Supreme Court considers whether strip search violated 13-year-old girl’s rights

WASHINGTON - Savana Redding still thinks about the embarrassment she felt six years ago when she was 13 years old and school officials strip searched her, looking for drugs.

The lawsuit stemming from the search made its way to the Supreme Court on Tuesday. The justices heard about how two female school officials searched the eighth-grade honors student at Safford Middle School in Safford, Ariz., after finding nothing in her backpack.

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Value of college financial aid programs debated

WASHINGTON - Andrew Martin is one college graduate who has yet to see a return on his investment in higher education.

Martin, 24, of Austin, Texas, who describes himself as "a college graduate who often wonders why I went," said the cost of his college education was "drastically higher than the benefit."

He graduated from George Washington University in 2006 with a bachelor's degree in international affairs and Latin American studies. He has been unemployed since August.

Martin attended a briefing on Capitol Hill Tuesday sponsored by the Cato Institute on the state of federal financial aid and some of President Obama's postsecondary education policy proposals.

Andrew Gillen, research director for the Center for College Affordability and Productivity, and Neal McCluskey, associate director of the Cato Institute's Center for Educational Freedom, discussed the "ineffectiveness" of the federal financial aid system and the costs of college compared to its benefits.

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Lingering spilled oil in Alaska’s Prince William Sound affects aquatic life, residents

WASHINGTON - Scientists say oil still lingers in Alaska's waters, affecting aquatic life and the local community that depend on it 20 years after Exxon Valdez oil spill.
Oil has persisted on some Prince William Sound beaches since 1989, when the Exxon Valdez oil tanker hit a reef March 24, 1989, releasing 10.8 million barrels of crude oil and killing hundreds of thousands of animals.
"Every time it happens, it makes people who depend on subsistence in the area very nervous about the safety of their food supply," said Jeffrey Short, Pacific science director for Oceana, an international ocean protection group. "It's very difficult to overcome that suspicion and that has a big cultural impact - it has just clobbered the community there."

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Disneynature's "earth"

Disneynature's new film "earth" gives an intimate look at animal life, to open in theaters April 22, Earth Day. The movie was screened at Washington's E Street Cinema last night.