In short

Author Ned Sublette to discuss new book

Author Ned Sublette will discuss his new book, The World That Made New Orleans: From Spanish Silver to Congo Square, today on campus as part of the Portland State Library Artists and Writers Series.

Sublette is also a Cuban musicologist, founder of the Qbadisc record label and a producer for the radio show Afropop Worldwide. The New York City resident is visiting the West Coast to promote his book, and yesterday took part in the 2008 Pop Conference at the Experience Music Project in Seattle.

Kimberly Willson, public relations coordinator of the Branford P. Millar Library, said she is thrilled to help bring Sublette to campus to share his expertise.

“He’s a musicologist and a musician, and so I think he brings a unique perspective to any topic that he approaches in regards to the musical roots of American jazz,” she said.

The event will take place in the library, today at 7 p.m. It is free, but donations will be accepted at the door for the Oregon Food Bank.

-Stover E. Harger III

College site visitors find accidental porno

PENDLETON, Ore. (AP)–People who used the Google search engine to get to Blue Mountain Community College definitely got something blue.

As the college was remodeling its Web site and changing its Internet address, a hacker redirected a previous address to a porn site.

Web coordinator Jacque Talboy says the hacker did not get into the college’s main site.

But, she says, people who had not rebooted their computers and used Google to get to Blue Mountain got a surprise on Monday.

She says Google was able to reset its computers and direct search-engine users to the right site.

Gen. Petraeus justifies Iraq War to Congress

WASHINGTON (AP)–The top U.S. commander in Iraq told Congress Tuesday that hard-won gains in the war zone are too fragile to promise any troop pullouts beyond this summer and refused to commit to more withdrawals before President Bush leaves office in January.

Army Gen. David Petraeus painted a picture of a nation struggling to suppress violence among its own people and to move toward the political reconciliation that Bush said a year ago was the ultimate aim of his new Iraq strategy, which included sending more than 20,000 extra combat troops.

Security is getting better, and Iraq’s own forces are becoming more able, Petraeus said. But he also ticked off a list of reasons for worry, including the threat of a resurgence of Sunni or Shiite extremist violence. He highlighted Iran as a special concern, for its training and equipping of extremists.

In back-to-back appearances before two Senate committees, Petraeus was told by a parade of Democrats that, after five years of war, it was past time to turn over much more of the war burden to the Iraqis.

Republican Sen. George Voinovich of Ohio, a longtime critic of the administration’s war strategy, told Petraeus: “The American people have had it up to here.”

Petraeus responded, “I certainly share the frustration.”