White House holds third tribal leaders conference

WASHINGTON (AP) ? There's little doubt President Barack Obama has won high esteem among Native Americans by breaking through a logjam of inaction on issues that matter to them.

The Obama administration this week unveiled sweeping changes to federal tribal-land leasing rules that had not been touched in 50 years. Obama nominated a Native American to the federal bench, signed a law renewing the Indian Health Care Act and settled a tribal royalties lawsuit that had dragged over three administrations.

"Obama has done better for tribes than the others, except for the Nixon administration," said Ben Nighthorse Campbell, a former Republican senator from Colorado. President Richard Nixon advocated tribal self-determination and opposed the termination of American Indian tribes that had been occurring since the mid-1940s.

Against that backdrop of acclaim, Obama on Friday speaks for the third time with the nation's 565 tribal leaders in Washington. The annual Tribal Nations Conference will allow Obama to boast about how he's kept his 2008 campaign promises for the 5.2 million American Indians and Alaska natives in the U.S. It also is a chance for tribal leaders to lay out what else they expect.

American Indians have been "well-served" and "hurt" by administrations, said Bill John Baker, principal chief of the largest Indian tribe, the Cherokee Nation in Oklahoma. But Obama has gone beyond lip service, Baker said, and "backed up his words with actions that have made a positive impact on the lives of Native people."

But with the accomplishments come greater expectations from a people whose rates of unemployment, violent crime, youth suicides, poverty and high school dropout rates are significantly higher than in the rest of the country.

"It's two steps forward, one step backward," Campbell said. "No matter what we do, we have to find a way for Indians to be self-sufficient and not dependent on the federal government, except for those services required by treaty in the old days."

The administration still must implement laws Obama signed and fund lawsuit settlements. Also, tribes want to see the administration push legislation through Congress to get around a 2009 Supreme Court decision limiting the secretary of Interior's authority to accept land into federal trust on behalf of Indian tribes. The decision has held up economic development for tribes.

"We still need improvements in roads, bridges, schools, hospitals as well as addressing the digital, electrical and clean water disparities that hamper development and quality of life issues for our people," Baker said.

Thomas Shortbull, president of Oglala Lakota College on the Pine Ridge reservation in South Dakota, said for now he's giving Obama a B-minus. He notes that the president hasn't issued an executive order, as Clinton and Bush did, reminding agencies to provide money to tribal colleges.

Still, Obama has assembled a respectable bragging list. He has:

?Signed the Indian Law and Order Act to improve law enforcement and public safety in tribal communities.

?Renewed the Indian Health Care Improvement Act and made it permanent.

?Settled the class-action Cobell lawsuit over federal government mismanagement of royalties for oil, gas, timber and grazing leases and an American Indian farmers discrimination lawsuit.

?Nominated Arvo Mikkanen to be a federal judge in Oklahoma. His nomination is awaiting Senate confirmation.

Jacqueline Johnson Pata, executive director of the National Congress of American Indians and an Alaska native, said native peoples' enthusiasm for Obama goes deeper.

Obama has embraced Native American tribal sovereignty preserved in the Constitution, court decisions and treaty agreements and made that the foundation for his administration's dealings with tribes, Pata said.

All this has come about as tribes have become increasingly politically savvy, as well as more organized in making their agenda known, she said.

Like former Presidents Bill Clinton and George W. Bush, Obama appointed a Native American to his Intergovernmental Affairs staff. But he also appointed Kimberly Teehee, a member of the Cherokee Nation, as senior policy adviser for Native American Affairs.

In addition, Obama reminded executive department heads and agencies in a November 2009 memo of their obligation to regularly consult and collaborate with tribal officials on policies that impact Native Americans. He set deadlines for detailed consultation plans and demanded progress reports.

"I think we have made strides under the Obama administration the likes of which tribes have not seen for 30 years," said Stacy Bohlen, executive director of the National Indian Health Board. Bohlen is a member of the Sault Ste. Marie Tribe of Chippewa Indians in Michigan.

Several agencies have yet to draft policies, according to the National Congress of American Indians.

___

Online:

National Congress of American Indians: http://www.ncai.org

White House site on Native Americans: http://www.whitehouse.gov/nativeamericans

___

Follow Suzanne Gamboa at http://twitter.com/APsgamboa .

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/386c25518f464186bf7a2ac026580ce7/Article_2011-12-02-Obama-Native%20Americans/id-f40e9e47c18345ddbe4e6b30ad7bf252

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Experts reclassify painting as real Rembrandt (AP)

AMSTERDAM ? Experts have reclassified a painting as a Rembrandt after years of attributing it to one of the Dutch master's students.

Ernst van de Wetering of the Rembrandt Research Project said Friday that X-ray analysis of "Bearded Old Man" has revealed outlines of a self-portrait of Rembrandt as a young man underneath.

He also cited stylistic analysis and circumstantial evidence in support of the conclusion that the painting ? showing a man with unkempt white hair, lost in thought with just a hint of sadness ? is by the Dutch master.

Van de Wetering dates the small (15 x 20 cm, 6 x 8 inch) but emotive painting to 1630, when Rembrandt van Rijn would have been 24 years old. Rembrandt's reputation as a portraitist was rapidly growing and he was preparing to leave Leiden for Amsterdam, which at that time was enjoying its golden age as a major naval power.

Van de Wetering said that the style and quality of the painting itself provide the strongest arguments for its authenticity, but the existence of the underlying portrait was important too.

"The light is typically Rembrandt in that it is so totally convincing: you perceive it as if you are looking at reality and not at a painting," he said.

"That was one of Rembrandt's great, great interests and also where he was so extraordinarily gifted, at portraying light so convincingly."

Classifying the painting as an authentic Rembrandt fills a hole in his historical record ? a 1633 painting exists with an inscription that says it is a copy of "Bearded Old Man" by the Dutch master.

"Bearded Old Man" belongs to an unidentified private collector. It will go on display May-July of next year at the Rembrandt House Museum in Amsterdam, where the finding was announced Friday.

Van de Wetering collaborated with restorer Martin Bijl and technology professors Joris Dik of the Delft University of Technology and Koen Janssens of the University of Antwerp, among others in the reclassification.

Researchers used at least five different kinds of X-ray scans to analyze the chemical makeup of pigments in the painting and probe its hidden layers of paint. The scans were done at the Brookhaven National Laboratory in New York and ESRF in Grenoble, France.

Rembrandt produced hundreds of paintings, etchings and drawings, but new finds are extremely rare. However, four works formerly attributed to his students ? a talented group in their own right ? have been reclassified as by Rembrandt since 2008, often with the help of new technology.

_____

Online:

http://www.rembrandt.ua.ac.be

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/topstories/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20111202/ap_on_en_ot/eu_netherlands_rembrandt

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Hoop Dreams: Riots cast shadow over Games

LONDON (AP) ? Four days of rioting last August has cast a shadow over the neighborhoods where some of the world's top athletes will compete next summer at the 2012 London Games. Some Olympic events will occur only a few miles away from where Britain's worst riots in a generation shook the country.

Both London and the Olympics were irrevocably altered.

And so were the lives of those who live here. Sam Kato, 12, practices with the Newham All Star Sports Academy, an oasis in east London from the crime, gangs and drugs that helped fuel last summer's riots. The program helps keep kids out of trouble and teaches them the value of teamwork.

"It's like a family to me," the 6-foot-1 Kato said as the gym reverberated with basketballs rhythmically hitting the wooden floor. "If there were more programs like this, I doubt there would be riots."

Newham hosts the Olympic Park, center of the 2012 games.

Complex security plans for the Olympics have been altered after the riots, which shocked Britain and damaged London's image abroad. Those plans were also updated after student demonstrations in London that included a spontaneous attack on Prince Charles and wife Camilla and the "Occupy London" encampment near the city's financial district.

The riots exposed the limits of what police could handle in terms of dramatic and unforeseen events. After a weak initial response, thousands of police officers were brought in to help swamp London's streets in a show of force, discouraging further trouble.

The Olympics will already keep 12,000 officers occupied on the busiest days, so any riot repeat will push resources further still.

"(Planners) are learning the lessons from the riots," said Margaret Gilmore, an expert at the Royal United Services Institute, a respected think tank. "Some demonstrations and protests are almost inevitable and they are likely to take a tougher line and use more officers in dealing with riots."

Fears over street unrest come alongside the biggest Olympic worry: terrorism. Security has been an intricate part of the games since a terror attack at the 1972 Olympics in Munich killed 11 Israeli athletes and coaches. London has not been immune from terror attacks ? four suicide bombers targeted the city's transit network in 2005, killing 52 commuters.

But the advent of riots was a late addition to the planning mix, which has been under way for years. Even now plans are still being refined.

"What you have to remember is that in the last Olympics people were worried about al-Qaida threats," said Ellis Cashmore, a professor of culture, media and sport at Staffordshire University. "What the riots have done is alert people to the fact that London may not be such a safe city after all."

Tough economic times in Britain mean underlying tensions aren't getting better any time soon. Unemployment this year passed the 1 million mark for young people for the first time since the mid-1980s.

Austerity measures meant to put the country back in the black have cut support for many programs geared at helping young people, and Britain's youth unemployment rate has risen to about 20 percent. Youth workers say the desperation and hopelessness felt by many British teens and young adults is likely to be even worse next summer than this year.

Olympic officials have declared themselves unconcerned about any legacy from the riots. Denis Oswald, head of the International Olympic Committee's coordination commission for London, told reporters recently that he was in London during the unrest and believed the situation was "quite quickly under control."

Oswald looked at the bright side, noting that many people showed up for impromptu work crews to help hard-hit merchants clean up after the looting.

"I don't think this has put any negative image on London or on the games," he said.

The riots were triggered by the fatal police shooting of 29-year-old Mark Duggan in the working-class London district of Tottenham. Duggan's death, under disputed circumstances, touched off anger, quickly followed by thrown bricks, burning cars and looting. An interim report on the unrest concluded this week that the slow police response to the looting led people to believe they wouldn't get caught.

Between 13,000 and 15,000 people took part in the riots and the report said more than three-quarters were 24 or younger.

But there were 460 notable exceptions ? the members of Newham basketball club. Director Natasha Hart and her coaches quickly organized a training camp to give them somewhere to go for several days.

"No one was involved," she said. "I don't think that's a coincidence."

Newham is one of the poorest areas in Britain, with 25 percent of its households below the poverty line. A primary stopping point for new immigrants, dozens of languages are spoken in its schools. Many immigrants are also transient, fraying any sense of community cohesion.

Kids here worry about gangs, for gang territory is strictly defined. A block or two in any direction can become a no-go zone.

But on the basketball court, everyone is welcome.

Hart, a Russian emigre, is the daughter of an Olympic basketball player and a professional boxer who simply wanted to share her love of basketball with her two sons. The single mother started by organizing pick up games and practices at a local park.

Seven years later, she listens to the hooting and hollering in the sparkling gym at Rokeby school and shakes her head. There are little kids running around, big little kids like Kato refining their moves, teenage girls who dream of playing at American powerhouses like the University of Tennessee, and young men without jobs who just want to play.

The abbreviation of the club's name ? NASSA ? evokes the U.S. space program and its reach for the heavens, something the kids joke about.

"These children, they want to belong to something," Hart said. "I think we deserve it. Don't you?"

__

http://www.nassa2012.org.uk/

Associated Press

Source: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2011-12-02-OLY-London-2012-Riot-Legacy/id-c20c29d07ff242a8a87b6810cc593649

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Iraqi Widows' Numbers Have Grown, But Aid Lags

The New York Times:

BAGHDAD -- Noria Khalaf giggled and then, embarrassed, covered her smile with a fold of her black robes. Yes, she said, she would like to marry again. It had been four years since her husband died, and her children needed a father.

Read the whole story: The New York Times

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2011/11/26/iraqi-widows-numbers-have_n_1113813.html

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