In the event that the 'bellicose rhetoric' of North Korean leader Kim Jong-un turns into something more serious, the opening hours of conflict could be 'pretty ugly,' defense analysts warn.
By Anna Mulrine,?Staff writer / March 29, 2013
North Korean leader Kim Jong-un speaks during a meeting of information workers of the whole army at the April 25 House of Culture in Pyongyang, March 28, 2013.
KCNA/REUTERS
Enlarge
Veteran North Korea watchers, citing what they see as increasingly troubling signs coming from the dictatorial regime, are voicing concerns that its new young leader, Kim Jong-un, could do something ill-advised, even start a war.
Click Here for your FREE 30 DAYS of The Christian Science Monitor Weekly Digital Edition
On Friday North Korea renewed what the U.S. has condemned as its ?bellicose rhetoric,? saying Kim had ordered the nation?s missile forces to prepare to strike the United States and South Korea.
In response to the prospect of North Korea following through on this and other marginally less dire threats, Defense Secretary Chuck Hagel said Thursday that the US military ?will unequivocally defend, and [is] unequivocally committed to the alliance with, South Korea.?
But if hostilities were in fact to erupt, how might they play out?
Some former US Special Operations Forces and longtime Korea defense analysts have their own thoughts on what an ?unequivocal? US military response could look like, including how US troops would be deployed in the event of a lethal first strike on US and allied military forces by North Korea ? precisely the sort of move Mr. Kim has been threatening to make.
What would such a first North Korean move resemble? It might involve small-scale infiltrations using mini-submarines, assassination attempts, ?maybe shooting someone on the DMZ [demilitarized zone] or missile tests that fly too close over Japan,? says Patrick Cronin, senior director of the Asia-Pacific Security Program at the Center for a New American Security.
This might be done ?to show he?s in charge, he won?t be intimidated, or because he?s truly desperate,? Dr. Cronin says.
In the past, most such provocations generally have been met with international condemnation and strengthened sanctions.
Should Kim choose to do ?something even more outlandish,? the US military and South Korean response would be more dire, he adds.
One of the scenarios that most concerns US defense analysts, for example, involves North Korea?s estimated 500,000 to 700,000 rounds of artillery aimed at Seoul, says retired Brig. Gen. Russell Howard, former commander of the 1st Special Forces Group, which has an Asia focus.?
Should Kim decide to begin firing them, he says, ?in the first few hours of the conflict, it would be pretty ugly.?
At the same time, North Korea could begin ?swarming? its sizable contingent of 600,000 Special Operations commandos, adds Mr. Howard, now the director of the Terrorism, Research, and Education Program at the Monterey Institute of International Studies.?
BEIJING/SHANGHAI (Reuters) - Twenty minutes' drive from Shanghai's glitzy financial district, dozens of migrant workers are preparing to abandon homes in old shipping containers, as one of the more unusual solutions to China's housing shortage faces the wrecking ball.
Cheap but crowded neighborhoods are being cleared across China as part of a stepped-up "urbanization" campaign by China's new leaders. The country aims to spend an estimated $6 trillion on infrastructure, including housing, as a projected 400 million people become urban residents over the next decade.
But in an ironic twist, the clearance of so-called "villages within cities" removes cheap housing stock for the very people targeted to fuel that migration, without providing sufficient replacement units. The land is sold by municipalities to developers who generally erect expensive apartment towers.
That throws into question how the government can achieve its ambitious goal.
"On the one hand, the law doesn't allow former farmers to expand housing for migrant workers, on the other hand local governments don't have the money to build affordable housing either," said Li Ping, senior attorney for Landesa Rural Development Institute in Beijing.
About 130 million Chinese migrants live in tiny, sub-divided rooms rented out by former farmers whose villages have been swallowed by sprawl, according to government surveys.
Policies to provide government-built housing while razing these shabby "villages within cities" result in a net loss of housing units, according to urban planners and academics, while choking off the private rental market that for decades has enabled China's massive urban migration.
The dilemma poses harsh choices for those who have made lives in the cities on the slimmest of margins, such as the migrants in the converted shipping containers in Shanghai.
"They can't just come and ask me to move. I have so many products here that I sell. So much stuff worth at least tens of thousands of yuan," said Li Yanxin, a migrant from nearby Anhui Province who runs a small convenience store out of his container. His profits - and therefore his ability to pay for his teenager's education - depend on the low rent he found in the container village.
Local officials put muscle behind a policy of clearing such sites, often declaring these dwellings illegal by noting non-agricultural land allocated to villagers cannot be used for commercial purposes. Land reclassified as "urban" can be sold at a huge profit.
"Not everyone can live in a high rise. Especially those of us who work in the recycling business," Zhang Baofa, who rented out the used shipping containers in one of the more creative solutions to Shanghai's shortage of cheap housing.
Local officials, embarrassed by photos of the container village circulating on the Internet, have vowed to remove the site within days. On Thursday, after four years of operation, they declared Li's store to be unregistered.
"This is zoned as village land. I borrowed the land. I bought the containers. I rented it out. I would know if it were illegal," Zhang said.
SEPARATE AND UNEQUAL
Chinese cities lack the visible slums of other developing countries, thanks in part to communities such as Xinzhuang in Beijing that collectively house about 3.4 million migrants just within the capital.
A high whitewashed wall and strip of green lawn hide Xinzhuang's 10,000 residents from surrounding luxury apartment blocks. Three black chickens scratch along a filthy gutter of blue-grey water next to the public latrine. Rooms of about 12 square meters each house families of three, for an affordable 500 yuan ($80) a month.
"A regular apartment would be more comfortable, but it's about 2,000 yuan a month. That's too much for the type of people who live here. They want to save what they can. We fill the lowest niche," said landlord Dong Gang, whose former farmhouse is now a two-story concrete structure divided into about 30 makeshift rooms.
One of the 1,000 original residents of Xinzhuang, he has been renting to migrants for 20 years. Complicated zoning laws mean that Dong can't expand beyond the footprint of his original home, hindering investments that might improve housing quality.
"In Beijing over the last two years they've been 'cleaning up' crowded tenements - that raises rents and forces many out," said Hu Xingdou, a specialist in migrant issues at the Beijing Institute of Technology.
Within the next two years, Beijing city is expected to allow migrants to rent but not buy city-built housing units. Even so, many migrants won't qualify to rent, and the number of government-built units often falls short of the number of migrants displaced.
"There is going to be less of this type of housing, because almost all cities have policies now to demolish 'villages within cities'," according to estimates by Tom Miller, author of "China's Urban Billion".
URBAN VILLAGES
For two decades, Chinese local governments have been able to ignore the problem of housing migrants, thanks to the makeshift villages and other arrangements that accommodate about 40 percent of migrants. The remainder live at factory dormitories or tents and pre-fab housing set up on construction sites.
As China's cities and export industries boomed, cheap private housing helped keep down the cost of labor, says Li Jinkui of the China Development Institute in Shenzhen. He estimates Shenzhen would have spent 25 years' worth of annual revenues to house the people who were renting in its "villages" in 2000 - a population now estimated at 5 million people.
Of 1.35 billion Chinese, 690 million are estimated to live in cities, but only about half of those can claim urban residency status due to an archaic national registration system that ties all citizens, and public benefits, to their hometowns.
City governments often lack figures for how many people live in neighborhoods targeted for demolition, but they can document their destruction with precision. Beijing's most recent city plan notes that 171 "villages within cities" had been "cleaned up" in the previous five years, but as of 2011, there were still 100 left.
The loss of affordable housing could accelerate, according to a Beijing plan released Thursday to catalogue "illegal" buildings on collectively owned land and then destroy them next spring. Coal briquettes burned in unheated slum villages contribute to Beijing's choking winter pollution.
European and American cities had huge programs to replace slums with public housing, Miller said. "The question is what happens when they are demolished in China?"
(Additional reporting by Langi Chiang in BEIJING; Editing by Ken Wills)
NEW YORK (AP) ? "America's Most Wanted' may have come to an end after 25 years.
Lifetime network has confirmed it won't be picking up the crime-fighting series for another season.
But the network says it's developing a pilot for a new project with John Walsh, who created "America's Most Wanted" in 1988.
Hosted by Walsh, the series was a fixture on the Fox network until its abrupt cancellation in June 2011. During that run, the show helped bring almost 1,200 fugitives to justice.
Lifetime revived the series in December 2011, ultimately airing 44 episodes. It most recently aired on the network last October.
Walsh originally launched his crime-busting crusade in 1981, in the aftermath of the abduction and murder of his 6-year-old son, Adam.
It looks like Philadelphia Eagles receiver DeSean Jackson is one of the few multimillionaires who got the post-Great Recession memo about buying houses: Less is more. The Long Beach, Calif., native, who was slapped with the franchise tag last year by the Eagles and awarded a $51 million contract extension, has turned some heads with his very first real estate purchase.
Instead of going large, the 26-year-old speedster made what appears to be a sensible decision with the purchase of a $1.65 million home in Tarzana, Calif. The 3,800-square-foot home features mature updated decor that gives the 1951 house a tasteful feeling of luxury. But with its San Fernando Valley locale, Jackson's new home is not the kind of nouveau riche palace that other NFL and pro athletes like to show off on MTV "Cribs."
Of course, Jackson is no stranger to the spotlight -- on the field and off -- and he intends to keep it that way. According to the bio on his slick new website: "The music industry is another area DeSean looks to conquer, constantly putting in time developing his rapping and producing talents with his record label, Jaccpot Records. DeSean's musical talents have been featured on MTV, MTV2, Yahoo Sports and on the pages of DUB Magazine and ESPN The Magazine."
While Jackson spends the NFL season in Philadelphia, he might be looking to share his new Southern California home with his mother, Gayle Jackson, with whom DeSean has started a charity for pancreatic cancer patients after his own father, Bill Jackson, died from the disease in 2009. The DeSean Jackson Foundation for Pancreatic Cancer is "dedicated to pancreatic cancer awareness and helping both victims and the families of the victims of this deadly form of cancer."
Find homes for sale in Tarzana, Calif., or search listings in your area.
See more on Zillow: Ray Lewis Lists Florida Property, Gets Ready for ESPN NFL Stars Score With Super-Size Homes Matt Hasselbeck Lists Bellevue Home for $3.495 Million
More on AOL Real Estate: Find out how to calculate mortgage payments. Find homes for sale in your area. Find foreclosures in your area. See more celebrity real estate.
Follow us on Twitter at @AOLRealEstate or connect with AOL Real Estate on Facebook.
As the work-week winds (or crawls) to an end, we?re all looking for ways to look busy, or kill time. As always, I?m here to help.
Armchair Traveler, Fukushima Edition: As a rule, Google Street View strikes me as a poor substitute for exploring the physical world. But I admit that since physically strolling around an area near a nuclear disaster isn?t a practical idea, the Google Street View tours of Namie-machi, a presently abandoned city in Japan?s Fukushima Prefecture, are better than the real thing. The Google Lat Long blog offers several starting points for wandering this now-haunting cityscape from afar, with context in a guest post written by Nami-machi?s mayor. Via Google Sightseeing.
Not a Tree: Wired?s Raw File finds cell phone towers disguised as trees, as documented by photographer Dillon Marsh, ?puzzling.? I think they?re kinda cool. What?s New With Robot Snakes? According to The Verge, they now have ?the ability to hug things.? This brief video from the Carnegie Mellon Biorobotics Lab demonstrates ?snake robot perching?: Robot snakes are tossed at lampposts, trees, and goalposts, which they coil about and grasp. Thanks for that, Science.
Dumb, Officially: Next time you make some foolish, drunken boast about how many McRibs you can eat in one sitting or some such, you can define the terms and conditions for your regrettable wager, thanks to SpitShake.com. This helps you ?make your ridiculous idea a reality,? a promo video promises. I bet. Via BoingBoing.
Idealized Scenes, From Prison: A fascinating photo project by Alyse Emdur documents painted optimistic backdrops created by prisoners for portraits intended for family and friends. The always surprising Venue project, devoted to exploring overlooked features of the American landscape, interviews Emdur and shares a number of her images.
Bruce Willis: Survivor: Footage from 39 movies gets diced into a 10-minute supercut quasi-narrative video called "Everybody Wants To Kill Bruce Willis." There?s no dialogue but?spoiler alert?Bruce is still chuckling manically at the end.
Non pet Sounds: On a more soothing note, here is a pleasant collection of field recordings of whales and elephants on SoundCloud, courtesy of "On Being." Have a relaxing weekend.
OKLAHOMA CITY (Reuters) - A Tulsa, Oklahoma, health center on Saturday began drawing blood samples from patients who may have been exposed to viruses at an oral surgery dental clinic that is under investigation.
As many as 7,000 of Dr. W. Scott Harrington's patients are being notified by letter that health officials recommend they be tested for hepatitis and HIV.
The investigation began when one of Harrington's patients tested positive for HIV and Hepatitis C. But a subsequent blood test showed the patient tested positive only for Hepatitis C, said Tulsa health department officials in a press release on Saturday.
Even so, a complaint filed by the Oklahoma Dental Board cites Harrington for an array of safety and health violations that created contamination risks for his patients. He is scheduled to appear before a dental board hearing on April 19 and has voluntarily closed his practice and surrendered his license.
Harrington's patients are being offered free blood screening on a walk-in basis at the North Regional Health and Wellness Center in Tulsa.
A hot line has also been established to answer questions and more than 400 people have called it so far, officials said.
Saturn's rings are one of the most recognized features of the solar system, but scientists don't know how they got there. New data suggest they're older than some theories suggested.
By Pete Spotts,?Staff writer / March 28, 2013
This image of Saturn and its rings was captured by the Cassini spacecraft.
Space Science Institute/JPL-Caltech/NASA/Reuters
Enlarge
New evidence from the US-European Cassini mission to Saturn suggests a very early birth for ices in Saturn?s spectacular system of rings and moonlets, dating back to shortly after the planet itself formed.
Click Here for your FREE 30 DAYS of The Christian Science Monitor Weekly Digital Edition
The results deepen a mystery that has bedeviled Saturn watchers since Galileo first spotted what later would be interpreted as rings in 1610: How did the rings form? And, more recently, what sustains the ring system?
?No one actually knows why the rings can survive for 4.5 billion years,? says Scott Kenyon, an astronomer at the Harvard-Smithsonian Center for Astrophysics in Cambridge, Mass. ?At the moment, we don?t have a good model? that explains this longevity.
The apparently implausible life span of the ring system has led some researchers to propose that the system didn?t form shortly after the planet did.?
Instead, it might have formed perhaps 100 million years ago. The raw material for the rings and moonlets could have come from the debris spawned by a collision between close-in moons, or between a close-in moon and a comet.
But the recent-ring scenario has had a troubled existence.?
In 2007, for example, scientists reported evidence from Cassini?s Ultraviolet Imaging Spectrometer indicating that the rings had significant age differences and that the material in the rings was constantly being recycled as moonlets collided. Some of the debris later would form into new moonlets.?
That evidence didn?t support a single, recent violent encounter between objects as a source of material for the ring system.
Now, researchers using another of Cassini?s instruments, the Visual and Infrared Mapping Spectrometer (VIMS), have uncovered further evidence for this recycling as they have mapped changes in the composition of the ring material and moonlets that form a 40,800-mile-wide band around the planet.
Perhaps more important, Cassini has uncovered far more water ice in the system than comets could deliver.
The system ?is very ice rich,? says Bonnie Buratti, a researcher at NASA?s Jet Propulsion Laboratory in Pasadena, Calif., and a member of the VIMS team.
To Dr. Kenyon, the results showing ices throughout the system speak to a primeval origin.
?All of the stuff inside the really major moons is composed of the same stuff as the major moons,? he says. ?That?s really nice to know because that tells you the rings are 4.5 billion years old.?
But that still leaves the question of longevity.
Left to their own devices, the moonlets would migrate ever farther from Saturn, leaving the ring system within perhaps 100 million years or so.
Cassini has revealed that moonlets form from material that accretes at the outer edges of the rings, explains Phillip Nicholson, an astronomer at Cornell University in Ithaca, N.Y., and a member of the team reporting the VIMS results this week in the Astrophysical Journal.
One possible solution to the conundrum would be to give the ring system more initial mass than researchers have presumed.
Modeling work by Robin Canup, a scientist at the Southwest Research Institute in Boulder, Colo., has suggested that some 2 million to 5 million years after it formed, Saturn had ? and devoured ? several moons the size of Titan, the planet?s largest existing satellite. But these other Titan-scale moons orbited too close to the planet to survive.
As they were drawn to their doom, the tidal forces Saturn exerted on the last victim stripped a thick icy crust and mantle from the moon?s rocky core. The ice broke up to begin forming a ring, while the core continued its death spiral into the planet.
Such a ring would have hosted far more mass than today?s rings do, according to the study, published in 2010.
The ring in the modeling also mimicked observed ring behaviors: losing mass over time while forming moons at the outer edges of the ring, for instance. The moons it formed were similar in mass to the icy moons out to and including Tethys.
The hope is that a knowledge of the composition of ring material and the moonlets in Saturn?s ring system will shed light on the ring-forming process.
Cassini launched as the Cassini-Huygens mission in October 1997 and began orbiting Saturn in July 2004. The following December, the spacecraft released the European Space Agency?s Huygens probe toward a successful landing on Saturn?s moon Titan. Since then, the orbiter has been touring the planet?s moons and rings, giving researchers an unprecedented look at the Saturn system.
All Critics (71) | Top Critics (30) | Fresh (65) | Rotten (6)
The film and its talking head participants paint the picture in both broad strokes and fine detail.
Whatever one's political stripe regarding Israel, it's hard to dispute the impressions and perspective of the film's six eyewitnesses.
The level of candor here may not satisfy hard-liners of either stripe, but it can help viewers begin to formulate new questions about the philosophical, strategic and moral challenges of conflict, in particular "wars on terror."
Ultimately the movie feels evasive, and its flashy, digitally animated re-creations of military surveillance footage unpleasantly evoke the Call of Duty video games.
It offers startlingly honest insight into the Israeli-Palestinian conflict from some of those who called the shots.
As a political testament, the result is revealing and important.
Moreh employs a direct interviewing style, reminiscent of Errol Morris' work, to get the men to talk about their days leading Shin Bet.
Moreh gets some startling confessions and insights from each man but also misses the opportunity to truly challenge his subjects on their regard for democracy, basic human rights and their own accountability.
Director Dror Moreh doesn't rest on his scoop
A powerful look inside the Israeli defense establishment
A deadly serious and detailed examination of and meditation upon the Israeli-Palestinian conflict, The Gatekeepers makes no attempt to find a silver lining.
The rule of surveillance is to keep quiet and let others do the talking. The Oscar-nominated documentary The Gatekeepers flips the script, to astonishing effect, giving voice to the retired directors of Shin Bet, Israel's domestic intelligence agency.
An up-close and personal look at the psychology of war -- their war and, by extension, all war.
A riveting firsthand account of how legitimate security concerns can lead to policies considered extreme and even immoral by the people administering them.
Extraordinary...not only an engrossing first-hand account of Israel's Palestinian policies over time, but one that may have lessons to teach both Israeli leaders and other nations confronting those they identify as terrorists.
Unprecedented and deeply unsettling, it offers little hope for a lasting peace in that war-torn region.
For its candor and impact, deserves to be seen and discussed.
An often remarkable Israeli documentary about Shin Bet, the country's internal security agency.
NEW CITY, N.Y. (AP) ? Stephen Baldwin is set to appear in New York court between appearances on "All-Star Celebrity Apprentice" in hopes of getting past a state tax charge.
The youngest of the four acting Baldwin brothers is due Friday morning in Rockland County Court. He's accused of failing to file state income tax returns in 2008, 2009 and 2010.
Baldwin's lawyer has said he can avoid jail time under a tentative plea agreement. The attorney said Baldwin would have up to five years to pay back $350,000 in taxes and penalties.
When Baldwin was arrested in December, the district attorney said he could face up to four years in prison if convicted.
The 46-year-old Baldwin starred in 1995's "The Usual Suspects." He's a contestant on TV's "Apprentice" with Dennis Rodman and others.
Convergence insufficiency is a problem of near vision. In this disorder, a person finds difficulty in seeing, reading nearby objects. In normal circumstances the eyes turn inwards when you focus your sight on nearby objects. This means they converge. But in convergence insufficiency, the affected person is not able to move his eyes inwards to focus on nearby objects.
The disorder is often detected in early childhood and adolescence age. Often convergence disability is misdiagnosed and parents and teachers consider it as a learning problem in children, instead a disorder related to eye.
Convergence insufficiency can be corrected appropriately with eye lenses and certain passive and active exercises. Eye surgery is rarely required.
Symptoms Of Convergence Insufficiency
A person suffering from convergence insufficiency may experience following symptoms especially while he is doing close work. For example while reading, writing, doing computer work or desk work etc.
The eyes become tired and sore easily.
Off and on headache, especially while reading or focusing on near objects for a long time.
Complaint of blurred vision or double vision.
Due to difficulty in focusing, the child is unable to concentrate.
Patient finds difficulty in reading. He may complain of words floating or swimming on the book. He may also lose his track while reading.
Patient feels sleepy while doing close work. It is due to strain on his eyes.
He often closes one eye or squints. The person does so while reading to prevent double vision or blurred vision.
He frequently tilts his head and has poor posture while doing work which requires near vision.
Lack of sleep, anxiety and working for long hours with objects placed nearby may exaggerate the symptoms.
Person suffering from convergence insufficiency finds difficulty in playing sports; he may find difficulty in judging nearby objects while driving etc.
Causes Of Convergence Insufficiency
The exact cause of conversion insufficiency is not known, however the reason behind it is misalignment of eyes. It is probably caused due to improper stimulation of eye muscles by the nerves. There is defect in electrical impulse and the eyes do not focus on a nearby object.
Injury to head is another probable cause for convergence insufficiency. Head injuries can cause immense damage to the brain and the nerves arising from brain.
A lesion in brain may be responsible for it. It can be a growth arising in the brain. This tumor can be cancerous or non cancerous. These benign or cancerous growths causes pressure on brain and interrupt proper functioning of neurological pathway.
Diagnosis Of Convergence Insufficiency
Often the condition is missed or remains undetected by parents and teachers. In most people suffering from convergence insufficiency may have 20-20 vision. It is difficult to detect the condition while performing routine examination.
Proper medical history is valuable in diagnosing this eye problem. Person may have complaint of blurred vision, headache, and worsening eyestrain even if the person reads for a short period of time.
NPC is near point convergence test that may detect the disorder. In this simple test the examiner holds a small object such as a pencil in front of the patient. The physician moves it closer to the patient till the patient complains of double vision.
In positive fusion vergence the patient is made to look at the eye chart through a prism lens. The doctor will know when the patient will have double vision.
Portable gaming isn't what it once was. Sure, you can still snag a handheld device from Sony or Nintendo, but today's video game industry is far more diverse. Gamers on the go have no shortage of hardware to pick from: tablets, smartphones, gaming laptops and purpose-built handhelds are redefining what a mobile gaming platform is. Razer CEO Min-Liang Tan must have felt the winds of change blowing his way when he cooked up Project Fiona, now known as the Razer Edge. The company's marketing material frames the curious device as an all-in-one gaming arsenal; it's a tablet, says the product page, as well as a PC and console. Above all, it's modular, a souped-up tablet with a small collection of docks and cradles designed to scratch your gaming itch from all angles. All told, Razer calls it the most powerful tablet in the world. Kitted out with the specs of a mid-range gaming laptop, it may very well be that -- but we couldn't let the proclamation pass without giving it the once-over ourselves.
So you've decided to hop on the vinyl trend. You need a turntable. Pro-ject's candy hued Debut Carbon tables will appeal to both your eyes and your ears. More »
Children of deployed parents at higher risk for alcohol, drug usePublic release date: 28-Mar-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Jennifer Brown jennifer-l-brown@uiowa.edu 319-356-7124 University of Iowa Health Care
When deployment also disrupts living arrangements, risk increases
In 2010, almost 2 million American children had at least one parent in active military duty. A new University of Iowa study suggests that deployment of a parent puts these children at an increased risk for drinking alcohol and using drugs.
Using data from a statewide survey of sixth-, eighth-, and 11th-grade students in Iowa, the researchers found an increase in 30-day alcohol use, binge drinking, using marijuana and other illegal drugs, and misusing prescription drugs among children of deployed or recently returned military parents compared to children in non-military families. The increased risk was consistent across all age groups. The findings are published online in the journal Addiction.
"We worry a lot about the service men and women and we sometimes forget that they are not the only ones put into harm's way by deployment -- their families are affected, too," says Stephan Arndt, Ph.D., UI professor of psychiatry and biostatistics and senior study author. "Our findings suggest we need to provide these families with more community support."
Arndt and colleagues at the Iowa Consortium for Substance Abuse Research and Evaluation and the UI Injury Prevention Research Center, examined data from the 2010 Iowa Youth Survey (IYS) to investigate whether military deployment of a parent was associated with children's substance use.
The survey, developed by the consortium in 1999, is administered by the state and conducted every two years. Participating students answer questions online about attitudes and experiences with alcohol, drugs, and violence, as well as students' perceptions of their peers, family, school and community. Of all sixth-, eighth-, and 11th-grade students enrolled in Iowa schools in 2010, 69 percent (78,240 students) completed the IYS.
Students were also asked if they had a parent in the military and about the parent's deployment status. The researchers focused their analysis on the 59,395 responses that indicated a parent in the military, either deployed (775, 1.3 percent) or recently returned (983, 1.7 percent), or not in the military (57,637, 97 percent).
"Looking at the Iowa Youth Survey, we discovered we were right in regard to our idea that parental deployment would increase the risk for substance use behaviors in children. In fact, the numbers suggested we were a lot more right than we wanted to be," Arndt says.
"For example, sixth-graders in non-military families had binge drinking rates of about 2 percent. That jumps up to about 7 percent for the children of deployed or recently returned parents a three-to-four-fold increase in the raw percentage."
The study showed that rates for drinking alcohol in the past 30 days were 7 to 9 percentage points higher for children of deployed or recently returned parents across all grades, while rates for binge drinking (having had five or more drinks of alcohol in a row) were 5 to 8 percentage points higher for children of deployed parents across all grades. Marijuana use was also higher in children of deployed parents, but the difference in risk was larger for older students; for sixth-grade students the risk difference was almost 2 percentage points, for 11th-grade students it was almost 5 percentage points higher.
Living arrangements matter too
A second important and unexpected finding was the relationship between parental deployment, disruption of children's living arrangements, and increased risk of substance use.
"When at least one parent is deployed, there is a measurable percentage of children who are not living with their natural parents," Arndt says. "Some of these children go to live with a relative, but some go outside of the family, and that change in these children's living arrangements grossly affected their risk of binge drinking and marijuana use."
The study found that for children who were not living with a parent or relative, those with a deployed parent had a risk of binge drinking that was 42 percentage points higher than a student from a non-military family. In comparison, children with a deployed parent who still were living with a parent had a risk of binge drinking that was about 8 percentage points higher than children of non-military families who were living with a parent.
"Deployment is going to be disruptive anyway, which is probably why we see the overall increased risk of substance use in these children. And then for those children where parental deployment means they end up living outside of the family, it's a double whammy," Arndt says. "The results suggest that when a parent deploys, it may be preferable to place a child with a family member and try to minimize the disruption of the child's living arrangements."
Iowa's military population may be more affected
Because the study surveyed only Iowa children, the nature of Iowa's military population may also affect the results, Arndt notes.
In Iowa, along with Vermont, Wisconsin, and Minnesota, the largest portion of military personnel serve with the Reserve or the National Guard. These groups of military personnel live in civilian communities rather than on military bases and may have limited access to support services and resources designed to help military families.
"States like Iowa that have a large proportion of National Guard may be more affected by this increased risk for children," Arndt says.
Although the UI study findings may be specific to families of National Guardsmen and women, Arndt notes that the results agree with previous research that focused on risky behavior for children of deployed military men and women in Washington state, which unlike Iowa has a large active duty population.
"I think our findings suggest, first, that people need to be aware that for service members and their families this is a real phenomenon, and one that should receive close attention," Arndt says. "I would also think that schools should have a heightened awareness that children from deployed parents may need extra help."
###
In addition to Arndt, the research team included Laura Acion, Ph.D., Marizen Ramirez, Ph.D., and Ricardo Jorge, M.D.
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
Children of deployed parents at higher risk for alcohol, drug usePublic release date: 28-Mar-2013 [ | E-mail | Share ]
Contact: Jennifer Brown jennifer-l-brown@uiowa.edu 319-356-7124 University of Iowa Health Care
When deployment also disrupts living arrangements, risk increases
In 2010, almost 2 million American children had at least one parent in active military duty. A new University of Iowa study suggests that deployment of a parent puts these children at an increased risk for drinking alcohol and using drugs.
Using data from a statewide survey of sixth-, eighth-, and 11th-grade students in Iowa, the researchers found an increase in 30-day alcohol use, binge drinking, using marijuana and other illegal drugs, and misusing prescription drugs among children of deployed or recently returned military parents compared to children in non-military families. The increased risk was consistent across all age groups. The findings are published online in the journal Addiction.
"We worry a lot about the service men and women and we sometimes forget that they are not the only ones put into harm's way by deployment -- their families are affected, too," says Stephan Arndt, Ph.D., UI professor of psychiatry and biostatistics and senior study author. "Our findings suggest we need to provide these families with more community support."
Arndt and colleagues at the Iowa Consortium for Substance Abuse Research and Evaluation and the UI Injury Prevention Research Center, examined data from the 2010 Iowa Youth Survey (IYS) to investigate whether military deployment of a parent was associated with children's substance use.
The survey, developed by the consortium in 1999, is administered by the state and conducted every two years. Participating students answer questions online about attitudes and experiences with alcohol, drugs, and violence, as well as students' perceptions of their peers, family, school and community. Of all sixth-, eighth-, and 11th-grade students enrolled in Iowa schools in 2010, 69 percent (78,240 students) completed the IYS.
Students were also asked if they had a parent in the military and about the parent's deployment status. The researchers focused their analysis on the 59,395 responses that indicated a parent in the military, either deployed (775, 1.3 percent) or recently returned (983, 1.7 percent), or not in the military (57,637, 97 percent).
"Looking at the Iowa Youth Survey, we discovered we were right in regard to our idea that parental deployment would increase the risk for substance use behaviors in children. In fact, the numbers suggested we were a lot more right than we wanted to be," Arndt says.
"For example, sixth-graders in non-military families had binge drinking rates of about 2 percent. That jumps up to about 7 percent for the children of deployed or recently returned parents a three-to-four-fold increase in the raw percentage."
The study showed that rates for drinking alcohol in the past 30 days were 7 to 9 percentage points higher for children of deployed or recently returned parents across all grades, while rates for binge drinking (having had five or more drinks of alcohol in a row) were 5 to 8 percentage points higher for children of deployed parents across all grades. Marijuana use was also higher in children of deployed parents, but the difference in risk was larger for older students; for sixth-grade students the risk difference was almost 2 percentage points, for 11th-grade students it was almost 5 percentage points higher.
Living arrangements matter too
A second important and unexpected finding was the relationship between parental deployment, disruption of children's living arrangements, and increased risk of substance use.
"When at least one parent is deployed, there is a measurable percentage of children who are not living with their natural parents," Arndt says. "Some of these children go to live with a relative, but some go outside of the family, and that change in these children's living arrangements grossly affected their risk of binge drinking and marijuana use."
The study found that for children who were not living with a parent or relative, those with a deployed parent had a risk of binge drinking that was 42 percentage points higher than a student from a non-military family. In comparison, children with a deployed parent who still were living with a parent had a risk of binge drinking that was about 8 percentage points higher than children of non-military families who were living with a parent.
"Deployment is going to be disruptive anyway, which is probably why we see the overall increased risk of substance use in these children. And then for those children where parental deployment means they end up living outside of the family, it's a double whammy," Arndt says. "The results suggest that when a parent deploys, it may be preferable to place a child with a family member and try to minimize the disruption of the child's living arrangements."
Iowa's military population may be more affected
Because the study surveyed only Iowa children, the nature of Iowa's military population may also affect the results, Arndt notes.
In Iowa, along with Vermont, Wisconsin, and Minnesota, the largest portion of military personnel serve with the Reserve or the National Guard. These groups of military personnel live in civilian communities rather than on military bases and may have limited access to support services and resources designed to help military families.
"States like Iowa that have a large proportion of National Guard may be more affected by this increased risk for children," Arndt says.
Although the UI study findings may be specific to families of National Guardsmen and women, Arndt notes that the results agree with previous research that focused on risky behavior for children of deployed military men and women in Washington state, which unlike Iowa has a large active duty population.
"I think our findings suggest, first, that people need to be aware that for service members and their families this is a real phenomenon, and one that should receive close attention," Arndt says. "I would also think that schools should have a heightened awareness that children from deployed parents may need extra help."
###
In addition to Arndt, the research team included Laura Acion, Ph.D., Marizen Ramirez, Ph.D., and Ricardo Jorge, M.D.
[ | E-mail | Share ]
?
AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.
By Dave Warner (Reuters) - The winner of one of the biggest Powerball jackpots of all time owes $29,000 in overdue child support payments, the Passaic County, New Jersey, sheriff's office said on Thursday. Pedro Quezada, 44, a county resident who is married and the father of five children ages 5 to 23, was the sole winner of a $338 million jackpot on Saturday. Because he chose the lump sum option, instead of annual payments over 30 years, he will actually receive $211 million, lottery officials said on Thursday. Officials said that is the third-largest lump sum payment in Powerball history. ...
[unable to retrieve full-text content]New research posits that the reddish barren spots, known as fairy circles, that dot a narrow belt of African desert could be the work of industrious sand termites.
The Range Rover Sport is Land Rover's best selling model in the United States, which is the biggest market for the luxury SUV. It's a vehicle that vibes with American taste for ostentatious SUVs that with styling cues that suggest more on-road performance than off-road. And while the previous Sport carried most of the standard Land Rover go-anywhere capability (albeit with lower ground clearance than other models), it was also heavy, which compromised acceleration and agility.
Road-hugging weight is out of fashion in the car industry, and the new Range Rover Sport follows the lead of the Range Rover in moving to all-aluminum construction. The result is an amazing 970 pound weight reduction from the previous model. This is an example of the virtuous circle of weight loss: removing weight from the chassis allows for lighter suspension arms, springs, and shock absorbers. The driveline loses weight as well, and better performance and fuel economy come as a bonus. The result is a 0 to 60 time of 5.0 seconds in the Supercharged, model making the 2014 Range Rover Sport the quickest Land Rover ever even though both engines carry over from the previous model. Like the improvements to the Range Rover, we expect an increase of 1-2 mpg, aided in part by the use of a new 8-speed automatic.
With his speech at the University of Southern California Tuesday night, retired Gen. David Petraeus ? commander of America?s wars in Iraq and Afghanistan before becoming director of the Central Intelligence Agency ? effectively signaled his return to public life.
In apologizing for the extramarital affair that ruined his career and expressing a desire to move forward, Mr. Petraeus ? once thought of as a potential presidential candidate ? has sparked questions about what his second act might be.
The scheduled topic ? about veterans affairs ? might offer clues.
RECOMMENDED: Are you smarter than a US Marine? Take the recruitment quiz
Though the speech was planned before Mr. Petraeus resigned from the CIA, according to one of his longtime friends, it showed at least one way that the former general might contribute to the national security debate going forward.
?This is something he may look towards in the future, as far as veterans issues go,? says the friend, who spoke to the Monitor only on condition that he not be named.
Veterans support groups ?are well intended, but they?re not pulling in the same direction,? the friend adds. Given his stature, Petraeus could ?gather the groups together? and help them prioritize.
Want your top political issues explained? Get customized DC Decoder updates.
Whether or not Petraeus has any broader designs in returning to the public eye, the issue of veterans affairs is one of some urgency for the Pentagon as it ends two wars.
While the Pentagon has a responsibility to prepare troops for their departure from the service, it?s a job at which the military hasn?t excelled in the past, says Sgt. Maj. Bryan Battaglia, the senior enlisted adviser to the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff.
Commanders tend to focus on preparing troops for battle, rather than for becoming civilians again. But that approach needs to change, Major Battaglia says.
?If we?re not doing that, shame on us,? he says.
It is a topic Petraeus picked up in his speech. ?There is often a view that, because an individual was a great soldier, he or she will naturally do well in and transition effortlessly to the civilian world.?
?In reality, the transition from military service to civilian pursuits often is quite challenging,? he added.
The longtime friend imagines that Petraeus could help veterans' groups choose their top five issues. "He?d have the name recognition and abilities to perhaps get them together.?
In the meantime, speeches like the one Tuesday give him an opportunity to rehabilitate his image. Petraeus began his speech by acknowledging his wrongdoing.
?Needless to say, I join you keenly aware that I am regarded in a different light now than I was a year ago,? he said. ?I am also keenly aware that the reason for my recent journey was my own doing.? He reiterated ?how deeply I regret ? and apologize for ? the circumstances that led me to resign from the CIA and caused such pain for my family, friends, and supporters.?
That said, the public can be forgiving. ?He didn?t rob a bank, he?s not a mass murderer, he didn?t steal a bunch of old peoples? retirement funds,? the friend argues, adding that the apology is very much in keeping with Petraeus?s personal philosophy.
As a commander, ?He?s always been one to own up to what you did, then move forward,? the friend adds. ?Just don?t do it again.?
RECOMMENDED: Are you smarter than a US Marine? Take the recruitment quiz
We already told you about the CASIS and MassChallenge startup accelerator partnership aiming to find the next great research project to send into space, and give that project over $100,000 to help bring it to fruition. Now, Engadget wants to help make it easier for you, dear reader, to get your idea into orbit by offering the chance to trim $100 off the $199 application fee.
The process is simple: you click the source link below and fill out a short form outlining your idea and providing your contact info. Then, should CASIS like what it sees, it'll send out promo codes to ten of you to be used when submitting the full application on the MassChallenge website. Sound good? Well, hop to it folks, because CASIS is looking to deliver the promo codes by April 1st. Not that you should need much incentive to jump on the opportunity... we're talking about sending your pet project into space, after all.
A few minutes after the Supreme Court issued its landmark decision upholding President Obama?s health care law last summer, a senior adviser to Mitch McConnell walked into the Senate Republican leader?s office to gauge his reaction.
McConnell was clearly disappointed, and for good reason. For many conservatives, the decision was the death knell in a three-year fight to defeat reforms that epitomized everything they thought was wrong with Obama?s governing philosophy. But where some saw finality, McConnell saw opportunity ? and still does.
Sitting at his desk a stone?s throw from the Senate chamber, McConnell turned to the aide and, with characteristic directness, said: ?This decision is too cute. But I think we got something with this tax issue.?
He was referring to the court?s ruling that the heart of the 2010 Affordable Care Act, the so-called individual mandate that requires everyone in the country to buy health insurance or pay a penalty, was a tax. And while McConnell thought calling the mandate a tax was ?a rather creative way? to uphold the law, it also opened a new front in his battle to repeal it.
McConnell, a master of byzantine Senate procedure, immediately realized that, as a tax, the individual mandate would be subject to the budget reconciliation process, which exempted it from the filibuster. In other words, McConnell had just struck upon how to repeal Obamacare with a simple majority vote.
The Kentucky Republican called a handful of top aides into his office and told them, ?Figure out how to repeal this through reconciliation. I want to do this.? McConnell ordered a repeal plan ready in the event the GOP took back control of the Senate in November ? ironic considering Democrats used the same process more than two years earlier in a successful, last-shot effort to muscle the reforms into law.
In the months that followed, top GOP Senate aides held regular strategy meetings to plot a path forward. Using the reconciliation process would be complicated and contentious. Senate rules would require Republicans to demonstrate to the parliamentarian that their repeal provisions would affect spending or revenue and Democrats were sure to challenge them every step of the way. So the meetings were small and secret.
?You?re going in to make an argument. You don?t want to preview your entire argument to the other side ahead of time,? said a McConnell aide who participated in the planning. ?There was concern that all of this would leak out.?
By Election Day, Senate Republicans were ready to, as McConnell put it, ?take this monstrosity down.?
?We were prepared to do that had we had the votes to do it after the election. Well, the election didn?t turn out the way we wanted it to,? McConnell told National Journal in an interview. ?The monstrosity has ... begun to be implemented and we?re not giving up the fight.?
Indeed, when it comes to legislative strategy, McConnell plays long ball. Beginning in 2009, the Republican leader led the push to unify his colleagues against Democrats? health care plans, an effort that almost derailed Obamacare. In 2010, Republicans, helped in part by public opposition to the law, won back the House and picked up seats in the Senate. Last year, GOP presidential nominee Mitt Romney?s embrace of the individual mandate while Massachusetts governor largely neutralized what had been a potent political issue.
But, in the next two years, Republicans are looking to bring the issue back in a big way. And they?ll start by trying to brand the law as one that costs too much and is not working as promised.
Democrats will be tempted to continue to write off the incoming fire as the empty rhetoric of a party fighting old battles. But that would be a mistake. During the health care debate, the GOP?s coordinated attacks helped turn public opinion against reform. And in the past two years, no more than 45 percent of the public has viewed Obamacare favorably, according to the Kaiser Family Foundation?s tracking polls. Perhaps even more dangerous for Democrats, now-debunked myths spread by Republicans and conservative media remain lodged in the public consciousness. For instance, 40 percent of the public still believes the law includes ?death panels.?
During the legislative debate over the law, Democrats promised Obamacare would create jobs, lower health care costs, and allow people to keep their current plans if they chose to. Those vows, Republicans argue, are already being broken.
The Congressional Budget Office, the Hill?s nonpartisan scorekeeper, estimated that the health care law would reduce employment by about 800,000 workers and result in about 7 million people losing their employer-sponsored health care over a decade. The CBO also estimated that Obamacare during that period would raise health care spending by roughly $580 billion.
McConnell?s office has assembled the law?s 19,842 new regulations into a stack that is 7 feet high and wheeled around on a dolly. The prop even has it?s own Twitter account, @TheRedTapeTower.
?All you got to do is look at that high stack of regulation and you think, ?How in the world is anybody going to be able to comply with all this stuff?? ? GOP Sen. Orrin Hatch, told National Journal. ?And I?m confident that the more the American people know of the costs, the consequences, the problems with this law, then someday there are going to be some Democrats who are going to join us in taking apart some of its most egregious parts.?
In fact, just a few hours after that interview last week, 34 Democrats joined Hatch on the Senate floor to support repealing Obamacare?s medical-device tax. Though the provision passed overwhelmingly, it doesn?t have a shot at becoming law because the budget bill it was attached to is nonbinding. Still, Republicans see it as a harbinger of things to come.
?Constituent pressure is overriding the view that virtually all Democrats have had that Obamacare is sort of like the Ten Commandments, handed down and every piece of it is sacred and you can?t possibly change any of it ever,? McConnell said. ?When you see that begin to crack then you know the facade is breaking up.?
Of course, Republicans are doing their best to highlight and stoke the kind of constituent anger that would force Democrats to tweak the law. In fact, if Democrats come under enough pressure, Republicans believe they might be able to inject Obamacare into the broader entitlement-reform discussion they are planning to tie to the debt-limit debate this summer.
But that is a long shot. If Republicans hope to completely repeal the health care law, they have to start by taking back the Senate in 2014 and would likely need to win the White House two years later. Still, some Republicans think the politics are on their side.
?I?m not one of those folks who ... because I didn?t support something, I want it to be bad. I want good things for Americans. But I do think this is going to create a lot of issues and ? affect things throughout 2014 as it relates to politics,? Republican Sen. Bob Corker said. ?The outcome likely will create a better atmosphere for us.?
Republicans will need to win half a dozen seats to retake the chamber. So, what are the chances??
?There are six really good opportunities in really red states: West Virginia, North Carolina, Louisiana, Arkansas, South Dakota, and Alaska,? McConnell said last week. ?And some other places where you have open seats like Michigan and Iowa. And other states that frequently vote Republican, an example of that would be New Hampshire. So, we?re hopeful.?
And earlier this week, Democratic Sen. Tim Johnson put his home state of South Dakota in play when he announced he will not be running for reelection in 2014.
In addition to trying to win back the Senate, McConnell will have to protect his own seat in two years. McConnell has made moves to shore up his right flank to fend off conservative challengers. He?s hired fellow Kentucky Republican Sen. Rand Paul?s campaign manager, who helped Paul defeat the establishment candidate McConnell backed in the primary. ?
In the meantime, Republicans will continue to, as GOP Sen. John Barrasso put it, ?try to tear (Obamacare) apart.? And the GOP suspects it might get some help from moderate Democrats less concerned about protecting Obama?s legacy than winning reelection.
It?s just the latest act in a play that saw McConnell give more than 100 floor speeches critical of Democratic reforms and paper Capitol Hill with more 225 messaging documents in the 10 months before Obamacare?s passage. Away from the public spotlight, McConnell worked his caucus hard to convince them to unite against the law, holding a health care meeting every Wednesday afternoon. GOP aides said they could not remember a time before, or since, when a Republican leader held a weekly meeting with members that focused solely on one subject.
?What I tried to do is just guide the discussion to the point where everybody realized there wasn?t any part of this we wanted to have any ownership of,? McConnell recounted. ?That was a nine-month long discussion that finally culminated with Olympia Snowe?s decision in the fall not to support it. She was the last one they had a shot at.?
Indeed, some Republicans remember opposition forming organically as it became clearer where Democrats were headed, crediting McConnell for crystallizing the issue. Asked who unified Senate Republicans against Obamacare, Corker recalled, ?I think it happened over time.? As time moved on, it just seemed that this train was going to a place that was going to be hard to support.?
McConnell had finally won his long-fought battle to unite the conference against Obamcare. And some Republicans credit McConnell with being first to that fight.
?He had the Obama administration?s number before almost anyone else,? Hatch recalled. ?He began laying the groundwork for this fight very early, in private meetings and so forth, and really was the first one on our side in the ring, throwing punches just about how bad it was for families, businesses, and our economy.?
?There?s been no stronger fighter against this disastrous law than Mitch McConnell,? he added.
And as McConnell?s war continues, Democrats have begun positioning themselves for the next battle. Leading up to last week?s three-year anniversary of the law?s passage, Democrats held press events touting its benefits, claiming more than 100 million people have received free preventive services; 17 million children with preexisting conditions have been protected from being denied coverage; and 6.6 million young adults under 26 have been covered by their parents' plan.
Democrats wisely rolled out many of the easiest, most-popular Obamacare benefits first. The next few years will see the implementation of provisions that are both more complicated and controversial, like creating state-based insurance exchanges where people can buy coverage. Asked about the political ramifications of possible implementation problems, Democratic Sen. Max Baucus, a chief architect of Obamacare, sidestepped the question saying, "My job is to do my best to make sure this statute works to help provide health care for people at the lowest possible cost."
Far from a full-throated assurance that everything will run smoothly, Baucus?s answer hints at the dangers Democrats face as Obamacare comes online.
And with the law moving from the largely theoretical to the demonstrable, the health care debate is poised to return to intensity levels not seen since before the law passed.
For congressional Republicans, it?s probably their last, best chance to turn opposition into political gain.
And much of that job falls to McConnell, a brilliant defensive coordinator who will have to play flawless offense if he hopes to take control of the Senate next year.
Instead of going large, the 26-year-old speedster made what appears to be a sensible decision with the purchase of a $1.65 million home in Tarzana, Calif. The 3,800-square-foot home features mature updated decor that gives the 1951 house a tasteful feeling of luxury. But with its San Fernando Valley locale, Jackson's new home is not the kind of nouveau riche palace that other NFL and pro athletes like to show off on MTV "Cribs."
![[ Back to EurekAlert! ]](http://www.eurekalert.org/images/back2e.gif){kind=small}
Public release date: 28-Mar-2013
Share ] 
