Free Republic

The Kansas Board of Regents is considering stripping specific university math requirements after it was found that a significant percentage of college freshmen fail algebra, NPR affiliate KCUR reported. The Regents, who oversee the system’s six public universities, are considering implementing the Math Pathways approach which matches students to a math course based on their major instead of mandating algebra for all incoming students. While many universities require that all freshmen pass algebra as a prerequisite for graduation, one in three Kansas students reportedly fail the course, which could delay a student’s graduation. Daniel Archer, vice president of academic affairs...

Sen. Cory Booker (D-N.J.) said on Sunday that he believes his party has a “very strong pathway” to add more seats in the Senate ahead of Tuesday’s midterm elections. “The party in the White House usually loses during midterms but the reality is we still have a very strong pathway, not just to keeping the Senate but really picking up seats … in Pennsylvania and in places like Wisconsin and North Carolina,” Booker told host Martha Raddatz on ABC’s “This Week.” “This election still is in the ballots,” he added. “And the reality is we’re bucking what are usual trends.”

On Friday’s broadcast of MSNBC’s “The Last Word,” Rep. Gwen Moore (D-WI) stated that when she saw the judge in the Kyle Rittenhouse case throwing out smaller charges against Rittenhouse that “completely took the pathway, I think, to the conviction of anything further than that.” And that “as a black person, I probably am seeing what a fair trial looks like in some sort of twisted way.”

House Judiciary Committee Chairman Bob Goodlatte recently threw a curveball into the immigration debate by floating what has been anathema to House Republicans — a pathway to citizenship for undocumented immigrants. The Virginia Republican’s idea: legalize the 11 million undocumented immigrants and allow them to apply for citizenship using ways that already exist — including marriage to a U.S. citizen or sponsorship by another relative or an employer. But the chairman’s July 11 comments have piqued interest among immigration advocates. Reformers want to hear more about what the powerful chairman is thinking. Many are encouraged that Goodlatte is seeking solutions...

A new Associated Press-GfK poll has found that more than 60 percent of Americans now favor allowing a pathway to citizenship for illegal immigrants already in the country.

Sick children are being discharged from NHS hospitals to die at home or in hospices on controversial ‘death pathways’. Until now, end of life regime the Liverpool Care Pathway was thought to have involved only elderly and terminally-ill adults. But the Mail can reveal the practice of withdrawing food and fluid by tube is being used on young patients as well as severely disabled newborn babies.

Bird flu's human-attack pathway revealed 18:00 22 March 2006 NewScientist.com news service Debora MacKenzie Two separate research groups have independently discovered why the H5N1 bird flu virus causes lethal pneumonia in people, but is – so far – hard for people to catch. In the process, they have found a way to predict which mutations might make the virus more contagious, and potentially become a pandemic strain. To date, confirmed human deaths from the disease stand at 103 worldwide The H5N1 virus binds to sugars on the surface of cells deep in human lungs, but not to cells lining the...

A gene that helps fruit flies develop alcohol tolerance has been found – and named “hangover”. The gene also controls the flies’ response to stress, and the researchers say that a similar pathway linking alcohol tolerance and stress probably functions in humans. The findings may explain why people who have been in a stressful situation often have a blunted response to alcohol and may drink more to feel inebriated, experts say, putting them at greater risk of becoming addicted. Ulrike Heberlein at the University of California at San Francisco, US, and Henrike Scholz from the University of Würzburg in Germany,...

Watching hurricanes in their infancy and being born is like watching a train wreck. You just can't avert your eyes. Here are a couple of satellite captures from MEOSTAT-7 (Meteorological Satellite) and POES (Polar Orbiting Satellite) Composite that show where the next hurricanes are being brewed. (You can already see the rotation being formed on the most westerly tropical wave).