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WORLD
Radio ‘peace’ station is targeted
JERUSALEM – After RAM FM went on the air last year, the English-language radio station launched an ad campaign with the motto: Music has no boundaries.
This week, the South Africa-funded radio station trying to promote Israeli-Palestinian co-existence discovered that it does.
On Monday, Israeli police raided RAM FM’s Jerusalem office, arrested seven and seized the station’s transmitter.
The raid was apparently based on Israel’s claim that RAM FM is a pirate radio station operating without a license.
RAM FM officials deny this charge.
China reports prevent Muslim terrorist attack on Olympics
URUMQI, China – The International Olympics chief said Thursday that the Summer Games scheduled for August in China are in “crisis” amid protests following the Olympic torch.
The sense of emergency surrounding the games grew Thursday when China declared that it had smashed a Muslim terrorist ring that was plotting to kidnap Olympic athletes.
The Ministry of Public Security said it broke up a terror ring of 35 members of the East Turkestan Islamic Movement in this predominantly Muslim city in far west China.
It said the group planned a variety of actions to disrupt the Aug. 8-24 games, including setting off bombs in Beijing and Shanghai.
The arrests occurred March 26 to April 6, Public Security Ministry spokesman Wu Heping told a news conference in Beijing.
He added that police also seized 21 pounds of explosives, eight detonators and two explosive devices.
NATIONAL
Students call for concealed weapons on campus
COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. – If a gunman were to burst into a classroom at the University of Colorado at Colorado Springs with murder on his mind, one group of students wants a chance to shoot back.
But packing heat to class, even with a concealed carry permit, is prohibited by University of Colorado system policy and cause for expulsion.
Now about a dozen students on the Colorado Springs campus have joined a national and fast-growing group, Students for Concealed Carry on Campus, whose goal is to lobby legislators and school administrators to allow their handguns in class.
Supporters of allowing concealed handguns on campus are quick to point out the background checks and training required to obtain a permit, and they claim that concealed carry permits have not led to more violence among those people.
Opponents point to the risks of guns ending up in the wrong hands or being misused.
Experts unfazed by water contamination scare
WASHINGTON – Lots of people lunged for bottled water after they were told last month that tap water in many U.S. cities contains traces of pharmaceuticals.
Responding to the public alarm, Senators. Barbara Boxer, D-Calif., and Frank Lautenberg, D-N.J. called for a hearing on the federal response to drugs in drinking water, now set for Tuesday.
Despite the sudden clamor, however, many water-quality researchers kept doing what they had done for years about contaminants in tap water: nothing.
They kept drinking local tap or well water, a half-dozen of them told McClatchy Newspapers.
For one thing, they knew that bottled water is less regulated than municipal supplies are.
The big reason, however, was that researchers were less anxious than senators and a public jolted by another new environmental scare for which risk and remedy are both unknown.
Contaminants now commonly found in drinking water include tiny traces of pesticides, herbicides, flame retardants, DEET, mosquito repellant, aircraft de-icers, lead, arsenic, mercury and esters, ketones and other chemicals also found in personal care products.
Not to mention additives in toothpaste meant to retard gum and tooth disease.
Chrysler employees fired for Internet post
DETROIT – When Rob Diel told people to contact Bob Nardelli, Chrysler’s chief executive, about the automaker’s decision to outsource jobs, he never expected to hear back from the boss.
Then corporate security showed up Friday at his desk at the Sterling Heights (Mich.) Assembly Plant. The message was clear: You’re fired.
Diel, a contract information technology worker at Chrysler for the past 10 years, was fired Friday after he posted Nardelli’s office telephone number.
He also posted Nardelli’s e-mail address on a readers’ comment section of freep.com, the Web site of the Detroit Free Press, last week, he said.
For years, experts have cautioned against using company computers for personal reasons, and countless employees have been dismissed for disclosing internal company information.
American cancels a total of 3,000
CHICAGO – American Airlines canceled more than 930 flights Thursday and may need several more days to resume normal flight operations after grounding nearly half of its fleet this week to recheck wiring, the company’s chief executive said Thursday.
With the safety check on 300 MD-80s only half completed as of Thursday night, the airline scrubbed another 570 Friday flights.
The number of canceled American flights now stands at more than 3,000 since late Tuesday, wreaking havoc at the airline’s hubs in Chicago and Dallas and eroding its profits at a time the industry is swooning due to high oil prices and economic worries.
Chief Executive Gerard Arpey said the costs to the airline will run into the “tens of millions of dollars” from the disruption of service, but he said American can withstand the loss.
LOCAL/BSU
Pay rates aren’t keeping up
TREASURE VALLEY – During the last several years, residents from other states have flocked to the Treasure Valley in search of a better life.
While those who arrived in the mid-’90s benefited from a lower cost of living, more recent transplants are paying higher expenses with smaller paychecks.
Despite local pay rates that often aren’t keeping pace with average U.S. wages, people continue to move to the valley – and Idaho natives aren’t leaving.
Debbie Kaylor, director of BSU’s Career Center, said about 85 percent of Boise State University students stay in the Treasure Valley after they graduate.
Many of the students who utilize the center’s services want to find local work, Kaylor said.
While some are realistic about their earning potential just after college, others are surprised to learn they’ll have to work their way up to their desired positions.
Center employees encourage students to review the total compensation package offered rather than focusing just on the wage.
Sex books on agenda again
NAMPA – The Nampa Public Library’s board will again discuss two controversial, sexually explicit books at its monthly meeting Monday.
The board voted 3-2 on March 10 to take the books “The New Joy of Sex” and “The Joy of Gay Sex” off the shelves.
The books would be kept in the library director’s office. They are still available for circulation.
The Nampa Public Library’s board will meet at 4 p.m. Monday in the basement of the library, located at 101 11th Ave. S.
But the board could make a more-permanent decision about what to do with the books Monday.
The Nampa Public Library has been dealing with the books since a Nampa man asked them to be removed from the institution in 2005.
He and others have said the books are too graphic for a public library that counts children among its patrons.
However, critics of the most-recent decision say removing it amounts to censorship, the library should have a diverse collection,.
They stress that parents should monitor what books their children read at the library.
Housing foundation launches nonprofit
The Idaho Housing and Finance Association recently announced the launch of the Home Partnership Foundation, Inc.
The nonprofit organization was created to help Idaho communities meet some of their most pressing housing needs through charitable donations.
The new organization specializes in charitable giving for critically needed affordable housing.
It works to assure families and individuals can obtain stable, safe and affordable housing by providing stewardship of charitable gifts to support a variety of programs.
WHAT THE?
So, I think I should just go … chomp!
After an evening of drinking, a man accompanied a woman he met at a nightclub in Glasgow, Scotland, to a nearby hotel to spend the night. But, once back in the room, he apparently realized she wasn’t as beautiful as he thought she was, and started to leave only a few minutes later, saying she was fat. In response, she bit off his ear.
You want some crack? Certainly, why don’t we meet?
When the driver of a car they pulled over in Lake Charles, La., couldn’t produce a valid driver’s license, police called the registered owner and left a message on her phone to determine whether the car had been stolen. But the woman apparently thought the message was from her drug dealer, and called the cop back and asked him if she could buy $150 worth of crack cocaine.
What is this? National Geographic?
Twenty minutes after a religious program ended, a technichian at a TV station in French Polynesia decided to use the company’s equipment to watch a porn movie. Unfortunately, he made an error and broadcast the flick over the airwaves. Many telephone calls resulted.
The deal is off!
A man picked up a prostitute in Johannesburg, South Africa, and adjourned to his hotel room where he proceeded to rip off his clothes and encouraged her to do the same. When she refused, a tussle ensued during which the man realized his date had equipment that no woman possesses. Inspector Moses Maphakela, said, “Let’s just say that, when he touched her, he realized he wasn’t touching a woman.”
World/National/What the? stories courtesy of MCT Campus Wire Services unless otherwise credited. Local/BSU stories are courtesy of the Boise State Web site at www.boisestate.edu. All stories are compiled by News Writers.