WASHINGTON (AP) A first-time national geography bee contender from Texas has won the annual competition in Washington.

Fourteen-year-old Rahul Nagvekar, of Missouri City, Texas, won National Geographic Bee on Thursday. He will receive a $25,000 scholarship.

Thirteen-year-old Vansh Jain, of Minocqua, Wis., came in second, and will take home a $15,000 scholarship. The third-place winner, 13-year-old Varun Mahadevan of California, wins a $10,000 scholarship.

The competition began with about 4 million students in schools across the country this year.

Here's the post we did on Varun yesterday. Plus this video of the Hayward 13-year-old pointing out some local and statewide points of geographical interest..

Related...

• National Geographic GeoBee Quiz

May Yan Saechao shows off the make shift fencing that protects her garden patch at Peralta Hacienda Historical Park.(Credit: KQED/Don Clyde)

In the heart of East Oakland’s Fruitvale neighborhood, the Peralta Hacienda Historical Park is an incongruous reminder of California’s Mexican past: six acres of open space in a sea of single-family homes. What was once a massive ranchero now features a Victorian house surrounded by carefully tended vegetable gardens.

Ben Glickstein is director of outreach here. He says back in 1820, Antonio Peralta had big agricultural dreams for this stretch of land that slopes down to Peralta Creek. "And we’re still using this for agriculture, for food, here in the middle of this pretty urban neighborhood."

Ten years ago, a local community organizer got an idea. Why not let a handful of elderly refugees from Laos work this land? So today, schoolchildren visit to learn about 19th century life in California - making adobe bricks and grinding corn for tortillas - alongside Mien gardeners from Southeast Asian mountain country, refugees from the so-called “Secret War”that the U.S. conducted in their country half a century ago.

Like the Hmong, another ethnic minority in Southeast Asia, the Mien (originally from China) supported the U.S. during the Vietnam War. So when America pulled out of Vietnam and Laos, and local Communists took control ... the Mien were in serious trouble.

"The Communist, you know, faction in the country looked at the Mien people as traitors," Kathy Chao Rothberg says. She's the head of Lao Family Community Development in Oakland. She estimates some 50,000 Mien refugees live in the U.S. now, 15,000 of them in Sacramento, another 13,000 in the East Bay. "They’re spread out in East Oakland, in the cities of Richmond, San Pablo, El Sobrante, Pinole, Hercules."

Chao Rothberg herself came over when she was seven years old. For her, the trauma of the passage to the U.S. is something her father talks about, a dramatic piece of family history. For older Mien refugees, the pain of what they left behind is a personal memory. Those who made it out of Laos ended up in Thai refugee camps, happy to be alive ... but grieving for the people who didn’t make it out or died trying.

She was in her mid-20s, already a mother of four, when the entire village had to flee. They crossed the border to Thailand and found themselves stuck in a refugee camp, staring at security guards and hanging on the occasional delivery of fresh vegetables to supplement their rice rations.

“We left everything! Cow, horse, pig, chickens,:" she says. "And of course the grain. The rice, corn. You can’t carry it. Everything leave it there."

After four or five years, she made it to the U.S., to Oakland, and to a burgeoning community of Mien refugees. But here amid the concrete and steel of urban America, she yearned for the feel of soil between her fingers.

At Peralta Hacienda, the Mien farmers have planted pumpkins, corn and numerous varieties of green beans and herbs. Many of the vegetables grew from seed sent by family and friends back in Laos and Thailand. They provide a fresh, fragrant reminder of home, right here in Oakland, easily incorporated into stir-fries and stews. (For recipes, see my post at Bay Area Bites.)

Kathy Chao Rothberg of Lao Family says you can't understand the power of food and its cultivation to help these community elders feel connected. "Many have mental health problems and depression. And so the garden, in addition to providing a place where they can grow vegetables and herbs for their consumption [is] also a place they can call home, that they can have other seniors to socialize with. So that they’re not so isolated."

Northern California is home to several Mien farm programs.  Others are big enough to support commercial sales, but Peralta Hacienda is sized for the personal use of just 10 people. That said, when the beans are ready to pick, sometime in July, there will be a community feast here. And everyone is invited.

• 
• Source: Berkeleyside

Embattled Berkeley Police Chief Michael Meehan said Wednesday that having 10 police officers search for his son's stolen iPhone on January 11 was not "some kind of preferential treatment," but is something the department "would do for anybody in the city."

Read more at: www.berkeleyside.com

• 
• Source: Mashable

You've probably noticed today's interactive Google Doodle - a playable, recordable synthesizer in honor of Robert Moog's 78th birthday. It's also no coincidence that productivity has likely been down this morning. Internet users have already shown a wide range of talented, creative Moog Doodle examples, as YouTube user FableA2 shows us in the video above.

Read more at: mashable.com

Facebook is in talks with the New York Stock Exchange to move its stock from the Nasdaq Stock Market after a botched initial public offering on Friday, according to a person familiar with the matter.

The person spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly. Facebook's much-anticipated IPO was delayed by a half-hour on Friday because of glitches on the Nasdaq.

After pricing at $38, Facebook's stock closed up 23 cents on Friday and has been down since. On Wednesday, it closed up $1, at $32, still down nearly 16 percent from the IPO price.

The news was reported earlier by Reuters.

Here's Bloomberg TV's Cory Johnson discussing the reported switcheroo. Johnson says, "I'm gonna go out on a limb here: I've never heard of anything like this, right after an IPO a company considering another listing. [But] there's never been a listing as screwed up as this was on the Nasdaq."

Last week, after the Facebook IPO landed with a thud, we talked to Sam Hamadeh, CEO of IPO research firm PrivCo, who had earlier given us seven reasons to avoid Facebook stock, at least initially. He predicted there was going to be some finger-pointing this week, though he thought the shoe may be on the other foot in terms of Facebook vs. Nasdaq...

Morgan Stanley looks horrible right now. The Nasdaq looks horrible. There are people who own IPO shares or bought this morning – they haven't even received trade confirmations yet. There are millions of shares traded that aren't even technically cleared yet.

Nasdaq did make extra efforts to do a dress rehearsal, looping in all of the regional exchanges affiliated with it. But even with that you had some major hiccups, the trades not clearing, the delay in the opening, the Zynga flash crash.

Morgan Stanley's embarrassed, Nasdaq's embarrassed. I think they're going to blame Facebook. They'll say these guys were pulled kicking and screaming into this process. Mark Zuckerberg only showed up for two of the roadshow stops and barely took questions. He didn't even bother to put on a dress shirt.

Following Facebook's initial failure-to-launch, things have not gotten any better. The stock continued to drop (it finally finished up today), and reports that lead underwriter Morgan Stanley revealed its reduced revenue forecast to select clients before the IPO drew the concern of both federal regulators and the U.S. Senate Banking Committee.  (Yesterday, various news outlets reported that Facebook itself gave this guidance to Morgan Stanley analysts.) And of course, there's a lawsuit.

Meanwhile, increased scrutiny of Facebook's business model, as well as other aspects of the company, have proliferated in the media:

• The Facebook Fallacy (Technology Review)
• Facebook stock slide puts new pressures on company(Reuters)
• Has Facebook Ruined Silicon Valley? (Slate)

Stay tuned...if you give a Farmville dollar's worth of manure, that is. Some people are experiencing Facebook Schadenfreude. Others may feel they have a rooting interest, even if they're not shareholders.

HP hopes to avoid as many layoffs by offering early retirement packages.

The company, which is based in Palo Alto, Calif., expects to save as much as $3.5 billion annually from the job cuts and other austerity measures.

News of the cutbacks overshadowed the release of HP's latest quarterly results. The company's earnings and revenue were both better than analysts projected. HP reported sales of $30.7 billion, down 3 percent from a year ago, and a profit of $1.6 billion, down 31 percent.

Press release from HP here.

More, on past HP bloodletting, from the San Jose Mercury News:

HP has taken an ax to its workforce on several other occasions in recent years. In June 2010, it announced it was cutting about 9,000 positions "over a multiyear period to reinvest for future growth." Two years earlier, it disclosed a "restructuring program" to eliminate 24,600 employees over three years. And in 2005, it said it was cutting 14,500 workers over the next year and a half.

In a note to its clients this week, Deutsche Bank analysts said past layoffs "have done little to improve HP's competitive position or reduce its reliance on declining or troubled businesses." And despite HP's assertion that the latest cuts will enable the company to reinvest in other key market areas, Deutsche Bank questioned that rationale because the company "has been restructuring for the past decade..."

In another recent note, analysts at Bernstein Research concluded that HP could save $500 million for every 5,000 people laid off, but warned that their biggest concern based on the first quarter "was HP's apparent lack of competitiveness, as the company grew slower than its rivals across all business units," including personal computers, servers, laser printers and tech services. While "it is too early to write-off the company," they added, "investors view HP as a 'broken' company."

First prize: a $25,000 college scholarship, a trip to the Galápagos Islands, lifetime membership in the National Geographic Society, and the ability -- though not necessarily recommended to be acted upon -- to start every tenth sentence well into the senior years with "that reminds me of when I won the National Geographic Bee."

And as if you needed even a smidgen more incentive: The finals will be hosted by Alex Trebeck. National Geographic Bee: "What is awesome TV?" is your answer in the form of a question.

From the San Francisco Chronicle's article on Varun and the bee today:

The National Geographic Bee was developed by the National Geographic Society in 1989 in response to concerns that America's youths were ignorant of geography. Last year, the Department of Education reported that only half of U.S. fourth-graders could correctly rank, in descending order of size, North America, the United States, California and Los Angeles...

The geography bee is less famous, but arguably tougher, than the National Spelling Bee. It is co-sponsored by Google of Mountain View.

Brian McClendon, vice president of Google GEO, called the geography bee "one of the strongest education competitions out there."

Here's video of Varun pointing out some local and statewide points of geographical interest...

Yesterday, reporting for KQED, Chelsea Hawkins talked to the California champ and learned the following:

• He enjoys reading and ice skating and hopes to play ice hockey this summer.
• He wants to be a zoologist.
• He became interested in geography after his mother gave him a globe when he was three.
• He wants to go to Harvard (Editor's Note: That's in Cambridge, Massachussetts. Two can play at this game, Varun).

"I'm a bit nervous but I'm confident also," the geographic goliath trash-talked yesterday. "Nervous that I hopefully don't make any careless mistakes and confident because I'm pretty sure I will be able to answer all the questions."

As to how he's preparing for the competition: “I look at atlases, I look at current events, I listen to the radio and I read a lot.”

Random historical anecdote in which geography plays a key role:

“In northeastern California there’s a place called Lava Beds National Monument. They have these lava tube caves that were created thousands of years ago by lava cooling in them, and they have great formations inside. It was the site of the Modoc War, where the Modoc Indians fought against American soldiers. There’s a stronghold that the Modoc Indians had – there were 500 of them – and there were over 1,000 US Soldiers... The Modocs were able to keep the stronghold for over six months until they ran out of food and water."

I'm guessing "what's the capital of North Dakota?" is not going to be a question tomorrow...

Grizzly Creek (Credit: pellaea, Flickr Creative Commons)

The Humboldt County Board of Supervisors has voted to take on Grizzly Creek Redwoods State Park, which was slated for closure, for at least one year.

The Times-Standard reports the county's public works department has a plan to operate the park in partnership with the California Department of Parks and Recreation and the Save the Redwoods League. We are talking virgin redwoods,  nearly 460 acres' worth, along State Route 36 between Fortuna and Bridgeville.

State parks' staff will retain some park responsibilities, but county staff would be responsible for conducting day-to-day operations, like trail maintenance and fee collection.

The county will chip in an estimated $95,000. Save the Redwoods is tossing in $20,000, plus $40,000 in settlement funds with the county to develop a plan for keeping the park open beyond 12 months.

You can bet the supervisors were talking about the park's contribution to local tourism (a topic The California Report covered in our special series, "On the Rocks.") In the same meeting last night, the supervisors also approved a proposal to create a Humboldt County Tourism Business Improvement District.

Meanwhile in Sacramento, the Senate Budget Subcommittee on Resources, Environmental Protection, Energy and Transportation took up and passed a proposal by State Senator Joe Simitian (D-Palo Alto) and State Senator Noreen Evans (D-Santa Rosa) to keep open as many as 50 state parks slated for closure.

Local governments, the federal government and various non-profits around the state have taken about 20 parks off the list of 70 originally slated to close ...

Could it be that no parks will close on July 1st? We'll see...

Dr. Thomas Gill’s forensic pathology career already was scarred by numerous autopsy mistakes before he started ruling on causes of death for the Solano County sheriff-coroner in 2007.

Dr. Thomas Gill, shown in 2004. (Courtesy of Michael McClure)

The sheriff’s office, however, does not intend to continue checking Gill’s past autopsies, said Lt. Gary Faulkner, the chief deputy coroner. None of the other 300 cases is believed to have involved foul play or illegal activity.

“During the course of those other autopsies, there was no evidence uncovered that led the pathologist, or anyone from our office, to believe that a crime had been committed,” Faulkner said.

The sheriff’s office does not have the resources to open every post-mortem examination Gill did for Solano County, Faulkner said. “In many cases, there’s really nothing left to work with,” he said.

Stanton hired Dr. Bennet Omalu, chief medical examiner for the San Joaquin County Sheriff’s Office, to re-examine 32 of Gill’s autopsies, several of which involved a death that resulted from violent crimes. Omalu found problems in more than half of the post-mortem reports, the most egregious example being the 2008 death of Ricky Meyi.

The remains of Meyi, a 50-year-old Vallejo resident, were found burned and left in a ditch. Gill performed Meyi's autopsy and concluded that the man died of “complications of blunt force injuries.”

Seven people accepted plea agreements with prison sentences related to Meyi’s death, despite the lack of evidence proving what killed him. The Solano County district attorney based much of the case on witness statements that said Meyi was beaten by a group at a party. Julie Underwood, the lead prosecutor on the case, told California Watch that she did not read Omalu's review and dismissed it as "one person's opinion."

A joint investigation by California Watch, ProPublica and PBS Frontline last year detailed how Gill, 68, has repeatedly resurrected his career in coroners’ offices across the United States over the past two decades after autopsy errors undermined criminal cases and misdiagnosed causes of death. The California State Bar called the doctor “incompetent” in a 2006 report on a botched homicide investigation in Sonoma County.

Gill was working for a private firm, Forensic Medical Group, when he performed the Solano County autopsies. The firm provides forensic pathology services to more than a dozen Northern California jurisdictions.

Forensic Medical Group fired Gill in early 2011, saying it did not have enough cases to keep the doctor.

Omalu discovered Gill continued to struggle with identifying evidence during autopsies and interpreting test results.

In 2007, Christina Baxley, a 41-year-old woman, was shot to death while walking her dog. Although the cause of Baxley’s death was not in question, Gill’s autopsy appears incomplete, as he misidentified certain injuries and entirely overlooked a bullet hole, according to Omalu.

“Review of the scene and autopsy pictures reveals a vividly obvious gunshot wound in the left anterior chest, which was not described in the autopsy report,” Omalu wrote.

Gill also allegedly misinterpreted a toxicology report in the death of David Slaughter, who was discovered unresponsive in his cell at California State Prison, Solano in January 2008.

In the autopsy report, Gill listed Slaughter’s cause of death as “morphine toxicity.” Omalu’s review of Slaughter’s blood results determined the death was caused instead by a toxic combination of amphetamines and heroin – a significant discrepancy.

Omalu noted another key shortcoming in Gill’s work on Slaughter’s death: no visual evidence.

“Digital photographic documentation of autopsy findings are expected accompaniments of autopsy reports in this modern day, especially in homicidal cases and unique cases like this case involving sudden in-custody deaths,” Omalu wrote. “This is a critical flaw."

Omalu argues that Gill repeatedly failed to meet basic standards of the profession. In multiple reviews, Omalu wrote in all caps: “There is a constellation of critical flaws in this case.”

Ryan Gabrielson is an investigative reporter for California Watch.