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Friday, November 1, 2013

Iraqi PM: Terror 'found a second chance' in Iraq

WASHINGTON (AP) — Terrorists "found a second chance" to thrive in Iraq, the nation's prime minister said Thursday in asking for new U.S. aid to beat back a bloody insurgency that has been fueled by the neighboring Syrian civil war and the departure of American troops from Iraq two years ago.

Iraqi Prime Minister Nouri al-Maliki told a packed auditorium at the U.S. Institute of Peace that he needs additional weapons, help with intelligence and other assistance, and claimed the world has a responsibility to help because terrorism is an international concern.

"If the situation in Iraq is not well treated, it will be disastrous for the whole world," said al-Maliki, whose comments were translated from Arabic. "Terrorism does not know a single religion, or confession, or a single border. They carry their rotten ideas everywhere. They carry bad ideas instead of flowers. Al-Qaida is a dirty wind that wants to spread worldwide."

The new request comes nearly two years after al-Maliki's government refused to let U.S. forces remain in Iraq with legal immunity that the Obama administration insisted was necessary to protect troops. President Barack Obama had campaigned on ending the nearly nine-year war in Iraq and took the opportunity offered by the legal dispute to pull all troops out.

Nearly 4,500 U.S. troops were killed in Iraq between the 2003 invasion and the 2011 withdrawal. More than 100,000 Iraqi were killed in that time.

Al-Maliki will meet Friday with Obama in what Baghdad hopes will be a fresh start in a complicated relationship that has been marked both by victories and frustrations for each side.

Within months of the U.S. troops' departure, violence began creeping up in the capital and across the country as Sunni Muslim insurgents lashed out, angered by a widespread belief that Sunnis have been sidelined by the Shiite-led government. The State Department says at least 6,000 Iraqis have been killed in attacks so far this year, and suicide bombers launched 38 strikes in the last month alone.

"So the terrorists found a second chance," al-Maliki said — a turnabout from an insurgency that was mostly silenced by the time the U.S. troops left.

Al-Maliki largely blamed the Syrian civil war for the rise in Iraq's violence, although he acknowledged that homegrown insurgents are to blame for the vast number of car bombs, suicide bombings and drive-by shootings that have roiled Baghdad and the rest of the nation.

The prime minister warned about the consequences of a political power grab by al-Qaida fighters who are aligned with the Sunni rebellion that is seeking to oust Syrian President Bashar Assad. But al-Maliki insisted Iraq is remaining neutral in the Syrian unrest, although Baghdad has been accused of allowing Iranian aid to Assad's forces through its country. The Syrian civil war largely breaks down along sectarian lines.

Sectarian tensions also have been rising in Iraq, but al-Maliki vehemently denied they are the cause for the spread of violence and noted that Sunnis, Shiites and Kurds all have been killed by insurgent attacks.

"There is no problem between Sunnis and Shiites," al-Maliki said flatly. He added: "Al-Qaida believes they should kill all those who do not think alike."

Al-Maliki said he will ask Obama for new assistance to bolster Iraq's military and fight al-Qaida. That could include speeding up the delivery of U.S. aircraft, missiles, interceptors and other weapons, and improving national intelligence systems. Separately, Iraq's ambassador to the U.S. also did not rule out the possibility of asking the U.S. to send military special forces or additional CIA advisers to Iraq to help train and assist counterterror troops.

Shortly after al-Maliki's speech, White House spokesman Jay Carney called continued U.S. aid to Iraq "necessary" and said "denying that assistance would be contrary to our interests."

Obama is expected to raise concerns about Iraq's violence — and ways to reduce it — in his Friday meeting with al-Maliki, Carney said. "And inclusive democratic governance is a key piece of the picture there and always has been," he said.

"What's important to remember, though, is that the violence we're talking about, the attacks we're talking about, are not coming from within the political system," Carney said. 'They're coming from al-Qaida and its affiliates."

Administration officials consider the insurgency, which has rebranded itself as the Islamic State of Iraq in the Levant, a major and increasing threat both to Iraq and the U.S.

Al-Maliki has been accused for years of a heavy-handed leadership that refuses to compromise and, to some, oversteps his authority against political enemies. "I never stepped on the Constitution," he responded Thursday to a question about his government, and defended Iraq's warming relationship with Iran's Shiite clerical regime as necessary for a government looking to work amicably with its neighbors.

He sidestepped a question about whether he will seek another term as prime minister in national elections scheduled for April 2014, calling it a decision best left to the Iraqi people.

Anthony Cordesman, a longtime Iraq scholar at the Center for Strategic and International Studies, said the U.S. must convince al-Maliki to move toward a more inclusive government to stabilize Iraq and the rest of the region.

"We have to be careful to set clear lines, and not arm Maliki against the growing mass of legitimate Sunni opposition and the much smaller mix of violent Sunni Islamist extremists," Cordesman wrote in an analysis released Thursday. "But, we need to try."

___

Follow Lara Jakes on Twitter at: https://twitter.com/larajakesAP

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/iraqi-pm-terror-found-second-chance-iraq-191312169--politics.html
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More Foreign Firms Look To Make It In The USA

Acura MDX sport utility vehicles roll off the assembly line at a Honda plant in Lincoln, Ala., in May. Overseas investors have U.S. assets totaling nearly $4 trillion, including auto plants, banks and mines.

Joe Songer/AL.com/Landov

When many Americans hear the word "globalization," they think: "jobs going overseas."

And sometimes it does mean just that.

But as globalization knits nations closer together, foreign companies increasingly are creating jobs in the United States, not luring them away. Despite the Great Recession, slow recovery and political dysfunction in Washington, the United States remains a top destination for the world's wealth.

Overseas investors have U.S. assets totaling nearly $4 trillion, including auto plants, banks, mines and more. U.S. affiliates of foreign companies employ about 5.6 million people in this country.

On Thursday, President Obama highlighted those investments, and urged foreign business leaders — packed into a Washington, D.C., hotel ballroom — to build more plants and offices in this country.

"There is no better place in the world to do business," Obama said.

The administration welcomed 1,200 participants from roughly 60 countries, and urged them to learn more about an initiative called SelectUSA. Under the program, the U.S. State Department works closely with the Commerce Department to help foreign companies set up shop here.

U.S. ambassadors in 32 countries will now add "economic development" to their list of chores, according to the Commerce Department. The goal is to have local, state and federal officials in all departments working together to smooth the way for foreign direct investments.

Obama told the foreign guests "when you bet on America, that bet pays off," thanks to this country's many economic advantages, including cheap energy, an educated workforce, intellectual-property protections, a sophisticated financial system and much more.

"There are a whole lot of reasons you ought to come here," he said. "We are the land of opportunity. That is not a myth; it's a proven fact. "

U.S. business leaders who spoke at the gathering raised concerns about this country's ability to continue to be attractive to investors. For example, Larry Fink, CEO of BlackRock, a global investment management firm based in New York City, said he has become "alarmed" by Washington's political dysfunction, which he says unnerved many foreign investors.

Speaking on a panel about investing opportunities, Fink said that when some Republican lawmakers used the U.S. debt ceiling deadline as a lever to try to win concessions a couple of weeks ago, they endangered the country's status as a stable place to invest.

"I am very bullish about America," he said. But "it's important that we drop the conversation about default," he added.

Despite any reputational harm done by the October government shutdown and debt-ceiling threat, foreign executives didn't seem deterred about investing in the United States.

"It's very easy to do business here," said Leonardo Figueiro, vice president of the WTC Business Club in Sao Paulo, Brazil. He says that in Brazil, he faces "lots of costs and bureaucracy."

But in the United States, people want to close on real estate deals and open clubs. "We always want to do business in this market," he said. "We built a building in Miami, and now we're looking forward to investing more."

That upbeat assessment could be heard again and again among the foreigners visiting the exhibit booths set up by cities and states.

At the Ohio booth, representatives handed out chocolates shaped like buckeye nuts. At the Carmel, Ind., booth, a large sign made sure visitors knew more about "A City to Experience." Many guests were impressed with the pitches.

"The United States is definitely the leading economy in the world — it's the most stable and progressive," said Hiten Parekh, CEO for the Americas operations of Waaree Energies Ltd., based in India. "This is the No. 1 country in the world for investing."

Blair King, an economic development manager for Alabama Power Co., stood in his state's booth, talking up business opportunities. He said foreigners are impressed with U.S. energy abundance.

When it comes to electric power, "they want to know what it costs," he said. And they often find it's cheaper here, he said.

Speakers at the two-day gathering include Treasury Secretary Jack Lew, Commerce Secretary Penny Pritzker and Secretary of State John Kerry. Top executives from Wal-Mart, Caterpillar, Dow Chemical and other U.S.-based companies are participating in panel discussions that end Friday.

Source: http://www.npr.org/2013/10/31/242145625/more-foreign-firms-look-to-make-it-in-the-usa?ft=1&f=1001
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Filesharing App Airlike Is Bump Without The Clashing Of Fists

This is a pretty cool new iOS app from Russia’s Displair, maker of the Minority Report-styled Multi-Touch “air” display.

Similar to Google-acquired Bump, using an iPhone’s various sensors in combination with its own cloud-powered algorithms, Airlike lets you share photos, videos and contacts with other iPhone users in close proximity, but with one key difference: There’s no need to bump phones or fists. Instead, you flick content through the “air” from one phone to another.

Shunning Bluetooth or WiFi for peer-to-peer networking, the app uses a combination of GPS, and each phone’s gyroscope, compass and accelerometer sensors, and relays that information to its own servers to know when two phones are pointing at each other. You then each confirm a connection and can begin flicking content from phone-to-phone — an experience the company describes in Arthur C. Clarke fashion as “absolutely magic”.

And in our quick testing, the iPhone app works as advertised.

Airlike Along with trumping Bump’s need for physical contact, Displair is also talking up Airlike’s functionality over Apple’s own AirDrop phone-to-phone filesharing offering. That’s because AirDrop requires iOS7, whilst Airlike works on iOS6 and upwards, meaning that it supports a greater number of Apple’s older devices.

In addition, and crucially longterm, Displair plans to release Android and Windows Phone versions of the app, making Airlike, just like Bump before it, truly cross-platform.

One thing lacking for now, however, is an Airlike API that other developers can tap into, though I’m told that this is on the roadmap and could be one way the company hopes to monetize the technology.

Interestingly, the ability to transfer money between contacts peer-to-peer is also currently in development, thus taking another page from the Bump playbook.

Meanwhile, the longer term business model revolves around the way Airlike will tie into the Russian startup’s Displair Digital Signage product to enables users to grab content from advertising displays. So, for example, you could walk into a mall, see interesting ad-related content on Displair (or even a standard LCD screen) and have it sent to your smartphone using a simple gesture, much in the same way as the Airlike app works for phone-to-phone content sharing.

TechCrunch’s Darrel Etherington contributed to this article

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/Techcrunch/~3/vQ9mgtNFEBI/
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Court blocks ruling on NY police stop-frisk policy

NEW YORK (AP) — A federal appeals court on Thursday blocked a judge's ruling that found the New York Police Department's stop-and-frisk policy discriminated against minorities, and it took the unusual step of removing her from the case, saying interviews she gave during the trial called her impartiality into question.

The city applauded the appeals court's decision. Police Commissioner Raymond Kelly, who was shouted down over the tactic by students during a speech at Brown University this week, said he was pleased by it.

"This is indeed an important decision for all New Yorkers and for the men and women of the New York City police department who work very hard day in and day out to keep this city safe," he said.

The 2nd U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals said the ruling by U.S. District Judge Shira A. Scheindlin will be on hold pending the outcome of an appeal by the city. But it may be a nonissue after next week's mayoral election: Democrat Bill de Blasio, who's leading in polls, has said he would drop objections to the ruling, which calls for major changes to the police tactic.

The judge decided in August the city violated the civil rights of tens of thousands of blacks and Hispanics by disproportionally stopping, questioning and sometimes frisking them. She assigned a monitor to help the police department change its policy and training programs on the tactic.

The three-judge panel heard arguments Tuesday on whether to put the ruling on temporary hold while the city appeals the judge's decision. It did not change the deadline for the appeal and said it expected arguments in March, well after the new mayor takes office.

The panel said Scheindlin needed to be removed because she ran afoul of the code of conduct for U.S. judges by misapplying a ruling that allowed her to take the case and by giving media interviews during the trial.

Scheindlin said in a statement later Thursday she consented to the interviews under the condition she wouldn't comment on the ongoing case.

"And I did not," she said.

She said some reporters used quotes from written opinions that gave the appearance she had commented on the case but "a careful reading of each interview will reveal that no such comments were made."

She defended her decision to direct the plaintiffs to bring the case to her, saying she took the most recent case because it was related to a previous case she heard.

The 2nd Circuit said a new judge would be assigned randomly and will deal with any further rulings. It's possible the new judge could order a fresh set of reforms or review the trial testimony and decide the city didn't violate people's civil rights, but it would be highly unusual.

Stop-and-frisk has been around for decades, but recorded stops increased dramatically under Mayor Michael Bloomberg's administration to an all-time high in 2011 of 684,330, mostly of black and Hispanic men. A lawsuit was filed in 2004 by four minority men, who said they were targeted because of their races, and it became a class action case.

To make a stop, police must have reasonable suspicion that a crime is about to occur or has occurred, a standard lower than the probable cause needed to justify an arrest. Only about 10 percent of the stops result in arrests or summonses, and weapons are found about 2 percent of the time.

Scheindlin heard a bench trial that ended in the spring and coincided with a groundswell of backlash against the stop-and-frisk tactic, which became a mayoral race flashpoint. She noted in her ruling this summer that she wasn't putting an end to the practice, which is constitutional, but was reforming the way the NYPD implemented its stops.

The Center for Constitutional Rights, which represented the four men who sued, said it was dismayed that the appeals court delayed "the long-overdue process to remedy" the NYPD's stop-and-frisk practices and was shocked that it "cast aspersions" on the judge's professional conduct and reassigned the case.

De Blasio, the city's public advocate, said he was "extremely disappointed" in Thursday's decision.

"We have to end the overuse of stop and frisk — and any delay only means a continued and unnecessary rift between our police and the people they protect," he said in a statement.

His Republican challenger, Joe Lhota, a deputy under former Mayor Rudy Giuliani, praised it.

"The next mayor absolutely must continue this appeal," he said.

___

Associated Press writer Jake Pearson contributed to this report.

Associated PressSource: http://hosted2.ap.org/APDEFAULT/3d281c11a96b4ad082fe88aa0db04305/Article_2013-10-31-US-Stop-and-Frisk/id-9011e1f78430438cb52e999e32aa2b3e
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Women working in Head Start programs report poor physical and mental health

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

31-Oct-2013

[

| E-mail

]

Contact: Preston M. Moretz
pmoretz@temple.edu
215-204-4380
Temple University

Women working in Head Start, the nation's largest federally funded early childhood education program which serves nearly one million low-income children, report higher than expected levels of physical and mental health problems, according to researchers at Temple University. Their findings are reported in the first-ever survey conducted on the health of Head Start staff.

In a paper published October 31 in the journal Preventing Chronic Disease, the Temple researchers, led by Robert Whitaker, professor of public health and pediatrics, reported that:
Six physical health conditionsobesity, asthma, high blood pressure, diabetes or prediabetes, severe headache or migraine, and lower back painwere each between 19-35 percent more common in Head Start staff than in the comparable U.S. population;
24 percent of the staff suffered from significant depressive symptomsenough to be diagnosed with depression;
28 percent reported that their physical or mental health was "not good" on half or more of the 30 days prior to the survey;
15 percent rated their overall health as either "fair or poor;" and
9 percent were absent from work 10 or more days in the last year due to illness.
The work of Head Start staff can be very emotionally demanding as they help children and families living in poverty who face multiple social risks, noted the researchers. Staff members also work for low pay, with teachers' salaries well below those of public school kindergarten teachers. One teacher who participated in the survey summarized her situation by writing, "My job is why I'm stressed all the time and my personal health suffers. I chose a demanding job, but the pay is bare minimum and isn't enough to get by."

The Temple researchers conducted an anonymous, online survey of staff working in 66 Pennsylvania Head Start programs. Of those who participated in the survey, the researchers focused on 2,122 female respondents, which included managers and classroom teachers of three and four year olds, as well as those making home visits to families of infants and toddlers participating in Early Head Start. The survey results were compared with previous national health surveys involving a large number of women whose social and demographic characteristics matched those in the Head Start survey.

"In the 50 years that the Head Start program has been in existence, many studies have reported on the health of the children and families," said Whitaker. "However, no study has ever examined the health of the staff, which is the group on which the program relies to achieve its goals. The staff must be well to do well by the children and their families."

The researchers noted several potential approaches to address the health of the staff, including:
Making staff wellness part of professional development activities;
Using available Head Start mental health resources for families and children to also address the mental health needs of the staff;
Adopting mindfulness-based stress-reduction techniques, now used in other emotionally demanding occupations like health care, to prevent and treat psychological distress in the staff;
Changing the workplace culture to increase co-worker support and monitor and adjust the demands placed on the staff;
Incorporating more movement into activities that are designed to promote children's cognitive and social development; and
Improving the quality of food served to staff and children.
"Those working in Head Start have been entrusted with the development and education of some of the nation's most vulnerable and disadvantaged children," said Whitaker. "The adults providing these services deserve a compassionate response to their health problems, which may be due in part to the stressful nature of their important jobs. Addressing the health of the staff may improve outcomes for children in Head Start."

###
The survey was a collaboration between Temple University's Department of Public Health and its Institute for Survey Research.

NOTE: Copies of this study are available to working journalists and may be obtained by contacting Preston M. Moretz in Temple's Office of University Communications at 215/204-4380 or pmoretz@temple.edu.

[

| E-mail

Share

]

AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Women working in Head Start programs report poor physical and mental health

PUBLIC RELEASE DATE:

31-Oct-2013

[

| E-mail

]

Share
Contact: Preston M. Moretz
pmoretz@temple.edu
215-204-4380
Temple University

Women working in Head Start, the nation's largest federally funded early childhood education program which serves nearly one million low-income children, report higher than expected levels of physical and mental health problems, according to researchers at Temple University. Their findings are reported in the first-ever survey conducted on the health of Head Start staff.

In a paper published October 31 in the journal Preventing Chronic Disease, the Temple researchers, led by Robert Whitaker, professor of public health and pediatrics, reported that:
Six physical health conditionsobesity, asthma, high blood pressure, diabetes or prediabetes, severe headache or migraine, and lower back painwere each between 19-35 percent more common in Head Start staff than in the comparable U.S. population;
24 percent of the staff suffered from significant depressive symptomsenough to be diagnosed with depression;
28 percent reported that their physical or mental health was "not good" on half or more of the 30 days prior to the survey;
15 percent rated their overall health as either "fair or poor;" and
9 percent were absent from work 10 or more days in the last year due to illness.
The work of Head Start staff can be very emotionally demanding as they help children and families living in poverty who face multiple social risks, noted the researchers. Staff members also work for low pay, with teachers' salaries well below those of public school kindergarten teachers. One teacher who participated in the survey summarized her situation by writing, "My job is why I'm stressed all the time and my personal health suffers. I chose a demanding job, but the pay is bare minimum and isn't enough to get by."

The Temple researchers conducted an anonymous, online survey of staff working in 66 Pennsylvania Head Start programs. Of those who participated in the survey, the researchers focused on 2,122 female respondents, which included managers and classroom teachers of three and four year olds, as well as those making home visits to families of infants and toddlers participating in Early Head Start. The survey results were compared with previous national health surveys involving a large number of women whose social and demographic characteristics matched those in the Head Start survey.

"In the 50 years that the Head Start program has been in existence, many studies have reported on the health of the children and families," said Whitaker. "However, no study has ever examined the health of the staff, which is the group on which the program relies to achieve its goals. The staff must be well to do well by the children and their families."

The researchers noted several potential approaches to address the health of the staff, including:
Making staff wellness part of professional development activities;
Using available Head Start mental health resources for families and children to also address the mental health needs of the staff;
Adopting mindfulness-based stress-reduction techniques, now used in other emotionally demanding occupations like health care, to prevent and treat psychological distress in the staff;
Changing the workplace culture to increase co-worker support and monitor and adjust the demands placed on the staff;
Incorporating more movement into activities that are designed to promote children's cognitive and social development; and
Improving the quality of food served to staff and children.
"Those working in Head Start have been entrusted with the development and education of some of the nation's most vulnerable and disadvantaged children," said Whitaker. "The adults providing these services deserve a compassionate response to their health problems, which may be due in part to the stressful nature of their important jobs. Addressing the health of the staff may improve outcomes for children in Head Start."

###
The survey was a collaboration between Temple University's Department of Public Health and its Institute for Survey Research.

NOTE: Copies of this study are available to working journalists and may be obtained by contacting Preston M. Moretz in Temple's Office of University Communications at 215/204-4380 or pmoretz@temple.edu.

[

| E-mail

Share

]

AAAS and EurekAlert! are not responsible for the accuracy of news releases posted to EurekAlert! by contributing institutions or for the use of any information through the EurekAlert! system.

Source: http://www.eurekalert.org/pub_releases/2013-10/tu-wwi102913.php
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Star Wars: Disney CEO Bob Iger's Firm 2015 Date Leaves 'Episode VII' Team Scrambling

J.J. Abrams and Lawrence Kasdan

This story first appeared in the Nov. 8 issue of The Hollywood Reporter magazine.

Disney might be experiencing a disturbance in the Force.

With the Oct. 24 exit of Star Wars: Episode VII writer Michael Arndt, the studio is under the gun to keep the film on course for a 2015 release despite a script that several insiders say isn't close to ready.

PHOTOS: 'Star Wars' Actors Then and Now

According to those close to the project, producer Kathleen Kennedy and most of the film's creative team have asked Disney to push the release to 2016, but studio CEO Robert Iger is adamant that Episode VII -- perhaps the franchise's most anticipated installment since 1999's The Phantom Menace -- not budge. That has created enormous pressure on all involved, with director J.J. Abrams stepping in to take over scripting duties with Lawrence Kasdan, who co-wrote 1980's Episode V: The Empire Strikes Back, considered the best film in the series.

For his part, Arndt worked exclusively on Episode VII for most of the past year and already had penned a 40- to 50-page treatment before Lucasfilm was sold to Disney in October 2012. But as one of Hollywood's highest-paid screenwriters, who can command more than $300,000 a week doing rewrites, the Oscar-winning scribe (Little Miss Sunshine) was ready to move on to other projects.

Some sources say Abrams has become autocratic in recent months, wresting some casting control from Kennedy. But others disputed that notion, saying Abrams and Kennedy both have been involved in casting sessions. Unlike Kennedy, Abrams is said to be more in sync with Iger's desire to meet the 2015 release target -- which allows zero margin for error -- at all costs.

STORY: Michael Arndt Exits 'Star Wars: Episode VII'

Although the 2015 schedule already is full of tentpoles including Disney/Marvel's Avengers: Age of Ultron, Warner Bros.' Superman-Batman mashup and Lionsgate's final Hunger Games, Iger has crafted a Star Wars game plan that hinges on Episode VII hitting the big screen that summer. The studio is expected to roll out Episodes VII, VIII and IX over a six-year period, with at least two spinoffs -- penned by a team including Kasdan and Simon Kinberg -- interspersed between.

Still, another project insider dismisses talk of problems and what the writer shuffle means for what is perhaps Hollywood's most valued franchise. "It's nothing out of the ordinary," says the insider. "Almost every big movie changes writers at some point. There's no drama here."

E-mail: Tatiana.Siegel@THR.com
Twitter: @TatianaSiegel27

Source: http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/thr/news/~3/Ks6XWRWywXs/star-wars-episode-vii-disney-651482
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Turning The Page On Illiteracy, Adults Go Back To Class

This is the first report of a four-part series on adult education.

The national debate around education usually focuses on children in school. But there are 30 million adults in the U.S. who have trouble with basic literacy — they struggle to read a menu, a pay stub or a bus schedule.

It also means it's difficult for them to get and hold onto the most basic jobs.

Tens of thousands of other adult learners are slowly and painstakingly trying to fill in the gaps of their rudimentary schooling. The long shadow of their unfinished education still follows them every day.

Learning Which Route To Take

Shirley Ashley, 55, never learned how to read. With classes, she is finally able to read her own bills.

Kavitha Cardoza/WAMU

Shirley Ashley, 55, never learned how to read. With classes, she is finally able to read her own bills.

Kavitha Cardoza/WAMU

Shirley Ashley flips through a folder of certificates she's received in her adult education class. She stops at one that says "Top Performer," points to the words and starts reading.

"I know this is 'top' something; that means I'm doing good," she says.

The word "performer" is still a jumble of letters because Ashley, at 55, never learned how to read. In school she was always in classes for students with learning disabilities, but Ashley says she wasn't learning anything.

"I felt as though they just passed me just to get me out of school," she says.

In the seventh grade, after one teacher told her, "Whether you learn to read or not, I still get paid," Ashley decided to drop out.

She learned how to give her mother medicine based on the colors of the bottles. To hide the fact she was illiterate, Ashley memorized Bible verses so no one at her church suspected. And she limited her travel to a familiar route.

"I couldn't read the name of the bus, but I learned that the left-hand side of the street would take me downtown and the right-hand side of the street was going to bring me back home," she says.

Ashley's inability to read has made it hard to find a job. She's also seen those closest to her take advantage of her illiteracy, especially when it came to money.

"I would have to pay them, my family members, to come over my house to do a money order," she says. "Sometimes I give them $25, sometimes I give them $30."

Ashley has attended classes at a nonprofit literacy center in Washington, D.C., on and off for about eight years. She initially tested at the kindergarten level; she's now reading at the second-grade level.

"When my gas bill come to my house I'm learning how to read where it says 'pay by July 17th.' That makes me feel awesome," she says.

Getting To The Next Level

Ashley is at the "low end" of the literacy spectrum. Jason White, another adult learner, is a little further along.

Marilyn Block tutors Jason White at a local library during a one-on-one session that is part of the Literacy Council of Montgomery County, in Maryland.

Kavitha Cardoza/WAMU

White is 35 and grew up in Louisiana. He dropped out in the 11th grade after years of sitting idle in a special education class. White found ways to cover up his reading struggles, from pretending he's forgotten his reading glasses to relying on a computer's "auto-complete" function — even when he was out with friends.

"Say if you're at dinner with five people and you can't make out or read what's on the menu, someone says they're going to have the salmon fillet, you say, 'Well, I'll have the salmon fillet,' " White says.

He works as a construction worker, and in a sense he's lucky. Adults who dropped out of school are more than twice as likely to be unemployed as high school graduates. For those who do get hired, it often means low-end jobs with no hope of advancing. In tough times, they're often the first ones laid off.

For White, not being able to read means his career has stalled. To advance, he needs a contractor's license, and he hopes he'll be able to pass the exam next month.

"I'm very handy, and we do terrific work, but I'm technically not a contractor until I pass that exam," he says. "So it's, it's a little nerve-wracking, you know?"

White has spent the past two years learning to read with a tutor. Now, he can write his own checks and has just finished reading his first novel. He marvels that he can now read street signs.

"If we're driving somewhere, I can't help but read every sign we pass," he says. "It's like a different world."

Source: http://www.npr.org/2013/10/31/241862699/turning-the-page-on-illiteracy-adults-go-back-to-class?ft=1&f=1013
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