Dr. David Nelson . . .

. . . is the senior scientific advisor in the office of smoking and health of the Centers for Disease Control.

According to a study of which he was a co-author, the number of teen-agers who consider smoking cigarettes appears to rise quickly and sharply when states cut funding for anti-tobacco programs.

"Post-denominational" rabbi Dave leads forum on "re-imagining the Holocaust"

How Jews should religiously remember the Holocaust continues to spark debate, reports JTA, the Jewish global news service:

"Rabbi David Nelson, director of the Jewish Life Connection for the Bergen County Y-Jewish Community Center in Washington Township, N.J., says that three of the four new sacred days in the Jewish calendar — Yom Hashoah [Holocaust Remembrance Day], Yom Hazikaron (Israel’s Day of Remembrance for fallen soldiers), Yom Ha’atzmaut (Israel Independence Day) and Yom Yerushalayim (Jerusalem Day) — are largely ignored outside the Jewish state.

"The holiday that proves most enduring worldwide — even among the least active Jews — is Passover, because of its simple, powerful narrative that spurs 'ritualized memory,' Nelson says.

"Nelson sponsored a forum on 're-imagining the Holocaust' this week at the Bergen County Y-JCC to examine the debate around Yom Hashoah rituals.

"'The real challenge is, how should this holiday be observed privately?' says Nelson, a Reform-trained rabbi who considers himself post-denominational.

"'Normal Jews are not historians, but they are storytellers. The question is, how will we ritualize the salient points of the folk memory of the Holocaust?' he asks."

Preacher/Artist sees a "riot of good news," among other things, in his work installed for Easter.

That's the Rev. David Nelson putting the finishing touches on his artistic vision of the resurrection.

Dave's a plaintiff in the ACLU's no-fly suit.

As reported by CNN, Belleville, Illinois, trial lawyer David Nelson has been stopped more than 30 times--every time he's tried to fly since the September 11, 2001, terrorists attacks that gave rise to the no-fly list (as recounted in the early days of this blog).

"I don't want to make people behind me wait even longer because the government presumes even momentarily that I am a terrorist, not a patriot," Nelson said.

The AP story elaborated:

"David Nelson is a law-abiding 34-year-old lawyer from Belleville, Ill. But he says the government treats him as if he's a threat to commercial aviation who shouldn't be allowed on a plane.

Nelson says he believes his name appears on the government's 'no-fly list,' which names people deemed too dangerous to board commercial flights. For Nelson, it's a case of mistaken identity: he's not the David Nelson the government believes is a threat.

Still, he says he's been delayed at airports dozens of times as government officials questioned him.

Nelson is among seven people whom the ACLU brought together in a class-action lawsuit filed Tuesday against the TSA [Transportation Security Administration], which administers the list.

'Few would line up in sympathy for a trial lawyer delayed for a few minutes at the airport every time he wants to hop on the plane,' Nelson said in an interview. 'But surely it affects individuals of color disproportionately, individuals of Arab descent or who practice the Muslim religion, and it's very much those people on my mind when I volunteered to be a named plaintiff.'"

Update.

"Users should pay," says State's Attorney Dave Nelson,

of Minnehaha County, South Dakota. He commented recently on a proposed liquor tax, designed to generate about $17 million for South Dakota counties to help them pay for law enforcement, alcohol treatment and diversion, domestic violence programs, and related services.

Pointing out that alcohol abuse costs taxpayers millions of dollars (by requiring more deputies, prosecutors, defense lawyers, and jailers), Nelson said:

"I feel strongly this is a user fee. Users should pay."

"A great cap for my senior year," he says with a smile.

That's Georgia Tech's David Nelson, quoted in a Boston Globe article about college basketball "walk-ons." An excerpt:

"A great game is when you actually play. A trip to basketball Nirvana is when you score (the standard career high is 2-4 points). They all hope for a moment like David Nelson's. He is a Georgia Tech senior walk-on guard. Last year the Yellow Jackets went to his home town of Syracuse. Before his family and friends, he swished a straightaway 3-pointer with 40 seconds to go. He actually went to Georgia Tech as a student, with no hoop aspirations. Now he finds himself in the Final Four."

David Nelson has a great seat for the Final Four

He's number 51, on the Georgia Tech bench.

And see this recent mention of "little David" in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution.

And here's Dave (second from right) after a teammate hit a last-second shot to beat North Carolina:



According to CBS, David is the smallest guy in the Final Four.

It's water safety time.

"With the warmer temperatures and recreation season rapidly approaching, we hope that visitors begin to think about safety before going out on the water," explained Missouri State Water Patrolman David Nelson. "We want everyone to come to the lake, have a good time, but we also want them to return home safely."

Info about the water safety course Nelson teaches is available on the water patrol's website.

Dr. David Nelson, a senior scientific adviser with the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention,

has released his study on binge drinking.

The top 20 binge-drinking areas are reported to be clustered in Texas, Nevada, Minnesota, Iowa, and North Dakota. Here's the abstract of the article from the American Journal of Public Health.

Happy to be home from Iraq

Minnesotan Dave Nelson, pictured here with his wife Becky, says "Things are weird," after a year away from home. "You're confused because everything has changed. You've lost a whole year." But "it's good to be home."

In North Carolina, Dave says: "We've got anything you could want to eat, . . .

. . . as long as it's PANCAKES."

Whose Levi jacket is this?

According to an article in the Dallas Morning News, an auction of Levi's denim jackets "customized by designers, decorators, costumers and celebs" raised big bucks for HIV/AIDS programs in Texas. One of the high sellers was "a David Nelson jacket packaged with a trip to Mykonos, Greece," which went for--gasp!--$10,000.

In Saline County, Missouri,

many citizens, including former park board president Dave Nelson, think the idea of restricting park access and putting up a fence so a private concern can put on a concert runs contrary to a community park's purpose. As one board member put it, "We've worked for 15 years to take out fences and posts throughout the park."

This story sent me looking for Frost's Mending Wall:

"Before I built a wall I'd ask to know
What I was walling in or walling out,
And to whom I was like to give offence.
Something there is that doesn't love a wall,
That wants it down...."

Did you know that David Nelson . . .

. . . is the vice president of global supply management for the world’s largest auto supplier, Delphi Corp. of Troy, Michigan? Well, it says so here.

Dave knows railroad crossing signals.

And he says a faulty device is setting up unsuspecting motorists nationwide to be killed, by telling them it's safe to cross when it is not.

In New Mexico, bereaved father David Nelson

has started an e-mail campaign designed to "embarrass the Sheriff's Department into action."

And here's a second article about the case.

Loafer Creek sounds like a laid-back place . . .

. . . but it seems it's a privately held land development and environmental conservation company based in Northern California, whose manager and legal counsel, Dave Nelson, calls it "a leader in the use of state-of-the-art technologies for the monitoring and managing of mitigation banks.”

(I've had clients who could have used a trip to the mitigation bank before their sentencing hearing.)

In Colorado, Dave explains Social Security rules

In Iowa, David's into ethanol

"This was just a vision that was given to us"

said Dave in Tatum, Texas.