Is it time yet to let Tucson know about the Pearce recall effort?
by David Safier Still no mention in the Star about the effort to recall Russell Pearce. There was another story about the recall in the Republic yesterday, including this interesting information about the chair of Citizens for a Better Arizona which is pushing the effort. He's a Republican and a Mormon. Advertisement Chad Snow, a … Read more
Halal isn’t quite Kosher (and Kosher isn’t quite Halal)
by David Safier I went to an interesting talk last night by Prof. Joe Regenstein from Cornell University whose field is food science and heads the Kosher and Halal Food Institute. I know a fair amount about Jewish kosher law but very little about Muslim Halal law. Basically, they're quite similar, with Kosher law being … Read more
Disappointing job numbers
Posted by AzBlueMeanie: Corporations have enjoyed record earnings and are sitting on more than $2 trillion in profits. The stock market closed above 12,000 this week. Corporations have used the money to pay record bonuses rather than to expand business and to create new jobs in America. Job growth is slower than in any post-war recovery as … Read more
For-profit colleges: huge student loan default rates
by David Safier For-profit colleges too often sucker students with promises of future jobs, get them to take big government-insured loans, then take the money and run. Often the training programs aren't what they're cracked up to be, or the students lack the background to succeed in the programs. The 3-year default rate on student … Read more
Kansas journalist goes after G.I.’s Matthew Ladner
by David Safier Here on his home turf, Goldwater Institute's Matthew Ladner is treated by the media as a reliable source, a paragon of intellectual virtue. Even when he earns a Bunkum Award from the National Education Policy Center and I give the media all the information it needs, no one seems to think it's … Read more
Cheating on high stakes tests? Who woulda guessed
by David Safier When test scores are make-or-break for teachers and administrators, it causes some people to bend the rules to save their bacon and/or boost their standing. Stories have emerged of outright cheating, like teachers and/or administrators erasing students' wrong answers and bubbling in the right ones. Less blatant ways to "help" students before … Read more
Update: Corporate Media Bias in Healthcare Reporting – Shock! (Not)
Posted by AzBlueMeanie: The corproate media continues to focus on the two outlier decisions by conservative activist judges while largely failig to report decisions in favor of the Affordable Care Act. Case in point, the New York Times today reported that Va. to Ask Supreme Court to Rule on Health Law, but somehow failed to … Read more
