Texas school police ticketing students as young as 6

School police officers in Texas are doling out more tickets to children as young as 6, who under past disciplinary practices would have been sent to the principal's office instead, according to a report by a Texas nonprofit.

"Disrupting class, using profanity, misbehaving on a school bus, student fights, and truancy once meant a trip to the principal's office. Today, such misbehavior results in a Class C misdemeanor ticket and a trip to court for thousands of Texas students and their families each year," says the Appleseed Texas report (PDF). It examined data from 22 of the state's largest school districts and eight municipal courts.

Over six years, school police issued 1,000 tickets to elementary school children in 10 school districts.

The study found that where a child attends school -- not the severity of the allegation -- was the best indicator of whether the child would be ticketed instead of sent to the principal's office. Black students and special education students were overrepresented among those ticketed.

Most Texas schools have police officers, and that staffing is on the rise. The most common infractions earning misdemeanor tickets: disorderly conduct and leaving school without permission.

Full Story @ http://news.yahoo.com/s/yblog_thelookout/20110110/us_yblog_thelookout/students-as-young-as-six-ticketed-by-police-in-texas-schools

Former U.S. Vice-President to visit Kitchener

Some big names will headline a youth-empowerment event set for Kitchener next month.

Former U.S. Vice-President and Nobel Laureate, Al Gore will be one of the speakers at “We Day”.

The event set for Thursday, February 17th at the Kitchener Auditorium will be sponsored by Free The Children and Research In Motion.

Former U.S. Presidential candidate and social activist, Reverend Jesse Jackson will also make an appearance.

Free The Children founders Craig and Marc Kielburger will be there as well.

Free The Children says students will learn about the world's most critical problems and how they can be part of the solution.

It's expected over 6,000 student leaders will attend.

Failing Elite Food Gambit?

Sarkozy takes G20 case to Obama as food prices soar ... French President Nicolas Sarkozy (left) takes his campaign for greater global food price and currency stability to Washington this week when he seeks Barack Obama's support for France's goals as head of the Group of 20 powers. Soaring food prices and riots in Algeria and elsewhere offer Sarkozy ammunition to press for more coordination among G20 governments to combat wild swings in vital commodity prices as well as exchange rates against the long-dominant U.S. dollar.

Sarkozy wants to use his run at the G20 helm in 2011 to start, if not finish, reforms of the monetary system at a time when many countries are tempted to let their currencies drop to promote exports and growth after the worst downturn since World War Two -- even if that is at each others' expense. ... Paris is also pressing for international efforts to impose greater transparency in commodity market trading and pricing, and for tougher regulation of commodity derivatives trade along the lines pursued for other investment derivatives in the wake of the financial market crisis that began in 2007. – Reuters

Full Story @ http://www.thedailybell.com/1676/Failing-Elite-Food-Gambit.html

At Least 10 States Have Introduced Gold Coins-As-Currency Bills

Legislators in at least ten states have introduced bills in the past few years to allow state commerce to be conducted with gold and silver.

As we reported, Georgia state Rep. Bobby Franklin (R) recently reintroduced legislation to force his state to conduct all monetary transactions with U.S. gold or silver coins -- including the payment of taxes.

The Georgia bill has a long way to go before become law -- but it's by no means the only state that's considering a future in gold. Lawmakers in Montana, Missouri, Colorado, Idaho, Indiana, New Hampshire, South Carolina, Utah, and Washington have proposed legislation, mostly in 2009, to include gold and silver in its accepted currency forms.

Constitutionaltender.com, a site dedicated to tracking and promoting these bills, explains:

The United States Constitution declares, in Article I, Section 10, "No State shall... make any Thing but gold and silver Coin a Tender in Payment of Debts". But, in fact, EVERY state in the United States of America DOES make some other "Thing" besides gold and silver coin a "Tender in Payment of Debts" -- some "Thing" called "Federal Reserve Notes." Thus the need for the "Constitutional Tender Act" -- a bill template that can be introduced in every state legislature in the nation, returning each of them to adherence to the United States Constitution's actual legal tender provisions.


Full Story @ http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2011/01/at-least-10-states-have-introduced-gold-coins-as-currency-bills.php

Merrill warns interest rates may jump by year-end

Inflation is poised to surprise on the upside later this year, which will prompt the Bank of Canada to raise short-term interest rates by 1.5 percentage points, says Sheryl King, chief investment strategist for Merrill Lynch Canada.

The possibility of a run-up in rates, now pegged at 1 per cent, would lead to increases in the cost of many types of consumer debt, including the variable-rate mortgages popular with many homeowners.

Ms. King made the rate forecast following the investment bank’s global outlook conference in Toronto, where senior market analysts for the firm lauded a slew of natural resource stocks and one strategist made a high-profile prediction that the debt crisis now afflicting European governments will spread to the United States, an event that would cause both the euro and the Canadian dollar to soar.


Full Story @ http://www.theglobeandmail.com/globe-investor/investment-ideas/features/2011-market-outlook/merrill-warns-interest-rates-may-jump-by-year-end/article1867888/

Unstoppable tide hits Brisbane

The Brisbane River has broken its banks with evacuations underway in the heart of the city amid fears Brisbane will see its worst flooding since the 1974 disaster.

Ferry services have been shut down and rising flood waters have cut train services north and west of the city. Some bus services to the north of Brisbane have also been cancelled.

Police said roads were clogged with motorists trying to get home and city car parks have opened their boom gates, telling people to get their cars out.

Office towers on Eagle Street, right on the river, are being emptied, along with businesses in Fortitude Valley.

Floodwaters are creeping into the inner-city suburb of West End, where residents have been told to get to higher ground.

Evacuations are also underway on Brisbane's northside at Albion and Bowen Hills.

Brisbane Lord Mayor Campbell Newman is currently briefing the media.

It's feared Brisbane could be about to experience its worst flood since the catastrophic 1974 event, when at least 6700 homes were partially or totally flooded in the Brisbane metropolitan area.

The Wivenhoe Dam was subsequently built to the protect the city. Inflows into the dam are so vast that authorities have no choice but to continue with controlled releases, exacerbating flooding problems downstream.


Full Story @ http://bigpondnews.com/articles/TopStories/2011/01/11/Unstoppable_tide_hits_Brisbane_563199.html

Light shines in High Arctic darkness

People in the High Arctic say their 24-hour darkness isn't as dark as it used to be, and a weather researcher says it's because of the warming climate.

"We still have a daylight and there's still blue, green, red down there — there's sun sign still," said Zipporah Ootooq Aronsen, who lives in Resolute Bay, Nunavut. "It's not usually like that."

People in Resolute Bay now sometimes see a distant island that in the past was only visible during daylight hours.

"It never happened like that before," Aronsen said. "Now we can see it once in a while, when it's a clear day."

Wayne Davidson, a weather researcher in Resolute Bay, said warmer thermal layers over cold dense polar air cause light to bend and travel farther.

"If there's a huge contrast between colder and warmer air, there's longer travel of light from any locations," he said.

Inuit have been noticing changes during the dark season for years but the changes are becoming more visible as the climate warms, Davidson said.

"It should be usually, around average, –31 degrees," he said. "It was, couple of days ago, –5 or something like that, so it's pretty wild."

That refraction of light at the border between cold and warm air is what's allowing people to see farther than normal, Davidson said.

"Refraction makes light travel," he said.

Jaypetee Akeeagok, who lives in Grise Fiord, Nunavut, said the weather has also been unusually warm there.

"You can actually drive Skidoo around town without gloves on," he said.

And people in Grise Fiord have also noticed there's more light in winter.

"Twenty years ago, we wouldn't even be able to see the whole village, in high noon, which is only nine kilometres, but now we get to see some daylight," Akeeagok said.

Read more: http://www.cbc.ca/technology/story/2010/12/27/north-high-arctic-24-hour-dark-light-climate-change.html#socialcomments#ixzz1AvVoDFw3