Life Skills Center of Denver Continues to Fill Important Niche for At-Risk Students

by Eddie | 12:31 pm, June 3, 2011

This week one of my Education Policy Center friends was privileged with the opportunity to visit a Denver charter school that fills a niche for 16- to 21-year olds who have dropped out and/or been neglected by the system. Life Skills Center of Denver is an alternative education campus that uses computer-assisted instruction in a [...]

Not Keeping Pace

by Joshua Sharf | 12:27 pm, June 3, 2011

Back in October 2009, I wrote a piece examining the state of Colorado’s Unemployment Insurance Fund, and concluded that making long-term changes in eligibility in return for some short-term federal crack cocaine cash was a terrible trade.  There was a graph showing where our unemployment insurance fund was headed at the time, even before federal [...]

Sitting in for Dan Caplis today

by Rossputin | 6:25 am, June 3, 2011

Hello friends and readers,

I have the distinct privilege of sitting in for Dan Caplis today (June 3) on KHOW’s Caplis and Silverman Show. So for the day, it will be “Silverman and Kaminsky” (though I sorta think Kaminsky and Silverman rolls easier off the tongue! Actually our first names are probably even better…)  I’m inclined to style the show as the “Not Quite a Minyan Show”, but that might be lost on most of the listeners.

Please listen in from 3 PM to 6 PM on AM 630 in and around Denver, or listen online here.

During the 3 PM hour, we’ll be talking about Mitt Romney’s official campaign launch and other presidential hopefuls within Republican ranks.

During the 4 PM hour, we’ll be joined by Congressman Jared Polis to discuss the debt ceiling, the congressional visit by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanhayu, and other topic.

And during the 5 PM hour, we’ll switch gears and talk about marijuana and other drug legalization, particularly in the context of the Obama administration’s move to retroactively lower sentences for “crack” drug users.

Please join the conversation by calling the studio at 303 713 8255.

I’m really looking forward to this opportunity. It’s something I’ve wanted to do within the world of radio for quite a while and I hope listeners find the discussion between me and Craig, and with callers, interesting and entertaining.

Judge: American Airlines and Orbitz must work together

by Rossputin | 5:17 am, June 3, 2011

Americans are rightly repulsed by the idea of a forced marriage. Now a judge wants to create the business equivalent of that half-undesired relationship in the nation’s airline industry.

I can’t find the decision online, but Wednesday evening’s ruling by Illinois judge Lee Preston in the fight between American Airlines and Orbitz strikes me as very dangerous.

In short, American Airlines pulled its fare listings from Orbitz after (if I’m understanding this correctly) American tried to make Orbitz use some of American’s proprietary technology and effectively guide Orbitz’ customers to the AA.com web site.

I understand Orbitz refusing to have someone else’s technology and business model shoved down their throats. And I understand American Airlines deciding that it doesn’t work for their revenue maximization to be on Orbitz. (After all, Southwest Airlines also doesn’t list fares on Orbitz in order to avoid the electronic travel agent’s fees.)

What I don’t understand is how a judge can force American Airlines to participate on the Orbitz platform under Orbitz’s terms.

American Airlines seemed slightly surprised as well, noting “We want to underscore that this is the exact opposite conclusion than that of the judge who heard the evidence.”

Again, there may be technical aspects of law that I don’t understand in this decision, but I’m guessing that at most it’s shades of gray given the lower court’s finding in favor of American.

Can a judge really tell a company that it must work with another company, at least in a non-monopoly situation? If anything, one might expect the sort term impact of the results to be fairly damaging to both companies. Although there might be a bigger percentage hit to Orbitz’s earnings (as shown by the stock rising 28% on the day after the ruling, with American Airlines down less than 1%), you’d have to think that many people would not go directly to the American Airlines web site if they were searching on Orbitz or Kayak or other online airfare aggregators; not participating could hurt AA as well.

Even that analysis strikes me as inappropriate for a judge to consider – again, in a non-monopoly situation. Are companies free to make their own business decisions or aren’t they?

Again, I haven’t been able to research this decision as much as I usually do before writing about a court case. But based on what I know today, I would both hope and expect American to prevail at a higher court.

After all, if a court can so micro-manage the affairs of corporations, what’s next? Giving bondholders’ secured position to unions to benefit the political supporters of the party in power? Naah, that could never happen in Amerika…

In the meantime, I continue to oppose forced marriages of any sort.

Paul Ryan shows Dems what the truth sounds like

by Rossputin | 5:16 am, June 3, 2011

Thanks to my tipster-to-remain-nameless for alerting me to this clip of Rep. Ryan on the House floor on Wednesday. It’s stuff like this which gives me some hope that the GOP will figure out a way to defeat the Dems’ repugnant Mediscare tactics, clearly their primary strategy in the 2012 elections.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=crjPmlhSYsw

Moody Blues

by Joshua Sharf | 10:27 pm, June 2, 2011

The credit rating agency Moody’s told the US government that it was running out of love, and issued a warning today about the need for the US to get its fiscal house in order, and to seize the pre-election moment to deal with the long-term structural deficit. Oh? That’s not how you heard it? You [...]

A Look Back at the 2011 Legislation Session

by Jon Caldara | 3:03 pm, June 2, 2011

This episode of my show aired last Friday the 27th, but for some reason got lost in the shuffle and was never announced here on my blog. I wonder who didn’t do their job… (I’m looking at YOU Minion). So here it is, in all its glory – a look back at this year’s legislative [...]

Neither Necessary Nor Proper Amicus Podcast

by Jon Caldara | 2:48 pm, June 2, 2011

A little while back I told you about the amicus brief that was filed on behalf of the Independence Institute and against the latest justification for Obamacare’s constitutionality. The brief carefully explains, with the help of 18th century law scholars like our own Rob Natelson, that the individual insurance mandate found in Obamacare is [...]

More New Charter Schools Coming Soon to Denver? (No Rude Remarks, Please!)

by Eddie | 2:15 pm, June 2, 2011

The warm weather here in Colorado and the lure of the swimming pool are the main reasons why readers here just get a quick update for today. Ed News Colorado’s Charlie Brennan reports that ideas for 11 new schools (eight of them charters) were pitched this week to the Denver school board.
The public charter sector [...]

Colorado Congressional Redistricting court date set for October

by CTBC Director | 11:33 am, June 2, 2011

The legal battle to determine the boundaries of Colorado’s Congressional districts (since the legislature failed to do its job, sent to the courts for the fourth consecutive decade) has been scheduled: the redistricting case will be heard by Denver District Court Chief Judge Robert Hyatt on 17 October 2011.
Despite Colorado’s clear constitutional language assigning responsibility for [...]

Shawn Mitchell, Rob Natelson Join Me

by Jon Caldara | 10:57 am, June 2, 2011

This week’s Devil’s Advocate is the regular half-hour of public affairs television excellence in two different segments. First, Colorado State Senator Shawn Mitchell sits down with me for an insider’s perspective on the 2011 Colorado legislative session. Then Independence Institute constitutional scholar Rob Natelson joins me for a discussion about the definition of [...]

Peter Ferrara: Dems’ Big Government breakout

by Rossputin | 5:56 am, June 2, 2011

For today’s intellectual ammunition, I’d like to direct you to Peter Ferrara’s tremendous analysis of Democrat budget antics and policies. Ferrara has encapsulated a lot of information in one article; it’s among the best I’ve seen as a good summary of where we are and where Democrats would take us if we don’t stop them.

Please see:
http://spectator.org/archives/2011/06/01/the-democrats-big-government-b/

Paul Ryan explains Medicare costs

by Rossputin | 5:55 am, June 2, 2011

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DJIC7kEq6kw

Health care: Maine moves toward freedom, Vermont toward single-payer authoritarianism

by Brian T. Schwartz | 5:30 am, June 2, 2011

Maine adopts free-market reforms (though they conflict with federal health control bill), while Vermont goes single payer.

Chinese Openness

by Joshua Sharf | 10:18 pm, June 1, 2011

If you liked the International Criminal Court, or the various incarnations of UN Human Rights Shindigs, you’ll love this one. In this morning’s Wall Street Journal, in an article that doesn’t seem to have gotten much attention, Li Congjun, President of Xinhua, proposes an international code of media conduct, to be enforced by UNESCO (“Towards [...]

Context on Colorado K-12 Funding & Personnel: Time to Aim Beyond Average

by Eddie | 10:21 am, June 1, 2011

An interesting tidbit to open the month of June from the Education Intelligence Agency’s Mike Antonucci in his latest Communique. A reminder that severe economic recessions typically don’t affect K-12 public education anywhere near the same as they impact families and businesses in the private sector:

From 2004 to 2009, student enrollment increased a cumulative 0.7 [...]

Assaults on I & R Panel Event AUDIO

by Jon Caldara | 8:58 am, June 1, 2011

On Thursday, May 26th, the Independence Institute held a panel event at the University Club to discuss the attacks on our citizens’ initiative and referendum rights here in Colorado. There were remarks made by several special guests plus remarks from panelists. Special guests included John Fund of the Wall Street Journal, political [...]

They got their "clean vote". Now what?

by Rossputin | 8:21 am, June 1, 2011

Yesterday, at the urging of House Minority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-MD), 82 Democrats sided with every Republican to defeat a no-strings-attached increase in the federal debt limit.

The vote, 318-97, was as lopsided as Americans’ views on our massive, and soon-to-be-crushing debt. In other words, it sounds right to me that fewer than a quarter of Americans – with most of them being in Manhattan, Boulder, and San Francisco – would even consider a measure to increase the nation’s debt without simultaneously cutting spending.

Hoyer allowed his Democrats to vote against the measure because he understood that a vote for it would be used as campaign fodder and could cost Democrats their jobs in all but the safest districts.

The Hill reported a particular irony in the vote: “The bill put House Democrats in an awkward position after 114 members of the caucus signed a letter by Rep. Peter Welch (D-Vt.) calling on Republicans to bring a “clean” debt-limit measure to the floor. Many of those Democrats reversed themselves when it became clear that Republicans were granting their request only to see the legislation fail.”

Republicans seem unafraid to play hard-ball on this issue, and it’s about time we had some backbone in the GOP.  Boehner, Ryan, and company are not backing down from demanding massive cuts and working hard for entitlement reform as part of agreeing to any increase in the debt ceiling.

All of this plays into my dominant theme for the 2012 elections: Voters vote for the real thing. Thus, when Republicans were spending like Democrats, voters said “Hey, if we’re going to vote for spenders, we might as well vote for the people who really know how to spend, and that’s the Dems.” It was widely said during George W. Bush’s presidency that comparing Republican spending to that of drunken sailors was an insult to drunken sailors, but we all know that the real gurus of spending other people’s money are the Democrats.

Now, when it comes to an electorate who want cuts, they’ll vote for Republicans if and only if the GOP can return to its fiscal conservative roots – and if and only if the public believes they’re sincere in that return.  After all, if what you care about is budget cutting and entitlement reform, are you even going to consider voting for the party of Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid, and Joe Biden?

The best thing the GOP leadership can do for their party and for the nation is to stay strong during these negotiations. We don’t need an outcome like the 2011 Continuing Resolution which ended up appearing to cut almost nothing (even though the reality was that it did cut real money.) A victory of substance, meaning achieving budget savings measured in the trillions, or at least hundreds of billions – perhaps savings equal to the amount of the increase in the debt ceiling, as Boehner has suggested – would not only be a great outcome for the nation. Perhaps as important in the likelihood of its happening is that such an outcome would also finally begin to crystallize in the public’s mind the view that maybe, just maybe, this is no longer the GOP of the Bush years.

House Republicans have an important chance to stake out their position today with their invitation to the White House to speak with President Obama about this issue. News reports after the meeting should shed some interesting light on whether GOP backbone remains strong. I suspect it will. The success of the nation as well as the Republican Party depends on it.

NHS in England fails to meet “even the most basic standards of care”

by Brian T. Schwartz | 5:30 am, June 1, 2011

“The National Health Service is today condemned over its inhumane treatment of elderly patients in an official report that finds hospitals are failing to meet “even the most basic standards of care” for the over-65s” – Telegraph

What Goes To Washington, Stays In Washington

by Joshua Sharf | 12:23 am, June 1, 2011

In this case, your tax money.  How else to explain DC’s disconnect from the rest of the housing market? According to the Case-Shiller Index of Housing Prices, DC is the only metro area to see its housing prices increase over the last year, even as the rest of the country fell into a double-dip: Washington’s [...]

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