- Which States Rescinded Their Ratifications of the ERA? | About.com Women’s History
- During the 1970s, 35 states ratified the proposed Equal Rights Amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Five of those states later rescinded their ERA ratifications for various reasons. Which states were they? What are the legal ramifications of rescission?
- Arizona Senate sends pension-reform effort to governor
- The state Senate has sent sweeping changes to Arizona's public retirement systems to Gov. Jan Brewer for her likely signature into law, but a public employees' lawsuit challenging the reforms looms on the horizon.
[SB 1609]
- Many Pushing to Change Public Schools Attended Private Ones – NYTimes.com
- …the consensus is that there is little difference between President Obama and former President George W. Bush when it comes to education policy. Nor is it easy to distinguish differences between the secretary of education under Mr. Bush, Margaret Spellings, and the current secretary, Arne Duncan.
Those who call themselves reformers are a diverse group, men and women of every political stripe and of every race and ethnicity.
But there is one thing that characterizes a surprisingly large number of the people who are transforming public schools: they attended private schools.
- How to Stage Manage a Show Trial | Emptywheel
- MIchelle Shepherd reports on an effort Omar Khadr’s military lawyers are making to win clemency for their client. (h/t JL) Much of it focuses on the role psychiatrist Michael Welner, who testified that his interview with Khadr proved he’d never give up violence, played. As Jeff Kaye showed at the time, Welner’s report on Khadr showed an anti-Muslim bias. Khadr’s lawyers were able to rip Welner’s testimony to some degree…
But they’re apparently arguing that they were told not to challenge Welner’s expertise more generally (presumably to exclude his testimony), because if they did it would endanger the plea deal they had negotiated for Khadr.
none
- Thirsty Students: Access to Drinking Water is Lacking in Public Schools | GOOD • by Liz Dwyer
- …think about all the school children who aren't able to drink water during the school day—not even during their lunch period. The result? America's kids are dehydrated, and it could be affecting their academic and physical performance.
According to the CDC's National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, a mere 15 percent of middle school students consume the minimum six to eight glasses of water a day.none
- Women and Wires. Or more on exclusion of women from traditionally male blue-collar jobs. | Echidne of the Snakes – Echidne
- All this is good to remember when you read certain types of MRAs tell us that if only women got off their asses and did some Real Work they'd make more money. Of course the gender gap in wages has little to do with dangerous types of job, but it is still salutary to remind ourselves of the reasons why certain occupations have hardly any women.
- Trump Slams Immigrants Who ‘Never Ever Achieved Anything’ | LA Progressive
- ..Trump was recently caught railing on immigrants at a Tea Party rally in Florida this past weekend. Yet, Trump doesn’t have a problem with well-educated foreigners coming to the United States. He takes issue with the poor undocumented immigrants who “have never ever achieved anything”…
- If Cairo Came to Kabul | LA Progressive
- What burst forth earlier this year [in Egypt] appeared to be spontaneous. It was not.
It will come as a surprise to most Americans, and indeed to most Afghans, that a dedicated group of Afghan youth has begun building a principled and disciplined nonviolent movement for peace, independence, and unity in Afghanistan. By independence, the Afghan youth mean independence from the United States and NATO, but also from Pakistan and Iran and all other outside control, as well as independence from rule by the Taliban, warlords, and oligarchs of all stripes. By unity, they mean national Afghan unity inclusive of all ethnicities.
…Taking over the streets of the capital, if that tactic is employed, will not happen until a great deal of groundwork has been laid. That groundwork will likely involve several steps that have been identified by those working on this project.
- Saif admits Qaddafis are Brutal Foreign Occupiers | Informed Comment • by Juan
- The Qaddafi kids are spoiled, sadistic billionaire brats who have been acting out in fancy places in Europe while large numbers of Libyan working people were left unemployed or poverty-stricken, despite their country’s oil riches. ( Before the uprising, unemployment in Libya was estimated at 30%, and by some estimates a similar proportion was under the poverty line.)
[link link link]
…What Saif Qaddafi’s three comparisons have in common is that they are incidents of horrific destruction and disproportionate use of force exercised by outsiders on locals of a different ethnicity.none
- MAP: Has Your State Banned Sodomy? | MoJo Blogs and Articles – Mother Jones – Tim Murphy
- It's been eight years since the Supreme Court officially knocked down anti-sodomy laws as unconstitutional in Lawrence v. Texas, but Texas' state legislature has thus far refused to remove the law from the books…
[My bookmarks live at delicious.com/camryl. In case it needs to be said: I don't agree with every word of everything I link to. Also, signal boosts are awesome! --L.]
The Of interest (Tue, Apr 19th, 7am) by Lee Salazar, unless otherwise expressly stated, is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Share Alike 3.0 United States License. Terms and conditions beyond the scope of this license may be available at leesalazar.com.