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The study, "Evaluation of the Implementation of Illinois Learning Standards, Year Four Report," can be viewed at www.isbe.net, under "Hot News."
How much time do West Virginia students spend on school buses? The state is starting a program to find out.
The state board of education asked the state schools superintendent to launch the program. The move was prompted by statewide enrollment declines, which in turn have led more districts to consider school district consolidations. Such changes usually mean new transportation patterns— including longer bus rides.
Data gathered through the project will be used to determine how much time students already spend on buses in existing districts and in consolidated districts.
"There is concern about the time the students spend on buses," said Wayne Clutter, the state education department's transportation director. "We are going to require local districts to submit the information on whether they exceed our guidelines."
State guidelines recommend maximum one-way-trip times for school bus rides. For elementary school pupils, it is 30 minutes. For middle school, it's 45 minutes, and for high school the amount of time is 60 minutes.
"Now is a good time to do this," Mr. Clutter added.
Company Drops Suit Against Georgia Dept.
A Dover, N.H.-based testing company has dropped its lawsuit against the Georgia Department of Education, after the department agreed to pay the $2.2 million it owed the company.
Department officials were withholding the money from Advanced Systems in Measurement and Evaluation/Measured Progress, which developed the state's Criterion-Referenced Competency Tests, because they said the company did not provide a Web-based version of the test with sample questions and a database of future questions...
In the next few weeks, school districts will receive student test scores from tests taken in the spring, which could have been held up indefinitely by litigation. The results include those in mathematics, reading, and English in grades 1, 2, 3, 5, and 7, and science and social studies in grades 3-8. The math, reading, ...
This is the last year, however, that the company will be handling the test contract in Georgia. Beginning this month, Riverside Publishing of Itasca, Ill., will begin a 61/2-year contract with the state worth $83.7 million.
"Next year, the results will be there before school starts," said Sarah Abbott, a department spokeswoman.
The complication with the CRCT results is the latest in a series of problems Georgia has had with its testing companies. For the past two years, the state's Stanford Achievement Test-9th Edition scores, which are scored by Harcourt Educational Measurement, were returned with errors, and this year they were thrown out c...
Education leaders who want to know how their states stack up against other states in school spending, dropout rates, number of high school students who drink alcohol, and a host of other areas have a new resource.
The Morgan Quitno Press in Lawrence, Kan., which has published resource books on state health- care and crime rankings, has expanded into education with its new book, Education State Rankings 2002-2003.
Using data from federal and state agencies, as well as education interest groups, the book features more than 400 tables state comparisons and rankings. Among the topics of comparisons are per-pupil expenditures, test scores, and safety and discipline.
Information on purchasing the 448-page book or a CD-Rom can be obtained by calling (800) 457-0742.
KINGSPORT — Marsh Regional Blood Center has awarded scholarship funds totaling $20,000 for the 2018 scholarship year.
Recipients of scholarships of the center, a division of Ballad Health, are chosen through various programs. Large, medium and small high schools compete for the highest collection numbers throughout the year in order to earn scholarships. Also, individual students can earn scholarships by participating in the “Save the...
SHIP BOTTOM, N.J. (AP) � Tens of thousands of residents were ordered to evacuate coastal areas Sunday as big cities and small towns across the eastern U.S. buttoned up against the onslaught of a superstorm threatening some 50 million people in the most heavily populated corridor in the nation.
"The time for preparing and talking is about over," Federal Emergency Management Administrator Craig Fugate warned as a monster Hurricane Sandy headed up the Eastern Seaboard on a collision course with two other weather systems. "People need to be acting now."
New York City and Philadelphia both announced that mass transit systems would close. New York Mayor Michael Bloomberg also ordered the evacuation of part of lower Manhattan and other low-lying neighborhoods.
"If you don't evacuate, you are not only endangering your life, you are also endangering the lives of the first responders who are going in to rescue you," he said. "This is a serious and dangerous storm."
Tens of thousands of people along the coast in Delaware, New Jersey, Connecticut and other threatened areas were also under orders to clear out because of the danger of as much as a foot of rain, punishing winds of 80 mph or higher and a potentially deadly wall of water 4 to 11 feet high. Communities opened shelter acr...
Sandy was headed north from the Caribbean, where it left nearly five dozen people dead, and was expected to hook left toward the mid-Atlantic coast and come ashore late Monday or early Tuesday, most likely in New Jersey, colliding with a wintry storm moving in from the west and cold air streaming down from the Arctic.
Forecasters warned that the resulting megastorm could wreak havoc over 800 miles from the East Coast to the Great Lakes. Parts of West Virginia, Virginia, Kentucky and North Carolina could get snow � 2 feet or more in places.
Witlet Maceno, an emergency room nurse working at New York City's Mount Sinai Hospital, was headed home to Staten Island on Sunday morning after his overnight shift. He said he was going home to check on his parents, visiting from Atlanta, before he returned to work Sunday evening.
"I'm making sure they're OK, that they have water and food, and that the windows are shut tight," he said. "And I'm going to remove stuff outside that could go flying into the windows" of his street-level apartment.
The danger was hardly limited to coastal areas, with forecasters worried about inland flooding. They also warned that the rain could saturate the ground, causing trees to topple onto power lines and cause blackouts that could last for several days.
States of emergency were declared from North Carolina, where gusty winds whipped steady rain on Sunday morning, to Connecticut. Delaware ordered 50,000 people in coastal communities to clear out by 8 p.m. Sunday.
Officials in New York City were particularly worried about the possibility of subway flooding. The city closed the subways before Hurricane Irene last year, and a Columbia University study predicted that an Irene surge just 1 foot higher would have paralyzed lower Manhattan.
However, the New York Stock Exchange planned to open for trading as usual Monday, despite fears that flooding would damage the underground electrical network that is so vital to the nation's financial center.
Sandy was at Category 1 strength, packing 75 mph winds, about 270 miles southeast of Cape Hatteras, N.C., and moving northeast at 14 mph as of 2 p.m. Sunday, according to the National Hurricane Center in Miami. It was about 575 miles south of New York City. But the storm was so big that forecasters could not say with a...
Bobbie Foote said she would heed an evacuation order Sunday for south Wilmington, Del., and would take shelter at her daughter's home in nearby Newark.
"My daughter insists that I leave this time," said Foote, a 58-year-old fitness coach. It will be the first time she has fled a storm threatening the apartment building that has been her home for at least 40 years in the working-class neighborhood near the Delaware River.
Foote said she stayed last year when flooding from the remnants of Hurricane Irene blocked streets at either end of the neighborhood. She said her daughter wouldn't stand for her getting trapped that way again. "She said I should never put myself in that predicament where I cannot get in or out of where I live," Foote ...
Amtrak began canceling train service Saturday night to parts of the East Coast and planned to suspend nearly all service in the Northeast by Monday night. Airlines started moving planes out of airports to avoid damage and added Sunday flights out of New York and Washington in preparation for flight cancellations on Mon...
The Virginia National Guard was authorized to call up to 500 troops for debris removal and road-clearing, while homeowners stacked sandbags at their front doors in coastal towns.
In Arlington, just outside Washington, D.C., a few shoppers strolled in and out of a supermarket. Cathy Davis said the supermarket was sold out of the water she wanted to purchase, but she wasn't doing much else to prepare. She figured she would bring her outdoor furniture inside later in the day, and might make some c...
She said the storm did lead her to decide against decorating for Halloween.
"I was like, 'Eh, it will just be blown away anyway,'" she said. "What's the point?"
President Barack Obama was monitoring the storm and working with state and locals governments to make sure they get the resources needed to prepare, administration officials said.
In New Jersey, hundreds of coastal residents started moving inland.
Gov. Chris Christie's emergency declaration will force the shutdown of Atlantic City's 12 casinos for only the fourth time in the 34-year history of legalized gambling here. City officials said they would begin evacuating the gambling hub's 30,000 residents at noon Sunday, busing them to mainland shelters and schools.
The storm also forced the presidential campaign to juggle schedules. Mitt Romney scrapped plans to campaign Sunday in Virginia and switched his schedule for the day to Ohio. First lady Michelle Obama canceled an appearance in New Hampshire for Tuesday, and Obama moved a Monday departure for Florida to Sunday night to b...
Breed reported from Raleigh, N.C. Contributing to this report were AP Science Writer Seth Borenstein in Washington; Emery Dalesio in Nags Head, N.C.; Verena Dobnik, Karen Matthews and Samantha Bomkamp in New York; Randall Chase in Lewes, Del.; Dave Dishneau in Wilmington, Del.; Jessica Gresko in Arlington, Va.; and Nan...
The time is right for higher-quality companies to start leading the stock market rally, according to Steven Pollack, manager of the Robeco Boston Partners Mid Cap Value Fund (BPMIX). “Low-quality companies got very cheap a year ago,” he said. “But at this point, higher-quality names should start to benefit, and that wo...
“Our general focus on quality really paid off,” said Mr. Pollack, who manages a total of $200 million in the mid-cap-value strategy for the Boston Partners unit of Robeco Investment Management.
Robeco has $10 billion in total assets under management.
At this point, Mr. Pollack is positioning the portfolio to take advantage of a continuing economic recovery.
He declined to discuss specific stock holdings but said that he has been allocating assets to employee-staffing businesses since the middle of last year.
“It's still the early innings, but the story there is that these kinds of companies would see a pickup in business as the economy picks up,” Mr. Pollack said.
Another area he likes is grocery store chains.
Grocery store company stocks have been hurt by food price deflation and a recent price war, Mr. Pollack said, but he expects them to do well as consumers start spending more money over the next several months.
It's nothing new for tourist boards to enlist the help of celebrities to promote their product to a worldwide audience, but rarely are they of the puppet variety.
Tourism officials for New York City have employed the services of an altogether different breed of stars - the Muppets - in a bid to encourage more families to explore the Big Apple.
New York's mayor, Michael R Bloomberg, was joined by Kermit the Frog, Miss Piggy, Gonzo the Great and Pepe the King Prawn, to make the announcement that the characters and their friends would be its new 'family ambassadors'.
The year-long collaboration will help the city hit its goal of attracting 55 million visitors annually by 2015, he said.
New York City attracted 50.5 million visitors last year.
'For more than 40 years, Kermit, Miss Piggy, Gonzo and their friends have been enormously popular and engaging icons of the big screen and small screen,' added George Fertitta, CEO of NYC & Company.
The Muppets, created by Jim Henson, will be suggesting family-friendly activities and discussing their favourite things to do in the city on the tourism website www.nyc.gov.
Miss Piggy, perhaps predictably, talks about shopping while Kermit looks at itinieraries. Gonzo discusses local attractions and Pepe covers sightseeing.
Tourists will also be able to take advantage of exclusive offers and savings on the site.
'I’ve loved New York ever since I arrived in its harbour and saw that the Statue of Liberty is green. What a welcome!' said Kermit.
Villa, an outspoken Trump supporter, has become known for using her Grammy looks to make pointed statements. Two years ago, she caused a stir when she donned a striking red, white and blue mermaid gown with Trump’s campaign slogan written in enormous glittery letters down the front. “Trump” was also spelled out in glit...
If Joy Villa had more singing talent then she wouldn’t need attention each year but posing in racist dresses.
Allinger-Nelson, the designer, did not respond to a request for comment Sunday night, but shared a “disclaimer” on Instagram about working with Villa.
Despite championing the president in recent years, Villa, who was raised conservative, told the Hollywood Reporter that she wasn’t always a fan of Trump.
“When Trump came in the picture, at first I hated him,” said Villa, who attended high school in Santa Barbara and now splits her time between West Hollywood and New York, according to THR. But as she did more research on Trump, Villa said her opinion of him began to change.
“I was a secret Trumper for months,” she said, before publicly displaying her support at music’s biggest night with the “Make America Great Again” dress in 2017. Since then, Villa has not been shy about expressing her political beliefs, even debuting a rock-country song titled “Make America Great Again!” The track appe...
While some critics seemed certain that Villa’s bold statement would be the end of her career, Sunday’s outfit appeared to have the opposite effect.
Early Monday morning, Villa tweeted that her “Home Sweet Home” album was “climbing” on Amazon Music’s Top 100 paid albums chart, noting that it was at No. 79. Hours later, the album had moved up to No. 46. After her 2017 Grammys stunt, Villa’s music also shot to the top of the charts. In March 2017, less than a month a...
The mother of a jailed former lieutenant was on “Hannity” tonight to discuss her son’s case.
Former 1st Lt. Clint Lorance is in jail for murder after he ordered his platoon to shoot three Afghan men who approached on motorcycles at a higher-than-usual speed. Two of the men were killed, and the third ran.
Military prosecutors say that Lorance violated the rules of engagement, but defense attorneys say he was just trying to defend his men and didn’t even fire a weapon.
Lorance’s verdict was upheld earlier this month, but his 20-year sentence was reduced by one year. A petition for a presidential pardon has reached the 100,000 signatures needed for a White House response.
Anna Lorance told Sean Hannity that her son was leading a platoon in a Taliban-heavy area, where many soldiers had been shot in recent weeks.
“I do feel that if he had not made that call that he made and gave permission to fire, I feel that my son today would be called a hero killed in action,” she said.
Retired U.S. Army Ranger Sean Parnell also weighed in, telling Hannity that this case haunts him because it could have been him.
Hannity urged his viewers to add their names to the petition.
After decades of heavy and cumbersome suits, astronauts are getting an upgrade.
No one ever donned a space suit because it was comfy. Quite the opposite–space suits can be terribly uncomfortable because of the layers and layers of material and technological systems that protect astronauts from the cold vacuum of space and the pressure of ascent and descent through the atmosphere. But as both NASA ...
In 2014, NASA contracted Boeing to build a new spacecraft to ferry astronauts to the International Space Station. The Starliner, which replaces the retired space shuttle, will begin launching in 2018, carrying between four and seven astronauts into space. With the new spacecraft comes a new space suit: it has taken the...
The new suit isn’t just safe–it’s likely the most comfortable ever designed.
That’s due to a variety of factors. Because this space suit is specifically meant for the short space flight between Earth and the International Space Station (a couple of days maximum), it doesn’t have to protect astronauts from the biting vacuum of open space. Instead, it’s designed as a fail-safe in case the spacecr...
In general, a space suit can either be stiff enough to operate at higher pressures (but inhibiting to an astronaut trying to perform tasks) or more comfortable (but less protective). According to Justin Kerr, the spacecraft manager for NASA’s commercial crew program who has worked at the agency for 25 years this month,...
The boots almost look like running shoes, which makes sense: They were developed alongside Reebok.
In order to find that balance, the new Starliner suit features lighter, more flexible fabrics–it only weighs 20 pounds, about 10 pounds lighter than its space shuttle equivalent–and zipper systems at the waist to make sitting and standing more comfortable. Previous suits used metal rings at the joint areas in order to ...
Even the boots are a far cry from the clunky, lace-up boots of previous space suits. They’re much easier to put on and almost look like running shoes, which makes sense, since they were developed in partnership with Reebok. The gloves are 21st-century appropriate: They’re compatible with tablet touch screens, which fea...
It takes between 10 to 15 minutes for an astronaut to don one of the suits, which is fast compared to the heavier, more cumbersome suits of the past, Kerr claims. This speed isn’t just for convenience–it’s practical, because the suits need to be put on quickly in case of an emergency in-flight.
The suit is composed of two main layers. The inner layer is made of Gore-Tex fabric, which allows water vapor through but keeps air out, acting almost like a balloon. The outer layer is made of super strong Nomex material, which is lightweight and fire retardant–it’s the same stuff used in firefighters’ uniforms.
“There’s a lot of science and engineering in it, but there’s a bit of art in it,” says Kerr. The stitching on the suit and the layering of fabric is somewhat of an art, he explains. You can’t engineer with fabric the way you can with metal, so only testing can reveal whether the suit will withstand the necessary pressu...
With NASA and SpaceX’s eyes turned toward Mars, innovation in space suit design and other aspects of astronaut comfort will be a necessary part of getting there. Kerr believes that the Starliner suit is a step in the right direction. “This suit isn’t designed for Mars, but features in there are taking steps [forward],”...
While the Starliner suit isn’t meant for Mars, perhaps it’s the grandfather to the one that will walk there one day.
A detective told the grand jury the 20-year-old called himself an "idiot" before confessing to the murders of four people in Northern Nevada.
A detective says a Salvadoran immigrant charged with four Nevada murders told police he robbed and killed his elderly victims during a 10-day rampage in January because he needed money to buy methamphetamine.
The detective told the grand jury, which indicted Wilber Ernesto Martinez-Guzman in Reno last week, the 20-year-old who is living in the U.S. illegally broke into tears and repeatedly called himself an "idiot" before confessing to the murders during an interrogation hours after his arrest in Carson City on Jan. 19.
According to the grand jury transcript obtained by The Associated Press, Washoe County Sheriff's Detective Stefanie Brady testified March 13 that Martinez-Guzman initially denied any wrongdoing and was smiling and giggling during some of the questioning.
But after she confronted him with several contradictions in his story during a nearly three-hour interrogation, he said through a Spanish interpreter he had "done something that's unforgiveable."

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