Hodge writes at a RedState diary entry:

Sam Brownback cannot be taken seriously while ex-banker Lynn Mitchelson remains a campaign co-chair.

Some questions for future Kansas Governor Sam Brownback:

1. Why did you choose a provably corrupt public official to be a campaign co-chair?
2. Why is part of your campaign team giving a no-bid legal contract to the Democratic Party Chairman’s law firm, at the largest Kansas college, and when the college’s lawyer has clear ethical problems?
3. Are you trying to make Sarah Palin’s PAC look like a well-run organization?
4. Should we assume that you have given up hopes of becoming a future US President?
5. Is this how you plan on running the State of Kansas - through reckless acts of incompetence, corruption, and cover-ups, then followed by failed attempts to intimidate your critics (and even top news agencies)?  That’s what your choice of campaign co-chairs tells us.
6. Do you realize that for every one liberal “Republican” to whom your campaign is reaching out, you are losing - perhaps permanently - the support of two or three conservative voters?
7. Really, Senator? Really?

RedState readers, I can explain to you the national banking crisis, in three words:  Meet Lynn Mitchelson.

For 15 years, the ex-banker Lynn Mitchelson has been one of seven at-large elected trustees at Johnson County Community College.  In large part because he is now unelectable, Mitchelson will permanently retire from public office in 2011.

Mitchelson once had a reputation in Kansas City as someone who could “fix banks.”  Troubled banks would hire him as a temporary CEO, and, in theory, he would bring them back to health.   But now that his record in elected office is widely known, I’ll be surprised if he is ever again hired by a bank.  Why?  Because he is directly responsible for much of lawlessness, failed cover-ups, and retaliation that has become commonplace at JCCC.  The only thing more embarrassing than the corruption in which Mitchelson has participated, is that he has been so unsuccessful at carrying it out.  I did not properly understand the phrase “the cover-up is worse than the crime,” until I had witnessed first-hand Mitchelson at work.  Time and time again, Mitchelson’s actions have brought national embarrassment to this college, the largest college in Kansas.

I had not planned on writing about Mitchelson’s work, but today I’ve learned that JCCC leaders have made malicious, baseless legal threats directly to the top conservative news organization RedCounty.com, where I have written in detail about JCCC’s culture of corruption.

Inexplicably, the once-thought-to-be-conservative Sam Brownback months ago made Mitchelson a key part of Brownback’s 2010 campaign for governor, even though Mitchelson’s public record was already well-known.  Brownback campaign manager David Kensinger - who apparently is under the illusion that Brownback can literally do whatever he wants, and that Brownback then will automatically receive the enthusiastic support of conservatives - doesn’t want to talk about it.

Click here to read the rest of the article.

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) ruled that the adverts - which were based on the children’s poems Jack and Jill and Rub-A-Dub-Dub - made exaggerated claims about the threat to Britain from global warming.
In definitely asserting that climate change would cause flooding and drought the adverts went beyond mainstream scientific consensus, the watchdog said.

Secretary of Education Arne Duncan has just announced a new push to enforce civil rights laws to combat discrimination in our schools. In the last decade, he said, his department’s Office for Civil Rights “has not been as vigilant as it should have been . . . But that is about to change.” His remarks were made March 8 in a speech at the Edmund Pettus Bridge commemorating the 45th anniversary of the civil rights march on Selma, Alabama, that came to be known as “Bloody Sunday.”

AUSTIN - The State Board of Education tentatively approved new standards for social studies on Friday with members divided along party lines - some blasting them as a fraud and conservative whitewash, others praising them as a tribute to the Founding Fathers that rightly portrays America as an exceptional country.

The standards, which will influence history and government textbooks arriving in public schools in fall 2011, were adopted by 10 Republicans against five Democrats after weeks of debate and across a racial and ideological chasm that seemed to grow wider as the proposal was finalized Thursday.

AUSTIN, Tex. - After three days of turbulent meetings, the Texas Board of Education on Friday approved a social studies curriculum that will put a conservative stamp on history and economics textbooks, stressing the superiority of American capitalism, questioning the Founding Fathers’ commitment to a purely secular government and presenting Republican political philosophies in a more positive light.

Eric Foss, a law student from Overland Park, is chairman of KU’s student Republican group, College Republicans. Foss said the group is preparing for next semester’s campaign in big ways.

“This year, we’ve been mainly focusing on building up our organization,” Foss said. “I think conservative students and students who consider themselves Republicans are pretty fired up at this point.”

Link.

TOPEKA, Kan. - Kansas would impose a new tax on soda - a penny for every teaspoon of sugar - under a proposal that a key legislator outlined Tuesday while lawmakers considered raising taxes to erase a projected budget shortfall.

The soda tax advanced by Sen. John Vratil, a Leawood Republican, would increase the cost of a 12-ounce can of soda by a dime and raise an estimated $90 million during the fiscal year that begins July 1.

The bill would end government payments to private, commercial student lenders, leaving the government to lend directly to students. It would also redirect billions of dollars to expand the Pell grant program for low-income students, and to pay for other education initiatives.

News release prepared by: Nellie Ryan, 785-532-6415, media@k-state.edu

Friday, March 12, 2010

K-STATE JOURNALISM EXPERT SAYS INTERNET CHANGING NEWS, NEWSPAPERS

MANHATTAN — News is changing in several ways and innovation is taking place at record-breaking speed, according to Angela Powers, director of the A.Q. Miller School of Journalism and Mass Communications at Kansas State University.

Powers researches influences on news content, media leadership and ethics, and media convergence.

“Some newspapers in the U.S. are laying off people, closing their doors,” she said. “Yet, other newspapers have an enthusiasm for new methods and techniques for gathering news and information that is completely changing the way they’re doing business.”

Part of that transformation has to do with the Internet, which has created massive interconnectedness, Powers said.

“Journalists are now routinely producing original content for the Internet and determining which medium is most appropriate, rather than simply covering a story for print or electronic media,” she said. (more…)

I joined the University of California faculty in 1966 and so have watched a good many of them, but have never seen one less impressive that this year’s. In 1964 there was focus and clarity. This one was brain-dead. The former idealism and sense of purpose had degenerated into a self-serving demand for more money at a time when both state and university are broke, and one in eight California workers is unemployed. The elite intellectuals of the university community might have been expected to offer us insight into how this problem arose, and realistic measures for dealing with it. But all that was on offer was this: get more money and give it to us. Californians witnessing this must have wondered whether the money they were already providing was well spent where there was so little evidence of productive thought.

Link.

At this time of high unemployment, one group of professionals has no shortage of job security: bad teachers. Few public school principals in the country are able to dismiss an incompetent teacher without a protracted, expensive struggle, and therefore firings rarely happen. Yet researchers agree that hiring good teachers, and ditching bad ones, is the best way to improve education.

Nationwide, 2% or fewer teachers are ever fired or fail to have their contracts renewed because of poor performance. Among tenured teachers - those who get job security, typically after two or three years of satisfactory performance - there are often no dismissals at all, according to the U.S. Education Department.

News release prepared by: Katie Mayes, 785-532-6415, kmayes@k-state.edu

K-STATE’S ELEMENTARY EDUCATION PROGRAM RECEIVES NATIONAL HONOR

MANHATTAN — Kansas State University’s bachelor’s degree program in elementary education is being honored with the 2010 Distinguished Program in Teacher Education Award from the Association of Teacher Educators.

The honor recognizes high-quality teacher education programs featuring exemplary collaboration between local education agencies and institutions of higher education in program development and administration. (more…)

KANSAS CITY, Mo. - The Kansas City school board narrowly approved a plan Wednesday night to close nearly half of the district’s schools in a desperate bid to avoid a potential bankruptcy.

An Independence Public schools representative said a bus driver for the district did not follow protocol when he left two boys on a bus at the end of his route Monday.
Nino and Chaz Florido said they were scared when a substitute bus driver missed their stop.
“I thought maybe it was going to be another way to get home, but it wasn’t,” Nino said.

Link.

Jake Witzenfeld, president of Cambridge University’s Israel Society canceled a talk by Benny Morris, a distinguished Israeli historian, for fear the Israel Society would be portrayed as a mouthpiece for Islamophobia.

The trial of Geert Wilders, in Holland, has received almost no attention from the media panjandrums in the West for fear the issue might lead to Muslim incitement, particularly in cities like Rotterdam where the Islamic population is near a majority.

Yale University Press refused to publish cartoons about the Prophet Mohammed in a book about the cartoons and the aftermath of the original publication, for fear of a possible violent response from Islamic adherents.

Contact: Toni Dixon, School of Business, (785) 864-4449, tonidixon@ku.edu

School of Business offers new online course for nonmajors
http://www.news.ku.edu/2010/march/9/onlineclass.shtml

LAWRENCE - Nonbusiness majors at the University of Kansas will have a new way to learn about information systems through an online course that will be available in the fall.

IST 205 Survey of Information Systems is one of the six required courses in the business minor. The online offering of IST 205 will be conducted entirely on Blackboard and will be first made available to non-Lawrence students.

“This is the first online course in the School of Business,” said Mark Best, lecturer in business. “We’re hoping to give more flexibility to students at the Edwards Campus or students hoping to transfer credit to other schools.”

Students will use Blackboard, a Web-based classroom environment, to gain hands-on practice in information systems technology. IST 205 online will cover a range of topics, including computer software and hardware, databases, e-business and e-commerce, Microsoft Excel and information security.

“Students interested in taking IST 205 online will have to be motivated and responsible in order to complete assignments on time,” Best said. “They will be able to test out the theories we discuss in the course. I’ll be doing some live online meetings with students and using the Wiki tool and discussion board on Blackboard to enhance communication and student collaboration.”

Although IST 205 is the only class available online, the School of Business plans to add more online classes in the near future, including at least one graduate course. IST 205 online will be restricted to non-Lawrence students until Aug. 1. Students interested in taking IST 205 online must contact Continuing Education at (785) 864-5823 for enrollment information.

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There will be a Senate Judiciary Health Care Freedom Amendment (SCR 1626) subcommittee hearing this Thursday morning, March 11, at 8:00 a.m.

The focus will be on the constitutional aspects of the proposed amendment.  Therefore, I have invited two constitutional scholars to give testimony.

I have been given some indication that Subcommittee Chairman John Vratil has invited several legal professors to testify as well. (more…)

Kansans for Life is the state affiliate of the National Right to Life Committee. SEE VIDEO HERE proving that Kathleen Sebelius, Nancy Pelosi and Barack Obama are lying when they say the Health Care Reform bill keeps the status quo, and does not federally fund abortion!

SEE EXCELLENT RELATED KANSANS FOR LIFE BLOG ARTICLES BY CLICKING: HERE (more…)