In a “no news is news” story, The Washington Post reports that, in spite of nominal support from President Obama in April 2009, neither Senate Democrats nor the White House is enthusiastic about seeking ratification of the CIFTA treaty. That is good news. CIFTA is the Spanish acronym for the Inter-American Convention Against the Illicit Manufacturing of and Trafficking in Firearms, Ammunition, Explosives, and Other Related Materials. Negotiated under the auspices of the Organization of American States, it was signed by President Clinton in 1997, but it has not yet …
Controversy continues to grow around Nuclear Regulatory Commission Chairman Gregory Jaczko’s unilateral decision to order the NRC staff to stop its work on Yucca Mountain. The chairman defended his actions in a letter to the editor published by Energy Daily last week (subscription required). He suggested that he was authorized to stop work on Yucca by the 2011 budget. Never mind that the budget was never passed. The Chairman simply states that: “the administrative actions the agency has taken are simply a matter of efficient resource management and good government.” …
Michelle Rhee’s tenure as D.C. Schools Chancellor ends Monday. In Saturday’s Wall Street Journal, she and Mayor Adrian Fenty published an “Education Manifesto” summarizing their reform legacy and the breakthrough they hope it represents for other troubled school systems. Their rallying cry: Education policy should serve the needs of children, not the demands of adults. That conviction brought Rhee into direct conflict with the Washington Teachers’ Union as she sought to revive one of the worst school districts in the nation. Despite spending $18,000 annually per pupil, D.C. public schools …
Our country may just need a Rally to Restore Comedy after this past Saturday’s spectacularly unfunny Rally to Restore Sanity on the National Mall. But “The Daily Show” host and rally organizer Jon Stewart may have stumbled upon some truth in his closing remarks: “We hear every day about how fragile our country is — on the brink of catastrophe — torn by polarizing hate and how it’s a shame that we can’t work together to get things done, but the truth is we do. We work together to get …
