Ogemaw Heights student bullied into homecoming court? (Society’s Slideshow)
By Dave Palmer Whitney Kropp and Ogemaw Heights High School caused a bit of a ruckus in the news recently and added fuel to the fire of school bullying talk. Kropp was nominated to the school’s sophomore homecoming court, only to find out after her name was read over the PA that the nomination was [...]
Teacher evaluations questioned despite lack of state guidance
The 2011-2012 marked the first year all schools used the four-tier evaluation system mandated by the Michigan legislature, rating teachers as “highly effective”, “effective”, “minimally effective” and “ineffective” according to an article in the Detroit Free Press. The article cites that 99.4% of teachers were rated in the top two categories, but the non-profit Education [...]
Advice for Occupy: Year Two
The one year anniversary of Occupy Wall Street has come and gone. More than 180 were arrested in New York, creating a wave of energy for new, possibly more focused protests. Now, the Occupy movement has to ride that wave into real political action. The Occupy Wall Street movement needs to organize and assert its [...]
Teachers tired of broken promises, unite! (Society’s Slideshow)
By Dave Palmer Chicago teachers have decided that they have had enough of broken promises. Their story is gaining momentum in the national media, and is already drawing both criticism and praise. Those who criticize accuse teachers of not considering the needs of the students, but mostly wonder what they are going to do with [...]
New kit could convert any car to a hybird (Society’s Slideshow)
By Dave Palmer Many Americans are feeling the pinch in their wallets from rising fuel costs that affects everything from how much their daily commute costs to the final total on their grocery bill. Auto manufacturers have finally bucked the desires of the oil companies and are building hybrid and electric vehicles in order to address this [...]
Don’t confuse pro-life with pro-birth
By Dave Palmer Discussion surrounding abortion, birth control, and women’s rights have reached a fever pitch in this election. Most Americans are familiar with the pro-life argument that life starts at conception, and the pro-choice argument that a women has the right to choose whether she carries a pregnancy to term. The part that may [...]
Lansing, schools should not trust Moody’s rating of pension system (Society’s Slideshow)
By Dave Palmer The August 24 edition of the Free Press contained a short article stating Moody’s bond rating agency has called Lansing’s proposed fix of the teacher pension system “credit positive.” To be fair, the fix is anticipated to save school districts $850 million over two years, according to the article. However, the fix [...]
An Open Letter to Manuel “Matty” Moroun
Dear Matty, You have been very successful in your business career. You have established a long list of properties in Detroit, including the Ambassador Bridge and the Michigan Central Depot. You have claimed that you have plans to redevelop those properties, a few in the short term, and most in the long term. When exactly [...]
Todd Akin forgets brain to mouth filter, makes inflammatory comment.
By Dave Palmer Election years have a way of bringing out the best and the worst in candidates. Sometimes they come off sounding reasoned and intelligent, and other times they completely stick their foot in their mouth. Based on Representative Todd Akin’s latest comments, it seems that he will have to get some “tough-actin Tinactin” [...]
Lansing continues war on teachers with pension system fix (Society’s Slideshow)
By Dave Palmer Lansing legislators are again showing their true feelings toward educators. First, they moved to remove collective bargaining rights from teachers. Then, school districts began imposing 10% pay cuts without negotiating stateside concessions. Next, the legislature moved to force teachers to pay 20% of their health care costs out of the salary that [...]
Romney taps Ryan for VP; plans to win election without senior citizen vote (Society’s Slideshow)
By Dave Palmer By now, most people have probably heard that Mitt Romney has selected Representative Paul Ryan from Wisconsin. However, not a lot is known about him as recent polling shows that many people don’t know enough about him to form a solid opinion. Whether you know what Paul Ryan is about or not, this [...]
Politicians must change rhetoric to action on subject of education (Society’s Slideshow)
By Dave Palmer Many politicians express concern about the state of our nation’s educational system. They say that they want to ensure a great future for today’s generation of students who will become tomorrow’s doctors, lawyers, and business executives. Many remedies are proposed, including high-stakes testing, teacher evaluations, and increasing school resources that candidates and incumbents [...]
Pennsylvania GOP leader: New Voter ID law will allow Romney to win (Society’s Slidieshow)
By Dave Palmer The closer we get to the election, the more politicians tend to ramp up the political rhetoric. Sometimes politicians suffer from brief lapses of judgment or a Freudian slip while trying to mobilize their base. But in the case of Mike Turzai, the announcement that the new Pennsylvania voter ID law will [...]
Don’t like your personal outcome? Sue for a new one. (Society’s Slideshow)
By Dave Palmer School is filled with pressure, whether it be from peers, extra-curricular activities, parents, an after-school job, the list goes on, with grades not the least of students’ concerns. Sometimes, a student cannot avoid being absent, and needs to make up an assignment. Sometimes, the assignment requires a measure of class participation or [...]
Caterpillar boasts record profits; demands wage freeze from employees (Society’s Slideshow)
By Dave Palmer There is no doubt that things have been tough since 2008. Workers have accepted numerous pay cuts, agreed to pay more into their benefits, and taken early retirement bonuses to save companies money and allow them to hire others or maintain their current work force. Measures such as these are justifiable when a [...]
Colorado tragedy illustrates need for increased regulation (Society’s Slideshow)
By Dave Palmer By now, many people have heard about the actions of James E. Holmes in Aurora, Colorado. The airwaves and the internet are rife with stories that retell the horrifying story and bemoan the what a terrible tragedy this latest shooting is. However, the subject that most needs to be aired is swept [...]
Sequesteration cuts to cost 2 million jobs if Congress fails to act (Society’s Slideshow)
By Dave Palmer According to an article on Yahoo! News circulated by the Associated Press, unless Congress moves to cut the deficit by $1.2 trillion over the next 10 years, the deficit will be cut for them. These cuts are to include $492 billion cut from military spending over the next decade, starting with $55 [...]
House Republicans ignore constituency in favor of ideology (Society’s Slideshow)
By Dave Palmer Since the Affordable Care Act was passed, Republicans in the House of Representatives have voted a total of 33 times to repeal the act. They know that they have the votes to pass repeal in the House. They also know that there are enough Democrats in the Senate to kill their repeal [...]
Justin Bieber full of excuses but low on remorse (Society’s Slideshow by Dave Palmer)
Justin Bieber is in the spotlight again with a fresh “I’m 18 and there’s nothing you can do about it” attitude as police stopped him several days ago for exceeding 100 mph in his $100,000 Fisker Karma. His claim was that he was trying to evade paparazzi, and even took the liberty of calling 911 after [...]
Texas GOP no longer hiding its reactionary agenda (Society’s Slideshow)
Texas has long been a bit of a loose cannon in terms of politics in America. When most states were abolishing or limiting the death penalty, they put in an express lane on death row. At one point in time, Texas was an independent country. After reading the Texas GOP platform for 2012, I’m beginning [...]
SCOTUS made the right call in upholding the Affordable Care Act (Society’s Slideshow)
Thursday is usually the day that few people can really get the hang of. You’ve made it past the hump, but not quite to the weekend. However, Thursday, June 28 2012 will no doubt go down in history as a resounding judicial victory for the Obama administration as the Supreme Court voted to uphold the [...]
Maroun should step aside as Michigan and Canada near bridge deal (Society’s Slideshow)
Governor Rick Snyder announced a deal with Canada to pursue a public span across the Detroit River about two miles south of the Ambassador Bridge. Canadian authorities have agreed to front all of the money needed for both sides of the project and to collect tolls as repayment. Once the monetary obligation is fulfilled, Michigan and [...]
The V-word makes Michigan House Republicans blush (Society’s Slideshow)
The Michigan House of Representatives has finally brought censorship into politics. During a discussion about proposing one of the most restrictive abortion bills in America, Representative Lisa Brown made the following comment: “Finally, Mr. Speaker, I’m flattered that you’re all so interested in my vagina, but ‘no’ means ‘no.’” Rep. Brown was eventually banned from [...]
The New Republican Motto: If you can’t beat ‘em, disenfranchise ‘em (Society’s Slideshow)
Recent events in Florida and Wisconsin points to a new and disturbing trend in GOP politics. Whenever Republicans believe that they will not win a given election, they simply take steps to disenfranchise people who would vote against them. This trend goes back as far as voting rights acts that try to prevent it, but [...]
