By Amber Payne
NBC News 

When I first spoke to Kennedy Odede over the phone, I suggested we conduct his in-person interview at the place on his college campus most significant to him.  

“How about Usdan Marketplace?” he asked, referring to one of the popular lunch spots at the Middletown, Conn., school.   

I was a bit confused, and frankly, the aesthetics and the difficulties of getting quality audio in a cacophonous dining hall concerned me. 

But Odede, 27, went on to explain.  When he first arrived at Wesleyan University in fall of 2008, he would literally run to the dining hall because he wanted to get there before the food disappeared. He didn't realize that for the first time in his life, there would always be enough for him to eat. 

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Odede grew up in Kibera, a slum in Kenya where more than one million people live in an area the size of New York City's Central Park without sewage systems, roads, or access to basic health care and education. 

And on Sunday, May 27^th, he stood proudly before his graduating class with honors, and gave the commencement address.  He became the first person from Africa’s largest slum to graduate from an American University. 

For the young man who had never seen a shower until he came to the U.S., it was a life-altering four years. Now, he is determined to use his education and his passion to change the lives of those in his hometown.  

“I know millions of people who are struggling,” he said.  “It is not that they are lazy or they can’t do it.  It’s that there’s no opportunity.  I want to be a symbol that anyone in the world, given an opportunity, can make it.” 

'Dare to hope'

Hope is the theme has guided Odede.  His mission that bright afternoon in May was to light a fire for social change among his peers.  He shared some of his inspiring journey: how he came from being a poor factory worker to standing before them as a Wesleyan graduate.   

And he left them with his mantra: “When you dare to hope, we create more hope in the world."   

Odede's scarlet cap and gown contrasted beautifully against the bright blue sky as he confidently commanded the attention of his class, and their friends, family, and faculty. 

“Please repeat after me,” he said. "Today I promise ... to use my education ... to champion hope."

All 713 of his fellow undergraduates enthusiastically reiterated his charge.

When Odede was growing up, he dreamed of becoming a teacher or a doctor.  His mother, he said, gently told him not to get his hopes up too high.  He vividly remembered the day his mother tried to enroll him in primary school but could not afford the $10-a-year tuition. 

But hope truly is what brought Kennedy to Wesleyan.  He was talented and driven enough to receive a scholarship from the university with the help of a young woman who shared his passion to help others. 

Shining Hope for Communities

"Nightly News" first introduced viewers to Kennedy Odede and Wesleyan grad Jessica Posner in our Making a Difference series.  

Together they founded Shining Hope for Communities in the slum Odede grew up in. 

“We believe that if people have hope and they have access to resources, there are so many amazing things they can do to change their realities,” Posner said. 

During Odede’s first year at Wesleyan where he attended on a full scholarship, he and Posner were awarded a $10,000 grant to build a small school for girls in Kibera as an educational institution and a safe haven for girls. They built the school in the summer of 2009 and Posner, a 2009 graduate, has been living in Kibera heading the organization while Odede finished school. 

Since its founding, the school and the organization as a whole has grown tremendously.  In addition to securing nearly $1 million in grants, they built a health clinic and clean water and latrine station, and two community centers with youth and adult literacy programs -- community services that will help more than 30,000 people this year.

Love at first bus stop

Odede and Posner met in 2008 at a bus stop in Nairobi.  Posner was a junior studying abroad and when she learned of Odede’s community work, she was inspired to join him. 

Posner fondly called it “love at first bus stop.”  They married on Saturday in Denver. Posner was thrilled to show us her ring and she described the ceremony as a mix of Kenyan and Jewish traditions.

They will both return to Kibera this summer to build a life together and to continue to build their organization.

 “We both come from different worlds.  We compliment each other,” Odede explained.  “And that’s why we are a really, really powerful force.” 

A special day for the family and the community

Odede's younger sister Elizabeth Odede, his 7-year-old brother Hillary Odede, and his best friend, traveled to Wesleyan to join the graduation festivities. While young Hillary inspected our camera Elizabeth was so overcome with pride for her big brother, she could barely form words when I asked her how she felt.  

Odede’s mother was unable to attend commencement, but she sent him a text, congratulating him on following his dream to attend university: “It is the best day of your life as you graduate.  We wish you the best and we are thinking of you.  This is a really special day for the family and the community!”

Odede graduates with a degree in sociology, but he told us and his fellow graduates that the momentous day was not for him only.  

“My dream is to attend a Wesleyan commencement 13 years from now and sit where our families are today to watch a graduate from the Kibera School for Girls accept a Wesleyan diploma,” he said.  “Proving that it does not matter where you come from, only where you want to go.”

 

What we're following: 

- President Obama to hold news conference at White House

- CDC: 16% of U.S. teens have considered suicide

- Man gets double arm transplant after severe burns

And did you see...

- Beatles museum to close due to lack of interest

- Former Fleetwood Mac guitarist Bob Welch at 66

- High school senior denied diploma because family cheered too loudly at graduation

 

 

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GUANTANAMO BAY, Cuba -- The U.S.-run Guantanamo Bay detention center in Cuba, targeted for closure by Barack Obama during his campaign for the presidency, is instead quietly undergoing millions of dollars of upgrades that could allow it to remain open for years as a prison for suspected terrorists, NBC News has learned.

Among the recent improvements to the facility commonly known as “Gitmo”: a heavily guarded soccer field for detainees known as “Super Rec,” which cost nearly $750,000 and opened this week; cable television in a  communal living quarters and “enriching your life” classes for detainees, which include instruction on learning to paint, writing a resume  -- even handling personal finances.

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“Well, that's one class, but it’s not a popular (one),”  Army Col. Donnie Thomas, commander of the military guards at camp, said with a laugh. “But it’s a class. It’s just to keep these guys busy.”

Other improvements are more practical, such as a new headquarters for the guards and a new hospital, which is still in the planning stages.

Navy Adm. David B. “Woody” Woods, commander of the Guantanamo facility, told NBC News that the improvements have “made it safer for the detainees, safer for the guard force,” and have not adversely impacted security at the facility.

“We treat them all as a threat only because if you don't then you're gonna get surprised, and that's not our business,” he said.

Many of the improvements have been made at the most modern facility in the detention center, known as Camp VI, a communal living compound that houses about 80 percent of the 169 detainees currently held at Gitmo. There, detainees who are deemed to be compliant with the rules and therefore eligible for more privileges are able to watch 21 Cable TV channels, DVD movies, read newspapers and borrow books from a library.

The detention center, located within the U.S. Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, was established in 2002 by President George W. Bush to hold detainees from the war in Afghanistan and later Iraq. The base in Cuba was selected as part of a Bush administration strategy to prevent judicial review of the legal status of the prisoners, who were initially denied lawyers.

Obama made its closure a centerpiece of his presidential campaign, arguing that U.S. courts were capable of handling the cases. After taking office, he signed an executive order on Jan. 22, 2009, directing that Gitmo be shut down within a year. The order also called for an immediate case-by case review of detainees at the facility with an eye toward either repatriating them or bringing them to trial in U.S. civilian courts.

But the president’s efforts to shutter the camp were blocked by Congress out of concerns that transferring the detainees to U.S. jails would pose a security risk and invite escape attempts or terrorist attacks on the facilities.

A little more than two years after Obama’s first executive order, on March 7, 2011, he signed another executive order making a number of policy changes regarding Gitmo, including a reversal of his order seeking to bring detainees to trial in civilian courts. Instead, he said, suspects would face military tribunals that would decide their guilt or innocence.

Khalid Shaikh Mohammed, the self-described mastermind of the 9-11 terrorist attacks on the U.S., and four other Guantanamo detainees were the first to go before a military tribunal last month, when they were formally charged with crimes that include murder and terrorism. They face the death penalty if convicted for their roles in the attacks that claimed 2,976 lives in New York, Washington and Shanksville, Pa.

But for the remainder of the detainees – including some who are eligible for release but have no country willing to take them – there is little prospect of leaving Gitmo anytime soon.

And that means U.S. taxpayers will continue to foot the bill for their presence in a U.S. prison that costs $140 million a year to operate – or some $800,000 per detainee.

Woods, the commander of the Guantanamo detention center, said he doesn’t anticipate the closure of the facility any time soon.

“As far as being able to close down the operation, I could do that … in a couple of months, the buildings and the people,” he said. “We have removed these belligerents from the battlefield and our job is to detain them, and we do that very well.”

Michael Isikoff is NBC's national investigative correspondent; Mike Brunker of msnbc.com contributed to this report.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

By Chiara Sottile
NBC News

After he dropped out of the University of Oklahoma, Blue Tarpalechee of the Muscogee-Creek tribe worked more than 20 jobs in two years: fast food restaurants, movie theaters, and eventually his tribal casino. He was 21 when he got a job counting money at the Creek Nation Casino Okmulgee. He would wake up hours before the sun, put on his uniform -- a black, sleeveless and pocketless jumpsuit -- and report to the casino's vault.

The room was cramped with tables and filled with the constant flick-flick-flicking of the money counting machines. For six hours each day, Tarpalechee counted the money box of every machine in the casino. And counted them again. And a third time. One morning as he "counted someone else's money" in the confines of the vault's faded yellow walls, Tarpalechee realized this was not the path his life was meant to take, and he had to make a change.

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That's when he found the Institute of American Indian Arts (IAIA) in Santa Fe, New Mexico on a serendipitous weekend visit. "The Institute is really special," said Tarpalechee. "They honor our traditions and where we come from and the communities that we represent." On a windy Friday in May, Tarpalechee, now 26, not only graduated with a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Moving Images from IAIA, but graduated as one of three valedictorians.

IAIA is one of 37 tribal colleges in the United States and the only institution of higher education in the world dedicated to contemporary Native American art. Like the other tribal colleges, IAIA was created and chartered by American Indian people with the specific purpose of offering higher education based in American Indian culture.

It is a place where you might find an atole pot on the stove of the student center during finals, where the subtle citrus scent of Palo Santo might drift across campus on prayers said in Native languages. And for Jamie Figueroa, it was also home for the last four years.

'I felt totally safe'

Figueroa, 35, graduated as a valedictorian at IAIA's ceremony on May 11th. She says that from the first time she stepped into the "sage fields, high desert, clean air, and enormous sky" at IAIA's campus, she knew it was the place for her.

Before coming to IAIA, Figueroa had enrolled and taken classes at five different colleges and universities between the ages of 17 and 29. At the time, Figueroa said she thought to herself, "Clearly I did not belong in academia. Clearly I had trouble finishing what I started. Clearly I was not smart enough."

But at IAIA, Figueroa felt nurtured by the school's inextricable connection between culture and curriculum. "Every time we talked about something, we did it from our perspective," said Figueroa, who is Taino and Puerto Rican. Her courses discussed authors from William Shakespeare to N. Scott Momaday, and rarely did a lecture not mention power, assimilation or cultural hybridity.

"I felt totally safe" at IAIA, said Figueroa, who earned her Bachelor of Fine Arts in Creative Writing. "I could let down so many defenses. Before I always felt I was fighting but when I didn't have to fight anymore then I could actually get to learning." It was a feeling she had never experienced at the previous schools she attended.

In her valedictory speech, an impassioned Figueroa told her class that their graduation was, "a gift we not only give ourselves, but to everyone in our lives. It is an honoring of our ancestors and to future generations as well." Indeed, the class of 2012 not only welcomes a new generation into IAIA's 4,000 alumni, it also marks the Institute's 50^th year since its founding.

The emergence of American Indian education

The Institute of American Indian arts was established in 1962 as a high school for American Indians, and then became a two-year college in 1975, three years before President Jimmy Carter signed the Tribally Controlled Community College Assistance Act that authorized federal assistance to American Indian colleges.  

Indian control of education dates back to the school systems of the Cherokee and Choctaw in the 19^th century and tribal colleges themselves have made great progress since the first one, Navajo Community College, was established in 1968. Tribal colleges got another boost from the federal government when they were designated as land-grant institutions in 1994, giving them the opportunity to apply for millions of dollars in grant money. Since Congress authorized this change in status, all the educational programs in tribal colleges designated as land-grant institutions have grown.

But the United States government has not always been a benefactor of American Indian education; in fact, thousands of Indian people were sent away to government-run boarding schools from the 1870s into the 1960s. Historians have documented the abuse the American Indians endured at those schools, where they were forced to abandon their traditional ways. 

“Tribal schools have largely been a response to the boarding schools,” said Tom Grayson Colonnese, Chair of the Department of American Indian Studies at the University of Washington.

“Native Americans haven’t done well in higher education because of the stigma of boarding schools trying to break up Native culture,” said Colonnese. Tribal colleges were founded as "Indian-centered and Indian-run institutions," as a response to the “traumatizing” boarding schools, he said.

Despite prior attempts to suppress American Indian culture in education, Native traditions still thrive. Tribal elders and esteemed artists encouraged the graduating class of IAIA to develop their connection to their Native traditions through art. N. Scott Momaday, a Pulitzer-prize winning author; James Luna, a groundbreaking performance artist; and John Trudell, actor, recording artist and poet all spoke at the IAIA graduation.

Bridging the achievement gap

The road to graduation was a rough ride for Figueroa, Tarpalechee and many of their fellow 49 graduates, but then, so are many of the roads in Indian Country.

American Indian students continue to face a formidable achievement gap compared to non-Native peers, according to the 2009 National Assessment of Educational Progress. 

Limited economic opportunity, lack of healthcare and justice inequities perpetuate this underperformance. But reports show, and American Indian students and educators agree, that a lack of cultural sensitivity also hinders American Indian success at mainstream institutions. In Education Secretary Arne Duncan's report "Tribal Leaders Speak: The State of American Indian Education, 2010," he wrote that educators across Indian Country indicate that school curricula are not appropriate for American Indian students and that there is a systemic failure to include Native language and history in mainstream education.

Figueroa hopes to empower her community with the author's voice she developed at IAIA. While a student, she volunteered with a community arts group in Santa Fe called Little Globe and an ESL reading program called El Otro Lado, where she helped others find their writing voice. "It takes a tremendous amount of courage to tell one's own story, and then to share that story takes even more courage," said Figueroa.

As for Blue Tarpalechee, his first mission will be working on a new seven-part film series called "Growing Native" for Native American Public Telecommunications.  

In addition to art and film, Tarpalechee stays connected to his Creek culture through the game of stickball, a traditional Native game from the tribes of southeast. He founded the stickball club at IAIA and also led the way for a stickball field to be built at the school.

On graduation day, in addition to his black mortarboard and gown, Tarpalechee wore a red and white sash with blue trim and a stickball motif. Traditionally, stickball players would wear sashes to mark important events, and Tarpalechee explained that "each design tells you about the personality of the wearer."  It isn't only a game to Tarpalechee, but a daily link to his tribe, and a tradition he hopes his brother -- now a student at IAIA -- will carry on.

"Sometimes you're not sure where you belong or where to turn to for answers," said Tarpalechee. "I turn to stickball and stickball is a part of my culture. So give your culture a shot."

By Shoshana Guy
NBC News

In the weeks after her husband died of leukemia, leaving her with three small children to raise, Deborah Kenny sought solace in books.  

“After he died I, like most people, couldn't sleep at night and so I started reading,” said Kenny.  

Of all the books she read during those sleepless nights, it was the one written by a doctor who survived a concentration camp that changed the trajectory of her life.

“In ‘Man's Search for Meaning,’ [author] Viktor Frankl had this one line in the book where he said, ‘We had to teach the despairing men that it's not about what life has to offer you but what is life asking of you,’” said Kenny, 48. “That was the thing that uplifted me, because I thought, ‘Well, life is asking something of me.  I have to do something.’" 

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What Kenny did was launch some of the most successful schools in New York City.  Her nearly 10-year journey to establish Harlem Village Academies is chronicled in her new book, “Born to Rise: A Story of Children and Teachers Reaching their Highest Potential.”

As she grappled with how to create great schools Kenny also read management guides such as Peter Drucker’s “Management Challenges for the 21^st Century.” Drucker's philosophy was that workers who are told exactly what to do stay incompetent. The key to success, she decided, was to create a culture that empowered teachers.

Kenny, who has a Ph.D. in education and a background in children’s publishing, took a job with Edison, a for-profit chain of charter and contract schools. But the administration was in charge of the design of the schools and everything from the curriculum to the daily schedule was pre-determined. That vision worked against her belief that in order to have highly successful schools the teachers needed to be in the driver’s seat.  So she quit her job at Edison and lived off of her emergency savings while she tried to get funding for the charter school she dreamed of starting in Harlem.

After roughly a year of hustling day and night to make it happen Kenny made in-roads with the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, but she found herself stuck between a rock and a hard place. 

“There was this Catch-22 because in order to get a charter in New York State you have to have a certain amount of funding,” said Kenny, who lives in Manhattan. “But in order to get the funding the Gates Foundation needed us to have the charter.” Then, in a made-for-TV moment, everything came through at the last minute, and in September 2003 Harlem Village Academies’ first middle school opened its doors.

Almost immediately Kenny established the teacher-driven culture she had always envisioned for her schools.

Giving teachers freedom, and holding them accountable

“You can't give people complete freedom unless at the end of that they're held accountable,” said Kenny.  “When I say freedom, I mean they choose their curriculum.  They make decisions about the teaching methods.  They make decisions about school-wide policies too.”

Charter schools, which receive some public funding but operate outside of the public school system, have been a source of controversy in education circles but Kenny says that their ability to hold teachers accountable is essential to success.  

“Only charter schools are allowed to hold teachers accountable,” said Kenny.  “And only when you hold teachers accountable can you give them complete freedom.  Only by giving teachers freedom do you attract the best to the profession.  So all schools need to have those conditions.  I don't care if you don't call it charter, but all schools need to function like that in order to attract the best people and keep them happy and make them passionate about their job.”

Many teachers at Harlem Village Academies say the collaborative supportive culture is in stark contrast to their experiences at other schools. Michele Scuillo, who teaches fifth grade non-fiction reading, worked at a public school right around the corner before joining the Harlem Village Academies team.  

“I had difficult students, I had difficult parents and just didn't have any kind of a support system,” said Sciullo.  “And I felt like this cannot be it, this cannot be what people do for 30 years.  So I was ready to leave teaching.” But today Sciullo says she is at the top of her game and she credits her fellow teachers with helping her get there.

Kenny says that being accountable for the success of the students means that teachers are pushed to teach for depth and comprehension and not just for the test.

“The focus on teacher quality is that there's too much emphasis now being put on the state test,” said Kenny.  “We're going to dumb down our expectations if we evaluate teachers only by the state test.”

'Our kids have so much potential'

Many of the students at Harlem Village Academies enter the fifth grade several grade levels behind in math and reading. But according to the school’s website, 100 percent of the students who scored a level one in reading (illiteracy) when they entered the school advanced to level one (basic) or level three (proficient) on the New York State reading tests within one year. And in 2008, Harlem Village Academies students made history as the first class of eighth graders in Harlem history to achieve 100 percent passing on the state math test.  

“Our kids have so much potential.  And they just want somebody to believe in them,” said Kenny. “They're very young when they come here.  But a lot of people have discouraged them along the way.  And when you provide them with what every kid deserves, which is just, you know, love and respect, they give it right back to you.”

Kenny dream has steadily expanded. Today there are two middle schools and one high school and in September of this year the first elementary schools will open their doors. Last year the first class that entered the school in 2003 graduated from high school. Almost all of them are currently attending college.

“After graduation all of the kids came up and started thanking me and all their teachers,” said Kenny.  “It was pretty incredible to hear an 18-year-old boy come up and say, ‘You know, if it weren't for this school I wouldn't have made it.’ That was a pretty striking moment.”

 

 

What we're following: 

- Governor Walker wins by big margins in Wisconsin recall

- Prosecutors have 'bizarre' Sandusky letters 

- 11 famed U.S. sites placed on most endangered places list

And did you see...

- Double-amputee sprints toward Olympics

- U.S. productivity rate takes largest drop in a year

- Amazing views of Venus crossing the sun

 

 

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What we're following: 

- Jury selection begins in Jerry Sandusky trial

- Bill Clinton says Mitt Romney would be "calamitous for our country"

- Senior al-Qaeda leader targeted in U.S. drone strike

And did you see...

- Controversial Army policy makes it difficult for soldiers to get service dogs

- The most traffic-jammed cities in America are...

- Starbucks buying bakery to improve food menu

 

 

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MALIBU, CALIF. -- On a starry night in the hills overlooking the Pacific Ocean north of Los Angeles, a two-man California National Guard special forces surveillance team sets up a sophisticated night scope. Their mission is to search the horizon and the waters below for an increasing number of Mexican drug traffickers offloading multi-ton loads of marijuana--and sometimes illegal immigrants--on remote U.S. beaches.

"These service members are the eyes and ears of federal law enforcement here," said Lt. Kara Siepmann, of the Guard's National Drug program. When asked about what specifically they are looking for, one of the surveillance team members said, "We're looking for blacked out vessels and any suspicious activity we can find, any unusual boats coming through the area." 

 

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The soldiers work quietly and in the dark, aware that the Mexican traffickers have their own spotters here watching out for U.S. law enforcement personnel. "They don't want to land where the National Guard or the Border Patrol are looking for them," said Siepmann.

Turning fishing boats into drug boats
In the last few years, law enforcement officials said they have seen a considerable spike in smugglers loading drugs or immigrants onto boats in Mexico's northern Baja Peninsula, then motoring north to offload their illegal cargo along a 300-mile-long stretch of California beaches, sometimes within sight of the many luxury homes on the coastline. 

Related: Debate rages over Mexico 'spillover violence' in U.S.

Federal agents said this is the latest smuggling technique employed by Mexico's notorious Sinaloa drug cartel, headed by that country's most-wanted criminal, Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman. The boats are small, open-hulled commercial fishing boats called pangas, which are commonly found in the inshore waters of Mexico and Central America. 

With their low profiles, the pangas are hard to spot in open water, but they can carry a large payload. Sometimes these 30- to 40-foot boats will have as many as four outboard engines, allowing them to outrun most vessels used by the authorities.

"The trend is pretty much going straight up," said Lt. Stewart Sibert, the captain of the US Coast Guard Cutter Halibut, which patrols in search of Mexican smugglers near the California coast. 

"The past few months have been very busy for us," he said. "We caught more drugs in these past two months than in the past two years."

According to arrest statistics reported by U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, or ICE, there were 183 known "events" in fiscal year 2011 along the California coast involving the maritime smuggling of drugs or immigrants, up considerably from the previous three years. During the first seven months of this fiscal year, there have already been 113 such events as the numbers climb even faster than last year.

"We're seeing four and five tons of drugs come in per run and we're seeing dozens of runs. It's almost one or two per week at this point," said Sibert.

A dangerous trade heading north
Law enforcement officials have argued the rise in maritime smuggling is a direct result of their crackdown on smuggling operations along the U.S. land border with Mexico. As they first interdicted smuggling boats headed for beaches in southernmost California, near San Diego, they began to see the traffickers moving farther north to drop off their loads, which are then distributed across the country.

Related: Patrolling 'smugglers' alley' by air along the Rio Grande

"As we stop them in one area, they’re trying to go around us. We're sort of leapfrogging up the coastline," said Sibert. Recently, an abandoned panga and a hidden marijuana stash were found near San Simeon, Calif., more than 300 miles from the Mexican border.

"They go far out to sea to try to evade interdiction efforts along the border," said Claude Arnold, the special agent in charge for ICE Homeland Security Investigations. "They typically go 100 miles out or farther due west, and then they come north," to reach the U.S. coastline.

While the panga boats are considered relatively stable when used for fishing in calm inshore waters, officials said, they can be quite dangerous in rougher waters offshore, especially if they are overloaded with drugs or illegal immigrants. The boats rarely have adequate safety equipment and authorities speculate that many may have been lost at sea, along with their passengers.

"It's a direct indication of these criminal smuggling organizations' complete disregard for human life. They are driven by profit and nothing else," said Troy Matthews, of the U.S. Border Patrol in San Diego. "You'll have somebody driving the ship who is not necessarily highly-trained. You'll have poorly maintained vehicles that will break down and subsequently they are loitering out at sea for days."

A border security threat
As they find more boats on the beaches and make more arrests, U.S. authorities are learning more about how the smuggling operation work, and the degree to which they are coordinated with land-based trafficking operations.

"We've seen some pangas that run directly up onto the beach and upload their cargo," said Sibert. "And then we've seen some that will come in and transfer their load to recreational boats that look less suspicious and try to run them directly into the marinas and yacht clubs."

Many times the panga boat operators will land at night on remote beaches near roads or a highway where they met by other members of the smuggling group. "There's usually an offloading team that will have a rental boxcar, U-Haul, or something of that nature to take the payload and transport it to a stash house where an organization begins the distribution process," said Arnold. 

A particular concern voiced by many U.S. authorities is the potential national security threat these boats and smugglers represent.  "They're just as willing to smuggle perhaps a weapon of mass destruction as they are a load of narcotics," warned Arnold.  "And they're just as willing to smuggle a terrorist as people coming here to work."  

To coordinate their interdiction efforts, federal, state and local law enforcement officials have formed a coastal-area task force. "As they adapt, we will adapt, and they'll continually try to find new ways to get contraband and people into the country, and we're going to be right there nipping at their heels," said Arnold.

Authorities conceded, however, that so far they are seeing no let-up in the Mexican maritime smuggling trade, and, in fact, are actually seeing bigger drug loads on boats now than in recent years.

"It's a huge challenge," said Matthews, from the U.S. Border Patrol. "It's an immense geographical area that we have to cover. There is not only single agency that can cover it by itself."

 

What we're following: 

- George Zimmerman returns to jail

- Air tanker crashes while battling Utah blaze

- Engine problems eyed after passenger plane crashes in Nigeria

And did you see...

- Space Shuttle Enterprise takes to the water

- 'Family Feud' star Richard Dawson dies at 79

- Gender pay gap persists as women age

 

 

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By Kevin Tibbles, NBC News correspondent

ST. LOUIS, Mo. -- Heidi Klein realized something was up when she got a call from the local waste management company.

“May I speak to Sam Klein please?” the caller asked.

“Well, actually he’s in kindergarten at the moment!” she replied, startled.

Her son Sam had not only been waiting on a lawn chair each week for the garbage truck to roll by; he’d also befriended the garbage men and started dialing the number of the company to compliment their work ethic. All this at the ripe old age of five. 

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Soon, with his parents’ permission of course, Sam was helping them load the truck, taking a ride in the truck … he even had his birthday party at the waste disposal facility. Shortly thereafter, Heidi said, Sam got an idea.

While some kids make a little spare change by opening a lemonade stand, Sam started visiting local businesses in St. Louis, Mo., and asking for their empty inkjet cartridges. He takes them home to his bedroom-cum-head office, and spends about 10 hours a week packaging them up in a shipping box and sending them off to the manufacturers.

He is now 12 years old and running his own recycling business.

“Did you know that each person [on the planet] throws out four and a half pounds of trash a day?” he asked. “Now multiply that by 3.8 billion people! How many pounds is that?”

(Math was never my strong suit; but I am willing to acknowledge it’s a lot.)

So this middle school impresario is now doing his bit to green the world from his second-floor room. Better still, the cartridge manufacturers are paying him for the recycled material -- anywhere between $20 to $200 depending on the type and number of cartridges he collects. He does admit, however, that his parents do get a tad upset with him from time to time over the ink stains on his bedroom carpet.

But Sam Klein wasn’t satisfied.

Sure he was helping out the environment, but what could he do to help his fellow man?

He says he’d feel selfish if he was pocketing all the money from his recycling business. So he’s been donating it to various organizations in and around St. Louis, such as the Ronald McDonald House, and asking grocery stores to donate, too. He is particularly interested in helping the homeless, which is something his mother finds very telling.

“It hurts him,” Heidi Klein said. “It hurts him to see someone tossed aside. Whether it’s a person or it is garbage it is not right.”

Sam, who has so far gathered about $1,000 in aid for those who are less fortunate, agreed. He looks at all the people and things that society has no further use for and sees something of value.

“When you throw something away … it hasn’t gone away,” he said.  “It’s just gone to a different location.”

 

 

 

 

 

What we're following: 

- U.S. economy creates 69,000 jobs in May, less than expected

- John Edwards trial jurors: "The evidence wasn't there"

- 11-year-old boy plays dead to survive Syria massacre

And did you see...

- Facebook targeted by hacking group Anonymous, site still running slow for some

- China official arrested over claims he spied for CIA

- Men's desks are germier than women's 

 

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