Tribune-Star. Aug. 12, 2012.
When America functions as a team, wondrous things occur
The incredible NASA rover Curiosity would not be exploring Mars right now without a spirit of cooperation. Teamwork.
Any project as ambitious as this involves disagreements and hard choices in advance of the mission. Scientists and engineers debate whether certain technological breakthroughs should be attempted. Astronomers lend advice on the logistics of the flight and the climate present on the planet. Planners and administrators assess the costs of components and experiments. Eventually, leaders weigh the information, expertise and diverse opinions, and decide on a course of action.
At that point, the participants must pull together to succeed.
NASA did just that, allowing its Curiosity rover to defy the physical odds it faced. The spacecraft carrying the planetary all-terrain, robotic vehicle — loaded with 17 high-tech cameras, and 10 scientific instruments (including a laser-firing rock analyzer) — had to traverse a 352-million-mile journey from Earth to Mars. It also had to survive a breathtaking plummet through the wispy thin Martian atmosphere, and decelerate from 13,200 mph to 1.7 mph in just seven minutes to prevent crashing the $2.5-billion machinery into the dusty red planet. NASA launched Curiosity on Nov. 26, 2011. It landed at 1:32 a.m. Monday, nearly eight months later.
Safely.
And, within one minute of the NASA team’s estimates set almost a year ago.
Utterly amazing. Talk about precision.
President Obama aptly called it “an unprecedented feat of technology.” And that was just the journey. As Curiosity gradually tests and activates its computers and mechanisms, the rover will begin probing a sister planet in groundbreaking fashion. Its photography should provide panoramic, color images of Mars’ desert-like landscape, and vast mountains and craters. As a laboratory on six wheels, Curiosity also will analyze rocks and soil on the spot, and transmit its findings back to Earth, helping scientists determine whether life forms as tiny as microbes could have existed there. The nuclear-powered craft is expected to function for at least two years.
Imagine if key members of the NASA team, during the mission, fought against its success. Instead of cooperating once the pre-flight arguments had been waged and settled, what if factions of the aeronautical agency’s talent pool created obstacles to the plan? Such dysfunction and gridlock would have doomed Curiosity’s pinpoint landing and the execution of its cutting-edge experiments.
Fortunately, that’s not what happened.
The world is witnessing a sparkling example of American ingenuity, guts and, yes, teamwork in that Mars voyager. From China to Canada, and Mexico to Mozambique, earthlings are seeing that America can accomplish the formerly impossible. Curiosity also should serve as a reminder to U.S. citizens that the domestic hurdles we face can be surmounted, if our leaders will ever let the dust settle enough on pressing issues to then work toward solutions.
It is possible. If we can put a man on the moon, or a rover on Mars, America can fix its problems.
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The Tribune, Seymour. Aug. 11, 2012.
How much prison time is enough?
Once again, the Indiana Department of Correction has come under fire over a policy in which convicted felons who exhibit good behavior can qualify for early release from long prison terms.
A man who has been charged with raping a Greenwood woman at knifepoint last month had spent more than 11 years in prison (less than half his original 25-year sentence) for two other rape cases, including one in which the victim was held at gunpoint.
This case reminds us of the parolee charged this spring in Seymour in connection with a bank robbery and sexual assault of a woman at another place of business.
The incident also has some parallels with a case in nearby Bartholomew County in which a man sentenced to serve eight years in prison (four of them suspended) for causing the deaths of two Hope children in a 2003 accident initially served only two years.
Benjamin G. Weaver was released from prison in 2005 for good behavior and attending substance abuse counseling. His freedom was brief because he was found to have violated probation for smoking marijuana and was returned to serve the remainder of the original term.
He gained freedom again in 2007 but in a matter of months was back in court, charged with auto theft and operating a motor vehicle while intoxicated. The charges stemmed from an incident in which Weaver was accused of stealing a pickup truck and leading police on a chase at speeds up to 80 mph. He was sentenced to another eight-year term but was released again in 2011. He now faces a hearing on charges that he violated his current probation.
In the Greenwood case, Shawn L. Corbally, 33, was convicted of two counts of rape in 2000 and sentenced to 25 years in prison.
However he served less than half that sentence after receiving credit for good behavior, taking classes and undergoing counseling. He was released on Feb. 25.
Five months after he was released from prison, investigators said Corbally sexually assaulted and held a Greenwood woman at knifepoint in her home for hours. He now faces four counts of rape, two counts of criminal deviate conduct and one charge each of burglary, intimidation, attempted residential entry and failure to register as a sex offender.
Under state law, prison inmates get two days of credit for each day served as a reward for good behavior. Corbally also received additional credit time for taking classes and counseling. He received one year of credit for undergoing substance abuse counseling and nearly one year of credit for earning his GED and taking two vocational classes.
The need to offer time off for good behavior is necessary in order to induce inmates to follow prison rules. Without it, they would have little reason to toe the line and administering the prison system would be made much more difficult. On the other hand, the public is left wondering how some of these convicted criminals can be walking the streets after such a short time in prison.
The Indiana General Assembly needs to examine this issue thoroughly and carefully. How much time are prisoners, especially violent felons, actually serving? Do sentences need to be stiffened so that the public is better protected when these violent inmates are released?
Doing away with time off for good behavior and educational attainment is not the answer. But the state needs to look into this matter and see what can be done to better protect the public.
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The Indianapolis Star. Aug. 10, 2012.
A new school year, new chance for Indiana
When it comes to something as crucial and fundamental as the well-being of our children, our state, sad to say, is below average.
We were reminded of that sad fact again recently with the release of the Kids Count data book, compiled by the nationally respected Annie E. Casey Foundation.
How poorly are our children faring?
Out of the 50 states, Indiana’s overall ranking was only 31st in the Casey report, which focuses on education, health, economic well-being, and the strength of families and communities. We were behind our neighbors to the west and east — Illinois ranked 21st and Ohio was 27th — and barely ahead of economically hard-hit Michigan (32nd) and Appalachia-saddled Kentucky (35th).
Digging into the data triggers even deeper concerns. Consider that about one in five children in Indiana lives in poverty. The number is even worse in Indianapolis, where the child poverty rate is a heartbreaking 31 percent. The poverty line, by the way, is set extraordinarily low; a family income of only $22,113 is the cutoff.
Indiana also ranked poorly on Casey’s subcategories of education (36th in the nation) and health (34th). Here’s one revealing statistic on why we’re so far behind on education: During the 2009-2010 school year, a staggering 61 percent of 3- and 4-year-olds in Indiana did not attend preschool.
Add those data points together and it starts to reveal the deep challenges that families and educators face in trying to ensure that more students succeed in school.
Years of research make clear that children living in poverty are very likely to struggle in school. Years of research also show that high-quality early childhood education programs are an effective means to help students overcome barriers to success.
But Indiana is in the unfortunate position of having one (high poverty) without the other (ready access to good preschools).
As a state, we have a lot of work to do on both fronts.
The good news is that, in the interim, there’s also a lot we can do as individuals to help. With the start of a new school year, there are ample opportunities for Hoosiers to assist children in our community to excel in the classroom. Invest an hour a week, for example, and you can help a child become a better reader. Or spend time mentoring new parents. Or guide a future first-generation college student through the maze of campus visits and applications. The listing below highlights a few of the programs where you can make a lasting difference.
Are we satisfied to be below average? Of course not. But it will take a much higher level of community engagement in our children’s lives over an extended period of time to go from below average to great.
Let’s start with the new school year.
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The Herald-Bulletin. Aug. 9, 2012.
Donors behind Pence’s $1M gift must be named
The astonishing amount of money being poured into political races this year boggles the mind. The electorate has almost gotten used to multimillion-dollar federal elections. But it’s disconcerting when even state races are pegged to how much money candidates can raise in order to launch an advertising blitz.
That’s what is going on in Indiana. Recently, Republican gubernatorial candidate Mike Pence received $1 million from the Republican Governors Association’s super political action committee called Right Direction. Pence was already leading his Democratic opponent, John Gregg, in campaign donations, and the new $1 million pushed Pence way ahead.
We know who gave Pence the million, but we don’t know the corporate donors that gave to the RGA. Ever since the Supreme Court released the cash floodgates in the Citizens United ruling in January 2010, donations have been flowing to candidates like never before. The cash outlay this year will dwarf the races in 2010, which were astronomical.
One of the aspects of Citizens United that the Supreme Court mentioned but did not mandate was full disclosure of donors to the super PACs. House Democrats that summer passed the DISCLOSE Act to get transparency in campaign finance, but Republicans in the Senate made sure it went nowhere.
In Indiana, according to the Center for Public Integrity, candidates can accept unlimited donations from individuals and political action committees but only $5,000 from corporations and unions. Corporations and unions can also give to PACs, but only in small sums.
To get around that, corporations give to super PACs, which goes into a general fund. Since Indiana law has no limits on super PAC spending, Pence can get his $1 million and no one will know who donated to the RGA. RGA spokesman Michael Schrimpf said “nothing in our reports suggests” that the organization gave corporate funds to Pence, according to the Center for Public Integrity.
If it sounds like possible money laundering, that might be an appropriate comparison.
Some of the RGA donors listed by the Center for Public Integrity include Koch Industries ($2 million), Blue Cross/Blue Shield ($1.6 million) and Sheldon Adelson’s Sands Casino group ($1 million). For the latter, Indiana law prevents gambling entities from donating to political campaigns.
That would seem to preclude New Centaur, which owns Hoosier Park, from contributing. According to the Evansville Courier & Press, New Centaur gave $50,000 to the RGA. An illegal corporate contribution goes into the PAC and comes out beyond the law.
Gregg has also benefited from PACs. The Democratic Governors Association gave him $43,000 and the donors are anonymous, though the DGA gets a lot of its funds from unions. It’s almost laughable what Gregg got compared to Pence’s seven-figure bonanza.
Julia Vaughn, policy director for Common Cause Indiana, told the Courier & Press that it was “troubling and obscene that any group would give $1 million to a single candidate, especially when we know that the bulk of this group’s money is coming from mega-corporations.” She said Hoosiers deserve to know the source of the contribution.
Indeed. If the Citizens United ruling green-lights the purchasing of elections, the very least Hoosiers and all Americans should demand is to know who is doing the buying.
