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Grad education must go on
Posted Wednesday, May 22, at 9:01 AM This week, students at Mountain Home High School and Richard McKenna Charter High School will don caps and gowns, march across a stage to receive their diplomas and graduate into the real world. It's a short walk but a big step. From that stage they will move on to a full measure of independence -- and responsibility. ...
'Breaking news' is difficult Last week, some police scanner traffic took me on a story that got stranger as it went along. Keep in mind, what is originally reported to authorities and what goes out over the airwaves isn't always accurate. That's why police and deputies conduct investigations after they get there. It's also why I prefer to wait until I've got a police report in hand. It's likely to be more accurate, which is something I prefer in my reporting...
Time to return local control The Idaho Legislature has been really good about taking away revenue sources from local governments. That way, the legislators can claim they lowered your taxes. We haven't notice them taking a lot of the state's revenue sources away, however. If anything, if you consider fees to be a sort of "user tax," they've actually approved several tax increases at the state level. They just hid it as a fee hike...
When self interests get involved... One of the most shameful sights of self-interest we've seen in quite a while in Washington, D.C., came last Friday when members of Congress were preparing to take a break and fly home (or to some junket in the Bahamas) for the weekend. But because of their own actions (or lack thereof, actually), which created the sequester cuts, there might not have been enough air traffic controllers to get them out of town on time. ...
These are 'interesting' times There is an old Chinese curse that says: "May you live in interesting times." Last week was certainly interesting. We'd had two weeks of posturing over what the secretary of state called the "gravest crisis" on the Korean peninsula in 60 years, and the talking heads filled the TV with warnings of impending nuclear war...
Refuse to succumb to fear We can speculate all we want about the Boston Marathon Massacre. Perhaps a jihadist trying to make another religious statement at the expense of the innocent. Perhaps a right-wing nut (or left wing, but that's less likely currently) making a political statement, once again using the blood of innocents to write his manifesto. ...
Thank goodness, it's over! Now that the legislative session is over, we can all breathe a sigh of relief. Our lives are still intact and we didn't lose too much of our liberty or property. On the education front, the legislature continued its assault on public education and passed a series of fairly mean-spirited laws against teachers. ...
Some thinking -- at last! There's a lot of egg on the face of the GOP leadership and Superintendent of Public Instruction Tom Luna these days. It was almost historic that the education bill got rejected. That meant there were enough GOP senators who actually thought about what they were doing and took to heart what the voters had said at the last election, to join with the small number of always-in-opposition Democrats and defeat the largest budget proposal of the session...
Pete, Bert and Rich did well The legislative leadership, demonstrating how much they are owned by business and industry, tried to push through a personal property tax bill this year that would have been a disaster for cities, counties, fire districts and other local governments...
So it's 84 'jobs' lost locally The military is taking a double whammy as it begins preparing for a transition to a peacetime force, something that hasn't existed in more than a decade. First, there's the "peace dividend." That's essentially cuts in military spending caused by the drawdown of forces as the war in Afghanistan finally ends...
A little democracy (very little) If you've tried to be heard above the cacophony of chaos coming from the state capitol, you've probably been frustrated. If nobody in the legislature seems interested in hearing you, maybe it's true. For example, during the last three years of contentious education legislation, public hearings by the relevant legislative committees have fallen from a couple of days to a few hours...
It's all about how many While the possible repeal of the personal property tax has drawn much of the publicity of this legislative session, hidden in the shadows has been the continuing effort to wreck the state's public school system. To be honest, the education system really wasn't broken until the legislature decided to fix it. Since then, we've seen nothing but funding cuts, teachers losing their jobs all across the state, and, worst of all, the rise in student-teacher ratios in classrooms...
A tax cut that will hurt us Nobody likes to see their taxes increase. It hurts. But what is strange about the Idaho Legislature's blind rush to repeal the personal property tax is that it has managed to create a situation where a tax cut could actually hurt the average Idahoan...
Another 'cliff' crisis! In the name of dogma, we're watching the slow destruction of American infrastructure that was the shining and crowning achievement of the last century. It's a great idea to cut taxes where you can. There aren't many sectors of this economy where raising taxes would be a good idea. ...
Another cliff to avoid On March 1, the world will end -- again. That's the date that sequestration kicks in. Sequestration is the technical name for yet another Congressionally created fiscal cliff crisis. Congress built into its budget "crisis" deal with the Tea Party two years ago a series of really nasty budget slashing if it couldn't reach a deal on a balanced budget in order to "force" it to fix the budget problems...
Hagel should be rejected He will probably be approved, but former Nebraska Republican Sen. Chuck Hagel should not, in our opinion, be confirmed as Leon Panetta's successor as Secretary of Defense. Hagel's controversial opinions on Israel and Iran aside (those are, after all, merely policy differences), his appearance before the Senate Armed Services Committee could only be described, charitably, as clumsy...
More teachers, less talk This Friday, Feb. 1, the state House and Senate education committees will hold a "listening hearing" -- a rare chance for the public to actually comment on and recommend proposed legislation for education. This should be a good move, considering several key legislative committees have decided this year to not open their deliberations up for public comment (they actually got some last time around, but since it wasn't what they wanted they decided it was better to not hear the public than be in a position where they had to ignore it).. ...
Time to roll up the sleeves Usually, inaugural speeches are an opportunity to lay out vast visions and the hopes for a lasting legacy by a president. With rare exceptions (Lincoln being one), second inaugural speeches usually don't live up to that hype, and President Obama's speech Monday was no exception. There were no great phrases that will be on people's lips for years, no sweeping vistas of vision to inspire the American people...
It's time to cut the federal budget Democrats shouldn't get cocky just because they won the fiscal cliff battle. Now, it's their turn to make some concessions and start offering up genuine plans to cut federal spending. The debate we just finished always had two components and the second was budget reduction, which is where we're at now...
Tread lightly, don't trample The cold, hard truth about government is that it costs money. Whenever the people ask for a service, someone has to pay for it. As a rule of thumb, the more responsive governments are at the local level. It's easier to get to local officials if there's a problem (getting harangued in grocery stores by disgruntled citizens isn't uncommon). ...
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Hot topics Grad education must go on(0 ~ 10:01 AM, May 22)
'Breaking news' is difficult
Time to return local control
When self interests get involved...
These are 'interesting' times
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