Online headline: "Former SC Gov. Mark Sanford Wins Congressional Race After Scandal" -- America won because Jon Colbert's sister didn't get elected, but the DUMBERats won because now they have a perfect poster child to scoff about Republican family value issues.

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Online headline: "Obama: Sexual Assault In Military Is A 'Betrayal'" -- Well, it can be said that if there's anything Judas 00-bama does know, it is the definition of 'betrayal'... he's basically written the definition.

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With a 'heads up' thanks to a felloe BCer - Atlanta CBS story: "ATLANTA (CBS ATLANTA) - Water moccasins aren't the only things lurking in the Chattahoochee Tuesday. The recent heavy rains has sent runoff to the Hooch, making the water very dangerous. * Juliet Cohen with Chattahoochee Riverkeepers helps monitor the river for pollutants. "When it rains we have problems with septic tanks overflowing, storm water and sewer lines spill in to the river." That in turn floods the river with bacteria like E. coli. It's a bacteria that can cause digestion problems and, in high amounts, death." -- No wonder 'whitewater' looks more 'brownish' than white... On another note, "Cohen says that after a couple of dry days, the bacteria levels will be back to normal and safe to play in."

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5 women died in a California limo fire incident. Senator Diane Einstein, D-CA, is expected to introduce a new bill outlawing car fires and requiring limos to have sprinkler systems.

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McClatchy story: "WASHINGTON — Many students are sent to remedial math classes at community colleges to learn high school math they won’t need in their first-year programs anyway, according to new research on what it takes to be successful in community college. * Colleges nationwide have been looking for ways to reduce the high numbers of students who must take English or math classes to meet prerequisites. Colleges generally require incoming students to take placement tests in English and math, and the failure rates are high. A survey last year found that on average, 52 percent of students entering two-year colleges had to take remedial classes." -- "52%"!!! What may be the solution is to charge local level School systems for the remedial courses that their graduates must take when they get to college. If local school systems are made to be responsible for a diploma being issued to an ill-prepared student to go to college or enter the work force, then hold local school systems accountable.

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History does repeat itself. OJ was "the Juice"... now it's

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L-E story: "A thief with a penchant for heirloom silver has invaded the Green Island Hills neighborhood in the last few days and made off with thousands of dollars worth of flatware, bowls and other valuable items, according to police. * Columbus police Sgt. JeffBridges said a detective is looking into four residential thefts in the sprawling, upscale neighborhood along the Chattahoochee River. All of the thefts have occurred in the last 10 days. In reports, the thief enters the home by taking out a section from a door, preventing any alarm from sounding." -- Why is this now just being reported? The paper says two events were reported Monday, but find it hard to believe the other two weren't reported prior to that, so why are we now just learning of this?

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L-E story: "The Muscogee County School District earned the equivalent of a C for its elementary, middle and high schools from the state’s new system that measures how well students are learning in Georgia’s public schools. " -- Hmm, what would the average be if the #1 school in the state were taken out of the mix? Obvious the "C" is based on the current dumbed-down system of figure designation. When my generation went to school, a "C" was a 77%-84% range; now it dips down to the 70% range, so how close are we to having our system recognized as a failure? This past year alone, we had 3... that's right .. 3 of our public high schools who had no student who qualified at the minimum standards of the "S.T.A.R" student competition.

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In relation to the story above, the Chattahoochee County superintendent made the only coherent assessment of the area school systems, “Obviously, there’s room for improvement,” -- Yeah, LOTS of ROOM!

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I'm curious, how can teachers/administrators get performance based raises and bonuses when the results show the system has no performance increases?

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L-E headline: "N.J. Gov. Christie had secret weight loss surgery " -- Looks like it hasn't worked.

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L-E story: "BOSTON — The administrator of a fund created to help Boston Marathon bombing victims has a blunt message for them: Lower your expectations. * Attorney Kenneth Fein-berg said at a public meeting Tuesday that the $28 million One Fund Bos-ton won’t pay out nearly enough to fully compensate the families of the three killed or the more than 260 injured, and may not pay much of anything to those with less serious injuries. " -- You know, if there were 275 claims, each could get over $100,000.00 if each got a like share. This concept of being able to "fully compensate" anyone is a fantasy to begin with, but squabbling over the distribution of the overwhelming support of the public diminishes the whole concept, and letting any one person or non-affected panel decide on that is a shame. Besides, hospitals and lawyers will get the lion's share to begin with.

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L-E story: "WASHINGTON — Gun homicides have dropped steeply in the United States since their 1993 peak, a pair of reports released Tuesday showed, adding fuel to Congress’ battle over whether to tighten restrictions on firearms. * A study released Tuesday by the government’s Bureau of Justice Statistics found that gun-related homicides dropped from 18,253 in 1993 to 11,101 in 2011. That’s a 39 percent reduction. " -- Hmmm, could it simply be that those killed are simply not recidivist and it's attrition causing the figures to decline? Of course, most of them are still voting ....

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Why is cutting trees in front of billboards such an issue? From what I've seen, most of the trees that get cut/pruned at billboard sites are of the scrub/slash pine or mimosa variety, and neither is a peasant sight or would be a landscaping choice on our residential lots.

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L-E story: "Councilor and Budget Review Committee Chairman Skip Henderson said he understands why the administration is doing it, but said it may “violate the spirit” of the agreement with the public. * “To me, by labeling that Other LOST, which was not supposed to be part of general operating (budget), as out operating reserve, to me violates the spirit of the agreement we made with the citizens when we passed that thing,” Henderson said. “I don’t have an answer, either , but it distresses all of us a little bit.” * Councilor Judy Thom-as suggested that using the OLOST reserves as a general fund reserve might be seen as “disingenuous.” -- Hmmm, "violate the spirit"... "might be seen as disingenuous"? How about out-and-out fraud? The prior administration would (and did) say/do just about anything to get this LOST passed, and in doing so, has left this Council sitting out on the limb. It was predicted [ q;-) ] and challenged that this LOST revenue would be assimilated into normal budgetary channels, but local media opted to support it anyway.

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L-E headline: "Could the big schools break away from the NCAA? * BCS schools want their own set of rules" -- Hmmm, just another "animal farm/marxist" evolution... everyone's equal, but some are just more equal than others .

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