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Krista Robbins begins her mornings in her backyard with her coffee tucked in one hand and her medicine in the other. Her body shakes—the sign of an oncoming anxiety attack—but she says three or four puffs of medical marijuana are enough to curb her symptoms for the next four to five hours.
"It balances me out," Robbins, who suffers from post-traumatic stress disorder, tells SFR.
The last time SFR checked in with Robbins, she was worried about the lengthy waiting periods other patients in the state's Medical Cannabis Program were experiencing while renewing their licenses, which expire every year [news, Nov. 2, 2011: "Cani-Bust"]. If that happened to Robbins, she would be transported to darker days when doctors prescribed her powerful drugs like the antipsychotic Quetiapine to keep her from physically hurting herself, among other symptoms.
But recently, Robbins had to go without her medicine for a different reason: There wasn't enough to go around. That's also true for patients beyond Farmington, where Robbins lives.
Last November, the Medical Cannabis Program had roughly 5,500 active patients. Today, the Albuquerque-based New Mexico Medical Cannabis Patients' Alliance estimates that number has grown to 6,900 active patients (DOH didn't respond to SFR before press time, despite several phone calls and emails).
At the same time, the New Mexico Department of Health, which manages the program, hasn't licensed new producers or increased the number of plants they're allowed to grow since December 2010. As a result, many medical cannabis patients have been going days, if not weeks, without their medicine.
"When I have to turn away three or four patients, that's unacceptable," Willie Ford, who works with Albuquerque-based producer R Greenleaf Organics, Inc., tells SFR.
A recent survey of 21 of the state's 23 licensed producers conducted by Len Goodman, executive director of Santa Fe-based producer New MexiCann Natural Medicine, found the Medical Cannabis Program currently operating at a 68 percent shortage in grams of medical marijuana available to patients.
In late June, Goodman also presented DOH with a patients' petition requesting an increase in the number of plants producer are allowed to grow.
"The majority of producers are running out of medicine on a Tuesday," TJ Scott, a board member with the Patients' Alliance, tells SFR. "It used to be on a Saturday."
At New MexiCann, the supply has been drying up even faster. At 7:30 pm on Sunday, July 8, New MexiCann sent an email update telling its patients that a new harvest was ready. By the next day, all of New MexiCann's supply was already ordered.
"We were sold out before noon," Jaylene Kost, an office manager, tells SFR. "That's pretty typical."
At the same time, advocates praise the program for turning around patient applications and renewals faster than before. Last summer, some patients complained about waiting as long as three months for license renewals. Now, that wait is down to 2-5 weeks, says Jennifer Kane, another Patients' Alliance board member. (State law requires the waiting period be no longer than 30 days.)
Still, the shortage seemed resolved last summer when the added supply from eight newly approved producers helped meet patient demand for perhaps the first time in the program's five-plus-year history. But Kane says she started hearing about lack of supply becoming a problem again as far back as January.
"[The patients are] in a rat race going from place to place to place," Kane tells SFR.
Recently, when Robbins' Farmington-based producer couldn't provide her marijuana, she tried to get her medicine from four other producers around the state, all to no avail. Before enrolling in the program in April 2011, Robbins' doctors would prescribe her several narcotics. The combination kept her lying on the couch all day in a foggy state.
Last month, without a way to get cannabis, her doctor put her back on six narcotics, including Lamictal, Xanax and Ambien.
"I turned into a zombie again," Robbins says. "It wasn't nearly as bad, but it was a look back at what I used to have to go through."
Despite dreading going back on prescription drugs, Robbins contends that it beats the alternative of buying illegally off the street.
Not all patients agree. Leonard French, a Malaga resident who's been paralyzed from the waist down ever since a motorcycle accident in 1987, says the closest cannabis producer is five hours away. As a licensed patient, he's allowed to grow four mature plants, but he says that isn't enough to control his leg spasms and back pain.
"I've always either had to grow my own or buy it off the street or both," he tells SFR.
More recently, French says he's been buying from dealers in the black market every three or four days.
"It's risky," French tells SFR. "I get ripped off a lot."
Still, illegal cannabis is an improvement over being prescribed Valium, which French says used to keep him asleep all day. Cannabis, on the other hand, can make French's spasms instantly stop. He adds that he limits his intake to one or two puffs; "that way, I'm not all stoned."
Nearby, Scott O'Rourke has spent almost three years trying to start Medical Going Green in the southeastern part of the state so patients like French don't have to resort to the streets. In late February, DOH denied his and 105 other producer applications. O'Rourke says DOH never provided a reason for his application's rejection. He says the fact that patients in his area are buying their medicine illegally is "sad and dangerous."
On July 5, O'Rourke filed a lawsuit against Gov. Susana Martinez and DOH Cabinet Secretary Catherine Torres asking for a producer's license and damages. Reber Boult, O'Rourke's attorney, contends that the state's refusal to allow new producers is a violation of the Lynn and Erin Compassionate Use Act, which requires the program to provide patients with an "adequate supply" of medical cannabis, defined as enough for an uninterrupted period of three months.
"Every day that passes is a day the product is not being made available," Boult tells SFR.
For Robbins, matters improved last week, when her producer finally had a new supply of medical marijuana. On July 6, as she felt the symptoms of an anxiety attack coming, Robbins went to her designated spot in the backyard and smoked four puffs of cannabis. Within five minutes, she says, her body stopped shaking. Like French, Robbins says her dose isn't enough to get her high.
"You do have to be careful," she says. "There is a responsibility that comes with it."


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Choral Music at Gonzaga
Welcome to Gonzaga University Choirs!
To our friends and family, to prospective students searching for a creative singing community, and to all music-lovers: we are delighted you are visiting us. The Gonzaga University Choirs maintain an active performance schedule on-campus and on tour, and we invite you to explore our ensembles, concerts, and past performances.
As an academic performance organization that is integral to the Gonzaga community, we pride ourselves in our mission: Choral Artistry and Excellence Rooted in the Jesuit, Catholic, and Humanistic Tradition. We seek to perform diverse music that will invigorate and inspire audiences, and our innovative programs explore intersections between society, culture, and music. Our choirs are open to singers of all abilities, consisting of music majors and non-majors, undergraduate and graduate students, and Gonzaga faculty and friends.
Students who major in vocal performance or music education become adept at performing a wide variety of choral repertoire, from the medieval to modern eras. Upon graduation, our students are competitively positioned to serve as the finest music educators and performers or to pursue graduate music study.
We perform locally in the beautiful St. Aloysius Catholic Church on campus and and downtown at the Martin Woldson Theater at the Fox. The choirs tour regionally every year in the Seattle and Portland area in addition to regular national and international tours. Recent international tours include China, France and Colombia.
Gonzaga's Applied Voice Department hosts regular master classes with internationally renowned singers and collaborative pianists. Through these master classes, Gonzaga voice students have numerous opportunities for professional coaching and performance.
If you would like more information or are considering participating in Gonzaga Choirs, please contact me directly. I look forward to hearing from you! In the meantime,we invite you to listen to and watch our singers:
Timothy Westerhaus
Director of Choral and Vocal Activities
502 E. Boone Avenue
Spokane, WA 99258-0079
Timothy Westerhaus
Director of Choral Activities
Phone: (509) 313-6737
(800) 986-9585, ext. 6737

subset: commoncrawl


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Since its incarnation three months ago, the committee devoted to reopening the Eminence Community Pool appears to be living up to its name.
'Making Waves' met Thursday, Dec. 6 at the Henry County Public Library to update community members on their progress and elect temporary officers.
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Fire Safety Visit
You should contact the Fire and Rescue Department at 703-246-4660 and schedule the fire safety visit. The inspector will review home fire hazards with you. Some of the required fire safety items are listed below.
- Working smoke detectors on each level of the home.
- A working fire extinguisher mounted in or near the kitchen.
- An emergency evacuation/fire plan.
- A clear passage to the circuit breaker box and around the furnace area.
- Extension cords and multi-plug adapters are not acceptable in the home.
- A working carbon monoxide alarm in homes where appliances may produce carbon monoxide.
- Fireplaces, woodstoves, and chimneys shall be inspected and cleaned annually.
- Telephone service that is available, operable and accessible during the home child care facility's hours of operation.
Go back to: Apply for a Family Child Care Permit


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My Name Is Asher Lev New York Tickets
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Stories about pursuing a dream or a passion in the face of adversary are the most inspirational one as most often than not, they touch base with a person's own life experiences. Moreover, such subjects never become a bore no matter how many times they are presented in theater, cinema or literature. My Name is Asher Lev is one such play which tells a story of a coming-of-age boy and his struggle of having to choose between art and his traditions.
Mark Nelson has done complete justice to the classic literature piece of Chaim Potok while Gordon Edelstein and Jenny Bacon have done an exceptional job giving this play a life. Huffington Post called My Name is Asher Lev "one of the best plays of the year" while New York Times has described the play as "Excellent and heartfelt! A primal scene of American drama". Without a single flaw, the show explores the subjects of art, religion and family in the most fascinating way. Art means everything to an artist and this is presented perfectly in the play.
My Name is Asher Lev New York is just round the corner and the buzz of how great the play is all over the town. Get your share of My Name is Asher Lev New York tickets before the play's infectious popularity leaves none for you. This is the play you should take your children to as it has a magic that can instantly connect with any kind of audience.


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Fri 28 Dec 2012
My Hometown Paper's Story About Me!
Posted by Corrina under About the Writer
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From the Bennington Banner! Geekdom for caretakers, feminism for geeks!
It's primarily centered on my GeekMom blogging and the Geek Mom book but both my aunts saw it on Facebook and then my Mom saw the print version.
A nice late Christmas present! 🙂


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One day after seeing his former No. 22 ride with Penske Racing filled by AJ Allmendinger, Kurt Busch has a ride for 2012—driving the No. 51 Phoenix Racing Chevrolet for owner James Finch, FoxSports.com reported.
Finch says the team will be at the Daytona test next month and also participate in the Budweiser Shootout.
Busch parted ways with Penske Racing in early December in what was called a mutually agreed upon decision. There is considerable sentiment that Busch was fired because of well-documented behavior issues, the most recent being a profanity-laced tirade directed at a television reporter at Homestead.
"I told Kurt, 'I won't fire you and you won't quit," Finch told FoxSports.com "We'll do whatever it takes—roll in the mud if we have to to win. I've worked construction all my life just so I could race and have a good time. I've worked with iron workers, I worked with construction workers, so working with a driver is not going to be a problem.
"As I said earlier, all we want to do is win."
Finch ran the entire 2011 Sprint Cup schedule with Landon Cassill as the driver for 29 events. Bill Elliott, Boris Said and Mike Bliss also spent time in the car last year. None of the drivers recorded a top-10 finish in 2011. However, because Phoenix gets its engines and cars from Hendrick Motorsports, Busch has a chance to be competitive.
"I'm very happy to join Phoenix Racing and after entertaining a lot of quality offers, there's no better place for me," Busch said in a team release. "We're going to run the full schedule together, and we're going to have fun doing it.
"It's going to be old-school racing, where we show up, race hard and go for the win. And if we don't win, we'll go back to the shop, work hard and do it all over again next week. That's the way we all started racing, and it's great to get back to that."
Because Finch finished 30th in owner points, Busch is guaranteed entry in the first five races of the 2012 season. Busch also has the use of his past champion's provisional if he falls outside the top 35 in points after the first five events.
With Busch's future now having been determined, the driver of the No. 43 Richard Petty Motorsports car still needs to be resolved. With Allmendinger moving from the No. 43 to the No. 22, a seat came open, and there are two logical candidates to fill it.
David Ragan, who is out of a ride at Roush Fenway Racing because of a lack of sponsorship, seems like the best candidate, given RPM's tie with Roush. Brian Vickers is also available, as Red Bull Racing folded after the 2011 season.


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Olympus has Fallen. I enjoyed it. Ton of action.
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Olympus has Fallen. I enjoyed it. Ton of action.
There is no NBA player named Monte Ellis.
I liked it. I probably would have enjoyed it more if I hadn't seen the original 30 years ago, but I like watching Suburgatory on TV, and it was good to see the lead actress in a much different type of role. Just like the original, the new movie successfully mixed horror and humor together without making fun of itself.
The Last Exorcism. I liked it. I like these kind of movies if they are done well.(like Exorcism Of Emily Rose)
Saw - No I didn't watch the whole thing and while it was disgusting and not the type of movie I like at all. I must admit I started watching it about 10 minutes in and got the set-up and even though I didn't keep watching from that point, something kept drawing me to switch back to it to see what was going on now. And I was intrigued enough to want to know how it ended, so I did watch the ending. Overall I probably watched about half of the movie - not sure I could have taken anymore that - but I enjoyed it more than I ever thought I would. I will give them some credit for an intriguing plot
Olympus Has Fallen -
Must have been in the mood to watch movies this past weekend, because I also sort of liked this. There was enough intrigue, enough times during the movie when I was thinking what would they really do if this did happen, how would we react. One thing I enjoyed - is they played it straight, meaning they didn't try to make it a movie like Independence Day. There wasn't any humor (except for 1 line that I remember) and it wasn't too hokey, sure it was over-the-top at times and it was surprisingly violent for this type of movie, but it had a hard edge to it. I like it more than Air Force 1 - a movie it is often compared to - the last half of AF1
Last edited by Unclebuck; 04-08-2013 at 08:27 AM.
for my birthday, the wife got me the Matrix collection on bluray, Singing in the Rain and X-Men First Class.
I haven't seen Singing in the Rain in years. My favorite musical. Can't wait to watch this soon.
Now I just need to get Seven Brides for Seven Brothers.
First time in a long time, I've been happy with the team that was constructed, and now they struggle. I blame the coach.
Just seen the previews for "The Great Gatsby" looks like it could be epic.
You can't get champagne from a garden hose.
There is a horror movie called The Conjuring that received record breaking test scores so the studio moved it to the July spot to battle the other blockbusters. I have great hopes for this as good horror movies are few and far between it seems.
Room 237
Documentary about 5 obsessed fans of Stanley Kubrick's The Shining. Each has their own theory about a hidden meaning or message that Kubrick intended to convey, drawing upon perceived symbolism and subtext in the film. The theories range from the Holocaust to a confession by Kubrick for his part in the faked Apollo moon landing. The theories are all interesting enough, but what really makes the documentary go is the psychology of the theorists.
My favorite is the guy who thinks because of the abundance of mirrors and reverse images in The Shining that it is intended to be viewed both forwards and backwards, and to that end, he created a version of the film that overlays a reverse copy over a forward copy. Some of the juxtapositions are quite jarring.
I'm pretty hyped for it. Baz Luhrman's certainly an acquired taste but the guy was freaking made to direct Gatsby.
Django Unchained
Holy **** what a movie. I love it, and I'm not even a Tarantino worshipper.
I really enjoyed that movie as well. Did you see Last Exorcism Part II? Didn't get a good rating on Rotten Tomatoes so am waiting for the DVD.
I watched The Hunger Games last night since it came out on Netflix. I actually enjoyed it which. It was much more violent than I expected for what I thought was a kid's movie.
"I had to take her down like Chris Brown."
-Lance Stephenson
Haunted House(2013) Marlon Wayans.
I really wanted to like this movie as I enjoy spoof movies(and even own Scary Movie on blu ray) but this movie was just plain BAD. I can't even remember laughing at all. Seems like all the humor(if you call it that) is just sick sex and farting type stuff. Weird. It's like their demographic for this film was 7th Graders or something. Avoid.
Why in the hell is it in 3D?
Oblivion - my first IMAX experience - better to watch it with as little information as possible - Tom Cruise still can carry the lead roles - good flick
About to watch Jurassic Park in 3D. Just because.
Glad I went. It proved to be nastolgic (I was 9 when I saw it in theaters in June 1993), it was fun seeing it in a theater again (they really ought to do that more often with classic movies; it's different than at home), and they did a very good job with the 3D effect.
Funny Games - The original one from 1997 by Haneke. I had heard that this movie was terrifying. The first half isn't really, though it was fairly effective; it was uncomfortable and gross. During the second half, it becomes clearer what Haneke's intention is with the movie and it just becomes him masturbating to his not even sort-of clever ideas. It isn't even logical on a very simplistic level. I'm not sure how anyone could like the film. Not recommended to anyone, except Michael Haneke I suppose.
Watch The Strangers instead.
42 - Jackie Robinson Story - Mixed thoughts on this movie. I just think it could have and should have been better. I mean the true story is a great great story amnd should be able to make a great movie, and while this movie was likable and entertaining it fell flat.
The Exorcist(1973)
I hadn't seen this in forever so I thought I rewatch was in order. It had been so long that I actually forgot that a ouija board contributed to the possession. Still holds up really well and deserves it's status as a horror movie icon.
Evil Dead
really seems like they tried to cram the two evil dead movies into one evil dead movie, not scary just very gory and if you have seen the original evil dead movies and accepted/liked them for what they were you'll probably at least be entertained by this one.
It was actually far more violent in the books.
I thought it was one of the better young adult books to movies series that's been around for a while. But it was still missing important elements. And as much as I understand the need to reduce the violence because of the target audience...I think they could have stayed closer to the books.
I saw this just after it originally came out in the theaters. I was pretty young and we snuck in the theater despite us being under 17. We had to sneak in because in the case of this movie, they made an exception and treated the movie like it had an x-rating, and so they allowed no one under 17 in the theater, even though the movie was rated R. I think they substantially cut it for the re-release that was a more appropriate version for the R rating. Scariest movie I ever saw that was made before 1980. Actually, I still consider it the scariest movie I have ever seen because I can't think of an other flick that made me want to keep the lights on at night.


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Where's It Headed? Check Out the Winter Haven Lot
For just one minute, let's pretend there isn't a winter storm advisory headed my way and instead I'm sitting in an Adirondack chair on the future lawn of Blog Cabin 2014 staring at this view. Is anyone with me?
I know you all are dying to know when our lovely bungalow will be moved, and all I can say is … soon! I promise to keep you updated as I learn details. In the meantime, here's a peek of the Winter Haven, Fla. lot overlooking Lake Hamilton where the home is headed. The clues all make sense now, don't they?


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Police are searching for a woman in her 20s who assaulted a teenage girl in Melksham on Sunday.
Three girls were crossing the High Street on Sunday afternoon at around 4.40pm when a woman got out of a car and started shouting at them, pulling a 14-year-old to the floor.
She is described as white, slim, between 5'4'' and 5'6'', with long ginger hair and blue eyes. She is believed to be between 20 and 28 years old, and was driving a small "old-styled car".
Anyone who witnessed the attack or who recognises the description is asked to contact PC 1753 Karen Haddrell on 101, or Crimestoppers on 0800 555111.


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New Soldier Story, DiD and Figures Home...
SmallJoes.com continues to carry the latest and greatest in 1:6th scale military collectibles. Their newest arrivals include:
* Soldier Story 160th SOAR Night Stalkers Pilot
* DiD French Resistance Fighter
* Figures Home WW2 German - Supply Duty, 69 Division
In 1:18 scale news, Small Joes announces that the Elite Force LAV-25 armored vehicle is back in stock. Perfect for hauling your 3 3/4" GI Joe or military figures into battle.
Find all these great items and more at SmallJoes.com!


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I'm really curious as to who you think should do a study? the govt? the local public schools? I really can't see any government funding a study or wanting one done. Special interest and money is not going HS's way!
most people complain now about taxes and want so called less government / intervention in their lives- I can't see a study being done, so we might find that HS is positive- what happens next? we have megga institutions that cost tons of money---I know in my area with the housing bubble and people leaving certain area school taxes are going up (we tax in my state for schools based on property---regardless if you have children in PS or not - building still cost money to run regardless of the number of student)
what would they want to do should the results be positive?
I don't have a problem at all with studies being done by homeschooling groups. Many are curious about the achievements of their homeschooling peers. Homeschooling groups tend to be really tight. If homeschooling groups want to get a feel for the rest of the group as a whole, that's great. To clarify, I don't think that testing should be mandatory for homeschoolers. One of the benefits of homeschooling is that for most students, the parents can easily have a feel of where their children stand academically. I believe that homeschooling parents would seek help in some form or another if their child seemed to be struggling with a particular subject or concept.
But you have to admit, to make sweeping generalizations about the achievements of all Canadian homeschoolers versus their PS counterparts based on a sample of 226 former homeschool students (which is a very small fraction of the Canadian homeschooling population. A quick Google search estimates that there are 60,000 homeschooled students in Canada, so the study's sample is roughly about .4% of the homeschool population) is misleading, and is not generally considered ethical in the world of research.
Indeed the fact that it is funded by a homeschooling group limits its usefulness a lot. Frustratingly, almost all homeschooling research is conducted or compiled by homeschooling support groups. hence my coming here in search of some truly neutral social science research leads. Unfortunately, it appears there isn't much (though the group learning research is certainly applicable).
Just to clarify, I wasn't being snarky when I said it was an interesting read. It really was. I think it is valuable to know the first-hand reflections of former homeschooled adults as they age and enter the workforce and/or higher education. I just object to how the results were interpreted.
To further clarify, I do not believe that homeschooled students perform worse than PS students. If I had money on this, I would wager that homeschooled students perform within a few percentage points (+/-) than public school students. Education is so very individual. What is best for my child, based on where we live and our family's values, may be vastly different from what is best for another child. Perhaps even the child who lives next door. I am very confident that my child is receiving a much higher quality education in our local school than I could have provided for her in our home, that this school is the best for her, that she is absolutely thriving there both socially and academically. (Sorry for the excessive emphasis, I just wanted to make it abundantly clear that this was a specific statement about my specific child and our specific family and our specific school, and not a general statement about HS v PS).
I simply object to anyone using general PS standardized test scores to tout the benefits of homeschooling when there aren't comparable statistics for homeschool students. If someone said that they have no doubt that their child is performing as well as or better than they would have in the schools in their area, I won't argue that. I'm sure it's true. I require no proof. But to say that public schools suck because a certain percentage don't meet state standards is a leap since there is no proof that homeschooling kids do any better. Or any worse. Sure, if you have the test scores of the specific school that your child would have attended and saw that their scores were lacking, by all means, make a decision to homeschool that takes that information into consideration. Heck, I'd be a total hypocrite if I didn't admit to doing that myself. Fact of the matter is, our local school has an extraordinary percentage of students meeting or exceeding state standards. You better believe I looked at those scores before we moved here (obviously, scores don't stand alone, and weren't by any means the only factor in my decision. I also wanted to make sure they didn't "teach to the test")
Wife to DH and mama to DD(7) and DD(5) ...Lola the Wiener Dog , Faulkner the Little Giant , Ginger the Wonder Cat , Azkaban the blue parakeet, Sunny the yellow parakeet, 3 nameless hermit crabs, and a whole bunch of fish!
Does anyone know of good material/articles/research that focuses on the cons to homeschooling? Not just articles ranting about socialization issues, but real research or scholarly materials?
I would also be interested in personal experience from folks who homeschooled, but the decided to return to traditional schooling with their children.
Any guidance would be much appreciated!
In the past we wouldn't host 'debates' between the merits of homeschooling against the merits of learning outside of the home, because they generally would devolve without anyone on either 'side' learning anything new. These days we are trying to let more discussions proceed with the understanding that everyone needs to be respectful and handle diverse opinions without getting too distressed.
For the most part, this thread is a civil discourse. There are those that are getting unnecessarily defensive and causing stress for other members.
We would like to leave the thread open because it does seem to be meeting the needs of the OP.
Going forward, please refrain from judging one another harshly. Try to believe in the best intentions of other members in discussing this topic. It would be nice if a thread like this could proceed without crashing and burning.
Focus on the needs of the OP and all shall be well!
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The problem with research in this area is this: You are your child's first teacher. The more involved you are, the better your child will end up performing in either home school or in group school. Data and test scores will include neglected home schoolers (yes they are out there) who are parked in front of a computer screen for their learning, to keep them away from the evils of school. The data will also include public schoolers who bake, sew, travel, read, play music, knit and climb mountains with their families in their time away from school. In other words, it is hard to measure success and even harder to measure "why" the success. There are also HUGE differences in curriculum for home schoolers that would effect measurable data.
I have lots of great, positive feedback regarding home schooling, but if you are specifically looking for negative feedback then I can give some I have received. Two grown women I know who were exclusively home schooled (never attended school ever), are both irritated with their respective parents because they each feel ill at ease in social situations and extremely awkward in groups. They both think they missed something important and do not plan to homeschool their children. But, they are both successful professionals too (One is even a public high school teacher)....
I don't think it's too much to ask that psers have a safe place to discuss how they arrived at the decision to public school, and the issues and concerns they have relevant to their own public school experience, whether they have tried homeschooling in the past or not. Really, the last thing we need is avid homeschoolers popping up here and implying that failure in homeschooling is a parental problem, or due to a faulty parent-child dynamic, or simply not trying hard enough or for long enough. We don't need avid homeschoolers here telling us about "studies" that show that hsed kids outperform ps kids on testing.
Fair enough. But, I will point out that this whole thread was, and is, about homeschooling, not public schooling. I don't think it's surprising that this generated a lot of responses from homeschooling moms. I know OP was advised (in the homeschool forum) to come here. Maybe that was a mistake...
In any case, I'm not putting the blame on "failed" homeschooling anywhere. It works for some children and families. It doesn't work for some children/families. It works for some limited period of time for many families, from what I can tell. And, I'm not even wedded to homeschooling for my children's entire education. We revisit it regularly (and dd1 is only goiing into third grade!), and if the kids prefer to try school at some point, we'll give it a whirl. (I really hope they don't, to be honest - but we'll still try it, and I'll give it an honest try...no sabotage.)
Lisa, lucky mama of Kelly (3/93) , Emma (5/03) , Evan (7/05) , & Jenna (6/09)
Loving my amazing dh, James & forever missing Aaron Ambrose (11/07)
we also have have a form of this it's called public schooling in my state--cyber/charter ---not HSing----run by charters overseen by the state-not the parent
I don't think so - it gives a good view of how "others" feel and what the OP may run into ITRW-------real world people aren't very nice sometimes and strangers (and well meaning family/friends) are often more than welcoming to let you know what kind of choice you made and how they feel about it
what the OP wants is not what is here - now, studies, etc--------and as long as resentment (by some) and negativity exists I don't see that a "fair" assessment can really be archived - again, it come down to money-IMO and since HS is not in mass numbers compared to PS I don't think balanced reviews (with large numbers of students) are in the near future
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I don't think so - it gives a good view of how "others" feel and what the OP may run into ITRW-------real world people aren't very nice sometimes and strangers (and well meaning family/friends) are often more than welcoming to let you know what kind of choice you made and how they feel about it
When I said that it was maybe a mistake, I was referring to the effect this thread has had on this forum and its regular posters. People have obviously been upset by having homeschoolers pop over here and sing the praises of homeschooling, with some bashing of public school thrown in for good measure. I don't really blame them. I, personally, was focused on the thread content, not on the forum that the thread is in. But, I can see this feeling like an invasion, and I think maybe advising the OP to come to the Learning at School forum, to ask about homeschooling, wasn't the greatest idea.
Lisa, lucky mama of Kelly (3/93) , Emma (5/03) , Evan (7/05) , & Jenna (6/09)
Loving my amazing dh, James & forever missing Aaron Ambrose (11/07)
I think the some homeschoolers have done wonderful job showing the OPer what sort of treatment she can expect from the homeschooling community if she homeschools for a while, stops homeschooling, and then says anything negative about homeschooling.
but everything has pros and cons
I was not a homeschooler when I reached this conclusion. I'd never even heard of home school. I was an A and B student. For me, sometimes the only relief from the utter boredom of hearing things repeated for the umteenth time was when a teacher said, "go ask Rose." When I was given the task of teaching a fellow student who was struggling, suddenly it became interesting, and the rest of the class could go on while I helped the struggler. I wasn't left out of anything, either, because that would be time for seatwork, silent reading, trying out the homework, something like that.
To this day, I abhor people telling me the same thing twice. I also abhor having to tell someone the same thing twice! The exception is when I am teaching, and even then, if I'm asked to repeat stuff, I ask myself, is this genuine need or just dodging the assignment? Do you remember the "gossip" bit from HeeHaw? "Oh' you'll never hear me repeating gossip, so you'd better be sure and listen close the first time." I think many people of normal mental capacity who insist on many repetitions are just not applying themselves. Sometimes the best thing for them is to let them know they will hear it once, and after that, they will somehow have to pay for repetitions.
When I was a child, I wanted to learn EVERYTHING. I remember thinking I wanted to try each profession by turns and know all there is to know. Now I know that is impossible, but I still want to know a whole heap of a lot, and there isn' tmuch I don't care to know. So, when in public school for 12 semi-wasted years, I had to listen to teachers repeating things I'd already gotten the first time, I tried hard to tune out and think of something else. I wanted to keep on learning, not sit around waiting for others to "get it." If I had not had to wait around so much, if perhaps I had just been allowed to read independently, I could have learned so much more. Some of my best teachers did let me read independently, and some even offered direction for my self-directed learning.
You might wonder how I got on so well with all the kids refered to me for me to teach them after the teacher gave up. Simple. Instead of asking what my student wanted me to explain again, I ask my student to explain or show how much s/he did understand. Most didn't need anything more from me but that bit of encouragement. And if there was some part that really had evaded my temproary pupil, I'd rephrase, give new examples, or whatever seemed right at the time.
I know many of you are thinking that I must have been an advanced student, a really bright kid, whatever. Of course I was, and still am. But I figured out lots of things about public school while I was still trapped in it, although at the time I felt priviledged to be in a place that was all about learning, like I was/am. I saw lots of the politics that happens between teachers, principals, other teachers, parents, etc. I learned a lot about teaching methods. I learned a lot about teachers as human beings. Most of what I learned about public schools is still not flattering.
In sixth grade I was released from regular reading time to work in the reading lab. I worked with younger children and with those "learning disabled." I made some good friends among the "retarded" kids, who are mostly just as shy and lonely as anyone else. (The extrovert? That's just a cover for feeling different and -- shy and lonely! I married an extrovert, BTW.) And all of the kids I worked with in special programs at different schools through my own school years just needed one-on-one attention in a non-competitive setting. Oddly, I was never a misfit in special ed, although I was rated a misfit by my so-called peers of my own age.
Another thing I found a total waste of time in public school was all the "social" stuff. Most of that was not social at all, just kids trying out what they knew was was wrong. Boyfriend and girlfriend garbage. Rebellion against adults garbage. Swearing and smoking garbage. Drug garbage. None of that gets you anywhere! At least, not anywhere that is nice to be. I skipped nearly all of that, and I got quite fed up with the teachers, guidance counsellors, etc, who thought there was something wrong with me for avoiding it. Most of them did mean well, and a little due deference make these sessions go more smoothly.
One teacher, a real sweetheart, a role model in nearly every other matter, got bothered that I wanted to play softball with the boys, rather than volleyball with the girls. She thought I was trying to get attention from boys. Yeah, I guess I was, but I spent many years on a farm with nothing but my brothers and my oodles of boy cousins, so I was a wee bit tomboyish. But it wasn't worth it to correct the teacher, so I played with the girls. "No harm no foul."
Sure, I was smarter than some of the adults, and I knew if I just avoided telling them so, it would go better. How different is that from not telling my classmates I was smarter than them? H D Thoreau says in Walden Pond that many people mistake the once-and-a-half witted for the half-witted, because they only comprehend a third of their wit. I find that if you are different, it is usually more tactful to keep it to yourself.
When I finally learned about homeschool, and chose it for my own children (K-12 and beyond), it was a revelation and a relief. It was a revelation because I realized that my suffering and boredom was not necessary or normal, just the result of people thinking there is only one way to have school. It was a relief because I had an alternative to inflicting that on my own children "for their own good."
My children are not quite the quick studies I was. One has a big problem with dyslexia, and used to say I was a mean mom. She was hardly my first dyslexic pupil; first there was my brother, and then I realized I have dyslexia too, i'm just high functioning. (Yes, ladies and gents, dyslexia is the "learning disability" for geniuses, like Michaelangelo and Edison and especially daVinci. Now I know I'm in such good company, I feel not at all bothered that I confuse right and left, or that I have a terrible time memorizing my phone number. Non-dyslexic people can't do a lot of things I can!)
I had a rather different goal for my children than to get all the same stuff all the public school kids get. Instead, I wanted to give them tools to learn whatever they want to learn, and that has turned out very well. They all read for the fun of it. They all have gone on to some kind of further education and none has struggled with formal settings or with trying to fit in. They all have jobs, even in this down economy, and they all have coping skills for "bosses from hell." The one who most rebelled against homeschool, who said I was mean, now is training in early childhood education. She says a lot of the stuff is easy because she learned so much of it from me. In a word, I raised three seemingly average kids to be autodidacts.
Let me leave you with a quote to ponder. It is from the collected sayings of Poor Richard. You may have to look up the context, such as that here "dear" means wildly expensive, but it is very apt to this whole conversation.
"Experience keeps a dear school, yet fools will learn in no other."
OP here again. I think there are so many interesting thoughts and perspectives coming through this thread. It is unfortunate that it is taking such an emotional and impolite turn, however. I do hope folks can keep the info flowing.
re: Homeschooling parents joining the discussion. I really don't think that discussions are limited to only one group or another. That is part of the whole problem in my opinion. If homeschoolers stick only to the Schooling at Home forum and traditional schoolers only read and contribute the learning at school forum we have lost a lot of the value of this community. Hearing only from one perspective is exactly what I want to avoid. This thread has gotten a lot more action than the one in the other forum, so it isn't surprising that this is where people are coming to add in their thoughts. Personally I welcome the discussion.
re: the personal situations of individual families. While of course those experience are very real and very valid, they can't be universally applicable. Someone homeschooling because they are religious and want to shield their child from other viewpoints is going to have a very different story than someone homeschooling because their kid is gifted and can't get gifted education at their school. Likewise someone schooling their ADHD child in a school setting specifically tailored to that kid will have a different schooling experience than someone with a child in a poorly performing and under-funded school. None of those (or any) specific situation will be able to speak to the larger issue.
There are some universal facts regarding both homeschooling and traditional schooling, as far as I can tell. I am framing these all neutrally, and am not trying to suggest any pro or con to any of these facts:
1) Homeschooled children will spend more time with parent(s) than a child attending school.
2) Homeschooled children will spend more time with siblings than a child attending school.
3) Homeschooled children will often (though not always) receive their teaching through their parent. Schooled children will often (though not always) receive their teaching through a teacher.
4) Homeschooled children will learn in an environment with fewer peers and schooled children will learn in an environment with a larger number of peers.
5) Homeschooled children will often learn in a multi-aged environment (assuming siblings are present), schooled children will often learn in an environment with others their same age.
6) Homeschooled children will have curriculum chosen by their parent(s), schooled children will have curriculum chosen by their school or district.
I am sure I am missing some, but you get the idea. To me, ideally, there would be information available about how each of those facts plays out in terms of educational policy and research. I.e. is there any research to show that children do better or worse in multi-aged environments. Or is there research to show that one particular curriculum is better at conveying information or teaching thinking skills than another, and is that curriculum available at schools or only through homeschooling, etc.
I am learning that there is very little research on any of these things, unfortunately. But ideally one would be able to look at data about those facts and help them make an informed decision.
Save the Wild - I remember looking for info, data, analysis - anything factual - when we were trying to make the decision about pulling my oldest out of school.
In the end, like you, I couldn't find much that seemed solid enough to base my decision on. I distinctly remember having a conversation with my DH about it and coming to the conclusion that really the stats wouldn't matter because we needed to make the decsion we felt was right for him regardless of what the data showed. Up until that point he has proven to us that he wasn't reading the same books we were anyway and was definitely following his own path. It felt like such a huge decision to be making on his behalf and it felt a bit like a forever choice and winging it just didn't feel...valid enough.
I think there is data about some of the things you are interested in but honestly it's not going to necessarily apply to your particular scenario and there is likely a similar, equally valid study that suggests the opposite.
If your instincts call you to homeschool then do it. You can re-evaluate at whatever point you need to. As in all choices you will be giving up one thing (some good and some bad) for another thing that has a similar mixed bag of pros and cons. But as someone pointed out above, for most kids the most important element of an education is an involved, informed, aware parent - which clearly you are. The particular structure of the system you choose, the type of school/hs environment, or choice of curriculum matters most if there are real mismatches for the child. But I'd venture to guess that most kids, with interested parents like you would do well in a variety of situations, or their parents are able to make whatever adjustments are needed to make it work.
Good luck with your decision!
Blessed partner to a great guy, and mama to 4 amazing kids. Unfortunate target of an irrationally angry IRL stalker.
Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one who gets burned. ~ Buddha
It's an interesting read. But it is faulty through and through. It was funded by a special-interest homeschooling group. And the results are very strange, or at least the way they are interpreted is very strange. From the responses of a sample of 226 previously homeschooled adults from 121 families, they feel that they can make a broad statement like, "Overall, young adults who had been homeschooled were better educated than similarly aged Canadians." From a sample of 121 families? Wow.
Anything written or funded by the HSLDA in Canada needs to be taken with a boatload of salt. They are struggling to find a way to be relevant to the homeschooling/educational realm and their studies and lobbying (yuck) are ways they are trying to secure their future.
Sample sizes for homeschooling research will likely be statistically insignificant because most homeschoolers imo aren't interested in participating in it so there is a self selection bias.
I did come across data for comparing the SAT scores of self declared homeschoolers vs non-homeschoolers (presumably including all forms of public and private schools). The data suggested a slightly higher score for homeschoolers in English and similar scores in math. But even that data is difficult to tease apart as many homeschoolers go back to highschool, attend community college or are part of umbrella schools. I've been looking for where I found that info and haven't come accross it. For interest sake however, I did find this info page from the NC branch of government that oversees homeschoolers, talking about testing requirements, approved test, how homeschoolers perform etc. They do note that homeschoolers perform at or up to two years ahead of their broader peer group. Children with identified learning differences tend to perform lower but it doesn't say whether those children's data are included, or whether modifications etc are available (I presume the data is included based on their no exceptions rules but the website isn't crystal clear on that). It looks like NC requires annual testing of all homeschooled students and that their data could be reliably compared to public schooled children.
There are lots of potential demographic, economic and sociological explanations for the difference in test scores though - so again I am not sure it would be solid enough for the OP to base a decision on.
Blessed partner to a great guy, and mama to 4 amazing kids. Unfortunate target of an irrationally angry IRL stalker.
Holding on to anger is like grasping a hot coal with the intent of throwing it at someone else; you are the one who gets burned. ~ Buddha
Thanks for all the great information. After some thought and discussion, we've decided to return to the general 'philosophy' that the merits of learning at school vs. schooling at home should not be debated either on LAS or LAH. This has worked well for many years and the Learning at Home forum maintains that way of dealing with the topic as well.
I'm going to close the thread. Thanks for all your understanding.
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text:
Have a Little Confidence
In the grim, sometimes goofy race for seven seats on the Regional Transportation District's board of directors, the key word is "confidence."
At candidate forums and fundraisers, the contenders say that the people need confidence in their elected leaders. They argue that Guide the Ride, last year's ambitious proposal to fund $6 billion in rapid transit through a sales-tax hike, was thoroughly rejected at the polls because voters lack confidence in the current RTD board. What is needed, they insist, is a coherent transit plan to deal with metro Denver's unchecked growth and obscene traffic, a plan the beleaguered commuter can embrace with confidence.
This confidence game has attracted an unusual number of players. In past years RTD elections have been low-key affairs; the nonpartisan races for the fifteen-member board tend to draw a limited number of cranks, transit activists and semi-retired politicos--the kind of folks who aren't deterred by the job's low pay ($3,000 a year), pathetic perks (an occasional trip to Vegas or Phoenix to attend a transit conference) and constrained authority (the power to declare a new Park-n-Ride). But this year, as pervasive congestion tightens on the metro area like a vise and various business and government interests yelp with pain, a total of eighteen candidates are vying for seven seats, and only four of those are incumbents. (A fifth incumbent, Gloria Holliday, is running unopposed in her district.)
The decision of several boardmembers not to seek re-election--including Jon Caldara, who led the campaign against Guide the Ride--has left challengers with a meager pool of incumbents to vilify, resulting in some ugly gang-tackling. For example, incumbent Ben Klein, who was the board chairman during the Guide the Ride debacle, is running on his record; but his three opponents are also running on Klein's record. At a recent debate sponsored by the Metro Mayors Caucus, candidates Rick Garcia and Eric Sahl both ripped into Klein for initially supporting Guide the Ride and then actively opposing Transit '97, the coalition that was financing the campaign ("Divide the Ride," October 23, 1997).
Garcia, a state personnel official who was active in the Guide the Ride campaign, blamed Klein for the failure of the initiative: "There was a complete, total lack of confidence in the current board...[Klein] worked behind the scenes to ensure it didn't pass." For his part, attorney Sahl blasted the 71-year-old incumbent as "unfit to hold public office" and brought up Klein's 1970s federal conviction for tax evasion.
Klein responded with acerbic attacks on "fat cats" in general and Garcia in particular, whom he portrayed as an agent of Transit '97 and its successor, Metro Transit!, a group of business and environmental interests that is backing candidates for all seven contested RTD seats. "I'm glad my opponent, Mr. Garcia, who was the coordinator of Guide the Ride, is now criticizing [that] very program," he shot back. "It's very clear to me, and I cast the deciding vote that sent this to the people, that it was not marketed correctly...The fat cats trying to buy RTD with $25,000 contributions, they wanted to get their friends the contracts. That's why it went down."
To some extent, this year's RTD elections are about payback. Several of the challengers were hardcore supporters of Guide the Ride; they blame the current board, with its well-known penchant for infighting, treachery and outright buffoonery, for sabotaging the tax package. But while the various factions wrangle over who was responsible for the proposal's abysmal defeat, the more pressing issues of the current race have barely been discussed. Indeed, given that rampant and poorly managed growth is the mother of all issues in Colorado this election season, then the most critical decision facing Denver's voters--whether RTD can, or should, devote its resources to building one promising but expensive rapid-transit line rather than pursuing various schemes for a metro-wide system costing billions of dollars--isn't even on the ballot.
Not directly, anyway.
Getting Real About Rail
Although polls indicate that a healthy majority of metro residents are in favor of building more light rail, efforts to raise taxes to pay for such projects have consistently been defeated in the voting booth. In 1980 a proposal to build a 77-mile, metro-wide light-rail system was barely turned down; by comparison, last year's lumbering Guide the Ride package was a virtual train wreck, with 58 percent of the turnout voting against it, despite a massive advertising blitz by supporters.
What light rail RTD has managed to get on track has been done without benefit of a popular vote. The initial downtown line, from South Broadway to Five Points, was cobbled together from the agency's own surplus tax revenues. Although that route was originally promoted as a "demonstration line," one that riders would have a chance to try out before voting on a larger system, in 1994 the RTD board voted to approve an 8.7-mile extension of that line down Santa Fe Drive to Littleton--seven months before the downtown line even opened. The Littleton line, known as the Southwest Corridor, is now being constructed with the aid of $120 million in federal transit funds and is scheduled to open in July 2000.
In the wake of the Guide the Ride defeat, the light-rail enthusiasts on the board have been scrambling to figure out how to keep their plans for additional rail projects alive. Last spring the agency developed a complex scenario that would allow it to embark on light-rail corridors to the southeast and west, as well as a commuter rail line to DIA, by issuing bonds and drawing on federal, state and local funding sources. Since that time, though, the intense, behind-the-scenes maneuvering on the board has focused attention on the Southeast Corridor project--a rail line down I-25, from the existing South Broadway terminus to Lincoln Avenue in Douglas County, with a spur along I-225 to Parker Road.
One reason for the shift has been the ascendancy of Caldara, the rail-bashing Boulderite who became the board's chairman last January. Over the summer Caldara outraged the rail faction by declaring that any further design work on the east and west corridors would require a two-thirds majority vote of the board. His ruling, based on a questionable interpretation of a state statute that is now the subject of two lawsuits (one filed by the cities of Denver and Lakewood, the other by Ben Klein), effectively stalled $16 million worth of engineering and environmental impact studies until a Denver judge can rule on the meaning of the statute.
Caldara, who is reportedly going to head the arch-conservative Independence Institute think tank when his term ends this year, remains a diehard skeptic of any rail project. "We're talking about building a new rail corridor, and we still haven't finished the Southwest Corridor, which is going to be an absolute dog," he complains. But if rail has a chance of working anywhere, he concedes, then the southeast line holds the most promise.
That's what boardmember Jack McCroskey has been arguing for years. The man who spearheaded the creation of the original downtown line, McCroskey, like his sometime-nemesis Klein, was a wild card in the Guide the Ride campaign; although he voted to put the proposal on the ballot, he subsequently argued strenuously against it, reasoning that it made more sense to take an "incremental approach" to light rail rather than seek a whopping tax hike. Six weeks ago, he finally persuaded a narrow majority of his colleagues to vote in favor of making the southeast line its top priority ahead of any other proposed rail project--a vote that could put work on the east and west corridors in deep freeze for several years.
The 8-7 decision came after months of relentless lobbying and considerable horse-trading on McCroskey's part. Klein, for example, admits that he didn't bring his crucial swing vote to the McCroskey camp until the southeast boosters agreed to include in the package a 1.7-mile spur through the Central Platte Valley--linking the existing downtown line to Elitch's, the Pepsi Center and other attractions. But McCroskey insists that focusing on the most congested corridor, rather than a metro-wide plan, only makes sense.
"We tried to build overall for years and years, and it's always been defeated," he says. "I feel confident that it would go down again. So you have to do it incrementally, the most pressing piece at a time."
The twenty-mile, $450 million project represents the biggest gamble in the history of RTD. Funding is by no means certain, and the engineering problems involved in erecting a rail line in the severely cramped right-of-way of an overworked six-lane freeway are formidable. But McCroskey insists that the biggest obstacles to building the line are political--specifically, the impact of this fall's elections on mass-transit planning for the Front Range.
Clearly, both the governor's race and key congressional elections could affect RTD's ability to tap into state and federal funds for the project. Republican gubernatorial hopeful Bill Owens has never been a big fan of rail--"I love light rail as a concept but hate it in practicality. It never works," he told Westword in 1992--and his own position paper on transportation suggests that additional highway lanes, along with some form of a fixed-guideway bus system, may be a better solution for I-25. And among the leading congressional candidates is Tom Tancredo--Caldara crony, Independence Institute president and longtime rail critic.
But McCroskey says he's less worried about Owens and Tancredo, who he believes will provide limited support for the project, than he is about the sea change that's coming to the RTD board. McCroskey himself is not up for re-election for two more years, and with Caldara and his staunchest ally, Dan Gallegos, both stepping down, the anti-rail wing of the board could be all but neutralized. But if the candidates backed by Metro Transit! sweep into office, McCroskey says, then it's entirely possible that the board will once again be pursuing the chimera of a metro-wide system fueled by a juicy tax hike--and jeopardizing the fragile coalition that's now rallied behind the southeast line.
"The impediment I see is this chamber of commerce group, Metro Transit!," McCroskey says. "The people who love light rail to death are a bigger danger than the ones who hate it. They still haven't realized that with the defeat of Guide the Ride, we've entered a new world."
Most of the candidates running for RTD seats say they support the southeast line and aren't in favor of seeking additional tax increases--at least, not for the next few years. But many of them are also in favor of reviving work on other rail lines as soon as possible, using funds McCroskey would rather invest in the southeast line, and that distresses the so-called father of Denver's light rail.
"They may succeed in throwing away ten or twenty million dollars on studying lines that aren't going to get built," McCroskey says. "If the elected board voted tomorrow fifteen to zip to put light rail everywhere, they might as well be voting that it shall not snow in February. It won't come to pass."
You, Too, Can Win Ben Klein's Money
One reason RTD has been such an anomaly among public agencies, a hotbed of very public divisiveness and sudden shifts in direction, is that the elections to its board of directors are nonpartisan and--in past years--frequently uncontested. All it takes is 250 signatures on a petition and a few bucks for lawn signs, and a candidate is in business. Legislators have tried on several occasions, to no avail, to replace the elected board with an appointed one, or at least to require some sort of declaration of party affiliation.
Yet the same free-wheeling structure that has made RTD such a startling--and, at times, horrific--example of democracy in action also allows for special-interest groups to field their own slate of candidates without too much trouble. A few years ago the Independence Institute was accused of stacking the board races with anti-rail ideologues; this year, though, the field is crowded with pro-rail types backed by Metro Transit!, whose contributor list reads like a who's who of Front Range developers, real-estate interests and mega-corporations (US West, Coors, Fuller and Company, Public Service, Inverness, etc.).
It's significant that the one incumbent endorsed by Metro Transit! is Robert Ore, a former state legislator who was appointed to the board last spring to fill a seat vacated by the death of Russ Tarvin. Ore had no role in the Guide the Ride disaster and has proven to be a team player with those on the board pushing for metro-wide rapid transit.
Like Ore, the rest of the Metro Transit!-endorsed candidates all have a background in local or state government. They include Klein opponent Garcia, who works for the Colorado Department of Personnel (and served as a "grassroots co-chair" in the Guide the Ride campaign); Dave Rose, a former Brighton mayor; Wallace Pulliam, who serves on the Jefferson County Planning Commission; Bob Briggs, a former Adams County commissioner; Richard McLean, a retired Boulder judge; and former RTD boardmember Stephen Millard. By the end of September, Metro Transit! had contributed $500 to each of their campaigns--not enough for TV face time, but a substantial amount by the standards of RTD races, with presumably more to come out of the group's anticipated $25,000 war chest--and offered two sessions of "candidate training" as well.
Klein, who had to loan his own campaign $1,500 to push its contributions into four figures, characterizes the Metro Transit! slate as a bunch of bland bureaucrats who, if elected, can be expected to march in lockstep. "The endorsed candidates are clones of the Denver Metro Chamber of Commerce," he says. "Since when is the chamber representing the best interests of the working people and the taxpayers? They're only interested in promoting more business for their membership. It's just a bigoted group of rich people who want to control everything."
Attorney Howard Gelt, the chairman of Metro Transit!, denies that the endorsed candidates have any common agenda other than restoring "civility and respect" to the board. Gelt was also a key player in Transit '97, the backers of the Guide the Ride campaign--and a favorite target of Klein's, since Gelt's law firm, Sherman & Howard, had worked closely with RTD on bond issues and could have gained millions if the initiative passed. But Gelt says the basic issue at stake is not resurrecting Guide the Ride but creating a less dysfunctional board.
"I can't respond to what Mr. Klein thinks," Gelt says. "I can say that we have not endorsed Mr. Klein. We feel that Mr. Garcia brings a better sense of balance and perspective to the process. We're not just underwriting or endorsing a particular plan or anything like that. We're trying to get some people elected who we think represent a good balance."
Garcia says he isn't anybody's clone. "I am not a Denver Chamber member," he says. "My views on transportation and the need for new governance on the RTD board are my own and were in place long before Metro Transit! endorsed me."
Garcia adds that his role in the Guide the Ride campaign was "to engage the small business community, including members of the minority community. Frankly, I learned more during that campaign about the power and influence that the RTD board has than I ever wanted to. I thought we could do a lot better in my district than Ben Klein."
Seeking his third term on the board, Klein is still running against Guide the Ride, portraying his opponents as tax-happy. His campaign literature promises "light rail without more taxes" and claims he "led the fight for the recently approved light rail to be built on I-25." He boasts of being board chairman at the time RTD received full federal funding for the Southwest Corridor--a project he originally opposed.
In debates, his opponents have tried to zero in on his penchant for switching alliances; Sahl, for example, has complained that Klein "has flip-flopped on so many issues that other boardmembers tell me it's impossible to do a deal with him because you don't know how he will stand a week later." Their chief objection seems to be that Ben Klein is a politician who can't be bought, only leased.
Klein says he's merely trying to serve as an independent voice on the board. "Nobody owns me down there," he says. "The worst thing I have going against me is my previous reputation, when I had a problem 25 years ago." (In 1973 Klein, then a state legislator, was convicted of five counts of tax evasion and sentenced to five years in prison; pleading mental illness, he later had his sentence reduced to probation. In 1988 the Colorado Supreme Court reinstated his law license, ruling that Klein had "satisfied his burden of establishing his rehabilitation.")
While Klein dukes it out with Sahl, Garcia and businessman Bruce Benigno, his fellow incumbents Ron Nichol and Dick Rudden are facing their own challenges from Metro Transit!-backed candidates, and Ore is in a three-way race with rail critic Andy Padon and Carl Erickson, who favors McCroskey's incremental approach. The three other contested races are made up entirely of non-incumbents--a mixed bag that includes former boardmember Millard, retired bus driver Bruce Daly, perennial political candidate Dick Sargent and dark horse Herb White, who'd like to see the elected board replaced with "qualified businessmen."
The sharpest contrast may be found in the race in Caldara's district, which pits Richard McLean against Judd Ptak. McLean, who won Metro Transit!'s endorsement, is pushing for rail projects in places even Guide the Ride didn't envision, including a link between Boulder and Denver. Ptak, on the other hand, is a classic libertarian who argues that big rail projects are essentially a tool for taxpayer-subsidized development rather than an effective form of traffic relief.
Coming across as a slightly more earnest, less irreverent version of RTD's current chairman--Caldara without the repartee--Ptak can cite study after study that indicates transit agencies consistently underestimate the costs of light-rail projects and overestimate the ridership. He contends that the modest reductions in auto traffic claimed by light rail are more than offset by the additional development that accompanies it and that the technology simply isn't as convenient or cost-effective as investing similar dollars in less glamorous solutions such as HOV lanes and circulator buses. "People tell you that they'd rather take a train than a bus," he notes, "but when the bus is faster, they'll take the bus."
To Ptak, last year's repudiation of Guide the Ride demonstrates that his view, not the pro-rail crowd's, is more in step with that of the voters. "A lot of people are blaming the defeat of Guide the Ride on the board," he says. "That probably had something to do with it, but they never suspect that people might have actually looked at the proposal and said it wasn't any good."
But Ptak and his fellow rail skeptic, Padon, are lonely voices in the current RTD elections. "There was a deliberate push to get other candidates out of the race in Boulder," Ptak says. "The people who supported Guide the Ride had to make sure they had a pro-tax, pro-monopoly candidate who could beat Jon Caldara. They never contacted me; I don't think they took me seriously."
Ptak campaign coordinator Ron Bain also laments the dearth of grass-roots activists among the RTD candidates. He regards the well-heeled Metro Transit! campaign as "an almost blatant attempt to silence the opposition, to create a uniform board that will have no dissent at all."
Bain adds, "I see that as a loss to the community. They're not listening to the people. They're not listening to what was said with the vote last year."
If They Can't Make It Here,
They Can't Make It Anywhere
George Thorn can sum up in one sentence why Guide the Ride failed. "We didn't do a good job of presenting our case," he says, "and the metro area is suspicious of big mega-projects."
Although he co-chaired the fundraising campaign for last year's referendum with Howard Gelt, Thorn has since become a supporter of McCroskey's efforts to focus future light-rail planning on the Southeast Corridor. His company, Mile High Properties, is the developer of the Colorado Center, the enormous office-and-entertainment complex taking shape at Colorado Boulevard and I-25, and Thorn sees a crying need to do something about the growing traffic crunch along the freeway, which is projected to lengthen commute times by as much as fifty percent over the next two decades.
He's not alone, of course. Several big donors to the GTR campaign have embraced McCroskey's proposal to make the Southeast Corridor the top transit priority rather than continue to pursue a metro-wide package, arguing that it's the only reasonable alternative.
"What I see a lot of the light-rail advocates grappling with now is the hard reality of having to establish some priorities based on the available resources," says Ray Bullock, vice president of operations for the Denver Tech Center. "I can understand why that struggle exists, but at some point we have to deal with the cards we've been dealt. The Southeast Corridor is the most justifiable project right now; we'd like to see other corridors get built, too, but there have to be some realistic policies developed about what's achievable."
The Tech Center, Greenwood Village and other business and government interests in the southeast area have already committed to ponying up $20 million over twelve years to develop a circulator bus system to move commuters from transit stations to their jobs in anticipation of a rail line along I-25. Thorn says a similar public-private transit proposal is in the works for South Colorado Boulevard, but he adds that a rail line serving the corridor would benefit commuters heading in the opposite direction, too.
"This is really important to downtown as well," says Thorn, who's also active in the Downtown Denver Partnership. "If we can't get people downtown at rush hour, we're going to start losing companies and tenants."
Even with growing support from the business community, financing rail along I-25 all the way to Douglas County--more than double the length of the Littleton line--will be no easy matter. Considerable cash has already been spent on the groundwork, a million-dollar Major Investment Study (MIS) completed last year and a $20 million environmental impact study, conducted by the Colorado Department of Transportation, which is scheduled for completion late next year. But that's scant down payment on a system that will cost hundreds of millions of dollars.
McCroskey argues that the first phase of the line, the link between downtown and South Broadway, is already in place and that the rest can be financed without a tax hike through a combination of RTD, state and federal funds. The state has already earmarked close to $90 million for the project, and the feds may be good for at least an equal amount--although the first dribble of federal funding, tucked into the budget package approved last week, amounts to only $500,000. That leaves, by McCroskey's estimates, about $250 million from RTD itself, but light rail's papa insists that sum can be raised in much the same way the agency built the downtown line--by going to the bond market.
Unlike state government operations, RTD isn't prohibited from going into debt to finance capital construction. The agency also managed to get "de-Bruced," which means it isn't required to refund to the taxpayers its surplus sales-tax revenues, which have been soaring with the explosion of metro growth. McCroskey figures the agency can use some of the surplus, roughly $15 million a year initially, to arrange financing of the project.
"To the state, a million is a million," he explains. "But to us, a million dollars is thirteen million dollars we can put to work right now."
But even if McCroskey can persuade a majority of his colleagues to commit to taking such a plunge into long-term debt--which could further weaken the prospects of building any other transit corridors in the next decade or two--his pet project will still have to weather attacks about its overall cost, feasibility and usefulness.
For months Caldara has complained that the MIS analysis of the Southeast Corridor, which was prepared for CDOT by the consulting engineering firm of Carter & Burgess, was skewed in favor of light rail. (The CDOT planner in charge of the MIS, Robert Sakaguchi, has since gone to work for Carter & Burgess on the environmental impact study.) One promising rapid-transit alternative, the addition of special bus/HOV lanes, was rejected because of a key assumption that the lanes would require a total of 62 feet of right-of-way, a figure that some highway planners regard as excessive.
"We were always told that they would have to knock down hundreds of homes to expand I-25, and that turned out to be an absolute lie," Caldara fumes. "From what I understand, at the very least, there's room for four more lanes plus rapid transit. Basically, they lied because they want to push rail."
Caldara is still stumping for a reconsideration of other approaches to the I-25 logjam. "My guess is that the political winds will push it to light rail, but I will make one last-ditch effort to show people what guided bus systems are and why they might work better in that corridor," he vows. "I'm not going to support anything going down that corridor unless they make lane improvements at the same time."
But in recent months, Caldara's energies have been focused on leading the fight against Referendum B, the proposal to allow the state to keep $1 billion in tax surpluses over the next five years to finance highway and school projects, and his ability to confound the pro-rail camp certainly won't be helped by his departure from the board. Not surprisingly, the boosters of the southeast line say that reopening a debate about expanding the highway or turning to other technologies is a waste of time.
"You can't add enough lanes on I-25 to make a difference," contends Thorn, "and the notion of a guided busway is completely unproven in any American city."
State and federal highway planners readily acknowledge that light rail alone won't do much to unsnarl the long, ugly drive from downtown to the sprawling southeastern suburbs. They're now looking at developing "flex lanes"--not continuous traffic lanes, but inside shoulders that could be used as traffic lanes during peak hours--that could extend over most, if not all, of the route. They also say that the MIS estimate of $57 million in highway renovation costs is much too low; the latest estimates of what the total package will cost have jumped from $510 million to close to $800 million, thanks largely to the bill for fixing interchanges, drainage and other aspects of a forty-year-old freeway that's strained to capacity.
"The consensus is that the highway improvements have been much too conservatively estimated," says CDOT spokesman Dan Hopkins. "You're probably looking at something in the neighborhood of $250 million in highway work alone."
Jim Daves, regional director for the Federal Highway Administration, talks about "maximizing the utility of the existing right-of-way," since the freeway has little breathing room on either side. "Whenever we do build the train, let's make sure that we don't foreclose other options--or even worse, make the inevitable much more expensive," he says. "If we go in and build a light-rail system, we still must address upgrading I-25. There's probably some savings in doing them both at the same time. The problem is getting the funds together at the same time to do them both."
The rebuilding of I-25 represents the single most expensive project CDOT has ever undertaken, but it's not clear who would be in charge of the light-rail component. "Whatever funding falls into place, I think we'll probably manage the whole project," says CDOT's Hopkins. "There's clearly precedent for that."
Hopkins notes that CDOT also oversaw the construction of RTD's $250 million HOV project on North I-25 a few years ago. But since that time, the relationship between the two agencies has frayed considerably. Several RTD boardmembers were outraged when, after the failure of Guide the Ride, Governor Romer directed CDOT to proceed with a federal-funding application for rapid transit on I-25; by statute, RTD is the only authorized recipient of federal transit funds for the Front Range. The two currently have no agreement about how to implement a light-rail line on I-25, setting the stage for a possible turf war.
"Have you ever seen CDOT build light rail?" Klein asks. "I believe we can work out an agreement with them, but we're the only ones authorized to build it."
Other troubling questions about the plan include whether the addition of light-rail stations and parking lots will disrupt neighborhoods along the corridor; how the RTD elections (and the possible influx of those who, in McCroskey's words, "wind up smother-loving rail to death") will affect the board's ability to focus on the southeast line; and whether the ever-fractious transit agency can rally around the plan with something like a unified front--particularly in light of the fact that McCroskey himself was censured by his colleagues last week for his quarrelsome relationship with senior staff members.
The biggest question of all, though, is one that will take years to answer: Will it work?
Even Carter & Burgess's analysis, which chirpily concludes that light rail is the best of all possible alternatives for easing congestion on I-25, is hardly encouraging. The MIS estimates that in twenty years the line will have an average daily ridership of just under 30,000, but little more than half of that constitutes "new riders," people who wouldn't otherwise be on a bus. And while the line will certainly be able to haul people its entire length faster than they can get there on asphalt--35 minutes from Douglas County to downtown in 2020, compared to 66 minutes by highway--no one expects the vast majority of road warriors to give up the comforts of their personal chariot for the train. For all the hundreds of millions poured into light rail, those who stay in their cars can expect the service to reduce their own daily bout with congestion by two minutes or less.
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The boosters say the figures aren't as dismal as they appear, that one should focus on the degree to which rail gets used during peak hours rather than its overall average use, since rush hour is the main problem. They say there's always the chance the line could end up carrying more people than projected, just as the measly current system has exceeded original expectations.
McCroskey isn't making any promises. "I don't know that it will work," he says. "I think it will. But if it doesn't, we sure as hell shouldn't be building it anywhere else. If it doesn't work there, where will it work?"
Visit www.westword.com to read related Westword stories.


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MAMMA MIA! Performance to Benefit BBC Children in Need, September 6
The smash hit musical MAMMA MIA! will be holding a special Gala performance in support of BBC Children in Need at the show's new home, the Novello Theatre, on Wednesday 12 September 2012. The night will include special guest appearances by BBC Radio 2 presenters Vanessa Feltz, Anneka Rice and Penny Smith. Sir Terry Wogan will be there to mark this special night, along with a celebrity-packed audience to help celebrate MAMMA MIA!'s third London home.
MAMMA MIA! originally opened in London at the Prince Edward Theatre on 6 April 1999, before transferring to the Prince of Wales Theatre on 3 June 2004. Performances at the Prince of Wales Theatre will end on 1 September. The musical will re-open at the Novello Theatre on 6 September 2012.
MAMMA MIA! is Judy Craymer's ingenious vision of staging the story-telling magic of ABBA's timeless songs with an enchanting tale of family and friendship unfolding on a Greek island paradise. To date, it has been seen by more than 50 million people in 37 productions in 14 different languages grossing more than $2 billion at the box office. MAMMA MIA! the Movie is the highest grossing musical film and one in four households in the UK has the DVD.
From West End to global phenomenon, the London production of MAMMA MIA! has now been seen by more than 1 in 10 of the entire UK population. It is one of only five musicals to have run for more than 10 years both on Broadway and in the West End, and last year, it became the first Western musical ever to be staged in Chinese in the People's Republic of China.
The cast of MAMMA MIA! is led by Sally Ann Triplett as Donna Sheridan, Joanna Monro as Rosie and Kim Ismay as Tanya, with Gary Milner as Sam Carmichael, Neil Roberts as Harry Bright, James Gaddas as Bill Austin, Charlotte Wakefield as Sophie Sheridan, Andreas Gyllander as Sky, Abiola Ogunbiyi as Ali, Tasha Taylor Johnson as Lisa, Steven Oliver as Pepper and Liam Doyle as Eddie. At certain performances, the role of Donna Sheridan is played by Claire Poyzer. Helen Hobson will replace Sally Ann Triplett as Donna from 24 September 2012.
With music & lyrics by Benny Andersson & Björn Ulvaeus, MAMMA MIA! is written by Catherine Johnson, directed by Phyllida Lloyd and choreographed by Anthony Van Laast. The production is designed by Mark Thompson, with lighting design by Howard Harrison, sound design by Andrew Bruce & Bobby Aitken and musical supervision, additional material & arrangements by Martin Koch.
MAMMA MIA! is produced by Judy Craymer, Richard East & Björn Ulvaeus for Littlestar in association with Universal.
The performance lasts 2 hours and 35 minutes (including a 15-minute interval)
Box Office: 0844 482 5115


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USD was picked to finish first in the Pioneer Football League this fall in a preseason coaches' poll Monday.
The Toreros received eight first-place votes and 79 of 81 possible points as coaches were not allowed to vote for their own team in the poll.
Drake received one first-place vote and 71 points, followed by Jacksonville (65), Dayton (56, one first-place vote), Campbell (45), Marist (42), Butler (34), Morehead State (27), Davidson (20) and Valparaiso (11).
USD and Drake finished the 2011 season with 7-1 league records, the Toreros winning the regular-season meeting between the two teams 31-24 at home. The two teams will meet this season on Oct. 6 in Des Moines, Iowa.
Coach Ron Caragher's sixth season at USD will see 12 starters return, including six on the defensive side of the ball. Among those defensive returnees will be junior lineman Blake Oliaro, the 2011 PFL Defensive Player of the Year and a consensus preseason All-America selection, who posted 15 sacks last season.
The 2012 season marks the 20th year for the Pioneer Football League — the nation's only non-scholarship, football-only NCAA Football Championship Subdivision conference.


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I'm not perfect.
I'm a mom. Probably just like you.
The activities shared here on hands on : as we grow are always meant to do with supervision and, of course, use your own judgement of your child's behaviors and capabilities.
I have, and will, never intentionally share an activity that will cause harm to your, or my own, child. Please be selective in your activities based on your own child's development.
But most of all, just be inspired by the activities that are shared to do something with them today.
Always use supervision.
Always think about your own child's capabilities.


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Global warming is quickly becoming the biggest threat to the long-term survival of America's wildlife. Average temperatures in the U.S. over the last century have already increased by more than one degree fahrenheit. Seven of the top 10 warmest years on record for the contiguous 48 states have occurred since 1998, and 2012 was the warmest year on record.
The National Wildlife Federation has released a series of reports entitled "Wildlife in a Warming World". These reports illustrate the challenges that global warming is placing on mammals, birds, fish and wildlife habitat.
Oil and Gas Methane Pollution Report


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A CAR plunged into a ditch and another was left embedded in a wall after a crash in Edgworth.
Bolton North Fire Station's firefighters were called to Broadhead Road, Edgworth, at about 6.35pm this evening after receiving reports that a car had gone down an embankment and the engine was smoking.
A call was also received saying a car was embedded in a wall and a car was on fire.
Nobody was trapped in the cars.
Police, the fire service and the North West Ambulance Service attended.
Two people were taken to hospital but were not thought to be seriously injured.
Firefighters found an airbag had gone off and was smoking, but there was no fire.
Firefighters from Darwen Fire Station also attended.
Crews were at the scene for about 30 minutes.


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HALF of Caerphilly's working residents travel outside the authority to get to their jobs, according to the most recent figures published by StatsWales.
The figures from 2012 show that of 72,400 working residents in the borough, 36,200 of them worked outside the county that year. Exactly the same amount worked within the borough, the figures show.
In Blaenau Gwent, which had the second lowest number of working residents in Wales after Merthyr Tydfil, 47 per cent of the 25,700 working residents travelled outside the county to get to work, while in Torfaen that figure was 42 per cent in 2012.
In Monmouthshire 41 per cent of its 41,300 working residents left the county to get to their job in 2012, and in Newport just 32 per cent of residents left the county for work.
But those two counties relied most heavily of the Gwent authorities on people commuting into their areas, with 42 per cent of each of their total number of workers coming from outside the county in 2012.
In Torfaen the figure was 37 per cent of its 33,200 workers, in Caerphilly the figure was 36 per cent of 57,000 workers and in Blaenau Gwent the figure was 25 per cent, with 4,500 people commuting into the county to make up 18,000 people working in the authority.
The highest number of working residents who worked within their home authority in Gwent was to be found in Newport, where 68 per cent of working residents have jobs.
In Monmouthshire that figure was 59 per cent, dropping to 58 per cent in Torfaen, 53 per cent in Blaenau Gwent and 50 per cent in Caerphilly.


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Raymond Eli Wortham, convicted in 2006 of sexual battery on a child in Duval County, has moved to Levy County from Jacksonville.
Wortham, 37, is living at 11631 N.E. 105th Ave., Archer.
For a complete listing of all registered sexual predators and offenders residing in Levy County, or to search by zip code, visit www.flde.state.fl.us and go to the sexual data base.
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If you are new to the award winning Chiefland Citizen and wish to get a subscription or simply gain access to our online content then please enter your ZIP code below and continue to setup your account.
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Think your Vette is Menagerie material? Just send a photo of the car, a brief (or, if you prefer, no-so-brief) description, and whatever else you'd like to Vette Magazine, c/o 'Glass Menagerie, 9036 Brittany Way, Tampa, FL 33619. You can also email the information to firstname.lastname@example.com with "Glass" in the subject line. So what are you waiting for?
Drive A Little Dream
Eddie Molina
Austin, TX
'64 C2 Convertible
The year was 1969, and I was riding with my cousin Jesse from Port Isabel, Texas, to Brownsville-a trip that would normally take 25 minutes. We were driving his brand-new '69 Camaro Z/28 with a 302hp engine. We made the trip in 12 minutes on a two-lane highway, averaging 110 mph. I thought then that there was no other car that could keep up with my cousin's Z/28. Boy, was I wrong. When we got to Brownsville, there was a red '64 Corvette Sting Ray waiting at the first red light we came to, and the race was on. My cousin gunned his engine, setting the stage for my first drag race. The light turned green, and the Corvette and the Camaro roared down the road neck and neck, until, all of a sudden, the Corvette seemed to hit its stride, beating the Z/28.
When my cousin caught up to the Corvette, he motioned him over to the side of the road. We both had to see what was under its hood. The engine was pretty simple-a 327 engine with 365 horses. My dream car had materialized. Although I really liked my cousin's Z/28, nothing would ever compare to that '64 Sting Ray. It remained my dream car throughout my adult life. I finally realized my dream six years ago, when I found my Corvette in Hempstead, Texas. It's been professionally restored to its original state, with all its numbers matching and date-coded. The resto work was performed by Dan Martin of Hill Country Vettes in New Braunfels, Texas.
Ragtop Rollcall
Butch and Donna Chaffer
Sparks, NV
'05 C6 Convertible
We've had several race cars and hot rods, but this C1-purchased in 1993-was our first Corvette. It was an ex-drag racer and in terrible shape. Besides replacing/repairing the suspension and wiring, we installed a ZZ4 350, a custom-modified hood, a Tremec five-speed, front disc brakes, an aluminum radiator, and a 9-inch rear. We did all the work ourselves, except for the body and paint. Although the car has collected many awards, it's never trailered and racks up approximately 1,800 miles yearly. The C6 is our third Corvette (we previously owned a '95 coupe, which we sold to buy this one). We ordered the R8C and Z51 options, and took a great, 5,000-mile trip home from the National Corvette Museum in August 2005. Upgrades include a Corsa Sport exhaust, a VaraRam ram-air intake, a DiabloSport Predator tune, and a Breathless Performance shifter. It now has more than 32,000 miles and several cross-country trips . . . with more to come.
C5 Chums
Ken Dunlap and Moe Vinson
Junction City, KS
'02 C5 Coupe
'99 C5 Coupe
Moe and I are longtime friends and have many things in common, but we have very different styles. I like the old-school approach of chrome, performance, and flash, while Moe enjoys the newer style of blacked-out wheels, a big stereo, and modern items. We enjoy doing things together with our wives Dee and Nancy, and helping others with their Corvettes.
Topless In The Tundra
Bruce Thomson
St. Albert, Alberta (CN)
2006 Chevy Corvette Convertible
This is my '06 C6 convertible. It recently took Best in Class and Dealer's Choice at the 35th annual Canadian Council of Corvette Clubs Convention, which was hosted this year by our local Corvette owners' club. Reeves Callaway was the guest speaker at the awards banquet, which made this year's convention even more special. A Dynatech Supermaxx exhaust system, B&B Route 66 mufflers, detailed cylinder-head modifications, a cold-air intake, a ported throttle body, and custom PCM tuning make this Vette sound and perform as good as it looks. Corvettes turn heads wherever they go, and with the addition of LSD "lambo" doors, mine stops traffic.


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This page contains instructions on how to get the support
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