| Florida students hurt when performer catches fire during pep rally Posted: 17 Mar 2016 04:00 PM PDT (Reuters) - More than a dozen Florida high school students were injured when a performer doing a trick with a flaming baton caught fire during a pep rally on Thursday, officials said. |
| Arne Duncan returning to Chicago to work with young people Posted: 17 Mar 2016 03:10 PM PDT CHICAGO (AP) — Former U.S. Education Secretary Arne Duncan says he's returning to Chicago to work on improving opportunities for teens and young adults. |
| S&P cuts Michigan rating outlook to stable, cites Flint crisis Posted: 17 Mar 2016 12:51 PM PDT  "The revised outlook reflects our view that rising costs tied to the Flint water crisis and Detroit Public Schools' distressed financial position will limit the state's ability to build reserves over the next two fiscal years," said S&P analyst Carol Spain in a statement. The state, through the appointment of emergency managers, had been running Flint when the decision was made to switch water supplies to the Flint River from Detroit's water system in 2014, to save money. Flint is a working-class, mostly African-American city of 100,000 people northwest of Detroit.
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| Newark school system set to test children for lead Posted: 17 Mar 2016 12:06 PM PDT As many as 17,000 students in Newark, New Jersey schools could be tested for lead in their blood after findings showed elevated levels of the toxin have been in water in schools since at least 2012, city health officials said. Voluntary lead testing began on Thursday in the state's largest school district after 30 schools were found to have high levels of lead in the water fountains last week. Health officials said the testing started with pupils at two early childhood centers, which were among schools where water fountains were shut off on March 9 after recent testing found lead levels exceeded the federal safety limit. |
| Amid push for transparency, few colleges reveal investments Posted: 17 Mar 2016 09:46 AM PDT  BOSTON (AP) — Colleges and universities are under growing pressure from Congress and campus activists to reveal financial investments made through their endowments, but most institutions are standing firm against the idea.
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| How very! Heathers is becoming a TV series Posted: 17 Mar 2016 07:44 AM PDT  One of the darkest dark comedies of the '80s is headed to television, but is the world really ready for a Heathers TV series? TV Land has announced plans to develop a series based on the 1988 cult classic about a high school girl whose desire to leave her snobby clique takes a deadly turn when she accidentally kills the group's leader. The adaptation is expected to take the form of an anthology series set in the modern day, with the show's protagonist dealing with a new — but similarly vicious — group of popular high school students. Related: The Lethal Weapon TV series has its Riggs and Murtaugh Directed by Michael Lehman ( Airheads , 40 Days and 40 Nights ) from a script by Daniel Waters ( Batman Returns , Demolition Man ), Heathers cast Winona Ryder in the lead role of Veronica Sawyer, a rebellious teenager whose attempts to separate herself from the elitist "Heathers" — a group of girls all named Heather — takes a dark turn when she becomes involved with J.D., a new student at the school played by Christian Slater. Kim Walker, Shannen Doherty, and Lisanne Falk played the three Heathers. While the film was received well by critics and audiences, its disappointing box-office performance pushed it out of theaters relatively quickly. However, it became a massive hit when it hit the home-entertainment market, generating big sales as a rental movie. In 2006, Entertainment Weekly ranked Heathers the fifth best high-school movie of all time, and it was ranked No. 412 on a list of "The 500 Greatest Movies of All Time" by Empire magazine. In 2010, a stage musical of Heathers was produced that ran off-Broadway through 2014 to critical praise and positive reviews. The script for the Heathers television series will be penned by Butter and Marcel, Marcel screenwriter Jason Micallef. There's no word on the timeline the network is envisioning for the series at this point.
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| Early election looms as Australian PM seeks to reform hostile Senate Posted: 16 Mar 2016 09:53 PM PDT  By Matt Siegel SYDNEY (Reuters) - Australia's parliament began an acrimonious final sitting day before a May budget on Thursday, with Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull considering dissolving both houses of parliament and calling an early election to end a hostile Senate. Independent and minor party senators elected at the last election in 2013 have stalled key aspects of the government's agenda, including changes that would make higher education and health care more expensive and limit access to welfare. Senate voting reforms proposed by Turnbull, and being debated on Thursday, would make it harder for smaller parties to enter parliament through vote sharing deals, and are supported by the opposition Greens Party, which controls enough of the Senate to insure passage of the reforms.
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