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Morning round-up of the local and the just plain bizarre

The Delaware DREAM act is back in the news now.  It's controversial, and it is one of the few areas I disgree with my own university.  Delaware State University needs a plan to help high-performing undocumented students like both UD and Del Tech have.

Bullying in Brandywine School District remains in the news, as the brutal video of a 7-year-old being beaten by an 11-year-old on a school bus goes viral.  Unfortunately, the News Journal uses a misleading headline that suggests the school district has taken far more sweeping corrective action than has actually been the case.

There is a non-event, sort of protest (that only draws five people) at Lewis Elementary School in Red Clay.

The Wilmington City Council rediscovers due process.  Sort of.

And in national news, President Obama and the Agriculture Department introduce legislation to tell farm parents what chores they may and may not assign to their own children.  Seriously.

But in international news, the Prime Minister of Iceland is convicted of . . . not having enough meetings.

Strange, strange world.

Comments

Hube said…
On what evidence do you base you comment against the BSD, Steve?
I didn't intend to criticize BSD; I intended to criticize the WNJ.

The article title suggested to me that some sort of massive, sweeping safety changes had been made district-wide.

When you finally get to what change was made, way down on the continuing page, it's one aide on that specific bus.

Which is a proportional response, but not what the headline led to me to believe.
Dana Garrett said…
Yes, heaven forbid that the government prohibit parents from compelling their children to engage in "hazardous occupations" in the agricultural industry lest there be an infringement of a parent's "liberty" to abuse their children in ways that are SIMILARLY prohibited by child labor laws for the non-agricultural working sector.
Hube said…
From the Dept. of Labor press release:

Prohibited places of employment would include country grain elevators, grain bins, silos, feed lots, stockyards, livestock exchanges and livestock auctions.

Yeah, can't have kids sweeping out a grain elevator or bin, or opening doors at a livestock auction! Heaven forbid!
Dana Garrett said…
All places that are either dangerous or unhealthy (e.g. grain elevators). It's ludicrous to think.that the government would arbitrarily impose these restrictions and risk alienating voting farmers. There must be a.compelling need to impose them.
Hube said…
With all due respect, government arbitrarily imposes [silly] restrictions all the time. And why would the current administration care about alienating farmers? The vast majority are red staters anyway!
Dana Garrett said…
Hube, do you really believe that government agencies impose these kind of restrictions w/ no rationale whatsoever...that they impose them just for the hell of it?
Dana Garrett said…
Well, congradts to those who opposed these rules because now the government has decided to scrap them. But notice this section of the article:

"Although family farms were actually exempted from the proposed rules, many opponents cast them as an assault on family farms and rural traditions, saying the White House wanted to keep children from doing even small chores. In fact, the rules would only have affected minors who were formally employed and on farm payrolls, preventing them from operating heavy machinery, handling tobacco crops, working in grain silos or performing other jobs considered potentially dangerous."

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/27/white-house-child-labor-agriculture_n_1458701.html
Hube said…
Dana: Gov. officials can always come up with a rationale for new rules and restrictions. Being in the field that I am for over 20 years, I've had more of enough of my fill of people who feel the need to justify their positions by imposing just this: ridiculous rules and regulations.

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