Teen and his mentor visit Washington, D.C., meet President Obama

Ryan Brott, 14, left, and his mentor Andrew Knight, both of Holland-
, recently traveled to Washington, D.C., as part of National Mentor Month White House celebration. Brott and Knight participate in Ottawa County's Journey 4-H program.
One year ago, Ryan Brott, 14, could never in his wildest dreams have imagined he would be shaking the hand of the President of the United States. But on Jan. 20, that's exactly what he got to do, during a National Mentor Month White House celebration.

Ryan, who was a troubled teen, is part of the Ottawa County Journey 4-H Youth Mentoring Program. It is one of many 4-H Youth Development programs and Ottawa County was selected to represent 4-H Youth Mentoring nationwide, joining only 12 other groups.

According to Journey 4-H coordinator Laura Schleede, the Corporation for National and Community Service made a request to 4-H national headquarters for a mentoring match from Ottawa County's Journey 4-H because of its state and national recognition as a Program of Distinction and for receiving the 2009 Michigan Governor's Service Award for Outstanding Mentoring Program.

Contributed photoRyan Brott and his mentor, Andrew Knight, recently went to Washington D.C., where they met President Obama.Officials from the organization's national headquarters contacted Ottawa County's Journey 4-H officials who had the perfect mentoring match: Ryan, and his 25-year-old mentor, Andrew Knight. Both are Holland residents.

On Jan. 19, Schleede, Ryan, and Knight, along with Ryan's mother Dawn and Michigan State University Extension specialist Lisa Bottomley, left for the whirlwind, one-night stay in the nation's capital. It was compliments of the MSU Extension office, which oversees 4-H programs.

"Of course the biggest highlight was being in the White House and seeing Ryan and Knight on stage with the president talking and shaking his hand," Schleede said. "We are very, very honored that our program was among the few selected. It was such a great experience for Ryan, who's worked so hard to turn his life around."

Schleede said she chose Ryan and Knight to represent Journey 4-H at the event because it is an ideal example the positive effects mentoring can have on youth. "They are a great match," she said, "and have been together almost a year."

Journey 4-H partners with the 20th Circuit Court Family Division/Juvenile Services. Each year, probation officers, therapists, and other community agencies refer 25 to 35 candidates for the mentoring program. Mentors commit to spending a minimum of two hours weekly with mentees for a year.

Knight heard about the program when he was attending Grand Rapids Community College studying criminal justice. "I was unemployed and looking for a purpose while trying to find work," he said. "I thought it was a good way to meet people, would look good on my resume, and give me exposure to the juvenile-justice system. It's been incredibly rewarding. Ryan has helped me at least as much as I have helped him."

Knight said 4-H does a tremendous job organizing events that mentor matches can attend. They have included sporting events like Griffins and Whitecaps games, and a favorite of both he and Ryan, an Adventure Race filled with activities that taught outdoor survival training and skills.

4-H covers the expenses of the activities. "They are well organized, and want these experiences to be fun, but also educational and to broaden experiences," Knight said. "It's way more effective at building relationships than just going out for dinner every week."

While Knight said that the absolute highlight of the trip for him was meeting President Obama, he also said there was something else that became incredibly significant to him.

"For the nation to give recognition to mentoring, something that doesn't take that much effort, just a couple hours a week, and to see the incredible difference that makes ... how something so simple is so important and vital to our nation's youth."

Knight said that the mentoring program has had a big influence on his life and is something he will continue to do with Ryan even though his one-year commitment is soon to expire.

Ryan's favorite part of the trip was also being in the White House and meeting President Obama. "It was pretty epic to shake his hand," he said. "I never could have imagined ever going there. This year has made me different."

Ryan said what he liked about the mentoring program is that it gives him something to do and keeps him out of trouble. "I don't get into trouble as often as I used to," he said. "Andrew is there to keep me out of it."

For Ryan, his visit to Washington, D.C. was life changing. "Before the visit, I wanted to go into the military but I didn't know what I wanted to do," he said. "Now I do - I want to be trained in the Secret Service."

Dawn Brott said the trip was a once-in-a-lifetime experience and they were still basking in the afterglow.

"When I was young, I was mentored in the Big Sister program, and I know how important that person was to me and the difference it could make in my son's life," she said.

"Ryan's very independent, and had made some bad choices and he's learned from them. He didn't have a male role model and (Knight) has been a wonderful influence." Brott said her son's view of home life and school has changed and that now he's just short of the honor roll. He also volunteers at his church.

"What I'd really like to say, is that we need more mentors as a society," Dawn Brott said. "It takes more than parents - it takes a community - to raise a child."

Source:mlive.com/

Obama Says War In Iraq Ending

.S. President Barack Obama delivered his first State Of The Union speech to a joint session of Congress
Last updated (GMT/UTC): 28.01.2010 07:01
By Andrew F. Tully
WASHINGTON -- In his first State of the Union address, U.S. President Barack Obama has told the American people that eight years of war in Afghanistan and nearly seven years of war in Iraq are coming to an end.

But he devoted most of his annual address to Congress to detailing how he plans to strengthen the struggling U.S. economy and put unemployed Americans back to work.

President Obama ran for the U.S. presidency as an antiwar candidate and in his address late on January 27, he said his administration was successfully winding down the wars in both Iraq and Afghanistan.

Even though his first year in office saw him order 30,000 more U.S. troops to Afghanistan to help defeat the Taliban insurgency, Obama said he's confident that an end to the fighting is in sight.

"In Afghanistan, we're increasing our troops and training Afghan security forces so they can begin to take the lead in July of 2011, and our troops can begin to come home," Obama said.

"We will reward good governance, work to reduce corruption, and support the rights of all Afghans, men and women alike."

As for the Iraq war -- a war Obama opposed from the start, when he was still a senator in the legislature of the central state of Illinois -- that, too, is ending, he said.

"As we take the fight to Al-Qaeda, we are responsibly leaving Iraq to its people. As a candidate, I promised that I would end this war, and that is what I am doing as president," Obama said.

"We will have all of our combat troops out of Iraq by the end of this August. We will support the Iraqi government as they hold elections, and we will continue to partner with the Iraqi people to promote regional peace and prosperity."

Obama also highlighted another accomplishment in foreign affairs: the imminent achievement of a successor to the 1991 Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty, or START I.

On January 26, officials at the Russian Foreign Ministry said negotiators for a START II treaty likely would reach agreement within weeks. On January 27, Obama and Russian President Dmitry Medvedev spoke substantively by telephone about the talks, including signing a new treaty "in the near future," according to official Russian media.

Obama pointed to that and a coming meeting of world leaders to secure the world's nuclear materials as two of the major foreign policy successes of his first year in the White House.

"To reduce our stockpiles and launchers, while ensuring our deterrent, the United States and Russia are completing negotiations on the farthest-reaching arms control treaty in nearly two decades," Obama said.

"And at April's Nuclear Security Summit, we will bring forty-four nations together here in Washington, D.C., behind a clear goal: securing all vulnerable nuclear materials around the world in four years, so that they never fall into the hands of terrorists."

Threats From North Korea, Iran

Obama said the negotiations with Russia and similar foreign initiatives have made the United States more credible in the international community in dealing with threats from countries such as North Korea and Iran.

"That's why North Korea now faces increased isolation, and stronger sanctions -- sanctions that are being vigorously enforced. That's why the international community is more united, and the Islamic Republic of Iran is more isolated. And as Iran's leaders continue to ignore their obligations, there should be no doubt: they, too, will face growing consequences. That is a promise," Obama said.

For the most part, however, Obama focused on the U.S. economy. Technically, according to many economists, the U.S. recession is over. But unemployment is what these same economists call a "lagging indicator" -- meaning that business may be improving, but employers are still too cautious to resume hiring.

As a result, unemployment has exceeded 10 percent in the United States, and many Americans blame Obama for spending too much of his energy during the past year on a broad reform of the nation's health care system, as well as on the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan.

Polls show Americans evenly split on whether Obama's doing a good job or a bad job. This is bad news for a president who spent his first months in office with approval ratings above 75 percent.

Robert Spitzer, a professor of political science at the State University of New York, says that's why Obama spent so much of this annual speech expressing concern over the state of the U.S. economy and laying out his plans for tax credits, tax cuts, and other programs that he says will stimulate job creation.

"The economy is the number-one concern, as polls have shown, among Americans generally. And also there's a related sense that President Obama has not spent enough time focusing on the economy and that he may have suffered politically as a result," Spitzer said.

"So he really wants to turn the focus on the economy, where unemployment is still at 10 percent, job growth has been very slow, and the economy has indeed been slow to recover."

Spitzer says Americans are weary of foreign entanglements after eight years of war in Afghanistan and nearly seven years of war in Iraq. They have their own needs, he says, and expect their government to focus its attention on them.

Nevertheless, Spitzer says Obama has a right to be proud of some of his efforts in foreign policy over the past year, particularly improving relations with Russia, which soured during the eight years of Obama's predecessor, George W. Bush.

Spitzer notes that Moscow reacted very positively when the United States announced it was abandoning Bush's plan for a missile shield based in Poland and the Czech Republic. Now, he says, Obama is building on that effort to achieve a START II treaty and to properly secure all the nuclear-weapon materials held by both countries.

"Russia, of course, is no longer the foe that it was, but there are still animosities and mistrust, and there are still many nuclear weapons in the world, so it seems like a very positive step, I think, for all parties," Spitzer said.

But Spitzer notes that successes like these will barely be noticed by Americans if Obama and the politically divided Congress can't agree to work together to fix the country's economy.

Source:rferl.org/

US STOCKS SNAPSHOT-Futures advance on Obama's speech

NEW YORK, Jan 27 (Reuters) - U.S. stock index futures added gains in late after-hours trading on Wednesday as investors took President Barack Obama's State of the Union speech as toning down some of the rhetoric that unnerved investors last week when he unveiled new restrictions on U.S. banks.

If you go back to what he said last week it was incredible how adversarial he was from a standpoint of the financial system: banks and fat-cats on Wall Street versus poor little Americans," said Alan Lancz, president of Alan B. Lancz & Associates Inc, an investment advisory firm, based in Toledo, Ohio. "It seems from what I've heard he has toned down the rhetoric."

S&P 500 futures SPc1 rose 5.30 points and were above fair value, a formula that evaluates pricing by taking into account interest rates, dividends and time to expiration of the contract. Dow Jones industrial average futures DJc1 gained 51 points, and Nasdaq 100 futures NDc1 added 7.25 points. (Reporting by Ellis Mnyandu; Editing by Tomasz Janowski)

Source:reuters.com/

Obama's big speech...Medicare study...Wizards' suspensions

WASHINGTON (AP) — About two-thirds of President Barack Obama's State of the Union address tonight before Congress will be on the economy. Much of what he's expected to say will be familiar, but Obama will also ask for another stimulus package, and a three-year freeze in some domestic spending.

LOS ANGELES (AP) — A new study says when Medicare copays go up -- even just a few dollars -- it leads to fewer doctor visits and longer hospital stays. The tendency was most pronounced among blacks, people living in lower-income neighborhoods, and those with chronic illnesses.

RALEIGH, N.C. (AP) — The marriage of former presidential candidate John Edwards and his wife Elizabeth is apparently moving toward divorce. A friend of Elizabeth Edwards says the couple has separated. Under North Carolina law, they must be separated for a year before they can divorce.

TEGUCIGALPA, Honduras (AP) — The seven-month struggle by Honduras' ousted president to return to power is apparently over. Manuel Zelaya has left his refuge in the Brazilian Embassy to fly to the Dominican Republic. He was pushed from power last June in a dispute over changing the Honduran Constitution.

NEW YORK (AP) — Gilbert Arenas and Javaris Crittenton of the NBA's Washington Wizards have learned their fate for their "guns in the locker room" incident last year. NBA commissioner David Stern has suspended them for the rest of the season. Arenas has pleaded guilty to a gun charge, and will be sentenced March 26.

Source:9and10news.com/

Obama Comments On Recent Bin Laden Tape

(Washington, DC) -- President Obama says Osama bin Laden's recent claim of responsibility for an attempted plane bombing on Christmas shows al-Qaeda is hurting.

In an interview aired on ABC's "Good Morning America," Obama said bin Laden's attempt to take credit for the attack indicates how weakened he is because, quote, "this is not something necessarily directed by him." The Christmas bombing attempt is alleged to have been carried out by Umar Farouk Abdulmutallab, who is currently in custody.

A wing of al-Qaeda based in Yemen has said it was behind the plot to blow up the plane as it approached Detroit.

In the interview, Obama highlighted measures taken since the 9-11 attacks that he argued have made the nation much safer than before.

A member of the State Department recently said that bin Laden's claim of responsibility was a grab for "reflected glory."