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Minority students punished harsher than others

Dr J Flores — Tue, 13 Mar 2012 22:10:55 +0000

Blacks, Latinos disproportionately punished when compared to whites.

Secretary of Education Arnie Duncan unveiled a vast collection of school data Tuesday, calling attention to alarmingly high discipline rates for minority students in comparison to their white counterparts. The trend lines applied to suspensions and expulsions, as well as referrals to law enforcement agencies.

Black and Latino students together represented 42 percent of the population in the data, but were more than 70 percent of those arrested or referred to law enforcement during the 2009-2010 academic year, according to the department’s analysis of statistics from more than 72,000 schools that were submitted to the U.S. Department of Education.

The grouping of statistics, last gathered nationally in 2006, is called the Civil Rights Data Collection and it is managed by the department’s Office for Civil Rights. The data is the most recent and largest pool of such information in the federal collection’s history, coming from schools serving 85 percent of all American students.

“The sad fact is that minority students across America face much harsher discipline than non-minorities, even within the same school,” Duncan said at an event at Howard University in Washington, D.C.

Somali Pirates Attack Spanish Warship and Lose

Dr J Flores — Fri, 13 Jan 2012 18:56:29 +0000

Somali pirates may be terrorizing the waters off of East Africa, but maybe they should pick their targets a little more carefully and stop targeting European warships.

Earlier today, some Somali pirates got a little too greedy and attacked the Spanish warship serving as the flagship for the European Union’s fleet of ships carrying out a counter-piracy mission off of Somalia.

Somali pirates

Needless to say, it wasn’t a fair fight.

At first light Thursday, the Spanish warship ESPS Patino had just completed escorting a ship carrying food aid into the Somali capital of Mogadishu. In addition to a counter-piracy effort, the EU’s main mission is to escort freighters carrying food from the World Food Programme.

That’s when a skiff carrying six pirates sped towards the warship and the pirates began to fire their light-caliber weapons at the ship in an attemp to board it.

The Patino’s crew immediately began to fire back in self-defense and launched the ship’s helicopter.

The pirates realized they were outgunned and broke away from the attack, but eventually surrendered to the helicopter. But only after first throwing their weapons, ladder and fuel barrels overboard.

Somali pirates often dump their weapons into the ocean in an attempt to avoid detention.

Five of the pirates were injured and two required medical treatment on board the Patino. The crew of the Spanish warship is also looking into the pirates’ claim that another pirate was lost overboard during the attack.

Somali Pirates

Taking on a warship might sound like a unique event but, amazingly, this isn’t the first time that Somali pirates have taken on a warship.

In October 2009, a group of pirates attempted to take on the French warship BCR Somme about 250 miles off the coast of Somalia.

They met a similar fate to the pirates involved in today’s incident and were detained after their unsuccessful attack.

Businesses post most job openings in 3 years

dale — Thu, 08 Sep 2011 01:04:44 +0000

WASHINGTON (AP) — Companies in July advertised the most jobs in three years, and layoffs declined — a bit of hope for a weak economy. Still, many employers are in no rush to fill openings.

The Labor Department said Wednesday that employers increased their postings to 3.23 million from 3.17 million in June. That is the largest number of openings since August 2008. Typically, it takes anywhere from one to three months to fill an opening.

More openings don’t guarantee more jobs. The government said last week that employers failed to add any net jobs in August, the worst month for hiring since September 2010. The unemployment rate stayed for the second straight month at 9.1 percent.

The worsening jobs outlook has put pressure on President Barack Obama. He is expected on Thursday to introduce a $300 billion jobs package before a joint session of Congress. The plan will likely include extensions of the payroll tax cut and long-term unemployment benefits, tax incentives for businesses that hire and money for public works projects.

There’s heavy competition for each job. Nearly 14 million people were out of work in July. So roughly 4.3 unemployed workers were competing for each opening. That’s a slight improvement from June, when the ratio was 4.45. In a healthy economy, the ratio is closed to 2 to 1.

Total openings are about 1.1 million higher than they were in July 2009, one month after the recession officially ended. But they are still far below the 4.4 million openings that existed in December 2007, when the recession began.

The biggest gains in openings were reported in manufacturing, trade, transportation and utilities.

The report, known as the Job Openings and Labor Turnover survey, or JOLTs, illustrates the high degree of churn that takes place in the job market each month. Total hiring in July slowed, to 3.98 million from 4.06 million.

Total layoffs and quits also dropped to 3.92 million from 3.99 million. The difference between total hires and total quits and layoffs is similar to the net jobs gain of 85,000 reported for July.

The economy isn’t growing enough to spur much hiring. It expanded at an annual pace of only 0.7 percent in the first six months of this year, the slowest growth since the recession ended. Growth may improve to a 2 percent rate in the second half, economists forecast, but that’s still too weak to encourage much hiring.

Former German leader calls for “United States of Europe”

dale — Tue, 06 Sep 2011 11:43:43 +0000

Former German chancellor Gerhard Schroeder stands in front of a picture of Nils Schmid, Social Democratic Party (SPD) top candidate for the Baden-Wuerttemberg state election before an election campaign in Stuttgart March 17, 2011. The Baden-Wuerttemberg state election is due to take place on March 27, 2011. REUTERS/Michaela Rehle

BERLIN (Reuters) – Former German chancellor Gerhard Schroeder on Sunday called for the creation of a “United States of Europe,” saying the bloc needed a common government to avoid future economic crises.

Schroeder, a Social Democrat who ran the country from 1998 to 2005, said in an interview with Der Spiegel that European Union leaders were wrong to expect the euro to drive the bloc on its own.

“The current crisis makes it relentlessly clear that we cannot have a common currency zone without a common fiscal, economic and social policy,” Schroeder said.

He added: “We will have to give up national sovereignty.”

“From the European Commission, we should make a government which would be supervised by the European Parliament. And that means the United States of Europe.”

Schroeder, who nurtured a close relationship with France during his leadership, welcomed an initiative launched by German Chancellor Angela Merkel and French President Nicolas Sarkozy to move toward a fiscal union in 2012.

Their proposal, which would mean giving up sovereignty over budgetary policies with the aim to shore up the 17-nation currency union, has received a lukewarm response from other euro zone countries.

“Germany and France have sent a strong signal with the plan for a European economic government, if it is meant seriously and receives suitable authority such as a European finance minister,” Schroeder said.

“That is the correct way forward and the precondition for the correct funding — euro bonds,” he said.

Germany, which enjoys lower costs for issuing debt than its single currency partners, has led resistance to joint euro-denominated bonds.

“It is a huge bond market — speculators would no longer harbor hopes of splitting it up,” Schroeder said.

In order to initiate these changes, Schroeder said EU member states would have to return to the negotiating table and hammer out a new treaty to replace the one agreed in Lisbon that currently serves as the bloc’s institutional framework.

“In the crisis lies a real opportunity to achieve a political union in Europe,” he said.

Schroeder, who says the EU can only respond to growing competition with the United States and Asia by being fully united, has long pointed to Britain as a hurdle to further EU integration.

“Great Britain causes the greatest problems. (It is) not in the euro but the British nevertheless always want to participate when it comes to designing a European economic area,” he said. “That doesn’t work.”

Feds warn of small airplane terror threats

dale — Sun, 04 Sep 2011 03:37:46 +0000

WASHINGTON (AP) — The FBI and Homeland Security have issued a nationwide warning about al-Qaida threats to small airplanes, just days before the anniversary of the 2001 terrorist attacks.

Authorities say there is no specific or credible terrorist threat for the 10-year anniversary of the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon. But they have stepped up security across America as a precaution.

According to a five-page law enforcement bulletin issued Friday, as recently as early this year, al-Qaida was considering ways to attack airplanes.

The alert, issued ahead of the summer’s last busy travel weekend, said terrorists have considered renting private planes and loading them with explosives.

“Al-Qaida and its affiliates have maintained an interest in obtaining aviation training, particularly on small aircraft, and in recruiting Western individuals for training in Europe or the United States, although we do not have current, credible information or intelligence of an imminent attack being planned,” according to the bulletin obtained by The Associated Press.

The bulletin also says al-Qaida would like to use sympathetic Westerners to get flight training, then get them to become flight instructors.

Matthew Chandler, a spokesman for the Department of Homeland Security, described the bulletin as routine.

“We shared this information with our partners to highlight the need for continued awareness and vigilance,” he said.

Aviation security is much tighter than it was a decade ago, but al-Qaida remains keenly interested in launching attacks on airplanes, believing large attacks with high body counts are more likely to grab headlines.

Threats to small airplanes are nothing new. After the 2001 attacks, the government grounded thousands of crop dusters amid fears the planes could be used in an attack.

In 2002, U.S. officials said they uncovered an al-Qaida plot to fly a small plane into a U.S. warship in the Gulf. And in 2003, U.S. officials uncovered an al-Qaida plot to crash an explosives-laden small aircraft into the American consulate in Karachi, Pakistan.

India says ship near Vietnam was warned by China

dale — Sun, 04 Sep 2011 02:44:51 +0000

NEW DELHI (AP) — Indian officials say a naval vessel on a trip to Vietnam was warned by China that it was allegedly violating Chinese waters.

India’s foreign ministry said Thursday the INS Airavat was sailing about 45 nautical miles off the coast of Vietnam on July 22 when a caller identifying himself as the Chinese navy made radio contact and told the Indian vessel: “You are entering Chinese waters.”

The foreign ministry said no ship or aircraft were visible and that the Airavat continued its journey.

China has grown more assertive — and at times aggressive — in pressing its claims to much of the South China Sea, aided by a buildup of its navy. Chinese ships have rousted fishing vessels from Vietnam and the Philippines, both of which contest China’s claims.

Obama ups pressure over transportation

dale — Sun, 04 Sep 2011 02:28:45 +0000

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – President Barack Obama, under fire over high unemployment, stepped up pressure on Congress on Saturday to pass transportation legislation he said would protect almost 1 million American jobs.
“Allowing this bill to expire would be a disaster for our infrastructure and our economy,” the president said in his weekly radio address, after a monthly employment report showed the economy created no jobs in August.
Democrat Obama, who delivers a major speech on Thursday on how he would boost hiring and growth, must bring down a jobless rate stuck at 9.1 percent to improve his chances of winning a second presidential term next year.
Repeating a message he issued in the White House Rose Garden earlier this week, Obama urged lawmakers to pass multibillion-dollar temporary funding bills for aviation and highway projects, or risk heaping more pain on the economy.
“If it’s delayed for just 10 days, we will lose nearly $1 billion in highway funding that we can never get back. And if we wait even longer, almost 1 million workers could be in danger of losing their jobs over the next year,” he said.
Republicans say they support an extension of the highway bill and view Obama’s words as a way to deflect criticism over the economy away from the White House and toward Congress.
Obama’s approval rating has slipped, after he spent July and August fighting with Republicans to raise the U.S. debt ceiling, which resulted in rating agency Standard & Poor’s cutting the AAA U.S. credit rating. But polls show the American public holds Congress in even lower esteem.
“There’s a lot of talk in Washington these days about creating jobs. But it doesn’t help when those same folks turn around and risk losing hundreds of thousands of jobs just because of political gamesmanship,” Obama said.
The law authorizing aviation ticket taxes to pay for airport construction under the Federal Aviation Administration expires on September 16. A law directing gasoline taxes to underwrite road construction grants expires on September 30. Both must be extended to continue funding while lawmakers craft legislation authorizing the programs over longer periods.

Issue – September 2011

Dr J Flores — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 08:26:11 +0000

Lavoz Web - September 2011

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Issue – November 2010

Dr J Flores — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 08:16:06 +0000

Lavoz Web - November 2010

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Issue – October 2010

Dr J Flores — Fri, 02 Sep 2011 08:13:23 +0000

Lavoz Web - October 2010

PDF – LaVoz – October 2010