turning in the cash, though state law requires anyone who finds anything of value to make reasonable attempts to return it to its owner.

"This kid, he has a good heart, he really does," Witt said. "He just made a bad decision. I don't think he had any bad intentions."

Finding thousands of dollars presented an exciting, though misguided, opportunity for a kid who likes to give, she said.

"All I've got to say," said Witt, "is that he was very happy for about 24 hours."

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© 2009, Star Tribune (Minneapolis)

Visit the Star Tribune Web edition on the World Wide Web at http://www.startribune.com

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

Students Working Together

High School students and the fifth grade enrichment groups from all of the elementary schools are working together on a project entitled C.L.A.S.S. (children learning about social studies). The topic is the Seven Ancient Wonders of the World combined with the wonders of Canada, the United States and Mexico. Students work in groups and choose a wonder to research. Each group has a HS student as a mentor who assists the fifth graders by showing them how to navigate a web quest. The final product for the fifth grade students will be a newspaper on the wonders.