Article “McCaskey tries new mentoring program, School experiments with all –black homerooms” explains “Initially, some McCaskey East students and staff objected to separating out black students… But [McCaskey East principal Bill] Jimanez said the academic data dictated the school take a different approach with its black students… ‘Let’s look at the data, let’s not run from it,’ he said. ‘Let’s confront it and see what we can do about it.’”
Tag: featured
Corporatists vs. anti-corporatists replaces conservative and liberal
Re “A boon for History buffs”, a really interesting excerpt. History is no doubt filled with decisions that could have changed the direction of the country in significant ways. The first campaign I worked on in high school was for the slate of Nelson Rockefeller for Governor, Jacob Javits for Senate and John Lindsay for Mayor. I think it was the latter who got me interested.
It’s full steam ahead on Corbett’s reform pledge
TRIBUNE-REVIEW: … Corbett confirmed the plan will include what he touted during his campaign:
• Eliminating or reducing lawmakers’ “walking around money,” or discretionary grants.
• Eliminating or paring down the $188 million legislative surplus as a contribution to reduce an estimated $4 billion deficit. Corbett said he is reviewing budget documents.
SUNDAY NEWS
Gil Smart in his column “No future for the blue collar” ridiculing the gist of a Time Magazine article says:
“Now, all those line workers have to become mechanical engineers. Somehow. For the reality is that there’s no way this nation, or any nation, becomes a place where the overwhelming majority of citizens have the college degree and specialized training necessary to compete in a post-industrial economy.
Social Security trust fund but IOUs
When the Social Security system was inaugerated in 1935(?) weren’t the funds to be put in trust until needed? If the trust had been kept intact and not used to balance the budget, does anyone know what the approximate balance of the funds would be today?
Tunisia’s ‘air of liberty’ wafts across Mideast
From the FINANCIAL TIMES …Indeed, Tunisia has shattered two long-held myths about the Arab world, the first being that people power is irrelevant. “It’s clear that when conditions develop in any society for mass action, it takes place,” said Mustafa Hamarneh, a Jordanian analyst. “The conditions are probably riper for this kind of action in north Africa, but that doesn’t mean they [other Arab states] are immune.”
Commissioner Martin targets union contractors
EDITOR’S NOTE: How can a commissioner when announcing the introduction of an ordinance also say “A vote by the Board of Commissioners will follow immediately.” Not only does this suggest a certain indifference to discussion by fellow commissioners and the public, it either implies presumptiousness in assuming the other two commissioners will consent to a vote or implicit violations of the Sunshine Act because they have already agreed to do so.
Potential state defaults; WikiLeaks hardly leaks
Interesting to see how the Congress is trying to figure out ways to let the state’s default on their debts, http://www.nytimes.com/2011/01/21/business/economy/21bankruptcy.html?pagewanted=1&hp rather than bail them out, while they did not let the big banks default. That seems backward to me. And, sad to see that the regulations being put out to get the financial reform operating will allow the too big to fail banks become even bigger, in part based on shady accounting as to how big they already are.
Summit yields gains for both China and U.S.
WASHINGTON POST: Chinese President Hu Jintao’s just-concluded summit with President Obama was a win both for the Communist Party and for Hu himself, demonstrating once again the Chinese government’s reliance on ceremony to bolster its standing among its people. China’s state-run newspapers ran enormous photographs of Hu with Obama, a not-so-subtle message that China is now the United States’ equal on the world stage…
The need for democratizing the economy
EDITOR’S NOTE: The following is correspondence received in anticipation of a lunch meeting today among Barry Lynn, author of “Cornered: The New Monopoly Capitalism and the Economics of Destruction” and a half dozen professors, attorneys and the Watchdog:
INTELLIGENCER NEW ERA
“Library System of Lancaster County opens new era with new board” reports:
“Lois Dostalik, president and chief executive officer of E4 Exchange, the consulting firm hired to plot the libraries’ future, told the group that moving forward will not be an easy or painless process, but she promised she and her partner would listen and — by contract with the county — would work quickly.
WikiLeaks Handed Data on Secret Swiss Bank Accounts
From AOL NEWS: A former Swiss banker today supplied anti-secrecy site WikiLeaks with two CDs containing account details on more than 2,000 high-profile politicians, celebrities, crime bosses and multinationals suspected of tax evasion.
What should be done to save democracy and our economy
The first section of Robert Reich’s “After Shock, The Next Economy and America’s Future” was informative, even if it at times seems to take liberties to make the point that for the nation to progress requires all income groups to share the new wealth or there will be insufficient demand for goods for and services. The second section seemed like filler, perhaps because much of the material had already been presented…
Tucson massacre would not have occurred in 1974
In 1974 a close college friend of the Watchdog began acting in a manic manner so alarming to his wife and others that police were summoned and the friend was held without his consent in the Norristown Mental Hospital for several weeks until his problem (then called “manic depression” and now “bi-polar condition”) was diagnosed, medication prescribed (“lithium”) and he was deemed safe to return to society.