BREVITAS

WORD

IT is generally established that the causes of race prejudice may primarily be found in the economic structure that compels one worker to compete against another and that furthermore renders it advantageous for the exploiting classes to inculcate, foster, and aggravate that competition. - Jean Toomer, 1919

DRUG BUSTS

REUTERS - The worldwide illegal drugs trade has stopped growing for the first time since the mid-Nineteenth Century, although use and production of some drugs is rising fast in pockets, a senior U.N. official said. Methamphetamine abuse in East Asia and production of opium in Afghanistan are both growing at an alarming rate, but poppy cultivation in the Golden Triangle area of Indochina has fallen, said Akira Fujino, the East Asia representative of the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime. "This is the first time in history that we're observing this trend," Fujino told a news conference in Manila on Wednesday. "There has been a steady rise in the drug problem since the Opium Wars in the 1800s. But, it doesn't mean that the problem is being licked." The production area for opium in the Golden Triangle has fallen from more than 160,000 hectares (395,400 acres) in 1996 to about 32,000 hectares in 2005, Fujino said, adding latest figure from Myanmar, Laos and Thailand could show further reduction. In contrast, opium production in violence-torn Afghanistan was "skyrocketing to record levels", alarming countries in Western Europe, where the opium and heroin made from it are distributed and sold, Fujino added. He did not give a figure on the level of production.

ECOLOGY & NATURE

TREE HUGGER - Prisons probably aren't the first buildings that spring to mind when you think about green design and architecture. Yet one small island in Norway is set to change that perception with the recent introduction of the "world's first ecological prison" - a facility powered by solar energy that will put its inmates to work coordinating daily operations, such as recycling and food production, and learning their part to protect the environment. Norwegian authorities hope to thus instill a sense of responsibility in their inmates and to better prepare them for an eco-conscious life once they leave the prison. The facility, which is located on Bastoey Island (about 46 mi south of Oslo), houses 115 inmates. Justice Minister Knut Storberget explained that "from a social and economic perspective, this is cheapest for society," adding that it only made sense for a prison already renowned for its pleasant living conditions - resembling a summer camp more than a conventional prison with activities like tennis, horse riding and swimming - to go that extra step to rehabilitate its inmates.

JUSTICE

UPI - A law school professor in Chicago is suing for $1 million over what he calls an improper punishment over comments he made comparing black and Jewish students. John Gorby, who is neither Jewish nor African-American, opined to a Jewish student after a class at John Marshall Law School that religious training may help explain why Jews pass the bar exam at higher rates than blacks, who tend to come from religions that "emphasize an emotional and spiritual religious experience rather than discussion and debate about the meaning of scriptural language," the Chicago Sun-Times reported. Gorby successfully appealed to the school's appellate board to have an official reprimand stricken from his record but he failed to regain a five percent raise that was canceled by the dean. He also complains that the incident cost him $25,000 in attorney's fees. Gorby, who argues that his statements were an exercise in academic freedom and that professors should be allowed to spark provocative discussions about raising the bar graduation rates, is seeking $1 million in the suit.

OUTLYING PRECINCTS

ABC - Former President Jimmy Carter welcomed Democratic presidential hopeful John Edwards to South Georgia, embracing the fellow Southerner as a kindred spirit on poverty and the environment. Carter and Edwards shared the stage at Carter's alma mater, Georgia Southwestern State University. Carter stopped short of endorsing the former U.S. senator from North Carolina but called him "a candidate whom I really admire." "I can say without equivocation that no one who is running for president has presented anywhere near as comprehensive and accurate a prediction of what our country ought to do in the field of environmental quality, in the field of healthcare for those who are not presently insured, for those who struggle with poverty," Carter said. He predicted that Edwards "has a very good chance to do well" in the presidential race.

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