Monday, July 28, 2008

Helping students get textbooks without sub-prime mortgage

Bookstores on campus are going to howl about the unfairness: the government wants to help students purchase textbooks economically.

Students already know how to do this in some circumstances. If they know the ISBN code for the textbook, then they can shop around the internet.

TCC works to make purchasing books more affordable
ANGELINE J. TAYLOR, Tallahassee Democrat
July 28, 2008
The Florida Legislature has provided some relief in tough financial times by passing a bill addressing the need for affordable textbooks at Florida's colleges and universities.

TCC has taken the first step in minimizing student costs by posting required textbooks on the bookstore's web site.
The fine point here is the posting of required textbooks.

If this includes the ISBN code, it will help. A little-known fact, perhaps a "dirty little secret" of academia, is that websites for many campus bookstores do NOT list the ISBN codes for textbooks. This makes it difficult for students to hunt for bargains outside the bookstore system. Also, it forces the student into the bookstore to look up the ISBN. However, their websites DO make available the ISBN of general books like The Pelican Brief. So they CAN post ISBN codes for textbooks but choose not to do so.

I smelleth a rat.

Bad odor in Orlando in Caylee Anthony missing child case

This case gives me the creeps, but I am not sure what it is. Something is not right with the mother of the missing child, Caylee Anthony, and something is not right about the grandmother of the missing child. I worry that these good hearted people from around Orlando are getting used.
Dozens hold vigil to pray for Caylee's return
Susan Jacobson
Orlando Sentinel

July 28, 2008
More than 60 people showed up in a rainstorm Sunday night for a candlelight vigil for Caylee Marie Anthony, the 2-year-old Orange County girl reported missing nearly two weeks ago.

Friends and strangers gathered in the frontyard of Caylee's grandparents' Lee Vista-area home to pray for her safe return.

Caylee's mother, Casey Anthony, 22, remains in the Orange County Jail on child-neglect and other charges.

She has told investigators that she left Caylee with a baby sitter last month and has not seen her since.

"Bring Caylee home," the group chanted, led by Cindy Anthony, Caylee's grandmother.
It is mostly visual, so you cannot pick it up from the newspaper so much, but it is all over the Orlando television channels. That is where you get a good eyeball on the behaviors in this family.
  1. The mother of the missing child displays unusual levels of emotion, unusual kinds of emotion, considering her circumstances. Most tv commentators mention this.
  2. Why is the grandmother so glib about getting in front of the tv cameras? Even her daughter complained about grandmother's "cameo" appearances on tv. It rings false, how much the grandmother inserts herself into view. I have not heard any tv commentator take note of this.
  3. Similarly, the grandmother inserts a lot of herself into testimony in court. I have seen one tv commentator take note of this, although perhaps there have been others.
  4. Watch the video of the high school classmate who goes to the jail to visit and encourage the mother. She clearly cannot remember the guy, but she strings him along.
    1. Maybe she just wants normal contact, even if she can't recall the face of her caller, or
    2. maybe she is stringing him along until she can figure out a way to use him.
    So far, I have not heard any tv commentator take note of this. However, I have seen this behavior in other criminals behind bars, manipulating good hearted civilians showing ordinary human compassion.
For these reasons, when I see these good hearted folks come in from out of town for a prayer vigil, I worry that they are getting manipulated. I also worry that some of the family members are getting manipulated, too.

It breaks your heart, the emotional avarice you sometimes see in these crooks, manipulating others in order to gain while avoiding normal exchange of emotion with others.

As for the crime itself, I wonder if this Caylee Anthony missing child case is related to or similar to the Trenton Duckett missing child case northwest of Orlando. Trenton Duckett was also two years old when he went missing, and with a mother who had serious psychological problems.

Thursday, July 17, 2008

Literacy still important enough to strip from Jacksonville budget

Mayor Peyton's fountain pen is talking again. Whenever that happens, books for kids disappear.


Peyton's 'wartime' budget scrimps on library books
RON LITTLEPAGE
The Times-Union
July 17, 2008
In his budget message, Mayor John Peyton used the word "war" 13 times.

He made another nine references to "taking back" Jacksonville from criminals.

"There are good guys and there are bad guys," Peyton said. "Everyone has to choose a side."

Unfortunately, our commander in chief isn't willing to pay for the ammunition needed to make the fight.

If Peyton truly believes his oft-repeated statement that "we can't arrest our way of this problem" - that problem being that Duval County is the murder capital of Florida - then we must stop potentially good kids from becoming the bad guys.

One of the tools for doing that are our public libraries. Yet, the budget Peyton proposed to the City Council on Monday actually reduces spending on libraries over what Peyton proposed last year...

Peyton's budget for next year slashes that to $3.6 million, which is $1 million less than the library system had this year.

Peyton says that state grants will make up for the $1 million cut.

However, the budget he presented to the council isn't so clear on that point, saying the loss of $1 million "will be somewhat offset" by the state money.



Another politician's euphemism: "will be somewhat offset."

This is like your deadbeat cousin's promise that the I.O.U. "will be somewhat offset" by a big hot load of money on the way: the check's in the mail.

Final analysis requires the mayor to answer this question: How does it improve the city that your public libraries are books-free zones, just so that the honorable mayor can have a new hybrid SUV to save money with?

Heartache for UCF athlete's family

Crushing news from the medical examiner in Orlando. Young Ereck Plancher died because nobody caught his sickle cell trait.


Medical examiner: UCF football player Ereck Plancher had sickle cell trait
Iliana Limón and Kyle Hightower
Orlando Sentinel
4:12 PM EDT, July 17, 2008
The full autopsy of UCF football player Ereck Plancher revealed that he had a pre-existing medical condition called sickle cell trait, a blood disorder that has been traced as a cause of death for several athletes during workouts...

UCF officials said Plancher passed two physical examinations, including tests for the sickle cell trait. They said Plancher's medical exams and family history indicated that he was healthy and did not require more advanced tests before being cleared to play football.


This young man's family with an already broken heart now gets crushed. The heart of every teacher and coach at UCF must go out to them, for young Ereck's sake.

Can we get this for the IRS, please?

In Jacksonville, there is trouble with people requesting reduction and exemption of their "fees" owed to the city for sewer and garbage pickup.

Excellent.

If only we could get the IRS to make the transition to user adjustable tax rates.


New fee collections are not pouring into Jacksonville's coffers  [Emphasis added]
TIA MITCHELL
The Times-Union, Jacksonville
Officials say requests for rate adjustments have slowed receipts.

Jacksonville is $7 million behind where it wants to be in proceeds from two new fees, but thousands of requests for rate adjustments have slowed collections.

The fees were first billed in May. They would bring in $26.1 million - $18.4 million in stormwater fees and $7.7 million for a solid waste fee.

So far, $15.2 million has been collected.

More than 51,000 of the 285,401 property owners billed have asked for the charge to be lowered....

The City Council approved the fees last fall to soften the blow from state property tax reform and to diversify funding streams. The solid waste fees cover a portion of the costs of garbage collection. The stormwater fees will be used to treat runoff and reduce pollution.

But as always with politicians, check your wallet: "diversify funding streams." ← sounds like a City Council euphemism. I guess they mean to divert from the taxpayer's hip pocket for property tax and help themselves from the taxpayer's loose change in the side pockets.Like Willie Sutton leaving Philadelphia to diversify his revenue stream at the banks in Brooklyn.

Good for the taxpayers of Jacksonville. One out of six taxpayers are asking for rate adjustments, and it would be an easy guess to say that all requests are for lower fees.


Monday, July 7, 2008

Raccoon break and entry, monkeys not talking

Monkey attack. Sheriff's deputies go on alert.

Only in Florida. How can you refuse to love Florida when it has so many adventurous stories like this one?


Raccoon bites man tending to his monkeys
By ADAM H. BEASLEY
Miami Herald
Mon, Jul. 07, 2008
A raccoon bit a Parkland man Monday as he was tending to his monkeys in his backyard, according to the Broward Sheriff's Office.

Paramedics transported the 77-year-old owner of a home at 5948 NW 72nd Way to a nearby hospital with non-life-threatening injuries.

Originally, BSO deputies responded to a call of a monkey attack at that address...

The raccoon apparently got in through an open door, and then escaped after biting the man...


"Apparently" -- I guess this means that the monkeys are lawyered up and not talking to police.

At least the victim is safe, no life threatening injuries.