• Harvard professor apologizes for 'stupid' gay remarks

    Luca Bruno / AP

    Harvard history professor and author Niall Ferguson, seen in this file photo, apologized for saying economist John Maynard Keynes didn't care about the future because he was gay and had no children.

    By Mae Anderson, The Associated Press

    Niall Ferguson, a Harvard history professor and author, apologized on Saturday for saying economist John Maynard Keynes was less invested in the future because he was gay and had no children.

    Ferguson said his remarks at an earlier conference were "as stupid as they were insensitive." 

    During a question-and-answer session after a prepared speech at the Altegris Strategic Investment conference in Carlsbad, Calif., on Thursday, Ferguson was asked to comment about Keynes, an influential 20th century British economist who advocated government spending as a way to make up for lagging demand in a down economy. 

    Ferguson suggested that Keynes' philosophy was shaped by his homosexuality. Keynes, therefore, had no children so he wasn't as invested in future generations as others might be, Ferguson said. 

    The remarks were reported by the website of Financial Advisor magazine and other online publications.

    On Saturday, Ferguson acknowledged the remarks and said he "deeply and unreservedly" apologized.

    "I should not have suggested -- in an off-the-cuff response that was not part of my presentation -- that Keynes was indifferent to the long run because he had no children, nor that he had no children because he was gay," he said in a statement in response to an e-mailed query.

    "It is obvious that people who do not have children also care about future generations," he added. 

    © 2013 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.

  • Charter bus strikes overpass in Boston; 34 people injured

    Boston Fire Dept. via AP

    In this photo released by the Boston Fire Department via Twitter, firemen work to remove injured passengers from a bus that hit a bridge as it traveled along Soldiers Field Road in the Allston neighborhood of Boston on Saturday night.

    By Gil Aegerter, Staff Writer, NBC News

    A charter bus hit an overpass in Boston on Saturday night, injuring 34 people, authorities said.


    The bus was returning to Pennsylvania from Harvard University with 42 people on board when it hit an overpass on Soldiers Field Road about 7:30 p.m., the Boston Fire Department said on its Twitter feed.

    Boston Emergency Medical Services said on its Twitter feed that 34 people had been injured -- one with life-threatening injuries, three in serious condition and 30 with minor injuries.

    It was unclear who the passengers were.

    A tweet from Massachusetts State Police described the bus as overheight.

    Photos posted on the Fire Department's Twitpic account showed the top of the bus crumpled as firefighters extracted the injured. 

    The bus from Calvary Coach Bus had originated in Philadelphia. A spokesman for the bus company told The Associated Press he had no immediate information on the crash.

    The accident happened at Western Avenue on Soldiers Field Road, which The Associated Press described as a major roadway to the Massachusetts Turnpike that curves along the Charles River and passes by Harvard and Boston University.

    Boston Fire Dept. via AP

    Firemen work to remove injured passengers from a bus that hit a bridge in Boston.

  • 50 Grades of Grey: Harvard becomes latest college to accept BDSM club

    By M. Alex Johnson, NBC News

    University of Chicago

    A poster promotes the Nov. 1 meeting of RACK, the BDSM club at the University of Chicago. Click the image for the full-size version.

    It's a club where you might, in fact, use a club: Harvard University has joined the small but growing roster of U.S. colleges that have approved official student organizations devoted to kinky sex.

    Follow M. Alex Johnson on Twitter and Facebook.

    Harvard administrators were to formally approve the group, Harvard College Munch, on Friday, The Harvard Crimson reported. The recognition means the group, which has grown to 30 members since its informal founding earlier this year, can officially meet on campus to discuss issues related to the bondage-discipline, dominant-submission, and sadism-masochism communities, known collectively as BDSM.

    More important, its founder told the newspaper, speaking under the pseudonym "Michael," is that the move bestows "the fact of legitimacy."

    While Harvard's club drew widespread attention this week, it's far from the only BDSM club officially recognized by, or at least tolerated at, U.S. colleges.

    At the University of Minnesota, Kinky U is Student Organization No. 2370. It meets weekly — after office hours "for maximum safety and confidentiality" — to discuss "topics related to kink and the kinky community."


    At Tufts University in Medford, Mass., Tufts Kink started meeting this semester.

    "I think there’s a number of students who feel sort of isolated and alienated, and I think it's very powerful for them to have just a place where they can express themselves and a place where they can make friends," co-founder Anschel Schaffer-Cohen told The Tufts Daily.

    There's no national registry of campus BDSM groups, but consensus is that the oldest is at Columbia University, in New York, where Conversio Virium meets on campus every Monday night at 9.

    "Conversio virium" is Latin for "conversion of forces," and the group says it dedicates itself to 'the full exploration of BDSM, both in its sexual and spiritual aspects."

    "We encourage acceptance and communication between members," its charter says. "We urge them to learn from each other's play styles and experiences and to set aside any assumptions they may have about who people are and what they do." 

    Actual sex isn't allowed at such on-campus gatherings, which usually host discussions or the occasional live demonstration of safe and consensual kinky sex.

    The point is to "raise general awareness of kink and to promote acceptance and understanding of BDSM," according to the bylaws of Risk-Aware Consensual Kink, or RACK, at the University of Chicago.

    RACK is an intellectual group, it says, not a play group. It provides "resources to students who are interested in or curious about BDSM" and demonstrations that "give students an opportunity to learn from experienced members of the BDSM community about safely practicing kink."

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  • Feds: Suspect in multimillion-dollar scam is a Harvard Law graduate, former Army intelligence officer

    Amy Sancetta / AP file

    Bobby Thompson, who a federal marshal says is John Donald Cody, appears at a hearing in Cuyahoga County Court in Cleveland, May 8, 2012.

    By Jeff Black, Staff Writer, NBC News

    When he was arrested on April 30, the suspect known as Bobby Thompson had been on the run for nearly two years from charges that he ran a bogus charity that collected millions of dollars from people who thought they were helping out Navy veterans.

    On Monday, federal authorities revealed that Thompson is really John Donald Cody, 65, a 1972 Harvard Law School graduate and Army veteran the FBI had long sought on numerous fraud charges related to a 1987 espionage probe.


    U.S. Marshal Peter Elliott, head of the task force that found Thompson, said on Monday that he was doing Google searches for fugitives recently when landed on an old FBI wanted poster for Cody. Elliot noticed the man's resemblance to the suspect marshals had nabbed in the Ohio fraud case.

    Cody, it turned out, had been charged but never arrested, so his fingerprints were not included in a nationwide FBI print database, the Cleveland Plain Dealer reported on its website.

    By obtaining Cody’s fingerprints from the Defense Department, Elliott was able to compare them with the prints taken after Thompson’s arrest. The suspect had served as a captain in U.S. military intelligence, Elliott said.

    “Thank goodness for Google,” Elliott said in a news conference Monday announcing Thompson’s apparent unmasking, the Plain Dealer reported.

    "This is definitely John Donald Cody," Elliott said. "He's a guy that thought, No. 1, he could never get caught, and No. 2, he would never be identified. And we were able to do both."

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    Cody graduated from the University of Virginia in 1969 and Harvard Law School in 1972 and practiced law in several states, Elliott said. Harvard confirmed to The Associated Press that a John Cody graduated from its law school in 1972.

    The suspect known as Bobby Thompson was featured on television as one of “America’s Most Wanted” fugitives. He surrendered after a tip led to a Portland bar and marshals followed him home.

    Thompson is now jailed in Cuyahoga County, Ohio, charged with 22 counts of theft, money laundering, tampering with records, engaging in corrupt activity and other charges. He ran the national charity out of Tampa, Fla., with fake officers and state chapters and opened up numerous bank accounts and rented mailboxes to pull of the scheme, according to Ohio authorities.

    An associate of Thompson’s, Blanca Contreras, of Tampa, Fla., was sentenced to five years in prison in August, 2011, in connection with the charity scam.

    Thompson’s attorney, Joseph Patituce, told The Associated Press he is preparing for a March 11 trial. "We believe that the state has a very weak case against our client, but we look forward to our day in court," he said.

    According to authorities, little of the money collected to benefit veterans through the U.S. Navy Veterans Association was used for that purpose. However, thousands of dollars was contributed to political candidates.

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  • Harvard study: US 'middling, not stellar' in student achievement gains

    Harvard's Program on Education Policy and Governance

    How states rank in improving student acheivement

    By Jim Gold, NBC News

    The United States is making only "middling, not stellar" gains in closing the international student achievement gap, says a new Harvard report.


    States are not progressing evenly and school-reform efforts and increased education spending are not necessarily paying off, say the authors of “Achievement Growth: International and U.S. State Trends in Student Performance.”

    Officials in several states called the study’s results a wake-up call.

    Among key findings:

    • While 24 countries trail the U.S. rate of improvement, another 24 countries appear to be improving at a faster rate. U.S. progress is not sufficiently rapid to allow it to catch up with the leaders of the industrialized world.
    • U.S. test-score performance has improved annually at a rate of about 1.6 percent over 14 years but students in three countries -- Latvia, Chile, and Brazil -- improved at an annual rate of 4 percent, and students in another eight countries -- Portugal, Hong Kong, Germany, Poland, Liechtenstein, Slovenia, Colombia, and Lithuania -- gained at twice the rate of U.S. students. Gains made by students in those 11 countries are estimated to be at least two years’ worth of learning.
    • Student performance in nine countries -- Sweden, Bulgaria, Thailand, the Slovak and Czech Republics, Romania, Norway, Ireland, and France -- declined over the same 14-year time period
    • The top state improvements were seen in Maryland, followed by Florida and Delaware. Also among the top 10 states that outpaced the U.S. as a whole are Massachusetts, Louisiana, South Carolina, New Jersey, Kentucky, Arkansas and Virginia.
    • The slowest rate of improvement was in Iowa followed by Maine, Oklahoma, Wisconsin and Nebraska. (Nine states that did not participate in early National Assessment of Educational Progress tests were left out of the Harvard study: Alaska, Illinois, Kansas, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, South Dakota, Vermont and Washington.)
    • In most states, a rising tide lifted all boats. States with the largest gains in average student performance also tend to see the greatest reduction in the percentage of students performing below the basic level.

    Harvard's Program on Education Policy and Governance

    Do you know as much as an eighth-grader?

    The report warns that because rates of economic growth impact the future well-being of the nation, there is a simple message: "A country ignores the quality of its schools at its economic peril.”

    Related: Chicago's big school deal: Longer days for kids, hundreds more teachers

    In Iowa, a statement on the website for Linda Fandel, Republican Gov. Terry Branstad’s special assistant for education, said the Harvard study “is more evidence that Iowa must shake off complacency and build a consensus for how to give our students a globally competitive education.” The study also “should lend a sense of urgency” for discussions scheduled Aug. 3 on “how to better use the talents of outstanding educators to improve instructional practices and raise achievement”

    Robert F. Bukaty / AP, file

    Maine Gov. Paul LePage

    In Maine, the study set off a controversy between Republican Gov. Paul LePage and educators.

    Watch US News videos on NBCNews.com

    “Clearly, the status quo in education is not working,” LePage said in a prepared statement. “Test scores in Maine are stagnant while other states are making progress. In fact, while Maine spent $4,000 more per student from 1990 to 2009 -- well above the average for the states -- student achievement gains were the second worst in the country … Our public school system is failing and we are allowing it to happen.”

    See more education stories on NBCNews.com 

    The Maine School Management Association responded that LePage ignored “some facts on student achievement … most notably that students here are achieving well above the national average,” the Bangor Daily News reported. Maine eighth-graders rank among the nation’s top 10 states, and only five outscore Maine eighth-graders in science, the association said.

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  • Harvard apologizes after Unabomber gets entry in 50th reunion book

    Opinions are mixed over Harvard University's class of '62 alumni book inclusion of "Unabomber" Ted Kaczynski and his update listing information such as occupation as "prisoner" and awards as "eight life sentences". WHDH's Adam Williams reports.

    By msnbc.com news services

    BOSTON -- Harvard University alumni attending their 50th class reunion this week are getting updates on classmates, but one person stands out among those sharing news about career moves, retirements and grandkids: Unabomber Ted Kaczynski.


    Kaczynski graduated in 1962 and is locked up in the federal Supermax prison in Colorado for killing three people and injuring 23 during a nationwide bombing spree between 1978 and 1995. In an alumni directory, he lists his occupation as "prisoner" and says his awards are "Eight life sentences, issued by the United States District Court for the Eastern District of California, 1998."

    The "Harvard and Radcliffe Classes of 1962 -- Fiftieth Anniversary Report" also included Kaczynski in its state-by-state listings, calling him a Colorado resident, reported The Boston Globe.

    Elaine Thompson / AP file

    Ted Kaczynski, known as the Unabomber, is currently in a Supermax prison in Colorado.

    Kaczynski's nine-line entry, which also lists one publication under his name - "Technological Slavery," published by Feral House in 2010 - contrasted with many other lengthy updates from other alumni on their lives. Kaczynski's 2010 book included his so-called "manifesto," which was published by The Washington Post and The New York Times in exchange for Kaczynski's promise to end his bombing campaign back in the 1990s.

    The widow of one of his victims told The Boston Globe she was disappointed Harvard printed the Unabomber's entry.

    Susan Mosser, whose husband Thomas Mosser was killed in 1994 when a package exploded in their New Jersey home, told the Globe, “Kaczynski is a con artist. He’s a serial killer; he’s a murderer ... Everything is a game for him to push people’s buttons.”

    It's a decision the Harvard alumni association now regrets.

    "While all members of the class who submit entries are included, we regret publishing Kaczynski's references to his convictions and apologize for any distress that it may have caused others," the Harvard Alumni Association said in a statement Wednesday evening.

    The alumni association said all class members, including Kaczynski, were invited to submit entries for the class report, distributed for reunion activities during commencement week.

    A Harvard spokesman said the update was submitted by Kaczynski but could not immediately say how the university confirmed that. A message seeking comment was left with Kaczynski's attorney.

    Classmate: 'He could have become one of the greatest mathematicians'
    Kaczynski is a Harvard-trained mathematician who also got master's and doctoral degrees from the University of Michigan.

    In The Harvard Crimson "Commencement 2012/1962 Reunion Issue," published this week, one of Kaczynski's 1962 classmates recalled him as "brilliant."

    “It’s just an opinion, but Ted was brilliant,” said Wayne Persons, who also lived in the same suite at Harvard as Kacznski. “I think it was a huge tragedy. He could have become one of the greatest mathematicians in the country. He wasn’t a domestic terrorist when I knew him.”

    Others remembered him as a loner.

    “He would just rush through the suite, go into his room, and slam the door,” Patrick McIntosh, another suitemate and Harvard graduate from 1962, told The Crimson. “And when we would go into his room there would be piles of books and uneaten sandwiches that would make the place smell.”

    Kaczynski entered Harvard at just 16 years old. One of his other classmates recalled sitting at the same dining table with him from time to time.

    “He was very quiet, but personable,” John Federico told The Crimson. “He would enter into the discussions maybe a little less so than most ... but he was certainly friendly. He was younger, and he seemed to be on the shy side, so you needed to make some effort to draw him in. But he could do that.”

    Kaczynski later lived as a recluse in a Montana cabin, railed against technology and led authorities on the nation's longest and costliest manhunt. He was caught in 1996 when his brother recognized his idiosyncratic writings and tipped off authorities.

    Kaczynski pleaded guilty two years later to avoid a trial at which his lawyer had planned to offer an insanity defense. The guilty plea also saved him from the death penalty.

    Items seized from his cabin were auctioned last year by the U.S. Marshals Service for more than $200,000 to benefit his victims.

    The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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  • Medical examiner: Harvard student found in harbor died from accidental drowning

    This undated photo provided by the Portland Police Department shows Nathan Bihlmaier, 31, of Cambridge, Mass.

    By Jason White, msnbc.com

    Updated at 5 p.m. ET: A Harvard Business School student whose body was found in a harbor near a Portland, Maine, pub where he was last seen drinking died from accidental drowning, the state medical examiner's office said Wednesday.


    Nathan Bihlmaier, 31, had been celebrating his impending graduation with friends at the waterfront pub Saturday night before he disappeared, according to NBC affiliate WHDH.com.

    He was visibly intoxicated and had been asked to leave the bar, WHDH.com reported. He called friends a short time later, and then was never heard from again.

    “He was asked to leave [Rí Rá's Irish Pub and Restaurant] about 12:20 in the morning for having a little bit too much to drink. At that point he left the bar very cooperative, there were no altercations,” Portland's police chief, Michael Sauschuck, said.

    Police are unsure how Bihlmaier wound up in the water and are hoping surveillance video will shed some light on the matter.

    Bihlmaier, a native of Osborne, Kan., and a University of Kansas graduate, leaves behind a wife pregnant with their first child. He was scheduled to graduate from Harvard Business School on Thursday.

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  • Harvard: No posthumous degrees for gays expelled in 1920

    By msnbc.com staff and news services

    BOSTON -- Harvard University says it will not award posthumous degrees to seven students expelled from the Ivy League school in 1920 because they were gay or perceived to be gay.

    "Harvard’s Faculty of Arts and Sciences does not award posthumous degrees except in the rare case of a student who completes all academic requirements for the degree but dies before the degree has been conferred," the university said in a statement.

    "In 2002 the University expressed its deep regret for the way the situation was handled as well as for the anguish experienced by the students and their families almost a century ago."

    A group of student and faculty had urged the university to award the posthumous degrees. The group planned a rally Wednesday during a campus visit by Lady Gaga, who will be at Harvard to launch her Born This Way anti-bullying foundation. The singer has been a strong activist for the gay community.

    The group says it wants Harvard to formally abolish its so-called "secret court," a tribunal of administrators that investigated charges of homosexual activity among students in 1920. The tribunal remained a secret for decades, only becoming public in 2002 after a student reporter at Harvard searching the school's archive came across a file labeled "secret court" and reported on the school's expulsion of the students.

    Lady Gaga's new foundation, named after her 2011 hit song and album, will address issues such as self-confidence, well-being, anti-bullying and mentoring through research, education and advocacy. The pop sensation is expected to be joined by Oprah Winfrey, spiritual leader Deepak Chopra and U.S. Health and Human Services Secretary Kathleen Sebelius during a kickoff event Wednesday on the Harvard campus.

    "Given the Born This Way Foundation's commitment to this mission and their choice to launch their foundation at Harvard, we felt like this was an opportunity to ask for their support and would hope they would join us in asking Harvard to do the right thing here and help seek justice for these students," said Kaia Stern, a visiting faculty member at Harvard who plans to attend the rally.

    Harvard administrators apologized for the secret court in 2002.

    Former Harvard President Lawrence Summers called the episode "abhorrent and an affront to the values of our university."

    "I want to express our deep regret for the way this situation was handled, as well as the anguish the students and their families must have experienced eight decades ago," Summers said in a 2002 statement to The Harvard Crimson newspaper.

    The Associated Press and msnbc.com's James Eng contributed to this story.

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  • US cites Harvard medical research facility

    By msnbc.com staff and news services

    CAMBRIDGE, Mass. -- A dehydrated squirrel monkey died at a Harvard Medical School research facility in December, the third monkey to die at the New England Primate Research Center in 19 months.

    The Boston Globe reports  that the U.S. Department of Agriculture cited Harvard for failures to comply with federal animal welfare regulations, including injuries to monkeys.

    William Chin, executive dean for research at Harvard Medical School, told the newspaper that the incidents are unacceptable. He said problems with management systems and implementing basic procedures were found in a review in 2010.

    Chin says new leaders are addressing the issues.

    Harvard and agriculture officials say the Dec. 27 death and non-fatal dehydration of a second monkey was caused by employees' failure to check a malfunctioning water dispensing system.

    Read more on boston.com

    Another squirrel monkey’s leg was fractured in January, when it was caught under a door, according to the Boston Globe. Also, the newspaper reported that a group of rhesus macaques escaped from their pen in December, resulting in an injury to one monkey’s foot.

    “They’ve had a tough stretch, and it’s certainly something that’s gotten our attention and we look forward to them correcting the situation,” David Sacks, a USDA spokesman, told the Boston Globe.

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  • USDA cites Harvard's primate research center in animal death

    By msnbc.com staff

    Harvard Medical School officials promised to improve conditions at the school's research center after a federal report cited a number of problems involving the treatment and condition of its animals -- including the death of one primate.

    The U.S. Department of Agriculture report listed five citations at the New England Primate Research Center in Southborough, The Boston Globe reported on Wednesday.

    The citations, including one issued in the death of one primate in October, involved concern over the center's enclosures and hair loss and unusual behavior of its four monkeys. The report said the research facility had corrected all of its citations.

    The primate’s death, which happened after the animal escaped from its cage in October, was the second animal death at the facility in 2011, according to the Globe. In February, a primate died at another Harvard facility after anaesthesia was improperly administered, the Globe reported.

    According to The Telegram & Gazette newspaper of Worcester, Mass., USDA spokesman David Sacks said no action has taken place and he didn’t know if an investigation would ensue.

    “Is five a pretty large number of non-compliances? It is. But are they reaching a level of egregious mishandling or systemic problems in terms of inhumane treatment of animals? I don’t see that here,” Sacks told the Telegram.

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