 |
Dear Mr. Sowell,
Congratulations on your hire as the City of Richardson's first director of communications. Richardson is a fine place to live, work, and play. Improved community outreach by the city government can help ensure it remains that way.
After the jump, some unsolicited advice. (You'll get a lot of that.)
Texans are fit to be tied over highway construction in Texas -- or rather, lack of construction. As usual, no one wants to pay for it. Texans don't want taxes to go up. Texans don't want to pay tolls. Texans are looking for the proverbial free lunch. And the Fort Worth Star-Telegram holds out hope that they just might have found it.
After the jump, the pot of gold at the end of the rainbow. Or not.
The Dallas Morning News has made a recommendation in the GOP primary for Texas House District 102. The primary winner will face incumbent Carol Kent in November. Primary early voting begins February 16. Primary election day is March 2.
After the jump, what the DMN is looking for in a state legislator.
 |
The New York Times made an announcement that, years from now, will be seen as the turning point in newspapers' near death experience. The NYT plans to begin charging readers for full access to the newspaper's Web site, beginning in 2011. Back to the future, you say? Didn't the NYT try this before, more than once? Yes, but earlier implementations were fatally flawed by locking out casual readers. The new implementation promises to allow free access to the first few articles for each reader. Heavy users will find access cut off at a certain point unless they become paid subscribers. The doors remain open, so to speak, for window shoppers and samplers, but if you come through the door often enough, you'll be expected to buy something.
After the jump, why this will work.
* Well, not everybody. After all, a hundred million moviegoers have pushed Avatar's box office over $1.5 billion. But for a movie that is putting so many people in theater seats Avatar is sure upsetting a lot of people.
After the jump, who doesn't like Avatar.
It's Monday, time for Open Mic Night at the Richardson City Council. Three speakers took the time to speak to the council, with three quite different messages.
After the jump, the descent from yes to maybe to hell, no.
The State Board of Education (SBOE) has been meeting in Austin to set the curriculum standards to be used in Texas schools for the teaching of social studies. The board is split, with eight of the fifteen members solidly or frequently in the conservative camp. And by conservative, I'm talking Texas conservative. For example, former chairman of the board Don McLeroy wants to rehabilitate communist witch hunter Joseph McCarthy in our children's history books ("Read the latest on McCarthy. He was basically vindicated."). Read the Washington Monthly article for scary details about this powerful faction setting standards not only for Texas schoolchildren, but for textbook publishers who will sell into states all across the country.
After the jump, what century-old math questions can tell us about teaching social studies in the 21st century.
Labadee, Haiti
 |
| From 200903 Labadee |
I've been to Haiti. Well, yes and no. What I saw was the beautiful sand beach on a cruise line's private property on the north coast of Haiti, safely fenced off from the real Haiti, the Haiti seen in today's news stories from Port-au-Prince. What can I say? The vast gulf between my vacation experience in Labadee and the day-to-day life of residents of Port-au-Prince, even before yesterday's disastrous earthquake, is immeasurable. I can't defend it. I can't say what can be done about it. Pity is not a solution, but it's what I feel right now. Hopefully, Americans' spirit of generosity will prove true again and many of us will go to WhiteHouse.gov to learn how we can help the people of Haiti.
This week, the school board for the Richardson school district (RISD) announced a new Vision Statement for the district. I know what you're thinking. Motherhood and apple pie. Ho hum, right? Maybe not this time.
After the jump, what the changes might tell us about what's to be expected from the new superintendent the RISD is searching for.