Category: Money, Class, and Poverty,

Tackle Poverty’s Effects to Improve School Performance

On By peanutgallerynhIn Education,, Local Interest,, Money, Class, and Poverty,, Schools,Leave a comment

Not enough food on the table or erratic housing can cause children to lose focus, increased anxiety and damaged mental health. Other common challenges for these students include more school absences and less parental support.

In sum, external factors, particularly poverty, matter more than other issues in shaping students’ academic success.

…State lawmakers can improve outcomes for impoverished students and the schools where they are concentrated with a coordinated set of strategies that respond to both external and internal factors.

  • Foster socioeconomic integration in schools
  • Invest adequate resources in low-income students and schools
  • Build a statewide principal pipeline
  • Enhance teacher compensation

…A review of schools’ 2016 grades by their poverty concentration highlights the connection between poverty and student outcomes.

…Of the 2,135 schools included in this analysis, 100 are counted as extreme-poverty, 446 are high-poverty, 969 are moderate-poverty and 620 are low-poverty.

None of the extreme poverty schools earned a grade of A or B, and all but one earned a D or F.

…Of Georgia schools where fewer than 25 percent of students live in poverty, about 70 percent received either an A or B. And in schools where fewer than 10 percent of children are poor, nearly 94 percent got an A or B.

Schools where the majority of students are low-income are also the schools with the most black and Hispanic students. Nearly all of the students in extreme poverty schools are black or Hispanic.

…When children are exposed to significant or constant stress, the architecture of their brain adapts to functioning in that state. They struggle to differentiate between normal stress sources and greater threats, often reacting strongly to minor problems or disagreements. Their working memories can be impaired, making it harder to complete multi-step assignments or activities. They often have difficulty controlling impulses and emotions and are at heightened risk of mental health problems. All of these make focusing on learning tasks and working collaboratively with peers harder.

…A child who is hungry is a child focused on finding something to eat, not learning.

…Low-income children often are not ready to learn when they enter the classroom, from kindergarten to twelfth grade. The issues causing them to struggle need to be addressed for children to master the knowledge and skills expected in K-12 schools and move on to postsecondary study and the workforce. At the same time, K-12 schools need to make all children feel safe and welcome and ensure they get the educational support needed to be successful learners.

[GA School] District officials also said a lack of instructional resources is a problem. Some said they are unable to provide teachers with materials and tools, including technology. Others reported an inability to provide intervention services to students who are behind while others said they lack resources to provide the variety of courses they would prefer, including STEM and enrichment.

…Several districts said the scope of material teachers are required to cover is difficult to squeeze into the allotted time. Two expressed concern that students are moved ahead before they are ready as a result.

…Students are expected to know and do far more today than 30 years ago. The state is not offering resources to match these elevated standards.

…Educating high-poverty and historically-marginalized students to high levels of academic achievement costs more. The state must match its expectations of these students with a renewed commitment to provide the additional resources they need to reach them—it is accountable for that.

…Eleven percent of responding districts said a lack of community resources is a problem, including enrichment programs and mental health services. Rural communities also lack transportation, an access barrier even where community organizations are in place.

…Squeezed districts also cut student programs, including elective courses like art and music, and intervention programs for low-performing students. A recent national review showed these cuts led to declines in student achievement, particularly in districts with more low-income students.

…The magnet schools are more racially and economically diverse than traditional schools, and their students do better academically than their peers in traditional schools.

…The district is creating magnet-like schools but without admission standards, with the aim of enrolling students from different socioeconomic groups. The initiative is too new to offer student achievement data but the schools are more economically diverse than traditional schools.

Tackle Poverty’s Effects to Improve School Performance

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Pope says indigenous people must have final say about their land | Environment | The Guardian

On By peanutgallerynhIn Environment,, Money, Class, and Poverty,, Race,, Religion,, The Americas,Leave a comment

In the 15th century papal bulls promoted and provided legal justification for the conquest and theft of indigenous peoples’ lands and resources worldwide – the consequences of which are still being felt today. The right to conquest in one such bull, the Romanus Pontifex, issued in the 1450s when Nicholas V was the Pope, was granted in perpetuity.

How times have changed. [Pope Francis] said publicly that indigenous peoples have the right to “prior and informed consent.” In other words, nothing should happen on – or impact – their land, territories and resources unless they agree to it.

…The UN’s Declaration – non-legally-binding – was adopted 10 years ago. Article 32 says “states shall consult and cooperate in good faith with the indigenous peoples concerned through their own representative institutions in order to obtain their free and informed consent prior to the approval of any project affecting their lands or territories and other resources, particularly in connection with the development, utilization or exploitation of mineral, water or other resources.”

Pope says indigenous people must have final say about their land | Environment | The Guardian

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Agritech start-up Indigo to pay farmers for soil carbon capture

On By peanutgallerynhIn Environment,, Money, Class, and Poverty,, Science and Stuff,Leave a comment

Indigo said it hoped to sign up more than 3,000 growers, covering more than 1m acres this year. They will be paid $15 for every tonne of carbon dioxide that is stored underground.

…Farming practices such as minimal tilling of the soil when planting, planting cover crops in-between main crops, and crop rotation can all help the soil capture more carbon. Plants absorb carbon dioxide from the air as they grow, then release it back to the air and soil as they decompose.

…Indigo says it will use satellites and image analysis to measure soil carbon sequestration and on-farm emissions. The company is also participating in a decade-long study including tens of thousands of farms to study how carbon is stored in soil.

Agritech start-up Indigo to pay farmers for soil carbon capture | Financial Times

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Judge rules that St. Louis jails can’t hold inmates who can’t pay

On By peanutgallerynhIn American Injustice System,, Money, Class, and Poverty,Leave a comment

A federal judge on Tuesday barred St. Louis jails from holding inmates simply because they can’t pay bail. She granted class action status to inmates who sued.

U.S. District Judge Audrey Fleissig’s ruling gives officials a week to hold new detention hearings for current inmates in the city’s two jails and says new arrestees must have a hearing within 48 hours of their arrest. Inmates can still be held, Fleissig wrote, if they are a danger to the community or if there is no other way to ensure they show up for court. 

…Lawyers for the inmates say some go days or weeks without being granted a hearing to reduce their bond. Inmates suffer physical and mental consequences for their prolonged detention in inhumane jail conditions, and lose jobs, homes and family connections, the lawsuit says.

…”Ample evidence in the record shows that the duty judge presiding over initial appearances rarely considers information about an arrestee’s financial circumstances because the bond commissioner rarely provides it and arrestees are instructed not to speak,” Fleissig wrote, referring to sheriff’s deputies who tell inmates not to talk or request a bond reduction at their first appearance in court.

…There’s no evidence, she continued, that bail is more effective than other means of ensuring court appearances and public safety.

Judge rules that St. Louis jails can’t hold inmates who can’t pay | Law and order | stltoday.com

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‘Free Willy’ bill bans dolphin and whale captivity in Canada

On By peanutgallerynhIn Environment,, Media and Culture,, Money, Class, and Poverty,, The Americas,Leave a comment

Exceptions to the measure includes animals being rescued or rehabilitated, or those cleared for scientific research.

The bill reads, “A person may move a live cetacean from its immediate vicinity when the cetacean is injured or in distress and is in need of assistance.”

‘Free Willy’ bill bans dolphin and whale captivity in Canada

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Journalists in Haiti demand protection after reporter’s killing | Haiti News | Al Jazeera

On By peanutgallerynhIn Caribbean,, Media and Culture,, Money, Class, and Poverty,Leave a comment

Media organisations in Haiti demanded police protection on Tuesday after the killing of a radio journalist who reported on corruption allegations against President Jovenel Moise’s administration.

…Monday’s shooting came amid days of sometimes violent street protests calling for the resignation of Moise, during which several journalists have been attacked.

…The judges of the High Court of Auditors said in a report last week that Moise was at the centre of an “embezzlement scheme” that had siphoned off Venezuelan aid money intended for road repairs.

The judges’ report laid out a litany of examples of corruption and mismanagement.

The magistrates discovered, for example, that in 2014 Haitian authorities signed contracts with two different companies – Agritrans and Betexs – for the same road-repair project. The two turned out to have the same tax registration number and the same personnel.

Journalists in Haiti demand protection after reporter’s killing | Haiti News | Al Jazeera

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The restaurant owner who asked for 1-star Yelp reviews

On By peanutgallerynhIn Media and Culture,, Money, Class, and Poverty,Leave a comment

According to Cerretini, when he rebuffed these offers, he’d often notice that freshly posted 5-star reviews would be removed from his page — often no less than 24 hours after getting off the phone with a Yelp rep.

“I came from Italy, and know exactly what mafia extortion looks like,” he says. “Yelp was manipulating reviews and hoping I would pay a protection fee. I didn’t come to America and work for 25 years to be extorted by some idiot in Silicon Valley.”

…Eventually, Cerretini relented, plunking down $270 per month to advertise his business on Yelp. But after 6 months, he found the service “useless” and cancelled it. Once again, his star rating plummeted.

In the spring of 2014, after turning down another Yelp salesperson, Cerretini claims that four 5-star reviews were filtered from his page, and three 1-star reviews were suddenly catapulted to the top of the page. For the chef, this was the final straw.

“Those 1-star reviews were from people who never even set foot in my restaurant,” says Cerretini. “One complained about our waiters… we didn’t even have waiters!”

…One morning in September of 2014, he placed a simple sign in front of Botto Bistro: Give us a one star review on Yelp and get 25% off any pizza! Hate us on Yelp. (The discount was later increased to 50%.)

…His protest came at a perfect time. Days earlier, the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals had ruled that Yelp had the right to manipulate reviews, and its advertising tactics were a form of “hard bargaining” — not extortion.

Small business owners were furious, and they were looking for a vigilante hero.

…Most supporters refused to take the discount, but were thrilled to write a review and partake in what they deemed to be a grassroots, anti-Yelp uprising.

In a few days’ time, Botto Bistro’s Yelp page attracted more than 2,300 1-star ratings (95% of its total reviews) extolling the good food, proper service, and rustic ambiance. “Botto Bistro sucks,” wrote one reviewer. “Delicious food priced fairly. One star.”

…“I got thousands and thousands of letters, thousands of emails a day,” says Cerretini. “People were sending me boxes of chocolates, cash, checks. Business owners from all over the country stopped by to thank me and write a bad review.”

http://www.bottobistro.com/FAQ.html

The restaurant owner who asked for 1-star Yelp reviews

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A promise unfulfilled: water pipeline stops short for Sioux reservation

On By peanutgallerynhIn Domestic Affairs,, Money, Class, and Poverty,, Race,, The Americas,Leave a comment

…Historically, a dearth of water and related infrastructure have contributed to persistent poverty on the reservations.

…“You wouldn’t believe how many people are using outhouses and hauling water here,” tribal member Frank Means told the Medill News Service in 1989. “It’s like living in another country.”

…Although the project can deliver up to 20m gallons of potable water daily to an estimated 52,000 people – about one-fourth of them white, and the rest Native American – it has been beset by overspending and incompletion. The unfinished parts happen to be at the tribal ends of the pipeline and have become another example of unfulfilled promises by the federal government to indigenous people.

Despite 25 years of construction that cost nearly a half-billion dollars, only about half of the water delivered by the Mni Wiconi system to the Pine Ridge Reservation is derived from the Missouri River. The rest comes from the reservation’s own wells, which were incorporated in the project to save money.

In reservation towns and villages, the new pipeline water is fed into old community water systems – some of which date to the 1960s, with pipes made of potentially hazardous asbestos-cement. The Mni Wiconi’s builders pledged but failed to replace those antiquated systems.

…Meanwhile, the 15 predominantly white communities and scores of politically connected white ranchers who are served by the Mni Wiconi pipeline have reaped its full benefits. 

…The project’s engineers found that if they designed a Missouri River pipeline big enough to serve all the participants, the cost would blow past the authorized ceiling. So, they decided to obtain some of the project’s water from the High Plains Aquifer system, including the Ogallala Aquifer, which lies underneath parts of the Pine Ridge Reservation but does not extend into the West River/Lyman-Jones service area. The Oglala Sioux people were made to replace half of their share of Missouri River water with groundwater, essentially to benefit their white neighbors.

Despite the pitfalls, Missouri River water started flowing to some project participants in the early 2000s, though it did not reach Pine Ridge reservation until 2008.

The three tribes and the West River/Lyman-Jones system were each responsible for their own bidding and contracting. Bids came in higher on the reservations, where some contractors were loth to work because of the remoteness, the complicated tribal politics and contracts requiring preferential hiring of Native Americans.

…When the last sunset date arrived in 2013, several aspects of the project remained unfinished, and prospects for further congressional support were dim.

Congress had recently banned earmarking – the practice of inserting funds for local projects into broader appropriations bills – which had provided much of Mni Wiconi’s budget.

…The proposed legislation would have funded replacements of the community water systems on the reservations, as originally authorized by the original 1988 law, which stipulated that the water systems could be purchased from the tribes, tribal members, or other residents of Pine Ridge who owned them.

But the purchase of the systems was dismissed in the 1993 engineering report, which declared, “donation of these systems is expected”.

…When asked if he thinks Native Americans were used by whites to get a water pipeline approved by Congress, Pressler said, “I would say the answer is partially yes.”

A promise unfulfilled: water pipeline stops short for Sioux reservation | US news | The Guardian

sigh…

Homelessness In Los Angeles County Up 12% In The Last Year

On By peanutgallerynhIn Local Interest,, Money, Class, and Poverty,Leave a comment

Homelessness is up in Los Angeles County for the third time in four years. Numbers released Tuesday show nearly 59,000 people living on the streets or in vehicles — a 12% increase over 2018. That’s despite two voter-approved tax hikes and more than $600 million spent last year by the city and county on social services and new supportive housing.

Officials blame rising rents and evictions, which they say are pushing people into homelessness faster than the city or county can catch them. Since 2000, LA County’s median monthly rent has risen 32%, to $2,471, while household income has stagnated, according to the nonprofit California Housing Partnership.

Homelessness Up 12% In Los Angeles County : NPR

sighhh

Joe Crain: A weatherman slammed his station’s constant ‘Code Red’ warnings

On By peanutgallerynhIn Local Interest,, Media and Culture,, Money, Class, and Poverty,Leave a comment

He acknowledged criticisms of the alert from viewers in the form of “thousands” of comments on social media, in letters to the editor and in calls to local radio shows.

For example, just days before his monologue, a viewer wrote a scathing letter published in The State Journal-Register, the daily newspaper in Springfield, saying he was “sick to death” of the alerts.

“It would appear that any cloud in the sky will warrant a ‘Code Red.’ Indeed, we have three or four for this week alone!” wrote Victor Edwards of Springfield. “This is something like the boy who cried wolf, or Chicken Little, and what it does is make the viewers skeptical of anything the weather people say when not a single one eventuates.”

In his commentary, Crain said he understood the criticism of the name “Code Red” and the seriousness that implies.

“Certainly, when you hear Code Red, you think, as they say, the feces is about to hit the fan,” he said. “So with that being said, we understand your concerns and we want you to know that we take them very seriously, as far as myself goes. I don’t take myself very seriously, but I do take my job seriously and my responsibility to the public.”

…”So, keep in mind, despite the fact that this facility is owned by a corporation, it’s still licensed under the authority by the Federal Communications Commission to serve the public interest, convenience and necessity, so you still have a voice. Keep those cards and letters coming,” he said.
Joe Crain: A weatherman slammed his station’s constant ‘Code Red’ warnings – CNN

Amen.

Monterey Bay has more microplastics than Great Pacific Garbage Patch, researchers say – SFGate

On By peanutgallerynhIn Environment,, Money, Class, and Poverty,, Science and Stuff,Leave a comment

“Our findings buttress a growing body of scientific evidence pointing to the waters and animals of the deep sea, Earth’s largest habitat, as the biggest repository of small plastic debris,” Anela Choy, an oceanographer, researcher at MBARI and the lead author of the paper, said in a press release about the study.

The two types of microplastics that were the most prevalent in the study of the bay were polyethylene terephthalate and polyamide. Polyethylene terephthalate is used in single-use drink bottles and packaging and polyamide is used in textiles and the automotive industry.

As a contrast, researchers found very few plastic particles that are typically found in fishing gear, and found more plastics offshore than near the shore of the bay.

Monterey Bay has more microplastics than Great Pacific Garbage Patch, researchers say – SFGate

““It may be virtually impossible to remove existing microplastic from the deep sea,” he said. “But when we slow the flow of plastic from land, we can help prevent the increasing accumulation of plastic in our global ocean.”

Virtually impossible? Like cars, planes, and wifi? You know, like technology that seemed unreal until it existed?

There’s always some namby pamby nay-sayer in these articles who acts surprised when they “learn” ocean currents distribute plastic particle and plastic sinks to the bottom when it breaks up. If this is the level of awareness of these “experts,” why are they quoted as such? These are not new concepts for anyone who has taken a look at this issue while their head was outside of their own ass…

And the article never even mention how much human plastic consumption has increased over the last two decades. If you truly thought the only way to solve this problem was the reduction of the use of plastic, why wouldn’t you bring up where all of it is coming from? Why bring up stemming the tide without acknowledging that every day that goes by corporations make this problem worse for the entire planet by increasing the amount of plastic packaging they use?

It’s almost as it they have no desire to actually have an impact on the problem.

#nestlebuysscientists

Why were Trump’s adult children on his state visit to the U.K.?

On By peanutgallerynhIn Domestic Affairs,, Money, Class, and Poverty,Leave a comment

Donald Trump Jr.  and Eric Trump, who are handling the president’s business affairs while he’s in office, as well as Tiffany Trump, showed up at the state banquet and for other parts of the president’s visit, with no explanation for their presence from the White House. 

…Asked why the president’s three adult children who aren’t in the administration were on the state visit, and who paid for their travel and related expenses, a White House official didn’t address why they were there. “They are personally paying,” the White House official responded. 

Why were Trump’s adult children on his state visit to the U.K.? – CBS News

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