Several editorials about HB 2564, the Abortion Consent Act, unfortunately fail to recognize the problems with our abortion statutes and misrepresent the solutions the bill proposes.

As the prime sponsor of the legislation, I appreciate the chance to address both issues.

Women in Arizona lack informed consent when seeking an abortion.

It is standard practice for a patient to receive complete and accurate information before agreeing to virtually any other invasive medical procedure, including the information required in this bill: alternatives, risks and time to consider the options before undergoing the surgery.

All except for abortion.

Because of the nature of abortion, women are more vulnerable to being taken advantage of, routinely denied one-on-one counseling and often rushed into making the decision without the advantage of full and accurate information.

Waiting periods protect women from being pressured by individuals who may not have women’s best interests in mind.

Some claim a 24-hour reflection period presents an undue burden for women. Why should abortion be singled out as an undue burden when it is standard practice for every other surgery – even for women residing in rural areas?

Furthermore, the courts have held that 24 hours is not an undue burden. The informed consent features in HB 2564 will enhance the standard of care a woman seeking an abortion receives – a goal everyone should be able to agree is laudable.

These requirements will not in any way deny a woman the right to an abortion. So why do critics of HB 2564 believe women should not be fully informed before making such a monumental decision, which can have serious physical and emotional consequences?

The second problem HB 2564 solves is parental consent.

Editorial writers are correct in stating current Arizona statute requires a minor seeking an abortion to obtain a parent’s consent. But loopholes render the laws virtually unenforceable.

This bill simply requires a parent’s notarized signature – ensuring parents have a meaningful opportunity to give consent before an abortion is performed on their daughter, while still allowing an option for minors who are in abusive parental situations.

Parental consent laws are widely accepted and promote the parent-child relationship.

Third, the bill updates important civil rights protections for medical professionals.

Rights of conscience have always been an integral part of abortion statutes, allowing medical professionals to opt out of providing abortions.

But medical advances require we update these protections to include abortion medication, since these present a moral dilemma to some who do not wish to participate in causing the abortion of a child.

This protection will not prevent a woman from obtaining a morning after pill, as Plan B is readily available over the Internet, through the mail and even over the counter!

Respecting the right not to sell specific drugs causing the abortion of a child doesn’t impose an ideology on anyone, but forcing a pharmacist to sell them does.

Finally, the bill addresses nonphysicians performing surgical abortions.

The abortion procedure may not be new, but it still presents substantial risks to the female body, and serious complications occasionally arise. The Abortion Consent Act makes certain that only a licensed physician may perform the procedure, so women undergoing an abortion are not put at risk in Arizona.

HB 2564 does not address prevention. Preventing unwanted pregnancy is certainly an issue, but denying the existence of real problems with our current abortion statutes and not taking action to correct them is irresponsible.

The fact this bill passed the House of Representatives with bipartisan support (36-19) should be some indication of its common-sense nature.

This bill has a woman’s best interest in mind, by equipping her with the information to make a better-informed decision. If a woman is serious about having an abortion, she can have one. But it is neither radical nor draconian to give women accurate medical information about the choices they make.

Nancy Barto is a Republican state representative for District 7 in Phoenix.

Parent of Skrappy’s likely to get lease on downtown space

The parent organization of the Skrappy’s youth club is expected to get the lease for the warehouse at 191 E. Toole Ave. now held by the Museum of Contemporary Art.

Skrappy’s, which provides a drug- and alcohol-free environment for youths to socialize and take part in arts programs, moved into the warehouse March 3 with a right of entry giving the group limited occupancy of 49 people.

Tuesday, the City Council will consider terminating MOCA’s lease and approving a renewable three-month lease with Our Family Services, Skrappy’s nonprofit parent.

The lease terms are similar to MOCA’s, where the museum paid $1 per year and was responsible for all expenses with the building. Our Family Services will pay $1 for the three-month term, according to the lease document.

Skrappy’s move to Toole was a collaboration among Our Family, MOCA, the city and developer Jim Campbell, who is committing $250,000 over five years to do necessary structural work. Campbell plans to install a back door in the next 90 days.

The lack of a back door limits Skrappy’s occupancy now and also caused MOCA to abandon the warehouse for exhibition space in 2006. After the door is installed, Campbell plans to add a sprinkler system.

“We’re getting the building prepared to run workshops,” said Victor Quiros, community services manager for Our Family.

In the meantime, Tucson Youth Collective, a group of former Skrappy’s youths from a decade ago, has applied for Internal Revenue Code 501(c)3 nonprofit status to acquire the club from Our Family, which has operated Skrappy’s since 2000. The club was started in 1996.

“Once they get (nonprofit status),” Quiros said, “we will let them take on the Skrappy’s project.”

Catalina HS project lets immigrants share their pasts & cultures

"Mexico has that spice and heat that makes you feel like home." Christian Ledezma, Catalina student

Some fled the ravages of war and political persecution. Others came for a chance at a life free from poverty and discrimination. These refugee and immigrant children ended up in the heart of Tucson, at Catalina Magnet High School, 3645 E. Pima St.

They tell their stories of struggle and survival through “A New Country, A New Life: Tucson Teens Share Their Experiences with War and Immigration,” created through Catalina’s Finding Voice Project.

“When I was in India, I used to go door to door with a bowl begging for food, but was often turned away with a grumbling stomach,” Catalina senior Mariana Madden, 19, wrote.

“I myself lost a parent. It was a death which no child should see – a sick, graphic, horrible death,” she continued. “After many years of waiting to be adopted, I finally came to America. There was no one who spoke my language.

“Things changed when I came to Catalina Magnet High School. I started to reveal myself and open the doors I had shut for many years.”

Madden’s writing is part of a poster project created last year through Finding Voice. Nineteen of the posters will be shown through April 29 in storefront windows at One North Fifth apartments, 1 N. Fifth Ave.

Students wrote of experiences with war, poverty and violence in their home countries, and shared their stories of immigration.

They worked in teams to create photographic portraits that reflect their lives, experiences and dreams.

Some are working with the Tucson Pima Arts Council to document the impact their art has on the public. It is one of three projects in Americans for the Arts’ “Animating Democracy” Art and Civic Engagement Impact Initiative. Others projects are in New York and Los Angeles.

Finding Voice is a literary and visual arts program, led by teacher Julie Kasper and photographer- educator Josh Schachter. It is funded by the Every Voice in Action Foundation and Tucson Pima Arts Council.

It was established in 2006 to help refugee and immigrant youth at Catalina develop literacy skills by researching, photographing, writing and speaking about social issues.

About 40 Catalina students are participating in the project this year. Most have been in the U.S. less than five years. One arrived seven months ago.

“Dreams and Change” is the topic students selected this year. Some are creating digital stories. Others are making a film. One is organizing a conference on immigrant rights.

Kasper said the class is “a small United Nations.”

“They bring so many experiences with them,” she said. “It’s painful experience but it will help them to be more open minded and make a difference in this world.”

Schachter said the art produced “has been like unwrapping a gift.”

“They not only discovered themselves, they are helping Tucsonans discover a Tucson they might otherwise not see,” he said.

Tam Le, 18, is making a movie about racism. He left Vietnam last year to help care for his grandparents here.

“I miss my friends, my country, my traditions,” he said. “People in my neighborhood stay in their houses and don’t talk to anyone. I think they don’t want to talk to refugees and immigrants.”

Patience Gelee, 17, moved here from Liberia. “People were dying because of the war. My mother wanted a better life for her children.”

She was happy to come to the U.S. “I was coming here to achieve my dream to become a doctor.”

Vianey Valenzuela, 15, and her family moved here from Sonora. They are working toward becoming citizens.

“People should have an opportunity to get the American dream of better jobs and a better life,” she said.

Suleiman Siddiqi, 16, and his family settled here a year ago through the International Rescue Committee. Before he was born, his family fled Afghanistan for India.

“It’s horrible,” he said. “I haven’t seen my grandfather or grandmother or aunts and uncles and cousins. I cannot go back to my country.”

He hopes his words and photos will make an impact.

“I hope, if people listen, if they listen to my voice, it will prove the American dream is alive.”

———

IF YOU GO

What: Display of posters in Finding Voice Project’s “A New Country, A New Life: Tucson Teens Share Their Experiences with War and Immigration”

When: daily through April 29

Where: storefront windows at One North Fifth, 1 N. Fifth Ave.

Other photos and artwork are part of Tucson Youth Week’s “ARTivism Youth Art and Engagement” exhibit at Rocket Gallery, 270 E. Congress St., open through April 29; 4 to 6 p.m.Tuesdays through Fridays and 11 a.m. to 2 p.m. Saturdays

Price: free

Info: findingvoiceproject.org; tucsonpimaartscouncil.org; tucsonyouthweek.com

CHICAGO – An influential government-appointed medical panel is urging doctors to routinely screen all American teens for depression – a bold step that acknowledges that nearly 2 million teens are affected by this debilitating condition.

Most are undiagnosed and untreated, said the panel, the U.S. Preventive Services Task Force, which sets guidelines for doctors on health issues.

The task force recommendations appear in April’s issue of the journal Pediatrics. And they go further than the American Academy of Pediatrics’ own guidance for teen depression screening.

An estimated 6 percent of American teenagers are clinically depressed. Evidence shows that detailed but simple questionnaires can accurately diagnose depression in primary-care settings such as a pediatrician’s office.

The task force said that when followed by treatment, including psychotherapy, screening can help improve symptoms and help kids cope. Because depression can lead to persistent sadness, social isolation, school problems and even suicide, screening to treat it early is crucial, the panel said.

The task force is an independent panel of experts convened by the federal government to establish guidelines for treatment in primary-care.

Because depression is so common, “you will miss a lot if you only screen high-risk groups,” said Dr. Ned Calonge, task force chairman and chief medical officer for Colorado’s Department of Public Health and Environment.

NEW YORK – The Food and Drug Administration let politics cloud its judgment when it denied teenage girls over-the-counter access to the Plan B morning-after pill, a federal judge said Monday as he ordered the FDA to let 17-year-olds obtain the medication.

U.S. District Judge Edward Korman blasted the FDA’s handling of the issue during the Bush administration, saying it had “repeatedly and unreasonably” delayed issuing a decision on the medication, marketed by Montvale, N.J.-based Barr Pharmaceuticals Inc. as Plan B.

Korman’s ruling said the FDA in several instances had delayed issuing a ruling for suspect reasons and on two occasions took action only to facilitate the confirmation of acting FDA commissioners whose confirmations had been held up by the repeated delays.

“These political considerations, delays, and implausible justifications for decision-making are not the only evidence of a lack of good faith and reasoned decision-making,” Korman said. “Indeed, the record is clear that the FDA’s course of conduct regarding Plan B departed in significant ways from the agency’s normal procedures regarding similar applications to switch a drug product from prescription to non-prescription use.”

He said the FDA’s denial of nonprescription access without age restriction went against the recommendation of a committee of experts it had created to advise it on Plan B.

“And the commissioner — at the behest of political actors — decided to deny non-prescription access to women 16 and younger before FDA scientific review staff had completed their reviews,” Korman wrote.

Korman ordered the FDA to permit Barr Pharmaceuticals, which was bought by Israel-based Teva Pharmaceutical Industries Ltd. late last year, to make Plan B available to 17-year-olds without a prescription under the same conditions as Plan B is now available to women over the age of 18. He said his order must be complied with within 30 days.

The ruling came in a lawsuit brought by individuals and organizations advocating for wider distribution and access to emergency contraceptives, as well as parents and their minor children seeking access.

The lawsuit was filed in 2005 by the Center for Reproductive Rights and others after the FDA denied a petition asking it to make Plan B available without a prescription to women of all ages.

“Today’s ruling is a tremendous victory for all Americans who expect the government to safeguard public health,” said Nancy Northup, president of the center.

Assistant U.S. Attorney F. Franklin Amanat, who argued the case for the government, said: “We’re studying the decision and evaluating options.”

“We need to discuss it with the agency and figure out what our next steps will be,” he said.

The government in court papers has said politics played no role in the agency’s decisions.

Plan B reduces the chance of pregnancy if taken within three days after sex. It works by preventing ovulation or fertilization and interfering with implantation of a fertilized egg, which some people consider the equivalent of abortion.

In 2006, the FDA allowed Plan B to be sold without a prescription to adults, but only by pharmacies that checked photo ID before selling the pills. Girls 17 and younger were required to obtain a prescription.

TEMPE – The Arizona Board of Regents voted unanimously Friday against a proposal to eliminate the AIMS scholarship program, which provides tuition waivers to high school students who exceed standards on the test.

The board rarely denies requests from university presidents, but it did so by voting against the proposal. University of Arizona President Robert N. Shelton and Arizona State University President Michael Crow sought to discontinue the scholarship beginning in 2010 because of tighter budgets resulting from state cuts to the university system.

ASU, UA and Northern Arizona University spent more than $27.5 million total in 2008 on the scholarships for 5,544 students, according to regents’ figures. University leaders have said the vast majority of those students would qualify for other scholarships.

Friday’s vote assures high school upper-class students who meet AIMS scholarship requirements that they will receive funding for the time being. The regents could vote to eliminate it at a later date.

Regents asked university leaders to present options regarding the future of the AIMS scholarship – formally titled the Regents High Honors Endorsement Scholarship – to the Academic Affairs Committee in April.

Threat of its elimination and heated debate drove Regent Ernest Calderon to propose an amendment that would guarantee the scholarship for current sophomores, juniors and seniors regardless of future board decisions.

The vote on that amendment was a tie, with Calderon supported by regents David Martinez, III, Robert Bulla, LuAnn Leonard and Tom Horne, state superintendent of public instruction.

Regents Fred DuVal, Fred Boice, Dennis DeConcini, Bob McLendon and Anne Mariucci voted against the amendment.

Because the vote ended in a tie, the amendment died.

“If there are cuts to be made, this is not the area to make the cut,” Calderon said. “Preservation of the AIMS scholarship is paramount. I don’t know if anyone understands the amount of angst and anxiety among our high school students since the announcement. When you take away someone’s hope that is one of the cruelest things that can happen.”

Crow said that the universities aren’t taking away hope because other scholarships are available and “the AIMS students are not the highest performers based on objective measures.”

Horne took issue with that, pointing to data provided by the universities that in the 2007-08 academic year, the average GPA for AIMS scholarship students was 3.56 while the average GPA for students receiving other merit awards was 3.40.

NAU President John Haeger argued for a “wait and see” attitude toward the AIMs scholarship, saying one of the most intractable problems universities have is retaining students to the sophomore year and beyond.

“Of the AIMS students who came in 2007, the retention rate was 86.6 percent while the general retention rate is somewhere in the high 60s,” he said. “We’ve created a group of students who succeed in college, whether they succeed at the highest level (or not). And remember, these are Arizona students we are bringing into college.”

“It’s About Time” is the name of the Tucson Youth Leadership Summit set for Saturday at Desert View High School.

The finaugural summit, put together by Tucsonan Ron Blackmon, will run from 8:30 a.m. to 4:30 p.m. at the school, 4101 E. Valencia Road, according to Blackmon.

The summit is free and will give attendees the chance to network with a number of local agencies as well as participate in pertinent discussions with panels of their peers.

Topics include teen homelessness, domestic and dating violence and overall life management. For more information, call 545-5100 or go to desertviewhighschool.org.

The Arizona Interscholastic Association and Cox Communications are looking for a few Everyday Heroes who promote character building through interscholastic sports.

Nominations are being taken for coach, official, administrator, AIA student, scholar-athlete and scholar-activity participant of the year. Cox’s Technology in Education and Blue Cup awards will also be given May 23 at the seventh Everyday Heroes award show in Phoenix.

The awards are aimed at those who promote interscholastic achievement, sportsmanship and healthy lifestyles, according to a Cox news release.

“Each year we receive more entries than ever before and are in awe of the incredible ways that these role models contribute to our communities,” Cox Vice President Lisa Lovello said in the release.

The nomination deadline is Friday for athletes and March 6 for coaches and administrators. For more information or to download nomination forms, see the AIA Web site at www.aiaonline.org.

Expecting all teenagers to remain abstinent “is not realistic at all.”

Don’t yell at me if you don’t like the message. I’m quoting Bristol Palin, who became the poster girl for teen parenthood last year, perhaps unfairly, when her mother’s vice presidential candidacy thrust the Palin family and Bristol’s pregnancy into the national limelight.

Earlier this week, Palin, 18, gave her first interview since the birth of baby boy Tripp Johnston on Dec. 27.

The unwed mother seemed sincere and unscripted when she told Fox News interviewer Greta Van Susteren that she wants to be an advocate for teen pregnancy prevention. But since she wouldn’t even discuss birth control, it’s not clear how effective she’ll be.

And that in a nutshell describes the whole problem with the abstinence-only sex education programs promoted by the federal government under former President George W. Bush and other social conservatives, including Bristol’s mom, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin.

Teenagers are having sex but they aren’t being taught what they need to know to protect themselves.

Meanwhile, back on the ranch in Arizona, state Rep. Kyrsten Sinema, D-Phoenix, is sponsoring a sex education bill that will never see the light of day.

Earlier this month, just as state Rep. Nancy Barto, R-Phoenix, filed a sweeping anti-abortion bill that would hamper women’s access to reproductive health care, Sinema quietly filed House Bill 2544.

The bill would mandate that if sex education is taught in a public school, the program must be medically accurate and comprehensive. “Comprehensive” means teaching about abstinence, contraception, disease prevention and human development, as well as relationships, and decision-making.

Parents who object could have their child excused from the classroom.

“I introduced it knowing it probably wouldn’t get a hearing because I think it’s important for us, during this time of attacks on a woman’s ability to make these important life decisions, that we also talk about the prevention aspect of this,” Sinema said. “One of the best ways to prevent unwanted pregnancies is to ensure that people have the information they need to make informed decisions about their lives.”

Abstinence clearly prevents pregnancy and STDs. But the research just doesn’t back up abstinence-only education as a way of preventing teenage sex.

In late 2007, the nonpartisan National Campaign to Prevent Teen and Unplanned Pregnancy released a report on the quality of sex education in the United States. Researchers reviewed the scientific evaluations of 115 sex ed programs of both the abstinence-only and comprehensive (addressing both abstinence and contraceptives use) variety.

Two-thirds of the comprehensive sex ed programs showed a positive effect on teen sexual behavior, either delaying the initiation of sex or increasing the use of contraceptives, or both. And debunking the myth that such programs encourage teens to become sexually active, there was no evidence that any of the programs hastened the initiation of sex or increased the frequency of it. Even making condoms available at school clinics didn’t make teenagers more likely to have sex.

The researchers found that the most effective programs send clear and consistent messages about sex and contraceptive use. They talk explicitly about sex and contraceptives, identify specific situations that might lead to unwanted or unprotected sex, and involve practicing saying no to sex or insisting on contraceptive use.

Regarding abstinence-only programs, the researchers found that very few of the programs that receive millions in federal dollars have been subject to a rigorous scientific evaluation of their effectiveness. Of those that have, there’s no strong evidence that the programs delay the initiation of sex, lead sexually active teens to return to abstinence or reduce a teen’s number of sexual partners.

Despite the lack of evidence for it, the federal government has cold-shouldered comprehensive sex ed and primarily funded abstinence-only sex ed since 1996. States that want the money get it by providing matching funds that also are restricted to abstinence-only programs. Arizona became the 16th state to reject the federal money in January 2008 after spending millions on abstinence-only eduction.

Sinema’s bill isn’t going anywhere in a Legislature dominated by social conservatives. In fact, Barto chairs the health and humans services committee that would have to hear it.

But this issue isn’t going away just because we refuse to address it honestly.

Arizona has the fifth highest teen-birth rate in the nation. Clearly, what we’re doing now isn’t working.

Anne T. Denogean can be reached at 573-4582 and adenogean@tucsoncitizen.com. Address letters to P.O. Box 26767, Tucson, AZ 85726-6767.

Sex crimes are among the most abhorrent. They can shatter security, damage trust and invade a victim’s core being. Rapists and pedophiles deserve tough sentences and treatment. If that doesn’t reform them, they should be kept away from society.

It’s unfortunate, then, that, in their quest to crack down on sex offenses, prosecutors and legislators are going off on pointless tangents that risk trivializing them.

Ask the young man who was a 17-year-old Sioux City, Iowa, high school student last year when he shot a racy 10-second video of himself and a girlfriend on his cell phone. At age 18, he texted it to a friend. Evidently he had his pants down, making visible his private parts.

It was a careless, immature thing to do – though maybe not so surprising in a culture that seems to prolong adolescence and encourages everyone to broadcast their most private thoughts and actions. But it’s doubtful the kid thought he’d be prosecuted for a sex crime.

Charged, as an adult, with telephone dissemination of obscene material to a minor (the friend was 17), he was looking at two years in jail and 10 years on the sex-offender registry, if convicted. That would have barred him, as he set off for college, from living in any public Iowa college dorm.

That’s absurd. In effect, laws intended to prevent adults from preying sexually on children are now being used to prosecute the kids themselves.

The practice of “sexting” – youth texting revealing pictures of themselves – is increasingly being prosecuted as child pornography or other felonies, the Associated Press reported, with cases in Indiana, Ohio and Pennsylvania. Mischievous teen behavior is criminalized, youth are forever stigmatized, and the meaning of sex crimes is diminished.

The Iowa kid was lucky. He got to take a plea bargain, sparing him the draconian consequences of being branded a sex offender. But not before his family had spent $50,000 defending him.

One person who’s outraged is David Coster, a Grinnell, Iowa, surgeon. He’s been contacting lawmakers to persuade them to change the law. Exploring burgeoning sexuality, says Coster, is an inherent part of teen development: “To now criminalize it is one of the most frightening things I’ve ever heard.”

Weren’t those making these decisions ever kids themselves? Did they ever show a Playboy to a friend?

Of course lurid pictures shouldn’t be sent to unsuspecting young people who don’t welcome them. But surely that can be handled with more appropriate discipline.

The overreaction isn’t limited to sexting and teens. Iowa’s sex-offender residency law also doesn’t differentiate between pedophiles and pranksters in forbidding registered sex offenders from living within 2,000 feet of schools or child-care centers.

Even advocates for sexual-assault victims have opposed it for its unintended consequences. One Iowa man on the registry was 19 when he exposed himself at a party in the presence of a 13-year-old, among others. A decade later, though he had completed his sentence and probation, married and had kids, the law forced him to live an hour from his job.

It’s time for lawmakers, prosecutors and courts to take a deep breath and seriously consider where they’re headed here. Criminalizing youthful indiscretions and forcing ex-convicts into homelessness isn’t going to make society safer.

Let’s return to common sense, weigh each case separately and save the harshest provisions for the most hopeless, egregious offenders.

Rekha Basu is an editorial columnist for the Des Moines Register. E-mail: rbasu@dmreg.com.

WILKES-BARRE, Pa. – For years, the juvenile court system in Wilkes-Barre operated like a conveyor belt: Youngsters were brought before judges without a lawyer, given hearings that lasted only a minute or two, and then sent off to juvenile prison for months for minor offenses.

The explanation, prosecutors say, was corruption on the bench.

In one of the most shocking cases of courtroom graft on record, two Pennsylvania judges have been charged with taking millions of dollars in kickbacks to send teenagers to two privately run youth detention centers.

“I’ve never encountered, and I don’t think that we will in our lifetimes, a case where literally thousands of kids’ lives were just tossed aside in order for a couple of judges to make some money,” said Marsha Levick, an attorney with the Philadelphia-based Juvenile Law Center, which is representing hundreds of youths sentenced in Wilkes-Barre.

Prosecutors say Luzerne County Judges Mark Ciavarella and Michael Conahan took $2.6 million in payoffs to put juvenile offenders in lockups run by PA Child Care LLC and a sister company, Western PA Child Care LLC. The judges were charged on Jan. 26 and removed from the bench by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court shortly afterward.

No company officials have been charged, but the investigation is still going on.

The high court, meanwhile, is looking into whether hundreds or even thousands of sentences should be overturned and the juveniles’ records expunged.

Among the offenders were teenagers who were locked up for months for stealing loose change from cars, writing a prank note and possessing drug paraphernalia. Many had never been in trouble before. Some were imprisoned even after probation officers recommended against it.

Many appeared without lawyers, despite the U.S. Supreme Court’s landmark 1967 ruling that children have a constitutional right to counsel.

The judges are scheduled to plead guilty to fraud Thursday in federal court. Their plea agreements call for sentences of more than seven years behind bars.

Ciavarella, 58, who presided over Luzerne County’s juvenile court for 12 years, acknowledged last week in a letter to his former colleagues, “I have disgraced my judgeship. My actions have destroyed everything I worked to accomplish and I have only myself to blame.” Ciavarella, though, has denied he got kickbacks for sending youths to prison.

Conahan, 56, has remained silent about the case.

Many Pennsylvania counties contract with privately run juvenile detention centers, paying them either a fixed overall fee or a certain amount per youth, per day.

In Luzerne County, prosecutors say, Conahan shut down the county-run juvenile prison in 2002 and helped the two companies secure rich contracts worth tens of millions of dollars, at least some of that dependent on how many juveniles were locked up.

One of the contracts — a 20-year agreement with PA Child Care worth an estimated $58 million — was later canceled by the county as exorbitant.

The judges are accused of taking payoffs between 2003 and 2006.

Robert J. Powell co-owned PA Child Care and Western PA Child Care until June. His attorney, Mark Sheppard, said his client was the victim of an extortion scheme.

“Bob Powell never solicited a nickel from these judges and really was a victim of their demands,” he said. “These judges made it very plain to Mr. Powell that he was going to be required to pay certain monies.”

For years, youth advocacy groups complained that Ciavarella was ridiculously harsh and ran roughshod over youngsters’ constitutional rights. Ciavarella sent a quarter of his juvenile defendants to detention centers from 2002 to 2006, compared with a statewide rate of one in 10.

The criminal charges confirmed the advocacy groups’ worst suspicions and have called into question all the sentences he pronounced.

Hillary Transue did not have an attorney, nor was she told of her right to one, when she appeared in Ciavarella’s courtroom in 2007 for building a MySpace page that lampooned her assistant principal.

Her mother, Laurene Transue, worked for 16 years in the child services department of another county and said she was certain Hillary would get a slap on the wrist. Instead, Ciavarella sentenced her to three months; she got out after a month, with help from a lawyer.

“I felt so disgraced for a while, like, what do people think of me now?” said Hillary, now 17 and a high school senior who plans to become an English teacher.

Laurene Transue said Ciavarella “was playing God. And not only was he doing that, he was getting money for it. He was betraying the trust put in him to do what is best for children.”

Kurt Kruger, now 22, had never been in trouble with the law until the day police accused him of acting as a lookout while his friend shoplifted less than $200 worth of DVDs from Wal-Mart. He said he didn’t know his friend was going to steal anything.

Kruger pleaded guilty before Ciavarella and spent three days in a company-run juvenile detention center, plus four months at a youth wilderness camp run by a different operator.

“Never in a million years did I think that I would actually get sent away. I was completely destroyed,” said Kruger, who later dropped out of school. He said he wants to get his record expunged, earn his high school equivalency diploma and go to college.

“I got a raw deal, and yeah, it’s not fair,” he said, “but now it’s 100 times bigger than me.”

By Michael Rubinkam, Maryclaire Dale

Scrappy's was founded in 1996 and had become a popular place for teens.

Skrappy’s, a club for teens, will be revived in its third downtown incarnation, possibly as early as next week.

Skrappy’s will become a neighbor and collaborator with the Museum of Contemporary Art.

It will occupy the white warehouse at 191 E. Toole Ave. adjoining the blue warehouse occupied by MOCA offices and artists in residents. MOCA leases both warehouses from the city.

“For now, it will be the after-school program we’ve done in the past,” said Victor Quiros, community services manager for Our Family Services. The nonprofit offers the Skrappy’s program, which gives youths a chance to socialize and enjoy the arts in a drug- and alcohol-free environment.

Occupancy will be limited to 49 people in a portion of the building until the warehouse is brought up to building code.

“We’re looking at the possibility of turning it into a permanent location,” Quiros said. “It’s hard to tell at this time (when Skrappy’s can fully occupy the warehouse).”

The new Skrappy’s home came about because of a pledge by the Downtown Tucson Development Corp. as it seeks a 20-year development agreement with the city to redevelop up to 75 acres in the eastern portions of downtown stretching from Sixth Street to Armory Park.

The company pledged $250,000 to Skrappy’s over five years in rent abatement or space improvement.

“We have found the location (for Skrappy’s) and we’re spending $50,000 this year to fix up that space,” said Jim Campbell, the company’s manager.

Kids at Skrappy’s will interact with the 26 MOCA artists in residence next door, said Anne-Marie Russell, MOCA’s executive director.

Skrappy’s, founded in 1996, had become a popular youth facility, especially with the concerts staged at its longtime home in the former Continental Trailways bus depot, 201 E. Broadway. But Skrappy’s has operated in scaled-down fashion or not at all since its eviction from the former Broadway Volvo dealership building at the end of July 2007.

PHOENIX – The new interim director of the Arizona Department of Health Services has revived a series of tobacco-prevention TV ads aimed at teenagers.

The 30-second spots, which target 12- to 17-year-olds, will begin to air Friday on cable channels popular with teens such as MTV, Comedy Central and BET. The ads play eerie music and show a creepy monster that personifies addiction and control.

The former acting director of the state health department pulled the plug on the three ads late last year, saying she questioned their cost-effectiveness, even after spending $900,000 on developing the commercials.

But the new interim director, Will Humble, said he believes the spots will work.

“This youth-tobacco campaign hits at one of the two primary problems we face as Arizonans: tobacco use and obesity,” he said. “It’s a good, effective campaign that’s been tested by focus groups.”

The ads drive viewers to an interactive Web site, venomocity.com, which includes more information about the dangers of smoking. That site goes live Feb. 16.

State and county public-health workers are delivering the same message at schools as part of the campaign.

“What we discovered in our focus groups is that youth don’t pick up the addiction (aspect) of tobacco,” said Wayne Tormala, chief of the state’s Bureau of Tobacco Education and Prevention. “Most youth . . . think, ‘Well, even if I start smoking now, I’ll quit by the time I get out of high school.’ They just don’t pick up on the control that nicotine has.”

The ads are produced by Phoenix advertising and public-relations firm Riester and are part of a larger $7 million anti-tobacco effort developed by health officials and endorsed by former Gov. Janet Napolitano’s office.

When the ads didn’t run on the planned debut date of Nov. 20, health advocates questioned if the decision was more about public relations than public health, given the state’s dire budget shortfall.

January Contreras, former head of the Health Department, thought airing the ads on the Internet only would be more effective.

Funding for the ads comes from tobacco taxes approved by voters and specifically set aside for anti-smoking efforts, and therefore could not be used, for example, toward the state’s general fund.

A small but growing percentage of high school students have passed at least one college-level course before they graduate, but participation and pass rates among some minority groups remain disproportionately low, a report says.

Black, Latino and American Indian students, in particular “are not yet always receiving adequate preparation for the rigors of college,” says Trevor Packer, vice president of the Advanced Placement program, administered by the non-profit College Board.

The group, which released the report Wednesday, has been holding up its AP program as a national measure of academic rigor. Course content must be approved by the AP program. Students who score a 3 or higher (on a 1-5 scale) on a standardized test administered nationally can receive college credit.

The report singled out 16 schools as leaders in helping black and/or Latino students succeed in particular AP subjects. They’re located in eight states: California, Florida, Georgia, Illinois, Maryland, Michigan, Tennessee and Texas.

Packer said a state-by-state assessment suggests that performance improves when state policymakers provide incentives that encourage schools to make AP part of their curriculum:

• Maryland achieved the highest percentage (23.4 percent) of students scoring at least a 3.

• Maine had the largest single-year increase in high school graduates who scored a 3 or higher.

• Vermont, Maine, Maryland, Arkansas, Washington and Oregon had the highest five-year gains.

• Maryland, New York, Virginia, Connecticut, Massachusetts and California saw more than 20 percent of students graduate from high school earning at least one score of 3 or higher.

• Alabama has seen the largest five-year increase in black students scoring a 3 or higher.

• In no state did black students pass exams at a rate proportionate to their representation in their graduating class. Latinos achieved a proportionate rate in 18 states; American Indians, in 16.

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ON THE WEB

More report details: http://www.collegeboard.com/

The prepubescent children of days gone by have given way to a cooler kid — the tween — who aspires to teenhood but is not quite there yet.

Tweens are in-between — generally the 8-to-12 set. The U.S. Census estimates that in 2009, tweens are approximately 20 million strong and projected to hit almost 23 million by 2020.

Among them now are Malia Obama, at 10 already a tween, and sister Sasha, who turns 8 this year. With the Obama daughters in the White House, the nation’s attention will focus even more on this emerging group — and the new First Tweens will likely be high-profile representatives of their generation.

“My daughter is really excited that there’s a girl in the White House the same age she is,” says Courtney Pineau, 31, of Bellingham, Wash., mom of fifth-grader Sophia, age 10.

Retailers know tweens are a hot market for clothes, music and entertainment. But now psychologists and behavioral researchers are beginning to study tweens, too. They say tweens are a complicated lot, still forming their personalities, and are torn between family and BFFs (best friends forever), between fitting in and learning how to be an individual.

Tweens have “their own sense of fashion in a way we didn’t have before and their own parts of the popular culture targeted toward them,” says child and adolescent psychologist Dave Verhaagen of Charlotte. How will this shape their personalities? “Time will tell, we don’t know.”

Research has shown that middle school is where some troubles, particularly academic, first appear. Also, a 2007 review of surveys in the journal Prevention Science found that the percentage of children who use alcohol doubles between grades four and six, with the largest jump between fifth and sixth grades.

“They’re kids for a shorter period of time,” adds psychologist Frank Gaskill, who also works with tweens in Charlotte. “More is expected of them academically, responsibility-wise.”

Many parents, including Beth Harpaz, 48, of Brooklyn, are well aware of this short-lived time. Her older son is 16 and a high school junior; her younger son is 11 and in fifth grade.

“I’m trying really hard to save his childhood. I want him to enjoy little-boy things and don’t want him to feel that he has to put on that big hoodie and wear the $100 sneakers and have that iPod in his ear listening to what somebody has told him is cool music,” says Harpaz, author of “13 is the New 18.”

Gender differences

Boys haven’t been the main target of marketers hawking all things tween, from clothes and makeup to TV shows and music. But Disney wants to change that with its Feb. 13 launch of Disney XD, a “boy-focused” cable brand that includes TV and a Web site with themes of adventure, accomplishment, gaming, music and sports.

Until now, Disney has been “a tween girl machine,” Verhaagen says. “It may be that teen idols and celebrities are more inherently appealing to girls because it’s all about personality and music and relational things that girls are more interested in. Boys at that age are more interested in sports and adventure and are not as easily marketed to by personalities and pop stars.”

Both the Disney Channel and Nickelodeon are favorites, according to an online survey conducted this summer for the 2008-09 GfK Roper Youth Report. The data, released to USA TODAY, found that of 500 tweens ages 8-12 asked about activities within the past week, 82 percent had watched Nickelodeon and 69 percent had watched Disney; 92 percent said they had played outside.

Verhaagen, father of two daughters, 11 and 13, says tweens are “immersed in consumer culture” and seek out connections and identity through social networking and shared entertainment experiences, but are still “aligned with their parents.”

New data from in-person interviews in December by Youth Trends, a marketing services company based in Ramsey, N.J., found 85 percent of the 1,223 respondents ages 8-12 agreed that “my family is the most important part of my life” and 70 percent said “I consider my Mom and/or Dad to be one of my best friends.”

Elizabeth Hartley-Brewer, a parenting expert in London and author of “Talking to Tweens,” says the tween years are when young people begin to realize the wider world, and to see themselves as separate from their families. That’s why the peer group is so crucial, she says.

Jade Jacobs, 12, of North Potomac, Md., is active in soccer, basketball, gymnastics and two cheerleading teams. “The main reason I do most of my sports is to hang out with my friends and to get exercise,” she says.

She also loves to shop with friends. “It’s not always about buy, buy, buy,” she says. But, “if we have a little money, we’ll find a cute accessory.”

Her mother, Christina Jacobs, 43, says the idea of “mean girls” is part of the tween years, which is one reason girls worry about clothes. “Girls are looking at each other and seeing who is wearing what. They’re harder on each other,” she says. “Girls are looking at each other at 9 and 10 and boys are in La-La land.”

Music is cool

Eleven-year-old Campbell Shelhoss, a fifth grader in Towson, Md., says he’s not in a hurry to be a teenager, even though he says he has outgrown some childhood pastimes.

“I feel like Pokemon is a little young,” he says, and he puts cartoon toys and handheld video games in the same category.

He plays baseball and golf. He wanted a cell phone “for a few weeks” and then decided it wasn’t that important to him.

Almost two-thirds (63 percent) of those ages 8-12 do not have a cell phone, finds the Youth Trends study. It also finds that tweens spend 12.1 hours a week watching TV and 7.3 hours online.

The Roper report also asked tweens to rate 17 items as “cool or not cool.” Music was at the top of the cool list, followed by going to the movies. “Being smart” ranked third — tied with video games — followed by electronics, sports, fashion and protecting the environment.

First Tweens

“Right now, their friends and their status is everything to them,” says Marissa Aranki, 41, of Fullerton, Calif. She is a fifth-grade teacher and has two daughters, 18 and 12.

“It’s universal for the age, but they show it in different ways. For boys, the whole friendship thing is through technology and through sports,” she says. “Girls like to talk, either about other girls or about boys. A lot of the girls are really boy-crazy. And some of the boys are not really girl-crazy yet. They’re really out of the loop in that case. They’ve got their little guy friends and they’re trying to be athletic and that’s what they care about.”

Tweens are part of the larger generational group sometimes called millennials or Generation Y. Those in their late teens through mid-20s are “first-wave” millennials because they’re the ones who set the trends that this later wave (born between the early 1990s and about 2003 or 2004) continues to follow, suggests historian and demographer Neil Howe, co-author of several books on the generations.

Verhaagen, author of “Parenting the Millennial Generation,” says older and younger millennials share certain traits, such as comfort with technology and diversity, and being family-oriented.

He believes these economic hard times will also leave an imprint on both groups of millennials, with the younger ones possibly becoming less materialistic and consumer-driven.”

“Howe says tweens are even more interested in being protected and sheltered than their older millennial siblings; he says this stems from the fact that the parents of older millennials tend to be Baby Boomers while parents of the younger group are often part of Generation X, in their 30s to mid-40s.

“These Xers are concerned about such things as safety and protection,” he says. “They’re not as worried as Boomers were about making their children paragons of perfection. Xers care less about that and try to do less. They’re more pragmatic.”

Howe counts Barack and Michelle Obama as Gen Xers, born 1961-1981. But many view the president and first lady as post-Boomers who are part of Generation Jones, a term coined by cultural historian Jonathan Pontell for those born between 1954 and 1965.

Either way, it may be tough for the Obama girls to stay out of the spotlight, suggests Denise Restauri, founder of a research and consulting firm called AK Tweens and the tween social networking site AllyKatzz.com.

“They’re in nirvana,” she says. “Right now, (Malia and Sasha) are the most popular girls in school. It doesn’t get much better than that when you’re a tween.”