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Zordani said she would support moves to expand need-based federal grants, stop for-profit colleges from misleading students, allow students to wipe out debt by working 10 years in public service, limit interest rates and make loans simpler.
"Students and their parents need transparent details about student loan rates," she said, "so that they can make sound decisions about managing education costs."
Increased diversity and understanding is one byproduct of a strong public education system, said Casten, a 46-year-old scientist, engineer and entrepreneur from Downers Grove.
He said schools should focus on exchange programs and exposing all students to others who are not like them because these experiences create lifelong learning.
"One of the singular advantages of a public education that doesn't get nearly enough attention is that it's unfortunately one of the last points in a lot of people's lives where you are truly exposed to people all across the socioeconomic strata, the racial strata, the disability strata," Casten said. "And if you go to...
As the first in her family to graduate from college, Mazeski said she emerged with loans but was able to pay them back because of the lower costs of college at the time.
A former chemist, Mazeski, 58, of Barrington Hills, said it's "imperative" for the government to support initiatives to encourage girls to pursue the STEM fields of science, technology engineering and math, which are likely to increase their earning potential.
She also wants to focus education efforts on tackling rising administration costs and offering more grants, low-interest-rate loans and other federal assistance to equalize opportunity for all students.
"We need to make secondary education, including community colleges and trade schools, affordable for all Americans who would like to pursue it," Mazeski said.
PHILADELPHIA -- Chase Utley hit an RBI single off Billy Wagner in the ninth inning and the Philadelphia Phillies completed a huge sweep of the first-place New York Mets by rallying for an 11-10 victory Thursday in one of the wildest games of the season.
By winning four straight against the Mets, Philadelphia moved within two games of the NL East leaders and suddenly set up an exciting September pennant race.
Mets nemesis Pat Burrell homered twice. Ryan Howard and Aaron Rowand also connected for the Phillies, who wasted leads of 5-0 and 8-5 before falling behind 10-8 in the eighth. That's when the Mets called on the struggling Wagner, who hadn't pitched since last Friday after experiencing a tired arm.
Looking for a six-out save, Wagner (2-2) gave up Burrell's solo shot in the eighth and immediately ran into trouble in the ninth.
Jayson Werth hit a leadoff single, then stole second and third on consecutive pitches with one out. Pinch-hitter Tadahito Iguchi's single to left tied it at 10.
Jimmy Rollins was intentionally walked after Iguchi stole second, bringing up Utley, who entered the game leading the NL in batting average. The All-Star second baseman, playing his third game after missing a month with a broken hand, worked a full count before lining a single to right field to score Iguchi and send th...
It was Philadelphia's first four-game sweep over any team since doing it against the Mets in September 2003 at old Veterans Stadium.
HOUSTON -- Matt Albers pitched seven innings of three-hit ball, Lance Berkman homered for the second consecutive game as Houston beat St. Louis.
Albers (4-6) walked four and struck out three, shutting down the Cardinals' offense for the second time this season.
Chad Qualls relieved Albers to start the eighth and the Cardinals got two singles, but couldn't score. Brad Lidge pitched a perfect ninth to earn his 14th save.
Joel Pineiro (3-2) lost for the first time in five starts. The Cardinals began the day two games behind first-place Chicago in the NL Central. The Cubs played second-place Milwaukee on Thursday night.
Mike Lamb walked with one out in the Astros' second and Luke Scott doubled down the left-field line to make it 1-0. Scott was tagged out trying to stretch his hit into a triple.
Pineiro led off the third with a single to left, his first hit of the season and only the third of his career. He reached third on Brendan Ryan's double and scored on David Eckstein's RBI groundout to tie it.
PITTSBURGH -- Alex Gonzalez scored from first base on Ken Griffey Jr.'s pop-fly single that fell among three Pirates fielders in the ninth inning, as Cincinnati defeated Pittsburgh.
With Griffey getting three hits and scoring twice, the Reds came back from deficits of 2-0 and 4-3 to win their eighth in 10 games and split the four-game series despite being swept in a doubleheader Tuesday. The Pirates lost their fourth in 13 games.
Jared Burton (4-1) won it despite allowing Jose Bautista's two-run homer that put the Pirates up 4-3 in the seventh. David Weathers finished up in the ninth for his 29th save in 34 opportunities.
After Josh Phelps doubled with two outs, the Pirates appeared to tie it on Nate McLouth's single into short right. But Phillips hustled to run the ball down and, falling backward, made a strong throw that allowed catcher Javier Valentin to tag Phelps about shoulder high.
Phelps apparently thought he would score easily and did not slide.
A West Palm Beach teen peed on his neighbor’s car door handle, then hid in the bushes waiting for the neighbor to touch the door, West Palm Beach police report.
Enrique Miguel Diz, 19, jumped out of the bushes Monday evening after his neighbor tried opening the car door and touched the urine-soaked handle, an arrest report states.
The neighbor, also 19, touched the handle of his red Lexus and “felt that it was wet,” he told arresting officers. When he sniffed his palm, he immediately realized it was urine.
Diz then jumped out of the bushes and laughed, police say.
The neighbor shouted at Diz, who picked up an aluminum bar and threw it at the neighbor’s ankle, causing a cut, police say.
Police say the two men reportedly had an ongoing feud over borrowed money, prompting Diz’s attempt at levity.
Diz denied peeing on his neighbor’s car, but officers did find urine on the door handle, the report states. Diz alleged that the neighbor sprayed him with pepper spray after he jumped out of the bushes, but police found no evidence that pepper spray was ever discharged in the area.
Diz was arrested on an aggravated battery with a deadly weapon charge for tossing the aluminum bar. He was released from the Palm Beach County Jail after posting $5,000 bail.
THE Toon Army will be shedding few tears this morning over the news of Alan Pardew's desire to return to his London roots.
And Pardew could be forgiven a jaunty wave in return as he heads for Selhurst Park, where he enjoyed his greatest days as a player.
On paper, the exchange of Newcastle, one of the best supported clubs in the land forever on the brink of a return to former glory, for Crystal Palace, a yo-yo outfit still to settle in the top flight, may seem madness indeed.
But Pardew has never enjoyed a close relationship with Magpies fans, and there has been growing tensions behind the public loyalty of his relationship with the owner, Mike Ashley.
As usual with Newcastle United, all was smoke and mirrors over the past few days. Pardew's name was immediately linked with Palace when their chairman Steve Parish fired Neil Warnock shortly after the Boxing Day home defeat to Southampton.
The Newcastle manager only fuelled the speculation that he would be leaving by refusing to attend a press conference following Sunday's 3-2 victory over Everton when reporters refused a request not to ask questions about the vacancy.
Now that baffling decision seems to be explained by the likelihood that Ashley and Parish had already begun thrashing out a compensation package that would allow Pardew to return south.
Pardew took over from Chris Hughton in December 2010 on a surprisingly lengthy five-and-a-half-year contract despite winning the endorsement of just five per cent in a poll of 40,000 supporters.
He led the club to fifth place in his first full season in charge, somewhat vindicating Ashley's decision to appoint him as he was named Barclays Manager of the Season.
But still the fans would not warm to him, and when the Magpies flirted with relegation in the following season, only staying up with two games of the campaign left, the demands for both Pardew and Ashley, whose intentions have never been trusted, to leave the club grew loud.
Last season began modestly and ended ruinously as they lost 15 of 21 fixtures, and this campaign began with a run of eight games without a win. That sparked a concerted effort by the fans to get him out, with a website launched and banner protests.
But Pardew appeared to have seen off that threat with six consecutive wins in all competitions that earned him November's manager of the month award, and Newcastle ended Chelsea's unbeaten start to the season - although that was marred by last month's record fourth straight derby defeat to Sunderland.
Yet the relationship between Pardew and Ashley remained a strong one, with the owner standing by his man, and the manager never indicating anything other than satisfaction with the way the club was run. Yet behind the public faces lay increasing tension over transfers.
Pardew has been frustrated over the way the club allowed the likes of Andy Carroll, Demba Ba, Yohan Cabaye and Mathieu Debuchy to leave while he was allowed only limited resources to recruit replacements. Cabaye's departure 11 months ago especially hurt Pardew as he saw the Frenchman as a playmaker around whom he could...
Pardew has also spoken openly recently of his desperation to sign another striker as he has only Papiss Cisse and Ayoze Perez, signed for £1.6million last summer, on his books. But Ashley told him no significant funds would be available in January.
But if Pardew felt the purse strings were tight at Newcastle, he will be in for a shock at Palace, who regularly find themselves rooting through the bargain bucket.
Perhaps, having been born and raised in the capital, he may simply have wanted a return to London in order to be closer to his family home in Surrey.
Palace is a club he knows and loves having played there between 1987 and 1991, helping them win promotion to the top flight and scoring the winning goal as they beat Liverpool 4-3 after extra-time in a thrilling FA Cup semi-final at Villa Park.
He remains close to Parish - and perhaps that, along with all the happy memories, is what has brought Pardew scuttling back down the M1, to where he has always felt most at home.
Two people and an organization will receive Beacon of Light Awards from Santa Clara County Friday to recognize their contributions to the immigrant community, county officials said.
A ceremony starting at 5 p.m. at the Campbell Community Center at 1 W. Campbell Ave in Campbell will recognize Almaz Negash of the African Diaspora Network, Beth Chance with the Santa Clara County Office of the Public Defender and the Santa Clara County Rapid Response Network.
Also at the ceremony, Rev. Jon Pedigo of Catholic Charities will receive the Cindy Avita Award for Lifetime Achievement in Activism and Advocacy for Immigrant Rights.
County officials said the Beacon of Light Awards exemplify the Statue of Liberty's torch, which has been a welcoming symbol for U.S. immigrants.
Vibrant colored dresses, dances and diverse flavors of food from Mexico to the Philippines attracted crowds of students along Titan Walk Tuesday afternoon for the Association of InterCultural Awareness’ Annual Multicultural Festival.
The event aimed to introduce students to different cultures on campus.
“It’s very important for us right now to be able to share how diverse and how different the cultures are, and how that could bring us to be more experienced and more open minded to the world,” said Esther Feng, AICA events coordinator.
Feng said cultural awareness is especially important amid the uncertainty surrounding Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals and the DREAM Act under President Donald Trump’s administration.
Students passing by Titan Walk, had the chance to receive food and participate in different activities from cultural clubs like Movimiento Estudiantil [email protected] de Aztlán (M.E.Ch.A.).
“We all come from different cultures, from different backgrounds but if you come to think about it, we’re not all completely different. We all have certain customs, certain traditions that are relatable,” said Abel Mendoza, M.E.Ch.A. co-chair.
Mendoza said the festival helps remind students of the vast array of cultural diversity on campus.
The Pilipino-American Student Association (PASA) provided students with the chance to participate in a traditional tinikling dance, in which dancers hop in and out between two moving bamboo sticks.
For many students, the main attraction was the food. Students received a card in the form of a boarding pass that allowed them access to different foods depending on how many clubs they visited.
“It makes me feel like the world is a little bit closer when I may not have the opportunity to visit some of these places myself,” said graduate student Cristina Dypiangco.
Ballet Folklorico de CSUF and the CSUF Japanese Culture Club performed in the Becker Amphitheater.
Shades of orange, green and red fluttered across the stage as Ballet Folklorico de CSUF performed dances representing Mexican states Jalisco, Baja and Chihuahua.
Following Ballet Folklorico de CSUF, the Japanese Culture Club performed a yosakoi dance, in which members of the club moved energetically as they twirled red and black umbrellas to the beat of modern music.
Though gathering in one place made things easier, Feng said the organizations on campus would help educate students on the cultural diversity of the campus even without an event like the Annual Multicultural Festival.
“(The organizations) are very open and out there. They want to show their culture. They want to show their different characteristics,” Feng said.
Stargazers have a chance to see a rare blue moon phenomenon in the skies over Oxfordshire this evening, something that won’t happen again until 2018.
The sight is so rare, the phrase ‘once in a blue moon’ was coined because of it.
But rather than the moon actually changing colour, a blue moon refers to when two full moons appear in the same calendar month.
The first full moon was spotted on 1 July and the second will appear on the last day of the month – Friday, July 31.
Website timeanddate.com lists the following information on blue moons: “A Moon that actually looks blue, however, is a very rare sight. The Moon, full or any other phase, can appear blue when the atmosphere is filled with dust or smoke particles of a certain size.
This appearance is the first such occurrence in three years since the last blue moon month in August 2012, the next will not be until January 2018.
Astronomers predict it will only happen on 12 occasions between now and 2043.
Friday’s weather is set to be mostly clear with just a few clouds around so there is a good chance of getting a view of the phenomenon.
More about blue moons at timeanddate.com.
The IRS Scandal Is a Test: Is It Too Hard to Fire Misbehaving Bureaucrats?
Everyone agrees that some employees acted incompetently. So how much time and money will it take to get rid of them?
Under the headline, "Yes, heads should roll at the IRS," Ezra Klein points out that, at the very least, "A number of IRS employees developed criteria that was politically biased both in appearance and in effect. They were reined in once by their superiors, and then they changed the criteria again, and had to be reined ...
That's reason enough to fire them, he concludes, "even if the process is difficult." He is absolutely right. But a larger question goes unexamined in his article. Is it too difficult to fire government employees who've been caught misbehaving in ways everyone agrees to be unacceptable?
It's an urgent question for anyone whose preferred policies presume a well-functioning bureaucracy staffed with capable civil servants to oversee and implement them. It behooves us to remember that the IRS and federal, state and local government encompass a lot of honest, hard-working people whose contributions are uns...
What caused me to reach that conclusion?
Not a belief that federal employees should be as easily terminated as at will employees in the private sector. Unlike private sector workers, federal employees serve beneath presidents, which is to say, ideologue politicians with a bad habit of installing hack cronies wherever they can. Similar dynamics are often prese...
But top to bottom, we're far closer to the opposite extreme.
A Los Angeles Times investigation, "Firing teachers can be a costly and tortuous task," provides a number of examples that unfolded at the local level. The article contains shocking anecdotes about how hard it was to fire individual teachers whose cartoonish misdeeds are detailed. The most alarming line states, "Jettis...
That's at one of America's biggest school districts.
The UC police officer caught on camera pepper-spraying student protesters is an instructive example at the state level. I wrote last year about his long, lucrative goodbye: "As of 2010, Lt. Pike's salary was listed at $110,243.12. Using that figure as an approximation of how much he was compensated this year (note we'r...
There are many more examples at the local, state, and federal level. None so far has prompted Democrats or progressives to acknowledge that public employees are so well-protected that the ability to run well-functioning institutions is sometimes being compromised. In one way, the IRS controversy is sure to be unreprese...
Coming days and weeks -- or will it be months? -- will tell.
PYONGYANG, North Korea >> Produce more new-generation electric locomotives and passenger cars! Send more satellites into space! Make the whole country seethe with a high-pitched campaign for producing green-house vegetables! Become iron shields and red warriors who defend the party, system and people to the death!
Even as North Korea is being threatened with new sanctions and more isolation for conducting a nuclear test and rocket launch, its ruling party announced new slogans to guide and inspire the nation ahead of a once-in-a-generation party congress scheduled for May. The number of exclamation marks would suggest North Kore...
The slogans, issued Thursday by the Central Committee and the Central Military Commission of the ruling Workers’ Party of Korea, reflect what the party sees as the nation’s priorities in the months and years ahead. The topics range from boosting the economy to becoming an international sports power and, of course, buil...
Ireland players Kevin O'Brien and Paul Stirling will play in the BPL Twenty20 competition in Bangladesh next month after both were snapped up in the competition's auction on Thursday.
O'Brien cost Rangpur $45,000 (£27,659) while Stirling was picked up by the Sylhet Royals for $30,000 (£18,438).

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