News-Record.com

Whew! We were all breathlessly awaiting that Heath Shuler update, Doug. I know you'll keep us posted on Mr. Shuler's every move.

As far as the Guilford County School Board goes, I don't understand the point of scheduling make-up days after the End of Grade exams. Everyone knows that meaningful instruction ends after the tests - the rest of the school year is just "seat time."

Not saying it should be that way. But that's the reality in most classrooms.

Obama endorsing merit pay is something that sounds good, but it's largely empty rhetoric. Teachers generally are paid by local school systems and/or state departments of education, not the federal government. It's tough talk, but not much in the way of action.

I agree with Justy, tacking on days at the end of the year is a complete waste. They have to do spring break or Saturdays.

Shuler's every move? Hardly. Deciding not to run for the Senate next year, especially after Bill Clinton showed up for a fundraiser for him, is news. It's also worth commenting about the fierce opposition he would have faced from the left wing of the Dem party. Granted, that's the same bunch that originally fiercely opposed Kay Hagan's candidacy until she beat the left-wing candidate in the primary.

The state should not dictate local school calendars.

If school continues after eog's or eoc's, students can move on to something else. Plus all the kids who flunk the test can review for the retest.

Guilford County Board of Education may need better planning for next year. When there is ice on our roads schools are canceled. And for good reasons. Ice don't drive in the south. Northern roads drive in ice and that is because they have 4 months of slush anyway. If during a week due to two days of school roads are unsafe, the the next Saturdays are used to make the "180". Extending into middle June the calendar results in all books and grades in seniors have graduated and three or four days are used for nonsense. Spring break shortened? Teachers and parents erupt. Winter break shortened same eruption. Take away a holiday..triple eruption. Saturdays work. Let us try it and get used to it rather than dethering disruption and arguement .

I completely agree that the state shouldn't dictate local school calendars. I was against the whole calendar bill from the beginning and would like to see it repealed.

My point is simply that the school year, for all practical purposes, ends after the EOGs. Again, it shouldn't be this way, but in many classrooms, the period after the tests is an excuse to break out a movie or participate in "fun" activities of minimal educational value. That's just the way it is, so I don't understand the logic of scheduling make-up days during this dead period of the year.

Heath Shuler update: The lefties at BlueNC are mighty relieved the moderate-conservative congressman won't run for U.S. Senate next year. Man, they seem to hate this guy for not toeing the Obama line.*Doug

That is like the Republicans and the Progressives along with the legal establishment, not counting the mainstream media for hating Rachel Lea Hunter for challenging their unconstitutional corruption in the political system

http://drjshousecalls.blogspot.com/2009/02/change-progressive-blogosphere-nc-state.html

"What are we going to do instead, dig more coal or build an extra few million wind turbines?"

Instead of what?

Instead of expansion of nuclear power.

It could mean that further expansion of nuclear power would be with reprocessed fuel. I doubt it, because it presents big proliferation dangers and Obama's been big on nonproliferation. Also, we've done lots of nuclear power with no Yucca Mountain, so I seriously wouldn't read too much into it.

Oh, and the majority of generating capacity added in the short term is almost certainly going to be natural gas. It's already a much, much larger share than nuclear, it's much cleaner than coal, and more efficient than either.

Trouble with natural gas, we can not get it out of the ground. Dustin Dome ring a bell?
Heath Shuler a non liberal? Help me out Doug, I must be missing something?

"Instead of expansion of nuclear power." -- Doug

Obama said he is against expansion of nuclear power?

I don't think he did, but expansion of nuclear power is linked to the issue of waste disposal. The Congressional Research Service addressed it in this 2007 report:

http://fas.org/sgp/crs/misc/RL33442.pdf

"Highly radioactive spent fuel produced by nuclear reactors poses a disposal problem that could be a significant factor in the consideration of new nuclear plant construction. ...

"The Administration was
concerned enough about repository delays to include a provision in its recent nuclear
waste bill to require NRC, when considering nuclear power plant license
applications, to assume that sufficient waste disposal capacity will be available in a
timely manner.50
Six states — California, Connecticut, Kentucky, New Jersey, West Virginia, and
Wisconsin — have specific laws that link approval for new nuclear power plants to
adequate waste disposal capacity. ...

"The nuclear waste issue has also historically been a focal point for public
opposition to nuclear power. Proposed new reactors that have no clear path for
removing waste from their sites could face intensified public scrutiny, particularly at
proposed sites that do not already have operating reactors."

Yucca Mountain has been the planned long-term repository for nuclear waste for a couple of decades. By stopping development, Obama may be closing the door to new nuclear power plant construction, at least for a long time.

"Granted, that's the same bunch that originally fiercely opposed Kay Hagan's candidacy until she beat the left-wing candidate in the primary."

Come on, Doug. You know the timeline better than that. Kay originally stepped up and then backed off, saying she didn't plan to run. We then (BlueNC, anyway) made a concerted effort to encourage Grier Martin to run against Dole, and then he announced he was not running.

At that point, Jim Neal decided to run, and he gave an unbelievably strong speech at a fundraiser that several of us BlueNCers attended (at a BlueNCer's house). When Kay reentered the race, many of us were already invested in Jim, and the battle for the Primary was on. And it was not pretty.

But Kay came to BlueNC and live-blogged, which impressed the hell out of us. She didn't "need" to do that, but she wanted to. In the process, we discovered that she wasn't that much different from Jim on major policy positions.

Heath Shuler is a horse of a different color. While his total vote count may not reflect it, his far-right positions on a few big issues like abortion, ENDA and immigration make him an unacceptable Democratic candidate for Senate, at least for us progressives, anyway.

Hagan entered the race in plenty of time for sensible Dems to recognize her potential and get behind her. And they did, hence her landslide majority in the primary. Those who stuck with Neal were completely unrealistic about his abilities as a candidate and potential challenger to Dole.

There were indeed some ugly things written about Hagan on BlueNC. Your party should be pleased that BlueNC isn't the tail that wags the dog.

We may not be the tail that wags the dog, but the dog...likes to...groom his tail? Watch it wagging?

Whatever. I totally lost my train of thought, there.

Thank you Senator Burr and Senator Hagan. Maybe not advertising cigarettes will help push through a "No Smoking in Public Buildings and Establishments", such as Florida has. Being a vicitim of "COPD" from second hand smoke, I thoroughly understand the damage it inflicts upon others and especially the non-smokers. I can have a person who has just finished a cigarette or cigar walk by me, and I have an asthma attack that triggers my COPD, and I am back on the Nebulizer trying to breathe. This is no joke or fun for the person suffering from these diseases. If they want to kill themselves or harm their bodies, let them do the smoking in their automobiles and home with no one else around. I have never been a smoker but had to work around it all my life. I am paying the consequences for what others did and still do.

Thank you Senator Burr and Senator Hagan. Maybe not advertising cigarettes will help push through a "No Smoking in Public Buildings and Establishments", such as Florida has. Being a vicitim of "COPD" from second hand smoke, I thoroughly understand the damage it inflicts upon others and especially the non-smokers. I can have a person who has just finished a cigarette or cigar walk by me, and I have an asthma attack that triggers my COPD, and I am back on the Nebulizer trying to breathe. This is no joke or fun for the person suffering from these diseases. If they want to kill themselves or harm their bodies, let them do the smoking in their automobiles and home with no one else around. I have never been a smoker but had to work around it all my life. I am paying the consequences for what others did and still do.

Dad, your Yucca Mountain completely misses the point that nuclear expansion was never that likely to begin with. Nuclear power has been a decreasing share of world electricity production for awhile and all projections I've seen show that trend continuing. Also the six states you mentioned probably wouldn't build new nuclear plants for anyway. Maybe now there's a 3% instead of a 5% possibility of further nuclear expansion. As that report you linked to shows, nuclear power isn't close to cost competitive unless it receives massive subsidies.

We've provided massive subsidies for just about every other kind of energy, and that's obviously going to continue as we pursue sources of renewable energy. As we try to phase out use of fossil fuels, why wouldn't nuclear produce a larger share of our electricity?

I'm not trying to tell you why or make reasons, I'm telling you what's happening. Nuclear is not being expanded for the next few decades. It's all going to be natural gas. Yucca Mountain has nothing to do with it, and Obama has little to do with it.

As for reasons, there are plenty of reasons to not do nuclear power. It's expensive, it's inefficient, it creates security problems, it causes us to deal with materials on timescales we aren't capable of conceiving, it uses absolutely astronomical amounts of water (Duke almost had to shut down it's reactor on Lake Norman last year and the one on the Chattahoochee was shut down for lack water), and as always there are safety concerns.