1/10/2014::Daily Leftovers

DOJ to Schools: Stop Sending Kids to Jail for Breaking the Rules

The Department of Justice issued new guidance Wednesday aimed at curbing harsh, discriminatory over-punishment of school discipline violations. The materials disseminated with the Department of Education aim to increase legal compliance after DOJ filed several lawsuits against cities that dole out criminal punishment to students for violations as minor as dress code violations.

“A routine school disciplinary infraction should land a student in the principal’s office, not in a police precinct,” US Attorney General Eric Holder said Wednesday.

These policies have trapped students in what is known as the school-to-prison pipeline, which funnels students out of the classroom and into the criminal justice system. This pipeline has had a dramatic disproportionate impact on black students with disabilities. Fueling this trend are “zero tolerance” policies that impose harsh punishment for minor violations, and oftentimes remove school officials’ discretion. In some states such as Michigan, zero tolerance is mandated by a state law. The DOJ’s announcement is supported by reports and research that paint a picture of perverse, counter-productive school disciplinary policy,,,

West Virginia chemical spill triggers state of emergency, water ban

West Virginia Governor Earl Ray Tomblin has declared a state of emergency in nine counties after a chemical leak in the Elk River Thursday morning contaminated water supplies. Affected residents have been told not to drink, cook, bathe or wash with the contaminated water supplied by West Virginia American Water.

Texas family battles judge over homeschooling A

controversy has erupted in Texas after a judge ordered children removed from the home of their Christian homeschooling parents – over the homeschooling itself – even though the Texas Home School Coalition notes the state doesn’t allow that.

A 2005 memo from the Texas Department of Family and Protective Services notes that,”Whether parents choose to homeschool their children or send their child to another private or public school is not relevant to the CPS investigation. When CPS staff investigates a family for abuse/neglect, the investigation must focus on the occurrence, or risk, of abuse/neglect and not on the child’s educational setting,” according to the Texas Home School Coalition.

However, of the allegations brought against Trevor and Christina Tutt, who had four biological children and three foster children removed by Child Protective Services several weeks ago, all have been about the educational setting.

Amiri Baraka, polarizing poet and former NJ poet laureate, dies at 79

Amiri Baraka, a militant man of letters and tireless agitator whose blues-based, fist-shaking poems, plays and criticism made him a provocative and groundbreaking force in American culture, has died. He was 79.

His booking agent, Celeste Bateman, told The Associated Press that Baraka, who had been hospitalized since last month, died Thursday at Newark Beth Israel Medical Center.

Few writers were as provocative or polarizing in the 1960s and '70s than Baraka, formerly LeRoi Jones, and no one did more to extend the political debates of the civil rights era to the world of the arts.

He inspired generations of poets, playwrights and musicians, and his immersion in spoken word traditions and raw street language anticipated rap, hip-hop and slam poetry. The FBI feared him to the point of flattery, identifying Baraka as "the person who will probably emerge as the leader of the Pan-African movement in the United States."

Republican Says He Ran For Congress To Prevent Single Mothers From Getting Welfare (VIDEO)

Congressman Louie Gohmert (R-TX) displayed his sexist colors in a speech about single women and welfare. Specifically, single women and welfare are why he’s in Congress to begin with. According to a video posted on The Raw Story, Gohmert says:

“It began to really eat away with me that in the 60s the federal government, desiring to help poor moms who were dealing with deadbeat dads, decided, ‘We’ll help, we’ll give a check for every child you can have out of wedlock.’”

He complains that the war on poverty created the problem of single mothers. Louie Gohmert evidently saw enough women in his courtroom for welfare fraud to decide that women were having babies out of wedlock so they could drop out of high school and collect government checks.

Illinois “Nightmare Bacteria” Outbreak Raises Alarms

The largest U.S. outbreak on record of one particular strain of a so-called “nightmare bacteria” is fueling alarm among public health officials about the spread of potentially lethal drug-resistant infections.

The outbreak, which has been traced to Advocate Lutheran General Hospital in suburban Chicago, has so far infected 44 people, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Since 2009, just 96 cases of the infection have been reported to the agency.

The bacteria strain, known as carbapenem-resistant enterobacteriaceae (CRE), is a form of superbug that lives in the gut and can carry a gene called NDM-1 that is resistant to practically all antibiotics on the market today. Perhaps more alarming, the gene can jump from bacteria to bacteria, making treatable infections untreatable.

Special: American Coup

AMERICAN COUP tells the story of the 1953 coup carried out by the CIA to topple the popular Iranian Prime Minister Mohammad Mossadegh. Mossadegh had nationalized Iran's oil industry to protect Iran's chief asset. This enraged Winston Churchill who believed England should continue to control the oil reserves it had originally discovered in Iran.

Activists push for juvenile justice system reforms

When Marvin Bing Jr. was 12 years old, he was living in a foster home in central Pennsylvania.

One day he decided to take a kitchen knife to school in his book bag. He didn’t have any intention to use it, but he thought it would seem cool to classmates. When the teacher noticed kids gathered around Bing’s desk, oohing and ahhing, he was sent to the principal’s office.

But that was just the beginning. Bing was arrested, taken away in a police car and sent to a juvenile holding facility to await a court date. “It was lockup,” he said. “I had a cell. It was all blue. I had a little bed and a steel locked door. The whole thing, at 12 years old.”

In a single moment, something that happened in school changed Bing’s life, yanking him into the justice system — all before even becoming a teenager. But he is far from alone.

500 days stranded on ice: Shackleton's expedition revisited

One hundred years after Ernest Shackleton's failed attempt to cross the Antarctic by ship, Australian adventurer Tim Jarvis set out to recreate the expedition and rescue mission which left members of Shackleton's team stranded for 500 days. In an interview with NBC's Ann Curry, Jarvis describes the journey's heart-rending moments. Jarvis's documentary, "Chasing Shackleton," premieres Jan. 8 on PBS.

Maryland’s plan to upend health care spending

The Obama administration is set to announce Friday an ambitious health-care experiment that will make Maryland a test case for whether aggressive government regulation of medical prices can dramatically cut health spending.

Under the experiment, Maryland will cap hospital spending and set prices — and, if all goes as planned, cut $330 million in federal spending. The new plan, which has been under negotiation for more than a year, could leave Maryland looking more like Germany and Switzerland, which aggressively regulate prices, than its neighboring states. And it could serve as a model - or cautionary tale - for other states looking to follow in its footsteps.

“You can put Maryland in the company of Massachusetts and perhaps Vermont as the three states furthest out in trying to invent a new future for cost accountability in health care spending,” added Harvard University’s John McDonough. “Success creates a model that other states will want to look at emulating. And failure means it’s an option more likely to be crossed off the list.”