PAWaterCooler.com

On a recent weekday at Annunciation B.V.M. Church in Havertown, a Mass was celebrated to pray for and honor police officers — both those on the front lines and those who have fallen in the line of duty.

It was an emotional service, especially given the number of police who have been brutally slain in the last several years.  The thought of a lonely and distraught spouse raising young children — including some unborn who never even glimpsed their father— was so heartbreaking as to be unthinkable.

The worst part is that there’s no rational way to explain, let alone overcome, the absolute senselessness of why these officers were slain.

Where is our country headed when cops are being killed with abandon?  

While all innocent human life is sacred, there is something different about shooting a law enforcement officer. It breaks down the last barrier of respect, and it violates the code that most criminals follow – you don’t take shots at police. Period.

Like anything else in life, once that taboo is broken, all bets are off.  In Philadelphia’s case, it is now obvious that cops are fair game. The breakdown of the city is virtually complete.

With civility and respect quickly becoming a faded memory, further imperiling our children’s future, people are increasingly asking what, if anything, can be done to reverse this deadly course.

The answer is simple.  It’s just not easy:

School choice.

*****

We have just witnessed the murder trial of cop-killers Eric Floyd and Levon Warner.  Both owners of long rap sheets, they heinously gunned down Officer Stephen Liczbinski in 2008. These animals deserve the death penalty, plain and simple, but that doesn’t answer how you stop such an atrocity from occurring in the future.

If you’re looking to politicians for help, you’ll be blind before that happens.

Every time there’s another crime in the headlines, Mayor Michael Nutter spews the same monotonous babble that the violence epidemic will be curtailed.

But nothing has changed. In fact, despite all the resources put into fighting crime, it’s only getting worse.

Whether its flash mobs, citizens getting gunned down, brutal subway attacks —or cops in the crosshairs, it’s clear that respect for authority is non-existent, and no one is off-limits to the predators.

Philadelphia’s murder, violence and homeless rates are among the highest in the nation, and there’s absolutely nothing to indicate that the situation will improve anytime soon, if ever.

Three things have become readily apparent:

1) The way we did things in the past hasn’t worked.

2) What we’re doing now isn’t having an impact.

3) Unless a bold leader takes steps to institute true reform and eschew band-aid solutions to gaping wounds, the city —and the region —will continue its plummet into the abyss.

Here’s the part no one wants to admit. There is NO short-term solution.

*****

We can talk all day about fairy-tale feel-good “solutions” by invoking vague rhetoric: community partnerships, town watches, more police, and of course, the ultimate panacea, banning guns.

But since we’ve been hearing that for decades, ad nauseum, here’s a newsflash to our leaders: none of these things work. And they’re not going to, either, because they are tactics without the benefit of a strategy.

Enter school choice.

The dire situation in which we find ourselves boils down to our horrendously bad educational system, and, as a direct result, the lack of hope in our young people.

With no possibility of receiving a quality education, and the prospects for a…..

Read the rest at Philadelphia Magazine’s Philly Post:

 http://blogs.phillymag.com/the_philly_post/2010/08/24/could-school-choice-prevent-cop-killings/

Chris Freind is an independent columnist and investigative reporter who operates his own news bureau, www.FreindlyFireZone.com

Readers of his column, “Freindly Fire,” hail from six continents, thirty countries and all fifty states. His work has been referenced in numerous publications including The Wall Street Journal, National Review Online, foreign newspapers, and in Dick Morris’ recent bestseller “Catastrophe.”

Freind also serves as a weekly guest commentator on the Philadelphia-area talk radio show, Political Talk (WCHE 1520), and makes numerous other television and radio appearances.  He can be reached at CF@FreindlyFireZone.com

Email Chris Freind, Start the discussion or Share This...

And so closes the saga….

No criminal charges will be filed against a suburban Philadelphia school district that secretly snapped tens of thousands of webcam photographs and screen shots on laptops issued to students.

The FBI and federal prosecutors announced Tuesday they could not prove any criminal wrongdoing by Lower Merion School District employees.

“We have not found evidence that would establish beyond a reasonable doubt that anyone involved had criminal intent,” U.S. Attorney Zane D. Memeger said in a statement.

The FBI investigated the wealthy district for possible wiretap violations after a student’s civil lawsuit exposed the issue. Lower Merion High School student Blake Robbins alleged the district photographed him 400 times in a 15-day period last fall, sometimes as he slept in his bedroom or was half-dressed.

Email AlexC, Start the discussion or Share This...

Oh the hypocrisy.

Ever since Arizona passed its controversial law allowing police to check a suspect’s immigration status, the federal government had been intimating that it would file suit to stop the measure. 

Which it finally did.  (Although, in a moment of utter embarrassment, Attorney General Eric Holder testified of his intention to file suit despite his admission that he’d NEVER READ the ten page Arizona law!) 

And the results of the lawsuit?  Wholly predictable.

The Right is furious, the Left satiated, and, as always, common sense people are still out in the cold.

Fact is, the Arizona law, signed by a Republican Governor and a red-meat issue to the GOP base, is 100% meaningless.  Beyond providing fiery agenda-driven rhetoric — for both sides —, it’s just the latest futile attempt to solve America’s out-of-control illegal invader problem.

Why the hypocrisy? Because instead of focusing on the real issues, like building a border wall and cracking down on employers who hire illegals, the Administration is trying to score political points by hoping the Republican position alienates Latino voters.

If Obama and the Congress were really concerned about reigning in a state for doing its own thing — against the wishes of the federal government —perhaps a better lawsuit would be one against those who are in flagrant violation of federation immigration law. After all, these states are the biggest obstacle to sound immigration policy.

New Mexico would be a good start.

*****

After we get through the white noise of Arizona’s law being one that harasses the good illegals who have broken America’s laws to get here, or conversely, that such a measure is mandatory to protect our citizens from the invaders, it would be nice to stop and actually ask the most basic question:

How, exactly, are the police supposed to check the immigration status of people they suspect are in the country illegally? What document proving citizenship will they be seeking?

There is no national ID card, and probably about six people nationwide even know where their Social Security card is, so, for the most part, that leaves the driver’s license.

Granted, not everyone drives, but it would be a good starting place. 

Well, except for one small thing.

Several states still issue drivers licenses to illegal invaders.  States like….New Mexico, which just so happens to border Arizona.

(This practice does not comply with Federal Real ID Act requirements.  The Act mandates that, in order for a license to be recognized by the U.S. Government, states may issue licenses only after determining “proof of identity and lawful status of an applicant” and “verification of the source documents provided by an applicant.”)

So when Juan Valdez is pulled over for a traffic stop, on suspicion that he is an illegal, he will be required to prove his status as a citizen or legal immigrant.

As he whips out his license from New Mexico, Utah or Washington, or any of the eight other states that until recently issued licenses to known illegals, along with car insurance (because you can’t get car insurance without a license), a sly smile will creep across his face. There will be no deportation this night.  God Bless America!

Of course, it doesn’t stop with licenses….

Read more at Philly Mag’s Philly Post and post a comment:

http://blogs.phillymag.com/the_philly_post/2010/07/27/arizonas-immigration-law-well-intentioned-but-meaningless/

About Chris Freind:

Chris Freind is an independent columnist and investigative reporter who operates his own news bureau, www.FreindlyFireZone.com

Readers of his column, “Freindly Fire,” hail from six continents, thirty countries and all fifty states. His work has been referenced in numerous publications including The Wall Street Journal, National Review Online, foreign newspapers, and in Dick Morris’ recent bestseller “Catastrophe.”

Freind also serves as a weekly guest commentator on the Philadelphia-area talk radio show, Political Talk (WCHE 1520), and makes numerous other television and radio appearances.  He can be reached at CF@FreindlyFireZone.com

Email Chris Freind, Start the discussion or Share This...

Students of Dr. Ken Howell have set up a Facebook page in support of him. Dr. Howell is the University of Illinois professor who was fired for being Catholic.

I request that all Facebook’ers who support freedom of religion, academic freedom, and basic decency join the “Save Dr. Ken” group on Facebook. This man was fired for teaching the very subject he was hired to teach. It’s not a PA school, but what kind of precedent will it set if this firing stands?

I had someone tell me that Dr. Howell deserved punishment because his teaching of Catholicism was crossing over into advocacy. While I disagree and think he was simply trying to be thorough in his lessons, since when is advocacy forbidden at universities? They are full of liberal professors who ridicule conservative beliefs, and they all hide behind “academic freedom”.

Email John Lewandowski, Start the discussion or Share This...

I know that this is a fairly long post, but I believe in sharing with friends and this discussion gave me a snapshot of the inner mind of a Socialist.

The following was the chain for a discussion with a classmate that I have in my present Business Communications class. The initial question posed that started this chain was “Why do you feel that you can trust NPR over other media outlets? Why can you not trust other media organizations? If this is true can we change the way we gather and distribute news to our audiences?” I felt you should all see the fight we have ahead of us and the war of the minds we are waging today.

Here is how I started the response chain for the class to this question:

Honestly, why would you trust NPR over the other media news outlets, especially since NPR is National Public Radio and is paid by the Federal Government? That, in my mind, makes them even less trustworthy than any other independent organization because they are beholden to the federal government and the whims of whatever the Fed feels like giving to them depending on how much they support the federal government’s agenda than an independent organization that raises their money the independent and capitalist way, through independent contributions and companies paying money for airtime on their channels via commercial time. When an organization is dependent on an cash cow, visa-vie the Federal government, and the trials and tribulations of that group and how much you toe the line for whatever talking points they demand of their groups that take money from them makes them, in my book, less trustworthy than independent companies that raise their money the old fashioned way, through selling commercial time to private organizations and companies. The independent companies are, in my book, more trustworthy by a long shot, than any organization supported and funded by the federal government, regardless of whatever administration is in charge of them.

This is how Lori (get to love her folks…she’s our Socialist in the left corner in this particular boxing match) responded to my reasonable assertion:

Ian,You said “When an organization is dependent on a cash cow…”

Wouldn’t you agree that the cash cow you are referring to is really capitalism at its best? I mean isn’t that what capitalism is about? It’s all about the money. Whoever has more gets to put their message out there. FOX news operates the way it does and has that rightish slant because Rupert Murdoch owns the organization. He won at the capitalist game and now he gets his own channel to broadcast whatever he wants.

NPR is not owned by the federal government. It’s just called National because it’s well national and it operates on airwaves that are public. NPR is donor supported and that’s how they operate.

 Ultimately I believe all organizations are dependent on cash cows- the American consumer.

Lori

Bakersfield, CA

I had to respond to this dripping with socialism-love nonsense:

I personally believe that you are missing a fundamental aspect to what Capitalism is all about. It’s not about money, but money is partly the motivator (or gasoline if you want to think of it in another fashion). Capitalism, and more specifically the Free Market System, is based on personal choice. It is based on you setting your own personal priorities as to what you want to earn money to buy, what you want to spend, what you feel is important to you and your family, if you have one. In a free market system, you or I could decide that we can do something better than someone else out there and start a business to make it better than them. We could also decide that we want to start a business to become our own boss and do something new, or better, than the rest of the world. The Free market is an extension to the freedoms inherited in all of us by the Natural Laws we were born with and endowed by God with. This is just the economic system version of that.

A market that is controlled by a government, or a planning commission or whatever terminology or group you want to assign there, is a Socialist system and it has the opposite priorities and affects on its citizens than a Free Market system does. When a person believe they can do something better than someone else in the market, or cheaper, or faster, or whatever that betterment may be, a Socialist and top-down controlled system locks that individual out because they are not and their new system is not “Part of the Plan.” Socialism stifles creativity, inventiveness, and the entrepreneurial spirit in much of humanity. There is no incentive to do better because to do so would throw off “the Plan” from the central planning committee, which top-down governments never allow. They never allow these things because in then moves the control from those at the top make the choice to those at the bottom, you and me, in making decisions on what is best for ourselves and the economy. Tyranny’s never allow control to move down, because if they do then they lose control and they will never allow that.

This was not meant as a taking to task. I just want everyone who reads this to understand the fundamental differences in those 2 economic and social philosophies. And NPR is partially subsidized by the Federal Government through federal grants. This can be found on pg. 9 of their 2009 Fiscal budget (http://www.npr.org/about/statements/fy2009/2009_LA_NPR_Cons.pdf). Their operational revenue amount is found on pg. 5.

When you divide that amount the government gives them by their operating revenue, this money accounts for approximately 13% of their overall operating capital. Obviously, this does not make them a Federal mouth piece per se, but when 13% of your operating budget comes from 1 source, you are pretty beholden to them to make sure that money keeps flowing in. Any business that has 1/8th of its operating budget come from one location would jump through hoops to make that customer happy. It just becomes very bad for freedom of speech and differences of opinion when that 1/8th is coming from the government. That’s all I’m saying.

Here is how she countered back:

Hi Ian

I would have to disagree with you. Capitalism in theory may be about freedom but it really is about money (CAPITOL=money). In my opinion there are lots of companies who exemplify this, all you have to do is look at the corporate scandals of the last few years. I take offense to your use of using God as a defense for capitalism also. God has nothing to do with all the money hungry hoarders in this world who only care about themselves.

I don’t think Socialism is perfect but I do think there are advantages to that type of system. People in these types of systems tend to do things that actually make them happy rather than what will get them the most money. I for one would love to have lived in a country where we didn’t have to pay out of the nose for an education. Education is something, in my opinion, that can make and break a country.

NPR may be partially subsidized but Chrysler and AIG were both bailed out by the government because if not the country would have gone into a tail spin. I don’t agree with that and I’m sure as a capitalist enthusiast you probably don’t either. I’m curious to know, what would your solution have been?

I really enjoy your perspective Ian. Please don’t misunderstand my posts to you as anything other than an educated discussion.

Lori
Bakersfield, CA

Notice how she didn’t argue my facts, but went to the tried-and-true tactic of attacking the messenger initially and then say that it was an emergency and we “Had to do it!” I couldn’t let this sit, so here is how I replied:

There are no advantages to a Socialist system, unless you are looking for someone to take all the chances and possibilities of wild success OR failure out of life. The problem with that though is that in order to make sure that everyone is taken care of equally, you must make everyone equal. In order to make everyone equal, you must, by definition, hold people back from achieving too much or being too successful in work, in life, in thought, in ideas, in happiness, in health, in family status or position, in ethics taught by parents to children, in religion, and the list goes on and on and on. All of this “Equality” must be dictated by the state and not by our own personal hopes and dreams. We would no longer be in charge of the dreams and goals we believed we could achieve, by the state would.

Your child could tell you one day that “Mommy…I want to be a doctor someday and help sick boys and girls.” and you would have to follow that childhood dream up with this, “That’s nice sweetie…but the state says we already have enough doctors, so it’s been decided that you will be an auto mechanic because the state says we have a shortage of those.” What kind of parent would that make you? More importantly, is that the world you want to raise your child in?

And Lori, I believed you missed what I was saying about God. I was not saying that God was about money. I was saying that Capitalism is an extension, in an economic sense, of the Natural Laws that were endowed to us by our creator. This is a fundamental concept of what our country is founded on. Without God being at the top, or whatever you believe of as God since it is a personal choice and relationship, then those rights we enjoy are not inherit inside us but given by the state. God must be at the top because if not then those rights are no longer rights but freedoms we were given by a government, and what a government gives, then can take away. Power is supposed to go from God, to you and I, to the government…not the other way around. The former is freedom, while the later is tyranny..

Don’t you see, in order to make all equal, then we must all equally suffer and be restrained from the individual greatness each of us has inside ourselves. This is counter to what we know is the human yearning to achieve greatness and do great things. Socialism holds you back. Capitalism unchains you and says “Go!” And capitalism is not about money, it’s about getting the hell out of someone’s way and saying “You choose your own path to what your dreams are, if you do this right, the world will be your oyster, and we will all be better for your success.” Money is nothing more than the fuel to that fire.

Whether it’s a dollar bill or a pucca shell on an island, we all want to be fairly compensated for the hard work we do. That right now comes in the form of a Dollar. Don’t be angry at the dollar because it is nothing more than a representation of the fair reward for work done. Capitalism equals freedom to dream and strive to make yours and your family’s lives better. Socialism equals accepting your lot in life determined by someone else that doesn’t know, or frankly care, what you dreamed for yourself, and determines what “Freedoms” they LET you have. That’s not freedom at all…that’s slavery, and I thought we fought and died as a people to throw those shackles off. Don’t chain your dreams to the ground in the mud…but give them wings and tell them “fly”

__________________

I’m still waiting for her counter-argument to this.

I may be waiting a while.

Email Ian Hayes, Join the discussion or Share This...

The General Assembly, in fits and starts, is finally acknowledging the fiscal time bombs in our budget. Recently, for example, the House included some measures to reduce the costs associated with new hires. Of course, their answer almost always involves punting, too. So the same legislation also pushes back payments into poorly performing pension funds. You know. So all those young people working in new industries in 2030 can deal with it. Or something.

Frankly, though, in order to do anything the costs associated with public employees already on the payroll have to be adjusted somehow. Towards preparing for that donnybrook, let’s take a look at teachers.

As we fall deeper and deeper into the red we will all be assured that education costs cannot be adjusted without dangerously jeopardizing our children. It will be an Armageddon. We won’t be able to compete in a 21st century economy. You know how it all goes. When listening to these ghost-stories crafted in the halls of educational academia and the PSEA lets keep some things in mind.

First of all, teachers are very well-paid. Even before taking into account their benefits packages– which generally far exceed, on average, what is available in the private sector– they tend to make more than the average income in the area in which they teach. In Pennsylvania, for example, the average teacher salary is $54k. The average per capita income, though, of the Pennsylvanians that employ them is just under $37k. In other words, they make over 30% more than their bosses before taking into account their gold-plated benefits that are bankrupting us.

How do we find ourselves here?

In the recent “National Review” there was an article by Reihan Salam which, I think, sheds some light on the challenges surrounding education costs. He taught me about “Baumol’s cost disease”– despite not having a teaching certification. This is a phenomenon identified by NYU economist William Baumol. It goes like this: Some sectors in the economy, over time, become more productive, often because of technological advances. Because of this, those sectors raise their pay. But– and here’s the disease part– other sectors of the economy then ALSO have to raise their pay to compete for labor even if they are productively stagnating.

This is what we have going on with teachers. No technology or research advances have appreciably increased the productive capacity of teachers. But this profession– largely dominated by women who now have more professional options– must still compete in the same labor pool. Heck, in our economy women are DRIVEN into higher paying fields, even if they do not find the work attractive, as household purchasing power has been declining for decades. (Ironically, in fact, at least partly because of the massive increase of women in the workplace.)

So teaching children becomes more and more expensive even as the success metrics for teaching remain stagnant. Increasing teacher pay, lowering class size, buying more and more computers for the classroom, all of these things are efforts to introduce productivity into this equation to solve Baumol’s cost disease.

But. It. Doesn’t. Work.

The simple answer is we have to spend less on education. There’s no pretty way to say it. And that probably means firing bad teachers, pay freezes, changing the pension plan, and who knows what else. But since there’s no evidence at all that our experiment in massively increasing education spending actually educates our children any better it is a case we all need to be prepared to make, and we need to be unapologetic while doing it.

Email KarlBucus, Start the discussion or Share This...

And it ain’t just the teachers unions, but that’s a good place to start. Every public sector union needs to understand that its members work for the taxpayers. When budgets are tight and people are losing their jobs and homes, lifetime free medical care for public sector union members isn’t going to fly.

Email Joe Collins, Start the discussion or Share This...

Nice.

Students at the Maple Point Middle School in Langhorne, Pa., left their school around 8 a.m. to protest a work-to-contract action by teachers. Groups of students at the school ran away from the buidling into a nearby woods.

Some of the young students “mooned” a Fox 29 video jourrnalist who tried to photograph them.

Then police had to go into the woods to round up the students, because teachers would not act to bring the kids back to class.

Union troubles continue to plague the Neshaminy School District. Teachers there received a letter earlier this week urging them to do the bare minimum wok at school. At issue is a contract that expired almost two years ago.

Parents of the students will be fined $500.

The dirty hippy in me thinks it’s good to see students protest. Especially if it’s anti-union.

[An 18 year old senior] said of the teachers, “They’re just not doing all the extra things to help out and do stuff. They’re just sticking completely to their contract.”

Of the protest, she said, “Yeah, they’re going to be all in the hallway. So I’m getting kind of mad and stressed, so I’m leaving. I’m 18 and I live on my own, so I signed myself out.”

Teachers weren’t able to carry out their Wednesday morning weekly protest, either.

Students say the teachers call it a “solidarity circle” around the flagpole before homeroom. It likely wasn’t carried out because news cameras were on hand and the superintendent was ordering everybody inside.

“I guess they knew you guys were coming, so they sat in their cars instead of standing outside. I guess they didn’t want to look bad,” said district bus driver Chuck Torpey.

He added, “Everybody I know is very upset at them, especially standing out there. Even students are upset at them. I’m a bus driver. I want to work for the district. I want to work. I’m willing to sacrifice to keep my job, and I think the teachers should sacrifice a little bit, too.”

So much for teaching for the love of it.

Email AlexC, Join the other 2 commenters or Share This...

Liberals and “moderates” are appalled at the decision made on the new history textbooks in Texas, which will affect history textbooks throughout the entire nation. They are furious that such right-wing extremism is going to be in these books which will be used to teach children. Just take a look at how EXTREME these FASCIST CONSERVATIVES are:

In one of the most significant changes leading up to the vote, the board attempted to water down the rationale for the separation of church and state in a high school government class, pointing out that the words were not in the Constitution and requiring that students compare and contrast the judicial language with the wording in the First Amendment.

They also rejected language to modernize the classification of historic periods to B.C.E. and C.E. from the traditional B.C. and A.D., and agreed to replace Thomas Jefferson as an example of an influential political philosopher in a world history class. They also required students to evaluate efforts by global organizations such as the United Nations to undermine U.S. sovereignty.

Telling kids that the words “separation of church and state” don’t actually appear in the US Constitution? EXTREME!!!!

Doing away with the arbitrary replacement of “Before Christ” and “Anno Domini” with “Before the Common Era” and “Common Era”? EXTREME!!!!

During the monthslong revision process, conservatives strengthened requirements on teaching the Judeo-Christian influences of the nation’s Founding Fathers and required that the U.S. government be referred to as a “constitutional republic,” rather than “democratic.” Students will be required to study the decline in the value of the U.S. dollar, including the abandonment of the gold standard.

Emphasizing the beliefs of the Founding Fathers and making clear that our county is a republic under a constitution? EXTREME!!!!

After being defeated, the liberals said that they don’t want liberal or conservative textbooks, just excellent textbooks. Right. And an “excellent textbook” is one which implies that “separation of church and state” is in the US Constitution, doesn’t contain “BC” or “AD”, suggests that the Founding Fathers (oops, I meant to say “Framers”) were a bunch of godless Communists, and refers to the United States as a “democracy”.

Email John Lewandowski, Join the other 2 commenters or Share This...

           I was at a benefits fair on Wednesday this past week representing the company I work for. It was the normal type of event these shows can be, sometimes busy, most times very slow. It was during one of these slow moments when I had a fantastic conversation that comes few times in a person’s life. The kind that is unexpected, out-of-the-blue, and obviously put in motion for a reason only “He” divines at the time, but you take a moment afterward to silently say thank you to him. This was one of those moments.

            His name is Lovell and he is a Doctoral level Professor at a University. We accidentally became engaged in the same conversation about children, specifically about what we are trying to teach our own kids. Now, he is only about 15 or so years older than myself, so his children are only a few years older than my own, so much about what our children are going through and are learning to make decisions on are the same. We spoke about teaching our children history and the need to learn where we come from to learn where we are going. From there though, something happened. I’m not sure what, but the litany of subjects we discussed from there just blossomed; Science, race, God, America, the different religions, society and it’s idolization of bad behavior, the next generation of Americans, the Holocaust and what those that lived through it could teach us, the best way to transport those stories from the survivors mouths to his students ears, on and on and on. It was one of those types of conversation that really lets you seen inside the mind of another human being and what you see is good. Standing before me was a good and decent human being just trying to show his children and the students he touched day after day what it is to be a good person and a good American.

            Now, anyone who has read any of my previous writings knows that I’m a Conservative in the vein of Ronald Reagan; Limited government, low taxes, maximum freedom with minimum intrusion, dyed in the wool Capitalist. I’m fairly certain that my friend, which I hope to call Lovell someday, was a Liberal. He was a tall black man with an “Obama” ball cap, replete with a swoosh to the name and the Obama campaign symbol adorning it. Also, he’s a Sociology professor at a pretty liberal school. The beauty of all of this though is that it didn’t matter. We were just two dads wondering aloud and talking together on what is best needed to raise our kids’ right and to turn them into decent citizens and Americans. This moment and conversation is what it means to be an American. Speaking our mind freely to one another without fear and with respect. We may not believe in the same political concepts or doctrines. We may not even see in the same spectrum about the “-ism’s” in politics and society. What we could see though was the common goal of our children and doing our damnedest to make sure that they become good people and that life is better for them when they are men talking one day.

            I will reach out to Lovell again, and regardless of our political beliefs, no matter how similar or divergent they may be, I hope that I will be able to call him my friend someday. There is one thing that I have already learned from him though, is that he has given me hope that life will be better and that we as citizens will be able to talk more about what unites us than what divides us. And that I’m proud to call him my Fellow American.

Email Ian Hayes, Join the discussion or Share This...

Literally.

Upper Merion School District staged a relatively flawlessly executed sequel to the The Day the Lights Went Out, the district’s original tribute to Earth Day last year

On Thursday, things were reportedly going smoothly at the administration building, as copiers, computers, fax machines, coffee makers and microwave ovens were once again unplugged in homage to the dark ages when those essentials of modern life didn’t exist.

I can’t think of a more symbolic gesture to more aptly honor the thinking behind this stupid new age pagan holiday.

Civilization is bad, children.

Email LisaMossie, Start the discussion or Share This...

Philly.com

Lower Merion began using the system after deciding to give each of its nearly 2,300 high school students a laptop. The program started in 2008 at Harriton High School and expanded this school year to Lower Merion High.

In addition to the photos and screenshots, the technology also used the laptop’s Internet address to pinpoint its location. The system was designed to automatically purge all the images after the tracking was deactivated.

Hockeimer said that lawyers from his firm, Ballard Spahr, and specialists from L3, a computer forensics firm, have used e-mails, voice mails, and network data to piece together how often, when, and why school officials used the technology.

The “vast majority” of instances, he said, represent cases in which the technology appeared to be used for the reasons the district first implemented it in 2008: to find a lost or stolen laptop or, in a few cases, when a student took the computer without paying a required insurance fee.

About 38,500 images – or almost two-thirds of the total number retrieved so far – came from six laptops that were reported missing from the Harriton gymnasium in September 2008. The tracking system continued to store images from those computers for nearly six months, until police recovered them and charged a suspect with theft in March 2009.

The next biggest chunk of images stems from the five or so laptops on which employees failed or forgot to turn off the tracking software, even after the student recovered the computer.

In a few other cases, Hockeimer said, the team has been unable to recover images or photos stored by the tracking system. In about 15 activations, investigators have been unable to identify why a student’s laptop was being monitored.

Hockeimer said that the investigation found that administrators activated the tracking system for just one student this year who failed to pay the $55 insurance fee.

Robbins says he is that student. Hockeimer declined to confirm or deny that.

Email AlexC, Start the discussion or Share This...

Not. Good.

A suburban Philadelphia school district says it secretly captured 56,000 webcam photographs and screen shots from laptops issued to high school students.

Lower Merion School District lawyer Henry Hockeimer says an internal investigation shows students likely were photographed inside their homes. He says none of the images appears inappropriate.

A tracking program took images every 15 minutes to find missing computers. Hockeimer says the program sometimes was turned on for months.

Well. Someone is getting a hefty payout soon here.

Email AlexC, Start the discussion or Share This...

Poor Mark Haltzman. The lawyer for the Lower Merion family at the center of the webcam controversy could not have anticipated that a vomiting slimeball at a Phillies game would totally eclipse his new bombshell allegations in the news cycle:

The system that Lower Merion school officials used to track lost and stolen laptops wound up secretly capturing thousands of images, including photographs of students in their homes, Web sites they visited, and excerpts of their online chats, says a new motion filed in a suit against the district.

More than once, the motion asserts, a laptop camera took photos of Harriton High School sophomore Blake Robbins as he slept in his bed.

The motion, filed in federal court late Thursday by his lawyers, says that each time the camera took Robbins’ picture, it fired the image off to network servers at the School District.

Back at district offices, the Robbins motion says, employees with access to the images marveled at the tracking software. It was like a window into “a little LMSD soap opera,” a staffer is quoted as saying in an e-mail to Carol Cafiero, the administrator running the program.

“I know, I love it,” she is quoted as having replied.

Allegations of “thousands of pictures” and salivating administrators confused that their students’ lives are as willingly exhibitionist as Snookie’s and The Situation’s certainly doesn’t bode well for the school district.

A statement released by the Lower Merion School District today concedes that “a substantial number” of webcam photos have been retrieved as a result of the investigation, however:

On April 14, 2010 — two days ago — the Court issued an Order mapping out the events that we hope will lead to a resolution of the litigation. All parties agreed to the framework set forth in the Court’s Order. Indeed, a meeting among the Robbins’ counsel, the proposed interveners’ counsel and our counsel is scheduled for this afternoon.

A Motion filed yesterday by the plaintiffs ostensibly was against Carol Cafiero, but instead appears to be a vehicle to attack the District. We do not feel it is appropriate for anyone other than the investigators to dictate the timing of the investigation and the release of complete findings. As we have made clear since day one, we are committed to providing all of the facts — good and bad — at the conclusion of the investigation. In light of what has been raised by plaintiffs’ counsel, however, we feel it is critically important to provide immediate clarification regarding key items.

(…)
Also, the plaintiffs’ Motion suggests that the LANrev tracking feature may have been used for the purposes of “spying” on students. While we deeply regret the mistakes and misguided actions that have led us to this situation, at this late stage of the investigation we are not aware of any evidence that District employees used any LANrev webcam photographs or screenshots for such inappropriate purposes. Please also be reminded that we continue to fully cooperate and provide transparency to the United States Attorney’s office in its investigation of the matter. To the extent there is any evidence of inappropriate conduct, it will be disclosed in the findings of the current investigations.

We are committed to disclosing fully what happened, correcting our mistakes, and making sure that they do not happen again.

Though it is premature to speculate here, it is starting to appear as if the School District may have a problem in one Carol Cafiero. What remains to be answered is whether the webcam spying was part of some school policy (as the Robbinses seem to be implying) and where these thousands of pictures came from. It is important to remember that downloading pictures stored on the harddrive of he laptop are technically the property of the school district and the students sign a release to that effect when they take one of these laptops home. The breach of faith here is whether the school district activated the cameras to take pictures of the students unbeknownst to them. The Robbinses and their lawyer have helpfully supplied the following picture taken via webcam of Blake Robbins apparently sleeping. Setting aside the obvious questions about whether the picture was staged by Robbins (it seems awfully close up for a webcam to take a picture of someone who is sleeping, doesn’t it?) that the picture was taken by webcam is not the issue. The question is, who activated the camera to snap the picture?

Email LisaMossie, Start the discussion or Share This...

In addition to the bad news that young adults will be shouldering a significant portion of Obamacare costs through higher enforced enrollment and premiums, Lamar Alexander via Robert Costa on The Corner points out this little gem on college loan funding tucked into the 2,700 page bill:

Sen. Lamar Alexander (R., Tenn.), the U.S. secretary of education from 1991 to 1993, tells National Review Online that President Obama’s revamping of the federal student-loan program is “truly brazen” and the “most underreported big-Washington takeover in history.”

“As Americans find out what it really does, they’ll be really unhappy,” Alexander predicts. “The first really unhappy people will be the 19 million students who, after July 1, will have no choice but to go to federal call centers to get their student loans. They’ll become even unhappier when they find out that the government is charging 2.8 percent to borrow the money and 6.8 percent to lend it to the students, and spending the difference on the new health-care bill and other programs. In other words, the government will be overcharging 19 million students.” The overcharge is “significant,” Alexander adds, because “on a $25,000 student loan, which is an average loan, the amount the government will overcharge will average between $1,700 and $1,800.”

“Up to now, 15 out of 19 million student loans were private loans, backed by the government,” Alexander says. “Now we’re going to borrow half-a-trillion from China to pay for billions in new loans. Not only will this add to the debt, but in the middle of a recession, this will throw 31,000 Americans working at community banks and non-profit lenders out of work.”

This “Soviet-style takeover,” as Alexander calls it, will fundamentally change not only the American post secondary education system, which is the best in the world because of competition, but it will “change the kind of country we live in.”

In other words, welcome to hope and change: welcome to mediocrity.

Email LisaMossie, Start the discussion or Share This...

Inky:

A group of Lower Merion School District parents is asking a federal judge for a say in resolving the laptop spying lawsuit filed last month.

They want answers and privacy assurances about the use of cameras on district-issued student laptops, the parents said in a court filing. But they also want to avoid costly damage awards or a drawn-out class-action litigation with high legal fees, they said.

The motion was filed by three couples and their lawyers, all members of a group called lmsdparents.org that formed several weeks ago to get parents “a seat at the table,” Michael Boni, one of the attorneys, said today. About 460 parents of students at the district’s two high schools have joined the organization. The lawyers are working for free.

Common sense and level-headed thinking from the parents’ group in a case that has been characterized by hysteria and snap judgments. lmsdparents.org:

We oppose the class action for damages; at the same time, we support an effort which will bring out all the facts involving the webcam issue leading to an efficient and fair resolution which will allow the School District to focus again on its mission of teaching our children. LMSDParents.org has received over 450 signatures representing families of 500-600 of the 2300 high school students in Lower Merion and Harriton High Schools. Additionally, we have received 100s of letters and emails of support. Over 150 parents came to a meeting in Narberth to learn of alternative options and provide us with a consensus of what the parents believe is best for their families, the school district, our community and our students.

We support the investigations into the matters involving the laptops and webcams issued to the high school students of Lower Merion and Harriton High Schools. However, we believe the investigations, and the School District’s involvement in them, should not be sidetracked or rendered more expensive by the class action lawsuit.

We have experienced a groundswell of opposition to the class action that was filed in connection with the laptop/webcam issue. Our primary objective is to devise and implement strategies to facilitate a fair, satisfactory, and expeditious resolution to the issues under investigation. Because we believe the class action impedes that objective, we seek to provide an alternative means of representing the interests of LM and Harriton HS students and parents.

Kudos, kudos, kudos to this group and all those who signed the petition. And hopefully, they will achieve all of thier objectives.

Email LisaMossie, Join the other 3 commenters or Share This...

NBC10:

A Perkiomen bus driver lied to authorities about the accident that took the life of a man, injured another and endangered more than 40 children, says the Montgomery County D.A.

Fredrick Poust III, 38, was charged Monday with homicide by vehicle and almost a dozen counts of failure to stop at a stop sign in connection with an accident outside Perkiomen Middle School West on February 17, authorities said.

Poust was making a turn into the school around 7:30 a.m. when the bus collided with a Honda Civic. Richard Taylor, 27, a passenger in the car, was killed and the driver, Freddy Carol, 41, was airlifted to a hospital with serious injuries. Five children also suffered minor injuries.

Poust told authorities he slowed to make the turn when the Civic rammed into the bus.

But surveillance video from onboard the bus depicts a very different story.

The bus driver not only didn’t slow before turning into the school, but also was caught blowing 10 stop signs along his route that day, according to investigators.

Inky:

Between a sleepless night at his second job, conversation on his cell-phone headset, and fiddling with the iPod at his side, Frederick R. Poust III appeared to save little concentration for the job he was supposed to be doing on Feb. 17: driving a school bus loaded with 45 children to Perkiomen Valley Middle School West.

According to authorities, he wound up running 10 stop signs before causing a wreck for which he is charged with homicide by vehicle.

His bus company’s own cameras caught the recklessness, Montgomery County District Attorney Risa Vetri Ferman said Monday.

“You’re not dealing with someone who’s sliding through stop signs,” Ferman said. “You’re not dealing with someone who’s slowing down. You’re dealing with someone who just thinks he’s master of the road.”

Onboard cameras caught Poust’s bus running 10 stop signs, barely slowing for some. Then the cameras show his bus’ speed easing only slightly before the vehicle turned fatally left into a car’s path in front of the school in Lower Fredrick Township.

A decade after Poust ran a Bucks County stop sign while on a cell phone and caused a wreck that killed a 2-year-old girl in late 1999, he showed the same disregard for proper driving in last month’s wreck, which killed Richard Taylor, 27, and endangered dozens of others, Ferman said.

“Knowing that past history and then seeing the driving that was going on that day just outrages all of us,” Ferman said. “It is impossible to think that someone who had taken the life of a child could be so reckless on this particular day while carrying more children.”

Ferman Monday announced one felony count of homicide by vehicle, 46 counts – one for each passenger on the bus and the driver of the Honda in which Taylor rode – of recklessly endangering other persons, and 10 counts of running stop signs.

Here are the people Poust killed:

Email LisaMossie, Join the other 2 commenters or Share This...

Holes are starting to appear in the Robbins’ family’s allegations of Big Brother in Lower Merion School District. Now, it seems young Blake isn’t totally clear about how that picture of him with the “Mike and Ike candy” was taken. Inky:

“Ms. Matsko does not deny that she saw a Web-cam picture and screenshot of me in my home,” said [Blake] Robbins, a blue-jeaned, slight teenager with brown bangs. “She only denies that she is the one who activated the Web cam.”

As I stated earlier, these allegations hinge upon who snapped that picture. In order for there to have been any breach of ethics, Lower Merion School District must have turned the camera on without young Blake’s knowledge and snapped that picture remotely. If Lower Merion obtained that picture by downloading Blake’s hard drive, they are perfectly within their rights: Blake has no expectation of privacy regarding anything stored on a laptop that is school district property, much the same as any employee has no expectation of privacy regarding anything stored on work computer’s hard drive.

The computer-snooping controversy in Lower Merion schools took a new twist last night as a lawyer claimed that a school official told his 15-year-old client that his school laptop contained evidence – both pictures and words – that he might be dealing drugs.

“She called him into the office and told him, basically, ‘I’ve been watching what was on the Web cam and saw what was in your hands,’ ” lawyer Mark S. Haltzman said in an interview. ” ‘I’ve been reading what you’ve been typing, and I’m afraid you are involved in drugs and trying to sell pills.’ “

Now, aside from the fact that Lindy Matzko’s allegations of Blake Robbins’ inappropriate behavior are backed up by far more than just a picture of him eating what he and his lawyer insist are Mike and Ike candy, this statement is worded in a just such a way to imply Matzko’s violation of Robbins’ rights without actually directly accusing her of anything. Again, it is important to remember the contents of the laptop’s hard drive are school district property. Every student who receives a laptop signs off on this statement.

Additionally, as Alex points out in an earlier post, the Robbins’ have poor bill paying habits. Besides their neglect of a $30,000 PECO bill for more than five years, they never paid the required $55 fee to the District upon receipt of the laptop, a fact that may have triggerred the District’s security system.

But finally, someone at the Inky is asking the tough questions:

Last night, a reporter asked Haltzman why the suit did not specifically allege that Matsko had cited what Blake Robbins had typed on his laptop.

“I do not have the [lawsuit] complaint in front of me,” Haltzman replied by e-mail. “But I recall that Blake has stated during interviews that Matsko stated to him that [she] had seen a picture of him and what he had been typing on the screen.”

Why hadn’t the family gone to law-enforcement authorities? “Their thinking was, back in November, to just let it go,” said Haltzman, who has described the photo snapped by the school laptop camera as merely showing Blake Robbins with his favorite candy, Mike & Ike. “Blake protected himself by putting tape over the spot on the Web cam.

Then, he said, the family learned that the episode “was in his file. . . . That’s the part that got them outraged.”

So we are to believe that these champions of privacy were not at all concerned about the appearance that Lower Merion School District could be monitoring students’ behavior remotely back in November, as long as nothing was going to appear on Blake’s permanent record?

It appears that way: It wasn’t until they found out that the school put the disciplinary action in Blake’s file–an action that could conceivably be reported to any potential college to which Blake would apply—-that they filed a civil—not criminal—lawsuit.

Sorry, but I smell balloon boy here.

Email LisaMossie, Start the discussion or Share This...

The family in question has some financial issues.

This family lived in a $986,000 house on the Main Line. The breadwinner, until recently, had earned well more than $100,000 per year. Yet he and his wife were in hock to creditors, ranging from Uncle Sam to their former synagogue – and had regularly been stiffing Peco Energy for five years, breaking payment plan after payment plan.

“Our procedures,” the commission’s Tyrone J. Christy wrote in a Dec. 17 motion, “were not meant to allow customers living in $986,000 houses, with incomes in excess of $100,000 per year, to run up arrearages approaching $30,000.”

The debtors in question were insurance broker Michael Robbins and his wife, Holly, who now find themselves in the national spotlight after suing the Lower Merion School District, saying it allegedly spied on their child at home via a Web cam on a school-issued laptop.

But wait.

There’s more.

Even so, it was the apparent failure to pay a fee – a $55 insurance payment to permit the Robbinses’ son Blake to take his laptop home from Harriton High School – that might have prompted the district to activate the Web cam.

That’s kind of an important detail.

Email AlexC, Join the discussion or Share This...

The plot thickens. The Vice Pricipal at the center of the storm, Lindy Matsko, responds to the charges of laptop spying. Inky:

In a voice that swelled and quavered with apparent anger, Harriton High School Assistant Vice Principal Lindy Matsko this morning decried the “many falsehoods and misperceptions” about her role in the Lower Merion school’s webcam tumult sparked by a student’s lawsuit.

“At no time have I ever monitored a student via a laptop webcam,” said Matsko, who is in her 25th year working for Lower Merion School District, “nor have I ever authorized the monitoring of a student via a laptop webcam, either at school or in the home. And I never would.”

Matsko, speaking for the first time since the suit was filed last week, did not take questions after the six-minute statement she delivered in the Center City office of her attorney, Dennis Abramson.

She said she has been the recipient of “numerous” mean and threatening emails.

Reading from a sheet of paper that shook in her hands, Matsko said allegations she participated in monitoring Harriton sophomore Blake Robbins in his home via the camera of his school-issued MacBook were “offensive, abhorrent and outrageous,” her volume rising after every word.

(…)

“If I believed anyone was spying on either of my children in my home, I, too, would be outraged,” Matsko said.

She later added that, in more than a decade as assistant vice principal, she had “never disciplined a student” for actions beyond school property that had no connection to a school-related event, apparently in response to the Robbins lawsuit’s allegation the student learned of the webcam surveillance from a school disciplinary action.

“That is not, has never been, and never should be my role,” Matsko said. “As a parent, I would adamantly protest and object to any attempt by my children’s school to mete out discipline based upon conduct engaged in outside of school.”

15-year-old Blake Robbins responded by reading a one and a half page statement prepared by his lawyer. The relevant passages (emphasis added):

He alleged that despite Matsko’s disavowal of spying on students, “someone accessed my webcam and provided Ms. Matsko with a screenshot and a webcam picture of me alone in my bedroom.”

(…)

In the Robbins family statement, the Harriton sophomore asked other families to “demand that the Lower Merion School Board authorize its attorneys to turn over” all pictures from the surveillance.

“To delay this litigation any further,” the boy read, his bangs hanging into his face, “by refusing to promptly turn over this information only causes the school district to incur additional legal fees which are unnecessary.”

“Someone” accessed his webcam and came up with the picture. As I said before: It all comes down to who took the picture.

Hmmmm……..

Email LisaMossie, Start the discussion or Share This...