Christina Green, the 9-year-old girl who was killed this past weekend in the Tucson shootings, will be remembered today amongst family, friends, and classmates.  Green was born on September 11, 2001, and a flag from atop the World Trade Center will be present at her funeral, according to CBS News.

Green was one of the six people killed in a Safeway parking lot in Tucson, Arizona on Saturday, during an assassination attempt on U.S. Representative Gabrielle Giffords' life. 

President Obama spoke last night at a memorial service for the dead and the wounded, and was empathetic and eloquent, according to the Guardian.  "Most affecting, [Obama] spoke of Christina Taylor Green, the nine-year-old girl born on 11 September 2001 – the president, doubtless thinking of his own daughters, seeming to brim with emotion, at one point emitting a noise somewhere between a sigh and a suppressed sob," stated the Guardian.

Green had just recently been elected to student council at Mesa Verde Elementary School. A neighbor brought her to meet Representative Giffords because of the girl's interest in leadership and politics.  She was the only girl on her baseball team. 

For more on the Tucson shootings, see below: 

* Outside McKale Center: Waiting for the Memorial

* High School Senior Reflects on Tucson Violence

* Young Faces in Tucson Shootings

The Youth Radio community joins with Pacific News Service and New America Media in mourning the loss of a great man, Franz Schurmann. The following article is from the New America Media website. 

Franz Schurmann, the foremost scholar of communist China during the Cold War, an early opponent of the U.S. war in Indochina, and the co-founder of Pacific News Service, died at his home in San Francisco on Aug. 20. The cause was advanced Parkinson’s disease and Alzheimer’s disease. He was 84.

Schurmann taught history and sociology at UC Berkeley for 38 years. Nevertheless, he chafed against the confines of the academy, and preferred to describe himself as an explorer-journalist rather than as an academic. He was fluent in 12 languages.

His first great exploration was a trip on horseback through Afghanistan in the late 1950s—a journey of two years that led Schurmann to discover what, until then, had been considered by anthropologists a mythical tribe of blue-eyed, blond-haired Mongols who descended from the military expeditions of Genghis Khan. ("The Mongols of Afghanistan," 1962)

In contrast to the Cold War polemics that dominated China studies in the United States, "Organization and Ideology of Communist China" (1968) drew heavily on Schurmann’s interviews of Chinese refugees in Hong Kong—interviews that enabled him to convey to Western readers how Chinese society and governance truly worked.

Schurmann’s knowledge of the histories and cultures of the Far East gave him an expertise within the anti-war movement that few other critics of American foreign policies of the time commanded. In 1966, he coauthored, with Reginald Zelnik and Peter Dale Scott, "The Politics of Escalation in Vietnam," documenting a parallel chain of command operating within the U.S. military and intelligence agencies that intended to thwart White House diplomacy.

Can you imagine the place where you buy shoes, clothes, and even food also sells caskets and urns? Wal-Mart--one of the leading retailers -- is now looking into cashing in on caskets. Is it surprising? The country is in a recession; companies have to make ends meet.

Wal-Mart’s executive privilege steel casket is loaded with swing handle bars in a classic European design. An adjustable bed and mattress can be purchased for $1399.00. Talk about a deal. Most caskets can cost up to $5,000, sometimes even more. Wal-Mart is trying to make money from people even after they're dead. It's is very corporate strategy, but Wal-Mart is not the only one.

Costco is also cashing in on the dead. Costco's caskets run from $900 to $3,000. Costco's funeral line consists of urns, keepsakes, sympathy flowers, and pet urns. They’re not playing; even dogs are not missing out.

What if someone asks -- where did you get the casket? Would you feel embarrassed to say Costco or Wal-Mart? I’m sure people don’t ask that, but it’s worth thinking about.

Previously:

• DIY Prom Dresses in Down Economy
• Wal-Mart's New Plan To Target Latinos
• Youth Voices on the Recession

Like most of you, my main focus was on the performances. I took my bathroom breaks during most of the speeches but I did happen to catch Brooke Shields’ mostly touching, long winded "had to have been there" MJ memories. I knew Mike took Brooke and Emanuel Lewis to the Grammy's but I figured I'd see Elizebeth Taylor on stage before Brooke Shields. I mean "Perched in the crescent moon", Brooke?

Politicians including California's governer joined Oakland residents and crowds of police in uniform at a public funeral today for the four Oakland officers slain last weekend.

An overflow crowd was directed to the Oakland Coliseum, where the event was broadcast on a massive screen. The line to get into the Coliseum stretched past the end of the parking lot.  

Governer Arnold Schwarzenegger was joined by Senators Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer.

Boxer said in a speech that the officers who died defined courage and bravery.