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Tuesday, September 11, 2012


Chicago parents ask: How long will strike go on?



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As Chicago teachers enter day two of their massive strike, parents and students are struggling with unexpected days off. NBC's Kevin Tibbles reports.
By Kevin Tibbles, NBC News correspondent
CHICAGO – Felicia O’Connor, a young mother with a child in tow, approached the picket line. She asked the picketing teachers if they “know how long this thing will be going on?”
Now she is stuck with trying to sort out childcare for her 6- year-old daughter, Michaela. She didn’t get an answer to her question from the teachers.She leaves for work each day before the sun comes up and said she was unaware of the late night Sunday decision by the Chicago teachers’ union to hit the bricks. 
She wound up leaving her daughter in good hands at a local Boys and Girls Club for a few hours while she went out, in vain, in search of a day care. She’s already missed one day of work and hopes her employers will show some understanding.“They don’t know anything. I don’t know anything. We’re just out here blank and I have to go to work,” O’Connor said.
“Education is important. If my child is not in school, getting the education she needs, you know what… I don’t know, it is just irritating right now," she said. 

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Parents in Chicago, like Felicia O'Connor seen above, scrambled to find accommodations for their kids after 26,000 teachers and support staff walked out in the nation's third-largest school district. NBC's Kevin Tibbles reports.
Picking sides
Two days into this work stoppage by the city’s third largest school district, and one finds folks starting to choose sides.
“I haven’t had a raise in seven years,” said one middle-aged woman who walked past me as I stood watching teachers march outside the headquarters of the Chicago School Board. “They’re already making more money than I am.”
“I support the teachers because I support my kids,” said a young mother who stood and watched teachers march for a few minutes. “My daughter was in a class with more than 35 kids last year; this year it is up to 41.”
About 26,000 teachers and support staff launched a strike on Monday morning – all dressed in bright red t-shirts and carrying placards – demanding a new contract between the teacher’s union and the city’s school district.
Other parents complained about a lack of school supplies or decent air conditioning for their kids on sweltering Chicago days.
One can likely assume the longer this thing drags on, the more entrenched each side is going to get. “Day One” of the strike came with a bit of a party atmosphere. By “Day Two” on Tuesday, teachers had already started fingering the mayor and chanting, “Hey Hey Ho Ho Rahm Emanuel has got to go.”

NBC Chicago's LIVE Blog: Chicago Teachers Strike

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In Chicago, 26,000 teachers and support staff walked out in the nation's third-largest school district after a weekend of unsuccessful eleventh-hour contract negotiations between the Chicago Teachers Union and Chicago's public schools. NBC's Rehema Ellis reports.
Bigger city issues
Parents also have other concerns that are more a reflection of the city we live in. This has been a particularly deadly year on the streets of Chicago, with the homicide rate up about 30 percent from what it was a year ago. The overwhelming majority of the dead are young minorities. To give kids a "safe haven" during the strike, several churches have opened their doors. 
“There's so much violence skyrocketing in the city of Chicago. We want our kids to be in a safe place,” said Sergio Ramirez, who runs a “safe haven” in the city’s Pilsen neighborhood. 
Some 80 percent of kids in Chicago’s schools are provided with breakfast and lunch at school because they come from impoverished backgrounds. The job of teaching here, and administering an education system, has many more challenges than just ensuring kids are learning the 3Rs.
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Chronicling Mitt's Mendacity, Vol. XXXIII


By Steve BenenFri Sep 7, 2012 2:31 PM EDT




Associated Press


The total of Romney falsehoods keeps going up.

First Lady Michelle Obama delivereda beautiful speech at the Democratic National Convention this week, which was very well received. There were a few phrases in particular, though, that seemed to strike a chord.

Referencing her and President Obama's families, she said, almost in passing, "We learned about honesty and integrity -- that the truth matters, that you don't take shortcuts or play by your own set of rules, and success doesn't count unless you earn it fair and square."

Those three words -- "the truth matters" -- drew a hearty response. In context, the First Lady wasn't going after anyone in particular, and she didn't accuse anyone, even indirectly, of dishonesty. But I suspect people applauded not just because it's worthwhile maxim, but because this year, it seems clear there are some who believe the truth doesn't matter.

Consider, for example, the 33rd installment of my weekly series, chronicling Mitt's mendacity. This week's list is considerably shorter than usual because Mitt Romney spent several days out of the public eye, preparing for next month's debates. It does not include the media availability he did this morning (I haven't seen the transcript yet).

1. Mitt Romney told Fox News this week, "You know, no one in the [Democratic] convention so far has had the temerity to say that people are better off in America, because they realize it's not the case."

Actually, it is the case, and nearly every speaker at the Democratic convention has said so.

2. In the same interview, Romney said he rejects "the decision of the president to slash our military by a trillion dollars over this decade."

That's demonstrably false.

3. Romney went on to say "there's no question" President Obama took "work out of welfare" and "waived the work requirement in welfare."

I continue to believe this is as blatant a lie as any modern presidential candidate has told. It simply has no connection to our plane of reality, but Romney keeps repeating it.

4. Asked about the president's rescue of the American auto industry, Romney told Fox, "Well, my view from the beginning was that the auto companies needed to go through a managed bankruptcy. And ultimately, that's what the president did."

Romney can take credit for Obama's policy, or he can condemn Obama's policy, but to do both is obviously dishonest (and more than a little ridiculous).

5. In his weekly podcast, Romney boasted, "I have a plan to create 12 million new jobs."

Putting aside the pesky detail that Romney doesn't actually have a specific jobs plan, the fact remains that if we do nothing, we're on track to create 12 million new American jobs over the next four years anyway.

6. In the same podcast, Romney vowed he'll be able to "cut the deficit and put America on track to a balanced budget."

Actually, Romney says his plan "can't be scored," but independent budget analysts have found his agenda would make the deficit bigger, not smaller, and add trillions to the national debt.

7. Romney added, "[W]e must rein in the skyrocketing cost of healthcare by repealing and replacing Obamacare."

That's plainly false, and the Romney campaign has never even tried to defend it.

8. Romney went on to say, "[L] me make this very clear -- unlike President Obama, I will not raise taxes on the middle class of America."

That's actually two falsehoods in one. First, Obama approved one of the largest middle-class tax cuts in American history. (Note to Romney: cutting taxes and raising taxes are not the same thing.) Second, there's ample evidence that Romney will raise taxes on the middle class.

9. Romney once again claimed, "President Obama began his presidency with an apology tour."

When the book is written on the biggest lies of the Romney campaign, this will be chapter one.

10. Romney added, "President Obama has thrown allies like Israel under the bus."

Officials in Israel say the opposite is true.

11. Romney also said of the president, "He abandoned our friends in Poland by walking away from our missile defense commitments."

Officials in Eastern Europe say this claim isn't true.

12. Romney added, "Does the America we want borrow a trillion dollars from China? No."

This continues to be misleading. The implication here is that U.S. debt is financed by the Chinese, but this isn't true -- China only holds about 8% of the nation's debt. No one has borrowed a trillion dollars from China; no one intends to borrow a trillion dollars from China; no one has recommended borrowing a trillion dollars from China.

13. In a speech in Cincinnati, Romney said Obama falsely promised "he was going to create more jobs."

Obama created more jobs.

14. In the same speech, Romney said Obama intends to "raise taxes on our best small businesses."
Obama has repeatedly cut taxes on small businesses -- by some counts, 18 times -- and if given a second term, his tax plan would have no effect on 97% of small businesses.

15. In a speech in Jacksonville, Romney claimed, "We're at a 30-year low in startups of new businesses."

Still not true.

16. In a speech in Lakeland, Florida, Romney said of the president, "He doubled the deficit."

Maybe Romney doesn't know what "double" means. The deficit on Obama's first day was $1.3 trillion. Last year, it was also $1.3 trillion. This year, it's projected to be $1.1 trillion. When he says the president "more than doubled" the deficit, as he has many times, Romney's lying.

Previous editions of Chronicling Mitt's Mendacity: Vol. I, II, III, IV, V, VI, VII, VIII, IX, X, XI, XII,XIII, XIV, XV, XVI, XVII, XVIII, XIX, XX, XXI, XXII, XXIII, XXIV, XXV, XXVI, XXVII, XXVIII, XXX XXXI, XXXII, XXXIII
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Question at heart of Chicago strike: How do you measure teacher performance?



M. Spencer Green / AP
Parents of Chicago public school students, Carmen Brownlee, left, and, Latonya Williams, right, walk a picket line outside Shoop Elementary School in support of striking CPS teachers, Sept. 11, 2012.
By Sevil Omer, NBC News
With negotiators trying to hammer out an agreement that would end Chicago’s teachers strike, one of the key sticking points is how to evaluate whether a teacher is doing a good job, an issue that has riled school boards across the U.S. in recent years.
But Chicago Teachers Union President Karen Lewis is critical of Mayor Rahm Emanuel’s push to make great use of standardized tests in teacher reviews, calling the process flawed. Union officials say the system wouldn’t do enough to take into account outside factors such as poverty, crime and homelessness.Chicago’s school leaders are proposing that student performance on standardized tests count toward 25 percent of a teacher’s assessment, growing to 40 percent in five years, according to NBCChicago.com.
The battle in Chicago over using student test scores to judge teachers is just one front in a nationwide battle over how to make sure teachers are doing a good job, and that taxpayer dollars and student time aren’t going to waste."Evaluate us on what we do, not the lives of our children we do not control," Lewis said in announcing the strike. It was unclear what union officials proposed instead.
"This is going to become a long-term battle that everyone's watching very closely," said Eric Hanushek, a senior fellow in education at the Stanford University’s Hoover Institution, a conservative research center. "Teacher unions are at a crossroads: Are they going to participate in designing better teacher evaluations or resist and not change anything. The Chicago union seems to be taking the resist option, drawing their line in the sand."
The Obama administration, through its $4 billion Race to the Top competition and waivers from the Bush-era No Child Left Behind, has urged states to change teacher assessments to make use of test data as a key component to set a teacher's pay or end their employment. The administration granted waivers to states that promised to show improvements in student and school performance and link teacher evaluations to student test scores.
Supporters say current review tools fail to give administrators a reliable assessment of a teacher's effectiveness, while critics argue there's no evidence linking student performance to a teacher's worth.
"Teacher evaluations should be based on multiple measures," said Marcus Mrowka, a spokesman for the American Federation of Teachers, which has 1.5 million members. "Testing has a role but should not sanction teachers but inform instruction."
Twenty-four states now require teacher evaluations based on some measure of student growth, according to an analysis by the National Council on Teacher Quality, a research and policy group. Public school districts in Tennessee and Washington, D.C., recently implemented new teacher evaluations tying outcomes to merit raises, while Colorado and New York are deep in the process of developing an evaluation system, the council noted.
In the past three years, at least 20 state legislatures have passed bills setting up new teacher evaluation processes, according to the council. Illinois joined the ranks last year when its legislature passed a law mandating new teacher evaluations, with Chicago’s leaders rushing to embrace the system, called the Performance Evaluation Review Act.
“The evaluation system should be built around continuing improvement of instruction,” said Rob Weil, AFT’s director of field programs and educational issues in Washington, D.C. “Evaluations should help people improve and we need to build systems that give teachers the information they need so they can improve. The process should not be punitive.”
In Chicago, Lewis has warned that as many as 6,000 teachers could lose their jobs under the new evaluation system. The union represents about 25,000 teachers and staff, who walked off the job Monday.
School officials say they do not know how union leaders determined that number, and telephone calls by NBC News to union headquarters went unanswered Tuesday.
Emanuel has promised that teachers would not be fired in the first year of the evaluation process.
Union leaders, however, are still resisting.
“This is no way to measure the effectiveness of an educator,” said the union in a statement. “Further there are too many factors beyond our control which impact how well some students perform on standardized tests such as poverty, exposure to violence, homelessness, hunger and other social issues beyond our control.”
About 60 percent of students in Chicago public schools complete high school, according to the Illinois Policy Institute, a nonpartisan think tank. 
“We are spending more and more on students, throwing more and more money into the system,” said Ted Dabrowski, vice president of the Illinois Policy Institute. “If you want the best teachers in the system, then teachers should be paid and promoted based on their performance. It’s important that we improve the system, which has become a failed system.”123

Union leader to Chicago teachers rally: In for the long haul
Scott Olson / Getty Images
Chicago public school teachers and their supporters rally in front of the school district headquarters on Tuesday in Chicago, Illinois. It was the second day in a strike that has idled some 350,000 students in the city.
By Kari Huus, NBC News
Thousands of teachers rallied in central Chicago on Tuesday on the second day of a strike that has idled more than 350,000 students. Speaking to the crowd, the head of the Chicago Teachers Union suggested that the labor group was digging in on key issues, including teacher evaluations, dashing hopes for a deal that would get students back into the classroom soon.
"To say that the contract will be settled today is lunacy," union president Karen Lewis told the cheering crowd of teachers, whom she addressed as “brothers and sisters.”
Lewis told the teachers they were in this fight for the long haul, the Chicago Tribune reported.
A statement issued by the union earlier Tuesday said that the two sides were not close to an agreement, calling that characterization "misinformation" from the office of Mayor Rahm Emanuel."The assault on public education started here. It needs to end here," Lewis said, according to the report.
Chicago school board President David Vitale wouldn't comment Tuesday ahead of the continued negotiations, but he insisted Monday night the two sides were close on the two major remaining issues — teacher evaluations and job security."The Chicago Teachers Union has 49 Articles in its contract (and) to date we have only signed off on six of them," said union spokeswoman Stephanie Gadlin. "The Chicago Public Schools has made proposals to change nearly every article. It is not accurate to say both sides are extremely close. This is misinformation on behalf of the board and Mayor Emanuel.  We have a considerable way to go. This is a fact they cannot deny."
"We're ready to go to work," Vitale said earlier in the day. "We're disappointed that the urgency we feel doesn't seem to be shared on the other side." 
Lewis said teachers don't like the amount of standardized testing required to evaluate them and worry the evaluations could mean lost jobs. Another sticking point is a reform proposed by the school board to give principals the power to hire teachers.
In a letter sent Tuesday to Lewis on behalf of 30 Chicago school principals, A.N. Pritzker Elementary School Principal Dr. Joenile S. Albert-Reese wrote, "It's imperative that principals be given the autonomy they need in the hiring process.
"This autonomy is necessary to ensure that principals can hire the most qualified and best fit candidate for the position and our kids. Without this autonomy, principals may be forced to hire individuals whose skill set and value systems are not conducive to the school’s culture, mission and vision."
Weighing in from Washington, D.C. Education Secretary Arne Duncan, former CEO of the Chicago Public Schools, called for compromise in his old neighborhood.

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As Chicago teachers enter day two of their massive strike, parents and students are struggling with unexpected days off. However, there is hope that the walk-out may end soon, with both the teachers union and the school board saying progress is being made in negotiations. NBC's Kevin Tibbles reports.
"I hope that the parties will come together to settle this quickly and get our kids back in the classroom," he said in a statement. "I'm confident that both sides have the best interests of the students at heart, and that they can collaborate at the bargaining table — as teachers have all over the country — to reach a solution that puts kids first."
The strike is not primarily about compensation. Chicago teachers make an average of $75,000 per year, according to the Chicago school system website. The deal CPS put on the table includes a 16 percent raise over four years.
In the Chicago press, there has been speculation that Mayor Emanuel may seek a court injunction to stop the strike, under a provision of the Illinois Education Labor Relations Act that makes it allowable if a teacher strike "is or has become a clear and present danger to the public." But how a judge would interpret the law is uncertain, according to a report in Catalyst Chicago, a website that reports on urban education.
"(Emanuel) doesn't have a legal standing," Lewis said. "We have a completely legal work stoppage. We have followed every rule!"
More than 26,000 teachers and support staff went on strike Monday morning after talks broke down Sunday night. The move left students in nearly 700 schools without classroom instruction.
Meantime, parents were offered some options for placing their children who were displaced from school by the labor dispute.Teachers at Chicago's charter schools, which serve about 45,000 students, are not striking and those schools remained open.

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WMAQ's Phil Rogers shares the latest on the teachers strike in Chicago. Emmeline Zhao then joins to discuss the key issues separating Chicago Public School and the Chicago Teachers Union.
The school district on Monday opened 144 schools for half days to provide a destination for kids whose parents were working, as well as breakfast and lunch to those who needed it. Dozens of other sites run by churches and community organizations were also available, but for the second day attendance was lower than anticipated. At a South Side YMCA, the site saw 35 kids Monday and Tuesday, fewer than expected.
On Tuesday, the school district announced it planned to extend hours at its the "Children First" sites beginning on Thursday if the strike continued, providing six hours of coverage a day instead of four, to better support working parents.
Gathering Monday in front of the school district headquarters, some marchers expressed impatience, the Chicago Tribune reported earlier.
"This could have been solved on day negative five," complained Christopher Barker, a math teacher at George Manierre Elementary School, speaking to the Tribune. But he added, "I'll be here as long as I need to."
A fellow picketer Susan Hickey, a social worker for the district, was worried about students most in need of help.
"These children need these services," Hickey told the Tribune. "They need more quality services."
The only consolation, she said, was that the strike provided "a bit of a history lesson."
"We're telling them, 'This is how you stand for your rights,'" she said.
NBC Chicago contributed to this report.

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9/11: IN OUR OWN WORDS         9/11/11


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REMEMBERING 09/11/01 
President Obama, VP Joe Biden, Our Troops


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'Do I look fat?' Curiosity rover checks its belly on Mars

1
day
ago


NASA / JPL-Caltech / MSSS / Ken Kremer / Marco Di Lorenzo
A mosaic of photos taken by the Mars Hand Lens Imager on NASA's Curiosity rover shows the underside of the rover and its six wheels, with Martian terrain stretching back to the horizon. The four circular features on the front edge of the rover are the lenses for the left and right sets of Curiosity's hazard avoidance cameras, or Hazcams. Because of the different perspectives used for different images, some of the borders of the photos don't line up precisely.
By Alan Boyle

More than a month after landing, NASA's Curiosity rover is finally ready for its close-ups, and they're coming in bunches: After taking its own profile picture, the six-wheeled robot has snapped a series of images that show its flat-as-a-board belly.
Today's flood of photographs comes courtesy of the Mars Hand Lens Imager, or MAHLI, one of Curiosity's 17 cameras. The self-focusing, 1.5-inch-wide (4-centimeter-wide) camera is mounted on the end of Curiosity's robotic arm, and is designed to take up-close pictures of rocks and soil on Mars. It serves a purpose similar to that of a geologist's hand lens — hence its name.
The rover's $2.5 billion primary mission is aimed at determining whether Mars ever had the chemical constituents to support life. Glenelg will serve as a good warmup for the centerpiece of Curiosity's two-year trek: a climb up the slopes of a 3-mile-high mountain called Aeolis Mons or Mount Sharp.MAHLI is undergoing a series of checkouts now that the 7-foot-long (2.1-meter-long) robotic arm has been limbered up. The rover is making its way to its first major destination: a geologically intriguing spot called Glenelg, which is about a quarter-mile (400 meters) from the spot in Gale Crater where Curiosity landed on Aug. 5.
So far, all of Curiosity's instruments appear to be in great shape — with the exception of a wind-speed sensor that was apparently taken out of commission by a hail of pebbles kicked up during the rover's descent. Curiosity's handlers had worried that the pebbles might have damaged the MAHLI camera as well. Fortunately, the pictures taken over the past few days prove that MAHLI (pronounced like "Molly") is in great shape.

This mosaic of Curiosity's trim underside was put together by Ken Kremer, a New Jersey-based journalist, research chemist and photographer; and Marco Di Lorenzo, a physicist who is a high school educator and photographer in Italy. Kremer and Di Lorenzo are among the habitues of UnmannedSpaceflight.com, where image-processing gurus are having a field day with the MAHLI pictures. NASA's website for the Curiosity mission is also mad about MAHLI today. Check out these MAHLI masterpieces, plus a bonus panorama from Ken Kremer and a video from NBC Nightly News:

NASA / JPL-Caltech / MSSS
This picture shows just how much detail the MAHLI camera can pick up. It shows a one-cent coin and a few of the symbols printed on a calibration target mounted on Curiosity. The image was acquired from a distance of 2 inches (5 centimeters). The coin is a 1909 penny provided by MAHLI principal investigator Ken Edgett. "Everyone in the United States can recognize the penny and immediately know how big it is, and can compare that with the rover hardware and Mars materials in the same image," Edgett explained. "The public can watch for changes in the penny over the long term on Mars. Will it change color? Will it corrode? Will it get pitted by windblown sand?" Flecks of reddish Martian sand can already be seen on and around the penny. One of the images printed above the penny is a cartoon character called "Joe the Martian."

NASA / JPL-Caltech / MSSS
This image, captured by Curiosity's MAHLI camera over the weekend, shows a patch of ground measuring about 34 inches (86 centimeters) across. The size of the largest pebble, near the bottom of the image, is about 3 inches (8 centimeters).
NASA / JPL-Caltech / MSSS
A combination of images from the MAHLI camera provides a close look at the Curiosity rover's wheels, right down to the dirt stuck in the treads.
NASA / JPL-Caltech / Ken Kremer / Marco Di Lorenzo
Ken Kremer and Marco Di Lorenzo produced this "colorized" version of a panorama looking back at the Curiosity rover's tracks on Sol 24 of its mission (Aug. 30). The panorama is based on black-and-white imagery from Curiosity's Navcam system. Missing patches of the Martian sky have been filled in. The lower reaches of Mount Sharp can be seen at the picture's left edge, and the rise of Gale Crater's rim stretches across the rest of the horizon.

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 NASA's Curiosity rover took a self-portrait on Mars, using a camera mounted on its robotic arm. NBC's Brian Williams reports.
Update for 9:05 p.m. ET: Kremer points out that the pictures of Curiosity's underbelly are far sharper than similar underbelly images that were captured by the Spirit rover in 2009, when mission managers worried that it was hung up on a rock. He said the difference illustrates the "quantum leap" in capability between the Spirit and Opportunity rovers, which were launched in 2003, and the Curiosity rover, which was sent toward Mars last year.
More vistas from Mars:

Alan Boyle is NBCNews.com's science editor. Connect with the Cosmic Log community by "liking" the log's Facebook page, following @b0yle on Twitter and adding the Cosmic Log page to your Google+ presence. To keep up with Cosmic Log as well as NBCNews.com's other stories about science and space, sign up for the Tech & Science newsletter, delivered to your email in-box every weekday. You can also check out "The Case for Pluto," my book about the controversial dwarf planet and the search for new worlds
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