School Funding Discussion

A special live edition of the “In Our Schools” television program this coming weekend features a roundtable discussion on funding 21st century public schools in South Carolina.

The one-hour telecast airs at 6 p.m. Sunday, Aug. 17, on SCETV. “In Our Schools” is a series designed for parents, educators and community partners and produced by ITV, which is part of the Department of Education, with ETV’s assistance.

The Aug. 17 program will be hosted by State Superintendent of Education Jim Rex, who will lead a conversation with business, education and community leaders on the negative impact of property tax reduction legislation, on the shortfall in funding for education and on the need for comprehensive revenue and funding reform. Viewers can participate in the program by e-mailing their questions to inourschools@scetv.org.

Sunday night’s program will be repeated on Aug. 21 and 25 and on Sept. 8 from 10:30-11:30 a.m. on Channel 301 for taping by schools (unlimited rights).

We Should be Outraged

The AP reports that the Government Accountability Office will release figures that show most (two-thirds) of US corporations don't pay taxes!

Big corporations need to pay their fair share.

Corporations have golden parachutes, record-breaking profits, huge CEO paychecks, and more, but they use the boogie man of "high taxes" to have layoffs, cut hours or benefits and to bully Congress into creating tax loopholes. Corporations are using their media oligopoly to control what Americans hear and to bombard us with the notion that big, bad Congress is taxing them too much.

But clearly, that isn't the case.

If the CEO makes more than 100 times the average worker, something in the system is broken. The free market isn't fixing it. Congress isn't fixing it.

Greed has taken over the American landscape. As foreclosures continue and as everyone's debt burden crushes them a little more each day, what can teh average person do?

I'm working towards getting out of debt and reducing my consumption. What are you doing? --LCR

Run and Live Long

A story this morning says people should exercise vigorously and regularly (perferably running) to live longer.

The team surveyed 284 members of a nationwide running club and 156 similar, healthy people as controls. They all came from the university's faculty and staff and had similar social and economic backgrounds, and all were 50 or older. ...

Most of the volunteers did some exercise, but runners exercised as much as 200 minutes a week, compared to 20 minutes for the non-runners. ...

"Over time, all groups decreased running activity, but the runners groups continued to accumulate more minutes per week of vigorous activity of all kinds," the researchers wrote.

"Members of the running groups had significantly lower mean disability levels at all time points," they added.

The "runner's high" probably kept people running consistently. I happen to like running (or jogging, which is as fast as I get depending on who you ask). It calms you, lets you sort through the day. What kind of exercise or activities do you do to get through the day?

For the Ladies

The Olympics are great fun to watch. The world's best athletes competing for international recognition.

However, American culture values looks along with athletic prowess.
Here's a site for the ladies...NBC's Guess the swimmer by his abs.

Eye candy? Yes.
Appropriate? You decide.

War on Drugs

At a news conference today Presidential Candidate Ralph Nader outlined his plan to empty prisons of non-violent drug offenders and fill them up with corporate criminals.

"Non-violent drug offenses are being over prosecuted and corporate crime is being under prosecuted," Nader said. "The Justice Department must begin to reverse course, crank up the crackdown on corporate crime, and end the cruel and inhumane war on non-violent drug possession."

"The criminal justice system is broken--so badly that one hardly knows where to begin describing the breakdown," Nader said. "Let's start with the war on drugs, since commentators across the political spectrum recognize its lunacy. We pour almost endless resources--roughly $50 billion every year--into catching, trying, and incarcerating people who primarily harm themselves. This insane war on drugs damages communities and drains crucial resources from the police, courts, and prisons. These resources could be better used to combat serious street and corporate crime that directly violates the public's liberty, health, safety, trust, and financial well-being. As with alcoholics and nicotine addicts, the approach to drug addicts should be rehabilitation, not incarceration."
Link to full release.

There was no separate Issue page on Obama's Web site for drugs or corporate crime. Nor was there one on McCain's. What are the candidates' positions on the "War on Drugs," rehabilitation, and corporate crime?


Do you agree with Nader? Would rehabilitation work? Is locking these folks in prison working?
Do you think this is an important issue that the other candidates should discuss?

From SC Fishing Report

Pee Dee Area: Water levels are low right now and threaten to get lower.

Great Pee Dee
Catfish: Excellent. Large numbers of catfish, and some very large fish, are being caught on the bottom in holes and around channel breaks. Fish live bream or live and cut eels - Irby Street Sporting Goods in Florence says they are selling tons of eels.

Lynches and Little Pee Dee River
Largemouth Bass: Very good. Bass are hot right now; fish floating worms and topwater lures.
Bream: Very good. When there is water bream fishing is very good. Large numbers of fish are not being caught, but some very nice redbreasts are being taken on worms and crickets. In the late evening anglers are catching fish on big popping bugs.

Playing with the Presidential Race

A section devoted to the presidential election on YouTube sounds like a good idea. However, there are only two candidates listed: Barack Obama and John McCain.

Here are the rest of the candidates.

Chuck Baldwin, Constitution Party Web site
Bob Barr, Libertarian Party Web site
Cynthia McKinney Green Party Web site
Ralph Nader, Independent Web site

Please consider every candidate's stance on ALL the issues.

Also, contact YouTube, ABC, CBS, NBC, Fox and let them know you want complete coverage of the election – and that there are more than two parties in this country.

Don't let big corporate media take your right to know or to make this choice for you. For democracy to work, citizens must be informed.

If you want to share your thoughts with the News and Press or with the Darlington County community, post comments here or send us an email.