truesee's Blog

Keith Olbermann leaving MSNBC, ends 'Countdown'

DAVID BAUDER

AP Television Writer 

40 mins ago

NEW YORK – MSNBC host Keith Olbermann announced Friday that he is leaving the network and has taped his last "Countdown" show.

MSNBC issued a statement that it had ended its contract with the controversial host, with no further explanation. Olbermann hosted the network's most popular show, but his combative liberal opinions often made him a target of critics.

Olbermann did not explain why he was leaving.

"MSNBC thanks Keith for his integral role in MSNBC's success and we wish him well in his future endeavors," the network said.

A spokesman said Phil Griffin, MSNBC's president, would not comment on Olbermann's exit. Spokesman Jeremy Gaines would say only that the acquistion of NBC Universal by Comcast, which received regulatory approval this week, had nothing to do with the decision.

Olbermann was suspended without pay from the network for two days in November for donating to three Democratic candidates, which violated NBC News' policy on political donations. Olbermann complained that he was being punished for mistakenly violating an inconsistently applied rule that he had known nothing about.

The host apologized to fans — but not to the network.

Olbermann, before leaving the show with a final signature toss of his script toward the camera, thanked his audience for sticking with him and read a James Thurber poem.

"This may be the only television program where the host was much more in awe of the audience than vice versa," he said.

He thanked a series of people, including the late Tim Russert, but pointedly not Griffin or NBC News President Steve Capus.

Olbermann's prime-time show is the network's top-rated. His evolution from a humorous look at the day's headlines into a pointedly liberal show in the last half of George W. Bush's administration led MSNBC to largely shift the tone of the network in his direction, with the hirings or Rachel Maddow and Lawrence O'Donnell in primetime.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_theticket/20110121/pl_yblog_theticket/is-obama-dyeing-his-hair

http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20110121/NEWS010702/301220011/1196/NEWS/Pot-mom-sentenced

Oakland 2nd Graders Reportedly Engage In Sex Acts, Teacher Suspended

January 21, 2011 12:19 AM

Markham Elementary School in Oakland. (CBS)

OAKLAND (CBS 5) — A teacher at Oakland’s Markham Elementary School has been suspended indefinitely after school officials said a pair of second-graders performed sex acts on each other in class – with the teacher present.

“I think everyone is taken aback over this shocking incident,” Troy Flint, the spokesman for the Oakland Unified School District, told CBS 5 on Thursday. “Of course, it is hard to understand how that could have occurred. 

LINK TO VIDEO:

http://sanfrancisco.cbslocal.com/2011/01/21/oakland-2nd-graders-reportedly-engage-in-sex-acts-teacher-suspended/

Flint said the sex acts incident was one of two separate cases under investigation involving the teacher; both incidents occurred last week in the same classroom but he said they didn’t come to the attention of school officials until Wednesday.

In one case, several students apparently took off their clothes and were naked in the classroom. In the second incident, a boy and girl reportedly engaged in oral sex in front of their classmates.

Flint indicated that the suspended teacher, whose name was not released by the school district, was present for both of the incidents.

Flint and Markham principal Pam Booker said they were limited in terms of the details they could release at this time because of the ongoing investigation into the matter.

Booker noted that the students said to be involved in the incidents were interviewed by school leaders.

In a letter sent to parents of Markham students on Thursday, Booker offered an apology by telling them that the incidents “represent an unacceptable lack of supervision. I understand there is great anger over this news.”

Globe Staff / January 21, 2011

FRAMINGHAM — On Jan. 28, the nation will stop and remember Christa McAuliffe, the New Hampshire teacher who lost her life along with six other astronauts when the space shuttle Challenger exploded 25 years ago.

25 years later, Christa McAuliffe remembered

But her legacy is at work every day of the year in the town where she grew up.

Thousands of science teachers and students come to Framingham State University each year to learn about space exploration at the Challenger Learning Center, part of the Christa Corrigan McAuliffe Center for Education and Teaching Excellence.

“She left an important message about the importance of students and teachers and education,’’ said Grace Corrigan, McAuliffe’s mother, who is now in her mid-80s and still lives in Framingham.

Framingham State, where Christa McAuliffe received her teaching degree, will hold a ceremony on Jan. 27 commemorating the anniversary of the disaster.

NASA plans its own public Day of Remembrance at the Kennedy Space Center in Flor ida the following day.

Last week, 33 middle school teachers were in the Challenger Center’s two simulation rooms, half of them assigned to a space craft orbiting Mars, the other half assigned to the mission control team designed to guide them onto the planet’s surface.

“I’d love to expand our programs more into space,’’ said Dakotah Eaton, an after-school teacher from Athol. “I want to tell them all about this Mars mission. The kids are really interested in Mars.’’

Some of the teachers were too young to recall exactly where they were at 11:39 a.m. on Jan. 28, 1986, a tragic day that haunted a generation, in part because so many schoolchildren tuned in to see the first teacher go into space.

But Matt Hagopian, an eighth-grade science teacher from Worcester, remembers where he was: an eighth-grader himself, home sick for the day, watching the space shuttle launch on television.

He said his goal in participating in the Challenger Center training was to help “generate excitement about space’’ among his students.

“It used to be the whole country was riveted by these launches; I’d like to see it brought back again,’’ said Hagopian, who was transmitting information about a solar flare to his “crew.’’

The hope is that after teachers become students for a day “there will be a flow back of creativity into their school systems,’’ said Karyl Resnick, coordinator of a state program that helps fund Challenger teacher education programs for low-income districts.

Mary Liscombe, the McAuliffe Center’s director, graduated with McAuliffe from Framingham State’s teaching program in 1970. They often had lunch together in the commuter cafeteria in the building where the McAuliffe Center stands today, recalled Liscombe.

Liscombe was at home in Medway with her young children on the day the nation watched the Challenger break apart just 73 seconds after liftoff, a tragedy later blamed on a leak in one of two solid rocket boosters that ignited the main liquid fuel tank.

McAuliffe left behind a husband, Steven, who later became a federal judge in New Hampshire, and two children, Scott and Caroline, now in their 30s.

Inspired by her friend’s ideals and sacrifice, Liscombe returned soon after to the classroom, teaching science at the Charles River School in Dover. In 1994, she joined the McAuliffe Center.

McAuliffe’s mother and Framingham State president Timothy Flanagan are scheduled to speak at the commemoration next week. Eighth-grade students from the Christa McAuliffe Regional Charter Public School in Framingham will present research projects about space.

The school’s science teacher, Daniel Anderson, said his 76 students have conducted interviews via Skype and e-mail with scientists at NASA, the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and other universities on topics ranging from artificial gravity and spacesuit technology to lunar geology and meteoroid strikes.

It may become an annual school project, he said. “This is a special year.

The 25th anniversary only happens once, but we can celebrate Christa McAuliffe and what she stood for every year.’’

January is not an easy month for the family, Corrigan acknowledged in an interview last week, and the loss of her 37-year-old daughter in the disaster remains sharp even after 25 years.

What motivates her to constantly revisit the pain is the enthusiasm that the space education programs generate.

“I still hear from teachers all around the country,’’ she said.

LINK TO VIDEO:

http://bcove.me/4ms4myuu

Ezra Klein

It's interesting to explore how Hillary Clinton might have acted differently as president instead of President Obama, Ezra Klein notes. Also, there are a lot better ways to spend a personal fortune than on a campaign for office, Klein says.

Source:
http://thehill.com/blogs/blog-briefing-room/blog-summaries/128323-ezra-klein

POLITICAL COLUMN

It's too early to count Sarah Palin out

I believe that people who underestimate Sarah Palin do so at their own risk, but according to recent polls, a lot of people are willing to take that risk.

She has been battered by her use of cross hairs in an ad targeting the district of Rep. Gabrielle Giffords (D-Ariz.), who was shot on Jan. 8 along with 18 others in Tucson. Palin has used fighting words like “Don’t retreat, reload,” and she used the slur “blood libel” to defend herself in a recent video. As a result, she has built up some pretty high unfavorable ratings in the past few days.

A recent CNN/Opinion Research poll shows Palin with a 56 percent unfavorable rating, and a recent USA Today/Gallup Poll shows her with a 53 percent unfavorable rating. Both polls were conducted before Palin appeared Monday in a live interview with Sean Hannity on Fox News, however, so they are snapshots in time already outdated by events, the risk inherent in all polling.

By way of comparison, Rasmussen Reports showed President Barack Obama with a 56 percent disapproval rating last December, though he had moved back to 51 percent as of Wednesday. How much attention should you pay to such polls? Not a lot.

As I said, they can change quickly and are affected by daily events and news media coverage. Although some conservatives felt Palin just dug herself in deeper on Hannity’s show — David Frum said, “She should stop talking now” — I thought she did fine.

In fact, whenever Palin stays within her comfort zone, which is a zone containing a sympathetic interviewer with no tough, let alone “gotcha,” questions, she usually does fine.

That is probably not sustainable for an entire presidential election campaign in 2012, but one should not overestimate how much the American voter values intelligence. Adlai Stevenson, Michael Dukakis, Al Gore (who won the popular vote by more than 500,000 votes) and John Kerry were probably hurt more than helped by their intelligence. Bill Clinton masked his intelligence during his first presidential campaign with his “Man From Hope” video and his Bubba image, which were designed to make voters forget he was actually the man from Georgetown, Oxford and Yale Law.

Palin will never have the problem of appearing too intelligent, though when she went up against Joe Biden in a 90-minute vice presidential debate in 2008, she did not fall off the stage. And he did not wipe the floor with her. I, for one, thought she kept him on the defensive — who can forget her wink? — though Biden did have the twin burdens of masking his own intelligence while not appearing to be sneering and superior toward a woman.

As Katie Couric of “The CBS Evening News” demonstrated, however, Palin is not good under pressure or with quizzes.

So you really can’t see Russia from Alaska? And Palin really couldn’t name a single newspaper or magazine that she read? So what?

One should never underestimate the power of a candidate who can make an emotional connection to voters. Ronald Reagan said all sorts of outrageous things, both as a candidate and as president. Often, he would cull them from magazines and would not bother to check whether they were true. “Like any other speaker,” Reagan once told a reporter, “I’d see something and I’d say, ‘Hey, that’s great,’ and use it.”

Did people care? Nah, they loved Ronnie. Palin is no Reagan — she lacks the ideological footing he had, for one thing — but she does know how to connect with people, even if they are not the same people most of the media hang out with.

The best thing you can probably say about her whole cross hairs/reload/blood libel thing is that it was a mistake, and if you are going to make mistakes in a presidential race, it is best to do so early.

This is still early, and Palin still has time to both educate herself and grow more skilled at handling the nonadoring media.

And if Palin’s whole “Mama Grizzly” image will never gain support among liberals, well, that is not the base she is stalking.

Read more: http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0111/47850.html#ixzz1Bd9e42N9

Seth Jacobson

Wicked Local Abington 

Jan 20, 2011 @ 01:04 PM 

An Abington man is being charged with creating bombs at his former address in Abington after police had been told the man was blowing up snow banks to avoid shoveling the snow.

Abington Police Chief David Majenski said Leo J. Powers, 23, with a last known address of 45 Margaret Road, Abington, is being charged with threats to commit a crime and possession of incendiary devices.

After serving Powers with an emergency restraining order at a rooming house he was staying in on Washington Street in Abington, police learned Powers had a box of ammunition and a box with “some sort of powder” in it at his former address, according to Majenski.

According to Majenski, police were told Powers had devised a way to use the materials to blow up snow banks instead of shoveling the snow and had been doing it for some time.

Majenski said when police and fire officials arrived at the house, the discovered a container filled with “military-grade ammunition and other stuff, including powders of some sort.”

The Massachusetts State Police Bomb Squad was called in and the power was sent to a lab for testing.

“The results came back Saturday morning that the powder was indeed an explosive material,” Majenski said.

Powers was not arrested that night because police were not sure that the powder was explosive. They needed to get it tested first. But Majenski said Powers will soon be summonsed to court on the charges filed by the police department.

Powers, who has a firearms license, was told he needed to surrender all his weapons. He handed over a pistol and a shotgun to police, according to Majenski.

“And I have revoked his license to carry,” Majenski said. “Meanwhile, we’re investigating where he got all the weapons we confiscated and the powder. He said he got them at gun shows in Springfield but we are looking into that.”

Originally Published:Wednesday, January 19th 2011, 3:05 PM
Updated: Thursday, January 20th 2011, 2:10 AM

Xanthos/NewsCarlina White, named Nejdra Nance by her abductor, landed at LaGuardia airport on Wednesday.

Carlina White as an infant.

Pedin/NewsThe parents of kidnaped baby Carlina White at home in 1987.

Twenty-three years after being snatched as an infant, the victim of a hospital kidnapping cracked the cold case herself when doubts about her bogus "mom" led her home.

Carlina White - just 19 days old when her late-night abduction by a phony nurse stunned the city - was reunited last weekend with her overjoyed biological mother, father and other relatives.

"I'm overwhelmed. I'm just happy. It's like a movie; it's all brand new to me," White told the Daily News Wednesday night as she arrived at LaGuardia Airport for the second reunion with her birth mom.

"Is it really happening?" her incredulous mom, Joy White, wondered after decades of prayers were answered. "I always dreamed this.

It was a stunning and unexpected resolution to one of the NYPD's most frustrating cases: a kidnapper casually carrying an infant out of Harlem Hospital and into the wind.

The last time Joy White and her father, Carl Tyson, laid eyes on their chubby-cheeked child, Carlina was just 21 inches long, weighed 8 pounds and had a fever of 104. It was Aug. 4, 1987 - and it wasn't until Jan. 4, 2011, that their now 23-year-old baby girl was able to let them know she was safe.

"I feel like I don't know who I am!" she told staffers at the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children in a heartbreaking call around Christmas.

Center officials, long familiar with the White case, launched an investigation that confirmed Carlina's suspicions.

"This young woman gets all the credit," said center President Ernie Allen. "She felt it. Now she could have been just wrong - but in this case, we were able to help her get to the truth."

While Carlina and her once-distraught family were elated by their reunion, there was also anger at the woman who snatched the baby.

"I want her to suffer," Joy White said of the kidnapper. "I want her to do some time, like I suffered for 23 years."

Childhood filled with lies

Carlina was raised in Bridgeport, Conn., under an alias, Nejdra Nance. She told White that the woman she believed was her mother used phony IDs and Social Security numbers.

Joy White said Carlina told her the woman was a drug user who abused her - once hitting her in the face with a shoe - and often left her alone to baby-sit her younger "brother."

A Bridgeport woman named Mary Pettway confirmed that her daughter, Cassandra, had raised Carlina. She refused to discuss the relationship further.

Cassandra Pettway lives in Georgia, and Mary Pettway said she and Carlina were with her at Christmas.

Reached by The News on her cell phone, Cassandra declined to discuss the family history.

"Are you serious?" she snapped. "What do you think my relationship is with her? Mother? No, that's why I won't talk to the media. They have it all wrong."

It remained unclear how Cassandra Pettway came to raise Carlina. Police have not said who they believe abducted the baby.

"We have our suspicion, but not enough probable cause to make an arrest," NYPD Deputy Commissioner Paul Browne said.

The kidnapped girl said she began questioning whether she was really Pettway's kin after her 16th birthday, prompting her to once write to Oprah Winfrey for help. The nagging doubts led her to bolt last year for Atlanta.

When she was pregnant with her now 5-year-old daughter, Carlina asked her fake mom for some paperwork on her background and received a startling response.

"I found out while I was pregnant. That lady told me she wasn't my mother," Carlina said.
She said she began surfing websites on missing children.

"I came across a baby picture that looked like me," she said.

Even before learning the truth, she had suspicions about the woman who was raising her. "I've always been looking," she said.

She contacted the center for missing children in late December and they found three possible matches - including the 1987 hospital abduction.

DNA test brings elation

The NYPD sent detectives to collect DNA swabs from Carlina and her anxious parents, eventually leading to the improbable reunion Joy White always believed would happen one day.

Just as Carlina didn't need a DNA test to know something wasn't right with her "mother," her birth parents didn't need one to know the beautiful young woman was their missing child.

"I already knew in my heart that this was my daughter," said Tyson, who was 22 when he last saw his daughter. "All I could do was shed tears."

Joy White - who kept a framed picture of her infant daughter on her dresser all these years - screamed with delight when she first saw photos of her grownup girl Jan. 4.

"As soon as I saw those pictures, I said, 'That's my daughter,' " she said yesterday at her Bronx home, clutching her photo of infant Carlina. "I saw myself in her."

The DNA matches came back on Tuesday night to the delight of all. By then, White and Tyson had met the young woman they still call Carlina. She flew up last weekend from Atlanta, bringing her daughter, Samani.

An aunt, Lisa White-Heatley, 47, said she and her relatives prepared a feast of curried chicken, macaroni and cheese, lasagna and oxtail to welcome Carlina back into the fold.
"It wasn't awkward. There was a connection right away. We loved her right away," the aunt said of the reunion.

"We ate and talked and got to know each other... I feel great," she said.

Joy White said meeting her granddaughter for the first time was a bonus.

"I can sleep! I can definitely sleep now because this has been on my mind for so many years," said Joy White.

With Samuel Goldsmith and Kerry Wills

Wednesday, January 19th 2011, 2:32 PM

Dharapak/APInternet rumors spurred on by a fringe group known as 'birthers' insist that President

Obama is not a U.S. citizen.

Gov. Neil Abercrombie

Officials in Hawaii have tracked down papers indicating that President Obama was indeed born in their state, according to its new governor.

Gov. Neil Abercrombie, who took office in December, told Honolulu's Star-Advertiser on Tuesday that "our investigation" indicates there is a recording of his birth.

"It actually exists in the archives, written down," he said.

The new Democratic head of the state vowed when he took office that he would do his best to end the debate over Obama's birth, which began in 2008 during the presidential campaign.

"We'll do what we can as quickly as we can to make it inevitable that only those who wish the President ill, only the ones with a political agenda, will be the ones doing this kind of thing," Abercrombie told CNN in December. "The President is entitled to the respect of his office and he's entitled to have his mother and father respected."

During that interview, Abercrombie said his goal to combat birthers was a personal one.

"It's a matter of principle with me," the 72-year-old said. "I knew his mom and dad. I was here when he was born. Anybody who wants to ask a question honestly could have had their answer already."

On Tuesday, he again promised he would do "what I can do" to publicly verify that records show Obama was born in Hawaii and is a citizen of the United States, making him eligible to be President.

Birthers insist that the President, born in 1961, is not eligible to be commander in chief. The reasons often vary, and have changed and expanded in the two years since the Internet rumor began.

Some believe his Certification of Live Birth is fake and he was really born in Kenya. Others argue that Obama is a citizen of the United Kingdom or Indonesia. Most theories have been dismissed by many in public office and the media, and have been found to be misleading or generally untrue.

However, the conspiracy theories still thrive, and according to Abercrombie, likely will continue despite whatever evidence that shows him to be a proper U.S. citizen.

"You're not going to convince those people because they have a political agenda, or they have minds that go in that kind of direction," he told CNN. "Conspiratorial theorists are never going to be satisfied. This has gone into another area of political attack."

Fred Hanson

The Patriot Ledger

Jan 19, 2011 @ 06:06 AM 

RANDOLPH —

If you’re going to try to sell fake gold jewelry as the real thing, don’t pick William Pace as a potential victim.

Pace not only is the town’s police chief, he runs a jewelry business.

So when a Boston man allegedly offered to sell Pace bogus gold, Pace wasn’t buying.

“I told him this is really not his day. First of all, I’m a cop, and second of all, I’m in the jewelry business,” said Pace, co-owner of William and Kenneth Fine Jewelry in Randolph.

The alleged incident took place at a Sudbury Farms store Sunday. Pace, wearing civilian clothes, was picking up snacks for the Patriots playoff game.

Pace said the suspect tried to sell items to another person before approaching him. He said he offered to sell him a bracelet and a chain for $100.

Pace said the jewelry had 14-karat gold markings but wasn’t the real thing. “Gold has a feel and a look,” he said.

The suspect, identified as Johnnie Butts, 48, of Boston, was taken to the police station. He will be issued a summons to appear in Quincy District Court on a charge of attempt to commit larceny by false pretense.

The chief said Butts had more fake gold jewelry, and police are investigating to see if he sold any.

Alleged Valley spitter faces charge reduced to assault

VIRUS: Wasilla man with hepatitis C faces counts of misdemeanor and felony assault, harassment.

RICHARD MAUER

Anchorage Daily News

January 18th, 2011 10:20 PM
Last Modified: January 18th, 2011 10:20 PM

The attempted second-degree murder charge was later reduced in court to felony and misdemeanor assault.  The man, Andre L. LaFrance, 29, of Wasilla, was also charged with harassment.  He was being held Tuesday in solitary confinement at the Mat-Su Pretrial Facility in Palmer where he was on suicide watch, a state corrections official told the Associated Press.  According to a sworn statement by Alaska State Trooper Ryan Mattingley, LaFrance was initially admitted to the emergency room at Mat-Su Regional Medical Center late Sunday evening because of a drug overdose.   Mattingley didn't identify the drug.  LaFrance was treated and released.   He returned to the emergency room Monday, again complaining of a drug overdose.   This time, the emergency room staff determined he had not overdosed and attempted to release him, Mattingley said."  Andre then claimed to be suicidal and wanted to hurt or kill himself," Mattingley said.   "Staff was attempting to restrain him until troopers could arrive.   Andre stated he would spit on the staff if placed in restraints." 

A nurse managed to get LaFrance in restraints.   LaFrance did what he had threatened: He spit in her face, Mattingley said.

Mattingley said LaFrance knew he carried hepatitis C.   Mattingley said the state's crime computer recorded that LaFrance had told other troopers he had the disease, a sometimes-incurable blood-borne virus that can lead to liver diseases, including cancer.   There's no vaccine for hepatitis C.  According to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control, the virus is most often spread through intravenous drug use, though medical personnel sometimes contract it through accidental needle sticks.   The CDC doesn't consider saliva a major risk factor in spreading the disease.  The CDC says about 3.2 million Americans are infected.  The nurse spat upon by LaFrance also knew that he carried the disease and was concerned she could contract it through her eyes, Mattingley said.   The trooper said she was being tested for the disease.  Dr. Joe McLaughlin, the state epidemiologist, said the virus may be found in the saliva of some infected people, but the risk of spreading it to another person through their eyes "is extremely low."The hospital had no comment Tuesday evening.  The initial charge of attempted second-degree murder said LaFrance had taken "a substantial step" toward killing his victim.   When reduced to third-degree assault, a felony, the charge accused LaFrance of recklessly placing the nurse in fear of imminent serious physical injury "by means of a dangerous instrument, to wit: saliva.  "The harassment charge accused him of engaging in "offensive physical contact" and the misdemeanor assault charge said he used "words or other conduct" to place another person in fear of injury.  At the Mat-Su Pretrial Facility, Corrections Sgt. Walter Erickson said Tuesday that LaFrance is "very, very unstable."

Read more: http://www.adn.com/2011/01/18/1654654/infected-spitter-charged-with.html##ixzz1BUAIjHC5

http://www.nydailynews.com/news/politics/2011/01/18/2011-01-18_liberals_cant_silence_me__defiant_palin.html

Tuesday, January 18th 2011, 11:28 AM

Dharapak/APPresident

Barack Obama's approval rating is the highest its been in more than a year, according to a new poll.

Bam is back.

The President has matched his highest approval rating in more than a year, according to a new ABC News/Washington Post poll.

Fifty-four percent of Americans approve of Obama's job performance. Support for him hasn't been this high since April 2010 after he signed the health care reform bill into law

The number is also a five point rise from December and an eight-point jump from his lowest rating in September -- just before the Democrats took a thrashing in the midterm elections.

A CNN poll echoed the same results this week, with 53% of Americans approving Obama's job performance.

Americans overwhelmingly favored how President Obama handled the Jan. 8 shootings in Tucson, with 78% approving and 13% disapproving, according to the ABC News poll.

An impressive 71% of Republicans said they, too, approved of his response to the rampage, which left six dead and 13 injured, including Rep. Gabrielle Giffords.

In contrast, the poll found that just 30% of those polled approved ex-Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin's response to the shooting, while nearly half, 46%, disapproved.

Palin was blasted after the deadly massacre as critics drew a correlation between the shooting and a map she had posted in the spring showing crosshairs over opponents' districts, including Giffords'.

But it's not all roses for President Obama.

He still faces an uphill battle on major domestic issues, which will likely be spotlighted in the lead up to the 2012 presidential elections. Fifty-one percent disapprove his handling of the economy and 52% disapprove his health care policy.

Leaders in Chechnya have ordered that all couples who plan to marry prove they are HIV-negative

Wednesday, January 19th 2011, 4:00 AM

Olson/GettyChechnya couples must prove they're HIV-negative to wed.

The spiritual leaders of Muslim Chechnya have ordered that all couples who plan to marry prove they are HIV-negative, sparking outrage from activists and residents who say it violates Russian law.

A decade after Moscow drove separatists from power in the second of two wars, Chechnya rests on a shaky peace. Spiritual leaders are gaining influence and power in the region, leading analysts to say Chechnya is evolving toward autonomy once again.

"Any potential bride or groom is obliged to receive a medical certificate proving they are HIV-negative," the Chechen mufti's press service said in a statement this week.

An imam can only approve of a marriage once the HIV-negative certificate is obtained. "Only an official representative from the republic's clergymen has that right," the statement added.

Russia's crippling heroin crisis means it is facing an explosive HIV/AIDS epidemic -- the United Nations says at least 1 million people are HIV-positive -- though Chechnya has been little affected by it.

The order comes after the mufti and other spiritual heads demanded last year a total shutdown of all eateries during the holy month of Ramadan and ordered bands of armed men to harass women who did not wear headscarves.

The mufti's orders have no legal weight but are generally followed because he is a respected spiritual leader and because of his ties to Chechnya's hardline leader Ramzan Kadyrov.

"This is, of course, not within Russian law," said Minkail Ezhiev, a human rights worker and founder of the Chechen Civil Society Forum. "We wish human rights were taken into account here," he told Reuters in Grozny.

The Kremlin relies on Kadyrov, who fought against the Russians in the first war but then switched sides, to maintain order in the violent region in the North Caucasus, where an Islamist insurgency is raging.

But rights workers and analysts say Kadyrov's methods to tame the region include a crackdown on opponents and imposing his radical view of Islam. Kadyrov has dismissed the claims as attempts to blacken his name.

"I fully support the wish to protect people but there is too much power falling into certain hands," said Zelim, a Grozny resident in his early 20s. (Writing by Amie Ferris-Rotman; editing by Noah Barkin)