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Michelle Rhee, the school chancellor of the District of Columbia Public School System (DCPS), is standing behind me in the ladies room of the U. S. District Court in Washington, D.C. I start to sweat. I feel as if I'm standing next to Elvis, an impeccably dressed, petite, Blackberry-carrying Elvis. Hailed as the educator who will save Washington's schools, singled out for praise by Barack Obama, Rhee is a celebrity. Our restroom proximity is due to the hearing we are both attending that day, where DCPS will outline its progress in compliance with a class action consent decree. Rhee sits at the large oak counsel table before the judge, while I and the other special education attorneys, attorneys who represent parents who sue DCPS for failing to provide their children with needed special education and related services, sit in the gallery.

An attorney whose clients include schoolchildren & their families reflects on her path to this professional niche & the troubled educational bureaucracy in the US. Adapted from the source document.

When former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto's son Bilawal became the leader of her Pakistan People's Party, following her assassination, he told the crowds that 'My mother always said democracy is the best revenge'. Yet, despite the fact parliamentary elections are now scheduled for February 18, Amnesty International sensed a general mood of hopelessness during a recent visit to the country. 'Pakistan is lost' was a refrain heard in many places. Adapted from the source document.