Baltimore City Takes a Stand against Violent Students

If you listened to the radio today in Baltimore, you got an earful on the Baltimore Sun story about city school students being permanently expelled for arson and other violent type acts.  The fact that some people called in and said it was a racist school system seemed to be missing the fact that students need to be safe at school.  In Baltimore, the new superintendent of schools made it clear that there would be zero-tolerance for violent offenders in the school system.  He has backed up his words with actions and it appears from the facts presented that overall school violence is down and the number of students suspended is down.  The number of permanent suspensions is up from 9 to 34 in one year.  But perhaps this harder line on violence has made other students actually stop and think before they do something that they know is wrong.  This is a great example of a leader leading.  Good luck going forward.  What do you think?  What's your POV?

Summer Vacations

It is that time of year, we just sent a check for about $1,200 to stay one week at the beach in New Jersey.  We always have a great time when we get down there and always say we should have booked a couple weeks. What are some ideas for summer vacations.

Check out VRBO.com for some cheap places to stay... dg

Hubble getting a tune up

The Hubble telescope has been wowing us for such a long time. The repair mission is very important to the furtherance of science and our understanding of the the universe. I hope that the repairs go well and that everyone is returned safely to Earth... dg

How about this for redistribution of wealth?

The latest from Texas is that when you get pulled over you are going to have to pay.

Texas Police Story from CNN

I wonder how long this has been going on.  It must have been supported by a large number of the police in the town.  This is totally ridiculous.  People should be screaming for the police to be put in jail.  I don't know the whole story but this is a great example of people in power using it to better their own situation at the cost of others.  Sounds like all the new taxes, just a different way to collect them. 

Let me know your POV on this one... dg

Sun-set in Baltimore?

When I first came to Baltimore, there was the Evening Sun and the Sun.  The Evening Sun disappeared and slowly but surely the newspaper business in Baltimore is fading away like a sunset.  

The recent sacking of over 50 more Baltimore Sun employees may not mean the death of the paper (at least not yet), however the paper's quality and quantity of local coverage is waning. 

The Chicago-based Tribune company bought the Sun and it has been the demise of the Tribune, which entered bankruptcy, that has dragged the once proud Baltimore Sun down with it.  When the Tribune bought the Sun many local journalists and other media people warned that the local staff of the paper would be pared down.  This did happen and with readership down and the explosion of online media and the tools to access it, many local papers are feeling the pressure to change how they operate. 

The Sun is getting thin on content and the content is being surrounded on all sides by advertising.  The loss of a paper is not the end of the world and the news will still get reported. I am assuming that there is a new business model for getting people the news.  With Blackberry and Iphone users on the rise, the ability to capture that market will be the new battle.  The interesting thing is that all of the online media (not all but quite a bit) is controlled by such a few people.  I am hoping that a local owner will try to bring the Sun back.  I am not sure if that will happen but I think the people of Baltimore would support it.

I was wondering how you get your daily dose of news?  Do you still read the newspaper or do you just go online?  If the Sun became locally owned and operated again would you subscribe?

Let me know your POV about this... dg

I am so glad our tax dollars a supporting this...

So now that David Souter is leaving town and the swine flu has settled down, it is time for congress to deal with some real pork or at least some pigskin. I was just browsing around the web and saw this CNN Story on BCS. I thought it was a classic. The great debate about BCS or Playoffs in College Football. The thought that the BCS schools have a monopoly is valid. The idea that congress should be talking about this now is not.
The BCS is about making money and keeping the haves deep in the dough. The Non-BCS schools want a piece of the action. It is really a microcosm of the political system we will continue to see unroll by congress. If the BCS wealth and be redistributed through a new playoff system, maybe this will be a good practice model for the redistribution of wealth in the United States. To politicize sports is almost as bad as what is happening with religion. The more the government gets involved with the free market the further it moves from being a true free market.
I think that the basketball model for the NCAA Championship is one of the best and most exciting tournaments. Does college football work within that same framework? How many teams would make it. In basketball, 65 teams out of 329 (is that right or is it higher, I can't remember) seams to work well and the bracketologists usually can not complain to much about the teams that are left out. So, in college football, with its 120 or so teams would need 8 or 12 teams to make a good draw. That is about 4 weeks of football. Would it work? Would the bowl system still have games? I would like to know what your POV is on this one... dg