Archive for 2013
December 8, 2013
BURGER WAR: In-N-Out Burger Joins Five Guys, Battles Local Favorites in Austin’s Rapidly Escalating Burger War.
I had lunch at Gyrene Burger on the Strip in Knoxville last week. I think it compared quite favorably to In-N-Out.
IN THE MAIL: From Ben Bova, Mars, Inc.: The Billionaire’s Club.
TAXPROF: The IRS Scandal, Day 213.
EDUCATION: ‘We Cannot Forget People Who Did Not Graduate From High School.’
LaGuardia Community College is a GED machine. At this urban school, near the Long Island Expressway in the New York City borough of Queens, the prep courses for the state’s high school equivalency exam aren’t just textbook reviews—they are professional-development classes. There is a course for would-be health workers, another for business students, and yet another for anyone interested in technology and engineering.
LaGuardia’s free classes, funded by state, city, and foundation grants, have a months-long waiting list. Students willing to pay for courses (at about $3.50 per hour of instruction) can usually get a spot in the next scheduled class, although those fill up, too. Most students are black or Latino.
Gail Mellow, LaGuardia’s president, says postsecondary educators who don’t reach out to high school dropouts are ignoring many of the young people who most need their help. In big cities such as New York, almost 40 percent of students who enter high school don’t finish. “To really educate the American populace,” she says, “we cannot forget people who did not graduate from high school.”
But a General Educational Development certificate alone won’t suffice for people who want to make a decent wage. So, three years ago, LaGuardia began tailoring its GED-prep classes toward certain professions. Reading material for aspiring health pros includes a book about three friends trying to become doctors. Math homework for prospective engineers involves interpreting charts and graphs. These professional-development additions to GED classes were intended to create a smooth transition to college classes or more job training. The community college wound up inheriting a lot of its own successful GED students. Seventeen percent of its college students are from the GED program.
Very interesting, and an issue that I address in my forthcoming book.
IN AMERICA, A CRISIS OF TRUST?
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BUSINESS AS USUAL: Eric Holder’s Kickbacks For Community Organizers.
WELL, TO BE FAIR, IT WAS MSNBC SO WHO WAS WATCHING, REALLY? Obama Threw Some Serious Shade At MSNBC’s Chris Matthews And Everybody Missed It.
JAMES TARANTO: An Education in College Justice: Under pressure from the Obama administration, a university tramples the rights of the accused:
Joshua Strange will never forget the girl he met in May 2011.
Both were underclassmen at Alabama’s Auburn University when a common acquaintance introduced them. “We instantly became attached at the hip and did everything together,” she recalled six months later. “I rather quickly moved into his place. . . . Everything was great until pretty much June 29.”
That night, an intimate encounter in Mr. Strange’s bed went wrong. She called police, who detained him for questioning. She said she had awakened to find him forcing himself on her; he said the sexual activity was consensual and initiated by her. There was no dispute as to the physical acts involved.
The accuser did not press charges that night. In fact, before sunrise she returned to his apartment, and the couple agreed to continue dating. When I asked him why in a recent phone interview, he told me: “I cared about her.”
But the relationship soon disintegrated. Phone records show their communications ended in mid-August. In early September he was arrested again after she told police that two days earlier he had confronted her in a public place and struck her. He flatly denied it, saying he was 15 miles away at the time. This time she did press charges, for misdemeanor simple assault as well as for felony forcible sodomy in the June 29 incident.
Mr. Strange was cleared on both counts. On Feb. 3, 2012, a grand jury handed up a “no bill” indictment on the sodomy charge, meaning the evidence was insufficient to establish probable cause for prosecution. On May 24, when the simple-assault case went to trial, the accuser didn’t show up. “I don’t have a witness to go forward with, your honor,” said city attorney Michael Short. Case dismissed.
So Mr. Strange got his day in court and was treated fairly. But he had already been punished for the unproven crimes. Auburn expelled him after a campus tribunal found him “responsible” for committing the catchall offense of “sexual assault and/or sexual harassment.” A letter from Melvin Owens, head of the campus police, explained that expulsion is a life sentence. If Mr. Strange ever sets foot on Auburn property, he will be “arrested for Criminal Trespass Third,” Mr. Owens warned.
Joshua Strange, now 23, is a civilian casualty in the Obama administration’s war on men.
By treating men as presumptively guilty of sex crimes, colleges will only further exacerbate the gender imbalance, becoming pink-collar educational ghettos. And since Strange was found not guilty — there wasn’t even probable cause — I don’t see why his false-accuser’s name is being withheld. But at least the names of the university officials responsible for this tragedy are published.
Taranto concludes:
The day after I interviewed him, I received a grateful email from his mother, Allison. “Thank you for allowing Josh to tell his story last night,” she wrote. “I could tell that it made him feel better to finally be able to get it out in his own words to someone other than his family and attorney.”
I’m a newspaperman, not a therapist. But there are no safe-harbor advocates for survivors of wrongful accusation.
Nope. And more and more men will conclude that the smart thing to do is to avoid institutions of “higher learning.”
ROLL CALL: Capitol Hill Feels Pains of Obamacare Sign-Up Troubles.
Members of Congress who have gone along with the idea that they should get insurance through Obamacare’s system of exchanges are getting a stronger dose of medicine than they bargained for.
Most of the national attention has focused on the trouble with the federal HealthCare.gov portal, but for members and staff, glitches with DC Health Link are personal. Dec. 9 is the deadline for employees moving from the Federal Employees Health Benefits Program to the new health insurance exchange to make coverage choices for 2014.
However, an email sent to staffers Friday said that those who can prove they tried to enroll in the District’s insurance exchange by Dec. 9, but were unsuccessful in completing the process and receiving confirmation, will have until Dec. 16 to notify administrative offices.
“If at that time your enrollment cannot be confirmed, you will be provided with an opportunity to enroll through the [DC Health Link] website after December 9th, with a January 1, 2014 effective date of coverage,” according to guidance sent to staffers.
It’s impossible to get a clear picture of the scope of the problems members and staff are encountering, but an informal survey showed that people experiencing trouble also had difficulty getting through to the appropriate officials to rectify their issues.
Nice that they’re feeling some of the pain, at least.
THE HILL: Immigration advocates bank on budget deal to rescue overhaul.
Few in Washington want to see House and Senate negotiators strike a budget deal more than advocates for immigration reform.
Their interest is not so much in the policy as the timing. The unending fiscal battles have repeatedly stolen the spotlight from immigration in the House, and the government shutdown in October sapped the legislative push of both time and political good will.
With Speaker John Boehner (R-Ohio) taking steps to revive immigration reform, advocates now see one remaining window for action in the early part of 2014, before election season begins.
But that opportunity will be lost, lawmakers and aides say, if yet another budget fight erupts in January and February.
Current federal funding runs out on Jan. 15, but House and Senate leaders are hoping to finalize a modest budget deal before lawmakers head home for the holidays.
An agreement would clear the legislative calendar in the New Year, and combined with an expected push from President Obama in his State of the Union address, immigration reform could have the moment its advocates have been waiting for.
I don’t think there’s much doubt that the GOP leadership in both houses is looking for an excuse to cave.
DEFYING PARODY: LudditeCare: A Federal Agency That Still Uses Floppy Disks.
ANNALS OF “SMART DIPLOMACY:” Ukraine’s Pivot to Moscow Leaves West Out in the Cold.
HIGHER EDUCATION BUBBLE UPDATE, LEGAL EDUCATION EDITION: S&P Downgrades Many Law Schools, Thomas Jefferson Falls to Junk Bond Status.
WHO WILL LEAD THE LEFT beyond ObamaCare? Hillary, of course.
TOM COTTON: The future of the GOP?
WHEN REAL LIFE IS BEYOND PARODY: Man Doesn’t Know How Parents Ever Going To Pay Off Massive Student Loan Debt. I mean, this just reads like a news story. “Recent Wesleyan University graduate Zach Wallace confided to reporters Thursday that he has no clue how his parents are supposed to earn enough money to settle his $40,000 in student loan debt. ‘My God, they’ll be lucky if they’re able to pay this off while they’re still in their 70s,’ said the 23-year-old film studies major and unpaid intern, noting the minimum monthly payments his father and mother will need to make just to keep their heads above water.”
December 7, 2013
SELFIES WITH JENNIFER LAWRENCE at GoodStuff’s Blogging Magazine.
COMPETENCE: 1 in 4 Obamacare enrollments affected by technical bugs. “After refusing for weeks to detail the extent of back-end problems with healthcare.gov, the Obama administration on Friday said a technical bug affected approximately 25 percent of enrollments on the federal exchanges in October and November. Those technical bugs, separate from the troubles consumers had experienced accessing information on the website during the first two months, are posing a significant new problem for those who signed up and are expecting insurance coverage come Jan. 1.”
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MORE LEGAL PUSHBACK: Former student files lawsuit against Kenyon College.
Stephen Zingarelli, a former Kenyon student who was acquitted last June of rape and gross sexual imposition, filed a lawsuit on Thursday, Dec. 5 in Knox County’s Court of Common Pleas against Kenyon College, the student who accused him of rape and a student Sexual Misconduct Advisor (SMA). The suit was first reported by the Mount Vernon News yesterday.
In the suit, which contains 14 individual counts, Zingarelli accuses Kenyon of breach of contract and negligence in the training and supervision of SMAs. The suit also accuses Kenyon of violating Title IX of the Education Acts Amendment of 1972 by discriminating against him based on his sex.
Zingarelli also alleges that his student accuser subjected him to malicious prosecution, infliction of emotional duress and defamation.
In the suit, Zingarelli additionally claims his accuser destroyed evidence relevant to the case, and alleges that those actions were taken “with the aid and encouragement of [the sexual misconduct advisor], and at her direction.”
All three defendants are accused of civil conspiracy to damage Zingarelli in the suit, which was independently obtained and confirmed by the Collegian.
Note, though, that despite the acquittal the “accuser” is not named.
I think you’ll see more suits like this.
OUT FROM AUDRA COLDIRON, whom some longtime InstaPundit readers may remember as the lead singer for Audra And The Antidote, a new children’s book: Galoop-a-Doodle: A story about a little girl who really really REALLY wanted a real horse.