The Killer I spoke of got a deal. I think because they had him dead to rights the deal should never been made. The family wants closure. And now in 10 years or less he will be back on the streets and the first items on his list of to do will be a new gun then drugs and you can take it from there. The family failed to honor the lost son! But that is just IMHO. Sorry I put the new to be scanned on the wrong sides. Tough.



Most online papers don't have all the news they do in print. And this punk got a sweet deal

Somebody out there please help. This is suppose to be a community thread. Join in please.

2 of these opinions are worth the read and then re-read them... You can tell by the underlining.........

do we see the change at the pump. In my siggy is the Senate and Congress
and anyone any wheres can contact your member to say wake up and make them reduce the cost at the pump keeping in line with the drop in overall pricing! Our you can do nothing. I'm betting on the last opition!!!!
But I won't stop trying to get this thread where I want it. Your involvement.

The last line says it all. If you want the reader comments use the link.

Purse thief strikes multiple times: CJOnline / The Topeka Capital-Journal - Purse thief strikes multiple times

The Capital-Journal
Published Sunday, July 20, 2008
Topeka police said women over the age of 65 were the targets of a man stealing purses Saturday afternoon near Gage Center.

Three women gave similar descriptions of a white man around noon who stole or tried to steal their purses in parking lots on S.W. Gage Boulevard, between S.W. 10th Avenue and Huntoon, said police Sgt. Richard Volle. Two of the robberies were successful, he said.

A third robbery in the parking lot of McFarland's, 4133 S.W. Gage Blvd., was unsuccessful. Volle said the victim held on to her purse and was dragged by the robber.

"He grabbed the straps of her purse and pulled on it, and she got pulled with it," Volle said.

Police said the robber is believed to be the same person responsible for stealing a purse from a woman's vehicle around 10 a.m. near S.E. 29th Street and California. Volle said items recovered at the Gage incidents were taken from the earlier incident.

Volle said the assailant was described as a white male in his mid-to-late 20s. He said victims gave varying descriptions of the man's height. He was last seen driving a maroon Oldsmobile or other General Motors Corp. car.

All of the afternoon incidents occurred outside in areas with frequent pedestrian traffic.

Police said the man also matches the description of a Thursday night purse snatchingnear S.W. 21st Street and Belle.

"When you take the chance to do three or four robberies in a row, you're pretty determined," Volle said. "The only thing that is going to cause you to be not as cautious is you have a pretty good Jones for something."

Any other states having this problem? Or do I need to wait for our great media to write about it as a national problem? Reader comments included.

Teacher shortage loom across state: CJOnline - Teacher shortage loom across state

The Associated Press
Published Monday, July 21, 2008 at 12:32 p.m. CDT
LAWRENCE — The state’s universities will face an unenviable task of fighting a looming teacher shortage, said University of Kansas School of Education Dean Rick Ginsberg.

The lack of competitive compensation is pushing more teachers away from the profession while creating a larger problem without a surefire solution, Ginsberg said.

“The numbers are so vague in this state,” Ginsberg said. “We don’t know how many teachers are truly needed everywhere.”

Record numbers of teachers are nearing retirement age. Long-term vacancies are rising in rural and inner-city school districts. Fewer college students are training to become teachers.

According to the National Education Association, about 20 percent of new teaching hires in the United States, often overwhelmed and underpaid, leave the classroom within two years.

Ginsberg said the real shortage starts in the math and science classrooms. The average starting annual salary for a teacher in Kansas is about $29,202, while the average salary for a chemical engineer in Kansas is around $80,000.

Kent McDonald, a former geologist who teaches science at Lawrence High School, said he felt that money was a big factor in turning people off to teaching science.

“I could make three to four times as much as I do now if I wanted to go back into, say, petroleum geology,” he said.

With a weak economy, Ginsberg said it has become harder to convince the younger generation to enter the teaching field. The University of Kansas School of Education had accepted more students this past year than in recent years, but he said the situation was far from ideal.

The university recently launched a program called UKanTeach, a joint venture between the College of Liberal Arts and Sciences and the School of Education that allows students earning a bachelor’s degree to also earn a teaching license.

Some rural Kansas school districts are offering financial help with continuing education and English-as-a-second-language certification.

Although these initiatives might lure more people to earn teaching certificates, it doesn’t necessarily mean they will have sustained teaching careers.

“There’s something like 75,000 licensed teachers in the state of Kansas,” Ginsberg said. “We only have around 33,000 actually teaching. That should tell you something.”

Alan Gleue, physics teacher at Lawrence High School and science department chairman, said that even though they are underpaid, many teachers have stayed out of a sense of duty.

“I still have the quixotic feeling that I make a difference,” he said. “Most teachers who stay with teaching have the feeling they’re contributing something to society outside of receiving a paycheck.”

Reader Comments
Posted by: HockeyGoon at Jul. 21, 2008 at 2:16:07 pm
Comparing a teacher to a chemical engineer? Why not a brain surgeon?

But then both of those occupations must be under paid because there are shortages in those fields too.


-1 Rating Posted by: vickit at Jul. 21, 2008 at 2:51:40 pm
Who wants to be a teacher if you have to go back to work in the middle of August?
Where's the fun in that?

+ 1 Rating Posted by: reramcharan at Jul. 21, 2008 at 2:58:41 pm
One reason we have a looming teacher shortage is that the teachers union won't allow retired people who have a lifetime of knowledge in their fields but no education degrees to set foot inside a classroom.
Retired physicians could be teaching biology. Retired pharmacists, chemistry. Retired lawyers, business law. Retired elected officials, civics (or influence peddling and wire fraud, whichever fits).
But no-o-o. People might think that it's more important to have the all-important teaching certificate than it is to actually know something.

Posted by: HockeyGoon at Jul. 21, 2008 at 3:18:46 pm
reramcharan at Jul. 21, 2008 at 2:58:41 pm
One reason we have a looming teacher shortage is that the teachers union won't allow retired people who have a lifetime of knowledge in their fields but no education degrees to set foot inside a classroom.
================================================== ===========

Not to mention the fact that the union would then have to deal with REAL professionals in their ranks.

My wife has been a teacher since 1994, she laughs when salary comparisons are made between teachers and other "professional" positions. She knows she has it good when she's home by 3:45 before the kids get off the bus and I'm calling her at 7:00 to let her know it might be a while yet. Then there's every holiday known to man off along with Christmas vacation, summer vacation and spring break.

If you take a look at the numbers every discipline in the state is headed for a shortage. Everything from doctors to nurses, truck drivers to construction workers, pharmacist to accountants are all predicted to have serious shortages, it’s hardly unique to the education process.


Posted by: toptownUSA at Jul. 21, 2008 at 3:20:26 pm
Knowing a lot in your field does not mean that you have the capability to teach that knowledge to our youth. An education degree teaches you a lot more than just the area you are studying (math or science). Teachers learn teaching techniques and how to covey the topic in an understandable approach so that others can learn it. I think back to college and remember having adjunct teachers verses regular professors and it was worlds different. I also know great supervisors who had all the knowledge in the world but wasn’t able to explain it well enough for anyone else to learn it.

Posted by: reramcharan at Jul. 21, 2008 at 3:25:25 pm
"I also know great supervisors who had all the knowledge in the world but wasn’t able to explain it well enough for anyone else to learn it."
Irony abounds, toptownUSA.

Public servents my sore ash.
Come on you people have stories like this. Not one city or state is without its sins. Do I have to start posting from each state myself. I will if none of you have the back bone to do it.
In fact I will find what I'm looking for with out any of the readers help. Then you might want to defend your state or city.

Kansas delegates not using car rule: CJOnline / The Topeka Capital-Journal - Kansas delegates not using car rule

Some legislators using tax money to lease vehicles
By James Carlson
The Capital-Journal
Published Monday, July 21, 2008
Kansas members of the U.S. House of Representatives say they are trying to save taxpayers money by not utilizing a rule that allows them to lease cars with their congressional allowance.

The provision, in place for years, permits lawmakers to use their office's budget to lease automobiles for official use. The U.S. Senate has no such rule.

The issue of taxpayer-funded leases has surfaced in the past, under cries of wasteful spending, and emerged again recently with new mandates the leased cars be more energy efficient.

In 2007, nearly 130 representatives took advantage of the rule by spending about $1 million, according to data compiled by the nonpartisan group Taxpayers for Common Sense. For instance, Rep. Denny Rehberg, R-Mont., leased a 2007 Chevy Tahoe for $1,013 a month. Likewise, Rep. Gregory Meeks, D-N.Y., spent $998 each month on a 2007 Lexus.

Others like Rep. Xavier Becerra, D-Calif., opted for a 2006 Toyota Prius for $183.

But the Kansas delegation said it just wasn't necessary.

Rep. Nancy Boyda doesn't accept the federal mileage reimbursement when she drives her own car for official use, much less use taxpayer's money for leasing a car, said spokesman Thomas Seay.

"Our aim is to run our office as effectively as possible," Seay said.

Federal employees, which includes public office holders, can be reimbursed 50.5 cents for each mile of official-use driving, which is meant to cover the costs of gas and the automobile's wear and tear. Those representatives leasing cars can turn in receipts strictly for purchased gas.

Others in the Kansas delegation also use their own car while driving their districts. Rep. Jerry Moran either drives his vehicle or rents a car when traveling through his district's 69 counties on his annual listening tour.

"We're looking at the most affordable ways to travel," said Moran spokeswoman Nicole Young.

The offices of Boyda and Moran decide whether to use their own car or a rental based on the overall cost. For long trips, it can be cheaper to rent a car and get reimbursed for the actual gas money instead of receiving the larger wear-and-tear reimbursement.

Sam Sackett, spokesman for Rep. Todd Tiahrt, said the issue is one of efficient spending.

"(Tiahrt) has never felt a need to use taxpayer money for this," he said.

Those taxpayer dollars are allowed by the Members' Congressional Handbook, which details what travel expenses are covered. Included in the permitted travel costs is dollars spent on leasing a car for "ordinary and necessary expenses" for "official and representational duties to the district from which elected."

Lawmakers tweaked the car-leasing rule last year when they attached to an energy bill a small amendment requiring any leased vehicle to be a more environmentally friendly car.

James Carlson can be reached at (785) 233-7470 or james.carlson@cjonline.com.

Starting with the Huntsville Times: al.com: Opinion

The ones with a dot before them are links. So I am not going to bother posting each link at the sites from now on.

Monday, July 21, 2008 • Let's be bigger losers
Too many Alabamians are obese, but they can change that


• Your views
Shame on Blakely:

Sunday, July 20, 2008 • A troubling election
Few people voted Tuesday, and more fraud allegations arise ... It sure does. Seems many in Huntville are not wasting thir time to vote. Great Americans...
troubling election
Sunday, July 20, 2008Huntsville Times
Few people voted Tuesday, and more fraud allegations arise

Maybe the best thing that can be said about Tuesday's state and local primary runoffs is that they are over. True, the two major parties have chosen their candidates for the November elections, but major questions hang over the process, questions that go to the core of both the democratic system and a citizen's duty to take part in it.

Here's what we're talking about:


Statewide, the total voter turnout in both parties was a pathetic 4 to 5 percent. In Madison County, a community that prides itself on its civic awareness, we did better - but only 7 percent. Still pathetic, in other words.

In DeKalb County, the situation was even worse, according to news reports from Huntsville's WHNT-TV. The county has 38,000 registered voters, but only 692 showed up at the polls. That's an abysmal 1.8 percent. It cost $52,000 to hold the election in DeKalb County - or $75 per voter.

In one polling place near Fyffe, no one showed up to vote.

Meanwhile, reports about possible voter fraud this year in some Alabama counties increase almost daily. Secretary of State Beth Chapman last week said she had referred to the attorney general's office allegations that in a special runoff election June 10 in Perry County, votes were being sold for "$40 and a rock" of crack cocaine.

"It's sad is what it is. Democracy should be worth more than that," Chapman said.

That's not all. Earlier, Chapman had referred to the attorney general's office allegations of possible voter fraud in the June 3 party primary elections in Marion, Lowndes, Bullock and Jackson counties.

In addition, Attorney General Troy King has complained about what he deems a lack of cooperation by the U.S. Justice Department, again dealing with Perry County. King had asked for copies of reports by federal election monitors who were at the polls in Perry County on June 3. Justice has declined while the reports are still being reviewed.

CONTINUED 1 see site for the rest of the story @ http://www.al.com/opinion/huntsville...340.xml&coll=1



• Ol' Red was fearsome in guarding his turf, women
There once was a much-loved and respected senescent female who lived in the hinterland of Madison County. I know this because the woman was my grandmother.


• To my cousin, some reasons why I moved to the South
An open letter to one of my "Big City" cousins: Hey Cuz, A few family members and some of our friends are still wondering why I moved to "the Deep South." You know that several of my colleagues begged me not to, and some of my former professors felt I should teach at a "mainstream" university. Even some of my students down here have questioned my move. Those persistent sentiments, as well as the current strident, ugly national debate about "patriotism," have left this Alabama migrant thinking about the concept of "home" on many different levels. Right now, I'm thinking about how it would fuel the national psyche and the well-being of everyone if everybody had a secure place to call home - a place without animosities, divisions, poverty, strife and fear.


• Your views
New constitution: seems kansas and Alabama have common ground: LOL
Your views
Sunday, July 20, 2008Huntsville Times
New constitution

Recently there has been a lot of ink devoted to the tax shortfall in Madison County. I also know that this lack of funds will be exacerbated as the BRAC people start arriving.

I was surprised to learn that this county, and most others in Alabama, does not levy impact fees on new construction to offset the increased usage of infrastructure. Impact fees have pros and cons but here is the kicker: Even if impact fees were decided to be part of the solution to the problem, our county commission is powerless to enact any ordinances of this type.

The Alabama Constitution does not allow "home rule." What is required is a new constitution to allow the diverse sections of Alabama to deal with their local problems without going hat-in-hand to Montgomery.

We all know how our legislators in Montgomery handle problems. They go on a sabbatical hoping the problem will go away or they raise their salaries.


Saturday, July 19, 2008 • A lawsuit, as expected
Ex-A&M President Robert Jennings takes his case to court


• Your views
Virtual monopoly

Friday, July 18, 2008 • Curb diploma mills
Bradley Byrne has stepped in to do what legislators wouldn't (now this is what I find interesting, I need to dig a bit deeper!) Gee see what it is about. seems cheap non earned Diplomas were easy for any young adult to get. Bet one could get one for their pet dog. see bottom of the post for the entire story.


• Your views
Supporting Israel

Thursday, July 17, 2008 • The race in the 5th
Griffith, Parker square off in a contest with national implications


• Your views
University pinheads

Wednesday, July 16, 2008 • Still in the game
VW would have been nice, but we're not in the poor house just yet


• Your views
So what?

Tuesday, July 15, 2008 • Will Spencer debate?
She needs to, at least a little, and history says she probably will


• Your views
A spoils system

I love this:
Curb diploma mills
Friday, July 18, 2008Huntsville Times
Bradley Byrne has stepped in to do what legislators wouldn't

In two different years, the Alabama Legislature had the chance to pass measures to crack down on the fly-by-night colleges and diploma mills that have cropped up in the state. And twice the Legislature refused.

Now the chancellor of Alabama's postsecondary two-year colleges has stepped in. Bradley Byrne has proposed - and the Alabama State Board of Education will probably adopt - a new set of requirements for the almost 120 private, for-profit institutions operating in Alabama.


According to The Birmingham News, here are the major provisions of Byrne's initiative, which is to take effect Oct. 1:

Fees for the licenses issued by Byrne's department will rise significantly. The additional money will allow Byrne to hire more employees to oversee the regulation of the schools.

Each licensed college must post a surety bond of $50,000. The present requirement is $20,000.

Colleges seeking licenses or license renewal must file audited financial statements and copies of their state and federal income-tax returns. At the moment, the state accepts unaudited financial statements.

Colleges must show they do not employ people of questionable background and have not been sued for fraud or deceptive trade practices in the past 10 years.

Colleges must submit their lists of tuition and fees to Byrne's department, and the information will be posted on the postsecondary department's Web site.

Byrne's proposal exempts institutions that are accredited and have been in business since at least 1999.

Earlier this year, Dr. Gregory Fitch, executive director of the Alabama Commission on Higher Education, said Alabama had gained the reputation as a state that let diploma mills operate without much oversight.

The changes proposed in the Legislature would have consolidated expanded authority and put it under ACHE's jurisdiction. Although the measures failed to pass, Fitch on Wednesday said he fully endorsed Byrne's package. Such endorsement also seemed to come from the Alabama Association of Private Colleges and Schools.

Intolerable fraud

It's not known exactly how much money state residents pay to the unaccredited private colleges. But fraud in any amount is unacceptable.

Alabama's adult population must be prepared for the work force of today and tomorrow. It's in the public interest for the state to address diplomas mills, just as it addresses fraud in other sectors of the private economy.

When you go to "college," pay tuition and buy books, it ought to mean something. Chancellor Byrne's reform package will help make sure it does.

By John Ehinger, for the editorial board. E-mail: john.ehinger@htimes.com

I will get to every state sooner or later. And like above find the stupid political moves or non moves so either start posting or I will for you!