Virginia spends millions on college dropouts, study finds

MoonHowler

Virginia has spent millions on college drop outs.  According to the Richmond Times Dispatch:

Richmond, Va. —

Virginia taxpayers spent $177.7 million over five years on 35,461 college students who dropped out after their first year, according to a national study on the cost of attrition.

Federal grants to those students totaled an additional $33.7 million, the American Institutes for Research says in a report being released today that looked at freshmen who didn’t return to four-year schools during the 2003 to 2008 academic years.

Nationally, those costs exceed $9 billion, said the report, which is intended to focus attention on institutional accountability at a time when the state and federal governments are seeking to increase the numbers of students who earn degrees.

“If you don’t finish the first lap, you can’t cross the finish line,” said Mark Schneider, the American Institutes for Research vice president and a former U.S. commissioner of education statistics.

Why are we spending this kind of money?  When do we decide WHO CARES?  If we are going to cut back on spending, here would be a great place to start. 

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Michelle Rhee to Resign Today

MoonHowler

Michelle Rhee will announce her resignation today.  The resignation will take place at the end of the month.  According to the Washington Post:

D.C. Schools Chancellor Michelle A. Rhee will announce Wednesday that she is resigning at the end of this month, bringing an abrupt end to a tenure that drew national acclaim but that also became a central issue in an election that sent her patron, Mayor Adrian M. Fenty, to defeat.

Rhee survived three contentious years that made her a superstar of the education reform movement and one of the longest-serving school leaders in the city in two decades. Student test scores rose, and the teachers union accepted a contract that gave the chancellor sweeping powers to fire the lowest-performing among them.

But Rhee will leave with considerable unfinished business in her quest to improve teaching, close the worst schools and infuse a culture of excellence in a system that has been one of the nation’s least effective at educating students.

She will be replaced until at least the end of the school year by Deputy Chancellor Kaya Henderson, a close associate.

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No Social Security Cola Again this Year

MoonHowler

The Social Security Administration has announced that there will be no social security COLA again this year.   A COLA is a cost-of-living adjustment.  This will be the second time in history that there has been no automatic adjustment.  The first time there was no COLA was 2010. 

According to the Richmond Times Dispatch:

The cost-of-living adjustments, or COLAs, are automatically set each year by an inflation measure that was adopted by Congress in the 1970s. Based on inflation so far this year, the trustees who oversee Social Security project there will be no COLA for 2011.

The projection will be made official on Friday, when the Bureau of Labor Statistics releases inflation estimates for September.

The timing couldn’t be worse for Democrats as they approach an election in which they are in danger of losing their House majority, and possibly their Senate majority as well.

“If you’re the ruling party, this is not the sort of thing you want to have happening two weeks before an election,” said Andrew Biggs, a former deputy commissioner at the Social Security Administration and now a resident scholar at the American Enterprise Institute.

“It’s not the congressional Democrats’ fault, but that’s the way politics works,” Biggs said. “A lot of people will feel hostile about it.”

This past Friday, the same bureau delivered another painful blow to Democrats: The U.S. lost 95,000 jobs in September and unemployment remained stubbornly stuck at 9.6 percent.

Democrats have been working hard to make Social Security an election-year issue, running political ads and holding press conferences to accuse Republicans of plotting to privatize the national retirement program

I am not at all sure how this affects the Democrats.  Supposedly those on social security will feel hostility and that they are not getting ahead.  It would seem to me that the idea that there was low inflation might slip into those thoughts but I guess not.  On another not, this kind of news usually affects other retirement plans such as pension COLAS. 

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It’s a free country…or is it?

MoonHowler

When I was a kid, one of the best of all come-backs was to say ‘Well, it’s a free country.’  It sounds sort of wimpy now but it carried some clout as a kid to utter those words, at least in kid-dom.  It packed some clout if for no other reason, there really was no good come back.  It also made it incumbent upon the challenger to stop you from whatever it was you were doing.  Most people didn’t want to elevate the issue to the physical level.  Playground 101.

Reading the New York Times, In Topeka, the Price of Free Speech   made me think of this taunt many decades later.  It’s a free country.  The Phelps family aka Westboro Baptist Church, of military funeral harassment fame,  are pushing this free country crap to a new limit.   The Phelps,  who comprise most of Westboro Baptist Church, have a home base in Topeka, Kansas.  They invade parks, cities, burial grounds, etc with their horrible message that God is doling out his wrath because America somehow accepts homosexuality.  Their favorite target is military funerals.  The mayor of Topeka, William W. Bunten, has a few remarks on the subject of this unholy alliance of right wing extremists:

“They believe free speech tops everything,” said Mayor William W. Bunten, sitting at his desk in City Hall last week. “We do with some exceptions, and one of them would be taking signs and standing outside a funeral home and associating someone’s death with God’s hate for homosexuality. I believe it should be banned. I see it as bullying.”

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Iphone is coming! Iphone is coming!

MoonHowler

The New York Times reports from anonymous source that there is a deal between Verizon and Iphone and the new iphone 4 should be available through Verizon early 2011. Verizon is the largest wireless carrier in the United States.

Currently, only AT&T is the only provider for the iphone. There have been numerous complaints about dropped calls and the poor quality with G.S.M. which is the networking standard for AT&T. Verizon uses a different networking technology called C.D.M.A. Is one better than the other? Who knows.

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Foreclosures: Banks Trade Bails of Sh!t (according to Jon Stewart)

MoonHowler

Jon Stewart tries to make sense out of the mortgage crisis and the subsequent foreclosures:

He says it started with the mortgage companies bundling bad loans and then trading bails of sh!!! back and forth. Then it all came to a screeching halt.

 

 

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart Mon – Thurs 11p / 10c
Foreclosure Crisis
www.thedailyshow.com
Daily Show Full Episodes Political Humor Rally to Restore Sanity

Meanwhile, according to TV, Jon Stewart is having trouble negotiating the use of 400+ porta potties.  The Marines are using the area on Sunday.  Stewart has offered to split the cost.  The Marines won’t play ball.

“Old Dead White Men”

MoonHowler

Fox News reports that some folks are up in arms over a rap song being used in some schools called “Old Dead White Men.”  The rap song teaches about Monroe and Andrew Jackson.  The rap music is being used with at-risk kids in Oklahoma City Public Schools and is a product of an educational company called Flocabulary. 

In particular, the song lyrics include the following about Jackson:

“Andrew Jackson thinks he’s a tough guy. Killing more Indians than there are stars in the sky. Evil wars of Florida killing the Seminoles. Saying hello, putting Creek in the hell holes. Like Adolf Hitler he had the final solution. ‘No, Indians, I don’t want you to live here anymore.”

Sooooo…what here is inaccurate?  It appears that the accuracy isn’t in question, just the wisdom of using such inflammatory language around already troubled youths. 

 

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Smoke Alarms: A Sound you Can Live With

MoonHowler

OOooopppsss…I forgot to hit send.  Better late than never.

Fire Prevention Week is Oct. 3-9, 2010

From the Prince William County Website:

With all the recent fires, I thought theh PWC website sure wouldn’t mind if I lifted their announcement:

In a fire, smoke spreads fast, leaving you only minutes to escape. Smoke alarms provide an early warning, giving you the time you need to get out quickly and safely. In fact, they cut your risk of dying in a home fire nearly in half. Of the approximately 2,800 home fire deaths each year, roughly two-thirds result from fires in homes with no smoke alarms or with smoke alarms that don’t work. That’s why smoke alarms belong in every home and why they are “A Sound You Can Live With!”

If you cannot afford smoke alarms or are unable to install them, the Prince William County Department of Fire and Rescue will supply and/or install them free of charge. Remember, if you are renting, your landlord is responsible for providing smoke alarms. You may call your local fire and rescue station or 703-792-7736 for assistance.

The Rude and the Crude

MoonHowler

Much has been said in recent weeks about women–in particular women who have the unutterable gall to go in to politics.  Christine O’Donnell has been the butt of many a joke as well as a little known young woman named Krystal Ball who is running for Congress in the 1st District.  

Christine O’Donnell  should just stop talking  about the witch thing.  Who cares?   No one really thinks she was a witch. She was a kid.  Kids experiment with stuff.  How do you ever learn if you aren’t confronted with a few things where you have to decide if this is something you should be doing or not. 

O’Donnell’s problem is she hasn’t renounced any of her ideas she espoused as a young person.  She doesn’t seem to have refined any of them.  Her remarks on masturbation will follow her to the ends of the earth.  She needs to kill them off.  She needs to say the point of going to the Senate is not to be self serving or something…anything.  She needs to take contol and not let those remarks from 12 years ago define her and what she is all about.

 

Leno was rude.  Letterman was crude about Sarah Palin’s daugher, Willow.  Real crude. 

Krystal Ball’s  relative anonymity has gotten a shot in the arm, although probably not the kind she wanted.  Someone got hold of some pictures of her and her first husband and friends at a Christmas party, in some frat party type poses.  Naturally the pictures went  viral and local bloggers had a hayday, especially those of the opposing party.  Krystal Ball was not deterred.

The bloggers  who posted Ball’s party pictures apparently were never young themselves.  They never acted out and they never had a good time.  They are as disrespectful as Leno and Letterman. The women they disrespect are someone’s wife, mother, daughter, sister. 

Like their politics, hate their politics but cut the dehumanizing crap out. Stick to the issues. Right now it just appears that there is a lot of one handed typing going on.  It sounds like Bob Marshall’s Luv Canal Frat boys in a locker room. 

And when you are old enough to be someone’s grandmother, you get to say these things without missing a beat. Grow  up, boys.

 

WHAT are we thinking? The Fox Guards the Hen House in Afghanistan

MoonHowler

Totally insane!  WHAT are we thinking?  The New York Times exposé of Afghan contractors guarding our military bases is beyond anything stupid.  We are wasting billions of dollars a year in a war that has no goals and we have given the fox the keys to the hen house. 

According to the New York Times:

Afghan private security forces with ties to the Taliban, criminal networks and Iranian intelligence have been hired to guard American military bases in Afghanistan, exposing United States soldiers to surprise attack and confounding the fight against insurgents, according to a Senate investigation.

The Pentagon’s oversight of the Afghan guards is virtually nonexistent, allowing local security deals among American military commanders, Western contracting companies and Afghan warlords who are closely connected to the violent insurgency, according to the report by investigators on the staff of the Senate Armed Services Committee.

The United States military has almost no independent information on the Afghans guarding the bases, who are employees of Afghan groups hired as subcontractors by Western firms awarded security contracts by the Pentagon. At one large American airbase in western Afghanistan, military personnel did not even know the names of the leaders of the Afghan groups providing base security, the investigators found. So they used the nicknames that the contractor was using — Mr. White and Mr. Pink from “Reservoir Dogs,” the 1992 gangster movie by Quentin Tarantino. Mr. Pink was later determined to be a “known Taliban” figure, they reported.

In another incident, the United States military bombed a house where it was believed that a Taliban leader was holding a meeting, only to discover later that the house was owned by an Afghan security contractor to the American military, who was meeting with his nephew — the Taliban leader.

 

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PWBOCS Cuts 8 More PWC Police Officers

MoonHowler

Today, the Prince William County Board of Supervisors unanimously cut  8 more officers from the police department budget.  That makes a total of 8 officers and 12 support staff in the past 2 years.  In addition, a million dollars has been removed from their supplies budget.  This would have covered  training, radar, and other equipment.  Another half million dollar cut is looming on the horizon.  The cut became effective today.

There have been no new police officers added in the past 3 years.  Supervisor Nohe asked if they were really cutting police officers.  The answer is yes.  Even though there were 8 vacancies, there are still 8 fewer uniformed officers out defending public safety today than there were yesterday because these positions were abolished and cannot be filled. 

Perhaps one of the most devastating areas to be cut  is in the schools.  Starting 2011, there will be no police officers in middle schools.  The school police officer program  has been a highly successful one which cut down on neighborhood crime, bullying, gang membership and other annoyances that seem to plague kids of middle school age.  These officers knew the kids, the teachers, the administrators, the bus drivers, and many of the parents and had a good working relationship with all of the above.  They were able to ward of f potential problems.  After this year, the schools will just have to call and get whoever responds.

There are still 6 officers who are authorized to process 287(g) related matters.  These officers in the Criminal Alien Unit only work on issues dealing with illegal immigration and continue to  be funded. 

Prince William residents are going to have to decide how important public safety is to them.  Most folks don’t give it much thought until something happens and they need a police officer, on the double.  The wait time might be getting a lot longer as retiring officers are no longer replaced.  This might be the time to start asking how much more of a loss can we take. 

Reading the paper, it seems that PWC is plagued by more crime that is associated with inner city crime.  Any time something large happens, many officers are tied up on the scene and cannot respond to other calls.  When officers work a large crime scene, that means they aren’t out in your neighborhood or mine.  Are we willing, as a county, to let this happen?  Or should we start howling and demand that PWC begin to budget for these losses from the state.  A few pennies added to our tax rate might make a great deal of difference in public safety in Prince William County.

City of Manassas Wins State Award for 1 By Youth Effort

MoonHowler

Guest post by Cindy Brookshire.

photography by Randy Donaldson, member, Trinity Episcopal Church

 

 

City of Manassas Neighborhood Services picked up their 10th state/national award in three years for their work in addressing neighborhood issues head-on with community partnership-based solutions.  The latest award is the  “State Neighborhood Youth Effort of the Year” for the national pilot 1 By Youth project that took place on April 24, 2010 in the Georgetown South neighborhood.  The award was presented in Roanoke on Sept. 25.  City resident Dwayne Lynch was a finalist for State Neighborhood Advocate of the Year.

 The City is sponsoring a neighborhood conference on Nov. 13 at the Boys & Girls Club from 9 am to 3 pm.  Register at www.manassascity.org/neighconf.  The event includes workshops, exhibits, a youth café and activities, a presentation by animal control, a pet contest and prizes.  It’s free.

 The City is also bringing back the award-winning 1 By Youth program to Point of Woods 1 & 2 and Point of Woods 3 neighborhoods on May 14, 2011.  You can hear more about it at Point of Woods’ Fall Festival, this Sunday, Oct. 10 from 12 to 4 pm.  Visit the 1 By Youth table. Contact Christen Zenich at 703-257-8315

Federal Judge in Michigan Reject HCR Challenge

MoonHowler

From Huffington Post:

 

DETROIT — A federal judge on Thursday rejected an attempt to stop some key provisions of the new national health-care law, saying Congress has the authority to require people to get insurance by 2014.

The ruling – the first in a challenge to the Obama administration’s health care overhaul – came in a lawsuit filed in Michigan by a Christian legal group, the Thomas More Law Center, and four people who claimed lawmakers exceeded their power under the Constitution’s commerce clause.

But U.S. District Judge George Caram Steeh in Detroit said the insurance mandate, and the financial penalty if someone skips coverage, are not illegal. He said Congress was trying to lower the overall cost of insurance by requiring participation.

“Without the minimum coverage provision, there would be an incentive for some individuals to wait to purchase health insurance until they needed care, knowing that insurance would be available at all times,” the judge said.

“As a result, the most costly individuals would be in the insurance system and the least costly would be outside it,” Steeh said. “In turn, this would aggravate current problems with cost-shifting and lead to even higher premiums.”

U.S. Justice Department spokeswoman Tracy Schmaler noted the ruling “marks the first time a court has considered the merits of any challenge to this law.”

Now we all get to discuss what this ruling means.  Meanwhile, according to my friend Ivan, the race to the appeals court is on.  Where does this leave our esteemed AG?  How does this affect his solitary lawsuit?  

Most of us will now have more questions than we did before this ruling was issued.   U.S. District Judge George Caram Steeh was appointed by Bill Clinton and has been a U.S. District Judge for about 12 years. 

Open Thread Thursday, October 7, 2010

MoonHowler

Its time to slap up another open thread.  Several people had a couple of remarks up.  I will leave the pin in until around noon in case people want to cut and past remarks to the new post. 

Every time I turn on the TV I heard about terror alerts in various countries.  What is causing this?  (I know, terrorists.)  Is all the problem in Europe or is it here too?  Who knows what or who thinks what?

The Unknowns behind the Terror Alerts: 

David Ignatius