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The analogy goes like this: A family reduces its cable TV bill from $100 to $50 a month. The next day, they go out and buy a plasma screen TV for $1,000 and then say they “cut” their home entertainment budget at the end of the month by $50. “After all,” said Michael Van Beek, education policy director at the Mackinac Center for Public Policy. “You could have spent $1,100 but only spent $1,050.” Van Beek said that is the mindset of many public school administrators when they tell legislators and residents that they “cut” their budget by millions despite...

Three days after the earthquake leveled Port-au-Prince last year, a foreign medical team set up a hospital in a soccer field with equipment and supplies unheard of in the rest of the broken city — an X-ray machine, a blood lab, an ultrasound and two incubators for babies who were born prematurely to traumatized mothers. Now, at the cusp of Japan’s ground zero, where a whole village was dragged out to sea, the same foreign team has erected seven medical buildings. Equipped with many of the same supplies used by the team in Haiti, they are helping hundreds of survivors....

Word For The Day, Monday, 4/11/11 In order that we might all raise the level of discourse and expand our language abilities, here is the daily post of "Word for the Day". congeries;n a collection of items or parts in one mass; assemblage; aggregation; heap: From the airplane the town resembled a congeries of tiny boxes Etymology:1610–20; < Latin: a heap, equivalent to conger- (stem of congerere to collect, heap up, equivalent to con- con- + gerere to bear, carry) + -iēs noun suffix; compare rabies, series Rules: Everyone must leave a post using the Word for the Day in...

The idiot wind is blowing again, and this time it is comprised of all the pundits going after Bob Dylan for singing in China, and agreeing to abide by an approved list of songs submitted to him by Chinese censors. First, here is a report about Dylan in China. As Keith Richburg writes, his set list was “devoid of any numbers that might carry even the whiff of anti-government overtones.” Richburg notes that it did not include “Desolation Row” or “Blowin’ in the Wind,” which he did sing in Taiwan. Nor, he comments, did Dylan sing “Chimes of Freedom.” Dylan’s...

The president is going to have to make some policy decisions pretty soon. About foreign and national security policy. They will take the form of personnel changes at the Joint Chiefs of Staff and the Department of Defense, but since personnel=policy, the new (or reshuffled) lineup will perhaps tell us if Mr. Obama has actually learned anything about the way the world works and America’s role in it. Since his public statements can be used to prove most anything you wish — he’s been on virtually all sides of many crucial issues — the personnel moves will likely be enlightening,...

KINGMAN — Prosecutors are trying to hold a Bullhead City murder suspect without bond. Carlos Elisianio Gomez, 24, is charged with first-degree murder. He faces life in prison with or without parole after 25 years if convicted of the murder charge. Prosecutors have not decided whether to seek the death penalty against him. They have 60 days from arraignment to decide. Gomez was arraigned March 3. Gomez, originally from Guatemala, is charged with allegedly shooting Daniel Mares Lopez Feb. 17 while Lopez was walking on the street at Coronel and Coronado drives. Lopez died at a Bullhead City hospital from...

(Reuters) - French special forces have detained Ivory Coast's Laurent Gbagbo and handed him to leaders of the rebel opposition, after French tanks forced their way into his residence, a Gbagbo adviser in France said.

The budget deal reached Friday would affect two initiatives contained in last year's health-care law that were bitterly opposed by businesses, killing one outright and slashing funding for the other. The agreement would eliminate a provision of the health-care law enabling low-income workers to opt out of employer-offered health insurance and shop for more affordable coverage on insurance exchanges to be created in 2014, according to congressional aides and business groups. Under the provision, employers would have had to help pay for the insurance purchased on the exchange. Ending the program would save the government $4 billion over 10 years,...

In a phrase: It was a draw. Game tied after the early innings. Not one of the key riders made it through the process, but Boehner proved himself a tough, able negotiator given the hand he was dealt by his appropriators. The cuts are indeed large relative to what has gone before, but they are woefully inadequate to the fiscal crisis facing the country. This accounts for what David Freddoso calls the sense of resignation among conservatives as details emerge. They know the country is still on the cliff, and that markets won't take much comfort from a tie. Boehner's...

GILBERT, Ariz. — Gilbert police say they've released a man who fatally shot another driver after a roadside confrontation.

Rasmussen poll: Obama -- Strongly Approve: 19% (new low); Strongly Disapprove: 39% -- Total Approval: 44%...developing...

Donald Trump might be off base with his birther views. But does that mean he shouldn't be allowed on TV to express them? Yes--according to Charles Blow of the New York Times. On Morning Joe today, Blow asserted that the MSM is wrong to give Trump air time on the birther issue because "we know that this is not true." Consider Blow's curious suggestion that the MSM collectively knows various things to be true, and should ban those who disagree. What else does the MSM "know is not true"? Who else should it collectively ban from TV? It was a...

Jack Kennedy was shot on my twentieth birthday. I was a Dartmouth student, getting ready to drive down to Skidmore to celebrate with my girlfriend, when the news ricocheted around the dormitory. I went down to Skidmore anyway, spending the weekend in a Saratoga Springs motel room, watching the TV coverage, including that astonishing moment when Ruby shot Oswald in front of our eyes in living black and white.Does this mean I have more insight than others into the Kennedy assassination? No. But that coincidence did give me an extra frisson when the date “November 22, 1963” was superimposed at...

French ground troops have entered the centre of the main Ivory Coast city of Abidjan for the fist time as incumbent leader Laurent Gbagbo refuses to quit. Helicopter gunships are firing in the area around Mr Gbagbo's residence. On Sunday, UN and French helicopter gunships began a new operation they said was aimed at destroying heavy weapons near Mr Gbagbo's residence. Mr Gbagbo has been refusing to cede power to internationally-recognised President Alassane Ouattara. Loud explosions can be heard echoing around the lagoons which surround the centre of the city, says the BBC's Mark Doyle in Abidjan. On Monday morning,...

Noise pollution. What is it good for? Absolutely nothing! When it comes to firearms, it comes with the territory. Why anyone does not have the ability in Michigan to suppress the ear-damaging noise of guns is beyond me. But, if you attach a sound suppressor to your firearm in this state, you’d be guilty of a felony, unless you have a Title II firearms license for machine guns, sound suppressors and destructive devices. Recently, Washington state has allowed its citizens the option of using sound suppressors on firearms and, believe it or not, even the state sheriffs and police chiefs...

I've reported over the years on the problems facing our nations' abuse shelters, including funding woes, over-worked staff, loosey-goosey procedures, and even illegal conduct. But nowhere have I seen what I'm going to reveal about the Next Step, a shelter located near Bar Harbor in lobster-addled Maine... On March 15, 2007, the Maine Coalition to End Domestic Violence unveiled three ambitious bills. One bill would create a new class of crimes for "domestic violence assaults." A second bill would establish a so-called "predominant aggressor" policy that would help police sort out cases of mutual abuse. And the third bill would...

Eminent domain sacrifices the rights of some individuals in favor of the alleged "public interest" of others. Amid cheers of a majority of voters, the sanction of its mayor and city council, and the financial backing of leading local businessmen, the city of San Diego is perpetrating a terrible injustice. The victims are a small group of innocent individuals facing the likelihood of being stripped of their homes and businesses.This violation is being enacted for the alleged "public use" of developing a downtown ballpark. Recently, the San Diego City Council voted to move ahead with the project and officials are...

One of the basic gun safety rules is that owners should be sure their guns are never accessible to unauthorized or untrained individuals. Recently, two gun owners broke that cardinal rule. Restroom surprise Walmart, located at 755 S. 20th Ave. in Safford, is unquestionably the area's busiest store. Numerous people of all types and ages visit the store, and many of them utilize its restrooms. Safford Police were dispatched to the store at about 11:35 a.m. on Thursday after a maintenance employee discovered a fanny pack with a Taurus .357 Magnum in the men's restroom. The employee turned the gun...

President Donald Trump.Do those words, strung together in that order, seem strange? After the release of last week’s Wall Street Journal/NBC News poll showing Trump tied for 2nd among the prospective Republican presidential nominees, a lot of people are undoubtedly trying to wrap their minds around the idea. If it seems out of reach for you, consider this: it was only three and a half years ago that the words “Barack” and “Obama” were so foreign to the American lexicon that they drew red flags from your spellchecker (and if you haven’t enabled a Microsoft update on your computer lately,...

It came as a shock to American intelligence officials, to the Kennedy administration — and to the original seven Project Mercury astronauts. Fifty years ago Tuesday the Soviet Union, which had trouble producing quality refrigerators and TV sets for its own people, sent a man into space and returned him safely to Earth. His name was Yuri Gagarin, a forgotten figure in most of the world today, and he did more than brush his shoulder against outer space, which is essentially what America's first space veteran, Alan B. Shepard, did a month later in a 15-minute flight that took him...