Grieving on the Palouse.

Some new information's been released about the victims of the weekend sniper ambush in my beloved town of Moscow, and I'm piecing together how their paths might have crossed mine.

After I saw a picture of Presbyterian Church sexton Paul Bauer on TV, I kept racking my brains trying to remember where I'd met him - and when someone told me he used to work at Tri-State, I immediately remembered him, patiently advising me on the right gauge of wire to get, or the right grade of sandpaper to use. Such a nice man.

Crystal Hamilton, wife of the gunman, had just started working at Washington State University, in the building where I work - the Murrow Communications Center. As I go to work before dawn and leave at lunchtime, I never met her - at work, or in the neighborhood where she lived, across the highway from me. Even though I didn't know her personally, it makes me think how closely our paths ran, yet didn't quite intersect.

Rebecca Newbill, wife of slain Sergeant Lee Newbill, also worked at Washington State University as an early childhood specialist in our Children's Center for almost ten years. Even though I didn't know Officer Newbill, I've heard from some people who did - and he sounded like the nicest, most giving soul.

I don't even know how to convey my deep sadness for the families of those lost. Can't imagine the emotions going through the family of shooter Jason Hamilton.

Moscow Shooter Revealed; Another Victim Found

Jason Hamilton was 36 years old and worked as a janitor for American Building Maintenance.

Law enforcement officials revealed today Hamilton killed his 30-year old wife Crystal in their home before going on a shooting rampage downtown.

Hamilton fired 125 shots at the Latah County Sheriff's office, using 2 semi-automatic weapons. Two law enforcement officers and a University of Idaho student were shot. Hamilton then ran into the Presbyterian Church across the street. He knew that church - it was part of his janitorial assignment.

Hamilton also knew the 62-year old sexton, Paul Bauer, who lived in an apartment in the church.

Hamilton killed Bauer before turning the gun on himself.

At a somber press conference this morning, it was revealed Hamilton killed his wife, 30-year old Crystal, at their home with a single gunshot to the head.

The FBI is investigating the scene at the Hamilton home, about four miles east of town. It's just across the highway from my house. I never knew the couple. I drove right by the house after 5AM on Sunday, just hours before Crystal's body was found there.

Law enforcement officials revealed more about Hamilton at this morning's press conference in the Moscow City Hall.



Hamilton's family moved to Moscow in the late 90s from the Kuna, Idaho area. Police listed a rap sheet on him involving many acts of violence committed here over the last two years, including a strangulation incident against a girlfriend with whom he was living during a separation from his wife. He was in court as recently as last week on a probation violation. Being a little hard of hearing, I missed what police chief Dan Weaver said but it was about a suicide attempt and the St. Joe Hospital mental facility. UPDATE Assistant police chief David Duke said Hamilton had attempted suicide through an overdose of prescription drugs, but told the psychologist that “if he wanted to commit suicide he wouldn’t do it this way, but he would take a whole bunch of people with him, either by shooting or by a bomb.“vvvvvvv

Are we looking at another disturbed person in the mold of Cho Seung-hui, or in cases closer to Idaho, and Moscow in particular, John Delling?

Police still don't know the motive for Hamilton's ambush-style shooting. They said no note has been found.

County Commissioner Tom Stroschein said Crystal, who worked as a janitor in the courthouse, was very well liked by everyone there, but kept to herself, so any troubles she may have had with her husband were not known. UPDATE I just heard today that Crystal had just started work right here at Washington State University, in the Murrow building at WSU which houses the Northwest Public Radio studios and offices. She'd been working for just a couple of weeks, and hadn't even picked up her first paycheck.vvvvvvv

Almost everyone I've spoken to is shaken by this seemingly random violence. This is Moscow, for goodness' sake, where people slow down their cars to give a friendly honk or wave to a friend on the sidewalk, where people don't lock their doors, where hugs are generously shared, where citizens of all ages will happily dance at public music performances without a hint of self-soncsiousness, where strangers will come to your assistance in a heartbeat.

We're especially troubled because of a string of recent deaths, beginning with the disappearance of well-liked City Councilman John Dickinson last winter; the murder of University of Idaho student David Boss by John Delling, and the recent death of a U of I student in a mountain climing accident.

UPDATE From a newspaper commentary this morning:

"Moscow is a small town with a big wound. And it will take a long time to mend.

"It would be easy to pick at that sore and never let it heal. To be afraid and watchful and suspicious. To fear the person who might be hiding. Or the person who is hiding their potential for brutality."

I seriously doubt it. My sense is that if anything, citizens of this community will become even more caring, more close-knit than ever, and mindful of one another.vvvvvvv

The weekend shooting took the life of Sergeant Lee Newbill, the first Moscow police officer to be killed in the line of duty.

Officer Newbill was a well-liked member of the community, with a lifelong devotion to public service, from military to law enforcement. He's been part of the Moscow police force in 2001.
Yesterday afternoon, several bouquets of flowers were laid at the roadblock near the Presbyterian Church where the carnage occurred.

As for those semi-automatic weapons, it appears Hamilton obtained them legally over the last few years.

Sunday was a strange day for me. I was scheduled to work the 6AM shift. While I was in the shower, my friend Tina in Florida called and told my family what was happening. She saw it on CNN, so I switched it on first, then Spokane station KXLY. A Moscow woman called in to the live broadcast and said she heard the gunshots from her home, about 2 miles away from the scene. They were so loud, at the time she thought they were explosions.

I watched in disbelief.

At the time, the news was confusing. First it sounded as if 4 people has been shot, then they said 3, and the shooter was cornered in the church.

I had to go through Moscow to get to work, but drove around the donwtown area to avoid the roadblocks between 3rd and 6th, Howard and Washington, but still saw police all over - with cars from Pullman, Washington State University, Lewiston and Clarkston; all these forces lending a hand to Moscow. I made it to Pullman in a bit of a daze. At 6AM it sounded as if police were still trying to get the suspect, but now we know they went into the church 10 minutes before 6AM, and found Paul Bauer's body. Jason Hamilton was in the sanctuary, with single self-inflicted gunshot to the head, weapons beside him.

For more on this tragedy, Officer Newbill, the Moscow community and more, read Joan Opyr's excellent piece.

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UPDATE A memorial service for Officer Newbill will be held on Friday at 1PM at Kibbie Dome. Thousands, including law enforcement officials from many cities in several states, are expected to attend. More
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A Spring Walk on the Latah Trail.

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UPDATED with plant identification help from Gerry Queener, of Troy, ID - many thanks! See his information in the comments following the post.
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I've been battling a nasty bug that's been making me cough and sound hoarse for days, with limited results. But on Monday, I decided a breath of fresh air and some good Palousian scenery was just the medicine to set me right - so I drove eight miles east from my house to Troy, Idaho, to walk on the stretch of the Latah Trail beginning at the city park, in the roughly northwesterly direction towards Moscow.


I couldn't have hoped for a better day. The sun was shining, there was a light breeze, and it was about 68 degrees. Woodpeckers, magpies and many other birds were all over. There were butterflies - blue, orange, yellow, white; and many dragonflies, which made me recall Gerard Manley Hopkins: As kingfishers catch fire, dragonflies draw flame. (Forced reading way back in junior college.)

This wildflower really caught my eye. UPDATE: Thanks to the anonymous reader who helped me identify this as trillium (see the comment at the bottom of the post); also known as wakerobin. vvvvvvvvvvvADDED 5/25: Carol Gosseen of Pasco wrote: "Your picture of the trillium has a pink flower because it has been in bloom for a long time. When they first come out, it is the most pristine white, sitting on the brightest dark green. They knock your socks off. I transplanted mine from my sisters yard in Marysville, WA about 35 years ago and they mulitlplied some, and are still blooming. I was told that if you pick the bloom, it would not bloom again for years."vvvvvvvvvvvvvv



Gerry Queener identified this plant as Woolly Mullein (Verbasum thapsus), "an introduced "weed" from Europe, but now common over most of temperate N.A. In times past, the leaves of this plant were gathered for the skin softening chemicals used in lotions and medicines to sooth inflamed tissues. Small birds utilize the small seeds in winter."

Lichens, mosses, horsetails and more; and I also spotted little striped shoots in the soft spring grass, looking a little like skinny raccoon tails. UPDATE: I've been told that these are, indeed, young horsetail shoots. As they get older they develop their distinctive feathery green leaves (fronds? what are they called?)vvvvvvv


When I stopped a little after one mile, I looked out over a lush meadow and out toward a distant mountain.



On this walk I saw two chipmunks, and some little critters. This beetle is a common sight, but for some reason, this particular one impressed me with its shiny black surface and a stalwart scuttle along the pavement.


I was just thrilled to see this little woolly worm! My son and I were chatting just recently about how we hadn't seen any of these in quite a while. There's some folklore associated with this worm - the size of the orange band on its body, when observed in the fall, is supposed to be a weather predictor.

From the Green Line: "The woolly worms of winter weather forecasting fame are black at each end with a reddish brown band in the middle. The size of the brown band is said to be an indicator of winter's severity. The narrower the band, the harsher the winter. If woolly worms are more brown than black and the middle band tends toward orange, that indicates the winter will be mild. Well, that's a fun bit of folk wisdom, but it's simply not true."

So there!

On closer inspection, I see that my little specimen has a different order of colors than stated in the Green Line, so maybe it's something other than a woolly worm. Any entomologists care to share some information?

When I reached the two mile point up the Troy side of the trail (or 9 miles from Moscow, as the opposite side of the marker indicates, in the picture) and walked a little bit further before I decided to head back down. What a great way to clear my lungs, get some sun and recharge my batteries to start a new week.

If you've never walked, run, biked, scootered or roller bladed on the Latah Trail, you're really missing out on a wonderful resource. Get on the trail anywhere between Moscow and Troy, and celebrate the beauty of the Palouse.

Gerry Queener corrected me on the yellow flowers pictured below: NOT arrowleaf balsamroot (Balsamorhiza sagittata), but Heart-leaf Arnica(Arnica cordifolia).

They look very similar; I should've paid more attention to the leaves - in this picture you can clearly see they are heart-shaped. Gerry says, "you may find Arrowleaf Balsam-root along the trail. The latter grows in a clump and has wooly leaves. Arnica prefers shade. Another medicinal, but these two are native. The French sell Arnica based salves for muscle aches. They work well."

Many thanks, Gerry! I'll need some of that arnica for my muscle aches and pains soon, after working on my garden!

P.S. Still some plants and critters in this post need identification, so if you can help, please share! Meantime, here's are two very informative sites: one on Palousian flora, and another on wildflowers of north Idaho.

The Million Bead Project

"I've told you a million times, no!!"

"I had a million and one things to do!”

"If you’ve heard it once, you’ve heard it a million times!"

In times when hyperbole is standard in everyday speech, many of us use “million” carelessly.

But stop and think about a million…for a second. Or a million seconds. Counting at a rate of one number every second, it takes about 15 minutes to count to one thousand.

It would take a little over a month to count to one million!

And that brings me to Jeanne Leffingwell’s Million Bead Project.

Jeanne is an artist and teacher in Moscow, Idaho, and is nationally known for her architectural glass bead sculptures. She reveres and seeks to pass along the bead-working and craft techniques she has collected and learned all her life.

Jeanne worked with students from 22 schools in Idaho, Oregon, and Washington to help them understand - firsthand - the full scope of a million, by assigning them projects involving glass beads. They had to track the number of beads used in each of their pieces.



The students range in age from elementary to college. Jeanne teaches them to weave on a simple loom made of recycled cardboard, using size 6/0 glass beads. They make a band to keep, then design and create one or more sections of bead weaving to be assembled into a group mosaic. Each student calculates his or her own total of beads woven, minus the piece s/he has kept. Classes then figure class totals, and from this the sum of beads used per group or school is calculated.

How long does it take to get 2400 students to use a million beads?

The project began two years ago, but on April 26th they reached the million mark!

The collective efforts of the project have been pieced together as one interconnected and fascinating mosaic, and goes on display today at the University of Idaho Prichard Art Gallery in downtown Moscow. It remains on exhibit through July 18th.



Jeanne tells me her next goal is to get to a billion!!

Good luck Jeanne, and a million thanks for your great work!

How to Win Arab Hearts and Minds....NOT!

The U.S.-based satellite TV network Al Hurra was created by the State Department in 2004, as part of the Bush Administration's public relations efforts in the Middle East.

But what's this? Al Hurra has been broadcasting the views of leaders of the militant Islamist groups Hamas and Hezbollah!

Toward the end of Wednesday's Congressional hearing on American efforts to win more popular support in the Arab world, New York Democrat Gary L. Ackerman scolded al-Hurra representatives, when one of them tried to defend the station by saying it broadcasts uncut, live versions of President Bush’s speeches.

“You carry President Bush live?” Ackerman asked. Then, incredulously, “Hopefully we find this helpful to the mission?”

There was laughter throughout the committee room, but the exchange highlighted the central quandary surrounding American public diplomacy efforts.

So reports Helene Cooper in the New York Times.

The State Department came up with a plan to promote America's image in the Middle East a few years ago. Besides creating al Hurra, it took Muslim students to the World Cup games in Germany, served as host for Arab journalists at training seminars in Washington, and dispatched Bush's very close aide Karen Hughes, under secretary of state for public diplomacy, to talk to Muslim women around the world.

Cooper writes: "Those efforts do little to counter the rising anger among Arabs over the American role in Iraq and the Bush administration’s refusal to shut down the military prison at Guantánamo Bay in Cuba."

And here we have al Hurra, paid for with American money, broadcasting the views of Hamas and Hezbollah. No wonder Ackerman was steamed. Still, "there was also tacit acknowledgment, even from Republican critics of Al Hurra, that blaming the network might be a little like shooting the messenger."

Here's a link to the full article.

Does Mom REALLY want a card and roses?

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ORIGINALLY POSTED MARCH 19, 2007

And reposted ahead of Mother's Day 2008 in the U.S.

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Sunday, March 18th was Mothering Sunday in the UK, roughly two months before its equivalent in the US: Mother's Day, where it falls on the second Sunday in May. On this occasion, the BBC reports that the woman who invented the celebration spent 40 years of her life fighting the commercialism that sprang up around the day.

Anna Jarvis campaigned for over a decade before President Woodrow Wilson, in 1914, dedicated a day to mothers.

Within a few years, the occasion became commercialized, to Anna's horror.

"Along with her sister Ellsinore, Anna spent the entire family inheritance on trying to undo the damage done to Mother's Day. One of her protests even got her arrested for disturbing the peace. She died in 1948, in poverty and without success.

"In one respect what Ms Jarvis wanted from the day lives on - it has taken on huge significance and is a celebration of motherhood. However, how most people chose to celebrate it would make her turn in her grave."

"Consumers are pressured by advertising and businesses to measure goodwill in terms of presents, says branding expert Jonathan Gabay.

"Mother's Day has become a yearly windfall to business. It's an opportunity to market everything from cut flowers and greetings cards to nostalgic CDs, perfume and beauty products."

The commercialism that accompanies so many holidays in the U.S. truly sickens me. Christmas as it is celebrated today was created by Coca-Cola, Montgomery Ward, Hallmark and other corporations, who saw immense opportunities which I'm sure have far exceeded their early expectations. People have completely caved to advertising and corporate propaganda. How many times have you heard of people going into serious credit card debt over Christmas presents? Did Jesus ever say "be sure to go into debt in My Name"? And yet, here we are. Valentine's and Halloween? Wouldn't be surprised at all to hear Hershey's and other candy companies had a big hand in turning these days into what are now the two biggest sugar high days of the year.

Fortunately, Thanksgiving seems to have escaped most of that commercial frenzy. It's one thing for which I DO give thanks every November.

But back to Mother's Day. I hardly claim to speak for all mothers, but for me a Hallmark card and a dozen roses don't do a thing. Going out to brunch on usually involves a crowded restaurant and waiting, which isn't my cup of tea. As much as chocolate is a lovely gift, it gives me nowhere the pleasure of my children's handmade cards and notes, awkward as they may be. THAT'S a present! I had told the kids to stop buying me stuff, so the handmade cards started coming, along with "Mom's Day Off," and the occasional surprise. One year, my son handed me a little basket of morel mushrooms he'd picked in the woods. He'd heard me say I missed the taste of morels. Three years ago, my daughter gave me a jar with little strips of paper in it, on which she wrote things that she loved about me. She told me to remember to open the jar and read the strips whenever I had a bad day. Really made me tear up.

Hallmark and FTD can't top these.

What do I really want for Mother's Day?

Pretty much what I have with my children every day. Good conversation, honesty, humor and respect. I want what any Mom wants: happy, fulfilled children. I want to look at them and see gentle souls, loving hearts, humor, generosity and good judgement; to know they've been equipped properly to be independent and responsible adults. The best thing my kids could give to me on Mother's Day is to let me know how I'm doing in my efforts to bring them up to be all these things.

Anna Jarvis was right to be horrified at the commercialization of the holiday she championed. Showering Mom with gifts and some pampering one day a year is no compensation for taking her for granted the rest of the year.

More mothers are taking up Anna Jarvis' fight against the commercialization of Mother's Day. The BBC piece quotes Carrie Longton, a founder of Mumsnet (in the UK):

"There is a real movement among mothers at the moment to think about mothers who are less fortunate. We are encouraging people to make a donation to charities that help mothers worldwide rather than buy flowers.

"I will be working on a cake stall on Mother's Day to raise money for HIV mothers in Africa. It costs just £7 to buy the medicine to make sure they don't pass HIV onto their children."

It's this type of action that Ms Jarvis would approve of. Especially as she hated Mother's Day cards, calling them "a poor excuse for the letter you are too lazy to write".

Hear, hear!!

Read the whole BBC article here.

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UPDATE 2: NPR had a piece on the marketing of Mother's Day, then and now. It aired on Friday, May 11. Listen to the Morning Edition piece here.

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Trail to Chinese Food Producers Turns Cold

American inspectors who arrived in China last week to investigate the two companies that exported tainted pet food ingredients found that the suspect facilities had been hastily closed down and cleaned up, federal officials said yesterday.

"There is nothing to be found. They are essentially shut down and not operating," said Walter Batts, deputy director of the Food and Drug Administration's office of international programs.

The Washington Post article by Rick Weiss is here.

More ways industrial chemicals are landing up where they can kill.

In China at least 18 people, most of them in Guangdong Province, died in a month last year after they ingested contaminated medicine.

So reports the New York Times in the May 6 article, From China to Panama, a Trail of Poisoned Medicine .

Walt Bogdanich and Jake Hooker write:

"The kidneys fail first. Then the central nervous system begins to misfire. Paralysis spreads, making breathing difficult, then often impossible without assistance. In the end, most victims die.

"Many of them are children, poisoned at the hands of their unsuspecting parents.

"The syrupy poison, diethylene glycol, is an indispensable part of the modern world, an industrial solvent and prime ingredient in some antifreeze.

"It is also a killer. And the deaths, if not intentional, are often no accident.

"Over the years, the poison has been loaded into all varieties of medicine — cough syrup, fever medication, injectable drugs — a result of counterfeiters who profit by substituting the sweet-tasting solvent for a safe, more expensive syrup, usually glycerin, commonly used in drugs, food, toothpaste and other products.

"Toxic syrup has figured in at least eight mass poisonings around the world in the past two decades. Researchers estimate that thousands have died. In many cases, the precise origin of the poison has never been determined. But records and interviews show that in three of the last four cases it was made in China, a major source of counterfeit drugs."

This is a picture of Ernesto Osorio of Panama. Poison cough syrup from China hospitalized him Panama last year and partly paralyzed his face. The story continues,

"Panama is the most recent victim. Last year, government officials there unwittingly mixed diethylene glycol into 260,000 bottles of cold medicine — with devastating results. Families have reported 365 deaths from the poison, 100 of which have been confirmed so far. With the onset of the rainy season, investigators are racing to exhume as many potential victims as possible before bodies decompose even more.

"Panama’s death toll leads directly to Chinese companies that made and exported the poison as 99.5 percent pure glycerin."

A pediatrician told the reporters the problem is vastly underreported.

"Beyond Panama and China, toxic syrup has caused mass poisonings in Haiti, Bangladesh, Argentina, Nigeria and twice in India."

And here's the most disheartening part of this unnecessary tragedy:

"In China, the government is vowing to clean up its pharmaceutical industry...but when Chinese officials investigated the role of Chinese companies in the Panama deaths, they found that no laws had been broken."

For the rest of the article, click here.

Another Tale of Food Safety Challenges in China

Lots of people are thinking about China's food production practices these days after the melamine and wheat gluten stories made headlines. (See my earlier post on this subject.)

Today's Los Angeles Times has a story on honey production there.

FUFENG, CHINA — For two years, Sun Baoli has been trying to clean up the dirty honey business here. He's been met with nasty stings from bees, but those are nothing compared with the curses and punches from their keepers.

The 52-year-old entrepreneur paid the local government about $5,000 to rent part of a nature preserve teeming with nectar-filled acacia trees. He's been recruiting beekeepers to harvest on the grounds, and all he asks is that they follow a few simple health rules. First, no using antibiotics in their colonies; the drugs can make people sick. Second, no storing honey in metal containers; those can taint the sweet goo with toxic iron and lead.

Some 45 keepers have signed up. But many others are hostile to his efforts, which they see as a threat to their decades-old way of doing business on the cheap and making easy profits.

On Saturday night, as the first acacia flowers were starting to bloom, a gang of 15 local beekeepers ambushed Sun as he got out of his red Isuzu truck, beating him and leaving him with a mild concussion.

"It's going to take some time," he said with obvious understatement.

Honey and thousands of other Chinese food products are showing up more and more on dining tables around the world. Last year, China said it exported $3.8 billion worth of food to the U.S., including vast quantities of apple juice, garlic, sausage casings, canned mushrooms and honey.

In any given month, though, U.S. customs inspectors block dozens of Chinese food shipments, including produce contaminated with banned additives and pesticides as well as seafood tainted with drugs. In the wake of the recall of pet foods that U.S. regulators say contained tainted Chinese ingredients, China's food-safety standards have become dinner table conversation across the United States.

To read the whole article, follow this link to the LA Times article.

Colbert Takes on NPR (coffee mugs, tote bags, macrame-hugging/lutefisk-eating Norwegians, et al)

Morning Edition issued a convoluted correction this week. The show had aired a clip from The Colbert Report, in which Stephen Colbert said something that didn't sit too well with former Undersecretary of Defense, Douglas Feith.

So, just as we've previously asked why some people feel the need to apologize for the actions of others, we now ask:

Why is Steve Insbleep apologizing for something said by a fake news pundit on a comedy show?

I'm not in the mood to chew on that right now, so over to Colbert himself for today's diversion:

Food Safety: So Much More Than E. Coli

This is a picture of scrap melamine, a coal by-product used in the manufacture of plastic. In China, some feed manufacturers have been using it for years to boost the protein content of their products, commanding a higher price, reported the New York Times.

Melamine has a chemical content similar to protein, and cannot be easily distinguished when testing for protein content. However, melamine doesn't provide any nutritional benefits. It's receiving scrutiny in this country because it was recently found in some brands of pet food that sickened, and killed, some animals.

This sort of adulteration, however, is not new, and has a tragic history in China.

Three years ago babies in China’s Anhui province were afflicted by a strange condition. The infants were getting thinner and thinner, while their heads seemed abnormally large in comparison to the rest of their bodies. 170 of them were hospitalized, and 13 died.

The cause? Malnutrition arising from fake baby formula, with protein contents well below the Chinese standard of 12 percent: thirty-one of the products used by the families contained less than 5 per cent of protein. One of them had only 0.37 per cent!(Source: China Daily) Might as well have fed the babies with water.

This is really a major cause of concern. The Washington Post reports China is the world's biggest exporter of fruits and vegetables, and a major exporter of other food products. Some of those products land up in the U.S.

Former FDA officials revealed that last year, inspectors sampled less than 2 percent of 199,000 shipments of Chinese food products.

Among those shipment the FDA did inspect and reject were pesticide-laden pea pods, drug-laced catfish, filthy plums and crawfish contaminated with salmonella.

Other known Chinese food hazards: the cancer-causing industrial dye Sudan Red, used to boost the color and value of eggs. Asthma medication fed to pigs to produce leaner meat. (Associated Press, found on MSNBC.)

As you shudder, let's ask what lies behind these practices?

One source is China’s fractured farming sector, comprised of small landholdings which make regulation difficult.

The AP article goes on to say, "Small farms ship to market with little documentation. Testing of the safety and purity of farm products such as milk is often haphazard, hampered by fuzzy lines of authority among regulators. Only about 6 percent of agricultural products were considered pollution-free in 2005, while safer, better quality food officially stamped as “green” accounts for just 1 percent of the total, according to figures compiled by the U.S. Department of Agriculture.

Further, China's government "has found that companies have cut corners in virtually every aspect of food production and packaging, including improper use of fertilizer, unsanitary packing and poor refrigeration of dairy products," reports the Washington Post.

"William O'Brien, president of Hami Food of Beijing, which transports food for the McDonald's restaurant chain and other multinational companies in China, said in some of his competitors' operations, 'chilled and frozen products very often come in taxi cabs or in vans -- not under properly controlled conditions. That is something that people should worry about.'

"Not surprisingly, food-related poisonings are a common occurrence."

The U.S is a huge producer of food, so I'm wondering why it needs to import from countries with questionable food production practices in the first place.

I first sat up and took notice of China's food production practices in 2004, when the New York Times did a cover story about the staggering pollution on the Huai River in Henan province. In particular, the monosodium glutamate factory that flushed foul-smelling black liquid into the river - not only did fishermen find a severely reduced catch, many of the fish were deformed in some way. Villagers also noticed their skin burned when they washed with water from the river; the rate of cancer shot up, among peasants too poor to afford a basic subsistence, much less medical care for serious conditions. (Article: Rivers Run Black, and Chinese Die of Cancer)

It made me so angry. This was not long after the fake baby formula scandal broke.

Is China's enormous capitalist boom driving these entrepreneurs to have no moral regard for the consequences of their actions?

Are these entrepreneurs simply emulating what they've seen from some of their Western counterparts?


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From the Post's article Pet Deaths Spur Call for Better FDA Screening:

"Several Chinese suppliers conceded over the weekend that adding melamine to pet food ingredients -- now blamed for the deaths of many animals in the United States and possible contamination of the human food supply -- is but the latest technique for fooling U.S. companies into thinking they are purchasing a high-quality product.

"Before melamine there was urea, Chinese traders said -- another nitrogen-rich chemical that was used to give false high scores on tests of protein content but was abandoned after it made animals ill.

"The task of guarding against contaminants in imports has become far more complicated because an increasing portion of the tens of billions of dollars in Chinese food and agricultural imports involves powders and concentrates for the processed-food industry -- including the wheat gluten and rice protein at the center of the pet food scandal. Animal feed imports alone grew sevenfold from 2001 to 2006, the Commerce Department says.

"Such products pose three problems: Their makeup is not obvious by mere visual inspection; they can be easily and invisibly contaminated or intentionally spiked with chemicals that are not on the FDA's standard battery of tests; and their origins are often vague, because they have been through several stages of processing and trade."

Now an increasing number of legislators, scientists and others are saying it is time to modernize FDA's authority to trace the sources of food imports and punish scofflaws -- legal powers that experts say have barely evolved over the past 70 years.

Mission Accomp....Say What?

That was May 1, 2003.

Here's what happened on that day four years ago, as reported on CNN:

ABOARD USS ABRAHAM LINCOLN (CNN) -- President Bush made a landing aboard the USS Abraham Lincoln Thursday, arriving in the co-pilot's seat of a Navy S-3B Viking after making two fly-bys of the carrier.


It was the first time a sitting president has arrived on the deck of an aircraft carrier by plane. The jet made what is known as a "tailhook" landing, with the plane, traveling about 150 mph, hooking onto the last of four steel wires across the flight deck and coming to a complete stop in less than 400 feet.

Moments after the landing, the president, wearing a green flight suit and holding a white helmet, got off the plane, saluted those on the flight deck and shook hands with them. Above him, the tower was adorned with a big sign that read, "Mission Accomplished."

(End quote. the rest of the article breathlessly describes the "picture-perfect landing" and the roar of approving sailors. Read it here.)

As we now know, that sign that generated lots of controversy, and the White House tried to minimize its role in putting it up. From Wikipedia:

"The administration and naval sources stated that the banner was the Navy's idea, White House staff members made the banner, and it was hung by the U.S. Navy personnel. White House spokesman Scott McClellan told CNN "We took care of the production of it. We have people to do those things. But the Navy actually put it up." According to John Dickerson of TIME magazine, the White House later conceded that they actually hung the banner but still insists it had been done at the request of the crewmembers."

It's worth reading the full article for more on how the administration subsequently dealt with the embarrassment of that premature declaration. It went so far as to revise history, at least on the White House website. Around Election Day 2006, observers noted the "Mission Accomplished" banner was cropped out of the official White House website picture of the event.

And here we are, four years later.

Democrats today present Bush with the Iraq spending bill, including a timetable for withdrawal of troops from Iraq. Bush has threatened to veto the bill.

THIS JUST IN from the Washington Post:

BAGHDAD, April 30 -- The deaths of more than 100 American troops in April made it the deadliest month so far this year for U.S. forces in Iraq, underscoring the growing exposure of Americans as thousands of reinforcements arrive for an 11-week-old offensive to tame sectarian violence.

Stay tuned.

Verbal Fisticuffs!

“I’m not going to get into a name-calling match with somebody who has a 9 percent approval rating.”

- Sen. Harry Reid (D-Nevada), Senate Majority Leader, rebutting comments by Vice President Dick Cheney rebutting Reid's comments on the Iraq War. (Reid said the war is "lost.")


Read more about their exchange, at the New York Times.

Who Needs the Red Carpet? It's the White House Correspondents Association Dinner

"Inconvenient Truth" producer Laurie David and musician Sheryl Crow have been crossing the country in a biodiesel bus to educate college students about global warming. I saw them discussing their mission with Bill Maher on HBO a couple of weeks ago.

In case you missed the big story of Saturday night:

Crow and David were at the White House Correspondents' Association Dinner at the Hilton Washington.

The Washington Post's Amy Argetsinger and Roxanne Roberts reported the pair "walked over to Table 92 at the Hilton Washington to chat with Karl Rove -- and the resulting exchange was suitably heated.

"'I am floored by what I just experienced with Karl Rove,' David reports. 'I went over to him and said, 'I urge you to take a new look at global warming.' He went zero to 100 with me. . . . I've never had anyone be so rude.'

"Rove's version: 'She came over to insult me and she succeeded.'"

But what tickled me most was the Post's gossip-style piece on the post-dinner events, by Libby Copeland and Dana Milbank. They abandoned their serious reporter roles that night. Milbank wired himself with a microphone, then he and Copeland set out with mischief in mind.

They went to the Vanity Fair at writer Christopher Hitchens' home, where they see "World Bank President Paul Wolfowitz, but we do not his see his girlfriend, Shaha Riza, the World Bank worker for whom Wolfowitz gallantly arranged a raise. We offer several women $20 to approach Wolfowitz and ask for a raise, but we find no takers."

That made me howl.

The pair then moved over "to the Capitol File party at the Colombian ambassador's residence, by now quite fuzzyheaded from teeny-weeny drinkie-winkies, and on our way in we catch sight of booted "American Idol" contestant Chris Sligh.

"Hey, Chris! What's it like to be temporarily famous?

"'Hopefully, it's not temporary,' he says politely.

"Oopsie-daisy. Awk-ward."

Catch other after-party glimpses, such as the exchanges between Michelle Kwan and Condoleeza Rice, Isaiah Washington and Greta Van Susteren, and what the gift/swag bags contained, in the Washington Post.

Burned by Stephen Colbert's roast of George W. Bush at the 2006 event, the entertainment this year came from impressionist Rich Little, who from most accounts (including this one) is desperately in need of fresh material.

Why Are Koreans Apologizing For Cho's Actions?

Children attend a candlelight vigil in Seoul for the 32 victims of the Virginia Tech massacre. Many Koreans expressed concern that their country's image has been marred by the rampage by a South Korean-born gunman, despite U.S. Embassy statements to the contrary. Photo Credit: By Lee Jin-man -- Associated Press Photo

The day after the Virginia Tech shootings, it was revealed that the person who shot 32 students and faculty before turning the gun on himself, is South Korean. Then came a flood of apologies from Korean Americans, and Koreans.

Washington State Senator Paull Shin of Edmonds, a Korean-American, apologized to fellow lawmakers and legislative staff members, first at a private prayer meeting, then in Senate chambers, reported the Seattle Post-Intelligencer.

An emotional Shin said that the U.S. sacrificed much for Korea, and this incident hurt him deeply.

"Although legislators told him he had no need to apologize, Shin, fighting his emotions, said he felt compelled to do so because of his acceptance in America and his leadership position in the Korean American community."

Shin was just one of many Korean-Americans to apologize for something for which they had absolutely no part.

More from the Seattle P-I:

"At the University of Washington, student leader Jihye Kim also shouldered responsibility.

"Personally, after hearing about the criminal's racial background, I felt as if I am the one who caused the tragedy," said Kim, president of the Korean Student Union. "I couldn't make eye contact with others. I greatly apologize for those who are closely related to the victims."

Remorse is also blanketing Seoul. The Washington Post reports many Koreans have expressed concern that the image of their country has been marred. South Korea's ambassador to Washington, Lee Tae Shik has even gone so far as to say Koreans need to "repent," and fast for 32 days to mourn the 32 people Cho killed.

That's some heavy, heavy guilt.

The question is, why? Why are Koreans and Korean Americans taking it upon themselves to apologize for the actions of one man - who by all accounts, had nothing to do with anyone, Korean or otherwise?

Lim Jie-Hyun, a history professor at Hangyang University in Seoul, has an idea. "I can smell a collective sense of guilt," he says. "There is confusion [in Korea] between individual responsibility and national responsibility," he told TIME magazine.

Writing in the Washington Post, Adrian Hong says,

"Media outlets have printed and broadcast remarks from Koreans ranging from leaders of civic organizations to men on the street; many seemed to home in on a specific sentiment -- that Koreans somehow felt as though they were responsible for the terrible events in Blacksburg."

Hong goes on to say:

"Korean Americans do not need to apologize for what happened Monday. All of us, as fellow Americans, feel tremendous sorrow and grief at the carnage. Our community, as it should, has expressed solidarity with and sent condolences to the victims, and as Americans, Koreans certainly should take part in the healing process.

"But the actions of Cho Seung Hui are no more the fault of Korean Americans than the actions of the Washington area snipers were the fault of African Americans. Just as those crimes were committed by deranged individuals acting on their own initiative, and not because of any ethnic grievance or agenda, these were isolated acts by an individual, not a reflection of a community.

"Further, it is inappropriate for the Korean ambassador to the United States to apologize on behalf of Korean Americans and speak of the need to work toward being accepted as a "worthwhile minority" in this nation. While the Korean ambassador represents the interests of Korean nationals in the United States, and the interests of the Republic of Korea, he does not speak for naturalized Koreans here."

Hong is a director of the Mirae Foundation, which provides mentorship and empowerment of Korean American college students. He goes on to say:

"Korean culture also includes the concept of han, a shared sense of injustice and pain carried through generations; this is, Koreans say, a result of much of the oppression the nation has faced in past centuries by regional powers."

My colleague Sueann Ramella shared her thoughts on han in her blog following a winter vacation to Korea.

More from Adrian Hong:

"The Korean claim to guilt and shame on behalf of Cho Seung Hui is well-intentioned but misguided. We are Americans first. While we share an affinity with Korea and appreciate and respect Korean culture, at the end of the day we are Americans. Our president is in the White House, not in the Blue House. And our response to this crisis should be as Americans, not as Koreans.

"Many Koreans interviewed by the media have also expressed concerns of retaliatory attacks, and some international students voiced fears of losing their status in the United States. Thankfully, it seems that few groups have voiced hate or advocated retribution against Koreans at large for this tragedy. (Some media outlets have even stopped referring to the gunman's ethnicity, mentioning his South Korean citizenship in passing. He is now known simply as "Cho" or "the gunman.")

"Moreover, it is absurd to think that the United States would somehow pursue retaliatory measures on international students from Korea, or any nation, as a result of such an attack. The other 100,000 Korean nationals studying in the United States are largely model citizens and tend to be quite engaged on their campuses and in their communities. Perhaps this fear stems from our collective experience in April 1992, when Koreans became scapegoats for simmering ethnic tensions and, somehow, were seen as responsible for the Rodney King beatings, and nearly 2,000 Korean businesses were the targets of rioting and looting. But I believe America has moved beyond that. Today, no Koreans should be afraid to leave their homes or to attend school.

"I have great faith in the American people. We have come a long way as a nation and understand today that the actions of an individual do not reflect on a community. I believe we have moved beyond the days when we would assign guilt and penance to an entire race based on isolated incidents.

"While the past two days have brought random acts of juvenile hate and immature racial slurs and acts, the vast majority of Americans understand that Korean Americans were victims along with the rest of America -- that we all took part in the tragedy at Virginia Tech, regardless of race or ethnicity.

"So I ask the Koreans of America to please continue expressing your heartfelt condolences. They are helping the healing process. But please do not apologize. The actions of Cho Seung Hui were not your fault. If our heads are hung low, they should be in grief, not in apology and shame. This tragedy is something for all of us to bear, examine and try to prevent as Americans, together."

Here's Hong's full article.

Instant prejudice: Korea and Virginia Tech

Andrew Leonard, writing in Salon:

"Conservative commentator Debbie Schlussel's first reaction to the news that an "Asian" was responsible for the Virginia Tech massacre was to declare that a "Paki" was likely responsible. After being confronted with irrefutable evidence of her nearly criminal idiocy, she amended her analysis: "Even if it does not turn out that the shooter is Muslim, this is a demonstration to Muslim jihadists all over that it is extremely easy to shoot and kill multiple American college students."

"Schlussel's racism, albeit appalling, is also instructional. Individual prejudices inform our comprehension of any new tragedy much faster than facts. For most of the American punditocracy, the Virginia Tech shootings have ignited an instananeous flare-up of the always smoldering gun-control/right-to-keep-and-bear-arms ideological brushfire. But if Schlussel could jump even farther -- to the immediate assumption that the shootings were a manifestation of jihad, imagine what the reaction has been in the Korean neighborhood of the Internet.

"Robert Koehler's excellent Korea-focused blog, The Marmot's Hole offers a way in. There, you can learn that the Korean government is worried what the news will mean for Korea's international reputation, and whether the killings will cast a pall on the almost signed-sealed-and-delivered Korean-U.S. free-trade agreement. In Koehler's comments area and on other English-language Korea-focused blogs, the battle is already raging over the truth-or-raciscm quotient of a stereotype that holds that Korean males are excessively prone to violent jealous rages. One blogger, demonstrating with embarrassing panache exactly why some people should not be given the keys to the Internet, has even declared that the calm efficiency with which Cho Seung-hui murdered so many people "immediately suggested someone with a level of rigorous military training that only South Korean males can generally be expected to have."

"Facts are useful in such situations: CNN is reporting that the 23-year-old Cho came to the United States in 1992. He would have been 8 years old. One wonders exactly how much military training he had received by that point.

"Another fact provided by the Marmot's Hole: According to one report, Korea has more students studying abroad in the U.S. than any other country: 100,000. Debbie Schlussel thinks that the foreign residency of Cho Seung-hui is "yet another reason to stop letting in so many foreign students." But 99.999 percent of those 100,000 Koreans somehow managed not to engage in mass killing sprees. My advice to the Korean blogosphere -- despite all the cultural hypothesizing that is about to swarm the mediasphere -- is to strive to stay calm. Jealous rage knows no borders."

Here's the link.

Former Bush Advisor Examines Impact of Iraq War.

Reviewing the PBS series America at a Crossroads, Alessandra Stanley of the New York Times writes:

Richard N. Perle can sleep at night.

If “The Case for War: In Defense of Freedom” is any guide, this former chairman of the Defense Policy Board who so fiercely lobbied for the invasion of Iraq enjoys the deep, flannelly slumber of infants and the well medicated.

In an hourlong, first-person tour of his thinking, Mr. Perle admits neither mistakes nor regrets. The war is not even his main concern. Instead, Mr. Perle, a leading neo-conservative, uses much of tonight’s segment of the weeklong PBS series “America at a Crossroads” to argue that the United States should foment regime change in Iran, regardless of what Iran and other nations think.
“There’s got to be some advantage to being a superpower,” Mr. Perle tells Patrick J. Buchanan, the conservative columnist who worked with Mr. Perle in the Reagan administration.

Read the full article.

Not enough room? Add on! Singapore knows how.

I got to talking to Operations Manager Scott Weatherly a few days ago about changes in the land of my birth. This is an expansion on part of the ensuing discussion.

The United Nations lists Singapore as the world's fourth most densely populated country, with 6208 people per square kilometer. The United States ranks number 172, with 31 people per square km. Here's the whole list .

Want an even more stark comparison? I live in Latah County, Idaho, with a population in 200 just under 35,000 on 1077 square miles.That's about 13 people on every square kilometer!

Singapore wasn't always that crowded. The country gained independence in 1965, when I was not quite three years old. The population then was about 2 million, land area about 225 square miles (figures drawn from memory, but fairly close!) That's 581 square kilometers, computing to nearly 3500 persons per square kilometer. Today, the population is more than double: FOUR AND A HALF MILLION. When I read recently that the government expects the population to rise to six and a half million, it made me sweat. Once you've lived in the tropics you'll never forget that humidity.

Still, the Singapore government has steadily made plans for the additional people. From 581 sq km (224 sq miles)in 1965, the island nation is now 650 sq km and plans to acquire another 100 sq km in the next 30 years.

How?

Build/reclaim more land!

It gets through 1.5 billion cubic metres (2 billion cubic yards) of dredged silica a year — 333 cubic metres for each man, woman and child. The Government has been forced to draw on its strategic sand reserve, which Singapore hoards as other nations keep stocks of oil and food.

Stop to think about that.

Where's all this dirt coming from?

Richard Lloyd Parry's March 17th article in the Times explains:

Singapore accused of land grab as islands disappear by boatload

With more than 17,000 islands — from the jungly expanses of Borneo and Sumatra to unnamed rocks jutting out of the sea — you may think that Indonesia would not mind if a few of them went missing. But the huge South-East Asian nation has become caught up in a furious dispute with Singapore, its tiny neighbour, which is accused of literally making off with its territory.

Indonesia has banned the export of sand and imposed strict controls on shipments of gravel, after fears that its islands were being loaded on to ships and carried away to Singapore. In its thirst for building materials and landfill to reclaim new territory from the sea, Indonesians allege, Singapore has been stealing the land beneath their feet.

The dispute reached a climax this week after 24 tugs and barges, carrying granite chips, were intercepted by the Indonesian authorities as they sailed home to Singapore. Jakarta announced that future exports would be allowed only if the granite could be certified as environmentally friendly.

Since Indonesia announced its ban on sand in February, the price of a cubic metre of it has increased more than seven times, from S$6.5 (£2.18) to S$50. The Indonesian Navy has mobilised 18 ships to intercept gravel pirates and sand bandits.

“Some of these islands are reduced to islets, and could even disappear below the surface,” Hendropriyono, Indonesia’s former intelligence chief, has said. “This could theoretically lead to a cartographic zero-sum game in which Singapore’s gain could be at Indonesia’s territorial loss.”

Relations between Singapore and its neighbours have been tense since the city state became independent from Malaysia in 1965, and disagreements often arise over natural resources. The Singaporean achievement was to create an affluent, highly educated society in a swampy, jungly, malarial island with a population of 4.5 million people at the tip of the Malaysian peninsula.

Singapore’s reliance on its neighbours gives them powerful leverage over it — in the past Malaysia, with whom relations are particularly prickly, has threatened to cut off water supplies across the Straits of Johor. But the sand sanctions are equally threatening.

After years of stagnation, Singapore is undergoing a construction boom, with an increased demand for sand for the manufacture of concrete. The island also has long-term plans to ease its overcrowding by reclaiming land from the sea.

At independence, Singapore was 581 sq km (224 sq miles); now it is 650 sq km and plans to acquire another 100 sq km in the next 30 years. It gets through 1.5 billion cubic metres (2 billion cubic yards) of dredged silica a year — 333 cubic metres for each man, woman and child. The Government has been forced to draw on its strategic sand reserve, which Singapore hoards as other nations keep stocks of oil and food.

There may be more to Indonesia’s position than a sudden rush of environmental conscientiousness. If Indonesia really does lose islands, it also risks losing the rights to the ocean surrounding them. “The Convention on the Law of the Sea dictates that national territory is traced according to the coastal base line, and if islands near Singapore disappear, then the base line is pulled closer to the mainland,” says Mr Hendropriyono. “As it now stands, Singapore is only 20 kilometres from Nipah island, which has been especially eroded by the loss of sand.”

Many in Singapore also suspect that cutting off the sand pipeline is intended to put pressure on them to sign an extradition treaty that would let Indonesia get its hands on alleged white-collar criminals who have taken sanctuary there.

“From time to time, we must expect countries to pressure us in the hope that we will then give way to their demands,” George Yeo, the Foreign Minister, told the national parliament. “Singaporeans know that if we give in to such pressures, we would only invite more such pressures.”

Here's Parry's full article.

I've got to hand it to Singaporeans, though: with so many people jostling against each other - day in, day out - the country still manages to have one of the lowest crime rates in the world. They are justifiably proud of that. Many people have noted (I among them) that it's a very strict society, with fines leveraged for even mild transgressions such as jaywalking and forgetting to flush public toilets. Let's not even speak of the punishment for drug use or trafficking, or sedition. Perhaps that's the price to pay for peace and harmony in a very tight space.

Court: Wisconsin Woman Was Wrongly Convicted. For What?

Georgia Thompson has been acquitted! This, after serving four months in prison.

Who is Georgia Thompson?

She was a Wisconsin state employee, who put a state travel contract up for bid. She awarded it to a company whose CEO had donated money to the re-election campaign of Democratic governor Jim Doyle.

U-S Attorney Steven Biskupic and US District Judge Rudolph Randa, both Republican appointees, put Georgia Thompson in jail on corruption charges while the case was appealed. Threat to society, maybe?

Meantime, Doyle's opponents spent millions in the 2006 campaign to tie the governor to Ms. Thompson. Still, he won re-election.

Did I mention that the travel company in question did submit the lowest bid?

On April 5th, a federal appeals court acquitted Georgia Thompson. A three-judge panel of the 7th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago also ordered that she be immediately released from prison.

Dave Zweifel writes in Wisconsin's Capital Times:

"The U.S. 7th Circuit Court of Appeals...chided the U.S. Attorney's Office in Milwaukee for pursuing such a flimsy case, and ordered that [Georgia Thompson] be immediately released from prison, where she had spent the past four months.

"We've all seen the fallout since. Ironically, the tables have now been turned on the U.S. attorney, Steven Biskupic, who -- rightly or wrongly -- has been caught up in the hypercharged Washington scandal centering on George Bush's attorney general, Alberto Gonzales. It seems that each day brings new evidence that U.S. attorneys were pressured by the AG's office into pursuing Democrats and if they didn't, they would be replaced.

"The Washington scandal has legitimized claims by those who point to U.S. attorneys, like Biskupic, who took on Democrats just before last fall's election. Republican Mark Green's campaign for governor against Jim Doyle trumpeted the Thompson case during the entire campaign with attack ad after attack ad insisting that her conviction was proof that Doyle was a crook."

Adam Cohen has more to say on the subject in his opinion piece in the New York Times. He writes:

"While he was investigating, in the fall of 2005, Mr. Biskupic informed the media. Justice Department guidelines say federal prosecutors can publicly discuss investigations before an indictment only under extraordinary circumstances. This case hardly met that test.

"The prosecution proceeded on a schedule that worked out perfectly for the Republican candidate for governor. Mr. Biskupic announced Ms. Thompson’s indictment in January 2006. She went to trial that summer, and was sentenced in late September, weeks before the election. Mr. Biskupic insisted in July, as he vowed to continue the investigation, that “the review is not going to be tied to the political calendar.”

"But the Thompson case was “the No. 1 issue” in the governor’s race, says the Wisconsin Democratic Party chairman, Joe Wineke. In a barrage of commercials, Mr. Doyle’s opponents created an organizational chart that linked Ms. Thompson — misleadingly called a “Doyle aide” — to the governor. Ms. Thompson appeared in an unflattering picture, stamped “guilty,” and in another ad, her name was put on a graphic of jail-cell doors slamming shut.

"Most of the eight dismissed prosecutors came from swing states, and Democrats suspect they may have been purged to make room for prosecutors who would help Republicans win close elections. If so, it might also mean that United States attorneys in all swing states were under unusual pressure.

"Wisconsin may be the closest swing state of all. President Bush lost it in 2004 by about 12,000 votes, and in 2000, by about half that. According to some Wisconsin politicians, Karl Rove said that their state was his highest priority among governor’s races in 2006, because he believed a Republican governor could help the party win Wisconsin in the 2008 presidential election."

Alberto Gonzales is sure to be asked about this when he testifies on Capitol Hill Tuesday (4/17) morning.

Outside the possible political ramifications, I think many of us have Georgia on our minds. This woman was innocent, yet sat in an Illinois prison for four months. Worse, she lost her home. AND her life savings. If it turns out she was a pawn in a nasty political game, we should all fear something like that could happen to any of us.

Wolfowitz "Sorry." His Staff Doesn't Care.

It's out in the open, now.

From the Washington Post:

World Bank insiders confirmed reports that president Wolfowitz "directed personnel officials to give Shaha Riza, his longtime companion, an automatic "outstanding" rating and the highest possible pay raises during an indefinite posting at the State Department, as well as a promotion upon her return to the bank."

Wolfie apologized at a news conference yesterday. "I made a mistake for which I am sorry," he said.

After the presser he tried to talk to about 200 World Bank staffers, but didn't get to say much. Some of the people gathered there began hissing, booing, and chanting "Resign. . . . Resign."

Even as the Bush Administration is publicly showing support for its former Deputy Defense Secretary, one of its officials is privately expressing reservation: "his relationship with the staff is really bad, and I don't know if it's recoverable."

Booing and hissing from his staffers, who have filled the World Bank anonymous message board with messages criticizing Wolfowitz - I'll say the relationship is past repair!!

From the reaction of the WB staff, I'm guessing Wolfowitz wasn't a nice boss to begin with. People typically can handle a fair amount of nastiness from the boss, but it's clear this crowd had not a shred of affection of respect for their president.

Trying to draw the focus away from himself, Wolfie said "the controversy threatens to overshadow the official agenda of the bank's annual spring meeting," which includes "ratification of a global anti-corruption strategy and funding to reduce poverty in Africa."

His nepotism exposed, he thinks it's okay to be preaching against corruption?