From K-State:

News release prepared by: Erinn Barcomb-Peterson, 785-532-6415, ebarcomb@k-state.edu

STRATEGIES TO REIN IN EPIDEMICS NEED TO BE RETOOLED FOR RURAL POPULATIONS, SAY K-STATE ENGINEERS USING COMPUTERS TO MODEL DISEASE OUTBREAKS IN RURAL AREAS

MANHATTAN — An infectious disease striking a large city may seem like a disastrous scenario — millions of people sharing apartment buildings, crammed on buses and trains and brushing past one another on crowded sidewalks.

A group of Kansas State University engineers is finding that a truly disastrous epidemic scenario could also take place in the wide-open spaces of the Great Plains. Caterina Scoglio, associate professor of electrical and computer engineering, is leading an Epicenter research project called SGER: Exploratory research on complex network approach to epidemic spreading in rural regions. (more…)

From K-State:

‘SHAPE CAPERS’ OPEN HOUSE TO FEATURE FUN ACTIVITIES AND CHILDREN’S AUTHOR

MANHATTAN — Kansas State University’s Marianna Kistler Beach Museum of Art will be turned into a children’s playland Friday, June 12, for the “Shape Capers” Open House.

The event, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m., will feature activities designed to teach shape recognition and creative combination to children, including shape shakers, collages and edible shapes for all ages. Music and movement activities also are being offered. (more…)

From K-State:

News release prepared by: Diane Potts, 785-532-1090, potts@k-state.edu

STEPHANIE ROLLEY TO HEAD K-STATE’S DEPARTMENT OF LANDSCAPE ARCHITECTURE AND REGIONAL AND COMMUNITY PLANNING

MANHATTAN — Stephanie Rolley will be the new head of Kansas State University’s department of landscape architecture and regional and community planning. Her appointment becomes effective June 14.

Rolley succeeds Dan Donelin, who is retiring at the end of June after serving as department head since 1995. (more…)

At RedCounty.com/Johnson, Benjamin Hodge writes:

In 2006, at the direction of the former president, Ferguson engaged in openly hostile behavior toward employee Miguel Morales, who had uncovered the multiple accusations of sexual harrassment by female employees toward the former president.  And in 2009, at the direction of President Calaway, Ferguson made JCCC a national embarrassment by engaging in the ridiculous behavior of sending me a “cease and desist” letter that was intended to threaten me from making further fact-based criticisms of the board and President Calaway. (more…)

From K-State:

K-STATE’S COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING OFFERING NEW DISTANCE EDUCATION MASTER’S DEGREE

MANHATTAN — A new engineering degree, the master of science in operations research, is being offered by Kansas State University through distance education.

The 30-credit-hour master’s degree is a fully online, course work-only program offered by K-State’s department of industrial and manufacturing systems engineering through the Division of Continuing Education.
(more…)

Pro sports:

“Paul Kelly, the executive director of the National Hockey League Players’ Association, has told The Hamilton Spectator that “it’s time to pull the plug” on the NHL in Phoenix.

Kelly also tells The Spectator that NHL owners should not only be doubting that the Coyotes should remain in Phoenix, but that those doubts should have arisen long before now.

Speaking on a Toronto radio station Wednesday, Kelly asked: “How much money must (a franchise) lose before someone says ‘perhaps they ought not to be there’?”

Pollster:

There are a couple of pieces of accepted wisdom when it comes to contested primary elections versus general elections: 1) turnout has a bigger impact on the ultimate margin of victory in primaries and 2) primaries are more difficult to poll (see point #1). (more…)

Pollster:

National

Did you follow the nomination of Sonia Sotomayor to the
Supreme Court very closely, fairly closely, not too closely or not at all closely?

58% Closely
42% Not closely

From what you’ve read and heard so far, what, if anything, would you say you LIKE about Sonia Sotomayor?

45% Yes, Named something
29% Nothing/Don’t know/Refused

From what you’ve read and heard so far, what, if anything, would you say you DISLIKE about
Sonia Sotomayor?

26% Yes, Named something
48% Nothing/Don’t know/Refused

From K-State:

News release prepared by: Mary Rankin, 785-532-6715, mrankin@k-state.edu

K-STATE COLLEGE OF ENGINEERING NAMES JAMES EDGAR TO HEAD DEPARTMENT OF CHEMICAL ENGINEERING

MANHATTAN — James Edgar, professor, has been named head of the department of chemical engineering at Kansas State University. He will assume his new duties Aug. 1. (more…)

Source:

By an even bigger margin, 74 percent to 23 percent with 2 percent undecided, the public opposes moving any of the detainees into prisons in their states, something Obama also said he intended to do. On both issues, Obama ran into a buzzsaw on Capitol Hill in May when the Senate voted to strip funding to close Guantánmo and for transferring any prisoners to the U.S.

Forty percent said they believed the use of Guantánamo to house terrorist suspects had strengthened U.S. national security, 37 percent said it had no effect and 18 percent said it had weakened U.S. security.

Politico:

“We’re all stunned and concerned by what I’ve come to think of as the shock-and-awe statism that we’ve experienced just really within the last few months,” Daniels said at a Washington symposium hosted by the Bradley Center for Philanthropy and Civic Renewal. “As I see it, there’s what one might call an audacious endeavor to overwhelm the defenses of freedom and free institutions before they have a chance to regroup and organize themselves.”

Daniels’ 2008 reelection victory over former Democratic Rep. Jill Long Thompson was one of few bright spots for the GOP last November. Prior to winning the first of his two terms as governor in 2004, Daniels served as director of the Office of Management and Budget.

Politico:

It might be the oddest political pairing of the year. Barack Obama, whose campaign for president carefully avoided race-based political appeals, is teaming up with the man who practically perfected them: the Rev. Al Sharpton.

This double-take moment came last month, with Sharpton holding court with reporters at the White House, fresh out of an Oval Office meeting with Obama in his role as co-founder of the bipartisan Education Equality Project.

So far, Sharpton has been to the White House more times, and for more close-up conversations with Obama, than the leaders of other long-established civil rights organizations like the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People and the Urban League.

AP:

ST. LOUIS (AP) - St. Louis Cardinals manager Tony La Russa is suing the social-networking site Twitter, claiming an unauthorized page using his name damaged his reputation and caused emotional distress.

The suit filed last month in the Superior Court of California in San Francisco seeks unspecified damages.

Messages left Thursday with La Russa’s attorney and San Francisco-based Twitter were not returned.

Jim Geraghty:

It’s Part of a Secret Plan to Get Iranians Worried About Yucca Mountain

We now have an American president who is more supportive of using nuclear power in Iran than he is of using it in the United States.

K-State:News release prepared by: Caitlin Muret, 785-532-7718, cmuret@k-state.edu

K-STATE’S BEACH MUSEUM OF ART OFFERING TWO EXHIBITIONS OF TORNADO PHOTOGRAPHS BEGINNING IN JUNE

MANHATTAN — Photographs capturing the destructive power and aftermath of tornadoes in Kansas will be the focus of two exhibitions opening in June at Kansas State University’s Marianna Kistler Beach Museum of Art.

“Destruction Framed: Photographs of the Chapman/Manhattan Tornado, June 11, 2008″ will be on display June 11-Aug. 16, while “Larry Schwarm: Greensburg After the Storm” will be on display June 19-Aug. 10.

The Chapman/Manhattan tornado exhibition features photographs of the aftermath of the tornado that tore through Chapman, Manhattan and Soldier. The work of Tom Leopold, a freelance photographer, and Rod Mikinski and Luke Townsend, Manhattan Mercury photographers, are featured. Ten pictures from each photographer are displayed. (more…)

Politico:

Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) gave a harsh assessment of Supreme Court nominee Sonia Sotomayor Wednesday afternoon, criticizing her ideology, questioning her temperament and saying he had little intention of voting for her.

In a critical news conference following his 30-minute closed-door meeting with Sotomayor, Graham said that he would have great difficulty supporting her - and that he let her know it.

“I was very direct,” Graham told reporters gathered outside his office. “I have to decide how to play this game, quite frankly. If I use the same standard that Sen. [Barack] Obama used, then I would not vote for you, quite frankly.”

Graham’s comments were the most critical so far during Sotomayor’s dozen visits to key Senate offices over the past two days.

At his Washington Post section, Chris Cillizza ranks the different types of political endorsements as follows, from most important to least important:

Our only recommendated addendum to this list is that Chuck Norris be given his own category, and it be placed at the top.

The Fix:

A quick primer on the endorsement hierarchy — from most to least important:

* The Symbolic Endorsement: Ted Kennedy backing Barack Obama during the 2008 primaries.
* The State-Specific Statewide Endorsement: Florida Gov. Charlie Crist throwing his support to John McCain just before the Sunshine State presidential primary.
* The Celebrity Endorsement: Chuck Norris for former Arkansas Gov. Mike Huckabee
* The Newspaper Endorsement: Des Moines Register for John Edwards in 2004.
* The State-Specific Non-Statewide Endorsement: Rep. Zack Space supporting Lt. Gov. Lee Fisher’s Senate bid in Ohio.
* The Obligatory Endorsement: Mississippi Sen. Thad Cochran endorsing McCain’s presidential bid in 2008.
* The Pariah Endorsement: Rod Blagojevich and Roland Burris.

Obviously, neither Schweitzer nor Rendell fit into any of the categories listed above; Schweitzer, as chairman of the DGA, could be cast as a symbolic endorsement, but sources familiar with the decision insisted he was backing McAuliffe solely in his position as governor of Montana. Rendell, while a major player in national Democratic politics, has no ties to the state of Virginia.

Politico:

Tuesday’s announcement of Rep. John McHugh (R-N.Y.) as President Barack Obama’s nominee for Army secretary makes perfect sense from a policymaking standpoint. It’s hard to find a member of Congress who’s more well-respected or more steeped in military personnel issues than McHugh, a senior House Armed Services Committee member who has wrestled with issues ranging from recruitment to base closure to the role of women in combat.

Yet it’s also hard to find a choice better calibrated to meet the Obama administration’s political imperatives. All at once, Obama has selected a nominee who burnishes his bipartisan credentials, opened up a seat prime for Democratic pickup and drained the GOP reservoir of one of the few remaining Northeastern moderates.

Powerline:

Newsweek has selected comedian Steven Colbert to be the “guest editor” of its next edition. Peter Wehner writes:

For those who lament the state of American journalism as having become increasingly unserious, tendentious, and willing to blur important lines, this will become one more data point for them to cite. It is the journalist equivalent of the publicity stunt by St. Louis Browns’s owner Bill Veeck, who made Eddie Gaedel, who popped out of a cake between a double-header, the first midget to participate in a Major League Baseball game.

Colbert as Eddie Gaedel, excellent. Newsweek as the St. Louis Browns, perfect.

Pro Sports:

“Parting ways with the Braves once was hard enough. Now Tom Glavine has done it twice.

On Wednesday afternoon, the Braves released Glavine, a vintage Braves player who won the clinching game for their only World Series championship since coming to Atlanta, saying the 43-year-old had not progressed enough in his comeback from shoulder and elbow surgery.

“Our view is that over the course of the last month, he has not improved,” Braves general manager Frank Wren said.

The day after Glavine, whose 305 career wins ranks 21st all-time, threw six scoreless innings for the Class-A Rome Braves in the final outing of his minor-league rehabilitation, the Braves announced they would call up highly touted prospect Tommy Hanson, who will make his major-league debut Saturday in the fifth spot in the Braves’ rotation.

Morning Call:

Brian McLaughlin of Upper Saucon Township police, who is assigned to the school as a resource officer, said 17 boys took part in the Monday night prank. He is investigating whether any others were involved.

McLaughlin said the school district requested that charges be filed and is considering its own disciplinary action. Superintendent Joseph Liberati and high school administrators could not be reached for comment Tuesday on what form the discipline might take.

The boys used ladders to scale the building and gain access to the secure courtyard, a grassy area used primarily by art students and for special school programs, McLaughlin said. Maintenance personnel arrived at 7 a.m. Tuesday to find the students in tents and sleeping bags.

AFP:

TEHRAN (AFP) - - Iran’s hardline President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, who is seeking a second term in office, reiterated on Wednesday his anti-Israel stance by calling the Holocaust a “big deception”.

Ahmadinejad also said liberal democracies of the world have degraded “human values,” the Iranian state television news website quoted him as saying.

“The identity of the liberal democracy has been exposed to the world by its protection of the most criminal regime in the history of humanity, the Zionist regime, by using the big deception of the Holocaust.”

“There is no doubt that the only way to replace the liberal thought is to go back to the teachings of the divine prophets,” Ahmadinejad said.

“The thoughts and the system of liberal regimes have lowered the benchmarks for human perfection … The liberal regimes cannot solve the simplest of the political issues in the world,” he said.

Ahmadinejad was speaking to a gathering of 600 international scholars who have arrived in Tehran to mark the 20th anniversary of the death of the founder of the Islamic republic, Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, which falls on Thursday.

Geraghty:

Everything indicates that Tuesday’s Virginia Democratic gubernatorial primary is going to be a barnburner - another poll out today puts all three within the margin of error.

While most Democrats will probably unify behind their nominee, it will be a bit of a unique challenge for the candidate to enter the general election with 60 percent of Democrats or more having voted for somebody else

Nate Silver:

The chart below compares the percentage of pregnancies in each state that ended in abortion in 2005 to a SurveyUSA poll conducted in that same year that asked residents of all 50 states to identify themselves as pro-choice or pro-life. (more…)