| Hutchinson proposes boosting Medicaid, schools, prison funds Posted: 27 Jan 2015 02:50 PM PST  Arkansas' public schools, prisons and Medicaid program would receive boosts in funding while most other state agencies would see a small cut under a $5.2 billion budget plan Gov. Asa Hutchinson presented ...
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| School-wide prevention program lowers teen suicide risk Posted: 27 Jan 2015 02:49 PM PST (This version of the Jan. 23rd story corrects name of the University of South Florida in paragraph 16) By Madeline Kennedy (Reuters Health) – After a school-based prevention program, European teenagers were about half as likely to attempt suicide or to feel suicidal, a new study shows. Danuta Wasserman, a professor of psychiatry at the Karolinska Institute in Sweden, said the program was likely successful because students "felt that the power of mastering their feelings, coping with stress and choosing solutions was in their hands and not decided or forced by adults." Suicide is the third leading cause of death between the ages of 10 and 24, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). Suicide attempts are even more common, with some research suggesting that 4 to 8 percent of high school students try to kill themselves each year, the CDC says. |
| Pakistani teachers get gun training after Peshawar massacre Posted: 27 Jan 2015 02:17 PM PST  Teachers in northwest Pakistan are being given firearms training and will be allowed to take guns into the classroom in a bid to strengthen security following a Taliban massacre at a school last month. Heavily armed militants killed 150 people, 132 of them children, in a bloody December 16 attack on an army-run school in Peshawar, the main town in Pakistan's northwest. "Carrying firearms for every teacher is not obligatory, but all those who want to carry firearms to schools willingly will be provided with permits," Atif Khan, provincial education minister for the northwestern province of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, told AFP on Tuesday. Provincial Information Minister Mushtaq Ghani confirmed the decision, adding that the province was unable to provide police guards for all of its government-run education institutions.
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| Arkansas governor details budget for coming year Posted: 27 Jan 2015 10:38 AM PST Arkansas' public schools, prisons and Medicaid program would receive boosts in funding while most other state agencies would see a small cut under a $5.2 billion budget plan Gov. Asa Hutchinson presented ... |
| Chile's Bachelet prepares next phase of education reform Posted: 27 Jan 2015 07:26 AM PST  Chile's President Michelle Bachelet said on Tuesday her government was preparing the second phase of an ambitious education reform, hours after Congress approved the first set of changes. "What we've put an end to here is a set of illegitimate bases put in place during the dictatorship, behind the nation's back, and today we've recovered Chile's historic tradition and the best practices in the world," said Education Minister Nicolas Eyzaguirre. The government will now look to bolster teacher pay and conditions, bring public schools, now managed and financed by townships, under national jurisdiction, and make university education free, Bachelet said. Months of massive student protests, demanding major changes to an education system that was privatized under then-dictator General Augusto Pinochet, helped shape the 2013 electoral campaign and propel Bachelet into power.
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| The Originals "Brotherhood of the Damned" Review: Food Fight! Posted: 27 Jan 2015 04:01 AM PST  The Originals S02E11: "Brotherhood of the Damned" If history is written by the winners, it's up to artists to keep telling the stories of the forgotten. Specifically, not enough people are talking about the black vampire soldiers of World War I. Sure, we've heard all kinds of things about the War to End All Wars—archduke assassinations, heartwarming Christmas Eve soccer games—but the story of black vampires soldiers' contributions remain woefully underrepresented. Okay, fine, I'm sort of joking here, but it really is true that sometimes a teen supernatural drama does more to honor underreported history than most other artforms. Teen Wolf recently invoked the Japanese internment scandal of WWII in a more resonant and engaging way than any pop culture art I can think of. And this week The Originals portrayed its own spin on the Harlem Hellfighters, an outrageously obscure (i.e., not taught in public schools) regiment of black soldiers who fought for a country that wouldn't even guarantee their rights and safety within its own borders. Yes, in both examples these true scenarios were intruded upon by fictional supernatural hunks, but still: Some stories need to be told regardless of the genre. Unlike most other TV shows, The Originals does not shy away from this responsibility. By now we know that the primary side effect of a werewolf bite isn't death, but flashbacks! In "Brotherhood of the Damned," Marcel's werewolf bite sent his memories back to the time he enlisted in the army during WWI. Klaus forbade him from going overseas (referring to the humans' great international war as a "food fight"), but Marcel's journey took him there anyway, where he was suddenly watching his friends die ignoble foxhole deaths. After a particularly savvy compatriot sussed out that Marcel was (A) a vampire, and therefore (B) the most capable leader in their midst, Marcel took on the responsibility of keeping his unit alive. Unfortunately mustard gas had other ideas, and the soldiers were all choking to death on their own blood. That's when Marcel had his aha moment: Turn 'em! Turn 'em all! And then we were treated to the episode's best and most potent image: Marcel leading a troupe of black vampire soldiers across a battle-scarred field toward the German army. Guys? It was the best. Forget flashbacks, I want an en entire EPISODE focused on this plotline. But the flashbacks were more than simply an amazing visual; they perfectly paralleled what Marcel was going through in the present day. Specifically, he needed to lead his vampire comrades out of the compound and through a parade without any of them giving in to a curse that made them crave the blood of innocents. That this sequence was intercut with the WWI flashback was just straight-up inspired and powerful, and did more to confirm Marcel's heroic nature than the season and a half that preceded it. For as often as The Originals' flashbacks seem to be merely a gratuitous excuse to put the actors in hilarious wigs and get them to rip each others' bodices, the ones that draw upon the grim energy of true history that really resonate. If it's not clear by now, I really loved these flashbacks! As it turned out, mentally visiting another realm became the episode's biggest theme when Finn used magic to trap his three brothers' consciences in a witch holodeck (or whatever). Stuck in a very cool rustic cabin flanked with animals that represented each Mikaelson—a wolf for Klaus, a stag for Elijah, and a fox for Kol—they were unable to return to their physical bodies until Finn discovered what Klaus's biggest secret was. It was kind of implausible that Finn couldn't use magic to discover that Hope was still alive, but was perfectly capable of using some of the most powerful magic we've seen in this universe to do all these other huge things, but whatever. This sequence in particular took on an added poetry when Elijah and Klaus freed themselves by severing their ties to their taxidermied spirit animals. Elijah, for example, was not a noble stag in that he had once murdered Tatia all those years ago, and Klaus refused to be associated with the dastardly wolf by forgiving Elijah for said crime. (Sounds complicated, but it played out beautifully on the screen.) Long story short, The Originals continues to casually traffic in some of the most intellectually complicated and elegant concepts on network television. The other big thread of "Brotherhood of the Damned" was Hayley's meet-up with Jackson's grandmother. As a Crescent Wolf elder, the grandmother would be administering their werewolf rites, trials, tests, hazing, and game of werewolf Twister before actually marrying them and spreading her hybrid powers to the rest of the wolves. But when Hayley found out that one of the rites involved smoking truth-weed and divulging all her secrets—including the pesky one about having a living baby—she tried to back out of the plan. Jackson somehow managed to change her mind, but then Klaus caught wind of this ritual and now seeks to stop it by any means necessary. Watch out, grandma! Yes, Josh and Aiden appeared in this episode, but never in the same scene, so. That being said, "Brotherhood of the Damned" was still pretty great. It's hard to say for how much longer this Finn plotline will hold our attention, but as long as The Originals continues to be this inventive and well-constructed, it's hard to complain. In the meantime, I for one would like to publicly thank all the black vampire soldiers who bravely defended our nation. We salute you, sirs. QUESTIONS: ... Roughly how many holidays are observed in the French Quarter every year? 7,000? 19,000? ... Would you let Cami babysit your child? ... What's Rebekah up to in that witch prison? ... Could you marry someone like Jackson and stay "just friends"? Be honest.
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