By CHRIS RUBICH, Of The Billings Gazette Staff

A Billings preschooler has inspired a new educational children’s activity book.

“Dean’s Diggers” (Design Revolutions Media) was written by Karla and Eddie Ritz and illustrated by Eddie Ritz and Dean Frasier.

The book was born of the Ritzes’ son Keyan’s fascination with scrapers and road graders and other heavy machinery.

The couple began reading to Keyan when he was about 2 weeks old, and work on the book started when he was about 2 years old.

As Cobb Field was being torn down and a new ballpark built, Eddie and Keyan  made several trips to the site to catch the action. Photos from the site create backdrops for the pages of the book, which are overlaid with Eddie’s illustrations of the machinery and Frasier’s cartoon sketches of the title character, Dean, which is Keyan’s middle name.

Eddie says Keyan, now 3-1/2, “loves anything with wheels” and has “the best set of diggers I’ve ever seen.” By summer, Keyan plays with his machines in the sandbox. In cold weather, the construction site moves to the family’s pile of pellets for its pellet stove.

Planes also catch Keyan’s eye and appear in the book in the form of fighters flying over Cobb Field.

The flip-and-find book is made of thick cardboard, made sturdy so kids can read and play with it again and again.

In his youth, Eddie helped his father on carpentry jobs. That helped in thinking up fun tools to feature in the book. The pages have icons of everything from a screwdriver to hardhat, shovel to level that kids are asked to match up with elements of the drawings. Kids also get to count items on the pages.

Flaps open to tell more about safety gear, tools and other items at construction sites. Even a watch, spiders and snakes are incorporated into the drawings.

One page is devoted to the letters of the alphabet, each with a drawing of an item starting with that letter. The examples aren’t your usual apple, ball and circle. Instead, kids see an anvil, hammer, insulation, jack, nail gun, ratchet and even a vise and yield sign.

A magnetized puzzle at the end can be assembled in the book, on a table or attached to the refrigerator.

Eddie, who was born in Roundup, started drawing when he was young and later learned computer programs for illustrating. He used his illustration skills at Sutton’s and now is head of the art department for Futura, which does shirts posters and other materials for bands.

Karla, a Billings native, has an elementary-education degree from Christian Heritage College, now San Diego Christian College, and taught at Billings Christian School for 11 years.

That background helped her approach their writing with kids’ perspective in mind. The Ritzes would work to refine the wording, then have others offer their suggestions.

The couple hopes the book encourages other boys to develop an interest in reading and parents to spend time with their children.

The Ritzes are working on a second book, “Adventures of Dean and Jake,” in which the preschooler gets a new dog and his stuffed animals come to life. And more ideas  are taking shape for future stories.

ANICK JESDANUN, AP Technology Writer

NEW YORK (AP) — More people have been arrested in recent years for sexually soliciting youths online, but the sharp increase comes from better enforcement, and the Internet remains a relatively safe social environment, researchers said in a new study.

In a report to be released Tuesday, the researchers saw a nearly fivefold jump in arrests for soliciting undercover investigators who posed as juveniles — to 3,100 in 2006, from 644 in 2000, the last time the study was conducted.

By contrast, arrests for solicitations of actual children increased 21 percent to about 615 in 2006, from an estimated 508 in 2000, during a period in which Internet usage also grew sharply.

The disparity indicates that the rise in arrests largely results from tighter enforcement rather than from an increase in the number of offenders, said David Finkelhor, director of the University of New Hampshire’s Crimes Against Children Research Center, which conducted the study. Otherwise, he said, the rate of growth for the two groups would be more similar.

Throughout the decade, the federal government helped fund Internet Crimes Against Children Task Forces across the country, while some states have updated their laws to address online solicitations.

The large increase in arrests shows that such efforts are working, said John Palfrey, an Internet safety expert at Harvard University who was not involved in the study.

“The law enforcement community should take pride in the fact that they are doing some things right,” said Palfrey, who recently headed a task force charged with assessing technologies for protecting children from unwanted contact online.

The New Hampshire center’s data from 2000 have been widely cited in Internet safety circles, but they predate the popularity of social networks such as News Corp.’s MySpace. In providing the update, the researchers are hoping to assuage fears parents may have about their children spending time in such online hangouts.

Researchers did see solicitations shift from chat rooms, where children used to be propositioned most frequently, to online social networks, as young people spend more time there. But the researchers found no evidence that minors were being lured by predators based on the personal information they post. Rather, they said, youths often were actively seeking relationships with people they knew to be adults.

The researchers also say that the arrests of online predators in 2006 represent just 1 percent of all arrests for sex crimes against minors, which declined overall.

Both sets of arrest figures represent estimates from mail and telephone surveys with more than 2,500 law-enforcement agencies. The 2000 study was based on arrests from July 1, 2000, to June 30, 2001, while the 2006 data were for that calendar year.

A small number of individuals were arrested for both soliciting an undercover agent and a child; those cases were included only in the total for youths.

Copyright 2009 The Associated Press.

LINDSEY TANNER, AP Medical Writer

CHICAGO (AP) — An influential government-appointed medical panel is urging doctors to routinely screen all American teenagers 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 a host of health issues.

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

An estimated 6 percent of U.S. 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. Its new guidance goes beyond the pediatrics academy, which advises pediatricians to ask teen patients questions about depression. Other doctor groups advise screening only high-risk youngsters.

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.

The group recommends research-tested screening tests even for kids without symptoms. It cited two questionnaires that focus on depression tip-offs, such as mood, anxiety, appetite and substance abuse.

Calonge stressed that the panel does not want its advice to lead to drug treatment alone, particularly antidepressants that have been linked with increased risks for suicidal thoughts. Routine depression testing should only occur if psychotherapy is also readily available, the panel said. Calonge said screening once yearly likely would be enough.

The recommendations come at a pivotal time for treatment of depression and other mental health problems in children.

Recently passed federal mental health equity legislation mandates equal coverage for mental and physical ailments in insurance plans offering both. The law is expected to prompt many more adults and children to seek mental health care.

Yet at the same time psychiatrists specializing in treating children and teens are scarce. A separate report, also released Monday in the Pediatrics journal, says primary care doctors including pediatricians and family physicians will need to get more involved in mental health care.

That report is from the pediatrics academy and the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry. The groups say pediatricians should routinely consult with child psychiatrists, including working in the same office when possible. And it says insurers should compensate pediatricians for any mental health services they provide.

Dr. Alan Axelson, a Pittsburgh psychiatrist who co-authored the second report, praised the task force recommendations and said pediatricians can play a key role.

Because children’s families often get to know their pediatricians, having those doctors offer mental health screening can help make it seem less stigmatizing, Axelson said.

Most pediatricians aren’t trained to do psychotherapy, but they can prescribe depression medication and monitor patients they’ve referred to others for therapy, he said.

Dr. Ted Epperly, president of the American Academy of Family Physicians, said his group strongly supports both Pediatrics reports.

While primary care doctors have full plates just dealing with physical ailments, many recognize the importance of providing mental health services — and many already do, Epperly said.

It isn’t always as time-consuming as it might seem; some screening questionnaires can be filled out by patients in the waiting room, Epperly said. Doctors can easily spot any red flags.

___

On the Net:

Preventive Services Task Force: http://www.ahrq.gov/clinic/USpstfix.htm

American Academy of Pediatrics: http://www.aap.org/

Copyright 2009 The Associated Press.

GREG BLUESTEIN, Associated Press Writer

Maxine Poris spent that chilly January week with her two daughters watching movies, trading stories about their childhood, even ordering the rare daiquiri for lunch.

If there was any time for drinking, they figured, this was it.

One night, Maxine — who at 64 looked more like she was 84 — talked about her mistakes, the things she wished she had done better. She apologized for not being a better mother, for not always being there for her kids, for sometimes being too difficult to bear.

Her daughter, Lisa Lieberman, told her it was OK, that she understood.

Maxine knew her days were dwindling — but not because any doctor had said her condition was terminal. In declining health, she had decided to end her life; in a few days, a group called the Final Exit Network would travel to her home in Charleston, S.C., and guide her to her death.

Final Exit’s efforts have drawn the outrage of many — just last month, authorities in Georgia arrested its president and three other members and froze the group’s assets.

But Lisa says the network helped her mother free herself. And knowing that the end was near, the girls and their mother had an opportunity to share a long goodbye.

One day, Maxine took her daughters to the shores of Folly Beach. She didn’t want a funeral, didn’t want a fuss, she said. She just wanted them to scatter her ashes here, the same place where she had spread the ashes of her beloved dog two years earlier.

Both the daughters asked if they could also keep some of her ashes.

“Isn’t that kind of morbid?” Maxine asked.

Lisa couldn’t help but smile. Then her mother and sister started to chuckle.

The whole thing was morbid.

___

Maxine was always a bit distant with her daughters. She seemed withdrawn, depressed, emotionally detached through much of their childhood. Lisa thinks it’s because her mother got married too young, at 20, and to the wrong person.

Her parents moved from Chicago to New Orleans when Lisa was 14, and they would divorce soon after. Two years later, Lisa went to live with her father’s relatives in California.

For years, their connection was limited to birthday cards and the occasional letter. They reunited at Lisa’s sister’s wedding about a decade ago, and then went their separate ways.

About three years ago, as Lisa neared her 40th birthday, she began to see her parents as folks who tried to do the best they could raising their children. She decided to rekindle her relationship with her mother.

It came at the right time. Maxine was sick and getting sicker.

Her hips, her legs, her back ached. She suffered from fibromyalgia, from osteoporosis, from acid reflux, from a degenerative joint disease. Two knee replacements and one hip replacement didn’t help — she told people it felt like she was walking on tree trunks.

She couldn’t sleep most nights because she suffered from insomnia. She would tire after walking just a few blocks — or if it was hot, cold or windy outside. She was having bracing pains in her jaw and chest, pains her doctor told her was due to an enlarged heart.

Lisa can’t pinpoint the time when or how her mother found the Final Exit Network. But Maxine sent the group a letter in September laying out her case in painstaking detail.

“I am seeking your help because I no longer want to live. I want to die because I have zero quality of life left. I am a shell of the person I used to be.”

Maxine couldn’t help but compare herself to her 15-year-old mutt, who was put to sleep by her veterinarian about two years earlier.

“I knew it was what she wanted,” she wrote. “I could see it in her eyes. She had had enough. Well I have had enough too. Please help me put myself out of my misery.

“That would be the kindest thing anyone could do for me.”

___

It took a while for Maxine to muster the courage to tell her daughters. She was afraid of their reaction, maybe afraid of her own reaction. But she called Lisa in December, about a week after her daughter’s 42nd birthday, to explain her decision.

She spent about 20 minutes laying out her argument, explaining her worsening physical condition.

Lisa didn’t want to believe it — she couldn’t believe it. She tried to talk her mother out of it. Perhaps Maxine was just lonely. Why not live with Lisa in California?

Maxine didn’t want to be a burden.

Why not take more prescriptions, or seek more treatment?

The doctor said he can’t legally prescribe any more — she was already taking too much.

What about illegal medications from across the border, or medical marijuana?

She didn’t want to be strung out for the rest of her days, Maxine said. And she could not endure a lifetime of unbearable pain.

Slowly, gradually, Lisa began to understand her mother’s decision.

She was finally convinced by Maxine’s fears that she could spend the rest of her life suffering silently in a nursing home.

“I know I could have called the police, a psychiatrist, because I guess it’s illegal,” Lisa said. “But she was my mother and I respected her decision. I thought she had the right to do what she thought was the best for herself.

“And she kept on saying, ‘I know this is right for me.’”

Lisa talked with the Final Exit Network members who were working with her mother, and grew to trust them. The group insists it doesn’t assist suicide, but rather helps those who suffer from incurable diseases and intolerable pain end their lives. It says it uses a careful screening process and fights for a person’s right to “self-determine” their lives.

The network screened her medical history and sent guides to talk to her. She bought two tanks of helium and a hood. They told her how to put the device together, how to turn it on, that it would be like going to sleep. And that they would be with her to hold her hand.

In a messy cursive, Maxine wrote a letter to her daughters, outlining the plan.

“On Feb. 9,” she wrote, “I will end my life because of pain I can no longer stand.

“I killed myself. I am responsible for my death, not FEN. FEN did not urge me to take my life. I alone assembled the helium tanks, and the tubing. I bought the helium, the mask, the tubing. I turned the tank’s switch. I alone am responsible for my death.”

___

Final Exit’s critics are many. “Instead of dealing with ways to support” the sick and the disabled, “we can pat ourselves on the back and say we’re compassionate and kill them,” said Stephen Drake of Not Dead Yet, an advocacy group for the disabled that opposes assisted suicide and euthanasia.

To Ted Goodwin — Final Exit’s former president, a man who said he has helped 39 people end their lives — this is not assisted suicide. Instead, he says, he’s merely guiding people to end their lives on their own, and he’s there to lend comfort and support when they do.

Some of these people may be able to kill themselves on their own. But Goodwin says that the group offers a painless and compassionate way to end their lives. To some, it also might offer a sense of validation, a way to justify their decision.

By the time he spoke with Maxine, he said, she didn’t feel she could live anymore. But Maxine wouldn’t decide on a date until her family came to terms with her decision.

“Once she had secured their approval — she knew she had their love — but once she knew that this was OK, and that they would go on in a positive fashion, she was good with this,” he said.

Goodwin was one of the four group members arrested last month on charges of assisting the suicide of a 58-year-old Georgia man. He wouldn’t discuss the circumstances of Maxine’s death due to the pending court case. But he was with her as she died.

Death is, inevitably, a tremendously lonely process, Goodwin said.

“We have to go through this alone no matter how much family loves us, no matter how much family and friends are around us — we endure this alone. And it feels helpless as a family member not to be able to do more, to stop this, to reverse this.

“Yet acceptance is the key to going on in life. We are all going to die.”

___

Lisa wanted to be there to comfort her mother until her dying breath. But Maxine said it would be too traumatic, so Lisa reluctantly returned to her home in Three Rivers, Calif., a speck of a town more than 2,000 miles away.

The night before Lisa and her sister left her mother’s apartment, the family watched the movie “Pineapple Express” together. Luckily, Lisa thought, her mother slept through most of it. She didn’t want the last movie they saw together to be a bad one.

Lisa kept watching for any hesitation, any inkling that her mom had second thoughts. If she had wavered at all, Lisa was ready with an alternative.

But Maxine had made up her mind.

The next day, the sisters woke at 5 a.m. to catch their flight home. They piled into the car with their mother. There was little conversation.

They pulled up to the airport and Maxine gave her daughters one final assurance.

“Don’t worry,” she said. “This is the right thing.”

They hugged each other, and then Maxine shuffled to the driver’s seat to head home. The family held hands one last time.

And then they said goodbye.

Lisa took off work Monday, Feb. 9, and headed to a gas station to put snow chains on her car. She spoke with her mother one last time to say goodbye.

Then she drove through the white mountains of Sequoia National Park and pulled off to a lonely trail.

She put on her snowshoes and headed into the quiet.

She wanted to be somewhere beautiful.

___

This story is based on interviews with Lisa Lieberman and Ted Goodwin, as well as court documents and letters Maxine sent to her daughters and to the Final Exit Network.

Copyright 2009 The Associated Press.

By Deborah L. Shelton, Chicago Tribune

CHICAGO — Rapid weight gain during the first six months of life appears to increase the chances that a child will be obese by age 3, according to a new study in the April issue of the journal Pediatrics.

The study found that sudden weight gain in early infancy was more important than how much a baby weighed at birth, the weight of the infant’s parents or the number of pounds put on by the mother during pregnancy.

“The perception has been that a chubby baby and a baby that grows fast early in life is healthier and all the baby fat will disappear,” said the paper’s lead author, Dr. Elsie Taveras, an assistant professor in Harvard Medical School’s ambulatory care and prevention department. “But (that) is not the case.”

Taveras was quick to point out, however, that parents should not put their chunky babies on diets.

“More work needs to be done to determine why rapid weight gain in infancy occurs before we can develop policy, clinical protocols and interventions,” said Taveras, who is also co-director of the One Step Ahead clinic, a pediatric overweight prevention program at Children’s Hospital Boston.

Health professionals have been struggling to understand why the nation’s children are ballooning in weight, as childhood obesity has been linked to a host of chronic diseases later in life.

Other studies have looked at the link between obesity and birth weight, but the Pediatrics study was the first to look at rates of weight gain in relation to body length during infancy as a factor.

The study involved 559 mother-child pairs living in the Boston area; 72 percent were nonwhite and about 33 percent had a household income of less than $70,000.

Researchers used measures of body weight and length together — referred to as weight-for-length — because the combination gave a better picture of a child’s body fat composition than weight alone, much in the same way that body mass index is used as a measure of adult body fat.

The link between rapid infant weight gain and obesity by age 3 was striking, even after adjusting for factors such as premature birth and being underweight at birth. For example, an infant weighing 18.4 pounds after six months had a 40 percent greater risk of obesity at age 3 than did an infant of the same birth weight who grew to 16.9 pounds.

Taveras said the study, funded by the National Institutes of Health, did not look at why some infants gained weight suddenly; possibilities include prenatal factors or too-frequent feeding.

Some local physicians were skeptical of the findings. Dr. Mary Hall, a pediatrician in private practice in Skokie, Ill., said it’s not always the case that children who gain weight fast early on become obese later. “Some children stabilize between 6 and 9 months of age,” she said.

Hall said she advises parents of pudgy babies to make sure they are not responding to all of their baby’s needs with food.

“They may need to hold the baby, change the baby’s diaper, or the baby may be tired,” she said. “I tell them to make sure they’re not responding to every cry with formula, or nursing the baby when the baby doesn’t need it.”

Dr. Samuel Grief, associate professor in clinical family medicine at University of Illinois at Chicago, said he wasn’t sold on the idea that a child could be predisposed to obesity so young.

“My gut reaction is that I take this as another piece of the puzzle,” said Grief, an expert on obesity. “However, this doesn’t solve the dilemma about how to bring up children in a healthy manner. Parents should model the behavior children will learn the rest of their lives — eat sensibly, with variety and with common-sense, without developing obsessions.”

___

(c) 2009, Chicago Tribune.

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

By Roger Moore, The Orlando Sentinel

MONSTERS VS. ALIENS

Rating: PG for sci-fi action, some crude humor and mild language.

What it’s about: The government has the monsters locked up until the aliens invade and we need monster help.

The kid attractor factor: Three-D animation, big sight gags, a few kiddie-gross moments.

Good lessons/bad lessons: Don’t let someone else lower your expectations or limit your possibilities.

Violence: Pretty serious “sci-fi” action brawls.

Language: Mild.

Sex: None at all.

Drugs: None.

Parents’ advisory: Adults will recognize the old horror movie creatures mocked in this fun-for-the-whole-family sci-fi mashup.

___

THE HAUNTING IN CONNECTICUT

Rating: PG-13 for some intense sequences of terror and disturbing images.

What it’s about: A stressed family moves into an old funeral home and is shocked, SHOCKED, to see ghosts.

The kid attractor factor: Things that go bump and “boo” in the night.

Good lessons/bad lessons: If the rent is cheap, there’s probably something the Realtor left out.

Violence: Yes.

Language: Not as much profanity as you might expect.

Sex: None.

Drugs: Alcohol is abused.

Parents’ advisory: A horror movie that is Amityville-ish in tone, with shocks but not gore.

___

(c) 2009, The Orlando Sentinel (Fla.).

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Information Services.

LINDSEY TANNER, AP Medical Writer

CHICAGO (AP) — Doctors are puzzling over what seems to be an increase in the number of children with kidney stones, a condition some blame on kids’ love of cheeseburgers, fries and other salty foods.

Kidney stones are usually an adult malady, one that is notorious for causing excruciating pain — pain worse than childbirth. But while the number of affected children isn’t huge, kids with kidney stones have been turning up in rising numbers at hospitals around the country.

At Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, the number of children treated for kidney stones since 2005 has climbed from about 10 a year to five patients a week now, said Dr. Pasquale Casale.

Johns Hopkins Children Center in Baltimore, a referral center for children with stones, used to treat one or two youngsters a year 15 or so years ago. Now it gets calls about new cases every week, said kidney specialist Dr. Alicia Neu.

In a 2007 study in the Journal of Urology, doctors at North Shore-Long Island Jewish Medical Center reported a nearly fivefold increase in children brought in with kidney stones between 1994 and 2005. In 2005, 61 youngsters were treated there for stones.

Dr. David Hatch at Loyola University Medical Center in Maywood, Ill., near Chicago, also has seen an increase. His youngest patient was a cranky 8-month-old girl whose mother found a pea-size kidney stone in her diaper.

Kids’ stones have been the talk of recent pediatric kidney specialists’ conferences, said Dr. Uri Alon, director of the bone and mineral disorders clinic at Children’s Mercy Hospital in Kansas City.

So far, the only evidence is anecdotal. But Alon is involved in research trying to determine if the increase is real and not just the result of greater awareness and better ways of detecting stones. Alon also is studying whether improved nutrition can prevent kids’ kidney stones.

Eating too much salt can result in excess calcium in the urine. In children, most stones are calcium-based, and Alon said their eating habits, plus drinking too little water, puts them at risk. Plenty of water is generally recommended to help prevent kidney stones.

Matty Billemeyer is just 8 years old but already has had four bouts with stones, the first in 2007, the last a year ago in April. He was first stricken in his first-grade class; the school nurse, his parents and even the emergency room doctors all thought it was his appendix.

“It felt really painful and intense,” the Doylestown, Pa., boy recalled. “I was really scared because it was hurting a lot.”

Darryl Billemeyer said it was frightening seeing his son writhing and screaming in pain. The boy was transferred from a local hospital to Children’s Hospital of Philadelphia, where ultrasound tests showed kidney stones.

“We really didn’t know what to make of it,” Billemeyer said. “I definitely thought they were more of an adult thing.”

The first time, Matty needed surgery; the other times the stones passed during urination.

Now he takes diuretic pills to increase urination, brings a water bottle to school everyday, and has given up favorite foods, including sausages, pickles and packaged ramen noodles — all high in salt.

His parents are both busy teachers, and with four other sons, family meals used to include quick processed foods like canned spaghetti or chicken nuggets. Until Matty’s diagnosis, salt “wasn’t something we really thought about,” Billemeyer said.

The main problem associated with kidney stones is extreme pain. It is caused by stones blocking urine flow, which, if untreated, could lead to kidney damage.

The preferred treatment is observation — giving kids pain medicine but nothing else to see if the stones will pass on their own. Stones can be as small as a sugar granule or as large as a pearl. Bigger ones have been reported but are rare; most are less than 1/4 inch in diameter, which can usually pass on their own. But even small ones can mean incredible pain.

When that doesn’t happen, the patient is anesthetized and doctors may thread a slender scope through the urinary tract to break up and remove the stone. Other treatment may involve noninvasive shock-wave therapy that uses sound waves to break up the stone, or minimally invasive surgery.

Dr. Barry Duel, a pediatric urologist at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles, said kidney stones can be a sign of underlying metabolic problems that result in too much calcium in the urine. But he said in most cases children have no underlying disorder and are otherwise healthy.

Still, because some metabolic problems can slow growth if untreated or lead to repeated bouts with kidney stones, the American Academy of Pediatrics recommends metabolic testing for all children with kidney stones.

Hatch, the Loyola urologist, said the best prevention is plenty of water, so that the minerals in urine stay dissolved.

How much water depends on a child’s size, but for an average-size 10-year-old it would be about four cups a day, on top of whatever else they are drinking. That is far more than most kids drink.

“What I like to tell kids is that they should drink enough water to keep their pee almost clear,” Hatch said.

For children who have had one kidney stone, doctors sometimes recommend fresh-squeezed lemonade or other citrus juice, which can help keep the urine from forming stones.

___

On the Net:

National Institutes of Health:http://www.nlm.nih.gov/medlineplus/kidneystones.html

Copyright 2009 The Associated Press.

By SARA KINCAID, Bismarck Tribune

Students and employees from three flood-affected elementary schools in Bismarck will attend classes in alternate locations today.

Prairie Rose and Solheim elementary schools were closed Tuesday afternoon because of flood risk, and Riverside Elementary School was closed Wednesday morning because of flood risk.

“The city asked us to evacuate,” Superintendent Paul Johnson said about the school closures.

Students and staff from Prairie Rose Elementary School will go to Miller Elementary School, 1989 N. 20th St.; Solheim students and staff will go to Centennial Elementary School, 2800 Ithica Drive; and Riverside students and staff will go to Pioneer Elementary School, 1400 Braman Ave.

Busing will be available for Riverside students, and rural busing will be available for Prairie Rose students. Parents need to arrange transportation for Solheim students.

No after-school programs will be held at Prairie Rose, Solheim or Riverside, and parent-teacher conferences were cancelled.

When Riverside students were evacuated Wednesday, they were taken to Bismarck High School, where a reunification site was formed in the Karlgaard Gym. By 2:30 p.m. all the students were picked up.

The Bismarck School District already closed Prairie Rose and Solheim elementary schools Tuesday at the behest of the city. Flooding risk comes from the Missouri River, Apple Creek and storm sewer backup. School district employees spent Wednesday taking student records and computers out of the buildings.

The closures of the three elementary schools affects 876 students. The school principals devised a plan to send the students to other schools today.

Johnson visited with administrators in Grand Forks and Fargo to help create a plan to deal with the area flooding. Each school in the district has an evacuation plan that includes a reunification site for parents and students. So far, the district has only needed it for Riverside.

Other schools on the south end of town are not at risk of flooding, Johnson said. Those schools are Myhre Elementary School, Moses Elementary School and Wachter Middle School.

“We are in contact with the city and county, and they advised us not to close” those schools, Johnson said.

Teachers from Solheim and Riverside elementary schools were assigned as substitute teachers in other schools Wednesday. This gave the district coverage for teachers who needed to attend to their homes. Johnson did not know how many teachers were not at work.

About 170 high school students from Bismarck helped fill sandbags Wednesday morning. The district released high school students to aid in sandbag efforts without attendance penalties.

Mandan Public Schools were open Wednesday, but the University of Mary cancelled classes Wednesday morning.

Nearby rural schools were open Wednesday, including Apple Creek and Baldwin. New Salem schools were open, but buses were running late.

(Reach reporter Sara Kincaid at 250-8251 or sara.kincaid@bismarcktribune.com.)

For a complete listing of all Tribune flood coverage go to http://www.bismarcktribune.com/floods/

By Christy Lemire, AP Movie Critic

“Monsters vs. Aliens” — Classic creatures from the 1950s get a high-tech makeover, with a healthy amount of attitude, in this 3-D animated adventure. The Blob, The Creature from the Black Lagoon, The Fly — they’re are all here, led by The 50-Foot Woman, who’s now 49 feet, 11 inches as voiced by the diminutive Reese Witherspoon. (Animation, by the way, is a great fit for her, and for both the crispness and sweetness in her voice.) Far from being menacing, they’re optimistic misfits who just want to be loved and understood. Rather than destroying each other, they’re loyal friends who’ve been trapped together as government test subjects, only to be unleashed on the world when an alien invasion requires their unique powers. It’s an enormously clever concept — no pun intended — with a choice voice cast. Who else but Seth Rogen could play a lovable blue blob named B.O.B., who always has a smile on his gelatinous face? Will Arnett essentially revives his hilariously cocky-but-clueless “Arrested Development” character, Gob Bluth II, as the half-fish, half-ape Missing Link, and Hugh Laurie lends his rich voice to the British mad scientist Dr. Cockroach. Directors Rob Letterman (“Shark Tale”) and Conrad Vernon (“Shrek 2″), working from a script from about a half-dozen people, maintain a high energy throughout, although the explosive climax feels bombastic and repetitive. While bright and colorful, the three-dimensional effects in these situations never really inspire a sense of awe. Rather, they provide a tangible sense of depth but fall short of completely immersing you. PG for sci-fi action, some crude humor and mild language. 94 min. Two and a half stars out of four.

Copyright 2009 The Associated Press.

JESSIE L. BONNER, Associated Press Writer

POCATELLO, Idaho (AP) — Good morning, class, and welcome to U.S. history, brought to you by Molto Caldo Pizzeria.

In a cash-strapped Idaho high school where signs taped near every light switch remind the staff to save electricity, an enterprising teacher has struck a sponsorship deal with a local pizza shop: Every test, handout and worksheet he passes out to his students reads MOLTO’S PIZZA 14″ 1 TOPPING JUST $5 in bright red, inch-high letters printed along the bottom of every page.

“I just wanted to find a way to save money,” said Jeb Harrison, who teaches history and economics. “We have to sell ads for our yearbook, for our school newspaper. I don’t think this small amount of advertising will change my classroom.”

School officials were not wild about the idea, but Pocatello High School Principal Don Cotant relented after Harrison explained the advertisements could help illuminate such topics as the Great Depression.

“I had concerns. I didn’t know what this would open up for us,” Cotant said. “But we’ve let this happen because it makes a point about what economic hard times can force people to do.”

As school districts across the country face the worst economic outlook in decades, educators who have long reached into their own pockets to buy classroom supplies are finding creative ways to cover expenses. But selling ads on schoolwork is practically unheard of.

The 12,000-student school district in and around Pocatello — an old railroad town of about 55,000, where Idaho State University and a semiconductor plant are among the biggest employers — is looking at a shortfall of up to $10 million next year because of expected cuts in state aid. A tax increase was voted down last month, and school officials have frozen spending on field trips, teacher training and basic supplies such as paper.

Molto Caldo Pizzeria, about a mile from the high school, agreed to supply paper for Harrison’s five classes — 10,000 sheets, valued at $315, and imprinted with a pizza ad. That should be enough paper for the rest of this school year and all of the next one.

On a recent day, Harrison handed out photocopies of Dust Bowl images, emblazoned with the pizza ad. The ad also appeared on an economics test he gave last week on the Depression.

“I thought it was a great idea. I mean, the levy didn’t pass. We can’t get enough money from the state. We’ve got to find some way to get it,” said one of Harrison’s students, 17-year-old Benjamin Simms.

Marianne Donnelly, chairwoman of the school board, said the ad apparently violates a district policy barring schools from directly promoting businesses. But she said the board considers the ad harmless and is not making an issue out of it.

“Give the teacher credit for creativity,” Donnelly said. “There’s no question we’re in desperate financial straits.”

Elsewhere, nonprofit organizations are helping teachers obtain free or discounted classroom supplies, and Web sites match educators with benefactors willing to buy materials. But Harrison’s approach has at least one critic worried the idea will spread.

“It crosses a line,” said Susan Linn, a Harvard psychologist and director of the Campaign for a Commercial-Free Childhood. “When teachers start becoming pitchmen for products, children suffer and their education suffers as well.”

Earlier this school year in San Diego, Rancho Bernardo High School math instructor Tom Farber allowed students’ parents and local businesses to pay $10 to print messages on quizzes, $20 for space on tests and $30 for final exams. Most parents printed inspirational messages, some started plugging their businesses. He raised $625 in one semester.

District administrators expressed concern that the practice could lead to legal problems if an ad were ever rejected, but Farber ended the practice before they could intervene. He sold his last ad in January, after making enough to get through the rest of the year.

“If the district says I can’t do it, then they need to provide the money necessary for me to do my job,” Farber said.

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Copyright 2009 The Associated Press.