R News: As It Happens, Where It Happens

R News: As It Happens, Where It Happens: "ALBANY, N.Y.-- Students with limited English could face a harder time taking state tests from now on.
State education officials said that any student with at least one year of U.S. schooling will have to take the regular English Language Arts exam. Until now, students with less than three years of U.S. schooling could take a different test for English as a second language.
The change affects about 90,000children in grades three through eight who speak limited English. The next test is in January.
New York has been under pressure from the federal government to improve its testing.
In June, the feds threatened the state with a loss more than a million dollars in aid per year if New York did not change its testing process within a year. "

New Registration Rules Stir Voter Debate in Ohio - New York Times

New Registration Rules Stir Voter Debate in Ohio - New York Times: "Under the law, passed by the Republican-led state legislature in January 2006, paid voter registration workers must personally submit the voter registration cards to the state, rather than allow the organizations overseeing the drives to vet and submit them in bulk.
By requiring paid canvassers to sign and put their addresses on the voter registration cards they collect, and by making them criminally liable for any irregularities on the cards, the rules have made it more difficult to use such workers, who most often work in lower-income and Democratic-leaning neighborhoods, where volunteers are scarce. "

More media lies exposed!

The American Thinker: "We live in two different worlds, as the old pop song had it. One world employs local stringers who may well either be under the thumb of Hezbollah, Hamas, or other villainous groups, or who are outright partisans. But they claim to be objective."

Hill Climb this weekend!

Muskegon Motorcycle Club - Home: "Once every two years, the west end of Mt. Garfield road becomes a site for the National Hill Climb, attracting nearly 10,000 spectators. This is your opportunity to see top professionals launch nitro charged bikes at a mountain of dirt, clay and sand that’s over 300’ long. This is about as extreme as a sport can get, and requires unique skills, after all when you add up the ingredients: A mountain of dirt with 3 huge jumps, highly flammable nitro, an insanely modified motorcycle, and a goal of getting fastest time.... Get the idea? It takes a professional, with the mental ability to not only overcome all of the aforementioned, but to make hundreds of calculations and adjustment in just a few seconds. Physical strength is important too, there is a lot of “muscling” the bike up the run and all of this while the nitro exhaust burns your eyes and nose. "

Drew Curtis' FARK.com

Drew Curtis' FARK.com: "Sen. Clinton says Rumsfeld should resign. Rumsfeld says that lesbo could use a good boning. Actually, we can't verify that, but he probably did"

Airdisaster.Com Forums - OSKOSH Disaster

Airdisaster.Com Forums - OSKOSH Disaster: "A 63-year-old man from Canada was killed Sunday when a Navy warbird's propeller hit a Canadian-registered homebuilt aircraft on a taxiway at Wittman Regional Airport at about noon Sunday.


A Grumman TBM World War II Navy airplane taxied up behind a homebuilt R.V.6 and as it caught up with the significantly smaller homebuilt, the Grumman's propeller sliced into the R.V.6. The passenger in the side-by-side seat R.V.6 was pronounced dead at the scene while the pilot of the aircraft was not injured, authorities said. "

Gonna use live eels?

Giant dead eel tossing contest canceled: "The practice, known as conger cuddling, is the annual highlight in the small coastal town about 155 miles southwest of London. The object of the game is to knock the opposing team off the platform by swinging a 25-pound eel at them."

Big Dig crime?

Scroll down to "Ears shut and eyes stuffed"
Drag-7-28-06

The Dilbert Blog

The Dilbert Blog: "Recently we had a heat wave in California. My air conditioner broke because, I assume, it is not designed to operate in hot weather. That was the bad news. The good news is that I solved the problems in the Middle East. Allow me to explain.
During the several days that it was 112 degrees and I had no AC, all I wanted to do was build an IED and kill the AC guy who kept driving right past my office and helping other people. In fact, I wanted to kill everyone who didn’t agree with me on just about any point whatsoever.
And I realized that the problem with the Middle East is insufficient AC. If you think about it, virtually all of the organized violence in the world is originating from places where they have poor air conditioning. And in the desert, 112 degrees is considered a pleasant day. Imagine how grumpy you would be at 125 degrees. And guess what I never see on TV when they show footage of the Middle East?
Shade."

This'll work...right.....

Funny, no mention of actually improving the education standards.
Detroit schools spending $500,000 to fight pupil loss: "The Detroit school district plans to spend $500,000 on a publicity campaign designed to fight its long enrollment decline.
The Detroit Public Schools campaign is using the slogan 'Come Home to DPS' in ads on television, radio, billboards and city buses. "

No mention of teacher compensation?

Tight-budgeted Michigan schools turn to outsourcing: "A new report says a growing number of Michigan school districts are hiring private contractors to serve meals, mop floors and drive buses.
The free-market-oriented Mackinac Center says about 35 percent of public schools privatized at least one service last year. That's up from 31 percent in 2001.
The trend has led to backlashes that have included at least two recall campaigns against school board members."

Photos that damn Hezbollah | Herald Sun

Photos that damn Hezbollah Herald Sun

Rove Blasts Journalists' Role in Politics

Rove Blasts Journalists' Role in Politics: "Presidential adviser Karl Rove said Saturday that journalists often criticize political professionals because they want to draw attention away from the 'corrosive role' their own coverage plays in politics and government"

Local News

Local News: "Studies that link a spike in hurricane intensity with global warming are spotting 'artificial upward trends' because they rely on bad historical data, a paper suggested today in the journal Science.
Hurricane intensity is measured by the storms' surface winds. Sometimes those winds are estimated by looking at satellite pictures, using a subjective technique invented in 1972."

Global warming's effect on hurricane strength disputed in new report: South Florida Sun-Sentinel

Global warming's effect on hurricane strength disputed in new report: South Florida Sun-Sentinel: "Scientists linking the increased strength of hurricanes over recent years to global warming have not accounted for outdated technology that may have underestimated storms' power decades ago, researchers said in a report published Friday."

Gateway Pundit: John Bolton Embarrasses a Confused Senator Kerry (Video)

Gateway Pundit: John Bolton Embarrasses a Confused Senator Kerry (Video): "John Kerry: This has been going on for five years, Mr. Ambassador.

John Bolton: It's the nature of multilateral negotiations, Senator.

John Kerry: Why not engage in a bilateral one and get the job done? That's what the Clinton Administration did.


John Bolton: And, very poorly since the North Koreans violated the agreed framework almost from the time it was signed."

Captain's Quarters

Captain's Quarters: "Haaretz reports that Israel has penetrated Hezbollah communications, and Sheikh Hassan Nasrallah has quite a different spin on events internally than externally. While issuing public statements full of bombast and dire predictions for Israelis, his private communications acknowledges the shock of Israeli military action has taken a toll on operational capability and morale:"

WSJ.com - Tony & Tacky

WSJ.com - Tony & Tacky: "EYE OBJECT!: An NCAA football referee is suing to get his job back. James Filson was fired when officials learned that he only had one eye, according to a report on the July 17 Chicago CBS 2 News. After losing his eye in a 2000 accident, Mr. Filson returned to his job as a referee without mentioning the incident to Big Ten conference officials. But when they learned about the situation, they decided to terminate him. How did Mr. Filson hide his impairment, which, according to the conference, included lacking a 'full field of vision'? Performance reviews were, he claims, 'on average, substantially better than the reviews he received in the eight years preceding the loss of his eye.'"

WSJ.com - London Is So Dry, It's Planting Cactus In Place of Begonias

WSJ.com - London Is So Dry, It's Planting Cactus In Place of Begonias: "A gardener named Paul Stone is trying to wean the English off their immaculate lawns, replace privet hedges and marigolds with lavender "

Liberal humor?

7/25/2006-- Media Research Center: " In a week of bad news, CBS's Bob Schieffer found good news and uplifted his spirits by reading obituaries. In his commentary at the end of Sunday's Face the Nation, the CBS Evening News anchor contended that 'the awful news of last week reminded me just how much we need newspapers' since 'the joy of reading a newspaper...comes from finding information we were not looking for.' He related how 'the main news was so grim I found myself turning to the newspapers for a little relief. Deep in the Times one day last week, surrounded by all of that war news, I found an obituary of Robert Brooks, who founded the Hooter's restaurant chain. The writer said that Hooters was known for spicy chicken wings and even spicier waitresses. Now who could read that and not at least smile?' How about his widow? And: 'I found another story about the death of Arthur Haggerty. I learned he was credited with making dog training into a respectable profession and was known to legions of dogs as 'he who must be obeyed.' Hadn't known of him myself, but I won't forget him after reading that.' "