The Mercatus Center at George Mason University has come out with a report with statistics and facts about the spending of the stimulus money based on information gathered from recovery.gov. The report shows that Democratic districts received twice as much stimulus money as Republican districts.

Democratic districts also received 1.89 times more stimulus dollars than Republican districts. The average dollars awarded per Republican district is $232,047,857, while the average dollars awarded per Democratic district is $439,200,100. In total, Democratic districts received 73.47 percent of the total stimulus funds awarded. In terms of numbers of awards, Republican districts received 29.77 percent of the total, while Democratic districts received 70.22 percent.

Some may argue, however, that this can be owed to the fact that Democratic voters are typically poorer and need more help. Even if that were true, that would not account for the 40 point difference between the two. However, that is simply not the case. The study found “no correlation between economic indicators and stimulus funding. Preliminary results find no effect of unemployment, median income, or mean income on stimulus funds allocation.”

“You would think, right, that if the administration believes in its theory that government money can create jobs, they would spend a lot of money in districts that have high unemployment,” said Veronique de Rugy, one of the study’s co-authors. “We found absolutely no relationship.”

All this serves to prove is what I knew all along: The stimulus package wasn’t about helping the economy out; it was about exploiting a recession in order to establish a little extra government control and to pay back Pelosi, Obama, and Reid’s Democratic cohorts and provide them with an election slush fund.

Despicable.

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I’ve had ample discussions with many of my friends that are around my age about the need for handwriting in school. When I was in school is was absolutely mandatory that we not only practice our handwriting, but be proficient at writing the letters. This goes for both print and cursive. 1st-3rd grade we practiced print writing and 4th-6th grade we practiced cursive handwriting. Grades 7-8 we were finally given the autonomy to write in whatever style we liked. Many of my friends who were in grammar school in the late 80’s and through the 90’s had a curriculum similar to this one.

Recently, I have read the second article of the year in regards to whether or not school districts should require their teachers to teach cursive handwriting. The most recent article “School Adjust How Writing is Taught in the Text Age” discusses this paradigm shift. Many education administrators site three reasons why cursive handwriting needs to be reevaluated.

1. In the days of high-stakes testing many districts have had to really streamline “ancillary” subjects like handwriting so they can spend more time with reading and mathematics.

2. As we conclude the first decade of the 21st century, many students aren’t communicating through pen and paper writing — let alone cursive handwriting.

3. Even when students are writing using pen and paper they typically skew to print writing instead of cursive.

Cursive writing should be here to stay.

Personally, I think these are all valid reasons why a district should re-evaluate the handwriting curriculum. However, to eliminate cursive handwriting would be a big mistake. I have two reasons why I think it would be a mistake:

1. If you are not a fan of high-stakes testing to evaluate student learning, then eliminating handwriting from the curriculum wouldn’t be consistent with that logic. If you analyze many of the “reforms” going through our system today, you begin to send a trend where little by little we are asking to dismiss many things that were core to our own learning. For example, reducing the amount of time student take elective courses (art, music, etc.), doubling the amount of time students are doing reading/mathematics, etc. Eliminating cursive handwriting from the curriculum would just add to schools just focusing on “core subjects” and straying away from creating the “whole student.”

2. Ironically as I am writing this blog I realise that once again I am not physically writing something down on a piece of paper. I am using type for a medium of communication. This shows my privilege in my access to technology for communication. However, I am one of the few people in our society that has this privilege. The article that I using as a basis for this blog discusses how many students use technology as means of communication. I will grant them that.

Texting is NOT the only form of communication.

However, as long as ALL students don’t have consistent access to communication through technology then eliminating cursive handwriting would be problematic. I feel it needs to be understood that handwriting is just one form of communication. This one form of communication is the easiest to teach (usually through repetition and application), the cheapest to teach, and is universal among all literate people in our society. Using WordPress for blogging, creating a Meebo account for streamlined communication, and developing a Linked-In page for social networking is not easy to teach, cheap to furnish, or particularly universal among everyone. Web 2.0 has done an excellent job at providing communication services free of charge, but training principals, teachers, and students in these Web 2.0 applications is not free. Therefore, until ALL districts provide ALL stakeholders with the tools and the knowledge to use texting, IM, and Web 2.0 tools, districts must not be quick to eliminate handwriting (including cursive) from their curriculum. Rather, they should find a way to strike a nice balance.

From the European Union of a lot of administrative districts, districts he owes a lot to coming funds very much especially building pavements, investments concerning the sewage treatment plant or the promotion of the tourism are a great burden for these institutions if not for funding partially. Therefore of a lot of offices and the institution is using the help subsidies are which. These investments require the large circulation of financial means but considerable lowering these huge costs enables exploiting union funds. The present modern appearance of many cities or also villages concern it of new pavements, stops, the fibre-optic cable or the renovation of streets is possible at using these funds. But at the same time schools and nursery schools equally willingly are using from the fact that subsidies will help them for example with equipping classes with modern computers, the purchase of indispensable educational materials or carrying of essential although costly renovations. But these institutions are not only using the subsidy thanks to the program of the Development of Country Areas farmers and different country dwellers will have an opportunity to use from funding partially to diversifying nonagricultural activity in direction, this program also includes the help for young farmers. It is not an end of the range of this special program thanks to it a kind of the support for households, in which the maximum amount of the help amounts even also exists 1800 zloty for the hectare. It is kind of the long-term, payed every year aid. Having an arable farm about the not smaller surface area of the farmlands is a condition of receiving the that kind of subsidy than 1 ha as well as taking on an obligation by the farmer for the realization of the program for the period of 5 years.
If not for that kind of subsidies of a lot of investment it would be simply impossible to carry.

In the wake of several recent highly-publicized stories about violence among school-aged children, a new report shows that school districts participating in the Safe Schools/Healthy Students Initiative substantially improved the safety of their students.  According to the report by the Substance Abuse and Mental Health Services Administration (SAMHSA), over a three-year period, school districts participating in the Safe Schools/Healthy Students grant program reported fewer students involved in violent incidents, decreased levels of experienced and witnessed violence, and improvements in overall school safety and violence prevention.

Key findings from the Safe Schools/Healthy Students National Evaluation include:

• A 15 percent decrease in the number of students involved in violent incidents during the grant period (from 17, 800 in year 1 to 15,163 in year 3).
• A 12 percent decrease in the number of students reporting that they had experienced or witnessed violence from year 1 of the grant period to year 3.
• Most staff at grantee schools reported that the Initiative had made their schools safer. By year 3 of the grant, 84 percent said the Initiative had improved school safety, 77 percent said it had reduced violence on campus, and 75 percent said it had reduced violence in the community.

For more information on the Safe Schools/Healthy Students visit: http://www.sshs.samhsa.gov/apply/default.aspx

One big complaint about last week’s water legislation is that it is pricey; a second complaint is that the 20% water use reduction is voluntary. Those are linked. A fair bit of the $11B bond measure goes to grants to districts for conservation and infrastructure improvements. If you don’t meet the 20% by 2020 goal, you can’t get state grants. The legislature is essentially offering bribes that are too good to turn down. This is sortof fine, if you don’t mind that the taxpayers as a whole are supplying the money for those bribes*. But some object to the bribery method at all. Make the conservation target mandatory, they say.

As a bureaucrat, I have an insatiable demand for power and I love to meddle in people’s daily business, so I’m not emotionally opposed to making 20 by 2020 mandatory. But as I think more about it, I can’t figure out how I would make water conservation mandatory in urban California.  Who would I enforce against?  What is the remedy?

What would be the target unit of enforcement?  People?  Households?  Districts?  Cities, in places that aren’t served by a district?  Those all get hairy really fast.  I don’t know of any ways to track the 35 million individual water users, nor how to break them out from within a household, and how would you divvy up the household landscaping water use?  Households?  Every household should have a meter, and I’d like to see multi-unit places have meters too.  So that doesn’t bother me theoretically.  But how would the state receive and track and enforce against individual households, if their water consumption dropped 18% but not 20% by 2020?  What’s the reporting mechanism?  How is it validated?  The state could require that districts or cities do this, or simply that districts show an aggregate water level use that’s down by 20% on a per capita basis.  But that starts pooling crime in a way that we don’t generally do.  Punishing a water district (how?  fines?  And then the district raises rates to recoup funds (which I don’t think it can do under Prop 218)?) for not meeting a goal punishes the people in the district who did meet the goal along with the people who don’t.  Besides, we hold employers responsible for the criminal acts of their employees, but isn’t it a little strange to hold public municipal or administrative body responsible for the acts of its constituents?  I mean, a water district doesn’t have that much power over the people inside it.  If a bad actor inside a water district wanted to use 84% of her 2009 water use, the district can’t do more than levy fines.

If urban water conservation is legally mandatory, choosing the level to prosecute against gets complicated fast.  But assuming we worked that out, there are other stange aspects to it.  Using water isn’t a crime, and it is a little strange to think that it would become one in the next gallon after 80% of your 2009 water use.  Wasting water is currently a(n almost entirely unenforced) crime under the California Constitution, but most people don’t have a strong emotional sense that letting the shower run until the water gets hot, or neglecting a running toilet is a matter that is appropriately prosecuted.  Further, people are extremely attached to however it was when they were kids; we’re going to tell them that what they’ve done their whole lives is suddenly illegal?  I guess we’ve done that with smoking bans, but there you could point to the harms of secondhand smoke.  Any incremental water use, even a wasteful one, seems like a pretty benign thing to criminalize.

Then, what is the remedy?  Throw those wasteful fuckers in jail and throw away the key?  Naw.  I can’t imagine anyone is talking about criminal remedies.  I assume we’re talking about civil prosecutions, and a thought of an administrative system for that (district water courts?  Traffic courts handle water tickets on the side?) is also boggling.  I suppose the water cops could issue tickets and the household could either pay it or make improvements.  Or something.

Yeah.  I’m not emotionally opposed to making water conservation mandatory, but as a practical legal matter, I don’t how to do it.

*My personal guess? There is no fucking way that $11B bond measure will pass next year. I think it should. I think it is a huge amount of money relative to our current budget and in the current recession. I think it is a small amount of money relative to what it will cost to build infrastructure and restore the ecosystem enough to buffer us against climate change.

HAPPY BIRTHDAY MR.JOHN KEATS.

That was the first thought in my head this morning. And it was a good thought.

And today will be a good day.

•I curled my hair for John Keats.

•I’m going to watch xc Districts in my jeans.

•It’s John Keats’ Birthday.

•It’s only supposed to rain on AWARDS.

•I get to carry my red umbrella.

•It’s John Keats’ birthday.

•Trouser socks are in my drawer.

•CHOCOLATE MILK.

•It’s John Keats’ birthday.

•My voice is ready for some cheering.

•Did I mention it’s KEATS’ birthday?

•

•

I HEART HIM.

•

And that is why.

Now I’m off to a cup of tea and letters written by Mr.KEATS.

Love.

-Bella.dear

Posted By: Dwight Merriam, Partner, Robinson & Cole, LLP

Lyrics: Lawrence Wagner
Music: Elliot Ingber

(on the soundtrack of “Easy Rider”)

Chorus
Don’t bogart that joint my friend
Pass it over to me
Don’t bogart that joint my friend
Pass it over to me

Roll another one
Just like the other one
You’ve been holding on to it
And I sure will like a hit

[chorus]

Roll another one
Just like the other one
That one’s burned to the end
Come on and be a real friend

[chorus]

Marijuana is prescribed for certain medical conditions, such as pain relief, control of nausea and vomiting, and appetite stimulation. Since 1996, at least 13 states have legalized the sale of medical marijuana.

Now, check your zoning regulations and see what districts allow this land use:  “Retail Sales – Medical Marijuana.”  Couldn’t find it, right?

I first saw mention of this issue in Longmont, Colorado. It’s legal there and buyers now don’t have to drive into Boulder to get their meds.  Here’s a local proprietor with product to be prepared for sale.  One of his newest patients has had 14 knee surgeries and needs the pain relief.

Larry Hill — owner of the The Apothecary, 1314 Coffman St. — displays a medical marijuana plant Thursday that he has grown and harvested. Hill said he opened his medical marijuana dispensary in February and has “over 50 patients.” Lewis Geyer/Times-Call

When I started searching for other communities facing the issue of local zoning for medical marijuana sales, it was obvious there is a widespread debate.  Interestingly, Colorado and California, two of the 13 states allowing the sale, have most of the news stories.  Do you suppose their residents in those two states have special needs for pain relief, control of nausea and vomiting, and appetite stimulation?

Aspen, Colorado allows sale anywhere an office is permitted, says the city’s planning director.    

It’s being debated in Brush, Colorado, where there has been discussion (click here and here) about distancing requirements which would put the dispensaries on the same footing as liquor stores and sexually oriented business, hardly the medical treatment model. 

San Diego, California, has created a task force on the subject, but police are reportedly raiding dispensaries, guns drawn, bursting in using battering rams.

Charles Ziegenfelder, owner of PB 420 Cheech & Chong Headquarters, poses for a portrait just minutes before being informed that raids are being conducted at dispensaries in the area. Photo: Sam Hodgson. Courtesy www.voiceofsandiego.org

And, yes, there is even case law on the subject, from California, of course, where the Court of Appeal, Second Appellate District held that Claremont did not have to zone for the use and that the city could declare the dispensing to be a nuisance, at least where it appears the use is not permitted.  Go here for the actual decision.

For a good model zoning ordinance on “Medical Marijuana Dispensaries”, where else better to go than Berkeley, California?

It is beneath a good blogger to make fun of comments, right?  Not your comments; your comments have all been fantastic.  But comments to newspaper stories.  There’s no point in selecting one and mocking it.  I mean, they’re likely to be laypeople or be ideologically biased.  I normally read newspaper comments for the gestalt (then huddle in the corner, sobbing for our future).  But this one is SO GREAT.  I can’t resist.  From an article in the Capitol Weekly on increased enforcement in the proposed new water legislation:

The only way that a government that has brought the state to its economic and political knees can think of to fix a problem is by giving that same government more power. This has gone beyond inept insanity to maniacal delusion. We want and we should have more water for less money. We don’t want to continue to pay a collection of incompetents to tell us or try to make us use less. Any 1st grade class could come up with that one.

I am deeply chagrined that the proposed water legislation does not manufacture new cheap sources of water out of thin air.  Why didn’t they think of that?  Where is their problem-solving inventiveness?!  Why are they binding themselves with the iron chains of reality?!!*  That will only hold us back!

The city of Oceanside also thought that water should be cheap, apparently.  Refused to raise rates to cover the increased costs of water from their wholesaler.  I can’t entirely tell what is going on, but it looks like they’re eating their reserves, which may trigger a debt call of $105M.  But I’m only guessing.  I would like to point out, though, that even though a legislative body made a decision that water should stay cheap, that DIDN’T MAKE WATER STAY CHEAP.  Rather, it meant that they had to reach into a different pocket to pay for the more expensive water.   If it doesn’t bankrupt the town first, they seem to have a new plan to look into legislation forbidding rate increases by their wholesaler (over whom they have no jurisdiction).  Yes, well.  How could that go wrong?

*One day when we were bored, my friend and I worked out the lifecycle of the unicorns that bring new water.  I should write that up for you guys.  They are called to concrete, you know.  Pouring concrete, either for dams or subdivisions, summons the unicorns that gush potable water from their horns.

There were a handful of articles last week about cities deciding to stop permitting new houses and buildings because of their revised estimates of their water availability.  I think this is fascinating stuff, and one day I hope to write more about it.  If this were the whole post on that, it would have:

A discussion of the Regional Housing Needs Assessment, which is a big part of the reason that cities can’t decide to stop permitting new houses, even if cities or districts don’t have enough water for them.

Speculation about what goes into a Will-Serve Letter, which is a water district’s promise that they’ll provide water to a new service hook-up.

A discussion of whether water availability is used as an excuse to keep (poorer, darker) people out of water district service areas. 

Making explicit the fact that when districts decide on a per capita amount of water (gallons/person-day), they are implicitly choosing a standard of living for their constituents (personal lawns, long showers, thirsty plants).  That standard of living has a strong present-day bias, which I don’t think we were ever able to afford and certainly can’t continue to provide.  (Well, it is possible to provide it, but people are already balking at the increasing costs of providing what we’ve got.  I think they’d go batshit if they saw the costs of getting the next source of water.)

Mention and illustration of the fact that (shortsighted, selfish) people get really pissy about being asked to conserve when they see new houses going up in their city.

Description of two policy holes: that planners take population growth as exogenous, and the gap between land use planners and water planners.

Anyway, that would be a rockin’ post, and I should totally write it.  Not today, though.  I can’t tell whether putting up this stub makes a developed final piece more likely or less likely.  I mean, you get the gist, right?

Section 1000 . Effect Of Charter On School Districts .

The adoption of this charter shall not have the effect of creating any new school district nor shall the adoption of this charter have any effect upon the existence, the boundaries or manner of operation of any school district located within the boundaries of the city, wholly or partially, as of the effective date of this charter. Each such present school district shall continue in existence subject, in all respects, to the provisions of the constitution and the laws of the state of California, as the same now exist or hereafter may be amended.

Section 1001 . Application Of State Law .

The manner, the time, tenure and terms of office, with reference to the members of boards of education of such school districts, their qualifications, compensation and removal and the number which shall constitute any one of such boards, shall continue to be prescribed by the constitution and the laws of the state of California, as the same now exist or may hereafter be amended.

India is a land of diversities, a republic consisting of 28 states and seven union territories with a parliamentary system of democracy. It is the second-most populous country, and the most populous democracy in the world.

Location: Bounded by the Indian Ocean on the south, the Arabian Sea on the west, and the Bay of Bengal on the east, India has a coastline of 7,517 kilometres (4,700 mi). It is bordered by Pakistan to the west; People’s Republic of China, Nepal, and Bhutan to the north; and Bangladesh and Myanmar to the east. India is in the vicinity of Sri Lanka, the Maldives, and Indonesia in the Indian Ocean.

Diversity: A pluralistic, multilingual, and multiethnic society, India is also home to a diversity of wildlife in a variety of protected habitats. The Indian subcontinent was identified with its commercial and cultural wealth for much of its long history. Four major religions, Hinduism, Buddhism, Jainism and Sikhism originated here, while Zoroastrianism, Judaism, Christianity and Islam arrived in the first millennium.

Culture: Traditional Indian society is defined by relatively strict social hierarchy. The Indian caste system describes the social stratification and social restrictions in the Indian subcontinent, in which social classes are defined by thousands of endogamous hereditary groups, often termed as castes.

Traditional Indian family values are highly respected, and multi-generational patriarchal joint families have been the norm, although nuclear families are becoming common in urban areas. An overwhelming majority of Indians have their marriages arranged by their parents and other respected family members, with the consent of the bride and groom. Marriage is thought to be for life, and the divorce rate is extremely low. Child marriage is still a common practice, with half of women in India marrying before the legal age of 18.

Indian cuisine is characterised by a wide variety of regional styles and sophisticated use of herbs and spices. The staple foods in the region are rice (especially in the south and the east) and wheat (predominantly in the north).

Many Indian festivals are religious in origin, although several are celebrated irrespective of caste and creed. Some popular festivals are Diwali, Ganesh Chaturthi, Ugadi, Thai Pongal, Holi, Onam, Vijayadasami, Durga Puja, Eid ul-Fitr, Bakr-Id, Christmas, Buddha Jayanti and Vaisakhi.

Indian architecture is one area that represents the diversity of Indian culture. Much of it, including notable monuments such as the Taj Mahal and other examples of Mughal architecture and South Indian architecture, comprises a blend of ancient and varied local traditions from several parts of the country and abroad. Vernacular architecture also displays notable regional variation.

This house has its own greenhouse, a stone bridge and a beautiful lake where you can swim. It is ideal for a family of 4 members who love nature. It has 3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms and especially many plants.

Lot Size: 3×4
LotPrice: Furnished 97 162 Unfurnished 76 698

Download here from Modthesims

This playground was built many years ago, when the families of the miners of Clover City settled in the place. The passage of time deteriorated the place but even so the kids will love

Download here