After 85 days in jail, New York Times reporter Judith Miller is free. She testified in front of a grand jury after receiving permission from her source, possibly for the second time, to disclose her name.
She had gotten the information about CIA agent Valerie Plame’s identity from Vice-President Dick Cheney’s chief of staff, I. Lewis Libby. Her refusal to tell a grand jury Libby’s identity had led to her jailing for contempt of court on July 6.
Miller’s testimony has been described as one of the last objectives in the investigation of federal prosecutor Patrick J. Fitzgerald. It is unknown whether Fitzgerald will end up charging anyone with a crime as a result of the investigation.
So, I come home from the paper to find the new copy of Shield & Diamond, the Pi Kappa Alpha magazine, waiting for me.
My chapter at Virginia Tech has won the fraternity’s highest honor, the Smythe Award. We’ve won this a bunch of times, but this is the first time, I think, that the reconstituted fraternity has won it. (That’s a story for another time.) So great news for Epsilon Chapter. We also received the 100 Man Award, which I suspect means exactly what it says on the label. When I was in school, we had about 120 brothers (helped along by guys on their sixth, seventh and in one case, eighth years in school). So it looks like the chapter’s back on track in a variety of ways.
Then there’s page after page of financial reports, which boil down to “why aren’t you giving money, Yarbrough, directly to your chapter if nothing else?”
That’s followed by the Alumni Notes, where I see my pledge brother Stan “Gyro” Maoury is now the associate director for the federal consulting division of Gartner, Inc. and lives in Ashburn, VA with his wife, Julie, and their children, Stan III and Lauren. My entry, discussing where I work and my three 2004 SPJ awards has a typo in my e-mail address: It’s actually LBY3@Hotmail.com.
And finally, they’re pushing the 2006 Alumni Directory on the back, which is a collected database of where everyone is and how to reach them. The hardbound version is a little pricy at $69.95, so let’s look at the softcover … $66.95. Pass. I often think that some of the folks working at the national office are out of touch with post-collegiate realities. This just confirms it.
A press release from the California Department of Education:
STATE SCHOOLS CHIEF JACK O’CONNELL DEFENDS CALIFORNIA SCIENCE STANDARDS
Opposes Intelligent Design Theory as Threat to Integrity of Teaching Natural Sciences
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LOS ANGELES — State Superintendent of Public Instruction Jack O’Connell today defended California’s science standards from efforts to inject the theory of intelligent design into natural science curriculum.
“The introduction of intelligent design theory in natural science courses would be a blow to the integrity of education in California,” O’Connell said. “Our state has been recognized across the country and around the world for the quality and rigor of our academic standards. Just like I will fight tooth and nail to protect California’s high academic standards, I will fight to ensure that good science is protected in California classrooms.”
California’s science standards, which include the teaching of evolution theory, were developed with input from national leaders in science. The Fordham Foundation has awarded California an “A” for its science standards along with just a handful of other states.
President Bush has been quoted recently saying that students should be exposed to intelligent design theory. A trial on the legitimacy of teaching the concept of intelligent design in science courses is currently underway in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania.
“The goal of public education is for students to gain the knowledge and skills necessary for California’s work force to be competitive in the global, information-based economy of the 21st Century,” O’Connell said. “We also want to give students the tools to become critical thinkers and to be able to discuss and reflect on philosophical questions. But, the domain of the natural sciences is the natural world. Science is limited by its tools — observable facts and testable hypothesis. Because religious beliefs are based on faith, and are not subject to scientific test and refutation, these beliefs should not be taught in the realm of natural sciences.”
O’Connell noted that discussion about divine creation, ultimate purposes, or ultimate causes would be appropriate topics for discussion in history-social science or English-language arts curricula.
Speaking at the Natural History Museum of Los Angeles, O’Connell was joined by the President of the California Science Teachers Association. O’s comments were also supported by Dr. Eugenie Scott, the Executive Director of the National Center for Science Education.
“California’s unsurpassed state science standards treat evolution appropriately: as the central, powerful, unifying principle of the biological sciences that it is. I am gratified that Superintendent O’Connell recognizes the need to defend the teaching of evolution against religiously motivated and scientifically unwarranted attacks,” Dr. Scott said in a statement made from Pennsylvania, where she is monitoring the trial over the teaching of intelligent design theory in high schools in Dover.
“In California schools we are trying to educate students, not change their belief system,” O’Connell concluded. “We will best serve students if they graduate understanding the difference between scientific knowledge and values, faith or religious beliefs.”
Perhaps the single least surprising announcement in the history of surprising announcements.
