Nor Should Emanate Domain Work Here

POSTCARD

China's Extreme Holdouts

• SARA JOHNSON
• NOV 26, 2012
• 1 COMMENT

• inShare4
• Share
• Print
• Share on emailEmail

From: the Atlantic Cities

The Chinese have a name for buildings that resist demolition for development projects — dingzihu, or "nail house."Pictures of what may be the rapidly urbanizing country's most dramatic example, a house belonging to 67-year-old Lou Baogen and his wife located outside the city of Wenling in the Zhejiang province, have become "the latest symbol of resistance in the frequent standoffs between Chinese homeowners and local officials accused of offering too little compensation to vacate neighborhoods for major redevelopment projects," as the Associated Press reports. The surrounding neighborhood was torn down to build a road to a new railway station.

Reuters photographers captured these compelling views of the house:

A car stops beside Baogen's house in the middle of a newly built road in Wenling, Zhejiang province, on Nov. 22. (China Daily/Reuters)

Luo Baogen, 67, looks at his surroundings from the balcony in his house on Nov. 24. (Aly Song/Reuters)

Onlooking villagers stand beside Baogen's house on Nov. 24. (Aly Song/Reuters)

The tragedy as seen from Newtown

Newtown Bee

Every day since 12-14, I have spent hours daily following Newtown's killings. I was left with an emptiness that I did not understand. There was something missing. 

Friday night, Dec.21, 2012, I  searched for the Newtown Bee, Newtown's weekly newspaper. I was missing the local angle that only a local newspaper could give me. Throughout this ordeal I've asked myself dozens of times how a disaster of this magnitude would play out in Windham. How would first responders,town leaders, citizens and local media respond to such a tragic event...I believe some of my questions have been answered in the links below:  

• At the Newtown Bee: Reporting while Grieving  Connecticut Mirror
• Newtown Bee
• Newtown Bee Special Section (Maybe slow loading)
• The Bee on facebook (Must be registered on fb)

Clair's Italian Garden

Clair at 86 and still marching the Boom Box

Italian Garden, a fixture on Main St Willimantic for over fifty years was known for the best pizza and pasta in our world.  It was common occurrence to see several tour buses parked in front of the restaurant.  Usually alighting,  visiting athletes on their way or leaving an UConn athletic event. Big East Basketball teams seem to camp out at IG's especially if the couches last name was Pitino.  Massimino or Carnescsca.

Between 1975 and  1985 Claire Meikle served up the best pasta and salads  seven days a week  Along with friendly advice, a big smile and a little gossip she managed to keep a constant flow of hungry customers happy,  In addition she  recorded the coming and going of her most favorite customers with her Kodak Pocket Instamatic.

Today we add theeleventh batch of nearly 1400 photos that Clair will share with us.  Please help us identify the unknowns in the comment section.  Thankyou

Go To:  Clair's Italian Garden

16 countries with smartest kids

The 16 Countries With The Smartest Kids

Joshua Berlinger | Dec. 11, 2012, 11:56 AM | 38,683 | 8

• inShare5
• Email
• More

melanie_ko via flickr Creative Commons

The National Center for Education Statistics released two of its most important studies today: the 2011 The Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) and the 2011 Progress In International Reading Literacy Study (PIRLS).

And believe it or not, America did well!

For all the flak the U.S. has gotten for its education system, U.S. students still placed toward the top on both studies.

The Boston College-backed studies, which are released every five years, rank international student achievement based on test scores and educational benchmarks that compare "the performance of U.S. students relative to their peers in other education systems in 2011."

We ranked the countries with the smartest kids based on science, math, and literacy scores for fourth graders.

Top 16 countries for education

Windham Schools: What went wrong?   A windhamweek rerun

Changes are needed: Contact Elected Officials

Contact Elected Officials | USA.gov

www.usa.gov

USA.gov: Contact Elected Officials -- Locate e-mail and mailing addresses, phone numbers, and more for you

• I've drafted a letter (pasted below) that Bobby and I are sending to elected officials regarding yesterday's tragedy. If you agree with me, feel free to copy my letter and put your name on it. If you don't agree, but have something to say, write your own letter and send it to your elected officials. Christina Hall Davis 
  
  Dec. 15, 2012
  
  Dear ,
  
  I am writing this letter to draw your attention to two very important issues that must be addressed by elected leaders such as yourself: our nation’s woefully inadequate mental health system and its inept gun control laws.
  
  I need not tell you what prompted this letter. You too were horrified by the unspeakable tragedy that occurred on Dec. 14 in a Connecticut elementary school. But sadly this incident is not isolated. We have all borne witness to mass shooting after mass shooting over the last decade. I was never moved to action until Dec. 14. And for that I am profoundly sorry. I am letting you, along with elected officials throughout this nation, know that I will not stand for inaction when it comes to mental health and gun control reforms. I will only vote for people that support reform in these areas. 
  
  We are pretending that we live in a civilized society, but what kind of society has these types of unspeakable horrors occur again and again and again and again and does nothing? There is nothing civilized about us as long as we continue to ignore the problem.
  
  Here's what I want. I want to live in a community where I can send my child on a school bus and feel at peace. I want to leave my doors unlocked when I go to bed at night. I want to walk into a dark movie theater and just think about the popcorn I'm going to eat. That's the community I want. It's not too much to ask. 
  
  To have that kind of community, I believe we need to reform our gun laws to make it harder for people with severe mental illness to obtain a weapon that can kill a classroom full of children in seconds. I don't want to ban all guns. I don't want to stop people from carrying guns. I just want it to be a little more difficult for someone who is unbalanced to get a gun and multiple rounds of ammunition. That's all. I realize it will be challenging to form policies that balance the needs of our community, but it can be done. We just have to try.
  
  I also want us to take care of the mentally ill in our communities. We closed down our institutions because they were worse than prisons. But we failed to provide a safety net for these members of society, who are the most fragile and the most at risk, and we don’t support their families.
  
  From now on, I will not stay silent when someone says we don't need to reform our gun laws. From now on, I won’t vote for anyone who is not outspoken on both mental health and gun control. Our laws are broken. Our community is broken. These gunmen are giving us a powerful and clear message. If we don’t act, we are complicit in the violence.
  
  We can't keep going like this any longer. Something needs to change. We need to change. The first step is legislation. It’s now your turn to act.
  
  Sincerely,
  
  Christina H. Davis Robert C. Davis III

  
  

  • 

    Christina Hall Davis Here's a link that helps you find addresses, etc.:http://www.usa.gov/Contact/Elected.shtml
    

    
    

    Contact Elected Officials | USA.gov

    www.usa.gov
    

    USA.gov: Contact Elected Officials -- Locate e-mail and mailing addresses, phone numbers, and more for you

I feel Like a Fraud

When will the mayhem end?

I feel like a fraud. I am a fraud. I've watched the news coverage of mass shootings across the United States, starting with Columbine and including but not limited to Virginia Tech, a Sikh Temple, an Amish School... I've watched the coverage and I've tisked, tisked and sighed and thought, "How terrible." But I've done nothing. I've said nothing. I've gone about my business and never held my elected leaders to account for doing nothing to fix the gun laws in this country. I've known that our mental health system was broken, and I've done nothing to fix it.
It took a tragedy in a town close to where I grew up, where my brother teaches today, for me to finally realize that we are all frauds. We are pretending that we live in a civilized society, but what kind of society has these types of unspeakable horrors occur again and again and again and again and does nothing? There is nothing civilized about us.
Here's what I want. I want to live in a commun

ity where I can send my child on a school bus and feel at peace. I want to leave my doors unlocked when I leave for a week's vacation. I want to walk into a dark movie theater and just think about the popcorn I'm going to eat. That's the community I want. It's not too much to ask. To have that kind of community, I believe we need to reform our gun laws to make it harder for people with severe mental illness to buy a weapon that can kill a classroom full of children in seconds. I don't want to ban all guns. I don't want to stop people from carrying guns. I just want it to be a little more difficult for someone who is unbalanced to get a gun and ammunition. That's all. That doesn't make me un-American. That doesn't mean I don't believe in the Constitution. That doesn't mean I hate George Washington. I realize it will be difficult to form policies that balances the needs of our community, but it can be done. We just have to try.
I also want us to take care of the mentally ill in our communities. We closed down our institutions because they were worse than prisons. But we failed to provide a safety net for these members of society, who are the most fragile and the most at risk.
I've been a fraud. But I won't be one anymore. I'm sorry it took me this long. But from now on, I will not stay silent when someone says we don't need to reform our gun laws. Our laws our broken. Our community is broken. These gunmen are giving us a powerful and clear message

 We can't keep going like this any longer. Something needs to change. We need to change

Christina Hall Davis is a former Chronicle reporter.

As business seek tax deals governments pay high price

 Ypsilanti Township, Mich.,. Some $200 million tax breaks later, this is what remains.

When the end came and the economy crashed local government found that they weren't really General Motor's partner   Through the magic of corporate bankruptcy town and state government was left losing  billions in taxpayer dollars.

Mayors and governors desperate to create jobs were outmatched by multinational corporations.They lacked the tools to fact check what companies promise them.The cost of the awards have grown higher as jobs become more scarce. A full accounting of who gives and who gets is not possible because the incentives are granted by thousands of government agencies and officials and many do not know the value of all their awards. Nor do they know if the grant investment was worth it because they rarely track how many jobs are created. Even where officials do track incentives, they acknowledge that it is impossible to know whether the jobs would have been created without the aid. In most cases the receiving companies only have a faint idea of the incentive's value.

Today government incentives have become a cost of doing business. When a business.shows an interest in creating jobs or threatens to pull up stacks for greener economic pastures government is pressured to create or maintain existing jobs. Jobs are the lifeblood of a politician's future.

Connecticut is a small  player when comparing its incentive program to other states. Texas  grants over 16 billion per year to existing or newly arrived business. Connecticut grants $860 million yearly according to research by the NY Times. $241 per citizen or four cents of every dollar appropriated in Connecticut's budget. Mass. spends $345.00 per capita. Eleven cents out of every budgeted Rhode Island dollar is spent on business grants.

Over the years, corporations have increasingly exploited governments that fear losing an existing business. Business create a high-stakes bazaar where they pit local officials against one another to get the most lucrative packages. States compete with other states, cities compete with surrounding suburbs. Big business look for and demand grants and cash rewards, free buildings, worker training and lucrative tax breaks including sales tax mitigation.
Quality of life, educational opportunities and location increasingly play second fiddle to the all mighty buck.

While government normally has no defining data on return on investment when dealing with big business there is a second negative factor. What if the business fails? When General Motors released a list of factories it was closing during bankruptcy three years ago, communities that had considered themselves G.M.’s business partners were no more.Fifty G.M. properties on their 2009 liquidation list were in towns and states that had awarded incentives adding up to billions in taxpayer dollars according to data compiled by The New York Times.

G.M. walked away and, thanks to a federal bailout, is once again became profitable. The towns have not been so fortunate, having spent scarce funds in exchange for thousands of jobs that no longer exist.

Business subsidies are hurting local governments by diverting money from public education. It’s not creating new jobs, it's moving jobs from one locality to another. It’s motivated by politicians who want to claim they have brought new jobs into their city or state. Connecticut government has short changed Connecticut's school children for 23 years.  Equalization Cost Sharing Grants are presently shorted an estimated 764 million dollars yearly. Could there be a correlation between ECS Grants and the 860 milllion in incentives passed out to business? Is big business sucking away our children's education?  Read On

Connecticut Business Receiving Grants (12 pages)

When Hollywood Comes To Town

Winners and Losers in Texas
Economic Border Wars

26 Amazing Facts About Finland's Unorthodox Education System

There is only one mandatory standardized test in Finland, taken when children are 16.

Since it implemented huge education reforms 40 years ago, Finland's school system has consistently come at the top for the international rankings for education systems.So how do they do it?

Read more: 26 Amazing Facts About Finland's Unorthodox Education System

26 Amazing Facts About Finland's Unorthodox Education System

Read more: http://www.businessinsider.com/finland-education-school-2011-12?op=1#ixzz2EHzhZik1

You Can Monitor State Spending

Connecticut State Capitol

Over the past 40 years Connecticut's population has increased by 18% while government spending has increased by 315%. While inflation has been the dominate factor influencing these dramatic increases state worker payroll has outpaced inflation. 

 Today, combined with lucrative benefits and security, state employment is a sought after career move. A state web site, Transparent state government  Is an excellent taxpayer source to monitor state spending. It includes: 

• Payroll and benefits of all state employees 
• Pensions for those retired from state service. 
• Expenditures: How and where state monies are spent. 
• Contracts: vendor spending. 
• Grants: town, city and recipient 
• Payments to businesses and people.
• Expendiures: How the money is spent

Save the link, it may come in handy, especially when  a state worker complains about his meager wages and terrible benefits.  Transparent state government

You may enjoy: Do You Have Dome Envy?