State Budget Crisis Like Sacramento Weather
Mark Twain once commented about Sacramento: "people suffer and sweat, and swear, morning, noon and night…"
Twain may as well have been talking about the budget negotiations, be he wasn’t. He was talking about the weather and Sacramento’s "eternal summer."
The budget morass has become as predictable as the weather in the state capitol.
Movie Review: The Lottery
"The
Lottery" is a compelling film that focuses on the families that need
school choice the most. This film is so good that it is hard to believe
that it is Madeleine Sackler’s first feature length film or that it has
such high production values on a $350,000 budget. She offers a forceful
story line that shows just how hard parents will work to find
high-quality education options for their children.
Sackler’s documentary follows four Harlem families, who are waiting to
find out if their child will be chosen in the lottery to attend Harlem
Success Academy. Each family puts the child’s name into a lottery for
one of fewer than 500 spots at the school.
They are among more than
3,400 families competing for the chance to attend the high-rated
charter school. The four families face unique personal challenges from
a father who is incarcerated, to a mother who is hearing impaired, to a
child with a mother living in Africa. What the families share in common
is a desperate wish to put their kids in a high quality education
setting with a clear track record of high performance.
State of the Union(s)
On Wednesday, the SEIU converged on the lawn of the State
Capitol for a massive protest in their trademark purple shirts — screaming,
shouting and chanting about a State budget mess that they, in large part, have
gotten us into.
You can bet your bottom dollar (it is your dollar, after
all) that this is only a preview of what is to come during the Fall campaign’s
crazy season. After all, it is a terribly kept secret around town that
every Union is lying in wait to attack Gubernatorial nominee Meg Whitman and
any number of the other Republicans and fiscal conservatives on the November
ballot.
Therefore, as we enter the battlefield for the General
Election I think it’s worth pausing to ask the question: "What
is the current State of the Union(s)?"
Is The Shrek Toy Making Us Fat?
Cross posted at www.cala.com
I am certainly
not a role model for eating habits.
Believe me I will jump at an
Entenmann’s donut any day of the week over a salad, but you will not
see me sue Entenmann’s. I guess I should have seen it coming. First the
County Board of Supervisors in Santa Clara banned McDonald’s from
putting toys in its Happy Meals. Now comes the Center for Science in
the Public Interest sending a letter of intent to sue McDonald’s if the toys are not removed from all Happy Meals.