“Rocky Mountain High” may be one of Colorado’s official state songs, but that doesn’t mean it’s a good idea.

One 21-year-old University of Colorado at Boulder student found that out the hard way recently after she took too many psychedelic “magic” mushrooms and ended up stripping naked and freaking out, according to law enforcement officials.

Her “bad trip”  near the mountainous flatirons in Chautauqua Park prompted a massive rescue operation Sunday.

The way police tell it, “Boulder County Communications received a 911 call reporting a female hiker … who was high on mushrooms and in distress.”

About 35 rescue personnel responded, and when they found her she had “removed all of her clothing and was being physically restrained by her companions,” police say.

“The victim had to be restrained with handcuffs, and it took a number of rescuers to secure her into a litter,” according to a statement from police.

She was eventually treated and released at a local hospital, and could be in trouble for consumption of a controlled substance, along with some of her hiking peers.

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“A University of Nebraska at Kearney psychology professor faces six felony counts of possession and distribution of child pornography,” the Kearney Hub reports.

“Joseph J. Benz, 52, is charged in Buffalo County Court with three counts of distribution of child pornography and three counts of possession of child porn,” the paper reported.

A search warrant executed at Benz’s home Tuesday uncovered more than 20,000 questionable image files on his computer, the paper stated, cited an Attorney General’s Office investigation, adding that – if convicted and not placed on probation - Benz faces 11 to 190 years in prison.

According to his faculty profile online, Benz’s research interests include human jealousy and social behavior. He regularly teaches classes such as “learning and conditioning,” “behavioral statistics,” “experimental psychology” and other related courses.

According to his profile, he has been awarded several teaching awards over the years.

Read more.

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Lately Colorado, considered by some the nation’s hotspot for the natural energy drilling boom, has become obsessed with making frac’ing sense, with environmentalists and pro-business groups alike vying for supporters and foes.

Much of that battle is played out at the state’s public universities.

Case in point - the University of Colorado at Boulder – where several green and fossil free environmental groups during the spring semester offering workshops and speakers to encourage students to join the anti-fracking and environmental justice movement.

One such workshop was dubbed “Stop the Frack Attack” and sponsored by StopTheFrackAttack.org. The discussion group “Fracking-A Messy Business” was hosted by the Assembly for Sustainability and Equity group.

Meanwhile, Colorado Governor John Hickenlooper – who famously drank fracking fluid to prove it was harmless – gave a presentation on “Frac’ing Sense” at the university.

Hickenlooper is among those who aim to counter the sustainable proclamations and green peace efforts in Boulder and present some frac’ing truth.

He is not alone. Professors, in fact, have joined his cause, most notably from the Colorado School of Mines, where educators there work to inform the masses on frac’ing, and counter the argument it’s harmful to the environment.

Dr. Will Fleckenstein, BP adjuct professor at Colorado School of Mines, specializes in unconventional reservoirs, and actually worked as a roughneck on drilling rigs. He is quick to point out that, by using best practices, frac’ing is actually safe and effective.

Backing him up are groups such as the Colorado Women’s Alliance, which on Wednesday screened “FrackNation,” a pro-drilling film, at a downtown Boulder hotel.

Not to be outdone, the anti-frac’ing film “Gasland 2” was shown Wednesday night at CU Boulder by nearly two dozen environmental groups, including the Sierra Club and New Era Colorado.

As the debate in Colorado rages on, Debbie Brown, Director of Colorado Women’s Alliance, told The College Fix it was important for this event to bring insights to women about these issues.

“Women in particular often fall prey to an extreme environmental agenda, and it’s important to offer a fact-based educational documentary that offers a different view on these important energy issues, like the film, FrackNation,” Brown said.

She added: “America is more secure when we produce our own safe, affordable, clean and abundant energy. Our energy entrepreneurs should be encouraged to innovate and explore new development that will decrease our need for foreign dependence and provide economic prosperity for American families.”

Brown’s sentiment about informing communities about frac’ing is shared by students who will be working in the oil and natural gas industries.

Carlton Healy, 22 and recent graduate from Colorado School of Mines with a civil engineering specialty, has experience in the design of hydraulic fracture stimulations and will be working at a petroleum company full time.

Healy said frac’ing is vital for society.

“Conventional oil and gas reservoirs are becoming harder to access thanks to engineering and geo-political challenges,” he told The Fix. “Thus the prospect of developing domestic unconventional reservoirs is becoming more and more viable thanks to hydraulic fracture stimulations.”

“Through hydraulic fracture stimulations, which are economically essential to these ‘new’ reservoirs, the United States could become much more energy independent by producing petroleum domestically,” Healy added.

Healy said the term “fracking” is incorrect when referring to the industry.

“Frac’ing, not fracking,” Healy said. “There’s no ‘K’ in Hydraulic Fracture Stimulation; it’s a pet peeve of mine and others in industry.”

Colorado School of Mines’ Fleckenstein’s gave a presentation in December of 2011 in Brussels for The Atlantic Council and Goldwyn Global Strategies workshop called “Best Practices in Exploration: Drilling, Casing and Cementing.”

The presentation included data on the process of horizontal frac’ing drilling practices and their effectiveness at retrieving shale deposits.

Essentially the process of frac’ing is to start with drilling vertically and then change the direction by rotating the bit with a downhole motor, or a rotary steerable system. This then opens up the shale reserve to multiple access points in which the resource can be obtained.

Chemicals that are blended together with sand and water are inserted into the perforations, or drilled fractures, that were drilled in the well. Natural fractures begin to form from the perforations, which are kept open by proppant, or padding chemical.

Continuous drilling happens with the perforating gun in stages. The natural pressurized gases are monitored throughout the drilling. The chemicals and their fluids are then retrieved to begin the actual drilling of shale.

David Neslin, director of Colorado Oil and Gas Conservation Commission, has stated that “to the knowledge of the (commission) staff, there has been no verified instance of harm to groundwater caused by hydraulic fracturing in Colorado.”

Meanwhile, anti-fracking and environmental justice movement groups continue to insist the harm is real and catastrophic, and they’re recruiting students to grow their ranks.

Fix contributor Aslinn Scott is a student at CU Boulder.

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Fox News reports:

German software company SAP is looking to recruit people with autism as programmers and product testers, drawing on skills that can include a close attention to detail and an ability to solve complex problems.

SAP has asked start-up Danish recruitment company Specialisterne to help it find, train and manage employees diagnosed with the disability.

“They bring a special set of skills to the table, which fits with SAP,” said a spokesman for the company, which has already hired people with autism in India and Ireland.

Read more.

What do you think? Is this smart business? And should more companies be following this company’s example?

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The Washington Post reports this morning on a disturbing story out of the U.S. Military Academy at West Point, detailing allegations that entail a criminal breach of privacy and abuse of power:

WASHINGTON — A sergeant first class on the staff of the United States Military Academy at West Point has been accused of videotaping female cadets without their consent, sometimes when they were undressed in the bathroom or the shower, according to Army officials.

The Army is contacting about a dozen women to alert them that their privacy may have been violated by the suspect, identified as Sgt. First Class Michael McClendon, and to offer support or counseling, officials said.

The allegations at West Point, the nation’s oldest and most prestigious military academy, come in the midst of growing outrage in Congress, at the Pentagon and from President Obama over reports of sexual harassment and assault in the armed services. They also come as the Army has begun integrating women into combat positions, bringing added demands for fair and equal treatment of those in uniform.

The revelations are especially startling at West Point, which has had problems with sexual assault but also has many progressive faculty members and prides itself on having an environment of discipline and respect. Women have been enrolled at the two-century-old institution, on a commanding bank of the Hudson River in upstate New York, for nearly 40 years.

Read the full story at The Washington Post.

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Lab science could be going the way of the dinosaur in the Cal State University system, which is looking at cutting in-person lab experiences for non-science majors, and replacing those lab sessions with online “virtual labs”:

The California State University System may bet big on virtual labs starting this fall, a sign of how heavily some policymakers are counting on technology to solve funding problems.

The effort could end in-the-flesh lab experimentation for many Cal State students who are not biology majors.

The proposal is part of a multipronged plan from the Cal State chancellor’s office to help students unable to find a path through the Cal State system. Officials are hoping to use a one-time infusion of $17.2 million for education technology to break the so-called course bottleneck that prevents students from advancing, prompts some to drop out and consumes state resources.

Officials have identified 22 bottleneck courses. Six of them are science classes, including biology courses where campuses struggle to find lab space and time for students. So, Cal State wonders: Can virtual lab software solve the problem?

J. Russell George, the Treasury inspector general and the man who set off the IRS firestorm now engulfing the White House, was a friend and fellow classmate of Michelle Obama at Harvard Law School.

National Journal reports:

Two heads have already rolled in the scandal. One of them, the outgoing acting commissioner of the IRS, Steven Miller, was seated next to George. Pictures of the two of them, their right hands raised, taking the oath, ran in papers across the nation after the scandal’s first congressional hearing last week.

All the attention was new, but George has operated in these halls of power his entire career. He worked for Dole, and then in President George H.W. Bush’s White House. In between, he attended Harvard Law School, graduating in 1988 alongside a young Michelle Obama (then Michelle Robinson).

They weren’t in the same section—the academic groupings that Harvard uses to divide its students—but George said they traveled in some of the same social circles, including the Black Law Students Association.

“I think he actually dated Michelle at one point,” said former Rep. Tom Davis, a Virginia Republican, who worked with George when he was staff director for a House oversight subcommittee in the late 1990s and early 2000s.

“That is overstating it,” George said. But the two students did socialize in group settings. “Michelle was a lovely person, and down to earth,” he said. “…The BLSA went out for pizza; we would go out together.”

He paused, for a beat. “Don’t get me in trouble,” George said…

Read the full story here.

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A handful of George Washington University political and history professors largely support the idea of adding President Barack Obama’s face to Mount Rushmore – just not quite yet.

According to a survey conducted by The College Fix, three out of the 10 George Washington University history and political science professors questioned via email replied it’s simply too soon for Obama’s likeness to be immortalized on Mount Rushmore National Memorial.

But he very well could and should be added – eventually – the three educators said.

“Historical judgments take time to form and Obama is still in office,” said history professor Edward Berkowitz. “It could be that he will be one of the great presidents, worthy of having his likeness carved on a mountain, but certainly not yet.”

Professor Paul Wahlbeck, a professor and chairman of the political science department, said he is “reluctant to venerate political leaders while or shortly after they served,” but still remains optimistic.

“History undoubtedly will accord President Obama a special place by virtue of being the first African American President,” Wahlbeck said in an email to The College Fix.

The three professors seemed united that a president’s legacy should not appear prematurely.

Political Science Professor Robert Stoker, who specializes in social policy and authored an article in January claiming that Social Security does not add to the nation’s debt, voiced skepticism about venerating Obama’s legacy too soon.

“I recall how unseemly it was when Republicans started a premature campaign to cement President Reagan’s legacy by naming everything they could find after him,” Stoker said, referring to the campaign to name the national airport in DC after President Reagan.

“At least the Republicans waited until Reagan was no longer in office.”

Of the remaining George Washington University professors surveyed, one declined to weigh in, and six simply said “no” to the question of whether Obama belonged on Mt. Rushmore.

Dedicated in 1941, Mount Rushmore, located in the Black Hills of South Dakota, has only four faces etched into eternity at this time: George Washington, Thomas Jefferson, Theodore Roosevelt, and Abraham Lincoln. To be added to that list would be one of the highest honors bestowed on any American, alive or dead.

With that, perhaps it’s no surprise that some professors at George Washington University can eventually see Obama – a democrat and America’s first black president – added to Rushmore sometime in the future.

The university has a reputation as a school with an inclination for liberal bias, where two gay students took aim at a campus priest, a law professor taught students how to lobby for Obama policies, and an abortionist practices on campus grounds next to a residence hall.

According to the Federal Election Commission, professors funneled $132,702 into Barack Obama’s campaign in the 2012 election cycle.

None of the professors surveyed financially supported Obama’s campaign in the 2012 election cycle, but more than a few have vocally supported liberal causes.

While those at GW think President Obama’s legacy is too soon to be etched on a monument, countless others have picked up the slack to name things after our current president before his time using taxpayer money.

•Pennsylvania: An international magnet school has already been named “The Barack Obama Academy for International Studies” only two years after President Obama assumed office.  The Duquesne Duke, March 2011.

•Florida: A street has been re-named “Barack Obama Avenue” in Opa-locka, FL in February 2009 after the city commission “voted unanimously” to rename part of Perviz Avenue and make it official on President’s Day.  USA Today, January 2009.

•Florida: There is also a parkway in Orlando named “Barack Obama Parkway” that is about one and a half miles in length that was dedicated by Orlando’s mayor in October 2011.  The Blaze, October 2011.

•New Jersey: “A Plainfield public high school for at-risk students has been renamed for President Barack Obama, becoming the first school in the state to adopt the change.” The Star Ledger, February 2009.

•New York: The Hempstead Union Free School District board voted unanimously to rename “Ludlum Elementary School” to “Barack Obama Elementary School” just three weeks after the president was elected.  Fox News, November 2009.

•Wisconsin: The Milwaukee Public School Board voted in April 2011 in a “5-4 vote to approve naming a school after the current president.” Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, April 2011.

•California: “The former Qued Charter Elementary School changed its name to the Barack Obama Charter School” in January 2009 just days before the presidential inauguration.  LATimes.com, January 2009

Fix contributor Katherine Rodriguez is a student at George Washington University.

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At least two conservative groups in California urged parents to keep their kids home from school Wednesday, Harvey Milk Day, an annual and official statewide observance that honors the first openly gay man elected to public office in California.

SaveCalifornia.com urged an all-out boycott of school Wednesday, saying state laws “call upon all K-12 government schools to teach children as young as 5 years old to honor homosexual activist and sexual predator Harvey Milk.”

Advocates for Faith & Freedom, a conservative public interest law firm in Southern California, asked parents to consider keeping their kids home, or at a minimum calling the school to find out how the day would be celebrated inside the classroom.

Bob Tyler, lead attorney at the firm, said educators who mark the May 22 occasion – which was signed into law in 2009 by Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger – often gloss over the fact that Milk, a homosexual rights activist, had a sexual relationship with a teen younger than 18. What’s more, educators often glamorize his public assassination, but he was killed over a political disagreement, not because of his homosexuality, Tyler said.

“They give history lessons on why he was such a wonderful human being, when in fact (someone who has) gay sex with minors is not the type of person” to be celebrated, Tyler said in an interview with The College Fix.

The bill signed into law to mark Harvey Milk stated in part that  “…perhaps more than any other modern figure, Harvey Milk’s life and political career embody the rise of the lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) civil rights movement in California, across the nation, and throughout the world.”

Ways schools honor the occasion include classroom discussions, assemblies and assignments. Some teachers bring it up, others don’t.

In alerting parents to the celebration, Advocates for Faith & Freedom stated that ”the bill does not require that the school notify or seek permission from parents – so it is up to you to find out if your child’s school will be celebrating this day, and whether you want your child exposed to possible activities.”

“Parents need to stay informed so they can hold public schools accountable,” Tyler said.

It’s unclear whether the boycott had any effect.

Pam Slater, a spokeswoman for the California Department of Education, told The College Fix that the agency does not track daily attendance at local schools, so officials would not know if there was any kind of fluctuation in attendance Wednesday.

As to the conservative groups’ efforts, Slater said that “school is a place where a child goes to learn about the world around them and the people who have helped to shape it. We hope that all parents send their kids to school to learn every day.”

Jennifer Kabbany is associate editor of The College Fix.

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IMAGE: SaveCalifornia.com

After four Princeton University students have come down with meningitis since late March, state health department officials are now calling it an outbreak.

A 20-year-old male student was hospitalized Monday for symptoms of bacterial meningitis, coming on the heels of two students falling sick in late March and mid-April, as well as a fourth hospitalized earlier this month with symptoms of the disease, The Daily Princetonian reported, adding “the state Department of Health has now designated the cases as an outbreak.”

Meningitis is a viral or bacterial infection and it can be deadly.

“The disease is transmitted through air droplets and direct contact with infected persons (e.g. coughing, kissing),” states the National Meningitis Association website.

Three of the four students have recovered,  and campus officials have recently sent reminders and alerts to students about the situation and how to stay healthy, The Daily Princetonian reported.

Nevertheless, concerns abound. According to Princeton Patch.com:

Despite collaboration between the state Department of Health, local officials, Princeton University Health Services and the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, there’s some concern on the Princeton Board of Health about whether enough is being done.

Board Member Dr. Laura Kahn said there’s never been a case of bacterial meningitis during her board tenure.

“It’s now 2013 and we’ve got four cases in just two months,” Kahn said. “I think it’s statistically unlikely it’s that random.”

Now she, and at least two fellow board members, are asking to see the raw data on the outbreak, including the epidemiological information about each case and the questions students were asked during the health investigation.

There is some concern because of an outbreak at Ohio State University that went on for two years, board members said.

Read more.

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