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Even though the Iowa Association of School Boards is privately run, millions of tax payer dollars fund it. 2 years ago the organization was accused of misusing that money, and now there's proof.
“A lot of transactions were taking place, loans transfers and those types of things. without really documented discussion or approval through the board minutes and stuff so a lot of oversight was lacking,” said Iowa State Auditor Dave Vaudt.
In addition to lack of oversight, the IASB board was criticized for investing in commodities, even after the attorney general's office warned, in writing, it might be illegal.
The audit states, “these investments and transactions not only put public funds at risk of loss, but also resulted in losses..." It was a loss of more than $1,000,000.
“Regretfully we find that many a times boards become comfortable with the management team and sometimes forget they have that fiduciary responsibility back to the tax payers and others to make sure the money spent appropriately,” said Vaudt.
The audit also found some IASB employees worked as independent contractors for IASB, making thousands in excess of their salaries.
Those now in charge say it is all in past.
“Our board now meets monthly, we have an executive committee that looks at all finances and all spending. We`ve established a protocol in administrative rules and regulations around approval of funds,” said Tom Downs, the Executive Director of IASB.
Tom Downs said with the new practices include more scrutiny and transparency.
“We`ve moved much further forward as an organization serving kids through school boards. I am very pleased that membership meaning the school districts throughout the state are encouraging as we move forward providing support for them.
“Yes I think the lessons were learned. Obviously there were mistakes that can`t be changed, however they have really taken the approach of being positive towards our suggestions and recommendations,” said Vaudt.
South Carolina prosecutors seek Dylann Roof death penalty for church shooting.
State prosecutors will seek the death penalty when Dylann Roof goes to trial for the racially-motivated shooting of nine people in a historically black church in Charleston, South Carolina in June, according to a court filing Thursday. Roof has been charged with nine counts of murder and three of attempted murder.
“Mr. Roof has been indicted twice for the killings, in state court and in federal court, and each of those cases carries a possible death sentence,” the New York Times notes. “The documents said state prosecutors would pursue the death penalty because more than two people were killed, and that others’ lives were put at risk.” The Justice Department has not yet decided on whether it will seek the death penalty for the alleged hate crimes.
Prosecutor Scarlett Wilson said she conferred with the victims’ families before making the determination to seek the death penalty. Some relatives of the parishioners and ministers killed by Roof had expressed forgiveness in the immediate aftermath of the shooting, despite the 21-year-old’s racist, white-supremacist motivations. Wilson said some of the family members opposed the death penalty for religious reasons.
Heaven and Hell" picks up the saga of the Hazard and Main families after the Civil War. United through the friendship of George Hazard and Orry Main, bound together by the vendetta sworn against them by Elkanah Bent, the families' fates remain intertwined despite their fighting on opposite sides during the war. But without the dramatic backdrop of the war, the story lacks scope, and the six-hour, three-night length is too much.
Cast: Philip Casnoff, Kyle Chandler, Cathy Lee Crosby, Lesley-Anne Down, Jonathan Frakes, Genie Francis, Terri Garber, Steve Harris, Mariette Hartley, Rya Kihlstedt, Tom Noonan, James Read, Stan Shaw, Rip Torn, Robert Wagner, Billy Dee Williams, Cliff De Young, Peter O'Toole, Gary Grubbs, KeithSzarabajka, Chris Burke, Deborah Rush, Gregory Zaragoza, Sharon Washington, Ann Dowd, Darryl Theirse, Ron Frasier, Jerry Biggs, Blue Deckart, Richard Folmer, Tony Frank, Gil Glason, Jennifer Griffin, Lushiea Sudon Lenaburg, Bruce MacVittie, Randy Moore, Brandon Smith, Tom Christopher, Rutherford Cravens, Clay Boss, Merrill Connally, Jerry Cotton, Darryl Cox, Vince Davis, Ron Douglas, Cameron Finley, Tony Frank, George Haynes, Richard Jones, Nik Hagler, Sean Hennigan, Len Hunt, James Jernigan, Brad Leland, Elbert Lewis, Marcus Mauldin, Mary Ekizabeth McCae, Paul McCrane, Randy Moore, Maurice Scott, Lonnie Nelson, Rudy Nelda Perez, Jimmy Pickens, Frank Pesce, Jeff Schwan, Julius Tennon, Ted Thin Elk, Catherine Thomas , Mark Voges, Moses Starr, Mark Walters, Woody Watson, Stephanie Wing.
Heaven and Hell” picks up the saga of the Hazard and Main families after the Civil War. United through the friendship of George Hazard and Orry Main, bound together by the vendetta sworn against them by Elkanah Bent, the families’ fates remain intertwined despite their fighting on opposite sides during the war. But without the dramatic backdrop of the war, the story lacks scope, and the six-hour, three-night length is too much.
Length could have been kept to a more appropriate four hours by reducing the numerous subplots and getting rid of virtually superfluous characters, such as hero George’s ruthless sister, Ashton (Terri Garber). It seems that the plethora of plots and characters is to add breadth; depth would have been a better choice.
There are some nice touches, such as introducing the various locales with sepia-toned period snapshots before abruptly returning to color and action.
The production does a good job of filling viewers in on what happened in the previous two parts of this saga. Wolper/ABC production values are high, in some cases maybe too much so: The poverty-stricken Southerners dress and live awfully well immediately following the war.
Same cannot be said for everyone involved in the production. Garber’s road-show Scarlett O’Hara turn is an embarrassment.
Two standout portrayals are Philip Casnoff’s demented Elkanah Bent and Stan Shaw’s Isaac, a former slave whose freedom is short-lived but fiercely loved and protected. Billy Dee Williams has a cameo; it’s too bad the ever-charismatic Williams wasn’t used more. Peter O’Toole as a louche actor bringing Shakespeare to the masses is a delight.
Major characters are all fine. The stage is set for further sequels, thanks to the love that has sprung up between Madeline Main (a luminous Lesley Anne-Down) and George Hazard (James Read) after the deaths of their respective spouses. Sequels, it’s hoped, will be kept to shorter lengths, or punched up.
Production: Filmed in Los Angeles and Joshua Creek Ranch, Texas, by the Wolper Organization for ABC Prods. Executive producers, David L. Wolper, Mark M. Wolper; producer, Hal Galli; director, Larry Peerce; writer, Suzanne Clauser; based on the book by John Jakes.
Crew: Camera, Don E. Faunterloy; editor, Paul LaMastra; production designer, Rodger Maus; sound, G. Michael Graham, William Carruth; music, David Bell.
Cast: Cast: Philip Casnoff, Kyle Chandler, Cathy Lee Crosby, Lesley-Anne Down, Jonathan Frakes, Genie Francis, Terri Garber, Steve Harris, Mariette Hartley, Rya Kihlstedt, Tom Noonan, James Read, Stan Shaw, Rip Torn, Robert Wagner, Billy Dee Williams, Cliff De Young, Peter O'Toole, Gary Grubbs, KeithSzarabajka, Chris Burke, Deborah Rush, Gregory Zaragoza, Sharon Washington, Ann Dowd, Darryl Theirse, Ron Frasier, Jerry Biggs, Blue Deckart, Richard Folmer, Tony Frank, Gil Glason, Jennifer Griffin, Lushiea Sudon Lenaburg, Bruce MacVittie, Randy Moore, Brandon Smith, Tom Christopher, Rutherford Cravens, Clay Boss, Merrill Connally, Jerry Cotton, Darryl Cox, Vince Davis, Ron Douglas, Cameron Finley, Tony Frank, George Haynes, Richard Jones, Nik Hagler, Sean Hennigan, Len Hunt, James Jernigan, Brad Leland, Elbert Lewis, Marcus Mauldin, Mary Ekizabeth McCae, Paul McCrane, Randy Moore, Maurice Scott, Lonnie Nelson, Rudy Nelda Perez, Jimmy Pickens, Frank Pesce, Jeff Schwan, Julius Tennon, Ted Thin Elk, Catherine Thomas , Mark Voges, Moses Starr, Mark Walters, Woody Watson, Stephanie Wing.
The Austin Poetry Slam national team — which will compete in the 2018 National Poetry Slam in Chicago from Aug. 13 until Aug. 18 against more than 70 other teams — filled its five remaining spots at APS’s grand slam finale, held at the Paramount stateside theatre last Saturday.
The Sustainability Showdown is back after a three-year hiatus. On April 19 at KLRU studio, twelve professors from different colleges are competing to win a first-prize $2,000 scholarship and a second-prize $1,000 scholarship for their colleges. Each professor has five minutes to answer one question: Why is your discipline integral to our sustainable future? After all faculty have spoken, the audience will vote to determine the winner.
East Austin Succulents is an eccentric shop located about three miles from campus on Tillery Street. The small space the store inhabits represents the epitome of Austin with many unique signs and other colorful outdoor decorations on display. Countless exotic cacti and succulent plants are packed onto tables and overflow onto the ground creating an endless sea of rare plants and products everywhere you look.
Read "The Eulogist," a short story by The Daily Texan's Andrea Tinning.
The Daily Texan participated in a roundtable interview with John Krasinski alongside 15 journalists from different universities.
Everyone knows what a crepe is, but co-owners of French Tex Cuisine, Frederic Jagu and Lala Elliott, are changing the game with the French taco at their food trailer in south Austin.
Austin Central Library has a new book club hosted by Maggie Bond and Julue Brown, two crime-loving librarians.
The 40 Acres boasts over 1,300 student organizations. But for nontraditional students at UT, the options are surprisingly limited.
Black Voices is a program created a year ago by UT psychologist Dr. Kimberly Burdine designed to give black students a space to express their views.
Ron Campbell spoke with the Texan in preview of an exhibition of his art Feb. 23-25 in Austin, where he will be demonstrating his skills and selling his work to benefit charity.
Cyber Monday deals at hotels can mean discounts of more than 50 percent on average daily rates.
Cyber Monday deals are continuing to roll out in the travel industry today and through the end of Monday.
A number of hotels throughout the country are throwing out sales that can mean discounts of more than 50 percent on average daily rates.
The historic HOTEL DU PONT in Wilmington, Delaware, is offering up to 50 percent off regular rates and a dozen of their signature macaroons for free during guests’ stays. The deal is bookable until Nov. 30 for stays from Nov. 24 through March 31 and July 1 through July 5. Info: hoteldupont.com.
Isla Bella Beach Resort will open in Knights Key in the Florida Keys on April 1. Starting at 7 a.m. on Nov. 26, 77 rooms will go on sale for $77. It is the first new hotel built in the Florida Keys since Hurricane Irma impacted the destination near the iconic Seven Mile Bridge. Once the 77 rooms are booked, an additional 77 rooms will be offered for $207. Both cyber specials will be offered exclusively via phone at 855-502-2875 on a first-come, first-served basis. A stay of three or more nights to get one free night with a $77 resort credit can also be booked online from Nov. 26 through Dec. 2 for stays through Dec. 22 using the code CYBER when booking.
The Hotel Clermont in Atlanta will offer 20 percent off 2019 room reservations beginning on Cyber Monday for 48 hours. Travelers have to sign up for Hotel Clermont’s e-newsletter at hotelclermont.com for access to the deal. From Dec. 3 through Jan. 21, they can book a three-or-more-night stay for travel through the month of January and receive a fourth night free. They will also have the option to gift the free night to a friend.
You can take a ride in a JUCY RV rental for up 50 percent off. The deal runs through Cyber Monday. JUCY will also throw in kitchen kits, bedding kits and 100 free miles per night free of charge. That amounts to a savings of more than 75 percent. The offer is available at all four of the camper van’s pick-up locations: Los Angeles, Las Vegas, San Francisco and Vancouver. To book, enter the promotional code JUCYBLACK at checkout at jucyusa.com. Travel must occur in January, February or March.
I’ve spent the last week on a fundraising cruise for National Review. We dropped by the Cayman Islands, Grand Turk, and Cozumel. (I gather there are harder jobs.) There were 800-some people listening to seminars, meeting one another, and sharing gratitude for people and principles they hold dear.
We also passed by Cuba. Usually a late riser, our Cuban-exile cruiser says he was given “a gift from God” when he found himself awake, only to look out and see the country he fled as a youth. A flood of memories came back — and a dream that a future cruise might bring him home. He was seeing his homeland for the first time in 51 years.
He was so grateful. More than bitterness or sadness, he felt gratitude.
– all the more so because it happened so peacefully.
And there’s more. There is gratitude for people who highlight and battle for good things — in life and politics — those who fight for truth, justice, human dignity, fiscal sanity, and sustainability when manipulation is so overwhelming.
There is gratitude for those who have been true trailblazers. Liberal feminists are forever honoring their heroines’ victories in the face of supposed oppression. But one woman who was among the first to graduate from Harvard is missing from their list of honorees. The Senate had passed the Equal Rights Amendment 84 to 8. The House had passed it 354 to 23. Thirty states had approved it the first year it was up for ratification, and only eight more states were needed. The ERA was going to be the next constitutional amendment.
Except it wouldn’t be. Because Phyllis Schlafly stopped it.
She was a Mama Grizzly long before John McCain picked Sarah Palin as his running mate. I’m not sure that grizzly bears are all that comfortable in St. Louis, where she was born. But comfortable is one thing that Schlafly definitely is: comfortable that she is known for stopping the ERA, comfortable that she fought feminists on their turf — with class. She’s a lady, and when she saw threats to marriage and family being pushed by the ERA and its proponents, she would have none of it.
We have a lot to thank her for — including being a lady who modeled fearlessness in politics, even while being attacked as a self-hating woman who deserved to be burned at the stake.
I often find myself debating feminists, arguing about feminism and how it has made the world worse. I’m frequently told that I am an ungrateful, um, witch (except now that’s actually the word they use). That I have Gloria Steinem to thank for the fact that I’m even allowed to have an opinion, never mind get paid for having them. Well, I am grateful for Schlafly, a woman who has succeeded in politics and debate without walking away from faith, family, or femininity.
Other people I’ve been talking to are grateful that they have a constitutional system worth protecting — and people who are willing to say it is worth protecting.
And there is gratitude for enduring institutions. Even as Nancy Pelosi was thanking God for the liberal religious sisters who bucked up her dangerous health-care legislation, the Catholic bishops’ conference showed it understands that this is no time for business as usual in the church bureaucracy. Breaking with tradition and seniority, they passed over the next in line and went with a leader who has helped train and inspire an orthodox, faithful army of young priests who are willing to take on the lies of a culture of death. Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York, based on Fifth Avenue, now has a second leadership base in our nation’s capital as president of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. I’m certainly grateful for that.
On this fundraising cruise, I have seen true gratitude for these things and so much more. Although we held panels and had book signings and were all about politics, it was impossible not to notice that people cared about much more than that. Children were front and center. There was a gratitude for life, and an appreciation that politics is not an end in itself. The celebration over the midterm elections was supremely moderate in that way.
And on the Cayman Islands, when I stopped by a perpetual-adoration chapel at St. Ignatius Catholic Church, I was grateful to be reminded that whatever is going on, someone, somewhere is on his knees in prayer. Men in the middle of their work day, students dropping by for a word, young women between meetings. Even on a random Thursday afternoon, they were there. The Thursday before the holiday Americans dedicate to gratitude. If you need any inspiration on that day, think of a Cuban exile on a cruise ship, snapping photos, seeing old memories flash before him, with only gratitude. And hope that the freedom he enjoys in the United States may someday reach there.
Have a happy Thanksgiving this week. And every day.
— Kathryn Jean Lopez is editor-at-large of National Review Online. She can be reached at klopez@nationalreview.com. This column is available exclusively through United Media. For permission to reprint or excerpt this copyrighted material, please contact Carmen Puello.
SALT LAKE CITY — A woman convicted of helping a former street preacher kidnap Elizabeth Smart as a teenager in 2002 from her Salt Lake City bedroom and hold her captive will be freed from prison in a surprise move announced Tuesday by state authorities.
Smart, now 30, didn’t immediately have comment on the pending release.
At the June hearing, her attorney questioned the calculation of her release date, which led the Utah board to look into it. Lawyer Scott Williams said Tuesday he’s appreciative the board reviewed it and agreed with his assessment.
Williams said he’s not concerned about Barzee being a danger to the community, but declined to say why he believes that.
She said the manuscript also contains other "disturbing and dangerous ideas." She didn’t say how she knows Barzee has the book.
Smart’s abduction from her bedroom at knifepoint by a man who came in through an open kitchen window triggered waves of fear among parents around the country.
Cut the foie gras into slices about half an inch thick or slightly larger. Cut the slices into half-inch or slightly larger cubes. Dip one side of each cube into the chopped truffles and set aside.
Use the won-ton skins to make ravioli. Begin by laying the skins on a flat surface and, using a pastry brush, brush around the inside perimeter of each skin with water, making a 1-inch brushed margin. Place one piece of foie gras in the center of each won-ton skin. Fold over one corner of the won ton to meet its opposite corner, and enclose the foie gras. Press all around with the fingers to seal. Use a biscuit cutter to press around the filled won-ton skin to make a neat moon shape.
Bring the broth to a simmer in a saucepan, and add the ravioli. When the liquid returns to a simmer, let the ravioli cook 1 minute. Remove the ravioli carefully with a slotted spoon. Put 5 ravioli in each of 4 heated soup plates. Spoon equal amounts of the broth over each serving, and sprinkle each serving with an equal amount of the shaved truffle. Serve immediately.
Cooked fresh foie gras is available at many food specialty shops in Manhattan, including Petrossian, 182 West 58th Street; Balducci's, 424 Avenue of the Americas, at Ninth Street, and Grace's Market Place, 1237 Third Avenue, at 71st Street. It is also available by mail from d'Artagnan, 399-419 St. Paul Avenue, Jersey City, N.J. 07306.
Featured in: Enter A New French Superchef.
– Jerry Lawler and Rikishi added some gold to their resumes following a match at Saturday night’s Memphis Grizzlies NBA game. The two teamed up to face Scott Steiner and Buff Bagwell for the Grind City Tag Team Championships at the NBA game, with Lawler and Rikishi winning to become the new champions. You can see video of the end of the match below, which saw Lawler duck an attempt by Bagwell to hit him with a foreign object. Bagwell hit Steiner instead, allowing Lawler to get the win.
Also below is video of the two coming out and dancing witth the Grizzlies’ “Grizz Girls” to Too Cool’s theme music. Lawler wore a Grandmaster Sexay vest in honor of his son, the late Brian Lawler.
The decision by the British government to give Nazanin Zaghari-Ratcliffe formal diplomatic protection marks a significant escalation in the UK's campaign to secure the release of the British-Iranian dual national who is detained in Tehran.
It is an extremely rare diplomatic and legal move that signals the UK is no longer treating the case as a consular matter but a formal, legal dispute between Britain and Iran.
It means that the government believes Iran's treatment of Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe - her lack of access to due process and medical treatment - has failed to meet international standards.
As such, she should be given the formal protection of the British state.
So when British diplomats raise her case with Iranian counterparts in the future, they will no longer be representing just the interests of a UK citizen but also those of the British state.
This theoretically opens up the possibility of Britain taking some kind of international legal action against Iran.
This could range from requesting inquiries, demanding negotiations, even suing for compensation for an "internationally wrongful act".
But Foreign Office sources indicated they were unlikely to go down this route. Few diplomats want the case snarled up in the International Court of Justice for many years.
Instead, the assertion of diplomatic protection will give the UK new ways of raising the case of Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe in international forums like the United Nations.
Most countries prefer to avoid getting involved in bilateral rows about complicated consular cases.
But now this has been elevated to a formal state-to-state dispute, Britain can look for allies on the international stage to put collective pressure on Tehran.
It is not the same as the diplomatic immunity given to envoys and diplomats to ensure their safe passage and protection from prosecution in a foreign land.
And the mechanism cannot be used to force Iran to do anything.
Foreign Secretary Jeremy Hunt said that diplomatic protection "is unlikely to be a magic wand that leads to an overnight result".
But he said it showed the whole world that "Nazanin is innocent and the UK will not stand by when one of its citizens is treated so unjustly".
Officials say Iran does not like being put under international pressure. And there is always a risk that this plunges relations between Tehran and London into the deep freeze.
This is one reason why the British government has, until now, been reluctant to play the diplomatic protection card, fearing that it might make things worse.
But diplomats say that the lack of any progress and the refusal of Iran even to give Mrs Zaghari-Ratcliffe the proper medical treatment she needs has left them with little choice but to escalate.
They say Iran will not be surprised by the British move. The question is whether it will respond positively to the pressure or step up the confrontation.
Vampires and werewolves form opposing cliques in the season's supernatural heavyweight, "The Twilight Saga: New Moon," with Kristen Stewart and Rob Pattinson back for the second chapter of Stephenie Meyer's vamp-schoolgirl romance.
Hollywood might be telling its own life story this fall, presenting a lineup of liars, phonies, smooth talkers, bloodsuckers and greedy old men.
Granted, there are heroes in the mix, including Robert Downey Jr. as the great detective in "Sherlock Holmes" and Morgan Freeman as Nelson Mandela in Clint Eastwood's post-apartheid drama "Invictus."
Beloved literature and storybook adventures come to the screen with Maurice Sendak's children's classic "Where the Wild Things Are," Disney's animated fairy tale "The Princess and the Frog" and "Lord of the Rings" filmmaker Peter Jackson's adaptation of modern favorite "The Lovely Bones."
And audiences will be reunited with absent friends, among them director James Cameron on the sci-fi epic "Avatar," his first narrative film since "Titanic," and Woody, Buzz Lightyear and their plaything pals as 3-D versions of "Toy Story" and "Toy Story 2" hit theaters.
Still, rascals, rogues, beasts and baddies abound. Vampires and werewolves form opposing cliques in the season's supernatural heavyweight, "The Twilight Saga: New Moon," with Kristen Stewart and Rob Pattinson back for the second chapter of Stephenie Meyer's vamp-schoolgirl romance.
The vampire-werewolf feud makes for a nice exploration of our own psyches, said "New Moon" director Chris Weitz.
"I suppose they're the two most relatable human monsters that we can think of. They nicely encapsulate restraint and passion," Weitz said. "Vampires are cold-blooded, literally, and werewolves are hot-blooded."