Tucson School Playgrounds to Become City Parks
April 5, 2008
by David Safier OK, this is a good idea: turn school playgrounds into parks during after school hours and weekends. It’s not finalized, but TUSD and the city are looking at opening the gates to 12 elementary schools on a trial basis. If it works out well, the goal is to open all school playgrounds
Hey, Senator McCain, “Who is Fred Malek?”
April 5, 2008
Meet McCain’s National Finance
Co-Chair Fred Malek.
So, who is Fred Malek, anyhow?
On a Friday in August 1959, five men in their twenties were arrested about 2 a.m. and held in the county jail all day after sheriff’s deputies found a blood-spattered, unoccupied car about 1:15 a.m. at the entrance to Vicary’s Park on Kickapoo Creek Road near Peoria, Ill.
…After checking the blood-spattered pants of one of the men at the state crime laboratory in Springfield, it was determined that the stains were animal and not human blood. Backes said the men then changed their story and said they had "caught a dog and were barbecuing it."
Police then found the skinned animal on a spit in the park. The insides of the dog had been removed, and a bottle of liquor was found on a nearby park table. Backes said the men told him they had been drinking earlier in the evening at a West Bluff tavern.
One of the men arrested in the incident, in which a dog was killed, skinned, gutted and barbecued on a spit, was Frederick V. Malek, 22, of Berwyn, Ill.
It’s unclear to me whether or not Malek’s earlier fondness for drunken barbarism influenced at all the carrying out of his prominent role within the Nixon Administration.
You make the call:
Malek’s responsiveness program was extensively investigated by the Senate Watergate committee. The panel found that the program was aimed at influencing decisions concerning government "grants, contracts, loans, subsidies, procurement and construction projects," decisions regarding "legal and regulatory actions," and even personnel decisions that affected protected "career positions" — all to advance Nixon’s reelection.
Wow. I’m thinking Mr. Malek might really feel at home in Bush’s concept of the current Department of Justice.
Read more about Malek…
Welcome Fellow 2020 Vision Participants
April 5, 2008
by David Safier I want to welcome any of you who participated in Voices for Education’s 2020 Vision Community Meeting this morning to this blog. Let me tell you a few things about how the blog works, and how you can participate in the discussion. Blog for Arizona is Mike Bryan’s baby, and he has
Congress Must Stand Fast in Rejecting Bush’s Assault on the Constitution
April 5, 2008
by John Adams The US House of Representatives is right to reject the Administrationās cynically crafted version of the extension of the FISA amendment, the so-called Protect America Act of 2007. Rather, our House acted wisely in passing its own version of the extension, which deletes immunity from prosecution for telecommunication providers who abetted secret
Sinema Reveals Hypocrisy of GOP on Gay Marriage
April 5, 2008
Link: Same-sex marriage measure dealt blow. Rep. Krysten Sinema managed to maneuver an amendment onto the GOP proposed anti-gay marriage referendum that would have granted certain legal rights to domestic partners. The amendment is widely seen as effectively killing the bill because many GOP lawmakers have now withdrawn their support as a result of the
McCain Hasn’t Examined 21st Century G.I. Bill
April 4, 2008
by David Safier Democratic Senator Jim Webb and Republican Senator Chuck Hagel are cosponsoring a bill that would update the G.I. Bill so its educational benefits cover today’s tuition and living expenses. More than 50 Senators have signed on, Democrats and Republicans. Both Obama and Clinton are among them. But Arizona’s own war hero John
Do Schools Improve When States Take Them Over?
April 3, 2008
by David Safier Yesterday I wrote about a bill in the legislature to have the state take over Phoenix’s Roosevelt School District for 3 years. Is it a good idea? I asked. Has it been done elsewhere? I did some research. Yes, it has been done elsewhere. Sometimes the state takes over a school district,
In Education, Make Peace With Uncertainty
April 3, 2008
by David Safier This is a longer follow-up to yesterday’s short, “I needed to get this off my chest,” post, For the Record. That whole post read: 1.Teaching is tough; 2.Teaching children who grow up in poverty is tougher; 3.Test scores are not a reliable indicator of whether a teacher or a school is effective;
