From The Off-Color Coloring Book: The Political Circus

I mean, really, if you can’t get a little respect from a coloring book, what’s the rest of the world going to think?

A kindergarten teacher in Florida held a referendum with her students that resulted in a 5 year old boy with Asperger’s syndrome getting voted out of class by a 14-2 vote:

Melissa Barton said the teacher made her 5-year-old son, Alex, stand in the front of her classroom after he returned from the principal’s office, the Sun-Sentinel reports. Each classmate was allowed to say what they disliked about Alex and then the class was told to vote on whether he should remain. The school is in Port St. Lucie.

Alex lost the vote 14 to 2. He is in the process of being diagnosed with Asperger’s syndrome, a type of high-functioning autism.

The teacher tells the story this way:

Portillo and children in the class said Alex was pushing a table up with his feet while he was under the table. The teacher got the school resource officer to remove Alex from the classroom. It was the second discipline referral for Alex that day, the report said.

When Alex returned to the class, Portillo said she and the class were not ready for him to return.

Portillo told the officer she asked Alex to join her at the front of the class.

“She said she then asked him to listen to what the children didn’t like about the things he did, and she asked him how it made him feel,” the report said. “She said at this time, ‘We polled the class’ to see how his peers felt about his return at that time.”

Alex was voted out, 14 to 2.

The teacher has been reassigned, hopefully far, far away from children.

I can’t believe a kindergarten teacher would take this approach with a child that was in the process of being diagnosed with an autism disorder. What a cruel thing to do to a child, and what a cruel thing to do to the parents.

And what terrible lesson did it teach the children in that classroom?

Tisk.

The replacement Delaware Recreational Boat Fishing License.

Today we finally got the replacement 2008 Recreational Boat Fishing License from DNREC, you know, it’s that new sticker that goes on your boat so you can do a little salt water fishing…

Why a replacement? Because the original had a little “defect,” it wasn’t waterproof.

I called DNREC and thankfully the cost of replacing all of those licenses won’t rest on our shoulders, the company that printed them is footing the bill. Whew!

Yeah, that’s a picture of the multi-million dollar debacle at the Indian River Inlet slowly being taken down.

If only all of the mistakes the state has made could be fixed that easily….

Here’s a LINK to the NASA site for the Phoenix Mars Lander. It’s pretty cool.

A wind turbine in Rehoboth Beach that was cranking out energy relentlessly during the last storm.

While it may be a struggle to get a state (cough) to commit to the idea of mass generation of alternative energy, it seems that individuals are stepping up to the plate. But they’re not all doing it necessarily to “go green” as much as to save green.

It stands in a wheat field that is behind a farmhouse, which is down a long dirt road well outside the nearest town.

But Larry Baines’ 50-foot-tall wind turbine seems anything but rural or far-flung.

He’s planning on saving 60 percent on his electricity bill with it, in part because he doesn’t like the trickle-down effect of oil-rich Middle Eastern countries chipping away at his retirement income.

“Every dollar that I can deprive them of, I’ll do it,” he said. “I’m not beholden to anybody in Saudi Arabia.”

A business on Route 1 in Rehoboth with solar panels.

Now, if you want to check out what different solar panels and wind turbines cost and what look like and even feel like there’s a great resource in Sussex County…you can go to the Good For You Natural Market on Route 9 in Georgetown and after you check out their awesome selection of natural and organic groceries, you can go upstairs and check out Flexera.

I think this guy’s name was “Ben.” He told me about the different residential turbines and all about carbon credits.

This is like the turbine at the top of the page.

At Flexera, you can see and feel wind turbines and solar panels and get the low down on what they cost, what you get back, and about those mysterious things called “carbon credits” and how you can get in on trading them. (Trading carbon credits? I’d like to pay someone to lose weight and work out for me but it won’t make me any thinner or healthier. But what the heck, at $155.00 a piece, I’d be happy to sell them to Al Gore so he can fly around on his private jet like a rock star).

If you want an update on Delaware’s proposed off shore wind farm, you can check out the blog Tommywonk, by Tom Noyes. Tom has the skinny on that $240.00 DP&L is trying to get you all riled up about.

Cape Henlopen School District’s referendum will be held on June 12th, the day after school ends. You can click on the images below to get the full sized versions.

Here’s what the referendum is going to look like:

And this is the District’s Fact Sheet on the referendum:

If you’re interested in learning more about the referendum, the next meeting to discuss it will be Tuesday, May 27th, at 6:30 p.m. at Shields Elementary School.

More to come…

Here is a recap of the concerns that several of the parents and teachers expressed to the Indian River School Board at Sussex Central High School during last night’s meeting:

1. The stigma of the school—One parent said ideas should be generated in terms of doing something rewarding for the graduates so that they walk out of graduation with a smile.

2. Prayer— Another spoke and said how prayer should be brought back to the schools. I agree. He said, “If prayer is not brought back, the devil will have his way.” People forget, or just ignore the fact that there is a spiritual realm (demons, angels, etc…) I guess just because they are invisible, demons must not exist. (Well, don’t they have people fooled)? You can see the effects of their work like you can see the effects of wind. Of course the devil is not a cartoon character with a red hood and a pitched fork as he is often portrayed.

3. Open communication —-One suggested open communication between the school board and the administrators of the school on a regular basis.

4. Aggressive action—–A teacher was disgusted with the lack of action taken even though Board members were aware of what was happening. The Board should take action quickly and aggressively if something like this happens again. It was mentioned how this has been “a learning experience” for the School Board.

5. Too much media attention—-One of the parents mentioned that she was not happy with the large media presence and the extensive coverage of the stories surrounding the school, saying that this is threatening and hurting the reputation of Sussex Central High School. She emphasized how one person’s actions should not reflect the integrity of the school as a whole. She went on to praise the staff, students, teachers and other leaders for the hard work that they do.

6. Accountability—”We the community are going to hold you accountable.” That was one statement made to the board.

Indian River School Board president Charles Bireley reassures parents that aggressive action would be taken next time. Bireley stated, “If anyone in the community has a complaint– if they’ll come in and give us facts that we can act on, then we will do it.”

Bireley further adds:

“We are going to do our very best to get a very good leader in this building. We have two acting right now. We couldn’t ask for any better in Sussex County.”

The Board just listened, and for the most part made no comments in return.

More on what was mentioned at last night’s meeting can be found on the WGMD News section of the website.
http://wgmd.com/newspost/fullnews.php?id=8537

Check out legendary oil man Boone Pickens, BP Capital CEO, talking about reducing our oil imports on CNBC. You can watch the interview HERE.

Here are some highlight quotes:

“We are now paying out, listen to this number, $600,000,000,000 dollars a year for oil…it’s four times the cost of the Iraqi war.”

“Ethanol is a joke.”

“We have plenty of natural gas.”

“It’s a two step deal…wind is a big factor. The government did a study on wind in April of ‘07 which clearly shows you can…put your additions to power generation on wind which would be 20% of the power in the United States.”

“When you do that you can take natural gas out of power generation. When you take it out, it can go to transportation fuel, and when it does you’ll reduce imports by 40%.”

And Pickens is backing up what he said in the interview with action, he’s building the world’s largest wind farm with a whopping 667 wind turbines:

It looks like wind power in the United States is getting a boost from a somewhat unexpected source, with billionaire oilman T. Boone Pickens recently announcing that he’s spending $2 billion to build a 667 wind turbine-strong wind farm in Texas. That would translate to roughly 1,000 megawatts of electricity, or enough to power about 300,000 homes, but Pickens says that is only the start of what he has in mind. As he tells CNN, Pickens says he plans to expand the wind farm to a full 4,000 megawatts by 2015, which would likely make it the biggest wind farm in the world.

What’s more, in addition to pumping out electricity, the wind turbines would give a boost to the pocketbooks of anyone willing to put ‘em on their property, with Pickens estimating that each turbine will generate about $20,000 a year in royalty income, although they apparently won’t get electricity straight from the turbine in their backyard.

Oil, meanwhile, was trading at $129.12 as I wrote this.

What is the current status of the proposed wind farm that would sit off the coast of Rehoboth Beach Delaware, you know, the one that the state chose as the winner when they went out to bid a few years ago for a price sustainable, Delaware based utility? Well I have the update.

When last we heard about action on the wind farm, it was way back in April when the Delaware House of Representatives passed HCR 38 by a 22-11 vote. That was the Resolution that compelled Controller General Russ Larson, who represents the General ASSembly, to give his thumbs up to the wind farm. The Resolution went to the Senate.

In May, a story ran that there were enough votes in the State Senate to pass HCR 38, the wind farm resolution:

Sens. Karen Peterson, D-Stanton, and Colin Bonini, R-Dover South, who both describe themselves as Bluewater backers, said they believe the support is there to pass the resolution on the Senate floor.

But unfortunately the resolution is sitting in the infamous “desk drawer” of Bridgeville’s Senator Thurman Adams.

Sen. Thurman Adams, D-Bridgeville, the chamber’s president pro tem and one of the most powerful orchestrators of legislative business, will decide if the resolution receives a hearing.

Amazing, isn’t it, that one man can prevent the entire Senate from voting on a piece of legislation? No committee hearing, no discussion, nothing.

Even more amazing is the fact that Senator Thurman Adams is the same guy who had his 35 years in the State Senate party back in April, and Joe Farley, Sr., Delmarva Power and Light’s lobbyist, was the master of ceremonies for the event!

Now here’s a little kicker, Controller Russ Larson doesn’t even need to wait for the Senate to pass the resolution, the law doesn’t require the General ASSembly to even vote for, or against the project. All Larson needs to know is that the majority of the Legislature is in favor of it.

OK, I’ve got to stop writing, I’m rolling my eyes so much I’m contributing to the global warming if it is, in fact, man-made.