Bankocracy

School District Ends Policy Of Forcing Students To Kneel Down For Dismissal

"School district officials in San Bernardino County say they will discontinue a policy that required elementary school students to kneel down before being dismissed to class. Principal Dana Carter at Calimesa Elementary School had reportedly instituted the policy, which called for students at various times of the school day to kneel down on one knee and wait for the principal or another administrator to dismiss them, as a safety measure. Yucaipa Calimesa Unified School District Superintendent Cali Binks told KCAL9 the policy – which was described as 'positive behavior intervention' – will no longer be enforced at Calimesa Elementary after several parents spoke out against the practice." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingSchool District Ends Policy Of Forcing Students To Kneel Down For Dismissal

Striking teachers block access to Mexico City airport

"Thousands of teachers severely disrupted access to Mexico City’s international airport, forcing some travelers to abandon cars and roll suitcases on foot during a protest against education reform. President Enrique Pena Nieto pushed through Congress changes to the constitution in December in order to put education, which was in the hands of powerful unions, back under government control and require teachers to undergo mandatory performance appraisals. More than 70,000 teachers went on strike in southern Mexico, leaving more than one million children without classes at the start of the school year this week." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingStriking teachers block access to Mexico City airport

100 Outgunned Mexican Women Join Self-Defense League

"More than 100 women in the southern Mexican town of Xaltianguis have taken up arms to protect their community from organized crime groups, a local self-defense force official said Monday. The women signed up over the past four days with the Union of Peoples and Organizations of Guerrero State, or UPOEG, Xaltianguis community self-defense force commander Miguel Angel Jimenez told reporters. 'We have an average of nine groups' of community police, with each one made up of 12 women who will work in the daytime in the neighborhoods of Xaltianguis, located about 50 kilometers (31 miles) from the resort city of Acapulco, Jimenez said." Continue reading →

Continue Reading100 Outgunned Mexican Women Join Self-Defense League

Christian school defies Arkansas attorney general, arms teachers & posts sign

"Two weeks after the attorney general of Arkansas, Dustin McDaniel, forbid the state’s school districts from taking advantage of an obscure law that would have allowed armed teachers to serve as de facto security guards, a private school in Bryant has decided to arm its staff. Pastor Black previously placed armed security guards outside his Sunday services, and claims that anywhere from one to seven staff members or teachers will be armed on a given day. Legislation explicitly allowing concealed weapons in schools operated by churches was passed in February of this year." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingChristian school defies Arkansas attorney general, arms teachers & posts sign

An ‘aporkalypse’ has Texas fighting losing battle against feral pig menace

"Dallas created a task force to tackle its pig problem and it is cooperating with affected neighbouring cities such as Arlington and Fort Worth. It is illegal for civilians to discharge a firearm inside Dallas’ city limits so the hogs must be caught and then slaughtered elsewhere. The number of feral hogs in Texas is predicted to grow by 16% annually, roughly doubling in five years. They already cause an estimated $52m in damage to the state’s agriculture industry each year. And they are becoming partial to the comforts of suburban life. A proposal allowing bow-hunters to shoot them and donate the meat to the homeless was rejected on safety grounds." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingAn ‘aporkalypse’ has Texas fighting losing battle against feral pig menace

Dream Chaser is nearly ready to fly

"Sierra Nevada Corporation’s (SNC’s) Dream Chaser spacecraft performed a 'captive carry' flight at NASA’s Dryden Flight Research Center at California’s Edwards Air Force Base. During the two-hour test, the Dream Chaser engineering test article (ETA)—a full-sized version of the spacecraft, built for atmospheric tests—flew suspended under a helicopter at altitudes of up to 3,780 meters (12,400 feet). Last August, it received one of three Commercial Crew Integrated Capability (CCiCap) awards from NASA, but its award was a 'half-sized' award, valued at $212.5 million. The other two awardees, Boeing and SpaceX, received larger awards: $450 million and $440 million, respectively." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingDream Chaser is nearly ready to fly

Mark Thornton on Skyscrapers in ‘Le Monde’

"In a feature from the business section entitled 'Les villes chinoises veulent toutes leurs gratte-ciel géants,' Le Monde takes note of the phenomenon that is the skyscraper-dense Chinese city, and specifically, the completion of Shanghai Tower, now one of the tallest buildings in Asia. Mark Thornton, economist at the Mises Institute in Auburn (United States), and author of research on the correlation between the race skyward and the advent of large crises, warns: 'The construction of skyscrapers is a precursor to economic disorders'…'The skyscrapers are just one symptom of the government’s extravagant economic policies.'" Continue reading →

Continue ReadingMark Thornton on Skyscrapers in ‘Le Monde’

Paris Pickpockets Are Profiling Chinese Tourists

"Chinese visitors are descending on Paris in record numbers and their lavish spending on luxury brands has made them an irresistible target for thieves. Petty crime between January and the end of June in one of the world’s most-visited cities jumped 7.8 per cent compared with the same period in 2012 – but it was up by more than 24 per cent when it came to Chinese tourists. Jean-Francois Zhou, a tour operator based on the Champs-Elyseés, says that thieves see the hordes of Chinese as prime targets because they carry far more cash than visitors from other countries." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingParis Pickpockets Are Profiling Chinese Tourists

Detroit’s Anarcho-Progressive Homesteaded Community

"They live off the grid for the most part, with only minimal services. They homestead abandoned buildings, applying their love and labor to make the structures functional and livable. They do accept donations to help them rebuild the abandoned structures. They also run a neighborhood bicycle collective and use vacant lots for urban farming. They appear to communicate that there has been no bureaucratic resistance to their homesteaded community. That is what makes Detroit so special right now – a lack of political officialdom in these areas of blight, allowing a spontaneous order to root and thrive." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingDetroit’s Anarcho-Progressive Homesteaded Community

The Real Reason College Costs So Much

"In 1964, federal student aid was a mere $231 million. By 1981, the feds were spending $7 billion on loans alone, an amount that doubled during the 1980s and nearly tripled in each of the following two decades, and is about $105 billion today. Taxpayers now stand behind nearly $1 trillion in student loans. Meanwhile, grants have increased to $49 billion from $6.4 billion in 1981. By expanding eligibility and boosting the maximum Pell Grant by $500 to $5,350, the 2009 stimulus bill accelerated higher ed's evolution into a middle-class entitlement. Fewer than 2% of Pell Grant recipients came from families making between $60,000 and $80,000 a year in 2007. Now roughly 18% do." Continue reading →

Continue ReadingThe Real Reason College Costs So Much