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Tuesday, June 30, 2009 - 21:12:41
Copy this to Walton U
Another study on school choice finds another school choice program that produces no better results than conventional public schools -- the Florida voucher program.
Supporters often say school vouchers are lifelines to low-income students trapped in subpar public schools.
But academically, students using vouchers to attend private schools in Florida are doing no better and no worse than similar students in public schools, says a study ordered by the state Legislature.
Crackpot watch
State Rep. Sally Kern, Arkansas's gift to Oklahoma, is at it again. The creationist homophobe who tried to pack heat into the Oklahoma capitol has a new crusade:
OKLAHOMA CITY — A state lawmaker is urging Oklahomans to sign a morality proclamation “to acknowledge the need for a national awakening of righteousness.”
Rep. Sally Kern, R-Oklahoma City, has called a press conference for noon Thursday on the first floor of the state Capitol to discuss the “Oklahoma Citizen’s Proclamation for Morality,” which may be sent to Gov. Brad Henry, President Barack Obama and the state’s congressional delegation.
“We believe our economic woes are consequences of our greater national moral crisis,” a draft of the proclamation states. “This nation has become a world leader in promoting abortion, pornography, same sex marriage, sex trafficking, divorce, illegitimate births, child abuse, and many other forms of debauchery.”
The line is open
After today, I feel like a shower.
But here's one last strange criminal element story to peruse: David Goins of Fox 16 apparently had the exclusive coverage of a court appearance by Abdul Muhammad, charged in the shooting of two soldiers in Little Rock.He wanted to change his name back to Bledsoe. Then he didn't. Some back-and-forth.
The week of the dirtbags
There's said to be a John Edwards sex tape. News comes from former aide Andrew Young, who has a book deal, but .....
Young says that his belief in Edwards ran so deep that he agreed to take the fall for the candidate, inviting the pregnant [Rielle] Hunter to live with him, his wife, Cheri, and their three children. Later, after Hunter delivered the baby, Young and his family moved to a different home in California.
While he was unpacking, Young discovered a videocassette, according to the book pitch. Hunter had been hired by the Edwards campaign to videotape the candidate’s movements, but this one is said to have shown him taking positions that weren’t on his official platform.
Research park for LR unveiled
Going public with what he said had been a "quiet effort" for the past four years, Dickson Flake announced today at a meeting with members of the Little Rock board of directors the results of a consultants' report on how Little Rock could go about building a "research park" to bring in new industry to the capital city.
The vision: A 30-acre park within five minutes driving distance of UAMS, UALR and Arkansas Children's Hospital where research projects could be developed for commercial uses. Possible locations: Along the 12th Street Corridor south of I-630 to 12th or south of 12th west to Madison Heights or north of UALR.
The first building: An 84,000 square foot, four-story building with parking for 250 cars. The pricetag: $23.2 million for the building, $4.9 million for infrastructure, $650,000 to $900,000 yearly operating costs.
What's needed now, say Flake and ANGLE Technology Group consultants from Charlottesville, Va.: A "champion" to raise money for land acquisition, infrastructure and staffing, most likely a combination of federal funds, bond issues and taxes. Next: A Research Park Authority appointed by "sponsors" of the park.
ANGLE said the three research institutions are strengths Little Rock can build on to make such a park possible. No "champion" has yet been identified, Lucas Hargraves, chamber business director, said.
UPDATE: A careful Blog reader notes a somewhat related June 10 New York Times article that indicates the national municipal flavor of the day is building biotech research parks and investing millions in hopes someone will come.
Cities like Shreveport, La., and Huntsville, Ala., are also gambling millions in taxpayer dollars on if-we-build-it-they-will-come research parks and wet laboratories, which hold the promise of low-pollution workplaces and high salaries.
At a recent global biotech convention in Atlanta, 27 states, including Hawaii and Oklahoma, paid as much as $100,000 each to entice companies on the exhibition floor. All this for a highly risky industry that has turned a profit only one year in the past four decades.
Skeptics cite two major problems with the race for biotech. First, the industry is highly concentrated in established epicenters like Boston, San Diego and San Francisco, which offer not just scientific talent but also executives who know how to steer drugs through the arduous approval process.
Prison hearing -- short takes
News by Twitter. Interesting look at short-form journalism this afternoon. Channel 4, and CapSearch are providing multiple short updates from prison director Larry Norris' appearance before a legislative committee. (Also Brummett I now see.) It sounds like some legislators are giving the boss a little due diligence over recent foulups.
One particularly good observation was the fact that these incidents weren't discussed at Board of Correction meetings. Not serious enough, being left in your excrement to die? Full Board did not attend today's hearing.
Turnover rate in prison jobs said to be 32 percent. That's a problem, of course.
Looks like today's session moving toward a review of prisons by legislative Joint Performance Review Committee. That's better than the prison people reviewing themselves and saying "we're doing a great job but we need more money."
Gerard Matthews has the details on the jump.
Call him Sen. Franken
The Minnesota Supreme Court says he was elected U.S. senator. By 312 votes.
Republican Gov. Tim Pawlenty did tell CNN over the weekend that he was inclined to sign the election certificate if the Supreme Court ruled for Franken. But he hedged a bit, still, saying he'd issue certificate if ordered. The Supreme Court said Franken was "entitled" to receive the certificate, but didn't explicitly order Pawlenty to issue it..
UPDATE: Around 3 p.m., Norm Coleman conceded. The secretary of state says he will sign the election certificate once Pawlenty does. There's a 10-day period in which to seek a rehearing of a Supreme Court decision, but it looks like you can finally turn out the lights on Norm Coleman.
Spinning door, got to go 'round
Money will be coming, no doubt
The power plant hearing next time
Looking to 2012
Hang up the *&*$ phone
The line is open
Oversexed politicians
Spending my winnings
Preaching for health reform
Opposition for Vic Snyder
Needed: Independent prison review
Mahony to Game and Fish
Madoff gets the maximum
Saving newspapers
Facebooking simplified
SWEPCO won't stop construction UPDATE
White firefighters win UPDATE
Kroger expansion
Betraying the planet
Sunday session
What's wrong with newspapers?
Plane crash survivor
Moving past adultery
40 years after Stonewall
Ark. employment: Worse than thought?
Sure, play keno
Supercharged tillers
The line is open
Round up the usual alibis
Those raunchy red states
Wedding bell news
UCA's lingering stench
Pawlenty in LR
Fie on Halter, McDaniel
When the roll is called up yonder
Readers take over
Candidate: Visa remark 'stupid'
Safecrackers at work
Commission: Proctor should be removed
A girl named Maria
Froomkin's final salvo
UAMS gets $1 million for NW campus
Three die in Gaston's plane crash UPDATED
Facebooking, Twittering, Tumbling
Lottery calling
Six feet under
The LR teacher contracts
Jacko
Asa Hutchinson is right
LR School Board update
Would Jesus pack?
The line is open
Murder charge dismissed
Michael Jackson dead at 50
Judge Simes gets reprieve
Murder conviction reversed
Grocery store purse snatchings
Limbaugh: It's Obama's fault
Farrah Fawcett dies at 62
Court dismisses Scout abuse case
Supreme Court faults strip search
Clarifying the lottery
Judge Proctor wins a round UPDATED
The soul of the GOP
Sanford's mailbag
Probing the prisons
GOP candidate defends crack
As Dale and Grace once said ...
Wilbur Mills, meet Mark Sanford
A plan for LR schools
Speaker Wills: Call the governor
'Surveillance' cameras miss crime
GOP candidate: Get shots for SE Ark.
Applachian Trail runs to Buenos Aires?
LR's Top 12 UPDATE
Power plant rejected
The opaque lottery
Jerry Cox was right
Go green
Huck re Senate
Goodnight, guv, wherever you are
Berryville mayor heading to jail
Former Times editor dies at 78
Halter on keno
Senate race shaping up
Another perspective in Iran
Mitch Mustain: academic issues
Beebe wants (no) prison probe
Obama meets the press
Special delivery for Sen. Lincoln
OB/GYN fraud?
The governor that didn't bark
Speaking of keno
Today's media criticism UPDATE
A cloud over South Arkansas
Our transparent lottery UPDATE
Health care reform: DOA?
Something's rotten in the prisons
Let's play Powerball
Clear sailing
Monday line
Where's Mark Sanford?
Good luck with that
Pigs on the loose
Life after print
LR school accountability
Going to China?
The charter school push
Tehran (Conway County)
Roadblocks to health care
Your thoughts?
NLR cop chopper crashes
People want govt. health insurance
Lottery pay: for the defense
Beer prices going up
Night watch
Man shot by prison guard
3 held in police slaying
Missing New Orleans
Blanche: The 'blue' candidate
The Republican field
Bill Clinton: Jazz man
Let's call it a week
Spread 'em
Meet the UCA president
Cranking up the state lottery
Eureka hotelier killed
Three killed in moped crash
Cheating on teacher test
Sotomayor supporter
Jobless rate rises
Policeman killed in traffic stop
Change v. more of the same
Minnesota Senate watch
The ayatollah has spoken
The morning Huck
Open line
Murder-suicide ruled in Sherwood
Cop guilty in DWI
LR schools UPDATE
Student-teacher sex nets jail time
Brothers in arms
Proctor loses criminal cases in court plan
Dead pilot flying
Gas-fired commentary
Wheeling and dealing at LR Port UPDATE
Sex and the Baptists
Now Obama's governing
Internet freedom
More beer for Fayetteville
Open line
LR school watch
A Moran for Crystal Bridges
Lottery: An economic stimulus?
The Pickensmobile
The race for clerk
Fools gold
Camera in court
Why do Republicans hate the troops?
UA names Fulbright College dean
Sen. Ensign's sanctified marriage
Justice for Janie
Bargaining power
Obama responds on gay issues
Top of the evening
Pipemaker backing out of LR Port deal
UPDATE: UCA finalizes offer
Prater for Senate
State fights WM3 evidence
OK, OK -- wishful thinking
Card check update
Prosecutor: Pressly suspect confessed
Help the animals
Springdale horror
Three-way for Capitol job
Letterman's bad joke
Bloodsuckers yield
Chump change
Over to you
Teabagger for Senate
Ready, aim ....
Charter schools -- a mixed report
Live by new media ...
Free enterprise at work
Mad bombers
LR developer's defaults mount
Selig to Clinton Center
Crime Lab priorities
Comics watch
Bush v. Gore, Iran-style
Whose side is God on?
NLR's gain ...
Dog days
Why do the heathens rage?
A modest proposal
Streamlining the sales tax
Open line
'Peaceful transfer of power'
'Not a job for sissies'
Katrina's toll
Lu CA
Have an open line
Down to business
Stormy weather
Fee at the LR Zoo
McDaniel to wed
Heifer details job cuts
Wildmon's teabaggers
Is your TV running?
Alas, Barack we hardly knew ye
One of our own
Rain on vandal's parade?
The Clinton brand
Consequences, unintended or not
The rage among us
Stick a fork in me
Senators on public health plan
Marion Berry called down
UCA picks president
Shoot-em-up Dustin
Drug company 'ghostwriting'
Judge hangs up jail phone
Unhappy stockholders sue Dillard's
Early bird catches the A's
Everyone's a media critic
Lottery rolling
The UCA chronicles
Piling on Halter
Shooting suspect's father speaks
High-speed Internet
Slacker Wednesday
Where's Waldo?
Golf carts for golf only
Holocaust Museum shooting
Who needs reality TV?
'Domestic terrorism' in Conway
Courting Lincoln UPDATE
Rep. Williams staying put
Employee shot in robbery
Shooter won't shut up
An ill wind
Taking back the streets
Thatsa spicy hemi
Hard times hurt charity
Toward better teachers
American Idol vote stuffing
Corporate welfare payback
In other news
Dinner break
Lottery details
The line is open
Dreams on the border
I scream -- nabbed!
Best high schools in U.S.
Terror suspect calls AP
Supreme Court race is on
Union keeps pressure on
NLR plant closure
Lottery deal is done
Interview with wounded soldier
Is your refrigerator running?
Wrongsville
First lottery winner
Bigger-than-life Barack
The line is open
Bare-knuckle politics
Acting chief
McDonald worker gets break
Chrysler sale delayed
Disorder in the court
Big ball in cowtown
Judge gags terror case parties
We are the champions
Dueling claims in Chenal fire
'Rosie the Riveter' to Crystal Bridges
Lottery salary an 'investment'
Kennedy swings left
Not so mighty wind
Lowering health care costs
Save energy, freeze a Yankee
Dick Cheney, beacon of hope
Sleepy Sunday
Old times there ...
With God on our side
How dry is Jonesboro
Generalities
Hogs win! Hogs win!
Bodies from Air France plane found
College rivalries
Big bucks
Brave new worlds
Sounds like a plan
Open line
$21 million verdict for doctor
Gag order sought in terror shooting UPDATE
Arkansas hires lottery director
Misusing the Buckley Act
UA holds that line
Supreme Court candidate
Torture? Not us.
D-Day memories
Keith Jackson Jr. in drug bust
Richest man in town
Brother can you spare a dime?
I'd rather be at Wakarusa
The roots of terrorism
Waka-whatta?
I quit
The Yemenis made him do it
How'd they escape?
Warning: CCTV in operation
Helicopter crash
UALR takes on the world
Calling all gun nuts
Woo Pig
School money suit fails
Boozman opponent
Big gift for UAMS
So much for transparency
Rally set
Snyder opponent UPDATE
Media's conservative bias
Today's headlines
Protecting the lobby
Guns and women judges
I forgot
New Hampshire makes six
Indictments at USA Drug
For free choice
Thank goodness for Arkansas
Lincoln walks the line
Movies in the park CANCELLED
Terror targets UPDATE
Dr. George Tiller's work
Jacksonville elects mayor
Murder in LR
While we're on sports
Oh, never mind
Look for the union libel
Late to the party
Your turn
The race to the rear
Finding poor teachers
Just ducky
Escapees caught in NY
Terror shooting probe broadens UPDATE
Back to the private sector
Related parties in government UPDATED
Shrinking revenue
Gone with the wind
Housing: an uptick?
Affirmative action
Could have been worse
Jet debris spotted UPDATE
Questioning motives
Looking good for Franken
Cheating claim to be reviewed
Beebe best ever?
Meanwhile ...
Cops: double shooting terror act
Three cheers for Dick Cheney
Still hazy after all these words
Annals of crime
Let's play Powerball UPDATE
Mano a Webbo
Jail break under review UPDATED
Panel: Remove Proctor from bench
Incitement
Godspeed, Zonker
Citizen journalism
Senate candidate
Morning headlines
In defense of the judge
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