Shutdowns and shoutdowns: In 2013, Congress took a gap year..

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  View PhotoReuters/REUTERS - Night falls over the U.S. Capitol Dome, as members of the Republican-controlled U.S. House of Representatives deal with a budget showdown with the Democratic-controlled U.S. Senate, and a …more  possible government shutdown in Washington, September 30, 2013. Senate Democrats killed a proposal by the Republican-led House of Representatives to delay Obamacare for a year in return for temporary funding of the federal government. The bill now goes back to the House, where its fate is unknown. REUTERS/Jonathan Ernst (UNITED STATES - Tags: POLITICS BUSINESS HEALTH CITYSCAPE)  less 

Late at night in Washington, it's not uncommon to see a white light shining atop the dome of the Capitol Building. The unmistakable beam alerts the nation that Congress is still in session, working overtime while the rest of the city sleeps.

The massive light can be seen for miles and is used quite a lot. But what the hell are lawmakers doing in there?

Not much.
(CBSTV Videos)50 bills and not counting
In the annals of legislative history, the most memorable thing about 2013 is how profoundly unmemorable it was. There isn't one grand legislative achievement that defined the year — in fact, the most remarkable event in Congress occurred when lawmakers failed to fulfill their most basic responsibilities and shut down the government.

So far this year, President Barack Obama has signed only 50 bills into law. By last Fourth of July — think of it as the congressional calendar's midseason All-Star Break, minus any All-Stars — Congress had sent only 15 bills to the White House that Obama would go on to sign.

These new laws included the Helium Stewardship Act, the Freedom to Fish Act and the Republicans' gimmicky No Budget, No Pay Act. There was also a law "to specify the size of the precious-metal blanks that will be used in the production of the National Baseball Hall of Fame commemorative coins."

The Reducing Flight Delays Act, which notably flew through Congress, to combat airport delays caused by sequestration ensured that lawmakers' own travel schedules between their districts and Washington, D.C., were not interrupted
On the bright side, Republicans and Democrats did come together to extend current interest rates for student loans and open access to American energy sources, but the rest of the year was largely devoted to mendacity.
"Worst Congress Ever"
This pitiful rate of progress makes the previous Congress — which passed 284 laws from 2011 to 2012 and earned the title of "Worst Congress Ever" by Washington intelligentsia on the left and the right — look like a Foxconn iPhone factory of productivity.

There were multiple factors working against congressional productivity this year. While not entirely to blame, the fact that Congress is currently divided between a Republican-majority House and a Democratic-controlled Senate is certainly an inconvenience to Obama's ambitions. In the House, Republican Speaker John Boehner presides over an iron-spined conference full of tea party-backed members who refuse to compromise at almost any cost, making the act of governing difficult.

To make matters worse, it seems the Senate and House have no interest in anything the other chamber is doing. So far this year, the House has passed 149 bills that the Senate has simply ignored. Likewise, the traditionally tortoiselike Senate passed 35 bills that the House has declined to acknowledge.
There were early signs in 2013 that such unproductiveness was coming.
Although Congress rang in the New Year by passing a last-minute emergency bill to avoid the "fiscal cliff," lawmakers failed to reach an agreement that would find an alternative to sequestration, which mandated automatic cuts to domestic and military programs. The sequester, if you will recall to 2011, was established to be so stupid, even Congress wouldn't go through with it. Well.
Big dreams, bigger hurdles
Despite the foreseeable hurdles, Congress and the White House had big dreams for 2013.
There was talk of an immigration bill to end all immigration bills, one that might offer a path to citizenship for millions living illegally in the U.S. There was a landmark gun bill proposed in the wake of the Sandy Hook elementary school shootings in Connecticut that would tighten background checks on firearm purchases.
Obama's advocacy group Organizing for Action began agitating for congressional action on climate change.
Some wondered if this could even be the year that Obama fulfilled his campaign promise and closes the military prison at Guantanamo Bay.
None of those priorities was met.

FILE - In this April 18, 2013 file photo, Sen. Marco Rubio, R-Fla., center, and other members of immigration reform's …The push for comprehensive immigration reform began with high hopes, when a bi-partisan Senate coalition that spanned the ideological spectrum vowed to find common ground. The bill brought together staunchly conservative Republican Sen. Marco Rubio of Florida and flamboyantly liberal New York Democratic Sen. Chuck Schumer and saw anti-tax lobbyist Grover Norquist literally stand shoulder-to-shoulder with AFL-CIO President Richard Trumka. The Senate passed its version of an immigration bill 68-32 in June only to be ignored in the House.

Meanwhile, gun-reform advocates thought the horrible string of mass shootings across the nation would prompt at least a slight re-examination of federal gun laws. After the Democratic attempt to curb ownership of assault weapons failed to make it into the final bill, the slimmed-down version, which tightened background checks, failed, too.
The congressional attempt at a farm bill, usually an annual staple, didn't fare any better.
And if you're looking for action on climate change, well, feel free to write your own punch line to that one.

Given the 113th Congress' religious adherence to mediocrity, discord and failure, the federal government shutdown this year probably should have come as little surprise, either.

On Oct. 1, the government shut down for the first time in 17 years after House Republicans refused to fund federal operations unless the Affordable Care Act was defunded or delayed. The government remained shut for more than two weeks and reopened only under threat of catastrophic national default in the run-up to a deadline to raise the federal borrowing limit.

That deal, which cost an estimated $2 billion in federal output, didn't lay a finger on the health care law, leading many Republicans to question the entire point of the exercise.
The shutdown will probably be the biggest memory of this year's congressional calendar — a sad thought to ponder considering that funding the government is quite literally the least Congress can do. The good news is that House Republicans and Senate Democrats appear poised to reach a serviceable — but by no means historic — budget deal that will help avoid any shutdown threat in 2014.
Blessing in disguise
But, of course, quantity doesn't always translate to quality, and the number of bills signed into law isn't the only way to measure good governance. As Will Rogers put it in 1924: "Papers say: 'Congress is deadlocked and can't act.' I think that is the greatest blessing that could befall this country."
Rogers was probably right then, and given the executive branch's difficulty in carrying out laws that Congress does pass, he wouldn't be far off the mark in 2013, either.

When you look at it that way, maybe there's hope for this government yet.

White House reverses course, says Obama lived with Kenyan uncle..

FILE - In this Nov. 17, 2011 file photo, Onyango Obama, uncle of President Barack Obama, leaves Framingham, …

The White House acknowledged Thursday that President Barack Obama lived briefly years ago with a Kenyan uncle previously targeted for deportation — after initially insisting there was no evidence they had ever met.

Why the stark turnaround? “Nobody spoke to the president” when the question first arose in 2011, press secretary Jay Carney told reporters at his daily briefing.
Instead, staff appear to have relied on one of the president’s autobiographical books.
“Back when this arose, folks looked at the record, including the president's book, and there was no evidence that they had met, there was — and that was what was conveyed,” Carney explained.
That appeared to be a reference to “Dreams from My Father,” which famously includes the warning that some people in the book are composites.
Carney also denied any improper White House meddling in the deportation procedures against the elder Obama, whom he described as “his father’s half-brother.” The uncle, who has lived in the United States for 50 years, won his fight against deportation this week.
"Absolutely zero interference," the spokesman said.
Here’s some background from the Boston Globe:

Onyango Obama’s immigration case raised numerous concerns about a potential conflict of interest after his arrest in August 2011 for drunken driving in Framingham. The arrest revealed his outstanding deportation orders and his relationship to the president.

Shortly after his arrest, he told an officer, “I think I will call the White House.”
The question of the relationship between the two men arose at a recent deportation hearing focused on the uncle. Onyango "Omar" Obama testified that the future president had lived with him in Cambridge for three weeks.
Carney explained: “There were reports that he had said the other day that President Obama, back when he was a law school student, had stayed with him in Cambridge, I thought it was the right thing to do to go ask him.”
“The president said that he, in fact, had met Omar Obama when he moved to Cambridge for law school, and that he stayed with him for a brief period of time until his — the president's — apartment was ready,” the spokesman added.

“After that, they saw each other once every few months while the president was in Cambridge, and then, after law school, they gradually fell out of touch. The president has not seen Omar Obama in 20 years and has not spoken with him in roughly 10 years.”

Cold-snap stories: From frozen Vegas to the frigid Midwest, residents commiserate..

                           

Heavy snow, freezing rain, slick roads and otherwise miserable winter conditions have stretched across a wide swath of the country, from normally toasty Las Vegas to the upper Midwest. On Thursday morning, the mercury in western Utah plummeted to more than 15 degrees below zero. In Austin, Texas, it was a chilly 34. Denver stalled at a frosty minus 10.

“This is unusual,” says Andrea Kairis, a resident of Great Falls, Mont., where temperatures dipped to minus 13.
And areas further east are bracing for the frigid blast as the storm creeps into the Southern plains, the Tennessee Valley and the Northeast later this week.
Yahoo News is collecting anecdotes from residents in the storm’s path. Below are lightly edited excerpts from stories they shared with us this week.
Whiteout conditions, snarled traffic in Great Falls
GREAT FALLS, Mont. — We're just one of the small cities scattered through the north that's been hit by the below-freezing temperatures and massive amounts of snow today.
Roads are slick, cars are spinning out at every turn, and lanes on the road are invisible. There have been dozens of crashes and slide-offs here in Great Falls, a town of about 60,000 in north-central Montana. Some areas experienced whiteout conditions. Some of us are lucky to be able to stay indoors while others face the dangerous drive to work.
But unlike in bigger cities in the Northeast, nothing here is shut down. Stores open at normal hours, kids have go to school, and adults must show up on time to work. Sub-zero temperatures here are expected every winter, and this year is no different. Great Falls accumulated six inches of snow on Tuesday, and temperatures in the area are expected to range from zero to 20 below into Thursday. Cold fronts and blizzards are typical about two to three times a year here, but not this early in the season. Temperatures in early December are usually in the 20s or low 30s, sometimes even into the teens.
— Andrea Kairis
Empty store shelves in Oklahoma signal wicked winter
TAHLEQUAH, Okla. — Schools across the area have canceled classes for Thursday morning and Christmas parades and other events have been rescheduled or canceled altogether. A wicked winter storm is approaching.
I live in a rural town about an hour east of Tulsa. I began hearing reports around noon on Wednesday that the local stores were out of bread. The story was the same in many other towns across the state.
Around midnight, I decided to go take a look for myself. I was stunned to see the Walmart parking lot still half-full and shoppers in almost every aisle. Customers were lined up at the registers, carts filled, waiting to check out. I made my way back through the store. The bread aisle was empty. Even the tortillas were gone. The chips and crackers were in short supply, and the toilet paper aisle looked looted.
The average December temperature in my county is 40 degrees, according to the Oklahoma Climatological Survey. At midnight, the temperature was 30 degrees and plummeting. We'll see lows in the single digits, with temperatures not rising above freezing for another week. But that's not the worst part of this winter storm. We're expecting heavy precipitation, including sleet and up to eight inches of snow.
— Tavia Fuller Armstrong
In Nevada: ‘Snow happens. If you can't drive in it you are a liability.’
CARSON CITY, Nev. — The first major storm of winter dumped three to eight inches of snow in northern Nevada on Tuesday, bringing with it cold temperatures expecting to last throughout next week.

Arctic blast heading across the country Play video

The National Weather Service reported a high of 27 Wednesday, with an overnight low forecast at minus-5 degrees. Another storm is headed into the area Friday night, with temperatures expected to plummet even more.
Katie SiemonMartin of Reno, who recently moved from Canada, was frustrated with local authorities' slow response to the storm.
"Sending the snow removal team out when there is already a foot of snow on the ground is a bit late. Ditto not salting the roads until about noonish, leaving everyone to skate to work sideways on a bed of black ice," she said.
Siemon Martin, who commutes daily to her job in Carson City, spent several hours trying to get home Tuesday afternoon. Her typical 20- to 30-minute drive was delayed due to the slick roads and auto accidents.
"Snow happens," she said. "If you can't drive in it you are a liability.”
— Darcy Chappel
Wind chills down to 30 below zero in Fargo
FARGO, N.D. — On Wednesday, temperatures plunged to around 0 degrees, and the winds continued to blow, as they are wont to do in Fargo, resulting in wind chills of minus-30.
I attempted to travel from Fargo to Grand Forks, and it was a regrettable decision. Traffic on the interstate moved at 30 mph. What’s worse, my car overheated, an irony not very funny at the time.
My trip to Grand Forks was ill-fated, and I turned back to Fargo after missing an exit due to poor visibility. My overheating car slowed the trip down significantly, but it took about 40 minutes to cover about 12 miles on Interstate 29. The roads were icy, visibility was horrendous, and more than one car was in the ditch.
There have only been four inches of snow. It’s the sweet spot of inconvenience: just enough snow for everything to stay open and encourage people to drive. And it’s just enough to make travel dangerous.
— Nicholas Kuvaas
Frozen shut in Rapid City
RAPID CITY, S.D. — This morning I laced up my snow boots, slipped on my warmest mittens, and snuggled into my heaviest winter coat to walk down the driveway for the mail.
Once I got to the mail box, I turned the key to open it, tugging hard with my icy cold fingers. It was frozen shut. It took several more tugs — and the strength of both hands — to pull it open.
My phone's weather app said it was 7 degrees, but that it felt like 27 below zero due to wind chill. No wonder the mail box had been iced shut. Brrr!
Although South Dakota isn't known for being a tropical paradise in winter (normal December temperatures average in the 30s and 40s), we normally don't see temperatures this low until January or February.
The frigid temperatures will continue through the remainder of the week. Thursday's high is 3, Friday's high is 4, Saturday's high is 2, and Sunday's high is 16. That means subzero daytime temperatures when you factor in the wind chill.
— Molly Golden
Livestock miserable, too, in frigid Montana
MISSOULA, Mont. — The weather forecasters claimed that this will be the coldest, extended temperatures to hit Missoula in 40 years. The National Weather Service says that in the next few days, we'll see temperatures as low as minus-5 to minus-30 with wind chills in the minus-20 to minus-30 ranges.
If the current temperatures are any indication, we'll be in for a wild ride.
It gets dark up here early with the sun setting before 5 p.m., so when I went to milk the goats this week, I was met by single-digit temperatures and absolutely frigid conditions. The milk quickly froze to my bucket and steam came off both the bucket and the goats as I milked them. Not surprisingly, they produced less. The chickens too were pretty miserable, deciding to huddle next to each other for warmth. I gave them extra grain and closed up the barn, keeping the critters inside sheltered from the dangerously cold temperatures.
There's hoarfrost on the horses' coats and manes, and enough snow to make it slippery. Rocket, my bay quarter horse, doesn't like the frozen footing and steps gingerly on the ground. We got maybe a half inch of snow after the cold front settled in.
— MH Bonham
Freezing in Vegas
HENDERSON, Nev. — On Wednesday night, the thermometer sank to 29 degrees, and the mercury doesn't seem likely to move higher soon. Normally, December's highs in Las Vegas hit 58 degrees.
A "hard freeze warning" has been forecast until Friday morning. Temperatures are expected to lower to the mid to upper 20s. My neighbors and I agree this reminds us of the winter of 2008, when it snowed heavily in Las Vegas — the one and only time since I moved here almost eight years ago.
This will be the first freeze for us, so we're preparing. My husband and I wrapped up our fruit trees, brought the dogs inside, and turned off the sprinklers. The heater is on full blast, which is surely going to make my gas bill skyrocket.
The plunging temperatures have had a negative impact citywide. The roads are slick from rain, so traffic is always horrible when I have to drive home. It seems like people are getting into accidents left and right.
— H. Brandon

No responsibility claimed in American teacher's death in Benghazi...

            

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American teacher shot dead in Libya's Benghazi

Benghazi (Libya) (AFP) - An American teacher was gunned down in Libya as he took his morning jog Thursday, a week before he was to return home on holiday, officials and the school said.

Ronnie Smith, a 33-year-old from Texas, had been running in the central Al-Fwihet neighbourhood of the eastern city of Benghazi when he was shot, security services spokesman Ibrahim al-Sharaa said.
No one has yet claimed responsibility for the killing, which comes 15 months after the US ambassador and three other Americans were killed in an attack on the US consulate in Libya's second city.
International School Benghazi director Adel al-Mansuri said Smith, who was married and the father of a two-year-old boy, had joined the faculty as a chemistry teacher late last year.
Mansuri said Smith had been set to return home next week for the year-end holidays.
He said Smith's wife and son were not in Libya.
The director added, without providing details, that another American teacher at the school had been taken to a secure location until he can travel home.
State Department deputy spokeswoman Marie Harf expressed "condolences to the victim’s loved ones" and said "we are in contact with the family and are providing all appropriate consular assistance."
US Ambassador Deborah Jones added her condolences, saying on Twitter: "My heart goes out to the family of the American school teacher murdered today in #Benghazi.
"#Libya's enemies will not succeed in driving away her friends," she added.

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The International School Benghazi (ISB) is pictured in Benghazi December 5, 2013. Gunmen shot dead a …

White House spokesman Jay Carney said President Barack Obama had been briefed on the incident and that "we look to the Libyan government to fully investigate this killing".
Smith's death triggered an outpouring of emotion in Libya.
"It is with a very heavy heart that we announce the death of Ronnie Smith... shot & killed in #Benghazi," tweeted the Libyan Youth Movement.
"Ronnie was living and teaching in #Benghazi on his own accord, he told friends 'If I were to be killed, I will die for Education.'"
A Benghazi-based Twitter user identified as Taqwa Embasher posted: "Smith was a kindhearted, generous person. I was a target of his kindness and generosity. RIP my best teacher&friend."
International School Benghazi is one of the few foreign schools still operating in Libya, with most having shut down last year and earlier this year because of the growing lack of security.
Soldiers also gunned down
In other violence in the increasingly lawless eastern city Thursday, two Libyan soldiers were shot dead in separate incidents, the latest of dozens of security personnel to be gunned down in recent weeks, security officials said.
A third soldier, who was attached to military intelligence, died when a bomb placed under his vehicle blew up, a security official said.
The violence rocking the city, which was the cradle of the NATO-backed rebellion that ousted Moamer Kadhafi, is largely blamed on jihadist groups that have mushroomed since the veteran was toppled and killed in 2011.
Chief among them is Ansar al-Sharia, a jihadist group accused of the September 11, 2012 attack on the US consulate that killed ambassador Chris Stevens and three other Americans.
Farther east, in the Islamist bastion of Derna, residents on Thursday staged new demonstrations against what they say is anarchy in the city and to demand a police and army presence.
On Monday, unknown gunmen fired on protesters in Derna, killing one and wounding seven, according to an updated toll given by a medic on Thursday.
Like Benghazi, Derna has seen a wave of killings of members of the security forces and the judiciary in attacks blamed on Ansar al-Sharia.
The group implicitly denied responsibility for Monday's attack on protesters in Derna.
"Opening fire with live rounds on protesters... is a dangerous thing," the group said in a statement received on Thursday by AFP.
Prime Minister Ali Zeidan announced on Wednesday that preparations were under way to send troops to Derna, where law and order is almost non-existent.

Libya's new authorities have tried in vain to integrate former rebels who helped topple Kadhafi into the regular armed forces, with many militias carving out their own fiefdoms, each with its own ideology and regional allegiances.

2013: Amazing Everyday Heroes..

Sometimes news coverage provides a sense that there’s not much good in the world. But then, amid tragic events, touching stories emerge about selfless acts of kindness. And the good Samaritans behind them become humanity’s silver lining. This year, whether it was an act as small as nursing a kitten back to health after it was thrown from the window of a moving truck or whether it was an act as poignant as bystanders helping Boston Marathon bombing victims to safety, these everyday heroes and their good-hearted deeds accord us hope that there really are compassionate people in the world willing to help others.

Singapore marathon 'winner' ran only 6 km..

                    

Singapore (AFP) - A pastry chef who stunned Singapore marathon organisers by being the first local runner across the finish line admitted he cheated -- and has been doing so for years, a report said Thursday.
Father-of-one Tam Chua Puh, 43, caused consternation when he finished Sunday's race several minutes ahead of Singapore's finest distance athletes in a time of 2hr 46min.
However, Tam admitted he had run only six kilometres (3.7 miles) of the 42km race before giving up due to knee pain and taking a short cut straight to the finish line.
Bespectacled Tam, wearing a baseball cap, baggy shorts and a knee brace, was initially declared the winner before organisers, after a hasty check, disqualified him for missing all the check points.
Speaking to The Straits Times, Tam said he simply wanted to make sure he could collect his medal and T-shirt for finishing the race.
And he revealed he'd also cheated in the last two Singapore marathons, in which he gave up halfway and then hitched a lift from medical vans to near the finish.
"I am sorry if I offended anyone. I never thought I would create so much inconvenience for the organisers," Tam told The Straits Times.
He added: "I never thought about going home midway. It would have been like giving up."

Mok Ying Ren, who will compete for Singapore at the Southeast Asian Games in Myanmar, was the fastest local runner in a time of 2hr 54min. Kenya's Luka Kipkemboi Chelimo won the race in 2hr 14min.

Pilot whales stranded in Florida..

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A flotilla of would-be rescuers sailed to the Florida Everglades on Thursday to try to coax 41 stranded pilot whales out to sea, despite low expectations that the animals would survive.

Ten whales have died since fishermen discovered that the pod had beached in a remote part of the Everglades National Park along the Gulf of Mexico on Tuesday. (Reuters)

Would raising teacher pay boost America's low test scores?

In this January 2013 photo, preparatory students sit for National Center Test for University Admissions at the University of Tokyo. Students from Shanghai, Hong Kong, Singapore, Taiwan, Japan and South Korea were among the highest-ranking groups in math, science and reading in test results released Tuesday, Dec. 3, 2013 by the Program for International Student Assessment (PISA) coordinated by the Paris-based Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD). The group tests students worldwide every three years. In Japan, the government added 1,200 pages to elementary school textbooks after its children fell behind in those in rivals such as South Korea and Hong Kong in 2009, although Japan’s scores for 2009 were tops for rich industrialized countries. Japan has since improved its standings in all three areas. (AP Photo/Kyodo News) JAPAN OUT, CREDIT MANDATORY

America’s lackluster performance on international math, reading and science tests released Tuesday has rekindled the debate over the status and pay of U.S. teachers.

American 15 year-olds again had mediocre scores on the tests, which are administered by the Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development every three years and compare global problem solving and other education skills. Students in Shanghai, Japan, Korea and Singapore scored the highest on all three tests, followed closely by Switzerland and the Netherlands.
Despite spending more per pupil than most countries, American students were ranked in the middle of the pack, and scored 26^th in the world on the math test, close to Hungary, Russia and the Slovak Republic.
Education Secretary Arne Duncan warned Tuesday that the scores on the Program for International Student Assessment, or PISA, showed “stagnation” in the U.S. education system.
The OECD report, did, however highlight one possible solution: paying teachers better to help lure high caliber college graduates who might otherwise want to join a profession with better pay and promotion opportunities.
“While paying teachers well is only part of the equation, higher salaries can help school systems to attract the best candidates to the teaching profession,” the report said.
High performing countries, like Korea and the Netherlands, pay teachers more compared to the country’s average salary than lower performing countries — including the United States. The average salary of America’s 3.3 million public school teachers in 2010 was $56,069, according to the Department of Education.
The relatively higher pay in those countries appears to draw teachers who had better grades in college. In 2010, McKinsey and Co. found that nearly every teacher in Finland, Singapore and Korea — all high scoring countries on the PISA tests — came from the top third of their college classes. In the United States, only a third of teachers graduated in the top third of their class.
This finding that higher teacher pay is substantially correlated to student performance on the PISA tests was not lost on the National Education Association, the country’s largest teachers union.
NEA President Dennis Van Roekel said he thinks Singapore’s teacher compensation system should be a model for the United States.
“They understand that compensation undergirds the system,” Van Roekel told Yahoo News. “They analyze occupations that require the same education as teachers. They keep [the salaries] comparable. No one who wants to teach is deterred because they want to make three times as much in a different occupation.”
But another key union priority — small class sizes — didn’t seem to have a relationship with higher scores. In the U.S., teacher-pupil ratios were about the same for poorer and richer students, and some of the high performing countries and regions have bigger average class sizes than America does.
“You’ve got a fixed amount of money to spend on schooling: You can spend it on either quality or quantity [of teachers],” said Lori Taylor, a professor at Texas A&M’s Bush School of Government and Public Service who has researched teacher pay. “There are returns to quality — there are no obvious returns to quantity.”
But raising salaries would not necessarily have a quick effect on performance.
”An increase in teacher compensation for today’s teachers isn’t going to change their skills and abilities one drop,” Taylor said. “It’s intended to influence the kinds of students who choose teaching as a career and it’s a very long-term strategy.”
But it’s unclear that importing a strategy from another country would have any effect on ours. Andrew Coulson, an education expert with the libertarian Cato think tank, pointed out that research on U.S. teacher pay, which is largely determined by seniority and whether a teacher has advanced degrees, shows that a teacher’s salary does not have a great impact on students’ performance on tests.
Other education experts caution against drawing too many conclusions from the report in general, which only tells us how 15-year-olds are performing on a certain test. Richard Rothstein, an education expert at the Economic Policy Institute think tank, points out that the difference in countries’ performance is not that great, even if American is not at the front of the pack. Much of the difference that does exist in scores he thinks can be attributed to the higher share of low-income students in U.S. schools.

“One of the reasons why our scores are lower, not the only reason, but one reason, is that students in the United States on average are much more disadvantaged,” Rothstein said. “We have much more inequality in our country.”

Lawyer: Engineer in 'daze' before NYC train crash..

YONKERS, N.Y. (AP) — An engineer whose speeding commuter train ran off the rails along a curve, killing four people, experienced a hypnotic-like daze and nodded at the controls before he suddenly realized something was wrong and hit the brakes, a lawyer said as a federal regulator called for the railroad to make immediate safety improvements.William Rockefeller, who was operating the Metro-North Railroad train, experienced a nod or "a daze," almost like road fatigue or the phenomenon sometimes called highway hypnosis, said attorney Jeffrey Chartier, who accompanied the engineer to his interview with National Transportation Safety Board investigators Tuesday. Chartier couldn't say how long the spell lasted.
What Rockefeller remembers is "operating the train, coming to a section where the track was still clear — then, all of a sudden, feeling something was wrong," Chartier said. "He felt something was not right, and he hit the brakes."
He called Rockefeller "a guy with a stellar record who, I believe, did nothing wrong."
"You've got a good guy and an accident," he said. "A terrible accident is what it is."
Rockefeller "basically nodded," said Anthony Bottalico, leader of the rail employees union, relating what he said the engineer told him.

New Details in NY Train Derailment Investigation Play video

"He had the equivalent of what we all have when we drive a car," Bottalico said. "That is, you sometimes have a momentary nod or whatever that might be."
It's too soon to say whether the accident was caused by human error, NTSB member Earl Weener said. But investigators have found no problems with the brakes or rail signals, he said. Alcohol tests on crew members were negative, and investigators are awaiting the results of drug tests, the NTSB said.
Federal investigators wouldn't comment on Rockefeller's level of alertness. They said late Tuesday they had removed Bottalico's union, the Association of Commuter Rail Employees, as a participant in the investigation for publicly discussing confidential information.
Joseph Szabo, head of the Federal Railroad Administration, said in a letter Tuesday that his administration and the U.S. Transportation Department "have serious concerns" following Sunday's accident and three others that occurred in New York and Connecticut from May through July.
Though a federal team has been working closely with Metro-North Railroad and its parent agency, the Metropolitan Transportation Authority, Szabo said, "immediate corrective action is imperative."

NTSB: Train Brakes OK, No Signs of Alcohol Play video

The MTA said in a statement that it would work with federal agencies to improve safety, and was "conducting a comprehensive probe of the safety culture throughout the MTA." Railroad employees were also getting expanded safety briefings.
Congress had previously ordered commuter and freight railroads to install technology called positive train control, which uses electronics to monitor trains' positions and speed and stop derailments and other problems, by the end of 2015. The technology has not been installed on Metro-North trains.
The MTA has said it started planning for such a system as soon as the law went into effect, but it has advocated for an extension to 2018 because of difficulties in installing it.
Crews are rebuilding the damaged track where Rockefeller's train crashed. One of three Hudson Line tracks reopened Wednesday, and commuters said they were grateful service was restored fairly quickly.
"We don't get to complain," said Elite Rubin, 36, who does marketing for an accounting firm. "We weren't on that train where people died."

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Annotated graphic shows the site of the deadly New York train derailment; 2c x 4 1/4 inches; 96.3 mm …

Rockefeller, 46, has worked for the railroad for 15 years and has been an engineer for 10, Weener said. He lives in Germantown, 40 miles south of Albany.
Questions about his role in the derailment mounted after investigators disclosed Monday that the train jumped the tracks after going into a curve at 82 mph, or nearly three times the 30 mph speed limit.
On the day of the crash, Rockefeller was on the second day of a five-day work week, and had reported at 5:04 a.m. after a typical nine-hour shift the day before, Weener said.
"There's every indication that he would have had time to get full restorative sleep," he said.
Weener said part of the investigation will be creating a 72-hour timeline of his activities.
Chartier said Rockefeller had gotten "a proper amount of sleep," having gone to bed at 8:30 the previous night to wake up at 3:30 a.m. for his shift. He said Rockefeller, before going to bed, had been spending time at home.
He said Rockefeller had switched just weeks earlier from the night shift to the day shift, "so he did have a change in his hours and his circadian rhythms with regard to sleep."
The New York Police Department is conducting its own investigation, with help from the Bronx district attorney's office, in the event the derailment becomes a criminal case.
___

Peltz reported from New York. Associated Press writers Frank Eltman in Mineola; Michael Gormley in Albany; Michael Hill in Wappingers Falls; and Meghan Barr and Tom Hays in New York and researcher Rhonda Shafner contributed to this report.

Cold snap felt across Rockies, Midwest..

 

                           

HELENA, Mont. (AP) — A wintry storm pushing through the Rockies and Midwest is bringing bitterly cold temperatures and treacherous driving conditions blamed in at least six deaths as it threatens crops as far south as California.
The wind chill could drop to 30 degrees below zero in parts of Montana Wednesday while wind chills of minus 20 have already been recorded in the Nebraska Panhandle. Low temperatures in the Denver area were expected to drop below zero over the next several days.
The jet stream is much farther south than normal, allowing the cold air to push in from the Arctic and drop temperatures by 20 to 40 degrees below normal levels, AccuWeather meteorologist Tom Kines said.
Areas of Montana and the Dakotas were forecast to reach lows in the minus-20s, while Laramie, Wyo. is expected to see a low temperature of 28 below. The icy arctic blast was expected to be followed by another one later in the week, creating an extended period of cold weather that hasn't been seen since the late 1990s, meteorologists said.
In California's Central Valley, temperatures dropped into the upper 20s overnight, not enough to cause any damage to citrus crops. Citrus farmers, however, are anticipating colder temperatures overnight Wednesday and Thursday and are continuing to take precaution, said Bob Blakely, of California Citrus Mutual.
The unrelenting storm has spread about 2 feet of snow and brought daily activities to a grinding halt in northeastern Minnesota. The heavy snow and ice has contributed to hundreds of traffic accidents around the state and was cited in at least four fatal crashes since Monday. The storm closed the University of Minnesota Duluth and most other schools in the area and canceled holiday parties, Salvation Army bell ringing and a lutefisk dinner in Duluth, where over a foot of snow has fallen over three days.

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A storm system will produce rain and snow over the Great Lakes region, with showers from western New …

In Colorado, the American Red Cross opened a warming shelter in a church in Black Forest near Colorado Springs, to help people still recovering from a wildfire in June that destroyed nearly 500 homes and killed two people.
Meanwhile, the snow and cold sent the Denver Broncos indoors to practice and canceled a men's World Cup downhill training in Beaver Creek. The racers need a clean, slick surface to practice on and will try to squeeze in a training run on Thursday, when the snow should taper off but bitter cold will continue.
Officials warned residents to protect themselves against frostbite if they are going to be outside for any length of time.
"When it gets this cold, you don't need 30, 40 mile-per-hour winds to get that wind chill down to dangerous levels. All it takes is a little breeze," Kines said.
The storm hit the northern Rockies on Monday and Tuesday, dumping up to 2 feet of snow in the mountains and in Yellowstone National Park.

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Reyes Rodriguez brushes freshly fallen snow off furniture at the village at Beaver Creek, Colo., Wed …

A four-vehicle crash in central Montana killed Chelsea Stanfield, 21, of Great Falls. Authorities said Stanfield was driving too quickly for the icy conditions.
In North Dakota, Ronald Waters, 59, of Watford City, died when the semitrailer he was driving rolled in a ditch south of the city.
In the Dakotas, cattle ranchers who lost thousands of animals in an October blizzard were bracing for the latest wintry weather, with wind chills of 40 degrees below zero expected by week's end.
Cattle should be able to withstand the harsh conditions better than they did the Oct. 4 blizzard, said Julie Ellingson, executive vice president of the North Dakota Stockmen's Association.
"Cattle are a hardy species; they can endure a lot," she said. "With that October storm, they didn't have their winter hair coat yet. They've acquired some of that extra hair that will help insulate them better."
The system was pushing south, and Texans enjoying balmy 80-degree days should be seeing temperatures in the 40s by Thursday, Kines said.
The cold air is expected to linger until next week then move east, where it will bring less-drastic temperature changes, he said.
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AP writers Ben Neary in Cheyenne, Wyo., Blake Nicholson in Bismarck, N.D., and Scott Sonner in Reno, Nev., contributed to this report.

Public art project elicits the profound, profane..

                    

In this Nov. 7, 2013 photo, Rick Destito poses near the “Before I Die” wall he painted on the former factory building he owns in Syracuse, N.Y. The inscription on the building invites passers-by to complete the sentence: “Before I die, I want to...” The phenomenon became global since artist Candy Chang created the first wall on an abandoned house in her New Orleans neighborhood in 2011. More than 400 walls have gone up in the United States as well as 60 other countries. (AP Photo/Carolyn Thompson)

SYRACUSE, N.Y. (AP) — It is public art made of private wishes.

In a phenomenon spreading across the globe, oversized blackboards, painted on buildings and freestanding displays, invite passers-by to complete the sentence: "Before I die I want to ..."
Answers, some profound, some profane, are written on stenciled lines with pieces of sidewalk chalk picked from the ground below.
"... make my dad proud."
"... find the yin to my yang."
Since artist Candy Chang created the first wall on an abandoned house in her New Orleans neighborhood in 2011, more than 400 walls have gone up in the United States and more than 60 other countries, including Kazakhstan, Mexico, Iraq, Haiti, South Korea and South Africa.
"... be happy."
"... see Italy."
"I've been surprised by how quickly people have dropped their guards and written sincere and sometimes heartbreaking things on these walls," said Chang, who said the first wall was inspired by the loss of a loved one. "It reassures me that I'm not alone as I try to make sense of my life."
"... eat more everything."
"... get my wife back."
"... slow down for a moment and maybe even stop."
"It's an honest mess of the longing, anxiety, joy, pain, gratitude, insecurity and wonder you find in every community. ... It's like collective therapy in public space," said Chang, responding to questions via email. Chang earned a master's degree in urban planning and sees in public spaces the potential to unify and communicate.
Her own entries have ranged from "enjoy more places with the people I love" to "revive a ghost town."
"I don't know if maybe you're more likely to do it because now it's out there for the world to see, there's just something magical about stuff like this," said Sara McAlister, 22, after stopping to write on a former factory building in Syracuse. "I think putting it out there, even considering the question, is going to make a difference."
"Travel the world," ''brighten someone's day," wrote McAlister, a bartender who recently finished a master's degree in social work at Syracuse University.
"And between you and me, I wrote, marry this one over here," she said, nodding toward her boyfriend, Patrick Kraushaar, 26, who was writing "inspire someone positively" and "make my family proud."
"It's almost like positive imagery," Kraushaar said after putting his chalk down. "It helps bring it to fruition, maybe?"
Building owner Rick Destito painted the "Before I Die" wall after seeing the idea on Facebook.
"It's such a simple idea but it resonated so much with me because there are so many things that I want to do before I die," said Destito, who is transforming the former gear factory into artist and rehearsal studios. He has watched people of all ages and backgrounds stop and write, some lingering, others dashing off a hope and hurrying off.
"... see a cure for autism."
"... grow a moustache."
"... get clean."
Nyquis Turner, 16, stopped to write, "play in the NFL."
"Find a cure for cancer. Be famous," Lynn Morehouse read from one of two boards that went up last month in Providence, R.I. "Some of them are funny. Some of them are a little off the wall. ... I like it."
"... find alien life."
"... tell my dad I'm gay."
Chang said a universal theme is personal well-being, citing repeat entries like: "come to terms with who I am," ''have no regrets," ''forgive and be forgiven," ''heal."
A hardcover book, "Before I Die," released earlier this month by St. Martin's Press, permanently captures some of the answers, which are often otherwise erased to make room for more.
"Some walls reflect the current politics of the region," Chang said. "But for the most part, the walls have shown just how universal our hopes are.
"We want to love and be loved," she said. "We want to see the world. We want to help others. We want to understand who we really are."
___

Associated Press writer Michelle Smith in Providence, R.I., contributed to this report.

Obama: Income inequality a defining challenge..

 

President Barack Obama gestures as he speaks about the new health care law, Tuesday, Dec. 3, 2013, in the South Court Auditorium in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building on the White House complex in Washington. The president said his signature health care law "is working and will work into the future." Obama said the benefits of the law have "gotten lost" in recent months as attention focused on the widespread problems that crippled the website where people can sign up for health insurance. On stage with the president are Americans the White House says have gained as a result of the Affordable Care Act. (AP Photo/Carolyn Kaster)

 

WASHINGTON (AP) -- President Barack Obama turned his focus Wednesday to the pocketbook issues that Americans consistently rank as a top concern, arguing that the dream of upward economic mobility is breaking down and the growing income gap is a "defining challenge of our time."
"The basic bargain at the heart of our economy has frayed," the president said in remarks at a nonprofit community center a short drive from the White House in one of Washington's most impoverished neighborhoods.
The president vowed to focus the last three years of his presidency on addressing the discrepancy and a rapidly growing deficit of opportunity that he said is a bigger threat than the fiscal deficit.
Obama's remarks on the economy come as he seeks to move past the health care woes that have consumed his presidency in recent months. He acknowledged his administration's "poor execution" in rolling out the flawed website that was supposed to be an easy portal for purchasing insurance, while blaming Republicans for a "reckless" shutdown of the government.
"Nobody has acquitted themselves very well these past few months. So it's not surprising that the American people's frustrations with Washington are at an all-time high," Obama said. But he added that Americans' frustrations also run high to try to meet ends meet, no matter how hard they work.
The speech comes amid growing national and international attention to economic disparities — from the writings of Pope Francis to the protests of fast-food workers in the U.S. The president cited the pope's question of how it isn't news when an elderly homeless person dies from exposure, but news when stock market loses two points.
Obama said increasing income inequality is more pronounced in the United States than other countries. He said Americans should be offended that a child born into poverty has such a hard time escaping it. "It should compel us to action. We're a better country than this," the president said.
Obama did not propose any new policy initiatives in the speech, sponsored by the Center for American Progress, a think tank with close ties to the White House. But he reiterated his call for an increase in the minimum wage and other measures he's been backing to help lower income Americans.

Newtown 911 tapes: 'They're still running, they're still shooting'..

"I think there's somebody shooting in here," says an unidentified woman calling from inside the school.
"What makes you think that?" a 911 dispatcher asks.
"Because somebody's got a gun, I saw a glimpse of somebody running down the hallway," she replies, her voice shaking. "They're still running, they're still shooting."
Harrowing 911 calls made from Sandy Hook Elementary School to police in Newtown, Conn., were released Wednesday, giving the public a small but chilling window into the mass shooting that killed 26 people, including 20 children, last December.
Authorities released seven audio-enhanced calls made as 20-year-old gunman Adam Lanza shot his way into the school and began his killing spree.
Newtown police dispatchers can be heard urging school administrators to take shelter amid the massacre.
"Keep everyone down, keep everyone away from the windows," a female dispatcher calmly tells a teacher. "Try to lock down the school."
A male dispatcher stayed on the line for several minutes with Rick Thorne, the school's custodian.
"There's still shooting going on, please!" Thorne shouts. “I keep hearing shooting. I keep hearing popping.” The sound of gunshots can be heard in the background.
The dispatcher picks up several calls in a row while keeping the custodian on the line for updates on the shooting.
"Guys, we've got a shooting in Sandy Hook Elementary School in Newtown," the dispatcher says to his colleagues. "That's why 911 is ringing off the hook right now."
Stephen Sedensky III, a state's attorney, fought against the release of the calls, arguing that the tapes — which were "being made on the murder of children as it occurs" — were too gruesome for residents to bear.
"If the public never hears those cries for help during this process, they won't be harmed," Sedensky said last month.
Nathan C. Zezula, attorney for the Newtown Police Department, said the department wanted to keep the tapes away from "voyeuristic interests."
But Superior Court Judge Eliot Prescott ruled that the 911 tapes be released under the Freedom of Information Act so the public could judge the police response to the killings.
On Tuesday, Newtown School Superintendent John Reed sent an email to Newtown parents, warning that the recordings could serve as an "emotional trigger."
Newtown First Selectman Patricia Llodra, who supported making the calls public, released a statement Wednesday:

The release of the tapes will create a new layer of pain for many in the Newtown community. Hearing those calls takes us back to a day of horror and tragedy. My plea is for the media to treat us kindly ... to recognize that there is great personal pain in this event and little public good to be garnered through the general release. Imagine yourself as a parent of a child who was killed, or a family member of one of the six educators. Imagine yourself as a teacher or staff member in that building desperate to save the lives of children. Imagine you are the parent of a child who was able to escape. Then ask yourself, media person, what is the public good and how do I balance that against the hurt?

Last week, Sedensky released a summary of the state's nearly yearlong investigation into the massacre, shedding no new light on Lanza's motive. Lanza, who killed his mother at their Newtown home before his rampage at the school, killed himself as police arrived.
"The obvious question that remains is: 'Why did the shooter murder twenty-seven people, including twenty children?'" the report states. "Unfortunately, that question may never be answered conclusively."

With additional reporting from Liz Goodwin and Jason Sickles.

Operation Dead-Mouse Drop ..

In this photo taken on Feb. 5, 2013, a Brown Tree Snake is held by U.S. Department of Agriculture wildlife specialist Tony Salas outside his office on Andersen Air Force Base on the island of Guam. The U.S. government is planning to drop toxic mice from helicopters to battle the snakes, an invasive species that has decimated Guam's native bird population and could cause billions of dollars of damage if allowed to spread to Hawaii. (Eric Talmadge/AP)

 

A group of 2,000 dead mice equipped with cardboard parachutes have been airdropped over a United States Air Force base in Guam in order to poison brown tree snakes.
It may sound like the plot to an animated movie starring the vocal talents of Gilbert Godfried, but we assure you this is actually happening.
NBC News reports that the dead mice were pumped full of acetaminophen, the active ingredient in Tylenol. The hope is that the snakes, which are invasive to the area and cause harm to exotic native birds and the island's power grid, will be drawn to the toxic rodents, eat them, and then croak. Other animals face minimal risk, reports the Air Force Times.
Dan Vice, the Agriculture Department's assistant supervisory wildlife biologist for Guam, told KUAM that the mice are dropped in a time sequence from low-flying helicopters. Each rodent is strung up to a tiny parachute made of cardboard and tissue paper.
Via NBC News:

"The cardboard is heavier than the tissue paper and opens up in an inverted horseshoe," Vice said. "It then floats down and ultimately hangs up in the forest canopy. Once it's hung in the forest canopy, snakes have an opportunity to consume the bait."

So how will workers know if the plan is working? After all, it's not like the mice can radio back to base. Or can they? The workers behind the plan told NBC News that some of the mice will have data-transmitting via radios.
The mission is part of an $8 million program from the Interior and Defense departments, Phys.org reports.  If the mission is successful, experts may expand it to other parts of Guam. In other words, maybe a sequel is forthcoming.