Search
Displaying results 811 - 820 of 2062
Parental Support Linked to Education Achievement
Marshall S. “Mike” Smith, senior counsel to Secretary of Education Arne Duncan, and Richard Coley, director of the Education Testing Service’s policy information center, seemed to differ on the import and meaning of a new Educational Testing Service report at a Newsmaker April 30. Parsing the Achievement Gap II – a follow-on report to an ETS research product delivered in 2003, said 16 factors determe success in secondary education – many of them environmental. Joining Coley and Smith were Mike Nettles, senior vice president of ETS for policy and research, and Ed Gordon, professor emeritus…
Type: News
De Klerk Praises New South African Leader But Says to "Watch Him"
F.W. de Klerk, former president of South Africa who shared the 1993 Nobel Peace prize for ending apartheid and launching a new multiracial South African democracy, expressed both optimism and concern about the country’s new leadership in a speech at the Club Tuesday. Appearing at NPC during the week of the 15th anniversary of South Africa’s first free elections, de Klerk said he is “personally optimistic” that Jacob Zuma, elected April 22 as the nation’s fourth president and due to be inaugurated this weekend, “will make the right choices” in governing. Despite corruption and racketeering…
Type: News
Chris Matthews Offers Career Advice: Get in the Door
Chris Matthews “will never say anything” that he wouldn’t say on MSNBC’s “Hardball,” his popular TV show, he said at a Book Rap Monday. Instead of talking about his book, "The Hardball Handbook: How to Win at Life," Matthews recounted stories from his life sprinkling the presentation with amusing and politically-charged anecdotes. He quoted a man he met while he was a Capitol Hill policeman, Leroy Taylor, “a real country boy”: “Why does the little guy love his country? … It’s because it is all he has.” “I learned a lot from that guy,” Matthews said. Matthews gave some career advice: “…
Type: News
Becerra Pushes for Changes in Immigration Policy
Rep. Xavier Becerra said at an NPC Lawmakers breakfast Wednesday that addressing the nation's immigration dilemma is key to solving many of the nation's other most pressing problems, like health care and education. "I don't know how you do true health care reform without helping all the people who live here," said Becerra, vice chairman of the House Democratic Caucus, at the members-only breakfast in the McClendon Room. "You're not going to solve these problems until you deal with all the broken parts." Becerra a California Democrat who is the only Hispanic in senior House leadership, praised…
Type: News
Energy Exec Advocates for Cap on Carbon Emissions
Progress Energy CEO Bill Johnson said Congress should enact comprehensive energy policy which includes a cap on carbon emissions rather than simply impose a "one-size-fits-all" renewable electricity standard in a Newsmaker Thursday. Johnson and former Arkansas Utility Commissioner Daryl Bassett addressed the current effort and debate in the House Energy and Commerce Committee focused on drafting legislation to regulate carbon dioxide emissions. Johnson said Progress, which provides electricity to large parts of the Carolinas and Florida, supports state renewable standards that are based on…
Type: News
Czech Republic Favors Common EU Energy Strategy, Envoy Says
The Czech Republic strongly favors a European strategy for better energy security and a common energy policy, Czech envoy Petr Kolar said at a Newsmaker Thursday. The Czech Republic, he said, thinks it is "crucial for the future and security of Europe to have a common energy policy and to act as one when negotiating energy supplies." Kolar said the main emphasis of the Czech EU presidency, which ends July 1, has been on a new beginning for EU-U.S. relations, with the advent of the Obama administration. Prague, he said, "wants to build on its excellent relations with the U.S." and hopes it…
Type: News
Hall of Fame Will Tell Baseball's Steroid Story Honestly, Idleson Says
Baseball’s Hall of Fame “will not shy away from the topic” of star players who have been accused of using steroids and other performance-enhancing drugs, promised the museum’s president, Jeff Idelson, at a Luncheon Monday. Appearing with his guest, Brooks Robinson, former Baltimore Orioles third baseman who was elected to the Hall in 1969, Idelson said that the Cooperstown, N.Y., museum is “committed to presenting and interpreting baseball history as it unfolds.” The effect of drug use on baseball records in recent decades, he said, “needs to be examined in the perspective of time.” As more…
Type: News
Recession Threatens Public Library Resources, ALA President Warns
Public libraries are “the first responders to an economic recession,” American Library Association President Jim Retti said, at a Newsmaker May 11. However, he said, as public demands increase for library services in economic hard times, so do budget cutbacks, resulting in fewer library hours or closings when the facilities are needed the most. Rettig said that more than 115 million people visit libraries each month for services ranging from book lending to using computers. Free internet access is particularly crucial now for job seekers and the unemployed who can use library computers…
Type: News
Virgin Atlantic's Branson Says No to British Airways/American Airlines Merger
“Please join me in saying ‘No Way BA / AA,’ ” said Sir Richard Branson during his breakfast speech on May 14. The English industrialist was in Washington to make his case about why the proposed merger between British Airways and American Airlines would damage competition on transatlantic routes. "If the proposed merger between BA and AA is allowed to go ahead then the result for passengers, employees, communities and for fair and healthy competition, would be disastrous," said the chairman of the Virgin Group and ounder of the airline Virgin Atlantic 25 years ago. "It doesn't make sense to…
Type: News
Panel Discusses the "Now What?" of Washington-Based Regional Reporting
They called it “a journalism Dark Age” and a time when “the cop will be off the beat,” but the Washington reporters speaking at a National Press Club forum Wednesday agreed that after a couple years of disintegration, Washington reporting will re-emerge in some still-undefined model. “Regional reporting is not coming back,” said Andy Alexander, who was chief of the Cox Newspapers bureau that folded last month. “What remains of that model is in danger. We have to dwell on the future.” Alexander, now the Washington Post’s ombudsman, was speaking at a NPC forum on “The Disappearance of the…
Type: News