The Cape Henlopen School District is feeling the heat (it seems) over their decision to remove one book — The Miseducation of Cameron Post–from their summer reading list, so they decided to abolish the reading list all together. It wasn’t enough that they banned the first book without even reading it (they googled it and saw the controversy– gasp) OR even talking to the teachers’ group that put the book on the list. And as far as I can tell, they took this decision to abolish the summer reading list again without talking to a single soul responsible for curriculum. If I’m a parent in this District, I’m making the replacement of this entire school board crew a priority. Because they are pretty clearly incompetent. Apparently this move is meant to avoid actions by the ACLU, but certainly isn’t about helping students maintain some learning readiness.
Paul Krugman is feeling the schadenfruade today — while Californians were considering Prop 30 and aggressively implementing Obamacare, conversatives roundly predicted the end of that great state. Instead, they’ve wiped out their deficit and are in budget surplus; their Obamacare implementation was one of the smoothest in the nation and resulted in reduced premiums for most; AND their unemployment rate is back to pre-recession levels (at the same time, Kansas — who reduced taxes — has a massive budget hole and a Governor who is in re-election trouble):
What has actually happened? There is, I’m sorry to say, no sign of the promised catastrophe.
If tax increases are causing a major flight of jobs from California, you can’t see it in the job numbers. Employment is up 3.6 percent in the past 18 months, compared with a national average of 2.8 percent; at this point, California’s share of national employment, which was hit hard by the bursting of the state’s enormous housing bubble, is back to pre-recession levels.
On health care, some people — basically healthy young men who were getting inexpensive insurance on the individual market and were too affluent to receive subsidies — did face premium increases, which we always knew would happen. Over all, however, the costs of health reform came in below expectations, while enrollment came in well above — more than triple initial predictions in the San Francisco area. A recent survey by the Commonwealth Fund suggests that California has already cut the percentage of its residents without health insurance in half. What’s more, all indications are that further progress is in the pipeline, with more insurance companies entering the marketplace for next year.
And, yes, the budget is back in surplus.
Wegmans is coming! Wegmans is coming! This is the talk everywhere it seems. I love this store and (many years ago before they built the Shop Rite) lobbied to get a Wegmans where the Shop Rite is at the Riverfront. The Wegmans would have taken that entire site, but it would have been awesome. This new construction is close enough to my office to be an Official PITA for the next year or so they think construction will happen. My Top 3 Things in Wegmans: 1) The Mediterranean Bar (olives of all kinds!); 2) The carry-out Sushi Bar; 3) Copper River Canyon salmon (in season only).
A candidate for the Best Photobomb of ALL Time:
