How cooperation can trump competition in monkeys

Wednesday, July 4, 2012

Being the top dog ? or, in this case, the top gelada monkey ? is even better if the alpha male is willing to concede at times to subordinates, according to a study by researchers from the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Michigan and Duke University.

Alpha male geladas who allowed subordinate competitors into their group had a longer tenure as leader, resulting in an average of three more offspring each during their lifetimes.

The findings, collected from data during a five-year period ending in January 2011 through the University of Michigan Gelada Research Project, were published in the Proceedings of The Royal Society.

The research was conducted by Noah Snyder-Mackler, then a graduate student in the Department of Psychology in Penn's School of Arts and Sciences. He collaborated with Thore Bergman, assistant professor of psychology at Michigan, and Susan Alberts, professor of biology at Duke.

Cooperation is surprisingly common among wild animals, the researchers said. While it makes evolutionary sense for animals to help their kin, it is harder to explain cases where competitors ? especially unrelated adult males ? join forces. This conundrum is particularly hard to explain because mating is generally a zero-sum game in which males can only reproduce by stealing mating opportunities from each other.

Why would an alpha male allow other males to be a part of his unit, if they will inevitably decrease the probability that he will pass on his own genes? The researchers felt there must be a reason since this kind of behavior is observed in many species.

"For example, in some species unrelated males will sometimes tolerate the presence of one another and, in rare cases, form bonds and even appear to cooperate," Snyder-Mackler said.

To understand why potential rivals might team up, researchers compared the fitness consequences for dominant male gelada monkeys living in single- or multi-male groups. They found that, although subordinate males father some of the offspring in multi-male groups, dominant males gain a lifetime fitness benefit because the subordinate aids in defense of the group from other males, thus extending the dominant male's reproductive career.

Even more tantalizing is evidence that the subordinate males that are allowed to mate stay around in the group for much longer.

"This suggests," Bergman said, "that the alpha males may allow the subordinate to reproduce as a 'staying incentive' for defending the group, a payment for their services."

While it is not yet clear that a willing exchange is occurring ? subordinate males may simply "steal" some chances at reproduction ? the evidence is strong that subordinates confer some benefit to the leader.

"These findings demonstrate a benefit of forming multi-male groups in a predominantly single-male system, an important step in the evolution of sociality among unrelated competitors," Bergman said.

In studying wild geladas in the Simien Mountains National Park in Ethiopia, researchers identified the leader and follower males, noted the numbers of females in all units; tracked individuals involved in unit takeovers; and noted all new births. They used non-invasively collected genetic samples to conduct paternity analysis to determine the identities of the fathers.

Researchers saw that the dominant and subordinate males cooperatively defended their females by fending off unattached bachelor males intent on taking their females, the likely mechanism leading to the increased tenure of the dominants.

Even though geladas primarily form single-male groups, researchers showed a benefit to forming multi-male groups. Multi-male units had fewer takeovers (a rate of 0.27) per year from other competitors and longer tenure (3.7 years as leader) compared with single-male units (0.35 takeovers per year and 2.86 years as leader.)

"Overall, this means that, just because animals appear to be in direct competition for a limited resource, they may still benefit from the relationship overall," Snyder-Mackler said.

Thus, cooperation can evolve among competitors through a variety of mechanisms. In the study, researchers chronicled how it can evolve in the context of reproductive sharing.

"More comparative research on other species will give us a better understanding of how and under what circumstances cooperation among unrelated individuals may have evolved," Snyder-Mackler said.

###

University of Pennsylvania: http://www.upenn.edu/pennnews

Thanks to University of Pennsylvania for this article.

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Source: http://www.labspaces.net/121470/How_cooperation_can_trump_competition_in_monkeys

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What Will Washington Do Without BlackBerries? Move On

Walk a city block in Washington and you?re sure to see more than one person glued to a BlackBerry. President Obama famously fought to keep his personal BlackBerry after his inauguration. Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton uses one, as do many members of Congress.

But Washington?s well-documented BlackBerry addiction is on the wane. For many D.C. denizens, whether or not they?ll switch from BlackBerry to iPhone or Android isn?t a question of if, but when.

?You can play with an Android a lot more,? said Andrew Trembley, a consultant at the World Bank. ?I wouldn?t bother with the BlackBerry; they?re business phones? ? good for e-mail and little else.

?I enjoy typing with ease,? said Cammie Flippen, a paralegal at Wiley Ryan and a BlackBerry user. But, she said, ?in two months, I?m switching over.?

BlackBerry is fast losing market share to other smartphone models, and BlackBerry?s maker, Canada's Research In Motion, is in financial trouble. Sales are dropping, the company is laying off employees, and RIM announced last week that it will delay the release of its newest model, the BlackBerry 10, until 2013. Chief Executive Thorsten Heins said on Tuesday in an interview with CBC News that "there's nothing wrong with the company as it exists right now," and he said he is confident it will get past its current challenges.

(RELATED:?To see more politicians and their BlackBerry visit our gallery here.)

Heins acknowledged that RIM faces a challenge to regain market share in the United States, but said that the company isn't in a "death spiral."

BlackBerry?s continuing presence in D.C. is largely driven by the federal government?s purchasing decisions. The BlackBerry?s security protections have kept it the phone of choice for federal agencies as well as private-sector companies, such as law firms, that deal with sensitive information.?

Security and manageability are among the BlackBerry?s core strengths, said Larry Silver, director of federal government sales at Research In Motion, and the devices can be easily handled by IT departments.

?RIM?s mobile-device management solution enables IT administrators to easily manage large mobile deployments, and ensures that confidential and proprietary data is controlled and protected,? Silver said in a statement.

Over 85 percent of congressional staffers use a BlackBerry for work, as do about 45 percent of lobbyists, according to a March survey by the George Washington University Graduate School of Public Management, the Original U.S. Congress Handbook, and ORI. More than 1 million government employees in North America use BlackBerry, according to RIM.

?Nobody has a BlackBerry in the private sector,? said Stryk Thomas, a management consultant at Key3 Strategy. He said there?s no way he?d consider trading in his iPhone for a BlackBerry.?? ?

But BlackBerry?s reign as the government?s PDA of choice may not last forever. The White House?s most recent Digital Government Strategy, released in May, lays out the steps toward security standards for a bring-your-own device policy. That move could erode BlackBerry?s prominence, as more and more people are choosing iPhone and Android devices over BlackBerry for personal use.

The U.S. General Services Administration and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration have already started to issue iPhones to some employees, Reuters has reported. The GSA is also issuing Android-based devices, and testing a bring-your-own device policy. Both agencies were able to make the switch after they switched to using Google Apps for Government.

Many Washingtonians who have ditched their BlackBerries aren?t looking back.

?I still kind of miss the keyboard,? said Amy Phillips, vice president at Monument Realty. But the iPhone is ?so much better,? she said; it?s particularly easy for viewing PDFs and other files that her business needs.

There isn?t a whole lot of BlackBerry mourning around the Twitterverse, either. Responding to National Journal?s requests for comment, @NaliahPorter tweeted: ??COMPLETELY OVER MY BB!!! Switching to iPhone or Android when my contract ends on August 1st. And I LOVED my BB!?

@harej tweeted, ?Judging by the decline in BlackBerry?s popularity, I think it?s fair to conclude that most people can live without it.?

Although D.C. has many faithful BlackBerry users, it has fewer BlackBerry devotees than you might have thought.

?I think BlackBerries are sort of falling behind,? said Alejandro, a World Bank employee who didn?t want his last name to be used. ?Washington is one of the few places they still get used. This is their last market.?

President Obama drops his BlackBerry while walking to greet well-wishers after he steps off Air Force One in Memphis, Tenn., on May 16, 2011.

PHOTO: CHARLES DHARAPAK/AP

Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb., works on his BlackBerry in the Senate Reception Room following his agreement to support health care legislation, on Dec. 19, 2009.

PHOTO: HARRY HAMBURG/AP

President Obama uses his BlackBerry alongside first lady Michelle Obama in the first half of an NCAA basketball game between Oregon State and Towson in Towson, Md., on Nov. 26, 2011.

PHOTO: PATRICK SEMANSKY/AP

White House communications director Dan Pfeiffer, right, and political director Patrick Gaspard check their BlackBerrys on the South Lawn of the White House as they accompany President Obama to Wilmington, Del., on Oct. 15, 2010.

PHOTO: CHARLES DHARAPAK/AP

Then-South Carolina gubernatorial candidate Nikki Haley, right, and her husband, Michael Haley, read a message on her BlackBerry, while watching the returns come in at the Capital City Club in Columbia, S.C., on June 8, 2010.

PHOTO: BRETT FLASHNICK/AP

This image of Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton casually using her Blackberry while staffers frantically buzz around her displayed a calm under pressure that helped make the Texts From Hillary tumblr page incredibly popular.

PHOTO: DIANA WALKER/TIME

President Obama checks his BlackBerry as he is seated with first lady Michelle Obama during the Carrier Classic NCAA basketball game between North Carolina and Michigan State on the flight deck of the USS Carl Vinson in Coronado, Calif., on Nov. 11, 2011.

PHOTO: SUSAN WALSH/AP

Sen. Kirsten Gillibrand, D.N.Y., hands off her BlackBerry as Sen. Chuck Schumer, D-N.Y., watches before the start of a news conference on Capitol Hill, on Dec. 9, 2010.

PHOTO: HARRY HAMBURG/AP

Secretary of State Clinton checks her BlackBerry alongside South Korean Foreign Minister Kim Sung-hwan, right, as she attends the Fourth High Level Forum on Aid Effectiveness in Busan, South Korea on Nov. 30, 2011.

PHOTO: SAUL LOEB/AP

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Source: http://news.yahoo.com/washington-without-blackberries-move-080008326.html

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Teachers' Union Calls For More Responsibility, Obama Support As Its Membership Declines

After a few years of tremendous membership loss, the nation's largest teachers' union is reinventing itself.

"Instead of waiting for someone to tell us what to teach or how to do our jobs, let us be the change we are waiting for," Dennis Van Roekel, the president of the National Education Association, said in his Monday afternoon address to the group's national convention in Washington, D.C., according to prepared remarks provided to The Huffington Post. The convention includes a gathering of the NEA's state and local affiliates and votes on the union's policy.

"We are part of ? a system that has not successfully addressed the dropout crisis and allows kids who are poor to be stuck in schools that do not meet their needs -- placed into classrooms year after year with the least qualified, least experienced teachers," Van Roekel said. "If there is even one classroom with a teacher who isn?t prepared or qualified, we can?t accept that."

That passage illustrates the mixed messages in Van Roekel's speech: He criticizes the policymakers whom he calls "self-proclaimed 'reformers'" while promoting some of their policies.

"They want to use ? test scores to evaluate teachers, label students, and embarrass schools," he said, also calling for the increased use of technology that can embed exams into lessons for teachers to pinpoint what their students are understanding. He also advocated for better teacher preparation and professional development, other favorites of the reform crowd.

His speech comes as the the Democratic Party has altered its approach to education over the last year five years. Until recently the Democratic Party followed union wishes in developing education policy, but its center is shifting.

Many Democrats have departed from a pro-union stance and share views with some Republicans on education, favoring a standards-based approach that measures teachers in accordance with students' test scores. After a group named Democrats for Education Reform launched in 2007, it was no longer politically incorrect for left-wing mayors to publicly bash their city's teachers unions. And at an event at the 2008 Democratic National Convention, they did just that.

But even while Van Roekel proposed "multiple measures" for teacher evaluation, last fall he opposed part of a revision to the No Child Left Behind law that mandated the use of student testing data for grading teachers. The Senate's education committee removed that plank at the wishes of the union. The NEA recently revealed that it had spent $2.5 million last year on lobbying in connection with that bill.

One of Van Roekel's "self-proclaimed reformers" said the remarks gave him hope. "The glass half full takeaway is that there seems to be consensus that it's the system that's faulty, not individual teachers, some of whom have been ill-served by the system we have now," said Charles Barone, Democrats for Education Reform's policy director. "If we can all get on the same page on this, there's more hope for change over the next few years than at any time in recent history."

And the upbeat tone of Van Roekel's speech belies the last couple of tough years of teacher layoffs that have decimated the union's ranks -- and membership dues. According to Stephen Sawchuk, an Education Week reporter covering the convention from Washington, NEA's secretary-treasurer, Becky Pringle, referred to the group's loss in members in her opening remarks. The group has lost 100,000 members over the past two years.

The NEA expects that from 2010 to 2014 it will have lost 308,000 members and $65 million, according to EdWeek. "We're living with a recession that just won't end, political attacks that have turned brutal, and societal changes that are impacting us -- from stupid education 'reform' to an explosion of technology -- all coming together to impact us in ways that we had never anticipated," Pringle said, as EdWeek reported.

Van Roekel also used his platform to express support for Obama's reelection campaign -- despite having sparred with the administration over education policy over the last few years. At last year's convention, the NEA became the first large national union to endorse Obama's 2012 campaign. "We know the other side will outspend us in this election -- but we can't let them outwork us," Van Roekel said.

Vice President Joe Biden and his wife Jill will address the crowd on Tuesday.

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Source: http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/02/teachers-union-responsibility_n_1643436.html

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Euro defeat for Merkel? Only time will tell

BERLIN (Reuters) - At first glance, the big winners from Europe's latest euro-saving summit were the leaders of Italy, Spain and France.

By banding together in a powerful coalition to challenge Germany, the high-stakes meeting seemed to show, Mario Monti, Mariano Rajoy and Francois Hollande were able to wring major crisis-fighting concessions from a suddenly soft Angela Merkel.

But if the euro zone is still intact years from now, the marathon session in Brussels may be remembered as much for what the German leader extracted from her combative partners as for the bitter policies she was forced to swallow.

"That Monti, Rajoy and Hollande are now happily selling this as a victory says a lot about the diplomatic skills of Ms. Merkel," said Holger Schmieding of Berenberg Bank.

With her plans hinging on parliamentary votes scheduled for hours after the summit, Merkel took an unyielding public stance in advance. That made it appear as if she had retreated, when in fact she may have got much of what she wanted.

Merkel's biggest concession in the early morning hours of Friday was to agree to give the euro zone's new permanent rescue fund, the European Stability Mechanism (ESM), the power to inject aid directly into stricken banks.

According to the post-summit narrative, she flinched after Monti threatened to withhold his backing for a new European "growth pact" Merkel desperately needed to win crucial votes in the German parliament later that day.

Several senior European officials in Brussels told Reuters however that Merkel had in actual fact signaled privately in the days before the summit that she could live with the idea of direct bank recapitalizations.

Her condition was support for one of Berlin's key demands - the establishment of a central supervision authority for banks run by the European Central Bank (ECB).

Agreed in Brussels, the details of how this new authority will work, what powers it will have and which banks it will supervise remain murky.

But its creation may ultimately be seen as a victory for Merkel and her vision of a united, integrated Europe with strict central controls. The loss of sovereignty it implies may only dawn on Monti, Rajoy and Hollande once EU officials put the meat on the bones of the plan in the second half of the year.

"The tone of the summit certainly made it look like a big defeat for Merkel, but on the substance of what was agreed I don't think it was," said Guntram Wolff, deputy director of the Brussels-based Bruegel think tank.

"The direct recapitalization of banks can only come once this new bank supervisory body is up and running. This has been her strategy all along - yes to aid, but only once the proper controls are in place."

EXPECTATIONS MANAGEMENT

Despite a hard-line reputation that has turned her into a figure of hate in Greece and led left-wing British magazine New Statesman to anoint her "Europe's most dangerous leader", Merkel has shown an unusual readiness to compromise on short-term crisis-fighting steps recently.

Last month Germany announced it was ready to grant Spain an extra year to reach its deficit reduction targets. German officials also broke a post-war taboo by signaling a tolerance for higher German inflation levels to help their southern European partners.

At the summit in Brussels, Merkel agreed that ESM loans to Spain would not have "preferred creditor status", a step that could slow a flight out of Spanish bonds by private investors.

But concessions to Italy were modest at best, with German officials vigorously rejecting claims by Monti that any future purchases of Italian debt by Europe's rescue fund would come with minimal conditions.

The 120 billion euro "growth pact" unveiled in Brussels was celebrated as a big win for Hollande, who pledged during his campaign for the French presidency to push back against Merkel's austerity policies and find new funds to support recession-hit economies along Europe's southern periphery.

But this victory was more symbolic that substantive. Much of the overall figure will come from already pledged, but unused, EU structural funds.

So why was the summit seen by so many as a major defeat for Merkel? Top-selling German newspaper Bild said the chancellor had been "blindsided" in Brussels, while influential weekly Der Spiegel wrote that she had become a "hostage" to southern euro states.

One reason may have been her need to maintain an ultra-hard line in the days leading up to the summit, to keep skeptical German lawmakers on-side ahead of votes on EU crisis measures on Friday, the last day before parliament's summer break.

Even after agreeing in the days before the summit to direct aid for banks, the EU sources said, the German side insisted it be kept quiet.

Had Merkel signaled a readiness to do a deal beforehand, the large majorities she needed on Friday in parliamentary votes on the ESM and "fiscal compact" on budget discipline may not have materialized.

"Merkel became a victim of her own expectations management," Der Spiegel said on Sunday.

In the end, German lawmakers had only hours to digest the summit results before voting. After threats of a delay and a raucous debate in the Bundestag chamber, they resoundingly backed the new crisis-fighting measures.

Still, more than two dozen deputies from Merkel's centre-right coalition rebelled and refused to support her, in a sign of growing unease in her conservative ranks.

The one area that European leaders did not find time to discuss in detail at their summit - Merkel's nascent drive to push Europe towards a form of "fiscal union" - is likely to dominate the second half of 2012 and could determine Merkel's political fate.

Within weeks, Germany's top court could rule that any additional steps towards closer European integration would require a change in Germany's constitution, or "Basic Law". That could lead to a national referendum on Merkel's pro-integration course.

Regardless, the debate is likely to dominate Merkel's campaign for a third term in the run up to a federal election in the autumn of 2013.

Setting up a common bank oversight authority is a first step towards the closer union Merkel says is needed to save the euro.

But as European leaders move towards finalizing a "road map" for such a union by a December deadline, she will have to convince partners like France and the Netherlands, who remain deeply skeptical about ceding sovereignty to Brussels, to go along with her.

"She is still in control," a senior European official said. "But a lot of countries are still waiting for her to spell out the details of her vision. There is a feeling she wants to move faster than others are comfortable with."

(Reporting by Noah Barkin)

Source: http://news.yahoo.com/euro-defeat-merkel-only-time-tell-230259777--business.html

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My Special Education | eitheory.com

When my sister was born, she was clearly unusual.? Her appearance, her distinctive facial and physical features were a curious, unexplainable phenomenon.? I remember thinking, ?Where did this baby come from?? Whose baby is this?? ?

My sister, as an infant, had dark, almost black, upturned eyes, a flat nose, a small mouth and large tongue.? Her ears were curved inward. ?She had a single crease across both?palms of her tiny hands, short stubby fingers, tiny feet with a larger than normal space between the big toes and the rest of them. ?

She was extraordinarily double-jointed.

I didn?t know that the features that gave my sister her unique appearance were the physical elements that made people with Down syndrome recognizable.

Lying in her crib, I often peered in at her; she, staring into space, her dark eyes, like the black buttons that closed my winter coat, fixed on the musical mobile dangling above her head.? I don?t remember her ever crying or laughing or making any sound, really.? She was always silent, lying on her back, occasionally moving her feet and hands.?

For the first three years of her life, my sister couldn?t roll over, sit-up or stand; and she couldn?t talk. ?She shifted her position only minimally, often with help.? Around three years, she started to roll over, sit up, maneuver herself onto all fours and sit in a chair without slumping into a bunch.? She experienced some level of independence at around four years, scooting across the floor, propelling herself by thrusting her legs and feet forward and humping herself onward. ?

She grew and developed in her own way along her own timeline.

?I hate it,? she told me one day as we prepared to go to her job at McDonald?s.?She cleared and wiped down tables. She was around twenty-two.??I hate it.? ??She looked down at her lap, seemingly talking to herself.

I reached to pull her seatbelt over her ever-expanding waistline. ?Why?? I asked. ?You like working there.?

?They make fron? a me.?

?Who??

?The kids; the kids;?make fron? a me.? Her eyes magnified behind her thick glasses, smudged and always in need of a good cleaning, searched for answers that, even if I could explain, would never really ring true for her.?

Even now, my sister survives on the belief that people are essentially good; and each time she experiences the recklessness of others, her expression is consistently a mix of deep sadness, regret and the hope that she will be forgiven for being so unusual ? so much unlike others that she could only expect forgiveness from them. ?

All people with Down syndrome have some degree of mental retardation or developmental delay. ?They are, however, far from being incapable of learning, especially to the degree that emotional expression, social expectation and the way in which others treat them as normal. ?I know I am well outside the boundaries of making a generalization, but it is my best judgment that people with Down syndrome are quite emotionally adept,?genius at expressing affection toward others. Their intellectual capacity cannot be reliably predicted in infancy, but their ability to express love and caring toward others is evident from a very early age. ?(I am well within my comfort zone making this generalization, and I?invite my reader to take exception with it.)

My sister entered school at around the same age as other children, only she spent her days in a room where the window in the door was covered with construction paper. ??I never saw her at recess, and we never sat together at lunch.? Knowing her as I did, I could only imagine that she was content among her friends and teachers, never questioning the good intentions of those who were responsible for her care and education.?

My sister went from elementary, to junior and on to senior high school seated behind a window covered in construction paper.

When she was twenty, she graduated from high school; and for all her efforts, she was mailed a diploma and a copy of her yearbook.? Inside were an empty oval where her picture should have been and a barren, blank square where her biography might have been printed, if anyone had taken notice of her.

Of course, when she got the book?in the mail, my sister leafed through it.? She had no idea that her picture should be there, alongside the other members of her graduating class.? She couldn?t even have imagined such an honor. She was content to look over the familiar faces she remembered from school ? the lunch lady, pictures of the abandoned hallways, the quad.

My mother, much less content, contacted the school and demanded that my sister?s picture be duplicated and sent by mail to everyone who had purchased a yearbook.? Not only should there be a picture, but my mother strongly suggested that my sister?s favorite color, her favorite song, her most commonly spoken phrase and her most cherished memory accompany the photo in exactly the same proportions as the oval and blank spaces that were provided to my sister on page 31 of her?yearbook.

My sister was quite proud when she pointed out her own picture in the yearbook, after discovering it one day, glued perfectly within the spaces inside her yearbook ? as if it had always been there, proof that she was like everyone else.? She looked up at me, through those damnable glasses, kissed her hand and brought it down on top of her own picture. ?S?me,? she said, ?S?me.??She laughed, extending her long tongue as she drew in more air to feed her belly laugh.

My sister has never been like anyone else, really. She is my?cherished and pure spirit, someone who is never?truly unhappy for long or without a friend.? Her life has been a hearty handshake, a warm and sincere hug and a promise for unconditional positive regard toward everyone she meets, no matter who they are or how they may have treated her in the past. I can never imagine comparing myself to my sister?s strength of character and her dedication to the idea that everyone possesses inherent goodness ? if we just take the time to see it.

My sister?s medical and cognitive impairments have increased over the years; they?unravel the mystery of her human condition more and more each day; but from the day she came home from the hospital, wrapped in a yellow, satin edged blanket, she was the most wonderful gift I could ever have received in my life.? She has been my special education. From that day forward, she was assimilated into our family and our neighborhood, complete with her own unique personality, her own strengths and her own weaknesses, to become the strong-willed, sensitive and tremendously good-humored woman she is today.

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Billy Ray Cyrus makes his way to Broadway

FILE - This Dec. 13, 2011 file photo shows singer Billy Ray Cyrus attending a special screening of "Albert Nobbs" at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Cyrus is making his Broadway debut in "Chicago." The singer of "Achy Breaky Heart" and father of Miley Cyrus is detouring from his Nashville roots in taking on the role of criminal lawyer Billy Flynn for a seven-week engagement beginning Nov. 5. (AP Photo/Evan Agostini, file)

FILE - This Dec. 13, 2011 file photo shows singer Billy Ray Cyrus attending a special screening of "Albert Nobbs" at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Cyrus is making his Broadway debut in "Chicago." The singer of "Achy Breaky Heart" and father of Miley Cyrus is detouring from his Nashville roots in taking on the role of criminal lawyer Billy Flynn for a seven-week engagement beginning Nov. 5. (AP Photo/Evan Agostini, file)

FILE - This Dec. 13, 2011 file photo shows singer Billy Ray Cyrus attending a special screening of "Albert Nobbs" at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Cyrus is making his Broadway debut in "Chicago." The singer of "Achy Breaky Heart" and father of Miley Cyrus is detouring from his Nashville roots in taking on the role of criminal lawyer Billy Flynn for a seven-week engagement beginning Nov. 5. (AP Photo/Evan Agostini, file)

NEW YORK (AP) ? Country singer Billy Ray Cyrus is making his Broadway debut in "Chicago."

The singer of "Achy Breaky Heart" and father of Miley Cyrus is detouring from his Nashville roots in taking on the role of criminal lawyer Billy Flynn for a seven-week engagement beginning Nov. 5.

Cyrus starred with his daughter in the hit TV series "Hannah Montana," and has acted in TV movies on Lifetime and the Hallmark Channel. Cyrus has also hosted country music's "Nashville Star" and was a competitor on "Dancing With The Stars."

Other celebrities to join the "Chicago" cast have included Sofia Vergara, Melanie Griffith, Brooke Shields, Ashlee Simpson, Usher, Huey Lewis, Michael C. Hall and Jerry Springer.

Associated Press

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Peter King's Muslim Radicalization Hearing Attacked By Ranking Democrat

WASHINGTON -- The top Democrat on the House Homeland Security Committee attacked the premise of today's scheduled fifth hearing on radicalization within the Muslim-American community, saying he hoped they "did not perpetuate the notion that the United States is at war with Islam."

In a statement released late Tuesday, Rep. Bennie Thompson (D-Miss.) questioned the need for yet another session on the subject, given that since the first hearing in March 2011, al Qaeda's operations have been dealt massive blows with the killing of Osama bin Laden, Anwar al Awlaki and other terrorist leaders.

"In essence, the world has changed. But despite a changing world, which requires us to look forward, this Committee seems to want to look back," Thompson said. "We are holding today's hearing to discuss the effect of previous hearings. I am not sure we have ever had a hearing to gauge the effects of prior hearings."

Rep. Peter King (R-N.Y.), the committee's chairman, announced the hearing, titled "The American Muslim Response to Hearings on Radicalization within their Community," last week. In his statement, King said he had been "vilified by the politically correct media, pandering politicians and radical groups" for staging the hearings and said he planned a fifth to hear from Muslim witnesses on the impact of the previous hearings.

Thompson's office noted that none of the three majority witnesses have law enforcement experience and all support the New York Police Department's controversial surveillance program. Earlier this month, a group of Muslim-Americans filed the first lawsuit challenging the NYPD's program, which they say infringes on their constitutional rights of free speech, religion, assembly and due process.

"Given the challenges the nation faces in homeland security -- the ongoing problems at TSA; the ability of FEMA to meet the needs of disaster survivors; the effect of budget cuts on research and development within Science and Technology, just to name a few -- I am not sure that a hearing to gauge the effects of our hearings is the most effective use of Congressional time and attention," Thompson said.

The hearing is set to begin at 10:15 a.m. and can be seen live at the committee's website.

Related on HuffPost:

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