Sept. 11 Museum displays heart-wrenching artifacts

NEW YORK (AP) -- New York's new Sept. 11 museum is a monument to how the terror attacks that day shaped history, from its heart-wrenching artifacts to the underground space that houses them amid the remnants of the fallen twin towers' foundations. It also reflects the complexity of crafting a public understanding of the terrorist attacks and reconceiving ground zero.
The National September 11 Memorial Museum was set to be dedicated Thursday and open to the public May 21.
The museum faced financing squabbles and construction challenges. Conflicts over its content underlined the sensitivity of memorializing the dead while honoring survivors and rescuers, of balancing the intimate with the international.
Holocaust and war memorials have confronted some of the same questions. But the 9/11 museum exemplifies the work it takes to "develop a museum program amidst this range of powerful feelings and differing individuals and issues that get raised," said Bruce Altshuler, the director of New York University's museum studies program. He isn't involved in the Sept. 11 museum.
The museum harbors both personal possessions and artifacts that became public symbols of survival and loss. There is the battered "survivors' staircase" that hundreds used to escape the burning skyscrapers, the memento-covered last column removed during the ground zero cleanup and the cross-shaped steel beams that became an emblem of remembrance. (An atheists' group has sued, so far unsuccessfully, seeking to stop the display of the cross).
Portraits and profiles describe the nearly 3,000 people killed by the Sept. 11 attacks and the 1993 trade center bombing. Nearly 2,000 oral histories give voice to the memories of survivors, first responders, victims' relatives and others. In one, a mother remembers a birthday dinner at the trade center's Windows on the World restaurant the night before her daughter died at work at the towers.
The museum also looks at the lead-up to Sept. 11 and its legacy.
Members of the museum's interfaith clergy advisory panel raised concerns that it plans to show a documentary film, about al-Qaida, that they said unfairly links Islam and terrorism. The museum has said the documentary is objective and its scholarship solid.
While some Sept. 11 victims' relatives have embraced the museum, others have denounced its $24 general-public ticket price as unseemly and its underground location as disrespectful, particularly because unidentified remains are being stored in a private repository there. Other victims' families see it as a fitting resting place.
The museum and the memorial plaza above it cost a total of $700 million to build. They will cost $60 million a year to run, more than Arlington National Cemetery and more than 15 times as much as the museum that memorializes the 1995 Oklahoma City bombing. Sept. 11 museum organizers have noted that security alone costs about $10 million a year.

What most viewers don't know about LA meteorologist Bri Winkler

That morning in September 2012, Winkler made it to the phone and called her sister, Tara Riggs.
Riggs thought it was low blood sugar at first, but then realized it was serious and called a family friend in southern California, who then called 911.
Doctors say strokes are unusual in young people, but they do happen. In Bri's case, doctors found a blood clot in her brain.

Winkler says she views the stroke as "such a positive thing in [her] life ... I do appreciate everything a lot."
Now, Winkler wants to spread the message that strokes can happen to people at any age, so she wants others to know the warning signs.
According to the Mayo Clinic, you should look out for:

• Trouble walking, talking or understanding speech
• Numbness in the face, arm or leg
• Facial drooping
• Difficulty seeing
• Headache

And you might recall that actor Frankie Muniz, famous for the "Malcolm in the Middle" series, was also in his twenties when he had a mini-stroke.
He was only 26 at the time. He also had another mini-stroke a year later. He has reportedly been doing fine since then.
As for Winkler, her stroke was caused by a tear in a key blood vessel. A blood clot formed in her brain stem.
Winkler believes there's a reason she's still here today, and part of that is spreading her story.

Clippers rally for 101-99 over Thunder

 

BY BETH HARRIS
AP SPORTS WRITER

LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Darren Collison scored 10 of his 18 points in the final 2:58, rallying the Los Angeles Clippers past the Oklahoma City Thunder 101-99 on Sunday to tie the Western Conference semifinal series 2-2.

Russell Westbrook, who scored 27 points, missed a 3-pointer and Serge Ibaka's tip attempt was too late at the buzzer, allowing the Clippers to salvage a game they trailed until the final 1:23.

Blake Griffin led Los Angeles with 25 points, making 9 of 11 free throws, and Chris Paul had 23 points and 10 assists. Jamal Crawford added 18 points. DeAndre Jordan had 14 rebounds, helping the Clippers win the boards, 45-43 - the first time in 11 playoff games the Thunder were outrebounded.

Kevin Durant scored 40 points, hitting 15 of 18 free throws, for the Thunder.

Game 5 is Tuesday night in Oklahoma City.

It was the 14th comeback by the Clippers this season after trailing by double digits. They rallied from 12 points down in the second quarter of Game 7 to oust Golden State in the first round.

The Clippers had no answer for Durant and Westbrook until midway through the fourth quarter. That dynamic duo drove the lane with abandon, drew fouls and made free throws in leading the Thunder to an early 22-point lead.

Durant's three-point play early in the fourth extended the Thunder's lead to 15 points, and they were still up by 10 with 7:44 to go.

But the comeback Clippers were not to be denied.

Paul willed his team back into it, scoring six straight points to get the Clippers within six. Griffin made three of four free throws before Collison got hot.

Crawford stole the ball and fed Collison for a fast-break dunk that drew Los Angeles within one. Griffin took a bounce pass from Paul, scored, got fouled and made the free throw for the game's first tie at 94-all.

Durant made one of two free throws before Crawford, the NBA's Sixth Man of the year, hit a 3-pointer. Westbrook's basket tied it at 97.

Collison scored the Clippers' final four points on layups. Crawford passed to a streaking Collison for a fast-break conversion on the second one for a 101-97 lead with 32 seconds left. Westbrook scored for the Thunder, but after Griffin missed, Westbrook did too to end the game.

Paul missed all five of his shots in the third, when Griffin picked up three fouls to give him five, and Crawford and Jordan each got their third.

Ibaka, who shot 9 of 10 in the Thunder's Game 3 win, got his fourth foul, along with Westbrook in the third. The Clippers came as close as eight points before Reggie Jackson's 3-pointer beat the shot clock to keep the Thunder ahead 75-63 going into the fourth.

The Thunder had the Clippers on their heels from the opening tip, with Oklahoma City shooting 65 percent in building a 22-point lead.

Oklahoma City outscored the Clippers 32-15 in the first; the fewest points they've allowed in a quarter of a playoff game.

The Clippers got to 39-35 using a 20-7 run, with Paul scoring seven, to start the second. But the Thunder closed the half strongly on an 18-11 spurt, including seven by Durant, to lead by 11 at the half.

NOTES: NBA Commissioner Adam Silver, who banned Clippers owner Donald Sterling for life and fined him $2.5 million after recordings of him making racist comments surfaced, attended the game, sitting next to Magic Johnson. Johnson tweeted on April 26 that he would never go to a Clippers game again while Sterling remains the owner. ... Johnson and boxer Floyd Mayweather have each made noises about being interested in owning the Clippers. ... Dick Parsons, whom Silver appointed as interim CEO of the Clippers, will be in town Monday. ... Durant's MVP acceptance speech is still a topic, with Thunder coach Scott Brooks joking, "I didn't get enough credit for being the speech writer." ... Among the celebs were Rihanna, Justin Bieber (who got booed), Billy Crystal, Mark Wahlberg, former Clipper Baron Davis wearing a Dodgers hat and Kenny Lofton.

New Boko Haram video may show proof of life

LAGOS, Nigeria (AP) - A new video from Nigeria's Boko Haram terrorist network purports to show dozens of abducted schoolgirls, covered in jihab and praying in Arabic.
It is the first public sight of the girls since more than 300 were kidnapped from a northeastern school the night of April 14 - exactly four weeks ago.
Families have said most girls abducted are Christians but the about 100 shown under a tree in the video recite Muslim prayers in Arabic. Many are barefoot. Some appear fearful, others desolate.
Fifty-three escaped by themselves and 276 are missing, police say.
The video received Monday by The Associated Press came through channels that have provided previous messages from Boko Haram leader Abubakar Shekau, who speaks in the video in the Hausa language of northern Nigeria. He is shown in military fatigues cradling an assault rifle on the video that is imprinted with the Boko Haram insignia of a Koran resting on two crossed assault rifles and below the black Jihadi flag.
The United States put a $7 million ransom on Shekau's head last year.
The mass abductions and failure of Nigeria's government and military to rescue them has aroused national and international outrage. Last week Nigeria belatedly accepted offers of help from the United States, Britain and others.

Fast Food Worker Strikes Go Global

Getty ImagesFast food workers campaigning for higher wages on May 7 in New York City.

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Yesterday, fast food workers holding a preference conference outside a Manhattan McDonald's announced plans for a nationwide strike on May 15, when employees of McDonald's, Burger King, KFC, and other fast food giants will push for better treatment and $15 per hour pay. The strikes won't be limited to the U.S., the group said--on the same date, they'll be joined by thousands of workers across six continents.

"We've gone global," said Ashley Cathey, a McDonald's worker from Memphis, Tennessee. "Our fight has inspired workers around the world to come together."

The international agenda includes protests, teach-ins, and even a series of flash mobs inside five McDonald's restaurants in the Philippines. Japan alone will be the site of 30 protests; the UK will have protests in 20 different cities.

The planned strikes push back against more than just low wages. Hungry for Justice organizer Julie Sherry, who said the average fast food worker in the U.K. makes the equivalent of $8.50 per hour, described the enforced "zero-hours" contracts the company uses to boost profits. Under these contracts, workers have no guaranteed hours, but can be called into work at any time. According to Sherry, 90 percent of the company's U.K. workforce lives on these contracts.

"In the UK, we are at the beginning of a battle to take on the multinationals dominating the fast food industry, ensure workers know their rights, and open the door to organizing fast food workers into unions, and it's fantastic to be a part of a global movement," said Sherry.

Some of the foreign protestors are striking in solidarity with the U.S. workers. Louise Marie Rantzau, a McDonald's worker in Denmark, said she makes $21 an hour, and was surprised to hear how hard U.S. employees have to fight for just $15.

The federal minimum wage of $7.25 was last raised in 2009. While some states and localities have raised their minimum wages recently, attempts to boost the federal minimum wage seem unlikely to succeed in Congress.

The strikes, in the U.S. and abroad, will challenge the notion that fast food workers consist mainly of teenagers looking for extra cash, rather than parents struggling to raise families on minimum (or minimal) wage.

They'll also make a case that these are the jobs that are driving economic recovery. Michael Evangelist, author of a recent National Employment Law Project report, described fast food as the industry driving the bulk of low-end job growth. In that case, corporations have an added impetus to make these jobs better.

"This is just the beginning of an unprecedented international fast food worker movement," said Ron Oswald, general secretary of the IUF, a federation comprised of 396 trade unions in 126 countries representing a combined 12 million workers. "This highly profitable global industry better take note."

Filed under: Employment News

Tags: burger king, fast food, fast food strikes, kfc, mcdonalds, minimum wage

Obama hangs with Spielberg, Springsteen at benefit

LOS ANGELES (AP) - President Obama shared a table with Steven Spielberg and Bruce Springsteen at a benefit dinner, but broke away to chat with Barbra Streisand and Samuel L. Jackson.
The president was the guest of honor Wednesday at a fundraising gala celebrating the USC Shoah Foundation, which Spielberg established 20 years ago to collect video testimonies from survivors of the Holocaust and other genocides. Inspired by the making of "Schindler's List," the video archive Spielberg created now includes more than 50,000 personal accounts and is available to schools across the globe.
"As long as we fail to learn, our work will be urgent work," he said of the foundation's mission. "This institute exists because we know that the future can always be rewritten."
Obama accepted the foundation's Ambassador for Humanity award at the private event at the Century Plaza Hotel. Springsteen provided musical entertainment, tucking his black tie into his white shirt to perform two songs with his acoustic guitar.
"I think anyone who has a boss wishes it was you," Spielberg told the stalwart rocker, who sang "Promised Land" and "Dancing in the Dark." The filmmaker called Springsteen "this nation's hardest working lyrical poet for our common humanity."
Conan O'Brien hosted the event, speaking in Yiddish and teasing the President for the traffic snarls he causes when visiting Los Angeles.
"You left Washington six hours ago, but I left Burbank seven hours ago," O'Brien joked.
Liam Neeson, who played Oskar Schindler in Spielberg's 1994 film, opened the evening.
But it was two non-famous women who left the audience most inspired. San Diego high school teacher Michelle Sadrena Clark recited a poem about how the Shoah Foundation's work enriches her curriculum and connects her students to history.
"Your institute has literally changed my teaching and my life," she said. Several of her students attended the gala, where they showed guests the multimedia projects they developed using survivor testimonies. They were also introduced to the president.
Celina Biniaz was one of the Jews Schindler saved. At 13, she worked in his factory, cleaning the machinery with her small hands. Now a grandmother whose story is included among the Holocaust testimonies, she said, "Oskar Schindler gave me my life, but Steven Spielberg gave me my voice."
Obama said that genocide survivors and the families they've created are "the ultimate rebuke to evil and the ultimate expression of love and hope."
"You are an inspiration to every single one of us," he said.

Woman delivers triplets at 47; babies go home

 http://www.aol.com/article/2014/05/06/woman-delivers-triplets-at-47-babies-go-home/20881388/?ncid=webmail20

 

MIAMI (AP) - Sharon Lewis was already a mother of two when she found out she was pregnant again. This time it was with triplets - at the age of 47, and without fertility treatments.
"Now the tears rolled because it was unexpected," she said Tuesday, moments before she was to take her three new children home, just in time for Mother's Day.
Lewis, a school cafeteria monitor with a 25-year-old daughter and 14-year-old son, said she was not looking to get pregnant again at her age. "But I was good. Once I grasped it, I was OK."
Dylan, Denere and Denard slept while Lewis and her doctors addressed the news media at Holtz Children's Hospital at the University of Miami/Jackson Memorial Medical Center. Each of the triplets weighed about 2 lbs. when born March 18. Since then, they have all been cared for at the hospital's neonatal intensive care unit.
Lewis developed high blood pressure during her pregnancy, so her doctors decided to deliver the triplets early, at 30 weeks. They said it was rare for a woman her age not only to get pregnant but also to have multiple births spontaneously, without hormone or fertility treatments.
"It was a miracle she got pregnant. It was a miracle she got three. And all of them are healthy and normal and she is fine," said Dr. Salih Y. Yasin, an obstetrician who specializes in high-risk pregnancies and delivering multiples, as he held a sleeping Denere in his arms. "Getting pregnant is 1 percent, but to be twins it's probably 1 percent of that. Triplets is 1 percent of 1 percent of that."
Lewis said she was looking forward to bonding with her babies at home.
"I felt that it was nobody but God that blessed my womb at 47. I do believe he brought me to it, he'll bring me through it," she said with a wide smile