The Woodlan student-journalism imbroglio continues to get a lot of attention. Most of those weighing in make liberal use of the "C" word, including the two Franklin College profs featured on our editorial page yesterday. First there is John Krull, who is also the president of the state chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists:
An innovative way to get those pesky test scores up:
State lawmakers appear on the verge of dumping the math and science sections of the 10th-grade Washington Assessment of Student Learning (WASL), and replacing them with a very different kind of test.
Boy, didn't see this one coming, huh?
CARACAS, Venezuela - President Hugo Chavez said Sunday that his administration plans to create "collective property" as part of sweeping reforms toward socialism, and that officials would move to seize control of large ranches and redistribute lands deemed "idle."
In case you were trying to decide on Mitt Romney, this might help:
Don't expect Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney to endorse hair dye products anytime soon.
The former governor of Massachusetts laid to rest Friday rumors that he dyes his hair black. His sleek dark coif, with just a hint of gray on his sideburns, is completely natural, he told reporters following a fundraiser in Milwaukee.
A Georgia legislator has discovered that evolution is another conspiracy we can blame on the Jews:
Dispatches From The Culture Wars has an interesting discussion on whether Indiana's In God We Trust license plates could be considered a violation of the establishment clause. Probably not, suggests one observer, saying it is "analogous to the same motto on the currency, which the courts have ruled is not a violation of the establishment clause." On the other hand, other specialty plates cost motorists extra, while the religious one costs only what standard plates would cost.
Cool idea from Ohio:
CINCINNATI - Customers at some suburban pizza parlors are getting something extra with their pepperoni and mushrooms — wanted posters for parents accused of failing to pay child support.
The idea came to Cynthia Brown, executive director of the Butler County Child Enforcement Agency, while she was ordering pizza.
The Chicago Tribune, reversing its long-held opinion, has come out against the death penalty:
Kevin Leininger points out a definitions problem with the city's new anti-smoking ordinance:
Romantic candlelight dinners could be a thing of the past. Wood-burning or gas fireplaces, too, along with any kind of food cooked over charcoal or an open flame.
City Council may not have intended to outlaw cherries jubilee and smoked ribs, but they have. That would be my argument, at least, if I was earning $200 an hour to challenge government's latest effort to protect us from ourselves.
You probably already knew this, but editorial page editors are a sexy and exciting lot:
Boy, didn't see this one coming:
U.S. sales of music compact discs plummeted 20 percent in the first three months of the year as downloading of songs continued to knock the underpinnings from record studio revenues.
Eighty-nine million CDs were sold from the start of the year through March 18 as compared with 112 million CDs sold during the same period in 2006, according to figures released Wednesday by industry tracker Nielsen SoundScan.
I wasn't going to post on this, but it was being batted about on Pat White's show yesterday, so I thought I ought to comment. A letter to the editor takes me to task on illegal immigration (or, as the president has taken to calling it, "migration"):
They're going to plan us to death, aren't they?
Fort Wayne residents need to keep their driving expenses in check and local government should think about mass public transportation when considering development.
Some politicians realize the presidency isn't in the cards in the immediate future, so become obvious candidates for the vice presidency, including one of Indiana's own:
Cathy Seipp, among other things the author of the popular blog Cathy's World, has died after a long battle with cancer. Though I knew her only by her writing, I feel a sense of loss. She was conservative, but not always predictably so, and tough and smart and funny and a clear and compelling writer.
Gee, do ya think?
It was yet another example of how the Internet — and the anonymity it affords — has given a public stage to people's basest thoughts, ones that in earlier eras likely never would have traveled past the watercooler, the kitchen table or the next barstool.
We're entering the silly season in the General Assembly, and it will be hard to top Sen. Dennis Kruse's apparently successful effort to name, as the official state beverage -- drumroll, please! -- water:
No matter how old we get, we are too frequently like children, listening to the adults talk and trying to figure out what they mean.
DAD: We just saw the PG-13 movie. It was so good.
MOM: There was a big sex.
FRIEND FROM WORK: I am the loudest! I am the loudest!
(Everybody laughs.)
I have had so much coffee in my life that could have fit this description:
MUNCIE, Ind. - A Muncie eighth-grader has been suspended from school and faces expulsion after admitting that he put urine in a teacher's coffee pot.
The Wilson Middle School teacher noticed that the coffee had an unusual odor Friday and reported it to the principal.
Good. Let's just kill the beast before it destroys public education altogether:
Support for No Child Left Behind
