After 85 days in jail, New York Times reporter Judith Miller is free. She testified in front of a grand jury after receiving permission from her source, possibly for the second time, to disclose her name.
She had gotten the information about CIA agent Valerie Plame’s identity from Vice-President Dick Cheney’s chief of staff, I. Lewis Libby. Her refusal to tell a grand jury Libby’s identity had led to her jailing for contempt of court on July 6.
Miller’s testimony has been described as one of the last objectives in the investigation of federal prosecutor Patrick J. Fitzgerald. It is unknown whether Fitzgerald will end up charging anyone with a crime as a result of the investigation.
A press release from the California Department of Education:
STATE SCHOOLS CHIEF JACK O’CONNELL DEFENDS CALIFORNIA SCIENCE STANDARDS
Opposes Intelligent Design Theory as Threat to Integrity of Teaching Natural Sciences
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LOS ANGELES — State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O’Connell today defended California’s science standards from efforts to inject the theory of intelligent design into natural science curriculum.
“The introduction of intelligent design theory in natural science courses would be a blow to the integrity of education in California,” O’Connell said. “Our state has been recognized across the country and around the world for the quality and rigor of our academic standards. Just like I will fight tooth and nail to protect California’s high academic standards, I will fight to ensure that good science is protected in California classrooms.”
California’s science standards, which include the teaching of evolution theory, were developed with input from national leaders in science. The Fordham Foundation has awarded California an “A” for its science standards along with just a handful of other states.
President Bush has been quoted recently saying that students should be exposed to intelligent design theory. A trial on the legitimacy of teaching the concept of intelligent design in science courses is currently underway in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.
“The goal of public education is for students to gain the knowledge and skills necessary for California’s work force to be competitive in the global, information-based economy of the 21st Century,” O’Connell said. “We also want to give students the tools to become critical thinkers and to be able to discuss and reflect on philosophical questions. But, the domain of the natural sciences is the natural world. Science is limited by its tools — observable facts and testable hypothesis. Because religious beliefs are based on faith, and are not subject to scientific test and refutation, these beliefs should not be taught in the realm of natural sciences.”
O’Connell noted that discussion about divine creation, ultimate purposes, or ultimate causes would be appropriate topics for discussion in history-social science or English-language arts curricula.
Speaking at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles, O’Connell was joined by the President of the California Science Teachers Association. O’s comments were also supported by Dr. Eugenie Scott, the Executive Director of the National Center for Science Education.
“California’s unsurpassed state science standards treat evolution appropriately: as the central, powerful, unifying principle of the biological sciences that it is. I am gratified that Superintendent O’Connell recognizes the need to defend the teaching of evolution against religiously motivated and scientifically unwarranted attacks,” Dr. Scott said in a statement made from Pennsylvania, where she is monitoring the trial over the teaching of intelligent design theory in high schools in Dover.
“In California schools we are trying to educate students, not change their belief system,” O’Connell concluded. “We will best serve students if they graduate understanding the difference between scientific knowledge and values, faith or religious beliefs.”
Perhaps the single least surprising announcement in the history of surprising announcements.
Inexplicably, the Daily Press/Hesperia Star float (a 1959 Ford Thunderbird convertible) won second place in the Vintage Car Division in the Hesperia Days parade. Maria has the trophy on her desk at the front of the office.
I must be just that damn pretty.
Well, that was an unusually productive Saturday morning for me.
I wasn’t able to get the camera from the Hesperia Star office, as Main Street being closed diverted most people on the south end of town onto Olive Street (which I normally use as the nearly empty alternative to Main Street), including an awful lot of apparently frustrated little old ladies. Today was the first time I had someone in her 70s willfully blast through a stop sign in front of me to get wherever it is septuagenarians blast off to on Saturday mornings.
But me, Peter, Daily Press ad honcho Kevin Rigney and his wife all piled into a 1959 Ford Thunderbird convertible driven by a friend of a Daily Press employee, and dutifully beauty pageant waved our way down Main Street, followed by several trash trucks from Advance Disposal (which may or may not have been an editorial comment on our work, I’m not sure), who blasted their horns more or less non-stop for 90 minutes.
The Kiwanis Club of Hesperia has been running this parade for a number of years now, and it shows. As we went down Main Street at a stately 5 to 10 miles per hour, we passed a number of Kiwanis announcers, who let the hundreds, maybe thousands in attendance know who each of the floats were.
There were some nice surprises there: While I might expect the announcers to have something nice to say about everyone in the parade, we had several people wave to get our attention and yell how much they like the paper. The Daily Press commissioned a comprehensive readership study earlier this year, so I know what the numbers say about our readership (all very good stuff, although I think it’s probably proprietary info that I can’t share here), but plenty of people don’t necessarily like the paper they read. It’s nice to know that at least a few Hesperians appreciate and maybe even enjoy what we’re doing.
Next year, if I do this again, I’m wearing my Hesperia Star baseball cap, though. I’ve got a pretty serious sunburn.
I have been drafted into riding in the Daily Press/Hesperia Star car in tomorrow’s Hesperia Days parade. How I will take pictures and write a story from inside the car remains to be seen.
