Gerry-rigged: Does your vote matter?

Philadelphia (CNN) -- Outside Independence Hall, ask a graduate student in line to see the Liberty Bell what he thinks of gerrymandering, and you might get this answer:

"I think Gerry Mandering is a great guy."

No, he isn't.

Gerrymandering is the term for the way politicians draw boundary lines for legislative districts in a way designed to keep one party or the other in power in that particular district.

In the last 10 years, 78% of the seats in the U.S. House of Representatives -- almost four out of every five members of Congress -- did not change party hands even once.

In California, with 53 seats -- the most in the nation -- incumbents were kept so safe that only one of those seats changed party control in the past decade.

David Wasserman, redistricting expert for the nonpartisan Cook Political Report, says only 20 races for Congress are expected to be tossups in the 2012 election. That's only 20 out of the 435 seats in the House.

"In general elections, it's almost rigged," he said.

More on the history behind gerrymandering

The lines are redrawn for seats in Congress each 10 years after the U.S. Census measures population shifts. That process is going on now in states across the country.

Among CNN's findings:

The South

Race has been used to create a political divide in the South. In the five Deep Dixie states -- South Carolina, Georgia, Alabama, Mississippi and Louisiana -- only nine Democrats are left in Congress. Only one is white. He is Georgia Democrat John Barrow, and Republican control in that state's legislature has led to his home city of Savannah being excluded from his current district.

In 2010, Republicans captured control of North Carolina's legislature for the first time since shortly after the Civil War. They drew district lines in a way to pack 49% of all of North Carolina's African-American voters in just three of the state's 13 congressional districts. That left the other 10 districts mostly white and predictably Republican.

Democrats in North Carolina accuse the GOP of political "resegregation." A court battle is looming.

Illinois

After the GOP landslide in 2010, this is the only battleground state winning or losing a seat where Democrats remain in control. They pushed through their new map over the Memorial Day holiday weekend. Most of the five freshmen Republicans elected to Congress last time will face difficult races to return for a second term.

Nowhere is gerrymandering more apparent than in Chicago's 4th District, where a grassy strip hardly a football field wide, stuck in between two expressways, connects the top and bottom halves of a district designed to keep a Hispanic in Congress.

According to the 4th District Rep. Luis Gutierrez, a Democrat, Chicago has an Irish district, a Polish district, a Jewish district and three black districts. Look at a map and all have irregular, unusual lines. This is not a matter of party control. All the incumbents are Democrats. The lines preserve racial and ethnic heritages.

In Illinois, it is the GOP that is suing Democrats to try to overturn the new map.

California

Voters have revolted. In 2010, they passed an amendment to the state constitution to take redistricting out of political hands and have a citizens commission redraw the lines. It was forbidden to favor incumbents.

As a result, more than half of California's 53 representatives were placed in the same district with another colleague for the 2012 election. As many as 15 could lose or else face retirement to avoid losing.

"Fifteen out of 53 does not sound like a lot," Wasserman said. "But compared to most other states, that's an avalanche."

Party politics did give way to social politics. Latinos, who accounted for most of California's population growth, could win as many as nine seats next year. The African-American population shrank, but under pressure, the citizens commission retained the three traditionally black seats in south Los Angeles.

Florida

Voter reform met resistance here. Three million people voted to pass amendments last year that say the legislature cannot not favor or penalize incumbents or political parties when it redraws the lines.

Two members of Congress -- Democrat Corrine Brown, who is African-American, and Republican Mario Diaz-Balart, who is Hispanic -- filed a lawsuit in federal court to try to overturn what the voters had done. Florida's House of Representatives, using taxpayer money, hired a law firm to support them in opposing the taxpayers' will. Their argument: The U.S. Constitution has given the legislature the sole responsibility for redistricting.

A federal judge rejected that argument and threw out the lawsuit. But the two incumbents, supported by the legislature, are appealing, and they say the case could go all the way to the U.S. Supreme Court.

Iowa

For three decades now, Iowa has had a nonpartisan redistricting system. Two legislative staffers draw the maps in secrecy without political interference. "In Iowa, it is understood incumbent protection is not the name of the game," one of those staffers said.

As a result, Iowa has the nation's only congressional race next year where a longtime Republican incumbent, Tom Latham, is paired against a longtime Democratic incumbent, Leonard Boswell. Past voting patterns indicate they could be separated by no more than 1%, either way.

Iowans like it this way, and that includes Latham. He said, "I think if you sit in a very safe district, a lot of times these people will ignore the public will. They won't have to listen because they can do whatever they want to, and vote however they want to, and not be held accountable for it."

As Wasserman put it, "Americans are basically between the ideological 40-yard lines. But the districts aren't. And that's part of the reason Congress is so polarized."

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Son: Paterno has treatable form of lung cancer

STATE COLLEGE, Pa. (AP) -- Joe Paterno was diagnosed with a treatable form of lung cancer the same weekend Penn State's football team played its first game without the Hall of Fame coach in nearly a half century.

His son, Scott Paterno, said Friday in a statement to The Associated Press that his father's doctors are optimistic the 84-year-old Paterno will make a full recovery.

The news came shortly after Penn State said the NCAA would look into the school's handling of a child sex abuse scandal involving former assistant coach Jerry Sandusky. Paterno was fired by the board of trustees Nov. 9 for failing to do more than simply report to his superiors an abuse allegation against Sandusky.

"Last weekend, my father was diagnosed with a treatable form of lung cancer during a follow-up visit for a bronchial illness," Scott Paterno said in the brief statement. The medical exam came the same weekend the school played its first game since the 1960s without Paterno leading the Nittany Lions - a 17-14 loss to Nebraska.

"As everyone can appreciate, this is a deeply personal matter for my parents, and we simply ask that his privacy be respected as he proceeds with treatment," Scott Paterno said.

Earlier Friday, The Citizens Voice of Wilkes-Barre reported that Paterno had been seen Wednesday visiting the Mount Nittany Medical Center and was treated for an undisclosed ailment and released.

Sandusky is charged with sexually abusing eight boys over 15 years - charges he denies. Critics say Paterno should have done more to stop his former assistant, specifically when he was told about an assault in 2002. But the longtime coach is not a target of the ongoing investigation of Sandusky.

Paterno initially announced his retirement effective at the end of the season, saying that the scandal was "one of the great sorrows of my life. With the benefit of hindsight, I wish I had done more." The trustees fired him anyway, about 12 hours later.

Longtime defensive coordinator Tom Bradley replaced Paterno on an interim basis. He broke the news about Paterno's cancer to the Nittany Lions after the team arrived in Columbus, Ohio, for Saturday's game against Ohio State.

"I told them sometimes words pale at a time like this. I felt they should hear it from us, exactly what it was, that we were told that it was a treatable lung cancer," Bradley said. "It's just one of those things. It's a tough time for the players."

Former Penn State quarterback Todd Blackledge, now an ESPN analyst, said Paterno never mentioned the illness when he visited his former coach Thursday in State College.

"In a week or so of many surprises this was another one," said Blackledge, who noted that Paterno was in good spirits when he saw him. A Penn State spokesman said that as far as he knew, Paterno never smoked.

To say health problems added to Paterno's troubles during a rough period doesn't begin to capture the last two weeks. The lurid Sandusky scandal has tarnished the reputation of a coach and a football program that once prided itself on the slogan "Success with Honor."

Paterno's 409 career victories over a 46-year career are a Division I record. In all, Paterno guided five teams to unbeaten or untied seasons and won two national championships.

Sandusky was once expected to succeed Paterno but retired in 1999 not long after being told he wouldn't get the job.

Two university officials stepped down after they were charged with lying to a grand jury and failing to report the 2002 charge to police, an assault which allegedly took place in a shower in the football building.

A grand jury report said the attack was witnessed by Mike McQueary, a graduate assistant at the time. Now the receivers coach but on administrative leave, McQueary told the grand jury he went to his father first and then to Paterno, who in turn spoke with his boss but didn't go to the police.

When the state's top cop said Paterno failed to execute his moral responsibility by not contacting police, public outrage built and the trustees acted.

Besides the criminal case against Sandusky, the university announced last week it was conducting its own probe - and that was before the NCAA said Friday that college sports' governing body would also start an inquiry.

NCAA president Mark Emmert said in the letter to Penn State president Rod Erickson that the probe will look at "Penn State's exercise of institutional control over its intercollegiate athletics programs."

At one time, that would have never been a question with Paterno, widely regarded as college football's model for running a clean program. He placed as much pride in graduating players as getting to bowl games, and consistently had Penn State among the top-rated academic programs in the country.

Paterno has donated millions back to the university, and his name graces a campus library - not a football facility or athletic complex.

Prior to his firing, Paterno pressed on with coaching in spite of a number of recent ailments. He often walked into news conferences fighting back sniffles, and Paterno often passed it off as nothing more than an annoying cold.

He was said to be in good health this preseason - getting back to his routine of walking around town - before a receiver accidentally blindsided him during preseason drills in August, leaving him with an injured right shoulder and pelvis.

Known for his stubbornness and high pain threshold, Paterno walked away from the collision and stayed on his feet for the rest of the practice period before being encouraged to get checked out by a doctor. The injuries forced him to spend most of the season in the press box.

During the 2010 offseason, Paterno scaled back personal appearances because of an intestinal issue and an adverse reaction to antibiotics prescribed for dental work.

Paterno ran practices from a golf cart in 2008 and spent much of that season in the press box after injuring his hip while trying to show players how to perform an onside kick in practice. Two years earlier, he broke his leg in a sideline collision during Penn State's game at Wisconsin at Camp Randall Stadium.

"Anyone who has ever been around coach Paterno knows he has tremendous drive and fight," acting athletic director Dave Joyner said in a statement. "The Penn State community will be in his corner and wishes him a speedy recovery."

Lung cancer kills 1.4 million people around the world each year. In the United States, 221,130 new cases and 156,940 deaths are expected this year. The disease is typically diagnosed in older people. About 2 out of 3 people diagnosed with lung cancer are over age 65.

"There's a significant number of people who are diagnosed in their 70s and 80s," said chief medical officer Dr. Otis Brawley of the American Cancer Society, who has no involvement in Paterno's treatment.

"Generally when I hear that a person has a treatable form of lung cancer, it means the person may very well benefit from surgery to remove a part of the lung," Brawley said.

While the surgery can be invasive, people who undergo the operation "can do well after that," he said.

The lights were dim Friday night at Paterno's modest ranch home next to a park near the end of a dead-end street. A few TV photographers waited across the street for any sign of the coach.

About a mile away, a steady stream of fans arrived in pairs to take pictures at the life-sized bronzed statue of Paterno outside Beaver Stadium. Jill Varady, 24, of York, said she found out about Paterno's illness after her aunt posted a comment on Facebook.

Despite the scandal, the school should now let Paterno "definitely let him finish the season, and then ... let him retire," Varady said. "We probably will never know everything that happened."

The illness didn't change the perception of how Paterno handled the Sandusky situation, said Tessa Drawbaugh, 26, of State College. "But as far as other than that, he's an icon," she said. "Everybody wants him to be well."

Copyright 2011 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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Pilot stuck in lavatory prompts scare

(CNN) -- A pilot stuck in the lavatory may sound like the opening line of a joke, but it triggered a terror scare on a flight from Asheville, North Carolina, to New York on Wednesday evening.

Delta 6132 -- operated by Chautauqua Airlines -- was about 30 minutes from LaGuardia Airport when the pilot went to use the bathroom.

Unbeknownst to the crew, he became trapped in the lavatory because of a broken door latch.

(The sole flight attendant on the plane couldn't help him because she had entered the flight deck when he left, per security protocols that require two people to be in the cockpit at all times.)

"After trying unsuccessfully for several minutes to open the door, a nearby passenger heard the noise of the efforts and tried to help," said Peter Kowalchuk, a spokesman for the airline.

"When the passenger was not able to open the door from the outside, the captain told him how to notify the flight deck of his situation."

The passenger dutifully complied, but apparently had a heavy accent, which combined with the suddenly-missing pilot spooked the first officer.

The tense conversation between the crew and air traffic control was posted on LiveATC.net, a website that shares live air traffic communications.

"The captain has disappeared in the back, and uh, I have someone with a thick foreign accent trying to access the cockpit," the co-pilot says in the recording.

"The captain disappeared in the back, went to use the restroom. By all indications, what I'm being told is he's stuck in the lav and someone with a thick foreign accent is giving me a password to access the cockpit and I'm not about to let him in."

Air traffic control responds by saying: "You guys ought to declare an emergency and just get on the ground."

But later, the pilot suddenly reappears at the controls.

"This is the captain. I'm back in the cockpit. Lavatory door malfunction," he says.

The controller on the ground is cautious: "I just want to make sure: Was there any disturbance in the airplane?"

"Negative," the pilot responds. "The captain -- myself -- was in the lavatory and the door latch broke and had to fight my way out of it with my body to get the door open."

The first officer did the right thing in securing the flight deck when he was not able to personally confirm the status of the captain, Kowalchuk said.

"No one was ever in danger and everyone, including the good Samaritan who tried to help the (captain) as well as the crew, are to be commended for their actions," he added.

The plane, with 14 passengers and three crew members on board, made an emergency landing at LaGuardia with the pilot at the controls.

The FBI was on hand just to make sure everything was all right.

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Syracuse assistant: Allegations are patently false

SYRACUSE, N.Y. (AP) -- Syracuse assistant basketball coach Bernie Fine says allegations that he molested two former ball boys for years are "patently false."

The school placed Fine on administrative leave Thursday "in light of the new allegations" and an investigation by the Syracuse City Police.

In a statement released by one of his attorneys Friday, Fine said the allegations have been thoroughly investigated multiple times and that he has fully cooperated with past inquiries.

"Sadly, we live in an allegation-based society and an internet age where in a matter of minutes one's lifelong reputation can be severely damaged. I am confident that, as in the past, a review of these allegations will be discredited and restore my reputation. I hope the latest review of these allegations will be conducted expeditiously.

"Finally, I appreciate (Chancellor Nancy Cantor's) statement that I should be accorded a fair opportunity to defend myself against these accusations. I fully intend to do so. There should never be a rush to judgment when someone's personal integrity and career are on the line."

Cantor vowed Friday that the school will not turn a blind eye to child molesting allegations that resurfaced just two weeks after the Penn State scandal.

ESPN reported the accusations were made by two former ball boys.

Bobby Davis, now 39, told ESPN that Fine allegedly molested him beginning in 1984 and that the sexual contact continued until he was around 27. A ball boy for six years, Davis told ESPN the alleged abuse occurred at Fine's home, at Syracuse basketball facilities and on team road trips, including the 1987 Final Four.

Davis' stepbrother, Mike Lang, 45, who also was a ball boy, told ESPN that Fine molested him starting while he was in fifth or sixth grade.

Fine is in his 35th season as a Syracuse assistant. No one answered the door at his home Friday.

"We hold everyone in our community to high standards and we don't tolerate illegal, abusive or unethical behavior - no matter who you are," Cantor said in an email Friday morning to students, faculty and staff.

"The dilemma in any situation like this, of course, is that - without corroborating facts, witnesses or confessions - one must avoid an unfair rush to judgment. We have all seen terrible injustices done to the innocent accused of heinous crimes. And we've all seen situations where the guilty avoid justice. "

Syracuse police spokesman Tom Connellan says Syracuse University did not contact police in 2005 when the school was informed of allegations of "inappropriate contact" by an associate men's basketball coach.

In an email Friday morning to students, faculty and staff, Cantor repeated that the school was contacted in 2005 by "an adult male who asserted that he had reported allegations in 2005 of abuse in the 1980's and 1990's to the police" and that the accuser told the school police had declined to pursue it because the statute of limitations had expired.

She said the school conducted its own four-month investigation at that time, including interviews with people the accuser said would support his allegations, but that all of them "denied any knowledge of wrongful conduct" by the associate coach.

In an email to The Associated Press, Kevin Quinn, the school's senior vice president for public affairs, said that when the school learned of the allegations in 2005, "it had already been reported to the Syracuse City Police and was already addressed within the criminal justice process."

"Therefore, the police would have notified the District Attorney's Office if appropriate under the circumstances. Nevertheless, we immediately launched our own investigation of our employee to determine the facts. If that investigation had revealed any evidence or corroboration of the allegations or any criminal conduct, we would have reported it to the authorities immediately."

Onondaga County District Attorney William Fitzpatrick told The Post-Standard in Syracuse his office will conduct a complete investigation into what was known and done in the past about these child molestation allegations.

Fitzpatrick said prosecutors were never notified when Syracuse police were told of the complaints back in 2002 or 2003 and when the university conducted its own investigation of the allegations in 2005.

Calls to Fitzpatrick by the Associated Press on Friday were not immediately returned.

Prior to Aug. 5, 2008, when New York's law changed and the statute of limitations was eliminated, prosecutions for felony sex abuse of a child had to begin within five years after authorities learned about it or within five years after the child turned 18.

New York lawmakers have since eliminated the statute of limitations on Class B sex felonies, which include aggravated sex abuse and course of sexual conduct against a child. However the old law applies to previous cases.

Both ESPN and The Post-Standard of Syracuse said they first investigated Davis' accusations in 2003 but decided not to run a story because there was no independent evidence to corroborate the allegations.

Davis told ESPN that Syracuse men's basketball coach Jim Boeheim knew he was traveling on the road and sleeping in Fine's room.

"Boeheim saw me with Bernie all the time in the hotel rooms, on road trips," Davis said. "He'd come in, and see me laying in the bed, kind of glance at me like, `What are you doing here?' But he wouldn't say that. He'd just scowl. And I would look at him like, I'd be nervous. I felt embarrassed `cause I felt stupid that I'm there. I'm not supposed to be here. I know it, and Boeheim's not stupid."

In a telephone interview Thursday night with the AP, Boeheim defended Fine: "This kid came forward and there was no one to corroborate his story. Not one. Not one. ... They said I walked into Bernie's room on the road and saw this. I have never walked into Bernie's room on the road. This isn't true. This just isn't true."

In an on-camera interview with ESPN, Davis said he was sexually abused "hundreds of times." When asked why he didn't come forward during the 16 years he accuses Fine of molesting him, Davis said: "I honestly didn't think anybody would believe me."

Robert Edelman, a mental health counselor who is CEO of the Village Counseling Center in Gainesville, Fla., says it's rare, in cases of child sex abuse, that the abuse or a sexual relationship extends past childhood.

"Many victims do continue to have relationships with their perpetrators but are able to stop the abuse from continuing when they realize they have control and can protect themselves," he said. "Usually, when children get older, learn new skills and clearly recognize that the sexual abuse is inappropriate and not their fault, they develop ways to get away from the perpetrator."

"Unfortunately, many victims do blame themselves and believe they could have stopped the abuse when they could not have," Edelman added. "In rare cases in which the abuse continues into adulthood, these victims are even more confused, blame themselves more intensely and feel even more helpless, especially when they came forward as children and the abuse did not stop."

Mark Chaffin, pediatrics professor who is research director at the University of Oklahoma's Center on Child Abuse and Neglect, says these types of cases "are not common, but they do happen."

He cited incest cases where a father molests his daughter or step-daughter for years in the context of a dominating and controlling relationship.

"In these cases, there may be almost a sort of learned helplessness in which the victim feels powerless to stop what is happening or to say no," Chaffin said.

"This can even be complicated by the fact that, in some instances, the victim may come to initiate sexual behavior. Still not what one would describe as a happy relationship or a love affair, and the relationship often retains a clearly exploitive stain carried forward from its abusive origins."

Copyright 2011 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.

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When wearing a U.S. flag T-shirt is wrong

San Diego, California (CNN) -- When is wearing a T-shirt with the American flag on it considered provocative?

Answer: When you wear it to a high school with a dress code that explicitly prohibits "any clothing or decoration which detracts from the learning environment." And when the high school, where 20% of the 1,300 students are English-language learners and 18% come from low-income families, has been described by the San Francisco Chronicle as having "an ethnically charged atmosphere."

And when, despite concerns about potential violence, you and some of your friends make your patriotic wardrobe choices on, of all days, Cinco de Mayo.

Last week, Chief U.S. District Court Judge James Ware said as much when he dismissed a lawsuit by a group of students and their parents against the Morgan Hill Unified School District in North California. The plaintiffs had alleged that, on May 5, 2010, the students' rights to freedom of speech were violated when Live Oak High School Assistant Principal Miguel Rodriguez ordered them to remove or turn inside out T-shirts bearing the American flag. The students refused, and two of them were sent home.

Under ordinary circumstances, wearing a T-shirt with the American flag on it would probably not be a big deal. But this high school is no ordinary place, especially not on Cinco de Mayo. It's a cultural powder keg.

The previous year, in 2009, a group of Mexican students marked the holiday by walking around campus holding a Mexican flag. A group of white students responded by hanging a makeshift American flag from a tree and chanting "USA." According to the Chronicle, tensions flared and the two groups faced off with profanity and threats.

Little wonder that when some students showed up at school wearing T-shirts with American flags on them administrators decided to err on the side of caution.

Meanwhile, the judge did the right thing in dismissing the case and declaring that administrators had the right to take preventive action if there was a "reasonable fear" of violence.

Score one for common sense. Can you imagine where we'd be if the court had gone the other way and stripped school officials of the power to maintain order?

It's easy for conservative radio talk show hosts and other right-wing commentators to criticize the administrators, but they weren't there. They're speaking from ignorance. They don't have even the most basic understanding of the mood at the high school or the events of previous years.

Conservatives are confused. For the last four decades, they have chipped away at the idea that students' free speech rights should trump every other consideration. The Supreme Court established those rights in 1969 in a case called Tinker v Des Moines Independent Community School District.

In that case, a group of high school and junior high school students were suspended when they wore black armbands to protest the Vietnam War. The high court declared that students don't "shed their constitutional rights to free speech or expression at the schoolhouse gate."

But since Tinker, and at the urging of conservatives, the Supreme Court has curtailed First Amendment rights of students, especially when the expression of those rights is disruptive, obscene or might lead to violence.

It did so in three other cases: Bethel School District v Fraser (1986), in which the high court held that a high school student's speech during an assembly -- filled with sexual innuendo -- was not protected; Hazelwood v Kuhlmeier (1988), in which the justices held that schools can regulate the content of student newspapers; and Morse v Frederick (2007), in which the Court held that school officials can restrict student speech at a school-supervised event even if it takes place off-campus.

That's the new legal reality, and it's one that conservatives helped create. Now they have to live with it.

The other problem is the parents, who did their offspring no favors by encouraging them to play the victim and call a lawyer. They were so eager to sue and teach their kids to stand up for their rights that they neglected to teach them that, in our system, rights come with responsibilities.

Like this one: Americans have the responsibility to treat one another, and one another's cultures, with respect. Just because someone shows cultural pride -- St. Patrick's Day, anyone? -- doesn't mean it's an expression of anti-Americanism. Quite the opposite. America is all about coming together as one, while preserving the cultural attributes that make us unique.

There's the rub: The students who brought the lawsuit against school officials claim to be proud of the American flag. But it's obvious they don't have the foggiest idea what it represents. And, when they had the chance, their parents failed to teach them.

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Former Rwanda mayor jailed over genocide

(CNN) -- A former mayor in Rwanda has been convicted of genocide and extermination as a crime against humanity over the deaths of 2,000 Tutsis during the country's 1994 genocide, the U.N.-backed International Criminal Tribunal for Rwanda said Thursday.

Former Kivumu mayor Gregoire Ndahimana served as a leading facilitator and commander in the slaughter of Tutsis in Kivumu, where an estimated 4,000 Tutsis were murdered, according to the ICTR's Summary of Judgment.

According to the judgment, Ndahimana was present during a massacre at the Nyange Catholic church where 2,000 Tutsis died over 10 days from 6 April 1994 to 16 April 1994, in one of the bloodiest sites of the genocide.

His presence "had an encouraging effect on the principal perpetrators," particularly because he was an authority figure, the tribunal found, ruling that he "aided and abetted genocide."

Ndahimana was also found guilty of "extermination as a crime against humanity by aiding and abetting as well as by virtue of his command responsibility over communal police in Kivumu," the judgment said.

Ndahimana was sentenced by a majority of the Trial Chamber's three-judge panel to a single sentence of 15 years imprisonment, the ICTR said, with credit for two years already served.

"The Chamber has considered the gravity of each of the crimes for which Ndahimana has been convicted," the judgment said.

Gruesome reports by survivors and other witnesses accused Ndahimana of joining local police and a priest in ordering assailants to bulldoze Nyange church, killing 2,000 Tutsi refugees who had sought sanctuary there.

A majority of the judges ruled that Ndahimana was present during the demolition of the church, but did not find it proven that he instigated or supervised the attacks.

A trained agronomist, Ndahimana served as "bourgmestre" of Kivumu, a commune in the prefecture of Kibuye near Lake Kivu.

According to a United Nations study, at least 59,050 people, or 12.4% of the Kibuye population, were killed during the genocide, accounting for more than three-quarters of the prefecture's Tutsi population.

The Rwandan genocide was triggered by the April 6, 1994, shooting down of a plane carrying the nation's Hutu president.

Ethnic violence erupted and Tutsis were killed systematically by Hutus over the course of three months.

The United Nations estimates that some 200,000 people participated in the perpetration of the Rwandan genocide.

In all, some 800,000 men, women, and children -- mostly Tutsis but also moderate Hutus -- died.

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Stewart Mandel: Revised Mandel Plan bids adieu to AQ status, two-team league limit

The past two years around this time, I've laid out the Mandel Plan for a revamped college football postseason. It's a detailed, practical and -- most importantly -- realistic model for a plus-one playoff that more often than not would solve whatever BCS controversy hovers over a given season.

On the surface, this year is no different. Irked by the idea of a regular-season rematch in the national championship game? Worried about choosing between Alabama and Oregon if it comes to that? Here's how easily that problem could be solved, based on the current standings:

• Semifinal 1: No. 1 LSU vs. No. 4 Oregon

• Semifinal 2: No. 2 Oklahoma State vs. No. 3 Alabama

All viable contenders are accounted for. No team could honestly say it's been slighted, unless further upsets occur (like Arkansas beating LSU), in which case the bracket would be updated accordingly. The importance of the regular season would be preserved. Problem solved.

However, my goal remains to provide a solution that actually stands a chance of being implemented -- unlike, say, a full-scale playoff bracket that includes the Sun Belt champion and renders the major bowls meaningless. To this point, the Mandel Plan was based on the current BCS model and calendar. However, all indications point to the BCS structure going through a massive overhaul beginning with the 2014 season.

"I'm very excited about the six months ahead, because I think the [BCS] group has a chance to make some decisions that will be for the good of this game for the next generation," BCS Executive Director Bill Hancock said Monday following a meeting of the BCS Presidential Oversight Committee in San Francisco.

Most notably, there is a growing sentiment for eliminating automatic qualifying berths entirely. The ongoing conference realignment madness -- in which teams from Idaho and Utah stand poised to join a conference based in Rhode Island -- has put several leaders over the edge.

"There's a lot of ideas I've heard floated," said Pac-12 commissioner Larry Scott. "The AQ status thing is ripe because people are troubled in some cases by the appearance it's in the name of attaining AQ status or preserving AQ status. People would like to think conference alignment has to do with a lot more than AQ status."

A high-ranking BCS source told me "almost everyone" wants to do away with AQ bids, but they've yet to focus in on a specific alternative.

No group would be more thrilled by such a move than the bowls themselves, which are sick of having undesirable teams forced upon them, a la 8-4 Connecticut last season. However, the Rose Bowl, for one, is not going to end its century-old partnerships with the Big Ten and Pac-12. Whatever the new model, there would still be some affiliation between certain bowls and conferences.

"The thinking about AQ status is pretty different for the Pac-12 and Big Ten than it is for everybody else," said Scott. "It isn't as relevant given our unique relationship with the Rose Bowl. It doesn't really matter for us one way or the other whether there's AQ status or not."

Another issue being discussed is the two-teams-per-conference limit. SEC commissioner Mike Slive and Big Ten commissioner Jim Delany have expressed support for eliminating it, and understandably so since their leagues' teams are generally the most sought-after. Scott was more skeptical, saying, "It could be seen as a step in the wrong direction when there's so much scrutiny about access [for the smaller conferences]."

If AQ bids go away, however, the access issue may be rendered moot. There would no longer be an official distinction between, say, the Big 12 and the Mountain West. That would also include the revamped Big East, which was already facing a challenge to maintain its AQ status.

There's another, less publicized issue looming, and unfortunately it could potentially stop a plus-one dead in its tracks. Last month, the NCAA's bowl task force -- formed in response to last spring's Fiesta Bowl scandal -- recommended several changes for the Board of Directors to consider. One of those is to narrow the window during which the bowls are played, ending closer to Jan. 1.

"The NCAA folks do not want the bowl season to extend far into the second semester, and we're going to have to live within that calendar," said Hancock.

However, in the incestuous world that is college athletics, the chairman of that task force, Nebraska chancellor Harvey Perlman, also serves on the BCS' oversight committee. Something tells me he can find a way to make the two organizations' desires mesh before the Board votes on the proposals in April. The key is not to play the title game any later than this year's Jan. 9 date.

Therefore, the revised Mandel Plan is based on the following assumptions:

1. There will be a fifth BCS bowl, the Cotton, added to the lineup to maintain 10 berths. (This is considered a near-given for the next contract.)

2. All BCS participants must meet a minimum Top 16 ranking.

3. There will be no more AQ berths, though the Rose Bowl will retain first rights to the Big Ten and Pac-12 champions, provided they meet the minimum ranking and don't need to be moved to a semifinal site (see below). Other bowls may still choose based on geography or traditional conference loyalties, but it won't be iron-clad.

4. There will no longer be a two-teams-per-conference limit.

5. A new model for revenue distribution will pay a baseline amount to all 11 FBS conferences, which then receive a sizeable payout for each team they place in a bowl and a smaller payout for each additional team. No league goes broke if it has a down year, and no league gets inordinately rich for placing three teams.

6. A draft order will be set in which the bowls choose their matchups -- not individual teams, mind you, but matchups -- and rotate annually.

7. Bowls that select the No. 1 and 2 teams will automatically be assigned the corresponding opponents (No. 1 vs. No. 4, No. 2 vs. No. 3) and become semifinal sites. If the Big Ten or Pac-12 champ is ranked No. 1 or 2, the Rose Bowl will become one of those semifinals. If the Big Ten or Pac-12 champ is ranked No. 3 or 4, the Rose Bowl must surrender it to the semifinal site. Presumably, the bowls with the first two choices in a given year would opt to stage a semifinal but are not required to.

8. As is the case today, the national championship game will be staged at one of the five BCS sites, at least a week after the semifinals but no later than Jan. 9. To accommodate that within this year's calendar (when Jan. 1 is a Sunday), two games were moved to New Year's Eve and a third to the early afternoon slot before the Rose Bowl.

To set this year's hypothetical lineup, I used the current BCS standings and tweaked this year's at-large rotation to establish the following draft order: 1) Fiesta, 2) Orange, 3) Sugar, 4) Cotton. I flipped the Orange and Sugar bowls so as to preclude the same city from getting to host both a semifinal and championship game. The order would shift annually, and the Cotton would be treated the same as the others.

I also considered each league's highest-ranked team as of today its champion.

Here is the lineup I came up with. Afterward, I'll explain how I arrived at it.

• Dec. 31 Cotton: No. 6 Arkansas vs. No. 8 Virginia Tech

• Dec. 31 Sugar: No. 5 Oklahoma vs. No. 7 Clemson

• Jan. 2 Orange: No. 1 LSU vs. No. 4 Oregon

• Jan. 2 Rose: No. 9 Stanford vs. No. 15 Michigan State

• Jan. 2 Fiesta: No. 2 Oklahoma State vs. No. 3 Alabama

• Jan. 9 title game (New Orleans): Fiesta Bowl winner vs. Orange Bowl winner

The Fiesta Bowl uses its No. 1 choice to take Oklahoma State from its old partner, the Big 12, knowing Cowboys fans will be tripping all over themselves for their first BCS trip. Thus the Fiesta gets the first semifinal.

The Orange, with the second pick, plucks LSU to snare the other semifinal matchup. Tigers fans will travel in droves knowing the championship game will be in their backyard. The Rose Bowl, in turn, loses Oregon, and not surprisingly opts to replace the Ducks with another Pac-12 team, Stanford.

The Sugar, with the third pick, opts for the highest-ranked available team, Oklahoma, and pits it against Clemson -- making its first BCS trip -- as opposed to Arkansas, which played in the same game last season.

The Cotton, with the fourth pick, jubilantly snaps up former SWC participant Arkansas to go against Virginia Tech, which has never played in the Cotton Bowl.

The Rose ends up with the least appealing matchup, but that's by the game's own choosing. Michigan State's conference affiliation is far more important to that game than its record.

Now, let us count the ways this proposal is an upgrade from the current BCS format.

Most importantly, it ensures all worthy contenders have a shot at the championship. There are many who feel Alabama is still the second-best team in the country, regardless of Oklahoma State's undefeated record. The Tide get a chance to prove that; the Cowboys get a chance to disprove it.

Secondly, nine of the Top 10 teams are represented. That's only happened once (in 2007) since going to 10 berths in 2006.

No one is forced to take an unranked Big East champion.

And the bowls' newfound flexibility allows for fresher participants. Rather than going to the Fiesta Bowl for the fourth time in six seasons, Oklahoma goes to the Sugar Bowl for the first time in eight years. Rather than going to the Orange Bowl for the fourth time in five years, Virginia Tech goes to a brand-new destination.

Critics will note the lack of teams from the current non-AQ leagues (Houston, Boise State, etc.). However, nine of the 10 teams are ranked higher than those squads. Had Boise remained undefeated and finished in the top five, I have no doubt a bowl would select it.

Not only is this an improvement over the current system, but this new version of the Mandel Plan is even better than the old one.

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