The clinic at DU’s Sturm College of Law filed suit in 2009 against the National Forest Service, looking to overturn a timber permit for more than 3,400 acres in the Handkerchief Mesa area of the Rio Grande National Forest. The permit also would have allowed for the construction of 11 miles of roads in the forest.

The area in question was damaged by logging in past decades and is suffering from beetle infestation, making recovery from logging more difficult. Students argued the Forest Service never took these stresses into account before issuing a permit. Protection is especially important, students argued, because the area feeds the headwaters of a river that is a major source of drinking water for millions of people in Colorado, New Mexico and Texas and that provides water for agriculture in the United States and Mexico.

The suit was prepared in June 2009 by student Jacob Schlesinger and Environmental Law Clinic Fellow Ashley Wilmes under the direction of Environmental Law Clinic Director Michael Harris. It named the U.S. Forest Service and Department of Agriculture. It was filed in federal court in Denver on behalf of environmental groups WildEarth Guardians and Colorado Wild, now known as Rocky Mountain Wild.

Student lawyers Mason Brown and Justine Shepherd argued the case in federal court in December 2011 under a provision that allows students to practice in federal court while supervised by a licensed attorney. Brown and Shepherd already are involved in a new case, a suit that seeks to block federal permits that would allow the artist Christo to install a massive art project called “Over the River” on federal lands in Colorado.

On Feb. 9, U.S. Judge William Martínez in the U.S. District Court for the District of Colorado ruled the Forest Service did not meet obligations spelled out in the National Forest Management Act and that an environmental assessment was inadequate. The ruling overturns issued permits for the Handkerchief Mesa near Alamosa in southwestern Colorado.

Harris says stopping a permitted timber project in Colorado is extremely rare. The ruling, he says, sends a message to the Forest Service that its permitting process must take into account changing conditions, ongoing insect infestations and other ecological conditions.

“The court has told the Forest Service, ‘The game has changed, and you need to change if you are going to continue to permit these projects,’” Harris says.

A chapter of Global Brigades, the world’s largest student-led global health and sustainable development organization, the DU student group was founded in September 2011 by seniors Brett Friedman and Joshua Carlson.

“Brett and I both have a strong desire to go into global health affairs, specifically being on the front lines of bringing medical and surgical care to developing countries that have little or no access to health care,” Carlson says. “We both thought this organization would help to rally students of various academic backgrounds toward a common goal — care and service to the global community.”

Every three to four months, each Global Brigades partner community in Honduras receives a brigade of volunteers who operate a community health clinic. At these open clinics, hundreds of patients receive physician consultations, teeth cleaning, fluoride treatment, pap smears, prostate exams and restorative dental care as necessary.

During their time at the clinic, DU volunteers will assist in intake and triage activities, shadow licensed doctors in medical consultations and assist in a pharmacy under the direction of licensed pharmacists. They also will help deliver workshops on preventive health care and practices.

After the student team’s departure, the Global Brigades in-country team will maintain relationships with the communities, provide follow-up and conduct community health worker trainings to empower local leaders to sustain a consistent level of health care.

Honduras is one of the poorest countries in Latin America, with an estimated 53 percent of the population living in poverty. In the Global Brigades partner communities, the most common ailments are acute respiratory infections, diarrhea, parasite infections, common cold, hypertension and diabetes.

The group is soliciting donations of medical supplies, medicine and cash. The team has raised an estimated $2,000 worth of cash and donations toward its goal of $6,000. Tax-deductible cash donations may be made through the group’s secure fundraising website. The group can be contacted at dumedbrigades@gmail.com.

Thanks to the efforts of Associate Professor Kent Seidel and Assistant Professor Nicole Russell, both of DU’s Morgridge College of Education, help may be on the way.

Collaborating with their colleagues in the Division of Natural Sciences and Mathematics (NSM) and the Morgridge College, Seidel and Russell are piloting a professional-development program designed to empower math and science teachers in Denver Public Schools (DPS). It does so by helping them understand how learners progress through math and science content and where their understanding may be derailed. At the same time, it builds leadership capacity within schools, creating a community of teachers versed in problem solving.

“What we really want is for teachers to better understand the content from the kids’ perspective,” Seidel explains, noting that the program initially will benefit schools serving at-risk students.

To bring their ideas into classrooms, Seidel and Russell have secured a $307,299 Elementary and Secondary Education Act Title II Improving Teacher Quality grant. Distributed through the Colorado Department of Education, the federal funds will underwrite development and implementation of the program. The grant ends Dec. 31, 2012, though Seidel and Russell will extend their work for six months to assess student achievement data.

Seidel and Russell pursued this particular grant because it emphasizes collaboration among entities. “First and foremost,” Seidel explains, “this is a partnership. These grants, by design, have to have three partners.” In this case, the Morgridge faculty supplies its expertise in teaching effectiveness, while the NSM faculty (Keith Miller of chemistry and biochemistry; Nancy Sasaki of biological sciences; Jeff Farmer and Allegra Reiber of mathematics) brings its subject-area expertise to the table. DPS, meanwhile, brings expert math and science educators to the design and teaching teams. In addition, it has worked with the partners to identify schools that can make maximum use of the program.

Rather than lecture teachers about effective classroom strategies, as many professional development programs do, Seidel and Russell plan to rely on teachers for input, insights and leadership to shape effective interventions. “We really are trying to do something very cutting-edge by allowing this to be driven by the teachers of the district,” Russell explains, noting that teachers represent a source of underutilized expertise.

Seidel agrees. “There’s a lot of untapped potential in the schools that is locked behind classroom doors,” he says.

The project will begin work with math and science teacher-leaders from the selected schools. Together, they will explore the cognitive road maps students follow, or abandon, on their way to understanding. In other words, they’ll examine the many ways that students can misunderstand course content.

“We want teachers to really know all these bizarre permutations around the content in order to help kids do better,” Seidel explains.

They also will exchange classroom observations and report on tactics that succeed. Finally, they’ll learn how to connect their new tactics to the curriculum and to state standards.

When they return to their schools, they’ll work with their PLCs, or professional learning communities, which are aimed at boosting teacher interaction. Community members will share their findings, mentor one another and explore the different ways students begin to understand math and science concepts. They’ll collaborate to diagnose why students aren’t getting certain concepts and devise new tactics for explaining those concepts. Too often, Seidel and Russell say, teachers resort to repeating their initial explanations, not realizing that the student may require a different onramp to the material.

“This is matching the content to the kids’ needs,” Seidel says. “If we are successful, we hope to see students achieve beyond what they might have otherwise.”

Mason Brown, Professor Michael Harris, Justine Shepherd and ROAR spokeswoman Joan Anzelmo speak to reporters after filing a suit to block the 'Over the River' project. Photo: Chase Squires

Students in the Environmental Law Clinic at the University of Denver Sturm College of Law on Feb. 1 filed suit in federal court to block “Over the River,” an industrial-scale art project by the well-known artist Christo that was approved in November by the Bureau of Land Management.

The project proposes hanging aluminum-coated material over 5.9 miles of the Arkansas River in southern Colorado, in scattered sections over a 42-mile stretch.

The suit was filed against the U.S. Bureau of Land Management (BLM) on behalf of the grassroots, all-volunteer citizen group Rags Over the Arkansas River (ROAR), whose members are dedicated to preserving and protecting the headwaters of the Arkansas River and Bighorn Sheep Canyon. The group opposes the project, citing numerous environmental issues and dangers to the residents of and visitors to the area. The suit was filed by third-year law students Mason Brown and Justine Shepherd, under the guidance of law Professor Michael Harris.

The team, joined by ROAR spokeswoman Joan Anzelmo, entered the suit at the federal courthouse in Denver then addressed reporters gathered outside.

“The BLM is charged with protecting our public land resources through extensive land management plans,” Shepherd said. “However, by permitting this project, the BLM is ignoring its obligation to the public. The Over The River project flies in the face of the BLM’s land use plan.”

According to the suit, the project will be built almost entirely within the federally designated Arkansas Canyonlands Area of Critical Environmental Concern, key habitat for Rocky Mountain bighorn sheep, the symbol of the Colorado Division of Wildlife and Colorado’s official state animal. And the stretch of the Arkansas River running through the area is among the most popular rafting rivers in the world and is designated by the state as the most popular river for fishing in Colorado.

Construction of the Over the River project will take some 28 months, with another three to 12 months to take down, the suit alleges. It will require an estimated 3,000 crew work days and involve drilling up to 35 feet into bedrock to anchor some 9,000 industrial bolts and anchors, most of which will be left behind when the project is over. Work could make bighorn sheep susceptible to disease and could disturb and otherwise harm other endangered and threatened species, including peregrine falcons and bald and golden eagles.

In addition, construction and demolition includes the use of equipment commonly used in mining and road building, including hydraulic drills, long-reach excavators, wheeled excavators, boom truck cranes, grouters, air compressors, water tanks, grout mixers, support trailers, steel rock anchors, and anchor frames.

Anzelmo said in addition to wanting to protect the delicate environment and endangered and threatened species in the area, her group is representing the people who live in the area that will be affected. Their voices, she said, have been largely ignored.

She said ROAR’s battle is a classic David and Goliath struggle, with residents, fishermen, hunters, boaters and tourists facing off against the massive resources of Christo’s financial backers and the Bureau of Land Management.

“We are hoping to vanquish the giant with the help of these great students from the University of Denver,” she said. “The BLM is ignoring its duty to the public.”

Harris said too little has been made of the massive impact the project will have. While many perceive the project as just a two-week exhibit featuring some material hoisted above the river, it is really more like a heavy industrial operation that will span years and leave permanent scars on the land.

“Christo has been able to work the system,” Harris said. “He’s been able to convince people that this is just a two-week period that will be so beneficial for the people of Colorado.”

As experts gathered at the University of Denver’s Sturm College of Law Jan. 27 for an all-day symposium, “Marijuana at the Crossroads,” the assembled attorneys, faculty and law students heard just how difficult it has become to navigate the legal mire surrounding the drug.

Colorado voters legalized medical marijuana by constitutional amendment in 2000. The industry exploded in 2008 when the Obama administration indicated that it would not actively pursue medical marijuana providers who were in compliance with state law. A new voter initiative is proposed for the state ballot this year that could legalize marijuana and regulate its sale like alcohol.

“We’re in a very interesting place right now,” said Brian Vicente, an attorney active in the marijuana regulation debate and chair of the National Cannabis Industry Association. “This is an issue where we are seeing major changes in our lifetime.”

Despite Colorado’s voters allowing medical marijuana sales and use, and despite a complex and comprehensive set of state regulations and licensing, former U.S. Attorney Troy Eid told the audience that marijuana is still illegal in the United States, and that anyone involved in the sale or use of the drug risks losing their property and their freedom.

“It really is not a good thing for you, as lawyers and law students, to buy into this crap that it is not illegal,” he said. “You need to know better.”

Eid said that maybe it’s time for Congress to address the issue, but until the government changes the law, it is illegal to possess or sell it.

“We still have an obligation in this country to follow the law,” he said.

It’s the conflict between various state and federal laws that make operating in a gray area so difficult for medical marijuana users and dispensaries, said Jill Lamoureux-Leigh (MBA ’99), an entrepreneur who runs three dispensaries licensed in Colorado.

“What’s next? We don’t know,” she said. “It’s too difficult to keep jumping these hurdles.”

Lamoureux-Leigh said her industry is a tough one. Cities can regulate zoning, the federal government can enforce some laws and not others, and the state requires huge amounts of data from each employee and investor, as well as “seed to sale” video surveillance of the entire operation. And with increasing competition bringing down the price for both legal and black-market marijuana, it has become increasingly difficult just to break even.

As an added challenge, she said, the threat of federal intervention has kept banks from allowing dispensaries to borrow money or open accounts, meaning that much of the industry faces the prospect of paying cash for everything, including taxes that the IRS demands – even if the federal government won’t acknowledge the sale of marijuana as a legal business.

Matt Cook, retired head of the Colorado Department of Revenue’s Medical Marijuana Enforcement Division, acknowledged that the state has “the most complex regulatory system in the United States” for marijuana. But he said such safeguards were carefully developed and based in part on measures used to oversee other industries such as casino operation and horse tracks.

Law School Dean Martin Katz credited the Denver University Law Review and the law school’s Constitutional Rights & Remedies Program for creating the symposium, which included sessions on issues marijuana laws pose for practicing attorneys, how the issue raises constitutional challenges and the legal ethics of working with clients who sell or use medical marijuana.

“This is exactly the type of thing we like to do at the law school,” Katz said. “Get people together, put our heads together and discuss and debate the issues of the day.”

Law Professor Sam Kamin, who studies the issue and delivered the keynote address, said there is a growing uncertainty about marijuana laws that must be clarified in coming years. Currently, he said, the federal government seems to be moving ahead with a slow crackdown, selectively enforcing laws such as challenging legal dispensaries that violate federal laws against delivering drugs within 1,000 feet of a school.

But the issue, he said, is far from resolved and the future is far from certain. As more states allow for medical marijuana, politicians in Washington may feel pressured to order the drug reclassified and relax rules on medical sales. Only one thing is certain, and that is that nothing is certain, he said.

“This is an area of law that is changing not only day by day, but minute by minute,” he said. “It’s hard to describe what’s going on.”

Hanson’s presentation was part of DU’s lead-up to the first 2012 presidential debate, scheduled for Oct. 3 in Magness Arena at the Ritchie Center for Sports & Wellness. For more debate-related events, visit DU’s 2012 Presidential Debate website. Have questions or a debate-related event you’d like to add to the official event calendar? Contact Winter Wall Walker at 303-871-4672.

Americans must reform the political system—primary elections in particular—if they want to end the current trend of polarization in Congress, says DU political science Professor Peter Hanson.

Hanson — a onetime staffer for former Sen. Tom Daschle (D-S.D.) — told more than 20 Seattle-based DU alumni on Sunday that we can take several steps to erode the divisive climate that prevails in the U.S. Congress.

In his presentation, part of the University’s Lifelong Learning Program, Hanson credited several developments for contemporary political polarization. For one thing, he said, people who vote in primaries tend to represent the most ideologically devout members of their parties, according to research.

“People choose nominees directly,” Hanson said. “It is the true believers — the diehards — who show up for primaries. Those diehards are more ideologically pure than they would have been in the ’60s.”

That’s one of the reasons why, during his quest to become the Republican nominee for the presidency, Texas Gov. Rick Perry was jeered when voicing his support for the seemingly anti-Republican DREAM Act, which would grant in-state tuition fees to undocumented immigrants attending U.S. colleges and universities, Hanson said.

History has helped better define and polarize the two-party system, Hanson said, noting that the success of the New Deal created class politics in the South. In the aftermath of President Franklin D. Roosevelt’s social programs, poor voters identified more with Democratic ideals, while the wealthy tended to vote for Republicans.

The civil rights movement of the 1960s pushed this separation by making Democratic leaders more responsible to black voters. In response, they broke alliances with the party’s remaining Southern segregationists. Those voters were largely absorbed into the Republican Party.

Today, studies show that people move—and stay—where they feel politically comfortable and accepted. As a result, state representatives from the house districts in these ideological hot spots are almost guaranteed reelection, Hanson said.

“The economics profession has to face up to the fact that it has an ethical duty to begin to train economists and to begin to have a conversation about what it means to be an ethical economist,” says Professor George DeMartino. Photo: Wayne Armstrong

George DeMartino, professor of international economics at the Josef Korbel School of International Studies, has been invited to speak at the annual meeting of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland. Author of The Economist’s Oath: On the Need for and Content of Professional Economic Ethics (Oxford University Press, 2011), DeMartino serves on the WEF’s Global Agenda Council, which helps to set the agenda for the annual meeting. This year’s meeting runs Jan. 25–29.

Q: Who participates in Davos, and what does the World Economic Forum hope to accomplish with these annual meetings?

A: The World Economic Forum is an independent organization that brings together leaders from government, the private sector and nongovernmental organizations, along with academics, artists and others, in order to examine some of the most pressing issues facing the world. The annual meetings, held in Davos each year, are intended to promote this agenda and draw international attention to global challenges and possible solutions. Over five days the forum features panel discussions, “ideas labs,” interactive sessions, workshops and debates. All are designed to sharpen thinking about how best to intervene in order to respond to our most urgent problems. This year’s theme is “The Great Transformation: Shaping New Models.”

Q: What topics will you be discussing at the WEF?

A: I’ll be presenting on a panel on “The Values Context.” This relates to my recent work on professional economic ethics and to my work with the WEF Global Agenda Council on “Values in Decision Making.” I’ll also attend many other sessions that engage values and ethics.

Q: What do you hope your audience will take away from your presentation?

A: Any serious talk of a “great transformation” must engage the matter of the degree to which wrong-headed values contributed to the current international economic crisis. Unfortunately, my profession is largely to blame. Since at least the 1970s, economists have been preaching the unqualified virtues of self-interest. In business schools in particular, economists have taught that the duty of business leaders is just to maximize profits for shareholders and that they are justified in securing extraordinarily high salaries. We’ve taught that they needn’t concern themselves with any broader social obligations. That teaching has proven to be disastrous. Economic self-interest has got to give way to other values that give full weight to human development, equality, community and sustainability. Without a value transformation in the economic arena, we are not apt to resolve our most pressing economic and political problems.

Founder and executive director of the Colorado-based Sensory Processing Disorder Foundation, Miller is regarded as one of the country’s foremost experts on the perplexing condition. As her foundation’s website explains, sensory processing disorder, or SPD, “is a condition that exists when sensory signals don’t get organized into appropriate responses.” In other words, it’s a failure of the nervous system to convert messages from the senses into appropriate motor and behavioral responses. People with SPD may demonstrate motor clumsiness, behavioral problems, anxiety, depression and academic failure.

The DU community—and the public at large—will have the chance to learn more about SPD when Miller speaks at the Morgridge College of Education Alumni Board’s Winter Signature Event on Thursday, Jan. 26, in Ruffatto Hall. A reception begins at 6 p.m., with the presentation to follow at 6:45. (To RSVP, visit http://www.alumni.du.edu/lucymiller.)

Miller’s talk, “Sensory Processing Disorder: Persistence and Passion; Caring for Individuals With Challenges in Responding to Sensation,” will address her decades-long campaign to demystify SPD and to help the children and adults who confront it.

In addition to publishing extensively, supporting SPD-related research and developing assessment tools that help professionals identify the disorder, Miller has worked tirelessly to get SPD recognized as a distinct diagnostic entity. Too often, she says, the disorder is misdiagnosed as a behavior problem or identified as a subcategory of autism. True, people with autism almost always have sensory challenges, she notes, but plenty of people with SPD do not have autism.

Thanks to Miller’s efforts, SPD has been included in two diagnostic manuals. More important, she adds, it is under consideration for inclusion in the 2013 revision of the granddaddy of all references, the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual (DSM).

Should this happen, it will represent the breakthrough Miller has been pursuing for decades. Inclusion in the manual will introduce the disorder to physicians who may never have heard of it, thus reducing the chance of misdiagnosis. Too few health care professionals, Miller explains, know how to recognize, much less treat, sensory issues. A DSM listing also could lead to additional funding for research.

Miller traces her interest in sensory processing disorder to a transformative experience in her teenage years.

“When I was 16, I developed an eye disease,” she recalls, noting that, as the disease progressed, she lost her vision, learned to live with the disability and eventually, at age 20, benefited from transplant surgery that restored her sight. Along the way, she drew upon enhanced senses to help her navigate the world. She also learned a lot about how patients experience treatment.

During her hospitalization for the transplant procedure, her eyes generated a lot of interest among the treatment team. “People kept coming over and looking at my eyes—the doctors, nurses, therapists,” she says. “But nobody cared about me.”

Troubled by her stint as an object of curiosity and acutely aware of a new relationship with her senses, she redirected her career plans. “Instead of going into law,” she explains, “I went to (occupational therapy) school.”

During the course of her studies, she worked with A. Jean Ayres, a pioneer in sensory integration studies. Fascinated by Ayres’ contributions, Miller decided to focus her own studies on SPD.  Since then, she and her foundation have partnered with researchers at some of the country’s leading institutions—including Harvard, Yale, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Duke. As a result, information about SPD has grown enormously.

“We now have brain-imaging research that shows that SPD kids are neurologically different,” she says.

Looking to the future, Miller hopes that growing awareness will do for SPD what increased exposure did for autism and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). Just 15 years ago, the medical community knew little about PTSD, but after the disorder was added to the DSM, it became an ordinary word in day-to-day language. Today, physicians and researchers are developing new therapies that make a tangible difference in PTSD treatment.

“I’ve given my life to this disorder,” she says of SPD. And she hasn’t stopped giving yet.

Christopher Hill, dean of DU's Korbel School of International Studies, served as ambassador to Iraq from spring 2009 to summer 2010.

As 2012 begins, two countries of strategic interest to the United States are launching new chapters in their troubled histories.

With the official end of Operation Iraqi Freedom in December, a sovereign Iraq will attempt to negotiate democracy without assistance from the U.S. military. Meanwhile, North Korea begins life under Kim Jong Un, who assumed leadership of the country after his father, Kim Jong Il, died in December.

For Christopher Hill, dean of the Josef Korbel School of International Studies, former U.S. ambassador to Iraq and a State Department veteran experienced in negotiating with the North Korean government, these may be fresh starts, but they’re also extensions of complex narratives.

On Iraq

In December 2011, just as the last American troops were packing up their body armor and heading for home, Hill journeyed to Kurdistan, one of Iraq’s most peaceful provinces. There, he met with Iyad Allawi, head of the Sunni-backed Iraqiya political bloc. “Certainly when I was there,” Hill says, “I got a sense of the deteriorating relationship between [Prime Minister Nouri] al-Maliki and some of his coalition partners.”

That deterioration, months in the making, became front-page news when, just days after the U.S. departure, al-Maliki, a Shia, called for the arrest of the Sunni vice president and asked parliament to fire the Sunni deputy prime minister. These moves were followed by a wave of deadly explosions in several of Baghdad’s predominantly Shia neighborhoods.

In the west, much of the pundit class was quick to link escalating sectarian tensions to the exit of U.S. troops. But Hill thinks these conclusions were hasty, if not downright wrong. For one thing, he recalls, “in my waning weeks there (as ambassador in summer of 2010), I was constantly trying to set up meetings between Allawi and al-Maliki.”

His efforts were stymied, a sign even then that the coalition government was struggling.

“The U.S. press has done a disservice to readers,” he says. Media accounts that draw direct correlations between departing U.S. troops and rising strife suggest that the latter would not have happened without the former. “It is not at all clear to me what an extra increment of U.S. troops would be able to do about this,” Hill says, noting that the Sunni-Shia divide, which has persisted for centuries, was never likely to be resolved by American soldiers.

Tensions may well continue to fester, but Hill believes the U.S. embassy is well positioned to offer counsel as Iraq strives to govern itself. “The embassy’s job,” he says, “is to develop a keen understanding of local conditions and make sure that Washington understands those conditions.”

On top of that, Hill believes that U.S. diplomats can play a vital role in helping the country rebound from Saddam Hussein’s dictatorship. “There is not a deep reservoir of experience with democratic institutions in Iraq. Our job is to be calm and to impart that calmness,” he says, noting that the U.S. ambassador should play a constructive role in mediating differences among Shias, Sunnis and Kurds.

It’s not helpful, Hill says, for the Western press to stress that the American embassy in Iraq represents the largest diplomatic mission in the world. Such language suggests to Iraqis that the U.S. has merely replaced soldiers in combat gear with strongmen in pinstripe suits.

Although Iran may regard the American departure from Iraq as a victory, that does not mean the troop presence should have been prolonged. True, Hill says, “Iranians have made fostering Shia rule in Iraq a major priority.” They’ve also called for the departure of U.S. troops. “So far, they’re two for two,” Hill notes. “Nonetheless, very few Shia in Iraq have any interest in living under Iranian Shia. The Iraqi Shia are not pro-Iranian, and there are real limits to what the Iranians can accomplish there.”

What’s more, if U.S. diplomats strive to encourage democratic processes for problem-solving and dialogue, they can counter the Iranian agenda. “Iran has been supporting very nefarious elements in Iraq, most notably some Shia militia groups,” Hill says, noting that these anti-democratic forces have formed to counter anti-democratic and Sunni-backed terrorist groups. Fostering democratic institutions and pluralism should undermine the need for such groups.

Looking back on the American experience in Iraq, Hill hopes that the U.S. has learned a few lessons about the aftermath of dictatorships. Before attempting to change regimes, it pays to understand the complexity of a country’s culture and context. It may not have been the best idea, for example, for the Coalition Provisional Authority — which oversaw the administration of Iraq from 2003 to 2004 — to craft an interim government dominated by Sunnis. Saddam Hussein, after all, was a Sunni.

“Clearly, the answer to Saddam Hussein was not more minority Sunni rule,” Hill says.

Hill also hopes that the U.S. has learned to regard the assessments offered by insiders through the appropriate prism. “One has to take with a grain of salt the advice we get,” Hill says. “Iraqis of all stripes will try to draw us into their politics by denouncing their adversaries and claiming they are closer to us. The challenge for a diplomat is to listen to all sides, to be open, but to recognize what is often spin and often intended to influence rather than inform.”

 
On Korea

When Kim Jong Il, the supreme leader of North Korea, died in December 2011, Western observers found themselves at a loss for meaningful precedent. After all, Kim’s death represents only the second time in North Korea’s history that the country has experienced a leadership transition.

Inside North Korea, outpourings of grief bordered on the surreal. Outside North Korea, the country’s neighbors struggled to demystify Kim’s successor. Will Kim Jong Un continue North Korea’s extreme isolationism and its pursuit of a nuclear weapon? How will he interact with North Korea’s powerful military?

“The question will be,” Hill says, “are we seeing the emergence of a junta/cult or a cult/junta?” In other words, does the military or the new leader have the upper hand?

Early analysis suggests that Kim Jong Un is unlikely to try to prove himself via a military venture, but given the country’s dire economic straits, Hill explains, he won’t be able to distinguish himself on the economic front either. That means prospects for the average North Korean will remain bleak.

“I never put optimism and North Korea in the same sentence,” Hill says.

Positive change in North Korea is only likely when the United States, China and South Korea work together to bring it about. For the time being, the Chinese, distracted by economic challenges of their own, are likely to reinforce the status quo. “They’re not prepared to make fundamental changes regarding North Korea,” Hill says.

As U.S. diplomats ponder the way forward, they would do well to remember two things. First, Hill says, “We need to respect that to South Korea, North Korea is a very emotional issue.” South Koreans bristle when American leaders suggest that their approach to their neighbor is too soft. The U.S. needs to acknowledge this perspective. “And I believe the Obama administration is doing that,” Hill says.

Second, from the Chinese perspective, a unified Korea represents a foreign policy failure. For years, the Chinese leadership worried about the Soviet Union encircling the country. “Today, sadly, the Chinese seem to be worried about U.S. encirclement,” Hill says. It will take concerted effort to help the Chinese see that a united peninsula is not a threat to their interests.

The U.S. must continue its efforts to thwart North Korea’s nuclear ambitions, but it should realize that bellicosity is likely to backfire. “Threatening it with military force,” Hill cautions, “is really to play the role reserved for us in North Korean comic books.”

In 2001, Golan and a group of arts professionals around the country filed a lawsuit against the government, claiming that current U.S. copyright law has made it prohibitively expensive for smaller orchestras to perform copyrighted music. Golan — who also is the conductor of the Lamont Symphony Orchestra — was the lead plaintiff in the case, Golan v. Holder.

On Jan. 18, the Supreme Court ruled 6-2 to uphold current laws that grant international copyright protection to musical compositions, books and other artistic works. Justice Elena Kagan did not take part in the case.

“Obviously, the Supreme Court’s decision is a huge disappointment to me and to thousands of my colleagues in music and academia,” Golan says. “Nonetheless, it is now official: Something that is in the public domain may be taken out of the public domain at a later date.”

The lawsuit challenged two parts of the U.S. Constitution: the Progress Clause, which states that Congress only has the right to protect artistic works for a limited time, and the First Amendment, which protects Americans’ right to free speech, including the right to perform music, publish books, display artwork and show films.

A statement from the Court Opinion reads: “Congress determined that U.S. interests were best served by our full participation in the dominant system of international copyright protection.”

The court heard arguments in the copyright lawsuit — which had gone through the federal District Court and 10th Circuit Appeals Court system twice during the past 10 years — on Oct. 5.