David PesciFebruary 3, 20091min
Elizabeth McAlister, associate professor of religion and expert on the religion of Vodou, was cited in the South Florida Sun Sentinel on the recent gravitation toward Vodou by many young Haitian immigrants. The popularity of the religion, which blends ancient African religious traditions with the worship of Catholic saints, is said to be increasing because many first and second generation Haitians are looking to reconnect spiritually with their ancestral homeland.

David PesciFebruary 3, 20091min
An article in The Christian Science Monitor features the community outreach being done by 8 student mentors with Middletown youth at WESU. The program, created by Mu Abeledo '09 and Jessica Jones '08, involves mentors teaching the participants how to operate equipment, refine their on-air abilities and broadcast their own shows live on WESU.

Olivia DrakeJanuary 21, 20092min
Richard Kendall ’74, a senior partner in the Los Angeles office of the law firm Irell & Manella, represented the National Resources Defense Council in a case involving whales and the U.S. Navy that recently was decided by the U.S. Supreme Court. Environmental groups had contended that the Navy’s use of underwater sonar was harming whales and other marine animals. The case arose when the Navy skipped an environmental impact statement for anti-submarine exercises planned from 2007 to 2009. The NRDC sued, and Los Angeles district court restricted the Navy’s use of active sonar. Later, a U.S. appeals court affirmed…

David PesciJanuary 11, 20092min
The book, The Anti-Intellectual Presidency by Elvin Lim, assistant professor of government, is cited extensively in the January 12, 2009 issue of The New Yorker. The article, which discusses President-elect Obama's upcoming inaugural speech and the overall dilution of presidential speech-writing, cites Lim's work extensively, and includes these passages: "Lim dates the institutionalization of the anti-intellectual Presidency to 1969, when Nixon established the Writing and Research Department, the first White House speechwriting office. There had been speechwriters before, but they were usually also policy advisers. With Nixon’s Administration was born a class of professionals whose sole job was to write…