One of the framers of the U.S. Constitution, John Adams, once said that a democracy is a “government of laws, and not of men.” For such a government to exist with the ongoing consent of the governed, it must interpret its laws fairly and consistently.
Dear Doctors: I enjoy staying current on research into the gut microbiome. But I have to say, the new information I’ve been reading -- that drinking beer is good for your gut -- sounds a lot like wishful thinking. Where did this idea come from? Will having a beer really help your gut microbiome?
I had been outside since 5:45 a.m., in 50-degree drizzle. My feet were soaked despite several changes of socks. My fellow outside poll observers, Republicans and Democrats alike, looked just as forlorn as we answered voters’ questions in Virginia during the 2018 election. At about 2 p.m., a woman with three small kids in tow waved at us as she went in to vote. I loved seeing her – and other parents – bring their kids to the polls. “Thank you for being here!” she called to all of us as she emerged. My colleagues and I smiled at her and each other. We felt good, being part of the electoral process…cold as it was.
‘The Grail Test’ A year ago, I submitted an editorial letter regarding “The Grail Test” being blocked by the Biden administration. I quoted statistics from the CDC about cancer deaths and information from the Wall Street Journal regarding “The Grail Test”.
This summer felt like being trapped in a Groundhog Day movie— waking up to repeat the same blame-game politics day after day. Republicans blamed Democrat gubernatorial candidate and current Governor Laura Kelly for unpopular COVID policies.
The just-released NAEP report indicates that the U.S. response to the pandemic resulted in the performance of 9-year olds’ math abilities dropping to levels of two decades ago. The decline in reading was the worst in three decades. It affected the poorer-performing students worse, where “students in the bottom 10th percentile dropped by 12 points in math, four times the decrease of students in the 90th percentile.” These National Assessment of Educational Progress tests have been tracking student achievement in grades 4, 8, and 12 since 1970. Academic areas evaluated include mathematics, reading, writing, U.S. history, geography and other areas. This rapid and severe decline in student performance and knowledge during the two and a half years of pandemic schooling in America, much of it conducted online, will not be reflected in students’ grades. Grade inflation was already institutionalized across most states by policies that drove grade point averages (GPAs) up while scores on another common assessment, the ACT, continued to fall. The pandemic dramatically accelerated this grade inflation while ACT scores, and now the NAEP, show that learning has dramatically fallen. —Thus, higher grades for much less learned.
Listen to the lies they fabricate If you want to know what shenanigans Progressive democrats and their mouthpiece Joe Biden are up to listen to the lies they fabricate about others. They have become a reflection of their own disinformation.
Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly and her challenger, Attorney General Derek Schmidt, showed up for two different debates Saturday morning at the Kansas State Fair.
California’s new fast food law is expected to lead to a higher minimum wage for the industry in the state – as high as US$22 in 2023, up from $15 as of September 2022. While backers say the law is necessary to ensure fair wages and treatment in California’s fast food industry, restaurant owners argue it will raise costs by $3 billion, resulting in higher prices and lost jobs.
Are they checking the backups? With the recent issues in Jackson, Mississippi, concerning the catastrophic failure of their municipal water treatment and sater source, I’m reminded that there is a back up pump located on 6th Street at the Water Well between the middle and high school in Halstead. That pump can be operated by a tractor PTO in order to pump water into the Halstead water tower.