Friday, August 31st, 2018
Stephan: American children are in very bad shape. Many are grossly overweight. They have badly inadequate healthcare, and the educational philosophies that guide American public schools, based on social outcome data, are leaving them far behind their peers in other developed nations. And they don't play enough. Play you say? Yes. The job of children is play, spontaneous, unprogrammed, creative play. And far too many children don't play enough. It has gotten so bad, as this report spells out, that doctors are now having to prescribe play.
Credit: Upsplash/Hugues de Buyer
For many parents, back-to-school season incites a mad scramble to organize kids’ activities—from music lessons to math club and after-school tutoring. But a new policy report from the American Academy of Pediatrics suggests we’d do better to pencil in big blocks of time devoted to nothing but free play.
“Play is not frivolous,” the report says. Rather, research shows that play helps children develop language and executive functioning skills, learn to negotiate with others and manage stress, and figure out how to pursue their goals while ignoring distractions, among other things. The report warns that parents and schools are focusing on academic achievement at the expense of play, and recommends that pediatricians attempt to turn the tide by prescribing play during well visits for children.
“At a time when early childhood programs are pressured to add more didactic components and less playful learning, pediatricians can play an important role in emphasizing the role of a balanced curriculum that includes the importance of […]
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Friday, August 31st, 2018
Olivia Rosane, - EcoWatch
Stephan: Here is yet another story about America's collapsing public infrastructure. While other countries are building high-speed rail, photovoltaic highways, and skylines that provoke wonder, in the U.S. I am seeing story after story about failing and toxic water systems, the possible loss of passenger rail, collapsing bridges, third-rate mobile telephone networks, and on and on. We are seriously off the rails. So let me say once again, November may be our last chance to avoid going over the cliff.
Credit: Stacey_newman / Getty
Less than a week before the new school year, the Detroit Public Schools Community District (DPSCD) announced Wednesday it would shut off drinking water in all schools after tests at 16 turned up high levels of copper or lead, The Detroit News reported Wednesday.
“Although we have no evidence that there are elevated levels of copper or lead in our other schools where we are awaiting test results, out of an abundance of caution and concern for the safety of our students and employees, I am turning off all drinking water in our schools until a deeper and broader analysis can be conducted to determine the long-term solutions for all schools,” DPSCD Superintendent Nikolai Vitti said in a statement reported by The Detroit Free Press.
Vitti said he immediately turned off water Tuesday at the 16 schools that tested positively and had provided water bottles until water coolers could be delivered, The Detroit News reported.
Vitti began water testing at all 106 of […]
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Friday, August 31st, 2018
Stephan: If you live in a coastal area I think it is clear that you cannot depend on the Trump administration to help you if your area experiences a catastrophe. Let's look at some real evidence and not the bloviation that comes out of the government. We hear very little about Puerto Rico, and we hear even less about Houston. But both of them are telling us that whatever help a community gets after a crisis, it will be grossly inadequate. Here's the home truth.
Melissa Ramirez tells Edward Ramirez the status of their flooded home on Sept. 1, 2017, after she returned to it by canoe for the first time since Harvey floodwaters arrived in Houston.
Credit: Rick Wilking/Reuters
Part 1: Overflow
Dean Bixler used to go golfing near the top of Brickhouse Gully, a neglected drainage canal, at a course called Pine Crest. It was near his house in west Houston, and not a bad place to play until it closed down a couple of years back. In the months after Hurricane Harvey, savoring his $30,000 floodproofing investment, including metal doors with gaskets that had kept water out of his house, Bixler heard from a neighbor that the golf course was being developed. The neighbor was concerned that the new subdivision would replace low-lying grass with roofs and roads and that the runoff would flood their neighborhood in a heavy rain. In Brooklyn or Boston, residents worry new neighbors will take their sunlight or their parking spaces. In Houston, the concern […]
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Friday, August 31st, 2018
Stephan: Increasingly it is becoming clear that the other developed nations of the world see Donald Trump as an utter incompetent when it comes to diplomacy and geopolitics. Nowhere is this clearer than in his policies dealing with Israel and Palestine. The effects of Trump's incompetency will haunt us for a generation.
Since Israel was created in 1948 the United States has been the region’s crucial actor. US presidents have brokered peace deals, provided Israel with security guarantees and the Palestinians with reassurance that they have not been abandoned. Washington stood ready to douse a fire if the dry tinder of rage and discontent in the Holy Land burst into flames. Donald Trump, however, appears more arsonist than firefighter.
The Trump administration has cut aid funding to the Palestinians and slashed its contributions to UNRWA – the UN agency that supports more than 5 million Palestinian refugees across the Middle East. These cuts have hit hundreds of thousands of vulnerable people already. Israeli security officials privately warn that the move could backfire badly – “setting fire to the ground” by deepening an economic crisis in the West ank and Gaza.
Reports suggest the president is unperturbed. He wants to end all UNRWA funding, and impose a ban that would prevent other nations making up for the US cuts. This is a recipe […]
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Thursday, August 30th, 2018
JORDAN WEISSMANN, - Slate
Stephan: Republicans cannot govern in a way that produces social wellbeing. Here for the umpteenth time is another illustration of this truth.
The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau is going through a bit of a rough patch.
Credit: Alex Wong/Getty
This week, the federal government’s student loan watchdog quit his job in disgust. Seth Frotman, who has served as the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau’s student loan ombudsman since 2016, resigned Monday in a furious letter, which accused the Trump administration of selling out borrowers to corporate interests. Frotman’s note covered a long list of grievances, and pointed to several examples of political appointees hamstringing the agency, but there’s one issue hanging over it all: Federal officials have seemingly decided to stop policing the student loan servicing industry, an industry that has played a central yet underappreciated role in America’s education debt crisis.
“The Bureau’s new political leadership has repeatedly undercut and undermined career CFPB staff working to secure relief for consumers,” Frontman wrote in his letter. “These actions will affect millions of student loan borrowers, including those harmed by the company that dominates this market.” According to the […]
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