News, Entertainment, Enlightenment
Spring 2014 Starts Now — It is 12:57 EDT, March 20, which means the vernal equinox is now which means Spring has started.
The word equinox is Latin words for “equal night.” Days and nights are approximately equal everywhere and the Sun rises and sets due east and west, explains The Old Farmers Almanac. At the equinoxes, the tilt of Earth relative to the Sun is zero, which means that Earth’s axis neither points toward nor away from the Sun.
This link to a real time national debt clock comes courtesy of Cathy Craddock. When Democrats, and other big government types, say “think of the children” they don’t mean it for a $33,000 allotment of time — or about a second as per the clock.
Union Tries, Fails Disrupting AFP Townhall
The crowd at the March 19 AFP Townhall in Newtown Square, Pa. See if you can pick out the union guests
An upbeat townhall concerning paycheck protection and related issues in Pennsylvania ended, tonight, March 19, in Newtown Square without a hitch despite a contingent of 10 union activists who attended with the intent to make a few.
An initial attempt at disruption was quickly squelched by moderators and security when the leader tried to begin a mocking Pledge of Allegiance.
The group sat beaten and sullen throughout the night before leaving in a noisy production shortly before the question and answer session. Their questions would have been welcomed it should be noted.
The event was sponsored by the state chapter of Americans for Prosperity and featured WPHT talk host Dom Giordano; AFP-Pa Director Jennifer Stefano, a frequent guest on Hannity; Penn Delco School Director Lisa Esler; and children’s rights advocate Simon Campbell who heads Pennsylvanians for Union Reform.
Paycheck protection is an effort to end the use of taxpayer resources to collect government unions’ political money. It was pointedly noted that it does not make Pennsylvania “right to work” or change how unions can collectively bargain or eliminate union dues or mandatory fee payments. Mrs. Stefano expressed puzzlement as to why private sector unions were the ones who usually turned out to protest as the proposal would only affect government unions.
Right to work means workers may not be forced to pay union dues.
For the record, none of the speakers were opposed to right to work. In fact, Mrs. Stefano called paycheck protection “a good first step.”
The other major issue addressed by the speakers was HB 1154, the bill overwhelmingly passed, March 11, by the State House that would amend the criminal code to prohibit harassment, stalking and the “threat to use weapons of mass destruction by union members, something that is strangely enough allowed. It now awaits an uncertain fate in the union-friendly, yet Republican-controlled, State Senate.
The bill, despite being introduced almost a year ago, only came to be passed after 10 member of Ironworks Local 401 were indicted for burning down a Quaker meeting house being built with nonunion labor and for the vicious harassment of Sarina Rose, an executive at developers Post Brothers, who was subject to vile public abuse and whose children were threatened.
“What kind of low life scum would harass a soccer mom?” said Giordano to the silent discomfort of the union contingent.
Mrs. Stefano treated the guests with equal contempt.
“If you are a big, tough guy and go after women like me and our children, you are weak,” she said as the union contingent squirmed in their seats. She noted she often receives threatening letters from union activists. She said she framed them and showed them to her children.
“They are a bunch of dinosaurs that fail to see Pennsylvania moving forward,” Giordano said. “. . .The sickness in Philadelphia is that people grow up with this. They think that’s how the world works.”
Giordano also fired some shots at Attorney General Kathleen Kane who at the beginning of her term pointedly refused to follow state law regarding gay marriage and was revealed on Sunday to have killed an investigation of corrupt acts by Philadelphia Democrat legislators.
He said it is likely Pennsylvania Republican legislators will soon take action of some sort against her.
Mrs. Stefano said her group will make a major effort regarding paycheck protection to sway Senate Majority Leader Dominic Pileggi, the Republican who represents much of southern Delaware County and whom Mrs. Stefano described as the capo di tutti capi of Harrisburg.
“The Republicans and Democrats have been between the rock and a pillow. Now they’ve met the hard place,” she said regarding how those in the state capital deal with labor legislation.
Mrs. Esler noted that she is the wife of a union member and a daughter of a union member. She said that what she has learned as a school board member is that much of what dictates school budgets stem from union-supported mandates and laws from Harrisburg. She said this is largely made possible by automatic collection of union dues from the districts employees.
“They fund special interests against the taxpayers with the taxpayers’ money,” she said.
She cited the prevailing wage law — the law which requires public entities to pay wages set by a state, and union-controlled board — for major projects.
She said Penn Delco spent $46 million on recent projects which would have been $8 million less without prevailing wage.
Simon Campbell, the last speaker, who was born and raised in the United Kingdom, described the union abuse he witnessed growing up in the 1970s.
He said he had “hate-hate relationship with the teachers union (here)” stemming from the similar abuse he saw involving them and his fight to stop it.
William Lawrence Sr Omnibit 3-19-14
Pecan Chocolate Chip Cookies by Mrs. Chef Bill Sr. go great with a Cryptowit Quote Puzzle. Click here for the recipe
The first step for escaping telemarketers is get on the national do not call list according to telemarketer Erica Elson.
The second step is say exactly these words: “Please put me on your do not call list.”
You really don’t have to say please, but the rest of the phrase is necessary.
Erica says hanging up, yelling or cutting off a conversation merely puts you on a call back list.
She says successful telemarketers get turned down 96 percent of the time.
The Pennsylvania House State Government Committee held a hearing last week on a bill to establish strict criteria and reporting guidelines for public bodies that enter into private “executive session” meetings.
House Bill 1671 would narrow the instances when an executive session could be called. It would also require an audio recording of the executive session so if an allegation arises that the meeting was improperly held, it can be verified later by a judge. In addition, the bill would require the solicitor to advise the body on whether the topic it plans to discuss in executive session is appropriate. That advice would also be recorded.
Currently, no record of executive session is kept, so any allegations of impropriety are very difficult to prove.
Wagner Wins Shockingly — Scott Wagner has won a landslide write-in campaign, tonight, March 18 in a special election for the 28th District State Senate Seat that had been long held by Republican Mike Waugh.
Waugh stepped down Jan. 13 to take a sweet job as executive director of the Pennsylvania Farm Show complex.
Wagner got 10,595 votes, according to his website. Ron Miller, the choice of the GOP establishment got 5,920 and Democrat Linda Small got 5,704.
He will serve the remainder of Waugh’s term which ends in December. He will stand for a full-term of his own in November.
Fed Funded Nonprofit Leads Common Core Push is courtesy of Joanne Yurchak
A central defense of the new national education standards, now generating spirited public debates, is that the federal government did not mandate or create them.
“The Common Core State Standards Initiative is a state-led effort that established a single set of clear educational standards for kindergarten through 12th grade in English language arts and mathematics,” the official Common Core website states. In 2009, two nonprofit, nongovernmental organizations called the National Governors Association (NGA) and Council of Chief State School Officers (CCSSO), convened government officials and dozens of consultants to write, rewrite, and, in June 2010, finally publish Common Core.
Five months later, 44 states had agreed to trade their K-12 math and English targets and tests for Common Core’s. Those standards are now moving into 87 percent of public school classrooms, and reshaping textbooks and tests for even states and schools that did not elect Common Core. National Common Core tests, funded exclusively by the federal government, come out in 2014-2015.
Taxpayer Dollars Dominate
Previous School Reform News reports have revealed state and federal tax money provide approximately half of CCSSO’s operating funds, and that Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation money has been intimately involved in this behind-closed-doors process. NGA receives an even bigger proportion of its operating funds from tax dollars.
According to the latest IRS 990 form for the NGA’s Center for Best Practices , the nonprofit arm of NGA that shares “a common pool of cash and investments ” in 2010 received 80 percent of its $14.8 million annual income from taxpayers. Tax documents also show that back in 2004, the earliest available documents traced, NGA received $31 million from taxpayers. Tax funding has made up most of NGA’s income every year in between.
Approximately half of NGA’s tax-provided revenue comes from the feds, and the other half from membership dues states pay. In its latest financial statement showing $16.9 million in total revenue for 2011-2012, $4.9 million of that came from the feds, $5.5 from states, and another $3 million from corporate sponsors.
SRN contacted NGA for information about its finances and Common Core work. A spokeswoman referred all significant questions to NGA’s communications director, then did not respond to several follow-up requests for that referral.
To Vote or Not to Vote
Despite its heavy tax support, NGA is not required to make meetings, votes, and materials public like government bodies, and it has not done so for its work on Common Core.
NGA is a private trade organization whose actions have no legal binding on states. Governors do vote during NGA’s two annual meetings to express shared priorities, former Virginia Gov. George Allen (R) told School Reform News, but “by the time they vote on a position the [resolutions] get watered down so much any objections are already accommodated. It’s unlike legislatures, with committee hearings and votes.”
Even so, NGA has not released what, if any, resolution 2009’s governors voted on to authorize its subsequent Common Core work. Neither has it released the vote tally.
Not All Governors Involved
Even if governors do vote on vague resolutions that have no legal power, not all attend NGA meetings. The NGA spokeswoman would only say “we consider all governors members of the association,” but five governors have publicly withdrawn membership and refused to pay dues. These are from Florida, Maine, North Dakota, South Carolina, and Texas, and all are Republicans. Only one is from a state that has refused Common Core—those are Alaska, Nebraska, Texas, and Virginia.
Spokesmen for the abstaining governors all essentially said NGA membership provided too little benefit for the money.
Texas “Gov. [Rick] Perry knows and works with governors all over the nation on a variety of different issues that are important to Texas and our country as a whole,” spokesman Josh Havens said. “We didn’t feel that active membership was a smart use of taxpayer funds.”
Texas governors have not been NGA members since 2003, he said. Before that, the state’s NGA dues ran $125,000 to $150,000 per year. Idaho suspended its membership in 2009 for financial reasons, and it just resumed paying about $40,000 for membership and $30,000 for travel to meetings in 2013, said Jon Hanian, a spokesman for Gov. Butch Otter (R).
“This governor is a strong believer in the Tenth Amendment and state’s rights, and he believes states are the laboratory of the republic,” Hanian said. “He values sharing his experience as well as sharing experience of other governors as he crafts public policy. When there have been attempts to have national policies to the detriment of the 10th amendment, he’s viewed his role as a counterbalance.”
Automatic Membership
When other journalists have asked NGA about governors who want no part in NGA, spokesmen have responded by essentially saying governors cannot choose to leave. When Maine Gov. Paul LePage (R) pulled out of NGA in 2012, telling the Bangor Daily News , “I get no value out of those meetings. They are too politically correct and everybody is lovey-dovey and no decisions are ever made,” NGA’s communications director responded by saying all governors are NGA members even if they don’t pay dues.
She declined to say which states pay dues and why the dues vary.
This article is part one of two. Next: How NGA coordinated Common Core and NGA’s progressive roots.
Image by Office of Governor Patrick .
This column was written April 23, 2013. Joy Pullmann (jpullmann@heartland.org) is a research fellow of The Heartland Institute and managing editor of School Reform News, a national monthly publication. In that capacity, she has interviewed and produced podcasts with many of the leading figures in school reform. She previously was the assistant editor for American Magazine at the American Enterprise Institute.
She is also the 2013 recipient of a Robert Novak journalism fellowship for in-depth reporting on Common Core national education standards.
Ms. Pullmann has been published by the New York Times, Washington Examiner, The Weekly Standard, Washington Times, Milwaukee Journal-Sentinel, Salt Lake Tribune, Ricochet.com, National Review Online, Real Clear Policy, and various other U.S. newspapers and outlets. Pullmann has written a series of Research &Commentary reports on the Parent Trigger, a new school reform idea sweeping the country, and is coauthor with Joseph L. Bast of “Design Guidelines for Parent Triggers” (Heartland Institute, 2012).
She has taught middle and high school students history, literature, and debate, and wrote high school public speaking curriculum. She has traveled nationwide to speak at prominent venues including CPAC, the National Right to Life Convention, and statewide education conferences. She has been a guest on numerous talk shows, including Fox & Friends and the Wall Street Journal’s Opinion Journal.
William Lawrence Sr Omnibit 3-18-14
Hey hippies, indoor marijuana growing accounts for 9 percent of household electricity use in California.
That’s like, like, like a megazillion power plants.
You’re killing the planet, dudes.
Sorry for the harsh buzzkill.
