News Sources: Judge Awards $101M in FBI Frame-Up

A federal judge in Boston has ordered the government to pay more than $101 million to the families of four Massachusetts men wrongly convicted of murder. Joseph Salvati, Peter Limone and the families of two other men who died in prison after being convicted in the 1965 gangland murder they didn't commit, had sued the federal government for malicious prosecution.U.S. District Judge Nancy Gertner said it took 30 years to uncover the injustice, and that she was shocked by the FBI's behavior in the case. "Information they provided was false and misleading," she said. "Critical information was withheld and they knew it." Reporters looking for experts to interview in this case can find them online at the collegenews.org database of news sources and subject matter experts from America's leading liberal arts colleges, including the following (click on names for contact information):

Saul M. Kassin - Professor of Psychology, Williams College - Kassin is the author of The American Jury on Trial: Psychological Perspectives, The Psychology of Evidence and Trial Procedure and Criminal Confessions in the Courtroom. He writes and speaks extensively on the reliability of eyewitness testimony, interrogations and coerced confessions, and the psychology of jury decision-making.

Richard Moran - Professor of Sociology, Mount Holyoke College - Moran is a criminologist whose opinion pieces appear frequently in leading newspapers. He is a commentator for NPR's "Morning Edition," and a leading expert on public policy in crime control, capital punishment and incarceration.

James O'Kane - Professor of Sociology, Drew University - O'Kane is an expert on patterns of urban crime, especially murder. His book, The Crooked Ladder, deals with gangsters, ethnicity and the American Dream.

Not Shy about Research

Between 40 and 50 percent of college students consider themselves to be shy. Wellesley College psychology professor Jonathan Cheek says American culture "is not friendly to shyness," particularly among men. But while our culture might take it easier on women who are shy, Cheek says we don’t necessarily want it to.

"Sport Offends Us"

"In spite of the fact that competitive sports take up more and more of our consciousness these days, scandals, we like it less,” says Joel Nathan Rosen, Ph.D., assistant professor of sociology at Moravian College, in his timely new book, The Erosion of the American Sporting Ethos: Shifting Attitudes Toward Competition. From doping scandals, to exorbitant salaries, from point shaving to from bad behavior, " there seems to be more talk about what's wrong with sport than about sporting events themselves," Rosen says. "Sport offends us."

News Sources: Pro Sports Face Ethical Quandries

America's top three professional sports - football, basketball and baseball - are each operating under ethical clouds. In the National Football League, Atlanta quarterback Michael Vick has been indicted for suspected involvement in a dog-fighting ring. National Basketball Association referee Tim Donaghy has been indicted for betting on games in which he officiated. And Major League Baseball is puzzling over how to observe the upcoming breaking of Hank Aaron's home run record by Barry Bonds, who is entangled in an investigation over steroid use.

Reporters looking for experts to interview on this topic can find them online at the www.collegenews.org database of news sources and subject matter experts from the nation's leading liberal arts colleges, including the following (click on names for contact information):

Nicholas Dixon - Associate Professor of Philosophy, Alma College - Dixon is a native of England native who specializes in applied ethics. In sports-related national and international forums, he has shared sportsmanship views on running up scores ok, losing by wide margins no disgrace and boxing banning blows to the head. In 1995, he had an article published in Journal of the Philosophy of Sport and Philosophical Inquiry in Sport.

Julio Rodriguez - Visiting Scholar of American Culture, Randolph-Macon Woman's College - A lifelong baseball fan, Rodriguez recently co-taught an intensive summer seminar dealing with sport and American culture. His Ph.D. studies focused on the intersection of race, masculinity and sport at various key moments in American history.

Frank Kirkpatrick - Ellsworth Morton Tracy Lecturer and Professor of Religion, Trinity College - An exceptionally articulate speaker on morality, ethics and community issues, Kirkpatrick co-authored the book, Living Issues in Ethics 1982, which examines recurring social, economic and political themes in life and news. Kirkpatrick has spoken in the media on such topics as business ethics, environmental issues, sexuality, school prayer, political correctness, political campaigns and foreign policy.

Impeachment Timing is Off

Just when there seems to be a developing bipartisan consensus that Bush's policies on Iraq are a failure, it would be a mistake for the Democratic majority in Congress to undertake impeachment, says DePauw's Ken Bode. The former network journalist says impeachment proceedings would harden partisan lines, enable dead-enders to argue that opposition to the war is nothing but politics by other means, and scare Democrats who fear that a vote against Bush will be depicted as a vote against the troops.

Addressing the Trauma of Combat

Combat trauma is one of the most horrific traumatic events that a person can suffer, says Kathryn Basham, professor with the Smith College School for Social Work. In Iraq, she says, the trauma is compounded by multiple tours of duty with extended deployments. Basham has served on a congressionally mandated committee that in September will issue a report exploring the physiologic, psychologic and psychosocial effects of deployment-related stress during the Gulf War and in Iraq and Afghanistan.