Florida Innocence Commission issues a wake-up call to Legislature

Ushering in the bloom of spring, it's time to set the clocks forward for daylight saving time.

News from http://thethorntonreview.com News Compilation News you can use Marco Rubio: De-Fund Obamacare Marco Rubio: De-Fund Obamacare, Or Else He’ll Shut Down The Government There’s virtually no chance that Senator Marco Rubio ( R-FL) can ever compete with Senator Rand Paul’s filibuster, given his dry mouth affliction, unless Poland Spring backed a truck right in into the Capitol Building. But like his senatorial colleague, Rubio enjoys wasting everybody’s time with political brinkmanship and grandstanding to further his presidential aspirations. As congress tires of the sequester’s finger-pointing negotiations, Rubio and his fellow Teabagger politicians_ Ted Cruz (R-TX)_ and_ Mike Lee (R-UT) _joined in refusing to compromise on the budget, unless there are provisions to strip Obamacare of its entire funding. During an appearance on Hugh Hewitt’s conservative talk radio program on Thursday night, Rubio reiterated a host of tiresome, thoroughly-debunked, http://thinkprogress.org/health/2013/03/05/1673381/obamacare-young-americans-premiums/ batsh*t-crazy, and Baracknophobic assumptions regarding Obamacare, and its supposedly massive ramifications for american businesses. Further, he suggested that he would have no problem shutting down government completely if Obamacare wasn’t stripped of its funding. Naturally, he made absolutely no mention of sacrificing his own generous six-figure salary and tax-payer funded health plan. HEWITT: Senator Rubio, the continuing resolution is headed your way. How is this stacking up as Act III of the spending drama? RUBIO:Well first of all, I don’t think anyone is in favor of shutting down the government, BUT I THINK THAT’S WHERE WE’RE HEADED ULTIMATELY HERE, unfortunately, if we don’t fix our debt problem… But here’s what I’ve said about this continuing resolution. SENATOR CRUZ FROM TEXAS IS OFFERING THIS AMENDMENT TO DEFUND OBAMACARE. IF THAT GETS ONTO THE BILL, IN ESSENCE, IF THEY GET A CONTINUING RESOLUTION AND WE CAN GET A VOTE ON THAT AND PASS THAT ONTO THE BILL, I’LL VOTE FOR A CONTINUING RESOLUTION, EVEN IF IT’S TEMPORARY, BECAUSE IT DOES SOMETHING PERMANENT, AND THAT’S DEFUND THIS HEALTH CARE BILL, THIS OBAMACARE BILL, THAT IS GOING TO BE AN ABSOLUTE DISASTER FOR THE AMERICAN ECONOMY. You’re already starting to feel the outer edges of that… I already am running into businesses that are planning next year on not hiring people or laying some people off so they don’t have to meet these mandates. Others are going to push their employees off of their private plans that they offer and onto these exchanges, driving up the cost for the public. So this is going to be an implementation disaster. It’s going to hurt our economy severely. And we’re not spending enough time talking about that. (_Think Progress_) http://thinkprogress.org/health/2013/03/08/1690431/rubio-obamacare-shut-down/ READ MORE - ADDICTING INFO http://thethorntonreview.com/HTTP://WWW.ADDICTINGINFO.ORG/2013/03/08/MARCO-RUBIO-DE-FUND-OBAMACARE-OR-ELSE-HELL-SHUT-DOWN-THE-GOVERNMENT/ Read More... http://thethorntonreview.com/florida/politics-in-florida/2133 _______________________________________________________________ Jeb Bush still untested on national stage Anyone watching the clumsy kickoff of his book tour this week had to acknowledge that his political skills are a bit rusty six years after leaving Florida's Governor's Mansion. Maybe, after all the gushing about his policy chops, strong executive record and ability to broaden the appeal of conservative Republicans, Jeb Bush isn't ready for the national stage. Certainly anyone watching the clumsy kickoff of his book tour this week — where he pushed the 2016 presidential door wide open — had to acknowledge that his political skills are a bit rusty six years after leaving Florida's Governor's Mansion. It's one thing to make an off-hand comment that requires backpedaling or clarification on a hot-button issue. It's another to co-author a book on a controversial topic then make a carefully planned publicity tour that prompts much of the political world to question not only where you stand but what your motives are. A series of national interviews this week made Bush look like a cross between Mitt Romney — flip-flopper — and Rick Perry — having to walk back what he wrote in his own book. Bush used to support a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants, but wrote in his new book, co-authored by Clint Bolick, that he now only supports a pathway to legal residency for illegal immigrants currently living in America. READ MORE - TAMPA BAY http://thethorntonreview.com/HTTP://WWW.TAMPABAY.COM/NEWS/POLITICS/NATIONAL/CLUMSY-BOOK-TOUR-SHOWS-JEB-BUSH-STILL-UNTESTED-ON-NATIONAL-STAGE/2107701 Read More... http://thethorntonreview.com/florida/election-news-in-florida/2134 _______________________________________________________________ Panel clears bill to end guaranteed pension plan Traditional pensions for new state and county employees, including teachers, would end under a proposal that's advancing through the Legislature. The House Appropriations committee on Friday voted 12-9 along party lines on a bill that would do away with guaranteed pensions for workers hired as of January 2014. It would replace pensions with individual investment accounts similar to 401(k) plans. That will save the state nearly $13 million a year by 2016, according to Rep. Jason Brodeur, the Sanford Republican who's sponsoring the bill (HB 7011). "This bill reduces the state's risk, saves the taxpayers a great deal of money, keeps every promise made to every current state worker, and offers robust benefits for our future state workers," he said. Democrats, labor unions and other critics are fighting the effort, saying state and local governments will have to pay more into the current pension plan because there will be fewer members paying into it. READ MORE - HERALD TRIBUNE http://thethorntonreview.com/HTTP://WWW.HERALDTRIBUNE.COM/ARTICLE/20130308/APN/1303080576 Read More... http://thethorntonreview.com/florida/35/2135 _______________________________________________________________ Gov. Scott knows nothing about state tree giveaway In 2009, the state settled with a Panhandle billboard company for $100,000 to be paid interest-free over six years after illegally giving away $2 million worth of state-owned trees. So, what does Scott know about the issue? Nothing. “I have not seen it,” Scott said during press availability Thursday. When told the Times-Union discussed the settlement with both his staff and the department prior to publishing a story last month, Scott still said he knew nothing about the settlement. “I didn’t see it, no,” he said. The July settlement came after a series of Times-Union stories, a grand jury finding the trees were given away in “flagrant violation of the law” and admissions of wrongdoing by department workers. In a separate interview after he addressed the Senate Transportation Committee, department Secretary Ananth Prasad said Thursday the settlement was much less than what was given away illegally because the department also was at fault. “I think the point in the whole process is the interpretation of the law by the department was inconsistent, so there was exposure by the department,” he said. “There is accountability on the department,” he added. The issue emerged after a Times-Union investigation found, among other things, Milton-based Salter Advertising received permits to cut the trees without submitting required documents to show how they would replace the trees, pay costly mitigation fees, turn over an estimated $4 million in older, nonconforming billboards or pay fines it should have incurred after the trees were cut. In the wake of the stories, the department reevaluated the rules and conducted staff training. READ MORE - JACKSONVILLE http://thethorntonreview.com/HTTP://JACKSONVILLE.COM/NEWS/FLORIDA/2013-03-08/STORY/GOV-RICK-SCOTT-SAYS-HE-KNOWS-NOTHING-ABOUT-STATE-TREE-GIVEAWAY Read More... http://thethorntonreview.com/pensacola-news/2136 _______________________________________________________________ 'Parent trigger' bill cleared by House panel School-choice supporters revived a bill that would give Florida parents a say in turnaround plans for failing public schools and saw its first win of the year on Thursday. The House Choice and Innovation subcommittee cleared the "Parent Empowerment in Education Act" (HB 867) on a party-line 8-5 vote. Known informally as the "parent trigger" bill, it would allow parents to vote on what to do with a failing school. Options include reassigning students to other schools or handing the school over to a private company to run as a charter school. The local school board makes the decision, but that decision - which may be against the majority of parents' wishes - can be overruled by the State Board of Education. And just as it did last year, the bill is summoning up the blood of both sides. Opponents, like public school districts, teachers' unions and parents' groups, call it a back-door way to hand public schools over to private educational companies. Backers say that by giving parents a voice, it will encourage them to get involved in their children's schools. A similar bill passed the House in 2012 but died on the floor of the Senate in a tie vote. Lobbyists for the measure privately say there are enough votes in both chambers for it to pass this year. Gov. Rick Scott, who must sign it into law, has yet to take a position on the proposal. He's pushing lawmakers to support his plan to give Florida's teachers a $2,500 pay raise. READ MORE - AP http://thethorntonreview.com/HTTP://HOSTED.AP.ORG/DYNAMIC/STORIES/F/FL_XGR_PARENTAL_TRIGGER_FLOL-?SITE=FLTAM&SECTION=STATE&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT&CTIME=2013-03-07-18-31-59 Read More... http://thethorntonreview.com/florida/news-in-florida/2137 _______________________________________________________________ Florida lawmakers lay groundwork for natural gas “fracking” State Rep. Ray Rodrigues, R-Estero, says that “every indication is at some point in the future” fracking — or, more formally, hydraulic fracturing — will happen in Florida. The national debate about a type of oil and gas drilling known as “fracking” has never hit home in Florida. Rodrigues on Thursday moved forward with a bill (HB 743) that would lead to companies reporting the chemicals they inject into the ground while fracking in the state. The House Agriculture & Natural Resources Subcommittee voted unanimously to approve the measure, which would direct the state Department of Environmental Protection to set up a registry to collect the information about chemicals and volumes of water used in the fracking process. Sen. Jeff Clemens, D-Lake Worth, has filed the Senate version (SB 1028) of the proposal, though it has not been heard in a committee. Fracking involves injecting water, sand and chemicals underground to create fractures in rock formations, which allows the release of natural gas and oil. The process has spread in recent years, with supporters saying, at least in part, that it is opening up vast supplies of natural gas. But controversy in states such as New York and Pennsylvania has centered on whether the process can contaminate groundwater and cause other damage to the environment. The Associated Press reported that the New York State Assembly voted Wednesday to put off until 2015 decisions about allowing the practice, though the state’s Senate has not gone along with such a moratorium. Rodrigues said his bill creating a Florida registry is modeled after a measure in Texas. He said he thinks it is better to be “proactive” on the issue instead of waiting to take action after fracking comes to Florida. The Florida Petroleum Council expressed support for the bill during Thursday’s meeting, while environmental groups did not offer opinions to the subcommittee. Florida has long had oil drilling in parts of southwest Florida and the Panhandle. The Fort Myers News-Press reported in October about emails it had obtained from the Department of Environmental Protection that indicated discussions had been taking place about the possibility of fracking in Florida. READ MORE - PALM BEACH POST http://thethorntonreview.com/HTTP://WWW.PALMBEACHPOST.COM/NEWS/NEWS/STATE-REGIONAL-GOVT-POLITICS/FLORIDA-LAWMAKERS-LAY-GROUNDWORK-FOR-NATURAL-GAS-F/NWKTK/ Read More... http://thethorntonreview.com/news/environmental/2140 _______________________________________________________________ BP faces escalating spill payouts after court ruling BP must keep paying certain types of oil spill compensation in much larger amounts and to more parties than it was expecting, according to a court ruling which could add billions to its final bill. The March 5 ruling, made by the New Orleans court where BP is battling to keep a lid on other fines and penalties, was outlined in the company's annual report. The decision applies to payments made as part of a settlement stemming from the Deepwater Horizon oil spill in the Gulf of Mexico in 2010 which BP has already agreed, but where the actual amount is uncapped. BP had earmarked $8.5 billion for payments which included claims for "Economic and Property Damages". BP said it would appeal the ruling, which upheld the payout administrator's interpretation of the settlement, and which has resulted in more and larger payouts than BP had expected. "BP strongly disagrees with the ruling of 5 March 2013 and the current implementation of the agreement by the claims administrator," it said. "BP intends to pursue all available legal options, including rights of appeal, to challenge this ruling." BP also removed about $800 million from its $8.5 billion estimate for compensation claims under this part of its $42.2 billion of total spill provisions so far. Far from signaling a lower potential final bill, however, BP said the reduction reflects "the inherent uncertainty that exists... (over) the higher number of claims received and higher average claims payments than previously assumed". READ MORE - REUTERS http://thethorntonreview.com/HTTP://WWW.REUTERS.COM/ARTICLE/2013/03/07/US-BP-SPILL-IDUSBRE9260NM20130307 Read More... http://thethorntonreview.com/news/53/2141 _______________________________________________________________ Rosa Parks statue in the Capitol The new Rosa Parks statue that was unveiled at the National Statuary Hall. She is the first African American woman to be honored with a life size statue in the Capitol. It was on December 1, 1955 that Rosa Parks exercised her right to sit where she wished on a bus in Montgomery, Alabama. In honor of that day and the celebration of the 100th anniversary of her birth, there was a ceremony for the unveiling of the Rosa Parks statue in the Capitol on February 27, 2013. Many of Ms. Parks’ relatives were at the unveiling ceremony. This wonderful picture of the statue comes from the Architect of the Capitol website http://www.aoc.gov/capitol-hill/other-statues/rosa-parks. According to a recent New York Times article http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/28/us/politics/statue-of-rosa-parks-is-unveiled-at-the-capitol.html?_r=1&, President Obama offered praise for Ms. Parks: “[The president] chronicled how Mrs. Parks, despite having held no elected office, lacking wealth and living far from the seat of power, touched off a movement that made it possible for him to become president.” Other speakers said she united the country by choosing to be arrested, instead of giving up her seat. Rosa Parks was given the highest civilian honors from the White House and Congress. When she died in 2005, she was the first woman “to lie in state” in the Capitol Rotunda. She will always be remembered for what she did for America. READ MORE - LOBBY COMPLY http://thethorntonreview.com/HTTP://67.39.100.124/WORDPRESS/?P=13233 Read More... http://thethorntonreview.com/news/people/2142 _______________________________________________________________ Spring Forward Daylight Saving Time Starts Sunday Ushering in the bloom of spring, it's time to set the clocks forward for daylight saving time. At 2 a.m. local time Sunday, daylight saving time arrives with the promise of many months ahead with an extra hour of evening sunlight. You lose an hour of sleep, but make sure to turn the clock ahead - spring forward - before heading to bed Saturday night to avoid the panic of a late rise. It's also a good time to put new batteries in warning devices such as smoke detectors and hazard warning radios. READ MORE - AP http://thethorntonreview.com/HTTP://HOSTED.AP.ORG/DYNAMIC/STORIES/U/US_DAYLIGHT_SAVING_TIME?SITE=AP&SECTION=HOME&TEMPLATE=DEFAULT Read More... http://thethorntonreview.com/business-and-finance/46/2143 _______________________________________________________________ Michael Jordan applies for marriage license After a legendary career on the basketball court, NBA legend Michael Jordan set another kind of court abuzz Thursday when he and his fiancee applied for a Palm Beach County http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/palmbeach/ marriage license. Jordan, who turned 50 on Feb. 17, was spotted at the West Palm Beach courthouse with his soon-to-be-wife, Cuban-American model Yvette Prieto, 34. "I know some people shook his hand, but I don't think he lingered for very long," said Kathy Burstein, spokeswoman for the Clerk and Comptroller in Palm Beach County http://www.sun-sentinel.com/news/local/palmbeach/. "I do know it was the buzz of the courthouse this morning." Burstein said Jordan and his fiancee were both required under law to be present for the marriage license application. The pair, who showed up at the courthouse unannounced, did not ask for any preferential treatment and were processed just like any other license applicant, Burstein said. "He came in, got his marriage license and that was that," Burstein said, adding that the clerk's office has been taking calls from a slew of media outlets including celebrity gossip site TMZ and the Associated Press. Both Jordan and Prieto listed their residence as Jupiter on the application. They have 60 days to tie the knot before the $93.50 license expires, Burstein said. READ MORE - SUN SENTINEL http://thethorntonreview.com/HTTP://ARTICLES.SUN-SENTINEL.COM/2013-03-07/NEWS/FL-MICHAEL-JORDAN-MARRIAGE-20130307_1_MARRIAGE-LICENSE-YVETTE-PRIETO-JUANITA-VANOY Read More... http://thethorntonreview.com/-life-and-style/spotlight/2144 _______________________________________________________________ Army suspends tuition assistance program for troops The Army announced Friday it is suspending its tuition assistance program for soldiers newly enrolling in classes due to sequestration and other budgetary pressures. “This suspension is necessary given the significant budget execution challenges caused by the combined effects of a possible year-long continuing resolution and sequestration,” Paul Prince, an army personnel spokesman at the Pentagon, wrote in an email to Stars and Stripes. “The Army understands the impacts of this action and will re-evaluate should the budgetary situation improve.” The Army’s announcement follows a similar move by the Marine Corps. The Army’s tuition assistance program was available for troops to complete a high school diploma, certificate program or college or master’s degree. Under the program, the Army paid 100 percent of the tuition and authorized fees charged by a school up to established limits of $250 per semester hour or credit hour or up to $4,500 per fiscal year. “The Secretary of the Army has approved the suspension of Tuition Assistance effective 5 p.m. (Eastern Time) on March 8, 2013. Soldiers will no longer be permitted to submit new requests for Tuition Assistance,” read a statement posted Friday on the GoArmyEd.com website. “However, Soldiers currently enrolled in courses approved for Tuition Assistance are not affected, and will be allowed to complete current course enrollment(s). “This change in the Army Tuition Assistance program applies to all Soldiers, including the Army National Guard and Army Reserves,” the statement read. READ MORE - STRIPES http://thethorntonreview.com/HTTP://WWW.STRIPES.COM/NEWS/ARMY-SUSPENDS-TUITION-ASSISTANCE-PROGRAM-FOR-TROOPS-1.210999 Read More... http://thethorntonreview.com/-life-and-style/life-and-style-news/2145 _______________________________________________________________ Scott: Need more funding help people with disabilities Gov. Rick Scott made a stop in Orlando to promote his proposed $36 million hike in funding for residents with severe disabilities ... a move embraced by families whose loved ones have spent years on a state waiting list for services. "This investment of your tax dollars changes people's lives," Scott told a few dozen supporters at an adult day-training facility near Eatonville. "For the first time in eight years… hundreds of families are going to get some support." For Scott, the scene was a dramatic contrast to April 2011, when the governor ordered steep cuts to the state Agency for Persons with Disabilities to halt its mushrooming deficit. The move was so widely vilified that, two weeks later, Scott announced he had negotiated a deal with lawmakers to reverse some of the cuts. "Rick Scott is becoming the people's governor," 67-year-old Phil Pearson of Palm Coast told the crowd. His 39-year-old son, Bill, who has cerebral palsy and "a touch of autism," has been on the state's waiting list since 2004. "No, he didn't start out that way — but there was a good reason for that. … The state cannot print its own money." When Scott took office, he inherited the financial troubles of the disabilities agency, which had been underfunded by the Legislature for years. It still has a waiting list of more than 20,000 residents with developmental disabilities such as Down syndrome, cerebral palsy and autism. The additional $36 million, if passed by the Legislature, would fund services for 750 to 1,000 of the most severely disabled. "There's not enough money to help my son this year," Pearson said. "But at least we're at the table. … And what worries me most is what will happen to him down the road, when I'm not around anymore." The funding covers a range of services designed to help individuals avoid living in a nursing home. Those can include personal aides, transportation, therapy and respite care to give family caregivers a break. Top priority will be given to the most critically disabled, children in state care who have pending adoptions and individuals whose family caregivers are age 70 or older. READ MORE - ORLANDO SENTINEL http://thethorntonreview.com/HTTP://ARTICLES.ORLANDOSENTINEL.COM/2013-03-08/NEWS/OS-FLORIDA-PEOPLE-WITH-DISABILITIES-20130308_1_DISABILITIES-AGENCY-RESIDENTS-WITH-DEVELOPMENTAL-DISABILITIES-CEREBRAL-PALSY Read More... http://thethorntonreview.com/-life-and-style/health-news/2146 _______________________________________________________________ Click here to Unsubscribe http://thethorntonreview.com/component/vemod_news_mailer/?unsubscribeall=1&userid=userid9999987 This is an autogenerated news mail, please do not respond

News from http://thethorntonreview.com News Compilation News you can use No One Should Have to Live in Fear of Violence Today, President Obama signed a bill that both strengthened and reauthorized the Violence Against Women Act (VAWA). Thanks to this bipartisan agreement, thousands of women and men across the country who are victims of domestic violence, sexual assault, dating violence and stalking will be able to access resources they need in their communities to help heal from their trauma. In addition, thousands of law enforcement officers will be better equipped to stop violence before it starts, and respond to calls of help when they are needed. President Obama and Vice President Biden have steadfastly supported reauthorization—it’s what’s right for our country. We thank Senators Patrick Leahy, Mike Crapo, and Patty Murray and Representatives Nancy Pelosi, Steny Hoyer and Gwen Moore for guiding this legislation to passage. For the past 18 years, since Vice President Biden initially wrote the Act in 1994, VAWA has helped to decrease the rates of domestic violence across the country. Three years ago, our federal interagency group on violence against women began meeting to consider gaps in our country’s response to this violence and make recommendations to Congress to fill those gaps. We are proud that many of these recommendations were included in the final bill. Now, we will be better equipped to recognize violence in its early stages, and help to reduce the number of domestic violence homicides. The reauthorization also makes a strong effort to address the extraordinarily high rates of violence among our young people. Last week, in honor of Teen Dating Violence Awareness month, I had the opportunity to speak, along with Vice President Biden, at an event http://www.whitehouse.gov/blog/2013/02/28/marking-teen-dating-violence-awareness-and-prevention-month with families of victims of dating violence, and youth and organizations. It was incredibly encouraging to see people of all ages united in the fight against teen dating violence. I am proud to say that now, teens and young adults will have better access to prevention and intervention programs to help break the cycle of violence aground the country. Studies have shown that one in five women will be the victim of an attempted or completed sexual assault while they are in college. We need to find a way to help these young scholars be able to focus on growing and learning, instead of being fearful of being assaulted on campus. This Act will help by requiring colleges and universities to provide information to students about dating violence, sexual assault, and stalking and improve data collection about these crimes. We call on all of our colleges and universities to make ending sexual assault a top priority. In addition, the bill removes barriers faced by lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) victims, whose needs are often overlooked by law enforcement, prosecutors, courts, and victim service providers. We are also thrilled that Congress held the line and maintained protections for battered immigrants and took the important step of also reauthorizing the Trafficking Victims Protection Act in this same legislation. Finally and very importantly, VAWA will bring justice for Native American victims. Rates of domestic violence perpetrated on Native American women are among the highest in the country. VAWA will help to improve the effectiveness and efficiency of the tribal justice system and bring perpetrators of violence to justice. No one should have to live in fear of violence, especially in her home, and VAWA affirms that belief. Today’s signing ensures that victims and survivors can continue to be provided the vital resources they deserve. Our country is better off for it. READ MORE - THE WHITEHOUSE http://thethorntonreview.com/HTTP://WWW.WHITEHOUSE.GOV/BLOG/2013/03/07/NO-ONE-SHOULD-HAVE-LIVE-FEAR-VIOLENCE Read More... http://thethorntonreview.com/news/politics/2127 _______________________________________________________________ Venezuelans pour into streets to mourn Hugo Chavez Hundreds of anguished Venezuelans poured into the streets of downtown Caracas crying, hugging each other and shouting slogans in support of President Hugo Chavez http://www.chron.com/?controllerName=search&action=search&channel=news%2Fworld&search=1&inlineLink=1&query=%22Hugo+Chavez%22 after learning of his death Tuesday. Clusters of women with tears streaming down their faces clung to each other and wept near the Miraflores presidential palace. Some wore T-shirts with slogans that read "Go forward commander!" Nearby, men with grim and somber faces pumped their arms in the air while shouting "Long live Chavez! Long live Chavismo!" People also gathered outside the military hospital where Chavez died. Soldiers in riot gear stood shoulder to shoulder guarding the complex. "I feel such big pain I can't even speak," said Yamilina Barrios, a 39-year-old office worker weeping at a street corner. "He was the best thing the country had ... I adore him. Let's hope the country calms down and we can continue the tasks he left us." Many people left work and rushed home as shops and offices began to close early and tension gripped the streets in Caracas, capital of a country deeply divided by the socialist programs pursued by the charismatic Chavez. READ MORE - CHRON http://thethorntonreview.com/HTTP://WWW.CHRON.COM/NEWS/WORLD/ARTICLE/VENEZUELANS-POUR-INTO-STREETS-TO-MOURN-HUGO-CHAVEZ-4330894.PHP Read More... http://thethorntonreview.com/news/world/2128 _______________________________________________________________ Nebraska considers closing juvenile jails A long line of Nebraskans testified on a bill that would overhaul the state’s juvenile justice system by moving to community-based treatment and closing the two juvenile jails by 2015 Nebraska locks up troubled kids at the third-highest rate in the nation, but the prospect of closing the state’s two juvenile jails brought a wave of opposition from their employees, union leaders, prosecutors and people who got help in the facilities. Omaha Sen. Brad Ashford – who is leading the charge for reform – vowed to get “substantial reform” passed this year by either closing or transforming the juvenile jails. “What we have now is not working,” he said, citing assaults in the centers and a lack of “evidence-based” treatment. “No one is here to try to punish or penalize Kearney or Geneva … but we absolutely must change a system that incarcerates youth at the rate we are in Nebraska.” His bill would create an Office of Juvenile Assistance to oversee the expansion statewide of what is now a pilot project. “There is no silver bullet to this problem,” Ashford said. “This committee has labored for seven years to try to find a way to address in a substantial way the ever-increasing number of children being incarcerated in our state.” The bill’s co-sponsor, Omaha Sen. Bob Krist, said he’s glad the prospect of closing the Geneva and Kearney jails got people’s attention. There will always be a need for a detention facility, he said, but he said it’s time to move from brick and mortar to treating kids in less restrictive settings. “Let’s treat kids like kids,” Krist said." READ MORE - WATCHDOG http://thethorntonreview.com/HTTP://WATCHDOG.ORG/73500/NEBRASKA-CONSIDERS-CLOSING-JUVENILE-JAILS-IN-EFFORT-TO-REFORM-THEM/ Read More... http://thethorntonreview.com/news/us/2129 _______________________________________________________________ The Koch Brothers Take Credit for Imposing Economic Hardship In an email http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/03/02/1191063/-Americans-for-Prosperity-Cheers-on-Sequester-claims-Ownership, Koch brothers’ front group, Americans for Prosperity (AFP), sent congratulations to Republicans and their supporters around the country for helping push sequester cuts One of, but not limited to, the symptoms of depression is a feeling of hopelessness that can be exacerbated by unrelenting bad news, and for the past two weeks, Americans were bombarded with portents of doom and gloom over the Republican sequester. On Sunday, there was a glimmer of good news in the form of a reminder Willard Romney is not the president, and although he said it “_kills him_” he cannot “boss people around,” he is still alive enough to run his lying mouth about the President and how he handled the sequester. Now that the sequester is signed into law, as bad as it is, Romney preferred Paul Ryan’s budget that was four times as damaging as the sequester and increased the deficit by at least $4 trillion. One of Willard’s biggest supporters is cheering the sequester and claiming credit for its enactment, and looks forward to imposing more economic hardship on the people and the nation in their never-ending assault on government. In an email http://www.dailykos.com/story/2013/03/02/1191063/-Americans-for-Prosperity-Cheers-on-Sequester-claims-Ownership, Koch brothers’ front group, Americans for Prosperity (AFP), sent congratulations to Republicans and their supporters around the country for helping push sequester cuts AFP says are “_an IMPORTANT STEP forward for economic growth_.” The email continued, “_Americans for Prosperity thanks Speaker John Boehner and House Republicans for standing up to President Obama and making sure the $85 billion in much-needed sequester spending cuts took effect_,” and it proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that the Koch brothers and Republicans own the sequester and are giddy at the prospect of a recession and killing millions of jobs. One aspect of sequester cuts little mentioned is that the devastating $85 billion for 2013 is just the beginning of greater domestic spending cuts, devastating effects on anti-poverty programs, Medicare, and without cessation, the end of recovery. The sequester is a ten year plan that cuts $1.2 trillion across the board, and because they began in March, $85 billion is about 70% of the next nine years of cuts coming in at about $123.88 billion every year. It spells the end of recovery because experts estimate that by the end of 2013, $85 billion in cuts means nearly a million jobs will vanish, and GDP will fall between .7% and 1.7% in the first year alone. Kochs, AFP, teabaggers, and Republicans are celebrating austerity that deliberately tanks the economy, creates massive poverty, and all to avoid closing tax loopholes for the richest people in America. Republicans claimed 2013 sequester cuts would devastate the economy, and yet they are celebrating nine more years of 30% higher cuts, and are a reminder of the damage Willard Romney would have imposed. Romney took time to weigh in on the sequester and accuse the President of campaigning instead of working with Republicans to avert the cuts they were destined to enact. According to Willard, “_The president brings people together, does the deals, does the trades…the president leads, and I don’t see that kind of leadership happening. He’s campaigning_.” Romney also suspected President Obama blamed Republicans for rejecting attempts to avert the sequester because “_there may be more interest in showing pain in saying, See what the other guys did_?” President Obama did attempt to trade, deal, lead, and bring Republicans together, but the sequester was the means Republicans used to impose austerity, and unless Obama agreed to void defense cuts and replace them with more austerity and domestic cuts, the sequester was going forward as part of Republicans’ four-year war on the economy. Real economic experts cited ways Republicans are deliberately killing recovery; self-inflicted austerity, cuts to under-funded social programs, cut Social Security and Medicare benefits by slashing “entitlements,” and the sequester. Republicans and their supporters at Americans for Prosperity encouraged their base to campaign to “_keep the cuts_” so we can “_get our economy moving again_” in spite of overwhelming evidence that killing a million jobs and slashing domestic spending will cut GDP between .7-1.7% in the first year of a ten year program. Austerity already cost a reduction in growth in the fourth quarter, and combined with the Eurozone’s austerity-caused recession increases the risk to America’s economy because Europe is the nation’s leading trading partner. Austerity is decimating economies all over the world and all the while, Republicans, Koch brothers, and teabaggers are celebrating. READ MORE - POLITICUSUSA http://thethorntonreview.com/HTTP://WWW.POLITICUSUSA.COM/KOCH-BROTHERS-CREDIT-IMPOSING-ECONOMIC-HARDSHIP-MILLIONS-AMERICANS.HTML Read More... http://thethorntonreview.com/business-and-finance/economy/2130 _______________________________________________________________ America’s Unsustainable Inequality In a word, we have witnessed a steady concentration of wealth – income inequality http://www.nationofchange.org/inequality-or-sustainability-why-madison-needs-marx-1337223969 – in this country that has reached levels no market economy can long endure. Without all sorts of artificial props – from credit-card debt and no-doc or "interest-only" loans to dodgy financial assets nobody understands (try wrapping your mind around a collateralized debt obligation or credit default swap) – is would have become impossible to camouflage what was (and is) happening. To see just how unequal the distribution of wealth in the US has become, click here: Wealth Inequality in America http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QPKKQnijnsM This video, re-posted on Charlie White\'s "Mashable" website http://mashable.com/2013/03/02/wealth-inequality/ among others, started going viral last Friday. It's based on a chart http://danariely.com/2010/09/30/wealth-inequality/ developed by a Harvard Business School professor named Michael Norton and Dan Ariely, a behavioral economist at Duke. If you haven't already seen the video, here's a sampling: _the top 1% own 40% of the nation's total wealth while the bottom 80% own just 7.0%_. Marx famously said that the bourgeoisie unwittingly produces its own gravediggers. A market economy – capitalism, that is – inexorably gives rise to an elite social class whose members create an economy that contains the seeds of its own destruction. So said Marx, the champion of socialism and bête noire of the corporate class. A recent study from The Stanford Center for Poverty and Inequality http://www.stanford.edu/group/scspi/cgi-bin/facts.php parallels the one cited above. The study highlights "twenty facts about US inequality that everyone should know". In 1965, CEO pay in the United States was 24 times higher than the average pay for workers. By 1977, it had risen to 35 times. It then doubled to 70 times by 1989 (that is, during the first decade of the Reagan Revolution). During the 1990s, thanks in no small part to the Republicans' Contract with America, it rose to a peak of nearly 300 times. Today, it stands at roughly 380 times. Say what you will, Marx had a point. We have to attack the natural tendency of a capitalist economy to produce the seeds of its own destruction – namely unsustainable inequality. Only mass protests, a groundswell, on a scale that hasn't happened in this country since the Vietnam War will make that happen. Or maybe not. READ MORE - NATION OF CHANGE http://thethorntonreview.com/HTTP://WWW.NATIONOFCHANGE.ORG/AMERICA-S-UNSUSTAINABLE-INEQUALITY-1362667183 Read More... http://thethorntonreview.com/business-and-finance/personal-finance/2131 _______________________________________________________________ Forum on Devastating Effects of Gun Trafficking Crimes On Tuesday, March 12, 2013, Reps. Elijah Cummings (D-Maryland), Scott Rigell (R-Virginia), and Carolyn Maloney (D-New York) will convene a bipartisan forum On Tuesday, March 12, 2013, Reps. Elijah Cummings (D-Maryland), Scott Rigell (R-Virginia), and Carolyn Maloney (D-New York) will convene a bipartisan forum to hear from victims of gun crimes that resulted from “straw purchasing” and other gun trafficking efforts, as well as law enforcement officials charged with combating these crimes. WHAT: “Victims and First Responders: The Critical Need for Gun Trafficking Legislation” WHEN: Tuesday, March 12, 2013, at 2:30 p.m. WHERE: Room 340, Cannon House Office Building WHO: Shooting in New York, Dec. 24, 2012: Theodore Scardino, Volunteer Firefighter, West Webster, New York Shooting in Pennsylvania, Sept. 13, 2012: Chief Joseph Lawrence, Plymouth, Pennsylvania Police Department Multiple Gun Trafficking Crimes in California, 2009-2012: Chief Greg Suhr, San Francisco Police Department National Law Enforcement and Prosecutor Representatives: Commissioner Charles Ramsey, Philadelphia Police Department President, Major Cities Chiefs Association David LaBahn, President, Association of Prosecuting Attorneys The hosts of the forum are original co-sponsors of H.R. 452, The Gun Trafficking Prevention Act of 2013 http://democrats.oversight.house.gov/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=5856&Itemid=131, which would combat the flow of firearms to violent criminals, international drug cartels, and a host of other dangerous people. Their legislation has been endorsed by law enforcement officials from across the country. http://democrats.oversight.house.gov/images/stories/Law_Enforcement_Support_for_Firearms_Trafficking_Billtfinalfinalfinal.pdf Today, the Senate Judiciary Committee adopted similar gun trafficking legislation on a bipartisan basis. READ MORE - DEMOCRATS OVERSIGHT COMMITTEE http://thethorntonreview.com/HTTP://DEMOCRATS.OVERSIGHT.HOUSE.GOV/INDEX.PHP?OPTION=COM_CONTENT&TASK=VIEW&ID=5877&ITEMID=104 Read More... http://thethorntonreview.com/news/society/2132 _______________________________________________________________ Click here to Unsubscribe http://thethorntonreview.com/component/vemod_news_mailer/?unsubscribeall=1&userid=userid9999987 This is an autogenerated news mail, please do not respond

News from http://thethorntonreview.com News Compilation News you can use Obama to name EPA official Gina McCarthy to head agency The president will nominate Gina McCarthy, who heads the Environmental Protection Agency's air and radiation office ... On Monday, President Obama will nominate Gina McCarthy, who heads the Environmental Protection Agency's air and radiation office, as the agency's next administrator, and MIT professor Ernest Moniz as energy secretary, according to a White House official. McCarthy helped usher through many of the EPA's most contentious rules during Obama's first term, including regulations curbing mercury and soot emissions from power plants. But she has also cultivated a strong working relationship with members of the business community, dampening much of the opposition her selection might otherwise have encountered. Moniz, a physicist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology who served in the Bill Clinton administration, lends Obama's Cabinet scientific heft and brings prior Washington experience. At MIT, he directed the school's Energy Initiative, where he oversaw reports on almost every aspect of energy. The White House declined to comment on the matter Sunday night. The official who confirmed the nominations declined to be identified because they were not yet formally announced. READ MORE - WASHINGTON POST http://thethorntonreview.com/HTTP://WWW.WASHINGTONPOST.COM/NATIONAL/HEALTH-SCIENCE/OBAMA-TO-NAME-EPA-OFFICIAL-GINA-MCCARTHY-TO-HEAD-AGENCY-SOURCES-SAY/2013/03/04/7F7C92BC-7975-11E2-9A75-DAB0201670DA_STORY.HTML Read More... http://thethorntonreview.com/news/politics/2121 _______________________________________________________________ Ruth Bader Ginsburg says she’s got at least two years left Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg tells the New Yorker's Jeffrey Toobin that she's likely to stay on the court for at least another two years, health permitting. "It's not this year. You can never tell when you're my age," Ginsburg said. "But, as long as I think I have the candlepower, I will do it. And I figure next year for certain. After that, who knows?" Ginsburg is the Court's oldest member, at 79 years old, and is in her 20th year on the court. As a member of the court's liberal wing, she would ensure that President Obama gets to pick her replacement if she retired sometime in the next four years -- something that would hearten liberals. READ MORE - WASHINGTON POST http://thethorntonreview.com/HTTP://WWW.WASHINGTONPOST.COM/BLOGS/POST-POLITICS/WP/2013/03/04/RUTH-BADER-GINSBURG-SAYS-SHES-GOT-AT-LEAST-TWO-YEARS-LEFT/ Read More... http://thethorntonreview.com/news/us/2122 _______________________________________________________________ Florida's concentration camp for little boys Dark secrets unearthed in KKK county ... Excavators discover 50 bodies buried in the grounds of a boys borstal, which was only shut in 2010 For years, almost no one at the Dozier School even knew about the burial ground in a clearing in the woods on the edge of campus. It was forbidden territory. The soil here, churned in places by tiny ants, holds more than the remains of little boys. Only now is it starting to give up its dark secrets: horror stories of state-sanctioned barbarism, including flogging, sexual assault and, possibly, murder. That the Arthur G Dozier School - a borstal for delinquent boys founded in 1900 - was not a gentle place was well-established. Boys as young as six were chained to walls, lashings with a leather strap were frequent and, in the early decades, children endured enforced labour, making bricks and working printing presses. When it was closed in 2011, it had already been the subject of separate federal and state investigations. But, as suspicions deepen about how the boys in the burial ground died, pressure is growing again on the state to shine new light into the darkest days of the school in Marianna, a Florida Panhandle town that once was a bastion of the KKK and the site of the 1934 lynching of Claude Neal. The pressure is coming from some of the schools survivors, from relatives of boys who died here, and from Floridas top US Senator, Bill Nelson. "Where there is smoke, there is fire," Senator Nelson declared last month, calling on the state to delay plans to sell off the 1,400 acres occupied by the old school so that a team of forensic anthropologists from the University of South Florida can complete a project begun last year to comb the campus for more graves. He wants any bodies found exhumed, identified and returned to the families they came from. So far, the team, led by Erin Kimmerle, has focused its work around the once-secret cemetery. It knows that as many as 98 boys died at the school between 1914 and 1973. Since starting last year, Professor Kimmerle has found 19 previously undiscovered graves in addition to the 31 marked by steel-pipe crosses. That means 50 graves so far. Forty-eight have yet to be located, assuming graves were dug for each body. "Its more than we anticipated," she says. "Our purpose is to explain who these children were, what happened to them and to understand what the story is that should be told." The official stance - that all the children died from accidents, such as fires and drownings, or natural causes - does not impress her. She cites the case of one child, Billy Jackson, whose cause of death was listed as kidney failure. There is a record of his being beaten two weeks earlier and admitted to hospital. "Common sense", she asserts, says he died from the beating. The place of Dozier in Floridas history is already set and its a shameful one. That is thanks in part to a group of Dozier survivors who call themselves the "White House Boys" because that was the colour of the small building where the floggings used to take place. A decade ago, they began finding one another by email and social networks and sharing their painful memories. In a book that Roger Dean Kiser eventually wrote about his time at the school - The White House Boys: an American Tragedy - he called it a "concentration camp for little boys". Robert Straley, who has built a web site called whitehouseboys.com, was 13 when he was remanded there. Even now, he recalls the wardens with fear, including the one-armed Troy Tidwell, who, he says, beat him on his first day. "They were just totally out of control up there," he said. "The ones that got the most beating were the 11-year-olds. They liked to beat the little ones because they didnt have to be afraid of them coming back after them with a brick in the hands. The older the boys, the less beatings they got." In the town of Marianna, conversations about the school are difficult. Calvin Creamer, 62, knew the school cobbler who made boots with markings in the heels so they could track the boys down if they ran away - and the leather straps for the floggings. "They were mean people to start with," he said of the men who dispensed the discipline. "Back then, it was torture for those boys. And the police didnt care either. They would strip them down and strap them to 50-gallon drums bear naked, and then theyd beat them." READ MORE - THE INDEPENDENT UK http://thethorntonreview.com/HTTP://WWW.INDEPENDENT.CO.UK/NEWS/WORLD/AMERICAS/A-CONCENTRATION-CAMP-FOR-LITTLE-BOYS-DARK-SECRETS-UNEARTHED-IN-KKK-COUNTY-8518009.HTML Read More... http://thethorntonreview.com/florida/news-in-florida/2123 _______________________________________________________________ Bob Woodward and the Rules of Washington Morality Why does Bob Woodward get to lie--twice!--and still be Bob Woodward? Woodwardgate got me reflecting on the question of Washington morality. Now yes, that's an oxymoron if ever there was one. But surely there is some set (however bizarre) of impulses and rules that lets Bob Woodward say what he said, and Politico promote it as if it were a feud between two soap opera stars, with both walking away essentially unharmed, as they likely will (certainly in Politico's case; Woodward's black eye will need a little time to heal). More important than that, there must be a set of impulses and rules that observes what has been going on in this town for the last four years, with Republicans being the most obstructionist opposition in the country's modern history, and yet somehow contrives to blame Barack Obama for the fact that our government can't function. I have divined three such rules that seem to apply to the present case and to most of the big dilemmas the capital has confronted in recent times. Rule One: When information is being injected into the discourse, the content of the information is far less important than the stature of and/or establishment's feeling about the person injecting the information. You could be as prescient as old Tiresias bumping his way around Thebes, but if the Washington bigwigs have never heard of you or haven't already given you their seal of approval, you're wasting your time. However, if you already possess said seal of approval, you can say pretty much anything, and you will be taken seriously. Think of Colin Powell at the U.N. That was one howler after another. Now granted it was hard to know that in real time. But what it wasn't hard to know at that point in the spring of 2003 was that the neoconservatives then peopling the Bush administration had been thirsting for war against Saddam since 1991, and anyone who knew that (as all of Washington should have) would have taken the general's presentation with several grains of salt. Of course, the opposite happened. Powell was widely respected, and, well, it seemed impressive, with all those photos of all those trucks surely doing clandestine, trucky things. As for the obverse, my liberal allies, this explains why information that seems so obvious to us never gets through. Yes, when the private market isn't pumping enough money into the economy, that's when the public sector should be doing it--it's exactly the wrong time to tighten the belt. This is Keynes 101. A bushelful of Nobel laureates have been running around saying this since 2008, most recently the great Robert Solow http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/28/opinion/our-debt-ourselves.html?_r=0 in the _Times_ the other day. But Solow isn't a Washington animal. Ditto Paul Krugman. Why should we believe him, Washington sniffs? Not one of us. Besides he's so snooty, and so ... so negative. Now Joe Scarborough! There's a man to trust. Talks sense, not all this Princeton mumbo-jumbo. Okay, he's not an economist, but what do those fancy-pants economists know anyway? There are two types of people in this realm--those who yearn above all else to win the establishment's seal of approval, and those who couldn't give a shit. Those who yearn quickly learn to say the right things: that entitlements are our nation's crushing problem, that we simply must attack the deficit, that both sides are equally to blame. If you are of moderately above-average intelligence, you need attend only about 3.2 Washington cocktail parties to figure out that these are the lines to parrot for purposes of advancement. READ MORE - THE DAILY BEAST http://thethorntonreview.com/HTTP://WWW.THEDAILYBEAST.COM/ARTICLES/2013/03/03/BOB-WOODWARD-AND-THE-RULES-OF-WASHINGTON-MORALITY.HTML Read More... http://thethorntonreview.com/news/politics/2124 _______________________________________________________________ Switzerland Clamps Down Hard On Executive Pay Should U.S. Follow Suit? Yesterday, voters in Switzerland overwhelmingly approved new measures http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-21647937 to clamp down on executive pay. Under the approved referendum -- which means that the new provisions will be added to the Swiss constitution http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-europe-21647937 -- shareholders will have the ability to veto executive pay packages, so-called "golden parachutes" will be outlawed, and executives who defy the rules could see jail time. As the Wall Street Journal's Andrew Peaple wrote, "Swiss voters' anger is understandable. Like other countries, it has seen executive pay rise out of all proportion over the past decade": Switzerland has the highest remuneration per board member in Europe, according to Deloitte. Pharmaceutical company NOVARTIS'S RECENT OFFER OF A SIX-YEAR $76 MILLION GOLDEN PARACHUTE TO OUTGOING CHAIRMAN DANIEL VASELLA IS THE LATEST EXAMPLE OF SEEMINGLY EGREGIOUS REWARDS. UBS CHAIRMAN AXEL WEBER WAS PAID $5.3 MILLION WHEN HE JOINED THE BANK THIS YEAR. Compared with Swiss average wage of $73,500, such payments look out of whack. The European Union has also approved new restrictions http://www.nytimes.com/2013/03/01/business/global/european-union-agrees-on-plan-to-cap-banker-bonuses.html?pagewanted=all on bonuses at large financial firms. READ MORE - THINK PROGRESS http://thethorntonreview.com/HTTP://THINKPROGRESS.ORG/ECONOMY/2013/03/04/1666781/SWITZERLAND-EXECUTIVE-PAY Read More... http://thethorntonreview.com/business-and-finance/economy/2125 _______________________________________________________________ Click here to Unsubscribe http://thethorntonreview.com/component/vemod_news_mailer/?unsubscribeall=1&userid=userid9999987 This is an autogenerated news mail, please do not respond

News from http://thethorntonreview.com News Compilation News you can use Getting Preschool Education Right Countless studies have found that preschool education has real value, both for the children and for society as a whole. But design is obviously crucial. The most famous and frequently cited program was conducted at Perry Elementary School http://heckman.uchicago.edu/sites/heckman.uchicago.edu/files/uploads/Heckman_etal_2010_RateofRtn-to-Perry.pdf in Ypsilanti, Mich., during the 1960s. Even before the cost estimates and program details have been made public, President Obama's proposal for expanding high-quality preschool education http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/15/education/details-emerge-on-obamas-call-to-extend-preschool.html has encountered criticism from House Republicans. Yet decades of research has shown that well-designed preschool programs more than pay for themselves by giving young children the skills they need to move ahead. The challenge at the federal level will be to make sure that taxpayer dollars flow to proven, high-quality programs instead of being wasted on subsidies for glorified day care. Countless studies have found that preschool education has real value, both for the children and for society as a whole. But design is obviously crucial. The most famous and frequently cited program was conducted at Perry Elementary School http://heckman.uchicago.edu/sites/heckman.uchicago.edu/files/uploads/Heckman_etal_2010_RateofRtn-to-Perry.pdf in Ypsilanti, Mich., during the 1960s, where the teachers focused on a creative process in which low-income children were encouraged to plan, initiate and discuss their learning activities. In addition to teaching the children for 2.5 hours during the school day, the teachers regularly visited their homes to reinforce the lessons and forge partnership with parents. Followed into adulthood, the Perry students were found to have lower dropout and arrest rates and higher incomes than those who had not attended preschool. Research led by James Heckman, the Nobel Prize-winning economist, concluded in 2009 that each $1 invested in the Perry program had returned a value of $7 to $12 to society. Unfortunately, preschool researchers say that few programs meet the standards of the Perry system. With mediocrity the norm for many programs -- and with many educators habituated to mediocrity -- a new federal preschool initiative is likely to come under heavy pressure to compromise downward. Mr. Obama called for just the opposite in his State of the Union address http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/13/us/politics/obamas-2013-state-of-the-union-address.html on Tuesday. He wants to upgrade the preschool system through a cost-sharing partnership with the states to expand high-quality public preschool to all 4-year-olds from families at or below 200 percent of the poverty level. The proposal also contains an incentive for states to broaden participation to include additional middle-class families. To be eligible for the program, the states would have to offer programs with well-trained teachers paid comparably to those teaching in kindergarten-through-12 classrooms, small classes and rigorous statewide standards for early learning. The White House has yet to release cost estimates or say how the program would be financed. But officials have said the money could be found in the budget, and the program would not add to the deficit. Given the current national emphasis on strengthening the public schools -- and preparing young people to compete in the new economy -- expanding preschool education would seem to be an obvious bipartisan goal. Instead of saying "no" right out of the gate, Mr. Obama's critics should recognize the value in his proposal. READ MORE - THE NEW YORK TIMES http://thethorntonreview.com/HTTP://WWW.NYTIMES.COM/2013/02/16/OPINION/GETTING-OBAMAS-PRESCHOOL-EDUCATION-PLAN-RIGHT.HTML?REF=POLITICS Read More... http://thethorntonreview.com/news/politics/2117 _______________________________________________________________ Lavish Lifestyle of a Lawmaker Yields Federal Charges Jesse L. Jackson Jr. and his wife, Sandi Jackson, are expected to plead guilty in a case involving misuse of campaign money. WASHINGTON -- In the span of four years starting in 2007, Jesse L. Jackson Jr., then a representative from Illinois, amassed a collection of celebrity memorabilia, furs, jewelry and furniture. Working with an antiques dealer in Nevada and a furrier in Beverly Hills, Calif., Mr. Jackson bought a $5,000 football signed by United States presidents, two hats that once belonged to Michael Jackson -- including a $4,600 fedora -- and an $800 cape. Mr. Jackson's desire for such objects, however, prompted him to take about $750,000 directly from his campaign funds in violation of campaign finance laws, according to government documents, unraveling the career of one of the country's best-known black politicians and the son of a famous civil rights activist. On Friday, federal prosecutors in Washington filed charges against Mr. Jackson tied to his repeated use of campaign funds, including conspiracy to commit wire fraud, mail fraud and making false statements. The charges were a formality. Mr. Jackson, a Democrat, has already agreed to plead guilty to one or more charges, though a date for him to formally accept the plea before a judge has not yet been scheduled. He faces up to five years in prison and $250,000 in fines. The government also filed charges Friday against Mr. Jackson's wife, Sandi, accusing her of having filed false tax returns. She is expected to plead guilty and faces a maximum of three years in prison and a $100,000 fine. In a written statement, Mr. Jackson, 47, apologized to his family, friends and supporters for his "errors in judgment." "Over the course of my life, I have come to realize that none of us are immune from our share of shortcomings and human frailties," he said. "Still, I offer no excuses for my conduct, and I fully accept my responsibility for the improper decisions and mistakes I have made." He added, "While my journey is not yet complete, it is my hope that I am remembered for the things that I did right." The statement did not address the charges against his wife, who was a Chicago alderman until she resigned http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/12/us/illinois-jacksons-wife-resigns-from-chicago-council.html in January. Mr. Jackson, the son of the Rev. Jesse L. Jackson http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/people/j/jesse_l_jackson/index.html?inline=nyt-per, resigned http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/22/us/jackson-jr-to-resign-house-seat.html from Congress in November, shortly after winning re-election. His departure was the latest in a line of resignations by members of Congress amid allegations that they had used their power to enrich themselves. Mr. Jackson had taken a medical leave from Congress in June and was treated for bipolar disorder. The documents released by the prosecutors detail dozens of times that Mr. Jackson used campaign funds to buy lavish items. According to the documents, in July 2007, Mr. Jackson had a $43,350 gold-plated men's Rolex watch that he had bought with campaign funds shipped to Washington from Chicago. Nearly two months later, Mr. Jackson obtained two pieces of Bruce Lee memorabilia with campaign funds, each for $2,000, from a dealer called Antiquities of Nevada, according to the documents. The next year, Mr. Jackson obtained several more pieces of memorabilia with campaign funds, buying items that once belonged to the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. and Bruce Lee for more than $17,000 from the same dealer in Nevada. The same year, Mr. Jackson had $9,588 worth of children's furniture he had bought with campaign funds shipped from New Jersey to Washington, where he had a home. In May 2008, Mr. Jackson had a staff member report that his campaign had spent $1,553 for a room at a Chicago museum for a fund-raiser. But the prosecutors said in the documents that Mr. Jackson actually "spent these funds to purchase porcelain collector's items." In 2009, Mr. Jackson obtained significantly more memorabilia with his campaign funds. He bought the football signed by presidents and nine pieces of Michael Jackson memorabilia in one day that August for $17,100. Later that year, he used campaign funds to buy a $4,000 guitar that once belonged to Michael Jackson and Eddie Van Halen. That November, Mr. Jackson began buying furs. According to the documents, an unnamed co-conspirator had $5,150 worth of fur capes and parkas shipped to Washington from Beverly Hills, including a $1,200 mink reversible parka. The buying of memorabilia with campaign funds continued in 2010 when Mr. Jackson bought Jimi Hendrix memorabilia for $2,775 and the Michael Jackson fedora for $4,600 that March. The prosecutors said in the documents that Mr. Jackson would forfeit all of the memorabilia and the furs to the government. Mr. Jackson was elected to Congress in 1995 at age 30 after his predecessor, Mel Reynolds, also a Democrat, was convicted on charges of having sex with a teenage campaign volunteer. In his years in Congress, Mr. Jackson established himself as one of the leading African-American politicians in the country and tried to distance himself from his father's image, working on issues related to health care and education. But in 2008, his name surfaced in connection with the federal investigation of Gov. Rod R. Blagojevich of Illinois. As part of the investigation, the authorities uncovered evidence that a close friend of Mr. Jackson had offered to make significant campaign contributions to Mr. Blagojevich, a Democrat, if Mr. Jackson was given the Senate seat left vacant by Barack Obama after he was elected president. Mr. Jackson has denied any knowledge of the offer and has not been charged in connection with the matter. A primary to fill his seat is scheduled for Feb. 26. The district includes the South Side of Chicago and southern suburbs. READ MORE - THE NEW YORK TIMES http://thethorntonreview.com/HTTP://WWW.NYTIMES.COM/2013/02/16/US/POLITICS/JESSE-JACKSON-JR-CHARGED-IN-MISUSE-OF-CAMPAIGN-MONEY.HTML?NL=US&EMC=EDIT_CN_20130215&_R=0 Read More... http://thethorntonreview.com/news/us/2118 _______________________________________________________________ THE NEW MCCARTHYIST: Ted Cruz Rocks The Senate TED CRUZ RUNS COUNTER TO THE SENATES COURTLY WAYS WASHINGTON -- As the Senate edged toward a divisive filibuster vote on Chuck Hagels nomination to be defense secretary, Senator Ted Cruz, Republican of Texas, sat silent and satisfied in the corner of the chamber -- his voice lost to laryngitis -- as he absorbed what he had wrought in his mere seven weeks of Senate service. Mr. Hagel, a former senator from Mr. Cruz's own party, was about to be the victim of the first filibuster of a nominee to lead the Pentagon. The blockade was due in no small part to the very junior senator's relentless pursuit of speeches, financial records or any other documents with Mr. Hagel's name on them going back at least five years. Some Republicans praised the work of the brash newcomer, but others joined Democrats in saying that Mr. Cruz had gone too far. Without naming names, Senator Barbara Boxer, Democrat of California, offered a biting label for the Texan's accusatory crusade: McCarthyism. "It was really reminiscent of a different time and place, when you said, 'I have here in my pocket a speech you made on such and such a date,' and, of course, nothing was in the pocket," she said, a reference to Senator Joseph R. McCarthy's pursuit of Communists in the 1950s. "It was reminiscent of some bad times." In just two months, Mr. Cruz, 42, has made his presence felt in an institution where new arrivals are usually not heard from for months, if not years. Besides suggesting that Mr. Hagel might have received compensation from foreign enemies http://www.nytimes.com/2013/02/13/us/politics/hagel-faces-tense-panel-vote-on-his-pentagon-confirmation.html, he has tangled with the mayor of Chicago, challenged the Senate's third-ranking Democrat on national television, voted against virtually everything before him -- including the confirmation of John Kerry as secretary of state -- and raised the hackles of colleagues from both parties. He could not be more pleased. Washington's new bad boy feels good. "I made promises to the people of Texas that I would come to Washington to shake up the status quo," he said in e-mailed answers to questions, in lieu of speaking. "That is what I intend to do, and it is what I have done in every way possible in the responsibilities that have been granted to me." In a body known for comity, Mr. Cruz is taking confrontational Tea Party http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/t/tea_party_movement/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier sensibilities to new heights -- or lows, depending on one's perspective. Wowed conservatives hail him as a hero, but even some Republican colleagues are growing publicly frustrated with a man who has taken the zeal of the prosecutor and applied it to the decorous quarters of the Senate. Senator Lindsey Graham, Republican of South Carolina, said that some of the demands Mr. Cruz made of Mr. Hagel were "out of bounds, quite frankly." Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona, issued a public rebuke after Mr. Cruz suggested, with no evidence, that Mr. Hagel had accepted honorariums from North Korea. "All I can say is that the appropriate way to treat Senator Hagel is to be as tough as you want to be, but don't be disrespectful or malign his character," Mr. McCain said in an interview. Democrats were more blunt. "He basically came out and made the accusation about money from North Korea or money from our enemies, and he just laid out there all of this accusatory verbiage without a shred of evidence," said Senator Claire McCaskill, Democrat of Missouri. "In this country we had a terrible experience with innuendo and inference when Joe McCarthy hung out in the United States Senate, and I just think we have to be more careful." Mr. Cruz, a Canadian-born lawyer who won an upset primary victory last year, is adamant in his own defense. He said his focus at hearings had been on policy, not personality. With Mr. Hagel, whose nomination is set for a Senate vote the week of Feb. 25, he said his request for financial disclosures were backed by 24 other senators. As for his statement that Mr. Hagel may have received honorariums from nefarious sources, "the suggestions I have made in my arguments have been merely to raise examples for why I believe Senator Hagel's financial disclosure is so important," he said. "Comity does not mean avoiding the truth," he added. "And it would be wrong to avoid speaking the truth about someone's record and past policy positions, even if doing so inevitably subjects me to personal criticism from Democrats and the media." To the growing core of ardent conservatives in the Senate, Mr. Cruz has offered a jolt of positive energy. "If you don't ruffle any feathers, you're not doing anything right," said Senator Rand Paul, Republican of Kentucky, who garnered similar attention in his opening weeks in the Senate two years ago. Mr. Cruz was among the 22 senators who voted against reauthorizing the Violence Against Women Act, among the 34 who voted against raising the debt ceiling http://topics.nytimes.com/topics/reference/timestopics/subjects/n/national_debt_us/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier, among the 19 who tried to cut off military sales to Egypt, among the 36 who opposed a relief package for the regions hit by Hurricane Sandy http://topics.nytimes.com/top/reference/timestopics/subjects/h/hurricanes_and_tropical_storms/index.html?inline=nyt-classifier, and among the three senators http://www.nytimes.com/2013/01/30/us/politics/senate-panel-approves-kerry-for-secretary-of-state.html who voted against Mr. Kerry's confirmation. "I was compelled to vote no on Senator Kerry's nomination because of his longstanding less-than-vigorous defense of U.S. national security issues," said Mr. Cruz, who also questioned the commitment of Mr. Kerry and Mr. Hagel to the armed forces, though both served in Vietnam. Mr. Cruz has no record of military service. Chris Chocola, the president of the Club for Growth, a conservative free-market political action committee that strongly backed Mr. Cruz in his victory last year against the establishment's favorite, Lt. Gov. David Dewhurst, said the new senator was doing precisely what he had expected. The growing caucus of ardent conservatives -- Mr. Cruz, Mr. Paul, Marco Rubio of Florida, Patrick J. Toomey of Pennsylvania, Jeff Flake of Arizona, Mike Lee of Utah, Ron Johnson of Wisconsin and Tim Scott of South Carolina -- has begun reshaping what it means to be a Republican in the Senate, he said. "The last thing we need is another status quo senator or congressman who will go along to get along," said former Senator Jim DeMint of South Carolina, who pumped money into Mr. Cruz's campaign, then left the Senate to lead the conservative Heritage Foundation. Last month, Mr. Cruz faced off aggressively with Senator Charles E. Schumer of New York on a Sunday talk show. When Mayor Rahm Emanuel of Chicago wrote to the chiefs of big banks urging them not to invest in gun manufacturers, Mr. Cruz followed up with letters criticizing the "bullying" of a political "Godfather." After she raised the specter of McCarthyism, Ms. McCaskill was asked if she had spoken to Mr. Cruz about her concerns. "I'm not sure it would do any good," she said. "Do you?" READ MORE - THE NEW YORK TIMES http://thethorntonreview.com/HTTP://WWW.NYTIMES.COM/2013/02/16/US/POLITICS/TED-CRUZ-RUNS-COUNTER-TO-COURTLY-WAYS-OF-THE-SENATE.HTML?PAGEWANTED=ALL&_R=0 Read More... http://thethorntonreview.com/news/us/2119 _______________________________________________________________ Click here to Unsubscribe http://thethorntonreview.com/component/vemod_news_mailer/?unsubscribeall=1&userid=userid9999987 This is an autogenerated news mail, please do not respond

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Florida Innocence Commission issues a wake-up call to Legislature

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