CBS News correspondent Bob Simon, 1941-2015

Bob Simon, correspondent for 60 Minutes and CBS News.

John Paul Filo/CBS

CBS News
"Bob was a reporter's reporter. He was driven by a natural curiosity that took him all over the world covering every kind of story imaginable," Fager said. "There is no one else like Bob Simon. All of us at CBS News and particularly at 60 Minutes will miss him very much."

Simon's five-decade career took him through most major overseas conflicts spanning from the late 1960s to the present. He joined CBS News in 1967 as a New York-based reporter and assignment editor, covering campus unrest and inner city riots. Simon also worked in CBS News' Tel Aviv bureau from 1977-81, and worked in Washington D.C. as the network's State Department correspondent.

But Simon's career in war reporting was extensive, beginning in Vietnam. While based in Saigon from 1971-72, his reports on the war -- and particularly the Hanoi 1972 spring offensive -- won an Overseas Press Club award award for the Best Radio Spot News for coverage of the end of the conflict. Simon was there for the end of the conflict and was aboard one of the last helicopters out of Saigon in 1975.

He also reported on the violence in Northern Ireland in from 1969-71 and also from war zones in Portugal, Cyprus, the Falkland Islands, the Persian Gulf, Yugoslavia and American military actions in Grenada, Somalia and Haiti.

Simon was named CBS News' chief Middle East correspondent in 1987, and became the leading broadcast journalist in the region, working in Tel Aviv for more than 20 years. In 1991, he won another OPC Award for reporting of the Gulf War. In 1996 he won one more OPC Award, a Peabody Award and two Emmy Awards for coverage of the assassination of Israeli Prime Minister Yitzhak Rabin. CBS News recieved an RTNDA Overall Excellence in Television Award in 1996 largely because of Simon's reporting from war-torn Sarajevo.

Moving into the 21st century, he was able to get two major interviews for 60 Minutes, including the first Western interview with extremist Iraqi cleric Muqtada al Sadr, and another with his Shiite Muslim rival, the Ayatollah al-Hakim, who was killed shortly after the interview.

Another Peabody Award came in 2000 for "a body of work by an outstanding international journalist on a diverse set of critical global issues." And a Lifetime Achievement Emmy was also awarded to him in 2003.

Simon also lent his skills to CBS's Olympics coverage. For the 1994 Winter Olympics in Lillehammer, Norway, he reported on the failed attempt of Israel's secret intelligence organization, the Mossad, to avenge the attack on Israeli athletes at the 1972 Munich Summer Olympics, for which he won an Emmy.


For the coverage of the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan, he gave a 30-minute report on Louis Zamperini, an American Olympian who survived as a prisoner of war, held by the Japanese during World War II. The story won him a Sports Emmy.

Simon's most-recent piece for 60 Minutes aired this past weekend, his conversation with Ava DuVernay, the director of the Academy Award-nominated film "Selma."

Simon was born on May 29, 1941, in the Bronx, N.Y., and was graduated Phi Beta Kappa from Brandeis University in 1962 with a degree in history. He served as an American Foreign Service officer (1964-67). He was a Fulbright scholar in France and a Woodrow Wilson scholar.

He is survived by his wife, Françoise, and their daughter, Tanya, who is a producer for 60 Minutes.

© 2015 CBS Interactive Inc. All Rights Reserved.

Apple becomes first $700 billion company

By Jennifer Booton
NEW YORK (MarketWatch) - Shares of Apple AAPL, +0.16% closed up 1.9% at a new record high of $122.02 on Tuesday, pushing the iPhone maker's market capitalization above $700 billion for the first time. 

As of Tuesday's close, the Cupertino-based company was valued at $710.8 billion, making Apple the first U.S. company to surpass the $700 billion mark. Apple first traded above $700 billion in intraday trade on Nov. 25, 2014, but this is the first time the stock has closed above it. Since Apple's IPO in December 1980, the company's market value has risen more than 50,600%, with half of that occurring since January 2012, according to Dow Jones Factoids. Apple is now double the size of Microsoft MSFT, -0.05% which is the second-largest U.S. company with a market cap of $347.5 billion.

Another Powerful Storm Threatens New England

Another Powerful Storm Threatens New England « CBS Boston

The Hubble spotted this smiley face in space

By Rachel Feltman 
In the centre of this image, taken with the NASA/ESA Hubble Space Telescope, is the galaxy cluster SDSS J1038+4849 — and it seems to be smiling. (NASA & ESA, acknowledgement to Judy Schmidt)
Pictures of space get a lot of smiles around here, but it's pretty rare for one of them to smile back at us.

This adorable image -- in which the galaxy cluster SDSS J1038+4849 seems to be smiling at the camera -- comes courtesy of the Hubble Space Telescope. It was spotted by Judy Schmidt, who submitted a version of the image to the Hubble's Hidden Treasures image processing competition, where anyone can sift through the Hubble's massive data pools to highlight hitherto ignored sights from the stars.

Our tendency to find faces in inanimate objects is due to a neurological phenomenon called pareidolia. The cause isn't totally clear, but it's probably an evolutionary quirk: Humans are adapted to be really, really good at recognizing human faces as other humans, even when they're new to us or the lighting isn't great. It could be that our brains jump the gun a little and find pseudo facial features where we know there aren't any, leading us to have the unsettling-but-amusing sense that our electric sockets are gaping at us.

In this case, the cosmic "face" is actually caused by a neat galactic phenomenon as well: gravitational lensing. Large galaxy clusters sometimes produce such a strong gravitational pull that they warp the time and space around them. This can be a great thing for scientists on Earth, because that warping can act as a natural "lens" and magnify faraway objects behind the clusters, making them more visible to space telescopes. But the magnification also warps the objects.

The ring that makes up the "face" is called an Einstein Ring, and it's produced by a very particular view of one such warped galactic cluster. Another line of warping forms a lopsided smile.
Inside the ring, two bright galaxies are perfectly positioned as eyes, completing the illusion.
 

‘You have made us the enemy. This is personal.’ — 7 N.Y. Teachers of the Year blast Cuomo

By Valerie Strauss
(AP Photo/Seth Wenig)
Seven New York State Teachers of the Year have written an open letter to Gov. Andrew Cuomo, blasting his new proposed education reforms that, among other things, link half of a teacher’s evaluation to student standardized test scores. Rich Ognibene, 2008 New York State Teacher of the Year, said in an e-mail that he wrote the first draft and six others contributed to the effort because “we were deeply hurt by the governor’s proposed education reforms.”

Writing and signing the letter along with Ognibene are Ashli Dreher, 2014 New York State Teacher of the Year; Katie Ferguson, 2012 New York State Teacher of the Year; Jeff Peneston, 2011 New York State Teacher of the Year; Marguerite Izzo, 2007 New York State Teacher of the Year; Steve Bongiovi, 2006 New York State Teacher of the Year; and Liz Day, 2005 New York State Teacher of the Year. The letter has been published in the Albany Times Union and, with permission from the authors, I am publishing it here.

Dear Governor Cuomo:
We are teachers. We have given our hearts and souls to this noble profession. We have pursued intellectual rigor. We have fed students who were hungry. We have celebrated at student weddings and wept at student funerals. Education is our life. For this, you have made us the enemy. This is personal.

Under your leadership, schools have endured the Gap Elimination Adjustment and the tax cap, which have caused layoffs and draconian budget cuts across the state. Classes are larger and support services are fewer, particularly for our neediest students.

We have also endured a difficult rollout of the Common Core Standards. A reasonable implementation would have started the new standards in kindergarten and advanced those standards one grade at a time. Instead, the new standards were rushed into all grades at once, without any time to see if they were developmentally appropriate or useful.

Then our students were given new tests—of questionable validity—before they had a chance to develop the skills necessary to be successful. These flawed tests reinforced the false narrative that all public schools—and therefore all teachers—are in drastic need of reform. In our many years of teaching, we’ve never found that denigrating others is a useful strategy for improvement.

Now you are doubling down on test scores as a proxy for teacher effectiveness. The state has focused on test scores for years and this approach has proven to be fraught with peril. Testing scandals erupted. Teachers who questioned the validity of tests were given gag orders. Parents in wealthier districts hired test-prep tutors, which exacerbated the achievement gap between rich and poor.

Beyond those concerns, if the state places this much emphasis on test scores who will want to teach our neediest students? Will you assume that the teachers in wealthier districts are highly effective and the teachers in poorer districts are ineffective, simply based on test scores?

Most of us have failed an exam or two along life’s path. From those results, can we conclude that our teachers were ineffective? We understand the value of collecting data, but it must be interpreted wisely. Using test scores as 50 percent of a teacher’s evaluation does not meet this criterion.

Your other proposals are also unlikely to succeed. Merit pay, charter schools and increased scrutiny of teachers won’t work because they fundamentally misdiagnose the problem. It’s not that teachers or schools are horrible. Rather, the problem is that students with an achievement gap also have an income gap, a health-care gap, a housing gap, a family gap and a safety gap, just to name a few. If we truly want to improve educational outcomes, these are the real issues that must be addressed.

Much is right in public education today. We invite you to visit our classrooms and see for yourself. Most teachers, administrators and school board members are doing quality work. Our students and alumni have accomplished great things. Let’s stop the narrative of systemic failure.

Instead, let’s talk about ways to help the kids who are struggling. Let’s talk about addressing the concentration of poverty in our cities. Let’s talk about creating a culture of family so that our weakest students feel emotionally connected to their schools. Let’s talk about fostering collaboration between teachers, administrators and elected officials; it is by working together, not competing for test scores, that we will advance our cause.

None of these suggestions are easily measured with a No. 2 pencil, but they would work. On behalf of teachers across the state we say, these are our kids, we love them, and this is personal.

Ashli Dreher 2014 New York State Teacher of the Year
Katie Ferguson 2012 New York State Teacher of the Year
Jeff Peneston 2011 New York State Teacher of the Year
Rich Ognibene 2008 New York State Teacher of the Year
Marguerite Izzo 2007 New York State Teacher of the Year
Steve Bongiovi 2006 New York State Teacher of the Year
Liz Day 2005 New York State Teacher of the Year

 

Congress probing White House role in FCC chief's net-neutrality plan

By Jim Puzzanghera 
Two congressional committees have launched investigations into whether the White House improperly influenced the net-neutrality proposal released last week by the head of the Federal Communications Commission.

On Monday, Sen. Ron Johnson (R-Wis.) asked FCC Chairman Tom Wheeler in a letter to explain his decision and produce documents related to communications and meetings involving the White House and agency officials concerning the issue.

Johnson, chairman of the Senate Homeland Security and Governmental Affairs Committee, told Wheeler he was concerned that there was “apparent pressure exerted on you and your agency by the White House.”

Last week, Wheeler proposed strict new federal oversight of online traffic to ensure Internet providers don't give preference to video and other content from some websites over others.

Wheeler's plan, circulated to his fellow commissioners ahead of a Feb. 26 vote, is much tougher than what he initially outlined early last year and closely follows the approach President Obama publicly called for in November.

 

“The FCC’s new position on net neutrality is not only a monumental shift from Chairman Wheeler’s original net-neutrality proposal but also a large deviation from the light regulatory touch applied to broadband services since the Clinton administration,” Johnson said in releasing the letter.

“The decision is wrong, and the process raises serious questions about the president's inappropriate influence over what is supposed to be an independent agency that derives its authority from Congress and not the White House,” Johnson said.

His letter follows a similar one sent to Wheeler on Friday by Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-Utah), chairman of the House Oversight and Government Reform Committee.

Most Republicans strongly oppose the FCC's approach, which would put Internet service providers in the same classification as highly regulated telephone companies.

Although the president nominates the chairman and other FCC commissioners, the agency is independent and not supposed to be subject to White House control. Wheeler is a former lobbyist for the cable-TV and wireless industries and was a major fundraiser for Obama, who nominated him to head the FCC in 2013.

Republicans have charged that Obama unduly influenced Wheeler's proposal. Senate Commerce Committee Chairman John Thune (R-S.D.) said Wheeler “succumbed to the bully tactics of political activists and the president himself.”

• @Big Jim Slade One only has to look at the detailed charges on a phone bill to see what the real bottom line is -- endless fees and taxes on the consumer -- and they never go away and they always increase.
  InkandQuill
  at 10:42 AM February 09, 2015

Rep. Fred Upton (R-Mich.), chairman of the House Energy and Commerce Committee, said “the White House needs to get its hands off the FCC.” And Ajit Pai, one of two Republicans on the FCC, has called Wheeler's proposal, “President Obama's plan to regulate the Internet.”

Chaffetz said in a letter dated Friday that he was investigating reports indicating “views expressed by the White House potentially had an improper influence” on development of Wheeler's proposal.

He and Johnson cited a Wall Street Journal article last week that reported that two White House aides led a “secretive effort” to build support from outside groups for tough net-neutrality regulations.

The article did not indicate that the aides, Obama or other White House officials directly pressured Wheeler to take the more aggressive approach.

FCC spokeswoman Kim Hart said the agency had received the letters and was reviewing them. The White House did not immediately respond to a request for comment Monday.

Gigi Sohn, the FCC's special counsel for external affairs, said Friday that Wheeler's position on net-neutrality rules had been evolving before Obama made his public comments.

“I think what the president’s statement did was, rather than force the chairman’s hand, was give him cover to do something he already was thinking about doing,” Sohn said in an appearance on C-Span's 

“The Communicators” series.

Last week, in discussing the new proposal, senior FCC officials said Wheeler had decided last summer that his original approach wouldn't work and that it was possible to classify Internet service as a public utility yet exempt companies from most utility-related rules, much as the agency has done 
with wireless service.

Johnson asked Wheeler if the FCC was “aware of the 'unusual, secretive effort inside the White House' relating to net neutrality.”

He and Chaffetz asked for “all documents and communications” between the FCC and the White House regarding the net-neutrality rules. Both chairmen want the documents before the Feb. 26 vote.

Military Upset Susan Rice Telling Generals How To Fight

by Pam Key
Sunday on Fox News Channel’s “Fox News Sunday,” veteran journalist Bob Woodward said people in the military are complaining to him that the Obama administration has no strategy to defeat ISIS other then having people like Susan Rice “micromanage” military responses.

Woodward said, “If you talk to people in the White House and the military, I think there’s agreement and John McCain is right and General Flynn is right, there is no strategy. They have not sat down and said this is where we want to go and this is how we want to do it. And the measure of that, when you head into the weeds here, people from the White House are micromanaging the tactical situation on a daily and weekly basis. That’s not their job. They have to kind of do strategic planning and say what do we want to accomplish in the next year.”

When host Chris Wallace asked, “Wait a minute, are you saying that — forgive me, Susan Rice, is telling the generals what to do?” Woodard confirmed it by saying, “And they have got all these people in the White House. You talk to people in the military who are there and they say ‘we are being micromanaged and we’re not given a real plan to say what are we going to do here.’ And it’s not the way to run a war or try to win a war.”
Follow Pam Key on Twitter @pamkeyNEN