By Brett Fromhold

Brett-Fromhold@mocs.utc.edu

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn. (UTC/Loop) — Police said a Chattanooga woman has been arrested for stabbing her 15-year-old daughter in the back, just above a kidney.

A police statement said Donna Alicia Ray was charged with aggravated child abuse Sunday night following the stabbing in an argument between the two.

Police reports show Ray came home, smelled smoke inside, saw children outside and assumed her daughter had been doing something wrong.

In the argument that followed, Ray allegedly picked up an iron and her daughter picked up a knife. At some point, the daughter tried to walk away but Ray retrieved a larger knife and stabbed her daughter.

The teen underwent surgery and is in stable condition. Ray was taken to the Hamilton County Jail. Police did not have any record of a lawyer.

By Ross McClellon

hlj687@mocs.utc.edu

NAIROBI, Kenya (UTC/Loop) — Kenya’s former president called her a mad woman. Seen as a threat to the rich and powerful, Wangari Maathai was beaten, arrested and vilified for the simple act of planting a tree, a natural wonder Maathai believed could reduce poverty and conflict.

Former elementary students who planted saplings alongside her, world leaders charmed by her message and African visionaries on Monday remembered a woman some called the Tree Mother of Africa. Maathai, Africa’s first female winner of the Nobel Peace Prize, died late Sunday in a Nairobi hospital following a battle with cancer. She was 71.

Maathai believed that a healthy environment helped improve lives by providing clean water and firewood for cooking, thereby decreasing conflict. The Kenyan organization she founded planted 30 million trees in hopes of improving the chances for peace, a triumph for nature that inspired the U.N. to launch a worldwide campaign that resulted in 11 billion trees planted.

Maathai, a university professor with a warm smile and college degrees from the United States, staged popular protests that bedeviled former President Daniel arap Moi, a repressive and autocratic ruler who called her “a mad woman” who was a threat to the security of Kenya.

In the summer of 1998, the Kenyan government was giving land to political allies in a protected forest on Nairobi’s outskirts. Maathai began a campaign to reclaim the land, culminating in a confrontation with 200 hired thugs armed with machetes and bows and arrows. When Maathai tried to plant a tree, she and her cohorts were attacked with whips, clubs and stones. Maathai received a bloody gash on her head.

“Many said, ‘She is just planting trees.’ But that was important, not only from an environmental perspective, to stop the desert from spreading, but also as a way to activate women and fight the Daniel arap Moi regime,” said Geir Lundestad, director of the Nobel Institute, which awarded Maathai the peace prize in 2004.

“Wangari Maathai combined the protection of the environment, with the struggle for women’s rights and fight for democracy,” he said.

Maathai said during her 2004 Peace Prize acceptance speech that the inspiration for her life’s work came from her childhood experiences in rural Kenya. There she witnessed forests being cleared and replaced by commercial plantations, which destroyed biodiversity and the capacity of forests to conserve water.

After arap Moi left government, Maathai served as an assistant minister for the environment and natural resources ministry.

Although the tree-planting campaign launched by her group, the Green Belt Movement, did not initially address the issues of peace and democracy, Maathai said it became clear over time that responsible governance of the environment was not possible without democracy.

“Therefore, the tree became a symbol for the democratic struggle in Kenya. Citizens were mobilized to challenge widespread abuses of power, corruption and environmental mismanagement,” Maathai said.

Maathai’s work was quickly recognized by groups and governments the world over, winning awards, accolades and partnerships with powerful organizations. Meanwhile, her dedication to nature remained, as could be seen in her role in a movie called “Dirt! The Movie,” where Maathai narrated the story of a hummingbird carrying one drop of water at a time to fight a forest fire, even as animals like the elephant asked why the hummingbird was wasting his energy.

“It turns to them and tells them, ‘I’m doing the best I can.’ And that to me is what all of us should do. We should always feel like a hummingbird,” she said. “I certainly don’t want to be like the animals watching as the planet goes down the drain. I will be a hummingbird. I will do the best I can.”

Recognizing that never-say-die attitude, Kenyan Prime Minister Raila Odinga said Maathai’s death “strikes at the core of our nation’s heart.” Odinga said Maathai died just as the causes she fought for were getting the attention they deserve.

The United Nations Environment Program called Maathai one of Africa’s foremost environmental campaigners and recalled that Maathai was the inspiration behind UNEP’s 2006 Billion Tree Campaign. More than 11 billion trees have been planted so far.

“Wangari Maathai was a force of nature. While others deployed their power and life force to damage, degrade and extract short term profit from the environment, she used hers to stand in their way, mobilize communities and to argue for conservation and sustainable development over destruction,” said Achim Steiner, the executive director of UNEP.

Tributes poured out for Maathai online, including from Kenyans who remember planting trees alongside her as schoolchildren. One popular Twitter posting noted that Maathai’s knees always seemed to be dirty from showing VIPs how to plant trees. Another poster, noting Nairobi’s cloudy skies Monday, said: “No wonder the sun is not shining today.”

Her quest to see fewer trees felled and more planted saw her face off against Kenya’s powerful elite. At least three times during her activist years she was physically attacked, including being clubbed unconscious by police during a hunger strike in 1992.

Archbishop Desmond Tutu on Monday called Maathai a “true African heroine.” The Nelson Mandela Foundation also expressed sadness. The foundation hosted Maathai in 2005, when she headlined the foundation’s annual lecture.

“We need people who love Africa so much that they want to protect her from destructive processes,” she said in her address. “There are simple actions we can take. Start by planting 10 trees we each need to absorb the carbon dioxide we exhale.”

The spokesman for U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon said Maathai was a “pioneer in articulating the links between human rights, poverty, environmental protection and security.”

A long time friend and fellow professor at the University of Nairobi, Vertistine Mbaya said that Maathai showed the world how important it is to have and demonstrate courage.

“The values she had for justice and civil liberties and what she believed were the obligations of civil society and government,” Mbaya said. “She also demonstrated the importance of recognizing the contributions that women can make and allowing them the open space to do so.”

Njeri Gatonyo, a member of the Green Belt Movement board, said Maathai’s organization will continue with the work that Maathai began in 1977. Mbaya said work would continue to establish a Wangari Maathai Institute for Environmental Studies and Peace at the University of Nairobi.

Maathai was the first woman to earn a doctorate in East Africa — in 1971 from the University of Nairobi, where she later was an associate professor in the department of veterinary anatomy. She previously earned degrees from Mount St. Scholastica College — now Benedictine College — in Atchison, Kansas and the University of Pittsburgh.

The Green Belt Movement said on its website that Maathai’s death was a great loss to those who “admired her determination to make the world a more peaceful, healthier and better place.” Edward Wageni, the group’s deputy executive director, said Maathai died in a Nairobi hospital late Sunday. Maathai had been in and out of the hospital since the beginning of the year, he said.

Maathai is survived by three children. Funeral arrangements were to be announced soon, the Green Belt Movement said.

___

Associated Press writer Malin Rising in Stockholm, Sweden contributed to this report.

___

Online:

http://greenbeltmovement.org

NEW YORK (UTC/TheLoop) — Stocks moved between slight gains and losses Monday after new home sales fell to a six-month low in the U.S. and investors remained concerned about Europe’s debt crisis.

The government reported that new home sales fell for the fourth straight month in August, even though the summer is traditionally a peak time for home-buying. The decline suggests that the weak housing market is still a major drag on the U.S. economy.

Europe’s debt problems also pushed stocks lower. European leaders met in Washington this weekend and pledged to take bolder steps to fight the debt problems, which threaten to slow the global economy. But they offered few specifics.

Officials have talked about increasing the $595 billion European rescue fund by allowing it to take loans from the European Central Bank. Economists have also suggested that the central bank cut interest rates. But both proposals face opposition.

The Dow Jones industrial average rose 51 points, or 0.5 percent, to 10,823 shortly after 10:30 a.m. It had been up as many as 127 points earlier in the day.

The Standard & Poor’s 500 fell less than a point, or 0.1 percent, to 1,134. The Nasdaq composite index fell 25, or 1 percent, to 2,458.

Investors have been on edge about Europe’s debt problems for months. Last week, the Dow Jones industrial average fell 6.4 percent. That was the biggest drop since the week ended Oct. 10, 2008, when it fell 18 percent at the height of the financial crisis.

Greece is at risk of defaulting on its debt next month if it does not receive the next installment of a bailout package. If that happens, banks that hold Greek bonds would lose money. Analysts also worry that the economies in Europe and the U.S. could slip into another recession.

Boeing Co. rose 1.8 percent after the company delivered its first 787 aircraft to Japan’s All Nippon Airways. An analyst said the company’s earnings should rise for the next few years if the company is able to maintain steady production.

Berkshire Hathaway’s Class B shares rose 5.6 percent to $70.06, the most of any S&P 500 stock, after the company announcing a plan to repurchase stock for the first since 1965.

Clorox Co. fell 6 percent to $65.68 after Carl Icahn withdrew his slate of directors. That suggested the activist investor was unable to find a buyer for the consumer products company.

Celicia Chacon says she did not agree with the government decision to break up a march against the highway project and detain hundreds of protesters.

About 100 protesters seized the landing strip in the town of Rurrenabaque on Monday to prevent police from using it to fly detainees out of the area.

The protest poses a dilemma for President Evo Morales. While he sympathizes with Indian causes, he says the 190-mile (300-kilometer) highway is essential for Bolivia’s economy. It is to connect Brazil with Pacific ports in Chile and Peru.

Police said it was not clear if any suspects remained on the loose or were among the dead, and warned residents of the sparsely populated, wooded area near the town of Laurel to be careful.

“We have five dead people and we’re trying to find out how they died,” said Sgt. Jerry Goodin, spokesman for the Indiana State Police. “Some of the victims had gunshot wounds, or what appear to be gunshot wounds.”

The Marion County coroner’s office in Indianapolis was scheduled to perform autopsies Monday.

Police did not immediately release the identities of the victims, pending notification of family members. Goodwin said Sunday he did not know “if the shooter or shooters could be among the deceased.”

A multi-agency investigation into the killings began after the Franklin County Sheriff’s Department responded to a call Sunday afternoon about a child wandering along a road near Laurel, about 50 miles southeast of Indianapolis, according to a state police statement.

A deputy spoke with the child and neighbors, then called for backup to search the two homes. Police found a dead male inside a recreational vehicle and the bodies of two males and two females at the other home across the street. The statement didn’t say if the dead were adults.

Goodin told The Associated Press that it was too early in the investigation to rule out the possibility that one or more suspects were on the loose and cautioned neighbors until that could be clarified.

“They should be vigilant,” Goodin said. “They need to make sure they keep the doors locked. If they see any suspicious people, absolutely they should dial 911.

CHATTANOOGA, Tenn (UTC/The Loop) – U.S. stock futures rose Monday following a painful week in the financial markets on hopes that European leaders will come up with a new strategy to resolve the region’s debt crisis.

Finance officials met in Washington this past weekend and pledged to take bolder steps to fight the debt problems, which threaten to slow the global economy. They offered few specifics.

German leaders want banks and private institutions that hold Greek bonds to take a bigger loss on those holdings to slash Athens’ debt. European officials have also talked about increasing the $595 billion European rescue fund by perhaps allowing it to take loans from the European Central Bank.

Investors have been on edge about Europe’s debt problems for months. Last week, the Dow Jones industrial average fell by 6.4 percent. That was its biggest drop since the week ended Oct. 10, 2008, when it fell 18 percent during the height of the financial crisis.

About 40 minutes ahead of the bell on Monday, Dow Jones industrial average futures rose 103 points, or 1 percent, to 10,800 ahead of the opening bell.

Standard & Poor’s 500 index futures rose 14, or 1.2 percent, to 1,144. Nasdaq 100 futures rose 17, or 0.8 percent, to 2,219.

The U.S. Commerce Department is expected to report at 10 a.m. Eastern that new home sales fell for the fourth consecutive month in August, typically a peak time for home-buying. Economists forecast that new homes sales fell to a seasonally adjusted annual rate of 295,000 last month. In a healthy market, typically 700,000 new homes are sold.

In corporate news, Boeing Co. rose 2.5 percent ahead of the opening bell after an analyst said the company should be able to deliver strong earnings growth over the next several years if it can begin steady production of its 787 aircraft.

Occidental Petroleum Corp. rose 2.2 percent in premarket trading. A Citi analyst upgraded the company and predicted production growth at the oil and natural gas producer.