History for June 5

History for June 5 - On-This-Day.com
Adam Smith 1723 - Author, "Pancho" Villa (Francisco Villa, José Doroteo Arango Arámbula) - Mexican Revolutionary general, John Maynard Keynes 1883 - Economist 


Robert Lansing (Robert Howell Brown) 1929 - Actor, Ken Follett 1949 - Author, Kenny G. 1956 - Musician 


1752 - Benjamin Franklin flew a kite for the first time to demonstrate that lightning was a form of electricity. 


1851 - Harriet Beecher Stow published the first installment of "Uncle Tom's Cabin" in "The National Era." 


1884 - U.S. Civil War General William T. Sherman refused the Republican presidential nomination, saying, "I will not accept if nominated and will not serve if elected." 


1942 - In France, Pierre Laval congratulated French volunteers that were fighting in the U.S.S.R. with Germans. 


1946 - The first medical sponges were first offered for sale in Detroit, MI. 


1947 - U.S. Secretary of State George C. Marshall gave a speech at Harvard University in which he outlined the Marshall Plan. 


1967 - The Six Day War between Israel and Egypt, Syria and Jordan began. 


1981 - In the U.S., the Center for Disease Control and Prevention reported that five men in Los Angeles were suffering from a rare pneumonia found in patients with weakened immune systems. They were the first recognized cases of what came to be known as AIDS. 


1998 - A strike began at a General Motors Corp. parts factory near Detroit, MI, that closed five assembly plants and idled workers across the U.S.for seven weeks. 


1998 - A strike at a General Motors parts factory began. It lasted for seven weeks. 

White House Warns of ‘Utter Chaos’ if Supreme Court Rules Against Administration in Obamacare Case | TheBlaze.com

White House Warns of ‘Utter Chaos’ if Supreme Court Rules Against Administration in Obamacare Case | TheBlaze.com:

"The high court will decide in King v. Burwell the definition of the words “established by the state,” written into the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, better known as Obamacare, which became law in 2010.

The plaintiffs contend the legislative language clearly means that tax subsidies to buy health insurance can only be available to states that established their own health exchanges. That leaves out 37 states that didn’t set up an Obamcare marketplace, and millions who would no longer qualify for subsidies. The Obama administration argues the language broadly meant all exchanges were eligible for federal tax subsidies.

Earnest is not optimistic about congressional action."

George Will delivers the commencement address every 2015 college graduate needs to hear

George Will delivers the commencement address every 2015 college graduate needs to hear - AEI | Carpe Diem Blog » AEIdeas

Teachers complain, chaos reigns as St. Paul schools spend millions on ‘white privilege’ training

Teachers complain, chaos reigns as St. Paul schools spend millions on ‘white privilege’ training - EAGnews.org:
ST. PAUL, Minn. – Have the taxpayers of St. Paul spent nearly $3 million over the past five years to bring chaos and danger to their schools and students?

Apparently so.

In 2010, the St. Paul school district began a contractual relationship with the Pacific Educational Group, a San Francisco-based organization that tries to help public schools deal with achievement and disciplinary issues involving black students.

PEG packages and sells the concept of victimization, for a very high price.

It claims that the American education system is built around white culture, tradition and social norms – aka “white privilege” – to the unfair detriment of black students.

PEG believes that black students will only achieve if school curricula are customized to meet their cultural specifications.
It also rejects the concept of using suspensions or expulsions to discipline black students.

The relationship with PEG has been costly for the St. Paul district, in more ways than one.

According to information provided by the district to EAGnews through a freedom of information request, St. Paul schools spent at least the following amounts on PEG consultations services over the past five years:

* $137,720 in 2010-11,
* $366,800 in 2011-12,
* $598,900 in 2012-13,
* $489,150 in 2013-14 and
* $285,895 in 2014-15.

...Student suspensions were replaced by “time outs,” and school officials starting forgiving or ignoring violence and other unacceptable behavior, according to various sources.

“The disciplinary changes came out of meetings with an organization called Pacific Educational Group, a San Francisco-based operation that has been consulting with the district dating back to 2010,” the Minneapolis Star Tribune reported.

The result has been general chaos throughout the district, with far too many students out of control because they know there are no real consequences for their actions.

A  local publication called CityPages recently told the story of Becky McQueen, an educator at St. Paul’s Harding High School.

“Last spring, when she stepped into a fight between two basketball players, one grabbed her shoulder and head, throwing her aside,” the CityPages article explained.
“The kid was only sent home for a couple of days.

“In March, when a student barged into her class, McQueen happened to be standing in the doorway and got crushed into a shelf.
The following week, two boys came storming in, hit a girl in the head, then skipped back out. One of them had already been written up more than 30 times.

“Yet another student who repeatedly drops into her class has hit kids and cursed at an aide, once telling McQueen he would “fry” her ass.
She tried to make a joke of it — ‘Ooh, I could use a little weight loss.’
Her students interjected: ‘No, that means he’s gonna kill you.'”

McQueen now has her students use a secret knock on the classroom door, so she will know who to allow in, the article said.

...There are similar horror stories from many other school buildings in the district, according to CityPages:

At John A. Johnson Elementary on the East Side, several teachers, who asked to remain anonymous, describe anything but a learning environment. 
Students run up and down the hallways, slamming lockers and tearing posters off the walls. 
They hit and swear at each other, upend garbage cans under teachers’ noses.

Nine teachers at Ramsey Middle School have quit since the beginning of this school year. Some left for other districts. 
Others couldn’t withstand the escalating anarchy.

In mid-April, staff at Battle Creek Elementary penned a letter to their principal over “concerns about building wide safety, both physical and emotional, as well as the deteriorating learning environment.”

A week later, the principal announced that he would be transferred next year.
Read it all and wonder why our children are so mal-educated!

The Stunning Way Vladimir Putin May Be Attempting to Influence Blaze Readers, According to the New York Times | Video | TheBlaze.com

The Stunning Way Vladimir Putin May Be Attempting to Influence Blaze Readers, According to the New York Times | Video | TheBlaze.com:

"The New York Times released an explosive article on Tuesday detailing how hundreds, if not thousands, of online “trolls” are paid to post pro-Kremlin propaganda across the Internet. One of their targeted sites, according to the report? TheBlaze.com."

Revised American history classes ignore Holocaust and MLK, include Black Panthers

Revised American history classes ignore Holocaust and MLK, include Black Panthers - EAGnews.org
SAN ANTONIO – Last fall, a small group of leftist college professors led the College Board’s rollout of a 98-page, radical revision of the Advanced Placement United States History (APUSH) curriculum framework for high school students.
...In an interview regarding my battle against the new ideologically biased APUSH, a Los Angeles Times reporter asked, “So what is driving you?”
I responded, “Too many college students are telling us that their semester in ‘U.S. History 101′ was really ‘I Hate America 101!’”
Thanks to alert parents and concerned citizens, these APUSH professors got caught in their indefensible political agenda that reflects a negative bias toward Jews, our military, the free enterprise system, and much more.
For example, when addressing World War II, the new 98-page curriculum framework completely left out both Adolf Hitler and the Holocaust, where Germany’s National Socialist Nazi Party murdered six million Jews and three million others.
...Also indefensible is the fact that in 98 pages of learning objectives and curriculum expectations, the APUSH writing team censored every major military battle, commander, and Medal of Honor recipient, from the American Revolution of 1776 through modern times.
This can only be explained by a biased political agenda and a hatred of anything positive regarding our men and women in uniform.
...Finally, a word search of APUSH for Civil Rights History did not find Dr. Martin Luther King, Rosa Parks, or Cesar Chavez.  
However, the Black Panthers made the list.
History is a story that, if told well, contains both positive and negative persons and events that have a significant role in the development of a nation.
...It is my firm belief that the new APUSH framework promotes a highly politicized far left agenda that purposely erases the teaching of anything positive about our United States of America.
To advocate for teaching students only the negative elements and flaws of our nation is censorship.

Solar Inefficiency Is Economically Ruinous

Solar Inefficiency Is Economically Ruinous | Somewhat Reasonable
...Ethanol in gasoline, for example, according to EPA’s own data, increases key pollutants such as volatile organic compounds and nitrogen oxide by as much as 7 percent.
Yet it was on the basis of phony scientific claims that ethanol would reduce pollution from automobile emissions that it use was mandated by the government.
Biofuels have a power density of only 0.3 watts per square meter, and modern solar voltaic panels about 6 watts per square meter.
An average oil well producing 10 barrels per day is at 27 watts per square meter, and an average nuclear plant more than 50 watts per square meter.
Biofuels used 247 million acres of land—that’s more than twice the size of California—to produce less than one-half of one percent of the world’s energy, according to Robert Bryce, a senior fellow at the Manhattan Institute, in 2014.
...If actual installed costs for solar projects in California are any guide, a global solar program would cost roughly $1.4 quadrillion….Mining, smelting, processing, shipping and fabricating and their associated hardware would yield about 149,100 megatons of carbon dioxide.
And everyone would have to move to the desert; otherwise transmission losses would make the plan unworkable.
The cost of solar cells has dropped markedly, but Zehner says the panels account for less that half the cost of an installed solar system, according to the industry.
Based on research by solar energy proponents and data from the California Energy Commission …cheaper voltaics won’t offset escalating expenditures for insurance, warranty expenses, materials, transportation, labor and other requirements.
Low-tech costs are claiming a larger share of the high-tech solar system price tag.
Finally, unforeseen limitations are blind-siding the solar industry as it grows.
Fire departments restrict solar roof installations, and homeowner associations complain about the ugly arrays.
Adding to the burden, solar arrays now often require elaborate alarm systems and locking fasteners; without such protection, thieves regularly steal the valuable panels…
For instance, California resident Glenda Hoffman woke up one morning to discover thieves stole sixteen solar panels from her roof as she slept. [Replacement cost $95,000, was paid by insurance.]
...It also means that consumers who are forced to overpay for energy have less money available for other purchases.

Evil in the UK: City that covered up Muslim rape gangs wants to ban anti-child rape protests

UK: City that covered up Muslim rape gangs wants to ban anti-child rape protests | Pamela Geller, Atlas Shrugs: Islam, Jihad, Israel and the Islamic War on the West:
Despite recent news stories on the hundreds, perhaps thousands of Muslim child sex trafficking gangs and tens of thousands of their young non-Muslim victims, law enforcement is still looking the other way. 
The unimaginable terror these girls suffer is compounded by sharia compliant law officers who refuse to prosecute or even look into the systematic sex slavery of young English girls.
...Officials in the Pakistani child rape gang scandal town of Rotherham are moving to ban protests against their own incompetence. 
...Council commissioners claim the protests against them are becoming prohibitively expensive to police, with one event in September 2014 costing over one million pounds, meaning they should therefore be banned, reports local newspaper The Star.
...“This has, and continues to, consume a vast amount of police resource, both within and outside South Yorkshire, at significant cost to the public purse.
However, more significant is the damage to the reputation of the town, and the impact that this has had on the town centre in particular, which has been the focus of these events.
“Due to their regularity there is a real perception amongst people using the town that it is not safe, and that there are protests every Saturday…
The town needs to move on and further events will be damaging both to community cohesion, and the ability of the town to recover”.

Despite insisting it was time for the town to forget child abuse and move on, The Star also reports today a further four men were arrested this weekend for ‘abduction and grooming’.

Princeton professor calls for killing disabled infants under Obamacare Tea Party Crusaders

Princeton professor calls for killing disabled infants under Obamacare Tea Party Crusaders:

"According to an article published Sunday by World Net Daily, a Princeton University professor has suggested that severely disabled infants be killed to cut health care costs and for moral reasons."

UN Climate Regime Must Bypass U.S. Congress, French Govt Says

UN Climate Regime Must Bypass U.S. Congress, French Govt Says
The United Nations and its member regimes must sidestep the U.S. Constitution and the American people’s elected representatives to save the world from global warming, declared French Foreign Minister Laurent Fabius.
Speaking to representatives of African governments and dictators during UN “climate” talks in Germany on Monday, the Socialist Party foreign policy chief explained that the U.S. Congress would refuse to approve the proposed planetary climate regime.
As such, the emerging agreement, set to be finalized in Paris later this year, must be imposed on the United States by the Obama administration and the UN — without the consent of the American people’s elected representatives or the treaty ratification process outlined in the U.S. Constitution. Obama has already indicated his support for the radical strategy.
The powerful Socialist Party foreign minister, who will host the upcoming UN “climate change” confab in Paris, told assembled African delegates at a UN summit in Bonn, Germany, that “we know the politics in the United States.” 
“Whether we like it or not, if it comes to the [U.S.] Congress, they will refuse” to approve a planetary regime ostensibly aimed at curbing alleged man-made global warming by regulating and taxing emissions of the essential-to-life gas CO2..."

Study: State Tourism Promotion Ineffective

Study: State Tourism Promotion Ineffective [Mackinac Center]
MIDLAND — The Mackinac Center for Public Policy today released preliminary findingsfrom its forthcoming study about the state’s tourism promotion efforts, including the large subsidies appropriated for its “Pure Michigan” campaign.  
The statistical analysis was constructed to measure whether government expenditures on tourism promotion were effective and if so, to what extent. 
“We found an actual link between state tourism spending and an increase in spending at state hotels and motels but it was microscopic and more than completely offset by taxpayer losses,” said Michael LaFaive, director of the Morey Fiscal Policy Initiative and co-author of the study.
 Specifically, the Mackinac Center reports that from 1973 through 2012, every $1.00 spent by the state on tourism promotion generated an extra penny in economic activity for the accommodations industry.
 “The opportunity cost here is huge,” said Michael Hicks, director of the Center for Business and Economic Research at Ball State University and adjunct scholar with the Mackinac Center for Public Policy. 
“Every dollar spent on this program is one that cannot be used for some higher purpose, such as fixing Michigan’s roads or cutting taxes.” 
The model was constructed to control for other factors that may influence tourism in Michigan, such as access to large bodies of water, elevation, recessions and more. It is part of a larger study to be released by the Mackinac Center for Public Policy this fall. 
For more on this subject, see the essay “State Tourism Spending Ineffective in Job Creation,” by the authors.

What could possibly go wrong?-----Let Syrians Settle Detroit

Let Syrians Settle Detroit - NYTimes.com:
"Detroit, a once great city, has become an urban vacuum.
Its population has fallen to around 700,000 from nearly 1.9 million in 1950.
The city is estimated to have more than 70,000 abandoned buildings and 90,000 vacant lots. Meanwhile, desperate Syrians, victims of an unfathomable civil war, are fleeing to neighboring countries, with some 1.8 million in Turkey and 600,000 in Jordan.
Suppose these two social and humanitarian disasters were conjoined to produce something positive.
Gov. Rick Snyder of Michigan, a Republican, has already laid the groundwork.
In January 2014 he called for an infusion of 50,000 immigrants as part of a program to revitalize Detroit, and signed an executive order creating the Michigan Office for New Americans.
Syrian refugees would be an ideal community to realize this goal, as Arab-Americans are already a vibrant and successful presence in the Detroit metropolitan area.
A 2003 survey by the University of Michigan of 1,016 members of this community (58 percent of whom were Christian, and 42 percent Muslim) found that 19 percent were entrepreneurs and that the median household income was $50,000 to $75,000 per year."

Obama: 'I Am The Closest Thing To A Jew' In White House Ever | The Daily Caller

Obama: 'I Am The Closest Thing To A Jew' In White House Ever | The Daily Caller:

"President Barack Obama apparently thinks he’s the closest thing to a Jewish president America has ever had."

WHEN ACCEPTANCE TURNS TO HARM: Psychiatrist Paul McHugh had an intriguing take on “accepting” transg…

WHEN ACCEPTANCE TURNS TO HARM: 
"WHEN ACCEPTANCE TURNS TO HARM: Psychiatrist Paul McHugh had an intriguing take on “accepting” transgendered individuals a few months back in the WSJ that may be worth re-reading in the wake of the Bruce/Caitlyn Jenner revelation:

[P]olicy makers and the media are doing no favors either to the public or the transgendered by treating their confusions as a right in need of defending rather than as a mental disorder that deserves understanding, treatment and prevention. This intensely felt sense of being transgendered constitutes a mental disorder in two respects. The first is that the idea of sex misalignment is simply mistaken—it does not correspond with physical reality. The second is that it can lead to grim psychological outcomes.

...At the heart of the problem is confusion over the nature of the transgendered. “Sex change” is biologically impossible. People who undergo sex-reassignment surgery do not change from men to women or vice versa. Rather, they become feminized men or masculinized women. Claiming that this is civil-rights matter and encouraging surgical intervention is in reality to collaborate with and promote a mental disorder.

"It’s an interesting question: 
If individuals who seek sex reassignment surgery are suffering from a treatable mental disorder–a form of body dysmorphic disorder–that could allow them to recover without invasive surgery, shouldn’t society encourage the less intrusive psychological therapy rather than the more intrusive (and irreversible) surgery? 
Indeed, if the surgery does not improve–but amplifies–underlying psychological disorders such as depression, would not the surgery constitute an unethical harm? 
Why is society so eager to lump “transgendered” individuals into the same category with homosexual or bisexual individuals? 
I know LGBT makes a nice-sounding acronym and all, but is there a principled, medical reason to treat the LGBs differently from the Ts? 
Where is the psychiatric community on this question?" 

Shaving Dogs Into Cubes Is A New Japanese Craze And We Can't Stop Staring

Shaving Dogs Into Cubes Is A New Japanese Craze And We Can't Stop Staring | MTV:
"Dog lovers in Japan have taken grooming to a whole new level of strange by styling their dogs into perfectly trimmed and symmetrical cubes.
Japan, a country known for their love of turning everyday items and things into block form (see the 'square watermelon' for proof), are so taken by the craze that it’s proved a big hit at this Tokyo dog show."

History for June 4

History for June 4 - On-This-Day.com:
Rosalind Russell 1908, Gene Barry 1922, Dennis Weaver 1924 


Dr. Ruth Westheimer 1928, Bruce Dern 1936 - Actor, Angelina Jolie 1975 - Actress 


1792 - Captain George Vancouver claimed Puget Sound for Britain. 


1816 - The Washington was launched at Wheeling, WV. It was the first stately, double-decker steamboat. 



1896 - Henry Ford made a successful test drive of his new car in Detroit, MI. He called the vehicle was called a "Quadricycle." 


1935 - "Invisible" glass was patented by Gerald Brown and Edward Pollard. 


1939 - The first shopping cart was introduced by Sylvan Goldman in Oklahoma City, OK. It was actually a folding chair that had been mounted on wheels. 


1940 - The British completed the evacuation of 300,000 troops at Dunkirk, France. 


1942 - The Battle of Midway began. It was the first major victory for America over Japan during World War II. The battle ended on June 6 and ended Japanese expansion in the Pacific. 


1944 - During World War II, the U.S. Fifth Army entered Rome, which began the liberation of the Italian capital. 












1947 - The House of Representatives approved the Taft-Hartley Act. The legislation allowed the President of the United States to intervene in labor disputes. 


1974 - The Cleveland Indians had "Ten Cent Beer Night". Due to the drunken and unruly fans the Indians forfeited to the Texas Rangers. 


1974 - Sally Murphy became the first woman to qualify as an aviator with the U.S. Army. 

LIBERTY REVIEW

LIBERTY REVIEW:

http://www.libertyreview76.blogspot.com/2015/06/beach-speech-by-tammy-derouin-it-was.html

Beach Speech

By Tammy Derouin

It was a beautiful afternoon in West Michigan this past Sunday, more specifically at Pere Marquette Beach.  What was going to be a quick drive around the ovals, turned into an unplanned stop and included sitting on the rocks while the girls ran up and down the shoreline.

They wanted to get their feet wet.  Thinking they’d run screaming in the opposite direction as soon as the water hit their big toes, I told them ankle deep was the limit.  To my surprise, they didn’t run, but they did scream.  They stood their ground as the stared down Lake Michigan attempting not to flinch. 

Even though they weren’t there to swim, they got the usual beach speech.  Respect the water.  It can and will take you down, especially if you don’t pay attention.  Know your limits and do not turn your back to the water. 

Once they got used to the icy sting of the water, it was easier to go a little deeper.  Slow rolling white caps gave them the impression that everything would remain calm.  Experience with Lake Michigan told me there’s no such thing as a guaranteed calm.  Of course, the ankle deep limit was long gone as I stared at drenched shoes and socks.  One of the girls didn’t think the water would get to her before her shoes came off.  At this point, I was hoping their clothes would stay dry.  I fired a few warning shouts but then I decided to let them get reacquainted with the big lake.  As I watched them run and play, I couldn’t help draw a few parallels...

Eco-madrasas for our children?-----Climate Change Indoctrination? 13 States Adopt Common Core Science Lessons

Climate Change Indoctrination? 13 States Adopt Common Core Science Lessons | Fox News Insider
The Wall Street Journal reports:
While publicly billed as the result of a state-led process, the new science standards rely on a framework developed by the Washington, D.C.-based National Research Council.
That is the research arm of the National Academy of Sciences that works closely with the federal government on most scientific matters.
All of the National Research Council’s work around global warming proceeds from the initial premise of its 2011 report, “America’s Climate Choices” which states that “climate change is already occurring, is based largely on human activities, and is supported by multiple lines of scientific evidence.” 
From the council’s perspective, the science of climate change has already been settled. Not surprisingly, global climate change is one of the disciplinary core ideas embedded in the Next Generation of Science Standards, making it required learning for students in grade, middle and high school.

Exposed: Obama Is Bypassing Congress To Deliver A Major Blow To The Constitution

Exposed: Obama Is Bypassing Congress To Deliver A Major Blow To The Constitution:

"One of the changes the administration now seeks to enact is denying gun ownership to those who have been guilty of any type of domestic abuse.

“That could be a person who spanked his kid, or yelled at his wife, or slapped her husband,” Michael Hammond, legislative counsel for the Gun Owners of America, warned in a statement.

The ATF is also looking to prohibit the mentally ill from owning firearms, which gun rights’ groups oppose.

“The Obama administration is trying very hard to disqualify people from owning a gun on the basis that they are seeing a psychologist,” Hammond argued."

US military training in US cities?!! For what danger?-----City says loud explosions were army training exercise

City says loud explosions were army training exercise - WNEM TV 5:
"FLINT, MI (WNEM) -
It was a peaceful afternoon, and then residents said it seemingly turned hostile.
"I was standing there, and all of a sudden, boom!" Jean Glenn said.
"I mean it was loud, it blew up the whole sky or whatever, it was like four or five big bangs," Annette Humphrey said.
Explosions you'd expect in a war zone echoed through Flint. People's homes shook and those inside were caught off-guard.
It all went down at the shuttered Lowell Junior High on the city's east side.
The blasts are just an Army exercise.
"There's older people, it probably gave them a heart attack or something," Glenn said.
Flint's spokesman Jason Lorenz said the city has been in talks with the army for months now about using parts of the city.
"It's an exercise to help their personnel do training with urban environments," Lorenz said.
That training includes using aircraft and simulated ammunition.
It will continue for the next 10 days..."

How Law Enforcement in One State Kept $16,000 Found in Farmer’s Car Despite No Charges Being Brought | TheBlaze.com

How Law Enforcement in One State Kept $16,000 Found in Farmer’s Car Despite No Charges Being Brought | TheBlaze.com:


"According to the Institute for Justice, a libertarian law firm that seeks to protect civil liberties and public interest, in 2010 only three states in the U.S. received a B grade or better in what it calls “policing for profit.” It describes “policing for profit” as when assets are forfeited, sold and then used to “fund agency budgets — all without so much as charging you with a crime.” IJ has featured some of the “craziest things” civil asset forfeiture has brought in under U.S. laws.

The institute gave Montana with a D+ overall in “policing for profit.”

“The state only requires probable cause to forfeit property,” IJ explained on its website of Montana’s status. “This is the lowest standard of proof the government must meet to prove your property is related to a crime."

Wayne County may ask taxpayers to shore up pension fund

Wayne County may ask taxpayers to shore up pension fund:
"Several Wayne County Commissioners on Tuesday pushed back against a plan to levy a one-time property tax assessment as part of residents' summer tax bills to cover $49 million owed to the employee retirement system.
Taxpayers would have to pay the amount unless the county can find another source for the funds.
But the majority of commissioners clearly stated their opposition to a tax increase during a committee meeting, meaning the money will likely be pulled from the Delinquent Tax Revolving Fund.
The fund is used to provide communities with delinquent tax money that has not yet been collected. The treasurer's office borrows money to cover what is needed and then takes over the collection of the delinquent taxes."

School budget compromise heads to vote; $50M set aside to potentially cover Detroit schools debt

School budget compromise heads to vote; $50M set aside to potentially cover Detroit schools debt - Crain's Detroit Business:
LANSING — .."It was not widely perceived in the field as helpful," he said of rewarding districts for best practices. "I don't know that we need to incent repeatedly good behavior."

Lawmakers also set aside $50 million in case they later agree to Gov. Rick Snyder's recent request to cover debt in Detroit's troubled school district. That debate is unlikely to be resolved until the fall at the earliest.

Overall, the school aid budget will rise by $209 million, or 1.5 percent. It includes $26 million in new funding for the GOP governor's initiative to improve students' reading skills by third grade.

William Rankin, The Man Who Rode The Thunder

Here Are the Responses One Filmmaker Got When He Went Around a Muslim Neighborhood in Minnesota Asking if People Preferred Shariah Law | Video | TheBlaze.com

Here Are the Responses One Filmmaker Got When He Went Around a Muslim Neighborhood in Minnesota Asking if People Preferred Shariah Law | Video | TheBlaze.com:

"A filmmaker recently walked around the Cedar-Riverside neighborhood in Minneapolis, asking Muslims about Shariah law, their views on insults to the Prophet Muhammad and their cultural preferences.

At the beginning of the nearly five-minute video, filmmaker Ami Horowitz explained in a voice-over that it has been reported that dozens of individuals from the community have left to join terror groups abroad, so he wanted to “find out what is going on.”

We must understand their needs. And accomodate..... Becoming disabled by choice, not chance: ‘Transabled’ people feel like impostors in their fully working bodies

Becoming disabled by choice, not chance: ‘Transabled’ people feel like impostors in their fully working bodies | National Post:
OTTAWA — When he cut off his right arm with a “very sharp power tool,” a man who now calls himself One Hand Jason let everyone believe it was an accident.
But he had for months tried different means of cutting and crushing the limb that never quite felt like his own, training himself on first aid so he wouldn’t bleed to death, even practicing on animal parts sourced from a butcher.
“My goal was to get the job done with no hope of reconstruction or re-attachment, and I wanted some method that I could actually bring myself to do,” he told the body modification website ModBlog.
His goal was to become disabled.
People like Jason have been classified as ‘‘transabled’’ — feeling like imposters in their bodies, their arms and legs in full working order.
“We define transability as the desire or the need for a person identified as able-bodied by other people to transform his or her body to obtain a physical impairment,” says Alexandre Baril, a Quebec born academic who will present on “transability” at this week’s Congress of the Social Sciences and Humanities at the University of Ottawa.
“The person could want to become deaf, blind, amputee, paraplegic.
It’s a really, really strong desire.”
Most of them are men.
About half are in Germany and Switzerland, but he knows of a few in Canada.
Most crave an amputation or paralysis, though he has interviewed one person who wants his penis removed.


Another wants to be blind.
Many people, like One Hand Jason, arrange “accidents” to help achieve the goal.
One dropped an incredibly heavy concrete block on his legs — an attempt to injure himself so bad an amputation would be necessary.
But doctors saved the leg.
He limps, but it’s not the disability he wanted...
Read on. Much more!

Wasn't the whole idea to save money?------Blue Cross through HealthCare.gov to go up 11.3%

Blue Cross through HealthCare.gov to go up 11.3%:
Seventeen of 21 Michigan health insurers selling coverage at HealthCare.gov. are requesting rate hikes, apparently in anticipation of a U.S. Supreme Court decision that could cut federal subsidies for those policies.
Blue Cross Blue Shield of Michigan, which writes about 70 percent of the policies, is seeking an 11.3 percent increase.
More than half of the insurers are seeking premium increases of 5 percent or more beginning in January under the Affordable Care Act, the Michigan Department of Insurance and Financial Services said Monday.
More than 340,000 Michiganians purchased insurance on the health exchange last year and could be affected by the requests.
Five insurers, including Blue Cross, requested double-digit increases. 
The largest, 37 percent, is sought by Time Insurance Co., which is creating all new plans for next year.