"Doesn't Mean Anything" by Alicia Keys (click here for official website - thank you)

Used to dream of being a millionaire, without a care
But if I'm seeing my dreams and you aren't there
'Cause it's over
That just wont be fair
Darling
Rather be a poor woman living on the street
No food to eat
'Cause I don't want no pie if I have to cry
'Cause it's over
When you said goodbye!

All at once
I had it all
But it doesn't mean anything
Now that you're gone
From afar, seems I had it all
But it doesn't mean anything
Since you're gone

Now I see myself through different eyes
It's no surprise!
Being alone will make you realize
When it's over!
All in love is fair I shoulda been there
I shoulda been there, I shoulda shoulda

All at once
I had it all
But
It doesn't mean anything
Now that you're gone
From afar, seems I had it all
But it doesn't mean anything
Since you're…

I will be late. This is too important not to address it.

I have been at a family reunion all day. I recommend it for everyone.

Until tomorrow.

This should be on a newsreel.

I don't know where to start. On July 28, 2017 a federal appeals court ruled that the people of Flint, Michigan can sue the State of Michigan for allowing lead contamination in their water supply. On August 1, the federal EPA forgave the $20 million indebtedness of Flint, Michigan. OnAigust 2, 2017 there was 4 inches of rain in Flint causing the sewers to back up with rain water runoff into the streets. Also on August 2, 2017, US District Judge David Lawson ordered Troy based attorney Paul 

Manicotti to facilitate an agreement between Flint and the State of Michigan regarding the future sources of Flint's water. Universal EMS has closed in Flint. When I was a kid there were volunteer ambulance and fire personnel. And lastly the Democratic candidates for Hovernor will debate in Flint.

 

The time is now. No more doubting or politics. The loss of the corals was a "mass extinction event."

"Smithsonian Earth" (click here)

We need far, far more programming like this.

From the Climate Change Synthesis Report:

...Ocean warming (click here) dominates the increase in energy stored in the climate system, accounting for more than 90% of the energy
accumulated between 1971 and 2010 (high confidence), with only about 1% stored in the atmosphere. On a global scale,
the ocean warming is largest near the surface, and the upper 75 m warmed by 0.11 [0.09 to 0.13] °C per decade over the
period 1971 to 2010. It is virtually certain that the upper ocean (0−700 m) warmed from 1971 to 2010, and it likely warmed

between the 1870s and 1971. {1.1.2, Figure 1.2}...

Sixty percent of Earth's atmospheric oxygen comes from the single celled creatures that live in the oceans. Corals are more complex than a single cell but are known to be climate producers. 

This is serious and all oars need to be in the water.

Did Mueller subpoena anyone from the Secret Service?

August 3, 2017
By Carol D. Leonnig, David A. Fahrenthold and Jonathan O'Connell

The Secret Service (click here) has vacated its command post inside Trump Tower in Manhattan following a dispute between the government and President Trump’s company over the terms of a lease for the space, according to two people familiar with the discussions.

Previously, the Secret Service had stationed its command post — which houses supervisors and backup agents on standby in case of an emergency — in a Trump Tower unit one floor below the president’s apartment.

But in early July, the post was relocated to a trailer on the sidewalk, more than 50 floors below, a distance that some security experts worry could hamper the agency that protects the president’s home and family.

The command post appears unlikely to move anytime soon back inside Trump Tower, where the president and his family have rarely gone since moving to the White House.

On Thursday, a spokeswoman for the Trump Organization said the government should seek space in another location....

Didn't Trump volunteer some space for the FBI so that it wouldn't cost the government money in the budget to protect the President? I am sure Reagan provided space for the agents on his California ranch when needed. What is it costing to protect the President anyway?

Yet again.

August 4, 2017

A fire (click here) ripped through one of the world's tallest residential towers in Dubai on Friday, the latest in a series of fires in tall structures in the United Arab Emirates, the Gulf's tourism and business hub, over the past three years.

Flames shot up the sides of the Torch tower in the second blaze to hit the high-rise since 2015, forcing hundreds of occupants to flee as burning debris showered down the sides of the 1,105 foot (337 meter)-tall, 79-story structure.

"We were sleeping and we woke up to the fire alarm and people screaming. We ran down the stairs and it took us about 10 minutes to reach from the 50th floor," a resident who gave his name as George told Reuters.

"It was very bad. The fire was very strong at that time, about 1 a.m. Then it started calming down over the next two hours," he added.

The tower was evacuated, no injuries were reported, and there was no immediate word on the cause of the blaze.

But the incident may revive questions about the safety of materials used on the exteriors of tall buildings across the wealthy Gulf region and beyond.

An investigation by the management of the Torch after its 2015 fire found that most of the damage was to the cladding, exterior paneling used for decoration or insulation....

That didn't take long.

Grand Juries tend to focus the liars in the case of the dysfunctional DC Insiders. It was Karl Rove with the record number of times before a Grand Jury as he kept mitigating his previous set of lies. As long as a person corrects the record there is no perjury charge. It is a matter of what a person thinks they can get away with. So, I would imagine as the Grand Jury proceeds it will bring out more facts and far less rhetoric. Basically, the Grand Jury can be a tool as well as a place where charges coalesce.

August 3, 2017
By Leon Neyfakh

Special Counsel Robert Mueller (click here) has impaneled a federal grand jury in Washington as part of his investigation into the Trump campaign’s role in Russia's interference in the 2016 election, reports the Wall Street Journal. The development confirms what was already quite clear from the hiring spree Mueller has been on since being appointed in May: this thing is serious, and it’s not going away any time soon. That said, as tempting as it might be to assume that the formation of a grand jury means Mueller is definitely trying to indict someone, the truth is it’s hard to extrapolate all that much from it. As one former federal prosecutor told me, “All it means is that he's investigating, not that charges are forthcoming.”...

Mueller's team is ready to hunt bear. He didn't mess around in his choices. He is ready to defend the country and not play party politics.

And then there is the man who knew too much. Would he or would he not defect?

October 28, 2016
By Laura Wagner

Nearly a year after former Russian press minister (click here) and Kremlin insider Mikhail Lesin was found dead in a downtown hotel in Washington, D.C., U.S. authorities have ruled his death an accident and closed the case.

The finding comes after a lengthy investigation by the U.S. Attorney's Office for the District of Columbia, the city's Metropolitan Police Department and the FBI.

Initially, Russian media reports citing information from Lesin's family members attributed his death last November to a heart attack, as The Two-Way reported. Then in March, the chief medical examiner's office in Washington said Lesin died as a result of "blunt force injuries of the head." It listed the manner of death as "undetermined."

Now, that has been changed.

"As a result of the almost year-long investigation, the Chief Medical Examiner of the District of Columbia has amended Mr. Lesin's manner of death from 'undetermined' to 'accident' with acute ethanol intoxication as a contributory cause of death," the U.S. Attorney's Office said in a statement Friday. "The investigation has now been closed."...

I hope Russia retrieved the tapes. It would seem Mr. Putin's taste in women run in the same direction as Mr. Lesin, young.

March 15, 2017
By Marnie O’Neill

...Nicknamed “The Bulldozer”, (click here) Mr Lesin oversaw a devastating crackdown on the Russian media that resulted in most newspapers and TV stations becoming state-run propaganda machines. He served as Putin’s press minister from 1999 to 2004 and presidential media adviser from 2004 to 2009.

He founded government-funded television network Russia Today (now RT) in 2005 and was a senior executive at Russia’s largest media holding company, Gazprom-Media....

...Weeks after Mr Lesin’s death, it was discovered that his $50 million superyacht Serenity had been left to languish at the Rivergate Marina & Shipyard in Queensland, where it had undergone a refit.

Records show that the six cabin, four deck vessel, made by the world renowned boat builders Dutch Heesen, arrived in Brisbane from Cairns on September 14. An article in the Cairns Post named the Serenity as one of six superyachts that descended on the harbour in July last year.

The Super Yacht Group Great Barrier Reef held a dock party for the captains and crews of the Serenity, Serenity J, Aquamarina and luxury game fishing boat Norby.

A spokesperson for the Super Yacht Group told news.com.au that the company could not discuss Serenity and its owner because, like anyone and everyone involved in the rarefied world of superyachts, they were bound by nondisclosure contracts....

7 earthquakes in 28 hours in the Fracking Capital of the World, Oklahoma. Think Liquefaction.

August 3, 2017
By James Doubek

An earthquake (click here) of preliminary magnitude 4.2 hit central Oklahoma on Wednesday night, the U.S. Geological Survey said, the sixth earthquake to affect the area in just over 24 hours.

Four hours later, a less intense earthquake of a preliminary magnitude 3.5 struck the area in the early hours of Thursday.

The quake late Wednesday was the largest magnitude earthquake to strike the area, near the city of Edmond, since Tuesday night. The USGS said the earthquake was "widely felt" in Edmond and northern Oklahoma City, which is located about 15 miles away. It happened a few minutes before 10 p.m. local time at a preliminary depth of 2.3 kilometers (1.43 miles).

The Edmond police department said on Twitter that no significant damage had been reported.

Residents said the "earthquake cracked floors and walls, and knocked household items off shelves and counters," reporter Joe Wertz of StateImpact Oklahoma reports for NPR.

Remember the 84 million acres of ocean President Bill Clinton preserved to protect corals?

Bow of the Green Lantern (click here) shipwreck with Paramuricea sea fans. Image courtesy of Lophelia II: Reefs, Rigs, and Wrecks 2009 Expedition

This is 2009. There are scientists in American universities fighting to bring back endangered species of corals in this waters.

December 5, 2000
By Robert A. Rosenblatt and Richard Simon

...The new reserve (click here) is "a special place where the sea is a living rainbow," Clinton said at the National Geographic Museum in Washington, where giant pictures of coral were projected on a screen behind him. The order establishes "the strongest level of protection for oceans ever enacted," and sets "a new global standard for reef and marine wildlife protection," he told members of the audience, many of whom were wearing leis made from purple and yellow Hawaiian blossoms....

When politicians say they put people first, make sure it includes the air you breath!

August 24, 2014

NOAA announced today (click here) it will afford Endangered Species Act protections to 20 coral species. All 20 species will be listed as threatened, none as endangered. Fifteen of the newly listed species occur in the Indo-Pacific and five in the Caribbean....

...Today’s announcement is a significant change from the proposed rule in November 2012. Since that time, many new scientific papers on climate change and coral habitat, distribution and abundance were published so that NOAA was able to consider and incorporate new information into the final decision. NOAA also considered extensive public comments as part of the final rule making....

July 23, 2017

• By Beth Buczynski
• 
  
• Coral reefs (click here) serve as a "canary in the coal mine" for the health of our planet. As land dwellers, we can’t see or feel the effects of climate change and other detrimental forces at work in the ocean, but coral reefs can.

And, unfortunately, the ongoing changes occurring in the world’s most important reef ecosystems suggest that something is terribly wrong.

Most recently under threat are the reefs protected by the Papahānaumokuākea Marine National Monument...

Profiteers have no conscience, only money and misinformation to manipulate the public opinion.

It is like the petroleum industry works in cabal with loggers to find the most dense "core forest" and destroy it.

August 2, 2017
By Duncan Adams

An analysis (click here) by Mountain Valley Pipeline of the controversial project’s impacts on intact forests in Virginia underestimated those effects by more than 300 percent, according to an assessment by the Virginia Department of Conservation and Recreation and other state agencies.

In a July 21 filing, the department alerted the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission of “many deficiencies in the MVP approach to evaluate forest fragmentation” that would be caused by the pipeline and the 125-foot wide temporary right-of-way the project would clear of trees and vegetation during construction, as well as the permanently treeless right-of-way of 50 feet in most places.

The agencies said fragmentation of an irreplaceable forest core diminishes its significant, wide-ranging ecological benefits. According to the filing, a “forest core” is an ecological unit that represents an intact block of forest of at least 100 acres....

This same level of immorality existed at "Standing Rock." The land involved at "Standing Rock" BELONGS to Native Americans. It was a burial ground. The tribes did not expect to have their land INVADED by petroleum profiteers.

In the case of Standing Rock private interests invaded Native American land. They do not have rights there. The state and local governments don't have rights there, yet the land was OCCUPIED by private petroleum concerns.

Why?

Because the petroleum industry was unsuccessful in bringing the pipeline to Fargo, North Dakota. The White People of Fargo said, "NO WAY." When it was evident the white folks would win the argument, the petroleum industry simply invaded Standing Rock with a private militia and local swat police. One Native American from Standing Rock that was an Iraq War veteran stated, "We didn't even have that type of armaments when I was a soldier in Iraq."

The 550-mile Atlantic Coast Pipeline (click here) proposed by Dominion Resources in May 2014 is a very real threat to the natural, recreational, and water resources on Shenandoah Mountain.   It cuts through the southeastern portion of the Shenandoah Mountain Proposal in the Braley Pond - Hankey Mountain area.  If the pipeline is approved, it could make a portion of the Shenandoah Mountain Proposal ineligible for designation as a National Scenic Area.  It would also cut through the Ruffed Grouse Habitat Management area on Hankey Mountain that FOSM has pledged to support.  Dominion initiated the pre-filing process with the Federal Energy Regulatory Commission on Oct. 31, 2014.  Friends of Shenandoah Mountain submitted the letter below to FERC on Nov. 13....

Say, "No" to the Atlantic Coast Pipeline. There is no reason for more pipelines in the USA. Fix the ones that already exist!

February 23, 2017

By Steph Yin

...In a paper published in PLoS One on Wednesday, (click here) Dr. Mountrakis and Sheng Yang, a graduate student, tried slicing deforestation a different way. Using satellite maps, they calculated the average distance to the nearest forest from any point in the continental United States in 1992 versus 2001. Between these years, they found, distance to the nearest forest increased by one-third of a mile.

This new metric, which the researchers named “forest attrition distance,” reflects a particular type of forest loss: the removal of isolated forest patches. When these patches are lost (a process the authors refer to as attrition), adjacent forests become farther apart, potentially affecting biodiversity, soil erosion, local climate and other conditions.

The authors calculated the change in total forest cover from 1992 to 2001, and found a loss of 3 percent or 35,000 square miles, approximately the size of Maine. Over the same time period, Dr. Mountrakis said, forest attrition distance increased by 14 percent, a contrast he called striking....

It isn't as though American scientists that work within the USA government have been sitting on their hands regarding the concern of the loss of photosynthesis within the borders of the USA.

A 25-Year History of Forest Disturbance and Cause in the United States (click here)

Mountain pine beetle damage.

Currently in its third phase, the North American Forest Dynamics (NAFD) project is completing nationwide processing of historic Landsat data to provide a comprehensive annual, wall-to-wall analysis of U.S. disturbance history over the last 25 years. Because understanding the cause of disturbance is important to many forest-related applications, Forest Service scientists and collaborators have developed methods to map forest disturbance agents through time. Starting with 10 pilot scenes across the U.S. representing diverse disturbance regimes, scientists developed annual maps at 30 meters (98.42 feet) resolution of fire, harvest, conversion, stress and other agents. It was no surprise that high magnitude disturbances such as clear cuts, land use change, and severe fire could be mapped quite accurately, but the group also experienced success in mapping more subtle and slow disturbances such as insect and disease outbreaks in the Interior West. Research partners plan to distribute annual nationwide maps depicting when and where a forest disturbance occurred over the last 25 years in the near future. Forest Service scientists also are processing national causal agent maps and intermediate spatial data layers. These causal disturbance maps will enable extensive analyses of temporal and spatial patterns in disturbance agents across the U.S.


Picture to right is clear cutting in Oregon, USA.

It is not necessary, even in western Oregon to clear cut for sunlight. Does anyone actually believe a Douglasfir Tree (America's popular Christmas Tree) needs bare land to grow? If that was the case, there wouldn't be Douglasfir in the first place.

Full sun (click here) and partial shade are best for this tree, meaning it prefers a minimum of four hours of direct, unfiltered sunlight each day.

Clear cutting is not required for any species of tree. Honestly, if greed is the issue than foresters should state it as same.

Rules for clearcuts. (click here) Oregon law requires that trees be left as buffers along streams to protect water and fish habitat. And in the clearcut area, a few trees are retained for wildlife habitat. Seedlings must be planted within two years after harvest. Oregon rules limit clearcuts to 120 acres, and adjacent areas in the same ownership cannot be clearcut until the new trees on the original harvest site are at least 4 feet tall.

The ACA also provided for the common good.

Physicians (click here) who diagnose, treat, and help prevent diseases and injuries that commonly occur in the general population. May refer patients to specialists when needed for further diagnosis or treatment.

One of the aspects of the ACA that is grossly neglected is it's investment into the future of health care in the USA.

The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act provided grants and other funding to encourage the numbers of General Practitioners and Nurse Practitioners in the USA. Currently, there is a shortage of Family Physicians. I could never understand the eagerness of the Republicans to destroy a healthcare law that provided for the growth of much needed doctors. 

Additionally, the ACA also provided funding to bring into employment new certified home care aides as well as those that staff the hospital as nursing assistants. The ACA takes a look at the total of health care and brings it up to speed for a growing population of Americans. It also seeks to empower the rural hospitals and health care clinics. 

In destroying the best health care law in the USA for the fact insurance premiums are going up because of greed and not need is to once again put Americans at risk.

I  have a question for the Democrats. How many jobs were created because of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act? And what is the increased revenue into the US treasury because of the ACA?

Those increased revenues in the way of income tax paid by new employees is what the Republicans want to cut and give to the wealthy in tax breaks. They give tax breaks rather than paying off the national debt.

 Does the new employees are also paying state income tax and in some cases local income tax. The dynamics of the ACA go beyond saving lives and for finding health insurance. The ACA's new employees are helping to pay the National debt.

When realizing there is additional state revenue due to the ACA'd new employees, there is no reason for governors to seek reducing the benefits of the Medicaid expansion. They cannot justify it.

There have been tipping points along the way to the climate crisis.

The question is, will they continued to be ignored? There is really no reason to go to Mars since Earth will become uninhabitable. There is and will be plenty of challenges right here.

August 2, 2017
By Peter Hannam

Australia and the rest of the world (click here) must keep global temperature increases to 1.2 degrees - more than promised at the Paris climate talks - if the Great Barrier Reef's biodiversity is not going to deteriorate further, a panel led by former chief scientist Ian Chubb says.

The report by a panel of 15 scientists also called for the urgent revision of the reef's Plan to 2050 to account for "inexorable global warming"....

This isn't about tourism, it is about oxygen.

When I think of humans being capable of saving themselves what comes to mind is Easter Island and the Mayans. They didn't face declining breathable oxygen levels due to burning of fossil fuels and loss of carbon sinks, they simply ran out of forest and food. 

"Emperical View" by Max Rosen (click here)
Emperical is an excellent word. When it comes to discussing science and Earth, emperical is a precise word.

Until later. I am off to try to save a river from corruption today. I won't earn one thin dime doing it.

The bleaching at the Great Barrier Reef was a global event. Every reef in the world as effected by warm waters.

There WERE carbon sinks. They used photosynthesis. They released oxygen to the troposphere. An entire global ecosystem died. The bleaching didn't recover and the corals died. Globally.

Oxygen levels (click here) are decreasing globally due to fossil-fuel burning. The changes are too small to have an impact on human health, but are of interest to the study of climate change and carbon dioxide. These plots show the atmospheric O₂ concentration relative to the level around 1985. The observed downward trend amounts to 19 'per meg' per year. This corresponds to losing 19 O₂ molecules out of every 1 million O₂ molecules in the atmosphere each year.

Get the picture yet?

I especially like the warning at the top of the article. We know when suicide appears in media it can cause mimics.

Warning: This article is about suicide and may be distressing for some readers.

2 Aug 2017

By Sarah Harris

Pretending to be someone (click here) you're not or facing exile from society can drive those with fluid sexuality and gender to breaking point.

Jay, a genderqueer Wellingtonian, described it as playing a character you don't want to be. The situation drove the 25-year-old to contemplate taking their life two years ago.

Jay doesn't identify with being male or female and uses they/them/their pronouns.

They are speaking out for the Herald's Break the Silence series in the hope of lowering the high suicide rate among the lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender and gender & sexual minorities (LGBT+) community.

According to Youth 2012, a major national survey of the health and well-being of secondary school students carried out by the University of Auckland in 2012, almost half of queer youth had seriously thought about taking their own life in the previous year.

One in five had attempted suicide, compared with one in 20 of their non-queer peers.

Queer youth were three times more likely to be bullied every week than their heterosexual peers and almost half had been hit or hurt at school in the previous year....

I never did get to Kyoto Protocol on Monday. Someone reminded me there was a party to attend. 

It was a nice party. A good party. All the elements of a party. Like BELONGING! I had a good time.

That is what is wrong with the Democratic Party, few and few people believe like they belong there.

It was 2004 and the country was becoming disillusioned by the illegal invasion into Iraq. Remember that? Guess what Michael Moore was doing?

...The Fahrenheit 9/11 (click here) scenes showing unabashed patriot Lila Lipscomb's reaction to her son's death in Iraq are difficult to watch....

He was documenting a mother's pain. Did the Democrats latch onto it and realize the country was hurting in a way it never did before? At least since Vietnam. No, they ostracized Fahrenheit 911 while "USA Today" today said, "Gee, I think there is something to this guy." (my words, not theirs). USA Today was bigger than words, they gave him credentials to attend both conventions and a column in their daily.

So, where are we today? The crime network out of the White House is breaking up. Scarlutchi, or however you spell it, is out because he is a tough guy with a dirty mouth, "...what the F...?"

Trump is denying he ever coached his son and someone is saying he did. Well, if there is validity to it, then this is a good sign. The colluding family is beginning to realize Daddy holds the reigns of power, BUT, he does not enforce the law. When a crime family breaks up it always starts by dividing into camps. Somehow the accusation and denial is too good to be true.

Priebus is unemployed. Interesting. He has probably returned to Wisconsin, the only state he was sincerely able to control.

Another general in the White House. Really? I hope he realizes this is the White House and not the Pentagon.

John Kelly, did I get that right? Kelly. Irish, isn't he? He has a good middle name, Francis, like the Pope. He has had an incredible career, Marine, Quantico, Southern Command, University of Massachusetts, Boston, Georgetown and Homeland Security. Wow.

John Francis Kelly is going to make a heck of a good President.

July 31, 2017
By Ryan Lizza

...The sacking of Scaramucci signals that Kelly, (click here) a retired marine general, may actually be empowered to be a true chief of staff. There was no bigger test for Kelly than the fate of Scaramucci, who, in his Wednesday phone call, demanded that I reveal my sources for a trivial tweet about who the President had dinner with that night, threatened to fire his entire staff if I didn’t, alleged that he had called the F.B.I. to investigate his White House rivals, attacked Reince Priebus as a “paranoid schizophrenic,” and described Steve Bannon as engaging in auto-fellatio....

Trump says he won't give up "Twitter" because it is the only way to get the truth out. With General John Francis Kelly as Chief of Staff at the White House all that has changed. Donald should have confidence in General Kelly to deliver the messages necessary to his new press secretary.

...Kelly explained that he had spent a great deal of time talking through the issue with Trump, and he believed he had convinced the President that he didn’t actually need to build a physical wall along the entire nineteen-hundred-mile-long border between the United States and Mexico. Instead, the use of sophisticated monitoring technology, air surveillance, and fencing could secure the border with what Trump could start calling a “barrier.”...

There is still the issue of "The Transparent Wall" so the drug cartels can't build up a militia on the other side without the USA knowing it. So realizing Shamu would have to sacrifice his tank for the good of the country the idea of transparency for this White House may be out of the question.

See, Trump knows something about transparency that Obama never figured out; it feeds inflammatory rhetoric at FOX.

Trump always knows 'an alternative narrative' (click here) other than law enforcement is best.
The only problem with this alternative narrative is that there is a man dead the authorities state is nothing more than a home invasion.

I strongly suggest the truth be told about Seth Rich, an American, very soon. The news agencies should be interested to make this an issue that requires that intense focus. This is a dead man, not a political volley.

Someone is holding Chicago hostage rather than believing in the best interests of the city.

A modest return on such a loan is the only interest any bondholder should expect. This type of debt is only asking for the beginnings of bankruptcy.

The city's unions should be aware that by the time Detroit's debt was reconciled it was the unions and their pensions that were taking the biggest hit and not the bond holders. The Wall Street darlings are a problem when it comes to financing city debt.

We know the Republican Party is robbing the public school systems of valuable funding, but, taking on the idea that "Charter Schools" are suppose to be experimental and not permanent is the best way of addressing THE WAYWARD MOVEMENT OF PUBLIC FUNDING TO THE PRIVATE SECTOR. All the students of the Chicago Public Schools should be benefiting from what was learned in Charter Schools. Charter Schools were never suppose to be a parasite to the great good of all students.

July 31, 2017
By Juan Perez Jr. and Peter Matuszak

Chicago Public Schools' latest long-term borrowing deal (click here) will buy the district a bit of financial breathing room through 2019 but comes at an immense cost to future generations.

By the time the $500 million loan is paid off, children now entering kindergarten will be in their mid-30s and the school district will have spent $850 million in interest costs alone — making the total expense of the bond issue a whopping $1.35 billion.

And only a small fraction of the money from the long-term bonds issued in July will be used for school construction or classroom improvements, which budget experts say should be the primary use for long-term debt. CPS is using the biggest chunk of the loan to reimburse itself for failed bond market deals the district previously covered with cash. Another large portion will be used to shave a few hundred million dollars off old debts — even as it extends those debts as much as 25 years.

In addition, the deal commits an enormous sum of state aid to bondholders through 2046, even as state funding remains at the center of an ongoing battle in Springfield. If state aid is ever not enough to cover bond payments, CPS has pledged to turn to property taxes to pay for the loan....

Funding the Chicago Public Schools should be a priority to the Secretary of Education in Washington, DC. Chicago Public Schools need a bailout. Chicago is among the highest, if not the highest, city with murder rates greater than 1 (one).

See, this is what kinda of bothers me about Foster Care. The children, majority are minority, are removed from their homes lose any sense of belonging. As these children grow older, gangs give them an identity, purpose and belonging. Anyone who is still wondering why there is such violence in Chicago needs to realize the enormous failure of Foster Care and the destruction of families in that city. 

Every effort should be made to support the FAMILY over and above some "institutionalized failure chain" that begins with being born into crime.

The problems of the young families of Chicago are enormous, but, destroying families by taking children away from their parents is not the answer. The children need TEMPORARY housing as was the definition of Foster Parents back in the day. The parents/parent needs to receive help in determining a productive future for them/him/her and their children. Where those NEEDS are met by the reality of poverty, the Foster Parent Adoption Subsidies should follow the child NO MATTER WHERE THEY ARE HOUSED, INCLUDING THEIR NATURAL FAMILY!

THERE AIN'T NO RICH KIDS ON THE ADOPTION SUBSIDY LIST.

Chicago schools need to be the hub of successful families and that won't happen until the school system is bailed out and provided with high quality education, classrooms and teachers. 

END OF DISCUSSION, is the Secretary of Education listening. She has a real challenge before her and she needs to GET STARTED providing the Chicago Public School System with INTACT public education that exudes excellence with well supported families recovering from decades of racism and fractured families.

I am at the last venue for a film festival this evening.

I will put together a "It's Sunday Night" on Monday.

Thank you.