PUBLIC UTILITIES COMMISSION ENDORSES PROGRAM TO PROMOTE DIVERSITY BY PROVIDING EDUCATIONAL, MENTORING OPPORTUNITIES TO STUDENTS

The California Public Utilities Commission issued the following news release:
The California Public Utilities Commission (PUC), in its ongoing efforts to promote diversity in hiring practices, today endorsed the California Aspire Achieve Lead Pipeline Project (CaAAL Pipeline Project), a creative statewide program that provides for educational opportunities for students in pre-school through graduate school.
Recognizing that California's labor market demands an increasing population of highly-educated workers and that diversity in that workforce is good for businesses and communities, the PUC determined that there is an urgent need for both immediate- and long-term strategic approaches to provide for educational opportunities leading to successful careers in the legal, investment/finance, technological, and political communities.
The CaAAL Pipeline Project grew out of studies that show students of diverse backgrounds are failing early on to gain the tools that will lead to successful completion of higher education and thus are failing to be successful in a professional career.
"California is a very diverse state and our workforce should be a mirror of our population. I have long been a supporter of ensuring that the PUC and the utilities it regulates promote diversity in their hiring practices," said PUC President Michael R. Peevey. "The CaAAL Pipeline Project will help young people focus on critical thinking and reading and writing skills and will provide professionals as mentors and role models."
"This issue is very important to me and I am proud to be part of a program that will help California have a workforce that reflects its diverse population," said PUC Commissioner Timothy Alan Simon. "By supporting the CaAAL Pipeline Project we are establishing resources to target students to place in the pipeline and diversify the pool of available candidates for the workforce and leadership opportunities."
For the past two years, the PUC has placed a particular focus on helping its major energy and telecommunications utilities meet goals set by the PUC for procurement of legal and financial services from certified woman, minority, and disabled veteran-owned businesses (WMDVBEs). This focus has led to a strong commitment by the top management of these utilities to address the obstacles to meeting or exceeding the PUC's overall 21.5 percent goal for procurement from WMDVBEs, including a commitment to address the "pipeline" problems as strategies are adopted to begin recruiting large numbers of employees to replace the growing wave of retiring Baby Boomers in the workforce.
The founding partners for the CaAAL Pipeline Project are the PUC and the California Public Employment Retirement System.
The CaAAL Pipeline Project will be organized as a California non-profit corporation with an arm called the California Pipeline Fund with 501(c)(3) status to focus on the fundraising aspect. Nominations for Board participation will be publicly sought. Once organized, the Board will solicit support from other stakeholders, including issuing a Request for Proposal to identify a leading California university to serve as its educational partner and as the leading center on pipeline activities and evaluation in the state and nation.
The CaAAL Pipeline Project report is available at: www.cpuc.ca.gov/PUBLISHED/REPORT/69331.htm.
For more information on the PUC, please visit: www.cpuc.ca.gov.Contact: Terrie Prosper, 415/703-1366, news@cpuc.ca.gov.
Terrie Prosper, 415/703-1366, news@cpuc.ca.gov.

Winning team true mark of relevancy.(Sports)

Byline: Steve Bulpett
Last summer, when the Celtics were lusting after Allen Iverson, a team executive pondered the potential effects of such a move and, with eyes wide open, offered the operative word from management's point of view: "Relevance."
Thirteen months later, the term as it relates to the club has become nauseating. It is now repeated with such alarming frequency that it seems as if its meaning is lost.
Yes, Kevin Garnett earns the Celtics more than a passing mention on the radio talk shows. Yes, Kevin Garnett with Paul Pierce and Ray Allen means more national attention. And yes, the Celtics season ticket-holders no longer face the threat of drug testing when they pay their large bills.
But one should not forget in all this rush to popularity that the only true currency of relevance is winning. The rest just fades away.
If the starry group that director of basketball operations Danny Ainge puts together proceeds to win big in the Eastern Conference, as well as scare some people west of the Mississippi, then no one will make sarcastic comments about his "vision." If it makes some rhinestone runs in the postseason but is ultimately no threat to the NBA Finals, then Celtics followers will be left to lament a mortgaged future.
It doesn't matter whether the deal is right and proper under the present circumstances. Ainge is paid to know how his players will develop, and if he says that the Celtics will do better with Kevin Garnett and Ray Allen in the short term than Al Jefferson and draft picks in the long, then we will await the results and judge him accordingly.
Wins - not national TV appearances - will decide. All the "relevance" and kids wearing Garnett jerseys won't amount to a Beacon Hill of beans unless victories are part of the equation.
The NBA already is deep into its scheduling process, but you can be certain that changes are being made at the request of ABC, ESPN and TNT in order to get the Celtics into their windows. The C's will be must "C" as they put three All-Stars in a beaker and seek a successful blend. They even can afford to stagger a bit out of the gate as they get to know each other and deal with a roster that suddenly has a serious lack of depth.
But if at the dawning of 2008, the Celts are listing toward just another teamhood, then the relevance will turn on them.
You may recall the lads were a fairly notable bunch this past season as they challenged franchise records for losing and took a three-and-a-half somersault into the lottery tank. It was attention that rankled the Green masses, who at least had dancing girls to look at.
The present tense will be better, but one cannot say with total certainty how much the Celtics are giving up down the line to take their shot. They should be significantly improved the next few years, but it is not yet known whether that will be enough to cushion the blow of watching Al Jefferson reel off double-doubles when Kevin Garnett is lounging poolside in Malibu, Calif.
There are serious downsides here that we know Ainge considered, but the lure of getting one of the top players in the game obviously outweighed those worries. And if you're still concerned about Garnett, understand that he has never played with anyone as good as Paul Pierce or Ray Allen and that he immediately makes the Celtics a far better defensive team.
And, indeed, it will be a team that people will want to see and discuss. For the long-suffering fan, it will be like having your local band go national. Remember when you found out people in Cleveland liked Aerosmith and, several years later, Boston and New Edition? There was some pride in having early position on the bandwagon, but even their success is measured in consistent winning. Aerosmith has stood the test of time, while Boston's early flame fizzled into a cautionary tale. New Edition became more notable for its spinoffs and reality shows.
If Garnett has a jeweled shamrock championship ring on his finger as he sips his post-career California cocktail, Ainge will have no problem getting a tee time at The Country Club. If not, you'll be hitting him over the head with Al Jefferson on his way back to Arizona.
The judgment will be stark. When history looks back on this time, the only relevant question will be whether the Celtics won.
- sbulpett@bostonherald.com

Bulpett, Steve

Guilty Plea to End Crusading Lawyer's Lucrative Run

In a three-decade career, California lawyer William S. Lerach won tens of billions of dollars for his clients by suing executives embroiled in corporate scandal. Casting himself as the voice of victimized shareholders, he chalked up unprecedented awards in the Enron accounting mess and the Exxon oil spill.
His victories spawned a nationwide legion of imitators, who adopted his quick-draw tactics and bombastic rhetoric, transforming what was once a backwater, class-action investor lawsuits, into one of the most lucrative sectors of the legal business. That success, coupled with his brash style, won him enemies throughout corporate America and inspired Congress to pass a 1995 law imposing limits on shareholder cases.
Now Lerach, 61, is headed to prison, brought down not by adversaries in executive suites or on Capitol Hill but by his own hubris.
Yesterday, he agreed to pay the government fines and penalties of $8 million and to plead guilty to a charge of conspiracy to obstruct justice. The deal ends a seven-year investigation into allegations that he and his former law firm secretly paid people to serve as plaintiffs. Under the terms of the plea, which requires court approval, he will serve at least one year and no more than two years in federal prison.
"I have always fought for my clients aggressively and vigorously in order to hold powerful corporations responsible when their actions harmed people," Lerach said in a statement. "However, I regrettably crossed a line and pushed too far. For my actions, I apologize and accept full responsibility for my conduct."
Lerach and his team "symbolized a whole industry of litigation, the transformation of the class action from something relatively marginal in the legal world to a great big moneymaker," said Walter Olson, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute and a critic of such cases. "They seemed to take such relish in it, the roosters strutting in the barnyard."
His conviction could cast a pall on plaintiff lawyers, whose tactics have come under government scrutiny in cases around the country. Lerach's troubles also have touched off a fierce battle among firms seeking control of cases related to the debacle in subprime mortgages, home loans extended to people with flawed credit.
The roots of Lerach's success, and his downfall, date to the 1980s, when he and his former partners at the New York law firm Milberg Weiss enlisted a group of people who held stock -- often, only a few shares -- in publicly traded companies to serve as plaintiffs.
According to court papers, Lerach's team would file suit on their behalf as soon as a company's stock price dropped or if the company failed to meet financial targets. Speed was important: In those days, the lawyers who got to the courthouse first gained control of the cases and stood to gain the most financially.
It was a wildly successful technique, and it soon made Lerach one of the most prominent business lawyers in the nation. Through the 1980s and '90s, he watched from his San Diego headquarters as the stock prices of tech companies in his backyard went up and down, honing his strategy and extracting settlements that made him rich.
By 1993, he had a mansion in the exclusive Rancho Santa Fe neighborhood. He collected sculpture and African art and traversed the country on private jets.
He and his firms gave more than $3.6 million to Democrats in the past decade, according to campaign finance records. The firms gave $1.7 million more since the 2002 campaign cycle to "527" issue- advocacy groups, according to CQ MoneyLine. President Bill Clinton spent a night at Lerach's mansion in the late 1990s and later appointed him to the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Council.
Lerach's donations and his fierce criticism of the Bush administration over the Enron case won him foes among the Republican elite, whom people close to Lerach blame for the investigation that will result in the loss of his law license and freedom.
Lerach used the media brilliantly, and he routinely succeeded in the courtroom without having to spend much time there. Instead, as his prowess became known, he successfully pressured executives to settle lawsuits in their early stages.
Having grown up in a working-class Pittsburgh home, Lerach regularly described himself as an advocate for "the little guy." Legal experts agree that his cases gave investors who lost money a new avenue to recover at least pennies on the dollar. His cases also infuriated his opponents in the corporate and political arena.
"Bill Lerach transformed the securities class action in ways that both benefited many investors through compensation and deterrence and contributed to some backlash," said Joel Seligman, a securities law historian and president of the University of Rochester. "It is very rare for any individual to have had so profound an impact on litigation and legislation."
For years, defense lawyers have swapped tales of Lerach's often outrageous behavior. Sometimes he filed court papers without bothering to substitute the names of his new corporate targets for the old ones. He cussed a blue streak. During negotiations on one hard-fought case, he threatened to seize a chief executive's house. Everything about the fuzzy-haired advocate got under his opponents' skin -- from his unorthodox appearance to his acute strategic intelligence, concealed under layers of bluster.
He sometimes repeatedly sued the same company. John Doerr, a top Silicon Valley venture capitalist, once called Lerach an "economic terrorist."
In at least one instance, Lerach met his match. Lexecon, a Chicago economic consulting firm, filed a lawsuit alleging that Lerach and others had abused the legal system to attack an opposing expert witness. After years of fighting, including a round in the Supreme Court, Lerach's former law firm paid $50 million to settle in 1999. "The theme of our trial was lawyers behaving as though they were above the law," said Alan N. Salpeter, who represented Lexecon.
After the settlement, Salpeter said, he got dozens of phone calls and letters, including one from the chief executive of a California clothing company, a man he had never met. "He wrote, 'Dear Alan, I don't know who you are, but I love you,' " Salpeter recalled. "It shows that corporate America was fed up with a lot of the abusive- type class actions."
The ground was shifting beneath Lerach. The Republican- controlled Congress passed the 1995 Private Securities Litigation Reform Act, curtailing "strike" suits in which an investor with a few shares of stock in a company filed a quick lawsuit and thereby became the lead plaintiff. Instead, the law directed judges to give preference to plaintiffs with the biggest dollar losses, allowing their lawyers to control the course of a case.
So Lerach and his law partners adapted. They began courting managers and politicians who oversaw state pension and retirement funds. The relationships they forged proved lucrative for both sides.
By the 21st century, he shrewdly had taken center stage in the Enron investigation, the biggest corporate fraud case in a generation. In the Enron shareholder case alone, Lerach's law firm is on track to earn 8 to 10 percent of a $7.3 billion settlement pool -- the single largest payday ever for investors, according to legal experts. In the three years since Lerach bitterly split with his old law firm, Milberg Weiss, his new firm, Lerach Coughlin, has been named lead firm in 150 cases.
At some point in the early 1980s, according to Lerach's plea agreement, he and his associates went beyond recruiting plaintiffs and began paying them. In all, they funneled more than $11 million to a roster of people who were enlisted to purchase stock and were then offered money to join lawsuits in 150 cases that ultimately brought the firm more than $200 million in fees, government lawyers said.
The investigation began with federal officials looking into the tax problems of a man named Steven G. Cooperman. Cooperman turned out to be one of Lerach's repeat plaintiffs -- he pleaded guilty in Los Angeles in July to charges related to this case -- and soon the probe expanded, lawyers in the case said.
Also in July, David J. Bershad, a Milberg Weiss partner who handled the firm's financial accounts, pleaded guilty to conspiring to deceive judges about secret kickbacks the firm paid to plaintiffs. With his cooperation, investigators bored in on their mark: Lerach.
In an e-mail to colleagues last month, Lerach acknowledged mistakes. Characteristically, according to acquaintances and competitors, he did not dwell on them. In the past several days, he traveled to London to try to reach a settlement in a case involving oil giant BP and as late as Monday sent an e-mail to his former partners flagging questionable stock sales by corporate executives.
True to form, Lerach continued to point the finger at powerful political interests bent on seeking revenge. "My success," he wrote last month, "has made me a target."
Staff researchers Richard Drezen and Madonna Lebling contributed to this report.
Carrie Johnson - Washington Post Staff Writer

ads Garfield loved.(Book of Tens)(List)

Byline: Bob Garfield
Dove
Ogilvy & Mather, Toronto.
"Evolution,'' the Cannes Grand Prix-winning viral about the perversion of beauty standards, was a tough act to follow. So, naturally, the follow-up is even better. "Onslaught''-which dramatizes the endless, irresistible barrage of unrealistic "beauty'' images-is not quite so riveting as "Evolution'' but it's more explicitly indicting of the culture, including advertising itself.
JC Penney
Saatchi & Saatchi, New York
Kevin Roberts' "Lovemarks'' sounds suspiciously like the branding of generic ad emotion. Nonetheless, consider us marked. The lovely spot "Calendar'' casts a magical spell that makes you go all gooey about the third-best department store in the mall-a spell broken only by actually entering a JC Penney.
Wal-Mart
Martin Agency, Richmond, Va.
The acting and direction aren't much, and the heavy-handed placement of logos is obnoxious, but the strategy of putting a concrete valuation-a Florida vacation, for example-on aggregate savings is simply brilliant. Save by spending-then spend the savings. Why, it's so ... American.
Wendy's
Saatchi & Saatchi, New York
The ridiculous red "Wendy'' wig as a symbol consumer defiance, of accepting nothing less than cooked-to-order. Sadly, so far, the executions have been utterly uninspired. But all but a few of Dave Thomas's hundreds of scripts were too. No problem. This is a Big Idea.
H&R Block
Campbell Mithun, Minneapolis
What was 2007-the Year of Insights? This one was probably the best. "I got people'' actually invested the mundane (and often completely unnecessary) act of consulting with a strip-mall tax preparer with the prestige attached to having an entourage or network of highly placed connections. It makes Joe 1040-EZ feel like a play-uh. The poor schmuck.
Sonic
Barkley, Kansas City, Mo.
Thanks to DirectTV, we finally discovered this 4-year-old campaign featuring various pairs of improv comics at the Sonic drive-thru. The byplay is laugh-out-loud funny yet somehow natural, even though it is 100% about product features.
Diamond Emerald Nuts
Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, San Francisco.
Around midafternoon, in a work world of soul-sucking cubicles, everybody gets a little woozy. Fatigue plus boredom plus the depletion of the post-lunch blood-sugar spike equals Snack Emergency. The message here: Eat our nuts to stave off drowsiness or else Robert Goulet will sneak into your cube and mess your stuff up. And there he is, on tiptoe, committing office vandalism! Hilarious, God rest his soul.
Nationwide Insurance
TM, Dallas
"Life Comes at You Fast,'' this company has been saying for a while, so be prepared. But finally the right gimmick: to use somebody who actually has been blindsided by misfortune. Kevin Federline, the ex-Mr. Britney Spears, sportingly permits himself to be portrayed as fast-food deep-fryer fantasizing about a solo rap career.
California Horse Track Association
Rubin Postaer Associates, Santa Monica, Calif.
What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas. So says the most popular tourism campaign ever. But what if it isn't true? That's what the California racing establishment wonders aloud in a campaign to persuade Californians to squander their money at home-lest Vegas indiscretions (some named "Misty'') come home to roost.
La-Z-Boy
RPA, Santa Monica, Calif.
It's not called Varie-T-Boy. It's not called Val-U-Boy. Anyone entering a La-Z-Boy furniture gallery is looking, first and foremost, to get La-Zied. It's all about the comfort, as three odd and very funny TV spots (and one odd and very unfunny TV spot) make abundantly clear. Also abundantly enticing.
bgarfield@adage.com

Garfield, Bob

r� 6 h pB �?B ion before 1776, Harvard University Press (Cambridge, MA), 2000.
(With Grant Walker and Randall Balmer) Religion in American Life: A Short History, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 2000, updated edition, 2007.
Religion in Colonial America, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 2000.
Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness: American Art from the Yale University Art Gallery, Yale University Press (New Haven, CT), 2007.
New World Faiths: Religion in Colonial America, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 2007.
Also author of the booklet "Religion and Witchcraft in Early American Society," Forum Press, 1974. Coeditor of the series "Religion in American Life," Oxford University Press (New York, NY). Contributor to encyclopedias and other books, including Mapping America's Past, edited by Mark C. Carnes and John A. Garraty, 1996; and Myer Myers: Jewish Silversmith in Colonial New York, by David L. Barquist, Yale University Press (New Haven, CT), 2001. Contributor to history journals.

ADAPTATIONS:

Awash in a Sea of Faith was a source for a four-part British television documentary, The Fate of Faith: Religion in Britain and America, broadcast in England in 1991, and for the PBS documentary special, Telegrams from the Dead, broadcast in 1994.

SIDELIGHTS:

Jon Butler is the author of Becoming America: The Revolution before 1776. A Publishers Weekly contributor who reviewed the book said that Butler "shows that the colonies were developing distinct ways of spending, building, praying, decorating, and politicking even then—a cultural revolution that anticipated the political revolution that was to follow." "This detailed overview brings fresh insight to the era," wrote Grant A. Fredericksen in Library Journal.
In Religion in American Life: A Short History (which, at nearly 550 pages, is not as superficial as the title might imply), Butler and his coauthors look at the impact of religious faith and practices on a highly diverse population over several centuries. New England Protestant Christianity figures prominently in this study, as it does in American history, but is not the central focus of the book. Butler, in particular, turns his attention to non-white, non-Protestant elements of colonial North America. Philip Jenkins reported in Books and Culture that Butler and his colleagues "offer a wonderfully polychrome account, giving the most extensive coverage I have ever seen in such a general history of Native spiritual traditions and their interactions with Catholic authorities." The book also covers African American practices, which often occurred outside the traditional church setting, as well as Roman Catholic worship as it was conducted by Spanish and French settlers. Library Journal contributor James A. Overbeck offered a different opinion of the book, citing scant coverage of Jewish, Muslim, and Asian religions in American life. Jenkins expressed reservations about the part of the book that offered commentary by coauthor Randall Balmer about the more recent elements of American religious practice (New Age groups, for instance, or the Promise Keepers) and how well his coverage of potentially transitory movements will stand the test of time. Church History contributor Peter W. Williams wrote, however, that "in the realm of American religious history, one can hardly do better than Religion in American Life." He recommended the book particularly to "the uninitiated," adding: "The initiated, however, might also read it for its felicity of narrative and the moments of illumination that fine scholars can inject even into stories we have all heard before."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

American Historical Review, December, 1995, Charles H. Lippy, "Religion in a Revolutionary Age," p. 1669.
American Studies International, February, 2001, Joel Hodson, review of Becoming America: The Revolution before 1776, p. 144.
Books and Culture, January-February, 2003, Philip Jenkins, review of Religion in American Life: A Short History, p. 19.
Church History, March, 2004, Peter W. Williams, review of Religion in American Life, p. 239.
English Historical Review, September, 2001, Simon Middleton, review of Becoming America, p. 968.
History: Review of New Books, spring, 2000, Alan D. Watson, review of Becoming America, p. 109.
Journal of Southern History, February, 2002, Jack P. Greene, review of Becoming America, p. 153.
Kliatt, March, 2002, John E. Boyd, review of Becoming America, p. 33.
Library Journal, March 15, 2000, Grant A. Fredericksen, review of Becoming America, p. 102; December, 2002, James Overbeck, review of Religion in American Life, p. 134.
Los Angeles Times Book Review, January 7, 1990, review of Awash in a Sea of Faith: Christianizing the American People, p. 9.
New York Times Book Review, April 1, 1990, Jan Lewis, review of Awash in a Sea of Faith, p. 33.
Publishers Weekly, February 21, 2000, review of Becoming America, p. 73.

Butler, Jon 1940–

PERSONAL:

Born June 4, 1940, in Fort Smith, AR; son of Harold J. (an engineer and farmer) and Genevieve (a homemaker) Butler; married Roxanne Deuser (a teacher), July 18, 1970; children: Benjamin Jon, Peter Francis. Education: University of Minnesota, B.A., 1964, Ph.D., 1972.

ADDRESSES:

Home—Hamden, CT. Office—Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, Yale University, P.O. Box 208236, New Haven, CT 06520-8236. E-mail—jon.butler@yale.edu.

CAREER:

California State College, Bakersfield, assistant professor of history, 1971-75; University of Illinois at Chicago Circle, Chicago, began as assistant professor, became professor of history, 1975-85; Yale University, New Haven, CT, professor, 1985-2004, Howard R. Lamar Professor of American Studies, History, and Religious Studies, 2004—, senior faculty fellow, 1987-88, chair of American studies program, 1988-93, department chair, 1999-2004, dean of Graduate School of Arts and Sciences, 2004—. Guest on television programs, including the Today Show and Dateline.

MEMBER:

American Historical Association, Organization of American Historians, American Society of Church History.

AWARDS, HONORS:

National Endowment for the Humanities, fellowship, 1977-78, grant, 1983-85; Theodore Saloutos Prize, Immigration History Society, 1983; Gilbert Chinard Prize, Society for French Historical Studies, 1983, for The Huguenots in America: A Refugee People in New World Society; senior fellow of Institute for the Humanities, University of Chicago, 1983-84; Guggenheim fellow, 1987-88; Albert C. Outler Prize, American Society of Church History, 1989, and Albert J. Beveridge Prize, best book in American history, American Historical Association, 1990, both for Awash in a Sea of Faith; Pew Charitable Trusts program grants, 1993-99, 1998-2002; honorary Sc.D., University of Minnesota, 2006.

WRITINGS:

Power, Authority, and the Origins of American Denominational Order: The English Churches in the Delaware Valley, 1680-1730, American Philosophical Society (Philadelphia, PA), 1978.
The Huguenots in America: A Refugee People in New World Society, Harvard University Press (Cambridge, MA), 1983.
Awash in a Sea of Faith: Christianizing the American People, Harvard University Press (Cambridge, MA), 1990.
(Editor, with Harry S. Stout) Religion in American History: A Reader, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 1998.
Becoming America: The Revolution before 1776, Harvard University Press (Cambridge, MA), 2000.
(With Grant Walker and Randall Balmer) Religion in American Life: A Short History, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 2000, updated edition, 2007.
Religion in Colonial America, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 2000.
Life, Liberty, and the Pursuit of Happiness: American Art from the Yale University Art Gallery, Yale University Press (New Haven, CT), 2007.
New World Faiths: Religion in Colonial America, Oxford University Press (New York, NY), 2007.
Also author of the booklet "Religion and Witchcraft in Early American Society," Forum Press, 1974. Coeditor of the series "Religion in American Life," Oxford University Press (New York, NY). Contributor to encyclopedias and other books, including Mapping America's Past, edited by Mark C. Carnes and John A. Garraty, 1996; and Myer Myers: Jewish Silversmith in Colonial New York, by David L. Barquist, Yale University Press (New Haven, CT), 2001. Contributor to history journals.

ADAPTATIONS:

Awash in a Sea of Faith was a source for a four-part British television documentary, The Fate of Faith: Religion in Britain and America, broadcast in England in 1991, and for the PBS documentary special, Telegrams from the Dead, broadcast in 1994.

SIDELIGHTS:

Jon Butler is the author of Becoming America: The Revolution before 1776. A Publishers Weekly contributor who reviewed the book said that Butler "shows that the colonies were developing distinct ways of spending, building, praying, decorating, and politicking even then—a cultural revolution that anticipated the political revolution that was to follow." "This detailed overview brings fresh insight to the era," wrote Grant A. Fredericksen in Library Journal.
In Religion in American Life: A Short History (which, at nearly 550 pages, is not as superficial as the title might imply), Butler and his coauthors look at the impact of religious faith and practices on a highly diverse population over several centuries. New England Protestant Christianity figures prominently in this study, as it does in American history, but is not the central focus of the book. Butler, in particular, turns his attention to non-white, non-Protestant elements of colonial North America. Philip Jenkins reported in Books and Culture that Butler and his colleagues "offer a wonderfully polychrome account, giving the most extensive coverage I have ever seen in such a general history of Native spiritual traditions and their interactions with Catholic authorities." The book also covers African American practices, which often occurred outside the traditional church setting, as well as Roman Catholic worship as it was conducted by Spanish and French settlers. Library Journal contributor James A. Overbeck offered a different opinion of the book, citing scant coverage of Jewish, Muslim, and Asian religions in American life. Jenkins expressed reservations about the part of the book that offered commentary by coauthor Randall Balmer about the more recent elements of American religious practice (New Age groups, for instance, or the Promise Keepers) and how well his coverage of potentially transitory movements will stand the test of time. Church History contributor Peter W. Williams wrote, however, that "in the realm of American religious history, one can hardly do better than Religion in American Life." He recommended the book particularly to "the uninitiated," adding: "The initiated, however, might also read it for its felicity of narrative and the moments of illumination that fine scholars can inject even into stories we have all heard before."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

American Historical Review, December, 1995, Charles H. Lippy, "Religion in a Revolutionary Age," p. 1669.
American Studies International, February, 2001, Joel Hodson, review of Becoming America: The Revolution before 1776, p. 144.
Books and Culture, January-February, 2003, Philip Jenkins, review of Religion in American Life: A Short History, p. 19.
Church History, March, 2004, Peter W. Williams, review of Religion in American Life, p. 239.
English Historical Review, September, 2001, Simon Middleton, review of Becoming America, p. 968.
History: Review of New Books, spring, 2000, Alan D. Watson, review of Becoming America, p. 109.
Journal of Southern History, February, 2002, Jack P. Greene, review of Becoming America, p. 153.
Kliatt, March, 2002, John E. Boyd, review of Becoming America, p. 33.
Library Journal, March 15, 2000, Grant A. Fredericksen, review of Becoming America, p. 102; December, 2002, James Overbeck, review of Religion in American Life, p. 134.
Los Angeles Times Book Review, January 7, 1990, review of Awash in a Sea of Faith: Christianizing the American People, p. 9.
New York Times Book Review, April 1, 1990, Jan Lewis, review of Awash in a Sea of Faith, p. 33.
Publishers Weekly, February 21, 2000, review of Becoming America, p. 73.

Ryan, James D.

PERSONAL:

Education: University of California, Berkeley, Ph.D., 1985.

ADDRESSES:

Office—Asian and Comparative Studies, California Institute of Integral Studies, 1453 Mission St., San Francisco, CA 94103. E-mail—jryan@ciis.edu.

CAREER:

California Institute of Integral Studies, San Francisco, codirector of Asian and comparative studies.

WRITINGS:

(Translator) Tiruttakkatevar, Civakacintamani: The Hero Civakan, the Gem That Fulfills All Wishes. Verses 1-1165, Jain Publishing (Fremont, CA), 2005.
(With Constance A. Jones) Encyclopedia of Hinduism ("Encyclopedia of World Religions" series), Facts on File (New York, NY), 2006.

SIDELIGHTS:

James D. Ryan is the codirector of the Asian and comparative studies program at the California Institute of Integral Studies in San Francisco, California. Ryan earned his Ph.D. in Tamil literature at the University of California, Berkeley, and he is the translator of the medieval epic Civakacintamani: The Hero Civakan, the Gem That Fulfills All Wishes. Verses 1-1165, by Tiruttakkatevar. Ryan's interests include the history, culture, and philosophies of India. According to biographical information on the Web site of the Institute, Ryan "is specifically interested in the various forms of Hindu tantra, particularly the Kashmir Shaiva traditions, the tradition of Sri Aurobindo, and the вЂ˜modernized’ tantra of Haridas Chaudhuri. A secondary interest is in Jainism and the historical interplay between the non-theistic philosophical traditions and Hinduism."
Ryan is author with Constance A. Jones, a professor at the Institute of Integral Studies, of Encyclopedia of Hinduism, one volume of a projected six in the Facts on File "Encyclopedia of World Religions" series. The volume begins with an introduction to Hinduism and an eleven-page chronology that spans 3,000 years of history. There are six hundred alphabetical entries, written so as to be understandable to readers from high school age up. Subjects include those typically covered in most resources and include the Kama Sutra and Mahatma Gandhi, but as Booklist reviewer Wade Osburn noted, "examples abound of lesser-known Hindu personalities and concepts that are not adequately covered elsewhere." Approximately one-fourth of the pages are devoted to biographical information about more than 150 gurus, yogis, saints, and teachers. Many of these are unknown outside the Hindu community, and many of the profiles are accompanied by black-and-white photographs. The authors cover subjects that include beliefs, basic concepts and practices, events, and sacred places and writings. Entries that cover geographical regions are included, for example, for Bali, Africa, the United States, Scandinavia, and Trinidad. Also included is information on festivals, people, sites, gods and goddesses, worship practices, funeral rites, organizations and movements, the political and social implications of the caste system, relations between Hinduism and other faiths, and religions that have their roots in Hinduism, specifically Jainism and Sikhism. Texts covered include the Bhagavad Gita. A glossary of Hindu terms is also included.
Osburn concluded by writing: "A thorough index provides the perfect finishing touch to this user-friendly encyclopedia." School Library Journal contributor Ann W. Moore noted the volume's "multicultural scope" and commented that it "is well crafted and will be useful for students."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

PERIODICALS

Booklist, August, 2007, Wade Osburn, review of Encyclopedia of Hinduism, p. 100.
Reference & Research Book News, May, 2007, review of Encyclopedia of Hinduism.
School Library Journal, August, 2007, Ann W. Moore, review of Encyclopedia of Hinduism, p. 70.

ONLINE

California Institute of Integral Studies Web site,http://www.ciis.edu/ (January 2, 2008), brief author profile.

Mitchell, B.J. 1931- (Betty Jo Mitchell, P.J. Pokeberry)

PERSONAL:

Born May 2, 1931, in Coin, IA; daughter of Edith McWilliams; married John Lewis Mitchell July 7, 1951 (divorced, 1963). Ethnicity: "Caucasian." Education: Southwest Missouri State University, B.A., 1952; University of Southern California, M.S.L.S., 1967; California Coast University, M.B.A., Ph.D., 2002; also attended University of California, Los Angeles. Politics: Democrat. Religion: "Mixed." Hobbies and other interests: Music, painting, politics, "spiritual issues."

ADDRESSES:

Home—Tehachapi, CA. Office—Viewpoint Press, PMB 400, 785 Tucker Rd., Ste. G, Tehachapi, CA 93561; fax: 661-821-7515. E-mail—joie99@aol.com.

CAREER:

California State University, Northridge, assistant acquisitions librarian, 1967-69, assistant director for personnel and budget, 1969-71, associate director (dean) of libraries, 1971-81, member of board of directors of university credit union, 1978-81; Viewpoint Press, Tehachapi, CA, president, 1981—. City of Santa Monica, manager of information systems for rent control board, 1984-93. Member of board of directors, Empyrean Foundation, 1978-81, Bear Valley Springs Town Forum, 1982, Tehachapi Community Orchestra, 1998—, Tehachapi Performing Arts Center Foundation, 2003—, and Tehachapi Heritage League Foundation, 2005—.

MEMBER:

Authors Guild, Authors League of America, American Library Association, American Association of University Women, Association for Women in Computing (member of board of directors, 1987-89), Book Publicists of Southern California, Old Time Fiddlers Association (member of district board of directors, 2005—).

AWARDS, HONORS:

Citation for most humanitarian campaign of the year, Book Publicists of Southern California, 2001, for The Huckenpuck Papers: The Tale of a Family's Secret and a Young Girl's Search for Self-Esteem; Best Books 2006 National Book Award in the autobiography category, USABookNews.com, 2006, for Seeds of Violence: The Autobiography of a Subversive.

WRITINGS:

(With Norman Tanis and Jack Jaffe) Cost Analysis of Library Functions: A Total System Approach, JAI Press (Greenwich, CT), 1978.
How to See the U.S. on $12 a Day, Viewpoint Press (Tehachapi, CA), 1982.
ALMS: A Budget Based Library Management System, JAI Press (Greenwich, CT), 1983.
(Under pseudonym P.J. Pokeberry) The Secret of Hilhouse: An Adult Book for Teens (fable), Viewpoint Press (Tehachapi, CA), 1993.
(Under pseudonym P.J. Pokeberry) The Huckenpuck Papers: The Tale of a Family's Secret and a Young Girl's Search for Self-Esteem (sequel to The Secret of Hilhouse), Viewpoint Press (Tehachapi, CA), 2001.
Seeds of Violence: The Autobiography of a Subversive, Viewpoint Press (Tehachapi, CA), 2005.
Contributor to books, including Library Effectiveness: A State of the Art, American Library Association (Chicago, IL), 1980. Author of "Staff Development," a column in Special Libraries, 1975-76. Contributor to periodicals, including College and Research Libraries and Library Resources and Technical Services.

SIDELIGHTS:

B.J. Mitchell once told CA: "I began my writing career late in life. After several years in cost accounting in Missouri, and following a divorce, I moved to California and earned a master's degree in library science. At that time, there were few librarians with a background in business (particularly accounting), so immediately upon graduation I was appointed to the position of assistant director for personnel and finance at California State University, Northridge. This sparked a love of research and launched my writing career. While at the university, I developed a cost analysis program for libraries that eventually resulted in two library management books with an international distribution.
"My love of travel later led me on a ten-month trip around the United States and a book about how to travel on a shoestring. Reviewers were very positive about the value of the material presented in the book.
"The next book did not surface until several years later, and it was quite different. This book, The Secret of Hilhouse: An Adult Book for Teens, is a fable that deals with spiritual values and other issues for young people. My interest in things spiritual resulted from some thought-provoking encounters with metaphysical phenomena and a deep friendship with a warm, loving, and very ethical psychic. Added to that mix were my undergraduate degree in the sciences and discussions with another friend who was deeply involved in the scientific aspects of spiritual thought. The result was my determination to bring the scientific and spiritual worlds together through a sharing of my own experiences, as well as the thoughts and experiences of others working in this field.
"Following the publication of The Secret of Hilhouse, I began to expand the spiritual ideas from that work, which describes God in scientific terms, into a full-fledged philosophy. To date there are several related manuscripts in various stages of completion, including a nonfiction philosophical work explaining the origin and details of my spiritual philosophy; a gift book which presents the primary concepts of God found in the philosophical work, illustrated with watercolors; and a philosophical novel based on the nonfiction work.
"I believe there need be no hard and fast contradictions between science and religion. Rather, science and religion can and should be integrated in order to understand the nature of the universe and man's place in it. If that is to occur, both scientists and religionists must admit that there is much they do not know. To that end, I a philosophy about the nature of God that can be explored and discussed by both groups and by ordinary citizens as well. The idea is to give those who want to understand what they themselves believe about life and death a path to follow in order to arrive at their own personal philosophy. Sandwiched between God and the cosmos, I enjoy thoughts of writing another travel journal."

BIOGRAPHICAL AND CRITICAL SOURCES:

BOOKS

Mitchell, B.J., Seeds of Violence: The Autobiography of a Subversive, Viewpoint Press (Tehachapi, CA), 2005.

PERIODICALS

Book Reader, summer, 1994, review of The Secret of Hilhouse: An Adult Book for Teens, p. 29.
Midwest Book Review, February, 2003, review of The Huckenpuck Papers: The Tale of a Family's Secret and a Young Girl's Search for Self-Esteem.

ONLINE

Viewpoint Press Web site,http://www.viewpointpress.com (July 14, 2007).