Chandler will host a free, live simulcast of a Feb. 8 lecture on the state of higher education by Noam Chomsky, the linguist and political activist. Chandler will open its City Council Chambers for Valley residents to listen to Chomsky, who will deliver his speech from the University of Arizona in Tucson. The lecture, "Education for Whom and for What?" will be followed by a question and answer session.

WASHINGTON - The FBI has failed to translate hundreds of thousands of hours of wiretap recordings from counterterrorism and counterintelligence investigations since the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks, despite steep increases in funding for new linguists and other translation services, according to a report released Monday.

September 28, 2004

Spanish. English. Pima. Some of Arizona's greatest education dilemmas deal with the languages that are heard - or not heard - in its classrooms and homes.

Arizona has the ‘Stupid Motorist Law’ for people who continue to challenge the forces of nature with their vehicles. It’s about time we had the ‘Stupid Hiker/Camper Law’ for those who think they can outwit nature/happenstance with their personal abilities. These folks are obviously lacking in common sense and make themselves a liability to the tax payer. I sincerely hope (these people are) held accountable and made to pay monetarily for their ‘stupid’ indiscretions.

Arizona State University’s Online and Extended Campus programs will offer a number of reading skills programs for children and adults this summer at locations in Chandler, Mesa, Tempe and Phoenix.

Tempe Union High School District’s No Parent Left Behind University, in conjunction with GLSEN Phoenix, will present “Safe Space Training: How to Create Safer More Inclusive Schools for All.” During the training, participants will explore the different identities that exist within schools and community, reflect on feelings of exclusion, and build empathy towards youth who might identify as lesbian, gay, bisexual, or transgender (LGBT).

Arizona State University student Hannah Leigh Bartle of Ahwatukee was honored at the Dec. 16 ASU commencement ceremonies with the Moeur Award. The award is given only to the students graduating with a 4.0 grade-point average who completed the entirety of their coursework at ASU. Out of over 5,300 graduates, Bartle was one of 12 honored with this award. She graduated with a degree in English (Linguistics) from the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences.

WASHINGTON — President Barack Obama has told the Dalai Lama of his "strong support" for preservation of Tibet's identity and encouraged talks between the exiled Tibetan leader and China.

Love is in the air at Mesa’s monthly Second Friday art walk 6 to 10 p.m. Feb. 8. Downtown Mesa’s historic Main Street comes alive with the Valentine theme “Sweethearts on Main” where attendees are encouraged to get out that zoot suit or flapper dress they’ve been hiding in the back of the closet and participate in a dance and costume competition while they rekindle romance over a dinner at one of downtown’s many restaurants.

That’s ‘YOUR’ money their donating folks and I, as a Salt River client and entrapped customer of a monopoly, am insulted by it. Personally, I wouldn’t give two cents to attend a Super Bowl game, but that’s besides the point. The City of Glendale has trickled away millions of $’s of their tax payers hard earned monies on sporting events and venues, unfortunately that’s their problem. But I sure don’t relish the fact that a public utility is using my hard-earned cash to help finance a sporting event supported by a minority of the utility’s paying customers. Next time SRP wants to raise it’s rates, give a second thought to where the money may be spent. Gee, I wonder if it has anything to do with a SRP executive being on the Super Bowl Committee?

Someone tell me if I’m not reasoning properly here; I just viewed the 9 p.m. news on FOX-10 where one of the stories had to do with Sandusky’s recording of riotousness and innocence sent from his cell in ‘Stalag 17.’ The two newscasters were both complaining about reporting the story, thinking they had heard the last of Sandusky. Correct me if I’m wrong but, aren’t the folks who report the news, (media), responsible for it’s content and presentation? I’ll bet there isn’t one viewer who was the least bit interested in Sandusky’s boo-hooing nor the report of Jordan Van Der Sloot effectively sewing his oats in a Peruvian prison.

A $1.9 million grant was awarded to the Mesa Community College Education Studies Department from the U.S. Department of Education.

In the case of an emergency, the Town of Gilbert not only wants it residents to be ready — but prepared to help.

“... about the pronunciation of the street Germann: I e-mailed a gentleman in California who has this same last name.  He said the name is pronounced: hard ‘G’ as in guitar, short ‘e’ as in bet, ‘r’ sound, then ‘m’, then the ‘a’ sound as in bus, and the ‘n’ sound.  The emphasis is on the first syllable. Oh, this gentleman is a linguist.”

William Jefferson grew up with the perspective that everyone is essentially the same.

Americans tend pridefully to think their nation the superior of its neighbor to the south, and in areas such as international power projection and economic clout the United States does indeed far outstrip Mexico.

It is now being reported the Boston bombing suspect was unnecessarily ‘Mirandized’ in the midst of the FBI interrogations from which the FBI was obtaining important intelligence re present and future terrorist activities. The question now is; did the attorney general’s Boston representative jump the gun by rushing a Federal Magistrate and lawyers to the suspects hospital room to ‘file a criminal complaint’ and ‘Mirandized’? By doing so it placed the suspect into civil proceedings which we find out is not a necessary decision at this time. It has effectively limited further FBI interrogation(s).

K. David Harrison is a linguist at Swarthmore College who documents languages. The Economist Online recently (Nov. 23) highlighted his work on 7,000 languages, half of which are disappearing "hotspots."

Language barriers can become on-the-job safety hazards. Removing those barriers is one of the goals that Mitzi Epstein, a technological systems analyst and community activist, is trying to achieve through her new language training center in Tempe called Custom Language Training.

Urdu is spoken here. So are Tagalog, Gujarathi and Laotian.

Urdu is spoken here. So are Tagalog, Gujarathi and Laotian.

The next time you’re hiring someone, you’d better think twice before turning that person away if he or she has an accent.