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In Florida, Ms. Levesque said, the Foundation for Florida's Future, another K-12 policy group led by Mr. Bush and Ms. Levesque, pushed in 2010 to reduce the weight given to scores from Pearson-provided FCAT tests on high schools' A-F grades—a stance that she said undercuts Mr. Cohen's argument that the advocacy by Mr. ... |
At the national summits, Ms. Levesque said, companies can set up exhibits, but the Foundation for Excellence in Education doesn't officially endorse them or direct state schools chiefs to them at official events."We don't let corporations shape what our policy positions are, or what gets highlighted," Ms. Levesque said... |
Regarding SendHub, Ms. Levesque said she never knowingly promoted the company on Mr. Bush's behalf in his position as an investor. At the same time, Ms. Levesque said she recognized that specifically promoting SendHub created a bad impression. |
"I will not do that again. ... If anyone should be chastised for that, it should be me personally," she said. |
As for the foundation's model bills, they are merely a starting point for legislators and officials who want to customize them to fit their own legal or political situations, not an underhanded means of force-feeding one policy to several states, the foundation says. |
Mr. Cohen did not categorically deny that his group received any support from unions. |
Ultimately, finger-pointing over financial backers may score political points, but it threatens to obscure more important arguments, Mr. Hess of the AEI said: "The actual kind of substantive merits of debates almost become the undercard," not the main event. |
"Jeb Bush Urges Allies to Stand Firm on Ed Policy," (State EdWatch Blog) November 27, 2012. |
"Former Bush Education Official to Head Digital Learning Initiative," (Marketplace K-12 Blog) June 7, 2012. |
"Praise for Digital Reforms From Jeb Bush-Led Foundation," (Digital Education Blog) May 21, 2012. |
“School Chiefs' Group Elbows Into Policy Fight,” February 1, 2012. |
“Jeb Bush's Influence on Education Policy Spreads,” December 29, 2010. |
The small European Union nation has been experiencing a bank run over the last few days. |
Bulgarian authorities have made seven arrests and pumped more than $2 billion into the country's financial system in a bid to prevent a bank run spiraling out of control. |
Officials blamed the rush to withdraw deposits on a coordinated attempt by individuals to destabilize the banking system by spreading unfounded rumors via social media, emails and text messages. |
"There is no cause or reason to give way to panic. There is no banking crisis, there is a crisis of trust and there is a criminal attack," said Bulgaria's President Rosen Plevneliev in a public address on Sunday after the arrests were made. |
It all started roughly 10 days ago when messages began circulating warning people that the country's financial system was unstable. Bulgaria's Corporate Commercial Bank ran out of money and was placed under state control. |
The collapse revived memories of a previous Bulgarian banking crash in the 1990s, and as the rumors kept coming another Bulgarian bank -- First Investment Bank -- was overwhelmed by people rushing to withdraw their savings. |
That bank was forced to close temporarily on Friday after its branches and ATMs were drained. |
In response, the central bank said over the weekend it would provide a credit line worth 3.3 billion Bulgarian lev ($2.3 billion) to the country's banks to reassure people about the safety of their savings. |
It also lashed out at the Bulgarians suspected of fueling the bank run. |
"We insist that the competent authorities ... apply the full force of the law against the disseminators of false and malicious rumors and speculation." |
According to the country's national security agency, one of the messages sent around said: "Corporate Commercial Bank IS NOT THE ONLY bank in [a] liquidity crisis ... Deposits of citizens will be lost or sacrificed [to save] the Bulgarian economy." |
Bulgaria is one of the poorest countries in the European Union. Its economy barely grew in 2013 and it has struggled with high unemployment, corruption and an aging population. However, the International Monetary Fund and EU view its banking system as relatively stable. |
"The banking system in Bulgaria is well capitalized and liquid. No spillovers to the rest of the region are expected," said an IMF spokesperson. |
The country of 7.6 million people is readying itself for snap parliamentary elections on October 5 after facing weeks of political uncertainty. Some parts of the country have also experienced fatal flash flooding and mudslides this month. |
Author Charlene Wexler recently won a 2016 Communications Concepts Award of Excellence for her book Elephants In The Room. |
Charlene Wexler's Elephants In The Room is her latest collection of short fiction and essays examining life, love, and the tragedy and comedy of the human condition. |
In Family and Friends, readers meet some of the fun characters in Wexler's life and in her fiction, and inevitably think about similar loved ones in their own world. The story "Elephants In The Room," from which the title of the book is derived, appears in this section. |
Elephants In The Room is Wexler's second collection of fiction and essays published in book form. The first was the award-winning Milk and Oranges. |
Communications Concepts is a journalism and communications think tank based outside Washington, DC. This year's Apex competition was the 28th annual. |
"Apex Awards are based on excellence in graphic design, editorial content, and the ability to achieve overall communications excellence," said John De Lellis of Communications Concepts. "With over 1,600 entries, competition was exceptionally intense." |
"The Apex Awards contest is competitive and prestigious, and to win an Award of Excellence Award is particularly exciting," Wexler said. "I wrote Elephants In The Room to tug at readers' heartstrings and tickle their funnybones, and the Apex Award recognizes what I was trying to achieve." |
The contest is an international one, and other winners hailed from Brazil, Canada, Hong Kong, India, the Philippines, Russia, Singapore, and the United Kingdom, as well as the United States, and from such prestigious institutions as the American Bankers Association, the American Bar Association, Bank of America, the Ci... |
Wexler resides in Richmond, IL, and is a graduate of the University of Illinois. She has worked as a teacher and dental office bookkeeper and as "a wife, mom, and grandmother," she said. In recent years, Wexler has turned her lifelong passion for writing into her profession. |
Her work has appeared in many publications and websites. Her first novel, Murder on Skid Row, received an Apex Award of Excellence from Communications Concepts in 2010, and Milk and Oranges, her book of essays and short stores, received a rare Apex Grand Award in 2012. Another Wexler mystery, Murder Across the Ocean, r... |
Wexler's next appearance discussing her fiction will be Saturday, July 30, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. at the Lake County AuthorFest, Round Lake Beach Cultural and Civic Center, 2007 Civic Center Way, Round Lake Beach, IL. Call (847) 201-9032 for information. |
For more information, call (312) 622-6029 or e-mail anbcommunications@yahoo.com. Wexler's website is http://www.charlenewexler.com. |
The Apex Awards' website is http://www.apexawards.com/. |
Security has been stepped up around the transport network in London, after a man was arrested over the discovery of a suspect device on a Tube train. |
The 19-year-old suspect was detained by armed police on Friday afternoon in Holloway Road, north London. A Taser was discharged during the arrest. |
A controlled explosion was carried out on the suspicious item at North Greenwich station on Thursday morning. |
The suspect was taken to a London police station and is still in custody. |
Scotland Yard said the device was due to be forensically examined. |
Passengers have been told to expect to see more officers, including armed police, in and around transport hubs, while patrols by British Transport Police are in place on the Underground and at railway stations. |
A witness to the teenager's arrest described him as white, bearded and wearing a hoodie. |
Ali, aged 30, who did not give his full name, said the man had been walking along the street "normally" when police descended. |
"The armed police, I think five of them, ran behind him and put him on the floor," he said. |
"They were shouting 'armed police, don't struggle'. Everything happened so quick." |
The suspicious object was discovered on an eastbound Jubilee Line train at the south-east London station at about 11:00 BST. |
A source told the BBC the device was found by a member of the public and handed to a Tube driver. |
The driver treated it as a suspicious and said it contained "wires and possibly a clock". |
The station was evacuated and members of the Met's bomb squad carried out the explosion, after the item was described as looking "real enough". |
The Met said officers were keeping an open mind regarding any possible motive but said they were not looking for anyone else in relation to their investigation at this stage. |
The current threat level for international terrorism in the UK is severe - meaning an attack is deemed to be "highly likely". |
July 19, 2011 Bylon Alexander dreamed of leaving the nursing home she lived in and move into her own apartment. But tragedy struck just as she got closer to that goal. |
July 19, 2011 Last December on All Things Considered, we told you about Bylon Alexander, a 24-year-old disabled woman who was living in a nursing home and who yearned to get out. There was some hope that was going to happen. But she got sick and this weekend she died. |
July 18, 2011 After six years in a nursing home, Rosa Hendrix has moved into her own apartment. Hendrix was featured in an NPR News investigation that examined a new federal law that gives people with disabilities the right to receive long-term health care in their own homes. |
June 28, 2011 NPR News Investigations, ProPublica and PBS Frontline analyzed nearly two dozen cases in which people have been accused of killing children based on flawed work by forensic pathologists. Some of the accused were later cleared. Others are still in prison. Read the complete investigation. |
This past spring, teachers from West Virginia to Oklahoma walked out of their classrooms and onto the steps of state capitols to protest low pay, overcrowded classrooms and cuts to school funding. |
Oklahoma teacher Jacobi Crowley was one of the teachers who participated in the strikes. |
If things go the way he hopes this November, he will have a different career as a state senator, one who sees education as priority number 1. |
Crowley is one of hundreds of teachers nationwide who decided to run for public office this year. In Oklahoma alone, more than 100 teachers filed to run, and over half of them made it through their primary races in June. |
“They are getting frustrated with seeing the lack of support, the lack of funding and the lack of leadership out of state legislators in Oklahoma City, making those things possible for educators to be successful,” Crowley expresses. |
Educators say it’s a frustration that’s been building for years. |
In 2011, teachers staged a walkout and camped out for weeks at the Wisconsin State Capitol, protesting Gov. Scott Walker’s bill that gutted their unions. Ultimately, they were unsuccessful. |
But Wisconsin’s Superintendent of Schools saw that as a catalyst and decided to take matters into his own hands. |
“I believe the best way to fix this is to have an educator as governor of the State of Wisconsin,” says Democratic gubernatorial candidate Tony Evers. |
Evers will take on incumbent Gov. Scott Walker this November. |
Cut in funding and teacher pay has been some of the core issues of the protests. In Oklahoma, Crowley—like many other teachers—works multiple jobs to pay the bills. |
However, Crowley hopes the voters of Senate District 32 will deem him worthy of just one. |
You may think that nothing can be ‘good’ about feeling pain. Although I agree that pain never feels good, you should feel blessed that this sensation may alert you to a potentially dangerous situation in your body. People with an impaired nervous system due to advanced type 2 diabetes or a severing of nerves due to an ... |
As a rule of thumb: you should be attentive to the signal of pain and investigate its cause. Usually there is a site of inflammation and/or swelling of tissue, although this is not always the case, like in neuropathy. Some damage to nerves can arrive without sensations of pain; sometimes it is a tingling or numbness in... |
Pain is one of the first sensations that we react to since early childhood; it is out teacher to stay away from what can harm us. A baby with hunger pains cries until it is fed. |
Heads up, there may be a problem! “ Well we all know about toothache…there is no toothache without a cause that needs attention. If it is an inflammation that causes pain, the body is already in repair mode, which is indicated by a temperature rise in the area when the body fights against microbial invaders. It is like... |
Too many of us today see pain and fever as something to be immediately treated with pain and fever lowering drugs. This is like disarming your own troops, which your body called into battle against the enemy. Can you see that a wise general would not want to weaken his army this way? You are the ‘General’ and your army... |
Of course, it is always prudent to consult with other allied professionals in more severe cases. Just remember that whatever happens on your turf, ( your body ) unique to you; only you experience it and consequently you are also the best judge in most cases. I say mostly, because you need to know your body and trust it... |
Now let’s touch on the ‘bad pain’. Although this is a huge subject, I can only give you a fraction of information here. What I want you to know first of all is, that ‘chronic pain is bad pain’! There is nothing good or slightly beneficial about chronic pain. Apart from its devastating attack on your immune and nervous ... |
You do not have to live with constant pain, and you do not have to swallow pain- killers for the rest of you life! We all have heard about the life threatening damage to the body that is done by continued high doses of pharmaceutical prescription drugs to control pain. Fortunately there are other very potent, but compe... |
The result is less, or no more pain because the body had been given a chance to heal itself by re-tuning its energy. Just think of an orchestra that is out of sync; there is painful discord. Your body systems play like a symphony together. When your body is healthy, it is in sync with all systems. When your body is sic... |
There are other ways to complement energy medicine. Some of these are supplements, herbal remedies, physical manipulation, homeopathic remedies and others. |
All these, including pharmaceuticals, should be part of a comprehensive healing system that includes mental and emotional support. I also highly recommend you explore Meditation, Yoga, EFT, Hypnosis, and personal counseling to explore in order to live your life free of pain and disease. |
New Delhi/Mumbai: Troubled Jet Airways' board will meet on Tuesday to chalk out future course of action after the airline failed to get emergency funding from lenders on Monday. Awaiting outcome of lenders' meet with the government, the cash-starved airline has extended cancellation of international flights till April ... |
The idea of ending things on a high always seems like a wasted opportunity to me. Like playing My Way at a funeral when you could play All By Myself and make everyone cry. It’s over, who cares about dignity? You’ve broken up, steal the lightbulbs when you move out. |
The faddy eater column is coming to an end and while I genuinely did plan to eat something new, baked and delicious, I felt more compelled to have something so singularly foul – yet faddy! – that while you, the reader, might forget this column, I never would. A sort of gastronomic tattoo. Something I could take to my g... |
Like most bad things, I found Milk Coke on Twitter, from feed of the comedy writer James Felton. Milk Coke is exactly that. Milk and Coca-Cola, mixed together and drunk. It is apparently a thing in Birmingham, and not the first of its kind; a quick search sent me down a wormhole of other milk and fizz combinations, inc... |
The nature of newspaper deadlines means I have to try this out in the morning. I line my stomach with avocado on toast, because this is the Guardian, and scan the “recipe” on Twitter. The majority suggest adding milk first, then Coca-Cola; to keep it broad I also try it with Diet Coke and Coke Zero. The fridge isn’t wo... |
What can I say? I don’t vomit. I consider it, especially with the Diet Coke version, which is so excessively sweet it’s probably not far off colostrum (minutes later, I spot a migraine hovering on the the horizon), but I hold it it together. Equally, though, it’s not as terrible as it sounds. Close your eyes and it cou... |
This is the same nation that birthed the Cheeky Vimto (port, WKD blue) and snakebite (lager and cider), and we are the generation that risked death eating Tide Pods. We are more than capable of twinning society’s greatest ills, dairy and sugar, for content. Small mercy, I think, that there was no Pepsi in the canteen. |
• This article was amended on 7 March 2019. An earlier version erroneously included blackcurrant cordial as an ingredient of snakebite. |
Baseball players and owners signed an agreement for a new labor contract Tuesday, a deal that starts blood testing on human growth hormone and expands the playoffs to 10 teams by 2013. |
The five-year deal collective bargaining agreement announced Tuesday, makes changes owners hope will increase competitive balance by pressuring large-market teams to rein in spending on amateur draft picks and international signings. |
At a time when the NBA season is threatened by a lockout and NFL preseason was disrupted by labor strife, it ensures baseball will have 21 consecutive years of labor peace since the end of the 1994-95 strike. |
“Nobody back in the ’70s, ’80s and early ’90s, 1994, would ever believe that we would have 21 years of labor peace,” baseball commissioner Bud Selig said. |
The deal, which still must be ratified by the players and owners, is the first contract since Michael Weiner replaced Donald Fehr as union leader last year. |
Baseball became the first of the major North American professional leagues to agree to blood testing for HGH. An initial positive test for HGH would result in a 50-game suspension, the same as a first positive urine test for a performance-enhancing substance. |
Testing for HGH will take place during spring training and the offseason, but there is no agreement yet on testing in-season. |
The sides will explore in-season testing, but the union wants to make sure it’s done in a way that doesn’t interfere with players’ health and safety. |
As for the playoffs, there will be an additional two teams starting in 2012 or 2013 that will give baseball 10 of 30 clubs in the postseason. In the NFL, 12 of 32 teams make the playoffs. In the NBA and NHL, 16 of 30 advance. |
The two wild cards in each league – the non-first place teams with the best records – will meet in a one-game playoff, and the winners will move on to the division series. |
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