| Rescue of puppy from Istanbul well captivates Turks Posted: 15 Feb 2017 12:09 PM PST Firefighters helped by miners and high school students in Istanbul on Wednesday freed a four-month-old puppy trapped in a well for 10 days after a rescue effort that captivated Turks. The Kangal was discovered nearly two weeks ago stuck down a 70-meter well in a wooded area of Istanbul's Beykoz district. Disaster agency teams and firefighters were aided by coal miners and students who built a robotic arm to help lift out the puppy, nicknamed "Kuyu" or "Well". |
| One of the shortest bills ever was just introduced in congress, it's basically just 'KILL THE EPA' Posted: 15 Feb 2017 11:57 AM PST  So much for ponderous legislation that's too lengthy for lawmakers to read before voting. A new bill that would have sweeping consequences for every resident of the U.S., and in fact the world at large, contains just a single, all-important sentence. The bill, sponsored by freshman Republican Rep. Matt Gaetz of Florida, seeks to abolish the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA). As in, get rid of it entirely. Bing, bong, boom, poof... gone. Just like that! Who knew that destroying an entire bureaucracy could be so easy? SEE ALSO: Trump administration begins altering EPA climate change websites Never mind sweating the small stuff, like who would then be in charge of regulating air and water pollution, environmental enforcement, Superfund sites and more. With the EPA out of the way, presumably all environmental regulation would occur at the state level. To say the least, if the EPA is abolished, it would be a challenge to regulate pollutants like acid rain-causing sulfur dioxide and global warming-causing carbon dioxide which don't fit neatly within state lines. Not to mention, it would also be a tough task to pull off considering the paucity of state resources. Here's the entire bill: "The Environmental Protection Agency shall terminate on December 31, 2018." Is a screenshot more your thing? Here you go: The bill has attracted three cosponsors so far, all of them Republicans: Thomas Massie of Kentucky, Steven Palazzo of Mississippi and Barry Loudermilk of Georgia. Massie, who hails from a coal state, believes the agency has exceeded its authority, particularly in rules enacted under former President Barack Obama. "The Constitution reserves lawmaking authority for the legislative branch, not unelected bureaucrats in the executive branch," Massie said in a statement. "The EPA makes rules that undermine the voice of the American people and threaten jobs in Kentucky." (Massie has also introduced a similarly terse bill to excise the Department of Education.) In reality, this bill has little chance of becoming law. The EPA was actually established by a Republican president, Richard Nixon, in 1970, and although the Trump administration has demonized it and targeted it for a wide range of changes, having clean air and water enjoys broad bipartisan support. Therefore, simply getting rid of the agency is viewed by most, including the Trump administration, as a radical idea that is not worth pursuing. (And even if killing the EPA completely were to happen, the legislation would likely be a lot longer than one sentence in order to properly transfer its functions elsewhere.) Instead, the Trump administration is aiming to do something different, although it too is quite controversial. Trump's EPA nominee, Scott Pruitt, has sued the federal agency multiple times over its regulations, including its landmark Clean Power Plan that cuts greenhouse gas emissions from coal-fired power plants. If Pruitt is confirmed as expected, he is expected to chip away at the agency's aggressive regulations enacted under the Obama administration, potentially avoiding the fate that Gaetz, Massey, Palazzo and Loudermilk have in mind. Then again, if Trump's approach fails, there's always this one-line bill that some lucky congressperson can dust off the shelf and put forward in the next Congress... BONUS: These artists are painting with ink made from air pollution
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| Trump's choice for national security adviser had early exposure to Iran Posted: 15 Feb 2017 11:23 AM PST By Yeganeh Torbati and Idrees Ali WASHINGTON (Reuters) - As a teenager in the early 1970s retired U.S. Navy Vice Admiral Robert S. Harward played football and basketball, was popular with classmates and, like many American high school students, was known for partying. "Iran was one of our homes, and we got to know the Iranian people very well, in a very intimate way." The Trump administration has offered Harward the job of national security adviser, two U.S. officials familiar with the matter said on Wednesday. |
| Are Teachers Becoming Obsolete? Posted: 15 Feb 2017 10:00 AM PST A veteran educator reflects on the personalized-learning trend that's left him wondering if a computer is more capable of doing his job than he is. |
| This social experiment takes a devastating look at academic pressure placed on students Posted: 15 Feb 2017 07:55 AM PST  In 2013 alone, 2,471 suicides in India were attributed to "failure in examination," according to the National Crime Records Bureau. It's a stark reminder of how teenagers and students are disproportionately affected by India's suicide crisis, but the academic pressure students face isn't just in school — it's at home, too. SEE ALSO: Facebook launches suicide prevention tools for its 148 million Indian users In a bid to de-stress students and their parents, beverage-maker Mirinda launched a devastating social experiment called #ReleaseThePressure. In #ReleaseThePressure, a bunch of high school students reveal their deepest fears around examinations by penning letters to their parents — who are more often than not the source of that stress. The parents are then called upon separately to read those letters. What comes out is one side's longing to be understood and the other side's desire to understand. Perhaps. Watch for yourself above. Watch us play the first full hour of 'Prey' This epic log flip challenge is the internet's next bottle flip The full 'Carpool Karaoke' trailer is here and it's outrageously epic Gordon Ramsay attempts to teach a kitchen amateur to cook
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| Student Loans: What DeVos Might Do Posted: 15 Feb 2017 07:00 AM PST After one of the more contentious Senate confirmation hearings in recent memory -- and a first-ever vice presidential tie-breaking vote, Betsy DeVos has been confirmed as the new U.S. secretary of education. To try and get a glimpse of what we could expect in the coming months and years, the Student Loan Ranger turned, in part, to DeVos' written answers to the almost 1,400 questions she received from senators leading up to her confirmation hearing. , and Sen. Patty Murray , D-W ash., in particular -- started their series of higher education-related questions by asking about DeVos' intent on preserving the Direct Loan program, as opposed to reinstating some type of private lender-funded federal student loan program, which existed up until 2010. |
| 400 NYC public school teachers to see Broadway's 'Hamilton' Posted: 15 Feb 2017 03:56 AM PST NEW YORK (AP) — Hundreds of public school teachers in New York City have landed tickets to the hottest show on Broadway. |
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