With gas at an all time high, even in the mathematical 1970’s dollar, Governor Jodi Rell and 21 other Governors sent a letter to Congress demanding an explanation. Oil companies are simply taking advantage of market conditions, which driven by how much gas we use, dictates that the demand is outstripping the supply.

Critics point to the capacity at current refineries, which output is cited as being in the high 80’s instead of full capacity. But that is the beauty of a free market system, there is nothing that says a producer has to produce the maximum output of a product.

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Here’s a web site, The Educator Roundtable,  organizing a pettition of educators to repeal the NCLB act. I think a former superintendent summed up the NCLB act quite well here:

“The ESEA [No Child Left Behind Act]  is like a Russian novel. That’s because it’s long, it’s complicated and in the end everybody gets killed.”

The site also offers a brilliant analogy of NCLB applied to football:

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Just  a note to remind posters that attacking another poster personally will result in your post being deleted. There are many ways to disagree with points said, calling another poster names is not the recommended or acceptable one. I have no plans to be draconian about this, so keep it civil and maintain the spirit of exchanging ideas and opinions without debasing each other.
I am looking into how to address the ongoing partisan bickering, mudslinging and otherwise repetitive posts. (You all know who you are.) There’s a place for that, just not in every post. Perhaps a special column devoted to the politics of politics.
I will be redesigning the layout and features soon so keep the suggestions coming.

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Last Thursday the House Dems updated their proposed budget. Sifting through the changes, Patrick Linsey of the Hour noted that the Norwalk ECS funding did not change, but that income tax hikes proposed previously for those households that earned $150k and above and shifted to those earning $200k and above.

Apparently, none of our Norwalk Democratic delegation has much influence with the House Dems leadership which control the budget numbers. This will present a problem for State Senator Duff and State Reps Bruce Morris and Chris Perone. If they voted for the Democratic proposed budget they are an ensuring Norwalk gets bacon bits yet again. The Republicans, House Minority Leader Larry Cafero and State Reps Toni Boucher and John Ryan will likely vote against it the Dems proposed budget.

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Saturday night, the first Valle Weber Fay Preservation Leadership Awards honored sixpeople who contributed mightily to the preservation of historic buildings that created the brick faced district that we call historic SoNo. They included; former Mayor William Collins, former Council Member Grace Lichenstein, former Redvelopment Director Roderick Johnson, former Connecticut Preservation Officer Jack Shanahan, Architect Mimi Findlay and Arthur Collins (posthumously).

According to the Hour:

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Today’s Advocate reveals that the BOE is evaluating updating its policies on grades, homework and progress reports. They have posted proposed policy points here.

In general, the report emphasizes that homework, testing and grading should be designed to help students deepen understanding and give students a chance to truly learn a subject.

“We don’t feel like it’s watering down standards. We’re still keeping rigorous standards but recognizing that people have special circumstances. And this is more in line with what other schools in Fairfield County are doing,” Assistant Superintendent of Curriculum and Instruction Karen Lang told the policy committee. Lang led a team of administrators who wrote the report.

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Hopefully the rain didn’t cause any flooding. use the comments for any topic.

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I made a mistake and accidentally deleted some comments that were trapped in the the Spam queue. I apologize to the posters who comments did not make it to the live site. There were about 5 comments in all, but I can’t tell you much more than that because I don’t have the opportunity to read them before I hit the delete all button.

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The Norwalk Museum is an asset to the city. It should be operated like on. But with the continued absence of a the city employee designated as the museum curator, the situation clearly has deteriorated to a point where a new strategy needs to be enacted. The new way, is actually the old way or the best practice way, which has been something documented by the American Association of Small Museums. The American Association of Small museum’s web site is a good resource.
It’s time that either the city take seriously the process for creating accredited museums of its properties or concede that responsibility to outside groups that can. But the current system hasn’t worked.

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Rick Green of the Courant is reports that the state attorney is finally realizing how the prosecution of Julie Amero was wrong.

The state of Connecticut spent two years investigating before it won a speedy conviction of Julie Amero - the infamous Norwich porn teacher - this January.

But it was never as tidy as the Norwich Public Schools, the Norwich police, the state of Connecticut and the Norwich Bulletin newspaper made it seem.

In truth, Amero, a clumsy computer novice, was the victim of malicious software that took over the PC in the classroom where she was substituting on Oct. 19, 2004. Since Amero’s arrest, the state has refused to even consider this possibility.

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