Anxiety

...ba href=/anxiety/a/b about U.S.

Foreign policy.

Americans are also concerned about their country's dependence on foreign energy supplies, U.S.

jobs moving overseas, Washington's seeming inability to stop illegal immigration, and a wide range of other issues.

The public's support for promoting democracy abroad has also seriously eroded.These are a few of the highlights from the second in a continuing series of surveys monitoring Americans' confidence in U.S.

foreign policy conducted by the nonprofit research organization Public Agenda (with support from the Ford Foundation), of which I am chair.

The first survey, conducted in June of last year, found that only the war in Iraq had reached the "tipping point" - the moment at which a large portion of the public begins to demand that the government address its concerns.

According to this follow-on survey, conducted among a representative sample of 1,000 American adults in mid-January 2006, a second issue has reached that status.

The U.S.

public has grown impatient with U.S.

dependence on foreign countries for oil, and its impatience could soon translate into a powerful demand that Washington change its policies.Overall, the public's confidence in U.S.

Foreign policy has drifted downward since the first survey.

On no issue did the government's policy receive an improved rating from the public in January's survey, and on a few the ratings changed for the worse.

The public has become less confident in Washington's ability to ac...

...ba href=/anxiety/a/b have been no stranger to her since that fateful day, when Rundell — diagnosed as a paranoid schizophrenic more than a decade earlier — placed a sawed-off shotgun at her skirt and fired.

The blast blew through her lower back and exited her abdomen, destroying much of her lower intestine and reproductive organs, tearing apart her sciatic nerve.

She has no feeling at all in some of the affected areas; in others, she suffers a constant and progressive aching.

Rundell, who lived near the New Oakland Family Center, was a stranger to her at the time.

As he approached Hunter, who had stepped outside to smoke a cigarette, she held the door for him — thinking he might be a patient coming in for care.

Hunter said he "looked right through her," walked passed and stopped.

She next heard a loud bang and fell to the ground, feeling an extreme burning inside.

Right away, she knew she had been shot — though she never imagined how badly she had been injured.

"I thought they'd just take the bullet out, stitch me up and send me home," she said.

Hunter spent the next month in the hospital, with no recollection of the first three weeks.

And now, nearly eight years later, trips to doctors are a way of life for her — the unfortunate highlights of her week.

"Except for my Friday night BINGO, I don't go anywhere except to see one of my doctors," she said.

"And they tell me I'm never going to get any better.

I'll get worse."A difficult case Attorney Maureen McGinnis, co-counsel for Rundell, sai...

...ba href=/anxiety/a/b is well-founded.

In approximately two hours, Herald reporters found the following examples of potentially dangerous behavior being carried out by area teens on MySpace.

Multiple students posted profanity and sexually explicit language.

A Millennium Middle School student claimed to be 19 years old on her page, saying that she loves to party.

A middle school student posted pictures of herself in tight clothing and provocative poses.

She said she was 18 years old.

Two local girls — one 13 years old and the other 15 years old — exchanged phone numbers on a MySpace message board, where they can be viewed by anyone with a MySpace ID.

A South Lyon High School student posted his address on the site, advertising a party he was planning at his parent's house.

A 15-year-old girl admitted to stealing and drinking in the past month.

A pair of teens used the site to post negative — and potentially libelous, one local police officer said — statements about another classmate, saying the girl spread false rumors and calling her a "whore."School officials show concern It's that kind of thing that keeps Dottie Frazzini up at night.

The Centennial Middle School guidance counselor said she gets terrified when she thinks of Centennial students being kidnapped or victimized by strangers they meet on MySpace.

The site has become a major concern for Internet safety experts, who say that sexual predators are trolling user pages for unsuspecting young girls and boys.

Frazzini said that some stu...