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Free, in-depth previews of key Supreme Court cases now offered by Cornell Law School Web site>

One of the most-accessed legal Web sites in the world just got better. The Legal Information Institute (LII) at Cornell University Law School is now offering free details on high-profile cases before they are argued and ruled on by the Supreme Court, including one on medical marijuana (Ashcroft v. Raich), another on restrictions on interstate alcohol sales (Granholm v. Heald) and a third on the constitutionality of executing young people who were under 18 when they committed a capital crime (Roper v. Simmons). Written in an easily understandable style for everyone from journalists to teachers to bright high school students, the analyses of upcoming Supreme Court cases are put together by a team of Cornell Law School students. The goal is to help people who are neither lawyers nor legal scholars grasp the issues at stake and why they are important. (December 16, 2004)

Onions and health: a clarification

On Oct. 7, Rui Hai Liu, M.D., an associate professor of food science at Cornell University, and his colleagues in Cornell's Department of Food Science published an article in the Journal of Agricultural and Food Chemistry titled "Varietal differences in phenolic content and antioxidant and antiproliferative activities of onions." The article reported on research indicating that onion types vary in antioxidant and antiproliferation activity which inhibits liver and colon cancer cell growth. One of the most active types was from New York state. (December 16, 2004)

Move over, Barbie. Former executive's role-model dolls help girls excel

If you're looking for a holiday gift for girls 8 to 12 -- and can't face buying yet another Barbie -- take a look at http://www.girls-explore.com. There you'll find realistic-looking dolls that are active role models for girls. They are shaped and garbed to look like aviator Amelia Earhart, painter Mary Cassatt, softball Olympian Dot Richardson, black abolitionist Harriet Tubman and four other female achievers, with more to come. "These women were determined, overcame obstacles and gave back to society in many different ways," says Randy Allen, who launched Girls Explore&tm; this fall after discovering no appropriate items on toy-store shelves for her nieces. A former executive who is now consultant-in-residence and senior lecturer at Cornell University's Johnson Graduate School of Management, she added: "The purpose of the line of dolls and their accoutrements is not only to give girls positive role models based on contemporary and historical women but also to provide historical information and recommended books to the girls and their parents." (December 14, 2004)

Spring in U.S. Northeast is arriving week earlier than 40 years ago due to greenhouse-gas warming trend, Cornell study finds

Spring is arriving up to a week earlier than it did 40 years ago in response to a warming trend in the U.S. Northeast, Cornell University researchers are reporting. They base their conclusion on a study of historical bloom-date records for lilacs, apples and grapes, which suggests that nature's calendar is changing due to an increase in greenhouse gases. In one of the first documented cases that plants in the Northeast are responding to climate change, the Cornell scientists and their colleagues at the University of Wisconsin say that lilacs are blooming about four days earlier, and apples and grapes six to eight days earlier, than in 1965. The findings in the study -- the first to encompass the U.S. Northeast -- are consistent with similar reports in other regions of the United States and in Europe. (December 13, 2004)

New Yorkers don't understand Albany politics, and some want to leave the state, Cornell's Empire Poll finds

Do New Yorkers understand New York politics? Fuhgeddaboutit. More than 70 percent of New York state residents feel that Albany's politics are too complicated to understand, according to this year's 2004 New York State Empire Poll of state residents, conducted by the Survey Research Institute at Cornell University. (December 10, 2004)

19 undergraduate students are awarded the Howard Milstein Scholarship in Arts and Sciences

Cornell University has announced that 19 of its undergraduate students will receive a scholarship for up to four years -- the 2004 Howard Milstein Scholarship in Arts and Sciences -- based on academic accomplishment and financial need. The annual scholarship, funded by a gift from Cornell alumnus Howard Milstein, was established in 2000 to enhance the Cornell College of Arts and Sciences' ability to attract and enroll some of the world's most intellectually able students. (December 9, 2004)

Homeowners in Northwest asked to look for Asian stink bugs, invasive pest that is threat to fruit and soybean crops

Wanted, dead or alive: the brown-marmorated stink bug. "We are asking homeowners in the Pacific Northwest to be on the lookout for these bugs, and if they think they have found any, to collect them.

Seven Cornellians receive prestigious national and international honors

Seven Cornell University academics have received national and international recognition for their work in scientific research. Several of the awards are among the most prestigious in their fields. Scholars who have received awards recently include Kevin Kornegay, electrical and computer engineering; Philip Liu and Jery Stedinger, civil and environmental engineering; Jerrold Meinwald, chemistry; Aaron Marcus, Weill Cornell Medical College; Fred W. McLafferty, chemistry and chemical biology; and Lang Tong, electrical and computer engineering. (December 3, 2004)

Introducing New Members of the Faculty

To help introduce to the Cornell community the new members of the university's faculty the Cornell Chronicle is publishing brief new-faculty profiles through December.

Conditions on vast plain on Mars could have been suitable for life, Cornell rover scientist Squyres states in special Science issue

Scientists have long been tantalized by the question of whether life once existed on Mars.

Cornell alumnus Michael Schwam-Baird of Jacksonville, Fla., awarded a Marshall Scholarship

Cornell graduate Michael Schwam-Baird '02 has been awarded a Marshall Scholarship to attend Oxford University, where he will pursue a master's degree in economic and social history. Schwam-Baird is a native of Jacksonville, Fla.

Cornell 2003 grad Damany Gibbs wins Rhodes Scholarship

GibbsITHACA, N.Y. -- Barbados native Damany Gibbs, a Cornell University 2003 engineering graduate, has won a 2005 Rhodes Scholarship, considered the world's leading academic scholarship, for two or three years of study at the…