John Affeldt: Senate Poised to Call Novice Teachers "Highly Qualified" and Allow Concentration in Poor, Minority Schools

Do Republican presidents really refuse compromise?
“Again and again, we have Democratic presidents who say, ‘Don’t make the perfect the enemy of the better,’ and ‘This is the best I can do,’ ” says Robert Reich, the liberal Economist and former labor secretary under Mr. Clinton. “And over and over we have Republican presidents who say, ‘I am going to hold out for my principles.’ ” What's the evidence for this? George W. Bush presided over the largest expansion of Medicare since Ly...

Calif. gives business time to meet diesel rules
Trucks make their way on eastbound I-580 Friday, Dec. 17, 2010, in Livermore,... Sacramento, Calif. (AP) - Business owners will have more time to comply with California's tough diesel emissions standards for trucks, school buses and construction equipment under more relaxed rules that Air Quality officials adopted on Friday. The Air Resources Board passed the regulations unanimously, saying businesses struggling during a Recession need more time to replace or upgrade aging equipment. Clean air...

Your Opinions
The Journal Sentinel's recent articles on education couldn't be more relevant or timely. However, in the article on teacher preparation, there was a glaring omission (Page 1A, Dec. 5). While we often read comparisons of U.S. Students to foreign students, rarely do we see comparisons of U.S. teachers to foreign teachers. In many European countries, a prospective teacher first would graduate from college with a major in her or his chosen field, and only then get accepted into a professional coll...

Calif. gives businesses time for diesel compliance
SACRAMENTO, Calif. (AP) - Business owners will have more time to comply with California's tough diesel emissions standards for trucks, school buses and construction equipment under more relaxed rules Air Quality officials adopted on Friday. The Air Resources Board passed the regulations unanimously, saying businesses struggling during a Recession need more time to replace or upgrade aging equipment. Clean air advocates said it only ensured more harmful soot would be emitted into California's ai...

NAEP Scores Rise; NCLB Gets Credit
NCLB supporters are bragging today that the law's focus on Student achievement is the main reason for the rise in reading and mathematics scores on the National Assessment of Educational Progress. Here's this Press Release from Secretary of Education Margaret Spellings: “No Child Left Behind is working. It’s doable, reasonable, and necessary. Any efforts to weaken accountability would fly in the face of rising achievement." Rep. Howard P. "Buck" McKeon, R-Calif., says the scores sho...

Harry Reid Vows to Fight GOP and Obama on Earmarks
Sen. Reid says "whether it's George Bush or Barack Obama I'm going to fight." Ralph Nader says Atty Gen. Holder is "reacting to political pressure." House passes Repeal for Don't Ask Don't Tell and goes to Senate for approval. ABC News' Pierre Thomas sits down with Congressman George Miller. ...

Top 10 senators seeking earmarks
Julian Assange in the crosshairs: Is he being unfairly vilified? Wikileaks founder Julian Assange seems to be on just about everyone's Hit List in Washington. But there are some who call for restraint, saying the legal issues are murky at best. The New Economy Gold ATM: Why settle for cash? Withdraw gold. What happens when ordinary people decide to pay it forward? Extraordinary change. See how individuals are making a difference... Gloria Nemerowicz (c., seated), president of Pine Manor Colle...

Despite Gov.-Elect Scotts Education Disaster, Floridas Legislature May Do One Thing Right
Despite Gov.-Elect Scott’s Education Disaster, Florida’s Legislature May Do One Thing Right Even before Gov.-elect Rick Scott (R-FL) officially grabs the reins in his troubled state, he is making it abundantly clear that he plans to push for radical changes to the education system. Chief among his plans is a cockamamie scheme to give School Vouchers to essentially any Student whose parents want one, rich and poor, advantaged and disadvantaged alike. The idea strikes at the very he...

Korean exchange student dies after LA school fight
Jin Su Lee, 19, collapsed and later died at a Hospital after he and a 17-year-old boy traded blows in a fight that lasted about 10 seconds during gym class Tuesday. The teen, who wasn't identified because of his age, was arrested Thursday for investigation of assault. Prosecutors deferred filing any charges until an Autopsy determines Lee's cause of death, but police spokesman Richard French said the teen suspect could face a Murder charge. It wasn't immediately known when the Autopsy would take...

No Senate vote seen this year on EPA carbon rules
WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Legislation imposing a two-year pause on Environmental Protection Agency Regulation of Carbon Dioxide Pollution from smokestacks appeared to be dead for this year as Senator John Rockefeller accused Republicans on Friday of withholding their needed support. "Republican proponents of my bill to suspend EPA regulations on greenhouse Gas Emissions have pulled their support for this year -- so that they can gain some political advantage trying to take over this issue in 2011,"...

Tax: the school you save may be your own
On Wednesday December 15th, 2010, the Boston school committee voted on and approved a Controversial measure to close or merge eighteen Boston public schools. The measure will eliminate over five thousand empty seats in the classroom. It will also cut expenses for a cash-strapped City of Boston. The school committee meetings on the subject were tense. The superintendent of schools Dr. Carol Johnson was openly heckled and yelled at. Student after student stood at the microphone to plead ...

Hot-button Testing
Trifurcating the Espionage Act? Me on ACSblog on L'Affair Assange What does it mean to have a theory of federalism? Is a technical background necessary for Patent lawyers? « Trifurcating the Espionage Act? Me on ACSblog on L'Affair Assange I just returned from a really terrific Con Law roundtable on the Roberts Court at Five, at the University of Louisville, organized by Russ Weaver.  I'll be blogging about a few of the topics we discussed of the course of the next week or...

Skunk Damages Hundreds Of Gifts At Purcell Charity
PURCELL, Okla. -- Officials with a charity in McClain County have a unique holiday problem. A skunk sprayed hundreds of presents that were going to be given to low-income families in the area, said Peggy Christian with McClain County Operation Christmas. McClain County Operation Christmas is an all-volunteer group, Christian said, that took care of 786 Children in 2009 with expectations of providing gifts to 850 or more in 2010. As for the gifts that were sprayed, it's unclear whether they can b...

ATRA releases its latest 'Judicial Hellholes' report
ATRA releases its latest 'Judicial Hellholes' report The American Tort Reform Association this week released its latest Judicial Hellholes report, identifying civil courts in Philadelphia, California's Los Angeles and Humboldt counties, West Virginia, South Florida, Cook County, Ill., and Clark County, Nev. as some of the worst in the nation. The report represents a compilation of many of the judicial excesses readers will already be familiar with, but there's always something new and it's als...

Cardinal forced to send personal plea to the Pope after string of abuse allegations
Walsh was defrocked only after Cardinal Desmond Connell wrote to the Rome Rota, the church's Appellate Court, explaining he could not find a monastery willing to house him and could not reassign him to a parish overseas - a common church practice for managing paedophile priests - because he had been charged with Crimes. Finally the cardinal appealed in a letter seeking the personal intercession of Pope John Paul II to defrock Walsh. "The Archbishop humbly begs the Holy Father graciously to gra...

Providence parent blogs about city schools
PROVIDENCE — As a parent, former PTO president and education consultant, Jill Davidson can talk the educational talk. But Davidson, the former Executive Director of the Coalition of Essential Schools, is first and foremost a parent, and it is that perspective that she brings to her blog, Providenceschools.blogspot.com. “I want to find ways to build bridges between schools and communities,” she said. “I don’t have a huge political agenda. I want to find ways to discu...

Joel Bondy, N.Y.C. Payroll Office Chief, Is Suspended
The official in charge of the New York City agency at the heart of an alleged $80 million information technology Fraud scheme was suspended on Thursday without pay by Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg and Comptroller John C. Liu. The official, Joel Bondy, was chosen by Mr. Bloomberg to be the Executive Director of the Office of Payroll Administration in April 2004. But the payroll agency has been repeatedly criticized for its handling of the CityTime project, an automated system devised to streamline ...

Malloy picks Mass. health official to head state DPH
Gov.-elect Dan Malloy has selected Dr. Jewel Mullen, a Massachusetts public-health official and a lecturer at Yale University, as the state's commissioner of Public Health, according to sources. She will be the second woman and second African American selected by Malloy to lead a state agency. Dr. Jewel Mullen to head state DPH (Bill Brett) Mullen, the fourth agency head selected so far by Malloy, oversees community health and prevention for the Department of Public Health in Massachusetts, wh...

Judge declares mistrial on Mangum's felony arson charge
DURHAM -- Crystal Mangum, the accuser in the Duke Lacrosse Rape Scandal, is free and will be reunited with her Children after a jury deadlocked on the most serious charge she faced from a domestic incident earlier this year. Superior Court Judge Abe Jones sentenced Mangum to 88 days in jail – time she already served awaiting her trial. A 12-member jury found Mangum guilty of Child Abuse, injury to personal property and resisting a public officer, all Misdemeanors. Under state sentencing gui...

Calif. businesses given time to meet diesel rules
Trucks make their way on eastbound I-580 Friday, Dec. 17, 2010, in Livermore,... Sacramento, Calif. (AP) - State Air Quality officials will give businesses more time to comply with California's tough diesel emissions standards for trucks, school buses and construction equipment. The Air Resources Board unanimously passed the more relaxed rules at its meeting Friday. The board says the changes were needed because fewer diesel trucks and construction equipment are in use because of the down econ...

Court Upholds Ruling on Military Recruitment Bans
Friday, December 17, 2010 By Staff, Associated Press San Francisco (AP) - A federal appeals court is upholding a decision to strike down measures in two Northern California cities barring Military recruitment of minors. The cities of Eureka and Arcata overwhelmingly passed measures in 2008 called the Youth Protection Act. The government quickly sued, saying the cities can't regulate the activities of federal authorities. Government attorneys also argued that Military recruiting serves a vit...

Christine Pelosi Joins Young Democrats of America as Interim Executive Director
The Young Democrats of America has named Christine Pelosi, a nationally recognized expert on Grassroots politics and Public Policy, to join the leading progressive youth organization as Interim Executive Director, effective immediately. The author of Campaign Boot Camp: Basic Training for Future Leaders, Pelosi has conducted dozens of trainings for hundreds of Candidates and thousands of volunteer Activists across the country. Her Boot Camp’s emphasis on message, management, money and mobil...

DePuys Hip Replacement: The New Big Thing in Product Liability Suits?
By Dionne Searcey A story over at Brand X today discusses a troubling Loophole that exists in the Food and Drug Administration’s Regulation of implants. Unlike new drugs that must go through Clinical Trials before getting FDA approval, some implants can be sold without the tests if it resembles an implant already in use, the story says. Enter the Articular Surface Replacement, a hip replacement device made by DePuy Orthopaedics, a unit of Johnson & Johnson. Many patients who have received t...

Pssst, Hey Buddy, You Wanna Buy a F-5B?
The Feds have arrested 35-year-old Californian, Marc Knapp, for trying to sell an F-5B fighter jet to Iran. Knapp was nabbed in a government Sting Operation that crisscrossed the country from Pennsylvania to California and even ranged to Budapest, Hungary. For his part, Knapp was unconcerned that the nation that once promised ”Death to America,” and  is reputedly looking for a nuclear weapons capability might acquire an ...

British Muslim Converts Killed in Airstrike
An American drone strike in Pakistan has killed two al-Qaida-linked Muslim converts from Britain. It appears to be the result of a growing phenomenon of Western Muslims going to fight in Pakistani Terrorist organizations. The British Muslim converts, Caucasians going by their noms de guerre Abu Bakr and Mansoor Ahmed, were killed in Data Khel in the al-Qaida stronghold North Waziristan province, British media reports indicate. A local official in the town of Data Khel claimed that the pair's gi...