From K-State:

K-STATE SOIL MICROBIOLOGIST CHUCK RICE CHOSEN PRESIDENT-ELECT OF SOIL SCIENCE SOCIETY OF AMERICA

MANHATTAN — Chuck Rice, university distinguished professor of agronomy at Kansas State University, has been selected president-elect of the Soil Science Society of America.

Rice’s term begins Jan. 1, 2010, and he will assume the role of president Jan. 1, 2011.

Rice is the second K-State agronomy faculty member to serve as president of the society and his term comes at a special time for the organization. (more…)

From K-State:

K-STATE STUDENT RECOGNIZED FOR CREATIVE LIGHT FIXTURE DESIGN

MANHATTAN — Ali Johnson, Topeka, a May 2009 master of interior architecture and product design graduate from Kansas State University, has received a citation for her presentation in the Robert Bruce Thompson Charitable Trust 2009 Student Light Fixture Design Competition.

Her project was one of five out of the 163 entries in the competition that received special recognition. Her prize included a plaque and a $500 cash award. (more…)

From K-State:

K-STATE STUDENTS RECEIVE SCHOLARSHIPS TO SUPPORT STUDIES ABROAD

MANHATTAN — More than 90 Kansas State University students who will study abroad this summer or fall are recipients of special scholarships to support their international studies.

The scholarships include the Office of International Programs Study Abroad Scholarships, which are supported by the K-State Student Governing Association, and scholarships endowed by private donors through the Kansas State University Foundation. The study abroad experiences vary in length, from short-term faculty led trips to up to a year. (more…)

Politico:

But the numbers tell the tale: 52 of the 66 events were in states that backed Obama. And taken together, the itineraries amount to a veritable map of Obama’s election-night victories - big-money states like California and New York, swing states like Ohio and Colorado that Obama turned blue and other solidly Democratic states Obama kept in his column.

The events were weighted to big cities that provided Obama some of his biggest election-night margins: Cleveland, Boston, Detroit, Los Angeles, Chicago and Philadelphia.

Post Gazette:

At Penn Hills High School this morning, Chief Burton said, a student was walking up and down a hallway, using a cell phone. School policy permits students to have cell phones but not to use them during school except in emergencies, Chief Burton said.

A Penn Hills police officer told him to put the phone away and go to class.

“The kid refused to listen,” Chief Burton said. “The officer took him by the arm and said, ‘You have to go to the office.’ The student resisted, pushed the officer. The officer, defending himself, took out his stun gun and did a drive stun.”

Chief Burton said a drive stun involves pushing the Taser against a portion of the body and squeezing the trigger, thus immobilizing a portion of the body, such as the leg. He said this affects about a 2- or 3-inch area.

While on the floor, the student was still resisting and was placed in handcuffs, Chief Burton said. The student complained of a headache and dizziness and was taken to Forbes Regional Hospital.

AP:

CARACAS, Venezuela - Venezuelan prosecutors charged the head of an anti-government television station with usury on Thursday, ending a weeks-long investigation into his business activities that he called politically motivated.

Dozens of National Guard troops accompanied prosecutors to the upscale residence of Globovision president Guillermo Zuloaga on Thursday evening to gather evidence, according to state television footage. It was not clear if they entered the home.

Zuloaga was charged with usury after a police raid uncovered 24 Toyota vehicles outside his Caracas office last month, prompting an investigation into two car dealerships he owns, prosecutors said in a statement.

From K-State:

K-STATE’S FAST LASER RESEARCH AND THEORY HELPS PHYSICISTS BUILD ON ALBERT EINSTEN’S WORK BY TIMING EMISSION OF ELECTRONS FROM METAL AT SUPERFAST SPEEDS

MANHATTAN — Ultrafast laser research at Kansas State University has allowed physicists to build on Nobel Prize-winning work in photo-electronics by none other than Albert Einstein. (more…)

AP:

ATLANTA (AP) - The recession is hitting home for inmates, too: Some cash-strapped states are taking aim at prison menus.

Georgia prisoners already didn’t get lunch on the weekends, and the Department of Corrections recently eliminated the midday meal on Fridays, too. Ohio may drop weekend breakfasts and offer brunch instead. Other states are cutting back on milk and fresh fruit.

Officials say prisoners are still getting enough calories, but family members and critics say the changes could make prisoners irritable and food a valuable commodity, increasing the possibility of violence.

In Georgia, inmates are still getting the same number of daily calories: 2,800 for men and 2,300 for women. The portions at breakfast and dinner are bigger on days only two meals are served.

From K-State:

K-STATE ARCHITECTURE STUDENTS RECEIVE HEINTZELMAN PRIZE FOR DESIGN EXCELLENCE

MANHATTAN — Final projects by five architecture students will receive the Heintzelman Prize from Kansas State University’s College of Architecture, Planning and Design.

The Heintzelman Prize is awarded each year to fifth-year architecture students for outstanding design in their final semester. The prize is named for J. Cranston Heintzelman, a longtime professor in K-State’s department of architecture. Two students in each of the fifth-year design studios are nominated by faculty. The winners are then chosen by a distinguished jury. (more…)

From K-State:

K-STATE RESEARCHER FROM HUTCHINSON RECEIVES NATIONAL SCIENCE FOUNDATION GRADUATE FELLOWSHIP

MANHATTAN — A Kansas State University researcher has received a National Science Foundation Graduate Fellowship for graduate studies in computer science.

Tim Weninger, research associate in computer science at K-State, will receive three years of funding for graduate studies that includes a $30,000 annual stipend and payment of tuition and fees. (more…)

Reuters:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The pace of U.S. job losses slowed sharply last month, the strongest sign to date that the recession is diminishing, even as the unemployment rate hit its highest in nearly 26 years.

The Labor Department said on Friday that U.S. employers cut 345,000 jobs in May, the fewest since September and far less than economists had forecast. They cut 504,000 jobs in April.

However, the unemployment rate raced to 9.4 percent, the highest since July 1983, from 8.9 percent in April, partly because people who had given up looking for work re-entered the labor market, a sign economic confidence was returning.

Source:

It was that of a missing man, and now his family wants to know to how officers could ticket the vehicle numerous times — and never notice what was inside.

Jennifer Morales, who didn’t want her face filmed by CBS 2 HD cameras, wondered how her father’s body could go unnoticed for so long.

“I’m shocked. I’m surprised, um…,” Morales said.

The daughter of 58-year-old George Morales wants everyone to remember her handyman father in a different way, not as a decomposed body found in a van under the Brooklyn-Queens Expressway on Wednesday. He’d been dead a month, in a van with four parking tickets.

“If you see an abandoned vehicle, you don’t report it? You wait a month?” Jennifer Morales wondered.

Morales’ daughter said her father left their apartment in Washington Heights on May 5 in a van owned by a friend. George Morales was headed for Long Island, but he just vanished.