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 Wayne State University only university honored

On February 19, 2010, two Wayne State University faculty visited the Pentagon to receive an international award from Alan R. Shaffer, Principal Deputy Director of Defense Research and Engineering for the Department of Defense.

The Technical Cooperation Program (TTCP), a long-standing international organization concerned with collaboration on defense science and technology matters including national security and defense, honored 53 scientists and engineers including Lawrence (Skip) Favro, professor emeritus of physics in the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences, and Xiaoyan Han, professor of electrical and computer engineering in the College of Engineering at Wayne State University. Favro and Han are the only university professors that were honored by TTCP.

Favro and Han were recognized for their sonic thermography technology used for inspecting large areas and complex shapes in a short amount of time to reveal fatigue cracks. This technology can find and quantify defects in metals and composite materials, and is also used for process control applications in automotive and aerospace industries.

“We are pleased and honored to have two of our faculty receive this prestigious award,” said Hilary Ratner, vice president for research at WSU. “Drs. Favro and Han have made significant advances in sonic thermography that can detect closed hairline cracks in an economically and environmentally friendly way. The technique is useful in aircraft inspections, and new analytical tools and techniques that they are developing show great promise.”

Member countries of the TTCP include Australia, Canada, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States. TTCP acquaints and supplements participating nations with each other’s defense research and development (R&D) programs so that each may be adjusted and planned in cognizance of the efforts of the other nations. This ultimately provides them shared knowledge, resources and the best technical information available to advise their governments and military forces on all matters related to defense R&D.

Peaceful Tomorrows

A group of more than 200 family members of 9/11 victims has released an emotional new web video imploring the Obama administration to remain true to its plans to try terrorist suspects in civilian court.

Anticipating a final announcement of the trial venue for the 9/11 plotters, the group September 11th Families for Peaceful Tomorrows is warning the president against “buckling to political pressure,” calling the use of military tribunals the “wrong thing to do.”

In a nearly four-minute long video, Donna Marsh O’Connor — a Peaceful Tomorrows member who lost her pregnant daughter when the Twin Towers collapsed — speaks both to the broad notion that America has a “historic commitment to justice” and, more narrowly, to the horse-trading politics that now surrounds terrorist trials. Reflecting disappointment with recent signals from the White House, O’Connor calls for the president to reject a reported compromise proposal with Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) in which the administration would drop plans for civilian trials in exchange for Republican support for the closure of Gitmo.

“As 9/11 families, we have suffered greatly and waited almost nine years to see justice done with our own eyes,” O’Connor says. “We understand that you face political pressure to back down. We ask that you do not allow fear and prejudice to govern your decision — as we are not afraid. We know our country is strong enough to hold on to our values in the face of terrorism.”

The video follows other efforts by Peaceful Tomorrows to advocate for civilian trials for the 9/11 suspects — which is just one of the policy topics the group tackles. But while having O’Connor in the role of narrator makes for a far more poignant and powerful argument, it still crashes up against certain political realities. The administration’s commitment to holding civilian trials has ebbed, but it’s far from disappeared. At this juncture, White House aides say, they are still looking for a venue to try Khalid Sheikh Mohammed and others in the criminal system. They just haven’t found local officials (see: New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg) who are willing to help.

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Economist Dean Baker 

The Obama administration has announced changes to its signature foreclosure prevention program, Making Home Affordable. The initial foreclosure relief program unveiled one year ago was supposed to help up to four million struggling homeowners. So far fewer than 200,000 borrowers have been granted permanent loan modifications. Meanwhile, a record 2.8 million properties with mortgages received foreclosure notices last year, according to the real estate data company RealtyTrac.

AMY GOODMAN: The Obama administration has announced changes to its signature foreclosure prevention program, Making Home Affordable. The initial foreclosure relief program unveiled a year ago was supposed to help up to four million struggling homeowners. So far fewer than 200,000 borrowers have been granted permanent loan modifications. Meanwhile, a record 2.8 million properties with mortgages received foreclosure notices last year, this according to RealtyTrac.

The steps announced Friday would broaden the program to include people who’ve lost jobs, encourage lenders to reduce the principal balances on problem mortgages, and help refinance borrowers who are “underwater,” or owe more than their homes are worth. But will these changes help stem the tide of foreclosures?

In a statement this weekend, economist Dean Baker said the plan was well-intentioned, but the winners are likely once again to be the banks. Baker is the co-director of the Center for Economic and Policy Research and the author of a number of books, his latest called False Profits: Recovering from the Bubble Economy.

He joins us now from Washington, DC, and then we’ll go to Tavis Smiley in Burbank, California, to talk about President Obama’s trip to Afghanistan.

But Dean Baker, one in five American homeowners are now underwater? What does that mean? And talk about what the Obama administration plans to do about it.

Red Tape Slows Gaza Rebuilding

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Striking at Afghanistan corruption

By Robert Grenier

The unannounced, whirlwind visit of the US president to Afghanistan this past weekend appeared designed to appeal to multiple audiences, and to deliver multiple messages.  To the American people, Barack Obama wished to show renewed focus and attention to his duties as Commander-in-Chief, in part to counteract the recent impression that his focus on healthcare reform has excluded nearly everything else.  Similarly, he wished to reassure deployed US troops of his support and his willingness to stay the course, which had come into question after his West Point speech in December 2009 when he distinctly downgraded his previously ambitious goals for Afghanistan and promised the beginning of a draw-down in just 18 months.  Obama’s messages of focus and resolve were no doubt aimed at the leaders of regional powers as well, whose attention to Afghanistan – and the reciprocal attention of the Afghan president – have been much in evidence of late.     The message and the symbolism of Obama’s interactions with Hamid Karzai, however, while perhaps more subtle and nuanced, were just as clear. Avoiding the effusive praise which is customary in such circumstances, Obama struck a cool and correct tone in public, while apparently delivering a firm message on the need for better performance in private – making it clear through spokesmen precisely what he was doing. At the top of Washington’s list of demands: A show of vigour from Karzai on anti-corruption measures. Indeed, Washington’s attention to this issue is well-advised.  Lack of credibility

Incensed, Mr. Karzai extended an invitation of his own — to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Iranian president, who flew to Kabul and delivered a fiery anti-American speech inside Afghanistan’s presidential palace.

The McGlynn: “The blood of our men and women, some as young as eighteen, are being shed for this “ally”. Madness!”

By DEXTER FILKINS and MARK LANDLER, NYT, March 29, 2010

KABUL, Afghanistan — This month, with President Hamid Karzai looking ahead to a visit to the White House, he received a terse note from aides to President Obama: Your invitation has been revoked.

The reason, according to American officials, was Mr. Karzai’s announcement that he was emasculating an independent panel that had discovered widespread fraud in Mr. Karzai’s re-election last year.

Incensed, Mr. Karzai extended an invitation of his own — to Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, the Iranian president, who flew to Kabul and delivered a fiery anti-American speech inside Afghanistan’s presidential palace.

“Karzai was enraged,” said an Afghan with knowledge of the events, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the delicacy of the issue. “He invited Ahmadinejad to spite the Americans.”